| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| 2003 September 3 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 7 Number 12 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| The Decline of American Leisure |
|
For a century, the US led the world in expanding leisure
time. Post-Civil War labor reformers promoted legislation
mandating an eight-hour work day and, in 1886, American
workers held the world's first May Day general strike to
demand the eight-hour work day. Labor's demands for a
shorter work week led to the enactment in 1938 of the
Federal Fair Labor Standards Act mandating a standard
40-hour work week. Collective action helped American
workers reduce their work year by 38% between 1870 and
1950, gaining 1,100 hours of leisure. By 1950, Americans
had the highest income, the highest labor productivity, and
the shortest work year of any country except Australia--
nearly 160 hours per year fewer than the average for 13
other affluent countries.
A century of increased leisure ended in 1950, and since then the American work year has increased by 10 hours. Falling behind countries where union and political pressure has continued to reduce the work year, Americans now work the most hours of any affluent country, nearly 200 hours per year more than the average, the equivalent of 5 extra weeks of work. Americans work 200 hours more per year than the British, 300 hours more than the French, and 400 hours more than Germans. With an average of 13 annual vacation days, the US follows Japan, with 25 vacation days, and Italy, with a magnificent 42 days. Many Americans, especially low-wage workers and those recently hired, have no vacation time at all. Moreover, a fifth of those with vacation time do not use it from fear that taking time off would jeopardize their position. Fear leads others to remain "on call" at all times. Some go on vacation burdened with cell phones and pagers; nearly a third work during their lunch hour. We all might prefer shorter hours, but none dares to cut back unless there are social constraints on the hours that others work. Other countries remove leisure time from competition by state mandates and strong labor unions that prevent individual workers and businesses from gaining a competitive edge by working more hours. France, for example, requires 5 weeks vacation time, Germany 4 weeks, and Spain 30 days. We would all benefit from reducing work time. Mandated leisure forces businesses to compete by raising productivity and product quality rather than by working more hours. More leisure has not stopped Europe and the Japan from closing the productivity gap with the US, reaching and even surpassing American income levels. Restrained by unions and government, their businesses can raise output only by working smarter; American managers have the lazy option of forcing their workers to work longer. In the US, less leisure time has meant reduced home production, less home-baked bread and less time to raise children and take part in community activities. Child rearing and community building are public goods, enjoyed by all. But they are crowded out by market work. Source: Center for Popular Economics |
| Commerce for a Cause |
|
Jacquie Berglund, president and sole employee of Finnegans
Irish Amber, a beer company, is paying herself less than
$1,000 a month, even though she expects Finnegans to gross
about $200,000 in sales this year. After expenses,
Berglund expects to donate more than $25,000 this year to
three charities through her nonprofit subsidiary, the Spud
Society. That donation also will include proceeds from a
fall jazz festival Finnegans will sponsor.
"I'm making less than a quarter of what I used to make," said Berglund, 37, who sold her condominium to help finance the business; she lives with her sister to hold down expenses. "But we're going to build the business. I'd love to have a middle-class income--and give away $40,000 or $50,000 a year." Berglund is what's known as a "social entrepreneur." She's running one of what may be thousands of for-profit businesses that are created, at least in part, to fund causes or charities. Such entrepreneurs may also run nonprofits that form for-profit businesses to raise revenue on top of fundraising. The "Newman's Own" line of salad dressings and other food products, created more than 20 years ago by actor Paul Newman, has raised more than $100 million for charity and is perhaps the best known of these types of enterprises. Meanwhile, Urban Ventures, a decade-old nonprofit in south Minneapolis that focuses on youth and family programs, has started a youth-run gourmet coffee company to help fund its activities. In St. Paul, Pat Steiger, once an employee of CommonBond, the big nonprofit landlord that works to help its low-income residents with education and career issues, now contributes 10% of the profits from her real estate business to CommonBond and other nonprofits. Beth Bubis, president of the Ohio-based Social Enterprise Alliance, formed in 1998, said her 600-member organization is growing by 25 enterprises a week. Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune Example: Spud Society |
| Afghanistan: Healing and Reconstruction |
|
Afghanistan is piecing itself back together, and the
American Friends Service Committee (a Life-Net News &
Radio Featured Charity) is part of this story of a
fragmented nation becoming whole again. "As security gets
better, many refugees are returning from Pakistan and
Iran," notes AFSC fundraiser Tom Moore, who traveled to
Afghanistan this past June. "Markets in Kabul are bustling
and the streets are full of taxis."
Tom and Alice Andrews, coordinator of AFSC's Asia Region, conducted site visits to AFSC projects in Afghanistan, which focus on education. While Alice evaluated the projects' progress, Tom used his camera to capture AFSC's work in action. His pictures also capture the spirit of a people rebuilding their lives. Included:
|
| Amerindian Civil Rights Unprotected, Says Report |
|
The US Commission on Civil Rights has released two reports
saying the government fails to provide adequate health
care, law enforcement and education to American Indians,
and that civil rights of American Indians are not
protected.
It is old news to Kevin Siva, a councilman for the impoverished Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians. The tribe is hoping to build a casino in Barstow so it can be self-sufficient. Siva said his tribe of 250 gets $1,800 a year for education, is forced to create government agencies with little funding and has to deal with an overly bureaucratic health-care system. The commission also noted that American Indians rank near the bottom of almost every social, health and economic indicator. They have more than twice the average poverty rate and unemployment rate and lag in high school and college graduation rates. They also have the nation's shortest life expectancy and suffer from more diseases. "Native Americans have suffered too long from inattention and half-hearted efforts, and the crisis in Indian country must be addressed with the urgency it demands," the report said. The report recommends the immediate creation of a task force to study the problem and recommend solutions in time for next year's budget process. It also suggests agencies that provide services to American Indians do annual assessments of unmet needs and focus efforts on building roads, water services, electrical grids and communications systems in Indian country. Source: San Bernardino Sun |
| NAFTA's Sorry Track Record in Mexico |
According to official figures from the World Bank and the
Mexican government:
Source: Center for Popular Economics |
| In Camden, A Labor Revival |
|
In the heart of the old stomping grounds of Peter J.
McGuire, the "father" of Labor Day, stirs a revival of
worker pride. Forty-five Camden residents donned caps and
gowns last month to celebrate their completion of a
rigorous 13-week construction training program that leads
to construction career opportunities. Each gets the chance
to enroll in a selected union apprenticeship program, which
pays $15 per hour to start and adds an average of $6 more
per hour in benefits.
Angel Gandia, a 26-year-old high school dropout, spoke for his classmates to the 200 relatives, friends and community members at the event. He said with pride, "I used to have a problem with work. No more. I recently started as a cement mason making $15.50 per hour. Three months later, I got a raise to $22.35." As the crowd cheered, Gandia shouted, "And I want more!" Gandia said he would have found his success unimaginable even one year ago. Like many in Camden, he could not keep up his interest in low-wage, unskilled work and bounced from job to job long enough only to maintain his welfare status or to get unemployment checks. He is part of a wave of similarly under-skilled, unemployed Camden residents who dropped out of high school--a chronic problem in the city. Gandia owes his status as a "worker" to a program that brings together the building trades unions in South Jersey, their contractors, the Delaware River Port Authority, the Camden Housing Authority, the City and County of Camden and the Economic Recovery Board, the State of New Jersey, and American Community Partnerships, a national nonprofit organization operating in Camden since 1998. Participants in Working Together for Jobs-Camden (WTJC) receive help in literacy, life skills, and hands-on construction skills. They are given drug testing, initial child care, transportation assistance (a huge stumbling block for city residents with poor driving records and no cars), and post-placement counseling for up to one year. Ex-offenders, public-housing residents, single mothers, and many others untouched by traditional outreach programs are coming forward in large numbers--a recent evening orientation briefing drew more than 100 applicants--as word spreads that real union jobs await graduates. More than two-thirds of the 45 graduates have already been placed, even though Camden's construction boom is still at least one year away. Shortly, Gov. McGreevey is expected to announce the establishment of this partnership's next effort--a world-class training academy located, appropriately enough, in one of Camden's worst eyesores, an old trucking plant in Waterfront South. There, these partners will offer not only the program that Gandia graduated from, but a computer lab accessible to the community, a day-care center with outdoor recreation, a state-of-the-art training facility, and, for the first time in three generations for most of the building-trade unions, apprenticeship training in Camden's inner city. The partnership's trainees will perform the renovation of this property and then become some of the very workers who help renovate and revitalize Camden. For WTJC grads, Labor Day means exactly what Peter McGuire of Camden espoused-- eight hours of hard work for eight hours of a living wage. Source: American Community Partnerships |
| Life-Net News Extras |
| Candidate Proposes Co-Op City |
|
Vineland, NJ, is another small American city that has seen
economic decline. In a letter to its Daily Journal
newspaper, previous LNR star Tino Rozzo, a Vineland
resident now running for state Assembly, applies a globally
good idea locally:
Andy Fiocchi was right when he said that it would take a lot more than restoring the Landis Theatre to bring back Landis Avenue to its glory days--"Landis Avenue needs more than restored theater" (DJ 8/4). In fact, what Landis Avenue really needs are establishments developed and designed to attract visitors and patrons, thus fueling the atmosphere for other business ventures to follow. But I disagree with the Starbucks notion. The stimulation of Downtown Vineland will require more than inviting franchises to town. I call upon Vinelanders to take the city's economic situation into our own hands and use our imagination and start cooperatives. How about a co-op café, hardware and software sales or repair shop? Quality, yet inexpensive foods and merchandise for all people. All people with decent ideas can start co-ops, which are better than the franchises. Co-ops offer work-place democracy, quality products, consumer and environmental consciousness, affordability, and no price gouging; but best of all, the workers own the business. We have a shopping center sitting empty for years that could be turned into a literal co-op center for farmers and other businesses. In these tough times, don't agonize; organize. Vineland can become a co-op city. We can ride the wave of the future if we make the effort. Perhaps we could start a committee for cooperative development? Source: Daily Journal More Info: Tino Rozzo |
| American Hunger Has A New Face |
|
In a survey, 25 US cities reported on average a 19%
increase in demand for emergency food assistance from 2001
to 2002. The ranks of the hungry more and more include
single mothers stuck in low-wage jobs, married couples who
can't keep up with soaring housing costs and able-bodied
people who can't find jobs.
Their predicament forces them every month to grapple with vexing trade-offs: Pay the rent or child care? Buy that prescription for a sick child or pay that overdue electric bill? Put gas in the car or food on the table? "We're seeing Depression-era food lines in 21st Century America. ... This is the most food productive nation on the planet, and we should not have hunger," said Doug O'Brien, vice president for policy and research at America's Second Harvest, the umbrella organization for the nation's food banks and the largest hunger relief organization in the US. The previous profile of a hungry person, O'Brien said, was "a homeless, chronically unemployed, mentally ill substance abuser." But by 2001, "we were as likely to see a single mother who's employed as we would a homeless man," he added. "Nationwide, 40% of the people we serve come from households where at least one person is working." Agriculture Department experts peg the number of hungry or "food insecure" people at about 34 million, up from about 30 million in 1995. Hunger and food insecurity are defined broadly--when people are forced to skip a meal or cut back on what they eat because they lack money, when people don't know where their next meal is coming from or when people must visit a soup kitchen or food pantry for emergency assistance. Demand for emergency food rose dramatically from 2001 to 2002 in about 25 cities polled late last year by the US Conference of Mayors. Requests for food jumped 52% in Kansas City, 49% in Miami, 28% in Chicago, 25% in Los Angeles, 14% in Cleveland, and 10% in New Orleans. Source: Chicago Tribune |
| Strategies for Soldiers of Shalom |
|
| Most material here is adapted, not quoted. Views expressed do not |
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