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WW News Service Digest #238
1) They've got game
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) Atlanta city workers win pay hike
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) Campaign grows to save WBAI/Pacifica
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
4) Frank (Wamsutta) James, fighter for Native rights
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 8, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
National Wheelchair Basketball Association
THEY'VE GOT GAME, TOO!
By Leslie Feinberg
The strong, skilled athletes race up and down the court,
focused on the basketball and the hoop. Their games are
breathlessly exciting. But you don't see them on television--
not yet, anyway.
These women and men--playing together on the same teams--are
members of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.
Their awesome abilities as basketball players shine a bright
light on the extent to which lack of accessibility in
society disables people who face physical challenges.
Workers World talked to Gene Clancy, a 58-year-old member of
the "Rochester Wheels," about the league and about disabled
issues.
Clancy explained: "Disabled World War II veterans started
the National Wheelchair Basketball Association in 1944-1945,
as a form of recreation and therapy for disabled people. The
number of teams varies, but there are about 150-160 teams
nationwide."
The Rochester Wheels plays in the Keystone Conference, made
up of eight teams, mostly in western New York and western
Pennsylvania.
As is true in other leagues, the season is grueling. "Last
year we played 20 games, 24 if the conference tournament is
included," Clancy said. "Teams may play more if they go on
to the playoffs."
The season normally runs from early October to early
February.
"There are a number of divisions just as in college
basketball, based on the level of play. There is a youth
division as well," Clancy noted. "Also a women's division.
But women are free to participate in all divisions and many
do.
"Although our team has no women players at present, several
of our opponent teams do. They play with exactly the same
rules, classifications, etc., and many are starters on their
teams."
PLAYING BY THE SAME RULES
The rules for wheelchair basketball are basically the same
as for NCAA college basketball. The baskets are the same
height. The 3-point line and foul line are the same
distance.
But Clancy said other rules are specific to wheelchair
basketball. For example, instead of steps, a player is
allowed two pushes on the wheel of her or his chair between
dribbles. After the second push, the player must dribble,
pass or shoot.
The wheelchair is considered part of a player's body. To
grab or crash into a chair is a foul.
Players are allowed four seconds in the key lane in front of
the basket instead of three seconds. When shooting a 3-point
or foul shot, the front wheels of the wheelchair may be over
the line, but the rear wheels must be behind the line.
A player can never use her or his legs to gain an advantage
over another player. This penalty--called Unfair Physical
Advantage--is a technical foul.
In addition, each player in the NWBA is classified on a
point system according to the degree of her or his
disability: high-level quadriplegic, low- to mid-level
quadriplegic, or amputee--low-level paraplegic with stomach
muscles.
A team may not have a combination of more than 13 points
based on these classifications on the floor at one time. So,
for example, if there were four players with class-3
disability, the fifth player must be a class-1.
This point system serves as a kind of affirmative-action
program to ensure participation by more severely disabled
players. It is to a team's advantage to have team members
with high levels of disability who play well.
Some but not all of the paid referees are disabled. However,
Clancy stressed: "All of our players and coaches are
disabled. But able-bodied people are permitted to play if
they adhere to the rules."
ROCHESTER WHEELS
"We started a youth team--the Roch ester Rockets--last
year," Clancy said, "with an approximately equal number of
boys and girls. Ages on the youth team range from about 8 to
16." Some youths also play on the adult team, he added.
Despite the rigors of basketball, Clancy explained that on
the adult team, player's ages range from about 16 to 58
years. "We have one player who has played wheelchair
basketball for over 25 years," he noted.
Clancy added: "Our team is multinational. We have three
African Americans and one Asian player on the adult team,
and several Latino players on the youth team. This tends to
be the same for other teams, depending sometimes on their
geographical location--whether it's urban, rural, etc.
"Most of our players work at other jobs," Clancy continued,
"an accomplishment considering the barriers that exist for
disabled workers." As a result, these disabled
worker/players are able to talk to students, particularly
disabled students, about career choices and other issues
facing disabled youths.
The team reaches out to youths of all abilities. "We often
go to high schools and colleges to do exhibition games.
These are accompanied by discussions by team members of
disability issues, as well as in some cases, drug and
alcohol counseling--particularly drunk driving."
Often the audience is the members of the varsity basketball
team or a fraternity/ sorority or students from a physical
education class. Clancy described a particularly effective
way of sensitizing youths to respect the skills and
challenges of disabled athletes.
"We usually put the able-bodied people in wheelchairs, where
they are of course at a disadvantage," Clancy said with a
gentle smile. "Shooting baskets, especially from the foul
line or long distance, is much more difficult sitting down.
And for them the mobility is so much harder compared to us
as experienced wheelchair users.
"It is all done in good fun," Clancy said. But it is a great
learning tool, he added.
"Typically, during the first half we play them easy, give
them extra shots, and allow them four points for each
basket. Then during the second half, we spot them an extra
50-60 points and show off our skills.
"It is a great way to build sensitivity, awareness and
solidarity. We sometimes get rather large crowds at these
exhibitions, often more than our regular league games."
WHEN THE RULES ARE STACKED AGAINST YOU
"In society as a whole, as in basketball," Clancy said, "the
'usefulness' of people--including disabled people--is
partially defined by the 'rules of the game.'
"In an economy based on profits first and people last,
disabled people suffer a special oppression. The oppression
we face is not from our disability, but from the lack of
access in society."
Clancy stressed that disabled people suffer from
discrimination in employment. This has resulted in high
rates of unemployment, poverty and lack of health insurance.
"Another caveat," Clancy explained, "is paternalism,
especially on the part of the government and many private
agencies."
He said that's why "disabled people benefit from affirmative-
action programs. That's why it's so important to struggle to
defend the affirmative-action programs that exist--for
nationally oppressed people, for women and for the
disabled."
The disabled community, Clancy pointed out, "is cut by lines
of economic class, gender and nationality. However,
solidarity can be built around mutual support and resistance
to a common oppression."
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 8, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
ATLANTA CITY WORKERS WIN PAY HIKE
By Dianne Mathiowetz
Atlanta
Hundreds of angry and determined sanitation workers packed a
city council finance meeting on Feb. 16. They demanded a
$2,000-a-year pay raise.
Firefighters and police had already secured a similar
increase in pay. But the workers--mostly African Americans--
who pick up the garbage, fix the streets and maintain the
parks have not had even a cost-of-living raise in eight
years.
While performing physically hard and often dangerous work,
many of these men and women earn about $16,000 a year for
jobs that are essential to the running of Atlanta. The city
had even reneged on a measly $600 bonus promised for last
summer.
The message to the council members working on the budget was
clear: Find the money by the time the full city council met
or there would be no garbage pick-up.
The weekend before the city council meeting, the Atlanta
Labor Council and neighborhood groups announced their
support for the workers' demands. Many Atlantans, shocked to
learn how low the pay scale was, called for a living wage
for all city workers.
Wearing bright orange T-shirts, city workers began filling
the council chambers hours before the scheduled meeting on
Feb. 19 to be sure they got seats. Spirits ran high as sign-
carrying workers chanted and sang, waiting for the meeting
to be begin.
In the face of a clearly united and militant work force, a
majority of the city council quickly endorsed the $2,000 pay
raise and promised the $600 bonus will be paid in July.
After the vote representatives of AFSCME--the city workers'
union--made it plain that if the city fails to live up to
its agreement workers will walk off the job.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 8, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
Saying no to 'NPR lite'
CAMPAIGN GROWS TO SAVE WBAI/PACIFICA
By John Catalinotto
New York
Listener/supporters who favor a politically conscious,
activist WBAI-FM radio station in New York have continued
their public protests while more firings and changes take
place. WBAI is the New York affiliate of the Pacifica
Foundation, which has other stations in Washington, Houston,
Los Angeles and Berkeley, Calif.
The Pacifica network in general and WBAI in particular have
throughout their history been the one mass media outlet that
provided a way for voices of the U.S. left to be heard. Many
activists believe, with good reason, that this outlet is now
in danger of falling under corporate control.
The latest protest actions were demonstrations of hundreds
of people Feb. 20 at the Park Avenue offices of the union-
busting law firm Epstein Becker & Green, as well as their
offices in New Jersey, Washington and San Francisco. The New
York demonstration was noted for strong union support.
Unionists attacked the Pacifica board's offensive and threw
their support behind the fired and banned WBAI staffers.
Demonstrators targeted the law firm because one of its
partners, John Murdock, sits on the Pacifica national board
and has submitted changes to the network's bylaws that make
it susceptible to corporate control. A majority on the
national board has been trying to move away from the more
radical and challenging programs found on WBAI and the
Berkeley station KPFA.
NO TO 'NPR LITE'
While Murdock and some other members of the board's majority
deny it is their goal to turn Pacifica into "NPR lite," the
programming on the three Pacifica stations where they've won
control--in Los Angeles, Houston and Washington--shows that
most of the news, discussion and analysis that Pacifica
broadcast in the past has been abandoned.
National Public Radio, while it does some in-depth
reporting, is tied closely to the U.S. government
establishment and presents almost exclusively pro-
imperialist opinions.
At WBAI, prize-winning news producers Robert Knight and Amy
Goodman were removed from their positions on the popular
morning show "Wake Up Call" in mid-February. "Wake Up Call"
host Bernard White and producer Sharan Harper were fired in
December. This show was known for its aggressive coverage of
police brutality and support for Mumia Abu-Jamal and other
political prisoners.
Knight won an award for coverage of the U.S. military
aggression against Panama in December 1989. On the morning
show he did news reports where he provided insightful
background information that is invariably missing from the
usual corporate news broadcasts.
Goodman produces the award-winning national show "Democracy
Now!" It has one of the widest audiences of all Pacifica
shows. Goodman has come under fire from the board for her
hard questioning of Bill Clinton in an impromptu election-
eve interview and for interviewing Ralph Nader during the
Democratic National Convention last summer.
JUAN GONZALEZ RESIGNS,
STARTS CAMPAIGN
Juan Gonzalez has been Goodman's co-host on "Democracy Now!"
for the past five years. Gonzalez resigned on air Jan. 31,
and said that "the current management situation at Pacifica
has become intolerable...the last straw being the Christmas
coup at this station, WBAI, last month.
"I've come to the conclusion that the Pacifica board has
been hijacked by a small clique that has more in common with
modern-day corporate vultures than with working-class
America," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez announced a "national corporate campaign" to oust
the Pacifica Foundation's embattled new board leadership,
which he accused of taking steps to "illegally change the
Foundation's bylaws." He calls on listeners to contribute
money to groups challenging the board's legitimacy instead
of donating to Pacifica's fund drive.
Abu-Jamal wrote a column in early February criticizing the
Pacifica board majority and the "coup" carried out against
the "Wake Up Call" broadcasters.
While the majority of Pacifica's 18 board members support
the anti-activist position, the six dissenting members have
been drawing increased public support. A statement backing
them has been signed by prominent personalities Dennis
Brutus, Martín Espada, Frances Farenthold, June Jordan, Tom
Morello, Tim Robbins, Edward Said, Michael Parenti and
dozens of others.
A movement in New York and elsewhere is continuing the
struggle to save WBAI as a voice for the left.
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 8, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
FRANK (WAMSUTTA) JAMES, FIGHTER FOR NATIVE RIGHTS
By United American Indians
of New England
Frank B. (Wamsutta) James, an Aquinnah Wampanoag elder and
Native activist, died Feb. 20 at the age of 77.
James first came to national attention in 1970 when he,
along with hundreds of other Native people and their
supporters, went to Plymouth, Mass., and declared
"Thanksgiving Day" a National Day of Mourning for Native
Americans.
The National Day of Mourning protest continues to this day,
now led by James' son, Moonanum James.
James was proud of his Native American heritage long before
it was fashionable. He spent many hours researching the
history of the Wampanoag Nation and the English invasion of
the New England region.
A brilliant trumpet player, James was the first Native
American graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music
in 1948.
While many of his classmates secured positions with top
symphony orchestras, James was flatly told that, due to
segregation and racism, no orchestra in the country would
hire him because of his dark skin.
In 1957, James became a music teach er on Cape Cod. He was a
very popular and influential instructor. He went on to
become the director of music of the Nauset Regional Schools,
retiring in 1989.
DEVOTED TO FIGHTING RACISM
James devoted much of his life to fighting against racism
and to fighting for the rights of all Native people.
He often traveled long distances to be at Native American
protests, including the Trail of Broken Treaties in
Washington in 1972, when activists took over the Bureau of
Indian Affairs build ing. He joined in the historic Longest
Walk from California to Washington in 1978.
Although James was less active in recent years due to
declining health, he always maintained an interest in all
Native American struggles, particularly the struggle to free
political prisoner Leonard Peltier.
He was the moderator of United American Indians of New
England from 1970 until the mid-1990s. UAINE is the
organization that organizes the National Day of Mourning
protests in Plymouth.
In 1970 Massachusetts Gov. Frank
Sargent asked James, then the president of the Federated
Eastern Indian League, to write a speech commemorating the
350th anniversary of the Pilgrims' landing in Plymouth.
Instead James wrote a scathing indictment of the Pilgrims
for robbing Native graves, stealing food and land and
decimating the population with disease. He vowed that the
Wampanoag and other Native peoples would regain their
rightful place.
James was dropped from the program after he refused to
rewrite the speech.
Instead he organized the first National Day of Mourning,
drawing support from as far away as South Dakota. The drums,
chants and speeches overshadowed the "official" ceremonies,
and have continued to do so.
James was considered a Renaissance man by many who knew him.
He was a gifted painter, scrimshaw artist, silversmith,
draftsperson, builder, raconteur, model ship maker, fisher
and sailor.
The Metacom Education Project has established a Wamsutta
Frank James Memorial Scholarship Fund. Donations may be sent
to P.O. Box 697512, Quincy, MA 02269.
