It’s not just the wealthy who are trying to find a way around campaign finance reform, but unions, environmentalists, and others seeking to turn Bush out of the White House. Organized labor, writes David Moberg in In These Times (August 25), is “helping to create new progressive constituency groups that will play much of the role that the Democratic Party filled–at least in theory–before campaign finance reform cut off the flow of soft money to political parties. For example, the AFL-CIO executive council in August authorized creation of Working America, a neighborhood-based membership organization of working people who do not belong to a union but want to work on political and legislative issues. On a larger scale, the federation and individual unions are putting millions into new organizations, regulated by Section 527 of the tax code. So-called 527 groups”–such as Partnership for America’s Families, Voices for Working Families, and Grassroots Democrats–“can accept soft money for voter registration and grassroots organizing.”
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Lest we forget. “More than 650 people remain held without charge or trial in the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba,” writes Amnesty International in an August 19 report, “The Threat of a Bad Example: Undermining International Standards as ‘War on Terror’ Detentions Continue.” “They…reportedly include nationals of Afghanistan, Algeria, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan and Yemen. Many of the detainees have been held in the base for well over a year. None has had access to any court, to a lawyer, or to family members….None was granted prisoner of war status or brought before a competent tribunal to determine this status as required by the Geneva Conventions.”
