Subject: Why Federal court appointments matter: a case in point - msg#00014

Previous Message by Date: (click to view message preview)

obscenity

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0203-10.htm CommonDreams.org, February 3, 2004 Protecting the Purity of American Children or What Exactly is Obscene? by Brigitte Schön Last night, February 2, the German (public) TV channel ZDF ended its prime time news program at 7.15pm with a report about the Super Bowl game the night before. At first, viewers were treated to the display of nationalist fervor -- flags flying, American virtues extolled -- which is not only highly unusual in today's Europe but also leaves Europeans rather uncomfortable. It reminds them of the times when such exhibitions of jingoism were common in Europe as well and it equally reminds them of what followed from that. In short, it reminds them of a lot of dictatorships in Europe during the last century, and they often find such pictures obscene. Then ZDF treated the audience to the sequence where Janet Jackson's breast is briefly exposed. The commentator added that "in Puritan America", this was considered a scandal. We can assume that many Americans felt rather uncomfortable about it and considered such pictures obscene. As American friends assure me, the going argument is "there were CHILDREN watching this!" Ever since then, I've been pondering about the innocence and purity of American children. One thing that struck me was that a naked female breast is considered obscene in America while it is at the same time considered an outrage that Muslem men view the entire female body as something indecent and don't want it exposed in public. I'm not quite sure why the fact that a naked breast is obscene in one culture is okay while it is considered ridiculous and a sign of oppression if other cultures find the entire body of a women from hair to toes obscene if viewed "naked". Or, the other way round: Why is ANY part of a female body so obscene that it's not to be seen by children? On the other hand, it is obviously not considered obscene if American children can watch the bombing of towns by their own people on prime time television and actually can watch people die "live from CNN". It is not considered obscene if American children watch other children without limbs, amidst rubble, without any relatives in Middle East or Central Asian countries. It is not considered obscene to watch children on TV who are starving. It is not considered obscene to be showered with violence on TV or to play violent computer games. It is not considered obscene to hear about minors on death row in certain US states. None of the above seems to be viewed as something that might deeply disturb American children. But if American children can get a glimpse of a naked breast, they are bound to be damaged for the rest of their lives, to judge from the reactions in America. European children do after birth see a lot of naked female breasts for quite a while. Apart from that, they see a lot of naked female breasts in films, on TV, on billboards and on public beaches while they grow up. So seeing naked breasts is no big deal. Are European children as a result more violent than American children? Are they more prone to become criminals for that reason? Are they more disturbed? Not that I know of. Many European parents think on the other hand that their children might get damaged by violence on TV or in computer games, they might get damaged growing up in a world full of aggression and injustice, they might get damaged in a world where the poor are left to die. So right now a lot of us are somewhat bewildered: What do American adults expect t happen when a child sees a naked breast? What kind of terrible damage are they afraid of? What incredible unspeakable trauma will occur which surely must outdo everything else an American child is subjected to in his or her life? That they might one day find a female breast more interesting than waving their flag maybe? Brigitte Schön (bschoen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) is an international conference interpreter of Austrian nationality and lives in Vienna, Austria. - - - - - John Lacny People of the US, unite and defeat the Bush regime and all its running dogs! "[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt." --Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31 Community email addresses: Post message: marxist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subscribe: marxist-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Unsubscribe: marxist-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx List owner: Hunter Gray <hunterbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Shortcut URL to this page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist Also take our one-question survey at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/polls ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/B140lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: marxist-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Next Message by Date: click to view message preview

Anna Mae [Micmac]

Note by Hunter Bear: When my good friend, Duane Campbell, asked my opinion the other day on the Anna Mae Pictou Aquash murder, this was my reply -- and I stand with it. Before I quote that, let me add this: John Boy Graham has every good reason to resist extradition from Canada into the 'States. The two co-defendants of Peltier, Butler and Robideaux, were tried at relatively objective Cedar Rapids -- and acquitted. When Peltier, who had resisted extradition, was tried it was before Judge Paul Benson at Fargo [an anti-Indian atmosphere] with Lynn Crookes [Assistant US Attorney] and FBI agents doctoring the evidence. Even at that the evidence presented against Peltier at Fargo was still essentially that laid out at Cedar Rapids. There was nothing objective about Judge Benson when it came to the Peltier case. A key person in Peltier's battle to resist extradition from Canada was Isabelle Deom ["Lovey"], a Mohawk of Kahnawake [near Montreal]. She had been a student of mine at Univ of Iowa and was a close family friend of ours. Several years later, Isabelle was murdered under mysterious circumstances in central British Columbia. -- Hunter Bear [Micmac/St Francis Abenaki/St Regis Mohawk] ------------------------------------- To Duane from Hunter I am not an intricate authority on this, Duane, and frankly I'm not sure anyone is. AIM, even at its best 30 years ago, was so pervasively chaotic it would make the IWW look like the Catholic Church of 1910. But I do know some things: I continue to feel Anna Mae was killed by one of Dick Wilson's goons [Wilson was the thoroughly corrupt tribal chairman at Pine Ridge, backed by a corrupt machine -- and by the Nixon and Janklow [state AG] administrations. It was against him et al that WK '73 was mounted.] The FBI is capable of murder, for sure, but there'd be no percentage for them in killing Anna Mae -- although they could have covered for Wilson. I certainly do Not see her as an informant of any kind. AIM is now two small factions -- the Means group [I have never, never trusted Means and share the very hostile Navajo view of him after the messes he made at Chinle and other Dine' settings]. and the Vernon and Clyde Bellecourt group [to which I lean, but cautiously.] Both groups spend a great deal of time attacking each other. [There are a few very tiny AIM groups, which come and go.] Until someone can really show otherwise, I blame Wilson's thugs for her murder. But the definitive, and all-around convincing answers -- for most people -- may never be known in the Ultimate sense. There is a fine film about Anna Mae that is worth seeing -- ca. 1980: Brave Hearted Woman. I showed it regularly in my Contemporary Indian Issues course. Best - H February 3, 2004 Murder Trial Revives Intrigue of the 70's Indian Movement By MONICA DAVEY and CHARLIE LeDUFF http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/03/national/03TRIB.html?pagewanted=print&posi tion\ = RAPID CITY, S.D. - Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a young mother and American Indian activist, was shot in the head and left to die on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the winter of 1975. The trial of one of two men accused of killing her begins here on Tuesday. Between those moments, decades apart, lies a mystery, and a bitter struggle. Law enforcement authorities and Indians across the country are watching closely, not just for what the trial will reveal about Ms. Pictou Aquash's death, but for what it threatens to expose about suspicion and violence inside the American Indian Movement, or AIM, the militant group whose clashes with federal authorities drew the eyes of the world to the Pine Ridge Reservation in the 1970's. Ms. Pictou Aquash was a member of AIM, one of scores who seized the Sioux village of Wounded Knee in 1973, demanding civil rights for Indians while holding federal officials at bay for 71 days. The men indicted in her murder, Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham, were in AIM, too. Did the movement kill one of its own? Or was Ms. Pictou Aquash a victim of corrupt, even murderous, federal law enforcement? On the eve of the trial, Indians are clashing over these questions - in newspaper and magazine articles, in television interviews, on the Web and in court. AIM leaders insist, as they always have, that federal agents engineered the killing as part of their conflict with AIM. Other Indians point the finger at the movement itself, saying they believe that AIM leaders ordered her killed because they suspected she was a federal informer. The editor of a national Indian newspaper has made an even more explosive accusation: that the trial will lead back to one of the American Indian Movement's best-known members, Leonard Peltier, whose life imprisonment in the killings of two federal agents at Pine Ridge has made him an international human-rights celebrity among those who believe he was framed by vengeful federal authorities. The editor, Paul DeMain, has written in News From Indian Country that he believes that Ms. Pictou Aquash knew too much about Mr. Peltier's case and may have been killed by AIM members to protect Mr. Peltier. Mr. Peltier has sued Mr. DeMain for libel, denying any connection to the killing of the agents or of Ms. Pictou Aquash. Being at the heart of such fire is familiar territory for AIM, a polarizing force in Indian country since its birth in Minneapolis in 1968. AIM's founders demanded civil rights, treaty recognition and a return to traditional ways. Warlike in attitude and dress, they won admirers and enemies on reservations. For many, AIM meant pride and cultural rebirth, but others criticized its tactics - like the siege at Wounded Knee - as too radical and violent. Wounded Knee ended in a truce, but the armed conflict at Pine Ridge dragged on for years. Among the bloody incidents, one stirred an intense manhunt. On June 26, 1975, two F.B.I. agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, were trying to arrest a robbery suspect on a farm. In a gun battle, an AIM member and both agents died. The agents, lying wounded by their car, were finished off by bullets in the head at close range. Several Indians were later arrested, but only Mr. Peltier was convicted. Another Pine Ridge killing drew less notice. On Feb. 24, 1976, a rancher found the body of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash curled in a gully. Ms. Pictou Aquash was 30, with a broad smile and a sharp, determined attitude. She believed in AIM, family members said, and was close to AIM leaders. Indians here and on other reservations immediately suspected federal agents or the Guardians of the Oglala Nation, a security force allied with the tribal government and federal authorities. Peculiar circumstances fueled those suspicions: at first the authorities said they could not identify the body, though they had questioned Ms. Pictou Aquash in the past. A coroner said she had died of exposure, overlooking the bullet wound, which was found only when her body was exhumed for a second autopsy. Vernon Bellecourt, a longtime AIM leader and its spokesman, said recently that he still believed federal authorities were responsible for her death. "How they did it? I don't know," Mr. Bellecourt said. "How they set it up? I don't know." Among Indians, there was another theory. Ms. Pictou Aquash's daughter said she heard it: that AIM itself might have killed Ms. Pictou Aquash, thinking she was a spy. At the height of the Pine Ridge conflict, federal authorities wanted inside information, and AIM members often suspected their own of talking. Robert D. Ecoffey, now deputy director of law enforcement services at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, heard the whispers many times, too, in decades of pursuing the Pictou Aquash case. But they went nowhere, Mr. Ecoffey and other law enforcement officials said, because most people on the reservation would not talk, perhaps fearing retribution, perhaps to keep a united front for AIM. "The case would be dead for a long time, then it would come back to life and you would hear something," said James E. McMahon, the United States attorney in South Dakota. "But then that would not pan out." Finally, not long ago, Mr. McMahon said, people once inside AIM spoke up. "Feelings changed," said Mr. Ecoffey, a Lakota who grew up in Pine Ridge. "There had been a distrust between those who had the knowledge and the F.B.I. People realized now that justice had to be done for Anna Mae." Last year, the authorities indicted Mr. Looking Cloud and Mr. Graham. Mr. Graham, arrested in Canada, will fight extradition in a hearing in March, said his lawyer, Terry La Liberté. "There's no evidence in this case," Mr. La Liberté said. "What we have is a bunch of hearsay, innuendo and politics." Mr. Looking Cloud, who goes to trial on Tuesday, has a straightforward defense, said his lawyer, Tim Rensch: "He didn't do it." Law enforcement authorities declined to discuss their theory of the motive in the case before the trial. But they said they did not believe that Mr. Looking Cloud, a low-level AIM member who became a drifter after leaving Pine Ridge, plotted the killing on his own. And even a former AIM leader, Russell Means, has publicly said he believes that AIM leaders ordered the killing. Mr. Bellecourt, the spokesman, in turn accused Mr. Means of being a "C.I.A. snoop." He said his group had posted an "urgent appeal" on the Web for money for Mr. Looking Cloud's defense after Mr. Looking Cloud's family sought help to prove his innocence. Mr. DeMain, the editor, said he once undertook a similar mission for Mr. Peltier. Mr. DeMain, an Oneida-Ojibwe, said he began researching the case a dozen years ago, hoping to prove - as Robert Redford, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others have insisted over the decades - that Mr. Peltier was unjustly imprisoned. Mr. DeMain said he believed that ballistic evidence against Mr. Peltier was flawed, and that a witness had lied. But after years of interviews, he said, he became convinced that Mr. Peltier, now serving consecutive life terms in the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., was a murderer. "What I found was not a case where the government may have framed an innocent man, but where the government may have framed a guilty man," he said in an interview at his home in Hayward, Wis. Mr. DeMain said he had determined from interviews that Ms. Pictou Aquash had at one point heard Mr. Peltier brag about shooting both F.B.I. agents, and even re-enacted the crime. That knowledge made her a target of AIM, Mr. DeMain said. Last year, Mr. DeMain published as much in his newspaper, writing that the "primary motive" behind the killing was Ms. Pictou Aquash's knowledge of what Mr. Peltier claimed to have done. Another person who was once close to AIM leaders and who declined to be named in this article, saying she feared for her safety, said that she, too, had seen Mr. Peltier brag in front of Ms. Pictou Aquash and others about shooting the agents. That person has been summoned as a witness at the trial. Mr. Peltier has sued Mr. DeMain for libel in federal court in Minneapolis. Mr. Peltier's lawyer, Barry A. Bachrach, said that after years of court appeals, even the government had said it could not prove that Mr. Peltier executed the agents. The government, Mr. Bachrach said, has argued merely that he "aided and abetted" in their deaths. The 1975 shootout, Mr. Bachrach said, was chaotic and confusing, with many people firing guns, some in self-defense. "It was a war zone," he said. Eric F. Melgren, the United States attorney in Kansas, argued the government's side in a hearing last fall. He said that to persuade appeals courts to uphold the murder convictions, some prosecutors had asserted that the government needed only to show that Mr. Peltier at least aided and abetted in the killings. The government still believes that Mr. Peltier fired the fatal shots, he said. Mr. Bachrach said his client rejected the government's allegations and any ties to Ms. Pictou Aquash's death. "He denies shooting the agents and thus denies that a motive for the murder of Anna Mae was because he supposedly admitted to her that he killed the agents," Mr. Bachrach said. "You can get people to say anything. But it's a falsehood that Anna Mae was murdered as a result of something Leonard supposedly admitted to her." Besides, Mr. Bachrach said, Mr. Peltier considered Ms. Pictou Aquash a friend. The 28th anniversary of Mr. Peltier's imprisonment is next week, with events planned in Boston, Toronto and Tacoma, Wash. His legal battle, meanwhile, goes on. Among Indians, especially here in southwest South Dakota, the coming trial has stirred painful memories. "It's awesome to know hundreds of people knew intimate details," said Richard Two Elk, who grew up with Mr. Looking Cloud. "How the community knew all this time. And how a massive orchestra was conducted to hide it." AIM, meanwhile, splintered. Some leaders went off to Hollywood or the lecture circuit. Nevertheless, Mr. Bellecourt, 72, said AIM was alive and well. He said its legacy was vast - culturally, economically and philosophically. "We've changed things forever," he said. Denise Maloney Pictou was 11 when her mother died. Her mother believed firmly in AIM values, she said: human rights, treaty recognition, tradition. Ms. Maloney Pictou said she was struggling to mesh those values with the thought that AIM could have killed her mother. "I really do believe in their purpose in what they started out to be," Ms. Maloney Pictou, now 39, said. "I cannot believe that everything they did back there is in vain." Still, she said, she suspects there may be more revelations ahead. "I truly believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg," she said. "If Anna Mae opens up the door to the rest of the injustices, I'll be there to push forward." Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR] www.hunterbear.org When you cut to the bone and cut away the college degrees, academic and other titles, published books and articles, ours is essentially a working class and Indian family. We consistently join unions -- and we always support them with the greatest vigor. It's critical to always keep fighting -- and to always remember that, if one lives with grace, he/she should be prepared to die with grace. "[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt." --Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31 Community email addresses: Post message: marxist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subscribe: marxist-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Unsubscribe: marxist-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx List owner: Hunter Gray <hunterbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Shortcut URL to this page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist Also take our one-question survey at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/polls ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/B140lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: marxist-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Previous Message by Thread: click to view message preview

obscenity

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0203-10.htm CommonDreams.org, February 3, 2004 Protecting the Purity of American Children or What Exactly is Obscene? by Brigitte Schön Last night, February 2, the German (public) TV channel ZDF ended its prime time news program at 7.15pm with a report about the Super Bowl game the night before. At first, viewers were treated to the display of nationalist fervor -- flags flying, American virtues extolled -- which is not only highly unusual in today's Europe but also leaves Europeans rather uncomfortable. It reminds them of the times when such exhibitions of jingoism were common in Europe as well and it equally reminds them of what followed from that. In short, it reminds them of a lot of dictatorships in Europe during the last century, and they often find such pictures obscene. Then ZDF treated the audience to the sequence where Janet Jackson's breast is briefly exposed. The commentator added that "in Puritan America", this was considered a scandal. We can assume that many Americans felt rather uncomfortable about it and considered such pictures obscene. As American friends assure me, the going argument is "there were CHILDREN watching this!" Ever since then, I've been pondering about the innocence and purity of American children. One thing that struck me was that a naked female breast is considered obscene in America while it is at the same time considered an outrage that Muslem men view the entire female body as something indecent and don't want it exposed in public. I'm not quite sure why the fact that a naked breast is obscene in one culture is okay while it is considered ridiculous and a sign of oppression if other cultures find the entire body of a women from hair to toes obscene if viewed "naked". Or, the other way round: Why is ANY part of a female body so obscene that it's not to be seen by children? On the other hand, it is obviously not considered obscene if American children can watch the bombing of towns by their own people on prime time television and actually can watch people die "live from CNN". It is not considered obscene if American children watch other children without limbs, amidst rubble, without any relatives in Middle East or Central Asian countries. It is not considered obscene to watch children on TV who are starving. It is not considered obscene to be showered with violence on TV or to play violent computer games. It is not considered obscene to hear about minors on death row in certain US states. None of the above seems to be viewed as something that might deeply disturb American children. But if American children can get a glimpse of a naked breast, they are bound to be damaged for the rest of their lives, to judge from the reactions in America. European children do after birth see a lot of naked female breasts for quite a while. Apart from that, they see a lot of naked female breasts in films, on TV, on billboards and on public beaches while they grow up. So seeing naked breasts is no big deal. Are European children as a result more violent than American children? Are they more prone to become criminals for that reason? Are they more disturbed? Not that I know of. Many European parents think on the other hand that their children might get damaged by violence on TV or in computer games, they might get damaged growing up in a world full of aggression and injustice, they might get damaged in a world where the poor are left to die. So right now a lot of us are somewhat bewildered: What do American adults expect t happen when a child sees a naked breast? What kind of terrible damage are they afraid of? What incredible unspeakable trauma will occur which surely must outdo everything else an American child is subjected to in his or her life? That they might one day find a female breast more interesting than waving their flag maybe? Brigitte Schön (bschoen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) is an international conference interpreter of Austrian nationality and lives in Vienna, Austria. - - - - - John Lacny People of the US, unite and defeat the Bush regime and all its running dogs! "[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt." --Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31 Community email addresses: Post message: marxist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subscribe: marxist-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Unsubscribe: marxist-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx List owner: Hunter Gray <hunterbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Shortcut URL to this page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist Also take our one-question survey at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/polls ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/B140lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: marxist-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Next Message by Thread: click to view message preview

RE: Why Federal court appointments matter: a case in point

Granted, appointments to courts matter. (This does not in and of itself mean that voting for Democrats is a good idea, which I think is John's sub-text, but that is not why I am replying to this message.) What is interesting is to consider the conditions that make these court appointments matter, and that furthermore condition the ways in which judges rule in such cases. This is the decades-long battle by labor officials to keep the rank and file from taking direct action on their own initiative to resolve this and many other smaller-scale and larger-scale "cases". Where such experience exists in the ranks, actions can be taken on the basis of solidarity built up through prior struggles. Where it does not exist, anyone thinking of acting does so in a real vacuum of past solidarity. They may get the support, or may not, from other workers, but no one really knows in advance. Every time the union officials insist that "cases" be grieved, rather than "issues" be fought over, the tendency to see self-defense as in the hands of the officials and not the ranks, and the weakening of the traditions and solidarities for further struggles, takes another step forward. I wrote a book about this, Teamster Rank and File. Times have since changed, but this part of the dynamic has not changed. best sam John Lacny <jlacny@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2004/02/02/daily21.html > >Pittsburgh Business Times, February 3, 2004, 3:12 PM EST > >Court voids injunction against US Airways > > >In a victory for US Airways, a federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a >preliminary injunction barring the company from contracting maintenance work >on several Airbus jets to an outside company. > >The Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia found a district court >judge in Pittsburgh did not have adequate jurisdiction when he granted a >preliminary injunction sought by the International Association of Machinists >and Aerospace Workers last November. > >US Airways told the machinists' union on Oct. 6, 2003 it had decided to >contract repair work on the 10 Airbus planes to ST Mobile Aerospace >Engineering Inc., in Mobile, Ala. The contract called for ST Mobile to >overhaul the narrow-body aircraft, which were due for heavy maintenance. > >The union later sued to block US Airways from contracting out the work, saying >such a move violated a collective bargaining agreement. > >District Court judge Robert Cindrich ruled last November the disagreement >between US Airways and the union qualified as a major dispute under the >federal Railway Labor Act, which has also governed airlines since 1936. He >directed Arlington, Va.-based US Airways to conclude maintenance on one Airbus >aircraft, and barred outside work on the additional aircraft. > >But the appeals court said in its opinion Tuesday it found the dispute to be a >minor one under the Railway Labor Act and that Judge Cindrich should have >directed the company and the union to settle the matter in arbitration. > >US Airways, which is the major carrier serving Pittsburgh International >Airport, where it operates its No. 2 hub, hailed the appeals court's decision. > >"The Court's decision validates the company's consistent legal opinion that >this issue is a minor contract dispute under the Railway Labor Act that must >be resolved through arbitration between US Airways and the International >Association of Machinists," the company said in a statement. > >"We are prepared," it added, "to quickly arbitrate this matter as our >collective focus must be to meet the travel plans of our customers without >interruption." > >No comment from the machinists' union was immediately available. > >US Airways has said it lacks existing facilities and equipment to complete the >scheduled maintenance required by the planes' manufacturer, Airbus Industrie, >and the Federal Aviation Administration. But the union contends its current >collective bargaining agreement prohibits the move to outsource the work. > >US Airways, the seventh-largest domestic airline, said the outsourcing plan >complied with an agreement it reached with the machinists' union in June. The >carrier also said previously that no furloughs or layoffs would result from >the arrangement. > >The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District >141-M, represents 5,000 mechanics and related employees at US Airways. IAM >District 141 represents the airline's 4,450 fleet service employees. > > > >- - - - - >John Lacny > >People of the US, unite and defeat the Bush regime and all its running dogs! > __________________________________________________________________ New! Unlimited Netscape Internet Service. Only $9.95 a month -- Sign up today at http://isp.netscape.com/register Act now to get a personalized email address! Netscape. Just the Net You Need. "[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt." --Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31 Community email addresses: Post message: marxist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subscribe: marxist-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Unsubscribe: marxist-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx List owner: Hunter Gray <hunterbadbear@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Shortcut URL to this page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist Also take our one-question survey at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/polls Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/marxist/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: marxist-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/