Restore Habeas Corpus. No. 458.

Restore Habeas Corpus

In its waning days, the last Congress passed the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006. Among many ill-considered and dangerous provisions, the MCA revoked the right to habeas corpus for anyone detained at Guantanamo Bay, as well as for any foreigner the government detains anywhere and labels an “enemy combatant,” including legal residents of the U.S.

Why must habeas corpus be restored?

The Founders of our nation considered habeas corpus the most fundamental of rights because it insured that the executive branch could not hold people without cause. A vast majority of the detainees at Guantanamo are there by mistake, guilty only of being sold to the U.S. for a bounty. When our government revokes the right to habeas corpus it shows other governments they can do the same and puts U.S. citizens traveling and working abroad at risk. If we do not defend the detainees’ right to habeas corpus, and the rights of our neighbors, family and friends who are not yet citizens, we all lose.


The Military Commissions Act of 2006

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 is a massive legislative assault on our fundamental rights, including the right to habeas corpus – the right to challenge one’s detention in a court of law. The MCA contains sweeping provisions that serve to shelter Bush administration officials from the legal consequences of their actions while stripping away the fundamental rights of those held in U.S. custody.


A project of the Center for Constitutional Rights. (CCR) is a non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.CCR uses litigation proactively to advance the law in a positive direction, to empower poor communities and communities of color, to guarantee the rights of those with the fewest protections and least access to legal resources, to train the next generation of constitutional and human rights attorneys, and to strengthen the broader movement for constitutional and human rights.

Remembering John W. Gardner, Architect of the Great Society. No. 457.

John W. Gardner was a longtime activist who promoted the common good and improved the lives of millions of Americans by helping to implement the sweeping social reforms of the 1960s. As Lyndon Johnson’s Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Gardner played a major role in civil rights enforcement and education reform, and he was instrumental in creating Medicare and establishing the public television network.

Gardner received his B.A. and M.A. in psychology from Stanford University, where he returned as a trustee and as a professor. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He authored several books on leadership and self renewal, and wrote extensively on public service. He headed the Carnegie Corporation and the Urban Coalition, and went on to found Common Cause and co-found the Independent Sector. In 1964, Gardner received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil honor.

In his remarkable career, he played an instrumental role in a vast array of enterprises, including the White House Fellows Program, public television, enforcement of the Civil Rights Act, Medicare, the Experience Corps and many, many others. Through the sheer power of his ideas, he became one of the most influential voices of his generation.

Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons. No. 456.

* On June 8, 2006, the Commission released "Confronting Confinement", a report on violence and abuse in U.S. jails and prisons, the broad impact of those problems on public safety and public health, and how correctional facilities nationwide can become safer and more effective. The report reflects the Commission's work over more than a year — an inquiry that featured four public hearings in cities around the country where nearly 100 people testified, visits to jails and prisons, conversations with people about their experience of life behind bars, discussions with current and former corrections officials and experts working outside the profession, and a thorough review of available research and data.

The report covers four areas: dangerous conditions of confinement — violence, poor health care, and inappropriate segregation — that can also endanger corrections officers and the public; the challenges facing labor and management; weak oversight of correctional facilities; and serious flaws in the available data about violence and abuse. In response to these problems, the Commission offers 30 pragmatic recommendations for reform — many of them based on good practices and exemplary leadership in particular correctional facilities around the country.
DOWNLOAD Report or Summary.

A Vision to end Poverty. No. 455.

Community Action Agencies (CAAs) are nonprofit private and public organizations established under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to fight America's War on Poverty. Community Action Agencies help people to help themselves in achieving self-sufficiency. Today there are approximately 1,000 Community Action Agencies serving the poor in every state as well as Puerto Rico and the Trust Territories.

PDF file:
2007 National Community Action Month Planning Guide

Libraries Keeping the Cultural Record of Labor. No. 454.

--Labor historian John W. Bennett has researched the history of the labor movement since his days as an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts (Class of 1952). A born collector, he began accumulating memorabilia associated with unions, drawn to their potential as a visual record of labor iconography and self-representation.

In 2005, Dr. Bennett donated his collection to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, W.E.B. Du Bois Library where it became part of the strong holdings for the history of organized labor, work, and industry. Extending back to the 1880s, the Bennett Collection includes examples from around the country, but with a particularly strong representation of New England unions between the mid-1930s and mid-1970s.

International Museum Day 2007. is May 18. No. 453.

The International Council of Museums (ICOM) announces "Museums and Universal Heritage" as the theme for International Museum Day 2007, to be celebrated the week of Friday, 18th of May in museums throughout the world. ICOM's 23,000 individual and institutional members in 145 countries are especially encouraged to participate most actively this year with special events ranging from music, dance and theatre performances to special exhibitions of art from the reserves, and free entrance, sometimes both day and night.

The message for International Museum Day is pertinent:

"We are all responsible for universal heritage".

Alissandra Cummins , President of ICOM explains:"This year, more than ever, we need to raise consciousness about the role of museums in teaching individual and collective responsibility for global heritage."

"ICOM's International Museum Day has high purpose in promoting access to museum collections to focus on how cultural diversity and universal heritage go hand in hand. ICOM is inviting the world's museums and their communities to show how, as a member of a family, neighborhood, tribe, nation, ethnic group or religion, and as public citizens, on all levels, we are separately and together responsible for sharing and protecting our respective and common heritage."

For ICOM, universal heritage means both natural and cultural heritage, the tangible objects that make up collections as well as the intangible discourses, knowledge, and creative expressions that accompany these. As per the ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums, museums are responsible for preserving and promoting this heritage. In short, ICOM's answer to globalization is encouraging a new universal responsibility for heritage in all its culturally diverse expressions.

Director of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, Vice-Chairperson of the International Advisory Committee of the Memory of the World Programme and former Chairperson of Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Country of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation (ICPRCP), Cummins adds:

"ICOM has been partnering with UNESCO since its inception 60 years ago, because this intergovernmental organisation was the first to recognize just how important NGO's representing civil society are in implementing its cultural, educational, and scientific development programmes to alleviate the root causes of war, poverty and ignorance. This is why ICOM supports UNESCO's Conventions and has done good work through museums to promote "Intangible Heritage" since 2004. Now, with the "Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions" which went into effect on 18 March, we see how on the 18th of May, International Museum Day, and at the ICOM General Conference in Vienna in August, we can show the link between diversity and universality all over the world."

Visiting museums on International Museum Day is a sure way to participate in celebrating 40,000 years of diverse human creativity and join the pledge to universal heritage.

North American Labor Assembly on Climate Crisis.No. 452.

North American Labor Assembly on Climate Crisis


Changes in the way we produce and use energy need a major overhaul — starting now. Will labor be involved in making key decisions about this overhaul or be on the sidelines? By taking on the fight for environmental sanity, unions will open up new avenues for organizing, grow the labor movement, and be able to forge powerful alliances.

This North American Labor Assembly will:

* Hear the voices of unions from all over the world regarding efforts to organize and build power around climate change and other environmental issues.
* Connect with the work of the “Blue-Green Alliance” and assess the prospects of a powerful partnership between unions and environmental organizations
* Listen to options for energy alternatives and conservation, and how these can create good jobs and stronger unions in construction, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, and other sectors.
* Consider proposals for a plan of action to educate, organize, and mobilize union members on global warming and environmental issues, and to connect with unions around the world who are committed to similar goals.

For more information about the conference or to volunteer, please contact Dan Cerio at 212.340.2861 or cornellgli@gmail.com