Future of classical music has a Venezuelan beat

By Terrie Albano
People's Weekly World

CHICAGO — The internationally acclaimed Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela traveled to three cities in the United States this month, Washington, Chicago and Houston. And with this breath of fresh air from the South comes a new opportunity for the United States to get serious about music education.

For more than 30 years, the orchestra has transformed the lives of more than 250,000 Venezuelan children — many from impoverished circumstances — through its free-of-charge musical education, opening the doors for the youth of Venezuela to become young musicians and to perform with some of the world’s best-known orchestras, and to have the self-confidence and self-esteem to be productive citizens.


El Sistema

That model of education, known as El Sistema (The System), has been so successful that it is now being replicated in other countries. El Sistema has grown to be a Venezuelan-wide organization of 102 youth orchestras, 55 children’s orchestras and 270 music centers. The best musicians from these regional orchestras play in the Bolívar orchestra.

The orchestra was developed under the leadership of José Antonio Abreu, a retired economist and musician, who had a vision of creating a national system of youth orchestras in Venezuela dedicated to changing young lives through music.

Abreu, a recent recipient of the 2009 TED prize (Technology, Entertainment, Design, based in the U.S.) has one wish: to set up El Sistema programs around the world, including in the U.S.

It has achieved world renown as a highly effective vehicle for social change.

Although the orchestra program was set up two decades before Hugo Chavez was elected president, the Bolivarian Revolution — or 21st century socialism, as Chavez has called it — has helped the program to flourish.












‘The Dude’

Chavez recently called for “resetting” U.S.-Venezuelan relations, and, if the youth orchestra’s tour is part of pushing a reset button then it is one powerful button. The concerts in Houston, Chicago and Washington have been sold out for months.

Major U.S. media have been charmed by the talent of the Venezuelan young people, the possibility of what music and music education can do, and a 28-year-old phenom who has become the new face of classical music.

That 28-year-old is director Gustavo Dudamel, a protégé of Abreu’s, and the most famous example of what El Sistema has accomplished. Dudamel was recently named Los Angeles Philharmonic music director and is starting an El Sistema program for the youth of LA.

Dudamel has been called “The Dude” and the savior of classical music.

The Chicago Tribune’s music critic says Dudamel’s “outsized talent, ebullient personality and ecstatic podium manner connect with musicians and audiences in a way seldom seen since the days of the lamented Leonard Bernstein.” Which can’t hurt, the critic writes, since “a touch of show-biz imagery” can help symphony orchestras “eager to shed their fusty stereotype and fill empty seats during a prolonged economic downturn.”



Time magazine comments, “The South American country is now recognized as one of the world’s most dynamic vessels of classical music, thanks to a 34-year-old program that gives violins, French horns and batons to poor barrio kids and lets them interpret Handel and Tchaikovsky with a Latin verve that last year led Simon Rattle, director of the Berlin Philharmonic, to declare, ‘The future of classical music lies in Venezuela.’”


Music can change lives

Besides bringing new life to a genre of music that most people think is inhabited by stuffed shirts, Dudamel and his mentor Abreu are on a mission. They know, from first-hand experience, that music can change lives.

Dudamel once talked about a friend, Lenor, who played clarinet in the Bolivar orchestra and also spent time in jail.

“Holding a clarinet,” Lenor said, “was much better than holding a gun.” Venezuela, like the U.S., has a problem of violence and guns including among young people.

Dudamel has started working with low-income children in Los Angeles on the YOLA project (Youth Orchestra LA).

“We have to build something for the future and involve our young communities, so that they can think as citizens and become part of and involved in society,” he says. “Of course, it’s wonderful that kids have the Internet, television and computer games, but it’s so important, too, that they know about culture and the arts, that they can have pleasure in reading a book, creating memories and talking to friends.”

“The System exists not to build musicians so much as to create better citizens,” Dudamel notes. “Many of our kids come from neighborhoods where there are drugs and crime, some from broken homes. But when they are playing in the orchestra, they are all the same. It is a model democracy. It sets an example of how a community can function together.”


Democratic notion

Abreu, who embodies the democratic notion that people from the humblest backgrounds can not only appreciate but master high art, says his training as an economist helped him realize the power of investment in music.

“I was convinced,” he says, “that the way to genuinely develop a country was to develop its human capital, and that means promoting people’s talents everywhere, not just the élite.”

In an April 7 Washington meeting of the Organization of American States, Abreu introduced the orchestra’s brass ensemble, directed by Dudamel, saying, “No longer is this music the monopoly of higher classes.”

Families of the students become part of the process, as do neighbors and the whole community, Abreu says.

“They’re enchanted to see their children practicing this music at home, to see the self-esteem it gives them,” he says. “They share it with their neighbors.”

Abreu says he believes that the orchestra “can’t help but promote understanding, not just between the U.S. and Venezuela but the New World and Europe.”














Art funding in the U.S.

Such a philosophy and program from a country much poorer than the U.S. has helped artists here make the point that our government should support more arts funding, especially in the public schools.

Pop singer Linda Ronstadt recently told a congressional committee, advocating for arts funding, “Access to quality music education should not be only for those who can afford it. The benefits are too great.”

She pointed to Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s example of starting Youth Orchestra LA

“Today, children ages 7-16 in the urban core of Los Angeles receive free instruments, after-school music instruction and orchestra experience,” Ronstadt said. “Imagine what can be accomplished if we support the arts, engage ‘at risk’ youth and help them succeed in school and in their lives. For ‘underserved’ families, indeed for all families, participation in music and the arts can help people reclaim and achieve the American Dream.”


Creating jobs and more

The National Endowment for the Arts has some fresh funds from Barack Obama’s recent stimulus package to “preserve jobs in the arts.” But, from the pitiful arts funding for public schools to the cutbacks by cultural organizations hit hard by the economic recession/depression, it is clear more has to be done to rejuvenate the U.S. music and cultural scene.

U.S. orchestras of all sizes have been cutting their budgets in recent months. The Cleveland Orchestra’s music director took a 20 percent pay cut and administrative staff took cuts of various sizes. The number of subscription concerts will be reduced, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

The Minnesota Orchestra music director will make 10 percent less, and other salaries are being frozen or cut.

Orchestras in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have laid off staff.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s chief executive officer and other staff will take pay cuts now, unpaid furloughs later.

Even New York’s Metropolitan Opera has been hit. Unless it can extract cuts and concessions from its unions, general manager Peter Gelb told The New York Times, the Met faces a “disaster scenario.”

In the depths of the 1930s Great Depression, the government stepped in and created the Works Progress Administration, with a massive cultural component that spawned not only badly needed jobs but incredible works of art, architecture, music and music history, literature and parks that we enjoy to this day. Such a rebirth is possible today, and Venezuela has helped to show the way.

Poll: Just 53 percent of Americans say capitalism better than socialism

By Terrie Albano
People's Weekly World

This poll made our day.

According to a recent Rasmussen Report, only 53 percent of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism.

Not a very good spread for the profits-before-people, greed-is-good crowd. Ayn Rand must be rolling in her grave.

These numbers of course reflect the deep, transformative moment we are living in. An economic depression is a powerful force for people to experience, leading them to question the system that got us here.

Then there is the 20 percent that say socialism is better than capitalism, according to Rasmussen. Another wow! Twenty-seven percent are not sure which is better.
As the population gets further away from the Cold War years, the more they are open to socialism. The under 30 population is essentially divided: 37 percent prefer capitalism, 33 percent socialism and 30 percent are undecided.

Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of the current system with 49 percent for capitalism and 26 percent for socialism.

But the ones over 40 strongly favor capitalism, and just 13 percent of those believe socialism is better. What happened to the radical baby boomers?!

As you may imagine, those who have money to invest chose capitalism by a 5-to-1 margin. But for the rest of us who have no money to invest – a quarter of us say socialism would be o.k. Only 40 percent of non-investors think capitalism is better.

These are amazing statistics considering Rasmussen did not define either capitalism or socialism in their questions.

In an earlier survey by the polling firm they found, 70 percent of Americans prefer a free-market economy. When using the term “free market economy,” Rasmussen asserts, it attracts more support than using the term “capitalism.”

“Other survey data supports that notion. Rather than seeing large corporations as committed to free markets, two-out-of-three Americans believe that big government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors,” the poll summary stated.

Imagine how Americans would react if truly a national conversation was had on the benefits of socialism. Right now most Americans see it as a “government-managed” economy and they aren’t convinced the government could do any better than the corporate royalty, according to further poll findings.

Not included in the current popular view of socialism is democratization of the economy – where representatives of all communities, unions, schools, etc., would actually be involved in steering economic policy and decision making on all levels – micro and macro.

Recently, a colleague of mine, Sam Webb, the chair of the Communist Party said of the current economic and political situation:

“Is there any reason to think that millions in motion can't transform this country and world into the just, green, sustainable and peaceful "Promised Land" that Martin Luther King dreamed of?

“It would be a profound mistake to underestimate the progressive and socialist potential of this era. The American people have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity within their reach.”

While polls are just a snapshot of a very fluid and dynamic process of what people think, the more long term forces of the economy are already having this profound effect.

3.5 million Illinoisans were uninsured in 2007-2008

From the Campaign for Better Health Care:

CHICAGO - A report released today for the Campaign for Better Health Care by Families USA found that approximately 3.5 million Illinoisans--30.8 percent of residents under age 65--were uninsured at some point of time during 2007-2008. In fact, 2.5 million of those uninsured Illinoisans, 72.5 percent of the total, were uninsured for six months or more during that time.

The Families USA report reveals additional important demographic information about uninsured individuals in Illinois:

* Nearly four out of five uninsured Illinoisans, or 78.7 percent, were in working families, working full- or part-time.
* More than half, or 53.9 percent, of those individuals and families in Illinois with incomes below twice the poverty line--$42,400 of annual income for a family of four in 2008--went without health insurance at some point in 2007-2008.
* In addition, over one in five, or 21.3 percent, of those individuals and families in Illinois with incomes at or above twice the poverty line--$42,400 of annual income for a family of four in 2008--went without health insurance at some point in 2007-2008.
* While whites accounted for the largest number of uninsured in Illinois, Hispanics/Latinos and African Americans were much more likely to be uninsured than whites: 50.7 percent of Hispanics/Latinos and 39.1 percent of African Americans went without health insurance in 2007-2008, compared to 24.5 percent of whites.

"Health care is the key to economic security and opportunity," said Jim Duffett, Executive Director of the Campaign for Better Health Care. "When the data show that almost 80% of Illinois' uninsured are from hard working families, it just underscores the grim reality that most of us are just one illness away from financial ruin. We call on the people of Illinois to send a clear and direct demand to our members of Congress that they must pass accessible, affordable, and guaranteed quality health care this year. No excuses!"

The situation is reflected nationwide. Approximately 86.7 million Americans--one out of three people (33.1 percent) under 65 years of age--were uninsured at some point during 2007-2008. The Families USA report is an essential supplement to commonly-used Census Bureau data, such as the 45.7 million people deemed to be uninsured for the entire 2007 calendar year.

"The huge number of people without health coverage in Illinois is worse than an epidemic," said Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA. "At this point, almost everyone in the country has had a family member, neighbor, or friend who was uninsured--and that's why meaningful health care reform can no longer be kept on the back burner."

The Families USA report was based on data from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey and the Survey of Income and Program Participation as well as the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey used by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. The data were compiled with the assistance of The Lewin Group, a distinguished health policy and data consulting firm.

Copies of the report are available online at the websites of the Campaign for Better Health Care and Families USA. Perspectives on this report from the labor community, provider community, and further comment from the Campaign for Better Health Care can be obtained through Kathleen Duffy at (312) 913-9449.

Universal health care needed more than ever

Chicago – Health care activists rallied in Federal plaza April 6 to express their concern that the big hospital, insurance and pharmaceutical companies were “marginalizing” the single payer option in the discussion on health care reform currently before Congress. The activists were gathering in solidarity with a similar rally outside the White House Forum on Health Care Reform in Los Angeles, CA.

“The single payer option, or “Medicare for All”, should be part of the discussion in Congress, said Frank Borgers, of the National Nurses Organizing Committee. “Unbridled corporate power has brought the banking and auto industries to its knees and we fear it will happen in the health care industry as well.”

The activists from the Physicians for a National Health Program and the National Nurses Organizing Committee say this marginalization comes at a time when the single payer option is the most popular among the American people.

The activists applauded Pres. Barack Obama’s recognition of the need for government intervention in the health care crisis, but expressed their concern about the proposal being advanced by the private health care industry.

They contend the proposal will preserve a central role for private insurance industry. They say mandates for health care coverage on the 47 million uninsured would lead to greater corporate profits but not greater coverage.

Dorthea Mott, a nurse at John Stroger Hospital, is an advocate of universal health care coverage. She said Stroger is one of the safety net hospitals for the 5 million most vulnerable residents of Cook and surrounding counties.

“The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability has projected an $800 million Cook County deficit by 2012,” said Mott. “This deficit could be overcome with a single payer system. We want to preserve Medicare and to improve it.”














“We have good news, and bad news,” said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of PNHP. “The movement for single-payer has never been stronger. Over 66% of the American people want it.”

“We can’t leave the health care system in the hands of the corporate giants,” he said. “But we have been denied a seat at the table. The health care industry hasn’t been sleeping. They’ve been scheming to convert the entire system to a private health care system.”

In addition to the majority support for the single payer model, 59% of US physicians now back it.

Mark Almberg, speaking on behalf of PNHP, said one-third of every medical health care dollar is being wasted on administrative bureaucracy and profits for health care corporations. “$400 billion could be saved each year, enough to pay for a single payer system and to eliminate all co-pays and deductables,” said Almberg.

Young urged support for HR 676 introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has introduced a similar single payer bill in the US Senate, SR 703, The American Health Security Act. Young also urged support for the Illinois version of single payer, HB 311, introduced by State Rep. Mary Flowers with the support of 37 co-sponsors.

Chicago charter school teachers vote for union

(Based on a media release by Chicago ACTS)
In a historic step, an overwhelming majority of teachers at three Chicago-area charter school campuses, joined by parents and community leaders, filed authorization cards April 3 with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board to form a union. The teachers seek immediate recognition of their collective bargaining unit and a commitment by school officials to promptly bargain and settle a contract.

The teachers work at three Civitas Schools’ Chicago International Charter Schools (CICS)—Wrightwood, Northtown Academy and Ralph Ellison campuses—under a charter held by the Chicago Charter School Foundation. They would be the first unionized charter school teachers in the Chicago area.

“We hope that, in the spirit of bettering our schools, our students’ education opportunities and our communities, the schools’ administration works cooperatively with our new union local as we move forward and settle a contract,” said Amy Jacob, a third-grade teacher at the CICS/Civitas Wrightwood Charter School.

Three-quarters of the total teaching staff at the three campuses signed union authorization cards to be the first unit represented by the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (Chicago ACTS), an affiliate of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers. The number of teachers who signed cards well exceeds the simple majority required by state law.

The filing is the result of a two-year campaign by the AFT. The teachers are organized under Chicago ACTS because state law does not permit charter schoolteachers to be under the same collective bargaining agreement as other Chicago Public School teachers. A collective bargaining victory will be seen as a sharp rebuke to Mayor Daley’s efforts to steadily privatize the school system under his Renaissance 2010 program.

“We organized because a teacher’s voice in a school’s decision-making process will help create the best work environment for teachers and the best learning environment for students,” said Emily Mueller, a high school language arts teacher at CICS/Civitas Northtown Academy Charter School. “We love our work, and a union gives us the security of being able to voice concerns and ideas without placing our jobs at risk.”

In a letter to parents, the CICS teachers said, “We want to build a strong and consistent community of professionals and reduce the high rate of teacher turnover. A successful educational experience for any child depends on great teachers and engaged parents.”

The AFT’s Chicago and state leaders expressed their support for the charter schoolteachers to form their union. “Their dedication will help their schools become trailblazers of innovation and collaboration within the community,” said Chicago Teachers Union President Marilyn Stewart, who is an AFT vice president.

The CICS teachers intend to work very closely with the communities in and around the schools. “We hope the teachers’ union is recognized quickly, so they can start to do all in their power to lift our youth to even greater heights,” said Martha Biondi, associate professor of history at Northwestern University and chair of the Chicago Workers’ Rights Board.

More than 1,500 students attend the three CICS campuses, which are part of the Chicago International Charter School Network and are managed by Civitas Schools, a fully owned subsidiary of the charter holder, the Chicago Charter School Foundation.

Through its affiliation with the American Federation of Teachers, the CICS/Civitas unit of Chicago ACTS joins the nationwide Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, a community of educators at more than 70 charter schools in 10 states, who belong to AFT-affiliated unions.

Support is also building for a one-year moratorium on all school closings, phase-outs and consolidations called for in a bill introduced by State Representative Cynthia Soto (HB 363 School Closing Moratorium Bill). The bill would create fair and responsible requirements for all closures that the Board of Education must follow.

School closures particularly in the African American and Latino communities have sparked considerable anger and resentment. The closings are being carried out under Renaissance 2010 with the aim to re-open schools under charter management.

Picketers to Bank of America: stop blocking Employee Free Choice

Chicago - Labor activists and Logan Square residents picketed the local branch of Bank of America April 4, to draw attention to the bank's brazen campaign to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Chanting "Shame on Bank of America", picketers circled in front of the bank's Logan Square branch and gathered signatures in support of the bill, including from many bank customers.

"Two days after they got a $25 billion bailout from the Federal government, Bank of America convened a conference call with AIG, McDonalds, Home Depot, and other big corporations to discuss how to defeat EFCA," Leah Raffanti, of Chicago Jobs with Justice told picketers and pedestrians. "We are here to tell Bank of America to stop interfering with legislation that will help working families."

Bank of America already carries a lousy reputation in Chicago, especially after the role they played in the shut down of Republic Windows and Doors. As chief creditor they refused to extend a $5 million line of credit a couple of weeks after the bank got its bailout.

"I'm glad you're here," one bank customer told the picketers. "You're speaking the truth. They created the financial crisis with their greed and now they want us to pay double for it."



Among the picketers was Richard Berg, president of Teamsters Local 743. "They say passing EFCA will be the end of civilization. They say it's undemocratic. But EFCA is the ultimate in democracy, he said. "You can't stand by yourself against Bank of America. Only when working people stick together can we win."


Lance Cohn, a retired Chicago teacher said passage of EFCA was essential for economic recovery. "Unionized workers make 30 percent more than non-unionized workers, he said. "The last 30 years the corporations and rich have had it their way and accumulated staggering wealth while working people have taken in on the chin. EFCA will help re-balance things," said Cohn, who is part of the campaign to organize teachers at Chicago charter schools.



Also in the line was Charles Gilyard, president of USWA Local 2154. Gilyard said EFCA is one of the laws needed to strengthen organized labor's ability to not only win better pay and benefits but to protect it's members from being fired for union activities.

"I have seen companies ruining the lives of workers. One of our union brothers was fired for being a union activist. He's been off a year as he fights his way through the courts. He may win his job back, but he's already lost his home and his wife. His life is ruined."



Gilyard also said a major cause of the violence claiming the lives of scores of African American and Latino young people in Chicago is the massive joblessness and bleak economic future. He said creating union wage jobs would be a big factor in ending the violence.

Protesters joined the picket line from the Logan Square Neighbors for Justice and Peace, Organizing for America, the South Austin Coalition Community Council, the Logan Square-Humboldt Park Communist Party club, and Coalition of Labor Union Women, and vowed to stick together until the battle is won.

(photos by Scott Marshall)

Chicago rallies for Employee Free Choice

By Pepe Lozano
People's Weekly World

CHICAGO – Imagine the day when working people’s right to decide to join a union is guaranteed and protected by law. That day will come, many argue, when the Employee Free Choice Act is finally signed into law.

In a national week of action, Chicago Free Choice supporters led by the local Jobs With Justice chapter rallied on Tuesday in front of the Chicago-land Chamber of Commerce, which has launched an anti-worker propaganda campaign against the measure. Protestors at the downtown rally claim big business demands bailouts and tax breaks while laying off workers and paying huge bonuses.













“If we’re ever going to address economic inequalities then we have to give workers the right to organize unions,” said 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore to the World. “Workers everywhere have the God-given right to join unions and demand living wages with decent benefits,” he said. Free Choice supporters must continue to pressure members of Congress to support this cause and do the right thing, added Moore. “We are tired of having the wages of working men and women decline,” he continued. “Now is the time to say enough is enough and Congress must have the guts to pass this measure.”

Katie Jordan, president of the Chicago Coalition of Labor Union Women told the World that passing the Free Choice act would assist working women demand equal pay for equal work.

“Women without unions are on the lowest economic totem pole and do not have the equal opportunity to talk to their bosses about increasing their wages,” said Jordan. “Too many families today are not in unions and struggle to pay their mortgages,” she added.

“It’s the workers who make the products and keep companies alive,” said Jordan. “People need to get paid for what they’re worth and feel free to join unions without being harassed,” she said.

Rev. Calvin Morris with the Community Renewal Society said it’s important to challenge the Chamber of Commerce. It’s not right that corporate higher-ups make exorbitant salaries at the expense of the majority of workers who have little protections, he said.
“The Chamber says, ‘if you give workers what they want, then business will fall apart and the economy will suffer,’ but we know that’s not the case,” insisted Morris.

“That time is over,” he added. “This is a new day and the Employee Free Choice Act must pass and it will pass.”

In an on-going campaign to organize workers at Comcast, Dave Webster with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 21, said the cable company is a poster child why the Free Choice needs to pass. Webster said Comcast spends money on anti-labor attorneys and union busting campaigns, when they should invest their energy in meeting the demands of its workers.

“Workers at Comcast are afraid to talk to each other and the company threatens them saying if they join a union they will lose their jobs,” said Webster.

Pastor Robin Hood with Redeemed Outreach Ministers told the crowd that getting the Free Choice passed is “the fight of all fights right now.”

Leah Fried , an organizer with United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers (UE) Local 1110, which recently won a $1.75 million settlement from for its workers at the Republic Windows and Doors Chicago factory told the World,

“Without the Free Choice, workers will have to take over factories to fight for their basic rights just like we took over Republic.”

“The Chamber of Commerce and big business is spending millions of dollars to sell out workers in this country,” she said. “They are trying very hard to defend the status quo while corporate abuse continues to go unpunished.”

Two hundred and fifty workers conducted a six-day sit-in last December when the Chicago Republic Windows plant was abruptly closed and the worker’s vacation and severance pay and health benefits were illegally denied.

A group of the Republic workers were at the rally including Ron Bender who is a shop steward with the UE Local.

“Workers need the choice to vote for a union without being intimidated and they should decide for themselves,” said Bender. “We wouldn’t have won any of our demands without our union,” he added.

With the passage of the Free Choice act unionized workers will have more job security, earn 30 percent more than non-unionized workers, and are much more likely to have health benefits, short-term disability insurance, life insurance and pensions, supporters say.

Katie Jordan summed up the spirit of the rally projecting this struggle is one workers are determined to win.

“We will defeat you and we will fight until we get this work done, because there is more of us than you, even if we have to stand here until eternity,” she said.

plozano@pww.org