WHO RULES COOPER UNION?—Conclusion: A Look at Cooper Union’s Bristol-Myers Squibb and Vassar College-Yale University/Bain Capital Connections
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Perhaps the ultra-rich folks who rule Cooper Union should ask the 1 percent of the people who control Bain Capital (as well as Bristol Myers-Squibb, Vasser College and Yale University) to share some of the big money they apparently obtained from owning Burger King and exploiting Burger King workers and consumers between 2002 and 2010 with Cooper Union—in order to continue providing free tuition for Cooper Union students after the Fall of 2014?
Otherwise, perhaps the Cooper Union Administration should lose its special city tax break privileges on its Chrysler Building commercial real estate property? For, as Werner Cohn noted in his 1996 study, titled “Cooper Union and The Chrysler Building:”
“The…Chrysler Building in New York is one of the city's most famous sights...But while in many ways the building is very conspicuous, there is also a hidden side...What is hidden is that the building pays no property taxes and that the money that would ordinarily be due for such taxes is used to support a private college, Cooper Union. This institution, an elite and…private college…on Manhattan's lower east side, has so far been able to escape taxation of the Chrysler Building even though it is the general rule in New York that real estate taxes are due on commercial property regardless of who owns it.
“The resulting loss to the City…is not a trivial amount in a city that is chronically short of cash….The Chrysler Building has always been used for wholly commercial purposes. The ground on which the building stands, but not the building itself, is owned by Cooper Union. The building's owner pays Cooper Union what he would otherwise have to pay the City…The institution's library, which Peter Cooper had ordained to be free to the community, is now closed to the public. So it cannot be said that the City's taxpayer, unless he is a matriculated Cooper student, gets a direct benefit from Cooper's tax exemption….”
(end of article)
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Friday, February 21, 2014
Who Rules Cooper Union?--Part 10
WHO RULES COOPER UNION?—Part 10: A Look at Cooper Union’s Bristol-Myers Squibb and Vassar College-Yale University/Bain Capital Connections
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Besides being Vassar College’s president, Cooper Union Trustee “Cappy” Hill also sits next to a Bain Capital founder and managing director who has focused on consumer and retail companies—Yale Investment Committee Member Joshua Bekenstein--on Yale University’s governing board: the Yale Corporation. As Yale University’s president-elect Peter Salovey told the "Yale News" on May 28, 2013:
“I am looking forward to working closely with Josh and Cappy. Both are…leaders with a deep love for this University. I am thrilled that they will join the Yale Corporation just as I begin my presidency.”
One reason Cooper Union Trustee “Cappy” Hill might have a deeper love for Yale University than for Cooper Union might be because the only U.S. university or college with an endowment whose market value exceeds the market value of Yale University’s endowment--$19.3 billiion-- is Harvard University. Given “non-profit” and tax-exempt Yale University’s apparent business relationship to Bain Capital and Cooper Union Trustee Hill’s colleague on the Yale Corporation board, Bain Capital Managing Director Josh Bekenstein, it’s not surprising that the market value of Yale University’s endowment has apparently been able to increase during the last 20 years. In a July 16, 2012 article, for example, "The Nation" magazine noted that Bain Capital (a private equity firm to which 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has also been connected to historically) “makes its money by buying functional US manufacturing and service firms and rendering them dysfunctional,” “guts American companies, ripping out whatever parts are profitable and then tossing the workers aside,” “forces cuts in wages, benefits and pensions,” “outsources work” and “offshores production—harming American workers and communities and undermining American industries…. “
And in a June 22, 2012 "New York Times" op-ed column, titled “Burger King, the Cash Cow,” Joe Nocera indicated how Bain Capital managers made a lot of money from collaborating with Goldman Sachs and TGP to purchase Burger King in 2002 and sell Burger King in 2010:
“In 2002, Goldman Sachs, along with two private equity firms, TGP and ... hmmm ... Bain Capital, teamed up to buy Burger King…. The private equity investors…cut themselves an incredibly sweet deal. Their $1.5 billion purchase price included only $210 million of their own money; the rest was borrowed. They immediately began taking out tens of millions of dollars in fees. Four years later, they took Burger King public. But, first, they rewarded themselves with a $448 million dividend. In all, according to "The Wall Street Journal", `the firms received $511 million in dividend, fees, expense reimbursements and interest’” — while still retaining a 76 percent stake….In 2010, Bain, Goldman and TPG cashed out, selling Burger King to 3G Capital, for $3.3 billion. In sum, the original private equity troika reaped a fortune by selling a company that was in nearly as much trouble as it had been when they first bought it….”
(end of part 10)
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Besides being Vassar College’s president, Cooper Union Trustee “Cappy” Hill also sits next to a Bain Capital founder and managing director who has focused on consumer and retail companies—Yale Investment Committee Member Joshua Bekenstein--on Yale University’s governing board: the Yale Corporation. As Yale University’s president-elect Peter Salovey told the "Yale News" on May 28, 2013:
“I am looking forward to working closely with Josh and Cappy. Both are…leaders with a deep love for this University. I am thrilled that they will join the Yale Corporation just as I begin my presidency.”
One reason Cooper Union Trustee “Cappy” Hill might have a deeper love for Yale University than for Cooper Union might be because the only U.S. university or college with an endowment whose market value exceeds the market value of Yale University’s endowment--$19.3 billiion-- is Harvard University. Given “non-profit” and tax-exempt Yale University’s apparent business relationship to Bain Capital and Cooper Union Trustee Hill’s colleague on the Yale Corporation board, Bain Capital Managing Director Josh Bekenstein, it’s not surprising that the market value of Yale University’s endowment has apparently been able to increase during the last 20 years. In a July 16, 2012 article, for example, "The Nation" magazine noted that Bain Capital (a private equity firm to which 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has also been connected to historically) “makes its money by buying functional US manufacturing and service firms and rendering them dysfunctional,” “guts American companies, ripping out whatever parts are profitable and then tossing the workers aside,” “forces cuts in wages, benefits and pensions,” “outsources work” and “offshores production—harming American workers and communities and undermining American industries…. “
And in a June 22, 2012 "New York Times" op-ed column, titled “Burger King, the Cash Cow,” Joe Nocera indicated how Bain Capital managers made a lot of money from collaborating with Goldman Sachs and TGP to purchase Burger King in 2002 and sell Burger King in 2010:
“In 2002, Goldman Sachs, along with two private equity firms, TGP and ... hmmm ... Bain Capital, teamed up to buy Burger King…. The private equity investors…cut themselves an incredibly sweet deal. Their $1.5 billion purchase price included only $210 million of their own money; the rest was borrowed. They immediately began taking out tens of millions of dollars in fees. Four years later, they took Burger King public. But, first, they rewarded themselves with a $448 million dividend. In all, according to "The Wall Street Journal", `the firms received $511 million in dividend, fees, expense reimbursements and interest’” — while still retaining a 76 percent stake….In 2010, Bain, Goldman and TPG cashed out, selling Burger King to 3G Capital, for $3.3 billion. In sum, the original private equity troika reaped a fortune by selling a company that was in nearly as much trouble as it had been when they first bought it….”
(end of part 10)
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Who Rules Cooper Union?--Part 9
WHO RULES COOPER UNION?—Part 9: A Look at Cooper Union’s Bristol-Myers Squibb and Vassar College-Yale University/Bain Capital Connections
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Cooper Union’s Vassar College-Yale University/Bain Capital Connection
Officially, Cooper Union is not institutionally affiliated with either Vassar College or Yale University. Yet in June 2013 a member of the Yale Corporation governing board and policymaking body for Yale University and the president of Vassar College named Catharine “Cappy” Hill was elected to a post on the Cooper Union board of trustees by a unanimous vote—in an “election” in which neither Cooper Union students, Cooper Union faculty members, Cooper Union workers or Lower East Side community residents were allowed to participate.
According to Vassar College’s Form 990 financial filing for 2010, between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011, Cooper Union Trustee “Cappy” Hill was given a total compensation package of $619,963 by “non-profit” Vassar College for being Vassar College’s president. In addition, Vassar College provided the former World Bank employee-turned college president an “on-campus house” and paid “annual dues for clubs” that the Vassar College President Hill joined.
One reason Vassar College can apparently provide such a generous total compensation package to Cooper Union Trustee Hill is that the market value of Vassar College’s endowment--$867 million-- is even greater than the current market value of Cooper Union’s endowment. Only 90 other U.S. universities or colleges have endowments whose market value exceeds that of Vassar College; and only 15 other liberal arts colleges have endowments whose market value exceeds that of the college whose president is now also a Cooper Union trustee.
As "The Miscellany News" student newspaper noted in an April 25, 2012 article, “Vassar’s investment portfolio…features stakes in oil pump manufacturers, tobacco corporations and other controversial bodies;” and “is comprised of a diverse pool of assets—stocks, bonds, shares in mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity and venture capital, real estate partnerships, and oil and gas partnerships are all in the mix.” And as Gabriel Dunsmith observed in an “Open Letter to Vassar College Board of Trustees” on February 23, 2013:
“Vassar’s endowment has also shown remarkable growth in the last few years…Between 2008 and 2011, the endowment grew from $700 million to $814 million—an increase of more than sixteen (16) percent in just three years…”
Since about l0 percent of Vassar College’s endowment is invested in Big Oil corporations like Exxon, BP and Shell, however, students at Vassar College have recently raised some moral objections about how the college that Cooper Union Trustee Hill is president of has been investing its endowment funds. As an article by Jessica Tarantine from the "Miscellany News" from late 2012 reported:
“The Vassar Greens are currently mounting a campaign for the College to divest fully from fossil fuels. While originally a grassroots movement from the Greens, the campaign has gained support from other organizations, such as the Feminist Alliance, Vassar Animal Rights Coalition, and the Grassroots Alliance for Alternative Politics….The organization received word that the College holds investments in the fossil fuel industry….such as Exxon, BP and Shell...The exact amount of Vassar’s endowment invested in fossil fuels is hard to determine. While the College can tell that 8-9 percent of its endowment is invested in fossil fuels through co-mingled funds–which are similar to mutual funds and publish their holdings–and direct ownership of stocks, it is unable to determine the amount invested in hedge funds, which do not publish the companies they invest in as the information is considered proprietary. Investments in hedge funds account for roughly 30 percent of the College’s endowment.
“But Vice President for Finance and Administration Betsy Eismeier did give a figure for the amount the College holds direct investments and in portfolios which we know contain fossil fuel companies. `My understanding is that we know of about $73 million in the portfolio spread across a wide number of underlying fund managers that is invested in companies producing fossil fuel,’ she wrote in an emailed statement…”
(end of part 9)
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Cooper Union’s Vassar College-Yale University/Bain Capital Connection
Officially, Cooper Union is not institutionally affiliated with either Vassar College or Yale University. Yet in June 2013 a member of the Yale Corporation governing board and policymaking body for Yale University and the president of Vassar College named Catharine “Cappy” Hill was elected to a post on the Cooper Union board of trustees by a unanimous vote—in an “election” in which neither Cooper Union students, Cooper Union faculty members, Cooper Union workers or Lower East Side community residents were allowed to participate.
According to Vassar College’s Form 990 financial filing for 2010, between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011, Cooper Union Trustee “Cappy” Hill was given a total compensation package of $619,963 by “non-profit” Vassar College for being Vassar College’s president. In addition, Vassar College provided the former World Bank employee-turned college president an “on-campus house” and paid “annual dues for clubs” that the Vassar College President Hill joined.
One reason Vassar College can apparently provide such a generous total compensation package to Cooper Union Trustee Hill is that the market value of Vassar College’s endowment--$867 million-- is even greater than the current market value of Cooper Union’s endowment. Only 90 other U.S. universities or colleges have endowments whose market value exceeds that of Vassar College; and only 15 other liberal arts colleges have endowments whose market value exceeds that of the college whose president is now also a Cooper Union trustee.
As "The Miscellany News" student newspaper noted in an April 25, 2012 article, “Vassar’s investment portfolio…features stakes in oil pump manufacturers, tobacco corporations and other controversial bodies;” and “is comprised of a diverse pool of assets—stocks, bonds, shares in mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity and venture capital, real estate partnerships, and oil and gas partnerships are all in the mix.” And as Gabriel Dunsmith observed in an “Open Letter to Vassar College Board of Trustees” on February 23, 2013:
“Vassar’s endowment has also shown remarkable growth in the last few years…Between 2008 and 2011, the endowment grew from $700 million to $814 million—an increase of more than sixteen (16) percent in just three years…”
Since about l0 percent of Vassar College’s endowment is invested in Big Oil corporations like Exxon, BP and Shell, however, students at Vassar College have recently raised some moral objections about how the college that Cooper Union Trustee Hill is president of has been investing its endowment funds. As an article by Jessica Tarantine from the "Miscellany News" from late 2012 reported:
“The Vassar Greens are currently mounting a campaign for the College to divest fully from fossil fuels. While originally a grassroots movement from the Greens, the campaign has gained support from other organizations, such as the Feminist Alliance, Vassar Animal Rights Coalition, and the Grassroots Alliance for Alternative Politics….The organization received word that the College holds investments in the fossil fuel industry….such as Exxon, BP and Shell...The exact amount of Vassar’s endowment invested in fossil fuels is hard to determine. While the College can tell that 8-9 percent of its endowment is invested in fossil fuels through co-mingled funds–which are similar to mutual funds and publish their holdings–and direct ownership of stocks, it is unable to determine the amount invested in hedge funds, which do not publish the companies they invest in as the information is considered proprietary. Investments in hedge funds account for roughly 30 percent of the College’s endowment.
“But Vice President for Finance and Administration Betsy Eismeier did give a figure for the amount the College holds direct investments and in portfolios which we know contain fossil fuel companies. `My understanding is that we know of about $73 million in the portfolio spread across a wide number of underlying fund managers that is invested in companies producing fossil fuel,’ she wrote in an emailed statement…”
(end of part 9)
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Who Rules Cooper Union?--Part 8
WHO RULES COOPER UNION?—Part 8: A Look at Cooper Union’s Bristol-Myers Squibb and Vassar College-Yale University/Bain Capital Connections
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Cooper Union’s Bristol-Myers Squibb Connection
Under a July 2013 agreement that ended the occupation of the office of the current Cooper Union president, Jamshed Bharucha, by students who protested against the Cooper Union Administration’s abandonment of its free tuition policy, a “Working Group” was set up whose academic community members will receive “any financial information that is more detailed than what is used in public reporting…only on the basis of strict confidentiality;” and which will be chaired by two Cooper Union trustees: American Racing & Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gural and former Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Vice President for Corporate Development Mike Borkowsky.
Coincidentally, around the time Cooper Union Trustee Borkowsky was the Vice President for Corporate Development at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in the late 1990s and early 21st-century, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company was apparently accused by ACT-UP activists of price-gouging on the anti-HIV medicines it marketed. In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] accused the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company of apparently inflating its revenue around the same time that Cooper Union Trustee Borkowsky was apparently the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company’s Vice President for Corporate Development. As Greg Farrell noted in an August 4, 2004 article in "USA Today":
“In one of the largest penalties levied against a company accused of accounting fraud, the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) to pay $150 million to settle charges that it inflated its revenue by $1.5 billion in 2000 and 2001.
“The settlement concludes a two-year SEC investigation of the company...According to the SEC complaint, in 2000 and 2001, the company's controller and chief financial officer knew Bristol-Myers was engaging in a practice known as `channel stuffing’ — unloading excessive inventory on wholesalers so it could hit quarterly sales targets. But the company falsely told analysts there were no unusual issues with the company's inventory policies.
“Bristol-Myers entered into agreements with its two biggest wholesalers to meet the company's aggressive double-digit growth predictions in 2000 and 2001. The wholesalers agreed to accept large quantities of Bristol-Myers products — more than they could sell over the period in question — because the pharmaceutical giant guaranteed them a specific profit to carry the inventory.
“Under generally accepted accounting principles, any deal between parties that guarantees a buyer a profit cannot be considered a true sale.
“The SEC said Bristol-Myers' U.S. Medicines unit started channel stuffing in the fourth quarter of 1997. At the time, the vice president of finance at the medicine unit complained to the company's officers, who did nothing. In 1998, when she complained again, she was transferred to another division.
“Other employees also complained about the arrangements, but they were ignored…
“The SEC also accused Bristol-Myers of…understating Medicaid liabilities.
“The $150 million fine is the second-largest ever assessed by the SEC, coming a year after the commission hit WorldCom with a $750 million fine stemming from accounting fraud there….”
Some of the surplus profits that Bristol-Myers Squibb obtains from exploiting its workers and apparently overcharging consumers for some of the medical drugs it sells are apparently used by the corporation’s Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation to help fund some U.S. universities and campus research projects that might benefit the special economic interests of pharmaceutical industry firms like Bristol-Myers Squibb. According to the Bristol-Myers Squibb website, for example, over $3.2 million worth of “grants” were given to at least 22 U.S. universities in 2012, including $1.3 million in grant money to the University of Massachusetts, 558,000 in grant money to Johns Hopkins University, and $475,000 in grant money to the University of Florida. Yet, ironically, although Cooper Union Trustee Borkowsky is a former Bristol-Myers Squibb Company vice-president for Corporate Development, no grant money was apparently given to Cooper Union in 2012 by the “non-profit” Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation.
Besides using some of its surplus profits to fund certain U.S. universities and campus research projects, Bristol-Myers Squibb has also historically used its surplus profits to spend a lot of money on hiring lobbyists to gain special economic benefits from the U.S. federal government. Between 1998 and 2000--when Cooper Union Trustee Borkowsky was Bristol-Myers Squibb’s vice-president for Corporate Development—Bristol-Myers Squibb spent, for example, over $11 million on lobbying the U.S. government, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets website; and between 2011 and 2012, Bristol-Myers Squibb spent over $6.6 million on lobbying the U.S. federal government.
The Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets website indicated why the corporation whose former vice-president for Corporate Development is a current Cooper Union trustee continues to spend so much money on lobbying:
“Bristol-Myers Squibb is one of a handful of giant companies that dominate the drug industry. The company develops drugs to combat cancer, heart disease, stroke and other related illnesses.
“Prescription drugs make up the bulk of its business, but Bristol-Myers also sells over-the-counter medications such as Excedrin. Together with the rest of the pharmaceutical industry, Bristol-Myers has lately been defending the high cost of its prescription drugs, saying the cost is necessary to recoup research expenses. The company has lobbied against efforts to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, to expand generic drug use, and to allow importation of cheaper pharmaceuticals from Canada.”
Coincidentally, “20 out of 27 Bristol-Myers Squibb lobbyists in 2012 have previously held government jobs;” and in 2012 over $467,064 in campaign contributions (including $42,875 in campaign contributions to Barack Obama’s re-election campaign) were made by either the Bristol-Myers Squibb political action committee or Bristol-Myers Squibb executives, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets website.
(end of part 8)
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Cooper Union’s Bristol-Myers Squibb Connection
Under a July 2013 agreement that ended the occupation of the office of the current Cooper Union president, Jamshed Bharucha, by students who protested against the Cooper Union Administration’s abandonment of its free tuition policy, a “Working Group” was set up whose academic community members will receive “any financial information that is more detailed than what is used in public reporting…only on the basis of strict confidentiality;” and which will be chaired by two Cooper Union trustees: American Racing & Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gural and former Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Vice President for Corporate Development Mike Borkowsky.
Coincidentally, around the time Cooper Union Trustee Borkowsky was the Vice President for Corporate Development at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in the late 1990s and early 21st-century, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company was apparently accused by ACT-UP activists of price-gouging on the anti-HIV medicines it marketed. In addition, the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] accused the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company of apparently inflating its revenue around the same time that Cooper Union Trustee Borkowsky was apparently the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company’s Vice President for Corporate Development. As Greg Farrell noted in an August 4, 2004 article in "USA Today":
“In one of the largest penalties levied against a company accused of accounting fraud, the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) to pay $150 million to settle charges that it inflated its revenue by $1.5 billion in 2000 and 2001.
“The settlement concludes a two-year SEC investigation of the company...According to the SEC complaint, in 2000 and 2001, the company's controller and chief financial officer knew Bristol-Myers was engaging in a practice known as `channel stuffing’ — unloading excessive inventory on wholesalers so it could hit quarterly sales targets. But the company falsely told analysts there were no unusual issues with the company's inventory policies.
“Bristol-Myers entered into agreements with its two biggest wholesalers to meet the company's aggressive double-digit growth predictions in 2000 and 2001. The wholesalers agreed to accept large quantities of Bristol-Myers products — more than they could sell over the period in question — because the pharmaceutical giant guaranteed them a specific profit to carry the inventory.
“Under generally accepted accounting principles, any deal between parties that guarantees a buyer a profit cannot be considered a true sale.
“The SEC said Bristol-Myers' U.S. Medicines unit started channel stuffing in the fourth quarter of 1997. At the time, the vice president of finance at the medicine unit complained to the company's officers, who did nothing. In 1998, when she complained again, she was transferred to another division.
“Other employees also complained about the arrangements, but they were ignored…
“The SEC also accused Bristol-Myers of…understating Medicaid liabilities.
“The $150 million fine is the second-largest ever assessed by the SEC, coming a year after the commission hit WorldCom with a $750 million fine stemming from accounting fraud there….”
Some of the surplus profits that Bristol-Myers Squibb obtains from exploiting its workers and apparently overcharging consumers for some of the medical drugs it sells are apparently used by the corporation’s Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation to help fund some U.S. universities and campus research projects that might benefit the special economic interests of pharmaceutical industry firms like Bristol-Myers Squibb. According to the Bristol-Myers Squibb website, for example, over $3.2 million worth of “grants” were given to at least 22 U.S. universities in 2012, including $1.3 million in grant money to the University of Massachusetts, 558,000 in grant money to Johns Hopkins University, and $475,000 in grant money to the University of Florida. Yet, ironically, although Cooper Union Trustee Borkowsky is a former Bristol-Myers Squibb Company vice-president for Corporate Development, no grant money was apparently given to Cooper Union in 2012 by the “non-profit” Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation.
Besides using some of its surplus profits to fund certain U.S. universities and campus research projects, Bristol-Myers Squibb has also historically used its surplus profits to spend a lot of money on hiring lobbyists to gain special economic benefits from the U.S. federal government. Between 1998 and 2000--when Cooper Union Trustee Borkowsky was Bristol-Myers Squibb’s vice-president for Corporate Development—Bristol-Myers Squibb spent, for example, over $11 million on lobbying the U.S. government, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets website; and between 2011 and 2012, Bristol-Myers Squibb spent over $6.6 million on lobbying the U.S. federal government.
The Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets website indicated why the corporation whose former vice-president for Corporate Development is a current Cooper Union trustee continues to spend so much money on lobbying:
“Bristol-Myers Squibb is one of a handful of giant companies that dominate the drug industry. The company develops drugs to combat cancer, heart disease, stroke and other related illnesses.
“Prescription drugs make up the bulk of its business, but Bristol-Myers also sells over-the-counter medications such as Excedrin. Together with the rest of the pharmaceutical industry, Bristol-Myers has lately been defending the high cost of its prescription drugs, saying the cost is necessary to recoup research expenses. The company has lobbied against efforts to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, to expand generic drug use, and to allow importation of cheaper pharmaceuticals from Canada.”
Coincidentally, “20 out of 27 Bristol-Myers Squibb lobbyists in 2012 have previously held government jobs;” and in 2012 over $467,064 in campaign contributions (including $42,875 in campaign contributions to Barack Obama’s re-election campaign) were made by either the Bristol-Myers Squibb political action committee or Bristol-Myers Squibb executives, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets website.
(end of part 8)
Monday, February 17, 2014
Who Rules Cooper Union?--Part 7
WHO RULES COOPER UNION?—Part 7: A Look at Cooper Union’s Bristol-Myers Squibb and Vassar College-Yale University/Bain Capital Connections
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
The Cooper Union Administration’s recent rationalization for abandoning its free tuition policy and establishing a tuition of nearly $20,000 for future Cooper Union students is its claim that the tax-exempt, “non-profit” college can no longer afford to provide free tuition. Yet MITRE and Con Ed Director and former Cooper Union President Campbell is not the only administrator or professor at Cooper Union whose annual total compensation exceeds that of most people who work in New York City these days. According to the Cooper Union Administration’s most recent Form 990 financial filing, for working 35 hours a week between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012, the following “non-profit” Cooper Union administrators and professors, for example, received the following total annual compensation packages from the Cooper Union board of trustees:
1. Cooper Union School of Architecture Dean Anthony Vidley was given a total compensation package of $327,333;
2. Cooper Union Vice-President of Development Derek Wittner was given a total compensation package of $300,858;
3. Cooper Union President Jamshed Bharucha was given a total compensation package of $387,079 and “was provided with housing as a condition of employment;”
4. Cooper Union Vice-President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Theresa Westcott was given a total compensation package of $296,238;
5. Cooper Union School of Art Dean Judith Saskia Bos was given a total compensation package of $250,516;
6. Cooper Union Professor of Engineering Simon Ben Avi was given a total compensation package of $235,424;
7. Cooper Union Dean of Humanities and Social Science William Germano was given a total compensation package of $249,084;
8. Cooper Union Professor of Civil Engineering Jameel Ahmad was given a total compensation package of $195,389;
9. Cooper Union Secretary to the Board of Trustees Lawrence Cacciatore was given a total compensation package of $153,131; and
10. Cooper Union Dean of the Engineering School Eleanor Baum was paid $110,850.
And according to its most recent Form 990 financial filing, between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012, the book value of the “non-profit” Cooper Union’s endowment funds increased from over $609 million to over $640 million (and is currently estimated to exceed $666 million), the value of Cooper Union’s net assets increased from $576,032,253 to $576,235,352 and Cooper Union’s annual investment income from stock dividends and interest was over $35.5 million. Only 115 other U.S. universities or colleges have endowments whose market value exceeds that of Cooper Union; and the current market value of Cooper Union’s endowment is still greater than the current market value of the endowments of schools like Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Pratt Institute, The New School, Fordham University, St. John’s University, Wagner College, Sarah Lawrence College, Reed College, Marquette University, Holy Cross, Bucknell University, Mount Holyoke College, Northeastern University, Occidental College and Howard University.
Over $29 million of the book value of tax-exempt Cooper Union’s investments represents its Hedge Funds holdings, over $39 million represented its Limited Partnership holdings and over $557 million represents its real estate investment property. As Cooper Union Board of Trustees Chairman Mark Epstein noted in a May 14, 2013 letter to the editor that appeared in the May 17, 2013 issue of the "NewYork Times":“We `own’ the Chrysler Building subject to a long-term ground lease…Retaining our Chrysler holdings provides an outstanding revenue stream…Revenue of $28 million a year, rising to as much as $55 million in 2018.” And according to Doug Turetsky’s February 12, 2013 post on the "Independent Business Organization" [IBO]blog, New York City's Finance Department estimates that the current market value of the Chrysler Building real estate of Cooper Union is over $448 billion.
(end of part 7)
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
The Cooper Union Administration’s recent rationalization for abandoning its free tuition policy and establishing a tuition of nearly $20,000 for future Cooper Union students is its claim that the tax-exempt, “non-profit” college can no longer afford to provide free tuition. Yet MITRE and Con Ed Director and former Cooper Union President Campbell is not the only administrator or professor at Cooper Union whose annual total compensation exceeds that of most people who work in New York City these days. According to the Cooper Union Administration’s most recent Form 990 financial filing, for working 35 hours a week between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012, the following “non-profit” Cooper Union administrators and professors, for example, received the following total annual compensation packages from the Cooper Union board of trustees:
1. Cooper Union School of Architecture Dean Anthony Vidley was given a total compensation package of $327,333;
2. Cooper Union Vice-President of Development Derek Wittner was given a total compensation package of $300,858;
3. Cooper Union President Jamshed Bharucha was given a total compensation package of $387,079 and “was provided with housing as a condition of employment;”
4. Cooper Union Vice-President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Theresa Westcott was given a total compensation package of $296,238;
5. Cooper Union School of Art Dean Judith Saskia Bos was given a total compensation package of $250,516;
6. Cooper Union Professor of Engineering Simon Ben Avi was given a total compensation package of $235,424;
7. Cooper Union Dean of Humanities and Social Science William Germano was given a total compensation package of $249,084;
8. Cooper Union Professor of Civil Engineering Jameel Ahmad was given a total compensation package of $195,389;
9. Cooper Union Secretary to the Board of Trustees Lawrence Cacciatore was given a total compensation package of $153,131; and
10. Cooper Union Dean of the Engineering School Eleanor Baum was paid $110,850.
And according to its most recent Form 990 financial filing, between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012, the book value of the “non-profit” Cooper Union’s endowment funds increased from over $609 million to over $640 million (and is currently estimated to exceed $666 million), the value of Cooper Union’s net assets increased from $576,032,253 to $576,235,352 and Cooper Union’s annual investment income from stock dividends and interest was over $35.5 million. Only 115 other U.S. universities or colleges have endowments whose market value exceeds that of Cooper Union; and the current market value of Cooper Union’s endowment is still greater than the current market value of the endowments of schools like Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Pratt Institute, The New School, Fordham University, St. John’s University, Wagner College, Sarah Lawrence College, Reed College, Marquette University, Holy Cross, Bucknell University, Mount Holyoke College, Northeastern University, Occidental College and Howard University.
Over $29 million of the book value of tax-exempt Cooper Union’s investments represents its Hedge Funds holdings, over $39 million represented its Limited Partnership holdings and over $557 million represents its real estate investment property. As Cooper Union Board of Trustees Chairman Mark Epstein noted in a May 14, 2013 letter to the editor that appeared in the May 17, 2013 issue of the "NewYork Times":“We `own’ the Chrysler Building subject to a long-term ground lease…Retaining our Chrysler holdings provides an outstanding revenue stream…Revenue of $28 million a year, rising to as much as $55 million in 2018.” And according to Doug Turetsky’s February 12, 2013 post on the "Independent Business Organization" [IBO]blog, New York City's Finance Department estimates that the current market value of the Chrysler Building real estate of Cooper Union is over $448 billion.
(end of part 7)
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Who Rules Cooper Union?--Part 6
WHO RULES COOPER UNION?—Part 6: A Look at Cooper Union’s Bristol-Myers Squibb and Vassar College-Yale University/Bain Capital Connections
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
“The administration, Board of Trustees of The Cooper Union and those members of the Cooper Union community who have been occupying the Office of the President since early May have reached an agreement that ended the occupation on Friday, July 12. A working group…will be set up, chaired by Trustees Mike Borkowsky and Jeff Gural….The definition of a sustainable financial model will be provided by the Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees….Any financial information that is more detailed than what is used in public reporting will be shared with the Working Group only on the basis of strict confidentiality.
“The Working Group will submit its report to the Administration and Board of Trustees by December 1, 2013. The Board of Trustees will consider the recommendations at the following meeting….
--from a July 15, 2013 statement/press release on the Cooper Union website
“Mr. Borkowsky retired from Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in June 2000 as Vice President for Corporate Development after spending fifteen years in various positions…”
--from the Cooper Union website
“A band of AIDS activists…invaded the global headquarters of drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., disrupting its Christmas party by shouting allegations the company was price-gouging on its newest medicine against the HIV virus…But…they were quickly ejected by company security officers.
“The ACT-UP members staged the event…to protest the price Bristol-Myers is charging for a new `enteric’ formulation of its drug Videx that is easier to take and easier on the gastrointestinal tract.
“The drug is a member of the family of anti-HIV medicines…Four protesters raced through the third-floor offices of the company, distributing leaflets and chanting `Greed-Death’ before being escorted out…”
--from a December 20, 2000 Reuters article
“Having been duly nominated in March, Catharine Bond Hill, President of Vassar College, was elected to the Cooper Union Board of Trustees today. Her election to the Board was unanimous. …”
--from a June 12, 2013 Board Report of the Cooper Union board of trustees
“President Richard C. Levin confirmed the election of Catharine B. Hill…as an alumni fellow and announced the appointment of Joshua Bekenstein…as a new successor trustee to the Yale Corporation. Their terms begin July 1.
“Hill will succeed Mimi Gardner Gates…who was elected to Yale's governing board in 2007. Bekenstein will succeed trustee Edward P. Bass…Catharine (`Cappy’) Hill is president of Vassar College….
“`Cappy Hill…will be a valued contributor to the work of the Corporation,’ said Levin.
“…At the start of her career she worked for the World Bank…Hill is a trustee of Ithaka Harbors, Inc., a…parent company of digital library website JSTOR, and in 2011 joined the board of trustees of Yale-NUS College…Joshua Bekenstein is a managing director of Bain Capital and has many years of experience both as a senior executive of a large investment firm and as a director of companies in various business sectors….He helped found Bain Capital in 1984…Prior to joining Bain Capital, Bekenstein spent several years doing strategic consulting at Bain & Company.
“Bekenstein has focused on consumer and retail companies at Bain Capital…At Yale, he is a member of the Yale Investment Committee….
“President-elect Peter Salovey added, `I am looking forward to working closely with Josh and Cappy. Both are wise and thoughtful leaders with a deep love for this University. I am thrilled that they will join the Yale Corporation just as I begin my presidency.’…
“The Yale Corporation is the governing board and policymaking body for Yale University… “
--from a May 28, 2013 article on the "Yale News" website
“…Bain Capital, a private equity firm that makes its money by buying functional US manufacturing and service firms and rendering them dysfunctional. Bain guts American companies, ripping out whatever parts are profitable and then tossing the workers aside.
“Bain forces cuts in wages, benefits and pensions. It outsources work. And it offshores production—harming American workers and communities and undermining American industries…. “
--from a July 16, 2012 article in "The Nation" magazine
“Totaling $19.3 billion on June 30, 2012, the Endowment contains thousands of funds… Approximately three-quarters constitute…gifts restricted by donors…The remaining one-quarter represent…monies that the Yale Corporation chooses to invest and treat as endowment.”
--from the Yale Investments Office website
“For the fiscal year ending in June 30, 2011, the total funds in Vassar endowment were $814,130,058, placing its endowment 16th in a ranking of the top 25 `US News and World Report' liberal arts schools by endowment size….”
-- Jessica Tarantine on November 29, 2012
(end of part 6)
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
“The administration, Board of Trustees of The Cooper Union and those members of the Cooper Union community who have been occupying the Office of the President since early May have reached an agreement that ended the occupation on Friday, July 12. A working group…will be set up, chaired by Trustees Mike Borkowsky and Jeff Gural….The definition of a sustainable financial model will be provided by the Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees….Any financial information that is more detailed than what is used in public reporting will be shared with the Working Group only on the basis of strict confidentiality.
“The Working Group will submit its report to the Administration and Board of Trustees by December 1, 2013. The Board of Trustees will consider the recommendations at the following meeting….
--from a July 15, 2013 statement/press release on the Cooper Union website
“Mr. Borkowsky retired from Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in June 2000 as Vice President for Corporate Development after spending fifteen years in various positions…”
--from the Cooper Union website
“A band of AIDS activists…invaded the global headquarters of drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., disrupting its Christmas party by shouting allegations the company was price-gouging on its newest medicine against the HIV virus…But…they were quickly ejected by company security officers.
“The ACT-UP members staged the event…to protest the price Bristol-Myers is charging for a new `enteric’ formulation of its drug Videx that is easier to take and easier on the gastrointestinal tract.
“The drug is a member of the family of anti-HIV medicines…Four protesters raced through the third-floor offices of the company, distributing leaflets and chanting `Greed-Death’ before being escorted out…”
--from a December 20, 2000 Reuters article
“Having been duly nominated in March, Catharine Bond Hill, President of Vassar College, was elected to the Cooper Union Board of Trustees today. Her election to the Board was unanimous. …”
--from a June 12, 2013 Board Report of the Cooper Union board of trustees
“President Richard C. Levin confirmed the election of Catharine B. Hill…as an alumni fellow and announced the appointment of Joshua Bekenstein…as a new successor trustee to the Yale Corporation. Their terms begin July 1.
“Hill will succeed Mimi Gardner Gates…who was elected to Yale's governing board in 2007. Bekenstein will succeed trustee Edward P. Bass…Catharine (`Cappy’) Hill is president of Vassar College….
“`Cappy Hill…will be a valued contributor to the work of the Corporation,’ said Levin.
“…At the start of her career she worked for the World Bank…Hill is a trustee of Ithaka Harbors, Inc., a…parent company of digital library website JSTOR, and in 2011 joined the board of trustees of Yale-NUS College…Joshua Bekenstein is a managing director of Bain Capital and has many years of experience both as a senior executive of a large investment firm and as a director of companies in various business sectors….He helped found Bain Capital in 1984…Prior to joining Bain Capital, Bekenstein spent several years doing strategic consulting at Bain & Company.
“Bekenstein has focused on consumer and retail companies at Bain Capital…At Yale, he is a member of the Yale Investment Committee….
“President-elect Peter Salovey added, `I am looking forward to working closely with Josh and Cappy. Both are wise and thoughtful leaders with a deep love for this University. I am thrilled that they will join the Yale Corporation just as I begin my presidency.’…
“The Yale Corporation is the governing board and policymaking body for Yale University… “
--from a May 28, 2013 article on the "Yale News" website
“…Bain Capital, a private equity firm that makes its money by buying functional US manufacturing and service firms and rendering them dysfunctional. Bain guts American companies, ripping out whatever parts are profitable and then tossing the workers aside.
“Bain forces cuts in wages, benefits and pensions. It outsources work. And it offshores production—harming American workers and communities and undermining American industries…. “
--from a July 16, 2012 article in "The Nation" magazine
“Totaling $19.3 billion on June 30, 2012, the Endowment contains thousands of funds… Approximately three-quarters constitute…gifts restricted by donors…The remaining one-quarter represent…monies that the Yale Corporation chooses to invest and treat as endowment.”
--from the Yale Investments Office website
“For the fiscal year ending in June 30, 2011, the total funds in Vassar endowment were $814,130,058, placing its endowment 16th in a ranking of the top 25 `US News and World Report' liberal arts schools by endowment size….”
-- Jessica Tarantine on November 29, 2012
(end of part 6)
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Who Rules Cooper Union?--Part 5
WHO RULES COOPER UNION?—Part 5: A Look at Cooper Union’s MITRE/Pentagon, Con Ed, and Real Estate/Gambling Industry Connections Historically
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
In addition to his special economic interest in maximizing the profits obtained from tenants by New York City’s real estate industry landlords, Cooper Union Trustee Gural, also has a special economic interest in the horse racing and gambling industry. As "The Real Deal" magazine website noted in an October 1, 2012 article:
““Jeffrey Gural is the chairman of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank…which was recently acquired by BGC Partners. He is the son of the late Aaron Gural, the company’s former chairman...The New York company… expanded… in 2006, formed a strategic partnership with London-based real estate firm Knight Frank…Jeffrey Gural is also the owner of New Jersey’s Meadowlands Racetrack and the chairman of American Racing and Entertainment, which owns two upstate racetrack/casinos, Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs.”
And, coincidentally, Cooper Union Trustee Gural’s American Racing and Entertainment gambling industry firm has apparently been spending a lot of money on lobbying for the legalization of more casino gambling facilities in New York State in recent years. As a June 21, 2013 press release of Common Cause/NY recently revealed:
“On the last day of the 2013 legislative session, Common Cause/NY released updated campaign contribution and lobbying figures for the gambling industry and a list of the "winners" and "losers" in Governor Cuomo's casino gambling deal...A Quinnipiac University poll earlier this month showed that only forty eight percent of New York voters favor expanding casino gambling...
“`The gambling deal is a boon for certain wealthy special interests and of dubious value to the public….’ said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY.
“From 2011 to April 2013, the gambling industry spent a total of $19.7 million on lobbying and political contributions in New York State: $14.7 million on lobbying and $2.4 million on campaign contributions in New York in addition to donating $2.6 million to the Committee to Save New York (campaign contribution figures only include 2011 and 2012, new data for 2013 will not be available until July)
“Top spending gambling interests directly affected by the casino legislation include...American Racing & Entertainment ($497,000)…In the Southern Tier, the Tioga Downs racino owned by influential New York City real estate executive Jeff Gural is well positioned to win a casino license. Tioga Downs, its parent company American Racing & Entertainment and owner Jeff Gural spent a nearly half a million dollars on lobbying and contributions during this period, including a gift of $200,000 to the Committee to Save New York….The Gaming Association lobbied for and won a tax rate for new casino slot machines that will be competitive with the racino rate, and Saratoga Raceway, Tioga Downs, and Empire Resorts look to be big winners...The New York Gaming Association spent $3.6 million on lobbying and political contributions since 2011, including $2,000,000 to the Committee to Save New York….Horse racing interests have been advocating for gambling to keep patrons coming to the track and help offset their declining attendance….Saratoga, Monticello, and Tioga race-tracks look set to be converted to full casinos…”
Besides attempting to use his surplus wealth to apparently gain some special political influence in Albany, Cooper Union Trustee Gural—who, in an interview by Leigh Kamping-Carder in 2012 that was posted on "The Real Deal" magazine website, indicated that he lives in “The El Dorado” at 300 Central Park West--also apparently has been using his surplus wealth in recent years to increase his special political influence in Washington, D.C. over the U.S. federal government. As the Trustee of the tax-exempt Cooper Union also stated in the same interview with "The Real Deal" magazine reporter:
“…My daughter’s friend was a fund-raiser for John Kerry when he ran for President. I got to meet him, and then I became good friends with Nancy Pelosi. Over time, I’ve met just about every major politician on the Democratic side….”
Since 2006, for example, Cooper Union Trustee Gural has made 103 campaign contributions, totaling $450,000, to various Democratic Party politicians and Democratic Party campaign committees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets website. On Nov. 16, 2012, for example, Cooper Union Trustee Gural gave a $25,000 campaign contribution to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Yet despite the fact that members of the Cooper Union board of trustees like American Racing and Entertainment Chairman Gural have apparently involved themselves financially in a big way in politically partisan electoral politics and political campaigns-- and the Cooper Union board of trustees no longer want to provide a free tuition college education to students who enter the college after the Fall of 2014—Cooper Union still is apparently receiving payments from the Chrysler Building owners that would normally be paid to the City of New York. As the "New York Times", for example, noted in its Dec. 9, 2009 issue:
“The Chrysler Building sits on grounds owned by Cooper Union…Instead of paying property tax to the City, the Chrysler Building pays Cooper Union, which is tax exempt. As such, even though the Chrysler Building would, like any other commercial structure, be paying real estate taxes, not a single dollar in taxes has gone to New York since its construction….”
Given how the class interests of Cooper Union President Emeritus and MITRE and Con Ed Director Campbell, Real Estate Board of New York board member and American Racing and Entertainment Chairman Gural and the other wealthy folks who currently sit on the Cooper Union board of trustees and undemocratically rule Cooper Union conflict with the class interests of Cooper Union’s students, it’s not surprising that nearly 50 Cooper Union students began to occupy on May 8, 2013 the office of Campbell’s successor as unelected Cooper Union president, Jamshed Bharucha; and, to protest the Cooper Union Administration’s decision to discontinue Cooper Union’s free tuition policy.
But until Cooper Union is eventually ruled democratically by a political alliance of anti-corporate students, workers and Lower East Side neighborhood residents and not by the Cooper Union board of trustees and Cooper Union President Bharucha, it will likely still not be a “free college in a free society,” that is politically free of U.S. power elite, Real Estate Industry, Wall Street and plutocratic control. Even if the recent Cooper Union student protests are successful in pressuring the Cooper Union Administration to restore free tuition for Cooper Union undergraduates (and also avoid loss of Cooper Union’s special tax-exempt status with respect to its Chrysler Building land, perhaps).
(end of part 5)
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
In addition to his special economic interest in maximizing the profits obtained from tenants by New York City’s real estate industry landlords, Cooper Union Trustee Gural, also has a special economic interest in the horse racing and gambling industry. As "The Real Deal" magazine website noted in an October 1, 2012 article:
““Jeffrey Gural is the chairman of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank…which was recently acquired by BGC Partners. He is the son of the late Aaron Gural, the company’s former chairman...The New York company… expanded… in 2006, formed a strategic partnership with London-based real estate firm Knight Frank…Jeffrey Gural is also the owner of New Jersey’s Meadowlands Racetrack and the chairman of American Racing and Entertainment, which owns two upstate racetrack/casinos, Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs.”
And, coincidentally, Cooper Union Trustee Gural’s American Racing and Entertainment gambling industry firm has apparently been spending a lot of money on lobbying for the legalization of more casino gambling facilities in New York State in recent years. As a June 21, 2013 press release of Common Cause/NY recently revealed:
“On the last day of the 2013 legislative session, Common Cause/NY released updated campaign contribution and lobbying figures for the gambling industry and a list of the "winners" and "losers" in Governor Cuomo's casino gambling deal...A Quinnipiac University poll earlier this month showed that only forty eight percent of New York voters favor expanding casino gambling...
“`The gambling deal is a boon for certain wealthy special interests and of dubious value to the public….’ said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY.
“From 2011 to April 2013, the gambling industry spent a total of $19.7 million on lobbying and political contributions in New York State: $14.7 million on lobbying and $2.4 million on campaign contributions in New York in addition to donating $2.6 million to the Committee to Save New York (campaign contribution figures only include 2011 and 2012, new data for 2013 will not be available until July)
“Top spending gambling interests directly affected by the casino legislation include...American Racing & Entertainment ($497,000)…In the Southern Tier, the Tioga Downs racino owned by influential New York City real estate executive Jeff Gural is well positioned to win a casino license. Tioga Downs, its parent company American Racing & Entertainment and owner Jeff Gural spent a nearly half a million dollars on lobbying and contributions during this period, including a gift of $200,000 to the Committee to Save New York….The Gaming Association lobbied for and won a tax rate for new casino slot machines that will be competitive with the racino rate, and Saratoga Raceway, Tioga Downs, and Empire Resorts look to be big winners...The New York Gaming Association spent $3.6 million on lobbying and political contributions since 2011, including $2,000,000 to the Committee to Save New York….Horse racing interests have been advocating for gambling to keep patrons coming to the track and help offset their declining attendance….Saratoga, Monticello, and Tioga race-tracks look set to be converted to full casinos…”
Besides attempting to use his surplus wealth to apparently gain some special political influence in Albany, Cooper Union Trustee Gural—who, in an interview by Leigh Kamping-Carder in 2012 that was posted on "The Real Deal" magazine website, indicated that he lives in “The El Dorado” at 300 Central Park West--also apparently has been using his surplus wealth in recent years to increase his special political influence in Washington, D.C. over the U.S. federal government. As the Trustee of the tax-exempt Cooper Union also stated in the same interview with "The Real Deal" magazine reporter:
“…My daughter’s friend was a fund-raiser for John Kerry when he ran for President. I got to meet him, and then I became good friends with Nancy Pelosi. Over time, I’ve met just about every major politician on the Democratic side….”
Since 2006, for example, Cooper Union Trustee Gural has made 103 campaign contributions, totaling $450,000, to various Democratic Party politicians and Democratic Party campaign committees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets website. On Nov. 16, 2012, for example, Cooper Union Trustee Gural gave a $25,000 campaign contribution to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Yet despite the fact that members of the Cooper Union board of trustees like American Racing and Entertainment Chairman Gural have apparently involved themselves financially in a big way in politically partisan electoral politics and political campaigns-- and the Cooper Union board of trustees no longer want to provide a free tuition college education to students who enter the college after the Fall of 2014—Cooper Union still is apparently receiving payments from the Chrysler Building owners that would normally be paid to the City of New York. As the "New York Times", for example, noted in its Dec. 9, 2009 issue:
“The Chrysler Building sits on grounds owned by Cooper Union…Instead of paying property tax to the City, the Chrysler Building pays Cooper Union, which is tax exempt. As such, even though the Chrysler Building would, like any other commercial structure, be paying real estate taxes, not a single dollar in taxes has gone to New York since its construction….”
Given how the class interests of Cooper Union President Emeritus and MITRE and Con Ed Director Campbell, Real Estate Board of New York board member and American Racing and Entertainment Chairman Gural and the other wealthy folks who currently sit on the Cooper Union board of trustees and undemocratically rule Cooper Union conflict with the class interests of Cooper Union’s students, it’s not surprising that nearly 50 Cooper Union students began to occupy on May 8, 2013 the office of Campbell’s successor as unelected Cooper Union president, Jamshed Bharucha; and, to protest the Cooper Union Administration’s decision to discontinue Cooper Union’s free tuition policy.
But until Cooper Union is eventually ruled democratically by a political alliance of anti-corporate students, workers and Lower East Side neighborhood residents and not by the Cooper Union board of trustees and Cooper Union President Bharucha, it will likely still not be a “free college in a free society,” that is politically free of U.S. power elite, Real Estate Industry, Wall Street and plutocratic control. Even if the recent Cooper Union student protests are successful in pressuring the Cooper Union Administration to restore free tuition for Cooper Union undergraduates (and also avoid loss of Cooper Union’s special tax-exempt status with respect to its Chrysler Building land, perhaps).
(end of part 5)
Friday, February 14, 2014
Who Rules Cooper Union?--Part 4
WHO RULES COOPER UNION?—Part 4: A Look at Cooper Union’s MITRE/Pentagon, Con Ed, and Real Estate/Gambling Industry Connections Historically
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Although Cooper Union President Emeritus, MITRE Trustee and Con Ed Director Campbell is African-American, at least 20 of the 23 members of Cooper Union’s board of trustees these days are still white; and only 2 of the Cooper Union trustees are women.
Yet like MITRE and Con Ed board member Campbell, most Cooper Union trustees have business, political, financial or professional involvements with external off-campus organizations whose special economic and political interests conflict with the economic class interests and political interests of most Cooper Union students and Lowest East Side community residents. And Cooper Union trustees are members of “The 1 Percent” that profit most from the U.S. power elite, Real Estate Industry and Wall Street’s undemocratic plutocratic control of the U.S. economic and political system.
According to the Cooper Union website, for example, Cooper Union Trustee Jeffrey Gural—who has sat on the board of trustees since 2003-- is Chairman of Newmark Knight Frank, which is a “real estate management firm” that “currently manages approximately one hundred fifty buildings in the Metropolitan area, of which they have an ownership interest in forty-one buildings;” and Newmark Knight Frank’s clients include corporations like Citigroup, Bloomberg L.P. and the Bank of New York. In addition Cooper Union Trustee Gural is a member of the Board of Directors of the Real Estate Board of New York and a former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Times Square Business Improvement District.
Besides sitting on the Cooper Union board of trustees that previously charged no tuition to its students, Real Estate Board of New York board member Gural also sits on the New School University board of trustees that charges its Eugene Lange College students a tuition of over $16,000 per semester. And, according to the Cooper Union website, Cooper Union Trustee Gural has been a “member of the Board of Directors of the UJA Federation”—which has been criticized by Palestinian solidarity activists in the United States in recent years for failing to oppose the Israeli government’s military attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza since 2008.
(end of part 4)
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Although Cooper Union President Emeritus, MITRE Trustee and Con Ed Director Campbell is African-American, at least 20 of the 23 members of Cooper Union’s board of trustees these days are still white; and only 2 of the Cooper Union trustees are women.
Yet like MITRE and Con Ed board member Campbell, most Cooper Union trustees have business, political, financial or professional involvements with external off-campus organizations whose special economic and political interests conflict with the economic class interests and political interests of most Cooper Union students and Lowest East Side community residents. And Cooper Union trustees are members of “The 1 Percent” that profit most from the U.S. power elite, Real Estate Industry and Wall Street’s undemocratic plutocratic control of the U.S. economic and political system.
According to the Cooper Union website, for example, Cooper Union Trustee Jeffrey Gural—who has sat on the board of trustees since 2003-- is Chairman of Newmark Knight Frank, which is a “real estate management firm” that “currently manages approximately one hundred fifty buildings in the Metropolitan area, of which they have an ownership interest in forty-one buildings;” and Newmark Knight Frank’s clients include corporations like Citigroup, Bloomberg L.P. and the Bank of New York. In addition Cooper Union Trustee Gural is a member of the Board of Directors of the Real Estate Board of New York and a former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Times Square Business Improvement District.
Besides sitting on the Cooper Union board of trustees that previously charged no tuition to its students, Real Estate Board of New York board member Gural also sits on the New School University board of trustees that charges its Eugene Lange College students a tuition of over $16,000 per semester. And, according to the Cooper Union website, Cooper Union Trustee Gural has been a “member of the Board of Directors of the UJA Federation”—which has been criticized by Palestinian solidarity activists in the United States in recent years for failing to oppose the Israeli government’s military attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza since 2008.
(end of part 4)
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Who Rules Cooper Union?--Part 3
WHO RULES COOPER UNION?—Part 3: A Look at Cooper Union’s MITRE/Pentagon, Con Ed, and Real Estate/Gambling Industry Connections Historically
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Besides being a trustee of The MITRE Corporation, the former Cooper Union president who’s still being paid over $178,000 a year by the trustees of Cooper Union also sits on the board of directors of Con Edison; and Cooper Union President Emeritus Campbell is, in fact, the chairman of the compensation committee of Con Edison’s board of directors that recently “gave Con Ed’s top executives more than $600,000 in extra bonuses…on top of the annual bonuses” that “executives” like “Kevin M. Burke, the company’s chairman and chief executive” who “got an additional $315,000, taking his total pay for the year to $7.4 million,” received, according to an Apr. 25, 2013 "New York Times" article by Patrick McGeehan.
Yet at the same time the Con Edison board compensation committee, that Cooper Union President Emeritus Campbell chairs, spends the money the “public utility” company obtains from overcharging its customers for the electricity they require on Con Ed executive bonuses, Con Edison now seeks “a $400 million increase in the rates its customers pay annually,” according to the Apr. 25, 2013 "New York Times" article. So not, surprisingly, as McGeehan also notes in the same article, “Con Edison’s executive-pay practices had already earned the company low marks from monitors of corporate boards;” and “GMI Ratings gave the company a grade of “D,” citing it for, among other flaws, having over half of its directors on the board for more than 10 years and three of them for two decades.”
In addition to sitting on the boards of The MITRE Corporation and Con Ed, Former Cooper Union President Campbell has also been a member of the boards of directors of Barnes and Noble, the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation and a trustee of Monefiore Medical Center in recent years. And at the same time the former president of the tuition-free Cooper Union president has still been receiving over $178,000 annually from the Cooper Union board of trustees, Campbell has also been sitting in recent years on the board of trustees of Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute—a 4-year college in Troy, New York which was charging its students an annual tuition of $16,000 in 2009.
(end of part 3)
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Besides being a trustee of The MITRE Corporation, the former Cooper Union president who’s still being paid over $178,000 a year by the trustees of Cooper Union also sits on the board of directors of Con Edison; and Cooper Union President Emeritus Campbell is, in fact, the chairman of the compensation committee of Con Edison’s board of directors that recently “gave Con Ed’s top executives more than $600,000 in extra bonuses…on top of the annual bonuses” that “executives” like “Kevin M. Burke, the company’s chairman and chief executive” who “got an additional $315,000, taking his total pay for the year to $7.4 million,” received, according to an Apr. 25, 2013 "New York Times" article by Patrick McGeehan.
Yet at the same time the Con Edison board compensation committee, that Cooper Union President Emeritus Campbell chairs, spends the money the “public utility” company obtains from overcharging its customers for the electricity they require on Con Ed executive bonuses, Con Edison now seeks “a $400 million increase in the rates its customers pay annually,” according to the Apr. 25, 2013 "New York Times" article. So not, surprisingly, as McGeehan also notes in the same article, “Con Edison’s executive-pay practices had already earned the company low marks from monitors of corporate boards;” and “GMI Ratings gave the company a grade of “D,” citing it for, among other flaws, having over half of its directors on the board for more than 10 years and three of them for two decades.”
In addition to sitting on the boards of The MITRE Corporation and Con Ed, Former Cooper Union President Campbell has also been a member of the boards of directors of Barnes and Noble, the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation and a trustee of Monefiore Medical Center in recent years. And at the same time the former president of the tuition-free Cooper Union president has still been receiving over $178,000 annually from the Cooper Union board of trustees, Campbell has also been sitting in recent years on the board of trustees of Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute—a 4-year college in Troy, New York which was charging its students an annual tuition of $16,000 in 2009.
(end of part 3)
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Who Rules Cooper Union?--Part 2
WHO RULES COOPER UNION?—Part 2: A Look at Cooper Union’s MITRE/Pentagon, Con Ed, and Real Estate/Gambling Industry Connections Historically
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Most students and Lower East Side community residents are opposed to the Democratic Obama Administration’s use of Pentagon and CIA drone weapons to wage endless drone war against civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and other foreign countries or to spy on U.S. citizens domestically.
Yet since 2011 the trustees of Cooper Union—who recently undemocratically decided to transform Cooper Union from a free-tuition college to one that will require its entering students in the Fall of 2014 to start coughing-up nearly $20,000 in tuition for each academic year of study—have been paying--in yearly installments of over $178,000--$1,071,000 in “compensation” to former Cooper Union President George Campbell. And, coincidentally, since 2011 former Cooper Union President Campbell has been a member of the board of trustees of The MITRE Corporation, which develops weapons technology for the Obama Administration, Pentagon and CIA’s endless drone war abroad and for drone spying on U.S. citizens at home. As The MITRE Corporation’s website notes:
“Just about all of MITRE's engineering and science disciplines are involved with improving our sponsors' intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) activities.
“Engineers and scientists working in disciplines ranging from artificial intelligence to sensors are helping our military…For example, our human factors engineers are using artificial intelligence and automation techniques to help Air Force ISR collection managers make faster, better decisions, such as: in a number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying missions, which one should be retasked when a new target pops up?
“Whether it's improving the use of UAVs or keeping track of terrorists crossing borders, MITRE is helping our military services keep the upper hand in ISR operations. For example, we originated the ISR Information Service (ISRIS), which offers live streaming video, searchable archived video, and other services to warfighters engaged in UAV operations...We then leveraged ISRIS by combining it with another MITRE development called Cursor on Target (CoT). CoT is a process that automates the exchange of targeting data across a variety of platforms. ISRIS/CoT can run on Web browsers or in any CoT-enabled application to link UAV full-motion video operations in support of joint missions, time-critical targeting efforts, and mission handover. ISRIS/CoT is being used today to support Predator operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“When terrorists or persons of interest cross borders, our military intelligence groups would like to know their identity so they can be tracked. One promising surveillance technology is a biometrics system that uses automated methods for identifying a physiological or a behavioral characteristic that either identifies a person or authenticates a person's claimed identity. And what about our warfighters who have to go into hostile cities? Is it possible for them to efficiently survey the area without setting foot in it? The solution may be autonomous robots that take 3D videos that are combined with simultaneous localization and mapping methods developed by MITRE engineers to give a virtual 3D view from any position….
“Some of our projects in this area include:
“Simultaneous localization and mapping in 3D to enable unmanned vehicles to provide situational awareness in dangerous urban settings…
“Creating new radar tracking algorithms that combine synthetic aperture radar and surface moving target information techniques
“MITRE manages Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) for our sponsors: the Department of Defense (Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration…and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)….Our newest FFRDC, the Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute, allows us to continue and enhance our support of DHS and its mission partners…
“MITRE has a long history of supporting the development and evolution of command and control (C2) systems. For more than three decades, MITRE has collaborated with Department of Defense (DoD) sponsors to develop C2 functions that help sponsors plan, direct, and control operations to accomplish their mission.
“The corporation's range of DoD sponsors, from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are served by MITRE's Command and Control Center (C2C), which places special emphasis on creating a joint command, control, and communications system...MITRE has deep expertise in advancing the C2 concept… MITRE has contributed its engineering proficiency to the Air Force's airborne Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) program, performing much of the systems engineering work on the platform's technology.
“Specific work underway includes:
“Cursor on Target (CoT), a machine-to-machine automation that makes time-sensitive targeting quicker and significantly more accurate.
“The Theater Battle Management Core System (TBMCS), a large-scale, software-intensive system that enables an air component commander to plan, direct, and control all theater air operations and to coordinate operations with land, maritime, and special operations elements.
“The Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI), an interoperable combat information system that aggregates, integrates, fuses, and intelligently disseminates decision-quality information to all echelons of a Joint Task Force….
“Enhanced C2 capabilities for many organizations, including an upgraded technological and business infrastructure that allows integration with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies. …”
According to The MITRE Corporation’s Form 990 financial filing for the year beginning October 1, 2010 and ending September 30, 2011, Cooper Union President Emeritus Campbell spends 10 hours a week working as a trustee of the MITRE Corporation--at the same time he’s apparently still being paid over $178,000 a year by the trustees of Cooper Union. And, coincidentally, sitting next to former Cooper Union President Campbell on the MITRE Corporation board of trustees are folks like the chairman of the board of The MITRE Corporation, former CIA Director and former U.S. Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger—who currently is also a Department of Defense and State Department consultant, a Defense Policy Board member, a director of the Sandia National Corporation, and a trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Nixon Center.
Also sitting next to former Cooper Union President Campbell on The MITRE Corporation board of trustees is Alfred Grasso, the president and CEO of The MITRE Corporation, who, according to The MITRE Corporation website, is also “director of MITRE’s National Security Engineering Center, responsible for delivering transformational solutions for the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community,” a former “technical director for the Battlefield System Division at MITRE’s Fort Monmouth, New Jersey site,” and an appointed member of the Defense Science Board.” According to The MITRE Corporation’s Form 990 financial filing, Grasso was paid a base annual salary of over $439,000 and a total annual compensation of over $900,000 in 2011 by the “non-profit” MITRE Corporation.
In 2009, The MITRE Corporation on whose board of trustees former Cooper Union President Campbell sits was the recipient of over $694 million worth of Pentagon war contracts, which made it the 45th-largest Department of Defense war contractor in 2009. And in 2011, the total revenues taken in by the “non-profit” MITRE Corporation exceeded $1.3 billion.
(end of part 2)
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
Most students and Lower East Side community residents are opposed to the Democratic Obama Administration’s use of Pentagon and CIA drone weapons to wage endless drone war against civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and other foreign countries or to spy on U.S. citizens domestically.
Yet since 2011 the trustees of Cooper Union—who recently undemocratically decided to transform Cooper Union from a free-tuition college to one that will require its entering students in the Fall of 2014 to start coughing-up nearly $20,000 in tuition for each academic year of study—have been paying--in yearly installments of over $178,000--$1,071,000 in “compensation” to former Cooper Union President George Campbell. And, coincidentally, since 2011 former Cooper Union President Campbell has been a member of the board of trustees of The MITRE Corporation, which develops weapons technology for the Obama Administration, Pentagon and CIA’s endless drone war abroad and for drone spying on U.S. citizens at home. As The MITRE Corporation’s website notes:
“Just about all of MITRE's engineering and science disciplines are involved with improving our sponsors' intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) activities.
“Engineers and scientists working in disciplines ranging from artificial intelligence to sensors are helping our military…For example, our human factors engineers are using artificial intelligence and automation techniques to help Air Force ISR collection managers make faster, better decisions, such as: in a number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying missions, which one should be retasked when a new target pops up?
“Whether it's improving the use of UAVs or keeping track of terrorists crossing borders, MITRE is helping our military services keep the upper hand in ISR operations. For example, we originated the ISR Information Service (ISRIS), which offers live streaming video, searchable archived video, and other services to warfighters engaged in UAV operations...We then leveraged ISRIS by combining it with another MITRE development called Cursor on Target (CoT). CoT is a process that automates the exchange of targeting data across a variety of platforms. ISRIS/CoT can run on Web browsers or in any CoT-enabled application to link UAV full-motion video operations in support of joint missions, time-critical targeting efforts, and mission handover. ISRIS/CoT is being used today to support Predator operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“When terrorists or persons of interest cross borders, our military intelligence groups would like to know their identity so they can be tracked. One promising surveillance technology is a biometrics system that uses automated methods for identifying a physiological or a behavioral characteristic that either identifies a person or authenticates a person's claimed identity. And what about our warfighters who have to go into hostile cities? Is it possible for them to efficiently survey the area without setting foot in it? The solution may be autonomous robots that take 3D videos that are combined with simultaneous localization and mapping methods developed by MITRE engineers to give a virtual 3D view from any position….
“Some of our projects in this area include:
“Simultaneous localization and mapping in 3D to enable unmanned vehicles to provide situational awareness in dangerous urban settings…
“Creating new radar tracking algorithms that combine synthetic aperture radar and surface moving target information techniques
“MITRE manages Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) for our sponsors: the Department of Defense (Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration…and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)….Our newest FFRDC, the Homeland Security Systems Engineering and Development Institute, allows us to continue and enhance our support of DHS and its mission partners…
“MITRE has a long history of supporting the development and evolution of command and control (C2) systems. For more than three decades, MITRE has collaborated with Department of Defense (DoD) sponsors to develop C2 functions that help sponsors plan, direct, and control operations to accomplish their mission.
“The corporation's range of DoD sponsors, from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are served by MITRE's Command and Control Center (C2C), which places special emphasis on creating a joint command, control, and communications system...MITRE has deep expertise in advancing the C2 concept… MITRE has contributed its engineering proficiency to the Air Force's airborne Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) program, performing much of the systems engineering work on the platform's technology.
“Specific work underway includes:
“Cursor on Target (CoT), a machine-to-machine automation that makes time-sensitive targeting quicker and significantly more accurate.
“The Theater Battle Management Core System (TBMCS), a large-scale, software-intensive system that enables an air component commander to plan, direct, and control all theater air operations and to coordinate operations with land, maritime, and special operations elements.
“The Joint Battlespace Infosphere (JBI), an interoperable combat information system that aggregates, integrates, fuses, and intelligently disseminates decision-quality information to all echelons of a Joint Task Force….
“Enhanced C2 capabilities for many organizations, including an upgraded technological and business infrastructure that allows integration with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies. …”
According to The MITRE Corporation’s Form 990 financial filing for the year beginning October 1, 2010 and ending September 30, 2011, Cooper Union President Emeritus Campbell spends 10 hours a week working as a trustee of the MITRE Corporation--at the same time he’s apparently still being paid over $178,000 a year by the trustees of Cooper Union. And, coincidentally, sitting next to former Cooper Union President Campbell on the MITRE Corporation board of trustees are folks like the chairman of the board of The MITRE Corporation, former CIA Director and former U.S. Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger—who currently is also a Department of Defense and State Department consultant, a Defense Policy Board member, a director of the Sandia National Corporation, and a trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Nixon Center.
Also sitting next to former Cooper Union President Campbell on The MITRE Corporation board of trustees is Alfred Grasso, the president and CEO of The MITRE Corporation, who, according to The MITRE Corporation website, is also “director of MITRE’s National Security Engineering Center, responsible for delivering transformational solutions for the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community,” a former “technical director for the Battlefield System Division at MITRE’s Fort Monmouth, New Jersey site,” and an appointed member of the Defense Science Board.” According to The MITRE Corporation’s Form 990 financial filing, Grasso was paid a base annual salary of over $439,000 and a total annual compensation of over $900,000 in 2011 by the “non-profit” MITRE Corporation.
In 2009, The MITRE Corporation on whose board of trustees former Cooper Union President Campbell sits was the recipient of over $694 million worth of Pentagon war contracts, which made it the 45th-largest Department of Defense war contractor in 2009. And in 2011, the total revenues taken in by the “non-profit” MITRE Corporation exceeded $1.3 billion.
(end of part 2)
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Who Rules Cooper Union?--Part 1
WHO RULES COOPER UNION?—Part 1: A Look at Cooper Union’s MITRE/Pentagon, Con Ed, and Real Estate/Gambling Industry Connections Historically
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
“I was deeply disappointed to learn that the Cooper Union is contemplating the elimination of its historic mission: providing a full-tuition scholarship to every admitted student…. By 2008-9, just preceding this recession, we had built the college into what was arguably the best financial state in its history: an operations budget surplus, an endowment of more than $600-million, and projected cash flow that would carry the institution for many years….The college collected $7-million from the Chrysler Building lease last year, but…this will grow to $32.5-million annually in 2018 under the agreement we negotiated several years ago (more than $50-million annually when tax-equivalency payments are included)….. The bottom line is that the college is in a far superior financial state than during similar external conditions in the past…”
--from Cooper Union President Emeritus George Campbell Jr.’s Nov. 27, 2011 letter to the editor of "The Chronicle of Higher Education"
“…In 2009, then President George Campbell’s total compensation package was $668,473—which included a cash bonus (for what, exactly, it is unclear) in the amount of $175,000….”
--from a Dec. 10, 2011 article in "The Brooklyn Rail" by Lita Perta
"According to tax records the ten highest-paid officers at Cooper collectively made approximately $2.9 million in 2010…”
-- from an April 10, 2013 "N +1 Magazine" article by Sangamitha Iver
“In 2000 Cooper Union hired George Campbell to run the school. And Campbell…spent money…A huge amount of the money went…into a gratuitously glamorous and expensive New Academic Building…built at vast expense, with the aid of a $175 million mortgage...”
--from an April 30, 2013 "Washington Monthly" article by Daniel Luzer
“Note: As part of a contractual obligation approved by the Board of Trustees, former [Cooper Union] president George Campbell Jr. will receive $1,071,000 compensation after his departure in 2011. This compensation is paid out in six annual installments, beginning in 2011…”
--from the Cooper Union website
“MITRE Chairman of the Board…James Schlesinger and President and CEO Mr. Alfred Grasso are pleased to announce the recent election of…George Campbell Jr. to the corporation's Board of Trustees.
“…Campbell…is…[in 2011] president of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art….
"`It's an honor to welcome Dr. Campbell as a new trustee,’ said Grasso. `His technical expertise and his experience as an academic and practitioner bring a unique perspective to the board. His guidance and counsel will be a benefit to MITRE and our government sponsors.’..
“The MITRE Corporation…provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the government. It operates federally funded research and development centers for the Department of Defense…and the Department of Homeland Security, with principal locations in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va.
--from a March 30, 2011 press release of The MITRE Corporation
“The MITRE Corporation receives contributions from a `U.S. Government Classified Source,’ the Identity of which cannot be revealed and for which contribution information cannot be reported…The organization is acknowledging receipt of $124,781,000 from this contribution source for the reporting period.”
--from The MITRE Corporation’s Form 990 financial filing for the year beginning October 1, 2010 and ending September 30, 2011
“…The utility’s directors…gave Con Ed’s top executives more than $600,000 in extra bonuses…in 2012….The chairman of the compensation committee of the company’s board of directors said he believed that `most people’ thought Con Ed had managed well last year.
“`In our judgment, the company performed in exemplary fashion,’ the committee chairman, George Campbell Jr., said.
“The discretionary payouts came on top of the annual bonuses the executives received. Kevin M. Burke, the company’s chairman and chief executive, got an additional $315,000, taking his total pay for the year to $7.4 million…Mr. Campbell, a former president of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, has been a director since 2000. He declined to discuss how the directors arrived at their decision to give an additional 20 percent in bonus money to the senior executives…”
--The "New York Times" on April 25, 2013
(end of part 1)
(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)
“I was deeply disappointed to learn that the Cooper Union is contemplating the elimination of its historic mission: providing a full-tuition scholarship to every admitted student…. By 2008-9, just preceding this recession, we had built the college into what was arguably the best financial state in its history: an operations budget surplus, an endowment of more than $600-million, and projected cash flow that would carry the institution for many years….The college collected $7-million from the Chrysler Building lease last year, but…this will grow to $32.5-million annually in 2018 under the agreement we negotiated several years ago (more than $50-million annually when tax-equivalency payments are included)….. The bottom line is that the college is in a far superior financial state than during similar external conditions in the past…”
--from Cooper Union President Emeritus George Campbell Jr.’s Nov. 27, 2011 letter to the editor of "The Chronicle of Higher Education"
“…In 2009, then President George Campbell’s total compensation package was $668,473—which included a cash bonus (for what, exactly, it is unclear) in the amount of $175,000….”
--from a Dec. 10, 2011 article in "The Brooklyn Rail" by Lita Perta
"According to tax records the ten highest-paid officers at Cooper collectively made approximately $2.9 million in 2010…”
-- from an April 10, 2013 "N +1 Magazine" article by Sangamitha Iver
“In 2000 Cooper Union hired George Campbell to run the school. And Campbell…spent money…A huge amount of the money went…into a gratuitously glamorous and expensive New Academic Building…built at vast expense, with the aid of a $175 million mortgage...”
--from an April 30, 2013 "Washington Monthly" article by Daniel Luzer
“Note: As part of a contractual obligation approved by the Board of Trustees, former [Cooper Union] president George Campbell Jr. will receive $1,071,000 compensation after his departure in 2011. This compensation is paid out in six annual installments, beginning in 2011…”
--from the Cooper Union website
“MITRE Chairman of the Board…James Schlesinger and President and CEO Mr. Alfred Grasso are pleased to announce the recent election of…George Campbell Jr. to the corporation's Board of Trustees.
“…Campbell…is…[in 2011] president of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art….
"`It's an honor to welcome Dr. Campbell as a new trustee,’ said Grasso. `His technical expertise and his experience as an academic and practitioner bring a unique perspective to the board. His guidance and counsel will be a benefit to MITRE and our government sponsors.’..
“The MITRE Corporation…provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the government. It operates federally funded research and development centers for the Department of Defense…and the Department of Homeland Security, with principal locations in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va.
--from a March 30, 2011 press release of The MITRE Corporation
“The MITRE Corporation receives contributions from a `U.S. Government Classified Source,’ the Identity of which cannot be revealed and for which contribution information cannot be reported…The organization is acknowledging receipt of $124,781,000 from this contribution source for the reporting period.”
--from The MITRE Corporation’s Form 990 financial filing for the year beginning October 1, 2010 and ending September 30, 2011
“…The utility’s directors…gave Con Ed’s top executives more than $600,000 in extra bonuses…in 2012….The chairman of the compensation committee of the company’s board of directors said he believed that `most people’ thought Con Ed had managed well last year.
“`In our judgment, the company performed in exemplary fashion,’ the committee chairman, George Campbell Jr., said.
“The discretionary payouts came on top of the annual bonuses the executives received. Kevin M. Burke, the company’s chairman and chief executive, got an additional $315,000, taking his total pay for the year to $7.4 million…Mr. Campbell, a former president of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, has been a director since 2000. He declined to discuss how the directors arrived at their decision to give an additional 20 percent in bonus money to the senior executives…”
--The "New York Times" on April 25, 2013
(end of part 1)
Friday, February 7, 2014
Black Youth "Not Seasonally Adjusted" Unemployment Rate Increases To 39 Percent In January 2014
The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age in the United States increased from 32.2 to 39 percent between December 2013 and January 2014, according to recently released Bureau of Labor Statistics data; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 30,000 (from 204,000 to 234,000) during the same period..
The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 22.3 to 24.6 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 47,000 (from 800,000 to 753,000) during the same period. In addition, the number of Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age still in the U.S. labor force decreased by 70,000 (from 1,030,000 to 1,000,000) between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 16,000 (from 230,000 to 246,000) during the same period.
The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 16 to 17.8 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 176,000 (from 3,513,000 to 3,337,000) between December 2013 and January 2014. In addition, the number of white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age still in the U.S. labor force decreased by 124,000 (from 4,132,000 to 4,058,000) between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 53,000 (from 669,000 to 722,000) during the same period.
Between December 2013 and January 2014, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 18.3 to 21 percent; while the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 297,000 (from 4,300,000 to 4,003,000) during the same period. In addition, the total number of youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age still in the U.S. labor force decreased by 196,000 (from 5,264,000 to 5,068,000) between December 2013 and January 2014; while the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 101,000 (from 964,000 to 1,065,000) during the same period.
The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all Black workers (youth, male and female) in the United States increased from 11.6 to 12.6 percent between December 2013 and January 2014;; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 11.6 to 13 percent during the same period.. In addition, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Black male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 137,000 (from 954,000 to 1,091,000) between December 2013 and January 2014; while the number of Black male workers over 20 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 18,000 (from 7,305,000 to 7,287,000) during the same period.
The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 10.2 to 10.5 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Black female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 33,000 (from 964,000 to 997,000) during the same period.
The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 8.1 to 8.8 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 88,000 (from 804,000 to 892,000) during the same period.
According to the “not seasonally adjusted” data, the official jobless rate for all Latino workers (male, female cand youth) in the United States increased from 8.3 to 9.1 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 7.5 to 8.2 percent during the same period. In addition, the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of Latino workers who still had jobs decreased by 106,000 (from 22,741,000 to 22,647,000) between December 2013 and January 2014; while the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Latino workers increased by 205,000 (from 2,066,000 to 2,271,000) during the same period. Between December 2013 and January 2014, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 101,000 (from 1,032,000 to 1,133,000); while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 88,000 (from 12,766,000 to 12,678,000) during the same period.
The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 5.7 to 6.2 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 307,000 during the same period. In addition, between December 2013 and January 2014, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 236,000 (from 2,660,000 to 2,896,000); white the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 4.9 to 5.3 percent during the same period..
The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 5.7 to 6 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 6.4 to 7 percent during the same period.
Between December 2013 and January 2014, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all U.S. workers increased from 6.5 to 7 percent;; while the official total “not seasonally adjusted” number of workers in the United States increased by 971,000 (from 9,984,000 to 10,855,000) during the same period. In addition, between December 2013 and January 2014 the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of U.S. workers still in the U.S. labor force decreased by 27,000 (from 154,408,000 to 154,381,000); and the “not seasonally adjusted” number of U.S. workers not in the U.S. labor force increased by196,000 (from 92,338,000 to 92,534,000) during that same period.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ February 7, 2014 press release:
“…The unemployment rate was little changed at 6.6 percent…Establishment survey data have been revised as a result of…the updating of seasonal adjustment factors…Both the number of unemployed persons, at 10.2 million, and the unemployment rate…changed little in January…
“In January, 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force…These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey…
“Among the marginally attached, there were 837,000 discouraged workers in January…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them…
“Employment in health care was essentially unchanged in January for the second consecutive month…Employment in retail trade changed little in January (-13,000). Within the industry, sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores lost 22,000 jobs…In January, federal government employment decreased by 12,000; the U.S. Postal Service accounted for most of this decline (-9,000).
“Employment in other major industries, including transportation and warehousing, information and financial activities, showed little or no change over the month…
“Effective with data for January 2014, updated population estimates have been used in the household survey…The adjustments increased the estimated size of the…civilian labor force by 24,000, employment by 22,000, and unemployment by 2,000. The number of persons not in the labor force was reduced by 22,000…”
The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 22.3 to 24.6 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 47,000 (from 800,000 to 753,000) during the same period. In addition, the number of Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age still in the U.S. labor force decreased by 70,000 (from 1,030,000 to 1,000,000) between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 16,000 (from 230,000 to 246,000) during the same period.
The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 16 to 17.8 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 176,000 (from 3,513,000 to 3,337,000) between December 2013 and January 2014. In addition, the number of white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age still in the U.S. labor force decreased by 124,000 (from 4,132,000 to 4,058,000) between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 53,000 (from 669,000 to 722,000) during the same period.
Between December 2013 and January 2014, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 18.3 to 21 percent; while the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 297,000 (from 4,300,000 to 4,003,000) during the same period. In addition, the total number of youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age still in the U.S. labor force decreased by 196,000 (from 5,264,000 to 5,068,000) between December 2013 and January 2014; while the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 101,000 (from 964,000 to 1,065,000) during the same period.
The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all Black workers (youth, male and female) in the United States increased from 11.6 to 12.6 percent between December 2013 and January 2014;; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 11.6 to 13 percent during the same period.. In addition, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Black male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 137,000 (from 954,000 to 1,091,000) between December 2013 and January 2014; while the number of Black male workers over 20 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 18,000 (from 7,305,000 to 7,287,000) during the same period.
The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 10.2 to 10.5 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Black female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 33,000 (from 964,000 to 997,000) during the same period.
The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 8.1 to 8.8 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 88,000 (from 804,000 to 892,000) during the same period.
According to the “not seasonally adjusted” data, the official jobless rate for all Latino workers (male, female cand youth) in the United States increased from 8.3 to 9.1 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 7.5 to 8.2 percent during the same period. In addition, the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of Latino workers who still had jobs decreased by 106,000 (from 22,741,000 to 22,647,000) between December 2013 and January 2014; while the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Latino workers increased by 205,000 (from 2,066,000 to 2,271,000) during the same period. Between December 2013 and January 2014, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 101,000 (from 1,032,000 to 1,133,000); while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 88,000 (from 12,766,000 to 12,678,000) during the same period.
The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 5.7 to 6.2 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 307,000 during the same period. In addition, between December 2013 and January 2014, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 236,000 (from 2,660,000 to 2,896,000); white the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 4.9 to 5.3 percent during the same period..
The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 5.7 to 6 percent between December 2013 and January 2014; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 6.4 to 7 percent during the same period.
Between December 2013 and January 2014, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all U.S. workers increased from 6.5 to 7 percent;; while the official total “not seasonally adjusted” number of workers in the United States increased by 971,000 (from 9,984,000 to 10,855,000) during the same period. In addition, between December 2013 and January 2014 the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of U.S. workers still in the U.S. labor force decreased by 27,000 (from 154,408,000 to 154,381,000); and the “not seasonally adjusted” number of U.S. workers not in the U.S. labor force increased by196,000 (from 92,338,000 to 92,534,000) during that same period.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ February 7, 2014 press release:
“…The unemployment rate was little changed at 6.6 percent…Establishment survey data have been revised as a result of…the updating of seasonal adjustment factors…Both the number of unemployed persons, at 10.2 million, and the unemployment rate…changed little in January…
“In January, 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force…These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey…
“Among the marginally attached, there were 837,000 discouraged workers in January…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them…
“Employment in health care was essentially unchanged in January for the second consecutive month…Employment in retail trade changed little in January (-13,000). Within the industry, sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores lost 22,000 jobs…In January, federal government employment decreased by 12,000; the U.S. Postal Service accounted for most of this decline (-9,000).
“Employment in other major industries, including transportation and warehousing, information and financial activities, showed little or no change over the month…
“Effective with data for January 2014, updated population estimates have been used in the household survey…The adjustments increased the estimated size of the…civilian labor force by 24,000, employment by 22,000, and unemployment by 2,000. The number of persons not in the labor force was reduced by 22,000…”
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Australian Anti-War Activist Joan Coxsedge's January 27, 2014 Letter
(The following letter from Australian anti-war and Latin American solidarity activist Joan Coxsedge—who is also a former member of the Victoria state parliament--originally appeared in an Australian-Cuban solidarity group’s newsletter).
January 27, 2014
Dear Comrades,
“Welcome to 2014. The New Year bells had barely stopped ringing before last year’s nightmares were back on centre stage. Al-Qaida escalates its attacks on Iraq and Syria, its presence a direct consequence of Washington’s illegal bloody wars, and every day some new catastrophe from the repugnant Abbott crew and their horrible state counterparts, the worst governments since federation, secretive, severely stupid and utterly corrupt. Handing out largesse to their rich mates while making cruel cuts to the most vulnerable, with Labor barely raising a squeak.
“Capitalism with bells on, brutal and unforgiving. Materialism in full flower, a system that eats us from within leaving a trail of debts, mental illness and smashed relationships. A widespread social affliction visited upon us by government policy, corporate strategy, the collapse of communities and civil life, and our acquiescence in this system. Worldly ambition, material aspiration and perpetual growth are a formula for mass unhappiness.
“The head of the pack, the US of A. US imperialism really took off at the end of WW2. Europe was broken and Britain was broke, incapable of defending its extensive international interests. The US was the strongest nation left standing and moved in. And set about destroying its mortal enemy - once our gallant ally - the former Soviet Union, and anyone to the left of Ghengis Khan. Anticommunism socialism became the only game in town. Fundamental rights were qualified and the American Republic was replaced by the National Security State. Washington created a variety of institutions to ensure its dominance and for poorer nations to keep supplying US corporations with cheap labour, raw materials and markets.
“The Eisenhower Administration toppled democratic Iran and Guatemala, setting the stage for authoritarianism and instability, Kennedy oversaw the Bay of Pigs when Cuba was supposed to fall over but didn’t, a fiasco followed by the 1962 Missile Crisis when we all expected to be blown to kingdom-come. The hubris and lunacy continued with Johnson and Nixon’s Vietnam War, followed by Carter and Reagan’s catastrophic regime change in Afghanistan, when the CIA spent billions of dollars arming and equipping the mujahideen (forerunner to al-Qaida), while Pakistan funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars to anti-Western Afghan factions, which in turn trained militants who later exported jihad around the world, including in Iraq, Libya and Syria.
“Washington’s war economy rolled on and nothing changed to counter the endless cycle of violence. Over the decades, Washington has directly or indirectly killed untold millions of Iraqis, Central Americans, South Americans, Africans, Muslims, Arabs and Asians in many different ways. In Iraq, the US onslaught destroyed not just the people and its infrastructure but the very fibre of the nation.
“Accounting for half the world’s military expenditure, the US maintains Cold War-level ‘defence’ (imperialist) budgets to sustain an historically huge killing machine which operates from more than 1000 bases in more than 100 ‘sovereign’ nations despite 46 million Americans (mainly black and Latino) living below the poverty line.
“There are many fine Americans. One was Martin Luther King, assassinated almost 46 years ago as he stood on a balcony of a Memphis motel, with credible theories of a conspiracy involving US Army intelligence. We were never told about King’s real beliefs, but were given a whitewashed image of a moderate reformer who only wanted a few civil rights adjustments, when the ‘reformer’ was actually a Marxist and an opponent of the profit system who, shortly before he was assassinated wrote: ‘the real issue to be faced is the radical reconstruction of society…the Black revolution is much more than a struggle for the rights of Negroes. It is forcing America to face all its interrelated laws - racism, poverty, militarism and materialism. It exposes evils that are deeply rooted in the whole structure of our society’.
“King was a marked man after his famous denunciation of America’s war in Vietnam, exactly a year before his murder. In his latter years, King was haunted by a sense of failure. Nelson Mandela was also a serious combatant against white South Africa, but the fable-makers prefer to portray a gentle, smiling fellow who wished no-one any harm.
“January 1 marked the 55th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and some are concerned at the impact some of the economic changes might be having. A new Labor Code became law after after discussions with three million workers, and some 400,000 Cubans are now self-employed without loss of social services, along with the establishment of more than 250 new co-operatives. But the latest statistics are brilliant. Cuba’s infant mortality rate is at a new low: 4.2 babies died during 2013 for every 1000 births. Maternal mortality has also fallen and life expectancy has climbed to 77.9 years, matching that of industrialised nations. There is one physician for every 197 persons, one of the world’s best rates, and Cuba also continues its vital role in international solidarity, with 40,000 Cuban doctors and 2,000 teachers serving abroad in 70 countries. Almost 2 million students from pre-school to university level will be enrolled this year.
“Celebrating the Revolution in Santiago de Cuba, Raul Castro said: ‘…never will we be able to forget that this is the socialist Revolution of the humble by the humble and for the humble. This is the essential premise and effective antidote for not falling for the siren songs of the enemy.’ Cuba’s achievements demonstrate that big, utopian ideas can become reality. They give us hope. Viva!
"Joan Coxsedge"
January 27, 2014
Dear Comrades,
“Welcome to 2014. The New Year bells had barely stopped ringing before last year’s nightmares were back on centre stage. Al-Qaida escalates its attacks on Iraq and Syria, its presence a direct consequence of Washington’s illegal bloody wars, and every day some new catastrophe from the repugnant Abbott crew and their horrible state counterparts, the worst governments since federation, secretive, severely stupid and utterly corrupt. Handing out largesse to their rich mates while making cruel cuts to the most vulnerable, with Labor barely raising a squeak.
“Capitalism with bells on, brutal and unforgiving. Materialism in full flower, a system that eats us from within leaving a trail of debts, mental illness and smashed relationships. A widespread social affliction visited upon us by government policy, corporate strategy, the collapse of communities and civil life, and our acquiescence in this system. Worldly ambition, material aspiration and perpetual growth are a formula for mass unhappiness.
“The head of the pack, the US of A. US imperialism really took off at the end of WW2. Europe was broken and Britain was broke, incapable of defending its extensive international interests. The US was the strongest nation left standing and moved in. And set about destroying its mortal enemy - once our gallant ally - the former Soviet Union, and anyone to the left of Ghengis Khan. Anticommunism socialism became the only game in town. Fundamental rights were qualified and the American Republic was replaced by the National Security State. Washington created a variety of institutions to ensure its dominance and for poorer nations to keep supplying US corporations with cheap labour, raw materials and markets.
“The Eisenhower Administration toppled democratic Iran and Guatemala, setting the stage for authoritarianism and instability, Kennedy oversaw the Bay of Pigs when Cuba was supposed to fall over but didn’t, a fiasco followed by the 1962 Missile Crisis when we all expected to be blown to kingdom-come. The hubris and lunacy continued with Johnson and Nixon’s Vietnam War, followed by Carter and Reagan’s catastrophic regime change in Afghanistan, when the CIA spent billions of dollars arming and equipping the mujahideen (forerunner to al-Qaida), while Pakistan funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars to anti-Western Afghan factions, which in turn trained militants who later exported jihad around the world, including in Iraq, Libya and Syria.
“Washington’s war economy rolled on and nothing changed to counter the endless cycle of violence. Over the decades, Washington has directly or indirectly killed untold millions of Iraqis, Central Americans, South Americans, Africans, Muslims, Arabs and Asians in many different ways. In Iraq, the US onslaught destroyed not just the people and its infrastructure but the very fibre of the nation.
“Accounting for half the world’s military expenditure, the US maintains Cold War-level ‘defence’ (imperialist) budgets to sustain an historically huge killing machine which operates from more than 1000 bases in more than 100 ‘sovereign’ nations despite 46 million Americans (mainly black and Latino) living below the poverty line.
“There are many fine Americans. One was Martin Luther King, assassinated almost 46 years ago as he stood on a balcony of a Memphis motel, with credible theories of a conspiracy involving US Army intelligence. We were never told about King’s real beliefs, but were given a whitewashed image of a moderate reformer who only wanted a few civil rights adjustments, when the ‘reformer’ was actually a Marxist and an opponent of the profit system who, shortly before he was assassinated wrote: ‘the real issue to be faced is the radical reconstruction of society…the Black revolution is much more than a struggle for the rights of Negroes. It is forcing America to face all its interrelated laws - racism, poverty, militarism and materialism. It exposes evils that are deeply rooted in the whole structure of our society’.
“King was a marked man after his famous denunciation of America’s war in Vietnam, exactly a year before his murder. In his latter years, King was haunted by a sense of failure. Nelson Mandela was also a serious combatant against white South Africa, but the fable-makers prefer to portray a gentle, smiling fellow who wished no-one any harm.
“January 1 marked the 55th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and some are concerned at the impact some of the economic changes might be having. A new Labor Code became law after after discussions with three million workers, and some 400,000 Cubans are now self-employed without loss of social services, along with the establishment of more than 250 new co-operatives. But the latest statistics are brilliant. Cuba’s infant mortality rate is at a new low: 4.2 babies died during 2013 for every 1000 births. Maternal mortality has also fallen and life expectancy has climbed to 77.9 years, matching that of industrialised nations. There is one physician for every 197 persons, one of the world’s best rates, and Cuba also continues its vital role in international solidarity, with 40,000 Cuban doctors and 2,000 teachers serving abroad in 70 countries. Almost 2 million students from pre-school to university level will be enrolled this year.
“Celebrating the Revolution in Santiago de Cuba, Raul Castro said: ‘…never will we be able to forget that this is the socialist Revolution of the humble by the humble and for the humble. This is the essential premise and effective antidote for not falling for the siren songs of the enemy.’ Cuba’s achievements demonstrate that big, utopian ideas can become reality. They give us hope. Viva!
"Joan Coxsedge"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
