Publicity

SF Chronicle September 28, 2005

Washington -- House Republicans rejected an effort Tuesday to name a post office in Berkeley after longtime Berkeley Councilwoman Maudelle Shirek after a conservative lawmaker questioned whether the 94-year-old activist represents American values.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, has been trying for more than two years to name the city's main post office on Allston Way for Shirek, a civil rights leader and peace activist who served on the Berkeley City Council for 20 years.

But House Republicans have sought to block the effort, mostly through a whisper campaign about her reported past ties to communist leaders and left-wing causes. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, objected Tuesday to Lee's proposal and rallied Republicans to defeat the measure in an unusual roll call vote.

Lee, who said Shirek helped inspire her to run for elected office, was furious after the House defeated her measure on a mostly party line vote of 215 to 190. The measure needed two-thirds support for passage.

"Maudelle Shirek is a woman whose leadership, service and commitment to our community are a testament to what is great about our nation, and she deserves to be honored," Lee said.

"That a RR>"That a Republican from Iowa could launch a campaign to deny naming a local post office after this 94-year-old civil rights leader, who until recently was the oldest and one of the longest-serving elected officials in California, is just shameful."

The decisions to name post offices and federal courthouses are so routine in Congress that they typically are approved by a voice vote that signals unanimous consent. But Lee's bid to name the post office in Berkeley for Shirek has been controversial from the start.

In March, a group of California Republicans blocked Lee's measure by refusing to co-sponsor it. The House Government Reform Committee generally will not move a bill to rename a federal building unless all the state's members agree to the request.

Since then, Lee managed to win over some California Republicans and persuaded the office of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, to put her bill on the suspension calendar -- which meant it was noncontroversial and likely to be approved.

But on Tuesday, King, a second-term House member from western Iowa, surprised Democrats by objecting to the proposal and demanding a roll call vote, saying Shirek's past "sets her apart from, I will say, the most consistent of American values." King, however, specified only her support for freeing Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer.

In an interview with the Associated Press, King said Shirek had an "affiliation with the Communist Party" because she was involved with the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library in Berkeley.

The library's Web site says it was named for Karl Niebyl, a San Jose State professor of economics who escaped Nazi Germany and donated his collection after his death, and Roscoe Proctor, a teacher and African American activist. The research library provides information on "progressive alternatives" and says its stated mission is to "support emerging struggles for racial and gender equality, and for Socialism.''

Lee, in a statement after the vote, blasted King, saying his "campaign of innuendo and unsubstantiated 'concern' is better suited to the era of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover than today's House of Representatives."

To which King responded: "I think that if Barbara Lee would read the history of Joe McCarthy, she would realize that he was a hero for America."

Shirek has had a sometimes controversial political career, marked by her devotion to progressive causes.

She served eight consecutive terms over 20 years on the City Council, representing south Berkeley's District 3, and was vice mayor when she retired last year. She wanted to run for a ninth term, but she was left off the ballot because of a staff member's error in filing election documents.

The granddaughter of slaves, she was known as an ardent but genteel advocate for a wide variety of causes, particularly the elderly (she delivered meals for years to homebound seniors), healthy foods and world peace.

Shirek long was considered the council's most leftist member, supporting medical marijuana and benefits for the domestic partners of city employees, although toward the end of her tenure, she became less radical, opposing publicly funded campaign finance reform and instant-runoff voting, among other things.

Unmarried and without children, Shirek has traveled extensively on political missions, to Palestinian territories in protest of Israeli policies, Africa, Moscow, Nicaragua and Cuba, where she dined with Fidel Castro.

Shirek often has been arrested at protest rallies, such as a 2002 protest outside Claremont Resort & Spa, supporting employees' attempts to unionize.

A transplant from Arkansas who arrived in Berkeley during World War II, she became a union organizer and an office manager of the Co-op Credit Union. She also helped found two Berkeley senior centers, one run by the city, the other which she still oversees, the New Light Senior Center.

Ironically, the city forced Shirek to stop working at the first senior center because she was past retirement age -- she was a mere 71.

Shirek was so angered that she ran for City Council, and the rest is city political history, said Councilman Kriss Worthington. Even before then, Shirek was active in community affairs, and she was instrumental in getting former Rep. Ron Dellums to enter politics in 1967 as a city councilman. Dellums later served 28 years in Congress. Lee, a former aide to Dellums, has called Shirek "our political mother."

Worthington called Shirek "a passionate advocate for poor and oppressed people, at home and abroad, and a vigorous voice for peace and justice.''

Contacted at Shirek's house, her niece, Renee Kitchen, said "I'm very disappointed. She was well deserving.''

Shirek, who has been ill with Alzheimer's, was not available for comment.

A spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the San Francisco Democrat was stunned that Republicans actively opposed naming a Berkeley post office for a local elected official.

"What with the number of courthouses and post offices the Republican Congress names, it's ridiculous that they chose this one to make a point. This is a local issue," said Pelosi's spokeswoman Jennifer Crider.

Sacramento Bee September 30, 2005

BERKELEY - What's in a name? By Marjie Lundstrom

If we're talking about the Berkeley post office, we're talking a Category 5 storm of petty partisan politics, compliments of congressional Republicans.

But liberal-minded Berkeley may get the last licks in this brouhaha, which has city leaders and citizens alike spitting mad.

First, a little history.

In case you missed it, our fearless leaders in Congress outdid themselves last week with their thumbs-down vote on a normally routine matter: the naming of a post office.

According to Roll Call, measures to name post office buildings make up 12 percent of the laws Congress passes - ho-hum items that usually breeze through the House with little ado.

Not this time.

It seems that Republicans, led by Iowa Rep. Steve King, decided that 94-year-old Maudelle Shirek wasn't American enough for that honor in Berkeley.

The House rejected the resolution, 215-190, mostly along party lines, with King declaring that Shirek - the granddaughter of slaves - was affiliated with the Communist Party and didn't represent American values.

Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, who had sponsored the resolution to honor her longtime friend and mentor, was furious. This led to a prickly volley of words between the two representatives, with Lee rightly accusing King of being "better suited to the era of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover."

King then reportedly declared that McCarthy was a "hero for America," and the former FBI director was "a giant when it comes to law enforcement."

It makes my head hurt.

The Republican red-baiting is bad enough - what decade are we living in, anyway? - but the snubbing of Maudelle Shirek is unconscionable.

This is the woman who entered politics at 73, serving 20 years on the Berkeley City Council. She championed issues for the poor and elderly, personally cooking and delivering meals for senior shut-ins. She created drug-rehab programs and health clinics and a public nurse program.

This is the activist repeatedly arrested at protests over issues ranging from apartheid to the threatened closure of an AIDS ward.

This is the civil rights leader who organized the Bay Area movement to free Nelson Mandela, with whom she traveled.

And, at age 93, this is the politician who wanted to be re-elected to a ninth term but lost, after a filing snafu forced her to run as a write-in.

"Everybody in Berkeley knows Maudelle personally," said Lee who, along with former Rep. Ron Dellums, were mentored by Shirek.

The un-American stuff, as far as Republicans are concerned, stems from Shirek's support for freeing Mumia Abu-Jamal, a death row inmate convicted of murdering a Philadelphia police officer in 1981. Supporters believe he was railroaded.

As for being a communist, the Republicans point with dismay at her support of the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library in Oakland. The small, nonprofit library is named for Karl Niebyl, an economics professor who escaped from Nazi Germany and taught at various universities, including San Jose State.

"She's not a communist with a capital 'c'," said library executive director Bob Patenaude, who says her name appears in a long list of prominent sponsors.

"The idea that somehow being associated with a library is being associated with being a communist ... is absurd."

Shirek's health has been failing following a stroke, and she isn't doing interviews. But Lee told me this week she is "absolutely not" giving up and is weighing the legislative options.

Berkeley officials are doing the same. City Councilman Maxwell Anderson, who won Shirek's seat last year, is heading a committee looking to honor the local legend - perhaps dedicating another public building in her name, or renaming the street where she lives. Another plan calls for a mural depicting Shirek's life and other aspects of black history.

For all its quirks, Berkeley is what it is, and it knows what it wants. So what? This city's heroes will be different from King's, whose Iowa district ranks first in the nation for hogs and pigs.

"I know we're the left-wing capital of the universe," said Mark Van Valkenburgh, 52, standing outside the downtown post office. "I certainly don't see why a congressman from Iowa is sticking his nose into Berkeley politics."

Blog - Outside the Tent - Very Close to 100% Stupid

Every time Steve King (R - Iowa) opens his mouth, he manages to say something even more breathtakingly stupid than the last time he opened his mouth. You almost have to admire this in the same way you admire a pitcher for throwing a no-hitter or a figure skater for doing 18 quadruple kludges or whatevers in a row. No ordinary person can be so profoundly stupid so consistently

Steve had this talent on display yesterday when he got himself all tangled up in an effort by the folks of Berkeley, California, to name their local Post Office after Maudelle Shirek, age 94. Ms. Shirek had served on the Berkeley City Council for more than 20 years.

But on Tuesday, King, a second-term House member from western Iowa, surprised Democrats by objecting to the proposal and demanding a roll call vote, saying Shirek's past "sets her apart from, I will say, the most consistent of American values." . . . .

In an interview with the Associated Press, King said Shirek had an "affiliation with the Communist Party" because she was involved with the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library in Berkeley.

Barbara Lee [the California congress woman sponsoring the name change proposal]. . . blasted King, saying his "campaign of innuendo and unsubstantiated 'concern' is better suited to the era of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover than today's House of Representatives."

To which King responded: "I think that if Barbara Lee would read the history of Joe McCarthy, she would realize that he was a hero for America."

Yeah, right up there with Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, and George Wallace. Or perhaps King is so stupid that he's gotten Joe McCarthy and Charlie McCarthy confused.

And, as you might imagine, the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library that has Steve in a tizzy isn't affiliated with the Communist Party. According to the mission statement on its web site, the library is "inclusive, independent, non-sectarian, anticapitalist, and committed to struggle against racism and sexism."

The 215-190 House vote on Tuesday came after Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, claimed 94-year old Maudelle Shirek didn't represent American values. King cited Shirek's support for freeing Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted for the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer. He later noted Shirek had an "affiliation with the Communist Party," citing her sponsorship of a Marxist library.

A two-thirds vote was needed for passage. Nine Republicans voted yes and 212 voted no; 180 Democrats voted yes and three voted no; and one independent voted yes.

"They are living in the days, I guess, of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover and decided they wanted to defeat a local district matter, and I think it's outrageous and unconscionable," Lee said in an interview.

Bob Patenaude, executive director of Berkeley's Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library for Social Change, said Shirek was one of many noncommunist liberals who publicly supported the small facility.

"The red-baiting we're seeing here is ludicrous, to say the least," Patenaude said.

What's really strange about this to me is that there would be a big issue over the naming of a Post Office in Berkeley. Aren't these sorts of votes normally rather pro-forma? IN tthis case, King (the author Stephen King must be cringing) insinuates that the long-time public servant is anti-American. She does have a bit of controversy in her background, but if a Berkeley P.O. can't bear the name of a progressive black woman, sheesh.

"The term "McCarthyism" has since become synonymous with any government activity which seeks to suppress unfavorable political or social views, often by limiting or suspending civil rights under the pretext of maintaining national security."

Joe McCarthy - Wikipedia

McCarthyism is also a specific example of the faulty reasoning of guilt by association - the attempt to discredit an idea based upon disfavored people or groups associated with it. Guilt by association is the reverse of an appeal to authority. In McCarthyism, or the "red scare," a person, group, or idea is associated in some way with communism, and thus demonized/blacklisted/criminalized. Recent example: previous post on Cindy Sheehan in New York.

According to this reasoning, this is a valid argument:

China is a communist power.

The US is running up a huge debt financing the war in Iraq.

China holds much of our national debt.

Since the Bush Administration is linked to communism through financing, the communists are secretly controlling the Iraq War.

Therefore, America is a commie.

(Some states even call themselves "Red States"!)

McCarthyism itself is only one example of this kind of reasoning, which seems to arise from moral panic or a hysterical need for scapegoats. There are precedents in the Inquisitions and the witch hunts and in most genocidal movements.

It was obvious that hysteria toward the communist threat had easily transitioned into the language of terrorism, but do they really need to revisit all that stuff? Haven't we learned anything at all? Has no-one noted the fall of the USSR, and communism generally speaking? It didn't seem to work out the way it was envisioned. I'm not even sure how many Americans understand democracy and freedom or liberty, much less capitalism. Everyone forgets about greed when they make up these ideologies. The economic forces and drives that exist in the global economy today go far beyond Marx and his criticism of capitalism. I'm not sure if there is any economic system today that values all the people.

In the wake of a 215-190 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives this week defeating a bill by Rep. Barbara Lee to rename the main Berkeley Post Office after former Berkeley Councilmember Maudelle Shirek, a spokesperson for Lee said that she has not given up on the idea.

"She is looking into ways that this can be done," said Nathan Britton, Lee's spokesperson, from his Washington, D.C. office. "Congressmember Lee still would like to see the Berkeley Post Office named after Maudelle Shirek."

According to a recent article in The Hill, a newspaper "for and about the U.S. Congress," most office-renaming bills are among the most routine in Congress, with "about one in eight public laws" devoted to the subject. The article added that "the practical effect of [such] legislation is less than might appear," with only a plaque posted in the facility's lobby, and the address listing for the post office remaining the same. The Shirek bill seemed headed for passage this fall after Lee won the support of Tom Davis (R-Virginia), chairperson of the Government Reform Committee, where the bill had been stalled since it was introduced two years ago. But after conservative Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa raised objections, the bill lost on a roll call vote.

King, one of the more conservative members of Congress, told reporters that he objected to Shirek because of her support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a man convicted of killing a Philadelphia policeman, and because of her involvement with the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library in Oakland. He said that the Niebyl-Proctor connection gave her "an affiliation with the Communist Party," and said that Shirek's activities "sets her apart from ... the most consistent of American values."

In a prepared statement, Congresswoman Barbara Lee said that "Maudelle Shirek is a woman whose leadership, service and commitment to our community are a testament to what is great about our nation, and she deserves to be honored. That a Republican from Iowa could launch a campaign to deny naming a local post office after this 94-year-old civil rights leader ... is just shameful. Mr. King's campaign of innuendo and unsubstantiated 'concern' is better suited to the era of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover than today's House of Representatives."

Other Berkeley leaders agreed.

Berkeley Councilmember Linda Maio called Congressman King's actions "very insulting and out of step with America."

"If anyone exemplifies the term 'woman warrior' it is Maudelle," Maio said. "She showed up all the time for important causes, with both her money and her time. She is an amazing woman. Denying her this honor flies in the face of the best American values, because Maudelle Shirek typifies those values. No matter who needed it, she was there to help."

Maio said that while the Berkeley City Council has no authority over the naming of the post office, "we do have authority over other things, and we should have a discussion about a permanent way to honor her," possibly by naming some other public building in the city for Shirek.

"Normally we don't do that until someone passes away," Maio said, "but this seems to be an appropriate time."

Max Anderson, who succeeded Shirek representing District 3 on the City Council, said his response echoed Lee's.

"It's appalling that someone sitting in Iowa could be leading a floor fight against the honoring of a Berkeley individual who has been a longtime fighter for civil rights, peace, and social justice," he said. "It appears that the old Cold War mentality is still prevalent among a lot of Republicans."

Anderson said he has been setting up a committee and holding a series of meetings to plan local honors for Shirek, including naming buildings after her and setting up a scholarship in her name. The councilmember said that plans are being developed for a fund-raising event on Dec. 10, Human Rights Day, to raise money for a Maudelle Shirek Scholarship Fund.

On Oct. 19, the South Berkeley Community Church will honor Shirek, a founding member, as part of its Capital Restoration Campaign program, celebrating the Fairview Street church's legacy as the city's first inter-racial church. The program will start at 7:30 p.m.

Mayor Tom Bates was out of town and unavailable for comment.

At the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library, formerly in Berkeley and now located in Oakland, a spokesperson said that workers at the library were sharing laughs about their newfound national notoriety, saying that "it's incredible that Congress would revert back to the old McCarthy days."

Edith Laub, librarian and secretary treasurer of Niebyl-Proctor, said that Shirek's involvement in the library was minimal.

"When the library was started, we thought it would be helpful to sign up prominent individuals as sponsors," she said. "Maudelle Shirek was approached, along with a large number of other persons who were known by the director at that time. She said it sounded like a fine idea, and she signed the form that was sent out to her. Sponsors were only asked to lend their names, and nothing else was required of them. That is the extent of her connection to the library."

Among the other sponsors listed on the library's website are Berkeley attorney and author Ann Fagan Ginger, founder and executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, author and historian Howard Zinn, educator and radical activist Angela Davis, historian Herbert Aptheker, and longtime Southern civil rights worker Anne Braden.

Meanwhile, Jackie DeBose of Berkeley, who is now executive director of the New Light senior lunch program which Shirek founded and still attends, took issue with a report in Thursday's San Francisco Chronicle that Shirek was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Calling that an "urban myth," DeBose said "I don't know where they got that information from. Nobody that I know of who knows Maudelle well thinks she has any symptoms of Alzheimer's. I see Maudelle every day, and speak with her in depth. I took her to lunch today and we talked about the post office situation on the way there, and the possible U.S. Supreme Court nominations on the way back. There was nothing wrong with her memory. This is just an example of the fact that you can't believe everything you read in the daily newspapers."

DeBose said that while Shirek has "health issues related to her age," there is nothing to suggest Alzheimer's. "I think this is just symptomatic of the belief that when we get old, something must be wrong," she said.

As for the post office snub, DeBose called that "business as usual" for the national Republican government.

While the world-wide proletariat struggle may have seen better days, there is a museum in Oakland making sure socialism's bygone era will never be forgotten.

Stepping inside the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library at 6501 Telegraph Ave. is like entering an alternate universe. Gone are any notions of the red menace, axis of evil, or heroic entrepreneurs blazing a trail to prosperity.

At Niebyl-Proctor, Brezhnev is presented as a matinee idol, North Korea has the makings of a utopian society and heroes carry union cards and always fight for the working man.

"We're preserving the history of people who led valiant struggles and have just been erased," said the library's Executive Director Bob Patenaude. "We keep their memory alive."

Niebyl-Proctor's holdings include about 15,000 books, more than 20,000 pamphlets and dozens of cardboard boxes filled with oral histories of progressive activists from the early 20th century.

The bulk of the collection was donated by the estate of Karl Niebyl, a Marxist economics professor who escaped from Nazi Germany and came to the Bay Area late in life to teach at San Jose State.

After his death in 1985, Niebyl's friends stored his 253 cartons of books and pamphlets in the basement of a San Jose bookstore while they searched for a showplace, said Edith Laub, an early museum volunteer and now, along with Patenaude, one of its two paid staffers.

With donations from supporters and technical assistance from UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library, the collection moved into Berkeley's Finnish Hall in 1987. Shortly thereafter, the library inherited the papers of Roscoe Proctor, a Berkeley labor organizer, and the Niebyl-Proctor library was born.

Space and money constraints keep the library from updating its collection, but when it comes to materials on progressive and Marxist causes up to the 1980s, Niebyl-Proctor is loaded.

Inside the library's 58 file drawers full of pamphlets, one can find the 1933 Manifesto of the Young Communist League of the United States, urging America's youth to "Fight for a Soviet U.S.A.", or a 1948 report on North Korea, heralding the "People's Revolution" there and forecasting a peaceful reunification after the inevitable financial ruin for the American-dominated south.

Pamphlets were a common tool of communist governments and their allies abroad to promote Marxist views across the globe, Patenaude said.

"Sure this is pure communist propaganda, but it was to counter U.S. propaganda, which is just as misleading and sometimes even more vile," he said.

The library is also home to an extensive archive. Inside the drawers are original Black Panther street posters decrying the "kidnapping" of its leader Bobby Seale by "FBI Pigs With Drawn Guns." Also available are first-hand accounts of a 1947 riot in Peekskill, New York, when the left-wing African American entertainer Paul Robeson tried to give an outdoor concert, and the original speech recited in 1945 by Russian diplomat Nikolai Novikov before a packed house at Madison Square Garden honoring those who had fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War.

"What people don't often realize is that these were huge mass movements," Patenaude said. "They might seem a little hokey now, but these ideas drive the world for decades."

The library is constantly receiving book donations and updating its collection. Besides the collected works of Marx and Engels, Niebyl-Proctor contains sections unfathomable in most libraries, like psychology in the former Soviet Union.

Laub said the library gets the occasional visit from UC Berkeley researchers, but most of the patrons are locals who just want to browse. On a recent Tuesday, the only visitor from noon until 2 p.m. was Chris Kavanagh, a middle school teacher and Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner.

Earlier this week, I thanked Representative Steve King (R-IA) for defeating a measure to name Berkeley's Main POst Office after former Berkeley City Councilwoman Maudelle Shirek. One of the matters Rep. King brought to the attention of the House of Representatives was her service on the board of the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library.

A local giveaway newspaper, The Berkeley Daily Planet, was predictably outraged, as were most of the Berkeley political establishment. Plans are now afoot to find a local public facility to name after Shirek. Even the normally sensible Chip Johnson, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, thought that local values ought to hold sway in such a matter. I wrote Chip an email about his column, but haven't heard back yet, if ever.

But the Daily Planet, a paper which has steadily become more and more extreme in its leftism, couldn't resist running a glowing profile of the Marxist library, one which makes clear the library's unashamed commitment to Communism, a dogma and political system whose followers have slaughtered scores of millions of victims in the name of their power to "liberate" the masses. That anyone would defend this belief system is a testament to what the Catholic Church labels "invincible ignorance," a phrase I find coming to mind more often these days.

Here are some excerpts from the Daily Planet profile of the library, with my comments interspersed:

At Niebyl-Proctor, Brezhnev is presented as a matinee idol, North Korea has the makings of a utopian society and heroes carry union cards and always fight for the working man.

Surely this is ironic. No? Read on.

"We're preserving the history of people who led valiant struggles and have just been erased," said the library's Executive Director Bob Patenaude. "We keep their memory alive."

Niebyl-Proctor's holdings include about 15,000 books, more than 20,000 pamphlets and dozens of cardboard boxes filled with oral histories of progressive activists from the early 20th century.

So, what's the difference between a "progressive" and a "communist"?

Pamphlets were a common tool of communist governments and their allies abroad to promote Marxist views across the globe, Patenaude said.

"Sure this is pure communist propaganda, but it was to counter U.S. propaganda, which is just as misleading and sometimes even more vile," he said.

This assertion seems to require no evidence. It certainly reveals a mindset.

Although Marxism might not be the potent political force it once was, its adherents across the country are organizing to save relics of past glories in hopes that a new golden era [emphasis added] might not be far away. There is a Marxist reading room in New York City, Patenaude said, and Marxist libraries were being planned in Sacramento and Chicago.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," said Patenaude. He argues that U.S. policies aren't sustainable and if the political tide turns, Niebyl-Proctor will be around to let people know about library's its roots.

"We're maintaining the history of our class," he said. "The working class and their fight against the bad guys."

Anyone still think the communist menace is a joke?

Thomas Lifson 10 01 05