The Striking CWA Workers and their Student Allies

The clash between the increasingly corporatized and Republican-dominated OSU administration and the underpaid Communication Workers of America OSU employees and their student allies demonstrated that there’s still some life in central Ohio’s labor movement. Local 4501 President Gary Josephson provided able leadership by building bridges not only to the students but to the greater community. Fittingly, the strike started on May Day, and we hope it is the first shot in the battle for living wages here in Columbus. The organization built from the coalition of CWA strikers and their campus supporters, the Columbus Network, offers the possibility of a real progressive alliance emerging in our city linking the increasingly active campus-based activists to city politics. Once again, we applaud the CWA workers for proving that there still is movement in the frequently dormant labor organizations of Franklin County.

THE FREE PRESS SALUTES

Yoshie Furuhashi

We at the Freep would have been lost without the continuous emails and updates concerning the CWA strike, the student sit-in in support of the strike and other campus activities by Yoshie Furuhashi. The article in this issue on OSU activism relies primarily on Furuhashi’s press releases and contacts. Furuhashi functioned this spring like a one-person wire service at OSU. Whether it was information on demonstrations by the Afrikan Student Union over diversity at OSU or the arrests at graduation, Furuhashi’s dispatches proved both passionate and enlightening. Furuhashi, who by the times listed on her incoming emails appears never to sleep, is deserving of both a vacation and our salute!

Representative David Goodman, Bexley

Finally there’s someone in the state legislature who reads, analyzes and studies real problems in the criminal justice system, and drafts legislation without political contribution considerations to solve the issues. Goodman’s bill regulating bounty hunters in the bail bond business is a whiff of sweetness from the often rancid corridors of Ohio’s Capitol. If Goodman’s bill is adopted, bounty hunters will no longer be able to terrorize Ohio citizens virtually at will and much-needed accountability and clarity will be brought to the generally exploitive practices of the bail bond industry. Yeah, we know he’s a Republican, but nobody stopped the Democrats from offering the bill or addressing the problem first.

ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE

Charles Spingola, aka, Preacher Chuck

Spingola spends his time attempting to intimidate gay, lesbian and bisexual men and women. Spingola threw Bibles at marchers at the recent Gay Pride March, burned the rainbow flag in front of the King Avenue Methodist Church that was holding an ecumenical service as part of the Stonewall Gay Pride holiday and demanded that “Faggots repent!” He spews his hate in name of Jesus, and quotes the Bible to cover his obvious eclectic sexual yearnings. You’ll find Spingola conveniently citing Leviticus 20:13 calling men laying with men an “abomination,” but you’ll never find him harassing pork eaters who are also referred to in Leviticus as an abomination. Now where exactly in the New Testament, Chuck, does Christ burn flags and throw Bibles at people? Since we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Chuck’s sins are the most dangerous and must be vigilantly fought since his beliefs lead to the real life death and crucifixion of Matthew Shepherd.