SAN FRANCISCO—The ILWU’s International Executive Board, the union’s highest governing body between International Conventions, met in San Francisco March 30-April 1, 2005.
With an eye toward developing the most accurate and responsible three-year budget proposal for the 2006 International Convention (to cover 2007-2009), the entire board met as the Board of Trustees to go over the current budget and spending with a finetooth comb. They reviewed expenses and their reasons to determine which programs may be cut back and which need funding and expansion. The board plans to begin fashioning budget proposals at its August meeting for next year’s Convention.
The ILWU Executive Board took time out of its meeting March 31 to join some 1,500 other unionists and seniors to demonstrate outside the offices of Charles Schwab Corp. in downtown San Francisco to press the major financial firm to stop supporting George W. Bush’s plans to privatize Social Security. The protest was part of a national day of action called by the AFL-CIO against Schwab and Wachovia Corp. with actions happening in more than 70 cities across the country.
Restructuring proposals at AFL-CIO
International President Jim Spinosa reported on the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Las Vegas March 1-3 he and other ILWU officers attended. The meeting was meant to discuss the various “restructuring” proposals floating around since SEIU President Andrew Stern declared several months ago that the federation’s nearly 60 unions needed to merge into no more than 15 or 20 to consolidate power and bargain more effectively on an industry-wide basis. His plan would force unions in the same sector to merge if they did not do it voluntarily. If that doesn’t happen, Stern said, he would withdraw his union from the AFL-CIO. Since then, several other unions have developed proposals trying to deal with consolidation, organizing and bargaining.
No solution was agreed upon at the Executive Council meeting, but Spinosa told the IEB his position is that the ILWU will not merge with any other union and that he would propose the ILWU leave the AFLCIO if the federation tried to force a merger. He said that before he took any action he would bring it back to the board for discussion and approval.
The board unanimously passed two policy statements, one opposing the ballot initiatives California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is backing, and the other opposing the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) that is pending in Congress. The board also passed two other resolutions sent to it by warehouse Local 6’s Convention in February. One calls for U.S. troops to be brought home now, rejects the policy of pre-emptive war, and demands a reordering of national priorities towards jobs, education and healthcare. The other condemns the recent brutal repression of Filipino union sugar workers and calls for an investigation into and prosecution of the perpetrators of the brutal attacks on the workers. ◆
Medicinal value of pineapple—continued from page 1
cially as a meat tenderizer, to clarify beer, and tan leather hides. Instead of breaking down proteins, the Australians found that CCS could act to slow the growth of cancer by blocking another protein called Ras. The other molecule called CCZ could stimulated the body's own immune system to target and kill cancer cells.
“The way CCS and CCZ work is different to any other drug in clinical use today,” said Dr. Mynott. The difference in the way these enzymes act could lead to the discovery of a whole new class of anti-cancer drugs or breakthroughs in the treatment or prevention of disease.
“An interesting characteristic of CCS and CCZ is that they are proteases. Proteases are traditionally thought of as degradative enzymes which breakdown proteins, such as in the process of digestion. Other reports on the role of proteases in disease have centred on their potential to cause damage. CCS and CCZ are the first examples of proteases that have been shown to modulate cell signal transduction pathways and have specific immunomodulatory activities,” said Dr. Mynott.
South and Central American indians had long known about the medicinal value of pineapple. In the 1490s, Spanish explorers reported seeing natives using pineapple poultices to reduce swelling in wounds and drinking the juice to aid digestion or cure stomach aches. Bromelain has been known chemically to Western science since 1876, but was not used for therapeutic purposes until 1957.
Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council is funding further research into CCS and CCZ by the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. Pineapple is a major crop in Queensland, Australia, and the province produces about 128,000 tons of canned and fresh pineapple annually, most of which is consumed in Australia. In comparision, Hawaii produces around 215,000 tons of fresh and processed pineapple. ◆
