November 1999

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS


Gray Panthers' Plans for 2000
Where have we been?  And where are we going? We are 

looking forward to a full report from our concerned 

delegates now on their way to Washington, D.C. for the 
Gray Panthers' Biennial National Convention. We have 
dispatched Aroza, Inger, Karen and Mary Frances to this meeting to bring 
back the facts and the mood of the Gray Panthers now, and where 
our efforts in the future will have the most influence and effect.
Be prepared to discuss their report with them and to voice 
your opinions on how we can implement these important goals. 




NOVEMBER

Tues., Nov. 2     Election Day7:00 a.m.­8:00 p.m. all polling
     sites. VOTEVOTEVOTEVOTEVOTE
Thurs., Nov. 4     1:00­3:00 p.m.
     Board meeting at the office. All welcome!
Tues., Nov. 16     12:30­3:00 p.m.
     Membership meeting. Learn what went on in
     Washington, DC, at the Biennial GPs Conven-
     tion. Aroza, Inger, Karen and Mary Frances will
     give us their impressions of the spirit and the
     actions of our organization. 
Thurs., Nov. 18     Noon
     Tour Mission Bay with the Public Affairs people 
     of UCSF. Leave and return at the UCSF library.
     See site and plans for the new UCSF research
     campus. Call to reserve at least  a week in ad-
     vance. 415/476-4394. 
Sat., Nov. 20     10:30 a.m.­12:30 p.m.
     Older Women's League (OWL): "You and Your
     Adult Children," a discussion led by Mary
     Goulding, MSW, and Micheline Maccario, M.D.  
     Info 415/989-4422.
Sat., Nov. 20 and     10:00 a.m.­5:00 p.m.
Sun., Nov. 21     10:00 a.m.­3:30 p.m.
     Friends of the Library sale ($1 and 50¢) at Fort
     Mason, Building A. Last chance this year to adopt
     that holiday gift for others or yourself.
Mon., Nov. 29­Fri., Dec. 3     
     World Trade Organization convention in Seattle,
     WA. Huge counter-demonstrations planned by
     labor unions and human rights activists. 
     More inside, see page 5.
Tues., Nov. 30     7:30 p.m.
     San Francisco Green Party County Council 
     meeting. Green Party office, 15th and Mission
     More info, 415/659-1726.







Nominations Needed for 
Our Board
Elections will be held in December for our own Board of 

Directors, but we need nominations now to at least replace 

retiring members. Our by-laws specify that up to 26 members 
are elected for a two-year term and may serve for two 
consecutive terms, a total of four years, before going off the Board for at 
least one year.
Completing four years on the Board and therefore not 
eligible for election are Fanny, Karen and Rhoda. We thank them for 
their service. Augusta, Mitzi, Inger and Franklin are completing 
two years, and ongoing members not up for election this year 
are Aroza, Astrid, Rebecca, Lilian K. and Miriam B.
The Board of Directors determines policy and plans meetings





and activities for the San Francisco Gray Panthers network. 
It meets at the office once a month, currently the first Thursday 
at 1:00 p.m. All members and friends are welcome to attend 
and speak at Board meetings, but only duly elected members may vote.
Nominations are now open and may be made by any 
paid-up member at any Board meeting, membership meeting or by 
calling the office. As always, we need new faces to complement the old. 
So get active and nominate your friends or yourself. 
Be a member of your Board of 
Directors! 







Welcome New Member
Pirate Black

























October Meeting
The pros and cons of propositions A through K on the 

November ballot were ably interpreted by our guest speaker, 

Wende Chan, from the League of Women Voters. Wende's 
presentation was so thorough and engagingly presented that she 
has been invited to come back for a repeat performance for the 
year 2000 ballot review.
Here is a recap of our Board's recommendations for some of 
the issues we will be voting on November 2.
·     Prop. A: Laguna Honda bonds. The board voted 
YES.
·     Prop. E: Muni reform. GP board voted 
NO.
·     Prop. F: Restricts ATM fees. The board voted 
YES.
·     Prop. G: Toughens the Sunshine Initiative. The board did 
not vote on this, but the League of Women Voters supports 
the measure.
·     Prop I: Octavia Boulevard Plan. The board voted 
YES.
·     Prop J: Requires the restoration of the Central Freeway. 
The board voted NO.
The SF Gray Panthers Board of Directors did not vote 
on propositions B, C, D, H and K but, for what it's worth, the 
Green Party of SF recommended a yes vote on these initiatives. Read 
the ballot carefully and then make up your 
own mind. 

          




California losses:
AB 1160 requiring certification of nursing home quality. 
Passed by the legislature, vetoed by the governor.
AB 116 IHSS, wages and working conditions for 
in-home health care workers, died in the legislature.
SB 320, increase workers compensation benefits by $1.2 
billion over the next six years. Passed by the legislature, vetoed by 
the governor who agrees with business that the increase should 
be only $400 million.
Nationally, so far, the record is dismal:
The National Patient Bill of Rights, an inadequate package 
of bills, was opposed by Senate Republican travesty of 
protection with the same name. So far, nothing has been passed.
The Senate refused to ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
And in San Francisco: the living wage ordinance has been 
effectively bottled up for "study" for the past six months. 







Leonard Peltier Freedom Month
Members of the Leonard Peltier Defense 
Committee are ask
ing that November be designated "Freedom Month" for 

this long-incarcerated Native American leader. President 
Clinton has declared November Native American 
Heritage month and what more appropriate time to grant clemency to this man, labeled 
a political prisoner by Amnesty International and numerous 
other human rights organizations.

You can learn more about this cause and how you can help 
and join in by contacting the Committee at PO Box 583, Lawrence, 
KS 66044; phone, 785/842-5774; e-mail 
lpdc@idir.net. 






Where Are They Now?
As an advocacy organization, we have taken positions on 
many social issues in the past year. Here's what has 

happened to a few of them:

Victories in California:
The legislature passed nine of the 10 Health Access 
Patients' Bill of Rights  and they were signed into law! These 
include guaranteed second opinion, review of denial of care, disclosure 
of criteria for denial of care, whistle blower protection, 
increased diabetes coverage, consumer advocates, quick independent 
review, and the creation of a Department of Managed Care, 
taking HMO supervision out of the business-oriented Department 
of Corporations.
CNA's AB 394 requiring patient-safe levels of nursing staffing.
AB 633 making private-label manufacturers and retailers 
responsible for wages owed by their subcontractors to 
garment workersthe runaway sweatshopis now law.





Who Said This?
"Our government is susceptible to a corporate economic 
globalization that is not free trade but corporate managed 

trade. Global rules written into trade agreements, enforced by 
the World Trade Organization, protect things like patents and 
intellectual property rights but not labor rights, profits but not 
people, investments but not the environment. We're making the 
world safe for globalization rather than making globalization safe for 
the world."

Warren Beatty speaking to the Southern California Americans for 
Democratic Action. 




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 Mobilize! Don't Globalize!
Come to Seattle November 29­December 3 or any part you 
can! A full schedule of events is planned to protest and, if possible, 

shut down this much touted meeting of the World Trade 
Organization and its plans for globalization of corporations to the 
detriment of labor, the environment and human rights.

Join the tens of thousands of people who will converge on 
Seattle and transform it into a festival of resistance. 
Why?
We eat food. The WTO regulates the standards by which 
our food is grown, processed and sold to us. The WTO determines 
the labor and environmental practices that determine how our food 
is grown.
We work. The WTO sets the standards by which 
employers determine whom to hire, how much to pay, what kinds of 
benefits we receive and the safety conditions of our workplaces.
We breathe. The WTO has already ruled that breathing 
clean air is not a priority. Higher profits for oil companies is far 
more important to the benefit of the world.
We go to school. The WTO wants to create eductional 
standards that limit public sector educational services to the 
standards that business people and corporations decide. Math 
programs designed by M&M Candies (what's the chance of a green 
one?) have already entered our school systems.
We live in an industrialized country that exploits other 
nations and other peoples for the sake of comfortable living conditions 
in the U.S.A.
We have a responsibility to understand the reality of 
the global economy beyond our own lives and speak out(!), protest! 












The "Rich" Get Richer 
Well, not really rich, but certainly better able to cope with the 
inflation of necessities! By now you know that Social Secu-
rity Benefits will increase by 2.4 percent for 2000. But is this a fair 
way to compensate all recipients for their actual increased expenses? 
Food, most rent, clothing and the basics of existence rise the same 
dollar amount for those who receive the least from SS as those who 
receive the mostabout a $500 per month difference. 

Most of us are pleased to be receiving even this small 
cost-of-living increase, but if this is 
really about the cost-of-living, is this the 
fairest way to allot these funds? Think about 
it!     Astrid





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Editorial Board: Rebecca Hirshleifer, Mitzi Raas; Publisher, Astrid M. Spector; Art Director, Fannie Biderman; Proof, Lurilla Harris; Circulation: Harold Greenblatt and Mary Francis Smith. Printed by Graffik Natwicks; Webpage design: Barry Simpkins

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