Difference between revisions of "Flora Haber"

Revision as of 13:05, 21 April 2007

Flora Carmela Haber is a Socialist politician in the Confederated Peoples. She is currently a member of the Nabarran Cortes and is almost guaranteed to represent the Socialists on the first Confederal Council as the head of the Department of Justice. She has also been mentioned as a possible Confederal Vice-President.

Haber is a native of Donnacona. Her father was a fur worker and she became a textile worker at the age of 16. She entered the Vasconian Textile Workers' Union as an ordinary worker and she became an activist in the Nabarran Socialist Party through the union. While working full-time, first in the factory and then for the union as a full-time organizer, she managed to put herself through university and then through law school. From 1998-2001, she was a "movement lawyer." In 2001, she was pre-selected by the Socialists to be the candidate for her local seat and she won. In the Cortes, Haber spoke out on many unpopular issues, earning a reputation as the "conscience of the Cortes."

Political career

Haber has built her political career around campaigning for workers' rights, consumer protections, public services and more democratic local governance. However, she is best known for consistently championing indigenous rights and the rights of the inhabitants of the Imperial Islands, positions frequently unpopular with many voters of European extraction. Among other policies, she has advocated reforms in community-police relations in the Imperial Islands, advocated recognition of Gadic and Papamiento as official languages and advocated limited local self-government.

Confederal Councilor

Predicted election

It is widely predicted that Haber will be elected to the Confederal Council as the Socialist Party's representative on that body and furthermore that she will be appointed as head of the Department of Justice. Although she is a qualified attorney, she is not likely to be the most qualified jurist on the Council and this has led to some puzzlement over why she is so favored to head this particular department by both the right and the left.

Progressive Democrat Sarah Sacker has said that Haber is best suited to head the Department of Justice because of her idealism. According to Sacker, of all the departments, Justice moreso than any other must be run by a genuine idealist with unquestioned personal integrity in order to guarantee the rights of both victims of crimes and the accused. Republican James Thompson,on the other hand, has mostly made a negative argument that the Socialists in general and Haber in particular should not be trusted with any of the economic departments. He has claimed that Haber should be exluded from departments such as Finance, Industrial Affairs and Infrastructure because of what he calls her "Utopianism," which he claims would prevent her from functioning competently.

Record and controversies

In June 2004, Haber introduced two private member's bills. One was a non-binding resolution condemning police brutality and the other was one which provided for increased funding for community-police relations programs, for local training and hiring on police in the Imperial Islands, for increased minority recruitment and for increased police accountability (up to and including culpability in criminal court) for excessive force. Both bills were prompted by a series of police shootings in the Imperial Islands which cost four young, African-Nabarran men their lives. Only one of the men was later found to have been involved in any criminal activity and he was only involved in non-violent drug offenses.

Although it had endorsed the Imperial Action Party in the last elections and was no officially affiliated to any political party, the Imperial Union of Police was a member of the Nabarran Trade Union Conference, the largest organization of trade unions in Nabarro Abarca and a key source of support for the Socialist Party. The NTUC leadership heavily lobbied the Socialist front bench, claiming that the proposed legislation would make it harder for police to make the tough decisions their jobs required and would ultimately endanger lives. However, at the same time, civil rights lobbies which also constituted a key source of Socialist support, were arguing that the current situation endangered innocent lives and that police officers could not be placed above the law or allowed to kill with impunity in the absence of an immediate threat. Seeking to avoid the controversy, the front bench asked Haber to quietly let the issue die. She refused and the Socialists ultimately came out in favor of both bills. However, many in the unions criticized Haber as anti-police and many in the party criticized her for failing to adhere to proper party discipline.