****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 20 No. 20 / May 17, 1993 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CONGRESS KILLS HUNGER COMMITTEE; 30 MILLION GO WITHOUT FOOD! It's estimated that up to 30 million Americans, including millions of children under age 12, are going hungry. The latest figures show that in February a record 26.9 million Americans -- about one in 10 -- were getting food stamps. That's up from 26.8 million in January, and up 1.5 million from February 1992. You'd think Congress would be holding hearings and organizing a massive relief effort. Instead, the U.S. House of Representatives _abolished _its Select Committee on Hunger, supposedly to "save money." When the committee was abolished, the man who chaired it, Rep. Tony Hall (D-Ohio), went on a 22-day fast to protest the action and focus the nation's attention on hunger. Hall ended his fast recently after a news conference at which U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy said there would be a national conference and a series of regional forums on hunger. While the hungry are branded criminals for "stealing" food or committing "welfare fraud" to feed their children, the real crime is that anyone is hungry in such a wealthy country. But a growing mass of people is organizing to put an end to a system that lets children starve amidst mountains of food. For a start, food stamp allotments (now about $10 a day for a family of three) must be increased and all barriers to getting food stamps must be eliminated. Congress must restore the Select Committee on Hunger. And the hungry themselves must be the leading voice at the national conference and the regional forums on hunger. The struggle against hunger must be led by the victims of the system. For more, see editorial, story 1. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 20 No. 20 / May 17, 1993 Editorial 1. FIGHTING TO EAT IN THE U.S.A. News 2. HUNDREDS PROTEST TEXAS DEATH PENALTY! 3. THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM: THE FIGHT FOR REAL WELFARE REFORM 4. ALBUQUERQUE COMMITTEE JOINS FIGHT TO RECLAIM VACANT HUD HOMES 5. 'THE WORKERS AND THE POOR NEED TO DRIVE THE RICH OUT': Two ex- Sears workers speak out 6. U.S. 'VIOLENCE INITIATIVE' STUDY IS A RACIST ATTACK ON INNER- CITY CHILDREN 7. LESSONS FOR WELFARE MOMS FIGHTING FOR FAMILY SURVIVAL: NOC's Sonja Blutgarten on the Yvette Smith Case Focus on National Organizing Committee Founding Convention 8. A PROGRAM OF ACTION AND EDUCATION 9. "WHEN ECONOMIC CHANGE IS THE FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL INJUSTICE, A REVOLUTION IS INEVITABLE": Remarks by Nelson Peery Culture 10. RAP LYRICS: "UNCALLED FOR" Columns and features 11. BRAZIL: SAME FIGHT, SAME ENEMY: AMERICA FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN (Part I) 12. DEADLY FORCE: WHITE, BLACK, MEXICAN -- IF YOU LIVE IN NORTH LONG BEACH, YOU GET HARASSED! 13. PERSPECTIVE ON THE FIERY SPECTACLE IN WACO 14. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: FIGHTING TO EAT IN THE U.S.A. What kind of government would wipe out a Committee on Hunger when _30 million_ of it's citizens didn't get enough to eat? Somalia? Iraq? No, this happened right here in the U.S.A. Even the committee chairman, Rep. Tony Hall (D-Ohio), went on a fast to protest. He ended his fast at a press conference where he called for a National Summit on Hunger. "The Hunger Committee had no authority and a very low budget," Michelle Tingling-Clemons, senior field organizer for the Food Research and Action Center, told the People's Tribune. Despite that, she said that last year the committee helped save the Women, Infants and Children food program at the state level. "Tony Hall organized to have emergency legislation introduced that would allow state agencies to borrow from next year's budget so they could continue to serve their eligible population," she said. But think about it -- why is _anyone _hungry in this country? Supermarket shelves are full to overflowing and rotting food is thrown out everyday. Tons and tons of food from restaurants, institutions and private homes is gobbled up by garbage disposals. Why won't they feed us? The answer: the almighty dollar. Food is kept off the market, and not given away, just to keep the prices up. Farmers are paid not to grow crops. People who give away food for free are often stopped by the law. The government owns miles of warehouse space where "excess" food is stored -- never to be seen by hungry people. This is a sin! Certainly it should be a crime that the rats in America's garbage cans stay fat and sassy, while millions (yes millions) of men, women and children are starving! Most Americans don't like this. They don't like to live in a world where anyone is starving. How can you join the fight to end hunger? One way is to put pressure on the government to set a date for the National Hunger Summit. Write letters of support for this Summit to Rep. Tony Hall, U.S. House of Representative, Washington, D.C., 20515. Send copies to Michelle Tingling-Clemons, 1875 Connecticut NW, Suite 540, Washington, DC, 20009. ****************************************************************** 2. HUNDREDS PROTEST TEXAS DEATH PENALTY! HOUSTON -- This statement was read to a crowd of about 400 to 500 people demonstrating in from of the Texas state capitol in Austin on April 27, about 36 hours before the scheduled execution of Gary Graham. The statement was addressed to the Gary Graham family from the Leonel Herrera family. On April 28, only 8 hours before his scheduled execution, Gary Graham received a 30-day reprieve from Texas governor Ann Richards. Gary's execution date now is scheduled for June 3, 1993. The execution date for Leonel Herrera has been moved back from May 5 to May 12, 1993. We, the family of another innocent man on Death Row, Leonel Herrera, say to the family of Gary Graham that we feel the pain that you feel. Our heart goes out to you as we keep Gary Graham in our prayers. Stay hopeful and strong even up to the last minute. To Gary Graham's parents and to his son and daughter, we say find strength in knowing that our family and many thousands of people know that Gary Graham and Leonel Herrera are innocent. Our brother Leonel served in the United States Navy to defend the rights of all Americans -- Black, Hispanic -- all Americans. Now it is time for the American people to defend Leonel and Gary's right to a new, fair trial. Gary and Leonel have a right to have their proofs of innocence heard and justly considered. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to even listen to new proof of innocence in Leonel's case. One of the dissenting justices on the Supreme Court, Justice Blackmun, said: "The execution of a man who can show that he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder." Help us stop this simple murder! We urge all Mexican American and Hispanic families in Texas and in the U.S.A. to join our families to stop the execution of Gary Graham and Leonel Herrera. Please call and fax requests for clemency to Governor Ann Richards and to the Board of Pardons and Paroles. _Today, our sons face unjust execution. Tomorrow, it may be yours!_ And to Gary's parents, we say: We are with you. Unfortunately, sickness and economic circumstances do not allow us to be there at the Capitol with you. But our spirit is with you ... and with your son, Gary. Que Dios los bendiga. May God bless you all. Maria Herrera (Mother of Leonel) Norma Herrera Rodriguez (Sister of Leonel) ****************************************************************** 3. THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM: THE FIGHT FOR REAL WELFARE REFORM By Marian Kramer and Cheri Honkala CHICAGO -- [Here are excerpts from a longer article, originally published in the March 1993 issue of Voices From the Front, the official newspaper of the Up and Out of Poverty Now Campaign.] To us, the victims of poverty, it is of no surprise that our current President launched a successful campaign with radio and television advertisements calling for welfare reform. The campaign placed the blame of the deficit and our economic woes on welfare recipients. Even as governor of Arkansas, President Clinton embraced the Family Support Act in 1988, which we in welfare rights opposed and fought against. This act was sadly passed. He also wrote a book called Putting People First in which he describes in detail his plan of two years and off to work. In Michigan, General Assistance was set up in 1939 to act as a temporary program for change-overs in auto plants. In recent years, GA has been used for the permanently unemployed -- not the stereotyped, "lazy," "single" adults who "don't want to work," but for people who have worked all their lives and are now being permanently displaced from General Motors, IBM, etc., through robotics or other labor replacing technologies. The question is not whether or not we like these technologies, it's about who makes these decisions about how these technologies are going to be used, and how we as a people are going to survive when the jobs are being cut at the same time that our only means of survival -- our welfare checks -- are being cut or eliminated. If we understand what's happening, then we can certainly understand why President Clinton would be singing the song of time limitations for welfare recipients. President Clinton and the rich no longer need us in the way they have needed us in the past. The National Welfare Rights Union is not anti-work or anti-job training, we are pro-reality. We want real welfare reform in this country, and we know that requires revolutionary changes. ... We as welfare recipients and poor people need to get organized for this battle. We will help rebuild the infrastructure of this country, but we will do it with dignity and wages of no less than $15 an hour, so that we are able to provide for our families. Our cry is this, jobs with livable wages and increase the welfare benefits now so that we can get Up and Out of Poverty Now! ****************************************************************** 4. ALBUQUERQUE HOMESTEAD COMMITTEE JOINS FIGHT TO RECLAIM VACANT HUD HOMES By the Albuquerque Homestead Committee ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico -- On April 15 (Tax Day) the Albuquerque Homestead Committee (AHC) joined the effort of our sisters and brothers across the country to reclaim Housing and Urban Development (HUD) properties for the homeless. About 25 people marched to a HUD-owned property, vacant for several months, and claimed the house with plans to move a homeless family in. AHC was unable to move anyone into the house immediately. One reason is the fear of many homeless people in Albuquerque of police harassment and retaliation. Members of the AHC did, however, cut the HUD lock and enter the house. Before the takeover, AHC toured the neighborhood and spoke with residents, explaining our intention and asking for their support. Almost everyone said, "Go for it!" Among those who participated in the action were members of AHC, the New Mexico Organizing Committee, poor and homeless people and several mothers from Cuidando Los Ninos, a day care center for homeless children. One mother from that group told the media, "This house has been vacant for at least two or three months. There are a lot of homeless mothers here. What's wrong with letting a mother and her children live in the house?" The next day Channel 13 in Albuquerque conducted a viewer survey. They asked, "Should abandoned government-owned property be made available to provide housing for the homeless?" An overwhelming 74 percent responded "Yes" with only 26 present saying "No." It is not the people of the community who oppose such use of HUD homes, but government and business, especially the real estate brokers who receive federally guaranteed commissions for the sale of HUD property. This action was only the beginning for the AHC. We will reclaim and take over as many homes as it takes to get the City of Albuquerque and HUD to sit down and help us resolve the problem of homelessness in our city. We are committed to the struggle to end homelessness in America! No Housing -- No Peace! ****************************************************************** 5. 'THE WORKERS AND THE POOR NEED TO DRIVE THE RICH OUT' Two ex-Sears workers speak out PHILADELPHIA -- [Jack Moore and Joe Healy have each had four jobs over the last two years. They were both laid off from Sears on February 12. Sears announced at the time that its downsizing would put 50,000 workers like Jack and Joe on the street. Jack and Joe spoke to the People's Tribune.] PT: You've been unemployed, off and on again, for two years now. What's the cause and what needs to be done to change the situation? Joe: The politics of this country is causing us great harm. Clinton getting elected shows people are tired of it. I need work, steady work. If I don't get a job, I don't know what I'll do. I'll take retraining and hope I can then find work. There's no guarantees. Greed is the problem. Jack: Profits are the bottom line. If they can make the product cheaper without you, you're history! We need more controls in the hands of the working class of people. Clinton ain't gonna do anything against business as usual. We need a revolution. It's no longer a democracy of the people, for the people and by the people. Politicians are supposed to be public servants of the people, but they don't serve us. They serve the rich and powerful. The workers and poor need to drive the rich out of power. Only then will we get real change. ****************************************************************** 6. U.S. 'VIOLENCE INITIATIVE' STUDY IS A RACIST ATTACK ON INNER- CITY CHILDREN CHICAGO -- [The following article was submitted by a Chicago reader of the People's Tribune in response to the article in our April 12 issue about the federal Violence Initiative.] Rage and violent crime have always been greatest within the confining walls that some "we" community erects to demoralize "them." Call those walls segregation, apartheid, or the inner city. The "Youth Violence Initiative," the $400 million program coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control, will _not _focus on the psychological damage caused by racism, police brutality, poverty and other social factors. It will _not _focus on the mental illness of white bigots. The Violence Initiative will focus on African-American youth; it will look for a "crime gene" and develop drug and behavior modification treatments; it is a racist attempt to destroy the wills of so-called "criminal types," presumed to be rampant in the inner city. (According to an analysis by the Sentencing Project in Washington, D.C., one in four black males in their 20s is under either a jail, prison, parole or probation sentence.) The racist lie says that "bad niggers are born with bad blood." The lie ignores how economic and social oppression breeds violence and crime. The following is an excerpt from a June 3, 1938 feature article in the Chicago Tribune about a black man accused of rape and murder, Robert Nixon: "Mississippi river steamboat mates, who hire and fire roustabouts by the hundreds, would classify Nixon as a jungle Negro. They would hire him only if they were sorely in need of rousters. And they would keep close watch on him. This type is known to be ferocious and relentless in a fight. Though docile enough under ordinary circumstances, they are easily aroused. And when this happens the veneer of civilization disappears." Fifty-five years later, we find the Centers for Disease Control spending millions of dollars to develop drug treatments and behavior modification programs to neutralize the "jungle Negro." Today's programs are directed against inner-city children. Today's programs are as racist as the ways steamboat mates dealt with African Americans in the 1930s. ****************************************************************** 7. NOC'S SONJA BLUTGARTEN ON THE YVETTE SMITH CASE -- LESSONS FOR WELFARE MOMS FIGHTING FOR FAMILY SURVIVAL By Leslie Willis CHICAGO -- [Welfare moms won an important victory in San Francisco last March, when they successfully organized to keep Yvette Smith out of jail. Smith, mother of five, was convicted of welfare fraud in September 1992. San Francisco District Attorney Joan Bennett swore she'd put Smith behind bars.] [Sonja Blutgarten, Board President for the Women's Economic Agenda Project and Chair for the San Francisco Low Income Support Network, was one of the leaders in this nationally organized effort. The People's Tribune interviewed her at the founding convention of the National Organizing Committee where she was elected to the National Council.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What kind of response did you get about the Yvette Smith case? Sonja Blutgarten: From the press we got locally and from the People's Tribune, we have been getting a lot of phone calls and women contacting us who are either committing welfare fraud and are worried that they're going to get caught or have already been caught. One woman who called the office was homeless and staying at the YWCA in San Francisco. Her 13-year-old son had run away, or she thought he had run away ... but she could not even place a missing person report on her child, because there was a $10,000 warrant out for her arrest for welfare fraud charges. When you have a warrant if you go to make a police report, they arrest you. They don't even let you make your report -- they just arrest you. Then three days later when you get out, you can make your report. She was afraid that when she did turn herself in she was going to get lost in the system, which is a real legitimate fear. We worked with her around that, turning herself in. Unfortunately we couldn't find a way that she wouldn't have to do that. But they released her on her own recognizance, and now she is going to go through a trial. And where it will differ from Yvette's case is that Yvette pleaded not guilty, because she said she didn't do it. This woman will be pleading not guilty because of need. So she's going to fight it on the basis of need, which will be another land breaking case. PT: Is there anything in the law that she can use for her defense? SB: There are sections of the law that you can work with, like following the higher law. You don't win very often, but it's there. Breaking the law in order to protect life, which is obviously what welfare recipients are doing -- they are breaking the law to protect life, to protect their children. No one is going to say I'm going to report this because I know it is my obligation to report this and get it taken away from me -- when your kids are hungry! This case will be coming up in front of the same DA that prosecuted Yvette. We are going to be working with some other groups in San Francisco to call for the DA's resignation, because she did so many things in the Yvette Smith case that were absolutely illegal.... One day in the trial in front of the judge, the DA said that Yvette was harassing and threatening a witness. So the judge threw Yvette in jail.... The next day Yvette's lawyer produced this witness that was supposedly being harassed, and the woman, 82 years old, on crutches, got up on that stand and she said, 'I have not been threatened or harassed ever by Yvette or her family, I've been getting harassed and threatened by the DA!' PT: Why is the welfare mom singled out for blame? SB: The ruling class has to have somebody to blame the problems of this country on... The problems are really caused by -- the ruling class; the Bill Clintons and the George Bushes and the government. Welfare recipients are not bankrupting anything. There is so much wealth in California. They say we have to choose between education or welfare, or elderly or welfare, but what we have to choose between is a society that provides for everyone or a society that hoards and is greedy. ****************************************************************** 8. A PROGRAM OF ACTION AND EDUCATION CHICAGO -- [This program was unanimously adopted by the National Organizing Committee convention in Chicago on April 24, 1993.] This is an era of revolutionary change. Electronic technology is replacing human labor with computers and robots. Human labor is becoming worthless to a system that values only what it can exploit. The economic revolution is turning millions of people in this country into economic refugees. This system answers our cries of need with blows of terror. It offers unemployment, hunger, homelessness, welfare cuts, the AIDS epidemic and the plague of drugs. The government is turning from neglect to attack -- police murder and imprisonment of the youth, immigration raids, forced sterilization, executions and other forms of terror. The millions this system has thrown out face two choices -- either accept destruction and murder or set out to overturn this system. Technology is powerful enough to end hunger, homelessness and all want -- but only if it is seized from the exploiters and organized in the interests of those this system has discarded. We are an organization based on the people this system doesn't need. Those this system has discarded have begun a revolution -- an all-out struggle for food, homes, jobs, education, health care, freedom from police terror and drugs. Now is the time to organize and politicize this revolution that is shaking up the country. We will get only what we are organized to take. Our program is based on the revolutionary potential of those who have to fight this system in order to live. The decisive step today is to broaden and intensify the activities and influence of that movement. Based on this movement for survival, we will educate and organize revolutionary fighters from all sectors of society to wage war on the capitalist system. We call on you to join us in carrying out this program of action and education. Our program is to end poverty by seizing abandoned housing and fighting to secure food, health care and whatever else we need to survive. Our program is to put an end to the state terror by confronting the government through mass mobilization -- in the courts and in the streets. This organized action makes it possible for the millions who are being displaced, discarded and attacked by capitalism to be prepared, organized and trained to lead in overturning the whole system. Our program is to educate the millions of fighters with a blueprint of what we are all fighting for and how society can be reorganized to put an end to poverty and injustice once and for all. ****************************************************************** 9. WHEN ECONOMIC CHANGE IS THE FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL INJUSTICE, A REVOLUTION IS INEVITABLE CHICAGO -- [The following are excerpts from an address by veteran revolutionary Nelson Peery to the founding convention of the National Organizing Committee.] By Nelson Peery .... A revolution is coming in America. It is not created by the revolutionaries. It is coming from the changes in production brought about by replacing workers with robots. It is coming from the capitalist who utilized them to increase his profits. We revolutionaries do not create revolutions. We recognize and embrace them. This revolution is coming out of our past -- not simply from injustice, but from profound, deep changes in the economy. Profound changes that are producing a new, growing, destitute class that cannot exist within the old order. When economic change becomes the foundation for social injustice, a revolution is inevitable. In history, injustice is tolerable when it is connected to jobs and the basics of life. When that job and those basics are taken from us, and the injustice remains and grows, then we turn from protest to revolution. The role of the revolutionary is to organize this motion, to give it direction -- to give it heart for the battle -- to enthuse it, to unleash its militancy. How do we accomplish this? By relying on what is actually happening -- rather than what we want. The days of local activity gaining _anything_ are over. The most intelligent, the most dedicated -- the leading fighters -- know they must struggle against a national enemy with a national organization and a national press to keep all parts of the struggle informed and connected. We are creating such a national organization and have developed such a press. Our task is to contact, to convince and to bring together the scattered fighters across this mighty land by bringing together their most determined representatives. ....The most important thing I've learned in a half century of struggle for a new and decent world is this: A revolutionary must be a dreamer. Revolutionaries must not simply fight against injustice -- they must be capable of enthusing the people. This cannot be done without passing on to them visions of a different and better world. .... Yes, Comrades, fight! For fight we must! But also dream. For it is of such stuff that revolutions are made. Comrades! Are we capable of such dreams? Yes! And yes, can we visualize an America where robotics make possible the material conditions and the leisure time to complete the transition to full and happy human beings? Can we visualize an America and a world free from ethnic strife and racism? Can we visualize with Walt Whitman the birth of the most splendid race the sun has ever shone upon? Can we visualize a peaceful, happy world? Yes! Can we create these things? Yes! We say to friend and foe alike, yes! Yes we can! Yes we will! Our time has come! ****************************************************************** 10. UNCALLED FOR Rap lyrics by Patricia Scott Copyright (c) 1993. All rights reserved. PHILADELPHIA -- TEN years ago this day and age Move people moved on sixty-second and OSAGE. It was fine at first but neighbors started to complain, The bullhorn was driving them insane. There were arguments between neighbors and Move But they couldn't understand what they were trying to prove. It is the system that's what they say And they're gonna try and beat it in their own way. They put a man on the roof with a rifle in his hand So the neighbors on the block said call the man. Cops came around and just sat and stared The man on the roof was still standing there. But nothing came of that situation It was all about their confrontation. On a hot summer day there was a argument Move and a cop had a disagreement. Move hit him in the head with a blunt object and the Officers they really got upset. The cop reach for his gun and they tussled over it Then the gun went off but no one got hit. Less than five minutes more police arrived They beat the man with their sticks in his head and thighs. Threw him in the wagon, stood around Just to see if anything was gonna go down. They just hung around, Move curse them out And that's just what that scene was all about. It's uncalled for in this human race It's uncalled for it is a big disgrace It's uncalled for in this world to be And the ones that suffer are you and me. They run at night when most people are asleep And in the day time wash their clothes in Cobbs Creek. Boarded up the windows and that's not all Build a fence from the house to the stone wall. Dug a tunnel from house to the park Running on the roof top late after dark. There was a odor seeping from the house to next door And the neighbors would complain they couldn't take it no more. So they had a block meeting with the neighborhood Their decision was to meet with Mayor Goode. "There's nothing I can do," was the Mayor's reply "cause they haven't committed any kind of crime." So the neighbors took the situation day by day And Move kept living in their own way. And on and on this mess prolonged And the way it all ends is totally wrong. It's uncalled for in this human race It's uncalled for it is a big disgrace It's uncalled for in this world to be And the ones that suffer are you and me. It was May thirteenth things weren't going so great When the neighbors on the block had to evacuate. Channel six , channel ten, channel three was there and KYW was in the air. 6 AM I heard shots going on, helicopters flying by all morning long And all I smelled was teargas coming through the house Turned on the NEWS and they said they're trying to smoke 'em out. Fireman shooting water on top of the roof Two bunkers on the roof one was waterproof. I can imagine how it feels to be in Vietnam 'Cause later that day they dropped the bomb. Sitting on my step just two blocks away Is when they dropped that bomb right after Mothers' Day. It went straight to the bottom, wood flew off the top And all I seen was black smoke coming out nonstop. Felt like an earthquake, people looking concern Firemen just standing there watching it burn. Tried to stay up late, 'til I fell asleep Jumped up the next morning just to take a peek. Sixty-one homes destroyed in the blaze Everyone just standing there looking amazed. Nothing but burned wall all about to fall And eleven people killed on top of it all. Tell me what the cause, tell me who's the blame Which is causing us agony and pain. Lots of people homeless, only two survived One child, one adult all because of pride. It's uncalled for in this human race It's uncalled for it is a big disgrace It's uncalled for in this world to be And the ones that suffer are you and me!" ****************************************************************** 11. BRAZIL: SAME FIGHT, SAME ENEMY: AMERICA FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN By Gonaalo Part 1 Homelessness CHICAGO -- _Gonalo is an active participant in Brazil's powerful movement of the homeless. He visited San Francisco and Oakland in February and gave this interview to the_ _People's Tribune_ _and the_ _Tribuno del Pueblo_. When I came to visit this country, I never thought I would see homeless people, much less an organized homeless movement. After all, the U.S. is the richest country in the world and the great champion of capitalism. In Latin America, we are told that the U.S. is the land of liberty and opportunity. No one knows about what is going on here. Our homeless movement began about 10 years ago. We have developed more. But everything about our movements are just the same -- same classes, same unemployment, same issues, same problems, same battles, same arguments among ourselves. The early 1980s were the time of greatest economic crisis in Brazil. The prices of food and necessities would go up every day. Some years food would cost 30 times more at the end of the year than at the beginning. As a result, lots of people got laid off and became homeless. One thing in the U.S. that is different from Brazil is that there all the big cities have public land at the edges. Here you have no public land but have lots of empty buildings. There it's the opposite. Our homeless take over public land and build houses on it and then try to force the government to leave them there. At first people would take over land on an individual and sporadic basis. The police killed many. At this time people were still confused. They still believed that it was their fault that they were homeless. After a while, people realized that it was the capitalist system that was putting them on the street. Then people began to plan to attack the system together. [To be continued. Read the next part of Gonalo's interview to see how months of preparation led to unity and great victories for the homeless.] ****************************************************************** 12. WHITE, BLACK, MEXICAN -- IF YOU LIVE IN THE AREA, YOU GET HARASSED! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "Deadly Force" is a weekly column dedicated to exposing the scope of police terror in the United States. We open our pages to you, the front line fighters against brutality and deadly force. Send us eyewitness accounts, clippings, press releases, appeals for support, letters, photos, opinions and all other information relating to this life and death fight. Send them to People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Ill. 60654, or call (312) 486- 3551. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ By Dianne Flowers SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA -- After the shooting deaths of two Compton police in February, the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE talked with people in Compton and nearby cities. The following is an interview with Jason Weeks from North Long Beach, California. PT: What have been your experiences with the police? J. Weeks: It doesn't matter if you're black, white, Mexican. If you live in the area, you get harassed. Like if you're standing outside kicking it, they stop and flash a bright light and say, "Everybody, hands on the hood." You got six cars on you just in front of your house listening to the radio. They run all our licenses and check for warrants. One time we were just pulling up to the house in North Long Beach. Eight cop cars came. They asked how come we had the stereo, how could we afford it. They searched us for weapons. They were lifting up the seats, looking under the hood, in the trunk. One cop kept asking us what organization we were from. He said, "I'm from the L.A. County Sheriffs Department. If you're from an organization why don't you claim your shit? Say it! This is the Sheriffs, what you going to do about it?" If they let the cops off again in the Rodney King trial, I would not be proud to say I'm an American. J. Weeks: The system throws big things at people, like no jobs. Then we fight each other instead of going out and fighting the system. That all white people live in big houses and have money -- that's not true. White people are being stereotyped. But all white people don't agree with the system. White people don't have to stick with white people. The system plays big-time games, it tries to say all white people are good and all black people are bad. ****************************************************************** 13. FIERY SPECTACLE IN WACO We live under a gov't that destroys our lives in order to 'save' them -- this must stop! By Beth Gonzalez We may never know what really happened in the Ranch Apocalypse compound outside Waco, Texas, and how the two dozen children and the other compound residents died. But we do know what our government said and what it did. The FBI had to oversee the burning of the children in order to "save" them. They simply "ran out of patience." Our government has already had practice with this sort of thing. On May 13, 1985, the Philadelphia Police Department bombed a home in that city in order to evict the members of the group called Move. The Philadelphia police, in consultation with the Los Angeles Police Department SWAT Team murdered seven adults and four children and left 250 in the West Philadelphia neighborhood homeless. By its twisted logic, the government has stepped up its attacks against the people under the flag of helping them. What about the war on drugs that takes away our rights, and puts innocent people in prison -- all in the name of protecting people from drugs? The latest word from a Justice Department spokesperson is that the way to win the "war on drugs" is to go after the hard-core addicts. What about drug treatment for addicts? People with drug problems ask for treatment but instead get billy clubs in their ribs. And then there's the crackdown on our youth in order to "save them" from killing each other in gang warfare. The police suspend constitutional rights and set up almost every inner city youth with a police record. They beat and murder our youth at will -- all in the name of protecting the young people from themselves. The youth call for peace among the gangs and the jobs and education to back up that peace. But the government has no patience for jobs. It responds instead with more tanks, police terror and prison cells. Yes there are real solutions to real problems. The massacre at Waco tells us that our government no longer has "patience" for real solutions like drug treatment, jobs or anything else the people need. The government will go straight to imprisoning and murdering the people in order to "protect" them. This government doesn't give a damn about us and our problems. The message of Waco is that this is what it's coming to in this country -- if we let them get away with it. But we don't have to let them get away with it. We can resist every move of the government toward a police state. We don't have to trust them and let them get away with killing our children in order to "save them." We can put forward the real solutions and gather the strength of the millions who need those solutions. This rotten government and the system it protects can't stand up to that. ****************************************************************** 14. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, published weekly in Chicago, is devoted to the proposition that an economic system which can't or won't feed, clothe and house its people ought to be and will be changed. To that end, this paper is a tribune of the people. It is the voice of the millions struggling for survival. It strives to educate politically those millions on the basis of their own experience. It is a tribune to bring them together, to create a vision of a better world, and a strategy to achieve it. Join us! 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