From jdav@mcs.com Date: Sat, 24 Sep 94 13:02 CDT From: James Davis To: pt.dist@umich.edu Subject: People's Tribune 10-3-94 (Online) ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 40 / October 3, 1994 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 40 / October 3, 1994 FRONT PAGE STORY FOLLOWS INDEX Editorial 1. OPPOSE THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF HAITI News 2. NEW MEXICO HOMELESS GROUP WILL PROTEST AT POLICE MEETING 3. WELFARE FOR THE RICH: GOVERNMENT HANDS OUT 'GOLDEN MCNUGGETS' TO SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES 4. WHERE DID I GO WRONG? (POEM) 5. TOWN HALL MEETING: RESIDENTS DENOUNCE NEGLECT IN CHICAGO PUBLIC HOUSING 6. WE WILL MISS EVANGELIST JOANNE JORDAN (CHICAGO) 7. WHICH WAY FOR PHILLY LABOR? 8. WILL CONGRESS CAP MEDICARE AND MEDICAID? 9. RELIGIOUS PEOPLE BELONG IN THE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY! Deadly Force 10. FALLOUT FROM CRIME BILL WILL BE FAR-REACHING 11. NAMELESS CROSSES, ROW UPON ROW: END STATE SPONSORED KILLING! Culture Under Fire 12. RAPPING WITH MC THINK OF DA BAD KIDZ 13. OVER THERE (POEM) Letters 14. GEORGIA LAW DESIGNED TO WEAKEN LABOR 15. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PAGE 1 STORY OPRAH'S LIST Oprah Winfrey, the talk show host and one of the entertainment world's wealthiest women, has committed an act of charity -- and shamed capitalism. On September 13 she announced she was donating $3 million to fund a Families for a Better Life program. Under this program, to be administered by the Chicago-based Jane Addams Hull House Association, 100 families in public housing will get job training, housing assistance, health care, family counseling, educational help and other services. Within days, more than 20,000 callers deluged Hull House. Press reports said the calls came from single mothers, people with sick children, families whose children have learning disabilities. "You can hear the pain in their voices, but you can also hear the hope," one Hull House staffer was quoted as saying. Oprah knows as well as anyone else who's serious about changing society that this will not end poverty. Hers is an "Oprah's list," of victims of poverty to be saved from the economic holocaust of capitalism, just as Schindler's list saved a portion of Europe's Jews from the Nazi holocaust. Oprah Winfrey's gesture has re-directed part of her wealth to fulfill the needs of a tiny portion of the 80 million Americans in poverty. But to end poverty itself, the entire class of those victims of poverty will have to take it upon themselves to redirect the wealth they created with their own labor to meet our needs for free. That is the kind of society we must look toward and fight for. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: OPPOSE THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF HAITI By The Political Committee of the NOC The National Organizing Committee condemns the U.S. military occupation of Haiti which began September 19. We condemn the shameful agreement negotiated September 18 by representatives of the Clinton administration with the brutal junta which illegally seized control of Haiti three years ago. This agreement completely exonerates a gang of killers for their crimes. The ruling class of the United States has not sent thousands of troops to Haiti to "restore democracy" there. No, it has sent troops to Haiti in order to crush the movement for a better life being waged by the poor of Haiti, who comprise the overwhelming majority of Haitians. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. One percent of the population controls almost half of Haiti's wealth. Seventy-five percent of the children are malnourished. Factory workers make the equivalent of 14 cents per hour. The legal minimum wage is 25 cents per hour. Far from being a friend of the masses of Haitians, the ruling class of the United States has always opposed democracy in Haiti. Between 1849 and 1913, U.S. Navy ships entered Haitian waters 24 times. In 1915, U.S. Marines occupied Haiti and stayed there until 1934. During that occupation, 10,000 Haitians were killed. >From 1957 until 1986, Haitian tyrants "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son "Baby Doc" Duvalier were given hundreds of millions of dollars in aid by successive administrations in Washington. When mass protest forced "Baby Doc" Duvalier to flee Haiti in February 1986, he was whisked to France on a U.S. Air Force jet. In the years since the ouster of the Duvalier family, the Haitian people have struggled to get rid of the brutal system that family left behind -- Duvalierism without the Duvaliers. An important step in this process was taken on December 16, 1990, when over two-thirds of the Haitian people voted for Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide for president. Aristide, a progressive priest in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Haiti's capital, wanted to raise Haiti's minimum wage to 37 cents an hour and carry out other reforms. On September 30, 1991, Aristide's government, the legally elected government of Haiti, was overthrown in a military coup led by Lt. General Raoul Cedras, one of several high-ranking Haitian military officers who had been on the CIA's payroll since 1986. The coup was directed not just against Aristide but against the movement of Haiti's poor which Aristide symbolized. At least 1,000 people were killed in the first few weeks following the coup. Thousands more have been killed since. Tens of thousands have been beaten, jailed, tortured or forced into hiding. While the Bush and Clinton administrations officially condemned the Haitian coup and demanded Aristide's return to power, both administrations also worked overtime after the coup to undercut Aristide. Both administrations engaged in behind-the-scenes efforts to force Aristide to negotiate with the coup's leaders, to grant them amnesty and ultimately to share power with them. The negotiations carried out on September 17-18 by former President Carter were the final culmination of this process. The United States is now occupying Haiti, just like it did in 1915, and the media is speculating that Cedras may run for president of Haiti in 1995. Today, the poor of Haiti and the United States face a common enemy. In both countries, one percent of the population controls almost half the wealth and refuses to change that situation. The massive build-up of U.S. troops in Port-au-Prince which began September 19 is designed to do the same thing that the massive police build-ups in major U.S. cities are designed to do: hold back the struggle of hungry people for a better life. Those of us who are fighting against hunger and unemployment here in the United States should demand an immediate end to the U.S. occupation of Haiti and an end to U.S. support for the Cedras junta. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ HAITIAN WRITER PROTESTS U.S. OCCUPATION As a Haitian patriot and writer, I protest against the second occupation of Haiti by the United States, with the collaboration of Cedras' criminal army and the bloody de facto regime, the complicity of the Organization of American States and the approval of the United Nations Security Council. Obviously, there is a split between the Clinton administration and President Aristide's constitutional and popular government, which still supports the Governors Island accord and ignores the Carter- Jonassaint agreement, ratified by Washington. The U.S. government cannot fool all the people all the time. When they are finally organized, the Haitian masses will rise to liberate themselves and defend our national sovereignty. Paul Laraque, former secretary-general of the Association of Haitian Writers Abroad New York, September 21, 1994 +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 2. NEW MEXICO HOMELESS GROUP WILL PROTEST AT POLICE MEETING By the New Mexico Union Of The Homeless ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico -- On October 15-20, the International Association of Police Chiefs will hold a convention in Albuquerque. Seven thousand people will attend. We want to send a message to the chief "crime-stoppers": being homeless is not a crime -- but it is criminal that there are over seven million homeless Americans! Confirmed guest speakers include: Janet Reno, attorney general of the United States; Louis Freeh, FBI director; and Lee P. Brown, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Bill Clinton has been invited to speak, but at the present time it is not known if he will accept. The New Mexico Union of the Homeless is calling for the support of homeless people across America, to join us in a rally to let the world know that we cannot and will not, any longer accept the oppression, harassment, abuse and degradation that is forced upon us every day. We are putting America on notice -- something has to change! With the current administration acknowledging seven million homeless in America, we must be the first to recognize and realize that we are one of the most powerful groups in America if we organize and unite our forces! We must reach out and join our brothers and sister everywhere. Wherever you live, if you are homeless or not, head for Albuquerque, friends. Let's have at least one homeless guest to greet every one of the 7,000 IACP stooges. You can contact us or leave messages for New Mexico Union of the Homeless members Don Van Pelt, Jack Weaver, Jim Savidge, or Kenny Brandt at Albuquerque Street News, 1019 2nd Street SW, 505-842- 8314, or at the St. Martin's Hospitality Center, 1201 3rd Street NW, 505-843-9405. We need you! You need us! We all need one another, because we are one! ****************************************************************** 3. WELFARE FOR THE RICH: GOVERNMENT HANDS OUT 'GOLDEN MCNUGGETS' TO SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES At the same time that an unemployed mother with a child is begrudged a couple hundred dollars in welfare, wealthy people receive millions in handouts from our government. If you can grease the right palms, you can at least double your money. Here's how it works. Wealthy individuals and companies form a Political Action Committee (PAC) and give money to political campaigns. In return they receive huge chunks of tax dollars back. For example, the McDonald's Corporation PAC gave $233,400 to campaigns in 1992 and they got back $456,000 from the government to promote Chicken McNuggets abroad. Gallo Wines did even better. Their PAC put $150,000 in the kitty and got back $5.1 million. But Sunkist Growers cleaned up on their PAC gift of $133,360 -- they scored $17.8 million! This welfare for the rich is criminal. We need to end it and use the money to feed, house, educate and care for the "truly" needy of this land. ****************************************************************** 4. WHERE DID I GO WRONG? Where did I go wrong? I did everything they said! I had a job. I had a home. I had a car. I raised my kids to believe the "American Dream." I made them go to school. They even went to church! They didn't like it -- but they went. I spoke all the words; I knew all the lines! If you believe you can achieve! If you try you can have a piece of the pie! Oh! How we tried! We even registered to vote! Where did I go wrong? Somewhere I failed. Oh, yes, I did! How do I know? Because my children looked at me and wanted to know; "Daddy, why don't we have a home? Is it because you didn't try? Or, did you, somehow, just tell us a lie? You promised the dream would come true! So, we believed in you." Then, they tried another way. My son? He steals to buy his crack. My daughter? She supports her habit on her back. My wife? She gave up long ago. Barbiturate overdose, I think that's what they said. Where did I go wrong? What? How can that be! What do you mean There's no "American Dream" for me and you? Oh! Now I see. It's only for that special few. Gee! I think it's time to make a change! Now, I know where I went wrong! God! How I hope we didn't wait too long! -- Don Van Pelt August 25, 1994 Albuquerque, New Mexico ****************************************************************** 5. TOWN HALL MEETING: RESIDENTS DENOUNCE NEGLECT IN CHICAGO PUBLIC HOUSING By Peter Byrd and Rich Capalbo CHICAGO -- Angry public housing residents from the Robert Taylor Homes met September 14 for a "town hall" meeting. They came to voice their frustration with the continued neglect from the Chicago Housing Authority and the increasing abuse they receive from Chicago police and CHA cops. "I have more fear of police harassing my children than I have of any other danger here," one resident told a Lieutenant Evans of the CHA police. Another resident, who was handcuffed and insulted in his own apartment during an illegal "sweep," stated, "I have been abused and humiliated. I have no rights because you (police) don't look out for them. Don't violate my sanctuary!" The residents' complaints fell on deaf ears. Officials take notes and do nothing. To live in public housing is to be part of the class of people that our country's rulers can no longer employ and exploit, and therefore, are trying to isolate, ignore and destroy. Good housing, jobs, human rights and a decent standard of living are not in their plans for us. The property occupied by public housing is worth more to the ruling class than the people who live there. Their neglect and abuse lays the conditions for our removal. But we have our own ideas and our own plans. We have told CHA. We have told HUD. We have told the elected politicians. We will not put up with their mistreatment forever. We can take the solution to CHA problems into our own hands. It is time to move past complaining to people who cannot or will not respond. If we want to keep our homes and communities, we will have to fight them. We will build on the militant demands that came out of this town hall meeting. We are learning that we can speak for ourselves. We can organize for ourselves and fight for ourselves. No phony leaders can represent us in this battle for a decent place to live. Even as the meeting was ending, not two blocks away, Chicago police were locking down and sweeping the courtyard of one of the Robert Taylor units. (The sweeps have been challenged in the courts and are supposed to be illegal, but they continue on a weekly basis.) Officers ringed the buildings, searching everyone going in or out while at least 40 children were herded onto a basketball court and ordered to lie on the ground. If we can't stop this, what kind of neighbors are we? ****************************************************************** 6. WE WILL MISS EVANGELIST JOANNE JORDAN CHICAGO -- We wish to note the recent passing of Evangelist Joanne Jordan, associate minister of the New Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago. Evangelist Jordan was known to the homeless and hungry of Chicago for "taking the message to the streets," and for her selfless efforts to bring material as well as spiritual relief to those in need. Even her church did not fully approve of her work at first. She took money from her own pocket to make up hygiene and food packages to distribute to homeless people. Soon, however, her good work was appreciated and supported by her church, which now feeds homeless and hungry people on Wednesday every week. The People's Tribune met Evangelist Jordan through the People's Campaign for Jobs, Housing and Food, when they were living in huts and fighting the city of Chicago, demanding a place to live. Evangelist Jordan, along with her husband, Deacon Jordan, and her associate, the Rev. Charles E. Robeson, unquestioningly stood behind the fighters in the huts and their revolutionary fight for homes and justice. The people in the huts, in turn, adopted Evangelist Jordan's street ministry as their church. The movement for justice in America will miss Joanne Jordan, as we miss her friends and our comrades, Jeff Freed and Dwayne Snyder, who also have recently departed us. Our class never can have too many visionaries and pathfinders on our road to justice. We will miss them and we will fight on in their names. ****************************************************************** 7. WHICH WAY FOR PHILLY LABOR? By the Delaware Valley chapter of the National Organizing Committee PHILADELPHIA -- As we all know, livable-wage jobs are being eliminated at an ever-increasing rate. This now includes jobs in the public sector, where in the private sector it has already reached crisis proportions. Every attack against the working class in this country has always begun with an attack directed first against the most vulnerable section of the class. This strategy of our enemy is intended to split our class, to drive down the living standards of the entire working class. Witness the 1990-91 budget cuts of homeless shelters and services by the city of Philadelphia. The next year followed with an assault by the city on all city workers. This November, 12,000 Philadelphia residents will be cut from the welfare rolls, putting thousands more on the streets -- homeless with no income! The city has a plan: Mayor Rendell hopes to "open up" and increase the number of non-union city jobs in various departments and agencies. The city administration plans to fill these part-time, low-wage jobs with those cut from the welfare rolls. The divide- and-conquer strategy is being used again. Unions in Philadelphia have three options: first, attack the unemployed and play right into the city strategy; second, do nothing and watch more decent-paying union jobs evaporate; and third, support and work with the organizations of the unemployed in an all-out struggle for real, livable-wage jobs. The guarantee of livable-wage jobs or income for the unemployed is the only way to maintain the livable-wage jobs of the employed. Join us in building an organization with a winning program and strategy. Join the Delaware Valley chapter of the National Organizing Committee. [For more information, call 609-435-0962 in New Jersey or 215-545- 2034 in Pennsylvania.] ****************************************************************** 8. WILL CONGRESS CAP MEDICARE AND MEDICAID? By Jim Fite WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The August 31 New York Times quoted Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell as saying that if "health reform" is not passed this year, then "there will be a cap on Medicaid and Medicare enacted next year." Medicare is a federal single-payer health insurance program for 32 million elderly and four million disabled people. This program pays 59 percent of what private insurers pay for covered medical services. Many people have to buy a "gap" insurance to cover the difference between what Medicare will pay the doctor or hospital and what they charge. When Congress reduces Medicare, it means they are lessening the percentage of what Medicare will pay, thus shifting the cost to the elderly and disabled. For a retired steel worker and his wife, the cost of "medigap" insurance -- to pay the difference between the hospital and doctor charges and what Medicare will pay -- is over $700 a quarter. This means that one Social Security check out of three pays for medigap insurance. As the New York Times said on August 31: "There is little support in Congress for any proposal that would authorize the Government to regulate or limit private health spending, but there is strong bipartisan support for legislation to limit Federal spending through Medicare and Medicaid." Medicaid is a federal-state program for 33 million low-income people and it pays 47 percent of what private insurers pay doctors. Many doctors refuse to take Medicaid. The numbers of people in these programs is swelling because workers are being laid off and losing their work-based insurance. In the United States today, 67 million people are in these programs and another 45 million have no insurance at all. This means that one out of two people in the United States has no insurance or a partial government subsidy. When Congress reduces the Medicaid and Medicare budgets, this means a reduction in the percentage of the bills these programs will pay. These programs spend three cents of every dollar on administration. The leader of managed care, the HMO chain U.S. Healthcare Inc., "keeps 30 cents of every premium dollar to pay for salaries, marketing, administration and shareholder dividends." (Wall Street Journal of September 6, 1994). The federal programs are important because the government has a harder time cutting off health care than private insurers do. The government health care is directly subject to protest and petition, while the private health care insurance companies can cut benefits for the sake of "the stockholders." In the private medicine example, the government protects the rights of insurance companies to make a guaranteed profit. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CONFERENCE ON SINGLE-PAYER CARE SET FOR OCT. 14 IN MARYLAND By Michele Hax Fite BALTIMORE -- A conference on single-payer health care will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, October 14, at the General Services Administration Conference Center, Middle River Federal Depot, 2800 Eastern Boulevard in Middle River, Maryland. The conference will be addressed in general sessions by invited speakers from Congress and from state legislatures. The conference will be organized into rotating and repeating workshops. The workshop titles will include: The Principles of the Single-Payer Health Care System; What is Managed Care and Why It Will Fail; How Single- Payer Health Care Would Affect Medical Education; How Single Payer Will Improve Urban Health Care; Health Care Politics; Home Health Care and Social Work Delivery in an Era of Managed Care and Health Care for the Disabled and Poor. The registration fee is $20. Checks should be made to the White Lung Association (nonprofit sponsor), P.O. Box 1483, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. For further information, contact Jim Fite at 410-243-5864 or Michele Hax Fite at 410-254-4602. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 9. RELIGIOUS PEOPLE BELONG IN THE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY! By Dottie Stevens BOSTON -- The Bible talks to me of beauty and glory and of what it should be like on this earth. God has made himself a stronghold forever for us. It says, "Believe God and you will have something to hold on to in bad times." It states that righteousness is the way, that we should be glad to be alive and women should rejoice because God's judgments are good. God wants us to be free to explore and experience the good things and use what we learn to make life better for our children. If we know that God is our stronghold, we will become greater and greater. If we just have faith in God. The thorn in the flesh -- who hasn't got one of them? I've prayed about my weaknesses, but they didn't go away. So the Scripture tells us none of us is perfect. Only Jesus was perfect. As a welfare recipient most of my life, I am looked down upon by some in this society. I have been spat upon, given the finger, told to get a job, that I am lazy and have no pride. I have been forced to live on income 55 percent below the poverty level in this state, and have reviewed letters from people who didn't know me personally, who wrote that I should smarten up and get off the dole. I know God's purpose for this through the Scriptures. Be content and bloom where you are planted -- as a welfare activist. Today, I know I am in the right place! In this church in Roxbury is the right place for me. In this city of Boston is the right place for now, and in the United States of America is the right place for now. And this is the right time, when welfare reform is being proposed by President Clinton. His welfare reform is not good reform. His welfare reform is cutting children and their families off of an already inadequate cash program. President Clinton has the chance to go down in history as the president who solved the problem of poverty in this country -- if he wants to do so. Jesus Christ was, in my opinion, an absolute organizer. He chose 12 apostles for different roles in his ministry. He believed in women's rights and children's rights. Jesus' own mother, Mary, was a model for us 2,000 years ago. She was a 15-year-old unwed mother who had no housing, and no access to medical care. She was held up as a model of righteousness and was revered by many. Yet, this country has made motherhood a dirty word if you are a single parent who needs financial aid. This is not God's plan. This the work of corrupt politicians striving to further their political base and get votes. This is corporate greed and those with power and riches keep it through bribes, loopholes and manipulation. Until this country realizes that life is sacred and money will not make it in the Kingdom of God, we must persevere, we must work toward what is righteous and never waver or look back and strive toward the goals of economic justice, peace and love for all human beings. Our souls are eternal, we will go on forever. This lifetime is over quickly. What do you choose? As for me and my household, we choose life. But if this society is based on the monetary system to survive, it should be accessible to all people for basic human needs. We are all workers if we are alive. We are all at different levels of development. To some, just trying to breathe is hard work. It is not our place to judge others. America is the richest nation under God. ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 10. FALLOUT FROM CRIME BILL WILL BE FAR-REACHING By Anthony D. Prince CHICAGO -- Lake in the Hills and Crystal Lake are quiet, picturesque communities of comfortable ranch houses and broad streets northwest of Chicago. People there are not used to seeing squad cars flying through the streets or hearing police gunfire punctuate the still of a late summer morning. But that's what happened September 6 when a fusillade of bullets crashed through a car window, narrowly missed Sharon Parker and took the life of her former boyfriend, William Dewey Cole, a fleeing ex-felon. Parker was a lot luckier than dozens of others killed almost daily as cops increasingly ignore rules regarding high-speed chases, use of "reasonable" force, use of deadly force and other "police procedure." Now, with the signing into law on September 13 of the federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (the so- called crime bill), we are bound to see more of the same. Here's why. It was no accident that every time President Bill Clinton campaigned for the crime bill he was flanked by police. Alongside $8 billion for prison construction, an expanded list of crimes now punishable by death and a "three strikes and you're out" provision, the centerpiece of the $30 billion package is the "Community Oriented Policing Services." "COPS" is a $10.1 billion program to bring 100,000 new officers into the streets and link them directly to thousands of so-called "social service groups" in the most "crime-ridden" (read: poorest) neighborhoods. The requirement of a "police component" in social service administration is tantamount to blackmail. Providers will be placed under the heel of law enforcement as a virtual condition of their existence. Some people have already experienced the kind of "community- oriented policing" the crime bill makes official national policy. A woman involved with one program in a Brooklyn, New York neighborhood was herself beaten and jailed in 1992 by the same cops with whom she had shared coffee and donuts for months. Furious, neighbors followed her to the precinct where they denounced "community policing" as a fraud. As he campaigned for and signed the crime bill, President Bill Clinton completely ignored the issue of police abuse. Clinton's silence while adding 100,000 more cops is a bright green light to police across this country who will continue to mete out "street justice" as they see fit. America is about to learn the true intent of "community policing" and the federal crime bill -- to control the poorest and most desperate segment of our population. Playing on the public's concern over crime, another nail has been pounded into the coffin of civil rights and democracy in this country. The cops are now even freer to disregard whatever civilian oversight still exists. The net effect will be to draw broader segments of the population into struggle against police brutality, against the massive budget cuts mandated by prison construction and against repressive measures at the state and local level inspired by the federal crime bill. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ TO OUR READERS: With the passage of the crime bill, those at the front lines of the fight against police brutality and repression must assess the new demands of the moment. For almost five years, the People's Tribune's "Deadly Force" column has been instrumental in sharing the news and views of those in the trenches of this all-important fight. Now, the overriding need is to unify the genuine leadership, to weld together the scattered struggles against police violence in the streets, the prisons and on the picket lines with a program that challenges the system at its roots. In the weeks to come, we will do just that. Now, more than ever, we need your stories, your point of view, your help in distributing and financing the People's Tribune and other publications essential to the struggle. We await your response. Sincerely, The Editors +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 11. NAMELESS CROSSES, ROW UPON ROW: END STATE SPONSORED KILLING! By Maria Elena Castellanos HUNTSVILLE, Texas (near the execution chamber and cemetery) -- Stirring sights and sounds cut through the noise of the 10 p.m. news. People laying flowers on nameless alabaster crosses. Black, white and brown hands clapping to the rhythm of a rousing Negro spiritual ... faces oblivious to the gun-toting guards way up high in the prison tower. Something unusual had happened deep in the heart of Texas and around the world earlier that day. People stood in front of execution chambers and government offices worldwide bowing their heads in silent protest. The silence screamed for a stop to state- sponsored killing. This was the Unity Day Against the Death Penalty observed on August 20. It was an idea launched in Europe earlier this year. The bloodthirsty Texas government alone is responsible for nearly one-third of all Death Row killings in the United States since 1976. A torrent of facts tell the awful tale of the real purpose of the death penalty ... it is a brutal tool of intimidation and class oppression. The death penalty in the United States -- and especially in Texas -- serves not to punish the guilty or deter crime. This government's terror is imposed upon innocent young minorities, the poor, and the mentally disabled in disproportionately large numbers. Texas alone, with its 385 Death Row inmates, has more people awaiting execution than all of South Africa. An international leader who is fighting to save innocent Death Row inmate Ricardo Aldape Guerra of Mexico charged, "The death penalty is used by government to put down and terrorize entire generations of poor people whose poverty is pushing them to the edge of rebellion." She continued: "Do you realize that Jesus, born homeless, was a victim of the death penalty? Do you know that 72 years before Jesus' birth, the Roman slaveowners ordered the crucifixion of 6,000 slaves in a fruitless effort to put down a slave rebellion? ... The death penalty is an ancient tool of social control and class oppression!" New organizing tactics and massive civil disobedience, like those used during the civil rights movement, are the call of the day. As the Unity Day of protest drew to a close, blood-red carnations were laid on the nameless white crosses. The government has made its intentions clear. We are not nameless! Let's stop them. To join the fight to stop the executions, contact: Binational Network Against the Death Penalty (USA-Mexico) in care of the People's Tribune, the Tribuno del Pueblo, and the National Organizing Committee, P.O. Box 7431, Houston, Texas 77248-7431. Or call 713-222-7517. ****************************************************************** 12. RAPPING WITH MC THINK OF DA BAD KIDZ By Scott Pfeiffer CHICAGO -- MC Think of Da Bad Kidz represents the censor's nightmare. A young musician, speaker and rebel, Think wears a grin as he leaps barriers between Chicago's rock and hip-hop worlds, an acoustic guitar slung over his back. His impishness (he's as influenced by Boys Jerky and Beastie as by NWA and BDP; is hot to sample the Coasters' Bobby Nunn) is belied by the earnestness with which he drops science. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: In a country with enormous poverty, do you think censorship is here because music is so powerful in bringing people together? MC THINK: Yeah, definitely. I think Martin Luther King put it really well when he said that music was the soul of the movement. I truly believe that, because a lot of my personal education of social injustices was from the street level, but also learned through music, and also people. You grow when you listen to other people express themselves. And now they're trying to use the coined term "gangsta rap" to scare everybody, but they're also pulling Public Enemy off the racks and other things as well. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: As Chicagoans, we have representing us in Congress Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, who's held anti-rap hearings. What are your thoughts on how to deal with this? MC THINK: As far as these senators like Carol Moseley-Braun and some of these other black leaders that have gone against the gangsta rap, it's pretty disappointing. It's the poets that kick it the way they know it. The people who are kickin' it about their environment, that's showing America what it's created. People have to fight over minimal resources and that's why people are killing each other off. Gangsta rap is legitimate and it shows what Lady America has created. It should be in everybody's face, and that way maybe people will really start to confront the problems. Instead of pointing to the poets, I think that people should start pointing at the root of the problems. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Can you tell us about suppression of graffiti? MC THINK: Suppression of graffiti art is another form of censorship, and is also the same as with the music. The Establishment is throwing out the same coined terms. They always use "gang" When they raided the Hash Crew, a prominent graffiti crew from Chicago, the paper said, "Police Raid Graffiti Gang's Headquarters." None of those kids gang-bang. They co-opt these terms and then they can just throw them out and it strikes fear into everybody. There's more graffiti now than ever. Some of the more political graffiti artists get a little self-righteous about some of the other taggers. They say, "Oh, they're not saying anything." No, they are. Even if they're just doing their name, that's cool. No matter, when people do graffiti, it's always challenging the structure of art, the structure of society and it's challenging private property. I think it's a beautiful thing. [Look for the complete interview in _Rock Out Censorship_.] ****************************************************************** 13. OVER THERE (POEM) police state police state police gas mask hides you beat stick protects you enables you to do you put some guns in the air let the smog float the scent of iron ready to catch fire put a few hundred police men here six hundred national guard there and over there the marines with shiny t.v. silver saber unmarred not tarnished they're ready they've done panama iraq somalia and the "urban warfare training" sacking storming small town mock up (complete with korea) now their ready for l.a. sun screen on sun glasses in place behind helmet shielded head they're ready for a tanning they're ready for the city to go boom the pawns are in place pitted american against american time tick tock tock ticking bomb its a steady fuse that won't be blown out 'cause the white eagle must be spray painted black class riot race war city divided big brother stamped a hologram on your license LIFESENTENCE to drive california magnetic strip proves you computer knows you where's the next dust bowl gonna be oranges lemons avocados of wrath counties divide state three sections take take take you california but nobody wants l.a. who'll put the stars on the boulevard who'll shine the white sign who'll keep the movies running who'll see the plays mirror les miserables l.a. who'll listen to the beat blasting down the streets who'll make the glitz who'll see but you on the safe side of the t.v. the governor can't keep it safe golden state turned zinc penny flatten under ghost train citizens looking to martyr a king california has no right to a crown wilson can't fit it or wear it wilson can't do it wilson don't know how to make it so ... police state police state police tanks can roll over their own land rockets red glare over store front glass upon ground soldiers can march over there over there the police are coming over there over there the police on trail say a prayer say a prayer my california coast see the oil take the blue green cold water memory cause like the dinosaurs your being used liberty burnt the pie in the oven mom cut down the apple tree and the crust is dust --Ted Vaca ****************************************************************** 14. LETTER: GEORGIA LAW DESIGNED TO WEAKEN LABOR [Editor's note: Below we print a letter we received recently from a retired labor lawyer in Atlanta concerning the Georgia "right to work" law. The so-called "right to work" laws exist in 19 states. These laws prohibiting the union shop were established by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. Many of the states with such laws are located in the South, where the laws have been used to draw new industrial investment to the region by keeping wages low and unions out.] To the editor: One of the most damnable and mean-spirited pieces of legislation ever passed is Georgia's so-called "right to work" law. Employer and conservative groups staged a propaganda coup when they called the law "right to work," for the law has nothing to do with a person getting a job and the law never created a job for anyone. The law is designed solely to weaken the labor movement in Georgia and keep it weak. Since a union in Georgia or any other state is required to fairly and impartially represent each employee in the bargaining unit, a union in Georgia is legally required to represent every employee in the bargaining unit, even if that employee refuses to pay union dues. The "right to work" law in Georgia makes freeloaders out of employees who gladly accept the benefits negotiated and the right to file grievances while refusing to pay dues for such representation. Can anyone in Georgia imagine a law being passed which required a Chamber of Commerce or any other employer organization to represent an employer who refuses to pay anything for such representation? Can anyone imagine a law that requires some property owners to pay taxes but relieves other property owners similarly situated from paying any taxes? If employees in a bargaining unit don't desire union representation any longer, a petition can be filed with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to decertify the union. A secret ballot election will be held and if the majority of employees votes against the union, then that union no longer represents the employees. The Georgia "right to work" law is manifestly unfair to workers and unions and constitutes blatant discrimination against workers and unions. Morgan C. Stanford ****************************************************************** 15. 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! Editor: Laura Garcia Publisher: National Organizing Committee, P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, IL 60647 (312) 486-0028 To help support the production and distribution of the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, please send donations, letters, articles, photos, graphics and requests for information, subscriptions and requests for bundles of papers to: PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE P.O. Box 3524 Chicago, IL 60654 Respond via e-mail to jdav@igc.org Reach us by phone: Chicago: (312) 486-3551 Atlanta: (404) 242-2380 Baltimore: (410) 467-4769 Detroit: (313) 839-7600 Los Angeles: (310) 428-2618 Washington, D.C.: (202) 529-6250 Oakland, CA: (510) 464-4554 GETTING THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE IN PRINT The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE is available at many locations nationwide. One year subscriptions $25 ($35 institutions), bulk orders of 5 or more 15 cents each, single copies 25 cents. Contact PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, P. O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654, tel. (312) 486- 3551. WRITING FOR THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE We want your story in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE. Send it in! 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