From jdav@noc.orgFri Jan 12 19:11:14 1996 Date: Tue, 2 Jan 96 15:33 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune (1-8-96) Online Edition ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 23 No. 1 / January 8, 1996 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: pt@noc.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE is now available on the World Wide Web at http://www.mcs.com/~jdav/league.html +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 23 No. 1 / January 8, 1996 Page One 1. ANGELS IN THE ROTUNDA? Editorial 2. 1996 CAN BE A TURNING POINT FOR AMERICA Spirit of the Revolution 3. PROTESTANTS CONDEMN ATTACKS ON THE POOR AND IMMIGRANTS News and Features 4. MARTIN LUTHER KING'S GREATEST LEGACY: THE CHALLENGE TO BECOME A REVOLUTIONARY FOR JUSTICE 5. CATERPILLAR WORKERS AND THE UAW: TRAPPED IN AN ERA GONE BY 6. WORKING CLASS HOLDS KEY TO THE FUTURE 7. THE NATIONAL PEACE SUMMIT: OUR STRUGGLES ARE THE SAME 8. SPEAKERS FOR A NEW AMERICA IN A NEW YEAR 9. FROM THE ZAPATISTAS OF MEXICO TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: SUPPORT OUR FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY Deadly Force 10. FROM WATTS TO RUBIDOUX 11. PREVENTABLE: THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF AN ANGRY YOUNG MAN Culture Under Fire 12. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN HAUNTS THE ROSEMONT Announcements, Events, etc. 13. INMATES RESPOND TO AMERICAN LOCKDOWN SUB DRIVE 14. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. PAGE 1: ANGELS IN THE ROTUNDA? By Paul Weiss, P.E.A.C.E. for Kids People Everywhere Acting for Children Everywhere [Editor's note: The following is one participant's account of the civil-disobedience action by religious leaders at the U.S. Capitol on December 7.] WASHINGTON -- I firmly believe that if our country would come together to nurture and educate the present generation of children, we could turn the country around! Instead, what do I see? I see a country that is bankrupt because it has spent trillions on arms and political pork and is now prepared to let the children, the poor and the elderly pay the bill. I see the leaders of our country locked in an elitist political battle in which the most needy and vulnerable among us are seldom even mentioned. What a lift it was, then, to be in the company of people who love children so much! When I first heard of the plans to bring God's word to the Capitol Rotunda, I felt a strong, personal call to witness on behalf of children. I knew I would have to join the group. The only cry one hears on Capitol Hill is, "Balance the budget!" There isn't a whisper about nurturing and educating children. The cry I long to hear is, "Let us build a society that will show its love to every one of our children. When the new millennium begins in five years, on Jan. 1, 2001, let the world know that the welfare of our children has become our first priority." Where is our dream for our children? What I didn't know when I made my decision to witness was the depth of the feeling about children that was held by the ministers and church workers who came together on December 7. The words spoken at the church where we gathered that morning and those spoken on the front lawn of the Capitol building were filled with grief over the pain of children. I fought tears as I stood there listening and I thanked God that I had joined the witness. What a gift to be with these men and women. Here was a dream for children! A paddy wagon stopped in front of the Capitol building as we filed up the steps that lead into the Rotunda. A dozen police officers milled around. We were expected. We slowly passed through the metal detector and filed inside the Rotunda. We formed a circle at one end of the great room inside a roped corral that had been prepared for us by the police. As our prayer began, I turned and there, behind me and pressing against the ropes that had been set out to confine us, were a dozen or more children! Where had they come from? Are these angel witnesses, sent to represent all the children who would be hurt by the law that was heading for adoption? My memory, affected by the euphoria of the moment, tells me they were all girls around 10 years of age. A friend who had come in support of those who witnessed, said he thought they were Asian children. I thought they were American. The New York Times reported that they were children from St. Luke's parochial school in McLean, Virginia. They seemed mesmerized (the Times reporter, seeing the same thing, said they were "transfixed") by the activity inside the ropes. Two dozen or so police officers took up stations behind us. One police officer stood in the center of the circle and videotaped our group. The children held my attention. They were such a special sign to me at that moment. It is so unusual to see children so riveted. Of course, there was much to focus one's attention. The media was everywhere, pointing their cameras. And the blue uniforms of moving police were creating an excitement of their own. Then, Jim Wallis' voice filled the Rotunda -- "God hears the cry of the poor" -- and he led us through our prayer: Woe to the legislators of infamous laws, to those who issue tyrannical decrees, who refuse justice to the unfortunate and cheat the poor among my people of their rights, who make widows their prey and rob the orphan. Isaiah 10:1-2 How could your attention not be riveted! Still, there was something about the children being there that could not be explained. For one thing, no adults stood with them. The force of the attention in their faces and their pressing against the ropes was much older than their young years -- they were focused! They knew! We sang, "God loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. God loves the little children of the world." I watched their faces as we sang. They glowed as the words caressed them! Give the king your justice, O God ... May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor. Psalm 72:1-2,4 A policeman stepped into the circle and addressed us through a bullhorn. Our prayers bounced from statue to statue of the great men (there are no statues of women in there!) who helped create our free country. What an irony that it is against the law to pray in the principal temple of a nation created "under God." I looked for some sign of God in that great hall. Under the dome, far overhead, I spied a man in a powdered wig at the center of a painting. Probably George Washington. The painting included figures that might be angels. The one figure that could be God looks more like King Neptune because he holds a barbed fork. It appeared that we weren't even standing "under God" in the Rotunda. This is a place that sorely needs to hear God's word. Our voices became louder: The Lord enters into judgement with the elders and princes of his people; It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? Says the Lord God of hosts. Isaiah 3:14-15 I kept glancing back at the children. They didn't move. Then he will say to those at his left hand ... "I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger ... As we were reading these words, I turned to face the children and to enable the police officer who stood directly behind me to hear our prayer clearly, personally and up close. As I read, though, I kept glancing at the children. They didn't move. They didn't speak to one another. They simply stood there in quiet dignity, as befits witnesses to an important event. They were watching as "the greatest country in the world" turned another deaf ear to its children, to its elderly, to all those who are speechless in the face of such power. ... and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me." Then they also will answer, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?" Then he will answer them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." We knelt down and began to pray individually and it was then that the police officer behind me stepped up and asked me if I was going to stop (Stop what? Praying? Is it really against the law to pray in this place?) or did I want to be arrested. I stood up, proudly, because I was in front of the children. I placed my hands in back of me to be bound with the plastic handcuffs. The officer told me he had two small children at home. He was not getting any pleasure from his work. He was very solicitous as he led me from the room to the waiting bus. In fact, he was so gentle that I was able to slip one of my hands out of its cuff in the bus. There are some advantages to having a little gray hair. A friend who was observing the event told me the next day that, as the last person was being led outside, the angels, I mean the children, broke into applause. They were quickly joined by several hundred other visitors who had witnessed the arrest of 55 Americans who dared to pray to God in the same temple where democracy is worshipped. [P.E.A.C.E. for Kids (Peace Everywhere Acting for Children Everywhere) seeks to maintain a presence wherever children are being abused, no matter the risk, until the abuse ends. For more information, write to P.E.A.C.E. for Kids, P.O. Box 15273, Washington, D.C. 20003 or send e-mail to: allkids@aol.com.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CHRISTIANS VOW TO FLOOD CONGRESS WITH BIBLE TEXTS DEFENDING POOR A group of Christians has come up with a unique way to oppose the attacks on the poor. "Over the course of several weeks," the group declared in a statement, "we intend to flood congressional offices with biblical texts that speak strongly of God's concern for the poor and God's judgment on those who oppress the poor." Each week, the group selects a different biblical text to fax or send by letter or post card. The campaign began during the week of December 3 and will extend through the week of January 21. The text for the week of December 31 is the 13th verse of Chapter 21 of Proverbs: "If you refuse to listen to the cry of the poor, your own cry for help will not be heard." Let's send that to our elected officials! Write to Rep. Newt Gingrich, 2428 Rayburn House Office Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20515; and to Sen. Robert Dole, 141 Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20510; and to President Bill Clinton, The White House, Washington, D.C. 20500. [For more information about this effort -- called 'The Living Word Project' -- contact Dick Taylor at 215-438-2925 or Will O'Brien at 215-849-0321.] ****************************************************************** 2. EDITORIAL: 1996 CAN BE A TURNING POINT FOR AMERICA As we begin another new year, the thoughts of many Americans turn toward the dangers which threaten our country. Unlike the past, the dangers do not involve foreign enemies. Today it seems as if our economic and political systems are breaking down. Almost half of all Americans are concerned that they may lose their job. Every family personally knows someone who has been laid off. Many of us put off needed visits to a doctor because of the cost. Hunger and homelessness appear to be the only future we can see. We look to our government for protection and answers. All we get is cold indifference, at best. At worst, we are told that if we can't take care of ourselves, then we don't deserve to live. The federal spending cuts being considered are aimed mainly at programs aiding children and families, ranging from medical care, to nutrition, to education. All our political leaders have the "survival of the fittest" philosophy -- reward the wealthy, glorify greed and condemn decency and concern for our fellow human beings. The government is not only dismantling the social contract with the American people, it is destroying the moral contract as well. The wealthy and their representatives are trying to redefine what it means to be an American. We have always been a charitable and caring people. Low-income Americans have always given more than their share to charities. Now we are being told to turn our backs on the poor. The year 1996 can become a turning point for our country. Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund, recently said, "We've got to build a movement, one that asks, 'What does it mean to be an American?' Is this really about money and budgets, or about deeper values, about bringing people together, giving everybody a decent chance?" It is possible for the majority of Americans to join together to shape the destiny of our country. Today a movement is beginning to emerge. Its goal is to get rid of the greedy billionaires and the corrupt politicians. The heart and soul of this movement is the tens of millions who have been forced to live in poverty and have no choice but to fight for a new America. But this is not only a movement of the poor. It is a coming together of all decent Americans who want to find a voice for their moral concern about the fate of the country. This new year can be important if each individual who sees the problem, steps up and speaks up. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ WELFARE FOR THE RICH How did your year end? Total year-end surplus for 50 states in the U.S.: $20.2 billion. Cuts to people, not to corporations Most states gained surpluses by cutting funds for education, workers compensation, state employment benefits and through layoffs. Where does the money go? Texas: $279 million for new prisons. Oregon: Giving corporations a 50 percent tax credit on 1995 taxes. Iowa: A $1.5 million construction fund and tax break package to IPSCO Steel (a Canadian steel company). Massachusetts: A $200 million tax cut to Raytheon Corp. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 3. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: PROTESTANTS CONDEMN ATTACKS ON THE POOR AND IMMIGRANTS By Rich Capalbo [Editor's note: Below we print the latest contribution to our regular column about spirituality and revolution. We encourage readers to submit articles to this column. We would also appreciate any comments readers may have on the articles which appear here.] CHICAGO -- A group of concerned Christians met here December 3 to form a new organization -- "Protestants for the Common Good." The convention brought the Bible's message of justice, community, compassion and respect for all people to the problems facing our nation, state and city. Eugene Winkler, a co-chair of the group, pointed out in his opening remarks that the Methodist Church held its convention in 1860 in Chicago, at the same time that the Republican Party was meeting in Chicago to nominate Abraham Lincoln for president. The fact that some delegates attended both conventions helped weld together the opponents of slavery. Winkler said it's time to unite the political and moral fights for justice once again. "The New Right is a challenge to our Christianity," declared the keynote speaker of the meeting, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. "We don't need a new contract," Dyson argued, referring to the Republicans' Contract With America. "We need to live up to the old one." "I want to work toward a world where it is possible for people to behave decently," Dyson explained. He went on to point out: "It is impossible to behave decently when you don't have anything for your belly, your mind and your spirit." "The New Right demonizes [the poor]," said Dyson. "[We are talking about] people who were middle-class one day and homeless the next. This issue is not about your morality; it's about your economy." Dr. Dyson called for a radical democracy that is about "how goods are distributed." "[T]he real special interests that are robbing us are corporate capitalists, not the poor," Dyson said. For more information, write to Protestants for the Common Good at 77 West Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602 or call 312- 243-8300. ****************************************************************** 4. MARTIN LUTHER KING'S GREATEST LEGACY: THE CHALLENGE TO BECOME A REVOLUTIONARY FOR JUSTICE By Abdul Alkalimat Martin Luther King (1929-1968) was a great leader. He emerged out of the radical religious tradition of the African American people. At the same time, he represented the best morality-based politics of the American radical tradition. He is remembered because he represented a mass social movement that was developing a revolutionary vision, for black people, for all American people, for the world. King was the greatest leader of the civil rights movement. By the mass protest campaign in Birmingham, Alabama (1963), after the mass struggles of Montgomery, Alabama (1955-56) and Albany, Georgia (1961), King began to link civil rights to economic issues. His words make it plain: "The Negro today is not struggling for some abstract, vague rights, but for the concrete and prompt improvement in his way of life. ... The struggle for rights is, at bottom, a struggle for opportunities. ... I am proposing, therefore, that just as we granted a GI Bill of Rights to war veterans, America launch a broad-based and gigantic Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged, our veterans of the long siege of denial." (Why We Can't Wait) We now live in a time when both major political parties have abandoned this vision of America as a just society -- especially economic justice. In a just society, hunger would be illegal, as would homelessness, illness and all other results of poverty. By the end of his life, King was clear on what the fight for justice involved. King challenged the American people to start a new American revolution. This is his most important message: "The dispossessed of this nation -- the poor, both white and Negro -- live in a cruelly unjust society. They must organize a revolution against that injustice, not against the lives of the persons who are their fellow citizens, but against the structures through which society is refusing to take means which have been called for, and which are at hand, to lift the load of poverty." (Trumpet of Conscience) It is important to remember our fallen leaders by the challenges they faced, and that they placed on us. King will not have died in vain if we can fulfill his desire for us to become revolutionaries, not in our hundreds but in our millions. ****************************************************************** 5. CATERPILLAR WORKERS AND THE UAW: TRAPPED IN AN ERA GONE BY By Rich Monje, unit chairperson Local 15271-05 USWA, editor of the Tribuno del Pueblo On December 3, Caterpillar workers from Illinois, Pennsylvania and Colorado voted overwhelmingly to reject Contract Proposal Number Six. Even before the vote, however, the United Auto Workers International (UAW) announced the "recess" of the Caterpillar workers' strike. Some 14,000 Caterpillar workers walked out on June 21, 1994 over unfair labor practices. This began their 17-month strike, which came after a short strike earlier. As Cat workers return to work, bitter over the cost of the strike in family life and rights in the shop, the rest of the union movement is grappling with the lessons of this strike. Caterpillar is a global company with immense resources. Cat even has unorganized plants in the United States. While many local unions can still wrestle some concessions in individual plants in some industries or in the service sector, we have seen over the past 20 years the ending of an era. The social contract between workers, business and government has been irreparably torn. Business, which controls the government, no longer recognizes this contract. The UAW tries to maintain the "old standards" of the union movement based on the social contract. Organizing, negotiating and its organizational structure and operations are based in the economic stability of the past. Local union leaders and members feel the pressure on the shop floor. A breech developed between the demands of the locals and the leadership. In this case, the UAW International wants to settle and the locals don't. The basic problem that has led many unions down this path is not having a strategy that is based in the economics and politics of a vastly changed environment. The UAW, like many unions, has ignored the plight of the unemployed. It is not possible for the unemployed to understand or support a strike when they have no food in the refrigerator. Economic (or unfair labor practice strikes) appear to be limited to the narrow self-interests of the workers in that plant, company or industry, even though, in general, keeping wages and rights for some workers upholds them for all workers. Employed and union workers are being isolated and attacked like every other sector of society. The UAW and AFL-CIO never fully mobilized in support of the Caterpillar workers. The union movement was not mobilized, and most certainly neither was the rest of the population. Contrast that with the political character of the strike in France and its mobilization and its impact. The unions must build a new strategy based in a plan to organize in a new way. They must recognize that the wealth exists to have a decent standard of living for all people in this country, regardless of job status. It is not possible to do this without educating their members and all workers, first on the basis of social awareness and then on the basis of class consciousness. This means understanding the role of business and corporations (the nature of capitalism), the role of the government, and especially the role of workers as a class. In the short term, we have to fight small battles in each plant, company and industry. In the long term, we need a strategy to wield, in the interest of all workers, the power of the 15 percent of workers who are organized. Then we will have the support of unorganized workers. ****************************************************************** 6. WORKING CLASS HOLDS KEY TO THE FUTURE by Ibrahim Aoude The crisis that is engulfing American politics and society poses both threats and opportunities for the working class. The capitalist ruling class is playing the race card to the hilt in order to split the workers and ensure the continuation of their rule. Their use of the media around two recent events make the capitalist tactic clear: the O.J. Simpson trial and its aftermath, and the Million Man March. In both cases, the capitalist media has tried to foment division, rather than unity, among workers. Separating the workers along color lines is the best bet for the capitalists to stay on top. They hire people of all colors -- white, black and brown -- to fight for that. Others have agendas of their own in order for them to get "white," "black" or "brown" power. The latest congressional budget cuts have targeted workers regardless of color. But African American workers constitute a major section of the working class core. The capitalists have utilized the race factor to launch a campaign of police terror against the black worker. This is part of the splitting tactic. While the black worker is the first target of the violence, the aim is to disrupt the entire multiethnic, multinational working class. They are also saying to white workers that black workers are the enemy. They say African Americans are the enemy because "they demand affirmative action and compete for jobs." African American workers, they say, "are sucking dry tax dollars through fraudulent use of social services." They say that "black workers are the main perpetrators of crime and drugs." They say that African Americans are at fault, "though they have no individual responsibility for ills that have befallen society." Unfortunately, this rotten capitalist ideology is working to a point. That is because of the history of slavery and race relations in our country. But there is a different, more correct analysis. It is that it is the capitalists and their system who are responsible for the poverty and the deteriorating economic and social conditions in our country. The capitalists are experts in finding vulnerable groups to scapegoat. The notion of "separate but equal" would bring disaster, not affluence, to the workers. It would also ensure the continuation of the capitalist rule enforced by police terror. Both the People's Tribune and the Tribuno del Pueblo show working- class fighting unity developing in the daily, actual struggles of the workers. There are two roads for the American working class. The first is the way of the oppressor and exploiter. It could be summed up by "divide and rule." The other is the way in which a united working class sets out to overturn this rotten system and all its servants and beneficiaries. We hold the key to the future! ****************************************************************** 7. THE NATIONAL PEACE SUMMIT: OUR STRUGGLES ARE THE SAME By Fanya Baruti, Community in Support of the Gang Truce (Los Angeles) SANTA CRUZ, California -- The National Peace Summit was held here August 13-16, 1995. The Cesar Chavez Peace Plan was formulated and will be presented to the California state legislature and the U.S. Congress sometime in 1996. Daniel "Nane" Alejandrez, executive director of the Santa Cruz Barrios Unidos, gave a message: For the love of our children, stop the violence. The summit was dedicated to the memory of Cesar Chavez who lived and died fighting for a vision that some day we as a people will come together from the north, south, east and west; brothers and sisters for peace. The plan is a masterpiece. It was the result of input from Latinos from all parts of the country through workshops held at the summit. Youth and elders worked together to strategize. There were representatives from over 20 states; over 1,200 attended. Only a handful of African Americans attended. Those that did were exposed to a show of unity that will always be a memory. The respect of brotherhood stood the test of time, and the cultural, ancestral and spiritual bonding was felt. Youth from all over the globe came to discuss conflict resolution and the most important message sent from the United States was that this land is not about milk and honey, but that our struggles are the same. ****************************************************************** 8. SPEAKERS FOR A NEW AMERICA IN A NEW YEAR Dear Readers, Never in our history have we stood at such a crossroads as we do today. Understanding where we are and where things are headed is critical. In the last year, speakers shown on this page have crossed the country, speaking on campuses, to unions and community groups about the possibility of building a new America free from want with peace and social harmony for all. They have been key participants in conferences in Europe, Asia and Africa, where their message received favorable attention. Luis Rodriguez, it seemed, spoke everywhere again this year with his message of hope for our youth. His book, Always Running, has just been published in Spanish. Ethel Long-Scott, Marian Kramer, Michelle Tingling-Clemmons, Laura Garcia and Sue Ying spoke about the historic significance of the NGO conference on women in Beijing and about the birth of a new women's movement. Marian spoke with students at Swarthmore during Homeless & Hunger Awareness Week. Abdul Alkalimat was a key organizer of a national conference on the impact of technology on society. Germaine Tremmel and Richard Grass spoke about the plight of the Lakotas. Lourdes Silva spoke at a panel of Latinas at Cornell University. Nelson Peery, whose book, Black Fire, was just published in Great Britain, just returned from speaking engagements in London. This is just a sample of how active our speakers have been. And we are gearing up for doing even more in the new year. Job Tech, the proceedings of last February's conference on technology and society, has just been published and we encourage our readers to make use of the speakers represented in this book. We are just now planning a two-year campaign focusing on women, addressing the many-sided governmental attack against women and children. And we are pleased to announce that in the fall of 1996, Ron Casanova's book, Each One Teach One, a memoir of growing up homeless and of becoming a revolutionary, will be published by Curbstone Press. OTHER SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Theresa Allison, founder, Mothers Reclaiming Our Children; Alexis Baptist, youth & anti-poverty Organizer; Jim Davis, software engineer, writer; General Baker, chair, Steering Committee, League of Revolutionaries for a New America; Walda Katz-Fishman, scholar; Nacho Gonzalez, community organizer; Jack Hirschman, poet and anti-poverty activist; Dino Lewis, poet and writer; Sarah Menefee, poet and anti-poverty activist; Richard Monje, labor leader and editor, Tribuno del Pueblo; Bruce Parry, Ph.D., economist, veteran and peace activist; Anthony Prince, editor, People's Tribune's "Deadly Force" column on police brutality; Jerome Scott, board chair, Project South; Steve Teixeira, director, Student Support Program, Cal State, L.A.; Rick Tingling-Clemmons, anti-hunger activist; William H. Watkins, Ph.D., urban education and Afrocentric education. ****************************************************************** 9. FROM THE ZAPATISTAS OF MEXICO TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: SUPPORT OUR FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY [Editor's note: The following is excerpted from a statement by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in the Mexican state of Chiapas.] Americans: Mexico is not the same thing as its government. Mexico is a nation with aspirations of sovereignty and independence, and in order to achieve this, it must free itself of a dictatorship and raise the universal flag of democracy, liberty and justice. By fomenting racism, fear and insecurity, various politicians in the United States offer economic aid to the Mexican government in order that it may control the violence which erupts as a result of the misery produced by the economic situation. They want to thicken the absurd walls which supposedly will prevent the search for life which leads millions of Mexicans to cross the northern border. The best wall against massive immigration to the United States is a democratic, free and just regime in Mexico. If Mexicans could find on their own soil what is denied to them today, they would not be forced to seek work in other countries. Continued support to a party-state dictatorship, no matter the man or the party, will only secure an uncertain and anxious future for the people of the United States. Support for the people of Mexico and their aspirations for democracy, liberty and justice, will give an honorable place in history to the people of the United States, and to their human condition. It is time for the people of the United States to fulfill their historic obligation to their neighbor to the south. History will be relentless, so it is the people of Mexico who must be supported in their fight for democracy. It is democracy and progress which must be supported and not a dictatorship. Good health and long life to the people of the United States of America. >From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast, (signed) Insurgent Subcommander Marcos Mexico, September 13, 1995 ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "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. FROM WATTS TO RUBIDOUX by Joseph Beaver PALM SPRINGS, California -- There's always a straw that breaks the strained back of the camel. You've heard of Watts (1965) ... but Rubidoux? You're aware of the worldwide televised brutal beating of Rodney King. Well, one of the policemen involved in that beating, Stacey Koon, was placed in a halfway house. Where? In Rubidoux, a town on the periphery of Riverside, California. It was a straw that broke the camel's back, provoking a confrontation, a massacre and a shootout. Yes, placing Stacey Koon in a halfway house in Rubidoux was provocative and fomented outrage especially on the part of the black community. It was like, "Here, in your face!" The collective resentment grew. Thirty-five year old Randy "Blake" Tolbert, a sort of folk hero, and well-respected, brooded and brooded. He advised his homies, "I'll take care of this." And he did. On Thanksgiving Day, he casually departed the family dinner table, "packing," and headed for the halfway house. He was determined to confront Koon. The next scene was fatal. Koon was not in: He was "on leave" with his family. Flashing a handgun, "Blake" demanded Koon's return. [While Blake was in the halfway house] Blake's family members sought to communicate with him, to help dissipate the situation, but authorities denied their pleas. There were hostages, the arrival of the SWAT team, blasts of gunfire and conflicting versions of what happened. Police reported that Blake pistol-whipped a woman and shot hostages, killing one, an elderly visiting retiree from Phoenix. The black community and its leaders believe that Blake killed no one. What is known is that Blake died in a hail of police bullets. The halfway house was immediately sealed up. Windows boarded up? No, concreted up! Every window was sealed with cement, the bullet- sprayed interior wall partitions removed posthaste, as though dispensing with evidence for further investigative reporting. There followed nightly candlelight vigils, where hundreds rallied and marched to the scene of the killings. These continued right up until the eve of the funeral where some 800 overflowed the Life Church of God in Christ, one door past the halfway house. Rubidoux is now on the map, locally, nationally, universally. And in Blake's memory, a defiant, if remorseful community is resolved to form a serious, unretreating community action group. The struggle continues. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 'This could have been prevented from even before Blake went into that halfway house throughout the four hours he was there. I am a negotiator. I pleaded with police to let me talk to Blake. 'Police said Blake was intending to kill Stacey Koon and had a gun. We don't know that. Maybe Blake wanted attention focused on the injustice of sending Koon to our community.' -- Mickey Brown, Rubidoux +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 11. PREVENTABLE: THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF AN ANGRY YOUNG MAN By Bessie and Chuck Parker DESERT HOT SPRINGS, California -- Like everything, the killing of "Blake" Tolbert by police at a halfway house in Rubidoux, California on Thanksgiving Day has a history behind it. In 1992, when a jury let go the gang of cops who beat Rodney King so viciously, thousands of people rose up in anger in Los Angeles and other cities across the United States. Rubidoux was one of those cities and, as a result, two young men from that small community were sentenced to three life terms plus 100 years, convicted on three charges of attempted murder. At that time, a community already outraged and oppressed by injustice marched 200- strong to the courthouse. The result? The sentences of Aaron Rupp and Charles Johnson were reduced. So when the penal system saw fit to send Stacey Koon (the sergeant who oversaw the beating of Rodney King) to Rubidoux to finish his 30-month sentence, the community was outraged again. Many young men wanted to do something but they were held in check by police sweeps threatening to violate the parole of anyone who made a move to protest Koon's presence. When Blake Tolbert went to the halfway house, he, like the rest of the community, had not been told that Koon had, in fact, been released three weeks earlier. From the time that Blake pulled his car into the driveway of the halfway house till he was shot four hours later, police had ample opportunity and resources to save everyone's life. They didn't even try. Now it is over. Blake has been killed and Stacey Koon has been released from prison. It has been reported that he is headed for the celebrity speaker's circuit where criminals who violate the Constitution like Oliver North and G. Gordon Liddy tour the country. Is there anything in this picture which offers hope? Yes, it is the courageous response of the Rubidoux community demanding justice. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 'We protested him [Koon] coming here from the first article that appeared in the papers. I want people to know that Blake going to that halfway house was not an illiterate act. He thought he was saving a lot of his young homies, to keep us from doing something and then going back to jail. About 80% of the people you see on this march, 80% of the people in Rubidoux, are on probation or facing some kind of threat of punishment. Any time we protest we're accused of trying to stir up something 'racially motivated.' We were trying to prevent something bad from happening.' -- Clyde Borders, Rubidoux +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CULTURE UNDER FIRE Culture jumps barriers of geography and color. Millions of Americans create with music, writing, film and video, graffiti, painting, theatre and much more. We need it all, because culture can link together and expand the growing battles for food, housing, and jobs. In turn, these battles provide new audiences and inspiration for artists. Use the "Culture Under Fire" column to plug in, to express yourself. Write: Culture Under Fire, c/o People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654 or e-mail cultfire@noc.org. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 12. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN HAUNTS THE ROSEMONT By Danny Alexander and Scott Pfeiffer In a uniquely personal way, musicians make their audiences feel the humanity of those criminalized by America's ruling class. Rocker Bruce Springsteen's new acoustic show (which he brought to Chicago's small Rosemont Theatre on December 3) presented poverty and hunger as ultimately a gun in everybody's face. In that way, his new record, The Ghost of Tom Joad stands alongside gangsta rappers like Tupac Shakur as it makes you feel the hopes, dreams and anger of those cast out of the system. The poverty and hunger both discuss are objective and material, but the music treats them as nothing less than fundamental matters of the human soul. Springsteen took the stage alone. As the spotlight hit him, he went into the new album's title cut, in which "the highway is alive tonight, but nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it's goin.' " With this line, he tied his own past fantasies, in hits like "Born to Run," to the likes of Dust Bowl refugee Tom Joad, of the great American movie/novel The Grapes of Wrath. Only now, the dreamers end up at the end of the road only to find that a death sentence, not a promised land, awaits them. In the second verse, Tom's friend Preacher Casey appears. He is a Christian as revolutionary, and he is also any homeless person on the streets today -- just as likely to die in a flash of police violence as he is to live to see a day when "the last shall be first and the first shall be last." Then the ghost of Tom Joad himself is there, traveling today with the homeless and those who cross the U.S.-Mexican border, the modern equivalents of the Plains farmers who migrated to California during the 1930s. These are America's lost souls, trying to build a life at the very high price of leaving their homes and families. As musician Ruben Blades has said, "Anyone who leaves their home is leaving a part of their heart behind. Nobody wants to leave their country to do what they wish they could do at home." Although his first solo acoustic concert tour was shot through with humor, Bruce took an extreme risk with this show, his darkest ever. His audience expanded dramatically and then contracted over the last decade; now he seemed to be focused on talking to the core that remained, forcing them to face the political questions raised by his music. The show seemed to cry out, "If this music has a power for a reason, what is it asking us to do?" He didn't do this with a band, because the audience was to be his collaborator. He made this clear at the beginning of the show, stating that the new material "was written with a lot of silence." The space in the music seemed to ask both audience and artist to puzzle over broken pieces. How do we end the fragmentation of ourselves and of society, the displacement of so many, that is part of the cost of ignoring a system that has ceased to function? Introducing "Youngstown," Bruce wondered what happens to you when economic changes obliterate your job and you can no longer make a living from your craft. When he dipped into his back catalogue, it was mostly for songs like "Adam Raised a Cain," "Born in the USA," and "Darkness on the Edge of Town," all blood and burning, with new arrangements to emphasize the unresolved nature of the same old questions. The Rosemont was haunted with the spirits Bruce was conjuring up -- the disenfranchised from the stories of the past, the homeless, criminalized and displaced from the headlines of the present, and our inevitable future selves under capitalism. But this show was all about finding a way to take action. Before he sang the beautiful "Across the Border," about an immigrant's breathtaking ability to dream of a future, Bruce retold the ending of The Grapes of Wrath. The story brought the audience together in the darkness, making us feel as though our fates are intertwined. Tom Joad explains to his mother that he has to go. She'll be able to find him everywhere, though: wherever men are shouting because they're angry and in the laughter of children, because maybe we all share one big soul. Ghosts tend to haunt for a reason, to set something straight in this world before they can go on to another. Bruce Springsteen seems to know that our clarity of vision will come from grappling with these ghosts, even the ghost of a rock star who isn't sure what all that success got for him. It's that image of a man haunted, even by his own separate and past selves, that he wanted to send home with his audience that night -- to haunt us, yes, until we set things right and all of us can move on across the border. ****************************************************************** 13. INMATES RESPOND TO AMERICAN LOCKDOWN SUB DRIVE Now it's YOUR turn >From the Editors As 1995 drew to a close, the People's Tribune had to reconsider its policy of free subscriptions to incarcerated prisoners. The hundreds of inmate readers were simply stretching our resources to the breaking point. In response, we issued an appeal to "Keep the People's Tribune Alive Behind Bars." Two months later, dozens and dozens of inmates have responded. Many scraped together the $20 it takes to get PT for a year. Some sent $4 to cover two months. Others had relatives, attorneys and friends send in a check or money order. Quite a few inmates sent postage stamps and promised to continue not only reading, but circulating the PT. Finally, many of our indigent inmate correspondents responded with the only contribution they can make at this time: a pledge to support the PT with a steady supply of articles. Still, the majority of respondents reported they have no funds and urged us to continue to send them their copy as long as we can. We would like to make that possible, but we can't do it alone. "American Lockdown" has emerged as an important part of the growing prison justice struggle, a movement that is growing by leaps and bounds as record numbers of people --1.5 million at last count -- continue to be packed into the profit-driven prison- industrial complex. The PT now reaches into some 235 prisons, jails and detention facilities in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. To the inmates who have not yet sent in whatever you can to keep the PT alive behind bars, we urge you to respond today. Send in the sub blank on page 9. To those on the outside who recognize the importance of the growing prison justice struggle, we ask you to sponsor an inmate subscription at the low rate of $20 per year (26 issues). Just send it in and indicate "For Inmate Sub Fund." Thanks. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ We need your pledge: To read, to distribute, to use the People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo! The People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo cut through the lies that weaken and divide the millions in poverty. They get out the message of class and unity -- the message that can destroy the poverty of the capitalist system. They get out the new ideas that give a vision and hope to fight for a better way. Reach out to every part of America with the People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 14. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, published every two weeks 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: League of Revolutionaries for a New America, P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, IL 60647 (312) 486-0028 ISSN# 1081-4787 For free electronic subscription, email: pt.dist-request@noc.org 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. 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