From jdav@noc.org Thu Apr 11 23:01:54 1996 Date: Thu, 11 Apr 96 20:08 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune 4-96 (Online Edition) ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 23 No. 5 / April, 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. 5 / April, 1996 Page One 1. THE ROAD TO POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE Editorial 2. A LAYOFF NOTICE -- FOR THE DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS Spirit of the Revolution 3. EASTER, LIFE AND HOPE 4. ONE MUSLIM'S PROTEST 5. PROGRESSIVES CALL FOR A SUMMIT ON ETHICS News and Features 6. GM IS RE-ORGANIZING: WHAT ABOUT US? 7. INDEPENDENT POLITICS SUMMIT TO CONVENE IN ATLANTA 8. TAKING IT TO THE BOARD 9. MOTHER'S DAY SPEAKING TOUR 10. NEW MEXICO: ACTIVIST RUNS FOR STATEHOUSE SEAT 11. ATTENTION LIBERATION TECHNOLOGISTS: IT'S TIME TO BYTE 12. HOMELESS UNION PRESIDENT VOWS TO 'MAKE LIFE MISERABLE' FOR POLITICIANS WHO BACK CUTS 13. NEW COLUMN: ASK MS. MO 14. ANXIETY OVER THE ECONOMY AND JOBS 15. GANG TRUCE LEADERS SPEAK: DEVELOPING WARRIORS FOR PEACE; CALL FOR A MARCH OF 10,000 American Lockdown 16. 'WE'VE RAISED THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE LISTENERS' Culture Under Fire 17. BALTIMORE'S 'GIMME SHELTER': 'ART CAN CONNECT PEOPLE' 18. POEM: "YOU LEARN JUST HOW FAR IT IS ACROSS THOSE TRACKS." >From the League 19. USE THIS ELECTION YEAR TO UNITE THOSE FIGHTING TO END POVERTY 20. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. THE ROAD TO POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE Karen Sharlow, a Californian whose father James was laid off after 26 years at Eastman Kodak Co., summed it up this way: "No one will take care of you. We know." Karen's father was a victim of "downsizing" a few years ago, one of the 3 million workers laid off by major companies since 1989. Only about a third of those laid off in recent years have gone back to work at jobs that pay as well as the ones they lost. The rest either aren't working or, like James Sharlow, are working for a lot less. We all know the story: Wages and jobs are down, profits are up. Karen told The New York Times of her bitterness at learning that her father's loyalty to Kodak meant nothing to the company. "We've been taught our whole lives that if you give your loyalty to someone or something, it gives you something back," she said. A lot of "middle class" Americans -- those who used to have seemingly secure, good-paying jobs -- are learning some bitter lessons nowadays. And it's precisely because "no one will take care of you" that we, the people, have to start taking care of ourselves. Layoffs and stagnant wages have become the key issue of the presidential campaign, it seems. But do the powers that be have a solution? Pat Buchanan talks of fencing out immigrants and slapping tariffs on foreign goods; Bob Dole says to balance the budget; and Bill Clinton pleads for "corporate responsibility." But fences and budget balancing won't give us jobs. And how can Clinton get the corporations to "act responsibly" and keep workers employed when the job can be done cheaper by machines? The Democrats and Republicans are blowing smoke in our faces and trying to turn us against one another -- citizen against immigrant, employed against unemployed, whites against people of color. Yet there are plenty of resources, both human and material, to solve our problems. The question is, how do the people get hold of the power to direct those resources where they're needed? There is a way out of this crisis, and the first step is to begin the process of establishing our political independence from those who rule this country today. This means rejecting the ideas of our rulers; it means rejecting the politics of disunity, and standing together, fighting for the well-being of everyone. We will only get out of this together. Which way it goes is up to each of us. ****************************************************************** 2. A LAYOFF NOTICE -- FOR THE DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS "Don't they have any conscience? Don't they care?" That's what Nancy Muse of Torrance, California, wants to know about the corporate bigwigs who laid off her machinist husband two years ago. It's becoming more clear to most people that there is something fundamentally wrong in our country that won't be easily fixed. And the polls show that more and more people have no confidence in either the Democratic or the Republican Party. We, the people, need to define our interests ourselves. As this becomes more clear over the coming months and years, a section of the people will move toward creating their own people's or workers' political party. Already you can see various groupings and individuals trying to be the expression of this tendency, trying to give people some kind of alternative to the Democrats and Republicans --there is the New Party; the National Organization for Women is investigating forming a party based on women's issues; there is the fledgling Wyoming-based Labor Party; the Green Party has won local electoral offices in 12 states in recent years; the Campaign for a New Tomorrow plans a founding convention this year for an Independent Progressive Party; a national African American political convention reportedly is scheduled in September; Labor Party Advocates plans the founding convention of the Labor Party of the United States June 6-9 in Cleveland, Ohio; and there is the National Independent Politics Summit in Atlanta April 12-14. There are a number of other similar efforts in the works. It's no longer a question of voting for the lesser of two evils, of electing Democrats in order to "defeat the right wing." Clinton and the Democrats are clearly part of the right wing; witness their support for welfare "reform," for more cops and jails, and their uniting with the right against Cuba. We've entered a new era. With electronics replacing labor in the workplace, this new era was first marked by growing homelessness and deepening poverty among the least skilled workers. Now, "downsizing" is the order of the day, and even the most skilled, highly educated worker can be set on the downward spiral to homelessness. Production based on electronics means that the degeneration of the economy and society is not temporary; it will continue, regardless of whether the Democrats or Republicans hold office. Yet the very electronic technology that, in the hands of the bosses is making us jobless and homeless, in the people's hands could give all of us an undreamed of prosperity. And justice for all. What is the next step? The scattered groupings and activists pushing for some kind of workers' or people's party must come together to create a common program that will serve to educate and unite people, even if the groups involved remain separate groups. We need a common program that unites people around the fight for their basic needs. Because it's plain as day that even our most basic needs will only be satisfied through struggle. (For more on the political scene, see stories 14 and 19.) +----------------------------------------------------------------+ WELFARE FOR THE POLITICIANS By Jo Ann Capalbo When the polls close on election night and all the numbers are added up, the most important total may be this one: $1 billion will have been spent to elect 470 people to federal offices. This amount represents twice the cost of the 1992 election. Think of what $1 billion could do for education, for our children, for the elderly. What about helping the homeless and unemployed Americans? Did you know that taxpayers match individual contributions to political campaigns (up to $250) and that taxpayers pick up the tab for the conventions and the national campaign? Isn't this "welfare for the politicians"? Isn't the total amount of money being spent so huge that these politicians must pay off wealthy contributors with political favors? If you look very closely at the candidates and at whose interests they really serve, it adds up to this: One billion dollars for nothing! One billion reasons to change the system! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 3. EASTER, LIFE AND HOPE By John K. Stoner [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 and to comment on what appears here.] The Christian observance of Easter means that new life rises out of the kind of self-giving, non-violent life of resistance to evil which Jesus lived and which culminated (more or less) in his death for being a threat to society. Resurrection means that it makes sense to follow Jesus in his way of affirming human life, just as he invited his contemporaries, and us, to do. This gives hope. The possibility of resurrection moves one to abandon the effort to save, preserve, protect and secure one's life and instead to give one's life for the life of the world, for the life of humanity, for a spouse, a neighbor, a child, or an enemy -- because one believes that doing that turns back the tide of evil and redeems the world. It is not difficult to believe that a hundred million people living the kind of life Jesus lived would make the world a better place. Easter is a time to discover that the powers of oppression, darkness and destruction can no more kill us than they could, finally, kill Jesus. A line above said that they killed him "more or less." It was mostly less. He came back and keeps coming back in people who do what he did, and as more and more people live that way, the powers that presumed the authority to kill him become weaker and weaker. Empires, both religious and political, have only the power which people give them out of fear and subservience. Jesus gave them no power, and they lost ground. The church has, through the centuries, largely abandoned this way, choosing to ape the powers rather than to overthrow them. But wherever love and truth rise above fear and lies, the resurrection breaks out again. Prayer, or faith, in the words of Ched Myers, is to believe in the possibility of the transformation of self and the world. And that is resurrection. That is Easter. [John Stoner is coordinator of New Call to Peacemaking, a project to energize the peace witness of Christian churches. A husband, parent and writer, he lives in Akron, Pennsylvania.] ****************************************************************** 4. ONE MUSLIM'S PROTEST By Chris Mahin A national furor erupted in mid-March when the United States of America discovered that one professional basketball player had been quietly declining to stand for the national anthem for five months. "My intentions were not in any way to be disrespectful to those who regard the national anthem as a sacred ceremony," said Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, in a statement issued March 13 by his agent. "I am an African-American, a citizen of this country, and one who respects freedom of speech and freedom of expression. As such, I chose not to disrespect anyone and remained in the locker room or hallway area while the anthem was being played." Abdul-Rauf, a star player with the Denver Nuggets, said he made a "conscious decision" not to make his protest public and talked about it only after being questioned by journalists. In one televised interview, Abdul-Rauf, a devout Muslim, said that his religion barred him from honoring "a symbol of oppression, of tyranny." Abdul-Rauf was suspended briefly by the National Basketball Association. Those who rushed to judge him failed to grasp what was really at stake in the controversy. The real issue was never whether Abdul-Rauf's action was legal. (Of course it was.) Nor was it whether his stance corresponded exactly to Islamic law. (Few Americans know enough about Islam to judge that.) The important thing about this furor was that, at a time when hunger, poverty and misery are growing rapidly in this country, one very rich athlete made a small gesture which he hoped would strike a blow against tyranny and oppression. There is too much tyranny and oppression in America today -- so every protest against it should be welcomed. ****************************************************************** 5. PROGRESSIVES CALL FOR A SUMMIT ON ETHICS By Chris Mahin An important conference will be held this month to discuss how progressives should respond to America's growing moral and spiritual crisis. The Foundation for Ethics and Meaning has called for a National Summit on Ethics and Meaning on April 14-16 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. The conference "will bring together some of America's most creative organizers, community activists, writers, poets, intellectuals, and politicians to build a new progressive social and political vision," the Foundation announced in the January-February 1996 edition of Tikkun, a progressive Jewish quarterly. "Americans hunger not just for good jobs and wages but for lives that transcend the individualism and the selfishness of the competitive market -- lives that connect them to a higher ethical and spiritual purpose," the Foundation's statement pointed out. The conference is cosponsored by Sojouners magazine, the Utne Reader, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Reconstructionist Movement in Judaism, the Learning Alliance, People for the American Way, the Seva Foundation, CO-OP America and other organizations. The summit will include presentations by many well-known figures, including educator Herb Kohl, academics Cornel West and Henry Louis Gates, and religious leaders Jim Wallis, Harvey Cox and Michael Lerner. Workshops will be held on topics ranging from "God Does Not Belong to the Right -- So Why Are Right-Wingers Winning in the Religious World?" to "Can the Politics of Meaning Help in the Short-Term Struggle to Prevent Cutbacks?" The People's Tribune welcomes every effort to discuss the profound economic, social, political and moral crisis unfolding in America. We will send representatives to the conference and report on its work. [For more information about the summit, call the Learning Alliance at 212-226-7171 or send e-mail to alliance@blythe.org.] ****************************************************************** 6. GM IS RE-ORGANIZING: WHAT ABOUT US? By Clare McClinton Three thousand United Auto Workers members who produce brakes at two plants in Dayton, Ohio are striking and have idled about 24 assembly and a number of component parts plants. GM production is at a standstill. Contractual issues (especially outsourcing where work is performed by outside suppliers more cheaply) and excessive overtime are at issue. GM has violated their contract because the work that GM is trying to outsource was promised to the Dayton facilities. Scores of GM plants, especially component parts operations, face these same pressures. The average age at the Dayton plant is between 40 and 50. They are asking, "Why are we working these long hours when our kids need jobs?" Catchwords like modern operating agreements, competitiveness and flexibility are foisted on the GM work force everyday. The fact is that the revolution in technology has driven GM's quest for maximum profits to new heights. In the era of the dispensable worker, GM's pursuit of happiness includes continued downsizing, outsourcing (here and internationally) along with flagrant violations of contractual agreements and labor laws. GM is no stranger to playing hardball. It is seeking court action to avoid paying unemployment compensation to the thousands of workers laid off as a result of the strike. Not only does GM want to save money, but they hope to isolate the Dayton workers by intimidating the rest of the workers. LABOR'S POSITION The stakes are high in this strike. It is a test case for national negotiations. National contract talks begin next fall. The fact that this strike has taken place at a facility that shut down the whole industry gives leverage to the UAW. But the union has some things going against it too. Mobilization of rank and file members by other UAW locals for the striking workers has been weak. Only one local in the Flint area (the largest concentration of GM workers in the world) has sent a bus down to walk the picket lines. Morale among the workers is low due in part to the long, bitter strike and eventual surrender at Caterpillar. The striking workers need answers. They can't reconcile the fact the GM had its best year ever with a $6 billion profit, with GM looking for cheaper labor elsewhere to produce brakes. OBSCENE It is obscene that the richest corporation in the world is telling a work force with over 20 years of seniority and experience that they need to go elsewhere to produce brakes. In his acceptance speech last year at the UAW's constitutional convention, President Stephen Yockich declared, "The UAW is a social movement." It should be. Sooner or later the questions and issues raised in this labor dispute are not only what kind of contract are we going to have, but what kind of America are we going to have? Will this labor settlement be at least a blueprint for social change? If not, there may be a temporary reconciliation but the conflict will only be postponed until another Dayton flares up -- another time, another place. ****************************************************************** 7. INDEPENDENT POLITICS SUMMIT TO CONVENE IN ATLANTA [Editor's note: The following is from a press release issued by Summit/96 organizers.] ATLANTA -- Declaring that, "It is time to create a responsive, new, national, independent, progressive, movement-based political party, or alliance of parties," delegates from scores of grassroots organizations around the country will be convening at Clark Atlanta University April 12-14 for "Summit/96." Summit/96 is an outgrowth of the National Independent Politics Summit held in August 1995 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Representatives from more than 100 organizations attended that event. Among those confirmed or expected to attend and speak in Atlanta are: Connie Tucker and Anne Braden, leaders of the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice; Ronnie Dugger, founder of the newly formed populist Alliance; Jim Hightower, former Texas commissioner of agriculture and nationally syndicated radio commentator; Bob Clark, secretary- treasurer of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE); Burt Corona, long-time Chicano leader in the Southwest; Shafiya M'Balia of Black Workers for Justice in North Carolina; and Stephanie Luce of the Wisconsin New Progressive Party. The Atlanta Summit will advance several projects: a National Peoples Pledge Campaign to gather a million names of people committed to a new, progressive party; the Caravan/March for Social Justice, scheduled to end at Wall Street in the week before the election; and development of a National Slate of Local Independent Candidates. There will also be discussion about whether the conference should support Ralph Nader's, or anybody else's, independent presidential candidacy. At Atlanta, a national platform for the national slate of local candidates will be adopted. Plans will also be made for nationally coordinated Days of Action in the fall to save the social "safety net" and enact legislation to create living wage jobs. Summit/96 will conclude by establishing a structure for an ongoing national network of organizations committed to an independent movement and party, including the election of a National Steering Committee. ****************************************************************** 8. TAKING IT TO THE BOARD By Rick Tingling-Clemmons WASHINGTON -- Rising out of a light rain and mist at 8 a.m. on February 20, some 150 angry voices chanted their protest, thundering: "When the control board says cut back, we say fight back!" The demonstrators were freedom-loving people of all racial, cultural, ethnic, social, religious and most political persuasions found in the D.C. metro area. This demonstration and rally was called by the D.C. Statehood Party and a newly formed coalition of radical and mainstream, unionized and non-unionized workers. Media coverage was tremendous: the major TV networks, the Washington and Baltimore press, radio and community papers. This lively rally was held in front of the Control Board offices at 1 Thomas Circle N.W. Because this very busy traffic circle had witnessed recent civil disobedience by some of the organizers, there were at least 10 uniformed police and plainclothesmen to each demonstrator. It seems that our government says it will not take responsibility for the well-being of its people. Yet technology has made it possible to produce enough to meet all of our needs. But this will not happen under capitalism, nor until we organize to force a reorganization and an economy that we control. As this capitalist economy speeds up its drive for maximum profits, and as people watch helplessly as robots and computers are doing theirs and a million others' jobs ... As working people find that their paychecks can't cover their household expenses, while others find themselves homeless ... As services are brutally cut, as crime touches more and more families each day ... As District residents and others live under the tyranny that is taxation without representation and people are further denied the right to self-determination ... The result is a perfect recipe for a real rumble. [For more information, call the D.C. Statehood Party at 202-973- 2100.] ****************************************************************** 9. MOTHER'S DAY SPEAKING TOUR MOTHER AND LEADER OF HOUSING STRUGGLE TOURS WITH SON The People's Tribune Speakers Bureau is sponsoring a "Mother's Day Speaking Tour" by Cheri Honkala, welfare mom and leader of the housing struggles in Philadelphia, and her son Mark Webber. This dynamic pair offers a vision of what an America could be like that has the compassion to house, educate, clothe and feed every man, woman and child! People who have heard Cheri and Mark speak together have given them rave reviews. Cheri and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union are currently housing homeless families in 30 abandoned HUD homes in Philadelphia, seized under the Underground Railroad Project. Her work has brought poor Latino, African American and white families together in battle. It testifies to the possibilities for unity in the fight for a new America -- and of the opportunities for educating many new leaders. It is no accident that this work has won the attention of Philadelphia's daily newspaper, The Inquirer. One of their reporters is finishing a book about the struggle, scheduled for publication in the fall. The New York Times and newspapers in Europe have also published stories. Mark is a dynamic 15-year-old graffiti artist, playwright, community organizer and actor who recently returned from a speaking tour in Atlanta with homeless organizer Ronald Cassanova. Mark is a welfare kid who is not ashamed of being poor because he understands who is to blame for his poverty. He brings a message of hope for youth. Cheri, co-chair of the National Welfare Rights Union, will excite audiences about the birth of a new women's movement led by poor women. She will also perform her one-person dramatic monologue about her experience being homeless and pregnant. Their story together is a breath of fresh air, one which appeals to women, young people, and families. Today poverty is reaching formerly secure middle managers, lawyers, accountants, and professionals, workers who never dreamed they could identify with welfare moms or homeless kids. We cannot leave this section of America to the Pat Buchanans. Through Cheri and Mark's stories, we can enthuse new audiences about building a new America. We can discuss questions such as: Can society be reorganized on cooperation, not competition, to meet the needs of all the people, not the profits of the few? To find out about bringing this tour to your city, please call the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau at 312-486-3551 or e-mail us at: speakers@noc.org. ****************************************************************** 10. NEW MEXICO: ACTIVIST RUNS FOR STATEHOUSE SEAT By Allen Harris ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico -- On a platform of giving "the voiceless a voice and the hopeless hope," a longtime New Mexico activist is running for the state House of Representatives. "There comes a time in a person's life when one must act on his or her beliefs and convictions," said Jeff Gittelman, who is running for the 18th District seat being vacated by New Mexico State Representative Cisco McSorley. "I have been politically and socially active for most of my life," wrote Gittelman. "I have waged many battles resulting in better health care, education and housing. "Working at Health Care for the Homeless has both alarmed and enlightened me to the trends and direction this country is going. "We witness human suffering and tragedy such as joblessness, lack of affordable housing, substance abuse and domestic violence. Still, with limited resources and lots of support, our homeless clients manage to survive. These success stories have moved me, but we can do much better. "I want to offer hope and re-excite the political scene," said Gittelman. "I plan to run a grassroots, door-to-door campaign," he said. "It will be positive, uplifting and educational. We need to expose the economic and social inequities of the present system. ... The gap between poor and middle-income workers narrows while wealth accumulates in the hands of a few billionaires. Gittelman said his platform will be one "based on human needs," focusing on objectives such as quality education -- including a teacher-pupil classroom ratio of 1 to 15 -- universal health care and access to day care. His campaign welcomes your support. Contact the Independent Committee to Elect Jeff Gittelman to the New Mexico House, District 18, at 505-268-2194. ****************************************************************** 11. ATTENTION LIBERATION TECHNOLOGISTS: IT'S TIME TO BYTE Today, a plethora of new, cheap, fast machines are muddying the lines between "consumer products" and "means of production." Home computers run businesses, home video cameras get the message out from Tiananmen Square to Rodney King. It is up to us to find the limits of where this technology can take us. >From the time we're tots, we're told the tale that capitalism and technology are inseparably twained. Like an old married couple, if one were to die, the other would soon follow. In this fish story, technology usually takes the blame for the necessary evils of the other, and capitalism takes the credit for any improvements technology creates: The first factories, not the capitalists, took away the jobs of those who wove cloth in their homes. The poor slaveowners reluctantly had to optimize production of cotton long after the cotton gin made possible an end to slavery. It's been said that computerized machinery can build cars but it can't buy them. Computers can, however, buy and sell the stocks of car manufacturers -- and so the blame game goes on. Lucky for capitalism, there's always a machine close by to take the heat for the way those technology haves choose to use their tools. Should we throw our television sets out the window because of the programming? Should we stop using electricity because the power monopolies overcharge us while they pollute our land and steal our tax dollars? Should we cut our phone lines because the Baby Bells will only implement those technologies that easily allow the government to spy on us? If we are truly entering a new "information age" or "post-industrial era" should we put blind faith in our government and our benevolent malefactors of the media-industrial complex to figure out the best way to use the power of the so-called technological revolution? Who will this revolution revolve around? The fact that it is so difficult for us to imagine that the history of the industrialization could have happened any other way than how it did, brings home how difficult it is to change the way we do things once a system is in place. Today we are confronted with an opportunity unique to our lifetimes: After 200 years of industrialization, tools have finally come into being that can put power into the hands of the individual. The new telecommunications act shows that the media-industrial complex and their representative government are waking up to this. It's conceivable that the way these new technologies are implemented won't just affect you and me, but perhaps generations to come for the next 200 years. If the power is in our hands, how will we use it? How can we use the new communications systems to organize ourselves, bring national and international attention to local issues, build databases that show the patterns of abuse inflicted upon us, from one city to another, one country to another? How do we ensure that we all have the opportunity to join the "electronic community"? If need be, are we willing to lay down our own phone lines, launch our own satellites? Do we all take the time to learn how this stuff works and share it? ****************************************************************** 12. HOMELESS UNION PRESIDENT VOWS TO 'MAKE LIFE MISERABLE' FOR POLITICIANS WHO BACK CUTS By Sandy Reid PHILADELPHIA -- On a recent trip here, the People's Tribune interviewed Leona Smith, the vivacious president of the National Homeless Union. The union works on the political, economic and social conditions which contribute to homelessness. Leona told us about the exciting activities she's involved in that will help educate many new fighters. "We're in the process of turning on some street heat," she told us, referring to a massive rally that the union had planned for Presidents Day, aimed at House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. "It will allow us to get our voices heard. We're also getting involved in voter registration, not only to register people to vote, but for political education, going to churches talking about voter registration and the cuts. We vowed to make life miserable for the Democrats or the Republicans -- whoever supports the bills that are cutting health care and services. And we're talking about putting together a slate to run our candidates." Leona isn't afraid to speak out. "When I received the Martin Luther King Award recently, they had all the dignitaries out, from the governor to Colin Powell," she said. "They thought I was going to be a good little girl. But I challenged the governor. I told him we know they took $14 million to build five new jails in Pennsylvania! I also said we know jails are a profitable business throughout country because they pay inmates 80 cents per hour for slave labor." The work of the National Homeless Union years ago caught the eye of rock star Bruce Springsteen. "It was so exciting to have him remember us from 10 years ago," said Leona, recalling a recent meeting with Springsteen. "Bruce is trying to help the union grow." In closing, Leona told us, "We know we cannot rely on the system to give us anything. We have to be creative revolutionaries to get that word out about what is going on not just locally, but nationwide. I did a television show where I explained that even if you solve the existing problem of homelessness, you are not going to solve the problem of the new homeless. "The technology is replacing everybody. We estimate that there are 20,000 homeless people in Philadelphia. Is the city going to provide 20,000 beds? Now the working class will be where we have already been. I got so many calls pertaining to that. People are more sympathetic than before. We don't exclude any issues anymore. We've got to build this movement as revolutionaries." [Leona is available to speak through the People's Tribune Speaker's Bureau.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 'YOU GOT TO FIGHT,' SAYS HOMELESS WOMAN By Sandy Reid PHILADELPHIA -- Mariluz Gonzalez is a homeless mother and leader of Philadelphia's Tent Cities and housing takeovers. She lives with several other adults and six children in an abandoned HUD home here. They live from moment to moment, not knowing when the police will come to evict them. There were only three families in the beginning. Now dozens of families are being housed in 30 vacant HUD homes. Mariluz told the People's Tribune what she has learned since she joined the struggle. PT: Mariluz, how did you become homeless? MG: I became homeless a year and a half ago. I was thrown on the street with three kids. I couldn't pay the rent; all my money was going for the rent. PT: What have you learned since you became homeless? MG: Before I became homeless, I was really naive. I didn't know anything about politicians or about what's going on in the world. I joined the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. I learned how to deal with the system, how to talk to media, how to take over houses, how to talk to other people like myself. It got me away from a lot of bad things. Right now I'm a proud mother. I'm proud of myself and proud of my kids and proud of what I'm doing. PT: What do you think about the presidential elections? MG: Nothing. They're just helping themselves, putting money in their own pockets. In Philly, I see the shelters getting packed, more people losing jobs. When we were at the tent city in the middle of the heat wave last summer, the fire department would come and shut off our water, our only source for bathing and cooking. The mayor said he had helped us, that he had brought us ice and water -- but we never received it. But the community came by, giving us medical supplies, food, clothes, furniture. PT: What do you tell new homeless people that you meet? MG: Being homeless is hard, but you got to fight the system. You have to join with other people. The layoffs, cutbacks -- if you sit around you're never going to get anywhere. People feel good about themselves when they join us because they are somebody. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS Is it right for human beings to starve or freeze because they don't have money? There is plenty of housing, and everything else. The same electronic technology that is making us unemployed makes it possible for us all to prosper. Yet without work, we cannot buy what we need. The solution? Distribute the necessities of life to people based on need, regardless of income! And let every person contribute back to society their intelligence, their skills, their love. These are the family values America needs. What do you think? +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 13. NEW COLUMN: ASK MS. MO [Editor's note: This column is a new addition that tries to address contemporary political issues "tongue in cheek." Things that appear here might reflect our readers' thoughts on this subject or that. Ms. Mo gives lip service to what America has on her mind. Write and tell her what you think!] Dear Ms. Mo, My pastor says we must organize to get the vote out as the best solution to stop these vicious budget cuts. What do you say? --Sister Sara from Sarasota, New Mexico Dear Sister Sara, If that's all he's saying, tell him to get behind you quick! The millions affected by budget cuts can't wait until November. They already know that neither jobs, regular meals, a decent apartment, nor a guaranteed income is promised because of new elections. To those most hard-pressed, the homeless, the recent jobless and those about to be, take my advice: If it looks like a vacant HUD house or HUD apartment, if it smells like one, or if it is listed as one -- move in! It's stupid to risk your life, your health, or separate yourself from your family by living outdoors or in a dangerous shelter. Tell your pastor that 80 million people in this country live at or below the true poverty level. He should call for jobs or a guaranteed income so at least folks won't starve to death waiting to go to the polls. [Write to Ms. Mo care of the People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654.] ****************************************************************** 14. ANXIETY OVER THE ECONOMY AND JOBS By Bruce E. Parry, Ph.D. Americans are feeling increasingly anxious over the economy, the lack of jobs and falling wages. The People's Tribune has been talking about these subjects for years. When they become issues in the 1996 presidential campaign, neither the politicians nor the major media can ignore them. The major media and politicians focus on the symptoms, rather than the causes of the economic problems. They do not call for poor and working people to take the situation into their own hands. On the contrary, they are trying to thwart any such movement. The media seem to have just discovered a decade and a half of homelessness, of spreading poverty, of the dismantling of education and health care and the effects these have had on millions of lives for a long period. The media don't say the majority of layoffs continue to affect working class families. While they talk about lost, lucrative six- figure jobs, the reality is that the impact of layoffs on families with incomes of $20,000 to $40,000 has been most devastating. The media talk about the negative impact of electronics, but not about its positive revolutionary potential. Electronics is an economic revolution that is creating both political and social upheaval. It is disrupting the distribution of goods -- buying and selling -- because capitalists replace human workers with robots. Workers can't get money and at the same time, government is ending assistance to the poor and jobless. The media are not talking about why the politicians are dismantling -- step by step -- everything that has been won since the 1930s New Deal. These programs may not have been great, but they were all we had. The media are also not saying that since the economic and social programs are being dismantled, the politicians are substituting political control. They are creating a police state under which our poverty becomes unlawful and the police all powerful. The problem lies in the social organization of distribution. We can no longer sell things only to those who have the money to buy. People need necessities whether they have the money or not. That is true of homes, of food, of education for our kids, for health care, transportation, clothing and everything else we need. Let computers and robots make it. History shows that we can't go backwards: Protectionism and old technology are not solutions. Electronics and globalization are here to stay; they aren't the problem, social organization is. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THEIR MESSAGE? But there's something wrong with the message from the big media. All their solutions to the crisis are based on an assumption that won't work: that companies must be privately owned and allowed to make profits (in fact, maximum profits). Ross Perot recently described how corporate bosses think: "When politicians are trying to get votes, they play every tune they can get their hands on. CEOs [chief executive officers] understand that: OK, the politicians are going to have to punch us around a little bit to look like populists. But once they get in office, we own them because we funded them." [Business Week, March 25, 1996]. That sums it up. The major, mainstream politicians -- city, state and national -- work for the corporations. That is what we mean when we say we live in a class society, when we say we are ruled. It is time for us -- as a class -- to put forward our own solutions. We want jobs and/or income for everyone regardless of corporate profits, competition, etc. We want the school systems funded and a national health care system. We want a safety net that protects us and that is safe. And frankly, if that has to come out of the pocket of Bill Gates with $15 billion or the Rockefellers or Trumps with untold wealth or the corporate coffers, we don't care. They got their money off of us to begin with. THE CROSSROADS The solutions we are putting forth cannot be won without political power. Building political power requires organization and education. The capitalists organize and educate by hiring people to solve their problems. We have little money, but more people: Our unity is the key. We can continue to ask the politicians and corporations for kindness and consideration. We will get nothing but a full-blown police state for our efforts. Begging from the capitalists will keep our forces divided and passive. The capitalists will continue to have the political power and continue to carry out their program. Unity is the key to victory. Those threatened with layoffs and unemployment must join with those who have already been thrown aside by this capitalist society. Only in this way can we build a political force to resist capital's rule, go on the offensive, and implement our ideas. We are at the crossroads. [Abdul Alkalimat, Kate Williams and Nancy Singham also contributed to this article.] [Bruce Parry is available to speak through the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau. Call 312-486-3551 for information.] ****************************************************************** 15. GANG TRUCE LEADERS SPEAK TRUCE ORGANIZER DANIEL 'NANE' ALEJANDREZ: DEVELOPING WARRIORS FOR PEACE By Carlos G. Rodriguez DE KALB, Illinois -- It is a fashionable, convenient target, the topic of gangs. Media pundits and politicians write and speak of these "dark forces, vicious and inhuman." Yet in the midst of this unending propaganda, the voices of mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, friends and children hover over us demanding that the truth be told. On the weekend of March 1 to 3, Northern Illinois University students witnessed an unmasking of this propaganda onslaught as they heard the words of a fighter for peace. Daniel "Nane" Alejandrez has quietly, yet forcefully organized for peace among the young warriors of California for more than 20 years. His organization, Barrios Unidos, is at the forefront of Latino truce activity. "The government is not afraid of barrio violence, in fact, they like it," noted Nane. "What they're scared of is the youth being in leadership ... [They fear] the peace warriors." Contrary to the "drama" of the drive-bys, the drug trafficking or the violations repeated over and over by the politicians and their lackeys in the media, Nane has uncovered a powerful and positive vision. "Truces have always been around," stated Nane. "However, what has been missing is the economic backing. The lack of jobs is key to the development of our barrios." He underlined his point when he described how the L.A. Rebellion after the Rodney King verdicts exposed this reality. "Raza were the majority jailed," said Nane. "How can the media miss such an important story?" Personally, Nane has experienced the loss of 14 relatives to violence. "I had to come to the painful realization that more violence ain't gonna bring them back." "I also saw the laws [like "three strikes"] coming out to lock us up. But we found a vision of where we need to go. ... How can we make ourselves accountable for the madness? ... It's not about payback; it's about seeking political power." Barrios Unidos' vision for political power is down on paper as the Cesar Chavez Peace Plan. And part of this process for political power are the peace summits which have been traveling from city to city nationwide. The next summit is a National Peace Summit set for Washington, D.C. from April 3 to 6. The warriors will be testifying in congressional hearings as well as developing ways to implement the Peace Plan. "The plan offers solutions, hope and spirituality," says Nane. "Besides truces and plans for economic development, we are learning to negotiate -- stay at the table. ... The warriors are bringing an attitude with them: I gotta do something in my community and our community." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CALL FOR A MARCH OF 10,000 LOS ANGELES -- In 1992, the Crips and Bloods in Watts made history by creating a gang truce. Inspired by the gang peace movement of 1974 and 1988, the truce had, and still has, national and international impact. This year, 1996, is the fourth anniversary of the Los Angeles gang truce. The truce not only stopped the violence among the gangs, it also brought community members together. Together, we are building a dynamic, militant movement for social justice, jobs, housing and education. Following the 1992 uprisings, which called attention to our community's problems, it's time to mobilize and rebuild Los Angeles according to our needs! In an attempt to keep the peace and rebuild L.A., we are calling for 10,000 African American, Chicano, men, women, family and friends to join our rally. The rally is set for April 27 at Will Rogers Park, 103rd and Central. For more information, call Community in Support of the Gang Truce at 213-735-3637; The Solamon Group at 213-567-6970; or FOKUS Society at 213-501-6104. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 16. 'WE'VE RAISED THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE LISTENERS' Napoleon Williams: A rebel broadcaster speaks out By Anthony D. Prince DECATUR, Illinois -- It was standing room only at the Lincoln Theater and comedian Reggie Reg was on stage. All of a sudden the young comic spied an audience member in denim overalls and a "do- rag." "Hey!" he yelled, "We've got Napoleon Williams! Radio Station 'F--k You Up!' " The packed house erupted in cheers. After 14 months in prison, the unlicensed "pirate" broadcaster on 107.3 FM was back on the air and more popular than ever. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 'AHEAD OF OUR TIME' You could say that Napoleon Williams was a scout, a soldier who walked ahead of the others to learn the enemy's position. Only this wasn't Vietnam, it was Decatur, Illinois and the year was 1992. "We were ahead of our time," says the 42-year old founder of Liberation Radio. Inspired by "micro"-broadcaster Mbanna Kantako in nearby Springfield, Williams rigged a raggedy antenna atop his small frame home, assembled a transmitter with parts from Radio Shack and began speaking out against injustice, especially police brutality. Soon, Williams found himself falsely accused of plotting the murder of local cops [he was never formally charged] and awoke one night to a military-style, predawn police raid, during which automatic weapons were pointed at the crib of his infant daughter. "If my baby had awakened, she could have been killed," said Williams at the time. Next came a vicious campaign of character assassination in which the veteran activist was labeled everything from child molester to dope dealer. In court, he was likened to Al Capone by Macon County prosecutors. Ultimately, he and co-broadcaster Mildred Jones lost custody of their daughter, Unique Dream Williams. Falsely convicted of criminal trespass and aggravated assault on a Macon County sheriff (Williams was handcuffed at the time), the outspoken fighter wound up in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Jones, meanwhile, was held in contempt and jailed for refusing to testify against Williams. Picking up her daughter after being released, Jones was re-arrested and convicted on a charge of child abduction. The state spared no expense in persecuting the young couple as a depressed and bitter Williams languished behind bars. LABOR WAR Meanwhile, a much broader segment of the Decatur community was about to get its own taste of injustice and police abuse. Hit with a rapid economic decline with corporations downsizing, plants closing and relief rolls swelling, the stage was set for a lengthy labor war that pitted Mace and billyclub-wielding police against thousands of union workers locked out from Caterpillar Tractor, Firestone and the A. E. Staley Corp. "You gotta understand," says Williams, "the man who was perceived as a loud-mouthed crazy person talked about things in 1992 that became a reality in 1995." The "scout" had seen it coming. Long before the first SWAT team pulled up to the Caterpillar plant gates, Williams had sounded the alarm, knowing that for police, it was a short ride from the projects to the picket lines. "During the lockouts, Liberation Radio was silenced," he says, referring to his prison stint. "These [the striking workers and their families] were innocent people, they thought they had a right to protest. I guess they didn't realize the police don't feel the same way." Describing the young men he saw at Hillsboro and Lincoln Correctional Center, Williams says, "These are the sons of hard- working men who have been locked out of their jobs after working 29 years, just short of a 30-year pension. They have no dreams, really. Staley, Caterpillar, Bridgestone, these are the jobs they thought they would have. Now, the only way they could see to get their father's job was to cross the picket line." Perhaps because of the civics lesson they got watching the police, media and the city council line up against the workers, the public may finally be listening to the "crazy person" on 107.3 who thinks his time has finally come: "The ones that didn't even want to hear what I had to say are now in agreement with me." MESSAGE AND MISSION To the growing ranks of the jobless, the underpaid and impoverished in Decatur, the message of Liberation Radio is one of hope and struggle, its mission to defend those who dare to challenge the system. One such person was Keith Anderson. "Keith started 'Homework Helpers,'" explains Williams. "He gave kids a safe place to go after school and he was applauded all over." Recalling how the city at first refused to give Anderson funds to keep the popular program alive, Williams recounts how the same elected officials handed downtown developers $24,000 to put a new marquee on a local theater. "I told the listeners that school children ought to come first over business," says Williams, while Anderson marched his kids into the council chambers. Later, officials quietly allocated the needed funds. Championing causes like "Homework Helpers," the Staley workers and the rights of the unjustly accused, Williams is winning supporters across the color line, from all over town. A never-ending stream of phone calls makes the point: A young man expresses thanks for giving the community a voice; a self-described "low-income white woman" refutes the charge that Williams is "racist" and adds her support; another caller plays his own homemade rap promo for Liberation Radio. "We have taught people who thought they were voiceless, giving them hope," concludes a confident, recharged Napoleon Williams. "We've raised the consciousness of the listeners in Decatur. The fear is still here, but not as prevalent." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Now Available: "Hold the Fort!," a cassette tape recording of Napoleon Williams, People's Tribune correspondent Anthony Prince and urban peace activist/poet Luis Rodriguez on Liberation Radio, Decatur. Order your copy today! Send $5.00 along with your name and address to: PT Tapes, c/o People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654 or call Liberation Radio, Decatur (Illinois) at 217-423-9997. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 17. BALTIMORE'S 'GIMME SHELTER': 'ART CAN CONNECT PEOPLE' Editor's note: In December, a dozen poets and musicians joined forces at St. John's Methodist Church in Baltimore to raise funds for the emergency homeless shelter associated with that church. The event was organized by a relative newcomer to Baltimore -- Marc Colasurdo, a poet, writer and long-time activist. As a result of this fund raiser, a group of artist-activists has been formed called "Gimme Shelter." Below we print excerpts from an interview with Marc and Jassaga, two people spearheading the group. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What initiated this fund-raiser? MARC: This is really a continuation of work I have done in other cities. I have organized benefits for Para los Ninos shelter, the St. Quentin literary project, the Hopi Dine resistance at Big Mountain and others. My feeling is that art can connect people. Art has a sacred nature; it should not be used for ego strokes or dollars. It should give something back. The true revolution will occur when there is a vision of what can be. The most daring people in a society in terms of vision are artists, but you have to connect art to real life -- suffering, pain and joy that people around you experience. JASSAGA: There is a long tradition of cultural activism in this country, despite the odds; people are moved by creativity and you cannot have a movement without creativity. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: You have both experienced homelessness. ... MARC: I have been there several times. ... JASSAGA: It is a vicious cycle. ... MARC: At first, it seems like freedom. ... JASSAGA: And then you realize you have no place left to fall. MARC: Everything is upside down in this society. We are judged by our bank books, not by our humanity. People have to understand that it is not a defect in them when they become homeless. In the richest country of the world, homelessness is a crime; the people responsible for it should be behind bars. JASSAGA: Well, they are behind bars, just behind the wrong bars. They are judges! [To contact "Gimme Shelter," write to 1708 Eutaw Place, Suite 1B, Baltimore, Maryland 21217.] ****************************************************************** 18. POEM: YOU LEARN JUST HOW FAR IT IS ACROSS THOSE TRACKS. You learn just how far it is across those tracks. You watch the skyscrapers hoping that they'll tumble and prove Babylon wrong. And you watch the taxis, biting your nails as long-legged blondes lock arms with the tuxedos of success. And you know furiously that you can still think. When you've got nowhere to live. You watch the paddywagon pack 'em in and the ambulance scoop up the blood. You watch the priest lie though his Pearl Drop chops. And you watch the papers for a glimpse of elsewhere: For the job, for the dream for the accident. And you want to vomit at the ads that promise you everything but would waste no human syllables if they could see you. So you walk-- pressing your face against restaurant windows, counting your pennies like thousand dollar bills. And you know just how impossibly rich the rich really are When you've got nowhere to live. Every doorway is jammed with sleepers Some of them kids Already gone to the wine to the junk to the darkness. And you wish you could sweep them up to somewhere clean Because sometimes kindness will explode in you When you've got nowhere to live. All you can do is keep walking and the rain sizzles your head as it falls and you don't have a dime and no one to call; And a piece of dry toast would be a feast to you now-- And somehow somehow as if some mad joke was being played on you, when you've got nowhere to live, you dream of falling in love. -- Marc Colasurdo (from "Third Street Deep Blues) June 1981, San Francisco ****************************************************************** 19. USE THIS ELECTION YEAR TO UNITE THOSE FIGHTING TO END POVERTY The last issue of the People's Tribune carried a front page article on the 1996 elections. It raised the urgency of "serious educational and organizational effort to build a national workers' or people's party to resist the evils, be they greater or lesser." Our country is at a critical juncture and we would like to take this opportunity to speak more about this proposal. A recent poll found that 69 percent of those affected by layoffs and 49 percent of those who haven't yet been affected are angry at both the Democratic and Republican parties. On top of the millions with no jobs, 80 percent of the population have seen their incomes decline over the last 20 years. For previous generations, the growing wealth of this country was shared unequally, but at least it was shared. Today, what benefits the tiny class of billionaires hurts the overwhelming majority of Americans. No longer can people get anywhere by tagging along with one or another candidate of the powers-that-be. It's no mystery where all the wealth is going. It's going to the corporations and their officers and stockholders -- not to children on welfare or immigrants who slave away at starvation wages. It's also no secret that our country has the technology and abundance to wipe out all poverty and suffering overnight. What can be done? Whether in independent electoral efforts or in the battles in the streets, use this election year to unite people around their actual economic and political interests. Only a powerful movement clear on who it is, who the enemy is, and what has to be done, can right the wrongs. As this movement matures, it will need and it will form its own party. Not the Democratic or Republican party of the powers-that-be. And, more than an electoral party, it would have to be an organizational center for the battles of the millions who have been struggling for survival for generations and those just now joining them in poverty. Now is the time to fight in such a way that we strengthen ourselves for the future battles. We call on people everywhere fighting for justice and educating people as they fight: The League of Revolutionaries for a New America offers the pages of this newspaper to you. Give voice to the struggle to right the wrongs. Bring the politics and ideology of that movement up to the demands of the actual situation. Help expose the immorality of what this system is doing to people and to spell out the solutions. ****************************************************************** 20. 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. Box 3524 Chicago, IL 60654 pt@noc.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 ($50 institutions), bulk orders of 10 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! Articles should be shorter than 300 words, written to be easily understood, and signed. (Use a pen name if you prefer.) Include a phone number for questions. Contact PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, P. O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654, tel. (312) 486-3551. ****************************************************************** We encourage reproduction and use of all articles except those copyrighted. Please credit the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE depends on donations from its readers -- your generosity is appreciated. For free electronic subscription, email: pt.dist- request@noc.org ******************************************************************