From jdav@noc.org Thu Jul 4 23:24:08 1996 Date: Thu, 4 Jul 96 15:43 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune 7-96 (Online Edition) ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 23 No. 8 / July, 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. 8 / July, 1996 Page One 1. LABOR PARTY TO FIGHT FOR EMPLOYED AND UNEMPLOYED Editorial 2. WHY POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE FROM THE DEMOCRATS AND GOP? Spirit of the Revolution 3. PENTECOST, DAY OF JUBILEE, NEW BEGINNINGS 4. A PLACE TO START News and Features 5. 200,000 STAND FOR CHILDREN IN D.C. 6. VOICES FROM THE FRONT: PHILADELPHIA'S FREEDOM FIGHTERS SPEAK 7. LABOR PARTY FOUNDED IN CLEVELAND 8. UNION SUMMER MIRRORS CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZING 9. S.F. PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS ORGANIZE AGAINST EVICTIONS 10. GUESS WHO IS LOSING THE NUMBERS GAME? THE UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES 11. ASK MS. MO Deadly Force 12. HOMELESS ACTIVISTS IN MINNESOTA HARASSED BY GOVERNOR Culture Under Fire 13. MUSIC, REVOLUTION AND JOHN SINCLAIR 14. MORE FROM THE VILLAINS ... >From the League 15. CAMPAIGN TO BUILD THE LEAGUE 16. ABOUT THE PT ****************************************************************** 1. LABOR PARTY TO FIGHT FOR EMPLOYED AND UNEMPLOYED 'We are the people who build and maintain the nation but rarely enjoy the fruits of our labor. We are the employed and the unemployed. We are the people who make the country run but have little say in running the country.' -- from A Call for Economic Justice, the program adopted by the Labor Party convention. By General Baker We will come out with some kind of a labor party that has the ability to grow and can go back in the districts and build. A lot of important people are here, representing a lot of people from a lot of unions, and other organizations. The Convention represented real positive steps forward and it had the kind of ingredients we need to get a labor party off the ground. One of those important ingredients was the decision to be a party of both the employed and unemployed worker. This was expressed concretely by the fact that the National Welfare Rights Union and the National Union of the Homeless were given designated work organization status. The formation of a labor party is the next step in the struggle for survival and freedom in this country. This looks like one of the most formative of the new party/labor party formations taking place. The fact that it had the founding convention with 1,367 delegates and a really significant section of labor is testimony that it is one of the most progressive ones developing. It seems like the ruling class has a lid on things. They think that Clinton is the best bet to keep the lid on things for the next four years. Precisely after the current elections, social struggle will break out on all fronts and we'll need some type of an organizational framework to proceed to. That's why I'm here. It's important to lend support to the progressive section that is working here. [General Baker is the chair of the Steering Committee of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. He attended the Labor Party's founding convention in Cleveland.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ATTACKS ON AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCHES: 'PEOPLE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT' I listened to a news interview about the wave of church burnings. The correspondent tried to downplay the seriousness of this. But the last time African American churches were under attack like this, it was to beat down civil rights. Before that, it was Reconstruction. "This is clearly an attempt of the Right to intimidate folks into silence. It is part of the overall rise of the Right to attack working people, oppressed nationalities and women. People are just not going to take it. This is 100 years after Plessy v. Ferguson. [The U.S. Supreme Court decision which upheld segregation.] This is not coincidence. No, we're not going back. -- Shafeah M'Balia [Shafeah M'Balia is the editor of Justice Speaks newspaper and a member of the National Steering Committee of Black Workers For Justice. She made the comments above in an interview at the Labor Party convention.] Next issue: Special coverage of the fight against the church burnings. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 2. WHY POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE FROM THE DEMOCRATS AND GOP? It's no longer news that a majority of the American people is dissatisfied with the Republican and Democratic parties. Nor is it news that the 1996 presidential race has become a Bob Dole-Bill Clinton echo chamber. The Republicans took control of Congress in 1994; the pundits say the Democrats will get it back in 1996, but the change in direction will be slight at best. As the nation again celebrates its declaration of independence from Britain in 1776, the question is emerging of political independence of the millions of Americans living in poverty and economic insecurity. Why political independence from the Republican and Democratic parties? Because both parties are controlled by and represent the class of people who own nearly all the wealth and who are profiting from corporate downsizing and mergers. This economic and social class, the capitalist class, now controls the technology that is eliminating jobs formerly held by human beings. On June 12, the Investor's Business Daily, a financial newspaper, reported that the income gap between rich and poor has widened under President Clinton, a Democrat. "Late last year," the newspaper said, "the Census Bureau released data showing that the wealthiest Americans saw their average income climb 21 percent between 1992 and 1994, while the bottom fifth's incomes stayed flat." The newspaper said that "real median household income ... has dropped slightly since '92, despite two years of solid economic growth. It's still well below its 1989 peak, the Census Bureau says." In addition, says the newspaper, "Clinton hasn't made much headway on poverty, either. At 14.5 percent of the population, the poverty rate in '94 -- the last year for which data are available -- is higher than in all but three years of the Reagan and Bush administrations. " 'It remains at a historically high level for this point in an economic recovery,' noted a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities," said the newspaper, whose perspective, of course, is that of the capitalist class. The situation of organized labor is telling. The union's only true weapon against the bosses, the strike, has been effectively neutralized by the bosses' ability to eliminate the workers' jobs through electronics, or to export the jobs to low-wage countries. Organized labor for much of the 20th century has been tied to the Democratic Party, and that party belongs not to labor, but to the capitalists who in turn are slashing the jobs. It was possible to be tied to the Democrats when the capitalist system could assure rising wages and job security. But with wages stagnant or falling and with millions of jobs lost during the 1990s, labor will be in an impossible situation. A break with the Democrats must come. For the millions of Americans who have no jobs and no money (and for the millions more who are just barely employed and comprise the working poor), the solution to the problem is political. That means a political break -- not just with the capitalist parties, but ultimately also with the capitalist system itself. ****************************************************************** 3. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: PENTECOST, DAY OF JUBILEE, NEW BEGINNINGS By John Auer [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.] Easter in Christian tradition is not just a day, but a season of 50 days, culminating in the day of Pentecost, which this year was on May 26. Fifty is the jubilee number in Hebrew Scripture -- "And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you." (Leviticus 25:10) Fifty days after Pesach (Passover) comes Shavuot, time to celebrate the gift of the Law handed down to wandering Israelites in the wilderness at Sinai. Similarly, Pentecost celebrates the gift of the Spirit sent down to fearful Christians in the city of Jerusalem. Both mean getting the people out of bondage. Getting the people out of bondage is one thing; getting bondage out of the people is another. Jesus had said in his resurrection, "Stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:49) Jesus also had proclaimed the jubilee as the meaning of his life and work. In his very first public address, he chose to read from the prophet Isaiah -- "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19) The jubilee is an act of new beginning. Essential resources for life are restored. There is forgiveness of sins, of debts, both spiritually and materially. A promise of perpetual renewal is built into the very life of the people. Jubilee begins with a day of atonement. A year of sabbath rest follows. There is "no business as usual" for anyone until everyone gets a fresh start. Land is returned to original owners. Each family gets some. Cycles of poverty are broken. Any who have become prisoners or slaves for economic reasons or indebtedness of any kind are set free, for all were slaves in Egypt. The accumulation of wealth is subject to redemption, to redistribution, in the name of justice and fairness. The gift of the Law provides, "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; ... You shall provide for the redemption of the land." (Leviticus 25:23-24) Similarly, in the early church, in response to the gift of the Spirit, "All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need." (Acts 2:44) And, "Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions. ... There was not a needy person among them." (Acts 4:32-34) Treatment of the Spirit in Christian tradition has been a rip-off. Christmas and Easter have gone commercial. Pentecost has been forgotten. This Spirit of jubilee most commonly is embraced as the assurance of personal salvation from the world. The very same Spirit is abandoned as the assurance of public good in the world. [John Auer is a husband, grandparent and activist, serving as pastor of St. Mark and Sierra Vista United Methodist Churches in Fresno, California. He will soon be pastor at San Rafael First United Methodist Church.] ****************************************************************** 4. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: A PLACE TO START By Timothy Ferguson CHICAGO -- I'm a people person, one of those weirdoes who starts up conversations with perfect strangers. It's a great way to gather opinions and find out about people. After all, isn't communication our greatest gift? Most people I talk with seem concerned about the dangerous times we live in -- with good reason. Every day, we're bombarded with horror stories about drive-by shootings and kids with automatic weapons. The media seem to be capable only of reporting these tragedies, but never of asking why they happen. This has very dubious results. The violence takes on a certain sense of randomness. People start to view young people as a threat, particularly minority youth. Crimes do happen, perhaps to a greater extent in the poorer, depressed areas of our big cities, but that is no reason to view an entire generation as the enemy. If we were to believe the media's hysteria, we would expect violent crime to be on an unprecedented upward spiral. Real life would mirror the latest Sylvester Stallone movie. In fact, violent crime is at no higher a level now than it was 10 years ago. In many areas, it has actually gone down. Why the hysteria then? When people are afraid, they isolate themselves. A stranger is someone who's up to no good, a threat. We build walls, physical and emotional, and spend our lives hiding. We forget that we are all made by the same Creator, that we all have basically the same goals and needs. We lose our sense of community. Who gains from a citizenry divided and paranoid? The same people who own the television stations, the newspapers and the news sources. Most people on this planet live in poverty. In America, far too many people live on the street, have no job, or go to bed hungry. In the nation where "all men are created equal," the disparities between the wealthy and the poor have reached Third World proportions. The great-grandchildren of the robber barons live in unparalleled splendor, comfortably isolated. These men (and women) make decisions that affect every phase of our lives. Five percent of the population owns 48 percent of the wealth; the top 20 percent owns 90 percent. The overwhelming majority of us are left to gnaw the scraps. How do they get away with this? They use the oldest rule in military strategy: When faced with a superior force, one must divide to conquer. We the 80 percent, the hungry, homeless, unemployed or underemployed; we the middle class, the working class, fight and scrap to make a better life for our children. In so doing, we have turned not against our common foe, but against each other. We live the life of not-so-quiet desperation, anesthetized by alcohol and television. We allow ourselves to judge and be judged not on who we are, but what we own. I get discouraged sometimes when I see how divided we are. The problems we face are formidable; the enemy has many tools and great cunning. But who fights harder, he with something to lose or those with everything to gain? The odds against effecting real, long-lasting change weigh heavily against us. But I believe with all my heart that there are solutions and that we can overcome the odds. Maybe, just maybe, it starts with a simple "hello." ****************************************************************** 5. 200,000 STAND FOR CHILDREN IN D.C. More than 200,000 people, mainly women and children, gathered on June 1 in Washington, D.C., at Stand For Children. Many people told the People's Tribune that this was their very first protest. They came because every day 95 babies die, 2,660 are born in poverty, and 8,493 children are abused or neglected. They came because they want Democrats and Republicans alike to speak to children's issues. Although the participants held diverse views on the causes of children's poverty, people united around the idea of "Leave no child behind." This was an important step. Gathering under the Lincoln Memorial was a reminder that a mere 130 years ago, slave children were torn from their mothers' arms. Will we go back? No. Jails, orphanages, curfews, blaming the victims, is no solution. The crowd clapped enthusiastically when Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund, said, "Oh, God, forgive our rich nation that lets the rich continue to get more at the expense of the poor quite legally." If we continue to stand together, leaving no child behind, we can build a new America where our vast wealth is utilized for every child and their family. ****************************************************************** 6. VOICES FROM THE FRONT: PHILADELPHIA'S FREEDOM FIGHTERS SPEAK HOMELESS STRUGGLE EXPOSES THE SYSTEM By Bob Lee PHILADELPHIA -- Here in the city where the Constitution was drafted, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, where the homeless sleep in the shadow of the Liberty Bell, a new movement for justice has taken root. It is a movement led, in the main, by homeless women, often with their children in tow. For years now, Philadelphia's homeless have been fighting the city and federal governments for housing. That struggle moved into an intense new phase last summer, when the most militant section of the city's homeless, led by the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, began a Tent City on a vacant lot in the devastated North Philadelphia area. As the weather grew colder, the Tent City residents took over an abandoned church, then moved into abandoned houses owned by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, giving more than 60 families "Homes for the Holidays." With the warm weather, HUD has begun evicting the families. Out of necessity, Tent City was re-established in North Philly in April, and has been growing daily. These fighters are among the leaders of a new national movement for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It was my privilege to spend some time at Tent City in April. On these pages are excerpts from interviews with the Tent City fighters. The People's Tribune salutes their courage and, as always, opens its pages as a weapon in the struggle. WILLIE BAPTIST, a member of the National Council of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America and someone intimately involved in the struggle of the homeless in Philadelphia: When you're in a fight, you have to locate your enemy's weakness and focus on it, and homelessness is a key point of vulnerability for this system. With the dismantling of the welfare state, the acceleration of evictions, the expansion of the shelter and jail systems, all this forces people into motion. Some advocates for the poor try to save the welfare state; our approach is to organize those being assaulted. Homelessness is the key issue, as an expression of the insanity, inhumanity and obsolescence of the system. The other aspect is how homelessness fits in with the housing policies of the various ruling circles. Housing policy is connected to labor policy. Dismantling the welfare system is an effort to obliterate the floor of the wages system; they are lowering the wage structure and developing a corresponding housing policy to fit that. This means a housing policy where housing is totally unaffordable for people who are not working. They have not been able to explain homelessness in an America of plenty. We have to develop a combination of approaches that allows us to win the hearts and minds of the people. I think those approaches grow out of the conditions themselves, and we're going to have to become part of that process, help push people forward, and use that as a base for elevating people's thinking, not only for people who are in the situation, but also for those who are seeing that what these people are struggling about raises a lot of questions regarding their own future, their own existence. We set up a tent at the Liberty Bell last summer, and as a result we had debates all over the damn city about homelessness, about what's going on here in the heart of liberty. It was a powerful thing. Combining activity with explanations, with widespread discussion, with speaking tours -- we've had tours on the campuses, different places, trying to explain things, and because we've been connected to these kinds of activities, people want to listen to what's going on. CHERI HONKALA, executive director of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union: Homelessness is going to get much worse with the welfare cuts here in Pennsylvania. We've got to move people away from looking at the problem as just their situation, and get them to see that they can never actually run from the situation unless we have a different system in this country. And teach them that in a way that is not rhetoric. Housing takeovers now are not like some protest or symbolic thing; it's the norm. Anyone from the mailman to the person that lives next door, sees a real need to have some relationship to this struggle, because people see their future or their children's future looking very similar to this. So they figure it's better to be connected to it, because at least these folks are trying to do something to resolve the problem. When somebody needs housing or clothing or food, we get it. First we utilize the system; people get a great education -- they learn the system doesn't work. And then we teach people how to organize to take. Women take over abandoned houses -- and have no choice but to do this to put a roof over their kids' heads -- then enter a court system in which they are told that what they're doing is wrong and illegal, when all they're trying to do is provide for their children. And so it's real educational to see that every institution is set up for a different class and not them. I got six months' federal probation for obstructing the view of the Liberty Bell last summer. What was obstructing the view of the Liberty Bell was homeless mothers and children. It was a sad day in that courtroom, that a judge would rule that human beings were less important and didn't have a right to demonstrate in front of the Liberty Bell. What was so bizarre was that there was only one difference between the homeless families that were there demonstrating and the other homeless families that live every day in Philadelphia on Independence Hall in front of the Liberty Bell -- the only difference was that the folks with us were saying something about their condition, and that's what they were charged with. We dared say something about the conditions in this country. They have the National Guard going through the neighborhoods boarding up the houses and putting two by fours behind all the doors and all the windows. They're serious about keeping those houses empty. Everybody living in North Philly is having to live illegally. Nobody has car insurance, or a driver's license; a lot of people don't have any utilities on legally. To have water, or a warm house, you have to be illegal. The criminalization of the poor is very real. And the police all know it. They know that everybody around can be locked up at any given moment. We're in the fight of our life right now around leadership development, trying to create as many conscious leaders as possible in this process. Because the situation is never safe, but you're a hell of a lot safer if you've got some conscious folks in the process. And for us it really means identifying potential revolutionaries in the process and recruiting them, so that then we can have much deeper discussions about what's happening. HOPE WALKER, a member of the KWRU: I do everything I can to help people, because I know one day I'm going to need help. We take care of each other. All across the country there are a lot of people homeless. And someday they'll have homes, and food to eat. You keep struggling, in the end you accomplish things. Some people who still have jobs and homes don't understand that it's a struggle. One day they might be homeless, and they'll come to us and we'll help them. We have no problem with helping anyone. CHERYL MUCERINO, president of the KWRU: Everybody's got to get up and do something. If you say that somebody's hungry and that's a shame, that's one thing, but when you say that somebody's hungry and you figure out how to feed them, that's something different, and that's the kind of person I want to be. There's no jobs here, people are being cut off welfare every day, and people are doing things illegal to try to survive. It used to be we'd tell people who we were and they'd laugh and say "I'm not going to be hungry or homeless," and now people are looking for me in the streets to find out how to get in contact with us. The conditions are so bad right now. Most of the people I know have no income at all and have to hustle to get money, and that's a difference from four years ago when I joined KWRU. Now there's not even minimum-wage jobs available. You don't have to pay a computer vacation or sick time, and they're taking our jobs away. The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer, and now the poor are dying. And our politicians just don't care. So I work every day to make sure that people are educated that we can stop things, along with everybody else. I think we're going to see a lot worse conditions than there was in the Great Depression before things change. I hope that people learn who their enemy is and not kill each other, because you see that every day -- poor people are killing each other. I hope through the organizing that we do that we can make sure that everybody gets everything they need to live. Because things are going to get a lot worse. We're going to see a lot more things like the L.A. uprising. And that's one of the reasons that we decided to do our Tent City in North Philly, because we believe that people are angry enough here that this is where the uprisings will start, and we want them to be organized uprisings. KATE ENGLE, a member of the KWRU: We've got to stand up for our rights and fight for what we believe in. And we believe people should have housing, food and clothing. We believe the law should be the same for us as it is for them. They want to make cuts in welfare -- they call it welfare reform. It's a death sentence for all the poor. They ain't going to go to jail, but if we were to go out and kill somebody, we would. Why ain't they? It makes me mad. I think the only way homelessness is going to be resolved is if everybody wants to get up and out of poverty, and if people come together. We need to get rid of the system we have altogether. Why should the rich have so much money? We don't even have carfare. If people want to know where the welfare money is going, it's going to big corporations. MARILUZ GONZALEZ, a member of the KWRU: It's a shame what the system is doing to us. If we all get together and organize we can do something. I love what I'm doing. I want to continue helping other people get together. We've got to open our eyes and wonder what the system's all about. I know a lot of people are getting laid off, factories are closing, everything is shutting down. They're trying to cut off the medical system, too. Sooner or later everybody is going to become homeless. People are going to realize what's going on and they're going to look up to us homeless people. When I became homeless, I just wanted to end my life and the lives of my three kids, because I couldn't get help from anyone and because I had no job skills. But I looked at my children and I said "No!" I wanted to make a better life for me and my children, one way or another. Since I became a member of KWRU, I've learned a lot about the struggle and how to organize. I've learned about politics, about attitudes, about how to get along with people and care what happens to them. TARA COLON, executive assistant of the KWRU: Philadelphia has about 37,000 abandoned homes and about 20,000 of them are in livable condition, and we've got too many homeless people, so we moved in to these HUD houses. Now that the weather is getting nice, they're evicting us. We should be able to get into some kind of affordable housing. But we know we need to fight, even when we get those affordable houses, because with all the cuts in government and everything that they're doing, that's not even secure. I honestly don't know what's going to happen, but I know that I'm not giving up without a fight. People need to realize that this isn't an isolated situation. As people lose their jobs, you're going to be seeing lots more tent cities. We're not the only people going through this. We're just the ones that have been affected first and are crying out. But there will be a lot more people screaming. We shouldn't have to put up with these conditions. My child should have just as much right to an education and a roof over their head as anyone else's. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ AN IMPORTANT NEW BOOK Announcing the fall 1996 publication of _Each One Teach One_, a memoir by Ron Casanova, vice president of the National Union of the Homeless. The publisher, Curbstone Press, will sponsor an author media tour to Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. in September; a national radio campaign in October, November and December; and a speaking and reading tour in October. To arrange for paid speaking engagements, contact the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau at 312-486-3551 or send e-mail to speakers@noc.org. To order copies of the book in advance, before August 15, send $23 to Breakthrough Images, P.O. Box 3233, Chicago, Illinois 60654. (The price includes a 10 percent discount. No discount for orders received after August 15.) +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 7. LABOR PARTY FOUNDED IN CLEVELAND By Chris Mahin CLEVELAND -- In a hall bedecked with colorful banners, 1,367 delegates met here from June 6 to June 9 and founded a new political party -- the Labor Party. The delegates included carpenters, nurses, steelworkers, textile and mine workers, as well as representatives of the homeless and of welfare recipients. All together, the delegates represented more than 1 million people. "We are the people who build and maintain the nation but rarely enjoy the fruits of our labor," the delegates declared in their party program. "We are the employed and the unemployed. We are the people who make the country run but have little say in running the country." Grassroots organizing to prepare for the convention had been going on for six years. Organizations endorsing the convention included the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers, the United Electrical Workers, the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, the California Nurses Association, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, and numerous regional and local union bodies. The convention adopted a 19-page program called "A Call for Economic Justice." The program calls for establishing a constitutional right to a job at a livable wage of $10 an hour; supports affirmative action and the rights of immigrants; and opposes prison labor for production. "We oppose all forms of terrorism and hate crimes, including attacks against African American churches, synagogues, or other places of worship," the final version of the party program states. "We also oppose police brutality and other forms of the criminalization of dissent and poverty." (These provisions were added at the suggestion of the convention's Black Caucus.) At the urging of leaders of the National Welfare Rights Union, the convention endorsed a guaranteed adequate annual income for all. After an intense debate, the convention decided not to endorse candidates or engage in electoral campaigns in the next two years. Instead, the new party agreed to "go union to union, local to local, door to door to gather support for the Labor Party." The emotional high point of the four-day convention came on June 8, when a delegation of striking Detroit newspaper workers took the stage to a thunderous standing ovation. "we are becoming a more militant and confrontational bunch," said Margaret Trimer- Hartley, a journalist on strike against the Detroit Free Press. "This is a war. We have dug in our heels and we will not surrender. We will win by any means necessary." The convention endorsed the call for a national labor march on Detroit to support the newspaper workers and donated money to the strikers. Speaking at the convention, populist radio talk show host Jim Hightower condemned the "Democratic Leadership Council boys" and called for a return to America's radical democratic values. Dismissing the notion that the special interests are unbeatable, Hightower declared: "No building is too tall for a small dog to lift his leg on." Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, an at-large delegate, spoke from the convention floor. "This convention will be looked upon by history as the rebirth of the labor movement after so many years of dominance by corporate power," Nader predicted. "We have to care what happens to the people of the countries who are our trading partners," Baldemar Velasquez, president of Ohio's Farm Labor Organizing Committee, told the gathering, in an impassioned plea for labor to defend the most disadvantaged. America needs a labor party with a new vision." [For more information, call the Labor Party at 1-202-234-5190.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ SIGN THE NATIONAL PEOPLE'S PLEDGE! There are a number of groups across the country fighting to establish a progressive alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties. One such group is the Independent Progressive Politics Network. They are urging people to sign and circulate The National Peoples Pledge, which is shown here. The Pledge states that when 1 million people have signed it, those people will "support the creation of a new, national, independent, progressive, movement-based political party; or an alliance of such parties." For more information about the Pledge or the Independent Progressive Politics Network, write to: IPPN, P.O. Box 170610, Brooklyn, New York, 11217; or call 1-718-624-7807. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 8. UNION SUMMER MIRRORS CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZING [Denise Perry, director of field training for the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute, spoke with the People's Tribune about the changing labor movement and new organizing drives of the union.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Could you tell us what the Organizing Institute is? DENISE PERRY: The AFL-CIO Organizing Institute was started about 6 years ago by Richard Bensinger. His goal was to help the labor movement grow through training literally thousands of union organizers. People started doing apprenticeships of 3-5 months and then found organizing jobs with various unions. This is all about growing the union and changing the face of the labor movement because our strength will come when we begin to truly reflect the work force. Today the labor movement is at best 15 percent unionized and even now unions don't mobilize their membership. They're not using their core. Yet the membership is an incredible resource. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: You are involved in a summer organizing drive that will involve young people. Could you tell our readers about it? DENISE PERRY: Union Summer is open to anyone who is at least 18 years old. It was an idea that arose when [John] Sweeney came into office. The goal is to get young people more involved in the labor movement and to help them see what is happening in this country for workers. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: As a union organizer, have you seen many changes in the labor movement in recent years? DENISE PERRY: Labor is pretty white male-dominated, male, pale and very stale. Yet the American work force reflects a growing domination of people of color and women and service sector versus manufacturing. For me personally, this is not new. I started organizing in health care which is dominated by women and people of color. The change has been that there wasn't much organizing there before. Organizing was in automotive and places where jobs are dominated by men. If the labor movement wants to survive, they have to do this. Some accept this more willingly and honestly; others are still protecting their turf. They want to hire organizers but won't give them power as organizers. There has been a long history of bad relations with the community, so it will take a long time. The question is, how do we make the job of an organizer to get the community to work with us? A lot of our organizing mirrors grassroots civil rights organizing: empowering, getting people to march on a boss; taking risks, giving people ownership, not us coming in, but workers forming their own organization. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Have you seen any changes in organizing tactics to reflect these changes in the work force? DENISE PERRY: There is an effort to bring more women and people of color in as organizers and we're improving our ability to recruit in the community where there are tons of successful organizers, such as people of color and women. The people that are doing union recruiting are people that have gone through the program and have worked on campaigns and know that we need to bring more people in. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What are some of the difficulties you face today? DENISE PERRY: Today people are so isolated in different types of jobs. For example, there is a campaign for justice in San Jose, California, where people make products for Apple and Hewlett- Packard. They are working five people in a garage. There's no one to deal with workplace injuries. The corporations say they aren't responsible. This goes on not just in computers, but in other industries such as textiles. The only way we will be successful and get good strong contracts like ups is when workers have power over an employer. ****************************************************************** 9. S.F. PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS ORGANIZE AGAINST EVICTIONS JUSTICE NOW! STOP THE RELOCATIONS!! By Sarah Menefee SAN FRANCISCO -- People are resisting, organizing and fighting back against one of the largest displacements in this city's history: the eviction and "relocation" of more than 30,000 residents of public and subsidized housing. They don't intend to be driven quietly from their homes and out of town while the politicians and their enforcers -- the police -- turn San Francisco into a "rich only" city. They are not believing the campaign of slander and lies being whipped up by the media about them, their situation and struggle, and about such grassroots organizers as Malik Rahim, Jeffrey Branner or Louise Vaughn. They recognize who their allies are, and who are their enemies. They are building such tenant-led organizations as the Coalition of Concerned Residents of Low- Income and Public Housing. On March 27-28, the coalition and other groups sponsored a summit on housing attended by several hundred people. On April 4 they led a demonstration at City Hall against the evictions, relocations and the abuses. When the 40 participants entered City Hall to deliver letters to the Board of Supervisors (the city council), we were blocked by a line of security cops and denied access. After we sat down and declared we were ready to be taken to jail, the police backed off and the demonstrators hand-delivered the letters. At the rally, people spoke about the tactics being used to drive them from their homes. They described how management companies such as McCormack Baron, will profit from the current removal of residents from the Hayes Valley North development, steal the people's money while allowing their housing to fall into ruin. Then the companies use this and police terror as an excuse to get rid of subsidized housing. "It seems like the city and federal government is telling people to die with no recourse whatever," said Leboriae P. Smoore, a resident of the Alice Griffith housing development, a revolutionary artist and activist who, along with her son, has been the target of ongoing police harassment. "I want them to get the message that poor people are getting together to fight against this cruelty and brutality that's affecting us." This attack is part of a plan coordinated by federal (Clinton's "one strike" law) and local governments; by City Hall, the Police Department, HUD, the Housing Authority, the banks and the developers. Immediately affected are the residents of public and subsidized housing. And next in line stand the rest of us who are low-income and poor. We say that we and our families have a right to live, to survive and to thrive! We are waking up to the fact that we'd better unite and organize to stop this genocide. And we are! ****************************************************************** 10. GUESS WHO IS LOSING THE NUMBERS GAME? THE UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES (c) By John G. Rodwan Jr. DETROIT -- Consider the following evidence of the inherent perversity of America's capitalist economy: * According to a survey by the country's own central bank, the Federal Reserve, the richest tenth of the population possesses more than 60 percent of the wealth. If houses (the only major type of asset members of the middle class can ever generally hope to have) are not included, the percentage of the nation's assets owned by the richest tenth jumps to nearly 80 percent. * On the other hand, the top 10 percent owes only 35 percent of the debts, leaving the rest of us with the remaining 65 percent. * According to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies, the top chief executive officers of the large corporations that cut the most jobs in 1995 were paid an average salary of $4.5 million. Those whose companies kicked people out of work were paid more than CEOs of companies reporting no layoffs. Furthermore, after CEOs reported massive layoffs, stock prices soared, which made CEOs' stock options even more valuable. Clearly, this situation is unfair and needs to change. Certainly, it is reasonable to demand a more equitable, democratic distribution of wealth and income. It is impossible to justify the fact that CEOs make 185 times as much as typical working Americans. Unfortunately, however, public opinion seems to support the interests of the ruling class. A 1992 Roper poll found that only 9 percent of the population thought that there ought to be a limit on how much money a person is allowed to earn. In other words, most people think the outrageous disparity in pay between workers and owners is OK. The obscenely uneven distribution of wealth in this country needs to be changed, and the idea that such inequality is acceptable needs to change, too. ****************************************************************** 11. ASK MS. MO Dear Ms. Mo, It seems like the children of the nation are getting worse and worse in terms of criminal behavior. I am in favor of holding parents responsible for what these kids do and I also think that kids should be punished just like adults if they commit adult crimes. What do you think? Mr. Dino from Detroit Dear Mr. Dino, Don't fall prey to the propaganda machines working overtime to convince you that "poor" children are a threat to national security! This whole concept about parental responsibility smells like the old John Wayne mentality that is always pushed by politicians when the country is in trouble. John Wayne was the consummate individualist, who alone could cure the West, rescue POWs, save the town, and tame any situation. NONSENSE! It still takes the whole village to raise a child, and that means if you or I seem unable to feed, or clothe, or educate our children, it becomes the job the whole community to step in and help. Remember, when we all lived in the "hood," this is the way things used to be. Collectivity of responsibility is a term we need to re-examine as a way to get at some of the street problems our children allegedly commit. Keep in mind, we live in a country where a California judge imprisoned a 6-year-old for assaulting an infant. The father of the infant has demanded that the judge release the 6-year-old, claiming he understood that the child meant no physical harm to his own son. The judge however ignored that plea and kept this child locked up. He further restricted visits by the mother, claiming that the child is too distraught when mama leaves. DUHHHHH! How else is the child supposed to feel, and where is the Million Man March contingent who needs to be organizing a march on L.A. for this outrage? The enemy keeps trying us on different issues to see what we will take and what we will not tolerate. So far, the American people have demonstrated that we will swallow just about anything, and will take the blame for the stomachache afterwards. It is not hard to do the right thing, or to see the truth and recognize it among lies. Dino, don't you be fooled by dumb stuff. ****************************************************************** 12. HOMELESS ACTIVISTS IN MINNESOTA HARASSED BY GOVERNOR By Up & Out of Poverty Now!, Minneapolis MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson and his police state apparatus have been hounding and harassing Up & Out of Poverty Now! (UOPN) homeless activists in Minneapolis-St. Paul since last winter. In December, Mark Thisius, the director of UOPN, was recovering from surgery in a St. Paul hospital when a stampede of security officials barged into his room. The investigators questioned Thisius about a bizarre plan to assassinate the governor, his son Tucker and St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman during the film premiere of "Grumpier Old Men." After the questioning, the investigation continued for two weeks until Thisius agreed to take a lie detector test. After passing the test, Thisius was told he and UOPN were cleared and the investigation of them was over. In April, four months after the investigation, Kevin Burns, spokesman for the Minnesota Public Safety Department, resigned on the grounds that he didn't report the alleged death threats to Carlson right away. Sources cited within the governor's office by the major media said the threats came from UOPN. The governor and his henchmen at the Public Safety Department knew full well that the alleged threats were fabricated by a mentally unstable former member of the group seeking revenge for being asked to leave the organization. Over the last seven years, UOPN in Minnesota has organized hundreds of protests, many of them directed at Gov. Carlson. Carlson, like many other frugal, belt-tightening governors, has made a name for himself by cutting budgets on the backs of the poor. By linking us to the death threats, Carlson got some payback and a justification to fire a maverick public safety official. On May Day of this year, UOPN kicked off a housing takeover campaign. Since then, UOPN has occupied a dozen vacant HUD homes. During the campaign, many reliable sources in the homeless community have reported to us that state public safety officials have been attempting to wire them during our occupations. We have also learned that an unstable individual we have evicted from our housing program has been recruited by Carlson's police and is actively undermining the organization by spreading lies and disinformation. This development drives home the moral corruption of the Carlson administration. The governor is not merely content driving the poor into the streets with his budget cuts. He seeks to harass and silence those that attempt to defend the poor and homeless. We have sent a blistering letter to the governor and the media that we will not be intimidated by his police-state apparatus. We will continue to stand up for human rights and speak out against the encroaching police state. ****************************************************************** 13. MUSIC, REVOLUTION AND JOHN SINCLAIR By Scott Pfeiffer CHICAGO -- The MC5 was perhaps the band that most colorfully epitomized the Detroit/Ann Arbor rock 'n' roll culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their manager/guru was poet John Sinclair. Together, they symbolized and catalyzed a hippie community that was uniquely non- laid-back, naive, yet down to earth. Rock and rhythm and blues were integral to their political movement and to their lives. Sinclair has been called a "legendary father of Midwestern rock 'n' roll." It was because of his guiding hand that the founders of the seminal Detroit magazine Creem came together to foment "rock and revolution," as they put it. Sinclair formed the White Panther Party to promote the MC5's political program -- "Rock 'n' roll, dope, and fucking in the streets." Not entirely frivolous, the WPP helped secure health care, housing and jobs for the community. Today, Sinclair is creative director of Big Chief Productions in New Orleans. To see him perform, as I did at the Chopin Theatre on February 28, is not at all to experience a mere relic. Head tilted way back, long white goatee dagger-sharp, he roars his poems, evocations of the fierce spirits of the jazz and blues musicians (John Coltrane, Howlin' Wolf) he loves. John Sinclair should be seen as both a harbinger of punk and of today's unprecedented interaction between musicians and people struggling for survival. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Is breaking down barriers between different styles of music, between political and cultural elements, the way you did with the White Panthers, the key to promoting unity? JOHN SINCLAIR: The way to promote unity is to provide equal access to jobs for everybody. That's the basic way, and this country's never been about that. I get a big kick out of 'em talking about affirmative action: they've had affirmative actions for white people ever since they got here! The guys that holler the loudest are the ones who probably wouldn't ever have no job if it was up to their abilities. If they wouldn't be able to exclude non-white people, they'd be in the fuckin' ghetto. My aims are less grandiose, really. I'm just creating art works, and trying to share 'em with people. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: The culture that came out of Detroit/Ann Arbor seemed to be real class-conscious and real diverse. JOHN SINCLAIR: There was a bigger diversity in popular culture then, strange as it seems to say that today. In fact, I was just reading in this magazine, Sub-somethin,' there's a nice little piece in there about Top 40 radio, which we thought at the time was just really lame. But really, in retrospect, Top 40 radio integrated the music. That was when Motown got popular. You'd hear black music and white music: white music of all kinds, from drivel -- Dean Martin and Henry Mancini -- to good things. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: You spent a few years in jail for distributing two joints. Today, one million and a half people are in jail, and 61 percent at the federal level are drug offenders. What does that mean? JOHN SINCLAIR: They should have paid attention to us in the '60s and '70s, the people who smoked pot and deal with it, when we tried to provide leadership, myself along with a bunch of other people, to change the laws. Now it's just outrageous. The whole drug laws is just the most ridiculous shit you could ever think of. These laws, and this whole approach to the so-called drug question, really is central to the world view of the squares who run this place. Just like racism. Racial superiority of white people, don't get high, no fucking: All these things are part of the cultural matrix that's on top of this country, and man, they'll do anything to keep it. What's more ridiculous than a drug war? They went through all this shit with Prohibition, and you get exactly the same thing: kids with machine guns selling drugs and hijacking each other's shipments. They spend $15 billion a year on this shit, man, they got prisons everywhere. What my interest is would be to have no drug laws for recreational drugs. When you look at the statistics of harm to individuals, there's hundreds of thousands of deaths each year for alcohol and tobacco, and there's like 300,000 from drugs. Well, shit. And never has one been attributed to marijuana, that I've ever seen. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What is it about the power of poetry and music that so much of the rising censorship and police repression have targeted them? JOHN SINCLAIR: As long as poetry's an academic pursuit, and it's taught in classrooms and immobilized in volumes, it doesn't pose any problem, but when people start talking about things that are goin' on in society. ... See, to me, like gangster rap, I don't like to hear it, but as an idea, as an art form, I like the way that it deals with the content of reality. I think that's really good. And that's what pisses 'em off when they start talking about "fuck the police." Millions of people feel this way. When somebody starts articulating what people are feeling, then that's when it becomes a threat to the authorities. ****************************************************************** 14. MORE FROM THE VILLAINS ... By Devlon Miles Our life is not a TV sitcom like "Family Matters" or "The Cosby Show." We can't solve our problems in an hour or less. Everything in the hood is not hunky-dory. I am about to give you an example of the real "Boyz in the Hood": neglected, jobless, nowhere to go, nothing to care about, nothing to live for, striving to survive. We are more than just boys wearing leather jackets with the gang names on the back of the jacket terrorizing people. We kill each other for the world's most common problem -- money. We don't try to make people join gangs like you see on TV. We don't live rich and happy lives like you see on "Beverly Hills 90210." This is real-life drama. Death, respect and money is the main thing now. This is "The West Side of Chicago 60644." By Trevor 'Noot' Jackson Do you ever wonder where the homeless people go when wintertime comes? This is something I think about when I'm walking from my car to my house. Many of us forget about them, and don't care about them, because our own situation is fine. Don't keep overlooking these people, for they too once had homes, cars and a sense of stability. These people are often overlooked and not enough is being done to help them. The politicians say there is no money but I have a problem with giving prisoners three hot meals a day, a place to stay, cable television and all the comforts of home, and not having enough for individuals, and sometimes even families, who have fallen on hard times. So the next cold winter night when you get under your comforter and go to bed, say a little prayer for those people who line the walls of lower Wacker Drive trying to escape the horror of wind chills that drop below zero on an average night here in Chicago. By Joe Oliver Check this out. The white man wrestled this land away from the Indians and will fight to keep it. What are the odds of him giving any real control to black people? Not likely. But in the interest of proving he's not a racist (yeah, right), he is willing to give up a few token political positions, but only to the black man who can prove he can think, talk, and act white. The white man I've been talking about is a minority. The real problem is all those white people who turn their heads because subconsciously, and sometimes consciously, they want the white race to remain in control. They will die and kill over abortion, but harden their hearts in the face of our struggle. Listen. There's an African proverb that says drive away any pests in your neighbors' fields, or someday those pests will end up in your own fields. Beware. ****************************************************************** 15. CAMPAIGN TO BUILD THE LEAGUE: GET OUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE AND TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO What is so exciting to us revolutionaries in the League is that more and more people are beginning to feel that change is really possible. That sense of justice, that vision of the necessity to right the wrongs, that force which has moved the American people throughout history, is once again stirring in the hearts of the American people. The current Clinton vs. Dole debates are causing increasing numbers of people to ask questions. Shouldn't the people have a voice in the future of the country? Shouldn't there be real proposals to solve the serious problems the country faces? The period of preparation, of biding our time, of slow, limited experimentation, is over. This is the time for an organization of revolutionaries. This is the time for building the League, for expanding its influence and numbers. The most important resources of the League are its members and its papers, the People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo. The League relies on both to carry on a successful campaign. The distribution of its papers by the members is the main way to build the League. Circulation leads to increased recruitment and fund raising. The widest possible circulation of the People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo is the lifeblood for the League. The papers can go where individual members cannot go. The papers remain long after the speaker has gone home. The papers introduce the League to new people. People everywhere are asking the questions the papers are answering, are looking for a place to discuss these ideas, and are ready to take the papers into their activities. The only way for the papers to get out in a broad way is for them to be distributed far and wide beyond the capabilities of the League itself. This calls for a break in the continuity of what the League does. What is needed is a new approach to figure out how to get the papers to all the places where things are happening in which the League is not yet a part. Distribute the People's Tribune and the Tribuno del Pueblo in a broad way. Varied experience is netting results. A series of educationals in a union has led to 40 new subscriptions and potential new members. League speakers and special-event teams have introduced and distributed the papers to many new places -- from a media conference to the Stand For Children march to the Labor Party convention. Electronic subscriptions to the People's Tribune have reached 352; more than 900 different individuals called up the League's home page on the Internet in May. Areas of the League are reporting that when they submit articles they are able to distribute more papers. In Central California's San Joaquin Valley, the papers are the center of their chapter meetings where they are often read; bundles of papers are promoted and distributed in the meetings; money is collected. If a revolutionary can do only one thing toward guaranteeing the future, it is circulating the papers. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Our country is moving toward a situation where only the rich can afford college. Instead of denying access to those who can't afford it, our government should be providing higher education for all. We want to hear from students, faculty members, and workers in the colleges and universities for a September "back to school" issue of the People's Tribune. Send us your articles, statements, poems, thoughts, and photographs so we can publish them in the People's Tribune. Together, we can forge a winning fight for our right: higher education for all! LRNA Committee on Higher Education 700 East 33rd Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218 E-mail: mikenoc@aol.com +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CORRECTIONS: In the last issue of the People's Tribune, we published a quote from author and historian Howard Zinn. The introduction to the quote should have made clear that Professor Zinn was talking specifically about the Alliance, a national populist organization, and not simply about independent politics in general. Also, the picture on page eight identified as Ruth Williams was not in fact a picture of her. The People's Tribune regrets these errors. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ NOW IS THE TIME TO JOIN THE LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA Humanity is being reborn in an age of great revolutionary change. The tools exist to produce all that we need for a peaceful, orderly world. For the first time in history, a true flowering of the human intellect and spirit is possible. Our fight is to reorganize society to accomplish these goals. Our vision is of a new, cooperative society of equality, and of a people awakening. The revolution we need is possible. A great moral optimism is beginning to sweep this country as the poor, the oppressed, the decent-hearted, embrace this revolutionary mission and make it a reality. The League of Revolutionaries for a New America takes as its mission the political awakening of the American people. We invite all who see that there is a problem and are ready to do something about it to join with us. For more information, call 312-486-0028. Send the coupon below to P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647. ____ I want to join the LRNA. Please send information. ____ Enclosed is my donation of $_______. I want to subscribe! ____ People's Tribune. $2 for four issues or $25 for a year. ____ Tribuno del Pueblo. $2 for four issues or $10 for a year. (You can also get bundles of 10 or more copies of the PT or TP for 15 cents per copy.) Name ____________________________________________________________ Address _________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip __________________________________________________ ****************************************************************** 16. 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 ******************************************************************