****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 25 No. 11/ November, 1998 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.mcs.com/~league ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.mcs.com/~league +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PAGE ONE: GLOBAL CRISIS CALLS FORTH NEW LEADERS We have bad news and good news. The bad news is, from what you see in the media, the people of this country seem to be getting their butts kicked from one end of the country to the other. The global economic crisis is bearing down on the U.S., and is already having an impact here. U.S. companies announced over 73,000 job cuts in September -- almost double the number announced in August and more than three times the number announced in September 1997. All told, more than 160,000 jobs were eliminated in the third quarter of this year, and you can bet it will get worse. Those who were already without jobs continue to suffer as the full effect of welfare "reform" begins to set in. Meanwhile, democracy seems to be going out the window. Our political "leaders" in Washington, D.C. are at each other's throats, and the only prescription they have to solve the impending economic crisis is to tinker with the existing system. But there is some good news. Little by little, the people are gathering their forces, drawing new leaders from among their own ranks, and making plans for becoming a force in the political struggle that must eventually erupt. You can see this in the recent Poor People's Summit in Philadelphia, which brought together hundreds of leaders of the poor from around the country to strategize. You can see it in the building of the Labor Party, which is about to take another step in its development with its First Constitutional Convention this month in Pittsburgh. And you can see it in the upcoming Campus Democracy Convention, aimed at founding a new national student organization. There are no doubt many other examples across the country of students, the employed and the unemployed drawing the line, taking a stand. We make our own history. The people are beginning to step forward to take up the struggle for a new America where no one is homeless or hungry or lives in fear. As always, we offer the pages of the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo as a weapon in this struggle. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition) Vol. 25 No. 11/ November, 1998 Editorial 1. WHO IS THE REAL VICTIM: BILL, MONICA OR JUSTICE News and Features 2. WELCOMING BILL GATES AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY -- WITH PAMPHLETS AND QUESTIONS 3. STREET ORGANIZATIONS, CHURCHES AND COMMUNITY LEADERS UNITE 4. POOR PEOPLE'S SUMMIT REPORTS: 'FIRST THINGS FIRST, LET'S GET ORGANIZED!' 5. MARCOS: TO THE GENERATION OF DIGNITY OF 1968 6. LABOR PARTY: 'A NEW VISION OF WHAT OUR SOCIETY COULD BE': INTERVIEWS WITH LEADERS OF THE LABOR PARTY 7. CORNELL'S TOM HIRSCHL ON THE BATTLE OVER CAMPUS INVESTMENT 8. HOW TO UNITE HEALTH-CARE REFORM MOVEMENT 9. SUPPORT EXTRADITION OF PINOCHET 10. CAMPUS DEMOCRACY CONVENTION: SIGN OF RISING YOUTH MOVEMENT Spirit of the Revolution 11. RESPONSE TO MISSION STATEMENT: MORAL ECONOMICS [To subscribe to the online edition, send a message to pt- dist@noc.org with "Subscribe" in the subject line.] ****************************************************************** We encourage reproduction and use of all articles except those copyrighted. Please credit the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers -- your generosity is appreciated. For free electronic subscription, send a message to pt-dist@noc.org with "Subscribe" in the subject line. For electronic subscription problems, e-mail pt-admin@noc.org. ****************************************************************** ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL WHO IS THE REAL VICTIM: BILL, MONICA OR JUSTICE America has been bombarded with the ongoing saga of the affair of Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton. It has been covered from all possible angles and as a grand spectacle that has played on our collective tendency to slow down on the freeway and take a look. The country has been exposed to this spectacle on a daily basis for far too long, and there has been a giant collective yawn. So it seems ... There are some people who have been very busy as this spectacle has unfolded, setting some dangerous historical precedents for this country. These precedents are being set at a very dangerous period in our country's history. The international arena is littered with countries in economic crisis or headed toward one. Asia, Europe and Latin America are absorbing billions of dollars. They are threatened not only by economic instability and crisis, but they are also being threatened with political instability as well. Most economists are now in agreement that this crisis will affect our economy; the only question is how deeply. Most of our country is and has been in an economic crisis. The impact of the current worldwide crisis here will force the capitalists to shift the burden of the crisis on to the backs of the workers -- employed and unemployed. The worsening of this economic crisis will exacerbate political conditions in this country. Against this backdrop, the "right" in this country, through Kenneth Starr and the Republican Party, have victimized not only Clinton, not only Monica or Hillary, but the American judicial system. Starr and his supporters have distorted the role of the independent counsel -- put in place to investigate fundamental constitutional violations of law -- making it an office to police morality. They have distorted and altered the grand jury process; lawyer-client privilege; the right to privacy; the roles of the presidency and Congress; and the Democratic and Republican parties. The judicial process will never be the same, no matter what the outcome of President Clinton's impeachment hearings. If this can be done to the president, what does it mean for you and me? How far will it go and how will this new form of investigation be used? Many people have already referred to it as "McCarthyism." No one from the progressive or revolutionary movement, including we in the League, wants to defend Clinton or the Democratic Party. There are only a few members of the Democratic Party that represent the interests of the poor and working people of the U.S. However, the attacks against Clinton have distorted the elections in November. What would be the consequences if the right gains in Congress, not only for Clinton but also for the country? There is no discussion of the consequences of the worldwide economic crisis. There is no discussion of resolutions to the current conditions of some of our nation's poor. The distortion and altering of morality is dangerous. The distortion and altering of our judicial system will victimize the American people. Already, there is a lynch-mob mentality sweeping our country, especially as applied to the young in America. We are having an election without issues and without political debate. The real crisis: the directing of hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out banks and the wealthy while the poor and working families of America and the world are doomed to a fall without a safety net. The real victims are the poor and working people of America. ****************************************************************** 2. WELCOMING BILL GATES AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY -- WITH PAMPHLETS AND QUESTIONS By Rob Mikolon BLOOMINGTON, Indiana -- A jovial group of about 10 student activists were in attendance at Indiana University's Assembly Hall on October 12 to welcome Microsoft Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Bill Gates -- one of the world's richest men -- with a strong re-evaluation of Microsoft's position as a monopoly, or near-monopoly, over the student computing community here. The activists showed up nearly two hours before Gates's speech to hand out flyers and talk with students, faculty, staff and reporters to raise awareness of the opposing views that face Microsoft. About 1,000 pamphlets were handed out to the crowd. (Many copies were collected after being read by some members of the crowd and then redistributed to other people.) The pamphlet was packed with information. It included the definition of a corporation; some of the tactics Microsoft has used to strong-arm its way into what is now a monopolized student market; descriptions of Microsoft as a monopoly; and a series of questions for Mr. Gates. Once our group of protesters had handed out all the pamphlets and spoken to many people attending the event, we proceeded inside to get decent seats and welcome Mr. Gates. Unsurprisingly, Gates' speech was packed with self-promotional advertisements and many pats on the back for himself and Microsoft. He did emphasize the speed of change within the technological revolution, and the coming of the information age. At the end of the speech, Gates invited members of the audience to come down to four microphones to take part in a brief question- and-answer session. I was able to get in one of the lines and participate. Before asking my question, I mentioned that several people had been kind enough to put together the informational pamphlets concerning Microsoft's dealings with Indiana University, and proceeded to ask, "Mr. Gates, considering that Microsoft is currently undergoing federal antitrust litigation, and 20 state- level litigations, do you consider yourself and Microsoft to be positive influences on the students of IU?" He neglected to answer my question, and proceeded to retell his sales pitch of great prices and opportunities for choice, change and advancement. I thanked him for his time, and left for class. The student newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student, followed up on Gates' speech with a summary of the speech and a very brief note about the protesting. The paper printed that, "Some of the students were impressed at how Gates handled a question about Microsoft's antitrust suits, now being litigated." The newspaper ran this statement along with one quote from a student who said that Gates "did turn a potentially bad issue into a positive note." I was curious about what other students thought of the situation, and wondered what the student thought the "positive note" was. These questions -- like my first question to Gates -- may never be answered. ****************************************************************** 3. STREET ORGANIZATIONS, CHURCHES AND COMMUNITY LEADERS UNITE By Luis J. Rodriguez KANSAS CITY, Missouri -- Whatever conflicts, feuds or rifts may have existed among those who gathered here October 15 for the National Urban Peace and Justice Summit, it didn't take long for us to overcome the divisions and focus on the tasks at hand. It was a 10-year-old girl who united us. Shanelle Cooper, a fifth-grader from Kansas City, Kansas, was killed the day before the summit in a drive-by shooting while she stood on the front yard of her home. This tragedy forced the various ministers, imams, pipe carriers, community activists, and leaders of various warring street organizations from across the country to say, "Let's put aside our differences and get to work for peace." About 50 summit participants took part in a vigil at Shanelle's home the first night of the summit. With tears and a broken voice, Elizabeth Ayala, from Barrios Unidos, told the gathering how sitting there in the Cooper home brought to mind her own 2-year- old son back in Santa Cruz, California; how such a tragedy could happen to him or any other child in our barrios and hoods; how Shanelle must be seen as everyone's daughter; how we must stop the many forms of social violence that are tearing apart our families, destroying children, and undermining whatever struggle for justice we must undertake. The following day at the Metropolitan Spiritual Church of Christ, Shanelle's father, Darnell Cooper, spoke to summit participants, thanking them for consoling his family. This was a tragic way to begin any proceeding, but, in the work for peace in our communities, this is the one constant: Our children are dying. While some die suddenly, others are killed slowly, daily, by conditions that trample their souls. I came to this event from Chicago, a city known for the second- largest number of deaths due to gang violence. I grew up in Los Angeles, which for the past few decades has been known as the gang capital of the world. I have also traveled throughout the United States, Mexico, Central America and Europe to visit with youth caught in the grips of poverty and isolation, as well as with community leaders who have made peace their passion and principle. No longer a "big city" phenomenon, and not just a Black-and-Brown issue, street organizations -- what the media and politicians call "gangs" -- are now thriving near corn fields in Nebraska, on Indian reservations, and among immigrants from El Salvador, Cambodia, and Haiti. The fastest rise of street-organization participation today is with youth of European and Asian descent. My work has also allowed me to meet and know the numerous men and women who have heroically fought for peace and justice, many for more than 30 years. These men and women come from California's Barrios Unidos, which now has almost 30 chapters across the country; the Crips-Bloods truce effort of Watts, California; the Folk-People truce efforts in Chicago; the Latin Kings and Queens of the northeast section of the country; Homies Unidos, which has united and trained youth leaders among El Salvador's "maras"; and the peace struggles in the Lakota and Navajo reservations and among the various Norteno and Sureno groupings of Chicano/Central Americans in California and others parts of the Southwest. I was heartened to see many of the country's movers and shakers at the Summit, proving that it was indeed a gathering of the leading peace warriors in America. I was also pleased that spiritual movements and churches were active. The fact is, youth are on a spiritual quest. When this aspect is not properly attended to by community, many of them will turn to street organizations to have this need met. Surrounded by healing circles, prayers, rituals, workshops, inspirational talks and memorials, various participants also worked to create an Urban Peace Initiative. This would be a guiding policy for our work at the local as well as national levels around economic development, political empowerment, ending police violence, court advocacy, and stopping the growth of prisons in the country. While the government is presently embroiled in what many call a Republican coup d'etat, we have gathered our energies, our voices and our families to make peace a reality; to have justice in our time; and to see that everyone has adequate food, shelter and clothing, as well as spiritual centering. As was mentioned in one of the talks, the peace we are talking about is war by other means -- we are organizing to make our economic and social needs the human-rights issue of the new century. I was also glad to see at the Summit my friend Rudy Buchanan, a Chicano/African American from Phoenix who has lost one son to gang violence and another son to police murder. He exemplifies the pain we all carry, but also the courage that all of us have to muster to see justice done. Rudy has initiated a lawsuit against the Phoenix Police Department, which has the distinction of killing more people per capita than any other large police force over the past three years. People like Rudy Buchanan proved to me that the Summit is a powerful beginning that should reverberate throughout America -- and the hemisphere. Beginnings are also the most fragile period in any process. To strengthen the resolve and ideas that came out of the summit will require an immense amount of resources -- funds, hands and minds -- so that peace and justice breaks out in every barrio, every hood, every reservation, and every community of this land. [Luis Rodriguez is a founder/member of Youth Struggling for Survival in Chicago and the author of the award-winning memoir "Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A."] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 'CREATING HOPE IN PLACES OF DESPAIR' Comments and reflections of participants at the National Urban Peace and Justice Summit. By Danny Alexander NAKITA, HISPANIC/NATIVE AMERICAN COALITION OF WICHITA: "One thing I have appreciated from all of these guys is their respect for my ancestors, that they honor our circle, that they are respectful of each other's talk. ... Our Native gangs are on the rise and my son has a Latin gang he runs with. ... These kids on the street ... I couldn't do it! Ask anybody you know, would you give it all up and hit the streets and see how long you can make it? Would you be willing to do it? My son's not afraid to; he's got more guts than I do, and I have to respect him for that. "This is my first invitation to the table and these are some incredible men. It's easy to sit in your office and read a paper and say, 'We oughta do something about this.' It's not so easy when you haven't eaten the night before, or you're little homeboys haven't eaten for two days and you're in there and there's no jobs and there's no one that will listen to them and no one that will help them. And these are the men who have enough guts and enough confidence in themselves to come to the table and put it on the table." CANDACE LAUTT, FORMER DIRECTOR OF PEACE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE CENTER IN WICHITA: "I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I don't have the words right now!" Rahim Wasi, Youth Mentoring Site Coordinator, California State University Sacramento: "People see that they're not getting any recognition for intervention on street, community and school violence ... not [recognized] by their states and the federal government, who provide no resources. As a national entity, we are going to develop our own urban congress and try to address some of the needs that we have, such as finding resources. ... "How we can resolve it is through working with people who are helping people that are victims, whether it be rural America, inner-city America. Americans helping Americans -- that's what this is all about! We don't need to be dying unless there's a declared war! That's being a realist!" ASKIA MUHAMMAD ABDULMAJEED, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF ALCOHOL AND DRUGS: "The reason I was invited was to provide any expertise or assistance in creating some form of an urban policy initiative. My hope would be for a policy that was created and formatted and developed with the knowledge of the old policy ... [which] was created by people who are not urban dwellers -- some well-intentioned individuals who had little information, little input and little substantive face-to-face dealings with the gatekeepers of the community where the plight of violence, addiction and crime exist. Their results have often turned out misguided and even malevolent. "... They must have a commitment that reaches from here to the other end of this earth, particularly in the higher places where policy is made; a commitment and an understanding that says it's far easier and a lot less expensive to build on youth and young adults than it is to throw money down a dark hole trying to repair already damaged adults by locking them up." MARY LOU RANGEL, FOUNDING MEMBER OF SANTA CRUZ BARRIOS UNIDOS: "Regarding the summit itself, there's more individual growth. Some of us who were here back in '93 and who are here now, we could see how we have grown as people and in our mission. In the past five years, people have suffered a lot, but they have grown too, and we are at another level now." OTILIO "OT" QUINTERO, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF SANTA CRUZ BARRIOS UNIDOS AND OF THE NATIONAL COALITION OF BARRIOS UNIDOS: "I would want to summarize this as creating hope in places of despair, ... keeping a vision alive, because many times in this work that we do, we lose hope ourselves. But by seeing people, communities, and, most importantly, hearing the pain, it reminds us why we're here and it takes away the numbness." ****************************************************************** 4. 'FIRST THINGS FIRST, LET'S GET ORGANIZED!' PHILADELPHIA -- The recent Poor People's Summit: First Things First, Let's Get Organized!, held in Philadelphia, October 11-13, was a major success by any standard. The summit was sponsored by the North- South Dialog and co-hosted by the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and Temple University's School of Social Administration. Given the fact that it was poor people who organized it, given the lack of resources that existed to put it on, and given the quality and diversity of the leaders from organizations of the poor and homeless from across the country in attendance, this was no usual conference. The summit attracted people from every walk of life. This included organized labor, the religious community, students and faculty, lawyers, artists, musicians, and many others. Amongst the 400 people from over 30 states (plus Puerto Rico and Canada) were hundreds of real people who are under assault -- labor-pool workers, farm workers, unemployed, homeless veterans, welfare recipients, poor children and youth, public-housing residents, and the hearing-impaired. The list goes on and on. The attendees were united in their commitment to: focusing the American people on the fight for economic human rights; bringing the economic human rights violations in the U.S. before the court of world opinion; getting organized; and building a strong and powerful movement to end poverty. In the spirit of the summit, the poor saw the justness, global nature and invincibility of their cause. This legitimacy has begun to chip away at the decades of psychological attack that poor people have been subjected to and which has been a major obstacle to their organization. A serious new movement is being born. Attention now begins to focus on the March of the Americas for Economic Human Rights, scheduled for October, 1999. In the march, hundreds of poor and homeless families from across the Western Hemisphere will walk with each other from Washington, D.C. to the United Nations in New York, bearing with them their testimonies of economic human rights violations. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ REFLECTIONS FROM A YOUNG FREEDOM BUS RIDER AND POOR PEOPLE'S SUMMIT ORGANIZER By Tim Dowlin PHILADELPHIA -- It is a thrill for me to think back now to when the Poor People's Summit was just a vision for October, and when it was still June and I was living out of seat No. 14 on the New Freedom Bus. Back then, I understood what we were doing but not where we were going. You see, when the work of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union was first explained to me, I was at a tent city in North Philly with my friend Mark. His mom, Cheri, told me that if everyone in North Philadelphia just got up and worked together to fight to change the conditions they're in -- we're in -- it can and will happen. Later, Mark explained to me that the real strategy needs to be to have every North Philly across the country get up and fight together. This is the vision of revolution that has been planted. When the bus tour kicked off on June 1, this vision started to paint itself into a reality. More importantly, I quickly learned that the rest of the U.S.A. is nothing like North Philly. Even though we are all suffering the same ills of capitalism, these struggles come in all different shapes and sizes. Poverty hurts so many so far from the urban ghettos. I saw people mobilizing in every type of community that exists. While traveling the country I looked at the summit as follow-up from the bus. Now the bus looks like preparation for the summit. Now 400 people have been to Philadelphia, met each other and established their individual and organizational relationships. Discussions of strategy, politics, survival and change took place at this three- day working conference. As diverse a crowd as it was, it was unanimous that we plan to stick together to build a national movement to end poverty in the rich-ass U.S.A. Tim Dowlin, a young visual artist and rapper, is a member of both the Greater Philadelphia League of Revolutionaries for a New America and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ [Some things make me want to be a poet. The Poor People's Summit was one such thing. So this is what I wrote on the plane ride home. My apologies to the real poets in the house. -- Danny Alexander] FINDING UNITY FOR THE KENSINGTON WELFARE RIGHTS UNION By Danny Alexander Unity shouldn't be so hard to find. I've heard it said that 98 percent of what it is To be human, We hold in common. 2 percent is everything else -- race, culture, behavior. I found unity at the Poor People's Summit; Unity with a twenty-year-old woman >From Massachusetts Who walks the streets talking to prostitutes About HIV versus 10 bucks without a condom. I have never done such brave, bold work, But I felt our unity in the anger with those Who refuse to hear her point of view Because they are older (Even those who don't have more money). I heard her voice at the Poor People's Summit And in it, I heard a visionary and a fighter, My voice if I pulled no punches. I found unity with the Immokalee Workers of Florida -- Hispanic, Haitian, and Mayan Indian immigrants -- Who receive the same pay for their work today As others received twenty years ago. They have starved themselves, "Sacrificed their flesh," For 30 days Just to get their employers to the table. Though I have never sacrificed so much For anything, I felt united by those humble speakers' words To a vision of a world where no one is a wage slave, Where no one Kills themselves just to live, To feed their families. And I felt unity with the translator, Who broke into tears as the farm worker Broke into tears, United by the inability to hold back When such suffering is witnessed While the rest of the world tries to look away. I did not let myself cry, Not like I wanted to or needed to, But I felt united by every fiber in my being And the tears in my eyes. I felt unity with the homeless organizer Who interviewed the Summit's children For their points of view. They crowded around his tape recorder Like the children flocked to Jesus And told him their stories As only a child could tell And no one dare deny. I felt similar unity with the rapper Who freestyled to the children Sitting on the dance floor before him. He told of how he got to know each On the Freedom Bus, On the way to 34 cities in one month, Growing unity inside and outside, All along the way. I did not stop and spend time with the children, But I knew the best part of me would. I felt united with the fearless welfare families, Students, And Labor Party builders of the Summit, Who have found ways to protest, To march, To travel the country and build, To create a summit 400 strong -- representing 50 states, 100 groups -- Out of nothing but will And the collective education To work together to hurdle any obstacle. Not because I have ever organized Anything much, But because they show me we all can, I know unity. I felt unity with the group of young Christians, Who saw church as the bus, As the Summit, As all of us in our work, And in our compassion, And in our love. Though I have few clear thoughts on God, I saw my soul in them Flaring with dreams of glory. I felt unity at the Poor People's Summit With everyone there who united with me -- The vast majority that showed love For those who can unite to end poverty By any means necessary, By every idea imaginable. I felt unified by the shared glory Of our will and potential, Greater than any individual, The salvation of every last one. ****************************************************************** 5. TO THE GENERATION OF DIGNITY OF 1968 [The following is an excerpt from a communique given by Sub- Comandante Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) commemorating the 1968 Massacre of Tlatelolco. It is a translation of the original version that appears in its entirety in the Oct. 3, 1998 edition of La Jornada. (Translation by: Cecilia Rodriguez)] Brothers and Sisters: I am writing to you in the name of the men, women, children and elderly of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation to salute you on this date which marks 30 years since the massacre of Tlatelolco, but also 30 years of a movement which has struggled for democracy, liberty and justice for all Mexicans. '68 is not only October 2 and the painful Plaza of Three Cultures. '68 is not only that Tlatelolco, that Chihuahua building contemplating, olympically astonished and ashamed, the massacre of children, men, women and elderly, unarmed and helpless before the tanks, rifles, machine guns, and stupidity made government. '68 is not only the plaza which sums up the blood of three cultures under the death which was decreed by a political system maintained today, and reproduced by similar massacres. '68 is also, and above all, the March of Silence, the Poli, the UNAM [Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico] and hundreds of students from institutions of higher education looking downward, the underground of popular autonomy, the assemblies, the graffiti on the walls, the brigades, the lightning meetings, the subversive street dressed in the new clothing of dignity. The street as territory for another politics, the politics of below, the new one, the one which struggles, the rebel one. The street talking, discussing, setting automobiles and traffic lights aside, asking, reclaiming, demanding a place in history. '68 is a window to see and learn from the open confrontation between various forms of making politics, between different forms of being human. The movement of 1968 marks the history of this country in a definitive manner. Then two countries confront one another: the one constructed upon the base of authoritarianism, intolerance, repression and the most brutal exploitation; and the one which wants to construct itself on democracy, inclusion, liberty and justice. Up above, the Mexico of the powerful; of those who decide with force and by force the direction most convenient to their own interests; of those who make of monologue, the club and the law a form of government; of those who do not hear anything but the voice of those who reflect the false mirror which the Power constructs for those who serve and worship it; of those who offer the handouts and a direct dialogue while they beat, persecute, jail, rape, assassinate and lie to those who do not render blind obedience, submission, lowered heads. "Ya Basta" [Enough is enough]. I don't believe you anymore. We want something better. We need something better. We deserve something better. The Mexico of those who -- in the unions, in education centers, in opposition political parties, in social organizations, in nongovernmental organizations, in popular colonies, in ejidos and communities, in secrecy, in the streets and the fields and the mountains, in all parts -- continue, go on, and resist. The Mexico of those who lived and died '68 and began to give birth to another tomorrow, another country, another memory, another politics, another human being. The reality of the struggle which continues. The reality of the tomorrow which announces itself, which is coming. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ VOICES FROM THE STREETS: FROM LATIN AMERICA TO THE U.S. THEY RING LOUD & CLEAR In the last few months Latin America-like the rest of the world including the U.S.-- has had explosions of mass demonstrations related to everything from labor, to privatization of public resources, and most recently -- education. Not to be taken lightly, they range in participation from hundreds to hundreds of thousands and very often are national strikes, like the General Strike of Puerto Rico this past summer, which paralyzed the entire island for more than two days. The cause: privatization of major public resources that included the telephone company which provided a substantial source of public sector jobs. Simultaneously, most of Central America was striking for the same reason. The result: privatization happened anyway and entire sectors of the population will be unemployed. Within the past two weeks alone --Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, Chile, and the U.S. among others-have all had strikes in regards to quality public education and teacher salaries. The response to the intensifying growing mass movement by the various governments has been brutal force that sometimes includes military intervention. Time and time again, this proves to be deadly as in the recent deaths of four protesters in Ecuador during a national strike against strict economic adjustment measures backed by the IMF and implemented by newly elected President Jamil Mahuad. While none of this is a surprise to anyone, the chilling reality is that intervention is no longer restricted to only government but in the era of globalization now includes organizations like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) - who are only looking to protect the interests of international financiers. A recent example, (in addition to Ecuador as stated above), is the teacher's strike in Argentina. Teachers were demonstrating for quality public education and a salary raise of $100. As they were raising their demands, the IMF informed the Argentine government that if they did that, Argentina would go into further deficit and therefore they would have to consider withholding funds of assistance. What is the significance of this? As the economic crisis that is occurring makes its way around the world, whatever little public resources that existed to guarantee some kind of well-being are stripped away not only by government but under direct influence of global organizations that protect the capitalist class. Without even being at the negotiating table, the word of the IMF can supersede entire sectors of society and impact everyday needs like school and healthcare. It is clearly evident that human rights become the price to pay as these financiers struggle to hold on to their markets. What is our lesson to learn? As the strikes continue not only in Latin America, but the world including the U.S. -- we start to see a foundation to organize based on our needs as human beings. As intensification builds in the demonstrations of the people, intensification must also build around the message we are trying to convey: it's time to build a world based on our common interests. ****************************************************************** 6. LABOR PARTY: 'A NEW VISION OF WHAT OUR SOCIETY COULD BE' +----------------------------------------------------------------+ What's the Labor Party? The Labor Party was founded in 1996 by thousands of local unions, central labor councils and international unions, and by community activists to defend and promote the interest and aspirations of working people. On the occasion of its history-making First Constitutional Convention, November 13-15 in Pittsburgh, we're pleased to share with our readers the thinking and perspective of Labor Party members Kit Costello, Tony Mazzocchi and Dave Campbell. For more information about the Labor Party, write to: Labor Party, P.O. Box 53177, Washington, DC 20009. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INTERVIEW WITH TONY MAZZOCCHI: 'PRIORITY IS TO RESHAPE HOW PEOPLE THINK ABOUT THE ISSUES' By R. Lee [Editor's note: In mid-October, the People's Tribune interviewed Tony Mazzocchi, interim national organizer for the Labor Party.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: How do you see the significance of this convention? TONY MAZZOCCHI: I think its significance is best illustrated by the fact that this is the only national, labor-supported political party that's made it to a second convention. This convention also has as delegates more representatives from the organized labor sector than we even had in the first convention. There are growing signs of institutional support. Among the key proposals this convention will be discussing will be under what conditions can people run for office. Thresholds have been proposed by a committee that was set up by the first convention. The issue of whether to be electoral or not will not be an issue, but there will be debate about the thresholds. There is substantial support for thresholds that recognize that, in order to be credible, if you're going to run an election, you have to have the financial ability to do it, and also membership support, etc. We don't expect that people running races necessarily have to win, but they cannot be token races. People have to demonstrate they can run a credible race, have some sort of impact, before there is agreement that a candidate should be run. So that will be one issue, and then there are five priority campaigns that the Labor Party will discuss at this convention. We'll involve the delegates in how to best implement these programs, so they're part of the implementation strategy. The fact that a political party was born [at the 1996 founding convention] was just the first step. We had to structure ourselves so we're there for the long pull. And we've been doing that, and now we're prepared to have a more visible face in the coming period of time. I think it's the attitude of many that various crises are in our future, and I think we're in place with a coherent program that addresses the sort of perils that working people [face] -- and I use that term [working people] generically to cover everybody that works or wants to be working. I think we have a program that can mobilize working people around the issues we'll be discussing. The delegates represent a cross-section of folks -- not only unions, but community people from poor-people's organizations. We have a science and technology, higher education committee; we're able to address anything from genetic engineering down to workfare problems. I think people are very sober about the formidable tasks ahead and are prepared to toil for whatever time it takes to accomplish the goal of establishing this party in a way that it begins to affect the national agenda in the country. That's really what our first priority is, to reshape how people think about issues, not from a corporate perspective, but from a perspective of ordinary people. So I think we're on our way to reframing the national debate, not overnight, but in a steady, concise way. PT: What are the campaigns the convention will discuss? TM: We intend to be the anchor of a health-care movement, we're calling that campaign "Just Health Care." We've got a real campaign that we're introducing at this convention. We don't intend to be deterred from that. We saw everyone get co-opted in the last effort to enact single-payer. We're going to have a worker-rights campaign; workers don't have rights in the workplace. We're going to make a campaign about how you become a member of a union; we know that 34 percent of people who work would choose a union if they were allowed to. We're going to propose a law that incorporates the notion that you don't have to go through a long, convoluted process to have a union, where the employer can use all sorts of dilatory tactics to frustrate it. We will have a position on trade. We will also be pushing our 28th Amendment Campaign, discussing how we ought to project that for the future. And we're certainly conscious of all the attempts to divide working people, not only racially and ethnically, but also generationally, and we'll be trying to institute a broad-scale campaign on protecting Social Security, the notion that it should not be privatized. PT: Where is the party at in the process of establishing a basic structure? TM: We've been developing a structure to be permanent. We have training programs now on how to institutionalize the Labor Party within local unions, and we're working on one on how you build community-based Labor Party affiliates. Our whole notion is it has to be a mass membership-based party. We intend to be the largest membership-based political party, where people are members, they pay dues, they receive a newspaper, they are aware of what the party is doing. We don't expect everyone to be an activist, but we do insist on the members determining the destiny of the party. We've got to get to the point where we're spending more time instituting and implementing what the conventions adopt as program. We want to be a self-sufficient party; it's not a party that gets grants from anybody. We strictly work on the basis of the affiliation fees from unions. The unions are the resource base of the party. Membership dues don't even pay for the cost of servicing the member. PT: How many people do you expect to attend the convention? TM: It looks now like a minimum of 1,100 delegates. There's more institutional support. The last time, we had a lot of people who came as individuals; this time, community chapters are sending more people, and a more diverse array of local and international unions are sending people. So the people who come will represent a constituency far greater than those who were there the last time, although the last time was pretty large. You might mention that we're always open to delegates to the last minute. If people want to come and see for themselves, they can come as observers or at- large delegates. Any member of our party can attend the convention; there are no bars. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INTERVIEW WITH KIT COSTELLO By Laura Garcia [Editor's note: One of the Labor Party's co-chairs, Kit Costello speaks about the Labor Party's plans to launch a campaign to address the problems of our nation's health-care system.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: How did you become involved in the Labor Party? KIT COSTELLO: We [the California Nurses Association] had done some collaborative work in the past with the OCWA and, about a year and half before the founding convention, Tony Mazzocchi approached us about whether we would be one of the unions to form the Labor Party. I felt the idea made sense. We had a "Corporate Power Training" to see if the message resonated about the state of this country and what an independent political voice can be to make changes. People were opened to the idea. And we became an advocate union for the first convention of the Labor Party [in 1996]. ... What our members care deeply about is how health care is delivered and funded in this country, so we were happy about the platform on health care adopted at the convention. We have a natural affinity to focus on that. PT: What has been accomplished since the 1996 Labor Party founding convention? KC: When we left the convention, we had done some very good work as far as coming up with a program for social and economic justice. It was simple. It reached the average person; that was something we could organize a political movement around. The question left is doing the work -- the organizing for chapters and unions to take responsibility for reaching out with that message -- signing up new party members. The hard part of any campaign is doing the person-to-person discussions and organizing. Some of the things we've done around the 28th Amendment Campaign -- the right to a job -- has been a good experience for different chapters and unions. We would like to do the same for health care. PT: What are the Labor Party's plans around health care? KC: The Interim Council has contributed some work product that we want to put out at the convention and create a campaign. This campaign will be different than what we see now with both political parties rushing to be the defenders of the insured patients. We see a much larger issue than just managed-care legislation for the insured. [Seeking] incremental solutions ... takes energy and resources away from a campaign that could do a lot more to capture people's imagination and raise expectations. When you're successful getting something incremental, you delude people into thinking that you're partly there when you're actually creating a new part of the problem. For example, the Children's Health Care Initiative. Nobody is against giving health care to children. But it leaves 40 percent ineligible, i.e., 4.2 million. And it's only for five years. Then we have the same problem after that. We are seeing a shift from community to private control as more public hospitals are taken over by private interests. We've got a crisis that affects care givers, patients and the community. We would like the health-care campaign to focus on what the solution has to be to the crisis. We would like to produce a lot of material that would be part of campaign material to educate people about single-payer insurance, and what a national health program would look like. Single-payer insurance is what Canadians have. Instead of the U.S. model of multiple insurance companies with separate contracts with selected doctors, hospitals and other health professionals, one "payer," the public insurance fund, pays all the bills. This cuts out a tremendous amount of administrative waste and duplication -- dollars that can then go to provide care. Here in the U.S., we have less choices because we have to go to doctors and hospitals with HMO contracts. Canadians can go anywhere for care. In the U.S., we are pouring millions of dollars into private insurance company coffers to finance their competition with each other, to deny us care, and to pay their CEOs and administrators lavish salaries. A publicly controlled, single-payer insurance fund would put a stop to this. It will be a uniquely Labor Party campaign. We want to put out a message that raises the level of expectation of what is possible. That's what our campaign will be. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INTERVIEW WITH DAVE CAMPBELL By Dave Swartz [Editor's note: Dave Campbell has served in several capacities in the Labor Party and is also executive secretary-treasurer of Local 1-675 of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW). Dave is not a LRNA member, nor one of any political organization other than the Labor Party, although he knows much about LRNA's purpose and goals.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: There are many "third parties" on the political scene in the United States. What makes the Labor Party different? DAVE CAMPBELL: The Labor Party is different from all other parties in the U.S. in that it consciously is politically independent of the corporations and the rich. It incorporates a section of the only mass organizations of workers, the unions, as well as the most progressive, militant leaders of workers. It also incorporates other progressive movements. PT: The Democratic Party has always claimed to be the party of labor, and the unions have always supported it. Why do we need a separate party now? DC: Opinions vary on when this happened, but there is no doubt that the rich and the corporations control both parties. The Democrats and the Republicans deliver to their campaign contributors, not to the electorate. As long as we fight the corporations and the rich in the economic arena of our workplaces and let them have total control over the political process, we are holding our hands over one pocket while we allow them to steal from the other. As the class struggle intensifies, as the drive to maintain falling rates of profit continues, as the contradictions of an economic system based on profit become more apparent, we have to pose an alternative to those powers who will seek to pit sections of workers against each other in order to save the rich and the corporations. PT: What is the base of the Labor Party? Who makes up its constituency? DC: Most of our base is among union members. We also have a smaller, but expanding base in community organizations where programs like our 28th Amendment Campaign are bringing us into contact with some of them. We also have a much smaller base among some "left" political activists. Altogether, these are the most class-conscious elements in our society. PT: What does the Labor Party have to offer to all the working people who are not in unions? What about the people who are not working because they are unable to find jobs? DC: We offer a new vision of what our society could be, a vision in which such elemental human needs as productive labor at a livable wage, education, and health care are seen as basic human rights and are, therefore, guaranteed. PT: You are a very busy man with all your obligations to your union and to the Labor Party. But you have also spent a lot of time working with the maquiladora workers who are trying to establish independent unions in Mexico. Why do you see their efforts as so important? DC: The age of global economics is upon us. You can read in the paper where Michel Camdessus, director of the IMF [International Monetary Fund], and the G7 [Group of Seven] finance ministers lament that no institution now has control over the rapid movement of capital across borders. So we have to respond to the crisis of capital globally, too. Yes, my union has been centrally involved in cross-border organizing in Mexico. We are organizing workers here and we are encountering the reality of not just "runaway" shops, but entire "runaway" industries. We are forced by necessity to think now on an international scale. ... Immigrants, regardless of their legal status, must have the same benefits and rights to organize as anyone else. It's not a matter of where you are born, but of a human right. Otherwise, a second class of workers exists which is underpaid with lower benefits and which is more exploitable, and this threatens the well-being of all the workers. PT: What are the goals of the 28th Amendment Campaign? DC: To popularize the idea that we, as human beings, have the right to a job at a living wage if we want one; that the government should "promote the general well-being of the public"; that the "right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" won't be defined as the right to be unemployed, cutoff of benefits, homeless and freezing or starving to death; that the government will create the conditions where we can all work, raise our families, provide them with a home, food and other essentials. In other words, the campaign is to push the idea that the words of the American Revolutionaries -- our Founding Fathers -- contained in the Constitution and in the Declaration of Independence, apply to the citizenry as a whole and not just to the corporations who have usurped and corrupted our government. We want justice! And we are going to organize to take it! ****************************************************************** 7. CORNELL'S TOM HIRSCHL ON THE BATTLE OVER CAMPUS INVESTMENT [Editor's note: The following is excerpted from the keynote address by Thomas A. Hirschl of Cornell University to the Conference on Socially Responsible Investing that was sponsored by the Cornell Greens at Cornell University from October 23 to 25, 1998.] By Thomas A. Hirschl The structure of financial markets suggests an enormous surplus of capital. The amount of money tied up in currency speculation is 100 times the value of commodity trade. Successful mutual-fund managers are flooded with capital, and are forced to close out new investment in order to sustain profitability. A trillion-dollar hedge fund, started by a group including Nobel laureate economists, recently blew its capital base and was bailed out by [a consortium orchestrated] the U.S. Federal Reserve. In my book "Cutting Edge," I suggest that this capital surplus has structural roots in the post-industrial technological revolution. As industries deploy more technology, physical output grows and markets become saturated. Profitable investment outlets, other than in high-tech industries, dry up and the surplus capital flows into speculation in search of the highest return. It seems logical to take some of this capital and put it to work in socially responsible ways. This might entail building sanitary systems for the millions who lack safe drinking water, protecting the Earth's ecosystems, and establishing education systems that empower people with the information they need to live healthy and productive lives. Why don't we have a hedge fund for repairing the hole in the upper atmosphere caused by chemical products vitiating the protective ozone layer? Another structural feature of capital is its concentration in the hands of a few billionaires. A recent study released by the United Nations found that the combined wealth of the world's richest 225 individuals is equal to the annual income of the poorest 47 percent of world population -- 2.785 billion people. The most recent data available from the United States suggest that the richest 1 percent of families own 50 percent of net financial assets. Within this concentration of wealth is an influential class of financial speculators such as George Soros. These nomads of wealth exercise considerable control over the international markets by virtue of their financial muscle, and are currently pushing legislation such as the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI), which would outlaw socially responsible investment controls. The MAI guarantees the sovereignty of wealth over democratic institutions by giving investors the right to file suit against governments that constrain profits and investment flows. The existence of this class of billionaire speculators suggests that the wealth is there and that we need to find methods to put some of this wealth to use in socially responsible ways. Arguably, the most successful socially responsible investment campaign was the movement to block international investment in South Africa. It is widely acknowledged that the international investment boycott laid a foundation for the overthrow of the apartheid government in favor of a more democratic government. The divestment campaign was prefigured by a sports boycott, especially the banning of South Africa from participation in the Olympic Games. The sports boycott was initiated by one individual, Dennis Brutus, a black softball coach living in South Africa (now a poet and professor at the University of Pittsburgh). Professor Brutus was able to correlate two simple facts: (1) The International Olympic Committee forbids discrimination on the basis of race, and (2) it can be demonstrated that South Africa's black athletes, some of whom jump higher and run faster than the competing white athletes, were not allowed to participate because of their race. So Professor Brutus sent a letter to the International Olympic Committee and received a favorable reply. Next, he organized a letter-writing campaign that generated 50,000-plus statements testifying to South Africa's exclusionary sports policies. South Africa was subsequently banned from Olympic competition, and later South Africans were banned from competing in other non- Olympic sports. The campaign became so successful that South African authorities jailed Professor Brutus on notorious Robben Island, from which he escaped, but was caught and shot in the back by a security agent. He was subsequently exiled to Britain and later the United States, where he activity participated in anti- apartheid campaigns. Dennis Brutus was one of millions who contributed to the anti- apartheid movement, a movement encompassing diverse peoples from many countries. Within this broad movement against apartheid, the divestment campaign played a strategic role in undermining the economic viability of the South African regime. I think that the lesson from the anti-apartheid movement is to use existing institutions to leverage change. One example I am aware of right now is an effort by the newly formed Labor Party to ban investment in countries that outlaw unions. Various members of the Labor Party sit on pension-fund boards of their international unions, and are drafting language that would prevent these funds from flowing into nations with anti-union laws. Professor Brutus and other leaders of the anti-apartheid movement had an accurate analysis of their situation, and acted consistently over a period of time. The final victory of their struggle was the result of a broad collective effort, with the divestment campaign playing a strategic role. It is my conviction that we are living during a time of great change, when successful collective mobilization and action can create great changes. In moving ahead with the socially responsible investment campaign at Cornell and elsewhere, I would offer the following tactical advice: 1. Assemble the best possible information base around a burning social justice or environmental issue; 2. Choose strategic targets, in concert with other forms of social mobilization; 3. Exert maximum pressure over the target; and 4. Make international connections and/or alliances. ****************************************************************** 8. HOW TO UNITE HEALTH-CARE REFORM MOVEMENT By Michael Berger, R.N. The interests of the health-care reform movement are economically divergent and therefore difficult to capture. The Labor Party Campaign for Just Health, in conjunction with the party program, affords an opportunity to unite this movement. Single-issue injustices such as the right to an overnight stay in a hospital for vaginal delivery or to legislatively reform the "mangled care" industry (HMO/PPO/PSO) are part of this process. The following health issues are being raised: 1. A right to a job at a living wage. 2. A right to drinkable water. 3. A right to heat in the winter. Jobs and the quality-of-life issues dominating this country give us the means to take this next step. The Labor Party gives us the means to tear away the centuries of hatred, suspicion and division that have been cultivated by our rulers to weaken us. It calls on us to reshape the morality of this country to reflect this unity, which is, in its essence, simply the declaration that all people are worthy of everything that human civilization has to offer. "When the way things are produced comes into conflict with the way things are distributed ... social revolution is inevitable." -- Nelson Peery "He whose ranks are united in purpose The appropriate season is not as important ... as harmonious human relations." -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War Visit the Labor Party web site: http://www.labornet.org/lpa ****************************************************************** 9. SUPPORT EXTRADITION OF PINOCHET General Augusto Pinochet, former military dictator of Chile, is being detained in Great Britain under charges of murder, torture and genocide of Spanish and Swedish citizens. General Pinochet came to power in Chile by overthrowing and murdering the democratically elected Socialist President Salvador Allende. Pinochet is responsible for terrorizing, murdering and torturing tens of thousands of Chilenos. He was responsible for the murder of Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier and his American secretary, Ronnie Moffit. Pinochet's arrest has raised a lot of issues in regard to the many dictators throughout Latin America that did the same. It raises the issue of what is justifiable to preserve privilege and the wealthy -- capitalism. There is a lot that needs to be discussed about democracy and capitalism. Today, we must discuss and halt the complicity of the U.S. government in the overthrowing of democratically elected officials. And the complicity of the U.S. government with the murder of the indigenous peoples in Chiapas and Southern Mexico. The League of Revolutionaries for a New America will pursue these discussions to clarify what progressive and revolutionary interests are in these struggles. There should be no doubt or hesitation, General Pinochet, the murderer of Chile, should be brought to trial immediately. The U.S. government should denounce him immediately and provide documents and all information it has on his regime and the murders committed under his direction in the U.S. and Chile. Everyone should help bring justice to the thousands of victims and urge the Clinton administration to help bring Pinochet to justice. Call Attorney General Janet Reno at 202-514-2000. ****************************************************************** 10. CAMPUS DEMOCRACY CONVENTION: SIGN OF RISING YOUTH MOVEMENT By Chris Mahin Editor's note: The concepts in this article are based on a discussion lead by veteran revolutionary Nelson Peery addressing the theme of Youth and Revolution at a meeting of students which was held at the National Office of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America in July. A cassette recording of this discussion can be obtained from the People's Tribune Speaker's Bureau. To order, call: 773-486-0028 or e-mail: speakers@mcs.com November 5-9, hundreds of student activists will meet in Madison, Wisconsin for the Campus Democracy Convention. The convention may decide to form a new national student organization; it will definitely plan a series of teach-ins on corporate power. (The teach-ins will be held on dozens of campuses early next year.) The convention is one of many signs of an upsurge in the student movement. This upsurge has been accompanied by a lively debate. Today's student activists are discussing some important questions: What can this new student movement learn from previous movements? What is the key task today? To begin to grapple with these questions, we have to examine history. Any epoch is marked by one central element which reveals the essence of that period, the content of that moment in history. This "content of the time" conditions everything, including the development of the youth movement. The content of our time can be summed up as the transition from production by human labor to production by robotics. All over the world, poverty is growing as workers are thrown out of work by capitalists who no longer need their labor. This reality has made a new, world-wide youth movement virtually inevitable. >From Indonesia to France to the United States, young people today have a common interest in fighting for education, for culture -- for a future. The question is no longer "if" there will be a new youth movement, but where its leaders will lead it. This new youth movement will be something qualitatively different from the student movements of the past. Many periods of U.S. history have been marked by broad disillusionment of young people. Over the decades, literally hundreds of youth organizations have been formed in the United States as a reflection of this. For instance, in the 1920s and '30s, the Young Communist League acted as a youth adjunct of the drive to unionize workers in the mass-production industries. In the 1940s, the American Youth for Democracy helped mobilize young people to fight fascism and defend President Franklin Roosevelt's "four freedoms." Later, the Southern Negro Youth Congress and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee fought legal segregation. Each of these organizations was created to address a specific, burning issue of its time. When that issue was resolved, the organization ceased to exist. Today, the potential exists for something much broader. This new youth movement will not end when one issue is resolved. Today's youth movement will not be able to achieve its goals without changing the way the necessities of life are distributed in society. In the past, all revolutionary movements in the United States -- including movements of the youth -- were led by the marginalized. People who had been left out of the system fought to get into it. But today's young people are not fighting to get into the capitalist system; they are fighting to get the capitalist system off their backs. They are trying to create a different system based on human values. Today's youth movement cannot fight its way into the capitalist system because the system is disintegrating. Production without human labor simply demands distribution without money -- that is, a society in which the necessities of life are distributed to people on the basis of their need, not their ability to pay for those necessities. No half-measures will resolve society's problems because the automation of production cannot be stopped halfway. All this means that today's youth movement can be far broader and have far more impact than previous efforts -- if its leaders are clear on where society is headed. Today, there is no separation between fighting for the immediate demands and the long-term goals of the movement. Today, the student movement in the United States can be an integral part of a world youth movement which is part of the general struggle against the capitalist system. That is why the youth movement needs to be as big and as broad as possible, and why the Campus Democracy Convention (and other efforts) are so important. ****************************************************************** 11. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION By Sandy Perry [The Spirit of the Revolution column recently began circulating the following proposed mission statement to various readers and contributors. In this and the upcoming issues, we will be printing some of the responses we have received. If you have something to say about it, please send it to us at: Boxholder, P.O. Box 2166, San Jose, California 95112. E-mail may be sent to: spirit@noc.org] RESPONSE: MORAL ECONOMICS by Richard S. Engle The proposed mission statement seems to me to be comprehensive in both its scope and intent. I work in a world where profit is indeed the fabled "bottom line." Distribution of wealth in the corporate world is dependent upon one's position and overall status within a given company. I am frequently called upon to bid labor costs for client proposals. The process is supposed to take into account what the upper echelon refers to as "unutilized capacity," which is just a fancy way of saying spare or idle time on the part of a group of employees. The objective is to submit the lowest bid in order to attract a potential client by offering to assume the work he now pays for at reduced labor costs, thereby ensuring an outsourcing contract. Since this is akin to squeezing our employees and displacing the employees of the client company, I find helping with the bid process quite frustrating. I see the people actually doing the work generating a great deal of value for the company, but at a modest hourly wage and with no job security. Surely this is a skewed system of compensation. And the company is not unionized. Imagine! You mention the concept of spirituality as it relates to moral economics. The capitalist system is, indeed, bereft of any moral concerns that don't directly or indirectly translate into revenue or profits. Currently, there is much emphasis on "team building" and "company spirit" in modern corporations. Employees are encouraged to adopt the company's ideology as their own and are lulled into complacency regarding employee rights and human values. The company seeks to insinuate itself into the individual's life by offering platitudes about corporate life being part of one's holistic identity. Ironically, corporate ideology is usually so veiled and couched in vague, euphemistic slogans that comprehension of actual company goals are difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain by the average worker. Suffice it to say, the corporation only exists for $$$. Your Spirit of the Revolution column will be a great platform for both educating and inspiring people to seek the high road, so to speak, in relation to economic parity and equality. I really never have understood how capitalism and its spawn, imperialism, have ever related to democracy -- yet the average citizen considers the two terms synonymous. It seems to me that no "demos," or group of people sound of mind would willingly lend its assent to the rule of a small elite, much less tolerate that elite controlling 95 percent of all monetary and environmental resources. The only possible explanation I can offer is that the consent of the people has been appropriated through misdirection and propaganda. Your paper should be valuable in turning the tide of public discourse by emphasizing a more humane path to economics and government -- one truly "of the people, by the people, and for the people." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION PROPOSED MISSION STATEMENT This column will reach out to all revolutionaries in the spiritual and faith-based communities. It will strive to unite and inspire them, and all other revolutionaries, in the endeavor to bring a message of hope for humanity to our troubled country. It will appeal to the historic moral traditions of the American people to confront the evils of our government and economic system. It will work to develop, clarify and popularize the vision of a new cooperative society, where wealth is distributed according to human need, not private profit. It will draw on the ideals and aspirations of our diverse spiritual traditions. It will encourage a spirit of mutual respect for our various beliefs, and combat all forms of religious and political sectarianism. It will exchange views on the relationship between spirituality and science, and between spirituality and politics. At the same time, it will not hesitate to denounce any tendency which uses religion to justify human exploitation or racial or sexual oppression. This is false religion. No true religion permits mammon worship or encourages private accumulation of wealth. Every true religion preaches justice and compassion. The modern capitalist economy requires systematic disobedience of these, our most cherished principles. This column will defend these principles and fight to do away with the system that attacks them. This is the meaning of good news to the poor and liberation of the captives in today's world. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 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 (773) 486-0028 ISSN# 1081-4787 For free electronic subscription, email: pt-dist@noc.org with the word "subscribe" in the subject. 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: (773) 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. 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