****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 20 No. 12 / March 22, 1993 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Gang members fight the system to... DEFEND THE TRUCE! >From South Central L.A. to Chicago, Illinois, the young men who organized the reunification and stopped the bloodshed are under attack by the cops, courts and ruling class politicians. Dewayne Keith Holmes was railroaded to the penitentiary after helping to reunify the projects of Watts. In Chicago, the truce in Cabrini Green and throughout the city has been met with violent opposition by the police and City Hall. The police (and the wealthy rulers they protect) are trying to turn us against each other and away from our _common enemies_. They want to use the excuse of "gang violence" to occupy our communities and brutalize us at will. That's why they are railroading the leaders and deliberately provoking incidents to destroy the truce. Don't let them get away with it! More in stories 1 & 8. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 20 No. 12 / March 22, 1993 Editorial 1. WE STAND WITH THE REUNIFICATION News 2. MARCH AGAINST 'LEGAL MURDER' FREE RICARDO ALDAPE GUERRA! 3. KNOWLEDGE IS CURE FOR ANTI-INDIAN RACISM 4. 'RIDE TO SURVIVE' FOR CHICAGO TRANSIT RIDERS WHO KNOW REAL CTA 5. FREE BRYANT YUNUS COLLINS! HOMELESS FIGHTER IMPRISONED 6. HOMELESS GROUP EXPOSES TB EPIDEMIC (PART II) 7. GHETTOS RECYCLED OR REMOVED (PART II) 8. EAST L.A. SUMMIT: YOUTH READY TO FIGHT Columns and features 9. DEADLY FORCE: CHILD'S APPEAL: "SHAME FOR POLICE TO BE SO MEAN" 10. ROBOTICS: JOB CREATOR OR JOB DESTROYER? 11. DRAFT PROGRAM FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF REVOLUTIONARIES 12. FORMER UNION PRESIDENT JOINS NATL ORG. COMMITTEE 13. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: WE STAND WITH THE REUNIFICATION In the months before last year's Los Angeles Rebellion, people in L.A. and other cities had begun talking to one another about how to unite their neighborhoods and put a stop to the slaughter that was going on in the form of gang warfare. These leaders knew that the rivalry and killing was a direct result of the poverty, inequality and oppression that characterizes the existing system in this country. They had begun to see the slaughter as part of what amounts to a program by this country's rulers to wipe out the poor and the unemployed. These leaders knew the people would have to be united in order to fight the real enemy -- the system that is holding them down. The Rebellion fueled this process of reunification in L.A. and across America. In L.A., Chicago and other cities the reunification is under way. In the neighborhoods, children, young men and women, mothers and fathers are all talking with pride and excitement about their efforts to bring peace to the 'hood and get organized to bring about real change. Of course, the police and the political representatives of our rulers are furious about the reunification. They have kept us down by keeping us divided, and now they are doing everything they can to bust up the reunification. In L.A., the police have gone out of their way to provoke violence, and have arrested leaders like Dewayne Keith Holmes. In Chicago, leaders of the reunification have repeatedly asked to meet with Mayor Richard Daley to talk about plans for their neighborhoods; the mayor has not only refused to meet with them, he has publicly denounced them and claimed that the peace in Chicago was brought about by the police, not the people. For several years, the Chicago cops have been raiding entire housing projects, sealing them off and searching every apartment on the pretext of "looking for drugs and weapons." The real purpose of these raids has been to politically isolate Chicago's poorest people. The arrests of our leaders, the continuing provocations by the police, the obvious preparations by the police and military for another uprising, the clear inability of this system to grant justice to its victims -- it all adds up to one thing: We are on our own. We, the people, are going to have be responsible for ourselves. We are going to have to organize and put forward our own leaders to represent us. It is in our power to make the changes that have to be made. The People's Tribune stands squarely with those who are fighting to unify the people. For more on what you can do, see story 11. ****************************************************************** 2. MARCH AGAINST 'LEGAL MURDER' Free Ricardo Aldape Guerra! March from Houston to Austin, 12 miles per day for 14 days By Marcial Silva On March 13 the National Committee in Defense of Ricardo Aldape Guerra will carry out a "March Against Legal Murder In Texas." The march is scheduled to begin in Houston at the steps of the District Court that tried Ricardo Aldape Guerra in one of the worst miscarriages of justice. In October of 1982, Ricardo, then a 19-year-old undocumented worker, was falsely accused of murdering a Houston policeman and sentenced to die by lethal injection in an environment of racist, anti-immigrant hysteria that was only beginning to be unleashed throughout the country. With the steep downturn that occurred in the economy at that time, the system needed a scapegoat to misdirect the righteous growing anger of the North American people. Since then, unemployment and poverty have continued to grow incessantly. Ricardo's case has been bounced back and forth between federal and state courts with a couple of execution dates having been set. His latest appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has been rejected and he presently awaits another date with the state executioner. We cannot let Ricardo die for the sins of this bankrupt system. The undocumented workers did not cause the economic crisis this system is going through any more than the homeless have caused homelessness or the laid off industrial workers have caused the factories of the "Rust Belt" to shut down. As more and more workers become a useless surplus to this system due to the widespread use of labor replacing electronics, the only answer the ruling class of this country gives us is more prisons built and more "legal murders" committed. Join us in the "March Against Legal Murder." Only because of the participation of the people throughout this and other countries has Ricardo avoided execution. _We are asking that your organization, church, union, or committee send a representative to march with us to save the life of an innocent man that was unjustly sentenced to death._ For more information contact the National Committee in Defense of Ricardo Aldape Guerra in Houston: 713-641-0026 or the Mid-Valley Organizing Committee; Weslaco, Texas. 1-800-428-6508. ****************************************************************** 3. KNOWLEDGE IS CURE FOR ANTI-INDIAN RACISM By E. Donald Two-Rivers CHICAGO -- Racism is a wart on our society that seems never to go away. The racism that is most disturbing is the institutionalized racism directed against the Indian community. It is damaging. Institutionalized racism is so deeply embedded in this country that in most cases the perpetrators don't realize they're being offensive. It is practically force-fed to Americans from the time that they are children. The television is the No. 1 advocate of institutionalized racism. So are the movies and the novels. The schools perpetuate the misconceptions with their handling of history. History books are especially offensive and damaging. The sum total of this constant barrage of racist thought is that the brain becomes numbed and the attitudes of racism become socially acceptable to folks. An example of this occurring here in Chicago is when the police and retired firemen held a rally downtown. They carried placards with a picture of Mayor Daley dressed as an Indian Chief, the implication being that the Mayor had lied to them in regards to their retirement benefits. There were at least 50 of them with those placards. Well you can imagine what that did for my day. The community protested and they apologized. They didn't realize they were being offensive. These were grown adult people. They had been fed racist thoughts since childhood. A more recent incident is the furor that the election of Ben "Night Horse" Campbell [as U.S. Senator from Colorado] created. Ron Wade, WLS radio personality went bananas over the election of the Senator. He was so upset that when he was reading the announcements he lost control. Upon hearing the Senator-elect's name, he said, "What was that? Is that an injun?" Then he let out a silly war whoop. Of course, when the community protested, he claimed it was all in fun. The eventual outcome was that he made a public apology and promised to be more sensitive. He should have known better but he didn't. He has become brain-numb and didn't realize he was being offensive. Institutionalized racism is that deeply embedded that a man who uses words and thoughts to make a living didn't realize what he was doing wrong. Another area where the institutionalized racism is reinforced is in the team names. A lot of schools and team officials will say that they are honoring Indians by using the words they did. Did you ever notice how the teams are either Indians or some animal? That has the affect of dehumanizing native people -- putting them in a class with animals. It happens over a number of years but soon people don't think of Indians as people. Most don't know that we still exist as people. The noble vanishing race myth still is pretty prevalent out there. People are actually really very ignorant. Their information comes from the television. They have very narrow points of view. People living in the inner city, confined to this or that ghetto area, tend to be ignorant of each other's history or culture. It is really sad to see a black teen make fun of an elder Indian man. It's done because the teen has never been exposed to any other ways of life. He is ignorant. His ignorance is like enslavement. Only knowledge can free a mind. We as a society have to come to know and respect each other. We have got to burst the chains of mental slavery. We have got to know the trappings that turn us into racist bigots. We have got to learn respect for each other. We can fight back by not accepting racism. ****************************************************************** 4. 'RIDE TO SURVIVE' IS FOR CHICAGO TRANSIT RIDERS WHO KNOW THE REAL CTA By Derra Greenspan CHICAGO -- "Ride to Survive" is a new publication aimed at bringing riders together on CTA issues. Many times polite words aren't suited to describe the Chicago Transit Authority. The CTA is an "authority" on top-heavy spending, as opposed to providing public transportation. Each new round of fare increases and/or service cuts brings more anger and frustration to transit riders. The CTA holds simultaneous public hearings to disperse the ridership. They count on the people's fragmentation to get away with highway robbery. Public transportation is like blood flowing through the veins of a city. Jobs cannot be created unless the workers have a way to get there. People need access to goods and services. "Ride to Survive" aims to educate people on CTA policy and operations, or lack of, throughout the city. There is also a "war stories" column. This space is for opinions where both sides are encouraged to participate. There is a solution to the CTA's financial woes. The Lake street "L" can be fixed. The South Side need not become an island. "Ride to Survive" hopes to be the transit pass linking riders around the city. We, the riders, along with bus and train workers, know what the administrative folks don't: CTA reality. If we only ran the show. We can assess the CTA's service and operational needs better than any costly survey ever could. The CTA is like a transfer about to expire. If something isn't done, soon, they'll terminate, taking the whole city with 'em. You can write "Ride to Survive" at P.O. Box 4022 Merchandise Mart, Chicago, Illinois 60654. (They had a box when I needed one, no wait). "Ride to Survive" is also available at Guild Books, 2456 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Phone 312-525-3667. ****************************************************************** 5. FREE BRYANT YUNUS COLLINS! He fought homelessness, cop terror; now he's in prison By Anthony D. Prince DETROIT -- The People's Tribune has learned that Bryant Yunus Collins, an outspoken enemy of police terror and a leader of Michigan Up and Out of Poverty, Now! has been arrested on an alleged parole violation and is awaiting return to prison. The specific charge against Collins is irrelevant. The warrant was outstanding for years and has only been served now in retaliation against Collin's involvement in the Justice for Malice Green Coalition, formed last year in response to a fatal police beating in Detroit. The cops who killed Green are free on bond; Yunus Collins is headed for the penitentiary. He has not been permitted to communicate with anyone since his arrest. We have also learned that the very same day, two formerly homeless Detroiters, participants in the struggle to occupy vacant units of public housing, were arrested and charged with trespass. The charges have since been dropped. Collins was part of the Tent-City struggle that advocated opening public housing to the homeless. These actions are part of a deliberate campaign of various law enforcement officials to rob the people's struggle of its leaders: -- In Decatur, Illinois, Napoleon Williams and Mildred Jones, operators of Liberation Radio have been convicted of trumped-up felony charges, including the alleged kidnapping of their own daughter. -- In Rapid City, South Dakota, the children of Native American activists like Thelma Rios are routinely imprisoned on false charges. -- And in California, Irish-American organizer Christina Reid is serving 3 years, victim of an FBI plot to fabricate evidence and rid the community of yet another outspoken leader. And there are thousands more. Imprisoning these grassroots leaders cannot and will not stop the struggles they have so passionately represented. That is because with every passing day, this system is causing thousands more to lose their jobs, their homes and their loved ones. With every leader the rulers kill or jail, dozens more arise to take their place. Nevertheless, we cannot afford to allow this deliberate campaign of repression to continue unopposed. We must demand the immediate release of Bryant Yunus Collins and all political prisoners. We must turn the tables and expose the criminality of the _system_. For further information contact: Michigan Up and Out of Poverty Now! at 313-868-3660. ****************************************************************** 6. HOMELESS GROUP EXPOSES TB EPIDEMIC (PART II) Chicago's Uptown community CHICAGO -- Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially deadly disease that can scar the lungs and invade other organs. It is spreading in this city. It is estimated that about a third of the city's homeless have some form of TB. In early 1992, a new association formed in Chicago's Uptown community called the Uptown Global Organization on Human Rights for the Temporarily Homeless, the nucleus of which is composed of homeless people themselves. It has worked for a year to expose the tuberculosis epidemic in Chicago and the refusal of public officials to do anything about it. Below we print excerpts from the second half of the statement made by Mike Ditkowsky of Uptown Global to the Chicago City Council's Committee on Public Health on September 14, 1992. After these hearings on TB, the Chicago City Council covered up the extent of the crisis by introducing an ordinance calling for an investigation into conditions within shelters. This ordinance was then buried in a City Council committee. The city has done nothing to stop the TB epidemic since that decision. The final part of Ditkowsky's statement will be printed in the next issue. DITKOWSKY: This [the spread of TB] is a real and terrible type of emergency that starts in institutionalized settings and begins to spill out into the surrounding communities. If this city addresses itself to this emergency, and we think it will, it will have positive and national reverberations. We are from Uptown, we are focused on Uptown, yet this remains a Chicago model... Pre-epidemic conditions and current levels and conditions are not being differentiated while we might be approaching New York City levels where upwards of 20 percent of new TB cases are medically immune strains.... [T]here is a remarkable response here from the true health professionals and our group, which is non-funded and homeless, and helps show by example... that a proper service-oriented attitude can get results with no money while helping to redirect funding priorities. We are going to hear a lot of things about money -- "We don't have money here, we don't have money there" -- "It costs $40,000 to put in ultra violet lights in a shelter." [W]ell, if we miss one infected TB person by failing to screen, test and medicate, when this infected person becomes active and transmissible and if the system is lucky enough to get this person under care, it's now a cost differential of $200,000. This failure to screen now approaches [upwards of] $300,000 if we have the MDR strain (multi- drug resistant). This is the type of prevention and planning that saves money and resources and insures there will be resources on hand when there are system emergencies. We don't think there is a money factor here. We want to address a threadbare annual state TB budget of just $3 million which itself is having trouble being traced and results dynamically in having one car for three TB centers and sees critical staff cutbacks and proposed closings of critical health centers based on cost effectiveness -- while this health emergency mounts. ****************************************************************** 7. GHETTOS RECYCLED OR REMOVED (PART II) Tele E'mani is the director of the Universal Human Rights Organization of African People which broadcasts on WSSD Radio FM 88.1 in Chicago. CHICAGO -- There was a book written by a man named Professor Sidney Wilhelm entitled _Who Needs the Negro?_ Either by design or apathy the corporate banking cartels are allowing the urban centers to go by the wayside. Dr. Phillip Hauser of the Population Reference Bureau of the University of Chicago said, "If we are not prepared to make the investment in human resources that is required, we will be forced to increase our investment in police, the National Guard and the Army, and we may have to resort to concentration camps and even genocide." Professor Sidney Wilhelm also states that Afrikans may rebel but they will be destroyed as ruthlessly as the Indian for his aggression. Dr. Hauser further stated that, "The tragedy is that this is the first nation in the history of man which has the power to rectify such social ills but refuses to do so." The development planners have placed the Afrikan community in a very deep hole, placing Afrikan ex-slaves [in a] human scrap heap. [If] the overwhelming majority of white Americans would apparently be "good Americans" and stand back and allow the racists to attack the Afrikan community, what is the Afrikan to do? Within the walls of the American prison system 2 million people are locked up -- over 850,000 male and female Afrikans in America are locked up behind bars. Unemployment across America -- 4-5 million unemployed-over half that number (are) Afrikans in America. As I write this report poor people across this country are being displaced by the government. Remember that word I asked you to watch out for (the buzz word) _permanent underclass_ -- over 150,000 people a day across this country are forced to vacate their homes and apartments with no place to go and their belongings are put out in the street. As with other areas no one knows how many people have been displaced in poor, oppressed neighborhoods, but the problem here is certainly in its early stages. Most of the neighborhoods in HUD housing -- row houses -- show no signs of renovation. The areas of HUD projects across this country under the Reagan and Bush administrations were to be sold to the middle classes. HUD would allow the deterioration of these developments. HUD wanted to get out of the housing business and turn it over to private developers. None of Dr. King's dream has passed out of view or out of mind, I mean his hopes for racial integration. Each brings fresh remembrance that America's dilemma still remains unresolved. (To find out when you can hear Tele E'mani on radio, call 312-326- 4773) ****************************************************************** 8. EAST L.A. SUMMIT: YOUTH READY TO FIGHT By Steve Texiera EAST LOS ANGELES -- As they filed into the hall here in East L.A., the teenagers checked each other out. Here were some from Belvedere Junior High. Over there, some homies from the Pico-Aliso Projects. Near them, Westside Gente from Inglewood and Santa Monica. But no one shot hard looks at "outsiders," because tonight there were none. Tonight was the Youth Summit, a town meeting in the heart of America's biggest Barrio for all the youth. Belvedere's vice-president, Michelle Prieto, spoke for all of them when she admitted, "It's scary to go outside nowadays. It's nice to know that people care, but are they doing something about it? It's hard to wake up in the morning scared if you're gonna live!" Along with a panel of young leaders, the Summit's guest speakers were Luis and Ramiro Rodriguez. Luis was a "vato loco" who became a famous writer. His new book _Always Running_ tells how he quit barrio warfare in the 1970s, only to see his son Ramiro become a gang member in the 1990s. "It's not just the young people's fault -- the system doesn't need them, so it lets them kill each other," Luis declared. "That's why they're letting everything fall apart -- schools, communities, everything!" "Green" Infante came from Pico Aliso to explain that it's not enough to just talk about peace. "I'd just be another guy talking, that no one would listen to. But I wish the shooting would stop." He took action by helping Dolores Mission set up Homeboy Tortillas, where various barrios agreed to work together in peace. "We need some kind of support group... somewhere to go where we'll be listened to," said a student from Inglewood High. He called for the schools to tear down language barriers, so the Spanish- speaking parents could really participate with their kids. Speaking as a parent, Luis Rodriguez agreed. "You can't just turn your children over to any institution," he said, reminding them of a true story in his book when a teacher called a student "you chola whore" and 3,000 students walked out. Rebecca Garcia, 19, lives in Pico Aliso Projects. "It's not just about education," she said. "Homeless people on the streets have college degrees. What we need is jobs!" These speakers and all the others deserve our praise for taking a step towards a better future. To work with them on their next step, call Ruben Guevara at 213-617-1556. To get a copy of Luis Rodriguez' _Always Running_ contact your local bookstore. Contact People's Tribune Speakers Bureau (312-486-3551) to bring him and his son to speak to your group. ****************************************************************** 9. DEADLY FORCE: DEWAYNE HOLMES IN PRISON +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "Deadly Force" is a weekly column dedicated to exposing the scope of police terror in the United States. We open our pages to you, the front line fighters against brutality and deadly force. Send us eyewitness accounts, clippings, press releases, appeals for support, letters, photos, opinions and all other information relating to this life and death fight. Send them to People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Ill. 60654, or call (312) 486- 3551. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ A CHILD'S APPEAL: "IT'S A SHAME FOR THE POLICE TO BE SO MEAN" SOUTH CENTRAL LOS ANGELES -- [The author is the 11-year old niece of Dewayne Holmes, one of the initiators of the post-rebellion truce in Los Angeles, now serving time for a trumped-up charge. Her mother, Le Shaune, was facing criminal charges at the time of this letter. They have since been dropped.] February 9, 1993 Bill Clinton White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, D.C. Dear Mr. Clinton, I'm 11 years old and I hope you hear my cry. The reason I am writing this letter to you and your wife is because I feel that you could help me and my family. Ever since the police killed my cousin, Henry Peco on November 29, 1991, we have been treated like dogs by the LAPD. People in Watts are human beings. My grandmother and my uncle, Dewayne Holmes, kept the young men in Imperial Courts Projects from shooting the police the night they killed my cousin. I, like your daughter, am the only child and I need my mother. I don't want my mother to go to jail. The police offered to pay someone to send my mother, my uncle and my cousin to jail. I don't know why police from 108th St. Station hate my family so much. Why do Blacks in Watts suffer so much? It's a shame for the police to be so mean. My family is not guilty. They are very nice people. Another thing that is making me unhappy is my uncle being in prison. My uncle was one of the people that started the truce in Watts. But everybody else is getting all the credit for it. His name is Dewayne Keith Holmes. My uncle made it happen for all the kids in Watts. There were times when we couldn't play outside or sleep in our own beds because of drive-by shootings. All the mothers in Watts are very happy that their children can walk freely to and from school and not have to worry. Guess what my uncle got for his reward? Seven years in prison. God knows he didn't do what he was charged with doing. Please, Mr. Clinton, release my uncle from jail and stop the police from harassing us. Really, my uncle should get a reward for what he did, not jail. Thank you, Ebony Franklin +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INITIATOR OF TRUCE RAILROADED, BUT NOT SILENCED: A letter from prison Dear Mom, I find myself thinking a lot about myself, you and how things are going to be when I get out. [As regards the truce], I wish there was some kind of guarantee that things will be like or better than they were when I left. I know that in life there are no guarantees, yet I hope and pray that something good comes from all of this. I would hate to think that I'm doing years of my life behind bars for nothing. Mama, I know initiating the truce was the right thing to do and the lives that were saved cannot be measured. I also know that someone almost always has to suffer for the good of the people. If I knew for sure that black youths' status in society would change for the better by me doing this time, I'd do it with a smile on my face. I really would. I just don't want to give years of my life away for a cause that ended once I came to jail. I love you and everything you've helped me become. Promise me that you'll keep my dreams alive. Don't tell me that three years of my life are worth nothing! Take care and stay strong, Love, Dewayne +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 10. ROBOTICS: JOB CREATOR OR JOB DESTROYER? (1) LETTER TO THE EDITOR By Dirk Rosen Unemployed myself at present, I am aware of my steadily eroding sense of worth and confidence over the months. I wonder how I will convince any employer that my skills have value. It is so easy to feel alone, angry or just plain lethargic. At times I am quick to point a blaming finger, yet I usually find I am not doing all I can to make matters better. However, I strongly disagree with the January 1993 Open Letter which links the use of robotics and computers (automation) with worker displacement, unemployment and poverty. Robotics, computers and new forms of production are not the reason for the growing class of propertyless, unemployable people, but the reason there are not twice as many! We are members of a global economy now, within an increasingly competitive world market. To compound matters, our wage scale is of the highest in the world. Japan, Germany, Korea and oil exporting Arab countries are kicking our economic butt, by ~either using automation, cheap labor or cheap natural resources. For example, Japan is the most automated country in the world. They have the highest wages, almost zero (0) unemployment, and in fact need upwards of 50,000 skilled workers to keep their factories running at maximum efficiency. The other extreme is China, which does not need automation since laborers cost just several dollars a day. However, I don't think we are ready to live on Chinese wages. I prefer the Japanese model. These are tough times indeed, but pointing the finger at automation is nearsighted. Automation increases productivity, making us more competitive. Unfortunately this country is under- educated and lazy, as our Japanese trading partners have pointed out. Yes, some jobs are lost through automation, but others are created. Someone has to build, program and maintain those computers and robots. These jobs require additional training, but not a Ph.D! Those who learn these new skills will find work. Those who do not try to better themselves will continue to point their blaming fingers in the wrong direction. It may be popular to blame "the system," but we throw away our power to change it due to our collective inaction. The real issues facing us today are top quality education and training, affordable housing and national health care for everyone. We have enough to worry about besides basic survival. I feel that our government owes each of us the training required for satisfying employment, the rest is up to us. With the necessary infrastructure in place, we will be supported in making these necessary career changes. Then our nation will be able to get on and compete in the world marketplace without placing the burden (federal deficit) on generations to come. THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE RESPONDS By Bruce E. Parry, Ph. D. (2) ABOUT ROBOTS... The world is in an economic revolution of shifting from production based on mechanics and electricity to production based on electronics, information, computers, robots and the like. We have factories today that produce virtually without humans. There are computers produced by computers, farm machinery produced by robots, and even robots produced by robots. Computers are replacing humans in car repair, checking out groceries, writing letters, teaching children and checking the vital signs of medical patients. This economic revolution is rushing through all societies like a flood. We can but direct the channel in which it flows. Information technology has made people, and their ability to work, unnecessary to business. Its profits flow from cutting costs by shedding workers. Robotics and computers make businessmen and women rich beyond imagination while enforcing unemployment, poverty, hunger and homelessness on those whose link to food and homes is a job. It is the economic system that creates -- or does not create -- jobs by which poor and working people earn their daily bread. Today we cannot find jobs because the economy is eliminating them. But the very technology that increases wealth for the rich and poverty for the poor has solved the historical problem of need: today we can feed, clothe, house and care for everyone on earth. But not by restricting the bounty to those with the money to pay. The food, homes, education and health care must be given to those who need them. Doing that is a political battle that is being fought out today in every country. The question is whether we will be ruled by and for the rich, or whether we will rule -- and feed, house and care for -- ourselves. (3) ...AND ABOUT JAPAN The economic revolution of electronic production that is sweeping the world is having the same effects in all countries. It creates economic crisis in the United States and in Germany. It creates unemployment in the U.S. and Japan. It spreads poverty throughout Africa, Latin America, Asia and the United States. Japan -- like the United States -- is in the grip of a deadly depression. Its banking crisis is similar to our savings and loan crisis: Banks made huge loans they cannot collect on. Japan's stock market has crashed to one-half of its peak value. Profits are plunging at Nissan, Matsushita (the world's biggest consumer electronics company) and Nippon Telephone & Telegraph. These companies alone are laying off more than 35,000 workers. This is happening in every sector of the economy: auto, electronics, retailing, chemicals, newspaper advertising, financial securities, parts-suppliers, paper, etc. "Lifetime employment" -- which guaranteed job stability to about one quarter of Japan's labor force -- is collapsing in the face of layoffs and plant closings. Unemployment is rising. As the data indicates, all countries face the same economic problems caused by electronics being applied to capitalism, the system of private ownership of businesses. The question isn't really economic -- it's historical and therefore political. The question is whether you can change the method of production to electronics without changing the method of distribution of what is produced. This applies equally to the United States, Japan, Russia or Somalia. ****************************************************************** 11. DRAFT PROGRAM FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF REVOLUTIONARIES This is an era of revolutionary change. Electronic technology is replacing human labor with computers and robots. Human labor is becoming worthless to a system that values only what it can exploit. The economic revolution is turning millions of people in this country into economic refugees. This system answers our cries of need with blows of terror. It offers unemployment, hunger, homelessness, welfare cuts, the AIDS epidemic and the plague of drugs. The government is turning from neglect to attack -- police murder and arrest of the youth, immigration raids, forced sterilization, and other forms of terror The millions this system has thrown out face two choices -- either accept destruction and murder or set out to overturn this system. Technology is powerful enough to end hunger, homelessness and all want -- but only if it is seized from the exploiters and organized in the interests of those this system has discarded. We are an organization based on the people this system doesn't need, the gravediggers of exploitation. Those this system has discarded have begun a revolution -- a revolution for food, homes, jobs, education, health care, freedom from police terror and drugs. Now is the time to organize and politicize the revolution that is shaking up this country. We will get only what we are organized to take. Our program is based on the revolutionary potential of those who have to fight this system in order to live. The decisive step today is to broaden and intensify the activities and influence of their movement. Based on this movement for survival, we will educate and organize revolutionary fighters from all sectors of society to wage war on the capitalist system. We call on you to join us in carrying out this program of action and education: Our program is to end poverty by seizing abandoned housing, and fighting to secure food, health care and whatever else we need to survive. Our program is to put an end to the state terror by confronting the government through mass mobilization -- in the courts, in the streets, by any means necessary. This organized action makes it possible for the millions who are being displaced, discarded and attacked by capitalism to be prepared, organized and trained to lead in overturning the whole system. Our program is to educate the millions of fighters with a blueprint of what they are fighting for and what it will take to build that kind of society. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Now is the time to act. The National Organizing Committee calls upon everyone who wants to carry out this program to join us in building local organizing committees to build an organization around this program. Our task is not to be a debating society, but to be a coordinating body of active revolutionary leaders firmly rooted in militant mass forms of struggle. We intend to combine all of our efforts into one common effort, to unite our many specific demands around a general program for revolutionary change. We need you to join us in organizing committees in every city and rural community, on every battle front, to assist in spelling out how this program can be carried out. This draft program is being issued by the National Organizing Committee. General Baker, chairman. Contact the National Organizing Committee at P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647 or call 312-486-0028. The signers of the Call to form Organizing Committees are available to speak. Call or write for more information. People's Tribune Speakers Bureau P.O. Box 5412 Compton, California 90244 310-428-2618 +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 12. FORMER UNION PRESIDENT JOINS NOC, SAYS, 'DO SOMETHING TO CHANGE THESE CONDITIONS!' "I am the former president of the once-mighty Steelworkers Local 1014. At one time, 29,000 people worked at the U.S. Steel plant in Gary, Indiana. It looked like a small city. You look at it today: 75% of the people in Gary, Indiana are unemployed. If you go through the streets of this town and others, as I have done, you'll see they resemble the ghost towns of the old west. The corporations came in, used up the resources of the community and then, at the stroke of a pen, eliminated thousands and thousands of jobs. These people haven't disappeared. They're still here. "I think it's about time we exposed this system. You see people living in conditions that are substandard, people without food or clothing, without shelter, without medical care. It's time that people across this nation get together. I encourage everybody to become a part of the National Organizing Committee and do something to change these conditions." -- Larry Regan ****************************************************************** 13. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, published weekly in Chicago, is devoted to the proposition that an economic system which can't or won't feed, clothe and house its people ought to be and will be changed. To that end, this paper is a tribune of the people. It is the voice of the millions struggling for survival. It strives to educate politically those millions on the basis of their own experience. It is a tribune to bring them together, to create a vision of a better world, and a strategy to achieve it. Join us! Editor: Laura Garcia Publisher: Lenny Brody 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 bundles of papers to: PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE P.O. Box 3524 Chicago, IL 60654 Respond via e-mail to jdav@igc.org Reach us by phone: Chicago: (312) 486-3551 Atlanta: (404) 242-2380 Detroit: (313) 839-7600 Los Angeles : (310) 428-2618 Washington, D.C.: (202) 529-6250 GETTING THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE IN PRINT The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE is available at many locations nationwide. One year subscriptions $25 ($35 institutions), bulk orders of 5 or more 15 cents each, single copies 25 cents. Contact PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, P. O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654, tel. (312) 486- 3551. WRITING FOR THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE We want your story in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE. Send it in! 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. ******************************************************************