Date: Tue, 26 Apr 1994 19:55:19 -0700 From: James I Davis To: jdav@netcom.com Subject: People's Tribune (Online Edition) 5-2-94 ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 18 / May 2, 1994 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ POLICE RAIDS WITHOUT WARRANTS IN PUBLIC HOUSING SWEEP AWAY POVERTY, NOT THE BILL OF RIGHTS! CHICAGO -- "They want to tear up the Constitution." Those words were spoken by Ethel Washington, who has lived in the Robert Taylor Homes public housing development here for 25 years. Washington was describing the effort to allow the police to search the apartments of public housing residents without warrants. She's right. During April, it seemed as if almost every politician and media commentator in America was talking about police sweeps in Robert Taylor Homes. The national hue and cry began April 7. On that day, a federal judge barred Chicago from conducting searches of individual apartments in Chicago Housing Authority buildings without a warrant or probable cause. President Clinton himself denounced the ruling just hours after it was issued. He gave Attorney General Janet Reno and Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros 10 days to figure out a way to get around the judge's decision. If Clinton is serious about improving the situation in public housing, why didn't he give his Cabinet just 10 days to come up with a plan to feed every hungry child in public housing in America? If the members of Congress supporting sweeps are genuinely concerned, why has Congress slashed funding for public housing over the last 13 years? Public housing in this country is the scene of many problems. They range from hunger to broken elevators to unsafe windows to trash which never seems to get picked up by the city. If the tiny class of people who run this country really wanted to solve those problems, it would sweep some jobs and education and health programs into the public housing developments. Instead, public housing residents get massive, expensive raids by the police, paid for with the very money which should be used to solve the underlying problems. We cannot allow the very people responsible for the growth of poverty to shift the blame. We won't let them tear up the Constitution for poor people. The high-level push for massive police sweeps in public housing shows that the ruling class has only one answer to our cries for food, decent housing and justice -- at Robert Taylor Homes and throughout America. That answer is massive force. We cannot accept that. We, the new class of poor people, will be heard! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 18 / May 2, 1994 Editorial 1. NOC CELEBRATES ONE YEAR OF STRUGGLE News 2. ANNIVERSARY OF LA REBELLION: "A TIME OF REVOLUTIONARY UNITY" 3. WATTS FRIENDSHIP SPORTS LEAGUE SUPPORTS THE TRUCE Focus on Mayday: May Day's Spirit Lives in the 90's 4. A GLOBAL ERA DEMANDS WORLD UNITY OF LABOR 5. CATERPILLAR DEMO IN PEORIA MAY 7 6. TEAMSTERS STRIKE: HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY 7. "JOBS WITH JUSTICE" MEETS IN ATLANTA 8. LABOR NEEDS SOLIDARITY, NOT BOGUS "TEAM CONCEPT" Focus on Police Sweeps of Chicago Public Housing 9. CHA SWEEPS COVER UP CHA NEGLECT OF TENANTS 10. VINCE LANE MUST GO! 11. CLINTON SETS ASIDE CONSTITUTION FOR PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS 12. LEADERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST CHA SWEEPS Culture 13. DEATH PENALTY A WEAPON OF OPPRESSION, SAYS SOUTH AFRICAN POET Letters 14. LETTER TO PT: I CANNOT GO ON STRIKE, NOR CAN I UNIONIZE 15. LETTER TO PRESIDENT ARISTIDE Events 16. ANDREA GIBBS TOUR 17. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: NOC CELEBRATES ONE YEAR OF STRUGGLE One year ago, activists from around the country gathered in Chicago and united around a program of action and education. We came together for one reason: to politicize and organize the ongoing revolution against the system. Since that time, conditions in our society have worsened. Poverty continues to increase in the middle of abundance. The hurricanes and earthquakes, the winter cold and the Midwest floods now occurring for the second year in a row, have escalated the growth of impoverishment. Pink slips and layoffs continue to abound. The schools our children attend are becoming armed camps. The promised national health care struggle has been reduced to a soap opera. Welfare reform has blossomed into outright welfare-bashing. President Clinton's promotion of his so-called international jobs conference with representatives of the "Group of Seven" nations took a back seat to his campaign for the crime bill. In the wake of the expanding crisis, we are bombarded daily with lies about crime increasing and the supposed need for more prisons and the death penalty. Our society is marked by an antagonism between completely static social structures and a highly mobile revolution in the means of production (which now include the robot and the computer chip.) This antagonism is forcing more and more fighters into our ranks. New organizations with new leaders are rising up; old ones -- from the PTA to the NAACP -- are trying to change to fit the new situation. Everywhere, the new class of poor people is giving leadership to the impending battles. As each day passes, we open our arms to the new forces entering the battles. The National Organizing Committee is made up of revolutionary fighters from every battlefront. Our mission is to forge the revolutionary force necessary to destroy this capitalist system, a system of poverty and injustice. We are an organization that believes the poor and exploited people can be educated, organized and inspired to rise up in our millions. We want to create a new system based on justice and economic prosperity for everyone. Join us! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "WHY I JOINED THE NOC" Sonja Blutgarten, board president of the Women's Economic Agenda Project (WEAP), and member of her local WEAP chapter, the San Francisco Low-Income Support Network: "From experience, I see how this system is really pitted against poor women and children -- not only to keep us down, but to destroy us on the way down. I'm not going down and I'm not letting my kids go down. "The NOC is the only organization that not only represents our needs, but it's also made up of us. The program of the NOC is to make sure that all people have what we need to survive and to thrive -- to go beyond survival. We're the only organization that has a program and a plan on how to achieve that." Fran Cleaves, a member of UAW Local 659 in Flint, Michigan, also participates on a board of education committee on violence prevention in Flint: "The people who fought in 1776 knew they had to change the whole system. That's the way I see the NOC, as a revolutionary organization that has a clear goal to restructure society in a way to provide everybody with a decent life -- not just basic needs, but enable people to reach their potential and contribute to society." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 2. SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE LOS ANGELES REBELLION: "A TIME OF REVOLUTIONARY UNITY" By Fanya Baruti Chairman, L.A. NOC Youth Committee "The black and brown communities have been moving to bring peace within the culture and peace with other ethnic cultures." LOS ANGELES -- Florence and Normandie, April 29, 1992, marked an essential historical account of why we as a people must unite to form a revolutionary movement. As chairman of the Los Angeles NOC Youth Committee, I think our commitment is to strive to help bridge an ugly gap that has destroyed a mass of people, particularly Afrikan and Latino youth. Despite the continued conflict between brothers and sisters, black and brown, there still remains a force of soldiers fighting for cultural awareness to spread and a mass of revolutionaries across the country battling daily to educate our communities on who truly benefits from our demise. Educating our people on how to dismantle the oppressive tactics used to divide and conquer is how our mission can be described. A significant mission was born from the rebellion. Afrikan and Latino men and women, young and old, held a similar regard for each other. Why? Because their struggles were and still remain the same. The world witnessed rage!!! A rage that had no organizing, yet a rage legit. In the past two years, many individuals, organizations, corporate entities, private industry, and the federal government have created various interests toward the concept "empowerment." Some from each pocket have created injustice measures to give to the people. From the injustice corner, the war on crime made the criminalization of our youth become a reality that must be exposed. "Three strikes and you're out" sprung up from the '92 rebellion. It has given lawmakers/law enforcement fakers a better chance to brutalize and incarcerate a generation of our youth/babies. With much to work against, the black and brown communities across the nation have been moving to bring peace within the culture and peace with other ethnic cultures. The work is extensive; the work is tough. Not everyone will be reached. However, many seeds will be planted. The Youth Committee is in the process of holding neighborhood retreats. Each "set" will conduct a small retreat to talk about the problems of the communities where they live and make assessments as to what can be done to curb the problems. Once various "sets" have had the small retreats, we plan to come together, select participation and meet in the Dominican Republic. The concept is to educate the delegation on an unfamiliar turf, which will enable the participants to visualize what can be done at home, and how it can be done to maintain a truce by any means necessary, in addition to knowing who the real enemy is and how to fight that enemy. The National Council of Urban Peace and Justice has made progress in getting the attention of individuals and communities to help bring peace to the war zones. This is where the work on a grassroots level must begin. As a group coordinator of the Black Awareness Community Development Organization, we are working toward this beginning. A slogan to live by: "Apart we can't do it, but together we can." The people must unite -- all people! We will not have social, economic, and psychological victory until the struggle is waged in solidarity. ****************************************************************** 3. WATTS FRIENDSHIP SPORTS LEAGUE SUPPORTS THE TRUCE By Chris Venn LOS ANGELES -- On April 27, 1991, the first area where a community truce between gangs was established was in Watts, California. Today, this truce remains strong among three housing developments in Watts -- Imperial Courts, Jordan Downs and Nickerson Gardens. To prepare for the commemoration of the truce this April, the People's Tribune will run a series of articles on different community leaders, their views on the truce, what they're doing now and what the next step is. For this issue, the People's Tribune interviewed Shawn Brown and Daryl Carter, Jordan Downs Community Center coaches. People's Tribune: Could you tell us about the advancement of the truce through sports and the Watts Friendship Sports League? Answer: We are working to bring back Jordan High School. What you have to realize is that before the '80s, Jordan used to field the strongest basketball and football teams in the city. But then, during the '80s, cocaine and all the money from drugs started flooding into our community. This set the communities of Jordan Downs, Imperial Courts and Nickerson Gardens against each other because of killing and warfare over the control of drugs. Youth from Imperial Courts and Nickerson Gardens avoided coming to Jordan High because it was located right next to the Jordan Downs housing development. PT: What happened to the youth who didn't attend school? Answer: The youth that stayed in school (and a lot dropped out) would get bused to schools in the San Fernando Valley (a community 15 miles away from Watts) because they didn't want to attend Jordan High School. With the Watts Friendship Sports League, we are getting the young men to settle their differences through sports. If we can get the youth from the different housing developments back on the same teams, we'll have the strongest teams in the city again. PT: How is the Watts Friendship Sports League advancing the truce? Answer: With the Watts Friendship League, Imperial Courts, Jordan Downs and Nickerson Gardens compete against each other in different sports, particularly basketball, and the youth are competing on the basketball court instead of the streets. This is our role in supporting and strengthening the truce. ****************************************************************** 4. A GLOBAL ERA DEMANDS WORLD UNITY OF LABOR By Noel Beasley CHICAGO -- At the end of the 1800s, a worldwide movement of workers selected May First as an international holiday. May Day became an opportunity to demonstrate that the goals of the dispossessed cut across national, ethnic and religious barriers. Beginning in 1889, hundreds of thousands -- and later millions -- of workers controlled the streets on May Day and exhibited their strength through unity. Those of us in U.S. trade unions now have a renewed responsibility to mobilize. The fight for the eight-hour day has evolved into the fight for dignity and basic human rights in a global era. We can learn from our counterparts in other countries. Especially in South Africa, Brazil and Chiapas, the most developed political struggles of the 1990s are infused with support from and guided by leadership from independent trade unions. Here at home, busloads of unionists travel to the maquiladoras of Mexico to assist in organizing drives. Striking coal miners link up with locked-out factory workers and the unemployed to demand a political agenda that places the needs of the many ahead of the wealth of a few. Inside these and countless other actions, the spirit of May Day lives on. The clear vision of internationalism will continue to guide us at the threshold of a new century. Noel Beasley is the manager of the Midwest Region of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Order copies of BATTLE FOR A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT today! Only $1 per copy. Bulk orders of ten or more copies get a 40% discount. Contact the National Organizing Committee at P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647 or call 312-486-0028. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 5. DEMONSTRATE IN PEORIA MAY 7: LET'S CROSS BORDERS TO DEFEND THE CATERPILLAR WORKERS AND OURSELVES By General Baker On May 6 and 7, thousands of workers will converge on Peoria, Illinois to close ranks around the workers in the contract battle with the Caterpillar tractor company. The International Metal Workers Federation will convene a world conference of Caterpillar workers during the first week of May in Peoria. In a statement, UAW Secretary-Treasurer Bill Casstevens declared, "In the struggle to win a fair contract at Caterpillar, we need to reach across national borders." "CAT would like to force workers in different countries to compete with one another to see who will work for the lowest wage," continued Casstevens. "While the company is hard at work trying to divide people, we're going to unite workers from different countries to discuss common problems, plan common strategies and work towards common solutions." In the context of the battle against Caterpillar, it is important to note that Illinois has become a war zone. The workers at the A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company are also locked in a bitter struggle; they have been locked out since June 27, 1993. The Teamsters are in the midst of a national truckers strike as we head to Peoria. We rallied once before in Peoria, in the spring of 1992. At that time, the Caterpillar workers were on the picket lines. We read declarations of solidarity and raised over a million dollars in support pledges. We raised the stakes in the battle but so did the company. Caterpillar broke the back of the strike by using the weight of the unemployed and unorganized workers in Illinois and the Midwest. So, as we rally this May, let us knock on the doors of the homeless shelters. Let us ring the doorbells in the projects. Let us appeal to our youth in the streets. Let us send messages about Caterpillar to the gates of the prisons. Let us rally the women workers, those who find themselves on welfare, being pushed into the streets in the name of reform. Let us sound the bell loudly and clearly. As we cross national borders and invite workers from Australia, Belgium, France, Brazil and South Africa to Peoria, let us cross the borders in our own neighborhoods, cities and states to unite as a class and break our defensive posture. On to Peoria! ****************************************************************** 6. TEAMSTERS STRIKE: HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY By Anthony D. Prince CHICAGO -- As we go to press, over 70,000 Teamsters remain on strike against 22 major trucking companies nationwide. The walkout has met with outright defiance from the trucking industry over the issue of part-time truckers hired at "slave labor" wages. In a concentrated way, this strike poses the questions facing all of organized labor. At one time, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters registered over two million members; even the threat of a national strike crippled commerce. The employer class therefore secured a long, if temporary, peace with the union. In turn, Teamsters enjoyed some of the highest wages in industry and a privileged place in national politics. Now all that has changed. This strike cannot be considered apart from the impact advanced electronic technology has had on all industries, including the transportation industry. Millions of workers, once the bedrock of American capitalism, have become permanently unemployed. Most are barely surviving. Millions have been forced into the slave-wage existence of the temporary worker. Some of the most far-reaching, labor-replacing changes in production have been concentrated in the steel, auto, machine-tool and other industries. At one time, these industries -- and the millions of people they employed -- stabilized the capitalist system. That is no longer true. The workers in these industries now find themselves under attack. Consequently, the Teamsters find it necessary not just to defend their own interests, but also to raise the whole issue of the plight of the temporary workers and those on the bottom. The Teamsters strike represents a historic opportunity for all of labor -- employed and unemployed, temporary and permanent, union and non-union. The strike provides an opportunity to unify the struggle in a way that could not have occurred in the past. We dare not pass it up. [People's Tribune correspondent Anthony D. Prince was a chief shop steward in Teamsters Local 986 in the late 1970s.] ****************************************************************** 7. "JOBS WITH JUSTICE" MEETS IN ATLANTA By Eileen Hanson The national "Jobs with Justice" convention will grapple with serious issues when it meets in Atlanta April 29-May 1. Three million manufacturing jobs have been lost since 1980. Part-time and temporary jobs offer minimum wages and no benefits. Welfare lines grow. Homeless shelters can't house the growing numbers of displaced families. Born out of the battles against concessions in the 1980s, Jobs with Justice must confront the issue of permanent unemployment created by the electronic revolution. In the early 1900s, changes in agricultural production threw millions of farmers off the land and into the cities where manufacturing jobs attracted displaced workers. In the later stages of the Industrial Revolution, the Congress of Industrial Organizations was born. Workers fought to defend their class interests against the owners of mass production industries and their political allies. In the 1930s, the labor unions were in the forefront of the battle for a social contract with the capitalists that included Social Security for the aged, unemployment insurance, compensation for injured workers, and welfare and public housing for the poorest sectors of the working class. Organized labor not only supported, but led these battles. Today, a new economic revolution -- the electronic revolution -- continues to throw millions of workers out of the factories and into the streets. The old social contract of the industrial era is breaking up. The old organizations, including many unions, are fighting on a narrow front, trying to hang on to their own piece of a shrinking pie. While lip service is paid to "building coalitions," it is too often only to support a specific interest of unions or a labor- endorsed candidate. Too often, these struggles pit the still- employed against the unemployed, while corporations profit from these divisions. Today, organized labor must fight for the interests of the entire working class. Central to this fight is the struggle for jobs with a livable income. Labor must fight in defense of those permanently thrown out of the wage-labor system. This includes the battles of the homeless, the temporary workers, the welfare mothers, the injured workers. Jobs with Justice provides an excellent forum to launch this fight. We need new forms of organization to fight for our class interests, to fight for a new social contract, to fight to take control of this new technology and make it work for us! ****************************************************************** 8. LABOR ON THE LINE: LABOR NEEDS SOLIDARITY, NOT THE BOGUS "TEAM CONCEPT" By Bruce E. Parry, Ph.D. [Editor's note: With this May Day issue, the National Labor Union Committee of the NOC launches a monthly column called "Labor On the Line." We will discuss critical topics facing unions today and welcome comments and responses. If you have suggestions for topics or would like to contribute a column, contact the Labor Correspondent, c/o the People's Tribune.] "The Team Concept." "Quality Circles." "Quality of Work Life." "Labor-Management Participation Teams." These are all programs set up by management to make workers figure out how to get more work done in less time with fewer workers. The Team Concept has been sold to workers on the basis that it supposedly promotes competitiveness and cooperation. If the employed workers participate and make their plant the most competitive, management says, they will save their jobs. The days of management-labor conflict are over, management claims; we're all on the same team now. Look at what has happened during the time that management has been pushing the Team Concept. Companies have downsized, replacing workers with robots, computers and other new, high technology based in electronics. Hundreds of thousands have been laid off in the very industries where the Team Concept has been pushed the most. Employment in the auto industry is half what it was in 1980, while more cars are being produced now than ever before. American Telephone & Telegraph Co. alone has laid off 120,000 workers over the last 10 years. Millions have been thrown out of work. Millions more have had their jobs gutted -- reduced from full-time to part-time, from permanent to temporary. With tens of millions of people unemployed and under-employed, companies have ruthlessly slashed the wages of those still working. The Team Concept is just one tool companies use to carry that wage-slashing out. Workers are made to participate in getting the maximum amount of work out of themselves and even in laying off other workers. Management gets workers to exploit themselves. But the workers do not own the company. The profits go into the pockets of the owners. There's no cooperation on that point. Competitiveness does not depend solely (or even mainly) on workers. It depends on how efficient a plant is. Efficiency depends on having the latest equipment and the best organization of production. Only then does the intensity of work play a part. The Team Concept is part of ensuring a high intensity of work. Plants close and companies downsize if what they produce is not being sold. Today, the market is shrinking because of all the lay- offs, because it is profitable to replace workers with robots and computers. The problem is computers cannot buy what is produced. The Team Concept does not prevent lay-offs and plant closings. It is a management tool to place the blame on workers and get them to work more for less pay. Instead of backing the Team Concept, workers' interests lie in unity, as expressed in the age-old slogan, "An injury to one is an injury to all." ****************************************************************** 9. CHA TENANT LEADER ETHEL WASHINGTON: CHA SWEEPS COVER UP CHA NEGLECT OF TENANTS By Rich Capalbo CHICAGO -- Ethel Washington is the local advisory council president in one of the high-rise units in the Chicago Housing Authority's Robert Taylor Homes. She is one of four people who joined a lawsuit against the unconstitutional "sweeps" -- warrantless searches -- that CHA Chairman Vince Lane has carried out against the residents for several years. Ms. Washington is a long-time resident and leader in the fight for tenants' rights in the CHA. She served as a resident manager from 1976 until 1981, when the Reagan cuts undermined tenant management. Many tenant managers were hired by the CHA at that time, but Ethel Washington was not. The CHA no longer wanted managers who looked out for the tenants' interests. We talked to Ms. Washington the day after Henry Cisneros, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, spent a night in Robert Taylor Homes, scene of some recent gang shootings. The Cisneros "show" was staged to make a point. Since a federal judge had just ruled the sweeps illegal and unconstitutional, President Clinton vowed to do everything in his power to continue to violate the tenants' rights. That was the message Cisneros came to deliver. Ms. Washington asked, "Do you know that Cisneros spent the night right here and didn't even want to talk to me about any of the problems in CHA, let alone the sweeps? They met only with the residents that agreed with them, the ones hand-picked by Vince Lane." Further, Ms. Washington told us that the sweeps are a two-faced cover-up of the neglect of public housing. The CHA has the right to do yearly inspections in order to check the general condition of the apartments, to see what needs repairing and to check out the appliances. They don't have the budget to do that anymore, but they can find all kinds of money to stage paramilitary assaults on the residents. "During the sweeps," she said, "they lock you in, they give no notice. They are violating their own policy and breaking the law," she said. "Vince Lane says he will continue to break the law -- that he is above the law." Ms. Washington continued, "If you or I tried to pull something like that, we'd be behind bars for contempt of court." Ms. Washington believes that Cisneros probably didn't want to discuss these issues, which explains why she wasn't invited to meet him. In fact, she says that Cisneros was here not only to front for Clinton, but to save Vince Lane's job. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ GIVE UP YOUR RIGHTS OR LIVE ON THE STREET? NO! By Allen Harris CHICAGO -- Unannounced warrantless sweeps of CHA apartments have been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. But the judge left open another door: ask the tenants for their consent to be raided. That's just the idea President Clinton and CHA Chairman Vince Lane have seized. Lane even wants such consent to be a condition for getting public housing. "If you don't like it, you don't live here," Lane was quoted as saying in the Chicago Tribune on April 15. For poor people, this is the bottom line, as described in the same article by Loyola University Law School professor James Carey: "You're going to live on the street unless you agree to give up your right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures." What the CHA and the Clinton administration are trying to do with these "sweeps" is a direct threat not only to the rights of Chicago's public housing residents, but to the rights of all the 75 million Americans in poverty. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 10. VINCE LANE MUST GO! By the People's Campaign for Housing, Jobs and Food CHICAGO -- Vince Lane has been the director of the Chicago Housing Authority for years. In that time, public housing has deteriorated to the point where it must be considered a failure by all. Besides the national funding cuts of the 1980s, the disastrous economy of recent years, and the general neglect of the country's urban centers, we must hold accountable those who have accepted positions of public trust. Vince Lane has violated the public trust, as is reflected in the following call from a growing number of CHA residents. Dear Mr. Lane: There are many things that are totally wrong in CHA developments due to the fact that its management is far out of touch with the residents. To those of us who are poor and live in CHA, it is clear that you are more concerned with your high profile projects, rich developers and pet schemes than with our well-being and living conditions. You have robbed us residents of many resources and human rights. Those resources that could go towards improving our apartments: paint, plaster, doors, appliances and even our recreation areas, go lacking. Meanwhile, the budget pays for high-priced management, CHA "security," and a staff that, in many cases, degrades and insults the residents. Good managers who care about the tenants are forced out, as in the case of Victor Hernandez at Lathrop Homes. We have become victims of CHA, not tenants. You move us against our will. Your management has left our children without a decent home and you have disrespected our seniors. You have created a security force that is like your own private police. They have abused the rights of residents with illegal searches and other humiliating actions. The courts have had to step in to set you straight. Some of your "security" are involved in the illegal activities that they are supposed to prevent. How can one man have this much control over so many and yet refuse to listen to the residents? We realize that we are low-income families, but we are human people with vision and dreams of how to better conditions. Most residents of CHA are praying people, for we have to pray to really keep things from getting any worse. We do not mind being poor. (Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.) But being poor doesn't mean we are willing to submit to abuses in any form or from any person, no matter what their high position is. Therefore, we are asking all CHA residents who are dissatisfied with the conditions in CHA and the lack of basic human consideration from CHA management to join us in the following demands: 1. Vince Lane and his entire staff get out of the Chicago Housing Authority. 2. CHA residents must be on the board of CHA. 3. CHA management must live in CHA. 4. CHA jobs to CHA residents. 5. Real security for residents, not for property. 6. HUD must suspend funding to force the correction of the injustices and abuses in CHA. 7. More access for the homeless. Please call us if you wish to join this fight for the residents of CHA. We want to hear your demands as well as stories of life in CHA. Call the People's Campaign for Housing, Jobs and Food at 312- 929-2977. ****************************************************************** 11. PRESIDENT CLINTON WANTS TO SET ASIDE CONSTITUTION FOR PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS By the Chicago-Northwest Indiana Area Council Of The NOC CHICAGO-- The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) has for years used the excuse of gang violence and the war on drugs to send gangs of cops and CHA security guards into the projects. While looking for drugs, guns and criminals, they have disregarded the constitutional rights of all residents, the majority of whom are guilty only of being poor. They enter all apartments without warrants and without cause. The sweeps, coupled with the neglect by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the local housing authorities, have reconfirmed for the residents what they have known for decades. They are considered second-class citizens because they are poor and should expect to be treated no better than criminals. In fact, public housing has become just another kind of prison. On April 7, a federal judge in Chicago ruled that warrantless searches during the "security sweeps" are unconstitutional, an invasion of privacy and must be stopped. Almost immediately, President Clinton called upon Attorney General Janet Reno and HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros to find a way to continue to disregard the rights of citizens in public housing and resume the policy of sweeps. The local news in Chicago makes a point of interviewing only those residents who support the sweeps. When Cisneros came to Chicago recently to help Clinton find a way around the Constitution, he tried to meet only with residents that support the sweeps. The leaders against the sweeps maintain that if the residents had half the resources to use for their children -- resources that HUD, CHA and the police are willing to spend on invading the projects -- they could make CHA much safer. ****************************************************************** 12. LEADERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST CHA SWEEPS Pat Zamora, youth program coordinator, Casa Aztlan, Chicago: "In the Pilsen district of Chicago last year, 427 people were arrested during 'sweeps' at Fiesta del Sol. People were unjustly beaten and abused. Children were lined up like cattle with numbers drawn on them. This was done under the name of protecting the community against gang-banging during the festival. The community rallied against this injustice. "Pilsen, Robert Taylor Homes -- the neighborhoods are different but the injustice is the same. If they can get away with it in one community, then they try it in the next. We must do everything to unite -- common problems caused by a common enemy." Bob Brown, vice president of the United Electrical Workers Union and president of UE District 1 in Philadelphia: "Warrantless searches and other new control measures conducted by the police at public housing projects are a first-blow attack in violation of our constitutional rights and freedoms. Increasingly, our working class is having its living standards reduced, at best, and, at worse, finding itself impoverished by permanent unemployment. Those that our government cannot provide the basic necessities for it must attack. "The first attack is against the most vulnerable and unorganized section of the working class in order to attack our entire class. The labor union movement must organize and rally its members against these illegal attacks and violations of our Constitution or the labor unions will be next." Faith Evans, welfare rights director of the National Organization for Women, Washington, D.C.: "For years, the police have always been a hostile occupation force in black communities and the leaders of all of the progressive forces in this nation used to be very strong on the question of rights, be they rights about blacks being harassed by the police in their own community or poor people ... and their demand to be treated with the same dignity as any other citizen under the Constitution. But somehow, the civil rights community and the leaders in the struggle for 'rights' seem to now believe that if you happen to be poor, you just aren't entitled to the same rights as everybody else. "I personally believe that the decision [to sweep the housing projects] is part of an effort to terrorize poor women, along with other efforts to force them out of public housing, off the welfare system, control their reproductive decisions, and make them the scapegoats for the crime in our streets and the growing economic problems of poverty and unemployment in this nation." ****************************************************************** 13. DEATH PENALTY A WEAPON OF OPPRESSION, SAYS SOUTH AFRICAN POET By R. Lee CHICAGO -- When Dennis Brutus talks about political oppression, he knows what he's talking about. The well-known South African poet and human rights activist was imprisoned for years in South Africa for opposing apartheid, was shot while trying to escape, and has lived in exile from his homeland for nearly 30 years. Brutus, now a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, spoke in late March here at The Hothouse at a benefit for the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Professor Brutus noted that, although there are 257 people on Death Row in South Africa, the death penalty in South Africa has been suspended for some time. "In that regard, South Africa is ahead of the U.S.," he said. It's possible the sentences of those now on Death Row may be commuted, he added. Many of those sentenced to death in South Africa were condemned to die for political reasons, said Brutus. "I used to go out at night [in South Africa] and spray-paint slogans on the monuments to apartheid. At that time, you could be executed for painting slogans," he recalled. And in the United States, said Brutus, "We're in big trouble." He noted that Congress is considering legislation that would allow young teenagers to be executed, and that the fastest-growing industry in Pennsylvania is prison building. "We have people who are without a future, without training, people who are desperate," he said. "The solution is not jailing and killing more people; we have to talk about jobs and homes." When the South African government was executing people, they were hanged in Pretoria, said Brutus, all on the same gallows and with the same noose. Over the years, he said, "The wood [of the gallows] has become encrusted with vomit, blood and urine; it's a monstrous image of what the death penalty is all about." Seth Donnelly, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, told the audience that there are 158 people on Death Row in Illinois, 63 percent of them black. While there has been only one execution in the state since 1977, said Donnelly, the scheduled May 10 execution of John Wayne Gacy will "set the stage for more executions, since most people won't support him." Gacy was convicted of mass murder. The Coalition plans a day of protest against the death penalty May 7, beginning in front of Cook County Jail. Donnelly also said the crime bill now before Congress represents "the largest expansion of the death penalty in U.S. history." ****************************************************************** 14. LETTER: I CANNOT GO ON STRIKE, NOR CAN I UNIONIZE Dear People's Tribune: I cannot go on strike, nor can I unionize. I am not covered by worker's compensation or the Fair Labor Standards Act. I agree to work late-night and weekend shifts. I do just what I am told, no matter what it is. I am hired and fired at will and am not even paid minimum wage; I earn one dollar a month. I cannot even voice grievances or complaints, except at the risk of incurring arbitrary discipline or some covert retaliation. You do not have to and need not worry about NAFTA and your jobs going to Mexico and other Third World countries. I will have at least five percent of your jobs by the end of this decade. I am called prison labor. In the struggle, Michael Lamar Powell, prisoner ****************************************************************** 15. LETTER TO PRESIDENT ARISTIDE: Dear President Aristide, Congratulations for receiving the Paul Robeson Award, in recognition of your struggle for human rights in Haiti, and for the dignity of the Haitian people. Long live Haiti! Franck Laraque, former professor at the City College of New York Paul Laraque, former secretary-general of the Association of Haitian Writers Abroad Congratulations to President Aristide, who has continued to represent the poor people of the world in their struggle for liberty from economic, social and political oppression. Jack Hirschman ****************************************************************** 16. EVENTS: ANDREA GIBBS TOUR A whistleblower and former sheriff's deputy, fired for exposing police beatings in Mississippi jails, Andrea Gibbs continues the fight for justice. "I've seen kids of all nationalities beaten: black, white, from all over the world. ... It's a class thing. ... It's the poor who bear the brunt of police terror." (Andrea Gibbs, founder of Victim's Voice) Andrea Gibbs will appear at the following locations during her tour: Wednesday, May 4 -- 6 p.m. reception, program starts at 7 p.m. San Francisco chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. Contact Kass McMahon at 415-285-5067. Friday, May 6 -- 7-9 p.m. UC campus groups. Boalt Hall, Room 150. Contact Dennis Mobley or Sam Davis at Copwatch, 510-548-0425. Saturday, May 7 -- 10 a.m. Oakland NOC Criminal Injustice Committee, Mothers ROC. Contact Betty McCullough at 510-562-4967. Saturday, May 7 -- 1 p.m. First Unitarian Church, 160 N. 3rd St., San Jose. Contact Peggy Elwell at 408-294-4892. Sunday, May 8 -- 4-6 p.m. San Francisco National Organizing Committee, 509 Cultural Center, Luggage Store Annex, 1007 Market St. near 6th. Contact Sarah Menefee at 415-885-6344. These events are sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild, the People's Tribune Justice Tour, Copwatch and the National Organizing Committee and others. ****************************************************************** 17. 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: National Organizing Committee, P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, IL 60647 (312) 486-0028 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 Respond via e-mail to jdav@igc.org Reach us by phone: Chicago: (312) 486-3551 Atlanta: (404) 242-2380 Baltimore: (410) 467-4769 Detroit: (313) 839-7600 Los Angeles: (310) 428-2618 Washington, D.C.: (202) 529-6250 Oakland, CA: (510) 464-4554 GETTING THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE IN PRINT The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE is available at many locations nationwide. One year subscriptions $25 ($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. ******************************************************************