Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 19:27:01 -0700 From: James I Davis To: jdav@netcom.com Subject: People's Tribune (Online Edition) 5-9-94 ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 19 / May 9, 1994 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ STOP CRIMINALIZING OUR CHILDREN! KEEP OUR FAMILIES INTACT! By Renee Pecot, a concerned mother of six OAKLAND, California -- On May 5, I will be in court with my 15- year-old son as he fights for his freedom. He has been on probation for the last six months on a felony charge of fighting. It's outrageous to find that this system gives our children felonies for just having fights. We seem to have become very comfortable with the criminalization of our children. The only solution this system is giving our youth is jail time and criminal records. It is estimated that by 2000, some 90 percent of all African-American youth in Oakland will either have a criminal record, be on probation or be in jail. It probably would be safe to say that these statistics will apply to poor youth -- black, white, Asian and Native American -- in almost every city in the United States. When will we start defining our own struggle around the future of our children, our families and our communities? It's time to demand that this system stop calling poor youth names like gang members, dope dealers, dope peddlers and thugs. They are children of poverty, trying to survive in a system that says they're "not the future" and have no right to exist on this Earth -- except in jail or dead. Our children deserve to be nurtured, not criminalized. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 19 / May 9, 1994 To see the article, type a period (dot) followed by the number. Editorial 1. CRIME BILL IS THE RULERS' ONLY ANSWER TO THE CRISIS News 2. HERE IN LOS ANGELES: 'YES' TO UNIONS 3. PARENTS OF 19 CHILDREN CONVICTED BY HYPOCRITICAL JUDGE 4. NATL WELFARE RIGHTS UNION: NATIONAL GUARANTEED INCOME FOR ALL! 5. 1994 CONGRESS ON URBAN MINISTRY: DARING TO REBUILD OUR CITIES 6. INDIGENOUS VOICES: LAKOTA HOMES PRESSURE TENANTS 7. GARY GRAHAM'S STAY OF EXECUTION LIFTED 8. RUCHELL MAGEE: COURT SYSTEM FIXED TO PROTECT RICH Culture 9. THE TRAGEDY OF RALPH ELLISON (1914 - 1994) 10. POEM: UP FROM SLAVERY 11. CHICAGO DAY OF CULTURE AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY (5/7/94) 12. AUTHOR TO SPEAK ON EAST COAST 13. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: CRIME BILL IS THE RULERS' ONLY ANSWER TO THE CRISIS The federal crime bill continues to wend its way through Congress, a bill that makes it easier than ever for the government to trample on your human rights, arrest you, convict you and execute you. Why is such a repressive crime bill being pushed so hard at this time? The answer starts with jobs. They are disappearing as human workers are being permanently replaced by electronics. First the unskilled and semi-skilled workers were replaced and pushed into poverty and homelessness. Now formerly high-paid skilled workers also are being replaced, laid off and pushed down. This is spreading further and faster all the time. A recent estimate said that in 1994 alone, 17 million workers will be laid off! The bottom is dropping out of the lives of millions of now- unneeded workers and their families. Those who had the good life, and those who sought it, are seeing it give way to home foreclosures, family breakups, crisis and confusion. Whole families become homeless and seek shelter, but the shelters turn away families with older boys, forcing families to make the most painful choices. Stick together and live in the streets, or send away the boys so the others have a chance for shelter. In fact, more and more, it is among the youth where this crisis comes into sharpest focus. It is for their adulthood that the ruling class is hurrying to prepare by furiously building prisons and concentration camps ("boot camps") and enacting the federal crime bill and "three strikes" laws in the states. In exchange for selling our ability to work to the capitalist, we received a wage. With that wage, we bought back from the capitalist the very things we made with our labor. The capitalist ruled and we were obliged to live accordingly. Social stability depended on there being enough jobs which paid well enough to keep the workers' families securely supported. But now that stability is being overtaken by a crisis of the capitalist system. It's a crisis that the capitalists can't really solve in favor of the 75 million Americans living in poverty. Instead, they address the result they fear the most: the rise of revolutionary leaders of all colors and nationalities who are committed to transferring power from the rulers to the ruled. For them, this crime bill. Such legislation shows how desperately the capitalists are seeking to keep power. It shows just as clearly how much the revolutionaries must unite, develop a strategy for winning power and using the new technology not to replace labor, but to end poverty forever. ****************************************************************** 2. HERE IN LOS ANGELES: 'YES' TO UNIONS BY RAEGAN KELLY LOS ANGELES -- On March 23, one of the most progressive unions in Los Angeles stuck yet another wrench into the gears of the tourist industry here. With human billboards downtown; pamphleting at the airport; delegations of workers at the Convention Center, City Hall, and World Cup headquarters; and a march through Little Tokyo, Local 11 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) staged a dramatic citywide organizing campaign. This campaign is designed to signal L.A.'s union-bashing tourist industry that its service workers aren't going to take it anymore. As Mike Davis put it recently in the Los Angeles Times, while L.A.'s non-union luxury hotels comprise the bulk of an $8 billion tourist industry, its 50,000 hotel employees earn wages low enough to qualify for food stamps -- but not for long. In an interview last year, Maria Elena Durazo, president of Local 11, spoke of creating citywide coalitions through example, combatting speechifying with action. Over two dozen union locals and community organizations were represented at the March events. They included Justice for Janitors, the Carpenters, the Homecare Workers and the Machinists, as well as AGENDA, UCLA Asian American Students, the Central American Student Association, the Jewish Labor Committee and the California Immigrant Workers Association, to name just a few. I was at the downtown Figueroa Street demonstration where high school kids in dreadlocks and Mexican-American restaurant workers formed a chain of human billboards, chanted "No Justice ..." and distributed pamphlets to the white-collar workers lining up to hit the freeways for home. Hotel "security" workers were sent out to patrol the walkways while suits hurried by and bellhops, maids and desk workers peeped out at the demonstration when they dared. As an on-looking homeless man said to me, "This is good. It's really important for people to get together and say what's on their minds." Since March 23, one hotel has raised its workers' wages 30 cents an hour. Another dropped its health coverage plan from $300 per month to $30. (It makes you wonder what the hold-up was!) But, as the event's media organizer, David Koff, says, the struggle is as much about respect and job protection as it is about finances, and only the union can ensure that. As always, there have been reprisals. A chef at the Intercontinental Hotel was fired on a flimsy pretext. A union activist at an airport hotel was harassed into quitting. But these tactics are old and Local 11 is about renewal -- the renewal of solidarity, creativity and strength in the union movement and the working community as a whole. ****************************************************************** 3. PARENTS OF 19 CHILDREN CONVICTED BY HYPOCRITICAL JUDGE By Allen Harris CHICAGO -- "6 Keystone Parents Guilty," read the front-page headline of a local newspaper. "Poverty No Excuse for Filth, Says Judge," read the headline beneath it. Circuit Judge James B. Linn has brought down his golden gavel on the six parents in the Melton family household, from which the Meltons' 19 children were stolen by the authorities. Linn ruled on April 21 that the six parents were guilty of child neglect and endangerment. Thus he follows in lock step the police who unjustly raided their home at 219 N. Keystone Avenue on the city's impoverished West Side. He follows those in the establishment media who hypocritically scandalized that family. His Honor claimed that poverty is no excuse for raising children in a "filthy" home. But his authority doesn't hide the shame of his actions, nor of the class of millionaires and billionaires he works for. "Over $5,000 a month was available to take care of these children," intoned the judge. The exact amount was $5,496 a month. Let's divide that by 25, representing the 19 children and six parents who lived on that public aid money. The answer: $219.84 per person per month. That's $7.33 a day per person. That's 30.5 cents per hour per person. How much money do the children of judges live on? Certainly more than $7.33 a day. While Judge Linn further crushes the Meltons, who's going after Gerald J. Ford of Dallas? Ford owns First Gibraltar Bank, an institution formed in 1988 from several failed Texas S&Ls. He also got welfare from the government: a handout of $5.1 billion and a $900 million tax break. That's welfare for the rich. His home won't be raided and turned into a media circus. No judge will send him to jail saying that obscene wealth is no excuse for screwing the people. Although that's just what should happen. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Dear People's Tribune and readers: In Chicago this year there have been more and more cases of Black families paraded in the media as people who neglect and mistreat their children. Black families have a history to substantiate, that against all odds, through hundreds of years of slavery, second-class citizenship and oppression, they have fought to maintain their families. The Black mother has always loved her babies, even those fathered by her oppressor. She carried her baby on her back while she worked from sunup until sundown. She nursed and cared for children who weren't hers. She brought scraps of food from the tables of families she cooked for. She struggled to keep her family together in spite of hard times by washing, ironing and cleaning while sometimes living on dirt floors. These days, business, the media and politicians stand ready to make the victims of the system carry the burden of the economy they have destroyed. They want us to blame the Black family. You can never convince us that this country values family life. The politicians complain about the cost of welfare a mother receives (approximately $45) for an additional child. Foster parents, even those fully employed, receive $315 per child. Families are going hungry while prison construction has become a growth industry in many states. They eagerly take children away from parents for not working in jobs that do not exist. Before you condemn the Black mother, check her history. It will overwhelmingly prove whether or not she neglects her children. Before you cast stones, check out her circumstances and environment. Mothers ROC is truly interested in saving families and children. We know that they will only be saved by changing this brutal system. We are asking for all people ready to unite and stand up against the unjust and inhuman way that poor people are being robbed of their dignity, who are forced to watch as their children are put in dehumanizing situations. We are willing to speak out at any church, university, or community in support of reclaiming our children. Mary L. Johnson, Mothers Reclaiming Our Children, Chicago Contact us through the People's Tribune. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 4. NATL WELFARE RIGHTS UNION: NATIONAL GUARANTEED INCOME FOR ALL! [The following is an edited version of a joint statement by Marian Kramer, president of the National Welfare Rights Union, Leona Smith, president of the National Union of the Homeless, and Barbara Koller and Michele Tingling-Clemmons, co-presidents of the National Anti-Hunger Coalition.] April 15 -- On this day, the National Welfare Rights Union in unity with the National Union of the Homeless, National Anti- Hunger Coalition, with the support of the National Organization for Women held press conferences in 11 states and four cities in Canada announcing our new "GI" Bill, that is a "Guaranteed Annual Income" at the poverty level, with a cost of living increase. We have begun to organize our campaign on the local, state, regional, national and international level. There may be over 38 million people who are unemployed in the United States. U.S. businesses slash 2,000 more jobs each day. More than 38 million people are without medical coverage. We have family members in all occupations who have not yet recovered from the massive layoffs of the 1980s. The inhumane proposal coming from all corners of Capitol Hill demanding "two years and off" for welfare recipients is clearly not a solution. It's a death sentence for thousands of our people. We are living in a society where increasing numbers of people will never work because of the technological advances that serve to replace workers. We know that homes can be produced on the assembly line in matters of minutes, yet homelessness continues to increase. We have the ability in just one state alone (California) to produce enough food for the entire world. Still, millions of kids are hungry in America. Yet, we see people at the helm, in Washington, D.C. and in state governments, coming out with proposals to limit AFDC to two years; to put a cap on family size; to send pregnant teen-agers home to poverty or force them into marriage. They want people to be fingerprinted when they admit their poverty and the need for help by applying for public assistance. They want bounty hunters hired to find the fathers of children to make them pay. Some even propose that the vast majority of children living in poverty should be put in orphanages because they say the parents are incapable of raising their children or irresponsible for even having them. These barely veiled allegations of immorality are coming from the same people who used taxpayer dollars to bail out the S&Ls and General Motors. They give more tax breaks and loopholes to the rich and fight for a "crime bill" that will cost us over $22 billion. Yet, they refuse to invest in our future -- our children -- preferring instead to condemn us to death for our misfortune. True welfare reform means that everyone must be up and out of poverty now! We stand firm on the fact that the present welfare system cannot be reformed -- it needs to be abolished and replaced with the following: > Guaranteed annual income for all, based at the poverty level with an annual cost of living increase; > Universal health care, administered by the federal government; > Guaranteed housing as a constitutional right; > Free, quality, public education from birth to death. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Message to those who came out for Welfare Rights events on April 15 By Marian Kramer President, National Welfare Rights Union "There will be no future of coming up and out of poverty unless leaders such as yourselves begin to take your rightful place and come to the table with other leaders to develop strategy and tactics. This is the only way to ensure that the movement stays on course to eliminate poverty. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------+ MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL -- On April 15, 600 people protested at the Minnesota Capitol. Speeches and chants rang through the air, both inside and outside the Capitol for the entire day. "We are here today to call for an end to the attacks on welfare recipients and low-income people! We say no to the punitive welfare reform ideas being pushed through both in Washington, D.C. and here in Minnesota," said Laura Russell of the Welfare Rights Committee of Minneapolis/St. Paul. A tent city was erected in front of the main doors. As the protest was carried far into the night, police arrested six women of the Welfare Rights Committee. They were charged with trespassing and released to a crowd of supporters waiting at the jail. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------+ [PHOTO CAPTION] CHICAGO -- Left to right: Leslie Willis, Millie Ankrum, Mary Johnson, Brenda Matthews and Mary Nelson at a press conference held on Chicago's West Side April 15 in unity with the nation's welfare rights activities on that day. The conference was used as an opportunity to launch efforts to build a Chicago chapter of the Welfare Rights Union. The new chapter will build a campaign around the demand for a national guaranteed income for all. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PHILADELPHIA -- The Kensington Welfare Rights Union marched on April 15 in solidarity with welfare rights activists from 11 states, from San Francisco to Baton Rouge to Boston, and four cities in Canada. The marchers went from the North District Welfare Office to the Federal Building. At the same time, the National Welfare Rights Union and the National Organization for Women held a press conference and speak-out, carried live on ABC Radio, in Washington, D.C. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 5. 1994 CONGRESS ON URBAN MINISTRY: DARING TO REBUILD OUR CITIES By Leslie Willis Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end -- it will not lie. Habakkuk 2:2-3, _The Old Testament_ (RSV) CHICAGO -- "We come together at this Congress as servant leaders committed to pursuing justice for all of God's children, and together we seek the welfare of the city." (From a statement by co-chairs Yvonne Delk and Jim Wallis of the 1994 Congress on Urban Ministry). As a refreshing evening rain fell on the city of Chicago April 11, more than 800 people from across the country swarmed into the Palace Theater of the Bismarck Hotel. This opening worship service brought the theme of the Congress -- "Prophetic Voices of the People of God in the City -- The Birth of New Visions" -- alive! Yvonne Delk, executive director of the Community Renewal Society in Chicago truly raised up dry bones as she inspired the congregation to raise the spirit that calls forth action. She was followed by a reflective, thought-provoking sermon from Jim Wallis, founder and pastor of the Sojourners community and editor of Sojourners magazine. The evening was made whole by the electrifying voices of young men and women in the Grace and Glory Choir of Jesus People USA Covenant Church. Both sermons described the pitiful conditions of our cities. "The worst since slavery!" said Wallis. He spoke of "local economies gutted of jobs" and an "economic system that doesn't give a damn about our young." He sharply defined a "criminal justice system that has almost nothing to do with justice." Wallis spoke of rebuilding our cities: "Who will be doing the rebuilding? The young people must be at the heart of the building or the house will not stand. But some would rather not rebuild, they'd rather build more prisons." In an interview after the service, Yvonne Delk told the People's Tribune: "We have young people out there living with no meaning, no hope and no love. Where are the bearers of love? We've got to unleash the power in a positive way that says we're not going to give up on our young people. We [the church] have been so busy reacting and reeling from the realities that we haven't been stepping out in a concrete kind of way. We need to be out there to offer not only vision, but hope." Delk and Wallis want to see the resources of the church unshackled from racism and directed into economic development of communities. In Wallis' sermon he urged the church to bring light out of darkness. He said that it is at times like this, when all seems lost, that change is really possible. "When false hopes are destroyed, are dismantled, then authentic hope has a chance." An important message of the evening was summed up when Wallis said, "Spiritual transformation and justice must come together." [The Congress on Urban Ministry was sponsored by the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE). To contact them, call 312-726-1200. For more information on Sojourners magazine, call 1-800-714-7474.] ****************************************************************** 6. INDIGENOUS VOICES / VOCES INDIGINAS +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDIGENOUS VOICES / VOCES INDIGINAS Visions of America's Native People A national organizing committee in defense of human, land and spiritual rights of the indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere. In unity with all struggles for survival of the poor people, we ask for your effort to make the difference in the war against poverty and oppressive systems of governing. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ LAKOTA HOMES PRESSURE TENANTS By Rudy Corral, Indigenous Voice RAPID CITY, South Dakota -- They came, police car after police car, to evict elderly residents out of a community shelter. Instead of observing compassionate understanding to the needy, they brought unjustified terror to the lives of these Lakota Oyate people. Anger gleamed in the eyes of youths as they struggled in defense of elders for shelter away from the predator, violence and terror. Families huddled in cars through midwinter each year; the coming spring offering the only hope to the thousands of families in urban and rural reservation, where housing and health care are desperately needed. Racist bureaucracy denies the basis of survival, insuring homelessness in a wicked and decaying society. Land bought that wasn't for sale. Forced to give it up, then they feed you crumbs. A land that wasn't for sale in the first place, told, "Here, a little start; the rest is on the way." Hundreds of years later and it hasn't shown up yet. You owe us and you know it and still the land is not for sale!!! ****************************************************************** 7. GARY GRAHAM'S STAY OF EXECUTION LIFTED HOUSTON -- Gary Graham's stay of execution, imposed last summer, has been lifted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the People's Tribune has learned. The Gary Graham Justice Coalition and the Gary Graham Defense Committee expect prosecutors to seek a new execution date in the next two to three weeks. The coalition urges all of Graham's supporters to lose no time in protesting this move in the most visible and significant places. In other action that could positively affect not just Gary Graham, but all other Texas Death Row prisoners, the same court has virtually reversed their outrageous June 1993 ruling that gave defendants sentenced to death only 30 days to present new exculpatory evidence. The court now says defendants can make direct state habeas corpus petitions on post-trial evidence. Contact the Gary Graham Justice Coalition at: P.O. Box 66806 Houston, Texas 77266 713-635-8870 Fax 713-633-3038 Contact the Gary Graham Defense Committee at: P.O. Box 6668 Moraga, California 94570 510-376-7221 Fax 510-376-7560 ****************************************************************** 8. RUCHELL MAGEE: COURT SYSTEM FIXED TO PROTECT RICH +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ By Ruchell Magee [Editor's note: Below we print excerpts from a statement from Ruchell C. Magee, currently imprisoned at Pelican Bay State Prison in California. Magee is a veteran revolutionary who has been imprisoned for decades. In August 1970, Magee was in the courtroom when 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson, James McClain and others took a judge prisoner in San Rafael, California in a desperate attempt to free George Jackson. Magee was also confined in the infamous Adjustment Center at San Quentin State Prison on August 21, 1971, the day George Jackson was murdered in that prison. The statement below was dated January 27, 1994. Judge D. Lowell Jensen, who Magee refers to in the letter, is a U.S. District Court judge in Northern California. Jensen, a notorious conservative, was once the district attorney in Alameda County and a leading Justice Department official during the Reagan administration.] Attention: President Bill Clinton and c/o Judge D. Lowell Jensen: Your crime bill speech offered no remedy to the problem of "judicial corruption." Billions of tax dollars were wasted [from] 1964-1994 to set up "organized crime" in the government. How does your "crime bill" solve that problem when not addressing it? The real solution is to admit the truth that the court system is fixed to protect the rich. People with money can rape, murder, kidnap, rob and get away with it by assigning their own judges to protect them. Who is "D. Lowell Jensen?" The jury acquittal [reflects]: "That in the course of the jury's deliberations (which commenced on March 26, 1973 and which were terminated on April 3, 1973) all "twelve jurors ... agreed that the defendant was not guilty of the charge of violating P.C. 209 (kidnapping for purposes of extortion.)" [Y]ou were asked by this writer to note the "gag rule" (delaying tactics) by Judge Jensen, Eugene Lynch, Charles Legge, and others. You failed to assign [a] special commission to investigate into corrupted judges concealing [the] jury acquittal based on bribery. Some judges got appointed for their role in railroading me as a gift to those whites who see Ruchell Magee as a black symbol rebelling against the system. Judges who suppress evidence see the acquittal as embarrassing to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, who spent more than $50 million to keep me in prison on their November 1970 pre-judged guilt, which placed their "gag rule" on the jury's acquittal. By ignoring the evidence of innocence, your judges for "law and order" labelled me "three strikes and you're out" in 1963, in "close court" (at the beginning of the frame-up within a frame-up.) Your "crime bill" before Congress does not offer any solution to the problem of corrupted judges conspiring with [such] creeps as Bush and Reagan to [the] injury of millions of law-abiding citizens. Whites blame black people for everything Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George Bush have stolen from them. Why, your crime bill failed to tell the public it has a remedy to corruption in the court system which is [to] demand [a] law on the right of the public to vote ... (elect judges). >From Nixon's appointment, to now your appointment of judges, every decent judge [has been] outnumbered 10-1 by pigs like Judge Lowell Jensen, Samuel Conti, Robert Schnacke, Eugene Lynch, Charles Legge. The public must remove these fools by changing the law. I noted [that] you had the news media interview only [those] serial killers the government threatens to release on technicalities in the law [that] your "crime bill" pretends to correct, based on "three strikes and you're out." The victims of political frame-ups have always been considered [to be facing] imprisonment to death, unless we get help from people [who are] aware and fighting against the system. Perhaps, once you see Judge Jensen's criminal behavior shaping criminal indictments against you, Bill Clinton, you'll comprehend racist terror perpetrated through the court system [which] has, for years, forced law-abiding citizens to turn criminals in efforts to survive. By then, you will be glad to denounce Judge Jensen [as] a criminal bum. The public will still want to know why you didn't assign a special commission in the first place. I remain, Sincerely, Ruchell C. Magee President August Rebellion Box 7500 #A92051 Crescent City, California 95531 ****************************************************************** 9. THE TRAGEDY OF RALPH ELLISON (1914 - 1994) By Abdul Alkalimat Ralph Ellison (1914-1994) died at the age of 80, and has been eulogized around the world as one of the most celebrated U.S. literary figures of the last 50 years. His novel Invisible Man (1952) won the American Book Award and earned a place on required reading lists in high schools and colleges. More than one million copies have been sold. There are two sides of the Ellison story. On the one hand, Ellison wrote a novel that penetrated into the depths of American racism. He used the metaphor of invisibility to expose the cultural genocide by which Black identity was denied, Black life was demeaned, and Black individuality was ignored. Ellison wrote Invisible Man during the second wave of the great migration of the Black masses from the rural South to the urban North. His novel sums up much of this 20th century Black experience by exposing racist acts of cruel barbarism as well as the humorous foibles of racial stereotypes. On the other hand, Ellison was a tragic figure victimized by the very society that poured accolades upon him. His success silenced him and for most of his life he was a celebrated lecturer and essayist, but when he died he was still working on his second novel after 40 years. It seems that a scene from Invisible Man became true in Ellison's life. The main character in the book ends up in a room full of light, and yet remains invisible. Ellison, on the stage of history for all to see, remained invisible because his main voice, his voice as a novelist, was silenced by success. Another issue of some importance is that over the last two decades, Ralph Ellison has been mainly used as a foil against the social protest tradition in writing exemplified by Richard Wright. Wright supposedly stands for protest, but Ellison for good writing. At his best, Ellison attacked racism in his work, but at his worst, he distanced himself from such attacks. It is sad on such occasions to be reminded that success in this dangerous capitalist society, especially for an artist, often comes at the price of giving up one's historical role as a cultural agent for social change. ****************************************************************** 10. POEM: UP FROM SLAVERY Up from slavery, guns and chains Human funerals, European games Neglected are struggle, and leaders' time Who was the crook, who committed the crime Up from slavery, guns and chains You're very aggressive, and so damn mean Whips and shackles, and man eating dog What's the solution, is it right or wrong Up from slavery, guns and chains Brother to brother, with a white man's name Eve of destruction, mass deduction Two clicks on the trigger, is a dreadful game. Up from slavery, guns and chains We're concerned about freedom, and you just fame My brothers are homeless, and my sisters too. All we need is God's counseling, and most of all you! Up from slavery, guns and chains Human dignity, not fortune and fame Fix abandoned buildings so my people can live Don't kill another brother, educate him to give. Up from slavery, guns and chains Economic welfare, educational games Raise public awareness, improve it, too Up from slavery, brothers, sisters, children, me and you! ****************************************************************** 11. ATTEND THE CHICAGO DAY OF CULTURE AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY (5/7/94) They want to gather as many community organizations and leaders as possible and people from all over Chicago to and demonstrate in front of Cook County Jail at 26th and California. After the demonstration, we will march to the Church of St. Agnus where at 2 p.m. there will be speeches and education on the death penalty along with cultural expressions in defense of life and human rights. There also will be dances, poetry, paintings, music, etc., from the different organizations and communities. We are planning to incorporate art work, paintings, drawings, poetry, and other messages by the men and women on death row. The idea for the event came from an Illinois prisoner on Death Row. Please take part in this event and make it a successful testimony of the human rights and dignity of all people. We need to get the word out throughout all of Chicago. Stacks of flyers will be availabelf to pick up. Any and all input will be appreciated. Let us unite to win this struggle for human rights and dignity. Steering Committee Day of Culture Against the death Penalty For more information contact Peggy Cotton at 721-2648 or Kristi Brian at 989-4325. ****************************************************************** 12. AUTHOR TO SPEAK ON EAST COAST Nelson Peery, one of the founders of the National Organizing Committee, has been a revolutionary since the days of the Scottsboro Boys case. He has written a memoir called _Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary_. It describes growing up during the Depression in the only black family in a town in rural Minnesota and life in the all-black 93rd Infantry Division during World War II. Peery will appear at the following locations: Massachusetts On May 11, at 7:30 p.m., Peery will be reading and signing books at Odyssey Bookshop, 9 College Street, Village Commons, South Hadley. Call 413-534-7307 for more information. On May 12, at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., Peery will give lectures and readings at Northeastern University in Boston. For more information, call Professor Abdul Alkalimat at 617-373-3148. On May 12, from 5:30 p.m. until 7 p.m., Peery will be reading and signing books at Savanna Books, 1132 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. Call 617-868-3423 for more information. New York City On May 13, from 6-8 p.m., Peery will be reading and signing books at Nkiru Books, 76 St. Marks Avenue, in Brooklyn, New York. Call 718-783-6306 for more information. Philadelphia On May 17, at 7 p.m., Peery will sign books at Robin's Books, 108 S. 13th Street, Philadelphia. Call 215-735-9600 for more details. Washington, D.C. On May 19, at 6 p.m., Peery will be reading and signing books at Vertigo Books, 1337 Connecticut Avenue NW. Call 202-429-9272. Order a copy of BLACK FIRE! Proceeds will go to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE as a fundraiser. Send this coupon and $25 (which includes postage) to: BREAK- THROUGH IMAGES, P.O. Box 3233, Chicago, Illinois 60654-3233. All orders must be prepaid. Make checks payable to "Break-Through Images." Autographed copies available. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Name ______________________________________________ Address ___________________________________________ City/State/Zip ____________________________________ +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 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: 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. 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