****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 20 / May 16, 1994 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ LAYOFFS: 17 MILLION MORE IN '94 WE DON'T HAVE TO TAKE THIS! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | From the millions of the hungry and the working poor, new | | leaders must step forward to map out a strategy to win | | economic security for all. | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "17 million more can expect pink slips in the course of 1994." (Newsweek, March 14, 1994). That's more than all the people who live within the cities of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Oakland, California -- combined! Add to that the 25 million people already unemployed. Then add 34 million people who don't receive a steady paycheck, like temporary and part-time workers. That's 76 million hard-luck cases -- too mind-boggling to imagine! Is it any wonder that millions of kids now go to bed hungry? Laying off (downsizing) is good for business, though. While employment at America's 500 largest companies fell for the ninth straight year, these companies brought in $62.6 billion in profits for 1993. One of the rich people raking in some of this dough is Malcolm Forbes Jr. He calls this process of replacing workers with technology "creative destruction." In other words, the hardships and misery of 76 million people and their families creates more money for him! And that's all that matters? It is criminal for our government to let leeches like Forbes drain all the money from our economy while our children have become our neediest citizens. Do we have to take it? No, we do not! Seventy-six million is enough people to raise quite an uproar. We have to have economic security. With these numbers, we've got the muscle to demand it. For such a battle, great numbers of people are important, but not enough. Our government is organized to protect the wealth and privileges of a small slice of our population. We must be organized, too. New leaders must step forward from the 76 million to make plans and map out a strategy to win economic security for all. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 20 / May 16, 1994 Editorial 1. WHO WAS RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON? News 2. NAFTA'S BRUTAL AFTERMATH: SONY WORKERS IN MEXICO ATTACKED 3. NATL COAL. FOR THE HOMELESS CONVENTION: 'A NATIONAL TRAGEDY' 4. SAN FRANCISCO POLICE LOCK DOWN PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS 5. INDIGENOUS VOICES: COMM'TY EMPOWERMENT: FIGHTING RACISM 6. S. AFRICA ELECTION VICTORY: PRELUDE TO REVOLUTIONARY UPSURGE Columns and features 7. DEADLY FORCE: HEROIC PEOPLE STAND UP TO BRUTAL COPS, LAWS 8. ONE MAN'S STORY: JUSTICE SYSTEM PREYS ON POOR 9. 300 ATTEND CONFERENCE ON FUTURE OF INFO-HIGHWAY Culture 10. THE ICE OPINION ON RAP, CENSORSHIP, THE FUTURE Letters 11. CALIFORNIA PRISONER CONFRONTS HARASSMENT 12. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Correction: In Volume 21, Number 19 of the People's Tribune, we omitted the name of the author of the poem "Up From Slavery." The poem was written by Michael D. Gilvens of Atlanta. We regret the error. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: WHO WAS RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON? Richard Milhous Nixon is gone, leaving behind a grateful ruling class and a world ravaged by the power he wielded. The Establishment lined up to pay tribute. Nixon went to Peking; Nixon went to Moscow; Nixon was a great elder statesman, said the Establishment. Nixon spent his last 20 years sweetening his putrid record as the faithful servant of monopoly capital and the sworn enemy of national liberation everywhere. It was not for nothing that the super-rich who backed his career poured at least $60 million into his criminal 1972 re-election campaign. His signature is on the repression of the entire progressive movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He widened, worsened and lengthened the Indochina War by four years before finally agreeing to withdraw U.S. combat troops in 1973. He favored strict enforcement of the Constitution against the nation's most disfavored -- but no enforcement of it against himself. As for Watergate, well, that was just an unfortunate political episode for which he paid by resigning his office -- ten months after the resignation of his bribe-taking vice president, Spiro Agnew. Richard Nixon was the self-pardoning criminality of the ruling class exalted to the highest office under a Constitution he held in contempt. For us today, his life -- and death -- is a lesson in how the ruling class treats criminality -- the criminality of greed and "criminality" of need. At the same time that Congressional leaders were offering to let Nixon's body lie in state in the Capitol rotunda, the House of Representatives passed a crime bill. This bill represents an attack on the rising class of people who are forced to violate laws protecting big private property in the name of a higher law which puts food, homes and clothing first. The crime bill is full of the spirit of Richard Nixon. So is President Clinton's ominous order to his administration to seek ways around the Constitution to impose police power on the worst-off of the permanently unemployed living in parts of Chicago. Bill Clinton and the ruling class may have helped bury Nixon's body, but his ghost still sits with them. We owe it to our own revolutionary heroes who fell fighting Nixon and his class to continue the struggle by uniting and organizing today's revolutionaries to win power and end poverty and inequality forever. ****************************************************************** 2. NAFTA'S BRUTAL AFTERMATH: SONY WORKERS IN MEXICO ATTACKED BY POLICE DURING PROTEST AT PLANT GATES [Editor's note: The following report is based on information released by the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras and the AFL-CIO's Department of Information.] On April 16, 250 workers at Sony Corporation's maquiladora facility in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico were attacked by police while demonstrating peacefully in front of the plant. The workers, mainly women, were protesting Sony's attempt to conduct fraudulent union elections. Worker dissatisfaction at the plant has been rising since last January, when the company discharged six union delegates who opposed anti-democratic union tendencies and a new work schedule with a six-day week, including work on Saturdays and Sundays. Women workers throughout Sony's operations objected to the new schedule because it eliminated time which they needed to attend religious services and spend with their families. On April 14, at 11 p.m., Sony's hand-picked union representatives announced that there would be an election for union delegates the following day at 7 a.m. At 7 a.m., the company's designated union representatives conducted the "election," telling workers to line up on two sides of the plant according to which slate they preferred. Union officials pressured workers to support the company slate. On April 16, workers organized a non-violent protest in front of the plant gates, demanding new, fair, secret ballot elections. At noon, Nuevo Laredo Mayor Horacio Garza called in the police. Forty police officers wearing riot gear descended upon the workers, beating them with billy clubs. Dozens received blows. One young man was admitted to a local hospital with head injuries. As of April 18, the situation remained extremely tense. The situation is being monitored by the American Friends Service Committee, the AFL-CIO and the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras. A formal complaint may be lodged against Sony before the National Administrative Office, the body set up by the U.S. Labor Department to implement NAFTA's side agreement on labor. "When the administration was pressuring Congress to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement, the American people were promised that workers' rights would be respected," said Ed Fiegen of AFL- CIO Organizing and Field Services. "When this case reaches the NAO, the American people will find out whether the administration is willing to stop corporations that intend to use NAFTA as a tool for dragging down wages and violating workers' rights." For more information, contact the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, 3120 W. Ashby, San Antonio, Texas 78228. The coalition's phone number is 210-732-8957. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CHRONOLOGY OF THE MEXICAN SONY WORKERS' STRUGGLE The Sony Corporation has dealt swiftly and mercilessly with its workers demanding fair union elections in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Here is a chronology of the events since the assault on Sony workers April 16: April 17: About 150 workers continued to protest outside the plant with little interference from the company. April 18: About 300 workers blocked the entrances to six of Sony's seven plants in Nuevo Laredo. During a company attempt to break the blockade with several busloads of workers, the blockading workers remained in front of the gates and the busses did not get through. April 19: At about 5 a.m., the state police stormed the position held by over 100 workers remaining in front of the plant and forced them to evacuate that position. While the majority of striking workers did not return to work, the factories resumed production. April 20: The local newspaper published a list of 36 workers named in a claim the company made for huge losses it says it suffered as a result of the plant shutdown on April 18. There have been suggestions of prison sentences for these workers along with financial liabilities. All workers returned to work. As of April 25, workers reported harassment in the plant. This has included demotions and firings of union activists. The workers' main demand that the company hold new union elections has not been met. Sony maintains the Saturday and Sunday work schedule which workers oppose because it makes it impossible for them to attend religious services and spend time with their families. Your support is needed. We urge you to immediately fax the officials listed below and demand that Sony support a new, fair, secret ballot election; rehire the fired workers; and end the six- day work schedule. Send faxes to: Carl Yankowski, president, Sony Electronics (Fax 201-930-7202); Michael Schulhof, president, Sony of America, (Fax 212-755-8548); Akiro Morita, chairman of the board of Sony Corporation, (Fax 011- 8135-448-5376.) Thank you for your solidarity with our sisters and brothers who work at Sony's maquiladoras in Nuevo Laredo. Ed Feigen, AFL-CIO Phoebe McKinney, American Friends Service Committee Susan Mika, Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras +----------------------------------------------------------------+ WRITE TO SONY! [Editor's note: Below we print the text of a sample letter which the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras urges concerned people to send to the Sony Corporation to protest its attacks on workers in Mexico.] Mr. Carl Yankowski, President Sony Electronics One Sony Drive Park Ridge, New Jersey 07656-8003 FAX 201-930-7202 Dear Mr. Yankowski: I am writing to express concern regarding violations of workers' rights at Sony's Magneticos de Mexico facilities in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. I have received reports that on Saturday, April 16, 250 workers at your plant were attacked by police while conducting a peaceful demonstration. The workers, mostly women, were protesting Sony's attempt to conduct fraudulent union elections aimed at choosing union delegates who support company policies. Workers have complained that last January Sony discharged or demoted six union delegates who opposed a new work schedule which Sony implemented that requires a six-day work week, including work on Saturdays and Sundays. I understand that women workers throughout your Nuevo Laredo operations object to the new schedule because it eliminates time which they need to attend religious services and be with their families. On Friday, April 15, 1994, Sony clearly conspired to fraudulently elect hand-picked union delegates who would represent your company's interests instead of the interests of the workers. I urge you to: (1) Move quickly to rectify this situation by supporting a new, fair, secret ballot election, monitored by independent observers; (2) Rehire workers who have been unjustly fired for supporting democratic union representation and desist with threats and reprisals against union activists; (3) Eliminate the recently established six-day work schedule which requires employees to work Saturdays and Sundays. I trust you will move promptly to address these concerns. Sincerely, [Your name] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 3. NATIONAL COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS CONVENTION: 'A NATIONAL TRAGEDY' "I told the convention that we were not going to be quiet anymore." By Ronald Casanova, Organizational Director and Editor for the National Union of the Homeless MINNEAPOLIS -- Most of the three days of the National Coalition for the Homeless convention was spent patting the so-called leaders of the National Coalition on the back -- not organizing. The only good thing about the convention was the coming together of the infantry -- the people in the trenches doing the work these so-called leaders are taking credit for. The truth is the convention was really for the service providers. There were some good service providers there, but they were mixed in with the same old poverty pimps. I had the unfortunate chance to meet these poverty pimps during the Housing Now march to Washington D.C. in 1989. The people in the leadership of the National Coalition for the Homeless, Housing Now and the Committee for Creative Non-Violence are the same people who promised the homeless people who made that long march from New York City to Washington D.C. that they would provide good food and clothing and a mobile medical team. They kept none of their promises! Homeless people wore holes in their shoes and in their feet. Five women had miscarriages. There was not enough food. Marchers were given garbage bags to wear as they marched through the pouring rains of Hurricane Andrew. When they arrived in Washington, D.C. they were packed into a filthy shelter with rats running freely about. At this convention, just like the Housing Now march, homeless people were brought in and used as tokens. But Up and Out of Poverty Now! and the Union of the Homeless became more alive with every person who signed our mailing list and asked to get involved. So, I began to feel enthusiasm for the upcoming panel on "Civil Rights and the Homeless." At that workshop, I quoted from Malcolm X, "There can be no civil rights without human rights." As others got their chance to talk, you felt the mood change. People were saying it's time for a revolution. Earl Rose of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless said, "We're tired of the way things are going and we're not going to take any more!" On the last day we got a chance to hear Jonathan Kozol, author of the book Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America. He reminded me of the many people in the struggle who are not homeless, but join us in the fight against poverty. There were others at the convention who really care -- some of the providers, the students from Empty the Shelters, and the People's Campaign for Jobs, Housing and Food in Chicago (a group of ex-homeless people getting housing for the homeless). Unfortunately, on that same day, James Howard Kunstler spoke during lunch. His main purpose was to bash the homeless, poor mothers and people in poverty. He said it was our own fault! Why was he allowed to speak?! A lot of people walked out. This lunch was a slap in the face not only to the poor but to the people who really care. Finally, on this last day, Up and Out of Poverty Now! and the Union of the Homeless shouted down the poverty pimps. I told the convention that we were not going to be quiet anymore and we refuse to sit back as long as people abuse their position and try to make the poor believe that they are God's gift to the homeless. We will be and we are taking the leadership to save our lives. The reason we shout so loud and do housing "takeovers" is because of the oppression of the poor and homeless throughout the world. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ UP & OUT OF POVERTY NOW! UPSTAGES POVERTY PIMPS AT NATIONAL CONFERENCE By Mark Thisius, Up & Out of Poverty Now! MINNEAPOLIS -- Poor and homeless people were organized by Up & Out of Poverty Now! to attend a National Conference of the National Coalition for the Homeless April 21-23. Our delegation dominated much of the conference by asserting our rights to equal participation in leading the movement to end homelessness. Ron Casanova of the National Union of the Homeless dominated his panel on the discussion of civil rights and the homeless. He declared, "We will lead ourselves in our struggle to fight discrimination and end homelessness." Birgid Williams of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Up & Out of Poverty Now! startled service providers, stating: "We know firsthand what homelessness is all about and we don't need you to profit from our misery, we can fight for ourselves." More than 750 people attended the conference with the vast majority coming from social service agencies. Many of the providers that came were impressed by the level of organization in our movement both locally and nationally. Clearly, many of the professional advocates at the conference agreed with us that the poor and homeless can and must lead their own struggle to end the injustice of poverty and homelessness. There was, also, a great deal of interest in our call for a second national "Break the Media Blackout" summit planned tentatively for November of this year. Throughout the conference, our voices were heard as we not only demanded leadership, we took it! We will no longer serve as tokens to those who profit from our misery. We will lead ourselves in our battle for justice and housing! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 4. SAN FRANCISCO POLICE LOCK DOWN PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS by Jack Hirschman SAN FRANCISCO -- Most of us have heard of prison lockdowns, when authorities close off access of inmates either to facilities or the open yards. Well, following the lead of the U.S. government by way of stepping up the criminalization of the poor, San Francisco police have actually created a police lockdown of the public housing development known as Alice Griffith, which is located in the Double Rock section of the Bayview-Hunter's Point district, near Candlestick Park. Twenty-one police officers on January 21 barricaded the two entrances to the development. Most of the tenants are African Americans. Anyone wanting to enter the projects has had to show official identification and be checked to see if he or she is a leaseholder. Police Captain Rick (The Stick) Holder, and the San Francisco Housing Authority's acting director, Michael Patrick Kelly, have been leading these military and unconstitutional attacks in San Francisco developments. Using the excuse of drugs, the police at the Alice Griffith Project have instituted "roving patrols." "They will roam the development arresting suspected drug users, graffiti artists, pet owners, the pets, and freely busting open apartment doors, without warrants," said Louise Vaughn in the New Bayview, a local newspaper which, learning that the police will periodically lock down the projects on weekends, has soundly attacked the actions, calling their maneuvers "fascist-type military repression." Vaughn noted, after Kelly stated that the cops were "being paid from $1.9 million in HUD Comprehensive Grant Funds," that "the truth of the matter is that the $1.9 million has been nearly used up, and the public attack on Alice Griffith is an attempt to generate more millions of dollars for Housing and the police to squander." Meanwhile, it's the ordinary citizen that's suffering. Some have said that their hopes are being turned into a concentration camp. One resident said that, "All we need now is the little watchtower with the guy with the gun." The police action is part of the mayor of San Francisco's Matrix program, which commenced in the Tenderloin among the homeless and now has extended to the city's 44 projects. That's why Mayor Frank Jordan's expression -- "quality of life" -- is leaving such a bitter taste in the mouth of San Francisco's poor. They know that "quality of life" means: more cops, more jail-time, and now more lockdowns of living spaces themselves. Children have become criminal suspects in simply trying to get into their own home and playground! Not merely the "last hired and the first fired," African Americans who are poor are among the first to feel the brunt of Clinton's fascist police, by way of local lackey Jordan and his cops. And it has to be stopped, here and in other areas where the genocidal police forces are at work with their mandates of terror and social destruction. ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 5. COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT: FIGHTING RACISM AT SCHOOL By Rudy Corral, Indigenous Voice The Anpa Wi shined on the Lakota "Oyate" people and supporters gathering in a rally, and demonstrating against the South Dakota school system in Rapid City. An increased number of racial incidents continues between students and faculty. Community members are demanding an investigation into the South Dakota school system. The school board has responded inadequately to teacher altercations with students, lack of sufficient cultural awareness and indifference. The school board has implemented racist policies and curricula in this largely Lakota/Indigenous Population area of the six-state region. The continuing battle to gain proper education through public schools has led the Lakota communities to empower lives, by taking steps to properly provide their own schools for their children and for any who want to learn the Lakota/Indigenous ways. The task at hand is one with great barriers to cross. American Indian Movement leader Russell Means has provided some leadership for the communities and has continued to bring attention to the forgotten American Holocaust -- the genocidal treatment of the Lakota Oyate and all Indigenous Oyate People of the Western Hemisphere. ****************************************************************** 6. SOUTH AFRICA ELECTION VICTORY: PRELUDE TO REVOLUTIONARY UPSURGE By Abdul Alkalimat The mighty roar of the South African masses was heard throughout the world April 26-29 as they tore down the political institution of apartheid. Over 22 million people marched to the polls and voted in a new transitional government to be led by Nelson Mandela. The African National Congress will likely end up with over 60 percent of the vote, followed by the National Party led by F.W. de Klerk with about 20 percent. Africans had been denied full citizenship rights based on a barbaric form of racism called apartheid. Therefore, this election took on the symbolic meaning of freedom. In his victory speech, Mandela proclaimed South Africa "Free at last!" The entire world is relieved because this election signals the end of colonialism (although it does continue to exist in smaller countries!) However, this political victory must be understood not only as symbol but also as substance. In the United States, we have been at this point before, intoxicated by the euphoria of an election victory (for example, Harold Washington's) only to be sobered up by the limits of what changes actually get made. Now is the time to celebrate, yes, but it is also the time to understand and prepare for an even more difficult struggle that lies ahead. This election marks the public approval of the agreement negotiated by virtually all the major political forces in the country. It creates a government of national unity, one based on shared power between the leading liberation force (the ANC) and the leading force for white racist rule (the National Party). There have been "generations of resistance" fighting for change in South Africa. Most recently, there was the 1976 Soweto generation of youth led by Stephen Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement, the mass organizations of the United Democratic Front that followed, and the workers movement of the 1980s that led to the creation of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. This election came about because it was fought for in the streets and in the work places, in negotiations and in military training camps inside and outside of South Africa. It was fought for all over the world. But it was also a victory for international capitalism, and because of this, we must be vigilant regarding what happens next. The agreement to engineer a so-called "peaceful transition" (with at least 20,000 people killed and 500,000 injured in the last decade) came with a price. It defined a commitment to stability based on reconciliation to mean that the economy and the military will be run by many of the same people who ran them before the election. It means cooling out the fears and insecurity of the white minority (13 percent of the population which controls more than 85 percent of the land) while bidding the African masses to wait and continue to sacrifice for long-term gains. Critical issues remain: Will the African masses lower their expectations and be patient while the Mandela government courts international investment and loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund? Will the ANC government be able to postpone land reform? If not, will white farmers remain and maintain agricultural production? How will affirmative action work? Will the new government be able to afford the education necessary for an orderly transition? (Fifty percent of Africans are illiterate. More than 40 percent of Africans are unemployed.) The fight to resolve these and similar issues can only lead in one direction: an upsurge of the revolutionary class struggle. The storm gates have been opened, and forces long suppressed will rise in new forms and with added energy. It is inevitable that the negotiations deemed reasonable by international capital will be totally unacceptable to the suffering masses of South Africa. The ANC took the courageous and dangerous step of making the compromise necessary for this election victory. The challenge for revolutionary leadership is to be equally as courageous in joining (politicizing and organizing) the mass revolt when the masses reject whatever sinister scheme the IMF will cook up for them. The election was a major step forward, but each step gets harder from here on. We call on all readers of the People's Tribune to join with us in proclaiming at this sacred hour of political transformation: Nkosi Sikelel 'i Afrika (God Bless Africa!) ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ In Los Angeles, New Jersey and San Francisco... 7. HEROIC PEOPLE STAND UP TO BRUTAL COPS AND BRUTAL LAWS By Chris Mahin The headlines tell a story of heroism: "Nurses Defy Bosses to Report Beating." "Marchers protest slaying of N.J. youth." "Victim prevents felon from taking 3rd strike under law." In Southern California, two nurses, one white and one black, expose the killing of a prisoner in a hospital jail ward. In New Jersey, 200 people, most of them teen-agers, demonstrate after a police officer kills a 14-year-old. In San Francisco, a woman refuses to testify against a man charged with burglarizing her car because she thinks the state's "three strikes and you're out" measure is "really, really gross." Brave individuals are taking a stand against the growing brutality of the cops and the legal system itself. All of us should be proud of people like Johnnie Blue and William Strachan. Blue and Strachan are nurses at the Los Angeles County- University of Southern California Medical Center. After they saw sheriff's deputies brutalize an injured prisoner in the hospital's jail ward on March 4, they reported it. They told the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper that a deputy shoved John Bernard Wiley, 41, off a hospital gurney and onto the floor. Blue and Strachan said that another deputy placed an orange smock over the prisoner's face. The struggle ended after about 15 minutes, the two nurses said, when Wiley went limp and was rushed into the emergency room, where he died. Similar courage was shown by the 200 people who marched April 20 in Glassboro, New Jersey to protest the killing of Eltarmaine Sanders, 14, by a police officer. Converging on the courtyard of the municipal building, the marchers chanted, "No Justice, No Peace" for 15 minutes. Of all these acts of quiet bravery and self-respect, perhaps the most striking was that performed by Joan Miller. On April 22, Miller refused to testify at a hearing against Donald Rae Brown, the man accused of burglarizing her car March 11. Miller, a 71- year-old retired editor, risked being jailed for contempt of court but stood her ground, invoking the "history of nonviolent civil disobedience" in America. She is adamantly opposed to California's "three strikes and you're out" measure, which requires a sentence of "25 years-to-life" for those convicted of their third felony. Authorities wanted to use the law against Brown, but were prevented from doing so by Miller's principled stand. Listen carefully to the voices of Joan Miller, Johnnie Blue, William Strachan and the 200 marchers in Glassboro, New Jersey. They represent the conscience of America. ****************************************************************** 8. ONE MAN'S STORY: JUSTICE SYSTEM PREYS ON POOR By Robert L. Reed It was in the Deep South in a small town just south of Atlanta called East Point, Georgia. The year was around 1960, when I was about 19 or 20 years old. I vividly remember early one morning a lone policeman came to my home and got me out of bed to announce that I was under arrest. At the desk while being booked, I noticed that the desk sergeant was laughing and joking about what to charge me for. I got a bond for $50 and got out of jail. I went to court in East Point, Georgia, along with my girlfriend, the plaintiff in the case. We were breaking up and, in spite, she had me locked up. She said I threatened to break into her house. The courts in East Point appointed no lawyer to represent me. Therefore, I was tried without legal representation. There wasn't one witness in court that saw me do such a crime as burglary, and the police were coercing the plaintiff to continue with the case. There was no case and it shouldn't have left the courts in East Point. It was my girlfriend's word against my own. We went to court in Atlanta anyway. I found a lawyer in Atlanta. He questioned me quite thoroughly about my financial status and police record. I had neither. I was definitely an indigent man, being recently laid off work before this incident. He took the case for the $50 I had up for my bond. In court, the lawyer, for some reason, was continuing to ask me about my police record. He turned to me and said, "Listen to me, now, I can get you out of this mess and you can go home, but you have to keep your nose clean." He said, "You're going to have to play ball with me in this case." I remember telling that lawyer that if he meant plead guilty, I was not going to do so! I was innocent, and I did not break into my girlfriend's house. He told me that he had talked to the prosecution and they wouldn't budge an inch. He said that if I went to a grand jury, I was definitely going to get five years in prison. That statement, at 20 years old and never having been in prison before, really scared the pants off me. My lawyer coerced me into pleading guilty in that case for his own selfish reasons and ruined my reputation for the rest of my life. I received five years probation for that stupid move. After being on probation for about two years after that trial, I got into a fight with a man and he was hurt. The man was a notorious corn liquor dealer that started the fight. I was fighting back in self-defense, but because of that probation in the burglary case, it automatically revoked my probation. I had to do two years hard labor for the burglary case that the lawyer coerced me to plead guilty on. And that's my point in this letter. It's how the bureaucrats in the criminal justice system play and prey on the uneducated, poor, indigent person who can't defend himself. I'm not sitting here trying to say that there aren't people in prison that don't belong there, because I've been there and I know that most are in there for a good reason, but I know there are a lot of innocent minority people in jails all over America. I know because I was one of them myself. I am in no way trying to convince the American people that all cops are bad, because we know it's not true. But there is that other kind of cop we have to look out for. He's that cop who's full of hatred for black people in the first place. He's trying to make a quick climb into the ranks of the department and he wants to be looked upon by his fellow officers as some kind of Wyatt Earp, riding hard on weak, poor people. And don't forget the selfish, greedy lawyers who perpetrate the ordeal to its fullest. ****************************************************************** 9. 300 ATTEND CONFERENCE ON FUTURE OF INFO-HIGHWAY By The High Tech Committee Of The NOC CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- Three hundred engineers, librarians, students and community activists gathered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology here April 24 and 25 to discuss the future of the information superhighway, and with it, the future of communications and culture in this country. The conference was sponsored by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR). The "information superhighway" is the nickname given to the network that will carry messages, movies, books, music and other forms of information to homes, schools, community centers and businesses in the very near future. Companies that deal in information hope to make big profits from the info-highway by selling information and services. But if the phone, cable and other companies are allowed to decide the future of this network, it will only be used to serve their bottom line. The general public will be left standing by the side of the road. The keynote talk by Dr. Herbert Schiller, author of several books on the media, summed up what is at stake. "The concentration of wealth and resources in private hands at this point in history is unprecedented," he said. Corporations are "moving towards total control of information, and with it, the formation of consciousness." At a workshop panel, Dottie Stevens, the vice president of the National Welfare Rights Union and a member of the National Organizing Committee's Steering Committee, urged conference attendees to fight for access for everyone to the information highway, and not abandon those without the money to use the new services. Abdul Alkalimat, a professor of African-American Studies at Northeastern University, added that it is not just access that's important, but empowerment. We don't just want access to 500 TV channels with nothing on that's worth watching. Our communities need information that is useful, that can help us organize to make a new society. "Not only do we have to make this superhighway free," Alkalimat said, "we have to change the society in which it operates so it's possible to have information empowerment." This is a critical moment in the development of this new technology. Along with our demands for housing, education, and health care, we must also raise the call for free access to the information superhighway and information empowerment. If we don't achieve this, we will not be allowed on the highway to the future. For more information on the information highway, contact CPSR, P.O. Box 717, Palo Alto, California 94301, 415-322-3778 or the Telecommunications Policy Roundtable at 202-628-2620. ****************************************************************** 10. GOTTA LOTTA LOVE: THE ICE OPINION ON RAP, CENSORSHIP AND THE FUTURE By Raegan Kelly [Ice T's new book, _The Ice Opinion_, delivers the lowdown on growing up "black in a white world." T spoke for more than two hours at a book signing at the Midnight Special Bookstore in Santa Monica, California in mid-March.] In the early '80s, Ice T had one of the baddest pimp-hustler raps in West Coast hip-hop. In the tradition of Iceberg Slim and Donald Bowens, Ice rapped America's nightmare -- the dope pusher, pimp, and hustler of the streets -- into something very cool and desirable. Ice T's lyrics paint a picture of life in the hood, POV the streets, with a flair for the badasssss and inherent disrespect for the man: from the classic "Six N the Morning" (in which T loses the LAPD slippin' out the window) to the 1988 Colors soundtrack ("I am a nightmare walkin', psychopath stalkin'...") to Body Count's 1992 punk song "Cop Killer." "It has been said that rap is like a telephone call between rappers and the people we're talkin' to -- the most hardcore gangstas in prison and youths in the projects, gangbangers and stick-up kids who'll shoot you in the face. ... These are my people, this is who I care about and want to reach, I have to speak to them in their language. America has picked up the phone and is listening in, and I'm sayin', if you don't like it, put the phone down. It ain't about you." Ice T sees the fallout of the great Cop Killa debate (the one that made it all the way to the White House, had Daryl frothing at the mouth, and parents indicting rap as a primary instigator of violence amongst youth) as being a good diversionary tactic for the Rodney King beating, the economy (it was an election year, after all, remember Willie Horton?), and a direct reaction to the fact that rap had earned for itself permanent multimillion dollar music industry status. Kids from all walks of life and ethnic backgrounds were peeping at the realities of inner city life and reaching conclusions very different from the lies fed them at home, in school, in the media. The "home invasion" was well under way, and irreversible. "We live in a system where the cops tell you once, and then pull the trigger. This country was founded on murder -- as Kris said [KRS One] 'How can there ever be justice on stolen land?' ... There is no such thing as freedom of speech in this country, and there never has been. As far as the right to bear arms, if there were no guns period then I would be against them. But if you read the Constitution, it says we have the right to bear arms as the last form of defense against tyranny." Go to any hip-hop gig and peep kids of every shape, size and color bopping their heads and shakin' their butts to KRS One: "Bwap Bwap, it's the sound of da police; Bwap Bwap, it's the sound of the beast." Asked about the ongoing conflict in Los Angeles schools between African American and Chicano youths, Ice said fear of a move towards unity between communities of color, amongst youth in general, is exactly what inspires aristocratic nuts like Tipper Gore and Charleton Heston to demonize, ghettoize, and attempt to silence these emerging voices. (They can't.) Not just rappers, but young leaders of every persuasion need to step forward. "That's what my book is about. Do we believe everything holy and powerful happened in the past? If we imagine we're in the eighth day of the first seven years of the formation of the planet, then we realize any one of us could be a prophet. It's dangerous to step out there, to tell the truth, but you got to be a soldier, we all do." As a member of the audience pointed out, crime comes from the absence of hope. Strength in unity holds out one possibility for hope. In his book, Ice T calls for free education -- pre-school through university. He speaks eloquently on racism in the music industry, in the military, in the police department, in America. To Ice, we have no alternative but to fight: "At this point, there ain't no options, we have to be radical." First, one must look reality square in the face, deal with that, start from there. A young man from Amer-I-Can put it most succinctly: "The day I deny darkness, I can't bring the light." ****************************************************************** 11. LETTERS TO THE PT PELICAN BAY STATE PRISON: CALIFORNIA PRISONER CONFRONTS HARASSMENT To the People's Tribune: Thank you for the encouragement you guys have given me and the help to stand up to these unprofessional, white staffers of Pelican Bay State Prison. First of all, me and Inmate [Floyd] Paige were found "guilty" and our hearing on this frame-up that we were accused of [conspiracy to commit an assault] on a correctional officer, Ward. Then, with the help of the People's Tribune, we were found "not guilty." We were both sent back to the General Population on the main line. I've been on the main line for about a month now. Now, since I've been back to the same block and section I first left, B-4-226, I've been getting harassed by this unprofessional C.O. Lane who is in the control booth 30 feet in the air with guns and rifles at hand. Since I've back on General Population, Lane has been talking crazy to me -- very unprofessional -- and been calling me racist names such as "nigger." I choose not to pay him any attention because I look at it more as ignorance, but today was one of those days where I could not continue to deal with the way he talks. So, I told him the same thing I told his comrade KKKlansman buddy, Correctional Officer J. Ward: As long as you talk to me like I'm an animal, I'm going to talk to you back like you are an animal. I also told him: If you put your hands on me, I'm going to put my hands back on you! So, today was one of those days where they have inspection and C.O. Lane feels he can order the dust to be off the floor by me and another black inmate. C.O. Lane has his orders from his unprofessional Lieutenant D.R. Smith and that is to harass me to the fullest! But my whole point of writing this article is to seek a lawyer to sue this unprofessional staff at this KKK prison where the staffers who work here are KKKlans. Even the program administrator is a part this racist staff -- modern-day slavery. Thank you! Lonzell Green, Pelican Bay State Prison Crescent City, California ****************************************************************** 12. 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. To subscribe to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition), send a message to PT.dist-request@umich.edu. ******************************************************************