Date: Wed, 17 Aug 94 12:27 CDT From: James Davis To: pt.dist@umich.edu Subject: People's Tribune (Online Edition) 8-22-94 ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 34 / August 22, 1994 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 34 / August 22, 1994 FRONT PAGE STORY FOLLOWS INDEX Editorial 1. NEW STUDY PROVES HOMELESSNESS KILLS News 2. MEXICO'S INSURGENTS APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES: 'DO NOT STAIN YOUR HANDS WITH OUR BLOOD' 3. ID CARD PILOT PROGRAM ANNOUNCED 4. CALIFORNIA'S WAR ON THE POOR: LEADING THE WORLD IN INCARCERATION 5. FLOOD LAYS WASTE TO GEORGIA BLACK BELT 6. ON THE POLICE BEATING OF SHIRLEY ALEJOS (CHICAGO) 7. LONG (STRONG) BEACH YOUTH WORK TO INCREASE THE PEACE Focus on Arkansas Triple Execution 8. AN ASSEMBLY LINE OF DEATH 9. ARKANSAS TRIPLE EXECUTION SPARKS INTERNATIONAL OUTRAGE Deadly Force 10. VIDEOTAPED POLICE BEATING OF 17-YEAR-OLD YOUTH GALVANIZES COMPTON: 'THIS IS _NOT_ A BLACK VS. CHICANO THING' Culture Under Fire 11. UP AGAINST THE BLUES 12. POEM Breaking The Blackout 13. ZANETTA'S STORY: 'WE KNOW WHAT'S RIGHT' 14. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE +----------------------------------------------------------------+ JUDGES BACK KILLING KIDS The juvenile court judge, appointed to oversee the _rehabilitation_ of children, re-read the question before him and stated, "I believe I should have the authority to execute 12-year- old offenders." If that statement made you shudder, consider this: 40 percent of 250 judges responding to a recent survey published in the National Law Journal believe the minimum age for facing murder charges should be lowered to 14 or 15. Another 17 percent said it should be even lower -- 12 or 13! Judges and members of Congress, such as Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, call for the execution of children. The cops, protected by such judges and such a Congress, are actually carrying out such executions. If execution is ever valid (and we don't think it ever is), it is only valid as a way to safeguard society as a whole from a clear and threatening danger. Society is a body of individuals living as a community. It was formed because it was impossible for scattered individuals to nurture and educate their children. In a natural state, all creatures -- from the most dimwitted animal to the most advanced human thinker -- instinctively protect their young, even to the point of sacrificing their own lives to do so. To declare that 12-year-old children can be so dangerous that they must be executed is to declare that society has lost its purpose or is so fragile that children can destroy it. The judges, police officers and legislators who make such declarations have become anti-social brutes. Humankind has always produced people of brutal character, but it has always found a way to control them. Today, there is a capitalist class which rules society under a brutal and outmoded economic system -- capitalism -- which threatens to destroy the human race's most elementary instincts for life. Under capitalism, the children are not the dangerous ones. They are the ones in danger. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: NEW STUDY PROVES HOMELESSNESS KILLS Do more homeless people die in winter than in summer? According to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine August 4, the answer is "no." The study was conducted by Dr. Jonathan R. Hibbs of the national Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. His research was based on a review of 6,308 homeless people who had dealings with Philadelphia's mental health and homeless agencies between 1985 and 1988. During those three years, these agencies identified 96 deaths among the homeless. The results showed that the death rate of homeless people was 3.5 times higher than in Philadelphia's general population. The study showed that it wasn't drug or alcohol abuse which killed most of the homeless, nor was it infectious diseases. Accidents and heart disease were the leading causes of death, accounting for 40 percent of them, according to the study. Other major causes were liver disease, poisoning, central nervous system disease and cancer. In 16 percent of the cases, death records listed no specific cause. Most importantly, the study found no single health problem that can explain the higher risk of death among the homeless. The Journal article came to this conclusion: "Homelessness itself, rather than identifiable medical conditions, appears to be the risk factor that most needs to be eliminated to reduce preventable mortality." It is homelessness itself which kills the homeless. The answer is obvious: homes for the homeless. Homelessness can be eliminated overnight. The Clinton administration recently released a draft report stating that there are now seven million homeless people in the United States. There are already six million vacant luxury apartments. In some cities, half of the public housing units are vacant. At the same time, billions of dollars in tax breaks go to big investors and mansion owners. We live in a society where the technological means to end homelessness and poverty already exist. But this society is dominated by a class of big property owners who control the government and write the laws and use the police to protect their interests. For the sake of protecting those interests, homeless people died in Philadelphia and continue to perish across the land. Homelessness not only kills; it is mass murder. The way to end the killing starts with massive pressure, from the bottom up, to force the government to open the vacant homes to everyone who needs them. From homeless-led takeovers and tent cities, we must expand the struggle to end homelessness by putting the problem front and center and keeping it there -- until the death angel of homelessness is banished forever. ****************************************************************** 2. MEXICO'S INSURGENTS APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES: 'DO NOT STAIN YOUR HANDS WITH OUR BLOOD' [Editor's note: Below we reprint the full text of an open letter written by the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional [the Zapatista Army of National Liberation] on January 13, 1994.] To Mr. Bill Clinton, President of the United States of North America; To the North American Congress; To the people of the United States of North America; We address you to inform you that the Mexican government is using the economic and military aid that it gets from the people and government of the United States of North America to massacre indigenous people from Chiapas. We ask ourselves whether the U.S. Congress and the people of the United States of North America approved this military and economic aid to fight the drug trade or to murder indigenous people in southeastern Mexico. Troops, airplanes, helicopters, radar, means of communication and weapons are being used -- not to track down drug dealers and big Mafia leaders, but to repress the just struggles of the people of Mexico and the indigenous people from Chiapas in the southeast of our country, and to kill men, women and children. We don't receive any foreign aid from any governments, individuals or organizations. We don't have anything to do with the drug trade or with national or international terrorism. We organized ourselves with our determination and our lives due to our great need. We got tired of so many years of treason and death. It is our right to fight for our lives with dignity. In every instance, we have adhered to the international law of war, respecting the civilian population. With the support the North American government and people give to the Mexican federal government, you are only staining your hands with indigenous blood. We want what every other people in the world want: real liberty and democracy. To realize this dream, we are ready to sacrifice our lives. Do not stain your hands with our blood, becoming accomplices of the Mexican government. >From the mountains of southeastern Mexico, The Revolutionary Indigenous Clandestine Committee, General Staff, Zapatista Army of National Liberation ****************************************************************** 3. ID CARD PILOT PROGRAM ANNOUNCED By Jim Davis CHICAGO -- In what is widely regarded as a major step towards a national ID card for Americans, the National Commission on Immigration Reform is calling for a "national ID registry" program in five states. Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on August 3, commission chairwoman Barbara Jordan recommended that the five most populous states -- New York, California, Florida, Texas and Illinois -- be designated as experimental sites for different ways of enforcement, including an ID card. Those five states represent more than a third of all Americans. Jordan's statement indicated that the commission had backed down, at least temporarily, from a more sweeping proposal for a national ID card, which CBS News reported it was considering last month. CBS News had reported in mid-July that the bipartisan "immigration reform" panel would recommend that the government require everyone to have an ID card that will verify eligibility to work and receive government benefits. CBS News reported that under the proposal each card would contain a name, photo, fingerprints, magnetic stripe with personal information and a "verified Social Security number." The network reported that the program would be implemented by age group over a number of years. CBS News said that President Clinton had "tentatively signed off" on the proposal. According to David Banisar of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which has been monitoring the proposed ID card's advance, the trimmed-down proposal -- for an ID "registry" -- will make it easier to get the full ID card program implemented. "It appears that this 'pilot program' is only an attempt to limit initial opposition to the proposal with a future plan to implement it [in] other states as [soon as] possible," said Banisar after the hearing. "In fact," he added, "when the national ID proposal was first floated, the plan was to implement it step by step. They don't want to suggest an ID card, but they really do want one." Although the card is clearly targeted against undocumented workers, particularly workers from Mexico, the card will provide a powerful means of government control over everyone in this country. By trying to blame the electronics-driven economic crisis on welfare moms and undocumented workers, politicians like California Governor Pete Wilson, a proponent of the ID card program, and the Clinton administration hope to make the ID card a requirement for everyone. When Australia proposed a national ID card in 1987, hundreds of thousands of citizens responded with the biggest protest in that nation's history, eventually leading to the dissolution of both houses of parliament. [Thanks to EPIC Alert for much of this information.] ****************************************************************** 4. CALIFORNIA'S WAR ON THE POOR: LEADING THE WORLD IN INCARCERATION A system that cannot feed and house its people must inevitably turn to police terror to control them! California currently incarcerates 200,000 adults. Almost 60 percent of these committed nonviolent drug or property offenses. Eight thousand five hundred youths are in jail and 8,500 youths are in county camps and juvenile halls. Tens of thousands more people are on probation or parole. California jails its people at a greater rate than any country in the world, even including the rest of the United States, which is second. The state jails 626 people out of every 100,000. In 1970, the rate was 228 per 100,000. The state is throwing its people in jail 175 percent faster than it was 20 years ago. This has been handled by the largest prison building program in human history. It costs the state, which is virtually bankrupt, $4 billion a year simply to maintain the system. California does not jail its people equally. Out of every 100,000 Anglos, 215 are incarcerated. For African Americans, 1,951 adults are jailed for every 100,000 people; for Latin Americans, it is 543. The state jails more blacks than South Africa did under apartheid and at a greater rate. The incarceration rate for juveniles is higher than for adults. California jails one-quarter of all children behind bars in the country. Does this massive program of criminalization work? California today has the highest violent crime rate in its history with 1,059 violent crimes per 100,000 people. This is higher than any country in the world, even including the United States which is second with 732 per 100,000 people. A new approach is desperately needed! Notice that these figures sum up the situation before "three strikes" was passed. In the next 20 years, it is projected that the state will jail 200,000 more adults, requiring 80 new prisons and costing $23 billion minimum! Has the state gone crazy? Is California the exception? Far from it. California has always been the national trendsetter. This is the state that gave the country Proposition 13, tax revolts, Ronald Reagan, budget cutbacks and workfare. Regardless of whether your state passes a "three strikes" law, the new federal crime bill will criminalize the poor in your state, too! -- The Oakland Organizing Committee ****************************************************************** 5. FLOOD LAYS WASTE TO GEORGIA BLACK BELT By John Slaughter ATLANTA -- The Great Flood of 1994 laid waste to most of the southwest Georgia Black Belt. Gov. Zell Miller remarked that Georgia had not seen such devastation since the Civil War. Perhaps Tropical Storm Alfredo should have been renamed "Sherman." Thousands of people were made homeless overnight as the flood destroyed homes and even whole towns. The raging waters ripped caskets from their graves. Damage was estimated in excess of $500 million in Dougherty County alone, where Albany, a town of 80,000, is located. Over 30 people lost their lives statewide. The politicians rushed in with promises of aid. President Clinton committed $60 million from the federal government, most of it low- interest government loans. Most people had no insurance and low- income neighborhoods were the hardest hit areas. Those who want to rebuild have no choice but to go deeper into debt. Most of the low-income housing will never be rebuilt. The truth is that the Black Belt of Georgia was already a devastated area, the legacy of an Old South built on cotton plantations and slavery, followed by Jim Crow segregation and economic deprivation. The successes of the civil rights movement did not change that economic equation. As sharecropping disappeared, it was replaced by agribusiness. Farm labor was replaced by heavy machinery, and the masses of people were reduced to a landless poverty in the midst of some of the richest soil in the country. Their choice was to leave their homeland or remain to work the sweatshops and runaway plants for minimum wages. Now even they are leaving. Entire counties have no doctors or medical facilities; education remains segregated and unequal. When the devastation of the flood is cleaned up, the economic devastation that characterizes the Southern Black Belt will remain. Nowhere is the disparity between the "haves" and "have- nots" more glaring. As the waters recede, what is revealed is a bankrupt system that must itself be swept aside. With the aftermath of the flood came a tremendous outpouring of good will and cooperation by thousands of ordinary people. The flood was a great equalizer as, for a time, the deluge wiped even the color line away. One white man whose mobile home was spared turned it over to an African American family with three children because they had no place to go. He said that he had been raised in an orphanage and he knew what it was like to be homeless. The flooded areas of Georgia must be rebuilt, but not upon the foundation of an old, worn-out system that cannot deliver for growing numbers of "have-nots." The sacrifice of the many who gave of themselves to help their fellow human beings in a crisis is an indication of what a society built upon the cooperation and the natural good will of the people could be like. ****************************************************************** 6. ON THE POLICE BEATING OF SHIRLEY ALEJOS (CHICAGO) CHICAGO--Frank Rowley, along with other friends, relatives and supporters of Shirley Alejos, gathered at the 20th District police station here July 30 to protest the brutal police beating of Alejos in early June. This is what Frank Rowley told the People's Tribune: "I'm involved because Shirley is a good friend of mine, ever since I was 12, and because I was beaten by the police when I was 18. I was attending a concert at Chicago Stadium but my ticket was rejected. I got into a scuffle with security and they threw me out. The police took it from there. They drove me to a parking lot. They beat me until I was unconscious. Next thing I knew, I woke up in a cell. They roughed me up again. I was bailed out by my brother. "I think they [the government] plan on panicking us more about drugs and crime and scaring people into hiring more and more police. There is not enough for them [the police] to do, apparently. I don't understand why a man with a gun has to write a parking ticket." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The greatest lesson to be learned in the fight against police brutality is that the police protect the property of the ruling class. All legislation against economic and political crime and all actions against the so-called criminals flow from this proposition. -- From the People's Tribune "Deadly Force" book on the fight against police terror +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 7. LONG (STRONG) BEACH YOUTH WORK TO INCREASE THE PEACE By Fanya Baruti LONG BEACH, California-- It has been an honor for me to work with brothers and sister in Long Beach, the city dubbed "Strong Beach." Today, a strong commitment is developing for a cease-fire in our communities. Our efforts have raised some skepticism, and because of today's violent attitudes, it will be hard to get everyone involved to accept a cease-fire and the responsibility to share the peace. However, nothing and no one will stand in the way of what we are doing. The media attempt to discredit all the grassroots efforts put on by the people who are seriously concerned. This often causes our elders and those who are unfamiliar with what's really going on to misunderstand our youth and the freedom fighters. We are trying to educate the people about what they must do about the "three strikes, you're out" law which is criminalizing our youth. We are trying to create a safe place to meet, since we are harassed whenever we gather in the streets. We are trying to pull our resources together and share career and job training programs, to hold self-esteem groups and drug consultation classes and to have sporting events. A young Afrikan soldier named Duke, who is an aspiring photographer and entrepreneur is making things happen. A 1995 calendar by Duke will be out with the brothers in the 'hood. It also features Snoop Dog, Warren G. and Nate Dog. This project will allow our people to see us as we are and to work with us, instead of against us. All of the rappers coming out of Strong Beach that I have talked with are with the efforts of Pamoja Ndugu (consolidated brothers). PD is a low-key grassroots organization that has formulated to work on keeping our youth alive. Domino, Snoop and the Dog Pound, Tray D., Warren G., The Dove Shack, Young Swoop and many more are part of stopping the violence. There is also the Asian and Latino community that has been hit hard with killings of late. Fortunately, many concerned people are working to mediate the conflicts. From the clergy to the grassroots, it must be understood that the work involved causes some serious dialogue to develop among those who profess to be speaking for our youth. It is time for the usual hoopla and "funny style" political agenda folks to move over and start to allow the efforts of those who are most affected to work out the problem solving with our brothers and sisters. We are tired of the mentality of the bourgeoisie coming together to work around the real issues that is to our demise. The work of PD will prevail over all things because we are working out the cracks. [Fanya Baruti is chairman of the National Organizing Committee Youth Committee and is a group coordinator and conflict mediator of the Black Awareness Community Development Organization, Inc.] ****************************************************************** 8. ARKANSAS TRIPLE EXECUTION: AN ASSEMBLY LINE OF DEATH It had all the efficiency of an assembly line in a modern factory, but this "conveyor belt" was not moving commodities. It was taking human beings to their deaths. The first man was strapped to the gurney. He was injected with a lethal dose of drugs. Eleven minutes later, he was dead. His body was carried out in a body bag. The gurney was wiped down, the needle changed. Fifty-eight minutes after the first man died, the second was dead. Again, the body was removed in a bag, the gurney wiped down and the needle changed. In less than three hours, all three men were dead. They had been executed in order of their prison serial numbers. The execution in Arkansas August 3 was the first such triple execution carried out in the United States since 1962. The efficient assembly line of death which Arkansas prison officials set in motion that day came into being precisely because there are so few of the other kind of assembly lines in America today -- the assembly lines which once employed so many people in this country. Today, robots assemble the commodities that line workers once did. Major corporations dismiss 3,000 people each day. Hunger and discontent are growing. The triple execution was a sign from those who rule America. It was a message from a tiny class of people who can no longer provide jobs, housing or education for millions of us. From the death chamber of an Arkansas prison, that message screamed that they intend to use the most brutal force to hold on to control of this society. Decades ago, multiple executions were common in America. In 1951, Virginia executed eight people on the same day. We cannot allow America to revert to that. The massacre carried out by the state of Arkansas on August 3 shows what America's ruling class has in store for the dispossessed here -- and why that class is no longer fit to rule this country. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "What I want people to know is, that they call me a cold-blooded killer. I shot a man who shot me first. The only thing that convicted me is that I'm a Mexican and he was a police officer. >From there you call me a cold-blooded murderer. I didn't tie anybody to a stretcher. I didn't pump poison into anybody's veins from behind a locked door. You call this justice. I call this and your society a bunch of cold-blooded murderers." -- Henry Porter, just before being executed by lethal injection on July 9, 1985, in Texas. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 9. ARKANSAS TRIPLE EXECUTION SPARKS INTERNATIONAL OUTRAGE By Allen Harris Here and abroad, the same-day execution on August 3 of Hoyt Clines, James Holmes and Darryl Richley has brought condemnation from human rights organizations opposed to capital punishment. The triple execution follows a double execution in Arkansas on May 11. Speaking out were the Capital Punishment Project of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc.; the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project; the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and Amnesty International USA. Also speaking out were the London headquarters of Amnesty International. They condemned the claim by Arkansas officials that multiple executions save time and stress on prison officials. "If an execution is so stressful to prison personnel, what must it do to the society and the state which sanctions it?" said Amnesty headquarters. "The death penalty in all cases is a barbaric practice which brutalizes humanity, particularly the individuals involved in the process," it went on. "By its own admission, the state of Arkansas appears to agree with us." Pursuing that line, the four U.S.-based human rights groups declared that multiple executions "turn back the clock to a time when mass lynchings were the law of the land and individual rights had little meaning. "Such regression ignores the evolution of societal standards of decency and marks the degeneration of a civilized society. This cost is too much to bear." The groups pointed out that the death penalty not only does not deter homicide, it actually increases it. Multiple public executions teach society that it is OK to kill people to solve social problems. "Bloodshed in such proportions is offensive to community standards of decency," they said. "We are outraged by the violent nature of the crime for which Mr. Clines, Mr. Holmes and Mr. Richley [stood] convicted. We have profound sympathy for the victim of the crime, his family and friends. But the crime for which the defendants were convicted must not obscure the fact that capital punishment is inherently brutal and arbitrary and applied in an unfair and racially disproportionate manner." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ MYTH: High imprisonment rates produce low crime rates. FACT: Actually, states with the lowest crime rates are those with the lowest imprisonment rates. Conversely, states with the highest crime rates are the ones with the highest imprisonment rates. Increasing the number of inmates has relatively little impact on crime. SOURCE: USA Today, January 27, 1994. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 10. VIDEOTAPED POLICE BEATING OF 17-YEAR-OLD YOUTH GALVANIZES COMPTON: 'THIS IS _NOT_ A BLACK VS. CHICANO THING' +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "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 Dianne Flowers COMPTON, California --After the video of Compton cop Michael Jackson beating 17-year-old Felipe Soltero flashed across TV screens, community members and organizations dedicated to stopping police brutality have been protesting day and night at the Compton Police Department. And they have been doing more than protesting. They are consciously rejecting the efforts of the powers-that-be and the media to turn this into a racial issue. Jackson is black and Soltero is Mexican. "Divide and conquer" is going strong in Southern California. It is especially being pushed toward African Americans and Mexicans, two of the largest and most oppressed groups here. As they march and shout, hug and laugh, the crowds of mostly African Americans and Mexicans are chipping away at one of the most rotten ideas upholding this vicious system that beats and kills our children. Kim Quarles, an African American teacher from Compton, told the People's Tribune, "I would hate to see this come out to be a racial issue, which it isn't. It was a human being whose rights were violated." Michael Zinzun, of the Coalition Against Police Abuse, spoke to the crowd, condemning a couple of trouble makers who were pushing for a racial orientation. "We accuse them of being provocateurs. This is not a black vs. Chicano thing, but a picket line of blacks and Chicanos. ... We are tired of being put in a position of being homeless and jobless and faced with 'three strikes and you're out.' " Members of Mothers ROC (Mothers Reclaiming Our Children), a group dedicated to protecting youth from the criminal injustice system, put out flyers in the community and called other community groups to join in the protests. The understanding and efforts of these fighters are forging the unity we need to fight this system and win. ****************************************************************** 11. UP AGAINST THE BLUES +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CULTURE UNDER FIRE Culture jumps barriers of geography and color. Millions of Americans create with music, writing, film and video, graffiti, painting, theatre and much more. We need it all, because culture can link together and expand the growing battles for food, housing, and jobs. In turn, these battles provide new audiences and inspiration for artists. Use the "Culture Under Fire'' column to plug in, to express yourself. Write: Culture Under Fire, c/o People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ By Andy Willis Are you ready for the blues? Then the amazing debut album of Michael Hill's Blues Mob on Alligator Records is exactly what you need. Michael Hill grew up in the South Bronx and came to the blues through rock 'n' roll. The album Bloodlines screams, pleads and whispers messages of desperation amid a powerful joy and hope in life. The combinations are devastating. Michael can sing about the pain of violence, of children cut down in the streets; of Vietnam vets as wandering homeless ghosts in the city; of the racist murders at Howard Beach; and of every other tragedy that is the American nightmare. Then he can infuse you with sunlight, psychedelic energy that takes you soaring. Suddenly you realize, on the basis of this music alone, we are going to be victorious; indeed, that we are invincible. Michael Hill has an abundance of the two ingredients that separate guitar genius from empty self-indulgence -- passion and taste. You'll know the difference when you hear it. Check out the cut "Soldier's Blues" for a double dose of guitar fire as Living Colour's Vernon Reid torques it up with Michael and company. The musical chemistry of the Blues Mob -- Michael's brother Kevin on pulsating bass; Tony Hill, driving and compelling on drums; and Fred McFarlane on keyboards that churn, ignite and burn -- is the kind of concoction that takes 20 years to make. The interaction is magic. Are you getting the idea that this is a superlative album? I went searching for adjectives and found that every critic who had reviewed this album had used them all, including my favorite hip- hop label: "Phat." Bloodlines is definitely "Phat." Finally, let's weigh in on the side of these blues. The blues is a touchstone, yea the mother lode, of American music and much of world music. It is not a fad or another diversion. Michael Hill's music is not some schlock stereotype made for beer-guzzling yuppies. And it's not for dried-up academics who know arcane details about long-dead black artists and nothing about their souls. This music is about life. It is simultaneously fun and dangerous, tragic and transcendent. To quote Michael, "We are going into the future maintaining both a connection to our roots and the essence of our culture. We're telling stories that need to be told." It's no coincidence that this album spins out to us at a time when our society is in the throes of a technological revolution. Millions are put on the street to beg, while there exists more than enough for everyone. No wonder there is a sense of madness. If music is nostalgic, hopeless, cynical and death-laden, it fits the direction capitalism is leading us in. The Blues Mob ain't about that. Michael Hill and the Blues Mob represent a revolutionary trend in music that is welcome and uplifting. Go hear them. Go get the album. ****************************************************************** 12. POEM James Michael Briddle [The author welcomes correspondence from anyone who cares to write to him. His address is: James Michael Briddle, #711, Ellis 1 Unit- J 21, Huntsville, Texas 77343.] LIFE AND DEATH The past is foggy now though my mind drifts back; It drifts to jails of yester-year then my visions turn to black. The present's not much better surrounded by walls and bars; And how can I look at a future when it's setting off so far. My past means nothing, my future's even less; And the present is shrouded in this steel and stone wilderness. The sunshine is so far away, the clouds are lingering on; And everything I've owned, my possessions, they are gone. But my heart is still beating, and my lungs are full of air; I'm still alive ... or am I, I no longer know or care!!! ****************************************************************** 13. BREAKING THE BLACKOUT: ZANETTA'S STORY: 'WE KNOW WHAT'S RIGHT' [Editor's note: Below we print a statement we received from Oakland, California.] One Monday in July, I went down to the welfare office to apply for AFDC. I'm a black woman with six kids. But the receptionist got an attitude and started questioning me about my personal business. She was just the receptionist -- not even a social worker -- but she was asking me who I was sleeping with and stuff like that. She said, "You're 38 years old and why are you going to have another?" I told her it was my business what I do, how I spend my money, how I carry myself and what I do with my personal life. So she refused to give me an application. I had to ask for the supervisor, who finally gave me an application. But when I filled it out, she rejected it almost immediately. She threw it on the table like it was ordinary paper. I went outside and, together with about 10 women who were there that day, we started protesting. We started telling the people who were going in how the workers inside were coming down on the women like they were dogs. They don't have the right to do us that way. So the receptionist called the police. When the police came we told them we have a right to apply for AFDC like anyone else. By now there were 25 women there, most of us pregnant. We were sticking together to fight for what we believe. The receptionist came out and couldn't shut up. She ran on about "welfare bitches" and "hoes." She said we were never going to be anybody. Well, we weren't going to take that. The supervisor came out and tried to get the police to escort us off the property. Finally, a paddy wagon showed up and they arrested all 25 of us; six of us for disturbing the peace and 19 for interfering in an arrest. Now we have to go to court in September. When they put me in jail, I didn't care because I know I'm fighting for something that's right. I'm here fighting for other women. They put me in jail because I'm black and I'm pregnant and I've got six kids. I'm not going to let them talk to me like any kind of way. You've got to give respect to get respect. I'm going to fight for what we know. I believe in fighting for my country and in fighting for what's right. We can make this world a whole lot better place if we stick together as one. ****************************************************************** 14. 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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