Date: Mon, 29 Aug 94 10:27 CDT From: James Davis To: pt.dist@umich.edu Subject: People's Tribune (Online Edition) 8-29-94 ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vow. 21 No. 35 / August 29, 1994 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 35 / August 29, 1994 FRONT PAGE STORY FOLLOWS INDEX Editorial 1. SECRET SPY BUILDING: STOLEN BY AND FOR THE CAPITALISTS News 2. WELCOME TO THE (POLICE) STATE OF GEORGIA 3. BATTLE OVER WELFARE HEATS UP IN MASSACHUSETTS 4. SAN FRANCISCO DRIVES THE HOMELESS FROM UNION SQUARE 5. SINGLE-PAYER DEMONSTRATORS TAUGHT CRUEL LESSON OF U.S. POLITICS Focus on the National Democratic Convention in Mexico 6. FROM ARMED REVOLT TO POLITICAL REVOLUTION: CONVENTION SETS PROGRAM FOR MEXICAN REVOLUTION Deadly Force 7. TEXAS EXECUTES MAN DESPITE EVIDENCE OF HIS INNOCENCE Announcements, Events, etc. 8. CRIME EXPLOSION IS A MYTH 9. 'BATTLEFRONTS OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT' - SPECIAL INSERT COMING 10. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE +----------------------------------------------------------------+ WE DON'T NEED A CRIME BILL... WE NEED FOOD, HOMES, HEALTH CARE AND EDUCATION! The boss fires you. A robot makes what you used to make for the boss to sell on the market. No more wages -- not for you or for the robot. The robot needs nothing; the jobless human being needs everything. With no money, you can't buy, and the boss who fired you ain't giving you none of what his robot is making. No food, clothing, homes or health care. Instead, what he does give you is the crime bill; "three strikes" laws; more executions; welfare "reform" (which really means evicting people from the welfare rolls); and censorship. He expects the poor and jobless to feed, clothe and house themselves. That's what all his propaganda about "family values," "individual responsibility" and "common standards of decency" really means. All the while, the rulers make more excuses for their own uselessness, and drop all pretense of social responsibility and moral decency. Food and other goods are piled high in stores and warehouses; perfectly good homes stand empty; hospitals and schools close. Where is the common standard of decency in that? We know what real responsibility, real decency is: It's showing that there is a solution to this crisis. It's showing that the technology which the rulers use to impoverish us can be used by us to end poverty. The abundance this society can produce could be distributed to everyone according to need. No one has to be left out for lack of money. We know what's really moral and decent: ending poverty, injustice and inequality. Let's organize to seize the future for ourselves and make this decency a reality. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: SECRET SPY BUILDING: STOLEN BY AND FOR THE CAPITALISTS Just another construction project outside the nation's capital. A slick-looking corporate complex of four glass-encased mid-rises in the Virginia suburbs near Dulles Airport. But it wasn't just another office complex. It was the government's future center for running its worldwide spy satellite and electronic eavesdropping program. It was to be the new home of the National Reconnaissance Office, an outfit jointly run by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Department. >From the NRO's founding in 1960, it remained classified until 1992. You couldn't even utter its initials. According to the Associated Press, its annual budget is $6 billion, making it one of the government's largest agencies. Six billion bucks a year! No wonder it was classified. Of course, president and Congress are calling for investigations of this project. The People's Tribune has already investigated and this is what we have found. The seven million homeless had nothing to do with this project, nor did the nation's mothers on welfare, nor the youth nor anyone in the new class of 80 million Americans who are in poverty and forced to fight for their survival. Not one of them had anything to do with this monstrosity. What we did find, through press reports, is that the project was disguised as a private development by defense contractor Rockwell International and that it is listed in the Fairfax County, Virginia, record books as the owner of the building. A county building inspector, Brian Smith, said the complex will be taxed as private property. This revelation again teaches that the real criminals in this society are the capitalists. They own and control this government. That $315 million construction project stands as further proof that the capitalist class is no longer fit to rule and must go. ****************************************************************** 2. WELCOME TO THE (POLICE) STATE OF GEORGIA By John Slaughter ATLANTA -- They can't build the jails fast enough in Georgia. Space for nearly 3,400 inmates has been added in the past two years, yet the backlog waiting in county jails continues to grow. There are already more than 30,000 in state prisons, and 2,300 more will be added by the end of the year. In 1989, attorneys for the inmates threatened a federal lawsuit because of the chronic overcrowding. The state responded by raising the sales tax one percent to pay for construction of new jails for 10,000 new prisoners. The last of these are coming on line now. Yet the overcrowding persists and is bound to get worse. 'TWO STRIKES AND YOU'RE OUT' How many of our citizens can we lock up and still call ourselves a free society? A change in Georgia state law is now re-routing more of our youth into the adult prison population. Governor Zell "Zig- Zag" Miller is running for re-election and he has had placed on the ballot this fall a referendum for a "two strikes and you're out" law, under which, for certain felonies, a second offense would bring life in prison without parole. There would also be many crimes which would carry a mandatory sentence of 10 years without parole for the first offense. Thousands of Georgia's young adults are being sentenced to "boot camp" prisons on minor first offenses. While some may raise the question, "Can the clock be turned back?" in the South, we cannot forget that the first police state in this country was the Old South, built upon a slave system in which fundamental rights of human beings were brutally denied. Practices and policies that were first perfected in the South soon become national trends. There are alarming signs that America is becoming a police state. Zell Miller was elected as a "progressive" "New South" governor. So was Bill Clinton in Arkansas. Miller had the Georgia primary for nominating the president of the United States in 1992 held early on and then had the nomination delivered to Clinton. Clinton's nomination was virtually assured. Clinton's turn to the right has been marked with Zell Miller's programs, from welfare reform to the recent crime bill. And it is the reactionary bloc of Southern representatives in Congress who won't allow any real reform in health care to pass. The Southern politicians who run their states, and Zell Miller is a sterling representative, have made a decision: Jails instead of education, instead of health care, instead of homes, instead of jobs. Welfare? Jails and to hell with them, say these politicians. In their view, the only people who have any rights are those who have property -- big business, the wealthy, the elites -- and the role of government is to protect their big property from the rest of us! Well, they had better look again. A democracy isn't worth the paper its constitution is printed on if it doesn't include the fundamental rights of every human being to a home, a job, a quality education and health care. Anything less is criminal. We cannot and we will not allow the clock to be turned back. We can begin with the defeat of Miller's police state bill in Georgia and the defeat of any future federal "crime" legislation. After that, perhaps we can begin to put the real criminals in jail. ****************************************************************** 3. BATTLE OVER WELFARE HEATS UP IN MASSACHUSETTS By Jackie Dee King BOSTON -- The battle over welfare "reform," which is raging in Massachusetts this summer, is of national significance for both sides of the struggle. In June, the Massachusetts Welfare Rights Union organized a coalition of groups to wage a weeklong Siege for Survival at the Statehouse to protest the sweeping welfare cuts and punitive policies under debate by the Legislature. Welfare mothers and homeless people from across the state were joined by welfare rights leaders from Detroit, Philadelphia and New York for the weeklong encampment on the historic Boston Common. The siege culminated in a People's Tribunal which charged the government with genocidal policies against the poor. Dottie Stevens, co-director of the MWRU, said, "Ending welfare as we know it is not lifting people out of poverty. We're going to see a great increase in homelessness as these welfare cuts come down and a rise in malnutrition rates, infant mortality rates and despair. "We're here today to indict this government for the abuse and the murder and the battering that they are perpetrating on our children and our families. We are taxpayers. We are registered voters. And we will run for office and get them out!" In early July, the Democrat-controlled Legislature voted for a repressive package of cuts in welfare programs: A two-year limit on Aid to Families with Dependent Children benefits; forced workfare (which drives down the wages of all workers); a family cap (withholding benefits from infants born to a mother on AFDC); a requirement that teen-age mothers on AFDC live at home or in state-run institutions; and a cut in benefits to families whose children miss school. Gov. William Weld, a right-wing Republican millionaire, vetoed the package because it wasn't severe enough! Weld has proposed the most draconian welfare program in the country: 60 days and off! He also threatened to withdraw Massachusetts from the federal welfare program if legislators don't go along with his proposal. Welfare mothers from Massachusetts then took their fight to the national level. They raised enough funds to send 11 people to a conference in Washington, called "Who Speaks for the Poor?" There, they linked up with welfare rights leaders from across the country. The work in the coming period will focus on breaking the blackout of poor people's struggles, running local slates of candidates to elect the victims of poverty and organizing to build a grassroots movement. Marian Kramer, president of the National Welfare Rights Union, said at the People's Tribunal in Boston: "It's time to knock on doors again! It's time to organize like we have done in the past. "And they think the '60s were something? This is a new day. Because we're not talking about organizing the '60s. In the '60s, we were able to go out and become a part of the working force and stop being treated like second-class citizens. ... This time, we've got to turn this nation upside down -- for the future of our children!" +----------------------------------------------------------------+ [The following quotes are excerpts from testimony at the People's Tribunal on the Boston Common on June 27.] Stacy Hill, of the Coalition for Basic Human Needs: I'm a former battered woman and I'm here today to indict Gov. (William) Weld for standing up in hearings and saying that I need a kick in the pants to get a job! And for saying that welfare women need a shove. That's abuse! ... I'd like to indict the media, who talk about women on welfare and then talk about "twenty-somethings" who are just getting out of college and can't get a job doing anything but flipping hamburgers and then fail to make the simple connection between those two things! There aren't jobs for anyone! People with Ph.D.s can't get jobs! There's something wrong in the world and it's not with me and it's not with any other poor person! Diane Dujon, of the Massachusetts Welfare Rights Union: The policies that are being proposed in the Legislature and in Congress are being used to divide this nation ... to divide people who are on AFDC from people who are working. We are all the same class! And as companies downsize and as government privatizes, more and more people are going to be thrown out of work and then they are going to need these programs. ... [About workfare:] The last time we had full employment, it was called slavery! We cannot go backwards! We cannot have people working with no rights, with no dignity, with no benefits, with no options, with no freedom! ... These policies are not just against welfare recipients. They are against the entire working class! Cheri Honkala, of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union in Philadelphia: We want real welfare reform, which is the abolishment of welfare! ... We'd like to do away with the whole damn thing. We'd like to have a guaranteed annual income in this country. We'd like to get up in the morning and eat, we'd like to go to bed at night with a roof over our head, we'd like to be able to put on clean socks and shoes. ... This issue is not up for debate. For us, eating, sleeping, having a roof over our heads, is not up for debate. We will take over houses, we will feed our people, if we have to steal all the food out of the grocery stores, if we have to take over abandoned property, if we have to move our people into the Statehouse to live --we will do that! We want to make it real clear to any media here today: Death is not an option for welfare recipients in this country! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 4. SAN FRANCISCO DRIVES THE HOMELESS FROM UNION SQUARE By Sarah Menefee SAN FRANCISCO -- In a chilling new move in San Francisco's war against the poor -- and another blow to everybody's rights -- downtown Union Square now closes at midnight and anyone inside (that is, anyone homeless and sleeping there) is rousted, driven out, ticketed or arrested. Part of Mayor Frank Jordan's brutal homeless-bashing Matrix program, this closure, which went into effect on July 19, is nothing but a form of torture, using our tax dollars to pay the police to drive people who have nowhere else to go out of a relatively safe refuge. The plan, promoted by and carried out in the interests of the rich and powerful businesses in the Union Square and downtown areas, sacrifices human and civil rights for the plan to legally create a redlined, poor-free zone -- a frightening setup in the building of the police state and the imposition of fascist rule. First they came for the homeless ... . If we allow this to be done to those whose only crime is having no place to lay their heads, what will be there to protect us when they come after us? [Sarah Menefee is a member of the Homeless Committee of the San Francisco Organizing Committee.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ SAN FRANCISCO RULERS SWEEP AWAY HOMELESS PEOPLE By Yolanda Catzalco SAN FRANCISCO -- Walking the streets from early in the morning to late at night -- that's the life and future of those lucky enough to have a shelter bed for the night. It doesn't matter if it's cold, windy or rainy, summer or winter. That's the life of those fortunate enough to be included by the computerized lottery or because you're first in line. There are 30 or 40 women competing with each other to be the first in line. Of course, there are going to be fights. All that anger and frustration, and, more than anything, all that destitution and lack of sleep bottled up inside. The worst thing of all is that once you're thrown out of these city-financed shelters, you have nothing to look forward to but the streets. And to top it all off, the mayor is openly telling the homeless that they can't sleep on the streets, either. Without any shame or remorse, he's conducting street sweeps of the homeless all over the city. African Americans, Mexican people, Anglo-Americans, Native Americans, veterans, gay people, transgenders are all being victimized by these sweeps. Now he's even redlining Union Square. He's ticketing poor, defenseless people who have all their worldly goods in shopping carts and putting them in jail after dumping away and burning the contents of the carts. The city government of San Francisco has no shame in "cleaning up" around City Hall so the homeless won't be an "eyesore" to the many buses that daily bring picture-taking tourists. The bourgeois (capitalist) press doesn't say anything about the lines of armed police officers confronting the homeless in front of City Hall. For the homeless, every day, there is a constant, personal, physical recognition that the United States is moving towards a police state. The question is, what are we, the people, going to do about it? The rich (those who own the means of production) have taken away all the rights of human beings for shelter, food, clothing and protection from police terror. That's right: the pyramid is growing at the bottom and getting smaller at the top, and I know that sooner or later we're not going to stand for a government that has discarded the people for whom it proclaims to ensure a livelihood. [Yolanda Catzalco is a member of the Homeless Committee of the San Francisco Organizing Committee. She lives in a shelter in San Francisco.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 5. SINGLE-PAYER DEMONSTRATORS TAUGHT CRUEL LESSON OF U.S. POLITICS By Jim Fite WASHINGTON -- Three hundred people from 10 states joined the Lobby Day for single-payer universal health care August 4. The largest delegation -- more than 100 people -- was from Maryland where the Grey Panthers, the White Lung Association, Health Care for the Homeless, the Baltimore Homeless Union and the state UCHAN crowded the office of Representative Kweisi Mfume of Baltimore, who also is leader of the Congressional Black Caucus. Mfume, a longtime supporter of single-payer, agreed to the meeting after petitions representing thousands of voters for single-payer were presented to him. Under the direction of Public Citizen, the "citizen lobbyists" were to challenge Mfume about his recent support of "managed care" legislation. Mfume gave the "citizen lobbyists" a lesson in capitalist politics. He reminded them that any legislation considered by the House of Representatives must have 218 votes to pass. This allows different caucuses, particularly the Democrats from the South, rural areas and Republicans, to form a bloc which dictates legislation to the rest of the country. If a bill does get tremendous backing from the public and is passed in the House, it can easily be defeated (as was the ban on striker replacement!) in the Senate. The Senate, where reactionaries always constitute a majority, is the safety net for the rich and powerful. He also noted that recent population changes, which are reflections of what is produced in the United States and where it is produced, have reorganized Congress so that funds are shifted from large urban areas to newly developed rural or suburban production centers. Cities have trouble getting money for anything except subsidies to business, police and property redevelopment schemes. As Mfume looked into the tired faces of his constituents, he knew he could do nothing for them but voice meaningless agreements and thank each of them for coming. Health care workers and organizations must prepare the next round of struggle. This will be to preserve emergency rooms, expand drug and alcohol rehab, HIV and tuberculosis care and care for the homeless, to expand the benefits of all Medicaid and Medicare programs, to guarantee the health care for those injured or diseased from their job, to make prison health care better than that provided under Medicare C and to establish a single-payer (no insurance companies) universal (includes everyone regardless of citizenship.) Conferences, meetings and demonstrations are underway not just in Maryland, but throughout the United States, to continue the education and organization of those who must have health care to survive. The trip to Washington was good for another reason: Many new people, new fighters, new voices were there for the first time. The lesson in life was well worth the day's work. But we need larger numbers. If health care affects your survival, join us. For further information, contact the Health Committee of the NOC, Region III, through Jim Fite at 410-366-5918. ****************************************************************** 6. FROM ARMED REVOLT TO POLITICAL REVOLUTION: CONVENTION SETS PROGRAM FOR MEXICAN REVOLUTION By Abdul Alkalimat SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Chiapas, Mexico -- For four days (August 6-9), the revolutionary and democratic forces in Mexico held a convention to begin preparing for fundamental social and political change. With the action of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas became the focal point of armed struggle against the one-party dictatorship of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. By hosting the National Democratic Convention, the Lacandon Jungle became the focal point of a political struggle to define a program for massive civil resistance and political transformation of the Mexican state. The people of Mexico are being pulled into a ground swell of social revolution in this era of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The opening shot was the emergence of the EZLN on January 1. As one journalist put it, "Many Mexicans went to bed dreaming of NAFTA and becoming like the USA, and when they woke up they didn't find the USA, but [instead] guerrilla war like in Guatemala." After considerable discussion in the councils of the indigenous leadership, the EZLN rejected the offers by the Salinas government for reforms to settle all demands. Instead, the EZLN called for a broad convention to make a plan to replace the government. At least 15,000 delegates requested credentials. While a plan was made for 6,000 participants, nearly 8,000 showed up. These delegates represented peasant farmers, community-based groups of the urban poor and organizations of both employed and unemployed workers, as well as teachers, students, professionals, small- business owners and political organizations and parties of all varieties. In preparation, local conventions were held in at least 18 of the 31 states of Mexico, based on the five main topics of the convention: (1) the inviability of the one-party dictatorship of the PRI; (2) the 11-point program of the EZLN; (3) a peaceful transition based on massive civil resistance; (4) a transitional government; and (5) a new constitution. There were two main parts of the convention: one day of workshops in the city of San Cristobal de las Casas on the five main topics, and a two-day plenary session deep in the Lacandon Jungle. Each workshop had at least 1,000 delegates. The morning session was devoted to convention rules, five-minute speeches from at least 30 delegates chosen at random, and the submission of written documents. The afternoon was devoted to proposals to take to the jungle. Great unity was reached on the program proposed by the EZLN, but two issues were tabled until the plenary session. One was the possible convention endorsement of Cuauhtemoc Cardenas. Cardenas is the presidential candidate of Mexico's Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) in the August 21 election. Everyone opposed the candidates of the PRI and the National Action Party. However, a PRD endorsement had some opposition from the Right and the Left. The Left argument was that the PRD would betray the spirit of the convention decisions. The Right argument was that the convention's endorsement would drive middle-class voters away from Cardenas. The convention did not endorse the PRD, but explicitly opposed the PRI as the main obstacle to peace and democracy. A second issue was the possible convention endorsement of armed struggle. This issue was the basis for the EZLN winning the hearts and minds of a new and broader base of support. In a major speech given by Subcomandante Marcos of the EZLN, the point was made that the focus of political struggle at this stage is the question of electoral fraud. Because fraud has already occurred, forces at the convention were urged to prepare massive social protest to force the government out. The EZLN announced that while it is an army and, as such, would never surrender its arms, the decision to escalate the armed struggle to overthrow the state was being turned over to the convention leadership. This created a new politics: if political unity could be reached and maintained, and if the masses of people could be organized in mass protests, then armed repression by the government could be offset by the threat of armed resistance by the EZLN. The democratic leaders of the Mexican people are facing the practical possibility of ending a dictatorship and facing the challenge of transforming the state. Today in Mexico, the fires of revolutionary optimism burn in the villages, the barrios, and in every center of political discussion and debate. This revolutionary upsurge begins with the land question and the indigenous, but runs right through every aspect of Mexican society. The first battle cries have been put quite clearly: Land and Liberty! Freedom or Death! More are being raised every day. Revolutionaries in the United States must stand ready to unite with this revolutionary upsurge, to stand shoulder to shoulder with our comrades in Mexico. The main task is to deepen and broaden the fight right here in the United States, especially on the question of immigration and the rights of the undocumented workers who will be forced to cross the border during the coming struggle. These are the times we dream of, the time when the poor masses rise to take control of history. Forward, comrades all, to the work that we must do! Abdul Alkalimat is the International Secretary of the NOC. He attended the National Democratic Convention in Chiapas as the representative of the National Organizing Committee. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Heavy-duty riot-control equipment recently arrived in Mexico from the United States and Russia, the Washington Post reported August 7. The equipment includes: * Eighteen 13-ton water cannons from Cadillac Gage Textron in Warren, Michigan. These cost $500,000 each and are used for crowd control. * Several 17-ton Cobra riot-control vehicles from Custom Armoring in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. These vehicles are equipped with plows to destroy barricades, indelible dye to mark protesters for subsequent arrest and rows of gun ports. * Twenty-three tanks and armored vehicles, unloaded August 4 in Veracruz from the Russian-flag vessel Ulan Bator. * Between 200-300 tons of war materiel, including rifles and other firearms. * Military equipment, including riot-control vehicles, unloaded June 16 from the Russian freighter Trutskavets. This sounds more like preparation for the Gulf War than the routine "replacing" of older equipment, the explanation given by a Mexican government spokesman. Source: The Washington Post, August 7 edition, pages A23 and C1- C2, via the IGC News Desk. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 7. DEADLY FORCE: TEXAS EXECUTES MAN DESPITE EVIDENCE OF HIS INNOCENCE For 10 years, another man has admitted he committed the crime for which Robert Drew was executed. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "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 Marta Glass HOUSTON, Texas -- Despite another man's confession that he committed the crime, the state of Texas took the life of Robert Nelson Drew, 35, a native of West Pawlet, Vermont in August. As his wife Judith and friends from Vermont and Texas looked on, Drew was put to death by lethal injection in the first moments of August 2. Outside the gates of the "Walls" unit of the Texas state prison in Huntsville, representatives of Amnesty International from Sweden, Denmark and Great Britain joined U.S. death penalty abolitionist groups in calling for an end to the slaughter in the Texas death house. Drew's case first came to national attention when a state court judge signed his death warrant with a "smiley face" symbol. In another part of the Texas state prison system, Ernest Puralewski continued to declare that he alone committed the crime for which Robert Drew paid the ultimate price. Puralewski has made this confession and signed affidavits to the facts numerous times over the past 10 years. Drew was never allowed to bring this evidence into court during his appeals due to the infamous "30-day rule" which is the law in Texas. This rule states that evidence which comes to light more than 30 days after conviction will not be considered on appeal even if that evidence shows the possibility of innocence. Puralewski confessed to the murder of 17-year-old Jeffery Mays on the 101st day after Drew was convicted and sentenced to death for the crime. Robert Drew maintained his innocence until the end. In his final statement to supporters, Drew asked that they not be discouraged and that they continue to fight to focus the eyes of the world on the Texas death machine. Robert Drew became the 79th person put to death in Texas since the reinstitution of the death penalty in 1976. [Marta Glass is a prisoner advocate and anti-death penalty activist in Texas. For more information about the fight against the death penalty, contact her at 410-X, Highway 6 South #2432, Houston, Texas 77079.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 'I'VE GOT RIGHTS' Thomas Curtis, along with other friends, relatives and supporters of Shirley Alejos, gathered at the 20th district police station in Chicago July 30 to protest the brutal police beating of Alejos in early June. This is what Thomas Curtis told the People's Tribune: "I got beat by the police -- look at my mouth. This happened in 1989. ... The police Office of Professional Standards covered up for the police. They beat me and kicked my teeth in. "They offered me $4,000 -- they were going to say I fell down the stairs. They had no right to beat me. They had me cuffed behind my back and kicked my teeth out. "The police called me every name in the book. I'm an American -- I've got rights." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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 +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 8. CRIME EXPLOSION IS A MYTH MYTH: Longer prison sentences reduce recidivism (repeat offenses). FACT: There is no relationship between the length of imprisonment and inmate recidivism rates. In fact, inmates who are released early from prison have the same or lower recidivism rates as those who serve their full terms. Furthermore, offenders who are placed on probation instead of going to prison have lower re-arrest rates. MYTH: Inmates are now serving far shorter prison terms than before. FACT: Since 1923, the average length of stay for prisoners has always been about two years. However, because of harsher sentencing policies that were implemented in the 1980s, the average length of stay is now beginning to increase and will continue to rise over the next few years. ****************************************************************** 9. 'BATTLEFRONTS OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT' - SPECIAL INSERT COMING The National Labor Union Committee of the National Organizing Committee has pulled together a special 4-page Labor Day pullout (Issue #36). Labor leaders such as Ashaki Binta, director of organization, Black Workers for Justice, Rocky Mount, North Carolina; Ed Kelly, executive director, Jersey Unemployment Project; George Bru, president, International Longshoremen's Association Local 1459; Bob Brown, national vice president of the United Electrical Workers; Noel Beasley, international vice president of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, among others, speak out about their views on not only what's wrong with America, but also how to fix it. Order your extra bundle of copies of this special issue now! Call 312-486-3551. ****************************************************************** 10. 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. 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