From jdav@mcs.comThu Nov 10 01:50:28 1994 Date: Wed, 9 Nov 94 21:57 CST From: James Davis To: pt.dist@umich.edu Subject: People's Tribune 11-14-94 (Online Ed.) ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 46 / November 14, 1994 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 21 No. 46 / November 14, 1994 FRONT PAGE STORY FOLLOWS INDEX Editorial 1. LET'S STOP GOVERNMENT'S WELFARE PROGRAMS FOR THE RICH! News 2. MEXICO'S DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT MEETS IN ZAPATISTA TERRITORY 3. FLORIDA VOTERS REJECT BIGOTRY 4. WHAT'S THE RIGHT WING UP TO IN AMERICA? 5. CALIFORNIA STUDENTS WALK OUT TO PROTEST ANTI-IMMIGRANT MEASURE 6. UNITY GROWS AGAINST PROPOSITIONS 184 AND 187 7. CLINTON REWARDS S.F. MAYOR FOR CRACKING DOWN ON POOR 8. ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD: WHAT'S REAL IN ATLANTA American Lockdown 9. PRISONERS RESPOND TO 'AMERICAN LOCKDOWN': 'WE FINALLY HAVE SOME REPRESENTATION' Deadly Force 10. BOOMERANG BULLETS OR SCAPEGOAT? Culture Under Fire 11. 'KING OF CALIFORNIA' ALBUM: DAVID ALVIN CONJURES UP A BITTERSWEET MASTERPIECE 12. NOAM CHOMSKY SPEAKS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS Welfare for the Rich 13. DEREGULATION EQUALS WELFARE FOR THE RICH! 14. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PAGE 1 STORY ONE MILLION PRISONERS IN AMERICA -- A RECORD! LET'S UNLOCK THE SHACKLES OF MISERY! The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that the number of prisoners in state and federal prisons reached a record one million last June. This figure does not include the additional number locked up in city and county jails. One in five are imprisoned in Texas and California. More Americans are behind bars than ever before. More Americans are behind bars than there were South Africans behind bars under apartheid. Those one million state and federal prisoners roughly equal the population of Detroit. It's a sign of the times we live in. The ruling class of millionaires and billionaires crows that it is getting tough on crime. But that'll be true only when they lock themselves up and throw away the key. No, this sign of the times absolutely and directly has to do with the worsening of unemployment, homelessness and poverty. The ruling class is getting tough on the poor with more prisons, more executions, more police terror. If there's any boom left in this economy, it's in the prison- building business, given a big boost by the recently enacted crime bill. Without prisons to contain the sons and daughters of the 80 million Americans in poverty, the ruling class could not stay in power. In place of a home, a prison cell. In place of a school, a prison cell. In place of a hospital, a prison cell. In place of a job, a prison cell. Locked up along with the poor is the emerging high technology that can produce abundant food, clothing, homes and all our human needs with few or no workers. That technology is locked behind the high gates of the billionaires' "property rights," where it only serves their purposes of private profit. That technology is the key to our freedom from want. Let's grab that key and unlock our shackles of misery. Then we, the workers of yesterday, the victims of poverty of today, will rise from the nightmare of billionaire rule and of prisons to find ourselves in the freest and happiest society the world has ever known. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: LET'S STOP GOVERNMENT'S WELFARE PROGRAMS FOR THE RICH! For many people, the word "government" has now become a dirty word -- like the words "welfare" and "taxes." Only 19 percent of those surveyed in a recent public opinion poll think the American people can always trust the government. That's why so many politicians, desperate to get elected, say they're against a welfare state. These politicians restrict their definition of "welfare" to programs that house, feed and care for people. But are the people without money really the culprits in the welfare state? Or are the real "welfare recipients" in America the corporations and politicians who absorb much more in taxpayer dollars than the poor do? In a report called Aid to Dependent Corporations, James Donahue writes: "This year, taxpayers will spend $51 billion in direct subsidies to business and lose another $53.3 billion in tax breaks for corporations." For example, a TV program called "Frontline" found that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has given $100 billion in subsidies to farmers in the last decade. This helped big agribusiness finish off almost 30,000 small farms. Eighty percent of this government aid went to 20 percent of this country's farms. This year, all the subsidies will go to farmers with incomes exceeding $500,000 a year. Some of the families of those ruined farmers ended up receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Most of the five million families on the AFDC program receive only $370 a month. Compare that sum to the huge amount of corporate welfare given to big agribusiness! Our political leaders guarantee that they will have a steady supply of campaign funds by pouring money from the U.S. Treasury down the gullet of corporate America. They have given millions to prosperous companies like Campbell's Soup, M&M/Mars, McDonald's and Bristol Myers Squibb. Our political representatives have bailed out big companies like Chrysler and entire industries like the S&Ls. They give away the trees in our national parks to the lumber industry. They let the rich man's cattle graze on our public lands. They let mining companies rob mineral resources on government land. No wonder the American people don't trust the government. Our rulers don't serve us; we carry them on our backs! We must end welfare to the rich -- not in two years, but now! ****************************************************************** 2. MEXICO'S DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT MEETS IN ZAPATISTA TERRITORY By Rich Monje SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Chiapas, Mexico -- The political crisis in Mexico has deepened. Mexico has been through fraud in the 1988 elections; the January 1994 rebellion in Chiapas by the Zapatistas; the March 23 assassination of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio; fraud in the August 1994 elections; and the September 28 assassination of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, the general secretary of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). These events have all shown that the PRI cannot continue to rule in the old way. The movement for democracy in Mexico has developed alongside the crisis. At this time, that movement is reflected in the National Democratic Convention (CND). The CND was convened by the Zapatista National Liberation Army. The CND held its first session in August 1994. Over 6,000 delegates attended. A representative of the National Organizing Committee attended that meeting. The CND also invited the NOC to attend the National Day for Democracy and Peace with Dignity in Chiapas. It began with a caravan from all over Mexico which arrived for a meeting of the CND in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas on October 10-11. On October 12, 35,000 indigenous people and campesinos marched to the central plaza in San Crist—bal de las Casas. People from all over Chiapas participated. On October 14, the CND convened a meeting inside Zapatista territory in Aguascalientes, Chiapas. An open, frank discussion was held about the direction of the CND and its future plans. This included a call for the second session of the CND to be held November 4-6 in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas. The struggle for democracy in Mexico has reached a new level. It will affect the revolutionary struggle in the United States as well as the Mexican immigrant. The People's Tribune and the NOC are committed to assisting the revolutionary struggle for democracy in Mexico, especially through the practical struggle in the United States and, most importantly, by preventing our government from intervening in the internal affairs of Mexico. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE SALUTES SECOND CHIAPAS CONVENTION WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT As we go to press, the second session of the National Democratic Convention is about to begin in Chiapas, Mexico. Our sister publication, the Tribuno del Pueblo, is sending its editor, Rich Monje, to participate in this important meeting. The People's Tribune salutes the CND and wishes it the best in its deliberations. The struggle for democracy in Mexico has reached a new level. It will affect the revolutionary struggle in the United States. It is crucial that information about this struggle be spread quickly, We need your monetary support to help cover the expenses connected with covering these important developments in Mexico. Send donations to: People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 3. FLORIDA VOTERS REJECT BIGOTRY TAVARES, Florida --Voters here took control of the Lake County school board away from the conservative group called the "Christian Coalition" earlier this year. These voters put a stop to a policy the board had adopted which ordered local teachers to instruct their students that American culture is superior to all other cultures. The ousted conservative school board members had also demanded that creationism, "Christian values" and abstinence-only sex education be taught in the local schools. The voters who ousted these school board members don't see the "value" of bigotry. Good for them! ****************************************************************** 4. WHAT'S THE RIGHT WING UP TO IN AMERICA? By Leslie Willis CHICAGO -- During the recent election campaigns, few politicians promised jobs, health care and better benefits for the needy. Most candidates competed with each other over who was the toughest crime fighter. They did promise to imprison people longer and execute people quicker than ever before. Many candidates promised to treat children as adult offenders, sentencing them as adults and even executing them. Another popular theme was the call to cut off welfare and programs that aid the poor. Threats and slander against the immigrant population also became the banner of some major candidates. This continuing rightward shift in politics is happening within both the Republican and the Democratic parties. According to Russ Bellant, an author who studies the right wing, "The Republican establishment is married to the Christian right; it can't win an election without them. But the Democrats refuse to address the essential role of the Christian right in the Republican Party, so the coalition is allowed to thrive and defeat them."[1] This "essential role" can be partly understood by knowing the views of the Christian right. A leader of the Christian Reconstruction movement, R.J. Rushdoony, takes the position that so-called right-thinking Christians should take "dominion" over America and do away with the "heresy" that is democracy.[2] Christianity Today reports that Rushdoony believes that in a Christian nation, "homosexuals ... adulterers, blasphemers, astrologers and others will be executed."[3] Rushdoony, along with members from other Christian right organizations, belongs to a council whose members come from many of the nation's right-wing groups. It is called the Council for National Policy (CNP), whose current president is former Attorney General Edwin Meese.[4] The CNP's membership is reportedly known to include Oliver North; Senator Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina); Richard Shoff, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana; Robert Weiner, head of Maranatha, a Christian cult; the Reverend Jerry Falwell and General John Singlaub, an Iran-contra figure.[5] According to Bellant, "When the leadership of the American radical right needs a strategy, chances are very good that the planning will occur in a meeting of the CNP. "The meetings of this secretive and little-known organization are often a springboard for radical-right campaigns and long-term planning. But these efforts will seldom be traced to the CNP," according to Bellant.[6] Another organization is the Christian Coalition. It was founded in 1990 and has approximately one million members in 872 county chapters that are supported by an annual budget of $20 million.[7] Executive director Ralph Reed says the coalition's membership is growing by 10,000 people a week. The group's headquarters in Chesapeake, Virginia, has a phone system able to generate 100,000 phone calls in a single weekend. With a sophisticated computer system, the Coalition is obtaining voting records from every precinct in the United States.[8] The coalition supplies its 872 chapters with the computerized voting rolls for their county which the chapters use to build "a voter ID file," in Reed's words.[9] Working from these lists, volunteers call each voter in the county seeking likely supporters and coding their responses as belonging to one of 43 identified hot-button issues such as crime.[10] Organizing Americans around hatred for the unemployed, the downtrodden and minority groups serves a purpose for those who profit off today's new technology. Our rulers cannot and will not put everyone to work. Neither will they feed, educate, house and care for all the people. Instead they orchestrate the country's move towards a police state. REFERENCES 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. From "Right-Wing Confidential," an article by Joel Bleifuss in the August 8, 1994 issue of In These Times magazine; Pages 13 and 14. 6. Front Lines Research, a new publication of Planned Parenthood, cited on page 12 of the same article. 7, 8, 9, 10. From "A Corporate-Christian Coalition," an article by Joel Bleifuss in the August 22, 1994 issue of In These Times magazine; Pages 12 and 13. ****************************************************************** 5. CALIFORNIA STUDENTS WALK OUT TO PROTEST ANTI-IMMIGRANT MEASURE By Guido de Rienzo LOS ANGELES -- A wave of high school student walkouts has followed the massive October 16 march on downtown Los Angeles to protest the immigrant-bashing measure known as Proposition 187. Proposition 187 would deny undocumented immigrants the right to go to any school, get public assistance or receive medical care (expect in emergencies). Sensing the loss of their right to an education should this measure become California law after the November 8 elections, hundreds of students staged demonstrations by walking out of their schools in an effort to muster support for the "No on 187" campaign. Too young to vote on an initiative that would deprive them of their education, they are voting with their feet and their voices. In one incident in the Los Angeles County community of Paramount, deputy sheriffs shot "stingball" grenades at a group of 500 students who had been marching for almost seven hours. Apparently, the students from Paramount High School marched for two miles to join up with students at Dominguez High School. They then proceeded to march to Long Beach and link up with students from Jordan High School. The march then returned to the Dominguez campus, where sheriff's deputies dispersed this peaceful protest with their anti-riot weapons. While some claimed that these students were just "trying to get out of school," the students' own comments point to their concerns. Carlos Hernandez, a junior at Estancia High School said, "I think [Proposition 187] is just an excuse to get us [Latinos] out of here." Rosie Collazo, a high school student from Oxnard stated, "Most of our friends and family are undocumented people. Maybe we're a bunch of high school students, but we know what we're doing." The anti-immigrant measure has heated up a lackluster electoral campaign. In June, during the primary election, California experienced the lowest voter turnout in its history. But Proposition 187 has stirred the electoral cauldron, and, as evidenced by the actions of high school students, the issue of basic human rights has also stirred those who cannot vote at the polls. ****************************************************************** 6. UNITY GROWS AGAINST PROPOSITIONS 184 AND 187 By Steve Teixeira LOS ANGELES -- From South Central to East L.A., people are linking the fights against Propositions 184 and 187. It's a first step toward uniting the city's poorest class of people, despite their color. This tone of unity was set at the September 24 forum against "three strikes" (Proposition 184), held by the L.A. 4+ Committee. The committee was born from the fight to free the Denny case defendants and others after the 1992 Rebellion. But as co-chair Paul Parker told the crowd at Faith United Church in South Central L.A., the system continued to railroad black men into jail, so the group kept fighting. Their struggle to defeat Proposition 184 grew out of this commitment. But the mostly African American crowd also cheered when a Latino speaker invited the group to join the October 16 march against 187, the anti-immigrant proposition. "We're fighting for justice for all of us!" attorney Lashelle Witter explained. Their representatives proved this, by bringing members and literature to the march. On October 8, the Southern California chapter of the National Organizing Committee held a unity party for people fighting against Gov. Pete Wilson and police-state laws like 184 and 187. "Look around here," said co-host Maria Teixeira. "All these colors and all these areas represent the real L.A., the one that has the strength to stop these attacks if we get it united." The homeless leaders, students, immigrant workers and gang truce activists present roared their agreement. The spirit of unity of these kinds of events spilled onto the streets October 16, when these fighters joined in and got out literature about Propositions 184 and 187. People also snapped up copies of the People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo because they call for unifying the class of people under attack by the system. Even after that march, fighters labored to unify the struggle for the November 8 elections. At Cal State L.A., an October 19 forum took up not only 184 and 187, but attempts to destroy the Equal Opportunity Program and other programs helping poor and minority students. Raymond Juarez, a student from the Cal State Northridge MEChA, set the task for the future, saying "When there's a common issue, you have to put differences aside, organize and rally. That's the only way I see us becoming a force!" +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ABOUT PROPOSITIONS 184 AND 187 By Allen Harris Among the initiatives voters in California will be asked to accept or to reject on November 8 are Proposition 184 and Proposition 187. Proposition 184 is widely known as the "three strikes, you're out" initiative. It would require minimum 25-year prison terms for three-time felons who have committed at least one violent crime. It is identical to a law recently passed by the California Legislature and signed by Gov. Pete Wilson. Proposition 187 is widely known as the "Save Our State" or "SOS" initiative. It would: 1. Bar undocumented immigrants from public schools. 2. Require schools and police to report suspected undocumented immigrants to the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service. 3. Cut off health services in public hospitals to undocumented immigrants. (Emergency care would still be permitted.) 4. Cut off food stamps, unemployment insurance and child welfare payments to undocumented immigrants. Sources: Los Angeles (California) Daily News of July 28, 1994, Page N10; Long Beach (California) Press-Telegram of Monday, August 29, 1994, Page A6 and of Tuesday, October 11, 1994, Page A2. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 7. CLINTON REWARDS S.F. MAYOR FOR CRACKING DOWN ON POOR By Jack Hirschman SAN FRANCISCO -- Frank Jordan, that thug disguised as the mayor of San Francisco, was in Washington on October 12 collecting his reward for having thousands of poor and homeless people on his Matrix program arrested or hassled over the past year and a half. Of course, that's not the way it's been officially announced. Rather, Crime-Bill Clinton has given the mayor $2.5 million for 20 cops; another $400,000 for new telecommunications (make that surveillance); $1.5 million to fight drugs in public housing (which means more police terror); $900,000 -- a pittance -- to start up businesses in low-income neighborhoods; and an insulting $100,000 for drug and gang prevention (i.e., education). Not content, however, with those funds, and like the cop he is at bottom (he was the head of the S.F. police before he became mayor), Jordan asked Clinton for a million bux more to build a boot camp for young people on a city-owned ranch in San Mateo County. And apparently Crime-Bill Clinton gave him a favorable response to the proposal. Such a camp would target teenagers loitering on streets and "be better off for them than getting into trouble." In short, more police state busyness. More roundups authorized by the mouthpieces of the vested interests of capital, who are installing at greater frequency than ever an illegal police state that's robbing people of their inalienable rights. Nothing of course in Jordan's proposal about how the schools, the workplace and the rest of the profit-driven institutions have failed the young, driven them to crimes petty in comparison with those committed every day by mogul-thugs such as Jordan and his state crony, the Dishonorable Gov. Pete Wilson, the noted immigrant-basher. Indeed, there are criminals running around America; in fact, they're running America. If anyone belongs in jail, it's Jordan. And throw in that Sacramento gangster with his mind that even weasels shrink from. They're the real criminals in California society, and the people are sick of hearing that it's the other way around. ****************************************************************** 8. ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD: WHAT'S REAL IN ATLANTA By Reggie Williams [Editor's note: The following is reprinted from the St. Luke Homeless Committee Newsletter in Atlanta.] ATLANTA -- Have you ever seen all the glitter and the shininess of Atlanta -- all the big, fine restaurants and the very large convention centers, the huge arenas, all the concerts in Piedmont Park? All of these are things that people from all over the country come to see. This is what some people pay dearly to be a part of. Now that we know that everything here is beautiful for those who can afford it, how about taking a look at the other part of Atlanta; the part that no one wants you to see. The part that I'm talking about is the long soup lines, the people sleeping on the streets, the unfortunates eating out of trash cans, the poor asking for handouts, the drug-infested neighborhoods. All these things are a part of Atlanta that some people don't want you to see -- but that is a part of the city. Accept it. Let's look at the billboard that says Atlanta is "too busy to hate." We all know that's a joke! Also, let me bring your attention to the fact that this city will host the 1996 Olympics, the same city that bears a flag of segregation. All of these things are a part of life here in Atlanta. Let's stop trying to hide from them. Remember, all that glitters is not gold. What you see may not always be real. I am asking you: Is this city real or what? By the way, I am a homeless man! ****************************************************************** 9. PRISONERS RESPOND TO 'AMERICAN LOCKDOWN': 'WE FINALLY HAVE SOME REPRESENTATION' Dear People's Tribune: I am a prisoner, currently incarcerated in California. I've enclosed the subscription form, but as a precaution, as well, I'd like to take the opportunity to express how right on! your Special Prison Edition was. I feel it was up-front and real; all the prisoners who read these articles were impressed; it seems that we finally have some representation through the People's Tribune. I thank you and keep up the good work. A Tehachapi, California inmate +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Dear People's Tribune: I want to request your facility to send me some more vital information as you did with your September 12, 1994 issue. There were a lot of interesting topics in it. I may be wrong, but we need to start facing the oppression which we face. When I say that, I mean by educating ourselves. With the kind of information the People's Tribune issues, we would be on the right track. An Eddyville, Kentucky inmate +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Dear People's Tribune: I have had an opportunity (pleasure) to read a couple of issues of the People's Tribune. I am a prisoner here at the Security Housing Unit in Pelican Bay State Prison in California. I have been in this hole (behavior modification kamp) for the past 4 1/2 years. Like many people back here under similar circumstances, the administration requires that in order for "certain" people to be released to general population, they must inform on others, betray whatever relationships that you've established. In order to effectively understand why we must resist, we must understand in the most basic of terms, how things came to be as they are. The People's Tribune has a tremendous contribution to make to our (the people) being educated about the causes. A Crescent City, California inmate +----------------------------------------------------------------+ To our inmate correspondents: Due to the volume of responses to the Special Prison Edition of the People's Tribune ("American Lockdown: The prison struggle and revolution" Vol. 21 No. 37), we want to notify you of our procedures. They are designed to maximize communication and minimize undue interference in the legal rights of prisoners and the People's Tribune. 1. Unless specified otherwise, we will publish all letters, opinions or other communications sent to us, including the name of the author, as space permits. If you do not want your name used, or if your communication is not intended for publication, please tell us. We will publish your story anonymously, if that is your preference. Unless return is requested, we will retain possession of all articles, photos, letters, etc. sent to the People's Tribune. 2. Please clearly indicate your prisoner identification number so that you will minimize difficulties in receiving correspondence from us. Also, please inform us if you are transferred to another facility, released, etc. so that we may remain in communication. 3. Where possible, please send us applications and appropriate instructions on how to be placed on your visitor's list. Where and when we can, we will try to visit our inmate correspondents. Also, please send the name and address of a family member or friend who may assist in keeping the lines of communication open. 4. Please, if possible, send us a black-and-white photograph of yourself (color is acceptable if it is bright and sharp) to accompany whatever letter, article etc. you may wish published. 5. If you send us legal pleadings, briefs, etc., be aware that we are not a legal assistance organization nor do we have attorneys available to help with specific cases. 6. Do not feel that you should only write on prison issues. We encourage our inmate correspondents to comment on any subject relevant to the struggle for a just society. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 10. DEADLY FORCE: BOOMERANG BULLETS OR SCAPEGOAT? By Kondo Nassor [The following is excerpted from Death Row Forum.] MICHIGAN CITY, Indiana -- My brother, Gregory Resnover (aka Ajamu Nassor) is a political prisoner on Indiana's Death Row. Thus far, all efforts to save his life by gaining him a new trial have failed. Ajamu, as well as Tommie Smith (aka Ziyon Yisrayl, also on Death Row), were politically active and had a history of exchanges with the local police because of their stand against racism, corruption, etc. Their lynching began more than 13 years ago. On December 11, 1980 they became the target of a pre-dawn raid as they lay asleep in their beds. The police, unannounced, forced entry to their home and began firing on its occupants. Rather than become murdered victims (which likely would have guaranteed them community support), Ajamu and Ziyon chose to exercise their right to self- defense against the unidentified intruders. In the aftermath, one officer was dead and Ziyon, seriously wounded, barely survived. Since that time it has been clearly shown that what the police and state purport to have happened that day is absolutely false. For the black man, his "day in court" is tantamount to genocide. This is evident by the fact that Africans in America represent over 50 percent of the prison population in the U.S. and 40% of those on Death Row. Blacks who survive by successfully defending themselves against brutal police assaults have never, in the eyes of black leaders, been seen remotely justified in their actions. But to refuse to become a murdered victim should not be a crime. Time is very short for my brother and an execution date will be set soon. [Execution has been set for December 8. Ed.] I call upon the community, its leaders, clergy, and justice-loving people to conduct an investigation into Ajamu's case. -- while there is still time! Write to: Governor Evan Bayh, 100 N. State Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46204. ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 11. 'KING OF CALIFORNIA' ALBUM: DAVID ALVIN CONJURES UP A BITTERSWEET MASTERPIECE By Andy Willis BERWYN, Illinois -- David Alvin is such a damn good songwriter and performer that everybody should know him. The People's Tribune got to talk to him recently after he finished "tearing up the place" at FitzGerald's, here in this suburb of Chicago. Deeply rooted in the American dream, experience, and song, Alvin, the son of a union organizer, counts the songs of Joe Hill and Woody Guthrie in his heritage. Count blues, jazz, country, Cajun, and Mexican music too, as huge loves and influences on his work. Righteously acclaimed with the Blasters in the early '80s as the Second Coming of real "balls to the wall" rock 'n' roll, Alvin, his brother Phil and friends weren't fakin'. Dave is still racing with the devil and driving everybody wild, but now he has conjured up an album called King of California that deepens our admiration of his art. Primarily acoustic, King of California is a bittersweet masterpiece of longing and dreams in the promised land. We talked about the similarities between his songs and those of Woody Guthrie and Chuck Berry who wrote a classic about going to the Golden State called (what else?) "Promised Land." Although Woody and Chuck were huge influences on him, Alvin, living in the '90s, is pessimistic about the promise and the reality we find ourselves in. We asked about the state of things in California and attempts there to blame the immigrant for the state's economic trouble (Proposition 187). "People always blame the victim," said Dave. "That's the way the system functions. In time of war, you want to get something done, blame the victim. You want to stay in control, blame the victim. "You talk to people in England -- they say there is not a class system in the United States, but they're wrong. It's not like the English class system. If all of a sudden, I sold a trillion records and was a millionaire, I'd be part of a different class. In America, that's the difference. I don't intentionally, but it seems like I write songs more about people on the bottom end of that. It's there and it's a more insidious kind of class system. "There has been a concerted effort to keep people uneducated and unemployable." California, Dave said, "is perceived as a place where dreams come true, but it's also the end of the continent, the end of the road for dreamers." With layoffs throughout the Golden State in high-tech industries and such technology replacing the humans who designed it, the promise of the "promised land" is breaking up. "I don't think it's a great conspiracy," Alvin offered. "I just think it's a natural tendency. People who have power want to keep people who don't have power from having power. "We don't pay school teachers. We don't put money into education. We don't teach people. It's impossible to have a democracy the way Jefferson imagined it with an illiterate populace. They know that. They know a certain percentage -- 50-60 percent -- won't vote because it doesn't interest them. Their life is getting groceries or a pack of cigarettes. "If you went to California 15 years ago, it was a different place. What's going on now is like a Manhattanization, especially in Southern California and San Francisco. You are either rich or poor. If you are in-between, if you are lower-middle class, you can't survive." In his songs, Alvin is not overtly political but, as he noted recently, "I think there is a spiritual vacuum going on in this country and I'm trying to reflect that through many of my songs. "This is my version of the blues and I try to call it like I see it." David Alvin does just that. If you want a heart that's true and music that's honest, go see him and get King of California. ****************************************************************** 12. NOAM CHOMSKY SPEAKS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO -- Noam Chomsky spoke to an overflow crowd of 1,300 people October 17 at the University of Illinois at Chicago at a program sponsored by the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau. Chomsky used the occasion to issue a clear indictment of a corrupt system and defended human rights throughout the world. During his speech and the discussion afterward, Chomsky denounced the U.S. intervention in Haiti, the developing global economic strangulation of the world's poor and increasing attacks on America's dispossessed. Upcoming issues of the People's Tribune will publish excerpts from Chomsky's presentation. The size of the crowd at the university is testimony to the fact that people in America are hungry for discussion and for answers to the serious economic and social problems we face. The People's Tribune Speakers Bureau provides a platform for debate on why the world is the way it is and how it can change. We encourage you to contact us and schedule other speakers for your events. For a brochure on our speakers, please call 312-486-3551 or write to P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654. The event with Noam Chomsky was organized under the auspices of the University of Illinois' Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED). It is a part of the planning for the March 1995 Technology and Employment Conference to be held at the university. For more information on how to participate in this conference, contact CUED at 312-996-5463. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ You can order audiotapes and videotapes of Noam Chomsky's remarks and the discussion which followed at the University of Illinois at Chicago October 17. If you would like a copy of the Chomsky presentation, please fill out the form below and mail it with your check to: Breakthrough Images, P.O. Box 3233, Chicago, Illinois 60654-3233. Please send me ___ videotapes at $19.95 each for a total of $______. Please send me ___ audiocassettes at $9.95 each for a total of $______. (Add postage at $1 per tape or cassette, free postage with purchase of more than three tapes.) Total amount of check $________. Name ____________________________________________________________ Address _________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip __________________________________________________ Phone ___________________________________________________________ +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 13. WELFARE FOR THE RICH: DEREGULATION EQUALS WELFARE FOR THE RICH! By Leslie Willis The deregulation of the savings and loan industry pushed legal and illegal profit-gouging to the point of ruin for many S&Ls. No problem! Our government just hoisted the burden of that $500 billion bailout onto the taxpayer's back. Did you know that this game is still being played in the banking industry? By loosening the regulations, banks can and do rip you off. Take NationsBank, the third-largest bank and the ninth-richest company in America. NationsBank has $157 billion in assets. Even with all that money, you can't get a loan from that bank if you are one of the 60 million Americans who doesn't have a bank account. However, you can get some money through Cash America, a chain of 251 pawnshops. Of course, Cash America charges an annual interest rate of 200 percent. Guess who owns Cash America? None other than NationsBank! Who owns the chains that charge as much as 300 percent interest -- the rent-to-own stores, the check-cashing outlets and the finance and mortgage companies? It's companies like Transamerica, the Ford Motor Company and American Express. Why should you be treated as a "preferred" customer, when the government allows these companies to profit off your poverty? Stealing from the poor to give to the rich. That's welfare as we know it. We can't prosper until we end it! ****************************************************************** 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. 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. ******************************************************************