From jdav@noc.orgMon Jan 30 10:57:37 1995 Date: Sun, 22 Jan 95 13:27 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune (1-30-95) Online Edition ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 5 / January 30, 1995 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 5 / January 30, 1995 Page One 1. THEY CAN'T JAIL A REVOLUTION ... Editorial 2. CONGRESS SHOWS WHO IT REALLY REPRESENTS News 3. WE WILL BE HEARD: BREAK THE MEDIA BLACKOUT OF THE CRY FOR FREEDOM! 4. CALIFORNIA FLOODS EXPOSE POVERTY IN AMERICA 5. EIGHTEEN YEARS FOR $18.00 6. STUDY SAYS AMERICANS STILL CARE 7. RETARDED MAN EXECUTED IN TEXAS: RULERS GUILTY OF MURDER 8. THE EXECUTION OF MARIO MARQUEZ: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY American Lockdown 9. 'A DYING SYSTEM LOCKS UP THOSE WHO HOLD THE KEY TO THE FUTURE' Culture Under Fire 10. IN MEMORY OF RODRIGO BETANCUR 11. TO AN UNWED MOTHER CRUCIFIED Announcements, Events, etc. 12. NELSON PEERY IN BALTIMORE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH 13. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. PAGE ONE: THEY CAN'T JAIL A REVOLUTION ... JOBLESS MAN ROBS BANK TO SAVE WIFE: DESPERATE ACTS SHOW THE SYSTEM HAS FAILED LEPANTO, Arkansas -- Late last year, Larry Archer robbed $4,000 from a local bank and became a "criminal" who could do a five-year stretch in the Arkansas State Penitentiary. When Archer's wife contracted a life-threatening illness, when he lost his job, when his application for food and medical assistance was lost, he finally did what he had to do. But this isn't just about one Arkansas man going to prison. This is about millions of people pushed to the limit and filling the jails and penitentiaries of this country. The extreme measures that people are taking to survive represent the beginning stage of a great, unstoppable movement to turn this country around -- so that a man doesn't have to sacrifice his freedom to heal his sick wife; so that senior citizens don't have to shoplift for food; so that a young man can walk the streets without fear of being beaten by the police and railroaded to the pen. The ruling class of this country is answering the Larry Archers of this nation and their righteous acts of desperation with more prisons than at any other time in U.S. history. But, ultimately, the ruling class is bound to fail. Look inside the walls and you'll see: You can't jail the revolution. ****************************************************************** 2. EDITORIAL: CONGRESS SHOWS WHO IT REALLY REPRESENTS A very interesting thing happened in the U.S. Senate on January 10, when Sen. Paul Wellstone, a Democrat from Minnesota, introduced an amendment to the "congressional accountability bill," the one that requires the legislative branch to live under the laws it passes. Wellstone's amendment was one that, according to a news report, expressed "the sense of the Senate that lawmakers should not pass any legislation that would increase the number of starving and homeless children." The entire Republican majority voted to defeat the amendment. "I understand this is an opportunity to offer a lot of amendments and make the Republicans look heartless and cold and all this," said majority leader Bob Dole of Kansas. "This is not going to work," he said. Excuse us, but if Congress can't promise something as elementary as not making us poorer, then what on Earth are they doing up there? What they're doing, is the bidding of the millionaires and billionaires who rule this country. And it's for that reason they: * Cannot even raise the issue of homelessness, because it is an indictment of their rule. * Cannot directly and honestly deal with the fact that it is poverty that is at the root of the spreading social decay and destruction around us. Poverty which is a product of the economic system called capitalism. What they can do is: * Enact a "crime bill" which puts more cops on the street to control the poor and protect the rich. * Destroy welfare and all the other social safety net programs, now that electronics is replacing people in the workplace. * Help turn this into a country with the world's largest prison population -- more than 1 million locked down -- and one in which the death penalty is an all-out instrument of genocide. This is what the political process will produce for us as long as it is left exclusively to two parties that are connected to the tiny class of millionaires and billionaires who control this country. It is time for the rising new class of Americans who are in poverty and who must fight for their needs to speak for themselves. Already this is occurring, but in isolated, scattered ways. This class, by organizing itself politically as a class and striving to use its strength in numbers to gain political power, can bring about a future that frees us from the capitalist nightmare it is living through now. ****************************************************************** 3. WE WILL BE HEARD: BREAK THE MEDIA BLACKOUT OF THE CRY FOR FREEDOM! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor's note: The Break the Media Blackout Campaign Planning Conference was held in Philadelphia last November. The campaign will help create politically independent lines of communication designed to give voice to and facilitate the development of a massive movement led by the poor to end capitalist impoverishment. Attending the conference were over 50 people from all across the country who represented such areas of activity as: poor people's media; the cultural movement; independent filmmakers; the student anti-poverty movement; the religious community; and those working in the high-tech/computer field. Dino Lewis, one of the founding members of the Homeless Writers Coalition, was elected to serve on the Steering Committee of the Planning Committee for the National Break the Media Blackout Summit. For information on the summit, call the Annie Smart Leadership Development Institute Break the Media Blackout Hotline at 215-248-5550, ext. 6. Below, Dino sums up the objectives of the campaign. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ By Dino Lewis In the United States of North America, one of the richest if not the richest country in the world, there is a poor people's movement. It is a struggle to prevent the Bill Clintons and Pete Wilsons, the overseers for the power elite, from separating us, keeping us uneducated and then condemning us to death. Here in America, only the oppressed know the problems and what it will take to solve them. Without a complete reconstruction of this system as we know it, there will be no solution. Poor people are organizing, fighting and demanding their right to the basic needs of life. The only way they will get them is to ensure that the voices from inside the struggle are heard. The worldwide media blackout on issues directly concerning our struggle to live is a direct attack on our lives. For if mainstream media doesn't report the news of the people from their perspective, we cannot organize and teach the people that this war on the poor is a war against all but the power elite. As the author Dave Marsh once said, we must not allow them to black out our dreams. We spend a tremendous amount of time trying to compel the mainstream media, newspapers, radio and television to address the issues from our point of view. Yet, mainstream media uses valuable air time to talk about such issues as who goes to bed with whom, rather than address the issues of homelessness through the eyes of the homeless and welfare reform through the eyes of people who are forced to live on welfare. Marsh told us that mainstream media does not, will not, and cannot tell reality from our point of view, and this will never change because of who owns and controls mainstream media. Mainstream media is owned and controlled by a few large corporations and the corporations are owned by that 5 percent of the population that receives 65 percent of the wealth. We must stop America from blacking out the opinions and facts about the plight of the poor, the homeless and the oppressed. This can only be done by using everything that is available to us to make sure the information that America receives about the plight of the majority comes from the people directly involved in the struggle for the rights of the people, not that 5 percent called the power elite. Who is better prepared than the artists of this country -- the writers, musicians, filmmakers and all other artists -- to educate the world on the true plight and struggle of the homeless and welfare rights groups, and all others fighting against the injustices that take place in America daily? Only when you work directly with poor people and their leaders can you get the truth from the inside out. Then and only then will we be heard. And what you will hear is the voice of the people crying for freedom. ****************************************************************** 4. CALIFORNIA FLOODS EXPOSE POVERTY IN AMERICA By Allen Harris The decade's worst rainstorms and floods hit California in January. As usual, the disaster affected the privileged living on their nice, scenic hillsides or along the coast. It also affected "the other America," those belonging to the new class living in extreme poverty on the streets, under bridges ... ... And in encampments of homeless people like the one along the Ventura River which was hit by a flash flood. Rescuers said one homeless man was swept away. George Struck, a homeless survivor, was quoted in one news report: "I tried to help him, man, but I couldn't grab him. He just went down." Struck was himself plucked from the Ventura by helicopter from the swirling waters. "I was coming close to dying. I felt it. I felt it," Struck said. Disasters such as these are acts of nature that sometimes are beyond humanity's control. But alongside that disaster is another: the economic system called capitalism which in our time is throwing thousands, millions of people out into the wilderness of poverty. No one should have to die the way George Struck's friend did in the Ventura River. No one should have to end up camping in the wilds when there's enough wealth to put everyone inside a home. The flood waters of the Ventura River will eventually recede, but the flood called unemployment, poverty and homelessness will only worsen as long as the capitalists continue to reign. ****************************************************************** 5. EIGHTEEN YEARS FOR $18.00 By Maurice Lee Harris MERCED, California-- I am a 35-year-old black man presently incarcerated in the California Department of Corrections (CDC). I came to prison at the age of 17 for the crime of kidnap-robbery. I was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to seven years to life with a possibility of parole. I have now served almost 18 years of this sentence. In the mind of those who are reading this, knowing the amount of time that I've already done in prison, you might think that I was a mass murderer, or that this crime was committed in a heinous manner. This isn't the case at all. At no time was the victim physically harmed; I never touched him. Eighteen (18) dollars was taken from his person, yes, $18.00, and for this, I was given a life sentence. >From the beginning of this case, things were not right. For example, I was never identified as the one who committed this crime. What linked me to this crime was fingerprints found on the outside of the victim's car, with one print found on the inside. This case was taken to jury trial twice. The first trial was a hung jury; in the second, I was found guilty. On January 23, 1995, I will once again appear before the Board of Prison Terms. By all rights, I should be given a release date. [People's Tribune readers are urged to send letters of support to Mr. Harris' mother, Catherine Richard, c/o MREM, 149 W. 16th St. #C, Merced, California 95340.] ****************************************************************** 6. STUDY SAYS AMERICANS STILL CARE By Jan Lightfoot HINCKLEY, Maine -- An overwhelming 92 percent of people surveyed (59 percent of them strongly) agreed that "trying to reduce poverty is a good economic investment." Nine hundred randomly chosen Americans responded to a survey by the Center for the Study of Policy Attitudes in October 1994. Fifty-five percent of them had yearly incomes ranging from $20,000 to $75,000. The quiet middle classes realize the benefits of being victorious over poverty. A Gallup Poll in May 1994 found that 73 percent viewed poverty as a cause of school violence. The CSPA survey also had 73 percent (44 percent strongly) agreeing that "reducing poverty will reduce racial tension and crime." Today's public support for fighting poverty is higher than it was in 1964. The 8 to 20 percent of people who call for less spending are misinformed. They have an inflated idea of the amount of welfare that children are receiving. If our leaders were to get their information from the government's own reports rather than an idealistic 1938 movie called "Boys' Town," they would learn that 66.3 percent of all AFDC recipients are off welfare rolls in less than three years. They would also learn that orphanages do not work. Our welfare system was designed merely to keep people barely alive. The proposed welfare reform and the balanced budget amendment to the Constitution are a giant step backward, not the "overdue improvement" which the quiet majority seeks. If people speak out, we can enhance our culture by rectifying the flaws in the welfare system. Tell Newt we give a hoot! [The Center for the Study of Policy Attitudes is an independent non-profit organization of social science researchers. A copy of "Fighting Poverty in America" can be obtained by calling CSPA at 202-232-7500.] ****************************************************************** 7. RETARDED MAN EXECUTED IN TEXAS: RULERS GUILTY OF MURDER By Allen Harris The state of Texas can say it was enforcing the law by putting Mario Marquez to death on January 17, but we say the state broke a higher law and committed cold-blooded murder. Marquez was 36 years old, but only physically. Mentally, he was no more than 5. In effect, Texas killed a child on its lethal injection machine. What barbarism! What depravity! What better proof is there that the class that brought Marquez' tragic life to such a cruel end is totally unfit to rule? Marquez is already the second person put to death in Texas in 1995. The first was Jesse Dewayne Jacobs on January 4. They were the 86th and 87th executions in Texas since 1982. Marquez' lawyer, Robert L. McGlasson, said on the ABC News program "Nightline" January 18 that the death penalty is not being used against the Ted Bundys of society, but against whoever the state decides to kill. Texas admitted that Jacobs was innocent, then it killed him. It acknowledged Marquez' retardation, then it killed him. Texas is a political mass murderer, wielding its lethal injection machine, preying on the new class of Americans in poverty, cutting another notch in its belt every few days. ****************************************************************** 8. THE EXECUTION OF MARIO MARQUEZ: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY By Robert L. Mcglasson [Editor's note: Below we reprint a statement issued by the attorney for Mario Marquez. The statement was sent to us just days before Marquez was executed in Texas on January 17.] Mario Marquez is a mentally retarded, severely brain-damaged, illiterate Hispanic man scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on January 17, 1995. All parties involved in the case agree as to Mr. Marquez' mental condition: indeed, the San Antonio court in which he was tried and sentenced to death found as fact that Mr. Marquez is mentally retarded and brain-damaged. The only dispute concerns whether Mario Marquez, a man with the emotional and intellectual functioning of a five-year-old child, should be put to death. Mr. Marquez' mental impairments are not the only problems he has had in life. Although the jury that sentenced him to die had no information about his mental problems or his past, it is now clear that Mr. Marquez' seemingly inexplicable conduct in this offense was rooted in violent fits of torture meted out to him by his own father routinely since infancy. Mr. Marquez was convicted of the murder of his niece during an outburst of jealous anger toward his wife, who was also killed during the incident. Throughout his childhood, Mario's father beat him mercilessly, using boards, sticks, and fists. Occasionally, he whipped him with a horsewhip. And on several occasions, his father bound his hands and legs and hung him from a pole or tree and horsewhipped him until he was unconscious. This torture was a daily experience for Mario. It appears the father's horrendous conduct toward Mario was prompted by the fact that Mario was "slower" than the other children, a fact the significance of which was lost on this poor, uneducated family: Mario was singled out among the other 16 children in his family for his father's wrath because of his mental retardation. Despite his deficits, Mario contributed as best he could to the family's meager livelihood. From before he was born and throughout his childhood, the family worked as migrant farm laborers picking cotton and other crops throughout the southwestern part of the United States. Mario worked in the fields himself from the time he was a small child. When he was 12 years old, Mario's parents separated and abandoned him. For the remainder of his childhood, from the age of 12 on, Mario was left to raise himself. He had no parenting or adult supervision of any kind. Mario lived in an abandoned house during this time. For at least a year after his parents separated and left him, Mario was required to take care of several younger children as well as himself. At some point, local county authorities came to the house and retrieved the other children; inexplicably, they left Mario alone to fend for himself, without adult care or supervision of any kind. The father's ritual horsewhippings, hangings and beatings, which frequently left Mario unconscious, not only permanently arrested his emotional development; they also severely damaged Mario's cerebral cortex. Contributing to the severe brain damage was Mario's addiction to sniffing spray paint, which began soon after he was abandoned by his parents at age 12. This addiction acted as a psychological anesthetic for Mario's desperate situation. As a result of his mental retardation, brain damage, and arrested emotional development stemming from severe childhood trauma, Mario Marquez has the emotional and intellectual maturity of a five- year-old. His mental deficiencies rendered him incapable of exercising judgment and learning from past mistakes and behaviors, and impaired his control over strong emotions, especially in stressful situations. The jury that sentenced Mario Marquez to die knew nothing about his background or character and virtually nothing about why the crime was committed. At the time of his trial, his attorneys were faced with an impossible Catch-22 situation: They could either present this information to the jury, and under the existing Texas capital sentencing statute (which was later found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court) guarantee a finding of "future dangerousness" (which automatically results in a death sentence), or they could fail to present the information and leave the jury with no understanding of who Mario was or why he could have committed the violent offenses he was convicted of. The trial attorneys chose the latter, and the jury was left with no reason to spare his life. Appeals courts have refused to consider any of the above information as relevant to the legal claim that Mario should be allowed to have a jury consider this information before he is executed. Instead, the courts have ruled that, because the trial attorneys failed to present this information at trial, no reviewing tribunal should consider it either. In short, Mario Marquez is about to die despite the fact that no tribunal or body with sentencing authority has ever considered his mental retardation, his severe childhood abuse, his other intellectual impairments, or any of the other facts mentioned above in deciding his appropriate punishment. Citizens of the state of Texas, consistent with national polls, overwhelmingly disfavor the execution of the mentally retarded. A 1989 independent poll found that over 70 percent of Texans were against the execution of the mentally retarded. Consistent with public opinion, many states, such as Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky now prohibit the execution of the mentally retarded. The Texas legislature has yet to pass a bill prohibiting the execution of the mentally retarded, despite substantial public support for such a law. ****************************************************************** 9. 'A DYING SYSTEM LOCKS UP THOSE WHO HOLD THE KEY TO THE FUTURE' Dear Readers: Last September, the People's Tribune published "American Lockdown: The prison struggle and revolution," a special prison edition. Four months later, the response has been overwhelming: over 300 letters and inmate subscription requests from 137 prisons and jails in 30 states ... and more arriving daily. >From behind concrete and steel have come firsthand accounts of prison guard brutality, denial of due process, and a growing prison slave-labor system that threatens to undermine the already tenuous position of American workers. >From our inmate correspondents we've learned the inside story of heroic, even life-saving, acts such as the CROP-Walk against hunger by the women of Illinois' Dwight Correctional Center and the courageous, bloody prison rebellion for human rights that shook the nation at Lucasville, Ohio on Easter Sunday 1993. Above all, we have become convinced that the ruling class of this country is keeping behind bars some of the most enlightened, revolutionary minds of our time: men and women who have learned from within "the belly of the beast" the true nature of American capitalism, now degenerating to the level of an economic prison for some 80 million people below the poverty line. A dying system locks up those who hold the key to future. That key is a growing class of poor people for whom capitalism, thanks to labor-replacing technology, no longer has any use. Today, the members of this class comprise the fastest growing segment of the prison population. We want to take this opportunity to note the hundreds of people who have written and brought to us some of the most articulate, politically conscious voices in captivity. We want to acknowledge the receipt of dozens of prison newspapers and the efforts of our inmate journalist colleagues to break the blackout behind the barbed wire. And, finally, we want to thank those whose generous contributions made the special prison edition possible. As long as the American lockdown continues, we'll be there. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Dear PT: I think the People's Tribune is an excellent newspaper! Here in the prison, we have been using it in an informal study group to raise the consciousness of our brothers. The PT is an excellent tool to inform and awaken the people. Keep up the good work! And thanks for being there for us. A Prisoner +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 'I say that many of us are political prisoners and do not know we are under this category. I say that many of us has/have been manipulated by forces much bigger than our daily concerns to make a dollar that masterminded and plotted and worked hard at the fall of jobs in certain areas whereby, knowing (well in advance) that with no real employment base to keep people afloat, that it is only a matter of time before the prison gates are overflowing.' Ali K. Abdullah, #148130, Charles E. Egeler Correctional Facility, Jackson, Michigan +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 'When history is manipulated, the consciousness of a people is altered. When you alter the consciousness of a people, you manipulate their possibilities, and when you manipulate their possibilities, you manipulate their power, hence, leaving them to surrender to their enemy without even knowing that they have surrendered.' Yusuf A. Abdullah #154403, Kinross Correctional Facility, Michigan +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Dear People's Tribune: I am an incarcerated woman doing a natural life sentence for the murder of my abusive husband. But enough of that. What I wanted to tell you about was the first ever (hopefully annual) in prison CROP Walk for Hunger. The CROP Walk was held September 10, 1994. Participating were about 180 inmates, 50 people from the outside and 20 staff members. Together we all walked five kilometers. And I do mean together, side by side, in groups and singly, inside Dwight Correctional Center. When the final tally came in, we had raised over $9,000! The money was split, with 25 percent going to local groups such as Chicago food banks and 75 percent to Church World Service to be used to feed the hungry throughout the world. I am enclosing a program from the walk. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I hope that you will be able to put this in your paper. Yours, Janet Jackson, #N77201, Dwight, Illinois +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The People's Tribune responds You bet we put it in our paper, Janet! The same state of Illinois that keeps you and your sisters locked up also deprives tens of thousands of people on the outside of much needed food, clothing and shelter by way of massive cuts in public aid, housing assistance and the theft of taxpayer money to reward big business. Hunger, poverty and despair are what drive most people to prison in the first place. There is no reason why these basic necessities shouldn't be provided to everyone in this country, given the level of technology that exists. The only thing separating the people from these necessities is this evil, profit-driven economic system that says "no money, no food." History has condemned this dinosaur and the people will surely replace it with one where no one is deprived of what is now possible to produce in abundance. The Dwight CROP Walk is yet another proof that the system is locking up those who hold the key to the future. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PRISON INDUSTRIES PART OF THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE [Editor's note: The following is excerpted from an article by Eric Van Reid which appeared in the December 1994 issue of Justicia, the newsletter of the Judicial Process Commission, Inc.] ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The question confronting us as a society is: Why would we continue a penal philosophy of terror and punishment that has proven ineffective in restoring wounded lives? This question, of course, presupposes that there ever was such a restorative objective; I believe that there never was. The New York State Department of Correction Services (DOCS) does not care if convicted felons make positive changes in their attitudes, since it is in the DOCS' interest to expand the prison population. Prison expansion is good for business and in New York state alone, prison industries are even part of the New York Stock Exchange. Correctional personnel gain job security for generations of families. It is easy to see why prisons are welcomed in communities where traditional industries have fled to Third World countries. Until our society is willing to examine and forego the economic profits of the prison industry, there will be further growth and no reform. To deny people the treatment they need to make changes in the behavior that got them into prison, while at the same time provoking them to more violent acts, is an irrational contradiction and one of the highest forms of criminal mischief tolerated in a civilized nation. ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition), Vol. 22 No. 5 / January 30, 1995; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org. Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. Please include this message with reproductions of this article. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE depends on donations from its readers -- your generosity is appreciated. ****************************************************************** ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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, or pt@noc.org +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 10. IN MEMORY OF RODRIGO BETANCUR By Jack Hirschman SAN FRANCISCO -- The Latino, homeless and cultural communities of San Francisco and the East Bay were shocked and saddened to learn that the noted sculptor and multimedia artist, Rodrigo Betancur, one of the city's leading cultural workers, died of a heart attack as a result of a long struggle with lymphoma, a virulent form of cancer. The end came on December 28. He was 41. Betancur kept his battle with cancer hidden from even his close friends in order to better complete his final work, a monumental video document of the San Francisco homeless movement, "No Room at the Inn." It was completed only months before his death and publicly shown this past autumn. Betancur was born and raised in Colombia. He held degrees from the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia (1976), from the Escuela Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico (1981), and also studied at San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Art Institute. Between 1982, when he arrived here, and his death, he participated in more than 25 exhibitions, installations and multimedia events involving his sculpture and his videos. In 1990, he helped organize the First Continental Chasky, an event involving 50 artists depicting 500 years of "the other Americas." His final work, a document of life on the streets of San Francisco among the homeless and outcast, spans the period from Christmas 1992 to Christmas 1993. It is perhaps his finest achievement. Betancur began the video -- working with his companion of his last years, Joanne Kowalski -- with a somewhat detached as opposed to passional idea. But as he engaged the struggles of the most oppressed stratum of society -- and no doubt also because he was acutely aware of his own mortality, what with the cancer eating away in himself -- he became profoundly engaged. In fact, the beauty of the video is that Betancur allows the homeless themselves to speak powerfully and politically against the brutal Matrix attacks of Mayor Frank Jordan, and to show the organized fightback of the forces demanding justice for the homeless and the poor. In a moving tribute after his death, Kowalski wrote: "To his friends, those of you who lived and worked with him -- his final wish was for you to continue on the paths you forged together ... It is the greatest tribute to his life which you can make ... Rodrigo Betancur was always and above all a man who struggled to make his ideals conscious in everything he did. He would want you to do the same." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ GOOD AND GENTLE FIRE: In Memoriam Rodrigo Betancur (1953-1994) Always, because there was an energy for life art a kind of humming sigh all entangled with his beautifully broken English like a passionate shy that came from suffering so many hopes and despairs converging on his body and soul, so he'd call it a Convergence and arrange for 10 artists to show. I thought: where does a guy like that go? Now that he's dead I know. Rodrigo, how old is snow? When will we wrap ourselves in jaguar? Who knows how to eat with a full heart anymore? You were in years young enough to be my son, yet according to 6-Rabbit we were the same age with respect to the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. Now I just wanna go into a doorway and sit and shiver over you a little. Remember us, whose memories everyday are being disappeared or "moused" away. I think you'll be with some of us a long time after the smoke has lifted. I'll look you up in the Book of Tizimin as soon as I'm born. Don't forget it's not altogether a question simply of dark complexions, affectionate awkwardness in speaking, camaraderie singing The Internationale, brother sculptor, sister cast in the foundry of bronze laughter and hard work; it's that we liked the feel of your dedication hanging around these Mission streets bringing a whisper's breath to the embers of a feather and making flame live a little more in those alleys and doorways where human potatoes had been mashed and contaminated by contact with a regime of rot, and thrown away to petrify in the freezing darkness. The homeless kiss your sky for the one you wrapped around their bodies for a while, Rodrigo Betancur, gentle comrade, good and gentle fire. -- Jack Hirschman ****************************************************************** 11. TO AN UNWED MOTHER CRUCIFIED By Maria Elena Castellanos +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Author's note: All the "raw sewage" currently flooding the TV and media about the alleged "immorality" and "parasitic" nature of unwed mothers prompted me to write the following "Letter to an Unwed Mother Crucified." I have two sisters who, like myself, are unmarried and who are raising their children alone. The "sister" referred to in the "Letter" includes especially all unwed teen-age mothers who are being put through a living hell in Amerikkka. I read recently that a desperate 18-year-old Hispanic high school student gave birth alone in her family's Chicago apartment and then threw the baby, later named Zoe, into the alley below. I hope that perhaps this message might give hope and clarity to other unwed mothers before they reach such a tragic state of terror and confusion. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ A dagger twists in my gut as I read of your desperation ... and that of the fruit of your womb, birthed alone in the bathroom of your Chicago apartment ... ... oh, my despairing teen-age sister ... how could you possibly see through your confusion and shame and know that I love you and esteem you and also feel the fear that knifes through your body. So now the "Great White Fathers" in Washington have done an about- face! ... But think, dear sister, think! Since when did single motherhood tumble from its revered altar in the eyes of the U.S. Congress? Not that long ago, the "Great White Forefathers" of senators now in power, ripped babes in swaddling clothes from their African mothers and sold them down the river to the highest bidder. It didn't matter that some of those babes were sired by the "Great White Forefather" himself! Holy wedded matrimony was not a preferred state for mothers in bondage! But then, wasn't the mother of Jesus also unwed at the time of his conception in the belly of a tribe, weary from centuries of abuse from the slavers' lash? Oh, hypocrisy, thy name is the U.S. Congress! As recently as the last World War, the great halls of Congress resonated with gratitude and praise for "Rosie the Riveter," of diverse hues, who left her babies at home, to bolster the great fight against would-be Nazi enslavers! But times have changed ... so that "The Man" on Capitol Hill seeks to crucify every teen-age unwed Mother and her Child, to boot! ... and not just on Calvary, but in Cyberspace and in the media, too. Pontius Pilate ain't got nothin' on the Gingriches of the world! Except ... the motive is the same -- filthy lucre and power; preservation of a dying system whose tired old tactic of divide and conquer, attack the most vulnerable, exceeds all limits of human comprehension. Take heart, dear Sister, the resurrection is yet to come! For we are "The MOTHERS," and we are the progenitors of all human life: Coatlicue, Cleopatra, Nefertiti, and the Virgin Mary, too. Though at the moment, we serve as lowly grist for the Gingrich propaganda mill ... a specter of horrors yet to come! Yes, they vilify you, and me, and our sisters and our mothers, and our daughters ... for the now "unsaintly" state of being alone, poor, and "Unmarried ... with Children." And yes, like you, I fear that I may show my fear. Here we stand, Beloved Sister, alone, unmarried ...with children, and we shall NOT succumb to hopelessness nor self-centered cynicism! Raise your bowed head and you will see the wave of history sweep the homeless from their hovels ... to strip the mansions of their gilded curtains and baubles -- -- That scene I have seen in Revolutions ---Chinese, Mexican, Bolshevik, Cuban, Nicaraguan ... and in "Big Mama's Funeral," too! How eagerly, we must dream, you and I, and act, and organize, and ache to see that scene torch the silver screen of reality which is these "Ignited Stakes of Amerikkka!" Young mothers and old will climb down from their flaming crosses to inherit the earth ... in this life! The well-heeled filmmakers depict us as toothless old hags ... shoving, pushing ... swarming like locusts over the landlord's mansion. And yes, we too, are the ragged targets for the inevitable Goya- painted firing squads, the purveyors of reprisal and capitalist "riot control," and MASSACRE! But life is not a movie. So the cinematographers conveniently cut out scenes of real-life teens, the "Joans of Arc," the "Sojourners of Truth,"... the bullet-bedecked "Adelitas"... fighting their way through endless pain and planning to this day of massive reckoning! What the landlord does not know is that we will swarm with millions over the seats of power through Internet and in the streets and with a plan to seize rather than simply strip the gilded palaces. For you see, my fragile, frightened Sister ... We are History and We are Justice ... and WE SHALL NOT BE DENIED! We are the "Good Mother, unmarried with children ..." like millions of ebony-boned mothers before us who fought like she- tigers to feed their children throughout the hell-fires of slavery! Look at our children, with power in their drive for the HOOP ... with dreams dancing in their chestnut-smooth limbs, and lightning- quick ideas streaking from their computerized fingertips, and you will know that: You, Dear Sister, unwed and alone ... like All Mothers reviled for their poverty and powerlessness are in fact the "Good Earth," Mother Courage, and the Bearer of Light ... Our very existence is a challenge to the profit- making schemes of the now robotized "Great White Fathers," ... but, We, dearly Beloved Sister ... WE SHALL NOT BE DENIED! ****************************************************************** 12. NELSON PEERY IN BALTIMORE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH By Mike Brand BALTIMORE -- Nelson Peery will be in Baltimore from Tuesday, February 7 until Friday, February 10 for African American History Month. Mr. Peery is the author of the widely praised "Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary" and a founding member of the National Organizing Committee. His book has been favorably received by a wide range of publications and individuals ranging from The New Yorker magazine and The Washington Post to Pete Seeger and Studs Terkel. He is currently the chair of the Political Committee of the NOC and an active revolutionary. An indication of the power of Nelson Peery's message is the reaction that audiences have to him. When he was last in Baltimore, Mr. Peery was interviewed on "The Marc Steiner Show" on a local radio station. According to Marc Steiner: "When Nelson was on the show last, it was during the station fund-raiser. We offered his book as a gift to donors during his interview. We raised more money during that hour than in any other single hour. Nelson's life and ideas struck a positive chord with our listeners." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Nelson Peery can be seen and heard at the following times: Tuesday, Feb. 7, 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Marc Steiner Show, WJHU 88.1 FM; Wednesday, Feb 8., 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., Essex Community College, College Community Center, C 215; Thursday, Feb. 9, 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., booksigning at Louie's Bookstore and Cafe, 518 N. Charles St.; Friday, Feb. 10, St. John's Church, 27th St. and St. Paul St., an address to an NOC meeting: $2 admission ($1 students and unemployed). +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 13. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, published weekly in Chicago, is devoted to the proposition that an economic system which can't or won't feed, clothe and house its people ought to be and will be changed. To that end, this paper is a tribune of the people. It is the voice of the millions struggling for survival. It strives to educate politically those millions on the basis of their own experience. It is a tribune to bring them together, to create a vision of a better world, and a strategy to achieve it. Join us! Editor: Laura Garcia Publisher: National Organizing Committee, P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, IL 60647 (312) 486-0028 For free electronic subscription, email: pt.dist-request@noc.org 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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(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. For free electronic subscription, email: pt.dist- request@noc.org ******************************************************************