From jdav@noc.orgSun Feb 5 12:49:56 1995 Date: Sun, 5 Feb 95 10:27 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune (2-13-95) Online Edition ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 7 / February 13, 1995 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: pt@noc.org ****************************************************************** INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 7 / February 13, 1995 Page One SOUTHERNIZATION OF THE U.S. CONGRESS The program to cut taxes and social spending and control people with prisons and police is not new. It is an Old South program in new garb. What we are witnessing is the Southernization of the U.S. Congress. See Story 7. Editorial 1. CLINTON WANTS BIG BROTHER TO WATCH YOU News 2. LOW-INCOME GROUPS PLAN EVENTS ACROSS AMERICA FEBRUARY 14 3. OLYMPIC DEVELOPMENT BRINGS MISERY TO ATLANTA 4. GEORGIA'S POOR TO MOBILIZE AT STATE CAPITOL 5. DEBATE OVER COMPUTER HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS 6. KILL A CIVILIAN, COLLECT A MILLION Focus on AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH 1995 7. THE SOUTHERNIZATION OF THE U.S. CONGRESS 8. 58 YEARS AFTER THE FLINT SIT-DOWN STRIKE: IT IS TIME TO 'REDEFINE WORK' 9. LUCY PARSONS, CHICAGO REVOLUTIONARY Deadly Force 10. THE OTHER DEADLY FORCE: HIGH SPEED PURSUITS 11. LETTER: 'TO THE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVED IN ME' Announcements, Events, etc. 12. REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA 13. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CORRECTION: The author of the article "Documentary exposes General Electric Co." in Volume 22 No. 6 of the People's Tribune was identified incorrectly. Her name is Aline Nunes, not Illine Nunes. The People's Tribune regrets the error. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------+ NOTE: The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE is now available in the peoplestrib conference on Peacenet. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: CLINTON WANTS BIG BROTHER TO WATCH YOU In his State of the Union address January 24, President Clinton came out in support of measures which will mean a major increase in repression of the new class of poor people. Clinton endorsed the creation of a national computer system which will store the names and Social Security numbers of "citizens and aliens authorized to work in this country," as reported in The New York Times. Two days before his speech, The Times reported that Clinton wanted Congress to approve spending $8.3 million for a "pilot program" to test such a system. A computer registry was first proposed in 1994 by a federal commission headed by former Representative Barbara Jordan. The Jordan panel suggested testing the system in California, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois. The panel's argument was that the government has to make sure U.S. employers don't hire undocumented immigrants. At a time when traditional jobs held by humans are being eliminated because of the introduction of high tech in the capitalist workplace, setting up such a system amounts to creating a list of those "entitled" and "not entitled" to look for work. For the ruling class of millionaires and billionaires which possesses the bulk of the nation's wealth and which controls the regime we live under, nothing is too immoral as long as it keeps them rich and in power. And if this computer registry costs the rest of us our civil liberties and our right to privacy, then too bad for us. You can be sure that this first step toward a central computer registry of all people in the United States will not be the last. The commitment has come down from the president, standing before Congress and speaking to the entire nation. The ruling class has fired the starting gun in the political race toward an American-style police state. Its runners are named Gingrich, Clinton and others. They are sprinting with all their might in the same direction toward the same goal because the wealthy need this to control the millions they cannot employ. We, the new class, cannot be just spectators because this is a race in which we will certainly be the losers. We, the 80 million Americans in poverty, can end their race to fascism by meeting them at the finish line with all our unity and determination to replace their rule with ours. ****************************************************************** 2. LOW-INCOME GROUPS PLAN EVENTS ACROSS AMERICA FEBRUARY 14 By Jan Lightfoot HINCKLEY, Maine -- A Utah group, around since November 1992, hopes state demonstrations will give a platform to the mute majority. Informing lawmakers and the public of the real facts of welfare is one of the Salt Lake City group's aims. According to government's own reports, two-thirds of all of those on the welfare rolls are off those rolls in less than three years. Without Aid to Families with Dependent Children, 5 to 9 million children would be destitute. The Justice, Economic Dignity and Independence for Women group (JEDI) has low-income groups in Maine, New York and California ready to host news conferences or rallies on the day of love, Valentine's Day. The campaign is aptly called "Our Children's Hearts Are In Your Hands." Half of our nation's states will host an activity at their state house, or outside a soup kitchen on Valentine's Day. In reality, the majority of the general public endorses more government spending in fighting poverty. An October survey says 80 to 92 percent say spend more. The "Contract with America" is a hoax. Not one ordinary taxpayer signed that contract. It's a one-sided "Imposing of Will" by the loud-mouthed 8 to 20 percent quoted in the media. These news conferences across the United States must inform people of the real facts: a full-time minimum-wage job leaves a family of three 23 percent below the poverty line. People on welfare get less than that. Democrats in Congress are insisting that Republicans favoring the balanced budget amendment to the Constitution say what spending cuts will be needed. This act is a back door approach to punitive welfare reform. Any group seeking more information should please call 801-364-7765 or write to JEDI, 347 South 400 East Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION PLANNED FOR VALENTINE'S DAY TO OPPOSE DESTRUCTION OF THE SAFETY NET OAKLAND, California -- Join with people across the country to stop the war on poor children! Across the country, people are joining forces for "Our Children's Hearts Are In Your Hands," a national day of action designed to show strong, unified, grassroots opposition to the destruction of our nation's social safety net. The theme symbolizes the great human devastation which will ensue if proposals to eliminate or severely restrict housing assistance, child nutrition programs, food stamps, aid to poor children and aid for the disabled (to name a few) are adopted. Bring your bandanas to wear across your face to show that we are under attack and fighting back. Bring your pots and pans to bang to show hunger and poverty in a land of plenty. Come on Valentine's Day, February 14, at noon at the Oakland Federal Building. For more information, contact the Women's Economic Agenda Project, 518 17th Street, Oakland, California. Phone: 510-451-7379. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ NORTHEASTERN REGION Fred Newdom 347 Wellington Road Delmar, New York 518-475-1199 Coordinating New York City Deborah Pucci Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies 281 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010 212-777-4800 SOUTHERN STATES Coordinating Baltimore and Washington, D.C. area Rus Funk Sexual Abuse Treatment Center 2901 Druid Park Drive, Suite 304 Baltimore, Maryland 21215 410-728-7282 Coordinating South Carolina Mary Rawls Community Empowerment Center P.O. Box 91 Pelion, South Carolina 803-822-3353 Coordinating Austin, Texas Angela Atwood HOBO, Inc. 411 W. 2nd Street Austin, Texas 78701 512-476-4357 MIDWEST Coordinating Chicago Edith Crigler Women for Economic Security 200 S. Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60604 312-663-3574 WESTERN STATES Coordinating Idaho LeAnna Lasuern Idaho Hunger Action 4696 Overland, Suite 526 Boise, Idaho 83705 Coordinating Oregon Sylvia Mitchell Oregon Human Rights Coalition 2710 NE 14th Street Portland, Oregon 97212 503-282-5010 Coordinating Nevada Melanie McEvoy 525 Indian Princess, No. 101 Las Vegas, Nevada 89128 702-795-7567 Jan Gilbert NV Progressive Coalition 6185 Franktown Road Carson City, Nevada 89704 702-885-1721 Coordinating Southern California Dee Petty Barton Hill Neighborhood Organization 131 North Grande Avenue San Pedro, California 90731 310-832-9645 Coordinating Oakland-San Francisco Renee Pecot Women's Economic Agenda Project 518 17th Street, Suite 200 Oakland, California 94612 510-451-7379 ****************************************************************** 3. OLYMPIC DEVELOPMENT BRINGS MISERY TO ATLANTA By Holli Levinson ATLANTA -- When we think about the Olympics, most of us think about the Olympic Spirit, a spirit of cooperation and international understanding that allows people to set aside their differences and come together in unity. The unfortunate reality is that the Olympic Spirit has been bottled and sold to us by Coca-Cola and other multinational corporations who get us drunk on our most hopeful dreams and visions for the world, while they walk away with a big profit at our expense. Here in Atlanta, we have already seen the negative impact that Olympic development has on poor neighborhoods and communities of color. Construction of the Olympic Village to house athletes during the Games has destroyed over 114 units of public housing and threatens the loss of much more of a 2,734-resident public housing development. The new Olympic stadium is being constructed in the low-income neighborhood of Summerhill on land that was once promised for community development. Five thousand five hundred Summerhill residents were displaced when the city built a stadium there 25 years ago. The new stadium will have similar destructive effects. Mega-projects such as the Olympics come with the promise of great economic benefit, but in reality the revenues do not "trickle down" to those who really need them. Here in Atlanta, the city is squandering valuable resources in infrastructure improvements and other preparations for the Olympics. Instead of investing in our people, the Olympics simply provide a massive, two-week advertising bonanza for rich corporations, as well as an excuse to remove the poor from parts of the city that are prized as tourist centers. We must not be fooled. In order to make real the ideals put forth by the Olympic Spirit, we must come together and organize. We must demand a new set of priorities. This is our Olympic Spirit: A call to come together -- in unity and understanding -- as we fight for a better and more just way of life for all people. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ GET INVOLVED! Contact the groups below Atlanta Union of the Homeless: 404-230-5000 Georgia Welfare Rights Union: 404-584-7141 Cop Watch police monitoring program: 404-230-5000 (ask for the Empty the Shelters office) Olympic-related organizing: 404-584-7141 (ask for the Project South office) +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 4. GEORGIA'S POOR TO MOBILIZE AT STATE CAPITOL By Sandra Robertson ATLANTA -- We live in a nation of false images. The government, the media and our education system have played illusion games with us, telling us that life in the United States is wonderful and all is well. The oppressed of this country can see and feel the suffering all around us, and yet some of us continue to play the illusion game. It is these same people who would ask, "Why do poor people need a day at the Capitol and why would they want to call themselves poor?" The horrible truth is that we have an ever-growing number of poor people in this country, people who cannot afford to eat nutritious food, live in decent housing or receive adequate health care. Here in Georgia, state lawmakers continue to implement draconian legislation, such as the "two strikes and you're out" and "work for welfare" laws, measures aimed at corralling and controlling those whom our economic system no longer has a use for. It is time for the poor to take the offensive! On February 8 and 9, we will mobilize ourselves at the Georgia Capitol for the third annual Poor People's Day. There, the poor of this state will hold our own General Assembly. We will demand quality public education and a $10 minimum wage. We will demand a halt to the criminalization of poor people. We will demand health care for the 22 percent of Georgians who have none. We will demand that the attack on welfare families stop. Poor People's Day at the Capitol is just one step toward uniting a statewide and nationwide grassroots movement that will take the images of Liberty and Justice, principles upon which this nation is supposedly built, and finally make them more than just a pack of lies. ****************************************************************** 5. DEBATE OVER COMPUTER HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS WORKERLESS FACTORY, FARMERLESS FARM: HOW CAN WE ALL BENEFIT FROM HIGH TECH? CHICAGO -- On March 3 and 4, the Midwest Conference on Technology, Jobs and Community will be held at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Scientists and students, those still with jobs and those without will debate topics like the workerless factory and the farmerless farm -- and their effect on the Chicago area. Articles from those planning the conference will be published in this and future issues of the People's Tribune. Here, Kate Williams speaks with Robin Burke, a local computer science professor and a member of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR). KATE WILLIAMS: Why is CPSR helping plan this conference? ROBIN BURKE: One of our concerns is the gap in Chicago and elsewhere between people with access to the technology and those without, and the future of democracy in the Midwest and elsewhere. There are haves and have-nots. KW: How is this true with computer networks? RB: Think about the difference between the telephone and the television. On the telephone you can call whoever you want. By and large, you're in control over what goes in and out. The corporation just provides the line you talk over. But with TV, TV stations or the cable company set the content. [Computer] networks now have the properties of the telephone. People can talk -- and send pictures, words, sounds, and much more -- with whoever they want. But a major possibility for the [computer] network is that information will be [controlled] by a provider and you will only get whatever you pay to receive. Under the telephone model, you can set up videos of your new baby so that grandma can look at them from across the country. Under the second model you wouldn't be able to. KW: How does this affect democracy? RB: In CPSR, everybody is on the network because we are computer professionals. In the fall, there was a bill in Congress that dealt with these issues. Our people in Washington sent us which committees were looking at the bill, who the were the members, whether they could be influenced. We were getting these updates sometimes daily, and we then targeted individuals. [With the help of computer networks,] we were close to the legislative process. Compare this to C-SPAN. There you can only watch what goes on in government. The mayoral campaign here is bringing up the question of how Chicago is going to be networked. Regulations and city policies could be put "on line" for people to respond to. The real question is: Will we have a broadcast or an interactive form? Are we going to have community access to computers and thus to the information and the political process? [For information about the conference, call 312-996-5463.] ****************************************************************** 6. KILL A CIVILIAN, COLLECT A MILLION By Allen Harris In 1989, Miami police officer William Lozano shot a man on a motorcycle causing him and his passenger to die when their bike crashed. A federal arbitrator has ruled that the city of Miami has to pay Lozano, his lawyer and the police union a total of $975,000. "This is Miami. It's not surprising that a police officer kills two blacks and is paid for doing it," said one community leader, according to the Miami Herald. We live in a country where our so-called public servants can kill a member of the public and be rewarded with the public's money for the crime. Lozano is another reason why we must resist with all our might the ever more deadly turn toward a police state in this country. ****************************************************************** 7. NEW BOOK ANALYZES STUDENT ACTIVISM By Tom Hirschl Paul R. Loeb's book, "Generation at the Crossroads: Apathy and Action on the American Campus" (1994, Rutgers University Press, $24.95 hardback only), is a valuable account of the complex situation facing today's college students. It focuses on why some students choose the road of social activism while others do not. Loeb shows how the environment on college campuses encourages students to seek personal reward and to forgo grappling with social and political change. Many students pursue a major with the best prospects for monetary return and do not challenge broader social forces. This behavior is backed up by cynicism about the effectiveness of collective and individual action, and the dire financial straits that most students face in paying for their education. Nevertheless, growing numbers of students are taking up collective action along a variety of fronts. During the 1980s and 1990s, students mobilized against the Gulf War, against environmental degradation, for minority rights and minority faculty representation and against tuition hikes. Loeb details the massive City University of New York strike against tuition hikes that financially froze out New York City's poorest residents. Despite the strike's broad community support, its demand for affordable tuition was stonewalled by New York state leaders, led by then- Governor Mario Cuomo. Loeb shows how the attempts of students and faculty to examine critically America's values and institutions are under attack by an organized force. This force can be identified by a group of foundations (Olin, Mobil, Bradley, Scaif, Smith-Richardson and Coors) which bankroll a grouping of writers and intellectuals, including Dinesh D'Souza, Alan Bloom, Roger Kimball, David Horowitz, Linda Chavez, Robert Bork, Herbert London, Irving Kristol and Peter Collier. Two tactics are pursued in the attack. First, critical concerns expressed by students and faculty are dismissed as childish attempts to be "politically correct." If these concerns can be successfully dismissed, then the groundwork is laid to censor them outright. Second, the concept of minority rights is inverted to excite white students into seeking their rights in opposition to minority students. White students are told that students of color are usurping their right to an education and to financial aid. This classic divide-and-conquer tactic overlooks the simple fact that America's power elite is busy cutting funds for colleges and universities and that everyone is losing. To hold up in the coming period, concerned students and faculty need to nurture a vision of a just society. That vision should be based upon the idea that modern technology can provide for all human needs, but only if there is justice and democratic control. ****************************************************************** 7. THE SOUTHERNIZATION OF THE U.S. CONGRESS By John Slaughter ATLANTA -- Gingrich, Armey, Helms, Thurmond. What is it that these men have in common? Besides being white males, they are all from the South and they are running the country. Then there are, of course, Clinton and Gore. And the list goes on and on. Now having a Southerner in a leading position in government is not a bad thing in itself, although having someone like Jesse Helms dictating foreign policy is pretty scary. And this is nothing new. If you look at history, the Southern bloc of politicians has played a decisive role in determining how political power in this country is maintained. W.E.B. Du Bois best summed up the formula for political power in his famous statement, "As the South goes, so goes the nation." After the South was defeated in the Civil War and Northern finance (Wall Street) gained control, a political deal was struck. Under this deal, the old Southern oligarchy was allowed to pursue its reactionary policies at home unchecked in return for loyalty to the ruling class. The Solid South was the trump card of reaction, always ready to be played to hold in check any progressive movement for change. The formula for political power was control of the African American and the Black Belt South, reinforced with the ideology of white supremacy. Reconstruction was a brief experiment in Southern democracy, when African Americans and poor whites for a time shared power. What was most important to them was education for their children, health care and jobs with good working conditions and wages. For the first time, universities were established, schools and hospitals were built. Of course, all of this takes money, and funds were raised to pay for them through taxation. As soon as Reconstruction was defeated in 1877 and the Old South representatives returned to power, the deep cuts began. The program of the Southern political power structure has consistently been to reduce funds for education, health care, welfare and other social services to the bare minimum so that more profits can pile up in the private coffers of the business owners and large landowners. They invented deregulation: it means the unfettered exploitation of the land, resources and people. If all this sounds like the "Contract on America," it is no accident. The new technology is not only permanently replacing jobs, restructuring is cutting into profits, and there are no new markets into which to expand. The growing mass of the poor want jobs, education and health care. The middle class is being squeezed. The people are becoming more restless every day. The "revolution" of these Newt times is no revolution at all. It is essentially a counter-revolution designed to turn back the rising tide of demands for real solutions. The program to cut taxes, cut spending, cut welfare, cut all social services and control the people with more prisons, more police and more punitive measures is not new. It is an Old South program in new garb. What we are witnessing is the Southernization of the American Congress. The Southern poor and the Southern worker still want education and health care and good jobs. This program before the Congress is not theirs. It is the program of the haves. The battle between the haves and have-nots has long been joined in the South. A potent political slogan that developed during the Civil War was, "Bottom rail on top!" When the have-nots are "on top," then we can really talk about revolution. ****************************************************************** 8. 58 YEARS AFTER THE FLINT SIT-DOWN STRIKE: IT IS TIME TO 'REDEFINE WORK' [Lew Rosenbaum interviewed Nelson Peery, the author of _Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary_, about the Flint sit-down strike of 1937.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: The Flint sit-down strike occurred in 1937. What do you remember of it? NELSON PEERY: Well, you have to remember that the San Francisco general strike had already happened. The Seattle general strike had already happened. And so had the Minneapolis general strike. Flint was the high point, because of the immensity of the auto industry. I was very aware of it. This was the peak of the struggle for unions. Everybody was aware of it. At that time, the vast majority of the autoworkers were white. Many were recent immigrants to the area from the South, from Appalachia, from other parts. African Americans were excluded from the plants in production work. Ninety-seven percent of blacks lived in poverty and the rate of unemployment among blacks was 50-55 percent. Those blacks who were in the plants were, by and large, the janitorial force or in dangerous and heavy jobs whites did not want. PT: In your book, Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary, you describe the riots that greeted black workers brought into production in Detroit. Why was this? NP: As long as black workers remained janitors, it was OK. But the minute they were admitted to "white men's work," these white workers fought them with the same ferocity they had fought the employers. Two things were operating. 1937 was a high point in the struggle for working class unity but it was also a high point of lynching and fascist propaganda. PT: What position is the black worker in today? Does racism play the same role? NP: First of all, there is now a group of stably employed black workers, the ones with union jobs, contracts, benefits. They are finding themselves more and more intertwined with the struggle of the white workers who find themselves in the same position. Their separateness has disappeared. Certainly they are still at a disadvantage because of segregated housing. But even here, they often live in segregated developments that are the equal, even better, than the housing of similar white workers. They still have to pay higher taxes, higher food prices and so forth because of segregation, but they are inching closer to the living standard of the white workers of a comparable level. On the other hand, there is now a huge section of black workers locked into part-time, throwaway McJobs. There is a division in the African American working class that we didn't have before. The black community -- to the extent you can use this term -- is no longer what it was in the 1930s. The relatively well-to-do black workers often do not live in the same areas as the poverty- stricken. In the 1930s, the entire black community suffered the same level of political oppression. That's not true today. With regard to the autoworkers, until about 1965-68, the skilled trades in auto were still almost lily-white. Craft workers and their representatives wrote the contracts. Production workers were excluded. Blacks, who were limited to the production workers, didn't have a voice. Since 1968, blacks have been integrated into crafts, even to a certain extent into management. That wasn't even thinkable in the 1940s. Of course, underlying this process has been automation in the industry, which has eliminated so many jobs. With so many fewer jobs, segregation in the work force has become obsolete. With so many fewer workers, there's no need for a segregated work force. PT: What is your vision of how people without jobs can be fed, clothed and housed? What would a new society look like? NP: Almost nobody's job is safe today -- not because of depression, but from automation. The working class as a whole faces extreme instability. Of course, the brunt is being borne by that section that never made it into the stable work force. There are all kinds of safety nets for the workers that cushion the fall. But those who are being locked out -- who never made it into that section -- are taking the hardest blows. An even larger problem faces the younger generation coming up, young people that never will have even these jobs. The point is that side by side of the most extreme poverty, we have abundance and wealth. That tells us that instead of being caught up by the necessity of constantly devoting all of our energy and capacities to procuring the means of survival, we have to redefine what it means to work. At the base of all struggles between human beings is the struggle to control scarcity. PT: What do you mean "redefine work?" NP: We've always redefined work when the tools changed. People who used to dig ditches benefit by not having to dig ditches anymore. I think it's a step-by-step process. Think of how many people could be put to work if we just put an end to overtime. Or cut the work day to six hours. But we can't get away from some fundamental facts. First, that exchange is based on human labor. Second, that robotics is undercutting human labor entirely. Then that implies that exchange on the basis of the representative of human labor, i.e. money, is already becoming obsolete. It's a step-by-step process. But the result will be exchange on the basis of need. PT: What's the next step? NP: How are we to get from here to there? Human beings create their own history in the context of their times. I tried to create my own history 30 years ago, and was limited by those conditions. Today, conditions are different. Economic struggles cannot create that history. The American people are in no position to talk about political power. They need an organization that can bring the revolutionaries together to plan a strategy. To create their own history. That's what the National Organizing Committee was created for. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Nelson Peery will be speaking during February in Baltimore, Cleveland, Gary, Baton Rouge, Flint, Grand Rapids and Chicago. For more information, please PT Speakers Bureau at 312-486-3551, or speakers@noc.org +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 9. LUCY PARSONS, CHICAGO REVOLUTIONARY By Jon F. Rice [Editor's note: Below we print the second of several profiles of outstanding leaders we will run during African American History Month 1995.] Who was Lucy Parsons? Her memory has vanished over the past six decades. But in the 1920s and '30s, the Chicago Police Department described her as "more dangerous than a thousand rioters." You cannot know Lucy Parsons and what she became without understanding the city she came to. In 1873, Chicago was a city of misery for tens of thousands of immigrant workers brought in to be used as machines and cast aside. Members of the Chicago Citizens Association who conducted an investigation of how these immigrants lived were sickened by what they saw -- children picking through the garbage and animal litter from the meatpacking plants, scrounging for things to sell. The children were often racked with illness. Fifty percent never reached age five. Families lived in tiny, dirty shacks without windows, floors or toilets. Houses built for six or seven often housed 30 or 40 people. There were thousands of hungry children unable to go to school because the family needed them to work. The Chicago economic establishment was either uncaring or downright hostile toward the immigrants. The relief fund for the poor, for instance, was taken over by Marshall Field. Field used it for his own business investments for rebuilding after the Chicago fire. "When a tramp asks you for bread," the Chicago Tribune advised, "put strychnine or arsenic on it and he will trouble you no more." Shortly thereafter, the Illinois National Guard was formed to suppress poor people who were organizing and striking for better working conditions. The threat of revolution was in the air! Lucy Parsons, a feeling, caring black woman, became, in this atmosphere of fear and want, a political person. Her private life and personal desires faded before the strength of her total belief in justice for the poor. Albert Parsons, once a Confederate soldier, married Lucy after the Civil War and became a believer in the social equality of the races. Having fled the South under threats from the Klan, he was soon a leader in organizing the poor. Albert Parsons was targeted for death by city leaders. A bomb was thrown at police during the Haymarket riot. Although Albert Parsons was not even present, he was indicted and convicted for his alleged participation. Police Captain John Bonfield, a brutal thug, had led the charge on the gathering of workers and evidence suggests that he may have been involved in the bomb-throwing. Albert Parsons was hanged along with the other Haymarket martyrs. As the Haymarket "trial" unfolded, Lucy Parsons' belief in justice and in the necessity for revolution was confirmed. It seemed irrefutable that Chicago was incapable of showing justice for its working class. What was most striking about this heretofore forgotten heroine was the depth of her courage. Lucy Parsons was undaunted by physical abuse by the police, undeterred by vile threats from thugs, or by malicious lies in the Chicago newspapers. She cried in despair over the dead body of her husband Albert in 1886. After that, she never shed another tear. Lucy preached justice for the poor by way of revolution. She was forceful and convincing. The most powerful men in the city -- Field, Armour, Pullman, etc. -- made a concerted effort to silence her. For the next 50 years, in blatant disregard of her rights, she was arrested wherever she spoke. Lucy Parsons led a Christmas Day march to 18th and Prairie Avenue where marchers showered the Field mansion with catcalls and rotten tomatoes. Soon after, Field moved his family to the North Shore -- near the new Fort Sheridan which was built to protect the rich from the poor. Neither city officials, police abuse, years of gnawing poverty and hunger nor blindness in her later years reduced Lucy Parsons' enthusiasm for the cause, for the welfare of the workers. Lucy Parsons was not a feminist. She would have rejected the idea that she stood for women's causes, just as she denied she stood for black causes. Blacks are oppressed, she believed, because they are poor. Lucy was not complicated -- she was totally dedicated to a new society. She was a strong, penniless warrior for the poor. She lived for 90 years and died without regrets for having fought the Chicago establishment tooth and nail for over 60 years. When Lucy Parsons died, the police seized and destroyed her letters, writings and library. And so she has virtually disappeared from our memory. Information for this story comes from the book, _Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary_, by Carolyn Ashbaugh.] ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "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. THE OTHER DEADLY FORCE: HIGH SPEED PURSUITS We didn't know what we ran over. We didn't know it was a body. He went up in the air and looked like a garbage bag. It's nothing unusual for these people to throw their trash on the street like that. -- Neil Maas, Chicago Police Department (Quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times, January 8, 1995) +----------------------------------------------------------------+ >From the Editors: Hugh Santee had a lottery ticket in his hand when a Cadillac being chased at high speeds by Chicago cops slammed into him on a winter night four years ago. But as soon as neighbors rushed to his side, the pursuing Chicago police car sped through the crowd, striking Santee again, flinging him into the air and killing the 52-year- old father of five. The outrageous "explanation" for this act quoted above from Officer Neil Maas, in which he compares a human being to a bag of trash, says a lot about how far along the road to a police state we are in this country. Taxpayers coughed up $625,000 in settlement fees to underwrite this act of negligent homicide. Maas is still on the force. In the following article, excerpted from a longer version, originally published in the Peace Newsletter of the Syracuse (New York) Peace Council, Nancy Rhodes, one of the nation's most prominent leaders in the fight against police abuse, addresses "the other deadly force": high speed pursuits. After a series of tragic Syracuse deaths, Rhodes, who works with the Syracuse Task Force on Community and Police Relations, requested a copy of the official police pursuit policy. "[A]bout half of it had been blacked out," she reports, after obtaining the full version. "Where is the accountability to, respect for, and 'partnership' with the community when the Chief of Police pretends to a citizen task force and an elected official that the policy is other than [what] it really is?" +----------------------------------------------------------------+ By Nancy Rhodes (Excerpts) SYRACUSE, New York -- One rainy evening last March 21, 24-year-old Randall Pacelli was waiting for a red light in the heart of Erie Blvd. East's busy commercial strip at Seeley Road corner. He died when Corey Isaac's car slammed into his. By then, Syracuse Police had been chasing Isaac for some five miles at high speeds, because he'd run a stop sign back at the corner of Catherine St. near downtown Syracuse. Convicted of vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident, Isaac was sentenced to maximum terms totalling 11 years on December 2. Having lost his only son, Steve Pacelli wanted Mayor Roy Bernardi and Police Chief Tim Foody to review the SPD pursuit policy because it still allows police to chase people for traffic violations. On April 29, Mayor Bernardi wrote back to Steve Pacelli, "As I understand it, the Department's policy is based upon guidelines for pursuit driving developed by experts in the law enforcement field." The same month Randy Pacelli died, STOPP [Solutions to Tragedies of Police Pursuits] was founded by: Gerald LaCrosse of New Jersey whose daughter Desere' was killed by pursuit for a broken headlight (the fourth chase fatality in that area in six months); Lynne Dunne, of N.J., a 26-year-old attorney who lost her mother to a police pursuit; and Robert Ewing of Jackson, Wyoming, another survivor whose sister, Letty Landry, is STOPP's executive director. Writing in the April 1993 Trial, attorney Jan Lewis notes recent U.S. court decisions imposing liability on police for pursuits stress the value of life. Texas, Florida, California and Nebraska have all ruled that police have a responsibility to foresee consequences of their actions, so as not to injure in pursuits. On July 23, The Philadelphia Inquirer editorialized, after a [police] cruiser collided with a couple and their infant, killing all three, that the officer "could have been chasing Charles Manson and the price ... is still too high." ****************************************************************** 11. LETTER: 'TO THE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVED IN ME' "I am not guilty!" Those were the words that came from my mouth. After having spent 15 months of my life behind bars and going through a jury trial, the DA drops all charges knowing that he has made a mistake. In return, I get my freedom once again and get to be reunited with my family. The only thing is, I already had this before the DA made his mistake. What I won't get back is the 15 months which it took in order for my life, and everything else I had, to be taken away from me. Now, like a newborn baby, I start over with nothing but a past felony and this case looking over my shoulder. Every time I go do something positive with my life, everyone stereotypes me for a person that I am not. That's why the DA hopes I get hungry and commit a crime. He believes that the system was made for people like me so people like him could get rich and I get poor without life and hope. Now that I have my life once again, I have hope that someday there will be a stop to all this injustice. "I am not guilty!": The words which took long enough to be heard. With all respect to the people who stood behind me, Joe William Nunez ****************************************************************** 12. REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA Names are important. They tell the world what a person or organization is or what it hopes to become. Therefore, names are carefully chosen. Let's examine the proposed name for our organization. Our nation was born and matured in revolutions. That concept is dear to the people of this country. Revolution as an ideal is so revered that any major change in a process is called a revolution. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal was considered a revolution as was the Reagan era. The people want radical change so much, they bend over backward to push any motion in that direction. Our country is heading for serious trouble. Everyone acknowledges that. People instinctively know that giving pat answers or bandaiding problems is not enough. The people are demanding a revolution in the sense they understand it. That's why they kicked out the Democrats and brought in any old kind of Republican. They are already realizing that they need another revolution -- and soon. The people, no matter how poor or oppressed, love this country despite the contradictions between the various social forces. They don't like what this country is becoming. Because they love it, they want a fundamental change. They want a new America -- an America that is what it says it is, is what it should and could be. Our name is a declaration that the serious problems we face cannot be solved by simply getting the "ins" out and the "outs" in. We are revolutionaries because we believe in fundamental change. We are defenders of our country because we fight for a new America. The name, "Revolutionaries for a New America," gathers in the strivings of the people on their level of practical political understanding. They want a renewal of America based on the strivings, struggles and desires of the millions who created this country. We are confident they will embrace an organization that shows by its activity as well as its name that here is an organization that believes that this country is worth saving, and it can only be saved by revolution. Become a Revolutionary for a New America! ****************************************************************** 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. Box 3524 Chicago, IL 60654 pt@noc.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. For free electronic subscription, email: pt.dist- request@noc.org ******************************************************************