From jdav@noc.orgSun Feb 19 20:38:34 1995 Date: Sun, 19 Feb 95 15:01 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune (2-27-95) Online Edition ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 9 / February 27, 1995 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: pt@noc.org ****************************************************************** INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 9 / February 27, 1995 Page One 1. BOSTON MASSACRE OF 1995 Editorial 2. JOBLESS RECOVERY, NOW WHAT? 3. DEFEND JUSTICE IN MEXICO! News 4. MASSACHUSETTS MOMS STORM STATE CAPITOL 5. RUTGERS' STUDENTS ARE RIGHT: LAWRENCE MUST GO! 6. UNNECESSARY LAWS AND ORDINANCES 7. THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION STOLE MY PROPERTY! 8. COPS FREE L.A. VIGILANTE 9. WHAT IS THE VALUE OF OUR TEEN-AGERS? Focus on African American History Month 1995 10. INTERVIEW WITH DINO LEWIS: 'WE HAVE TO TALK TO ALL THE PEOPLE' 11. DEACONS FOR DEFENSE AND JUSTICE: UNSUNG HEROES OF THE COMMUNITY 12. HISTORIAN DESCRIBES THE COOPERATION OF THE SLAVES AND THE POOR WHITES AGAINST EARLY AMERICAN INJUSTICE American Lockdown 13. AMERICA IN 1995: THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE POOR GET PRISON 14. WHY NOT ADOPT A PRISON ON BEHALF OF THE PRISONERS? 15. 'THE TRUTH CAN LIBERATE': PRISONER URGES READERS TO DONATE MONEY TO HELP THE WORK OF THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. PAGE ONE: BOSTON MASSACRE OF 1995 In the city where redcoats killed patriots the poor confront a brutal assault Massachusetts, the "cradle of liberty" in the American Revolution of 1776, became its tomb in early February. That's when the Legislature enacted, and Gov. William Weld signed into law, one of the most extreme cutbacks in social welfare service in the nation. All that is needed for this law to come into effect as of July 1 is a waiver from the Clinton administration giving that state the go-ahead to: * Require "able-bodied" recipients with school-age children to find work after only 60 days of benefits, and * End increased aid to families which have more children while on welfare, and * End welfare payments altogether after two years, and * Require teen mothers to live at home with their parents or in a group home, as well as finish high school, in order to receive benefits. Oh, yes, all payments will be cut across the board by 2.75 percent. The Massachusetts Legislature is located in Boston. How ironic -- and outrageous -- that in the same city where 225 years ago, the redcoats of England's King George attacked an unarmed gathering of patriots justly demanding independence, today's redcoats -- America's millionaires and billionaires -- are attacking the new class of the American poor justly struggling to rise up and out of poverty. It is up to us, this new class, to stop this shame by organizing and fighting for our freedom from the tyranny of poverty, just as the early Americans fought for freedom from the English crown. ****************************************************************** 2. EDITORIAL: JOBLESS RECOVERY, NOW WHAT? There's much ado about the recovery in the economy. Yet, where are the jobs that usually go with it? There are none. This is a jobless recovery. This latest recovery has been fueled by the downsizing in production. This downsizing or reduction in production is possible because of the new technology -- robots and computers. It becomes cheaper to use this technology. After all, robots don't get sick, so they don't need health insurance. They don't eat, so they don't need wages to buy food. So, we can see that a growing, healthy economy does not mean more new jobs. This isn't news to the steel worker or autoworker. But it's barely beginning to sink in to the white-collar worker. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, showed that when it comes to jobs lost since 1990, white-collar losses of 1.1 million jobs actually exceed those of their blue- collar counterparts. Retraining, the pat answer of many politicians in the last election -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- is not the answer when there are no new jobs to be trained for, or when you already have the necessary skills. The premise behind retraining is that you teach a new skill to replace one no longer needed. Or that you teach the application of an old skill in a new environment. A jobless society should be a cause of celebration, not of anguish. Robots and computers are capable of doing the work required to fulfill the needs of humanity. We are speaking of a world of abundance because this new technology can produce it. Congress should be discussing how to best use this abundance for the benefit of all. It should be addressing how to expand and guarantee the safety net required of a jobless society -- not how soon mothers on welfare should have their benefits cut. It should be addressing how this new technology is going to pull 15 million children out of poverty -- not whether we have large enough police forces and prisons to lock them up. This is the measure to be used in choosing our leaders. ****************************************************************** 3. DEFEND JUSTICE IN MEXICO! (From the Editors) On February 9, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo ordered the arrest of the leaders of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and ordered the army to occupy areas in Chiapas state held by the Zapatista army since January 1994. Just five days later, Zedillo ordered a halt to the offensive and the ruling-party governor of Chiapas, who took office following a rigged election in 1994, suddenly resigned. The Zapatistas represent the impoverished people of Mexico's poorest state, people who have fought for centuries for democracy, justice and an end to poverty. These aspirations are truly our own, not just on the moral level, but on the practical. For every victory scored by the peasants of Chiapas is a victory also for the rising class of Americans in poverty. In a dispatch issued shortly after the offensive began, the Indigenous Clandestine Revolutionary Committee of the General Command of the Zapatista army stated the following: "The federal government is acting with lies. It is carrying out a dirty war in our villages. Yesterday around noon, 14 helicopters bombed the area around Morelia and Gamucha.... [T]housands of federal soldiers have penetrated into the interior of the jungle.... They are surrounding us with death and ugliness. We, the Zapatistas, as troops and civilians, up to this point have done everything possible to fall back, but now we do not have any other option except to defend ourselves and to defend our villages. Thousands of civilians have left their homes." "We ask the people of Mexico and the people of the world to do something to stop this war. "Again we ask you, brothers and sisters: Don't leave us alone. "We will act with dignity." Since the rebellion by the Zapatista army in January 1994, the Mexican government had been involved in negotiations to resolve what all recognized were just demands coming from one of the poorest regions in the country -- demands that were echoed throughout Mexico. However, today that democratic facade has also been "unmasked" as the pressure has mounted to stabilize the political situation and ensure that the austerity measures needed to repay the billions given to Mexico in loans could be enforced. We urge all our readers and friends to speak out and demand that the military offensive cease. Send faxes immediately to: Sr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos Los Pinos, DF, Mexico Fax: (52-5) 2711764 Mexican Ambassador Jesus Silva Herzog Fax: 202-728-1698 President Clinton 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20500 ****************************************************************** 4. MASSACHUSETTS MOMS STORM STATE CAPITOL By Leslie Willis In the birthplace of the American Revolution, the descendants of those who fought in 1776 -- today's welfare mothers -- are fighting for their lives. On February 9, more than 500 people protested at the Massachusetts state Capitol in Boston against cruel welfare legislation passed hours later by the Massachusetts Legislature. Twelve people were arrested. The Legislature has targeted its poorest citizens for cuts. The welfare "reform" bill is going to cut the benefits of 48,000 adults. Teen-age mothers will have to live with their parents or enter state-run homes. Welfare will be forbidden to anyone for more than 24 months in a five-year period. Blue-blooded aristocrat Gov. William Weld has taken time off from his squash games to launch a pilot program to cut off 20 percent of the state's welfare recipients after 60 days. This program could begin July 1. In January, Gov. Weld threatened to withhold all welfare checks for February unless such a welfare bill was passed. In response, over 100 welfare mothers marched up the marble steps to the governor's office. They were denied an audience by this "servant" of the people. "We aren't leaving until you get him," Dottie Stevens told the governor's aide. Stevens, a welfare mother and a former candidate for governor, was arrested along with two other welfare mothers when they refused to leave and instead pushed their way toward the governor's door. After months in which slurs and threats against welfare recipients have saturated the airwaves, there seemed to be only one side to this story. The welfare mothers and other decent people of Massachusetts have proven otherwise. ****************************************************************** 5. RUTGERS' STUDENTS ARE RIGHT: LAWRENCE MUST GO! An important struggle is underway on the campus of Rutgers University in New Jersey, a public institution. It is being waged by a multinational coalition of students who are seeking to oust university president Francis Lawrence, who last fall made a remark that linked student aptitude tests with "genetic, hereditary background." You'll remember that last fall was when a book called The Bell Curve co-authored by Charles Murray appeared, which, among other things, alleged a link between genetic makeup and IQ. This link, according to Murray, explained why nonwhites were poorer than whites. Rutgers students protested Lawrence's remarks during a nationally televised basketball game between Rutgers and the University of Massachusetts, forcing suspension of the game until March 2. The students demanded Lawrence resign his post. Lawrence instead issued an insincere "apology," claiming he misspoke. Somehow, claimed Lawrence, the words which passed his lips were the very opposite of what he really felt. The students, rightly so, didn't buy it, and neither should anyone else. The issue is simply this: No one holding a position of authority, especially a public one such as Lawrence's, should be allowed to get away with attacking a section of the public on the basis of color. What really happened is that by indulging himself in the current ruling-class "Bell Curve Chic," Lawrence proved himself unfit to lead Rutgers. The students are absolutely right to take their stand. Lawrence must go. ****************************************************************** 6. UNNECESSARY LAWS AND ORDINANCES By Robert Ferrell [Editor's note: The following article by a leader of the Atlanta Union of the Homeless is reprinted from the January 24, 1995 edition of the Atlanta Union of the Homeless Newsletter.] ATLANTA -- I often wonder if some of our so-called leaders or elected officials need psychological help. It seems that they rush into the most stupid, people-damaging corridors. If you hadn't questioned it, I am talking about one of the most devastating pieces of legislation that has ever passed through the Georgia Legislature and that is the "two strikes, you're out" that came into effect the first of January, 1995. It seems to me that our elected officials have no more foresight than a "jackass who is looking backwards" or this whole thing is a carefully thought-out plan to incarcerate a whole class of society. They seem to be unconcerned about the far-reaching effects of these laws they impose on us. After kissing certain sections or groups of the public's ass with this "two strikes" law, we find that the very same persons who pushed so hard to pass such a law now admit that this law will cause them a lot more problems than it will solve. It is my opinion that these sleaze-ball politicians use whatever they can to get elected so they can push an agenda that makes the rich richer and the poor they sentence to incarceration or death. Read their own assessment of the "two strikes" law which was extracted from the Atlanta Constitution, dated 19 January, 1995. ****************************************************************** 7. THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION STOLE MY PROPERTY! ATLANTA -- I am called "Cochise," part Apache, part Dutch, 57 years of age, disabled, can't draw SSI, not old enough to draw Social Security, with no education. I can no longer find work since I am limited to what I can do and hold out to do it. I am homeless six years now because of my limitations and a bad divorce. I tried as long as I could to work out of those so-called day labor places. I bought items that I needed when I could; had much donated to me when I couldn't work. I came to the point I could be comfortable under the conditions I had to live under and was surviving fairly well -- until the Department of Transportation decided that was not to their satisfaction. They decided to steal my property on December 3, 1994. I was able to get back most of it. On December 15, 1994, the DOT returned, loading up and stealing everything I had. I made out a police report as anyone else would do. Upon finding out who was responsible, I attempted to take them with a warrant which I was denied in the warrant office. Of course, when you are homeless you have nowhere to turn, you have no justice. In fact, with the justice you get, if it was oxygen, you couldn't live five minutes in this country. It seems like honesty and fairness is something most people don't know the first thing about anymore. But that's all right. I will make it somehow. But one warning to all. I will not be pushed too far by anyone. I don't feel I have too much longer to live no way. I don't really have that much to lose. Leave me out of your life if you don't mean me any good. ****************************************************************** 8. COPS FREE L.A. VIGILANTE By Clyde Flowers LOS ANGELES -- Under a freeway in the San Fernando Valley, William Masters found two young men spray-painting on a wall. As a self- appointed anti-graffiti crusader, he wrote down their license plate number. When the youths protested, Masters drew his gun and shot both of them, killing Cesar Rene Arce and wounding David Hilo. Masters likes to take late-night walks in a deserted industrial area of Los Angeles carrying a gun. He is a martial arts practitioner and sword collector who has been arrested in the past for wearing martial arts swords in public. He blamed the murder on Arce's mother! He told a reporter she was an "irresponsible uncaring parent" for SUPPOSEDLY raising a criminal son. Instead of the arrest and jail time that street murderers usually receive, Masters' actions brought praise from many members of the community and swift release by the police. Masters bragged, "Where are you going to find 12 people to convict me?" Cesar Rene Arce died in a war being fought by our government against the youth of our country. A government that cannot provide solutions to the poverty devastating America but, instead, points the finger of blame at the victims. A government that proceeds to attack the victims with cuts in health, education and survival programs. Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton tell us it is the young, the teen- age welfare mothers, youth gangs and children on food stamps who are the cause of our plight. And we have been told that somehow it is the taggers' fault that children are hungry and there are no jobs and the neighborhoods are decaying. Police in the San Fernando Valley have organized hundreds of citizens in Neighborhood Graffiti Watch groups. The city of Los Angeles offers a $500 bounty for turning in a tagger, and a Long Beach politician has proposed caning taggers. Meanwhile, millions of young people, born and raised in poverty, have no property and never will. They face a future without jobs, without hope under this system. They live in a "democracy" in which they have no voice. But they are fighting back and demanding lives, demanding recognition, hope, a future and a voice. They rap, they write, they sing, they organize ... and they tag. They speak for all of us. ****************************************************************** 9. WHAT IS THE VALUE OF OUR TEEN-AGERS? By Luis J. Rodriguez Cesar Rene Arce did not deserve to die. The 18-year-old Los Angeles youth was gunned down in late January for allegedly "tagging" on the Hollywood Freeway! Is life so cheap? Not only that, but police released the person picked up for his murder, 35-year-old William Masters, on the grounds that the murder was "justified." Master admits that he was carrying an illegally concealed weapon when he approached two young men, Arce and his 20-year-old friend David Hilo. But when the youths tried to convince Masters to let them go, he produced the gun and shot them both. Hilo, who police claim had threatened Masters with a screwdriver, was actually shot in the back! In fact, Masters reportedly walked up to Hilo while he was on the ground and said, "This all happened because you were tagging." Is the so-called defacement of a public structure worth more than a human life? Apparently it is if that life is of a young person, in this case Latino, who probably doesn't have the resources to develop his artistic needs elsewhere. The police and the district attorney refused to charge Masters, claiming he had a reasonable fear for his life -- although it was he who had the weapon and did the shooting. Masters later stated: "Where are you going to find 12 citizens to convict me?" In many parts of the country, this is true: property is considered more valuable than lives. But we must challenge this wherever we can. If Masters is allowed to get away with cold-blooded murder -- in defense of property -- this will signal a green light for other so-called "justified" shootings. It's no accident that the incident occurred in a climate of anti- immigrant hysteria, most dramatized with the passing last November of Proposition 187 in California, which denies education, non- emergency health care and social services to undocumented immigrants. But while murder is "justified" in this case, countless young people across the United States sit in facilities for far lesser crimes. (The vast majority of youths in juvenile facilities are incarcerated for non-violent acts.) Our country is virtually going to war against the young. There is more money to build prisons than there is for schools. Employers generally treat teens as pariahs; when they do hire them, it's a lot of work for very little. The youth are not respected by the authority figures in this society, whether police, teachers, officials or parents. Instead of attacking "taggers," why don't we have schools that affirm and develop the creative capabilities of all youth? Life has to be worth more than property -- has to be worth more than the needs of a few over the rest of us. [Luis J. Rodriguez, formerly of Los Angeles, now writes from Chicago, where he directs Tia Chucha Press. His most recent book is Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. (Touchstone).] ****************************************************************** 10. 'WE HAVE TO TALK TO ALL THE PEOPLE' [The People's Tribune Speakers Bureau interviewed Dino Lewis, a poet, writer and organizer of the homeless and poor. Dino is a founding member of the Homeless Writers Coalition, a group of writers and poets from Skid Row in Los Angeles. He is currently on a speaking tour. For information on bringing Dino to your city, please email speakers@noc.org, or call 312-486-3551] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Dino, at one point in your life, you lived in a cardboard box. What was that like? DINO LEWIS: You're really living as a cave man in prehistoric times in America today. There's no place to take a bath, get clean clothes, change your underwear. But you have an opportunity to see what it is really like in America and how the government does not care about its people. PT: There are more homeless on the streets every day. Who are the homeless of the '90s? DL: There's a stereotype going around that homeless people are single males escaping responsibility. But today anyone can become homeless. I've seen whole families on the street, business executives that have gone from top to bottom, people with degrees. The faces of the homeless today is the face of America. PT: Why can't America, the richest country in the world, end homelessness? DL: Because the power elite, the controlling factor of the finances of America, is hogging everything. They are more concerned about profit than they are about people. As long as they are allowed to make this profit off our misery, they will continue. As they continue to put more money in their coffers, the number of people on the streets will continue to grow. Yet, there are plenty of homes. In Houston, new apartments, never occupied, were bulldozed into the ground while there are an estimated 50,000 homeless. Or take the car manufacturers. There are thousands of cars sitting in the desert. They won't give them away because this would bring the value of autos down. It's the same with houses. When I was working at McDonnell Douglas Corp., there was a huge complex of gorgeous homes that UCLA built for the professors on campus. The professors wouldn't buy them, so the complex just sat. America doesn't desire to end the homeless crisis. What they are trying to figure out is how to control the masses of people who won't be working. They need to control us because we are the majority, not the minority. PT: How can things change? DL: Robots and computers can produce everything we need. If the technology is used for the people, things would change. No man would want for anything. There wouldn't have to be greed or "I'm better than you because I own this or that." It would be "this is what you need for your family to be comfortable." We could spend more time learning to understand our fellow man, rather than competing for the dollar. If a city needed employees to do a job, they would divide up the work and do it. People would do what they needed to keep the machinery going. There would be no millionaires, monopolies. But homelessness is going to be until the people come together and say "I've had enough." I don't mean black, brown, homeless, I mean all people. We have to have the same agenda. PT: There have been marches for housing, takeovers of abandoned housing and other community actions. What has been the result and what is needed now? DL: The community itself has come out feeding their homeless. The churches have been good because they see homeless people and know someone needed to lend a helping hand. These are people we have to recruit. If we don't have the religious community behind us, we'll fail because they are the most sympathetic and strongest in the United States. If we could get them to dedicate half the amount of time that they dedicate to their beliefs, we could win. We also need people most affected by homelessness in the board rooms giving their input. You can't come to a cardboard box and tell me what is best for me. Only we know. Marches help some. I think the takeovers have been one of the better ideas because you can starve while marching for food or having sit-ins. Since 1983, the homeless have begged, looked pitiful for the cameras, poured our hearts out to the journalists from mainstream news, marched and protested. But they don't hear us. We're tired. We're demanding action, not shelters to warehouse us, but homes for the singles and for the families. PT: You are involved in the Break the Blackout Campaign. What is it? DL: We're trying to draw up a game plan. We have to talk to all the people from grassroots organizations so we don't make the decisions for them. We're putting together a Break the Blackout Summit because they [the mainstream media] are blacking out our future. We are not able to tell the American people the real story. They don't know our side. They need to say "Wait a minute, he's a drug addict, but that's not a sin; the American government gave drugs." We need to tell the world about this new revolution that is about to occur. America has think tanks planning to stop us from becoming the people that control and rule America. We need to start thinking 24 hours a day about how to beat the system that is killing us. DINO LEWIS WILL BE SPEAKING AT LOYOLA UNIVERSITY IN CHICAGO ON FEBRUARY 27. ****************************************************************** 11. DEACONS FOR DEFENSE AND JUSTICE: UNSUNG HEROES OF THE COMMUNITY By Jon F. Rice Black people on Chicago's West Side were unrepresented in the Chicago City Council prior to 1963. The majority-black wards on the West Side were run by a group of politicians with Mafia ties known as the West Side bloc. Italian Vito Marzullo ran the 25th Ward, Irishman Ed Quigley the 27th, Jewish Bernie Neinstein the 29th and Italian Joseph Jambrone the 28th. Racism filtered down through the ranks. Of 63 precincts in the all-black 24th Ward, 59 had white precinct captains. By 1960, the West Side bloc realized they needed a black front man so they could continue to rule the 29th Ward. The local politicians picked Benjamin Lewis as their boy. Lewis, who could speak Yiddish, ran for alderman and won. He appeared to be their pliant tool. On February 27, 1963, Benjamin Lewis was murdered. He was shot three times in the head while handcuffed on his office floor. Lewis had become too independent. He had prevented the construction of high-rise projects in the ward, and fought doubleshifted schools. He also challenged the monopoly on insurance and banking run by local white families with ties to the Democratic Party organization. The consensus is that Lewis' independent moves got him killed. Republican Alderman Hoellen from the North Side charged the murder was the product of the police/politician/mob triumvirate that ruled the West Side. That is also exactly how several West Side activists saw it. In response to Lewis' murder, these activists formed the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed group to protect independent West Side activists. This new phenomenon of black West Siders taking up arms to defend their independence was courageous. The hand-picked police who did the dirty work to keep these wards "plantation wards" could not attack this group immediately. The Deacons for Defense and Justice also became active in civil rights causes in the South and continued monitoring police in Chicago. They won the respect of the youth clubs on the West Side by standing up to the police. The Deacons armed themselves with M-1 rifles and took up a charter with the National Rifle Association, becoming the National Negro Rifle Association. They opened a youth center on Chicago's West Side and sent food to black Southerners fighting the local White Citizens Councils. The antagonism of the brutal police toward the Deacons forced them to lead a rather shadowy existence. Their membership was always something of a secret. Nevertheless, some of their leaders came forward as spokesmen. One such leader was Edward "Fats" Crawford. Crawford was respected in his community for standing up to racist police and his support of young black people. It was Crawford who ran the youth center. He was involved in altercations with local shopkeepers who discriminated against black residents by selling bad goods and disrespecting members of the community. It was Crawford who protested when police shot up the Deacons' office. Crawford was a hard-fighting, rough and tumble man who stood by his principles. His principles were embedded in his love for his community. On December 17, 1981, Crawford was arrested. He suffered several "mysterious" head injuries which he died from. According to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Crawford was killed by the police. Crawford gave his life serving his community. We should remember him for that and learn from his death. It is often deadly for minorities to stand up for their community, but thousands of unsung heroes have done so. Edward "Fats" Crawford and the Deacons for Defense and Justice were among them. ****************************************************************** 12. HISTORIAN DESCRIBES THE COOPERATION OF THE SLAVES AND THE POOR WHITES AGAINST EARLY AMERICAN INJUSTICE Editor's note: Howard Zinn is one of America's most important historians. Zinn's mother and father were immigrant factory workers who worked hard but never got out of poverty in Brooklyn. At the age of 18, Zinn went to work, building ships in the early years of World War II. He enlisted in the Air Force when he was 21 and flew combat missions in Europe. After the war, Zinn went to college under the GI Bill while loading trucks in a warehouse and living in a low-income housing project. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and taught for seven years at Spelman College. Zinn was actively involved in the civil rights movement and the movement to end the Vietnam war. In 1982, Zinn wrote _A People's History of the United States_, a ground-breaking book which told the story of this country from the perspective of those on the bottom. It went through 24 printings, sold 300,000 copies and was nominated for an American Book Award. Professor Zinn has graciously allowed the People's Tribune to quote from his works. On this African American History Month 1995, we wanted to share this passage from pages 36-37 of _A People's History of the United States_ with our readers: "From time to time, whites were involved in the slave resistance. As early as 1663, indentured white servants and black slaves in Gloucester County, Virginia formed a conspiracy to rebel and gain their freedom. The plot was betrayed, and ended with executions. ... [N]ewspaper notices of runaways in Virginia often warned 'ill- disposed' whites about harboring fugitives. Sometimes slaves and free men ran off together, or cooperated in crimes together. Sometimes, black male slaves ran off and joined white women. From time to time, white ship captains and watermen dealt with runaways, perhaps making the slave a part of the crew. "In New York in 1741, there were 10,000 whites in the city and 2,000 black slaves. It had been a hard winter and the poor -- slave and free -- had suffered greatly. When mysterious fires broke out, blacks and whites were accused of conspiring together. Mass hysteria developed against the accused. After a trial full of lurid accusations by informers, and forced confessions, two white men and two white women were executed, 18 slaves were hanged, and 13 slaves were burned alive. "Only one fear was greater than the fear of black rebellion in the new American colonies. That was the fear that discontented whites would join black slaves to overthrow the existing order. In the early years of slavery, especially, before racism as a way of thinking was firmly ingrained, while white indentured servants were often treated as badly as black slaves, there was a possibility of cooperation." ****************************************************************** 13. AMERICA IN 1995: THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE POOR GET PRISON Dear People's Tribune: I have received your subscription forms in the mail and I have been sending them out frequently. I thank you for them very much. If you would have some more, I could send them also. I talked to another inmate tonight; that really shocked me. He showed me one of your papers that had my letter in it. Thank you again and God bless you all. Well, I would like to ask you to send me a paper regularly also. I would also like a copy of the paper. I wish I would have known you were going to put my letter in the paper, 'cause I would have said a few things that would have rung some ears. First off, the government spends billions of dollars every year building prisons and housing prisoners. Why don't they put that tax money to good use and build factories to put our men to work? Well, because they make more off the prison system. That way, they have more for their pockets and can pull the wool over the taxpayers' eyes. If they built factories, they know that the crime rate would decrease. But then their profit margin wouldn't be so large and they would be paying people for their labor and not locking them up for petty things and drawing more tax dollars for it. They keep building more prisons because they know that way they can fill them and the income will continue for as long as they like. Which will be forever, or until they can't squeeze any more money from the taxpayers. That way, the rich get richer and the poor go to prison. But as everyone knows, this can't continue because people will start to open their eyes someday and see the light. God bless you all. Your paper and prisoners are always in my prayers. Cleo Goodwin, 391145-F 4208 Gulf Correctional Institution, P.O. Drawer 130, Wewahitehka, Florida 32465 ****************************************************************** 14. WHY NOT ADOPT A PRISON ON BEHALF OF THE PRISONERS? Dear People's Tribune: My name is Kenneth M. Key, a para-legal/jailhouse lawyer, and my reason for writing is to merely applaud the People's Tribune for allowing space for the voices of prisoners to be heard, and for their relentlessness in the pursuit of exposing the truth concerning corruption, inhuman treatment and total oppression of prisoners and of humankind in general everywhere. As our civil rights are slowly being redefined by the courts to mean nothing and void, prisoncrats, especially the guards, have intensified the assaults on prisoners, harassment, brutality, psychological games and retaliation against the few prisoners -- jailhouse lawyers -- with the knowledge and guts to speak out, advocate and litigate in the cause for justice in opposition to the trend. I say all of this to pose the question to those so-called pro bono groups, legal clinics, etc.: Where are you? When the cries of prisoners rights are at issue, more than ever we need your help! Not your posturing and selection of special-interest, case by case choosing, which seems to be centered around the nominal outcome, of which only you seem to come out ahead. Where are you who claim you are loyal to bringing justice and equality to prisoners back into the correctional system? We don't see or hear you on the TVs, nor have you been picketing outside the 30 or better built prisons that now exist in the state of Illinois. And yet, still prisoners are beaten, shot up with drugs, placed naked behind doors with no ventilation, blankets, etc. Where are you when our visitors are harassed, especially our mothers, sisters and children? Where are you when our fellow convicts are dying because of improper medical care, dispensing of medication, or the fact that most of the prisons now built were built with inferior building materials, or built on top of swampland, waste dumps, and where the answer for most of our ills is aspirin, where lead-filled water exists, and insects of every kind run rampant? You have gotten rich off the backs of prisoners, just as those that have incarcerated us, with your grants, underwriting, but you are becoming more visible as the problems mount, and still our cries go unanswered. I for one would like to see one of you be totally committed to bringing civil action on behalf of prisoners throughout Illinois. As the saying goes, "each one teach one." Why not each one adopt one (a prison) on behalf of prisoners, and deal with the issues of injustice, oppression, racist prisoncrats, that exist and plague our correctional system today? In closing, I think you already know what is needed to bring about change, and thus I challenge you. Anyone can contact me at: Kenneth M. Key A-70562 P.O. Box 7711 Centralia Correctional Center Centralia, Illinois 62801 ****************************************************************** 15. 'THE TRUTH CAN LIBERATE': PRISONER URGES READERS TO DONATE MONEY TO HELP THE WORK OF THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE Dear readers: The holiday season came and as I sat in my cell, I wondered to myself: Just how many people were able to enjoy the holidays with warm food, warm clothing, shelter or with someone who'll listen to them? And then I thought to myself how the People's Tribune has so dedicatedly brought the words of truth out for the millions of voiceless people -- people who don't have a way to speak to millions, political leaders or governments -- and I realized just how important the People's Tribune is to us all. I would encourage all of you who have not donated to the People's Tribune to do so if you are able. I would encourage those who are unable to donate to advocate for the Tribune by sharing with others the message, the truth which the People's Tribune never fails to bring. The gift most enduring to give to a loved one would be the People's Tribune rather than a mink coat because the truth can liberate, whereas a coat can only collect dirt, dust and moths, just like this government we are forced to deal with is full of dirt, dust and political moths for the people. Please, friends, make a difference. I would like to hear from all interested parties. Write me. Ali Khalid Abdullah #148130 Charles E. Egeler Correctional Facility 3855 Cooper Street Jackson, Michigan 49201-7517 ****************************************************************** 16. 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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