From jdav@noc.orgMon Mar 27 00:33:59 1995 Date: Sun, 26 Mar 95 22:55 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune (4-3-95) Online Edition ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 14 / April 3, 1995 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: pt@noc.org ****************************************************************** INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 14 / April 3, 1995 Page One 1. CONGRESS TAKES CARE OF ITS CLASS Editorial 2. THE COPENHAGEN POVERTY SUMMIT: 1.5 BILLION POOR CAN DEFEAT 344 BILLIONAIRES News 3. 'STUDENTS UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED': CALIFORNIA RALLY TAKES ON SYSTEM 4. 'O.J. ISN'T JUST FOR BREAKFAST ANYMORE': WHY HAS THE SIMPSON TRIAL BECOME A REAL-LIFE SOAP OPERA? 5. POLICE BEAT PHOTOGRAPHER, STEAL FILM TO COVER BRUTALITY 6. A YOUNG LEADER LOOKS DOWN THE INFO SUPERHIGHWAY 7. CRISIS IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL: WORKERS AND RESIDENTS KNOW HOW TO SAVE D.C. 8. MILWAUKEEANS TO MARCH ON ANNIVERSARY OF KING'S ASSASSINATION 9. WOMEN'S, CHURCH, POOR PEOPLE'S GROUPS CONDUCT VIGILS DURING HOUSE DEBATE ON WELFARE LEGISLATION Focus on ALABAMA CONFERENCE ON PRISON STRUGGLE IN AMERICA 10. THE PRISON STRUGGLE IN AMERICA: A CRITICAL PATH TO REVOLUTION 11. NEW JERSEY YOUTHS BATTLE COP TERROR: AN ECHO FROM THE PAST, A VISION OF THE FUTURE 12. AUTHOR RECALLS VISIT TO PATERSON: A HEROIC PATHWAY TO STRUGGLE 13. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. PAGE 1: CONGRESS TAKES CARE OF ITS CLASS WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On March 16, 1995, the truth came out about the U.S. Congress -- who it hurts, who it helps and who it serves. On that day, the House of Representatives passed and sent to the Senate a bill cutting funding for federal housing assistance, education and literacy programs, public broadcasting, summer jobs, a low-income home heating program and the AmeriCorps national service program. An early version of the bill had even called for $200 million in cuts in medical programs for veterans but this provision was eliminated at the last minute after outrage swept the country. On the very same day, an environmental group released the first comprehensive study showing who actually gets the $10 billion which Congress has authorized to be spent every year in agricultural support payments. The report details how the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave about $1.8 billion over a 10-year period to people who own farms but don't live on them. Millions of dollars were sent to "farmers" living in places like Vail, Colorado; Newport, Rhode Island; and even Beverly Hills, California! One individual who has received more than $500,000 in taxpayer subsidies for a farm in Nebraska actually lives near Greenwich Village in New York City. Another lives in a beachfront condominium in Malibu, California. The vast majority of this subsidy money goes to wealthy landowners and to agribusiness. Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R.-Ind.), the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, admitted as much when he told the Los Angeles Times in an interview: "The money is going to millionaires." In an editorial, The New York Times characterized those members of Congress who are voting to slash social programs as being "more eager to take milk from welfare babies than to end welfare for milk producers." The events of March 16 vividly demonstrate that Congress takes care of its class -- the ruling class of millionaires in this country. Can there be any doubt that this class is totally unfit to rule this country? ****************************************************************** 2. EDITORIAL: THE COPENHAGEN POVERTY SUMMIT: 1.5 BILLION POOR CAN DEFEAT 344 BILLIONAIRES Today in this world, whole communities of human beings are rising on mountains of garbage they scavenge for a living. Today in this world, some 67,680 children around the world were born into families living on less than $1 a day. Some 70,000 more people in the world were overtaken by absolute poverty. Today in this world, it's not uncommon for refugee zones of up to a million people fleeing murderous wars to spring up overnight with no food to eat and nothing to support their existence. Today, an estimated 1.3 billion to 1.5 billion people on this planet -- one in every four -- are living in this same absolute poverty. And this, not just in distant lands in Africa, Asia and Latin America, but here in the United States, in the center of its great cities, in the rural South and from coast to coast. Today in this world, 700 million people do not have safe water to drink. One hundred million children are not in primary school. Today in this world, the gap between rich and poor is widening. One-fifth of the world's people has more than four-fifths of its income. Today in this world, the capitalist class stands condemned by these facts of a world it has brought about through its domination of the human race. Yet despite this reality, and because of it, the national leaders who represent the interests of this class of billionaire bankers, investors and speculators gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark in March for a United Nations-sponsored summit on world poverty. They included U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton. The facts which they themselves cannot deny show that more than ever the entire world is now divided into two totally distinct classes of people -- a super-rich bourgeoisie and a super-poor proletariat. Today in this world, the 344 billionaires (according to Forbes magazine) who are changing this economic system from one of exploitation of the poor to outright exclusion of the poor have had their say. We, the 80 million Americans in poverty, need to unite and make common cause with the rest of our 1.5 billion brothers and sisters around the world to fight for our survival and freedom. If we do this, then tomorrow in this world, the billions of super- poor will have their say, too, as humanity asserts itself, seizes the new technology and creates a new world of universal abundance. A world without a soul living in poverty. ****************************************************************** 3. 'STUDENTS UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED': CALIFORNIA RALLY TAKES ON SYSTEM By Cesar Tejeda LOS ANGELES -- As state governments cut jobs and services, state colleges also are joining in. "Education is a right!" chanted 200 students at Cal State Los Angeles on March 1, after a state court ordered undocumented students to pay five times higher fees than other residents. This "Bradford rule" tries to divide us by nationality. But the students know that immigrants aren't to blame for higher fees and cuts in affirmative action and remedial classes, which affect us all. "This isn't a race thing, it's a student thing and a class thing!" declared Leo Nevels at the rally. Remedial classes are for those who test low in English or mathematics. According to the Los Angeles Times of January 26, 1995, about half of all students -- and in some schools more than half -- need this help. The leader of the attack is a Latino businessman from San Diego, Ralph Pesquiera, who sits on the Board of Trustees and wants to eliminate all remedial classes within five years. Pesquiera and other trustees feel that students who need remedial classes should go to community colleges or hope that high schools do a better job. They feel California spends too much on these classes, yet less than one percent of the 20 state universities' $1.4 billion budget is spent on them. This is just one of many attacks the students face. We also face fee increases, elimination of programs that help underrepresented groups and possible elimination of affirmative action. So, the defense of the undocumented is a line of defense of all of us. "We are here because of all these things that are trying to oppress our people," said Alma Ornelas. "This is going to hurt blacks, Asians, whites. ... It's human rights that are getting oppressed." This is only the first in a series of articles dealing with student matters from the University Committee of the National Organizing Committee. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ THE SCARIEST ONE OF THEM ALL By Gaya Jenkins SAN FRANCISCO -- A reptile has become the speaker of the House of Representatives. This volatile reactionary who makes California Gov. Pete Wilson seem slightly palatable wants to "establish Republicans as the architects of a new world." "I am a genuine revolutionary," Newt proclaims, disturbing the graves of Zapata, Sandino, Guevara. Hell, even George Washington rolls over upon hearing this one. Viva Newt? +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 4. 'O.J. ISN'T JUST FOR BREAKFAST ANYMORE': WHY HAS THE SIMPSON TRIAL BECOME A REAL-LIFE SOAP OPERA? By James Chase SAN JOSE, California -- The saying "Old news is no news" does not seem to apply to the media of today. Case in point, the O.J. Simpson trial. It has become a real-life soap opera. I can't claim that other countries live with such deep preoccupation with sensationalism and eagerly canter toward the destruction of another's life to satisfy, what? Is it because he's a celebrity, he's black, he's rich and successful? Is it lack of enough interest in our own lives, or simply curiosity? Any or all of the above? Whatever the motive, the press coverage has created a modern-day lynch mob out of the public. Unfortunately, the Simpson case is just one of many in America's history that has demonstrated the human desire to exercise freedom of speech or perhaps satisfy human nature at the cost of another's rights. My personal dilemma is, how did we get this way? Is this social pastime or fixation getting worse or has it always been part of human behavior to make a spectacle of moral and legal issues? I remember reading about the story of Fatty Arbuckle, a comedic actor in the 1920s. At the peak of his career, he was accused of murdering his girlfriend, found innocent, blacklisted in Hollywood. He was said to have died of a broken heart, thanks to the destructive powers of the media. I'm not saying the press shouldn't voice their freedom of speech. It is their right to do so, but it can be a potentially dangerous privilege. A privilege to turn a person's life into a public feeding frenzy. It is all too common at America's dinner table to judge another person's life through a force whose ethics are questionable, the news media. If it were your life, wouldn't you want some consideration? I wish people would care more about the consequences of their actions before pushing the button, instead of being ruled by sensationalism and money that takes precedent over morality, honesty and a sense of fair play. In my opinion, misguided representations of freedom will destroy freedom and our respect for our fellow human beings. The belief that any news is good news is poison when manipulated by the wrong powers. To be specific, my complaint is not that news is reported; it is how the press reports the news. In the rush to report headline news, details are misconstrued and, many times, purely fictionalized. This is a violation of a defendant's human rights to a fair trial and physical safety. For example, why is it the job of the press to give scenarios on lawyers' strategies and to cover the Simpson trial hour after hour, as if it were a sporting event? Is it for our entertainment? This kind of programming is controlling, destructive and affects the way we think. Such methods of reporting fatigue and obsess the audience, resulting in trendy jokes like "O.J. isn't just for breakfast anymore" or a 3-D poster with a big picture of O.J's face on it that says, "Can you find O.J.?" The list goes on. The act of murder is not a joke! These are issues which would be interesting if investigated. The bloody glove equals misinformed information, now a bloody sock appears ... ? Who is responsible for these leaks of inaccurate pieces of information? Does it matter to the legal authorities and the public if O.J. is innocent? Is the attitude ... "just as long as they get their man"? Is it to make up for past blunders of the legal and justice system? It's too bad these human-rights issues aren't encouraged by the press as the topic of conversation at America's dinner table. I would like to believe the purpose of the news is to report non-manipulative, non-opinionated, non- judgmental news of events or stories with accuracy and relevance to their citizens regarding the culture, society and well-being of their citizens. To tell it as it's heard and film it as it's seen, leaving the commentaries to commentators and special reports, without the sporting-event mentality. Whatever the verdict in the Simpson trial, the process of public interest and participation reflects how we perceive the act of a violent crime in America. ****************************************************************** 5. POLICE BEAT PHOTOGRAPHER, STEAL FILM TO COVER BRUTALITY By Jackie Dee King BOSTON -- How far will this state go to cover up what it is doing to women and children on welfare? Police beat, arrested, and then confiscated the film of a well- known welfare rights leader who was taking pictures of brutal arrests at a State House demonstration against welfare cuts on February 9. Jeanne Dever, a photographer for Survival News, was thrown to the floor, dragged by her hair to the elevator, and arrested. Then, in a bitterly ironic but all-too-familiar ploy, police charged the victim with assault and battery on a police officer. When she was released from the police station, she found that the film was missing from her camera! Jeanne is a 52-year-old disabled grandmother. She suffers from spinal stenosis, fibromylesia, and several work-related stress and anxiety disorders. Her conditions have been greatly aggravated by her treatment at the hands of the police. She is also well-known in this city as a longtime public housing tenant leader, former administrator of the Gallivan Community Center, a member of both the Massachusetts and the National Welfare Rights Unions, and as part of the Up and Out of Poverty, Now! Campaign. Jeanne has been singled out by the authorities in this case. Her charge carries potentially serious consequences, including possible prison time. (The others arrested at the demonstration were charged with disorderly conduct and given probation or "community service.") Her trial is scheduled for May 4. Local organizations and welfare rights groups from other cities are rallying to Jeanne's defense. In a recent interview with the People's Tribune at her home in the Gallivan housing development, Jeanne told the story of her arrest. "I was at the State House that day to take pictures. I had actually lost consciousness. They kept trying to yank my camera away from me, but it was attached by a strap around my neck. I was lying there looking up at them, still taking pictures! The next thing I knew, I was being dragged by my hair across the floor to the elevator. Later, someone told me that several people were shouting, 'Oh my God, they're dragging that old lady by the hair!' "There were many young women at the demonstration that day, people who had never been to the State House to speak out for their rights before. I believe the brutality of the arrests was for the benefit of these young women, so they would never dare come there again. And I think they used me as an example to these young women: we don't care how old you are or what color your hair is or what kind of physical condition you're in -- this is what could happen to you! Stay away!" Downstairs at the State House, Jeanne suffered a panic attack. The ambulance was called and she was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital. She was kept at the hospital for five hours, guarded by a state trooper. She was in great pain, especially from her scalp and her wrenched neck. Her vest was ripped. Despite her descriptions of what had happened, the hospital never gave her a physical exam. Instead a psychiatrist interviewed her. "As far as they were concerned, I was just a hysterical old lady," she said. Eventually, she was handcuffed and taken to the state troopers' barracks, where she was charged with assault and battery on a police officer, stripped of her glasses, her bag (which contained her camera), her boots and her belt. "Despite my request not to be put in a cell, an officer came over, said 'Get in there!' and pushed me so that I fell and took a chunk out of my knee. It was a suicide cell, all glass with cameras. I sat on the very edge of the metal bench. It was filthy and I was in my stocking feet. I was praying and praying. I said the whole rosary, while I was sitting there and I haven't said the whole rosary in 30 years. Eventually I was released on my own recognizance. "On my way home, I opened my camera ... and discovered that my film was gone! And I had just signed a piece of paper saying they had returned all my possessions. I never in God's world thought to look in my camera before I left the station to see if my film was there. Because ... this is still America! I was more shocked that they took my film than that they beat me up. "My lawyer is convinced that they arrested me in order to get the film away. Because they saw me on the stairs, leaning way over to get my pictures. They knew I had documentation on what they were doing to those women." ****************************************************************** 6. A YOUNG LEADER LOOKS DOWN THE INFO SUPERHIGHWAY By Allen Harris CHICAGO -- "We are entering a society of knowledge workers," said Daria Ilunga, one of the young people attending the recent Midwest Conference on Technology, Employment and Community. "We need knowledge to work in any sector. It's important to know how to work with diverse people. Young people as leaders need to be more rounded." It was with that vision of the future that Ilunga, a 22-year-old woman who works with young people in after- school programs in the Cabrini-Green housing development, came to the conference in early March at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a member of a national organization called City Year, which groups young people 17 to 23 years old from diverse backgrounds for a year of full-time community service and leadership development. She came to the conference on her own because, she said, she was concerned about the fate of youth on the information superhighway. That cyber thoroughfare can be an eight-lane expressway to poverty and social destruction for millions of people, or it can be the way to a new society of universal abundance and cooperation. It all depends on whether that road is claimed for private gain or public good. "Young people are not conscious, fully, of the kind of world they're heading for," said Ilunga. In a time of what she described as one of increasing racial and class segregation, she said the rapidly unfolding future is going to demand entirely new ways of doing things. "You're going to be working with people you can't see. Organizations will exist in virtual forms. You're going to need to know how to communicate through various mediums." In a broader context, she said that although City Year is focused on leadership training -- what she called "a first step toward the road to social change" -- it does not pursue organizing itself, although that is needed, too. ****************************************************************** 7. CRISIS IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL: WORKERS AND RESIDENTS KNOW HOW TO SAVE D.C. By D'Emilio WASHINGTON, D.C. -- From March 18-24, a coalition of determined union members and residents mobilized in this city to proclaim their solution to Washington, D.C.'s bankruptcy: No More Corporate Welfare! Make the Real Estate Owners, Developers and Landlords Pay Their Fair Share! "We will wake this city up every morning with the facts on how the developers, who do not live in the District, have made a killing in the D.C. market, but pay little in taxes," promised participants in the coalition, before the protests began. The coalition is led by the Washington, D.C. "Justice for Janitors" group of Local 82 of the Service Employees International Union. The Justice for Janitors literature points out that developers have gotten wealthy off the backs of the city's poor and middle-income residents for years and they still want more! With Washington, D.C. bankrupt, city services being slashed and self-government threatened by a Gingrich-run Congress, commercial property owners recently convinced the City Council to return another $32 million back to them -- the exact amount the same City Council and mayor cut from an already reduced school budget. The group released a study, "Commercial Office Buildings in Washington, D.C.: UNDERA$$E$$ED," which shows how commercial property owners make a killing with the nation's lowest vacancy rates, highest lease rates and highest profit margins. Yet the owners of the industry take their profits and tax rollbacks home to Virginia and Maryland, leaving D.C. residents with low-paying service jobs, like cleaning their posh offices and parking their limos. Meanwhile, the City Council has slashed more than $500 million from basic police, fire, crime-prevention and school services. In the last 10 years alone, D.C. office building owners have received hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks, but continue to claim financial hardship and line up to apply for tax rollbacks. Enough! To expose this massive corporate welfare, Justice for Janitors led 600 people to confront police and block traffic at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue on March 21. One hundred people were arrested. A coalition of groups, including labor, is planning a general mobilization on April 15. Let's end corporate welfare and save our city! Join the general mobilization on April 15! For more information about Justice for Janitors, call 1-202-789- 8282. For more information about the general mobilization in D.C., call the D.C. Community Action Network (D.C. CAN) at 1-202-452- 5594. ****************************************************************** 8. MILWAUKEEANS TO MARCH ON ANNIVERSARY OF KING'S ASSASSINATION By Allen Harris MILWAUKEE -- The Universal Human Rights Organization will hold its second annual commemoration of the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a non-violent community march on Tuesday, April 4. The march will call attention to the crisis faced by children everywhere, said Sister Sarah Muhammad of the UHRO. "We want to make something positive for all the children of the world," said Sister Muhammad. The children are under threat because the government is at war with children, especially the poor children. "We have to unite and stand together," she said. "It's not about color, or religion or sex. The government is after poor people. We have to stand firm and stand together." "We're going to continue to do this until we break the chains," said Sister Muhammad, who also called on people everywhere to commemorate the anniversary in their own communities. The march will begin at 11 a.m. at the corner of 27th and West Center, proceed south on 27th to Wisconsin Avenue, east on Wisconsin to Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, north on King to West Center and then return to the corner of 27th. Assembly will take place at 9:30 a.m. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. For further information, contact Sister Muhammad at 414-871-1432. ****************************************************************** 9. WOMEN'S, CHURCH, POOR PEOPLE'S GROUPS CONDUCT VIGILS DURING HOUSE DEBATE ON WELFARE LEGISLATION Editor's note: Below we reprint a press release issued by the National Organization for Women on March 21. As the U.S. House prepares for a vote on punitive welfare legislation, several hundred activists from a wide variety of groups are expected to take to the Capitol steps today for the first of three days of protests. "We're anticipating an even meaner-spirited vote than we ever imagined," said NOW President Patricia Ireland. "Congress has moved from restricting welfare in the name of reform to eliminating it after an arbitrary amount of money is spent. "A vote against entitlements is a vote against women that will shred the kind of safety net we've been able to rely on to protect our families since the 1930s. It's not just innocent children who are being punished for being poor. Their mothers -- women who would like to get good jobs in the paid labor force and who also know that raising children is legitimate, hard work -- are being devalued and demonized." The three days of noon-hour vigils will be held on the steps at the east side of the Capitol Building. Tuesday, March 21 -- Kick-off demonstration featuring leaders and members of endorsing groups, including: NOW, NOW LDEF, and the Feminist Majority Foundation; Interfaith Impact and Church Women United; the National Welfare Rights Union, the National Union for the Homeless, the Coalition for Human Needs, the Tenant Action Group and the Food Research and Action Center. Wednesday, March 22 -- NOW founder Betty Friedan, U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii) economist Barbara Bergman and others speak out. Thursday, March 23 -- NOW President Patricia Ireland and other women's leaders may risk arrest in protesting punitive legislation. NOW's participation in this three-day vigil is part of 100 Days of Action designed to counter the Republican plans for the first 100 days of Congress. NOW's actions will culminate with a massive Rally for Women's Lives April 9 on the mall in front of the U.S. Capitol. For more information, contact Melinda Shelton and Diane Minor at 202-331-0066. ****************************************************************** 10. THE PRISON STRUGGLE IN AMERICA: A CRITICAL PATH TO REVOLUTION By The Editors [Editor's note: The following statement is directed to the participants in the upcoming conference on prisons which will be held in Birmingham, Alabama.] CHICAGO -- The Editorial Board of the People's Tribune congratulates the Committee for Prisoner Support in Birmingham on the eve of its April 8 national conference, "The Imprisonment of America: A Human Catastrophe." The statistics have been so oft-repeated that their significance is sometimes obscured: 1.2 million Americans are now behind bars, with almost four million more under some form of judicial control -- the largest number of incarcerated men and women in the world. These record numbers, and the millions more wives, mothers, husbands, sons and daughters of the incarcerated, are making it harder and harder for the ruling class to isolate the inmate population or to keep hidden the daily abuses meted out behind bars. Little by little, the public is learning of the epidemic of in- custody killings, of prison guard gangs (such as Texas' "Blue Bandanas"), of experimentation on inmates, of psychological and physical torture exemplified by last month's findings against the California Department of Corrections at the infamous Pelican Bay State Prison. Without the efforts of the delegates to this conference, these abuses would never have seen the light of day. CRITICAL MOMENT This gathering comes at a critical moment not only in Alabama, where Gov. Fob James has re-introduced the barbarity of the chain gang, but at a critical moment in the history of this country. As a society, we now possess the technological capacity to completely eliminate the inequity, poverty and desperation that has landed 90 percent of the inmate population in prison. Yet, rather than be put to such a purpose, the present social order instead produces pre-fabricated, stainless steel prison cells in computer-driven factories, cells that can be shipped to the remotest desert or the most congested inner city and snapped together like Lego blocks. That same technology is permanently displacing millions of workers, thousands of whom are finding themselves on the inside of the one industry that is growing by leaps and bounds: prisons. As fewer and fewer workers are needed to produce society's goods and services, the capitalist system moves to discard the myriad programs previously used to insure the existence of the industrial working class through the ups and downs of the business cycle. Now, the ruling class no longer needs a system of unemployment compensation, public aid, health care or public education for its reserve workers and their children. The unprecedented application of labor-replacing technology is spelling the end of these programs and has pushed some 80 million people below the poverty line. NO STAKE IN THE SYSTEM A system that can no longer feed, clothe and house its people ultimately turns to violence. The incarceration of America is the last link in a chain that begins with the police and moves through a judicial system bursting with repressive, fascist legislation. Yet, the historic change in the way society produces its necessities is birthing a class of people who, having been pushed out of the capitalist system and rendered superfluous to it, have no choice but to battle the capitalist system to its destruction. Those who are in attendance at this conference are just such people. They represent a growing class of people who, having no stake in this system, are in the position, historically speaking, to drive a stake through its hardened, decrepit heart. The manifold struggles represented against prison-guard brutality, "three strikes" laws, control units, in-custody murders etc., comprise part of a growing, objectively revolutionary movement getting underway in this country, a movement which includes the unemployed steel worker, the persecuted immigrant, the deprived senior citizen, the bloodied and beaten victim of police terror just as assuredly as it includes our loved ones behind bars. All that remains is for the leaders of this broad movement to combine, strategize and chart a course to the bright future that is surely within our grasp. To that end, we invite you to read, write for, and use our paper and to join our parent organization, the National Organizing Committee. With confidence and solidarity, we wish the delegates assembled in Birmingham every success in the battles that lie ahead. For more information on the "Imprisonment of America" conference, call 205-322-0219 or 205-925-9927. ****************************************************************** 11. NEW JERSEY YOUTHS BATTLE COP TERROR: AN ECHO FROM THE PAST, A VISION OF THE FUTURE By Anthony D. Prince 'Not until the Negro rises in his might and takes a hand in resenting such cold-blooded murders, if he has to burn up whole towns, will a halt be called in wholesale lynching.' ---Ida B. Wells, 1889, writing in support of blacks who set fire to Georgetown, Kentucky in retaliation for a lynching. Her widespread agitation was essential to the passage of an anti-lynch law years later 'If this doesn't stop happening, we're going to burn this country to the ground.' ---Tyrone Moon, 1995, speaking at the funeral of Paterson, New Jersey high school student Lawrence Meyers, shot to death by police February 22 PATERSON, New Jersey -- The reaction to the cold-blooded, February 22 police assassination of an unarmed teen-ager marks an intensified stage in the resistance to police terror in America. In the tense hours that followed the shooting in the back of the head of Lawrence Meyers, 16, African Americans joined with Latinos as half of Paterson's Eastside High School walked out. >From there, the youth of Paterson confronted City Council members and then stormed into the downtown streets venting their rage. As news of Meyers' death spread, police were called in from at least half a dozen surrounding counties, at one point ringing Eastside High with a contingent of 600 cops. As hundreds later gathered at the funeral, young Tyrone Moon expressed the indignation of the moment: "It's time to raise hell. Flip it upside down. If this keeps happening, we're going to burn this country to the ground." The words echoed those of Ida B. Wells, the famous anti-lynch crusader who issued the same warning 100 years ago. Over the course of that century, Paterson, New Jersey has gone from being the productive backbone of the industrial Northeast to a economic graveyard for the generation represented by Lawrence Meyers. A system that can now offer nothing but a bleak future to the sons and daughters of those whose labor enriched Paterson's elite now turns to violence, to wanton police repression. Just as history looks back at Ida B. Wells' call to conscience, the Paterson rebellion will mark a turning point wherein the youth declared that if there is to be any future at all, it will be one in which they will be permitted to live. There are those who would apologize for the police, those who would rather wash the face of this rotten system than join the gathering storm against it. The youth of Paterson, undeterred by this suicidal advice, advanced in the face of police and city officials who called them "criminals," just as freedom fighters throughout history have been similarly slandered. Even as the police enforce an economic status quo with murderous enthusiasm, this country, with its vast wealth and technology, possesses the means to put an end to the conditions that cost Lawrence Meyers his life -- and the youth of Paterson are beginning to realize it. When Tyrone Moon says "Flip it upside down," he represents the historic crossroads America has reached. Either backwards, to a hungry, jobless people under the thumb of a police state, or forward, to a new, just and equitable system built on the ruins of the old. It's up to us to make the choice. ****************************************************************** 12. AUTHOR RECALLS VISIT TO PATERSON: A HEROIC PATHWAY TO STRUGGLE By Luis J. Rodriguez PATERSON, New Jersey -- Eastside High School here is like the many hundreds in the United States where youth come together to do more than learn. In many cases, they learn to do battle. About a year-and-a-half ago, I spoke to several English classes there soon after the hard-cover release of my book Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. I read poetry and we talked about the issues of language, voice and power. Then, in the fall of 1994, I went back to Paterson to participate in a poetry festival sponsored by the Passaic County Community College's Poetry Center. Hundreds of local high school students attended, and again, I heard their cries, their concerns and their visions. It heartened me to see that students from Eastside and other Paterson schools fought police and the media after a police officer shot and killed a 16-year-old youth. On TV, this police officer said, "I don't know what's the big deal -- I'm the good guy here. He was the bad guy." But I knew these youths were not going to buy it! In effect, the police defend the propertied class in a town that once was an industrial powerhouse, but that now can barely sustain itself in a dying economy. As a result, they consider any young person as "bad," as fair game to be harassed, beaten, and killed with impunity. We can't stand around and allow this to go without challenge. The youth of Paterson have heroically shown us a pathway to struggle -- every act of police terror must be met with an organized and lasting response. I believe in these young people. They are made of the same stuff as the thousands who recently walked out of schools in California against the insidious Proposition 187 (which passed last November, denying social services, non-emergency health care and education to undocumented people.) Everyone says youth are the future. But a growing number are realizing that nobody is going to give them one. The future they face is unlike any previous generation had to contend with. A significant number of young people at Eastside High School know it's time for them to dream, to strategize, and to act. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Help us print and distribute a Special People's Tribune Feature: 'The Lucasville Uprising: Two years later' SPECIAL URGENT TELEPHONE PLEDGE DRIVE We can't do it without your help -- now! 'It has been two years since the Easter Sunday, 1993 uprising at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville, Ohio. Prisoners held control of L Side for 11 days, protesting gross human rights abuses and the total tyranny of then-warden Arthur Tate. As long as the politicians continue to misrepresent the people; as long as the trend toward crime and punishment continues, it is axiomatic that there will be more uprisings in the United States whose prisons are filled to bursting capacities, breeding anger, hatred and discontent: warehouses for the poor.' -- John W. Perotti, Prisoner #167712, SOCF, Lucasville, Ohio Next month, the People's Tribune presents a special commemorative insert on the second anniversary of the Lucasville Uprising, featuring eyewitness accounts by Ohio inmates who were there, a full report on what has happened in the two years since, and blistering political analysis from leaders inside and outside the prison walls. But to reach the reading audience we need, to present the full coverage we would like, we need your help. CALL THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE AT 312-486-3551 AND MAKE YOUR PLEDGE NOW. (Operators or answering machine standing by 24 hours a day. Leave your name, the amount pledged, your address and phone number. We'll get back to you.) THEN, SEND YOUR CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO: American Lockdown/People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654. Call 312-486-3551, any time of day or night. Pledge $5, $10, $25, $50 $100 or whatever you can towards this special Lucasville Uprising coverage. With your help, we can get the job done. Thanks! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 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. 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