From jdav@noc.orgMon Jun 12 18:35:47 1995 Date: Mon, 12 Jun 95 16:21 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune 6-12-95 (Online Edition) ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 22 / June 12, 1995 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: pt@noc.org ****************************************************************** INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 22 / June 12, 1995 Page One 1. HUNGER IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY -- WHY? News 2. CHRISTIAN LEADERS DENOUNCE ATTACKS ON POOR, CALL FOR NEW POLITICS 3. GERRY ADAMS RECEIVES HERO'S WELCOME IN CHICAGO: IRISH LEADER'S VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES STRIKES A BLOW AGAINST BIGOTRY 4. HOUSING TAKEOVERS WIN SUPPORT OF PEOPLE 5. WILSON AND GINGRICH, YOU CAN'T HIDE! WE CHARGE YOU WITH GENOCIDE! 6. JUNETEENTH 1995: POVERTY KNOWS NO COLOR LINE 7. ABA INVITATION TO GINGRICH INSULTS BOOKSELLERS: LET'S CLOSE THE BOOK ON THE CONTRACT WITH AMERICA! Focus on Women for a New America 8. WOMEN ACADEMICS CONCERNED ABOUT WELFARE 9.'EXERTING OUR POWER, RECLAIMING OUR COMMUNITIES' 10. JEDI WOMEN FIGHT FOR JUSTICE FOR THE POOR IN SALT LAKE CITY 11. UNITY NEEDED IN THE FIGHT FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL JUSTICE 12. HOMELESS LEADER CONDEMNS 'CONTRACT WITH AMERICA' 13. TECHNOLOGY CAN END POVERTY 14. WHY THE ATTACKS ON WELFARE? 15. 'HUNGER IS UNACCEPTABLE' 16. 'RALLY FOR WOMEN'S LIVES': WOMEN SPEAK OUT AGAINST VIOLENCE Culture Under Fire 17. BOOK REVIEW: _BOMB THE SUBURBS_: A HIP-HOP STATEMENT OF PURPOSE 18. LETTERS 19 .ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. PAGE 1: HUNGER IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY -- WHY? +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Farm technology -- from mechanical harvesting to laser sorting to plant breeding -- has transformed California into one of the most influential food-producing areas in the world. -- Fresno Bee Two Million Children Go Hungry in State, Study Says -- Los Angeles Times +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The recent stories from two California papers illustrate a glaring contradiction, not only in California, but in America as a whole and throughout the capitalist world: in the midst of plenty, people are going hungry. There's no question that there is plenty of food. It's said that the agricultural production of California alone could feed the entire world. Yet in the "Golden State" two million children go hungry. In America as a whole, 30 million people (more than 10 percent of the population) go hungry in any given month, and this is up from 20 million just 10 years ago. Why? In a capitalist economy, everything produced is the private property of the capitalist who owns the land or the factory or whatever means was used to produce it. This includes food. If you want to eat, you have to have the money to buy food. If you've got no job or other source of income, or you don't have enough income, you go hungry. The capitalists can't give food to someone who is jobless and expect the employed to go on buying food. In other words, the capitalists cannot guarantee that no one goes hungry, and still have capitalism. This contradiction is becoming all the more glaring because, under capitalism, the high technology that is more and more being used to produce everything from tomatoes to steel is putting millions of people out of work -- permanently. How will these people eat, when they are denied jobs and public assistance programs are being cut? The capitalists' answer to this question is very simple: "Starve and be damned!" The capitalists are the ruling class of this country. They have made clear by their actions that they intend to keep their wealth and power -- meaning they intend to preserve capitalism -- no matter how many people must starve. This is why they are spending billions building more prisons. This is why they have unleashed the police on our youth and on the poor. In the end, the great majority of us will only have two choices: overturn the existing system or starve. If the means to produce this country's abundance was owned by the people as a whole -- if we had a cooperative society instead of a capitalist one -- then high technology would not mean permanent unemployment and growing hunger for tens of millions. It would mean every child would go to bed with a full belly. It would mean the end of poverty for all of us. Are we going to let the one or two percent of the population that owns most of the productive property in this country dictate that our children go hungry? It's up to us. ****************************************************************** 2. CHRISTIAN LEADERS DENOUNCE ATTACKS ON POOR, CALL FOR NEW POLITICS By Chris Mahin [Editor's note: Below we print the second in a series of columns about spirituality and revolution. We encourage readers to submit articles to this column. We would appreciate any comments readers have on the articles which appear here.] More than 100 prominent Christian clerics and lay leaders issued a statement May 23, warning that "the gospel message is turned upside down" when religion is used to "bring more comfort to those on the top of society than to those at the bottom." The group expressed its concern with the "harsh rhetoric toward the powerless coming from the nation's capitol" and warned against any effort "[t]o abandon or blame the poor for their oppression." The coalition of religious leaders includes mainline Protestant, evangelical, Orthodox and Roman Catholic leaders, including six Catholic bishops. The religious leaders released their statement -- "The Cry for Renewal: Let Other Voices Be Heard" -- at a midday news conference at the National Press Club in Washington on May 23. Later that day, representatives of the group went to the U.S. Capitol and met with House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (Texas) and other Republicans and then met separately with Democratic legislators. "The crisis we face is a spiritual crisis," the religious leaders declared in "The Cry for Renewal." This crisis "must be responded to by solutions that address the 'spirit' of the times that often lies beneath our political and economic problems," they said. In their statement, the religious leaders described themselves this way: "We are Evangelical voices who seek a biblical approach to politics, not an ideological agenda. We are Catholic voices who assert our own church's social teachings as a vital alternative to both the Left and the Right. We are Orthodox voices who have long stressed the role of spirituality in nurturing culture. We are African American, Latino, white, Asian, and Native American church voices whose commitment to personal faith and social justice leads us to visions of transformation beyond both political parties. We are voices from all the Protestant churches who feel represented neither by old religious liberalism nor new right fundamentalism. ... "[W]e are deeply concerned about the subversion of prophetic religion when wealth and power are extolled rather than held accountable. ... "We refuse the false choices between personal responsibility or social justice, between good values or good jobs, between strong families or strong neighborhoods, between sexual morality or civil rights for homosexuals, between the sacredness of life or the rights of women, between fighting cultural corrosion or battling racism. We call ourselves and our churches back to a biblical focus that transcends the Left and the Right. We call the Christian community to carefully consider each social and political issue, diligently apply the values of faith, and be willing to break out of traditional political categories. ... "We believe the American people are disgusted with politics as usual and hungry for political vision with spiritual values," the signers of "The Cry for Renewal" declared. "The religious community should help lead that discussion and action toward new political and economic alternatives. We commit ourselves to that task and to dialogue with all sectors of the religious community toward that end," the signers of the statement pledged. The statement offered several criteria by which to morally judge the nation's political policies: "We serve a God who upholds the dignity and hope of the poor and a Savior who loved the little children. We must save all of our children and not punish those who are disadvantaged. "We follow the One who called us to be peacemakers and gave his life to reconcile a broken humanity. We must stop the violence that has overtaken the nation, and address its root causes in the distorted spiritual values and unjust social structures in which we are all complicit. "We have a faith that invites us to conversion. We must revive the lapsed virtues of personal responsibility and character, and repent for our social sins of racism, sexism, and poverty. "We love a Creator who calls for justice and stewardship. We must begin to judge our economic and environmental habits and policies by their impact on the next generation, rather than just our own. "We are compelled to a lifestyle of service and compassion. We must seek healing from the materialism which has made us less caring and more selfish creatures, isolated us from one another, enshrined the power of money over our political processes, wounded our natural world, and poisoned the hearts of our children -- rich and poor alike. "We are led by our faith into community. We must rejuvenate the moral values and political will to rebuild our disintegrating family systems, our shattered neighborhoods, and our divided nation." The signers of "The Cry for Renewal" also warned against the "almost total identification of the Religious Right with the new Republican majority in Washington," calling it "a dangerous liaison of religion with political power." "Our definitions of politics must be widened to include new solutions and leadership," the religious leaders suggested in their statement. At the May 23 press conference, the group gave three examples of the kind of response needed to address the nation's crises. The first was a commitment to use the church as a base to create new partnerships in combating inner-city problems such as homelessness, poverty and violence. Second, the group announced an effort to expand religious youth volunteer corps. Third, the coalition announced plans to form a "progressive Evangelical caucus" to express the social and spiritual concerns of Evangelicals. "Let politicized religion be replaced with prophetic faith to forge new coalitions of Christian conscience across the land," the statement from the religious leaders concluded. [For more information about The Cry for Renewal, contact Sojourners magazine at 2401 15th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009. Phone: 202-328-8842. Fax: 202-328-8757.] ****************************************************************** 3. GERRY ADAMS RECEIVES HERO'S WELCOME IN CHICAGO: IRISH LEADER'S VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES STRIKES A BLOW AGAINST BIGOTRY By Chris Mahin CHICAGO -- Irish leader Gerry Adams received a hero's welcome here May 17. Adams is the president of Sinn Fein, the largest nationalist party in Ireland. His stop in Chicago was part of a three-week fundraising trip to 13 U.S. cities. For 15 years, the U.S. government refused to allow Adams into the United States while permitting the worst bigots from northern Ireland to visit this country. But a combination of public outrage over this "censorship by visa denial" and the recent moves toward peace in Ireland finally forced the U.S. government to end the ban on Adams in 1994. So, Adams' visit to Chicago -- his first -- became a moment for celebration, an occasion for unity across ethnic lines, and a time for remembering the terrible suffering which caused the Irish emigration to America. Adams himself set the tone. At a midday press briefing, the former political prisoner was asked a question about bigotry. He replied: "We Irish are no better than anyone else. People under the skin -- whether black or white or yellow or British or Irish -- all have the same aspirations, the same desires, the same fears, the same notions. We're no better than anyone else, but we're no worse and what we deserve is peace in our own country and an opportunity to build a society that will reflect the diversity of all the people of the island." That evening, about 1,000 people waited patiently for Adams to arrive at a rally at Lane Technical High School. The audience, overwhelmingly composed of Irish-Americans and Irish immigrants, applauded vigorously when rally organizers asked several people in the audience -- long-time activists in Chicago's Irish, Puerto Rican, Palestinian and Native American communities -- to stand so their contributions to the fight for justice could be acknowledged. Introduced as a "spokesman for the oppressed" by veteran Irish- American activist Carmela Fagan, Adams entered the Lane Tech auditorium accompanied by an honor guard of bagpipers. He received a thunderous standing ovation. "I think that the Irish-Americans are the survivors," Adams told the gathering. "You yourself ... or your parents or your grandparents or great-grandparents ... couldn't live in Ireland. It was impossible -- because of political repression, because you couldn't get a living, because perhaps of the Famine." Adams reminded his listeners that 1995 marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the "Great Hunger," the famine which starved two million Irish people to death and forced two million more into exile. "Our nation has never recovered from that Holocaust," Adams declared. Adams asked those present to imagine the full horror of the Famine: "People dying with their mouths stained green with grass, trying to get sustenance; women dead with babies trying to suck on dry breasts; people dying on hills and roads and outside workhouses, in villages, cities and towns." "Scores of thousands" of Irish people trying to escape that famine died during the voyage to America, packed into filthy "coffin ships," Adams reminded those present in the hushed auditorium. Adams described what the emigrants found when they reached America. He drew on what he saw when he visited the Ellis Island immigration station. "When they got here," the Irish leader explained, "they were shown through this basement, this big shed. ... There were inspectors who were hidden from view. ... If people showed any sign of physical disability or any mental lack of alertness, they were put to one side. So a man's wife might be taken or a child taken [back]." "And those who got through that -- tens of thousands of them -- died [in America], the whole way along the East Coast," Adams said, his voice rising. "They died in the decontamination camps; they died in the fever camps. And that's why I think you people are the survivors!" "You people, the survivors, have power," Adams told the Lane Tech gathering. "You need to have a sense of that power." "Visa denial wasn't about stopping me from coming here," the former Member of Parliament for West Belfast pointed out. "It was about stopping me from coming here and meeting people like you." "Go to your Congress members," Adams implored his listeners. "Tell them you want them to support peace in Ireland and if they support peace in Ireland, you'll support them." Adams' remarks moved many of those in the audience. Among those impressed was Wallace "Gator" Bradley, a spokesman for the "United in Peace" movement. Bradley recently ran for alderman of the Third Ward on Chicago's South Side. While he was not elected, Bradley did win a majority of the votes cast by the residents of the Robert Taylor Homes, the largest public housing project in the world. In an interview with the People's Tribune at the Lane Tech event, Bradley contrasted Adams' generosity with the callous positions taken by Irish-American politicians like Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar, both of whom have proposed legislation attacking the poor. Responding to reports that Adams and Daley might meet the next day, Bradley expressed his hope that "some of Gerry's compassion" might rub off on Daley. When Adams left the stage of the Lane Tech auditorium to greet well-wishers in the audience, Bradley pumped his hand vigorously. It was a poignant moment. In a city racked by deep ethnic divisions for much of its history, particularly between people of Irish and African descent, a political leader from the Falls Road in West Belfast -- the very poorest part of Western Europe -- shook hands May 17 with a representative of Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes -- the very poorest part of the United States. It was a fitting end to an extraordinary day. ****************************************************************** 4. HOUSING TAKEOVERS WIN SUPPORT OF PEOPLE By Mark Thisius ST. PAUL, Minnesota -- For the sixth consecutive year, the poor and homeless people of the Twin Cities organizing under the umbrella of Up & Out of Poverty, Now! kicked off a housing takeover campaign. On May 1, a four-plex owned by HUD in South Minneapolis was occupied by more than 25 homeless activists fed up with government attacks on their rights to housing! The takeover was hugely successful in that it generated good media coverage, and the police because of neighborhood support were hard-pressed to make arrests. Many neighborhood residents stopped by the site of the takeover to show support and in the process the police, after surveying the situation, decided against making mass arrests. Up & Out of Poverty, Now! has organized hundreds of housing takeovers in the Twin Cities since the original 1990 May Day campaign that helped spawn the acclaimed documentary "Takeover." Because of our fierce and militant history, the police often will avoid a confrontation with us if we can build neighborhood support. Obviously, that happened May Day this year. Many of the participants in this year's takeover are now members of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. Chris Moon, a League member and Up & Out fighter, said at the rally preceding the takeover: "The government should worry more about corporate welfare and less about welfare for those that really need it. In any case, it's time we join together and take what we need! We can't allow them to set the terms." Another League member and Up & Out fighter, Birgid "Bear" Williams, who risked arrest, stated to those attending the takeover: "The fight before us is a fight for justice. We can't and won't allow the sold-out politicians to make us homeless without a response. I urge all homeless people to stand up and fight for their rights and the rights of all poor people." Up & Out of Poverty, Now! will expand the housing takeovers to include HUD homes in both Minneapolis and St. Paul in the coming weeks, unless our demands are met. We have forwarded our demands to our U.S. Senators (Grams and Wellstone), demanding they vote against the $4 billion cuts in the HUD budget, which, if passed, will drive thousands of low-income people into the streets. Secondly, we placed demands on our local mayors to redirect city housing dollars away from middle-income home ownership programs to low-income rental housing. We should award housing dollars on the basis of need, not greed. No housing, no peace! ****************************************************************** 5. WILSON AND GINGRICH, YOU CAN'T HIDE! WE CHARGE YOU WITH GENOCIDE! By Cassandra and Diotima SAN FRANCISCO -- On May 6, people took to the streets here and in 39 other cities against the Republican "Contract on America." Beginning in the heart of the Mission District at Dolores Park, the demonstration began with speakers representing a variety of groups from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Native Americans opened the rally with chants and drumming of love and war. Then there were speakers from the National Organization for Women, the anti-death penalty movement, student coalitions from the University of California and other colleges, high school students, the S.F. Asian American Tenants Association, residents of public housing, unions such as the SEIU and the UFW, and the Women's Economic Agenda Project. Among the marchers were health care workers, AIDS activists, representatives from the gay, bisexual and lesbian communities, residents of public housing, environmental justice groups, feminist collectives, affirmative action supporters and others. The march wound through several San Francisco neighborhoods, wrapping up with speakers at the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza. The general social climate was one of joy and concern. The day after the protest, in an article headlined, "Liberals Hit Streets Against 'Contract,' " the San Francisco Examiner minimized the significance of the event by accepting the police estimate that 10,000 people participated. Many more people participated than the police and the Examiner claimed. Furthermore, they represented a segment of California radicalism more than "liberal causes." ****************************************************************** 6. JUNETEENTH 1995: POVERTY KNOWS NO COLOR LINE By Nelson Peery This Juneteenth -- that is, June 19, 1995 -- marks 133 years since President Abraham Lincoln signed an act of the U.S. Congress prohibiting slavery in all the territories of the United States. That was the first firm step along the way to the abolition of slavery. It was a step that fulfilled the goals of and completed the Revolutionary War for independence. As with all great revolutionary movements, the goals, aims and visions of the Revolutionary War were only partially fulfilled. The Civil War was able to complete those goals because the changed economic and political conditions made it possible and necessary. But, in turn, existing economic and political conditions prevented the Civil War from attaining its goals, aims and visions. Today, changed political and economic conditions make the goal of a new nation, a community of freedom, prosperity and peace, not only possible, but necessary. This year's celebration of Emancipation finds the mass of African Americans in the most difficult position since that emancipation. In the past, the great strength of the movement for freedom lay in the fact that all sectors of the black population were politically oppressed. Consequently, there were common goals that bound them together. Rich or poor, urban or rural, they struggled as a people for the common goal of political equality. Today, the great danger to the black masses arises from the fact that that unity is gone forever. On the one hand, a growing sector of the black population -- permanently unemployed -- is forced into the urban concentration camp called "the ghetto." On the other hand, this year, the top 10 black enterprises did over $11 billion in business. Each group increasingly has little or nothing to do with the other. This was best exemplified by multimillionaire Jesse Jackson's statement that the most frightening thing for him is to be approached on the street by three black youths. The old strategies, the old lines of march for economic and political freedom are done with. The African American people are beginning a great debate. What is the road to complete the struggle? What is the new unity that will replace the old? The foundation of unity is common needs, common goals. The old slogan of the Left, "black and white -- unite and fight" could never succeed because the goal of the black people was to achieve what the white people had already achieved. Worse, under the old conditions, any economic or political gain by the blacks was at the expense of the whites. The bribery of the white workers made that clear. Appealing to the morality of the whites gained the sympathy of most and the dedicated sacrifice of some. Existing economic and political conditions made unity impossible. Again, conditions are changing. The shift from industrial to high- technology production is doing away with the economic need for segregation and the political need for bribery. Consequently, huge sections of workers, white and black, are thrown onto a common skid to poverty. For the first time in the history of our country, the material base for the unity of all sectors of this new class of the poor is maturing. This unity cannot come about automatically. The problem, resolved in the economy (poverty knows no color line), remains in the ideological arena. The objective conditions are here or at least maturing. For 300 years, the struggle of the slave for freedom seemed isolated and impossible. One hundred thirty-three years ago, new economic, political and military conditions were the foundations for convincing the people that their enemy was slavery -- not simply the slave power. Brave revolutionaries with new ideas set out to convince and did convince the people that their economic well-being and consequently their political and moral well-being lay in the destruction of slavery. The slave held out the hand of unity to destroy the greatest evil the world has ever known. Thousands of white youths left their farms and jobs singing, "As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free." History is again about to repeat itself, on a higher level. For years, freedom seemed to be the call of the minorities. Today, it is the unspoken but practical demand of tens of millions. Juneteenth 1995 demands unity based on the common poverty, not on skin color. Achieving this is the real struggle of the revolutionaries. Can we convince black and white that their only salvation lies through this unity? Yes, we can, and yes, we must. It demands the setting aside of all exclusiveness, seeking out and concentrating on what is common in our struggle. [Nelson Peery is the author of Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary, published by The New Press. The paperback edition will be available in September for $11.95.] ****************************************************************** 7. ABA INVITATION TO GINGRICH INSULTS BOOKSELLERS: LET'S CLOSE THE BOOK ON THE CONTRACT WITH AMERICA! By Lew Rosenbaum On May 25, Newt Gingrich flew to New York to sign a contract with media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The result: The HarperCollins book publishing company, owned by Murdoch, will publish two books later this year with Gingrich as author or editor. This summer, Murdoch will finance Gingrich's national book tour. Gingrich will launch his campaign as an author by appearing at the convention of the American Booksellers Association, which will be held in Chicago June 3-5. As the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a leading spokesperson for the Republican "Contract With America," Gingrich already has one of the biggest publicity machines in America. Gingrich's book tour will be a further attempt to mobilize the American people to support the "Contract With America." Most grassroots leaders recognize that this "contract" was signed only by the Republican leadership, never with the American people. Secondly, they recognize it as a "contract on America," taken out by the wealthiest and most reactionary hit men in America, and aimed at the people who are increasingly being discarded by American capitalism. The "contract" eliminates the welfare programming that emerged during the Depression to help complete the industrial phase of American development. The American industrial economy peaked almost 30 years ago. The introduction of electronic technology has increasingly been making labor irrelevant in production. Much of the safety net for American labor introduced in the 1930s has, therefore, also become increasingly irrelevant. The contract on America does two things simultaneously: it dismantles the safety net while mobilizing support for the police state necessary to keep dissatisfied and unemployed workers at bay. The prelude to a police state must be an ideological war for the hearts of the American people. Gingrich is waging war on that cultural battleground. He has already seized the weapons of television, newspapers and magazines; now he is reaching for the book. In one sense, it will not be surprising to find Gingrich at the podium of the American Booksellers Association meeting. After all, the annual convention and trade exhibit does bring together media moguls in search of maximum profit. This is the publishers' opportunity to showcase their wares to sell to booksellers. But many of the thousands of people -- booksellers and publishers -- who will attend the 1995 ABA convention are genuinely concerned with the content of ideas that are being sold. They too are aware of the cultural war, and do not want to be used as cavalry on the way to police-state America. The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and the Coalition for New Priorities heard about Gingrich's speaking engagement at the ABA convention and were incensed. They plan to protest Gingrich's appearance under the theme, "Close the Book on the Contract With America." For these organizations, Gingrich's ideas translate into a matter of life or death. The 300-plus multibillionaires who control the wealth in society are literally deciding who should live and who should die. For booksellers, publishers and authors to participate in these protests alongside those most immediately affected by the "Contract on America" would send a strong message that we recognize our cause to be the same: once and for all to use the technological capacity we have to achieve a society free from want and free to create. Writers, publishers, librarians, booksellers -- it's time for those of us in the trenches of the battle for ideas to take the offensive. It's time for us to stand for the spread of ideas, of the understanding that we have every right to access to ideas, to express ourselves, and we have a right to access to the fruit of our society, now produced in abundance. Let's all close the book on the "Contract on America" and begin to open our own book with our own vision of the future! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ WHO INVITED NEWT GINGRICH TO THE ABA CONVENTION? How did Newt Gingrich get invited to address the June 5 "Washington Power Lunch" at the convention of the American Booksellers Association at Chicago's McCormick Place Complex? The executive board of the ABA appointed a committee of Chicago booksellers to invite three speakers to the luncheon. But the ABA executive board invited Gingrich, in spite of opposition by its own committee. As word spread in the bookselling community, others voiced their objections. One member of the board of directors of the ABA wrote to indicate his view that the decision was "not in the best interests of the ABA." Some people protested Gingrich's appearance because the ABA undermined the authority of its own committee. Others saw Gingrich as a symbol. Since the ABA is concerned with First Amendment rights of free speech, it should also be concerned with Gingrich as a symbol of the move to end all our democratic rights. Some booksellers rebelled against the use of their forum to further Gingrich's political propaganda. The ABA executive board responded to the heat by accusing those booksellers who wanted to deny Gingrich an ABA podium of advocating "censorship." As if refusing to invite Gingrich could in fact censor him! There is more justification in saying that the many authors who have no other avenues for expression who were not invited to the ABA convention were censored. No, this is not a question of censorship, for censorship implies having the power to silence. This is a matter of which side you are on in the culture war -- the side of fascism or the side of hope. -- Lew Rosenbaum +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 8. WOMEN ACADEMICS CONCERNED ABOUT WELFARE This statement was written and signed in response to the administration welfare "reform" bill introduced in the summer of 1994. Spurred by this proposal, Republicans are now championing much worse barbarisms. We should not let ourselves be driven into supporting the bad in the hopes of fending off the worse. We stand against policies which deprive poor children and scapegoat poor mothers. A politics of blaming the poor fosters a downward cycle of impoverishment, stigmatization and despair. -- Linda Gordon, Frances Fox Piven, Louise Trubek As women scholars who have studied welfare programs in the United States and other democracies, and who share a concern for poor women and children, we feel a responsibility to speak out in opposition to the Clinton administration welfare reform proposal. The most publicized feature of the proposal is a two-year lifetime limit on cash assistance from AFDC. The limit shreds precisely that portion of our social safety net on which poor women and children rely. Yet the evidence shows that the majority of recipients do not stay on "welfare" very long at one time, but turn to AFDC when they are forced to by work or family emergencies. Many women also turn to welfare to escape from domestic violence. A two-year limit would destroy that lifeline. The Bush administration began freely granting waivers allowing the states to "experiment" with "reforms," and the Clinton administration is continuing this practice. Few of these waivers concern true experiments or reforms. Instead, reminiscent of the 19th century when welfare was a system of disciplinary tutelage, they usually cut welfare grants which are already everywhere below the poverty level. Some states are reducing family benefits if a child is truant or if an additional child is born. From the beginning of AFDC in 1935, the federal government provided some protection against the arbitrary ill-treatment of recipients by states and counties. That protection should not be forfeited. The effort to present a "revenue-neutral" welfare reform has resulted in the ludicrous prospect of severe cutbacks in programs that serve some of the poor in order to pay for programs that will ostensibly help others of the poor. Clearly this makes little moral or programmatic sense. Just as troublesome as these programmatic initiatives is the vilification of welfare recipients for lacking the values of work and responsibility which has characterized the administration's talk about reform. This rhetoric undermines respect for the hard and vital work that all women do as parents. It is particularly egregious when directed against poor single mothers who confront the triple burdens of heading households, parenting, and eking out a livelihood. Given the popular misimpression that welfare recipients are overwhelmingly minority women, the pillorying of poor women also contributes to racist stereotypes. While women have always been consigned to low-wage jobs, the situation of working women trying to support children has worsened dramatically in the last two decades as wage levels plummeted. The administration proposal is silent about that problem. Real welfare reform should be directed to ending poverty, not welfare. We should strive for widely available day care, medical insurance, and education, and for improvements in working conditions and wages. At the same time we should preserve the programs of social support -- variously called social security or welfare -- that have been vital to the safety, health and morale of women, men, and children in the U.S. [The above statement was signed by nearly 1,000 women academics. For more information, contact the Up & Out Poverty NOW Coalition c/o NOW, 1000 16th Street N.W. (Suite 700), Washington, D.C. 20036.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ TEN FACTS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WELFARE [The following is excerpted from a statement by Welfare Warriors, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.] MILWAUKEE -- AFDC is a necessary public child support program. Only 20-30% of dependent U.S. minors receive private child support. AFDC needs to be changed because it jeopardizes a family's security by taking away the children's government support when a mom is employed or finds a partner, even when the income from the job or partner is not enough to bring the family out of poverty. AFDC costs taxpayers $15 billion a year or 1% of each tax dollar paid. One cent out of every $1 in taxes goes to the AFDC program to support 5 million moms and 10 million children. Welfare Reform costs taxpayers big money and hurts mothers and children in poverty. In Wisconsin, Welfare Reform reduced the numbers of families getting support by 18%, reduced cash grants by 6% and increased the cost of administering welfare by 72%. Welfare Reform requires an army of bureaucrats to force mothers into mandatory "programs," police moms and punish them. Welfare Reform legislation is created by people with theories and privilege, but little life experience. Most do not want to end poverty. They only want to end welfare support to mothers and children in poverty. Welfare Reform scapegoats single mothers and children to distract U.S. Americans from the drastic loss of jobs to migrating corporations, computerization, temporary agency corporations, and self-service. Welfare Reform distracts U.S. Americans from the epidemic of violence resulting from this lack of jobs. Welfare Reform provides cheap, forced labor for U.S. corporations unwilling to pay family supporting wages that fathers demand. Privileged people receive far more government support than mothers and children do. Rich corporations receive $104 billion a year in government welfare. And they do not need it. The Welfare Warriors are fighting for: A government support program for dependent minors similar to the government support available for minors whose absent parent is dead or disabled (but without the work history requirements). An effective family support program that brings families out of poverty, and does not penalize a mom by taking away her children's support when she works or finds a partner. [For more information, contact: Welfare Warriors, 4504 N. 47, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53218. Phone: 414-444-0220. Fax: 414-873- MOMS.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 9.'EXERTING OUR POWER, RECLAIMING OUR COMMUNITIES' By Laura Garcia >From June 15 to 18, the National Conference on "African American Women and the Law" will take place in Washington, D.C. This conference is sponsored by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a 32-year-old national civil- and legal-rights organization which works for victims of racial discrimination. "Too many African American women are living on the outer margins of society," said Lawyers' Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine. "The Conference will provide us an opportunity to collectively seek solutions that will bring lasting change to the lives of African American women and their families." "African American women are creating our own business opportunities, assuming political office, educating our children and rebuilding our neighborhoods," said Arnwine. "The Conference will also explode myths of the African American woman as welfare queen and crack addict by showcasing this promising side of African American life too often overlooked." The Conference will come before the Non-Governmental Organization Forum on Women and the United Nations Fourth Global Conference on Women, to be held this fall in Beijing, China. It will send a delegation to bring global attention to the unique circumstances of African American women. In the spirit of the anti-slavery heroine Sojourner Truth, the Editorial Board of the People's Tribune sends its greetings to this major undertaking. There is no doubt that the participants in the Washington conference will send a strong message to the powers that be. That's what Sojourner Truth did in 1853 when she addressed the Fourth National Women's Rights Convention in New York: "I know that it feels a kind o' hissin' and ticklin' like to see a colored woman get up and tell you about things, and Women's Rights. We have all been thrown down so low that nobody thought we'd ever get up again, but ... we will come up again, and I'm here ... we'll have our rights, see if we don't; you can't stop us from them; see if you can. You may hiss as much as you like, but it is comin' ... I am sittin' among you to watch; and every once and a while I come out and tell you what time of night it is." ****************************************************************** 10. JEDI WOMEN FIGHT FOR JUSTICE FOR THE POOR IN SALT LAKE CITY "We are a very grassroots organization and are cross-cultural," said Anna Archuleta, co-chair of JEDI (Justice, Economic Dignity and Independence for Women). JEDI is an important grassroots organization in Salt Lake City that fights for a decent standard of living for welfare recipients and for low-income people. Archuleta fears that job opportunities for women have become obsolete, but notes that an effort toward unity is growing. In Utah, a state with a strong religious tradition based in Mormonism, poor white women are the majority of those on welfare and a lot of women on AFDC are Mormon women. The base of JEDI is poor white women. "The grassroots movement is a mixture of cultures. Poor women of color are coming together with Anglo culture. Some of the laws are violating poor men as well. This motion toward unity is happening at the grassroots level, rather than by the elite class who are still wanting to hold on to their position. JEDI goes in and rattles the Senate and the House. When they were going to give a tax credit to landowners, we went in with T-shirts that said on the back 'fairness to renters.' It grabbed their attention. They also threw us out!" said Anna Archuleta. On the day before Mother's Day, JEDI organized a celebration called "Mama Jam." Juliesue Westwood, who is also co-chair of JEDI, writes that this is a celebration for all mothers. "It's wonderful that there are families that still reflect the original American Dream. Unfortunately, to many of us out here in the real world, the American Dream has become a nightmare. "There are over 15 million people on welfare and single mothers with children constitute most of them. In fact, over nine million of those people -- 80% are children. What are these mothers getting for Mother's Day? Well, how about having the safety net chopped from beneath them? How about being told they have to work but child care will not be provided, making their wages a negative income. How about the spectre of block grants? How about a two- year limit? So what if you have no recourse except to become homeless and destitute. "In front of the stage of the celebration were three huge postcards for people to sign. They were directed toward Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Bob Bennett and Governor Mike Leavitt. Their message was a plea to think twice before enacting the punitive and potentially disastrous cuts in human services spending. The nearly 500 attendees were provided with individual postcards to sign and return to the senators," Westwood wrote to the People's Tribune. ****************************************************************** 11. UNITY NEEDED IN THE FIGHT FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL JUSTICE By Allen Harris Ethel Long-Scott of the Women's Economic Agenda Project in Oakland, California, plans to address the National Conference on African American Women and the Law this month in Washington. "Professional groups like yours, and grassroots groups like ours are caught up together in a war unlike any we have been taught to fight. Neither our parents nor our leaders anticipated the way this war is destroying our people ... and making it a crime to be poor, no matter what the color of your skin," she will tell the gathering. "This conference is an opportunity to explore how this new class of poor people can help address some fundamental issues," Long- Scott will tell the meeting, according to her prepared remarks. The new class are the structurally unemployed, who she says "are not simply being driven out of industry, they are being driven out of capitalist society." The issues to explore, she says, "include the class issues that have put unskilled African Americans under unprecedented economic attack while many highly skilled African Americans have never had it so good." Long-Scott will point to the economic revolution based on private ownership of labor-replacing technology. "To put the problem in the simplest terms, labor-replacing technology reduces the number of workers needed [thus excluding the unneeded]," she will tell the gathering. "The capitalists want to be able to more thoroughly exploit those workers who are left." In the process, wealth and poverty polarize like never before. "Absolute wealth in the form of 145 billionaires and absolute poverty in the form of some 8 million homeless are both new to our country," she says. The capitalists' push for more police and prisons "reflects their fear that this economic squeeze of the people on the bottom will lead to social chaos and they want to be able to control it," she points out. Long-Scott says that this economic revolution is as important to the future of African-Americans as was the Civil War and "in order to fight an economic revolution that is focusing on us, we have to become revolutionaries." Long-Scott will say that the only way "to stop the death plan called the Contract on America is to link up with this cutting edge of the fight for a new America." ****************************************************************** 12. HOMELESS LEADER CONDEMNS 'CONTRACT WITH AMERICA' Leona Smith has been working diligently on demonstrations and rallies against the Contract with America. Her committee for welfare rights went to Washington, D.C. in April, to a hearing sponsored by the 104th Congress on the Contract With America. "There was a discussion about a welfare mother who had received $363 a month for a family of three. She will now be forced to work for the equivalent of $2.42 an hour, which is $1.67 below minimum wage. She will have to work for 35 hours a week, plus spend five hours looking for work each week. They also discussed how a single mother, 18 years old and younger, will be forced to give her child up for adoption, or place the child in an orphanage if she does not marry the biological father. "At that point, we disrupted the hearing. The police were called and they threatened arrests. They suspended the meeting because of the disruption, and then we later were invited to testify. "They stated at the meeting that the savings that Congress thinks they are going to have from money for welfare recipients will be used for more prisons nationwide -- which clearly spells out that they expect crime to increase, that they are getting ready to incarcerate poor people. It costs an average of $35,000 a year to incarcerate one individual. How can you say to a welfare recipient that she is not eligible for $363, and then you [in Congress] ride in limousines, steal our money by partying and taking unnecessary trips, and not being accountable as an elected official? "I just visited the largest state prison in Pennsylvania; 72 percent of the inmates are African American. I found that an inmate cannot be released without having found a job. How can they find a job while they're incarcerated? "A woman I know of was released from prison and given a certain amount of time to find employment. As her time was running out and she couldn't find employment, she was terrified and hysterical. She was sent back to prison for lack of compliance. We will find many women with children that will be incarcerated like never before. They are forced to commit crimes in order to live. "Today, it's not a black and white thing, around the Contract With America. It's about racism and classism against the poor, whether you be white or black. Who profits but the capitalists when a welfare recipient is forced to work for a paycheck? And the working class will be angry at the welfare recipient for taking their jobs. Our job is to politically educate about who the real culprit is. We need to speak to all of society. We are the people who built the country. We can no longer rely on the politicians. "We have to rely on we, the people." [Leona Smith is the president of the National Union of the Homeless.] ****************************************************************** 13. TECHNOLOGY CAN END POVERTY Renee Pecot, program director of the Women's Economic Agenda Project and a member of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, told the People's Tribune: "The attacks on welfare will open up the door for the dismantling of all entitlement programs that workers have paid dearly into. These programs are no longer needed because the workers of America are no longer needed. However, this same high technology that is permanently replacing workers, can end poverty and hunger overnight. That's what we need to be about the business of doing. But the technology is in the hands of a few billionaires who have dictated that we are no longer needed. The members of the 104th Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, are carrying out genocide on the American working people. "The Congress cannot serve the interest of big business and the interest of the American people at the same time. Nothing short of a revolution will bring out the change that we need to have a system where a piece of property is not worth more than our lives and where women and children are a priority." ****************************************************************** 14. WHY THE ATTACKS ON WELFARE? Marian Kramer, the president of the National Welfare Rights Union, told the People's Tribune: "Welfare is only one percent of the national budget. So, why are they moving on the smallest part of the budget and so harshly against this section of people? Because they are laying the foundation to move against everyone else. It's not a question of 'if' people want to work: there's no jobs out here. Yet today we have the ability through electronics to produce enough food for people throughout the entire world. We can produce housing on assembly lines. We have light bulbs that burn from now on and never have to be replaced. But, if there's no profit, they won't produce it. The name of the game is extermination for the section of the working class they don't need. First they went after the GA (General Assistance) recipient. They wiped the homeless off a long time ago; then, the women and children. And it doesn't matter whether you are a Democrat or a Republican. If they push this stuff through -- with the Clinton welfare program or the Republican -- the states can go further and cut people off after two years. And we know what 'states' rights' are all about." ****************************************************************** 15. 'HUNGER IS UNACCEPTABLE' Michelle Tingling-Clemmons, Recording Secretary, Up & Out of Poverty Now Coalition, told the People's Tribune: "The House is proposing to cut $23 billion from the food stamp program. The savings will be used to finance the capital gains tax. They are looking to save $40 billion a year which is the sum total of eight years of Reagan administration cuts. "What they are doing is more of the same, taking from the poor, giving to the rich; a $40 billion-a-year income shift from the have nots to the haves. To do this, they will cut social service programs. The attack on food programs and entitlements is an effort by government to abdicate its responsibilities of meeting the needs of its citizens. "Those of us who built this country have a responsibility to make sure that it gives us our fair share. Hunger in the United States is unacceptable and we must continue to mobilize the people to fight it. Just like the Panthers forced a school breakfast program into being, so must our struggle guarantee that all Americans have an adequate diet with dignity. Together we will win." ****************************************************************** 16. 'RALLY FOR WOMEN'S LIVES': WOMEN SPEAK OUT AGAINST VIOLENCE Some 200,000 people gathered for the "Rally for Women's Lives" in Washington, D.C. on April 9 organized by the National Organization for Women and other groups. The rally was proof that the women's movement today is something new. Because of their position in society, women -- especially poor women -- are at the cutting edge of every crucial fight today: for health care and drug treatment, against violence, for homes and education, in a word, for a new society for all. The rally dealt not only with physical violence against women, but also the economic and political violence they face through the Contract With America. Speakers emphasized the need to see the rally as just the beginning of a serious fight against violence, for equality of women and for a new society. The crowd was made up of women, men, children and the aged -- people from all over the country who understood that violence against women is violence against society. "This is the largest march ever for women's lives, the largest protest against violence and against the political attack," NOW President Patricia Ireland told the cheering crowd. She then told the rally to "raise your hand if you will take this pledge: 'I will not work for or support with my money or my time any candidate or party that will not work for or support women's rights and freedom from violence.' Now raise your hand to the Capitol if you are going to fight back in 1996." Other leaders addressing the rally included Marian Kramer, president of the National Welfare Rights Union (NWRU); Alexis Baptist, an anti-poverty organizer, who received the Young Feminist Against Violence Award; and Cheri Honkala, president of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. Below are excerpts from their remarks. Marian Kramer told the crowd that the NWRU "represents over 80 million people that are already forced by this government to live below poverty lines. Now these people are facing this Contract on America. You women have to understand that history is calling you forward, and that you are all the generals in this. Understand that an injury to one is an injury to all. We must stop homelessness, which is violence; we must stop hunger, which is violence; we must stand strong with our sisters that are being abused in the home; we must make sure that these judges that are protecting the violence will no longer be able to reign over our lives. Because we are the future and we will never go back. If it means going to jail, if it means trying to turn this government upside down, the future belongs to us. We can take America and wipe out poverty, wipe out violence, and make sure that this government is our government." Alexis Baptist, an anti-poverty organizer who at 17 was one of the Kensington Six who were arrested for their part in housing takeovers, told the crowd, "There's a lot of power out here, and when we say 'we won't go back,' that's a hell of a statement. But we need to talk about where we are going. We already know we're not going to let them put this Contract on America. We're going to demand that they provide housing for every man, woman and child in this country; that they lift people up and out of poverty; that the schools educate our children for a future that we know exists. And we'll demand that if these people that we voted in, don't do the job, we will be there to kick their asses out. We understand that you only get what you organize to take, and the 250,000 of us here are prepared to take whatever we need." Cheri Honkala told the crowd, "I come to you today as a woman, not speaking on behalf of welfare recipients. I am a welfare recipient. I deserve to live and I am proud. We have been throwing ourselves before Congress demanding that 'you will not debate our lives. We will speak for ourselves and we will be at the table to testify. You [Congress] will not determine whether my child has food, clothing or housing.' The welfare debate has ended. My child has a right to survive and thrive and get up and out of poverty now. I can't begin to tell you the children, the mothers that we have buried. You all better stop talking about violence unless you include economic violence. I am not just here to talk about the plight; I'm here to talk about the fight. We will knock down the door and house a homeless woman every day. If a battered women's shelter is full, we will take them into our house. If this woman can't get access to abortion, we will ensure she does. As poor women, we don't want pity; we want power. We will take it back and we will lead this country." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ People's Tribune Speakers Bureau presents 'WOMEN CRUSADING FOR A NEW AMERICA' Today in America poverty is growing at an alarming pace. The majority living in poverty are women and children. Yet for the first time in history, new technology exists to produce enough for all to have what they need. Today we can have a world where children, women and men live in harmony, where no man dares strike a woman, where no child goes hungry, and where culture is created and enjoyed by all. To create that world, society must be reorganized. How do we take the next step toward reorganizing society? The People's Tribune Speakers Bureau is planning a national speaking campaign: "Women Crusading for a New America." Women from the front lines of the struggle will speak from their experiences. These are women to awaken and inspire America! Speakers include Marian Kramer, Cheri Honkala, Alexis Baptist, Laura Garcia, Lourdes Silva, Ethel Long-Scott, Germaine Tremmel (Lakota Nation, Hunkpapa) and more. Call today for a free list of speakers. P.O. Box 3524 Chicago, Illinois 60654 312-486-3551 speakers@noc.org +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 17. BOOK REVIEW: _BOMB THE SUBURBS_: A HIP-HOP STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The heart of the book lies in the frontier, whether it's the lip- smacking promise of a city untouched by tagger hands, or Chicago's own secret wilderness of closed-down factories and train tracks. By Scott Pfeiffer CHICAGO -- William "Upski" Wimsatt's Bomb the Suburbs is an illustrated collection of journalism, essays, letters, interviews and in-jokes; an action-packed query into what makes hip-hop tick. It is the story of Upski's adventures as a "wigger" (a white b- boy) graffiti artist, blasting rooftops along Chicago's skyline. A celebration of the non-dogmatic and paradoxical nature of hip-hop, the book just the same evinces a clear political agenda. It is an agenda conceived in terms of music. In hip-hop, Upski found not just transformative ideas about race, ethics and identity, but also community and a code. But as he watched his black and Latino mentors leap at stardom, miss and fall away to crack and prison, even as he prospered, he had to ask himself some tough questions: Is hip-hop worth it? Does it work? The answers are deeply ambivalent, but Chicago's original hip-hop ideals are his only touchstone for an organization that could bring about a "perfect society"; a future worth fighting for. The book's most pathetic moments are its interviews with reactionary old-schoolers who whine about the changes rap has gone through. Yet Upski feels these are integral. It's in the spirit of the "multifaceted nature of truth," since the thrust of the book is a powerful embrace of the disenfranchised section of society that gangsta rap represents. The heart of the book lies in the frontier, whether it's the lip- smacking promise of a city untouched by tagger hands, or Chicago's own secret wilderness of closed-down factories and train tracks. The frontier versus the suburbs: one a world of risk that can only be accessed by hopping a freight or thumbing a ride, the other a world of static retreat. Bomb the Suburbs climaxes as those worlds crash into each other. Corruption reaches the frontier, graffiti makes its mark among suburban kids, social problems bleed everywhere. And since the strength of his work comes from being part of a community, and only hip-hop can forge that community, as the book closes Upski returns from the frontier to join society so as to change it. If James Baldwin had been born in the mid-'70s a white son of Chicago's South Side, and grown up to live and write about hip- hop, Bomb the Suburbs might've been his first book, which is just a way of saying that Upski possesses the courage, anger, ambition and love for humanity that only the best writers represent. And like us, he's still growing (he'd be the first to tell you this is an inchoate work), living through the twilight of capitalism, worried yet hopeful. [To order one copy of Bomb the Suburbs from anywhere in the world, please send $7 (US) to the Subway and Elevated Press, P.O. Box 377653, Chicago, Illinois 60637. The same address may be used for editorial correspondence. To place large orders or make urgent inquiries, call 312-363-4516.] ****************************************************************** 18. LETTERS Profit and tyranny via drugs in America Dear Editors: As a regular reader of the People's Tribune, I always enjoy the political education and information from around the world through the articles you print. I especially like those articles that reflect how individuals become informed and empowered to work in the interests of our communities as they begin to realize how this system of capitalism fosters oppression and division within the ranks of the working class. The article by Fanya Baruti in the May 8, 1995 PT is an example of this. Mr. Baruti's clear understanding of the profit motive and resulting tyranny via drugs in America was concise; a passionate appeal made even more inspiring as it was written by a recovering addict who has personal knowledge of the pain of drug abuse and its repercussions on the citizenry. I work in a substance abuse treatment setting, and distributed many PTs on the strength of this article. Many members of a Narcotics Anonymous meeting asked for copies of the article and because the subscription coupon was on the same page, I envision many people deciding to write you in Chicago in order to "get out the truth and unity." I urge readers who attend support meetings, work with youth or in the field of substance abuse to take a look at using Fanya Baruti's article as a reprint, a vehicle to introduce the PT to new readers. I also congratulate Mr. Baruti on his moving, informative piece. Thank you! Deena M. Guice, Detroit +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Dear People's Tribune: Thinking through the elimination of the free school breakfast and lunch programs and of the welfare system, how are we as citizens supposed to know what's really going on? First, we hear that the free school meals program feeds 500,000 predominantly poor and minority kids. One side is saying that the program is only being reduced. The other side is saying the funding is being increased by nearly 5 percent, but that the funds will be given to the states. Still other politicians are saying neither is the case. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the money is given to the states as discretionary funds. It is at least possible to imagine the money going for other things than children's free meals. (Prison cells come to mind as one possibility.) Also, if the need for free breakfasts and lunches has increased by 10 percent and funding was increased only 5 percent, that's really a 5 percent reduction in funding. Those supporting reduction or elimination of the meals tell us to get all those lazy mothers out of bed and fix their own kids breakfast. But what do we do with the kids if we eliminate the program? The other day, I heard the political wizards saying that we can just take those kids from those lazy mothers and fathers. You know, it's cheaper and better to feed them breakfast and lunch than to foster them out to other homes or orphanages. It never seemed to occur to these politicians that there really are some families too poor to have three meals a day. Where do we find these candidates who actually believe we aren't feeding our kids because we're too lazy to get out of bed in the morning? I'm afraid this is the same mentality that says "Let's eliminate welfare and make all these sleeping, lazy moms and dads get a job." If a million adults already can't find a job that pays more than welfare, how are these new million folks going to find one? If I can't make ends meet on welfare money without the expense of day care, etc., I sure won't be able to do it at $4.25 an hour with all the added expenses that work generates as opposed to not working. Why is all this happening? We elect these politicians without really knowing what they'll do once the votes are counted. Then when we see their collective nonsense, we don't object, or write, or call, or re-call. We let people run our lives and our money and our families and do nothing to control how they do it. I am but one man, but if there were 10 men with 10 letters, or 1,000 men with 1,000 letters, our voices would be loud and perhaps will be heard by those who became hard of hearing the day before the election. I will close with this first-aid thought. The first thing to do to stop the bleeding is to apply pressure to the cut causing the bleeding. Go write those letters and make those calls and cast that vote. David Murr Hutchinson, Kansas ****************************************************************** 19 .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: League of Revolutionaries for a New America, 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 ******************************************************************