From jdav@noc.orgWed Oct 11 21:20:12 1995 Date: Sun, 15 Jan 95 13:15 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune 10-16-95 (Online Edition) ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 31 / October 16, 1995 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: pt@noc.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE is now available on the World Wide Web at http://www.mcs.com/~jdav/league.html +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 31 / October 16, 1995 Page One 1. THE O.J. VERDICT: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Spirit of the Revolution 2. SPIRIT OF REVOLUTION: ANSWERING THE CALL: 'YE CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON' News and Features 3. MILLION MAN MARCH EXPRESSES CRISIS IN ALL OF AMERICA 4. WELFARE RIGHTS GROUP CONDEMNS WELFARE 'REFORM' 5. WEAP URGES UNITY IN WAKE OF SIMPSON TRIAL 6. TEACHERS NEED TO TEACH TRUTH 7. SPIRIT OF REBELLION SWEEPS CANADA'S FIRST NATIONS 8. DETROIT NEWSPAPER STRIKE: WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT INJUNCTIONS? Focus on Women's Conference in Beijing: 'Looking at the world through women's eyes' 9. WOMEN'S CONFERENCE IN BEIJING SHOWS BIRTH OF A NEW MOVEMENT 10. PEOPLE FLOURISH IN SOCIALIST CHINA American Lockdown 11. MATA SEEKS JUSTICE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE WALL 12. AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO INMATE CORRESPONDENTS Deadly Force 13. EX-COP WANTS CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON POLICE TERROR Culture Under Fire 14. TO TALK OF TREES IN DARK TIMES: A REVIEW OF 'AMAZING GRACE' BY JONATHAN KOZOL The Future is in Our Hands Column 15. JOBS AND WORK >From the League 16. TAKE THE MORAL OFFENSIVE AGAINST CAPITALISM! 17. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. PAGE 1: THE O.J. VERDICT: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? WHILE AMERICA'S RULERS PUSH DIVISION, WE HAVE TO UNITE THE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE. 'I'm just for justice. That's all.' -- Brenda Moran, Simpson juror For revolutionaries and American progressives, the implications of the O.J. Simpson verdict and its aftermath are many. What began as the celebrity trial of a national football hero took on a whole new meaning as the specter of perjured police testimony, racism and fabricated evidence reared its ugly head. Even as mainstream a civil rights organization as the NAACP joined the hundreds marching in front of the L.A. County Criminal Courts building on the day of the acquittal. Meanwhile, the same police brass and prosecutors who three years ago told a shocked public to accept the Rodney King verdict (backed up with a bloody police rampage) publicly attacked the integrity of the Simpson jury and refused to accept its decision. Even before the verdict was returned, lead defense attorney Johnnie Cochran was unjustly condemned for to comparing the views of Mark Fuhrman to those held by Adolf Hitler. In fact, history confirms that the infamous "black codes" of the American slave South were a model for the architects of the Third Reich. Furthermore, in 1995, as America's cities fill with crack cocaine, shuttered hospitals, homelessness, police shootings, infant mortality and the elimination of dozens of life-supporting public assistance programs, who can deny that a modern, if undeclared, genocide is under way? Who can deny that the growing epidemic of police shootings and deaths of citizens while in custody is part of this slaughter? The vilification of an attorney who for 30 years has represented victims of police brutality should be viewed in this context. As for the so-called "race card," all but lost in the post-verdict propaganda was the fact that it was the testimony of three white women to a mixed-nationality jury which revealed the extent of Mark Furhman's perjured testimony in the first place. Even if one accepts the insulting proposition that black jurors cannot fairly judge a black defendant, the fact that African Americans comprised a majority of the Simpson panel was irrelevant. It would have required only one juror of any nationality to hold out and the hung jury hoped for by the prosecution would have occurred. The appeal to reject perjured police testimony and racism was not directed at any one segment of the jury; it was a call for justice to all 12 men and women, any one of whom could have upset the verdict that was finally handed down. In the days following the end of the trial, America was subjected to an orgy of media reports as to how fractured along racial lines we are. There is no denying these deep divisions and the mutual distrust fostered for hundreds of years by the ruling class of this country. Today, this tiny handful of capitalists knows that it is only this division that stands between them and the millions of Americans of all colors they have pushed below the poverty line. Without that discord, this rotten economic system and the injustice that goes with it could not endure. As the ruling class constantly emphasizes that which divides, we must bring to the fore that which objectively binds together. For revolutionaries, the Simpson verdict has revealed both the dangers and opportunities we face as we unify the struggle for a just society. ****************************************************************** 2. SPIRIT OF REVOLUTION: ANSWERING THE CALL: 'YE CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON' [Editor's note: Below we print the latest contribution to our regular column about spirituality and revolution.] Dottie Stevens is a vice chair of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. She is also an elder in the Church of the United Community, a multi-denominational church in Roxbury, Massachusetts -- an open and affirming church which includes members of the United Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ and the Unitarian Universalists. The article below is a response to the Spirit of the Revolution column in our August 7 edition. In that edition, Brenda Matthews, a League member active in a church on Chicago's West Side, wrote "An appeal to the religious community" urging the religious community to "[j]oin the war on an economic system that is hurting millions!" I read in Scripture that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to God's purpose. What is God's purpose for all people on this earth? Joy, peace and a sound mind is what is promised to us, to enable us to make decisions, stick to our goals, persevere, and obtain victory in our lives and deaths. As we read in the Bible, the Kingdom of God signifies a place of complete harmony and equality: no sickness, no suffering, no lack of anything. There's just beauty, love and peace -- for all eternity. I recently heard Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich's opinion of the classes of people he doesn't agree with, or feel any compassion for. He calls us the reactionary, radical Left of a world that's failed. What does this mean? Isn't Newt on the same planet we are? According to Newt, should we just give up and die because we are not making the grade economically? After all, what does it say in the Bible about money? Does it say that money is the root of all evil? Or does the Bible say that the love of money and the lack of money are the roots of evil? The Bible states that a fool and his money are soon parted. It also says that we cannot serve two masters. What is the church's role in society? What should its stand be toward those who the right wing has written off? The Bible states (in Matthew 6:24), "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon [riches]." God calls all of us to choose. We have our own free will and can either accept or reject God's plan for a life which is more abundant for everyone. We know God is on our side and that we will win in the end. It is time for the religious and spiritual communities to take a stand and make a choice. [We welcome comments on how to enlist greater numbers from the religious and spiritual communities in the war against this economic system. We are looking for your proposals, thoughts and feelings on this important mission. Please write to Brenda Matthews at the People's Tribune.] ****************************************************************** 3. MILLION MAN MARCH EXPRESSES CRISIS IN ALL OF AMERICA By Nelson Peery The upcoming "Million Man March" of African Americans could be the largest demonstration ever held in Washington, D.C. As the march date of October 16 nears, many leading individuals and organizations are attempting to overcome differences among themselves and with the Nation of Islam in order to broaden support for the demonstration. They all understand quite well that the African American masses will no longer tolerate the "crabs in a barrel" petty personality struggles among their leaders. Fear of being left out and left behind is as much a unifying force as is the knowledge that massive new attacks are being aimed at African American ghettos across the country. Originally, the purpose of the march was for black men to publicly "atone" for allegedly abandoning their families and their communities. When blaming the victim failed to attract much support, the march's purpose was quietly broadened to become a demonstration of reconciliation within the black community. "Reconciliation" meant different things to different people. To many, it was a call to unite the black community against its growing poverty and political isolation and against police brutality. This approach struck a raw nerve. As a result, support for the march has been growing. Much is riding on the degree of the march's success. If anywhere near one million people show up, the march will serve as a wake-up call to the traditional leaders and organizations of the African American community. Such success will place more militant (if nationalistic) leaders in a commanding position and threaten alliances that have dominated the African American movement since the mid-1930s. The ongoing downsizing of industry has prevented these alliances from translating the winning of civil rights into actual equal rights. As a result, a crisis is slowly developing within the leadership of the African American community. Either success or failure on October 16 is bound to deepen this crisis and bring it to the forefront. It would be a mistake to confuse the political and ideological positions of the spokespersons of either "wing" of the African American leadership with the groundswell of militancy and the political awakening which is taking place among the most oppressed of African Americans. The growing consciousness of the new class of poor people of all colors in America is bound to be expressed first among the African Americans, the most politically conscious and the best-organized section of this class. Far from being anyone's plaything, this march essentially expresses the growing social crisis which is affecting all of America. [Nelson Peery is the author of Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary, published by The New Press.] ****************************************************************** 4. WELFARE RIGHTS GROUP CONDEMNS WELFARE 'REFORM' By R. Lee On September 19, the U.S. Senate voted 87 to 12 to approve a welfare "reform" bill that would take food out of the mouths of children. Though the Senate bill is considered slightly more "moderate" than the House bill passed earlier, neither piece of legislation serves the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people in this country. A conference committee will now work out the differences between the two measures to produce a final bill. Both bills abolish the basic federal guarantee under current law of assistance for every poor family that qualifies. The current welfare system would be replaced with block grants to the states, and the states would get broad authority to design their own programs. With the passage of these bills, the federal government essentially said that it no longer has any responsibility to take care of the people of this country. One news report said a "celebratory atmosphere took hold" on the Senate floor as the bill passed, and a newspaper columnist rightly condemned this display as "millionaires celebrating the stomping of the poor." Maureen Taylor, state chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, told the People's Tribune that, from her organization's perspective, "We oppose the government restructuring of welfare benefits, and we strongly oppose the rationale for it, which tends to be holding the victims of poverty responsible for the economic woes of the country. "We're adamant in our displeasure, consistent in our rage and determined in our effort to undermine and expose any effort by the government at any level -- local, state or federal -- to further reduce the standard of living of the poorest people in the country." Taylor added: "Our immediate solution to the budget cuts is that a guaranteed annual income needs to be adopted by the federal government. This should be the position of the unions, the civic organizations, the community organizations. There should be a guaranteed annual income for every person, not just citizens. We should remove forever the possibility of anyone having to stand on a corner with a sign that says 'will work for food.'" She said the welfare cuts "aren't just directed against people on welfare," but against anyone who depends on a job and could lose that job. "These cuts are directed against anyone who isn't a computer," she said. The Senate's action is just the latest in a series of escalating attacks on the people, said Taylor. "For two or three years now, we've been trying to warn people that budget cuts and cuts directed to people on welfare were on a fast track," she said. "The government sent up a few trial balloons earlier; there was a big one [trial balloon] in Michigan in 1991 when they cut single men and women off General Assistance. The idea is to see if the working class will come up and gather themselves together to fight against this. Their propaganda is so effective, they chop off a little section of people, and other folks are scared to say anything about it. "The trial balloons have been indicators that this train was coming. First they cut single men and women and seniors, and now it's time to go after the children." ****************************************************************** 5. WEAP URGES UNITY IN WAKE OF SIMPSON TRIAL [Editor's note: Below we reprint excerpts from a statement issued by the Women's Economic Agenda Project.] OAKLAND, California -- The end of the O.J. Simpson trial has rocked the nation. Once again we are reminded that you get as much justice in America as you can pay for. In that regard, O.J. Simpson was clearly able to level the playing field, which, of course, is not the case for most of the constituents of the Women's's Economic Agenda Project or of poor defendants who fill the jails in the United States (one of the largest jail systems in the world). Even though the O.J. Simpson case was not at all typical, it was very good at exposing the typical obstacles faced by average Los Angeles defendants as they seek justice from law enforcement. It was, also, somewhat useful at spotlighting the epidemic of violence against women in America, violence that is parallel to escalating violence in America in general. We face it and fight it, our children face it and fight it, and yet our leaders run away from us and toward people who see things differently. The verdict does invite people to simplistically pit gender-based violence against racial violence, another indication that our country is coming apart at the seams. All of this is happening against a backdrop of an escalating war on poor people and the unabated disappearance of decent jobs. These are extraordinary times we live in, offering tremendous opportunities as well as tremendous dangers. There is a serious right-wing movement toward a police state and it must be halted. One part of doing this is to remain alert and ready to reject the artificial separation of our oppressed and exploited peoples' struggles. For more information, contact Renee Pecot or Carolyn Milligan at the Women's Economic Agenda Project (WEAP), 518 17th Street, Suite 200, Oakland, California 94612. 510-451-7379. ****************************************************************** 6. TEACHERS NEED TO TEACH TRUTH By Steve Miller Many Native American peoples honored the prophecy that a generation would be born destined to heal the wounds of the earth. This, the Seventh Generation, was also known as the Healing Generation. A generation is approximately 20 years. It is almost 140 years since slavery was abolished. The Seventh Generation refers to the current young generation. Make no mistake -- this is a powerful and creative generation. They have already created rap, one of the greatest protest musics of U.S. history. Their parents fought the battles of the Civil Rights era and Vietnam. Their grandparents lived through the Depression, built the union and smashed fascism. This is the generation that will realize the promise of America -- a land free from want, exploitation and hatred. The strength of the Seventh Generation is that they are coming of age during the most profound transformation in history. The use of high technology is transforming every institution in the world. One result is that human labor has become worthless to a system that values only what it can exploit. Those who cannot work become permanently unemployed. The great power of this generation lies in its poverty. The system has declared war on them. They must fight the system in order to live. They must transform it or die. EXPENDABLE CHILDREN One-third of America's families live below the poverty level or depend on fast-disappearing government support to survive. Another third of families are just one paycheck away from homelessness. Homelessness is found in every neighborhood -- you know we're not talking about color here. There are 250 million people in this country; 190 million of them are white. Yet the top one percent of the population owns more wealth than the bottom 90 percent! Think about it. Laws like "three strikes" are a statement of policy for those headed into poverty, regardless of color. This time, its everyone's children. One out of four children goes to bed hungry. Young people are the most vulnerable to homelessness, AIDS, drugs and murder. They are the most criminalized generation in this country's history. States are building jails faster than schools. These are the "expendables" -- the throw-away children. Schools are under attack. The state governments cry that there is not enough money for education. Congress had no problem, however, carrying the $500 billion cost of the Savings & Loan rescue totally off budget. This was more than the country spent fighting World War II. The coming education reform is growing police control of the schools. Today's public school system was organized to serve the industrial era. When skilled workers were needed, high schools were created to relieve industry of the burden of training workers. When assembly line workers were needed, the school day was divided into periods to reflect the work day and teachers were expected to act like foremen. Today, business is demanding that the public schools be reorganized to serve their needs in the electronic era. Their issue is simple. What education do people need who will never work? They only need to guarantee the training of a shrinking technical elite. Education will be reorganized to fit the needs production with electronics. This agenda is already being implemented. Public education is being resegregated, except the new lines are those between urban and suburban. Voucher plans abound, along with other schemes to privatize public education. TEACH THE TRUTH Because of these attacks, this generation is the most political. Before young people outgrow Saturday morning cartoons, they get the message daily: "Look at the criminals! There is a Contract on America! Cut back their education! Take away their financial support! Put families on the street! Blame their mothers! Put them in jails with their fathers and uncles!" What are the special requirements for those who teach the Seventh Generation? We teachers can be in a powerful position if we side with the future. But this is Generation X -- the unknowns to be feared, who think differently; the uncontrollables; the gang- ridden; the violent. Well, are they dangerous? Or are they in danger? One thing is for sure. The violence done by the youth is nothing compared to the violence that is done to them. Homelessness is violence. Hunger is violence. So-called welfare reform is violence. The system has taken everything from young people but their reputation. This generation has a profound desire for respect. This attitude is often baffling to teachers, who were students when teachers automatically got the respect of authority. Today things are more complicated. Respect has to be earned. This generation that is learning to fight is fighting to learn. But the system is not working for them. They judge you by which side you are on. It is easy to blame them and claim that the students aren't ready for the teachers. But it is the teachers who are not ready for the students. Teachers have to root their lessons deeply in the students' experience. The Seventh Generation is learning quickly about survival. Do we lie to them and keep up the pretense that they are failing the schools instead of telling the truth that the schools are failing them? We certainly can't tell them the dogma we were taught: stay in school and you'll get a good job! We can validate their experience by teaching why this is happening. They're tired of hearing that they are the problem. A verse from a Whitney Houston song defines the basics: I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside. Give them sense of pride ... To make it easier How do you give a sense of pride to this generation that the rulers have declared expendable? We have to communicate a sense of their special mission. Each generation picks up the torch where the last one left it and carries it further. This is the Seventh Generation -- the one that will cross the threshold and at last establish a society that puts the well-being of all its people above the privilege of a few. We can inspire them with optimism and an understanding that they take over in the name of us all. ****************************************************************** 7. SPIRIT OF REBELLION SWEEPS CANADA'S FIRST NATIONS By Allen Harris In Canada, the native people are known as the First Nations, but under the present economic and social system there, they are the last and among the poorest. It is no surprise that this year has seen an upsurge in revolutionary actions taken across that country. This is a continuation of the trend that came to international attention in 1990 with the armed confrontation between Mohawk warriors and the police in the town of Oka, Quebec. This year, in the western province of British Columbia, Native peoples have blockaded forestry companies and a ski resort. In eastern Canada, First Nations in Labrador have protested the use of their land and airspace by NATO warplanes. In September members of the Sushwap Nation occupied part of a ranch at Gustafsen Lake, while members of the Nuxalk nation blockaded a logging operation at a place called Fog Creek. At the same time, First Nations fighters blockaded a park at Ipperwash, Ontario, on the shores of Lake Huron. There, police shot and killed one young blockader and wounded two others during what police said was a gunfight. Common to many of these struggles is the aim of recovering traditional, sacred ancestral lands which were stolen by European settlers. Here in the Western Hemisphere, "500 Years of Resistance" has become a battle cry of our times, referring to the arrival of Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492 and the five centuries of African slavery and the genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Capitalism eventually swallowed up our part of the world, but its first victims have never given up the fight for their existence and dignity. Today, from the rain forests of Brazil, to the villages of Chiapas, Mexico, to the Dakota prairies to the lakes and mountains of Canada, a spirit of resistance, rebellion and of revolution is sweeping the Native peoples. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor's note: The following was distributed at the women's conference in China by members of the Native American caucus. 400 million indigenous peoples in the world are peoples too What is the 's' issue all about? When the United Nations was formed in 1945, its charter guaranteed all peoples certain fundamental rights and freedoms. The colonizing nations who created the United Nations did not want to acknowledge that the world's indigenous peoples also had human, social, cultural, civil and political rights, so they decided to call indigenous peoples "minorities" and "insular populations." Under U.N. documents, "minorities" and "populations" are not entitled to the same rights and protections which are guaranteed to "peoples." For 15 years, indigenous leaders from all over the world have been working to get the United Nations to pass the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration passed the U.N. Working Group and the U.N. Subcommission on Human Rights in 1994. It is now at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Several nations at the United Nations are trying to kill the Declaration by writing their own new document at the Commission level. We need your help to stop this effort. The s Issue Some nations in the United Nations want to refer to indigenous peoples as "people." They do not want the "s" on "peoples" because if the "s" is added, it means that indigenous peoples will have collective rights. These colonizing nations do not want indigenous cultures and tribes to have collective rights to their traditional lands. PEOPLE have individual rights. PEOPLES have collective rights to their lands, natural resources and other collective endeavors, including their right to pray together, live together and develop an economic system together. All indigenous peoples live as cultural units. It doesn't make sense to say that one individual is an Indian, but he or she can't be part of the tribe. We need your help. What you can do: 1. Contact your government and tell them to support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as passed by the Subcommission in 1994; 2. Tell your government to support using the term 'indigenous Peoples' in all U.N. documents, including the Beijing documents. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 8. WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT INJUNCTIONS? Paper the Walls WITH THEM! [Randy Furst is a reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune where he has worked for the past 23 years. He is a steward and a member of the Twin Cities Newspaper Guild's Representative Assembly. Below we reprint excerpts from an article he wrote on the Detroit newspaper strike.] By Randy Furst The strike by Detroit newspaper workers has huge implications for the entire labor movement, not just the embattled strikers at the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News. Detroit has long been considered a bastion of trade unionism, so both labor and employers are watching the confrontation there closely. A victory for the newspaper unions will send a powerful message to employers everywhere that union busters can be stopped. Conversely, a defeat for our side will signal employers that it is open season on the American trade union movement. The Detroit rank and file can be proud of the mass picketing they have conducted on several weekends that slowed, and in some cases, virtually halted delivery of newspapers. Such tactics have given us hope that the strike can be won. A Macomb County circuit judge has now issued an injunction limiting pickets in front of the newspaper's key printing plant gate. The employers, who generally have a hammer lock on the courts in such situations, are hoping that the strikers will reduce their numbers to token picket lines. There is little question that if that happens, the strike will be crushed. Small contingents of pickets cannot stop the onrushing trucks. MASS PICKETING Such injunctions are morally bankrupt and fundamentally violate basic human rights -- among them the right to a job. Court injunctions were regularly defied in the 1930s and that is why we have a trade union movement today. The famous 1934 Teamsters truck strike in Minneapolis was won with mass picketing, despite a series of injunctions by anti-union judges. "In 1934, we papered the wall with injunctions by anti-union judges," said the late Harry DeBoer, one of the leaders of that strike. Civil rights marchers across the south, led by leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., openly defied injunctions in the 1950s and 1960s in a successful effort to bring down the vicious Jim Crow laws. There is a higher law and if strikes are to be won in Detroit and elsewhere and unions are to survive, the labor movement will have to start papering the walls. BOYCOTT? Some have suggested that rather than defy the injunction in Detroit, the newspaper unions should concentrate on organizing a subscription boycott and developing a boycott against the big chain stores that have been advertising in the scab newspaper. To make such boycotts the centerpiece of a strike strategy is suicide. Boycotts don't win strikes. The fundamental job of the unions is to halt production and delivery. That is not to say that a boycott cannot be helpful, but only as an adjunct to a basic strategy of shutting down the plant. Some unions worry that ignoring injunctions can result in huge fines that could break them. The only answer one can give is that if unions do not continue to mass picket and stop production, they will be broken anyway. Two recent strikes point out what can be won when unions observe the higher law. In 1988 and 1989, strikers at the Pittston Coal Co. in southwestern Virginia continued to conduct civil disobedience, despite court injunctions, to halt production in the mines. In an historic action, members of the United Mine Workers occupied a processing plant and won the strike. The occupation was planned secretly. Workers in do-or-die situations ought to consider such actions. In 1994, Ron Carey, the reform president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, called a national strike against United Parcel Service. The company had violated the bargaining agreement by announcing that workers would be required to carry, by themselves, packages weighing as much as 150 pounds. A federal injunction was issued to stop the UPS strike, but Carey, recognizing that justice was on his side, defied it. Enough Teamster leaders across the country agreed with Carey's strategy and struck UPS that deliveries ground to a standstill in many key cities and the strike was won. NO OTHER CHOICE And so we come to Detroit, where unions were born and blossomed under leaders and rank and filers who, en masse, thumbed their noses at union busters in black robes and fancy suits. They will have to thumb their noses again. If the workers at the Detroit newspapers are to survive and prevail, Michigan and Detroit trade union leaders must take decisive action. The labor movement has a moral right and obligation to call out their members by the tens and hundreds of thousands to surround the newspapers' printing facility in the suburb of Sterling Heights and not let one strikebreaker into the building, and not one paper out. And if they fill the jails with strikers, the Michigan labor movement must bail them out, and send them out to picket again, and again, and again. Harry DeBoer and Martin Luther King Jr. would both agree. Immoral laws are meant to be broken. Indeed, if the newspaper unions are to win in Detroit, there is no other choice. ****************************************************************** 9. WOMEN'S CONFERENCE IN BEIJING SHOWS BIRTH OF A NEW MOVEMENT By Sandra Reid "I had a sense of power, seeing so many women of every color and from every continent coming together to build a better world," said Sue Ying, a Chicago artist and cultural worker, speaking of her attendance at the recent NGO Forum on Women in Beijing, China. Women from the NGO Forum have returned from Beijing, eager to speak about the deeper meaning of the historic conference that drew 30-40,000 women from 185 nations. Workshops at the conference pointed out that women's issues today are at the core of every issue facing the whole society. "We are seeing the birth of a new women's movement for parity and justice -- social, economic and political -- with women of color and working-class women as the core leadership," said another forum attendee, Marian Kramer, president of the National Welfare Rights Union. "Today the struggle for women's rights is the leading aspect of a revolutionary transformation sweeping the earth, and there is no way to stop it," she added. Ethel Long-Scott, executive director of the Women's Economic Agenda Project in Oakland, California, speaking on the role women played at the conference, said, "The work on the United Nations Platform of Action and its acceptance is one more step in taking the issues of women's rights, economic security and justice to the World Court. To consider that we may take the powers that be before a World Court and prove that they are unfit to rule and should be disempowered is the first step to reclaiming our people and healing our communities. Then we can teach about governance of women on behalf of the disenfranchised, the destitute, the locked out, and the disempowered." Today a new women's movement is arising because labor-replacing technology, computers and robotics, is throwing millions out of work, permanently. We are actually witnessing the birth of a workless society where robots and computers produce enough food, clothing and shelter for the entire world with little human labor. Yet today one billion people, mainly women and children, face terrible living conditions in the slums of our cities. They live with infected drinking water, hovels instead of homes, illiteracy instead of education, and a daily fight for survival in squatters' settlements. In addition, governments such as the United States are eliminating all social programs for the poor. The ability to end this unnecessary human carnage is at our fingertips. But the handful of billionaires who own the tools the world needs to end poverty are preventing history and humanity from moving forward. This situation, whether fully understood by all the participants, is forcing more and more poor women into the forefront of a new women's movement for not only a new America, but a new world. The earlier women's movement in the United States, led by educated, middle-class women, fought for the right of women to enter the professions, business and politics as equals with men. In the past 30 years, female labor force participation rose from 38 to 58 percent. Women's share of all bachelor's degrees awarded in biology doubled, and increased by six times in business. Women have gone a long way toward breaking their dependence on men. But, today, the social and economic position of women -- and men -- is actually declining and families are being destroyed. * Today the fastest growing group in the homeless population is families with children. Homelessness is affecting middle-class women who are now the "hidden homeless," often living in their cars. Their clothes, dogs, and whatever remains of their former lives are packed in the back seat. * Domestic violence is an epidemic, victimizing an estimated four million women annually. Without resources, a woman cannot leave an abusive relationship. * AIDS is spreading more rapidly among women than men. * Poverty rises dramatically for women of color, who face the double jeopardy of race and gender discrimination. As these facts show, women are forced to be at the forefront of the struggle for a world free of poverty and violence. "The goal of the new women's movement has to be a society whose priority is the well-being of all, regardless of color, creed or gender," said Laura Garcia, editor of the People's Tribune, who also attended the forum. Women constitute more than half of the population of the earth. When the most destitute women move, all of society moves with them. "The new society has to guarantee the means of life to everyone, regardless of how much money they may have," she added. Today, for the first time in history, women will have their equality. [Women who participated in the NGO Forum on Women in Beijing are available to speak to your group. Call People's Tribune Speakers Bureau, PO Box 3524, Chicago, I l60654 . Or call 312-486-3551 or write by electronic mail to : speakers@noc.org.] ****************************************************************** 10. PEOPLE FLOURISH IN SOCIALIST CHINA By Laura Garcia As the plane landed in Beijing, I could not express the mixed emotions in my heart. Here I was in China, the land of my grandfather. Yet I was very apprehensive. Here I was in the land, we were told, which did not welcome the 40,000 women who had come to the NGO Conference. Amid chatter and excitement, we arrived in Beijing. Like young girls, we embraced and took pictures of each other. We then proceeded to face the expected bureaucratic red tape from the Chinese customs agents. To our surprise, we found a troop of youthful, smiling faces, ready to assist us and direct us to our final destination. This was the first surprise that began to unravel the lies of the newspapers back home. The second surprise was our clean, comfortable hotel rooms. We unpacked our clothes, hiking shoes, bottles of Pepto Bismol and malaria pills and headed to the streets to discover this mysterious land and its people. As we walked through the streets of Beijing, Huairou and Shanghai, the members of our delegation could not help but comment on how happy and healthy the people seemed to be, particularly the young people. Although they lacked Western material luxuries such as Nike shoes, cars or stylish clothes, they had a spring in their step which gave them an air of self-confidence. Another thing we couldn't help notice was how busy people were, no matter what time of the day it was. The elderly did tai-chi exercises in the mornings, then took care of their grandchildren, while the parents rode their bicycles to work. People were busy building new housing, busy teaching the youths, busy learning, busy cleaning the streets of Beijing. The Chinese people were just plain busy! This is definitely a nation collectively attacking and solving its problems of housing, clothing, educating and feeding its population of 1.2 billion. The Chinese Revolution was the result of the disintegration of the semi-feudal and fascist regime of Chiang Kai-shek. In 1949, the Chinese people crowned their revolution with a cooperative social order and began pulling themselves out of their misery and devastation. The driving force of this cooperative society was the guaranteeing of the basic necessities of life. So, in my visit to China and in talking to people, I found out that the majority have access to health care, shelter, education and food. In fact, food -- one of the most basic necessities -- is the cheapest thing to buy in China. We were told that people could buy breakfast for one or two yuan (about 25 cents). Most workplaces have cafeterias where the employees can buy low-cost lunches or eat for free. The homelessness that haunts the streets of every modern capitalist city is unknown in China. For one, we were told, the Chinese people believe in the extended family. Our guide acknowledged that this is hard on people, especially young couples. "But what is one to do? You can not throw the elderly out on the streets," she said. As our bus drove through the crowded residential streets of Beijing, or on our trek from Huairou to Beijing and back, we saw glimpses of their family life. Our eyes darted from scene to scene, trying to store everything in our memory. Scenes of a young man washing himself in an outside sink while his wife, daughter, mother and father sat outside their homes around a table eating and chatting. In another scene, an older woman walked hand in hand with her two little grandsons. While in another, a little girl about 10 years old sat in a woman's lap. Perhaps they were mother and daughter, judging by the way the woman held the little girl and by the way the little girl was playing with the woman's black hair. These scenes were another reaffirmation of the values of a cooperative society. Most importantly the government backed up this collective morality by building more housing to meet the people's needs. In fact, what I remember most about Shanghai was the great deal of construction in that city. Housing is affordable: a worker pays only three to five percent of his or her income for housing. I couldn't help thinking then about how our government deals with the problem of housing. If you don't have the money, you end up in the streets. It is as simple as that. Also, as I saw how healthy and spirited the children looked, I sadly thought of the future of the poor and hungry children in America. What future can they have when it becomes a governmental policy to take away much-needed benefits like welfare? There are some skeptics that say China's cooperative society will collapse in 15 years, just like the Soviet Union did. What I saw in China gave me a different perspective. As long as the Chinese people hold dearly to the principle of a cooperative society with the tools of production belonging to society, they hold the key to a bright tomorrow. I left China with mixed emotions, just as I had come. I was sad because of new friends I left behind. I was happy because I brought with me the generated energy of the 46,000 women participants in the NGO Conference, and the vision of what is possible in a cooperative society. I had been back in the United States for only an hour when I was rudely reminded of how private property reigns supreme. The other women and I were kicked out of the airport, even though we had tickets to board the next plane in a few hours. The security guard apologetically asked us to leave. It was airport policy to close the terminal at night, to deter homeless people from seeking shelter. We all looked at each other, and said, "We're home!" [Laura Garcia is editor of the People's Tribune.] ****************************************************************** 11. MATA SEEKS JUSTICE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE WALL By Anthony D. Prince >From deep within the Nebraska State Penitentiary, a bright light of hope lights the way, held aloft by a unique assemblage of outstanding revolutionaries. MATA, Mexican Awareness Through Association, has its origins in the turbulent early 1970s when convicts Vince Garza, Larry Ortiz and Jose Salazar formed what was then called the "Chicano/Mexican Cultural Organization." Twenty-five years later, MATA continues to thrive as a prisoner self-betterment organization whose influence has punched through the concrete and razor ribbon of the penitentiary to the surrounding community beyond. "MATA is not a group of crying, sniveling convicts who address trivial issues" said President Rudy Rosales. "We're going to live by what is in our hearts." Indeed, a look through Torcido, MATA's quarterly newsletter, reveals the broad spectrum of concerns and accomplishments that have gained national recognition from friends and foes alike. On one page, author and poet Luis J. Rodriguez, a recent visitor, writes, "You seem to be doing vital work out of the institution ... I applaud you." Other pages are filled with poems, pen and ink drawings and reprints from prison newspapers and other publications from across the U.S.A. On still another page, MATA extends solidarity to the family of Francisco Renteria, a Mexican immigrant worker whose death last year while in the custody of the Lincoln police has touched off massive and continuing protests. In fact, it was MATA that first brought the Renteria case to the national spotlight when it brought LATINO USA, an award-winning national radio program, to Lincoln to interview the victim's family. MATA sees the Renteria case, in which the offending police officers have been charged only with misdemeanor counts, as part of an "open season" declared on certain groups of people in the United States, including immigrants, young students and prisoners. "[The] Immigration [Service] does not belong in the domain of education or a criminal court case when a Mexican immigrant is killed by the Lincoln police," said Rosales. "There are many community leaders who have self-serving agendas and are in denial of what is actually happening." That can't be said for MATA which while inside the prison walls nevertheless sees itself connected to the broader struggle of the poor and oppressed in America, what "with the new political views and the tightening of the reins regarding the criminal justice system and prison corrections with the three strikes and you're out and the 'lock them up and throw away the key' mentality." Taking some of the credit for positively preparing inmates for life on the outside, Rosales reports that "the recidivism [return to prison] rate for the Nebraska Latino ex-offender is the lowest per capita." Consequently, MATA is determined to stay the course, to continue to utilize culture, education and self-improvement to prepare inmates not only to make the necessary changes to survive what awaits them upon release, but to contribute to the justice struggle on both sides of the wall. [To learn more about MATA, contact Rudy Rosales or Les Auman at 402-471-3161, ext. 3379 or write MATA, P.O. Box 2500, Lincoln, Nebraska 68542-2500] ****************************************************************** 12. AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO INMATE CORRESPONDENTS In the year since our first Special Prison Edition was published, the People's Tribune has received over 1,000 articles from inmates and prisoners' organizations. Every week, we get dozens of articles, letters, appeals for support and other communications from behind bars. It is impossible for us to publish even a fraction, let alone all, of the correspondence we receive given our limited staff, size, frequency of publication and diversity of coverage. While we regret these limitations, we encourage inmates to continue to submit materials to "American Lockdown" as all correspondence is read and considered for publication, as space permits. We want to remind you that we are NOT a legal assistance organization, nor are we able to forward specific requests for such aid. Also, we are severely limited in our ability to respond individually to all those inmates who contact us. To resolve the backlog of submitted articles and permit America to learn the truth about the prison struggle, we are hoping to publish a Special Collection of Prison Letters to the People's Tribune. To that end, we are actively seeking assistance of any and all publishers or other interested parties. Furthermore, we encourage readers and correspondents who may be able to assist in processing the large volume of prison mail, to contact the People's Tribune, especially (but not only) if you are in the Chicago area. Thanking you and looking forward to your continuing contributions, we remain Sincerely yours, The Editors ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "Deadly Force" is a weekly column dedicated to exposing the scope of police terror in the United States. We open our pages to you, the front line fighters against brutality and deadly force. Send us eyewitness accounts, clippings, press releases, appeals for support, letters, photos, opinions and all other information relating to this life and death fight. Send them to People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Ill. 60654, or call (312) 486- 3551. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 13. EX-COP WANTS CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON POLICE TERROR By R. Lee Don Jackson of Tallahassee, Florida, is a 37-year-old former police officer, and he can tell you stories that would outrage any decent person. For instance, there is the 69-year-old grandmother in Miami who saw police brutalize a black woman in front of her house. "She [the grandmother] commented to a neighbor that she didn't understand why the police did that, and the next thing she knew, an officer had put her in a wrist lock, called her a stupid black bitch and said she would be arrested for interfering with the police," Jackson told the People's Tribune. The incident was one of a number that have been reported to the Police Complaint Center (PCC), a 24-hour 800 number hotline that Jackson established about three months ago. Police abuse victims can call the PCC at 800-681-1874, and the PCC will file their complaints for them, free of charge. Jackson is also developing a national database on police racism and brutality, which he will use to press for Congressional hearings on the issue. As Jackson puts it, referring to the Miami incident, "If a 69- year-old woman with no criminal record can be jostled and abused in that way, what does that say for a young black male in the middle of the night in an alley in Los Angeles? And it's more than just young black men; blacks, other minorities, women, gays and poor people are perceived by some officers not to have rights. I want to beat them to death with their own paper. I look at my job the same as Ida B. Wells, who documented lynchings across the South." Jackson, who is black, left the Hawthorne, California Police Department in 1989 as a sergeant, having been a police officer for nearly 10 years. He had seen a lot of racism by white officers on the job. Then, to top it all off, Jackson's father, himself a police officer for 30 years, was pulled over by Pomona, California police and abused. As his small grandchildren watched in horror, the elder Jackson "was pulled out of the car at gunpoint, slammed to the ground and assaulted. I was still a police officer at the time," said Jackson. "I started organizing black police officers to investigate and prosecute acts of racism, and training citizens to videotape the police. Then I went out and placed myself in situations that the average person would be in to see if I attracted police attention, and of course I did," Jackson said. He was approached by NBC's Today Show, which videotaped a January 1989 incident where Long Beach, California police stopped him and threw him through a plate glass window. The officers who assaulted him were ultimately forced to retire. Since leaving the Hawthorne PD, Jackson has earned a master's degree in criminal justice policy and is working on a doctorate in the same field. He has worked as a private investigator and with civil rights groups, and is a federal court qualified expert witness on police brutality. Through the PCC, said Jackson, "We want to maintain a database outside the police departments of what incidents are taking place, because we believe the police don't fully investigate complaints and because the police don't fully document complaints. We want to document the racial interaction, the time of day, the type of brutality, and so on. This is to be used in Congressional hearings and investigations of the police nationally." The PCC had been operating for two months as of mid-September, he said, "and the complaints are pretty steadily coming from the areas you'd expect -- New York, Miami and Los Angeles. We've taken less than 50 complaints, but they're pretty consistent: harassment, racial slurs, physical abuse. I've been surprised by the diversity of the victims; the majority of the complaints are from women." Asked if police abuse has escalated in recent years, Jackson said it "has been consistently bad, but the public perception is changing because there is more video and audio to document the abuse. There is a long-term war on poor people by the police that is relatively undocumented. I don't think the police are more or less crooked [than they were]; a constant of the police mission is an adversarial relationship with poor people. Who defines what the police do and how they interact with the public is not necessarily the communities that have the most contact with the police. "Mainly European-American males in positions of power determine what the police should and should not be doing. The police operate as if they have one constituency -- white folks in the suburbs," Jackson said. "There was an incident where an officer was forcing sex from a black 16-year-old girl in addition to making her frame people. No one is keeping the aggregate data on how often this kind of thing happens across the country. The media don't present it for what it is -- a national epidemic," he added. He noted that the abuse "is spilling over to whites," and he warned: "If whites allow the police departments to get out of control, sooner or later they'll become victimized, because the police will become of a mindset that they're above the law." Jackson said that, once he has the data to document the level of police terror nationally, he will push for Congressional hearings. "If I'm not successful, I can count on the police to engage in enough misconduct in the next five years that hearings will be warranted," he added. Jackson said further that "things will never change until the disciplinary measures for acts of racism and brutality become consistent with other extreme examples of misconduct. Many officers are disciplined more harshly for showing up to work late or damaging a patrol car than for using a racial slur or assaulting someone." He also said the "drug war" is really "an attack on poor people," and "a scam to legitimize the unlawful taking of property and the illegal search of minority homes. "The police are going to have to sit down and talk with people that are homeless, that are 'gang members,' people in the 'drug' neighborhoods. From the worst criminals in the low-income communities to the 'respectable' citizens who the police see as representing those communities, across the board there is strong recognition that the police are not there just to fight crime," Jackson concluded. ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CULTURE UNDER FIRE Culture jumps barriers of geography and color. Millions of Americans create with music, writing, film and video, graffiti, painting, theatre and much more. We need it all, because culture can link together and expand the growing battles for food, housing, and jobs. In turn, these battles provide new audiences and inspiration for artists. Use the "Culture Under Fire'' column to plug in, to express yourself. Write: Culture Under Fire, c/o People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 14. TO TALK OF TREES IN DARK TIMES: A REVIEW OF 'AMAZING GRACE' BY JONATHAN KOZOL By Lew Rosenbaum What kind of times are these, When to speak of trees is almost a crime For it is a kind of silence about injustice! -- from "To Posterity" (1938), Bertolt Brecht (from Selected Poems, 1947, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) ... because in times like these to have you listen at all, it's necessary to talk about trees. -- from "What Kind of Times Are These" (1991), Adrienne Rich (from Dark Fields of the Republic, 1995, W. W. Norton) The rats climb out from the nearby river during the early afternoon, unafraid of meeting humans, and make their lunch on squirrels. Mott Haven, in New York City's South Bronx, in the poorest Congressional district in the United States, is where Jonathan Kozol visited for the four seasons of his new book, Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children in Impoverished America. It is a particularly bleak landscape even without the 29 deaths numbered in Kozol's dedication at the end. Kozol wants to know how "an evil and unnatural construction" like a ghetto is possible. Do the American people know? Certainly the people who live in Mott Haven are not ignorant. Ninety-sixth Street divides Manhattan from Harlem, sharply, clearly. "It's as if you have been put in a garage where, if they don't have room for something but aren't sure if they should throw it out, they put it there where they don't need to think of it again." (Isabel, 15 years old). "Where we live, it's locked down." (Jeremiah, 12 years old.) The Rev. Overall describes the sophistication of the New York media, which may cover a waste dump, a welfare hotel, or a poverty-stricken neighborhood. They don't ignore it; they trivialize rather than reveal it. The result is an America that is ignorant -- in a way like German residents were ignorant of concentration camps. Kozol adds further insight: "That is the luxury of long-existing and accepted segregation in New York and almost every other major city of our nation nowadays. Nothing needs to be imposed on anyone. The evil is already set in stone. We just move in." (page 164) Kozol challenges his readers, aiming especially at the white, suburban resident, to consider what will change these horrors. Not little miracles, he says. Kozol tells stories of survivors and of prophets. Kozol shows us a loving portrait of Anthony, a young Puerto Rican who loves to read, and Mr. Castro, a 70-year-old Puerto Rican poet. They read together, tell stories, share their writing. Together they remind us of the cruelty they are forced to endure, yet they show us the potential that lies in each human being to create and care for each other. At the same time, Kozol points out that the newspapers and television blame those victims unable to survive their daily battle. They ask why these victims cannot succeed when others pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Amazing Grace places the blame where it belongs: What kind of social system condemns people to live in dangerous surroundings? Not by many unfounded promises of urban renewal. "[Have these false hopes reawakened] enough times and I'll never hope again. ... This is how you turn poor people into zombies," the Rev. Overall observes (p. 192). Not step by step, issue by issue. This demands a larger solution. Kozol keeps "going back to the same places" and although each time his conversations start with something quite specific and end with "talk of personal pain, anxiety about the future of the children, the search for faith in almost anyone or anything that offers strength, sometimes with talk of God. ... The specifics ... soon begin to seem almost beside the point." (page 185). Kozol gives the residents the platform. They tell their stories and speak directly to the reader. Kozol does not hesitate to introduce his own thinking, but he respects his friends in the community and tries to give them an audience, to let them talk to an America which is being taught to fear them and the inner cities. They do not shrink from the task. Amazing Grace explicitly recognizes that no reason exists for children to live in the squalor Kozol finds in the South Bronx. No reason except for the way society is organized to treat "a population viewed as economically and socially superfluous." "So long as the most vulnerable people in our population are consigned to places that the rest of us will always shun and flee and view with fear, I am afraid that educational denial, medical and economic devastation, and aesthetic degradation will be virtually inevitable," Kozol argues. This book is a moral appeal from the heart of the poorest part of a divided America. If people in both Americas can be shown their common economic bonds, it has a better chance than ever before to be heard. Slowly but ever faster, layoffs and displacement disclose that the dream of suburban wealth is becoming a myth. Amazing Grace is a crucial book for our time. It aims to build bridges. Telling of trees in dark times, it demands your attention. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Jonathan Kozol's national book tour to promote Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children in Impoverished America begins in late October and continues through mid-November. We encourage our readers to attend his appearances and to bring friends. Washington, D.C. October 23-24, Politics and Prose Bookstore Chicago October 26, University of Chicago, Mandel Hall Dallas October 30 Borders Books Boston November 9 Harvard Bookstore Cafe (at the Cambridge Public Library) Los Angeles November 14 Lannan Foundation/ Crossroads School/ Children's Defense Fund Seattle November 15 Eliot Bay Books Crown Publishers is the publisher of Amazing Grace, and may be reached for further information at 212-572-2537. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 15. THE FUTURE IS IN OUR HANDS: JOBS AND WORK By Bruce E. Parry It is possible to employ everyone who needs a job productively right now. But the system of private property and profits we live under cannot do it. Why? Because the system guarantees profits, not personal welfare. Employing everyone is not profitable, so the system limits the number of jobs that can be produced. In the private sector, workers are only hired when companies can make a profit. Today, companies are "downsizing:" finding ways of making production, sales, and services more "efficient" -- meaning lower cost. They are substituting robots and computers for workers. They are re-organizing with fewer workers. They are making each worker do more. All three limit hiring and cut wages business pays. Lower costs mean more profits -- for them. For the workers they mean more poverty. In the public sector, there is a law prohibiting government from competing with the private sector. This limits government jobs to those that cannot be done by the private sector. The number of government jobs is also limited by the budget. Government budgets come from taxes. At one point, using taxes to employ workers meant keeping workers ready to work after they were laid off by the private sector. That actually cut direct business costs. But that is no longer the case. Laid-off workers will probably never go back to work, so business is calling for cutting taxes -- and the government budget -- to the bone. This prevents big government jobs programs in the name of "responsible spending." Behind the catch-phrases, of course, sit business profits. But that law could go. We could pass laws that said the welfare of people -- particularly poor and working people -- should come before the rights of businesses and their owners to be rich. Then we could make the obvious, logical choices: We need more teachers. We could tax business and the rich and make the money available to hire them. We have too few nurses (and other health-care professionals) per patient. We need counselors, social workers, and mental health experts. We need maintenance workers for our cities, our housing and our industrial infrastructure. We could hire them all. Each of us can think of thousands more things that need to be done. They could be done! The problem is, we lack the political power to do so. If we controlled the social wealth and used it in the interest of the majority, we could employ everyone. The money would be there -- and so would the jobs. All we would need to do is just tax the rich and the businesses at the same level they were in the 1950s or 1960s. The problem is not "supply and demand" or "fiscal responsibility" or "lack of technology" or "too much technology." The problem is political power. Business and rich business owners have it; we don't. ****************************************************************** 16. TAKE THE MORAL OFFENSIVE AGAINST CAPITALISM! By Chris Mahin The Bible says "Without a vision, the people perish." What is our vision? What's possible for revolutionaries to accomplish today? To answer that question, we have to look at what is new in the economic and political situation. Why has the ruling class of the United States been able to cling to power for so long when it only amounts to a tiny sliver of the population? Part of the reason lies in the fact that, for decades, it had the support of a highly skilled and well-paid section of the working class. These workers formed a stable foundation for the capitalist system in the United States. Most of these workers were white. They passed their good life (and often their jobs) on to their children. In the days when the factories of the United States were filled with steadily employed workers making high wages, these workers supported the capitalist system so enthusiastically that they sent their children to die in its wars. During those years of economic stability in the United States, there were very few battles which were waged against the capitalist system as such. Most of the "anti-capitalist" fights that did take place were led by forces motivated solely by moral or intellectual opposition to capitalism, not by economic necessity. In that period, the People's Tribune correctly concentrated on economic questions. We tried to become the voice of the people who were being forced by economic necessity to fight the system, regardless of how small this section of society was at first. We carefully avoided being drawn into sterile ideological debates among people who were intellectually opposed to capitalism but not victims of capitalism. Today, everything has changed. The capitalist class has introduced large numbers of robots and computers into the production process -- and thrown millions of workers out of it. The ruling class is now attacking the very people who once formed its core of political support. This presents revolutionaries with a tremendous opportunity. Conscious revolutionaries inject into the spontaneous struggle the ingredient it cannot create by itself. During the period in history dominated by moral and intellectual opposition to capitalism, the People's Tribune was right to concentrate its coverage on the economy. But that period in history is now over. Today, when millions are being thrown out of work, when society is producing an objective, economic movement against capitalism, the People's Tribune has to concentrate on the spiritual side of the revolution now getting underway. The "spiritual side" of the revolution consists of the battle for the hearts and minds of the people. We have to start grappling with issues of ideology and morality, questions of right and wrong. We should learn from the fight waged against chattel slavery in the United States by the Abolitionists during the 19th century. In that era, the invention of the steam engine led directly to the creation of the factory system. The moment the factory system was introduced in the North, the economic interests of the North and the South began to diverge. The North began struggling to break the strangle hold which the South had on the Union. Thirty years before the shooting began in the Civil War, the Abolitionists understood that the struggle against the slave power had to begin as a moral crusade. Dedicated Abolitionists passionately denounced the inhumanity of slavery, an economic system based on "man stealing and woman whipping." They turned the North's battle against the South into a holy war. Like the Abolitionists, we live at a time when qualitatively new instruments of production are being introduced into the economy. In our case, the computers and robots do not save labor, like the machines of the 19th century; they produce commodities without human labor. Just as industry once made chattel slavery historically obsolete, computers and robots are now making capitalism obsolete. Today, millions of people are being forced to fight to obtain the basic necessities of life. Objectively, these people are fighting for an economic system in which the necessities of life are distributed according to need, regardless of whether people have the money to pay for them or not. There is only one name for such a system -- communism. But the millions fighting for a better life do not know that "communism" is the word which describes the economic system they are fighting for. After all, this is a movement made up of people who were once economically secure and uninterested in politics. At present, this movement for the necessities of life has no consciously thought-out ideology or cause of any kind to call its own. We conscious revolutionaries have to give this movement a cause -- the cause of communism. We have to show the participants in this movement that they can win the economic well-being they are fighting for, but only if society is reorganized along communist lines. How can we convince people of this? We can start by going on the offensive. Each issue of this newspaper has to awaken people's indignation at the crimes of capitalism. We have to tell the whole world that it is just plain wrong for even one person on this planet to be hungry at a time when humanity possesses the technology to feed the entire world. We need a People's Tribune which leads a moral crusade for communism! [This article is adapted from a recent report by the People's Tribune Editorial Board to the Steering Committee of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America.] ****************************************************************** 17. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, published every two weeks 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 ISSN# 1081-4787 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 ($50 institutions), bulk orders of 10 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 ******************************************************************