From jdav@noc.orgTue Nov 7 20:06:09 1995 Date: Wed, 8 Nov 95 20:09 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune 11-13-95 (Online Edition) ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 33 / November 13, 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. 33 / November 13, 1995 Page One 1. PAGE 1: THE BUDGET BATTLE: IT IS A SIN AND A SHAME TO ALLOW A HANDFUL OF RICH MEN TO ROB US OF OUR FUTURE. Spirit of the Revolution 2. CHRISTIANITY: REVOLUTIONARY OR REACTIONARY? News and Features 3. IF JUSTICE WERE TRULY BLIND, FUHRMAN WOULD BE ON TRIAL 4. THE WAR ON THE POOR AND THE MILLION MAN MARCH 5. LOUISE VAUGHN, S.F. PUBLIC HOUSING ACTIVIST, TAKEN TO COURT FOR SPEAKING THE TRUTH 6. THE SOUND OF SILENT VOICES 7. NEW FIGHTERS IN THE UNIONS: STRUGGLE OVER THE FUTURE OF SEIU LOCAL 8. JUSTICE FOR JANITORS UNION MEMBERS DEMAND MORE DEMOCRACY 9. THE DRUG TRADE IS CAPITALISM, PURE AND SIMPLE 10. SUPPORT MOTHER'S FRIEND, HELP US CHANGE LAWS ON THE JUVENILE COURTS 11. END OF THE NEW DEAL SETS THE STAGE FOR STRUGGLE AND VICTORY 12. CODE BLUE FOR AMERICA'S HEALTH 13. REV. RONALD SCHUPP GIVEN POSITION OF TOKALA American Lockdown 14. PRISON UNREST GREETS UNJUST DRUG LAWS: FEDERAL SYSTEM LOCKED DOWN 15. OHIO PRISONERS WIN LAWSUIT, GET PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE WHILE MICHIGAN PUTS PRESS RIGHTS ON CHOPPING BLOCK Deadly Force 16. NATIONAL CONFERENCE HITS COP ABUSE 17. AFTER PAROLEE KILLS TROOPER...: 'GET TOUGH' GOVERNOR HOLDS 3,500 PRISONERS HOSTAGE TO POLITICS Culture Under Fire 18. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THAT REBEL MUSIC? WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THOSE ANGRY BOYS? JOE AND BRUCE STORM CHICAGO! Announcements, Letters , Events, etc. 19. READERS RESPOND TO FUND DRIVE -- BUT MONEY IS STILL NEEDED! 20. MORAL APPEAL COULD ADD A CRUCIAL INGREDIENT TO THE FIGHT FOR BASIC NECESSITIES 21: NEW FROM THE LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA! UNDERSTANDING THE POLICE STATE: PAPERS FROM THE LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA CONFERENCE ON THE POLICE STATE 22. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. PAGE 1: THE BUDGET BATTLE: IT IS A SIN AND A SHAME TO ALLOW A HANDFUL OF RICH MEN TO ROB US OF OUR FUTURE. As we go to press, the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government are racing toward an agreement on a federal budget. As a Democratic president maneuvers with a Republican- controlled Congress, it is not yet clear exactly where the final cuts will be made. What is clear is that there will be cuts and that they will hurt millions of people. Both Democrats and Republicans are committed to destroying what remains of New Deal programs. They agree on cutting billions of dollars from people who no longer "matter" to this capitalist economy. This cutting/killing will hurt the mothers and children in poverty, millions of elderly people on Medicare, veterans, the disabled, kids in foster care, and retirees on fixed incomes. Worst of all, these devastating cuts will take place while billions of dollars (in the form of tax cuts) are transferred into the pockets of the richest individuals in this country. These plans go far beyond being unfair; they are murderous. We, the vast majority of Americans, have to ask ourselves some hard questions. Do we want to live in a country where people who worked all their lives are left to suffer in a "pay first, then die" medical system? Do we want to live in a country that either drives the disabled into the streets to beg or confines them in hellhole-like institutions where their suffering won't be seen or heard? Do we want to live in a country that starves babies? This is the richest country on earth. It has the technology and the resources to provide everyone with a joyous, healthy life. It is a sin and a shame to allow a handful of rich men to rob us of our future and drive us into desolation. Millions of us do not fit into the plans of these rich traitors. Do we continue suffering or do we begin today to build for a revolution that will grant us life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? By joining the League of Revolutionaries for a New America and starting a chapter of the League in your town, you will join with others trying to free our beautiful country and stop it from becoming a prison state run by billionaires. [For more information on the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, turn to page 10. For more on why the attack on the New Deal programs is taking place, see story 11.] ****************************************************************** 2. CHRISTIANITY: REVOLUTIONARY OR REACTIONARY? Editor's note: Below we print the latest contribution to our regular column about spirituality and revolution. We encourage readers to submit articles to this column. We would also appreciate any comments readers have on the articles which appear here. The following article originally appeared in the May 1991 issue of Works In Progress, the monthly publication of the Rainbow Coalition in Thurston County, Washington and in the Fall 1995 issue of Religious Socialism, the journal for people of faith and socialism of the Religion and Socialism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America. It is reprinted with the author's permission and with slight editing on the part of Religious Socialism. 'Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.' -- 1 John 3:18 'So then, as the body without the spirit is dead, also faith without action is dead.' -- James 2:26 I'd like to contribute a few of my thoughts to the public dialogue on Christian fundamentalism and biblical prophecy. In doing so, it's not my intention to denigrate anybody's personal faith. I'm of the mind that those who claim to have a monopoly on theological truth fool nobody but themselves. >From what I understand, the main concern of fundamentalists is personal salvation. Call upon the name of Jesus, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and you will be saved. That's about all there is to it. Sounds pretty simple. Too simple! I see things differently. As a Christian, I am called to serve the Lord. "Accept and profess Christ?" Sure, but then go out into the world to help make it a better place: feed the hungry, shelter the homeless. Then go the extra mile and work for radical, systemic change. We need to cure the disease of corporate domination of society, not fiddle around with the symptoms, remembering the words of Dom Helder Camara, archbishop of Recife, Brazil: "When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." Christ does not call upon us to withdraw from the world. It is an active religion. Prayer and meditation are important, but the operative word is involvement, not withdrawal. Studying the Gospel, and the Beatitudes in particular, has led me to see Christ as profoundly revolutionary. I believe that if he came today, in the way he came 2,000 years ago, he would be a social activist and agitator, and be seen by the authorities as a troublemaker. Fundamentalists tend to put a lot of emphasis on a literal, word- for-word interpretation whenever possible. For them, the "seven days" of creation become, literally, seven 24-hour days. God could have explained genetics and organic evolution to Moses, but He chose to communicate in ways the ancient Hebrew shepherds could understand. How fortunate we are that God saw fit to give Charles Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould, and other scientists their gifts of research and reason. Thanks to them, biology now teaches that creation didn't end after one week. Creation is still going on, if we have the eyes to see it unfolding. We are stewards of a rich, evolving biodiversity that is being destroyed by corporate greed. All too often, fundamentalists, appearing as the Pharisees of our age, take the literal word, apply rote Scripture, and miss the real message. When dealing with more enigmatic passages, like the book of Revelation, fundamentalists formulate interpretations that schedule Armageddon and the "end times" in the near future, some predict by the year 1998. This leads to a defeatist attitude (no use in trying to improve things, it's all out of our hands anyway), and a "survivalist" strategy to assure you and your family will live through the tribulation. In my opinion, that sort of faith doesn't help anybody. Scripture says that it is given to none of us to know or say when the Lord will come again, but now is the "hour of decision": to accept Him/Her and to follow Her/His example, or not. If we all acted like He/She was returning tomorrow, the world would be a much better place! (When the Old and New Testaments were written, Hebrew society was severely patriarchal. To this day, fundamentalists insist that the Godhead is masculine. I see feminine, nurturing qualities in the universal creative force, as do followers of many shamanic traditions. Why must we assume that Christ must return as a male?) The Bible has been interpreted in a great variety of ways. Armageddon and the Second Coming have been frequently predicted, from the Middle Ages, through to the present. The medieval church misused the Bible as justification for the brutal suppression of the shamanic, pre-Christian nature religion (Wicca) of Europe. In the "burning times," millions of women were put to death. Black slavery was justified from the pulpit in antebellum America. Examples of "Scripture abuse" abound! We all need to become more Bible-literate to avoid falling prey to the same. In conclusion, I'd like to quote from John C. Cort's conclusion to his thought-provoking book, Christian Socialism, an Informal History: "Most people get whatever religion they have from the Bible. The reactionary preachers who dominate television tell us that the Bible teaches 'government should get off the back of business,' that the nuclear bomb is the Christian's best friend, that our present economy is the best possible economy in the world. They are wrong. The Bible teaches nothing of the sort. All we have to do is tell them what the Bible really teaches, persuade them to believe it, and -- who knows? -- the kingdom of God may yet come on earth as it is in heaven, at least insofar as poor, weak human nature is capable, with the help of God. This is precisely what Jesus taught us to pray for, and work to make real. He also told us that God, our God, would indeed help us. ... [I]f God tells us to do something, is that just 'human action?' " God has told us to do something. Let's get busy: there's so much we need to do. [David Zink works in the Department of Ecology in the state of Washington, describing himself as the "unit radical" in the field investigations section. He writes that his Green convictions brought him to an anti-capitalist viewpoint and that he is interested in building a vital Christian Socialist movement in this country.] ****************************************************************** 3. IF JUSTICE WERE TRULY BLIND, FUHRMAN WOULD BE ON TRIAL By Ritmo Dog OAKLAND, California -- If justice was truly blind, Mark Fuhrman would be put on trial. This would be the real "Trial of the Century," the one you're never going to see. Just how many innocent people have been sent to jail in Los Angeles based on falsified police evidence? In Philadelphia alone, they are investigating 100,000 cases for faked evidence! The issue goes deeper than that. It is a documented fact that white supremacist cop gangs operate openly within the LAPD (see People's Tribune, March 18, 1991). These gangs, like the Vikings, which are alleged to run the Lynwood Sheriff's Division or the Pirates who allegedly are based in East Los Angeles, have been around since the 1970s. We're not even talking about the police drug conspiracies and theft rings that operate in every major city. What is the relation between Fuhrman -- a white-supremacist cop -- and these gangs? Did Fuhrman know of a white-supremacist Death List for prominent African Americans, which was circulated before the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman and which targeted O.J. Simpson as No. 1? Why haven't Fuhrman's interviews been made public? How come police officials like Chief Willie Williams never investigate this type of activity? What do they know? These questions are all in the public interest. But it goes deeper -- it's a whole system. Cops operate as a lawless force that regularly brutalizes the community and dispenses street-corner justice. Few cops will dare to speak openly about what really goes on. Eighty percent of those convicted for felonies are indigent. Ninety percent of all felony cases never even come to trial. This is guaranteed by the public defenders who convince people to plead guilty in 20-minute trials. District attorneys routinely ignore evidence of innocence. They believe their job is to get the conviction. Police labs only investigate evidence that matches the D.A.'s "theory" of the case. One FBI lab is being investigated right now because faking evidence was standard operating procedure. This is a criminal system that is based on property, just like it was before the Revolution in 1776. If you have property, you can pay for a lawyer. No wonder the tiny amount of white-collar criminals that actually get convicted get to keep the money they steal! Half of the 200,000-plus people in jail in California are there for victimless crimes like possession or for violating parole. Do you think they would be there if juries were made up of homeless people? They were never tried by their peers! The community is so used to cops acting like an occupying army that we forget that police are supposed to be "peace officers." This means they are charged with keeping the peace, not paid to break it. At one high school near here, the officer assigned to the school still lives in the community. His mother lives in the community. He graduated from the school. He goes to the football games as security and stands on the field in uniform rooting for the team. He carries water for the players and helps the ones who are injured. This isn't Clinton's "community-based policing," which is just a system for snitches and to convince parents to arrest their own children. This is keeping the peace. It's no great mystery how to control the police. Make them live in the community they work in -- by law! Make them regularly report to the community in open public meetings. Make them get re-elected every six months -- by the community they serve in. You can bet police abuse will drop by 99.9 percent when people know where they sleep and when they leave their house. But don't suffer under any illusions. These simple changes can never happen as long as there are two justice systems -- one for the rich and infamous and one for the poor and propertyless. ****************************************************************** 4. THE WAR ON THE POOR AND THE MILLION MAN MARCH By The Women's Economic Agenda Project OAKLAND, California -- On the morning of Saturday, October 14, the community was awakened to the cries for help from five children in a senseless tragedy that has stirred the hearts and souls of everyone. A fire swept through an East Oakland apartment, taking the lives of four children aged 3 months to 15 years and leaving one child in critical condition. The windows were covered with bars that didn't have an inside release string to prevent the children from escaping to safety. The whole community was outraged about the condition of the slum apartment building, which the mother of the children had complained about to the landlord many times. The fact that the deaths of these precious youth will be swept under the rug and forgotten because they are poor, like so many other people of poverty across the nation shows that this is another attack in the "War on the Poor." On Monday, October 16, a Million Man March, called by the Nation of Islam arrived in Washington. Although Louis Farrakhan suggested the march was only for black men and only for atonement, it also was a protest against outrages like the East Oakland fire and the dire poverty and economic injustice in the midst of extreme wealth in this nation. Millions of workers continue to be downsized through corporate re-engineering. The "Contract on America" continues to attack and dismantle badly needed entitlement programs that workers have paid dearly for. The fastest growing industry, as an answer to poverty in America, is the prison system. The Women's Economic Agenda Project, a 13-year-old multiracial grassroots empowerment organization, supports any demand from the Million Man March and the boycotts that will take place across the nation that call for an end to the "War on the poor." It will bring forth badly needed new leadership, from the bottom that will call for an end to poverty and hunger across race lines, once and for all. Antoinette Nichols, a WEAP board member, stated the sentiments of her organization, the community, and the poor everywhere when she said, "We are in historical times, with the technology to end poverty and hunger everywhere and to guarantee a better quality of life for all, if people were a priority. Instead, we continue to suffer needless tragedies while the rich get richer and an elected Congress attacks the American people and gives more tax breaks to the top." Nichols also said that, "Things don't have to be like this. How many more of our children have to die? How many more of our people have to be pushed out into the streets? How many more of our youth have to be pushed out of our schools while the top 10 percent of our society own and control more wealth and resources than the bottom 90 percent? "Death and poverty in the midst of plenty is a continued indictment on an economic system that upholds profits and distribution of wealth to the rich as business as usual," she said. ****************************************************************** 5. LOUISE VAUGHN, S.F. PUBLIC HOUSING ACTIVIST, TAKEN TO COURT FOR SPEAKING THE TRUTH By Sarah Menefee SAN FRANCISCO -- Louise Vaughn, a longtime tenants' activist, was evicted on August 23 from Geneva Towers. She was one of hundreds thrown out of public housing as part of the city's and HUD's mass eviction and removal plan, carried out with the help of an occupation force of brutal Housing Authority police. Louise has been a leading organizer of the resistance to this plan. Because of this, she was denied any of the (token) compensation, vouchers, or relocation money when evicted. Since the eviction, she has been homeless, but continues to organize and speak out. On June 14 she was illegally arrested for speaking out against the police murder of Aaron Williams -- she and another activist, Heather Bergman, who also resisted being silenced, are being taken to trial for exercising their right to speak ("disturbing an assembly" with the truth)! Louise Vaughn is one of the most outspoken, uncompromising voices against police brutality and social and economic injustice. The following are statements given to me in an interview, plus parts of a presentation she gave on September 8 at a public event, "Tomorrow Triumphant: Constructing a Just Future," sponsored by the San Francisco League of Revolutionaries for a New America. Here is Louise Vaughn's own story. "I started getting active when I found out how the system is set up against the people who live in public housing. The guards and the police are there to stop the organizing. After the federal government foreclosed they suspended all our rights and started to attack us. This led to eviction of 475 families, a third of these even before the relocation plan was devised. Half of the tenants got kicked out with absolutely nothing but a bad record for not paying rent, with no mention of the fact that this was because of unlivable conditions. "In 1984, I and three of my four kids, my three young daughters, were homeless. After a year in the streets and shelters, I went to [then mayor] Dianne Feinstein's office and told them there that if I didn't get housing for myself and my daughters I was going to move in with Dianne. "Somehow they believed me, because two weeks later we were placed in Geneva Towers. We all lived there till my daughters grew up and moved out on their own. "In 1991, I first heard about foreclosure of Geneva Towers because of management neglect. I became furious and very hurt, because nobody should be allowed to use over $20 million in taxes to buy and drive it into the cesspool. The management company that did this was not charged with fraud, criminal neglect or anything, but the tenants have been displaced with no proper relocation plan. "Out of the $4.5 million relocation fund, the 200 or so still there are only getting about $3,000 per family and Section 8 vouchers which have a short life, and most landlords won't accept because they don't want you in the neighborhood. "The activists like myself are scheduled to get absolutely nothing. They stopped taking our rent because we were demonstrating and organizing against the brutality against our community, so now we're being evicted for non-payment of rent. I refused to go along with the misleaders who were working to divide up the Geneva Towers Tenants' Association. HUD and management were allowed to pick leadership for Geneva Towers, even there was already organizing going on. "The attacks on public housing residents are being carried out by the city of San Francisco, spearheaded by the federal government, with former mayor Art Agnos (now head of HUD in San Francisco) and U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi in leadership of the Negro Removal Program of the 1960s and '70s. "... People are dying a slow death and their communities infiltrated by drugs. They're creating a police state, all our Fourth Amendment and other rights completely suspended. The elected officials do not protect you. Look at the bombing of MOVE in Philadelphia, the way the Black Panthers were wiped out. It's plantation politics. "With the murder of Aaron Williams, and then two nights ago William Hankston (shot through the back of the head by a plainclothes cop while unarmed), we see what the police are doing. On June 14, I was arrested for speaking out at a police commission meeting against the killing of Aaron Williams. They did a Fuhrman on the police report, lying about what really happened. They are offering deals now, community service. I already do community service. "That's why I'm homeless. That's why I'm a target for the police. That's why I was arrested and have these charges against me. That's why I've been branded a 'troublemaker.' "We have a history that should not happen to humankind no matter what race, creed, or national origin. I am proud that my parents raised me to be the fighter I am. With a hundred more like me, we could raise hell and turn this around. I will do all I can to teach people that we have a responsibility to speak out against injustice, to say: Do not let them frighten you!" ****************************************************************** 6. THE SOUND OF SILENT VOICES By William Ruffin Will someone please tell us (the Homeless) where is the place where we can go and be safe and out of harm's way? We avoid confrontation with the finesse of an artful dodger. In the shadows of the night, we make ourselves undesirable to even the craftiest of muggers and thieves around by sleeping in places where even they would not have enough nerve to go to hide (abandoned buildings, garbage dumpsters and sometimes, underground.) But now it seems that we have another problem to worry about. It seems as though it's not enough that we constantly feel blue, now someone is trying to make us feel as though we also have to fear those "systematic robots" who wear this color. By the light of day, we tire easily, especially when being constantly told to move along or you can't stand here, or don't try to feed your stomach by begging. I'm quite sure that all the begging in the world would not be enough cause for "you, dressed in Blue...to put your "code of honor" on the shelf. I thought your motto was "We serve and protect." If so, I'm having a hard time trying to understand this. (What was Chicago police officer Gregory Becker serving Joseph Gould, when at point-blank range, he shot him in the head?) "Oh, I know. Let me start a new page and I'll make you out a list of his services. 1) He served Mr. Gould...the barrel of his gun 2) He served Mr. Gould...no time to run 3) He served Mr. Gould...the fury in his eyes 4) He served Mr. Gould...the element of surprise 5) He served Mr. Gould...the opposite, of admire 6) He served Mr. Gould...a bullet's burning fire 7) He served Mr. Gould...no kind of chance 8) He served Mr. Gould...a death dance 9) He served Mr. Gould...his last good-bye 10) He served Mr. Gould...our reason to cry 11) Not enough written, not enough said 12) Mr. Becker served...Mr. Gould..."Dead" As for you, Mr. [Jack] O'Malley [the Cook County state's attorney], maybe, just maybe, if we had been on the other side of the moon, you could have turned your head and not listened to our cry. But our echoes are ringing loud and clear. We want Mr. Gould's share of justice, not "your share" of "just us" that you tried to shove down our throats by trying to find justification for an excuse, for stupidity. Now is your chance. Take the rope off Mr. Becker's neck because it's too good for him. But don't forget to place it around yours. Because if by chance you do not prosecute Mr. Becker to the fullest extent of the law, we the people will surely use the same rope to hang you. ****************************************************************** 7. NEW FIGHTERS IN THE UNIONS: STRUGGLE OVER THE FUTURE OF SEIU LOCAL By a Los Angeles Correspondent LOS ANGELES -- A bitter fight between union members has broken out at SEIU Local 399, famous as the home of the Justice for Janitors movement. In Los Angeles, janitors are heroes. Partly it's because they stood up to police in a widely televised 1990 attack on their march for justice. It's also because their union, SEIU Local 399, has organized almost 90 percent of the workers at the city's largest buildings, when only 10 percent were union back in 1987. Everywhere, the old America breaks up and the new forces fight to survive: factories are shut by the rich, but "reopened" by homeless squatters. Teen posts get de-funded, and gangs start organizing baseball games. Unionists organize caucuses and alliances. That brings them into conflict with the existing laws of property, the city budgets, the old union contracts, and with anyone who defends those. Today, with over 8,000 janitor members, the union faces threats of layoffs by many companies. Plus, Local 399 represents 15,000 health workers, who also face layoffs and wage freezes at hospitals like industry giant Kaiser. These growing threats to workers' wages and security have sparked an internal struggle over how to fight back. But it's not just SEIU's problem. Honest members of every union are being drawn into such debates over the future of their movement. And as painful as they are, these struggles are the only way to prepare people for the hard times ahead. In every industry, companies and counties are turning to technology and layoffs, but the old contracts don't protect enough jobs. Eventually, people start taking militant actions demanding not just to cope with the problem, but to solve it. So new fighters are emerging, with different ideas than the leaders who won the important victories of the past. Some members may want people to "shut up, and unite!," but union history proves that unity is the result of struggle, not a substitute for it. The best way to help Local 399 or any union is by promoting more debate, and more participation by the endangered workers themselves. The People's Tribune offers its pages to this effort, for the good of all union workers. Getting their local back in their own hands is an immediate necessity for this crucially needed process to proceed. ****************************************************************** 8. JUSTICE FOR JANITORS UNION MEMBERS DEMAND MORE DEMOCRACY LOS ANGELES -- Faced with layoffs and other job threats, SEIU Local 399 members continue struggling over the best way to respond. First, rank-and-file groups were set up -- Change '95 by health workers, and Grupo Reformista by janitors. Next, the two began working together, calling themselves the Multiracial Alliance. In June they ran candidates against the local's officers. "They weren't addressing the downsizing aggressively enough," said Yolanda Rios. "They just assured that layoffs went by seniority." The Alliance spent months passing out flyers and holding meetings on the issues. They even raised funds to rent vans to bring workers to the union offices to vote. The results were shocking. Whereas only about 500 members had voted previously, this time over 2,500 workers showed up to cast a ballot. The Alliance won every race it entered, for a total of 21 out of 25 seats! But the fight had only begun. Local President Jim Zellers had won reelection without opposition from the Alliance. When the 21 new officers called for the firing of 12 of his staff, Zellers told them, "I am the chief executive officer. I have the power to hire and fire." He and other members said these firings would violate the staff employment contract. Throughout June and July he refused to allow the new officers to hold official board meetings. In August, Alliance members launched a hunger strike at union headquarters. "They say the leadership we elected isn't capable of doing the job," said Martin Barrera, a janitor. "They treat us like ignorant peasants." Meanwhile, leaders from the International office met with the Alliance and Zellers. In September, the International announced that it was placing Local 399 under trusteeship, putting Zellers on leave and voiding the entire election. For the next 18 months a trustee, Mike Garcia of Local 1877 in San Jose, will run staff, budgets, and contracts. While this was going on, more than 3,000 members of SEIU sister Local 660 were being laid off, as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors closed offices and clinics. The suspension of democracy at Local 399 also comes at a bad time for SEIU International President John Sweeney, who was recently elected the head of the entire AFL-CIO. Not only did the L.A. conflict erupt, but at New York's Local 32B- 32J janitor Carlos Guzman won $100,000 from a federal jury because president Gus Bevona hired private detectives to spy on him. Now, Guzman is running for Bevona's job and the International is bracing for more conflict between members. -- A Los Angeles correspondent ****************************************************************** 9. THE DRUG TRADE IS CAPITALISM, PURE AND SIMPLE By Bruce E. Parry, Ph.D. [This is the first of two columns dealing with the issue of drugs, focusing on the supply side. The second column will look at the demand for drugs and the question of rehabilitation.] Why isn't the war on drugs being won? Are the drug dealers so clever? Is the problem too deeply rooted in our communities? No! The answer is that the drug trade is capitalism, pure and simple. It is no-holds-barred free trade, and capitalism cannot, so to speak, outlaw itself. What do I mean? The drug trade is a profit-making enterprise completely intertwined with the rest of the economy. It is connected to banks, to industry, to retail, to the legal profession, etc. It is so much part of capitalism, that the capitalist system can no more get rid of it than you or I could cut our arm off. Look at the realistic side. Certain countries actually depend on the drug trade for their main source of income. By its nature, the exact data on national income from drugs in any particular country is difficult to get. But at one point, for example, it was Bolivia's No. 1 source of foreign trade. The drug trade keeps thousands of farmers and peasants at work and, for the ruling class, makes ruling the country that much easier. The farmers and peasants would undoubtedly prefer to grow something useful, like food or textile crops (cotton, etc.), but, due to international "free" markets, can't make nearly as much money from them as from drugs. The media puts a lot of the blame on farmers, peasants, and Third World countries. But they shouldn't take all the blame. Drugs require chemicals -- not just poppies, coca leaves and other agricultural inputs -- just like any food processing industry. Those chemicals come from the major chemical producers, such as ICI, Du Pont, Allied and Kodak. The Wall Street Journal once reported that Kodak, which produces half of the acetic anhydride in the United States, loses control of almost half of what they produce. Acetic anhydride is also used in making heroin. Kodak claims it makes the chemical for photo processing purposes, but actually, they make it for profit. That a huge amount of it ends up in the hands of the drug lords is no skin off Kodak's nose. This kind of example repeats itself thousands of times every day throughout our country. Besides chemicals, drugs require equipment -- from planes and boats for transportation, to packaging, to telephones and pagers, to computers, etc. Drug dealers get boats and airplanes the way anyone gets boats and airplanes: They borrow the money from banks. And they launder money through "legitimate" businesses. They pay off police and judges. Drug traffic is so ingrained as part of the national economic fabric that it can't be "washed" away. It would be different if we had a system that was not based on profit, a system where the banks, industry, the stores, transportation, and agriculture were run for and by poor and working people. We could eliminate the economic incentives -- the profit motives -- that make the drug trade so lucrative. We could easily provide a drug-free environment. We could go after the sources. We could clean up the funding. We could control the use of dangerous equipment and chemicals. We could pay farmers and peasants a living wage. We could provide wholesome school activities and jobs for our youth. The government could do these things, too. The question is, why doesn't it? In whose interest is a drug-free environment? It is clearly in our interest as poor and working people. It is certainly not in the economic interest of the business people who profit from the drug trade. The government is following business interests. That's why we need to get political power to build a drug-free America. ****************************************************************** 10. SUPPORT MOTHER'S FRIEND, HELP US CHANGE LAWS ON THE JUVENILE COURTS By Mother's Friend Changing the laws on the juvenile courts will keep innocent parents from being prosecuted for crimes they did not commit. We need open courtrooms to hear the verdict and open records to the public. We need lawyers to assist the true facts on a case, when a social worker writes allegations on their petition. We need our private criminal records sealed and not let the social workers disclose past information in the petition. We do not need the disabled discriminated against because of their disability. The law on the reunification plan should be changed. At the present time, when a parent submits to such a plan, he or she has submitted to guilt, and all the allegations against the parent become true. Because in the minute order it states: "Submit to the allegations, and has waived the right to a trial." The judge should be more understanding and explain what is behind the reunification plan. Parents should not be forced to take psychiatric medication by psychiatrists in order to follow the reunification plan. This is a request for the law to be changed on double jeopardy. It is not considered double jeopardy, because it is a juvenile court, not a criminal court. But still, parents are being prosecuted by bringing the case up again. The juvenile courts are making the parent repeat the prosecution, and increasing the possibility that an innocent person may be found guilty and lose all rights to their children. If we get cut off welfare, and the poor families cannot provide for their children, then the police and the children's protective social service will be working hand in hand to remove children out of parent's homes, and possibly throwing the children in an orphanage. This will save the taxpayers money, but will also keep the children in the system. Please support our request. Please help change the 300 Welfare and Institution laws. [Contact Mother's Friend through Humane Services, 3124 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, California 94707. Telephone 510-649-8747. Or through the Women's Economic Agenda Project, 518 17th Street, Suite 200, Oakland, California 94612. Telephone 510-415-7379 or fax 510-451-7386.] ****************************************************************** 11. END OF THE NEW DEAL SETS THE STAGE FOR STRUGGLE AND VICTORY By R. Lee Politically speaking, the cuts in social programs that Congress and the president are about to agree on symbolize the end of one era and the beginning of another. These cutbacks mark the end of 60 years of the so-called "New Deal" period. They represent the beginning of an epoch of political struggle that will eventually end with the victory of the people in the form of a just society. The New Deal period, dating from the mid-1930s, has been characterized by social welfare programs designed to provide a minimal standard of living for workers who were temporarily unemployed. (The term "New Deal" was immortalized by a political cartoonist after Franklin D. Roosevelt, in accepting the Democratic nomination for president during the Depression in 1932, pledged himself and the Democratic Party to "a new deal for the American people.") The Social Security Act that President Roosevelt signed into law August 15, 1935, marked a turning point. As one historian has put it, the act "established the proposition that the individual has clear-cut social rights." The law created a national system of old-age insurance, set up a federal-state system of unemployment insurance, and established a federal-state program of aid to dependent mothers and children, among other things. In fact, Roosevelt's programs -- and the similar ones that followed over the years -- were rooted in how the capitalist economy used to work: For most people, most of the time, unemployment was temporary. Welfare and other programs kept the unemployed fit and fed and housed (and quiet) until they were needed again in the workplace. Today, the electronic revolution is sweeping the old economy aside, allowing much more of everything to be produced with less and less labor. As the old economy disappears, so, too, do the politics based on that economy. The "downsizing" of government is simply a reflection of the "downsizing" by the employers that is making millions permanently jobless. Government is the tool of those who control the economy, and the capitalists who own the economy have no intention of feeding labor they cannot profit from. But the end of the New Deal era also sets the stage for the struggle that will end our oppression and poverty once and for all. The ruling class is making clear it intends to let the unemployed (and even many of the employed) starve. The jobless and low-wage workers have no choice but to fight for a new system -- a system where the computerized factories that are making us unemployed under capitalism will be used, under the people's control, to end poverty forever. The actions of Clinton, Gingrich and company help make clear who are the people's friends and who are their enemies. And knowing your enemy is half the battle. ****************************************************************** 12. CODE BLUE FOR AMERICA'S HEALTH By Joyce Mills, R.N. Code Blue for America's health! Teach political CPR from your homes, hospitals and streets -- the life you save could be your own! Today, right now, 40 million people in America have no health coverage -- public or private, and this year over a million more of us will lose coverage. An estimated 100,000 people will die this year from lack of care -- three times the number who will die of AIDS. Twenty percent of African Americans and 33 percent of Latinos are uninsured. Thirteen percent of all full-time workers are uninsured. Every 1 percent increase in unemployment leads to 5,000 deaths and 250,000 stress-related conditions. We are the only "developed" country where workers and their families lose their health benefits when they lose their jobs. What is our government's response? Recently, the American people have been treated to the specter of our elders on Capital Hill, forced to protest against the government. And what does the government do? It throws the seniors into jail. The occasion? Proposed cuts in Medicaid ($182 billion) and Medicare ($270 billion) that will immediately affect 70 million Americans and untold numbers in the next decade. This represents the beginning of the dismantling of America's entire system of health-care. Medicare and Medicaid make up 42 percent of all expenditures in the health sector in this country. Medicaid is the only coverage available to poor women and children who can't afford private insurance. It is a major support for elderly and disabled Americans. Medicaid is also the main "IV fluid" that keeps the nation's hospital system alive for those without insurance. The recent Los Angeles crisis and "bailout" is only the tip of the iceberg. Public hospitals and clinics across the country are facing massive cuts in programs and staff, if not outright closure. Medicare represents the only responsibility our government has taken to protect the elderly from early death and disablement. Both programs have been a Band-Aid to protect the shame of a government who insists, that when you are unable to sell your labor for a wage, you are expendable. What do we do? The first thing is that we cannot rely on either of the parties in Congress to save us. Democrats have only proposed a different set of cuts and restructuring to the system, with meager attempts to save the Band-Aid system we have. This past year they were even unable to support a universal health care reform similar to the Canadian plan. They have been spineless in exposing the depth of the health crisis and the deceit of the Republican's plans to steal health and welfare monies. Even Clinton's bailout of Los Angeles represents a carrot for the stick of a mandatory restructuring of the Los Angeles public health system. What do we do? Now is the time to speak out -- to hold our government accountable for the lives of its people. This country has the ability to provide for the health and welfare of those of us already born and those generations to come. We need to make sure it does! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ A DEFINITION Obscenity: When Republican Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon, under investigation for years of sexual harassment of women, at least one of them underage, gets on national television to talk about cutting women and children off welfare. How disgusting that such a pig should have power over our lives! Obscenity: When the words "morals" and "responsibility" find themselves in such filthy mouths -- a cover for the most base and immoral acts, such as taking away children's food and throwing families into the streets! Two thousand years ago, the great radical teacher Jesus of Nazareth had a thing or two to say about they who would offend a child. When those who hold power attack the very hope of the future itself, it's time we moved them aside. We need a "J" (for Justice) chip to cancel their obscene words. We need a "V" chip (Victory for the people) to stop their violence and sweep them out of the way, so we can build a society that cherishes its children. -- Sarah Menefee +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 13. REV. RONALD SCHUPP GIVEN POSITION OF TOKALA By Rich Capalbo On October 11, Rev. Ronald Schupp was formally elevated to the position of Tokala by the Council of Elders of the Traditional Lakota Government. The title Tokala is equivalent to Headsman or Chief in tribal terms, according to Reginald Bird Horse, the chief executive officer of the Traditional Lakota Government and a spiritual leader, speaking at the Standing Rock Lakota Reservation in Wakpala, South Dakota. Rev. Schupp, a civil rights leader based in Chicago, has long been active in the ongoing struggle for the Lakota people. He has been involved with the efforts of the Provisional Government to call attention to the genocide against the Lakota people and to the loss of land and of rights originally guaranteed by the Treaty of 1851 with the U.S. government. In 1993, Rev. Schupp was initiated with the Lakota name Wa-Kin-Ya- Wicha-Ho (Thunder Voice). ****************************************************************** 14. PRISON UNREST GREETS UNJUST DRUG LAWS: FEDERAL SYSTEM LOCKED DOWN Dear Readers, Earlier this month, a wave of rebellions swept the federal prison system, widely believed to be in response to the refusal of Congress to equalize cocaine sentencing guidelines. At present, penalties for crack cocaine are almost 100 times more severe than those involving the same drug in powdered form and have had a wildly disproportionate impact on poor and minority communities. The drug sentencing issue, however, is merely the tip of the iceberg. Conditions in America's prisons -- bursting with 1.5 million inmates and rife with brutality, graft, human rights violations and prison industry profiteering -- are reaching the explosion level. In the wake of the recent unrest, the entire federal system went on lockdown and accurate information has been slow to emerge. As soon as we are able to report to our readers the details of what took place, we will do so. Sincerely, The Editors. ****************************************************************** 15. OHIO PRISONERS WIN LAWSUIT, GET PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE WHILE MICHIGAN PUTS PRESS RIGHTS ON CHOPPING BLOCK By Anthony D. Prince LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- It took a solid year and a federal court order for Keith Ledger to get his People's Tribune. Confined to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF), Ledger finally got his paper and a small measure of justice when a district court judge ordered the confiscated "Special Prison Edition" returned to him. In a written opinion, Senior District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel found no merit to Lucasville mail officer Charles Schramm's allegation that the Tribune "could provoke violence" at the sprawling maximum security prison. "After closely reviewing the People's Tribune," wrote Spiegel in his September 22 ruling, "the court could not find one article that supported Mr. Schramm's claims." In addition to his copy of the Tribune, Ledger also received a monetary damage award. "Though the amount of money ain't shit," declared co-plaintiff John Perotti, a leading jailhouse lawyer and prison activist, "it will send a message to these pigs that they can't run roughshod as they've been doing." The court also ordered returned several confiscated issues of another publication, the Prison News Service. Perotti, who was additionally awarded $10,000 in compensatory and punitive damages for suffering various acts of retaliation, ended a 78-day hunger strike in order to attend the trial. In a letter to the People's Tribune conveying "the good news," Perotti says the verdict vindicates his charge Lt. Schramm "retaliated against me for a previous lawsuit...[and that] guards [Brian] Cox and [Michael] Turner retaliated against me by issuing death threats" and attempting to incite other inmates by falsely hanging Perotti with a "snitch" label. MICHIGAN CRACKDOWN These court victories come as prisoners across the country are battling for their right to write, read, receive, publish, distribute and re-print in their own prison newspapers stories which dare to criticize the prison system in America and other aspects of society. In neighboring Michigan, for example, editorials and letters of opinion would be banned from in-house prison newspapers if proposed new regulations are adopted. "Some of the editorial commentary has been contrary to the mission and goals of the department," says Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) spokesman Warren Williams, referring to the content of some 15 Michigan prison newspapers. In fact, responds Andy Jeffries, editor of FACTOR at the Muskegon Correctional Facility, "they're trying to shut us up." Indeed, a look at FACTOR, The Spectator, Ryan's Review or Insight, four of Michigan's leading prison papers, reveals stories and reprints on guard brutality, forced experimentation on inmates, cutbacks in rehabilitative programs, abuse of female prisoners, and articles on such broader social questions as the roots of crime and poverty, political criticism of Michigan governor John Engler and inspirational lessons from the likes of Harriet Tubman, Thomas Jefferson, Malcolm X, Emiliano Zapata, Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In fact, King's famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" might never have seen the light of day had he been a Michigan inmate in 1995. If the MDOC has its way, some of the most socially significant publications in this country will be reduced to nothing more than prison announcement bulletins. DANGEROUS PRECEDENT Meanwhile, the precedents set by destroying the First Amendment rights of inmate journalists and readers would reach far beyond the prison walls. Many inmate family members and ordinary citizens fear that the proposed restrictions will shroud in even greater secrecy the graft, corruption, brutality and misappropriation of public funds already coming to light in this nation's growing prison/industrial complex. In any case, the changes reflect a danger posed to all Americans by the "get tough on prisoners" trend sweeping corrections departments. Considering there are 1.5 million people behind bars, destruction of First Amendment rights here will surely endanger constitutional guarantees for all. Thus, even as we congratulate Ohio inmates on their successful suit, continued threats to press freedom require vigilance on both sides of the wall. [We encourage readers to write to Michigan Corrections officials to voice opposition to press restrictions. Write to Director Kenneth L. McGinnis, Michigan Department of Corrections, 206 East Michigan Ave., Lansing, Michigan 48933. Telephone 517-335-1426.] ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 16. NATIONAL CONFERENCE HITS COP ABUSE CHICAGO -- It was a day of riveting, emotional testimony when a Tribunal on Police Misconduct brought witnesses here from as far away as Buffalo, New York and Washington, D.C. The Tribunal, sponsored by the National Black Police Association and the International Association of Machinists, preceded the Fifth Annual Conference of the National Coalition on Police Accountability (NCOPA). Tribunal testimony is expected to be transcribed, bound and submitted both to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and to the U.S. Justice Department. Over three more days, NCOPA participants discussed a wide variety of issues relating to police abuse including attacks on the homeless, the growing influence of police associations, and the role of the media in both justifying and exposing cop brutality. The spirited meeting ended with a decision to designate the first week of March 1996, the fifth anniversary of the beating of Rodney King, as National Police Accountability Week and to work on both the national and local level to use the occasion to deepen and broaden the struggle against misconduct. Watch for highlights of the Tribunal on Police Misconduct and the N-COPA conference in coming issues of the People's Tribune. ****************************************************************** 17. AFTER PAROLEE KILLS TROOPER...: 'GET TOUGH' GOVERNOR HOLDS 3,500 PRISONERS HOSTAGE TO POLITICS [Excerpted from a letter by Leon Blanchard to the People's Tribune] FRACKVILLE, Pennsylvania -- I, like 3,500 other inmates, have been approved for parole and [am] awaiting the word to be able to go home, but am stuck in prison while the issue of restructuring the whole parole process is underway. This has come as a result of an inmate known as Mudman who was paroled from Graterford in March, got out and murdered a New Jersey state trooper. During the month of August, representatives of the federal government ordered Gov. [Thomas] Ridge to release the 3,500 inmates (within 30 days) who had been approved for parole and who are being held wrongfully, or else they will cut federal funding. However, Ridge, being skilled at stage-managing politics, has tactfully appeared on TV to redirect the public's thinking, by indirectly implying everything is all right, when, in reality, everything is all wrong and nearing an uprising stage. Even jail officials are pissed off and getting worried, because this situation is slowly but surely leading to an uprising level and creates daily scenes of outbursts and arguments with staff members because of busted hopes. The Parole Department is subtly abridging our constitutional rights -- double jeopardy -- to not be tried twice for the same offense, which is exactly what [they] are doing (using past crimes for which we have already served time and our debt to society to justify not releasing us from prison.) Let Ridge know it's wrong to tamper with our constitutional rights or any federal rights, because to start tampering with that is to slowly pull apart the fabric which holds our country together. If that happens we will be right back to the cowboy days, where people had no respect for laws and settled everything with guns. Or worse yet, we will become (as we are already slowly doing) Plato's classic definition of a degenerating democracy, in which we permit the voice of a bloodthirsty, death-penalty, lock- everybody-up and tv-violence, stereotype-influenced naive public/mob to dominate the affairs of the government. [Leon Blanchard is serving a 2-to-10-year sentence for burglary committed to support a drug dependency. Since being incarcerated, he has successfully completed numerous pre-release recovery programs and was approved for parole, but is being unjustly confined, along with 3,500 others, to serve the political agenda of Governor Thomas Ridge.] [Editor's Note: The People's Tribune does not have the resources to directly assist Mr. Blanchard, specifically his request to process 500 letters from Pennsylvania inmates. By publishing his appeal, we hope to attract the attention of other organizations who may be able to help. Upon request, we will forward the full contents of Mr. Blanchard's request. Meanwhile, readers are urged to protest directly to: Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, Central Office, Post Office Box 1661, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17105.] ****************************************************************** 18. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THAT REBEL MUSIC? WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THOSE ANGRY BOYS? JOE AND BRUCE STORM CHICAGO! By Andy Willis CHICAGO -- Outside his Pittsburgh stomping grounds, few Americans have ever heard of Joe Grushecky or his music. Joe and his band, The Houserockers, are veterans of trench-war rock, playing real music for and about real people. So how the hell did Joe and his band sell out The Parkwest, here (with its 2,000-plus capacity) October 24? Well, they had a guest-musician buddy playing with them -- Bruce Springsteen. Bruce has come a long way, from roots similar to Joe's -- deep in the industrial heartland and stone working class. Hey, but last I heard Bruce had built a huge home in Beverly Hills. I wondered why this megastar was playing a role secondary to that of the great but obscure Joe Grushecky. I didn't have to wait long for an answer. They tore into one dynamite song after another from Joe's new album American Babylon on the Razor & Tie label. No compromising, no posing -- lots of kick-ass rock. No wonder Bruce produced that album. Its lyrics express the despair and hope of the people that he has never deserted, the oppressed and downtrodden of America. Listen to the words of "Homestead," a song about a steel town in Pennsylvania. The tragedy of the great American working class unfolds: "I got work tearin' those old mills down Until there's nothing left but the sweat and blood in the ground; At night we tuck our little babies in bed; We still pray to the red, white, and blue in Homestead." Those lyrics might sound mournful on paper, but with Joe and Bruce snarling them into the mike above their assault guitars, it's open warfare on the class of leeches who profit from workers' misery. Which brings me to my own fanciful projections about what is going on here. Sure, it's great music, but maybe it's something more. I suspect that great musicians, many of whom do care deeply about what's going on in society, realize on a gut level that fame and the promotion of "stars" (or even more profitable "superstars") are ultimately destructive to the music and to themselves. Certainly someone as experienced and astute as Springsteen knows this. Capitalism kills ... ask Elvis ... (enter Joe and Bruce doing "Talking to the King.") Anyhow, Springsteen has been there, done that. I think he's consciously re-entering the stage in a new role -- that of a brother in music and in the fight for the kind of freedom we common people still long for. Joe Grushecky is there, and let's hail, hail the partnership. Under the general categories of "rock" and "rap," there is the power of the widest range of human expression. We mix our hopeless desolation up with ecstatic joy on the same album or even the same song. Hey, that's the way we like it! But we are products of our time as well, and we can't go back to naive or happier glory days. Something about the unity and the contrast between Joe Grushecky and Bruce Springsteen signals something new and hopeful to me. Would it hurt if we pried ourselves away from star worship and dealt with digging what the music and the words have to say, instead of engaging in the deadly-to-all-concerned idol worship that took out John Lennon and Kurt Cobain? Instead, let's strive for a dialogue with these talents that expresses our collective soul. We face an uncertain future and we need to pick up the fight against the creeps who are trying to suppress us nasty boys and girls. We need to communicate with our distinguished representatives of rock. We need dialogue with our honorable speakers "in the house." We need to get off our masses and aim our power against those who call us immoral when we make babies they plan to starve. The power of song was best demonstrated to me when I watched in wonder and joy as the people of South Africa filled the streets singing the birth of freedom into existence. Today, for the first time in the history of the world, freedom from want is possible. Many of us sense this; science and technology prove it. Seasoned rockers like Grushecky and Springsteen know about the "Dark and Bloody Ground" that is history in song. They know, too, about the class of rich bastards who have called the shots. For these working-class heroes to be all that they can be, we "fans" need to build a broad-based revolutionary movement of our people. (Let's talk to South African musicians while we're at it!) We need to immediately set up a dialogue (not a friggin' fan club) with every progressive artist we can find -- famous or not. Then we will start an incredible process in this country in which we not only "rock the vote," but get the freedom we so richly deserve. (Note to my fellow geezers: Despite all the cages, we don't have to act our ages.) Hail, hail rock 'n' roll; deliver me from the days of old! Joe, Bruce: Give us a call. Let's talk. ****************************************************************** 19. READERS RESPOND TO FUND DRIVE -- BUT MONEY IS STILL NEEDED! Across the country, friends of the People's Tribune have responded to an urgent appeal for money -- but more funds are still needed. On October 16, the members of the Editorial Board of the People's Tribune sat down in front of every phone in our Chicago office and began dialing. The people making the calls included Laura Garcia, the editor of the People's Tribune, who had returned from the NGO Forum on Women in China just weeks before, and veteran revolutionary Nelson Peery, author of Black Fire: The Making of An American Revolutionary. We called friends of this publication all across the United States. Our message was simple: The People's Tribune is making tremendous breakthroughs but we urgently need money to take advantage of them. We described how members of the People's Tribune Editorial Board met hundreds of women leaders from all over the world at the historic NGO Forum on Women in China. We pointed out that the People's Tribune has now become so well known in America's prisons that we mail 417 subscriptions to prisoners. But, we explained, our opportunities are expanding faster than our funds. Today, with the growth of poverty in this country, there are literally millions of people who might be interested in what the People's Tribune has to say. Our problem is that we don't have the money to reach even a fraction of them. We desperately need money to take advantage of the political opportunities which this new period in history is placing in front of us. We appealed to those we called to dig deep. We asked if they could contribute $662, an amount which represents the cost of printing one entire edition of the People's Tribune, or $100.40, an amount which covers the cost of mailing all 417 subs to prisoners. The response was magnificent. The very first person we asked to contribute was a member of our own Editorial Board. He agreed to donate $662. Several veteran revolutionaries pledged $1,000. In Minnesota and Texas, two leaders agreed to find a way to donate $662, either by raising the money with friends or by donating a bit at a time. Several people pledged $100 each. This was a great first step. To all those who pledged, our deepest thanks. But more money is needed. If you have not donated yet, please don't wait for a telephone call. Please fill out the coupon below and mail it today. -- The Editors +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Yes, I want to help keep the PeopleÕs Tribune publishing! Enclosed is my donation of: ___ $662 ___ $110.40 ___ $50 ____ Other Please make checks payable to "PeopleÕs Tribune" and mail them to: P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 20. MORAL APPEAL COULD ADD A CRUCIAL INGREDIENT TO THE FIGHT FOR BASIC NECESSITIES By Chris Brady [Editor's note: In our October 16 edition, we ran an article by Chris Mahin called "Take the moral offensive against capitalism!" The article was adapted from a report by the People's Tribune Editorial Board to the Steering Committee of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. The article declared that "the People's Tribune has to concentrate on the spiritual side of the revolution ... the battle for the hearts and minds of the people. ... Each issue of this newspaper has to awaken people's indignation at the crimes of capitalism." Below we print a response to the original article.] I think your tactic of appealing to the moral side of folks in economic trouble could add the crucial missing element of righteousness to the desire for basic necessities. I don't say that all will be inspired to rise up and march through the threshold propelled by a new-found conviction based on faith. But the ethics and morality that is at the root of the great faiths can provide the justification for a revolutionary revelation. A synergy could be created that could surpass the law of the minimum, or otherwise tip the balance, and spark the critical mass. For those who maintain their dedication to making the revolution based on materialist understandings, there is common cause, common goals, and common ways of getting on with it. For those who insist on the spiritual aspect of the entire struggle, the ethical argument for the overthrow of capitalism must contain the promise of redemption. The fact remains that the worship of wonder (Holy Spirit(s), etc.) can only be reduced by misery, and exalted by its alleviation. The chains of capitalism are real; they bind us body and soul. Break the chains. Put a brake on capitalism. Break the misery of the world. Praise be to the saviour that lives in us all. The time has come. [Chris Brady works with the Left Alternative Media Project (LAMP) in Oregon. Last year, he was the editor of The Student Insurgent, a newspaper of the Left at the University of Oregon at Eugene. He can be reached via e-mail at bradychr@darkwing.uoregon.edu] ****************************************************************** 21: NEW FROM THE LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA! UNDERSTANDING THE POLICE STATE: PAPERS FROM THE LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA CONFERENCE ON THE POLICE STATE "The 'police state' is not just a state form, but a description of social relations. It includes not just the obvious relationship of the state to the citizen, but also the realms of neighborhood life, social services, production, the reproduction of labor power, and culture. The 'police state' describes not just the 'state' as the organ of enforcing class rule, but also a 'state of existence,' which can be roughly described as the absence of legal protection of the property-less classes; or the rule of the propertied class unfettered by a social contract or constitutional law." * The United Front, Then and Now * Implementation of and Resistance to a Police State * The Role of the Police Department in the Growing Reaction and the Tasks of Revolutionaries * Changing Thinking: Ruling Class Propaganda and the Police State * The Revolutionary Period and the Fight for Constitutional Rights * Plus a reprint of the pathbreaking article "Fascism: ruling class response to revolutionary class struggle," Rally, Comrades! June 1992 $4.00 for each paper or $15 for entire set (five papers, reading list and article). Postage included in price. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Education for a New America Get your local study group going! Get your LRNA chapter classes together! These new educational materials from the League are just what you've been looking for. * What is Revolution? * Social Revolution and the Birth of a New Class * The Tasks of Revolutionaries $7.00 for each packet or $18 for all 3. (Each packet contains a short paper and supplementary materials, study questions, projects and a list of suggested readings and videos. Postage included in price). Send check or money order made out to LRNA and send to P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 22. 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 ******************************************************************