From jdav@noc.orgTue Dec 5 22:05:31 1995 Date: Tue, 5 Dec 95 06:48 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune (12-11-95) Online Edition ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 22 No. 35 / December 11, 1995 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: pt@noc.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ This is the last issue of the People's Tribune published in 1995. (We will skip one issue over the holidays.) The next issue -- Vol. 23, No. 1 -- will be mailed on January 2, 1996. 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. 35 / December 11, 1995 Page One 1. CLINTON AND CONGRESS TEAR UP THE SAFETY NET: OUR CHILDREN HAVE A RIGHT TO THE TREE OF LIFE! Spirit of the Revolution 2. PACIFISM, PROPHESY AND REVOLUTION News and Features 3. THE HOLIDAYS: A TIME TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR CHANGING SOCIETY! 4. SWAT KILLING SPARKS OUTRAGE 5. CORNELL TEACH-IN EXAMINES THE CRISIS IN EDUCATION 6, LET'S FACE FACTS: THIS ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS A DISASTER! 7. A MODERN CHRISTMAS CAROL: 'O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM,' (PENNSYLVANIA) 8. NEW MAGAZINE EMPOWERS GIRLS 9. PROTESTANTS ORGANIZE FOR JUSTICE 10. AS PROP. 187 FALLS, THE FIGHT TO DEFEND AMERICA'S IMPOVERISHED MOVES HIGHER 11. MEXICO'S RULING PARTY CONTINUES TO LOSE IN ELECTIONS Focus on Fighting the Scrooges: Attacks on welfare spark protests 12. MICHIGAN WELFARE RIGHTS ORGANIZATION DENOUNCES GOV. ENGLER'S NEW WELFARE POLICY 13. WHY IS THERE WELFARE? TO KEEP THE PEACE 14. GINGRICH EXPLOITS TRAGEDY TO CONDEMN WELFARE -- THAT'S SICK! 15. JOHNNIE TILLMON BLACKSTON: HER STRUGGLE SHAPED THE WELFARE RIGHTS MOVEMENT 16. WOMEN'S COMMITTEE OF 100 HOLDS 'VIGIL FOR A VETO' OF THE WELFARE BILL American Lockdown 17. INMATE SEEKS COUNSELING, GETS CHARGED WITH ESCAPE 18. 'HELP ME CONQUER MY PROBLEM' Culture Under Fire 19. MUSIC STRIKES BLOWS FOR FREEDOM IN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO >From the League 20. ROLE OF THE REVOLUTIONARIES IN TODAY'S CRISIS Announcements, Events, etc. 21. WE NEED YOUR PLEDGE... 22. GIVE THE GIFT OF TRUTH THIS HOLIDAY SEASON WITH THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE! 23. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. PAGE 1: CLINTON AND CONGRESS TEAR UP THE SAFETY NET: OUR CHILDREN HAVE A RIGHT TO THE TREE OF LIFE! America's children are in mortal danger. So are all of the 80 million Americans now living in poverty. America's rulers are completely dismantling the safety net. We, the new class of impoverished Americans, cannot, we must not and we dare not remain silent and do nothing to end these immoral, genocidal attacks. The handful of billionaires at the top of our society should be answered by a mighty roar from we millions down below, a cry that we all have a right to the tree of life! In recent weeks, the billionaire-controlled federal government has moved away from just threatening to wipe out the poor and closer to actually doing it. That is the message which follows the dramatic shutdown of parts of the federal government in November, a shutdown caused by a "dispute" between the Republican-dominated Congress and President Clinton over balancing the federal budget and "reform" of the welfare system. The deal between President Clinton and the Republican congressional leaders, worked out on November 19, says "the balanced budget must protect future generations." But the billionaire devil is in the details. The only future generation that will be protected will be the future generation of the billionaire class. What's more, both House Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton are working for that billionaire class and against us. Gingrich works for them by pushing the GOP's programs and Clinton through his "waivers" which allow states to cut off the poor from aid. The billionaires' strategy is to end the federal guarantee to provide aid to mothers and children in poverty, a guarantee which has stood for 60 years. Changing times are compelling the billionaires to rearrange society to fit their new needs. Those needs no longer include having to maintain a relatively well-fed, well-housed, well- educated working class in this country, as they have for the last 50 years. Under the old way of production, the labor of human workers produced the wealth owned by the wealthy. Now that workers are being replaced by electronics, the billionaires must go on holding wealth independently of the labor of humans. They must loot society, waste their loot on their financial markets, then loot society even further. That is why they will stop at nothing in their attacks on everyone living in poverty. It's up to all of us to speak up now and stop them. ****************************************************************** 2. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: PACIFISM, PROPHESY AND REVOLUTION By Chris Faatz Fellowship of Reconciliation [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 may have on the articles which appear here.] We live in a world that is tearing apart at the seams. Wars, revolutions, plagues, environmental blindness and its results, xenophobia, bigotry, and an epidemic of national and international callousness and cruelty are the order of the day. And, there are no Gandhis, no Dr. Kings, no Dorothy Days -- much less Christs and Buddhas -- in sight. Instead, we find our friends, families, and neighbors turning increasingly to the likes of Pat Robertson, Louis Farrakhan, and Newt Gingrich for vision and succor in a time of fear and overwhelming technological and social upheaval and decomposition. While I feel such folk are sincere in their desires to help people, their perspectives and programs embody, to say the least, something that I, like most of us, I suspect, fear. So, what of the pacifist in this situation? What do we stand for? What makes us different from other strands of the progressive movement -- not to mention the movements of people for sheer survival? The organization of which I'm a member, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, was founded in 1914, as the First World War inaugurated this century of wars and revolutions. And, for many years, we played a lead role in a surprising number of social struggles. We are pacifists, yes. But, most importantly, we are the inheritors of an uncompromising call to prophetic action that has characterized progressive religious politics at its finest, and carried us proudly through some of this nation's most exciting and terrifying times. The Fellowship of Reconciliation -- and radical, religious pacifists in general -- have always been pioneers. We played a central role in the civil rights movement and in the struggle against the Vietnam War. In the context of another terrible war, we raised a lonely voice of protest in defense of Japanese- American citizens being detained and imprisoned by a wartime government, and pushed for provisions for those men of conscience who, due to faith, couldn't or wouldn't kill another human being. In the grim, lock-step days of the '50s, we stood almost alone in protesting McCarthyism from the start, and took the earliest steps to raise public opinion against the atomic and hydrogen bombs, in tiny numbers. And, in most of those struggles, we eventually won. This is the heritage I celebrate, a heritage that goes back as far as Lucretia Mott and John Woolman, as far as the radical Abolitionists and early fighters for womens' rights, the heritage of conscience on the march against injustice -- conscience rooted in faith and refusing to hide its light under a bushel basket, whether it be that of forgetfulness or complacency. We are pacifists, and no human is our enemy. As such, we are called to witness to something different, something new. We are the salt in the bread of the world's life, we are the heralds of the new gospel order, we are a grand ragtag anti-army of cheerful Bodhisattvas who have taken the solemn vow to save all beings, and to refuse to compromise with the powers that be -- with the domination system, with Mammon, with Mara, the tempter of the ways of the world. It's this system that is our enemy, not the poor souls who have been corrupted by it. We are called to prophesy. What does that mean? The prophetic imperative calls us to three things. The first is to denounce evil wherever it raises its ugly head. In the burgeoning fascist movement; in the intolerance of our brothers and sisters in the Christian Coalition; in the war in Bosnia; in the racist, sexist, classist, and homophobic attacks by the current majority in Congress and by their enforcers in federal and local agencies. Second, we are called to be visionaries. What, after we denounce, do we see? We see a colorblind society, where all human beings, living sanely in balance with the earth, are valued as ends in themselves. We see a society where the economy and government are directed toward human and humane ends, in order to meet and fulfill not just the basic needs of every person, but to allow them the ability to stretch themselves, to fulfill themselves as individuals to the very highest of their dreams. We see a society where all have a voice in decision-making; where the community serves the individual, and where the individual serves the community, and where words like "democracy," "respect," and "love" have the breathing room to have real meaning. This is, of course, a goal -- a prophetic vision -- that we share with the secular Left. But, we have an edge up on them -- we're much closer to speaking in the language of ordinary people, in a language that resonates in their dreams and aspirations. We are a voice of religious conscience, and in a society that is literally dying for want of a meaningful spirituality, there is an enormous gap for us to fill. And, if we don't fill it, the "false prophets" raised up by Mammon will be only too happy to do so. ... The last third of how I see the call to prophesy was something brought to my attention by a die-hard Marxist-Leninist. He agreed with my basic analysis, however, he pointed out, what about a vehicle for such a change? How else do we bring together the twin cries of the prophetic imperative -- denunciation and affirmation, decrial and the great dream -- to fruition? For Louis, that form is the revolutionary party of the working class. For me, that form is the prophetic movement of peoples of all faiths and of none in the united pursuit of a new world. In our specific case, it is our unique calling to manifest these dual imperatives as a community of resistance and affirmation. This, to bring us back to where I began, is the meaning of the FOR, and of radical pacifism generally. Our call is to bring our prophetic vision -- of nonviolence, of equality, of revolutionary transformation and the creation of real justice rooted in love and in hope and in faith -- to the world. We have to speak, along with the Quakers, to the light that dwells within everyone everywhere; and, to do that, we must not only let our own light shine forth, but we have to bust up that damn bushel basket for kindling, and fan it forth into real conflagration! [Chris Faatz is a religious socialist and pacifist and member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. He lives near Portland, Oregon. The Fellowship of Reconciliation can be reached by writing to: P.O. Box 271, Nyack, New York 10960 or by sending e-mail to: fornatl@igc.apc.org] ****************************************************************** 3. THE HOLIDAYS: A TIME TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR CHANGING SOCIETY! By Nelson Peery "In five years' time, you'll find appearing on your streets abandoned children -- helpless, hostile, angry, awful -- in numbers we have no idea." That's what Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) predicted recently while discussing the social service cuts being debated in Congress. Senator, they are already here. As the nation enters the holiday season, a cold-blooded, mean- spirited attack on women and children is being waged by the government. This attack is a sign of the times, an indication of the moral decay destroying our country, a land which can be -- and must be -- a great, decent, caring nation. We must not fall into the trap of condemning only House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Republican members of Congress for this situation. After all, the Republicans simply want to do in seven years what President Clinton and the Democrats originally wanted to do in nine. We don't want just a two-year reprieve for abandoned, helpless children. We want to stop the attacks on those children now. That's the only moral, decent, defensible position. The common folk of this country stayed away from the polls in record numbers on Election Day in November 1994, frustrated by the steady decline in living standards and by the do-nothing attitude of corrupt political bureaucrats. Most of those who did vote in that midterm election used their ballots to signal a "throw the bums out" rejection of incumbents. But the more the people said "a plague on both your houses" to the Democrats and Republicans in the months that followed, the more blatant and ruthless the newly elected legislators became. By the middle of 1995, it was apparent that the president and the members of Congress really meant the threats that they had made against the poor during the campaign and that they intend to carry those threats out fully. As a result, a new fear has settled across the land. Despite the booming stock market and record profits, few people feel secure. Joblessness, poverty and homelessness continue to grow. Hard- working, honest people know they are only a paycheck or two away from being thrown into the street. That's why many people have begun to re-examine their initial acceptance of the so-called "Contract With America." They now see a contradiction between this "contract" and the moral responsibilities that have held this country together in times of crisis. Why are we organized into a society, into a nation? Is it just to carry on business, as Clinton and Gingrich claim? Or is it because we -- whether individually or as family groups -- can no longer create the necessaries of life, can no longer protect the young generation and prepare it for the future? Are we not a society in order to co-operatively guarantee our collective well-being? Can we be a nation if each economic and racial group circles its wagons and fights the rest? These questions have thrust themselves forward and must be answered. Along with all the merrymaking during this holiday season, let's pledge to live up to the social responsibility demanded by any society. It is not right to turn our backs on another human being in distress with the excuse that simply giving that person a dollar won't solve the problem. It is not just to stand idly by and watch the police harass, beat and kill people simply because of their color or their social status. If we are to put this country on the moral track of justice for all, each of us must first accept our individual responsibility to help solve the problem. The problem is a dying economic system which is killing people. An economic and social system should serve people. When it fails to do so, it should be replaced. Carrying out our individual responsibility begins by joining with others who are also dedicated to replacing the system. Join with us. The League of Revolutionaries for a New America will welcome you. [Nelson Peery is the author of Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary, published by The New Press.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Plan now for African American History Month, February 1996. After the Million Man March, where do we go from here? Speakers address these topics: * Race, Class & the Battle for Justice in America * After Beijing: An African American Women's Perspective on Where We Go From Here * Economic Security & the New Class of Poor People * The New Women's Movement in America Our speakers include: Nelson Peery, author of Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary Marian Kramer, president, National Welfare Rights Union For a free brochure of all of our speakers, call the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau at 312-486-3551 or write P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654 or e-mail speakers@noc.org. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 4. SWAT KILLING SPARKS OUTRAGE Special to the People's Tribune Hundreds of people from the small community of Rubidoux, California have been marching and holding candlelight vigils since Thanksgiving Day when a police SWAT team shot many times and killed Randy "Blake" Tolbert. Police said Tolbert went to the halfway house there with the intent to kill former L.A. police officer Stacy Koon. Koon, a leading genocidal racist, helped to nearly beat Rodney King to death. For this, Koon received short jail time and was in the Rubidoux re-hab center to finish out his "correctional sentencing." "This was a very provocative act by police," said Clyde Borders, a close personal friend of Tolbert. "To send Koon to this community was an act to provoke us." Borders said many young men in Rubidoux were on probation and police had warned them all that if they held even one protest against Koon's presence they would be violated. Randy Blake Tolbert marched anyway. For weeks he held picket signs and walked the street in front of the re-hab center just a few blocks from his home. His picket sign read "No Koons in Rubidoux!" Finally on Thanksgiving Day, Tolbert went inside. After that, whatever happened is a question for Tolbert's family and community who loved him to uncover. "We want our questions answered. We were told Blake killed a man in there. We mourn the death of this man and Blake," said Borders. The coroner's office said bullets passed out of Blake's body. Did one of these bullets hit another man? Why wouldn't police let his family, who begged for hours, talk with Blake before anything happened? The community has organized a Community Action group and has vowed to march until Blake's funeral on December 5. They need help in bringing the truth to light. ****************************************************************** 5. CORNELL TEACH-IN EXAMINES THE CRISIS IN EDUCATION By Thomas A. Hirschl [Editor's note: Below we print excerpts from a talk given October 25 at a teach-in on "Claiming Our Future" at Cornell University.] ITHACA, New York -- We live in a world in a state of great change. These changes are beyond the control of even the most powerful economic and political elites. We see government working overtime to curtail enrollment in higher education, cut faculty size, and generally frustrate colleges and universities. A few years ago, government was doing just the opposite -- promoting higher education. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, both the capitalist world and what remains of the socialist world have entered into crisis. But this hasn't stopped the political leadership of this country from believing that capitalism has won, and that the so-called "end of history" is at hand. Under the banner of "victory to worldwide capitalism," a Republican-led, bipartisan force is dismantling the government as we have known it since World War II. Only the military, the police and the criminal justice system are being spared. Welfare, public support for education, and publicly supported health care are being phased out. Perhaps the most infamous design is throwing 14 million women and children off welfare in order to put them into direct competition with the more than 25 million workers currently underemployed. This is being done in the name of "helping families end their dependency," yet a significant percentage of women and children will end up destitute and on the streets, or worse. It is one thing to agree that a system is antiquated and needs replacement; it is yet another to destroy a feeble life-support system with a vague notion that the market will pick up the slack. In this regard, I think the experience of the Soviet Union is instructive. The consequences of the free-market solution in the former Soviet Union are clear: death and social destruction for the masses while a tiny elite enriches itself. The problem we face here in the United States is similar to that faced in the former Soviet Union: how to build a society that provides prosperity, democracy and ecological balance. In the present context, this is a revolutionary question. THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION What is at the heart of today's social crisis? Modern high-tech production does not require the world's 6 billion people. This fact is acutely obvious in Africa, where starvation and social catastrophe lurk. It is even becoming apparent in the United States, where the underemployment rate among persons with four years of college is 14 percent and international competition among the college-educated is a fact of life. What are the social implications of high-tech production? Simply that production can be carried on without workers. The downsizing of industry has no logical end point because the labor-replacing potential of high-tech production is without limit. If there are no workers producing goods and services, then there is no tax base to pay for public services, unless of course, wealth is taxed. Hence the mad scramble to cut taxes. Increasingly, goods and services are produced with technologies that require minimal labor inputs, and even computers are manufactured by computers. As a result of these technological changes, high-tech industry is downsizing along with the rest of the economy. And this leads to a declining tax base which causes the downsizing of higher education. Currently, there are plans to shrink the Cornell faculty by 10 to 15 percent due to declining federal and state support for research and instruction. Cornell stands to lose a great deal of revenue from planned reductions in the budgets of the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Will Cornell's downsizing stop at 10 to 15 percent? Our political leaders have no intention of stopping there. The only way to stop downsizing is to get rid of those leaders, and elect new ones. The power elite has decided to downsize education in response to the need for a smaller work force. Fewer workers are needed for production, so fewer people will receive an education, welfare, or medical care. We need to ask ourselves not what is functional to industry, but what we need as a society, and then decide how to get it. We will only get what we are organized to take. THE DEFENSE OF HIGHER EDUCATION What can we do on campus to fight for our rights? The situation requires serious analysis and strategic action. Simple anger and blind rage will accomplish nothing constructive. One word of caution about campus activity. We need to critically examine the heavy emphasis on subjective categories imparted to politics in a university setting. The intellectual structure of university departments and disciplines tends to perpetuate the social divisions that exist in society. By overemphasizing the social constructs of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, we play into the hands of the power elite. The goals of the civil rights movement cannot be achieved in an environment where industry is downsizing. This fact, I believe, is what underlies the impulse behind the Million Man March on Washington. Still, the downsizing of industry is not an African American problem; it is a problem for everyone who depends upon work for their livelihood. If my theory about the downsizing of industry is correct, then the world is headed into crisis and we need to seriously study and challenge many long-held assumptions. The defense of higher education is a small but important step toward building a future in a world that appears to offer nothing for the majority. To do this effectively, we need to stop fighting for a piece of the pie, and start challenging the size of the pie. If we can do this, then we will have started down the road to a future where human needs will rightfully assume the central place in society. [Thomas A. Hirschl is a professor in the Department of Rural Sociology at Cornell University.] ****************************************************************** 6, LET'S FACE FACTS: THIS ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS A DISASTER! By George Bru CHUNCHULA, Alabama -- Since the beginning of time, mankind has grappled with the elements to eke out an existence. Floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, monsoons, fires and drought are just a few of the natural (and not-so-natural) disasters which have made life uncomfortable for the human race. When disaster strikes, we deal with these problems and show charity to our fellow man. Disaster seems to bring people together. But today, more than at any other time in history, the forces of nature have taken a back seat to the forces of greed and selfishness which have captivated our planet and thrown us into a tailspin. In my opinion, we need to re-examine the means of production and change the system of distribution which we currently have in our economy in order to create a more balanced society and ensure that all our people benefit from the technological advances of the modern world. Our planet has enough resources -- and man has enough knowledge -- to feed, clothe and shelter every person on earth, and provide them with health care and retirement aid. But, short of a revolution, these things are not going to happen any time soon. (Not a revolution conjured up by the Gingrich/Limbaugh mentality, but rather one formulated within the hearts and minds of the swelling ranks of the unemployed, the underemployed, the underpaid, the homeless and the destitute. A revolution which says, "Enough is enough." Stop the lying and deception, stop separating the people by race and ethnicity, and face facts: Our system is crumbling around us.) I am not a scholar, but I am endowed by my God with common sense and spiritual discernment. And I am not afraid to face the truth when presented with the facts. It has been proven that all types of crime move into a society when underemployment and unemployment move in. Witness South Central Los Angeles, the epicenter of the 1992 riots, where 70,000 jobs were lost in the 1970s and 1980s. In Los Angeles County, the unemployment rate now stands at 10.4 percent, while black employment in some neighborhoods is as high as 50 percent. As one political observer noted, "The nation's first multiracial riot was as much about empty bellies and broken hearts as it was about police batons and Rodney King." Today, millions of working people remain skeptical. Every week, more employees learn they are being let go. In offices and factories around the world, people wait in fear, hoping to be spared one more day. Like a deadly epidemic inexorably working its way through the marketplace, the strange, seemingly inexplicable, new economic disease spreads -- destroying lives and destabilizing entire communities. While some jobs are being created in the U.S. economy, they are in low-paying sectors and generally consist of temporary employment without benefits. In 1994, Labor Finders and other part-time employment agencies were the largest employers in the country. Today, two-thirds of the jobs being created in this country are at the bottom of the wage pyramid, according to the May 7, 1994 edition of the Washington Post. In the first quarter of 1994, layoffs from big corporations increased 13 percent over 1993. The trend continues today, as we watch helplessly while our jobs are exported to Mexico and other "developing nations." I hope their development is not indicative of what we are developing into. To find a solution, we must call on the wise and prudent, and read and consider what they have to say. Jeremy Rifkin is the author or more than a dozen books on economic trends and issues relating to science, technology and culture. Rifkin's most recent book, The End of Work, traces the evolution of work from the Paleolithic Era through the modern computer era. Using facts and historical data, it emphasizes not just what has happened, but what will continue to happen if the human race does not re-examine the current crisis of economic disorder. I urge those who have common sense and a devotion to public service to read Rifkin's mind-opening account of "The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era." Rifkin's book ought to become the center of a long-lasting and deep, probing conversation in the nation. As noted author Robert L. Heilbroner writes in the book's foreword: "This is an indispensable introduction to a problem that we will be living with for the rest of our own and our children's lives." ****************************************************************** 7. A MODERN CHRISTMAS CAROL: 'O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM,' (PENNSYLVANIA) By Anthony D. Prince [(Inspired by the recently announced elimination of basic steel production at the flagship plant of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.)] I saw you standing out by the blast furnace gate, tears in your eyes, And you, a grown man, from Bethlehem (Pennsylvania). Were you thinking about an out-of-work Christmas in the town that bears the name of the birthplace of the crucified carpenter? I wonder if you were a tuyereman or a cinder snapper, or, like me, a front-side millwright who fixed things when they broke down. Now you say nobody wants the beams for which you once smelted iron, And the bitterness of being tossed out with 1800 others, a few days before Thanksgiving, hisses out from behind clenched jaws Fighting back emotion. O Little Town of Bethlehem, (Pennsylvania)! The steelworkers built you, sweated for you, provided the muscle and blood that sustained the life around you on the banks of the Lehigh River. Once, 31,000 breathed a fiery birth of shapes that stretched to the heavens on great structural beams, for towers of steel and glass high upon which the owning class looked down from their plush suites, While you coughed and ached and bled the cancerous, lung-puncturing multiplicity of disease that will remain your curse, long after the mill falls to rust. Now, because there is more money to be made elsewhere, Now, because the bosses must cut their losses, please the shareholders, and hand them a big Christmas dividend, your job is gone. Face the facts, they say: A Bethlehem steel beam costs $900 but In the slave-labor markets of Taiwan, Korea and Latin America, the highest technology meets the most savage exploitation of human beings -- and the cost comes down to 450. Sorry, Charlie. Merry Christmas, now get out! A modern crucifixion on a cross of gold For the maximum profit. But it doesn't have to end here, just as it did not end on Calvary. As a new army was raised then, so it can be today, The unemployed of this nation, refusing to be silent, Refusing to merely grumble, refusing to become refuse ... Those who spent their lives forging steel must forge now a movement Those who once shaped beams now must shape demands for food, clothing, for our homes! We must fight, just as we fought the smoke and cinder and fire and noise and heat and fumes of the furnace. Now we must fight as men and women who built this country and have every right to the fruits of our labor. We who combined against the corporate giants, who once crossed lines of color and creed to do battle for contracts and pensions, who went on strike and battled police for a union card ... We do not leave these mills empty-handed, for we have learned much. O Little Town of Bethlehem: you don't stand alone in these hard times Help teach America's dispossessed. Like your namesake near the Dead Sea, create anew, give birth anew, With a steel resolve. [The author, a former South Chicago blast furnaceman, was a founder and co-chairman of the Local #65 Steelworkers Unemployed Committee.] ****************************************************************** 8. NEW MAGAZINE EMPOWERS GIRLS by Sandra Reid On our first day at the NGO Conference on Women in Beijing, the People's Tribune interviewed two enthusiastic teen-agers who had traveled to China from Minnesota. Sarah Vokes, 16, and Alison Pflepsen, 17, work with "New Moon, The Magazine for Girls and their Dreams." Sarah and Alison told the People's Tribune that the magazine was started by girls. It is edited and produced by girls age 8-14 who are on the magazine's editorial board. "Girls produce the magazine and make all the decisions about it," they told us. Sarah and Alison feel that it empowers girls to let girls make the magazine themselves. "The magazine has writings, poems, stories and drawings by girls all over the world," they said. It is a 48-page, advertising-free magazine that focuses on what girls think and do rather than on how they look. The magazine is for every girl who wants her voice heard and her dreams taken seriously. The People's Tribune asked Sarah and Alison what their dream is for a new world. "We are never going to have a perfect world. It would need a lot of work. A perfect world would have to have no sexism in it and it would have to have her [my friend] for president!" Sarah said, "You would have to eliminate sexism which includes getting rid of it in the media and you would need education. You would have to end the violence against women. A new world would have girls feeling empowered and they would have self- esteem and feel confident with themselves." [For more information, contact New Moon Publishing, P.O. Box 3587, Duluth, Minnesota 55803-3587.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ It's not too soon to start planning for Women's History Month in March 1996! >From the Women's Conference in Beijing to the grassroots battles, women are leading the fight for a new America. Book your speaker now for Women's History Month. Speakers address these topics: * After Beijing: An African American women's perspective on where we go from here * Economic Security & the Fight for Justice * The New Women's Movement in America * Indigenous Peoples' Rights * Cultural Wars AND MORE ... Send for a free speakers brochure. Call 312-486-3551 or write P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654 or by e-mail speakers@noc.org. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 9. PROTESTANTS ORGANIZE FOR JUSTICE Special to the People's Tribune A new group has been formed called "Protestants for the Common Good." The organization is composed of Protestant laypersons and clergy in the Chicago area committed to the fight for social justice. In a letter announcing formation of the group, Eugene H. Winkler, the co-chair of the new organization, declared that "The 'religious right' has seized both the publicity and the action in our social, political, economic and moral process. But they do not speak for us!" The letter sharply criticized the forces of the Christian Right, declaring that: "In their efforts to destroy our nation's historic concern for the poor, the dispossessed and the immigrant, they have gone against the teachings and the tradition of Biblical faith." Protestants for the Common Good will hold an organizing convention December 3 at the Chicago Temple in downtown Chicago. For more information, write to Protestants for the Common Good at 77 West Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602 or call 312- 243-8300. ****************************************************************** 10. AS PROP. 187 FALLS, THE FIGHT TO DEFEND AMERICA'S IMPOVERISHED MOVES HIGHER By Allen Harris Much of California's Proposition 187, a ballot measure which sought to turn Californians against each other on the issue of undocumented immigration, has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in Los Angeles. Proposition 187 was passed by California voters in November 1994 after a vicious campaign in favor of it, led by Governor Pete Wilson, who was running for re-election. U.S. District Court Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer ruled on November 20 that only the federal government has jurisdiction over immigration matters. She said the state of California cannot question the undocumented about their status in order for them to obtain public education, health and welfare benefits. "The state is powerless to enact its own scheme to regulate immigration or to devise immigration regulations which run parallel to or purport to supplement the federal immigration laws,'' the judge wrote. Pfaelzer's ruling: * Struck down provisions that require health care, school and social service workers to report undocumented immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. * Prohibited California from withholding primary education, health care and welfare services to undocumented immigrants. * Left intact provisions prohibiting the use or manufacture of counterfeit immigration documents. * Left intact the ability of higher education officials to limit enrollment to undocumented immigrants as long as admissions workers follow existing federal policies. Judge Pfaelzer's striking down even parts of Proposition 187 is justified by the U.S. Constitution. It represents a social and political stand against the exclusion of any part of society from needed services. Yet 187 was more than just the ballot measure; it was also the whole campaign to get it passed. The forces who pushed for 187 back in 1994 will not stop now. In fact, the political stakes have been raised; the rights and the future of the undocumented across the nation are now on the line as the drive has turned to pass a federal version of 187 through Congress. All those who are fighting in defense of immigrants and against the millionaires and billionaires -- whose solution to their economic crisis is to attack people in poverty -- must take this fight to the national level and win the battle there. ****************************************************************** 11. MEXICO'S RULING PARTY CONTINUES TO LOSE IN ELECTIONS By Arturo Santamaria Gomez On November 12, six states in the Republic of Mexico held municipal elections: Sinaloa, Tlaxcala, Oaxaca, Tamaulipas, Puebla and Michoacan. Michoacan also held gubernatorial elections. Although the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the most important party of the Mexican Left, made some important gains, they were relegated to third place in the governor's election in Michoacan, the political heart of the PRD. In reality, the defeat of the PRD in Michoacan signifies a national political defeat of that party. It means that if the PRD is no longer capable of winning the governorship in Michoacan it will be many years before it can conquer the leadership of one of the Mexican states. This defeat of the PRD by the Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI (the Mexican government's current ruling party), although by a narrow margin, could provoke discussion within the heart of the PRD regarding the electoral politics that have been carried out. It would not be strange to find that from this discussion a sector of the PRD breaks with the party and seeks to construct a new political organization with the Zapatista National Liberation Army. The real winner in these elections has been the conservative National Action Party (PAN). They won virtually in all of the cities in each state with the exception of Tlaxcala. The PAN has become, for more and more Mexicans, the electoral alternative to the PRI that has controlled political power for 67 years. To a great extent this is because the PAN is not seen by the majority of Mexicans as a conservative party. The PAN is seen rather as the oldest, most persistent democratic party in the country, an image that the PRD still does not have. The seriousness of the economic crisis affecting Mexico, with brutal unemployment (there has been a loss of some 1 million jobs just in this year); the rising inflation which will end up at 80 or 90 percent annually; the continued devaluation of the peso to the dollar (now 8 to 1); and the gigantic increase of the external debt (close to $140 billion) have forced more and more Mexicans to confront the ruling party. The struggle is difficult because the PRI, the government and the state sector rely more and more on the selective repression of popular organizations and the use of fascist methods to confront the growing popular discontent. Under these circumstances, the PRI is falling apart piece by piece, but the winner in this picture is a conservative party and not the revolutionary and democratic forces. ****************************************************************** 12. MICHIGAN WELFARE RIGHTS ORGANIZATION DENOUNCES GOV. ENGLER'S NEW WELFARE POLICY Michigan's 'Family Independence Agency' is really the 'Family Destruction Agency' By the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization DETROIT -- While Michigan Gov. John Engler receives accolades from some for his new welfare proposal, poor people and their allies are not happy with his plan to revamp the state's welfare system. The Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO), an organization of welfare recipients and low-income people, and the Detroit/Wayne County Union of the Homeless, staked out Engler's office in the Capitol in Lansing and held a press conference on November 8. The bold location of the event was meant to send a strong message of opposition to the governor. As National Welfare Rights Union co-chair Marian Kramer commented about Engler's plan: "He's calling it the Family Independence Agency (FIA). What it really is is the Family Destruction Agency." Although the new program has been framed as a means to help poor people to economic independence by placing people in jobs, encouraging education, providing child care and providing transportation, the program falls short on all of these measures. Although Engler has the public believing that welfare recipients live high off the hog, according to the Michigan League for Human Services, the reality is that each child on assistance in this state gets only $4.88 a day to cover all of his or her shelter, utilities, clothing, transportation and basic needs. Each child receives $2.30 a day in food stamps -- that's 77 cents a meal. AFDC consumes only 3.4 percent of the state's budget. Kramer's solution: "We gotta get that fool [Engler] out of there." ****************************************************************** 13. WHY IS THERE WELFARE? TO KEEP THE PEACE By Jan Lightfoot HINCKLEY, Maine -- Back in the 16th century, food riots broke out in the French city of Lyon. They began in 1529 and only ended in 1534 when the establishment finally gave the starving poor enough to shut them up. In 1534, the nobles and merchants provided the starving with food. This early form of welfare was provided not out of human kindness on the part of the haves, but to make Lyon a "vision of peace." In America today, the welfare reform bill is making its way through Congress. If it passes, millions of people could face hunger and starvation in America. With the pleas of America's poor to end hunger in this land of plenty going unheard, perhaps we can stage mock food fights in every state and in the nation's capital before this bill passes. And we should have the media cover these carefully controlled re- enactments of the 16th century fights for food. Advocates, allies and women on AFDC could pretend to gently hit one another with loaves of French bread, while at the same time carrying signs to explain just why we have welfare. They could explain to today's "nobles" that the reason for welfare is not primarily for the benefit of the poor, but to keep the peace. Perhaps these mock food fights will also give us poor people a sense of our own history. ****************************************************************** 14. GINGRICH EXPLOITS TRAGEDY TO CONDEMN WELFARE -- THAT'S SICK! >From the editors People across America have been shocked and horrified by the murder of Debra Evans of Addison, Illinois, and her children Samantha, 10, and Joshua, 8. Evans and the two children reportedly were killed in her apartment November 17. Evans was nine months pregnant at the time, and her unborn child was cut from her body by the killers and taken away. News reports allege that the killers included a couple who wanted a child so badly they were willing to kill Evans and take her unborn baby. Our hearts go out to Debra Evans' friends and family. This awful tragedy was made worse by U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich trying to make political hay out of it. Gingrich, speaking at a Republican Party meeting in New Hampshire, said the killings were an example of a nationwide culture of irresponsibility and lawlessness and illustrated the failure of the welfare state and "the decay of our civilization." Evans' family denounced Gingrich for trying to capitalize on this tragedy, and well they should have. Gingrich is a spokesperson for the little handful of wealthy people who run this country. Gingrich and his cronies in Congress -- including the Democrats -- have made and are making decisions that will take food out of the mouths of our children; that will plunge more people, including millions of children, into poverty; that will force many of the elderly to cut back or do without health care, and all in the name of preserving the wealth and privilege of a tiny elite. For these politicians to wail about the "decay of civilization" while they themselves are attacking the most vulnerable in our society is pure hypocrisy. The nationwide outpouring of sympathy and support for the Evans family is representative of the essential generosity and decency of the American people. The people want a society where the children and the elderly are cared for, where a young mother can rear her children, secure in the knowledge they'll have everything they need. It's more and more clear the Gingriches and Clintons of this world cannot lead us to such a society. We are going to have to depend on ourselves. ****************************************************************** 15. JOHNNIE TILLMON BLACKSTON: HER STRUGGLE SHAPED THE WELFARE RIGHTS MOVEMENT LOS ANGELES -- A mind that's made up can make history. Such was the example of Johnnie Tillmon Blackston, who died on November 22 at age 69. Since the early 1960s, she had been a national leader for all those fighting the welfare system's mistreatment. Her organizing and leadership eventually inspired the founding of the National Welfare Rights Organization. Michelle Tingling-Clemmons, a fighter for women's rights, said: "Johnnie Tillmon was a pioneer in the movement of people on welfare, demanding that they had rights that needed to be recognized and needs that needed to be met." She was born in Scott, Arkansas as a sharecropper's daughter. When she was grown and married, she moved to California with her six children -- leaving behind her first husband -- to make a better life on her own. To support her family, she worked in a Los Angeles laundry. The constant, degrading intrusions by welfare inspectors of their homes, their refrigerators, even their beds, moved Johnnie Tillmon Blackston to call a protest meeting in her housing development in Watts. More than 300 people came. The People's Tribune extends its condolences to the family and friends of Johnnie Tillmon Blackston. ****************************************************************** 16. WOMEN'S COMMITTEE OF 100 HOLDS 'VIGIL FOR A VETO' OF THE WELFARE BILL By the Committee of 100 WASHINGTON -- Representatives of women's groups, labor and welfare rights organizations held a vigil in front of the White House on November 15 to urge President Clinton to carry out his promise to veto the Congressional conference committee's welfare bill and to call on Clinton not to sign any legislation that abandons the 60- year-old guarantee of help for poor women and children. Betty Friedan, a founder of the National Organization for Women; Dr. Prema Mathai-Davis, national director of the YWCA and congresswomen Lynne Woolsey, Maxine Waters and Eleanor Holmes Norton were joined by several hundred women (and men) from all walks of life, including professors, welfare participants and representatives of a wide range of women's organizations. Out-of- state contingents included students from SUNY Stony Brook and Columbia University. Frances Fox Piven, vigil coordinator and professor at the CUNY Graduate Center, observed that "There is no sane explanation for this legislation unless greed and hate have taken command in the Congress of the United States." Vigil participants carried large "safety nets" filled with symbols of those most affected by the proposed welfare cuts -- women and children. They also carried a 40-foot banner from Michigan displaying the petitions of 4,000 Midwesterners calling on the president and Congress to abandon the direction of welfare reform they are now pursuing, and redesign welfare policies to address the real needs of poor people. Signs carried by participants decried the exchange of the New Deal for a Raw Deal, and declared that "a war against poor women is a war against all women" and called for true welfare reform. "This is a defining decision for President Clinton," said Deborah Weinstein, director of the Family Income Division at the Children's Defense Fund. "Nothing is more basic than a nation's commitment to secure its children from want." As Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund, has said, "Our nation should leave no child behind." Other speakers included Rosemary Dempsey, vice president of NOW; Dr. Prema Mathai-Davis, national director of the YWCA; Susan Kanoi of the Older Women's League; Diana Pearce of Wider Opportunities for Women; Sheila Quarles, executive director of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs; Cheryl Mucerino, president of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union; Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice; Eula Tate of the United Auto Workers; Michele Tingling-Clemmons of the National Welfare Rights Union and representatives of the Suffolk and Monroe County Welfare Warriors. The Women's Committee of 100, an organization formed to oppose the Republican welfare plan, now includes more than 700 women leaders, scholars, artists and writers from across the nation. It is co- chaired by Dr. Ruth Brandwein, vice president of the National Association of Social Workers and dean at SUNY Stony Brook; Dr. Guida West, former director of the Welfare Reform Network and Dr. Gwendolyn Mink, professor of political science at UC-Santa Cruz. ****************************************************************** 17. INMATE SEEKS COUNSELING, GETS CHARGED WITH ESCAPE Dear People's Tribune: I'd like to first thank you for sending me your fine publication. You cover news the mainstream won't, and when they do, they lie with total deceit. Secondly, I'd like to tell your readers about how the Wisconsin Department of Corrections likes to rehabilitate those thrust into its insidious care. A close of friend of mine, Gary Andrashko, wrote a letter to the Program Review Committee here at Waupun Prison stating he was having psychological problems. His psychological problem was a recurring fantasy of escaping from a medium [security] prison, if sent to one. Well, the "kind" DOC here received his letter and sat on it for a week. Then they locked him up and charged him with attempted escape. He never tried to escape, he only wanted help in dealing with his psychological problems. This shows how insipid the Wisconsin DOC is. He has requested that I be a witness at his hearing, which I will do. But the captain who wrote the charges had them pushed forward by his co-workers. So you can see that Wisconsin doesn't strive to rehabilitate anyone. If you seek help, you can easily become charged and locked up. Thanks for your paper and keep up the excellent reporting. In total solidarity, Edward M. Dettinger, #169167 Waupun Correctional Institution Waupun, Wisconsin +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 18. 'HELP ME CONQUER MY PROBLEM' [Editor's note: Below we publish Wisconsin prisoner Gary Andrashko's request to the Department of Corrections. Elsewhere on this page we print excerpts from a letter from his friend and fellow inmate Edward Dettinger, describing how that request was "handled" by authorities at the Waupun Correctional Institution, where they are both confined.] Dear Persons: I was hoping I could avoid telling anyone this, but due to the present situation that PRC has unexpectedly recommended that I transfer to a medium security facility, I now feel I must alert DOC officials that transferring me to a medium facility at this present time may not be in the best interest of the DOC and myself as well. Let me try to explain: It is a fantasy of mine that once I get to a medium prison, I will try to escape if given the opportunity, and medium security will provide that opportunity. My desire to fulfill my fantasies is so great that I fear I lack the will power to control this desire if the situation presents itself despite being fully aware of the consequences of my actions. Example: I knew that committing crimes would lead me to prison, but my desire to make my fantasy a reality surpassed all common sense and my rational thought process, thus I did commit crimes despite the devastating consequences which would follow. So likewise, until I can overcome my fantasy of escaping, it would not be prudent to transfer me to a medium facility at this time. Rather, I suggest that WCI provide me with some type of individual counseling or therapy to help me conquer my problem because I cannot seem to do it on my own. I am not saying that I will escape if given the opportunity, however, I am saying that I feel obligated, as a matter of self- concern, to alert the DOC of my aforesaid problem in hope of retaining me to WCI until I overcome this fantasy problem. Hopefully, if I receive immediate treatment I will be mentally prepared for transfer on my next recall date. Thank you for listening to my problem! It took a lot for me to write this letter. Sincerely, Gary Andrashko +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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 or e-mail cultfire@noc.org. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 19. MUSIC STRIKES BLOWS FOR FREEDOM IN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO [Below the People's Tribune reprints excerpts from recent reviews of several pieces of revolutionary music. The first excerpt, about KRS-1, is from "Rock and Rap Confidential." The second, from a posting on the Internet, has to do with two recordings dedicated to the struggle for democracy, justice and liberty in Mexico.] "KRS-1 attacks the 'house Negro,' singling out Colin Powell, C. Delores Tucker for her 'attack on the youth with no voices,' and the church for abandoning the revolutionary Jesus. Similarly, the Million Man March struck blows at some of music's worst enemies, including the right wing of the black church and pro-censorship, do-nothing organizations like the NAACP and Tucker's National Political Caucus of Black Women. All of those groups refused to participate in the March, an event that captured the imagination of millions.... "It is musicians, and their millions of fans, who have for years consistently taken such militant stands. KRS-One, which features the voice of dozens of rappers and radio DJs from all over America, exemplifies this. Musicians have already begun to take their stand in ways that promote unity across color lines. Despite continuing segregation at radio and most record companies, there's more interaction between musicians today than ever before. You can see it in the growing number of integrated bands (Lenny Kravitz, Hootie and the Blowfish, Prince's New Power Generation, the Dave Matthews Band, Echobelly). It's one reason for the ascension of funkateer George Clinton to alternative rock icon status. Above all, it's present in the wide-ranging impact of hip-hop, epitomized by the recent L.A. show where quintessential drunken frat-boy rockers Ugly Kid Joe performed with the Geto Boys. "As KRS-1 says, in 'Squash All Beef,' a song about ending violence between gangs, countries and men and women: 'Give me relief/ Squash all beef/ Don't let these arguments destroy us.' " +----------------------------------------------------------------+ And from a recent posting on the Internet: TenochDisc Records announces the worldwide release of "Somos Indios" -- Mexican songs dedicated to the Zapatistas in support of democracy, justice and liberty in Mexico. "Somos Indios" is a carefully selected and finely produced compilation of 17 regional, social and contemporary Mexican songs, representing some of the country's finest artists. The CD booklet includes translations and transcriptions, as well as a message from Cecilia Rodriguez, Zapatista representative in the United States. Cecilia Rodriguez writes: "Music, as an expression of happiness, allows us to share in a small taste of our human creativity and potential. This music, which you are about to enjoy, serves to bring us closer to an understanding of this new world for which the Zapatistas are struggling. The Zapatistas struggle for a world in which the children of Mexico are able to live without hunger, so they can learn, enjoy and also make new music. "That is why the struggle of the Southeast of Mexico now is the struggle of the whole world. The whole world is tired of the hopelessness, of the cynicism, of the cruelty, and of the stupidity that now reigns in the name of profit and greed. The Zapatistas have shown us that it is dignity which is most valuable in our lives, and that it is only with dignity that the possibility of democracy, justice, and liberty is ours. "I send you my humble greetings, and the wish that these beautiful melodies and harmonies help us to always remember our most important human project: to contribute to a society which we are proud to pass on to our children. One which future generations will look upon and be able to say that, in spite of everything, we followed the steps of the Zapatistas in their struggle for a better future. "Long live a democratic, free, and just Mexico! Long live the Zapatistas! Long live the just struggle of all the oppressed peoples of the world!" All songs have been generously contributed by the artists. All proceeds will benefit the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico in its work to bring democracy, justice and liberty to Mexico. Also in distrbution is Los Nakos' "Va Por Chiapas," a recording dedicated to Chiapas, which includes a wonderful rendition of the Zapatista anthem. To order "Somos Indios," send check or money order to: TenochDisc Records, P.O. Box 906, Austin, Texas, 78767. Orders can also be faxed to 512-990-9153, or e-mailed to "evera@igc.apc.org." The CDs are $15 each, and cassettes are $10. Los Nakos' "Va Por Chiapas" can be ordered through the same addresses; CDs are $14, and cassettes are $10. Shipping costs are $2 for the first two, and 50 cents for each additional CD or cassette. Outside the U.S., shipping costs are $2 for each CD or cassette. For the Los Nakos recording only, there are special discount prices of $9 for CDs and $6 for cassettes for committees in solidarity with Chiapas. ****************************************************************** 20. ROLE OF THE REVOLUTIONARIES IN TODAY'S CRISIS [The following is excerpted from the political report presented to the Area Office Conference of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America (LRNA) held in November.] Our country and our people are approaching a critical juncture. This moment places urgent and heavy responsibilities before of each of us individually as well as all of us collectively. Imagine that our hearts and minds are transported back to the days of the slave trade or slavery in this country -- but before the Civil War, before the political struggle against the slave power was underway and the tasks of those who were morally opposed to slavery were clear. The sight of mothers and fathers and sons and daughters being kidnapped from their homes, bought and sold as property, chained and beaten like animals, worked from sunup to sundown would have moved each us to do something -- anything. The question is, would we have coldly assessed what was necessary to pursue our passionate hatred of slavery to its conclusion, the total destruction of the slave system? Would we have then concentrated our efforts at what specifically we needed to do at any particular moment? This is the kind of choice before each of us and all of us today. The destruction of our society today poses the same kind of moral crisis. Millions of families and senior citizens will be left to starve and freeze, and millions of young people will grow up in prisons. Meanwhile a handful of millionaires and billionaires will continue to enjoy $100,000 vacations and $100 lunches. Have we made the commitment to do specifically what history is calling on us to do in order to not just fight this system but to end it? To answer that question, let's go back to the situation today. What makes this juncture so critical? What opportunities and what dangers does it put in front of us? When the rulers of this country speak to each other, they put it very clearly: "These dramatic wage developments raise profound issues for the U.S., issues of equity and social cohesion, issues that affect the very temperament of the country. We are forced to face the question of whether we will be able to go forward together as a unified society with a confident outlook or a society of diverse economic groups suspicious of both the future and each other." These are the words of William McDonough, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. McDonough cannot afford to be overly pessimistic or alarmist; his comments have the power to throw the financial markets into a multibillion- dollar panic. But he considered the situation urgent enough to call together 35 academics, businessmen and journalists to discuss these questions. The ruling class understands this moment of crisis perhaps better than we do. They know that the polarization of wealth and poverty is reaching extreme and dangerous proportions. And so they pay researchers and policy advisers millions of dollars to tell them what the American people are thinking -- or ready to think. This is what they have come up with and what all of us see everyday: About a year and a half ago, a Times-Mirror study found that most Americans were frustrated with the current system, politically unanchored, and open to alternative solutions and political appeals. More recently, the chief economist at Morgan Stanley wrote to warn his clients that an "extraordinary gap between productivity and real wages has now opened up in the U.S. and that worker backlash could be one of the key issues of the 1996 presidential campaign." A new section of the African American population attended the Million Man March. Their economic insecurity, anger and suffering cannot be separated from the economic insecurity, anger and suffering of other sections of the population who share a common economic position but have a different social history. Millions of people don't like the way this country is going, but have no understanding of who took it here and why. What response there is can't help but be scattered and defensive. The American people may be terribly confused, but they will speak. History, science and current polls all tell us that this country is on the verge of some sort of explosion of discontent. Any explosion of discontent today will be on the basis of today's economy, today's problems, today's social revolution. This poses some important questions. How will this discontent erupt into rage? Where? In what forms? To get ready for the social explosions ahead of us, we have to understand their potential and their limitations. By April of this year, we saw an example of how far astray things can go. Many of those frustrated with their own economic situation were attracted to the political appeals of the militias and others who oppose the federal government but don't question the capitalist system or its manipulation of the race card to control the American people. On the other hand, it is from the social response and struggle that we gather together those revolutionaries who will dedicate their energies to educating the American people in revolution and preparing for the political struggle. Again, the Million Man March shows what is automatic and what we have to guarantee: The march showed that the social struggle organizes itself and grows with or without us. It also shows that the social struggle does not just get bigger and bigger and then turn into a political struggle against the capitalist system and the rulers of this country. What is our special role and our limitations? The LRNA is dedicated to changing the minds of the American people, inspiring them with a vision of what the world can be and empowering them with a program for revolution so that they see their role in achieving that vision. We have to aim our agitation and propaganda at gathering together the revolutionaries this stage of the social struggle is producing so that we can be ready for the political crisis as it breaks out. The ruling class is certainly doing its preparation. They know that they can no longer control this country as if there were still a huge "middle class" living well off this system. And so they are already passing the laws and setting the precedents that deprive the people of basic rights. They are preparing for a new form of rule, a rule wherein the police are unleashed and the people are controlled by force. To accomplish this, they have to prepare the morality and consciousness of the American people for a police state. Especially through the manipulation of public opinion by the media, they are already working on lots of levels of this. They may not be able to stop militant response to the social destruction, but they can try to avoid and prevent an anti- capitalist sentiment and understanding to that response. On a moral level, they foster disunity. This is important, because America is at a different place than it was 100, 60, 30 or even 15 years ago. Back then, they could foster hatred. That won't work today with the majority of the people; but, under these conditions, disunity can be just as destructive. The American people are a morally and ideologically motivated people. They are moved to action, to standing on principle, to taking a stand, to "putting your money where your mouth is." Today, we can enter the fight on a moral level in a way that was impossible before. Today, propaganda with a moral cutting edge is a route to developing class and political consciousness. Without an organization committed to spreading a vision and gathering together the revolutionaries around a program for revolution, the social struggle will grow and become more militant, but the ruling class will maintain the moral and political initiative. The people's objective needs today are becoming more and more communist. But their ideology is becoming more fascist. This alone should confirm the need for an organization that can unite the American people with the cause for which they are unconsciously striving. If we understand how much of history depends on our commitment to the tasks before us, we will live up to the responsibilities history has placed on us. We as individuals will apply ourselves creatively and critically. We will build the collectives that will complete and secure the transition called for by the Second Convention of the LRNA. We will commit ourselves energetically and fully to this particular task. Our country has reached similar junctures at other points in our history. It is always at these points that people are finally able to do something about the injustice that they cannot bear or cannot accept. In the slavery days of this country, how many good people felt that they couldn't coexist with slavery and at the same time didn't know what to do about it? Before the heroic civil rights movement, how many people felt powerless in the face of segregation and its contempt for human life but didn't know what to do? How many people today feel powerless in the face of the misery this system is dealing out? How many would do something if they only knew what the problem is and what to do about it? How many really want the world of health and happiness, peace, brotherhood and justice that modern science makes possible? Millions. What's at stake today is more than meeting the needs of millions of hungry and homeless people. It's even more than a question of a new economic system. It's all these things, but it's more. What's at stake is whether -- or when -- humanity will be freed up to go on to a new stage of its history. We have the opportunity that millions in the history of this country never had. Let's grab this moment. ****************************************************************** 21. WE NEED YOUR PLEDGE: To read, to distribute, to use the People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo! The People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo cut through the lies that weaken and divide the millions in poverty. They get out the message of class and unity -- the message that can destroy the poverty of the capitalist system. They get out the new ideas that give a vision and hope to fight for a better way. Reach out to every part of America with the People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo! ****************************************************************** 22. GIVE THE GIFT OF TRUTH THIS HOLIDAY SEASON WITH THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE! For only $25 you can give someone a gift subscription to the People's Tribune. Send your check or money order to us: P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654-3524 Send my gift subscription to: Name ___________________________________________________________ Address ________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip _________________________________________________ ****************************************************************** 23. 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. 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