From jdav@noc.orgSun Jan 28 19:01:03 1996 Date: Sun, 28 Jan 96 19:45 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune (2-6-96) Online Edition ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 23 No. 3 / February 5, 1996 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. 23 No. 3 / February 5, 1996 Page One 1. ARE YOUTH DANGEROUS OR IN DANGER? Editorial 2. THE BUDGET DEBATE: A TIME TO ASK WHERE AMERICA IS HEADED Spirit of the Revolution 3. 'SACRED HUNGER' CONTAINS A MESSAGE FOR EACH OF US TODAY News and Features 4. WHAT'S BEHIND THE FIGHT OVER THE BUDGET? 5. PROCESSES OF CHANGE CONFERENCE: STUDENTS, SCIENTISTS, AND ACTIVISTS DEBATE THEORY, JOIN STRUGGLE 6. EXPO '96 FOR WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT: DEFEND FEMINISM BY OPPOSING ATTACKS ON POOR WOMEN 7. WOMEN SPEAK OUT ON THE ISSUES FACING EXPO '96 8. DETROIT STRIKE IS TEST FOR ENTIRE LABOR MOVEMENT: NEEDED NOW: A NATIONAL MARCH ON DETROIT Focus on African American History Month 1996 9. UNITY OF THE POOR IS KEY TO LIBERATING AMERICA 10. STATEMENTS ON AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH 1996 11. RULERS' CALL FOR 'COLORBLINDNESS' A SMOKESCREEN FOR WHITE SUPREMACY Deadly Force 12. FIVE YEARS AFTER KING BEATING, COP ABUSE STILL RAMPANT -- REPRESSION: ROOTS AND RESOLUTION Culture Under Fire 13. 'IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD' >From the League 14. CAMPAIGN TO VOICE THE DEMANDS FOR JUSTICE, UNITY AND A NEW MORALITY 15. WELFARE FOR THE RICH: ARE YOU BETTER OFF THIS YEAR? ****************************************************************** 1. PAGE 1: ARE YOUTH DANGEROUS OR IN DANGER? The present generation of youth is a generation that is truly international, a generation connected by a hip-hop beat that can be found around the world, from America to Europe, from Africa to Asia. But the massive media establishment in this country wants us to believe that the youth are dangerous -- not only to society, but to themselves. There seems to be no limit to the horror stories that the media put out of gang violence or of tragic incidents. These stories serve only to make being young seem like a curse. Worse than a curse, a crime. Are the youth dangerous, or in danger? We live in a time of crisis, and young people are caught in it at least as badly as the older generations. The youth face sky-high unemployment, cutbacks in education, homelessness and death. Calls are being made by some judges to impose the death penalty on convicted children as young as 13. While schools go begging for funding for real education, government at all levels is scrambling to build youth concentration camps (billed as boot camps or orphanages). In this society, where wealth and political power are held in the hands of a tiny few, young people are in more danger than ever. The youth have energy and enthusiasm to offer us all, but they are not needed by the capitalists. A person who the capitalist doesn't need has to be controlled, or repressed, or even killed in the interest of protecting the capitalist's position. It doesn't have to be this way. We can either let the rulers put chains on us all, the way a judge in South Carolina chained a mother and daughter together recently, or we can organize to break all of our chains of poverty, repression and terror. Young people can play a leading role in the fight to end poverty and create a society where "danger" is replaced by love and solidarity. ****************************************************************** 2. EDITORIAL: THE BUDGET DEBATE: A TIME TO ASK WHERE AMERICA IS HEADED The heart of a capitalist economy is the drive for maximum profits. Until now, it seemed that the more profits the capitalists made, the more affluent the American people became. As long as there were decent-paying jobs, that arrangement worked for many people. But something has gone wrong. Robots and computers are now doing the work once done by millions of human beings. Three million jobs have been lost since 1989; almost 500,000 people were laid off in 1995; and AT&T Corp. recently began handing pink slips to 40,000 of its employees. This problem -- record-breaking profits alongside a poverty never seen before -- lies at the very core of the debate over a balanced budget. The rulers of this country need to cut the federal budget in order to make more money available for corporations to invest and to continue making profits. They began by cutting welfare programs, but the cuts will not end there. Welfare represents a tiny part of the budget. The foundation is being laid to cut Medicare and Social Security. America's rulers claim that they care about our children's future and do not want to pass today's debt on to them. If they care so much about children, why are they cutting what little money is provided for poor children? The current budget debate is a good time to ask where America is headed. Our government is saying that it will not take responsibility for the well-being of the American people. What else is society for, if not to develop the economic and cultural lives of its people? Throughout history, societies have changed to meet the needs of humanity. The same technology that is throwing millions of people out of work is also producing an abundance of goods. For the first time, human beings now have the means not simply to survive from day to day, but to develop intellectually and spiritually beyond anything we've ever seen. Society has to be re-organized to make that possible. As part of the fight to do this, every decent person must oppose any cuts in social programs. ****************************************************************** 3. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: 'SACRED HUNGER' CONTAINS A MESSAGE FOR EACH OF US TODAY By Beth Gonzalez [Editor's note: The book review below is the latest contribution to our regular column about spirituality and revolution. We encourage readers to submit articles to this column and to comment on what appears here.] Read Sacred Hunger for a journey back in time to the economics, politics and emotions of the English slave trade during the 1700s -- and for a powerful message for today about decisions and commitment. The title of this award-winning novel by Barry Unsworth sums up the historical background to the story. The slave trade was driven by an uncontrollable hunger for profit, a hunger which wrenched mothers and fathers and sons and daughters from their homes, converting human beings into property. That hunger was "sacred," sanctioned by the law and the church. As the story unfolds, we gain confidence that the seeds of self-destruction sown by that hunger will prove to be more powerful than the forces which give the slave trade sanction and sanctity. With dialogue and description, Unsworth paints a moral portrait of capitalism during the 1700s. It is a portrait just as true of capitalism today: Property rights are sanctified, human rights are sacrificed. The heart of the book consists of the emotional, philosophical and moral odyssey of a doctor on a slave ship. The slave trade sickens him as soon as he sees the faces of those torn from their homes, their flesh burned with the brand. The struggle inside himself leads to the greatest challenge of this doctor's life: Will he strike a blow against the slave trade? What is the most effective thing he can do? There is a powerful message here for each of us sickened by the growing misery and groping for the steps to take to break the tightening grip of police power in our country. The moment that the passion of anger, grief or frustration grabs our hearts, our minds start to reason. But reasoning can lead in many directions. For some, it claims a right to greater comfort and more wealth at the expense of others. Other people don't profit from misery, but their reasoning may justify it. Some people convince themselves that they cannot make a difference. But once you decide that you can no longer accept an injustice, you begin to figure out your relationship to that injustice -- and to abolishing it. If you value yourself, you recognize that you can make a difference. Given the conditions they face, the only thing that the characters in Sacred Hunger can do is to strike one blow at the slave trade. They don't weaken slavery itself, but their actions enable them to live for a time as men and women, not as slaves and handlers of human cargo. Today, we see destruction taking place on a scale broader than it did during the slave trade. This calls for decisions and commitment on the part of all those who can no longer bear what this capitalist system is doing, all those who will no longer accept the obscene power and profit of the few. For me, reading this book was a spiritual experience. Read Sacred Hunger and commit yourself -- or recommit yourself on a higher level -- to help end this system. Read this book; then consider: What is the most effective thing you can do? ****************************************************************** 4. WHAT'S BEHIND THE FIGHT OVER THE BUDGET? By Bruce E. Parry, Ph.D. WHAT IS THE DEFICIT? Each year since 1969, the government has spent more than it took in revenue. This means it had to borrow to make up the difference. This is the deficit. In 1969, the government took in more than it spent. That year, it took in a surplus. WHAT IS THE FEDERAL DEBT? At one point, more than 50 years ago, the federal government had no debt. Since it started running deficits, those annual deficits add up to the federal debt. The federal debt at the end of 1994 was about $4.7 trillion. HOW BIG IS THE ANNUAL DEFICIT? In recent years, the annual deficit has been running between $200 and $300 billion dollars a year. In 1994, it was officially reported as about $235 billion. But that figure is misleading because it includes the so-called trust funds. Trust funds are self-contained federal funds that are supposedly separate from what the government spends on day-to-day operations. All the trust funds run surpluses every year because they are investment funds. The largest trust fund is Social Security at about $431 billion. The total amount of the trust funds in 1994 was $1.18 trillion. The trust funds ran a surplus of about $26 billion in 1994. What Congress has been doing is borrowing that $26 billion surplus and applying it to the federal deficit. So the real deficit, when you don't count this sleight of hand, is actually $325 billion + $26 billion = $351 billion. This little trick has been going on for a long time. It is part of the government's way of hiding the truth from the public. WHAT CAUSES THE DEFICIT? There are two sides to every deficit: expenditures (how much the government spends) and receipts (how much the government takes in revenues). Thus, you can fix the deficit by spending less or by taking in more. On the expenditure side, it is a mathematical law that you can only make significant cuts where there is money. The most money in one place in the federal budget is the military budget. According to the government, military spending was about 23.3 percent of the $1.2 trillion 1994 federal budget (about $280 billion). Since much is hidden, it was undoubtedly more. Nevertheless, the cuts in military spending have been small. Many other budget areas which directly benefit business have not been cut or the proposed cuts have been seriously contested. By comparison, cuts have been proposed in sections of the budget which are much smaller than the military, particularly when they affect ordinary people. Cuts have been proposed in: Medicare (total budget of $144 billion), health ($112 billion), education ($51 billion), housing ($24 billion), food and nutrition ($38 billion), etc. On the receipt side, it is also a mathematical law that you cannot get money from those who do not have it. In 1981, gross federal debt was 33.5 percent of total production (Gross Domestic Product or GDP). That year was the lowest since World War II. In 1994, debt was 70.4 percent of GDP. The major reason for the increase was that the government slashed tax rates on the richest individuals and businesses. In order to make up the shortfall, they then borrowed money back from the very group they had just stopped taxing. The easiest, most straightforward way to balance the budget would be to tax everyone making over $75,000 (or $100,000 or whatever) at historical rates. The money is there. They are not taxed because they literally own the politicians who are passing the laws. And today, those very same politicians are considering cutting taxes on the rich even more! It goes without saying that when taxes of the rich are reduced, what is not borrowed is made up by taxing ordinary people more. WHAT ABOUT THE 'FLAT TAX'? The historical principle on which our tax policy is based is called "progressive taxation." Progressive taxation means that those with more money bear greater responsibility for social costs: the more you make, the higher the tax rate you face. Thus, from 1954 to 1963, a single person without dependents paid 78 percent of everything they made over $75,000 in taxes. Today, that same person pays only 31 percent in taxes. There are also efforts to reduce the capital gains tax, which would be another major windfall for capitalists, those who own businesses. The flat tax would have everyone pay the same rate: about 17 percent. That is the rate people making $10,000 or less pay now. That makes it clear that the proposal to have a flat tax is nothing more than another effort to slash taxes for the rich! It is a violation of the basic principle on which the government has said it taxes people. SHOULD WE BALANCE THE BUDGET? Any rational system of finance must be based on a balanced budget. But the current system is not rational (in the sense of meeting human needs) and any attempt to balance the budget now is nothing more than another attack on ordinary people by businesses and the rich. Here's why. The politicians are totally dependent on the rich and on businesses and lobbyists to get money to get re-elected. Thus, they won't bite the financial hand that feeds them. Furthermore, the current efforts to balance the budget are on behalf of businesses. In this highly competitive business climate, businesses demand lower taxes in order to have higher after-tax profits. Thus, the cuts they are demanding, and those that lawmakers will give them, are those that will reduce our standard of living and increase their profits. Everything they have done so far proves that. They are not raising taxes on the rich to balance the budget. They are not cutting military and business programs (with a couple of exceptions) to balance the budget. They are attacking social programs! There's another reason. Deficit spending stimulates the economy. By spending more than it takes in, the government keeps commodities (and hence the economy) moving by buying things that otherwise would not get bought. The economy is already sluggish and ready to go into another downturn. Further cutting the budget will help it collapse more quickly. The government is not going to do that. That is why the plan to balance the budget is so long- term (7 to 10 years) and why there is so much lying about how much the deficit is and how much is being cut. NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION! The other basic principle America was founded on with regard to taxation is "no taxation without representation." But ordinary people, let alone the poor and working people of this country, are not represented in government. We have government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. The elected politicians are paid for and beholden to business and others who finance their campaigns. And they all declare that they (the rich) are "the people." Since only about 10 percent of the population makes $75,000 or more per year (yes, that's all) and everyone in Congress makes at least that, those are the people who should pay all the taxes: people who make more than $75,000. But if we did want to balance the budget on our behalf -- on behalf of the ordinary people -- it would be easy. On the expenditures side, we could cut out subsidies to businesses and cut the military budget in half (or more). Part of that money could go to fund schools, health care, public assistance, housing and other programs needed by the majority of Americans. The rest could reduce the deficit. The rest of the deficit could be wiped out by cutting or eliminating taxes for everyone who makes less than $75,000 a year and by raising taxes on everyone who makes more. And by raising the capital gains taxes. WHAT'S GOING ON? The real questions about the budget are not over whether it can be balanced. They are about who is going to pay. The rulers of this country -- from Clinton and Gingrich on down -- are planning to make those with less -- ordinary people -- pay more. And they want those with more -- the rich and business owners -- to pay less. That's just as backwards as everything else they do! But, they are responsible for what they do. The point is not whether what they do is forward or backwards. The point is that what they do has consequences. Cutting housing means people are freezing to death on the streets. Cutting public assistance means children are starving. Cutting Medicare and Medicaid means people are dying who could be saved. Cutting education means our kids are graduating illiterate and dropping out of what they consider useless schools because they see no future. So we must hold these people -- from Clinton and Gingrich on down -- responsible. And that means fighting against their efforts to balance the budget on our backs and for their profit! We demand a budget of trillions of dollars that will balance our budgets, fill our stomachs, heat our homes, cure our illnesses and teach our kids what they need to know for a future full of promise and hope! ****************************************************************** 5. PROCESSES OF CHANGE CONFERENCE: STUDENTS, SCIENTISTS, AND ACTIVISTS DEBATE THEORY, JOIN STRUGGLE Article and interviews by Kate Williams for the People's Tribune A three-day conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last November looked at how nature, science, and society change. The next week, several student participants joined a Boston housing takeover to make it clear how they intend to help society change. The "Processes of Change" conference began with scientists presenting the newest complexity and chaos theories, which explain that change is not linear (1, 2, 3), but instead large unexpected transformations emerge from small beginnings. Other speakers described how the crisis in nature -- the emerging killer viruses, global warming -- is combining with the crisis in society -- technological joblessness on a global scale, political changes that deepen the polarization of wealth and poverty. Following the spirit of Boston's Mel King, who was honored at the Conference, the 200 participants, at least a quarter of them college students, also emerged with a clearer sense of the unity of the many struggles and organizations represented. According to spokesperson Jennifer Jones of Students Together Ending Poverty (STEP), which hosted its own conference alongside Processes of Change, "We realize that we are a part of a growing movement to end poverty and we have an important role to play in building that movement." In addition to the housing takeover, STEP plans similar meetings in other parts of the country. This conference was the third in a series on technology and change. As it ended, other Processes of Change conference organizers turned to helping plan similar conferences in Los Angeles and Atlanta. A book of the conference presentations will be available later this year. To make contact, see the box on this page. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 'I BECAME ANGRY AND I TOOK A STAND' One student at the conference told the People's Tribune: "I'm a single mother with a daughter and son. In New York City and in many states the [welfare] system doesn't allow people to get more than a two-year degree. For women who have children, it's essential that they have day care money, because without that we can't do what we need to, go to school. So most of us -- and it breaks my heart when I see people who don't know how to do this -- claim a two-year degree but follow a four-year track, and ride it out as far as you can, until you get caught. Welfare is a shameful thing -- for those who don't know where the real truth lies. I was real ashamed. When I found out what was really going on, that we were being scapegoated, I became angry, and began to take a stand." The People's Tribune met student and inventor Steve Mann on the MIT campus. "What I'm wearing is an antenna, video display and video capture, microphone and earphone, so I can communicate with others. I can transmit and watch video at the same time." His apparatus could help people with memory loss, or help people monitor their own vital signs. Steve feels that when he walks into a store with videocameras, he turns the tables on them, because his video is beamed right to his computer, not the store's. Aware that technology can either serve mankind or make a hell on earth, Steve also warned that a wraparound headset-computer could be forced on prisoners or detainees. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ STUDENTS TOGETHER ENDING POVERTY People Tribune: What is Students Together Ending Poverty trying to achieve? STEP member Beth Green: A better understanding of what's going on, and how students can connect on these issues to make a stronger movement and answer our needs as people who are trying to fight awful things that are happening. STEP member Joe Strife: This weekend we're discussing what does it mean to be a student in relation to all the things going on in society? What can we do? What's going to be affecting us? As students, we're isolated from each other on campus, and programs such as multiculturalism are under attack. More basically, looking at the redistribution of wealth that's going on, what is the university's part in that? PT: What new ideas caught your imagination this weekend? Joe: One thing for me was the idea of using our relationship with the university. We're at the intellectual and ideological centers for what's going on. How can we use that to affect what's going on, use those resources in the classroom, for instance the scientists at this conference, to organize to support the movement against poverty? Beth: The struggle isn't just for access to education but over what is being taught. If we're not being taught the truth, then we'll teach it to each other. Jamie Jencks: Less than two percent of Americans are working in agriculture, between 20 and 25 percent in manufacturing. What about the other 75 percent? Service, technology, majority low- paying jobs. Omar Haneef: Prisons are a business for taking care of extra bodies. Jamie: It's so important for all of us to move ahead as society moves from agricultural through industrial to a new phase. The ones I can see to blame are the ultra-rich who are just moving chess pieces around. They close a jail here [in Boston] and the hospital gets the building, but -- Boom! -- they fly the prisoners to Texas. And William M. Bulger [who had a hand in the decision] goes from running the State Senate to being president of the University of Massachusetts?! We have to cover the moral issues from the left: Love. Caring about our fellow people. Omar Haneef: Before I came here, I was scared about things and knew I needed to talk more about it. Small student groups talk about environmentalism but not about joblessness or the irrelevancy of government. It's our generation that has to do the thinking. And here I realized that doing (activism) produces the thought. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Contact: Students Together Ending Poverty, 8 Varney Street, Jamaica Plain, Mass. 02130, 617-522-6924, jjones@jri.org. Los Angeles conference planning committee: Clyde Flowers, Impact of Technology on Society Project, clydeflowers@delphi.com Atlanta conference planning committee: Little Five Points Community Center 404-522-2926 johnyrev@aol.com "Processes of Change" book: Twenty-First Century Books, Chicago, 312-538-2188, tcbchgo@aol.com. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 6. EXPO '96 FOR WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT +----------------------------------------------------------------+ GREETINGS TO EXPO '96 The People's Tribune sends greetings to all those participating in "Expo '96 for Women's Empowerment" in Washington on February 2-4. Expo '96 takes place at a moment in history when the equality of women is possible. A powerful women's movement can be built in the '90s if it defends poor women as its first line of defense. To assist in that effort, these pages of the People's Tribune present the voices of some of the millions of women fighting to feed and house their families. We welcome your comments. The Editors +----------------------------------------------------------------+ EXPO '96 FOR WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT: DEFEND FEMINISM BY OPPOSING ATTACKS ON POOR WOMEN By Marian Kramer and Michele Tingling-Clemmons On February 2-4, 1996, "Expo '96 for Women's Empowerment" will be held in Washington, D.C. This gathering called by the Feminist Majority Foundation has the support of "over 200 co-sponsoring organizations dedicated to the empowerment of women ... [who] want the nation to see the power of the feminist movement and its ideas." As Expo '96 nears, we face a government held hostage by a right- wing Congress which insists on transferring wealth to the rich through a so-called "tax break." This crisis has been distorted, described as a battle between Republicans and Democrats over how long it will take to balance the budget. For women, especially those in the ranks of the 80 million people living in poverty, that is a bogus issue. What does it matter to us which wins -- Tweedledee's proposal of balancing the budget in 7 years or Tweedledum's proposal to balance it in 10 years -- when the goal of both is to dismantle the safety net? The feminist movement must view this as an attack on women and as the beginning of a frontal assault on all of us: men, women, children, the elderly, the sick, the young. Expo '96 needs to rise up in outrage at our Democratic president who began the right-wing attack on women and children on welfare with his 1992 presidential campaign slogan of "two years [on welfare] and off." Expo '96 has the possibility of setting out a truly feminist platform that reflects the needs of the millions of women who are victims of this economic system. Today, equality cannot be won without struggling against the roots of our economic oppression. With robots and computers replacing workers every day, the capitalist system no longer needs to maintain a relatively well-fed, well-housed and well-educated working class in the United States. The layoffs recently announced by AT&T Corp. -- mainly of women -- is only the latest example of this. A truly feminist platform must direct the government to guarantee freedom from poverty; call for a guaranteed annual income for all; demand food, health care, housing, and energy as the highest priority. A truly feminist platform must call for help to get homeless women and their families off the streets and into homes of their own, thereby providing real family support. "Welfare" must once again mean that people should "fare well." These are the values we aspire to have our children embrace; we demand nothing less from our government. Our children are the key to the future and this system is working to destroy them. If recognizing that reality means that capitalism must go, then so be it. Today we can build a new society controlled by us, one that meets our needs and assures our children a future. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ WOMEN CRUSADING FOR A NEW AMERICA SPEAKING CAMPAIGN Many of the women on these two pages -- fighting on the front lines of the battles for housing, welfare, equality and more -- are available to speak at Women's History Month events in March. For details, call the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau at 312-486- 3551 today. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 7. WOMEN SPEAK OUT ON THE ISSUES FACING EXPO '96 Merari Ortiz, a member of the Children Leaders of the Revolution, a Philadelphia organization of poor and homeless children, speaking at a rally staged by the National Organization for Women in Columbus, Ohio in July 1995: I am here today because we are fed up with our government and the injustice of it all. We are tired of being treated like criminals. Being poor is the only crime we have. The governmental stealing from the poor should be punished. "Cut welfare," they say. Mr. Clinton: Where are the jobs with livable wages? Cutting our school lunches -- how inhumane. Do your children eat? Why take from us? Mr. Clinton, Mr. Gingrich: Cutting WIC [the infant nutrition program] -- shame on you. Your houses and mansions cost taxpayers bundles. Most of us are homeless, while you have boarded-up HUD houses. Your clothing costs hundreds per outfit; ours are basically hand-me-downs. We Children Leaders of the Revolution will not sit down and be attacked. I also tell all the homeless people of this United States of America and land of plenty to look around; it's time to take a stand. Together we can overturn this injustice and this inhumane government. Marian Kramer, president of the National Welfare Rights Union which is celebrating its 29th anniversary this year: For the first time in history, the economy is forcing certain sections of women to come together to fight as one. We have to understand who is the cutting edge of this fight -- the women who are homeless and the victims of poverty. The women on AFDC are the bullet being used by the government to be shot against the whole of the women's movement and to break the unity that must be forged for the whole working class. We're here to discuss what our platform is. That's what we'll measure the candidates by. Marilyn Clement, executive director, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (for the U.S. Section): If women are to be successful in transforming history and developing a system dedicated to justice, then the only absolute is that we must do it together, the most vulnerable together with the privileged. Any lesser effort is certain to be a dismal failure. Cheri Honkala, executive director of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union which has housed some 60 homeless families by taking over an abandoned church and 30 abandoned HUD properties in Philadelphia: The women's movement is beginning to redefine itself because the majority of women today are poor and have to grapple with questions of "How am I going to live and feed myself and feed my children?" These fundamental issues -- the violence of hunger and poverty -- really need to be on the front burner for the women's movement. We need solutions to our own problems and cannot tie ourselves to the political parties or officials. There are already too many women casualties. We can't stand by and let this happen. Leona Smith, president of the National Homeless Union, who recently received the Martin Luther King Association for Non- violence's drum major human rights award: Women -- and particularly women of color -- need to focus on being more politically active and take over more of the leadership of men. There are not enough women in office. To change the status quo, we need to develop a slate nationwide to put this into motion. The women's movement has to focus on political change that affects us as women. The only way to focus on change is to have conferences, rallies and demonstrations -- which means unity among all of the people, not just people of color. We have to look at all races working together for social change. Those who take a position on what is going on in this country need to band together to make change happen. The voting poll was only 37 percent in Philadelphia. We have to exercise our right to vote -- if not, this is what you get. Voting, getting the right people in, and knowing who you are voting for is an educational process. We have to research the candidates and, more importantly, run our own. I'd like to see a nationwide poor people's campaign. The women at Expo '96 who have the dollars and the sense need to raise money to support those who will do something. Michele Tingling-Clemmons, an anti-hunger and housing activist and an author who documents hunger in "The Face of Hunger in America," an essay in the collection The Color of Hunger: Race and Color in National and International Perspective: A real feminist platform will question the America that tolerates the poverty that keeps millions of children, seniors, women and men hungry and homeless; will challenge the America that accepts soaring profits at the cost of layoffs, that leaves thousands more defenseless every day; and will demand an America that values families by guaranteeing food, housing, health care, education and jobs, that supports a real future for all of us in these United States. Adjoa A. Aiyetoro, national executive director, National Conference of Black Lawyers: "It is critical that we continue the work that women of color and poor women in the United States did in preparation and during the Beijing Conference to develop necessary structures and programs to address their needs." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "The political arena is out of balance, with rich white men dictating the policies that we all have to live under. Until we get equal numbers of women and those from all other cultures participating in democracy, history will just repeat itself." -- Dottie Stevens (Dottie Stevens is a former candidate for governor of Massachusetts who ran as an independent on a platform calling for electing the poor. She is the president of the Massachusetts Welfare Rights Union, president of the Survivors, Inc., and an elder in the Church of the United Community.) +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 8. DETROIT STRIKE IS TEST FOR ENTIRE LABOR MOVEMENT: NEEDED NOW: A NATIONAL MARCH ON DETROIT By Bob Mattingly, Jerry Gordon, Randy Furst and Don Bacheller [Editor's note: Below we print excerpts from a statement we received.] The news from the Detroit Labor War is mixed. The two newspapers and their parent companies are losing millions of dollars. The AFL-CIO and several international unions have sent in staff, money and food. The weekly union-produced newspaper, the Detroit Journal, is circulated widely and well-received. There has been widespread leafleting of businesses that advertise in the scab press. On the other hand, it appears that the unions have given up their attempts to halt the operation of the papers' printing plants and have adopted a "war of attrition" strategy. In only a few cases have unions won out where the targeted firms have continued operations. The Detroit strikers seem in danger of sharing the unfortunate fate of the strikers at Caterpillar and the locked-out workers at Staley. Reinforcing that conclusion is the take-it-or- leave-it declaration of the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press and their stated intent to allocate as much as $200 million to keep their papers on the street. Sidewalk leafleting as the central strategy is not the road to victory. The Detroit strike can still be won, but it is imperative that there be a decisive shift in strategy. In recent months, a substantial group of strikers and strike supporters have been calling for a national march on Detroit. This proposal has been made by both the Detroit Labor/ Community/Religious Coalition in Support of the Striking Newspaper Workers and by the Unity Victory Caucus, a caucus within the striking unions. A national mass action in Detroit will need some type of large civil disobedience campaign. The signal must go out to the press lords that production is going to be stopped. The aim of the march would be to regain the momentum, and ultimately set the stage for defeating the injunction by mass picketing at the printing plants. The march would be a preparatory step on the way to a series of strike actions. The objective in Detroit would be to disrupt business-as-usual for the struck Detroit papers and their corporate allies. Large-scale demonstrations and sit-ins as well as a one-day city or regional work stoppage would raise the stakes. It would send a message to the newspaper corporations that the American labor movement is determined to win. A national march on Detroit is going to require the support and leadership of the heads of the striking International unions, the United Auto Workers who play such a key role in the Detroit labor movement and the national AFL-CIO. It is going to require a forceful, well-organized support effort by central labor bodies throughout the Midwest and eastern part of the United States. The AFL-CIO has helped establish a nation-wide support network for the Detroit strike, by designating several union officials in every city to coordinate leafleting at K marts, one of the big advertisers in the scab papers. These officials could be asked to organize buses for a national march. The striking International unions will have to urge their locals nationwide to go on a mobilization footing, to come to Detroit. The Metro Detroit AFL-CIO represents 350,000 workers and has proven its capacity to mobilize more than 100,000 of them for a Labor Day march. The newspaper strikers can play a key role in helping turn out huge numbers, if they are given a real voice in planning, organizing and building the march. A top priority should be to reach out and cement links with the African American community which constitutes the overwhelming majority of Detroit's population. Organized labor needs to treat the Detroit newspaper strike as a national strike that stops production and distribution, uniting the area's workers with workers from around the country. The labor movement has the resources to do the job. It must not suffer a failure of nerve. [For identification purposes only: Bob Mattingly of Oakland, California is a retired business agent in Teamsters Local 896. Randy Furst is a steward in the Newspaper Guild and a reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Don Bacheller is a steward in the Guild and a copy editor at The New York Times. Jerry Gordon is an international representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and a member of the steering committee of the Detroit Labor/Community/Religious Coalition.] ****************************************************************** AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH 1996 9. UNITY OF THE POOR IS KEY TO LIBERATING AMERICA >From the editors The crossroads at which both America and the African American people stand can perhaps best be illustrated by the death of one man and the life of another. Joseph Gould, an African American, was 36, unarmed and homeless when he was shot to death in downtown Chicago last July 30 while trying to earn money washing car windows. He allegedly was killed by Gregory Becker, an off-duty Chicago cop, who claimed the shooting was accidental. John H. Johnson, an African American, is chairman of Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Company, a $274 million enterprise that has been listed among the five largest black-owned businesses in the United States. His personal fortune has been estimated at over $200 million. Joseph Gould shared more than the streets with the tens of thousands of other homeless Chicagoans; he shared a common poverty and oppression that crosses the color line, for the homeless are of every color and nationality. It was a multicultural crowd that demonstrated in Chicago to demand justice for Gould. Mr. Johnson, on the other hand, has more in common with his fellow multi-millionaires -- white and black -- than with the millions of African Americans who live in poverty. The class division is clear. The top 100 black businesses and 100 black auto dealers have overall sales of $12 billion and employ nearly 50,000 people. There are over 80 African Americans on the boards of the 500 largest corporations, including 24 who sit on three or more boards. People like Johnson have been integrated into the ruling class; of necessity they share its economic and political interest in preserving the existing system and making it "competitive" through wage, job and budget cuts. The poor, likewise, have been integrated into a class -- but one that is forced to confront the existing system in a fight for survival. The point is that, while racism is certainly rearing its ugly head, the real division developing in this country is between rich and poor, between rulers and ruled, between the class that owns everything and a growing new class that has nothing. This new class of poor people -- already some 70 to 80 million strong -- is united economically by their common poverty, regardless of color. In the past, steady jobs, high wages and a social safety net tied a section of those on the bottom to those on top. But those days are gone. Industrial "downsizing" is sparing no one, and the economic and social destruction that is devastating the African American people is hitting millions of others of all colors and nationalities. The economic unity thus being forged across the color line among those at the bottom is the foundation of a fighting political unity. And that fighting unity represents the road to liberation for the African Americans and for the whole of America. Let's take that road together. ****************************************************************** 10. STATEMENTS ON AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH 1996 [The people on this page are part of the "Speakers for a New America" campaign of the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau. Send for a free brochure that lists all of our speakers. Write P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Ill 60654, or call 312-486-3551. Look for us on the Internet at http://www.mcs.com/~jdav/league.html (LRNA Web page).] ONLY A REVOLUTION WILL CHANGE THE COURSE OF POVERTY Ethel Long-Scott is executive director of the Women's Economic Agenda Project of Oakland, California. She has devoted her life to helping empower people, especially women of color. She organized the first national poor women's conference, leads campaigns for poor women accused of "welfare fraud," and was co-chair of the African American Women's Caucus at the NGO Women's Conference in Beijing last year. "This African American History Month is a time for great contemplation and tremendous deeds. African Americans are facing a new kind of ghettoization resulting from the polarization of wealth and the effects of labor-replacing technology. "This upheaval has created a new class of poor people and new movements giving a voice to the downtrodden. A new women's movement has been born, led by women from the new class of poor people. "From the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing to the Million Man March in Washington, there is a vision emerging of a new America free of poverty, violence, race and gender hatred, and injustice. "This movement has tremendous breath, from hip-hoppers to medical professionals fighting the health industry, from those in cyberspace to the scientists seeking to sound the alarm about the dangers to our environment of economics driven by big bucks. "Big business no longer needs big government. The downsizing of America has progressed, producing an America where our children are worse off than their parents. "Only a revolution aimed at making private property public will change the course of poverty, destruction, and hopelessness. New technology demands a new America. That discussion should be the core of our African American History Month deliberations." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ HISTORIC JUNCTURE DEMANDS UNITY OF THE POOR Nelson Peery has been active in the communist movement since the days of the Scottsboro Boys. He is the author of Black Fire: the Making of an American Revolutionary, a memoir about his experiences as a black soldier in World War II and about the experiences that shaped him into a revolutionary. He is also a member of the People's Tribune Editorial Board. "February 1996 finds the African American people at a historic juncture. One road is labeled separatism, isolation and destruction. The other is labeled unity of the new class of the poor, the assumption of political power and the building of a free, new world. "The current intense fight against racism can only be won by fighting for a new ideology, not simply fighting against the old. That new ideology creates the conditions for the unity of the poor of all colors against the oppressors and exploiters of all colors. "Poverty is multicultural. One sector cannot survive without all surviving. The siren song of the black capitalists to 'go it alone' is their tactic to create a captive market that they can politically lead and economically exploit. "The black capitalists are united with and have the same goals as the white capitalists. The black poor are economically united with and politically have the same goals as the poor of all colors and nationalities." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ FREE OURSELVES BY JOINING WITH ALL OF THE POOR Abdul Alkalimat is an associate professor of African American Studies. He is the author of Introduction to African American Studies: A Peoples College Primer, and co-editor of Job?Tech: The Technological Revolution and its Impact on Society. He speaks on issues of race and class in the context of the new technology. "The fight against oppression and exploitation, the fight for freedom, justice and equality -- this sums up the central theme of black history. Today we've got the consensus between Clinton (the Democrat President) and Gingrich (the Republican leader of Congress) to protect the rich, liquidate the welfare state, and rapidly increase prisons and the police. We've also had the wonderful outpouring of protest at such events as the Million Man March. But what we need is a program for the emancipation of all poor people, which would automatically meet many of the needs of the majority of black people. "The central focus of the black liberation struggle has to be the majority of black people being forced to live in poverty. Can we really buy into a trickle down theory by which black people put their faith in black capitalism, as if black banks are fundamentally any different than any other kind of banks? Poor black people will have to free themselves, and that will mean joining with all poor people. If you're homeless, your brothers and sisters are those people who don't have homes either, and with whom you live on the streets and in those damn shelters. "Now is the time to turn Black History Month into Black Liberation Month. Now is the time to prepare for 21st century revolutionary change." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ SPEAKING EVENTS FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH (PARTIAL LIST) ABDUL ALKALIMAT Feb. 15 -- California State University, Los Angeles 4 - 6 p.m., Glendale Room. Feb. 16 -- Inland Empire area, California (Pomona/Riverside). Feb. 17 -- Watts 2 -5 p.m. Feb. 20 -- Harold Washington Library, Chicago. Feb. 28 -- Howard University, Washington, D.C. Feb. 29 -- Essex Community College, Baltimore, Maryland. WEAA Radio show, Baltimore. March 1 -- WJHU Radio, Baltimore. League of Revolutionaries for a New America forum, Baltimore MARIAN KRAMER Feb. 11 -- University of Michigan, Flint, 6 p.m., Labor Award Program; Community Labor & Families: An Endangered Species. NELSON PEERY Jan. 27-- 2-5 p.m., 1827 E. 103rd Street, Watts, California. Jan. 28-30 -- Events in the Inland Empire, California. ETHEL LONG-SCOTT Feb. 28 -- University of Michigan, Flint; Ain't I a Woman Too: The Future of the African American Woman. For more information on these speaking engagements, call: California: 213-299-7518 Baltimore: 410-467-4769 Flint: 810-695-6682 Chicago: 312-486-3551 +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 11. RULERS' CALL FOR 'COLORBLINDNESS' A SMOKESCREEN FOR WHITE SUPREMACY By John Slaughter ATLANTA -- Wouldn't it be nice if color was not a factor in American politics today? That is indeed our goal, to achieve Martin Luther King's dream that a person be measured not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Unfortunately this world of equality continues to elude us. But certain U.S. Supreme Court members and other "enlightened" politicians have decided we should all pretend that color does not exist. So, in Georgia, for example, where for the first time ever three black congresspersons have been elected to office -- and where, for the first time in history the number of African American representatives is roughly proportional to the population -- the courts have decided that the congressional district lines are unconstitutional because they took color into account. New, "colorblind" lines have been drawn, and behold, the number of African American representatives will in all likelihood drop from three to one! For all intents and purposes, the Voting Rights Act has been rendered null and void. Now, the newly elected governor of Louisiana has jumped on the colorblind bandwagon and announced that he will throw out all affirmative action programs immediately upon taking office. And in Alabama, where the governor has reintroduced the chain gang, that most brutal of all symbols of racism, the state has also announced that they will promote historic civil rights sites as tourist attractions! Has the whole world taken leave of its senses? There is a logic at work here. The people running this country have a strategy. While African Americans are hit first and hardest by poverty, unemployment and all that goes with it, they are simply the core of a growing mass of people of all colors who are being pushed out of the system. The push for "colorblindness" when there is no real equality is just another form of white supremacy, another way to divide us along the color line to prevent those at the bottom of society from uniting across that line. Will it work? It is a very ingenious ploy, but there is one factor those on top have overlooked: Empty stomachs are colorblind, too. Where blacks and whites have an equality of poverty, there is a basis for unity against a system that protects the obscene wealth of a few while the rest of us, black and white, are ground down into devastating poverty. Listen to your stomachs. They are crying out: Beyond the colorblind. John Slaughter, is the author of New Battles Over Dixie: The Campaign for a New South. ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 12. FIVE YEARS AFTER KING BEATING, COP ABUSE STILL RAMPANT REPRESSION: ROOTS AND RESOLUTION By Anthony D. Prince CHICAGO -- Take a look around, America: * In Baltimore, Maryland, video cameras are soon to be installed on every downtown street corner. * In Congress, a bill moves along the fast track to limit civil damages against brutal cops to $10,000, while raising the standard of proof needed to sustain complaints. * In Illinois, state officials propose the transfer of child protective services (runaways, the homeless) to the Department of Corrections. * On the cover of Time magazine, New York police commissioner William Bratton stands beside the headline, "Winning the War Against Crime." (Not a single mention of the massive New York police corruption scandal). And what about the record 30 percent increase in brutality complaints? "That's too damn bad," says Bratton. Spying on citizens, criminalizing troubled kids, handing cops a cheap license to brutalize and placing them above the law; almost five years after the Rodney King beating, the rails are being greased for even more and more widespread police abuse. Ask the people of Chicago, where a homeless man was shot in the head at point-blank range by a cop who is still on the streets. Ask the people of Pittsburgh, where Jonny Gammage, the cousin of Steelers' defensive end Ron Seals, died after a confrontation with suburban police or the people of New Orleans, where four cops have been arrested for murder, including one said to have ordered the execution of a woman who had filed a complaint. Once again, as we have for six years in this column, we challenge the justifications for this police terror and point to the true, underlying cause: any system that cannot feed, house and productively employ the people ultimately turns to violence. Five years after Rodney King, it is the homeless, the unemployed, the striking workers, the young people, in other words, those struggling for survival who are bearing the brunt of police violence and offering the most resistance. But neither is the violence limited just to the marginalized members of our society, as last year's police rampage at a Washington, D.C. hotel, recent attacks against sports and entertainment figures, police raids on churches and citizens killed in high-speed chases all prove. In our next issue, to mark the fifth anniversary of the videotaped beating that shocked the world and led to one of history's bloodiest rebellions, the People's Tribune will talk to six grassroots leaders about solutions. Join Philadelphia's Will Gonzales, Milwaukee's John Gorski, L.A.'s Geri Silva, Chicago's Mary Powers, New York's Nancy Rhodes and California's Cornelius Hall in a round-table discussion, "Police Terror: The Roots and the Resolution." Watch for it. (American Lockdown will return next issue.) ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 13. 'IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD' By Laura Garcia CHICAGO -- It was an extremely warm night for mid-January as I took the "L" downtown to see -- guess who? Hillary Rodham Clinton. She was in the Windy City promoting her book, It Takes a Village And Other Lessons Children Teach Us. During my ride to the Chicago Theater, a question kept going around and around in my head. Why was I going to see her? As it was, I spent an hour and a half in line with 2,000 others -- in the main, white professional women -- just to get in. Another hour in line waiting to shake her hand. No, this isn't the first time that I have gone through a lot of trouble to see someone like her. But before it had been to protest against their positions, for this or that. Tonight, it was different. I wasn't there to protest her visit. Neither was I there to support her. My presence there wasn't an either-or. Rather I was there because of the name of her book, "It takes a village." This certainly is a collective approach in raising America's children. Away from the individualism that has plagued our present-day lives. As I went to the Chicago Theater, I found comfort and reassurance in what a good friend of mine once told me, "I support issues, not individuals." That's exactly how I felt. I agree with her book's concept that it takes a village to raise a child. I don't quite agree with the solutions put forth in her book. Hillary Clinton chose an old African proverb for the title of her book because it offers a timeless reminder that children will thrive only if their families thrive and if the whole of society cares enough to provide for them. So this African proverb ties the efforts of the parents to raise their children with the efforts of society to ensure that the future of society, the children, go forward. But today there is a breakdown in society. With the loss of jobs comes economic insecurity and the inability for heads of households to provide for their families. To compound the situation, our rulers are more interested in shifting the wealth of our country to the top 1 percent of the population than those at the bottom. The casualties are America's children: * One in five children lives in poverty. * Ten million children do not have private or public health coverage. * Homicide and suicide kill nearly 7,000 children every year. * Children in every social level suffer from abuse, neglect, and preventable emotional problems. We need a village where everyone has the means, economically and spiritually, to raise strong and healthy children. We need a village that ensures equality for all. A society that is inclusive and not exclusive. As a parent of two young men, I can tell you from personal experience that I needed help from the get-go. I can also tell you the difficulties working parents are having in providing the basic necessities to their offspring. One can imagine the horror felt by parents who cannot find jobs to feed their families. Today we do have the means to create a wonderful and peaceful world for our children. Today, society can produce more and with less human effort. Electronics has made that possible. If fewer people are needed to create society's ****************************************************************** 14. CAMPAIGN TO VOICE THE DEMANDS FOR JUSTICE, UNITY AND A NEW MORALITY You can feel it in the air. Everywhere you go, there are more and more people with that look in their eyes. Something must be done about the layoffs, the economy. Something must be done about the political corruption, a system which doesn't represent the majority. The discontent and confusion about the state of our country are turning into anger and a readiness to act. Where is the road that leads our country to salvation? All we see is the spectacle of the campaigns of the current presidential candidates. None of them is speaking to the crisis engulfing America and to the needs of the tens of millions sinking into poverty. There must be a voice for all decent Americans to rally around -- and not just one voice of a candidate for political office. Those of us ready to act need to have a clear understanding of the political situation we face and a vision of where we are headed. Who are our friends? Who are our enemies? What is the real problem with the economy? How can we have genuine political change? How can we forge the unity necessary for victory? The League of Revolutionaries for a New America (LRNA) stands ready to act. As individuals, each of us is powerless. As an organized force, we can become invincible. The LRNA is beginning a campaign to give voice to the demands for justice, unity and a morality in the interests of all Americans. We will fight to guarantee our development as the kind of organization that can empower the American people with an understanding of their role in building a new society. We call on all those committed to this vision to join us in shaping the kind of organization our country needs. The campaign will last through the presidential elections in November 1996. During the first stage of this campaign, the League will deepen our understanding about what needs to be done. We will focus on how to use the People's Tribune and the Tribuno del Pueblo to accomplish our tasks. To concentrate on developing a strong foundation for the campaign, the People's Tribune will be published monthly during February, March and April. By coming out less often during this period of preparation, we can strengthen the articles that will help expand circulation. We will concentrate on establishing a circulation system that rapidly expands distribution of our newspapers from thousands to tens of thousands and builds a stable financial base. We revolutionaries for a new America share with our fellow Americans the same anger, frustrations and fears. But we also have a sense of hope. We have confidence in the American people, we know what has to be done at this moment in history, and we have an organization dedicated to doing it. ****************************************************************** 15. WELFARE FOR THE RICH: ARE YOU BETTER OFF THIS YEAR? By Jo Ann Capalbo 1970: The top one percent of American households hold 20 percent of the wealth. 1990: The top one percent hold 40 percent of the wealth. 1995: Bill Gates' net worth is $15 billion. 2005: Economists estimate Bill Gates' net worth will be $410 billion. To put this in perspective -- 1995: Total U.S. currency in circulation is $410 billion. To put this in a class perspective: An economist tracking a group of welfare recipients from 1979 to 1990 says that their wages "rose" each year by six cents an hour. ****************************************************************** 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 ******************************************************************