From jdav@noc.org Sun Apr 21 16:09:23 1996 Date: Sun, 21 Apr 96 19:00 GMT From: Jim Davis To: pt.dist@noc.org Subject: People's Tribune (5-96) Online Edition ****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 23 No. 6 / May, 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. 6 / May, 1996 Page One 1. CALIFORNIA SHERIFFS CAUGHT ON VIDEO, BEAT IMMIGRANT WORKERS: AN ATTACK ON ONE IS AN ATTACK ON ALL! Editorial 2. CHANGING TIMES: NEW HOPE FOR UNITY Spirit of the Revolution 3. MINISTER SPEAKS OF THE CHURCH'S ROLE IN ENDING POVERTY 4. 'THE POOR HAVE RECLAIMED THE CHURCH' News and Features 5. IF WE HAD THE POWER, WHAT KIND OF TAX SYSTEM WOULD WE WANT? 6. TRUCE WARRIORS TAKE THEIR NEXT STEP 7. ELUSIVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH: THE FREEDOM NOT TO BE HEARD 8. WELFARE RECIPIENTS WIN VICTORIES IN MASSACHUSETTS 9. AN OPEN LETTER TO AMERICA: IT'S NOT A CRIME TO SEARCH FOR A BETTER LIFE 10. COMPETITION: A SYSTEM GONE AMUCK 11. ASK MS. MO 12. GENERAL BAKER AND MARIAN KRAMER: REVOLUTIONARIES FOR THE TIMES 13. THOUSANDS PROTEST SHERIFFS' BEATING OF IMMIGRANT WORKERS 14. REVOLUTIONARY IDEA: A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT AHEAD OF PROFITS American Lockdown 15. 'COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATION AND MASSIVE STRUGGLE CAN CHANGE OUR CONDITIONS' Culture Under Fire 16. FIGHTING INJUSTICE, THE VILLAINS ARE COMING TO THE PT 17. PT/TP BENEFIT IS A ROCKIN' SUCCESS >From the League 18. PROGRAM OF THE LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA 19. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. PAGE ONE: CALIFORNIA SHERIFFS CAUGHT ON VIDEO, BEAT IMMIGRANT WORKERS -- AN ATTACK ON ONE IS AN ATTACK ON ALL! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The time has come to break our dependence on the political spokesmen of our enemies and rely instead on our strength, our common bonds across the lines of nationality, color and creed. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Even the videotape couldn't convey the utter fear experienced by 33-year old Alicia Sotero as Riverside County sheriffs smashed her in the face, head and arms on the side of the California highway on April 1. This outrage comes during a nationwide wave of police abuse and physical manhandling of NASA shuttle astronaut Mae Jemmison and the "justifiable" fatal shooting of Eric Smith, a 22-year-old deaf honor student. Smith paid for his disability with his life, unable to hear the shouts of his own killers. These events have brought our country to a crossroads. The establishment of a full-blown police state is no longer a remote possibility. Certainly we are being asked to accept a fascist morality that annoints these cops judge, jury and executioner and would have us step over the bodies of the victims without a second thought. What must be done? We must disengage ourselves from those who are holding us back. Those who would lead us up blind alleys, divide us and tie us to our enemies. Chief among these wolves in sheep's clothing is Bill Clinton, arguably the most shamefacedly police-dominated president in history. Clinton's response to the California beating was typical of the "carrot and stick" approach that has become the hallmark of his administration. Seeking to curb protests, a "concerned" president quickly dispatched the FBI to investigate while simultaneously unmuzzling immigration officials to blame the victims for their own beating and whitewash police. A tactic that has been honed to an art since the Rodney King beating. The Omnibus Crime Bill, which added 100,000 police to the streets, contains a skillfully crafted provision calling for Justice Department intervention in the event of police abuse. The idea is to channel outrage into the "safe" dead-end of federal investigations and limit the people to the role of spectator. Clearly, it will not be by useless appeals to either Democrats or Republican that we are going to stop the killing, not by dead end "investigations" designed to make us mere spectators. The time has come to break our suicidal dependence on the political spokesmen of our enemies and rely instead on our own strength, our common bonds across the lines of nationality, color and creed. This is our family and we are in the sights of a common enemy. It wasn't just another black kid shot by those cops. It wasn't just another Mexican immigrant beaten like a dog out there on the highway. These were our people, our sister, our brother. It could have been any of one of us, it was one of us and it's up to us to stop it. See also story 13. ****************************************************************** 2. EDITORIAL: CHANGING TIMES: NEW HOPE FOR UNITY By Nelson Peery The rally held on May 1, 1886 in Chicago to demand the eight hour work day was the greatest demonstration of working-class solidarity ever held anywhere. Since that time, labor leaders and revolutionaries have struggled hard to rekindle the spirit of unity. All their efforts have been wrecked on the rock of racial antagonisms. We are again entering an historical moment when the people, under vicious attack by the ruling class, have to fight in order to survive. The people have no weapons save organization. The people have few organizations because organization depends upon unity. There has been no unity because there has been inequality. One section of the people have had a near monopoly on good jobs. They lived in calm and orderly neighborhoods. Their children went to good schools. Another section of the people were stuck, laboring at dead-end jobs. Their neighborhoods were occupied by the police. Their schools often got less than half the allotment given to other neighborhoods. How could there be unity under such conditions of inequality? How could there be unity when one section of the people lived better at the expense of another section? Real and lasting unity depends upon doing away with inequality. The privileged section of the working class knew the underprivileged were discriminated against and that this was unjust. They also knew that to seriously fight for justice and equality was to lose the social bribe. They ended up blaming the victim. Their slogan was, "I feel for you, but I can't reach you." How often, in times of crisis has the privileged section called for unity to meet a military or political threat? How often has the underprivileged united in the equality of sacrifice believing that things had changed? How often when the crisis passed did things revert back to the status quo? The only hope for unity lies in doing way with privilege and inequality. This is happening before our eyes. Computers and robots are replacing workers who had privileges because of skills or skin color. They are joining the ranks of the new class, working at below poverty line wages, or as "throw away workers" and often as destitute and homeless. We could never unite as black and white. Now we can and must unite as the new class of poor -- who are, incidentally, black, brown, red and white. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ REVOLUTIONARY MATH 3 million Americans are affected by layoffs every year. + As AT&T was "throwing 40,000 out into the street", they were "paying" the guy in charge (chairman) $16 million in 1995. + Fortune 500 firms have cut jobs at a rate of 400,000 a year for 15 years... + At the same time the average chief executive "pay" raise was over $1,600,000 in 1995. --------------------------------------------------- = Americans today are "angry", "outraged", "fed up" +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE AUDIO TAPES PRESENTS: Nelson Peery on 'Reorganizing Society Around the People's Needs' Nelson Peery, author of Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary, presents the view of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America on the new economy and social revolution. Order this informative audio- tape with introduction by Luis Rodriguez, the award-winning author and poet. Send $5 plus $1 for postage to Breakthrough Images, PO Box 3233, Chicago, Illinois 60654. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 3. MINISTER SPEAKS OF THE CHURCH'S ROLE IN ENDING POVERTY By Sandra Reid CHICAGO -- The People's Tribune had the privilege recently of interviewing the distinguished Rev. Yvonne V. Delk of Chicago, the first woman and first black executive director of the Community Renewal Society in its 110-year history. Rev. Delk is also the first black woman to be ordained in the United Church of Christ and the first woman nominated from the floor of the General Synod as a candidate for president of the United Church of Christ. PT: You have accomplished so much in your life. What made you the person you are today? YD: I have been very fortunate to have had a very, very strong support base of women and men that have encouraged me every step of the way, beginning with my own parents. Then the black church that I was a part of became an extended family, helping me develop skills. They encouraged all of us; they knew the world needed young people with a sense of value and a vision, a spirit. Second, I had a strong sense of justice. It came out of growing up black in the South and seeing the struggle against segregation and second class citizenship. I saw the water fountain signs, the 'colored' bathrooms. I remember going to the back of the bus and having to stand at Woolworths to wait for the sales people to serve the white clientele first. This created in me a passion for working for justice. Third, the driving force was the deep spiritual-based environment that I was nurtured in." PT: Could you speak on the changing role of women in the church? YD: I have been fortunate to have spirit guides, wonderful people who were women as well as men. Women encouraged me and my sisters to step forward. I see the church as a community composed of male and female. It needs the gifts of both. The church has to allow an inclusive leadership not broken by gender, race or class. There are still barriers. They have to fall. My word to young women is to not allow the old image to shape you. They will find that the doors will be open for them to move into those spaces that many of us have never been. By stepping into them they not only will be changed, but so will the church." PT: What is the role of church people in eliminating poverty? YD: In the biblical sense there are witnesses and stories that call us to work for a new heaven and earth, one that does not know hunger or pain, a land where there is plenty for all. So it is a call for us to work for that new world and against the system that destroys human life and dignity, and for the churches and institutions that affirm life. So for me I see it as the heart of our understanding of what we need to do. In some places churches are engaged with other groups in trying to change the system, such as women's groups, justice groups, welfare rights, church feeding programs, trying to create jobs to provide people with a living wage. You find this flowing out of that basic understanding of a world where people have the right of life and pursuit of happiness." PT: Today our children have little to look forward to other than jail or orphanages. How do you feel about this? YD: A child does not raise himself or herself. You have to be very nurturing for children to develop a sense of "I can succeed." I cannot say enough about the role of family, the extended family, the community, the teachers, the neighbors, and then the church. The sense of enabling kids to understand that they are not simply persons that live for themselves; there is a higher cause, a deeper value system. Today we have a lot of young people who are raising themselves, who are isolated and fragmented. They need to learn that it's the system that is falling apart. ****************************************************************** 4. 'THE POOR HAVE RECLAIMED THE CHURCH' By the Greater Philadelphia Area Office, League of Revolutionaries for a New America PHILADELPHIA -- "The poor have reclaimed the church!" So went the refrain this winter, as 30 poor and homeless families, members of the multiracial Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU), took over the abandoned St. Edward the Confessor Roman Catholic Church in North Philadelphia. Why did these families engage in such an act of civil disobedience? They did it both for reasons of economic necessity and as a conscious political tactic. During the summer, the families had been living in a sprawling tent city erected four months earlier on a vacant lot in North Philadelphia. They moved to the church to get some shelter from the approaching winter. The move was designed to force debate throughout the region on the depravity of having homelessness and poverty intensify for the many at the same time that wealth and prosperity increase for a few. Throughout the struggle, the revolutionaries, formed out of the ranks of the organized poor of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and their allies guided the thinking of the fighters toward identifying the most important tactical targets. As the holidays approached, they raised questions within the religious community and other sections of society. They held religious services every Sunday morning. They erected bedrooms among the pews. They established a donations center in the back rooms of the church. As members of the KWRU, these families -- with support from hundreds of community contacts -- turned away the constant harassment and threats of eviction by the Archdiocese, the police and fire departments, Department of Human Services workers and hostile elected officials. They were able to stay in the church for more than three months. St. Edward's Church is one of nine churches in North Philadelphia closed by the Archdiocese over the last several years. For more than two years, the church stood vacant, with its water and electricity still on, while homeless people slept in the park across the street. Rising over 10 stories high above the devastated section of North Philadelphia, the steeple of St. Edward's Church had been an emblem of neglect and abandonment. The church became a rallying point for the surrounding poor neighborhoods and other communities, professions and walks of life throughout the Greater Philadelphia region: * Poor churches approached the KWRU for assistance in doing their own takeovers. * Students from Eastern College came out in force one night, with over 100 students from Empty the Shelters and campuses throughout the region, to sleep out with the homeless families in the church. * Nuns and former parishioners came back regularly to pray in the church and give support to the organization. * A youth passed by and asked why the families in the church weren't squatting in all the abandoned houses in the neighborhood, like his family was -- and many others were. * The minister of a poor church asked the leaders of the KWRU to testify for him in court. (He was being tried for illegally turning on the utilities in his church.) * Representatives of many different churches, mosques and synagogues whose congregations include people from every background came to St. Edward's with food, blankets, warm words of encouragement and prayers. The list goes on and on. It includes nurses and doctors, lawyers, artists and students, writers and photographers, roofers and plumbers. By raising profound questions about the nature of this society, and by pulling people from every section of society into a relationship with the struggle, this takeover exposed homelessness as the deadly face of a system which places profit and real estate interests before the basic needs of human beings. ****************************************************************** 5. IF WE HAD THE POWER, WHAT KIND OF TAX SYSTEM WOULD WE WANT? By Bruce Parry, Ph.D. THE BIGGEST PICTURE If we could really do what we wanted, no taxes would be necessary. The businesses in the United States could be nationalized and run in the interests of the vast majority -- those who work for a living or who are unemployed or unable to work. We could take the surplus -- what is now profit -- and pay for education, health care, housing and food subsidies as necessary. That is the biggest picture. And that is why business is so against communism and socialism and anything that talks about a way of organizing society where they don't stay rich. The legal institution of private property -- the right of individuals to own and profit from the businesses, factories, plants, mills and other means of social production -- is the only thing that stands in the way of changing the way we organize society. That is why many revolutionaries are in favor of eliminating private property. THE BIG PICTURE Even without nationalizing all the businesses in our interests, we could immediately implement a steep progressive tax system without any loopholes. Since the modern income tax system was put in place early this century, government has claimed that its underlying principle is progressive taxation. We could make that a reality. The principle of progressive taxation basically says that those who have and control the social wealth should bear most of the responsibility for programs needed by the majority. It means that those with more income and more wealth should not only pay more taxes, but pay at a higher rate than those with less. Business has unceasingly fought against this principle. The current Flat Tax proposals are their latest effort. A SIMPLE PROPOSAL The median or middle income in the U.S. in 1995 was $31,000 dollars. Half the families made less, half more. The upper 10 percent of all households made more than about $80,000 a year. A steeply progressive tax without loopholes of any kind might have the following rates on personal income for a family of four: * Tax on all income from $0 to $31,000: $0 * Tax on all income from $31,000 to $80,000: 20 percent * Tax on all income from $80,000 to $120,000: 60 percent. * Tax on all income over $120,000: 90 percent. The tax on other kinds of income might be: * Tax on corporate income: 90 percent * Tax on capital gains: 90 percent * Tax on inheritance over $50,000: 90 percent. For a family of four making $90,000, the tax would be computed as follows: * Tax on income from $0 to $31,000 = $0 * Tax on income from $31,000 to $80,000: 20 percent x (80,000- 31,000) = $9,800 * Tax on income from $80,000 to $90,000: 60 percent x (90,000- 80,000) = $6,000 * Total tax = $0 + $9,800 + 6,000 = $15,800 This system is simple and fair. Those who make more would pay more, but no one who makes more would wind up with less income than someone who makes less. A system of deductions for dependents to account for households of varying size and the disabled could be worked out, but there would be no other exemptions. Government payments for underemployed, unemployed, retired etc., would not be taxed. The high corporate tax rate and capital gains would close the loophole the rich have of keeping wealth in non-taxable form. The limitation on inheritance would allow for heirlooms and keepsakes to be passed down in families, but would be a step toward everyone starting out with equal opportunity. This plan is just an example, but it is doable today. It is in our interests and takes money from those who have it. The question is, "Why haven't we heard a plan like this during the elections?" ****************************************************************** 6. TRUCE WARRIORS TAKE THEIR NEXT STEP Special to the People's Tribune [Editor's note: This article was submitted by readers in Los Angeles about a Black-Chicano Unity Rally scheduled for April 27.] LOS ANGELES -- "The system is trying to pit Blacks and Chicanos against each other to buy itself time. It's important that Black and Brown unify on our similarities culturally as well as class- wise," says Aqueela Sherrills about why the April 27 Unity Rally was called. Sherrills, executive director of the Amer-I-Can Foundation, was one of the architects of the 1992 Watts Crips-Bloods truce, along with his brother Daoude and others. For 1996, the fourth anniversary of the truce is dedicated to "community unification," so that instead of fighting each other, people could deal with two main needs: rebuilding our community, and protesting the criminalization of young Blacks and Chicanos. The People's Tribune asked the leaders why they combined these issues. Dewayne Holmes, a principal organizer of the Watts truce, replied: "Everyone talks about the differences -- like it has to be that one is wrong and one is right. I came to appreciate the difference in our cultures, and realize that we both live under horrendous conditions, we're both struggling to live. Both our communities are infested with drugs from outside entities, proliferation of liquor stores, and guns." Twilight Bey, co-founder of Community in Support of the Gang Truce, risked his life in a 1988 effort at peace, which led up to the 1992 Crips-Bloods truce. He explained how economics and criminalization connect: "American companies are relocating to other countries where they don't have to pay the same wages, or the penalties for polluting. The few jobs left are hi-tech, and we're not prepared for them. "So, if they're really not willing to create enough jobs, the only thing they see to do is to warehouse people. People get turned into supporters of the prison industry. In this dog-eat-dog rat race America, they're turning old against young, parents against children, all in the name of capitalism and making money." Hugo Narvayez coordinates sports/unity events for youth in East L.A., and has organized for this Rally. "The racial war between Raza and Blacks is just the beginning of what they have planned for us. We either march together, or keep fighting each other while more and more of our homies end up in prison." PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Who is behind all these problems? "When I say 'the system,' I mean big business and also the governmental structure," explained Aqueela. Michael Zinzun, organizer for Community in Support of Gang Truce, added that "In capitalism, there has to be those who are exploited, to put money in someone's hands. It's how the system works, it's not a question of someone making a mistake." "When we don't have any vision, we're left to those who already run the government," said Twilight. "Look at the Democrats -- they're like the fox, who is more sly, while the Republicans are like the wolf, who is more aggressive. But both are members of the canine family!" Maria Teixeira, a youth activist in East L.A. and member of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America (LRNA), has also organized for the Rally. "There's enough wealth in America for everyone to live decently, but it's in too few hands. The 1992 Rebellion and rallies like this are early signs of a new American Revolution, to right that wrong!" PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What's the message of the rally, if you're not Black or Chicano? "The reason we focused on Black and Chicano was because our community (Watts) is now 50-50," says Aqueela. "We had to clean our own house and deal with that -- it was urgent! Our message to Asians and Caucasians is 'come in and join us, let's work together!' This is just a step in a process -- we started with Crips and Bloods, then the mothers and fathers, and now this." "We must call in ALL our forces," said Twilight. "It's like the U.S. armed forces -- they have their army, their marines. We have progressive whites, progressive Africans, progressive Chicanos." Hugo agreed, saying, "The struggle I see next is beyond racial lines. It's a human thing. This is just a beginning step in the road." Or, as Michael summed up, "We are engaged in a class struggle!" PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Where is the struggle going next? "We've also got to deal with those in prison and in the street who use fear tactics for their own gain," said Twilight. "When I talk about 'revolution' I'm not just talking about the government, but to send the word out to these elements -- no longer will we let you dictate our lives. We won't let the police do it, and we won't let you do it!" Said Michael: "I liken this system to an old raggedy car -- you can change drivers from Bush to Clinton, Republican to Democrat, but you can't expect that to make the car run better ... or so- called third parties led by billionaires, like Ross Perot. The rally won't bring systemic change, but it will put people in position to work towards that." Dewayne's goal is "to see young people becoming more involved in politics, in the educational process, and more vocal. To rebuild the community, to develop jobs and businesses that truly serve the community." Aqueela concluded by saying: "we want a heightened awareness of issues affecting Black, Brown, and the whole community ... that individuals who started with the truce become a catalyst to create an era of change!" +----------------------------------------------------------------+ For years, the People's Tribune has proudly printed articles about the young leaders of Watts and East L.A., for our readers nationwide. Members of our League of Revolutionaries for a New America have also supported this rally, by publicizing it and inviting the organizers to speak to thousands of Latinos protesting police abuse. To follow up the rally, LRNA is holding a Cinco De Mayo/May Day event Thursday, May 2, at 6:30 p.m. entitled "Our Common Struggle, Then and Now." It will show the class links between the struggles of Mexicans, Blacks, and Europeans 100 years ago, and what this teaches us today. To reserve a place, call: 213-299-7518. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 7. ELUSIVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH: THE FREEDOM NOT TO BE HEARD By Jan Lightfoot HINCKLEY, Maine -- Our Constitution supposedly provides freedom of speech for every American. But capitalism denies the poor the adequate use of their freedom of speech. Because of lack of money, poor people like myself cannot buy a minute of radio airtime. For example, we cannot speak out effectively against the false ideas of Paul Harvey, a commentator and newscaster since the 1930s. On December 22, 1995, during his noon show, Harvey said, in essence, that those poor people who have pride enough to starve or to eat "chicken feet" are acceptable -- until they supposedly toss aside their dignity by accepting food stamps. He called the leaders of the poor "mercenaries" who are about to turn into "incendiaries." The only response to Harvey's misconceptions has been silence because no one can afford the airtime to refute him. On Maine radio stations, the cost of airtime after Paul Harvey's program starts at around $45 a minute; in Washington D.C., it starts at around $500 a minute. Three Maine radio stations carry Mr. Harvey's ideas along with the noon report. Because the programs of "icons" like Rush Limbaugh and Paul Harvey do not originate at the local stations, these stations feel no obligation to carry free rebuttal time. This leaves syndicated commentators free to express their ignorance and hate, while ordinary people with facts, people like you and me, are muzzled. In a society built on the dollar, there is no robust debate over ideas. The free exchange of facts is limited to those who can pay to get their message out -- or to those who have the "power of the media" behind them. For the poor, freedom of speech is a freedom they lack the funds to exercise. Unless freedom of speech also includes the voices of the poor with their right to speak out loudly and be heard by all classes, then all economic classes experience an empty, elusive freedom. [For more information, contact Jan Lightfoot at Hospitality House, Inc. at 1-800-438-3890] ****************************************************************** 8. WELFARE RECIPIENTS WIN VICTORIES IN MASSACHUSETTS By Dottie Stevens, President, Massachusetts Welfare Rights Union BOSTON -- A class-action suit has resulted in 1,800 women winning reinstitution of welfare benefits. The mothers faced AFDC cuts when they didn't give information on the whereabouts of their children's fathers. Most hadn't seen the fathers for years. In a second case, mothers on welfare in college were denied an education when they couldn't get daycare. A class-action lawsuit resulted in an order to provide daycare. These cases were fought because women are desperate to attain the American dream. As single female heads of households, women need an education -- one of the routes out of poverty. Isn't that what it's all about? Without legal representation these victories would not have been possible. Now they're dismantling our legal representation. And they're trying to show that there isn't a need for welfare. Trouble is there's no jobs. ****************************************************************** 9. AN OPEN LETTER TO AMERICA: IT'S NOT A CRIME TO SEARCH FOR A BETTER LIFE [We reprint excerpts of an open letter from some Roadmaster union members in response to the televised brutal beating of immigrant workers in Riverside, California.] We are writing this open to UNITE! members at Roadmaster in Delavan, Wisconsin, and to the whole nation. The savage beatings of immigrants in Riverside County, California is another disgusting and appalling display of force and violence by law enforcement -- acts akin to thugs and criminals. It is not a crime to come to the United States in search of a better life. These immigrants did not come to rob or kill anybody. Yet the attitude of our government toward immigrants and poor people is unjust and racist. The United States is a land of many heritages. We have all come from across rivers or oceans. That is the beauty of our country. There is also a side of our nation where the rich and powerful look down on the unfortunate by stripping them of their rights, beating, harassing and imprisoning them. Our society has taken a turn for the worse. We need to look at each other as equals. We thought the Rodney King beating was the worst, but now the cops are beating women as well. What does this say about our country and its police that this continues to happen again and again? Will we now see another Los Angeles Rebellion like 1992? The government should put an end to these abuses or we will. Without us, the workers, this country would be nothing. ****************************************************************** 10. COMPETITION: A SYSTEM GONE AMUCK By George Bru CHUNCHULA, Alabama -- In sports, competition is designed to make the game more interesting. Unless, of course, money is involved; then the intent is strictly profit. In real life, competition is designed to make life more complex yet rewarding. So they say -- whoever "they" are. Today, we have become so competitive that even the so-called Christians, the ones who are supposed to set the example, have forgotten the real purpose of our existence. The Scripture does not teach competition. It teaches tolerance, compassion, love and understanding. Many people of good will ask: Can I compete as a CEO and still be a Christian? Yes, it is possible. But it is becoming increasingly difficult under our present system. When confronted with a question about a rich man entering the kingdom of heaven, Jesus answered, "It is easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." In today's megacorporate world, if a CEO isn't ruthless and determined; if a CEO isn't focused on getting the job done with the "bare bones" minimum of workers without regard for who gets hurt in downsizings and firings; if a CEO isn't increasing the stock return to its maximum, regardless of the circumstances, then he or she won't be a CEO very long. Either that, or the business will fold because competition will drive it out of the market. It's basically a no-win situation. Something is wrong! The problem, as many people of good will see it, is the lack of ethics and meaning. Business and ethics don't mix very well in our economic system. CEOs aren't selected for their ethics. They are chosen for their insatiable desire to compete for higher salaries and greater stock options for the shareholders, benefits which fewer and fewer Americans are able to participate in. The moral quality in the course of action has lost its place in mankind's search for higher profits in this ungodly, competitive environment. "Survival of the fittest" seems to have driven us to the brink of extinction as a civilized society. Everyone blames the other person. Few people blame the system, because we've been taught that it is un-American to do so. In Mobile, Alabama, we organized a small, non-union stevedoring company. The CEO claims to be a Christian, but will not resolve the strike that has resulted from failed negotiations. Because of a surplus of cheap labor, he insists that the workers are asking for too much. "Never mind the profits," he says, "Let's talk about the reality of the situation. I can replace the workers and continue right on." That kind of rationale is what is ruining this country. It's an attitude that says, "Get all you can, and to hell with everyone else." And that kind of selfish view is the reason this CEO was run out of Nicaragua in 1979. Yes, society needs to be transformed. But it doesn't need to be done on the backs of the poor, the old or the underprivileged. It needs to come from the top down. Christians and other people of good will must raise their voices against a system that has gone amuck. We must stop blaming each other and look for other alternatives before we end up in another civil war. Love, compassion and understanding is not a $4.25 an hour job without health or retirement benefits. It's doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. -- Micah 6:8 ****************************************************************** 11. ASK MS. MO [Editor's note: This column is a new addition that tries to address contemporary political issues "tongue in cheek." Things that appear here might reflect our readers' thoughts on this subject or that. Ms. Mo gives lip service to what America has on her mind. Write and tell her what you think!] Dear Ms. Mo: Last year the company I worked for closed and went to a Latin American country. I couldn't find anything even close that paid what I was making, so I finally had to take a minimum wage position. Me and the kids are drowning in bills and I'm angry at every Hispanic I see. How can I get even? Rhoda from Dakota Dear Rhoda: Get even by getting the facts. Your company moved to get away from paying you and your co-workers wages. It moved so it didn't have to abide by environmental safety rules! It moved so the owners could make money at your expense. How? They invest $$ in hi-tech robots that are more efficient than people, lay you off, train a handful of technicians to operate "R2D2". The result is that they make what they made before plus all the money you and your friends earned as wages goes into their pockets. There is no logic to your being angry at Latinos because other workers are not your enemy. They are being exploited just like you! The debate about morals in this country is tied up in your dilemma and the "enemy" is framing this issue. As part of the real moral majority, you should address your anger by organizing with those who believe it "immoral" for company greed to force your family or any family to sink into poverty. You ought to be exposing crooked politicians who protect corporate greed. You ought to be organizing against suggestions that poor people (like you!) get their kids put into "well-run" orphanages. There is something sinister, more violent, more frightening than street crime. That something is the sight of moral people that would stand by and let itself be starved, made homeless, stripped of a common standard of living, robbed of all dignity and allow the birth right of our children to have a decent, simple full life to vanish as they are slowly killed off by creeping poverty. You will continue to drown Rhoda, until you get by and become the patriot mom you ought to be! No missiles, no mortars, just mothers like yourself taking the high moral ground and calling a halt to this holocaust of greed. [Write to Ms. Mo care of the People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654.] ****************************************************************** 12. GENERAL BAKER AND MARIAN KRAMER: REVOLUTIONARIES FOR THE TIMES By Allen Harris DETROIT -- Back in 1943, a working man here could make five dollars a day in the auto industry. That was a good enough reason for General Baker Sr. to quit his five dollar a week job as a butler and take the long train ride up from Georgia to a better life. He's been here ever since. Baker was just 23 when he met his brothers and brothers-in-law who were already here. He went to work as a welder at Midland Steel, which built car frames for the city's many automobile makers of the day: Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Nash, Packer, Kaiser, Studebaker and Hudson. "The working conditions were pretty good, compared to the cotton fields in Georgia and I was proud to be here," recalled Baker in his home on the city's southwest side during a visit with his son, General Baker, his wife, Marian Kramer and the People's Tribune. Midland also was helping weld Sherman tanks for Chrysler. Detroit was part of the American home front in the Second World War, the war against fascism. The government was paying for the cost of production plus 10 percent, Baker recalled. It was a time of union meetings on Sunday after church, often with the same members from both places. "People got along real well," he said. At a time when the abysmal unemployment of the Great Depression was a fresh and bitter memory, "Everybody was happy to have a job." But life in Detroit was far from being as perfect as that. "Job classification" was everything, explained Baker. A white worker at his industrial machine could take his own broom and sweep the floor in his immediate area. But because of his classification, he could not sweep the aisles between the machines. A black factory janitor could sweep only the aisles between the machines, but no further because of his job classification. Blacks were overrepresented in jobs that paid, but were hotter, dirtier and more dangerous. Detroit's bosses segregated factory jobs along nationality lines and they segregated Detroit. In 1943, Detroit exploded -- and would explode again 24 years later. * * * The end of World War II in 1945 ushered in the greatest expansion of the capitalist economy in American history. General Baker had been drafted into the Army in 1944 and returned home the next year and went back to work as a welder Midland until it closed 1959. He went to Chrysler's Dodge Main plant (where they were still building tanks as well as cars and trucks). When he retired in 1982, he was making $12 an hour, 19 times more than when he started out nearly 40 years earlier. During those years, he married and reared four children -- three daughters and a revolutionary son who carries his name. He bought a home in 1946 on the G.I. Bill and still lives there. General Baker Jr., now the chair of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, followed his father into the auto plants, first at Ford River Rouge, then at Dodge Main where his father was working. But they didn't exactly work side by side -- Dodge Main was just too big for that. In those days, there were so many autoworkers -- 12,000 -- that father and son almost never saw each other there. (Ford's River Rouge had 100,000 workers back in 1946.) This was where young General Baker's life as a revolutionary began. Baker was among the first Americans in to oppose the draft when the Vietnam War escalated in 1965. He visited Cuba and was fired by Ford. He was arrested for curfew violation during the powerful Detroit Rebellion of July, 1967. (During the rebellion, he spent two and a half days in a police precinct garage, then a day on a bus turned into a temporary jail, before being finally transported in a five-bus convoy to a prison in Ionia, Michigan. "The cell block looked like half the assembly line," Baker recalled.) He took part in a wildcat strike over speedups at Dodge Main in 1968. He, another black worker and seven white workers were fired there, too. Dodge Main was the birthplace in 1968 of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM), which included Baker. It was an organization struggling for racial equality in the workplace against much the same oppressive conditions his father entered a generation earlier. DRUM published a newsletter and organized the Dodge workers. * * * The auto plants were not the only places in Detroit undergoing social struggle. Wayne State University, under the guise of "urban renewal," was attempting to expand its territory at the expense of its neighbors who demanded compensation for the homes they stood to lose. Area residents formed the West Central Organization and one of its members was the then Marian Jeanette Bernard, who arrived in Detroit around 1965 from Louisiana, where as a student at Southern University, she had been a civil rights activist in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Marian comes from a large family whose home is in Port Allen, near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In the first grade she moved with her family to Dallas after her grandfather, Isadore Hill, stabbed a disrespectful white boss. Her mother, Viola Ross was a Dallas elementary school teacher who defied her school board by moving into a segregated neighborhood. After starting college in 1962, she joined her aunt and cousins in the civil rights movement and became a CORE organizer in Monroe, Louisiana, helping register black people to vote -- a revolutionary act in a South where blacks had been largely disenfranchised for nearly a century. She also ran freedom schools. "It wasn't peaches and cream," Marian said of her movement experience. The work was exhausting, her days beginning at 8 a.m. and continuing until late at night. The threat from white racist terror was real and constant, Marian said. "Where'd you think I learned to drive?" she asked. "Running from the Klan." The civil rights movement was a great mass struggle, bringing members of the entire black community out to make their contribution to the fight for the interest of the whole. One of the best examples Kramer gave was the Deacons for Defense, who took up arms and protected their black communities and "became the watching eyes of the movement" against threats from the Klan. "I learned a lot of respect for the community through the civil rights movement," Kramer said. It was this already rich experience that Kramer brought with her to Detroit, where she met Baker in 1966 and worked together on the Inner City Voice, a revolutionary newspaper which grew out of the 1967 rebellion. Along with the West Central Organization, Kramer became active in the National Welfare Rights Organization, a historically important movement which grew out of the civil rights movement. From 1966 to 1975 the NWRO pioneered the anti-poverty struggle of AFDC recipients. It heralded the present-day struggles of America's 80 million people in poverty fighting to survive under an economic system which has excluded and abandoned them because their labor is no longer needed. Continuing in the direction of the NWRO is an organization with a nearly identical name: the National Welfare Rights Union, founded on June 30, 1987, and now led by Kramer. "I've always been an organizer around community issues and welfare rights," says Kramer. Today, the whole of society is undergoing a dramatic and historic transformation. At the root of this change is the arrival of new forms of production which completely eliminates the need for a person to perform this or that job. An earlier example in history was the replacement of cotton field workers by the mechanical picker. It drove millions of rural Southerners to the cities of the North and West during the middle decades of the 20th century. Once agriculture became mechanized, there could be no turning back. The old way of life was over, forever. For those who depend on the old way of life, such a change is negative; but for those who longed to see their children freed from having to labor in the fields, it was liberating. It meant the chance to stay in school, receive a fuller education, improve their lives. Now, at the close of the 20th century, even more advanced means of production is revolutionizing all of society across the land. This new form is called electronics, robotics, computerization, automation, high technology. Whatever people call it, this new means can not only free all people from drudgery, from spending a third or more of their lives in boring work in order to make a living, it can also end poverty itself. And that can mean complete, universal freedom. This is the possibility which is just now beginning to dawn all around the world. New ideas are arising, new questions are being asked and new answers are being sought based on a new reality. "The [old] promised land has played out," says Baker. "We cannot live as our fathers did. The benefits are that we left the cotton fields in the South where the machines can pick better than we could. The same thing is happening now in the auto plants. "The question now is how do we gain our share of the product that [electronics] produces that will make our lives better? The social product [the goods which we make use of] does not just belong to those who own it," says Baker. Continuing along this same line, Kramer asks: "Who controls this stuff? With the development of technology, there's more leisure time we can have. We can get out of this dog-eat-dog life. Life should be something where you can enjoy the fruits of your labor." The key, said Kramer, is deciding who will control this technology in the new world that's dawning. "If we controlled it," she says, "it's got to be better." Until now, the means of production has been owned by a small class of people who hired you and me to work for them with the tools they owned. We worked and made all the goods, but the owners took them, and paid us a wage which was far less than the value of the work we produced that day. And the goods we made? The owners put a price on them and sold them back to us. We bought our own work with those same wages, which were never enough to buy back all that we made at the price they demand. Such was capitalism, when it was about exploiting labor for maximum profit. At least in the old days, autoworkers in Detroit could -- and certainly did -- buy the cars they made. But now the city is filled with ex-autoworkers, replaced by robotics. The one thing both have in common is that neither is paid a wage. Not a problem for the robot, but for a human being it's a different story. Under the old means of production, unemployment was more or less temporary. Since the capitalists would sooner or later call them back, they would bother to keep a statistical count of the jobless. But under the new means of production, unemployment is becoming more and more permanent. There are millions of people who will never work again. What point does the capitalist have in counting them? "You've got a situation where they don't even consider laid-off autoworkers anymore," says Baker. "They're not even counted any more. No longer counted as part of the auto industry." As we toured the streets of Detroit with Baker and Kramer, it became clear why it was vital to decide who will control this new technology. Right now, the capitalists own those robots and their wealth is increasing madly. But in the Detroit, where the workers live, there is poverty down every street, mile after desperate mile. The main downtown shopping street, Woodward Avenue, is a ghost town. No workers, no wages. No wages, no shoppers. No shoppers, no shops. Take away the wage job and everything that was part of the old society eventually breaks down. Services such as education, health, schools are abandoned because they were based on maintaining humans who the capitalists needed to hire for pay. A stable family life based on the wages of the household "breadwinner" often breaks down when the wage is gone. Under capitalism, even "family stability" costs money. "Anyone who wants to see the future of society as long as the capitalists rule should come to Detroit," says Kramer. And she is absolutely right. The future of Detroit and the rest of society is extremely bleak -- unless society radically changes direction. "I think more and more, as the economic situation deepens, people will move," says Kramer. But that will depend on an organization like the League of Revolutionaries for a New America (LRNA), of which Baker and Kramer are founding members. The League is dedicated to educating and politicizing all those now in poverty who are entering the fight to change society and end poverty by using the new technology for the good of all, not just the few. Says Kramer: "People ought to be imbued with the understanding that this is a glorious day" in that the end of poverty is no longer a pie-in-the-sky dream. "How fast will a large section of society reach this level of understanding?" Kramer asks. "We need an organization like the League." ****************************************************************** 13. THOUSANDS PROTEST SHERIFFS' BEATING OF IMMIGRANT WORKERS By Maria Teixeira LOS ANGELES -- "Beat the wetbacks," were the words of some mechanics sitting in their lunchroom as they watched the beating of two immigrants by the Riverside County Sheriffs Dept. The beating was videotaped by a prominent TV station and shocked the city, state and even international communities! What has happened to some of us? How can we see such brutality, such inhumanity and justify it?! Is hunger, needing a job, or wanting to take care of our children reason enough to be beaten by law enforcement agencies? On Saturday April 6, there were two protests on this issue. One was against the beatings and one was to support the actions of the sheriffs. A young Chicano told the People's Tribune, "I saw a white woman on TV saying that illegals don't have a right to come across the border, that they are taking Americans' jobs. I wanted to go and beat the __ out of any white person I saw. But then I remembered seeing other white people in the protest for immigrants' rights, and I had to stop myself." "Some people don't appreciate what immigrants do. They pick our fruit, work the sweat shops and restaurants -- they do the worst work. The immigrants make millions for American companies and they pay taxes they never use," said a protester. This issue is ripping people apart. It is especially pitting white against brown at a time when both communities are being hit with loss of jobs, cuts in services, etc. What most people don't realize is that the same U.S. corporations that are raping the American people are going to Mexico, Latin America and other countries and raping their populations in an even worse way. If a U.S. company is paying $15 an hour here and $5 a day in Mexico, of course people are going to cross the border to get a better wage. If we want to cut down immigration, then the conditions in the immigrant's country have to improve. The enemy isn't the immigrant. The enemy is the capitalist system that exploits people everywhere it turns. The capitalists make laws and create borders for their benefit, laws that are inhumane and cause poverty and death. There is enough wealth and resources for us to have a different country and a different world where everyone's needs are met. To get this kind of world we need to join as one against the greedy rich. ****************************************************************** 14. REVOLUTIONARY IDEA: A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT AHEAD OF PROFITS By Jon Rice Illinois Governor Jim Edgar has signed into law a bill which repeals the Retail Rate Law which gave subsidies to companies for incinerating garbage into our air. It appears to be a significant victory for the people who want to enhance the quality of the air in Illinois. We can all rejoice if the courts uphold this law. However, that is not a foregone conclusion. The courts -- the U.S. Supreme Court in particular -- have struck down almost every single law which has not put profits ahead of the other less quantifiable aspects of our lives -- like the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land we live on. Not that the court has not valued clean air, water and unpolluted land. But it has consistently seen reform that challenges the primacy of the profit motive as unfair to business and has clearly put business and profits first. The idea that a healthy environment should come ahead of profit is a revolutionary idea. Our country has been built on the notion of economic growth and exploitation of the environment. Now a growing number of people are saying it is time to change one of the fundamental premises on which our society was built. At least one of the ground rules by which we've constructed our society has run its limit and in need of reform, if not outright abolition. Environmentalism is the cutting edge, the handwriting on the wall for society as a whole. We are headed in a direction that, if unchanged, would lead to our obliteration. The old parameters no longer fit. That is why a conservative like Al Salvi in Illinois, can sound like a radical for attempting to "conserve" the environment. Radicalism is conservative. It attempts to conserve human life. Environmentalism is radical because it is the first movement to see the interconnectedness of all humanity, and ultimately, all life. Environmentalism is the first to see that to exploit another human because he or she is different than you, is to damage the web of which we are all a part. To respect one another and demand respect in return is essential to a healthy existence on Earth. Similarly, to give up unearned guilt for being white, or unearned shame for being non-white are essential for recognizing our partnership in this society. I am what I am, and it is good. Treat me that way. This mutual respect is the fundamental value of our movement. We can call real environmentalism a belief in democracy. ****************************************************************** 15. 'COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATION AND MASSIVE STRUGGLE CAN CHANGE OUR CONDITIONS' Oklahoma inmate calls for unity movement By Sam Eli Bernard, Jr. #128703, Oklahoma State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma Dear Subscribers to the People's Tribune: This is a proposal for a prisoners unity movement: to initiate a national complaint and petition campaign to the United Nations. We write to you as prisoners and former prisoners. All of us live in the shadow of walls and guntowers. Following major events such as the racist killing of brother Johnny Gammage, Pittsburgh Steeler Ray Seals' cousin; the wave of increased racist attacks on innocent, defenseless African-Americans (and other progressive people), our lives remain in the balance. Our proposal is that we as prisoners conduct a national campaign to petition the United Nations against the inhuman and genocidal prison conditions and system that prevail in the 50 states and military bases and other territories seized and occupied by the U.S. Government. International victories such as those of the Vietnamese people, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the African National Congress' triumph over apartheid and the rising tide of revolution in Latin America show the decline of U.S. imperialism. In the United Nations, the U.S. government is becoming isolated. The U.N. has already gone on record against the denial of human rights in Bosnia. It is time for an international challenge of the prison system inside the United States. The laws, courts and prisons of the United States are all designed to control poor and working class people by force and deception; and they are special tools of genocide against African-Americans, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Asians, poor whites and native Americans in particular. Our demonstrations strikes and rebellions have multiplied together with our anger. But the weaknesses of spontaneity and isolation must be overcome; only collective organization and massive struggle can change our conditions. Many of us have realized that complete liberation requires the overthrow of the socio-economic imperialist class system of class and national oppression. We are political prisoners of war to the degree that we have interfered with the profits and powers of the ruling class. We need to revitalize our prisoners' movement nationally with unified goals and objectives and defined principles and policies. We need to widen our vision and expand our actions to include the great majority of prisoners throughout this country. We must enlist all possible support from the outside. Our first objective is to build strong lines of communication among prisoners and supporters based in the outside communities. Organization of groups/unions/alliances across the country is necessary. ENDORSEMENT: We who sign below have read the proposal for a massive campaign to the United Nations to mobilize world opinion to force changes in the atrocious U.S. prison system. We agree with the proposal and we are going to help circulate the petitions, help with the investigations and help with the collection of facts and evidence. We urge every person and every group or organization concerned with the human condition to assist in this effort in every way possible. Sam Eli Bernard, Jr. #128703 Oklahoma State Prison P.O. Box 97 McAlester, Oklahoma 74502-0097 ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 16. FIGHTING INJUSTICE, THE VILLAINS ARE COMING TO THE PT Formed as a writing group on the West Side of Chicago several years ago, the Villains are named for the way society views the youth of the inner city. In fact the voices of the Villains are calls of truth from a group of survivors who are participating actively to end injustice and misery. Whether they are reporting on education protests at the state capitol, the fight for decent housing, the release of significant hip hop music and art, or laying down poetry that reflects life, the Villains will entertain and educate and enlighten you. Look for their work in the next issue of the People's Tribune! ****************************************************************** 17. PT/TP BENEFIT IS A ROCKIN' SUCCESS CHICAGO -- Thanks to the efforts of many people who knew it was time we had a great musical benefit for the People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo earlier this year at the Fireside Bowling alley in Chicago. With the specific goal of raising money for publication of the revolutionary press and the outstanding music of the artists we pleasantly surprised ourselves! Guess people really are open to revolutionary ideas! Singer-songwriter Tim Polk led off the evening with thoughtful and personal lyrics and guitar on subjects from religion to love. Next up, West Side hip hop artists 180 brought the message with rhymes that threw a bright light on the situation facing the youth of our city. The Waco Brothers closed the show with their righteous brand of insurgent country music with a revolutionary twist. We rocked. We rolled. We talked. We even bowled. And we made a few bucks for the papers. WARNING: If you engage in activity similar to that described above, you could unleash revolutionary thought and contributions in your local area. ****************************************************************** 18. PROGRAM OF THE LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA This is an era of revolutionary change. For the first time in history, humankind can produce such abundance that society can be free from hunger, homelessness and backbreaking labor. The only thing standing in the way is this system of exploitation and injustice. The struggle today for homes, education, health care, freedom from police terror is the beginning of a revolution for a better world, economically, culturally and spiritually. The League of Revolutionaries for a New America takes as its mission the political awakening of the American people. We invite all who see that there's a problem and are ready to do something about it to join with us. With our organized strength, we will liberate the thinking of the American people and unleash their energy. We will win them to the cause for which they are already fighting. We will excite the American people with a vision of a world of plenty. Electronic technology provides better, cheaper and more products with less and less labor. Society now has the capacity to devote the energies and talents of its people to satisfying the material, intellectual, emotional and cultural needs of all. We will educate the people of this country about the economic revolution that's disrupting society. Every day, the new electronic technology throws thousands -- laborers and managers alike -- out of their jobs. Their labor is worthless to a system that values only what it can exploit. If they cannot work, they cannot eat. Radical changes in the way a society produces its wealth call for radical changes in how that society is organized. We will sound the alarm about the danger of a police state. The capitalist class cannot convince the American people to believe in their system while they are starving and freezing them and destroying their hopes and dreams. Their answer to the destruction of society is a police state. Their government takes away constitutional rights and gives back terror and prisons. They attempt to disarm the victims of capitalism by turning them against one another. We will inspire our people with the alternative to a police state: a society organized for the benefit of all. A society built on cooperation puts the physical, environmental, cultural and spiritual well-being of its people above the profits and property of a handful of billionaires. When the class which has no place in the capitalist system seizes control of all productive property and transforms it into public property, it can reorganize society so that the abundance is distributed according to need. We will empower the American people with the understanding of their role in striving for this new society and with the confidence that it's possible to win. The struggle of those who have no stake in this system carries the energy to overturn it. The League of Revolutionaries for a New America is an organization based on the aims of these millions of people. We are an organization of revolutionaries. Our members come from all walks of life. We are in the thick of battle on every front. From within housing takeovers and protests, universities and hospitals, courtrooms and prisons, factories, sweatshops and fields, from within each of the scattered battles, from wherever there is poverty and injustice, we take this message out to politicize and organize the revolution that is already shaking up this country. We call on you to join us in crusading for this cause. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ A CALL TO SUBMIT SLOGANS The League of Revolutionaries for a New America (LRNA) and the People's Tribune are looking for a slogan which expresses the League's program (printed to the right). The slogan will be used for the nameplate on the front page of the People's Tribune. The Steering Committee of the League will select the best slogan of those submitted. Prizes will be announced in the next issue of the People's Tribune. Send your slogans to the LRNA, P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 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 ******************************************************************