****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 24 No. 2/ February, 1997 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. 24 No. 2/ February, 1997 Page One 1. THE ONLY THING COLDER THAN THE WINTER OF 1997 IS THE HEART OF AMERICA'S RULERS Editorial 2. EDITORIAL: THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AND THE NEED FOR WORKING-CLASS UNITY Spirit of the Revolution 3. THE TRUE STORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION News and Features 4. WHO IS REALLY FLYING HIGH ON BIG-TIME WELFARE? 5. HOUSE OUR CHILDREN! MAINE GROUP EXPOSES AN EPIDEMIC OF YOUTH HOMELESSNESS 6. NEWSPAPER STRIKERS APPEAL FOR NATIONAL LABOR MARCH ON DETROIT 7. THE 'WORK ETHIC' AND THE ELECTRONIC AGE 8. BROADCASTERS VOW POLICE RAID WON'T SILENCE LIBERATION RADIO 9. WASHINGTON: A CITY UNDER SIEGE Focus on African American History Month 10. AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY IS AMERICAN HISTORY 11. AMERICA'S HISTORY OF REBELLION: LESSONS OF UNITY Women and Revolution: Visions for a New America 12. WELFARE PROSECUTIONS IN CALIFORNIA: DO WE WANT YOUNG MOTHERS FILLING OUR PRISONS? 13. GET THE RICH OFF WELFARE! 14. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD: WOMEN'S POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES American Lockdown 15. CALIFORNIANS CONDEMN CURBS ON FAMILY PRISON VISITS 16. POEM: GIVE THE THUMB Culture Under Fire 17. 'DOWNSIZE THIS!': MICHAEL MOORE'S GIFT TO AMERICA >From the League 18. FOR THE UNITY OF THE NEW CLASS ****************************************************************** 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, send a message to pt-dist@noc.org with "Subscribe" in the subject line. For electronic subscription problems, e-mail pt-admin@noc.org. ****************************************************************** ****************************************************************** 1. PAGE ONE: THE ONLY THING COLDER THAN THE WINTER OF 1997 IS THE HEART OF AMERICA'S RULERS In January, temperatures dropped to zero (and below zero with the wind chill factor) in many parts of the country. While many Americans looked out their windows from their cozy, warm homes, many of those less fortunate braved the frigid temperatures as best they could. Without shelter, proper clothing and a proper meal, some didn't survive. We'll never know the actual death toll. But even one death is too many. In Chicago, 22 deaths were reported. In sunny California, 12 undocumented immigrants died because their light clothing couldn't keep them warm. One Chicago woman who was lucky to survive the cold spell is now facing criminal charges. She was found with her five children in her unheated home. Did the officials say, "Oh my God, let's get her and the children into a warm place. And let's arrest those from the gas and electric companies responsible for turning off their services"? No, on the contrary, they charged the mother with putting her children in danger by living in a house without heat. This is the normal reaction of a society that is profit-driven -- to blame the victims for their poverty. We need a society where no one dies because of frigid temperatures. We need a society where everyone has a right to at least the basic necessities of life -- such as heat, food, housing and clothing. This is not the beginning of humanity, when people died because of the changes in the climate. No, we are living at a time when robotics and computers are changing the world. This new technology can create a totally different world for all of humanity to enjoy. But, because this new technology is owned and operated for the benefit of a few billionaires and their class, the majority of people are going without. We, the people, have to own and share this new technology for the benefit and advancement of all. ****************************************************************** 2. EDITORIAL: THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AND THE NEED FOR WORKING-CLASS UNITY In Los Angeles, garment workers seeking to unionize have seen their jobs moved to lower-wage countries in Latin America in recent months. In South Korea, industrial workers were striking in January to fight a new labor law that makes it easier for companies to lay them off. In Haiti, protests erupted across the country last month as the government prepared to enforce austerity measures that are demanded by international lending agencies as the price of continued loans to keep Haiti afloat. And across the United States, welfare recipients are facing losing their benefits under welfare "reform," including 1 million single, unemployed people who will lose their eligibility for food stamps as of March 1. What do all these workers, and hundreds of millions more across the world, have in common? Thanks to the globalization of the economy, they are all part of the same international working class, confronting a global class of employers. Across this country and around the globe, a struggle is breaking out between these two classes. If we, the people, are to win this fight, those who are already united by their common economic status must also unite on a moral and political level around a common program of struggle. The capitalists who dominate the economic and political life of our country and the world don't recognize national borders. They are an international class, and the capital they invest goes wherever the highest profit is to be made. When autos or steel or anything else can be made more cheaply in one country than another, the production gets shifted to where it's cheapest. It's as though the whole world were one big country. Electronics -- meaning production based on computers and robots -- has accelerated this process, by allowing jobs that were once concentrated in the most industrialized countries to be shifted to the "developing" world. Electronics is also eliminating jobs, further increasing the competition for jobs. Much manufacturing has been shifted to the lower-wage countries. Manufactured goods now account for about 60 percent of the developing countries' exports, up from 5 percent in 1955. The developing countries' share of total world exports of manufactured goods rose from 5 percent in 1970 to 22 percent in 1993. The global competition among the workers for jobs and wages is lowering wages worldwide. It isn't hard to see why. In 1994, including benefits, production workers cost $25 an hour in Germany and $16 in the United States, compared to $5 in South Korea, $2.40 in Mexico, $1.40 in Poland, and 50 cents or less in China, India and Indonesia. It's pretty clear that if wages in the United States and Germany don't fall, the jobs will simply move to where wages are lower. (It's important to note that the drive to cut wages in the United States began along with the assault on the welfare recipient. The attack on the poorest of the poor set the stage for the assault on everyone else.) The same economic and technological change that produced globalization and an international capitalist class is creating a growing new international class of workers -- both employed and unemployed -- who are united by their common poverty and their common need for a new society. They are the jobless, the homeless, the welfare recipients, the temporary and part-time workers, the formerly "middle-class" workers who have been down sized into low- wage jobs or permanent unemployment. But the struggle of this new class of poor -- which eventually will include most of us -- is scattered into separate "movements." The task is to unite politically those who are already united economically, to unite this class as a class so it can fight successfully for the new society of abundance that is made possible by high technology. The capitalists cannot halt globalization or downsizing. Their profits depend on it. The jobs and social programs that are being eliminated aren't coming back. Wages for most of us will continue to fall. We are going to have to fight our way forward, into a new, cooperative society where the necessities of life are distributed according to need, not according to ability to pay. Such a society is possible because of the productivity of electronics. There are two paths open to humanity. One leads to a world full of poor people ruled by police states. The other leads to an economic paradise. The fight is about who will control the wealth our labor produces. If we control the wealth, we can have a society free of poverty and racism, where every person can reach one's full potential. The key to victory is the political unity of the new class of poor people, no matter where they live or what language they speak. ****************************************************************** 3. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: THE TRUE STORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION The Boston Massacre: The poor, not the elite, began the American Revolution By Chris Mahin America's rulers tell us that this country was built by people with property. For most of us, that message started with our first history class, where we were told that this country was founded by upstanding, property-owning folk in New England and Virginia. In fact, the American Revolution was begun by people who didn't own anything, people who were the ancestors of today's downsized and underemployed. It's time to tell their story because we need their fighting spirit back again. The first battle of the American Revolution was the Boston Massacre of March 1770. At that time, Boston had been occupied by British troops for 17 long months. The poor of Boston hated that occupation every bit as much as the residents of today's inner cities hate the police occupation of their neighborhoods. All through the long winter of 1769, soldiers and citizens had clashed in street brawls and tavern fights. March 5, 1770 began as a cold and gray day. That evening, a small crowd gathered around a British sentry, accusing him of striking a young boy with his musket. The members of the crowd began hurling insults (and any missile they could find) at grenadiers who arrived to reinforce the sentry. The soldiers started shooting. By the time they were finished, "half a pail of blood" had been spilled into the snow, according to one eyewitness. The first man to die -- the first martyr of American Independence -- was a black man named Crispus Attucks, a native of Framingham, Massachusetts. He had escaped from slavery in 1750 and had gone to sea as a sailor. In total, five people were killed. Samuel Gray was a ropemaker; James Caldwell was a sailor; Samuel Maverick was a 17-year-old apprentice and Patrick Carr a leather worker. Carr was an Irish immigrant. The massacre provoked outrage. On March 8, about 10,000 of Boston's 16,000 inhabitants took part in the funeral procession of the martyrs. (At the time, this was the largest procession to ever have taken place in North America.) Attucks, Caldwell, Gray and Maverick were buried in the same grave. Nine days later, Carr's body joined theirs. The British troops were put on trial. Their lead defense attorney was John Adams, a wealthy lawyer who later became the second president of the United States. In his closing remarks to the jury, Adams said the killings were justified and blamed the violence on the immigrant (Patrick Carr from Ireland) and the black man (Crispus Attucks). He called the crowd on King Street "a mob" and "a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes and molattoes, Irish teagues and outlandish jack tarrs." ("Teague" is a despicable term of contempt for Irish Catholics, similar to the "n-word" for blacks. A "jack tarr" is a sailor.) All but two of the soldiers were acquitted, in part because of Adams' demagogic speech. Adams' statements show the contempt which America's elite has always felt for the country's have-nots. In colonial times, the poor were called "the mob" or "the rabble." Today, the unemployed and underemployed are referred to as "the underclass." The names change, but the game remains the same. In recent years, it has become fashionable for ruling-class historians to downplay the Boston Massacre. Some dismiss it as a minor "riot" (in the same way that the Los Angeles Rebellion of 1992 is trivialized by calling it a "riot.") But nothing can change the fact that the Boston Massacre started the American Revolution. "From that moment," Daniel Webster said, "we may date the severance of the British Empire." It was not until 1887 that Boston authorized the erection of a monument to the martyrs in Boston Common. On it are the words of John Boyle O'Reilly: "And honor to Crispus Attucks, who was leader and voice that day: The first to defy, and the first to die, with Maverick, Carr and Gray. Call it riot or revolution, or mob or crowd as you may, Such deaths have been seed of nations, such lives shall be honored for ay ..." Every year on March 5, we would do well to remember how the American Revolution began. While slaveowners and other wealthy people eventually wormed their way into the leadership of the revolution, they did not shed its first blood. The first man to die in the American Revolution was a black man. Since that man was a runaway slave compelled to use an assumed name, he was, in a sense, an "illegal." Another of the casualties in that first engagement was an immigrant. A third was a teen-ager. And all five who died were workers. They now sleep forever in the same grave in the Old Granary Burial Ground in downtown Boston, a symbol of the unity of America's poor -- black and white, immigrant and native- born, "legal" and "illegal," young and old. When I visited Boston in 1996, I saw homeless people of different nationalities shivering in the April cold just a few feet outside that cemetery's gates. Clearly, we once again need the unity of the poor which "the rabble" displayed on King Street in 1770. Without it, we won't be able to take back the country which the martyrs of March 5, 1770 helped create. ****************************************************************** 4. WHO IS REALLY FLYING HIGH ON BIG-TIME WELFARE? How about Mr. D.M. Tellep, the CEO of Lockheed Martin? He made $8,641,000 in salary alone in 1995. Government welfare to his company amounted to more than $1 billion recently. Up to 30,000 people were laid off by Mr. Tellep and company when Lockheed merged with Martin Marietta in 1995. People like Mr. Tellep should be the ones going to jail for fraud. Instead police are busy arresting and jailing moms on public assistance. In the photo above, the police go to the home of a mother accused of welfare fraud. Welfare does not provide enough assistance to feed children for an entire month, so mothers are forced to find a way to supplement the little money provided. Now, you tell us: Who is really getting welfare in America? ****************************************************************** 5. HOUSE OUR CHILDREN! MAINE GROUP EXPOSES AN EPIDEMIC OF YOUTH HOMELESSNESS If America's 'future' is 'our children,' it should be unacceptable for one in three children to live in poverty. --Hospitality House [Editor's note: Here we print excerpts from a statement issued by Hospitality House, Inc. of Maine.] HINCKLEY, Maine --About 35 percent of America's homeless people are children. That means that about one of every three persons who lack a roof over their heads is a child. If America's "future" is "our children," it should be unacceptable for one in three children to live in poverty. America ranks 16th in the world in the living standard of its poorest children, but first in defense spending. Nationally, women and children may be more likely to become homeless for purely economic reasons. Abuse is the second highest reason for becoming homeless. Domestic violence is a major reason for mothers and their children being on Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Homeless people are 25 percent more likely to be injured, be raped, become sick or be hospitalized than are their housed counterparts. It is cost effective to prevent homelessness rather than deal with its negative results. When parents are evicted, children also become homeless. Allowing a child to be without the safety of a roof sends a message: "You are not worthy enough to be fed or have your own bed." This type of message devalues all life. The government economic cutbacks of the '90s have led to reductions in social programs, which have resulted in raising the rate of homelessness by 14 percent since 1994. This means that there has been an increase of nearly 5 percent in homeless children since 1994. The private sector has not picked up the slack created by governmental cutbacks. Private charities (such as the Salvation Army) are no longer financially capable of paying rent deposits, so bouts of homelessness last longer and cost society more. Intentional gaps in service delivery, such as turning away eligible families in need, increase the dangers of homelessness. [The facts cited above were gathered from the Children's Defense Fund, the Maine Housing Technical Assistance Consortium, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Maine Women's Development Institute, the Center on Social Welfare Policy and Law, and the Homeless Crisis Hotline. For more information, write to Hospitality House, Inc., P.O. Box 62, Hinckley, Maine 04944 or call collect to 1-207-453-2986.] ****************************************************************** 6. NEWSPAPER STRIKERS APPEAL FOR NATIONAL LABOR MARCH ON DETROIT By the Newspaper Guild of Detroit (Local 22) We are newspaper workers who have been on strike since July 13, 1995 against the Detroit News, owned by Gannett, and the Detroit Free Press, owned by Knight-Ridder. We were forced to strike by these greedy billionaire newspaper chains who are out to bust our unions and deny us and our families a decent livelihood. Gannett and Knight-Ridder are demanding the elimination of hundreds of our jobs as well as take-aways that would gut our contracts. In a public statement made a month after the strike began, Robert Giles, editor and publisher of the Detroit News, said: "We're going to hire a whole new work force and go on without unions, or they can surrender unconditionally and salvage what they can." That has been the publishers' position from the beginning and it has not changed in all these months. They are taking heavy financial losses in Detroit as a result of the strike, but they are prepared to absorb such losses to achieve their main objective: Bust the unions. We believe the labor movement can stop them, that the Detroit newspaper strike can be won through labor solidarity and strength demonstrated in a massive national mobilization of the entire labor movement. At its August 1996 meeting, the AFL-CIO Executive Council considered a proposal for a National Labor March on Detroit. Although the proposal was endorsed by the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO and the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions (made up of all striking Detroit newspaper unions), the AFL-CIO Executive Council did not issue a call. Now that the national election campaigns are over, we are appealing to unions around the country and supporters of our strike to join us in urging AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and the Executive Council to reconsider. A national labor march on Detroit will show Gannett and Knight-Ridder that all of labor supports this struggle -- physically as well as financially. And it can help spur united labor actions in cities around the country directed against Gannett and Knight-Ridder facilities, including USA Today. We believe we must act now because the future of the labor movement will be critically affected by the outcome of this strike. After all, if corporations like Gannett and Knight-Ridder can break unions in a labor stronghold like Detroit, what union anywhere is safe from similar union-busting? It's time for Solidarity Day III, this time in Detroit. Please send a message to AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., urging a national labor march on Detroit in support of striking newspaper workers. And please send a copy to us. We deeply appreciate your continuing support. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Write, fax, call or e-mail: John Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO, 815 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20006 Fax: 202-508-6946 Phone: 202-637-5000 e-mail: 71112.53@compuserve.com Internet: http://www.aflcio.org Copy to: Dia Pearce, Newspaper Guild of Detroit, 3300 Book Building, Detroit, Michigan 48226 e-mail: daymon2001@aol.com +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 7. THE 'WORK ETHIC' AND THE ELECTRONIC AGE By R. Lee Here's a question for those who have jobs or are looking for work: Why do we work? Most people would probably answer, "Because I have to if I want to eat, and because it's expected." But consider these two facts: First, the wealthy few who tell the rest of us to get a job don't do any work themselves, and second, we're moving rapidly toward a society where no one will have to "work" in the traditional sense. The "work ethic" -- the idea that a person who is physically and mentally able is expected to work for a living has roots in both necessity and a capitalist-inspired morality. Historically, we worked out of necessity, to survive. When capitalism arose, the capitalists needed our labor, and they ensured that work was also seen as a moral obligation. Work is considered our contribution to society. We are also taught that hard work will be rewarded -- anybody can get ahead if they work hard enough. And we're taught that we have to compete with one another for the best jobs. But it's becoming clear to more and more of us that there is a real contradiction between the work ethic and reality. There are not enough jobs to go around, for one thing. And for many of us, the jobs we do have don't pay enough. Most of us never do "get ahead," no matter how hard we work. Indeed, many homeless people are working full-time. On top of this, the work ethic is used against us. The powers that be in this country use it to turn us against one another. They get us to believe that some people are unemployed simply because they don't want to work. The country is in crisis because we've turned our backs on "traditional values," we're told. And what about the handful of capitalists who are telling the rest of us to get to work? What do they do, besides sit back and watch the money roll in? In any case, the world is changing in a profound way that is making the capitalist "work ethic" obsolete. Our jobs are being taken by computers and robots. The jobs that are being downsized out of existence today are never coming back. We are moving steadily toward a workless society, meaning one where most of the work is done by machines, not people. We are at the dawn of an age where we no longer need to work, at least not in the traditional sense, because society's new electronic tools are so productive that they are simultaneously eliminating jobs and creating a nearly unlimited abundance. All of us could have a high standard of living, without "working" in the sense of selling our labor power to someone else. We need to redefine the work ethic in terms that reflect the interests of the majority of the people. In a workless society, there won't be any "jobs" in the traditional sense to compete for, and no need to compete just to eat. But there will be things that need doing, and each of us will have the opportunity to make a contribution to getting these things done, whether it's rearing our children, providing health care or building housing. In return, each of us will also get what we need to live full and satisfying lives. We have to ask ourselves, what is a moral person today? Is it someone who denounces those who can't find work and supports the dog-eat-dog competition of a failing capitalism? Or is it someone who recognizes that they're part of society, and that they have common interests with all those employed and unemployed -- who must sell their labor power in order to live? Our morality, our "work ethic" of today must reflect both the electronic age that has dawned and the moral and political struggle that has been spawned by the resulting crisis. We welcome comments from our readers about the article above. ****************************************************************** 8. BROADCASTERS VOW POLICE RAID WON'T SILENCE LIBERATION RADIO By Chris Mahin The defenders of freedom of speech reacted with outrage in early January at a police raid on a micro-radio station which has served as a voice of the dispossessed in America's heartland. For six years, Black Liberation Radio, a small unlicensed FM station in Decatur, Illinois, has courageously exposed police brutality and official misconduct. It played a particularly important role in helping to build ties between the African American poor of central Illinois and the largely white work force at the local Caterpillar Tractor plant during the bitter strike at that company during the early '90s. The creators of the station, micro-broadcasters Napoleon Williams and Mildred Jones, have accomplished all this by broadcasting from a 10-watt transmitter in their home. They have consistently refused as a matter of principle to ask for a license from the Federal Communications Commission, arguing that they need no one's permission to exercise their freedom of speech. Because they have taken that stand and because they have fearlessly exposed the status quo, Williams and Jones have earned the hatred of federal, state, and local authorities. On January 9, state and local police officers raided their home and seized broadcasting equipment. A search warrant authorized the police to look for evidence of "eavesdropping," a felony under Illinois law. However, many of the items seized have nothing to do with eavesdropping: compact discs, personal files and a personal computer, for instance. The raid is the latest in a series of attacks on the couple and their station. Williams faces a $17,500 fine from the FCC for broadcasting without a license. In 1992, Jones was jailed for refusing to co-operate with a grand jury. In 1994, Williams was convicted of a trumped-up charge of "aggravated battery to a peace officer" and spent time in prison. An Illinois state agency took custody of the couple's older daughter, Unique Dream, in 1992 and of the younger daughter, Atrue Dream, in 1994. The couple is still fighting to regain custody of their children. The police raid drove Black Liberation Radio off the air, but Williams and Jones vow that it will return. They want to purchase a 40-watt transmitter to replace the 10-watt transmitter taken by the police. To continue their work, they urgently need donations of both money and radio equipment. We urge our readers to help this important effort. Send your donations to: Napoleon Williams, 629 E. Center Street, Decatur, Illinois 63526 or call 1-217-423- 9997 for more information. ****************************************************************** 9. WASHINGTON: A CITY UNDER SIEGE By Rick Tingling-Clemmons WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The District of Columbia has never had democracy -- not even the rich-controlled brand of democracy enjoyed by the rest of the United States. This has cost D.C. families hundreds of billions of dollars, collected as taxes (per capita, the third highest amount in the nation), while a committee historically composed mainly of white men (the U.S. House of Representatives' District Committee) decides what's best for the city's predominantly African American population. Today, the residents of the District of Columbia are under siege by the Financial Control Board (unelected appointees of President Clinton who run the city). We are getting the worst end of budget- balancing in a gross conspiracy that involves the legislature, the executive branch, the judiciary, local leaders, the private sector and the media. Like most cities, we are being forced to endure massive budget cuts with reduced services, higher taxes, furloughs and mass firing of city employees. The pain of these cuts falls on the vulnerable, i.e., children, the handicapped, the unemployed, the homeless and the elderly. Meanwhile, our streets and children remain unsafe; our public schools have been taken over; welfare benefits were cut while Control Board staff got holiday bonuses; alcohol and drug use and abuse have increased along with hopelessness; infant mortality statistics and negative health indices remain unacceptably high; homelessness and hunger are growing; civil and human rights are being eroded. In D.C., this has meant no voting representation in Congress; being forced by Congress to put the death penalty on the ballot; being denied the right by Congress to tax commuters working in D.C. (who earn 60 percent of the wages) like every other metropolitan area; and having to function under the control of Congress. Although "home rule" established an elected school board and city council, it gave a congressional subcommittee total control of the local budget through line-item veto power, allowed the federal government to occupy 55 percent of the city's land tax-free, and permitted the government to set the level of a federal payment, an annual compensation for services provided by the District government to the federal government, that has had no relation to actual costs. Currently, the city is saddled with a Financial Control Board, paid for by D.C. residents, that has closed our adult learning centers; threatens to close our local university; colluded with the courts to close 12 public schools; is planning to privatize our police department, jails and prisons, and to contract out our social services system; fired our school superintendent and replaced him with the general who ran the Federal Emergency Management Agency; and taken over our local Lotto game. Daily, the Washington Post and the Washington Times remind us of how dangerous, backward, stupid, immoral, unfavored by God, and undeserving of the goodness of this earth District residents are, and that Congress supports the tyranny being imposed on the citizens in the name of balancing the budget. Along with home rule, the Congress saddled the residents of the District with billions of dollars in unfunded pension liabilities. This means that although we raise 83 to 87 percent of our $5.1 billion budget, we can never catch up. Congress has not only saddled us with this unreasonable debt that we did not incur, but has interfered in every way in all our other attempts to raise revenues to meet our legitimate obligations. Although we know that statehood will not cure the economic ills we face as a result of the reduced need for workers to produce goods and services, 200 years of taxation without representation is more than enough. We need your support for D.C. statehood now. ****************************************************************** 10. AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY IS AMERICAN HISTORY By Allen Harris It has become customary in February to take up what we call African American history, to recall the saga of the people of this hemisphere whose roots are in Africa. The Africans who came to these shores nearly 400 years ago did not do so of their own free will. Since then, the struggle has been to regain it. And yet, once here, the history of the Africans, the Europeans, the Native Americans and all other peoples who now call the United States their home has become bonded into one history. >From slavery to today, the social and economic oppression of the black people of the United States has always been a part of the oppression of the working class. Bourgeois rule in America has always depended upon using the color question to divide and hold down both white and non-white workers and poor people. The secret has been to divide white and black Southerners by holding down the blacks and then to divide the South from the rest of the country by keeping conditions in the region the poorest and least progressive. The struggle of the African American people has been to make real the highest aspirations of American democracy. And as the African American people have moved forward toward that aspiration, so has all of American society. This is why we say that African American history really is American history itself. What this means is that the struggle of the African American people has been inseparable from every chapter of American history itself. * In the Boston Massacre of 1770, called the first battle of the Revolutionary War, the first American to fall under British fire was a black sailor, Crispus Attucks. * In the Civil War, black men wearing Union blue took up arms and struck the hardest possible blow against the Confederacy and for the emancipation of their brethren from slavery. * In the industrial age, great agitators came forward such as Lucy Parsons, who fought for 55 years for the emancipation of the working class from capitalism. Today, America is leaving the industrial era. A "post-industrial" age symbolized by the new emerging technology is revolutionizing the economy. This new age is, in a way, also revolutionizing African American history. But how? Until now, the struggle of the African American people could achieve at most concessions -- reforms -- from the capitalist class that ruled the nation. The last such social reform, desegregation and "affirmative action," came from the struggles of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. These reforms now are coming under direct and intensifying attack, just as welfare has been and Social Security soon will be. For the first time, the capitalists' use of technology to eliminate human work they no longer need is throwing millions of people into permanent unemployment and poverty. These "throw- aways" are of all colors and nationalities. They are becoming a new class whose need for food, housing, clothing and freedom itself cannot be met under the old system because they are excluded from it. The same technology which the capitalists use to exclude these new poor -- in which millions of African Americans find themselves -- can be used in the hands of this new class to end poverty and create universal abundance. If there is no poverty, if there is no scarcity, then there can be no real basis for economic or social inequality. If the basic human needs of each is met according to need, then the old antagonisms between people of different colors or nationalities become pointless. Now, more than ever, the struggle of the great majority of African Americans is being expressed in terms of pure survival: homes, food, clothing, education, health care and more. It is inseparable from what the class as a whole is fighting for. For the class as a whole, it means that fighting for survival is bound up with the fight of the African American people for freedom. The complete freedom of the African American people from the oppression they have fought so long against can only come through revolutionary change of this society. That change can only come when the vast majority of Americans now without power gain that power and use it to end poverty. Let this year's tribute to African American History Month be a new call for the class to unite, to become stronger and more ready to fight for this power. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The mechanization of Southern agriculture resulted in a massive migration of African Americans from the Black Belt. The migrations reduced the huge majority of blacks relative to whites, but it did not affect the colonial position of the area. It is still the poorest area of the country. It still has the worst schools, the poorest health care, the greatest unemployment -- the lowest standard of living. It is still the foundation of national political reaction. It is still owned and exploited by Northern financial interests. ... The special oppression of the blacks facilitated the election of the most reactionary, chauvinistic, imperialist, jingoist politicians. -- Nelson Peery, African American Liberation and Revolution in the United States. (Available for $2.50 from the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647) +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 11. AMERICA'S HISTORY OF REBELLION: LESSONS OF UNITY By S. Reid The American people have a magnificient history of uniting in struggle and rebellion against their rulers. They also have a history of playing into the hands of their rulers by fighting among themselves. By the mid-eighteenth century, there were six slave rebellions and eighteen uprisings aimed at overthrowing the wealthy colonial governments. Very often, white indentured servants fought until death alongside black slaves in these rebellions. Black slaves ran away to Indian villages where they were harbored safely. These displays of unity struck fear in the hearts of the rulers. After all, the key to holding power for any ruling class lies in keeping your subjects divided. But when people understand their history they can fight in their own interests. For this reason, the People's Tribune will look at a historical example called Bacon's Rebellion. This rebellion shows several things. For one thing, it shows that the poor can unite around common needs. Secondly, it demonstrates that people will disunite and fight each other if they don't know who their enemy is. Finally, Bacon's Rebellion shows that the ruling class learns from history and refines its method of rule after each battle. The rich in Virginia in 1676 faced growing dissent from the poor, the indebted, the discontented and armed. White servants, whose life was almost as bad as the slave, had taken up arms twice and demanded freedom. Frontiersmen were revolting: they wanted land. Nathaniel Bacon was a young planter who aroused the hatred of the common people against their oppressors. He formed a rebel army of frontiersmen, which joined with white servants and black slaves in an effort to overthrow the colony's rulers. The servants and slaves joined the rebellion hoping to win their freedom. Bacon's army plundered the estates of the rulers and burned Jamestown to the ground. Hundreds of armed slaves and servants fought until they were captured or killed. Eighty of the last hundred holdouts were black. England had to send in soldiers to put down the rebellion. Tragically, Bacon's Rebellion was also aimed at the Indians, many of whom were massacred. The freemen thought the Indians were also keeping them from getting land. One can only speculate as to what victories may have been possible for everyone had the rebels tried to unite with the Indians. Nonetheless, Bacon's Rebellion put forth the revolutionary idea that people can rebel against unjust rule. The combination of forces alarmed the rulers, and they took steps to ensure that their subjects were divided. Soon, the white servants were guaranteed freedom and taught to fear and despise blacks. Laws placed whites above blacks. Amnesty was given to white servants who fought in the rebellion, but not to blacks. To this day, the petty privileges given to the white poor over the black poor have prevented unity. However, these privileges are now being eliminated by the demands of a global economy and a global ruling class. Today, the lessons of history can really become a weapon in the hands of the revolutionaries. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Reference material : A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn; Who Built America? Edited by Herbert Gutman African American Liberation and Revolution in the United States, by Nelson Peery ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ WOMEN AND REVOLUTION: VISIONS FOR A NEW AMERICA The purpose of this column is to open debate on all issues concerning women today. We see it as a place where women can discuss and debate strategies for winning women's equality and improving women's status. This is critical to our playing our historic role of leading in the building of a new America. Send your articles, 300 words or less, to People's Tribune Women's Desk at pt@noc.org +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 12. WELFARE PROSECUTIONS IN CALIFORNIA: DO WE WANT YOUNG MOTHERS FILLING OUR PRISONS? Dear People's Tribune, I opened my local paper, the Sun Star, to read: "Fraud Sweep Nets 30." Underneath the photo of a young mother being led away in handcuffs, the article painted a glowing picture of the excellent job local law enforcement is doing rounding up "cheats." I have so many problems with this, I don't know where to begin. First, the woman in the picture was forced to leave three children under 5 years old. If her mother had not been able to come and care for them, they would have been placed immediately in foster care, though they never have been neglected or abused. These women are not dangerous! It is a blatant waste of taxpayer dollars to prosecute and lock them up; then to house and feed them as they serve their sentences. Ninety-seven percent of those who have not reported earnings while on welfare would be glad, I am sure, to pay the county back. These payments could be deducted from future AFDC checks with one push of a computer button. Second, and as usual, it is women who are the majority of the arrested. The men are often on the welfare grant, but for some reason they are not being arrested. Third, a quick scan of the names of the arrested makes it clear that once again, it is minorities who are being targeted. Will middle-class Hispanics and blacks stand by as their sisters are jailed, or worse, side with the draconian forces of authority? I implore all aid recipients and people of conscience: Take a stand! Do we want young mothers filling our prisons? Is this what America has come to? If we learned nothing else from the devastation that Hitler created, we have learned this: Next time, they may be coming for you! -- A welfare mom in Merced, California ****************************************************************** 13. GET THE RICH OFF WELFARE! By the People's Tribune Women's Desk Many thanks to the welfare mom from Merced for using the People's Tribune to educate people. (See article 12.) Yes, it's a sad commentary on the state of America to see 30 young moms jailed to "save taxpayers money." If they're so serious about fighting fraud, why did they throw out the conviction of Charles Keating, the notorious savings and loan crook who a jury convicted of 70 counts of fraud? Keating caused investors, many of whom are elderly, to lose $250 million. Keating and the other capitalist bandits are the real welfare cheats. Meanwhile, the government is creating ominous new techniques to "brand" the little people criminals. Illinois launched the first retinal eye-scanning project to identify welfare recipients. Clients look into an eyepiece. A camera scans their retina and records the pattern of blood vessels in the eye. This is then stored in a computer for identification. This program has been used by the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command, the FBI and the CIA! Many Americans applauded the passage of President Clinton's "welfare reform." They thought it was aimed at "welfare cheats" or hoped it would "put welfare moms to work." But welfare reform is really about helping to boost profits for the capitalists in a competitive global economy. Cutting welfare helped lay the basis for cutting jobs and wages for those still working. In New York, for example, city workers are being laid off and replaced with lower-paid former welfare recipients. And, of course, there won't be much welfare for the replaced workers. While this is going on, the capitalists want to keep us fighting each other and not them. The welfare mom is not bringing down America. The Charles Keatings, the other capitalists, and their representatives in Congress are the culprits. Today in America there is plenty of food, clothing, medicine, and housing for everyone to have the decent life that each person deserves. We have to understand who the real criminals are. We need to defend the victims of poverty and gather our forces to save America. ****************************************************************** 14. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD: WOMEN'S POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES In this collection, a diverse group of women -- including well- known writers and activists such as Mimi Abramovitz, Frances Fox Piven, Marian Kramer and Dottie Stevens -- urge us to look beyond "traditional solutions" to women's poverty and to make more fundamental social and economic changes to improve women's lives. Some of these women are represented by People's Tribune Speakers Bureau. To book one of them for Women's History Month, call the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau at 773-486-3551, or write to P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois, 60654 or send e-mail to: speakers@noc.org. To order For Crying Out Loud, call South End Press at 1-800-533-8478. Writers represented by the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau include: Diane Dujon is a longtime welfare rights organizer, writer and a former welfare recipient. She is involved with the Women's Institute for New Growth and Support, and with Survival News. Marian Kramer, co-chair of the National Welfare Rights Union, has fought for poor women's rights for decades. She speaks all over the country for people replaced by technology and is educating a whole new corps of leaders from within the ranks of the poor. Ann Withorn, a professor of social policy at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, is an author and has been an editor at Radical America magazine. Dottie Stevens, vice president of the National Welfare Rights Union, was an independent candidate for governor in Massachusetts in 1990, running on a platform of electing the victims of poverty to political office. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE SPEAKERS BUREAU The People's Tribune Speakers Bureau represents many of the women who are in the forefront of the revolution that is changing the political landscape of America today. Our speakers inspire audiences with a vision of a new America free from want, race hatred, sexual oppression and strife. They talk about the birth of a new women's movement, bringing fresh ideas to the debates on how to attain women's equality. For a free list of speakers, write to P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654-3524 or call 773-486-3551. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 15. CALIFORNIANS CONDEMN CURBS ON FAMILY PRISON VISITS By Chris Venn LOS ANGELES -- As of November 1, 1996, family visits in California state prisons were reduced by 50 percent. These visits provided mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, wives and husbands with the right to visit their loved ones in prison. Because they are so popular among prisoners and their families, these visits have been credited with reducing violence. Demonstrators from throughout California gathered at the Federal Building in Los Angeles and at San Quentin Prison in Northern California in November to protest these cutbacks. In Los Angeles, individuals representing Pro-Family Advocates and Islands Support Network spoke to the People's Tribune about their protest. SANDRA GEORGE, director of Pro-Family Advocates: "Eighty percent of prisoners in California come home and we want to make sure these prisoners can pick up the pieces and become productive members of society. However, the CCPOA (California Correctional Police Officers Association), the prison guards' union, wants to keep the recidivism rate high because that means more prisons, more correctional officers, and a stronger union. "Why is there so much recidivism? The California Department of Corrections (CDC) disconnects prisoners from their families. They make prison a situation that turns prisoners into animals. As of November 1, the CDC wants to restrict our day visits and take away our overnight visits. "This is a struggle about politics, about money, and about personal agendas. We have gone from 17 to 32 prisons in 12 years. In California, we had 27,000 prisoners in 1979; today, we have 146,000 prisoners and we're increasing by 1,000 a month. By the year 2001, it is estimated we're going to have more than 235,000 prisoners in this state. We have had a political agenda in California for the last 16 years that has focused on prisons instead of education. Our governor and a number of our legislators have been heavily supported by the CCPOA. This is a very powerful union and they are not about fairness, nor justice nor rehabilitation. They are about power and punishment. "I am married to a lifer. I give him the strength to go on inside and he gives me the strength to go on outside. How can that be a negative? MARVIN COOLBAUGH, Pro-Family Advocates: "I am out here because they actually took family visits away from us. These visits are important because I actually get to see the person in their true form, not in the guarded conditions of the prison. These visits take us out of the prison and my wife and I see each other differently, we see each other as true family. After these new regulations on November 1, our family just dissolved. I don't get to see my wife as my wife. I now see her as an inmate in a prison. "This is especially hard for the children. Stopping the prison visits is all about getting votes. It's about Pete Wilson trying to get more votes. And as long as he can keep using scare tactics, he will. But they can't keep using scare tactics to sell their product and their product is warehousing the people. "They want more and more prisons, they want to spend more and more of the taxpayers' money. They're using victims' rights groups to say family visits are costing the taxpayer; but they're not. The prisoners' families are paying for the cottages. All the expenses are being paid by the inmate welfare funds. Question: A lot of us who contribute to the People's Tribune look at the disappearance of jobs and the increases in prisons with alarm. Could you comment? The prison industry is a large, large industry and they're trying to make it grow. Where the money goes to, I don't know. They're doing everything they possibly can to inmates to keep them in prison. The prisons treat the inmates so badly they hate the people on the outside to start with. If they do get out, they want to come back, because they think prison is much better than freedom outside prison. I would like to know: Whose pocket does the money go into? Who are these contractors? I know for a fact that when Gov. Pete Wilson's in town in the Newport Beach area he spends a lot of time with one of the biggest developers in California, Donald Bren. What are those two doing? Are they personal friends or are they business associates? I see things like that and I wonder what they do or who's in whose pocket. The thing that disgusts me the most is the more I look into the facts ... I see lies. I don't know how to deal with that yet and that's why I'm out here today. MARI NIETO, Islands Support Group: "I think this demonstration is important not only for the people driving by, but for the people who came to the demonstration from different prisons throughout California to see that they're not alone. This demonstration is bringing out the issue of unity of the family which is important if we're going to fight the CDC and at the same time educate the public. "Other groups here are Family Net, Mothers ROC, California Cure and La Gente from UCLA. La Gente is a student organization that sends papers to the prisoners." RASHIMA, Islands Support Group: "There's an excess of labor and this is the ruling class's way of dealing with it. The whole drug thing, from the heroin to the crack, is there to keep people from rising up. They've got them drugged out or arrested or locked up or warehoused. So it's to keep what used to be the working class, which no longer has jobs, from being able to have any control or power. It's the master plan." Barbara Hunt, Pro-Family Advocates representative from Calapatria State Prison: "My husband is in prison with life without parole and we fall under the criteria of no family visiting. I've fought for family visiting ever since we started. I have visited Calapatria State Prison every weekend for the last three years. "Along with the cutbacks in family visiting, there are many negative changes within the prison system. As of the first of January, visiting becomes a privilege and not just a right. There are families who don't visit anymore because visiting facilities have become so shabby. Many prisons now have visits only on Saturdays and Sundays. Inside the prison, they have taken men, who are on programming yards where they can work and go to school, to yards where there is no work or schooling. They have taken prisoners from a situation where they can be productive and just do their time to a non-productive situation. And we know an idle mind is the devil's workshop. "We would like Gov. Wilson to come to our rallies. We would like to be able to talk to him to find out what kind of plans he wants to institute and why. Why is he hurting families." ****************************************************************** 16. POEM: GIVE THE THUMB Give the thumb to the thumbprinters, tell 'em to take a hike and the same goes for electronic surveillance and its assorted mikes, and throw in the bugs the corporate thugs have arranged to keep us crawling from crust to crust. Give the finger to the fingerprinters, shout: Up yours! at them who've begun barbed-wiring our borders, transferring our prints to the bricks of the prisons they're building for us poor. We're involved with a vision of a land without prisons filled with dazzling finger- paintings and not the work of fingerprinters the real criminals dirtying up our righteous souls. -- Jack Hirschman ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 17. 'Downsize This!': Michael Moore's gift to America By Andy Willis Short of funds for Christmas and in need of good cheer of some kind, I borrowed Michael Moore's Downsize This! from an old friend. (It was a signed copy, no less!) Swearing to take excellent care of the little tome, I sat down to read it two days later. I can only report that Downsize This! is a revelation. I had loved Michael Moore's movies and TV show, but this book really conveys the deep love Michael Moore has for our country and the deepening anger he feels for the corporate rich and their paid politicians who are destroying it. Open the book to any page and Michael Moore is kicking ass and taking names. For example, on Page 110, Moore writes: "I think it's time to redefine crime. When the individuals running a savings and loan loot the life savings of an elderly couple, that should be a crime. ... "These corporate crimes should be listed as serious felonies, even more serious than the crimes committed by street criminals. Why? Because, unlike many of the street criminals who violate the law because they're high on PCP or are so mentally gone they can't find an honest way out of their predicament, the corporate criminal knows exactly what he is doing and why he is doing it. His motive is pure greed." Moore exposes the real welfare cheats of society to be millionaires subsidized by taxpayer money. There are plenty of juicy details: pictures, salaries and hobbies. You are treated to a quiz on quotes from politicians that will convince you the Democrats and Republicans are identical philosophically, politically and spiritually. O.J., abortion, militias, prisons: All these topics and many more are covered in a way that will have you laughing to keep from crying. Since he is the son of an autoworker, you can understand Moore's obsession with layoffs, firings or so-called downsizing. His hometown of Flint, Michigan was basically ruined as General Motors callously laid off thousands. Moore's excellent movie, "Roger and Me," was about trying to get answers about these layoffs from then GM chief Roger Smith. But Downsize This! is even more pointed than the movie. Now Michael Moore answers the questions Mr. Smith and the rest of the capitalists refuse to speak to. Moore proves time and again all they care about is profit. If the majority of the American people suffer and even starve, the elite simply isn't concerned. Public policy flows from the priority of profit so that NAFTA, budget cuts, layoffs, etc. are designed solely to benefit the richest people in society. What can we do as the American dream is stolen from us? Rather than taking the trouble out on ourselves or some other people who didn't cause the downsizing of our dream, the book urges organizing the millions of non-wealthy Americans into a political force that will guarantee our right to a decent life both now and in the future. Moore is specific on how to take action, including joining the ever-ready and unarmed Mike's Militia. (The Michael Moore home page can be found at http://www.randomhouse.com/). I believe what we have here is an ability to communicate. Moore may be a Thomas Paine for our times, writing in a way that compels us to take action against the tyranny of the wealthy 1 percent. He is also very clear that he believes our side has been way out of touch and that the so-called left has, by and large, "left" the country to the mercies of the cutthroat political right. But he declares in a recent article that now is the time to move: "Good friends, trust me, we are missing a golden opportunity to get this country turned around. The majority of citizens refused to vote on Nov. 5. The media would not report this historic event for what it was -- a virtual act of civil disobedience by an electorate sick and tired of our two political parties. The people are not stupid. They became acutely aware during the campaign that there really wasn't much difference between the Democrats and Republicans. And they're really pissed off that the rich (the 1 percent who own 40 percent of the wealth) now have two parties that represent them and the other 99 percent of us have none. There is no better time to get out there and make something happen. Labor Party -- Yes! New Party -- Yes! Alliance -- Yes!" (From Michael Moore, "Don't Be Left Out," in The Nation, December 16, 1996.) I think Moore missed one part of the picture we need to talk about. The destruction caused by layoffs and budget cutting is happening not just because a few capitalists got extra greedy, but because a global economy based on electronics knows no boundaries or loyalties. Competition for profit is more ruthless than ever as four-fifths of the world's population is becoming unneeded for production. My family and I learned first-hand about this process as first my wife and then I lost our chemical plant jobs and then our home in West Virginia. It is because Michael Moore is on my side I feel I can talk to him about this either in person when he tours Chicago or on the Internet. He is serious about communicating and organizing, and I think by writing this book he may already have proved to be one of the best friends I and millions like me ever had. Buy the book! ****************************************************************** 18. FROM THE LEAGUE: FOR THE UNITY OF THE NEW CLASS By Nelson Peery Unity is the best-loved word in the revolutionary's dictionary. As economic conditions worsen, there are more calls for unity and there is less of it. There has never been a time when it was more sorely needed or so widely misunderstood. Before there can be any unity, the simple questions of why, who, and how must be answered. Choosing who to unite depends on theory. Why depends on the goals. How depends on the political struggle of the time. Let us start at the beginning. As revolutionaries, our strategy is to utilize the changes in the economy to create a new society free from exploitation, poverty, racism and all its ugly consequences. Until now, these goals have been unattainable dreams of decent people. They have been unattainable because there has never existed means of production that could overcome shortages in the necessaries of life. So long as there was scarcity, there would be a privileged class. The new automated process of production is so efficient that the workers are faced with either being replaced by them and thrown into the street or taking them over and utilizing them in the interest of humanity rather than profit. Who? What group is capable of leading the fight for this reorganization? History shows that revolutions are led by a class or classes that are outside of, and have absolutely no stake in, the existing system. Does such a class exist and, if so, where did it come from? Yes, such a class exists -- or is forming. New methods of production eventually destroy the old productive class and create a new one. This is happening before our eyes. The old industrial working class is quite rapidly disintegrating. The highly paid industrial jobs are being automated and the workers are shoved into the street or into jobs at or below the minimum wage. During the recent period, there has been a 142 percent increase in minimum-wage jobs. There is a huge increase in temporary and part-time workers. (They today make up 25 percent of the work force). It is estimated that within 10 to 15 years, another 90 million of the existing 124 million jobs will be automated. It is not widely understood, but the people know that the pauperization of work and the permanent unemployment is caused by the introduction of robots. Consequently, a new class is forming which is made up of workers whose jobs have been pauperized and are now working part-time, at the minimum wage, or below it. At the core of this new class are those who are jobless -- people who will never work again and who eventually become destitute and homeless. We turn our attention to the members of this new class because they are, in fact, outside society and have no stake in it. As the capitalist government increases its disregard for them, they will be compelled to attack this system. And yet, because they are still forming as a class, they are the most disorganized, backward and powerless group in the nation. How do we unite this class for the coming battle? Unity or the lack of unity has never been a subjective question. When a large group of people are on the same social level with common economic problems, they can unite. Despite a history of common poverty in the past, the poor could not unite. Petty social privileges granted to the white poor over the black poor have always made unity impossible. The poor could not unite when they were unequally oppressed and exploited. Only equals can unite. Privileges weren't granted to the white poor because the ruling class cared for them. It was bribery, a political tactic designed to prevent unity of the class. Only through unity would the class have the strength to win the fight for wages and working conditions. Things are changing. Just as oppression is a tool to facilitate exploitation, bribery is also a tool for exploitation. As globalization of production develops, the form of bribery that arose with slavery is no longer needed to facilitate exploitation and is being cast aside. That exploitation is achieved through automated production, the international competition for jobs and the laws of the global marketplace. The decline of bribery and privilege is firming up the material base of the fight for unity, but there are contradictions. As bribery of the class declines, will unity automatically take its place? By no means. History shows us that dying ideological systems fight to stay alive. The longing for the "good old days" becomes a social vision in periods of transition and is the basis for winning the more backward elements over to fascism. This reactionary longing is automatic. The revolutionary vision -- a vision based on the capacity of the new means of production -- must be fought for. Special organizations must be created to popularize this vision and carry out this fight. Until there is a new vision, even the most "revolutionary" fighters end up looking backward -- reactionary -- fighting to recover what they are losing or what is lost. This confusion characterizes the orientation of almost the entire left. It is time for us to stop all this nonsense about "fighting back" (in the sense of holding onto the old relations, or going backward to recover what has been lost). The foundations for the social services that existed in the hey-day of American expansionism and imperialism are gone. Those foundations were the needs of national capital to firm up a social and political base for plundering the world and carrying on imperialist wars. With a supranational oligarchy, the globalization of production, and a world marketplace, these old relations are gone forever. They cannot be retrieved. Our political starting point is the fact that global capital no longer has a special political need for the social bribery of the American workers and therefore will not continue it. Does this mean for us not to fight, or to fight for pie in the sky? No, it does not. It means to fight with a vision, to fight in a progressive direction. Unless the people fight for their most immediate demands, they will be in no condition to carry on the fight for the strategic goal. The battle for these reforms are the fields on which the skirmishes take place that test the will and bring together the forces that will take on the political battle. Time was when temporary, limited objectives could be achieved through temporary organizational unity. This "we're in the same boat, brother" ideology was the best that could be achieved under former conditions. That is not enough today. The only ideology capable of advancing this new class is the idea of oneness or sameness. This demands that we learn how to shift the concept of unity across color lines to the unity of class. Unity of this new class must be based on a common ideology. Since it is ideological, it can only be achieved through education. We do not mean classroom education, but education in what is known as the "school of hard knocks." Every attack against the people, every struggle must become a school where the revolutionaries put forth the meaning of the fight, how to win it, and the final objectives. What then is the primary job of League members in the fight for unity? The first and decisive task is to rid ourselves of any lingering sectarianism. A sect is a group that adheres to ideas or doctrines. On the left, sectarianism is expressed as "winning the masses to our correct program." In the accepted sense of the word, we do not have an independent program to be sectarian about. If we have a program, it is victory to the new class in its current spontaneous struggle against poverty and exploitation. Aside from propaganda work, we have little need for independent activity of the League as an organization. Secondly, any examination will show that this new class, as it achieves political independence, can go in only one direction -- to revolution and a communal society. We need no longer be so concerned with the form of the struggle. There is no longer any particularly "correct" way of going about a struggle. Various organizations exist to deal with different aspects of the struggle of this new class. Instead of seeing them as potential competitors, we must strive to meet, to know, and to unite them. We must theoretically understand the new world, we must be teachers instead of activists, we must articulate and concretize the ideology of the new proletarian class. We will win this fight because for the first time, there is a class with nothing to lose but its chains, and a world to win. ****************************************************************** 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@noc.org with the word "subscribe" in the subject. 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@noc.org with a message of "subscribe". ******************************************************************