****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 24 No. 8/ August, 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. 8/ August, 1997 Page One 1. THE QUESTION OF AN EQUAL SOCIETY IS BEING DEBATED Editorial 2. TWO MOVES BY OUR RULERS SHOW NEED FOR A NEW VISION Spirit of the Revolution 3. SUPREME COURT DECISION PROVOKES OUTRAGE News and Features 4. A GLOBAL VILLAGE OR GLOBAL MISERY? AN INTERVIEW WITH CAMBODIAN WORKER MARY OU 5. MEXICO'S VOTERS STRIKE BLOW AGAINST POVERTY 6. THERE'S PLENTY OF FOOD: WE CAN HAVE A WORLD WITHOUT HUNGER 7. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: MONEY MOVES FREELY; WHY CAN'T PEOPLE? 8. MILWAUKEE RESIDENTS VOICE CONCERN OVER WELFARE 'REFORM': W-2 PROGRAM IS A 'CALL TO BE ALERT' 9. SAN JOSE PLANS RALLY TO OPPOSE WAR ON POOR Focus on March For Our Lives march to the U.N. 10. 125-MILE TREK CARRIED DEMANDS OF POOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: MARCHERS TALK TO THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE 11. THEY MARCHED FOR THEIR LIVES -- AND OURS: INTERVIEWS WITH THE MARCHERS Culture Under Fire 12. WHO DOES MUSIC BELONG TO, ANYWAY? >From the League 13. FROM THE EDITORS: THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD APOLOGIZE FOR SLAVERY! 14. THE LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA: WHAT WE ARE AND WHY Announcements, Events, etc. 15. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE AUDIOTAPES PRESENT A VISION OF A NEW AMERICA ****************************************************************** 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 QUESTION OF AN EQUAL SOCIETY IS BEING DEBATED... +----------------------------------------------------------------+ HOW THE RULING CLASS OF AMERICA SEES EQUALITY: A tiny handful of millionaires and billionaires dominate this society. Wealth and poverty are polarizing more and more. The wealthy want to keep it that way. How? One way is through more "equality" in executions. Their idea of social equality entails not the abolition of the death penalty, but opening Death Row more so that it looks "more like America." According to their viewpoint, you have the equal right to death, poverty and hunger. The wealthy will use every means of force (the police and the military) to rule. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ HOW THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SEE EQUALITY: The majority should rule, not the tiny handful of rich. Instead of a Death Row that looks like America -- and vice versa -- there should be a society which meets everyone's needs and with no Death Row at all. A truly equal and just world is possible for the first time in human history, but it will take the conscious effort of you and the rest of the majority to make it real. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ WHICH EQUALITY ARE YOU FOR? +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 2. TWO MOVES BY OUR RULERS SHOW NEED FOR A NEW VISION Two recent news reports show still more clearly the efforts by the powers that be to push the majority of the American people deeper into a living hell. The government, which is the whip in the hands of the millionaires and billionaires who hold the wealth and power in this land, is more openly and aggressively being used to terrorize the people into submission to the new order being imposed. Their goal is break our spirit of resistance and our will to be free. The Washington Post detailed the shocking rise of SWAT forces in police departments. Of 690 law enforcement agencies in cities with 50,000 people or more, said the Post, "90 percent now have active SWAT teams, compared with 60 percent in the early 1980s. "Even in rural communities and smaller cities," said the Post, " ... two of every three departments now boast a SWAT team." The trend was summed up by one observer as "militarizing Mayberry," a reference to the fictional small country town in the old Andy Griffith television shows. Meanwhile, the Washington Times reported on what it called "Attorney General Janet Reno's little-known affirmative action plan" whose object is to make Death Row at the federal level "look more like America." Specifically, Reno has directed that prosecutors broaden their targets for execution to include more defendants who are not African American. "Since imposing a policy whose stated purpose is nationwide 'consistency and fairness,' '' said the Times, "Miss Reno has tripled the rate at which whites charged with federal crimes were targeted for execution." Her directive applies only to federal prisoners. Both in the prisons and outside, the threat of death looms ever larger. SWAT teams, such as the one the Post described in Fresno, California, now patrol the streets day and night in full battle gear and with state-of-the art weapons of war. They are used in no-knock attacks on people's homes in the war on our youth -- which they call a war on drugs and gangs. The rising visibility of these forces bring a stark message from the millionaires and billionaires. The message is that any resistance to the consequences of the loss of jobs, the destruction of social programs, the exclusion of immigrants will be answered with a rain of submachine-gun bullets. The directive from Reno backs up that message by adding that in the future, not being black will no longer ensure safety from being murdered by the government. This is the vision of the future the millionaires and billionaires hold out for us. A class of super-rich people holding in one hand the emerging technology which eliminates the jobs we once held, and holding a gun and a rope in the other. We will be expected to accept this or die fighting. The People's Tribune is not afraid to envision a totally different kind of America, a country completely at peace, where no one fears the government crashing through their door at any moment, where there is equality in life, not equality in death the way Reno wants it. We envision not a Death Row that looks like America, but an America without any Death Row at all. There is a way to make this better vision a better reality, and that is by uniting around our common needs -- for food, housing, health care, education and more -- and then organizing ourselves to replace the rule of the tiny rich minority with that of ourselves. Such unity and organization is the only thing that can overpower these forces of evil in our land. ****************************************************************** 3. SUPREME COURT DECISION PROVOKES OUTRAGE By Chris Mahin [Editor's note: Below we print the latest contribution to our regular column about spirituality and revolution. We encourage our readers to comment on what appears here and to contribute to this column.] Across the United States, religious leaders and civil libertarians have reacted with outrage to a Supreme Court decision which threatens freedom of religion. "Our ... rights as American citizens are in peril," warned the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention in a news release. "The First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause is there to protect all people's religious liberty, particularly those in a minority or vulnerable position. For example, right now there are 1.18 million Americans incarcerated in prisons. In striking down [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act], the Supreme Court has diminished the free exercise religious rights of 90 percent of these prisoners who are not in federal prisons," the Southern Baptists said. The Southern Baptists were responding to a June 25 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That act had prohibited government from "substantially burdening" a person's religious practices. "Since 1993, when it was enacted, [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act] has protected the rights of Jews to wear yarmulkes, Muslims to observe Ramadan, Catholics to attend Christmas Mass and Baptists to participate in Bible studies, both in prison and elsewhere when such rights have been challenged," the Southern Baptists pointed out. The U.S. Congress had passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to undo the damage done by a 1990 Supreme Court ruling involving Native American religious rituals. (In that ruling, the Court rejected claims of religious bias by two drug counselors in Oregon who were denied unemployment benefits because they used peyote during Native American religious ceremonies.) The attorneys general of Illinois and several other states had opposed the law, arguing that it encouraged "frivolous" lawsuits by prison inmates. The Supreme Court's decision should concern everyone, whether religious or not, because it will affect all of us. The role this decision will play could be shown dramatically in a trial now taking place in California. In early July, the Los Angeles Times reported: "When the Rev. Wiley S. Drake goes on trial this week on criminal misdemeanor charges of housing homeless people without a permit, the issue will be no less than religious freedom, he says." "Homelessness constitutes an emergency just as compelling as flood or earthquake, Drake says, and his religious duty compels him to tend to it," the Times story by Leslie Wright continued. Twelve jurors in California's North Orange County Municipal Court will be asked to decide whether Drake committed five misdemeanors by allowing about 30 people at any given time to camp in the parking lot of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, California. The city of Buena Park insists that the Rev. Drake is violating anti-camping laws. The trial began July 14. Before the Supreme Court overturned the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, religious leaders like the Rev. Drake often cited that law in their defense in similar cases. There's no possibility of that now. The overturning of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is another step toward a police state in America. We urge our readers to speak out against this decision. The author would like to thank Eirik Frederick Harteis of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund in Washington, D.C. for information he provided to the People's Tribune on the Supreme Court's decision. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CHILDREN TO MARCH AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY By Chris Mahin In August, the Bruderhof religious communities will sponsor a "Children's Crusade to Death Row" to highlight opposition to the death penalty and to inform the people of the United States about the existence of political prisoners here. About 100 children will participate in the three-day march. They will leave the New Meadow Run Bruderhof community in Farmington, Pennsylvania on the morning of August 18 and travel 30 miles to SCI-Greene, the supermaximum-security state prison in southwestern Pennsylvania where more than 100 men are held on Death Row. The children -- accompanied by teachers, parents and other concerned people -- will arrive at the prison by noon on August 20. A brochure publicizing the march sums up the reason for the march with a quote from eighth-grader Esther Beels. "We've been sitting around too long," she declares. "We need to get active; this state is going downhill rapidly. If we don't stop it, then we are also guilty." The march has been endorsed by a number of prominent people. "In your march for life, for liberty, for social justice, you, the children, have truly become leaders in a movement that badly needs life's direction," political activist and former radio reporter Mumia Abu-Jamal pointed out. Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death after a trial marked by numerous irregularities. He is imprisoned on Death Row at SCI-Greene. "I applaud what you are doing," declared singer Pete Singer on July 6. "I hope that everyone who sees the children march for justice, against the death penalty, will take the message to heart so that they may live and love each other," added Ramsey Clark, the former attorney general of the United States, on July 7. Robert Dunham, the executive director of the Center for Legal Education, Advocacy and Defense Assistance, and Robert Tabak, the president of New York Lawyers Against the Death Penalty, have also endorsed the march. There are six Bruderhof religious communities located in the eastern United States. The members share everything in common like the early Christians did. The group has been very active in the fight against the death penalty and in defense of imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. We urge our readers to support the Children's Crusade. At a time when state legislators in California have discussed permitting the execution of 13-year-olds, efforts like the Children's Crusade should be welcomed and publicized widely. For more information about the Children's Crusade, call 412-329- 8573 or contact Steve at stblough@bruderhof.com. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 4. A GLOBAL VILLAGE OR GLOBAL MISERY? AN INTERVIEW WITH CAMBODIAN WORKER MARY OU By Laura Garcia and Tim Sandoval [Editor's note: Cambodia is a small country of 10 million people in southeast Asia. It has been scarred by war. Out of this chaos leaders emerge. They are individuals who understand that injustice must be met with a strong and powerful voice. America had Sojourner Truth; the Cambodian people have 25-year-old Mary Ou. Chances are you know someone like her: rising for work early in the morning and coming home in the dark of night. Is this what Cambodians were hoping for when the voices of "liberty" arrived (in the form of foreign companies)? Hardly. The struggle of Mary Ou and millions of other Cambodian workers is not much different from those of American workers. Like Americans, Ms. Ou and millions of other Cambodians have hopes and dreams. So why are our dreams and the ones of our fellow human beings not being met? Because a wealthy few own the means to produce the necessities of life. The issue of private property is serious; it is a question of life and death. What is at stake is the time and energy of humanity to develop itself spiritually and culturally. This is why the story of Mary Ou is important. Ou came to the United States to solicit the support of America's unions in her fight for a better Cambodia. Her trip was sponsored by UNITE. Below we print excerpts from an interview with Ms. Ou about her experience in forming the first union in Cambodian history.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Can you tell us your position in the union and the history of its formation? MARY OU: I am the president of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, formed on December 15, 1996. When we first started, we had 158 members. Currently, we have over 5,000. The majority of our members are women, ages 15 to 28, but there are some men. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Can you describe the companies locating in Cambodia? OU: All of them are garment factories. The company I work for makes a combination of men's and women's sportswear. The shirts have alligators on them, the same shirts that people used to make in Mexico. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: How did the government respond to the fact that your union was organized? OU: King Norodom Sihanouk told me that the union was legal and that it was for a just cause. His son, [until recently, the first prime minister], also said he accepted the idea. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: We understand that there was a demonstration in which a grenade was thrown at the crowd. OU: I was part of the demonstration on March 20. An unidentified man threw four grenades into the crowd with the intention to assassinate some of us and to intimidate us. But I was not intimidated, and it will not stop me from leading demonstrations. Our cause is just and I will continue to use my voice where there is injustice. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Did you continue the demonstration? OU: After the grenade attack, I saw 10 people who were killed, 150 wounded and 80 who were severely wounded. Nobody wanted to say anything because they were afraid for their lives. The government soldiers opened fire into the air, intimidating many and forcing us to leave. I did not expect such a thing to happen. It was a warning signal for us. They will do anything to intimidate and silence the workers. However, as long as there is injustice or repression against the workers, we will continue to speak out. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Can you describe the working conditions in the factory? OU: The working conditions are really hard. The worker is forced to work about 14 hours [a day], seven days a week: no holidays, no vacation at all, no sick pay, no maternity leave. If immediate family die, and three or more days are taken off, you get fired. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What are the wages? OU: The wages range from 15 to 25 dollars a month, before taxes. In order to get a better-paying job, you have to bribe officials. Some families sell their plots of land in order to get the money to buy a position. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What is the purpose of your visit to the United States? OU: I hope to gain the attention of international unions about the difficulty my colleagues and I face in the workplace. Maybe by working together, we can begin to fight this injustice. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: You are a very brave person. Where do you get that courage? OU: I come from a family of eight, and we have experienced difficult times in my country. It is not just my courage, it is the courage of all my fellow workers that has supported my activity. I am a worker in the factory and this has also held my courage, [my determination] to continue, because I am [one of] the oppressed. The movement is going forward, and we are not going to back down. [Note: On June 22, Ms. Ou returned to Cambodia. In the ensuing turmoil, she fled Cambodia and traveled to Thailand where she is currently detained. We urge our readers to call the Thai Embassy in Washington at 202-944-3600 and demand her immediate release.] ****************************************************************** 5. MEXICO'S VOTERS STRIKE BLOW AGAINST POVERTY By Arturo Santamaria Gomez MEXICO CITY -- The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) overwhelmingly won the July 6 elections here. The PRI (the government's official party) had ruled for the past 70 years. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the PRD won almost twice as many votes as the PRI and about three times as many as the PAN (the conservative party), to become governor of Mexico City. The PRD also made gains in other states. It won 16 Senate seats and absorbed 25 percent of Congress. Together, the PRD and the PAN will have the majority of the House of Representatives and the PRI will have the majority in the Senate. Mexico, where the PRI enjoyed power without alternatives for 70 years, has gone through an enormous political transformation. It is the end of an authoritarian political regime. The vote that favored the PRD was against the corrupt and anti- democratic PRI. It was against economic and political neoliberalism. The economic crisis the majority of Mexicans are experiencing has brought them closer to the PRD. The savage capitalism promoted by the neoliberal governments, especially that of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, does not allow for any politics that go against capitalism and it is the cause of rising poverty in everyone from businessmen to the poor peasants. With this triumph, the PRD has the possibility of winning the presidential elections in the year 2000. It is likely that Cardenas will be the presidential candidate of the left if he is successful as Mexico City's governor. This will be difficult because Mexico City is very complex with great social disparity. The PRI has many legal mechanisms that will limit the power of Cardenas. However, if the PRD relies on the people it will move forward and become stronger. One of the main agenda points of the new Congress is the demand for the autonomy of the indigenous communities represented by the Zapatistas. If there isn't an agreement made soon, there is a great possibility that the Mexican army will try to militarily attack the Zapatistas. National peace south of the border hangs by a string while they try to figure out how to give political rights to Mexico's indigenous population and maintain their autonomy in building the nation. The Mexican election represents one of the most important triumphs of the left in Latin America within the last 10 years. The important thing to ask is: How far will those with global economic power let this process go? How stable can the victories of one country be within this global context? That is why the possible victory of the PRD in the presidential elections can only be sustained by widespread popular support outside of Mexico, especially in the United States. The democratic people of the United States are surely celebrating. Whether we are north or south of the border, all of us navigate the same boat. ****************************************************************** 6. THERE'S PLENTY OF FOOD: WE CAN HAVE A WORLD WITHOUT HUNGER By S. Reid [Editor's note: In this interview, Doreen Stabinsky, assistant professor of environmental studies at California State University in Sacramento, dispels many of the myths about world hunger and offers her vision of a world without hunger. She is on the board of directors of the Council for Responsible Genetics and is available to speak through the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: It's estimated that 200 million children in the world go to bed hungry each night. Some scientists say there will be even greater hunger because of food shortages and overpopulation. Is this true? DOREEN STABINSKY: There's tons of food in the world. The problem is people don't have access to it. Often, those who advocate a particular orientation in agricultural production say we need large corporations involved in production or people will starve. But agricultural distribution has to be fundamentally reorganized. Today corporations involved in producing food are also selling food. They're collecting profits at every stage. As they gain more control, they dictate what food we eat and decide what chemicals they use. The consumer has very little choice. Eventually you might see owners of supermarkets also owning farmland. It's scary. We can change the distribution of food and feed people. We need to get away from large centralized control over production of the agricultural and food industry and go back to a system of local control and local access of food. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Why are harmful chemicals used on food? STABINSKY: Technologies are available that produce food without exposing workers to toxic chemicals, and people would not have to eat food with residues of those chemicals. But with the power and size of the agricultural industry, we continue to produce food that is harmful. There's a whole area of research called sustainable agriculture which seeks to produce food without chemicals. For example, you can release beneficial insects as an alternative pest control measure. The insects act as predators or parasites to control the pests. They reproduce themselves and you don't need to go back to a company year after year. So it's clear why companies don't want research in biological control. They can't profit. Chemical companies influence universities toward dependence on chemicals in agricultural production. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What are "patents" on food? STABINSKY: Monsanto Corporation has a patent on all genetically engineered soybeans. No one else can grow these soybeans without paying royalties. We could have a situation where they are the only ones putting seed on the market. Once you have that very complete monopoly control, they can charge whatever they want. Today the seed companies are owned by large transnational corporations. Now that they have the ability to get patents on seeds, they have a degree of ownership and control over our food supply that's unprecedented and very dangerous. They contract farmers to grow the seed, give them the seed, tell them how to grow it, and tell them what price they'll get. The farmer bears all the risk if the crop fails. The farmer will become just another worker of a corporation. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What are people doing about all this? STABINSKY: There's a new community food security movement that is trying to articulate their demands in the political arena. The idea is that communities have to be able to feed themselves. Most of their work has gone on at the urban level. Groups like the "Green Guerrillas" are taking abandoned lots and growing food. In New York they are fighting with the city over their property. It's absurd that food is a commodity and that the only way you can get access to it is with money. A number of groups internationally are talking about the right to food. They say that not having money shouldn't be a reason that people can't get food. Food is essential to life and having enough food to live is a universal right that shouldn't be denied anyone. In Europe, demonstrators stopped the first ship carrying Monsanto's Roundup ready soybeans from being unloaded. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What's your vision of the future? STABINSKY: My positive vision is of people connected with the people who grow their food, and of all people having access to fresh, healthy food. To not have that connection and that access is spiritually and mentally impoverishing. If we want a world where people don't live in poverty, I think we need to consider some of these bigger questions about our food and how we get that food. ****************************************************************** 7. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: MONEY MOVES FREELY; WHY CAN'T PEOPLE? By Allen Harris When does a person become an immigrant? People have always moved from place to place, but it has only been since the rise of the modern nation-state in the 19th and 20th centuries that the distinction between "citizen" and "immigrant" has arisen. The distinction is as clear as a border drawn on a map. Now a new age is unfolding, that of the global market. It has been brought about by a rising class of new capitalists who, with their technologies and their growing political power, are erasing those borders to make it easier to scramble for maximum profits all over the world. The North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade are two major features of this new world order, but another is the abandonment of whole sections of society within nations to an increasingly brutal, fascist rule. The two go hand in hand. As NAFTA and GATT eliminate barriers to the flow of money, inhuman laws such as those passed in recent years in Europe and North America strengthen barriers to the flow of human labor from abroad. As Melvin Krauss, a fellow of the Hoover Institution explained recently, immigration and free trade in the global market are mere substitutes for each other. That has been the case between the United States and Mexico, to use just one example. Commerce Department figures show that imports from Mexico have rocketed from $39.9 billion in 1993 to $74.3 billion in 1996. Behind these figures lie the stark reality of the growth of the low-pay, foreign "maquiladoras" near the border, the manufacturing sweatshops and plantations of the high- tech era. Because the cost of labor is lower in Mexico than in the United States, the profits are higher for the manufacturers. Linked to this is a law which went into effect in the United States in 1997. Among other things, the law makes it much easier for this country to deny asylum to anyone who does not have "proper" documentation for entry. It was passed by a Congress controlled by one party and signed by a president of another. It shows more broadly how both of the main bourgeois political parties intend to deal with persons who for economic or political reasons need to flee here. In April, the Children's Rights Project of the New York-based Human Rights Watch charged the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service of systematically detaining hundreds of undocumented immigrant children -- most from Central America and China -- and denying them their most basic legal and human rights. They are being held in 110 detention centers around the nation, ranging from non-secure foster care facilities to local jails. Some of these children are as young as eight years old. In still another report released in April, the New York-based Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children charged that the INS is abusing the rights of immigrant women in detention while their asylum claims are being heard. In May, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service actually boasted that it had deported a record number of undocumented immigrants in the first three months of 1997. Among the countries whose nationals were deported were: Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Jamaica, Nicaragua, the People's Republic of China, Ecuador, Canada, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Haiti, Peru, India, Guyana, Brazil and Venezuela. The strategy of the global marketeers for their remaining on top and the rest of us on the bottom rests on attacking our brothers and sisters called immigrants, be they "documented" or "undocumented," through racism and xenophobia. More than that, the global capitalists who control the emerging technology have turned the system itself from one merely of exploitation to one also of exclusion of millions of people who have no other means of survival. But despite the evil ideological and political attacks on this section of our class, despite the government's attempt to turn proletarian against proletarian through their police-state laws, there is widespread resistance to this evil. This resistance is in the very same spirit of those Americans in the 1850s who defied the Fugitive Slave Act, which was aimed at making every American a slave-catcher. In this resistance is the first step toward returning the world to its rightful owners, you and me. ****************************************************************** 8. MILWAUKEE RESIDENTS VOICE CONCERN OVER WELFARE 'REFORM': W-2 PROGRAM IS A 'CALL TO BE ALERT' By Alicia White MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin -- On May 28, a public hearing was held here on the downtown campus of MATC, in Cooley Auditorium. The meeting was for people to voice their concerns and opinions about the "Wisconsin Works" (or W-2) welfare reform program. The meeting was not publicized, but managed to produce a sizable turn-out. At the hearing, there were a couple of women present who had felt the effects of W-2 from the other side. They were not women on welfare, simply people who have been confronted by its cruel reality. One woman stated that she had been approached at a gas station by a mother and her children who were asking for money to buy something to eat. Another woman said that someone knocked on her door to ask for help. These are just a couple of the many horror stories taking place around us. This is a call to be alert. Our society -- which views things in it as "right," "fair" and "normal" -- should take a hard look into the W-2 plan and see if it fits any of the definitions for those three words. Our children will be the ones who suffer from the Wisconsin Works program. If people can just sit back and allow this to happen, then this is a very sad society. This is a call to be alert. Society as well as government knows that the jobs are not available, but also not available at a livable wage. Knowing this, it should make people ask themselves, "Where will people go? How will they live? Also, what will they do now?" One answer to these questions will be that those of you who sit back and do nothing will still pay the price: A call to be alert. ****************************************************************** 9. SAN JOSE PLANS RALLY TO OPPOSE WAR ON POOR [Editor's note: Below we print the text of a letter from a reader.] To the People's Tribune: We are planning a countywide rally here in San Jose, California. Everyone who is for human rights is urged to attend. We want to show President Bill Clinton and House Majority Leader Newt Gingrich that we aren't going to take scapegoating and war on the poor anymore. We are tired of all the politics in Washington, D.C. Our children are starving and living in the streets. There is no more safety net if you lose your job or get sick. We live in an country where everyone should have a place to live and food on the table. While our money goes to military spending, corporate welfare and steaks on the politicians' table, our children beg for food. Let's show our children we care. On August 22, show solidarity. Have a rally in your county and state. All organizations should attend if you care about human rights. In California, Gov. Pete Wilson has said that we can only feed our children for three months out of every two years. Gov. Wilson said that we need to start orphanages. This is criminalizing of the poor. Just because we are poor, we can't feed or house our children. Just because we poor, we can't raise our children. That's stupid! I'm poor, so I can't get medical care. Robots and computers are taking our jobs. We aren't needed anymore. When will America say "enough"? Let's say it now. Let's stand together. On August 22, California will say "No more!" Are you going to stand with us? Please contact me. Sincerely, Ann Turner 2784 Monterey Road #54 San Jose, California 95111 ****************************************************************** 10. 125-MILE TREK CARRIED DEMANDS OF POOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: MARCHERS TALK TO THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE [Editor's note: This article is based on interviews with participants in the March For Our Lives, which took place from June 21 - July 1, 1997. It was compiled by Joan Baptist and Chris Caruso of the Greater Philadelphia Area Office of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America.] PHILADELPHIA -- With the completion of the first March for Our Lives, from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1996, Philadelphia's Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU) decided to carry the momentum forward with March for Our Lives II, from the Liberty Bell to the United Nations. Hundreds of people marched 125 miles in extreme heat. Why? Some of the march organizers and participants responded to this question: CHERI HONKALA, KWRU executive director, co-president of the National Welfare Rights Union and a member of the Interim National Council of the Labor Party: "The March to the U.N. was very significant because it allowed us to take poverty and homelessness in the United States from being invisible to making it visible, not just to the U.S. but to the whole world. The march took these issues out there and put them before the public, really generating the kind of discussion and debate that needs to take place. The march gave direction to a growing movement in this country that says that everybody should have the right to a job and food and clothing and that we intend to hold our government responsible for living up to the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "The march also showed the organizational and leadership capabilities of poor and homeless families. We were able to go forward with our contribution to the Labor Party's 28th Amendment Campaign for a Right to a Job at a Living Wage. All of our posters and T-shirts carried that slogan and we were able to talk about that in all of the towns we went into." WILLIE BAPTIST, program director, Annie Smart Leadership Development Institute, and a member of the War Council of the KWRU: "The main theme of the march was that the new welfare reform law brings about violations of human rights as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the U.N. The march brought attention to these problems and broke down some of the stereotypes that exist that prevent the unity necessary to bring about fundamental change. Some such ideas are that the homeless are the problem, that they are lazy and crazy and not capable of participating in the leadership and direction of this country in any way. The organization of the march by the poor challenges these false ideas. The march had the ability to get the attention and capture the imagination of various strata of the population along the route and also throughout the country and internationally." JOY BUTTS, representative of the Poor People's Embassy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and a member of the War Council of the KWRU: "The Poor People's Embassy, an initiative of the KWRU, was established in the fall of 1996 to represent poor people at the legislative level, state and national. Part of the embassy's mission is to document human rights abuses based upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "The March for Our Lives began the process of documenting the human rights violations brought about because of welfare reform laws. In particular, we are focusing on the economic part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 23, 25 and 26. During the march, we were able to speak to many poor people who presented their human rights violations which were then placed in a coffin and presented at the U.N." TARA COLON, member of the War Council of the KWRU: "The Human Rights Documentation Project was an important part of our organizing for the march. We learned of many human rights abuses resulting from welfare reform. One of the saddest ones is about a nurse in New York who has seen her share of stab wounds, child abuse -- the worst of the worst. But she had never seen anything as desperate as what she saw after the medical cuts went into effect. "She was visiting a homeless shelter, when a woman, seven months pregnant, came up to her and begged for formula to feed her two- year-old child. Her breast milk had dried up because she had not eaten in three days. She and her child had nothing but soda. Her child was crying from starvation. The nurse said that there is a difference in a child whining and the hunger pains of starvation. The nurse found some crackers in her van and gave them to the child. The child devoured the box of crackers. One of the doctors from the same clinic said that he hasn't seen such desperation since he was in Ethiopia in 1985. "Another woman in New York had quit her job because of medical reasons -- because of her heart. She was a teacher and she just couldn't take doing her work anymore because she had a heart problem. She went on unemployment, then to welfare. She hoped to stay on welfare because of her disability. She was forced to go on workfare. They made her clean houses and climb up 10, sometimes 15, flights of steps in the heat, with her heart condition. The woman had a heart attack and died. "Things like this are happening across the country. Those are some of the heart-wrenching stories that we gathered with our documentation project. "People are already comparing what is happening here to Third World countries. In one of the most developed countries in the world we don't have health care for our people. They're cutting children off assistance. Children deserve to eat, to have a roof over their head. Because of the cuts that are happening, they're not getting that." ****************************************************************** 11. THEY MARCHED FOR THEIR LIVES -- AND OURS: INTERVIEWS WITH THE MARCHERS +----------------------------------------------------------------+ OF ALL YOUR EXPERIENCES ON THE MARCH FOR OUR LIVES, WHAT IMPACTED ON YOU THE MOST? TARA COLON: "I'd have to say the union representation on the march. People came out strong. The Hospital and Health Care Employees 1199C and 1199J, Mailhandlers, AFSCME, Teamsters and the Labor Party all came out in unity with the march. Employed workers are beginning to understand that welfare reform is impacting everyone in this society -- not just people on welfare. They are going to have to unite with us because they are losing a grip on their jobs. "Getting to the U.N. and meeting with the International Labor Organization and letting them know about the human rights violations in the United States was very important. The United States has to be held accountable for what it is doing to its poorest citizens." WILLIE BAPTIST: "What struck me was the impact the march was having on some of the poorest of the marchers. One member of the security team was literally crying for joy with the realization of his own strength, expressed through the unity with others of his class. Through efforts like the march, he, and all of us, can have some impact on the thinking and direction of our class and of this country. And that's a good prospect because we know that if we were in leadership, we would ensure that the tremendous productive capacity and plenty that exist in this country would go towards guaranteeing that no one would go without homes, food, clothing, and health care. There's no reason for this [poverty] except for the existing power structure. We are beginning to build leadership, unity and organization of the unemployed and employed sectors of the population that are catching hell. Together, we can indeed bring about change." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ WHO PARTICIPATED IN THIS HISTORIC MARCH? CHERI HONKALA: "What stood out for me was the diversity of different folks that participated in the march. From organized labor, students, poor and homeless families, the religious community, you name it. People from all sections of society had some sort of relationship to the march. People are really beginning to understand the need for a powerful movement that isn't aligned with either one of the two current parties that we have in this country." TARA COLON: "People came from around the country and the world. There were representatives from California, Vermont, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Georgia and even from New Zealand. There were welfare recipients, unemployed, homeless people and people who were cut off public assistance. And we had, of course, representation from the poor here in Kensington, the poorest district in Pennsylvania. Those people did the whole march." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ NOW THAT YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE MARCH, HOW WILL YOU CARRY THIS STRUGGLE FORWARD? CHERI HONKALA: "After marching to the United Nations, we must continue to walk the walk. 'The Next Step' is an organizing school taught by poor and homeless leaders in the KWRU and other organizations in the movement to end poverty. The Next Step will teach the model, used by the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, of the poor organizing the poor to build a movement to end poverty in this country. The Next Step will be held on September 5-7, 1997 at the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees Headquarters in Philadelphia. (Please call us at 215-763-4584 or e-mail kwru@libertynet.org to register or for more information.) "From there, we intend to map out plans for the following year. Building on the momentum of the March for Our Lives II, we will continue documenting human rights violations from across the U.S. We will call for an investigation of our government by other leaders throughout the entire world as to why so many are suffering in this land of plenty." ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 12. WHO DOES MUSIC BELONG TO, ANYWAY? Throughout most of human history, music has been free. Over the past century, the advance of technology allowed music to be turned into various configurations that could be sold. Now the further advance of technology is returning music to its original, free state. At thousands of web sites on the Internet, entire songs or albums can be downloaded quickly and without charge. With software that's available free on the Net, the music can be played through the computer's speakers or easily transferred to blank tape or CD. There's even a search engine (www.mp3search.base.org) to help find the sounds you want. The technology now exists to manufacture a Walkman-type device that could download and play up to a hundred hours of music. "Also, people are starting to create Web rings, where one individual takes care of one genre of music, and another takes care of another," Massachusetts Institute of Technology student Lamar Lopez told Rolling Stone. Just point and click and forget about the segregated, niche-market bullshit of commercial radio. The Internet's threat to the control of music has caused the handful of interlocked global monopolies which dominate the music industry to reveal their naked greed. In May, management for Oasis sent an e-mail message to 140 fan-run Oasis web sites threatening legal action if they did not remove snippets of music, video, and even press releases. In June, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed lawsuits against the operators of Internet Music Archive Sites in California, Texas, and New York, asking the courts to close them down. RIAA president Hillary Rosen, writing in Billboard, said: "Until the appropriate balance between free-flowing information and intellectual property is struck, the Internet can never achieve its potential to become a viable medium for the sale of music." [emphasis added]. Rosen announced that the RIAA has launched a pro- gram to enlist universities and Internet service providers as snitches who will ferret out free music sites. She went on to express her fear that people will get used to downloading music for free and thus the industry "must not let a pirate market on the Internet get established before the legitimate one is ready." Betsy Sherman, who searches the Internet looking for music web sites to bust on behalf of Warner Brothers and Maverick, told Rolling Stone that we should pay for music or books because "that's how we interpret having respect for things, isn't it? That we pay for them?" We sympathize with those artists who, after being cheated by record company accounting and/or being forced to give up a piece of their own pie in order to get a record deal or tour support, will again be hurt financially by the Internet. As artists ourselves, we also sympathize with musicians who want to retain control of what music of theirs is released and how it is presented. But the reality of the approaching millennium is that there will be no "appropriate balance between free-flowing information and intellectual property." There are only two choices. We can run for protection into the arms of an obsolete, corrupt music industry that, through high prices, payola, censorship, and incredibly narrow artist rosters keeps us from hearing most of the music made on our planet. Or we can, with open arms, embrace the new technology and its potential to make all the music available to all the people all the time. Reprinted with permission from the July issue of the monthly newsletter Rock & Rap Confidential, available for $15 a year from Box 341305, Los Angeles, California 90034. ****************************************************************** 13. FROM THE EDITORS: THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD APOLOGIZE FOR SLAVERY! When you wrong someone, an apology should be forthcoming. When you rob someone, compensation for loss should be made. The debate over whether the government should apologize to the African American people for upholding slavery is gaining in scope and importance. According to the Random House Dictionary, an apology is "a written or spoken expression of one's regret, remorse, or sorrow for having insulted, failed, injured or wronged another." We know that slavery was morally wrong. So, the question boils down to this: Does the government regret upholding such terrible exploitation and oppression while preaching democracy to the rest of the world? Does the government have any remorse for passing laws that allowed white fathers to sell their black children on the auction block? Does the government regret its role of legalizing the attempt to torture a people and beat them down to the level of a draft animal? Mississippi Republican Trent Lott, the majority leader in the U.S. Senate, stated that he would vote against such a resolution if it was introduced into the U.S. Congress. Characteristically, President Bill Clinton has straddled the fence. The politicians understand that they are treading on dangerous ground. What would be the consequences of an apology? Recently, an embarrassed (and vote-hungry) government apologized to the relatives of scores of black men who were murdered in medical experiments with government sanction. These murders took the form of observing how people died from untreated cases of syphilis. Monetary compensation to the survivors accompanied the apology. There were also behind-the-scenes declarations that the results of the "experiment" provided the foundation for the cure for syphilis. Now, what about government-sanctioned murder and rape, and the untold sorrow of loved ones and children sold away? Can our government have no regrets and uphold this horror? Perhaps our politicians are justifiably afraid of the consequences of an apology. Will the fair-minded people of this country uphold the inevitable demand for compensation? And if the African Americans are compensated, what about the enslavement and genocidal destruction of the Native Americans? And if that is settled, what about the unprovoked attack on and rape of Mexico in the 1800s? And what about Puerto Rico and the Philippines? The constitutional hands of the government drip with the blood of history. We believe that when you wrong someone, an apology should be forthcoming. We believe that when you rob someone, compensation for loss should be made. It is a question of what the moral and right thing to do is. Our government has "talked the talk" for a long time. Now the chickens have come home to roost. The honor of our people and our nation is at stake. Our advice to the government? Do the right thing! ****************************************************************** 14. THE LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA: WHAT WE ARE AND WHY +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Now is the time to join the League of Revolutionaries for a New America +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The League is an organization of revolutionaries. * We are people from all walks of life, with various ideals and ideologies. * We are organized to awaken the American people to their growing poverty and the threat of a fascist police state. A police state is a society controlled by police forces who are above the law and responsible to no one but themselves. * We are organized to bring the people a vision of a peaceful, prosperous, orderly world made possible by the very automation and economic globalization which, in the hands of capitalists, threatens our existence. In a word, the League of Revolutionaries for a New America educates and fights for the transfer of economic and political power into the hands of the people so they can build a democratic, cooperative, communal society. HERE IS WHY -- Rapidly expanding automation is doing away with most human work and will pauperize the humans doing the work that remains. Capitalism has no use for and will not care for human labor when robotics is more profitable. Consequently, the growing mass of permanently unemployed people are sinking deeper and deeper into poverty. A huge global movement of the destitute is getting underway. The demand for the essentials of a decent life and no money to pay for them marks it as the world's first revolutionary mass movement for communism. (The American Heritage Dictionary defines "communism" as "a social system characterized by the common ownership of the means of production and subsistence and by the organization of labor for the common advantage of all members.") This developing movement needs to understand its historic mission and how to achieve it. The No. 1 need of the revolution is for an organization of teachers, of propagandists who will bring it clarity. Only then can the people of this country save themselves from the threat of a new world order of poverty and oppression. The League of Revolutionaries for a New America has been formed to carry out that task. Historically, a revolution in the economy makes a revolution in society inevitable. We must prepare for it. If you agree with this perspective, let's get it together -- our collective experience, intelligence and commitment can change America and the world. Collectivize with us. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ I WANT TO JOIN! ____ I want to join the LRNA. Please send information. ____ Enclosed is my donation of $_____ +----------------------------------------------------------------+ I want to subscribe! ____ People's Tribune. $2 for four issues or $25 for a year. ____ Tribuno del Pueblo. $2 for four issues or $10 for a year. (You can also get bundles of 10 or more copies of the PT or TP for 15 cents per copy.) Name Address City/State/Zip +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 15. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE AUDIOTAPES PRESENT A VISION OF A NEW AMERICA Hear inspiring speakers present their vision of a New America on audiotape. We are proud to announce that audiotaped interviews of some People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo speakers are available for free on the Internet! Go to the League's Web site at http://www.mcs.com/~jdav/league.html and click on "Resources for Revolutionaries." To purchase the tapes listed below, send $5 for each audiotape listed below to People's Tribune Speakers Bureau, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago Illinois 60654. A free brochure listing all of our speakers will be included with each order. (If you work with a radio station or other media, or are a campus recruiter, see special offer below.) Available tapes include: "Securing Economic and Social Justice in the Global Economy," "Building an Organization of Revolutionaries." Nelson Peery, author, Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary. "The Demise of Public Housing and the Struggle for a New America." Annie Chambers, founding member, National Welfare Rights Union. "Marching to the United Nations." Tara Colon and Cheri Honkala of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. "Homeless Organizers Speak." Richard Powell, Mobile (Alabama) Chapter of the Homeless Union; Ann Turner, Community Homeless Alliance Ministry, San Jose (California), Low-Income Support Network; Jackie Gage, president, Homeless Organizing Committee of Long Beach, California. "Attacks on Immigrants Affect All of America." Gloria Sandoval, community organizer around issues concerning women and immigrant rights. "The Life, Death and Times of Malcolm X and Revolution Today." Abdul Alkalimat, professor, author, activist. "Proposition 209, Welfare Reform and the African American Community." Ethel Long-Scott, executive director, Women's Economic Agenda Project. "The Economy and the Welfare State." Bruce Parry, Ph.D., labor economist. "Police Raid Won't Silence Liberation Radio." Napoleon Williams, founder, Black Liberation Radio, Decatur, Illinois. "The Global Economy and Fascism." Brooke Heagerty, Ph.D, editorial board, Rally, Comrades!, and Jim Davis, author, "Work in the Digital Age." [Some of the tapes are radio interviews by Mike Thornton of KVMR- FM radio, Nevada City, California. Complimentary tapes will be mailed to campuses seeking speakers and to the media.] ****************************************************************** 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". ******************************************************************