****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 25 No. 8/ August, 1998 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.mcs.com/~league ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.mcs.com/~league +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 25 No. 8/ August, 1998 Editorial 1. WE WORKERS PUT NO COUNTRY FIRST Spirit of the Revolution 2. WELFARE POLICY AND BIBLICAL FAITH News and Features 3. LET OUR YOUTH BE THE ROCK UPON WHICH WE BUILD A NEW WORLD! 4. CONTINUED CUTS IN SAFETY NET TO CAST THOUSANDS ADRIFT 5. CONFERENCE TO END CORPORATE DOMINANCE URGES LINK OF LOCAL, GLOBAL STRUGGLES 6. DRUM VETERAN GENERAL BAKER AT THE BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS: LISTEN TO THE PAST, ANTICIPATE THE FUTURE 7. ISLAND LAUNCHES GENERAL STRIKE 8. FIGHT FOR JOBS IS ENGINE THAT DRIVES GM STRIKE Focus on the New Freedom Bus Tour 9. STORIES OF THE NEW FREEDOM BUS TOUR: THIS IS AMERICA 10. POEM: FREEDOM BUS 11. AN INTERVIEW WITH WILLIE BAPTIST, FREEDOM BUS RIDER: WINNING THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF AMERICA 12. VOICES FROM THE BUS 13. THE LABOR PARTY AND ECONOMIC HUMAN RIGHTS Women and Revolution: Visions for a New America 14. WOMEN TO DEFINE GLOBALIZATION AT INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS Announcements, Events, etc. 15. SPEAKERS FOR A NEW AMERICA, NEW BOOKLET ON TAPE 16. JOIN WITH OTHERS TO MAKE THE VISION OF A WORLD OF PLENTY A REALITY [To subscribe to the online edition, send a message to pt- dist@noc.org with "Subscribe" in the subject line.] ****************************************************************** 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. EDITORIAL: WE WORKERS PUT NO COUNTRY FIRST The United Auto Workers strike against General Motors which began in Flint, Michigan on June 5 has become the biggest at the automaker since the epic strike of 1970, which lasted three months. Twenty-six of GM's 29 North American plants have been shut down and nearly 200,000 workers have been laid off. As of mid- July, the company has lost nearly $1.5 billion, a whopping figure duly noted on Wall Street where GM is blue-chip stock. Delphi Auto Parts, a GM subsidiary, has a large parts plant in Matamoros, Mexico, near the U.S. border. As a New York Times article indicated, the Mexican workers in the plant know perfectly well that they are doing work that used to be done in the United States for a lot more than they are making. They know because the bosses tell them so. The workers quoted in the article, at least, say they are quite happy to have the jobs. (The article doesn't directly reveal the Mexican workers' attitude toward the UAW strike). One of the main grievances by the autoworkers has been against the company's sending of union work out of the United States to be done by non-union workers at very low wages. GM has been doing this for a long time, starting in the late 1970s, particularly in Mexico and Brazil. More recently, GM has set up plants in Poland, Thailand and China. The UAW says bitterly that GM is "putting America last," that it is breaking its "social contract" with American workers -- the understanding that companies should generously reward workers for their generous loyalty to them. In fact, all the world's big automakers are leaving their "home" countries for cheaper labor elsewhere. While American automakers flee from America, automakers from Europe and Asia flee to this country in search of cheap labor. The UAW understands perfectly what General Motors' ultimate aim is. GM wants to make itself strike-proof, by so-called outsourcing, and also by standardizing its production. That is, by having each plant capable of operating exactly the same way so that if production stops in one, they just move it to another and carry on. It may appear on the ground that General Motors is putting America "last" in order to chase after cheaper labor elsewhere. But it is no more putting America last than it is putting Mexico, or Brazil, or Poland, or China "first." Capitalists don't put any country -- not even their own homeland -- first. They put their class first and they put profit first. It is not a question of Mexican workers, for example, "taking" jobs from U.S. workers. As surely as the autoworker in Michigan looks over his shoulder at the lesser-paid autoworker in Mexico, the Mexican worker is looking over his shoulder at his even lesser-paid Brazilian brother, and so on. This is what today's savage global economy encourages in the workers of the world. The strategy of the automakers in their quest for maximum profits is global, and the workers' strategy also has to be global. That is why the workers of the world must unite, and do so across international boundaries. We workers, too, don't put any country first -- not even our homeland. We put our class first and we put unity first. ****************************************************************** 2. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: WELFARE POLICY AND BIBLICAL FAITH by Richard Tholin [Editor's note: The following article is excerpted from "Reports and Reflections," a publication of Protestants for the Common Good. Richard Tholin is a senior scholar in Christian social ethics at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Protestants for the Common Good was formed in Chicago in 1995. It mobilizes people of faith to bring justice and compassion to the public- policy issues of today.] Welfare policy has long been a hot topic. How one or another individual considers her or his responses to the poor reflects deeply held assumptions about the very nature of life, hope, community and faith. For those who claim a biblically based faith, whether they consider themselves liberals or conservatives, Democrats or Republicans, evangelicals or mainline, there are particular connections between faith and a response to the poor that cannot be overlooked. Does society have an obligation to the vulnerable? Running through the Hebrew scriptures, from the books of law to the later prophets, is the obligation to defend the orphan, the widow, and the sojourner (see, for example, Exodus 22:21-24; Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 14:29 and 24:17-18; Jeremiah 7:6; Isaiah 1:17; Ezekiel 2:7; Malachi 3:5). In the ancient world, these were the most vulnerable, the ones who had the least claim on the support of existing social structures. The books of the law are very clear: Caring for the vulnerable was not an option reserved for the benevolent few, it was a holy obligation. Two passages illustrate God's command to care for the vulnerable. The first, from the book of Jeremiah, occurred when Jerusalem was surrounded by the overwhelming force of the Babylonian army: "For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice with one another, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever." (Jeremiah 7:5-7) Protection for the nation was not to be found in their military power, adherence to religious rite, or the accumulation of wealth. As God's people, their protection was found in their care for the vulnerable. Isaiah presented a similar challenge, focused more specifically on the oppressive force of the nation's legislators: "Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and to the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! What will you do in the day of punishment, in the storm which will come from afar?" (Isaiah 10:1-3) Commitment to the well-being of the vulnerable was certainly a call for compassion, but at the most fundamental level it represented a critical affirmation of their identity. They were to protect the vulnerable because as slaves and sojourners in Egypt their God had delivered them -- and so, to "judge the cause of the poor and needy" (Jeremiah 22:16) was the evidence of their knowledge of God. NEW TESTAMENT AFFIRMATIONS Some of these themes appear with a New Testament twist in Jesus' parable of the last judgment. At the end time, all the "nations" (this can be interpreted individually or corporately) are judged. Only those who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, visited the sick and the prisoners would inherit God's kingdom. The powerful punch to the parable was that those fed, clothed, and welcomed were the very brothers and sisters of the Christ (Matthew 25: 31-46). In effect, Jesus said: "You want to know God? You will find your Maker among the vulnerable." As in the Hebrew scriptures, caring for the vulnerable in their need is not an option. Because of who God is and what God intends in the world, it is, in fact, the very evidence of their salvation. Because care for "the least of these" raises the question of salvation, people who affirm a biblical faith are compelled to support the vulnerable not simply out of compassion, but out of a sense of self-identity. Because it is part of who they are, not just what they do, that commitment must engage them in all their roles -- in their work, their family, their church, their responsibilities as citizens. And if, as we presume, the biblical word speaks to all nations in all times, it speaks to us in the United States on some of the great political issues confronting the electorate. We are witnesses to women who are exploited and left to carry the burdens of parenting with few economic or social supports, children left hungry and poorly educated, youth left to the hard streets with no meaningful future, men without work to feed their families, immigrants whose labor is exploited even as they are left without health care or education for their children. These are among the most vulnerable in our society. The United States may be the only superpower left standing after the Cold War, it may have immense wealth, it may have a population which claims to worship God, but if it does not protect and care for "the least of these," then in the eyes of the God of Scripture, it loses its moral right to exist. "Who is my neighbor?" is the crucial question for all social policy. Jesus preached a radical inclusiveness that we are told is hopelessly idealistic in the face of our narrowing sense of moral responsibility. But such a narrowing circle of inclusion eventually comes back to haunt us, punishing even those close to us. The loss of "common good" which sees an expanded definition of neighbors beyond the narrow interests of our economic, ethnic or religious group, results in a loss of identity and the destruction of the fabric of our common life. [Protestants for the Common Good may be contacted at 200 N. Michigan Av., Suite 502, Chicago, Illinois 60601. Telephone 312- 223-9544, Fax 312-726-0425, e-mail: pcg1@exsite.net] ****************************************************************** 3. LET OUR YOUTH BE THE ROCK UPON WHICH WE BUILD A NEW WORLD! By Brooke Heagerty Nick Contreraz, dark-haired and dark-eyed, looks out from the newspaper photograph. He's young, just 16, but it's the sadness that flickers shadow-like across his face you notice first. Nick Contreraz: on his last chance before he's sent to the California Youth Authority for running crazy and stealing a car after his father was murdered. Nick Contreraz: dead from torture and abuse at the hands of officials at a "privatized" boot camp in Oracle, Arizona that is paid in full by the state of California. Nick had been sent to Oracle by the court from his home in Sacramento. When he became ill, camp officials claimed he was faking to get out of work. To punish him, they repeatedly forced his face into a bucket of his own excrement and made him work despite his constant vomiting and diarrhea. He died after weeks of suffering. The medical examiner found Nick's lungs filled with two and a half quarts of pus, his body lacerated and bruised from beatings and teeming with multiple internal infections that could have been easily treated. State licensing authorities knew of the violence and torture that went on there. Other boys had been beaten, burned and terrorized, and could only watch terrified as it happened to Nick. A CAMPAIGN OF TERROR The campaign of terror underway against our youth is as responsible for Nick's death as the officials who tortured and killed him. So-called experts scream about a "bloodbath of teenage violence," and claim that the "nation is threatened by large numbers of violent, callous and remorseless predators." This campaign has been aimed at making America "a nation afraid of its own children," the Children's Defense Fund warns. This campaign has driven efforts across the country to "get tough" with youth. Twenty-seven states no longer have age restrictions in prosecuting children as adults, and many have lowered the age to as young as 13. More children are being incarcerated in adult prisons. Parents are being prosecuted for the "crimes" of their children. The Juvenile Justice Control Act would implement these changes at the federal level. The unthinkable is also being promoted: the death penalty for children. These laws simply mirror the routine terror that youth find on the streets -- the beatings and even murder at the hands of the authorities. Nick's experience is becoming the experience of America's youth. YOUTH WILL MAKE THE FUTURE How has it come to be that our most precious promise of the future -- our youth -- the deepest confirmation of our humanity, can be so defiled? Throughout history, youth have expressed an inevitable yearning to remake the world of their elders, have sought a freedom from the ties and restrictions of those who came before them. For the capitalists, this bright promise is neither an occasion for celebration nor pride. It is a threat. Youth are among those on the front lines of this disintegrating society. The Children's Defense Fund reports that almost 25 percent of all children under the age of 18 are poor. Almost 70 percent of these children live in working families, and almost 70 percent live in two-parent families. Youth find themselves in crumbling public-school systems, facing college-tuition costs they cannot afford, and a future of dead-end jobs, if any jobs at all. The youth know their future does not lie with the capitalist system. They can survive only if they build a new world, a world in which all share in the fruits of humanity, the only world in which a future is possible. Laws, police and prisons can control the body, but the rulers need to control the mind as well. They have to convince the American people to give up their sentimental attachment to the young and to accept lies as truth -- to accept the lie that youth are monsters, evil, something unholy. No one can deny that they have been somewhat successful. How else would society have allowed the existence of such places as the camp in Oracle, Arizona? CHILDREN ARE OUR HUMANITY The dense web of society is woven around the family and the raising of children, and its continuity is ensured by the successive generations. No matter how lost or unruly children may become, generations of adults have been accustomed to thinking of themselves as children's protectors, that society has a responsibility for their welfare. To abandon our youth to the streets and the jails and the torturers they find there, is to let loose of human society, to abandon what we are, and give ourselves over to the death and darkness of the world the rulers are building. The recognition of this threat to our humanity glimmers near the surface of our lives, is expressed in the cry of one reader when he heard of Nick's death, "God help us if we allow this to go on." Our society is unraveling, and with it everything we have known, everything we have relied upon. Good riddance! It never was for us anyway. In defending and protecting our youth, we protect life. Let the youth be the rock upon which we build a world where that life can thrive. From where we will be moved no farther, from where we will draw on their light to guide us, as they have through the generations, to that world of promise just within our grasp. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ SOME SHOCKING FACTS ABOUT AMERICA'S YOUTH The Children's Defense Fund reports that: * 21 percent of all children in America under age 18 are poor. One in three -- 5.5 million of them -- lives in the South. * In 1996, 2.6 million Southern children, or one in nine, lived in extreme poverty, with family incomes less than half the federal poverty level. Four million children under age 12 go hungry for some part of each month. * In 1995, the national average unemployment rate for young people ages 16-19 was 17.3 percent. * Youth ages 12-17 are three times more likely to be victimized than adults of all ages. * In 1994, fewer than one in two hundred juveniles in America were arrested for a violent offense. * Between 1994 and 1996 the number of juveniles held in adult jails increased 20 percent. * Juveniles housed in adult prisons are eight times more likely to commit suicide, five times more likely to be sexually assaulted, and two times more likely to be assaulted by staff. * Black youths are 14 percent of the population, but are 28 percent of those arrested, 41 percent of those detained, 52 percent of those waived to adult court, and 40 percent of those in long-term custody. * Between 1992 and 1995, 47 states and the District of Columbia reformed their juvenile-justice codes, sometimes abandoning core principles of rehabilitation and confidentiality. This included changes in sentencing and jurisdiction allowing more juveniles to be tried as adults in criminal courts. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 4. CONTINUED CUTS IN SAFETY NET TO CAST THOUSANDS ADRIFT By Rich Capalbo CHICAGO -- A movement to scapegoat the poor has been underway for years in this country. The abandonment of public housing is a pivotal piece of the plan to isolate and condemn the victims of poverty. Congress is contributing to the public-housing crisis. House bill, H.R. 2, and Senate bill, S 462, both passed in 1997, have created a desperate situation for public-housing residents. These bills change the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 that committed the federal government to provide decent, affordable housing. They will worsen the affordable-housing shortage and increase the number of homeless families. The bills codify policy changes that have been creeping into the system, policies of neglect that have eroded public-housing properties. The bills continue the process of undermining and dispersing viable communities in public-housing sites. The new laws attack public-housing residents in several ways. The policy of "income targeting," along with appropriations cuts, will force housing authorities to seek more revenue from rents. They will be looking to serve a higher income group. Under the cover of a "mixed income" goal, many very poor residents stand to be pushed out. The new laws will also step up demolition of old units instead of fixing or replacing them. The standards for the "viability" of rehab are calculated with economic tests that are deceptive. The viability tests are based on the cost to "voucher out" tenants versus the cost to fix the properties. Vouchering out means giving public-housing residents Section 8 vouchers to find another place to live. In a city like Chicago where thousands of public units do exist, 30 percent of the vouchers are returned by families who cannot find an affordable unit. Chicago has two low-income families for every low-cost apartment. There are thousands of people waiting to get into Chicago public-housing units, as run down as they are. If all the demolition and vouchering goes down the way it is now planned in Chicago, there will be some 30,000 residents flooding the private-housing market. Apartments for these people do not exist. People will have no place to go but the streets. Other provisions of the law make resident management more difficult, decrease other forms of resident input and participation, and even call for subsidized adults to do unpaid, "volunteer" work as a condition of their lease. In Chicago, public-housing residents and agencies fighting for economic justice have formed the Coalition to Protect Public Housing (CPPH). At their second annual June 19 demonstration this year and in their testimony as part of the Economic Human Rights Campaign, CPPH demanded congressional hearings in Chicago over the problems and issues around public housing. Chicago is a key to public housing nationally as nearly 20 percent of the demolitions scheduled for the whole country will take place here. Wardell Yotaghan, CPPH co-founder, emphasizes that the movement to halt demolition is not about saving bad buildings. It is about providing homes for poor people and saving communities. Demolition is acceptable with one-for-one replacement. Unfortunately, one- for-one replacement is one of the laws lost in the congressional makeover of public-housing policy. "Instead of subsidizing the poor, they are subsidizing the developers," says Yotaghan. The fight to save public housing is growing. On September 23-25, these issues will be raised at the Chicago Association of Resident Management Corporations (CARMC) meeting in Chicago. Resident- management groups from around the country are being invited. Further, planning for the June 19, 1999 demonstration is underway. The Coalition to Protect Public Housing knows that the fight to save public housing is a life-or-death fight. They are planning to make the 1999 event even bigger than the previous two. They also want to make next year's event a Chicago extension of the Economic Human Rights Campaign. ****************************************************************** 5. CONFERENCE TO END CORPORATE DOMINANCE URGES LINK OF LOCAL, GLOBAL STRUGGLES By Amanda Levinson In a society where our values are increasingly defined and monopolized by corporations, how can we resist corporate control over the media, the government, our jobs and the environment? These are some of the questions which the Conference to End Corporate Dominance Over Ecosystems and Communities sought to answer. The free conference, held May 29-31 at Portland State University in Oregon, attracted about 500 participants and an impressive array of local, national and international activists. There were workshops with topics ranging from corporate exploitation of the Third World to alternative strategies for dismantling corporate control over the media. Two of the most impressive speakers that the conference hosted were Ward Churchill, indigenous activist and author, and Cecilia Rodriguez, U.S. representative for the Zapatistas. Both Churchill and Rodriguez discussed how the spread of neoliberalism throughout the globe is inextricably linked to our lives here in the United States. Cecilia Rodriguez emphasized the link between the future of the Zapatistas and our own, saying that within our own struggles we need to begin working from a global perspective. Both Churchill and Rodriguez used the Zapatistas as a springboard for discussing how indigenous ways of organizing can be used as a model for dismantling corporate power at local and global levels. For example, the Zapatistas' ways of building consensus within their communities through open dialogue could be useful in forming a strategy on how to build larger bases of resistance against corporations everywhere. Ultimately, if we are to seriously challenge corporate imperialism and its destruction of our environments, our jobs, our communities and our culture, we need to have a stronger, more unified movement against corporate control, and corporations need to be held accountable for their abuses of power. As Richard Grossman, co-director of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy, powerfully stated in his keynote address: "Our resistances to stop evil have not been adding up. ... Today, corporations have more power and wealth than ever. ... All power is supposed to be accountable ... and there is supposed to be nothing that is beyond the power of we, the people." ****************************************************************** 6. DRUM VETERAN GENERAL BAKER AT THE BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS: LISTEN TO THE PAST, ANTICIPATE THE FUTURE [Editor's note: The following article is excerpted from an address to the Black Radical Congress on June 19, 1998 in Chicago.] My real level of commitment to the struggle came about 30 years ago, on July 12, 1968, when we had our first strike at DRUM, the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement. We set up picket lines at the gates and in a half hour had 6,000 workers standing in the street asking me what to do next. And you know, we didn't know. When you see workers that never said anything before stand up and take the fore and become the most militant on the line, you've got a real commitment to those people. If you've led them to this point and don't know what's the next step to take, you commit the rest of your life to trying to find some way to make an expression of the struggle we're faced with. I think we got our greatest lesson from the Detroit rebellion. In 1967, during the Detroit rebellion, the 101st airborne held down the East Side and the state troopers and the National Guard held down the West Side. They declared martial law in that city. If the kids got sick, you couldn't go to the hospital. If you ran out of food, you couldn't get any. But if you had a badge from Ford, Chrysler or General Motors, you could get through all the police lines in the area to get to work. We learned a fundamental lesson that the most important place we occupied in society in Detroit in 1967 and 1968 was at the point of production. Now, that estimate didn't just fall out of the sky, it was a practical assessment of the situation we were confronted with to figure out how to move. That's how we proceeded to carry out the work inside of the plants. We had certain conditions then that don't exist today. Back in the early 60s, the plants were stable. They stayed in one place. We didn't have massive plant closings. Today, you have international unions and union leaders in collaboration with the company. If you get a militant person elected at a local, that plant closes and the work is sent somewhere else, just because of the politics of the person at that local. Today GM is so strong, it can sneak in, in the middle of the night like thieves and steal dies out of the plant in Flint and close it. They're not really on strike, they've been called out in Flint, Michigan. We've got a different situation than we were confronted with then that needs different analysis and estimates of how we carry out the struggle. I'll never forget the period of time when rebellion was sweeping across the country. Rochester, New York and Harlem went up in 1964; Watts in 1965; and the rest of the cities in 1966. People out in Detroit were saying, "Detroit ain't going to never blow up because people working here are making too much money and they're living too good." As a matter of fact it helped lull the police department to sleep a little bit. And yet when it finally broke it was the biggest one yet. You've got to figure out a way to try to listen and anticipate. Often you turn your back and want to give up and quit right at the time when people are prepared to struggle. We've got to have the ability to persevere and to keep struggling. I work at Ford Motor Company right now. I'm a furnace operator on midnight shift. I was blacklisted out of the auto industry, but I went out and got a new name and a new social security number. I had learned that, in a union contract, if I could get by a year, I was safe. They caught up with me after 19 months and they fired me for falsification of application. My case went to arbitration and they restored my job with my right name because they were already seven months over the limit. The police files say that the state police in Michigan notified Ford that I was working at the Ford facility under a different name. Two weeks later, Ford told the police that they couldn't find me. Even though the organization understood that I was working there, nobody ever knew which name I was working under. That in itself shows we have to persevere. As mighty as they are, even with the state police informants, I got through and worked 19 months. ****************************************************************** 7. ISLAND LAUNCHES GENERAL STRIKE By Edgar deJesus "Puerto Rico is not for sale!" is the slogan of the "People's Strike" in Puerto Rico, protesting the Colonial Government's sale of the Puerto Rican Telephone Company (PRTC). In July, some 6,500 union telephone workers continued their strike which began on June 18. On July 7 and 8, more than 500,000 workers, supported by students, community, clergy, and political groups, went on a historic general strike in support of the striking workers employed by the PRTC in Puerto Rico. It is Puerto Rico's second general strike since 1934 and probably one of the largest general strikes on U.S. territory. It is popularly known as the "People's Strike" because of the widespread support and solidarity that it is receiving from the Puerto Rican people throughout the colonized Caribbean island nation of 3.8 million. At issue is the intended sale of the PRTC by the pro-statehood governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Rosello, at the selling price of $1.8 billion to GTE Corp., along with Banco Popular. This is in spite of PRTC being one of the most profitable and competitive telecommunications systems anywhere. It has provided more than $100 million per year to the government of Puerto Rico. However, the pro-statehood Rosello, in his quest to bring statehood and complete annexation of Puerto Rico to the United States, has pursued a government policy of privatizing and selling off much of the government-run sector of Puerto Rico. Rosello has already privatized the housing sector (one of the largest in the United States), hotels and medical facilities, and beyond this present effort to privatize the telephone system, there are plans to privatize the water authorities and other sectors. This is one of Rosello's "solutions" to the rapidly changing economy in Puerto Rico. The other is "statehood." Puerto Rico has been a colony of the United States since 1898. In the 1950s Puerto Rico became one of the pioneer experiments in "free trade zones" with the introduction of what was popularly known as "Operation Bootstrap." Puerto Rico was principally a private sector, manufacturing, export economy, but in the past 20 years, with the development of the Caribbean Basin Initiative and the North American Free Trade Agreement, combined with the "American citizenship" of Puerto Rican workers covered by American labor laws, Puerto Rico has been more and more abandoned by corporate America, which seeks to exploit that cheap labor in new free trade zone economies elsewhere in the Caribbean, in Central America and in northern Mexico's "maquiladora" region. Unemployment in Puerto Rico is over 14 percent. Average per capita income is at $6,500. The poverty rate is twice that of the state of Mississippi. Puerto Rico has been transformed into a "service economy," with a unionized labor force of less than 5 percent. In solidarity with the striking workers, more than 3,000 delegates from 60 organizations voted for a general strike. The general strike was called by the Broad Committee of Labor, Religious, Civic and Community Organizations (CAOS). Along with the independent unions, it united student groups, pro-independence organizations and the support of the AFL-CIO unions throughout the island, bringing it to a standstill. The strike brought the support of truckers, taxi cab drivers, teachers, airport workers, water authority employees, and others. President John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO sent a letter of solidarity, along with a strike support fund check collected from mainland unions. The Communications Workers of America solicited support for the strikers from communications unions internationally. Elected leaders like the mayors of Carolina and Ponce joined the picket lines in support of the general strike. The University of Puerto Rico was shut down, with students and teachers actively partaking in solidarity actions. Stores and gallerias were forced to close. The airport shut down for two days. The organizing of the strike itself was a school in how to battle the corporate structures and the government attempts to stifle the strike. Annie Cruz, president of one of the striking independent unions at PRTC, exemplified the role of women, and their families in strike solidarity. The strike's impact will not only cost more than $300 million dollars, but it has become a clarion call for unity on the island in defense of the people of Puerto Rico. The labor movement in Puerto Rico, both independent and the AFL- CIO affiliated unions, is awakening to the challenge of organizing and mobilizing to fight the impact of globalization of the economy on Puerto Rico. Labor organizing in Puerto Rico, exemplified by the growth of activity of the AFL- CIO Organizing Institute in Puerto Rico, along with attention to new labor legislation, and the growing solidarity between the various union movements, is displaying to the rest of the labor movement in the United States that in spite of a 5 percent unionization rate, the labor movement will not die. Puerto Rican workers are on the move! [Edgar deJesus is assistant manager/organizing director of the New York-New Jersey Region of UNITE!; board member of the Institute for Puerto Rican Policy of PRLDEF, the Hispanic Labor Committee, and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement; and former executive vice president of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights.] ****************************************************************** 8. FIGHT FOR JOBS IS ENGINE THAT DRIVES GM STRIKE [Editor's note: The People's Tribune interviewed Claire McClinton, a member of United Auto Workers Local 659, which is on strike against General Motors in Flint, Michigan.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Now that the strike is over a month old at your plant, how are things going? CLAIRE McCLINTON: Well, the national media is not covering the pickets and doing interviews as much as they did at the beginning. Also, members are making tremendous financial sacrifices, but their resolve to see the fight through to the end remains high. One of the reasons for this is the unwavering support that we are receiving from local unions and the public, both here and from around the country. A couple of days ago, a sister local [5960] from Pontiac brought up eight crates of food staples for members who may need it. Numerous locals from around the country and the state have driven to Flint to walk the pickets with us, some bringing donations. The Economic Human Rights Campaign bus, sponsored by the National Welfare Rights Union, took time out of their nationwide tour to walk the pickets with us. A national beef association from Iowa is collecting donations to ship us 1,000 pounds of beef. A neat, professionally dressed woman stopped by the union hall one day. She was from Mary Kay [cosmetics] and said she'd gotten a call from Dallas [headquarters] to support the strikers, and she handed us a huge basket of sunscreen to use on the picket line. One unemployed man, who is not a member of our local, has been on the picket line almost every day since the strike began. Many churches and other businesses have walked the picket with us. The Christian Auto Workers Association of the Churches of Flint will be holding a citywide Prayer and Praise Victory Rally next week to support us. PT: Why is there such widespread support? CM: People view our strike as a vehicle to unleash their own frustration regarding unemployment, part-time, temporary work status, etc. Also, those within organized labor are hearing and experiencing downsizing, etc., from their own respective corporations. Last week, a bus load of workers from Ohio who work for HURRY -- they happened to be mostly women -- came and walked the picket. They expressed concerns that they may be losing their jobs soon. So, even though contractually we do not have a right to strike over jobs -- only speed-ups, health and safety, and subcontracting issues -- the membership knows that the fight for our jobs is the engine that drives this strike; the public perceives this as well. When they join the pickets, they're saying, "This is my fight, too." PT: In the article you wrote on the strike you alluded to GM playing hardball -- sneaking dies out of the plant, etc. -- has there been any change there? CM: Well, I'm not involved in the bargaining aspects and so that's hard to gauge, but since we've been out, there have been some very unsettling events. It was just reported the Coldwater Road plant will be closing. This is a parts plant that GM had recently sold to an outside company. At the same time, we've learned that GM is building new assembly plants in Argentina, Brazil, Poland and Thailand, and another $100 million venture in China. Delphi, a subsidiary of GM, is one of the largest, if not the largest employer in Mexico. They plan to double their production within the next four years. PT: Do you see the dispute ending soon? CM: Again, that is difficult to speculate. But I believe how we go back is just as important as when we go back. Right now, I couldn't be prouder to be a member of UAW Local 659. There is such a solidarity and togetherness among the members. We are not the same members who walked out of the plant. I think that there is more respect and unity now. Take the issue of whipsawing, for example. This is where the company tries to pit local against local by forcing them to compete for certain jobs. Whipsawing has likewise gone global -- now we're competing against workers in other countries for work. We see some encouraging signs on that front, too. Buzz Hargrove has put Jack Smith [CEO of GM] on notice, vowing that no Canadian plant will touch work made from the stolen dies out of Flint Metal Center. Also last month, GM workers in Brazil threatened to walk off their jobs in support of the Flint strikers. The metalworkers union director in Sao Jose de Campos said, "Their fight is also our fight here." At a time like this, when GM stands for "Global Market" as well as General Motors, these international acts of support give new meaning to the term "solidarity." PT: Claire, thank you for this update on the strike. Do you have any closing comments? CM: Yes. I'd like to thank the People's Tribune for this opportunity to share my thoughts on our strike. Beginning in August, whether we're on strike or not, myself and other community supporters and labor activists will be holding seminars entitled "New World Class." It will explore globalization as part of a system that is working against us. This was inspired by the third verse of the UAW "national anthem," or theme song, "Solidarity Forever." As far as I'm concerned, this embodies the true spirit of our strike. It goes: In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold; Greater than the might of armies magnified a thousand fold. We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old, For the union makes us strong. Solidarity Forever ... I'm urging readers of the People's Tribune to send letters, cards and/or telegrams of support to UAW Local 659, 4549 Van Slyke Rd., Flint, MI 48507. ****************************************************************** 9. STORIES OF THE NEW FREEDOM BUS TOUR: THIS IS AMERICA By Cheri Honkala * She laid the blanket down, folding and tucking the corners of the light blue comforter which had turned brown. Tonight, her son would lie beneath the stars again. She felt relieved knowing that it would not rain tonight. Crouching on her milk crate, she began her nightly lookout, entertaining her mind with dreams of a better tomorrow in order to endure another cold, sleepless night being homeless in America. * Ms. Betty had worked hard all of her life. Each morning, she would rise and feed her granddaughter a bowl of cereal, bathe her and get her dressed. Ms. Betty was left with raising a child again in her late days of life, a time when she should be enjoying the fruits of her labor. Instead, every ounce of joy was taken from Ms. Betty. You see, Ms. Betty had a house fire and her granddaughter was taken by "child protection" because she was living inside a half-burned house, unable to find affordable housing. This is America. * She watches the snow as it covers the front sidewalk of her little row house on Mercer Street and then instructs her children to go get ready for their baths. Little Charlie drips with chocolate syrup covering him from head to toe. She makes her way up stairs knowing what she must do. The children have gone too long without a bath and she must not put it off, not even for one day. She grabs Billy, the youngest, and places him in the tub, they joke and giggle as she turns on the faucet and tilts him back to wash his hair. Then, within seconds, the cold pierces his entire body. The howl he lets out is so deep. Tears run like water off his little cheeks. Her entire body is now needed to restrain him as he kicks and cries. In the dead of winter with no gas to heat the house, she must find the strength to bathe her four children with no hot water. This is America. Where people suffer from unemployment, hunger and homelessness in an affluent country. Where some people have the choice to lay their children down in any of several houses and other children are laid down to sleep beneath a bridge. These are the roads that led the New Freedom Bus to travel across America, documenting economic human-rights violations caused by welfare reform. For more than 60 years, our country has had a safety net; today that net is being totally eliminated. We filled this bus with poor and homeless people from across the United States who have become today's freedom fighters. We are bound and determined to speak and fight for ourselves. We stopped in more than 30 cities across the country last month. Fourteen people had caught a violent flu on our bus, but the wheels of justice kept rolling. From North to South, from East to West, from urban to rural areas, we collected the stories of how poor people like us are hurting in America, and we are committed to telling their stories to the world. On July 1, we marched to the United Nations in New York to demand an end to the human- rights violations in the United States. We commemorate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights by committing ourselves to teaching everyone about their basic human rights and by fighting for the transfer of economic and political power so that its put in the hands of the people who are hurting. Then, we can build a democratic, cooperative society, creating true freedom, once and for all, from unemployment, hunger and homelessness. [Cheri Honkala is director of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, co-president of the National Welfare Rights Union, and national spokesperson of the Economic Human Rights Campaign's National Freedom Bus Tour.] ****************************************************************** 10. POEM: FREEDOM BUS Helping an old woman onto a bus I felt I was in the real U.S. A kindness spoke through me not wholly mine, something refusing the death we're in, that comes from the dream of real co-operation. That woman was the same one who, panhandling underground, on a BART station, was attacked by hidden cameras and a microphone that blared out laws and fines. The poor rag was half out of her mind with festering poverty. No, she really wasn't the same. She was another, and you can multiply her by thousands who wander streets looking for soda cans they drop to the ground and stamp on with weary feet. Or multiply by millions the kids with ravaged eyes going to bed with empty air where there bellies are night after night moaning for an end to the nightmare. Or dropping to the ground when the bullets fly gung-ho gang-ho and a bangbang family, muttering to the gutter: When, o when do we give birth to the real People's Army so my brother doesn't harm me? Come gather at the Freedom Bus, this microcosm of the U.S. exposing the rot of a system that's metastasized like cancer of cop and but a price on every head and said to Revolution, "Your address is: dot Dead." Come gather at the Freedom Bus where it's all of us in motion together breaking revolutionary bread, sharing it with kindness and co-operation, building with millions a movement ascending to a crescendo of demand and, if unanswered, forcing their hand, taking back our great but grievously suffering land. By Jack Hirschman, San Francisco ****************************************************************** 11. AN INTERVIEW WITH WILLIE BAPTIST, FREEDOM BUS RIDER: WINNING THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF AMERICA PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What were you trying to accomplish with the New Freedom Bus? WILLIE BAPTIST: The main thing is to win the hearts and minds of the American people. Over the last 30 years or so, the ideologists and the strategists of the rulers have been able to establish certain stereotypes in regards to the problems of class and race, and the general depiction of the problems that exist and who is to blame for it and whatnot, and what's to blame for it and what's not. We think there is a connection between the lack of class consciousness and the inactivity and lack of organization of that section of the class of the dispossessed most under attack economically. Once they move, their assumptions are challenged about the conception of class. And so, by moving this section of the class and getting them organized and by dramatizing some very critical conditions of economics in terms of utilities being cut off and the evictions that are growing, we facilitate the raising of the class identity and consciousness. Especially with the sanctioning of so-called Welfare Reform and continuing downsizing, we're finding more evictions, more utilities are being cut off, and very few people are engaging or dealing with those things. We need to engage those under economic assault and to deal with economic human rights to begin to force the discussion and debate about it. This will affect people's thinking and the morality of their heart. The work in Philadelphia has really shown that when you deal with the immediate needs of the people, you can begin to challenge people's thinking. During the periods of expansion of the economy, people's immediate needs were being met, and there was no way you could change people's thinking. As soon as the economy reverses and the immediate needs are not being met, it questions a system that meets no needs. And so the discussions in ideological development and the development of the thinking of the people is challenged when we begin to see and feel the downsizing and the evictions and the dismantling of the welfare state, and engage the people who are being victimized. These needs begin to force some kind of discussion that will end up with some type of class identity, and eventually class consciousness. People are looking for something to rally around, and the tears that they cry -- their pain and suffering -- could only but help evoke tears from us. This happened to all of us, whether white, black, Hispanic. It was clear to everyone of us that our problems are the same, but of course that's never discussed by mainstream media. The old man Marx was absolutely correct when he pointed out the connection between the development of consciousness and the struggle for the momentary and immediate needs of the people. Our experience over the last several years has shown that when you do that, you can begin to move all kinds of people. We've got photographers, filmmakers, people of different colors, and people calling from all over the world because all we did was have people move on their basic needs. This raises a question to society. Why, especially in the richest country in the world, do we have this kind of suffering? Is that because of the individual or the way society is organized? If there isn't anyone moving, that remains the prevailing thought, because over the last 30 years they have implanted that notion. The talk shows are still trying to reinforce that notion, that somehow there is this weirdness and failing of individuals, and not society failing people. When you get people moving around these issues, they become forms of ideological development and schools of propaganda. Usually in the political fight you identify gaps. One gap is that very little is being done about the fact that people are indeed hurting -- babies are living under the bridges, families are living in cars, utilities are being cut off, evictions are taking place, and people are being laid off. The American psyche is very pragmatic. They put more value in practical movement than intellectual discourse. When they see a movement about issues, it raises more questions than if they hear debates or read articles about it. Unless the articles are explaining the experience, then those articles become a voice. It gives an explanation of that practical movement. I think the Economic Human Rights Campaign and the bus tour are movements trying to bring attention to some very important problems. The most important thing that we have collected is not so much the violation of human rights, but we've collected potential revolutionaries and potential leaders in the struggle for basic human needs. ****************************************************************** 12. VOICES FROM THE BUS LISA -- Freedom Bus Rider since Day One. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Why did you decide to ride on the Freedom Bus? LISA: I have lived in poverty and I have been organizing against poverty for five years, and I wouldn't miss it. PT: Out of all the places that you have visited, which city has impacted you the most? LISA: It was so fast to one place from another that I can't remember what state it was. What impacted me most was the single young mother who had to leave her family because there was no way for her to economically make it. She is trying to make it in a state where the steel mill is closed and 99.9 percent of everyone is unemployed. She is fighting to make it economically for her children. She didn't know what way to turn. Her tears brought back some of my own memories. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ BRANDON -- Belongs to Empty the Shelters in Atlanta. PT: Why are you here? BRANDON: We wanted to be a part of this historic moment, this historic march to the United Nations. Nothing like this has ever happened in our country, a 30-day march that has been led by poor people. It has really called to light that there is this whole gap and disparity between wealth and poverty in this country. There is just a few people at the top that have all this money and resources. Then there's a huge number of people at the bottom. It's time for people to get their voice heard. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ALICIA -- She joined the Freedom Bus in Los Angeles. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Why did you join the Freedom Bus? ALICIA: I joined the Freedom Bus so that I can get knowledge of the situation and go back home and educate people, to let them know the real situation. So that they won't wait to the last minute to get cut off and find out that they are homeless. We need to get together now and fight this. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CHRIS -- From Philadelphia, he traveled to Pittsburgh; West Virginia; North Carolina; Knoxville, Tennessee; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; New Jersey; and New York. PT: Out of all the places you've been, which place has impressed you the most? CHRIS: We went to West Virginia and came to a county with 90 percent unemployment and that was white. It was really moving, 90 percent unemployment in America, and they are cutting welfare? It's a rural area, so folks without transportation are totally isolated. PT: What was their response? CHRIS: It was really good. It was a small town, around seven out of 10 people have moved out of this county in the last 10 years. I think the message of Economic Human Rights really resonated. It's something that people can understand and it's something that is speaking to people's situations. Economics Human Rights is a very broad thing that a lot of people are identifying with. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ CHICAGO -- From Boston, he rode the Freedom Bus beginning June 2. PT: What really stood out in your mind about what this represents? RIDER: It showed different nationalities and races organizing together so that the bus trip can come around. [Others] try to base poverty on a color issue, but this trip showed that it's not just blacks and Hispanics, but everybody. No matter where you go, it's there in different degrees in each state. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ EDNA -- A North Philadelphia mother of six children, she joined the Freedom Bus in West Virginia. PT: Why did you go on this tour? EDNA: I'm a member of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. I wanted to see how other cities were doing. They are struggling like everybody. For example, in West Virginia people are living in shacks and in motor homes. This lady who is living on welfare had a daughter with a disease and they didn't know how to pay for it. PT: Has being in the Freedom Bus made you stronger? EDNA: Yeah, we are fighting for human rights for the unemployed and the poor. PT : What kind of America do you want? EDNA: I want an America that can treat everybody equal, as one. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ MARILUZ GONZALES -- She is a member of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. PT: What's the most exciting thing you've seen on the trip? MARILUZ: There's a lot of exciting things and a lot of sad things to see. Some of the places that I've been to really made me cry. It was nice to meet people from different nationalities. I enjoyed my time on the bus. Every day I was learning something more. Going around the country was the best thing I've ever done for my children and myself. PT: Did anything really surprise you? MARILUZ: Yes, a lot of things surprised me. I thought we were doing bad, but there are other places that are doing really bad. There are children that are walking barefoot. They don't have any food and they are taking baths in dirty, black water because of the chemicals. There are people getting beaten up because they crossed the border. Many people are having to leave their country where their families have been raised from generation to generation because they have no money. You can't count on Welfare because you only get so much, so you can't pay your bills or get an education. I wish the government would go by to see what is going on. Not just the poor people, but people with money should go see what's going on. Maybe in the future it could be them. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ MATT -- A graduate student from Ohio, he rode on the Freedom Bus beginning June 15. PT: What do you think about the trip? MATT: It's been excellent. I feel it has helped to break a lot of the isolation. It's given a real boost to a lot of people and has helped build connections with people in different places. The language of Economic Human Rights may not solve everything, but it does get through to the people. It's a good wedge for getting through what we are told is "impossible" or that there is a "natural rate of poverty." This is something people respond well to, and that allows us to enter the question of why people do not have human rights. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ JENNIFER AND JASON -- They were Freedom Bus riders since June 1. PT: What is the most important thing you've learned being a part of this? JENNIFER: I have always complained that I never had anything, and on this trip I realized that there are people who really do sleep on the streets. I opened my eyes and realized. For me, it was always a joke, and I used to say they need to get a job. Now I understand that the government is violating the human rights of the people. I liked being on this bus, especially me being a teenager. A lot of teenagers don't realize things like this. It's good for me and for the other children that are here. There is this little girl Destiny, who is only 7 years old, and she is real proud to be here. We are fighting for everybody's rights, it's a worldwide thing. JASON: I learned that the system and the government are chintzy. I say chintzy because they don't care about their people. They say one thing and they do the other. One thing I learned from uniting with people all over the country is that we have unity, and most people don't see it. If we work hard, we could get our rights back. We just have to unite. It takes time and it's going to be hard. You can see what we are dealing with, and we are dealing with the system. PT: I heard you speak in Chicago and you were homeless then? Are you still homeless, and what are you going to do when you return to Philadelphia? JASON: Yes, I'm still homeless. They have houses in Philadelphia, so I'll hook up with somebody. JENNIFER: Society is like a big, long flight of stairs and we are taking a step up. We need more people to be there for us just in case one of us falls back, so there will be someone there to push us back up. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 13. THE LABOR PARTY AND ECONOMIC HUMAN RIGHTS [Editor's note: The People's Tribune interviewed Bob Brown, a Labor Party organizer, about the relationship between the 28th Amendment and the Economic Human Rights Campaigns.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Why is the Labor Party supporting the new Economic Human Rights Campaign? BOB BROWN: We understand that building a political party in this country means it needs to be a party that reflects the diversity of the struggles of working people and those who have been thrown out of the economic system of the country. We are finding that those in the unions are increasingly finding themselves without work or are being made part-time or low-wage workers. This movement is critical to a political movement. It reflects the direction of a mass political movement in this country today. PT: The New Freedom Bus visited a lot of areas with high unemployment, do you think the tour had any impact on the labor movement? BB: It did in a very embryonic way. It has made connections in a variety places around the country. From speaking before central labor councils in Knoxville, Tennessee to hooking up with the United Auto Workers who are on strike in Flint, Michigan to the steelworkers in Pittsburgh and beyond. People were feeling a real connection. Those in the labor-union movement today feel only temporarily stable in their employment. This represents that which is hopefully safeguarding the interest in those who are employed to know that there are people in motion if they become unemployed to assist them. PT: What are your plans for the future in relation to this effort? BB: The Welfare Rights Union is an affiliate of the Labor Party. It was one of the first workers' support organizations. Representative Cheri Honkala in the National Leadership has a vantage point and political perspective that has been appreciated and encouraged in terms of providing political direction for the Labor Party. That, mixed with the base of the Labor Party coming out of the labor-union movement, has a very compatible relationship and will be expected to grow in both direction and influence. Both those who are employed and are focusing on the remaining jobs that exist, and also those that are being downsized and are unemployed, are what the political movement needs to be about. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ FREEDOM BUS FINDS UNANIMOUS SUPPORT FOR 28TH AMENDMENT By Willie Baptist The 28th Amendment proposal by the Labor Party is a correction to the violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, mainly in the economic area, which is the right to a job with a living wage, a right to health care, housing and education. It is a constitutional position in terms of the guarantee that everyone not only has a job, but that those jobs are sufficient for people to provide for their families. Everywhere the Freedom Bus stopped, the poorest areas of the states, there was complete unanimity with this position. There is a very effective lie that the ideologist gives. The lie is that people are poor because they do not want to work, and that they should take any job. People want a job, but at a living wage. Employers are not prepared to employ you at a living wage. This raises again the question of the system. Why can't this country having one of the richest economies provide a decent living-wage job? [Willie Baptist was a lead organizer of the Freedom Bus Tour. See stories 9 - 12 for more about the bus tour.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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 +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 14. WOMEN TO DEFINE GLOBALIZATION AT INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS By Sandra Reid Over 500 women from 50 countries will come together around the theme of "Bread and Roses: Women Define Globalization" at the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Congress in Baltimore, July 24-31. Joan Patchen, coordinator of the congress, said: "What we want to do is look at globalization for what it means for women. We live in a world where globalization is inevitable, but instead of letting the corporations define it, what about us defining what we want the world to look like." The theme of WILPF's 27th international congress is from the Lawrence, Massachusetts textile strike in 1912. Patchen said: "At that time the main workers in textile mills were women and children. Women were working 17 hours a day without breaks, giving birth in between the looms, plus they were getting pennies a day, and then their salaries got cut." During a march, one young woman put up a sign that said, "We want bread, but we want roses too," to show that the strike was about the quality of life. "The women won, but the big thing was that they didn't just win for themselves. The strike changed pay rates and working conditions all across the country," Patchen said. "But," she added, "here we are in 1998 and there is still child labor and still greed by the major corporations whose CEOs get millions for their salaries. There's runaway shops and sweatshops that are not just in Haiti and foreign countries, but right here in the United Sates. "WILPF started in 1915 and our first president was Jane Addams, the mother of social work, and the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. But, this is the 100th anniversary of social work in this country and we haven't ended war and we haven't ended poverty. This doesn't mean we have to sit down and not do anything. "The thing about WILPF is that we are not a single issue organization. We make the connection between all the issues, not one is more oppressive than other, they are all linked. If one person is struggling, we all struggle, if one person is enslaved or oppressed, than so are we." The organizers anticipate a very exciting congress. Besides the discussion, women will have the opportunity to hear international speakers, learn the techniques of Theater of the Oppressed, attend a rally with labor-union women to challenge "Fast Track," and join a protest at the International Monetary Fund. [For more information about WILPF, call 215-563-7110 or visit their website at www.wilpf.org] ****************************************************************** 15. SPEAKERS FOR A NEW AMERICA Our speakers provide a message of hope and unity to create a society whose wealth benefits all. Our speakers speak from the point of view of the most destitute and what is needed to solve their problems. Our speakers speak from the point of view of what is in the best interest of all of society -- not what is in the interest of a handful of billionaires. For a free brochure, write to P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654; send e-mail to speakers@noc.org; or call 773-486-3551. NEW BOOKLET ON TAPE We are pleased to announce that "Moving Onward: From Racial Division to Class Unity," a new pamphlet by Brooke Heagerty and Nelson Peery, is now available on audiotape. The labor for this project was donated thanks to Donna and Mike Thornton. Send $10, plus $2 shipping, to the address above. ****************************************************************** 16. JOIN WITH OTHERS TO MAKE THE VISION OF A WORLD OF PLENTY A REALITY Who is the League of Revolutionaries for a New America? We are people from all walks of life who refuse to accept that there should be great suffering in a world of great abundance. Together, we can inspire people with a vision of a cooperative world where the full potential of each person can contribute to the good of all. Together, we can get our message of hope out on radio and television, in places of worship, union halls, and in the streets. We don't have all the answers, but we are confident that together we can free the minds of the millions of people who can liberate humanity. Join us! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ____ I want to join the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. ____ Send me a bundle of 5__10__25__50___100___ People's Tribunes to get out in my city. ____ Send me a membership kit so I can build a chapter of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America in my city. ____ I want a speaker in my city. Send me a "Speakers for a New America" brochure. ____ I want to make a financial donation to the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. Name Address City/State/Zip Phone E-mail +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 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 (773) 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. 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