People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (06-99) Online Edition .TOPIC 06-99 PT Index .TEXT .BODY ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.lrna.org +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PAGE ONE: A FUTURE WITHOUT WAR ... The time is in the not-too-distant future, when the bad years humanity suffered through in the late 20th century is a fading memory. The scene is a 3D, virtual, audiovisual chat room on the Internet. It's a very popular place, especially among the young people. They can sit at terminals in homes, schools, libraries, town squares, and meet and become instant friends. Translation technology has long been perfected, so language is no problem. The older generations never cease to marvel at their children. The lives of these youth are much richer and happier than their parents could ever have imagined when they were their age. The young people won't have to spend their lives in dreary jobs, separated from their kids like their own parents had to. Now, they can spend as much time as they need to raise children right and give them whatever they need to help them develop more fully as people with something to give to society. Naturally, there are bound to be new challenges for these young people to face. But gone forever are poverty, hunger, homelessness, suffering, ignorance, hatred and war. The evils that crushed the spirit in the late 20th century vanished with capitalism. Back in the late 20th century, new technologies made it possible to build houses in 45 minutes, to communicate instantly with anyone in the world, to replace worn-out hearts with healthy new ones. The trouble was, a tiny class of capitalists held these tools and only enriched itself with them while everyone else starved in the streets. Wonderful tools, terrible times. While a few billionaires lived in arrogance and waste, the rest of the world's billions lived on a dollar a day. The capitalists used the technology to drive stock prices to new heights, from where they dropped their laser-guided bombs on places like Iraq and Yugoslavia, killing defenseless people in their homes, on trains and buses, in markets and even in hospitals. The young people of the post-capitalist future are aware of those horrible things. Understandably, they find them difficult to comprehend. The capitalists used the mass media to brainwash the youth with hate and self-destruction, to convince young people that, because their labor was no longer needed by the employers, they were worthless and had no way out. The capitalists miseducated the youth, robbed them of their ability to think critically and discern right from wrong, good from bad. Eventually, the more isolated and confused young people believed the capitalists' lies and turned against themselves, their classmates and friends in tragic outbursts of violence. It got so bad that the youth killings at home and the wars overseas looked like one and the same thing. In a certain sense, they were. Homicide and suicide were the second and third leading causes of death for young people in America between ages one and 19. Two million children died in wars around the world in the 1980s and '90s. In these wars, 90 percent of the fatalities were civilian and half of them were children. Half of the world's 60 million displaced people -- homeless, refugees and the like -- were children. Millions of them were orphans. Because the new assault weapons were lighter and simpler than the heavier guns of past wars, children themselves became fighters. Child soldiers on the ground, high-tech warplanes in the air. There was a United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which was drafted in 1989. Ten years later, all the countries in the world had signed it except two -- one was Somalia, the other was the United States. Meanwhile, the capitalist system rotted like the corpse it was. And yet, out of death comes life. The seed was the vast majority of humanity overcoming the lies, hate and despair of the old world and turning toward a vision of a new world. New messengers stepped forward to spread this vision that was more than a mere dream because the tools it was based on were very real. In the hands of the majority of humanity -- we who had no stake in the capitalist system -- we were able to use these tools to make real a world that gave life to all young people in the generation to come. A generation gathering in peace, in person or online, to build new bridges and not destroy them, to give each other life and not to take it away. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 Editorial 1. MORALITY IS AT THE CORE OF RECLAIMING OUR WORLD News and Features 2. PHILADELPHIA POOR TRAVEL TO WORLD PEACE CONFERENCE 3. A NEW BOOK ON AN ABOLITIONIST HERO SHOWS POWER OF REVOLUTIONARY PRESS 4. SERBIA IS THE HIROSHIMA OF THE ELECTRONICS ERA 5. MUMIA RALLY STIRS MOVEMENT FOR FREEDOM AND LIFE 6. SAN FRANCISCO TENANTS BATTLE ELLIS ACT 7. CLASS VERSUS RACE 8. JUSTICE FOR RUDY BUCHANAN, JR.: ARIZONA SETTLEMENT CONFIRMS POLICE SHOOTING UNJUSTIFIED 9. TO THE POINT (NEWS SHORTS) Young Revolutionaries 10. LUIS RODRIGUEZ ON CENSORSHIP: NURTURING IDEAS American Lockdown 11. PREPARATION FOR LEGAL MURDER: THE IRONY OF IT ALL Spirit of the Revolution 12. UNIVERSITY HONORS PROFIT OVER HUMANITY Announcements, Events, etc. 13. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE RADIO 14. 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/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO 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. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 Edit: Morality is at the core of reclaiming our world .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: MORALITY IS AT THE CORE OF RECLAIMING OUR WORLD It is an old adage that human beings do not live by bread alone. It is uniquely human to dream, to hope, to develop a kind of moral compass that registers right and wrong. These qualities drive and motivate people. History has proven again and again that those who can reach into and shape that sense of self, that sense of what you will and will not live with, wield a weapon that can be far more powerful than any law or policy. The ruling class understands this almost better than revolutionaries do. For them, new and more repressive laws can only be part of the solution to control the inevitable struggles that will break out as labor-replacing technology rapidly extends misery and poverty through society. They must reshape the morality of the American people, get them to accept a world in which misery, poverty and violence are acceptable, tolerable, even justifiable. And they are making headway. Presented with the violence of life under capitalism today, the youth especially are maturing to adulthood believing that violence is the way to solve problems, to get what you want. The slain Littleton youth were not even buried before a massive propaganda campaign got under way to blame parents and kids for the violence and death that stalks America. The Christian right was brought in to give God's blessing to this blame and to its revenge by decrying the American people's immorality and by claiming that a return to their particular version of Christianity would end the "culture of death." Clinton tied up the package by proposing a federal "parental responsibility" law which would make parents criminally liable for their children's actions. In the wake of the school shootings in Arkansas last year, it's now possible to try a child of any age in that state for capital murder. Increasingly, lawmakers are raising the possibility of executing children. In such a moral universe, innocence is evil, violence and death mean peace and life. Can we see this more clearly than in Yugoslavia? By manipulating common decency and the impulse to help others, the ruling class has convinced a growing section of the American people that the bombings and the subsequent suffering of hundreds of thousands of Albanians and Serbs is in the interests of human rights and democracy. This so-called moral position will allow them to ask the American people for further sacrifices in the future -- diverting much-needed funds from social institutions to the war effort, the cracking down on any dissenting opinion, and -- the ultimate sacrifice -- the life of the son or daughter we once rocked in our arms. Crisis accelerates every process. The capitalists may seem all- powerful, but every step they take creates the conditions for greater questioning among the American people, who will be moved not only by the deaths that are sure to come from war, but by the brutality that encompasses their lives as a result of its violence. We are by no means powerless in our fight to win their hearts and minds. Our class has a powerful morality of its own, one we must reclaim and reassert. That morality has threaded itself throughout the generations, it has supported the centuries- old vision of a truly peaceful, stable and cooperative society. Shaping this vision is the moral requirement that no one is left behind, that no one can be truly human unless we all are, that we all have an equal right to all that human civilization has to offer. This is the aspiration of millions here and throughout the world, struggling to live their lives and raise their children -- not for war, not for an early grave, but for a long life, lived fully human. Now. Where do you stand? .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 Philadelphia poor travel to world peace conference .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 2. PHILADELPHIA POOR TRAVEL TO WORLD PEACE CONFERENCE Members of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU) were to attend The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference, an international peace conference to be held in The Hague, Netherlands May 12-15. The conference was to be attended by more than 4,000 people from across the world. KWRU members were to present themselves in panels and plenaries. Cheri Honkala, KWRU's director, was to speak at the closing conference plenary to be attended by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The group also was to hold the international premiere of the new video documentary "Outriders." This video recounts the campaign of poor and unemployed families in the Kensington Welfare Rights Union as they traveled across the United States in June 1998 for their month-long New Freedom Bus Tour. The Kensington Welfare Rights Union is part of the Poor Peoples' Economic Human Rights Campaign, a national campaign composed of over 40 poor people's organizations in the United States. The campaign is focused on building a movement to end poverty led by poor and homeless people -- those most affected by the problems of social inequality in the United States. The global peace conference took place at a time when war is under way in Kosovo and economic wars continue at home. As homeless refugees are being created with every bomb dropped in Yugoslavia, money is denied in our federal budget for ending the rise in homeless refugees in the United States. The Kensington Welfare Rights Union was to discuss the current crisis resulting from the dismantling of the social-welfare system and the efforts to organize a massive movement to eliminate the serious economic violence of poverty. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Contact Cheri Honkala at the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, NUHHCE, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, Box 50678, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19132-9720. Phone 215-203-1945. Fax 215-203-1950. E-mail kwru@libertynet.org. Or access the web site at http://www.libertynet.org/kwru Economic Human Rights Campaign updates are distributed via the kwru-announce e-mail list. You can subscribe to kwru-announce by sending e-mail to majordomo@libertynet.org with the following in the BODY of the e-mail: subscribe kwru-announce. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 New book on abolitionist hero .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 3. A NEW BOOK ON AN ABOLITIONIST HERO SHOWS POWER OF REVOLUTIONARY PRESS By Chris Mahin Napoleon once said that the way to learn the art of war is to study the lives of the great commanders. The same principle applies to the art of propaganda. Those who seek to stir society's conscience today should study the work of the propagandists of the past. A new biography of the newspaper editor who launched a crusade against slavery is a good place to start. "All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery," by historian Henry Mayer, recounts how an obscure New England boy grew into America's leading opponent of slavery -- and, in the process, shook this country out of its moral lethargy. Mayer's richly detailed study fills a void; it is the first full- length biography of William Lloyd Garrison in 30 years. The title of "All on Fire" comes from the sharp response that the often- impassioned Garrison gave to a friend who begged him to moderate his tone -- "I have need to be all on fire, for I have mountains of ice about me to melt." As Mayer shows, Garrison combined a deep religious faith and intense moral outrage at slavery with some very practical skills. Unlike some abolitionists, Garrison did not hail from the elite. Garrison's maternal grandparents came to the New World as indentured servants. Garrison himself was born into a poor family in 1805 and became a printer's apprentice almost as soon as he became a teen-ager. He developed into an expert compositor and editor, deftly employing those skills to appeal to the reading public's conscience. For more than three decades, Garrison edited The Liberator, a fiery newspaper dedicated to exposing the slave system and anyone and everyone who collaborated with it. Its first edition appeared on January 1, 1831, issued from a Boston printing office in the shadow of the Bunker Hill Monument. Mayer describes its first editorial this way: "The Liberator, [Garrison] promised, would make slaveholders and their apologists tremble. He would redeem the nation's patriotic creed by making 'every statue leap from its pedestal' and rouse the apathetic with a trumpet call that would 'hasten the resurrection of the dead.' ... 'I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice,' Garrison pledged. 'On this subject I do not wish to think or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm ... but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present.' He drove the point home with staccato phrases: 'I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch.' Then he reached into the upper case and added one more promise: '-- AND I WILL BE HEARD.'" On one level, "All on Fire" is a straightforward, chronological account of Garrison's life and how, for 35 years, he nobly sacrificed his time, safety and health to keep the promise made in that editorial. But because Garrison was such a central figure in the abolitionist movement, the book cannot help but give the reader a sense of how the abolitionist movement grew up around a newspaper. Mayer describes how The Liberator helped develop different organizations of propagandists at different stages in the fight against slavery. Implicit in Mayer's life of Garrison is the message that an organization of propagandists develops around the revolutionary press. In the case of The Liberator, some abolitionists wrote for the newspaper; others sold it; and still others organized subscription campaigns or arranged speaking engagements for the newspaper's representatives. Mayer fills "All on Fire" with fascinating glimpses of how this work was done, details that illustrate the abolitionists' combination of moral fervor and practicality. For instance, in one unforgettable passage, he describes abolitionist leader Angelina Grimke Weld bravely giving "the speech of her life" even though an enraged mob was trying to break into the meeting room where she was speaking. "With the practiced speaker's confidence," Mayer points out, "she did not neglect the details of organization, urging her audience to buy the pamphlets, subscribe to the newspapers, circulate the petitions, and in every way 'come up to the work.'" Angelina Grimke Weld made those remarks "[w]ith brickbats flying and glass shattering against the blinds" of the large auditorium she was speaking in. Who cannot admire a propagandist like that? Historian Howard Zinn has expressed his hope that "this eloquent, powerful biography" will inspire the coming generation "to do for our time what Garrison did for his." That's the spirit in which a revolutionary should approach this work. "All on Fire" should be read not as a description of battles fought long ago, but as a study of how to wage a propaganda war by going on the moral offensive. The world needs such a propaganda war today. After one of his visits to England, Garrison wrote to a friend: "To think that God ... has filled this earth with abundance for all, and yet that nine-tenths of mankind are living in squalid poverty and abject servitude in order to sustain in idleness and profligacy the one- tenth!" Clearly, the abolitionists' work is not yet finished. We too have mountains of ice to melt. Like William Lloyd Garrison, we should begin that process by building an organization of propagandists around the revolutionary press. ["All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery" by Henry Mayer is available in hardcover for $32.50 from most bookstores or from St. Martin's Press in New York. For more information, contact St. Martin's Press at 800-221-7945.] .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 Serbia is the Hiroshima of the electronics era .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 4. SERBIA IS THE HIROSHIMA OF THE ELECTRONICS ERA By Reetmo Dog In the last days of World War II, the United States dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. This murderous onslaught on civilians in a country that was already militarily defeated was a succinct application of Clausewitz's famous dictum: War is politics by other means. The attacks on Japan showed the world the horrific power of atomic weapons, carrying with it the threat that the United States could, if it so chose, use them anywhere. The United States was preparing the world for its postwar campaign to roll back communism, end European colonialism and establish a new world order of international banking. Destroying several hundred thousand human beings was simply good advertising. Atomic weapons were the pinnacle of warfare of capitalism in its industrial era. The development of atomic weapons by the Soviet Union in 1949 and, in 1957, its capacity to deliver them with guided missiles, countered the U.S. threat to the world and revealed the weaknesses of a nuclear strategy. It could only lead to what was then called MAD -- mutually assured destruction. This did not stop the United States from five decades of nuclear blackmail. Capitalism today is entering its post-industrial era. Where the old machine technology was massive and required centralization, electronics technology is light, comparatively cheap, assembled from components and is highly decentralizable. So, then, is electronics-based warfare. As the United States maneuvers to consolidate the globalization of capital and to implement a new political agenda, it needs a new poster boy to demonstrate the folly of opposing its will. Serbia takes Hiroshima's role in the electronics era. The "dumb bombs" are now replaced by "smart bombs" that supposedly minimize the loss of human life by the precision targeting of specific sites. It is quite curious how often these bombs are precisely off- target, killing precisely more civilians. Anyone can see that the United States is waging war against the population of Serbia, just as it has against Iraq. Its relatively inexpensive to lob a few cruise missiles a day into the country, supplemented with cluster bombs to destroy human flesh. This can go on indefinitely. Think about it. What would life be for you if they destroyed water, sewage and electrical facilities, media networks, roads, and factories? Like Hiroshima, these military objectives are to guarantee the political objective: Dare not to defy the goals of global capital! The U.S.-NATO alliance stands ready to use electronic warfare against anyone. The same class that owned the slaves now owns the atomic bombs and the "smart" bombs. For 300 years, its modus operandi has been to make ugly, public and brutal examples out of rebellious slaves to quell the spirit of the rest. They still intend to prevail. Developing a winning strategy is a big discussion. One thing is for sure: We can only win by fighting forward, not backward. We cannot set the goal of going back to the old world system that is slipping into history. Electronic technology is a powerful, driving force precisely because it can be employed to make life easier and better. It cannot be forced backward. Technology is the legacy of humanity because it is the product of our collective effort. Who says its control and benefits should be turned over to private property? The scientific relation between war and politics points out the direction for a winning strategy. Politics always leads and directs the processes of war. No war was more unequal, militarily and technologically, than the inhuman onslaught of the United States on Vietnam. Even in their darkest days, Vietnamese revolutionary leaders held that they should take the offensive by putting politics in command. The country was completely vulnerable to assault and occupation by an industrially supported army. Thus, while tactical victories could be won militarily, they could not be held. The Vietnamese fought by ensuring that the political objectives of the fighting defined the victory. The objective was an increased political understanding and the greater unity of the people. The higher political understanding led to a level of organization and cooperation that rendered all the U.S. technology ineffective. No country in the world is more occupied by the U.S. military than the United States. Yes, we're outgunned. Yes, we can fight and win. We fight with politics -- with ideas, words, analysis and teaching. And the goal is the greater political understanding of everyone that the misused new technology is denying, threatening and replacing. Our weapons are based on the proposition that the truth will make you free. Lies, even lies backed by billions of dollars, cannot hide the economic nightmare that the private control of technology is preparing. The slaves could never fight back as long as they adopted the morality of the slave master. Its not all right that children go hungry, that schools are rotting, that the government should deny people the simple and basic supports for a decent life. That this is backed up by a growing police state is an abomination. Fighting with politics is part of the legacy of this country. We can win by spreading the vision of a new world, one where the goals of a cooperative humanity determine how society is reorganized. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 Mumia rally stirs movement for freedom and life .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 5. MUMIA RALLY STIRS MOVEMENT FOR FREEDOM AND LIFE By Rob Mikolon On April 24, a revolutionary gathering of souls convened in Philadelphia to save the life of one courageous man, Mumia Abu- Jamal. Over 17 years ago, Mumia was sentenced to death for the alleged murder of a police officer with fabricated and biased "evidence," including information about his social and political beliefs. Since then, Mumia has remained an active voice in the struggle to preserve human rights and fight the corruption of the injustice system in the United States and other nations. His voice has also been heard around the world speaking against numerous transnational corporations and the devastation that their practices wreak on humanity and the earth. I and more than a dozen other people from the UNITE! (Union of Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees) organization and Anti-Racist Action in Bloomington, Indiana (some students, some residents) made the trek over to Philly on Friday, April 23. Around midnight, we arrived at the MOVE headquarters, where we were greeted kindly with food from the Food Not Bombs organization and smiles from all. We were then given maps and directions to a place to sleep on the West Side. There, we were once again welcomed and well-provided for as strangers in a new area. At noon on April 24 -- Mumia's birthday -- we congregated with thousands on the West Side to march down Market Street and eventually meet up with the main group of freedom fighters in attendance at City Hall. There, we met the crowd, which was estimated to be 3,000 by the Cable News Network; 7,000 by the Philadelphia Police Department; and 30,000 by the organizers and participants (including me). These vastly different numbers serve as another reminder that "the revolution will not be televised." At City Hall, speakers took the stage, demanding justice for political prisoners and for Puerto Rican freedom fighters; an end to the senseless violence and contempt for life in the domestic and foreign wars; and a stop to the corruption and greed of governmental and corporate systems feasting on the lives of the people. Such speakers as Mazi Jamal, Mumia's son; Ramona Africa of the MOVE organization; Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine; Leonard Weinglass, Mumia's attorney; and dozens of other courageous brothers and sisters made powerful statements. Topics brought forth were: the rise in police brutality; the extensive and inconsistent use of the death penalty; the waging of war at the cost of the people; as well as numerous other injustices. In attendance were anarchists forming the "black block" of resisters of all governmental systems; members of the Iroquois Nation; the Nation of Islam; the New Afrikans; Europeans; East Asians; Socialists; Hispanics; homosexuals; the homeless; and anti-death penalty advocates. All kinds of people were there, giving cries of freedom and justice. As the crowd started moving toward the marching phase of the rally the drumming, laughing, crying and screaming could be heard loud and clear. Such chants as, "They say Death Row; we say "Hell, no!'" and "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; peace, equality, justice for all" rang out. In such a profound and moving gathering of the people, I couldn't stop from staring in awe at the great rising of the new generation, acting in unison with members of the old to continue the age-old movement to better humanity. Mumia is but one man who has been terribly wronged by our injustice system. Unfortunately, his case is not rare in our country, nor is it in many other nations around the world. This is why so many are standing up, outraged, in resistance. If each and every person made a commitment to look for more of such despicable cases of injustice, they would surely find many in our nation alone, which has killed over 7,000 people in this century -- 26 of whom were known to be innocent , and another 22 who came within three days of death before being released. Today, there are over 3,200 people on Death Row. As more and more convicted people have been proven innocent, the death penalty itself has been proven to be a travesty of justice and a block to any freedom movement. Mumia and all political prisoners must be freed; the laws and processes of justice must be re-evaluated and changed; the death penalty and all uses of violence must be forever banned; and the struggling movement for freedom and life must continue on. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 SF Tenants battle Ellis Act .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 6. SAN FRANCISCO TENANTS BATTLE ELLIS ACT By Jack Hirschman SAN FRANCISCO -- The first round in the battle against the landlord-friendly Ellis Act was won by four San Francisco tenants on March 22, 1999 when Judge Dorothy Von Berolding threw out the landlord's attempt to evict them. The verdict was only procedural (the landlord, Katharine Beckwith, had illegally given the tenants a 30-day notice instead of a 60- day notice), and Beckwith has had to start all over; but North Beach residents are jubilant that she has lost some $12,000 in court and lawyer fees. They stand strongly behind the four tenants, who have mounted the first major resistance against the act that landlords are rampantly using to displace people for no other reason but raw profiteering. "There's growing awareness and resistance to the profiteering of the propertied few at the expense of the many," said Roger Strobel, worker, artist and one of the fighting tenants. The Ellis Act permits a landlord to yank an entire building off the rental market and evict all of its tenants. In recent years, the act has been used with increased greed. In 1998, the city's Rent Stabilization Board reported, 65 buildings were removed for a loss of 185 rental units. Evictions number in the hundreds. "The Ellis Act," said Ronald F. Sauer, writer, and another of the besieged tenants, "is one more example of rich people hiding behind the law. How, in fact, can you have a democracy where only the rich can afford to have lawyers? Market value is newspeak for murder." The embattled tenants hope that, by having been entitled to a jury trial in the matter, their two-year struggle against eviction will help galvanize the people to overturn the draconian Ellis Act. "It's a real battle," said Margery Pertuis, another of the Varennes Street tenants facing eviction. "You've gotta understand the lawyers for the landlord don't play by the rules, don't even care about laws for the people." In January, more than 150 North Beach residents gathered for a fund-raising event in support of the tenants, an event organized by the fourth tenant targeted for eviction, Jean Dierkes-Carlisle, a long-time resident and photographer. Dierkes-Carlisle has been outspoken against the widespread use of the Ellis Act, not simply in North Beach, but in the Mission District and other areas of San Francisco. But the greater awareness of how tenants are being ripped off by the demons of private property is a growing part of a process that can lead to the collective demand that the act be nullified. The upcoming jury trial of the four Varennes Street tenants -- their right, according to the law -- is one that all San Francisco will be watching with great interest. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 Class versus race .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 7. CLASS VERSUS RACE [Editor's note: The following article was submitted by a reader.] By sista shiriki Greetins', i have been doing a lot of thinking about this issue. i must say, i have always had problems with the struggle for liberation of Afrikan People and other oppressed people of kolor bein' re-classified and dubbed a class struggle only. This has never set right for me, and i really could not articulate why it never felt right. However, once you began to live, learn and grow in the struggle, a lot of things are made clear to you. i believe our struggle in this kountry and around the world is about RACE, has always been and will continue to be about RACE. If you look up the word Capitalism, in order for capitalism to maintain itself, there must ALWAYS be a CLASS of people that will be disenfranchised; this must exist in order for Capitalism to exist and maintain itself. Here is where CLASS plays a part. In sustaining Capitalism, the CLASS of the working poor will always be used. The working poor are those of us who sell our labor in order to maintain a roof over our heads, food on the table, educate our children and clothes on our backs. This CLASS of people consists of all races, Black, Brown, Red, Yellow and White, yet this CLASS of people does not relate to one another because of RACE. Even though White-Amerikans are members of this class of working poor, this society reinforces to them that they are still above the Black, Brown, Red & Yellow peoples. Looking at Class vs. Race in this kountry, we must keep it in its historical context. The kidnapping and enslaving of Afrikans for life simply because they were/are looked upon as being less than hue-mon. White slaves that worked side by side with Afrikan slaves were free within five to seven years -- is that Class or Race? The lynching that took place throughout Amerika -- why wasn't White Men chosen for lynching parties? Is that Class or Race? The "Tuskegee Experiments" from 1932-1972 where some 600 Afrikan Men were used as hue-mon guinea pigs to study the effects of Syphilis -- why wasn't White Men chosen? Is that Class or Race? When Amerika wants to start wars and bomb kountries, why are White populated kountries never bombed with the same quickness (Kosovo vs. Iraq) -- is that Class or Race? Given the Killer Kop Epidemic across this kountry, which affects majority Afrikans and Latinos, is that Class or Race? My point is, everything on this planet is predicated on RACE first. i could continue with more examples, but i think you get the picture. There are no decision(s) made by the White Power Structure, where RACE is not considered. If RACE was not considered, all ethnic groups would have an equal opportunity of their share of institutionalized terrorism. i also believe the Class Struggle issue is no more than a red herring to keep from dealing with Amerika's greatest problem facing the 21st Century, its "RACE PROBLEM." We have had many of our scholars like W.E.B. DuBois, Carter G. Woodson, Dr. Kenneth Clark & Malcolm X speak about Amerika's Race Problem. Even Bill "Slick Wee Wee" Clinton convened a panel on "Race Relations" in Amerika. The challenge to White-Amerika is to begin to search your hearts and souls & come to grips with Racism. Racism is about power & control, the dominant group imposing its will on those who have no power. Many White-Amerikans believe because you don't call Black people "niggas" & you can talk to us, you're not a racist. i maintain "ALL" White people are racist; you are not born racist, you are taught to be racist. You are born to racist parents, live in a racist society, go to racist schools, look at racist TV, and it's as natural as breathing and this society helps to reinforce this. i'm not saying "ALL" White people owned slaves, what i am saying is that "ALL" White people benefited from slavery then and you benefit from it today. The Prison Industrial Complex is slavery 21st Century style; the kamps are built in rural white areas to build these depressed communities at the expense of Afrikans & other people of kolor. White-Amerika must rise above your racism and challenge the contradictions of your dear kountry and stop getting your bowels in an uproar because someone calls you a racist. Until the Afrikan Holocaust that took place on these shores (which is one of the greatest crimes against huemanity) are dealt with, there can never be a healing in Amerika between the races. Our children deserve a better planet to live, love and grow, and this will only happen when you and i come together in unity. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ AS OLD WAYS WITHER, CLASS UNITY MUST GROW [Editor's note: Nelson Peery is a member of the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo editorial board.] By Nelson Peery We are living in a time of economic and social revolution, resulting in the withering of old classes and class relations and the emergence of new classes and new class relations. It is a time of the dying away of old ideologies and the rise of new ones taking their place. Revolutionaries, understanding the changes in material conditions, must be the trailblazers, the first to discard the old and grasp the new. This cannot be done without understanding the relationship between the objective and subjective factors of the class struggle. Clarity is especially necessary on the relationship between race and class if we are to maintain a revolutionary orientation in the increasingly complex social struggle. Let us start at the beginning. Random House Dictionary describes as objective those "things external to the mind, rather than the thoughts or feelings;" and the subjective as "that existing in the mind, belonging to the thinking subject rather than to the objective of thought; opposed to objective." If we can agree on this, we can understand racism as an ideological or subjective expression of the objective formation of capitalism. In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Turks. Arab and Kurdish forces ruled the center of civilization. There were no races, no Europe and no capitalism. 1492 was perhaps the most important date in the history of the Western world. Spain defeated the Arabs, Columbus bumped into the Western Hemisphere, and the Arabs perfected the refining of sugar and gold rather than land consolidated as the expression of wealth and expediter of trade. Cane culture for the market began in the islands off Africa, utilizing the patriarchal form of slavery that already existed. Patriarchal slavery for the personal comfort of the master began to transform into latifundist slavery and production for a market. The comforts of a master can be satisfied; the demands of the market, never. Slavery in sugar production soon meant a brutal working to death in five to seven years. Growing sugar to trade for gold to buy more slaves to grow more sugar gave birth to the slave trade. This whole gigantic profit-making process slowly gave birth to the capitalist system. Such brutal conquest, savage slavery and complex financial and trade expansion required a stable social, military and political foundation. Just as Christianity was consolidated to fight for the treasures of the Holy Land, the political and racial concept of "Europe" came into existence to carry out this world-transforming effort. As capitalism consolidated, so did the ideologies that sustained it. None was more important in the United States than racism. The United States, along with a few other countries, such as Australia and South Africa, described themselves as "a white man's country." Thus racism was a pernicious, specific form of the nationalism that swept the world astride victorious capitalism. Racism was the subjective, ideological expression of the objective historical process of capitalist development and consolidation. It was not possible to separate racism from the capitalism we have known. It was an indispensable tactic of controlling the working class. Things change and the capitalism we have known is changing. In a short hundred years, production and distribution has grown from local to national to international. The internationalization and automation of production is the objective base for changing the political or subjective relations between the capitalist and the working class. The capitalist no longer needs to bribe a section of the class. International competition between the workers is striking at the base of racism. A new class of part- time, temporary and minimum-wage workers accompanied by an army of destitute, permanently unemployed is expanding. This new class, abandoned by "their" capitalists, have no need for racism. They are open to education for unity, revolution and a communal, cooperative society. Racism will not die simply because its material base is withering. Ideologies take on a life of their own. Simply being against racism is not enough. A new idea must be introduced to take its place. That new idea is the unity of this new class. This unity is possible. Its material base is the growing equality of poverty and a decline of social bribery. Our moment is at hand. We cannot seize it unless we are clear about the epochal changes we are living through, unless we understand our new revolutionary tasks and have the courage to grasp them. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 Justice for Rudy Buchanan, Jr. .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 8. JUSTICE FOR RUDY BUCHANAN, JR. ARIZONA SETTLEMENT CONFIRMS POLICE SHOOTING UNJUSTIFIED By Luis J. Rodriguez PHOENIX--One of the deadliest police forces in the country recently settled an unlawful-death suit following nationwide outrage against the large number of police murders in this growing Arizona metropolis. "[My son] hadn't hurt anybody, but they hunted him down like a dog," said Rudy Buchanan Sr. prior to the multi-million dollar suit being settled out of court in March of this year. Buchanan's son Rudy, 22, was killed in January 1995 by members of the Phoenix Police Department. In the lawsuit, the family contended that Rudy Buchanan Jr. was denied a full life when 13 police officers shot him 33 times following a domestic dispute. Buchanan was alleged to have had a shotgun at the time. He had reportedly stepped out of his home and walked several blocks -- firing three times into vacant lots -- before being cornered by police. According to news accounts, officers shot at Buchanan after he had dropped the weapon. Some of the bullets reportedly hit the bottom of the young man's feet. The family said that Buchanan had been despondent at the time because of the death a few months earlier of his brother Chris, 18, who allegedly was killed by rival gang members. Rudy Buchanan Sr., of Chicano and African American descent, who has been an active member of his community and a youth advocate, fought bravely the official cover-up of Rudy Jr.'s killing, despite losing two sons. For example, a police-review board in mid-1995 exonerated nine of the police officers involved in the shooting and only censured four others. In addition, getting the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to move against the police department proved to be futile when in 1998 they ruled that the case lacked "prosecutive merit" for possible violations of federal civil rights laws. "I will never give up trying to find justice for my boy," Rudy Sr. said soon after he received this news from the federal government. Protests also followed the Phoenix Police Department's use of a choke hold in the 1994 death of a 25-year-old Black double- amputee, Edward Mallet; and the 1996 death of Julio Valerio, 16, who police shot at some twenty-five times. In fact, according to news accounts last year, the Phoenix Police Department shot and killed more people per capita than any other large police force over the prior three years. Even though New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago police killed more people (these cities are seven times, three times, and two times larger, respectively, than Phoenix), the rate of suspects shot dead by police was 2.16 per 100,000 population in Phoenix, 1.89 per 100,000 in Los Angeles, 1.10 per 100,000 in Chicago, and 1.03 per 100,000 in New York City. In addition, the percentage of suspects killed by Phoenix police from 1995-1998 was the highest of any major city in the country. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 To the point .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 9. TO THE POINT JUSTICES STRIKE DOWN WELFARE DISCRIMINATION The U.S. Supreme Court has said that states cannot limit the amount of public aid to new residents from other states in order to save money. Voting 7-2, the justices declared unconstitutional welfare-limit laws in California and a number of other states. Justice John Paul Stevens said for the majority that California's law took away the basic right to travel from state to state. "Citizens of the United States, whether rich or poor, have the right to choose to be citizens of the state wherein they reside," Stevens wrote. " The states, however, do not have any right to select their citizens," he said. Only Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented. Reacting to the ruling, Mark Rosenbaum of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said, "California and other states now can take down their 'Poor People Keep Out' signs.'' The May 17 ruling came on the 45th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision outlawing racial segregation in the United States. RIGOBERTA MENCHU CALLS ON WOMEN TO FIGHT GLOBALIZATION Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala urged women workers to unite against the growing globalization of industry and capital, which she said was destroying societies. "We don't know when it will end," she said. "We don't know where it is headed. ... All we know is that globalization is negative for humankind, negative for women." Menchu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for her struggle for human rights in Guatemala. She spoke on May 18 in a speech to a women's conference of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Rio de Janeiro. Menchu called for a world forum, such as a united labor movement, to look at social issues. "We have to try to reinvent hope for humanity,'' she said. "We want to appropriate globalization to convert it to an instrument for life and human happiness.'' In 1998, UNICEF reported that more than 70 percent of the world's 1.3 billion people in poverty are women and girls. EXHIBIT ENVISIONS SCHOOLS OF THE FUTURE The nation's first exhibit showcasing student TV, programmable robots, online parent-teacher conferences and virtual high schools was opened recently at the National Education Association (NEA) headquarters in Washington. The exhibit was unveiled by National Computer Systems, Inc. (NCS) and 18 other partners led by the NEA, said NCS in a statement in Minneapolis. The 3,000 square foot exhibit was designed by the Ontario Science Center and will host some 10,000 visitors annually who will explore how technology is reshaping the way teachers teach and students learn. "TECH: Making the Grade" will be on display at the NEA building for three years, and new interactive examples will be added during the life of the exhibit. BIOTECH FIRMS CREATING 'SUICIDE SEEDS' FOR AGRICULTURE, SAYS CHARITY The British charity organization Christian Aid has attacked global biotechnology companies such as Monsanto Co., Novartis AG, and AstraZeneca Plc, saying their genetically modified products are irrelevant to ending global hunger and could lead to famine, a press statement said on May 10. The group's charges appeared in an article in Britain's Guardian newspaper, based on a report by Christian Aid. The charity pointed to "suicide seeds'' that contain a gene which makes the next generation of seeds sterile, forcing farmers to buy new seeds every year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a five percent stake in one version of the terminator gene, the Guardian article said. MILLIONAIRE WEALTH TO GROW 50 PERCENT BY 2003 The world's six million people with financial assets above $1 million got richer in 1998 and will get richer still, according to an annual world wealth report released in London on May 17 by Merrill Lynch and Gemini Consulting. The millionaires' wealth grew 12 percent in 1998 to $21.6 trillion, the report said. This collective wealth will grow by 9 percent a year to $32.7 trillion by the end of 2003. The United States and Western Europe accounted for 58 percent of the millionaires' financial assets, the report said. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 YRs: Luis Rodriguez on censorship: .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ YOUNG REVOLUTIONARIES: YR's is your's -- your's to shape and to change and to contribute your revolutionary voices. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 10. LUIS RODRIGUEZ ON CENSORSHIP: NURTURING IDEAS [Editor's note: Most recently, censorship in the United States has inhibited the growth and development of all young revolutionaries seeking to define and crystallize their visions through music, poetry and art. Within the confines of censorship laws, youth are forced to repress their ideas about the injustice rooted within the capitalist system, a system that deprives them and all humans of their right to exercise their creativity. The People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo interviewed Luis Rodriguez, writer, poet and activist, who unveils the truth about censorship laws and offers some solutions for youth to nurture their ideas.] LUIS RODRIGUEZ: The capitalists have to stop certain ideas. They are losing economic ground, political ground; they are losing their old social hold that they had once with the large section of the American people. So, what they have to do is try to stop the ideas that people themselves are beginning to express. These ideas are revolutionary ideas because this is a revolutionary time. And these ideas are beginning to permeate everything. I've been all over the country, and I've seen people grappling with these issues. I see that they are beginning to see a light or another kind of place this world can be. In many ways, I think that this is why they have to censor books; all kinds of books are being taken off of shelves, taken out of libraries, and taken out of schools. It's just something that the capitalists have to do because they know that revolutionary ideas are being conveyed. They are trying to clamp down on microradio stations, anybody that utilizes the airwaves, the printed page, the open mike, anywhere or anything in which ideas are being expressed there are people trying to stop it. We have to defend those forms; we have to fight for them. These ideas are critical for us; they are important. We can't let them be destroyed. PT/TP: Tell us about some of your own experiences outside of the country and the efforts of the youth? LR: Last summer I did some speeches in Italy. I was speaking to a large group of young people, very much into hip-hop music, hip-hop culture, and aerosol art. They had a whole community center there. They had taken over a factory and changed it into a youth community center with a bookstore and a stage. It was just a place where kids could hang out. We recorded one of my poems "Civilization" with an Italian hip-hop artist, Fly Cat. PT/TP: What about here in the U.S.? We understand that you work closely with Rock-A-Mole. LR: In Los Angeles, Rock-A-Mole is kind of a grounds-up music and arts organization, in which young people can do their music, poetry, display their prison art, aerosol art, and video art. We have these festivals that we organize, that are now traveling throughout L.A. We hope that it keeps going because it's kind of like a forum for young people and others to voice what they are going through -- poverty issues, issues of police terror, issues of immigration, and things going on within their communities. They are using art and music to try to express it. My experience is that all these people are responding to the same kind of crisis. The same crisis of capitalism, the same crisis of social factoring that's going on, especially among young people who are becoming abandoned by the economy. They are being abandoned by the social compact that used to put them together. They are gravitating in many ways. Their hip-hop and poetry ends up being a good forum for them to voice what they are going through. I found this everywhere I went. All over Europe young people were doing this. In Latin America, Mexico and El Salvador, the young people were organizing because they are being left homeless, they are being driven out of the industry, they don't got nowhere to go. Housing isn't there for them, their parents are starving and impoverished and so they are beginning to just come together and say: "You know we have a right to be in this world. We have a right to have housing, a right to have a job, we have a right to have food on our table." This kind of thinking is prevailing all national boundaries; all the continents are involved. In Africa, as well as in Asia and Europe and of course the Americas, this is what I find very interesting. The global economy is bringing all of these people together. PT/TP: There's a backlash with your work here in the United States. LR: Well you know, my book "Always Running La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A." has been out for several years now. Young people have gravitated toward it -- teachers and activists, also. But as you know there are a few places in which it is being censored. It happened in Illinois, some places in Michigan, Texas, but most recently in California -- Northern California, San Jose, Santa Rosa and Fremont. They tried to ban my book and there's been an effort in the community to try to stop the banning. Young people, teachers, adults, parents, organizers have come together in San Jose. They were successful to keep it from being totally banned, but in San Diego, unfortunately, people are beginning to ban it. I think they are banning it though because it's a book that really speaks to what young people are going through. It's really against the imprisonment of youth, the criminalization of youth; it's against having a society in which these youth are expendable. They will just put them away and warehouse them rather than just give them the things that they need. So I really believe it's about those ideas they are trying to stop. Everyday we are looking at the growing impoverishment. There's a polarity in this country. A few people are guarding most of the wealth and most of the abundance available in this country. I think what's happening is that young people are, of course, looking at the world and saying, "This is the world I've inherited, a world of dog eat dog and every man for himself," and they want another kind of world. They want a world in which people cooperate. They want a world in which people take care of kids, in which children are valued, in which their dreams can be given some direction, some sense of completion, and they don't see that. So, in many ways, young people are really out there speaking about some of these things that some of the adults have just kind of accepted. I think they are sparking, even within us, a need for us to speak out for these things. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO Greetings to the Youth Column Committee! I'm Cristian Farez, a young man and recent student of the ideas of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. I discovered the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo through my father, a long-time fighter and, of course, revolutionary. I would like to make a contribution to the "call" that you all put out, a call that is from our common history, to confront the monster that wants to devour us with its capitalism and its philosophy of individualism. I hope that this will help contribute to and expand the Youth Column. This poem is dedicated to the thinker behind the greatest project of humanity and of "new man," to Ernesto "Che" Guevara. -- Cristian Farez, Cuenca, Ecuador To read the poem (in Spanish), visit http://www.lrna.org +----------------------------------------------------------------+ .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 Preparation for legal murder .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 11. PREPARATION FOR LEGAL MURDER: THE IRONY OF IT ALL By Rudy Rosales Huitziloxipe Editor's note: This month we will publish part two of the journal entries from Nebraska State Maximum Security Penitentiary prisoner Rudy Rosales Huitziloxipe. He was in the prison hospital in January 1999 when Randolph Reeves, 42, an Omaha Native American, was being prepared for the electric chair. Reeves was sentenced to die for the 1980 murders of Victoria Lamm and Janet Mesner at a Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) meeting house in Lincoln. The Nebraska Supreme Court granted a reprieve shortly before his scheduled execution on January 14 in order to consider legal arguments on appeal. A new execution date could be set if the court rejects the arguments, or it could commute the sentence to life in prison if the appeal is upheld. Saturday January 9, 1999, Nebraska State Penitentiary Hospital As a rule, when a person murders someone they try to do it with no witnesses. It's a covert, clandestine type of operation. Here in the state of Nebraska, hired henchmen on the State's death squad want to be as discreet as possible. Who are they kidding? It's as if the roles of criminal and law enforcement have now been reversed. How do you justify any kind of systematic execution and conclude that it is the humane thing to do, as if it will act as a deterrent? It is still murder, and these hired henchmen and women (i.e. corrections officers and prison administrators) are now guilty of aiding and abetting in a murder -- a conspiracy to murder -- and they are enjoying this. I am one of four prisoners in a hospital where all of the activities are taking place for the execution/murder of Randolph Reeves. Now the prison officials have two high-ranking prison security personnel actually posted in front of prison hospital room number seven where Randy Reeves is spending his final days. The rooms/cells have a glass window, so Randy will not receive any privacy [at] all in his final days. There will be a sergeant and a case worker (who is also security staff with the rank of sergeant or lieutenant) posted in front of Randy's appointed room. They brought desks and chairs so they can leer into his room and monitor his every move. I could only imagine how he must feel. How demeaning to be monitored 24 hours a day until the final hours of his demise. Randy is faced with total degradation. During these hours a person should be left alone to pray, reflect, perhaps cry, laugh or ponder forgiveness. These things that Randy is being subjected to right now will never be written in the local or national newspapers, or any other media reports. For over a week the prison officials cleared that side of the hospital and the "death squad" prison staff went through their routines. I could hear various high-ranking prison officials and guards jest and make horrific remarks. One prison administrator was speaking to a captain and remarked: "I wonder if Randy will ask for fried bread for his last meal. Fried bread for the fried Indian. How fitting." I also heard several officers remark: "They should just hang him like they do in Washington State. It will save our electric bill and it will also cut the risks of a mass power surge. He's just a damn mudman anyway!" There has been much laughing going on when they were going through the death squad drills and routines. I heard two members of the death squad actually argue as to who was to be the one to play the role of the condemned prisoner (indicating Randy) and get to be strapped down in the chair during one of the drills. I have also heard some white staff say that this is one of the perks of working in the Nebraska State Penitentiary because they can sign up for death-watch duties and have a pass to kill "niggers," "wetbacks," and "mud people" (Native Americans). I have to point out that not all of the prison staff partake in these antics. Many are somber, yet not one verbally objects to this behavior by their coworkers. At times, it is their superiors who make these remarks and partake in these activities. My goal in writing this is to reveal the truth of what goes on behind the scenes (of an execution), what the attitudes are of the people in charge, and how this reflects our society today. There are many ironies here in the preparation of the execution of Randolph Reeves. There have been many factors involved on this case such as mass local-media coverage; vigils by death penalty opponents; [the] victims' family members coming out to share their views of opposing this execution; last minute legal motions; hearings being sought by Randy's attorney (who has been gallant in her efforts); and local clergy proposing legislation to ban the death penalty. [The] victims' family members have asked newly appointed Governor Mike Johanns, just fifty minutes after his swearing-in, if Randy's life is to be spared; the Governor denied this request. The Nebraska State Legislature has convened; one of the new bills being introduced (which is the biggest irony of all) is by the state's most outspoken death-penalty opponent, African American Omaha Senator Ernie Chambers [who] has proposed abolishing executions. His LB16 [proposal] was introduced one week before Randolph Reeves was scheduled to be executed. Even if the bill had overwhelming support, there is not enough time for it to become a law [in order] to prevent Reeve's execution/murder. Just on these facts alone, the scheduled date for Reeve's execution/murder should be delayed, but the state's government is obviously in haste to execute Randy. Much can be done besides vigils by organizations who oppose the death penalty. These organizers should attempt to become involved with the existing 1,200 prisoners in the Nebraska State Penitentiary and encourage and support them in work and hunger strikes. This prison would feel dire [economic] effects if all the inmates stopped [working]. [With] peacefully organized work and hunger strikes, the prison could not survive ninety days. This should have been done months ago. There are only four prisoners that I know of who are "bucking" the system (I being one). I have sent out information to the local death-penalty opponents here in Nebraska and offered to give the names of the state's correction-staff members who are on the death squad. [This is] so that they can print large posters with their [prison staff] names on them stating that they are conspirators to the murder of Randolph Reeves when they come out to protest the execution. This also zeros in on the ones who are actually going to strap Randy in and pull the switches! .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 University honors profit over humanity .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 12. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: UNIVERSITY HONORS PROFIT OVER HUMANITY By Jim Keady In July 1997, I began as an assistant coach of the men's soccer team at St. John's University. It was a coaching dream. I had joined the staff of one of the hottest college-soccer programs of the '90s, fresh off their 1996 NCAA Division I National Championship. Along with my coaching, I began pursuing a master's degree in theology. In one of my classes, I was working on a paper that was examining Nike's labor practices in light of moral theology. At the same time, St. John's University was negotiating a multimillion dollar contract with the Nike Corporation that would supply equipment and funding to all of the university's athletic teams. I took serious issue with this impending deal. I had done months of research that led me to conclude the following: First, that Nike Corporation has been one of the grossest violators of workers' rights. Second, that by St. John's being in a contract with this corporation, we are an indirect enabler of Nike's injustices; that we are in violation of the mission of the university and of the social-justice implications of the Gospel. Therefore, I asserted that, as a Catholic university, we should neither be benefiting from Nike, nor be a marketing agent for it. I personally did not want to be a billboard for a company whose business practices are unethical and promote injustice. Knowing that this issue was of crucial importance, I decided that it must be pursued in the public realm. When I first began this, it was only as a research paper. I had no idea of the incredible journey on which it would lead me. What started as a simple research paper hoping to link moral theology and sport, turned into a hard-life lesson in big-money power and politics. The issue, whether or not St. John's should be in a relationship with Nike, went public in the student newspaper on February 22, 1998. From that day, it became -- and still is -- one of the most hotly debated topics in the school's recent history. News of this spread from our small campus in Queens and news stories and editorials on this issue have appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and most recently the story has been syndicated nationally by The Associated Press. By pursuing this publicly, my actions would cost me. In mid-May of 1998, I was given an ultimatum by university officials: Wear Nike and drop the issue, or resign. I was deeply troubled by this. I knew from my research that Nike had not significantly addressed the issues of wages or the workers' right to organize. Therefore, I decided the issue could not be dropped. The dialogue must continue. The university must be publicly pressured to reconcile how we can remain in this contract and stay committed to our mission and the social-justice implications of the Gospel. All of this lay heavy on my conscience. I was a coach for one of the most successful college soccer programs of the 1990s. I truly felt in the coming year, with the team we had returning, that I would be able to realize the dream as a coach that I did not realize myself as a player: to win an NCAA championship. Now I was faced with the challenge of putting this dream on the line. I couldn't believe that I was being forced to make this decision. I believed then, and still believe now, that I was following the true spirit of the mission of university and the Gospel by making this a public issue. I had no idea what consequences these actions would hold. I simply could not allow myself to sit back while our Catholic university was benefiting from profits made on the backs of the poor. Now was the time to decide how committed I was to the cause. The decision was laid before me. Show your allegiance to a company that violates basic human and workers' rights or show your allegiance to the pursuit of social justice. I wish I could say the choice was easy. Thanks to God, through prayer and reflection, the truth pierced through to my heart of hearts and I knew what had to be done. I resigned. Through my resignation I stand here with you today in solidarity. There is something dishonest going on here. Phil Knight is one of the richest men in America, while workers in his Southeast Asian factories scrape by on starvation wages. There is a disparity evident here that cannot be ignored. There is a theme of exploitation that permeates the entirety of the Nike Corporation. It begins in production, with the exploitation of the workers. It extends to promotion, where high schools, colleges and communities are colonized by the Nike marketing machine. From here, it moves to the personal level, which I took issue with, as athletes and coaches -- either by choice or by force -- are turned into walking billboards. Finally it reaches you, the consumer, who are charged exorbitant prices for shoes that on average cost $16 to produce. Together we stand in protest of this exploitation. We stand in solidarity against the injustices that oppress worker, athlete and consumer. This issue is so crucial. There are two extremes diametrically opposed to each other here. First is the adherence to the ironbound law of capitalism, which states that ever-increasing profit is to be achieved no matter what the costs to humanity or nature. In contrast to this is the law of humanity, which espouses that nothing -- no profit, no product and particularly no sneaker -- is worth more than the dignity of the human person. To paraphrase sentiments of Mahatma Gandhi which seem to echo truth here, Nike is at the crossroads. They now have to make their choice between the law of the jungle and the law of humanity. Just do it! [Jim Keady is available to speak through Speakers for a New America. Call 773-486-3551 or e-mail speakers@noc.org] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ON A MOUNTAINTOP By Ann Turner I'm standing on top of a mountain. I look down, gosh it's high. I'm really afraid of heights. But I look down anyway. I have an urge to look down. I see many, many people. I see people I know personally. Then I see Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mohammed, Moses. I can't believe this. Oh, it's only a dream. I pinch myself. No, it's not a dream. That hurt. I scream: "Please, God, please. I don't want to live another moment. I can't take it any longer." Then I hear voices. Dr. King and everyone are saying to hold on. "The pain you feel is the pain of the world. You feel the pain of the earth: the homeless, the hungry, the children. No one listens. But you do. You know the pain of the hurting child. Through you, people will hear of the pain, being afraid. You need to keep telling everyone. Only a few of us have been called. When you cry, it's the cry of all people. You cry a stream, a river, an ocean." A crackle is heard from the sky. I look up. The white cotton clouds separate. The blue sky is so, so blue. A voice is heard. "My daughter, you are a tool being used to help spread the word of pain. You are sensitive. The pain is real." Then I reply: "But please listen. It's too much. I can't take it any longer. The pain is too strong. It's all the time. I can't think or remember anything. My heart is bad." Then I hear the voice say: "Go forward, my child. You are on a long journey. It will end soon. Remember, a man was put on a cross. His pain was bad. But look, what he has now. So go forward. Tell people of the pain. Go forward, my child. Your pain will end soon." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 People's Tribune Radio .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 13. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE RADIO +----------------------------------------------------------------+ People's Tribune Radio (PTR) is the new monthly news and analysis program produced by the League of Revolutionaries for a New America Radio Committee. June People's Tribune Radio features an interview with Professor Noam Chomsky on how the government manipulates the governed. Laura Garcia of the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo analyzes the Colorado school shootings. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "We are very appreciative of receiving the tapes and have joined it with other alternative media information in our programming. It's a perfect fit." -- Jessica Mills, Radio Free Gainesville 94.7 FM Please continue sending me shows. I'll keep them on the air. -- Joe Ptak, KIND Radio 105.9 and 103.9 FM, San Marcos, Texas "Very good material. I aired Steve Teixiera on Chiapas and the Los Angeles Rebellion." -- Norm Richmond, CKLN 88.1 FM, Toronto "WMNF is a community radio station in constant search for voices who rarely if ever get heard. We are committed to being the people's radio station and People's Tribune Radio helps us fulfill our mission which is to give voice to the voiceless." -- Mabili Ajani Shelby,WMNF 88.5 FM, Tampa, Florida "I heard People's Tribune Radio, 'Issues of the Family' on my Community station KMUD in Garberville. I want to thank you for being there. I greatly appreciate that People's Tribune Radio is proposing Socialist, radical alternatives, because we need them. I'm a single mother, disabled, with six children. I'm fighting tooth and nail to keep my home and I'm in low-cost housing. They say I'm $7,000 in arrears. Every month, my rent goes up $400. I'm going on eight months without water. I'm not paying my house payment until my house is brought up to standards. I heard there is a Kensington Welfare Rights Union that is collecting stories of people suffering because of welfare cuts. I want the documentation forms. I hope they are going to sue the Department of Social Services and the Federal Government for the hardships and heartaches they are causing families. We need a whole redistribution of wealth in this country. People are fighting and I'm one of them. If more of us go on rent strikes, we can reverse the economic distribution in this country. I'm tired of paying landlords. We need to take back our power." -- Randi Dalton, Laytonville, California +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The following stations, among others, air the People's Tribune Radio program: KMUD 88.9 FM, Garberville, California KVMR 89.5, 99.3, 103.7 FM, Nevada City-Auburn-Sacramento, California CKLN 88.1 FM, Toronto, Canada WRFG 89.3 FM, Atlanta, Georgia WFLR 89.7 FM, Howell, Michigan Radio Free Gainesville (Florida) 94.7 FM WSPE 88.3 FM, Boonesville, Kentucky Radio Free West Town 101.5 FM, Chicago Kansas City (Missouri) Black Liberation Radio, 91.1 FM WMNF Radio 88.5 FM, Tampa, Florida Montrose Radio 94.9 FM, Houston KIND Radio 103.9 and 105.9 FM, San Marcos, Texas CFRO 102.7 FM, Vancouver (British Columbia) Cooperative Radio WZBC 90.3 FM, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts WZRD 88.3, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago Free Seattle Radio Radio Free Brattleboro (Vermont) San Francisco Liberation Radio [If you would like a copy of PTR to take to your community station, call 1-800-691-6888 or e-mail speakers@noc.org. PTR is distributed free to radio stations. Send ideas for programs to the producer, Mike Thornton at flr@jps.net.] .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 06-99 Join with others .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 14. 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! Call us at 800-691-6888 or write to LRNA, P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ I want to join the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. ___ Send me a bundle of 5__10__25__50__100__ People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo to get out in my city. (Bundles are only 15 cents per copy) ___ 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. I want to subscribe to the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo. ___ Please send me a one-year individual subscription. My check or money order for $20 is enclosed. ___ Please send me a one-year institution subscription. My check or money order for $25 is enclosed. Name Address City/State/Zip Phone E-mail +----------------------------------------------------------------+ .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.mcs.com/~league Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ******************************************************************