People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (02-00) Online Edition .TOPIC 02-00 PT Index .TEXT .BODY ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000 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 +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000 Editorial 1. THE END OF WORK IS POSSIBLE -- LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN News and Features 2. NO ON PROPOSITION 21: NURTURE OUR YOUTH; DON'T DEMONIZE THEM 3. INTERVIEW WITH NELSON PEERY: THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE FOR UNITY 4. POLITICAL REPORT OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE 5. WHO WILL CLAIM THE POWER OF LOVE? 6. AMERICA NEEDS A NEW WAY OF LIVING Spirit of the Revolution 7. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: JUN YASUDA: MARCHER TO A DIFFERENT DRUM Announcements, Events, etc. 8. MISCELLANY [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 02-00 Edit: The end of work is possible .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: THE END OF WORK IS POSSIBLE -- LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN "Work" is a simple enough word, something we all know about whether we like it or not. Our long days and long nights and two to three part-time jobs keep a roof over our heads and feed us and our loved ones, sometimes just enough so that we can make it through the next day of work. Still, other folks work to pay off their cars, their houses, their stereos, and their televisions. The "American Dream" of a nice life, full of nice things, is more like a nightmare, whether you're struggling to "make it" or whether you supposedly already have. Most Americans are deep in debt, and trying to work their way out, at the expense of their children, family, friends, and themselves. I see people out on the "L" stops of Chicago trying to get to work at 3 in the morning, at noon, at 10 o'clock at night, every day of the week. There is no "workday" or "workweek" -- every hour and every minute seems like it is just empty time when you could be, should be, working. Have you noticed how rush-hour is all day long? One time, when I was stuck in "rush-hour traffic" at 2 in the afternoon, I heard a discussion on the radio about the American "standard of living" and "quality of life." Then I looked to my left and the man in the car next to me was falling asleep at the wheel, while the woman on my right was about to bust into road rage, probably because she was late for work. What kind of quality of life is this? Seems like the very thing that is supposed to nourish our lives is killing us. A lot of us don't have a choice in the matter, it's not like we sit around saying, "Oh yes, I want to work at K-mart or Jewel, all day and all night, this is my dream in life." But on another level, we do want those jobs, because we want a better life and we desire to provide for the people we love, and live in a world where everyone "makes it." The problem is, in spite of what the TV and our bosses tell us, working harder and longer doesn't bring us any closer to our aspirations for a better life. And, what's more, what is a "better life"? What does it mean to "make it"? Are we working and selling our lives away for lower and lower real wages? There is so much more to being alive, so much more to being human. Our lives are not just empty spaces to be filled with meaningless work for a paycheck. Life is about creating, and dancing and singing. Life is about time with children, guiding them and learning from them as they grow. Life is about listening to the stories of older generations. The innumerable contributions we can all make to society can't be measured by the clock or the paycheck. Humanity does not fit within the confines of a workaholic capitalist society. And, yes, it is a question of society. Isolated, lonely and working nonstop, we often lose perspective, and forget that we are all in this thing together. Our lives and struggles are connected to each other and to the economic and political system. We have finally reached the point as a society where due to technological developments we don't have to work just to survive. The end of work as we know it is possible and the only path to the real "American Dream" is a revolutionary change in the organization of our economy. After all, what is the use of all these "technological advancements" if they aren't being used to advance the cause of humanity and to better each and every one of our lives? It is high time we call capitalism's bluff and fight for a truly free and humane world! .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 02-00 No on Proposition 21: .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 2. NO ON PROPOSITION 21: NURTURE OUR YOUTH; DON'T DEMONIZE THEM By the Los Angeles Area Office of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America "The foundation must be the powerful and elemental idea that we save our communities by saving our youth." - Luis Rodriguez, author of "Always Running." "We have the science and technology to provide an amazing life for our children, to develop all of them into wonderful human beings. Why do we abandon them?" - Maria Martinez, mother of two young boys. Twenty years ago, California led the nation in its commitment to quality public education. Now California leads in punitive legislation and prisons, with one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world (685 of 100,000). The deceptively titled Juvenile Justice and Gang Prevention Initiative, on the California ballot in March 2000 as Proposition 21, gives prosecutors and police almost unlimited punitive power and will markedly increase the number of young people in prison. If this Proposition passes, 14-year-olds will be tried as adults, subject to the death penalty, and sent to adult prisons. It would also eradicate due process for juveniles, weaken confidentiality rules, extend the three-strikes law, and grossly expand wiretapping rights for the police. Proposition 21 requires that a youngster be tried in adult court if the prosecutor merely CHARGES the youngster with certain crimes. Prosecutors rely on the police to determine the charges. As the Los Angeles Times recently noted, "[B]ecause of a popular anti-crime crackdown in California that has lasted more than 15 years, prosecutors more than ever run the state's criminal courts." This power is exercised selectively, along class lines. The sons and daughters of the wealthy caught shoplifting, snorting cocaine, or writing bad checks don't end up in prison, but youth from poor and working-class families are now serving 25 years-to-life under the three-strikes law for crimes such as stealing a pair of jeans or possession of marijuana. Prison is for people without wealth and property. In 1995, 45 percent of California prison inmates were unemployed when arrested. Most of the other 55 percent reported incomes of less than $10,000. The class bias of the proposition is further shown in its targeting of gangs. Wealthy youth who hang out together belong to "clubs." Poor and working-class youth who hang out together belong to "gangs." "Street gang" and "gangster" have become code words for all inner-city youth, predominately black and Latino, whether they actually belong to a gang or not. This proposition defines gang membership very loosely, allowing police and prosecutors greater freedom to label someone a gang member, and thus subject him or her to enhanced penalties, and newly defined crimes of gang recruiting and felony conspiracy for participation in a gang. THE BATTLE FOR HEARTS AND MINDS The campaign for and against Proposition 21 is part of a huge struggle being waged for the hearts and minds of the people of California. Do we love and nurture our youth, or do we demonize them? The California voters who passed bond after bond to support the highest quality public education are no different from or better than today's voters who pass every "anti-crime" proposition presented to them. What has changed is the economy. California was nationally respected for its system of education when it was preparing its youth for participation in a booming industrial economy, which required well-trained and capable workers and managers. In the past 25 years, the economy has been undergoing revolutionary changes. Computerized production and robotics are replacing workers, and young people for the most part face an uncertain future in the workforce. Many can expect permanent unemployment, or temporary and part-time work with little hope of earning enough to raise a family. The polarity between wealth and poverty is increasing. In 1997, 2.7 million American children lived in extreme poverty in families with incomes below one-half the poverty line, an increase of 426,000 from the previous year, according to the Children's Defense Fund. This polarity creates an explosive situation. Our young people see the problems of society, question the old answers, and seek new solutions. They are in the forefront of the struggle for a new society. The backers of this proposition probably know that juvenile-crime rates have been declining and are at the lowest level since 1987, but as part of the ruling-class strategy to maintain control, they have helped create and are riding the wave of a huge media campaign to portray permanently unemployed and underemployed youngsters as predatory gangsters and criminals. "Gangs and juvenile crime plague California, killing innocent adults, threatening children and intimidating communities," a "fact sheet" issued by the proposition's supporters proclaims. The propaganda war vilifying and attacking our youth, and the wave of draconian anti-crime legislation that sustains and justifies the power of the police to exercise "street justice," is the ruling class's way of attempting to divide us and derail an inevitable struggle for power. A society that attacks its youth attacks its future. We celebrate what our rulers fear. We celebrate our youth and our future. For the first time in the history of mankind, the revolution in technology has created the means to produce abundance without backbreaking labor. We can feed, clothe and house everyone if goods are distributed according to need rather than ability to pay. No child will cry from hunger. No parent will fear for the well-being of his or her sons and daughters. Everyone's full creative and productive potential will flower. Revolution in the economy makes revolution in society inevitable. The existing society is self-destructing. The attack on our youth and the growth of a police state is proof of this. As a people, we have a choice to make. Our society can either move to a police state that upholds repression and enforces suffering, or it can move forward to a new stage of human development -- a cooperative society that cherishes and nurtures the lives of all. We call on the people of California to embrace this vision of a cooperative society for the sake of the children, for the sake of the future of society. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 02-00 Interview with Nelson Peery .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 3. Interview with Nelson Peery: The American people are for unity [Editor's note: In celebration of African American History Month 2000, Laura Garcia from the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo interviewed Nelson Peery, author of "Black Fire" and co-author of "Moving Onward."] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Nelson, you stated in your recent interview with Channel 5 (in Chicago) that the American people are not racist. Can you talk to us about this? NELSON PEERY: First of all, the very idea that a whole people have got the same idea, that in itself is racism. That's ridiculous. How can a whole mass of people -- about 260 million -- all have the same idea? They are from various classes, various backgrounds, various religions. And yet, we come up with the idea that they all have the same idea? That in itself is racism. I want to approach the question of racism from a different point of view. There's a lot of different definitions of racism out here that conform to whatever political, ideological ideas [or] to whatever point of view people want to put forth. To me to be a racist is to take a conscious position, to think something out and come to the conclusion that I'm better than that person because my eyes are blue, or I'm better than that person because my skin is this color, or because I came from this country and so forth. It's only after taking such a position that a person becomes a racist. Now, I don't want to be misunderstood. When you speak against the way this question is being handled, you're immediately accused of covering over the problem. Well there's a serious problem of racism in America. There's plenty of racism and there's plenty of racists. But to identify the American people with this violent and dangerous minority, it is wrong. Our purpose is to win the American people to an active position, that is to say, win them over to an active, thought-out class position. The way to achieve it is not to identify them with the worst criminal elements in their midst. The other part I want to say in regard to the African Americans: Like the [Negro National] anthem [or "Lift Every Voice and Sing"] says, "stony the road we've trod." Well, along that road there were whites marching with the blacks, every step of the way. Over every stone, there were whites with us. From John Brown to Viola Liuzzo, who was killed by the Klan in Selma, Alabama in 1965 during the voting-rights struggle. But we hear less and less of people who sacrificed their lives, who went to prison, who stood their ground, alongside their brothers and sisters. We hear less and less of them and more and more of the vicious, murderous, fascist white supremacists and racists in our midst. PT: Why do you think that happens? NP: There are a number of reasons, but the main reason is that the people that are both, the racists and the anti-racists, they have a common ground, and that common ground is that they have to keep this thing going. They don't want to solve it, because they just want to keep saying, "racism, racism, racism" without any program on how to solve it. Because the struggle against racism and the struggle for racism today in America is a very profitable, very lucrative industry. So they keep it going. If we were to publicize the daily acts of friendship and equality that whites and blacks participate in, to publicize the good things as much as they publicize the bad things, this would be an entirely different fight. But they don't want to do that, because they don't want to solve the problem. Because they get good money. Because their fortune is in carrying out but never ending the struggle against racism. Another point that I want to bring up that is kind of helpful to get a balance on this whole question is to look at other forms of racism that have dominated history in my lifetime. I'm 76 years old, so I'm talking about that period of time of the rise of fascism. If we look carefully, we'll see that inner-color racism, i.e. racism among the whites, racism among the Asians, racism among the blacks, has been much more deadly than racism between black and white. For example, Hitler's racist war against the Slavic people, the butchering of 30, 40 million human beings in a period of six years. His savage racist war against the Jews. The other example is the racist wars that were carried out by the Japanese against all the other Asian peoples. The war of the Japanese against the Chinese was an outright racist war. They declared themselves superior to the Chinese. The Chinese had no rights that they had to respect and they went in and slaughtered them like animals. So racism in my lifetime hasn't been just between blacks and whites; inner-color racism has killed more people than inter-color racism. And people don't even think about it. We can't also exclude the slaughter that's going on in Africa between such groups as the Hutus and Tutsis. PT: What are the roots of racism in America? NP: This is the point that we're leading up to. When we see that racism continues in different forms, in different historical epochs, then I think we need to look further and ask ourselves, what is it, what's behind it, what gives it its strength, its life? I think we have to agree that it's the capitalist system itself. Then if we say that racism is an integral part of the capitalist system, then you're not going to get rid of racism without getting rid of the capitalist system. Then we have the problem that the leaders of the racist camp and the leaders of the anti-racist camp are both multimillionaires. They have a great stake in the system. And they're not about to rock this boat. What they want to do is keep baiting people with "racism" and not make any effort to solve it because solving it will do away with their money. So they have no interest in solving it. PT: As revolutionaries how do we fight against racism? NP: We have to conduct this war against racism like we conduct any war, and the first thing is knowing who your enemy is. Let's take World War II for example. If the Allies identified as their enemy the German, the Italian and the Japanese people, we would still be fighting. They identified as their enemy this little clique that wanted to control the state in Germany, Italy and Japan. They identified clearly who their enemies were and made an effort to some degree to win over everyone else to their side. So, the first thing is to identify your enemy; the second thing is to do everything possible to isolate that enemy to the extreme and organize the maximum force. So, let's look at it. Our enemy isn't white people, because we've shown that inter-white racism is as violent as racism between blacks and whites. The problem is the system. So, we've identified the system and not the people as the problem. Our next step is to go after that system. We then show the identity of interest between the whites and the blacks in the same economic category. This way, there'll be a basis for them to come together and stick together to organize the maximum number of people against the system. You see, the false idea that the American people are racist -- i.e. they have taken a conscious position -- is planted to prevent the maximum amount of force to organize against capitalism and, therefore, against racism. This is intentional. This is not happening accidentally. Because as long as the people can identify the problem as "white people" and "black people," there's no way to resolve it. PT: Do the conditions exist today to do away with racism? NP: As the continuation of capitalism is called into question by this development of computerized, electronic production, that means that in order to survive, the workers are constantly going to fight for unity. One of the things you're faced with, in periods of transition such as the one we're getting into now, is that you can unconsciously or subconsciously be thrown into disunity or even into racism. But you can't be thrown unconsciously or subconsciously into unity. The support for unity is a conscious thing. So, we have to understand that the fight for unity depends on education of the masses of people which demands an organization that is dedicated to doing this. It'll take an organization of revolutionaries to bring this kind of consciousness to the American people. But the point of it is that as long as capitalism was stable, expanding, dominant, the war against racism could be fought -- and it had to be fought -- but it couldn't be won. Now we have a situation in which not only does it have to be fought, but it can be won. To win this war, the first thing we need to do is identify the enemy, isolate that enemy, then mobilize the maximum force to attack it. And then we'll overcome this thing. Because the destruction of capitalism and the destruction of racism will be simultaneous. [To join the fight for unity today, write to the League of Revolutionaries for a New America at Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647, visit our Web site at www.lrna.org or call the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau at 800-691-6888] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ NOW IN PAPERBACK: Moving Onward: From Racial Division to Class Unity By Brooke V. Heagerty and Nelson Peery Send $5.95 plus $3 postage to People's Tribune Speakers Bureau, Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654-3524 or call 800-691-6888 +----------------------------------------------------------------+ African American History Month Speakers February 2000 African American History is America's History TOPICS AND DISCUSSION POINTS: * The American People are Not Racist: Why Class Unity and a New Cooperative America is possible. * How do we move from Racial Division to Class unity? * History of the struggle against the Ku Klux Klan * How racism evolved as a special product of the capitalist era and been used ever since to divide workers. * Campaign for Economic Human Rights: Why the Poor represent hope for a totally new world * African American Liberation: Why Class Unity is the Next Step Forward. Why the African American Bourgeoisie is the worst enemy of the African American people SPEAKERS: * Ethel Long-Scott -- Director Women's Economic Agenda Project * Brooke Heagerty -- co-author, "Moving Onward From Racial Division to Class Unity" * Bob Zellner -- son and grandson of KKK members. Beaten by lynch mob in Mississippi for his civil rights work in the 1960s. * Nelson Peery -- author, "Black Fire: The Making on an American Revolutionary." * General Baker -- nationally and international known labor leader. First to refuse Vietnam draft and leader of Detroit's wildcat strikes by autoworkers in the 1960s. * Cheri Honkala & Galen Tyler -- leaders of the Economic Human Rights Campaign * Brenda Mathews -- award-winning poet, actress and playwright about teen poverty [Call 1-800-691-6888, e-mail speakers@noc.org or visit our web site at http://www.mcs.net/~speakers/ for a complete listing of speakers.] .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 02-00 Political Report of the Steering Committee .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 4. POLITICAL REPORT OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE Shift from struggles based on color to a struggle based on class [Editor's note: The following is excerpted from the political report adopted by the League of Revolutionaries for a New America Steering Committee at its November 1999 meeting. The full text is available at http://www.lrna.org/texts/polrep.9911.html] "If every American thought about class instead of race for only five minutes a day, some revolutionary things might happen." -- Jim Goad, "The Redneck Manifesto." The struggle emerging today in the U.S. is qualitatively different from the struggles of the previous period. We are witnessing the shift from struggles based on color to a struggle based on class. This struggle is expressed as the fight for the program of the new class, but that program must be taken to all sectors of society. During the 1920s and 1930s the central expression of the struggle in the U.S. was the fight for industrial unions. Capitalism at that time needed a stable, organized industrial workforce in order to develop further. This struggle was not only in the interest of a large section of the working class, but also was in the interest of a section of the capitalist class. The fight for industrial unions was a major, "structural" reform, which was necessary in order for capitalism to continue expanding. Reform struggles are necessary to restructure or reform the class relationships under capitalism, but do not eliminate those relationships. The result is a strengthening, a period of resurgence, of the capitalist system. In the post-World War II period, the stage of development of capitalism demanded that the central expression of the struggle was the national-liberation struggle, the struggle against direct colonialism and for a national state. This "structural" reform was necessary for capitalism to penetrate the backward areas of the world being held back by direct colonial rule. This struggle was in the interests of both the oppressed colonial masses, and also the most advanced sections of the capitalist class (usually the U.S. imperialists). The central expression in the U.S. during [the post-World War II] period was the struggle for equality for African Americans. This struggle conditioned every development in the U.S. from the mid- 1940s to the end of the 1960s. In the wake of this struggle came the various social movements of the different national minorities for equality, the women's movement, and many others. All these struggles took place when capitalism was expanding, and the goals of these struggles were to fully participate in the capitalist system without discrimination. With the application of electronic technology to production and the consequent driving of the value of labor power toward zero, the conditions that are the environment for the class struggle have qualitatively changed. The possibility of a leap to a communist economic system, distribution according to need, is now possible, and necessary. It is critical for revolutionaries to grasp the difference between the kind of struggles that are necessary to move capitalism from one quantitative stage to the next, fighting for and winning reforms, and those struggles that are necessary to move from one quality, capitalism, to another quality, communism. [Today] our fight is for the unity of the new class. Only a class struggle that rallies society around the program of the dispossessed -- the destruction of capitalism and the creation of a society based on material abundance, cooperation and cultural development -- can move history forward. THE NEW CLASS We have often pointed to the computer and all it makes possible as the driving force behind this change. Here, we want to look at the impact of computers on the productive relations and class structure of capitalism. All development is by quantitative stages. Quantitative development leaps to qualitative changes with the quantitative introduction of a new quality. The new quantitative development is intently connected to the old quality and grows from it. Production without labor [electronics] is closely connected to the effort to produce with the minimum of labor. Each step in the process had a devastating effect on the working class. The period especially from the middle 1960s through the 1980s was more than an era of the sweetheart contract. Labor was on the defensive and more vulnerable than ever. As automation invaded the work place, to that degree a new sector of the working class emerged. This sector became known as the permanently unemployed to distinguish it from the reserve army of the unemployed, which was in and out of industry as the battle for production ebbed and flowed. Developing automation and a growing mass of unemployed had a destructive effect on the wage scales of the employed. On the one hand robotics drove the value of labor power to near zero in most industries, on the other the competition with the unemployed made it nearly impossible for the workers to "fight back." A new class of proletarians is consolidating. This new class is comprised of various sectors created by automation. At one pole are the those permanently working at minimum wages or below. They are connected to a new sector of part-time and temporary workers that soon constituted 30 percent of the work force. At the other pole of this mass generated by automation are the homeless. There has never been this percentage of people homeless in America. Even during the Great Depression, millions were away from home looking for work, but they were not homeless in the sense of homelessness today. Existing by gathering scrap metal and shaping up at day labor offices, this sector is the most visible expression of the new class formed by the introduction of automation. It is this sector that most clearly projects the revolutionary demand for a change in the mode of distribution. The entire new class must be politicized and organized around the demands of this sector. The contradiction is that, while the destitute create the political demands of the class, they have no way of expressing or fighting for them. This is the task of the employed sector. It took some time for the industrial workers in the big shops to establish their leadership of the mass of industrial workers. Again it may take some time, but this sector of the new class must become the leaders of the mass of poor. It is not possible that this class can emerge fully formed or formed any faster than the expansion of automation. Most people see social flotsam rather than the elements of a new class. This was also true at the early stages of industrial capitalism. Engels was the first to see this mass he called a proletariat as a new class rather than social flotsam. On the other hand, [we cannot expect] this emerging class to respond to its social situation as if it is mature. We are barely at the end of the beginning of this process, and it will take a long time and a series of economic and political crises before it steps onto the stage as a full-blown social force. In the mean time the LRNA must do what is necessary to help form the political polarity within this class. It must take the communistic program of the new class outward and challenge society as to the morality of such destitution in the midst of plenty. At this point, it is not so much the actual political and social motion of the new class, as its objective program that we must grasp in order to not only politicize the class but to build the LRNA from revolutionary elements who are not in that new class. WHITE SKIN PRIVILEGE Part of our difficulty in understanding the new class and the process of its formation lies in the holdover of past ideologies. The concept of "white skin privilege," popularized by the left of the 1960s, is one of these. It grew out of the struggles of the time, struggles that were dominated by the national-liberation movements around the world and the rise of social movements attached to them here in the U.S. "White skin privilege" means that whites, regardless of their class, share equal privilege due to the color of their skin. In particular, this concept was used at the time to buttress the notion that white workers were the bastion of reaction and fascism. Conversely, it was used to argue that the various socially oppressed groups (particularly people of color regardless of their class) would be the vehicles of revolutionary change. Coalitions were the tactical expression of this outlook; temporary alliances of the various "separate agendas" of the different groups organized to push commonly agreed upon issues. Any understanding of privilege in America has to begin from a scientific understanding of American history. The social position of the white worker was created at the inception of this country as a result of the capitalists' demand for labor and the need to control its exploitation. The legal system, social institutions and the ideas of society were reshaped to divide white and black workers from one another by granting social privileges to one group over the other. Imperialism, and particularly post-World War II imperialism, provided the wherewithal to create and consolidate a privileged upper strata of the working class who were heavily bribed and controlled by either business unionism or a raft of "misleaders" who tied them to the ruling class. History made this section of bribed workers predominantly white. The ideology of race was one of a set of ideas that served to buttress the economic system by unifying whites across class lines and masking the reality of class differences among them. Under such conditions, regardless of how heroic their attempts might have been, it was not possible for workers who were unequally exploited to unite. The historical role of the South is pivotal to our understanding. Violence and brutality swept the South in the years after the Civil War, fostered by the forces of the victorious Northern industrialists and financiers. These tactics were not simply aimed at keeping whites dominant. The ruling class sought first and foremost to guarantee the subjugation of the South as a region, and the colonial exploitation of the Black Belt in particular. The imperialist North inherited and utilized the white supremacy of the defeated South to keep it subjugated. Throughout the 20th century, this colonial relation guaranteed that racism and its results were never uniform throughout the country. A black worker in the North was very often better off economically, socially and politically than his or her white counterpart in the Black-Belt South. Thus, it was not a simple question of all whites were better off than all blacks. It was rather a matter of the threads of history, the brutality of economics, and the demands of politics that gave shape and substance to the development of racism in the 20th century. We are now entering a new historical epoch. The mass of African Americans who form the core of the new class and the growing number of impoverished whites joining its ranks unmistakably have common interests that grow out of not only morality, but objective economic interests. Class unity is now possible. How is the subjective side being affected? Evidence confirms the rising influence of economic conditions on the thinking of the American people. The ruling class is adjusting its propaganda to meet the shifts in people's thinking, while at the same time skillfully striving to keep their minds locked within the confines of ruling-class solutions. Every solution offered, from different angles and from different perspectives, serves the same end -- support of the capitalist system and the solutions of the ruling class. The racists focus on the growing mass of discontented whites, urging them to reassert their "white skin privilege" and unify with other whites across opposing class lines. The rise in hate crimes and racist killings is an aspect of the appeal for the hearts and minds of whites that are open to this message. President Clinton and various liberal forces promote the separate agendas of each identity group, but advocate uniting in what Clinton calls a "multicultural democracy," while overseeing the ideological and institutional attack against the poor regardless of color. The left shores up these tactics by demanding that whites renounce their white skin privilege and unite in an all-class unity with minorities. They are blind to the fact that whatever privileges whites have had are already being destroyed without one word being spoken and that minorities, just like whites, are polarizing along opposing class lines. Today, the struggle for unity is emerging under qualitatively new conditions. The process of class formation is pulling increasing numbers and increasing kinds of people and strata into it as electronics works its way through the economy. To the degree to which we continue to think in and focus on the racial categories and ideologies of the past, we assist the ruling class in its efforts to keep the workers disoriented and divided. Of course the historical struggles, such as those against racial oppression and the inequality of women, still exist today. But neither these nor any other struggle can move forward apart from the resolution of the problems that confront the new class. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 02-00 Who will claim the power of love? .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 5. WHO WILL CLAIM THE POWER OF LOVE? By Brooke Heagerty Some say there is more to life than love, but I don't know what it could be. Love is no small thing. It encompasses everything we do. It has given voice to the deepest of human hearts. It has fueled the sacrifices of martyrdom, transformed the meek, invested the frail with the strength of giants. For us, the only question can be: Who will lay claim to its power? Those who have thrown the world into poverty and despair, or our class, the millions who are struggling for a world where love is finally and truly possible. LOVE IS PART OF LIFE Human beings are social creatures. We can live only in relationship to others. We make the wherewithal for our existence together. We reproduce ourselves by making children together. We construct societies to allow for these basic elements of life to be organized and guaranteed. Along the threadbare sinews of these circuits of existence we craft, layer by layer, the ideas which define our sense of ourselves, our relations to others, our aspirations, joys and desires. The affection between friends, a word whispered in a lover's ear, the tenderness that wells inside as parents gaze at their sleeping child: all these expressions of what we know as love are infused with a meaning that reflects not only the connection between individuals but the connection of individuals to the wider society. The need for love is not silly or trivial, it is as much a part of us as the beating of our hearts, essential to our survival. WHO DEFINES LOVE? Yet, this dense network of relationships is not, and never has been, entirely of our own making. The ruling class of every era has struggled to shape and dictate the relationships between and among people, whether this be the relationship between the serf and the lord or the worker and the capitalist, or between men and women, children and parent, or among the peoples of the world. The ruling classes throughout the ages have sought to make love serve their interests. Writers, theoreticians and theologians have all been brought into service to articulate and expound upon love -- who should define it, what it should be, and ultimately, who should love who. Under capitalism, every aspect of our lives, even love, turns on how we will survive in a world where everything is reduced to the money relation. The bonds of family were reduced to a unit of economics, love between men and women simply a means to hold that unit together, children simply a means of providing future workers. As long as capitalism provided the wherewithal for us to pay for our existence, we were able to live with the limitations the system had set for us. Love, of course, could never be entirely controlled. As all people have done throughout the ages, we loved in our own ways, often against insurmountable odds. We forged our bonds, formed our families, raised our children, grew old and were remembered when we passed. At times of great change we broke love out beyond narrow limitations, drawing upon its great power to stand against injustice. Yet as long as our relationships were determined by the dog-eat-dog world of the capitalist economic system, love could never be anything more than a shadow of its true self. LOVE BELONGS TO US Capitalism teaches us to love and care for only those who are close to us, that we can solve everything by "taking care of our own." When inevitably love is not enough to solve the problems of a disintegrating world, they tell us to cut our losses. Save ourselves. This lesson is not only out of step with morality, but with the essence of what it means to be human. We are social creatures. As individuals we live in relation to those we personally know or love, but as humans our well-being is directly linked to the well-being of all of humanity. Expanding our notion of love beyond the horizons of our individual relations to encompass a love for all humanity does not reduce the importance of our loved ones in our lives or denigrate the love we give today. It infuses us with the moral force necessary to reconstruct the world in the interests of our class -- a world where no child goes without, every family is healthy and happy, every heart fulfilled. We stand at the crossroads of profound choices. The world is being torn apart -- who will remake it? The ruling class to whom every human relation must be reduced to the bottom line, for whom every human impulse must be stamped out? Or us, those who struggle under the yoke of inhumanity that capitalism has placed on our necks, who have found and given love when everything seemed dead around us, who have carried a vision of a world free from want and fear down through the ages? This world is now possible, but we must fight to win it. Love lies there, we have only to reach out and grasp its waiting hand. This article is the first in a series planned by the People's Tribune editorial board covering these kinds of topics. If you have any suggestions for topics or comments, please contact us at pt@noc.org .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 02-00 America needs a new way of living .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 6. AMERICA NEEDS A NEW WAY OF LIVING This month, the United States will have reached a milestone, the longest period of peacetime prosperity in its history, longer than that of the 1960s. That's what the establishment tells us, at least. Official unemployment and inflation are at their lowest levels in several decades and we are reassured daily that the end of these good times is still not in sight. In many places, it looks to the casual observer to be true. There's hiring all around. The malls are loaded with mountains of stuff piled right up to the ceilings and shoppers just buy it all like there's no tomorrow. In the media, the financial babblers keep up the stream of reassurance, saying the markets will take care of at least you and your children's future, so just keep your faith and your money in Wall Street. They tell us what's good for the millionaires and billionaires who control nine-tenths of the wealth is good for you who have the crumbs. Seldom in the corporate media is there ever heard a discouraging word. Even when the market crashes -- excuse us, when the market undergoes a "correction" and the rich come out even richer -- why, that's good for all the little guys who lost. Such is the confidence in their babble. There's the famous Bob Marley song which talks about the bucket going to the well every day, but one day the bottom will drop out. In fact, we live in an age unlike any other. We all are living through a worldwide polarization of wealth and poverty, but the rulers only show us half of it. Corporations grow to huge proportions, then they merge and become gigantic. A lot of millionaires become a few billionaires, and a few of them become multi-billionaires. Perhaps we'll even see the world's first trillionaire before long. But already a third of humanity is forced to live on one dollar a day. In the United States, consumer debt is at record highs and the people's savings rate has dropped below zero. Out on the farms, there is a disaster which is taking place in seeming silence. Crop prices have dropped so low that many farmers have been wiped out. At the grain and corn elevators, this year's record harvest is just piled up on top of last year's unsold record harvest, which lies piled on top of the previous year's record harvest. Meanwhile, millions everywhere starve. One day the bottom of the bucket will drop out, but many of us have no time to worry. Yes, many of us are working. Unfortunately, that's all we seem to do anymore. We just work and work and work. The day seems never to end and we just get older and more tired. We Americans see ourselves as visionaries, a people always with aspirations, no matter what we may or may not have. We want to have economic security. We want to have a decent life for ourselves and our children. We want to be happy and free. These are amazing times. Technologies are emerging that will liberate us from drudgery at work and at home. These same technologies can produce all that we need to live the kind of decent life that we want. They can enable humanity to realize a new kind of life that past generations never even dared to dream -- a life in a world of absolute material abundance, not of artificial scarcity dictated by money. All that is needed is a new way of living. Where is it? It is not in the hands of the rulers under the present economic and social system. The interest of those rulers lies in keeping things the way they are, even if it means a few of them get richer and more of us get poorer; even if it means forcing us to stake everything we've worked for on an economic bubble which simple common sense tells us is bound to burst; even if it means forcing us to give up our personal freedoms for their well-being. No, this new kind of society, one based on cooperation and on distribution of what is produced according to need is not in their hands. It is in our hands alone, joined in unity. Our emancipated hands can build this new life and transform our nation and the world into a true paradise. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "VIACOM proposes takeover of People's Tribune Radio" Not really, we wouldn't let them anyway! But if you want something other than what the corporate media has to offer, then tune in to People's Tribune Radio. You can listen to the program at http://www.ptradio.org. For a free copy to take to your community radio station, call: 800-691-6888 or e-mail flr@jps.net or speakers@noc.org +----------------------------------------------------------------+ .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 02-00 Spirit: Jun Yasuda: Marcher to a Different Drum .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 7. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: JUN YASUDA: MARCHER TO A DIFFERENT DRUM +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Spirit of the Revolution is printed monthly, and depends on articles, comments, and criticisms from readers. If you have something to contribute, feel free. Contact us: c/o Boxholder, P.O. Box 2166, San Jose, California 95109 or by e-mail at spirit@noc.org +----------------------------------------------------------------+ by Chris Zimmerman Like most social critics in the 1990s, opponents of the death penalty tend to describe their activism in political terms. Not 52-year-old Jun Yasuda, a Japanese-born Buddhist who moved to the United States in 1978. Campaigns and rallies are important ways of raising consciousness, she says, but the best tool for countering society's ills is prayer. It's December, and a light rain is falling on the dreary landscape at SCI-Greene, the Pennsylvania prison where death-row author Mumia Abu-Jamal has been held since 1995. Jun and two companions are sitting cross-legged in a nylon pup tent at the prison gates, fasting, and chanting to the beat of their broad, flat temple drums. Oblivious to the weather and the nervous patrol keeping watch nearby, they are lost in the soothing cadences of an ancient Buddhist prayer. But when I drive up and ask for an interview, they are happy to pause and talk. After all, they've been here for five days and have two more to go. Sitting down on a heap of damp blankets, I pull out a pad and ask Jun what she and her companions -- Louise-Lara Somlyo of Washington, D.C., and Kasu Haga of Amherst, Massachusetts -- are doing at the prison. She folds her hands, dips them toward me in welcome, and explains: "It's a vigil. We are praying to free Mumia. We are fasting one week. No food, no water. It is a dry fast." And a long one, I think. But as we talk it becomes clear that fasting is nothing new to Jun, and that the stamina needed to undertake such a discipline is something she has built up over many years. In the last two decades Jun has crossed the country five times on foot, beating her drum and praying as she marches. She has fasted in Albany in support of Native American rights; in Portland against the continued buildup of the nation's nuclear arsenal; at Riker's Island in support of humane treatment for prison inmates. She has held vigils in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Washington and Boston, Ithaca and New York. But none of these activities constitutes a protest or campaign, Jun says. To her they are all part of an ongoing vigil to overcome violence and injustice by "reaching the heart." "Everything I do goes from my heart, to other people's hearts. It is a prayer, not a protest." As for this particular vigil, her reasons are simple: "Why is there a prison here? Five hundred years ago there was none. There were only Native Americans living in peace. They had reverence for each other. Now we fear each other. I am here to help people stop fearing each other, and to trust. We need to change the way we think. Putting people in cages is not a solution." What is the solution? I ask her. What's one vote? What can one person do? I think of people I know who moan about events that fall flat because nobody comes -- or ones where hundreds come, but the press never shows up. I'm sure you're not getting a lot of publicity this week, I tell her. Pittsburgh's an hour away. Jun looks up. "You shouldn't care about numbers," she admonishes me. "Numbers don't matter. What matters is your commitment to peace. Gandhi was just one person, and he did very simple things. He walked to the ocean [in protest of a British monopoly on salt]. He fasted. He was one person. But he was very conscientious. We should be too. Think of one person fasting outside the White House. That act has spiritual power. More, maybe, than big numbers." Power. Numbers. My mind goes to the recent World Trade Organization summit in Seattle, where massive nonviolent protests were met with tear gas and rubber bullets. I ask her, is violence ever a legitimate response to violence? Until everyone in the world believes in peace, Jun concedes, violence is unavoidable. But it is never justifiable or right. Nor is self-defense: "You know, several times I have had somebody hitting me during a prayer. I do not hit back. That would just make him more angry, more hateful. My way, if somebody is trying to hurt me, is to bow to him and to pray. I try to ask why he is angry, and to listen to him. I want to know why is he wounded inside." It's freezing in the tent, and I'm ready to get back to my car. It's great to be so high-minded, but I need a cup of coffee. I wonder about Jun. She must be exhausted. Five days in a damp tent with no food? And she's so thin. I ask her if she's worried about getting sick. "I am not sick," she says. She is almost indignant, I think. "It's the world that is really sick, you know. There is so much violence, so much fighting, so many people killing each other." And then, with a wave toward the prison: "Over there, inside, people are suffering, much more than I have suffered. Nothing to eat for a few days? That is not such a big thing. But if you worry about yourself, you cannot do anything." A patrol car -- the third one in five minutes -- has stopped outside the tent. Apparently someone's radioed the front desk about my car and complained that I parked it on the official "access corridor" to the prison. Actually, it's on the grass next to the drive, but I decide it's time to go. Thanking Jun for her time, I say goodbye. I also tell her that tomorrow's supposed to be warmer. "Whatever," she murmurs. "The weather has been wonderful. I thought there would be more snow and cold. And this rain -- it is a gift from heaven. We also have visitors, like you. Many different people stop to say hello -- concerned people. Some say thank you. Some even offer money." I ask her about the prison staff. How are they treating her? "Some of them wave," she says, "and I wave back. Prison guards are also human. They also need peace. They also need healing." []Chris Zimmerman is a member of the Bruderhof community.] +----------------------------------------------------------------+ .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 02-00 Miscellany .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 8. MISCELLANY 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 institutional subscription. My check or money order for $25 is enclosed. Name Address City/State/Zip Phone E-mail Send this coupon to: People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654 +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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! Join with others to make the vision of a world of plenty a reality 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. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 2/ February, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; http://www.lrna.org Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers. ******************************************************************