People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (04-00) Online Edition .TOPIC 04-00 PT Index .TEXT .BODY ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 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. 4/ April, 2000 Page One Editorial 1. UNITY OVER TRAGEDY IN MOUNT MORRIS News and Features 2. POLICE TERROR IN AMERICA: WHAT'S THE SOLUTION? 3. CAN YOU IMAGINE... A WORLD WITHOUT CORPORATIONS 4. 225TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD: 'THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD' REVERBERATES TO THIS DAY 5. PROP 21: A MEASURE TO CRIMINALIZE YOUTH, NOT PROVIDE SOLUTIONS 6. DID YOU KNOW ... 7. THE UNITED STATES OF HYPOCRISY 8. HONKALA FIGHTS TRUMPED-UP CHARGES Spirit of the Revolution 9. THE SPIRIT OF REBELLION Music/Poetry/Art 10. POEM FOR THE MILLENNIUM Announcements, Events, etc. 11. PHOTOGRAPHY AND REVOLUTION: PICTURE YOUR VISION OF A NEW WORLD; PLUS PT RADIO [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 04-00 Edit: Unity over tragedy in Mount Morris .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: UNITY OVER TRAGEDY IN MOUNT MORRIS What is one to make of the tragedy that struck an elementary school in Mount Morris Township, Michigan, on February 29, when a 6-year-old boy fatally shot his classmate Kayla Rolland, also 6? Beyond expressing our sympathy to the families of both children -- one who is lost in death and the other who may be lost emotionally for the rest of his life -- what can society learn and do? The shooting brought the entire community into the national spotlight. Mount Morris is a suburban township of Flint, Michigan, the great automaking center that has been devastated by job loss and poverty resulting from the replacement of workers by robotics. Michigan, like the rest of the nation, has been part of the much- trumpeted prosperity; statewide unemployment in 1999 was 3.8 percent, but in Flint it was 9.7 percent. Seventy percent of the 2,400 students in Kayla's district qualify for free or subsidized meals, according to the Associated Press. "I'd characterize this as a working, poor community,'' a school district spokeswoman told the AP. "Many people work multiple minimum-wage jobs to make ends meet.'' It was quickly reported that the gun the boy used allegedly belonged to a 19-year-old, who authorities charged with involuntary manslaughter. The boy lived in the same house with him, a teenage uncle and an 8-year-old brother. The boy's mother was gone and his father is in prison. In short, the boy lived in abject poverty in the world's richest land (a nation that also has failed to ratify the 1989 UN treaty on the rights of children), living in circumstances he could not control. Since no one could seriously argue that the 6-year-old had committed a crime in the adult sense, the system took the easier route of prosecuting the 19-year-old instead. The 6-year- old boy himself has been suspended from school for 90 days. As for the community itself, the way it came together not only for Kayla's surviving family, but for the little boy himself was nothing less than exemplary. Nearly everyone interviewed by the media -- including Kayla's mother on the "Today" show-- expressed some form of compassion for the boy, saying he was just as much a victim of what happened as Kayla. Clearly, this community, struggling to survive in a society polarizing between wealth and poverty, sticks together and cares for its own, no matter how powerless its residents may be. This can only be praised by all revolutionaries fighting for a new and better world -- a world that loses poverty and saves children, not the other way around as the billionaires would have it. As revolutionaries and the entire new class of millions of people victimized by this system mourn this latest tragedy of our times, we must take this example of solidarity within this class shown by the Flint community and stand our ground to fight any attempt by the wealthy rulers to use this tragedy to further punish the poorest and weakest sections of society. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 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 04-00 Police terror in America: What's the solution? .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 2. POLICE TERROR IN AMERICA: WHAT'S THE SOLUTION? By Bob Lee By now, virtually the whole world knows the name of Amadou Diallo, the man who died last year in a hail of 41 bullets fired by officers of a special "Street Crime Unit" of the New York City police. And the latest outrage, of course, is that Diallo's killers have been acquitted. But ask yourself: Even if the killers had been found guilty of murder, would the campaign of police terror stop, in New York or anywhere else? In fact, the killing of Amadou Diallo and the freeing of his killers is just the latest horrific chapter in a story that has many other such chapters, in nearly every city in our country. The real question is, who will write the ending to this story? Will it be the people, or the police? Will we, the people, dictate the course of our lives and the nature of our society, or will a wealthy, powerful few determine how we live and die? It's up to us. It is possible for us to make our own history, and the things we do -- or don't do -- in the next months and years will shape our country's future, for better or worse. That there is a campaign of police terror under way against the people of this country is hardly in doubt, but numbers are hard to come by. When the United Nations did a special investigation of police killings in the United States in 1997, the investigators found that there are no national figures kept on police killings. But they did hear story after story of brutality and death at the hands of the police in the cities they visited. And the Human Rights Watch organization has reported that in the United States, "Unjustified shootings by police, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and unnecessarily rough treatment of detainees occur in cities throughout the country." In the guise of the "war on drugs and crime," the police have systematically terrorized poor neighborhoods across the country. But the ultimate goal of this campaign is not simply to cow these neighborhoods into submission; it is to set the stage for terrorizing anyone who is a threat to the existing system. First the poor -- of every color and nationality -- are stripped of their rights, and then no one has any rights. While a few people are accumulating fabulous wealth, millions are being cast down into the most desperate poverty. They include part-time workers, temps, minimum-wage workers, the unemployed, the public-aid recipients, and the homeless. As things are reorganized around the new, high-tech economy, the millions who no longer have a role in the economy are chewed up, spit out and left to die. They become a threat to the system because their needs can't be met by the system. Their suffering pricks the conscience of society; many of those who are still being fed by the system take the side of the poor. The powers that be, more and more, have to use force to keep everyone in line. The means of control have grown in our midst, a step at a time, over the past 20 years or so. Today, the powerful are reaping the deadly crop that was sown, and we live with the results: more powers for the police, fewer rights for us; a prison population that has soared to 2 million, not least because of the "war on drugs"; murder, brutality and corruption that is rampant among the police and in the prison system; laws allowing children to be tried as adults; executions week after week as the number on Death Row swells to unprecedented levels. Many well-meaning people, terrified by the lurid publicity about crime and the deteriorating conditions in their own neighborhoods, are fooled into taking the side of the police. The "war on crime" becomes the justification for creating an apparatus of murder and oppression that threatens every one of us, no matter what color we are or where we live. The real question coming to the fore in all this is, who will control society, and for what purpose? The morality and intentions of the ruling class are clear. They intend to go on having a society that is a money-making machine for them, even if it means imposing an all-out police state to keep the rest of us in line. Their vision of America is a threat to what this country is supposed to be about. But a huge historical force is rising to meet this challenge. It is rising in the slums of the cities and among the scattered pockets of the rural poor. It is rising among all those whose morality demands a just and decent society. It is a force rooted in the struggle of a new social class being created from the millions who are being cast out of the old economy as the new one is born. This new class of poor is forced to fight for a new kind of society, free of police terror and free of want. Their morality demands that no one live in poverty, and that the police exist to protect and serve the people, not to be their oppressors. Their vision of a new America built on a foundation of justice and cooperation would fulfill this country's promise, and it must be the vision that the rest of us organize around. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 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 04-00 Can you imagine ... .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 3. CAN YOU IMAGINE... A WORLD WITHOUT CORPORATIONS By Steve Miller Global corporations today are larger than most countries. If countries and corporations are lumped together, 51 of the world's 100 top economies are corporations. These corporations directly control resources that no country can organize. They are far more mobile and flexible than countries, and certainly have massive power in a world where money and power are so often identical. National leaders can seldom comprehend how global corporations work, much less control them, and usually serve them. Global corporations are direct, absolute dictatorships. Usually under the executive control of the CEO, corporations constantly maneuver to dictate social questions and political policy that facilitate their interests. In fact, it is an unchallenged assumption of our society that corporations -- by definition, private enterprises -- should have absolute say over social policy -- by definition, public issues that concern people. Exactly what kind of a democracy is it where private dictatorships use their immense power to control our lives? Can we really expect, after decades of effort, that now at last corporations are finally going to be "responsible"? Maybe they should simply be abolished like other hangovers such as slavery and feudal rights? Corporations, by definition, must put making maximum profits first. Producing commodities for life is completely secondary. They use their political power for one thing, to guarantee that it is legal to profit from human misery. As a result, corporations are reckless, renegade organizations that must attack any human -- oriented social or environmental policy if it gets in their way. The decline of the world's health and sustainability coincides with the rise of the Dow Jones Index. Corporations have more rights than individuals, and none of the responsibilities. Before the American Revolution, corporations -- private pools of capital and power -- were looked on with suspicion as threats to the social order. A corporation is a legal fiction that prevents its directors from being personally held legally accountable. A CEO can make the decision to poison the water with toxic chemicals, but it's the corporation that gets sued. Corporations forced millions of humans in the U.S. into destitution by eliminating Welfare and replacing it with "The Personal Responsibility Act." "Its high time," they yammered, "that people start being responsible!" How ironic, since corporations specifically are designed to avoid personal responsibility -- for the class of billionaires! Corporations extract billions of dollars from society every year, and use it only for corporate interests. Every year hundreds of millions of people labor for private corporations to produce vast amounts of wealth that are then withdrawn from productive society. This stolen wealth is labeled "private profits." But that's not all. For example, the WTO's first act in 1997 was to open the telecommunications systems of every country to private investment and control. Since these systems were almost universally built with public money, this represents perhaps the greatest private appropriation of public wealth in human history. Apparently private appropriation of public wealth is ok, but the public appropriation of private wealth is simply out of the question. Corporations are using their absolutely unchallenged monopoly of high technology to rebuild the world. First of all, they claim the absolute right to control this technology. Who voted on that one? Most of this technology was created with publicly financed, high-tech research and development. Then they would have us believe, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, that this technology can only be configured to create the upcoming global network to make, distribute and sell all manner of goods and services. Bill Gates is quite clear on this one. In his book, "The Road Ahead," Gates holds that the public control of electronic technology should not even be discussed, much less organized (page 157). So let's discuss it. Corporations tell us that humans should buy the things they need. This is interesting. Global corporations are the largest economic concerns on the planet. They operate on every continent, using computers and telecommunications, fiber-optics and satellite networks, to generate information every second that is then reorganized to control finances and services, to generate production and distribution. They really don't do this by buying things. How exactly does this happen? Though the Internet is the latest public rage, the Intranet is far larger, far more dominant and far less known. The Intranet refers to the private, corporate computer networks around the world that hook together all the corporate enterprises. These networks are private and secret; public access is denied. The Intranet facilitates the production of information, goods and services within the corporations. Do you think that GM actually buys a chassis made in its Brazilian plant to be assembled in its Mexican plant with parts from Korea and Ohio? Of course not. Within the corporations, money is not used to distribute things. It is simply noted on some data base as a measure of value. Parts and services are constantly being moved around within corporations without the use of money at all. So the largest economic concerns on the planet already distribute things without money. In fact, vast and immense mountains of things -- maybe even the majority of things -- are distributed without money within global corporations. So why should money be used to distribute things to human beings as consumers? Sez who? We didn't vote on that one either. Electronic technology means all routine work can now be done by computers and robots. It's about time. Why should we ruin our lives and our health using Stone Age or Industrial Era technology? Technology -- part of the treasury of human achievement -- should belong to all of humanity and living things, just as should the seas, the stars, the radio waves and our own DNA. It is the private control of this technology that is breeding a world of polarization and ever-increasing misery, collapse, epidemics, homelessness and lack of basic human rights like shelter, health care, education and culture. Global corporations demand the right to configure this wonderful technology for maximum private profit. After all, they say, "We own it." Maybe this is why the cost of calling 411 has reached 90 cents. Somebody has to pay for running the Intranet 24 hours a day? The point is that this way of organizing technology can be reconfigured for the benefit of everyone. And since money has so little importance within corporations, we can reconfigure that one too -- another discussion Bill Gates doesn't want to happen. We might as well finish the job and separate income from work while we're at it. Time for homework. Do corporations even deserve to exist? Shouldn't they be illegal? The exciting thing about the Internet is that it has showed everyone the exciting and higher ways that human cooperation can work with electronic technology. So divide a paper into two columns and list the effects of corporations on human life -- one column for the contributions and the other for the destruction. For each item, imagine how that might be done without corporations -- to be done better, more efficiently and cheaper, without the diversion of human wealth into corporate hands. If there were no corporations, then corporate profits would go to everyone. This would go a long way to build, for example, a worldwide network of free and well- supplied supermarkets. Our children will expect us to get an "A" on this assignment. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 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 04-00 225th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 4. 225TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD 'THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD' REVERBERATES TO THIS DAY By Chris Mahin There are only a few places on earth where the history of the world was transformed by actions which took just minutes. This month marks the 225th anniversary of one such action -- the moment when American minutemen opened fire on British soldiers holding the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts during the American Revolution. The bullets the American militiamen fired on the morning of April 19, 1775 did more than kill three of the crown's soldiers, the first British deaths in the American war of independence; they also established a moral precedent -- the right of ordinary people to overthrow hereditary privilege and colonialism. Because that precedent has profound implications for our time, it is worth recalling what led up to (and what followed) the confrontation on North Bridge. In 1775, Massachusetts was a state in rebellion. Boston had been occupied in 1774 by a British army commanded by General Thomas Gage. Late on the night of April 18, 1775, Gage dispatched 800 British troops from Boston to seize illegal stores of arms hidden by the American revolutionaries in Concord. Before dawn on April 19, the advance party of Gage's columns reached Lexington. On the town green, it confronted about 70 minutemen. (The minutemen had been warned that Gage's troops were coming by Paul Revere, in his famous "midnight ride.") After a brief exchange of gunfire was over, eight minutemen would die, but all the British soldiers would survive, and continue on to Concord. Hours later, a second firefight took place, as Concord minutemen -- reinforced by minutemen from nearby towns -- attacked three British companies holding the North Bridge. The British columns limped back to Boston, with American militiamen firing at them from behind tree stumps, farm houses and stone walls. By the time the British forces slunk into the Boston area that evening, they had suffered 273 casualties; the Americans had suffered 95. American militia units responded by laying siege to Boston. The military phase of the American Revolution had begun. The New England poet and abolitionist Ralph Waldo Emerson called the musket fire of the minutemen on North Bridge "the shot heard round the world." That shot reverberates to this day. The British garrison's willingness to spill blood helped prompt a newcomer to America named Thomas Paine to write a fiery pamphlet denouncing "the royal brute" King George III. The ideas in Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense" persuaded the people of the 13 colonies to fight for complete independence. Those ideas also helped inspire the French Revolution of 1789 and the unsuccessful Irish rebellion of 1798 -- and every revolt since against monarchy and direct colonialism. The words "Lexington" and "Concord" can never truly belong to right-wing militia groups or any defender of the status quo in America (even though those forces try to claim them). These words belong to revolutionaries. Today, it is very important for revolutionaries in the United States to be clear and firm on this point. Here, we should learn from the stand taken by the opponents of slavery in the United States during the 19th century. The abolitionists loved the American Revolution. The people who hid runaway slaves saw themselves as continuing the revolution, which began when British soldiers killed a runaway slave named Crispus Attacks in the Boston Massacre of 1770. For the abolitionists, slavery was an abomination because it meant murder and rape and whippings, but also because it desecrated something sacred -- the good name of the American Revolution, an event which had inspired the whole world. Again and again, the abolitionists pointed out the difference between the ideals of the American Revolution (on the one hand) and the property relations enshrined at the end of the American war of independence (on the other). The two are not the same thing at all; the former is something magnificent, the latter something horrible which needs to be overthrown. Today, revolutionaries have to make the same sharp distinction. Our attitude toward this anniversary should be like that of the abolitionists in 1851. In that year, Massachusetts commemorated the anniversary just one week after Thomas Sims, a 23-year-old runaway slave, had been forcibly returned from Boston to slavery in Savannah, Georgia. There, he was whipped in the public square. The news of the whipping of Sims reached Massachusetts on April 19, 1851 -- the 76th anniversary of the battle of Lexington and Concord. The abolitionists would have been outraged to learn about such a despicable act on any day of the year, but felt a special anger (and even shame) when the information arrived on April 19. A Georgia slaveholder had Thomas Sims whipped 39 times; four New York City cops fired at Amadou Diallo 41 times. Today, shouldn't we feel the same emotions that the abolitionists felt in 1851? In 1851, the abolitionists felt an obligation to remove the stain on the American Revolution by ending slavery. To accomplish that, they carried out agitation far and wide. Today, the country born in revolution whose finest sons and daughters ended the rule of kings and slaveowners cannot move forward without eliminating the rule of capitalists. Accomplishing that goal won't be in opposition to the American Revolution; it will be a continuation of what was best in it. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 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 04-00 Prop 21: A measure to criminalize youth .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 5. PROP 21: A MEASURE TO CRIMINALIZE YOUTH, NOT PROVIDE SOLUTIONS By Alicia Espinoza Despite relentless efforts by youth and community organizers throughout the state of California, Proposition 21 was passed with an alarming 4,130,384 yes votes, as opposed to approximately 2,478,824 no votes. As of March 7, the juvenile-crime initiative, endorsed by Gov. Gray Davis, will make it possible for juveniles 14 and older to be tried as adults for crimes relating to murder or severe sexual misconduct. The measure will also augment penalties for gang-related offenses, and will require that all juvenile records be kept on file by the California Department of Justice. A plan of implementation is now underway and, according to the Los Angeles Times, state-corrections administrators are estimating the budget necessary to accommodate the new measure to reach hundreds of millions of dollars. Many expect the Davis administration to set aside funds for the construction of more state prisons and juvenile halls. What in the world do our youth have to look forward to now? Rather than investing money in building more schools, establishing after- school programs, and creating employment opportunities, we continue to invest time, energy and money into isolating our youth from society, so that we may not have to take a look at the world we have created for them, and not have to take responsibility for our passivity or indifference. Many of our young adolescents are struggling to break away from demoralizing stereotypes, humiliating criminalization, and police brutality, yet continue to find themselves being targeted and blamed for a valueless society, which should more accurately be attributed to the failure of the system as a whole. According to the proponents of Proposition 21, the measure was an answer to the rise of juvenile crimes by 60 percent from 1983 to 1998. Yet, according to a study done by the Justice Policy Institute, juvenile felony rates dropped more than 40 percent throughout California from 1978 to 1998. Regardless of the statistical war, the truth of the matter is that it is easier to blame individuals rather than the injustice of a system that chooses to invest more money on incarceration as opposed to education. Communities find themselves falling prey to the deceitful and underhanded tactics of the ruling class. They are turning their backs on their children, neighbors and friends, rather than joining together with other parents and activists to reclaim the educational opportunities, services and resources that all human beings are entitled to regardless of age, color, or economic status. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 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 04-00 Did you know ... .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 6. DID YOU KNOW ... THOUSANDS IN FRANCE MARCH TO SUPPORT MUMIA Some 10,000 people paraded through Paris on March 11th in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the African American freedom fighter facing execution in Pennsylvania. Thousands more marched elsewhere in France that day in support of Mumia. The Paris marchers were joined by several leading French politicians, labor leaders and anti-racism campaigners. Honored participants in the march were Ramona and Sue Africa of MOVE and Julia Wright, daughter of author Richard Wright. The marchers arrived at the U.S. Embassy to present a petition supporting Mumia with 30,000 signatures. Organizers had notified the embassy days earlier about the march, but when they arrived, guards refused to open the doors and said a staff member would come into the street to receive the petition instead. The indignant marchers refused to accept that ploy. ONE-FOURTH OF U.S. HISPANICS BELOW POVERTY LINE: CENSUS DATA A quarter of the 31 million Hispanics were living below the poverty line in 1998, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau in March. In 1998, the poverty level for a family of four was officially set at $16,600. Accordingly, 27 percent of Puerto Rican families, 24 percent of Mexican-American families and 11 percent of Cuban-American families lived below the line, the data indicated. 'STRONG ECONOMY' HASN'T DIMINISHED U.S. HUNGER, STUDY SAYS The U.S. economy is booming and unemployment is at a 30-year low, but the number of hungry Americans has not decreased over the past four years, a recently released study has shown. "For the first time in modern history, the prevalence of hunger seems stubbornly impervious to economic growth," said Larry Brown, director of the Center on Hunger and Poverty at Tufts University. AETNA APOLOGIZES FOR INSURING SLAVES The nation's largest health insurer, Aetna Inc., apologized in March for selling policies that reimbursed slaveowners for their slaves' deaths. American slaves were considered under the law not as humans, but chattel property. A statement on Aetna's Web site (www.aetna.com) said: "Aetna has long acknowledged that for several years shortly after its founding in 1853, the company may have insured the lives of slaves. ... [W]e express our deep regret over any participation at all in this deplorable practice." Aetna added, however, it would take no further action beyond apologizing. Too bad, free health insurance for all who need it today would have been nice. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 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 04-00 The United States of Hypocrisy .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 7. THE UNITED STATES OF HYPOCRISY By Tyrone Glenn With the growth of the prison industry (200 new cells a day, a new prison being built every week), a thought occurred to me: Why is it that only poor whites, minorities, and "unofficial" people (welfare recipients, janitors, waitresses, bus drivers, construction workers, etc.) are always the ones going to prison? I know that the government wants its citizens to think otherwise, but in reality the government only wants the blood, sweat and tears of the poor white and minority people when a crime is committed. But when it comes to "official" people (police officers, judges, prosecutors, prison guards, politicians, etc.) committing crimes, then the government wants to give them counseling, probation, or some other benign punishment rather than the same punishment a poor white or minority person would receive for committing the same type of crime. On May 13, 1985, the Philadelphia Police Department, Philadelphia Fire Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency (ATF), and Pennsylvania State Police all conspired to murder the MOVE organization (a family of revolutionaries who believe in Life, Natural Law and the government of self) because they were protesting the unjust imprisonment of their nine family members since August 8, 1978. The officials used tear gas, water cannons, shotguns, Uzis, M-16s, silenced weapons, Browning automatic rifles, M-60 machine guns, a 20 mm anti-tank gun, and a .50-caliber machine gun. Over 10,000 rounds of ammunition were shot into the house where six adults and five children were murdered when the officials used a state police helicopter to drop a powerful military explosive (C-4) on the house. The bomb started a fire, which eventually destroyed 60 homes total. Only two people (one adult and one child) survived the shootings and fire, Ramona Africa and Birdy Africa. They each were taken into police custody. Ramona Africa was the only person arrested and charged with crimes. She ended up serving seven years in prison. Birdy Africa was turned over to his father. No official person was ever charged criminally with the murders of those 11 innocent MOVE members. On April 19, 1993, in Waco, Texas, the FBI, ATF, and state and local police murdered over 80 innocent people (including 25 children) when the accumulation of aggression reached its apex against a religious group called the Branch Davidians. The official assault resulted from the ATF allegedly wanting to arrest the group's leader, David Koresh, on illegal weapons possession charges. However, the ATF ran a commando-style raid on the religious compound and the Branch Davidians defended themselves as best they could. The FBI, ATF, and state and local police surrounded the compound and laid siege to it for approximately 51 days, but when the Branch Davidians didn't give in to the terroristic tactics of the officials, the officials launched a final assault that ignited a fire within the compound. Only two Branch Davidians escaped that day. They were arrested and charged with various crimes and received long prison sentences. No official person to date has been prosecuted criminally for those murders. On January 12, 1995, two New York City police officers (Patrick Brosnan and James Crowe) murdered two innocent "unofficial" Puerto Rican youths (Anthony Rosario and Hilton Vega) while ordering the youths to lie down during a so-called drug investigation in a Bronx apartment. The youths were on the floor when eight bullets were pumped into Rosario and 14 into Vega. After an official investigation, neither officer was charged with any criminal offense. On October 1, 1998, a Philadelphia police officer named Christopher DiPasquale murdered a 19-year-old innocent unofficial black male named Donte Dawson under very questionable circumstances (the victim was sitting in his stalled car alone and unarmed). All the politicians and police officials asked the public not to rush to judgement. Yet even when the district attorney's office charged DiPasquale with manslaughter on January 15, 1999, it was only at the urging of the people, and then by April 5, 1999, an official person (Judge William J. Mazzola) dismissed the case. On December 28, 1998, Los Angeles police officers murdered a 19- year-old innocent unofficial black female named Tyisha Shenee Miller. She had been left in a car that had broken down while her friends went for help. She had fallen asleep, during which time she had a seizure; but before she went to sleep she had placed a gun in her lap for protection. Her family arrived to help her but couldn't wake her. They called 911 and the police arrived and couldn't wake her either. During their attempts to wake her, she moved and the police pumped 27 bullets into her, claiming they feared for their lives. It was decided by an official (the district attorney) that none of the police officers involved would be charged with the murder of Ms. Miller. On February 4, 1999, four New York City police officers murdered an innocent unofficial African immigrant named Amadou Diallo. The four police officers reportedly approached Mr. Diallo at his Bronx apartment because of a suspected rape (he was not a suspect), and during this so-called investigation, Mr. Diallo was shot at 41 times. Nineteen of the shots found their mark, and Mr. Diallo died from his wounds. None of the four official people involved in the killing have been convicted of any crime. On June 4, 1999, a Chicago Police officer named Serena Daniels murdered a 26-year-old innocent unofficial black female named LaTanya Haggerty after a traffic stop of the car Haggerty was a passenger in. Hours later that same day, another Chicago police officer murdered a 22-year-old innocent unofficial black male named Robert Russ during yet another traffic stop. Instead of the Chicago Police Department immediately investigating the shootings, they attempted to justify what their police officers did. The investigating officials attempted to justify their fellow official's actions by stating that Officer Daniels thought Ms. Haggerty had a gun in her hand, and the other police officers involved in the shooting death of Mr. Russ stated that he was fighting them when they attempted to arrest him during a traffic stop. In both cases, the investigating officials did everything to make the shootings appear to be justified. However, after a 38-day investigation, the only recommendation offered by the Chicago Police Department's Superintendent Terry Hillard was for the police officers involved (a total of four -- Daniels, Michael Williams, Stafford Wilson and Carl Carter) in both shooting deaths to be fired. No criminal charges were recommended. Again, an official person being treated differently. What all the aforementioned examples have in common is the results. In none of the examples above did any "official" person go to prison for their crimes against an "unofficial" person. However, had any of the above crimes been committed by an unofficial person, that person would have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I don't have to give you examples of that here because those examples will be evident in the newspaper you read today or tomorrow, or the television news program you watch this evening. The people have to stop being hypocritical in this country. Either all are going to be held accountable for their actions or none should be held accountable. The nation's prisons are filled with "unofficial" people, but few "official" people. The new millennium is here, but will it be just like the one we've just gone through? The answer to that question is unknown; if you (the people) don't take it upon yourselves to rectify the wrongs that are being perpetrated in your name (every official person works for the people), then this new millennium won't be any different than the previous one. The hypocrisy in who is prosecuted for crimes and who isn't is going to find it's way into everyone's life sooner or later because they (official people) aren't building new prisons for people that are already in prison, they are building them for you (unofficial people), so you better get involved with people and organizations that are fighting for true justice in this country. Protest against injustice while you still can. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, "If there is injustice anywhere, then there is injustice everywhere." .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 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 04-00 Honkala fights trumped-up charges .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 8. HONKALA FIGHTS TRUMPED-UP CHARGES [Editor's note: The following is a press release on the arrest of Cheri Honkala during the WTO protests in Seattle, Washington last year.] The judge has since dismissed all charges, stating that the charges were violations of her First Amendment right to free speech. Cheri Honkala was arrested on November 29, 1999 in Seattle. Cheri is the Director of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and the national spokesperson for the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign. The Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU) is an organization of poor and homeless women, men and children who are fighting both to survive and to end poverty. The KWRU was named as one of the five most significant human-rights efforts in the world by the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights. This year, the KWRU was awarded the Letelier-Moffet Human Rights Award. The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) is made up of over 40 poor-led organizations from around the country who are fighting for economic human rights. The campaign recently completed a 400 mile "March of the Americas," from Washington DC to the United Nations in New York City, to protest poverty in the richest country in the world. Cheri has dedicated her life to building a massive movement to end poverty, led by the poor. Cheri has signed on to the case called "the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign vs. the United States." This case, filed at the Inter-American Commission of the Organization of American States, attempts to hold the United States accountable for the economic human rights abuses being caused by downsizing, poverty and welfare reform in the U.S. today. She has been organizing for over 15 years to ensure that poor and homeless families are not hidden in America, and that the voices of the poor are heard. What happened and why? Calling for human rights to be valued above corporate rights, Cheri Honkala was arrested on November 29, 1999 in Seattle, Washington. Cheri was participating in the protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO). She is charged with obstruction for her nonviolent attempt to speak out. All but a dozen of the over 500 cases related to the WTO events have since been thrown out of court, yet the district attorney's office is still pursuing Cheri's case. Cheri was offered a plea bargain that included five days in jail, a $1000 fine, and a two-year gag order prohibiting her participation or involvement in demonstrations anywhere in the country. Cheri turned down this attempt to silence her and deny her First Amendment rights. Her trial began on March 14, 2000 in Seattle. For more information: Kensington Welfare Rights Union NUHHCE, ASFCME, AFL-CIO P.O. Box 50678 Philadelphia, PA 19132-9720 Phone: 215-203-1945 Fax: 215-203-1950 e-mail: kwru@libertynet.org Web: http://www.libertynet.org/kwru [Economic Human Rights Campaign updates are distributed via the "kwru-announce" e-mail list. To subscribe, e-mail to: kwru- announce-on@libertynet.org] .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 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 04-00 Spirit: The Spirit of Rebellion .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 9. Spirit of the Revolution: The Spirit of Rebellion By Laura Garcia Life has many events, circumstances and pitfalls that question our existence every step of the way. To live a spiritual life, we must make it happen. It takes consciousness. In moments of crisis, some of us take paths of destruction, turning to drugs, violence and suicide. Some become simply apathetic, which, in essence, is just another form of destruction. Others choose the path of rebellion. I, like many others, chose the latter. It would be too simplistic to say that people choose the path of revolution because of their conditions. This is not true. It's a factor, but not a determining factor. Poverty, without understanding its source, produces very angry people. Hunger is one of the most powerful words I've ever known. It forces people to steal, to fight, and even kill. When you don't know the source of your hunger, it brings you shame. It brings you guilt. It brings you a sense of failure. It begins to destroy your spirit. My family is one among millions of immigrant families -- Irish, Italian, Greek, Polish, Mexican -- who have come and are still coming to this country, fleeing hunger and deprivation in their native countries. My grandparents came to the U.S. in the 1920s. They joined a migrant stream that led them up and down the states of Arizona, Texas and California. After ten years, they were deported back to Mexico. It wasn't until the 1950s that another member of my family, my mother, crossed the border into the U.S. She came alone, in search of work, with only an address that a friend back home had given her. She was twenty- five years old. When I was young I used to blame my mother for our poverty. I didn't understand that the reason for our poverty was the capitalist system. Then, I didn't know that capitalism is an economic system with two main social groups: the workers and the capitalists. Those who have political power own the means of production. The means of production under a capitalist system are owned by a small group of billionaire capitalists, whose only motive force is maximizing profit. The only thing a worker owns is their ability to work, therefore, workers are forced to toil in their factories, their fields, their mines, their "Silicon Valleys," and elsewhere. It wasn't until I was seventeen that I began to discern the ball of lies I've been told all my life. It was the 1970s. America was burning. The national liberation movements in Latin America, the Vietnam War, and the system of social inequality here at home, were inspiring the youth of this country to move. The spirit of rebellion began to direct my actions. I became active in the Chicano movement, in the fight for the farm workers to have a union, and for my rights as a woman. The new ideas of liberation began to break away my old thinking. This is when I began to learn that hunger and deprivation alone do not make a revolutionary. What makes a revolutionary? It is possessing the knowledge of your exploitation and oppression, and learning that things can change, do change, even an economic system such as capitalism. Contrary to what I've been told, I learned that capitalism is not a permanent economic system. It follows the same law of development as all things: "coming into being and dying away." This new way of thinking also began to beg the question: Who makes change? When I learned that it's human beings, I shifted my energies from just fighting and being angry at the capitalist system, to also fighting for a different economic order that would ensure the spiritual and economic well-being of all humanity. I also learned about the class struggle: On one side stand the capitalists who fight to maintain their wealth and everything that comes with it, while on the other side stand the growing mass of poor. What class wins will depend on who wins "the hearts and minds" of the American people. Will the hearts of the American people be with their own class, or will they join forces in slaughtering their own sisters and brothers? Will the intellect of the American people be used to justify the old idea that "there will always be poor and rich people," or will they use it to propagate and communicate the new ideas of revolution and change as a justifiable mean? Today, new technologies like electronics, bioengineering, 'smart materials,' etc., are creating the material basis for a new economic order based on cooperation for the benefit of humanity. Yet under capitalism, these new technologies are only serving to enrich a handful of billionaires. A new economic order, communism, is not automatic, or an assured outcome. The only way we can ensure it happens is if we the American people guarantee it. The League of Revolutionaries for a New America was founded on the premise that to get this new society, Americans have to shed their old ideas. Consequently, our purpose is to teach the ideas of revolution. Yea, some may call us dreamers and foolish. What we are are visionaries with the spirit of rebellion. Our spirit of rebellion has been called into existence by the nightmare called capitalism. Yet, it is daily nurtured by the hope that the new tools of production can create a world in which we can all embrace our ethnicity, our gender, our creeds, our spirituality, our differences, and live together in peace and harmony. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 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 04-00 Poem for the Millennium .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 10. Poem for the Millennium By Jack Hirschman Amid history's dust, among vestigial bones of old ideologies, one foot forward but seemingly no way forward or back and originary thinking a dream beating its head against a computer screen that's already infomercialed it, some see the Millennium as billions of people in need, some as billions of bux; some see the gap widening between haves and have-nots, some see the Gap globally expanding.....its shops. How to get a roof over everyone's head? How to get 3 squares for all, ad infinitem? There's more terror. More greed. More wraparound cars. More thugs and scorpions disguised in democracy. More wars. More cops. More poor, more poor, more poor and homeless masses in rags, garbage-pickers, panhandlers, whores. More mass-graves, slave-labor payoff promises, arms unsleeving in Needle Alleys, swarms of tourists passing by. Death, you tear out our hearts and say, See, they're only muscles, and feed 'em to the sum of profits. Death, we're up to here in your blood-works and have had enough of the back-break and shell-game that hustles us dry. We're sick of this destiny of exploitation and want another kind of society, and can have, and will. The bottom line moved in Seattle almost 7 years since LA on a wider stage 40,000 workers with environmentalists internationally strong and the kick-ass of the new class screwing the tear-gas and the jails raising the spiral song against the negation that is capital and now we can and will put more poor-sparks to those aglow on every wrung, together making a Millennium fire that will spread our desire for a world co-operatively tuned like an instrument all people will have a hand in the making and playing of, to get the whole body of soul back, and the dignity nailed to the garbage pail, and the faces ripped off and the feelings killed, and be able at last to walk out of every moment's jail into a world where a piece of bread will profitlessly belong to all, and where you'll come to a door no longer a stranger and find the place is yours simply because you're human, and free as well the schools and hospitals for you to live your heart out the way it was meant to beat. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 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 04-00 Photography and revolution: Call for photos / PT Radio .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 11. Photography and revolution: Picture your vision of a new world By Alma Ramirez and Sarah Moloney Since its invention, photography has served as a creative and alternative form of media. It has played a major role in defining many major events and continues to have the potential to be used for great purpose. As a process-driven act, it can be brought into a community in a participatory program and eventually prove to bring change, leadership and a chance to air grievances in various communities. What is the function of photography today and how can we as revolutionaries use it to facilitate the delivery of our message about reconstructing society? Whereas accessibility to most mainstream media has been limited, photography has continually proven itself to be the universal language. And the reality is that "a picture is worth a thousand words." Historically, though the written word has been the main communicator of history, photos have also tremendously contributed in documenting the reality of history. It has been an agent for spreading many messages to wide sectors of the world. The detailed images of destruction from war, death from famine and disappointment from everyday loss of lives burn in the very core of our minds. Who will ever forget the photo of the little Vietnamese girl running hopelessly while her body burns from napalm, or the photos of families from Yugoslavia holding each other and mourning the deaths of their loved ones? While these historical images remain evident in the very core of our minds and hearts, the world continue to change and continue to call out for new images of loss, destruction and hopelessness. But although we see these atrocities of families being separated, police brutality, homelessness and hunger, we must also begin to search for solutions that or possible and who are what are making them possible. The world can be changed, but it is up to revolutionaries to make the change. The message of consciousness, change and reconstruction needs to be spread in all media and we ask that you contribute your talents to help spread our message and make a new world possible. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo giving life to the truth Contradictions -- life is full of them * Communities vs. Corporations * Wealth vs. Poverty * Schools vs. Jails The People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo is committed to exposing the truth. We've been through it all with you. Help us build a promise of a better world. Snap it. Words need pictures. Help us construct the images of a new world. Please send all photos to the attention of the Photo Committee PT/TP * P.O. Box 3524 * Chicago, IL 60654 +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PT RADIO Listen Up! This April - the sounds of Revolutionary Radio are in the Springtime Air! Can you hear them? PTR is producing two (2) 1/2-hour programs per month beginning in March 2000. These programs are currently available at the People's Tribune Radio Web site in Real Audio and MP3 format. With Real Audio you can listen right off the web. MP3 is designed for downloading and rebroadcasting by radio stations. (It is a much higher quality sound file!) Please let radio stations in your area know about PTR and that they can download these programs for free. For March (1), We have Karen Johnson of NOW discussing gender issues and global actions and Brenda Matthews discussing poetry and social work. For March (2), We have Kahlil Jacobs Fantauzzi discussing KPFA/Pacifica and Activism and Martin Lee discussing Joerg Haider and Austria. Thanks, Mike Thornton KVMR-FM Radio 530-265-9073 http://www.kvmr.org People's Tribune Radio http://www.ptradio.org The A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net/ Mike Thornton produces material for several outlets including KVMR-FM Radio, People's Tribune Radio and Full Logic Reverse at The A-Infos Radio Project. Interviews and/or excerpts may be contained in any and/or all of these programs. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 4/ April, 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. ******************************************************************