People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (10-00) Online Edition .TOPIC 10-00 PT Index .TEXT .BODY ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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. 10/ October, 2000 Editorial 1. Bush, Gore both fail the American people News and Features 2. What to do on Election Day ... and beyond 3. Ponder the possibilities we already have for a better life 4. 'Nursing home was like concentration camp' 5. Cuba celebrates, protests and stands firm 6. Oakland's future in the global economy 7. LAPD scared of community during DNC protests, says youth organizer Spirit of the Revolution 8. Interview with Father Lawrence Craig Music/Poetry/Art 9. Book Review: Campus, Inc.: Corporate Power in the Ivory Tower 10. Culture shock: Hip-hop exposed 11. Dreamerspoint: To Flutter Announcements, Events, etc. 12. World March of Women 2000 - October 15 13. The 3rd Annual Chicago Area People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo Benefit Dinner [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 10-00 Editorial: Bush, Gore both fail the American people .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: BUSH, GORE BOTH FAIL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE The political debates, between the two main presidential candidates, continue to bombard mainstream American news. Who will win? Who will be the next president of the United States? While the polls are pretty much deadlocked, with Bush now winning support from 46 percent of all likely voters and Gore getting 45 percent of the vote (CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll), the American people continue to agonize about the future of their lives and their country. In a recent town hall session on the Internet, a woman from San Francisco asks of Gore, "What are you going to do about making health care affordable for the American people?" Of course Gore, if it's even him keying in a response, lays out his plan for affordable health-care coverage for all. He says, "As president, I will fight to ensure every child has access to affordable health care coverage. I will also expand access to parents of uninsured children and propose that we let Americans age 55 to 65 buy into Medicare." It sounds great and the people might just vote for Gore because they believe in him and affordable health care is just what they want. However, why should health care be affordable or accessible? Shouldn't everyone have health care? Is Gore talking about having access to health care because he knows that people are already being excluded? The American Heritage Dictionary defines access as "a means of approaching, entering, exiting, or making use of." Accessibility has always been a great concern for all. In the 1950s and '60s, many witnessed a movement that arose from the very need to have access to a college education, high-paying jobs, and an equal opportunity to have a "slice of the pie." However, while the civil rights movement may have shown the need for a movement based on accessibility, today's political debates and spontaneous movements are not connected to just having access and then not even being able to afford it, but it demands change and not just another reform, but change in a way where all can be included in the plans for the future. The pertinent questions and issues that most Americans face throughout their daily lives are not being properly addressed throughout today's presidential debates. While it seems that all the right issues are being brought up and used to strengthen individual campaign strategies, we are still lacking the right answers. In a surprising attempt, U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley gave a vivid picture of what the future holds. He said, "If all the 13.5 million poor children in America were gathered in one place, they would form a city bigger than New York -- and we would then see child poverty as the slow-motion national disaster that it is." And though we might say, "But he's still a Democrat," Sen. Bradley shed light on the immoral decay of American children and families. Maybe it was a strategy to pinch at the morality of the people, but be it as it may, it pinched a nerve and questioned the ineffectiveness of a system and of both parties. So, what's the difference between this election and the past elections? Well, while the two candidates continue to bash each other's campaigns and bash each other's speaking abilities, America is withering away in extreme poverty, and accessibility just isn't enough anymore. Both Bush and Gore wag their fingers at each other and show American voters what's been seen before, but the restlessness and uncertainty of all those who seek answers continues to pound at the doors of the political debates. America searches for some tranquility, those who built it and continue to build it want to know that their families will have what they need to survive. But what does that mean for today's growing poor? Is it necessarily to have "access" to health care and education or is the real question based on having a "human right" to it and more? The Democratic and Republican conventions showed the power of both parties and their resiliency in avoiding the true questions of the American people. While they paraded themselves, their campaigns and expensive conventions, those with real concerns marched outside the conventions and chanted to have a right to speak about the future of their nation. And as we know, their voices were censored. The two parties failed to recognize the true concerns of most families, students, and senior citizens. Their answers do not give light to what is truly possible; they only give light to what they will try to make accessible. On September 5, 1882, the first Labor Day was celebrated in New York. This year we celebrated the history of that day and of all the workers that helped build this country. The Chicago Tribune on August 31 ran a photo story on some of those individuals "whose greatest accomplishments may be that they get up every day and put in a good day's work." And of course, Chicagoans applaud the Chicago Tribune for featuring the greatest achievements of those who get up everyday and work. Those who help build the America that the two men, the two parties (Democrat and Republican), are debating about. "How can we make America better?" they ask. But their attempts are still short of even attempting to solve the crucial issues that we face today. November 7 will be an inevitable triumph for one man, but a tragic loss for many. Many will still wake up the next day and be concerned about health care, and their children's education. Many will still not feel a sense of security. They will get in their cars, work another 10- hour day, and only be paid for eight and nothing would've changed. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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 10-00 What to do on Election Day ... and beyond .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 2. WHAT TO DO ON ELECTION DAY ... AND BEYOND Statement by the League of Revolutionaries for a New America November 7 is Election Day 2000. How will Americans greet that day? Well, it no doubt depends on who you are. Will you sleep on silk sheets in a $30 million mansion the night before, or will you lay your head on the stone-cold pavement in an urban doorway? Will you rise early to see what the stock market is doing, or will you drag yourself up to get to one of the two minimum-wage jobs that you hold to feed your family? Despite the talk of prosperity, few things more clearly show the nature of the times and the system we live under than the obscene gap between the rich and the rest of us. The average U.S. factory worker made $23,712 last year, while the average CEO of the 350 biggest corporations made $12.4 million in salary and stock options. The average CEO in America makes 500 times what the average worker makes. The top one percent of our population controls $620 billion. Never before have so few been so rich, or so many so poor. We live in a country where even formerly "middle class" workers are being sucked into the swelling ranks of the new poor as incomes shrink and jobs vanish; where millions are homeless; where millions have no health care and even those with insurance can't get good care; and where millions of children are denied a decent education. In our country, more prisons than schools are being built; it is common for prisoners to be tortured and murdered in the jails; and, for millions of us, the police are not protectors but tormentors. It doesn't have to be this way. We can have a new society, one that guarantees the economic, social and cultural well-being of everyone. The new technology and the globalization that have produced the super-rich and the desperately poor have also given us the opportunity and the means to create a new society that can provide for all, if we're willing to struggle for it. But we are going to have to stand up and fight. The ruling class has already spent years preparing for this struggle by, among other things, opening a war on the poor, passing repressive laws and shifting the country's politics to the right. They are preparing the people to accept a more repressive form of rule, without even the pretense of democracy. The fight for a new system is already under way. It takes the form of the struggle for health care, for jobs, for good wages, for housing, and so on. But to kick it into high gear, several things have to happen. We, the people, have to cut the political strings that tie us to the ruling class. We have to educate ourselves as to who are our real enemies and who are our real friends. And the struggle in our country must be approached from the perspective of the poor, from the viewpoint of all those whose needs are not being met. All this will take time, of course, but it's high time we got started. So what can we, the people, do, in this election and beyond, to begin cutting ourselves loose from the ruling class? First of all, in this election it makes no sense to choose "the lesser of two evils." The Democratic Party's drift to the right over the past 25 years has made more clear than ever that the Democratic and Republican parties are the twin representatives of private property and wealth. The two parties may sound like they have different programs, but we've been down this road before, and look where it got us. Recent experience has shown that voting for the lesser of two evils doesn't give us any less evil. In fact, the programs of the two parties today are essentially identical: protect the wealth and privilege of the few at all costs, and crush any dissent. On the other hand, we dare not avoid voting. At this point, that would amount to telling the ruling class that we're letting them off the hook, that we won't hold the government responsible for our well-being. What to do on Election Day? Vote for Ralph Nader. Nader is at least speaking to some of the real issues, and a vote for him would tell the ruling class, "We are awake, and we are going to hold you accountable." But beyond this, we should have no illusions. For a campaign like Nader's to be truly successful, there must be a real movement of people consciously fighting in their class interests, and no such conscious movement exists in the country today. The crucial question is what to do after the election. It's critical to recognize that elections are just one aspect of politics. We must be active in the day-to-day political life of our country. The issues we are dealing with every day -- poverty, health care, jobs, education -- will remain long after the election, and we must find practical ways of continuing the fight around the issues all year long. At the same time, in fighting around the issues we need to be doing what is necessary to raise the consciousness of the American people -- to get them to understand that the fight they' re engaged in is a class struggle, and that their real enemy is the tiny, wealthy ruling class that controls our country, and the system they represent. Indeed, the greatest danger that faces us today is not the threat of a Bush victory, but the American people's low level of political understanding. If we continue to think with our enemy's ideas, we will continue to fight one another. To unite and confront our real enemy, we have to develop our own class outlook. We also need our own independent political program and the institutions -- the Labor Party is a good example -- to carry it out. What does it mean to have our own class outlook? For decades, the ruling class has taught us that freedom, prosperity and private property go hand in hand. But these ideas are increasingly contradicted by the reality of a world where new technology is making jobs disappear and wages shrink, where workers are being told to sink or swim in a global labor market, and where the police are a bigger threat to the average person than the criminals. High technology and globalization are at once creating an abundance of everything we need, and making the mass of humanity too poor to buy anything. Isn't there something wrong with a society where people decked out in diamonds and fur coats are stepping over homeless people on the sidewalk? Isn't there something wrong with a system that prides itself on throwing women and children off welfare in the midst of spreading poverty? The ultimate question confronting us is not just moral, but practical: Will we have a society where the private control of society's wealth by a powerful few causes mass suffering and repression, or will we have a cooperative society, where the people own and control the abundance the new technology can provide, and where everything necessary for a full, rich, cultured life is guaranteed to every person? Sooner or later, for the majority of us, the question of whether we'll have a cooperative society is not an ideological question. It's a matter of morality, and a matter of survival. This year doesn't have to be one more election year with no choices. It can be the start of year after year of determined struggle to achieve real freedom and real prosperity. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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 10-00 Ponder the possibilities we already have for a better life .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 3. PONDER THE POSSIBILITIES WE ALREADY HAVE FOR A BETTER LIFE As we all anxiously await the outcome of the presidential election, many of us wonder of the possibilities. Will the health- care proposals of either candidate allow for the homeless man around the corner to walk into a hospital to be treated for the ringworm eating at the pores of his skin and decaying scalp? Will their plans for educational reform ensure that all the hungry children of America are fed, clothed, and sheltered so that their weak and fragile bodies can sit through an eight-hour day, or a three-hour standardized exam that will tell them if their intelligent enough to be "successful?" Will their promises for a better America console the mothers who stood outside the Democratic and Republican conventions this year yelling in agony for their sons or daughters who were brutally murdered by police officers hired by the state to serve and protect? America, it is time that we ask ourselves, "What truly are the possibilities?" The truth is that the possibilities are many. Both major presidential candidates are promising us change, but they are not giving us a solution for the real crisis at large. If our economy is at its zenith, why has there been a 60 percent increase in child and youth poverty over the last 20 years? If unemployment is truly at its lowest, why is it not made clear that it is because, according to Brad Lorton in Labor News, the average American worker now works 164 hours per year more than he or she did in 1975? In other words, corporations are able to squeeze a whole extra working month a year out of their average worker. If technology is supposed to make it easier for Americans, why are we not reaping the benefits? Why are we all working more rather than less? According to many economists, there is a huge transfer of wealth occurring from lower-skilled, middle-class workers to the owners of capital assets. Why should we let this happen? What would our world be like if we all were able to take advantage of all that technology has to offer? Let's ponder the possibilities. At this point in time, as mentioned by Umberto Colombo in "The Technology Revolution and Restructuring of the Global Economy," we are in a period of transition between two epochs comparable to that of the Industrial Revolution, when the steam engine was introduced and coal served as the primary energy source. According to Columbo: "One kilogram of uranium can produce the same amount of energy as 13 U.S. tons of oil or 19 U.S. tons of coal, and in telecommunications, one ton of copper wire can now be replaced by a mere 25 or so kilograms of fiberglass cable, which can be produced with only five percent of the energy needed to produce copper wire it replaces." In other words, energy can now be produced without expending mass quantities of resources. Things can be made with very little physical effort; in the future, we will be looking at human-free factories, and with robotization, many jobs will be eliminated. As it is, the U.S. Department of Labor has said that eight out of 10 occupations most likely to grow between 1992 and 2005 will be strictly service jobs such as janitors, cleaners, clerks, food preparation, etc. As for agriculture, technological advances in crop cultivation and livestock breeding have allowed for an overproduction of food. In Vietnam, agronomists have discovered high-yield rice varieties that have turned that country into the second biggest rice exporter. Technology has also led to the production of higher quality hybrid stocks with low production cost. Again, where are all these profits going? If there is enough food, why are not all people being fed? Under a capitalist system, technology is being used only for the benefit of the rich. Between 1979 and 1989, the annual pay of corporate chief executives increased by 19 percent, and 66 percent after taxes, while the average worker's wages fell by 18 percent according to U.S. government statisticians. Guess what, America? It is possible to feed all the hungry men, women, and children in our society. It is possible for all children to have an education. It is possible to create a justice system that is not negligent or oppressive. It is possible for everyone to work, and still have quality time with their friends and families, or simply time to appreciate life and the beauty of living -- technology can make this possible. We must fight for a new society that will encompass all this and more. Our fight begins with political independence. We must have our own party, such as the Labor Party, founded in 1996, that will educate the employed and unemployed, about the interests of the poor and working classes. All who so valiantly protested outside the conventions, look around you, if the ruling class does not listen, then for the love of humanity, listen to yourselves and unite! .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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 10-00 'Nursing home was like concentration camp' .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 4. 'NURSING HOME WAS LIKE CONCENTRATION CAMP' 'U.S. health care system stinks,' says disabled man By Mike Brand About four years ago, I got multiple sclerosis. Since then I have had a lot of personal experience with the health care system. It stinks. What I am trying to do here is not to vent my outrage at it so much as to understand how such a rich country can have such a poor health care system -- for almost everybody. Over the years before I became disabled, I was fortunate enough to study how the economy of the United States works in favor of a very rich minority at our expense. I was also fortunate to discuss the health care system with knowledgeable leaders of asbestos workers, coal miners and uninsured welfare recipients, among others. This studying and discussion helped me understand how bad the health care system was. It helped me get through my own difficult experiences and to understand more deeply that real change is needed. Recently, I was hospitalized for about a month, after which I was sent to a nursing home for about six weeks to recover sufficient strength to be able to care for myself at home. I learned a lot about the U.S. health care system while I was there. It is widely believed that patient care in what are called nursing homes is pretty bad, ranging from indifference to outright mistreatment. The typical situation is worse. The comparison to a Nazi concentration camp may seem extreme but it repeatedly came to mind while I was confined at the home. Even now, several weeks after being discharged, the analogy seems accurate, except that I did get out alive while most prisoners of the Nazis were not so fortunate. Actually, many nursing home patients do not get out alive, so the analogy stands on that score also. You will have to put up with my superlatives and apparent exaggerations. What I describe is really how it seemed. My study of the economics of health care before I became disabled was helpful when I became sick. But nothing prepared me for what I experienced in the health care system as a whole, especially in the nursing home. Nursing homes can be described many ways, and they all condemn the health-care system of which they are a glaring part. For example, there is a popular impression that these nursing homes are places where old people are sent to die; that they receive little or no therapy and wait around for death. Nothing I saw contradicted this impression. The memory of many elderly, crippled patients sitting idly throughout the day stays with me. They knew that there was no way out. The first thing I noticed when I got there was that the entrance doors and those to the courtyard were not accessible to people in wheelchairs such as myself and most other patients (inmates). To enter or exit the facility or the garden, you had to wait for a more mobile person who could hold the door open for you. The people who controlled the home for its owners were called administrators. I asked an administrator why a home for disabled people lacked the access of any modern department store or supermarket. I was told that the building was old and the expense of installing the automatic doors was prohibitive. Then I was thanked for my input! In other words, however nicely put, the real message was "Shut up!" It is worth pointing out that most of the workers at the home, especially the physical therapists, tried to be conscientious and caring for their patients. The problems arose directly from the operation of the home for profit at the expense of health care. The profit system applied to health care just does not work very well for patients -- as far as I know, the owners have no complaints. The administrators were so polite to us. They could afford to be. They were making a fortune by giving us the cheapest care possible. The food was barely edible, which may explain the tiny portions. The room I slept in was a single room in which they squeezed two beds. The workers there uniformly complained of low wages. Many barely made the minimum wage. The facility was understaffed, which meant that the workers were overworked and therefore the patients got minimal care. Once, when a catheter which I needed after my operation had to be replaced, the medical staff at the home not only faked doing it, they also did not inform the surgeon at the hospital that anything had been done at all. When I was taken to the hospital for routine X-rays, the surgeon saw what had been done and was furious. However, he told me that he knew this home was terrible but there simply was no better place to send me. Several other health workers among my friends and family agreed that as bad as this home was, it was fairly typical and even better than many! As polite as the administrators were is how impolite I was to them. I had questions and demanded answers. Once I was able to confront a head administrator in front of a group of patients and staff. I asked him if he treated the patients so badly because of his own sadism or whether he was just in it for the money. Did he take sexual pleasure out of the misery his system caused or was he just after the cash? Again, after a moment's stammering, I was thanked for my input. I was not a docile patient and it disturbed me how many other patients were. This system and mistreatment are not necessary. There are plenty of resources in society to take care of ill and elderly people. The disabled and elderly could be a powerful force for change. They must understand that real change is possible. The World Health Organization recently surveyed the health-care systems of the countries of the world. The United States spends $3500 per person each year, more than any other country. Yet it ranks only 37th in quality of care, behind such poor countries as Morocco and Oman. What a scam! The report described the United States as "really three Americas." At the extremes are the top 10 percent, who get the world's best care, and the bottom 10 percent, which include 44 million uninsured, who basically get no health care. And then there are the middle 80 percent whose care the WHO report describes as "mediocre." Eighty percent is almost everybody, and how bad "mediocre" care is can be seen by my nursing-home experience. Truly, we are due for a change in which decent health care becomes a right and not merely the privilege of the richest 10 percent. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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 10-00 Cuba celebrates, protests and stands firm .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 5. CUBA CELEBRATES, PROTESTS AND STANDS FIRM By William H. Watkins, Ph.D. The months of July and August are very important to the Cuban people. Alongside the festivities of "Carnival," their nation takes time out to remember the 26th of July. It was on that date in 1953 when 158 men and two women led by Dr. (Doctor of Jurisprudence or Law) Fidel Castro traveled in a 16-car caravan to attack the Moncada Garrison (Cuba's second largest military base, located in Santiago) and the Cespedes Garrison in Bayamo. Hoping to catch the soldiers off guard, the brave guerrillas battled 1,000 soldiers at Moncado for nearly three hours. At both locations a total of six guerillas lost their lives during the fighting. Another 55 were imprisoned and brutally tortured to death. Several were castrated. Abel Santamaria, a revolutionary warrior, had his eyes gouged out before being murdered. Abel is now a martyr and hero to the Cuban people. After several years in prison, Fidel and the surviving guerrillas would resume organizing the people's war. Uniting the revolutionary movement in the countryside and the cities, the rebel army seized state power from the corrupt Fulgencio Batista puppet government in 1959. Moncada and the 26th of July are forever memorable to the Cuban revolution. Despite being vilified, blockaded, and periodically attacked by the United States and right-wing forces, the Cuban revolution stands firm. When the former Soviet Union withdrew its support, the Cuban economy was seriously wounded. Nearly 30 percent of the country's wealth has evaporated. Granma (International) newspaper, July 23, 2000 reports that the U.S. blockade, further strengthened by the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, has cost Cuba $67 billion. The Cuban revolution should be understood by us all. The revolution promised and delivered free education and medical care to all people. In the United States, poor and middle class people struggle with a corrupt medical and pharmaceutical industry that gouges and cheats us at every opportunity. Cuba has shown us that we can build a society based on human needs above profits. This July, we Americans who were in Cuba for the celebrations witnessed a valiant people and their leaders curse the devil. They know they are an embarrassment to the economic injustices of the United States. They know the U.S. ruling elite would like to undermine them in any way possible. They also know there are reptiles and vipers waiting in the wings to cause havoc. Against all odds, they stand firm in the knowledge that people count over riches. The Cuban revolution deserves our support. Long live the Cuban Revolution! .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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 10-00 Oakland's future in the global economy .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 6. OAKLAND'S FUTURE IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY By Steve Miller Part I [Editor's note: Below we print the first part of an article which was developed from discussions in the Fruitvale Chapter (in Oakland, California) of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America.] The changes in Oakland -- organized by Mayor Jerry Brown -- are not part of a racial agenda. Rather they are designed to meet the needs of global corporations. Building up downtown Oakland will not revitalize the city. High technology cannot bring prosperity to the majority of Oakland's people because it employs so few people. The control of electronic technology by global capitalism can only lead to increased misery for the majority of people in the world. The Electronic Age is here to stay. The economic system will not go backwards. Success means fighting forward, not backwards. It means fighting in a new way -- rejecting both the politics of privilege and the politics of begging. Jerry Brown became the mayor of Oakland based on his radio program, "We, the People." Five days a week, Brown discussed local issues and roundly indicted corporate avarice and corruption. He condemned corporate excesses, yet was silent on the issue of capitalism itself. He is silent still. Right after taking office in 1999, Brown began to push his "10K Plan." The plan is to bring 10,000 new residents to downtown Oakland and to make the area a "24-hour city." Thus the city government is aggressively reorganizing housing, especially live/work space, and turning it over to developers who will build thousands of new condos. The new residents will be "techno-pioneers" who will come to take advantage of the city's newest resource: one of the world's best fiber-optic networks. Oakland's downtown is about to become a major western terminus on the information superhighway. One of Brown's first acts was to give large businesses in Oakland a 10- year tax moratorium. Major corporations in Oakland quickly ponied up for a six-page ad in Fortune magazine (April 26, 1999) called "Oakland -- California's Gateway for Business." More than an ad, it was the city's coming-out announcement: "Welcome to Oakland -- California's strategic location for companies whose success depends on the ability to move goods and ideas quickly and seamlessly over air, water, land or cyberspace. "Boasting the fifth largest container port in the country, an international airport, a vast intermodal network, as well as one of the country's best fiber-optic networks, Oakland is the key link in Northern California's 'Golden Triangle': San Jose (Silicon Valley), San Francisco and Oakland. Together these cities make up the fastest growing, most innovative regional economy in the world." (emphasis added) In the last decade, over $3 billion has been spent in the Flatlands of Oakland. Yes -- and not one penny went to build the community or support our humanity. This money was spent to build the world's most expensive freeway to replace the one damaged in the '89 earthquake. The freeway was repaired so that the Port of Oakland could move goods just a little faster for the 100 or so giant corporations that use the port. (The highly mechanized port, however, functions with so few people that it provides few jobs). The repair also facilitated the flow of tens of thousands of commuters to and from San Francisco --just a little faster everyday -- to work the computers that drive this important center of world finance. This massive investment was designed to strengthen Oakland's role as a key nexus in the global transportation and communications network. Clearly the priority was the need of global capital, not the community. Will high technology and global capital, then, really help Oakland? Will building up the downtown really revitalize the city? What about the Flatlands, where the rents increased as much as 30 percent last year, where homelessness grows more common, where "three strikes" is the law and yet where running the schools in a criminal fashion goes unpunished? Why should we assume it's going to be different this time? The answer to these questions depends on understanding the globalization of capitalism that is sweeping over the world. Oakland, like any other city in the world, must function in this environment. Global corporations are on a rampage to privatize everything including human DNA, seed stocks, entire species, water and the electronic vibrations of atoms that we call radio waves. They are hostile to regulation, never mention equality or justice, and are passing laws to override every form of local control. Privatization by definition means that global corporations will now control these essential gifts of nature. How they will be used is no longer up for public discussion. Since Oakland proposes to throw down in this game, offering its fiber-optic capacity as a stake, let's examine how global capital is reorganizing telecommunications to see what Oakland can expect. "Oakland is the Gold Rush of this time." -- Michael Milliken, former junk bond king, speaking at Jerry Brown's Oakland 2000 High Tech Conference, November 1999. By the mid '60s, government-owned satellites were already used to bounce television and phone signals around the world. Experts soon realized that the increase in telecommunications signals would overwhelm the capacity of the copper wires that still carry the bulk of the world's communications. While copper wires can only carry a few signals, each silicon fiber of a fiber optical cable can carry 5,000 videos at once, or 50,000 human conversations without interference. Fiber optic systems will continue to evolve until the myriad existing technologies merge. This "super Internet" is the "Gold Rush" that all electronic technology is aiming at. It will be accessed by a device that combines the functions of a computer, a television and a phone. The goal is to create vast, interactive telecommunications networks that function "seamlessly." (Note the use of this term in the ad quoted above). Seamless communications systems are those where communications can be sent from one system to any other system rapidly without delays or loss of information or function. This situation, however, does not yet really exist. The privatization of the world's satellite systems began in the mid '80s. In the decade following 1998, current plans are to launch 1,700 satellites, costing $120 billion, to ring the planet with privatized multiple satellite systems (Dan Schiller. "Digital Capitalism," 1999, p. 67). Telecommunications systems communicate by modifying the electromagnetic vibrations of atoms that produce the various frequencies we use to send radio and television signals. In the 1920s, when these frequencies were first used, the public recognized these waves as natural resources and demanded that the government control them in the public interest. [To be continued.] .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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 10-00 LAPD scared of community during DNC protests .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 7. LAPD SCARED OF COMMUNITY DURING DNC PROTESTS, SAYS YOUTH ORGANIZER PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Tell us about the Democratic Convention protests. LUIS SANCHEZ: These protests were about holding the political system accountable and taking the mask away. While Clinton was giving his speech, there were over 10,000 outside at the concert when the police attacked without warning. TVs across the country carried the surreal image of police shooting people in the back superimposed over the image of Clinton speaking to the convention. Youth Organizing Communities was out there every day. We were part of all the actions. On Tuesday (August 15), we organized a march of 1,000 people to demand education as a human right. This was a permitted, lawful march, just like all the other marches in L.A. With no provocation at all, the cops declared it unlawful and swept the streets. One hundred of us were chased by cops for two hours. In Seattle or D.C., the cops acted in response to direct action and civil disobedience, but here, they attacked nonviolent marches with legal permits. This shows they are scared of what's happening. In L.A., the majority of marchers were from the community. When people of color, the working class, immigrants, undocumented, and kids used to being attacked by cops are demonstrating against globalization and corporate capital, the cops find this really scary. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: What did these demonstrations mean for Los Angeles? LUIS SANCHEZ: L.A. was in need of something like this to show the potential and power of so many community people in the streets, taking back politics and shutting down downtown for a week. The cops overreacted, but they had to deal on our terms in many ways. The government, politicians and corporate interests responded with military force like they do in the Third World, showing the nation we are close to fascism. The people showed what they are capable of by marching without a permit to Twin Towers (Los Angeles County Jail, where arrested demonstrators were held) and Parker Center (Los Angeles police headquarters) at the end of the permitted immigration march the last day. The streets belonged to the people. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Are you talking about revolutionary change? LUIS SANCHEZ: Revolution needs to happen in this country for any change to succeed. But, how do you create a revolutionary process within the global economy? You need Los Angeles, Bangladesh, and Mexico City. How do you get there? We want all our organizing to get to that point and to do that, it takes political education. It takes crises to occur and people understanding the crises. We're only going to get to the point of revolution if people understand. Change can go both ways. If people don't understand, they can respond in very reactionary ways as we see from Nazi Germany, McCarthyism and lynching. That's why community organizing with political education is so central to any mass movement. Youth Organizing Communities has done some great actions, but in many ways the most important thing we do is political education so we don't leave anybody behind. We are a youth organization working primarily with youth, but whatever we do, we have parent meetings, educate the parents, make them trust us and support us, and have them organize among other parents. Revolution is a process. You might win a few concessions, such as health care for everyone, but it's going to be a process. For this movement to grow, a lot of evaluation needs to happen. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Could you explain this evaluation? LUIS SANCHEZ: The movement from within needs to re-evaluate tactics. We have to ask ourselves why certain groups have not joined the movement. Egos need to be left at the door. We need to evaluate the role of leaders. Leadership is basically an accident of history. We are accidents of history. I could have grown up in the '80s and not have gotten anywhere. Because Pete Wilson moved to undercut education and replace it with the prison- industrial complex, a climate was created which gave life to the youth movement. For every action, there is an organized reaction. People understood the crisis and organized. Leadership needs to understand that reality. Leadership is out there because a crisis develops and people respond to it and leadership develops. Public leaders can get seduced by the corporate media. They need to recognize they stand on the arms and legs of thousands of people who don't have the opportunity to voice their own opinions. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ YOUTH ORGANIZING COMMUNITIES Luis Sanchez, 25, is a youth and community organizer for Youth Organizing Communities in Los Angeles. YOC is a network of youth organizers from Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco, who recognize that any significant challenge to the existing social order can be advanced by the youth who are subject to its deepest socio-economic and cultural contradictions. YOC's organizing efforts aim toward supporting struggles for political space through youth movements of resistance that are connected to issues of educational equity in schools. YOC voices the silenced historical roots of the current educational crisis that includes racism, sexism, homophobia and class discrimination reinforced through testing, tracking, inadequate funding, the de- industrialization of communities, teacher de-skilling and global accumulation of wealth by a privileged few. Youth Organizing Communities can be reached at 323-780-7606 and yoc@SchoolsNotJails.com. Its website is at www.SchoolsNotJails.com. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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 10-00 Spirit: Interview with Father Lawrence Craig .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 8. Spirit of the Revolution: Interview with Father Lawrence Craig By Francis Scudellari [Editor's note: The following article is excerpted from an interview with Fr. Lawrence J. Craig, executive director of Kolbe House and pastor of Assumption Church. Kolbe House, the parish- based justice ministry of the Archdiocese of Chicago, provides a ministry of compassion and presence to those persons affected by the criminal justice system. It also advocates for prison reform and works to educate the public at large about the complexities and realities of the criminal justice system.] THE PROBLEMS OF RE-INTEGRATING PRISONERS INTO SOCIETY: "Most guys going in are very young. And they weren't doing anything outside, so when they're inside, they're not ready to take charge of their lives. They're not thinking about what are they going to do. The catch phrase in the neighborhood is always, 'I'm going to get me a little job.' Just that little job. Whatever a 'little job' is. Not big goals, not going to be the president of a company, or anything like that. Just get a regular job and get a regular paycheck. And if they haven't been out and then back in, they're not aware of how hard it's going to be. ... "Now with the world moving as fast as it is, if you're locked up five years or 10 years and you come out, it's incredible the difference that's gone on that you haven't been able to deal with while you were locked up. I don't know how I would do it. And there isn't really a good re-entry. There are some parole, post- release kind of things, last three months or last six months of your sentence, where you go to a place in Chicago and try to re- enter, but certainly it's not dealing with the numbers of people that are out there." COMMUNITIES' ECONOMIC DEPENDENCE ON THE PRISON SYSTEM: "It's definitely true in the state of Illinois. It affects the whole economy. You could make a parallel here, which no one would like, and you certainly wouldn't want to overdo the parallel. But I think there certainly is a similarity to the whole slavery question. ... "We're overlooking the fact that we're locking up huge numbers of people, which we never have done prior to this going down. We're overlooking that because they're not like us. ... That 'those people' mentality is really terrible in society -- just stratifying and separating people so much. ... "Here [in the United States], it's embarrassing. And again it's locking up minorities; it's locking up poor people, which tend to be the same thing. And then leading people to believe that these people have to be locked up. And the system -- it's a multibillion dollar system. These big conventions for the American Correctional Association are just unbelievable. People bringing in the latest cattle prods and razor wire and scary stuff. ... "Once it gets to that level, where it's money and it's supporting the economy of local communities, it's real hard to get out. So, it's not just a question of people see the light and say, 'Oh really, is that who's locked up? Well, let's change that.' Now, your job depends on it." THE DIFFICULTIES OF BUILDING UNITY: "One of the problems we have is that the black community, largely speaking, has not taken up these issues of incarceration. Now you hear Jesse Jackson speaking out, Bobby Rush is speaking. A few guys are speaking, but middle-class blacks are not doing it, because they're like middle-class whites. They don't want to be in the ghetto. So, we're having a hard time trying to say to them, 'You should care, because these are your people.' "Hispanics are the same way. ... They don't want to live here [in the neighborhood]. They want to get enough money, they want to buy a house and it's never going to be in our neighborhood. It's out where there's a yard and they have the same basic 'American Dream' values. And so they look at crime the same way -- 'Lock 'em up.' And we try to say: 'We're locking you up. We're locking your neighbor up. It could be your son.' ... It is, it's really a question of 'us and them' and people do it so naturally." THE ROLE OF FAITH: "Speaking in general, I'm trying to look for something that is not specifically faith-based. I think in this society that you can go without even looking at faith. It's just purely practical reasoning. You're gutting a society, you're destroying your future by what you're doing, whether you believe it or don't believe it. Just practically speaking. Which I think is how in the public arena you almost have to talk -- and certainly as a clergyperson, because when we speak, we get written off. ... They just don't listen to you, whether it's true or not. And if a person who has been in the experience talks any kind of faith perspective, they say that's jailhouse conversions. ... "I'd say the majority of believers are believers in name only. They think they believe, but the American Protestant tradition is very individualistic. It's not a sense of community or 'We're all the same.' It's very much into the saved and the not saved. ... That's very American. I think even Catholics fall into that. Without even thinking about it, you start to get into that mindset of the saved and the unsaved, and the good and the bad, and us and them. It's not just calling to people, 'Hey, remember what you said you believe.' It's saying, 'This is what that Gospel that you have the name of, this is what that Gospel really says.' ... "If people were to say to us, 'Why do we do this? Why do we work in the jail ministry?' Or they say, 'It must be a real hard ministry.' Or sometimes people will say, 'If even one person changes, it must be all worthwhile.' Well, all of that is garbage. ... We do this because we have a sure sense that it's right. And there aren't a whole lot of jobs in life that give you that sense. If you believe in the Gospel, the Gospel clearly tells you where to be. And as you do it, you have a sense of God's action. You can see God working. When people's minds and hearts are open, it works. So, we have a sense that this is the right thing to do." [For more information about Kolbe House, call 773-247-6644 or write to Kolbe House at Assumption B.V.M. Church, Chicago Archdiocean Prison Ministry, 2434 S. California, Chicago, Illinois 60608.] .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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 10-00 Campus, Inc.: Corporate Power in the Ivory Tower .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 9. BOOK REVIEW: CAMPUS, INC.: CORPORATE POWER IN THE IVORY TOWER By L.M. "Campus, Inc.," edited by Geoffrey D. White, Ph.D, with Flannery C. Hauck, is published by Prometheus Books in Amherst, New York. It is a compilation of 30 thoughtfully written essays from a variety of people in, out of and around the academic world, and one interview with Noam Chomsky. The subject is about the conflict-of-interest politics and the secrecy when corporations openly or silently donate funds to schools. Below are highlights from six essays. Kevin Kniffin, "The Goods at Their Worst": "As mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, and outsourcing have become the most recent fashions in the business world, the same is happening in the university." "Currently, Barnes and Noble College Bookstores operate on 350 campuses, muscling their way in and preventing the little guys, the American Booksellers Association and Penn Book Center, from becoming an equal player in the campus book market." Richard Daniels, "Resisting Corporatization of the University": "The signs of corporatization are everywhere ... Hewlett-Packard and Apple supplying computers to Burger King, Nike and Taco Bell forcing their goods onto the student body. "In the past decade state funding has halved (to 15 percent of the budget) while corporate funding has more than tripled (to 10 percent) and is now the main growth area. Where's the faculty? Has the faculty been bought off by the funding system?" Howard Zinn, "How Free is Higher Education?": "They [guardians of the status quo] declare their admiration for such freedom in principle, and suggest that radicals are insufficiently grateful for its existence. But when teachers actually use this freedom -- introducing new subjects, new readings, outrageous ideas, challenging authority, criticizing Western civilization, amending the canon of great books as listed by certain educational authorities of the past --then the self- appointed guardians of high culture become enraged. "All education involves selection -- of events, of voices, of books. ... Pluralism in thought that is required for truly free expression in higher education has never been realized." Todd A. Price, "Wiring the World": "In the civics classes of the past, we learned that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth. Later in life, we learned that big business abhors government interference, and it abhors social services performed without a profit even more. Health care, public transportation, social security, and education are designed to meet basic human needs in a democracy. These institutions, therefore, are fair game for big business and its primary tool, the corporation." Ralph Nader, "Greed in the Grooves": "The corporate model concentrates power; restricts the production and application of knowledge; and increases uniform behavior, self-censorship, and -- when needed -- outright suppression. Thomas Jefferson warned Americans about the excess of the monied interests when he urged representative government. Higher education is another one of those crucial countervailing powers to the dominance of the economic government." Ben Manski, "In the Hands of Youth": "Democracy must be expressed as much in our actions as in what we say. We've got to look for democracy in our process, in our language, in our priorities, and in the product of our labors. We should be sure to balance democracy of process with democracy in outcomes, and not allow either priority to overwhelm or impede the other. Otherwise, we risk the twin dangers of parochialism on the one hand and of unaccountable hierarchy on the other." .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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 10-00 Culture shock: Hip-hop exposed .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 10. CULTURE SHOCK: HIP-HOP EXPOSED Photos and article by Tenox Author's note: According to the Universal Zulu Nation, November 12, 1999 marked the "official 25th anniversary of Hip-Hop." It marked the 26th anniversary of the UZN. This article reflects on events and organizations that have continued to focus on the true advancement of B-Boy and B-Girl cultivation. From the B-Boy Summit (strong, after a brief hiatus a couple of years ago) to the Pro-Am to programs such as the Swat Jam, 1999 proved to be a productive period for progressive heads worldwide. A stream of informative events have continued to nurture the power of young artists in 2000 as well. Organized to draw upon a few dedicated artists, these jams have steadily grown in order to accomodate the rising number of those "showing up and going off." The Pro-Am B-Boy masters, which is South Beach Miami's premier street-dance event, is a good example. This year, it will extend beyond its usual four days in May and meet again in August for the Pro-Am in Los Angeles. The winners of the past four battles will compete against each other. "Wicked," of the Chicago crew called "Phase 2" (third place Germany, 1998), will be defending his B-Boy Pro-Am title from a couple of years back. His crew member "K-Mel" took the title of "best individual B-Boy" at the "Battle of the Year" in Germany, 1998. ACTION UP NORTH Another group of fierce competitors, native to Chicago, are known as the "Brickheads." This South Side crew has ties with TNT and Ultra Bionic 5 out of East Chicago, Indiana, giving an overall unique vibe to the area. Constant travel, practice, and battle sessions keep these teams extra-sharp. Young activists throughout the Great Lakes region have been busy competing, organizing and preserving the arts. B-Girls such as "Siren," one of the organizers for Chicago's "Skill Matrix" event (July 1, 2000), have been key to the advancement of this cause. There is also the "Social Rehabilitation Center," on Chicago's South Side. Frequented by young artists interested in socialism, this is a place where DJ's and B-Boys from different cities can interact on the turntables, on the floor, or within meaningful discussion. Always good vibe at the SRC. At the same time, lack of support from local outlets (clubs, stages, etc.) to local music groups (those labeled "Hip-Hop") is a problem in the Windy City. The recent boycott of Chicago's "House of Blues," organized by artists from around the region, is a reflection of this situation. To speak to issues involving artists and social activism, "Culture Shock," an event (as the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo was going to press) which took place from 1995-97, has been scheduled to reconvene September 21-24, 2000 in various locations throughout northwest Indiana and the Chicagoland area. Organized by "NORPH," a production crew consisting of TENOX and DJ Ab/S, it has the objective of creating an interactive atmosphere where artists and intellectuals are one and the same. The conference will begin on the campus of Indiana University Northwest in Gary, Indiana and will end on Chicago's Near North Side. It will involve various student groups, professors, dance crews and artists offering creative ideas about how to strengthen our movement against the commercial system we face throughout most of the world today. These were just a few programs I felt should be communicated to the readers. Please feel free to contact the paper if there are any questions, concerns or comments in reference to this article. Very much respect to those groups and individuals who have written in response to previous articles. Your feedback offers motivation and focus for greater tasks. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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 10-00 Dreamerspoint: To Flutter .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 11. DREAMERSPOINT: TO FLUTTER by Leslie Willis I: Bird "Anna, you have a report for us?" "Yes, and I promise to be brief." I looked around at the Council members' sleepy faces. "I don't have to tell you guys that there are huge shantytowns all over the world now, outside of all major cities and some not so major. Most of them are organized. Of course, some are run by thugs paid by the World Government Organization, but many are like ours, democratic and revolutionary. After our hemispheric-wide demonstration in front of WGO headquarters last month in New York, which apparently had a great deal of support in the working sector of the city, WGO convened an emergency meeting. It appears that they are in the process of issuing further restrictions on the movement of citizens throughout the world. Of course, we knew they had been considering this ever since everyone was implanted with these bio-classification IDs." I touched my shoulder where mine had been since last year. "We need to discuss what all of this will mean. It will obviously require more creativity from us in getting around, but it could also open up some opportunities for gathering support from the city." I took a deep breath; it was stuffy inside the "tool shed." We often met in this tiny space with no floor, just a musty, old carpet thrown on the ground, a single lantern, and fruit-crate furniture for the Council members to sit on. The room had one small window high up on the wall that the morning sun was streaming through, and it was to this window that I drug a crate under to stand upon so I could reach the latch. As I reached up, I heard this sputtering, cat-like purr, and then I saw it. "What's that?!" I stepped back, tilting the crate. "Whoa, that's a mean-looking little bird." It hovered a foot from the window, suspended there, wings beating so fast they were a blur. A dark, keen eye centered in on me and its long beak appeared hard and sharp enough to draw blood. "It looks like a humming bird, but I've never seen one around here before," Dan said, peering up over my shoulder. There was a loud report and the bird fell. "What the hell?" We all scrambled to the door. Pete lumbered toward us, rifle glinting and eyes glowing as he stooped over his prey. "That's not going to be much of a meal, Pete, barely bigger than the BB you wasted." "Believe it or not, Danny boy, I'm not hungry enough to eat this. But you guys better come over here and have a look." The bird was still alive and still staring just as hard; one wing fluttered uselessly, the other one was disabled by the shot. Pete held the fluttering wing to the bird's side, and with his pocketknife, he cut into the gray down on its belly. A pink liquid oozed out as he stretched the wound open. "Come here and look closely at this." Hair-thin wires wormed like veins throughout anemic-looking strips of muscle tissue, soft flesh, and circuitry. "Oh my God, it's what they call a smart chicken -- it's a spy!" said Dan. "Any idea who sent it?" Pete asked. "Three guesses," I murmured. [Journal entry, Town Council meeting June, 19, 20--] II: Dodo's Dream May 1, 30__ Dear Ursi, I have been examining this poem that was slipped into the pages of the journal entry entitled "Bird." The poem was written by Spring, who was the daughter of Marci [see Double Helix: A Journal Entry]. Spring was labeled in State records of that time as "retarded." What do you make of Dodo's Dream? Your loving niece, Leenah Dodo's Dream Through emerald branches drugged with sun, I padded slow and light on trails worn by cheetahs' paws, and brushed by light tufts that dot like stones through creaking woods and clicking brooks. Oh how I dream of nestling deep the stuff that cushions night, to fall away in revelry, to surrender to -- I know not what. To listen for the whispers that tell of what's below, blowing into shadow echoes that flutter in the drapes the voices of the players that stand on ground that Eden stakes. Their tongues discourse what's true and gentle with laughter that delights the air receiving each ones meaning to weave together there. "Here's to goodwill, good fortune and beauty throughout" Say goblets that glow in evenings light and wine does flow as do also the endeavors of the dwellers on earth. For this future then I will dream where humans live and love, and plan together. With reverence spent upon this ground, our luscious garden cradle, Our treasures sought and bound together as common destiny is found. In such a place as this, may I wake. ----------------------- Page 2 - Dodo's Dream Dear Leenah, I think that "retarded" must have meant "visionary." The extinct bird dreams of a world he can return to and that world would be much like it is today. The story of "Bird" in the Underground Journals, whether it was myth or not, pointed toward the horrors that were to be perpetuated by "world organizations" run by and for powerful profit-driven individuals. As you know, we have global committees of all kinds today, but they are organized to plan for the brightest possible future for all "the dwellers on earth." Love, Ursi P.S. Speaking of committees, don't you think we should raise it to one of the ecology committees to consider the poor Dodo for resurrection? .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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 10-00 World March of Women 2000 - October 15 .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 12. WORLD MARCH OF WOMEN 2000 - OCTOBER 15 The World March of Women 2000 will be held in Washington, D.C. on October 15. The demand is for an end to poverty and violence against women, and a fair distribution of the planet's wealth. The rally is begins at 1:00 p.m. on the Ellipse (Constitution Ave. & 17th St., NW). Call the National Organization for Women at 202- 628-8669 or e-mail: march@now.org for information. The People's Tribune encourages our readers to attend. Call 1-800- 691-6888 to order copies of the People's Tribune to distribute at the march. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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 10-00 PT/TP Benefit Dinner .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 13. THE 3RD ANNUAL CHICAGO AREA PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO BENEFIT DINNER "Where is the platform of the poor in our national debates?" with very special guests: Cheri Honkala, director of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union and leader of the internationally recognized "Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign." Richard Monje, People's Tribune/ Tribuno del Pueblo editorial board member and labor leader Saturday, October 21, 2000 NITE Hall 333 S. Ashland Ave. Chicago Reception (including light dinner buffet and no-host bar) starts at 6:30 p.m. Program to follow at 8 p.m.Tickets are $15, half- price for students, $95 for a table of eight. Please call 773-202- 7012 for more information. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA http://www.lrna.org Call toll free: 1-800-691-6888 LRNA P.O. Box 477113 Chicago, IL 60647 People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo Only $20/year to subscribe P.O. Box 3524 Chicago, IL 60654 +----------------------------------------------------------------+ .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 10/ October, 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. ******************************************************************