Received: from GWUVM (SMTPUSER) by GWUVM.GWU.EDU (Mailer R2.10 ptf000) with BSMTP id 2747; Fri, 04 Feb 94 22:29:01 EDT Received: from vms2.macc.wisc.edu by gwuvm.gwu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with TCP; Fri, 04 Feb 94 22:28:30 EDT Received: from VMSmail by vms2.macc.wisc.edu; Fri, 04 Feb 94 21:27 CDT Message-Id: <24020421274510@vms2.macc.wisc.edu> Date: Fri, 04 Feb 94 21:27 CDT From: Christopher Babiarz Subject: Here is da Knews! To: ms272c@gwuvm.gwu.edu X-VMS-To: brad,CBABIARZ Hype! Progressive Student Network 1993 Fall Conference Why "Hype?" Because it is the name of the beast. When lying is called for, the ad man answers. Where capitalism prevails, lying is called for 24 hours a day. As the veneer on our economic system wears thinner and thinner, the need to keep selling it intensifies. Modern advertising, in conjunction with corporate ownership of news organs nationwide, have cemented media control of the culture in ways that serve power, co-opt oppositional messages/attitudes, and make organized resistance increasingly difficult. That the presidency is bought and sold is old news. Thirty three years ago, someone coined "Camelot," and John Kennedy was packaged as a progressive (Last year, incredibly, the trick was repeated). We've come a long way since 1960: Racism (to take but one example) was a "clear-cut" issue in those days..... when it was "OK" to be openly and overtly bigoted. The civil rights movement targeted and organized a powerful movement that transformed society. As a result, certain forms of speech and action are socially unacceptable today, making overt racism a less valuable tool for the elite to maintain their position. Today they resort to the spin doctors to purvey their malignant ideas through a myriad of cultural images and code words. How does a term like "culture of poverty" come into use, and how does it affect the perceptions of millions? "Terrorist," "extremist," "middle class values" and other vagaries are used effectively to keep people emotionally charged but ignorant of the underlying political causes of events. Somalian "warlords," as we know, have dark skins, and Bosnian "factional leaders" light ones. The media can rely on using "Muslim Fundamentalist" as an understood synonym for "terrorist," but not "Christian Fundamentalist" (regardless of how many doctors are shot, or clinics bombed). Other more subtle and even unconscious messages bombard us constantly in advertising images. With enough $$ and skill, you can sell hoola-hoops or even pet rocks (..rocks, people....rocks) for a hefty profit. Why can't we sell a concept like "equitable distribution of wealth" when it would clearly benefit millions? And not only does corporate/advertising control of the culture make organizing difficult, it also constantly saps our own ranks. Every message we receive tells us we are naive, idealistic, stupid, going through a phase, wasting our time, etc.... It is no wonder many eventually suck up to power to achieve middle-classdom. Advertising is designed to dictate our desires, and it does so effectively, even for the disciplined. The suits use our money (it's in the price of every product) to turn our hearts against our souls. But we will fight back. We will regain control of our images and our culture to forge a new activism. We will remind the opposition how crucial, timely, threatening, wise and committed the left really is. Revolution is not possible with a collective psyche colonized by Madison Avenue. So come to Madison Wisconsin for the lucky 13th Annual PSN fall conference titled simply: Hype. We'll examine the ways in which money controls our communal consciousness and culture, and how control of these are used to inhibit organizing. We'll share information, strategize and conspire together. We'll celebrate activism, lift each others' spirits, create a sense of expanded possibilities. We'll connect with like-minded groups, become energized and enthused. One year after his election, we'll kick Clinton's butt and the interests he is beholden to. Hope to see you there. Here is a sampling of the workshops to be offered: United Colors of Propaganda: Understanding the intersection of race in the United States society. An abridged list of topics includes: *Burn baby burn (LA Inferno) Building on the rebellion *White Skin Privilege Recognize it, Renounce it! *Illustrated Sports Fighting Native American Team Mascots *Treaties, Land and Handshakes Palestinian sovereignty & US intervention The Kitchen Corner: Practical tools, tactics, and models to regain cultural ground and advance progressive projects in the Clinton era. Sample topics include: *Cyberspace! E-mail, Internet, & lower phone bills. *Postcards from the G-men Surveillance, FOIA, & what's in our files *Using the masters tools ... Daily forms of personal resistance *Successful coalitions 101 Models for uniting disparate agendas. Progressive Potpourri: The sweet smell of multi-issue organizing and the plethora of intriguing projects before students today. Here are but a few of the titles: *The Clinton 'do's: what do they really mean? Hair-raising class consciousness! *Innocuous names; venomous agendas Corp. front-groups & their Achilles' heel *NAFTA do we Hafta? Agenda for a Profit-ic fate Other Highlights you won't want to miss!: The Grainger Hall of Business Administration "Tour" UW Madison's latest temple to corporate greed: You won't want to miss the daily sacrifice of labor to the gods of profit....... That venerable monarch King NAFTA will be officiating.....Help us smash the altar of union busting criminals. Images of Cultural Resistance Studio: An ongoing resource to combine and share cultural ammunition, don't forget to bring your contribution (whether found or created) to our conference's gallery of images. Any icon, cartoon, banner, foto, poster, video, slide, painting, sculpture (etc.), that has inspired you to move forward is welcome for exchange &/or display. If you forget, don't despair! Materials will be made available to unleash your creative potential. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx What is the Progressive Student Network? The 1990's promise to be an era of continued and growing activism among students across the country. Now more than ever students need to find common ground and share both their experiences and resources to have the greatest impact on the future of this nation. The Progressive Student Network is committed to being a part of these struggles and building the ties among the growing movement of progressive youth. Since its founding in 1980, the Progressive Student Network has always sought to build the student movement both as a national force and at the local level. Rooted in the anti-nuke, anti-draft, and environmental movements of the late 1970's, PSN has been a part of many of the struggles in which students were active throughout the last decade. The PSN seeks to reach out to student activists and build the movement through many of its activities. The PSNews is intended not only to reach out to new activists but also inform all of us about the important battles that students are waging across America. PSN also builds ties among students on different campuses by sponsoring annual meetings, conferences, and demonstrations. Every fall, the PSN organizes a conference for student activists to educate themselves and each other about issues of common concern [see story page 1; registration form p5 & poster p7]. In the spring, PSN hosts an annual membership meeting to analyze the conditions that the movement faces and strategize about the work we are doing. At these meetings, all members of affiliated groups have the opportunity to have their views and ideas heard and discussed. Between the fall conference and the Spring membership meeting, PSN has Steering Committee meetings in both the winter and late summer. PSN's Steering Committee is composed of two representatives from each local affiliate who meet to discuss upcoming activities, future projects, and other topics. Everyone is welcome to attend these meetings, which are intended to make sure all of us stay in contact between other annual events. PSN also tries to build support for national demonstrations and events that occur throughout the year. Many of these provide further opportunities for students from different campuses to meet and forge stronger ties. At all of its events and activities, PSN attempts to strengthen ties within the different sectors of our movement by providing space for caucuses. For example, PSN has consistently had meetings of a women's caucus at our conferences and events. This caucus allows women from different places to share experiences and unite to fight against male supremacy not only in society but also within our movement itself. The caucuses are usually accompanied by an alternative group for other participants. The men's alternative group meetings have often provided a unique opportunity for male activists to learn about the oppression of women and examine their own attitudes and actions. Currently, PSN has active queer, women's and people of color caucuses. Besides acting as a source of empowerment for their members, caucusesoften provide crucial leadership to the larger organization. PSN is open to any and all student groups and activists who share our goals of struggling for change and building the student movement. If you are not already a part of this growing force, we'd like to invite you to come on board. PSN is unique both because of its long history of activism and because it is a network of autonomous groups. There is no centralized organization telling you what to do or think, every group has the final say over what they do and how. But what PSN does do is to put you in touch with literally hundreds of other activists across the country who are part of the growing student movement. Through the network you can learn from others who are involved in the same struggles and share your experiences and ideas. Participation in PSN provides inspiration, strength and a sense of the struggle beyond your campus. If you haven't already, affiliate now with the Progressive Student Network. All that is required is the interest and desire to plug into the larger movement and a nominal affiliation fee (waivers available). All affiliates and members receive the PSNews to distribute to activists in their area, notice of upcoming meetings and conferences, and other mailings as they are needed. Affiliates also have the right to send representatives to steering committee meetings and help define the goals and plans of the organization. Opression & injustice show no sign of abating as we head through the 90's, and students are once again called to join the fight for peace and social justice, don't fight alone; join the PSN.................... Here is how to get ahold of us: PSN Nat'l Office 2526 North Francisco #1 Chicago, Illinois 60647 (312) 278-5736 George Washington PSU Marvin Center Box 6 200 21st Street, NW Washington, DC 20052 (202) 994-7284 GWPSU@gwuvm.gwu.edu Louisville PSN P.O. Box 4861 Louisville, KY 40204 (502) 634-8374 Madison PSN 731 State Street Madison, WI 53703 (608) 257-7562 UWPSN@macc.Wisc.edu Kent State PSN PO Box 35 KSU, Student Activites Center Kent, OH 44242 (216) 672-2144 Minneapolis PSO 215 Coffman Union, 15 C&D Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612) 626-7099 PSO@Gold.tc.umn.edu Baltimore PSN 8213 Church Lane Road Ellicott City, MD 21043 (410) 461-3901 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx N o t e s a r o u n d t h e n a t i o n : ASEED Holds Strategy Session On Feb. 26-28 nearly 100 student and youth activists from all over the U.S. gathered at the Heart of the Earth Survival School in Minneapolis to discuss future campaigns in support of indigenous rights and to oppose free trade. While the conference was largely organized by ASEED (Action for Solidarity, Equality, Environment, and Development) and SEAC (Student Environmental Action Coalition), it also attracted representatives from PSN, ODN (Overseas Development Network), the Campus Greens, and CISPES amongst others. Several "days of action" against NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) were discussed, including March 23 targeting financial institutions, April 2-5 devoted to transborder protests, and May 1 focusing on labor issues. In support of these events a Youth Speakers Tour for Fair Trade will also be traveling throughout the U.S. in April. Plans for forging stronger links between North American activist groups and the Latin American Network of Youth Organizations for Sustainable Development that emerged from the Earth Summit in Brazil last June were also discussed. For more information on how you can get involved, please contact ASEED, c/o SEAC, P.O. Box 1168, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 (919) 967-4600. For a mere $5.00, you can also subscribe to their new Continental Student Trade News. Columbia U. Targets Student Protesters On Dec. 14, 1992 about 150 student protesters blockaded the office of Dean Jack Greenberg of Columbia University, demanding a halt to construction of a $6 million biotech center in nearby Harlem. At stake is one of New York City's great cultural landmarks - namely, the Audubon Ballroom/San Juan Theater where African-American leader Malcom X was assassinated and Puerto Rican nationalist Don Pedro Albizu Campos often spoke. The entire scheme has smacked of environmental racism since its first proposal, yet university technocrats continue to ignore community concerns. After hiding in his office for seven hours, Dean Greenberg was escorted to safety by campus security. Using videotapes of the protest, the university has since identified 40-50 of the students involved and threatened several key leaders with disciplinary action, ranging from probation to expulsion. Other students have been offered a "break," as long as they cooperate with the investigation. Letters protesting the administration's draconian treatment of student protestors, as well as the university's construction of a biotech center at the Audubon Ballroom/ San Juan Theater should be sent to: Michael I. Sovern, President, Columbia University, 3001 Broadway, New York, NY 10027 Efficient Ticketing On April 7 thousands of students in over 200 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada formed "green patrols" to ticket gas guzzlers as part of the Ticket America Campaign. Any 1990-1993 car, van, or light truck with a fuel efficiency rating below the mandated national average was targeted, older models being avoided so as to not discriminate against people of lower income. The purpose of the campaign was to raise public awareness about the lack of any comprehensive energy conservation policy, which not only squanders natural resources and destroys environmental quality, but also leads to bloody overseas conflicts such as the Persian Gulf War. Specifically, the campaign aims to build grassroots support for legislation to increase the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards from 27.5 to 45 mpg by the year 2003. Unfortunately, the Big Three automakers have their swarms of lobbyists poised to defeat any such measure - in 1991 alone they spent $8 million on fighting political efforts to improve vehicle fuel efficiency. Letters in support of increasing CAFE standards that will force Detroit to build fewer gas guzzling automobiles should be written to: President Clinton, White House, Washington, DC 20000, or to your own senators and representative: Sen. ----, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20010; Rep. ----, U.S. House, Washington, DC 20015. PSN Round-up The campus PSU-affiliated groups that were represented at October's conference kept themselves quite productive during the two months preceding the Halloween gala at GWU, working on a variety of social justice issues on their respective campuses. Here's a rough, BRIEF summary of their focuses: Kent State University folks spent most of their time on racism and sexism issues, particularly with a Take Back the Night march. They also worked on educational rights for their campus. Univ. of Maryland - Baltimore County dealt with the issue of political prisoners and political oppression, and featured a Native American poet and poetry workshop. University of Delaware is just getting off the ground, but the UD Queer Campus has been raising hell in a most outlandish way, demanding equality for lesbians, gays, bi's, and all others labeled queer. UDSEAC has worked on an anti-CFC, anti-Dupont campaign, and also held a Columbus Day vigil. Everyone in the UD's PSU is involved in one or both of these groups. Univ. ofMinesota Mnpls/Stpaul was an active part of the twin-cities-wide fight-back against Operation Rescue's evil anti-choice agenda. They recently rallied against UN troops being sent to Somalia. And as if that wasn't enough, they are currnetly working within a coalition against an elitist restructuring of the university. Univ. of Illinois Chicago-Circle Has been battling the powers that be to get rid of the racist Chief Illiniwek mascot. University of Louisville activists spent last fall working on the issue of rape, and on outreaching to other areas - particularly with Chicago to protest the pro-Columbus parade. They also devoted time to the November election, registering students to vote, performing anti-Bush theatre, and supporting Clinton/Gore - well, sort of: they stress that they only supported the ticket as the best of all evils. George Washington Univ. well, they busted their butts working on the Conference. But as if that weren't enough for them, they also postered the town on just what kind of a guy Columbus was, brought to campus two presentations - one on two Cuban student youth leaders and one by a Haitian radio journalist on Haitian media censorship and served leftover cafeteria food to the homeless (not an easy task!) Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison Well, We've been busting our butts getting this years conference together, and putting out this GIANT issue of the PSNews. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx TA's strike at UC-Berkeley Statewide organizing drive continues By Zev Handel UC-Berkeley This past winter hundreds of graduate student employees at the University of California P Berkeley went on strike in an effort to win union recognition from the university. The failure of the strike has not meant the end of union organizing efforts by students at Berkeley, but it has led to a review of what are now widely perceived as errors in the execution of the strike, and to a rethinking of strategy for the future. Currently, about a dozen universities around the country have recognized unions representing the interests of student workers. The situation at Berkeley is unique, however, because of the peculiarities of California State law. To understand the often confusing issues at stake in the Berkeley strike, it is necessary to know a little bit of history about the organizing effort. The Association of Graduate Student Employees (AGSE) was formed last decade to represent the interests of student instructors (GSIs) and researchers (GSRs). The founders of AGSE believed that, although they are students, GSIs and GSRs are also workers, and deserve the guarantees and protections that unions afford to workers everywhere. The university maintained that teaching and doing research are not work, or at least not just work, but are part of a student's academic training. Furthermore, administrators held that the introduction of a union would sour the "special mentor relationship" that is enjoyed between employing professors and their student employees. These issues were further complicated by a state law known as the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA), which governs labor relations on the nine campuses of the statewide UC system. Although the act guarantees a right to union representation to workers on the campuses, and binds the universities to bargain collectively with those unions, it was not clear whether the law extended to student workers. In 1989, AGSE, now affiliated with the United Auto Workers, struck briefly and won a recognition agreement from the university. At the same time, the conflict between the university and AGSE over the proper interpretation of HEERA was brought to the courts. It lingered there for three years, during which time AGSE enjoyed collective bargaining rights on campus, winning for its members tuition increase remissions, health insurance premium waivers, uniform grievance procedures, and other benefits. This period of "interim recognition," later described by both AGSE and the university administration as a positive and productive time, was brought to an end in mid-1992 when the California State Supreme Court ruled against AGSE: under HEERA, student workers were technically not "employees". In the fall, fearful that looming budget deficits might seriously erode their working conditions in the future, the AGSE membership authorized a strike should negotiations with the university for a new agreement prove fruitless. On November 19, after many weeks of meandering talks, the strike began. AGSE's demands were simple: recognition of the union, including a promise to meet regularly with the union to discuss matters of employment in good faith, and to sign legally binding contracts -- in short, a continuation of the successful interim agreement. Working conditions, pay, and benefits were not an issue; the university was not being asked to make a financial sacrifice. The rallying cry of the strike was simply, "Recognition!" At first, the response to the strike was tremendous. AGSE's membership swelled, and most graduate students, members or not, observed the picket lines. Many undergraduates did as well. AGSE's contention that graduate students do most of the actual teaching on campus was borne out; in the first days it was estimated that up to 75% of classes failed to meet. The parents of undergraduates began to complain to the school that their children were not receiving the education they had paid for. Drivers, honoring the picket lines, stopped delivering packages to campus. The university administration immediately reopened negotiations. When students on the UC - Santa Cruz campus also struck for union recognition, success seemed imminent. Before long, however, problems emerged. First of all, it became apparent that the campus administration was being constrained by the UC system-wide administration. The system-wide administration, consisting of a board of regents appointed by the governor and of the office of the university president, oversees the operation of the nine-campus UC system. This body had never before interfered in Berkeley's relationship with AGSE, but now, for unknown reasons, it had essentially ordered the local administration not to sign a deal with the union. This was an unexpected development. Under intense pressure from the strike, Berkeley administrators had suddenly seemed eager to make compromises; but AGSE found that it was nearly impossible to bring the same sort of pressure to bear on the system-wide administration. The regents, unelected, wealthy, and many of them sitting on the boards of anti-union companies, were well insulated from the needs and problems of the Berkeley students, and even of the Berkeley administrators. For them, the strike was merely a far-off nuisance. In addition, the strike had started late in Berkeley's fall semester. With classes drawing to a close and finals approaching, the patience of grade-conscious undergraduates began to wear thin. Many graduate student teachers felt a close natural bond with their students and were increasingly uneasy about leaving them unprepared or disadvantaged, so they reluctantly returned to the classroom. In a factory strike, the action hurts only the employers and the strikers; on a campus, "innocent bystanders" such as undergraduates are also affected. Many strikers found that walking the picket lines had turned into something of a moral dilemma. Final exams, due to start in the second week of December, were a double-edged sword. While the university could deal with a breakdown in teaching on campus, the idea that final exams might not be given, and final grades not issued, was intolerable. At the same time, students (both undergraduate and graduate) were equally worried about the effect that missing their exams would have on their transcripts. The administration carefully exploited this fact in their propaganda in order to widen developing cracks in student solidarity. If the strikers' ranks could be diminished to the point where final exams were by and large unaffected, the administration reasoned, the semester would end and the strike would dwindle away during the long winter break. Third, AGSE had failed to secure enough support from the faculty. Although many faculty members were sympathetic to the students' cause, and felt alienated by the administration's actions, AGSE was unable to tap this good will and transform it into active support. The result was that as the strike wore on, the faculty, like the undergraduates, began to find it tiresome and disruptive. Many resented the extra workloads they had been forced to take on. The administration succeeded in directing some of these negative feelings against AGSE. As negotiations sputtered along, it became increasingly clear that the administration, either would not or could not (under orders from the system) make the concessions necessary for an agreement. The AGSE negotiators had compromised as far as possible, but were unwilling to relinquish their most basic demand: a legally binding recognition agreement. And the administration proved to be a ruthless and skilled opponent, well-versed in strike-breaking techniques. The AGSE leadership had planned for a short strike and lacked a contingency plan for dealing with an extended one. Unable to come up with an alternative strategy, they simply continued the strike. The membership, driven by internal and external pressures, fearful of administration threats to blacklist strikers and cancel health insurance, and increasingly concerned about their own classes and grades, became paralyzed. Union meetings became factionalized, often turning into shouting matches, and defections increased. Internal union democracy was collapsing. By mid-December the strike had clearly failed; most finals proceeded as scheduled. Even so, a substantial number of striking student instructors never calculated final grades for their classes. By mid-March of this year, well into the spring semester, 2,100 fall grades still hadn't been issued. The AGSE has been forced to take a longer view of the fight for recognition. A strike in the near future is not in the offing. The membership is tired and would likely be unresponsive, and the undergraduates and faculty would probably react with hostility. More important, there is no reason to think the outcome would be any different. On the other hand, the union had demonstrated its power quite effectively. For two weeks, the campus had been effectively shut down, and an unprecedented number of students (well over 1,200, on a campus with 3,500 GSRs and GSIs) had taken to the picket lines and shown impressive dedication and resolve. No one was more aware of the union's power than the campus administrators. If the problems that became apparent during the strike could be resolved, there was every reason to think a second strike would succeed. Efforts now are focused on several fronts: first, organizing effective unions on all nine campuses of the UC system. In this way, pressure can be applied simultaneously across the state on both campus administrations and the system-wide administration. Second, improving outreach to faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates. One of AGSE's strike slogans, directed at undergraduates, was "Our working conditions are your teaching conditions." This essential truth applies to faculty members as well. If the graduate student employees are treated fairly and are secure in their jobs, all groups on campus will benefit, and education will improve. The more students and faculty learn about AGSE and its goals, the more supportive they will be. Third, outreach to other unions. The staff and workers' unions on campus, as well as those in the community at large, are natural allies. Furthermore, student unions on other campuses can provide invaluable advice and support. While financial and legal aid from the United Auto Workers was vital to the strike cause, it was not sufficient on its own. Fourth, reform of the regents' selection system. Many organizations in the state have an interest in seeing the regents become a more democratic, representative body, which would be more responsive to the needs and concerns of students and faculty on the one hand, and of the California citizens who fund the universities and pay the regents' salaries on the other. By forming alliances with these groups, AGSE can push for reform at the highest levels of the administration. The union has been dealt a harsh blow by the strike failure. Morale and membership both suffered, and the university has taken steps (such as ending automatic paycheck dues deductions) that threaten to cripple the union financially. Nevertheless, the AGSE leadership has learned important lessons that will ultimately strengthen the organization. The strategy described above is currently being implemented. Organizing drives on the other UC campuses have been especially promising. If the UC administrators continue to ignore the needs of their student workers, they may very well find themselves with a nine-campus graduate student strike on their hands in the spring of 1994. Zev Handel is a graduate student majoring in East Asian Languages at the University of California at Berkeley. He will be spending the 1993-4 academic year in Taiwan, after which he will return to Berkeley to pursue a Ph.D. in Chinese linguistics. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Columbus Day '92 in Mexico Itzamna J. Arista Progressive Students Univ of Il - Chicago Circle Five hundred years after the unfortunate arrival of Columbus in America, the struggle for liberation continues. Last year, with the motivation from the 500th anniversary of the invasion of the continent, right-wing groups began organizing to celebrate the "discovery" (sic) of America. Not even the government of Spain had the cynicism to celebrate such an atrocity. In America, only the United States and Canada dared to spend millions of dollars in parades of lies in celebration of the massacre of Indigenous and African people throughout the continent. By honoring Christopher Columbus we honor the genocide that occurred and still occurs against people of color. We honor the establishment of the white hegemony and the institutionalization of racism. Most of all, we ignore the fact that America was already inhabited by millions of people. Our current educational system focuses on the European experience. It teaches, for example, that at the time of the invasion, America was a virtually empty land with sporadic groups of "uncivilized" people. One fact, however, is that at the time of the invasion, the great Aztec city, Tenochtitlan, consisted of about five million people. This would have made it larger than the combined populations of Madrid, Paris, and London. The "discovery" was actually an invasion. Last year I had the opportunity to participate in the March for Dignity. The march did not glorify colonialism. It did not celebrate the murder of our brothers, nor the rape of our sisters. Instead, we celebrated 500 years of Indigenous resistance. On October 12, 1992, about 150,000 people from all over Mexico and other parts of the continent came to El Zocalo, the main square in Mexico City, to denounce the invasion. The march began early in the morning. At about 7:00 am, some people held a ceremony in Teotihuacan, an Aztec ceremonial center, 30 minutes from El Zocalo. Others held vigils, gave ofrendas (an Indigenous custom in which food, beverages, and other foods are offered to the dead ones), or dances. At about 11:00 am I started marching with a small group of people to join other groups and my family. Small groups of people were all over the streets! All of a sudden I would see a group of 20 to 50 people marching down the street. One of the groups was very loud and clear: "We will not celebrate. We will resist!". We headed towards the Columbus statue located at the main avenue of the city. On my way there I met the Frente Popular Francisco Villa, perhaps one of the largest contingents, extending for over two blocks. They told me about recent incidents they have had in their barrios. They had been terrorized by pseudo-police squads that went into their neighborhood to burn down their houses, beat up people, and even kill their pets. The Frente Popular Francisco Villa demanded solutions to their problems. They also emphasized their support for the Cuban people, their struggle for justice and a socialist society, and their committed fight against imperialism, one of Columbus' legacies. The statue of Columbus was defaced with eggs and paint. A sign was put on it that read, "500 years of the Indigenous massacre." Then the people put flowers and ofrendas at the statues of Cuitlahuac and Cuauhtemoc, the chiefs and warriors who fought against the invaders. The walls of some banks were used to spread some important messages: "Freedom for all Indigenous political prisoners," "500 years of injustice," "Stop torture practices." The streets belong to the people, and the government of Mexico seemed to have understood that for the day. There was very little police activity going on. In fact, I only saw about four police officers during the march (besides all the soldiers "protecting" the National Palace). As we headed for El Zocalo, many other groups began appearing from all major streets. In less than five minutes, the crowd went from dozens of people to thousands of them. Amid the smell of incienso and the sound of the sea shells used by the Indigenous people to create music, I saw many other groups from all over Mexico. Pictures of "Che" Guevara and Zapata, as well as signs and banners in solidarity with Cuba, were common throughout the march. The people felt a special solidarity with Cuba for being the first and only country in Latin America to gain independence from all imperialist powers. We feel a strong commitment to our Cuban sisters and brothers who struggle against the constant brutal acts of aggression from the United States. The United States was also condemned for their NAFTA project. As a man stated in the march, "We are moving to a new form of colonialism." With NAFTA, the United States is seeking to re-attain their economic hegemony at the expense of the Mexican working people. In preparation for such a treaty, the government of Mexico has already implemented a monetary conversion. They are also talking about the "restructuring" of labor unions and the nullification of the constitutional right to strike. The very few objections to NAFTA that we have heard from the U.S. government are the environmental catastrophes it will cause. Although we too, are concerned about our environment, our main concern is with the working classes of Mexico. The corporate executives have not addressed the semi-slavery conditions our people will be subject to under NAFTA. It is clear that they do not care, for it is the nature of capitalism to put profits over people. It has been 500 years since the Europeans began the pillage of our continent. Today, we are witnessing the legalization of such pillage with a treaty that will allow Anglo- Saxons to exploit our natural resources and our people, for the benefit of their Anglo elite in the United States. Five hundred years later, our resistance continues. As an Indigenous Mexican living in the United States, I have had the opportunity to realize the importance of Latin American unification, as well as the unification of all people of color in the United States. The demands in the March for Dignity reflected the universality of our experience. We demand: *Respect to all Indigenous Nations (Respeto a los pueblos Indigenas) *The right to education in our own Language without abandoning the universal knowledge. *The teaching and preservation of Nahuatl (the Aztec language) as a national patrimony. *The return of the land (Devolucion de la tienas) *A stop to US. terrorism (New World Order). We demand Self determination. *That our history be told, No to Euro-centric curricula! (Nuestra historia debe ser dicho. No a los curriculos eurocentricos.) Hermanas, Hermanos, VIVA LA RAZA! JUSTICIA, TIERRA Y SOCIALISMO xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Apathy today, Disaster tomorrow! What's the future of PSN? By Tom Burke, Progressive Students, UIC-Chicago-Circle What we do makes a difference It depends on two things. One is whether more struggles break out on campus in the coming year. The other thing is how the core of the PSN and other student activists do their organizing. At this point it seems unlikely that there is going to be any single unifying issue, like the Gulf War, which will galvanize students to struggle. So how the PSN activists do their work takes on greater relative importance. Slow growth is likely I think we may do relatively well in the next year if we continue to do our work methodically and look for gradual growth instead of great leaps. In the past we have raised the slogan "Boldly build the PSN!" and somewhat glorified the student activism of the 1960's to promote organizing. While it is good that students want to build the PSN, it takes careful work and painstaking gains in school years like 1992-1993. Struggle builds the network The upcoming year, 1993-1994, looks to be one where small cores of student activists build single issue campaigns on their campuses. This was done at a handful of campuses in recent years, with some significant success. Professors' jobs were saved from a posse of racist administrators in Louisville; a corporate bank was forced to institute racial sensitivity training at Northwestern University; students at George Washington (slave owner) University held Clinton to his campaign promises by hunger striking to end the military imprisonment of Haitian people, while others fought a homeless shelter from being shut down. Last fall many PSN groups and other student activists forced people to rethink Columbus! These were hard won skirmishes, but they provide the basis on which we continue to build the PSN. Campaigns are key The PSN is always good at showing the connections between issues, but it is single issue campaigns which have produced struggle, and struggle is what produces more student activists. These campaigns, involving tabling, petitioning, postering, educationals, protests, demonstrations, and boycotts, result in a campus where the changes we fight for create broad discussion and the PSN group becomes well known. It is hard, but satisfying work. Sometimes we lose, but more often we win. We may appear "BOLD," but we should be patiently systematic in our activism. That is how we will build the local chapters, the PSN, and the broader student movement. Leadership development As I said earlier, we have wanted new student activists to look to the 1960's as a great period of student activism. It was. We should not over do it, however. The PSN should validate and support the work we and others do now, as its' importance when the next upsurge occurs, will be precious. What makes our activism precious is the experienced leadership it develops. Student groups develop leadership when they struggle. Leadership is not something people build by reading a good book about past student activists while waiting for the next upsurge. While this can be helpful, the PSN should mainly be concerned with and focus on students who want to engage the forces of reaction on campus and in society today. Yes -- today! Students want to struggle against the administration, bureaucratic and conservative departments, well-entrenched miseducators (i.e. professors, many whom pretend to be liberal), and those backward boneheads -- the young republicans. The PSN needs to connect with students who actively try to change things such as people concerned about the environment, the homeless, U.S. interventions, racism, and other issues. How should the PSN proceed? We should treat every hardworking activist with friendship and respect. We should encourage those who are organizing and fighting to hold Clinton's feet to the fire and then fan the flames and demand more. People are not molded by our society to have perfect politics, so we need to understand their imperfections -- wrong ideas, bad dynamics, etc.. The PSN respects people enough to hear them out and then struggle with them to improve themselves, their organizations, and their society. The PSN really needs to concentrate on the tasks ahead of us. Building the campus struggles is so important, and we need to promote this at our fall conference. Student organizers and groups need to understand that they are not isolated. That is what the PSN is for. At each school, we have to combine our particular camps and issues, with a general call to stop Clinton's backsliding and demand more than what he has promised. Clinton the chameleon! We need to wage an ideological struggle against those, like the College Democrats, who think Clinton and his regressions are the answer. Clinton's era may look politically correct, but it is a mask for nearly the same policies as Bush. Abortion may not be under attack, but funding is not overflowing. Clinton tells Queers "Don't ask, Don't tell" and then bombs civilians in Iraq. Students should say "Kiss! Tell! and Stop U.S. Intervention!" Bill Clinton pushing George Bush's exact same NAFTA plan with Mexico and Canada. We want an end to environmental destruction, healthcare for all working people, and more control over corporations eit-----her side of the border. When governors of Clinton's era say "Educational Cutbacks!", students should shout "Fight Back!" When they imprison political refugees and immigrants, activists will demand that they be set free! While Clinton talks about the homeless, we must fight to save their shelters. If he wants students to work for their student loans and grants, then why not give them jobs organizing to empower people to control their own lives, schools, and neighborhoods instead of governments and corporations setting the agendas? We should challenge the College Democrats to become activists and not just cheer leaders. If their group is active on campus, then they should join the PSN and discuss what they are doing to change things. We are open to all sorts of political views. If their group isn't active, then individuals should quit and start PSN chapters. Either that or they will be left behind by those who want real change. Today's choices affect tommorow The future of the PSN is this. We need to organize and fight. We need to build on our successes, no matter how small. We also need to understand our failures, which harden us, and then move on. Above all, we need to win. If we do not have successes now, we will be sorry in the future. Very sorry. Not just for ourselves, but for all those who are negatively affected by the structure of U.S. society, especially those at the bottom. Winning our struggles on the campuses can only help empower others. When we leave the campuses there are other struggles where we are wanted. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Womyn's Caucus Activities & Concerns by Amy Allen & Christine Jones Univ. of Louisville--PSL We trekked through the marsh-like field on Sheltowee Trace along Gladie Creek. That's what the PSN Womyn and Queer Caucus did at our meet in the Kentucky hills in June of '92. We hiked with our backpacks on and climbed the trace that led up the mountain to Indian Stairway for about two miles. The darkness which everyone fears so much did more to welcome us into it's safety. We reached the top of this horse-shoe ridge which floats in the sky like an island. In the morning when we awoke in a rock shelter (bigger than a football field), beneath the ridge, it was great to see that, we, a group of mostly city-folk political activists, could overcome our fear of the unknown and unseen and climb a mountain for two miles in the dark. But then we are students and students learn, which is what we did that weekend. And while we could have followed an agenda of discussion about womyn and queer issues, we were having such a good time, seeing and being, that we scrapped the agenda. We walked in the dark, climbed where most people don't climb, breathed air most people don't breath, exercised the parts of our bodies that we normally don't use. And this place, still intact, is life: creeks, arches, caves, plants, trees, and animals of all kinds. All that is part of learning and understanding how other people in the U.S. live, as well as the rest of the world. We often forget that many people don't live in the city and the woods has a lot to teach us. The caucuses were of a completely different atmosphere. We got to know each other better. Even though we ditched the agenda, we discussed our political activities and ideologies, and the time we spent communicating in this most peaceful environment was very beneficial to our minds and our bodies. One of the purposes of this trip, particularly for the womyn's caucus, was to encourage womyn of the PSN to reaffirm our own strength. We can hike several miles, build a fire, and feel good about having dirt on our faces. We can be strong and healthy. One of the things we also do in the womyn's caucus at any given PSN meeting or conference is talk about each other's experiences, successes, and failures within the student movement and within our own campus groups. The caucus tries to provide an atmosphere for womyn to discuss issues of importance without the distraction of being interrupted or intimidated by men. During the womyn's caucus at the Spring Steering Committee meeting on February 6, 1992 topics concerning womyn of color, individual group dynamics, and suggestions for men in the left concerning sexism were discussed. Since the Fall 1992 National Conference, some PSN groups have made an effort to understand the reasoning behind the lack of representation and membership of womyn of color in our groups. Many of the PSN groups have been more successful at working in coalition with people of color organizations, which coincidently have mostly male members, on issues concerning racism. We also recognize that we as individuals and members of organizations need to be more educated about issues and history of women of color. All those in the caucus expressed concerns about relations in their campus groups between men and womyn, as well as womyn and womyn members. Womyn members tend to get less credit for work than the men, and they also tend to get stuck with the unfavorable jobs, such as note-taking and mailings. During meetings men often ignore the suggestions of womyn, or don't give womyn time or an atmosphere in which to express themselves. The most common problem in this respect is that some men tend to repeat themselves and restate their point in several different ways rather than stop after it is initially made. Even in the general political community, blatant disrespect of womyn still plagues us, as is evident when men make comments on how nice an estranged womyn's body is. The womyn who were present at the caucus would like to request that all men in the left examine their own actions. Learning about sexism requires that men do more listening than talking. They have to be willing to have many one-on- ones with womyn about sexism, male supremacy, attitudes, and so forth. Not only do they have to acknowledge their own sexism, but they have to understand the different aspects of it, and at the same time become more holistically-educated about past and present womyn's movements and writings. Also men need to be more willing to confront other men about their sexism. We recognize that men must know how we feel and what problems we see within our local groups, which is why after the caucus we report back to the whole group. However, in order to preserve anonymity of particular womyn, it's difficult sometimes to give specific examples which would be based on personal experiences. Many men, left or right, think that womyn must talk to them, tell them about how they feel, tell men what is sexist about their actions. But that is not our "job." Men created the ancient practice of sexism, so maybe they ought to re-educate themselves about the history of womyns' oppression. Most men could probably figure it out if they were just more "aware" and would listen more, rather than thinking about how they are going to defend themselves. A representative of the womyns' caucus reported back to the whole group the key points of our discussion. One of the main points is that men don't give womyn much room to speak and that they have the tendency to repeat and restate things in a circle. Rather than soak the criticism in, some men chose to challenge the information and ask of other womyn in the caucus, "well, what do you think? Tell us, what's your perspective of the problem?" In other words, let's have a deep drawn-out discussion -- when there is no time -- about the discussion the womyn had in a womyn-only caucus. It doesn't work that way; you can't force someone to say more than they want to. For the record, the womyns' caucus did talk about the problems they see in their campus groups. Apparently some men did not hear the statements that were made... maybe because they were too busy making their own statements. They were guilty of doing exactly what some of us were complaining about: not listening, talking in circles, and making the situation very uncomfortable to be in. To understand sexism, it's not necessary to put us on the spot, nor do we have to have forced discussions. We didn't initiate the analytic discussion and the climate was one which many of us womyn felt was controlled by certain men. This should be taken as constructive criticism and not as "womyn oppressing men," a theme from the latest men's "movement." There's a reason why we have a womyns' caucus and why the men don't. On a different Ievel, we all need to activate ourselves to work to improve social attitudes about womyn. We have to make our universities improve statistics concerning womyn. We need to challenge our city officials to put up statues of progressive womyn and anything else that does justice to them. It is very complex, as we have all been conditioned for so long by a backward western ideology, but the time for radical understanding is way over due. Men and womyn, both, must learn about the roots of male supremacy and of the oppression of womyn and, ultimately, their ties to imperialism and capitalism. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx This is the text from Tricia Arrington's keynote address to last year's Conference, held at George Washington University. -When I was little my favorite expression was, "I can do it myself!" I often had temper tantrums, and was prone to holding my breath until my face turned blue. I was angry. I was misunderstood, and I wanted to do things myself because I was the only one who knew what was best for me. This past summer I remember having a conversation with my mother that ended when I exclaimed with the same clenched fists, foot stomp, and anger of when I was five, that "I can do it myself!" We were both a little shocked because I had always been somewhat quiet and compromising, and if I got angry I didn't show it. This time I was angry, and I wasn't holding my breath. The reason I was angry had to do with my health care, or lack there of. I had just come from my last official doctor's visit, and I realized that my doctor once again did not answer any of my questions and was no use to me. But, that wasn't the real fire inside. My doctor had tried to give me a pap smear for about the fifth time, and I refused. Why? Because I was scared. Because no one bothered to explain to me what one was, and because I didn't want a male doctor that I didn't like or trust putting his hands inside me. So, I didn't get the pap smear, but I did realize how much I don't know about my body. What makes me physically a womyn. After my little episode I made it a point to try and educate myself about my own health. The more I read the angrier I got. This was the first time I felt dominated by a male society. Since then I have been trying to gain control of my health care. I don't have health insurance. This was not originally by choice, but I think that now it is. I don't see how giving large amounts of money to people who don't understand or fulfill my needs does me any good. Now that i have been taking over my life and destroying the myths created by the medicalized society and the meat centered food industry, my health has improved and i feel better about myself as a person. But the important thing to note is that I wasn't doing this all on my own. I got a lot of help from my friends, mostly wimmin with the same problems, and most of whom are in the PSU. I think progressive groups and the Progressive Student Network is important for several reasons. It's important to focus on what a network is. I have heard it described as a net that works. It is helpful because it can save us, it holds us together, it keeps us from falling out, but at the same time it allows us to breathe. Because it is a network it brings people together who share common ideas. It makes our work as small groups much easier because we can compare and combine our efforts with the much larger web. We can reach out to many more people. There is also a freedom in our network, because we are not a mass, crowd or mob. We are a group of individuals working together. We don't lose our identity within the group; in fact we gain more of an identity through learning and discussing our ideas. We should also take into account our motto: study and struggle. We all know how important it is to have our voices heard. To stand up for our rights, to fight and to yell. I have had the opportunity to study with an incredible Latina womyn who, like me, is just learning to use her voice, to yell. She was brought up in the silence of a convent, was married, had four sons and a daughter. With the death of her daughter, Elena found her voice as a womyn. She returned to school and was amazed to find people studying wimmin, when her previous experiences taught her that man was the center around which wimmin revolved. With her new found voice, Elena has gained the courage to speak and be heard, even at the cost of her marriage. People like Elena remind us of the fact that students aren't always between the ages of 18 and twenty-one. We should also remember that not all students go to school. Elena reminds us that we should look to ourselves for support and inspiration in our struggle. It is also important to remember the study part of our struggle, and I don't mean homework. I mean educating ourselves and other people on issues. We should never assume that everyone in the group knows the details of a particular issue. I remember seeing a graphic that said information is power, share it. This is an important factor that can make our voice larger and louder. We also need to make sure that we cover all aspects of the issue. A lot of things can get lost inside an issue. Reproductive freedom is a perfect example. The catchword "choice" adopted by the media and politicians overshadows other equally important issues. Choice is a bleached word that ignores the racial, economic, and heterosexist blockades to real choice, reproductive freedom. Reproductive freedom means the right to choose to have a child or not to have a child. Rape, forced sterilizations, inadequate health care and inadequate social services prevent wimmin from having complete control over their bodies. As wimmin we must to regain control over our lives and our bodies; as students we must regain our voice and our power within society. We shouldn't be afraid to realize that the adults and the institutions of our society have failed us. We need to take it upon ourselves to create change, to challenge patriarchal society and institutions. We shouldn't be afraid to work outside of the system. We don't have time to wait around for the system to change. Racism is killing people today, inaccessibility of health care -- reproductive health care -- is threatening wimmin's lives. Our needs are now! We need to take back our lives. We need to empower ourselves. We need to inspire each other and regain our voices (loudly). These are all things we need to do in order to move forward, lifting as we climb. Those who have already failed us, those who would have us sit idle watching TV, tell us that we are going too far, that we are wrong in our struggle. I would have them listen to these words by June Jordan: I am not wrong, wrong is not my name My name is my own, my own, my own And I can't tell you who the hell set things up like this But I can tell you that from now on my resistance My simple and daily and nightly self-determination May very well cost you your life. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Las indicaciones ambientales de NAFTA by Jen Sikorski - PSN, UW-Madison NAFTA, acuerdo norteamericano de librecambio, seria dos pasos para atra s en cuanto a las normas ambientales que mucha gente ha sido tratando de elevar por muchos anos. NAFTA es un acuerdo entre los Estados Unidos, Mexico, y Canada que manda librecambio entre los tres. Es decir que no habria las restricciones de cambio que existe hoy entre los paises norteamericanos. En cuanto al medioambiente, el problema ma s grande es que todas las normas ambientales que tienen los Estados Unidos y Canada , no valera n nada cuando hay otro pais en librecambio que no tiene las mismas normas. Y aunque Mexico, en ciertos lugares, tenga restricciones exactamente como en los Estados Unidos, hay un gran problema en hacer cumplir con los leyes. Por ejemplo, las maquiladoras, fa bricas de duenos extranjeros, en la zona fronteriza de Mexico y los EEUU causan muchos problemas con el medioambiente. En 1990, solamente veinte porciento de las fa bricas pudieron mostrar que han despachado sus desechos toxicos en la manera legal. En 1983, un tratado entre los EEUU y Mexico demando que todas las companias que exportan quimicos toxicos a Mexico, deben transportar los desechos toxicos que resultan, de vuelta a los Estados Unidos. La agencia de proteccion ambiental mostro en 1988, que solamente 20 de ma s que 1600 maquiladoras habian devuelto sus desechos toxicos a los Estados Unidos. Si se pone NAFTA en efecto, creo que haria ma s problemas como esto, pero con ma s intensidad. Es una situacion que podria elevar a un nivel muy serio y peligroso. Hay otro acuerdo que tiene las mismas implicaciones ambientales, pero es mucho ma s peor porque es un acuerdo mundial. La realidad es que con ma s paises en el acuerdo, probablemente ningunas restricciones ambientales van a ser impuesto. Este acuerdo se llama la parte Uruguaya de GATT, acuerdos generales sobre tarifas y cambio. Probablemente las normas ambientales del acuerdo va a diminuir a las normas del pais ma s indulgente del mundo. Y los leyes que tienen los paises estrictas sera n considerados "cambio ilegal." Por ejemplo, los Estados Unidos no queria permitir la importacion de atun que no es seguro por les delfines, esto fue ilegal en cuanto al cambio libre. Ahora los EEUU tiene que importar el atun de Mexico que no es seguro por les delfines. Como resultado, los consumidores no tienen una voz tan fuerte como antes. Si los EEUU van a aceptar la parte Uruguaya de GATT, deben cambiarlo para cumplir con las restricciones ambientales. Es mi opinion que NAFTA no es buena idea a causa de las implicaciones ambientales. Falta de restricciones significa que la gente comun va a perder en este caso, y los ricos van a ganar como siempre. Librecambio subvierte la abilidad de cada nacion sustentar sus proprios leyes, como cada es compelido relajar las normas al menos denominador comun. NAFTA y GATT son planeados de satisfacer la necesidad de las corporaciones - no la necesidad humana. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Corporate cocktail on the rocks? Seagrams imbibes in Dupont stock: Boycott aggravates hangover By Patricia In 1992, hundreds of activists around the country began a major campaign targeting the DuPont Company as the world's #1 ozone destroyer. DuPont, the largest industrial polluter in the United States, is also the leading global producer of ozone depleting chemicals, primarily chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Production has been justified by a supposed reliance on these chemicals in the cold storage/refrigeration industries. Contrary to popular belief, refrigeration-type use of CFCs only comprises 6% of the total market, and----- safe, viable alternatives to these destructive chemicals exist. Scientists believe that the destruction of the ozone layer will lead to an increase in the rate of skin cancer, including more cases of cataracts, and a greater susceptibility to infectious diseases, as exposure to UV radiation weakens the human immune system. Oceanic phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain, will be affected as well, and wide- spread crop failure will occur should UV radiation rise to its predicted levels. In some countries, scientists have already begun to issue warnings about the increased UV radiation, advising people to take precautions when going outside on days when ground level UV reaches extreme levels. Over the years, DuPont has built up a reputation of profit- driven avoidance of environmental issues, and has evaded the CFC crisis for some time. As threats of massive ozone destruction intensify, DuPont continues its production of ozone depleting chemicals. In 1991, DuPont manufactured 170 thousand tons of CFCs, approximately 25% of the global market. Demands have been made on DuPont to put an immediate halt to the production of CFCs. Last fall, the ongoing Ozone Campaign announced a new tactic--a boycott of the Seagram Company Ltd. The connection between DuPont and the Seagram Company is outlined in detail below. The Seagram Company owns 24.4% of DuPont stock In 1991 the market value of DuPont's CFC production was approximately $425 million, and throughout the 1980's DuPont maintained an average of $600 million a year in sales. The Seagram Company owns 24.4% of DuPont's overall stock or 164 million shares, and in 1991 profited $4.5 billion alone from these shares. Simply put, because Seagram's is profiting from its investments in DuPont, they are profiting from ozone destruction. 7 members of DuPont's Board of Directors sit on Seagram's Board The Seagram Company is the largest single shareholder in the DuPont Company, and through this connection has the leverage it needs to influence DuPont and their ozone destroying policies. Seagram's controls 5 of the 18 seats on the DuPont Board of Directors, while 7 of DuPont's Board sit on Seagram's Board. The Company has also consistently supported DuPont and its position on CFC production, and believes that DuPont is seeking a solution "in the most humanitarian way possible." Because of these strong corporate/political ties between DuPont and Seagram's, and the undeniable loyalty that the Seagram Company has shown for DuPont, Seagram's will be as guilty as DuPont to the charges of ozone destruction. As long as these two companies continue to profit at the expense of ozone destruction, they will be held accountable to stopping it. Key actors in the corporate connection include: Edgar S. WoolardJ-- CEO of DuPont Edgar M. Bronfman Sr. -- Chairman,Seagram Company Ltd. Corporate Responsibility The Seagram Company has a corporate responsibility, as a large and influential consumer-oriented company, to make headway on environmental issues like the ozone crisis. Over the past ten years, Seagram's has been attacked for its stance on various environmental issues and the Company's current connection to ozone destruction is by far the most serious. Now it is time for Seagram's to make a real commitment to the environment and to the ozone layer by recognizing its influence in policy-making at DuPont. This new tactic in the campaign will require widespread support and unified action to make it work, and as always, communication is vital. Now available is an Organizing Packet on the Seagram's Boycott. It details the connection between ozone destruction, DuPont, and the Seagram Company and outlines strategies for action. Get in touch with us if you would like to get a copy. And, don't forget that we're here to answer questions on the ongoing Ozone/DuPont Campaign -- so USE US!! Good luck and keep it wild!! Please write or call us at: Seagrams Boycott P.O. Box 181 Newark, DE 19715-0181 (302)453-9702 Patricia is a junior at the University of DuPont...oops, that is, Delaware. Seagram Company Product List Products are manufactured under the trademark "Tropicana:" Tropicana Twister & Tropicana Twister Light Tropicana Twister Frozen Concentrate Orange Juice Frozen Concentrate Chilled Beverages Single Serving Juices and Beverages Ready-to-Serve 100% Pure Orange Juice From Concentrate-- 100% Juices Seagram Mixers, including: Ginger Ale & Raspberry Ginger Ale Tonic Water Collins Mixer Half and Half Club Soda Sparkling Waters Seltzer Orange, Lemon-Lime, Raspberry & Black Cherry Seltzers Assorted Spirits, including: Seagram's 7 Crown Whiskey Seagram Extra Dry Gin Captain Morgan Rum Original Spiced Rum Scotch Whiskey, including: Black Douglas Chivas Regal Royal Salute Canadian Whiskey, including: Crown Royal Seagrams V.O. Wine, including: Sterling Vineyards Barton & Guestier The Monterey Vineyard Julius Kayser Mumm & Perrier-Jouet Champagnes Seagram Wine Coolers xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Free Silvia! Robert McClure PSN - Madison Silvia Baraldini is a political prisoner currently being held at the control unit prison in Marianna, FL. She was convicted of conspiring to rob a bank (the robbery never actually occurred...) and to free Assata Shakur - herself a political prisoner at the time - from prison. Silvia is an Italian citizen (and former Madison SDSer, we proudly note) and is therefore eligible to be repatriated to Italy under the Strasbourg Convention, an international treaty to which the U.S. is signatory. Nonetheless, the U.S. has repeatedly refused to live up to its international obligation. (Honoring treaties was never exactly our government's strong suit.) The Bush regime - a fine bunch to talk, after slaughtering a hundred thousand Iraqis - claimed that Silvia had "blood on her hands" (facts were never their strong suit...), and that she would never be returned to Italy. They also claimed that there was no public support for her repatriation despite 10,000 U.S. petition signatures and massive public support in Italy. Now that the necrotic boil of Bushism has been excised from the body politic, there is at least some possibility that the U.S. will actually honor its international obligation. A delegation of women members of the Italian Parliament is slated to meet with U.S. Congresswomen in the near future. This could constitute a significant point of pressure on the Clinton regime. People have been asked to: -Suggest potentially sympathetic members of the Congress and Press for the Italian MPs to meet with; -Contact both Big Bill and Janet Reno in support of Silvia's repatriation. (If you have more $$ than time, this can be done automatically by calling 1-800-888-5284 and asking that Message #41 be sent. Cost: $5.50 on plastic, $6.50 if billed.) Financial donations to Silvia's campaign are also needed. To contribute, or to receive petitions or more info, contact: Release Silvia!, 294 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, NY, 11201. Support those who have gone before us in resistance! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Out from the walls On April 3, 1993, an unusual display of artwork opened for a month-long run at a gallery in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. Out Through the Walls: Expressions of Resistance by Prisoners in the U.S. brought together prisoner art from around the country, including several pieces by well-known political prisoners and POWs. Solicited and presented by Free U.S. Political Prisoners and POWs -- a local Madison group that counts several past and present PSNers in its ranks -- the show was conceived as part of a longer range goal of putting prison issues out to the public in ways that are unusual, compelling and which serve to break stereotypes about prisoners and the typically racist and classist notions which underlie them. The show was comprised of several dozen pieces. Works ranged from pencil drawing and acrylic-on-canvas to pottery, bead-work, and crewel embroidery. Some -- for example, pen & inks rendered on handkerchiefs, scratchboard carved with safety pins smuggled in an inmate's underwear, two picture frames painstakingly assembled from wood carved with a prison-issue razor -- were indicative of the extremely limited access to art resources that many prisoners face. (Apropos of this, hanging from the ceiling at the center of the gallery was a submission from a prisoner in the Marion control unit, which was simply a memo from the warden -- enlarged by FUSPPP for all to read -- describing in Orwellian terms how the Recreation Dept. had been charged with the removal of all inmate art supplies, owing to the security threat they posed.) It was clear -- just from the detail and attention and care with which works were composed or assembled -- that each and every piece constituted a significant act of resistance, an expression of humanity and care in the face of the facelessness, irresponsibility and inhumanity that characterize and drive the U.S. prison system. A handsomely bound collection of poetry and prose that accompanied the show is available for $10. Send your check to: FUSPPP, PO Box 545, Madison, WI 53711. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Fucked again! (Did you all get off?) By sue Jeffers Kent State PSU Yip Yah! It's finally over. After a year long mind fuck, the orgy of presidential campaigning climaxed on the 3rd of November. According to the board of elections, more people got off in the polls this time around than have in a long time. Whispering sweet nothings into folks' ears paid off for Bill, and in January he'll get his chance to fuck us. It's time for us to light up and figure out how to get on top. Since someone declared Ohio a "swinger" state, we got to get in on the foreplay. Bozoes for Bush were born at Kent State U., and dressed up to blow kisses at the secret service in Ravenna when Quayle came, and behaved in what various editorials called a "totally disrespectful manner." Even though the Clinton campaign misinterpreted the whole affair as support for their guy, we finally decided to go to Bowling Green to greet Bush, where having one of our flyers confiscated at the gate led the secret service to hunt down the clowns and ask us if we were planning to kill the president. I guess they were afraid I was going to shove my wig down the guy's throat. On election day, we held a presidential gong show where the candidates had one last chance to perform tricks for us. The gong was held out for the audience to bang on, and all of the candidates got gonged off the stage. First came the musical selection (Bill played "You're in the Army Now" on the sax; George tried to sing "Yellow Rose of Texas." Perot didn't have anything prepared - he would only sing what the people wanted to hear). The candidates tried money juggling, balancing the budget (on their heads), and also did a song and dance for folks. Afterwards we hung out and gave out free nausea bags and had three boxes of shit for folks to come up and figure out which type they liked best. We had little bags for folks who just felt kind of queasy, and big bags for folks who felt really sick. I wasn't too surprised that more people wanted big bags. The shit was in three appropriately labeled boxes, so folks could come up and smell it, pick it up and play with it, step in it, or whatever they needed to do to figure out which kind was their favorite. Once they made their choice, we offered to bag it up, but reminded them that they had to carry it around with them for the next four years. Maybe that's why only one person took our shit. The rest went to the polls to get their shit. There's been some talk about what to do for the inHOG- uration in January. If anyone out there has any televisions they don't need, let us know. We have our pickaxes ready. Sue Jeffers, a senior at Kent State University in the Peace & Conflict Studies program, has been a pain in the ass (activist) for the past 10 years. She is not a liberal. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Organizing The Left Under Clinton: Not By Tom Pearce PSL - Louisville, KY So you're walking around campus wearing a Kafia, playing hackysack, and thinking "wow," what a beautiful, wealthy, liberal, democratic nation America is now that Clinton is in the White House; Meanwhile, L.A. is still a total wreck. As you sit with a smile drinking coffee in the student center, you think, I'm so glad I did my part to save America from those fascist conservatives, by voting and telling others to do the same. Meanwhile the Clinton folks talk of total aid to Israel. Your sitting around watching TV when a reporter breaks in and says an explosion just ripped through the World Trade Center, Jesus is holed up with a machine gun in Waco, and you remark "bummer." Is this you? Are you one of the "Great Society" socialites who just can't bring themselves to do much more than study, fuck, and have a good time? Wake the fuck up!! Please. This era of new liberalism could be over faster than you can say Jimmy Carter. If we sit back and trust Mr. Bill to push a progressive agenda we could be waiting the rest of our lives. Yes it is true that many of us voted for the man from Hope who promised us everything, from socialized medicine to socialized education to reproductive freedom. We voted for change; anything but George Bush. We now know that Mr. Bill's education plan will help 1000 students this year and 150,000 next year. I'll bet you money I won't be one of the 151,000 to go to school and neither will you. It is obviously Hip to be a liberal again. This takes about as much effort as it did to be hip and conservative in the 80s. For some this means having faith in the man from Hope and his plan. For most people though, the promises mean life or death. Thirty five percent of Americans have no health care. There are more African-Americans in prison than in college. Millions are being laid off. Pine Ridge reservation is still the poorest community in the nation with 80% unemployment. The environment is almost apocalyptically damaged, and women still don't enjoy equality in the work force. You trust the man from Hope? I can't. I need health care now. I need a good job now. I need to finish school to get a job. So what if he promised all these things, Bush said "read my lips." The language of back-sliding, posturing, and good old southern used car sales rap is starting to soften us up for the "I wanted to give the American people all these things but" syndrome. We have a crisis now. I can't wait four years to get to go to school. So, for those of us that call ourselves activists, how do we make sense of all of Mr. Bill's corn pone politics? How do we take the Clinton years and turn them into real political gains for the left? On a more realistic level, how do we chart a strategy to activate all these people who at this time seem to be quite content with Mr. Bill? A lot of people say "He lifted the ban on reproductive freedom and he's going to lift the ban on gays and lesbians in the military; let's give him a chance." If these two issues were the only crises we had in America, that would be fine, but these issues seem to be tailor made pacifiers for the left. Organizing Struggle in the 90's Clinton is a politician. He is a capitalist politician. He is trying to back out of 75% of the promises he made during the erection (don't men always?). More importantly, he doesn't begin to approach real progressive socialist policies on a level which would create real relief for people of color, the third world, and real change for women. At the recent PSN Steering Committee meeting we had a long discussion of these issues and came up with some creative strategies to activate on some issues. Here are some of our observations. Remember how Reagan and Bush courted the religious right on the abortion issue? Remember how Operation Rescue and the extreme right used "presidential" backing as an excuse to block clinics? Remember how the right used the 80s to roll us back to the 50s on a fast track and dominated America for twelve years? Well they wouldn't have had right wing control for twelve years had it not been for right wing activist and idealists on the ground across America. Our call to progressive minded people should be that this time should be used to build working class, urban, and student uprisings to demand left changes on all levels of society to roll America up to the 90's. A reverse fight must be waged. We must have national socialized medicine and socialized education. The ban on gays and lesbians in the military must be lifted. One PSNer heard a real good quote on that one: "Queers should have the right to serve and the sense not to. We must demand that Clinton cut the military first anytime he talks about the deficit. We must have the religious right completely out of our personal lives. Our government must withdraw its military power from support of all third world dictators. We've got to be willing to block businesses that discriminate against gays and lesbians. We must block the embassies of all foreign imperialist dictatorships. Let's cut them down. Let's block the doors of businesses that don't pay equal pay for women, let's block military bases and demand cuts in funding. Let's block private wealthy hospitals until we have health care for all. Let's support the homeless squatting in unused buildings. Let's wage a relentless campaign to shut down corporations which are shamelessly destroying the environment in our communities. It is our turn to shift America and we don't have long to do so. Four years is a very short time when you stay inactive. Granted, all these suggestions might not work, but it's a good answer to all these folks out there, who think that faith in the man called Hope is enough to pull us out of the right wing tailspin we are in. We've got to make people realize that if they don't make it happen nothing's going to happen. Let's force the man from Hope to make real changes. The Left, Where Have They gone? Have we forgotten about El Salvador, the Philippines, Cuba, Palestine, Indigenous America, Nicaragua, South Africa and the countless other oppressed peoples Clinton didn't even begin to address? He is currently refusing to allow Haitians with or without AIDS into the U.S. The Gulf War seems to have left the Left in a stagnate state. It seems like we're caught in a vacuum. We should probably at some point try to deal with the current injustices the U.S. caused and continues to cause in the Middle East. We should also try to diligently organize and educate on the current situation. We must make our case. Clinton is a capitalist. He says he must cut spending but will only cut the military budget by 100 million (Peanuts!). We have to continue to wage a campaign against U.S. and world imperialism in order to be able to look ourselves in the mirror and call ourselves leftists. We are still living in the most corrupt, evil, and oppressive society in the world. We are 2% of the world's population and we consume 46% of the world's resources. China, on the other hand, constitutes 26% of the world population and consumes only 2% of its resources. On a world scale we are holding the entire earth hostage. We are the "SUPER Power" and when we say jump you better ask "How high?" When we say we want cheap Mexican labor they better ask "how cheap." When we want to cause rampant environmental destruction in a third world nation they better ask "how much?" We are the worlds largest terrorist organization. We cause the clear majority of mass murder across the globe. We have no shortage of issues to activate around. We could all work 24 hrs a day for the rest of our lives and there would still be about 3 zillion things left. We must be inspired by the struggles of the people to survive against the onslaught of Imperialism. We are after all people struggling to survive... or we are part of the problem. We must, within our own boundaries, fight to open up our own government, schools, and institutions to include oppressed nationalities' from the top down. We must support and fight for all of the lands seized from Native Americans (legally bound to them by treaty) and total nation to nation respect for their sovereignty. Even on the left certain humanists still have the racist gall to insinuate that Indian people are somehow flawed because they don't want to assimilate into the grinding box of Amerikkka. What ever happened to the 40 acres and a mule settlement for African Americans? Do you even know what that is? There is a real growing voice of oppressed peoples evident in the L.A. uprising, the Mohawk uprising at Oka, and many other events which represent very serious concerns that capitalists in this country are afraid to address. These struggles aren't going to just go away because some white guy from Arkansas got elected. Progressive Ideals In The 90's At no time should the left in the 90s allow itself to be subservient or pacified by capitalist Democrats throwing bones to the masses. The more bones they throw the more we should demand real power. Our demands should consist of reparations to those who have and continue to be the targets of the genocidal war of capitalists against all people of color in this country. The All African Peoples Revolutionary Party, the American Indian Movement, the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, Latin and Chicano organizations, Queer Nation, leftist women's agendas, and many other struggles will never be touched by a Clinton administration caught in its "love Bill, America" campaign. To see issues in the forefront we have to push them there. How long do we rest easy on the mere fact that Bush is out of office? If we rest too long, what will we have left to work with? On the other hand, if we act now we could win significant long term gains. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx New! Different! Better! Party Time for the Student Left! by Stuart Eimer Students for the new party While President Clinton and friends were partying at the inaugural celebration last January, thousands of his fellow citizens were working to reinvigorate what they feel is a moribund political system which will not be revived by any one president. They aren't forming watchdog organizations or financing a new lobby on the hill, but instead are building a new political party. They've aptly named this party The New Party (NP), and intend to do nothing less than change the way politics is done in the United States. Their aim is to build an institution capable of aggregating and representing the interests of the nation's forgotten half. Who are these forgotten citizens? They're the 45 percent of the electorate who decided it wasn't worth the effort to go to the polls last November. They're the 47 percent who told pollster Gordon Black that a new political party is needed to reform politics in the United States. They're the millions of men and women who are fed up with business as usual and who have little faith that either of the two major parties really has what it takes to facilitate the kind of changes needed in the U.S. today. Basically, they're people like you and me. In fact, I'm one of them, so from here on in it's "we" not "they." An Electoral Vision... Progressives in the United States lack a serious electoral strategy. Each election cycle we either slave away for Democrats, only to be forgotten after the election, make suicide runs for offices we have no hope of winning, or simply opt out of elections to focus on our non-electoral work. New Party organizers feel it's time to reconsider these approaches. We think its time to build a party that can serve as the electoral arm of our many movements. We're building a party that will enable us to implement the sorts of social policy needed to redistribute power, wealth and opportunity in the United States. And, perhaps most importantly, we're building a party that can win elections. Creating such a party is, to say the least, a challenging project. There have been over 1,000 third party attempts in US. history. If nothing else, this teaches us that for many reasons, most of them very rational, it's tough to convince people to vote for a third party. This is understandable in that a vote for a third party candidate, who is more often than not making a suicide run for an office which she or he has little or no chance of winning, is often seen as a wasted vote. This is a problem since, simply put, most people don't want their vote to be wasted. They'd like to think their vote counts, and are understandably hesitant to cast it for a candidate with little chance of winning. Facing this fact in no way necessitates surrendering to it. It simply means that if progressives ever hope to be a serious electoral force in US. politics, they must carefully consider their strategies. With this in mind, the New Party has developed some fairly straightforward guidelines to inform our electoral efforts. First, we won't run candidates with no chance of winning. This means avoiding costly runs for Congress and the presidency until we have the organizational base and the material resources to do so seriously. Until then, we'll focus our efforts on municipal, county, and state elections where it is much easier to wage serious campaigns. Although these local offices lack the glamour and publicity garnered by the federal government, they nonetheless make countless decisions that effect the everyday lives of all people. It's at this level that New Party activity thus far has been centered. Our victories include electing four people to the county board and one to the state assembly in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the NP elected two council people. In Altheimer, Arkansas, three city council seats. The list of victories goes on, with more anticipated this spring. Slowly but surely, one community at a time, the NP is building a national base from the bottom up. As the local work has progressed, the NP has also attracted some support from a bunch of prominent national figures. A few of them include; Ed Bruno, vice president of the United Electrical Workers; Noam Chomsky, professor; Ellen David-Friedman of the Vermont National Education Association; Barbara Ehrenreich, author; Francis Fox Piven, CUNY; Maude Hurd, ACORN; Manning Marable, University of Colorado; John O'Connor, National Toxics Campaign; Major Owens, US. Congress; and Tani Takagi, Ms. Foundation for Women. Students for the New Party So, how do students fit in to all this? Well, if you're reading this paper you probably already know that despite the lack of attention paid to it by the national news media there currently exists a large and diverse student movement in the United States. This movement has been expanding since the campaigns to force university divestment from South Africa swept the nation in the mid 1980's. Driven largely by successive Republican administrations and economic recession, this growth has entailed the broadening of movement activity beyond foreign policy concerns to a wide range of domestic issues. Today, college campuses are home to groups working on abortion rights, rape prevention, homelessness, environmental degradation, access to education, curriculum reform, gay and lesbian rights, third world solidarity and many other issues. A recent survey administered annually to 200,000 first year students by the Higher Education Research Institute at U.C.L.A. suggests that campus activism will continue to increase in the 1990's. The 1991 survey found that 40 percent of incoming students had taken part in demonstrations during their last year in high school. This compares with 37 percent in 1989, and is more than double the number that reported doing so in the late 1960's. The survey also found that an all time high of 7.1 percent said they planned to demonstrate in college. Again, this number compares to 6.3 percent in 1989 and 4.1 percent in 1968. Other interesting findings include the 88 percent who feel that the government "is not doing enough to control environmental pollution." All in all, the findings led the director of the survey to suggest that "...there is a rapidly expanding number of American college students who are dissatisfied with the status quo and who want to become personally involved in bringing about change in American society." Unfortunately, these students will be entering a student movement that is much less than the sum of its parts. Although we're large and diverse, we're not as well organized and coordinated as we could be. Efforts by groups to forge multi-issue regional and national networks and organizations have met with limited success. In general, they've had difficulty garnering the resources necessary to overcome the organizing obstacles that such a huge and diverse nation throws in our path. As a result, most of the student activism in the United States is not hooked up to any of the national or regional networks or organizations. The decentralized and local nature of the contemporary student movement limits its ability to foster change. Since much of the organizing action remains at the local level, activists are often unaware that students down the road, and people in surrounding communities, share our concerns. As a consequence, student groups frequently take part in isolated yearly cycles of protest. This cycle finds us mounting campaigns in the fall, gradually exhausting our repertoire of educational, mass, and direct actions during the year, and ultimately ending up in somewhat of a dead end by the close of spring semester. Come the next fall, this lonely cycle begins again, albeit with some new organizers who were trained during the previous year. The continual repeat of this drama leaves many activists cynical, believing that nothing can ever change. Others continue to plug away, often to the point where protests become "routine-ized" and unappealing to other students. Although victories and trained organizers do emerge from these cycles of protest, I think it's fair to say that we can do better. Often-times we simply lack the resources and connections to move beyond our schools in order to mount the broad-based grass-roots campaigns necessary to challenge the external economic and political forces that condition our campuses. The New Party offers students a way to overcome the above mentioned limits. It promises to provide an institutional framework through which our concerns can be linked to those of other like-minded individuals and groups. Having student demands integrated into a progressive policy platform will provide a way for campus activists to meaningfully address the external forces shaping our world. It will help lift us out of the semesterly cycle of protest by situating us in a long term project capable of actualizing serious societal transformation. In addition to the benefits we stand to gain at the local level by being part of the New Party, we'll also gain at the national level. The NP promises to provide a national organization with the resources needed to facilitate national dialogue and organizing among students. Like our brothers and sisters throughout the world, we'll finally have a progressive party to aid us in our attempts to heighten our level of organization and effectiveness. Student New Party organization are already cropping up around the country in places like the University of Wisconsin Madison, the University of Minnesota, and Rutgers University. These campus organizations complement the work being done in their respective communities and are a vital component of the party building process. They're working hand in hand with community organizers, labor activists and an array of other people whom students don't ordinarily organize with. So, let me take this opportunity to invite you to the party. Take the time to get acquainted with the New Party chapter in your area. If there is none, help to start one. You can write the national office for more materials about the New Party at the following address: The New Party, 227 West 40th Street, Suite 1302, New York, NY 10018 (212) 302-5053. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx King verdict is half justice by Lamoin Werlien-Jaen At long last the LAPD, the local political apparatus and the establishment they represent, can relate. The verdict in the Rodney King case is in: two convictions and two acquittals. Apparently, African-Americans now get half the justice others get. You see ... things are getting better! We'll see what kind of sentences they get; we'll see how much time they serve; we'll see what happens in the Reginald Denny case. The "Powers That Be," I'm sure, are relieved by this turn of events. They have come through one more ordeal relatively intact, or so they think. Now they can go about bolstering their legitimacy by offering the verdict as evidence that indeed some white cops can be convicted in the United States in 1993. They can now bombard the airwaves with the promises about how "things are going to get better," about how they will create new programs to rebuild the inner city. Same old song and dance. While the verdict was certainly a partial victory in these troubled times, it provides little consolation. One thing is certain: JUSTICE HAS NOT BEEN SERVED. The Rodney King trial was about the hundreds of cases of police brutality which happen every year in this country. It was about how the state views people of color and what it's prepared to do to "keep the peace." It's about the violent police response to an urban crisis which engulfed millions of people: poor whites, Blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans and others. We must face up to the fact that there are oppressed communities all across the United States. In particular, people of color are oppressed all across the United States. One aspect of the crisis in L.A., which the mainstream media ignored, was the effects of the massive show of force mobilized for the trial. Things have sure gotten heavy. Six thousand police officers deployed, hundreds of National Guard troops garrisoned in the city, the Army put on alert. Talk about overkill. What are they afraid of? Do they fear people will treat them as they have treated others? This threat of violence could in itself trigger confrontation. Especially if you considered there are other "Officer Powells" out there, a fact not lost upon the residents of South Central. As numerous residents of the area pointed out in interviews, any confrontation would lead to a massacre. The image of National Guard troops chanting their cadences and pounding their rifles on the ground couldn't have been clearer. As one person pointed out, the rioting last time began after the police attacked protesters. Unfortunately, little is likely to change as a result of all this. We would be naive to believe that the authorities will now launch a reform process to overcome the problems faced by South Central. Naive to believe that they will attack poverty, that racism will be rooted out of the system and that the urban centers will be rebuilt. Naive to believe "Rebuild LA" will amount to much. Who's going to pay for it? The folks in Maple Bluff? The federal government? The one that is practically bankrupt after countless wars and conquests? More likely we'll see the same damn crisis, the same police and the same corrupt politicians, singing the same old tune. As long as these conditions prevail, the next rebellion will always be around the corner. The truth is that nothing is going to change until a fundamental transformation of this society occurs. In fact, the most measurable government initiative towards the crisis in LA will not be Clinton's "Jobs Program;" rather it will be more funding for the police departments. As long as the government remains under the influence of big money, corporate interests, real-estate developers, bankers, and their lobbyists and PACs, things will remain the same. In response, we must build the unity of our individual communities and then the unity of all oppressed communities. We must build a movement which can unite African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Chicanos, committed whites and working people in general -- a movement based on self-determination and justice for all. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx We were right By Lamoin Werlein-Jaen On March 15, 1993, the UN. Commission on the Truth in El Salvador released the results of an investigat ion into human rights abuses during that country's civil war. The report confirms what many people knew all along -- that the Salvadoran army, and its oligarchic allies, are responsible for the overwhelming majority of the 75,000 civilian casualties registered during the conflict. Specifically, it holds that the military and right-wing death squads are responsible for 95 percent of all non-combat deaths. "The army, security forces and death squads linked to them committed massacres, sometimes of hundreds of people at a time," the report stated. The investigation is a striking vindication of all those people who argued that the Reagan and Bush administrations were arming, training and financing a genocidal regime with the most sophisticated weaponry and financing to the tune of $6 billion. The probe exposes the fact that the US. government aided and abetted one of the worst massacres in Central American history. As for the FMLN (the Salvadoran rebel front), the report singles out two major cases of civilian killings. One involved bomb attacks in which several off-duty US. military personnel were killed. The US. soldiers were in the country assisting the Salvadoran army as trainers and with logistical support. The other was an FMLN assassination campaign against small- town mayors during the mid-1980s. During this period the ARENA Party (representing the extreme right-wing) was attempting to consolidate its control over "contested zones," which the FMLN infiltrated. The army would sweep through an area, and ARENA would follow closely behind to set up administrative control. It should also be noted that some of these "civilian" mayors were ex-military or death squad members and all were involved with the government war. All told, the report holds the FMLN responsible for 5 percent of non combat deaths. The FMLN's attacks against ARENA's party infrastructure should not be confused with, nor compared to, the massacre of thousands of innocent people. As for U.S. military personnel killed while dining in downtown San Salvador, I can see how the FMLN would consider them legitimate targets. We must not forget that they had a mission and an agenda. They were assisting the army in its prosecution of war. The U.S. government was the main source of support for a corrupt military which should have disintegrated a long time ago. The Salvadoran military exists today because the Republicans in the White House and Democrats in Congress kept them afloat. Unfortunately, the United States has done virtually nothing to make amends for its past actions in El Salvador. In fact, the United States has done nothing to make amends for the many repressive regimes it bolstered and supported during the "cold war:" the military governments of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, the Middle East, Zaire, South Africa, Somalia, Vietnam, South Korea and Indonesia, to name a few. Perhaps someday all the massacres -- those reported, as well as those still buried -- will be exposed to the light of day. Until then we must continue to struggle. If they can hide the past, they will be in a better position to obscure the present, better able to obscure today's events behind a cloud of "soundbites" and double-speak. Better able, for instance, to justify accommodating the Haitian military coup which overthrew President Aristide. Easier to justify deporting Haitian citizens and holding them in "detention" centers. Better able to justify choosing repression over justice, choosing "stability" over democracy, elites over the disenfranchised millions. The Clinton administration's lukewarm response to President Aristide and the repressive actions against those Haitians fleeing the military is truly alarming. It appears that the Clinton administration has learned little from the mistake of its Republican predecessor. This course of action signals that the U.S. government, regardless of a change in leadership, continues to view the Caribbean and Latin America as its "backyard," its "sphere of influence," subject to the same old politics of "national security" and militarism. Now is the time to join the people of Haiti and raise our voices in protest. We cannot allow the past to be repeated, this time in Haiti, tomorrow somewhere else. We cannot allow the new administration to settle into "business as usual." If it does, we can look forward to more military coups, more repression and greater social crisis. Which in turn could lead to more U.S. military intervention. And all of which serves to reinforce the rule of despotic elites willing to do anything to maintain their privileges. Hopefully, the UN's report on El Salvador will affect the collective consciousness of the new administration. Hopefully, it will strengthen the case for peace and justice in Latin America and the Caribbean. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx What is next for Panama? by Lamoin Werlein-Jaen "This massacre of the civilian population, of children, women and the old, will someday be divulged by history ... some day justice will be done and the entire world will know what happened the 20th of December in the barrio of Chorillo." So said Rafael Olivardia, a dirigente of the Committee of War Refugees, a group representing the people most directly affected by the U.S. invasion of December 1989. With the Academy Award for Best Documentary going to the film Panama Deception, perhaps this day has arrived. The film, and the Oscar award, has helped break the silence which has pervaded the mainstream media concerning the invasion. The limelight surrounding the film has also exposed the fact that the film has been censored in Panama by the Endara government. However, a public outcry in Panama will soon change this. And why are Endara and his allies so fearful of this film? Because they have earned the contempt of most Panamanians and are now losing their last shred of legitimacy. Because they have no plan for governing the country and as a consequence, have virtually no base of support. And on top of it all, they have been paralyzed by internal splits and power struggles. For example, a state magistrate investigating corruption under Noriega has accused Foreign Minister Julio Linares of obstruction of justice for covering up evidence. In April 1991 the Christian Democrats were ousted from the ruling coalition, eventually leading to the resignation of the First Vice- President, Ricardo Arias Calderon. The latest victim of these internal splits was the Attorney General, Rogelio Cruz, who was forcibly removed from power last December for alleged misappropriation of public funds. As it turns out, he was about to indict two cabinet members, Juan Chavalier and Ruben Dario Carles, on corruption charges. Referring to this dismal situation, Panamanian sociologist Marco Gandasqui says that "What best characterizes the present regime is not only that it is incapable of governing, but that it has no plan to govern. Not only that it can't do anything, the government doesn't want to do anything." This is but one of the consequences of the U.S. invasion. Another was the immense amount of destruction and social dislocation caused by the attack. Hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people were killed, 6000 were wounded and over 15,000 were left homeless. In addition, entire neighborhoods were burned down under the weight of the 400-plus bombs which hit Panama City. Furthermore, the National Council of Private Enterprise (CONEP) estimates that over $2 billion in damage to property and infrastructure was incurred. It should also be pointed out that there have been several serious U.S. Military actions since the invasion. For instance: *From February-- June 1990, U.S. troops carried out a "pacification" campaign which included mass arrests in military operations in poor neighborhoods; the violent dislodging of 200 squatters in Coco Solo; and attacks against popular organizations such as the Interamerican Cooperative Council and the La Esperanza cooperative. *Then on December 5, 1990, some 500 U.S. troops moved into Panama City to crush an alleged coup attempt. Two Panamanian police officers were killed as a result. *Next, in November of 1991, in response to the killing of a U.S. soldier, forces from the U.S. Southern Command surround and menace a Panamanian police installation. *Finally, in response to the killing of a US soldier and riots during Bush's visit in June of 1992, U.S. troops in battle gear carry out house-to-house searches in the area of Chilibre. An important contribution of "Panama Deception" is that the film re-opens the debate around the invasion at a crucial time for Panama. Economic crisis, paralysis in public administration, intense pressure from the United States and elections in 1994, are combining to de-stabilize the nation. In fact, during this entire period Panama has been rocked by large and small protests, strikes, riots, armed confrontations, police repression and three alleged coup attempts. Unfortunately, Panama's crisis puts the country on a collision course with the United States. In the coming period Panama will likely become embroiled in a battle with the United States over the future of the canal and the U.S. military complex on the isthmus. The Panama Canal treaties, which are supposed to govern these matters, are no longer functioning legal documents. And it is clear that the United States intends to maintain a military presence in Panama. If the invasion tells us anything, it's that the US government will go to extreme lengths to achieve its objectives. By raising the public's awareness of the invasion and its consequences, "Panama Deception" does a great service to the Republic of Panama. We must use this awareness to mobilize public opinion against a future U.S. invasion -- and intervention which in light of recent events, seems inevitable. This article originally appeared in The Daily Cardinal, UW- Madison's student newspaper, and is reprinted here by permission. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx U.S. Hypocrisy Towards Haiti - More of the Same Old Uncle Sam Shit by: John E. Peck PSN-Madison Yon sel nou feb, ansanm nou fo; ansanm ansanm nou se lavalas "Alone we're weak, together we're strong; altogether we're a deluge" Thousands of people in dozens of cities across the United States participated in protests and events during Haiti Solidarity Week, Feb. 7 - 13, putting pressure on the Clinton administration to abide by its campaign promise of restoring democracy to the beleaguered island. It wasn't until a month later, though, and a full year and a half since he fled to the supposed land of freedom, that Jean-Bertrand Aristide finally got an audience at the White House. Unfortunately, the Clinton team was not prepared to issue an ultimatum to the Cedras dictatorship, having already waffled on its pledge to reverse Bush's merciless policy of refugee deportation. In fact, Clinton's advisors rejected virtually all of Aristide's proposals, including a financial freeze on overseas assets of coup supporters and a tighter blockade against imports of weapons and petroleum. Instead, the White House offered to bribe Haiti's ruling elite with $1 billion in foreign aid over the next five years in exchange for their political cooperation. While Washington pundits argue whether a tougher stance may provoke more violence, their mythical fears offer little solace to Haitians who are already suffering the worst atrocities of their living memory. On April 13 Harry Fouche, Midwest Coordinator of the Dixieme Departement, Haiti's overseas solidarity network, spoke at the Univ. of WI--Madison. According to Fouche, the victory of Aristide's Lavalas or "Deluge" party in Haiti's first ever free election in Dec. 1990 caught U.S. policymakers by surprise. Former World Bank econocrat, Marc Bazin, was the clear favorite of the Bush administration, and close to $40 million had been pumped into his campaign through a White House front organization known as the National Endowment for Democracy. Even a supposedly impartial observer, such as former president Jimmy Carter, expected Bazin's easy victory. Yet, it was a poor parish priest by the name of Jean- Bertrand Aristide who eventually won the election with a whopping 67% of the vote by official accounts. In a bold effort to wipe clean the legacy of decades of U.S.- -backed dictatorship, Pres. Aristide promptly dismissed and demoted army officers known to be gross human rights violators. The military's infamous Fort Dimanche torture facility was closed and converted into a memorial for victims of the Duvalier regime. For the first time ever, Haiti's elites were also put on notice that their "tax-free holiday" was about to end -- market women were no longer expected to finance the government singlehandedly. Refusing to accept his own $10,000 per month salary, Aristide tackled institutionalized corruption, sacking 2000 bureacrats within months of obtaining office. External confidence grew in step with grassroots support for Aristide's program and by July 1991 foreign donors had pledged over $500 million for fresh development efforts in one of the hemisphere's poorest countries. Then Veep Dan Quayle even paid a visit to the new Haiti upon Aristide's invitation in August 1991. Haitian hopes were rudely shattered on Sept. 29, 1991, however, when disgruntled military officers staged a coup d'etat, bank-rolled by wealthy cocaine traffickers. While Aristide's life was somehow spared, a mistake coup supporters now admit, many other prominent figures of the Lavalas movement were hunted down and summarily executed. Members of Duvalier's infamous secret police force, the Tontons Macoute, reemerged to attack those involved in community organizations, trade unions, and base communities of the Ti Legliz or "Little Church" liberation theology movement. Joining in this campaign of terror were also the zinglando -- unemployed young men -- who had been recruited and transformed into drug addicted thugs by the Haitian military. Within a year over 3000 Haitians were dead and another 400,000 had been driven into internal exile, hiding in remote rural areas from the regime's security forces. Close to 50,000 refugees have been intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard in their desperate attempt to flee oppression, while another 10,000 have successfully found asylum in Cuba. Discounting the argument that these are just "economic migrants," an estimated 25,000 Haitians have even escaped to the neighboring Dominican Republic, where they are often forced to work under horrific conditions on sugar plantations or face torture and expulsion. Even if a Haitian refugee is one of the lucky few to be recognized by the U.S. government as fleeing political persecution, that is by no means a ticket to freedom. Over 300 Haitians have been languishing at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba because they tested HIV-positive. According to U.S. gay and lesbian activists, conditions in the detention center are so deplorable that several Haitians have since committed suicide. African-American leaders are equally furious with Clinton's decision to uphold Bush's infamous "Kennebunkport Order" of forced repatriation. "The policy is both inhumane and cruel," said Rev. Benjamin Chavis, newly appointed head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), "Innocent people including children are being returned to certain death, torture, and imprisonment." In a recent letter to Lies of Our Times (Feb. 1993), Prof. Noam Chomsky revealed the awful truth behind U.S. policy towards Haiti - namely an overriding interest in restoring business as usual. Shortly after the Lavalas party swept into power, USAID launched a "Democracy Enhancement" program to encourage "moderate" Haitian political elements in their opposition to Aristide's "radical" policies. Following the coup the U.S. State Dept. also began circulating a dossier of alleged human rights abuses byLavalas supporters, conveniently provided by the Haitian military itself, in order to undermine Aristide's legitimacy overseas. While the Organization of American States (OAS) sought to impose a trade embargo, the U.S. Commerce Department instead granted sweeping exemptions to corporations with assembly plants in Haiti. Consequently, between Jan. and Oct. 1992 U.S. companies enjoyed a brisk business worth $265 million with Haiti's generals. In order to portray the ruthless regime in a better light, the White House even convinced Gen. Cedras to install rejected presidential contender, Marc Bavin, as his token prime minister. Elliot Abrams, Bernard Aronson, and Alven Adams figure prominently among the former Bush administration officials who have been hired as D.C. lobbyists by the Haitian military. Regime apologists, such as New Yorker reporter Anna Husarska (New York Times, March 16, 1993) have even gone so far as to pronounce Aristide expendable to the "democratic process" in Haiti. In early April U.S. diplomats cooked up a sweeping amnesty offer for Haiti's coup leaders, which Aristide was pressured to endorse despite its clear violation of Haiti's own constitution. Revealing where its true loyalties lie, however, the Cedras regime rejected the deal on April 16 out of fear it would no longer enjoy the estimated $500 million the Haitian army gains from cocaine dealings each year. Once again, it appears that U.S. officials are willing to tolerate drug trafficking overseas as long as it serves U.S. interests. The hypocrisy of the Clinton administration policy towards Haiti is woefully obvious P to quote Rev. Chavis once again "the only solution to the refugee crisis is democracy and the return of the elected Pres. Aristide. The fact that we can move so resolutely in Iraq and are dragging our feet in Haiti hints at a racially-biased foreign policy." If the Clinton administration is to be held accountable to its democratic rhetoric, people everywhere must lend their support to the ongong struggle of the Haitian diaspora to restore democracy to their homeland. When Toussant l'Ouverture first led African slaves in a war for Haitian independence nearly two centuries ago, it was surely not to swap 19th century French colonialism for 20th century American imperialism. What a shame it would be, Mr. Fouche concluded, if Haiti were to find itself no better off on the eve of its bicentennial birthday then it was two hundred years ago. There is a popular Creole saying in Haiti Yon sel dwet pa manje kalalou "you can't eat okra with one finger." The time for global solidarity for freedom and justice in Haiti is long overdue. Thanks to Jill Kelner and Beth Kanter, PSU-- George Washington Univ., for the following list of invaluable Haitian resources: Haiti: Killing the Dream-- a powerful video documenting Haiti's history and current political crisis. Length - one hour. Available for $25.00 (postage included) from: Crowing Rooster Productions, P.O. Box 1944, Canal St. Station, New York, NY 10013 tel. (800) 424-0305. Haiti: A Look at the Reality -- a primer covering all facets of Haiti's social, economic, political, religious, and cultural situation. For copies contact: Quixote Center/Haiti Reborn, P.O. Box 5206, Hyattsville, MD 20782 tel. (301) 699-0042. FAX (301) 864-2182. Haiti: Resistance and Democracy --information bulletin produced clandestinely in Port-au-Prince three times per week. For copies contact: Haiti Communications Project, 11 Inman St., Cambridge, MA 02139 tel. (617) 868-2900. Haiti Info -- published biweekly, "news directly from the people and organizations of Haiti's grassroots movement." For copies contact: Newslink, 67 Pleasant St., Cambridge, MA 02139 tel. (617) 661-7592. Haiti Insight -- monthly bulletin that is a good resource for refugee-related issues. For copies contact: National Coalition for Haitian Refugees (NCHR), 16 E. 42nd St., 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10017 tel. (212) 867-0020. Haitian News and Resource Service -- monthly update containing news clippings, press releases, reports, bulletins, events, etc. For copies contact: Washington Office on Haiti (WOH), 110 Maryland Ave. N.E. #310, Washington DC 20002, (202) 543-7095. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Dark Shadows in Peru Andres Hernandez Many cling to the notion that the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) is the problem in Peru, rather than the terrors of the government -- with the complicity of the United States and its financed institutions -- hidden in the dark shadows of Peru. Many reports from various sources focus too much on the guerrillas and turn away from harsh criticism of the Peruvian government. Many often forget that imposed horrid conditions, centuries old, are the breeding grounds of revolution. It is not revolution which creates horrid conditions. I recently asked a friend to an international conference on Peru held in Germany. Although he supports me as a friend, he could not support this activity. After watching a mini series on PBS, "Americas," he thought the Shining Path was too sectarian and as a result couldn't be supportive of my activities related to the movement in Peru. Like my friend, many of the misinformed (or disinformed) are ignorant of the facts. Marc de Beaufort and three colleagues who shot the footage of the segment regarding Peru, "Fire in the Mind," were disturbed that the "film was being watered down, the creators of 'Americas' sought to avoid... sympathy for rebels." Beaufort charged, "that the movie was being edited to conform to prevailing academic views, diluting his efforts to present the rebels fairly (The Boston Sunday Globe, January 10, 1993)." Even the television that most of us thought could be trusted is not serving the public. "PBS tends to run for cover at the slightest hint of potential controversy (The Progressive, March 1993)." It is being attacked by right wing organizations, individuals, and Congress with charges of airing "blatantly pro- communist propaganda (The Progressive, March 1993)." There is a call to withdraw funding for PBS, and PBS has chosen to retreat from its public responsibilities. Ramsey Clarke, former U.S. Attorney General, recently stated, "Hatred and demonization create the excesses." He added, "The media control what the world opinion knows (The Nation, March 15, 1993)." We have seen this with such "demons" as the Viet Cong, Fidel Castro, the Sandinistas, Saddam Hussein, the I.R.A., Noriega, Khadafi, the A.N.C, and Maurice Bishop. We rarely heard bad things about the "good guys" like the Somozas, Marcos, the Shah, U.N.I.T.A., the Contras, or Israel. What is it that we don't know about Peru? For starters, according to UNICEF, over 70,000 children died last year before the age of one, due to conditions of poverty. One in four children in the highlands dies before the age of five. One in six in Lima also dies before his/her fifth birthday (Revolutionary Worker, February 7, 1993). Overall, the population has grown more vulnerable to diseases because critical social services and means of employment to provide decent living standards have been reduced greatly due to the austerity measures imposed by the Peruvian government. In 1992 cholera swept through Peru killing over two thousand. Tuberculosis, a disease related to poverty for which Peru has the highest incidence rate in all Latin America, is ending the lives of scores of people. There have even been cases of bubonic plague reported. Approximately 10% of the population is fully employed. More than half the population lives in absolute poverty and a third in extreme poverty. While the people suffer protein poverty, the fish industry of Peru exports the majority of its tuna to feed our (U.S.) cats! The indigenous people of 500 years ago had a better diet than the Peruvians do today which averages 400 calories (Revolutionary Worker, February 7, 1993). Peru ranks as the second poorest nation in this hemisphere, behind Haiti, yet, it has the third largest army. The government maintains an army of 130,000, mainly by forced recruitment, while it is crumbling under a massive debt of $20 billion. Peru is now paying out more to service its debt than it is receiving in new investment and new loans. To prop up the regime (as it usually does), the U.S. took part in a $2 billion loan program. The majority of loans tend to be in the form of military aid while calling for brutal austerity measures. People rebel for reasons. According to a report from the Ad Hoc International Lawyers Delegation to Peru, September 30 P October 9, 1992, "There is no dispute that the Fujimori government and its predecessors have created conditions that have resulted in great suffering for the vast majority of the Peruvian population." Part of this great suffering has also been in the form of repression. Since April 5, 1992, when Fujimori announced the dissolution of Congress, reorganization of the judiciary, and the suspension of the constitution, abuses by the government have greatly increased. Politicians, journalists, labor leaders, teachers, lawyers, students, and others have been detained without charges and disappeared. Prison massacres like the one at Canto Grande, launched by the armed forces, have left hundreds of prisoners dead, many shot in the back of the head. The military is responsible, according to the Peruvian Defense Minister, for at least 12,000 civilian deaths who had been labeled as subversive individuals. Not included in this number are the civilians that the army rounds up in "rondas" and uses as cannon fodder when engaging Sendero. These incidents are then used to show the world the atrocities committed by Sendero. Troops also have the job of occupying campuses, classrooms, and newspaper offices to prevent criticisms of the government and dispersion of "terrorist" propaganda. "Terrorism" is the word du jour. But who are the real terrorists? The definition of terrorism has been changed from violent acts to ideas and writings. An "apology for terror" law has been created but not defined. (The second delegation to Peru was detained by DINOTE, the special police, for being "apologists"). "Terrorism" defendants are subject to mandatory arrest and pre-trial detention. Military tribunals have jurisdiction over civilians charged with "treason." Secret trials, with no right to present evidence or witnesses, or cross examination, are being carried out under the guise of democratic rights. In Peru, there is, in effect, no right to public trial and defense for those accused of "terrorism." In short, there is no due process. To ensure the completion of the "judicial" process, the Peruvian government is attempting to institute the death penalty, making it retroactive and applying it to prisoners whose associates may be implicated in "terrorist" acts. This constitutes premeditated political murder. These acts are contrary and in direct violation of the Peruvian constitution, the San Jose Human Rights Accords, and the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. Of course, many people, including progressives, feel that Dr. Abimael Guzman, the head of the Shining Path, and the other members of the Path should be executed. These people claim that Sendero doesn't represent the masses. The Ad Hoc International Lawyers Delegation noted, "It is clear that the movement has mass support within the country and Lima (Ad Hoc Report)." This is consistent with a report from the Rand Corporation, a Pentagon think tank. "The Shining Path's ability to operate on a military plane is a function of the strength, scope, and diversity of its popular base. It is a movement, as suggested elsewhere, that clearly understands the value of political work (McCormick, From Sierra to the Cities)." "Yes, undeniably, people were of afraid of Sendero, at first, but once the masses became familiar with it they accepted Sendero's work (The New Yorker, February 8, 1993)." The Communist Party of Peru has continued to gain support as a result of the human rights abuses committed by the government, such as the raking (seal, search, and seizure) operations in the barrios and the violent measures against the people. Academic observers have contrasted the indiscriminate use of violence by the military and police with the more limited and focused use by Sendero (David Scott Palmer, ed., Shining Path of Peru). The Ad Hoc Lawyers Delegation noted that the "Communist Party of Peru has been mis-characterized as an organization that relies on senseless violence (Ad Hoc Report)." Despite this, organizations such as Amnesty International have not done enough to denounce the abuses of the Peruvian government. The press and the public continuously denounce Sendero and not the Peruvian government. We are silent as the U.S. increases its involvement from military aid, advisors, and Vietnam-style firebases, to direct intervention under the guise of "the war on drugs." We sit by while Peruvian authorities attempt to execute Dr. Abimael Guzman whose only crime according to the military tribunal was being the head of the Communist Party of Peru. We allow many others, after being tortured, to be sentenced by kangaroo courts like Dr. Abimael Guzman. The tables are being turned on political prisoners, currently over two thousand, in Peru, and we turn our heads. Nobody screams about the rights of all those Peruvian children who die each year from poverty. Worldwide protests are coming from parliamentarians, judges, lawyers, teachers, ministers, unions, and artists. And here, we are hiding in the dark shadows of Peru. "The international community should be reacting very strongly to this because we haven't seen anything like this in decades (Ad Hoc Report)." As a result of this position people like Simon Strong, Robin Kirk, and various progressive groups call me an "apologist for terrorism." Well, I guess that makes them "apologists for fascism." Andres Hernandez has been involved in various organizations such as, CISPES, INFACT, and the Chicago Homeless Coalition. Currently, he has been active in the International Emergency Committee to Defend the Life of Abimael Guzman -- Chicago Chapter. The IEC statement of unity calls for 1) The defense of Dr. Guzman's life, 2) Stopping U.S. intervention in Peru, 3) Holding the Peruvian government accountable for its rights violations, and 4) Pressuring Amnesty International to exert more pressure on the Peruvian government. Interested persons should call the national office in Berkeley at (415) 252 - 5786. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Why England Must Leave Ireland American Irish Political Education Committee (PEC) Torture -- physical and mental. Innocent men, women, and babies turned out of their beds in the dead of night while their homes are literally smashed to pieces. Wanton and cruel beatings with rifle butts. Special single judge, non-jury courts where convictions are based on uncorroborated confessions -- often coerced -- and where refusal of a defendant to testify is used as evidence of guilt. No, this is not Hitler's Germany. This is Northern Ireland under British rule TODAY! Even murder by British forces routinely goes unpunished. Hundreds of innocent Irish civilians have been killed by British forces. The only case in which a British soldier was convicted and condemned turned out to be a mockery. Although sentenced to life imprisonment, the soldier was released after twenty-six months and reinstated in his army unit. All told over 33,000 people have been killed or injured by all sides during the past twenty years of war in Northern Ireland (population 1.5 million). A comparable number of fatalities in the United States (population 260 million) would exceed 5,700,000. British policies in Northern Ireland have been condemned by Amnesty International, Helsinki Watch, the European Community, and other human rights groups. Why do we seldom hear of these horrors? Why aren't there protests against Britain by our government like those against the Serbs in Yugoslavia? Two reasons: a deliberate blind eye by U.S. policy-makers and almost total British domination of news coming out of Northern Ireland. All this suffering and injustice so that Britain can continue to rule over Ireland. Britain divided Ireland in 1921 against the expressed wish of more than 80% of the Irish people, who had voted in 1918 for independence from 700 years of colonial oppression. This forced division keeps the nationalist and unionist communities apart and prevents them from reaching a peaceful settlement. That the imposed division of Ireland is wrong is best described by the well-known Anglican theologian, John Austin Baker. The former Chaplain to the Speaker of the British House of Commons pointed out in Westminister Abbey (Dec. 1, 1980): "No British government ought ever to forget this perilous moment, like many before it , is the outworking of a history for which our country is primarily responsible. England seized Ireland for its own military benefit; it planted Protestant settlers there to make it strategically secure; it humiliated and penalized the native Irish and their Catholic religion. And then, when it could no longer hold on to the whole island, kept back part to be a home for the settlers' descendants, a non- viable solution from which Protestants have suffered as much as anyone. Our injustice created the situation; and by constantly repeating that we will maintain it so long as the majority wish it, we actively inhibit Protestant and Catholic from working out a new future together." The silence of U.S. politicians has permitted the British government to maliciously and wrongfully depict American opponents of British colonialism in Ireland as supporters of violence and terrorism. In the wake of the recent election, it is time for all supporters of democracy to demand that President Clinton and the U.S. Congress reconsider American policy towards the division of Ireland. It is time that our government did more than simply condemn violence; it is time to take action against British injustice itself. The American Irish Political Education Committee (PEC), founded in 1975, is a non-sectarian organization that seeks the help of all Americans in hastening Britain's withdrawal from Northern Ireland and the reunification of the Irish people through peaceful means. Your help and support are needed to continue our work. For more information, please contact: American Irish Political Education Committee (PEC), 18 Route 9W, West Haverstraw, NY 10993 telephone: (1-800-777- 6807). xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sarajevo & L.A.: A Tale of Two Cities By Zolta n Grossman The cities of Sarajevo and Los Angeles are about 8000 miles apart but they share a lot in common. They were both sites for the 1984 Olympics -- pageants of "peace and brotherhood" in cities of striking ethnic diversity. But eight years later parts of both cities were simultaneously aflame, Army troops patrolled their streets and ethnic groups battled with guns. What happened? That question can't be answered with a look only at those eight years without a look at the setting of the crises in both cities and the ethnic groups that carry centuries of history with them. Sarajevo Sarajevo -- the capital of newly independent Bosnia- Hercegovina -- is a mosaic of Muslim Slavs, Catholic Croats, Eastern Orthodox Serbs, and Jews. Their differences would seem to be insurmountable given their deep historic roots in the Great Christian Schism, the Ottoman Turkish occupation, and the two world wars. Yet until recently Sarajevo was known as an oasis of diversity where interethnic marriages were common and different ethnic groups worked side by side. However, Sarajevo was in Yugoslavia, (whose identity has centered on the Serbs since the country was founded after World War I). Resentment against this control fueled the Croat Ustasha Nazis who committed genocidal acts against Serbs in World War II. In the 1950s communist leader Josip Broz Tito made Yugoslav unity his top priority and -- in an undemocratic way -- spread political and economic power more equally among the republics. But Serbs continued to dominate the Army and Serbian nationalist sentiment remained strong in the countryside. We may be poor, the idea went, but at least we're Serbs. Los Angeles Los Angeles is similarly a mosaic of European Americans, Latinos, African Americans, Asians and Native Americans. Their conflicts date from the days of slavery, from the U.S. annexation of Mexican and Native lands and the different waves of immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and Europe..., each given their own place in the pecking order. While there has been less interethnic contact than in Sarajevo, in recent years L.A. has been seen as a sort of multi-cultural Mecca where Americans could glimpse their future. However, Los Angeles is in the United States, a country where one racial group has predominated since the late 17th century. After English and Irish indentured servants joined with African slaves in uprisings against plantation owners, the owners freed the servants, and gave them relative privileges to win their loyalty against the Africans. Europeans of all classes were then grouped as "whites" for the first time. We may be poor, the idea went, but at least we're white. This system of white racial solidarity survived civil war and reconstruction, and was most strongly challenged by the civil rights movements founded in the l950s by African-Americans, but followed by other groups. Despite some meaningful victories, most centers of power --such as some police departments -- remained under white control. The Backlash in Yugoslavia In both Sarajevo and L.A., some progress had been made by the 1980s, but it was threatened by economic troubles and the emergence of new national leaders. Ethnic tensions in the former Yugoslav (and Soviet) republics are often presumed to have always been boiling under the surface, with state repression keeping the lid on until the collapse of Communism. But a more complete picture shows the new republican leaders stoking prejudice into full-blown hatred -- playing the ethnic card in order to cling onto power during hard times. The leaders want war, even if the people don't. Tito died in 1980, and the resulting power vacuum was largely filled by republican governments. While he had kept power through national unity, they claimed power through national disunity. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman skillfully played the game of divide-and-conquer during the economic downturn of the early '90s. Their TV stations broadcast hate propaganda against the rival republic, and the "hooligans" in rival ethnic movements. Turning public anger away from a domestic elite and toward a foreign enemy is a skill used by leaders from World War I to the Falklands, but this time it was used against ethnic groups next door. Serbians and Croatians, who had never been nationalistic, backed their armies against secessionists, and their armies were sent into newly independent Bosnia. TV war coverage highlighted only the atrocities committed by the other side. The Backlash in the U.S. The 1980 election of a Republican administration in the U.S. similarly brought racial tensions into full view. The verbal assault by presidents Reagan and Bush against so-called welfare queens, racial quotas, and Willie Hortons represented a turning back of the civil-rights movement. TV and Hollywood showed even stronger images of African Americans and Latinos as gang members, and focused almost exclusively on the white victims of black crime. Many urban whites backed tougher police action against black 'criminals.' The logical result was the police beating of Rodney King, the acquittal of the police, and the violence that followed. Though the violence had the marks of both a spontaneous riot and a political uprising, TV images emphasized looting and the beating by blacks of a white truck driver. Who's at War in Sarajevo? However, the violence in Sarajevo and L.A. cannot be easily dismissed as a conflict between ethnic populations. The New York Times reports that Bosnian civilians still have a "striking lack of animosity" toward civilians in other ethnic groups, even as they are being shelled by a rival ethnic army. Serb civilians are victims of Serbian shelling, and some serve in the Bosnian army and government. Bosnian Serbs are regularly beaten by Serbian forces when they refuse to join their ranks. Serbs, Croats, and Muslims alike express dismay at the war, given the relative tolerance that preceded it, and most oppose an ethnic partition of Bosnia. In the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbians have demonstrated for peace, and groups of soldiers' mothers have urged the government to bring their sons home. A few brave Serbians are even backing ethnic Albanian autonomy in Serbia. A good number of Serbs oppose Serbian expansion, knowing full well that dominating other peoples does not ultimately bring economic security. Who's Really at War in L.A.? Similarly, the events in Los Angeles can't be seen simply as a race riot. From the first minutes of the rebellion, it was clear that many Latinos, and some whites and Asians, were participating. They didn't simply take part in the looting, but expressed their outrage at the jury verdict and the pervasiveness of urban poverty. A multi-racial crowd besieged police headquarters on April 29, overturning squad cars and fighting police (It says something about our political culture that the crowd didn't stay at Parker Center to force changes, in the style of Beijing's Tienanmen Square in 1989 or Moscow's Parliament building in 1991). Photos of handcuffed arrestees and curfew violators show that not only African-Americans were involved in L.A. In San Francisco, whites were the largest group in a series of militant demonstrations (one of which was banned under a state of emergency -- a ban that did not happen even in wartime Belgrade). A good number of whites in California began to look up the social scale, rather than down, to find the source of their problems. A study could probably prove that what happened in California was the most multi-racial civil unrest in this country since the late 17th century. Ending Artificial Hatreds The lessons of Sarajevo and L.A. are only now emerging. Such conflicts don't come out of disagreements over skin color, cultural norms, or religious doctrine, but out of the uneven spread of economic development and political power. There are some Yugoslav Serbs and U.S. whites who can play a key role in breaking these vicious historical circles. Prejudice is always simmering somewhere, but violent conflicts rarely originate from people simply not liking each other. We are not floating around the universe, accidentally bumping into one other. The violence at its core is an exercise of power by a dominant group -- through a Yugoslav Army or LAPD -- which is met with resistance by other groups. Racial, ethnic, and religious hatreds are not innate human traits. They have to be taught, sustained, and kept in reserve to be used at the most opportune and divisive times. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More Blood For Oil? - Hapless Somali Extras in Gulf War Rerun By: John E. Peck, PSN - Madison It was to be the icing on the cake for the lame duck Bush administration -- one last military fling by a kinder gentler America. Yet, the belated expose of Corporate America's stake in Operation "Restore Hope" left a foul taste in many people's mouths. As Somali graduate student, Omar Mohamed, explained at a UW-Madison presentation Feb. 10, U.S. economic and strategic interests had run roughshod over humanitarian concerns in his strifetorn homeland. "The U.S. needs oil, oil, oil, all the time," Mohamed emphasized, "especially when the Middle Eastern oil is not coming." The LA Times was the first to reveal that four U.S. corporations -- namely Conoco, Chevron, Amoco, and Phillips -- have exploration rights covering two-thirds of Somalia. As these favors had been granted in the waning years of the U.S. supported dictatorship of Muhammed Siad Barre, Big Oil was understandably anxious for the restoration of enough "law and order" to guarantee their potentially lucrative investments. In fact, following Barre's overthrow in Jan. 1991, Conoco maintained its Mogadishu office and entered into negotiations with the different factions behind the brewing civil war. When Bush's special envoy arrived to clear the way for the Marine landing, Conoco's posh complex even became the de facto U.S. embassy. John Gaybauer, Conoco's public relations mouthpiece, explained that his company was only serving as a "good corporate citizen and neighbor" by letting officials crawl into the same bed with executives. Early in the 1980's geologists had discovered a vast petroleum pool stretching from southern Yemen beneath the Gulf of Aden to northern Somalia. The Yemeni reserves alone were estimated to contain a billion barrels. Texas-based Hunt Oil Corp. was the first to take advantage of this untapped resource. Then Vice-President George Bush was on hand in April 1986 for the official dedication of Hunt's $18 million oil refinery in the Yemeni town of Marib. Hunt's operation was soon pumping 180,000 barrels of oil per day -- more than the entire annual production of such petroleum-producing countries as Cameroon and Brunei. Hunt's American competitors hoped to discover a similar "black goldmine" in Somalia and scrambled to acquire concessions. Strategic concerns are closely linked to economic interests in U.S. foreign policy, and the Somali situation certainly follows this pattern. When the USSR switched its support from Somalia to Ethiopia in 1977, turning the tide of the Ogaden War, the U.S. promptly signed a $100 million deal for military access to the Somali port of Berbera overlooking vital Middle East shipping lanes. In 1983 and 1985 the U.S. held joint military exercises, codenamed "Bright Star," with the Somali army, while 300 Somali officers received special training at Fort Leavenworth, TX. By 1985 the Barre dictatorship had received over $600 million in U.S. military and economic aid, as well as an unknown quantity of weapons from Israel and South Africa. When armed secessionists began to pose a political threat, South African pilots and American technicians even assisted the Somali army's ruthless bombing of northern towns such as Hargeisa where 50,000 were reportedly killed. Popular opposition to Barre's dictatorship grew, however, and the Pentagon eventually shifted the bulk of its operation to more stable client regimes in Kenya and Oman. Not surprisingly, the lavish U.S. embassy with its swimming pools and office space for 200 staff people was one of the first places ransacked in Mogadishu following the regime's downfall. The Bush administration quietly allowed war criminals of the Barre dictatorship to escape to the U.S. on tourist visas and then helped them seek permanent asylum in Canada. Adding another cruel twist to the Somali nightmare is the country's increasing popularity amongst western capitalists as a toxic waste dumping ground. In 1987 and 1988 several shipments of incinerator ash were exported from the U.S. to Somalia, ostensibly for use in road construction, and were transported to top secret military bases at Gardo, Dus a Mareb, and Iscia Baidos. In 1988 the Agriswiss Corporation, with headquarters in Panama, signed an agreement for storage and "treatment" of foreign municipal and industrial waste in Somalia. There have also been rumors of a standing arrangement between the Barre dictatorship and the Bush administration for the dumping of nuclear wastes in Somalia's coastal waters. In 1992 a deal between one of Somalia's present strongarm rulers, Ali Mahdi Mohamed, and Archer Partners was uncovered, involving construction of a toxic waste incinerator and 11 million ton capacity landfill near Mogadishu for "treatment" of industrial and medical wastes. Italian companies were also caught trafficking toxics to Somalia, Mahdi allegedly using the proceeds to purchase more weapons. The preeminent purveyor of rightwing realpolitik, Henry Kissinger, once said that "to give food aid to a country just because they are starving is a pretty weak reason." In the case of Somalia, the official humanitarian rationale for fullscale military intervention sounds particulary flimsy. As U.S. troops hand over a "pacified" recolonized Somalia to U.N. forces, one could argue that Operation "Restore Hope" was a great success in at least one aspect - Corporate America will now be able to sleep well at night knowing that "our oil" is safe and secure, despite poverty and despair half way around the globe. The New World Order has once again reared its hyprocritical face, and if the rude reality is enough to turn the stomach of starving Somalis, it should cause most Americans to pause and think as well. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Navy Brats Leave Behind Dirty Laundry at Subic Bay By: John E. Peck, PSN-Madison Last Nov. 24, the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet finally packed up and shipped out from Subic Bay, fourteen months after the Philippines Senate had refused to renew their lease. Having occupied the site since the end of the Spanish-American War in 1899, the foul legacy of the American presence is bound to linger for awhile. Of special concern to many Filipinos are all the toxic chemicals and throwaway kids left behind by the departing troops. Unfortunately, as the toll of the extended party comes to light, the U.S. Navy is adopting a typical "frat boy" attitude by refusing to accept responsibility for its boorish behavior. In early May a $68 million lawsuit was filed against the U.S. military by a group of Filipino women, demanding child support and unemployment compensation for their work as "hospitality girls" in Olangapo, the town immediately adjacent to the Subic Bay Naval Base. An estimated 30,000 prostitutes once provided "R & R" for a daily clientele of 7,000 U.S. troops. Now they, along with 30,000 other regular employees of the Subic Base, have found themselves out of work. The women's lawsuit contends that the U.S. Navy's precipitous departure constitutes a "breach of contract" and thus necessitates financial compensation. The sexual entertainment industry was not just condoned but actively promoted by top Navy brass, who even had the women screened and certified as free of venereal disease. Biweekly checkups did not prevent disaster, however, and an outbreak of VD hospitalized 12 girls between the ages of 9 and 14 in 1982. A priest, who documented and publicized child prostitution in Olangapo, was at first reprimanded and later expelled from the Philippines by U.S. military authorities. Thanks to this approved recreational activity, over 8,000 Amerasian children have now been abandoned in Olangapo. An even higher price could be exacted by the toxic wastes that have come to permeate the 40,000 acre complex. Dumpsites brimming with the likes of asbestos, lead, and PCBs have now contaminated the base's topsoil and groundwater. Wastes from paint scraping and sand blasting were also routinely flushed into Subic Bay itself. The Navy's power plant emitted airborne toxics without any restrictions, while the waste water facility dumped five million gallons of sewage into Subic Bay each day -- only 25% of which was even treated -at a rudimentary level. The U.S. military has a notoriously sloppy track record both at home and abroad -- in fact, it is the largest producer of toxic waste in the world, far surpassing any multinational corporation. When asked in June 1990 why this was particulary apparent at Subic Bay, one officer casually explained to the LA Times that "we comply with host country laws. In the Philippines there are none, so we are not in violation of any." The same year Rep. Richard Ray (D-GA) visited the base and was told quite a different story -- namely that the U.S. Navy was waiting for English translations of Philippine regulations prior to implementing better policies. Oddly enough, Philippine laws have always been written and published in English since the U.S. seized the colony from Spain almost a century ago. According to the U.S. embassy in Manila, though, "hazardous waste at Subic Bay Naval Base has been handled in an exemplary manner" with over $1 million being spent "to make sure the place was cleaned up to standard." In apparent contradiction, the U.S. Navy's own environmental experts estimated in 1991 that it would cost $15 million to decontaminate the site. Obviously, the Pentagon has a hard time getting its story straight. Filipino environmentalist Jorge Emmanuel, is mobilizing grassroots pressure on the U.S. Congress to ensure the U.S. military deals with its mess at Subic Bay, just as it has been forced to do after base closures in Germany and Japan. While many residents seem justified in their fears that Olongapo will become a toxic ghost town, some officials are more optimistic. The $8 billion complex includes a 9000 ft. runway, 1800 bungalows, riding stables, an officers' club, a golf course, even a tortilla factory. Walt Disney was reportedly interested in the base's potential as a tropical amusement park, while companies in Singapore and Taiwan are eyeing the site for a taxfree industrial zone. To "prove" that no chemical threat exists, local leaders have even appeared on national television, drinking the base's water and wading in the base's lagoon. It is hard to imagine a less convincing or more foolhardy display of political machismo, but then again they had the best male role models that Western Civilization could muster over the last century. Now if only the U.S. Navy offered a diaper service to its boys overseas... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx QUEERS IN THE MILITARY: THE RIGHT TO BE IN, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS TO STAY OUT The issue of queers in the military is, perhaps, the national issue of the moment. It's being discussed on campuses, at workplaces, and on the street by everyone from nearly all sides of the issue. It presents itself as a way to push the entire lesbian\gay\bisexual\tran-sexual agenda forward, and to bash back at the growing tide of right wing attacks. There has, however, been some ambivalence around the issue from progressive anti-intervention activists, both queer and straight. This isn't really surprising. For many activists, the issue of repealing a ban so that queers can serve openly (but not necessarily without fear) for the United States military is difficult to advocate while maintaining an anti-interventionist stance. Does supporting the lifting of the ban have to mean that we come off looking like we support the military? Do we want to assimilate into the military? How does fighting the military ban further the queer liberationist agenda? So far the media has presented two sides of the debate. We're going to pretty much ignore the homophobe arguments, except to say that their main premise, their fears of bad morale and "shower exposure," are nothing but manifestations of sexual insecurity (mainly straight male's). These arguments are easy to take apart and are partially addressed and discredited in a recent report by the United States General Accounting Office entitled "Defense Force Management: DoD's Policy on Homosexuality" (copies of this report, GAO/NSIAD-92-98, can be obtained by calling the GAO at (202)275-6241 -- first copy is free!). Obviously, the main cause of the military's problems around this issue is homophobia and its subscribers, not its victims. It is unfortunate, but not very surprising, that Bill Clinton is unable, or perhaps just unwilling, to extinguish this paranoia by presenting reality to the public, rather than just talking of new and improved behavior codes. The real issue here is, as the media would have it, one of not allowing one group to have special rights over another. That's why we should demand that the military stop allowing special rights for bigots by giving them preferential treatment in all aspects of military life, while denying the very same rights to others of a different sexual orientation and lifestyle. When closely scrutinized it is not difficult to see how the religious right tends to use these fears and insecurities as a tool to coax people away from their growing acceptance of varying sexual orientations and as a propellant for their own ideologies and understandings of "deviance." If not immediately countered such misinformation and popular confusion will be used to wage more state-wide initiatives against l\g\b\t rights, as has already occurred in Colorado and Oregon. Similar institutional attacks are currently being planned for Ohio and other states. The other side of the debate is that of mainstream liberals who say that the issue is simply the right of every red-blooded, god-fearing (no matter what god it is) American boy and girl to go off to foreign countries, meet interesting people and kill them. The issue is not that simple for progressive people who are opposed to militarism and are pro-queer. It involves complex and sometimes contradicting questions about not only the military, but also the media, the queer and peace & justice movements and what kind of work we do on our campuses. The question of queer civil rights, in every realm of our society, is the crux of the debate. In this context it is important to ask whether the present debate over access to and equality within military ranks is a step in the right direction. Odd as it may seem, the answer is- probably "yes." Right or wrong, mainstream society still generally views military service in a positive light. What we need to ensure is that the queer agenda is not co-opted or sold down the river for this one demand. Thus far the fight to lift the ban, and even to enact a federal civil rights bill, has been assimilationist in character. As we know from the struggles and history of our sisters and brothers of color, civil rights does not guarantee or even imply liberation. Liberation struggle will only succeed if it is not bound by compromise or confused by reformist tactics. Liberation is what we should struggle for, while at the same time eliminating the barriers which inhibit a stronger movement. We are all well aware of the threat of losing your house, job, and health (or ROTC scholarship) simply because you are queer and outspoken. We should look at the lifting of the ban in this context and see it as a baby step forward and not an end in itself. The long road to liberation can be hard to keep sight of if we don't consider some of the short term benefits of lifting the ban. We all know that the military can be a way out of poverty for working class people. As students we should acknowledge that it is a pathway to school for many people. This should not be denied to people just because they are queer. The effort to lift the ban will also make a real difference in the lives of queers who are already in the military and now live in fear of losing everything if they are discovered. Even though we support lifting the ban we can and should do it without an ounce of support for the military itself. Many right wingers and even some liberals will try to dismiss progressives by pointing out perceived inconsistencies between anti-militarist and pro-queer positions. It is critical, then, for us to expand the fight to include both the broader liberationist demands and the demand for a military which serves the interests of the people and not the interests of the ruling class. The military as it exists is deadly not only to the peoples of Iraq, Panama and Grenada, but also to the people at home as it sucks money away from things like housing, healthcare and education. We need to develop and push forward our ideas of what the military should be, while also fighting for one which reflects all segments of our society. Gays and lesbians in the upper echelons of the military today, and even many veterans, will be just as right wing as Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf. We can't be fooled, though we will oppose it just the same. The time is long past due to demand a military that's functionally non-imperialist, which requires a significantly smaller share of our national resources, and that exists only for defensive purposes. Demanding a military which is free from official and unofficial discrimination and harassment should be projected as a first step towards dismantling one which was built for and protects ruling class ideology and interests. A change in policy, especially one which drags the top brass along screaming and kicking, will not make the military, or our society for that matter, a more hospitable place for queers. This is evidenced by the recent murder of a gay sailor in Japan. Queers better think twice before joining the military, only to be trapped in a bunker with some ignorant bigot with a loaded gun. Besides, the military is one of the most blatantly patriarchal of all societal institutions -- and the destruction of the patriarchy is central to queer liberation. This brings us to our main position. As one small portion of a queer liberation agenda, queers should have the right to be in the military; as part of a progressive agenda, queers should have the righteousness to stay out. So what do we do then? Clinton ain't making this push because he's our saviour. He's making it because the grassroots queer activism of the last 10 to 15 years forced him to take this stand. We're activists; we shouldn't sit by and watch things happen. If we do, the media will continue to set our agenda for us and the news stories and human interest pieces will continue to look like a recent 20/20 story, which we have titled, "Lesbians Who Drive BMW's; Amazingly similar to everyone else -- and just as greedy and materialistic (quick, let's co-opt them before they realize they're getting the short end of the stick)." We can demand that, at the very least, Clinton hold to his campaign pledges which went beyond merely lifting the ban. During the campaign Clinton also promised to: * Issue an executive order banning anti-Gay/Lesbian discrimination in federal jobs or by federal contractors; *Support a federal amendment banning discrimination based on sexual orientation; *Appoint Lesbians and Gay men to Administration posts; *End the INS policy that denies visas to foreign nationals who are HIV+; *Implement all the recommendations of the National Commission on AIDS; *Fully fund the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, which provides money to cities hardest hit by AIDS; *Develop a "Manhattan-type project" to find a cure for AIDS. It is important to watch events at the national level closely. The April 25 March on Washington was a good opportunity for us to make it clear that we will not accept any backsliding or a "love the sinner, hate the sin" Pentagon policy. We can affect this, while at the same time making sure that the policy does get changed by doing things like petitions, calling senators and getting our schools to officially endorse a policy change in writing. In our organizing for the March, we kept in mind the large amount of press it would receive, which Clinton could use to his advantage, and which would be to our advantage. It's called a tactical alliance and allowed us the opportunity to expand the national focus. Closer to home, we can make sure bashing queers does not become the fad of the brain-dead for the nineties, and that any basher is stopped beforehand due to fear of a community which doesn't hesitate to defend itself. We can also, as feminists, point out the huge disparity between the number of women discharged on the grounds of being lesbian and the number of men discharged for being gay. Since 1983, Defense Department statistics show women have been discharged for being or allegedly being queer at a rate almost 10 times that of military men. This stands as a very concrete example of how homophobia is also used as a weapon of sexism. In addition, many of us have been doing ROTC OFF CAMPUS work for a long time, with many successes. No need to stop now. This will actually open up new frontiers for us. If your campus doesn't already have an anti-discrimination policy they're quickly losing grounds for their justifications not to. Demanding queer studies is also an integral part of the campus agenda. Many campuses already have programs established, or are in the process of doing so (contact the Gay and Lesbian Caucus of the Modern Language Association for their newsletter and resource guide on Lesbian and Gay Studies). The administration at the Univ. of MN., as well as the military itself, has always claimed that the military is on campus to help liberalize it and sensitize the officers-to-be to civilian, and, presumably, military diversity. Well, make them put their money where their mouth is. There are soon going to be queers in the military, "officially," which ROTC cadets will one day be commanding. If the concern is with "morale," then certainly we would want officers commanding who have a grasp on reality and who will help eradicate ignorance rather than just look the other way. The bottom-line amounts to this: now more than ever we must turn up the heat and demand that Clinton stick to his stated promises. If we let the opportunity pass us by, we'll find the old policy replaced with one that merely continues institutional discrimination, where queers are "separated," given shit jobs and face the very real possibility of prosecution based on bogus charges. Not that queers in the military would step out of the closet after the policy is changed and announce boldly their true self; ignorance and hate will keep those doors shut for some time. For this reason alone we should be in the streets, outspoken and vigilant. But even more, our collective fight is now needed to seize this opportunity, to draw attention to the variety of changes which need to occur, and to demand Liberation! Love, Stephanie and Tom Queers Deluxe! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Some facts about the treatment of service-members suspected of homosexuality * While both heterosexual and homosexual sodomy is a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, it is selectively enforced against lesbians and gay men. * The military separates between 1000 and 2000 members annually as a result of charges of homosexuality; between 1973 and 1983 DoD separated 14,311 members for homosexuality (US GAO, letter to Congresswoman Sala Burton, October 11, 1984). *The members discharged from 1973 to 1983 had served an average of three years each. The cost to train each one was at least $12,300, and the cost to discharge each one was $250. In this ten year period, the military spent $180 million on training and then discharging 14,311 service-members for suspicion of homosexuality (Comptroller General Report, 1983). * Over 4300 men and women were separated from the military for homosexuality in the three-year period ending September 30, 1987 (Grant Willis, More Women Than Men Discharged as Homosexuals Navy Times, February 29, 1988). * Since 1983, Defense Department statistics show, women have been discharged for homosexual conduct at a rate almost 10 times that of military men (Tamar Lewin, Gay Groups Suggest Marines Selectively Prosecute Women, New York Times, December 4, 1988). * From 1985-87, women were three times more likely than men to be discharged for homosexuality; five of every 10,000 men and 16 of every 10,000 women on active duty were discharged annually for suspected homosexuality (Grant Willis, More Women Than Men Discharged as Homosexuals, Navy Times, February 29, 1988). * Pentagon statistics show an increase in the percentage of female service members discharged. While women comprise only ten percent of the US military, they comprise 26 percent of the 1050 service members discharged due to allegations of homosexuality between September 30, 1987 and October 1, 1988 (Lisa Keen, Women are separated-from military at a higher rate, Washington Blade, March 3, 1989). *Department of Defense figures show that during the three- year period 1985-87 approximately one third of the investigations conducted by the Naval Investigative Service in the Marines involved women (Marine Officers investigate Lesbianism at Parris Island, Trentonian, April 8, 1988, p. 16). *The Naval Investigative Service discharged approximately 50% of men and women investigated in the past three years. In the Navy, the branch where investigations most lead to separation, 81% of the 2,293 men investigated and 58% of the 661 women were discharged (Cindi Ross, Sex Cases Often Fell Women in Marines, The State, April 8, 1988). *In 1987, the Marines discharged over 8x as many women as men; the Army discharged 4x as many women as men; the Navy discharged 2x as many women as men (Christina Smith, The Military's Plan to Straighten Up, Coming Up, December 1988). * Although women made up 13% of Air Force personnel, 55% of Air Force members discharged for homosexuality in fiscal year 1988 were women; female Marines represent 5% of the Corps, but 14% of those discharged in the same year for homosexuality were women (Lisa Keen, Women are separated from military at a higher rate, Washington Blade, March 3, 1989). * According to the Department of Defense, during the three federal fiscal years 1985-87 more than 40% of those discharged from the Marines were women, though women represent only about five percent of the Marine Corps strength. (Marine Officers Investigate Lesbianism at Parris Island, Trentonian, April 8, 1988, p. 16). This list was compiled by the Gay and Lesbian Military Freedom Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 1517 U Street NW, Washington, DC 20009 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx From a December 24, 1941, Navy Department memorandum outlining the basis of the military's exclusion of blacks: "The close and intimate conditions of life aboard ship, the necessity for the highest possible degree of unity and esprit- de-corps; the requirement of morale - all these demand that nothing be done which may adversely affect the situation. Past experience has shown irrefutably that the enlistment of Negroes (other than for mess attendants) leads to disruptive and undermining conditions. It should be pointed out in this connection that one of the principal objectives of subversive agents in this country in attempting to break down existing efficient organization is by demanding participation for 'minorities' in all aspects of defense, especially when such participation tends to disrupt present smooth working organizations." ". . . It is considered also that the loyalty and patriotism of the minority should be such that there be no desire on their part to weaken or disrupt the present organization." The military's present policy of homosexual exclusion: "Homosexuality is incompatible with military service. The presence of such members adversely affects the ability of the Armed Forces to maintain discipline, good order, and morale; to foster mutual trust and confidence among the members; to ensure the integrity of the system of rank and command; to facilitate assignment and worldwide deployment of members who frequently must live and work under close conditions affording minimal privacy; to recruit and retain members of the military services, to maintain the public acceptability of military services; and, in certain circumstances, to prevent breaches of security." xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Ten Reasons Why Straight Men Should Not be Allowed to Stay in the Military I propose that all problems with the military now are because of straight men. 1. Straight men constantly flaunt their heterosexuality, and make gay men uncomfortable. 2. Because of fear of being branded gay, straight men refrain from forming truly close relationships with other men. This interferes with the bonding and loyalty essential to military teamwork. 3. Straight men are directly responsible for the movie Top Gun, the TV show Major Dad and camouflage as a fashion statement. 4. Straight men are not used to seeing other men naked, so they are not psychologically equipped to shower with other men. 5. Straight men are militant about converting others to their lifestyle, which includes unwanted pregnancies, diseases, and cheap cologne. 6. U.S.O. shows could stand some improvement. 7. Straight men don't look as good with short hair and combat boots as gay men do. 8. Straight men never get harassed, so they don't have well-developed defense techniques. 9. Straight men's repression leads to an overabundance of phallic symbols such as large guns, rockets and bombs. 10. Currently, the words "naval seamen" have no ironic implications. Carol Magary writes for Prairie Fire, a publication of the Freedom Coalition at the University of Florida, PO Box 12266, Gainesville, FL 32604. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx DoD Discrimination Articles: *For Gay People in the Military, Lives of Secrecy and Despair, New York Times, 4/10/90, p. A-1, D-20. *Gay Groups Suggest Marines Selectively Prosecute Women, New York Times, 12/4/88. *Justices Refuse to Hear Challenge to Military Ban on Homosexuals, New York Times, 2/27/90, p.A-1, 18. *MIT Provost Urges Defense Secretary to Drop ROTC Ban on Homosexuals, Chronicle of Higher Education, 4/25/90. *Students Give ROTC the Boot Over Anti-Gay Policy, The Advocate #561, 10/9/90, p. 42. *The Pentagon's Fight to Keep Gays Away, U.S. News and World Report, 11/20/89, p.57. *Navy is Urged to Root Out Lesbians Despite Abilities, New York Times, 9/2/90. *Challenge to Military's Anti-Gay Stance Found in Report Dismissed by Pentagon, Los Angeles 7imes, 10/23/89. *Rethinking DoD Policy on Gays: Studies Shelved by Pentagon Suggest Blanket Exclusion is Unjustified, Washington Post, 11 /6/89. *ROTC Under Siege for Ousting, New YorkTimes, 5/6/90. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx What do you think? Opinions from college students who believe what their parents tell them to believe. A Few Gay Men Openly gay people are currently banned from the U.S. Military. President Bill Clinton has already reneged on his pledge to lift the ban. Do you think lifting the ban on gays in the military is a good idea? Tom Hallick Sophomore "I'm gay, and I like to shoot people.Where else can I turn." Marjorie Wallace Senior "Gays in the Military? For heavens sakes, what's next -- gay drag queens?" Dixie Whatley Freshman "Gays just want to learn military secrets so they can sell them to the government of Queer Nation." Robb Weller Junior "If we got more gays in the military, the commies' giant infatable Joan Crawford weapon would be rendered useless." John Tesh Sophomore "Maybe they should start a special Gay Brigade, which could specialize in getting beaten up by the other soldiers." Ron Hendron Freshman "I think gays in the military could teach us alot about how to pummel the enemy more sensitively." xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx KitchenCorner"Sometimes friends like to cook all together, particularly if they love cooking and like to experiment with new dishes. If it's your first attempt at puff pastry, for instance, it is reassuring to make it with someone who has done it before; we learn a lot from each other in the kitchen." --Fanny Farmer Once again, Fanny offers words of wisdom for would be kitchen revolutionaries. Working together can be a lot funner and safer, whether you're constructing a souffle or overthrowing the state. The following recipes work best en masse, particularly if you don't want unwelcome visitors crashing your party.Fossil Fuel Alternatives: If there is one thing the internal combustion engine hates most, it would have to be nonpetroleum contaminants in its digestive system. Forget about the idea of pouring sugar or syrup into the fuel tank of obnoxious vehicles -- all that does is clog the filter. Much cheaper and nastier alternatives exist... Ingredients: large funnel heavy gloves sharp knife water brine dirt sand salt gasoline battery acid quick rice spray lubricant (for example "WD 40(") strong adhesive (for example "Super Glue(") drain clog opener (ie "Liquid Plumber(") grinding compound (ie "Carborundum(") After selecting an easy target (undercover police car, rampaging bulldozer, etc.) and posting watch, you can begin your force-feeding session. The menu will depend upon which tanks you can locate and whether the caps are removable. Wear gloves so as not to leave behind incriminating fingerprints. For fuel tanks -- pour in water or brine. A couple of gallons is good, depending on the size of the vehicle. Pouring regular gasoline into a diesel tank can also cause problems. For oil tanks -- pour in water, brine, or gasoline. A couple of quarts is usually enough for a V8 to maintain the illusion of "oil pressure" when actually very little is being lubricated. An even better option is to pour sand, salt, or a grinding compound into the oil tank using a funnel. Squirting spray lubricant down the tube afterwards will wash away any traces of the abrasive. By the time the operator is aware that something is awry the engine could be literally grinding to a halt. For radiators -- pour in battery acid or drain clog opener. The larger the cooling system, the more corrosive you will need. Another idea is to pour quick rice into the radiator. The grains will circulate, swell, and eventually shut down the engine through "constipation." If your best efforts to locate tanks and/or remove caps fail, you can still temporarily immobilize many vehicles by jamming ignition and door locks with adhesive or slashing tire sidewalls. To paraphrase another American radical, Henry David Thoreau, it is your right to make your life a friction against the machine. Once back from a strenuous evening of vehicle maintenance, your group will be ready for a hearty snack. Be sure to wipe the grease off onto your overalls first, though. Cajun Cake: Ingredients: 2 cups flour 1 & 1/2 cups sugar 2 eggs 2 tsp. baking soda 16 oz. can of crushed pineapple Mix together and pour into a pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes. Ingredients for icing: 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup margarine 1 cup shredded coconut 1/2 cup evaporated milk 1/2 cup chopped nuts Bring sugar, milk, and margarine to boil in a saucepan. Stir in coconut and nuts. Pour icing over warm cake and enjoy! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Dear PSNers, Congratulations on the PSNews! It looks better than ever, is more informative, and keeps me smiling - hey, a sense of humor is vital for any serious movement for social change. I enclose $40.00 on behalf of others at MiraCosta College who support PSN and want to stay in touch. The Progressive Student Network, once having begun to get a foothold on the West Coast, is now dormant out here. The California Statewide Progressive Alliance, CAPSA, is also nonfunctioning. I hope new efforts will be made by PSN to do mailing outreach to West Coast and Southwest schools to expand the network. Count on me among others for support of that effort. It is to PSN's credit that it remains the oldest and most activist network in the country. Let me offer a few wishful suggestions: 1.) It would be great if the PSNews solicited more articles from the South, Southwest and West to round out its coverage. 2.) A column of shorts about the student movement throughout the country would be inspiring - for example, just a line or two about protests against budget cuts, anti-colonialist (Columbus) events, blurbs about students around the world, statistics on dropout rates or tuition hikes, tidbits of news from other groups like USSA and SCAR, perhaps even a calendar of events of interest to students. I'll contribute some, if others will also take up the call. 3.) It would be great to encourage PSNers to dedicate one semester to the movement by traveling in small groups from campus to campus and spreading the network. If PSN grows, it will eventually need to have more regionally-based conferences instead of one national conference. 4.) There should also be a PSNews column on culture. Rap music, for example, is the primary source of social awareness for many African-American and Chicano/a youth. We need to promote the political culture which is spreading amongst peoples of color. In unity and struggle, Martin Elder SanDiego, CA PSNews, It's interesting how my own perspective on the strike has changed with time [see TA's strike at UC--Berkeley, page 3 P eds]. What I've written seems much more negative than the actual event. At first I thought I'd put in the kind of heroic anecdotes that bolster your morale when you're walking picket lines in the rain. (A bunch of hardy math grad students stayed up all night--till 7 am--maintaining a skeleton picket line on one side of campus to prevent a union-driven 18-wheeler from delivering some canisters of liquid helium to a campus lab. Two nights in a row.) But on reflection they weren't really relevant to the larger issues. I'm also afraid the article might not accurately convey how impressive the strike was, despite its failure. The AGSE was perhaps more amazed than anyone at the incredible devotion and dedication of the strikers, at least for the first few weeks. After all, we're all soft middle-class academic types, not hardened factory workers. We weren't supposed to last as long as we did. But I digress ... Zev Handel Berkeley, CA Hi I hope y'all know that all your work on the PSNews is much appreciated by us all. I'd have to say that UW-Mad. PSU rocks. Martin Anderson, University of Deleware Dear Progressive Student Network, I'm only 13, but would like to know how to better my future. I've gotten my school to start recycling, but that's about it. Although we have a recycling program and a newsletter, we're not really reaching all the kids. Please tell me how I can teach other students my age of the enormity of our ecological situation and what to do about it. Thank you. Sincerely Ryan Kelly Bloomfield Township, MI G'mornin' Wha'? 'k. 'm half 'wake. Whew. Nightmare las' night. Didn't make sense. Seemed to go on forever. Dreamed a bad movie actor became president, then 'is sidekick. Promised to trickle down on people, and t'keep doin' it. Dragon lady. Conservative spendthrifts. Law-and-order felons. Patriotic fascism. Peacemaker nukes. Vegetable condiments. Democratic totalitarianism. Vice-presidential illiteracy. Hawkish draft-dodging. Useful racism. Tree pollution. Morning in America, The Day After. Ugh. Scary. Wet my pants. Wha'? Andrew Thomas-cramer Madison, WI Dear Membership of the P.S.N.: RE: Sundiata ACOLI a.k.a. Clark Squire This will acknowledge receipt of your recent correspondence dated January 4, 1993, regarding Mr. Sundiata Acoli, a.k.a. Clark Squire, who is presently confined at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Please be assured that your correspondence will be placed in Mr. Acoli's file for review by members of the State Parole Board during deliberations on his case. Thank you for taking the time to write. Sincerely yours, Joyce Arciniaco Director, Division of Hearings New Jersey Parole Board Dear Progressive Student Network: I am writing to your organization to obtain information. I found a mention of the organization in the Audubon Activist Magazine in an article about college students and the environment. I have been interested in preserving the environment for a long time. In high school I was involved in the Natural Resources Group. I've graduated and will be attending college this fall. I plan to be a part of the environmental studies program and be active in environmental groups. I would appreciate any information that would be of help to me. Thank you, Katherine E. Lawn Doylestown, Pennsylvania Dear PSN Comrades! Yes they still call people by such names here P Though the IMF/World Bank imposed austerity program has sort of put a damper on the socialist agenda. There are so many street kids in Harare now it reminds me of New York [a sure sign of capitalist progress]. I find out next week whether I'll be going to Mozambique or not as part of a rapid rural appraisal team checking out agricultural possibilities for relocated refugees. Unfortunately, the RENAMO rebels have not yet turned in their weapons, and some observers fear the peace process could relapse into civil war as in Angola. Meanwhile I'm helping some grassroots groups edit project reports for donor agencies. I'm also hoping to visit some organic farms -- part of the new peasant permaculture movement here. Tomorrow may be the 4th of July but I'm planning to skip the party at the U.S. embassy in order to see the World Cup match between Cameroon & Zimbabwe! Bye John Peck [Postmarked from Harare, Zimbabwe - eds.] Hi PSN! We love y'all, we've talked to you before and we love to promote you like crazy. What we need is the PSNews, maybe some back issues, and any printed material we can share with student activists and wannabes who want to jam with you! Thanks for your work, stay pissed! James Progressive Resource Service Somerville, Massachusetts Dear Friends, Enclosed is a $3.00 contribution toward the publication expenses of the Progressive Student Network. Thank you for attention to this matter. Sincerely, Todrei Sanders Pendleton, IN To the PSNews: The idea [of Take Our Daughters to Work Week] is to take your daughter to work so she can boost her self-esteem. It's been on the tube and in the papers -- got a lot of attention. America was turned overnight into a country of middle-class office rorkers and professionals. The rest of us disappeared as if we didn't have kids or little ones needing self-esteem. I supposed that's because of the reaction you're likely to get from a kid when you take them into the bowels of a food- packing plant, plastics factory, assembly line or textile mill. Self esteem at $6 an hour and no union? Line waiting to snare your job? Non-existent or inefficient medical coverage? Might end up fielding a whole division of Red Stockings. Ray Luc Levasseur Marion, IL Dear Editor, I've been disturbed by differences in media coverage of Somalia and Bosnia. The terminology seems to reflect a larger attitude about wars involving black Africans and wars involving white Europeans. For example, why is it always a "warlord" in Somalia, but a "militia leader" in Bosnia? Why are Somali fighters dubbed "bandits" in "gangs," when the Serb or Croat "guerrillas" in "irregular forces" also confiscate food shipments? Why do Somali fighters drive "Mad Maxlike vehicles" that are the same as the Bosnians' "armored jeeps"? African conflicts are blamed almost psychologically on "anarchy," chaos," or a "tribal culture of violence." European conflicts are tied to a more solvable "political turmoil" or "ethnic civil war," with "deep historical roots." The same trend carries over into discussion of U.S. military "operations." Somalia was a "relatively easy," "humanitarian intervention," whereas Bosnia would certainly be a difficult "potential quagmire." In Somalia, we have a "need to display force," but in Bosnia we are fearful of "civilian casualties" from bombing. Somalia is depicted as having a "vacuum of leadership" (even though clan leaders still negotiate and exert influence), but Bosnia is a dangerous den of "disputed sovereignty" between leaders. Africans are shown as passive victims who need outside help to organize their own societies, but Europeans are shown as people who after a war can again govern their own affairs with new leaders. If "helping starving civilians" is really a doctrine of U.S. foreign policy, why has Washington not even used its political influence to stop war-related famines in Mozambique, Sudan, and other countries? But in Somalia, we have stepped militarily into a civil war with multiple sides. To see one reason why, just look at a map. Whoever controls Somalia controls access between the Suez Canal and Persian Gulf. When the U.S. backed the dictator Mohammad Siad Barre, he gave back basing rights at Mogadishu and Berbera, as a key military springboard to the Middle East and the rest of Africa. Such a huge U.S. role in the UN intervention may ensure that a similar deal will be made with a future Somali "leader." Sincerely, Zoltan Grossman Madison, Wisconsin DIFFERENCES IN MEDIA COVERAGE Black Africans White Europeans (Somalia) (Bosnia) Warlords Militia leaders Gangs Irregular forces Bandits Guerrillas Tribal warfare Ethnic secession Clan feuds Ethnic cleansing Anarchy Political turmoil No government Disputed sovereignty Chaos Civil war Culture of violence Historical conflict 'Mad Max' Armored jeep Humanitarian Potential intervention quagmire Keep U.S. military No strategic bases value Need to display force Avoid harming civilians Easy victory Difficult situation Dear PSN, For some time, consumers have been feeling the pinch of a tough economy. Some experts are predicting better times just around the corner. Others think we may have a bit longer to wait. In light of this uncertainty, our company has decided to do what we can to make our products a better value for smokers. Therefore, effective immediately, Philip Morris has reduced the everyday selling price to wholesalers of the brands listed below. The price in your store may vary at the discretion of your retailer. But based on the new manufacturer's list price, you should soon see lower prices on Philip Morris brands where you buy cigarettes. If you don't, I have enclosed a special retailer information card which you can give to your retailer. If you currently smoke another brand, perhaps you'll enjoy this opportunity to try one of ours. Regardless of your decision, our company is proud to lead the industry in making quality products an even better value for you, the consumer, in times like these. Sincerely yours, Bill Campbell President Chief Executive Officer Philip Morris Incorporated xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The Progressive Student News Volume 10, Numbers 1, 2, 3 & 4 The Progressive Student News is a compilation of stories written by members of the student movement across the nation. The Progressive Student News will not intentionally publish anything of a racist, sexist or homophobic nature, and is committed to respecting the dignity, self-determination and autonomy of all those groups involved in the struggle for fundamental change. PRODUCTION AND CIRCULATION Christopher Babiarz * Laura Hengehold * Robert McClure * John E. Peck CONTRIBUTORS Tom Albanese * Amy Allen * Martin Anderson * Itzamna J. Arista * Tricia Arrington * Babz Babiarz * Scott A. Boswell * Tom Burke * Stuart Eimer * Zolta n Grossman * Zev Handel * Andres Hernandez * Sue Jeffers * Christine Jones * James Ketola * Carol Magary * Robert McClure * Patricia * Tom Pearce * John E. Peck * Chris Smith * Lamoin Werlien-Jaen * Stephanie Yorek THE PROGRESSIVE STUDENT NEWS is published quarterly by the National Progressive Student Network. Four thousand copies are circulated from more than 40 campuses in the US. Bulk copies of the News and individual subscriptions (see page 20) are available at reasonable rates (free to prisoners in the US). Drop us a line at the address below. Large supplies are kept at these outposts: University of Wisconsin/Madison; University of Minnesota/Minneapolis; University of Illinois/Chicago-Circle; University of Illinois/Urbana- Champaign; Illinois State University/Bloomington-Normal; Illinois Wesleyan University; Northwestern University; University of Louisville; Kent State University; University of Pennsylvania/Philadelphia; George Washington University- DC; Baylor University; University of Louisiana-Lafayette; University of Houston; Georgetown University-DC. YOUR STORIES of fewer than 1000 words are welcome in the Progressive Student News. Coverage or analysis of campus activism is preferred. Stories should be clearly handP printed or typed on double spaced lines. At the top of page one, please include the authors' name(s) and affiliation as they desire them to appear in print. We would also appreciate two descriptive headlines (1 short, 1 longer) that succinctly encapsulate the story. At the bottom of the last page, please include a brief (1 to 3 sentence) biography of the author. Consider including a graphic to run with the story as well (see below). If you've taken the time to write the story on a computer, please save us the effort of retyping it by submitting a diskette (Macintosh or IBM compatible..... please use tabs (not spaces) to indent paragraphs and indicate the program used to create the file on the label). We cannot guarantee publication, but someone will try to make contact. Deadline for the Jan/March '94 issue is Dec. 8 for hard copy (i.e. faxed, handwritten, or similar stories that will need to be keyed into the computer). The deadline for items submitted on a diskette is Dec. 15. GRAPHICS are always appreciated. Newspaper print is kinder (more forgiving) to pieces that are black-and-white and of high contrast. Avoid using the color blue (it is invisible to the reproduction process) or transparent tape (which is not invisible to the reproduction process) unless, of course, this is the desired effect. Your works should be marked clearly on the reverse with the artists' name (as it is to be published), a brief description (including dates, location, persons depicted etc.... this is especially important for photos), and an address (if you want the originals to be returned). Deadline is Dec. 15. MONEY is always in short supply... $ woes have us down, but not out. Regrettably -- and needless to say, ironically -- opposing capitalism from within capitalism is a rather costly business. If you've noticed the absence of this publication over the last year, you know how a lack of $ can affect the movement. We begged, borrowed and ... uh, sold donuts and coffee.... to cover our last printing bill. This took time & energy away from putting out the current issue (let alone campus activism). Subscriptions and payments from affiliate campuses cover only a portion of each edition of the PSNews (Affiliate campuses actually paying us for their bundles would help...). We've received many small donations & subs over the years from folks who could hardly afford it [see letters this page], and for that we are grateful. But we do especially call upon those of you who can afford it, to send us a contribution of whatever size. We are absolutely dependent upon these funds for our continued work (And remember, any contribution over $7 will get you a subscription to the PSNews. Which, hopefully, will return to a quarterly, rather than yearly, format next issue.....) Deadline is Dec. 31. DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENTS are accepted at $5 per column inch. Deadline for the Jan./March '94 issue is Dec. 15, 1993 for a letter of intent and Dec. 31 for hard copy. The News staff will happily design your ad for a nominal fee. Send all correspondence to: Progressive Student News 731 State Street Madison, WI 53703. Phone (608) 257-7562 email: UWPSN@macc.wisc.edu Printed with soybean ink on recycled paper by the University of Wisconsin-Extension Printing Services, whose workers are represented by AFSCME Local 171. Copyright 1993 by the National Progressive Student Network. In the interest of furthering the Revolu... er, ahh Movement, contents of The Progressive Student News may be republished without the written consent of an editor. Please give an appropriate citation.