****************************************************************** People's Tribune (Online Edition) Vol. 20 No. 7 / February 15, 1993 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 Email: jdav@igc.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ St. Paul jobless beaten by police in building takeover! DEMAND GOVERNOR INVESTIGATE! "Police threw people to glass-strewn floors, choked people and caused numerous injuries," said Mark Thisius, Director of Up & Out of Poverty St. Paul. This is what happened on January 26 when unemployed/ homeless people took over a building in St. Paul. "We took over the Quinlan building to demand that Governor [Arne] Carlson stop his attempt to balance the budget on the backs of poor and working people...," said protester Mic Kelly. (See story 4) All over the country they cut programs and benefits and then attack those who protest. They can't give people jobs so they beat them up and put them in jail. They say the economy is better, but it's a jobless recovery. This means profits swell, while jobs dry up. Layoffs are in the news again: 50,000 at Sears, 10,500 at United Technologies, 8,700 McDonnell-Douglas. And it's no wonder. Computers do the work people used to do. A new class of people is arising from this constant loss of good jobs. This class of people, which has to fight just to live, must organize to win. It is time for a new American political party for people like the homeless in St. Paul and the workers at Sears. (See PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE guest editorial, story 1) +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition) Vol. 20 No. 7 / February 15, 1993 To see the article, type a period (dot) followed by the number. Editorial 1. NEEDED: A NEW ORGANIZATION TO BUILD A NEW AMERICA News 2. A SLAP IN THE FACE OF THE VICTIMS OF POVERTY! 3. BALTIMORE'S LEXINGTON TERRACE TENANTS LAUNCH RENT STRIKE 4. ST. PAUL'S 'QUINLAN 11' SPEAK OUT 5. 'DEMANDS FOR JUSTICE': EXCERPTS FROM A LETTER TO GOV. CARLSON 6. STUDENT LEADER FIGHTS TO REFORM MILWAUKEE AREA TECH COLLEGE 7. WISCONSIN'S PROFES OFFERS A 'WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY' Columns and features 8. DEADLY FORCE: LAW, ORDER AND THE MURDER OF MALICE GREEN 9. CALL TO FORM ORGANIZING COMMITTEES... 10. DRAFT PROGRAM FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF REVOLUTIONARIES 11. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE A PUBLICATION OF NATL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE 12. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: NEEDED: A NEW ORGANIZATION TO BUILD A NEW AMERICA "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" This famous inscription on the Statue of Liberty was designed to express the essence of what America was supposed to be about: a place where the universal dream of the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness could be realized. Never mind that the vision was tarnished with the genocide of the native peoples and the institution of slavery almost from the very beginning. The concept of liberty was given a material basis; freedom means little if it is not freedom from want. The pursuit of happiness is predicated upon the elimination of poverty. Whenever the laboring people of this country have seen their dream derailed or blocked by the ruling forces, or whenever they have seen that the political system can no longer deliver what it has been sworn to guarantee, then the people have risen up to demand a new political form, a new system to meet the needs of society. There are three such great revolutionary moments in American history. The first marked the founding of the United States of North America. These first revolutionaries overthrew an oppressive colonial government, expropriated their property, and reorganized society on a new basis. The Declaration of Independence expressed the right to revolution: "Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness], it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it." The second great revolutionary moment in our history took place during the events leading up to and including the Civil War. How could any be free when so many were in chains? The hypocrisy of slavery in the bosom of democracy came to be the burning issue of the day. Life could not go on as before. "Bottom rail on top" became the revolutionary banner that led the way to emancipation. Harriet Beecher Stowe captured the spirit of her times in _Uncle Tom's Cabin_: "This is an age of the world when nations are trembling and convulsed. A mighty influence is abroad, surging and heaving the world, as with an earthquake. And is America safe? Every nation that carries in its bosom great and unredressed injustice has in it the elements of this last convulsion." The third chapter in the history of the American revolution is our own time. It is the chapter we will write. Can any deny that the globe is convulsed in revolutionary turmoil, while great and unredressed injustice abounds within our own borders? America is certainly no haven for the homeless, as their numbers grow daily. The gap between poor and rich grows wider, while the response of a gridlocked government is to unleash its police forces upon the victims of poverty. New technologies throw more and more permanently out of work, while election-day promises become more faint with every passing day. It is time for us to reassert our revolutionary heritage. It is time to take our country back. Our leaders have failed us; our government cannot deliver. It serves only the rich and powerful. It is time to replace a failed system and reorganize society in the interests of the have-nots, the millions of permanently unemployed and laboring poor of this country. The American dream is our birthright. We intend to organize and make it our own. Our times demand the formation of a new organization of revolutionaries, composed of the everyday practical fighters for survival, for all those who are fighting for a home, for food and health care, for quality education, for freedom from police brutality. The very technology that throws us out of work places the elimination of poverty within our grasp. It is up to us to seize the time. We call upon the millions of revolutionaries who are leading the fight for survival, and their allies throughout society, to come together in the formation of a new political organization that will place the destiny of this country in our hands. Together we will build a new America. For more, see stories . ****************************************************************** 2. A SLAP IN THE FACE OF THE VICTIMS OF POVERTY! Clinton appoints Engler to 'welfare reform' panel [DETROIT -- The following letter is addressed to President Clinton in response to Clinton's appointment of Michigan Governor John Engler to a panel dealing with 'welfare reform.'] February 2, 1993 President Clinton, United States Government White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear President Clinton: I voted for you and Michigan Governor John Engler did not. Maybe you don't understand that Governor Engler is a Republican. Furthermore, he led this country in cutting and eliminating certain vital programs. Governor Engler's action increased homelessness in Michigan, increased hunger among our children and death in our neighborhoods. Your appointment of Governor Engler to the Welfare Reform Panel is a slap in the face of the victims of poverty in Michigan and the U.S.A. If you are interested in the opinions of the victims of poverty, the people who voted for you, then don't put Governor Engler on the Welfare Reform Panel. GOVERNOR ENGLER ELIMINATED OVER 90,000 FORMER GENERAL ASSISTANCE (GA) RECIPIENTS IN MICHIGAN! What welfare reform is that? We hope you will listen to us. Remember, we listened to you and voted for you. I DO NOT LIKE LIVING IN POVERTY. GOVERNOR ENGLER'S WELFARE REFORM WILL KEEP ME IN POVERTY. VETO GOVERNOR ENGLER OFF THE WELFARE REFORM PANEL. THE VICTIMS OF POVERTY SHOULD BE ON THE PANEL, NOT GOVERNOR ENGLER. President Clinton, REMEMBER, we voted for _you,_ not Governor Engler. Up & Out of Poverty, Now! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ WHY STOP AT ENGLER? DETROIT -- The following is a letter responding to President Clinton's appointment of Governor John Engler of Michigan to a 'welfare reform' panel. The obvious sarcasm is meant to emphasize the writer's very serious point. We hope that point will be well taken by the addressee. Dear President Clinton: I am writing in reference to your appointment of our own Governor Engler to the Welfare Reform Commission. You have shown a particularly keen insight into the sensitivity of the welfare recipients. Perhaps you should continue in your appointments by appointing: * Dr. Jack Kevorkian for the Department of Health and Human Services; * David Duke over the Civil Rights Commission; * Mike Tyson over the Miss America pageant; * Daryl Gates over the National Police Review board; * Pat Buchanan over the Homeless Task Force; * Michael Milken over the United Fund; * Jeffrey Dahmer over the Food Stamp Program Sincerely, A Keen Victim +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 3. BALTIMORE'S LEXINGTON TERRACE TENANTS LAUNCH RENT STRIKE By Mike Brand BALTIMORE -- The Lexington Terrance apartments are among the most unsafe public housing in Baltimore. But they are the only place the residents have to live. When Mayor Kurt Schmoke's Public Housing Department threatened to close down several units and relocate more than 400 families to equally bad or worse housing, the tenants took action. The protests and planned rent strike frightened city officials into "discovering" the terrible conditions at Lexington Terrace. The Director of Public Housing for the city was fired and replaced. City Council President Mary Pat Clarke even showed up with the press and security guards to stay one night in an apartment there. But the tenants need for decent housing remains unmet. Lorraine Ledbetter, President of the Tenants Council: "We're holding rent starting February 1. The mayor says he's moving everybody. He told us that on Saturday, before Mary Pat Clarke tried to turn this into a circus. She's bucking to get those votes. But this situation is not to be exploited. This is for people's health and a decent place to live. You don't tear down. You fix it up. In 36 or 38 years, they haven't done anything at all to these buildings." Latre Lifford: "There is no safety. Our children have no place to play. The playgrounds are dirty with trash and drugs. It's like a bad nightmare. It's like living in hell. You can't sleep at night, because you hear the rats running in the walls. The roaches greet you." Deanna Woodward: "If you're living here it's like living in prison. Last year, a sick old woman had to walk up eight flights of stairs when the elevator broke. When she died the elevator was still broke. The fire department lowered her body out her window." Aleathea Coleman: "About 400 and something families from the whole Lexington Terrace are on strike as of February 1. My daughter was grazed by a police bullet last year when the police were chasing this guy. When Mary Pat Clarke came here it looked like central police station. Most of the time you can call the police and nobody comes." Wynona Wilson: "It's a fire hazard. My windows are all burned from a fire in an empty apartment on the ninth floor." Lisa Sampson: "The strike will show we mean business. Its a start. Its a part of our strategy." Ester Woolridge: "The walls are falling apart. We hardly get any heat." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ BALTIMORE UNEMPLOYED RALLY AT CITY HALL By the Baltimore Unemployed Council BALTIMORE -- On January 24, the Baltimore Unemployed Council went to city hall to organize homeless people with the help of Truxon Syles of the Homeless People's Union. Three hundred people showed up for the rally. To get involved, call 410-783-0929. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ +----------------------------------------------------------------+ HOUSING TAKEOVER UPDATE By Mike Brand BALTIMORE -- In the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Vol. 20, No. 5) we ran the story of a successful housing takeover in Baltimore. Operation Life and Millicent Wade moved her family into a vacant publicly owned house. At a meeting of public housing officials and tenants, Operation Life confronted the officials who attempted to force out the Wade family. As a result, they agreed to allow the Wade family to rent the house. Millicent Wade: "When we went to the Public Housing meeting, at first the official didn't want to talk to us. Then he said, 'Please don't bring the press. We can work this out without the press.' "We won because we were homeless. I went to the meeting; I reached for my goal. Homeless people should stand up for their rights." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 4. ST. PAUL'S 'QUINLAN 11' SPEAK OUT ST. PAUL, Minnesota -- On January 26 Up & Out of Poverty St. Paul took over the vacant state owned Quinlan building. Two independent filmmakers followed people into the building and were arrested along with nine others. But before they were taken away they saw the State Patrol beating the homeless protesters. "We became part of the homeless: we really got a sense of how they're treated," filmaker Gena Tsoronis told St. Paul's Star Tribune. "They're treated horribly. They're continually kicked and beaten because of who they are. They're treated almost as if they have no rights." The voices of those beaten were blacked-out by the major media. Here's what they have to say about their fight for justice: "The police ain't going to stop me from going into the buildings that should be rightfully ours." Birgid Williams "I believe the reason we went in was just, but it's hard to accept the brutality the police afflicted on us for standing up for our rights." Dianne Benson "I find it hard to believe that the state would spend more money guarding a building from the homeless than it would probably cost them to turn it over to them." Roy Rydholm "The fact that it took so many police to arrest eleven people demonstrates to me that they're scared of us and that we're an organized force to be reckoned with." Linden Gawboy "We took over the Quinlan building to demand that Governor Carlson stop his attempt to balance the budget on the backs of poor and working people, and we will keep fighting until we bring this unjust system down." Mic Kelly "My first encounter with Up and Out of Poverty St. Paul went well, I feel it's a strong organization that I want to be a part of. And I will go on and fight for homeless rights." Tracy Jerry "The fight has just begun, as long as homeless people are struggling on our streets, I'll be continuing to fight." James Price "I won't stop because the police think they can intimidate us. I haven't fought the last two years for Up And Out of Poverty by being scared." Chris Moon ****************************************************************** 5. 'DEMANDS FOR JUSTICE': EXCERPTS FROM A LETTER TO GOV. ARNE CARLSON Governor Arne Carlson 130 State Capitol St. Paul, Minnesota 55155 Dear Governor, On the eve of your state budget address, Tuesday afternoon, January 26, Up & Out of Poverty St. Paul organized an occupation of the vacant state owned Quinlan building in downtown St. Paul. This organized act of civil disobedience was intended to draw attention to the ever-worsening homeless problem in our state. A problem that is not being addressed by any level of government including your own. Nine brave and courageous homeless protesters in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, sacrificed their freedom by submitting themselves for arrest at the building. Upon being arrested, the protesters, in the tradition of passive nonviolence, exercised their moral right to be carried out of the building. The arresting officers of the State Patrol then attempted through physical intimidation to force the protesters to walk out of the building. In plain view of more than 17 witnesses including an independent film crew (whose members were also arrested) the arresting officers beat and caused physical injuries to virtually all arrested. This blatant police brutality was an obvious attempt to intimidate those arrested from coming back into the building in the future ... We have ample documentation to support our claims of police brutality. Eight of the protesters released Tuesday evening were treated and released at Ramsey Hospital, immediately after leaving the jail. We can verify an assortment of injuries afflicted upon them by the arresting State Patrol officers. Those injuries include sprains, cuts and bruises. In addition, we have scores of witnesses, photographs and film as evidence. We demand your office take immediate action to pursue an independent investigation by the state attorney general of the State Patrol officers, who violated their duty and the rights of those arrested by brutalizing them. We demand an independent investigation, because we have no faith that justice will be served by having the State Patrol investigating itself. If our demands for an independent investigation are not met within a reasonable time period of two weeks, we will be moving our civil disobedience into your office. Poor and homeless people will no longer allow elected officials to avoid responsibility for their mistreatment at the hands of the police. America is losing its soul by condemning its poor to the streets and subjecting them to police violence. We sincerely hope and pray you will help us prosecute those guilty of these crimes against humanity. Sincerely, Mark Thisius Director ****************************************************************** 6. STUDENT LEADER JACKIE IVY FIGHTS TO REFORM MILWAUKEE AREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE [Jackie Ivy is a candidate for Student Senate in the February student government elections at Milwaukee Area Technical College.] By Jackie Ivy MILWAUKEE -- Education prepares graduates for "real world" employment. Students choose Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), an educational institution which promotes programs that are consistent with current and emerging educational and labor market needs. MATC's mission statement states that "MATC shall maintain a comprehensive curriculum and related support services as determined by community needs and the financial capabilities of the institution." What I found was that MATC is a technical college out of touch with ensuring students that their needs are met. I found MATC to be an educational institution that uses students as "human capital," and that is compromised by years of political infighting among board members, gross bureaucratic incompetence and a string of administrative improprieties. The MATC Board encourages unprofessional attitudes and behavior which is forced in the direction of students and taxpayers. MATC is truly in need of an overhaul. Students are forced to accept: 1. Long waiting lists for day care. 2. Excessive time and money used in the academic foundation program. 3. Increasing cost of text books. 4. Minority students need access to all types of financial aid. 5. More MATC course credits that are transferable. 6. Alleged racial harassment from faculty to students. If MATC were a private business it would have been declared bankrupt and taken into receivership. I'm a student who attends MATC, struggling to stay afloat. What I have found is that MATC has no sense of the real meaning of education. By judging from the extent of the disaster, the MATC Board of Directors which should be selected by the taxpayers who pay the bills, there needs to be a thorough housecleaning of all key players who are a party to this bureaucratic debacle. As a student representative, I speak for myself and those students who are also struggling to stay afloat. Firing the MATC board is the first much-needed reform. Students have had enough of this dictatorial unaccountability. A publicly funded technical college should be held to the highest degree of accountability and openness and not allowed to destroy the destiny and opportunity of future accountants, teachers, nurses, printers, business managers, etc. MATC is a college that only uses students as human capital. Wake up, students at MATC! The board of directors' only concern is how much you are worth in dollars. ****************************************************************** 7. WISCONSIN'S PROFES OFFERS A 'WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY' [Editor's note: Supported by a broad range of community groups, small and large businesses, this Milwaukee-based organization is making an important contribution to the struggle against homelessness. Below are excerpts from their brochure.] People Regenerating Opportunities for Equal Success (PROFES) is a non-profit grassroots membership based organization. Our mission is to develop and provide resources for homeless people as well as for those who are at risk of becoming homeless. PROFES intentions are to prevent, reduce and finally put an end to homelessness. This can only be accomplished through the collaboration of Wisconsin residents, community organizations, political leaders, businesses and educational institutions. We work to establish a means of greater stability starting with Milwaukee's families, youth, women and men. PROFES, founded in 1990 by Winderlin and Beverly Lemon, once homeless themselves, recognized the need for long range solutions to this problem. Over the last two years, the Lemons have conducted statistical studies, designed program strategies and researched the causes and effects of homelessness on the individual and the community. GOALS OF PROFES -- Develop a Prevention Charity Fund -- Educate society on homelessness -- Prevent homelessness-prevention is more economical than intervention. -- Develop a scholarship -- Provide opportunities for the student to learn about social responsibilities by applying book knowledge with actual experience. PERSONAL REASONS FOR HOMELESSNESS Reasons for becoming homeless are as varied as the daily situations facing people. Most common reasons cited include: -- Wages are insufficient for meeting even minimal sub-standard housing -- Limited availability for affordable housing. -- Buildings are being torn down, burned or condemned. -- Eviction for inability to pay rent due to insufficient levels of income or assistance -- Left home due to not being able to get along with housemates or abuse from them. -- Substance abuse and/or mental illness -- Ill health. [For further information write PROFES Hqs., 9051 N. 95th St. Suite D, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53224. Phone 414-365-2771.] ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ "Deadly Force" is a weekly column dedicated to exposing the scope of police terror in the United States. We open our pages to you, the front line fighters against brutality and deadly force. Send us eyewitness accounts, clippings, press releases, appeals for support, letters, photos, opinions and all other information relating to this life and death fight. Send them to People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Ill. 60654, or call (312) 486- 3551. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 8. DEADLY FORCE: LAW, ORDER AND THE MURDER OF MALICE GREEN By Yunus Collins DETROIT -- Malice Green was unemployed at the time of his death, but had worked for 13 years at a steel mill in Chicago. What does the police murder of Malice Green signify? It shows that the role of the police is to protect private property and to keep the growing numbers of unemployed and restless workers under control. There will be more Rodney Kings and Malice Greens, more beatings and murder, if we do not address the fundamental problems giving rise to these conditions. We therefore must not be lulled to sleep in spite of convictions, sentencing and punishment of these officers, should that take place. The murder of Malice Green is of historical significance for two reasons: 1. Nowhere in America's history has any white police officer ever served time for killing a minority. 2. Nowhere in America is there an official memorial site in existence to honor a victim of police brutality or murder. The facts: On November 5, 1992, two Detroit police officers brutally beat Malice Green to death with flashlights -- even after the ambulance had arrived -- while five other officers including a sergeant who is African-American, participated directly or indirectly. November 16, 1992, four of the seven officers are charged. Two officers are charged with second degree murder, Officers Budzyn and Nevers, both former members of STRESS (Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets disbanded in 1974 as a result of the undercover unit's involvement in 20 deaths. The third officer, Robert Lessnau was charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm. And the fourth officer, Sergeant Douglas was charged with involuntary manslaughter and neglect of duty. On December 16, 1992, Police Chief Stanley Knox fired all four officers for the death of Malice Green. SPONTANEOUS ACTION AND RESPONSE Several organizations, groups and churches, as well as the community, have been playing very active and key roles from day one. Also, several new organizations were formed. Every rally and march has had its impact for Justice for Malice Green. The preliminary hearing lasted seven days. The first to testify was the medical examiner, Kalil Jirakis. He dismissed the defense attorney's defense and/or suggestions that Malice Green was hurt by falling on his head and that heart disease and cocaine use contributed to his death. Five photos were introduced by the prosecutors, which showed multiple crimson gashes and cuts on Green's scalp and face. And further, he stated that Green had been hit at least 14 times with heavy flashlights, boots and possibly other blunt objects. Four Emergency Service Technicians (EMS) gave different testimonies. Each testified that they were upset and shocked at witnessing the beating and, in fact, one had radioed his supervisor asking what to do if they were witnessing a crime being committed by police officers. THE RULING AND THE LESSON Chief Judge Alex Allen of the 36th District Court, after listening to lengthy testimony for seven days, found sufficient evidence to bound three of the four officers charged over for trial. The three officers were (again) released on personal bond without any time in jail and were not required to post any money for bond. Detroit is not Los Angeles, but the economic, social and political crisis is the same. The Rodney King verdict was the fuse for something that ran very, very deep, and was very, very powerful. Rebellions are not pretty, neither are the conditions that create them! The mass rebellion of Los Angeles in 1992 was a grassroots vote of NO confidence in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government in the United States political mainstream. "These are revolutionary times," said Martin Luther King in _Beyond Vietnam_. "All over the globe men are revolting against the old system of exploitation and oppression and out of the womb of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before." After all is said and done, we can best sum up by our political motion, the strategy and tactics we employ to move beyond the spontaneous reaction and response with consistent programs of action, political line and organization. The responsibility we face is to build institutions of community dialogue to give birth to this elevated new revolutionary process of struggle and unity, intellectual debate and social activism. JUSTICE FOR MALICE GREEN! NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE! Contact the Justice for Malice Green Coalition at 313-865-7317. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ IF WE MUST DIE A poem by Claude McKay (1890-1948) If we must die, let it be not like hogs hunted and pinned in an inglorious spot, while round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, making their mock at our accused log. If we must die, O let us nobly die, so that our precious blood may not be shed in vain; then even the monsters we defy shall be constrained to honor us though dead! O kinsman! we must meet the common foe! Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, pressed to the wall but fighting back! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 9. CALL TO FORM ORGANIZING COMMITTEES... ...to establish an organization to educate, organize, and finally lead the masses in the inevitable transformation of our society Sisters and brothers, The American people are under attack! Our communities are under siege. In the cities, the rural areas and the reservations from Selma to Watts, conditions are all the same. Jobs are minimum wage and factories continue to close. Unemployment benefits are a joke and welfare benefits can't feed our children or pay our rent. Some of us are forced to live in the streets like animals. Our communities are flooded with drugs and alcohol. Our children have no future. The police arrest, beat and kill us. The politicians and their political parties don't represent us. They are tied by a thousand threads to the real estate developers, the banks, the rich, the powerful and the rest of the capitalist class. A system that cannot feed, clothe and house its people does not deserve to continue to exist. We can and must organize to replace it. How? By preparing the people to take this country from the exploiters and run it in our interest. This calls for a national organization that will: * Root itself among the oppressed, the exploited, the homeless and the hungry of all colors and nationalities. * Develop a national long-range vision, strategy and plan for victory. * Educate the people on the situation we face, who the enemy is and how to fight. * Coordinate the varied scattered fights so that we can have an impact. * Build a structure that is in line with our local and national needs. * Develop the tools necessary to win: publications, schools, cadre, etc. This organization would be made up of the leaders of our scattered fights; those who want to develop a national analysis, strategy and resources; those unwilling to compromise with a system of exploitation, hunger and misery; those who want to win. Having discussed the Open Letter written by Marian Kramer and General Baker, we, the undersigned, call upon all who understand this need to join us and form Organizing Committees to establish an organization of revolutionaries. In the spirit of Nat Turner, John Brown, Sojourner Truth, Joaquin Murrieta, Chief Crazy Horse, Lucy Parsons, Albert Parsons, Malcolm X and others too numerous to mention, we make this call. Abdul Alkalimat, Nacho Gonzalez, Ethel Long-Scott, John Slaughter, Leona Smith You can contact the National Organizing Committee at P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647 or call (312) 486-0028, or e-mail jdav@well.sf.ca.us ****************************************************************** 10. DRAFT PROGRAM FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF REVOLUTIONARIES This is an era of revolutionary change. Electronic technology is replacing human labor with computers and robots. Human labor is becoming worthless to a system that values only what it can exploit. The economic revolution is turning millions of people in this country into economic refugees. This system answers our cries of need with blows of terror. It offers unemployment, hunger, homelessness, welfare cuts, the AIDS epidemic and the plague of drugs. The government is turning from neglect to attack -- police murder and arrest of the youth, immigration raids, forced sterilization, and other forms of terror The millions this system has thrown out face two choices -- either accept destruction and murder or set out to overturn this system. Technology is powerful enough to end hunger, homelessness and all want -- but only if it is seized from the exploiters and organized in the interests of those this system has discarded. We are an organization based on the people this system doesn't need, the gravediggers of exploitation. Those this system has discarded have begun a revolution -- a revolution for food, homes, jobs, education, health care, freedom from police terror and drugs. Now is the time to organize and politicize the revolution that is shaking up this country. We will get only what we are organized to take. Our program is based on the revolutionary potential of those who have to fight this system in order to live. The decisive step today is to broaden and intensify the activities and influence of their movement. Based on this movement for survival, we will educate and organize revolutionary fighters from all sectors of society to wage war on the capitalist system. We call on you to join us in carrying out this program of action and education: Our program is to end poverty by seizing abandoned housing, and fighting to secure food, health care and whatever else we need to survive. Our program is to put an end to the state terror by confronting the government through mass mobilization -- in the courts, in the streets, by any means necessary. This organized action makes it possible for the millions who are being displaced, discarded and attacked by capitalism to be prepared, organized and trained to lead in overturning the whole system. Our program is to educate the millions of fighters with a blueprint of what they are fighting for and what it will take to build that kind of society. ****************************************************************** 11. PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE BECOMES A PUBLICATION OF NATIONAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE Editorial Board is proud to inform our friends and readers that we are one of the publications of the National Organizing Committee. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE will make available every resource at hand to aid in the building of organizing committees in every state, city, and community. While we will be a publication of the National Organizing Committee, our pages are open to everyone who has a story to tell, everyone who has a plan for victory. The only requirement is adherence to the statement of purpose in story 12 ("About the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE"). Fighters for a new tomorrow: Make our pages a bold indictment against an economic system which has forgotten and does not care about you. Use our pages to put forth plans for victory. Use it to link with sisters and brothers across the country fighting the same enemy. Alone, we become prey to our enemies. Together we are invincible! +----------------------------------------------------------------+ Now is the time to act. The National Organizing Committee calls upon everyone who wants to carry out this program to join us in building local organizing committees to build an organization around this program. Our task is not to be a debating society, but to be a coordinating body of active revolutionary leaders firmly rooted in militant mass forms of struggle. We intend to combine all of our efforts into one common effort, to unite our many specific demands around a general program for revolutionary change. We need you to join us in organizing committees in every city and rural community, on every battle front, to assist in spelling out how this program can be carried out. This draft program is being issued by the National Organizing Committee. General Baker, chairman. Contact the National Organizing Committee at P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647 or call 312-486-0028. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 12. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, published weekly in Chicago, is devoted to the proposition that an economic system which can't or won't feed, clothe and house its people ought to be and will be changed. To that end, this paper is a tribune of the people. It is the voice of the millions struggling for survival. It strives to educate politically those millions on the basis of their own experience. It is a tribune to bring them together, to create a vision of a better world, and a strategy to achieve it. Join us! Editor: Laura Garcia Publisher: Lenny Brody To help support the production and distribution of the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, please send donations, letters, articles, photos, graphics and requests for information, subscriptions and bundles of papers to: PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE P.O. Box 3524 Chicago, IL 60654 Respond via e-mail to jdav@igc.org Reach us by phone: Chicago: (312) 486-3551 Atlanta: (404) 242-2380 Detroit: (313) 839-7600 Los Angeles : (310) 428-2618 Washington, D.C.: (202) 529-6250 GETTING THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE IN PRINT The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE is available at many locations nationwide. One year subscriptions $25 ($35 institutions), bulk orders of 5 or more 15 cents each, single copies 25 cents. Contact PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, P. O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654, tel. (312) 486- 3551. WRITING FOR THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE We want your story in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE. Send it in! Articles should be shorter than 300 words, written to be easily understood, and signed. (Use a pen name if you prefer.) Include a phone number for questions. Contact PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, P. O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654, tel. (312) 486-3551. ****************************************************************** We encourage reproduction and use of all articles except those copyrighted. Please credit the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE depends on donations from its readers -- your generosity is appreciated. ******************************************************************