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People's Tribune (Online Edition)
Vol. 20 No. 16 / April 19, 1993
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
Email:
[email protected]
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PUT US BACK TO WORK, NOW!
Last November, the American people said loud and clear, "We want
jobs!" Now, as 2,800 Americans _per day_ get the boot, Senate
Republicans are blocking President Clinton's "jobs" bill and
Clinton isn't doing a damn thing about it.
If Clinton can give Boris Yeltsin a big fat check to help American
business in Russia, why can't he get this drop-in-the-bucket bill
passed at home?
There are over _15 million unemployed_ and millions more stuck in
part-time, starvation-wage "jobs." Why should they be pushed
around by a handful of Republicans and a bunch of helpless
Democrats?
We say to the unemployed, _keep organizing!_ Nobody is going to
give us anything. We are going to have to fight for every job that
we get. We are going to have to mobilize ourselves by the millions
and win this battle on our own. See Editorial, story 1.
COVER PHOTO CAPTIONS:
John Martin, out of work four months. When asked what kind of jobs
the government should be providing, he says, "Well, at this
particular time you have to come up with better jobs than fast
foods, because a family man can't survive off a $4.50 or $5.00 an
hour job."
Marci Fahrestock, left, is losing her job at BRK in Aurora,
Illinois after 4 years. She said, "Quite honestly, I am destitute.
I think people here feel lost. Aurora is no longer an industrial
town." Fahrestock previously worked for ATT in Montgomery, Ill.
for 17 years before the operation moved to Singapore. Out of 5,000
who worked there, only 500 remain.
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L.A. POLICE STATE: BLUEPRINT FOR AMERICAN FASCISM
LOS ANGELES -- As the Rodney King beating case goes to the jury,
this city has become an outright police state.
If this was happening in Russia, China or even South Africa; if a
nation's own citizens were being militarily occupied because the
rulers feared reaction to a politically charged trial, every
politician in America would be outraged.
Yet, today, as 7,000 cops move into the streets of Los Angeles,
the rulers of this nation are either silent or openly calling for
massive repression.
The capitalist system -- unable to feed, clothe, house or provide
justice to its people -- is turning to violence.
What has happened in L.A. -- if allowed to stand -- will become a
nationwide precedent for fascism. We cannot allow that to happen.
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INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition)
Vol. 20 No. 16 / April 19, 1993
Editorial
1. FIGHT FOR JOBS: OUT OF THE MISERY, A GATHERING STORM
News
2. OAKLAND STUDENTS WALK OUT!
3. 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF HAROLD WASHINGTON'S VICTORY [CHICAGO]
4. POOR PEOPLE'S LOBBY DAY [ST. PAUL, MN]
5. MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE MUST BE STOPPED! [BALTIMORE, MD]
6. TENT CITY LEADER JAILED AFTER CHALLENGING POLICE [DETROIT]
Focus on the Recovery Movement: Break the Chains!
7. A PERSONAL FIGHT
8. PARENTS IN RECOVERY: WE NEED HOUSING!
9. BREAK THE CHAINS
Columns and features
10. DALLAS AND FORT WORTH: ON THE MOVE FOR JUSTICE!
11. DRAFT PROGRAM FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF REVOLUTIONARIES
12. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE
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1. EDITORIAL: FIGHT FOR JOBS: OUT OF THE MISERY, A GATHERING STORM
In Homestead, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Steel plant was shut down in
1986 and at least 26 former workers have committed suicide since.
In Los Angeles, the "Rebuild L.A." program has created fewer than
5,000 jobs; despite promises of as much as $1 billion in private
investment, most of the money has yet to materialize, according to
a recent article by Eric Mann in The Nation.
In the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Illinois, 300 workers who make
smoke detectors for BRK Electronics will see the last of their
jobs move to Juarez, Mexico in June.
A new realization is hitting the 15 million unemployed people in
this country: all the tricks of the government and the private
sector to "create jobs" have come up empty.
Take the phony "enterprise zone" concept, where tax breaks to
businesses were supposed to put people back to work. According to
Mann, in Los Angeles, such "welfare for the rich" has contributed
to a $180 million budget shortfall. The results? In Watts less
than 159 jobs created; in the Central City, 220; in East L.A.,
157.
Or take the "Rebuild L.A." scam.
Mann points out that, in July, General Motors announced it would
spend $15 million and create a few hundred jobs. One month later
they shut down GM. Van Nuys and dumped 3,000 workers in the
street. Then there's IBM, which pledged $35 million in cash and
computer equipment for five years... but no jobs. And don't forget
Pioneer Electronics, which pledged a $600,000 job training center
_but no jobs!_
What a joke.
Now the ultimate insult: Clinton's pitiful "jobs" bill (less than
10 percent of the unemployed would get jobs) is being massacred by
a handful of Republicans while the Democrats stand around
helpless.
But it doesn't have to be this way. A new fight for jobs is
gathering steam, a fight that won't wait for Congress to pass
legislation.
It's led by people like former steelworker's union local president
Larry Regan of Gary, Indiana, who heads a growing coalition of
unemployed organizations.
In the east, the Baltimore Unemployed Council, the Philadelphia
Unemployed Project and dozens of other organizations have staged
demonstrations and drawn up their own plans to put America back to
work.
It's time to organize _ourselves_ and fight for jobs. That's the
message of the "gathering storm."
Watch for more on the fight for jobs in upcoming issues of the
People's Tribune.
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2. OAKLAND STUDENTS WALK OUT!
By Ed Oasa
OAKLAND, California -- On April 1, 2,000 Oakland public school
students did what they promised the Board of Education they would
do two weeks before. They walked out after first period.
The United Raza Association (U.R.A.) of Latino and Asian students
presented their demands for cultural representation, bilingual
teachers, planned extracurricular activities, ending the abuses by
administrative and security personnel, and a curriculum that would
reflect the truth about this country. About a dozen schools were
represented at a morning press conference at the school district's
administrative office. The following are comments from two of the
students.
Dawyne Johnson, Oakland Tech: "We the Latinos, the Asians, the
Blacks, the Native Americans are hungry. We're hungry for our own
history and culture to feed our minds. We're required by law to
attend schools. American-taught history is killing our minds like
American junk food is killing our bodies. We demand to learn the
truth about our history and culture.... I want to know where I
came from, how I got here, I want to know how my ancestors got
here. I don't want to be taught lies about Columbus discovering
America. And [to the Board of Education] don't just take time out
to listen; do something about it!"
Micaela Garcia, Skyline High: "The Board of Education wonders what
the problems are in the school district, especially with Latino
students having one of the highest dropout rates in this district.
The problem lies in the classroom; the problem doesn't lie in the
streets where people are hanging out. It's the curriculum. We're
not learning about ourselves. School is boring to us. We're
learning about European history in these classrooms that doesn't
say anything about the struggles we go through, that our people
have gone through and continue to go through. We need to
restructure our educational system; not just make adjustments and
have little remedies. It's finally time for you [the school
district] to take us seriously ... to sit down and work with us
toward a solution."
These events resulted in an agreement that the administration and
students will meet once a month. This is just beginning. As one
speaker said, "We will not go away."
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3. 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF HAROLD WASHINGTON'S VICTORY: IT'S TIME TO
MAKE HISTORY AGAIN!
[This month marks the 10th anniversary of Harold Washington's
historic victory in the Chicago mayoral election of April 1983. In
the following statement, the Chicago Organizing Committee reflects
on what Washington represented, and on where we are today and what
needs to be done now.]
By the Chicago Organizing Committee
CHICAGO -- Exactly 10 years ago, we, the victims of poverty, made
history. On April 12, 1983, a massive grassroots mobilization
elected Harold Washington mayor of Chicago. Washington's victory
sent shock waves through the ruling class and the Democratic
Party.
Washington's victory was historic not simply because he became
Chicago's first African-American mayor; it was historic because
we, the victims of this system, elected him. Washington ran on a
platform (The Washington Papers) hammered out at _our_ meetings --
meetings of laid-off steelworkers and welfare mothers. He won
because we, the victims of poverty, voted in record numbers using
the ballot as our weapon.
When we worked for Harold and reform, we were fighting for jobs,
housing, health care and quality education for everyone. Harold
Washington's administration did not solve Chicago's problems. It
could not. It did listen to us and tell us the truth about the
extent of those problems. Electing that administration gave us a
sense of our own power.
Now, nearly six years after Washington's untimely death, things
seem worse than ever. Unemployment and homelessness have soared
and are still climbing. The police have been unleashed on the
people, beating, torturing and killing at will. The phony "drug
war" has been used as an excuse for the police to occupy and
isolate whole sections of the city. In the name of
"redevelopment," the real estate interests are moving to force
some of the city's poorest people out of certain public housing
projects, like Cabrini-Green. The city, state and federal
governments are only offering us cuts in welfare, more police and
more prisons.
Today we need to finish the job we began in 1983, and the people
have already begun the task of organizing to do just that. The
fight is being led by those who have been abandoned by this
system, left without jobs, homes, health care or education. They
are forced to fight for a society without hunger, homelessness or
oppression. The technology exists to create such a society -- but
first this technology must be seized from the exploiters and
organized in the interests of those this system has discarded. To
begin that process, we who have been pushed to the brink need our
own organization -- an organization of revolutionaries. Organizing
committees have been formed in Chicago and a number of other
cities to lay the foundation for this organization.
On April 24 and 25, the founding convention of this new
organization of revolutionaries will be held in Chicago. We call
upon all those who worked, voted and marched in the streets for
Harold Washington to form local organizing committees and help
build this new organization. This is the way to honor Harold's
memory.
It's time for the victims of poverty in Chicago to make history
again!
[For more information about the new organization and the local
organizing committees, see story 11.]
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HAROLD WASHINGTON: HUMANITARIAN AND PEOPLE'S CHAMPION
Statement by the People's Campaign for Jobs, Housing, and Food
CHICAGO -- We give honor unto God that Harold Washington was sent
among us as a champion for human dignity and justice.
We, the people, called him "Harold" because he was one with us. We
could talk to him and he understood. He learned from us, and we
learned from him.
He taught that human dignity required a way for men and women to
feed, house, and clothe their families. He taught that there was
no justice when people slept in the streets or in abandoned
buildings, or when people were hungry, or sick and without the
means to get attention. He taught us about teaching our children.
And, he taught us that we are all God's people and should respect,
love and care for each other, and work together for our common
good.
Tens of thousands of us -- the poor, the homeless, the jobless --
worked and organized and made Harold the people's mayor. When his
time came to leave us we were prepared to take City Hall and put
his successor in place. But there was no successor, only the same
old bickering, back-room deals, and individual power grabs that
left us abandoned. And, again we were made the victims.
Harold always told us to put our trust "in the plan, not the man."
Now there are thousands of champions, heroes and heroines carrying
forth Harold's vision.
This is Harold's greatest legacy. Now, we must come together to
move the fight for human dignity and justice forward, carrying
with us our great love for Harold Washington.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
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4. POOR PEOPLE'S LOBBY DAY
[Kim Defranco is a member of the welfare rights committee of Up
and Out of Poverty Saint Paul.]
By Kim Defranco
ST. PAUL, Minnesota -- On March 24, welfare recipients, homeless
people, and members of the low income community came together at
the Minnesota State Capitol to bring our demands to the
politicians. More than 100 people joined the spirited rally and
"politician hunt."
"Governor Carlson and the State Legislature want to cut back on
the programs that serve poor and homeless people," said Linden
Gawboy of the Welfare Rights Committee. "They want to cut people
on GA [General Assistance], they refuse to raise AFDC grants and
at the same time we see more tax breaks for the rich. We will not
allow the budget to be balanced on our backs."
A spokesperson from the Hmong community, which had a large
contingent at the rally, condemned those in government that used
them to fight a war, and then abandoned them in poverty.
Barb Bordner of the Welfare Rights Committee stated, "It is
important that we get in there and tell the politicians that they
need to take responsibility for their decisions, and that we are
going to hold them responsible for them."
Brigid Williams, member of the Board of Up and Out of Poverty and
the Welfare Rights Committee, said that she is "sick and tired of
watching the rich drive around in Limos, while they keep cutting
our grants, and the life of poor people gets worse."
Another Up and Out of Poverty member, Dennis Noller, said, "Look
all around you here at the Capitol. The government builds museums
and parks for it's people to go, but the moment that we go to
these places... they throw us out. They don't want to see us. They
don't want us to exist, But we do."
After the rally people broke up into groups and went to confront
the politicians. One target was Republican Representative Godno,
author of a "workfare" slave-labor bill. Claiming that poor people
"need to know how to work," he wants people to labor for free at
dead-end jobs, in order to get our measly grants.
Summing up the event one organizer said "Poor People's Lobby Day
was a victory! The politicians don't have a clue what kind of life
we, the poor and homeless lead.
The day was a clash between two worlds, and there will be much
more such clashes in the future."
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5. MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE MUST BE STOPPED!
[Steve Walden is executive director of the Baltimore Unemployed
Council.]
By Steve J. Walden
BALTIMORE -- Despite the uncertain status of our economy, banks
continue to foreclose on people's homes. The citizens of America
are under assault by the banks and the mortgage companies. Great
Western Bank of California is a primary culprit. They reside at
P.O. Box 1900, Northridge, California (1-800-521-5710). This bank
has been a thorn in the side of Mrs. Theresa White of Baltimore.
Mr. Thompkins is only one month behind and has recently been
unemployed but is trying her best to work with the bank. Also,
we've launched a complaint against Maryland National Bank. It sent
back a $100 payment to Ms. Annetta Thomas of Baltimore. You can be
assured as this is a local case that we will get this matter
straightened out.
Many banks start foreclosure proceedings after three months and
ultimately auctions after six months....
This is a call to all responsible citizens to put a stop to this
practice. Committees should be started to stop any institutions
which engage in this practice.
The Baltimore Unemployed Council has staged numerous pickets in
front of and inside area banks, more often than not leading to a
settlement of these cases. Let's stop these bankers and mortgage
companies now!
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6. TENT CITY LEADER JAILED AFTER CHALLENGING POLICE SLAYING OF
MALICE GREEN
JOIN THE PETITION DRIVE FOR YUNUS COLLINS
DETROIT -- One of the leaders of the Justice for Malice Green
Committee, Yunus Collins, is still in jail awaiting a hearing
before the Michigan Parole Board. Yunus was picked up on March 8
on an eight-year-old parole violation. The state has 45 days to
hear his case. His parole officer, Sam Carter, is refusing to let
Yunus be released.
Yunus Collins has been sitting in jail while the four officers who
beat Malice Green to death have not served one hour behind bars.
Clearly this is a political arrest. Yunus has been in the Detroit
area, living under his real name and in regular contact with his
mother and sister, whose addresses are on file with the parole
office. In fact, five years ago, Yunus was arrested and held for
five days before he was released. No action was taken at that time
on this parole violation. The police even took him down to
register to vote and get a state identification card. Yunus
received a couple of moving traffic violations and was not taken
into custody at that time as a parole violator.
A community activist and a homeless activist, Yunus lived in a
tent on the lawn of the state Capitol in Lansing for four months,
going in and out of the Capitol while he visited with state
lawmakers and protested the cuts in General Assistance initiated
by Governor Engler. Even then, he was not arrested as a parole
violator.
Arrested and sent to Jackson prison at the age of 17, Yunus spent
five years in prison. Upon his parole, he got a job and a G.E.D.
and enrolled in Wayne County Community College. Since that time he
has been active and in key leadership positions in organizations
such as Up and Out of Poverty Now, Welfare Rights Organization,
Union of the Homeless, and Justice for Malice Green Committee. He
has participated in national conferences and conventions of
organizations such as Up and Out of Poverty Now, National
Organization of Women, South Central Los Angeles Unification of
the Crips and the Bloods.
It was not until his participation in the Justice for Malice Green
Committee that the State of Michigan decided to dispense its own
form of justice, arresting Yunus on a charge which would have
expired in three months. To date, appeals to the parole officer
and his superior have not been effective in securing his release.
He is due to go before the Engler-appointed parole board.
We are asking everyone to circulate the petition and to write
letters of protest to the Director of the Department of
Corrections for:
The State of Michigan
Kenneth McGinnis
P.O. Box 3003
Lansing, Michigan 48909
Phone: 1-517-373-6383
Fax 1-517-373-2628
Please send copies of all letters to:
Bryant Yunus Collins A160575
Western Wayne Correctional Facility
48401 Five Mile Road
Plymouth, Michigan 48170
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PETITION TO FREE YUNUS COLLINS
We the undersigned believe that because of this young man's
involvement in the Justice for Malice Green Committee he has been
picked out for harassment. The cops who killed Malice Green are
out on bond while Yunus Collins sits in prison. We hereby call for
his immediate release.
Send copies of this petition to
Kenneth McGinnis
P.O. Box 3003
Lansing, Michigan 48909
Phone: 517-373-6383
Fax: 517-373-2628
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7. A PERSONAL FIGHT
By Sarah Menefee
[Sarah Menefee is a member of the San Francisco Organizing
Committee.]
SAN FRANCISCO -- I grew up in Reno, Nevada and married a very
intelligent man there, who was also illiterate and a gambler. He
served in the Army in WWII for a country that didn't educate him
or respect him. We lived in a town built on working people's
desire to get ahead by hitting it lucky, knowing that was the only
way they ever would. This often made us homeless -- myself, my
husband and our young son living in fleabag hotels and in our car.
This is the system that killed him at age 53.
I see now that not just the gambling industry, but the capitalist
system itself is built on exploiting people and trashing those it
doesn't need to exploit. When I worked as a cocktail waitress in
the casinos, I gave out "free" drinks to make the gamblers throw
away their money faster. I now understand that alcohol and drugs
are used in the same way. They want us messed up so we don't wake
up and say, "There's gotta be a better way of organizing society
than this crooked crap game they're running on us!"
My ex-husband's son, my stepson, inherited the fight for survival.
He has been addicted and homeless off and on for the past 10
years. This winter he cut his wrists coming off a couple of years
of crack cocaine. He is a beautiful, talented, intelligent young
man the world can't afford to trash or lose. He says he feels he
can stay clean now if he can find meaningful work.
I joined the homeless movement because I've been there, and
remember. I joined a political organization to better understand
the way this exploitive system works and how to fight to change
it. The fight for jobs, housing, education and drug treatment is a
fight to overturn capitalism and get a system that provides for
our needs. This is about our children. It's a personal fight!
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
'...THE PEOPLE ARE BEING PREYED UPON. HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE BEING
OUTLAWED.'
By Maynard Menefee
SAN FRANCISCO -- "The situation is getting worse and worse, with
more and more people in the street, There's no relief in sight,
the people are being preyed upon. The politicians come in with
promises to do something, but it's all just politics. Promises
only hold for so long; once they're in it's a forgotten issue.
Homeless people are being outlawed. That's why the cops are
running these sweeps.
There's no relief coming for the people and it's so sad. They say
that we can do it without a revolution, but I don't know how that
can happen. It's going to have to give, not in the parts, but in
the whole picture."
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
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8. PARENTS IN RECOVERY: WE NEED HOUSING!
By Tracy Creer
Tracy Creer is a single mother and a member of the San Francisco
Organizing Committee.
SAN FRANCISCO -- For the many single parents who have gone through
drug programs and are in recovery, housing in San Francisco has
become an essential problem.
I feel that the system has not caught up to the fact that more and
more single parents are coming into recovery and that after
completing treatment there is no efficient housing available.
Single parents need supportive housing to stay focused on their
goal in life: to reunite with their children, and most important,
to keep their self-esteem. There is no such housing available.
I would like to start a cooperative housing program for single
parents in recovery. Such a program would provide:
-- Each family with its own unit.
-- Self-management by residents
-- On-site N.A., C.A. and A.A. meetings once a week and regular
counseling.
-- Child care for working parents
-- Monthly payments on a sliding scale, if at all.
After he or she comes out of program, the parent needs a stable
place to live so sobriety will be maintained. This will prevent
relapse. It is shown that most people give up their sobriety while
trying to live on life's terms, raise children, hold a job, and
not have a stable home.
The housing I'm proposing would be a brand new start for
recovering parents. It would give them an opportunity to start
over again in life and clean up the damage that was once done and
to work together with others. It would provide a new way of living
for some parents and children since some of them only know one
way. Poverty!
This housing is very much needed because more and more people are
waking up and realizing that drugs are not the way to go.
I am committed to see this happen, because I believe there is
strength in numbers.
What I need is your support...
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9. BREAK THE CHAINS
By John
[John is an activist in the recovery movement and a member of the
San Francisco Organizing Committee.]
SAN FRANCISCO -- This government is allowing drugs to infiltrate
the country. This is their form of control of a certain class of
people. First we were controlled by chains as slaves, but we are
still enslaved -- not just the Blacks, but the Hispanics and other
minority and poor people -- to keep us from knowing our true
identity.
When I was a kid there were at least jobs. Today there are no
jobs. People feel depressed and have no self-respect. The drugs
allow them more control over us, to incarcerate us, keep all their
capital gains, build prisons on top of prisons, and it's not the
solution.
I feel that everyone who wants to recover should have the
opportunity. Right now a lot of the programs are money-mongering
-- a part of the establishment taking care of the other part --
the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer. We the people
must pull together and pool our strengths to fight this system
which is slowly but surely killing us off.
I've been learning more since I started in this new organization,
and telling the people I work with in recovery that they need to
get active. A lot of us are homeless and we don't want to see it.
We have to start looking at that, we're in the same system as the
people in the street. They have us separated into this and that. I
tell them, "You have to start getting involved and organized."
******************************************************************
10. DALLAS AND FORT WORTH: ON THE MOVE FOR JUSTICE!
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
"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.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
By Leslie Willis
FORT WORTH, Texas -- The Afro American Summit organized a march of
10,000 people to the courthouse in Fort Worth on March 28. They
demanded justice be done in the cold-blooded murder of Donald
Thomas, a 32-year-old black man. Christopher Browsky, a white
supremacist "skinhead," was convicted of this murder two years
ago, but on March 23 he was sentenced to probation only.
Reverend Leroy Haynes, one of the organizers, told the People's
Tribune that the District Attorney has filed a new indictment on
Browsky that comes from the Grand Jury focusing on organized
crime. Rev. Haynes said that the Afro American Summit also plans
to demand that Browsky be retried on the state or federal level
for violation of Donald Thomas' civil rights. They plan to monitor
the trials and set up picket lines at the courthouse.
Calling for a "restructuring of the whole justice system," Rev.
Haynes sited examples of unfairness in minority representation
through out the justice system.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
LEADERS SPEAK OUT
By Jorge Ortega
Reverend LeRoy Haynes, Cater Metropolitan C.M.E. Church, Fort
Worth, Texas: "I think that the question that is before us is not
only who murdered Donald Thomas and the punishment that he
received, but what produced the murderers of Donald Thomas. What
created people who hate so much that they will premeditate and go
forth and kill a man just on the basis of his skin color.
"What about the system, what about the philosophy and values that
created that process and how the criminal justice system countered
that. The murders of Donald Thomas did not grow up in a vacuum,
they were created by this system itself. And this system added
legitimacy to these acts and actions?
Reverend Robert Hadley, Mt. Olive Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas:
"[W]e as African Americans and Mexican Americans, Latinos, must
stick together and tell the people that this is an injustice
system, and unless they stop meting out justice just because of
the color of our skins, then they will not only face the peaceful
demonstrations, but there our other things that are to come in
this town."
Tony Johnson, Fort Worth, Texas: "This march is only a beginning
in Dallas/Fort Worth. More people, especially in our capitol,
realize that we're not going to be blind like justice is supposed
to be. It's time for us to speak out and let them know that we
see. It's time for things to start changing."
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
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11. 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.
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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
[email protected]
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.
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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.
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