Date: Tue, 26 Apr 1994 19:55:19 -0700
From: James I Davis <
[email protected]>
To:
[email protected]
Subject: People's Tribune (Online Edition) 5-2-94
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People's Tribune (Online Edition)
Vol. 21 No. 18 / May 2, 1994
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
Email:
[email protected]
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POLICE RAIDS WITHOUT WARRANTS IN PUBLIC HOUSING
SWEEP AWAY POVERTY, NOT THE BILL OF RIGHTS!
CHICAGO -- "They want to tear up the Constitution."
Those words were spoken by Ethel Washington, who has lived in the
Robert Taylor Homes public housing development here for 25 years.
Washington was describing the effort to allow the police to search
the apartments of public housing residents without warrants. She's
right.
During April, it seemed as if almost every politician and media
commentator in America was talking about police sweeps in Robert
Taylor Homes.
The national hue and cry began April 7. On that day, a federal
judge barred Chicago from conducting searches of individual
apartments in Chicago Housing Authority buildings without a
warrant or probable cause.
President Clinton himself denounced the ruling just hours after it
was issued. He gave Attorney General Janet Reno and Housing
Secretary Henry Cisneros 10 days to figure out a way to get around
the judge's decision.
If Clinton is serious about improving the situation in public
housing, why didn't he give his Cabinet just 10 days to come up
with a plan to feed every hungry child in public housing in
America?
If the members of Congress supporting sweeps are genuinely
concerned, why has Congress slashed funding for public housing
over the last 13 years? Public housing in this country is the
scene of many problems. They range from hunger to broken elevators
to unsafe windows to trash which never seems to get picked up by
the city.
If the tiny class of people who run this country really wanted to
solve those problems, it would sweep some jobs and education and
health programs into the public housing developments. Instead,
public housing residents get massive, expensive raids by the
police, paid for with the very money which should be used to
solve the underlying problems.
We cannot allow the very people responsible for the growth of
poverty to shift the blame. We won't let them tear up the
Constitution for poor people. The high-level push for massive
police sweeps in public housing shows that the ruling class has
only one answer to our cries for food, decent housing and justice
-- at Robert Taylor Homes and throughout America. That answer is
massive force. We cannot accept that. We, the new class of poor
people, will be heard!
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INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition)
Vol. 21 No. 18 / May 2, 1994
Editorial
1. NOC CELEBRATES ONE YEAR OF STRUGGLE
News
2. ANNIVERSARY OF LA REBELLION: "A TIME OF REVOLUTIONARY UNITY"
3. WATTS FRIENDSHIP SPORTS LEAGUE SUPPORTS THE TRUCE
Focus on Mayday: May Day's Spirit Lives in the 90's
4. A GLOBAL ERA DEMANDS WORLD UNITY OF LABOR
5. CATERPILLAR DEMO IN PEORIA MAY 7
6. TEAMSTERS STRIKE: HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY
7. "JOBS WITH JUSTICE" MEETS IN ATLANTA
8. LABOR NEEDS SOLIDARITY, NOT BOGUS "TEAM CONCEPT"
Focus on Police Sweeps of Chicago Public Housing
9. CHA SWEEPS COVER UP CHA NEGLECT OF TENANTS
10. VINCE LANE MUST GO!
11. CLINTON SETS ASIDE CONSTITUTION FOR PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS
12. LEADERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST CHA SWEEPS
Culture
13. DEATH PENALTY A WEAPON OF OPPRESSION, SAYS SOUTH AFRICAN POET
Letters
14. LETTER TO PT: I CANNOT GO ON STRIKE, NOR CAN I UNIONIZE
15. LETTER TO PRESIDENT ARISTIDE
Events
16. ANDREA GIBBS TOUR
17. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE
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1. EDITORIAL: NOC CELEBRATES ONE YEAR OF STRUGGLE
One year ago, activists from around the country gathered in
Chicago and united around a program of action and education. We
came together for one reason: to politicize and organize the
ongoing revolution against the system.
Since that time, conditions in our society have worsened. Poverty
continues to increase in the middle of abundance. The hurricanes
and earthquakes, the winter cold and the Midwest floods now
occurring for the second year in a row, have escalated the growth
of impoverishment. Pink slips and layoffs continue to abound. The
schools our children attend are becoming armed camps. The promised
national health care struggle has been reduced to a soap opera.
Welfare reform has blossomed into outright welfare-bashing.
President Clinton's promotion of his so-called international jobs
conference with representatives of the "Group of Seven" nations
took a back seat to his campaign for the crime bill.
In the wake of the expanding crisis, we are bombarded daily with
lies about crime increasing and the supposed need for more prisons
and the death penalty. Our society is marked by an antagonism
between completely static social structures and a highly mobile
revolution in the means of production (which now include the robot
and the computer chip.) This antagonism is forcing more and more
fighters into our ranks.
New organizations with new leaders are rising up; old ones -- from
the PTA to the NAACP -- are trying to change to fit the new
situation. Everywhere, the new class of poor people is giving
leadership to the impending battles. As each day passes, we open
our arms to the new forces entering the battles.
The National Organizing Committee is made up of revolutionary
fighters from every battlefront. Our mission is to forge the
revolutionary force necessary to destroy this capitalist system, a
system of poverty and injustice. We are an organization that
believes the poor and exploited people can be educated, organized
and inspired to rise up in our millions. We want to create a new
system based on justice and economic prosperity for everyone. Join
us!
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"WHY I JOINED THE NOC"
Sonja Blutgarten, board president of the Women's Economic Agenda
Project (WEAP), and member of her local WEAP chapter, the San
Francisco Low-Income Support Network:
"From experience, I see how this system is really pitted against
poor women and children -- not only to keep us down, but to
destroy us on the way down. I'm not going down and I'm not letting
my kids go down.
"The NOC is the only organization that not only represents our
needs, but it's also made up of us. The program of the NOC is to
make sure that all people have what we need to survive and to
thrive -- to go beyond survival. We're the only organization that
has a program and a plan on how to achieve that."
Fran Cleaves, a member of UAW Local 659 in Flint, Michigan, also
participates on a board of education committee on violence
prevention in Flint:
"The people who fought in 1776 knew they had to change the whole
system. That's the way I see the NOC, as a revolutionary
organization that has a clear goal to restructure society in a way
to provide everybody with a decent life -- not just basic needs,
but enable people to reach their potential and contribute to
society."
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2. SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE LOS ANGELES REBELLION: "A TIME OF
REVOLUTIONARY UNITY"
By Fanya Baruti
Chairman, L.A. NOC Youth Committee
"The black and brown communities have been moving to bring peace
within the culture and peace with other ethnic cultures."
LOS ANGELES -- Florence and Normandie, April 29, 1992, marked an
essential historical account of why we as a people must unite to
form a revolutionary movement. As chairman of the Los Angeles NOC
Youth Committee, I think our commitment is to strive to help
bridge an ugly gap that has destroyed a mass of people,
particularly Afrikan and Latino youth. Despite the continued
conflict between brothers and sisters, black and brown, there
still remains a force of soldiers fighting for cultural awareness
to spread and a mass of revolutionaries across the country
battling daily to educate our communities on who truly benefits
from our demise. Educating our people on how to dismantle the
oppressive tactics used to divide and conquer is how our mission
can be described.
A significant mission was born from the rebellion. Afrikan and
Latino men and women, young and old, held a similar regard for
each other. Why? Because their struggles were and still remain the
same. The world witnessed rage!!! A rage that had no organizing,
yet a rage legit.
In the past two years, many individuals, organizations, corporate
entities, private industry, and the federal government have
created various interests toward the concept "empowerment." Some
from each pocket have created injustice measures to give to the
people. From the injustice corner, the war on crime made the
criminalization of our youth become a reality that must be
exposed.
"Three strikes and you're out" sprung up from the '92 rebellion.
It has given lawmakers/law enforcement fakers a better chance to
brutalize and incarcerate a generation of our youth/babies. With
much to work against, the black and brown communities across the
nation have been moving to bring peace within the culture and
peace with other ethnic cultures. The work is extensive; the work
is tough. Not everyone will be reached. However, many seeds will
be planted.
The Youth Committee is in the process of holding neighborhood
retreats. Each "set" will conduct a small retreat to talk about
the problems of the communities where they live and make
assessments as to what can be done to curb the problems. Once
various "sets" have had the small retreats, we plan to come
together, select participation and meet in the Dominican Republic.
The concept is to educate the delegation on an unfamiliar turf,
which will enable the participants to visualize what can be done
at home, and how it can be done to maintain a truce by any means
necessary, in addition to knowing who the real enemy is and how to
fight that enemy.
The National Council of Urban Peace and Justice has made progress
in getting the attention of individuals and communities to help
bring peace to the war zones. This is where the work on a
grassroots level must begin. As a group coordinator of the Black
Awareness Community Development Organization, we are working
toward this beginning. A slogan to live by: "Apart we can't do it,
but together we can." The people must unite -- all people! We will
not have social, economic, and psychological victory until the
struggle is waged in solidarity.
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3. WATTS FRIENDSHIP SPORTS LEAGUE SUPPORTS THE TRUCE
By Chris Venn
LOS ANGELES -- On April 27, 1991, the first area where a community
truce between gangs was established was in Watts, California.
Today, this truce remains strong among three housing developments
in Watts -- Imperial Courts, Jordan Downs and Nickerson Gardens.
To prepare for the commemoration of the truce this April, the
People's Tribune will run a series of articles on different
community leaders, their views on the truce, what they're doing
now and what the next step is.
For this issue, the People's Tribune interviewed Shawn Brown and
Daryl Carter, Jordan Downs Community Center coaches.
People's Tribune: Could you tell us about the advancement of the
truce through sports and the Watts Friendship Sports League?
Answer: We are working to bring back Jordan High School. What you
have to realize is that before the '80s, Jordan used to field the
strongest basketball and football teams in the city. But then,
during the '80s, cocaine and all the money from drugs started
flooding into our community. This set the communities of Jordan
Downs, Imperial Courts and Nickerson Gardens against each other
because of killing and warfare over the control of drugs. Youth
from Imperial Courts and Nickerson Gardens avoided coming to
Jordan High because it was located right next to the Jordan Downs
housing development.
PT: What happened to the youth who didn't attend school?
Answer: The youth that stayed in school (and a lot dropped out)
would get bused to schools in the San Fernando Valley (a community
15 miles away from Watts) because they didn't want to attend
Jordan High School. With the Watts Friendship Sports League, we
are getting the young men to settle their differences through
sports. If we can get the youth from the different housing
developments back on the same teams, we'll have the strongest
teams in the city again.
PT: How is the Watts Friendship Sports League advancing the truce?
Answer: With the Watts Friendship League, Imperial Courts, Jordan
Downs and Nickerson Gardens compete against each other in
different sports, particularly basketball, and the youth are
competing on the basketball court instead of the streets. This is
our role in supporting and strengthening the truce.
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4. A GLOBAL ERA DEMANDS WORLD UNITY OF LABOR
By Noel Beasley
CHICAGO -- At the end of the 1800s, a worldwide movement of
workers selected May First as an international holiday. May Day
became an opportunity to demonstrate that the goals of the
dispossessed cut across national, ethnic and religious barriers.
Beginning in 1889, hundreds of thousands -- and later millions --
of workers controlled the streets on May Day and exhibited their
strength through unity.
Those of us in U.S. trade unions now have a renewed responsibility
to mobilize. The fight for the eight-hour day has evolved into the
fight for dignity and basic human rights in a global era.
We can learn from our counterparts in other countries. Especially
in South Africa, Brazil and Chiapas, the most developed political
struggles of the 1990s are infused with support from and guided by
leadership from independent trade unions.
Here at home, busloads of unionists travel to the maquiladoras of
Mexico to assist in organizing drives. Striking coal miners link
up with locked-out factory workers and the unemployed to demand a
political agenda that places the needs of the many ahead of the
wealth of a few.
Inside these and countless other actions, the spirit of May Day
lives on. The clear vision of internationalism will continue to
guide us at the threshold of a new century.
Noel Beasley is the manager of the Midwest Region of the
Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
Order copies of BATTLE FOR A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT today!
Only $1 per copy. Bulk orders of ten or more copies get a 40%
discount.
Contact the National Organizing Committee at P.O. Box 477113,
Chicago, Illinois 60647 or call 312-486-0028.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
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5. DEMONSTRATE IN PEORIA MAY 7: LET'S CROSS BORDERS TO DEFEND THE
CATERPILLAR WORKERS AND OURSELVES
By General Baker
On May 6 and 7, thousands of workers will converge on Peoria,
Illinois to close ranks around the workers in the contract battle
with the Caterpillar tractor company.
The International Metal Workers Federation will convene a world
conference of Caterpillar workers during the first week of May in
Peoria.
In a statement, UAW Secretary-Treasurer Bill Casstevens declared,
"In the struggle to win a fair contract at Caterpillar, we need to
reach across national borders."
"CAT would like to force workers in different countries to compete
with one another to see who will work for the lowest wage,"
continued Casstevens. "While the company is hard at work trying to
divide people, we're going to unite workers from different
countries to discuss common problems, plan common strategies and
work towards common solutions."
In the context of the battle against Caterpillar, it is important
to note that Illinois has become a war zone. The workers at the
A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company are also locked in a bitter
struggle; they have been locked out since June 27, 1993. The
Teamsters are in the midst of a national truckers strike as we
head to Peoria.
We rallied once before in Peoria, in the spring of 1992. At that
time, the Caterpillar workers were on the picket lines. We read
declarations of solidarity and raised over a million dollars in
support pledges. We raised the stakes in the battle but so did the
company. Caterpillar broke the back of the strike by using the
weight of the unemployed and unorganized workers in Illinois and
the Midwest.
So, as we rally this May, let us knock on the doors of the
homeless shelters. Let us ring the doorbells in the projects. Let
us appeal to our youth in the streets. Let us send messages about
Caterpillar to the gates of the prisons. Let us rally the women
workers, those who find themselves on welfare, being pushed into
the streets in the name of reform. Let us sound the bell loudly
and clearly. As we cross national borders and invite workers from
Australia, Belgium, France, Brazil and South Africa to Peoria, let
us cross the borders in our own neighborhoods, cities and states
to unite as a class and break our defensive posture.
On to Peoria!
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6. TEAMSTERS STRIKE: HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY
By Anthony D. Prince
CHICAGO -- As we go to press, over 70,000 Teamsters remain on
strike against 22 major trucking companies nationwide. The walkout
has met with outright defiance from the trucking industry over the
issue of part-time truckers hired at "slave labor" wages.
In a concentrated way, this strike poses the questions facing all
of organized labor.
At one time, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters registered
over two million members; even the threat of a national strike
crippled commerce. The employer class therefore secured a long, if
temporary, peace with the union. In turn, Teamsters enjoyed some
of the highest wages in industry and a privileged place in
national politics.
Now all that has changed. This strike cannot be considered apart
from the impact advanced electronic technology has had on all
industries, including the transportation industry. Millions of
workers, once the bedrock of American capitalism, have become
permanently unemployed. Most are barely surviving. Millions have
been forced into the slave-wage existence of the temporary worker.
Some of the most far-reaching, labor-replacing changes in
production have been concentrated in the steel, auto, machine-tool
and other industries. At one time, these industries -- and the
millions of people they employed -- stabilized the capitalist
system. That is no longer true. The workers in these industries
now find themselves under attack. Consequently, the Teamsters find
it necessary not just to defend their own interests, but also to
raise the whole issue of the plight of the temporary workers and
those on the bottom.
The Teamsters strike represents a historic opportunity for all of
labor -- employed and unemployed, temporary and permanent, union
and non-union. The strike provides an opportunity to unify the
struggle in a way that could not have occurred in the past. We
dare not pass it up.
[People's Tribune correspondent Anthony D. Prince was a chief shop
steward in Teamsters Local 986 in the late 1970s.]
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7. "JOBS WITH JUSTICE" MEETS IN ATLANTA
By Eileen Hanson
The national "Jobs with Justice" convention will grapple with
serious issues when it meets in Atlanta April 29-May 1. Three
million manufacturing jobs have been lost since 1980. Part-time
and temporary jobs offer minimum wages and no benefits. Welfare
lines grow. Homeless shelters can't house the growing numbers of
displaced families.
Born out of the battles against concessions in the 1980s, Jobs
with Justice must confront the issue of permanent unemployment
created by the electronic revolution.
In the early 1900s, changes in agricultural production threw
millions of farmers off the land and into the cities where
manufacturing jobs attracted displaced workers. In the later
stages of the Industrial Revolution, the Congress of Industrial
Organizations was born. Workers fought to defend their class
interests against the owners of mass production industries and
their political allies.
In the 1930s, the labor unions were in the forefront of the battle
for a social contract with the capitalists that included Social
Security for the aged, unemployment insurance, compensation for
injured workers, and welfare and public housing for the poorest
sectors of the working class. Organized labor not only supported,
but led these battles.
Today, a new economic revolution -- the electronic revolution --
continues to throw millions of workers out of the factories and
into the streets. The old social contract of the industrial era is
breaking up. The old organizations, including many unions, are
fighting on a narrow front, trying to hang on to their own piece
of a shrinking pie.
While lip service is paid to "building coalitions," it is too
often only to support a specific interest of unions or a labor-
endorsed candidate. Too often, these struggles pit the still-
employed against the unemployed, while corporations profit from
these divisions.
Today, organized labor must fight for the interests of the entire
working class. Central to this fight is the struggle for jobs with
a livable income. Labor must fight in defense of those permanently
thrown out of the wage-labor system. This includes the battles of
the homeless, the temporary workers, the welfare mothers, the
injured workers.
Jobs with Justice provides an excellent forum to launch this
fight. We need new forms of organization to fight for our class
interests, to fight for a new social contract, to fight to take
control of this new technology and make it work for us!
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8. LABOR ON THE LINE: LABOR NEEDS SOLIDARITY, NOT THE BOGUS "TEAM
CONCEPT"
By Bruce E. Parry, Ph.D.
[Editor's note: With this May Day issue, the National Labor Union
Committee of the NOC launches a monthly column called "Labor On
the Line." We will discuss critical topics facing unions today and
welcome comments and responses. If you have suggestions for topics
or would like to contribute a column, contact the Labor
Correspondent, c/o the People's Tribune.]
"The Team Concept." "Quality Circles." "Quality of Work Life."
"Labor-Management Participation Teams." These are all programs set
up by management to make workers figure out how to get more work
done in less time with fewer workers.
The Team Concept has been sold to workers on the basis that it
supposedly promotes competitiveness and cooperation. If the
employed workers participate and make their plant the most
competitive, management says, they will save their jobs. The days
of management-labor conflict are over, management claims; we're
all on the same team now.
Look at what has happened during the time that management has been
pushing the Team Concept. Companies have downsized, replacing
workers with robots, computers and other new, high technology
based in electronics.
Hundreds of thousands have been laid off in the very industries
where the Team Concept has been pushed the most. Employment in the
auto industry is half what it was in 1980, while more cars are
being produced now than ever before. American Telephone &
Telegraph Co. alone has laid off 120,000 workers over the last 10
years.
Millions have been thrown out of work. Millions more have had
their jobs gutted -- reduced from full-time to part-time, from
permanent to temporary. With tens of millions of people unemployed
and under-employed, companies have ruthlessly slashed the wages of
those still working.
The Team Concept is just one tool companies use to carry that
wage-slashing out. Workers are made to participate in getting the
maximum amount of work out of themselves and even in laying off
other workers. Management gets workers to exploit themselves. But
the workers do not own the company. The profits go into the
pockets of the owners. There's no cooperation on that point.
Competitiveness does not depend solely (or even mainly) on
workers. It depends on how efficient a plant is. Efficiency
depends on having the latest equipment and the best organization
of production. Only then does the intensity of work play a part.
The Team Concept is part of ensuring a high intensity of work.
Plants close and companies downsize if what they produce is not
being sold. Today, the market is shrinking because of all the lay-
offs, because it is profitable to replace workers with robots and
computers. The problem is computers cannot buy what is produced.
The Team Concept does not prevent lay-offs and plant closings. It
is a management tool to place the blame on workers and get them to
work more for less pay. Instead of backing the Team Concept,
workers' interests lie in unity, as expressed in the age-old
slogan, "An injury to one is an injury to all."
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9. CHA TENANT LEADER ETHEL WASHINGTON: CHA SWEEPS COVER UP CHA
NEGLECT OF TENANTS
By Rich Capalbo
CHICAGO -- Ethel Washington is the local advisory council
president in one of the high-rise units in the Chicago Housing
Authority's Robert Taylor Homes. She is one of four people who
joined a lawsuit against the unconstitutional "sweeps" --
warrantless searches -- that CHA Chairman Vince Lane has carried
out against the residents for several years.
Ms. Washington is a long-time resident and leader in the fight for
tenants' rights in the CHA. She served as a resident manager from
1976 until 1981, when the Reagan cuts undermined tenant
management. Many tenant managers were hired by the CHA at that
time, but Ethel Washington was not. The CHA no longer wanted
managers who looked out for the tenants' interests.
We talked to Ms. Washington the day after Henry Cisneros,
secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development,
spent a night in Robert Taylor Homes, scene of some recent gang
shootings.
The Cisneros "show" was staged to make a point. Since a federal
judge had just ruled the sweeps illegal and unconstitutional,
President Clinton vowed to do everything in his power to continue
to violate the tenants' rights. That was the message Cisneros came
to deliver.
Ms. Washington asked, "Do you know that Cisneros spent the night
right here and didn't even want to talk to me about any of the
problems in CHA, let alone the sweeps? They met only with the
residents that agreed with them, the ones hand-picked by Vince
Lane."
Further, Ms. Washington told us that the sweeps are a two-faced
cover-up of the neglect of public housing. The CHA has the right
to do yearly inspections in order to check the general condition
of the apartments, to see what needs repairing and to check out
the appliances. They don't have the budget to do that anymore, but
they can find all kinds of money to stage paramilitary assaults on
the residents.
"During the sweeps," she said, "they lock you in, they give no
notice. They are violating their own policy and breaking the law,"
she said. "Vince Lane says he will continue to break the law --
that he is above the law."
Ms. Washington continued, "If you or I tried to pull something
like that, we'd be behind bars for contempt of court."
Ms. Washington believes that Cisneros probably didn't want to
discuss these issues, which explains why she wasn't invited to
meet him. In fact, she says that Cisneros was here not only to
front for Clinton, but to save Vince Lane's job.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
GIVE UP YOUR RIGHTS OR LIVE ON THE STREET? NO!
By Allen Harris
CHICAGO -- Unannounced warrantless sweeps of CHA apartments have
been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. But the judge left
open another door: ask the tenants for their consent to be raided.
That's just the idea President Clinton and CHA Chairman Vince Lane
have seized. Lane even wants such consent to be a condition for
getting public housing. "If you don't like it, you don't live
here," Lane was quoted as saying in the Chicago Tribune on April
15.
For poor people, this is the bottom line, as described in the same
article by Loyola University Law School professor James Carey:
"You're going to live on the street unless you agree to give up
your right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures."
What the CHA and the Clinton administration are trying to do with
these "sweeps" is a direct threat not only to the rights of
Chicago's public housing residents, but to the rights of all the
75 million Americans in poverty.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
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10. VINCE LANE MUST GO!
By the People's Campaign for Housing, Jobs and Food
CHICAGO -- Vince Lane has been the director of the Chicago Housing
Authority for years. In that time, public housing has deteriorated
to the point where it must be considered a failure by all.
Besides the national funding cuts of the 1980s, the disastrous
economy of recent years, and the general neglect of the country's
urban centers, we must hold accountable those who have accepted
positions of public trust.
Vince Lane has violated the public trust, as is reflected in the
following call from a growing number of CHA residents.
Dear Mr. Lane:
There are many things that are totally wrong in CHA developments
due to the fact that its management is far out of touch with the
residents.
To those of us who are poor and live in CHA, it is clear that you
are more concerned with your high profile projects, rich
developers and pet schemes than with our well-being and living
conditions. You have robbed us residents of many resources and
human rights.
Those resources that could go towards improving our apartments:
paint, plaster, doors, appliances and even our recreation areas,
go lacking.
Meanwhile, the budget pays for high-priced management, CHA
"security," and a staff that, in many cases, degrades and insults
the residents.
Good managers who care about the tenants are forced out, as in the
case of Victor Hernandez at Lathrop Homes.
We have become victims of CHA, not tenants. You move us against
our will. Your management has left our children without a decent
home and you have disrespected our seniors.
You have created a security force that is like your own private
police. They have abused the rights of residents with illegal
searches and other humiliating actions. The courts have had to
step in to set you straight. Some of your "security" are involved
in the illegal activities that they are supposed to prevent.
How can one man have this much control over so many and yet refuse
to listen to the residents?
We realize that we are low-income families, but we are human
people with vision and dreams of how to better conditions. Most
residents of CHA are praying people, for we have to pray to really
keep things from getting any worse. We do not mind being poor.
(Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.) But
being poor doesn't mean we are willing to submit to abuses in any
form or from any person, no matter what their high position is.
Therefore, we are asking all CHA residents who are dissatisfied
with the conditions in CHA and the lack of basic human
consideration from CHA management to join us in the following
demands:
1. Vince Lane and his entire staff get out of the Chicago
Housing Authority.
2. CHA residents must be on the board of CHA.
3. CHA management must live in CHA.
4. CHA jobs to CHA residents.
5. Real security for residents, not for property.
6. HUD must suspend funding to force the correction of the
injustices and abuses in CHA.
7. More access for the homeless.
Please call us if you wish to join this fight for the residents of
CHA. We want to hear your demands as well as stories of life in
CHA. Call the People's Campaign for Housing, Jobs and Food at 312-
929-2977.
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11. PRESIDENT CLINTON WANTS TO SET ASIDE CONSTITUTION FOR PUBLIC
HOUSING RESIDENTS
By the Chicago-Northwest Indiana Area Council Of The NOC
CHICAGO-- The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) has for years used
the excuse of gang violence and the war on drugs to send gangs of
cops and CHA security guards into the projects.
While looking for drugs, guns and criminals, they have disregarded
the constitutional rights of all residents, the majority of whom
are guilty only of being poor.
They enter all apartments without warrants and without cause. The
sweeps, coupled with the neglect by the Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) and the local housing authorities, have
reconfirmed for the residents what they have known for decades.
They are considered second-class citizens because they are poor
and should expect to be treated no better than criminals. In fact,
public housing has become just another kind of prison.
On April 7, a federal judge in Chicago ruled that warrantless
searches during the "security sweeps" are unconstitutional, an
invasion of privacy and must be stopped. Almost immediately,
President Clinton called upon Attorney General Janet Reno and HUD
Secretary Henry Cisneros to find a way to continue to disregard
the rights of citizens in public housing and resume the policy of
sweeps.
The local news in Chicago makes a point of interviewing only those
residents who support the sweeps. When Cisneros came to Chicago
recently to help Clinton find a way around the Constitution, he
tried to meet only with residents that support the sweeps.
The leaders against the sweeps maintain that if the residents had
half the resources to use for their children -- resources that
HUD, CHA and the police are willing to spend on invading the
projects -- they could make CHA much safer.
******************************************************************
12. LEADERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST CHA SWEEPS
Pat Zamora, youth program coordinator, Casa Aztlan, Chicago:
"In the Pilsen district of Chicago last year, 427 people were
arrested during 'sweeps' at Fiesta del Sol. People were unjustly
beaten and abused. Children were lined up like cattle with numbers
drawn on them. This was done under the name of protecting the
community against gang-banging during the festival. The community
rallied against this injustice.
"Pilsen, Robert Taylor Homes -- the neighborhoods are different
but the injustice is the same. If they can get away with it in one
community, then they try it in the next. We must do everything to
unite -- common problems caused by a common enemy."
Bob Brown, vice president of the United Electrical Workers Union
and president of UE District 1 in Philadelphia:
"Warrantless searches and other new control measures conducted by
the police at public housing projects are a first-blow attack in
violation of our constitutional rights and freedoms. Increasingly,
our working class is having its living standards reduced, at best,
and, at worse, finding itself impoverished by permanent
unemployment. Those that our government cannot provide the basic
necessities for it must attack.
"The first attack is against the most vulnerable and unorganized
section of the working class in order to attack our entire class.
The labor union movement must organize and rally its members
against these illegal attacks and violations of our Constitution
or the labor unions will be next."
Faith Evans, welfare rights director of the National Organization
for Women, Washington, D.C.:
"For years, the police have always been a hostile occupation force
in black communities and the leaders of all of the progressive
forces in this nation used to be very strong on the question of
rights, be they rights about blacks being harassed by the police
in their own community or poor people ... and their demand to be
treated with the same dignity as any other citizen under the
Constitution. But somehow, the civil rights community and the
leaders in the struggle for 'rights' seem to now believe that if
you happen to be poor, you just aren't entitled to the same rights
as everybody else.
"I personally believe that the decision [to sweep the housing
projects] is part of an effort to terrorize poor women, along with
other efforts to force them out of public housing, off the welfare
system, control their reproductive decisions, and make them the
scapegoats for the crime in our streets and the growing economic
problems of poverty and unemployment in this nation."
******************************************************************
13. DEATH PENALTY A WEAPON OF OPPRESSION, SAYS SOUTH AFRICAN POET
By R. Lee
CHICAGO -- When Dennis Brutus talks about political oppression, he
knows what he's talking about. The well-known South African poet
and human rights activist was imprisoned for years in South Africa
for opposing apartheid, was shot while trying to escape, and has
lived in exile from his homeland for nearly 30 years.
Brutus, now a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, spoke in
late March here at The Hothouse at a benefit for the Illinois
Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
Professor Brutus noted that, although there are 257 people on
Death Row in South Africa, the death penalty in South Africa has
been suspended for some time. "In that regard, South Africa is
ahead of the U.S.," he said. It's possible the sentences of those
now on Death Row may be commuted, he added.
Many of those sentenced to death in South Africa were condemned to
die for political reasons, said Brutus. "I used to go out at night
[in South Africa] and spray-paint slogans on the monuments to
apartheid. At that time, you could be executed for painting
slogans," he recalled.
And in the United States, said Brutus, "We're in big trouble." He
noted that Congress is considering legislation that would allow
young teenagers to be executed, and that the fastest-growing
industry in Pennsylvania is prison building. "We have people who
are without a future, without training, people who are desperate,"
he said. "The solution is not jailing and killing more people; we
have to talk about jobs and homes."
When the South African government was executing people, they were
hanged in Pretoria, said Brutus, all on the same gallows and with
the same noose. Over the years, he said, "The wood [of the
gallows] has become encrusted with vomit, blood and urine; it's a
monstrous image of what the death penalty is all about."
Seth Donnelly, executive director of the Illinois Coalition
Against the Death Penalty, told the audience that there are 158
people on Death Row in Illinois, 63 percent of them black. While
there has been only one execution in the state since 1977, said
Donnelly, the scheduled May 10 execution of John Wayne Gacy will
"set the stage for more executions, since most people won't
support him." Gacy was convicted of mass murder. The Coalition
plans a day of protest against the death penalty May 7, beginning
in front of Cook County Jail. Donnelly also said the crime bill
now before Congress represents "the largest expansion of the death
penalty in U.S. history."
******************************************************************
14. LETTER: I CANNOT GO ON STRIKE, NOR CAN I UNIONIZE
Dear People's Tribune:
I cannot go on strike, nor can I unionize. I am not covered by
worker's compensation or the Fair Labor Standards Act.
I agree to work late-night and weekend shifts. I do just what I am
told, no matter what it is. I am hired and fired at will and am
not even paid minimum wage; I earn one dollar a month. I cannot
even voice grievances or complaints, except at the risk of
incurring arbitrary discipline or some covert retaliation.
You do not have to and need not worry about NAFTA and your jobs
going to Mexico and other Third World countries. I will have at
least five percent of your jobs by the end of this decade. I am
called prison labor.
In the struggle,
Michael Lamar Powell, prisoner
******************************************************************
15. LETTER TO PRESIDENT ARISTIDE:
Dear President Aristide,
Congratulations for receiving the Paul Robeson Award, in
recognition of your struggle for human rights in Haiti, and for
the dignity of the Haitian people.
Long live Haiti!
Franck Laraque, former professor at the City College of New York
Paul Laraque, former secretary-general of the Association of
Haitian Writers Abroad
Congratulations to President Aristide, who has continued to
represent the poor people of the world in their struggle for
liberty from economic, social and political oppression.
Jack Hirschman
******************************************************************
16. EVENTS: ANDREA GIBBS TOUR
A whistleblower and former sheriff's deputy, fired for exposing
police beatings in Mississippi jails, Andrea Gibbs continues the
fight for justice.
"I've seen kids of all nationalities beaten: black, white, from
all over the world. ... It's a class thing. ... It's the poor who
bear the brunt of police terror." (Andrea Gibbs, founder of
Victim's Voice)
Andrea Gibbs will appear at the following locations during her
tour:
Wednesday, May 4 -- 6 p.m. reception, program starts at 7 p.m. San
Francisco chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. Contact Kass
McMahon at 415-285-5067.
Friday, May 6 -- 7-9 p.m. UC campus groups. Boalt Hall, Room 150.
Contact Dennis Mobley or Sam Davis at Copwatch, 510-548-0425.
Saturday, May 7 -- 10 a.m. Oakland NOC Criminal Injustice
Committee, Mothers ROC. Contact Betty McCullough at 510-562-4967.
Saturday, May 7 -- 1 p.m. First Unitarian Church, 160 N. 3rd St.,
San Jose. Contact Peggy Elwell at 408-294-4892.
Sunday, May 8 -- 4-6 p.m. San Francisco National Organizing
Committee, 509 Cultural Center, Luggage Store Annex, 1007 Market
St. near 6th. Contact Sarah Menefee at 415-885-6344.
These events are sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild, the
People's Tribune Justice Tour, Copwatch and the National
Organizing Committee and others.
******************************************************************
17. 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: National Organizing Committee, P.O. Box 477113,
Chicago, IL 60647 (312) 486-0028
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