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People's Tribune (Online Edition)
Vol. 21 No. 20 / May 16, 1994
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
Email:
[email protected]
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LAYOFFS: 17 MILLION MORE IN '94
WE DON'T HAVE TO TAKE THIS!
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| From the millions of the hungry and the working poor, new |
| leaders must step forward to map out a strategy to win |
| economic security for all. |
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"17 million more can expect pink slips in the course of 1994."
(Newsweek, March 14, 1994).
That's more than all the people who live within the cities of Los
Angeles, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia and
Oakland, California -- combined!
Add to that the 25 million people already unemployed. Then add 34
million people who don't receive a steady paycheck, like temporary
and part-time workers. That's 76 million hard-luck cases -- too
mind-boggling to imagine! Is it any wonder that millions of kids
now go to bed hungry?
Laying off (downsizing) is good for business, though. While
employment at America's 500 largest companies fell for the ninth
straight year, these companies brought in $62.6 billion in profits
for 1993.
One of the rich people raking in some of this dough is Malcolm
Forbes Jr. He calls this process of replacing workers with
technology "creative destruction." In other words, the hardships
and misery of 76 million people and their families creates more
money for him! And that's all that matters?
It is criminal for our government to let leeches like Forbes drain
all the money from our economy while our children have become our
neediest citizens.
Do we have to take it? No, we do not! Seventy-six million is
enough people to raise quite an uproar. We have to have economic
security. With these numbers, we've got the muscle to demand it.
For such a battle, great numbers of people are important, but not
enough. Our government is organized to protect the wealth and
privileges of a small slice of our population. We must be
organized, too. New leaders must step forward from the 76 million
to make plans and map out a strategy to win economic security for
all.
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INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition)
Vol. 21 No. 20 / May 16, 1994
Editorial
1. WHO WAS RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON?
News
2. NAFTA'S BRUTAL AFTERMATH: SONY WORKERS IN MEXICO ATTACKED
3. NATL COAL. FOR THE HOMELESS CONVENTION: 'A NATIONAL TRAGEDY'
4. SAN FRANCISCO POLICE LOCK DOWN PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS
5. INDIGENOUS VOICES: COMM'TY EMPOWERMENT: FIGHTING RACISM
6. S. AFRICA ELECTION VICTORY: PRELUDE TO REVOLUTIONARY UPSURGE
Columns and features
7. DEADLY FORCE: HEROIC PEOPLE STAND UP TO BRUTAL COPS, LAWS
8. ONE MAN'S STORY: JUSTICE SYSTEM PREYS ON POOR
9. 300 ATTEND CONFERENCE ON FUTURE OF INFO-HIGHWAY
Culture
10. THE ICE OPINION ON RAP, CENSORSHIP, THE FUTURE
Letters
11. CALIFORNIA PRISONER CONFRONTS HARASSMENT
12. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE
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Correction: In Volume 21, Number 19 of the People's Tribune, we
omitted the name of the author of the poem "Up From Slavery." The
poem was written by Michael D. Gilvens of Atlanta. We regret the
error.
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1. EDITORIAL: WHO WAS RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON?
Richard Milhous Nixon is gone, leaving behind a grateful
ruling class and a world ravaged by the power he wielded.
The Establishment lined up to pay tribute. Nixon went to Peking;
Nixon went to Moscow; Nixon was a great elder statesman, said the
Establishment.
Nixon spent his last 20 years sweetening his putrid record as the
faithful servant of monopoly capital and the sworn enemy of
national liberation everywhere. It was not for nothing that the
super-rich who backed his career poured at least $60 million into
his criminal 1972 re-election campaign.
His signature is on the repression of the entire progressive
movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He widened, worsened and
lengthened the Indochina War by four years before finally agreeing
to withdraw U.S. combat troops in 1973. He favored strict
enforcement of the Constitution against the nation's most
disfavored -- but no enforcement of it against himself.
As for Watergate, well, that was just an unfortunate political
episode for which he paid by resigning his office -- ten months
after the resignation of his bribe-taking vice president, Spiro
Agnew. Richard Nixon was the self-pardoning criminality of the
ruling class exalted to the highest office under a Constitution he
held in contempt.
For us today, his life -- and death -- is a lesson in how the
ruling class treats criminality -- the criminality of greed and
"criminality" of need.
At the same time that Congressional leaders were offering to let
Nixon's body lie in state in the Capitol rotunda, the House of
Representatives passed a crime bill. This bill represents an
attack on the rising class of people who are forced to violate
laws protecting big private property in the name of a higher law
which puts food, homes and clothing first. The crime bill is full
of the spirit of Richard Nixon.
So is President Clinton's ominous order to his administration to
seek ways around the Constitution to impose police power on the
worst-off of the permanently unemployed living in parts of
Chicago. Bill Clinton and the ruling class may have helped bury
Nixon's body, but his ghost still sits with them.
We owe it to our own revolutionary heroes who fell fighting Nixon
and his class to continue the struggle by uniting and organizing
today's revolutionaries to win power and end poverty and
inequality forever.
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2. NAFTA'S BRUTAL AFTERMATH: SONY WORKERS IN MEXICO ATTACKED BY
POLICE DURING PROTEST AT PLANT GATES
[Editor's note: The following report is based on information
released by the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras and the
AFL-CIO's Department of Information.]
On April 16, 250 workers at Sony Corporation's maquiladora
facility in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico were attacked by
police while demonstrating peacefully in front of the plant. The
workers, mainly women, were protesting Sony's attempt to conduct
fraudulent union elections.
Worker dissatisfaction at the plant has been rising since last
January, when the company discharged six union delegates who
opposed anti-democratic union tendencies and a new work schedule
with a six-day week, including work on Saturdays and Sundays.
Women workers throughout Sony's operations objected to the new
schedule because it eliminated time which they needed to attend
religious services and spend with their families.
On April 14, at 11 p.m., Sony's hand-picked union representatives
announced that there would be an election for union delegates the
following day at 7 a.m.
At 7 a.m., the company's designated union representatives
conducted the "election," telling workers to line up on two sides
of the plant according to which slate they preferred. Union
officials pressured workers to support the company slate.
On April 16, workers organized a non-violent protest in front of
the plant gates, demanding new, fair, secret ballot elections. At
noon, Nuevo Laredo Mayor Horacio Garza called in the police. Forty
police officers wearing riot gear descended upon the workers,
beating them with billy clubs. Dozens received blows. One young
man was admitted to a local hospital with head injuries.
As of April 18, the situation remained extremely tense.
The situation is being monitored by the American Friends Service
Committee, the AFL-CIO and the Coalition for Justice in the
Maquiladoras. A formal complaint may be lodged against Sony before
the National Administrative Office, the body set up by the U.S.
Labor Department to implement NAFTA's side agreement on labor.
"When the administration was pressuring Congress to pass the North
American Free Trade Agreement, the American people were promised
that workers' rights would be respected," said Ed Fiegen of AFL-
CIO Organizing and Field Services. "When this case reaches the
NAO, the American people will find out whether the administration
is willing to stop corporations that intend to use NAFTA as a tool
for dragging down wages and violating workers' rights."
For more information, contact the Coalition for Justice in the
Maquiladoras, 3120 W. Ashby, San Antonio, Texas 78228. The
coalition's phone number is 210-732-8957.
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE MEXICAN SONY WORKERS' STRUGGLE
The Sony Corporation has dealt swiftly and mercilessly with its
workers demanding fair union elections in Nuevo Laredo,
Tamaulipas, Mexico.
Here is a chronology of the events since the assault on Sony
workers April 16:
April 17: About 150 workers continued to protest outside the plant
with little interference from the company.
April 18: About 300 workers blocked the entrances to six of Sony's
seven plants in Nuevo Laredo. During a company attempt to break
the blockade with several busloads of workers, the blockading
workers remained in front of the gates and the busses did not get
through.
April 19: At about 5 a.m., the state police stormed the position
held by over 100 workers remaining in front of the plant and
forced them to evacuate that position. While the majority of
striking workers did not return to work, the factories resumed
production.
April 20: The local newspaper published a list of 36 workers named
in a claim the company made for huge losses it says it suffered as
a result of the plant shutdown on April 18. There have been
suggestions of prison sentences for these workers along with
financial liabilities. All workers returned to work.
As of April 25, workers reported harassment in the plant. This has
included demotions and firings of union activists.
The workers' main demand that the company hold new union elections
has not been met. Sony maintains the Saturday and Sunday work
schedule which workers oppose because it makes it impossible for
them to attend religious services and spend time with their
families.
Your support is needed. We urge you to immediately fax the
officials listed below and demand that Sony support a new, fair,
secret ballot election; rehire the fired workers; and end the six-
day work schedule.
Send faxes to:
Carl Yankowski, president, Sony Electronics (Fax 201-930-7202);
Michael Schulhof, president, Sony of America, (Fax 212-755-8548);
Akiro Morita, chairman of the board of Sony Corporation, (Fax 011-
8135-448-5376.)
Thank you for your solidarity with our sisters and brothers who
work at Sony's maquiladoras in Nuevo Laredo.
Ed Feigen, AFL-CIO
Phoebe McKinney, American Friends Service Committee
Susan Mika, Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras
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WRITE TO SONY!
[Editor's note: Below we print the text of a sample letter which
the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras urges concerned
people to send to the Sony Corporation to protest its attacks on
workers in Mexico.]
Mr. Carl Yankowski, President
Sony Electronics
One Sony Drive
Park Ridge, New Jersey 07656-8003
FAX 201-930-7202
Dear Mr. Yankowski:
I am writing to express concern regarding violations of workers'
rights at Sony's Magneticos de Mexico facilities in Nuevo Laredo,
Tamaulipas, Mexico.
I have received reports that on Saturday, April 16, 250 workers at
your plant were attacked by police while conducting a peaceful
demonstration. The workers, mostly women, were protesting Sony's
attempt to conduct fraudulent union elections aimed at choosing
union delegates who support company policies.
Workers have complained that last January Sony discharged or
demoted six union delegates who opposed a new work schedule which
Sony implemented that requires a six-day work week, including work
on Saturdays and Sundays. I understand that women workers
throughout your Nuevo Laredo operations object to the new schedule
because it eliminates time which they need to attend religious
services and be with their families.
On Friday, April 15, 1994, Sony clearly conspired to fraudulently
elect hand-picked union delegates who would represent your
company's interests instead of the interests of the workers. I
urge you to:
(1) Move quickly to rectify this situation by supporting a new,
fair, secret ballot election, monitored by independent observers;
(2) Rehire workers who have been unjustly fired for supporting
democratic union representation and desist with threats and
reprisals against union activists;
(3) Eliminate the recently established six-day work schedule which
requires employees to work Saturdays and Sundays.
I trust you will move promptly to address these concerns.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
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3. NATIONAL COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS CONVENTION: 'A NATIONAL
TRAGEDY'
"I told the convention that we were not going to be quiet
anymore."
By Ronald Casanova,
Organizational Director and Editor for the National Union of the
Homeless
MINNEAPOLIS -- Most of the three days of the National Coalition
for the Homeless convention was spent patting the so-called
leaders of the National Coalition on the back -- not organizing.
The only good thing about the convention was the coming together
of the infantry -- the people in the trenches doing the work these
so-called leaders are taking credit for.
The truth is the convention was really for the service providers.
There were some good service providers there, but they were mixed
in with the same old poverty pimps. I had the unfortunate chance
to meet these poverty pimps during the Housing Now march to
Washington D.C. in 1989.
The people in the leadership of the National Coalition for the
Homeless, Housing Now and the Committee for Creative Non-Violence
are the same people who promised the homeless people who made that
long march from New York City to Washington D.C. that they would
provide good food and clothing and a mobile medical team. They
kept none of their promises! Homeless people wore holes in their
shoes and in their feet. Five women had miscarriages. There was
not enough food. Marchers were given garbage bags to wear as they
marched through the pouring rains of Hurricane Andrew. When they
arrived in Washington, D.C. they were packed into a filthy shelter
with rats running freely about.
At this convention, just like the Housing Now march, homeless
people were brought in and used as tokens. But Up and Out of
Poverty Now! and the Union of the Homeless became more alive with
every person who signed our mailing list and asked to get
involved. So, I began to feel enthusiasm for the upcoming panel on
"Civil Rights and the Homeless."
At that workshop, I quoted from Malcolm X, "There can be no civil
rights without human rights." As others got their chance to talk,
you felt the mood change. People were saying it's time for a
revolution. Earl Rose of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
said, "We're tired of the way things are going and we're not going
to take any more!"
On the last day we got a chance to hear Jonathan Kozol, author of
the book Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America. He
reminded me of the many people in the struggle who are not
homeless, but join us in the fight against poverty. There were
others at the convention who really care -- some of the providers,
the students from Empty the Shelters, and the People's Campaign
for Jobs, Housing and Food in Chicago (a group of ex-homeless
people getting housing for the homeless).
Unfortunately, on that same day, James Howard Kunstler spoke
during lunch. His main purpose was to bash the homeless, poor
mothers and people in poverty. He said it was our own fault! Why
was he allowed to speak?! A lot of people walked out. This lunch
was a slap in the face not only to the poor but to the people who
really care.
Finally, on this last day, Up and Out of Poverty Now! and the
Union of the Homeless shouted down the poverty pimps. I told the
convention that we were not going to be quiet anymore and we
refuse to sit back as long as people abuse their position and try
to make the poor believe that they are God's gift to the homeless.
We will be and we are taking the leadership to save our lives. The
reason we shout so loud and do housing "takeovers" is because of
the oppression of the poor and homeless throughout the world.
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UP & OUT OF POVERTY NOW! UPSTAGES POVERTY PIMPS AT NATIONAL
CONFERENCE
By Mark Thisius,
Up & Out of Poverty Now!
MINNEAPOLIS -- Poor and homeless people were organized by Up & Out
of Poverty Now! to attend a National Conference of the National
Coalition for the Homeless April 21-23. Our delegation dominated
much of the conference by asserting our rights to equal
participation in leading the movement to end homelessness.
Ron Casanova of the National Union of the Homeless dominated his
panel on the discussion of civil rights and the homeless. He
declared, "We will lead ourselves in our struggle to fight
discrimination and end homelessness." Birgid Williams of the
Minneapolis/St. Paul Up & Out of Poverty Now! startled service
providers, stating: "We know firsthand what homelessness is all
about and we don't need you to profit from our misery, we can
fight for ourselves."
More than 750 people attended the conference with the vast
majority coming from social service agencies. Many of the
providers that came were impressed by the level of organization in
our movement both locally and nationally. Clearly, many of the
professional advocates at the conference agreed with us that the
poor and homeless can and must lead their own struggle to end the
injustice of poverty and homelessness.
There was, also, a great deal of interest in our call for a second
national "Break the Media Blackout" summit planned tentatively for
November of this year.
Throughout the conference, our voices were heard as we not only
demanded leadership, we took it! We will no longer serve as tokens
to those who profit from our misery. We will lead ourselves in our
battle for justice and housing!
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4. SAN FRANCISCO POLICE LOCK DOWN PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS
by Jack Hirschman
SAN FRANCISCO -- Most of us have heard of prison lockdowns, when
authorities close off access of inmates either to facilities or
the open yards.
Well, following the lead of the U.S. government by way of stepping
up the criminalization of the poor, San Francisco police have
actually created a police lockdown of the public housing
development known as Alice Griffith, which is located in the
Double Rock section of the Bayview-Hunter's Point district, near
Candlestick Park.
Twenty-one police officers on January 21 barricaded the two
entrances to the development. Most of the tenants are African
Americans. Anyone wanting to enter the projects has had to show
official identification and be checked to see if he or she is a
leaseholder.
Police Captain Rick (The Stick) Holder, and the San Francisco
Housing Authority's acting director, Michael Patrick Kelly, have
been leading these military and unconstitutional attacks in San
Francisco developments. Using the excuse of drugs, the police at
the Alice Griffith Project have instituted "roving patrols."
"They will roam the development arresting suspected drug users,
graffiti artists, pet owners, the pets, and freely busting open
apartment doors, without warrants," said Louise Vaughn in the New
Bayview, a local newspaper which, learning that the police will
periodically lock down the projects on weekends, has soundly
attacked the actions, calling their maneuvers "fascist-type
military repression."
Vaughn noted, after Kelly stated that the cops were "being paid
from $1.9 million in HUD Comprehensive Grant Funds," that "the
truth of the matter is that the $1.9 million has been nearly used
up, and the public attack on Alice Griffith is an attempt to
generate more millions of dollars for Housing and the police to
squander."
Meanwhile, it's the ordinary citizen that's suffering. Some have
said that their hopes are being turned into a concentration camp.
One resident said that, "All we need now is the little watchtower
with the guy with the gun."
The police action is part of the mayor of San Francisco's Matrix
program, which commenced in the Tenderloin among the homeless and
now has extended to the city's 44 projects.
That's why Mayor Frank Jordan's expression -- "quality of life" --
is leaving such a bitter taste in the mouth of San Francisco's
poor.
They know that "quality of life" means: more cops, more jail-time,
and now more lockdowns of living spaces themselves.
Children have become criminal suspects in simply trying to get
into their own home and playground!
Not merely the "last hired and the first fired," African Americans
who are poor are among the first to feel the brunt of Clinton's
fascist police, by way of local lackey Jordan and his cops.
And it has to be stopped, here and in other areas where the
genocidal police forces are at work with their mandates of terror
and social destruction.
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INDIGENOUS VOICES / VOCES INDIGINAS
Visions of America's Native People
A national organizing committee in defense of human, land and
spiritual rights of the indigenous people of the Western
Hemisphere. In unity with all struggles for survival of the poor
people, we ask for your effort to make the difference in the war
against poverty and oppressive systems of governing.
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5. COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT: FIGHTING RACISM AT SCHOOL
By Rudy Corral,
Indigenous Voice
The Anpa Wi shined on the Lakota "Oyate" people and supporters
gathering in a rally, and demonstrating against the South Dakota
school system in Rapid City. An increased number of racial
incidents continues between students and faculty.
Community members are demanding an investigation into the South
Dakota school system. The school board has responded inadequately
to teacher altercations with students, lack of sufficient cultural
awareness and indifference. The school board has implemented
racist policies and curricula in this largely Lakota/Indigenous
Population area of the six-state region.
The continuing battle to gain proper education through public
schools has led the Lakota communities to empower lives, by taking
steps to properly provide their own schools for their children and
for any who want to learn the Lakota/Indigenous ways. The task at
hand is one with great barriers to cross. American Indian Movement
leader Russell Means has provided some leadership for the
communities and has continued to bring attention to the forgotten
American Holocaust -- the genocidal treatment of the Lakota Oyate
and all Indigenous Oyate People of the Western Hemisphere.
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6. SOUTH AFRICA ELECTION VICTORY: PRELUDE TO REVOLUTIONARY UPSURGE
By Abdul Alkalimat
The mighty roar of the South African masses was heard throughout
the world April 26-29 as they tore down the political institution
of apartheid. Over 22 million people marched to the polls and
voted in a new transitional government to be led by Nelson
Mandela. The African National Congress will likely end up with
over 60 percent of the vote, followed by the National Party led by
F.W. de Klerk with about 20 percent.
Africans had been denied full citizenship rights based on a
barbaric form of racism called apartheid. Therefore, this election
took on the symbolic meaning of freedom. In his victory speech,
Mandela proclaimed South Africa "Free at last!"
The entire world is relieved because this election signals the end
of colonialism (although it does continue to exist in smaller
countries!) However, this political victory must be understood not
only as symbol but also as substance. In the United States, we
have been at this point before, intoxicated by the euphoria of an
election victory (for example, Harold Washington's) only to be
sobered up by the limits of what changes actually get made. Now is
the time to celebrate, yes, but it is also the time to understand
and prepare for an even more difficult struggle that lies ahead.
This election marks the public approval of the agreement
negotiated by virtually all the major political forces in the
country. It creates a government of national unity, one based on
shared power between the leading liberation force (the ANC) and
the leading force for white racist rule (the National Party).
There have been "generations of resistance" fighting for change in
South Africa. Most recently, there was the 1976 Soweto generation
of youth led by Stephen Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement,
the mass organizations of the United Democratic Front that
followed, and the workers movement of the 1980s that led to the
creation of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. This
election came about because it was fought for in the streets and
in the work places, in negotiations and in military training camps
inside and outside of South Africa. It was fought for all over the
world.
But it was also a victory for international capitalism, and
because of this, we must be vigilant regarding what happens next.
The agreement to engineer a so-called "peaceful transition" (with
at least 20,000 people killed and 500,000 injured in the last
decade) came with a price. It defined a commitment to stability
based on reconciliation to mean that the economy and the military
will be run by many of the same people who ran them before the
election. It means cooling out the fears and insecurity of the
white minority (13 percent of the population which controls more
than 85 percent of the land) while bidding the African masses to
wait and continue to sacrifice for long-term gains.
Critical issues remain: Will the African masses lower their
expectations and be patient while the Mandela government courts
international investment and loans from the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund? Will the ANC government be able to
postpone land reform? If not, will white farmers remain and
maintain agricultural production? How will affirmative action
work? Will the new government be able to afford the education
necessary for an orderly transition? (Fifty percent of Africans
are illiterate. More than 40 percent of Africans are unemployed.)
The fight to resolve these and similar issues can only lead in one
direction: an upsurge of the revolutionary class struggle. The
storm gates have been opened, and forces long suppressed will rise
in new forms and with added energy. It is inevitable that the
negotiations deemed reasonable by international capital will be
totally unacceptable to the suffering masses of South Africa.
The ANC took the courageous and dangerous step of making the
compromise necessary for this election victory. The challenge for
revolutionary leadership is to be equally as courageous in joining
(politicizing and organizing) the mass revolt when the masses
reject whatever sinister scheme the IMF will cook up for them. The
election was a major step forward, but each step gets harder from
here on.
We call on all readers of the People's Tribune to join with us in
proclaiming at this sacred hour of political transformation: Nkosi
Sikelel 'i Afrika (God Bless Africa!)
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"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.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
In Los Angeles, New Jersey and San Francisco...
7. HEROIC PEOPLE STAND UP TO BRUTAL COPS AND BRUTAL LAWS
By Chris Mahin
The headlines tell a story of heroism: "Nurses Defy Bosses to
Report Beating." "Marchers protest slaying of N.J. youth." "Victim
prevents felon from taking 3rd strike under law."
In Southern California, two nurses, one white and one black,
expose the killing of a prisoner in a hospital jail ward. In New
Jersey, 200 people, most of them teen-agers, demonstrate after a
police officer kills a 14-year-old. In San Francisco, a woman
refuses to testify against a man charged with burglarizing her car
because she thinks the state's "three strikes and you're out"
measure is "really, really gross."
Brave individuals are taking a stand against the growing brutality
of the cops and the legal system itself.
All of us should be proud of people like Johnnie Blue and William
Strachan. Blue and Strachan are nurses at the Los Angeles County-
University of Southern California Medical Center. After they saw
sheriff's deputies brutalize an injured prisoner in the hospital's
jail ward on March 4, they reported it. They told the Los Angeles
Sentinel newspaper that a deputy shoved John Bernard Wiley, 41,
off a hospital gurney and onto the floor. Blue and Strachan said
that another deputy placed an orange smock over the prisoner's
face. The struggle ended after about 15 minutes, the two nurses
said, when Wiley went limp and was rushed into the emergency room,
where he died.
Similar courage was shown by the 200 people who marched April 20
in Glassboro, New Jersey to protest the killing of Eltarmaine
Sanders, 14, by a police officer. Converging on the courtyard of
the municipal building, the marchers chanted, "No Justice, No
Peace" for 15 minutes.
Of all these acts of quiet bravery and self-respect, perhaps the
most striking was that performed by Joan Miller. On April 22,
Miller refused to testify at a hearing against Donald Rae Brown,
the man accused of burglarizing her car March 11. Miller, a 71-
year-old retired editor, risked being jailed for contempt of court
but stood her ground, invoking the "history of nonviolent civil
disobedience" in America. She is adamantly opposed to California's
"three strikes and you're out" measure, which requires a sentence
of "25 years-to-life" for those convicted of their third felony.
Authorities wanted to use the law against Brown, but were
prevented from doing so by Miller's principled stand.
Listen carefully to the voices of Joan Miller, Johnnie Blue,
William Strachan and the 200 marchers in Glassboro, New Jersey.
They represent the conscience of America.
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8. ONE MAN'S STORY: JUSTICE SYSTEM PREYS ON POOR
By Robert L. Reed
It was in the Deep South in a small town just south of Atlanta
called East Point, Georgia.
The year was around 1960, when I was about 19 or 20 years old. I
vividly remember early one morning a lone policeman came to my
home and got me out of bed to announce that I was under arrest.
At the desk while being booked, I noticed that the desk sergeant
was laughing and joking about what to charge me for. I got a bond
for $50 and got out of jail.
I went to court in East Point, Georgia, along with my girlfriend,
the plaintiff in the case. We were breaking up and, in spite, she
had me locked up. She said I threatened to break into her house.
The courts in East Point appointed no lawyer to represent me.
Therefore, I was tried without legal representation. There wasn't
one witness in court that saw me do such a crime as burglary, and
the police were coercing the plaintiff to continue with the case.
There was no case and it shouldn't have left the courts in East
Point. It was my girlfriend's word against my own. We went to
court in Atlanta anyway.
I found a lawyer in Atlanta. He questioned me quite thoroughly
about my financial status and police record. I had neither. I was
definitely an indigent man, being recently laid off work before
this incident. He took the case for the $50 I had up for my bond.
In court, the lawyer, for some reason, was continuing to ask me
about my police record. He turned to me and said, "Listen to me,
now, I can get you out of this mess and you can go home, but you
have to keep your nose clean." He said, "You're going to have to
play ball with me in this case."
I remember telling that lawyer that if he meant plead guilty, I
was not going to do so! I was innocent, and I did not break into
my girlfriend's house.
He told me that he had talked to the prosecution and they wouldn't
budge an inch. He said that if I went to a grand jury, I was
definitely going to get five years in prison. That statement, at
20 years old and never having been in prison before, really scared
the pants off me. My lawyer coerced me into pleading guilty in
that case for his own selfish reasons and ruined my reputation for
the rest of my life. I received five years probation for that
stupid move.
After being on probation for about two years after that trial, I
got into a fight with a man and he was hurt. The man was a
notorious corn liquor dealer that started the fight. I was
fighting back in self-defense, but because of that probation in
the burglary case, it automatically revoked my probation. I had to
do two years hard labor for the burglary case that the lawyer
coerced me to plead guilty on.
And that's my point in this letter. It's how the bureaucrats in
the criminal justice system play and prey on the uneducated, poor,
indigent person who can't defend himself.
I'm not sitting here trying to say that there aren't people in
prison that don't belong there, because I've been there and I know
that most are in there for a good reason, but I know there are a
lot of innocent minority people in jails all over America. I know
because I was one of them myself.
I am in no way trying to convince the American people that all
cops are bad, because we know it's not true. But there is that
other kind of cop we have to look out for. He's that cop who's
full of hatred for black people in the first place. He's trying to
make a quick climb into the ranks of the department and he wants
to be looked upon by his fellow officers as some kind of Wyatt
Earp, riding hard on weak, poor people.
And don't forget the selfish, greedy lawyers who perpetrate the
ordeal to its fullest.
******************************************************************
9. 300 ATTEND CONFERENCE ON FUTURE OF INFO-HIGHWAY
By The High Tech Committee Of The NOC
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- Three hundred engineers, librarians,
students and community activists gathered at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology here April 24 and 25 to discuss the
future of the information superhighway, and with it, the future of
communications and culture in this country. The conference was
sponsored by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
(CPSR).
The "information superhighway" is the nickname given to the
network that will carry messages, movies, books, music and other
forms of information to homes, schools, community centers and
businesses in the very near future. Companies that deal in
information hope to make big profits from the info-highway by
selling information and services. But if the phone, cable and
other companies are allowed to decide the future of this network,
it will only be used to serve their bottom line. The general
public will be left standing by the side of the road.
The keynote talk by Dr. Herbert Schiller, author of several books
on the media, summed up what is at stake. "The concentration of
wealth and resources in private hands at this point in history is
unprecedented," he said. Corporations are "moving towards total
control of information, and with it, the formation of
consciousness."
At a workshop panel, Dottie Stevens, the vice president of the
National Welfare Rights Union and a member of the National
Organizing Committee's Steering Committee, urged conference
attendees to fight for access for everyone to the information
highway, and not abandon those without the money to use the new
services.
Abdul Alkalimat, a professor of African-American Studies at
Northeastern University, added that it is not just access that's
important, but empowerment. We don't just want access to 500 TV
channels with nothing on that's worth watching. Our communities
need information that is useful, that can help us organize to make
a new society. "Not only do we have to make this superhighway
free," Alkalimat said, "we have to change the society in which it
operates so it's possible to have information empowerment."
This is a critical moment in the development of this new
technology. Along with our demands for housing, education, and
health care, we must also raise the call for free access to the
information superhighway and information empowerment. If we don't
achieve this, we will not be allowed on the highway to the future.
For more information on the information highway, contact CPSR,
P.O. Box 717, Palo Alto, California 94301, 415-322-3778 or the
Telecommunications Policy Roundtable at 202-628-2620.
******************************************************************
10. GOTTA LOTTA LOVE: THE ICE OPINION ON RAP, CENSORSHIP AND THE
FUTURE
By Raegan Kelly
[Ice T's new book, _The Ice Opinion_, delivers the lowdown on
growing up "black in a white world." T spoke for more than two
hours at a book signing at the Midnight Special Bookstore in Santa
Monica, California in mid-March.]
In the early '80s, Ice T had one of the baddest pimp-hustler raps
in West Coast hip-hop. In the tradition of Iceberg Slim and Donald
Bowens, Ice rapped America's nightmare -- the dope pusher, pimp,
and hustler of the streets -- into something very cool and
desirable. Ice T's lyrics paint a picture of life in the hood, POV
the streets, with a flair for the badasssss and inherent
disrespect for the man: from the classic "Six N the Morning" (in
which T loses the LAPD slippin' out the window) to the 1988 Colors
soundtrack ("I am a nightmare walkin', psychopath stalkin'...") to
Body Count's 1992 punk song "Cop Killer."
"It has been said that rap is like a telephone call between
rappers and the people we're talkin' to -- the most hardcore
gangstas in prison and youths in the projects, gangbangers and
stick-up kids who'll shoot you in the face. ... These are my
people, this is who I care about and want to reach, I have to
speak to them in their language. America has picked up the phone
and is listening in, and I'm sayin', if you don't like it, put the
phone down. It ain't about you."
Ice T sees the fallout of the great Cop Killa debate (the one that
made it all the way to the White House, had Daryl frothing at the
mouth, and parents indicting rap as a primary instigator of
violence amongst youth) as being a good diversionary tactic for
the Rodney King beating, the economy (it was an election year,
after all, remember Willie Horton?), and a direct reaction to the
fact that rap had earned for itself permanent multimillion dollar
music industry status. Kids from all walks of life and ethnic
backgrounds were peeping at the realities of inner city life and
reaching conclusions very different from the lies fed them at
home, in school, in the media. The "home invasion" was well under
way, and irreversible.
"We live in a system where the cops tell you once, and then pull
the trigger. This country was founded on murder -- as Kris said
[KRS One] 'How can there ever be justice on stolen land?' ...
There is no such thing as freedom of speech in this country, and
there never has been. As far as the right to bear arms, if there
were no guns period then I would be against them. But if you read
the Constitution, it says we have the right to bear arms as the
last form of defense against tyranny."
Go to any hip-hop gig and peep kids of every shape, size and color
bopping their heads and shakin' their butts to KRS One: "Bwap
Bwap, it's the sound of da police; Bwap Bwap, it's the sound of
the beast." Asked about the ongoing conflict in Los Angeles
schools between African American and Chicano youths, Ice said fear
of a move towards unity between communities of color, amongst
youth in general, is exactly what inspires aristocratic nuts like
Tipper Gore and Charleton Heston to demonize, ghettoize, and
attempt to silence these emerging voices. (They can't.) Not just
rappers, but young leaders of every persuasion need to step
forward.
"That's what my book is about. Do we believe everything holy and
powerful happened in the past? If we imagine we're in the eighth
day of the first seven years of the formation of the planet, then
we realize any one of us could be a prophet. It's dangerous to
step out there, to tell the truth, but you got to be a soldier, we
all do."
As a member of the audience pointed out, crime comes from the
absence of hope. Strength in unity holds out one possibility for
hope. In his book, Ice T calls for free education -- pre-school
through university. He speaks eloquently on racism in the music
industry, in the military, in the police department, in America.
To Ice, we have no alternative but to fight: "At this point, there
ain't no options, we have to be radical." First, one must look
reality square in the face, deal with that, start from there. A
young man from Amer-I-Can put it most succinctly: "The day I deny
darkness, I can't bring the light."
******************************************************************
11. LETTERS TO THE PT
PELICAN BAY STATE PRISON:
CALIFORNIA PRISONER CONFRONTS HARASSMENT
To the People's Tribune:
Thank you for the encouragement you guys have given me and the
help to stand up to these unprofessional, white staffers of
Pelican Bay State Prison.
First of all, me and Inmate [Floyd] Paige were found "guilty" and
our hearing on this frame-up that we were accused of [conspiracy
to commit an assault] on a correctional officer, Ward. Then, with
the help of the People's Tribune, we were found "not guilty." We
were both sent back to the General Population on the main line.
I've been on the main line for about a month now. Now, since I've
been back to the same block and section I first left, B-4-226,
I've been getting harassed by this unprofessional C.O. Lane who is
in the control booth 30 feet in the air with guns and rifles at
hand.
Since I've back on General Population, Lane has been talking crazy
to me -- very unprofessional -- and been calling me racist names
such as "nigger." I choose not to pay him any attention because I
look at it more as ignorance, but today was one of those days
where I could not continue to deal with the way he talks. So, I
told him the same thing I told his comrade KKKlansman buddy,
Correctional Officer J. Ward: As long as you talk to me like I'm
an animal, I'm going to talk to you back like you are an animal. I
also told him: If you put your hands on me, I'm going to put my
hands back on you!
So, today was one of those days where they have inspection and
C.O. Lane feels he can order the dust to be off the floor by me
and another black inmate. C.O. Lane has his orders from his
unprofessional Lieutenant D.R. Smith and that is to harass me to
the fullest!
But my whole point of writing this article is to seek a lawyer to
sue this unprofessional staff at this KKK prison where the
staffers who work here are KKKlans. Even the program administrator
is a part this racist staff -- modern-day slavery.
Thank you!
Lonzell Green,
Pelican Bay State Prison
Crescent City, California
******************************************************************
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: National Organizing Committee, P.O. Box 477113,
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