******************************************************************
                People's Tribune (Online Edition)
                 Vol. 21 No. 25 / June 20, 1994

                P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
                       Email: [email protected]

******************************************************************

INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition)
Vol. 21 No. 25 / June 20, 1994

FRONT PAGE STORY FOLLOWS INDEX

Editorial
1. CALIFORNIA 'SOS' INITIATIVE SETS DANGEROUS PRECEDENT

News
2. MEXICAN CANDIDATE MEETS ZAPATISTAS
3. JUNETEENTH: THE BATTLE FOR EMANCIPATION GOES ON
4. COMMUNITY ORGS LAUNCH FIGHT FOR HEALTH CARE IN CALIFORNIA
5. WOMEN'S URGENT NEED FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM
6. 'WE THE PEOPLE LIVING WITH AIDS/HIV' WAGES HUNGER STRIKE TO
    KEEP HOSPICE OPEN (PHILADELPHIA)
7. WE NEED ALL THE 'PEOPLE POWER' WE CAN MUSTER (BOSTON DEMO)
8. LIBERATION RADIO -- A PLEA FOR HELP

Deadly Force
9. ORGANIZATIONS PICKET FOR JUSTICE

Culture Under Fire
10. SOUTH AFRICAN MUSICIAN HUGH MASAKELA BOOGIES ON APARTHEID'S
   GRAVE


11. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL

UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS ARE NOT TO BLAME FOR CRISIS

Governor Pete Wilson blames undocumented immigrants and their
children for the crisis California faces. Since Mr. Wilson and
Company have no solutions to the massive unemployment in the
state, they are, once again, striking at one of the most
vulnerable sections of people at the bottom.

This time, the attack takes the form of the "SOS" -- Save Our
State -- initiative. This measure has received 570,000  signatures
and will appear on the November 1994 state ballot. If passed, the
initiative will deny  undocumented immigrants and their children
basic social services, particularly health care and education.

The SOS initiative would turn teachers and health  workers into
snitches. If the initiative is approved, the members of these
professions would have to report any school child or person
seeking medical care who appeared to be undocumented.

The campaign to pass this initiative cannot be separated from the
other blows directed at people on the bottom. The SOS initiative
follows from previous actions designed to control the great mass
of poor people who this economy can no longer provide for.

We, the poor of this country, have to unite, regardless of creed
or color.

Can we trust Pete Wilson and Company, people who, when they call
for cutting Aid to Families with Dependent Children, propose
taking food out of the mouths of children?

Can we trust Mr. Wilson and Company, people who have promoted
California's "three strikes and you're out" measure  and supported
a federal crime bill that will make us all accomplices in the
execution of 13-year-olds?

No! Mr. Wilson, we're sick of your lies: your blaming of the
undocumented worker for the budget deficit; your proposal to
balance the state budget by cutting the AFDC budget by 25 percent;
your cruel attempt to convince us that 13-year-olds should be
executed instead of educated.

These are our children: black, white and brown. These are our
children: documented and undocumented. Mr. Wilson and Company, we
will stand by them, fighting you all the way.

For more about the fight against the SOS initiative, see the
editorial, story 1.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+


******************************************************************
1. EDITORIAL: CALIFORNIA 'SOS' INITIATIVE SETS DANGEROUS PRECEDENT

The immigrants came in waves. They fled terrible poverty and
entered California, the "Golden State." Soon, thousands were on
relief; their children swelled the public schools. As resentment
grew, the Chamber of Commerce blamed the newcomers for rising
taxes. "Exclusion" legislation was introduced in the General
Assembly.

Sound familiar? Sure does, except the year was 1938 and these
immigrants, one-third of a million of them, had not come from
Mexico or Central America, but from Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri and
Arkansas. People called them "Okies" and "Arkies." Most were
white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. A sign in a San Joaquin Valley
theatre summed up their social status. It read: "Negroes and Okies
upstairs."

Today, the "SOS" -- Save Our State -- initiative proves that anti-
immigrant fever is alive and well in California. If this measure
passes, undocumented immigrants will be legally barred from public
aid, public education and medical care. Social service providers
will become stool pigeons, required to turn in any undocumented
immigrant who enrolls a  child in a public school or comes in for
a check-up at a county hospital.

Naturally, California Governor Pete Wilson and his rich and
powerful friends back the SOS initiative. These hypocrites blame
the state's budget crisis on the poorest of its residents, while
stuffing their pockets with tax breaks, corporate write-offs,
interest-free bonds and billions of dollars in different kinds of
"welfare for the wealthy."

But consider this: a study by the Urban Institute in Washington,
D.C. called Immigration and Immigrants: Setting the Record
Straight found that, in general, the taxes paid by immigrants to
all levels of government exceed the cost of the social services
they receive by $25-30 billion each year.

Many people sense that if one section of the population can be
denied rights, no one's rights are safe.

One such person is Glen Lewis, an African American father from
Compton. Lewis rallied blacks and Latinos together after a
Lynnwood shopkeeper shot a 14-year-old Mexican youth for allegedly
stealing a bag of cookies. "We want Mexicans to know that blacks
accept them ..." said Lewis. "If we don't make sure the Mexicans
are protected, we won't be well-protected."

It's a good thing California has people like Glen Lewis. Let's
make sure we mobilize all the people like him, all our neighbors,
friends and co-workers,  to go to the polls in November to hand
the SOS initiative the defeat it deserves.


******************************************************************
2. MEXICAN CANDIDATE MEETS ZAPATISTAS

By Alejandro Caballero

The following are excerpts from an account -- in the May 17 issue
of _La Jornada_ (Mexico City) -- of the meeting in Chiapas, Mexico
between Subcomandante Marcos, spokesperson of the Zapatista
National Liberation Army (EZLN), and Cuauhtemoc Cardenas,
presidential candidate of the  Revolutionary Democratic Party
(PRD).


MONTES AZULES, Chiapas, Mexico -- After making a sharp critique of
the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD), which he accused of
"repeating in its midst those vices which have poisoned the party
in power since its beginnings," and of internally practicing
"palace intrigue, bureaucratic agreements, lies, and the worst
methods of settling accounts -- betrayal," Subcomandante Marcos,
in front of the Zapatista community and in the presence of
Cardenas and his retinue, said that "if there's no peaceful road
on the path to democracy, there's still on our part, the faceless
men and women, another path, that of war."

Earlier, in a private meeting with Cardenas -- the first he has
had with a presidential aspirant -- Marcos maintained that "if the
state party regime is not ended, there will be no peace."

With 18 members of the EZLN Clandestine Indigenous Revolutionary
Committee (CCRI) and a dozen PRD leaders also present, he foresaw
that with his [Cardenas'] visit to the Zapatista Army, "they will
try to connect him to the armed and masked people that have spoken
by fighting against the government." He [Marcos] congratulated
him, though, that circumstances had led him to be the first
presidential aspirant to meet with them. And he quietly added, "We
think that those who are worthy, those who have never had
anything, those who like us are voiceless and faceless, will
understand this message [Cardenas' visit]."

Marcos, a lit pipe in his hand along with the perhaps six sheets
of paper of his speech, read:

"The path of democracy, freedom and justice, of the demands to
give a voice to the voiceless, a face to the faceless, a tomorrow
to those without a tomorrow, and a life to our death, will be that
which our people follow through whichever of the two doors are
open (peaceful transition or war), even at the cost of the lives
of all the Zapatistas."

"Many forces support the candidacy of Senor Cardenas Solorzano for
the presidency of Mexico, but they won't be the definitive ones
for the transition to democracy. Neither will we, the Zapatistas.
The power to make a democratic change ..." he continued, amidst
the total silence of his listeners, "is the power of the people,
the power of those without a party or organization, the power of
the voiceless and faceless. Whoever truly gains this power will be
invincible."

[Via the N.Y. Transfer News Collective and translated by Mike
Pearlman.]


******************************************************************
3. JUNETEENTH: THE BATTLE FOR EMANCIPATION GOES ON

By General Baker, chair of the Steering Committee, NOC

DETROIT -- June 19, 1994 will be celebrated across the country as
Emancipation Day for the African American people. Even though,
from time to time, other dates have been celebrated as
Emancipation Day, Juneteenth has continued to be the most widely
celebrated day.

In 1979, Al Edwards, an African American legislator from Houston,
introduced House Bill 1016 into the Texas legislature and won its
passage, making Juneteenth the only emancipation celebration
accorded official state recognition.

Regardless of its origin, Juneteenth has proven to be the best
time of year to sum up the experience of the struggle for
equality.

Today, the poorest districts in this country still exist in the
South, the historical home of the emancipated slave. On almost
every matter concerning the standard of living, the Southern
states are the most threatened.

In an analysis of 153 U.S. counties where at least three people
aged 19 or younger were killed by gunfire, the newspaper USA Today
found that 65 of those counties, or 43 percent, were in 11
Southern states. Of the 20 deadliest counties, 12 were in the
South.

As we approach Juneteenth 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court decision
known as Shaw v. Reno has reopened the debate over race-conscious
remedies to discrimination and called into question the very
constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Shaw v. Reno decision threatens to wipe out minority districts
in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas. This could destroy
many political gains which have been made in the South, like what
happened at the end of the Reconstruction era over 100 years ago.

Lastly, the current economic revolution and political crisis
threatens the existence of over 100 Historically Black Colleges
and Universities (HBCUs). Battles are being waged state by state
over education budgets.

Thus, as we approach Juneteenth 1994, the struggle for
emancipation from the past goes on -- county by county, district
by district, state by state.

+----------------------------------------------------------------+

THE LESSON OF JUNETEENTH

June 19, 1994 marks 132 years since President Abraham Lincoln
signed an act of the U.S. Congress prohibiting slavery in all the
territories of the United States. Ever since, June 19 has been
known and celebrated as "Juneteenth."

Lincoln's action on June 19, 1862 set the stage for the more
general Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect January
1, 1863. Both actions were taken by Lincoln only following intense
pressure from the abolitionist and labor movements in the North
during the Civil War.

In 1862, the Union was having difficulty defeating the
slaveholders' rebellion. The "Red Republicans" around Lincoln
finally persuaded him that to rally the common people of the North
to the Union side, he would have to give them a moral cause to
fight for: the abolition of slavery.

The history of Juneteenth shows that to unite all the poor in
America, we have to begin by fighting for complete equality for
African Americans.

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM CONTINUES: FORTY YEARS SINCE THE BROWN
DECISION

By Abdul Alkalimat

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court made the racial segregation of
schools illegal. A lot of people considered this to be as
important as making slavery illegal. In both cases people wanted
freedom, but what they actually got was the opportunity to carry
out a new stage of struggle. Human freedom is only realized in the
struggle to change society for the better, always under definite
historical conditions.

Emancipation from slavery was made possible by the industrial
Northeast gaining economic superiority. The Civil War enabled the
North to take control of the federal government, but turn social
and political control over still backward, plantation-based
Southern states to the former slaveholders. Forms of the militant
fight for freedom were transformed from slave revolts to union
strikes.

The Brown decision was made possible when the industrial system
revolutionized Southern agriculture by using the mechanical cotton
picker to replace unskilled field labor. The decision became
necessary when the new urban-based black industrial workers became
an organized political fighting force and black middle class
leadership was consistent and often militant in support of
progressive policies. The Brown decision ruled that legal
"apartheid" had to end "with all deliberate speed." We're still
waiting.

The fundamental goal of the Freedom struggle has always been to
expand democratic opportunity for a decent life based on economic
security. Things have gotten worse. The new electronic revolution
of computers and robots has changed the technological basis for
organizing society. Society is being polarized into new extremes
of wealth and poverty, as productivity goes up while jobs are
being eliminated. Most black people are forced to live in inner
city "forbidden zones" of poverty full of violence and fear. Many
others are one or two paychecks away from this living hell.

Schools are being reorganized based on this and democratic values
are being smashed: public schools face privatization, teachers and
librarians face censorship, and schools for poor people face
isolation and police surveillance.

The fundamental goals that led to the Brown decision have to be
fought for today -- freedom and democracy. Each step on our line
of march includes a battle to fight to defend public education:
community-based control; multicultural diversity in faculty,
students, staff and curriculum; and information access and
empowerment based on the new computer-based "information
superhighway."

The fight for freedom continues!

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
General Baker and Abdul Alkalimat, the authors of the above
articles, are available to speak in your city.

Contact the People's Tribune Speakers Bureau today. Call 310-428-
2618 or 312-486-3551 or write to us at:

     P.O. Box 5412
     Compton, California 90224
+----------------------------------------------------------------+


******************************************************************
4. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS LAUNCH FIGHT FOR HEALTH CARE IN
CALIFORNIA

THE FIGHT FOR HEALTH IS A FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL!

By Joyce Mills, R.N.

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA -- On May 7, community organizations
representing poor women, minority health and housing issues came
together here. They launched a health campaign to guarantee our
communities "Thrive, Not Barely Survive." California is a
particularly volatile state for these concerns.

AFDC Medi-Cal recipients in 13 of the largest counties are being
mandated in 1995 into various kinds of "gate-keeping" health
systems calculated to save the state money on poor families'
health. Some recipients have begun to fight for representation on
consumer boards to protect themselves from what they view as a
"death plan" for needy families.

Health activists, frustrated by earlier attempts to get a "single-
payer" measure into legislation, have just placed an initiative on
the ballot. Supporters of this bill will be in a pitched battle
with the insurance industry and other profit-makers over this
initiative.

While these struggles are raging, the state is enmeshed in a
battle over whether or not to further deny health benefits to
undocumented workers. This debate is part of a larger strategy by
many elected officials, including the governor, to scapegoat the
undocumented for the state's current financial woes.

Local chapter members of the National Organizing Committee health
committee have solicited a series of articles from leaders in
these movements for the People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo.
These will help PT and TP readers in building the movement for
health care reform that guarantees no one is considered
expendable.

Readers can contact sponsoring organizations by calling  WEAP at
510-451-7379 or Jubilee West at 510-839-6776. Contact the Oakland
Organizing Committee's health and disability committee at 510-464-
4554 for more information.

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
What a single-payer health plan could look like in the United
States:

* Universal coverage for all residents

* Comprehensive coverage of all medically required services

* Reasonable access to insured services

* No deductibles, co-payments, or extra billing

* Free choice of health care providers

* Portable between jobs and residences

* A single payer, funded from a progressive tax base, which
replaces Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance

* Public administration on a nonprofit basis

* Global budgets for hospital operating expenses with separate
funds for capital improvements
+----------------------------------------------------------------+


******************************************************************
5. WOMEN'S URGENT NEED FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM

Part ONE

By Barbara Newman, M.D., MPH

[A version of this article appeared in the San Francisco Examiner
on Dec. 12, 1993.]

Despite the well-publicized presence of three women in positions
of power in institutions concerned with health -- Donna Shalala as
head of the [Department of Health and Human Services], Joselyn
Elders as Surgeon General, and Hillary Clinton as head of the
President's Health Care Task Force -- the Clinton plan, which they
all are promoting, comes nowhere near meeting the health needs of
U.S. women.

There is a better alternative for women, the single-payer system,
which for political reasons has received far less consideration.
But the recent publication of the results of a Congressional
Budget Office study, showing substantial savings under such a
system, makes it imperative that women speak out for true health
care reform, embodied in the McDermott/Conyers Bill (HR 1200), the
Wellstone Bill (SB 491), and the proposed Single-Payer Initiative
for the November 1994 California ballot.

Why should health care reform be of special concern to women? Four
important factors place women's health in jeopardy: low social
status, economic disadvantage, disproportionate vulnerability to
chronic disabling disease, and lack of reproductive rights.

Two-thirds of America's poor are women. Of the elderly living in
poverty, more than three-fourths are women. If they are too young
for Medicare and are among the more than one-half of the country's
poor who do not qualify for Medicaid, they are forced to rely on
the chronically underfunded public health care system. And
employed women dominate occupations which are rarely insured:
clerical, retail, home care, food service, housekeeping. Women
make up two-thirds of the part-time work force, which is almost
never insured. Low income and inadequate insurance prevent many
women from buying appropriate medication or receiving follow-up
care.

Clearly, women need a system which provides health care
irrespective of marital or employment status, income, or pre-
existing medical condition. A system ensuring lifelong access for
all to the same high level of care. A system emphasizing
prevention and education and ensuring full reproductive rights for
all.

[Next: How the Clinton plan fails women and what we can do about
it.]


******************************************************************
6. 'WE THE PEOPLE LIVING WITH AIDS/HIV' WAGES HUNGER STRIKE TO
KEEP HOSPICE OPEN

INTERVIEW WITH LINDA SMITH, PART TWO

PHILADELPHIA --  It's not in a Third World country; it's right
here in the U.S.A. --  13 people, most of them living with HIV and
AIDS, on a hunger strike to keep open Betak, the city's only
hospice for the poor.

This is Part Two of an interview with Linda Smith, one of the
victims of HIV, who is fasting. Smith is on the board of We The
People Living with AIDS/HIV of the Delaware Valley. In Part One
she explained why she and the others began this hunger strike on
May 23, when the state's welfare department stopped the funds for
Betak. The hospice had 40 residents. Four people have died since
the protest began.


PEOPLE' TRIBUNE: If AIDS is not God's wrath as some people say,
how do you explain it?

LINDA SMITH: It's a disease. A disease like cancer, lupus,
leukemia. It doesn't mean that because we have this, this makes us
less than anybody or more than anybody. When you have cancer, they
treat you with chemotherapy. When someone says, "My husband died
from cancer," nobody says, "Oh, that's God's wrath." But when you
say you got the HIV virus -- it's God's wrath? What kind of shit
is that?


PT: How does it make you feel that Governor Casey of Pennsylvania,
who is cutting welfare money for AIDS facilities like this one,
snapped his fingers and was given a new heart?

LS: This guy just went into a hospital. He's a human being like
all of us and he wants to live like everybody else. The thing is,
he had money. So he goes into the hospital today and tomorrow he
has brand- new insides. We as taxpayers are wondering if the heart
was really put into this guy. If it was, they didn't connect it
correctly, because he hasn't been out here, he hasn't shown
concern.

By the way, we're not only human beings, but members of this state
and where's he at? Somebody said, "Oh he's really too ill to come
down." I say he needs to come sit here at Betak for three or four
days and look around. We're out here with the disease -- hunger-
striking.

He can pull up in a limousine with the red carpet, with a nurse on
one arm and a doctor on the other. But no, he's too sick to come
here with us. I'm out here and he's no sicker than I am. But I'm
not eating. He is, I'm sure.

He's no sicker than these people in here. Since we've been here,
we've lost four people out of this facility. I get angry and hurt
.. nobody's been out here. When I say nobody, I mean the
governor. The only people who have come out have been our allies
and friends.


PT: How long are you going to stay?

LS: We had a bomb scare here, somebody called and said they'd do
bodily harm to us. We're going to stay here until they tell us
that we got a permanent residence here; until they tell us these
people are going to be able to die in grace and dignity like
anybody wants to do, you know?

People with AIDS need special care and it's just a sad thing to
think that some of us forget where our hearts are. We forget that
any time, we or somebody close to us could be struck, and if that
happens, they're going to need this place.

Sometimes it has to get into your own back yard for you to take a
step. A lot of people want to close their ears and their eyes to
the truth, but reality is smacking them every day and smacking
them hard, because if they're not infected by it, you better
believe, in the next three or four years, they'll be affected by
it.

Governor Casey can't seem to utilize the heart the taxpayers paid
for him to have.


PT: Does this country have the capability to end this disease, or
at least let people live with dignity until it can be cured?

LS: Sure they got it. I read someplace in the paper that they put
a satellite in the desert because they wanted to hear some sounds
in space. Who the hell wants to talk to E.T. when people down here
are dying?

They had enough money to send somebody into space to collect some
damn rocks. We got enough damn rocks. We've got sick people here.
We've got hungry people here. We've got poor people here. We've
got people here who don't have homes. What do we really care about
some rocks? We've got people lining up to pay for some shuttle
ride into space when we've got people dying here, fighting for
struggles such as this. Where are people's hearts, man?

We're out here to let everybody know that we are worth it. We are
not going anywhere. When you say how long will we be out here for
the struggle? We'll be out here for as long as it takes. And
longer. And when we can't be out here any longer, then another
group will come here and take our place. We're gonna be here. This
is important to us.


[Send donations to: We The People Living with AIDS/HIV of the
Delaware Valley, 425 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
19147-1126, or call 215-545-6868 for more information.]


******************************************************************
7. WE NEED ALL THE 'PEOPLE POWER' WE CAN MUSTER

BOSTON DEMONSTRATION LINKS JUNETEENTH AND FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY

By Abdul Alkalimat

BOSTON -- There is a major demonstration being called by the
leaders of the anti-poverty struggle in Boston. Under the
leadership of Dottie Stevens, the National Welfare Rights Union
and the Up and Out of Poverty Now Campaign, a coalition of forces
is coming together to celebrate Juneteenth and to respond to
recent attacks against the victims of poverty.

For nearly one week, from June 21 through June 27, a people's
poverty protest camp will be set up in the Boston Commons park
directly across from the state Capitol (near Tremont and Beacon).
There will be daily prayers, workshops to educate and organize,
free meals and speeches. The protest will end with a press
conference of leaders in the anti-poverty fight.

There are many organizations coming together, especially
representing the organized workers and the victims of poverty.
This demonstration has been endorsed by the Massachusetts state
AFL-CIO, National Welfare Rights Union, ARMS (Advocacy and
Resources for Modern Survival), WINGS, Campaign for Real Welfare
Reform, Tax Equity Alliance for Massachusetts, Boston Shorter Work
Time Group, A Job is a Right Campaign, Survival News, and the
National Organizing Committee.

This demonstration links Juneteenth and the anti-poverty fight.
Juneteenth is the celebration of the successful fight to end
slavery. The 19th century struggle was to end slavery and fully
unleash the forces of industrial development. Now we are fighting
against the genocidal poverty being forced on us at the end of
this industrial system and the beginning of the computer age.

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
CELEBRATE JUNETEENTH -- WEEK-LONG DEMONSTRATION BEGINS JUNE 21 IN
BOSTON

VACATION PARADISE FOR POOR PEOPLE

CAMP OUT ON THE GRASSY KNOLLS AND SUNNY SLOPES OF BEACON HILL.

ENJOY PUPPET SHOWS, ARTISTS, MIMES AND MORE ...

FOOD AND SONG WILL BE PROVIDED. BRING YOUR CHILDREN.

To counter the vicious cuts and punitive policies from the House
Ways and Means Committee, the Massachusetts Welfare Rights Union
is organizing a grassroots, Juneteenth, week-long demonstration
outside the statehouse -- a survival siege!

We need all the people power we can muster. We must pull all our
creativity and weight together to counter these cuts.

Gear up for the Motor Voter Bill which becomes law on July 1.
(Workshops: welfare rights, legislative strategies, voter
registration, etc.)

Come make your protest known! Call the Massachusetts Welfare
Rights Union at 617-298-7311 for more information.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

The People's Tribune interviewed Dottie Stevens, a leader in the
Welfare Rights Union and the Up and Out of Poverty Now Coalition,
about the current crisis for poor people in Massachusetts.


PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: There have been a lot of attacks on poor people
in Massachusetts. Can you tell us about this?

DOTTIE STEVENS: In Massachusetts, the House Ways and Means
[Committee] came out with a 5.5 percent cut in AFDC grants, a "two
years and you're off" limit, a family cap (meaning if you get more
children then you don't get any more money). It also voted for
learnfare, meaning if your child misses school for more than three
days per month, they cut off that child's portion of your grant!

The legislator who led the attack said ... maybe these welfare
recipients will think about the consequences before they do "the
act." This is more than mean-spirited, this is genocidal.


PT: How have poor people responded?

DS: Poor people are organizing to fight back. There have been
small demonstrations by many different groups, but these have gone
unheeded. Now we are pulling these groups together for a unified
act of protest, across from the Statehouse in the Boston Commons.


PT: Why do these politicians think they can get away with this?

DS: Many of them, including incumbents, are running unopposed.
This should be a wake-up call -- code red, urgent. We, poor people
and people fighting for economic security, are the majority and we
should be fighting to throw these bums out.

There is a Motor Voter Bill taking effect July 1, so we will be
able to register to vote in every state agency. We're gonna mount
a massive drive so that poor people can elect themselves and not
these mean-spirited political terrorists.

They are terrorizing women and children and we're gonna take a
stand and speak out against our oppressors. They can't kill us
all.


PT: The Massachusetts governor is a Republican and the U.S.
president is a Democrat. Do these parties make a difference?

DS: To myself and the people that I represent, it doesn't make any
difference. Neither deal with the fundamental issues of the poor;
they both use Band-Aids.

We face rich folks in office and we need to replace them with the
victims of poverty. We have to be our own leaders. That's why I
ran for governor in 1990 and am encouraging poor people to get
involved so we can take over.


******************************************************************
8. LIBERATION RADIO -- A PLEA FOR HELP

The following is excerpted from a letter we received from Napoleon
Williams in Shawnee Correctional Center in Vienna, Illinois.

Greetings, Freedom Fighters:

As I write this, I wonder how many of you readers can recall the
story of Liberation Radio and Unique Dream Williams that appeared
in the People's Tribune?

Liberation Radio was the voice of poor and oppressed people in
Decatur, Illinois. Unique Dream Williams is the five-year-old
child whose parents operated Liberation Radio. Unique remains in
foster care. Over $10,000 has been spent to keep Unique away from
her parents, although we have never been accused of doing anything
wrong to our child. The Department of Children and Family Services
has violated court orders concerning our visits with Unique and
officials in this agency simply look the other way.

Unique is one child who shouldn't have been taken from her
parents. We intend to fight until the people responsible for this
injustice admit their wrongdoings.

I'm presently incarcerated in the Shawnee Correctional Center as a
result of appearing in court for Unique. I was arrested for
criminal trespass to the court building while handcuffed behind my
back. I was abused by a police officer and charged with aggravated
battery on the police. I'm doing three years.

On December 13, 1993, Mildred gave birth to a beautiful little
girl. We named her Atrue Dream Williams. We let it be known over
Liberation Radio that we would fight to the death to keep our
child. A DCFS investigation was done by a David Pritts out of the
Springfield, Illinois office and he could find no reason to take
Atrue Dream away from us. When asked about Unique Dream's case,
Mr. David Pritts said we are a family who fell through the cracks.

I need your help. I was the breadwinner in my family and now that
I am locked up, Mildred is having a hard time with bills and
things like that. I'm afraid the Department of Children and Family
Services might try to use Mildred being behind in her bills as an
excuse to try and take our child. We need the support of every
last one of you to help us make it through this. I pray that my
sisters and brothers in the struggle will help us in our time of
need.

Send your statement of support and very needed financial
contributions to:

Mildred Jones
756 S. Wise Street
Decatur, Illinois 62522 or phone her at 217-422-3710.

You can write me:

Napoleon Williams, A-78447
P.O. Box 300
Vienna, Illinois 62995

The struggle continues,

Napoleon



******************************************************************
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
"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.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

9. ORGANIZATIONS PICKET FOR JUSTICE

By Dianne Flowers

LYNNWOOD, California--After store owner Michael Kim shot and
wounded 14-year-old Aldo Vega for allegedly stealing a 49-cent bag
of cookies, Glen Lewis was mad and hit the streets fighting for
justice. Lewis, who is black, didn't care that Aldo Vega is
Mexican. He felt a bond with the boy. He felt that his own rights
were put in danger by what happened to Aldo.

Lewis and members of his organization, the Economic Empowerment
Enforcement Committee which is based in neighboring Compton, have
picketed and protested in front of Kim's store many times since
the April 2 shooting. The Association for Independent Triumph,
which takes citizens' civic complaints to the authorities when
they feel helpless, has also been picketing with Lewis' group.

"Every time we show up to demonstrate in front of the store about
12 sheriff cars show up. I've told all the officers that we want a
citizen's arrest because Kim committed a crime: he shot someone.
The sheriffs all say he hasn't committed a crime, that he had a
right to shoot the boy because he was stealing from him," said
Lewis.

"Our plan is three-pronged. Our strategy is to be visible to make
the plan work. Our first demand is that the store owner pay the
boy's doctor bills, go to his home with TV coverage, hand the boy
a pack of cookies and apologize, and say he realizes that his life
is more important than a package of cookies. Then we'd leave Kim
alone right there.

"If Kim doesn't do that, our second prong is to bring enough noise
to the community in the immediate area so that they will put
pressure to get Kim arrested.

"Our third prong is to improve relations between blacks and
Latinos. This child was mistreated and we want to make sure he
gets the treatment due any citizen. We want Mexicans to know that
blacks accept them as well as any other citizen of the United
States and we defend them as much as we defend blacks.

"It doesn't matter if Mexicans are legal citizens. They have the
right to equal protection as much as anyone in the U.S. They are
human. There's law in this country to protect humans. If we don't
make sure the Mexicans are protected, we won't be well-protected."

The goal of the Economic Empowerment Enforcement Committee is to
align the fights against police brutality and merchants who are
mean and unreasonable to their customers. "We are working to bring
economic power to the underprivileged. The youth foundation is our
key," said Lewis.

You can contact the EEEC at 1000 S. Dwight Avenue, Compton,
California 90220. Telephone: 310-608-1254.



******************************************************************
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
CULTURE UNDER FIRE

Culture jumps barriers of geography and color. Millions of
Americans create with music, writing, film and video, graffiti,
painting, theatre and much more. We need it all, because culture
can link together and expand the growing battles for food,
housing, and jobs. In turn, these battles provide new audiences
and inspiration for artists. Use the "Culture Under Fire'' column
to plug in, to express yourself. Write: Culture Under Fire, c/o
People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

10. SOUTH AFRICAN MUSICIAN HUGH MASAKELA BOOGIES ON APARTHEID'S
GRAVE

By Michael Lipton

History was made and people celebrated in the streets as the
African National Congress won a landslide victory in South
Africa's first election to include its black majority. Nelson
Mandela, the party's candidate who spent nearly 30 years in
prison, was reluctant to claim victory before a plurality was
tallied. In a statement that rang true to the nature of his
people, he proclaimed, "We'll boogie nonetheless, because we think
it's about time."

Thousands of miles away in a Vermont hotel room, South African
musician Hugh Masekela echoed his friend's sentiments nearly word
for word. "We are living for more than just freedom," he said in a
phone interview. "We are living to really boogie. We've been
waiting a long time. White people really don't know how to boogie.
Now they're going to boogie with us."

Masekela, who has shared stages with everyone from Jimi Hendrix
(at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival) to Paul Simon (as part of
his Graceland Tour), is touring in support of a CD entitled Hope.
Hope is all he and his people have had since the government
created the apartheid state in 1948.

The disc also marked the first time Masekela was able to work with
South African musicians since his self-imposed exile more than 30
years ago. For the occasion, he revisited some of his most popular
cuts. It is, he explained, a gift to his people.

"These were musicians who grew up with these songs and people I
was looking forward to playing with someday," he said. "I didn't
have to write anything down; they put the music where it belongs.
It's great to give them back to the audiences being played by
South African musicians."

Musically, nowhere is the emotional impact of Mandela's victory
more evident than in "Mandela (Bring Him Back Home)," a tune
Masekela penned a decade ago, after receiving a card from the
imprisoned ANC leader.

"I was living in Botswana and he sent me a card from jail," he
said. "Everything he wrote was so clear and concise. The spirit of
freedom just lifted off the pages. It was like I was in jail and
he was a free man writing to me; the song came very easily to me.
It is one of the songs that will never go away."

"Mandela has yet to be able to walk around freely in his own
country but it seems like it is going to eventually happen. I
really didn't think this [the election of a black leader] would
happen in my lifetime. It was inevitable because I knew the people
in South Africa would always be determined to get their freedom
but I didn't think I would not only live to see it but to enjoy
the benefits."

With Mandela's victory nearly certain, Masekela seemed to muster
some compassion, albeit sardonic, for the white minority.

"The unfortunate thing for them was they were a very small
minority," he said. "Privilege is a hard thing to give up and it's
very hard for them to swallow what's happening. But it's like Bob
Dylan said, �It's all over now, Baby Blue.'

"I would say our oppressors are very lucky that they had us to
oppress because we are very generous people. Mandela has said even
the bombers should still be able to come and sit down at the
negotiating table. They are very fortunate because if it was
another country, they would be massacring the white people by
now."


******************************************************************
11. 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


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 requests
for 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
Baltimore: (410) 467-4769
Detroit: (313) 839-7600
Los Angeles: (310) 428-2618
Washington, D.C.: (202) 529-6250
Oakland, CA: (510) 464-4554


GETTING THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE IN PRINT

The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE is available at many locations nationwide.
One year subscriptions $25 ($35 institutions), bulk orders of 5 or
more 15 cents each, single copies 25 cents. Contact PEOPLE'S
TRIBUNE, P. O. Box 3524, Chicago, Illinois 60654, tel. (312) 486-
3551.


WRITING FOR THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE

We want your story in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE. Send it in! Articles
should be shorter than 300 words, written to be easily understood,
and signed. (Use a pen name if you prefer.) Include a phone number
for questions. Contact PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, P. O. Box 3524, Chicago,
IL 60654, tel. (312) 486-3551.


******************************************************************
We encourage reproduction and use of all articles except those
copyrighted. Please credit the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE. The PEOPLE'S
TRIBUNE depends on donations from its readers -- your generosity
is appreciated.
******************************************************************

You are viewing proxied material from infinitelyremote.com. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.