From
[email protected] Jan 30 10:56:39 1995
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 94 11:04 CDT
From: James Davis <
[email protected]>
To:
[email protected]
Subject: People's Tribune 10-24-94 (Online)
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People's Tribune (Online Edition)
Vol. 21 No. 43 / October 24, 1994
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
Email:
[email protected]
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INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE (Online Edition)
Vol. 21 No. 43 / October 24, 1994
FRONT PAGE STORY FOLLOWS INDEX
Editorial
1. POVERTY LINE HAS BECOME A BATTLE LINE
News
2. MEXICO: 'THE STORM CENTER OF CHANGE'
3. DRUG RULE, MILITARIZATION, DISCONTENT ON THE RISE IN MEXICO
4. JUVENILE INJUSTICE IN LONG BEACH
5. THE REAL WAKE-UP CALL FOR AMERICA: 'IT IS TIME FOR UNITY...'
6. WELFARE FOR THE RICH: LUXURY PUBLIC HOUSING FOR CHICAGO
HOUSING AUTHORITY'S JOHN LAUER
7. THERE'S PLENTY OF WORK TO BE DONE: STATEMENT ON JOBS
8. SAN FRANCISCO: DEFEAT PROPOSITIONS M & N
9. BILLIONAIRE CAPITALISTS ARE RUINING THE NATIONAL PASTIME:
LET'S TAKE BASEBALL BACK FROM THE OWNERS
American Lockdown
10. MICHIGAN INMATE PROTESTS 'MODERN-DAY DEATH CAMPS'
Deadly Force
11. DEADLY FORCE: AFTER SHACKLING, PEPPER SPRAY
Perspectives
12. WHAT WORDS WILL WE LIVE BY? WILL 'CAPITAL' OR 'MORALITY'
DEFINE AMERICA?
13. AMERICA'S UNSUNG HEROES AND HEROINES
14. ANNOUNCEMENTS, EVENTS, ETC.
15. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
PAGE 1 STORY
HOUSING COP FIRES .357 GUN, KILLS 10-7EAR-OLD BOY
WE CAN MAKE A BETTER WORLD THAN THIS!
Since when did it become OK for police to gun down children in
this country? Never!
But that's just what is happening. Why? Can we live in a better
society than this?
On Sunday, October 2, a Chicago Housing Authority security guard
fired his .357 revolver at a group of boys sitting on his late-
model car.
The boys ran and the bullets flew. One 16-year-old was shot in the
ankle ...
..While 10-year-old Ruben Bell was shot in the back of the head
as he tried to flee to a wooded lot nearby.
Said a press report: "Ruben fell face first into the littered
underbrush, his body so small that police said they did not find
it among the rags, empty bottles and cans until early Monday
morning." This after his grandmother spent all night frantically
searching for him.
Police murders of children like Ruben are becoming all too common
an atrocity. It is because the powers that be in this land -- the
millionaires and billionaires -- cannot assure any other kind of
future than more poverty and more savagery from the top.
No matter what the issue -- unemployment, homelessness, lack of
health care, failing education -- they can put forward no
solutions but fascist ones. Slash the safety net, throw the
jobless into the streets to face either prison or death from cold
steel or cold weather.
Totally discredited as a ruling class, they cover up for
themselves by blaming the victims of the wealthy for being poor.
Their lying media know no bounds; they'll use any justification
for crushing the poor, from their lack of "family values," to
their having a "low IQ," to their being born with "poverty genes."
In a climate such as this, Ruben Bell and millions of children
like him have been virtually set up to be slaughtered.
But in a society ruled by us, the millions of us who now are
forced to live in poverty, a child like Ruben could freely run to
live instead of fearfully run for his life. Killer cops and rule
by the rich would be a thing of the past, forever.
With the technological marvels emerging right now, we could give a
child like Ruben a society that has ended poverty, homelessness,
hunger, ignorance and violence forever.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
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1. EDITORIAL: POVERTY LINE HAS BECOME A BATTLE LINE
On October 6, even as the Census Bureau was reporting 39 million
Americans below the poverty line, the nation's savings and loans
were lining up for yet another installment of federal bail-out
dollars.
Despite admitting to the largest number of poor people in three
decades, the U.S. government continues to hand over billions of
dollars to some of its wealthiest citizens.
Isn't it amazing how much money seems to be around when
corporations cry "poor"? When, however, it comes to workers tossed
on the scrap heap or senior citizens slowly starving on fixed
incomes, "poverty" becomes some kind of incurable disease.
Thirty years after the "war on poverty," we are witnessing a war
against the poor. Today, in the same Appalachian hills where
poverty "shocked" John F. Kennedy in 1962, state troopers now beat
coal miners if they dare strike for a living wage. Today, welfare
mothers go to prison when they try to supplement their meager
allotment. Today, the people cry out for food and jobs, and the
money goes for cops and prisons.
But it doesn't have to be this way.
As Americans march to the polls next month, record numbers will be
marching to welfare offices and soup kitchens on the way, many for
the first time in their lives. It's time to ask those who control
the purse strings of this nation what they intend to do about it.
What will be done about the shameless mis-distribution of wealth
that robs school districts, but enriches bankers?
In the face of massive poverty, are we going to continue the worst
criminal theft of public funds in modern history, the 30-year,
$400 billion bail-out of the S&Ls?
How many children could be fed, how many homeless people could be
housed with this money? How many shuttered hospitals could be re-
opened? How many jobs could be created? These are the questions we
need to put to every person whose name appears on a ballot.
In 1994, the poverty line has become a battle line. On one side
stands a handful of capitalists feeding like hogs at the public
trough. On the other side stand record numbers of poor people.
Should a tiny clique of wealthy parasites impose its will on these
millions?
As the ranks of the hungry, jobless and homeless swell, we
challenge the notion that poverty is a disease. What we are up
against is the product of a system that is based on private profit
and controlled by a clique of wealthy parasites. And they can be
overturned if we organize ourselves to do so.
******************************************************************
2. MEXICO: 'THE STORM CENTER OF CHANGE'
NOC SENDS GREETINGS TO THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
[Editor's note: Below we reprint the full text of a statement sent
by the National Organizing Committee to the recent meeting of
Mexico's National Democratic Convention.]
Dear Comrades,
The National Organizing Committee, which speaks and acts in
defense of the 80 million victims of poverty in the United States
of North America, sends its greetings to our Mexican brothers and
sisters convened at the National Democratic Convention.
The entire world has entered a new and dangerous period of change.
The old world order of exploitation is being challenged and the
peoples of the earth are compelled to once again fight for their
daily bread.
The storm center of change is concentrated in Mexico. The brave
fighters of Chiapas have risen as the advance guard of not simply
the poor of Mexico, but of the wretched of the earth.
Our solidarity is not one of declarations, but is expressed by the
real and practical struggle against a common enemy.
Despite the appearance of economic, military and political
strength, the United States of North America is moving toward a
social explosion.
A great economic revolution is underway in our country. The
accelerating shift in production from manual and mechanical labor
to robotics is casting millions of formerly productive workers
into poverty. Abandoned by the government as well as the
employers, this new class of poor and permanently unemployed
people is moving toward a struggle with the entire political
system, and in defense of their very lives.
Our government is moving to decapitate this growing struggle. They
are attempting to deflect the anger of the masses from themselves
by blaming the deepening economic crisis on the immigrants. They
are now concentrating their fire on the immigrant Mexican
nationals.
The economic aggression of our country's ruling class forced these
workers to leave their homes in search of employment. Now, they
become a convenient excuse for our rulers to continue their attack
against their real enemy -- the growing mass of poor people who
threaten to destabilize the entire country.
The attack against the immigrant worker is a smokescreen to hide
the fascist politics and goals of our ruling class. Under the
guise of finding "illegal aliens," they propose that we must now
carry identity cards, as in Hitler's Germany or in apartheid South
Africa.
They are proposing laws that will force citizens to betray one
another to the police. They are building scores of high-tech
prisons to jail the revolutionaries. They propose a two-tier
system of justice: one for the wealthy, the other for the poor.
They propose to destroy democracy in order to keep it from the
immigrants.
We fully understand how firmly the fight for democracy, for the
necessaries of life, binds our two peoples together.
Comrades, there are two United States of North America. One you
know very well. The imperialist USNA of the banks and drug dealers
has murdered the peoples, annexed the territories and impoverished
the countries of Latin America, especially Mexico. But there is
another USNA. It is the USNA of the poor people whose ancestors
were slaves, poverty-stricken immigrants and Native Americans. As
the imperialist USNA prepares another round of economic
aggression, the people of our country extend to you the firm hand
of friendship and solidarity.
We greet and support the great democratic spirit sweeping Mexico.
We salute the Zapatista National Liberation Army.
We wish you success in your deliberations.
You can count on our support and solidarity.
The National Organizing Committee
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
ZAPATISTAS BREAK OFF TALKS WITH MEXICAN GOVERNMENT
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico -- The Zapatista Army of
National Liberation (EZLN) reportedly announced Oct. 8 that it had
halted talks with the Mexican government because the government
demonstrated "it does not want a peaceful solution."
The Zapatistas launched an 11-day uprising of peasants in Chiapas
last January 1. Officially, there has been a cease-fire between
the government and the Zapatistas. However, the latest Zapatista
statement reports that Mexican troops "are openly preparing for
combat."
The EZLN said the government is provoking a conflict by mobilizing
its troops, circulating its armored vehicles and sending fighter
planes to buzz EZLN-held zones.
"Zapatista troops have finished mining all access routes to rebel
territory and anti-aircraft guns are in place. We are ready," said
the EZLN statement.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
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3. DRUG RULE, MILITARIZATION, DISCONTENT ON THE RISE IN MEXICO
By Axel Didriksson
The disintegration of the Mexican political system deepened
following the presidential elections of August 21. Many people
think that everything ended with the victory -- again -- of the
PRI candidate, Ernesto Zedillo. This is not how it is.
The problem is the elections for Mexico's president, senators,
deputies and some governors happened under ominous fraud. It is
estimated that there are 4.5 million registered non-existent
voters; 6.4 million voters registered more than once, and 7.6
million voters who are duly registered, but eliminated from the
lists.
This means that of the 16 million votes the PRI said were for
Zedillo, in reality there were less than half that number, because
the total was inflated and taken away from the opposition.
Though not reported in the international press or in the United
States, fraud is creating tremendous discontent in Mexico. Added
to this discontent is the awareness of misery and exploitation
left with the ending of Salinas de Gortari's six-year term, the
insurrection in Chiapas led by the Zapatistas and the spread of
problems to at least 15 states.
As if that was not enough, the change of presidents has caused
confrontation within the PRI and the government with extremely
dramatic connotations. It began with the assassination in March of
the original PRI candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio, followed by a
wave of kidnappings of bankers and millionaires.
Most recently, it continued with the recent assassination of party
Secretary General Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, the second most
powerful man of the Salinas-Zedillo team. Also, a Mexican press
report indicated that on September 23 an attempt on Ernesto
Zedillo's life took place while he was leaving the presidential
house.
These attacks are due to power struggles between the two most
important factions that control the PRI and the government. On one
side are the technocrats headed by Salinas de Gortari. On the
other are the "narco-politicians" tied to Juan Garcia Abrego, a
major drug trafficker.
Both groups debate among themselves in order to control power in
the government and are putting the entire country into anarchy. It
is this struggle that has led them to kill each other and it
appears they are willing to suffer the ultimate consequences.
Meanwhile, the government and the PRI desperately try to
manipulate the real information about what is going on. They want
to make it appear that presidential transition will be peaceful
and orderly. In fact, troops are heading for the state of Chiapas.
Combat planes and tanks are tightening the circle around the
Zapatista National Liberation Army.
The National Democratic Convention (CND in Spanish) is demanding
the annulment of the elections because of the fraud. The CND is
calling for new elections under citizen control and for a
transition to democracy.
The PRI in government will lead to a drug state in Mexico,
militarization, violence, corruption and repression. We Mexicans
do not want this to continue.
[Didriksson is a member of the presidency of the National
Democratic Convention of Mexico.]
******************************************************************
4. JUVENILE INJUSTICE IN LONG BEACH
By Jackie Gage
LONG BEACH, California -- An innocent victim of a violent crime,
16-year-old Jedediah Harrell, has spent the last three years in a
wheelchair.
However, that had no bearing when city officials chose to get
tough and enforce the new felony tagging law.
His moniker has turned up in many parts of the city and, despite
the fact that much of the graffiti was much higher than a person
in a wheelchair could reach, he was convicted of a felony and
could face up to six years in a juvenile facility.
With no regard to the public outcry from several grassroots
organizations, court liaisons and the officers in charge of the
investigation, and a complete disregard for the probation
department's recommendation in July that he be placed on
probation, Harrell was ordered to the California Youth Authority
for a 90-day evaluation pending sentencing.
When anyone is the victim of, or witness to, a violent crime,
there are physical, mental and emotional scars that need to be
treated in order to heal properly. But Jedediah Harrell's cries
for help on 12 different occasions for tagging violations went
unanswered.
Where is the hope for our youth when the adults ignore their
needs? Where is the justice in a system that allowed the district
attorney to compare his actions to that of a dog urinating on a
fire hydrant? A system that offers no future and only jail terms
for our children?
When is America going to acknowledge the injustices that exist in
our juvenile justice system?
[Readers can send letters of support to Jedediah Harrell in care
of Judge Gibson W. Lee, Long Beach Superior Court, 333 W. Ocean,
Long Beach, California 90801.]
******************************************************************
5. THE REAL WAKE-UP CALL FOR AMERICA: 'IT IS TIME FOR UNITY SO WE
CALL _ALL_ EAT STEAK'
By Jackie Gage
LONG BEACH, California -- When are we going to stop dialing
"976-WAKE" or setting our alarm clocks in order to pursue the
American Dream that does not exist for the new class of people who
technology has created in our world today?
For years, through our music, our books, our papers, we have
struggled to educate the people of this country so that they would
eventually wake up to the reality of what the elite class has
already planned for America as well as the whole world.
We have been taught since childhood to respect ourselves, our
country, the rights and property of others and we have struggled
to be the ideal parents by teaching our children the same rules.
Everyone has good intentions, but what happens? They sell us
machines that make our job easier without telling us that three of
our co-workers will be out of work next week when the new machine
arrives. They tell us that if we get a good education and work
hard and save money, we can achieve the American Dream. The new
class of Americans has been the brunt of that age-old joke for
centuries, but today no one is laughing.
Instead, we hear cries of pain, grief, hunger and rage. We hear
the voices of our children through defiance, trying to speak out
against this new form of slavery that has devoured the innocence
that once belonged to all babies and now belongs to the upper
class.
Actions that once were considered as mischief are now illegal and
they are trying to convince society that the blame lies solely on
the single-parent family. This is while gang violence, poverty,
crime, homelessness and hunger increase and human worth decreases.
Wake up, America! The real blame lies in the hands of the people
that are struggling to maintain control of the almighty dollar.
We, the real people of America, are tired of being fed leftovers.
It is time for unity so we can all eat steak.
PEACE, LOVE AND UNITY = REVOLUTION AND EQUALITY
******************************************************************
6. WELFARE FOR THE RICH: LUXURY PUBLIC HOUSING FOR CHICAGO HOUSING
AUTHORITY'S JOHN LAUER
Chicago public housing is among the most neglected housing in the
country. But apparently public housing has been very, very good to
the former Chicago Housing Authority benefits manager, John Lauer.
He plunked down $1 million in cash for this house.
At the same time he bought this house, $17.2 million in CHA
pension funds under Lauer's care disappeared. Strange.
Maybe he's just another crooked public servant, you say. Maybe,
but it might surprise you to know that housing-aid tax dollars
legally go to three-quarters of America's wealthy families. Many
of these people have mansions and even second and third homes.
"Most Americans think federal housing assistance is a poor
people's program," write Peter Dreier and John Atlas in an article
for The Nation magazine. "In fact, fewer than one-fifth of all
low-income Americans receive federal housing subsidies."
How can we let them get away with saying there's no money to house
the homeless and no funds to fix up public housing for the truly
needy?
This public housing for the rich -- it's got to go!
******************************************************************
7. THERE'S PLENTY OF WORK TO BE DONE: STATEMENT ON JOBS
We are told there are no jobs and then we're blamed for not having
the money to take care of our families. Everyone has the right to
a job, a right to contribute to the well-being of society.
Everyone is entitled to share in the economic paradise that's
possible with the technology available today.
WHY AREN'T THERE ANY JOBS?
People don't have jobs because new methods of production are
ripping apart a society organized for making profits. Computers
and robots are eliminating jobs based on wage labor and disrupting
the whole economic system.
"Work" need not be defined by the profits of the exploiters; it
can be defined by what it takes to provide for the health and
culture of our society.
THERE'S PLENTY OF WORK TO BE DONE AND PLENTY OF PEOPLE READY TO DO
IT.
We need more schools and teachers, hospitals and health
professionals. We need parks and youth programs so our children
know that society treasures them as its future. We need to get
food to hungry families and to our senior citizens who have built
this country and are now eating from trash cans. We need
supervised child care so poor mothers can work or go to school
without worrying about their babies' safety. We need to fix the
roads and clean up the neighborhoods that industry has ravished
and now abandoned.
The government should immediately put people to work producing
what this society needs to guarantee the health and safety and
education of its people.
In 1994 alone, the government will give $51 billion in direct
subsidies to business. Another $53.3 billion will go to tax breaks
for corporations. This money could be used to implement a real
jobs program that would:
>> create new jobs, not take jobs from the employed;
>> guarantee jobs at a livable wage, not force people to work at
slave labor;
>> create jobs that benefit society, not that just help maximize
profits.
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO TO FIGHT FOR THIS?
>> Unity is our most important weapon. It's up to those of us this
system is discarding to save society.
>> Hold the government responsible for solving the jobs problem.
Don't let the ruling class shift the problem back onto the very
people the system is discarding and attacking.
We call on the fighters from every front of this struggle to join
together to bring this plan to life.
-- National Organizing Committee
Join the National Organizing Committee! Write to P.O. Box 477113,
Chicago, Illinois 60647 or call 312-486-0028.
******************************************************************
8. SAN FRANCISCO: DEFEAT PROPOSITIONS M & N
By Sarah Menefee
SAN FRANCISCO -- It's election time, and San Francisco Mayor
Frank Jordan is up to his old tricks -- two new homeless-bashing
ballot measures. One of them, Proposition M, would make sitting or
lying on the sidewalk illegal in more than 30 districts in the
city.
Jordan's brutal Matrix Program has already totalled up 21,000
arrests for such "crimes" of poverty as camping, lodging,
trespassing, loitering, panhandling, "remaining on premises,"
selling without a permit and living in a vehicle.
If passed, Proposition M would give the cops greater license to
harass, ticket and jail the thousands who have nowhere to go --
who are thrown out of the shelters in the morning or turned away
at night. Who are not allowed to be in parks or other public
spaces. Instead of the services they need, they will be given a
fine of $400-$500 or imprisonment in County Jail -- or both!
The wording of Proposition M exposes just what the mayor is up to
-- pointing the finger away from himself and the rich profiteers
he represents and onto the homeless, who are being blamed for the
"spiral of social decline," when clearly they are in the streets
because the system has failed them.
As well as a license to death-march the poor till they drop dead,
or leave town, or into jail, Proposition M is designed to tell the
rest of society that this is OK, and that bashing the poor will
solve all our problems.
At the same time, the mayor guts basic services such as health
care and treatment programs, he's pushing to cut the General
Assistance grant from $345 to $299 a month, and forcing homeless
recipients to pay most of their checks to a slumlord for a
deathtrap hotel room (Proposition N, mandatory vouchers).
Defend everyone's civil, constitutional and human rights! Stop the
Genocide! Vote No on Propositions M and N!
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9. BILLIONAIRE CAPITALISTS ARE RUINING THE NATIONAL PASTIME: LET'S
TAKE BASEBALL BACK FROM THE OWNERS
By Jack Hirschman
SAN FRANCISCO -- Most everyone knows that the People's Tribune
focuses on the poorest strata of the working class, those people
who are the most vulnerable to the attacks of the ruling class,
those who must fight back or die -- the homeless, the
marginalized, the criminalized -- in a word, the poor.
So, of course, it might appear that the recent baseball strike and
cancellation of the season was and is really out of our league.
After all, on the surface, it looks pretty much like a fight
between billionaires or super-millionaires and millionaire
players.
The fact is, the baseball strike has very much to do with the poor
people of this country.
In an interview in New York two days before the season was
canceled, the secretary of the players' union referenced the
economy of San Francisco -- the fact that teachers here have to
buy pens and pencils for their kids out of their own pockets --
and remarked that that fact resonated to the failed, but
expensive, ballot measure for a new stadium for the Giants. The
secretary was trying to show that the baseball owners -- and their
exemption from anti-trust laws -- represent a cartel of such
economic power that they can hold whole city governments and
economies hostage to their profit-whims.
Such collusion between the cartel and cities leads to a polarizing
of economies -- especially around stadium bond issues -- and this
resonates to the schools and the streets. And when a strike
occurs, such as the one currently in motion, layoffs and downturns
in urban economies are sure to follow.
The most important thing experienced by Americans in this strike
is the feeling -- the first of its kind for many -- that baseball
no longer is necessary at the major league level. That feeling
indicates that it no longer represents the democratic liberty that
has been its traditional attraction for many.
The fact is, baseball isn't necessary at that level because the
capitalists have destroyed it. It belongs to entertainment, to
media, and it is being removed from the people even as it pretends
it still belongs to them.
We can have it back when the owners are run out of town and the
sport is controlled by the people and the players play for the
people and the game is a genuine part of people's life, not an
extortion.
There is no other way for baseball.
The current strike has revealed just how bankrupt those rich mugs
can render a society enthusiastic about athletics. It is one of
many that are bound to show the people of the United States that
the whole system has got to be changed.
******************************************************************
10. AMERICAN LOCKDOWN: MICHIGAN INMATE PROTESTS 'MODERN-DAY DEATH
CAMPS'
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
With this issue, the People's Tribune is proud to begin "American
Lockdown," a new column on the prison struggle in the United
States.
Largely inspired by the overwhelming response to September's
Special Prison Edition of the People's Tribune, the column will
feature inmate correspondence, reprints from prison publications,
editorials and information on the growing struggle against
repression and the prison industry in this country.
We encourage all readers to submit articles, clippings and
cultural expressions for publication.
As the ruling class answers the just demands of poor people with
prison cells and as oppressive legislation packs the jails,
juvenile detention centers and penitentiaries of this country, we
are confident that "American Lockdown" will become an important
part of the struggle.
Write to: American Lockdown/People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, Illinois 60654.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
By Ali K. Abdullah, #148130 -- CEEC Facility
JACKSON, Michigan -- I am fighting a system that has taken for
granted that it can do anything it pleases against my people, my
people being all those who have been systematically squeezed out
of the riches/wealth of this nation and forcibly placed in the
ranks of social and economic depravity and hopelessness.
My people are the poor, the uneducated, the homeless, the elderly,
the defenseless youth, the broken-spirited, the orphans, the
unemployed, the unconscious drug addicts, the convicted felons who
are now, or have been at one time, rotting away inside one of
America's modern-day death camps called "prisons."
For all of my people who may happen to read this request, I ask
that you do your duties. Do your duties to help fight a system of
lies. A government filled with political racism that thrives on
feeding the public 20-second sound bite news and creating havoc
and fear in the uninformed masses, whereby they blindly and
ignorantly pull the levers at voting booths to allow these
political snake charmers, robbers and liars to raise more
taxpayers' dollars to fund and lock up more people, build more
prisons, and deprive the suffering masses of badly needed, vital
services.
However, there is still hope -- even in this seemingly never-
ending sea of darkness. I say that it is up to us -- those who
are locked down, chained, dehumanized within the state and federal
prisons, as well as our comrades who have not "yet" been placed
inside the death camps of prison -- to rise.
There is no question in my mind that if all of our imprisoned
voices speak the same language, this entire nation's "Wall of
Jericho" will come tumbling down.
******************************************************************
11. DEADLY FORCE: AFTER SHACKLING, PEPPER SPRAY
ANOTHER DEATH AT THE SYRACUSE PUBLIC SAFETY FACILITY RENEWS
QUESTIONS OF TORTURE
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
"Deadly Force" is a weekly column dedicated to exposing the scope
of police terror in the United States. We open our pages to you,
the front line fighters against brutality and deadly force. Send
us eyewitness accounts, clippings, press releases, appeals for
support, letters, photos, opinions and all other information
relating to this life and death fight. Send them to People's
Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, Ill. 60654, or call (312) 486-
3551.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
By Nancy Rhodes
[Editor's note: Below we print excerpts from an article in the
September issue of the Peace Newsletter, published by the Syracuse
Peace Council.]
SYRACUSE, New York -- When Johnny L. Williams died after a chaotic
incident in the Public Safety Building jail on July 25, the
Sheriff's Department first claimed he fractured his own skull
during suicidal head-first jumps off his sink before deputies
could subdue him.
The autopsy report, released August 15, listed "positional
asphyxia" as cause of death. At a press conference the same day
called by their attorney, Williams' family demanded the Sheriff's
Department stop using pepper spray until its role in his death is
clarified.
Also known as "OC," oleoresin capsicum is an oily cayenne pepper-
based material originally developed as bear repellent and still
used in animal control. Some 20 brands are now used by about 4,000
police agencies in the United States. Almost three-quarters of
them have used pepper spray for only about three years.
There has been virtually no research into its safety or long-term
effects on humans, and there is no universally accepted agency
which certifies training in its use. Because its active ingredient
occurs naturally and is not considered a food, drug or pesticide,
no federal agency regulates its manufacture.
Since [being first introduced in 1976,] it has been used in
communities by police and sheriffs as well as to quell prison
riots and control labor strikers.
As if all this all weren't enough cause for alarm, the National
Institute of Justice notes that in aerosol form pepper spray may
use alcohol as a carrier, which makes it flammable. The NIJ
reports a case where police sprayed an armed, agitated adolescent
and then shot him with an electric stun gun, which ignited the
alcohol in the pepper spray, drenching his clothing, and set him
afire.
And finally, one can muse on how come that teen-ager's clothing
would be "drenched" with pepper spray anyway, a substance
supposedly calling at most for several one to three second bursts
from an aerosol can.
What were those three whole cans they used on Johnny Williams all
about? Maybe we need to stop and reconsider what we're doing.
[The author is a Syracuse activist working with the Task Force on
Community Relations and was instrumental in the creation of the
Syracuse Citizen Review Board to monitor police misconduct.]
******************************************************************
12. WHAT WORDS WILL WE LIVE BY? WILL 'CAPITAL' OR 'MORALITY'
DEFINE AMERICA?
By George Bru
CHUNCHULA, Alabama -- The following terms are taken directly from
the American Heritage Dictionary. Using "common sense," apply
their definitions to today's society. Forget the propaganda that
you were taught. These words have real meanings which, if applied
fairly, speak for themselves.
DEMOCRACY: A political or social unit of government, by the
people, with the objective of creating a social condition of
equality and respect for the individual within the community.
Is there social equality in America?
DEMOCRATIC: Pertaining to, or promoting the interests of the
people; persuaded by, or practicing social equality; or, as George
Du Maurier states: not snobbish, having "a proper democratic scorn
for bloated dukes and lords."
Is our system promoting and protecting the interests of all people
-- or just the interests of the bloated rulers and the rich?
SOCIETY: A group of human beings distinguished from other groups
by mutual interests, participating in characteristic relationships
and shared institutions. [From the Latin societas: fellowship,
union; from socius: a sharing.]
Do the rich, poor and middle class share the same mutual
interests?
SOCIAL: Living together in communities or characterized by such
communal living; sociable. [From the Latin socialis: of
companionship; from socius: companion, partner.]
Is our society characterized by a sense of community? Or is it
characterized by a sense of individualism?
SOCIALIZE: To place under group ownership or control; to fit for
companionship with others; to convert or adapt to the needs of
society.
Are we adapted to the needs of society?
SOCIALISM: A social system in which the producers, the workers,
possess both political power and the means of producing and
distributing goods, on the basis of the needs of society.
Are the needs of the workers in America being met? Are goods being
distributed on the basis of need or being hoarded for greed?
CAPITAL: Wealth in the form of money or property, owned, used or
accumulated in business by an individual, partnership or
corporation; any form of material wealth used for the production
of more wealth.
Is wealth being used to create more billionaires or is it being
used to meet the needs of society?
CAPITALISM: An economic system characterized by freedom of the
market with increasing concentration of private and corporate
ownership of production and distribution means, proportionate to
increasing accumulation and reinvestment of profits.
Is the owning class accumulating profits for profits' sake? For
re-investment for more profit? Or profits to meet the needs of
society?
CAPITALIZE: To turn to advantage; profit by; exploit. [Often used
with "on," as in "To capitalize on an opponent's error."]
Are the workers in our society being capitalized on? Are we being
exploited?
Remember, all these definitions come directly from the American
Heritage Dictionary. To understand and apply them, we must
conceptualize each and see how we are benefiting or losing from
their application.
We can use common sense to determine which words to put into
practice so that we can all start living together as a community
with a set of ideas formulated by morality.
(*Morality* is a set of customs of a given society, class, or
social group which regulate relationships and prescribe modes of
behavior to enhance the group's survival.)
If we as a society refuse to regulate our modes of greedy
behavior, we will continue to degenerate and, ultimately, will
destroy civilization.
The ruling class is in the final phase of its existence. It is
splitting, causing a split within the common people. The "dog eat
dog" mentality is overtaking our society.
Deploying 100,000 more police officers will not solve the crime
problem. People resort to crime because of society's failure.
Where there is no vision of social equality, there chaos and
degeneration will prevail.
People want jobs. Jobs with decent wages, health care and
retirement. Jobs that provide a means of social equality.
The accumulation of wealth in this present world is despicable. In
one year, the number of billionaires rose from 47 to 358.
Society has always had to re-organize itself around its tools.
Today, we must re-organize around the electronics of the modern
world. New electronic technology has eliminated hundreds of
thousands of jobs. The value of human labor has been destroyed.
Under capitalism, labor is used for making profits. Today, labor
is worthless. Machines have replaced our jobs. We must re-organize
this society both politically and economically, so that each of us
will be able to live as human beings in respected conditions.
The people of the South are rising up against the established norm
of programmed brainwashing of the greedy capitalist rulers. Enough
is enough. We demand our freedoms -- freedom of speech and of
quality of life.
For more information on eliminating greed and avarice, call the
National Organizing Committee at 312-486-0028 or write to: NOC,
P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
Just as it is better to have loved and lost
than never to have loved before,
it's better to have struggled and lost
than never to have struggled at all.
the saddest thing about people who are scared
to struggle comes from a famous poem:
Mourn not the dead
but rather the apathetic throng;
the cowed, the meek
that know the world's great anguish and its wrong
but dare not speak.
Really, if you're going to mourn, don't mourn the fighter who made
a mistake and lost, but rather mourn the suckers who never
bothered putting up a fight!
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
******************************************************************
13. AMERICA'S UNSUNG HEROES AND HEROINES
By Jan Lightfoot
HINCKLEY, Maine -- It is said this nation's civil rights movement
was born from one defiant act by a black lady named Rosa Parks
who, because she was tired, refused to step to the back of the
bus.
The civil rights movement was not sparked until the time for it
and other conditions were correct for the events to happen. The
civil rights movement fought for the oppressed.
America is endowed with hundreds of thousands of brave people.
When people lack the resources to live, even just bare survival is
a heroic task. Of the people who stand up for their rights, their
families' survival, the rights of others, only one in 100,000 will
make the history books.
Yet each one who braves fighting a corrupt (or just incompetent)
system will both make a difference and should feel pride in their
accomplishment.
By utilizing the power given us by our Creator, some of us can
look into the mirror, content at the type of person who is staring
back at us.
In the fight for equality, there will always be battles to win.
Occasionally, we must stop and appreciate the battles we have won.
We should have a day for all unsung heroes and heroines.
******************************************************************
14. ANNOUNCEMENTS, EVENTS, ETC.
FOR THE BROADER VIEW, READ RALLY, COMRADES!
The People's Tribune gives it to you every week -- the stories of
those who are fighting a political and economic system that breeds
poverty and injustice, along with proposals for moving the
struggle forward. But the movement for justice and security also
needs a paper that sums things up, offers the leaders of the
scattered struggles a deeper understanding of events in the world
and our country, and unites those leaders around a strategy for
victory. That paper is Rally, Comrades!/!Agrupemonos, Camaradas!,
published, like the People's Tribune, by the National Organizing
Committee. Each issue of Rally, Comrades! is published in both
Spanish and English.
In the October issue:
>> Why America is moving toward becoming a police state and what
we must do about it.
>> The real story about what is happening in Africa today (part
1).
>> Unemployment is up, but there's plenty of work to do: Toward a
program for the fight for jobs.
>> How other movements have raised funds, and how the NOC can
raise the money it needs to succeed.
Don't miss these important articles. Subscribe today. Rally,
Comrades! is published six times a year. Subscriptions are $15 for
one year. For a free sample copy, write Rally, Comrades!, P.O. Box
477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647. To subscribe, send a check for
$15, made payable to Rally, Comrades!, to the same address.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
COMING FROM THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD: Law and order hysteria and
the U.S. imprisonment binge: Join us in a program to learn the
facts. Featured speakers: Randolph Stone, former Cook County
public defender and current University of Chicago clinical
professor of law and director of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, and
Jerome Miller, a leading expert in juvenile justice and
alternatives to incarceration. They will address crime statistics
and the media. There will be discussion on "three-time loser"
statutes, expanded use of the death penalty and more. October 22
at DePaul University in Chicago, Schmitt Academic Center, Room
154. Call the National Lawyers Guild at 312-235-0070 for more
information.
DEMONSTRATE! Protest law and order hysteria and the imprisonment
binge. Wednesday, Oct. 26, 8:30-9:30 a.m. at the Cook County
Courthouse Plaza in Chicago, 2600 S. California.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
WE NEED YOUR PLEDGE:
To read, to distribute, to use the People's Tribune!
The People's Tribune cuts through the lies that weaken and divide
the millions in poverty. It gets out the message of class and
unity -- the message that can destroy the poverty of the
capitalist system. It gets out the new ideas that give a vision
and hope to fight for a better way.
Reach out to every part of America with the People's Tribune!
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
******************************************************************
15. 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
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Reach us by phone:
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GETTING THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE IN PRINT
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One year subscriptions $25 ($35 institutions), bulk orders of 5 or
more 15 cents each, single copies 25 cents. Contact PEOPLE'S
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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,
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[NOTE: Issues #41 and #42 were not sent out to subscribers, due to
production problems.]
******************************************************************
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