From [email protected] Jan 30 10:57:10 1995
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 94 10:46 CST
From: James Davis <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: People's Tribune 12-19-94 (Online edition)

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                People's Tribune (Online Edition)
                Vol. 21 No. 51 / December 19, 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. 51 / December 19, 1994

Page One
1. HUNGER IN THE MILITARY: EVEN SOLDIERS NEED FOOD STAMPS

Editorial
2. THE GATT TREATY: FREEDOM FOR WHOM?

News
3. THE FIGHT AGAINST CALIFORNIA'S PROPOSITION 187: FORGING
   SOLIDARITY
4. THE CONTEXT FOR EVENTS IN MEXICO: THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY HAS
   NO BORDERS
5. MINNESOTA'S POOR PROTEST AT GOVERNOR'S MANSION
6. 'NIGHTLINE' REPORT FROM PRISON SHOWS INJUSTICE OF SYSTEM
7. KIDS LOSE OUT IN S.F. NEWSPAPER STRIKE
8. WELFARE REFORM IS LIFE-THREATENING: CAN WE SPEAK OUT?
9. WELFARE FOR THE RICH: NO SECOND FOR REICH'S PROPOSAL
10. CALIFORNIA PROPOSITIONS GIVE POLICE MORE POWER

American Lockdown
11. A PRISON INMATE TAKES UP THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE

Deadly Force
12. RESIDENTS CONDEMN THE HIRING OF COP WHO BEAT KING

Culture Under Fire
13. POEM: FOR JACK HIRSCHMAN ON HIS 59TH BIRTHDAY

Announcements, Events, etc.
14. LETTER: PT READER SUGGESTS WAYS TO RESIST THE WAR ON THE POOR
15. SHOP WITH THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE!

16. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE



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2. PAGE 1 STORY: HUNGER IN THE MILITARY

EVEN SOLDIERS NEED FOOD STAMPS; SOMETHING'S ROTTEN
IN AMERICA

Families of U.S. armed forces personnel on food stamps? Yes,
according to published reports.

The Army Times, citing a 1992 Defense Department report, has
reported that about 17,000 service members are drawing food
stamps.

Throughout the U.S. armed forces, said the Army Times, about $27.4
million in food stamps were redeemed at military stores in 1993.
That's about a $3 million increase over the previous year.

Says Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.): "More and more, the men and
women who have agreed to potentially lay down their lives for
their country are finding that along with the uniform may come a
losing battle against poverty.''

Another Army Times report cited information from the National
Military Family Association declaring that about 64 percent of the
spouses of enlisted personnel and 56 percent of the spouses of
officers are either working or looking for work.

The members of the armed forces are due to get a 2.6 percent pay
raise in January, but military pay will still be about 14 percent
behind comparable private sector salaries. Military salaries have
eroded in value by about 8 percent since 1983.

Now hear this: The next speaker of the House of Representatives,
Newt Gingrich, intends to enact the repeal of the food stamp
program upon which not only millions of civilian families depend,
but also many thousands of military families as well.

Millions of Americans are being thrown into the street as a result
of both corporate and military downsizing.

A ruling class that defends itself with the blood of men and women
in uniform while taking food out of the mouths of the children of
those men and women is not fit to rule!


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2. EDITORIAL: THE GATT TREATY: FREEDOM FOR WHOM?

In late November, President Clinton called Congress back for a
special session.

What was the emergency? Was Congress being summoned to help end
poverty or police brutality or to protect free speech?

Not by a long shot.

The special session was held only to ratify the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade. (The House ratified the measure on November
29 and the Senate followed on December 1.)

The GATT treaty will reduce or eliminate tariffs on goods traded
between 124 nations. It will also make "intellectual property"
like movies, computer software and copyrights subject to the laws
of international trade.

So, while millions of Americans endure hunger and unemployment,
President Clinton and the leaders of Congress have been busy since
Election Day. They've been hard at work, arranging the final
passage of a treaty to protect the property of those involved in
international trade!

That says an awful lot about what our leaders care about.

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a famous message to
Congress listing four "essential human freedoms" which Americans
believe in and are willing to fight for.

The Four Freedoms are: freedom of speech and expression; freedom
of worship; freedom from want; and freedom from fear.

Today, are our president and Congress fighting for freedom of
speech? (The Congress in which Jesse Helms is a leader?)

Are they fighting for freedom of worship? (The president and
Congress willing to abolish the separation of church and state in
America?)

Can anyone seriously suggest that the president or the members of
Congress are doing anything to create  "freedom from want"
(threats to eliminate welfare) or real "freedom from fear" (such
as rising police terror) in America today?

The passage of the GATT treaty shows that there is only one
freedom the ruling class of America cares about: free trade.


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3. THE FIGHT AGAINST CALIFORNIA'S PROPOSITION 187: FORGING
SOLIDARITY

[Editor's note: The following editorial is reprinted from the
December 12 edition of our bilingual sister publication, the
Tribuno del Pueblo.]

The passage of Proposition 187 has shaken up the entire country.

More than just the legal questions that are still pending, we have
before us the challenge of what to do. The answer to this
nightmare has the capacity to put us on the road to transforming
our society -- if we are capable of reflecting on it and taking
action.

The debate on the rights of immigrants is polarizing the state of
California. The fact that, on the one hand, thousands of people --
including many legal immigrants -- voted in favor of the
initiative reflects the capability of the politicians to foster
hate and division. On the other hand, the massive response of
doctors, teachers and community leaders to challenge this new law
by refusing to comply is of extreme importance.

One thing is clear. Today, the fight for the rights of immigrants
is totally connected to the future of the vast majority of people
in this country. In the '60s when the blacks embarked upon their
historic struggle for their rights, the United States was in a
period of economic expansion. The years of racial violence and
legal discrimination were able to be combated because there was a
huge degree of unity and will of the black people and because it
was economically and politically convenient for the government to
be "more democratic."

Today the situation is different.

Today the development of the world economy is resulting in great
changes. Today the production of goods is international and so is
the labor force, and unemployment is becoming permanent.

The scarcity of jobs and resources for the first time since the
'30s is impacting the United States. This is the source of the
campaign of hatred. Only hatred won't eliminate unemployment and
social problems.

In this context the movement for the rights of immigrants can only
be carried out if we understand that, in reality, it is not just
an issue of "defending the immigrant"; it is about putting forward
the questions of how we are going to resolve the problems that
society as a whole faces.

Either we allow necessity to divide us or we work to forge unity
between all those people with whom we share the desire to live a
life with dignity.

The campaign against 187 has to deepen and extend its work towards
a growing solidarity that involves all of our communities.


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4. THE CONTEXT FOR EVENTS IN MEXICO: THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY HAS
NO BORDERS

By Richard Monje

The new "global economy" is what all leaders and parties of all
countries are forced to deal with. The capitalists must control
this process to remain in power. NAFTA, GATT and the rush to
extend these trade pacts or to fight against them is to try and
utilize the forces of change -- the revolution in production.

The world is experiencing a worldwide economic crisis. This crisis
is being caused by the transformation from mechanics to
electronics, resulting from the introduction of robotics and
computers into production. Every form of production is being
forced to reach this level in order to remain competitive. Every
country is being forced to reach this level of production to
remain competitive.

Decades of economic integration between the United States and
Mexico have tied us together and NAFTA has deepened that
connection.

The revolutionaries in the United States need to understand the
direct relationship of our fight here to the revolutionary
struggle in Mexico. There is an inseparable connection of Chiapas
and the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) to the fight for
democracy in Mexico to the fight against Proposition 187, strike
struggles in Illinois, the Los Angeles Rebellion and the fight
against Proposition 184. It is not just about change in production
orchestrated by a few, but about a revolutionary struggle for
control of that change and who benefits.

On December 1, Ernesto Zedillo was installed in power in Mexico.
On December 8, the PRI candidate is scheduled to be installed as
governor in Chiapas. In Mexico, the government forces and the
democratic forces are locked into a collision course. Control and
repression in Mexico is basically no different than the control
and repression in the inner cities and housing projects or the
police brutality rampant throughout the United States.

The fight for democracy, civil rights and the struggle for
survival has no borders or nationality. The economic wealth exists
to end poverty the world over. The problem is who controls that
wealth and therefore power.


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5. MINNESOTA'S POOR PROTEST AT GOVERNOR'S MANSION

By Mark Thisius

St. Paul-- Over 120 poor and homeless people organized by Up & Out
of Poverty Now! and the Welfare Rights Committee marched
Thanksgiving week on the governor's mansion in Minnesota to
protest growing attacks on the safety net.

Republican Gov. Arne Carlson recently won his second term as
governor by attacking social spending. Carlson, like other
candidates across the country elected in the Republican landslide,
promised to cut social programs and build more prisons.

This message may have played well to the middle and upper classes,
but it was soundly rejected by the poor and homeless people who
marched to the governor's mansion on a bitter and cold November
26th.

Birgid Williams of Up & Out of Poverty Now! told the rally crowd:
"I'm not going to let any politician make me homeless again
without a fight. We can't and won't let Arne Carlson off the hook
if he cuts our benefits. We must and will stay in his face!"
Several speakers from the large Minnesota Hmong community stated
their solidarity with all poor people and promised to fight any
new attacks on welfare recipients.

This was the third march on the governor's mansion in the last
four years of the Carlson regime and the first blacked out by the
major media. The blackout reflects the growing conspiracy between
the corporate media and the corporate government to control the
debate over social spending.

Despite the blackout, the spirits of those attending the march was
high. We feel the tide is turning in breaking the denial and
apathy in our low-income community. Virtually every march
participant agreed to help organize a mass protest against
government attacks on our rights on the first day of the Minnesota
legislature in January.

For more information on the growing poor people's movement in
Minnesota, contact Mark Thisius and Up & Out of Poverty Now!
Minneapolis/St. Paul by calling 612-645-7421.


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6. 'NIGHTLINE' REPORT FROM PRISON SHOWS INJUSTICE OF SYSTEM

By George Bru

MOBILE, Alabama -- Of all the situations that are befalling
American society, none are more disturbing or disheartening than
the obvious "breakdown" of our moral and ethical standards.

Each of us throughout the course of our lives must contend with,
make choices, and state our opinions on issues of crime, poverty,
morality, ethics, etc.

Collectively, we will have an opportunity to choose. We can choose
the ideas and opinions of the socially conscious and God-fearing,
from whom all sources of true knowledge and wisdom stem. Or we can
choose the individualistic and selfish motives that drive the
characters and souls of the damned who inflict suffering and pain
on the poor and underprivileged.

_The second pain which will afflict the souls of the damned in
hell is the pain of conscience._ (James Joyce).

The ABC News program "Nightline," hosted by Ted Koppel, recently
was broadcast for three nights from within the walls of the
Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina.

During the discussions, the panel of judges, lawyers, consultants,
prison wardens, etc., expressed their opinions. None of them had
any profound solutions to the problems.

The prisoners were also given an opportunity to respond. It was
obvious from their testimony that few are behind those walls for
reasons any more justifiable than any one of us who are on the
outside.

It is society's makeup and society's failures that have caused
most of the inmates to be locked up and no one stated that
observation more eloquently than did Koppel with his closing
statement. He said:

"A crime is never the actual beginning of a story. It's simply the
event that seizes our attention and stimulates our fears.

"There will be some of you, no doubt, over the course of the next
few weeks, who'll communicate to me the many shortcomings of our
series. I will try not to follow the example of the late
congressman Wayne Hays, whose response to angry constituents was a
brief form letter that said: 'Dear sir or madam: You may be
right.'

"Instead, let me take this opportunity to tell you what I consider
to be my greatest failure in this series: an inability to focus on
content. Crime doesn't happen in a vacuum. If we were obliged only
to deal with sociopaths who commit crimes [for] the simple
satisfaction that it gives them, the solutions would be relatively
easy. But we are disproportionately hard on the poor and the ill-
educated in this country.

"It is absolutely true that even within that disadvantaged segment
of our society, there are more honest men and women by far than
criminals. But to be poor and uneducated in America already
constitutes two strikes and to automatically sentence someone to
life on a third strike without regard to circumstance or context
is unjust, imprudent, and will not solve the problems.

"That's our report for tonight. For all of us here at ABC News,
good night."

For us at the National Organizing Committee, we think we have some
answers. If you are interested, please call 312-486-0028 or write
us at P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, Illinois 60647.


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7. KIDS LOSE OUT IN S.F. NEWSPAPER STRIKE

By Jack Hirschman

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hundreds of poor news kids -- many of minority
families -- who distribute the San Francisco Chronicle and
Examiner newspapers are losing their jobs in the aftermath of a
"settled" 11-day strike of several unions against the newspaper
management.

The young deliverers, most of them in their teens, earn about $200
a month to help themselves and their families keep the wolf from
the door. Without such income, many families will be forced onto
welfare.

Demands to keep the news kids working were listed with the overall
demands of the striking workers. But as Kristen Bachler, head of
the city's Delinquency Prevention Commission, said:

"We lost the arbitration in March which took the kids' rights out
of the contract, and the unions were never allowed to put the kids
issue on the table during the negotiations."

The firing of the kids is part of management's double-crossing the
strike-ending agreements in order to steal the victory from the
workers.

The strike has been a bitter one, with goon squads hired by the
bosses to escort replacement workers into the plant and
distribution centers. When it was over, management began firing
workers outspoken during the strike; retaining replacement workers
and firing those who opposed them; and making deep cuts in the
ranks of the truckers (Teamsters union Local 921) who were at the
heart of the strike demands, and with whom the news kids worked.

This back-stabbing is part of management's ongoing strategy to
isolate the Teamsters, and create a situation where one newspaper
will have to sold to the other -- in a corporate sellout that
would dump hundreds of working journalists, pressmen, Teamsters
and more news kids into the street.

It's for that reason that there are continuous bitter feelings and
anger in light of the settlement. The strike, in the year of the
60th anniversary of the last general strike in the United States,
aroused widespread solidarity all over the San Francisco Bay Area.

Part of that solidarity, which was translated into righteous
picket lines, was because the issue of the delivery carriers was
on the line, even if not at the negotiating table.

Management has threatened any further strike activity with
immediate firing and even police action!

Management "settled" when Mayor Frank Jordan said he would pull
his massive police force from its security role: It was costing
too much money. The mayor and the bosses cut a deal; the strike
ended; verbally, at least, the workers' demands were met; there
were victory cries. All of which was undercut as management began
its double-crossing.

Neither the Chronicle nor the Examiner has held a compassionate
view of the survival plight of poor and homeless people. Nor do
they now, with respect to the news kids.

But this dramatic strike period in San Francisco is far from over.
Though a victory has been robbed by the usual crooks, a people's
solidarity has also been aroused.


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8. WELFARE REFORM IS LIFE-THREATENING: CAN WE SPEAK OUT?

By Jan Lightfoot

HINCKLEY, Maine -- The Homeless Crisis Hotline and studies done by
other organizations identify economic causes as a contributing
factor in 65 percent of the cases of women and children who are
homeless.

Ending welfare could be disastrous. So, we ask if other welfare
and advocacy groups throughout the nation would be willing to join
us in a Washington, D.C. march?

January 16, 1995, when Martin Luther King's birthday is
celebrated, would be a great day to parade in front of our White
House.

If there is to be a "welfare reform," let it be one of
compassionate caring, based on non-judgmental love rather than
punishment.

Hospitality House Inc. has written President Bill Clinton asking
that welfare mothers be allowed to speak to him about real reform
so that every woman and child can "fare well." But don't hold your
breath.

With the deluge of Republicans, we need the noise of AFDC mothers
willing to fight like tigers for their young.

Thirty years ago, other penniless freedom fighters marched and
won! Just 1,000 parents and advocates marching should bring faces
to even the meanest-spirited lawmakers, making it more difficult
for lawmakers to heap injury upon parents and children.

This idea is a huge undertaking. It will take something big to
prevent this life-threatening change from taking effect. Perhaps
groups can get bus companies to donate transportation. The 1960s
freedom marchers were also broke but they made it to Washington.
Can we?

Any group or individual who is interested, contact Jan Lightfoot
at 1-800-438-3890 or 207-453-2986. Presently, this is only an
idea; we need people to turn it into a reality.

[Lightfoot is the director of Hospitality House Inc. which
operates the Homeless Crisis Hotline in Hinckley, Maine.]


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9. NO SECOND FOR REICH'S PROPOSAL

By Leslie Willis

Labor Secretary Robert Reich fired back at Republican proposals to
cut food stamps, food supplements to women and infants and the
school lunch program.

Reich suggested, "Why not target corporate welfare?"

President Clinton campaigned in 1992 on such rhetoric and most
Republicans ranted and raved about "pork."

Still, the Labor Secretary can't get a second on his proposal to
cut $45 billion in corporate welfare.

Studies examining the underbelly of our government have discovered
that only a small amount of our taxes fall into a tin cup for the
poor. Most of our dollars sink into the silk-lined pockets of the
wealthy. Even the Democrats' research uncovered tax breaks to
corporations totalling $111 billion over five years.

It's obscene for our government to debate the existence of life-
saving programs like food stamps when we spend $33 million to pump
sand onto the private beaches of Miami hotels. How can we
seriously talk about cutting food supplements for women and
infants when we spent $11 million to build a private pleasure boat
harbor in Cleveland?

We must end corporate welfare before it puts an end to us.


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10. CALIFORNIA PROPOSITIONS GIVE POLICE MORE POWER

By Dino Lewis

SACRAMENTO, California -- By now, everyone in America knows of the
great victory that the rich and the powerful won over the poor
people in the 1994 elections in California. What you may not know
is that this victory made California the first police state in
America.

With the passing of Propositions 187 and 184, you now must sit
down, shut up, get out or go to jail.

Now, all over California, the watch dogs and overseers of the rich
and their money are celebrating their victory. They are doing this
by tightening their control over the people. In Merced, public
school students are forced to take off their coats, purses and
backpacks and put them on their desks and leave the room while the
dogs check them for drugs and guns.

On a Monday last November in Sacramento, my son Willie Lewis Jr.
was playing with some smaller children in a creek that is less
than a block from our house, when for some reason (not clear to
me), the police unleashed an attack dog on this group of
unsuspecting kids. My son, being one of the oldest, saw the dog
going after a five-year-old boy. He intercepted the dog, and for
this act of heroism he was rewarded with a beating from the police
and dog bites up and down his leg.

This is a clear message to me that the ruling class of California
feels that it can do whatever it wants to do to the poor people of
our community and no one had better resist.

This is unacceptable and we, the residents of the Morrison Creek
community, had better come together and develop a voice so that we
can have some control over what goes on in our community. The more
control they have, the more abusive they will become. So, if we
let them get away with this, we can start preparing for the death
of our children, because next it will be guns, not dogs.

[For more information and to get involved in the fight for your
rights, contact: Dino Lewis, 34 La Pera, #3, Sacramento,
California 95823, or call 916-395-3801.]


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11. A PRISON INMATE TAKES UP THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE

Dear People's Tribune:

Praise God! I never thought that I would find you. I have told
several hundred people of how they are just warehousing people
here and everyone seems just to say "Yeah, sure."

I thought at first, for 20 months now, that it was I who was just
losing it. Until I read a paper of yours dated September 12, 1994
["American Lockdown," the Special Prison Edition of the People's
Tribune].

I thought: Surely someone besides myself can see what is
happening. But then it was just like no one thought I was telling
them the truth. Well, today I got this paper from a guy in the
next dorm. I read your whole paper without putting it down. It is
really a good truth.

I feel that getting this paper today has given me a reason for
hope. Somehow I trust that I can be a help to the cause in the
future if not right now. But I know we need to get this paper
spread all over the U.S.A. and I am going to write to everyone I
know and ask them to subscribe and have them ask friends.

I will do everything in my power and God's power to help to
circulate this paper. It is a very good truth you are writing, and
I want it known throughout the United States.

If there's anything I can do to help, please write and let me
know. I want to help in any way I can.

Thank you and God bless you all,

Cleo Goodwin, No. 391145-F-4-208
Gulf Correctional Institution
Wewahitchka, Florida


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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.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
12. DEADLY FORCE: RESIDENTS CONDEMN THE HIRING OF COP WHO BEAT
KING

By Anthony D. Prince

CULVER CITY, California --

"I would never interfere with the way the police chief runs his
department," said Mayor Albert Vera, referring to the new man on
the job, Timothy Wind.

Wind, you may remember, was one of four Los Angeles cops charged
in the Rodney King beating whose acquittal helped spark the
bloodiest civil uprising of the century.

Fired by former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates and refused
re-instatement by current Police Chief Willie Williams, Wind found
that the savage stomping and billy-clubbing meted out to King and
his subsequent termination was no bar to becoming the community
service officer August 23, in this small town tucked in L.A.'s
western corner.

But a few people here did interfere, though so far unsuccessfully.

"I first saw it in the local throwaway," said Adele Siegel, a 78-
year-old retired school teacher. "I was very upset. I didn't know
anyone else who was aware of it to talk to about it. I was very
happy when Gary Silbiger [a friend and local immigration attorney]
called me to tell me there were other people who felt the same
way."

Siegel did more than get mad. She and about two dozen other Culver
City residents got organized. Calling themselves "The Committee to
Remove Timothy Wind," they collected more than 700 signatures on
petitions in a short time and confronted the City Council.

In the packed chamber, public comment against Wind's hiring
outnumbered supporting comments 6 to 1. Despite the protests,
council members took the same hands-off approach as the mayor.

"Of course [Wind] needs a job," declared Siegel. "He might try
using up all that pent-up energy by swinging an axe to chop wood."

In a letter to the Culver City News, residents James and Susan
Anderson wrote: "We shudder to think about the symbolic meaning
[of] hiring Timothy Wind. Does it mean you can kick and beat a
fellow citizen, get exonerated for those brutal actions and then
be hired to the Culver City Police Department as a community
service officer and be given a No. 1 ranking?"

Meanwhile, on the streets, Siegel has heard enough stories of
Culver City police harassment to know the problem goes even deeper
than Timothy Wind.

"A friend of mine said that her daughter was harassed by police at
10 o'clock at night and they scared the living daylights out of
her. She said it was just terrible the way the police scared her
for no reason," Siegel said.

The hiring of policemen who have been fired previously for
brutality or wrongful use of deadly force is a growing trend and
says a lot about what direction this country is going in.

In New Mexico, Officer Tom Lujan was hired as a sheriff in nearby
Bernalillo after he shot and killed a 27-year-old emotionally
disturbed man in Santa Fe.

In Chicago, two police officers initially fired for being
accomplices to the electroshock torture of suspects were re-
instated with full seniority and back pay.

Across the country, the most trigger-happy cops have little to
worry about as they pick up paychecks in one town after the next.

Meanwhile, back on the streets of Culver City, Adele Siegel
refuses to bow to the City Council and mayor. Having been rebuffed
on the hiring of Wind, Siegel now says her group's efforts will
turn to establishing an ongoing effort to monitor police
misconduct.


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+----------------------------------------------------------------+
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.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

13. POEM: FOR JACK HIRSCHMAN ON HIS 59TH BIRTHDAY

For Jack Hirschman on his 59th birthday
(and for every birthday after that)

By Brooke Heagerty


He never wanted to be no Robert Frost, okay.
(And he left those others behind years ago).
He didn't choose that road less travelled.
No.
He chose the other one, the road tramped by millions,
churned and turned up by their heartache and daily
    courage,
run blood red with their sacrifice and death.
He didn't choose that road into some snowy wood.
No.
He chose the road that led to the streets.
What price did he pay for this?
What sacrifice did he make?
None.
This is where his heart,
his conscience, led him.
He speaks now, not as a lonely voice in the wilderness,
but with the voice of millions.



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14. LETTER: PT READER SUGGESTS WAYS TO RESIST THE WAR ON THE POOR

Dear People's Tribune:

The balanced budget is just another way of saying, "cuts to
education and social services."

The Republicans have only a slight majority in the U.S. Congress.
If we can learn which Republican senators can be influenced to
vote "nay" on the bad bills, we could have people from across the
country writing and telling the senators their stories.

We need a list of 10-30 Republicans most likely to be swayed to
vote against the bad bills, and who among the Democrats is not
likely to need convincing to vote against the bad bills. This
would give advocate groups throughout the nation direction on
where to target their letter campaigns.

This can be accomplished by the People's Tribune examining where
Congress stands on the  issues of welfare reform and the acts to
balance the budget, along with providing the addresses of
representatives and senators.

We also could use a listing of major reporters who deal with
welfare or social issues. For example, Jennifer Dixon is the AP
welfare reporter out of Washington and can be reached care of The
Associated Press, 2021 K St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006.

The names and addresses of newswires would be useful for people
writing press releases. Perhaps in the next bundle or two, the
People's Tribune can ask distributors who know of local or
national reporters who write on welfare or human interest stories
to send in a listing from their areas.

Perhaps a special issue on creating positive social change can be
released. Maine has a new Economic Justice Coalition. What other
groups have sprung up in response to "the undeclared war on the
poor"?  We need ammo to fight back. "The Undeclared War on the
Poor: What Changes in '95?" might be a valid title for a special
issue.

- Jan Lightfoot

Lightfoot is a spokesperson for the poor who lives in Hinckley,
Maine.


[Editor's note: We would like to hear from our readers. Can you
help us with these projects? Do you have other ideas to share?]


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ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE

The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, published weekly in Chicago, is devoted to
the proposition that an economic system which can't or won't feed,
clothe and house its people ought to be and will be changed. To
that end, this paper is a tribune of the people. It is the voice
of the millions struggling for survival. It strives to educate
politically those millions on the basis of their own experience.
It is a tribune to bring them together, to create a vision of a
better world, and a strategy to achieve it.

Join us!

Editor: Laura Garcia
Publisher: National Organizing Committee, P.O. Box 477113,
Chicago, IL 60647 (312) 486-0028


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