From
[email protected] Jan 30 10:57:24 1995
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 94 09:32 CST
From: James Davis <
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To:
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Subject: People's Tribune 12-26-94 (Online Edition)
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People's Tribune (Online Edition)
Vol. 21 No. 52 / December 26, 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. 52 / December 26, 1994
Page One
1. SOCIAL SECURITY THREATENED
Editorial
2. SUPREME COURT RULING PUTS RIGHTS AND PUBLIC IN GREAT DANGER
News
3. ENCRYPT NOW AND AGITATE!
4. RADIO HATEMONGER CALLS FOR KILLING THE HOMELESS: FLOOD HIS
STATION WITH PROTEST!
5. RALEIGH, NC: NEW 'CHRISTMAS CAROL' WILL FOCUS ON HOMELESS
6. HOMELESS GROUP OCCUPIES S.F. BUILDING
7. THE SAFETY NET: IS THE END NEAR?
8. NEW CONGRESS GOES (PORK) BARRELIN' ALONG
9. IRISH-AMERICAN GROUP CONDEMNS CALIFORNIA'S PROPOSITION 187
10. ALDAPE GUERRA TO GET NEW TRIAL OR FREEDOM!
American Lockdown
11. TEXAS PRISON GUARDS CHARGED WITH MURDER
Deadly Force
12. NO TO SEMI-AUTOMATIC WEAPONS FOR THE S.F. POLICE!
Culture Under Fire
13. MUSICAL ALLIANCE MEETS IN THE MOTOR CITY
14. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE
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1. PAGE 1 STORY: SOCIAL SECURITY THREATENED
U.S. CONGRESS DEBATES CHANGING THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM
A REAL REVOLUTION IS UNDERWAY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON, AS MORE AND
MORE PEOPLE DECIDE TO FIGHT THE CUTS AND THE POLITICIANS PROPOSING
THEM.
Peace on Earth, good will toward men.
That's what the holiday season is supposed to be about. That's
what millions pray for.
So why are we threatened by our government instead?
The new leaders of the U.S. Congress told us months ago that they
intend to cut programs benefiting the neediest people in this
country.
Now they're talking openly about changing the Social Security
system.
Having paid into the system all their lives, Americans expect
Social Security to be there for them when they retire. As meagre
as the retirement payments are, Social Security is the only thing
standing between many people and life in the street.
For years, ruling-class politicians have manipulated the Social
Security fund. They've used it for purposes it was never intended
for, such as paying the general bills of the government and hiding
the true size of the deficit, leaving us with a multibillion-
dollar IOU. Now they want to make us pay for this thievery!
Some people made the mistake of believing that the cuts in
entitlement programs would be directed only at welfare mothers and
their children (as if that wasn't bad enough). Now it's clear that
the cuts will hurt a much broader section of the population.
If the spirit of this holiday season is to have real meaning,
thinking people must decide that once-a-year charity is not a
solution to poverty in a land of abundance. Cutting benefits is
intolerable at any time of the year. Today, the same technology
that eliminates jobs under this economic system could eliminate
poverty under a different one.
A real revolution is underway this holiday season, as more and
more people decide to fight the cuts and the politicians proposing
them.
As a new year begins, we are looking for some stars of hope. We
need individuals ready to fight for the humanity they believe in.
Join the People's Tribune and the National Organizing Committee
and help develop the plans necessary to end this suffering.
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2. EDITORIAL: SUPREME COURT RULING PUTS RIGHTS AND PUBLIC IN GREAT
DANGER
'Why do so many of our children die this way?'
-- Mary Lou Redd of Chicago, whose unarmed neighbor, Jason
Collins, 16, was shot and killed by police.
You might not think a U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning the
use of police deadly force is relevant to you.
You may choose to ignore the court's finding that cops can now
shoot to kill a fleeing person who has been placed under arrest,
even if he is unarmed and not considered dangerous.
On December 5, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a ruling
by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. That ruling stated that the
due process rights of Roland Brothers Jr. of Texas were not
violated in November 1988, when Harris County sheriffs fired 12
shots at the alleged car thief.
You could say that this decision does not matter to you. But you
would be wrong, dead wrong.
Ask Brenda Jackson of Chicago. Her husband was killed in a head-on
collision with another vehicle pursued by police on the wrong side
of an expressway.
Or talk to Sharon Parker. She nearly lost her life when police in
Crystal Lake, Illinois fired a fusillade of bullets into the
window of a car that she and her boyfriend (unknown to her, a
fleeing ex-felon) were in. And these incidents happened before the
December 5 court ruling.
Now, as the restraints on police deadly force are further
loosened, there will be more people like Parker and Jackson, more
who will be placed at risk right alongside the "pretrial
arrestees" who, according to the court, give up all protections
against "unreasonable seizure" once they're under arrest.
In upholding the actions of the Harris County sheriffs, the
nation's highest court refused to extend its own 1985 decision
that struck down a Tennessee "fleeing felon" law. At that time,
the court ruled that police may not shoot fleeing criminal
suspects who pose no immediate danger.
Now, in the Brothers case, the court has declared that that
decision doesn't apply once a person is under arrest.
Now the police will be able to be the legal judge, jury and
executioner so long as they report the victim was "in custody." An
arrest used to be the first step in due process. Now, it could be
the last.
With this decision, it should be clear that no legal authority is
going to intervene to halt the mounting use of deadly force in
this country. By all means necessary, that job falls to those
against whom police power is increasingly directed: the poor, the
young, the oppressed, the striking worker, the homeless, and --
oh, yes -- those who believe that our rights don't end at the tip
of the billy club or the barrel of a 9mm police special.
******************************************************************
3. ENCRYPT NOW AND AGITATE!
DON�T LET THE GOVERNMENT CONTROL ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
By Stephen De La Rosa
November 10, 1997:
"They came into our home in the beginning of late night. Our
family was all tucked in for the evening ... lost in dreams,
visiting other worlds.
"Until the hammers fell.
"I first heard them breaking our slumber at the front door; then,
a half-second later, they breached the rear door and the French
door. ...
"They rushed in like a cold wind upon a wet back. We heard them at
once. We met at the landing outside of our bedrooms. Fear was upon
the faces of my normally invincible teen-agers. Terror was in my
mind and heart.
"Our home had quickly filled up with intruders. I had no time to
grab my weapon. No time to mount any defense for my children. In
they came -- uniformed and armed and with a mission. ...
"... They systematically confiscated the entire contents of our
library. Computers and hardware is what they were most interested
in. I realized then why they were there. I had sent out, that very
evening, a call through the
Internet for nonviolent civil disobedience to protest the arrest
of yet another private citizen who chose to use encryption. ...
"Our arrest as an entire family proved that the government would
stop at nothing to halt the use of private encryption techniques."
-- Memoirs From the American Disappeared Ones
B.A. Reader
Since December 15, 1791, American citizens have enjoyed the
protection of the Bill of Rights. Two hundred and three years
later, these same laws are being attacked by descendants of the
same forces which fought against their passage originally.
Those without a sense of justice will not hesitate to make
encryption illegal.
Encryption is a numerical process designed to code and encrypt
private electronic communications.
The phone company uses encryption daily with cellular calls placed
from the family sedan.
Using "hardware" (the physical realm of the electronic world) and
"software" (the ethereal), we as American citizens have the
ability to protect our families, homes and businesses. The
government wants to change this. It wants private citizens to be
thought of as potential enemies, just like the Japanese who were
interned unlawfully during World War II.
On February 4, 1994, a government plan was introduced called the
Digital Telephony bill. (See the letter from the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, Inc. dated February 7, 1994.) This bill is
aimed at making telephone and computer networks "wiretap
friendly."
At the same time, the Clipper chip standard was introduced. The
Clipper chip is designed to scramble all electronic messages sent
using telephones, faxes, computer modems and cellular phones into
a secret code that only our government could decipher. This
standard gives our government the keys to all our private lives.
If you think, as I do, that our government has gone too far, then
you have but one choice: Encrypt now and encrypt often. Encrypt
with the strongest program that you can find.
Former FBI Director William French Smith stated: "Without this
initiative, the government will eventually become helpless to
defend the nation from terrorism and other threats ... that can be
interdicted ... by lawful electronic surveillance."
Our FBI has a history of invading the privacy of American
citizens. This type of spying needs to end. The FBI has no right
to call for more powers to invade our domestic life. What William
French Smith neglected to mention is that with the passage of
these bills, the American standard of justice would be altered to
presume that an accused person is guilty, instead of being
innocent until proven guilty.
The Digital Telephony bill and the Clipper chip bill stand for
government supremacy and spying on people.
Our time to act is running short. We must enlist allies to fight
this assault on our freedom. Today, more than 838 commercially
available cryptographic software products are being sold in 33
different countries around the globe. (See "The Secret Sharers:
Clipper Chips and Cypherpunks" by Dan Lehrer in the October 10,
1994 edition of The Nation.)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation issued a statement on "Public
Policy for the Information Age" on November 1, 1993. "Without
strong cryptography," the statement said, "no one will have the
confidence to use computer communication networks to conduct
business, to engage in commercial transactions electronically, or
to transmit sensitive personal information."
The national banking system has been using encryption for over two
decades to transfer money and data around the world. One of the
largest cryptographic companies in the United States, RSA Data of
Redwood City, California, claims to have sold more than five
million units of its encryption software in 1994. RSA has licensed
its ciphering products to major companies such as Apple,
Microsoft, Novell and Lotus.
These companies will be economically disadvantaged if Clipper
becomes law. The actions of these computer giants must be followed
closely. If they remain strongly opposed to government controls,
we can count on the computer giants as allies. If, however, they
strike a bargain with the powers that be (in the interests of
corporate greed and government contracts), then all bets are off.
This would declare Big Business to be squarely on the side of
government and hostile to the rights of private citizens.
What can we do to prevent this scenario from happening? Encrypt
data and agitate for the defeat of these attacks on our rights.
We need to organize resistance to the plans of bureaucrats who
want to make America into a closed society where the government is
supreme. We must devise new and stronger devices to protect our
electronic transmissions.
We must encrypt now because these unknown enemies will come and
consume us in the night when we are seemingly safe in the arms of
those we love.
Join organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation who are
dedicated to preserving the Bill of Rights through the use of
electronic media. Talk to your neighbors and be prepared, for we
will be challenged to be citizens!
[This article was adapted from a longer original version by Chris
Mahin of the People's Tribune Editorial Board.]
******************************************************************
4. RADIO HATEMONGER CALLS FOR KILLING THE HOMELESS: FLOOD HIS
STATION WITH PROTEST!
By Jan Lightfoot
HINCKLEY, Maine -- One o'clock in the morning is not an hour for
hate -- or is it?
That's when Emiliano Lamon, a California radio personality on KFI
radio, had a less-than-divine revelation.
Lamon failed to disguise his hate for other humans. He asserted
his revelation came to him on his way to work last July 9. It was:
Putting the homeless to sleep like stray dogs.
The Los Angeles Coalition to End Homelessness decided to take
action against the call to genocide. The coalition staged two
protests outside KFI's studios.
Lamon never apologized or publicly recanted his remarks. KFI
didn't make equal time for opposing comments.
In fact, at a meeting on September 29 with the coalition, KFI's
general manager said, "It was not a matter of right or wrong. It
is a matter of ratings."
The education and advocacy group, now 10 years old, has asked for
a nationwide flood of letters from the homeless, from advocates
and others outraged by this blatant bigotry against the poor and
the homeless.
In response, the Homeless Crisis Hotline here in Maine sent KFI a
copy of a September 1994 article which appeared in Catholic Digest
about a homeless guy named Michael Dennis of New Orleans. He saved
the lives of two elderly crash victims, removing them from their
fiery vehicle.
Written on it was simply: "These are two people who are delighted
the homeless are not put to sleep like dogs."
We must fight overt and covert hate with knowledge and facts. Many
enemies of the poor disguise their hate. Disguised hate needs to
be fought as hard as hate that's in plain view.
We must educate the public to the real facts.
Write to KFI Radio General Manager Howard Neal, 610 S. Ardmore,
Los Angeles, California 90005. Phone: 213-251-3103.
Send copies to the Los Angeles Coalition to End Homelessness, 1010
S. Flower, Suite 216, Los Angeles, California 90015. Call Bob
Erlenbush at 213-746-6511 for additional information.
******************************************************************
5. RALEIGH, NC: NEW 'CHRISTMAS CAROL' WILL FOCUS ON HOMELESS
[Editor's note: The following is excerpted from a press release
from Home Street Home.]
RALEIGH, North Carolina -- Home Street Home is holding a charity
event on December 25 in Raleigh, North Carolina to help set the
agenda for the 1995 White House Conference on Aging.
The play "Christmas Carol" will be performed at the event. The old
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens will be updated for our time
to depict the true picture of what is happening in our society
today.
The focus of "Christmas Carol" is homelessness. "This is a topic
of great concern and interest to everyone," said Mary Uebelgunne,
who is chair of the planning committee for the event. "An
outgrowth of our charity event will be a report that will be sent
to the planners of the White House Conference on Aging. We will
include in our report suggestions for consideration in setting
national aging policy over the next decade."
The upcoming "Christmas Carol" has been officially recognized by
the White House as a White House Conference on Aging activity.
Mary Uebelgunne said, "President Clinton has emphasized grassroots
involvement in planning the White House Conference on Aging."
The purpose of the conference, to be held in May 1995, is to
produce policy recommendations that will guide national aging
policy. The activity being planned across the country to give
input on this policy will culminate in the May 1995 White House
Conference on Aging.
******************************************************************
6. HOMELESS GROUP OCCUPIES S.F. BUILDING
By Michael Steinberg
SAN FRANCISCO -- The homeless advocacy group Homes Not Jails took
over an empty six-story apartment building at 250 Taylor Street in
San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day.
As thousands of hungry and homeless people awaiting free holiday
dinners from adjacent Glide Memorial Church looked on from a
block-long line on Ellis Street, four members of Homes Not Jails
entered and occupied the vacant building at high noon.
The media gathered at Glide rushed across the street to record the
event while occupiers flung open windows and hung colorful banners
as supporters chanted "Homes not jails!"
This building had been empty since 1988, following the eviction of
all its low-income tenants by landlord Robert Imhoff of Landmark
Realty. The San Francisco Rent Board ruled the evictions illegal
and referred them to the district attorney's office, but Imhoff
has never been prosecuted.
Imhoff is considered to be the city's worst slumlord by many
housing advocates. He owns property valued at over $20 million,
but is infamous for refusing to fix up dilapidated, overpriced
rental units and is chronically delinquent in paying property
taxes, including those for 250 Taylor Street.
This Thanksgiving was the fourth time Homes Not Jails has publicly
occupied 250 Taylor Street. Over its two-year history, Homes Not
Jails has carried out over a dozen successful occupations of
abandoned buildings across the city to highlight the problem of
empty buildings sitting uselessly while thousands suffer
homelessness on the streets.
The last U.S. Census found 6,500 abandoned units in San Francisco.
Estimates of the city's homeless population are in excess of
10,000.
Besides its public takeovers, Homes Not Jails is constantly
seeking out abandoned properties and opening them up with and for
homeless people. Hundreds of such buildings have been made
available in this way to people without homes.
Homes Not Jails has also authored legislation that would empower
the city government to seize abandoned residential properties and
allow homeless people to fix them up as their own. This
legislation was introduced over six months ago, but thus far San
Francisco's Board of Supervisors has failed to act on it.
While legislators fiddle, and Mayor Jordan and the San Francisco
Police Department attack the homeless, Homes Not Jails continues
to provide a positive, direct solution to the problem of
homelessness.
Despite the social misery abounding in these dark days, actions
like those of Homes Not Jails can still light things up. And for
that we can all be thankful.
******************************************************************
7. THE SAFETY NET: IS THE END NEAR?
By Leslie Willis
Few welfare rights leaders were surprised by the November election
results or by the increasingly ugly tone of the welfare reform
debate in Congress.
"It's nothing new. It's just more extreme," was a typical
response, from Deb Konechne of the Welfare Rights Committee and Up
& Out of Poverty Now! in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
The terms of this debate have moved steadily rightward since the
Reagan years. Extreme "reform" ideas are turning into hard copy
like the "Contract with America" and the "Personal Responsibility
Act." The think tanks' notion of creating orphanages for children
whose parents are alive but poor is now being discussed seriously
in Congress.
Programs embraced by millions of Americans, such as the school
lunch program, the Women, Infants and Children program and even
the food stamp program, have become fodder for the political
cannons on Capitol Hill.
As the battle dust settles in Washington, the march will continue
down the road toward ending all entitlement programs. Our
representatives may differ on how fast to march, but not on the
destination. Stopping this march is the task not just of
revolutionaries and social activists but of all humanitarians.
What will cutting food programs mean? Today, five million children
under the age of 12 go hungry at some point each month. More than
10 percent of the population survives on food stamps. The welfare
reform debate is being waged on the backs of the poor. The
November election set the terms for this debate by linking welfare
recipients and immigrants with crime and job loss. Accepting an
ideology that says that no one has a right to anything means
destroying the safety net for all Americans, not just those
presently on welfare.
Jobs will not be created by denying food, health care, education
and housing to people. Crime will not be stopped by executing and
imprisoning more people than any other country in the world.
Throwing people off welfare after two years will crowd the already
bombed-out city streets with destitute women and children, easy
pickings for the booming prison industry.
The People's Tribune unites with all those fighting for a
completely different future. We believe that the contradiction of
living in a country that has so much wealth, that is truly the
land of plenty, while the ills of poverty increase must be (and
will be) resolved, not in favor of a handful of billionaires but
in favor of the whole society.
This can be accomplished by reorganizing society to use today's
technology to produce and to distribute to all people according to
their needs, not according to how much wealth they are able to
hoard.
******************************************************************
8. NEW CONGRESS GOES (PORK) BARRELIN' ALONG
By Leslie Willis
The Republican "Contract with America" promises to balance the
budget by cutting programs like food stamps, welfare and school
lunches. (Congress may even cut Social
Security).
At the same time, this contract calls for cutting taxes on the
profits of the rich (capital gains) and pumping more money into
the military budget.
If this contract is turned into law, the wheels of our "new"
government will continue to be greased with pork for the wealthy,
at an even heavier cost to the rest of us.
More often than not, pork-barrel projects mean welfare for the
rich. For example, "defense" is budgeted $260 billion. A lot more
than defense is being funded with that money.
During the recent congressional effort to increase the 1995
defense budget by $515 million, Senator John McCain of Arizona
said: "I think that the American people would be astounded to know
that ... a $260 billion expenditure ... of funds will now
authorize [just] four ships and 24 fixed-wing aircraft."
The decisions on how to spend much of this money are based not on
defense needs, but on which companies want lucrative contracts for
goods, services, materials, equipment and construction projects.
Many of the added construction projects being fought for are
located in the home states of the members of the U.S. Senate's
Armed Services Committee.
One such construction project consisted of an addition to a
gymnasium for rocket scientists in Huntsville, Alabama. The
addition, a fitness center, cost $2.6 million. Republican Senator
Richard Shelby from Alabama sits on the Armed Services Committee.
The pork-barrel projects and the Republican "contract" are nothing
more than a straitjacket for America, a means to ensure that those
who rule will continue to hold the purse strings. Isn't it time to
snip these ties that bind us and liberate our country's wealth?
Please send information for this column, or comments on it, to:
'Welfare for the Rich'/People's Tribune, P.O. Box 3524, Chicago,
Illinois 60654.
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9. IRISH-AMERICAN GROUP CONDEMNS CALIFORNIA'S PROPOSITION 187
[Editor's note: Below we reprint the full text of a statement we
received from the Irish-American Student Organization, an
organization in Chicago.]
PROPOSITION 187 BLAMES FAILING U.S. ECONOMY ON IMMIGRANTS
Proposition 187, a law recently passed in California, makes state
or federal services (except for emergency medical care)
unavailable to undocumented immigrants.
IASO sees this as an attempt to blame America's worsening economic
state on immigrants. If there were such a law in 1848, many Irish
people fleeing Ireland from the famine would not have been able to
stay and prosper. Who are we to deny that right to others today?
America has always called itself the land of opportunity and hope,
but Proposition 187 reserves the "American dream" for the few and
those of European descent.
IRISH REPUBLICANS OPPOSE PROPOSITION 187
An Poblacht/Republican News, the newspaper of the Republican
movement in Ireland, recently published an article on Proposition
187 which states Proposition 187 is economic opportunism and
scapegoating, not a patriotic gesture.
For instance, last year illegal immigrants in the state of
California contributed around $12 billion more in taxes than they
received in social-service benefits such as education, health care
and housing. (The Chicago Tribune, November 30, 1994, page 27.)
In addition, the labor which they provide -- usually with no
benefits and at extremely low wages -- is crucial for Californian
industries, most notably agriculture.
PROPOSITION 187 HURTS IMMIGRANTS TO INCREASE PROFITS
Social services make it possible for undocumented workers to
remain in the United States and raise families here so they don't
have to stay away from loved ones for long periods of time. The
longer they stay, however, the more likely they are to demand a
decent standard of living and oppose the horrendous working
conditions many of them endure.
Proposition 187 will make it difficult for immigrants to provide
for themselves and their families. This guarantees a high turnover
in the migrant labor force and high profits for corporations.
IRISH-AMERICANS FOR EQUALITY AND HUMANITY
Everyone, regardless of nationality, deserves a fair opportunity
to fulfill their basic human needs. Special deals cut with
Congress, such as the Irish Morrison visa, should not be at the
expense of others. Racism is at work when young Mexican men and
women are portrayed wildly stampeding across the Rio Grande to
take jobs while European people emigrating to the United States
are welcomed with open arms.
IASO sees Proposition 187 as an attack on immigrants of color; it
will also harm undocumented Irish immigrants who need these
services to make ends meet.
In support of Irish self-determination and in opposition to
racism, we must actively block any attempt to pass similar
propositions in the state of Illinois.
[For more information on the Irish-American Student Organization,
write to IASO, 3824 N. Janssen No. 2W, Chicago, Illinois 60613 or
call 312-296-6377.]
******************************************************************
10. ALDAPE GUERRA TO GET NEW TRIAL OR FREEDOM!
Ricardo Aldape Guerra has been living a nightmare for the last 12
years on Texas' Death Row. This undocumented worker was unjustly
sentenced in 1982 for the death of a Houston policeman, but now
there is a possibility of freeing him.
Aldape received a favorable decision November 15 from U.S.
District Judge Kenneth Hoyt in Houston. The judge ruled that his
first trial was unjust and ordered the government of Texas to give
Aldape either a new trial or his freedom within 30 days (that is,
by December 15). Judge Hoyt also declared that the evidence in
favor of his innocence were "overwhelming" from the beginning.
Demand justice. Freedom for Aldape Guerra before Christmas!
TOPIC
12-26-94
******************************************************************
11. AMERICAN LOCKDOWN: TEXAS PRISON GUARDS CHARGED WITH MURDER
By Marta Glass
HOUSTON -- On October 7, 1994, at the Terrell Unit, near
Livingston, Texas, groups of prison guards made themselves judge,
jury and executioner by reportedly going from cell to cell and
beating, kicking and stomping unarmed individual prisoners.
Prison officials say that inmate Michael McCoy, convicted of
unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, was beaten because he
allegedly spat on an officer from inside his cell. McCoy was
suffering from cancer, and twice underwent surgery for the disease
in 1993.
He was found in his cell that night, unconscious, and died two
days later at the prison hospital. Sources inside the prison
dispute the official position and state the real reason Michael
McCoy was beaten to death was because he had threatened to file
suit against TDC guards for the beating of another prisoner.
Guards Joel Lambright, 20, and Alex Torres, 31, are now free on
bond after being charged with McCoy's murder. Four other prison
guards, including a husband and wife, have been charged with
aggravated assault for allegedly seeking out and beating prisoners
in their cells. Prison officials admit as many as 15 other prison
guards may be facing charges.
The violent melee perpetrated by the guards was said to have
started at approximately 2:30 p.m. and lasted until 9 p.m.
Six inmates have been charged with retaliation.
That portion of the public and its leaders who cry out for ever
longer sentences and increased use of the death penalty have been
strangely silent in this case. This writer wonders if the so-
called "victims' rights" groups rushed to comfort the family of
Michael McCoy and the other victims of this case of official abuse
and murder.
This appalling episode did not reach the media until a week after
the occurrence. We know this is not an isolated incident, and are
left to wonder what the official position would have been had
there been fewer witnesses.
******************************************************************
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
"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: NO TO SEMI-AUTOMATIC WEAPONS FOR THE S.F.
POLICE!
By Jack Hirschman
SAN FRANCISCO -- A year and a half ago, San Francisco Mayor Frank
Jordan set into motion his Matrix program arresting and harassing
homeless and poor people.
Homeless rights activists and members of the National Organizing
Committee's San Francisco chapter pointed to deepening police-
state tactics. Jordan insisted that his program would improve the
situation of the homeless. It hasn't.
On November 29, Jordan announced he is ordering semi-automatic
guns put into the hands of all the cops in the city.
Jordan's action has been made to appear to be a response to the
killing of a police sergeant in a November 13 shootout with a
crazed carjacker. The carjacker was armed with an arsenal of
weaponry and was also killed.
But isn't this the same mayor who, only a year ago, called for a
ban on semi-automatic weapons?
Listen up: there's method in the double-talk. And it's not because
one police officer caught a rampager's bullets.
On November 27, the San Francisco Food Bank, after a nine-month
study, announced that 150,000 of the city's 700,000 residents are
not getting enough to eat on a daily basis. Ninety thousand are
"at extreme risk of hunger." The other 60,000 are at "some risk of
hunger."
The areas hit the hardest are Bayview-Hunter's Point; the Richmond
and Sunset districts; South of Market; the Tenderloin; and the
Potrero Hill section.
Why this condition? The people are poor. Their poverty is tied to
huge rental bills; not enough money left over from the rent to
provide food; lack of emergency food centers in some of the areas;
and a grinding disenchantment with the system.
And so the real reason for all the guns being ordered for the
rapidly deployable police state forces is to cover up the failure
of the system to provide for its people.
While landlords and corporate business interests suck the blood of
the poor, the cops will be there to make sure neither the hungry
young nor the hungry elderly have any say in the matter.
It's called capitalism-at-the-barrel-of-a-gun. That's Our Town.
How about yours?
And when are we all gonna seriously begin the process of massing
with demands for a completely new system, so neither its robbery
of us and now its gunpoint threat over us rules our guts?
Recall Mayor Frank Jordan!
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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.
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13. MUSICAL ALLIANCE MEETS IN THE MOTOR CITY
By Danny Alexander
KANSAS CITY, Missouri -- Early this fall, Detroit's weekly music
paper, Jam Rag, hosted a National Music Alliance Conference to
bring together the fledgling movement. We met at Alvin's Bar just
down the block from the original offices of Creem magazine and
just across the street from Wayne State University.
Most of the alliance participants in attendance were from Detroit
or Toledo with some flying in from as far away as New York and
Washington. Letters of support were read from Florida and
California.
There was a series of presentations by the various alliances and
those who worked with musicians at the grassroots level --
writers, lawyers and video filmmakers. There were also
presentations by Native American organizers, a representative of
the Gray Panthers and several members of Rock Out Censorship.
One of my favorite presentations was a panel of three members of
the Toledo Music Alliance. They told of their ups and downs in
trying to get people to stay involved in their group and working
to get the attendance up at shows. The work had been rough, but
they delivered a crucial message: "Even if it's just a handful of
people at times, even if it's just these two guys sitting next to
me sometimes, it helps to know you're not alone."
At the end of the day, Detroit-bred rock writer Dave Marsh
delivered one of the quietest and yet most moving speeches I've
ever heard. The focus of his talk was the isolation of the
musician. Though we know musicians are people with day jobs,
trying to lead two lives so that one might pay for the other one,
social pressures artificially separate their lives as musicians
from their day-to-day environments. Musicians tend to be isolated
as musicians, competing with each other. Even on the rare occasion
that they make it big, they are alone, without support in an
industry that is, for the most part, not made up of friends. He
talked about Kurt Cobain. He tied that loss to the many great
Detroit musicians who are gone forever. Alliances like the ones in
Toledo and Detroit and the one here in Kansas City are a part of
the answer.
Over the last three months, I've been listening to four of the
tapes I brought back from Detroit -- three by Toledo bands, and
one by the Detroit Musician's Alliance, featuring 21 different
artists! The Detroit tape is especially mind-boggling because it
features such a wide range of artists playing everything from
pitch black metal to neo-punk to fold rock to pop.
Toledo's 's Tinfoil has two very strong tapes, the latest, South
Central, rebuilding the bridge between Detroit garage rock and
contemporary metal. Toledo's Swiftkik, on the other hand, plays
radio-ready AOR with the ability to push harder when necessary, as
they do on the title track, "Slaves to Society."
All of these artists deserve more attention, but there is only one
reason they are being played in this area -- a handful of people
threw a nationwide gig.
Write the Detroit Musician's Alliance at P.O. Box 24323, Detroit,
Michigan 48224 or call 313-730-SONG. Write to the Toledo
Musician's Alliance at P.O. Box 4275, Toledo, Ohio 43609.
TOPIC
12-26-94
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14. POEM: BREAKING THE BLACKOUT
BREAKING THE BLACKOUT
By Danny Alexander
The takeover of an abandoned house
becomes a home,
and even if the cops come
the next day,
the next week,
a year later,
lives have changed forever.
But money blacks out
the stories of poor mothers
struggling to house their children,
all the forgotten veterans
of never-ending wars,
and it keeps me
from finding your helping hand,
keeps you
from finding me
groping in the darkness.
Money talks --
bullshit walks with power,
and the only real heroes
lead (and follow)
carry (and hold on)
love and feed one another
stories of the lights blacked out,
fires burning strong
inside all of us and just up ahead
where the new day is breaking.
History is being made
though we don't learn about it
in school
or in the newspapers or on tv.
You can find it
in the same places
the abolitionists always force
an end to slavery --
in the street presses and 'zines,
videos, grafs and murals,
hip hop beats,
raw guitar
and a voice shouting,
singing,
dancing,
to be heard.
(Dedicated to the Break the Blackout planners who met in
Philadelphia on November 19 and 20, 1994.)
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14. ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE
The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, published weekly in Chicago, is devoted to
the proposition that an economic system which can't or won't feed,
clothe and house its people ought to be and will be changed. To
that end, this paper is a tribune of the people. It is the voice
of the millions struggling for survival. It strives to educate
politically those millions on the basis of their own experience.
It is a tribune to bring them together, to create a vision of a
better world, and a strategy to achieve it.
Join us!
Editor: Laura Garcia
Publisher: National Organizing Committee, P.O. Box 477113,
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