People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (05-99) Online Edition
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05-99 PT Index
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
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PAGE ONE: A WARNING FROM COLORADO
On April 20, Adolph Hitler's birthday, at least two students went
on a search and kill mission through Columbine High School in
Littleton, Colorado. They massacred 12 of their classmates and a
teacher before apparently ending their own lives. Denver's chief
of police sadly commented, "We live in a sick society."
Yes, something is wrong in America. But what is it? And how are we
going to save our children from future massacres?
People the world over are asking "why?" The usual suspects have
been churned up: parents, school officials, access to guns, and
the youth themselves. No one, out of the mass of specialists,
psychiatrists, public officials, and police officials, has given
an answer that didn't blame someone for this massacre.
The youth are becoming more and more disfranchised and alienated
from society. For years they have been sending a cry for help --
suicides, drive by shootings, violent acts, etc., -- these cries
have fallen on deaf ears. What's happening to our youth is a
reflection of the destruction of society going on all around us.
Good-paying, blue-collar jobs have disappeared and been replaced
with low-paying jobs, temporary jobs or seasonal work. The
institutions that provided some kind of stability during hard
times -- including welfare programs, public housing and financial-
aid programs to pursue higher education -- are being obliterated.
Layoffs, downsizing and dog-eat-dog competition have been the
hallmarks of 1990s America, along with fabulous wealth for a few
and a spreading poverty for the many that is reaching even middle-
class America. Is it any wonder many youths feel isolated and
hopeless?
Our youth see what the future holds for them. They know that a
society based on a market economy holds them valueless. What other
conclusion can they draw when in America one out four children go
to bed hungry, when children are the fastest growing sector of the
homeless, when 11 children under the age of 20 are murdered each
day?
The value of life is being cheapened. Our youth see that when
someone loses their job, they're evicted from their homes because
this society refuses to guarantee anyone the necessities of life.
Our youth see that the unemployed are destined for homelessness,
eating from garbage cans, and dying in the streets of America.
The slaughter at Columbine High School, one of a number of such
incidents in recent years, is another warning that something has
to be done. The ruling class has no solution. President Clinton's
words ring hollow when he says, "We must teach our children to
settle their differences through words, not weapons," while he
continues the daily slaughter of human beings in Yugoslavia.
We share the sorrow as Littleton mourns its children. But we must
turn our grief into a commitment to change the world. If we don't
offer our youth a new ideology and morality, many of them will
turn to the fascist ideology that motivated the young men who
killed their classmates in Colorado. The people must build a real
democratic movement to eradicate all that is wrong in America. We
need to fight for another set of values -- not the "free market"
values that say you're only worth what you can produce, but values
that engender a society based on community and cooperation, where
every child is everyone's responsibility to take care of, to
nurture and guide.
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INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
Editorial
1. WHEN WILL FOREIGN POLICY BECOME HUMANE POLICY?
News and Features
2. ACCESS TO OIL FUELS BALKAN WAR
3. REVOLUTION IN SCIENCE MAKES A NEW WORLD POSSIBLE
4. A TRIBUTE TO DIANE BERNARD
5. GLOBALIZATION CLARIFIES REVOLUTIONARIES' TASK: INTRODUCE OUR
VISION AND THE CAUSE OF COMMUNISM
6. THE LABOR PARTY AND A JUST HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM
7. KWRU MEMBERS MEET WITH ACTIVISTS IN MEXICO CITY
American Lockdown
8. PREPARATION FOR LEGAL MURDER: THE IRONY OF IT ALL
Spirit of the Revolution
9. 'WE HAVE BEEN NOTHING, WE SHALL BE ALL'
10. DEAR EDITOR: STOP THE BOMBING: A STATEMENT FROM THE
BRUDERHOF COMMUNITIES
Y-R's (new youth column)
11. MP3: BRING THE NOISE - "WHY WOULD PEOPLE PAY FOR SOMETHING
THEY CAN GET FREE?"
From the League
12. SPEAKERS FOR A NEW AMERICA
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TOPIC
05-99 Edit: When will foreign policy become humane policy?
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
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1. EDITORIAL: WHEN WILL FOREIGN POLICY BECOME HUMANE POLICY?
The haunting face of a 2-year-old Albanian refugee with eyes red
from conjunctivitis, stares at us from a front page. A chilling
reminder of the atrocities of war and its price paid by innocent
civilians.
NATO and President Clinton justify the bombing of Yugoslavia as a
humanitarian cause. To refer to these bombings as a humanitarian
cause only hides the complicated underlying issues of economic and
political interest. The result will be anything but humanitarian
and will only prove a double standard -- especially when powers
like the United States were built on extermination, repression and
exploitation.
Genocide is not a stranger to the United States. Up to 85 percent
of the native population was destroyed in the first century of
independence. From 1849 to 1860, California alone had two thirds
of its native population systematically destroyed.
Subsequent U.S. history tells of foreign atrocities from Latin
America to Russia, from the Middle East to Asia, and now the
Balkans. From the funding of arms to programs of economic
austerity or embargoes, the United States has done it all.
NATO and the United States will see to it that the world believes
in their "benevolence" as they wage their propaganda war by
controlling the media. They will determine how history will be
recorded in their books, never revealing their true and sordid
intentions.
Have no illusion that this bombing is humane. The Balkans provide
some of the most-coveted trade routes with access to the petroleum
of the Caspian Sea. Strategically planned and carried out, the
political activity over the last two decades in the Balkans was
meant to destroy the economies of those nations and bring them to
their knees.
At the outset of the bombing, 24 million people had been affected
by the economic crisis caused by globalization. Now, in addition
to poverty, the Balkan nations have to deal with war.
When will the world powers make foreign policy humane policy? The
United Nations reports that 1.3 billion people live in absolute
poverty, surviving in shantytowns and eating from garbage dumps.
In UNICEF's "State of the World's Children" report, the number of
the world's functionally illiterate is at 1 billion people, of
which 130 million are school-age children.
Currently the world spends $80 billion on education; an additional
$7 billion would guarantee everyone an education. In contrast,
Clinton's military spending for the Department of Defense is more
than $259 billion, not including defense portions of other budgets
and recent proposals for increased spending.
For a president who prides himself as being an advocate for
humanity, Clinton's track record demonstrates the opposite.
Especially when it comes to foreign policy and national
legislation like "Welfare Reform" -- sending millions of Americans
on their way to homelessness and dire poverty.
Clearly, NATO and the United States are about consolidating and
strengthening their economic and political control -- regardless
of human-rights violations and in total disregard for the
sovereignty of nations and their historical relationships. Their
"peace plan," designed to protect those interests, will in reality
be a military occupation with a projected 28,000 NATO ground
troops.
As citizens of society, we too must wage a war in our interests.
The time has come to draw the line on policies that punish the
poor, who have no stake in systems that treat human life as a
"calculated loss." It's about time we make some calculated gains
in the interests of humanity so that history may be told with a
truth that means justice, democracy and freedom for all.
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
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TOPIC
05-99 Access to oil fuels Balkan war
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
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2. ACCESS TO OIL FUELS BALKAN WAR
The U.S. government claims it is bombing Yugoslavia in response to
a "cry for help" from the Kosovar Albanians. The American people
are being called upon to "support our troops" and to "stop the
atrocities in Kosovo." The debate is framed this way: Do we
support the atrocities that allegedly are being carried out in
Kosovo, or do we back the bombing of the Serbian people?
And, who stands to gain if we allow the debate to be framed this
way? Not the poor and working people of Yugoslavia, whether Serb,
Bosnian, Albanian, Croat or any other nationality, and not the
poor and working people of the NATO countries and the U.S. Only
the wealthy ruling classes of the U.S. and Europe stand to gain
from this war.
This war has nothing to do with humanitarian issues. What is it
really about? One issue is the question of the control of oil and
access to it. This area, the Balkans, is historically a crossroads
connecting Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. Whoever
controls it also controls access to the oil and other wealth of
the Middle East and the Caspian Sea region. Several of the
proposed pipeline routes for Caspian Sea oil run right through
Yugoslavia, including Kosovo.
Another issue is the process of globalization sweeping the world.
With the end of the "cold war," the capitalists took steps to
complete the breakup of the former socialist countries and make
these countries dependent on the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and the World Bank. There is a 20-30 year history of breaking
their economic independence and a struggle to make them
dependent on world capitalism. The ones that have suffered the
most are the poor of the region.
Every division, ethnic or religious, has been exacerbated by the
growing impoverishment of the region. The global capitalists have
manipulated every aspect of these differences to promote the
breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Even Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic is a creation of these same capitalist forces.
Meanwhile, the poor grow poorer. People are forced to scramble for
control of the shrinking resources that go to pay off loans to the
IMF and World Bank. The government was forced to implement
austerity programs and the safety net was dismantled, just as it's
being dismantled in the U.S. Are we talking about Yugoslavia, the
former Soviet Union, a country in Latin America or Africa? It
could be any of these places.
Our government's contempt for the poor of the U.S. makes it all
the more clear that the war on Yugoslavia has nothing to do with
humanitarian issues. President Clinton, speaking of the three
American soldiers held by the Yugoslavs, said America "takes care
of its own." This is a lie. The cry for help from poor and working
people in the U.S. goes unheard. The cries of the more than 14
million American children living in absolute poverty go unanswered
by the president who signed the Welfare "Reform" law. No one is
taking care of the growing number of working families in poverty,
or the homeless. Our government's only concern is for the wealthy
ruling class it serves and their desire to have control of the
whole world's wealth, no matter the cost to the world's peoples.
The American people must stand with the world's poor. Therefore,
our position cannot be on the side of NATO or the Husseins or
Milosevics of the world. We must stand in solidarity with the
Serbian, Albanian, Bosnian and Croat poor. From Rwanda to Mexico,
from Russia to Iraq, our interests lie with the dispossessed, not
with the billionaire global capitalists and the governments that
represent them. The starting point is the identification of our
interests. Then we must move on to organize the world in our
interests.
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
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05-99 Revolution in science makes a new world possible
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
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3. REVOLUTION IN SCIENCE MAKES A NEW WORLD POSSIBLE
By Beth Gonzalez
"Together we will inspire the American people with a vision. ...
Society can ... devote the energies and talents of its people to
satisfying the material, intellectual, spiritual and cultural
needs of all." (From the Program of the League of Revolutionaries
for a New America)
This vision isn't just someone's idle dream. Real revolutions in
science are offering to humanity the opportunity to achieve this
vision. Most of us are familiar with the destructive powers of the
new technology of electronics. It eliminates jobs and disrupts
societies that are organized around them -- casting aside millions
of people. But this new technology is not destructive in and of
itself. As always in history, technological progress is
destructive only when society resists reorganizing around it.
In fact, technology, by definition, is the "application of
science, especially in industry and commerce." The technology we
see everyday is just the tip of the iceberg of revolutionary
breakthroughs in science that offer the possibility of magnificent
benefits for humanity. Here's a glimpse at just a few of the
wonders of the science that will take us into the next century:
By about 2000, scientists will have deciphered the genetic codes
for 20 to 50 serious hereditary diseases, such as cystic fibrosis,
muscular dystrophy and sickle-cell anemia. Some scientists
estimate that within the next five years, it will be possible to
restore vision for the blind. By 2020, the entire human genetic
make-up will be "mapped out," making it possible to treat diseases
at the molecular level. Gene-therapy can transform medicine from
an inexact, expensive, time-consuming practice to one that
predicts, prevents, and -- as a last resort -- cures diseases with
greater precision than ever imagined.
This medical attention could be delivered easily, cheaply and
almost automatically to every single person. Chips strategically
placed in your home could quietly analyze medical conditions, such
as heart rate, diabetes and pre-cancerous tissue, and immediately
notify your doctor of any problems.
According to many scientists, the combination of three revolutions
in science -- the quantum revolution, the biomolecular revolution,
and the computer revolution -- makes possible these wonders. As
each of these fields of study reached its own limits, they began
to rely on each other to advance. For example, the computer
revolution made it possible to map the hundreds of thousands of
genes that the biomolecular revolution had begun to identify.
This explosion of science rests on the accumulated knowledge of
thousands of generations of humanity and makes possible an
entirely different type of society. With humanity's discovery of
fire, it began to distinguish itself from other animals. But after
generations of mastering fire, we still couldn't eliminate
scarcity and the inequality that goes along with it. We were still
subject to the laws that govern the animal kingdom.
Could it be that the wonders of today's scientific revolution
offer the possibility to free humanity from these laws? When
science gives humanity the wherewithal to feed and care for
everyone, why should the poorest or disabled members of humanity
be left to die like the runt of a litter? When electronic
technology makes it possible to produce an absolute abundance, why
should there even be poverty? When science gives humanity the
possibility to free everyone from dull and dangerous labor, why
should people hate and murder each other in a dog-eat-dog fight
over a few scraps and bones?
In the United States, "the richest country in the world," poverty
is the number one cause of child death. Who is best qualified to
organize the society this scientific knowledge makes possible? The
wealthy few who protect their profits against the needs of the
millions of hungry children? Or the millions who have no property
to protect and would reorganize society to distribute its
abundance according to need rather than according to ability to
pay?
Science gives humanity the possibility to separate itself from the
laws that govern the animal kingdom. But if science offers this
vision, humanity has to take it and run with it. It's up to people
fighting it out in the struggle for what's right and against
what's wrong to decide whether science will be left in the hands
of the powers-that-be, or employed for the benefit of all.
(Most of the scientific information in this article is from
"Visions," a fantastic but real book by Michio Kaku that
summarizes the perspectives of 150 scientists about the
possibilities for the 21st century. The book does not deal with
the struggle to get the political power to reorganize society to
realize this vision. But the descriptions of the awesome new power
of science challenge revolutionaries to inspire people with a
vision of what is possible and instill in us a sense of urgency to
prevent the masters of profit from becoming the masters and
manipulators of this new science.)
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
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TOPIC
05-99 A Tribute to Diane Bernard
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
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4. A TRIBUTE TO DIANE BERNARD
[May Day is a celebration of proletarian sacrifice and solidarity
around the world. There is no more fitting symbol of the true
meaning of this day than the life of Diane Bernard (McAfee), a
strong and dedicated revolutionary woman who passed away last
month.
Part of the revolutionary movement since she was a teenager, Diane
spent her life fighting to realize the vision of generations -- a
peaceful and orderly world where all can achieve their true
humanity. She fought to bring courage to hearts downtrodden, to
unchain minds and, to show them where their true interests are.
The light that burned so brightly in her is being reignited in a
new generation of fighters. This is her legacy to not only those
of us she left behind, but to the whole revolutionary movement.
The following excerpt is from a speech Diane gave, in her capacity
as president of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, before
the National Survival Summit in August 1992.]
The sociologists who get paid to know us say that we ain't got no
self-esteem. That's why we're poor, because we ain't got no self-
esteem.
They recommend sending us to self-esteem classes, when what we
really need is jobs that pay an adequate wage. There is nothing
like money in your pocket for self-esteem. You've never heard them
refer to people like Donald Trump and Lee Iacocca [who] don't have
self-esteem.
They get mad at Welfare Rights and the Homeless Union because
we're confident people. We go in; we know what we're going for; we
know what we're going to leave with, or else we ain't leaving.
They say: "Well, we agree with your cause, it's just your tactics.
Why do you have to talk like that? Why don't you do this? Why
don't you do that?"
But we say: "You will not define our struggles. Until you have
suffered, you have no moral right to tell us a damn thing. You
can't tell us how we ought to do our struggle. This is ours. We
will define it, and we will carry it out."
We develop our identity and self-worth, our education and muscle,
by opening our minds and hearts to do the bidding of a higher
calling -- one which charges us to protect and defend the most
needy among us. A more noble cause has never existed. That's where
our self-esteem comes from. That's what our morality is based on.
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A NOTE OF SYMPATHY
I can't believe Diane is gone! What a loss! She was a real fighter
and role model. She leaves a wide gap. At least she is no longer
suffering. She lived her life for others and left her mark in this
world.
I will miss seeing her at our National Welfare Rights Union
meetings. We will all miss her -- her smile, optimism, and
perseverance for justice.
Please convey my deepest sympathy for her loved ones.
Guida West
[Guida West is the author of "The National Welfare Rights
Movement, the Social Protest of Poor Women." She is a long-time
participant in the Welfare Rights Movement and the struggle of the
poor.]
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FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
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TOPIC
05-99 Globalization clarifies revolutionaries' task
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
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5. GLOBALIZATION CLARIFIES REVOLUTIONARIES' TASK: INTRODUCE OUR
VISION AND THE CAUSE OF COMMUNISM
[Editor's note: The National Committee of the League of
Revolutionaries for a New America met in April. The following is a
summary of the Political Report from that meeting.]
Economic situation
For the first time in more than 60 years there is serious talk of
the inability of the capitalist system to continue functioning.
With the emergence of globalization, the current international
economic crisis has swept through Asia and Russia, shaking the
capitalist international financial structure to its core. Now that
crisis has hit Brazil, the eighth largest economy in the world.
This threatens the entire Western Hemisphere and raises the
possibility of economic collapse in the U.S.
Globalization is still taking shape. Globalization is the process
of capitalism reorganizing itself around electronics-based means
of production. This reorganization reaches into every level of the
economy, and from the economy into every facet of social life. The
overarching direction of this reorganization is towards one
production line and one market, glued together by a common
financial system. Globalization is increasingly limiting the
ability of national governments to implement significant economic
policies. The economic entities coming into being have no ties to
particular nations and exist above national relationships.
Globalization invariably conjures up counter-tendencies. These
countertendencies are efforts to block the one market/one
production line -- things like trade barriers, economic
nationalism, capital controls. The U.S. has dominated the world
during the past period. Globalization is undermining that hegemony
and certain forces in the U.S. are fighting to maintain that
hegemony.
Political situation
Fascism today is the political expression of the concentration of
wealth and the spread of poverty precipitated by production based
on electronics. It is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie
unrestricted by trappings of bourgeois democracy. The
unprecedented concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a
few "megacorporations" and billionaires is the objective
foundation for the drive toward fascism and a fascist state.
The capitalists are not trying to win the American people to
fascism per se. Rather, they are cultivating a morality and an
ideology among the American people that will tolerate the form of
rule the capitalists need. They are reaching the diffuse and
discontented American mass with their message and sweeping them up
into support for fascism, without the American people even
realizing it. Some of these ruling-class propagandists downplay
color distinctions, which allows these elements to broaden their
message -- not only to a certain section of the minorities, but to
the broad section of whites that do not respond to overtly racist
appeals.
Economic globalization and its effects are shattering the
stability of both the Democratic and the Republican parties.
Currently, the relatively stable economic situation within the
U.S. has allowed the dominant forces in both parties to maintain
their control. However, any economic disruption would immediately
undermine that control, with the ideological right moving into a
much more favorable position.
Tasks of Revolutionaries
In order for the League of Revolutionaries for a New America
(LRNA) to become an organization that can effectively bring our
vision and the cause of communism to the American people, we need
to recruit propagandists. To unite these propagandists we need to
do communist propaganda. The activity of LRNA has to be organized
into a varied and broad system of propaganda, with the People's
Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo at the center. Our propaganda has to
concentrate on our vision and on showing how communism is the
program of the new class and the solution to the problems of the
day.
The League of Revolutionaries for a New America must be opened up
to allow in all those with a general commitment to propaganda
along the lines of our program. At the same time, LRNA must be
structured to constantly raise the ideological and political level
of all members.
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
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TOPIC
05-99 The Labor Party and a just health-care system
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
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P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
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6. THE LABOR PARTY AND A JUST HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM
By John G. Rodwan, Jr.
The ongoing health-care crisis has only gotten worse since the
Clinton administration's failure to enact comprehensive health-
care reform. Millions of people have no medical coverage and for-
profit Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) provide inadequate
coverage for those with insurance.
It doesn't have to be this way. The United States has both capable
health-care providers and the resources to ensure universal access
to quality health care. The Labor Party is working to make such a
just health-care system a reality.
Every year, the number of Americans without health insurance
rises. The statistics are staggering:
* More than 43 million people lacked coverage in 1997, the most
recent year for which the Census Bureau has figures. In other
words, over 16 percent of the population isn't covered.
* Most of those without health insurance have jobs or live with
someone with a job.
* Approximately 11 million Americans under the age of 18 have no
health insurance. And double that amount are deprived of reliable
access to decent care.
* African Americans and Hispanic Americans are over-represented in
the ranks of the uninsured. Over one fifth of African Americans
(21.5 percent) and over one-third of Hispanic Americans (34
percent) had no health coverage in 1997.
Because they aren't covered by either private insurers or the
rapidly disappearing welfare programs, the uninsured -- both
adults and children -- do not receive necessary health care:
* Compared to insured Americans, uninsured adults were four times
more likely to report going without care they needed, according to
a recent survey sponsored by the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation.
* In poor urban and rural areas, where lack of both insurance and
access to care are most common, childhood immunization rates are
only in the 40- to 50-percent range.
While the uninsured are the hardest-hit, we all suffer under a
system driven by profit rather than care. HMOs thrive by cutting
costs, which means compromised health care. The majority (85
percent) of workers and their families who do have health coverage
are saddled with managed-care plans.
HMOs make their money by selling health insurance to employers.
The less they pay on treatment for those enrolled in their plans,
the more money they can provide for investors and CEOs.
Consequently, HMOs constrain the care doctors and nurses can
provide and shift the costs of treatment to patients. Since the
triumph of corporate health care, the length of hospital stays has
been drastically reduced. For example, in the 1970s women stayed
in the hospital for an average of four days after giving birth
vaginally. The stay was twice as long for those undergoing
cesarean sections. By the mid-1990s, HMOs had curtailed stays for
vaginal deliveries to one day and C-sections to two or three days.
One California HMO pushes for release of new mothers after a mere
eight hours.
As a result of shortened hospital stays, the need for care at home
has risen. But both HMOs and Medicare have been cutting back on
reimbursements for home care. Thus, the burden falls to family
members and the patients themselves. Inevitably, the quality of
care deteriorates.
These tactics hurt not only those in need of care but also those
who provide it, whose job security is severely threatened by
reductions in hospital stays and home-care services. With managed
care, health professionals are increasingly plagued by overwork,
layoffs, reduced pay and benefits, and poorer working conditions.
The use of part-time and temporary workers is increasing.
Because private profit motivates HMOs, the cost cutting that
characterizes them doesn't translate into lower health-care costs
for the public.
In fact, the United States has the most expensive health-care
system in the world. About 14 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) is spent on health care. In contrast, Canada, which
has a system that covers its entire citizenry and provides for
longer average hospital stays than the United States, spends less
than 10 percent of its GDP on health care. A large portion of our
health-care spending goes for administrative costs and profits
(including exorbitant CEO salaries). In essence, the U.S. health-
care industry redistributes resources from workers, sick people
and their families to wealthy businessmen and shareholders.
The Labor Party, a new political party that is organizing a
movement based on a working-people's agenda, strives to generate
support for a health-care program that guarantees quality care for
everyone. We won't be satisfied with partial solutions that don't
fix the fundamental problems.
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its
readers.
******************************************************************
TOPIC
05-99 KWRU members meet with activists in Mexico City
TEXT
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
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7. KWRU MEMBERS MEET WITH ACTIVISTS IN MEXICO CITY
Members of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union met in April with
homeless and housing leaders from the Assembly of Neighborhoods in
Mexico City to discuss the upcoming March of the Americas.
In a room packed wall-to-wall with people, members of KWRU were
warmly greeted with chants such as "Si se puede" (You can do it)
and "dura" (strength). The participants were able to engage in an
intense dialogue about the struggles of poor people trying to stay
alive in the United States and the importance of building
alliances with the people of Latin America.
The discussion seemed very similar to KWRU membership meetings,
discussing upcoming evictions of the groups' members and how to
deal with them. The groups also talked about the problems of
resources for the organization.
Many Assembly members took down information regarding the March of
the Americas and discussed the possibility of "Superbarrio,"
Mexico's hero of the poor and homeless, participating in the
march.
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its
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******************************************************************
TOPIC
05-99 Preparation for legal murder
TEXT
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
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8. AMERICAN LOCKDOWN: PREPARATION FOR LEGAL MURDER: THE IRONY OF
IT ALL
By Rudy Rosales Huitziloxipe
Editor's note: Over the next two months we will be publishing
journal entries from Nebraska State Maximum Security Penitentiary
prisoner Rudy Rosales Huitziloxipe. He was in the prison hospital
in January 1999 when Randolph Reeves, 42, an Omaha Native
American, was being prepared for the electric chair.
Reeves was sentenced to die for the 1980 murders of Victoria Lamm
and Janet Mesner at a Religious Society of Friends (Quaker)
meeting house in Lincoln. The Nebraska Supreme Court granted a
reprieve shortly before his scheduled execution on January 14 in
order to consider legal arguments on appeal. A new execution date
could be set if the Court rejects the arguments, or it could
commute the sentence to life in prison if the appeal is upheld.
Reeves' lawyer, Paula Hutchinson of Lincoln, has stated that while
Indians and Blacks have made up four percent of the state's prison
population since 1980, those racial groups have made up 30 percent
of those sentenced to death since that time. Currently, 18 percent
of Nebraska's Death Row inmates are nonwhite.
The case has drawn international attention. Some members of the
Lamm and Mesner families, as well as Native American tribal
organizations and death-penalty opponents, have publicly opposed
the execution.
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its
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******************************************************************
TOPIC
05-99 'We have been nothing, we shall be all'
TEXT
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
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9. 'WE HAVE BEEN NOTHING, WE SHALL BE ALL'
By Jack Hirschman
In a recent reading tour in France, where a book of my poems was
published in French translation under the title, "I Knew I Had a
Brother," I happened to find -- in a bookshop in Grenoble -- a
work on the life and writings of Eugene Pottier.
Eugene Pottier is little known to most Americans. Indeed,
throughout the world, most people don't know who he was, despite
the fact that these same people have sung his very words
throughout their lives!
Eugene Pottier is the revolutionary and poet who wrote the words
to the song known as The Internationale.
He was born in 1816 and died in 1887. Between those years, he was
an active revolutionary and poet, developing from a utopian-
fusionist into a revolutionary communist.
To my surprise, and delight, I learned that he lived for three
years in Boston, had visited New York and the workers in
Patterson, New Jersey, and had worked with the Workingman's Party
of the United States.
Throughout, he wrote poems of inspiration on the theme of
humanity's need to break the chains of capitalist tyranny.
The words of The Internationale that people sing are actually from
the second version of a poem (published in the year of his death)
that Pottier originally wrote in 1870 in preparation for the 1871
battle of the Paris Commune, which was the world's first workers'
government.
In the original version, Pottier names the guiding spirit of the
revolution, as he exhorts the people to rise up in dignity and
struggle.
The words of that original version seem especially apt for our
times, and so I've made a translation of the opening stanza
expressly for this May Day of 1999:
THE INTERNATIONALE
Stand tall, proletarian spirit
Workers, let's concentrate at last
Stand tall, you wretched of the earth
Hunger's convicts, take your stand
To vanquish misery and darkness
Rabble-slave, rise up, stand tall
It's our right, we have the numbers
We have been nothing, we shall be all.
It's the final struggle
Let's group for the new day
The Internationale
Shall be the human way
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its
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******************************************************************
TOPIC
05-99 Dear Editor: Stop the bombing
TEXT
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
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10. DEAR EDITOR: STOP THE BOMBING: A STATEMENT FROM THE BRUDERHOF
COMMUNITIES
It is with horror and disbelief that we at the Bruderhof have
watched the Balkan tinderbox explode. Backed into a corner by
NATO's threats of "coercive diplomacy," Slobodan Milosevic has
been handed the final excuse he needs to fully 'cleanse' Kosovo of
its Albanian population. And NATO, by claiming the role of
avenging angel and bombing Serbia to smithereens, is doing nothing
but making a bad situation worse.
Certainly one cannot stand silent in the face of civilian
massacres. But where is the public outcry against a war that will
only provoke more such massacres? Instead of providing Kosovo's
Albanians with security, we are baiting the Serbians and turning
hundreds of thousands of men, women and children into refugees.
Homeless, hungry and penniless, these people are being promised
that once Milosevic is defeated, they may be allowed to return to
their homes under NATO's protection. But at the current rate of
bombing, what will there be to return to? Far from bringing peace
and stability, NATO is only fueling new hatreds throughout the
Balkans and sowing seeds for new wars.
Day after day our leaders and the news media justify our
aggression by spewing one-sided stories and images of Serbian
terror and equally one-sided stories and images of external
"peacekeepers," working hand in hand with the Red Cross and other
relief agencies.
We seem to have forgotten that the first casualty of war is truth.
Every government that resorts to war must justify itself, and when
the facts don't add up, there is only one solution: lie. Hitler
and his propaganda minister Goebbels were masters at this game:
Repeat anything often enough, and soon it will be accepted as the
truth. The apathy of the West today reminds us of the German
people who were bewitched by Nazism in the 1930s.
Thankfully, there are a few exceptions. The Pope and eight U.S.
Cardinals have urged Milosevic and Clinton to negotiate peace, and
other voices have been raised in protest. We ask you to join them
and us. Let us unite in condemning this senseless war.
On Easter Sunday, people across our "Christian" nation celebrated
the resurrection of Jesus. Unfortunately, they seem to have
forgotten the most basic truths of His message: that hatred can be
overcome only with love, that the only answer to violence is
nonviolence, and that killing is always wrong.
May God, the God of Life, awaken our consciences and stir us to do
the same: to protest all violence and bloodshed and to live for
justice and love. Only then can the true meaning of Easter, which
is life for all people, whatever their race, nationality, creed or
class, become a reality. Only then can our world, the world of our
children and their children, find peace.
[Gary Stanaway and Klaus Meier, for the Bruderhof Communities in
the U.S.A. and the U.K.]
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its
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******************************************************************
TOPIC
05-99 MP3: Bring the noise
TEXT
******************************************************************
People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
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+----------------------------------------------------------------+
YOUNG REVOLUTIONARIES:
Y-R's is your's -- your's to shape and to change and to contribute
your revolutionary voices.
We are inviting all young revolutionaries to join us in demanding
a voice in the struggle for justice.
We welcome all contributions and we look forward to hearing from
any revolutionary individual or organization willing to help with
writing or collecting possible works to be submitted to the
column. We are also interested in working with artists to create a
logo for the column that will encompass not only the struggles,
but also the creativity that is possible within all human beings,
especially young revolutionaries.
Please feel free to write or submit any works to:
People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo
Attn: Youth Column Committee
P.O. Box 3524
Chicago, Illinois 60654-3524
You can send e-mail to:
[email protected]
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
11. MP3: BRING THE NOISE - "WHY WOULD PEOPLE PAY FOR SOMETHING
THEY CAN GET FREE?"
By Steve Teixeira
As President Clinton bombs the Balkans, there's a war over music
kicking up on the Internet. On one side is the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA), led by the global "Big 5":
Canadian-based Universal, Japan-based Sony, Germany's Bertelsmann,
British EMI, and Time-Warner. On the other side is a worldwide
army of computer users who are copying music for free over the
Internet, using a system called MP3.
The RIAA says MP3 is bad because it robs sales from the musicians.
"If the music is free for too long, there won't be any music,"
claims Nick DiGiacomo. That gets a laugh from Public Enemy's Chuck
D, whose song "Swindler's Lust" attacks the RIAA because artists
get only 12 cents out of every CD dollar. Public Enemy actually
puts free songs on the Internet for fans, then sells CDs direct to
them without the "Big 5" taking a cut. Other bands are doing it,
too.
Other songs get on the Net illegally, because it's pretty easy to
use MP3 to make "pirate" copies. This pisses off David Geffen, the
L.A.-based music billionaire. He's calling on the government to
hunt down free-music sites, and for schools to expel students
using school computers to spread music without permission. At the
University of Wisconsin, Will Komassa's music site was shut down
by Geffen's pressure. He says it's "pretty lame ... akin to
bitching at every 8th grader who taped 'Mmmbop' off the radio."
"Spectro" is a student at a Los Angeles university who has shared
music through computers. "Since MP3 files are compressed, you can
send stuff that took one hour in 10 minutes, at high quality," he
explains. "So, you can send mass amounts of music easier." Spectro
says that people get a free website from GeoCities, copy music
onto it, then list it with search engines like Yahoo so that
anyone who searches for music can find it. He believes this
actually helps the artists, by introducing more people to their
work.
"You need to spend a lot to get a recording done. Then you have to
hire a distributor. Computers and MP3 offer a cheaper
alternative." Spectro believes that more free Net music will
attract more fans to concerts, and even to buy CDs to get more
songs, the lyrics, and the music charts. "The MP3 standard is
growing quick -- if the record industry doesn't embrace it,
they'll lose. Why would people pay for something they can get
free?"
It's time to ask that question about the whole capitalist system.
If technology now allows us to produce enough for everyone and to
educate everybody, isn't it possible to organize a communal
society where everyone shares its fruits? Isn't that what young
people have done with MP3? So, why do we need a tiny class of
billionaires to control everything?
But what if they get the government to crack down on these young
"computer communists"? Spectro insists: "It's hard to crack down
because with computers things happen so fast, with so many people.
It's like the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War -- they couldn't relax
around the young men, or the women, or even children, because they
were fighting the people, fighting everyone. If the government
controls it, you're impeding the advancement of not only people
but of culture!"
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
SPECTRO EXPLAINS WHY IT'S FREE
'Spectro' has been into computers for 12 years -- and he's only
20!
"My dad bought a little Commodore computer and a guy sold me a
modem and came over to set it up and teach me twice -- all for
$20. He was a working-class guy. He introduced me to bulletin
boards ... a computer where people can call in and leave messages
or files. It becomes a community sharing this computer's info.
There were forums and 'users group' meetings, too, to learn."
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: Why did all these people do it free?
SPECTRO: Not everybody could afford this stuff. Those that could
would share -- it benefited them, because they got ideas on using
it, too ... the bulletin boards became linked to each other into
networks, so sharing grew broader. Looking back, no one ever asked
me about race, or if I was Mexican.
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE: How did this compare to your school experience?
SPECTRO: Computer users' groups weren't paid, but they'd teach
you, and you could contribute back. These groups adapt to YOUR
needs, YOUR pace. School was structured: you had to keep to their
pace. Resources were not the same at all schools -- the ones with
more money had more computer stuff.
When I was 13, my parents surprised me by taking me to Radio Shack
to buy a computer -- they paid it off for 2 years, because
they're not rich. Both of my parents are immigrants ... my dad
worked as a gardener, my mom's been a seamstress ever since she
got here."
I started learning about 'pirating' -- people sharing commercial
software they were supposed to pay for. Then in the '90s new
cheaper hardware came out and people started sharing higher
quality music as files. About 1993, I heard about a new format to
'compress' high quality digital audio, making it possible to
record CD-quality music off a computer and exchange it. This
became the format now known as MP3.
[Interview by Steve Teixeira]
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its
readers.
******************************************************************
TOPIC
05-99 SPEAKERS for a
TEXT
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
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12. SPEAKERS FOR A NEW AMERICA
Hear speakers talk about how we can create a new, cooperative
world. Plan now for fall speaking engagements.
The following audiotapes are available:
CHRIS MAHIN, writer, specializing in U.S. politics, talks about
the significance of the American Revolution, Civil War, and
lessons of the Abolitionist movement for today.
CHERI HONKALA, director of Kensington Welfare Rights Union, talks
about the upcoming "March of the Americas" of the poor.
LUIS J. RODRIGUEZ, poet, author of "Always Running La Vida Loca:
Gang Days in L.A.," talks about youth, censorship, cooperative
societies and more.
NELSON PEERY, author of "Black Fire: The Making of an American
Revolutionary," speaks about "African American History and Why an
Organization of Revolutionaries is Needed."
LAURA GARCIA, editor of the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo,
talks about "We Can End Poverty Today in a Cooperative America."
STEVE TEIXIERA, writer, talks about the significance of the "Los
Angeles Rebellion" to the struggle for justice and a new world.
BROOKE HEAGERTY, Ph.D., writer, talks about "Moving Onward from
Racial Division to Class Unity" and also "Why the War against
Yugoslavia."
WILLIAM J. WATKINS, Ph.D., writer, professor, talks about
"Corporate Control of Education in America."
LIZ MONGE, editorial board member, People's Tribune/Tribuno del
Pueblo, talks about "Liberation of Women as the Liberation of
Humanity."
And more!
For free promotional packets and a listing of all of our speakers,
call 773-486-3551, e-mail
[email protected], or write Box 3524,
Chicago, Illinois 60654. Visit our web page at
www.mcs.net/~speakers/
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 5/ May, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its
readers.
******************************************************************
