People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (06-99) Online Edition
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06-99 PT Index
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
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PAGE ONE: A FUTURE WITHOUT WAR ...
The time is in the not-too-distant future, when the bad years
humanity suffered through in the late 20th century is a fading
memory.
The scene is a 3D, virtual, audiovisual chat room on the Internet.
It's a very popular place, especially among the young people. They
can sit at terminals in homes, schools, libraries, town squares,
and meet and become instant friends. Translation technology has
long been perfected, so language is no problem.
The older generations never cease to marvel at their children.
The lives of these youth are much richer and happier than their
parents could ever have imagined when they were their age. The
young people won't have to spend their lives in dreary jobs,
separated from their kids like their own parents had to. Now, they
can spend as much time as they need to raise children right and
give them whatever they need to help them develop more fully as
people with something to give to society.
Naturally, there are bound to be new challenges for these young
people to face. But gone forever are poverty, hunger,
homelessness, suffering, ignorance, hatred and war. The evils
that crushed the spirit in the late 20th century vanished with
capitalism.
Back in the late 20th century, new technologies made it possible
to build houses in 45 minutes, to communicate instantly with
anyone in the world, to replace worn-out hearts with healthy new
ones. The trouble was, a tiny
class of capitalists held these tools and only enriched itself
with them while everyone else starved in the streets.
Wonderful tools, terrible times. While a few billionaires lived in
arrogance and waste, the rest of the world's billions lived on a
dollar a day. The capitalists used the technology to drive stock
prices to new heights, from where they dropped their laser-guided
bombs on places like Iraq and Yugoslavia, killing defenseless
people in their homes, on trains and buses, in markets and even in
hospitals.
The young people of the post-capitalist future are aware of those
horrible things. Understandably, they find them difficult to
comprehend.
The capitalists used the mass media to brainwash the youth with
hate and self-destruction, to convince young people that, because
their labor was no longer needed by the employers, they were
worthless and had no way out. The capitalists miseducated the
youth, robbed them of their ability to think critically and
discern right from wrong, good from bad.
Eventually, the more isolated and confused young people believed
the capitalists' lies and turned against themselves, their
classmates and friends in tragic outbursts of violence. It got so
bad that the youth killings at home and the wars overseas looked
like one and the same thing. In a certain sense, they were.
Homicide and suicide were the second and third leading causes of
death for young people in America between ages one and 19.
Two million children died in wars around the world in the 1980s
and '90s. In these wars, 90 percent of the fatalities were
civilian and half of them were children. Half of the world's 60
million displaced people -- homeless, refugees and the like --
were children. Millions of them were orphans. Because the new
assault weapons were lighter and simpler than the heavier guns of
past wars, children themselves became fighters. Child soldiers on
the ground, high-tech warplanes in the air.
There was a United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
which was drafted in 1989. Ten years later, all the countries in
the world had signed it except two -- one was Somalia, the other
was the United States.
Meanwhile, the capitalist system rotted like the corpse it was.
And yet, out of death comes life. The seed was the vast majority
of humanity overcoming the lies, hate and despair of the old world
and turning toward a vision of a new world.
New messengers stepped forward to spread this vision that was
more than a mere dream because the tools it was based on were very
real.
In the hands of the majority of humanity -- we who had no stake in
the capitalist system -- we were able to use these tools to make
real a world that gave life to all young people in the generation
to come. A generation gathering in peace, in person or online, to
build new bridges and not destroy them, to give each other life
and not to take it away.
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INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999
Editorial
1. MORALITY IS AT THE CORE OF RECLAIMING OUR WORLD
News and Features
2. PHILADELPHIA POOR TRAVEL TO WORLD PEACE CONFERENCE
3. A NEW BOOK ON AN ABOLITIONIST HERO SHOWS POWER OF
REVOLUTIONARY PRESS
4. SERBIA IS THE HIROSHIMA OF THE ELECTRONICS ERA
5. MUMIA RALLY STIRS MOVEMENT FOR FREEDOM AND LIFE
6. SAN FRANCISCO TENANTS BATTLE ELLIS ACT
7. CLASS VERSUS RACE
8. JUSTICE FOR RUDY BUCHANAN, JR.: ARIZONA SETTLEMENT CONFIRMS
POLICE SHOOTING UNJUSTIFIED
9. TO THE POINT (NEWS SHORTS)
Young Revolutionaries
10. LUIS RODRIGUEZ ON CENSORSHIP: NURTURING IDEAS
American Lockdown
11. PREPARATION FOR LEGAL MURDER: THE IRONY OF IT ALL
Spirit of the Revolution
12. UNIVERSITY HONORS PROFIT OVER HUMANITY
Announcements, Events, etc.
13. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE RADIO
14. JOIN WITH OTHERS TO MAKE THE VISION OF A WORLD OF PLENTY A
REALITY
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[email protected] with "Subscribe" in the subject line.]
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TOPIC
06-99 Edit: Morality is at the core of reclaiming our world
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
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1. EDITORIAL: MORALITY IS AT THE CORE OF RECLAIMING OUR WORLD
It is an old adage that human beings do not live by bread alone.
It is uniquely human to dream, to hope, to develop a kind of moral
compass that registers right and wrong. These qualities drive and
motivate people. History has proven again and again that those who
can reach into and shape that sense of self, that sense of what
you will and will not live with, wield a weapon that can be far
more powerful than any law or policy.
The ruling class understands this almost better than
revolutionaries do. For them, new and more repressive laws can
only be part of the solution to control the inevitable struggles
that will break out as labor-replacing technology rapidly extends
misery and poverty through society. They must reshape the morality
of the American people, get them to accept a world in which
misery, poverty and violence are acceptable, tolerable, even
justifiable. And they are making headway. Presented with the
violence of life under capitalism today, the youth especially are
maturing to adulthood believing that violence is the way to solve
problems, to get what you want.
The slain Littleton youth were not even buried before a massive
propaganda campaign got under way to blame parents and kids for
the violence and death that stalks America. The Christian right
was brought in to give God's blessing to this blame and to its
revenge by decrying the American people's immorality and by
claiming that a return to their particular version of Christianity
would end the "culture of death." Clinton tied up the package by
proposing a federal "parental responsibility" law which would make
parents criminally liable for their children's actions. In the
wake of the school shootings in Arkansas last year, it's now
possible to try a child of any age in that state for capital
murder. Increasingly, lawmakers are raising the possibility of
executing children.
In such a moral universe, innocence is evil, violence and death
mean peace and life.
Can we see this more clearly than in Yugoslavia? By manipulating
common decency and the impulse to help others, the ruling class
has convinced a growing section of the American people that the
bombings and the subsequent suffering of hundreds of thousands of
Albanians and Serbs is in the interests of human rights and
democracy. This so-called moral position will allow them to ask
the American people for further sacrifices in the future --
diverting much-needed funds from social institutions to the war
effort, the cracking down on any dissenting opinion, and -- the
ultimate sacrifice -- the life of the son or daughter we once
rocked in our arms.
Crisis accelerates every process. The capitalists may seem all-
powerful, but every step they take creates the conditions for
greater questioning among the American people, who will be moved
not only by the deaths that are sure to come from war, but by the
brutality that encompasses their lives as a result of its
violence. We are by no means powerless in our fight to win their
hearts and minds. Our class has a powerful morality of its own,
one we must reclaim and reassert. That morality has threaded
itself throughout the generations, it has supported the centuries-
old vision of a truly peaceful, stable and cooperative society.
Shaping this vision is the moral requirement that no one is left
behind, that no one can be truly human unless we all are, that we
all have an equal right to all that human civilization has to
offer. This is the aspiration of millions here and throughout the
world, struggling to live their lives and raise their children --
not for war, not for an early grave, but for a long life, lived
fully human. Now. Where do you stand?
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
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TOPIC
06-99 Philadelphia poor travel to world peace conference
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
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2. PHILADELPHIA POOR TRAVEL TO WORLD PEACE CONFERENCE
Members of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU) were to
attend The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference, an international
peace conference to be held in The Hague, Netherlands May 12-15.
The conference was to be attended by more than 4,000 people from
across the world.
KWRU members were to present themselves in panels and plenaries.
Cheri Honkala, KWRU's director, was to speak at the closing
conference plenary to be attended by UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan. The group also was to hold the international premiere of
the new video documentary "Outriders." This video recounts the
campaign of poor and unemployed families in the Kensington Welfare
Rights Union as they traveled across the United States in June
1998 for their month-long New Freedom Bus Tour.
The Kensington Welfare Rights Union is part of the Poor Peoples'
Economic Human Rights Campaign, a national campaign composed of
over 40 poor people's organizations in the United States. The
campaign is focused on building a movement to end poverty led by
poor and homeless people -- those most affected by the problems of
social inequality in the United States.
The global peace conference took place at a time when war is under
way in Kosovo and economic wars continue at home. As homeless
refugees are being created with every bomb dropped in Yugoslavia,
money is denied in our federal budget for ending the rise in
homeless refugees in the United States. The Kensington Welfare
Rights Union was to discuss the current crisis resulting from the
dismantling of the social-welfare system and the efforts to
organize a massive movement to eliminate the serious economic
violence of poverty.
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Contact Cheri Honkala at the Kensington Welfare Rights Union,
NUHHCE, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, Box 50678, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
19132-9720. Phone 215-203-1945. Fax 215-203-1950. E-mail
[email protected]. Or access the web site at
http://www.libertynet.org/kwru
Economic Human Rights Campaign updates are distributed via the
kwru-announce e-mail list. You can subscribe to kwru-announce by
sending e-mail to
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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. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
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TOPIC
06-99 New book on abolitionist hero
TEXT
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
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3. A NEW BOOK ON AN ABOLITIONIST HERO SHOWS POWER OF REVOLUTIONARY
PRESS
By Chris Mahin
Napoleon once said that the way to learn the art of war is to
study the lives of the great commanders. The same principle
applies to the art of propaganda. Those who seek to stir society's
conscience today should study the work of the propagandists of the
past. A new biography of the newspaper editor who launched a
crusade against slavery is a good place to start.
"All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of
Slavery," by historian Henry Mayer, recounts how an obscure New
England boy grew into America's leading opponent of slavery --
and, in the process, shook this country out of its moral lethargy.
Mayer's richly detailed study fills a void; it is the first full-
length biography of William Lloyd Garrison in 30 years. The title
of "All on Fire" comes from the sharp response that the often-
impassioned Garrison gave to a friend who begged him to moderate
his tone -- "I have need to be all on fire, for I have mountains
of ice about me to melt."
As Mayer shows, Garrison combined a deep religious faith and
intense moral outrage at slavery with some very practical skills.
Unlike some abolitionists, Garrison did not hail from the elite.
Garrison's maternal grandparents came to the New World as
indentured servants. Garrison himself was born into a poor family
in 1805 and became a printer's apprentice almost as soon as he
became a teen-ager. He developed into an expert compositor and
editor, deftly employing those skills to appeal to the reading
public's conscience.
For more than three decades, Garrison edited The Liberator, a
fiery newspaper dedicated to exposing the slave system and anyone
and everyone who collaborated with it. Its first edition appeared
on January 1, 1831, issued from a Boston printing office in the
shadow of the Bunker Hill Monument. Mayer describes its first
editorial this way:
"The Liberator, [Garrison] promised, would make slaveholders and
their apologists tremble. He would redeem the nation's patriotic
creed by making 'every statue leap from its pedestal' and rouse
the apathetic with a trumpet call that would 'hasten the
resurrection of the dead.' ... 'I will be as harsh as truth, and
as uncompromising as justice,' Garrison pledged. 'On this subject
I do not wish to think or speak, or write, with moderation. No!
No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm ...
but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present.' He
drove the point home with staccato phrases: 'I am in earnest -- I
will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a
single inch.' Then he reached into the upper case and added one
more promise: '-- AND I WILL BE HEARD.'"
On one level, "All on Fire" is a straightforward, chronological
account of Garrison's life and how, for 35 years, he nobly
sacrificed his time, safety and health to keep the promise made in
that editorial. But because Garrison was such a central figure in
the abolitionist movement, the book cannot help but give the
reader a sense of how the abolitionist movement grew up around a
newspaper. Mayer describes how The Liberator helped develop
different organizations of propagandists at different stages in
the fight against slavery. Implicit in Mayer's life of Garrison is
the message that an organization of propagandists develops around
the revolutionary press.
In the case of The Liberator, some abolitionists wrote for the
newspaper; others sold it; and still others organized subscription
campaigns or arranged speaking engagements for the newspaper's
representatives. Mayer fills "All on Fire" with fascinating
glimpses of how this work was done, details that illustrate the
abolitionists' combination of moral fervor and practicality.
For instance, in one unforgettable passage, he describes
abolitionist leader Angelina Grimke Weld bravely giving "the
speech of her life" even though an enraged mob was trying to break
into the meeting room where she was speaking. "With the practiced
speaker's confidence," Mayer points out, "she did not neglect the
details of organization, urging her audience to buy the pamphlets,
subscribe to the newspapers, circulate the petitions, and in every
way 'come up to the work.'" Angelina Grimke Weld made those
remarks "[w]ith brickbats flying and glass shattering against the
blinds" of the large auditorium she was speaking in. Who cannot
admire a propagandist like that?
Historian Howard Zinn has expressed his hope that "this eloquent,
powerful biography" will inspire the coming generation "to do for
our time what Garrison did for his." That's the spirit in which a
revolutionary should approach this work. "All on Fire" should be
read not as a description of battles fought long ago, but as a
study of how to wage a propaganda war by going on the moral
offensive.
The world needs such a propaganda war today. After one of his
visits to England, Garrison wrote to a friend: "To think that God
.. has filled this earth with abundance for all, and yet that
nine-tenths of mankind are living in squalid poverty and abject
servitude in order to sustain in idleness and profligacy the one-
tenth!" Clearly, the abolitionists' work is not yet finished. We
too have mountains of ice to melt. Like William Lloyd Garrison, we
should begin that process by building an organization of
propagandists around the revolutionary press.
["All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of
Slavery" by Henry Mayer is available in hardcover for $32.50 from
most bookstores or from St. Martin's Press in New York. For more
information, contact St. Martin's Press at 800-221-7945.]
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 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
06-99 Serbia is the Hiroshima of the electronics era
TEXT
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
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4. SERBIA IS THE HIROSHIMA OF THE ELECTRONICS ERA
By Reetmo Dog
In the last days of World War II, the United States dropped the
atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. This murderous
onslaught on civilians in a country that was already militarily
defeated was a succinct application of Clausewitz's famous dictum:
War is politics by other means.
The attacks on Japan showed the world the horrific power of atomic
weapons, carrying with it the threat that the United States could,
if it so chose, use them anywhere. The United States was preparing
the world for its postwar campaign to roll back communism, end
European colonialism and establish a new world order of
international banking. Destroying several hundred thousand human
beings was simply good advertising.
Atomic weapons were the pinnacle of warfare of capitalism in its
industrial era. The development of atomic weapons by the Soviet
Union in 1949 and, in 1957, its capacity to deliver them with
guided missiles, countered the U.S. threat to the world and
revealed the weaknesses of a nuclear strategy. It could only lead
to what was then called MAD -- mutually assured destruction. This
did not stop the United States from five decades of nuclear
blackmail.
Capitalism today is entering its post-industrial era. Where the
old machine technology was massive and required centralization,
electronics technology is light, comparatively cheap, assembled
from components and is highly decentralizable. So, then, is
electronics-based warfare.
As the United States maneuvers to consolidate the globalization of
capital and to implement a new political agenda, it needs a new
poster boy to demonstrate the folly of opposing its will. Serbia
takes Hiroshima's role in the electronics era. The "dumb bombs"
are now replaced by "smart bombs" that supposedly minimize the
loss of human life by the precision targeting of specific sites.
It is quite curious how often these bombs are precisely off-
target, killing precisely more civilians.
Anyone can see that the United States is waging war against the
population of Serbia, just as it has against Iraq. Its relatively
inexpensive to lob a few cruise missiles a day into the country,
supplemented with cluster bombs to destroy human flesh. This can
go on indefinitely. Think about it. What would life be for you if
they destroyed water, sewage and electrical facilities, media
networks, roads, and factories?
Like Hiroshima, these military objectives are to guarantee the
political objective: Dare not to defy the goals of global capital!
The U.S.-NATO alliance stands ready to use electronic warfare
against anyone. The same class that owned the slaves now owns the
atomic bombs and the "smart" bombs. For 300 years, its modus
operandi has been to make ugly, public and brutal examples out of
rebellious slaves to quell the spirit of the rest. They still
intend to prevail.
Developing a winning strategy is a big discussion. One thing is
for sure: We can only win by fighting forward, not backward. We
cannot set the goal of going back to the old world system that is
slipping into history. Electronic technology is a powerful,
driving force precisely because it can be employed to make life
easier and better. It cannot be forced backward. Technology is the
legacy of humanity because it is the product of our collective
effort. Who says its control and benefits should be turned over to
private property?
The scientific relation between war and politics points out the
direction for a winning strategy. Politics always leads and
directs the processes of war. No war was more unequal, militarily
and technologically, than the inhuman onslaught of the United
States on Vietnam. Even in their darkest days, Vietnamese
revolutionary leaders held that they should take the offensive by
putting politics in command.
The country was completely vulnerable to assault and occupation by
an industrially supported army. Thus, while tactical victories
could be won militarily, they could not be held. The Vietnamese
fought by ensuring that the political objectives of the fighting
defined the victory. The objective was an increased political
understanding and the greater unity of the people. The higher
political understanding led to a level of organization and
cooperation that rendered all the U.S. technology ineffective.
No country in the world is more occupied by the U.S. military than
the United States. Yes, we're outgunned. Yes, we can fight and
win. We fight with politics -- with ideas, words, analysis and
teaching. And the goal is the greater political understanding of
everyone that the misused new technology is denying, threatening
and replacing. Our weapons are based on the proposition that the
truth will make you free. Lies, even lies backed by billions of
dollars, cannot hide the economic nightmare that the private
control of technology is preparing.
The slaves could never fight back as long as they adopted the
morality of the slave master. Its not all right that children go
hungry, that schools are rotting, that the government should deny
people the simple and basic supports for a decent life. That this
is backed up by a growing police state is an abomination. Fighting
with politics is part of the legacy of this country. We can win by
spreading the vision of a new world, one where the goals of a
cooperative humanity determine how society is reorganized.
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 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
06-99 Mumia rally stirs movement for freedom and life
TEXT
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
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5. MUMIA RALLY STIRS MOVEMENT FOR FREEDOM AND LIFE
By Rob Mikolon
On April 24, a revolutionary gathering of souls convened in
Philadelphia to save the life of one courageous man, Mumia Abu-
Jamal. Over 17 years ago, Mumia was sentenced to death for the
alleged murder of a police officer with fabricated and biased
"evidence," including information about his social and political
beliefs.
Since then, Mumia has remained an active voice in the struggle to
preserve human rights and fight the corruption of the injustice
system in the United States and other nations. His voice has also
been heard around the world speaking against numerous
transnational corporations and the devastation that their
practices wreak on humanity and the earth.
I and more than a dozen other people from the UNITE! (Union of
Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees) organization and
Anti-Racist Action in Bloomington, Indiana (some students, some
residents) made the trek over to Philly on Friday, April 23.
Around midnight, we arrived at the MOVE headquarters, where we
were greeted kindly with food from the Food Not Bombs organization
and smiles from all. We were then given maps and directions to a
place to sleep on the West Side. There, we were once again
welcomed and well-provided for as strangers in a new area.
At noon on April 24 -- Mumia's birthday -- we congregated with
thousands on the West Side to march down Market Street and
eventually meet up with the main group of freedom fighters in
attendance at City Hall. There, we met the crowd, which was
estimated to be 3,000 by the Cable News Network; 7,000 by the
Philadelphia Police Department; and 30,000 by the organizers and
participants (including me). These vastly different numbers serve
as another reminder that "the revolution will not be televised."
At City Hall, speakers took the stage, demanding justice for
political prisoners and for Puerto Rican freedom fighters; an end
to the senseless violence and contempt for life in the domestic
and foreign wars; and a stop to the corruption and greed of
governmental and corporate systems feasting on the lives of the
people.
Such speakers as Mazi Jamal, Mumia's son; Ramona Africa of the
MOVE organization; Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine;
Leonard Weinglass, Mumia's attorney; and dozens of other
courageous brothers and sisters made powerful statements.
Topics brought forth were: the rise in police brutality; the
extensive and inconsistent use of the death penalty; the waging of
war at the cost of the people; as well as numerous other
injustices.
In attendance were anarchists forming the "black block" of
resisters of all governmental systems; members of the Iroquois
Nation; the Nation of Islam; the New Afrikans; Europeans; East
Asians; Socialists; Hispanics; homosexuals; the homeless; and
anti-death penalty advocates. All kinds of people were there,
giving cries of freedom and justice.
As the crowd started moving toward the marching phase of the rally
the drumming, laughing, crying and screaming could be heard loud
and clear. Such chants as, "They say Death Row; we say "Hell,
no!'" and "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; peace, equality, justice for all"
rang out.
In such a profound and moving gathering of the people, I couldn't
stop from staring in awe at the great rising of the new
generation, acting in unison with members of the old to continue
the age-old movement to better humanity.
Mumia is but one man who has been terribly wronged by our
injustice system. Unfortunately, his case is not rare in our
country, nor is it in many other nations around the world. This is
why so many are standing up, outraged, in resistance.
If each and every person made a commitment to look for more of
such despicable cases of injustice, they would surely find many in
our nation alone, which has killed over 7,000 people in this
century -- 26 of whom were known to be innocent , and another 22
who came within three days of death before being released.
Today, there are over 3,200 people on Death Row. As more and more
convicted people have been proven innocent, the death penalty
itself has been proven to be a travesty of justice and a block to
any freedom movement.
Mumia and all political prisoners must be freed; the laws and
processes of justice must be re-evaluated and changed; the death
penalty and all uses of violence must be forever banned; and the
struggling movement for freedom and life must continue on.
FOOTER
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(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
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TOPIC
06-99 SF Tenants battle Ellis Act
TEXT
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6. SAN FRANCISCO TENANTS BATTLE ELLIS ACT
By Jack Hirschman
SAN FRANCISCO -- The first round in the battle against the
landlord-friendly Ellis Act was won by four San Francisco tenants
on March 22, 1999 when Judge Dorothy Von Berolding threw out the
landlord's attempt to evict them.
The verdict was only procedural (the landlord, Katharine Beckwith,
had illegally given the tenants a 30-day notice instead of a 60-
day notice), and Beckwith has had to start all over; but North
Beach residents are jubilant that she has lost some $12,000 in
court and lawyer fees. They stand strongly behind the four
tenants, who have mounted the first major resistance against the
act that landlords are rampantly using to displace people for no
other reason but raw profiteering. "There's growing awareness and
resistance to the profiteering of the propertied few at the
expense of the many," said Roger Strobel, worker, artist and one
of the fighting tenants.
The Ellis Act permits a landlord to yank an entire building off
the rental market and evict all of its tenants. In recent years,
the act has been used with increased greed. In 1998, the city's
Rent Stabilization Board reported, 65 buildings were removed for a
loss of 185 rental units. Evictions number in the hundreds. "The
Ellis Act," said Ronald F. Sauer, writer, and another of the
besieged tenants, "is one more example of rich people hiding
behind the law. How, in fact, can you have a democracy where only
the rich can afford to have lawyers? Market value is newspeak for
murder."
The embattled tenants hope that, by having been entitled to a jury
trial in the matter, their two-year struggle against eviction will
help galvanize the people to overturn the draconian Ellis Act.
"It's a real battle," said Margery Pertuis, another of the
Varennes Street tenants facing eviction. "You've gotta understand
the lawyers for the landlord don't play by the rules, don't even
care about laws for the people."
In January, more than 150 North Beach residents gathered for a
fund-raising event in support of the tenants, an event organized
by the fourth tenant targeted for eviction, Jean Dierkes-Carlisle,
a long-time resident and photographer. Dierkes-Carlisle has been
outspoken against the widespread use of the Ellis Act, not simply
in North Beach, but in the Mission District and other areas of San
Francisco.
But the greater awareness of how tenants are being ripped off by
the demons of private property is a growing part of a process that
can lead to the collective demand that the act be nullified. The
upcoming jury trial of the four Varennes Street tenants -- their
right, according to the law -- is one that all San Francisco will
be watching with great interest.
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
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TOPIC
06-99 Class versus race
TEXT
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7. CLASS VERSUS RACE
[Editor's note: The following article was submitted by a reader.]
By sista shiriki
Greetins', i have been doing a lot of thinking about this issue. i
must say, i have always had problems with the struggle for
liberation of Afrikan People and other oppressed people of kolor
bein' re-classified and dubbed a class struggle only. This has
never set right for me, and i really could not articulate why it
never felt right. However, once you began to live, learn and grow
in the struggle, a lot of things are made clear to you. i believe
our struggle in this kountry and around the world is about RACE,
has always been and will continue to be about RACE.
If you look up the word Capitalism, in order for capitalism to
maintain itself, there must ALWAYS be a CLASS of people that will
be disenfranchised; this must exist in order for Capitalism to
exist and maintain itself. Here is where CLASS plays a part. In
sustaining Capitalism, the CLASS of the working poor will always
be used. The working poor are those of us who sell our labor in
order to maintain a roof over our heads, food on the table,
educate our children and clothes on our backs. This CLASS of
people consists of all races, Black, Brown, Red, Yellow and White,
yet this CLASS of people does not relate to one another because of
RACE.
Even though White-Amerikans are members of this class of working
poor, this society reinforces to them that they are still above
the Black, Brown, Red & Yellow peoples. Looking at Class vs. Race
in this kountry, we must keep it in its historical context. The
kidnapping and enslaving of Afrikans for life simply because they
were/are looked upon as being less than hue-mon. White slaves that
worked side by side with Afrikan slaves were free within five to
seven years -- is that Class or Race? The lynching that took place
throughout Amerika -- why wasn't White Men chosen for lynching
parties? Is that Class or Race?
The "Tuskegee Experiments" from 1932-1972 where some 600 Afrikan
Men were used as hue-mon guinea pigs to study the effects of
Syphilis -- why wasn't White Men chosen? Is that Class or Race?
When Amerika wants to start wars and bomb kountries, why are White
populated kountries never bombed with the same quickness (Kosovo
vs. Iraq) -- is that Class or Race? Given the Killer Kop Epidemic
across this kountry, which affects majority Afrikans and Latinos,
is that Class or Race? My point is, everything on this planet is
predicated on RACE first. i could continue with more examples, but
i think you get the picture. There are no decision(s) made by the
White Power Structure, where RACE is not considered.
If RACE was not considered, all ethnic groups would have an equal
opportunity of their share of institutionalized terrorism. i also
believe the Class Struggle issue is no more than a red herring to
keep from dealing with Amerika's greatest problem facing the 21st
Century, its "RACE PROBLEM." We have had many of our scholars like
W.E.B. DuBois, Carter G. Woodson, Dr. Kenneth Clark & Malcolm X
speak about Amerika's Race Problem. Even Bill "Slick Wee Wee"
Clinton convened a panel on "Race Relations" in Amerika.
The challenge to White-Amerika is to begin to search your hearts
and souls & come to grips with Racism. Racism is about power &
control, the dominant group imposing its will on those who have no
power. Many White-Amerikans believe because you don't call Black
people "niggas" & you can talk to us, you're not a racist. i
maintain "ALL" White people are racist; you are not born racist,
you are taught to be racist. You are born to racist parents, live
in a racist society, go to racist schools, look at racist TV, and
it's as natural as breathing and this society helps to reinforce
this.
i'm not saying "ALL" White people owned slaves, what i am saying
is that "ALL" White people benefited from slavery then and you
benefit from it today. The Prison Industrial Complex is slavery
21st Century style; the kamps are built in rural white areas to
build these depressed communities at the expense of Afrikans &
other people of kolor.
White-Amerika must rise above your racism and challenge the
contradictions of your dear kountry and stop getting your bowels
in an uproar because someone calls you a racist. Until the Afrikan
Holocaust that took place on these shores (which is one of the
greatest crimes against huemanity) are dealt with, there can never
be a healing in Amerika between the races. Our children deserve a
better planet to live, love and grow, and this will only happen
when you and i come together in unity.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
AS OLD WAYS WITHER, CLASS UNITY MUST GROW
[Editor's note: Nelson Peery is a member of the People's
Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo editorial board.]
By Nelson Peery
We are living in a time of economic and social revolution,
resulting in the withering of old classes and class relations and
the emergence of new classes and new class relations. It is a time
of the dying away of old ideologies and the rise of new ones
taking their place.
Revolutionaries, understanding the changes in material conditions,
must be the trailblazers, the first to discard the old and grasp
the new. This cannot be done without understanding the
relationship between the objective and subjective factors of the
class struggle. Clarity is especially necessary on the
relationship between race and class if we are to maintain a
revolutionary orientation in the increasingly complex social
struggle.
Let us start at the beginning. Random House Dictionary describes
as objective those "things external to the mind, rather than the
thoughts or feelings;" and the subjective as "that existing in the
mind, belonging to the thinking subject rather than to the
objective of thought; opposed to objective." If we can agree on
this, we can understand racism as an ideological or subjective
expression of the objective formation of capitalism.
In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Turks. Arab and Kurdish forces
ruled the center of civilization. There were no races, no Europe
and no capitalism. 1492 was perhaps the most important date in the
history of the Western world. Spain defeated the Arabs, Columbus
bumped into the Western Hemisphere, and the Arabs perfected the
refining of sugar and gold rather than land consolidated as the
expression of wealth and expediter of trade.
Cane culture for the market began in the islands off Africa,
utilizing the patriarchal form of slavery that already existed.
Patriarchal slavery for the personal comfort of the master began
to transform into latifundist slavery and production for a market.
The comforts of a master can be satisfied; the demands of the
market, never. Slavery in sugar production soon meant a brutal
working to death in five to seven years. Growing sugar to trade
for gold to buy more slaves to grow more sugar gave birth to the
slave trade. This whole gigantic profit-making process slowly gave
birth to the capitalist system. Such brutal conquest, savage
slavery and complex financial and trade expansion required a
stable social, military and political foundation. Just as
Christianity was consolidated to fight for the treasures of the
Holy Land, the political and racial concept of "Europe" came into
existence to carry out this world-transforming effort.
As capitalism consolidated, so did the ideologies that sustained
it. None was more important in the United States than racism. The
United States, along with a few other countries, such as Australia
and South Africa, described themselves as "a white man's country."
Thus racism was a pernicious, specific form of the nationalism
that swept the world astride victorious capitalism. Racism was the
subjective, ideological expression of the objective historical
process of capitalist development and consolidation.
It was not possible to separate racism from the capitalism we have
known. It was an indispensable tactic of controlling the working
class. Things change and the capitalism we have known is changing.
In a short hundred years, production and distribution has grown
from local to national to international. The internationalization
and automation of production is the objective base for changing
the political or subjective relations between the capitalist and
the working class. The capitalist no longer needs to bribe a
section of the class. International competition between the
workers is striking at the base of racism. A new class of part-
time, temporary and minimum-wage workers accompanied by an army of
destitute, permanently unemployed is expanding. This new class,
abandoned by "their" capitalists, have no need for racism. They
are open to education for unity, revolution and a communal,
cooperative society.
Racism will not die simply because its material base is withering.
Ideologies take on a life of their own. Simply being against
racism is not enough. A new idea must be introduced to take its
place. That new idea is the unity of this new class. This unity is
possible. Its material base is the growing equality of poverty and
a decline of social bribery.
Our moment is at hand. We cannot seize it unless we are clear
about the epochal changes we are living through, unless we
understand our new revolutionary tasks and have the courage to
grasp them.
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
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******************************************************************
TOPIC
06-99 Justice for Rudy Buchanan, Jr.
TEXT
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8. JUSTICE FOR RUDY BUCHANAN, JR.
ARIZONA SETTLEMENT CONFIRMS POLICE SHOOTING UNJUSTIFIED
By Luis J. Rodriguez
PHOENIX--One of the deadliest police forces in the country
recently settled an unlawful-death suit following nationwide
outrage against the large number of police murders in this growing
Arizona metropolis.
"[My son] hadn't hurt anybody, but they hunted him down like a
dog," said Rudy Buchanan Sr. prior to the multi-million dollar
suit being settled out of court in March of this year. Buchanan's
son Rudy, 22, was killed in January 1995 by members of the Phoenix
Police Department.
In the lawsuit, the family contended that Rudy Buchanan Jr. was
denied a full life when 13 police officers shot him 33 times
following a domestic dispute. Buchanan was alleged to have had a
shotgun at the time. He had reportedly stepped out of his home and
walked several blocks -- firing three times into vacant lots --
before being cornered by police. According to news accounts,
officers shot at Buchanan after he had dropped the weapon. Some of
the bullets reportedly hit the bottom of the young man's feet.
The family said that Buchanan had been despondent at the time
because of the death a few months earlier of his brother Chris,
18, who allegedly was killed by rival gang members.
Rudy Buchanan Sr., of Chicano and African American descent, who
has been an active member of his community and a youth advocate,
fought bravely the official cover-up of Rudy Jr.'s killing,
despite losing two sons.
For example, a police-review board in mid-1995 exonerated nine of
the police officers involved in the shooting and only censured
four others. In addition, getting the U.S. Department of Justice's
Civil Rights Division to move against the police department proved
to be futile when in 1998 they ruled that the case lacked
"prosecutive merit" for possible violations of federal civil
rights laws.
"I will never give up trying to find justice for my boy," Rudy Sr.
said soon after he received this news from the federal government.
Protests also followed the Phoenix Police Department's use of a
choke hold in the 1994 death of a 25-year-old Black double-
amputee, Edward Mallet; and the 1996 death of Julio Valerio, 16,
who police shot at some twenty-five times.
In fact, according to news accounts last year, the Phoenix Police
Department shot and killed more people per capita than any other
large police force over the prior three years. Even though New
York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago police killed more people
(these cities are seven times, three times, and two times larger,
respectively, than Phoenix), the rate of suspects shot dead by
police was 2.16 per 100,000 population in Phoenix, 1.89 per
100,000 in Los Angeles, 1.10 per 100,000 in Chicago, and 1.03 per
100,000 in New York City. In addition, the percentage of suspects
killed by Phoenix police from 1995-1998 was the highest of any
major city in the country.
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
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TOPIC
06-99 To the point
TEXT
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9. TO THE POINT
JUSTICES STRIKE DOWN WELFARE DISCRIMINATION
The U.S. Supreme Court has said that states cannot limit the
amount of public aid to new residents from other states in order
to save money. Voting 7-2, the justices declared unconstitutional
welfare-limit laws in California and a number of other states.
Justice John Paul Stevens said for the majority that California's
law took away the basic right to travel from state to state.
"Citizens of the United States, whether rich or poor, have the
right to choose to be citizens of the state wherein they reside,"
Stevens wrote. " The states, however, do not have any right to
select their citizens," he said. Only Chief Justice William
Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented.
Reacting to the ruling, Mark Rosenbaum of the American Civil
Liberties Union of Southern California said, "California and other
states now can take down their 'Poor People Keep Out' signs.'' The
May 17 ruling came on the 45th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board
of Education decision outlawing racial segregation in the United
States.
RIGOBERTA MENCHU CALLS ON WOMEN TO FIGHT GLOBALIZATION
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala urged
women workers to unite against the growing globalization of
industry and capital, which she said was destroying societies. "We
don't know when it will end," she said. "We don't know where it is
headed. ... All we know is that globalization is negative for
humankind, negative for women." Menchu was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1992 for her struggle for human rights in Guatemala. She
spoke on May 18 in a speech to a women's conference of the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Rio de
Janeiro. Menchu called for a world forum, such as a united labor
movement, to look at social issues. "We have to try to reinvent
hope for humanity,'' she said. "We want to appropriate
globalization to convert it to an instrument for life and human
happiness.'' In 1998, UNICEF reported that more than 70 percent of
the world's 1.3 billion people in poverty are women and girls.
EXHIBIT ENVISIONS SCHOOLS OF THE FUTURE
The nation's first exhibit showcasing student TV, programmable
robots, online parent-teacher conferences and virtual high schools
was opened recently at the National Education Association (NEA)
headquarters in Washington. The exhibit was unveiled by National
Computer Systems, Inc. (NCS) and 18 other partners led by the NEA,
said NCS in a statement in Minneapolis. The 3,000 square foot
exhibit was designed by the Ontario Science Center and will host
some 10,000 visitors annually who will explore how technology is
reshaping the way teachers teach and students learn. "TECH: Making
the Grade" will be on display at the NEA building for three years,
and new interactive examples will be added during the life of the
exhibit.
BIOTECH FIRMS CREATING 'SUICIDE SEEDS' FOR AGRICULTURE, SAYS
CHARITY
The British charity organization Christian Aid has attacked global
biotechnology companies such as Monsanto Co., Novartis AG, and
AstraZeneca Plc, saying their genetically modified products are
irrelevant to ending global hunger and could lead to famine, a
press statement said on May 10. The group's charges appeared in an
article in Britain's Guardian newspaper, based on a report by
Christian Aid. The charity pointed to "suicide seeds'' that
contain a gene which makes the next generation of seeds sterile,
forcing farmers to buy new seeds every year. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture has a five percent stake in one version of the
terminator gene, the Guardian article said.
MILLIONAIRE WEALTH TO GROW 50 PERCENT BY 2003
The world's six million people with financial assets above $1
million got richer in 1998 and will get richer still, according to
an annual world wealth report released in London on May 17 by
Merrill Lynch and Gemini Consulting. The millionaires' wealth grew
12 percent in 1998 to $21.6 trillion, the report said. This
collective wealth will grow by 9 percent a year to $32.7 trillion
by the end of 2003. The United States and Western Europe accounted
for 58 percent of the millionaires' financial assets, the report
said.
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.mcs.com/~league
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TOPIC
06-99 YRs: Luis Rodriguez on censorship:
TEXT
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
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+----------------------------------------------------------------+
YOUNG REVOLUTIONARIES:
YR's is your's -- your's to shape and to change and to contribute
your revolutionary voices.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
10. LUIS RODRIGUEZ ON CENSORSHIP: NURTURING IDEAS
[Editor's note: Most recently, censorship in the United States has
inhibited the growth and development of all young revolutionaries
seeking to define and crystallize their visions through music,
poetry and art. Within the confines of censorship laws, youth are
forced to repress their ideas about the injustice rooted within
the capitalist system, a system that deprives them and all humans
of their right to exercise their creativity. The People's
Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo interviewed Luis Rodriguez, writer,
poet and activist, who unveils the truth about censorship laws and
offers some solutions for youth to nurture their ideas.]
LUIS RODRIGUEZ: The capitalists have to stop certain ideas. They
are losing economic ground, political ground; they are losing
their old social hold that they had once with the large section of
the American people. So, what they have to do is try to stop the
ideas that people themselves are beginning to express. These ideas
are revolutionary ideas because this is a revolutionary time. And
these ideas are beginning to permeate everything.
I've been all over the country, and I've seen people grappling
with these issues. I see that they are beginning to see a light or
another kind of place this world can be. In many ways, I think
that this is why they have to censor books; all kinds of books are
being taken off of shelves, taken out of libraries, and taken out
of schools. It's just something that the capitalists have to do
because they know that revolutionary ideas are being conveyed.
They are trying to clamp down on microradio stations, anybody that
utilizes the airwaves, the printed page, the open mike, anywhere
or anything in which ideas are being expressed there are people
trying to stop it. We have to defend those forms; we have to fight
for them. These ideas are critical for us; they are important. We
can't let them be destroyed.
PT/TP: Tell us about some of your own experiences outside of the
country and the efforts of the youth?
LR: Last summer I did some speeches in Italy. I was speaking to a
large group of young people, very much into hip-hop music, hip-hop
culture, and aerosol art. They had a whole community center there.
They had taken over a factory and changed it into a youth
community center with a bookstore and a stage. It was just a place
where kids could hang out. We recorded one of my poems
"Civilization" with an Italian hip-hop artist, Fly Cat.
PT/TP: What about here in the U.S.? We understand that you work
closely with Rock-A-Mole.
LR: In Los Angeles, Rock-A-Mole is kind of a grounds-up music and
arts organization, in which young people can do their music,
poetry, display their prison art, aerosol art, and video art. We
have these festivals that we organize, that are now traveling
throughout L.A. We hope that it keeps going because it's kind of
like a forum for young people and others to voice what they are
going through -- poverty issues, issues of police terror, issues
of immigration, and things going on within their communities. They
are using art and music to try to express it.
My experience is that all these people are responding to the same
kind of crisis. The same crisis of capitalism, the same crisis of
social factoring that's going on, especially among young people
who are becoming abandoned by the economy. They are being
abandoned by the social compact that used to put them together.
They are gravitating in many ways. Their hip-hop and poetry ends
up being a good forum for them to voice what they are going
through. I found this everywhere I went.
All over Europe young people were doing this. In Latin America,
Mexico and El Salvador, the young people were organizing because
they are being left homeless, they are being driven out of the
industry, they don't got nowhere to go. Housing isn't there for
them, their parents are starving and impoverished and so they are
beginning to just come together and say: "You know we have a right
to be in this world. We have a right to have housing, a right to
have a job, we have a right to have food on our table." This kind
of thinking is prevailing all national boundaries; all the
continents are involved. In Africa, as well as in Asia and Europe
and of course the Americas, this is what I find very interesting.
The global economy is bringing all of these people together.
PT/TP: There's a backlash with your work here in the United
States.
LR: Well you know, my book "Always Running La Vida Loca: Gang Days
in L.A." has been out for several years now. Young people have
gravitated toward it -- teachers and activists, also. But as you
know there are a few places in which it is being censored. It
happened in Illinois, some places in Michigan, Texas, but most
recently in California -- Northern California, San Jose, Santa
Rosa and Fremont. They tried to ban my book and there's been an
effort in the community to try to stop the banning.
Young people, teachers, adults, parents, organizers have come
together in San Jose. They were successful to keep it from being
totally banned, but in San Diego, unfortunately, people are
beginning to ban it. I think they are banning it though because
it's a book that really speaks to what young people are going
through. It's really against the imprisonment of youth, the
criminalization of youth; it's against having a society in which
these youth are expendable. They will just put them away and
warehouse them rather than just give them the things that they
need. So I really believe it's about those ideas they are trying
to stop.
Everyday we are looking at the growing impoverishment. There's a
polarity in this country. A few people are guarding most of the
wealth and most of the abundance available in this country. I
think what's happening is that young people are, of course,
looking at the world and saying, "This is the world I've
inherited, a world of dog eat dog and every man for himself," and
they want another kind of world. They want a world in which people
cooperate. They want a world in which people take care of kids, in
which children are valued, in which their dreams can be given some
direction, some sense of completion, and they don't see that. So,
in many ways, young people are really out there speaking about
some of these things that some of the adults have just kind of
accepted. I think they are sparking, even within us, a need for us
to speak out for these things.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
Greetings to the Youth Column Committee!
I'm Cristian Farez, a young man and recent student of the ideas of
Ernesto "Che" Guevara. I discovered the People's Tribune/Tribuno
del Pueblo through my father, a long-time fighter and, of course,
revolutionary.
I would like to make a contribution to the "call" that you all put
out, a call that is from our common history, to confront the
monster that wants to devour us with its capitalism and its
philosophy of individualism.
I hope that this will help contribute to and expand the Youth
Column.
This poem is dedicated to the thinker behind the greatest project
of humanity and of "new man," to Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
-- Cristian Farez, Cuenca, Ecuador
To read the poem (in Spanish), visit
http://www.lrna.org
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 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
06-99 Preparation for legal murder
TEXT
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
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11. PREPARATION FOR LEGAL MURDER: THE IRONY OF IT ALL
By Rudy Rosales Huitziloxipe
Editor's note: This month we will publish part two of the 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.
Saturday January 9, 1999, Nebraska State Penitentiary Hospital
As a rule, when a person murders someone they try to do it with no
witnesses. It's a covert, clandestine type of operation. Here in
the state of Nebraska, hired henchmen on the State's death squad
want to be as discreet as possible. Who are they kidding? It's as
if the roles of criminal and law enforcement have now been
reversed. How do you justify any kind of systematic execution and
conclude that it is the humane thing to do, as if it will act as a
deterrent? It is still murder, and these hired henchmen and women
(i.e. corrections officers and prison administrators) are now
guilty of aiding and abetting in a murder -- a conspiracy to
murder -- and they are enjoying this. I am one of four prisoners
in a hospital where all of the activities are taking place for the
execution/murder of Randolph Reeves.
Now the prison officials have two high-ranking prison security
personnel actually posted in front of prison hospital room number
seven where Randy Reeves is spending his final days. The
rooms/cells have a glass window, so Randy will not receive any
privacy [at] all in his final days. There will be a sergeant and a
case worker (who is also security staff with the rank of sergeant
or lieutenant) posted in front of Randy's appointed room. They
brought desks and chairs so they can leer into his room and
monitor his every move. I could only imagine how he must feel. How
demeaning to be monitored 24 hours a day until the final hours of
his demise.
Randy is faced with total degradation. During these hours a person
should be left alone to pray, reflect, perhaps cry, laugh or
ponder forgiveness. These things that Randy is being subjected to
right now will never be written in the local or national
newspapers, or any other media reports.
For over a week the prison officials cleared that side of the
hospital and the "death squad" prison staff went through their
routines. I could hear various high-ranking prison officials and
guards jest and make horrific remarks. One prison administrator
was speaking to a captain and remarked: "I wonder if Randy will
ask for fried bread for his last meal. Fried bread for the fried
Indian. How fitting." I also heard several officers remark: "They
should just hang him like they do in Washington State. It will
save our electric bill and it will also cut the risks of a mass
power surge. He's just a damn mudman anyway!"
There has been much laughing going on when they were going through
the death squad drills and routines. I heard two members of the
death squad actually argue as to who was to be the one to play the
role of the condemned prisoner (indicating Randy) and get to be
strapped down in the chair during one of the drills.
I have also heard some white staff say that this is one of the
perks of working in the Nebraska State Penitentiary because they
can sign up for death-watch duties and have a pass to kill
"niggers," "wetbacks," and "mud people" (Native Americans). I have
to point out that not all of the prison staff partake in these
antics. Many are somber, yet not one verbally objects to this
behavior by their coworkers. At times, it is their superiors who
make these remarks and partake in these activities.
My goal in writing this is to reveal the truth of what goes on
behind the scenes (of an execution), what the attitudes are of the
people in charge, and how this reflects our society today. There
are many ironies here in the preparation of the execution of
Randolph Reeves.
There have been many factors involved on this case such as mass
local-media coverage; vigils by death penalty opponents; [the]
victims' family members coming out to share their views of
opposing this execution; last minute legal motions; hearings being
sought by Randy's attorney (who has been gallant in her efforts);
and local clergy proposing legislation to ban the death penalty.
[The] victims' family members have asked newly appointed Governor
Mike Johanns, just fifty minutes after his swearing-in, if Randy's
life is to be spared; the Governor denied this request.
The Nebraska State Legislature has convened; one of the new bills
being introduced (which is the biggest irony of all) is by the
state's most outspoken death-penalty opponent, African American
Omaha Senator Ernie Chambers [who] has proposed abolishing
executions. His LB16 [proposal] was introduced one week before
Randolph Reeves was scheduled to be executed. Even if the bill
had overwhelming support, there is not enough time for it to
become a law [in order] to prevent Reeve's execution/murder.
Just on these facts alone, the scheduled date for Reeve's
execution/murder should be delayed, but the state's government is
obviously in haste to execute Randy. Much can be done besides
vigils by organizations who oppose the death penalty. These
organizers should attempt to become involved with the existing
1,200 prisoners in the Nebraska State Penitentiary and encourage
and support them in work and hunger strikes. This prison would
feel dire [economic] effects if all the inmates stopped [working].
[With] peacefully organized work and hunger strikes, the prison
could not survive ninety days. This should have been done months
ago. There are only four prisoners that I know of who are
"bucking" the system (I being one).
I have sent out information to the local death-penalty opponents
here in Nebraska and offered to give the names of the state's
correction-staff members who are on the death squad. [This is] so
that they can print large posters with their [prison staff] names
on them stating that they are conspirators to the murder of
Randolph Reeves when they come out to protest the execution. This
also zeros in on the ones who are actually going to strap Randy in
and pull the switches!
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 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
06-99 University honors profit over humanity
TEXT
******************************************************************
People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
******************************************************************
12. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: UNIVERSITY HONORS PROFIT OVER HUMANITY
By Jim Keady
In July 1997, I began as an assistant coach of the men's soccer
team at St. John's University. It was a coaching dream. I had
joined the staff of one of the hottest college-soccer programs of
the '90s, fresh off their 1996 NCAA Division I National
Championship.
Along with my coaching, I began pursuing a master's degree in
theology. In one of my classes, I was working on a paper that was
examining Nike's labor practices in light of moral theology. At
the same time, St. John's University was negotiating a
multimillion dollar contract with the Nike Corporation that would
supply equipment and funding to all of the university's athletic
teams.
I took serious issue with this impending deal. I had done months
of research that led me to conclude the following: First, that
Nike Corporation has been one of the grossest violators of
workers' rights. Second, that by St. John's being in a contract
with this corporation, we are an indirect enabler of Nike's
injustices; that we are in violation of the mission of the
university and of the social-justice implications of the Gospel.
Therefore, I asserted that, as a Catholic university, we should
neither be benefiting from Nike, nor be a marketing agent for it.
I personally did not want to be a billboard for a company whose
business practices are unethical and promote injustice.
Knowing that this issue was of crucial importance, I decided that
it must be pursued in the public realm. When I first began this,
it was only as a research paper. I had no idea of the incredible
journey on which it would lead me. What started as a simple
research paper hoping to link moral theology and sport, turned
into a hard-life lesson in big-money power and politics.
The issue, whether or not St. John's should be in a relationship
with Nike, went public in the student newspaper on February 22,
1998. From that day, it became -- and still is -- one of the most
hotly debated topics in the school's recent history. News of this
spread from our small campus in Queens and news stories and
editorials on this issue have appeared in The New York Times,
Newsday, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and most
recently the story has been syndicated nationally by The
Associated Press.
By pursuing this publicly, my actions would cost me. In mid-May of
1998, I was given an ultimatum by university officials: Wear Nike
and drop the issue, or resign.
I was deeply troubled by this. I knew from my research that Nike
had not significantly addressed the issues of wages or the
workers' right to organize. Therefore, I decided the issue could
not be dropped. The dialogue must continue. The university must be
publicly pressured to reconcile how we can remain in this contract
and stay committed to our mission and the social-justice
implications of the Gospel.
All of this lay heavy on my conscience. I was a coach for one of
the most successful college soccer programs of the 1990s. I truly
felt in the coming year, with the team we had returning, that I
would be able to realize the dream as a coach that I did not
realize myself as a player: to win an NCAA championship. Now I was
faced with the challenge of putting this dream on the line.
I couldn't believe that I was being forced to make this decision.
I believed then, and still believe now, that I was following the
true spirit of the mission of university and the Gospel by making
this a public issue. I had no idea what consequences these actions
would hold. I simply could not allow myself to sit back while our
Catholic university was benefiting from profits made on the backs
of the poor.
Now was the time to decide how committed I was to the cause. The
decision was laid before me. Show your allegiance to a company
that violates basic human and workers' rights or show your
allegiance to the pursuit of social justice. I wish I could say
the choice was easy. Thanks to God, through prayer and reflection,
the truth pierced through to my heart of hearts and I knew what
had to be done. I resigned.
Through my resignation I stand here with you today in solidarity.
There is something dishonest going on here. Phil Knight is one of
the richest men in America, while workers in his Southeast Asian
factories scrape by on starvation wages. There is a disparity
evident here that cannot be ignored. There is a theme of
exploitation that permeates the entirety of the Nike Corporation.
It begins in production, with the exploitation of the workers. It
extends to promotion, where high schools, colleges and communities
are colonized by the Nike marketing machine. From here, it moves
to the personal level, which I took issue with, as athletes and
coaches -- either by choice or by force -- are turned into walking
billboards. Finally it reaches you, the consumer, who are charged
exorbitant prices for shoes that on average cost $16 to produce.
Together we stand in protest of this exploitation. We stand in
solidarity against the injustices that oppress worker, athlete and
consumer.
This issue is so crucial. There are two extremes diametrically
opposed to each other here. First is the adherence to the
ironbound law of capitalism, which states that ever-increasing
profit is to be achieved no matter what the costs to humanity or
nature. In contrast to this is the law of humanity, which espouses
that nothing -- no profit, no product and particularly no sneaker
-- is worth more than the dignity of the human person. To
paraphrase sentiments of Mahatma Gandhi which seem to echo truth
here, Nike is at the crossroads. They now have to make their
choice between the law of the jungle and the law of humanity. Just
do it!
[Jim Keady is available to speak through Speakers for a New
America. Call 773-486-3551 or e-mail
[email protected]]
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
ON A MOUNTAINTOP
By Ann Turner
I'm standing on top of a mountain. I look down, gosh it's high.
I'm really afraid of heights.
But I look down anyway. I have an urge to look down. I see many,
many people. I see people I know personally. Then I see Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., Mohammed, Moses. I can't believe this. Oh, it's
only a dream. I pinch myself. No, it's not a dream. That hurt.
I scream: "Please, God, please. I don't want to live another
moment. I can't take it any longer." Then I hear voices. Dr. King
and everyone are saying to hold on. "The pain you feel is the pain
of the world. You feel the pain of the earth: the homeless, the
hungry, the children. No one listens. But you do. You know the
pain of the hurting child. Through you, people will hear of the
pain, being afraid. You need to keep telling everyone. Only a few
of us have been called. When you cry, it's the cry of all people.
You cry a stream, a river, an ocean."
A crackle is heard from the sky. I look up. The white cotton
clouds separate. The blue sky is so, so blue.
A voice is heard. "My daughter, you are a tool being used to help
spread the word of pain. You are sensitive. The pain is real."
Then I reply: "But please listen. It's too much. I can't take it
any longer. The pain is too strong. It's all the time. I can't
think or remember anything. My heart is bad."
Then I hear the voice say: "Go forward, my child. You are on a
long journey. It will end soon. Remember, a man was put on a
cross. His pain was bad. But look, what he has now. So go forward.
Tell people of the pain. Go forward, my child. Your pain will end
soon."
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 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
06-99 People's Tribune Radio
TEXT
******************************************************************
People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
******************************************************************
13. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE RADIO
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
People's Tribune Radio (PTR) is the new monthly news and analysis
program produced by the League of Revolutionaries for a New
America Radio Committee.
June People's Tribune Radio features an interview with Professor
Noam Chomsky on how the government manipulates the governed. Laura
Garcia of the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo analyzes the
Colorado school shootings.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
"We are very appreciative of receiving the tapes and have joined
it with other alternative media information in our programming.
It's a perfect fit."
-- Jessica Mills, Radio Free Gainesville 94.7 FM
Please continue sending me shows. I'll keep them on the air.
-- Joe Ptak, KIND Radio 105.9 and 103.9 FM, San Marcos, Texas
"Very good material. I aired Steve Teixiera on Chiapas and the Los
Angeles Rebellion."
-- Norm Richmond, CKLN 88.1 FM, Toronto
"WMNF is a community radio station in constant search for voices
who rarely if ever get heard. We are committed to being the
people's radio station and People's Tribune Radio helps us fulfill
our mission which is to give voice to the voiceless."
-- Mabili Ajani Shelby,WMNF 88.5 FM, Tampa, Florida
"I heard People's Tribune Radio, 'Issues of the Family' on my
Community station KMUD in Garberville. I want to thank you for
being there. I greatly appreciate that People's Tribune Radio is
proposing Socialist, radical alternatives, because we need them.
I'm a single mother, disabled, with six children. I'm fighting
tooth and nail to keep my home and I'm in low-cost housing. They
say I'm $7,000 in arrears. Every month, my rent goes up $400. I'm
going on eight months without water. I'm not paying my house
payment until my house is brought up to standards. I heard there
is a Kensington Welfare Rights Union that is collecting stories of
people suffering because of welfare cuts. I want the documentation
forms. I hope they are going to sue the Department of Social
Services and the Federal Government for the hardships and
heartaches they are causing families. We need a whole
redistribution of wealth in this country. People are fighting and
I'm one of them. If more of us go on rent strikes, we can reverse
the economic distribution in this country. I'm tired of paying
landlords. We need to take back our power."
-- Randi Dalton, Laytonville, California
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
The following stations, among others, air the People's Tribune
Radio program:
KMUD 88.9 FM, Garberville, California
KVMR 89.5, 99.3, 103.7 FM, Nevada City-Auburn-Sacramento,
California
CKLN 88.1 FM, Toronto, Canada
WRFG 89.3 FM, Atlanta, Georgia
WFLR 89.7 FM, Howell, Michigan
Radio Free Gainesville (Florida) 94.7 FM
WSPE 88.3 FM, Boonesville, Kentucky
Radio Free West Town 101.5 FM, Chicago
Kansas City (Missouri) Black Liberation Radio, 91.1 FM
WMNF Radio 88.5 FM, Tampa, Florida
Montrose Radio 94.9 FM, Houston
KIND Radio 103.9 and 105.9 FM, San Marcos, Texas
CFRO 102.7 FM, Vancouver (British Columbia) Cooperative Radio
WZBC 90.3 FM, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
WZRD 88.3, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago
Free Seattle Radio
Radio Free Brattleboro (Vermont)
San Francisco Liberation Radio
[If you would like a copy of PTR to take to your community
station, call 1-800-691-6888 or e-mail
[email protected]. PTR is
distributed free to radio stations. Send ideas for programs to the
producer, Mike Thornton at
[email protected].]
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 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
06-99 Join with others
TEXT
******************************************************************
People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 1999
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
******************************************************************
14. JOIN WITH OTHERS TO MAKE THE VISION OF A WORLD OF PLENTY A
REALITY
Who is the League of Revolutionaries for a New America? We are
people from all walks of life who refuse to accept that there
should be great suffering in a world of great abundance. Together,
we can inspire people with a vision of a cooperative world where
the full potential of each person can contribute to the good of
all. Together, we can get our message of hope out on radio and
television, in places of worship, union halls, and in the streets.
We don't have all the answers, but we are confident that together
we can free the minds of the millions of people who can liberate
humanity. Join us!
Call us at 800-691-6888 or write to LRNA, P.O. Box 477113,
Chicago, Illinois 60647.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
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+----------------------------------------------------------------+
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 26 No. 6/ June, 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.
******************************************************************
