People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (07-00) Online Edition
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07-00 PT Index
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 27 No. 7/ July, 2000
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
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INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition)
Vol. 27 No. 7/ July, 2000
Editorial
1. Disgust at police tactics shows people are open to new ideas
News and Features
2. You are one of many fighting for revolution
3. What the education debates are all about
4. Change is coming: Who will control it?
5. The meaning of Shaka Sankofa's murder to America
6. Parkland or cop land? The police state in action
7. Honor and respect 'all our relationships': Humanity is challenged to free itself
Spirit of the Revolution
8. Spirit of the Revolution: Who makes history? We do!
Announcements, Events, etc.
9. League of Revolutionaries for a New America - New Ideas for a New Class!
In Spanish/En Español
10. De los Editores: La repugnancia por las tácticas policiacas muestra que la gente está receptiva a nueva ideas
11. Las elecciones presidenciales en México
12. Honrar y respetar "todas nuestras relaciones"
13. Los apuros de la atención médica y los trabajadores migratorios del campo
14. Ud. es uno de tantos que luchar por revolución
15. El cambio se acerca ... ¿Quién lo controlará?
16. La frontera y la muerte mexicana
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TOPIC
07-00 Edit: Disgust at police tactics
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 27 No. 7/ July, 2000
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<I>Click here for the Spanish version / Indíque aquí para la versión en español</I>
1. Editorial: Disgust at police tactics shows people are open to new ideas
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"My brother has been telling me, 'the cops are bad, they lie, plant evidence and beat and abuse people,' and I've always told him the majority of the LAPD officers are certainly better than that. I've been supportive. Until now."
-- letter to editor, Los Angeles Times.
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Across the country, from the morning paper to the evening news, from New York to Chicago, from New Orleans to L.A., there is a daily barrage of stories about the latest police murder, the ongoing police-corruption scandals, the next death-row inmate found innocent due to DNA testing.
The system of police, courts, laws --known as the state -- is designed to protect private property and to guarantee that the ruled submit to the interests of the rulers. It is crucial to the operation of the capitalist system and to the preservation of the capitalist class that those who are ruled believe in the institutions of the state and in the authority of those who rule over them.
It is this fact that makes the American people's growing disgust with the tactics of the police, and the legal system in general, so important to revolutionaries.
In the wake of the recent Ramparts scandals, for example, a Los Angeles Times survey found that only 36 percent of Los Angeles has a favorable impression of how the LAPD does its job. Fifty-one percent believe that the scandals are not just a "few bad apples" or isolated incidents, but "symptomatic of larger problems within the department." While typically this is a common sentiment among minorities, the survey revealed that 58 percent of whites surveyed believe that the police are racist and 43 percent believe that the LAPD "commonly commit acts of brutality."
Significantly, these feelings have spilled over into questioning the operation of the city government as a whole. The millions the city will spend in lawsuit settlements will be diverted from schools, roads and other community projects. "All of L.A. County will suffer because the police didn't do their job," a 50-year L.A. resident told the Los Angeles Times.
History shows that the first stage of any revolution is the beginning of the separation of the people from their belief in the institutions of the state. The simple truth is, the rulers can no longer guarantee the wherewithal for the ruled to live. Capitalist control of electronic technology has created a greater gap between the rich and the poor than ever before in the history of this country. The thinking of the people is beginning to reflect this.
Which way the people move depends upon who gets to them first, who reshapes their thinking around the new realities and the new possibilities.
Revolutionaries must recognize these developments in the thinking of the people for what they are -- an opening into which we can drive a wedge between the American people and their attachment to the capitalist system, its institutions and its rulers. Into this breach we must bring a vision of the world of abundance electronic technology makes possible, of the cooperative society that can be built on this foundation, and of the final fulfillment of human yearning that a world of such endless avenues can bring to us all.
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
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TOPIC
07-00 You Are One of Many
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2. You are one of many fighting for revolution
People find themselves angry and confused about the incidents (Columbine High School and Flint, Michigan shootings; the recent death of a jail inmate in Chicago; the death of Shaka Sankofa (Gary Graham)) that have taken place in our country in the past six months. They find themselves dissatisfied with their government, their communities, the police -- those who are supposed to protect them and their families. But whom are they turning to for answers?
Unfortunately, some believe what they hear on TV or what they read in their local newspapers. They believe that it's the Latinos and the Blacks, or that it's the degeneration of society, the lack of education, the laziness of a people who just don't care. But is that really the problem? Is the problem that people don't care? No, many people do care, but the problem is that they just don't understand how to positively express their outrage. They don't know how to begin to understand why all this is happening now.
The problem can not be easily dissected into a question of race. That's too easy, and that's what the ruling class would like for us to believe. They would like for people to believe that it's OK to be angry with your Latino or Black neighbor. They want for us to be confused about the genocide of poor people. The answer is not simple, but the reality of it is deeply ingrained in the lives of those who no longer have a connection to the system. When we take a good look at what's happening to our country, we can see countless families living in poverty. We see boarded-up factories, companies that have moved to other countries or have just totally been taken over by another overseas company. And, we see their former employees' desperate attempts to regain their sanity in the lines at the day-labor offices at 4 a.m. in hopes of getting a job for the day.
These images are heart-wrenching and to hear about or see them on a day-to-day basis can cause so much confusion. It can cause people to lose faith in their society, to lose hope in the world. And while we tune in to the evening news and hear of yet another school shooting, our hearts pour out to the victims and their families. But as human beings with moral principles, we know there's something not right with the sound of it all. We ask ourselves: "But what can I do? I'm only one." And the truth is you are one of many, you are part of the many who struggle to live day by day and feel the anger, the disgust and confusion of what is happening. And you can't help but ask yourselves, "Who or what is making this world unstable?" The answer lies in the hands of those who control the world. Those few millionaires who don't care about the little boy who shot his teacher, but are certainly going to see to it that he gets locked up. Those same few millionaires will sleep comfortably in their beds knowing that, while they sleep, thousands of dollars are being deposited into their multimillion-dollar accounts. At the same time, all the factory workers they fired are withdrawing the last hundred from their accounts.
In understanding these contradictions, we begin to see why there is a real need for change. We begin to understand that we are part of the class that is slowly being forced to fight back. Whether it's protesting or joining a revolutionary organization, the time is now to act. By consciously understanding the need for change we can begin to unite with the changes that are already happening. We can strengthen the battle and become a conscious, strong force that will stop at nothing until there is a revolutionary change.
FOOTER
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07-00 What the education debates are all about
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3. What the education debates are all about
By Ali M. Hangan
The national debate on public education has been a major issue in a heated presidential campaign year. Both candidates are championing education as a centerpiece of their political platforms. Beyond the rhetoric of vouchers, curricula, accountability, testing and so on, it is vital that we appreciate the historical context of the role of public education to go beyond the rhetoric and investigate what is really at stake.
Public education's initial role was morality training for the children of the working class in the emerging urban centers a century ago. As industrial tools became more sophisticated and products were mass-produced, higher-skilled workers were needed. The mass production of skilled workers was the impetus for the public-education system as we know it today.
In addition, it was to subsidize the cost of training workers for the capitalist class. Ironically, it was paid for by taxing the wages of the working class.
This school-to-work has been a cornerstone of the U.S. social system for the American working people and part of the social contract: Go to school and have a job for life. This feature of our social system has begun to break down. Since the introduction of the microchip in 1971, the work place has become one with fewer workers and lower wages.
The microchip has been applied to automated robotics and information technology. Twenty-five years ago, General Motors was the largest employer in the United States, enabling a high- school graduate to buy a home and raise a family with relative stability. The automated assembly lines have reduced the armies of autoworkers significantly. Today, the low-paying service sector employs most of the American work force. The largest private-sector employer in the United States is Wal-Mart, paying mostly minimum wage. Jeremy Rifkin, noted author of the book "The End Of Work," estimates that in the United States more than 90 million jobs are simple and repetitive and could be replaced by automated robots.
The outsourcing of work by American companies to foreign countries, which then ship finished products back to the United States for sale, could not be sustained without the aid of advanced satellite and information technologies. Moves to bring China into the World Trade Organization will only accelerate outsourcing by U.S. companies. China's top computer engineers make $400 a month, and on any given day there are 100 million middle- and low-skilled workers looking for a job paying less than a dollar a day. On what basis can the American worker compete? The microchip has created a new economy and some highly skilled workers will be needed, but not everyone.
One can think of the new economy like the National Basketball Association: a very few highly paid athletes and many low-wage workers selling beer and popcorn. The public-education debate is about whose children will get access to the educational resources that will allow participation in the burgeoning high-tech economy. The question we should be asking ourselves is, What happens to the children who do not get access? It is a strange irony that prison spending is outpacing school spending in most of the United States.
[Ali M. Hangan is a math and history teacher in California.]
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NEA Convention: July 2000
Nationalize funds for education
By Gloria Slaughter
In 1987, the National Education Association (NEA) Executive Committee commissioned a report entitled "AND JUSTICE FOR ALL." It consisted of studies examining the educational needs of four ethnic-minority groups. It informed the public that by the year 2000, one out of every three elementary and secondary-school students in the United States would be from an ethnic-minority family, and that the students would bring both unique and diverse needs to America's public schools. What the NEA had hoped it had done was publish an active guide for the future. This was an appeal to the American people to help guarantee minority youngsters a quality education and our nation a quality future.
The problems still have not been solved in the year 2000. There has been all kinds of talk about Education Reform, but this never gets beyond talk. The jargon of the Education Reform movement consists of: accountability, testing, charter schools, theme schools, magnet schools, and equity. These concepts don't guarantee a quality education for all students but strengthen the segregation of students along color and class lines. Every school should be a magnet school. Why should some students get a better education than others? The trend across the country is to close the low-performing schools according to national test scores.
In Georgia, Governor Roy Barnes, together with an alliance of big corporations (Georgia Power, Bell South, AT&T, Coca-Cola, etc.), mounted a multimillion dollar campaign to blame the plight of the public schools on teachers. The teachers protested a section of the Education Reform Bill that repeals the Fair Dismissal Act for teachers. This repeal eliminates due process and right now Mississippi is the only other state without any Fair Dismissal Act.
Educators don't deny that public education needs reform. They don't mind being accountable for what they can control. However, they don't control the overcrowded classrooms, the lack of books, the inadequate funding to help students who don't speak English, the high student turnover in some schools, etc. Georgia is a right-to-work, anti-union state; teachers don't even have the right of collective bargaining. When it comes to this latest attack on teachers, students, and parents, it is hard to imagine a better example of "blaming the victim."
The Governor bullied, intimidated and promised to withhold funds from the districts of legislators who voted against his bill. Not surprisingly, all but one Democrat voted for the bill. The Republicans voted against the bill not because they support public schools, but because they favor vouchers for private schools.
Public education is a cornerstone of real equality and real democracy in this country. Taking their cure from big business and well-to-do voters, neither major party really supports it. When the governor declares, "Move the teacher or move the child," he is talking the privatization of the schools.
Educators should be taking a long, hard look at the Democrats. The time is certainly ripening for a third party that represents the interests of working people -- teachers, students, parents, ordinary citizens.
Georgia Power has the resources to make sure that, even in the hottest summer and in the areas of the highest development of homes, power will be sufficient. Adequate funding for all children should be just as high a priority. No suburban parent should have to lose their school's swimming pool. No gifted child should have to give up enrichment courses. No motivated poor child should be denied a college education. We need to nationalize funding for education and demand quality education that is accessible to all.
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 7/ July, 2000; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
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TOPIC
07-00 Change is coming
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<I>Click here for the Spanish version / Indíque aquí para la versión en español</I>
4. Change is coming: Who will control it?
Statement from the League of Revolutionaries for a New America
The world has changed, and so have we.
In the cities, new buildings rise up, gleaming in glass and steel, sumptuous and so modern. People carrying cell phones and laptops rush in and out chasing the next billion-dollar deal. They run dynamic companies, which may not have existed six months ago and which may not exist six months from now.
Working for them are employees who may be young, bright and just out of school, or older and experienced, but who are lacking something that workers in the past used to nearly take for granted. They lack a secure future because, even though they're working, they're temps. No unions, no benefits, no pension. They finish putting in their long day on the job and leave in the evening, but the lights in the building don't go out.
The crews of janitors come through, moving from desk to desk, picking up the waste baskets, the shredding bags, the plastic coffee cups and takeout boxes. They push the machines that clean and shine the lobby floors so that tomorrow the million-dollar property will again look like ... well, like a million dollars.
Elsewhere in the cities, the idle red-brick former factories are now loft buildings. The single-room-occupancy hotels have gone condo. The long-neglected public-housing projects are dynamited.
The homeless are driven out, and pushed farther and farther away. Someone who looks like a man, but is only a half-living shell, recedes up the street and disappears around the corner. A police car circling the block goes the same way. Silence in the night, and then ... gunshots, a lot of 'em. Sirens, flashing lights ... and then silence, as if nothing had happened. So strange.
Across the globe, villages are abandoned as millions of former peasants stream into the world's cities looking for work and find themselves scavenging, hawking, hustling. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of women and children are reduced to sweatshop slavery and prostitution.
The world is changing, and so are we who live in it. The lines that separated nations and tribes are being erased, but not the lines that separate classes. A tiny handful of extremely wealthy people who control property and power decide the fate of all the other people we have just described. They don't work, but they grow richer. The rest of us work -- that is, we exhaust ourselves -- and grow poorer. Can this be changed so that all of us, whoever we are and wherever we are, can really live out what we are only dreaming of now? Decent and happy lives in real homes? Healthy, well-clothed and well-fed? Living as a member of a single race of humans who are not each other's predators and prey, but friends, brothers and sisters?
Yes, this can be changed. We, who are in the vast majority, can and must become the masters of this change. The scavenger, the sweatshop slave, the temp at the desk have more in common with each other than any will have with the global banker and capitalist who only care about staying on top. Some of us, such as many of the destitute in the street, usually have to devote all of our strength just to survive each day. Others, often those with at least some kind of stable employment, are better able to take up the tasks of leadership, organization, education and unification around a program of change that addresses the needs of everyone from the most destitute on up.
Who doesn't see the marvels that technology has already produced? Who can't see the potential of even greater things to come? You know that people don't have to go homeless when a house can be built in a day. You know that the sick don't have to suffer when so many treatments and cures already exist. You know that children don't have to go hungry when just one country can feed the world. And this world doesn't have to fall apart when you know it can be saved.
The world is changing because it can. Not only that, it can change in more than one way. It's a matter of who's doing the changing. This is the time to begin making real the change to a society that is based on cooperation among people everywhere, to replace poverty, insecurity and crisis with abundance, fulfillment and peace.
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 7/ July, 2000; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.lrna.org
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07-00 The meaning of Shaka Sankofa's murder to America
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5. The meaning of Shaka Sankofa's murder to America
With the last appeal denied, Shaka Sankofa (Gary Graham) was put to death by the state of Texas on June 22, 2000. Sankofa, an African American, was without money to guarantee a proper defense. He was assigned an incompetent attorney who believed him guilty. At 17, Sankofa was locked into death row, the guilty verdict and execution a foregone conclusion.
Texas has become a killing field for the poor and for people of color. Governor George W. Bush, who joked about and mimicked Karla Faye Tucker's pleading for mercy before her execution, has presided over 135 executions. Texas will continue to kill one a week through the presidential elections.
The question here is not for or against the death penalty, but who gets executed? Everyone knows that it is the poor. It is the people without clout. It is the people who don't count in this country.
The lawyers, the prosecutors, the judges, the sheriffs and the ruling politicians all belong to the same country clubs. They play golf together, socialize at the same parties, intermarry, have attended the same universities. They form a class that looks out for one another and are very careless about your rights. If you have any doubts, look into your local jails and Death Rows and see who is there.
Can the powerful murder with impunity? Was President Eisenhower charged when he ordered the murder of Patrice Lumumba, prime minister of the Congo? Was President Kennedy indicted for handing the Mafia $3 million of your tax money to kill Fidel Castro of Cuba? Take a look at the ongoing 25-year-old murder investigation in Connecticut that involves relatives of the Kennedy family. Here, there is the money and clout to guarantee that every "T" is crossed while the suspect remains free on a half-million-dollars bail.
What is the meaning of these executions?
Against all evidence to the contrary, the politicians whipped up hysteria about out-of-control crime. They made it clear that they meant crime by African Americans. This, along with the hysteria about welfare queens (also African American), was part of a carefully controlled maneuver to frighten the people into putting the nation in the hands of Southern reactionary politicians. Their goal was to treat the entire nation's poor the way they have traditionally been treated in Bill Clinton's Arkansas, Al Gore's Tennessee or Trent Lott's Mississippi. If you have any doubt as to their success, start counting the cuts in welfare, education and medical care. Or take a look at the torn and ruined social safety net. After shedding any governmental responsibility for the well-being of the citizens, the next step is social control. This is the real meaning of the "lock 'em up and throw away the key" laws and the expanding execution of the nation's poor.
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 7/ July, 2000; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.lrna.org
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TOPIC
07-00 Parkland or cop land? The police state in action
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6. Parkland or cop land? The police state in action
By Marshall Blesofsky
Without much of a chance for the people who will be affected to discuss it, or even hear about it, the city of Long Beach decided last February to build a huge police compound in Scherer Park in North Long Beach. The proposed building, an enlargement of an already existing small station, will ruin the park.
The people who live here love this little park; it is one of the few spots of beauty in an otherwise harsh world. No one can estimate the value of this wonderful park and what it means to the people who use it. It is not, as Long Beach officials keep saying, "free land." It belongs to the people.
Long Beach officials have tried to turn this into a question of having to choose between a beloved park on the one hand, and police "protection" on the other. City "leaders" have said that, if the people of North Long Beach don't like the idea, the police will just leave and "let the criminals take over the park!" This arrogant and divisive statement plays on the residents' fears.
The park is situated on Del Amo Boulevard, the dividing line between prosperous Bixby Knolls and much poorer North Long Beach. The police operate in North Long Beach like an occupying army. One band of cops calls itself the "North Long Beach Raiders" and specializes in raiding parties and breaking heads. The city would like the proposed station to be seen as protecting the Bixby Knolls area from the "criminals" (in other words, poor people) in North Long Beach. Fortunately, most of the people who live in the area have not fallen for this tactic.
Faced with what looked like a done deal, local people started meeting at coffeehouses and in living rooms to try to stop the theft of the park. A group organized itself and put on a demonstration-picnic-celebration for Earth Day 2000 that drew over 100 people to the park. There were prayers and songs by Tongva (Native American) religious leaders, music by local musicians, Aztec dancers, a few very short speeches, and signs made and held up for traffic to see along Del Amo (getting a great response, by the way). The event had been publicized widely in the neighborhood and people came out of their homes to find out what was going on. Most of them had not heard about the planned destruction of the park and enthusiastically agreed with the protest.
A couple of weeks later, the city decided to have its own meeting about the planned construction. Held at a local junior high school, it was publicized by invitations to selected homeowners. But word got out and about 200 people showed up to hear the discussion. The meeting was chaired by a city employee who opened the meeting by saying that there would be no discussion of stopping the project. Several people tried to raise the issue and object to the plan, but they were shut up by the chairwoman, who was surrounded by an ominous looking group of armed policemen. There were plainclothesmen in the audience with bulges under their coats and, outside, the building was patrolled by still more armed police. Is this what has become of freedom of speech in Long Beach, a city government afraid of its own citizens?
It may not seem like much -- just a little park taken over by police. Compared to the horrors seen on the nightly news, it may seem like a trivial matter to some. But stand warned -- public discourse shouted down by police, the destruction of the common land by the whim of armed occupiers, the behind-closed-doors decisions enforced by the threat of violence against all dissent -- these are all characteristics of a police state. Throughout this country, the shadow of police terror is growing darker, longer and deadlier. And, like the people of Long Beach, we all face a hard choice and struggle. On the one hand, an ever-increasing iron fist of police control. On the other, a beautiful, plentiful future. Parkland or cop land?
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 7/ July, 2000; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.lrna.org
Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The
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07-00 Honor and respect 'all our relationships'
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7. Honor and respect 'all our relationships': Humanity is challenged to free itself
By Trinidad Rodriguez
It is disturbing the way we are taught to live our lives. The lessons, the shaping of our core ideas, how we relate to one another, all of which come at us from so many angles and so many places that, when it is all said and done, we come away thinking that we came up with our views all by ourselves.
Our relationships are riddled with pathologies that pass as guidance. This struck me the other day when I turned to help my 5-year-old with his homework, and he looked up to say, "Mommy, don't worry about anyone else, just worry about yourself." When asked where he got that expression from, he explained that his teacher told him that he was supposed to just take care of himself. These kinds of messages fall on our children and the rest of us every day. This focus on the individual to the exclusion of others, is a huge mindset that erodes our natural sense of cooperating to solve common problems. These types of ideas become like a blanket of concrete that make it difficult to break our isolation from one another.
Thankfully, our ancient and lifelong striving to be available for each other is not easily broken. The time-honored way practiced by our ancestors, to honor and respect "all our relations," is not easily forgotten. It is in our bones. I believe that the same sentiment is reawakened by the fact that we have entered a time in our history when the material abundance of the planet challenges our spiritual and cultural yearning to be whole human beings. Humanity is challenged to free itself of the straightjacket holding back relationships at all levels of our conscious existence.
Everywhere we see evidence of people gravitating toward a more connected, compassionate world. To be sure, the impulse to help those directly affected by the trials of homelessness, hunger and poverty has reached international heights and examples abound. Should we be surprised to find this same impulse to connect and cooperate expressed among "mainstream," more materially secure populations? Judging from a few recent Oprah shows, this tendency to reach out beyond the walls that separate us, is alive and taking various personally stamped forms. In fact, Oprah's web site indicates that her program has been applauding these efforts regularly.
Every week someone is honored with a "Use Your Life" Award, for "showing the courage to use your life, to reach out and help those who are in need and suffering, and taking your own life to a higher level."
A few examples:
* Inspired by their community's generosity in helping them financially so they could spend time with their fatally ill child, a couple founded an organization that raises money to pay mortgages for families with critically ill children.
* Having gotten out of a violent marriage with only 25 cents in her pocket, one woman established a program to help abused women reclaim their spirits and lives.
* A 26-year-old man turned his back on big money so he could start a program for at-risk youth that shows them how to become leaders, value themselves, and serve their community.
* Against great odds, one woman struggled to become a nurse, then started a pediatric clinic for the poor and uninsured, where she often puts in 20-hour days. Aside from health care, her clinic also gives out free food and clothing, because she says, "I come from the old school that believes every child is your child, and truly every child is mine."
In addition, Oprah's Millennium Dreamers spotlighted one child after another for their thoughtful acts of kindness. For instance:
* After one young girl realized that many foster children in her community were carrying their belongings in garbage bags, she organized to distribute duffel bags to foster children all over the U.S.
* After suffering the loss of her leg after an accident, a young model began helping other amputees cope with their loss, and helping recycle costly prosthetics -- recycling some 27,000 limbs in six years.
* After visiting a children's home and hearing that they needed books, a third-grade boy formed an organization to recycle children's books.
* Feeling that giving was better than receiving, since age 6, one young girl has held her birthday parties at places like soup kitchens, animal shelters and a retirement home, so she and friends can give to others.
Considering that our society's culture encourages and rewards selfishness, it is no wonder that audiences are moved to tears to see that some people have the courage to break from that mold. These risk-takers are seen as heroic.
I can't help but think that there is more to why people are moved by these individuals and their actions. Each of these individuals was trying to do something very basic. They were trying to take what was available, whether it be products, knowledge, services, resources, talents, etc., and make it as widely accessible as possible to those in need of it. By taking money out of the equation, they were trying to remove the barriers to that access.
Could it be that in these individual examples people are seeing the embryonic stage of a new idea? Are people weeping because they wish they lived in a world where people could be free to give the best of themselves, while healing and helping others in the process? Are people cheering because they see a glimpse of how rewarding it would be to live in a society where helping one another is the highest measure of heroism? I certainly think so.
FOOTER
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This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 7/ July, 2000; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.lrna.org
Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its
readers.
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TOPIC
07-00 Spirit: Who makes history? We do!
TEXT
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 27 No. 7/ July, 2000
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
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8. Spirit of the Revolution: Who makes history? We do!
By Nelson Peery
Our page, "Spirit of the Revolution," was created because people, not machines, make history. In making that history, people are guided by what they believe to be moral and correct. Their beliefs, their hopes and visions, their religion, their spiritual life, are the real revolutionary weapons in making history. Understanding the material world is the necessary foundation for entering the decisive arena -- the spiritual world of mankind. The material world created by the development of the means of production provides the foundation for the development of these revolutionary weapons.
Since its inception, the League of Revolutionaries for a New America has concentrated on understanding and explaining the historical significance of the development of the new electronic means of production. Yet, that was not our goal. Our goal was that in understanding the material conditions, we could wage a proper struggle to influence the morality and philosophy of the people. This is the stuff revolutions are made of.
The vast majority of people are not going to do things that they think are morally wrong. Yet, they do change their moral principles. History teaches us that what is accepted as right today, is rejected for being wrong tomorrow. Why do moral concepts change? Social morality arises from the division of labor in social production. That division of labor creates a definite relationship and interdependence that is the basis of social morality. Consequently, change the division of labor, and, ultimately, morality must also change.
The Reagan years were years of such change. It was the beginnings of a new economy. We, the people, could not create a new morality for this emerging economy, so the Reagan reactionaries created one for us. This new morality was based on "market values." Many farsighted commentators, understanding the implications, commented that America was going to pay a heavy price for this change in values, and it has.
The heart of market values is that anything, including human beings, is only worth what the market says it is worth. "Market values" is the morality of capitalism stripped of all its trappings. It isn't actual morality. Morality is a social concept based on the reality that individual interests are subordinate to social interests. Our condemnation of capitalism begins with its demand that the individual's pursuit of money overrides all social considerations. Capitalism is the highest form of private interest and is in flat contradiction to morality, which by definition is public interest.
Some 150 years ago, Congress passed a law legalizing the sale of one's children into slavery. The Civil War was the inevitable result of such "morality." Again we see the people frantically forsaking moral concepts in the pursuit of money. Once again they are ready to desert, and actually are deserting, family and social obligations to get rich. The fact that we daily pass other human beings who are in great financial distress and that we do nothing about it, shows how much we have accepted market values.
The contradiction between market values and social needs is so great that we can safely predict that such "values" will bring about the downfall of the existing society. Let us examine a few of these contradictions. First, market values impose upon society the idea that the pursuit of money is more important than social contribution. As this idea is accepted, more people are pulled into making money than into making social contributions. The inevitable result is that the most-capable individuals are turned against society. Such a society cannot last. Flowing from this, it is clear that a society that encourages individual economic well-being over social well-being cannot last.
Large numbers of people can only be governed by instilling in them a sense of doing what is right. Market values demand that each individual do what is expedient. If a society upholds what is expedient over what is right, that society cannot last. Market values elevate self-interest to the level of a moral principle. Such a society cannot last.
Our society is becoming unhinged. Since the moral glue that held it together is so weakened by market values, the first serious economic shake-up will tear it apart. Enough people are falling behind in this dog-eat-dog scramble for money, to be open to new ideas. At such moments, they realize that we do not live by bread alone. The loss of our extended families, our sense of community, our loving relationships, the perverting of our spiritual life, is not worth the crass material goals. They are beginning to be open to the idea of rising with the people, rather than rising above them. This is a time for revolutionaries.
Our task is clear. That is to bring the revolution and the ideas of a communal, cooperative society into battle against market morality. Today, being a revolutionary means that we defend the old values, that we stand for what is right. Our revolution must have as its goal the solid, spiritual, communal values, or we can never change the material conditions of the people.
FOOTER
******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 7/ July, 2000; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.lrna.org
Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its
readers.
******************************************************************
TOPIC
07-00 League of Revolutionaries for a New America
TEXT
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People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition)
Vol. 27 No. 7/ July, 2000
P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654
http://www.lrna.org
BODY
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9. League of Revolutionaries for a New America - New Ideas for a New Class!
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 minds of the millions of people who liberate humanity. The LRNA offers its speakers, its radio, and its paper to introduce the new ideas that are needed for revolutionary change. Join us in the fight for a new cooperative society!
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SPEAKERS FOR A NEW AMERICA
Our speakers are in the forefront. They bring a vision of unity in the struggle for a new cooperative society. Contact us today for a free listing of all our speakers and topics, or to have one of our speakers come speak on your community radio, your campus, a forum, or conference.
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******************************************************************
This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO
(Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 7/ July, 2000; P.O. Box 3524,
Chicago, IL 60654; Email:
[email protected];
http://www.lrna.org
Feel free to reproduce and use unless marked as copyrighted. The
PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its
readers.
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