People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (05-00) Online Edition .TOPIC 05-00 PT Index .TEXT .BODY ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.lrna.org +----------------------------------------------------------------+ INDEX to the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 Editorial 1. CAMPAIGN 2000: FEW CHOICES FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE News and Features 2. CLASS STRUGGLE IN THE DIGITAL AGE 3. THE NONVIOLENT ARMY 4. SPEAKERS FOR A NEW AMERICA PRESENTS JACK HIRSCHMAN, 'PEOPLE'S POET' 5. EDUCATION'S FUTURE ... AND YOUR FUTURE 6. MOTHER'S DAY 2000: THE WALKS OF LIFE - A LETTER TO MY GRANDMOTHER LUCIA 7. FATAL SHOOTING OF 6-YEAR-OLD SHOCKS FLINT, MICHIGAN AND THE NATION 8. KIM CHERNIN'S 'IN MY MOTHER'S HOUSE' 9. YOUTH MUST LEAD THE FIGHT FOR EDUCATION 10. CALIF. PROP 21, OPPRESSIVE LAWS, POLICE KILLINGS: MORE TO IT THAN MEETS THE EYE Spirit of the Revolution 11. RIGHT WING'S TEACHINGS CONTRADICT CHRIST'S Music/Poetry/Art 12. A SHORT STORY FROM DREAMERSPOINT Announcements, Events, etc. 13. PT RADIO [To subscribe to the online edition, send a message to pt- dist@noc.org with "Subscribe" in the subject line.] ****************************************************************** We encourage reproduction and use of all articles except those copyrighted. Please credit the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO. The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO depends on donations from its readers -- your generosity is appreciated. For free electronic subscription, send a message to pt-dist@noc.org with "Subscribe" in the subject line. For electronic subscription problems, e-mail pt-admin@noc.org. ****************************************************************** .TOPIC 05-00 Edit: Campaign 2000: Few Choices for the American people .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: CAMPAIGN 2000: FEW CHOICES FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE As the primary elections showed us, the American electoral system leaves voters with few choices. March brought the elimination of half the candidates and replaced them with the apathy of the American people. It has become obvious that the elections go to the candidates with the deepest pockets and with the most connections to the status quo. This has left people with little choice and no way to express their discontent. While the media portrays everyone as happy in these times of economic good fortune, a growing number of people are turning to the demagogues of populism. What has created this populism and why is it so bent toward fascism? Can this discontent be channeled into a progressive platform that calls for a world that sustains its population rather than crushing it? Super Tuesday eliminated the competition and left Americans bored and unsure of the process. A record low turnout in Illinois two weeks later told the tale. The local elections in Chicago were not enough to bring 66 percent of registered Chicagoans to the polls. Every state wants to move their primaries up, to play an important role in the choosing of candidates. The more important question is: Does it matter which states are first, or do the same people and policies win in our election system? Are the campaign contributions of corporate America the driving force, or do all Americans really have a voice? The current electoral process is a game to be bought and sold by the capitalist elite. The candidates are chosen according to who will most serve the desires of that elite and the system of capitalism. This is not a democracy, but a well-oiled political machine with objectives and agendas. We have seen George W. Bush win his party's nomination with the largest amount of campaign contributions ever -- even as his opponent got votes for his stand on campaign finance reform. We have seen Al Gore catering to the right in an attempt to lock up votes in the middle. Do either of these bode well for the American people? Is there an alternative to the mainstream corporate agenda that governs our country today? Neither of these men will look out for working-class Americans. Neither favors health care for all Americans, nor strong labor laws that prevent the blackmailing of communities across the world by global corporations looking for the most profit. It is important that people begin the process of creating new alternatives. These alternatives must stand against capitalism, racism and militarism; they must stand for working people all over the Earth. A new alternative will only occur from the bottom up. The new class -- those left behind by the current system -- must be the ones to lead the fight for a better system and way of life. Only when those who have lost everything are given a chance to decide what is needed, will this country be based on equality and freedom. People must organize and envision new communities locally and in network with others. The discontents that people such as Pat Buchanan feed off of are also the discontents that can change the world if they are given a high level of class consciousness by an organization of revolutionaries. Change must be based on principles of freedom, diversity and collective betterment for all, not on the nature of our current system or the ideologies of people like Pat Buchanan. We are seeing a changing face of politics. The major parties are moving closer together and farther from the American people. Fringe parties are becoming important for the first time in 150 years. This split from the two-party system is a good sign for progressives, but the direction this discontent is taking is not. People must educate and organize themselves to create the kind of government they want, at the same time that we make informed decisions about what we don't want. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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 05-00 Class Struggle in the Digital Age .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 2. CLASS STRUGGLE IN THE DIGITAL AGE As this issue of the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo goes to press, May Day 2000 is upon us. May Day is an international holiday that celebrates the workers and their struggle. Ironically, it is marked in many nations across the world, but not in the United States where it originated. May Day had its origin in the great struggle by militant workers for the eight-hour workday that broke out in the United States in 1886. Since then, it has been the proud banner under which fighting proletarians the world over have marched side by side on the road to emancipation. Where does May Day 2000 find us? We are leaving the Industrial Age for the Information Age. Every day we hear about another "dot com" millionaire or billionaire being created. At the same time, there are millions who are homeless and destitute, millions in prison, millions working as temps, and millions working for poverty wages, such as the janitors who are on strike as we go to press. How does today's struggle compare with the class struggle of years past? In the 19th century, the rising proletariat -- that class of humanity that had to work for a wage in order to live -- struggled against the entrenched bourgeoisie -- that other class that lived off the time, labor, sweat and blood of the proletarians they exploited. The two classes were enemies. They still are and always will be. They struggled not simply because they wanted to, but they had to, out of necessity. Just as it takes two to tango, it takes two classes in the same place to struggle. Although the capitalists owned the tools of production, they could not produce a single thing and profit from it without buying the energy of humans to use those tools to make everything we need to live. The bourgeoisie and proletariat arose simultaneously as two great social classes, mutually developing each other, the former as exploiters and the latter as exploited. An entire social, economic and political system arose based on this particular kind of exploitation: capitalism. Inside the factories, down in the mines, along the railroads and on the plantations of the earth, capitalist and worker struggled over what was produced. The capitalist struggled to squeeze as much wealth out of the workers' time and energy as possible; the worker struggled to win back from the capitalist as much as possible the wages and goods he or she produced with brawn and brain. Why was this necessary? Because the means of production -- the tools, the machines, the engines -- needed human beings to operate them. This was the only way under this specific system called capitalism that commodities could be produced. The capitalists circulated these commodities by selling them at a profit back to the workers who made them in the first place, thus producing more capital and thus keeping the cycle turning. To prevail in this two-way struggle, the capitalists combined into monopolies and bourgeois parties while the workers combined into unions and political parties of the proletariat. The capitalists possessed an unlimited arsenal of weapons to use against the workers. The proletarians had just one to use against the capitalists: the strike. In the last quarter of the 20th century, science provided the entire human race with a completely new tool that will transform the world forever: labor-replacing technology. Let's call it a robot. It was the capitalists who first pounced upon this new tool because this gave them the historic opportunity to win the struggle against the workers once and for all. The capitalists can only see the robot as the ultimate strikebreaker, which it is. There's no way a wage-earning human needing food, clothing and shelter can compete against an unpaid thing which doesn't need them. The proletarians' only weapon, the strike, is being blunted and broken around the world while the bourgeoisie roars in the belief it has won everything. Unionization is falling while harassment, humiliation, temp work and even outright slavery increase. Wealth and poverty are polarizing. Because of the robot, the connection between capitalist and worker is being broken as far as the workplace is concerned. The capitalist only tangoes with himself while his robot hums along. The system turns from exploitation to exclusion as the permanently unemployed worker is exiled to the street. The street. It is there that the new struggle opens. Now it is between the wageless, propertyless proletarian on one side and the capitalist-controlled state on the other. Now it is between two sides who no longer speak the same language, much less have anything to say to each other. The old class of capitalists increasingly speaks the language of state power against the powerless to keep things the way they have been, to protect their privileges. The new class of proletarians slowly begins speaking in a new language about replacing the capitalists and taking over the new tools and circulating what they make freely to everyone according to human need, not money. The emergence of the new technology has changed everything, including the class struggle. Such a struggle cannot be fought or won the way it was when we had only the old tools and old realities. In the streets, where the final outcome must be decided, the new reality is represented by a new class of poor -- low-wage workers, temps, the destitute -- which has no place in the old system and no interest in upholding it. What is needed is the distribution of everything without money. Without this, the new class has no future. Without this, the world has no future. This is where we find ourselves on May Day 2000, this bridge between the 20th and 21st centuries. Around the world, from the sweatshops of Asia, Africa and Latin America, to the bleak urban housing projects of the post-industrial West, to the companies where the still-employed are trying their best to hang on, the future lies in communism, a society of peace, life, love and mutual cooperation. We are billions of people. Our unity is where we will find the strength of our numbers to prevail and win this final conflict. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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 05-00 The Nonviolent army .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 3. THE NONVIOLENT ARMY By Ted Glick For those of us who believe that fundamental change is needed in the United States and the world, there is a new development that we all need to welcome, understand, support and work with: the nonviolent army. The just-concluded protests in Washington, D.C. against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank bore witness to this historic development. Many thousands of people from across the country followed up successfully from the November 30, 1999 disruption of the World Trade Organization in Seattle by focusing the attention of the world on these two linchpins of the world's corporate-dominated, destructive, economic and financial system. A traditional military army is made up at its base primarily of young people. This is true of the nonviolent army of this first decade of the 21st century; fully 80-85 percent or more of those who blockaded the streets of downtown D.C. were under 25. A traditional army is organized using platoons, companies, battalions, brigades and divisions. The nonviolent army is organized on the basis of affinity groups, flying squads, clusters and slices. A traditional army is trained in techniques of offense and defense, expecting to take and inflict casualties. The nonviolent army is learning the techniques of civil disobedience, jail solidarity and legal issues, while also expecting to face tear gas, pepper spray, clubs, rubber bullets, horses, arrests or beatings. It makes no plans for the infliction of casualties on anybody. Soldiers in traditional armies have uniforms and equipment appropriate to their situation. The nonviolent army uses sneakers, boots, vinegar-soaked bandanas, eye goggles, ponchos and an occasional gas mask. Traditional armies have communications systems in place for those times when engaged in battle. The nonviolent army uses cell phones and walkie talkies, bicyclists and runners on foot, and a tactical operations group to re-deploy flying squads and clusters as needed. Traditional armies have weapons of destruction. The nonviolent army has weapons of the heart, spirit, mind and organization. Twice in four and a half months this nonviolent army has mobilized its forces, and it will do so again. Throughout the days of preparation in D.C. leading up to the April 16 mass disruption, in evening "spokes council" meetings attended by many hundreds of people, the leaders of this nonviolent army emphasized that as significant as this one battle was, there was a critical need to build an ongoing movement. Words cannot do justice to the importance of this development. This is a new type of movement, in many ways. It is led predominantly by women. It is deeply committed to democracy, direct democracy in which the goal is respect for the opinions and input of all who are part of the movement. It is a movement that sings; one of the most moving songs has these words: "Rise up, we don't have long; Come together, keep our movement strong." It integrates art, dance, humor, theatre, drumming and creativity into its work and actions. And it tries to operate by consensus. It is not a movement without weaknesses. The most glaring is its racial composition. Despite organized and active outreach efforts, and despite holding its demonstrations and blockades in predominantly African American Washington, D.C., the percentage of people of color participating in the meetings and the street actions remained in the single digits, percentage-wise. Perhaps even more significant, there were no people of color in major, visible positions of leadership for and during the street actions. It is also a movement, a nonviolent army, struggling with how to build a national organizational structure and process based on direct democracy, consensus and as much decentralization as possible in a country as big as this one when people are not together in one city planning for an action. Even when together, the efforts to hammer out consensus sometimes mean the alienation of those not able to "hang" with long meetings. But these weaknesses cannot obscure the fact that the groups under the Direct Action Network umbrella which worked together on April 16 have provided a jolt of electricity, again, to the progressive movement, to the country as a whole, and to struggling people the world over. Through a deeply felt commitment to take action to save our endangered ecosystem and improve the lives of the world's poor, here and abroad, this nonviolent army of thousands is displaying international solidarity of the highest magnitude. By their willingness to put their bodies on the line for global justice they are reminding us all that, indeed, there "ain't no power like the power of the people, and the power of the people don't stop." [Ted Glick is the National Coordinator of the Independent Progressive Politics Network and an activist in the New York/northern New Jersey area.] .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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 05-00 Jack Hirschman, People's Poet' .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 4. SPEAKERS FOR A NEW AMERICA PRESENTS JACK HIRSCHMAN, 'PEOPLE'S POET' [Editor's note: San Francisco-based poet Jack Hirschman is among the speakers available through Speakers for a New America. The San Francisco Chronicle recently published a feature on Hirschman. Excerpts of that article, written by Mark Weiss, are below.] He may well be called "the greatest living poet in America." He is without a doubt a brilliant translator of poems from Russian, Spanish, German, Hebrew, French, Greek, Haitian Creole, Italian and Albanian. Feted in Italy. Respected in France. Invited to tour England. But at this precise moment, Jack Hirschman cannot pay for his bagel and cream cheese and double espresso at Caffe Trieste. "I've got 46 cents in my account," he says without a trace of embarrassment or self-pity when a visitor shows up just in time to pay. "That's all I've got." For a quarter century, Hirschman, 66, has roamed San Francisco's streets, and cafes, and readings -- the city's most active poet and poetry's most peripatetic activist. "Jack's a very American voice," [Lawrence] Ferlinghetti says. "He certainly aims to be the voice of the people." "Lawrence is a legend," Hirschman says. "Lawrence has sold a million copies -- I don't think I've sold a thousand. I've lived my life hand-to-mouth. I've circulated in the bloodstream of this country in different ways from those with big names. [Poetry] should really be a form of communication in a giving way, rather than sold," he says. "Everything that helps to market, to sell, is in a certain sense false, belongs to capitalism." "I gave away the art works as a form of cultural propaganda," he says. "Poetry is a spiritual weapon for the transformation of the world. And, of course, all my poems are love poems. The nicest thing in the world is to propagandize for love." The war in Vietnam would soon put an end to Hirschman's academic career. "I turned the class into one where everybody wrote poetry, and we demonstrated against the war," Hirschman says. "I was fired the week I was given the distinguished teaching award by the student body." "You have to understand," Hirschman says. "When I left the university I simply made my mind up I was going to be a creator the rest of my life. And it didn't matter if I made money, or got fame." "The best experience I had reading in San Francisco," he says, "was reading my poem 'Home' to 250 homeless people in the Civic Center. The changes I saw in their faces, their eyes, their weeping." [For a free listing of all of our speakers, call 800-691-6888, e-mail speakers@noc.com or visit our web site at http://www.mcs.net/~speakers/. Interviews of our speakers are at People's Tribune Radio at http://www.ptradio.org] .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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 05-00 Education's future ... and your future .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 5. EDUCATION'S FUTURE ... AND YOUR FUTURE By the L.A. University Chapter of League of Revolutionaries for a New America When you ask about the future of public universities, you're also raising the bigger question of everyone's future. That's why the May 9 hearing at Cal State-Los Angeles about what will become of the Cal State system of universities is really about the kind of society we all want to live in. Will it be a world where a minority of the people is computer literate, with comfort and wealth, while many more people barely survive on service jobs, or no jobs at all? From Mexico City to Los Angeles, that's the world that now exists. Or, can we figure out how to re-organize society so the new technology serves human need, not greed? The California Faculty Association (CFA) has organized three public hearings in different cities so that the state's people can fight for their right to an affordable education. Most don't even realize how much education money has already been diverted into corporate pockets and the prison system. Most don't realize that California has fallen from fifth to 41st in school spending. As with the problem of homelessness or crime, the class of people who own almost everything are creating a world in their own interest, regardless of the misery that results for everyone else. The California Budget Project reports that in four recent years, California's richest 1 percent got 57 percent more income, while people with average income ($24,000) got only 1.8 percent more. Incomes for the poorest one-fifth fell 13 percent! No wonder people are questioning the system itself. Even successful author Walter Mosley ("Devil in a Blue Dress"), told the Los Angeles Times that kids' reading could improve but "we don't have $50 million to put there. We do have it for the S&L bailout, we do have it for war in Iraq or an embargo against Cuba." He added: "I believe that this country, and this government, is against educating children. And so learning how to read is actually a revolutionary act." It's true -- and that also means that it's time for revolutionary reading and thinking about how to take America back from the 1 percent that is dragging us down. Meanwhile, the fight for better schools must be supported. Some say the first step is to get more money for faculty pay, smaller classes, and fewer high-risk remedial students. They say this will produce better graduates, who will improve schools, until "someday" more kids will qualify for college. But the kids living in the poorest communities have a right to an education now, if only society's wealth was used to get it done. That's why these hearings are so important. CFA wants students, parents, and others to link up with them in the fight for affordable quality education. It's an opportunity to link the fight for better faculty pay to the fight for remedial programs and special admissions for the victims of weakened schools. It's a chance to form a broad alliance between the campus and the community. Fighting alone, all have been losing -- here's a chance to develop a strategy to win! .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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 05-00 Mother's Day 2000 .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 6. MOTHER'S DAY 2000: THE WALKS OF LIFE - A LETTER TO MY GRANDMOTHER LUCIA Beloved Ita: It's been over a year since you left us to rest in peace from the ills this society has to offer. I must confess the pain in my heart is no less than that fateful day that you passed on. The truth is that every time I recall how things happened, my skin crawls. How can I ever forget the tears in your eyes when the damn doctor yelled at us, "she dies here or in the hospital, it doesn't make a difference!" In that instant I realized there was lucidity and understanding in your eyes that I had not seen in years. My heart told me these were your last days. And although you could no longer speak, it was not necessary, I could read it all in your eyes. Your tears were worth more than all the words in the world. Your desperation became ours as we realized this inept doctor was the only one working the nursing home for those past three days of a holiday season. One doctor, he himself an older man, to care for 150 patients. He was exhausted and to the point of burnout from the pressures of his job. I am not condoning his behavior. But Ita, to what point have things been driven that so many precious lives of loved ones depend on the care of one doctor alone? The truth is that this experience taught me the depth of a social system that does not value the lives of those who do not have the economic means for the care they deserve. Part of me has a sense of guilt over having to place you in that hell of a nursing home. Walking through that door every single day was a battle itself. Especially when all we wanted was to have you near and give you all of our love in those difficult moments. But there were so many complications, we were forced to make that painful decision. How many families find themselves in that same dilemma? Many. It's just not fair! It is a reality that tears and divides families apart. And it never stops eating you inside. The mourning I carry in my soul goes beyond your death. Within my heart, there was a sense of relief in knowing that you would no longer suffer, but another part of me felt a rage knowing that things did not have to be this way. And as such, my struggle for a better world has taken a much deeper meaning. My rage is against a system that does not meet the needs of all humanity, not against the acts of nature. Alive in me burns all the pain and suffering caused unto you by this system. It is a legacy that keeps me fighting to bring dignity and respect to your memory. Ita, on this Mother's Day I thank you for all you have given me and I dedicate all my efforts as a tribute to you and all the families that have known such walks of life all too well. Tu vieja, Liz .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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 05-00 Fatal shooting of 6-year-old .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 7. FATAL SHOOTING OF 6-YEAR-OLD SHOCKS FLINT, MICHIGAN AND THE NATION By Claire McClinton "Peace is love ... Peace is no violence" -- Sayings on dove-shaped signs of school children on Kayla Rolland Peace Day in Flint, Michigan "There are no words that could ever say the thanks and appreciation that we feel. We also thank you for your prayers. They are much needed. We also ask that you pray for this little boy." -- Thank You note from family of Kayla Rolland sent to workers at Flint auto plant. "I am not a bad mother." -- Tamarla Owens, mother of the 6-year-old boy who fatally shot his classmate. The shooting death of 6-year-old Kayla Rolland at the hands of a 6-year-old classmate, has overwhelmed us all. The incident took place at Buell Elementary school just North of Flint, Michigan in Beecher. The media outlets uncovered some of the harsh conditions that led to the tragedy. They reported that the 6-year-old shooter and his brother were supposedly living in a crack house apart from their mother and that their family had been evicted a couple of weeks prior to the incident. These and other aspects of the story shined the light of day on the family situation. But the press, especially the national media, buried some of the social dynamics at play. These include the fact that approximately 82 percent of the Buell Elementary school children qualify for a free or reduced lunch. In short, there is pervasive poverty in this school and in this community. The boy's mother is among hundreds of thousands of poor people in this state who live under the dictates of welfare reform. Passed by Congress in 1996, the Personal Responsibility Act abolished Title IV-A of the Social Security Act, commonly known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children. In Michigan, welfare reform is the Work First program. It places recipients in jobs and forces them to take these or be cut off of assistance altogether. In the Flint area, these predominately low- wage, temporary, and part-time jobs come with no benefits and are often located 30 or 40 miles outside the county. Tamarla Owens was at one of these jobs when she got the news that her son had shot a classmate. This is one of the two jobs she works. The community has been very supportive of the two devastated families. As we go through the healing process, we ask ourselves what can we do, or what more can we do? But this capitalist system is not designed to do anything substantial or meaningful about this case, because the conditions that contributed to this heart- wrenching crisis will not be addressed. So what we have at play right now are the choices that the system has left. These include lawyers (somebody must be sued), new gun laws, enforcement of old gun laws, prosecution of those in the home where the child stayed, and termination of parental rights of the boy's mother. To date, little has been done to address the economic, psychological and social needs of a homeless first grader who got a hold of a gun and shot Kayla Rolland. And now authorities are trying to wrest the child and his siblings from their mother. In the end, our community's compassion must turn to challenging a system that invited this tragedy in the first place. A society reorganized around the needs of its people would do wonders in ensuring that we, and especially our children, are not left unprotected. [The writer is a community activist in Flint.] .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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 05-00 Kim Chernin's 'In My Mother's House' .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 8. KIM CHERNIN'S 'IN MY MOTHER'S HOUSE' By Lew Rosenbaum [Editor's note: This year, the Rogers Park (Chicago) Chapter of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America is leading book discussions looking at propaganda and propagandists. So far, they have read Charles Johnson's novel about Martin Luther King, "Dreamer," and Stephen King's novel about capital punishment, "The Green Mile." The article below reviews the third book in this series.] "In My Mother's House" is a memoir of a mother and daughter, written by Kim Chernin, the daughter. The mother, Rose Chernin, was born in Russia and came to America as a child to escape the czar. She charges her daughter Kim, a well-known author, to tell the mother's story. "'You are a writer' [Rose] says, 'So do you want to take down the story of my life?'" That is how the process begins, but with veiled fear and hostility implied in the phrase "do you want." And Rose has stories to tell! At age 11 (in 1914), she and her family came to America (her father came 10 years before). She went to her first radical meeting while she was still in high school. She moved to New York where she worked in factories and engaged in the vibrant cultural life of the immigrant Russian Jews of the 1920s. With her husband, an immigrant graduate of MIT, she went to the Soviet Union to help build the country. On holiday back in the U.S., she faced a choice: Stay and fight injustice or return to build a workers utopia. She had no doubt -- she entered the struggles to organize California farm workers. For 25 years, she led the Los Angeles Committee for the Defense of the Bill of Rights. Her words to her daughter are, "I am an organizer!" This is an intimate memoir, saturated with immigrant culture, dialect and emotion. But Chernin brings to the memoir her own sensibility, penetrates the story with her own experiences. Rose remains convinced and amazed at the workers governing themselves in the Soviet Union. Rose chides her daughter at one point in the narrative: "You think maybe you invented the struggle for women. But this struggle we knew, believe me, already in our time." Kim, the artist-poet, is a feminist scholar, who wants to please her mother. Kim' s own convictions now conflict with Rose's allegiance to the working class and to the Soviet Union. What does this story tell us about propaganda and propagandists? Rose is often asked why she became a communist (often with the implication: "how did you become such a monster?"). She says she doesn't have a good answer, except that it just made sense. It made sense to struggle against injustice. When she heard Kate Richards O'Hare compare American prisons to those in czarist Siberia: "I thought, why shouldn't I be a woman like this? What is to stop me?" Then came the excitement of the Soviet revolution. Not only was it necessary to stand up to injustice. It was possible to build a new world for working people. Chernin says it is not enough to hate injustice, you have to believe in something "to be a radical." In Rose's enthusiastic voice you hear the belief that capitalism was on the verge of collapse. In Kim's voice you hear the disillusion that it didn't. A massive social upheaval shook the U.S. in the 60 years of Rose Chernin's activity. Few discerned the limited nature of the practical battles. The practical movement calls forth its prophets and bears them along. The practical movement needs its prophets, its propagandists, to clarify the aims of the battles. While the practical battles could not transform society 50 years ago, another, more massive social upheaval is gathering storm. Evidence of injustice is everywhere. Reading this memoir helps us understand the relationship of the practical movement to those who promote its cause. Artists and writers are propagandists. They express their vision of the world. They will inevitably be borne along on the wave that is developing. Will that wave build a new society based on cooperation and need? The task of revolutionaries is to imbue the propagandists with the sense of the possible. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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 05-00 Youth must lead the fight for education .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 9. YOUTH MUST LEAD THE FIGHT FOR EDUCATION By Alicia Espinoza As a child, I grew up feeling lucky knowing that although I didn't have the toys I wished for, the clothes I asked for, or the American food we drove by on our way to school, I never went hungry. In times of economic hardship, we'd dig into my father's emergency piggy bank and get by with the dollar tips he earned at the car wash. An undocumented worker from Mexico, my father had only two aspirations in life: to provide for us and to give us the best education possible. Aware of the lack of resources available in our impoverished schools and community, my mother and father worked countless hours to bus us out to our local private school. I continued to attend private institutions through out my secondary education, and attained my college degree at a public university. Throughout college I dedicated a lot of my time working with low- income, disadvantaged children in the public schools of Riverside, California. I was able to work with many children whose family history and experience was very much like my own. Many parents worked countless hours in more than one job in order to survive. Only now, the rise of labor-replacing technology has made it extremely difficult for the common worker to compete in the job market. In the city of Los Angeles alone, over 280,000 unionized manufacturing jobs were eliminated, having a direct correlation with the educational crisis existing within the area's school district's "worst performing schools." Unfortunately, these children, like many others living in impoverished communities, are not receiving the quality education they deserve with small and overcrowded classrooms, barely readable chalkboards, old and very limited books and supplies, close to inedible nutrition, and a lack of parent and community participation. Yet, the crisis not only lies in ill distribution of resources, but more importantly, in poverty's adverse effect on children's social and emotional development. According to Rodney A Samaan, in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Under Served, psychological disorders are directly correlated with poverty and economic hardship. Children from poorer families are more likely to suffer from psychological problems that may result from lack of parental nurturance, maternal or paternal psychological distress, negative coping strategies, and most importantly, the limitation of social and communal experiences that serve as buffers against psychiatric illnesses. Therefore, if the educational crisis is to come to an end, then hunger and malnutrition must come to an end as well. Unfortunately, 21.5 percent of children residing in the United States are living in poverty. According to a study conducted by the National Science Foundation through the Luxembourg Institute, the United States, despite having the highest income per capita, exceeds 17 other industrialized countries with the highest child- poverty rates. In the last twenty years, youth and child-poverty rates have risen by 60 percent. Such statistics should be of grave concern to government officials who publicize their urgency to raise national standardized-test scores in order to more successfully compete with vying nations. Poor children and adolescents are therefore not only at a disadvantage because their schools lack the proper funding to provide necessary resources, but their social reality and economic circumstances directly effect their ability to perform effectively and to reach their fullest potential. Globalization has spread voraciously throughout the world. In Kenya, the excruciating economic decline has left approximately 125,000 children hungry, homeless, and bound to the streets outside of school. In Argentina, a formerly state-run steel and mining company was bought by a private partnership including New York based Citicorp, and has left thousands of working-class families without incomes and absolutely destitute. Argentina has had the highest standard of living amongst Latin American countries. Like Argentina, many Latin American countries including Mexico, Brazil, and Venezuela, have suffered a dramatic increase in poverty rates in the past decade. There are approximately 40,000 children who die of disease and malnutrition a day, while 1.3 billion live on less than a dollar a day. Young revolutionaries, this is where the challenge lies in your hands. Poverty is a rampant disease penetrating the core of our generation. We can take a stand and rally for more monies, better opportunities, schools not jails, lower tuition, less standardized exams, less violence against youth, less criminalization of youth, but we must keep in mind that the fight doesn't end there. The capitalist system dictates the quality of education one receives, imprisoning poor children within the gates of their own communities, and enslaving them to a system that depends on their economic stagnation for its own viability. It is time that we dig into the root of the problem and seek a permanent solution by restructuring the system as a whole. Our youth of tomorrow must lead the fight for equal access to educational and financial resources for all of humanity. Oscar Arias, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, reminds us that the challenge of the current generation is to think about security, democracy, and justice on a world-wide scale, "a democratic revolution is not merely sentimental and individualistic ... it demands changes in the way we live and the way we understand ourselves, but it also promises to change the structures that govern our society." .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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 05-00 Calif. Prop 21, oppressive laws, police killings: More to it .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 10. CALIF. PROP 21, OPPRESSIVE LAWS, POLICE KILLINGS: MORE TO IT THAN MEETS THE EYE By Nelson Peery Common, so-called street crimes, are declining dramatically. At the same time, police brutality and police murders are skyrocketing. It seems that every decline in violent crime is matched by the passing of new, more oppressive laws to control crime and criminals that the statistics show are declining and under control. Is it that the politicians are so used to campaigning on an anti-crime platform that they continue "the same old same old" even after conditions have changed? Or is there something more sinister and more dangerous behind the recent wave of oppressive laws and police killings? To answer that question, it is necessary to understand certain facts about society. Society is divided between the haves and have-nots, between those whose labor has built the country but have little and those who contribute nothing to society, but own it. The ruling class, those who own the country, had to create a law system to protect their property. Then they had to create a police and prison system to enforce these laws. This was plainly seen in the laws that regulated slavery and kept the slave a slave and the master a master. The set of laws and police power that keep the poor, poor and the rich, rich is called the state. Police power was once carried out by the people themselves. As society divided into classes, specially trained people emerged to take over this task. In the America of 1900, the picture of the cop who lived in the neighborhood, and who was known and trusted by his wards, was at least partially true. In many small towns this is still true. However, with the concentration of wealth in the hands of a very few people, the growth of huge cities with a large part of their population locked in poverty began to change all this. The police became separated from the people and increasingly looked upon them as potential criminals that must be controlled rather than protected. The social consequences of the economic revolution are intensifying this trend. Never before in our history has there been such a wide division between the poor and the rich. The ruling class understands that such fundamental changes in the economy are bound to create social upheavals far beyond the struggles of the minorities for equality. Consequently they are moving from control of a minority through random shootings, beatings and jailings to the creating of a code of laws to be applied to the majority as they begin to respond to their deteriorating economic conditions. Proposition 21, which recently passed in California, is such an example. It is far from being a "racist attack against minority youth." Prop. 21, billed as a law to control delinquent youth by treating them as adult offenders, is part of a series of new laws aimed at giving responsibilities to the police that have traditionally been handled by civilian authorities. In this way more and more of society is slipping into the hands of police. So long as the state was closely connected to the people, revolutionary change was not possible. It is important to understand that the process of separating the state from the people is the first stage in revolution. This process is going on before our eyes. Today, even conservative commentators are raising questions of a police force out of control -- framing people, shooting and beating unarmed civilians, and looting the public treasury. They are questioning the necessity of laws that take money from crime prevention programs to build prisons. Far from intimidating the awakening sections of the people, the police are arousing them. It is the task of propagandists to show that this is more than a struggle against police brutality. It is the beginnings of the fight for and against an emerging fascist, police state. .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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 05-00 Spirit: Right wing's teachings contradict Christ's .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 11. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: RIGHT WING'S TEACHINGS CONTRADICT CHRIST'S by Reverend Bruce Wright, MA, DMin,CPAC Christianity and right-wing American capitalism -- are they the same? Well, hypothetically, they aren't, nor should they be. However, if you were a visitor from another planet checking out the religious views of the conservative people of the United States, you might believe they are. In fact, if you were a visitor from another country, you might think they are the same. What is wrong with this picture? Well, as someone who considers himself a radical left-wing progressive Christian, this issue concerns me. In fact, as a minister, it irritates and angers me that right-wing conservative "Christians" claim to speak for the one I follow, Jesus Christ. Let me explain why. If one takes an even honest, cursory look at the teachings of Jesus and the history of the early church, let alone many passages of the Old Testament, one would find those teachings in conflict with the Christian Right. For instance, in the book of Matthew, Jesus is quoted as saying that when we oppress the poor (i.e. the least of these), we are in danger of judgment. Yet the Christian Right wholeheartedly supported massive cutbacks in services to the poor (welfare reform). Jesus taught us to love our enemies and be peacemakers. The Christian Right, however, never met a defense- spending bill they didn't like. Now, let's take a look at one of the biggies. The religious right claims to be pro-life. However, they are completely inconsistent in their views. Besides being pro-war at times and supporting cutbacks in services to the poor, they support domestic and foreign policies that are anything but pro-life, such as the death penalty, criminalization of the homeless, anti-affirmative action policies, police brutality (no comments or statements against multi-national corporations' use of child labor at pennies per hour, and on and on). I could give many other examples, but it would take volumes of books. The point is that Christianity is about love and non- judgmentalism. If you believe much of the rhetoric of the Christian Right, it would be just the opposite. I find this truly tragic. It is time that people see a different view. For further information, you can read such books as "Completely Pro-life" and "Rich Christian in an Age of Hunger" by Ron Sider, "The Soul of Politics" by Jim Wallis, "Christian Community Development" by John Perkins, and The Catholic Worker, Sojourners, and Prism magazines. [Reverend Bruce Wright is Director of The Refuge (Ministry to the poor, homeless and counterculture) and Youth Minister at St. John's Episcopal Church in St. Petersburg, Florida.] .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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 05-00 A Short Story from DreamersPoint .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 12. A SHORT STORY FROM DREAMERSPOINT The Double Helix By Leslie Willis I. A Journal Entry "Look at this chart. She's in the second trimester and this is her first visit to any clinic. She's never had a gene job and she's at high risk for any number of things and these are the first labs done on the baby." "Must be a retard from Shanty Town. We get them occasionally when the midwives can't help them." "Yeah, this one's here because she's been spotting. Never mind that the baby has a strong chance of being born with cystic fibrosis." The laughter of the doctors was muffled, but the irony came through the closed door of the exam room. I shivered in a paper gown as I realized they were talking about me. "It's really a quite straightforward decision, Marci," said Dr. Foreman. "If you can't afford gene therapy for this child, you can abort today and worry about paying for it later." "But you said that the child might not have cystic fibrosis." I could see through the paper where my tears were falling on my thigh. "The probability is very high for CF, and don't forget it will inherit a disposition to all kinds of other diseases, because neither parent has had gene therapy." "Babies were born for centuries without gene therapy, I guess I'll just have to take my chances," I said wiping my eyes. "That sounds like the irresponsible rationalization of a Shanty Town midwife and I'd advise you to change your tune. In fact legislation is pending that will make it illegal for such babies to be born." "Doctor, I want the baby to have gene therapy. If you do it, I will find some way to come up with the money." "It doesn't work that way anymore. Without insurance, you'll have to pay for it up front." "So let me get this straight -- you will gladly get rid of Shanty town babies, but you won't help them to be born healthy, is that what you're saying?" I had my answer in the quickly closed door and the silence that followed. As I made my way out of the city that day, the wind kicked up and I could smell the coming spring. It was then I decided to join the "subversives" in that ramshackle town my baby would call home. Excerpts from the Underground Journals of the Harriet Tubman Collective, Entry: March 8, 20____. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ II. A Fireside Chat "So let me get this straight -- you will gladly get rid of Shanty Town babies, but you won't help them to be born healthy." Marci's angry voice and the scene in the exam room slowly dissolved under the high ceiling of the A-frame house. "Auntie, that holoplay was so scary!" "Come here Leenah, my little silver-haired darling, sit beside me and we will see if we can put some of those fears to rest. Shall we have a campfire?" Leenah scrambled into the big pile of pillows to nestle close to her aunt. "Computer: campfire and starry night." A cozy crackling fire appeared, wafting gentle streams of cedar smoke in their direction. "After such a chilling tale, I think we need to warm our bones." "But Auntie Ursi, you said it was true?" "I wish it was legend, but the Underground Journals have been authenticated. And you know it was a very, very long time ago, before humans had eliminated disease." "Did disease make them so mean to each other?" "I don't think that was the reason." Ursi stared into the burning coals deep inside the fire and spoke quietly. "We know that long before the Journals were recorded, people used to toil in the most primitive ways to grow food and to make the things that they needed. And then also for thousands of years there wasn't enough of what humans needed. "Everytime they advanced their tools or technology they ended up having wars to reorganize their societies. Sometimes they had improvements, but they continued to have economic systems where tyrants ruled. And it was always the same thing where most of the people did all the work, but only a few reaped the rewards." "Last year, we visited the factory ruins in old Detroit and they had funny looking robots." Leenah wiggled back and forth as she talked. "Those same robots were around at about the same time as the Underground Journals were being written. And even though the ability to produce things was quickly being taken over by computers, society was still organized the old primitive way. Everything was still being produced to be bought and sold in a market place." "Everything is made so easy today Auntie, we have all we want of everything. I would hate to see anyone go without anything." "And my beauty, there's no earthly reason why they should." Ursi took Leenah's little glowing face into her soft hands and tilted it up towards the stars. "We are truly the family of man now. Isn't it wonderful?" "So why are you still going out into the stars Auntie?" "Not so fast, I won't be leaving for a few years." "But why Auntie, why?" "Well, you know, I'm nearly 200 years old now and they do not even know when or if I will naturally die. And don't you think it time, for me to have a new adventure? Besides, I feel it's important for us older ones to help populate the newly terra formed worlds too, leaving room on earth for lots more darling creatures just like you." +----------------------------------------------------------------+ http://redrival.com/dreamerspoint/ What are your visions of the future ? We, the creators of DreamersPoint, wish to challenge internet users to become visionaries. Given the leaps in technology and the advances in physics and the biological sciences that the world is poised to make, we must ask ourselves: What is the future for human beings? What cold-blooded technological snares await us? And what visions of beauty can we embrace and strive for in years to come? Can dreams come true? We think so. DreamersPoint is linked with the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo, the monthly newspaper of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. Short stories and comments submitted to DreamersPoint may also be published in the People's Tribune, with your permission. Look for upcoming topics at DreamersPoint. We welcome and encourage suggestions for future topics and the submission of short stories to appear here. Please send these to DreamersPoint at DreamersPoint@redrival.net. We welcome your comments, criticisms and suggestions about the site in general too. Leslie Willis and Stephanie Asbury .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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 05-00 PT RADIO .TEXT ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org .BODY ****************************************************************** 13. PT RADIO Listen Up! This May - the sounds of Revolutionary Radio are in the Springtime Air! Can you hear them? PTR is producing two (2) 1/2-hour programs per month. Program #1: "Stolen History: May Day and Haymarket Square" with Chris Mahin who takes us on a walking tour of Haymarket Square in Chicago, the site of the watershed labor rally that birthed the worldwide labor day celebration known as May Day. Program #2: An interview with Jack Hirschman who is called the "Greatest living poet in America." Steve Miller interviews him on the topics of poetry, politics and revolution. Please let radio stations in your area know about PTR and that they can download these programs for free at http://www.ptradio.org in Real Audio and MP3 format. For information call 800-691-6888; visit our web site at http://www.ptradio.org; or call our producer, Mike Thorton, at 530-271-0804 or email flr@jps.net. Thanks, Mike Thornton KVMR-FM Radio 530-265-9073 http://www.kvmr.org People's Tribune Radio http://www.ptradio.org The A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net/ [Mike Thornton produces material for several outlets including KVMR-FM Radio, People's Tribune Radio and Full Logic Reverse at The A-Infos Radio Project. Interviews and/or excerpts may be contained in any and/or all of these programs.] .FOOTER ****************************************************************** This article originated in the PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO (Online Edition), Vol. 27 No. 5/ May, 2000; P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654; Email: pt@noc.org; 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. ******************************************************************