People's Tribune (09-01) Online Edition Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit ****************************************************************** People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo (Online Edition) Vol. 28 No. 9/ September, 2001 P.O. Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654 http://www.lrna.org ****************************************************************** +----------------------------------------------------------------+ REMINDER: Join science teacher and PT/TP author STEVE MILLER in a League Online Forum on "Privatizing Your DNA" through 8/31 at http://www.lrna.org/forums 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. 28 No. 9/ September, 2001 Page One Editorial 1. WE CAN HAVE A GOVERNMENT 'BY THE PEOPLE' News and Features 2. TODAY'S SITUATION LIKE 1929, ONLY WORSE 3. DAY LABORERS ORGANIZE TO DEFEND THEIR RIGHTS 4. MY FATHER WAS A REVOLUTIONARY 5. GENOA SPARKS NEED FOR DIALOGUE 6. WHERE DOGS HAVE MORE RIGHTS 7. MAUREEN TAYLOR CANDIDATE FOR "QUALITY OF LIFE CAMPAIGN" 8. STUDENT CONFERENCE PUSHES FORWARD FIGHT AGAINST SWEATSHOPS 9. CONGRATULATIONS CAMPUS GREENS ON YOUR FOUNDING CONVENTION! Spirit of the Revolution 10. EXODUS MARCH FROM SILICON VALLEY Announcements, Events, etc. 11. SPEAKERS FOR A NEW AMERICA +----------------------------------------------------------------+ 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 majordomo@gocatgo.com with a message of: subscribe pt-dist For electronic subscription problems, e-mail pt-admin@noc.org. +----------------------------------------------------------------+ ****************************************************************** 1. EDITORIAL: WE CAN HAVE A GOVERNMENT 'BY THE PEOPLE' The media has been full of talk of George W. Bush's first six months in office. For most commentators it has been a litany of his poor grammar, his fumbling memory and the hardball politics of his Cold War-encrusted advisors. Others have argued that Bush's administration is just about the "right-wing Republicans" or about greedy corporations. So we here at the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo thought we'd put in our two cents. The "business of America has always been business," but the need for workers to run the factories and mills and offices made it necessary for the ruling class to use the government to at least provide for the workers' basic needs so they could continue to live and work. Today's labor-replacing technologies are freeing the capitalists from their age-old dependency on the workers to work. Of course, they still need the workers to buy the things that are produced. In a system where goods can only be acquired if you can pay for them, the elimination of work is making this increasingly impossible. This reality is driving a stake through the heart of the capitalist system. Globalization has just generalized this reality throughout the world. The ruling class has to readjust how the government functions so that they can maximize their profits under these new conditions. Since they no longer need workers to work, there is no reason to use government to guarantee the basics of the past. Like the Clinton administration before him, everything the Bush administration does simply expresses this reality. There is no doubt that the poorest among us (whose numbers are growing daily) will bear the brunt. Yet, these decisions and policies are destroying the very fabric of our society, and in this sense, no one can escape their consequences. Yes, those little checks some of us got from the IRS helped out with the bills, or the house note or the car payment. (Of course, 20 percent of us didn't get anything.) That tax cut means there will be even less money to go around for road upkeep, public transportation, schools, the utility infrastructure, garbage collections and the few shreds that are left of the safety net. Slashing the already meager regulations that protect us against arsenic levels in our water, toxic chemicals in our soil or carbon monoxide emissions in the air we breathe will not only jeopardize our families' health and that of our communities, but threatens to accelerate the possibility of catastrophic global climate change. Maybe it's hard for us to envision a different kind of a world. After all, this is the only one we've ever known. Instead, we keep fighting over the fewer and fewer scraps the ruling class throws us from their table, thinking that's our only option. Maybe we can't remember where we heard it or who told us, or maybe we just don't want to think about it anymore, we've been let down so many times. But don't we somewhere in our hearts cling to that old, tattered promise: a government "of the people, for the people and by the people." For the first time since those words were written, we can fulfill their true meaning. The new technologies can provide us with the wherewithal to build a society in which every man, woman and child in the world can live a stable, healthy and cultured life. Everything is in place for this to happen. We have only to act upon the understanding of what is truly possible to make it so. ****************************************************************** 2. TODAY'S SITUATION LIKE 1929, ONLY WORSE ECONOMIC BUST: ARE WE HEADED FOR ANOTHER DEPRESSION? It has been said many times, many ways -- if you don't learn from history you will re-live it. Today, wallowing in the greatest wealth ever accumulated, this ruling class thinks their feast will go on forever and a day. Those of us interested in the well-being of the people are becoming very nervous. The sights and sounds from the economy are becoming frighteningly like those of 1929, when the economic crash that marked the start of the Great Depression occurred. The fat cats look around and ask: "What is there to be worried about? Some two-thirds of American families are buying or own their homes. Most of the working class is pulled into Wall Street. Why try to keep the economy rolling with cash when you can use credit? We're only $14 trillion in federal and personal debt. There is no inflation and the rising productivity of the workers is making up for any problems in the economy. If there are problems, we have Allan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve to manipulate the currency." It seems like, "I've heard that song before." By the late 1920's the privileged sector of the working class had moved into the stock market. People were buying houses at an unprecedented rate. American industry and finance had conquered the world. Five-sixths of world auto production was in the United States. There was a car for every 5 people. Four million workers were covered by group insurance. The union movement was declining in the face of welfare capitalism. How did they engineer such an economic miracle? They didn't have credit cards, but they managed. Credit rose from $45.3 billion in 1921 to $73 billion in 1929, a 62 percent increase. Cheap loans to foreign countries was a major source of employment in the U.S. While Wall Street was considered a casino, the government followed the policy that even bad foreign loans were helpful to the economy. Consequently, the period from 1926 to 1929 saw a huge increase in world trade. The economy today compared to 1929 is like a penny-arcade mirror that makes a skinny person look fat. Our $14 trillion debt keeps the wheels turning. If that is not enough, the whole idea behind the cheap foreign and domestic loans, the free trade and the market-economy binge is to keep everybody -- foreign and domestic -- buying and buying. The inevitable result is the accelerating polarization of wealth on the one side and poverty on the other. The cracks are beginning to show. Even the stably employed are beginning to feel the strain. The net worth of U.S. households declined recently for the first time since they have kept the statistics. In a year and a half they lost $841.5 billion. The gap between rich and poor is accelerating everywhere. For example, in Los Angeles County, more than 40 percent of county residents spend one-third of their income on rent. In 1927, when the stock market began to stumble, the New York Federal Reserve reduced its interest rate to 3.5 percent. Benjamin Strong, the governor of the New York Federal Reserve, said, "I'll give a 'coup de whiskey' to the stock market." For the moment it worked. Today, Wall Street trembles, waiting for another "coup de whiskey" to keep the good times rolling. They are like some fool trying to find a street that only goes in one direction. Then as now, the ruling class declared that the lack of inflation was proof of the stability of the economy. From 1919-1929, worker productivity increased 43 percent, meaning each hour of a worker's labor produced more goods than in the past. But that was not reflected in lower prices. The difference between the growth of productivity and the stable, relatively high prices was the form that inflation took. Today, aided by electronics, the productivity of the American worker has shot through the roof. However, prices are not declining and this hidden inflation is eating away at the so-called stability. In 1927, President Hoover announced that wages had risen to $4 per day or $1,200 per year, but the cost of living was $2,000. Again, the government is assuring us that the high wages of the American worker will stabilize the economy if all else fails. According to a recent study, basic family budgets for a two-parent, two-child family range from $27,005 a year in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to $52,114 in Nassau-Suffolk County, New York. The national median household income is $33,511, roughly twice the official federal poverty line of $17,463 for a family of four. Two-and-one-half times more families fall below basic family budget levels than below the federal poverty line. An expanding economy with expanding productivity and stable high prices set the stage for the inevitable crash in 1929. Consumption by the people who were becoming poorer could not keep up. Then, the top 5 percent of the population had 33 percent of personal income. Today, the top 5 percent has 90 percent of the wealth. Mario Cuomo, the former New York governor, stated the following figures not long ago on a news talk show (all the numbers are exclusive of one another): There are 125 million working folks living in poverty; 32 million folks living in poverty who are not working; and 16 million children living in poverty. These figures are all "official," so the real numbers may be even higher. That is a total of 173 million living in poverty out of a population of 275 million. The last stage of the 1920s boom was fueled by speculation. Traditionally stock sold at 10 times earnings. By 1929 some stocks were selling at 50 times earning. Today, Cisco Corporation is selling at 75 times earnings. We are getting close to the edge. The working class of 1929 was better situated to fight for their daily bread. Massive immigration from Europe brought with it some understanding of unions and classes. Fifty years of prosperity has dulled that consciousness. This half century of prosperity has battered the Left to the extent that the Left today only speaks in terms of "identity" politics. Instead of taking up the unpopular cause of the most oppressed and exploited as a class, they fight for the middle. If there was ever a time when revolutionaries needed to address the crucial task of mass and class consciousness, it is now. Nothing could be worse than a deep social and economic crisis that drives a semiconscious mass into the arms of their worst enemy. That is the dangerous reality we face today. Revolutionaries can face this future unafraid. The new world created by electronics guarantees that sooner or later, the cause of peace, prosperity and brotherhood based in a cooperative society will overcome. ****************************************************************** 3. DAY LABORERS ORGANIZE TO DEFEND THEIR RIGHTS [Editor's note: In August, Liz Monge and Laura Garcia of the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo interviewed Jose Landaverde, one of the founding members of the Union Latina de Chicago, a union of temporary workers. Below are excerpts from that interview.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE/TRIBUNO DEL PUEBLO: How long have you been working with la Union Latina? JOSE LANDAVERDE: We founded this organization in May 2000. We came together as a group of workers. We were part of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. And also part of Jobs for Justice, and the Interfaith Committee, and other groups. And one of the things that we finally realized was that the organizers were just organizing us and telling us what to do, and we went to many protests, but the workers did not have the opportunity to express themselves. And we decided we wanted to create our own organization, recognizing that those groups are doing a good job also. PTTP: Since then, how many workers do you estimate you've worked with? JL: Like 10,000. PTTP: Recently you went to a national conference of day laborers in Los Angeles. Can you tell us about it? JL: That national conference was really important for us because day laborers came together in a national fight. We discovered that the problems we are suffering all over the country are pretty similar, in that we are facing a lot of exploitation, a lot of racism. It is amazing how fast the day-labor industry is growing at a national level. Illinois, New York, New Orleans and Seattle, Washington, are pretty similar in the way that the industry is moving from permanent workers to create day-laborers; to create temporary jobs, and how they are using day-labor agencies like the vehicle to create huge exploitation. If you are a day laborer, you do not receive any benefits. And that helps a lot the owners of the industries to have a lot of cheap labor. And we defined also at the national level that this is a matter of slavery, modern slavery. And one of the things that the national conference wants is to create a national popular school that will empower the workers. And to support a campaign to legalize Latinos. This campaign is very important, because the reality is that most people who work as day laborers are people without documents. We are part of the most vulnerable people in the United States as day laborers with not one benefit. And now the Republican government is introducing laws that are really against workers. The other thing that we came out with was to support legislation like the one Luis Gutierrez is introducing -- the Day Labor Act, HR 5182, that will regulate temporary agencies. But we came out with the idea or the reality that maybe this bill will not represent the reality of the workers at the national level, because this bill is really from the perspective of Illinois. Before we move to support this bill fully, we will have to bring this bill to another national meeting to study the bill and then give it the full support. PTTP: How many people attended the conference? JL: About 150, and we were from 13 states. Many states did not come out since this was the first time that the National Organization of Day Laborers got together. PTTP: What are the conditions that temporary workers are facing? For example, what is the average wage? JL: Millions in Illinois and Seattle are the same, with average wages of $5.50 per hour or sometimes $7 per hour. The other thing that makes things similar is that there are no workers' centers where the workers can go and wait for jobs and have the right to be respected. There are not any programs that will support the workers. All over the country there are no such programs and the problem is that owners of industry, contractors, for them it is very easy to exploit workers. To do whatever they want to do. At the national conference, from Illinois, we proposed to go to Springfield, walking, by September 16 to propose to the state the creation of workers' centers. We have a meeting with Gov. Ryan on the 22nd and this is the proposal we are going to take. A workers' center would basically monitor the salary for the workers, give training for the workers, and will also empower the workers by teaching them their worker rights. PTTP: What is your goal with la Union Latina? What do you want to accomplish? JL: We want the state to give a budget to create workers' centers where the workers will be treated with dignity. We are willing to go on a hunger strike against the city to pass an ordinance to regulate temporary agencies. And we want all to know that we are working at the state level to create living wages for the day laborers. We want to stop the day-labor industry. We want permanent jobs for the people. This is a big struggle with no end, because there are many cases every day of abuses and the response from the politicians is not really there. In Chicago, we don't really have a politician that responds. PTTP: It seems that with globalization temporary workers are not just a phenomenon in the U.S. but also in other countries. JL: I was kicked out of a meeting with [Mexican President] Vicente Fox, because I told them that Vicente Fox would be the hugest promoter in history of slavery, by providing a guest-worker program as part of the neoliberalism in the free trade. They are in the business of bringing cheap workers to the U.S. and making U.S. corporations richer and richer, and this is why Manpower now has temporary agencies in Mexico and Central America, and they are very connected to the sweatshops. And we are not just talking about Manpower, we are talking about Labor Ready, we are talking about Staffing Labor, who just opened three locations in Guatemala, also one in El Salvador, to bring workers to the U.S. PTTP: What message do you think it sends to the rest of the world that day laborers are organizing here? JL: Things are changing. Now unions and sindicatos, for example in El Salvador, they have lost power. Here too. But the message is that people have to reorganize themselves. If day laborers really organize themselves here and they create a national organization that will put pressure locally at the state level [to force the state to] regulate the industry, then that will have an impact in Central America or in Mexico. What the impact will be is that the industry will have to pay living wages, and if they move to Latino America, workers will have to reorganize and strengthen unions once again [there]. The solution will be that Mexico has to create laws that will regulate industries so workers can have living wages. If we have political groups organizing for the same thing we are doing here, then we will have living wages everywhere. ****************************************************************** 4. MY FATHER WAS A REVOLUTIONARY By Alma Ramirez My father worked a long life. At the age of 18, he came to the United States from Michoacan, Mexico and began working as a construction worker. When asked what he did for a living, he proudly answered in his broken English, that he was a worker, a finisher by trade. At the age of 45, he died of a heart attack. He spent his whole life working only to never wake from his sleep. We would never get to see him again, and I at 17 never imagined how much I would need him. I also never imagined how much I would grow up believing in the same ideals, visions, and beliefs that he worked so hard for. My father believed in change. He believed that he had to work hard to see change. He believed that life was about choices, the right ones. He lived his life believing that, in America, anything was possible, so he worked long hours in hot desert heat to make his life and our dreams possible. In my eyes, my father was a revolutionary. Ten years ago we buried my father, but we did not bury his dreams and beliefs. Like my father, and many before him, I too believe that I must work hard to see change. I believe that this world can be a better place for me, my family, my children, and some day my grandchildren. I also believe that life does not have to be lived the way my father lived his, that is working backbreaking work for long hours and little pay. My father worked most of his life under those conditions until his death. The palms of his hands were rough and jagged from the cement he poured daily. And, his over-worked body was fatigued with little life in him. My father used to say that life was about choices, the right ones. I couldn't agree with him more. The time has come to begin to make the right choices, to fight for what you believe in and to believe in those things that are worth fighting for. Right now, this world, this America that my father dreamed of and worked for, and the America we all dream of is worth the fight. These words are not only written in memory of my father, but also to all those who have dreamed, believed, and imagined a world where every human can enjoy the fruits of their labor. In loving memory of Rafael L. Ramirez: Oct. 24, 1946 to Sept. 27, 1991. Although you could never have imagined that one of your daughters would become a revolutionary, I owe my strength, passions, visions and dreams to you. Te quiero Papi. ****************************************************************** 5. GENOA SPARKS NEED FOR DIALOGUE The Group of Eight gathering in Genoa galvanized anti- globalization activists to take to the streets of Genoa to protest the ills of globalization throughout the world. On the one hand, protesters' efforts for global justice have been criticized. Reports have described them as being anarchists. On the other hand, those in support of the anti-globalization movement and those that took to the streets, such as students and activists, recognize that the world is undergoing drastic changes and that many lives are being dramatically affected by globalization. The struggle to end poverty worldwide is at the heart of the struggle against globalization. While many believe that globalization is the enemy, the real enemy is the capitalist system and capitalist countries that open up world markets in the name of profit. Those that have responded by taking to the streets -- the students, environmentalists, trade unionists, activists and others -- are fighting for what many already believe in. They are fighting for equality, justice, and the liberty to live a peaceful life in the U.S. and in other countries. Their fight is ultimately a fight for humanity and it is up to revolutionaries to unite with them on that basis. This fight can not be resolved under capitalism. We cannot continue to ignore these powerful movements of outrage that are transpiring worldwide. They are intricately connected to the fight against the capitalist system and for the reorganization of society. It is our chance to make sense of these struggles by beginning to dialogue about what is happening and why and how revolutionaries can influence it. We are asking all those who see the necessity of engaging in these discussions to write to us and let us know your thinking. Contact us at pt@noc.org or go to the LRNA Web site at http://www.lrna.org. ****************************************************************** 6. WHERE DOGS HAVE MORE RIGHTS Patrisia Gonzalez and Roberto Rodriguez SAN ANTONIO -- "It's our brown skin they don't like," says Martha von Ellenrieder, standing under a banner that reads, "Esta es mi Tierra" (This is my Land). Her words have a chilling edge to them, though it's something everyone in the room knows all too well. Similar words have been expressed since the 1840s, when Mexico lost half its country to the United States. She was speaking at a binational conference held here last week to analyze the recent immigration proposals from presidents Fox and Bush. Mike Zepeda, a longtime human rights activist from Texas, speaks up, "I fight because I still remember growing up, seeing the 'No Dogs or Mexicans' signs." "In this country, dogs have more rights," retorts someone else. "The other day, someone received three years for killing a dog. Here, you can kill a Mexican and get away with it." Stories flow at the conference about how the lives of Mexicans have never mattered in this country. Yet, most of the stories are about today: about how hundreds of Mexicans continue to die annually in Southwestern deserts, mountains and rivers. Also, stories flow of vigilantes and agents of the U.S. Border Patrol shooting and killing countless unarmed Mexicans with impunity. Then there are the new stories about the 3 million Mexicans and Central Americans living in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, North and South Carolina, and Florida. Organizing there is difficult, says Baldemar Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee. "Ranchers tell us: 'You Meskins don't know where you are. You're in the South.'" "We keep finding dead [Mexican] workers in the South," said Velasquez. With these stories, there should be widespread support for the new proposals being tossed around. Fox campaigned to open up the border, whereas the Bush administration is studying the feasibility of legalizing or regularizing the undocumented status of 3 million Mexicans. If that's all the proposals amounted to, these human rights activists, who have fought their whole lives under the precept that "No human being is illegal," might actually applaud them. However, they also come amid a possible return of the infamous bracero program and the continued militarization of the border. Talk of an open border, however, is no longer considered to be the domain of idealists or extremists. The issue has always been quite simple: The United States and Canada -- with a graying population -- need labor; Mexico -- with a younger population -- can continue to provide it. Most humane advances in the field of immigration have come as a result of years of prodding by immigrants themselves, their children now grown and politically active. A new bracero program -- which is the closest thing to slavery in the modern context -- would set back human rights a generation. In fact, those migrants, says Carlos Arango, a human rights activist from Chicago, "are the new slaves." The best bracero program possible, with full labor protection, would still treat the worker as a disposable commodity, subject to repatriation upon completion of a contract. Such a program, which will always exclude family members, may be how all future Mexican workers will enter the country. This new arrangement has another downside for Mexico. Such an agreement would require Mexico to do the U.S. migra's bidding, requiring it to militarize its southern border to keep Central Americans out. The better alternative would be to bring Central America into these new proposals as the United States has a moral obligation to do so. It was U.S. money that illegally (behind the backs of Congress) financed the military regimes that caused the widespread diaspora of Central Americans in the 1980s. In this discussion, many indigenous rights activists have always maintained that Mexicans/Central/South Americans can never be illegal and in fact can never be immigrants because they are native to the continent. In many cases, they are simply returning to parts of the continent where their ancestors once lived. At the upcoming world conference on racism, this issue may be addressed. The subject of reparations for slavery is inextricably connected to the colonization of the Americas. Just as African slaves were illegally seized, so too was the American continent illegally confiscated. The passage of time has not made that confiscation legal or moral. Little wonder that the United States would love to avoid this issue. Given the fact that the current administration is opting out of several major international arms and environmental agreements, the best we can expect from this upcoming conference is an affirmation from all countries that there is no such thing as an illegal human being. Copyright 2001 Universal Press Syndicate ****************************************************************** 7. MAUREEN TAYLOR CANDIDATE FOR "QUALITY OF LIFE CAMPAIGN" [Editor's note: It's called "the Quality of Life Campaign" and Maureen Taylor is running on that platform for a seat on the City Council in Detroit, Michigan. She was interviewed by People's Tribune Radio's Great Lakes correspondent, David Apsey.] PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE RADIO: Maureen Taylor is a draft candidate for the November 2001 Detroit City Council election. She's running on the Quality of Life Campaign. MAUREEN TAYLOR: This campaign started as a complete and total draft effort. My involvement with the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO) and the National Welfare Rights Union (NWRU) has brought a certain level of profile because of the organizing work we've been involved in for a number of years. The more I resisted, the larger the "draft" opposition became until folks insisted that we get the petitions signed and get the voice of the voiceless heard. We have a small and intolerant group of folks who own and control 90 percent of all the wealth. The rest of us are trying to figure out how to divide the rest of the pie over and over and over again. We've got Americans questioning whether or not people have the right to live inside, or whether or not some folks should have medical care or be able to eat based on their ability to have money to pay for these things. These are not debatable issues. If you live beyond the birthing process, you have rights. Certainly, we're trying to build a campaign based on more than just surviving. We're trying to thrive. Yes, there are rights and this is what the Quality of Life Campaign is based on. PTR: Education is one of the big questions on everyone's mind. What are the roots of that problem? MT: One of the problems we have with education, and so many other problems that we're struggling with across this nation, is that the American people have a slow grasp of technology -- what technology means in relationship to changes to the economy and what the social consequences are when things change. At one time technology was used to enhance labor, but now technology replaces labor and the laborers. If these people are not needed to work and can't make any money for those folks who are in power, why should you clothe them, house them, educate them? The crisis in education is mandated by these changes in technology, mandated by the fact that these folks own all these technological mills and factories and all these industrial plants and the ability to manage that technology. All these problems that we're talking about -- education included --can be traced back to the natural ties to what happens when you have a few people that own everything and everybody else owns practically nothing. PTR: We always hear that the family or the individual is responsible for those problems. MT: The viewpoint of the Quality of Life Campaign is that the government is responsible for what needs to happen in the overall society. That's why we pay these jokers money. We're not paying them taxes to keep themselves in office, or to keep themselves in new suits and new clothes. We're talking about a group of people we pay to live better than we live ourselves. I mean who's stupid in this scheme of things? We pay them their medical insurance, their dental insurance. They fly wherever they want to fly, we pay for that. They don't have to use stamps, they don't have to pay this $2 and $3 for a gallon of gas like we do. And then, they live like kings and queens, like royalty, and we live like the servants. Yet they question why in our servant families we may have wayward children, or we have violent tendencies, or we have these manic- depressive kinds of idiosyncrasies. We should be crazy. We have every damn right to be nuts by now, because we don't take into account a point of view that should come from us. It is not that mother's fault. It is not that absent father's fault. People don't leave and hurt each other because that's what they want to do. We're in a fish bowl, we're in a tank and we're fighting one another for the crumbs because that's the only way we can think. Our campaign is about building a grassroots movement, from the ground up, to try to get people to have the vision to see that we can organize people to get what they need to have. PTR: Is a good quality of life possible for Americans? MT: Yes. We've built everything that's here. There's no reason why we can't participate in the luxury, and the convenience and the safety and the comfort of what it is that we built all our lives. This United States of America is built on the concept that we're "the greatest country in the world." If you look at travel brochures for Iowa or California or Florida they all say, "We can feed the world." If that's the case, then the question has to be asked: Why is there a child going to sleep hungry? Why is there a senior eating only once a day? Why do people have to choose between eating food (or dog food) and paying their bills? We've got to diversify our concepts. We can't go along with these single-issue politics. This is a campaign based on a particular class of people that needs to be represented at the polls. We need to be organized on the basis of what we have in common. We can attain, we can reach a quality of life. All we have to do is sharpen our vision. And we have a lot more in common than we have that separates us. And that's what this campaign is built on. Reach the Quality of Life Campaign at 313-832-0618 or http://qualityoflife.wego.com/. Maureen Taylor is available to speak through Speakers for a New America at 800-691-6888. ****************************************************************** 8. STUDENT CONFERENCE PUSHES FORWARD FIGHT AGAINST SWEATSHOPS By Chris Mahin CHICAGO -- Jane Howald is helping to lead a strike against a sweatshop owner. She also has carpal tunnel syndrome. Her condition is so severe that when we meet, she thanks me for not giving her one of those bonecrushing handshakes "like some of those union guys do." Howald's condition -- and what she and her fellow workers are doing about the cause of it -- helps explain why more than 300 students from around the country met recently to plan out what students can do in the fight against sweatshops. >From August 2-5, more than 300 student activists gathered at Loyola University on Chicago's North Side at the national conference of the United Students Against Sweatshops. The theme of the meeting was "Building a Movement for Worker and Student Power." The four-day conference discussed a wide range of issues, including what could be done to assist the strike at Howald's employer, the New Era Cap Company in western New York, the manufacturer of caps for Major League Baseball and numerous college sports teams. The USAS conference brought together union members like Howald and student activists fighting sweatshops and globalization. In addition to Howald -- president of Communication Workers of America Local 14177, which has been on strike since July 16 -- there was Sandy Hicks of the Campus Workers Union in Knoxville, Tennessee, the first independent union of campus workers in the United States, as well as leading officials of the garment union UNITE and the United Steel Workers of America. There were student activists like Vanessa Nisperos of Students for Justice at San Jose State University in California and Tom Strunk of the Loyola Students Against Sweatshops in Chicago. USAS has affiliates on more than 200 campuses throughout North America. The conference grappled with serious questions of direction and organization. It had an intense discussion about racism. It struggled with how to define its mission in the broadest terms, and how to guarantee that it responds to injustice both inside and outside the United States. It discussed how to produce a collaborative newsletter and encourage affiliation and acquire funding. In interviews with the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo conducted by Nydia Hernandez and Camila Barros while the conference was taking place, participants in the meeting expressed confidence that the wide range of topics being considered would help clarify what the group needs to do in the coming year. "What we're pushing to happen with the campaign for student and labor alliance is to get folks like USAS groups and outside affiliate groups to look at the fact that those issues happening internationally are [also] here in the United States ... and to really grapple with that, and to actively become involved and support those campaigns here at home," Vanessa Nisperos said. "Locally, at San Jose State, we do local housing struggles, because San Jose is a huge area of wealth and extreme poverty and extreme homelessness," Nisperos explained. "Those are the people of color, the people that used to work in maquiladoras and come to the United States. We make that connection. We work in the shelters and push the city to get housing. We actually won one of those campaigns. We're going to continue to do that. We're going to link up with the workers struggling in San Jose because that is the same exact problem that is causing the global exploitation of workers." Nisperos described the work that she and others are doing in collaboration with other organizations. "As far as prison labor [-- an issue stressed at the conference --] we're linking up with the Prison Moratorium Project, which is out of New York and really pushes the issues that prisons are being privatized, that there's a lot of capital from these companies actually going in to develop prisons and own them, and have products produced in them. That is also an issue of labor exploitation. That's the same exact thing as capitalists exploiting people of color." Nisperos stressed the importance of working with "local labor groups, the unions in our own area, to develop a living-wage campaign for our campus, to push for all of the support workers on our campus to get paid a decent wage." "Really, as students, that's what we see every day when we're walking to and from our classes," she explained. "We're passing people of color there that are being exploited. So, we want to ally with them and maintain our alliances with workers in other places outside our campuses." The USAS conference impressed a professor at one of Chicago's city colleges who attended the meeting with several of his students who are immigrant workers. "What I'm seeing and hearing are students that are really well aware of what's happening in these industries, the maquila industries, the situation in Mexico and the border areas," the professor said. "I see a commitment to eradicating some of the problems, understanding the problems, strengthening the USAS movement here to be more inclusive." The professor interviewed by the People's Tribune/Tribuno del Pueblo teaches Spanish and English as a second language. He described his relationship to the USAS conference: "The students who came with me [to the USAS conference] are all immigrant workers. Last night, we had another group of immigrant workers that came and participated in discussions with students. I think that's what the goals are that USAS wants: They want to unite with real, working-class people of color, and that's exactly who came with me. And they were impressed, most of them. And it goes both ways. They have their own struggles, and their own ideas. They've learned a lot and, at the same time, like one of the speakers said here, they can teach a lot. This group can learn a lot from the real-life, concrete experiences of working-class immigrant workers in Chicago." By the time the conference ended on August 5, the participants had laid out plans to take their message out widely during the new school year. The commitment and energy they brought to Chicago should guarantee that this upcoming year is an important one in the campus fight against sweatshops. [For more information about USAS, contact the national office of the United Students Against Sweatshops, 1015 18th St. NW, Suite 200, Washington, D.C. 20036, or phone 202-NO-SWEAT. For more information about the strike at the New Era Cap Company, contact Local 14177, Communication Workers of America, P.O. Box 62, Derby, New York 14047 or phone 716-947-0255.] ****************************************************************** 9. CONGRATULATIONS CAMPUS GREENS ON YOUR FOUNDING CONVENTION! This August 9-12, 420 students, faculty and campus activists gathered at the University of Illinois at Chicago for four days of workshops, meetings, speakers, panels and entertainment. Their goal: to officially and democratically found Campus Greens. In these times of economic and social decay, America needs new voices, new leaders, new hope. Your founding convention signifies that change is in the air and the youth are at the forefront of this change. Here are a few of the highlights: * More than 3,000 inspired activists from around the country came to the Campus Greens Super Rally for Radical Change to hear Ralph Nader, Winona LaDuke, Cornel West, Ani DiFranco, Patti Smith, Medea Benjamin, Jello Biafra, Cheri Honkala and Robert Miranda. * Well over 100 delegates from Campus Greens' chapters drafted and ratified new Campus Greens' bylaws, developed national resource committees, and created an extensive organizational vision statement. They now have the structure and vision to guide Campus Greens through the next year and beyond. * Delegates elected a new 10-person steering committee using single transferable voting. When the new steering committee was announced, cheering, stomping, and chants of "Green and Growing!" was heard. * Convention attendees participated in dozens of workshops and discussions focusing on the key issues facing Campus Greens organizers: how to run effective meetings, how to build campus democracy, and how to organize effectively around issues of racial, economic and environmental justice. The following are excerpts from speeches given at the Campus Greens Super Rally for Radical Change in Chicago. SHELLEY FITE, chairperson, outgoing of the Campus Greens USA The media likes to say my generation is apathetic, but the truth is that hundreds of students came to Chicago to found the Campus Greens. They paid their own way, driving all day and all night, sometimes taking buses and trains because they know that they cannot be apathetic. They know they must build the society that they desire. They know they must create the government they want in the world, in their hometowns and here in Chicago, too. BEN MANSKI, organizer of the Campus Greens USA Convention There is no alternative to the politics of popular courage; there's no alternative to the politics of progressive radical change -- that's why we are Greens! We are a democratic people and we are a powerful people, and we must exercise all of our power. Corporate executives since the 1990's founded Global Corporate State-- it is a state that is armed with technology to make all prior oppressors seem weak by comparison. The Corporate State is killing the planet; we all know it. They have poisoned every river, every lake, every stream and every ocean. No place on earth is free of their toxins. And just how they extract their profits from our labor for hundreds of years, they are extracting value from life from the earth itself. And unlike human beings, wilderness is not a renewable resource and time is running short. Corporations are designed to extract value from life to commodify us, to dissemble us -- they are proving to be very effective in their task. So, we are reminded that time is running short. We don't have time to make demands of those in power, rather it's time to demand from ourselves that we seize power. We ask you today to join the Green Party, to seize power, to put an end to this outrage, to build a new future. We're the first global political party in the history of the human race and we are going to win. ****************************************************************** 10. SPIRIT OF THE REVOLUTION: EXODUS MARCH FROM SILICON VALLEY "The crops are all in and the peaches are rott'ning, The oranges piled in their creosote dumps ..." Woody Guthrie used to sing about workers stranded by seasonal or market changes in the economy. Today we are witnessing workers who are displaced by the end of an entire economic era. The closure of San Jose's Del Monte Cannery in 1999 was the final chapter in the old agricultural and industrial society that dominated Santa Clara Valley for most of the 20th century. We are the sons and daughters of the people who built this valley. Our families built its orchards, its factories, its roads, its schools, and its homes -- the whole physical infrastructure of the hi-tech revolution. But when the hi-tech revolution came, it did not lift all boats. For all those who became millionaires, many more were plunged into poverty by escalating housing costs. The 1998-2000 dot.com revolution went even further: It pushed many of us over the edge into homelessness. Santa Clara County rents rose 38 percent in the last year alone. We are marching in this symbolic exodus in solidarity with the tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters who in reality have already been forced to move out of this valley. We are marching in order to link up with them and others and to unite in our common cause. For many years, we have struggled in San Jose for economic human rights -- housing for the homeless, food for the hungry, and health care for all. Every year, in spite of our efforts, we have been outnumbered, and powerful interests have conspired to marginalize us. We have found we can only win, we will only win, when we reach out to the poor and our allies all across this state and this nation. We stand for reclaiming our economic human rights: a home for everyone who needs one; health care for all -- Just Health Care; and jobs at a truly living wage for all working people. We stand for a revolution of values -- we are committed to building a loving community, and rebuilding our society based on values of justice and compassion. When the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, they turned their backs on the slavery and idolatry of life in Egypt. Their mission took them to the desert, where the Lord taught them how to share wealth, so that "those that gathered much did not have too much, and those that gathered little did not have too little." This is the vision of the movement and the society we are striving to create. As a first step on this journey, we intend to march from San Jose to San Francisco from October 28 to November 4. We invite all who share these concerns and these values to join us. CHAM (Community Homeless Alliance Ministry), San Jose First Christian Church, San Jose Labor Party, San Jose Local Organizing Committee Low Income Self-Help Center, San Jose Religious Witness with Homeless People, San Francisco Silicon Valley De-Bug, San Jose Womens Economic Agenda Project, Oakland ****************************************************************** 11. SPEAKERS FOR A NEW AMERICA: BOOK NOW FOR THE FALL! Our speakers are in the forefront of the struggle for a new cooperative world. Plan now to bring one of our outstanding speakers to your city in the fall. Call 1-800-691-6888 for promotional kits on speakers or e-mail us at speakers@noc.org. Visit our web site at http://www.lrna.org/speakers ETHEL LONG-SCOTT, director, Women's Economic Agenda Project WILLIAM H. WATKINS, leading educator and author, "The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865-1954" BROOKE HEAGERTY, co-author, "Moving Onward: From Racial Division to Class Unity" MAUREEN TAYLOR, co-chair of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and candidate for Detroit City Council BEN MANSKI, an organizer of the Campus Greens, activist in Earth First!, anti-corporate teach-ins, and the SEAC. BRUCE WRIGHT, director of The Refuge, a church of the poor, the homeless and the counter-culture youth LUIS RODRIGUEZ, one of the leading Latino writers in the country ADOLPH REED, JR., author, core leader of the Labor Party ****************************************************************** ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE The PEOPLE'S TRIBUNE, published every two weeks in Chicago, is devoted to the proposition that an economic system which can't or won't feed, clothe and house its people ought to be and will be changed. To that end, this paper is a tribune of the people. It is the voice of the millions struggling for survival. It strives to educate politically those millions on the basis of their own experience. It is a tribune to bring them together, to create a vision of a better world, and a strategy to achieve it. Join us! Editor: Laura Garcia Publisher: League of Revolutionaries for a New America, P.O. 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