Vol. 3, No. 6, November - December, 1998
Community Groups Demand County Ban on Winter Evictions!
"Stop the Evictions!" That was the demand raised by three Milwaukee community organizations Nov. 2 at the Milwaukee County Board Budget Hearing. 20 members of the Women & Poverty Initiative (W&PI), the homeless advocacy group Repairers of the Breach, and A Job is a Right Campaign called on the County Board of Supervisors to declare a State of Emergency in Milwaukee County and ban all evictions this winter. The proposed ban would be in effect during the same period that utility companies are now prohibited from cutting off a tenant's heat: Nov. 14 through April 15.
The demand was prompted by the sharp increase in homelessness as a result of the W-2 welfare "reform" program. W&PI recently completed a survey of families who lost welfare benefits under the W-2 program. The $40,000 survey, conducted at the request of the County Board, found that at least 40% of the families were living on an average of $400 a month and 39% had either been evicted or threatened with eviction.
Repairers of the Breach has reported a sharp increase in single mothers with children using their day shelter. The group has been handing out hundreds of sleeping bags.
Also, the Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin, a landlord group, says that while the 12,000 eviction notices sent out over the last year is about the same as last year, the number of evictions carried out by the sheriff's department has skyrocketed. This is most likely because people being evicted this year have nowhere to go and just stay put until they are thrown out.
This coming winter promises to be one of the coldest in memory. There is going to be real suffering on the streets of Milwaukee. We're talking about children and young mothers. Something must be done and done soon. AJRC, W&PI and Repairers will be holding a Public Meeting on this issue Nov. 28 (see Calendar below.) We hope you will attend and lend your support to this important struggle.
We have a right to housing!
Victory for the Plymouth 25!
Frame-up charges against the Plymouth 25 have been dropped! The 25 are a group of Native Americans and supporters arrested during last year's annual National Day of Mourning in Plymouth, Mass. According to the United American Indians of New England, "Plymouth has acknowledged our right to walk on our own land without a permit on National Day of Mourning. Plymouth has agreed to make the truth part of its celebration of the pilgrim myth of thanksgiving." The 25 had received support from around the world. An economic boycott of the town resulted in serious pressure on city officials to settle. The 29th National Day of Mourning will take place Nov. 26
What's Behind the Impeachment Proceedings?
Despite losing momentum as a result of the recent elections, Congress is proceeding with hearings looking into the possible impeachment of President Clinton. Republicans may be rethinking their strategy of putting all their eggs into the anti-Clinton basket, but their overall goals remain the same. Even their attacks on Newt Gingrich weren't about his politics, only his effectiveness.
So what's this all about, really? Is it really just a dirty little war between two political parties for simple partisan advantage?
Certainly, the Republicans want to humiliate Clinton, weaken the Democrats and recapture the White House in 2000. This would allow all those political operatives of the Reagan and Bush administrations to come streaming back into positions of power after years of staffing the right-wing foundations and think tanks for the neo-conservative movement.
And a Republican sweep over the Democrats would give them control over the $1.7 trillion federal budget, a grand prize if there ever was one.
But there's more at stake here than the White House or the budget. For the last 20 years, the corporate class that runs this country has been engaged in a relentless battle to take back all the concessions they were forced to give up in struggles with labor and all the progressive movements. From the concessionary auto contracts of the late '70s to the attacks on affirmative action and reproductive rights to the overturn of welfare, the ruling class, primarily but not exclusively through the Republican Party, has been steadily dismantling what they call the "regulatory welfare state". The Democrats, of course, have gone along with most of these attacks, even playing the leading role in some, as when Clinton signed the welfare reform act of 1996, pushed through NAFTA, signed repressive new crime bills and more.
But the U.S. ruling class today is insatiable. Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, its main rival on the world scene, there has been no limit to its demands -- or its expectations. The Persian Gulf War was fought to redistribute the great oil wealth of the Middle East after the demise of the USSR. The now-famous manifesto of the Pentagon in March of 1992 declared the U.S. would allow no possibility of a rival challenging it anywhere in the world -- not even an allied rival. And here at home the attacks have continued unabated.
Because of its electoral base, the Democratic Party has had to make some pretense of opposition to these attacks. In "normal" times, this is accepted as part of the charade of making us think we live in a democracy. But these aren't normal times, and the ruling class has grown impatient with its "loyal opposition". So the most right-wing elements of that class opened a direct attack on the Democratic leadership.
There are some deeper issues here than just sex, lies and partisan politics. The problem is, the Democrats are no defense against the wholesale ruling class attacks on labor, women and the communities of color. If the only thing standing between the people and fascism is Bill Clinton, we're in a lot more trouble than we thought.
The real solution -- and we've said this over and over again -- is to revive the kind of mass, broad-based popular movement that won all these labor and social gains in the first place. In other words, we have to FIGHT! No electoral victory by itself can ever secure justice and freedom. That was the lesson of the defeat of President Allende in Chile in 1973 -- and of the victory of President Clinton in 1992.
Mumia Abu-Jamal Denied New Trial
Death Warrant May Be Issued Soon
Celebrated journalist and Death Row prisoner Mumia Abu -Jamal suffered a major setback in his fight for freedom October 30 when his appeal for a new trial was denied by the State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Gov. Thomas Ridge has said he would sign a new death warrant if the appeal were denied. Mumia's lawyers would then have 30-90 days to get a federal judge to issue a stay of execution. Such a stay, however, is not guaranteed. As a result of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, the standards for federal review are now substantially higher.
The court's decision was signed by Justice Ronald Castillo, who as District Attorney played a key role in denying a new trial to Mumia ten years ago. At that time, Castillo signed all the prosecution's briefs filed against Mumia's appeal to the State Supreme Court. Castillo has since come under criticism for producing a video tape that instructed other prosecutors how to systematically exclude African Americans from juries.
Demonstrations were held around the country protesting the court decision, including a national demonstration Nov. 7 in Philadelphia.
For more information, call the Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal at (215) 476-8812 or the New York Mumia Coalition at (212) 330-8029.
LATE BULLETIN:
International family & Friends have called for a national demonstration to take place in Philadelphia on April 24. Save the date -- and see you there!
Tommy Thompson & The Right Wing
by Bryan G. Pfeifer
According to the fall newsletter of the Wisconsin Research Center, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson has been identified as a member of the radical right networking group Council for National Policy (CNP). Thompson's membership was first made public by the Institute For First Amendment Studies, a watchdog group that has been monitoring the CNP for over ten years.
The CNP, which currently has over 500 members, was formed in 1981 by the Rev. Tim LaHaye and T. Cullen Davis, members of the John Birch Society, and Nelson Baker Hunt.
The goal of CNP, according to the Institute, is "to make the members' shared moral values dominant in domestic and foreign policy."
Members include Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council; James Dobson of Focus on the Family; Oliver North; Ed Feulner of the Heritage Foundation; Howard Phillips of the U.S. Taxpayers Party; Pat Robertson of the Christian Coalition; Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum; Ralph Reed, formerly of the Christian Coalition; Holly Coors, board member of the Adolf Coors Foundation; Richard DeVoo, Jr., President, Amway Corp.; and Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation.
The CNP "enables leadership of the radical right to become acquainted with one another, speak freely, and plan short and long-term strategies," says the Research Center's newsletter.
According to the Institute, CNP has taken credit for a number of conservative victories in Congress. They include the defeat of President Clinton's health plan, the defeat of the President's attempt to allow gays to serve openly in the military and the Whitewater hearings.
Skip Porteous, the Institute's vice president, states that the CNP is little known by the public and meetings are highly secretive. No press is allowed, no public announcements of meetings are ever published and plainclothes security guards carefully monitor traffic at hotels where meetings are held.
Membership dues for the CNP range from $100 to $10,000, plus an additional $300 a year for "Capitol Hill Report," the newsletter of CNP Action Inc. The admission price to the CNP's thrice yearly conference is additional.
Because of the wealth and influence of the members of the CNP, Porteous asserts "these 500 people influence tens of millions."