WW News Service Digest #219
1) Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin: Former Panther still government target
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) Baltimore: 'Fire anti-gay housing commissioner'
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) Bush nominee guilty of 'aggravated assault' on poor
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
4) Women have to take to the streets again
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
5) Why you need a party like Workers World
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 25, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
JAMIL ABDULLAH AL-AMIN:
FORMER PANTHER STILL GOVERNMENT TARGET
By S. Tomlinson
Atlanta
Defense attorneys for Black activist Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin,
formerly known as H. Rap Brown, will argue 83 motions at a
Jan. 19 hearing in Atlanta. His supporters plan to fill the
courtroom and stage a rally outside the courthouse.
Al-Amin is charged in the March 16, 2000, shooting death of
a Fulton County sheriff's deputy and the wounding of
another. He has spent nearly a year in jail but has still
not been arraigned.
Many of the motions to be argued Jan. 19 involve violations
of Al-Amin's civil rights and the rules of evidentiary
disclosure.
Authorities have not turned over evidence requested by the
defense. Defense attorneys have asked for copies of the 911
recordings from the night of the shooting.
It was reported in the first hours and days after the
shooting that several 911 calls had been made that night
reporting a man "bleeding" and "begging for a ride" near the
scene of the shooting.
The only identified eyewitness is the second deputy who was
wounded in the incident. The deputy said that he wounded the
assailant in the shootout.
Investigators who were first on the scene that night found a
trail of fresh blood. However, after Al-Amin's arrest, it
became apparent that he had not been wounded. Authorities
now claim that the blood trail is "irrelevant."
Defense attorneys are also seeking to disallow the
identification of Al-Amin made by the wounded deputy sheriff
while he was on pain medication between surgeries. He was
shown only one photo-- Al-Amin's--and asked, "Is this the
shooter?"
The deputy's initial description of his assailant, given
over the radio to police dispatchers, was of a man at least
six inches shorter than Al-Amin.
The deputy described the shooter as having gray eyes. Al-
Amin's eyes are brown.
In addition, copies of the full ballistics reports have not
been given to the defense. Instead, defense lawyers were
sent a copy of the summary in which the authorities
concluded that bullets test-fired from two weapons allegedly
found near where Al-Amin was taken into custody are
"similar" to bullets found at the shooting scene.
Al-Amin's attorneys also seek to lift the gag order that has
been imposed on him. The gag order not only forces Al-Amin
to be silent on his case; it also restrains him from
publicly commenting on any issue.
In addition, Al-Amin is not allowed to provide spiritual
guidance or participate in group religious activities at the
jail.
The case against Al-Amin is tangled with unanswered
questions, police misconduct and outright lies. Yet shortly
after his arrest, the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney
announced that he would seek the death penalty against Al-
Amin.
GOVERNMENT TARGET
Is the case against Al-Amin another chapter in the
government's long history of attempting to annihilate
revolutionary Black leaders?
In the 1960s Al-Amin, then known as H. Rap Brown, was head
of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He emerged
as a leader in the fight against racism.
In July 1967, after a speech in Cambridge, Md., Brown was
ambushed and shot by assailants he later learned were Black
police officers.
After the shooting, the crowd began to rebel. Brown was
charged with inciting to riot.
In 1968 he joined the Black Panther Party, where he served
briefly as minister of justice.
The FBI used every weapon to disrupt and repress the Black
Panthers as part of its now-well-documented "counter-
intelligence program"--COINTELPRO.
As part of the government's war against the Black liberation
movement, Brown was eventually arrested and sent to prison.
He served five years. He converted to Islam and changed his
name to Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.
Released on parole in 1976, Al-Amin settled in Atlanta and
began organizing a Muslim community movement.
'THE STRUGGLE GOES ON'
Did the government forget Al-Amin? Or does it still consider
him a threat?
In 1992 the FBI and Atlanta police began investigating Al-
Amin in connection with everything from domestic terrorism
to gunrunning to murder.
In 1995 Al-Amin was charged with shooting a man in his
neighborhood. After the victim revealed that he was coerced
into naming Al-Amin as the shooter, all charges were
dropped.
The FBI claimed its investigation ended in February 1996.
Atlanta police say their investigation ended in August 1997.
No charges were ever filed against Al-Amin.
If the government thinks that repression against Al-Amin now
will help suppress the new rising political movement, it
would do well to heed his words: "Many times, people
mistakenly identify movement as struggle. Movement is only a
phase of struggle ... the struggle goes on."
Donations to support his defense can be sent to:
International Committee to Support Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-
Amin Justice Fund, P.O. Box 93963, Atlanta, GA 30377.
Supporters can write to him at: Imam Jamil A. Al-Amin,
#0013284-ST-06-06, Fulton County Jail, 901 Rice Street,
Atlanta, GA 30318.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 25, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
BALTIMORE ACTION DEMANDS:
"FIRE ANTI-GAY HOUSING COMMISSIONER"
By Sharon Black Ceci
Baltimore
Protesters gathered at City Hall on Jan. 10 to demand that
Housing Commissioner Paul Graziano be fired for repeatedly
making anti-gay remarks at several downtown bars. His
remarks and behavior were so disruptive that the police were
called in.
After Graziano's arrest, Mayor Martin O'Malley quickly
stepped in and had the charges dropped. The mayor refused
the housing commissioner's resignation. Instead O'Malley
placed him on sick leave with full pay to get treatment for
alcoholism.
Community activists were angry. At the Jan. 10 protest WEAA
radio host Nzinga Anon commented, "If it were me, a Black
woman, who was arrested, I would still be rotting in jail."
She added, "I stand with my sisters and brothers who are
gay. If you are bigoted on one issue, you are surely racist
also. And as a representative of the African American
community I demand that the mayor fire Graziano."
Eric Easton, representing the Madison Avenue Community
Association and Unity for Action, stated: "[Graziano's]
alcoholism is not the issue. It's his offensive anti-gay
bigoted remarks that are. I stand with the gay, lesbian, bi
and transgendered community. Your fight is our fight."
Jeff Bigelow, a labor activist and spokesperson for the All-
People's Congress, talked about the terrible impact for
Housing Authority workers as well as lesbian, gay, bi and
trans tenants who need services. "What will happen to them?"
Bigelow denounced the mayor's plans to privatize city
services and explained the housing commissioner's
collaboration in the process.
The APC and Unity for Action, the groups that called the
protest, vowed to continue the fight.
The APC's Andre Powell proclaimed, "This protest is
historic. It's the first time that representatives of the
African American community and the gay and lesbian movement
have come together in Baltimore City.
"It's time that we continue to stand together against police
killings, racism and bigotry of all kinds."
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 25, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
MILWAUKEE PROTEST:
BUSH NOMINEE GUILTY OF "AGGRAVATED ASSAULT" ON POOR
By Workers World Milwaukee bureau
Protesters took to the streets here on Jan. 13, calling on
Wisconsin Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl to oppose
Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson's confirmation as secretary
of health and human services under George W. Bush. The
senators, both Democrats, have endorsed Thompson for the
cabinet seat.
Thompson, who oversaw the first statewide repeal of welfare
programs in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is expected to
be confirmed the week of Jan. 22.
The protest was sponsored by the Coalition for a Ban on
Winter Evictions to denounce Thompson's racist, anti-women
and anti-children policies. The coalition includes the A Job
is a Right Campaign, Repairers of the Breach and the Women
and Poverty Publication Initiative.
The coalition statement issued for the protest stressed,
"Far from being a program to reduce poverty, [Thompson's
welfare-busting] Wisconsin Works (W-2) creates a low-wage,
captive work force that means super-profits for private
businesses.
"It opens the door wider to massive privatization of
government services and it helps to obliterate the concept
that the government has any inherent obligation to 'promote
the general welfare.' And those achievements--not the
elimination of poverty--were the real goals of W-2,"
concluded the statement.
The protesters, mostly women, came from Milwaukee, Madison,
Manitowoc and Chicago. A representative of the Wisconsin
Green Party drove two hours from Appleton to join the
protest.
As one of the most multinational protests here in recent
memory, it bolstered the spirits of many to continue
fighting against policies like W-2.
The protest was endorsed by over a dozen organizations and
individuals, including the Affordable Housing Action
Alliance-Madison, Dr. James Cameron, College Feminists at UW-
Milwaukee, Education for the People, the International
Action Center, the Wisconsin Chapter of the National
Association of Social Workers, National Working Women/9 to 5-
Milwaukee Chapter, NOW-Milwaukee, People United for Families-
Denver, CO, Progressive Student Network at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Rainbow Alliance at UW-Milwaukee and
Welfare Warriors.
Every local TV station covered the protest. Radio stations
WORT, Wisconsin Public Radio and National Public Radio
conducted pre-protest interviews.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the city's daily newspaper,
relegated the protest to page 5b of the Sunday Metro
Section.
W-2 MEANS 'WRONG TWICE!'
At the Jan. 13 rally, community activists, public-policy
experts, students and those affected negatively by W-2
explained that the anti-welfare program has meant
devastation and misery to those it claims to "help."
Speakers emphasized that W-2 eliminated Aid to Families with
Dependent Children. It forces all recipients to work
regardless of their circumstances.
Numerous women gave personal testimony at the protest.
Former or current W-2 participants described heartrending
experiences. Some were evicted in the middle of freezing
Wisconsin winters. Others were denied services from private
W-2 agencies or were forced to place their children in
foster care. Still others described being denied the most
basic health care and reproductive services for themselves
and their children.
Those who work in the social service field said that
thousands of new mothers on AFDC--many of them facing severe
obstacles to working--never transferred to the new system.
Many of those unable to find steady jobs work for
Milwaukee's 210 temp agencies, where the average wage is
just $7.60 per hour.
In Milwaukee County many reports have documented that there
is only one job opening for every six people in W-2 and that
most of these are entry-level, non-union service-sector
jobs.
The vicious racism embedded within W-2 is glaring. In the
program's first year, the Black infant mortality rate in
Milwaukee shot up 37 percent.
A solidarity message from the Los Angeles Coalition Against
Hunger and Homelessness was read at the protest. It said: "W-
2 should really stand for 'Wrong Twice.' Tommy Thompson
should not be the Senate poster boy for welfare reform. He
should be on the Justice Department's Most Wanted poster for
aggravated assault on low-income families and systemic child
abuse and neglect."
Other speakers addressed Thompson's atrocious record on
reproductive rights, health care, prisons, the environment
and education, as well as his affiliation with far-right
organizations like the Council for National Policy, the
Bradley Foundation and the Hudson Institute.
The Chicago and Milwaukee chapters of the International
Action Center wrapped up the protest by urging everyone to
attend the upcoming Jan. 20 counter-inauguration protest in
Washington. IAC representatives called for a mass movement
to create a society that is based on people's needs before
profits.
J20 is a step in that direction, they said.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 25, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
BATTLING BUSH, ASHCROFT & THOMPSON:
"WOMEN HAVE TO TAKE TO THE STREETS AGAIN"
By Sue Davis
Jan. 22 is the 28th anniversary of the Supreme Court's
historic Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion. But no
one is celebrating.
Not with President-select George W. Bush appointing arch-
reactionary, racist, anti-choice John Ashcroft to be
attorney general and anti-welfare Tommy G. Thompson to be
secretary of health and human services. In those jobs both
men would function like the proverbial fox guarding the
chicken coop.
Ashcroft's views on abortion are indicative of his anti-
woman politics. He advocates a constitutional amendment
banning abortions even when a woman has been raped or is a
victim of incest.
He opposes a type of late-term abortion that is misnamed
"partial birth." In fact, Ashcroft is so opposed to women
gaining any kind of control over their bodies that in the
Senate he voted against federal funds for types of
contraception, including IUDs and birth-control pills, that
the religious right likens to abortion.
Thompson is no better. His anti-welfare Wisconsin Works
program, known as W-2, forced all welfare recipients to
work, regardless of their circumstances.
Under W-2 thousands of impoverished mothers--
disproportionately women of color--have been forced to turn
their children over to the state's foster care service. That
totally violates women's reproductive rights. In a people's
court, Thompson would be found guilty of kidnapping.
In response to these appointments women around the country
are showing their determination to fight for their rights by
joining the counter-inaugural protests on Jan. 20.
"Women have to take to the streets again," said
International Action Center activist Marie Jay. "That's what
won Roe v. Wade years ago.
"We need to take the struggle for women's rights even
further this time and win things like universal child care
and health care, paid maternity leaves and full employment.
"Of course all women won't have reproductive freedom until
we also end racism, domestic violence and oppression of
lesbians," Jay explained. "But Bush, Ashcroft and Thompson
can be sure of one thing--the struggle will continue until
we win."
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 25, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
WHY YOU NEED A PARTY LIKE WORKERS WORLD
WHAT ARE YOU FOR?
Are you for an end to poverty? That shouldn't be difficult.
Productivity is so high in this country that there's no real
excuse for poverty. As we start the 21st century, there is
an abundance of food, clothing, housing--everything it takes
to be comfortable. Yet millions are barely scraping by. They
are locked out by capitalist oppression, whose most extreme
form is racism.
Are you for taking positive action to end racist inequality?
Are you for putting the power in the hands of the people
instead of a brutal state that beats, incarcerates and
executes people as it protects the interests of the rich?
Are you for defending women's reproductive choice and social
equality? Are you for the right of lesbian, gay, bi and
trans people to live and love without fear of repression?
Are you for shutting down the Pentagon death machine and
letting the world's people liberate themselves from
imperialist domination?
Are you for reorganizing the economy and social life so the
environment can be saved and future generations can live in
a healthy world?
Then you're for socialism. Capitalism can't do any of these
things.
And if you're a militant activist as well as a thinker, you
should be in Workers World Party. This is the party that
stands for revolutionary struggle of the workers and all
oppressed people against this rotten capitalist system.
CAPITALISM IS A FAILED SYSTEM
Capitalism is a two-edged sword. It destroys older social
systems and brings tempestuous industrial development. It
revolutionizes production, thereby eliminating many back-
breaking jobs. But its motive force is profit for a small
class of owners.
Capitalism has created a world of have and have-not
extremes. A few dozen billionaires in the United States,
Europe and Japan have assets greater than the 50 poorest
countries. And inside each country, including the U.S., the
gap between rich and poor widens all the time.
Where there is great inequality there is always great
repression. People do not accept exploitation and injustice
easily. As the income gap grows, so do the police and
military forces that protect the status quo.
CAN IT BE REFORMED?
Many movements exist to try to reform capitalism. They can
win important gains. Workers can improve their conditions if
they unite and organize. Progressive laws against racism and
sexism and environmental degradation can get passed if there
is mass action and resistance.
But as long as the capitalist class remains in power, these
gains can be reversed, too. Let the movement slacken and all
the old crap comes back. And that has happened, partly
because many in the movement have relied on the Democratic
Party to defend and extend the reforms won by militant mass
struggle in the 1960s and 1970s. But that didn't happen. The
Democrats moved to the right and allowed a reactionary
agenda to be pushed through Congress.
In recent years, many of the gains won by earlier struggles
have been dismantled. Union membership and benefits have
dwindled. Welfare is gone. Social Security is on the
chopping block. Affirmative action and the right to abortion
are being whittled down. Public education is under attack.
The Pentagon is intervening more around the world.
Workers World Party has always stood for the independent
political organization of the workers and oppressed. It
calls on all progressives to break with the Democratic Party
and build a real opposition to capitalist politics.
RECESSION MEANS CLASS STRUGGLE
Even in the recent period of prosperity, social programs
were cut back. Now the system has entered one of its
periodic downturns. No one knows yet how severe it will be.
When millions are unemployed, it affects all workers.
There's more competition for jobs. Bosses try to cut wages
and benefits. Right-wing demagogues blame the hard times on
immigrants, on women, on people of color--on anything except
the capitalist system of boom and bust. The militarists try
to get a war going to jump-start the economy.
To meet these dangerous challenges, the various movements
need to unite and fight back. Where does Workers World Party
fit in?
Workers World Party has a long track record of promoting
unity within all sectors of the progressive movement. But
the party's program is more than a collection of good
reforms. It is a program for deep and revolutionary social
change. It evaluates every struggle in the context of how to
strengthen the overall objective: overthrowing capitalism
and building socialism.
WHY SOCIALISM? ISN'T THAT A FAILED SYSTEM TOO?
The socialist-communist movement that became worldwide after
the Russian Revolution took a terrible blow with the
downfall of the Soviet Union. But the need for socialism is
greater than ever.
The suffering workers in Russia, Poland and other parts of
the former Soviet bloc don't need capitalist banks and
corporations. The transition to capitalism has been a
disaster for them. They need better control over their
resources and labor than they had before--not to give them
over to Western or homegrown bosses. They need greater
equality and more workers' democracy--not the phony
capitalist democracy that puts an oil dynasty like the
Bushes in power. In other words, they need more socialism,
not less.
Workers World Party is the one Marxist party in the United
States that defended what was progressive about the Soviet
bloc without trying to cover up its political or material
weaknesses. All these countries tried to build socialism
from a low economic base that was weakened even more by
capitalist invasion and war.
WORKERS WORLD IS BULLISH ON COMMUNISM IN THE U.S.
The United States is another story. It has had hundreds of
years to become highly developed. It is ready-made for
social ownership and economic planning. Workers are highly
skilled and have great experience organizing a division of
labor. The economy is so productive that surpluses exist in
everything.
Under socialism, increased productivity would be reason to
celebrate because it would mean more leisure time for all,
more social investment in culture, in the environment and so
on. Under capitalism, however, abundance means layoffs.
Workers fighting for their jobs and livelihoods have to
challenge the property laws of capitalism. Whose plant or
office is it anyway--the boss who invested money, usually
someone else's, or the workers who built it with sweat and
toil? Don't the workers have a property right to their jobs?
Workers World Party has over 40 years of experience in
uniting workers on the job to fight for their rights. It has
promoted class solidarity among different nationalities,
genders and sexual expressions. It has fought to build
unions, and it has fought to make them fight.
YOU'VE SEEN US MANY TIMES
Workers World Party has grown up over four decades as a
creative, independent voice of Marxism in the U.S. Its
members helped organize many of the cutting-edge struggles
in this period.
You've seen us trying to stop the executions of Mumia Abu-
Jamal and Shaka Sankofa and all the others on death row.
You've seen us on countless marches against racist police
brutality and the prison-industrial complex.
You've seen us defending women's clinics and the lesbian,
gay, bi and trans communities.
You've seen us confronting the police at the International
Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Injustice Department.
You've seen us in the front lines of protests against war
and sanctions on Iraq and Yugoslavia. You've seen us in
solidarity with South Africa, Angola, Cuba, Vietnam and
north Korea.
You've walked beside us on strike picket lines and to end
sweatshop conditions.
SO NOW JOIN US!
Come to a Workers World Party meeting and you'll see workers
and students like yourself--giving reports and analysis,
organizing activities, doing the chores of child care and
meals and sign-ups. You'll find women, people of color, and
lesbian, gay, bi and trans people in the leadership--not to
cover up for an anti-woman, ant-gay, racist agenda like the
Bush cabinet appointees, but because this is a party that
practices what it preaches.
The liberated world we are fighting for begins with the
composition of our movement, and especially its leadership.
Get to know Workers World Party and you will find a rich
body of literature on the complex and difficult problems
facing the revolutionary movement over the last 50 years.
You will get to raise your questions and your ideas in
classes and meetings. You will broaden your political and
organizational abilities as you join forces with comrades in
the struggle.
