WW News Service Digest #289
1) Corrected resend: Stonewall means fighting all oppression
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) Opponents of death penalty honor Shaka
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) Vultures circle for Pentagon feast
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
4) Cuba solidarity caravan to challenge blockade
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
5) Cities for people, not the rich
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
FIGHTING RACISM AND HOMOPHOBIA:
"AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL"
[The following is excerpted from a talk by Bob McCubbin at
a June 9 Workers World meeting in Buffalo celebrating lesbian,
gay, bi and trans Pride month. McCubbin is the author of
"The Roots of Lesbian and Gay Oppression," a Marxist analysis
that blazed the trail for other researchers and theorists.
Today McCubbin is a leading organizer of the San Diego chapter
of the International Action Center.]
I was an anti-racist and anti-war activist here in Buffalo,
N.Y., in the 1960s. In fact, Youth Against War and Fascism,
the youth group of Workers World Party at that time, used my
apartment as an organizing center for several years.
The U.S. Secret Service broke into the office the night
before presidential candidate George Wallace brought his
racist campaign to Buffalo in 1968. All they found were anti-
racist and anti-Vietnam War signs and banners. It was
probably in that apartment, or in the corner restaurant
across the street, that one morning in late June 1969 I
opened up the New York Times and saw the headline,
"Homosexuals Riot in Greenwich Village."
To me this article represented news of the birth of a new
political movement, and it filled me with hope and fear at
the same time. I knew my own life was going to be changed in
some fundamental and profound ways. But that's what struggle
always does. It opens up new possibilities. It touches and
changes even those not directly involved. It inspires us to
believe in the possibility of a better, more just world. It
inspires us to get involved. Frederick Douglass said it
best: "Without struggle there is no progress."
I was going to focus tonight on some of the theoretical
insights birthed by the Stonewall Rebellion and the truly
global movement that it sparked. But when I got into
Buffalo, I heard about the racial targeting here, and so I
decided to shift the focus of my presentation somewhat.
I want to talk a little bit about what's been happening with
the movements for social justice in southern California and
especially San Diego, where I've lived for the past 12
years. There are some strong parallels with developments
here, both in terms of the increase in repression and in the
response.
FRESH WINDS OF STRUGGLE
There's a fresh spirit of struggle among lesbian, gay, bi
and trans youth in southern California. I'm involved with a
coalition called the Stonewall Initiative for Equal Rights
that has been organizing in Los Angeles, Orange County and
San Diego.
This coalition had its origins several years ago when a
number of Los Angeles groups and activists got together to
discuss the mounting police harassment of gay men in the
Sunset Junction area of Los Angeles. The police were
targeting men in front of gay bars and on streets. The
police message was clear: "We want the gays out of this
community."
A strong, defiant rally organized by the Stonewall
Initiative on a busy street corner at the very center of the
community gave our answer: "We know the police are acting at
the behest of the real estate interests that want to
gentrify this community. We know the police don't serve us.
We will organize larger and larger protests until the police
stop targeting us."
But this one powerful rally did the trick. At least for the
present, the police have pulled back.
This past February in San Diego, the ultra-right-wing
Changing Gays movement called a conference for teachers and
parents of lesbian, gay, bi and trans youth. The idea was to
spread the homophobic and homo-hating idea that these youth
can and should become straight.
Well, a spirited six-hour picket line and rally outside the
conference sent a very different message--a message of pride
and resistance. This Stonewall Initiative action drew youth
from Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego.
In April, an outpouring of about three times as many
lesbian, gay, bi and trans activists--mostly youth--
descended on Newport Beach, a very conservative town in
Orange County. They came to protest another right-wing,
racist, sexist, anti-gay conference.
The impetus for the action was the homophobia and homo-
hatred of the ultra-right conference organizers and
attendees. But many of the rally speakers addressed the need
to fight racism, the prison-industrial complex and the
racist death penalty. There were many youths of color in
attendance at this demonstration.
And when an announcement was made about an upcoming West
Coast mobilization in San Francisco in support of death-row
political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, many of the lesbian,
gay, bi and trans youth expressed an interest in going to
show support for this brave and uncompromising
revolutionary.
This kind of solidarity--this instinctive understanding by
the youth that an injury to one is an injury to all--is
exactly what's needed to advance our struggle. It is the key
to victory for all the struggles of working and oppressed
people.
RACIST POLICE KILLINGS IN SAN DIEGO
In San Diego, the Committee Against Police Brutality began
several years ago as an ad hoc coalition following the
police killing of unarmed Black athlete Deme trius DuBois.
The police were called in response to a minor
misunderstanding among neighbors that was completely
resolved prior to their arrival. But in a typically racist
manner, the cops saw a young, muscular African American man
and immediately assumed he was the problem.
A minute later Demetrius DuBois was dead of 12 bullet
wounds, six of them in his back.
Hundreds of people immediately pro tested at the site of the
murder. And for 12 weeks running, those of us who had
actively worked to build the first protest gathered downtown
outside the county courthouse every Friday afternoon for an
angry picket line denouncing the police.
But the killing spree of the San Diego police didn't begin
with Demetrius DuBois and it didn't end with him. In the two
years since his death at least 12 other unarmed people have
been gunned down by San Diego law enforcement agencies. And
this pattern is being repeated in city after city all across
the U.S.
What has been unleashed is a nationwide campaign of terror
that targets the most oppressed, especially people of color.
Its purpose is to instill fear and hopelessness. It
complements another instrument of repression, the new growth
industry: the prison-industrial complex.
With over 2 million people in prison--more and more of them
women--and another 3 million people awaiting trial, on
parole or on probation, the U.S. has a larger percentage of
its population entangled in the so-called justice system
than any other country in the world. Racial profiling and
three-strikes laws help to feed this monster.
And there's the racist death penalty. Almost 4,000 people
are on death row, disproportionately people of color. And
all of them are poor. You don't get put on death row if you
can afford a decent lawyer.
UNITED WE STAND
Could all this repression have anything to do with the
obscene disparity of wealth in this country? How could it
not? While most of us, gay and straight alike, scramble to
pay higher and higher utility bills and rent, the Congress--
with Democrats and Republicans basically united on this--
pass a tax cut bill that will hand over billions and
billions more to the already immensely rich.
While the cities decay, hospitals close and other urban
problems mount, the municipal governments can find nothing
better to do with our tax money than finance new stadiums
and hire more police. In the last 10 years California has
built 22 new prisons, but only one new university.
Yes, the rich are in control, now more than ever. They
expropriate the wealth that our work produces. While
millions are forced to forego health care in order to pay
the rent, the big banks, oil companies, military-industrial
corporations and other corporate giants ravage the planet in
constant search of ever-greater profits.
We are faced with a system based on unbridled greed, a
system that has total disregard for the needs of this and
future generations. A system that, in truth, is destroying
the very basis for the continuation of life on this planet.
The class that rules finds homophobia, sexism and especially
racism indispensable weapons in its ongoing war against the
overwhelming majority of humanity: the working people and
oppressed of the world. And as long as the capitalists can
keep us divided, their system of profits before human needs
will continue to function unchallenged.
Lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people need
equality. Women and people of color need equality. Workers
need equality. And to get there, we need solidarity with
each other's struggles. Together, we can build a powerful
movement. Together, we can win a better world.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
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From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: tiistai 3. hein�kuu 2001 10:25
Subject: [WW] Opponents of death penalty honor Shaka
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
OPPONENTS OF DEATH PENALTY HONOR SHAKA
By Chickpea
Houston
Over 50 people gathered in the SHAPE Community Center June
22 to pay tribute to the life and legacy of Shaka Sankofa
(Gary Graham) on the first anniversary of his legal
lynching.
They talked about past experiences working together to stop
the execution of Sankofa. That struggle was brought to a
halt by the state of Texas exactly one year ago when Sankofa
was executed in Huntsville, Texas, under the watch of then-
Gov. George W. Bush.
Njeri Shakur--the tribute's chair, a personal friend of
Sankofa and member of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition
Movement--explained that the purpose of the tribute was to
commemorate the legacy of Shaka Sankofa in a way that
brought those in attendance to look in a positive light
towards the future of the movement to abolish the death
penalty.
A message sent to Shaka's supporters from Mumia Abu-Jamal
emphasized, "Usually, poor folks commit crimes for money.
Politicians kill poor folks for their own political
advantage: for a promotion; for a job. Which is worse?"
Carla, a mother of two and an Abolition Movement member,
recalled the day of Shaka's execution when she stood on an
Almeda Road median and held up a poster in protest of the
execution for five hours.
A young man named Trent told those gathered that he had been
in jail until the day after Shaka's execution. When he was
released he went to Shaka's funeral and it was then that he
made the decision to work for justice and to help his
community.
Also inspired by Shaka's courage in the face of tremendous
odds were the Hunts ville 8, who were arrested at the
protest of his execution and are still facing politically
motivated criminal trespass charges. One defendant in the
case, Britt Coleman, declared that the "only future
available for most young people today is a life dominated by
the prison system."
Other statements included a personal message from Fidel
Castro, a letter from a death row prisoner and a message
from the head of local Mosque #45, Minister Robert Muhammad,
who was Sankofa's spiritual advisor and witness to his
execution.
Two films documenting the struggle to save Shaka provided
background on his case. Footage from a BBC News broadcast
caused many in the crowd to shake their heads in disbelief
when George W. Bush came on the screen claiming that no
innocent people had been executed while he was governor of
Texas.
A brief segment of a People's Video Network piece included
rare footage from the June 22 protest.
The evening's two concluding speakers, Gloria Rubac and
Elenora Graham, firmly placed the tribute in the broader
context of the anti-death penalty movement.
Rubac, one of the major organizers in the Abolition
Movement, gave a history of how the death penalty has been
used in the United States. She explained that through
Sankofa's fight for life, people in this country and around
the world learned more about the death penalty's racist and
classist application.
Many Graham family members were present for the tribute,
including Sankofa's grandson. Sankofa's stepmother Elenora,
who took up the fight to save his life after his mother
Thelma passed away while he was in prison, shared the story
of being treated with great disrespect when she went to
visit him the day before his execution.
For example, she was forced to change into oversized prison
pants and throw away her belt. After the execution she was
held in a holding cell for no reason. The warden refused to
release her until she indicated what was to be done with
Sankofa's remains.
The theme of the tribute was a quote from Sankofa: "The odds
we face are great, but even greater is the power of the
people."
Joanne Gavin, a member of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition
Movement, raised money for flood repairs to Shaka's mother's
home with "Tributes to the Life and Legacy of Shaka Sankofa:
A Collection of Messages, Poetry and News Stories from Those
He Inspired Around the World." Copies are available for
donations of $10 or more to Abolition Movement,
P. O. Box 595, Houston TX 77001.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
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From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: tiistai 3. hein�kuu 2001 10:25
Subject: [WW] Vultures circle for Pentagon feast
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
VULTURES CIRCLE FOR THE FEAST AS ...
RUMSFELD UNVEILS HUGE PENTAGON BUDGET
By Andy McInerney
The annual feeding frenzy is underway.
On June 23, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced
that he would request a Pentagon budget of $330 billion--an
increase of $33 billion over last year's military budget.
That would be the biggest percentage increase since the
Reagan administration in the 1980s.
Close to $14 billion more is slated for the nuclear weapons
program under the auspices of the Department of Energy.
And Rumsfeld is scheduled to ask for more money in this
year's budget after completing the Quadrennial Defense
Review later in the year.
This massive increase comes during the year when thousands
of welfare recipients are scheduled to be thrown off the
program, five years after the Clinton administration
announced "lifetime limits" on the federal program.
What's behind this military expansion, coming at a time when
there is no world power capable of challenging the
Pentagon's might?
One explanation can be found not overseas in a far-off
country, but right in the United States. George Bush was
elected with the backing of the biggest defense contractors
in the world, like Lockheed and Boeing. Now it's time for
paybacks.
For example, the Pentagon will spend some $200 million each
for Lockheed's experimental F-22 stealth fighters, Brig.
Gen. David Deptula said twice in a June 17 interview with
Cox News Service. The original price tag for a fleet of F-
22s was $60 billion; Cox reported that the upcoming order
would be in "greater numbers than currently planned."
And the June 26 New York Times reported that Northrop-
Grumman's B-2 bomber--another relic of the Reagan era--is
coming back on line. Rumsfeld is reportedly planning to buy
40 at a price tag of $735 million each. That's another $30
billion.
The arms industry aggressively courts these contracts. In
December 2000, Boeing hired Clinton State Department
official Thomas Pickering to drum up business. "In essence,
what we're asking Tom is to form a State Department for
Boeing," the head of the aircraft giant said at a Dec. 14
press conference, according to the Seattle Union Record.
U.S. companies sell half of all the world's arms exports.
Then of course there is the so-called "Nuclear Missile
Defense" program, a 21st century version of Reagan's "Star
Wars" flop, now aimed at China and potential rivals in
Europe. The new budget amendment would devote $600 million
to the already-proposed increase of $1.6 billion for this
project, bringing the total amount budgeted to $7.5 billion
for the year.
It is clear that the millions the military-industrial
complex paid out to the two big-business candidates in the
2000 elections is flowing back many times over in arms
profits.
'NEW' PENTAGON STRATEGY
The huge increase in the Pentagon budget is also being
driven by a shift in Pentagon strategy, ostensibly away from
the "two-war" strategy of the Clinton administration. Under
the old strategy, the Pentagon would be prepared to fight
two "major" wars at any one time.
The new strategy, to be formally articulated in the
forthcoming Quadrennial Defense Review, is a codification of
the "overwhelming force" tactic employed against Iraq during
the Gulf War. An analyst from the Brookings Institute think
tank described the new strategic guidelines--so far outlined
informally by Rumsfeld and other Pentagon officials--as
"traditional great power politics."
One glimpse into the new guidelines came from James
McCarthy, a retired general and Rumsfeld advisor. According
to the June 13 Newsday, McCarthy recommended following the
arms buildup of Nazi Germany.
"Most people think of Stukas [dive bombers] and Panzers
[tanks] and characterize that as the German army," he said.
"But in fact only about 10 percent of the force was
transformed with that concept; 90 percent of the forces that
eventually conquered much of Europe was foot soldiers and
horse-drawn cannon."
Rumsfeld plans to submit an even larger budget for military
spending next year, one that is shaped by the Defense Review
principles.
A BILLION HERE, A BILLION THERE
The billions that are being spent to fund the U.S. war
machine may seem abstract. But these funds are robbed from
U.S. working people in the form of taxes and benefit only a
tiny handful of super-rich.
To put these funds in perspective, a moderately paid worker
earning $40,000 a year would have to work 25,000 years to
earn $1 billion. That's far longer than any civilization on
the planet has existed.
The Washington, D.C., city government had announced it will
spend $75 million to assist some 10,000 families who will
lose their welfare benefits in December. That's one-third of
the price of a single F-22 stealth fighter. At that rate,
the stealth fighter program alone could provide 8 million
families--unemployed, retired, homeless--with some moderate
support.
The price of three B-2 stealth bombers would pay the entire
shortfall in the New York City Board of Education's plans to
build new schools and provide facilities for at least 12,000
students.
Until the whole budget process is taken out of the hands of
the Pentagon generals, their corporate benefactors and their
lackey politicians, the tremendous resources of the United
States will continue to enrich only a handful of the world's
richest vultures.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
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changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
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From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: tiistai 3. hein�kuu 2001 10:26
Subject: [WW] Cuba solidarity caravan to challenge blockade
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA:
CARAVAN TO CHALLENGE BLOCKADE GOING AND COMING
By Teresa Gutierrez
The U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment will be bringing humanitarian
aid across the United States-Mexico border on July 12 for
the 12th time.
But this time the aid is coming from Cuba and will be
brought into the U.S.
In this first ever "Reverse Challenge" the Pastors for Peace
Friendshipment Caravan will attempt to bring health-related
products developed in Cuba to community-based organizations
struggling with critical health problems in the U.S.
The Friendshipment is making its way to Cuba right now. Over
100 Cuba solidarity activists from all walks of life are
trekking across the U.S. Stopping in over 100 U.S. and
Canadian cities, the caravan is taking over 50 tons of aid
to Cuba this year. The Friendshipment Caravans have brought
hundreds of tons of aid for the Cuban people.
This year's caravan is dedicated to Cuba's innovations in
energy and transportation alternatives.
The Rev. Lucius Walker, founder of Pastors of Peace, said,
"While President George Bush plots to plunder already scarce
natural resources to fatten the coffers of his friends in
the oil business, Cuba offers the world an example of how to
develop environmentally-friendly, renewable energy projects
that benefit its citizens."
The caravan is bringing solar panels, batteries and
fluorescent lamps, as well as medical equipment. A brightly
colored ambulance that was purchased by Cuba solidarity
activists in England is on the route and being driven across
the U.S. by English delegates on the caravan.
Once in Cuba, caravanistas will meet with Cuban experts in
alternative energy and will participate in a bicycle ride in
Villa Clara, Cuba.
They will also visit the Latin American School of Medical
Sciences and meet with U.S. students who are already
studying there on full scholarships offered by the Cuban
government.
The Caravan will be crossing the border from the U.S. into
Mexico on July 2. The Reverse Challenge will take place on
July 12. The caravan is expected to bring back from Cuba
biorat--an environmentally safe and human-friendly
rodenticide--as well as meningitis vaccine and AIDS
medications.
The U.S. government, which has imposed a cruel and inhuman
blockade against Cuba for over 40 years, may attempt to
confiscate the aid. U.S. imperialists see solidarity with
Cuba, especially a challenge to the blockade, as a threat.
They may prevent the aid from crossing the border--coming
and going.
Cuba solidarity activists and all progressives are urged to
stay alert if a struggle ensues on the U.S.-Mexico border on
July 2 or 12. For more information and to find out how you
can help call the International Action Center in New York at
(212) 633-6646 or IFCO/Pastors for Peace at (212) 926-5757.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
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From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: tiistai 3. hein�kuu 2001 10:26
Subject: [WW] Cities for people, not the rich
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 5, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
PEOPLE'S CONGRESS TELLS MAYORS: "CITIES FOR PEOPLE, NOT THE RICH"
Special to Workers World
Detroit
Demonstrators held a "People's Congress" June 23 and
picketed and marched through the streets of downtown Detroit
to protest the U.S. Conference of Mayors' meeting in this
oppressed city.
The mayors' meeting, rather than discussing a real agenda
for this country's cities, was a bully pulpit for President
George W. Bush to announce his "faith-based" dismantling of
social programs for the poor.
In contrast, the People's Congress emphasized a program to
rebuild the cities for the people, not the corporations and
the rich, and aimed at stopping police brutality.
The People's Congress began at 10 a.m. at Christ Church. It
was opened by Abayomi Azikiwe of the Pan African News Wire,
who gave a historical perspective on the revolutionary
heritage of the Black struggle in Detroit. Kris Hamel of the
International Action Center co-chaired the morning session.
Julie Fry--a leader in United Students against Sweatshops
who served as a staff person for the organizing efforts to
protest the Mayors' Conference--pointed out how oppressed
nations within the U.S. are concentrated in cities like
Detroit. She stressed the importance of the anti-
globalization movement taking on these domestic struggles.
Diane Bukowski, former AFSCME vice president and founder of
the Coalition Against Privatization and Save Our Cities,
explained privatization and the fight waged against it by
city workers and their supporters.
Other speakers included Jon Riehl, president of AFSCME Local
207; Ron Siegel, a disabled activist; Mary LaFrance of the
Sierra Club and Detroiters for Environmental Justice; Ron
Scott of the Coalition to Stop Police Brutality; Aaron
Kottke, activist with the Prohibition Repeal initiative that
is petitioning to stop the criminalization of youth for
marijuana possession; and James of Gardens Not Golf.
Paloma Galindo of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance
from Knoxville, Tenn., announced plans for a demonstration
this August to shut down the only U.S. plant devoted to the
production of nuclear weapons.
'PROTEST BUSH ON SEPT. 29!'
In an inspiring talk Larry Holmes, a national leader of the
International Action Center, discussed the critical
importance of winning the youth in the anti-globalization
movement to actively taking on the class struggle against
capitalism in this country, as well.
Holmes pointed out that public disgust with President Bush
was growing and would aid the movement. He announced plans
for a march against Bush on Sept. 29 in Washington, D.C.
At noon, congress participants took off on a march down
Jefferson Avenue to the Renaissance Center, where the
country's mayors were meeting. There they set up a militant
picket line that filled the street.
More and more cops arrived and started pushing the
demonstrators out of the street. As protestors tried to hold
their ground, or at least effect a measured and orderly
retreat, the cops got more aggressive. The police assaulted
and arrested three demonstrators: Rebecca Bakke, Justin
McKnight and Ethel Bakke.
Even an intervention by Congressperson John Conyers could
not stop the police attack on the right to protest.
To show solidarity with their arrested comrades, congress
participants collected bail and marched through the streets
to police headquarters where the arrestees were held.
Volunteers from the National Lawyers Guild met with the
arrested protesters inside the police station. Outside, a
picket line was set up and the congress speak-out reconvened
in the streets.
Jill Hill from Chicago spoke about the fight against utility
shutoffs in that city. Others who addressed the crowd
included UAW Local 2334 President David Sole and Barb
Engels, a rank-and-file leader of the Detroit newspaper
workers. Engels discussed the role of the cops in attacking
picket lines and protecting scabs during the newspaper
workers' heroic five-year battle.
Especially moving was the speech of Arnetta Grable, a leader
of the Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, whose son Lamar
was murdered by killer cop Eugene Brown.
Food Not Bombs set up a soup kitchen that fed demonstrators
and community people.
'CITIES FOR THE PEOPLE, NOT THE RICH'
When demonstrators learned that their arrested comrades were
doing all right but would not be released for a couple of
hours, they decided to return to Christ Church to reconvene
the People's Congress.
They marched militantly through Detroit's "Greektown"
neighborhood. As they passed a new casino, they chanted
"Money for housing, not casinos," and "Cities for the
people, not the rich."
When the protesters returned to the church, they found a
whole new crew of people had gathered there for the
afternoon session.
Jerry Goldberg, an organizer of the event, opened the
session. He emphasized that the demands put forth by the
People's Congress--guaranteeing the right to jobs, housing,
a living wage, community control of the police, moratorium
on the cities' debts to the banks, domestic partner benefits
and many others--must be viewed as part of raising people's
consciousness to fight the system of capitalism. It is that
economic system, he said, that is at the root of the
exploitation of the workers and oppressed peoples in the
U.S. and worldwide.
Charles Simmons of the Committee for the Political
Resurrection of Detroit talked about how a public school in
Southwest Detroit is being built on a toxic waste site.
The afternoon session was also addressed by Garry Herring,
an independent candidate for city council and respected
videographer; Strawberrious Fears, an African American
lesbian activist; Dianna Maher of Conyers's office; Kim
Bergear of the City of Peace Project; and Scott Heinzman, an
activist with the Alliance for Democracy and Prevent--a
disabled rights organization.
Kevin Carey of Workers World Party announced the Detroit
Street Renaming Project, a project to rename major Detroit
streets that are currently named after slaveholders or
defenders of slavery. The new street names would honor
leaders in the struggle for liberation of African Americans
and other oppressed people.
A highlight of the afternoon session came when the three
arrested demonstrators returned to the hall to a standing
ovation.
The demonstration at the Renaissance Center received
extensive coverage on all the local television stations and
much radio coverage.
The People's Congress reconvened in front of the Renaissance
Center on June 25 for a militant demonstration when
President Bush addressed the mayors.
Demonstrators then joined with representatives of Detroit's
Arab community in a march down Jefferson Avenue to Cobo
Hall, where the Zionist mayor of occupied Jerusalem was
scheduled to address U.S. mayors.
The weekend protests succeeded in bringing together a
diverse coalition of community organizations and activists
and revived the tradition of revolutionary protest in the
city of Detroit.
- END -
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