PPM-MPP Voice of the People - Spring/Summer 2014

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Spring/Summer 2014

People Power Movement

Racism on the island of haiti

by Mark Torres momentous event with far reaching consequences.

As we all know racism (white supremacy) is a worldwide phenomenon. There isn’t any corner of the world that this great evil has not reached. Wherever capitalism sinks its roots, there too you will find racist notions and actions.

The same is true on the island of Haiti. Many people call the island Hispaniola, where the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic are neighbors. Named Hispaniola, or “Little Spain,” by Christopher Columbus, it is inappropriate to use this term because it will appear that we are sanctioning murder, rape, and genocide. Nor should we use the term Quisqueya, which

is in common use in the Dominican Republic but which is historically inaccurate, and used by Dominican elites to fabricate differences between Dominicans and Haitians. Instead, we should use the term that was used by the original inhabitants of the island, Haiti.

On the island of Haiti we have seen one of the most exciting and important events of human history, the establishment of the first Black republic in the Americas. The fact that enslaved Africans rose up from bondage and defeated the Spanish, French, and British and end ed slavery and became a safe haven for escaped slaves was a

However, in order to isolate and destroy the gains of the first Black republic, many imperialist nations, including the United States, have used the Dominican Republic to crush the Haitian Revolution. In opposition to the vast majority of the Dominican population, the “blancos de la tierra” (the whites of the land), who rule the Dominican Republic, have over time increasingly become the agents of racist propaganda and actions against Haitians, Dominicans of Haitiandescent, and Dominicans “ accused “ of being Haitian.

The height of this anti-Haitian, anti-Black, and anti-African racist hysteria was reached under the United States-imposed dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. As an admirer and client of the United States Marine Corps, Trujillo readily adopted its racist ethos. He consolidated his fascist control over the Dominican Republic and dictated that the education system, as well as all state institutions popularize a virulent anti-Haitian and whitesupremacist worldview. ...Continued on page 2

Spring/Summer 2014 Continued from Cover Story In 1937, during Trujillo’s dictatorship, 15 to 30 thousand Haitians were massacred in what he termed a defense of the Dominican Republic against a “Haitian invasion of our border.” Of course Trujillo was only mimicking the mass deportations of Mexicans and MexicanAmericans going on in the United States between 1929 and 1939, and the genocide of Jews in Europe, unleashed by Hitler’s rise to power in Germany.

The depth of the racist ideas embedded in the Dominican Republic during the Trujillo epoch can still be seen today in school textbooks.

It can also be seen in the fact that although most Dominicans are of African descent, most will not admit being Black. Currently, categories such as trigueno (the color of wheat), indio (indian) and mulatto are used to describe Dominicans, while Black is only used to identify Haitians. The internalized racism can also be seen in criminal actions, such as mass deportations and frequent pogroms aimed at Haitian migrant workers and their Dominican - born spouses and descendants. Clearly, the Dominican Republic is still under the shadow of the tyrant Trujillo. In fact, many Dominicans on the island support the campaign against the “Haitianization” of their country. Nevertheless, there are also significant numbers of Dominicans, on the island and overseas, who denounce the current attacks and the justification s used to rally poor and working class Dominicans to this racist cause.

When we look at the circumstances of many Haitians living in the Dominican Republic we find that, like many immigrants in the United States, they are seeking work looking to be in order to support their families. Victims of U.S. intervention, in 2004, involving the kidnapping and coup against the popularly elected Haitian President Bertrand Aristide, and the subsequent invasion by a U.S. imposed U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), Haitians have had to deal with an repressive political situation in their country. Adding to their misery was the devastation of the 2010 earthquake which killed over 200,000 people and affected about 3 million.

With billions of dollars pledged to rebuild the Republic of Haiti, despite (or because of ) the presence of thousands of non-profit organizations , the country has still not recovered . Instead, it has been a gold mine for contractors who are more concerned about amassing corrupt profits than the effort to rebuild the country . The Haitian elites, along with their Dominican counterparts, find it more profitable to further U.S. interests on the island than to support their own people.

Making matters worse, the Dominican Supreme Court has even gone so far as to deny citizenship to Dominicans of Haitian descent going back to 1929. Putting millions of Dominicans in a legal limbo with the possibility of being deported to the Republic of Haiti, a land which they have never even visited. It

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is important to understand that these racist attitudes and actions against Haitians are used by the government and ruling families to divide and conquer. If poor and working class Dominicans were to unite with their Haitian sisters and brothers, the island would experience a second Haitian Revolution, a revolution that could not be extinguished by the island elites nor by the United States.

Today, it is our responsibility, as people who organize for social justice and want to make fundamental social change, to be in solidarity with our Dominican and Haitian sisters and brothers who are trying to promote unity. It is also our responsibility to pressure the Dominican elites to stop their racist, anti-Haitian actions by organizing boycotts against Dominican tourism and companies. We must also defend the rights of immigrants in the United States as we demand that the U.S. government rein in the Dominican elites who are its agents on the island. Let us not forget that there have been more detentions and deportations of immigrants under Obama ‘s presidency than under the previous Republican administration. Finally, we must demand that the United States government stop its manipulation of circumstances in Haiti, so that the Haitian people can exercise self-determination and rebuild their country and economy.

People Power Movement

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

By Joe Kaye

have right here at home? Oh, excuse me, they have the right to slave for $9 an hour (soon to be a big $10, whoopee!) Can anyone support a family on that, or even just pay the rent?

Another “crisis,” another place where our government says it is riding to the rescue – the Ukraine. Don’t we have enough problems here at home to deal with? How come the politicians are always telling us how poor we are, got to cut the budget, even cut food stamps and have people go hungry, and yet we’ve got plenty of money to send over to the Ukrainians?

Washington screams about the Russians moving into the Ukraine (which used to be a part of Russia at one time), and in fact is almost ready to go to war about it. But all over this country the rich are moving in and driving out poor people from their neighborhoods – it’s called gentrification – and the government has no problem. Washington screams (and the media screams like the government echo chamber it is) about the Russians oppressing the poor Ukrainians. But here in the United States, African-Americans, Latinos, and other peoples of color are being oppressed, discriminated against, can’t get good jobs – can’t get any jobs -- and the government doesn’t do a damn thing about it.

The politicians scream about human rights around the world, but what kind of rights do the working people

Does any of this make sense? Well, yes, it does. You see, there is money to be made in the Ukraine for the Fat Cats, the big corporations and banks.

That’s what the talk about freedom is all about. Not freedom for the Ukrainians but freedom for the Fat Cats to rob the Ukrainians. Also, they plan to bring Western military forces right up to the Russian border. Hope to chop up Russia into smaller pieces that the Stock Marketeers and Banksters can more easily swallow.

The politicians are in the hip pocket of the rich. The Radio, TV and newspapers are in the hip pocket of the rich – are rich themselves. The whole country is in the hip pocket of the rich. 85 billionaires here have more money than 140 million Americans.

Now, THAT’S something to get mad about! The Ukraine? Later for that.

AND THERE WE GO AGAIN! The same game, this time Venezuela. Students demonstrating in the streets against the “dictator,” Cesar Chavez’ devoted follower President Nicolas Maduro. Why do they call Maduro a dictator? After all, he and his mentor Chavez had gone through more free elections than any other government in history? What was the crime of Maduro, and Chavez before him? The protesters said they had ruined the economy, had wasted

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so much money, and were corrupt.

Okay, but specifically what were the government’s crimes? Oh, spending Venezuela’s oil money for the benefit of the poor, spending the oil money on social programs, on housing for the poor, on reducing misery, on schools for those who had never been able to go before. Spending money on the poor, that is surely wasteful, that is surely criminal.

And who were these protesting students? They didn’t represent all the students, just the students from the fancy private universities, the children of the rich who expected to take their “rightful” place back at the top of society. And once they took power, there would be no more stupidity like helping the poor and the working people.

Just as in the Ukraine they resorted to violence, which the media of the rich and for the rich would blame on the government. Just as in the Ukraine they would be financially supported by Washington. Just as in the Ukraine the aim was regime change, overthrowing a democratically elected government. Only in Venezuela it isn’t working and it won’t work. For the working people and the poor are well organized and they aren’t about to let their government fall – the first one in Venezuelan history to really care about the people!

Spring/Summer 2014

The Bronx is Changing!

By Jay Espy

fares, and food prices keep going up?

After almost twenty long years of people demanding change, the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx, one of the largest armories in the world, will finally be rebuilt into something useful. By around 2018, it will become the world’s largest ice center known as the Kingsbridge National Ice Center (KNIC). The new ice center, however, poses as a double-edged sword that will possibly change our neighborhood for the worse. Will we stay long enough to find out?

A History Lesson -- The Kingsbridge Armory was built in 1917 for the National Guard and was used until 1974, when it became a city landmark. In 1996, New York City took control of it, but the National Guard continued training poor Black and Latino youth into the military as the armory became a training ground for the future of U.S. imperialism. I frequently witnessed these youth of color marching in formation and reciting military chants. I feared it when my mother threatened to enlist me in the National Guard whenever I misbehaved. “No te apure, que te mando al arsenal/Don’t worry, I’ll send you to

the armory,” she would say. Why are we allowing our children to be brainwashed by a government that wastes billions of dollars on wars and kills thousands of innocent people overseas while there are people here starving in the streets? Who is the REAL terrorist? It just doesn’t make sense.

Later, in the mid-1990s, community groups rightfully demanded that the Armory be used to serve the neighborhood instead. The Northwest Bronx Community Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC) led the charge and united these groups into the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance. They organized for almost two decades to approve a new ice center through a community benefits agreement (CBA) that makes strong promises, including jobs paying up to $11.50/hr for all future workers at the new facility. This was a blow against Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his capitalist, money hungry goons who wanted to build a retail mall that paid low wages. But will $11.50/hr be good enough by the time the new ice center is completed in 2018 while our rent, MTA

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Believe it or not, most people in the Bronx live in the poorest district in the entire country. Most Bronx residents suffer from high unemployment, increasing school dropout rates and overcrowding, racist police harassment and brutality, deteriorating housing conditions, homelessness, and poor health. And the answer to all of these problems is a brand new ice center? What we need are more local jobs and quality and accessible hospitals, schools, and housing, NOT ice rinks. Even though the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory promises recreational activities for a predominantly immigrant, poor and working class community of color, history has proven that urban redevelopments like these have done more harm than good for our communities in the long run, eventually making us victims of our own success.

A Sign of Gentrification -- In April of 2013, it was announced that the Kingsbridge Armory was being converted into the world’s largest ice center. Most of us might be thinking, “Finally that huge empty fortress will be doing something for us.” However, Kevin Parker, a co-founder for the KNIC and a former Wall Street executive, said he wanted this ice center because it will provide his children an opportunity to play hockey in a city with almost no space for ice sports. Now tell me, what do his kids have to do with us? Do OUR kids play hockey? Do his kids live in our community? Obviously, Parker’s personal interests do not represent a community of mostly Black and Latino peo-

People Power Movement ple who don’t usually play ice sports.

In fact, hockey is traditionally a white man’s sport imported from Canada that is mostly played and watched by white people. The NWBCCC knew this, at least intuitively. When they first submitted a proposal to redevelop the Kingsbridge Armory, they demanded, “three 800-seat schools to address school overcrowding, a sports complex, a green market, a bookstore, a community center, and a park. Not skating.” We ask again: why are we getting an ice skating center with not one but NINE ice rinks, in an area mostly populated by urban poor and working class people of color who are more likely to play other sports not played on ice? And why did the NWBCCC compromise on their original plan?

More importantly, and perhaps the most dangerous threat posed by the new ice center is the fact that most urban developments, especially those achieved through community based agreements, have broken their promises and have exploited and displaced the very same people they intended to benefit. For example, the redevelopment of Yankee Stadium, the Bronx Gateway Center Mall, and the Brooklyn Nets’ Barclays Center have all broken their promises to provide local jobs and affordable housing and have forced many working-class people to move out and local businesses to close down.

This is especially probable for what is promised to be the WORLD’s LARGEST ice center, right in the middle of the Bronx. The world’s largest ANY-

THING has the devastating potential to displace an entire community that has been historically exploited and forgotten, especially if the Kingsbridge Armory is poised to be “the Madison Square Garden of the Bronx.”

A redevelopment this massive leaves poor and working-class people of color vulnerable to the devastation of gentrification. Gentrification is when white middle and upper-class people invade a poor and workingclass community of color and force those residents to move out because the rent goes up and they can’t afford it. In this case, the new Kingsbridge National Ice Center will enable more powerful and greedy real estate elites to attract wealthier white people who are willing to pay more to live nearby and take advantage of a new opportunity to play ice sports. Additionally, wealthy developers and corporations who are hungry to reap the benefits of higher profit from more business made possible by the ice center will chase incoming middle and upperclass white people and open big chain, anti-union, and low-wage paying stores in the area, a move which could push out smaller local businesses not able to afford the sudden transformation. The end result will be higher rents for all, for both tenants and small business owners.

A local pharmacist has already foreseen the inevitable future, saying, “A guy just bought an entire block the other day. We might be next. They won’t want us here, especially if they can make more money from bigger retail stores.” Other local businesses have already seen rent go up, and construction hasn’t even started.

Tenant buildings may soon be next.

Similar trends have already gentrified areas such as Harlem, Williamsburg

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and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, the Lower East Side in Manhattan, and Astoria in Queens, with the South Bronx feared to follow suit. The new ice center will, in theory, be available for all. However, if we allow our community to be gentrified, those who will benefit the most from the ice center will be people who haven’t even stepped foot in this neighborhood. Right now, the Kingsbridge National Ice Center looks more like eye candy than anything else, and we must NOT be caught drooling.

We must defend our communities!

-- We acknowledge the NWBCCC and the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance for demanding more economic advantages for the people of the Bronx struggling to get by. We are also relieved that the National Guard will no longer be indoctrinating our youth to join the military in our backyard. However, the question remains, who will benefit from the Armory redevelopment the most? Is this new ice center the best we could get? And what are our REAL needs? If we want to stay long enough to find out, we CANNOT let our guard down.

If the community is caught sleeping, poor and working-class people of color can be quickly kicked out for the sake of the gentrifying dollar. To prevent this gentrification, we must organize our power as people of this community and make sure that we do not lose our homes and ultimately our lives. We, the people of the Bronx, ARE HERE TO STAY!

Spring/Summer 2014

What is Popular Control & How Does It Work?

By Mark Torres The People Power MovementMovimento Poder Popular is dedicated to achieving fundamental social change by organizing for Popular Control. What does Popular Control mean? Well, let’s start by pointing out that Corporate America, especially the big banks, has taken over the political system in this country and is attempting to control every aspect of our lives, from the schools we go to, the homes we live in, the churches we attend – even the foods we eat. And they do so through donations, foundations outright just buying everything and everybody they can. The huge donations they make to both the Republican and Democratic Parties have bought them the ability to get laws passed which are destroying the quality of our lives.

during the Clinton administration.

And as a result, their reckless gambling has caused one of the greatest economic catastrophes in our history as millions of people have lost their jobs and millions have been evicted from their homes.

Plain and simple: Corporate America is our enemy. So what we need is for the people to be put in charge, not someone from the board of directors of Coca-Cola, Goldman-Sachs, or Microsoft.

That’s what we mean by fundamental social change. We need to make a change in this society so that the government will truly be “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” How are we going to achieve this fundamental change?

but also sustaining defeats. Fighting Corporate America is not going to be a walk in the park. Of course the rich will resist, will send their politicians to confuse us, their cops to arrest us – and sometimes even worse. But in the end, there is no force to stop the people when they understand what is needed and are willing to do what is needed.

In this battle for Popular Control, we must educate, agitate and organize in every school, workplace, and neighborhood. In our public colleges (CUNY), the students must lead the struggle and take control of the university. It is their education at stake and they have a right to say how they will be educated (rather than miseducated). In our public housing, it means that the current New York City Housing We cannot achieve this overnight. Board (part of NYCHA) must be For example, law that once stopped It will take years of political educa- controlled by the tenants. In our big banks from gambling on the tion and action, years of organiza- pre-kindergarten through 12th Stock Market were stripped away tion building, of winning victories grade public schools, the parents should be in charge, working with the school stuff, students and the community.

The only way to bring about fundamental social change is to wake up our sleep-walking people and assist them in coming to realize that we, struggling collectively, have the power to take Popular Control and use it to make life beautiful for us all.

Mark Torres, Chair People Power MovementMovimiento Poder Popular

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People Power Movement

CUNY Students Deliver Petitions to Stop Tuition Hikes

By Jay Espy

New York City — On Wednesday, May 7th, 2014, the People Power Movement (PPM) organized a delegation of students from seven CUNY schools throughout New York City to deliver petitions with a total of 1,883 signatures to New York governor Andrew Cuomo demanding to stop CUNY tuition hikes now!

In addition, PPM demands that CUNY be free, and that there be popular control of the CUNY board of trustees giving students the power to vote for the members on that board.

This direct action took place on the heels of a prolonged CUNY struggle rooted in a legacy of student resistance against racist and elitist attacks on education.

The CUNY Struggle: Then & Now Within the past sixty years, students have successfully gone on strike twice and forced CUNY to implement Open Admissions and open ethnic studies departments in 1969 and to stop tuition hikes in 1989.

Recently in 2011, when Cuomo approved a “rational” tuition policy to increase tuition per year for the next five years, CUNY students mobilized again to stop it. They knew that there’s NOTHING rational about charging poor and working class people more for an education that should be free in the first place, all while the rich continue to enjoy taxfree income by exploiting us. And now, this delegation showcased what CUNY students continue to do best: hit the streets!

that hosted the Governor’s office, CUNY students, along with a professor from the Professional Staff Congress at LaGuardia Community College, vented about the injustice of paying for an education that should be provided as a right to all and not a privilege for a few. Chants and poems rang through the dense and congested streets of downtown Manhattan as students proclaimed their dignity within an agitated crowd of young people fighting for power and change.

A Standoff with Security Guards As we entered the building to deliver our petitions to the governor’s office, security threatened to arrest us for being on private property. We eventually found out that Governor Cuomo leased his office in a private building, which we believe is of questionable legality, especially as it provides a pretext to prevent access by the public to public officials, which is its Constitutional right. This is a clever tactic used to justify the repression of direct actions such as ours. However, we were not intimidated and waited until Cuomo’s representative came and took our petitions. We ended our direct action with powerful chants and high

As we stood in front of the building

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energy, determined to win.

Moving Forward The struggle to stop tuition hikes and eliminate tuition altogether will take more than this petition. We must build a mass movement, which will take time, and we believe this petition is just the first step towards our goal of a free and community controlled CUNY. PPM is organizing to complete an objective left unfinished: to have free quality education controlled by the people of our own communities.

The People Power Movement-Movimiento Poder Popular is a democratic people’s organization dedicated to educating, agitating, and organizing for Popular Control of our schools, workplaces, housing, transportation, policing, levels of government, and all areas that affect our lives, to achieve Fundamental Social Change. We identify with the interests and aspirations of poor and working people and consider the anti-racist struggle central in our efforts to obtain a humane society.

Education is a right, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! We don’t want tuition hikes, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!

Spring/Summer 2014

What Are Words

by Kim Morales Mission Statement

what are words compared to the millions of screams that travel over and haunt us in the middle of our nights

dedicated to educating,

what are words compared to almost dying in a men’s prison

Popular Control of our schools, workplaces, transportation, housing, policing, levels of government, and all areas that affect our lives, to achieve Fundamental Social Change.

what are words compared to being reduced to teeth for your family to collect and bury

We identify with the

what are words compared to feeding five kids on 7 dollars an hour

We are a democratic people’s organization

agitating, and organizing for

interests and aspirations of poor and working people and consider the anti-racist struggle central in our efforts to obtain a humane society.

Contact Information Publish your writings, artwork, and poetry in our community newsletter!

(917) 289-0964 2011PeoplePower@gmail.com

what are words compared to slaps and beatings and bruises to cover up though usually he’s careful where the hits land what are words compared to being ripped from your earth or being burned down into it

what are words compared to heroin’s slippery fingers creeping into you and claiming your blood what are words compared to waiting for a cure that nobody’s looking for what are words compared to the repeating forcible penetration of her what are words, but weapons that hit hard when bent right what are words but the sharpest thing I could find trapped in the belly of the massacring, imperializing, sickening, raping, war mongering, cheating, rampaging, victimizing, lie spreading, plunder and pillage, fuck and run, bought and paid for, piece of shit beast what are words but all that will suffice, for now

FB.com/2011PeoplePower @PeoplePowerMovement PeoplePowerMovement.tumblr.com @PPM_MPP YouTube.com/user/2011PeoplePower Newsletter edited by Jason Javier & Jay Espy