WEBVTT

1
00:00:08.520 --> 00:00:09.980
Is it all of them?

2
00:00:10.620 --> 00:00:11.500
Are you for real?

3
00:00:13.240 --> 00:00:14.200
No contract?

4
00:00:14.860 --> 00:00:15.240
No work?

5
00:00:15.600 --> 00:00:16.280
No work.

6
00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:22.660
Okay, I wanted to ask you next, do you think that we'll have a contract by July 20th?

7
00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:23.700
Do I think so?

8
00:00:24.060 --> 00:00:25.160
I have no way of knowing.

9
00:00:25.480 --> 00:00:26.400
That's my hope.

10
00:00:27.400 --> 00:00:31.400
I'm hoping that we have one midnight July 20th.

11
00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:34.720
And if we don't, what happens?

12
00:00:35.160 --> 00:00:39.540
Well, I'll wait for a direction from the national office on whether or not we strike.

13
00:00:41.120 --> 00:00:45.460
And if they say strike, it'll take me about five seconds to get it going.

14
00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:48.200
And you think the membership will go along with that?

15
00:00:49.460 --> 00:00:50.780
I don't know.

16
00:00:52.080 --> 00:00:53.220
We should try.

17
00:00:54.460 --> 00:00:57.400
Okay, is there anything else that you'd like to tell us?

18
00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:09.240
Well, what you say, the only thing I would say is the people that's not supposed to have been involved should butt out.

19
00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:20.180
On the Reform Labor Act, it gave us an assurance that Congress, the administration, don't mail in our negotiation.

20
00:01:20.180 --> 00:01:22.080
That's not true.

21
00:01:22.460 --> 00:01:30.100
When the President come out and talk about 5.5 wedge ceiling, he have interfered.

22
00:01:30.500 --> 00:01:34.780
What he intended for the Postal Service or not, that's the way it came out.

23
00:01:35.300 --> 00:01:39.960
And it's an influence to people, the public, and the negotiator.

24
00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:44.020
They're trying to wait to see what else he say.

25
00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:46.380
So he should butt out.

26
00:01:46.380 --> 00:01:48.380
Okay, thank you.

27
00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:53.140
No work.

28
00:01:53.940 --> 00:01:54.420
No work.

29
00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:55.840
No work.

30
00:01:58.080 --> 00:02:00.320
No work at all.

31
00:02:00.800 --> 00:02:01.040
No work.

32
00:02:01.060 --> 00:02:01.860
No contract.

33
00:02:04.380 --> 00:02:05.280
Are you for real?

34
00:02:05.720 --> 00:02:08.000
Are you for real?

35
00:02:09.460 --> 00:02:10.840
Are you for real?

36
00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:12.180
Are you for real?

37
00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:13.580
No contract?

38
00:02:13.580 --> 00:02:14.120
No work.

39
00:02:14.260 --> 00:02:15.120
No contract?

40
00:02:15.220 --> 00:02:15.740
No work.

41
00:02:15.760 --> 00:02:16.700
No contract?

42
00:02:16.740 --> 00:02:17.320
No work.

43
00:02:21.220 --> 00:02:22.780
Are you for real?

44
00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:24.040
Are you for real?

45
00:02:24.160 --> 00:02:25.460
Are you for real?

46
00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:28.980
Are you for real?

47
00:02:30.700 --> 00:02:35.460
Okay, do you think that there'll be a contract by July 20th?

48
00:02:35.460 --> 00:02:43.600
We hope for that we reach some type of agreement before July 20th.

49
00:02:43.640 --> 00:02:46.380
Post employees are dedicated workers.

50
00:02:47.260 --> 00:02:50.080
They want to continue to do and be such.

51
00:02:53.200 --> 00:03:00.620
As has been said before, we feel by the White House, or whoever that may be,

52
00:03:00.620 --> 00:03:05.960
is interfering in the negotiation, this which has caused a slowdown.

53
00:03:06.720 --> 00:03:11.540
Now our people have requested with the postal service to negotiate around the clock.

54
00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:21.040
But since May 20th, the postal service has been only willing to meet one or three days per week.

55
00:03:22.620 --> 00:03:24.340
So it's not the postal workers.

56
00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:31.840
It's the postal managers being influenced by the White House,

57
00:03:32.160 --> 00:03:34.900
which is causing a breakdown in negotiation.

58
00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:41.140
Do you think they're intentionally keeping the negotiation slowed down so that there won't be a contract?

59
00:03:41.220 --> 00:03:44.740
We do feel that intentionally this is what is happening.

60
00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:52.040
By what has happened over the last three years, 70,000 jobs have been eliminated.

61
00:03:52.040 --> 00:03:59.140
And by their own admission, they plan on eliminating 100,000 jobs over the next five years.

62
00:03:59.640 --> 00:04:09.180
We feel that there's some type of pressure point being levered toward postal employees,

63
00:04:09.740 --> 00:04:11.700
hoping that we will do something foolish.

64
00:04:14.640 --> 00:04:21.300
But there's a real hope since the federal mediator has interceded into the talks.

65
00:04:22.820 --> 00:04:28.340
There was hotlines prior to that, but since that time, all hotlines have been cut off.

66
00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:31.920
So at this point in time, we are optimistic.

67
00:04:33.380 --> 00:04:35.920
That there will be a contract by July 20th?

68
00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:36.400
We are.

69
00:04:37.280 --> 00:04:39.560
Do you think it will be a good contract?

70
00:04:42.120 --> 00:04:48.280
Well, if you look at the proposals that we have put on the table,

71
00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:52.920
it's only something that's rightfully due us.

72
00:04:54.140 --> 00:04:59.060
We have a grievance procedure that only management can interpret.

73
00:05:00.020 --> 00:05:03.680
We're asking for some clarification on the grievance procedure.

74
00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:10.360
We're asking them to get out some of that ambiguous language, such as me.

75
00:05:11.780 --> 00:05:19.700
And normally, we want some strong language, must and shall.

76
00:05:20.780 --> 00:05:25.020
We're further asking that contractors that in reference to the grievance procedure

77
00:05:25.020 --> 00:05:33.280
that management also be penalized if they do not process their grievances timely.

78
00:05:34.880 --> 00:05:37.260
Only the union at this particular time is penalized.

79
00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.020
That seems to be a one-size-affair.

80
00:05:40.460 --> 00:05:50.000
Now, it's unrealistic for labor unions to give up any gains.

81
00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:59.460
And they are asking us to give up one of our most precious things, the no layoff clause.

82
00:06:00.880 --> 00:06:04.020
I think that postal employers are second-class citizens anyway

83
00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:08.460
because of the laws that prohibit them from many things.

84
00:06:12.780 --> 00:06:17.040
Free participation in the political process.

85
00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:20.840
We're prohibited from that.

86
00:06:22.340 --> 00:06:28.840
Free to withhold our labor if management fails to negotiate in good faith.

87
00:06:30.860 --> 00:06:37.040
With all those shackles over us, now what they want to do is take our jobs.

88
00:06:38.020 --> 00:06:42.260
What they've done in the past is you all wear the BMCs.

89
00:06:43.260 --> 00:06:46.520
They have 21 of those around the country.

90
00:06:47.540 --> 00:06:48.820
They aren't working.

91
00:06:50.260 --> 00:06:53.600
We want to bring that mail back into the inner city.

92
00:06:55.160 --> 00:07:01.600
And our message to our great leader, the honorable Jimmy Carter,

93
00:07:02.420 --> 00:07:09.300
is to take care of the White House, let the postal unions and the postal managers

94
00:07:09.300 --> 00:07:11.500
take care of the postal service.

95
00:07:12.280 --> 00:07:14.780
As I said before, we want it.

96
00:07:16.660 --> 00:07:17.600
We're going to keep it.

97
00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:19.280
We're not going to give it up.

98
00:07:20.060 --> 00:07:20.980
Thank you very much.

99
00:07:21.820 --> 00:07:23.880
What are we doing here? Why are we here?

100
00:07:24.500 --> 00:07:31.660
This is an informational picket to make it known to Chicago residents and the nation

101
00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:36.340
that we're against unjust managerial practices,

102
00:07:36.340 --> 00:07:42.020
especially those of refusing to recognize the present contract

103
00:07:42.020 --> 00:07:47.620
and doing everything in their power to try and weaken or eliminate

104
00:07:47.620 --> 00:07:50.740
the contract that's being negotiated now.

105
00:07:51.780 --> 00:07:57.380
Nations all over the world, I mean locals all over the nation,

106
00:07:58.380 --> 00:08:03.280
are seeking to get a just contract that will do the best for the American people.

107
00:08:03.280 --> 00:08:06.340
We are willing to work as postal workers,

108
00:08:07.440 --> 00:08:11.080
and we're not negative in our thinking.

109
00:08:11.500 --> 00:08:14.380
We want to do that which is best for all concerned.

110
00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:20.180
But it seems that management officials don't want to recognize the rights of their employees,

111
00:08:20.220 --> 00:08:25.420
and they want to ignore things that they have set down at the bargaining table and agreed to.

112
00:08:25.660 --> 00:08:27.040
And we are against this.

113
00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:31.680
Mainly, we want to be recognized as human beings

114
00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:34.920
and as efficient and productive postal workers.

115
00:08:35.540 --> 00:08:40.420
And that's all we're requesting, is that management will be real in their dealings with us

116
00:08:40.420 --> 00:08:44.320
and that they'll be just in their negotiations at the table

117
00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:48.560
and after the negotiations have been put in paper.

118
00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:51.520
You think we'll have a contract by July 20th?

119
00:08:52.100 --> 00:08:54.860
I'm in hopes that we will. I most certainly do.

120
00:08:54.860 --> 00:09:00.060
I feel fairly confident that we'll have one.

121
00:09:00.500 --> 00:09:01.320
Fairly confident.

122
00:09:01.920 --> 00:09:03.120
You think it'll be any good?

123
00:09:05.140 --> 00:09:07.060
Well, that remains to be seen.

124
00:09:07.540 --> 00:09:09.420
That's one of the main reasons why we're here today.

125
00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:11.200
What are you looking for in the contract?

126
00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:17.820
The main thing I'm concerned about is that the no layoff clause remain in the contract

127
00:09:18.520 --> 00:09:20.820
and that the cost of living remain in.

128
00:09:21.420 --> 00:09:22.680
That's the two main issues.

129
00:09:22.680 --> 00:09:26.440
There are about three or four, but that's the two main ones that I'm concerned about.

130
00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:29.300
Okay, anything else you want to tell us?

131
00:09:29.460 --> 00:09:31.400
Thanks for giving me the chance to speak.

132
00:09:32.040 --> 00:09:32.500
Okay.

133
00:09:35.380 --> 00:09:36.900
Okay, you're real good.

134
00:09:37.300 --> 00:09:38.780
Thank you, thank you.

135
00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:42.200
My name is William Scott. I represent South Suburban Postal Facility.

136
00:09:42.780 --> 00:09:44.500
I'm the president of the maintenance camp.

137
00:09:45.100 --> 00:09:47.680
And we think that President Carter ought to be reconsidered

138
00:09:48.220 --> 00:09:50.920
and give the postal workers what they're asking for.

139
00:09:50.920 --> 00:09:56.100
We feel that we serve the cities, states in the rain, sleet and snow.

140
00:09:56.620 --> 00:10:00.160
It's always been the postal's policy to get the good mail to go.

141
00:10:00.620 --> 00:10:03.920
And we're saying that to President Carter with our earnest and sincere desire

142
00:10:04.460 --> 00:10:07.520
that we deserve a better contract than we have.

143
00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:12.000
And we also that we must not have the layoff clause removed.

144
00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:16.940
And we must not have the supervisors doing the postal worker's job.

145
00:10:16.940 --> 00:10:22.560
We feel that this will infringe upon the rights of those that are looking for jobs and seeking for jobs.

146
00:10:22.880 --> 00:10:26.120
And we feel that the layoff will take bread and butter out of our jobs

147
00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:28.900
and will cause the crime rate to steady increase.

148
00:10:29.160 --> 00:10:32.020
It will cause all types of hostilities in the families,

149
00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:35.100
not necessarily in the families, but breaking up homes

150
00:10:35.100 --> 00:10:37.880
and causing people not able to pay their rent.

151
00:10:38.300 --> 00:10:42.480
Therefore, we feel that when a person is out of a job, they're out of a home.

152
00:10:42.740 --> 00:10:45.340
When a person is out of a job, they're out of a car.

153
00:10:45.340 --> 00:10:48.240
When a person is out of a job, they're out of their skill.

154
00:10:48.460 --> 00:10:51.980
When a person is out of their job, they're out of everything that they desire

155
00:10:51.980 --> 00:10:54.660
because money is what makes this city go around.

156
00:10:57.160 --> 00:10:57.760
Feel good.

157
00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:01.620
And we feel, whoever I am talking to at this time,

158
00:11:02.060 --> 00:11:05.880
if it's any way possible that you got any influence in the White House anywhere,

159
00:11:06.280 --> 00:11:09.800
we feel that you should let it be known by your feelings

160
00:11:09.800 --> 00:11:13.940
as to whether you think the postal workers are not required

161
00:11:13.940 --> 00:11:16.220
that the postal workers are doing a fine job.

162
00:11:16.520 --> 00:11:20.740
We go win in rains, we go win in snow, we go win in hell outside

163
00:11:20.740 --> 00:11:25.340
and fights all over, Nazis marching, and the miners out on strike and everything.

164
00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:27.540
President Carter, you ought to be really considerate.

165
00:11:27.540 --> 00:11:28.760
You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

166
00:11:29.040 --> 00:11:32.300
We don't want peanuts. You're not taking a decrease in your salary.

167
00:11:32.660 --> 00:11:35.080
You're not taking a decrease in your output.

168
00:11:35.380 --> 00:11:37.400
You're not taking a decrease in the cost of living.

169
00:11:37.700 --> 00:11:39.120
Washington, we are postal workers.

170
00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:41.940
We are human, Mr. Carter. We are human.

171
00:11:41.940 --> 00:11:45.820
And we wish that you would understand that we are human.

172
00:11:46.300 --> 00:11:47.180
We are human.

173
00:11:47.940 --> 00:11:49.160
Fire Department gets a raid.

174
00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:50.920
City Department gets a raid.

175
00:11:51.100 --> 00:11:55.640
But what about the postal workers that get all this information to you, Mr. Carter?

176
00:11:55.860 --> 00:11:57.660
Get this mail to you, Mr. Carter.

177
00:11:57.920 --> 00:11:59.740
Reconsider yourself, Mr. Carter. Thank you.

178
00:12:00.300 --> 00:12:02.240
Thank you.

179
00:12:02.500 --> 00:12:04.160
We have a deal of optimism for Boston.

180
00:12:04.600 --> 00:12:08.460
We are optimistic because we know that the oppressive conditions we perceive

181
00:12:08.460 --> 00:12:14.060
directly correspond to an immense revolutionary potential among the masses of people in our area.

182
00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:18.040
Through our own individual experiences in different parts of the city,

183
00:12:18.420 --> 00:12:23.100
we have encountered many, many individuals and groups of people who are still struggling,

184
00:12:23.460 --> 00:12:27.400
who have the will and commitment to do what is necessary to end this oppression.

185
00:12:27.700 --> 00:12:32.780
As we begin to organize, to pose at every level the correct revolutionary alternative,

186
00:12:32.780 --> 00:12:37.520
we are confident that our ranks will swell and that we will build a strong organization

187
00:12:37.520 --> 00:12:39.980
capable of development to the highest levels.

188
00:12:40.840 --> 00:12:48.320
For a very specific report, sort of a case in point, we want to examine the United Community Construction Workers.

189
00:12:48.940 --> 00:12:53.160
This section was written by one of the brothers who came down from Boston who just started working

190
00:12:53.160 --> 00:12:56.280
in United Community Construction Workers at the beginning of the summer.

191
00:12:57.620 --> 00:13:01.880
UCCW, a workers' organization or worker-orientated poverty program.

192
00:13:02.460 --> 00:13:06.800
In raising this question, two images, which are all too familiar, come to mind.

193
00:13:06.800 --> 00:13:13.260
Worker organization, for example, brings to mind the image of a group of workers raging struggle for jobs,

194
00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:17.700
better living and working conditions, united in a common effort for common good.

195
00:13:18.060 --> 00:13:23.720
Whereas a worker-orientated poverty program immediately brings to mind a community institution

196
00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:27.500
functioning as a service rather than a grassroots power base.

197
00:13:28.280 --> 00:13:34.900
In the beginning, the UCCW was of course a group of black workers united in the struggle for jobs and the right to work.

198
00:13:34.900 --> 00:13:40.460
The need for jobs has not changed and the basic demand of right to work has not changed either.

199
00:13:40.780 --> 00:13:42.960
What has changed is the nature of the struggle.

200
00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:51.020
Where once a group of hungry, desperate brothers went out and formed picket lines as a part of a daily routine in the fight for jobs,

201
00:13:51.340 --> 00:13:57.720
they now have job developers who develop a report with contractors to secure jobs for the membership,

202
00:13:57.720 --> 00:14:00.300
membership being a key word in this question.

203
00:14:00.620 --> 00:14:06.740
For one is not a voting, car-carrying, policy-making member in the rank and file of the UCCW.

204
00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:12.400
One is merely a member of an organization which offers one a limited form of job security.

205
00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:17.900
As a third world trade union, the UCCW is a sorry sight.

206
00:14:18.380 --> 00:14:24.260
The rank and file are called upon to make a commitment to struggle over issues that seem unrelated to themselves.

207
00:14:24.260 --> 00:14:31.340
In other words, there is no trade union consciousness among the rank and file, no class consciousness or group consciousness.

208
00:14:31.760 --> 00:14:37.040
Simply pay dues, come to one membership meeting once a month, attend classes at night,

209
00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:43.260
and sometimes you may get to vote in a new board member, a board which has none of the rank and file sitting on it.

210
00:14:43.640 --> 00:14:48.560
This is not to say that the leadership is not recognized and contradictions do exist.

211
00:14:48.940 --> 00:14:53.480
There is an effort to make the organization more of a rank and file movement.

212
00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:55.760
This effort is briefly described.

213
00:14:56.140 --> 00:14:59.160
Number one, the establishment of a workers or membership committee,

214
00:14:59.480 --> 00:15:03.740
which is hoped by some to be the beginnings of a rank and file policy-making body.

215
00:15:04.300 --> 00:15:06.860
Twelve members of the rank and file will sit on this committee.

216
00:15:07.180 --> 00:15:12.040
They will set membership priorities and be a rank and file disciplinary group.

217
00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:20.040
Number two, the establishment of what is in essence a political study group in the form of a course on the history of the third world worker struggle.

218
00:15:20.040 --> 00:15:26.000
From talking to the brother who will be running this, this is very similar to the school the brother is talking about in California.

219
00:15:26.640 --> 00:15:30.820
We will try to make this an instrument in the raising of worker and trade union consciousness.

220
00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:34.200
These actions are only as good as the people behind them.

221
00:15:34.440 --> 00:15:42.100
And I regret to say that tendencies toward a petty bourgeois poverty-pimp attitude on the part of the staff of UCCW,

222
00:15:42.340 --> 00:15:47.300
which is in every way its leadership, can only be seen as counterproductive reactionary elements.

223
00:15:47.300 --> 00:15:49.780
What are some of these contradictions?

224
00:15:50.100 --> 00:15:58.320
Number one, the attitude that the UCCW's purpose is to service rather than lead the community, the workers in struggle.

225
00:15:58.760 --> 00:16:02.600
Number two, the lack of principle discipline, criticism, and self-criticism.

226
00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:06.240
Number three, the dogmatic attitude on the part of the leadership,

227
00:16:06.680 --> 00:16:13.300
the arrogant assumption that they know what is best for the rank and file without having ways to ideological struggle and self-cultivation.

228
00:16:13.300 --> 00:16:20.320
Number four, opportunism on the part of all concern from the rank and file to the leadership.

229
00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:22.580
How do we deal with these contradictions?

230
00:16:22.780 --> 00:16:24.160
The answer is clear and simple.

231
00:16:24.660 --> 00:16:30.580
Ways to ideological struggle on the principle that working class movements must be led by the working class leadership.

232
00:16:31.040 --> 00:16:34.020
And it is our dutiful obligation to develop such a leadership.

233
00:16:34.640 --> 00:16:39.300
The leadership, though having the aforementioned tendencies towards dogmatism, being undisciplined,

234
00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:45.620
failing to fully grasp the principle question of power to the workers and being opportunistic,

235
00:16:46.040 --> 00:16:50.740
has voiced their support of any move that would make it more a rank and file organization,

236
00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:55.900
more responsive to the people's needs and to work toward the establishment of a worker power base.

237
00:16:56.740 --> 00:17:03.580
This is in itself a contradiction for a course, an individual or group of individuals may express the desire,

238
00:17:04.380 --> 00:17:07.260
but it still must come out in their practice to make it true.

239
00:17:07.260 --> 00:17:10.860
For as Marx put it, practice is a criteria to all truth.

240
00:17:11.520 --> 00:17:17.240
So far, their practice has proven how easily they fluctuate from intense effort to little or no effort at all,

241
00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:19.920
clearly showing a complete lack of discipline.

242
00:17:20.460 --> 00:17:24.040
We have but one course to follow to wage ideological struggle,

243
00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:28.800
denounce these tendencies for what they are for the sake of ideological cultivation.

244
00:17:29.300 --> 00:17:32.460
These struggles must be waged whenever the contradictions come up.

245
00:17:32.460 --> 00:17:37.360
This form of struggle is the greatest educator of all power to the workers.

246
00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:44.540
The preceding analysis of a specific Boston community organization, the United Community Construction Workers,

247
00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.140
examines points of contradiction common to nearly all of Boston's recognized groups.

248
00:17:49.700 --> 00:17:55.380
Struggles presently being waged in Boston's third world community are limited by the lack of internal struggle,

249
00:17:55.380 --> 00:18:02.660
lack of discipline in study and by antagonisms fostered by nationalism and reinforced by opportunism.

250
00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:05.960
But a complete analysis must offer some form of solution,

251
00:18:06.440 --> 00:18:14.280
and we believe that correct political practice on the part of the revolutionary cadre can catalyze new developments in the movement in our area.

252
00:18:14.700 --> 00:18:22.940
A class analysis that explains the developing crisis can also provide the ideology and mode of practice that will avoid a catastrophe.

253
00:18:22.940 --> 00:18:30.840
For students, the frustrations they experience in struggling to define a role for themselves in ruling class institutions

254
00:18:30.840 --> 00:18:37.260
can be relieved through political education and the channeling of skills and manpower into viable programs.

255
00:18:37.940 --> 00:18:41.580
In the community, the correct political example must be set at every level.

256
00:18:42.420 --> 00:18:47.200
Our job must be to inject in present struggles a fresh ideology and outlook

257
00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:52.020
that will explain new developments in terms of the political processes in which they occur.

258
00:18:52.020 --> 00:18:56.940
If our theories are part and parcel to consistent practice,

259
00:18:57.400 --> 00:19:00.840
then we will have the means with which to build a strong base in Boston,

260
00:19:01.500 --> 00:19:07.240
a revolutionary force that will heighten existing contradictions and advance the struggle to higher and higher levels.

261
00:19:07.860 --> 00:19:10.960
This is our prepared statement for a few additional comments.

262
00:19:11.060 --> 00:19:16.880
We want to point out that recently in Boston, several struggles have been raised,

263
00:19:16.880 --> 00:19:22.700
and we hope that in the future we will have positive results.

264
00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:29.380
In the prisons, for example, specifically in Walcoll and Norfolk, there have been prisoner strikes.

265
00:19:30.300 --> 00:19:37.560
There were strikes held this summer last year, and there is a high degree of political conscience being developed among the prisoners there.

266
00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:43.940
Several organizations sponsor prison programs where they provide transportation to prisons.

267
00:19:43.940 --> 00:19:50.180
Several groups are sponsoring prison education classes and are trying to develop mechanisms

268
00:19:50.180 --> 00:19:54.140
with which to work with the brothers who are in the joint.

269
00:19:56.120 --> 00:20:03.920
Another form of struggle in Boston has been ways concerning the MBTA, which is the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.

270
00:20:05.100 --> 00:20:09.820
Some of the things they're trying to do is bring down a policy of multiple fares.

271
00:20:09.820 --> 00:20:13.280
They have a threat of increases without improvement of services.

272
00:20:14.380 --> 00:20:18.480
Also, at the beginning of the summer on July 16th, there were some riots in Boston.

273
00:20:19.220 --> 00:20:27.740
The Puerto Rican community in the South End responded to police brutality at Blackstone Park, and riots were waged for over four days.

274
00:20:27.860 --> 00:20:31.600
This information, I'm sure, did not get out throughout the country.

275
00:20:31.880 --> 00:20:33.660
A lot of things have been happening in Boston.

276
00:20:33.660 --> 00:20:39.660
The problem with housing, one whole area of Boston, the South End, is in the process of being redeveloped.

277
00:20:40.460 --> 00:20:50.000
They're trying to move all the Third World people out into Dorchester and Mattapan, redo the apartments, raise the rents, and move in a professional class of people.

278
00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:57.980
The response to this has been somewhat disorganized. We will address ourselves to these questions though.

279
00:20:57.980 --> 00:21:04.320
In the area in which I live, which is the Columbia Point Housing Project, several things happened this summer of importance.

280
00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:11.200
One of these was the fact that one of the mothers, Mrs. Cowling, has two daughters who were attacked by NBC police.

281
00:21:11.520 --> 00:21:16.320
In response to this, the community was informed of this. They were mobilized.

282
00:21:16.780 --> 00:21:25.620
She took individual action, and we took the advantage of the opportunity to try to get the Black and Puerto Rican people in Columbia Point

283
00:21:25.620 --> 00:21:33.880
to respond to some very inhumane conditions, which they have been subject to by a shopping mall located right next to the shopping center.

284
00:21:34.340 --> 00:21:40.640
We held a boycott. We tried to initiate several programs of community patrol, etc.

285
00:21:41.620 --> 00:21:48.800
These had some effect, although they had to be stopped because of lack of support, which sort of paved the way to get a lot done.

286
00:21:48.800 --> 00:22:01.140
Also, one important thing is last spring, on Harvard's campus, we waged a struggle concerning Harvard University's ownership of Stock and Gulf Oil Corporation.

287
00:22:01.640 --> 00:22:07.880
Gulf Oil is very active in southern Africa. It extracts several billion gallons of oil every year.

288
00:22:08.360 --> 00:22:12.800
We took over Massachusetts Hall, which is the main administrative building of Harvard University.

289
00:22:13.100 --> 00:22:22.560
We held it for a week. This was the first time that Black students in colleges in New England had exerted leadership over white students

290
00:22:22.560 --> 00:22:28.480
and introduced the concept of class consciousness to the student population.

291
00:22:29.080 --> 00:22:35.260
We plan to follow all of this up with increased activity. We're looking for supporters.

292
00:22:35.260 --> 00:22:43.700
As we said earlier, we are open for suggestions and we want to set up some sort of apparatus so we can share more information with the people at this convention.

293
00:22:44.260 --> 00:22:53.720
One of the things that we have noticed, this is my own personal analysis, but we always try to put our peculiar set of conditions into perspective.

294
00:22:54.100 --> 00:23:03.080
One of the major problems in Boston has been dope, and we've seen this develop from the point where in the early parts of the century,

295
00:23:03.580 --> 00:23:11.440
the principal problem was liquor. This directly corresponds to the fact that this was a domestic industry.

296
00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:17.420
As capitalism developed to the stage of imperialism, they brought in coke, heroin, and reefer, etc.

297
00:23:18.980 --> 00:23:23.960
Now, specifically in the Columbia Point Housing Project, they're trying to introduce a methadone program.

298
00:23:25.940 --> 00:23:30.640
There are several people who are organizing against this sort of thing because we believe that this is a form of genocide.

299
00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:40.740
They've been offering federal funding and they're trying to move around the grassroots people there who are organizing to bring in methadone into this community.

300
00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:50.640
There are all different aspects of the struggle in Boston. We're trying to pull this together. We're asking for support. Thank you.

301
00:23:51.800 --> 00:23:58.100
I'm on the organizing committee in California as a member.

302
00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:16.620
Just to give you an idea of what the unemployment workers organizing committee is, it's called UOC and how it started.

303
00:24:16.620 --> 00:24:35.340
There were three Bay Area workers' newspapers in the East Bay that conducted an investigation of if there was an unemployment crisis and to see what could be done about it.

304
00:24:35.780 --> 00:24:44.620
This investigation was carried out by going to unemployment offices and talking to workers, seeing if there were jobs they were looking for,

305
00:24:44.890 --> 00:24:58.290
and getting comments like, I know there ain't no jobs. I've been going to 50 different places, putting applications in, telling me to come back tomorrow or I'll call you.

306
00:25:00.190 --> 00:25:13.170
Constantly getting this and plus studying the situation nationwide, finding out like Gary, Indiana, the high unemployment rate, especially in the black communities,

307
00:25:14.490 --> 00:25:22.930
like the brother before said about Baltimore unemployment, and it's happening in all the major areas of major cities.

308
00:25:27.510 --> 00:25:37.930
So the question came up of now that we carried out an investigation, what are we going to do about it?

309
00:25:40.930 --> 00:25:49.710
And there was some doubts among some people who had done the investigation, but still in their minds was there a crisis?

310
00:25:49.710 --> 00:25:55.710
They still didn't believe that there was a crisis, yet unemployment lines at the offices were growing every day and every week.

311
00:26:02.330 --> 00:26:16.970
What we did in about February 1971 is we came out with a petition demanding that an extension of unemployment insurance be carried out for people who had been cut off unemployment insurance.

312
00:26:16.970 --> 00:26:23.930
Now what it was is people had 26 weeks of unemployment insurance and then one 13 week extension.

313
00:26:24.310 --> 00:26:31.370
After that you were told, well, you can see if you qualify for welfare or split.

314
00:26:35.230 --> 00:26:51.510
So on our petition what we did is we demanded the unemployment extension of 13 weeks, but also seeing the necessity of saying exactly, putting the blame on exactly who was the cause of this unemployment situation.

315
00:26:52.090 --> 00:26:58.630
It wasn't an act coming out of heaven, it was an act coming from corporations, with in league with the state.

316
00:27:02.110 --> 00:27:11.290
Now this petition went around for four months. It went to each unemployment office in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, Pittsburgh.

317
00:27:14.330 --> 00:27:24.810
The majority of the people in the beginning were mostly ex-students who saw the necessity to go to working people and tried to do some type of organizing.

318
00:27:24.810 --> 00:27:42.710
And mainly these people were mostly white, which was very difficult for them to relate to because the majority of unemployment right now is affecting black people, Chicano, Puerto Ricans.

319
00:27:43.970 --> 00:27:58.290
Now, since then things have changed, but during a 13 week extension of unemployment insurance, people learned a lot of things.

320
00:27:59.130 --> 00:28:15.270
One was that by going to these unemployment offices and talking to unemployed workers, they started seeing there was no doubts in the workers' minds as far as there was no jobs, that there definitely was an unemployment problem.

321
00:28:15.270 --> 00:28:29.830
And pointing out to them that it was the corporations who were telling them to get lost after they had created so much wealth for this country, they started raising the level of their thinking, of the people in UOX, their thinking.

322
00:28:31.330 --> 00:28:52.010
During the 13 week extension struggle that we had over a period of four months, we went to unions, a couple of unions, unions specifically, laborers, and took the petition and also a paper where UOX articles were in.

323
00:28:52.010 --> 00:29:05.970
And more or less just try to get a feeling of how the membership there, what they were doing about it, what was the union leadership doing about it as far as fighting for work for the men.

324
00:29:09.350 --> 00:29:14.750
And just going there just to develop some type of ties with them.

325
00:29:19.490 --> 00:29:25.010
Now we knew that a petition alone ain't going to do nothing. We knew that from the beginning.

326
00:29:27.730 --> 00:29:38.510
But we had to get some way of getting a feel of what workers needed. Now they definitely needed a 13 week extension. And how they were going to do it.

327
00:29:38.510 --> 00:29:52.290
We had two massive demonstrations in two unemployment offices. In the second demonstration, we had some of the brothers from the labor's local came down there, Longshoreman Hall.

328
00:29:53.430 --> 00:30:04.530
We sent a delegation in to the office telling people inside the office that while we were there, we told them about that second unemployment extension has to be given to us.

329
00:30:04.530 --> 00:30:24.470
We went in there and we demanded to see the manager. The manager, after finished stuttering for a few minutes, finally said, well the state doesn't have the funds or the statistics that they're down below the certain point level, whatever he had to say.

330
00:30:25.130 --> 00:30:32.870
Well, U.S. doesn't believe in as far as what the government says as far as statistics, period, as far as the unemployment situation they talk about or anything else.

331
00:30:33.470 --> 00:30:43.630
They say 5 million people unemployed, we don't believe that. 6.2 we don't give a damn about what they say about how many unemployed as far as that can, all we want is that unemployment extension for people.

332
00:30:44.910 --> 00:30:51.250
Well, a week later after that demonstration in front of that office, the extension came through.

333
00:30:52.710 --> 00:31:01.830
And the media said, well Reagan had the heart to give it to us because he felt people were suffering. Nixon said he didn't want people on welfare rolls.

334
00:31:01.830 --> 00:31:10.270
Well, it wasn't none of that. It wasn't their kind hearts. It was those people, those workers coming out there and showing that they weren't going to take no.

335
00:31:14.130 --> 00:31:26.070
Well, after the 13 week extension had been won, you had to decide, you know, there is an unemployment crisis in this country. What are we going to do in California?

336
00:31:28.110 --> 00:31:36.070
Well, we went back to the unemployment office and we asked people, you know, what do we have to do to...

337
00:32:24.650 --> 00:32:26.050
So, we went back to the unemployment office and we asked people, you know, what do we have to do to get the unemployment extension to the people?

338
00:32:26.050 --> 00:32:26.050


339
00:32:54.630 --> 00:32:56.030
So, we went back to the unemployment office and we asked people, you know, what do we have to do to get the unemployment extension to the people?

340
00:32:56.030 --> 00:32:56.030


341
00:32:56.030 --> 00:32:56.970
Thank you.