William F. Felice

in Peuples/Popoli/Peoples/Pueblos No 8 (October 1986)

On March 17, 1986, the founding meeting of the North American Chapter of the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples took place in New York City. Participants in the meeting included Professor Richard Falk, Professor Archie Singham, Sister Jeanne Clark, Esmeralda Brown from the Methodist U.N. Office, Professor Eqbald Ahmed, author Kurt Vonnegut, and activist Nave Dellinger. The meeting took place on the occasion of a visit to the United States of the President of the Permanent Peoples Tribunal, François Rigaux, who presented the history of the International League and how the North American Chapter would relate to this international organization.
The North America Chapter was formed by unanimous consent at the end of the meeting. Since the meeting a group in California has formed a West Coast section of the North American Chapter.

Why a chapter in North America?
The participants in the meeting saw the importance of doing work in this continent around the issues of the rights of peoples, the principles upon which the League was formed. Unfortunately, the North American people do not commonly read about or discuss the ideas that the League stands for nor is there a widely presented objective presentation in this hemisphere of the Liberation Movements and Struggles that the League defends. In the United States we live under President Reagan and the rise of a strong conservative ideology hint is antithetical to these beliefs. Given that this is our reality, we find it critically important for those of us in the North American Left to be connected to an international organization such as the League. Through these connections we can come to understand that the Reagan ideology does not dominate the planet, and in fact is declining in its international influence and power. Through the League we can align ourselves with an international movement for the rights of peoples, principles to which many of us have devoted our lives. As part of the International League we hope to be able to educate and organise people in North America with information and analysis that is otherwise unavailable.

The Algiers Declaration and North America
How does the Algiers Declaration apply to the citizens of North America? Many people in this continent see the U.S. as above international law, with these principles existing only for the non-aligned and Third World countries and the socialist world. One of the tasks that we see before us is to be active participants in the process of exposing conditions in this hemisphere, applying the principles of international law and the rights of peoples to the core capitalist country, the United States.
If we just take an initial look at the Algiers Declaration and its applicability to the United Spates we find the following:
Article One: Every people has the right to existence.
The history of the genocide of the indigenous North American Indian Population and their continual oppression constitutes an absolute violation of this fundamental right.
Article four: None shall be subjected… to… living conditions such as may compromise the identity or integrity of the people to which he belongs.
In 1985, there were 8.1 million people who needed low-cost-housing in the United States, but only 4.2 million units were available. This gap is more than double what it was in 1980. Estimates run as high as 3 million homeless in the United States. 75.000 are on waiting lists for public housing in Chicago alone.
Meanwhile, between 1981 and 1986, the Reagan Administration slashed $ 17 billion from public housing and low income housing programs, and cut 1.7 billion from the low and moderate income loan programs of the Farmer Home Administration. (Gale Cincotta, chair of National People’s Action, in letter of the New York Times, May 3, 1986, p. 18.)
Article Four: None shall be subjected, because of his national or cultural identity, to deportation, expulsion…
The United States government is actively prosecuting individuals who give sanctuary to refugees from Latin America. The refugees are deported, and the individuals who housed them are indicted.
Article Five: Every people has the imprescriptible and inalienable right to self-determination. It shall determine its political status freely and without any foreign interference.
The United States, through direct intervention, violates the self-determination of the people of Nicaragua. The numerous examples, from Chile to Grenada, of U.S. military and economic interference into the affairs of other states continues unabated under Reagan.
Article Eleven: Every people has the right, to choose its own economic and social system and pursue its own path to economic development freely…
The U.S. people do not have control over their economic destiny. For example hunger and malnutrition are increasing in the U.S., especially in the rural areas. In 1983, the Census Bureau defined as poor a family of four with gross annual income less than $ 10,180. Between 1979 and 1983, the number of rural poor jumped nearly 40% from 9.9 million to 13.4 million. Due to more stringent requirements for welfare and cutbacks in welfare programs, there is a considerable increase in the number of official poor who are not getting food stamps or other services. Unemployment rates in many rural areas are twice the rates in urban areas (New York Times, March 26, 1986, p.9).
According to the Physicians Task Force on Hunger in America and other private groups, the problem of hunger in U.S. is more widespread and more serious than at any time in the last 10 to 15 years. In 1981, 22.4 million Americans received food stamps; in 1985, despite increasing need, the number dropped to 19,9 million, according to the Department of Agriculture (New York Times, April 1986).
According to a Harvard University Study, government red tape prevents as many are 15 million poor Americans from receiving federal food stamps (New York Times, May 23, 1986, p.26).
Yet President Reagan declared: “I don’t, believe that there is anyone going hungry in America simply by reason of denial or lack of ability to feed them; it is by people not knowing where or how to get this help” (New York Times, May 22 1986).
Article Twenty: The Members of a minority shall enjoy without discrimination the same rights as the other citizens of the State and shall participate on an equal footing with them in public life.
While the official national unemployment rate in the United States in April 1986 was around 7%, black unemployment was 14.7%, Hispanics 10.3%, and black
teenagers 43,7%. The total number of unemployed was 8,342,000 (San Francisco Chronicle, April 5, 1986).

Priorities in 1986-1987
On September 15, 1986 the North American Chapter of the International League will be meeting again in New York. The purpose of this meeting is to make definitive plans for the coming year as to which projects we will undertake. Numerous ideas have been suggested by members of the Chapter, including: a Permanent Peoples Tribunal on the Rights of Migrant Workers, Refugees, and Displaced People in the United States; A Permanent Peoples Tribunal on the Right of the People of the Planet to Survive (including treatment of the Reagan administration’s military planning-Star wars, Trident etc.) and a Permanent Peoples Tribunal on Southern Africa. Also proposed is the idea of doing a number of smaller projects rather than focusing on one large Tribunal.
At this point there is a great deal of interest and enthusiasm about moving forward the work of the League in North America. We hope very much to be able to coordinate our efforts with other League chapters from around the world in order to be as effective as possible in our common endeavors.

Felice, William
in: Peuples/Popoli/Peoples/Pueblos No 8 (October 1986)