June 12 , 2000 Poverty in America: Turning the Tables BY NEIL DEMAUSE Welfare reform face a time limit of its own. Allied Forces BY TED KLEINE The National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support Poverty in a Gilded Age BY ANNETTE FUENTES An interview with Frances Fox Piven. Out of Sight BY KARI LYDERSEN In many cities, being homeless is against the law. Leave the Kids Alone BY MIKE MALES Poverty is the real problem The Union Difference BY DAVID MOBERG Down and Out on Polk Street PHOTOGRAPHS BY KEVIN WEINSTEIN Other Features: Star Wars: Episode Two BYJEFFERY ST. CLAIR The Pentagon's latest missile defense fantasy. "This Is Not Life. This Is Prison" BY RICHARD MERTENS Kosovo one year after the NATO bombing. Bosnian Serbs Still Look to Belgrade BY PAUL HOCKENOS News & Views Editorial BY JOEL BLEIFUSS Memo to third parties: Face Reality. Appall-O-Meter BY DAVID FUTRELLE A Terry Laban Cartoon Marching On BY DAVE LINDORFF Unity 2000 plans to disrupt this summer's GOP convention The Other Side of the Street BY KIM PHILLIPS-FEIN Food workers target Goldman Sachs Going to Waste BY ERIC WELTMAN Health Care Without Harm cleans up toxic hospitals Profile BY KARI LYDERSEN Flour Power Forgotten America BY Juan Gonzalez Bombs Away Culture Ancient Daze BY JOSHUA ROTHKOPF FILM: Ridley Scott's Gladiator A Class by Itself BY BILL BOISVERT BOOKS: David Brooks' Bobos in Paradise A Different Point of View BY PAT AUFDERHEIDE TV: P.O.V. on PBS

Flour Power By Kari Lydersen As 216 protesters were being removed from the Puerto Rican island of Vieques on May 4 for protesting the military's resumption of bombing exercises, about 60 people in Chicago were forming a human chain under the huge metal Puerto Rican flag that marks the beginning of the strip of Division Street known as Paseo Boricua. During their two-hour demonstration, the protesters stopped traffic and gained national television coverage. The woman behind the action was Zenaida Lopez. "Vieques is the only place in the world where World War II never ended," Lopez says. "It's a terrible situation. But we'll continue struggling. The Puerto Rican people will have the last word." Zenaida Lopez. Credit: Norah Delaney Lopez owns and runs the Boriken Bakery just steps from the flag. In addition to selling sandwiches, pastries and drinks, the bakery serves as a political, social and cultural focal point, a meeting place that has been central to struggles such as Vieques and the movement to free Puerto Rican political prisoners. The tight-knit, Puerto Rican community of Humboldt Park has long been a center of organizing for Puerto Rican independence. Zenaida and her bakery got attention last fall when 11 Puerto Rican political prisoners were released after accepting a clemency offer from President Clinton. (Fifteen Puerto Rican independentistas had been convicted of seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government in the early '80s and were given inordinately long prison sentences.) Zenaida's brother Oscar Lopez Rivera was one of the prisoners who refused the clemency offer. Her other brother Jose Lopez, director of Chicago's Puerto Rican Cultural Center, was one of the key figures fighting for their release. "I get goosebumps just thinking about that day," says Zenaida of the September 10 release party for the prisoners at the community center across the street from the bakery. "It was the most incredible, bittersweet day because my brother wasn't coming home, but the others were, and they are like brothers and sisters to me." Through it all, Zenaida, who was born in Puerto Rico in 1951 and moved with her family to Humboldt Park when she was eight, has been a focal point of strength and humor.   TOP HOME SUBSCRIBE MAIL   In These Times © 2000 Vol. 24, No. 14