WE WANT HOMES
NOT HIGHWAYS!

On Wednesday, April 13 at 3 pm the City will hold another of its so-called "community meetings" at the Holy Redeemer Gym to discuss the proposed Vine St. Expressway. We, however, should have no illusions concerning this meeting. We have seen the EIS (Environmental Impact Study) regarding the Expressway and it is only too clear, now more than ever, that the City has always planned to build it.

What does the EIS say? First of all, it tries to convince us that the Expressway will benefit Chinatown by 1) relieving traffic on Race St., 2) increasing property values in Chinatown, and 3) bringing in more money to the community through parking lots. It is obvious that these are really no benefits at all!!

Who really stands to gain from higher property values? Only those who already own property -- the already rich will get richer while the working people will gain nothing. And, does it really matter if traffic is reduced on Race St. while traffic noise, and pollution increase on Vine St? And, finally, who wants parking lots when what we really need and have to demand is decent housing we can all afford.

Another aspect of the EIS is the fate of the Holy Redeemer School and gym. Several ideas were proposed but nothing was definite. The EIS discussed the possibilities and costs of either moving the present school or rebuilding, but right now, without commitments from both the Archdiocese and the State to save Holy Redeemer, its survival is just one big question mark -- it can be torn down anyday.

In the meantime what are our misleaders doing? Nothing!! T.T. Chang has not come out openly in support of the community. All he wants is for Chinatown to be a tourist attraction. The CBA as usual hides behind its doors and PCDC -- well, what of PCDC? They say they'll oppose the Expressway, but when we want to use militant action, they say NO or we'll make the government mad! PCDC IS WRONG!! We must fight the Expressway while at the same time we continue to voice our demands for quality housing, especially housing for the elderly. We must remember that the bill passed in City Council over a year ago has only promised money for buying lots and the destruction of what stands on them -- NOT FOR BUILDING!! PCDC, however, would rather have us sit quietly by while the Expressway squeezed us on one side and the Market St. East project and the Commuter Rail Runnel squeezed us on the other. PCDC has obviously lost sight of how these projects really endanger the survival of Chinatown. They can't see that only big business and the government will profit from them.

Hand in hand big business and the government have been working hard to ensure the building of these three projects. Why? Profits!! These projects are all geared to bring in more people from the suburbs to buy merchandise from the big department stores like Gimbels. Market St. East is just a new huge complex of business to which the Expressway and the Commuter Rail Tunnel will funnel in more and more shoppers so that big business can make more and more profits. We can see from this that the Government is a tool of the monopoly capitalists to protect them and their profits.

In the long run Chinatown will gain nothing unless the people stand up and fight for their democratic rights. The capitalistic system under which we all live understands only one word -- profits -- all at the expense of the working class who creates and builds everything. We cannot rely on misleaders like PCDC, CBA, or T.T. Chang to lead us in these struggles. Their blind faith in the government and the legal system will only lead our struggles down a dead end. Our true rights can only be won through a change in our system brought about by the militant action of the working class.

The April 13 meeting is nothing but a farce!! The City doesn't really care what working people need or want -- they only use reformist tricks like this meeting to fool us into thinking that we have a voice in deciding what our future is. There is only one way for us to get what should be ours -- by uniting with all workers to fight for what belongs to us!!! We are tired of empty promises and no action!!