Tribal Council

TRIBAL COUNCIL

"We have to band together and create people's institutions so we can determine our own destinies. The people in each local area have to come together in organized political bodies - tribal councils - and other people 's organizations. . . so we can bring self-determination to the Nation everywhere our people live."

John Sinclair,  Message to the People of Rainbow Nation

Members from several youth colony organizations have been getting together a lot lately and talking and planning ways they can unify and coordínate their efforts at serving the people of Ann Arbor. Workers from Ozone House, Drug Help, the Children's Community School, the Free Medical Clinic, Food Co-op, Ride Switchboard, the Up rock and roll band, the AA Sun and the Rainbow People's Party are presently giving shape to the new Ann Arbor Tribal Council and will soon have a statement of purpose, structural set-up and action program ready to present to the youth community for everybody to check out and, hopefully, approve.

The Tribal Council will be an organization to represent the interests of the whole youth community--its purpose will be to give people a place where they can say what they need, suggest and decide on ways of getting it, and then make those ideas a reality with concrete, ongoing programs. An example of how this works is the way the Food Co-op was set up--groups, communes, and families met and talked about the need for good, cheap food and then went about getting it by putting their resources (like trucks for transporting the food, garages and basements for room to distribute it, money to buy the food, etc.) together and organized the op.

But it's clear that the community needs more than just food; we need music, good ways to get high, places to live, legal self-defense, jobs, and lots more to be able to keep growing as a people and really make stuff to--we need to support the Hard Drug Committee and its program to help eliminate the death smack and speed from the community; we need a community center to give operating space to the various programs and as a place where people can get together, and we really need a people's ballroom, where we can listen to good music at decent prices in a hassle-free atmosphere. So our money doesn't go to finance the individual fantasies of current promoters, but is instead used for the benefit of the whole community.

The people of the Ann Arbor youth community have held meetings sporadically over the last couple of years, and our experience has shown that we need a real organization to look after our needs on a regular basis, that combines all the imagination and energy that we have and helps it all work together.

One of the most important things that the Tribal Council has to do right away is set up the Free Concerts in the park, and it's going to be a huge job getting ready to serve the thousands of people that will show up to dig the rock and roll this summer. The people from Ann Arbor's community organizations realize this and are trying to get the Tribal Council together to do all that it should.

Watch for notice of a big communal dinner / community meeting to be held soon, where we'll all eat and get together and talk about the Tribal Council setup. Support the Ann Arbor Tribal Council. It belongs to you! There'll be continuing news on Tribal Council developments in coming issues of the Sun.