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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1973)
Portland/Observcr Thursday, November 15, 1973 Page 3 Famine result of colonialism Getting Smart BY WALTER L SMART Executive Director National Perleration ot Settlements and Neigbbortiood Centers The on going reports of racial violence from the Caribbean should send us a message that should ring loud and clear to all of us. We are facing an increase of awareness in the Americas an awareness that should eventually reap more vio lence if the powers to be do not deal sensibly with the problems ot minorities and of economic oppression. When our ancestors were shipped bulk rate from Afri ca, many ships stopped first in the Caribbean. On these islands, surviving Afrirans were bought, sold, and traded to retailers who would then either ship the slaves dir ectly to the colonies or would train them in agriculture and in abject obedience. Many slaves escaped or were de tailed for work on the islands in slave trade processing. They became the "deputies for the coloreds”, servants, field hands, dork workers and bearers. There soon de veloped a Black majority ruled by European slave masters. Today the noble great grandchildren of the noble Africans are rebelling. The fare of the master is now slightly different. You see the United States owns St. Croix. In St. Croix, white tourists have been killed. Although there has been a marked in crease of deaths among the press, the United S ta tes government, and the govern ment of St. Croix has given the white tourist deaths spe cial significance. Just as in the United States, Black lives are less important than white lives. White lives represent money and tour ism. U.S. Marshalls have been sent. Governmental snooping increased. So-called militants arrested. Many Afro Americans who have the chance to travel play down the abject poverty of the Caribbean. They are often so happy they have a chance to do the things of which their parents only had dreams, they forget that they too «re playing a large role in the oppression of other Black peoples. The Afro- American tourist takes on the same elitist arrogance of his European counterparts and soon becomes oblivious to the poverty that sur rounds him. We hide our eyes just as the whites do in America. So far the tourist slayings have only affected whites. When many Crusans recog nize Afro Americans also represent money, they will open their eyes and recog nize us too as ugly rich Americans. The problem is not race. It is economics. Ix*t us not forget our history and the role we must play to change the present, ACLU director speaks Melvin Wulf, National I-egal Director of the Ameri can Civil Liberties Union, will be keynote speaker at a luncheon preceeding a I jiw yer's Workshop sponsored by the ACLU of Oregon to be held Saturday. November 17. at Templeton Commons, Lewis and Clark College, from 12:30 to 5:00 p.m. Wulf will speak on "Recent Developments in the United States Supreme Court". As a member of the ACLU staff since 1958. he has argued more rases before the Su preme Court than any lawyer in history, probably including Solicitors General. He is personally responsible for many of the landmark First Amendment victories. The workshop is designed as a "how to do it” session to help lawyers become more familiar with the techniques of litigating civil rights rases. The workshop will be chaired by Thomas P. Deer ing, who served six years as Vice Chairperson of the ACLU of Oregon and head of it* legal panel. ACLU co operating attorney Daniel Seifer will present "An Over view of Civil Rights Laws". "Justiciability, or, How to Get to Court and Stay There" will be discussed by a panel of ACLU attorneys: Jona than Ater, Charles Hinkle and I^slie Swanson. Participation in the work shop is open to all members of the Oregon Bar. law stu dents and the public. Regis tration information may be had from the ACLU office in Portland. DR. JEFFREY BRADY Says: DO Not Put Off Needed Dentol ( o r e 1' Enjoy D e n ta l H e a lth N o w a n d Im p ro v e Y our A p p e a ra n c e ( OMI IN Al »OUR (ÛNVINIINU OPiN SAFlltDA* M î IÏN .M , • • I OMPI H l (Ü O P ItillO h ÜN Alt ÜIM Al iNSuHhii pians ( ompi m .. o i mal ùtfc^.ir Z* U N IO N O® C O M P A N Y O IN T A l IN S U ftA N C I C O V l t A G I A C C IP T IO O N VOU® N I I O I D O IN T lS T » Y > O rb h « » * n ,P o fb n S h o p lfl H O U IV W o b d o y t I JO o m lo î p » So’ B J O o m »o 1 p m D R . JEFFREY B R A D Y , D E N T IS T ' The United Farm Workers Union will hold a week of a c t iv it ie s ca lled "Farm workers Thanksgiving" in support of the farmworkers movement. On Monday, November 19. labor picket lines will be held at Lloyd Center Safeway (12:00 noonl, at St. John's Safew ay, and Milwaukee Safeway (4:00 to 6:00 p.m.). On Tuesday, November 20. at noon, clergy will picket the 10th and Jefferson Safe way store. hara. Hardly had these areas been conquered when France redirected their trade and harnessed their resources to its colonial enterprises. land which previously had been used for pastures by Fulani herdsmen were brought under the plow to plant peanuts and cotton for ex port. So in sisten t were the French that these colonies should make a profit for the Metropole, that when in 1929 the cotton and oil markets crashed, the Upper Volta was judged unviable as a territory, dismembered and her parts assigned to the neighboring colonies. Later, unable to stem the tide of nationalism, and un willing to spend the money necessary to treat her now Black citizens as equals with their co-citizens in France, the French first balkanized her West African Federation, linked each of the now weakened countries directly to her, and gave them inde pendence. The economic plight of the peoples in the Sahel was exacerbated by a climatic shift that started in the early cost anybody anything," they 1960's and has continued up say. to thé present. Not only has For their part, the Afri the rainfall been 10 15% less, cans are insisting that the but it has been erratic over money alloted to them should the whole area. The Niger not be spent in innumerable River is at its lowest level in studies which gather dust, about 40 years, and Lake but should be used to de Chad has less water in it velop projects generated by than at any time since 1943. them. They are seeking the As these conditions be help of the Black community came worse, the Africans did in this difficult battle. Send alert the Food and Agricul funds to RAIN. 475 River lure Organization and other side Drive, New York, New aid granting agencies, but no York 10027. one paid any attention to them. It was only when reports of widespread hunger and death began to trickle out of the Sahel that the Western world took notice. By then the Senegalese had harvested only one third of (Continued from pg. 1. col. 9l their normal crops, and about 40% of its livestock had died. tradition of Ronny Williams The Upper Volta lost some to Alabama. Williams was 35% of its livestock, Maure convicted in Alabama of as tania about 60% of its herds, sault with intent to kill a and the latest report is that police officer, a charge of about 35% of all the animals which he claims to be in in the entire Sahel have nocent. he left Alabama, perished. The cost in human fearing for his life, while his lives has not yet been cal case was on appeal. Since culated, but millions are af coming to Oregon he has fee ted. earned his GED and has In the face of such suffer been employed at ESCO. ing. the response of the His employers termed him a world was too little and valuable and responsible em almost too late. Spurred on ployee and if he remains in by A m b a ssa d o r Sam uel Oregon they will rehire him. Adams, Deputy A ssistant He is currently in Rocky Secretary of State for the Butte waiting extradition to Agency for International De Alabama. velopm ent, and by Afro- One gentleman asked that American who had served as the motion be held over to Ambassador to Niger, the look in the State of Ala United States finally allo bama's side of the story. cated some $20 million in Russ Farrell said, “The other food and assistance. side of the coin is racism. But a great deal of this How do you compromise money was spent airlifting with racism. This is not an food into the inland regions, isolated incident, but the and it was a drop in the same thing is happening to bucket in the face of tremen Blacks and Mexicans through dous need. While apprécia out the South." tive of this aid, the Africans Representative Edith peck have felt constrained to de said. "If a young man could clare publicly that the United ?pend time in our disgraceful States "could do a little more Rocky Butte jail and still without feeling the strain. want to stay in Oregon - You have so much, it wouldn't Alabama must be hell!” SH O P ■ENOW'S FOR 4 BRA N D S you know VARIETIES you lik. SIZES you • I « w an* *» • A4» » N » MK , . . '■ \ » . • H • • ANI (»f. »«o 4»» 4 • • Democrats As I c u n H 'd «S • • • M fM B tS . » M I- a »N » h , 19«», 4 X,» I»-. i A Wed H O» U N IF fD G R O l t R t Day Care Mothers To provide Child Care in your home Ages Infancy thru 12 yrs. Day - Swing ■ Graveyard Contact : AMA Family D ay/N ight Program 288-5091 4635 N.E. 9th Wulf will also appear in Eugene on Friday evening, November 16, where he will speak at a public meeting at the University of Oregon I jiw School. Christmas card class Portland Community Col lege will present a one- evening demonstration "Print Your Own Christmas Cards" on Tuesday. November 20, at PCC's Cascade center, 705 North Killingsworth. A growing number of fame lies are making their own cards in an effort to convey personalized greetings during the holiday season. Projects which do not require special tools or expense will be demonstrated, utilizing card making techniques attractive to the entire family. Special talents are un necessary to create attrac liv e , inexpensive greeting cards. Many items found in the home can be recruited . . . the humble cabbage, potato, and carrot, or that old inner tube and the scrap pile in the woodshop. All can be used to print simple patterns. For paper . . . brown sacks from the supermarket can be re cycled. The event is free, every one is welcome. "Print Your Own Christmas Cards" will be held in the Cascade Stu dent Union at 7:30 p.m. For more information, contact PCC Community Services, 244 6111, ext. 208. Farm union holds Thanksgiving week NO AFPOINÎMINÎ M IM I) The spectre of millions of people starving, and entire herds of animals dying has dramatized the tragic legacy of a bankrupt French colonial policy which exploited West Africa for decades. RAIN (Relief lor Africans In Need in the Sahel) is now trying to help. The plight of the nations in the Sudan Sahel zone is a direct result of a colonial policy that treated these areas as a plantation for export crops and as a game, and long after the British had grabbed the wealthier coastal territories, the French moved into the Sudan, con quered the indigenous states, and linked its West African conquests with the colonial territories north of the Sa On Wednesday, a city wide picket will be held from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the Union and /Ainsworth Safeway store. This will be followed by a farmworker mass at St. An drews Church, 806 N.E. Al berta at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, November 25, has been designated as Farm w o rk er S u n d a y , w hen churches will be asked to re member the plight of the farmworkers who are seek ing equality and self determi nation. Bank with Betty and Barbara. Betty Palmer and Barbara Brown are our Personal Serviee Representatives at the Union Avenue branch. And if you don't know them, you should. Because their only job is to make your banking a lot more pleasurable. That means introducing you to the right people for faster serviee. And helping you choose the right kind of cheeking or savings account. They'll even help you balance your checkbook if you want. A long time ago U.S. Bank promised to make banking a very personal thing. People like Betty Palmer and Barbara Brown are helping us keep that promise. Come in and meet them. They'll be waiting on a red carpet to greet you. Sf Ml (R BUILDING S V» 3 rd A M o r m I I . P f I e V < 1' < I *, I t t •,». P o r ' i i m d ü '» - i p UNI I I D STATES NATIONAL BANK OF OREGON 5505 N.E. Union I : I I o < j ’ J ' , I S t I I f I P h o n e :2 2 8 -7 5 4 5 Eighteenth century ladies sometimes cinched their waists in so tig h tly they suffocated. A very personal ttxnq. W illiam C. Spicer, Manager Member I D I C I I
