Third World Wrap-up
We see the world
through Black eyes
Restore a community
Six years ogo the state was reapportioned,
rearranging the legislative districts.
For some
reoson, known only to Secretary of State Clay Myer,
who was in chorge of the project. Albina became
the center of the state, with all legislative districts in
the state fanning oof from a point at Union and
Fremont.
Perhaps the people of Albina should have been
happy -- it is not often that we are ot the center of
things; we are usually on the outside looking in. But
we found that in this case, being ot the center
divided us into four parts. W e now hod four state
Senators and four State Representatives - more than
ony other neighborhood of course, but without a
substantial voice in the selection of any of these.
No other neighborhood in the stote was divided. In
fact, no other city was divided. Other areas had the
political clout to protect themselves but Albina was a
political vocumr).
We don't think this could have happened in 1976.
The days when one could ignore the Block
community or control a few "leoders" for permission
are over. The people have learned to make their
voices heard.
We believe this division was purposeful, that it
was designed to "divide and conquer" to leave us
out of the political process. W e see our neighbor in
St. Johns call in their Representative and Senator
when they have a problem. But who shall we call?
Now we call for a new reopportunist that will
restore a community.
Reapportionment can be
accomplished by the legislator, and an odequate
plan has been offered several times by Repre
sentative Wally Priestley (one of over four
representatives). Never fear, fhis district would still
be less than fifty percent Black, but it would
represent a viable community, one that has political
and social identification. W e propose that the new
district, approximating the Model Cities boundaries,
has the experience and the structure to become a
Model of democracy.
Renew the fi<
This week is "Block History W eek" in the nation's
Bicentennial year. It is a time for assessment of the
history of Block people in the United States - the
history of a struggle to be free. It is a time to renew
that struggle, for the struggle of Block Americans will
bring freedom for all Americans.
In the years of American History we have seen
Block people at the vanguard of the struggles to
bring liberation to all people. The fight ogainst
slavery, for voting rights, for women's equality, for
the union movement, for full employment, and for
the programs that would guarantee health care,
odequate housing, full education, to all people — all
of these struggles have found Block's at the
forefront.
Since its founding. Blacks have served as the
conscience of the nation; yet Blacks are the last to
benefit. W e were counted as h of a man in the
United States Constitution and still today we are
treated as % of a man. Where are the benefits to
Blacks in those movements for which we fought and
died? The unions hove shut us out; employment is
for others; election fraud still steals our vote.
But the struggle must go on with renewed strength.
But the struggle must not be a selfish one - it must be
a struggle for liberation for all people.
As we celebrate Block History Week we must
remind ourselves that the strides that have been
mode by this generation were made possible by the
sacrifice of our forefathers It is easy to belittle those
who lived m earlier times because they suffered
hostility and ridicule to make a better life for their
children.
We are also in a Bicentennial year — a year where
the nation celebrates its 200th birthday. Many Blacks
are opposed to any participation in the Bicentennial
since Block people and other minorities do not yet
have the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the
Constitution.
However, we have a right ond a
responsibility to participate in the Bicentennial
observance...it is the ideal vehicle by which to make
all Americans aware that Blacks have been an
integral part of the building of the nation since the
beginning and that we are not yet free.
The United States owes its Black citizens a debt
and we must not be silent when w e have the
opportunity to speak.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
le t t e r to the Editor:
One of the problems when a paper like
the Oregon Journal exposes weaknesses
in government funded programs like
those operated by the Portland Develop
ment Commission, is that the articles do a
good job exposing weaknesses, but fail to
come up with a solution to correct them.
Dear Editor:
Inclosed you will find a letter that I
sent to the Oregon Journal on February
2nd. 1976 at the time the Journal was
headlining problems that have developed
in the PDCs Grant and Critical Mainte
nance Programs. Reading the articles
one can’t help but get the feeling that the
Oregon Journal is more interested in
getting rid of the Program and the PDC
than trying to improve the delivery of
much needed emergency housing repairs.
Our members aren't so short that we
have forgotten last years attack by the
Oregon Journal on the PMSC and its
leader Cleveland Gilcrease.
To date the Oregon Journal has not
seen fit to print my letter in their b etter
to the Editor section. I would appreciate
it if you can find room to print it in your
paper.
by Roy Harvey
The thrust of the articles in your recent
editions, for example, is to kill the
program of Home Rehabilitation and to
even destroy the PDC. Why don’t you
use the exposure to strengthen home
rehabilitation delivery that is so neces
sary to all of us in Portland9
W hether we like it or not, the Portland
Development Commission is the agency,
by law, that must carry out programs in
our city dealing with government sup
ported housing rehabilitation and repair.
I t is the agency legally responsible in
these matters every bit as much as the
Portland School Board has the legal
responsibility for the education of our
children.
I have, as a member of the Sabin
Community Association and the Sabin
representative to the Model Cities
Planning Board, sat through many
meetings where problems of education in
our schools were discussed, but have yet
to hear anyone discuss these problems
from the point of view of getting rid of
the Portland School Board. I have heard
this lots of time about PDC all over town.
A t the insistence of neighbors in
terested in improving the quality of
Portland education, changes have been
made in the way the frequently reluctant
School Board does things.
The Com
munity School concept is just one
example of this. Changes should be made
in the way the PDC carries out its
programs when they are shown to have
Southern Africa Upheaval
January 28th Zambian President Ken
neth Kaunda proclaimed his country was
in a state of emergency, due to the PR A ’s
victories in Angola. The actual reason for
Kaunda's efforts towards outright dicta
torship is the collapse in the world copper
market, and the cut off of IM F credits.
Kaunda is expected to impose draconian
austerity* in order to get IM F World
Bank loans. It has been the shut down of
industry in the industrial countries that
Forces for the Liberation of the Congo.
Zambia and Zaire, while the C IA and its
agents push the notion that the cut off of
the Benguela railroad is responsible
(copper earns up to 90 percent of
Zambia's foreign exchange).
Kaunda's
efforts to create a w ar atmosphere are
backfiring, as students and laid off copper
workers are pro PRA The londoo Dully
Telegraph I January 30 th I suggests the
weaknesses.
Especially the Grant
Programs or those like the Critical
Maintenance Loans.
There is no reason why we cannot
approach this problem, which is reallv
two fold lone of combining benefits to low
income recipients and the training of
skills) in the same manner that we
approach the training of doctors in our
County Hospital. Future doctors, few of
whom come from low income families,
receive their training by practicing on the
poor
The key to the success of this program,
is that the trainees are under constant
supervision of some of the finest doctors
in Portland.
I propose, as I have in the past when
this question came up, that any PDC
program involving grants, be used as a
training program set up under the
superv ision of skilled mechanics from the
various building trades. Retirees could
be involved in this. These men should be
placed on the payroll ol the PDC or some
funded agency with the responsibility of
seeing that the recipients of the Critical
Maintenance Ixians and other funds in
the form of grants get work performed on
their homes in the manner of "Best
Trades Practices." These men would
have under their supervision paid train
ees who would learn the various trades
by working with these skilled men as
they do the work on the recipients’
1st Place
Community Service
O N P A 1973
Published every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company, 2201
North Killingsworth, Portland. Oregon 97217. Mailing address:
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O N P A 1973
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5th Place
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N N P A 1973
homes.
This will eliminate the problem we
have today where a homeowner, with in
many rases a bottomless pit'ot home re-
pair problems feeling cheated by a con
tractor who can’t do much for $1,500 to a
home in the first place
There is another aspect to this whole
urban renewal program that the Oregon
Journal should consider. In the past, as it
will be this time, whenever the economy
has be« n in a slump, one of the major
methods of getting the economy mov ¡ng
again is through home building and
remodeling
This work which involves
every kind of commodity from concrete
lumber paint, etc. to refrigerators rugs
drapes, etc puts lots of people to work.
For grant programs, dealing as they do
with many hundreds of thousands of
dollars, consider that every foot of lum
ber and bucket of paint is brought from
some Portland store where the mark up
of profit is in no way discounted because
the merchandise is used to fix a low
income families home.
We should improve this program and
continue to qualify as many neighbor
hoods of the city as ,«ossible Then when
the government finally begins to rut loose
with funds for this work. Portland will be
ready to use it.
One final word: I f a Journal reporter
will call on me at my shop office at 4306
N. Williams. I will be glad to take the
time to show him or her some work on
homes in the $60,000 bracket that will
make your heart ache I only hesitate to
include addresses in this letter so as not
to embarass individual homeowners who
I can assure you are just as angry at their
contractors as the homeowners men
'ioned in your articles.
fours truly.
Herb Simpson
Wrong I
Second Class Postage Paid at Portland. Oregon
The Portland Observer's official position is expressed only in
its Publisher’s column (W e See The World Through Black Eyes).
Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion of the
individual w riter or submitter and does not necessarily reflect
the opinion of the Portland Observer.
MEMOIR
Oregon
Newspaper
I
Publishers
Association
MEMBER
N e W p A L per
Aeeoeiebon - Found'd f«M
leads the pro development forces in the
government, refusing to offer up their
populations for the genocidal labor
intensive public works projects in return
for World Bank credits (virtually non
existant).
The president of Mexico was initially
one of the leaders in th <figh t for the new
world economic order, though Echeverria
hesitated to organize and arm the
peasantry in their land reform program,
leaving the field open to the large land
owners and their vigilantees to terrorize
and break the peasantry.
The right wing, headed up by Finance
Minister Mario Reteta (representing the
IM F ) and Interior Minister Moya Palen
ria, have met extensively with IM F
representatives in the past two weeks,
and have pledged Mexico's population
(sixty million) to “work and austerity"
through labor intensive road building,
full peasant debt repayment, and an
expansion of the disastrous Yucatan
labor intensive agricultural hydro elec
trie project.
Armando Labra, columnist for the
Mexican Daily Excrlcior writes (January
30th): ‘‘colonialist pressures of North
American agencies and the IM F are
attempting to take advantage of the crisis
of transition of executive power in
Mexico to deepen and extend economic
and social dependence...the permanent
penetration of the IM F comes paired with
the retraction of productive expenditures
and the retraction of the generation of
socially and economically profitable em
ploy ment."
Triagist Igenocidist) William Paddock
predicted some years ago in his book
Famine 1975 that Mexico was destined to
loom- some forty to fifty percent of its
population through starvation (along
with many other Third World countries
called the 'Fourth World'). It was the
pro development policies of Echeverria
that stopped this genocide.
With
Echeverria now isolated from a working
class and peasant base, with the Soviet
Union still sitting on their thumbs
('contained') with regard to the extension
of credits (allowing for a moratoria on
dollar debt) and trade agreements (an
embracing of the new world economic
order). Mexico now again lurches toward
genocidal austerity and the police state
necessary to implement it.
BLACK JOURNAL
- Sff*
Portland Observer
A L F R E D L. H E N D E R S O N
M itor/P u W isher
likelihood of a coup attempt against
Kaunda. Food prices (basic foodstuffs:
meal. milk. rice, etc.) jumped 100 percent
in Zambia, as well as fertilizer and other
petroleum products.
In Zaire General Mobutu fears political
upheaval due to the collapsing prices of
copper (Bema mine workers are being
laved off as one copper plant after
another shuts down) and the returning
Zairean troops from defeat in Angola
Much of eastern Zaire, according to IPS.
is already in the hands of the Democratic
Forces for the Liberation of the Congo,
headed by Antoine Gizenga (Gizenga was
second under Patrie Lumumba, the
Prime Minister of the Congo who was
assassinated by the C IA in 1961 J.
In South Africa support among Blacks
for the People's Republic of Angola and
against the South African regime
is so
strong that it is openly expressed in that
police state.
'Hemocida! Maniacs'
The use of mercenaries in Angola has
dominated coverage of the war this week,
with one of the C IA funded British
recruiter mercenary revealing his CIA
connection and calling his leading mer
cenary ’a good soldier and a homoridal
maniac'.
Last week General Mobutu
made noises to the effect that he would
not conduit mercenaries into Angola
through Zaire. This public move was in
response to Senator Clark (head of the
Subcommittee on Africa) determination
that foreign assistance to Zaire is
predicated on Zaire's cutting off the
C IA funded F N L A . Mobutu to brother
in law Holden Roberto: 'It's over Holden
- you can either go to South Africa, or
you can join Moynihan at Harvard, and
teach African history
The State Department continues to
hold out for some sort of coalition in
Angola, but the PRA last week said this
was fantasy' while lavestia February 1st
called the I'N IT A and the F N L A 'traitors
to Angola*. The PRA army has taken the
F N L A -U N IT A headquarters Novo Lis
boa I Huambo), now holding better than
half of Angola
Mexico suffers set-back
The fight in Mexico is one of
implementing the new world economics
order versus the right wing latifundist
and the banking groups tied to the
IM F World Rank President Echeverria
New W erU
lae t h t i a a F .f .b b .h id
The Group of 77 Non aligned nations in
their Manila meeting last week complet
ed initial steps for instituting the new
world economic order, forming a tri
continental headquarters in Saigon (Ho
Chi Minh City). Mexico City, and
Conakry. Guinea. A t the Manila meeting
Peru seconded Algeria's President Bou
medienne call for (1) the reduction of
ndebledness for the Third World coun
tries (21 an integrated global program for
international trade dong term multi
lateral trade contracts, raw materials
production) (31 transfer of technology
from advanced sector for Third World
development.
The leadership of this group is
currently meeting in Paris (February
llt h l. in a reopening of the North South
Conference. The Group of 77 will meet in
Nairobi in May, and in the United Nations
in the Conference on Trade and Develop
ment (U N C T A D ) before that.
In spite of the fact that the implemen
tat ion of debt moratoria was not begun
following the Manila meeting, the inter
national machinery has clearly been set
up.
It is significant that the Africa
headquarters are in Conakry - rather
than Algeria
this is a move toward
involving Black Africa.
Sekou Toure.
president of Guinea. sUted a month ago
that bis country would pull out of the
O AU if that organization did not
overwhelmingly recognize that direction
of Angola (PRA). This is a move in that
direction.
Though February 10th the
O AU itself recognized the People's
Republic of Angola.
Honorable Mention
Herrick Editorial Award
N N A 1973
2nd Place
Best Editorial
3rd Place
Community l^adi
O N PA 1975
To the Editor:
There probably should be some excep
tion to a statement in the Portland
Observer Community Calendar of Feb
ruary 5th. 1976
As a private citizen. I feel that the
public should know that the above men
tioned calendar fails to ronsider that at
least one area ol Portland Public Schools
has formalized plans
There might be
others Enclosed is an Area I I I brochure
regarding February 1976.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Osly J. Gates
• Are the government and media conspiring to
prevent the REV. JESSE JA CK SO N from
attaining a national following? Hear the Rev
Jackson speak out on this and why we need more
Black FBI agents
• Was Malcolm X truly ahead of his time? Learn
why his philosophy has gained new acceptance
in the New Nation of Islam M IN . ABDUL
FARRAKMAN discusses Wallace D
Muhammad's sweeping structural changes
affecting all Black Muslims
• Jo_in tost T O N Y BROWN and CHARLYNE
H U N T E R of the N Y Times for this special
edition of BLACK JOURNAL
Monday, February 16th
10:30 pm
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