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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 1976)
4 Portland Observer Inside the Rhodesian border war by Rath B. Miater (P N 8 ) Maputo, Mozambique - Eater Judieio, her wizened Black face showing Uttle emotion, stood patiently beside the graves oi her sister and nephew and answered reporters’ questions: The planes were Rhodesian. They came in the middle ol the night. Besides her sister and the child, three others of the tiny hamlet died. They tried to hide but couldn't. She herself was wounded. W ere Zimbabwe guerrillas (Rhodesian Black nationalists) there? No. She knew of only the Mozambican soldiers. They helped to drive off the Rhodesians that night when her sister died. She and a couple of others stayed in the hamlet, but most of the people had fled the border area to the interior town of Mapai. where there was a hospital, a school and shops. But mostly, Mapai was a safe place - away from the frequent border clashes between the Mozambique-baaed guerril las and the Rhodesian forces. T h a t was last spring. I t was not safe for long. Four months later. Mapai, 60 miles from the border, was bombarded and assaulted by Rho desian air and ground troops In the first deep penetration into Mozambique in the course of the widening w ar between Rho desia's white-m inority regime and Black nationalists fighting for m ajority rule. Unlike the recent Rhodesian assault on an alleged guerrilla base In Mozambique. in which 340 soldiers and civilians died. Mapai was not a m ilitary target. The night it was attacked there were only 12 Mozambican soldiers in town, three of whom died instantly as they slept in one of the buildings first hit by bombs. Mapai was the economic hub ot a large rural district. The attack coincided with celebrations of the first year of Mozambi can independence, which has drawn school children to the town from outlying hamlets. Some of them, sleeping in the school in the center of town, died in the onslaught. The Ngala Transport Co., a vital link between the town and rural areas, was nearly wiped out by the bombs. Garages, vehicles, equipment, several canteens and the clubhouse, all in the center of town, were destroyed. Shops were raided and looted. People scrambled to the bomb shelters and to the brush to try to escape the nightmare of exploding bombs and the ground forces. Besides the three soldiers. 16 civilians died, making it the largest single civilian casualty reported to date. To these peasant people, the damaged buses and trucks are a great loss. Though small boats still scuttle among the shoals to cross the shallow Limpopo River, the trucks that carried sacks of corn and other produce to m arket no longer come. Nor are there trucks to take the men to South Africa to work on contract in the by the 1973 legislature to protect em ployment rights of injured workers, and physically and mentally handicapped per son*. W illiams filed a complaint w ith the Bureau of Labor on A p ril 29th. 1974 charging that Montgom ery W ard denied him a position as appliance salesperson because he had suffered a heart attack in 1968. Stevenson stated th a t the issue in this ___ ( waa w hether Williams' physical con dition would or would not perm it him to perform the job he sought, and w hether there was a reasonable expectation of his being able to render continous service. The commissioner found that Williams' physical condition was sufficient for con tinuous performance aa an appliance salesperson. Extensive testimony was considered in the case, including that of Williams' physician, a heart specialist who ha* monitored the performance of Willaims' cardiovascular system at regu lar intervals since hi* heart attack. Stevenson awarded W illiam * damages in the amount of $14,711.72 for lost earn ing* during 1974 and 1976 and $2,000 for mental anguish. In addition, the commis sioner required the company to offer the complainant the next available position aa Citizen ot the Week S up port lo r G u e rrilla * Though the attack on Mapai was deep er inside Mozambique than previous a t tacks, it was not unexpected. Back in March, when Mozambique’s President Samora Machel announced the closing of the Rhodesia border in support of the Page 8 Zimbabwe guerrillas, the people of Mapai were already digging bomb shelters. In numerous interviews, Mozambicans recalled that during their own struggle for independence - still fresh in their minds Zambian and Tanzanian borders were also violated by colonial Portuguese troops. Despite the incursions, Tanzania and Zambia remained firm in support of Mozambique's F R E L IM O guerrillas. Now. they say, they too will support the Zimbabwe guerrillas - whatever the cost. Just one week after the raid on Mapai a support rally was held in the capital city of M aputo and $260,000 was given to the Zimbabwe fighters from the Solidarity Bank. Public broadcasting ranks low Montgomery Ward guilty of discrimination In w hat may be considered a landmark case. Labor Commissioner Bill Stevenson found Montgomery W ard and Co.. Inc. guilty of employment discrimination be cause of an applicant's physical handicap. Stevenson issued a final order in the ease of James M . W illiam s vs. Montgomery W ard and Co.. Inc., which is the first case requiring a commissioner's order to be considered under amendments adopted mines. And the buses that regularly shuttled people about the rural areas are infrequent now. Still, the people have their feet. Once again, they are harvesting, hauling w ater, preparing food, attem pting to get back to the daily routine. In Mapai, re construction has begun, aided by funds from the national Solidarity Bank, to which all Mozambicans regularly contri bute a portion of their earnings. Thursday. August 19th, 1978 salesperson in any of its store* in the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area. He furth er required the respondent to pay tor lost wages during 1976 and sub sequent year* until such time as W illiams is offered suitable employment. "The intent of the 1973 legislature waa to guarantee to physically and mentally handicapped person* the fullest possible participation in the social and economic life of the state, including the rig ht to employment where the handicap has no bearing on the person's ability to do a given job," said Stevenson, who was a member of the Oregon State Senate in 1973. “W illiam s' case obviously falls w ithin state policy and law because his physical condition would not preclude job perfor mance as an appliance salesperson," con eluded Stevenson. Many of the public broadcasting sta Üons included in "Public Broadcasting and Equal Employment O pportunity Re gulation - W here Does The Buck Stop? and considered to be that industry s cream of the crop are the subject of equal employment opportunity complaints, agreements initiated by citizens groups to eliminate exclusionary personnel and programming practices, special reporting conditions applied to broadcasters by the Federal Communications Commission, and broadcast license denial by that same agency. The study, by Citizens Communies lions Center, a public interest law firm in Washington, D.C.. examined 1) the EEO performances of public radio and televi sion stations, which are partially funded by federal dollars; 2) the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (the major funding Murder try net* ten years by Ron Sykes Circuit Court Judge James Ellis sen tenced Robert Louis Sm ith to ten years in prison Tuesday for the attem pted murder of his wife on M ay 1st. Sm ith had earlier been found Smith, a T ri-M e t bus driver, of 4319 N . Borthwick, agency for public broadcasting entities) and it* role in assuring it * grantees oper ate in compliance w ith various E E O and anti-discrimination laws and policies, and 3) the lack of responsibility assumed by the FCC, U.S. Departm ent of Health, Education and W elfare; the Equal E m ployment Opportunity Commission, and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S.- Justice Departm ent in assuring T itle V I, T itle V U , T itle I X and other nondiacri mination law compliance among the grant recipients. The examination also includes a statis tical review and analysis of available 1976 employment data obtained from the in dividual stations, reporting forms on file with the F C C s Research Branch of the Broadcast Bureau. O f the 186 individual television stations receiving CPB grants. 78.4% show questionable 1976 employ ment statistics regarding the stations' compliance w ith FCC E E O rules and policy. O f the 172 radio grantees 83.8% show questionable m inority employment * small pocket knife. According to police reports. Sm ith cut hi* wife a fter she had told him that she was leaving him. Officers found a note, signed by Smith, near the bed where his wife was attack ed. The note allegedly told of his plans to kill the woman. practice*. In fact, some 16 radio station grantees reported to the FCC as having fewer than five full-tim e employees, thereby making them ineligible for a CPB grant. Overall, only 2.7% of all CPB grantee* employ minorities at the same percentage rate as minority representa tion in the respective service areas. 27.9% of all the granteqg employ no minorities full time. And 20% of all the grantee* are delinquent in filing then- annual employment report to the FCC, which was due M ay 31st, 1976. These subjects w ere discussed in the two-day hearing conducted by the House Subcommittee on Communications, chair ed by Congressman Lionel Van Deerlin (D-Calif.) this month. Conclusion: all the agencies involved assume that someone else other than th eir agency has the ma jor enforcement authority, and all have conceded some duplicated efforts as well as some overlooked responsibilities. The study title then, “. . . W here D oe* The Buck Stop?" is quite appropriate. Joe Joseph Now York Life Ins. Co guilty of cutting the woman’s throat w ith ttMHOWlOW; toJU uf Attorney* join Association Six Portland. Oregon attorneys have been accepted for membership in The Association of T ria l L aw y e r* of America, A T L A president Robert G. Begam an lY X I'i r V iir in i nounced today. T hey are Philip H. Lowthian. John S. Marandas, M ark McCulloch. W illiam F. 281-3680 3933 N. E. Union Schulte, Richard A . Bly. and S te w a rt M . W b ipple. The association, w ith headquarters at Cambridge. Mass., is dedicated to the ^ m inistra tio n of justice for the public good and preservation of the trail-by-jury ROZELL’S system. R mw U' s wUl give 10% af y ew nrice to your church or charity in groups of tea or i | Black activism Berna Plumm er is Oregon's only Black delegate to the Republican P a rty National Convention in Kansas C ity. She received acclaim b at also m et the w rath of some delegates when she proposed th a t Black delegates withhold their votes unless the candidates met w ith them. M t, Plum m er is an affirm ative action officer for Multnomah County and has previously been a teacher. She has long been involved in the Republican P arty, serving as a member of the C entral Comm ittee. She was cochairman of the Oregon Black Committee to re-elect Richard Nixon and was an unsuccessful candidate for County Commission in 1974. Ms. Plumm er currently seek* election to the Oregon Legislature. Use all you need but save all you can . . . The People at Pacific Power. Advertise ment for proposals (Continued from p. 2 col. 6) party regular*. Elem ents of machine poli tics are rapidly corroding a* evidenced by the number of presidential prim ary can- causes a form of political isolation. No other identifiable group practice* this ex clusionary pattern, which negates the opportunity for Black Republican inais tence for inclusion on th a t party’s "bal »need ticket", or for Black population ratio "fair share" of political patronage. B L A C K S M U S T BE R E C O G N IZ E D The failure of presidential candidates to address the subject of racial justice during this year’s prim aries can in part be attributed to the Black voters’ failure to indicate a flexibility in exercising their voting strength. A * an example, in N ew York C ity, in the borough of M anhattan, Black voter* produce from one third to one half of the majorities won by the major candidates on the Democratic ticket. Y e t this year, m inority separations from municipal employment, under a Democratic admin The State Housing Division seeks proposals for the construction or rehabilitation of multi-family rental projects for lower income households. Approved pro jects will receive mortgage financing and rent subsi dy payments through the Division. The area and number of units for which the Division »king proposals is listed below: Area: Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington Counties. Units Available: 20 two bedroom units, 40 three bedroom units. Sponsors are encouraged to submit proposals for projects which combine bedroom types. Any size o f multiple-unit project may be acceptable provided it does not exceed the total units available for the area. Preference will be given to rehabilitation projects, small projects to be built and owned by local sponsors, and projects which maximize the use of local labor equal housing and suppliers. The Division is an equal opportunity lender. All units financed and subsidized by the Division must be rented without regard to race, creed, religion, sex, or national origin of the potential tenants. f Labor and Industries Building, saiem, uregon telephone 378-4343. t / h v , Visit Roseli’» - y o » eoauBunity istrstiqp was 36 per cent Black, (Black females Wees, reduced 65 per cent) and hispanics 51 per cent. The lack of Black political activitists is a reflection of the fact th a t American political organizations do not encourage activist participation. Machine politics requires a leadership, unchallenged by its didates. Y e t not since the days of Adam Powell have the political aspirations of Black America been eloquently demand ________ Bar-B-Q, Boa Feed, Patate PU, Shakes aad Sait lee Crema. N Æ . U N IO N A T A IN S W O R T H Opea 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m„ Sun-Thurs 10:06 a.m. to 12 midnight. F ri & Sat 5949 N .E . U pU a ed. L E A D E R S H IP V O ID E X IS T S A void exist* today in Black political leadership. In too many instances, Black appointed to political advisory posts share in common a tim idity to challenge. I can not identify a Black political leader who can dream and accomplish the im possible, who can forge solutions for the varied complex needs of our nation’s minorities, who is unwilling to perpetuate the mythology of the affluent, while the neglected masses continue to cry for a t tention. Y e t this is Black America's urgent need. Equal opportunity, or equitable re lationships. will only be achieved as the result of sustained and equitable alloca tion of society’s resources and energies. And this can not be accomplished without a national com mittm ent to fashion a solu tion to the massiveness of poverty through jobs, equitable business oppor tunities and income maintenance for the DENTIST /if» Good to/faow • NONE OF MY HELPFUL DENTAL HEALTH POLICIES HAVE CHANOEO NO Appointment diaadvantaged. D r. Toote, the highest ranking Black woman in the Nixon administration, se conded the nomination of Ronald Reagon for the presidency at the Republican Party's National Convention this week. \ Ovethiof i t i C m * e u ie a e r j
