Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, August 17, 1978, Image 1

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    Ura Frances Schoen-'.'ewspaper Fooa
University of Oregon Library
t-ugene, Oregon 97403
Community protests
School Board committee selects appointment favorites
A committee o f three members of
the Portland School Board — Frank
M cNam ara, Beverly Y o rk , and
Phyllis Weiner — have selected three
nominees for appointment to the
vacancy on the Board created by
Gladys McCoy’ s resignation.
The persons selected were: Evie
Crowell, librarian at Portland State
U niversity and unsuccessful op­
ponent o f School Board member
W ally Priestley in the prim ary
legislative d is tric t race; Father
William Wetzel, Pastor o f St. Philips
Episcopal Church; and A ttorney
Dean Gisvold, resident o f Irvington
and active in community and school
affairs.
The deadline for application was
Monday at 5:00 p.m.; the fifteen
candidates were interviewed Tues­
day; before 6:00 Tuesday evening the
decision had been made.
Reaction o f the Black community
was one o f dismay and anger. The
rumor has been circulating in the
community for several weeks that
Evie C row ell, the candidate of
Gladys McCoy, has been selected.
“ There was no time for the Black
community to react. We didn’ t even
know who was running. We know
they don’ t care what we think but I
thought they would go through the
motions,” one Black school district
employee said.
“ I think this is indicative o f the
disregard which is generally paid our
com m unity by the Board o f
Education,” Herb Cawthorne said.
"Immediately following the closing
date for applications finalists were
selected. There was no concern for
finding out what members o f the
community thought, who they would
support and who could best
represent the interests o f the Black
community as well as the general
Portland community. In fact, this
action by the Board may prove to be
the one that makes the election in
A pril o f a strong Black candidate
possible.”
” 1 am concerned about the
procedure,” Lillie Walker, chairman
o f the Com m ittee fo r Equal
Education fo r all C hildren, said.
------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------\
FORTLAND
OBSERVER
"Interviewing the candidates the day
after the application period closed
didn't give time to be thorough and I
don’ t think it was fair to the can­
didates.”
A series of meetings involving a
broad representation o f organiza­
tions and individuals was held, in
which persons interested in applying
for the School Board position were
interviewed. A consensus of opinion
from the group, which then
organized as the “ Committee for
Responsive Leadership,” was that
Darrell Millner was the person who
could best serve the Portland com­
munity as a School Board member,
who was involved with and could
represent Black interests, and who
had the independence to make valid
decisions and judgements.
This group met Tuesday evening
to renew their support of Millner and
to seek to have his name added to the
list o f three nominees. A name can
A coffee hour fo r Darrell Millner,
candidate f o r appointment to the
Portland School Board w ill be held
at King Neighborhood Facility at
7:30 p.m. Thursday, August 17 th.
The public is invited Io attend. There
is no charge.
be added at the request of the in­
dividual and with the vote of three
School Board members. Millner has
indicated that he w ill continue to
seek the appointment.
Candidates filing for the position
were: Evie C row ell, In te rlib ra ry
Loan L ib ra ria n , PSU; Angie
Richardson, C om m unity Health
Nurse; Steve Buel, Teacher; Darrell
Millner, Associate Professor, PSU;
Marge Bolf, Newspaper employee;
Elizabeth Joseph, Homemaker; Ben
Padrow, Professor, PSU; Grant
Reilly, Retired; Carol Kyle, Law
C lerk; Edward Lyle, O ffic e r
Manager Burnside C om m unity
C ouncil; F loreid Am bers, Com ­
m unity H ealth Nurse; Eleanor
Sm ith, Absentee Election Board,
Multnomah County; Robert Boyer,
Terminal Employee; Father W illiam
Wetzel, Priest; and Dean Gisvold.
Attorney.
City fires CETA employees
The Portland C ity Council has
been considering a review of CETA-
funded Public Service Employment
Jobs since June and had lim ited
authorization o f funding for CETA
positions to September 15th, says
Joseph Gonzales, D ire cto r o f
Training and Employment for the
Bureau of Human Resources Public
Service Employment Division.
According to Gonzales, all 448
positions affected by the September
15th term ination notice, w ill be
reviewed by the Council In an infor­
mal session August 22nd to decide
whether positions are justified or a
substitution for other city positions.
The Council, he said, is also concern­
ed about overages, a general fund
supplement to CETA salaries which
allow participants to earn over the
CETA maximum of $4.80 an hour.
“ In light o f that,” says Gonzales,
“ The Council will consider funding
all, some or none o f the positions.”
“ The termination letter resulted,"
he said o f the notification to PSE
CETA T itle II and VI employees,
“ because the Council said that if
positions were to be terminated for
reasons not due to performance, we
had to give them thirty days notice.”
Because the review is slated fo r
August 22nd and no one knows who
w ill and who w ill not survive the
review, “ we had to tell everybody
they were term inated,” Gonzales
told the Observer.
Appointed to his position in June,
Gonzales said that the review is not a
result o f any charges or abuse of
CETA funds by Federal investigative
agencies. Though “ a number o f in­
vestigative teams from the Depart­
ment of Labor” looked at a number of
A ffirm a tiv e A ctio n com plaints
against the Bureau, "n o one talked
o f mismanagement.”
Ballot Measure #6 (Proposition
13) as well as the Councils “ General
management concerns” are at the
root o f the review, Gonzales ex­
plained because C E T A matching
funds and averages depend on
property tax revenues.
Since the passage o f California’s
tax lim itation measure and the in­
tro d u ctio n and acceptance o f
Oregon’s version on the November
Ballot the C ity C ouncil has been
authorizing CETA positions to ex­
tend only to September 15th, said
Gonzales, who added that some or­
dinances for positions have been re­
written to indicate that September
15th limit.
City CETA employees oppose lay-off
by Joe Williams
Nikki Blackburn, student aide at Humboldt Latch Key
program, plays chess with Tiffany Mitchell, Allan Herold,
Danielle Knapper and Tam Rhodes.
(Photo: Al Williams)
The YW CA Latch Key programs are accepting ap­
plications for before and after school day care. The Hum
boldt Center children pictured above are representative of
those served by centers at Richmond, Buckman, Sabin,
Kennedy, Vernon, Irvington, King and Merle Davis
School in Beaverton.
Latch Key programs are open to children from four to
fourteen who need child care. A wide variety of activities
are offered. For information call 223-9622.
Abubakar N.A. Bankole and Cur­
tis Cantue refuse to take the impend­
ing te rm in a tio n o f their C E T A
positions lying down. Bankole and
Cantue, C ETA Park Bureau em­
ployees, have organized the Commit­
tee o f CETA Employees Interested in
Keeping their Jobs (CEIK-JOBS). As
a result o f the termination o f all City
CETA employees as o f September
15th, which was announced by
Training and Employment Director
Joseph Gonzales last week. CEIK-
JOBS is planning a peaceful de­
m onstration at C ity H a ll on
August 22nd, from 8:00 a.m. to
N oon, during the C ity C ouncil
review o f all City CETA positions in
order to make final cuts in the C ity’s
temporary, Federally-funded labor
force.
“ We’ re not coming out for some
m utually agreed upon p o litic a l
ideology or anything,” says Bankole,
“ and . . . we’ re not trying to create a
’ movement.’ We just want to keep
our jobs.”
Bankole and Cantue organized
CEIK-JOBS last Friday after having
received term ination notices like
some 450 other CETA employees, in
the mail on Thursday.
“ I know people want and need
their jobs . . . they want to eat — and
have a few things people are entitled
to in life ,” says Bankole, “ like a
roof over their heads.”
The Committee is also soliciting
support from churches, agencies,
community organizations who "see
the need” fo r many previously
unemployed and, sometimes, unem­
ployable persons to maintain their
grasp on temporary livelihood.
“ We are asking that people write
letters in support o f C E T A em­
ployees to the C ouncil,” he said,
“ and I ’m hoping CETA employees
themselves w ill see that unless they
do come together, speak out and say
‘we need our jobs,’ the City Council
is just going to cut them out, and cut
out their basic survival needs.”
Apartheid: Nazism revisited
by N. Fungai Kumbula
In Skokie. Illinois, a raging battle
was waged between the m ostly
Jewish residents and the city over the
proposed march by the Nazis. In a
country where freedom o f assembly
is constitutionally guaranteed, this
becomes a very sticky issue but,
equally understandable is the
residents' apprehension over Nazis
m arching through their neigh­
borhood.
The above example is cited to
drive home the point that when it
comes to Nazism, very few people
will argue the fact that it is an evil
system that ought to be wiped out
once and for all. When it comes to
apartheid, however, either a double
standard applies or people generally
refuse to see the connection even
though it is as clear as day. A few
examples should suffice to bring out
these disturbing similarities.
A partheid is modeled after
Nazism. Each uses race as a basis for
discrim ination and oppression o f
man by man. The current South
African dictator, Johannes Vorster
was jailed by the B ritish during
World War II for publicly expressing
his admiration o f Hitler. He is also
credited with making the following
statement quoted in ‘South Africa:
Workers under Apartheid’ : " I stand
for Christian Socialism, which is an
ally o f National Socialism. You can
call this anti democratic principle
dictatorship if you wish. In Italy, it is
called Fascism, in Germ any,
N ational Socialism and in South
Africa, Christian Socialism.”
The power behind the Nazis was
the dreaded Secret Police, the
Gestapo. The apartheid version o f
the Gestapo is the Broederbond
("B ro th e rh o o d ” ), a super secret
organization answerable to no-one.
Analysis
In addition, the police force and the
army are, to all intents and pur­
poses, above the law. They can do
just about anything to the Blacks and
anybody that is opposed to apartheid
with impunity. The only way that the
85V# o f the population has been sub­
dued for so long is by holding a gun
to th e ir heads and k illin g , im ­
prisoning, “ banning” or exiling all
opponents — the Steve Bikos, and
W innie Mandelas, the Robert
Sobukwcs and so on.
The only difference I can see be­
tween apartheid and Nazism is that,
whereas the main victims o f Nazism
were the Jews, the victims o f apar­
theid are, for the most part, Blacks.
Blacks are regarded as “ outsiders”
in the land of their own birth as the
following statements from various
apartheidists will attest: “ The Bantu
are present fo r the sake o f their
labour. They are not here in a per­
manent capacity to acquire, but you
and I can acquire." M .C . Botha,
Minister o f Bantu Administration in
Parliament, quoted in “ Partners in
A p a rth e id .” “ We have run this
country on cheap labour, underpaid
our staff and kept them labour force
without power to handle their own
affairs and to negotiate for higher
wages,” R. Ackerm an, a white
South African marketing manager.
Neil Waites, a prominent building
Sleil Waite, a prominent building
contractor, invited to do business in
South A fric a , declined w ith the
following statement: “ The parallel
between H itle r’ s treatment o f the
Jews and South A frica’s treatment
of the Blacks became daily more ob­
vious to me in the course o f my visit
and was brought home more vividly
to me when I saw Blacks being
literally herded like cattle through
the Bantu Adm inistration Courts.
Just as I think with hindsight that it
would have been totally wrong to do
anything to connive at Nazism, so
also do I think we should do nothing
that would help to perpetuate apar­
theid.”
Everybody knows that without the
b illio n s o f dollars provided by
Western investors, apartheid would
not last too long. Vorster is quoted
as saying: “ Every tim e a South
A fric a n product is bought, it is
another brick in the wall o f our con­
tinued existence.” (The Star, Johan­
nesburg, 8/26/72) and a Professor
Steenkamp at the U niversity o f
South Africa: “ We have learnt that
our large international economic
relationships aie our,best sheild in a
w orld that has chosen us as
scapegoats.”
More than anything else, these
statements repudiate any claims by
corporations that they are not prop­
ping up the apartheid regime. They
also repudiate any claims that they
can be a force for change. The usual
ra tio n a liz a tio n has been that by
adhering to the so-called Sullivan
Principles, and thus offering Blacks
higher wages and promotion, apar­
theid would, o f necessity, crumble
away.
This is a hollow argument because
these Principles are rejected by vir­
tually all o f South A frica’ s Blacks
because, first of all, they pledge to
work within the existing system o f
apartheid. We have maintained all
along that the whole system has got
to go. Mere adoption of the Sullivan
Principles s till leaves us v irtu a l
foreigners in our own country, it still
recognizes the abhorent Bantustan
policy, it forces us to give up our
rightful claim to our share o f the
South African pie, it still subjects us
to the hum iliating pass laws and
(Please turn to Page 2 Column 1)
NAACP holds
reception
The Portland Branch N AAC P,
w ill hold a post-convention reception
to thank those who worked to plan
and promote the National Conven­
tion held in P ortland July 3rd
through 7th, and to discuss the ef­
fects of the convention in Portland.
The reception w ill be held on
August 20th from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.
at Rooms 1075 and 1077, Emanuel
H ospital East. Reverend John
Jackson, Branch President, invites
members, volunteers and the public
to attend.
Cece Klsinger, RN, a Multnomah County Community Health Nurse, gives
Goro Nakajima the vaccinations she needs for a healthy school year.
School vaccinations available
No shots! No school! is the phrase
that the Oregon State H ealth
Division has been repeating a lot
lately. A new state law requires that
all children five to fourteen years of
age entering school for the firs: time
must be fully immunized.
To help these youngsters get their
needed shots M ultnom ah County,
Department o f Human Services is
holding special immunization clinics.
riomah C ounty. N o rth P ortland,
8912 N. Woolsey, fourth Thursday
o f every month, 1:30-4:00 p.m.; J.K.
Gill Building, third floor, 426 S.W.
Stark, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday,
and Friday, 9:00-11:00 a.m. Special
Clinic Times: North Portland, 8912
N. W oolsey Avenue, Thursday,
August 24th, 1:30-7:30 p.m. and
Thursday, September 28th, 1:30-7:30
p.m.
The law requires that children should
have immunizations against polio,
measles,
rubella,
d iphthe ria ,
whooping cough and tetanus. Mumps
vaccine is recommended but not
required. Exceptions are granted for
children because o f medical reasons
or religious objections to im ­
munizations.
Cost for immunizations is based
on a sliding fee scale. However, no
one w ill be turned away.
Im m unization clinics in M u lt-
For the Northeast area: M u lti-
Service Center, 5022 N. Vancouver,
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and
Friday, 9:00-11:00 a.m. and 1:00-
4:30 p.m. Also Wednesday 1:00-7:30
p.m.
Special C lin ic Times: M u lti-
Service Center, 5022 N. Vancouver,
Wednesday, August 30th, 5:00-8:00
p.m. Indochinese C ultural Center,
4113 N .E . Broadway, M onday,
August 28th, 1:00-8:00 p.m.