Page 2 Portland Obaanrar Thursday November 16. 1978
CoRgress restricts export-import financing
We see the world
hy N. F u /if 04 Kumbula
through Black eyes
Michael Harrington recently said that before
there can ba political justice there must be
economic justice This election is a good example
The political races seem to get dirtier with of how the lack of equal access to economic
each passing election. Outright lies as well as wealth can subvert the political process.
subtle bits of misinformation are peddled in the
paid advertising Candidates and supporters or
adversaries of the various ballot measures seem
free to say just about anything they choose.
The U .S . Justice Departm ent has filed a
The Secretary of State pleads inability to act.
“friend of the court" brief in the case of the
There appears to be no recourse for the wronged
Wilmington 10. The Justice Department found a
parties or the pubic except a court suit, which
document
that indicates that the prosecutor's
could be decided long after the election is lost.
chief witness might have lied. The Justice De
Oregon needs stronger and more precise elec
partment has asked the court for writs of habeas
tion laws and an office to enforce those laws.
corpus, which would release Benjamin Chavis
Perhaps the authority should be vested in a non-
from prison and release the others from parole.
partisan commission which could act quickly and
The statem ent discovered by the Justice
decisively to stop any abuses before the election
Department, which had been obtained from the
and to reveal those abuses to the voters.
North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation was
Another problem which is becoming acute is
the statement of the chief witness, a teenager. It
that of money. Great amounts of money are
had been altered - in handwritten notes - 130
spent by some candidates and by special interest
times, yet the document had not been submitted
groups - in this case the private utilities and the
to the court by the prosecution or made available
dental associations — to influence the vote.
to the defendants.
Although ballot measures are put on the ballot by
For many years the witness has claimed that he
hundreds of workers and thousands of petition
has lied in exchange for police favors and has
signers, their supporters cannot hope to match
tried to change his testimony. Yet the courts and
the amounts of money stacked against them.
the Governor of North Carolina ignored his pleas.
They cannot buy the media space needed to give
Chavis has been in prison since 1972. Six years
their views and to overcome the highly financed
is a long time to pay for an obviously politically
campaigns against them.
motivated false conviction. This clearly is a man
Although the media has maintained that cam
who is imprisoned because of his political and
paign expenditures are a right to free speech and
moral views.
therefore cannot be controlled, the selfish in
The state of North Carolina owes Reverend
terest of advertising revenue can influence this
Chavis and the others far more than release from
opinion There should be some way that ordinary
prison.
people, who wish to serve, could be elected to
Perhaps the government should review all the
state and local positions without spending thou
convictions stemming from the civil rights and
sands and thousands of dollars. And there should
anti-war movement. This case certainly shows
be some way that those who do not have those
that justice is sure in this country.
dollars can be equally heard.
Election laws needed
Justice denied
Over the past few years, just about
anybody who has spoken against the
apartheid regime o f South Africa
has, at some point or other, called
for economic sanctions as a way to
break the backbone o f this the most
brutal government in the world.
Concomittant with this has been a
call for the U.S. government to cut
o ff all Export-Im port Bank finan
cing either to South A fric a , to
American companies trading there or
to agencies o f the South A frican
regime 1, too have championed this
alternative as the most concrete way
in which this government can
dem onstrate its professed disap
proval of apartheid.
A brief explanation o f these Ex
p o rt-Im p o rt Bank (E x -lm b a n k )
loans would be in order here. It is a
complex system whereby the U .S.
government guarantees any U .S .
company doing business in South
Africa against loss. It is a form o f in
surance in that the government
pledges to reimburse the company in
the event o f a loss o f its investment.
Essentially then, it means this: say
The Kumbula Chemical Company
pours $15m. into South Africa to
open a subsidiary in Johannesburg
and. in a Soweto style uprising, the
children burn down Kum bula
Chemicals, Dr. Kumbula can go to
the U.S. government to claim his
SlSm . long as he complied with
Ex-lm bank requirements. As you
can see. this takes the risk out o f in
vesting in countries with unpopular
regimes where a company would run
the risk o f losing ail in the course o f a
popular revolution.
On June 2nd, the House had, by a
vote o f 219-116, passed a com
promise resolution that would have
stopped all loans, guarantees and in
surance in support o f the South
African 'government' and its agen
cies. Also to be included were those
companies that were not following
the Sullivan Principles pertaining to
a ffirm a tiv e action. Senate con
sidération o f this bill was put o ff
time and time again. It had been
racked on to the E x p o rt-Im p o rt
Bank authorization bill.
On Sunday, October 15th at 2:JO
a m ., the House inserted the South
A fric a n E x -lm b a n k restriction
passed in June in to H R (H ouse
Resolution) 14279, a bill on flexible
regulation o f domestic bank rates.
That bill came before the Senate that
same day after the Senate had been
meeting all night. That hour of the
morning isn't really conducive to
lengthy arguments, so the Senate
adopted the House amendments
w ithout any debate at a ll. The
lateness o f the hour, coupled with
the pressure o f innumerable other
bills that had to he attended to
before the Senate recess compelled
the Senate conservatives from
challenging the bill It should by now
have been signed into law.
The significance o f this is that, this
is the first time that Congress has
taken any action at all against the
South African regime South Africa
used to accuse the C a rte r ad
ministration of meddling too much
into her domestic affairs even though
the American public was not in
terested in day to day South African
policies. Passage o f this bill exposes
this 'rationale' to be the lie that it is.
It shows that a lot of people do care
and arc prepared to do something to
show their opposition to racism, op
pression, suppression and repres
sion.
Strangely enough, while Congress
now seems to be moving in the right
direction vis s vis South Africa, the
A d m in is tra tio n
seems to
be
wavering. On the same day that HR
14279 was passed. Secretary of State
Cyrus Vance was leaving for Pretoria
to deliver a personal message from
President Carter inviting the new
reactionary. Pieter Botha (the prime
minister) to the U.S. if he took cer
tain actions on N a m ib ia and
Rhodesia. U.S. officials, according
to Jim H oagland w riting in The
Washington Post (1 0 /2 3 /7 6 ) have
decided to "use more carrot and less
stick in dealing with South A frica."
Consequently, the administration
had opposed the bill claiming it want
ed to retain Executive flexibility.
That the E x-lm bank restriction
will have a suable impact on the
apartheid regime could hardly be
overstated.
Due
to
existing
limitations and South Africa's own
slow economic recovery, the level of
E x -lm b a n k financing to South
Africa is not all that large at the
moment. For fiscal 1978, it stood at
$82.7m.
As The F in a n c ia l M a il (South
Africa's version o f The Wall Street
Journal) pointed out, the reper
cussions can be very far-reaching:
“ I f those government guarantees
(such as those from the Export-Im
port Bank) were withdrawn, foreign
banks would themselves have to bear
the risk. In that event, they might
choose not to grant the credits at all.
The consequences would be a further
drain on South Africa's resources,
perhaps severe enough to raise
questions about South A fric a 's
ability to service its huge foreign debt
obligations.“
Though this is the only victory we
can claim in recent weeks, it is very
significant and should go a long way
to boosting the miracle o f the troops
currently engaged in the battle to im
pose a to ta l economic embargo
against South Africa. The word is:
'Let's hang in there, folks. I think I
can see daylight ahead.'
MITHS
Come Today!
h o m e fu r n is h in g s
M
The Herndon file
(Continued from Page 1 Column 4)
tags, social security number, credit
rating, passport number, date o f
issue, picture, the whole works! Talk
about an invasion of privacy' This
was an out and out coup!
Periodically, the FBI was passing
some o f the information on to the
Secret Service. One such com
munication was titled: "Travel Dafa
on Extremists and Other Subver
sives.”
As justification for all this, there
was a memo from J. Edgar Hoover
that stated: ’The information fur
nished herewith concerns an in
dividual who is believed to be
covered by the agreement between
the FBI and the Secret Service con
cerning Presidential protection, and
to fall within the category marked:
because of backgr ound potentially
dangerous, or has been identified as
a member or participant in com
munist movement, or has been under
investigation as a member of other
group or organization inimical to the
U .S .’ A subsequent memo from
Hoover's successor, Clarence Kelly,
cited as reason: “ em otional in
stability or activity in groups or ac
tivities inimical to the U .S ..” There
were three of these Kelly memos, the
last was dated 1/23/75.
One of the most chilling aspects of
all this FBI spying is the use o f in
nuendos. I f somebody who doesn't
know Herndon were to read the
above memos, he would get the im
pression that he was a dangerous
person.
W ould any o f those who have
known and worked with him testify
that they have never seen him speak or
act in a manner that could be called
inimical to the U.S.? In the Reed
College incident mentioned above,
the Black Student Union of which be
was a member, was demanding a
Black Studies program as were all the
other BSU’s across the country
They had gone through all the
norm al channels without success
and. as last resort, they had occupied
the administration buildings for a
week. A fte r this action, the ad
ministration agreed to institute the
program Now, would demanding a
Black Studies program be construed
as ‘mimical to the U.S. or a sign of
emotional instability?' No, o f course
not. Neither would speaking against
apartheid and colonialism as he is
supposed to have done at an African
Liberation Day rally in 1972. Excerpts
o f his speech were included in the
FBI File, as well as newspaper articles
he had written for the Portland Ob
server
There were some almost desperate
attempts to link him to the Black
Panther Party and the only "evi
dence” cited was that one of their
spies had reported that he/she had
seen Herndon's car parked in front
of the BPP office once. There was
also mention of the fact that when
Stokely Carmichael came to Port
land, it was Herndon who purchased
the ticket, put him up for the night,
accompanied him to Portland State
University to deliver an address and
then went with him to Evergreen
College in Washington
Reading through the entire file,
one wonders how much of the tax
payers money is or was wasted
following a man who is merely trying
to survive. One o f the saddest aspects
of the whole thing though concerns
the people who allow themselves to
be used to spy on one of their own.
Was it for the love of money? To
curry favor with the white man? To
get out o f an embarassing situation?
Whatever the reason, is that price
PORTLAND OBSERVER
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Com m unity Leadership
ONPA 197Î
other material throughout (he paper is the opinion o f the individual
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Portland O ta a n a r
N a tio n a l A d » a r t j at n g Repreeenta'tive
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enough to play Judas to your own
kind?
Sad too is the fact that the FBI, a
supposedly reputable arm o f the
government, charged with the task of
enforcing the law would still con
tinue to view as enemies any Black
who advocates pride, dignity, self-
worth, respect and survival of the
Blacks. How many o f us today are
walking around totally unaware that
we may have been the target of years
o f surveillance? The above story
should indicate to one and all that
you don't have to have horns or five
foot tusks to qualify for FBI game.
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Rocky Bvtte
(Continued from Page 1 Column 4)
of what they are charged with.”
In a related story, it appeared
James Daniels, an inmate at Rocky
Butte and a P.C. member is to be
tried again for an "alleged” theft of
$91. This misdemeanor charge has
already resulted in Daniels being held
in Rocky Butte for over five months
on a charge having a penalty of one
year, usually meaning five months
and twenty-one days o f actual incar
ceration. Daniels has been tried once
(resulting in a hung jury) at a tax
payer cost estimated at $10,000 or
more with another tria l to cost
another similar amount. Potentially
over $20,000 of tax money will be
spent on this case while officials
report “ lack of funds” allows the
inhumane conditions of Rocky Butte
to continue.
“F o r the great m ajo rity . . . bail
a out o f the question The accused
usually goes to ja il, hears the lock
d ic k behind him, sits down, and
waits. I t is one o f the proudest tenets
o f Am erican law that any accused
p erson is in n o cen t u n til p ro ven
guilty. Yet each year thousands o f
Americans who have been charged
with a crime but not yet brought to
tria l spend weeks a n d sometimes
months in jails.
K a rl Menninger, M .D .
The Crim e o f Punishment
Viking Press
is to o s h o rt to be
s m a ll."
Beniamm Disraeli
" L ife
" A fool seal not the tame
tree that a wise man seat "
W illiam Blake
e forooa d ra w e r belo w
198
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