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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 1979)
Page 2 Portland Observer Thursday. July 26. 1979 EDITORIAL/OPINION McNamara's the one Some were shocked, some dismayed and others just disgusted when the Portland School Board's screening com m ittee failed to select Herb Cawthorne as one of the three finalists for selection to the School Board. W ith school desegregation and related issues being one of the most serious issues faced by the School District over the past two years, increasing Black hostility toward the district, building white awareness of the unfair treatment of Black child ren, a proposed school boycott and the real threat of court action, most thinking members of the public had expected that a Black would be named to the Board. More than ever before the Board needs a member who is an active participant in the Black com m unity— one who not only can ar ticulate the concerns and demands of Black peo pie but who can interpret those concerns and de mands to the Board and the white public. The Board needs a person who is trusted by Blacks and believed by whites. Cawthorne does not take his candidacy to the School Board lightly —it is not the result of poli tical ambition. Although urged by supporters, he did not seek vacancies that were filled last year by Joe Rieke and Evie Crowell. Now, he feels that he can fulfill the function of bridging the widening t^ap between the Board and the community. ; Board members Scott, Steve Buel and Wally Priestley could add Cawthorne's name to the contenders. Then the decision would be squarely up to Frank McNamara, who just a year ago ex pressed his regret that Cawthorne had not sought, an earlier vacancy and indicated that Cawthorne was his first preference. Now McNamara has a chance to fulfill that wish —he could put Caw thorne on the Board. A time to act The anti busing amendment proposed by Rep resentative Ron M ottl was defeated in the House of Representatives by a 216 to 209 vote, an ever, greater margin than the opponents of the bill had expected. The Mottl amendment would have prevented effective racial desegregation in many cities by requiring that children who attend public school be assigned to the school nearest their homes Not only would those desegregation programs now in effect be destroyed, but the whole issue of school desgregation would have to be fought all over again -- in the courts and in the streets. The amendment's failure to pass should end, for now , the e ffo rts to fo rb id busing for desegregation. tin u e -a n d that it must be accomplished in an equitable manner has again been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in its recent decision that court-ordered desegregation can be applied to districts that were segregated by school board policy as well as by law. The handwriting is on the wall for the Portland School District. Portland has been fortunate in that it has until now been able to avoid the con flicts of court ordered desegregation. The district has, for nearly 20 years, been able to convince some Black parents that it knows best and other Black parents that they are powerless to resist It has been able to convince the white population that desegregation is progressing w ell, that they will not be involved and that Blacks are happy. No one, not even the school district personnel, fully realized the extent of destruction that their ill conceived, crisis-directed program wreaked on Black children. It was only after the facts and figures were gathered and published by the Community Coalition for School Integration that the full picture was finally revealed. In light of these revelations, which only serve to verify what parents already know, the school district cannot hope to continue in its blatant denial of the rights of Black citizens. If the School Board cannot find an answer —and quickly —it faces a difficult year ahead. Thus for the District's response to the Black United Front has been neither responsible nor productive. First came Dr. Blanchard's remarks that the responsible leaders and thinking parents will not support the boycott. Ernie Hartzog, As sistant Superintendent, said the District had no intention of talking w ith Black United Front leaders. When the Board finally decided to act, it called a public meeting —a "fo ru m " —for the Black com m u nity to come to Benson High School and express its views. This recalls the meetings last January when the Board went to Benson High School to listen to the concerns of the Coalition with deaf ears and to respond with rhetoric. In its usual paternalistic manner the Board failed to invite the Black United Front before making its public pronouncement, so had to can cel that m eeting. Chairman McNamara has voiced a willingness to meet —but this time the Board will have to do more than talk they will have to act. Dellum's bill best The Kennedy national health insurance bill is getting a lot of attention, and the support of the vast majority of those people who believe this country like all other industrialized countries ex cept South Africa should provide some type of health care for its citizens. Representative Ron Dellums is sponsoring his own bill —one which gets little publicity but w hich is the real answer to the health care problem in the U.S. The Kennedy bill w ill provide comprehen sive, mandatory, universal health care. The em ployed will be covered through the purchase of health insurance by their employers; the unem ployed will be covered by the federal govern ment. Hospital and doctors’ fees will be set by negotiation among the medical profession, the insurance companies, and the consumers. This bill is not expected to curb health costs or effect the quality of care. Costs under premium financed insurance are higher because the in surance company must make a profit. Estimates are that profits and overhead account for 40 per cent of the premium. The Dellums bill would set up a national health service. D octors, nurses, and other health workers would be employees of a decentralized national health service, which would be elected by community, regional, state and national boards. The source of funds to provide free medical and preventative health care to all Americans would be a national progressive income tax. This bill, by taking the profit out of medicine, is expected to cut health costs by 20 per cent. In the face of the powerful American Medical Association lobby, the Dellums bill is not given much chance of even being discussed by the House. Our elected representatives will settle for second best —if anything at all. GIVE TO THE UNITED NEGRO COLLEGE FUND. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. 1st Place Com m unity Service ONPA 1973 P O R T L A N D O BSERVER ALFRED L HENDERSON Editor/Publisher The Portland Observer IUSPS 969 680i is published every Thurs day by Exie Publishing Company, Inc 2201 North Killingsworth, Portland, Oregon 97217. Post Office Box 3137 Portland, Oregon 97206 Second class postage paid at Portland Oregon 1st Place Best Ad Results ONPA 1973 Subscriptions $7 50 per year in Tri County area S8 00 per year outside Tri County Area Postm aster Send address changes to the Portland Obstrvrr. P 0 Box 3137, Portland. Oregon 97206 5th Piece Best Editorial NN PA 1973 The Portland O b strvtr’s official position is expressed only in its Editorial column Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion of the individual writer or submitter and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Portland Observer Honorable M ention Herrick Editorial Award NNA 1973 National Advertising Representative A m algam ated Publishers, Inc. N ew York 2nd Place Best Editorial 3rd Place Com m unity Leadership ONPA 1975 3rd Place Com m unity leadership ONPA 1978 M l MR» ‘ A«IO( >f»on ’ M5 The Organization of African Unity by N. Fuugat Kumbula The O rga niza tion o f A fric a n U nity held its annual meeting in Monrovia, Liberia, this past week This African body, more popularly called the O AU , was founded in 1963 and its primary aim was to repair the damage, undo the harm that decades o f colonialism had done to Africa. Prior to the onset o f colonialism, there were no definite boundaries and, consequently, no real separate ‘countries' in Africa. The whole con tinent was just one large land mass and the people moved from place to place, hampered only by minor lan guage differences and difficulty with transportation. To say Africa was united would be an oversimplication but, to say it was not united would be an exaggeration also. There were major settlements all over the continent but a substan tial percentage o f the people lived in small settlements and moved from place to place in their constant search fo r better grazing lands fo r their animals and good soils fo r their crops. Though the Africans did fight one another from time to time, it was usually on a very small scale, what would be called 'm inor skirmishes’ by today's standards. True, there were such brilliant m ilitary strate gists as the I shakas, Monomotapas, M zilikazis, and the Ghana, M ali, Songay, Sudan and E thiop ian monarchs b ut, on the whole, the average African never did develop k illin g to an art form as did his European counterpart. This was why when the I uropeans came to Africa, it was not so d ifficult for them to overrun a whole continent. Il was with these thoughts in mind that the OAU was born: to address African problems, unify and, conse quently, strengthen Africa, bring the people closer together, pool resources, energies and ideas so as to make Africa's independent more meaning ful. Colonialism had left a painful legacy behind and the OAU was to attempt to eradicate all traces o f colonialism as quickly as possible and make Africa Africa once again. Just to p oint out some o f the problems that the OAU set out to address: after the Europeans came to Africa, they carved up the continent in to ‘ B ritis h A fr ic a ,’ French, Belgian, Portuguese, Spanish, Ger man, Dutch, Italian Africas; and each as different from the next as France was from Spain. We still suf fer from that legacy today: it I meet any o f my comrades from either Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra l eone, Swaziland, Zaire or any country other than my own, I cannot converse with them except in a foreign Ian guagc. Sometimes it gets to a point where we cannot converse at all be cause, whereas I speak English (in addition to Shona and Ndebele), this other A frica n student may speak only French or Portuguese (in ad dition to his local language—which 1 do not understand). The Europeans actually tried to make the parts o f Africa they colo nized ‘ Little Furopes.' When they built transportation systems, for in stance, they made a point o f never connecting adjoining countries if they happened to be under different co lo n ia l ‘ ru le rs .’ For example, Ghana is next door to Togo but, when they built railroads, the respec tive rail lines ended at the border: they deliberately used d iffe re n t guages so as to lim it cross border travel and keeping the people further divided. Telecom m unications: when the telephone was introduced to Africa, the exchanges were maintained in some European capital. II one wants to make a call from Accra, Ghana to Abidjan, Ivory t oast (West African neighbors), the call has to go through London first, then Paris before being re-routed to Abidjan! It is these kinds o f problems that the OAU was born to address. Over the years, it has met with some suc cess and some disappointments. One o f the most ambitious projects to be born and carried forth largley due to the O A U has been a complete overhaul o f the entire continent’ s communications system. As o f this w ritin g, work is proceeding on a T rans Africa Highway that will even tu a lly extend all the way from Dakar, Senegal on the west coast to Nairobi, Kenya on the east coast, a distance ol well over 5,000 miles. When completed, this highway will also have arteries linking it with North A fric a , Northeast A fric a , and Southern Africa. It will be the most extensive highway network on the face of the earth. Along the same lines too, the OAU has worked to facilitate travel be tween various African countries by easing restrictions on visas, promot ing more sporting events such as the Pan African Games, Africa Cup soc cer matches, etc., working on build ing more direct telephone and tele graph links (work is in progress at the moment on a m ultim illion dollar Inter A fric a n C om m unications System) and, probably the most im portant and one long over due, the establishment o f a lingua tranca for all Africa. Swahili has been mention ed as a possibility and now that it has been accepted as one o f the languages to be used at the United Nations, that should boost its chances even more. A language, a single language for all Africa has been long overdue. We all know, I am sure, that language promotes a people’ s culture much faster than just about anything else. The very tact that you are speaking in someone else's language is in it self an acknowledgement. We hope these good efforts en visioned by the OAU w ill soon be realized and, when they are realized, Africa (and all Africans) w ill once more be poised to enter another Golden f ra, no, make that Black Era. The sell-out of Black construction workers by Bayard Kasiin In an odd way, people like Bull Connor, George W allace. Fester Mad dox and other outspoken racists unw illingly provided Black people with some useful tactical advantages. First, the bitterness and harshness of their rhetoric alienated them from many decent white people. And, second, th eir unam biguous and starkly honest support tor segregation helped to unify and mobilize the Black community. Moreover, we had no d iffic u lty in distinguishing our friends from our enemies. Today, however, much o f the bombast, crudity, and overt racism o f the recent past has disappeared. Discussion o f "ra c ia l issues” has become more refined and civilized. But this " c o o lin g - o ff” o f racial rhetoric raises a new and perplexing problem: many subtle, almost in visible assaults on Black people now slip by us unnoticed and therefore unchallenged. Such a "sneak at ta ck" on Black people is now un derway w ithin the construction in dustry. Allow me to explain. After years ol d ifficu lt and pain staking work, Blacks have finally begun to obtain their lair share of good-paying, relatively secure jobs in the unionized skilled trades. Indeed, Black youngsters now till nearly 20 per cent o f all new apprenticeship slots among cement masons, steam- fitte rs , plasterers and operating engineers. Significant progress has also been realized in other trades as well, trades which back in 1940 had something like one Black for every 20 whites. But now, just as we begin to see some encouraging advances, we also witness the emergence o f a bold I ! movement among employers to un dermine the wages, job security and w orking conditions o f their new Black w orkers by pro m o ting som ething know n as the " m e rit shop". This o f course is not done in the name o f racism, it is done in the name ol com petitiveness, cost cu ttin g and economic necessity. What exactly is the "m erit shop" and how does it a ffe ct Black workers? Stripped o f its alluring trappings, the merit shop is nothing more than a non-union shop in which the employer—and the em ployer alone— sets wage rates, w o rkin g c o n d itio n s , vacations, fring e benefits, and w ork rules. Workers have no say, and they lack the protections afforded by a solid collective bargaining agreement. In short, Blacks who flocked to the unionized construction trades in that non-union construction employers— who are expanding every day—are becoming as arbitrary, and tight- fisted as “ Old Massa” on the plan tations. It is no surprise—and certainly no coincidence— that the low -paying " m e r it shops” have become so popular in areas with large Black populations and high unemployment rates which make labor cheap and docile. Data in a recent issue o f Fourtune magazine, confirmed this point by noting that "m e rit shops" account for 85 per cent of all con struction work in the Baltimore area, 8.1 per cent in Houston, and 75 per cent in Washington, D.C. A ll this is just the beginning for the "m e rit shop” proponents who are organized in the Associated Builders and C ontractors (ABC ). This pow erful, w ell-linanced or- ganization — which has tw o fu ll time lawyers in ashington, and the * services o f 60 law firms across the country —now hopes to significantly increase the number o f " m e rit shops" in urban areas, which o f course have the largest concen trations of Black union construction workers. Bv focusing its anti-union, wage cutting e fforts in the cities, ABC will in eflect be undermining the p osition ot Black workers, w orkers who have enjoyed the benefits and high wages o f union jobs fo r such a short tim e. Ad- d itio n a lly , A IK has launched a m ajor and so far unsuccessful- campaign to repeal the Davis-Bacon ’ Act, a law that requires contractors on federal projects to pay prevailing union wage rates. Bv describing the activitie s o f ABL , and the adverse economic ef fects of the "m eut shop" on Blacks, I am not asserting that ABL. and its member companies are consciously racist. Most are not. But as shrewd businessmen who want to make a last buck, they are all too willing to ignore the broader social conse quences of their wage-cutting, and job destroying actions, especially as they affect Black workers. Because the "merit shop" threatens the livelihood o f so many minority workers. Black leaders have a serious obligation to raise this issue force fully and with a unified voice. If we ignore this “ sneak attack" on Blacks, we will be silently accepting the cruel destruction o f opportunity for the Black working class, a group which has overcome numerous ob stacles in the long struggle fo r equality and economic security. Subscribe Today I I 1 $7.50 per year—Tri-county ' $8.00 per year —Other | | , I I N A M E _________________________________________ ADDRESS _____________________________________ C ITY___________________ STATE____________ ZIP Mail to: Portland Observer P.O. Box 3137 Portland, Oregon 97208
