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
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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.
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