Page 2 Portlend ObNrver November 29, 1179
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Western Sahara : The forgotten war
by N. Flln111i Kllmb11lt1
Start au over aga,in
They aren't even calling it a comprehensive
plan.
Last fall to head off a Black boycott that
would not' only have caused some financial
hardship and inconvenience but would have
brought national attention to the district's
already tarnished image, the School Board made
some promises. It promised a comprehensive
desegregation plan that would place the burden
of desegregation equally on Black and white
students and families.
The Black United Front demands were simple:
use a two-way transfer system to achieve
desegregated schools; assign no less than 40 per
cent Black to any school receiving Black trans-
fers. Allow all neighborhood children to attend
the Early Childhood Centers designed to draw
white four and five-year-olds. These demands
were in response to the destructive scattering of
Black children.
Because all of the schools in the community
except Boise had been cut to five grades or less,
create two or more middle schools in the com-
munity and don't close Jefferson or Adams.
Other demands dealt with achievement,
curriculum, treacher training, minority staff,
discipline, etc. Most of those issues have not yet
been addressed by the Board.
The School Board agreed to the demands
and promised a comprehensive plan, to be ready
for the fall of 1980, that would "reflect the
Board's affirmative duty to maintain individual
school populations of not more than 50 per cent
minority students."
W hat does the new plan -- which aims at a fif-
ty percent goal within five years -- t he plan they
can't even call "comprehensive" do? It does
more of the same. It relies almost exclusively on
the need to recruit Black studesnts out of their
commuity -· even more than before, according
to Chairman McNamara.
The only valid change is the redistricting of
part of King into the Sabin and Irvington clusteni
and part of Boise into Irvington. Nothing is to be
done within the clusters -- Sabin / Alameda /
Beaumont and lrvington/ Fernwood / ect. -- to
distribute white students to Sabin and Irvington.
The one middle school -- Boise or Eliot -- will
depend on white volunteers.
Most Black children will still have to leave the
community to attend middle school and some to
attend elementary school. No white student w ill
be transferred to a middle school or an elemen-
tary school in the Black community. The same
old policy is retained.
We ~eleive Michael Grice was right when he
said the schools can be desegregated by
changing boundaries. Every child would con-
tinue to attend a neighborhood school -- a
desegregated neighborhood school. Only Boise
and possibly King would require other adjust-
ments. There is no need to bus children back and
forth all over the city.
of Black children must be recruited out because
there is no room for them in their own schools.
The Board's plan is deficient and they might as
well change it now as wait until the end of
February and try to throw something else
together over the weekend.
Case threatens affirmative action process
A case now in the courts that has received lit-
tle attention but that might eventually become as
important and as well known as the Bakke and
Webber cases is Scarpelli vs Rempson.
This case, now in the Wyandotte County
District Court in Kansas, is an attack on affir-
mative action and the complaint process .
The case involves a libel suit filed by a white
medical school professor against four Black
former medical students and the affirmative ac-
tion officer who investigated their complaint.
The students charged Dr. Dante Scarpelli, for-
merly chairman of the pathology and oncology
department at the University of Kansas Medical
Center, with "willfully and unlawfully" violating
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the school's af-
firmative action program by discriminating
aganist Black studnets with the intention of
"systematically eliminating them" from medical
school.
Scarpelli countered with a libel suit claiming
the complaint was malicious and libeled him. The
jury deliberated for three days but was unable to
reach a decision . Scarpelli has requested a
retrial.
The students are: Dr. Charles Lee, presently a
heart surgeon at the University of Kansas
Medical School . He was named "top Black
medical school graduate in the country." Dr. Er-
nest Turner, who Scarpelli recommended be
dismissed from school, is a pediatrician at the
City of Hope Hospital, Pasadena. Dr. Charles
Floyd is a psychiatrist in residency at Martin
Luther King Hospital in Los Angeles. Dr. Nolan
Jones is a specialist in female cancer research at
Tuffs University New England Medical Center
Hospital.
Dr. Herbert Reid, Howard University, said, "If
affirmative action officials are to be intimidated
by the fear of being penalized for honest protest
and complaint, then we are looking at a back-
door means of eliminating every inch of progress
in higher education affirmative action."
The NAACP National Office is represent-
ing the doctors. This case is a good example of
the need for continuing work in the civil rights
field and the necessity of contributing to the
NAACP during its Freedom Fund campaign --
now in progress. The Freedom Fund Campaign
is annual effort on the part of all branches to
raise money for legal and educational needs on
the national level . Send your contributions to
2752 N. Williams Avenue, Portland 97212 or to
your local branch in Salem, Corvallis, Eugene or
Vancouver.
Letters to the Editor
Support action on police brutality
OPEN LETTER
Mr. Ron Herndon
Re11. John Jad,on
Bla..:k Uniced Front
P.O Box 3976
Porcland, Oregon 'J7208
Dear Ron & Re~ Jack\on·
Please acccpc thi, letter as an u-
pre~s,on of our rnppcrt for the et
fort,.
Please accepc chis letter a, an ex
prernon of our support for the ef-
forts of the Black United Front con-
cerning police brutality in the com-
munity. I believe the approach you
art ,aking of educating ciltzens
abouc how to conduce themselves
11.hen slopped by the police, the
process to follow 11. hen stopped
inappropriately, and the reportin1
system you ha~e designed are proper
strategics. The issue of police
brutality is real an has a serious im-
pact on the community in general
and Che Black Community m par-
ticular.
We strongly cncou rage you to
11.ork 11.ith Commissioner Jordan in
hts effons 10 eradicate this scourge
on the communal)
\1y 1.ount offtce 11. 111 assist ,n
11.hatever v.a) seems appropriate
Sincerely,
A heated controversy in the U.S.
State Depanmenl that had rqed for
over two years was quietly resolved
this past month. The debate centered
on a biller war bein1 wa1ed in
Africa's vast Sahara Desen, some
ten thousand miles away. The war in
question is the POLISARIO
liberation movement's campaign 10
oust Morocco from Western Sahara.
Western Sahara is a strip of desen
about the size of California on the
west coast of Africa. 11 was, until
1977, a Spanish colony. For quite
some time, the POLISARIO had
been waging a very successful
auerrilla war aaainst Spanish oc-
cupation. By 1977 the Spanish had
had cnouah so they decided to quit
and they were 1oin1 to grant in-
dependence to the POLISARIO but,
a number of people intervened.
Morocco is currently the world's
leading producer of phosphates from
which fertilizer 1s made. Prospectors
studyina the Western Sahara have,
however, found that Western Sahara
has rcser11es that would dwarf
Morocco's. This study must have so
upset Kina Hassan of Morocco to
suddenly find himself playina second
fiddle to an obscure country like
W~rern Sahara. For this reason and
11. hat ever other colonial desians he
had, he suddenly laid claim to
Western Sahara. Accordinaty, the
applied pressure on the Spanish not
lo grant independence 10 the
POLISARIO but instead lo pass
soverei1ni1y of the territory over to
Morocco and Mauretania.
It is said, Henry Kissinger also ap-
plied quite a lot of pressure on Spain
to gt\e Western Sahara over 10
\lorocco and Mauretania rather
than grant the territory independen-
ce. At the time Morocco ""as
ncgotiatina for more money for the
lease of US bases m Spain, Kissinaer
assured the Spaniards that they
""ould get all the money they were
asking for: all they had to do 11.as
cede \\ es tern Sahara 10 Morocco
and Mauretania. So in 1977 Spain
complied and passed the Western
Saharas sovercianity o\·er to Moroc-
co and Maurcrania.
The POLISARIO mmement for
lls pan simply retrained its guns at
both \lauretania and Morocco.
From the start, Mauretania 11.as a
rather hesistanr partner, she seemed
to go along ""ilh the deal for fear of
possible reprisals from Morocco if
she did not. After the POLISARIO
attacked targets in both Maurerania
and Morocco se\eral 111nes and
scoring spectacular suc..:esses,
Mauretania agreed to parttc1pa1e m
bilateral negot1a1 ions 11, 1th I he
POLISARIO. Earlier this )'ear, these
nego11a11ons rc,ulted m Mauretania's
lit\ ms up her portion of \\ esrern
Sahara. Hassan 11.a, furious and 1m-
media1el)· tnO\ed to claim that por-
tion and vo11.ed to fight until the
POLIS-\RIO v.as ""i~ out.
The 11.ar has raged on smce ""ith
the POLISAIUO secmmg 10 get the
best of 11 mo,1 of the 111ne. Thar ts
11. hat the State Departrnenr debate
11.as all about Technically, the US
docs not rC\:ogmzc Morocco's claim
10 \\csrern Sahara. The US 1s also
Morocco· main arms supplier and
for quite some 11me no11., Hassan has
been ne1011attng for more arms 10
fi1h1 the POLISARIO. For the past
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initiative. So far, ucept for the
Sudan's Jaafar Niemery, no other
Arab or African leader has come up
in support of Sadat.
So, for its Mid-East peace
initiative and to "keep a friendly
monarch in power," the "hawks" in
the US aovernmcnt have decided to
sacrifice the people of Western
Sahara. Apparently. principles count
for much less nowadays then even I
had imagined Meantime, William
Tolbert, current chairman of the
OAU (Organization of African
Unity) has initiated an OAU spon-
sored effort to get the combatants to
the negot1atm1 table. He has already
called on both the POLISARIO and
~orocco as well as Algeria, the
POLISARIO's tnam backer and ar-
ms supplier, 10 meet and try to iron
our their differences.
The State Department wa, arguing
that maybe with these new arms ,
Hassan would feel he wa, m a better
pos11ion 10 opt for a peacefu l
solution lo the Saharan problem!
One cannot be blamed for failing 10
follow 1h1s kind of (111) loaic.
Hopefully the cornbatanl!i 11.ill heed
the OAU call and peacefully resolve
their differences. There has been
much too much killing already.
a1-s-Jvliil
lnter•led m current books about
African Liberation?
B1II McCoy
State ~nator, District 8
The Pnrtloftd Oh,nw, IUSPS 959 680111 OUlll""8d ew,y ·
dey by hoe Publllhtng COITlplfty. Inc 2201 ~h,:
P0t1land Oregon 97217 Poat Office Bo• 31 J7 Pornenct
97208 Second c .... poetage pa,d ■t Por11■nct °"90f,
two years or so, reason had prevaJied
in the State Department with the
Dept. refusina to sell offensive
weapons to Morocco. What weapons
were sold aJways carried the rider
that they were not to be used outside
Morocco's borders. Last month, as
seems to be the trend everyday now,
reason was tossed out the window
and the Carter administration aareed
to sect Morocco SIOO million wonh
of arms. Not only that, the
stipulation about the weapons beina
used elllclusivdy for defense purposes
was struck down. Thus even though
th US still professes opposition to
Morocco's anneurion of Western
Sahara, sellina of these weapons and
strikina out the "defense only"
clause will undoubtedly be cakcn by
Hassan as tacit approval for his
policies.
The "hawks" in the Stale Depart-
ment and the Carter administration
had araued, successfully now one
could add, that Hassan is one of the
US's staunchest supporters and
"should not be abandoned like the
shah." These same "hawks" also
argued that maybe given these arm\
and a freer hand in Western Sahara,
Hassan could be persuaded 10 sup-
port Anwar Sadat's Mid-East peace
we give you more ...
Glady \fcCoy
Multnomah Count Comm,ssmner
PORTLAND OBSERVER
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