Page 2 P o rtlan d O bserver D e c e m b e r 20 1979
EDITORIAL/OPINION
1979: THE YEAR THAT WAS
P A R TI
By
1979--and the future
As we come to the holiday season it is natural to
reflect or the year that is fast slipping away It has
Peen one of the most eventful years in this com
munity for a long time
The m ost s ig n ific a n t happening was the
development of the Black United Front which in a
few short weeks brought the school distnct to the
conference table -something that has never hap­
pened before
It proved that mass politics can
of police brutality.
- The Union Avenue Development has finally
been approved- after years of planning.
Senous problems remain:
- Economic developm ent: The Black c o m ­
munity continues to be left out of planning and
gets only a few crumbs of the millions coming into
the city for development. The real beneficiaries are
the coporations who get assistance in developing
work people who are united and whose purpose
thier businesses
s just can make significant gams
The vear began with the report on the Coalition,
which documented racism, discrim ination and
- CETA is still a mess.
- Minority contractors and businesses are not
receiving fair consideration.
poor education The School Board met the report
- Em ploym ent w ith state, co u n ty and c ity
with defiance.
Next came the HEW investigation of the School
District by the Department of Health. Education
and Welfare The staff found discrimination but
governments land of course the School Distnct) is
still restricted with Blacks in low -level jobs
- The cost of housing is unreasonable, with per­
sons on low. fixed incomes spending too much of
the District got o ff the hook on a technicality
although HEW had made fin d in g s o f non-
their incomes for shelter
- The cost of utilities is skyrocketing with the
compliance four times since 1975.
The Black United Front through a threatened
bovcott got some changes and some promises A
same effect Will the elderly die of exposure7
- The elderly poor are ig nored, w ith the
programs desgned to aid them dwindling away.
bonus was the appointment of Herb Cawthome to
the School Board
Whether the Board delivers will depend on the
community keeping pressure on the Board, and
ett ng the members know what thev want and
what tnev do not want.
There nave been other breakthroughs
The 9UF s investigating continuing charges
- Trojan is still with us.
- Young people suffer from lack of education,
no jobs, few recreational programs, dependence
on drugs.
- Polluted air. food additives
herbicides and
pesticides etc., contnbute to the cancer epidemic
The Black United Front has its work cut out for
it!
To be equal
Si
'
Jordan. Jr.
W hen G eorge M ean) stepped
c <»n as Pre-dent of the AFL-CIO
an important era in labor's history
ended
M ean) earned ad m iratio n and
respect a> a tough no-nonsense
■ ghter for working people He took
over a divided labor mo'ement infec­
ted »
or< that actively dis-
crtr- rated against Blacks and other
minorities
Bv the end of his quarter-century
a: i t ~e 'm ot organized labor,
w o'k ng Biack« » ere more like!'
tnar- w- esto b e -n on.i-ts. the AFL-
CIO had trade progress m ending
d -er■••• natorv practices. and it »as a
p ow er’d ai i of Black people
— ■ -_c- - po: : cai clout f a t helped
p a " , v • i~'> b l.s and other im­
portant measures
Fe» people remember that »hen
b e C ' Rights Act of 19*4 *as rn its
early cage' it dealt onl' with public
accom.oda: or< It » a s George
Means, the Bronx plumber »hose
base » as an a .w h ite fath er-so r
oca!, »ho n-isted that the Act bar.
employment discrimination.
Not the least of his accomp sh
ments »as h s outspoken advocacy
of full employment. national health
n surance, and oth er policies
desperate!' reeded bv Black citizens
w.nen the ad m in istratio n »as
planning to put some social
programs in a fisca strait jacket in
order to cu ’ the budget deficit.
Means -sisted that jobs »ere more
tm p o •t a nt
than
accounting
procedures
The Means era ends with the lafcxx
m ovem ent facing a changed
economy that is geared to services
-ath er than m an u factu rin g , and
facing ne» challenges to its prestige
ano its support.
His successor. Lane Kirkland is
»ell aware o f those ne» challenges
and can be expected to move labor
into a ne» era of change.
One such challenge is the decline in
union membership as a percentage of
the American labor force This is a
direct result of the shift a*ay from
m anufacturing, »here unions are
strong, and into »hue collar work,
»here th e ' base traditionally been
weak
But still another factor has been
la b o r’s failure to m ake inroads
among the poorest in the dirtiest
jobs The sweatshops still exist, esen
if some of them are in the open air of
agricultural plantations
Union membership »til continue
to sh-.n.k unless the labor movement
maxes organizing the vast members
of mprov enshed workers a priority
Another challenge lies in the lo»
status the public gives the labor
movement increasingly u has come
to be seen as a ha'en of highly paid
skilled »orkers *ho get huge raises
that outstrip inflation.
There’s a lot of falsehood in that
charge, but the fact remains that our
t»o-tier labor force results in »deiy
disparate rewards for workers doing
sim ilar tasks or bearing siir. a-
responsibilities
A worker or. an auto assembly lire
may get far more man a »orker on
the line in a sm aller, weaker in­
dustry That reflects a distortion of
the economy, not of »nonism
N evertheless, it’s one o f the
•easons *h.y the pubhc talks of Big
Labor m the same breath as Big
Business or Big Government S nee
the average paycheck today buy« less
than :t did in 1966. the charges about
labor’s greed don’t hold water, but
they persist anyway
Another challenge to the labor
movement lies in its relations »ith
Black workers The disproponiorate
Black membership figures haven’t
beeen reflected in the -an.ks of labor
leadership
And while many unions that once
discrim inated have changed their
charters and no» have B.ack mem­
bers. some still cling to barriers that
keep B acks out
But the basic challenge to la be* m
the 1980s »ill be the national d- " to
selfishness that retards social advan­
ces and combats the key items on the
agenda of both labor and minorities,
netnsd l.ke full em ploym ent and
national health.
The pa-tner ship of the labor
movement and the civil rights
movement has been responsible for
some of the most progressive steps in
the pas: t»o decades It’s been a par­
tnership that weathered differences
over some issues
It's a partnership that needs to be
strengthened :n this ne» " e r a of
- - f
—. is *e *;ar a-:
r.vartabiy l.m.ts app. ee on.y to low-
wage » o rk e rs, poor people, and
m: non ties
There »ill be enormous changes
coming in the »ay »e live and in the
»ay » e earn our daily bread
W orkers and minorities have to join
together in strong alliances to help
shape those changes The alternative
;s to be shaped by them
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283 2486
A L F R E D I HENDERSON
Editor Publisher
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0 N » A 1975
PER
The holiday season is upon us once
again. This is the time most journalists
take time to remind us all of »hat the
year has wrought and »hat’s in store
for the coming year This is also the
end of the "70’s.” Up nil fairly recen­
tly, the consenses among journalists
»as that the seventies were a
"sleeper ” Nothing much happened
unlike the sixiues. This year however,
seems to have gone all out to change
that perspective A look a: the inter­
national scene: First. .AFRICA:
UGANDA After eight years of one
of the most brutal reigns of terror in
modern times, "Life President, Field
Marshal Alhaji Idi .Amin Dada" »as
finally overthrown »ith the help of
Tanzanian troops. During his
relatively
short
reign,
his
m is m a n a g e m e n t, c o r r u p t i o n ,
wholesale massacre had brought a once
prosperous nation to near total break­
down. Only massive infusions of aid
from ’’fe llo » ” M uslim. Aluamar
Qaddari of Libya kept Uganda going
The ne» administration of Godfrey
Binaisa is having a very rough time
rebuilding the form er " p e a rl” of
Africa.
LIBYA Col M uamar Q addaft,
Libya's head of state »as one of the
fe» people not only to defend Amin
but actually to come and fight
alongside of hts troops to prevent the
ouster of Amin. The Ugandan
liberation forces, however, swept
Amin from power and Q addaf »as
forced :o recall his troops. Always a
controversial figure, Qaddafi’s role in
Uganda for the first time put him at
odds »ith the Organization of African
Unity
E Q U A T O R IA L G U IN E A
Another
dictator. Macias Nguema Biyogo of
Equatorial Guinea also found himsei:
at the receiving end of some of his own
medicine Sometimes dubbed the
"Butcher of A frica." his reign of
terror »as so bad he had forced fully
25 txr' cent of Guinea's population in­
to exile Amnesty International, the
human rtghts organization perodically
cited Equator Guinea as one of the
most repressive regimes in the world.
One day - August, he *oke _p to find
the army nad taken over and he fed
into the interior of the country His
pursuers ’oilo»ed. captured him, tried
and executed him Suddenly. the self-
prociaim.ed ‘‘Unique M iracle" »as
very dead
CEN TRAL A F R IC A N REPUBLIC
Watching a. this, one Jean Bedel
Bokassa seif-proc.aim ed and self
Fungai Kumbula
crowned Emperor of the Central
African Empire must have wondered
if he had suddenly become a member
of the endangered species, a species
called dictators. Always a little wacky,
this year he decided he »anted
schoolchildren to start »earing
uniforms. These uniforms, with his
inevitable emblem, »ere sold only
through one outlet owned by, you
guessed it, his wife. Talking about
trying to drum business'
The students protested that they
could not afford these uniforms. True
to form. Bokassa took this as a per­
sonal affront and so he had the
students arrested and crammed into
jails. So crowded »ere these young
kid' (12-18) that some »ere irampied
to death while others »ere clubbed to
death by the guards on Bckassa’s or­
ders. When word went out, the other
students took to the streets, clashing
with the soldiers. The French, once
Bokassa’s main allies, backed a coup
that quickly ousted Bokassa The
French acted so quickly not out of
concern for the students or human
rights considerations but because they
had received »ord that Bokassa »as
looking for and likely to get ax! from
Libya. So the coup »as designed to
"keep the CAR from getting too
radicalized."
ZAIRE Shor.lv after the fall of Idi
Amin, another dictator. Mobutu Sese
Seko of Zaire made a hasty trip to Dar
es Salaam. Tanzania, to get assurances
from President Julius Nyerere that
Tanzania would not attack and try to
hberate Zaire next In less than a year.
Mobutu had »atched with horror as
three fellow dictators fell The -ok of
the French in the Central African
Republic had him particularly
»omed. If they »ere so quick to dump
Bokassa. w ouldn't they be just as
quick to get nd of him too’ After all.
rumors have been circulating in
Western capitals that maybe it is time
to do a»ay with Alobutu and replace
him with someone *h o is not so
oper.iy dictatorial Also, within the
pas: two years. Mobutu just barely
survived two attempts at overthrowing
his regime
SOUTH AFRICA The "Muldergate"
•car.ua. finaliv came to a head forcing
the resignation of former Minister of
Information, Connie Mulder Sub­
sequently. Muldergate mastermind
Eschei Rhocxiie »as arrested in France
»here he had fled to and returned to
South Africa »here a judge promptly
ser.ienced him to six years in jail The
biggest fall, however, has to be that ol
former pmne minister and prune ar­
chitect of South Africa's apartheid
system. Johannes Vorster. He had
given up the premiership to take over
the ceremonial post of president, but
his implication in Muldergate forced
him to resign. The once all powerful,
nuinero uno Afrikaner thus was forces
etui in disgrace.
RHODESIA Ian Smith stepped
down and was "succeeded by Bishop
Abel Muzorcwa after the signing ot
the so-called internal agreement.
Muzorewa's first pledge was to end the
seven year guerilla war that has tinally
worn down minority domination. Af­
ter almost nine months in “ office,
not only has he failed 10 end the war,
he has been forced to agree to a whole
ne» round of elections under a vastly
different constitution. This is a tacit
admission on his part that his "gover­
nment" has been illegal all along. The
elections will probably be held within
the next three to six months, if only the
parties concerned can ever agree on a
ceasefire.
NIGERIA Nigerians recently went
to the polls and elected Alhaji Shehu
Shagan to the country’s first civilian
Head of State in thirteen years. Since
1966, there has been one military
regime after another.
GHANA: Dr Hilary Liman was the
victor in G hana’s first elections in
almost ten years. As in Nigeria, Ghana
had had one military regime after
another. Botswana and Kenya too
held elections thus continuing the
trend started in West Africa and,
which, hopefully. will sweep the rest of
the continent.
Africa’s general move away from
dictatorships to civilian control will
now make it easier to focus attention
on the minority regimes of southern
A" .a Now there is no longer an
Amin. Biyogo or Bokassa to point to
as examples of African leaders." The
OAU too has started an African wide
human rights watchdog agency. Only
a few years ago. this would have been
unheard of.
.AU in all. apart from the sobering '
death of one of Africa’s greatest sons.
D r Agostinho Neto of Angola, it has
beer, a very gosxl year for Africa. The
murder of the other greatest son. Steve
Biko, on the other hand, serves as a
reminder that the struggle ts far from
over As we salute Africa, »e should
not forget these heroes so they may not
have died m vain.
D epartm ent of Labor Proposes Specific Goals
W ASH1NGTON—The L S De­
partment of Labor has proposed spe­
cific goals in every pan of the coun­
try for utilization of minority em­
ployees by federal and federally as­
sisted construction contractors and
subcontractors.
The goals would be the mmonty
workforce percentages of the total
• ork force
"Because these proposed goals are
comprehensive aid would for the first
time cover the construction industry
or. a nationwide bas " the proposal
states, "the Department of Labor :s
inviting comments, suggestions and
recommendations from the public
for a period o f 60 days from
publication ’’ The proposal »as pub­
lished h the Federal Register on Sep­
tember " th
Department of Labor regulations
ai CFR b»?—1 6 -equ re the Director
of the Office of Federal Contract
Compliance Programs 1OFCCP) to
issue goals and tim etables for
minority and female utilization by
fede-a. and t'edera y-ass sted con­
struction contractors and subcon­
tractors The -egulations require that
the goals be based or. workforce,
demographic or ocher relevant data
Goals and timetables for female
utilization on construction projects
were established Aprl ' . !9“8 m a
Federa. Register notice which stated
that ne» standards and goals for
m inority utilization »o u ld be
published
after
a
uniform
methodology for developing nation­
wide minority employment goals had
reen established
The department no» is proposing
that the basic geographical units for
establish ng goals w-;i be the SMSAs
(Standard Me’ ropoi -an Scat stical
Areas* »hich com rrse 86C countries
and contain the m ajority of the
United States' pxrpu.at on For ‘hose
areas located outside the SMSAs the
geographical unit »11 be the EA
1 Economic Area* The Bureau of
Economic Analysis, t
U S De­
partment of Commerce, has defined
18? such areas, along county lines,
covering the entire country.
The goal established for minority
u: cation for either the SMS A or
the LA aid »ill ie the minocty work­
force percentage for each such unit
Separate goals are listed in the
proposal for each of the 285 SMS As
and for each of the 18? LAs W her. a
covered construction contract is for a
project located m an SMS.A. the
goab for that SMS.A apply When a
covered construction contract is
located n an area outside of an SM-
SA. the EA goals for that area apply
An appendix to the proposal lists
trie goals for each SMS A and EA
Timetables for the achievement of
goals are not provided because "it is
assumed that after 10 years of
Executive Order and other equal em­
ployment opportunity efforts to in­
crease the minority participation m
the workforce, these levels should be
at least at the 19*0 minority work­
force figures ” The goals »ere
calculated 'using Bureau of the Cen­
sus data
Some of the proposed goal? are
N j» York SMSA. 22 6 per cent.
Newark SAfSA. I ' ? per cent. Phi.a-
de.p-.a SMS.A. I” ? per cent Atlan­
tic City Ne* Jersey SA1S.A. II 2 per
cent. Bait.more SMSA. 2? per cent.
Wash tigton. D C SMSA. 28 per
cent. Petersburg. A -g - a. SMSA.
30 6 per cent. Atlanta SMSA. 21 2
per cent. M a — . Florida, SMS.A,
39 5 per cent. Ch.cago SMSA, 19 6
per cent. New Orleans SMSA, ?1 per
cent. Houston SMSA. 2" ? per cent;
Laredo. Texas. SMSA. 8" ? per cent;
and San Francisco-Oakland SMSA.
25 6 jxr cent.
The proposed goals are based
upon both male and female minority
representation in the workforce.
The nationwide goals for female
utilization established April ' . I9'8 ,
would not be affected by the
proposed notice Neither will the
minoritv goals under voluntary
"h o m e to w n " plans approved by
O FCCP The female goals estab­
lished last year »ere ? 1 per cent for
the first year; for the second year. 5
per cent; and for third year. 6 9 per
cent
Comments on the proposal should
be addre-'ed to Edward t Mitchell.
D irector. Division of Program
Policy. Room C-??24. Office of
Federal Contract Compliance
Program s. U S D epartm ent of
Labor. W ashington. D C. 20*10,
telephone (202) 523-9426
The equal employment opportu­
nity requirements are issued under
the authoritv of Executive O rder
1124* which prohibits federal con­
tractors and subcontractors from
employment discrimination based on
race, color, sex. religion, or national
origin and requires the employers to
take affirmative action to hire and
promote women and minorities
The order is administered by the
Department's Office of Federal Con­
tract Compliance Programs in the
Emplovment Standards Administra­
tion.
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