Pea• 2 Portland Obec • ••r June I, ,_,
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Walla Walla fallout
Last week U.S. District Court judge Jack
Tanner found the State of Washington guilty
of cruel and inhuman treatment of its prisoners
at Walla Walla because of overcrowding as
well as brutality.
A few weeks BAO U.S. District Court judge
John Burns heard testimony in a suit brought
against the State of Oregon and various state
officials tor overcrowding at Oregon State
Penitentiary. A pending suit against Mult-
nomah County treatment at the maximum
security "A" tank at Rocky Butte, alleges that
the conditions and mistreatment are used to
induce prisoners into pleading guilty in order
to get out or to interfere with their ability to aid
in the preparation of their defense.
Three weeks ago a legislative committee
held a hearing on alleged discrimination
against minorities and the poor in "A" tank,
pointing out that placement in the tank as well
as treatment while there were often racially
motivated.
Friday, Director of the Multnomah County
Corrections Division Carl Mason ordered
changes at Rocky Butte; changes in policy and
administration that will alleviate overcrowding
and end the 23 hour a day lock-down, when
prisoners (most of whom are awaiting trial) are
locked in their cells.
After years of complaints, grand jury
reviews and recommendations by various
organizations some improvements are being
made at Rocky Butte. It appears that only
the courts and the severe penalties they can
impose can make realistic changes in the penal
system.
End the embargo
The vast media coverage given the flight of
100,000 Cubans to the U.S. ignores the main
reason for the exodus - the U.S. embargo of
trade with Cuba.
When the Castro government took power
21 years ago they claimed a nation that had
been ravaged by U.S. corporations for a cen-
tury and an economy owned and controlled by
those corporations.
While attempting - with no experience a few
natural resources - to build a new nation the
Cuban people were continuously harassed by
CIA raids culminating in the "Bay of Pigs." For
years the U.S. provided guns and ammunition
to Cubans who were killing their own people in
an effort to overthrow their own government.
There were numerous CIA plots to kill Fidel
Castro.
At the same time the U.S. halted all imports
from and exports to Cuba - including food and
medicine. This embargo includes not only the
U.S. but most of its allies.
The embargo prevents Cuba from buying
and selling in the U.S., only 90 miles away. An
undeveloped country dependent mainly on its
sugar crop, Cuba must export its sugar at
great shipping cost to Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union. It has to import food, machinery
and raw materials -- also at great shipping cost
-- from tt:u;,se.s;ountries.
The embargo - along with current disease of
the tobacco and part of the sugar crops - is the
reason why Cuba remains a poor country
whose economy cannot expand as rapidly as
its population. Although Cuba spends the
largest portion of its budget on education and
provides free health care and many other
benefits, there is still rationing of food and
clothing.
Some Cuban people are just tired of the
austere life and they - along with those who
want to be with relatives and others who want
to find a easier life - are coming to the U.S.
The unfortunate thing is that the U.S. is
making the same mistake again - in Iran. A
U.S. embargo - plus local (and possibly CIA
inspired I uprising has cut off access to the
west. Only the rail lines to the USSR remain ...
..
From the I Havana I Granma
An African economic community
By N. Fu,,,., Kumbula
Most of Africa's fifty four
nations have been politically in-
dependent for almost two decades
now . Economic independence on
the other hand has remained laraely
elusive. The economic apparatus set
up durin& colonial days, desianed to
benefit the former colonial powers
while shamelessly exploitina the
colonies is, in most cases, still in-
tact. The result has been that the
developed countries have aotten
richer while Africa's t"ledaina
nations have been bedevilled by a
vicious, endless cycle of poverty and
underdevelopment.
In 1%3 several African Heads of
State got together and formed the
Oraanization of African Unity,
OAU, as the first step towards
cooperation among the various
African nations. Thouah it has had
a number of successes, the OAU has
remained confined mostly to affairs
political and, until recently, had not
ventured much into the economic
arena. What with the wars in Zim-
babwe, Anaola, Mozambique,
Namibia, Chad, Uganda, Western
Shara and the Horn of Africa, the
African body has had its hands
more than full. The happy
resolution of the first three has freed
the OAU to deal with the now very
serious problem of the continent's
economic plight and endemic un-
derdevelopment.
As early as 1973, African leaders
had grappled with this problem
when they met and signed the Abid-
jan (Ivory Coast) Declaration
pledging economic cooperation
among the Africans on a regional
basis. A direct result of this was the
formation 01· the Economic Com-
munity of West African States,
ECOW AS, in 1975, bringing
together sixteen nations. In 1976,
the OAU Ministerial Council met
and signed the Kinshasa (Zaire)
Declaration and in 1979, the Heads
of State signed the Monrovia
(Liberia) Declaration. Each suc-
cessive Declaration went a step fur-
l her than its predecessor. The
ultimate goal, as outlined in the
Kinshasa Declaration, is the
creation of an African Economic
Community within the next 15 to 25
positions Vernon Jordan has taken
in response to national issues.
When Iran arrested the American
embassy and released the Blacks and
women, Jordan responded that,
"Blacks would not be used as pawns
in Iran crazy game." The Urban
League's stand on South Africa and
divestment Is, .. No, the Urban
Leaaue docs not think the U.S. cor-
portations should divest themselves
in S.A. because of the resulting
unemployment.''
Locally, the Urban Leaaue en-
dorsed the "School for the seven-
ties," descareaation plan which the
school system was forced to dis-
mantle under pressure from the
Black community, and recently
chose not to support a one day
school boycott on the prcmis that
conditions were not bad enouah to
warrant a boycott.
These examples are set 1·orth to
wants and beliefs, dcaire1 and
dcmand1. Real power is found in the
ability to condition and to control a
society's expectauun,, perceptions
and worldview. The succcuful ap-
plication of power, Luka implies, is
virtually never displayed as a 1cries
of public option, or decisions •
because the real-power brokers in
America suppressed all alternative
to their own interests and
simultaneously condition the mind
of the public to accept whatever
they desire.
Put another way, any Presidential
clc"ion with the allernative of
Rea1an ""· Caner, or Wallace "s.
Humphrey "s. Nixon ii no real elec-
tion because no fundamental
clloice1 are on the a1enda.
America's corporate elite manaaes
the selection of the candidates prior
to the so-called decision mall:in1
event, the election. The powerful
llavc the ability to create self-
destructive desires amona the
population throup manipulation of
commercia.11, the media and popular
cuJuare.
The pursuit of effective power
must include the moral and political
decision to say "no." Black pcopte,
individually and collectively, must
The Plan further proposes the set-
ting up of sub-reaional Preferential
Trade Areas all over Africa by the
end of 1984. Negotiations aimed at
removing intersub-reaional trade
barriers are to initiated by 1985. By
1990, African nations should have
removed all obstacles that curtail
trade amona themselves. Inter
African trade which currently
stands at a dismal 60i', will be upped
to 100"7, by the time all the sub-
regional economic communities
merge to form the African
Economic Community in the year
2000.
Before skeptics rush to point out
that "talk is cheap," it is well worth
pausing to examine the incentives
that are drivina the Africans to this
Iona overdue aoal of economic
cooperation. Africa's population
currently stands at 420 million; it is
expected to top 800 million by the
turn of the century. Therein lies the
problem: a demoaraphic time
bomb. Under the present 10-it-alone
policy, very few of Africa's natiom
can cope with their current
populations. The standard of livi"'1
is on the decline, disease is rampant,
unemployment
soaring,
malnutrition menacing, infant mor-
tality delitatina and inflation
sltyrockctina.
Hungry people can be very
dangerous: just ask William Tolbert
or the mayor of Miami. The only
way that Africa can meet and cope
with all these problems as well as the
overall curse of underdevelopment
is through economic cooperation.
African leaders now realize this.
Economic cooperation will not only
speed up development and in-
dustrialization of the continent but
will also ensure their own political
survival. When people have enough
of all the essentials, what do they
have to gripe about'!
Sianificantly too, economic
cooperation is being pushed most
vigorously by a whole new breed of
leadership: Zimbabwe's Robert
Mugabe, Mozambique's Samora
Machel, Angola's Dos Santos and
Nigeria's Alhaji Shehu Shaaari.
Most of them know poverty first
hand and still have the drive to pur-
sue real change. After the collapse
of the much touted North-South
Dialogue, inter African economic
cooperation makes real sound
economic sense. The call for closer
African ties in all spheres is being
heard from all levels of the African
social and economic strata.
The creation of an A frican
Economic Community will not be •
easy, it will require a lot of political
ambidexterity and a lot of expense
but, it cannot help but be realized. It
is an idea whose time has come: the
first step in Kwame Nkrumah's long
cherished dream of a United
States of Africa.
By Charle.s Jordan
CommissioMr of Public Stqety
prove Grassroot News, N. W. con-
tention that the organization, fhe
Urban League poses no threat. But
the individual Vernon Jordan may
have. The attack on his person was
attempted while Jordan was on a
national speaking tour. Under his
leadership the Urban League
gathered research and statistics on
Blacks in America in "The State of
Black America," compiled and
published yearly. Although he
stressed an integrative, assimilative
ideoloay, Jordan also attacked
politicians unkept policies and
promises.
It's a shame that in the land of'
free speech that people come to in
boatloads to escape free speech per-
secution, an individual is shot for
neutral stands which border on the
truth that pinched someone or
somebody's ears, causing them to
pull the triaer.
"A judge issues a warrant lo
search your pnmisa. • •
To obtain such a warrant, police
officers must have probable cause to
believe that a crime has been com•
mitted, and the evidence of the
crime is housed on your property.
The officers prepare a statement
to identify the reason why the search
is necessary and specifically what
the officers are looking for.
They must then take an oath
swearin1 to their belief that the
statement on the affidavit are true
to the best of their knowledae. The
District Attorney's office or •he of-
ficers prepare an aHidavirhat is
presented in court and sworn to by
the officers before a Judge.
The search can then take place
within the time and location
The absence of power
(Continued from Paae I col 6)
Blacks were pushed into the public
sphere.
This second definition of power is
superior to the nnt, but upon closcr
examination reveals Mriou1 flaws.
As social scientist Steven Lutes
noted in a recent study, these limited
definitions of power are based upon
conflict models of political
behavior. Nowhere can one find the
more subtle usa1es of power • the
1hapin1 of people's 1ubsconsciou1
With this aroundworlt laid down,
the OAU held its first ever
Economic Summit in Lqos, Niaeria
April 28 and 29. The Lqos Summit
was preceded by a Lusaka mini
Summit where the fundamentals for
the creation of the Economic Com-
munity of Southern African States,
ECOSAS, were outlined. The nine
sianatories to this mini summit:
Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania,
Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi,
Lesotho, Botswana and Angola
were already included in the
Preferential Trade Area of East and
Southern Africa alona with seven
other nations.
The Laios Summit culminated in
the si1nin1 of the "Plan of Action
for the Implementation of the
Monrovia Strateay for the
Economic Development or Africa,"
as well as the Protocol of an African
Economic Community. The Plan of
Action specifically outlines the ac•
tions African nations must take at
the reaional, sub-realonal and
national levels to achieve the
economic intearation of the con-
tinent by the year 2000. The
measures cover
food
and
agriculture, industry, natural
resources, human resources, science
and technology, transport and com-
munication, trade and finance,
energy, the least developed coun-
tries, women and development and
development planning.
Notes from City Hall
ernon Jordan no threat
(Grassroot News, N. W .) The
recent attempted assassination on
an executive officer of a civil rights
organization came as a surprise; not
the fact of a civil riahts leader at-
tempted assassination, but that the
civil riahts organization is the Urban
League. What comes as more of a
puzzlement than is surprise is the
traditional media obsession with
Vernon Jordan's chauffeur and her
boyfriends. Thus, drawing attention
away from dealina with a public
conspiracy to a personal problem.
The Urban Leaaue, since its in-
ceptiOI\ has constantly avoided con-
frontation as a tactic to gain and en-
sure human rights for urban Blacks,
thereby reducina anyone's percep-
tion of the Urban Lcaaue as posing
a threat to the powers that be. The
Leque has historically stayed out of
confrontational politics. Nationally
the evidence is reflected in the
years.
constantly reassess and examine
their relationship to the "loaic" of
the dominant white economic,
political and cultural institutions of
the total society. Any stratelY for
B!_ack power must include the
recoanitlon that power beains with
the process of controllin1 our own
minds, and rejectina those norms
and ideals which cut a1ainst our
ultimate interests.
Voter re1istration campaians,
elections, public interest aroups and
demonstrations are all important
vehicles for social chanae, but their
mere existence does not create or
convey power from one 1roup to
another. Before we can start a
course for effective Black power, we
must dare to be ori1inal. Before we
can chanae or challenae the world,
we must first chan1e ourselves. The
pursuit of power be1ins rrom
within.
specified on the warrant.
The officers will knock on your
door, announce their authority,
state their purpose as well as inform
you that they have a warrant to
search your home. At this point,
you should open the door to allow
them entry.
U you do not open the door, they
can legally remove the door from its
hinges.
In the event that the search in-
volves narcotics, material that can
be quickly disposed of, or there is a
possibility that the officers could be
harmed, the approach will be
somewhat different .
This warrant is served before you
are able to arm yourself, destroy
any evidence, and to effect an im·
mediate arrest.
Therefore, the officers will an-
nounce their authority and remove
the door from its hinges at the same
time. This entry is often referred to
as a no-knock search.
In these instances both you and
any other pcrson(s) on the premises
will be searched as well.
Once the officers locate the
property listed on the warrant, their
search should end. However, the of-
ficers can seize any other propeny
considered fr uits of the crime, i.e.,
items matchins the description of
another crime that are in plain view.
You will be given a copy of the
warrant and a receipt for all items
seized, except narcotics.
Usually an arrest follows a
search.
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New York
Editor/ Publl1her·
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ONPA 1973
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Best Ad Results
ONPA 1973
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Best Editorial
ONPA 1973
Honorable Mention
Herrick Editorial Award
NNA 1973
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CommunltyLNdefship
ONPA 1976
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Publtshers
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