Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 24, 1981)
Page 2 Portland Observer, September 24, 1981 EDITORIAL/OPINION Exposing the Paper Tiger by N. Fungal K ambula Elderly poor getting poorer While the Reagan Adm inistration proposes cuts and delays in Social Security and other pro grams to aid the poor and elderly, the Black elderly are already worse o ff than they were two years ago. Census figures show that in 1980 two out o f every five Black people 65 years and older lived in poverty. This is an 18 per cent increase over 1978. The poverty rate o f elderly Blacks rose from 33.9 to 38.1 per cent in those two years. Poverty level is $3,941 fo r a single person or $4,954 fo r a coupie. Aged Blacks are nearly three times as apt to be poor as elderly whites and poverty figures only represent the tip o f the iceberg, w ith 310,000 more described as “ marginally poor’ ’— that is, having incomes o f $4,926 or less fo r a single person. Therefore, 1.1 m illio n elderly Black people live in dire poverty or so close to it that they really cannot appreciate the difference. Blacks and other minority people must live in poverty in their later years in large part as a re sult o f discrim ination during their w orking years. These are the same people who w ill be hurt most by Reagan’s determination to cut govern ment costs by wrenching crumbs from the poor. Organization starts at home The Solidarity Day demonstration in Wash ington, D.C. involved unions and more than 200 non-labor groups marching in concert to protest against the Reaganite budget cuts. The Reagan administration has already cut $35 bil lion from the budget for fiscal year 1982 and plans are now being made to announce $74 bil lion in additional cuts planned for fiscal year 1983 and 1984. The rally in Washington w ill draw the atten tion o f many in Congress who already sympa thize with its goals, but Reagan was not hang ing out the White House windows to watch. In fact during the demonstration Reagan was at Camp David, Md. In a statement issued in La bor Secretary Raymond Donovan’ s behalf spe cial assistant Earl G. Cox said: “ The Administration wants to work with all Americans to improve the economy. And we want to work closely with the leaders o f organ- ized labor. But we can’ t do that when they put on their partisan p o litic a l hat and set out to oppose our program indiscriminately.” The point to be made is, one im portant au dience for the Solidarity Day demonstration is the participants themselves. As the members o f each group marched, they were loo kin g around at the other marchers. Perhaps they asked themselves if they had more in common than just common concerns over the adminis tra tio n ’ s disregard for each o f their particular causes. I f yes, then the next step is to collect and make common concerns felt on the p o liti cal scene. The collection can begin righ t in your own back yard. There are many small groups, each working on their own agenda. It is important that the activities o f the different group' be consolidated for a unified e ffo rt as was ‘demonstrated in the S o lid a rity Day demonstration march on Washington, D.C. SaLut-day. S ep t. I I i chu ' t BffTHeneo rusts, fm UI0RKÊRS OUT- sioe uho ufi*.*. ee with going - Toj CfitnP DAVID FOR A R.É.ST. you KB grand Monday. 5e.pt.. 21 \ ß ** ~ 5106 AND WÄKTA j jo you 'T€U HY eu e r H m om ! T y M /tfE Letters to the Editor To the editor: Many thanks to the Observer for the courage to support free speech for radicals (E d ito ria l/O p in io n , Sept. 3). The fascist-like attack on the Communist Party-USA booth is but one o f the escalating incidents o f harassment and physical attacks on leftists who exercise their Consti tutional Rights. All of us who, because of race, na tional origin, sex, sexuality, political belief or affiliation, are now targets o f mounting right-wing terror, must heed the Observer's call and stand up for our mutual self-defense. Jamie Partridge Portland, Ore. Portland Observer ut«»«. The P o rtland Observer IU S P S 989 680) in published a„ery Thursday by Exto PubHehirvj Company, Inc , 2201 North KiHinga worth, Portland, Oregon 97217. Post Ottica Bo« 3137, Portland Oregon 97206 Second cleet pottage paid at Portland, Oregon, MS «SPARÌ■ B a ti!i Suoecr.pt.ona 910.00 par year in Tri County area Poetmaatar: Sand address change« to the Portland Observer. P.O. Bo» 3137, Portland. Oregon 97206 M IM M » i: ill ■ ’’l 283-2486 Bruce Broussard Editor/Publisher A g ain , the raiders make a clean get-away. A nother "m assive man h u n t" is launched and two years later, there still has not been a single arrest. It is tacitly acknowledged that the attackers more than likely simply merged in w ith the general population and are only waiting for an o p p o rtu n ity for a repeat per 1 Oregon Newspaper Publishers ¡Association i 1 1 MEMBER National Advertising Representative A m algam ated Publlahers. Inc. New York Aaaoc/at/on - Founded 1668 1 formance. A police station in the second largest city in the country is attacked with automatic weapons and in the exchange o f fire , three policemen are k ille d , one o f the attackers is wounded and the rest (however many o f them they were no one knows) get away. Another "massive m anhunt" proves as fruitless as the others before it. This time the target is none other than an arm y barracks and it is at tacked w ith rockets and grenade launchers. The barracks suffers ex tensive damage and three security men are killed but, would you be lieve the attackers get away? The at tackers raid an arm y barracks housing what your Western press touts as the strongest and best equipped'army in sub-Saharan A fri ca in broad daylight and they man age to get awayl A friend called the South African army a paper tiger and for a second I was skeptical but just for a second. Logic: i f the South Africans are as good as they claim to be, how could they allow the above goofs: not once but time and time again? It suddenly dawned on me that, yes. the South A fricans do have the hardw are thanks to their unscrupulous West ern allies but they are not very com petent at using it. It is a lot safer for the A N C guerillas to hit economic targets all over South A fric a now than it was for Z A N L A and Z IP R A to do the same at a similar stage o f the armed struggle. South Africa has relied heavily on its bombastic propaganda machin ery that blows out o f all proportion her raids on neighbouring territories and her outrageously in fla te d k ill ra tio . A n yb o d y can p ilo t a jet bomber and go d ro p o f f bombs from 20,000 feet up. A lm ost any body can invade another’s country backed by massive air power and ar moured personnel carriers especially when the country being invaded happens to have isolated pockets o f internal resistance. I f South A frica were so great and the A fricans so in e ffe c tu a l, how come she has failed to apprehend even one o f all those people who have embarrassed her by penetrat ing her strongest defenses and h it ting some o f her most sensitive targets? The Western press, duped as usual, focuses on South A fric a ’s over-blown m ilitary "s u p erio rity" while ignoring her glaring weak nesses. That’s good for us, however, because as long as South A fric a fools (he w orld into believing she has the upper hand, it will make our victory all the sweeter when the "boys" and the "girls" roll into the streets o f P reto ria and Johannes burg and East London and Port Elizabeth. Prime Minister Mugabe is a much respected man today because up until his forces rolled into Salisbury, the West never took him too seri ously. The Eighties could very well be the Decade o f C o m p letin g The Unfinished Business— The Decade o f Exposing The Paper Tiger. Europe's public protests war trend by Jon Stewart Pacific News Service SIR, THfRf AKe wo.ooo flmeRicaM 'SIR, THC OF jUWTrt IS OUT- Three raiders open fire with A K - 47s in the open m arket at 12:00 noon and then slip away into the crowd, never to be seen again. The police launch what they call " th e most massive m anhunt in the his tory o f the c o u n try ’ s urban w ar fare." Two years later, the manhunt is still on (there never was an an nouncement to say it had been called o ff) and still not one o f the three gunmen has been apprehend ed. It might also be added that this m arketplace was in the m iddle o f the dow ntow n area o f the second largest city in the country and, theoretically, the most "secure.’ ’ H a lf a dozen or so saboteurs (no one knows exactly how m any be cause no one saw anything except the ensuing explosion) slip through what is considered a foo l-p ro o f se curity system and attack the coun try ’s nerve centre. They manage to blow up three S A S O L c o a l-to -o il gasification plants the third one 100 miles away. The ensuing explosion lights up the night sky for hundreds o f miles around, causes an acknowl edged $8 million in damage and sets the project back several months. seriously. The central, postwar role o f the United States in European af fairs is rapidly eroding. The m ovem ent’s expansion also may be related to a shift away from N A T O ’s tw in-pillar policy o f " d e fense and d e te n te " to the recent view that the alliance is primarily a military instrument— and a nuclear one at that. " T h o s e A m ericans w ho argue that nuclear wars are winnable are not very p opular over h e r e ," o b served D eVries. " T h e Reagan ad m in is tratio n seems to th in k that detente is a lie, that the only thing to do is build up your armaments. For us, that doesn’t promise anything. W e live on this continent and we know there will not be peace unless there is some kind o f cooperation and understanding. D etente has brought Europe a lo t." THE HAGUE. NETHER L A N D S — " A s far as pacificism in Europe is concerned, I d o n ’ t see many signs o f it. W hat we have is activisim o f a new kind. I t ’s a very positive movement.” declared Klaas D eV ries, a leading D utch p a rlia mentarian who serves on N A T O ’ s Atlantic Council. The observation came amidst a mounting storm o f European p ro test over N A T O policies, a storm which touched ground w ith more than 50,000 demonstrators to greet U .S . Secretary o f State Alexander Haig in West Berlin this week. I f N A T O defense policy only in frequently inirudes into the public p o litic a l debate on the A m erican side o f the Atlantic, all across north ern Europe it has moved to center stage, generating a massive popular Not far from D eVries’ o ffice in "peace m ovem ent” supported by Parliam ent is the headquarters o f m illions o f church workers, trade one o f the largest and most influen unionists, students and leading po tial peace groups in Europe today— litic a l figures. O rganizers o f a the IK V , or In te rd e n o m in a tio n a l planned O ct. 10 dem onstration in Peace Council o f the Netherlands. Bonn, for example, confidently pre Sponsored by a c o a litio n o f nine dict it will be the largest mass rally churches, including the Dutch Re in post-W orld W ar II German his form ed C hurch and the C ath o lic tory. C hurch, the group works through The recent wave o f terrorist a t some 400 local organizations to pro tacks against U .S. and N A T O per m ote a foreign p olicty based on sonnel in West Germany is not apt "critical membership in N A T O and to mar the essential respectability of an independent policy for peace," the European peace movement, nor said IK V director Mient Jan Faber. slow its growth, say observers here. The "independent p o lic y" con " W e abhor the terrorism, and it can sists o f (he total denuclearization of only give the authorities an excuse the N eth erlan d s, meaning the re to crack dow n,” said Oliver Schru- moval o f all nuclear weapons from offeneger, a young activist in West Dutch territory and a refusal by the B erlin ’ s A ltern a tive List p o litical governm ent to p artic ip a te in the m ovem ent. " B u t these acts have planned 1983 N A T O deployment o f nothing at all to do with what we are U .S. Pershing II and cruise nuclear trying to accomplish." missiles. This unilateral move is de Indeed, any efforts to dismiss the signed to encourage other nations to European peace movement as insig follow suit, leading eventually to a nificant, Communist-controlled or nuclear-free Europe and the crea terrorist can only lead to an even tion o f new alliances— especially of greater gulf between N A T O policy the smaller European states, in the makers and the public they are sup East and West, committed to bring posed to be pro tectin g . G ro w in g ing disarmament pressure on both numbers o f political leaders in West N A T O and the Warsaw Pact. Germany, Holland, Belgium, Scan While the new Dutch government dinavia and England recognize this is not expected to expel N A T O ’s nu fact. They recognize, too, that their clear weapons from Dutch territory, own political futures are largely in it is a certainty that it will indefinite the hands o f this new generation o f ly "postpone” the acceptance o f the peace activists, for whom the hor new American missiles— an implicit rors o f W orld W ar I I and the post form o f rejection. war menace o f the Soviet Union are A 1981 po ll in the N etherlands distant m em ories, i f they are re showed 54 per cent o f the popula membered at all. tion in support o f the I K V ’ s p ro The growth o f the peace m ove gram and tw o-thirds in support o f ment in north ern E urope has oc total denuclearization and rejection curred q u ie tly , and suddenly. In o f the new A m erican missiles. A part, it emerged out o f an increas m in o rity o f the Dutch population ingly strong, affluent and self-confi believes that N A T O is contributing dent postwar Europe which has pro to better East-W est relations. In vided a generation new entering the fa c t, p o litician s throughout po litical mainstream w ith a sense northern Europe complain that they that its own ideas about Europe's find it increasingly difficult to per role in the world should be taken suade the public that N A T O is more friend than foe. The churches themselves have played a key role in this m obiliza tion o f opinion, especially through participation in the annual "Peace W e e k " activities throughout H o l land. Last year the Dutch Reformed Church, the largest in H olland, is sued a pastoral letter in support of IK V ’s campaign to denuclearize the Netherlands unilaterally. Pax Chris ti, the Catholic Church's own peace group, supports a similar program, which the church itself is soon ex pected to support publicly. IK V recently has reached out to church groups in other N A T O coun tries, and in the Eastern bloc as well, to encourage sim ilar campaigns. Meeting have been held with repre sentatives o f the East German Evan gelical Church which, within its own strict lim its, also supports a disar mament movement. A recent docu ment distributed in East Germ any by an " a d hoc c o m m itte e" o f the Evangelical Church goes so far as to call for " u n ila te ra l disarm am ent" by East Germany. In West G erm any, the E vangel ical Church also is at the center of the anti-nuclear protest. A church- a ffilia te d group, known as Action R ec o n ciliatio n , now provides a broad umbrella for the many dispar ate peace groups active in West Ger many, ranging from communists to young Christian Democrats. " W e can take the in itia tiv e be cause we don’t belong to any one of the traditional streams o f the peace m o v em e n t," said V o lk m a r D eile, secretary o f Action Reconciliation. "W e are acceptable to everyone.” The group has been instrumental in organizing massive protest dem onstrations throughout West G e r many and the com ing O ctober 10 dem onstration in Bonn. They also claim partial responsibility for the 50,000 West Germans who refused induction in the armed forces last year. The Scandinavian N A T O coun tries, D enm ark and N o rw a y, already are free o f nuclear weapons in peacetime by virtue o f their pol icies against allowing foreign wea pons o r troops to be stationed on their territories. Sweden, which is officially neutral, also remains free o f nuclear weapons. In these countries, the peace activists have concentrated on form alizing their nuclear-free status by campaigning for a Nordic Nuclear Free Zone, in which nuclear weapons would be ex cluded even in wartime. " W e would not give up anything but the o p tio n o f having nuclear weapons in the event o f w a r," said Oert Peterson, head o f the Danish Socialistic People’s Party. " B u t ,” (Please turn to page 3 column I)