Page 4 Portland Observer, February 18. 1982
Racism and unions
EDITORIAL/OPINION
by Manning Marable
Since the demise o f the C ivil
Rights Movement some years ago.
the relations between Black leaders
and organized labor have not always
been cordial. Some Blacks in both
investments must go where the pro fits are great the Democratic and Republican
parties have even begun to advance
est.
the view that unions are structurally
Now M r. M yers plans to visit South A fric a .
racist, incapable o f change, and that
The rationale; that his visit m ight foster better A fro-A m ericans should begin to
race re la tio n s in th a t c o u n ty . B u t bigger and look to Big Business to form our
better men have tried that and failed.
new economic and political alliances
Now it is easier to understand why Rolv Schil- in tne ivgOs.
The most conservative Black ex
lias o f the C ham ber o f Com m erce w o u ld want
pression o f this antiunion view was
to visit South A fric a . The Cham ber represents
published in 1980 by the Lincoln In
business in te re sts and th e y are in te re s te d in stitute for Research and Education,
trade. A sad com m entary on o u r society, but a a Black think-tank in Washington,
bit m ore stra ig h tfo rw a rd . U n fo rtu n a te ly, many
D.C. Two o f the authors o f the
people believe the C ham ber represents the peo widely-circulated monograph, en
titled Black Americans and Organ
ple o f our city.
ized Labor: A Fair Deal? were Wal
It is an in sult to a ll o f the people o f Oregon
ter E. W illiams, economics profes
and especially to those who have made and con sor at George Mason University and
tin u e to m ake personal sacrifices fo r c iv il and
a leading proponent o f Black Rea-
hum an rig h ts th a t a state o ffic ia l w o u ld ever ganism, and Wendell Wilkie Gunn,
assistant treasurer o f Pepsi Corpor
consider visiting South A frica .
ation.
The authors argue that cap
We ask you, M r. M yers, to abandon the trip .
italism is inherently democratic and
T h in k back over a ll those election cam paigns
amiable to Black advancement. The
and a ll the promises you made to represent all
prim ary source o f racism in the
the people o f O regon. Y ou owe us that m uch.
workplace comes from labor
unions.
The monograph implies that
Otherwise your trip w ill be seen as your endorse
Black
equality
cannot be achieved
m e n t— and o u rs — o f the most b ru ta l and o p
unless trade unions are abolished.
pressive system in the w o rld today.
Failing that, Black workers should
resist joining unions wherever possi
ble. “ It is only by providing real
freedom o f choice to workers with
regard to whether or not they wish
to jo in a labor u n io n ,” they de
clared, “ that Black workers will be
We urge the G overnor and the Legislature to given an opportunity to advance.’ ’
Both in public opinion polls and
lo o k in to establishing an Oregon State L o tte ry
in
their electoral political behavior,
w ith the fu n d s dedicated to hum an resources
resulting in Blacks* support for
and education.
“ p ro -la bo r” candidates, most
M any people go to the dog races and the horse Blacks continue to express support
races; people w ill take a chance to w in. We rec fo r legislation favorable to union
ommend a lottery to bring new m oney— through growth. This positive attitude for
people who gamble— to provide resources to fill unionization, despite organized la
the gaps in the state budget and to provide fo r bor’s shoddy record on racial issues,
s till exists. The central reason fo r
the elderly, the poor and the disenfranchised.
this is that the m a jo rity o f A fro -
American people— blue collar and
service workers, public sector em
ployees and clerical workers—com
THAT WE'RE
prehend that unionization has his
PULUWfr THE
to ric a lly produced higher wages,
both in absolute terms and in rela
^ A F E iy N E T /
tive terms compared to white
OUT FROM UNDER
employees with similar educational
Stay home, Clay Myers!
State Treasurer Clay Myers w ill soon travel to
South A fric a — the home o f apartheid.
I t sh o u ld be n o su rp rise th a t M ye rs w o u ld
take this o p p o rtu n ity to visit South A fric a in the
face o f o p p o s itio n to such visits by the entire
Black leadership in this country and abroad and
the Black population o f South A frica .
M yers has been considered a “ liberal Repub
lica n ’ ’ w ho has supported the c iv il rights cause
in the past. He was the first elected state o ffic ia l
to hire a Black in his o ffic e ; he appointed Ellis
Casson to the Y o u th C o m m ission; and he has
generally made him self available to Black organ
izations when invited.
But Clay M yers is also the man who, as Secre
ta ry o f State, s p lit the B lack c o m m u n ity in to
fo u r H ouse d is tric ts and fo u r Senate districts.
His rationale; that it is better to have a little bit
o f influence in a lo t o f districts than to have a lot
o f influence in one district. This little mistake set
Black electoral politics back ten long years.
This is also the same C lay Myers who, as State
Treasurer, has resolutely opposed w ithdraw al o f
O regon’ s investments in companies that do busi
ness w ith South A fric a . The rationale: that the
W hy not a state lottery?
The State o f Oregon is faced w ith a deficit o f
$310.8 m illio n . T h e L e g is la tu re has been in
session fo r m ore than three weeks and has not
com e f o r t h w ith a n y in n o v a tiv e answ ers to
b rin g in new revenue o r to p o in t the State in a
new fiscal d ire ctio n .
W ith the loss o f federal funds and w ith state
tax collections running at a low ebb. there must
be a change o f direction to m aintain the qua lity
o f life in these tryin g times.
CUR PLAN T O CUT
MORE FROM
W KL
RAISED CH AR G ES-
the poor
backgrounds and skills. Unioniza
union members, 77 per cent to 73
tion connotes improved working
pei cent. The ratio for nonwhite fe
conditions, and a greater likelihood
males' to white females* median in
fo r an in d iv id u a l’ s future upward
comes for all occupations in 1970
income mobility. An analysis o f (he
was 91 per cent for union members,
percentage o f median earnings o f
and 82 per cent fo r nonunion
Black male workers to the median
employees.
earnings o f all male workers for se
The critical irony here is that
lected industries in 1969 illustiates
neither the materia! interests o f
this point. In industries with heavy
white workers nor those o f labor
union representation, the income
unions as a whole are advanced by
disparity between Black and white
white racism. There are at least sev
males is relatively low: automobile
eral ways to document this. Perhaps
industries, 84 per cent; iron and
the simplest is the lower rate o f
steel, 83 per cent; rubber products,
unionization in the South in v ir
78 per cent, prim ary nonferrous
tually every industry. The strength
metals, 82 per cent. In industrial
of racial segregation both within the
sectors dominated by craft unions,
civil society as a whole as well as
or in industries that remain largely
within broad elements o f the trade
unorganized, the median income
union movement in the region is
gap between Black and white males
commonly recognized by historians
is more severe: yarn, thread and
as the m ajor reason fo r southern
fabric m ills, 75 per cent; furniture
labor's failure to organize. Second,
and fixtures, 69 per cent; printing
racism dilutes the bargaining power
and publishing, 68 per cent; profes
o f unions for higher wages, fringe
sional and photographic equipment,
benefits, and belter working condi
67 per cent. By comparison, the
tions. White workers who have
-median income ratio o f Black to
greater seniority than many Blacks
white males for all workers in 1969
often accept contracts with decreas
was 58 per cent. Racism still exists
ing benefits simply to maintain their
w ithin all unions, and most white
own positions vis-a-vis Blacks with
union leaders tolerate if not encour
in the labor market. In the long
age (he systematic exclusion o f their
term, however, this racist strategy
Black members from the highest
inhibits “ union bargaining strength
paid and skilled positions. Never
and militancy,” according to econ
theless, it remains clear that “ the
omist Michael Reich, “ thereby re
relative wages o f Black workers io
ducing the total income share o f la
those o f white workers are consider
b o r.” Again, the racist political
ably better in industries where pow
economy o f the South provides an
erful industrial unions with a m ili
example. By the 1970s 75 per cent of
tant tra d itio n embrace the m ajor
all textile workers in the U.S. worked
ity o f production workers, than in
in the Southern states. Only ten per
industries where craft unions, or
cent o f this w orkforce o f nearly
weak industrial unions, or no
600, (XX) was unionized. The average
unions at all prevail.”
hourly wage o f Southern textile
Another way o f viewing the im
workers in the late 1970s was $3.46,
pact o f unionization as a factor in
near the bottom o f the national
reducing (he economic inequality o f
wage scale for all industrial work
Blacks is evident in census data
ers.
comparing the relative incomes o f
Probably the greatest negative
nonwhite fu ll-tim e male workers
impact o f racism upon the material
both in and outside labor unions.
interests o f labor and more general
The ratio o f nonwhite males’ to
ly o f all workers is in the area o f
white males’ median incomes for all
public policy. The massive spending
occupations in 1970 was 83 per cent
reductions o f the Reagan adminis
in unions, and 62 per cent outside
tration arc “ racist” in that they
unions. For blue collar male work
have a disproportionately higher ef
ers, the raio is 90 per cent in unions,
fect on Blacks as a group than upon
72 per cent outside unions. For
all whites. It is crucial to observe,
white collar employees, the ration is
however, (hat the general popula
85 per cent in labor unions, 70 per
tion targeted for cutbacks is basical
cent outside unions. Only for service
ly the lower income, white working
workers arc the figures fo r non
class.
union members higher than those o f
Letters to the Editor
Black Studies faces extinction
To the editor:
Students at Portland State have
unleashed a Pandora’ s box o f prob
lems. Fear paralyzes, fear is non
productive. But fear is controlled by
knowledge o f the fact. Once set
free, the bird will soar.
Black Studies, one o f the newest
additions to the academic curricu
lum, is in deep trouble. Wholesale
cutbacks in operating budgets and
student financial aid, coupled with
intellectual ambushes by academic
critics, have crippled or destroyed
dozens o f Black Studies depart
ments and programs around this na
tio n , because the establishment
knows, Black Studies is a response
to educational racism—the virtual
exclusion o f Black people and the
Black experience from higher educa
tion in Prophetic Symbolical Baby
lon. Black studies is simply a widen
ing o f Amerikan democracy, not the
institution o f a tota lly new educa
tion or social order. It’ s a vehicle for
social change, with a functioning re
lationship to the Black community,
to break down the “ ebony tower”
syndrome o f alienated Black intel
lectuals. It must include race analy
sis, class analysis, and the study o f
the oppressor as well as his Black
victims.
The handw riting is on the wall,
the Reagan A dm inistration, as the
mouthpiece o f Am erika’ s rulers, is
launching a campaign to shift the
burden o f economic instability into
THEG UADIAN
Send aid to people of El Salvador
To the editor:
We would like your readers to
know that at group o f Oregon
legislators supports and urges others
to support the w ork o f Ed Asner
(known to telebision viewers as Lou
Grant) in his drive to collect money
for medical supplies fo r the people
o f El Salvador.
We ask people o f Oregon to join
us in sending their dollars and dimes
to: M edical Supplies fo r El
Salvador, Box 3282, H o llyw oo d ,
California 90028.
In sending this money, however
small the am ount, you w ill help
some o f the many thousands o f
families o f El Salvador being killed
and wounded and who’ s children
otherwise go untreated fo r the ir
daily sicknesses.
Each one o f us w ill also be
speaking out as Americans against
the policy o f death o f the Reagan
adm inistratio n now tra in in g and
supplying the m ilitary forces which
terrorize and k ill these humble
people o f Central America.
A note to one or all o f us together
addressed to us at the C apitol
B uilding , Salem, Oregon 97310
telling o f your co n trib u tio n and
expressing your sentiments would
also be encouraging.
Rep. Wally Priestley
Rep. Rick Bauman
Rep. Shirley Gold
Rep. Margie Hendricksen
Rep. Gretchen Kafoury
Rep. Barbara Roberts
.......................................................................
Portland Observer
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City
A. Lee Henderson, Publisher
A l McGUberry, Managing Editor
Aaaoe/artort - founded 1880
the working population in general
while singling out Blacks and other
potential dissidents as scapegoats
fo r intensified repression (code
name: Law and Order).
Portland State is a political insti
tutio n , a servant o f the bourgeois
order, preparing an academic and
professional elite that can “ man
age” Amerika in behalf o f the cau-
casoid-holding classes. We must not
avoid recognizing that psycholo
gically the caucasoid establishment
'and the government o f this country
in many situations-are overcoming
the need for Black people.
The time is now for Black Studies
to be a major force to enable Black
people to take co n tro l over their
own lives. I f the educational institu
tions o f this country had been d i
rected towards providing adequate
education for Blacks then the causa-
soid racist system would have failed
because Blacks would undoubtedly
have brought an end to their subju
gation and oppression long ago.
At the Black Educational Center,
Black studies brings into sharp fo
cus the fact that Blacks are not be
havior problems but they are un
known and unpredictable elements
o f human responses and reactions to
the continued abuses offered up so
abundantly by the racist in s titu
tions o f caucasoid Amerika. Black
Studies decisively and positively de
velops w ith in students a patience
and persistance to struggle to learn.
I ’ m inclined to believe it is the
uxmam
A I Williams, Advertising Manager
National Advertising Representative
Amalgamated Publishers. Inc.
New York
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duty o f any society to see to it that
every individual in that society is in
vested with the human heritage and
provided with the technology, the
skills, and the knowledge that w ill
enable him to cope with his environ
ment, to survive and to live a good
life. It is the duty o f the society to
provide this education, just as it is
the duty o f the society to provide the
highest level o f medical assistance,
housing and employment, o f every
benefit that exists in society, it ’s the
duty o f the government to provide
that. As long as the state is not pro
viding these benefits, it it not
worthy o f existing, and under our
kind of stale which is called a repre
sentative democracy, it is not possi
ble for a capitalistic economy to
provide a universal education for
the people.
Yes, it is the duty o f the churches
and institutions o f higher education
to teach Black History. What is has
been providing is universal brain
washing that masquerades as univ
ersal education. The quality o f the
education is contemptible, it is in
humane, and it is only geared to
provide a level o f intelligence or a
level o f competence that will enable
the product o f the educational sys
tem to become war material, to be
exploited by the capitalistic
economic entities within Prophetic
Symbolical Babylon.
The Plutocracy that controls the
in stitutio n s o f higher education
might as well try to sweep back the
ocean waves with a broom as to
attempt to stem the tide o f truth that
is now sweeping across the face o f
the planet Earth. A ll true believers
in I he Supreme Intelligence, or A r
chitect (God) o f the Universe must
now serve notice to all that we will
not cease our efforts until the words
o f our common pledge o f Allegiance
to the Flag become a living reality
fo r all Am erikans everyw here...
One nation, under Ood, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
Dr. Jamil Cberovee
Field Director, C.O.R.E?