PORTLAND OBSERVER
February 25, 1982
Volume XII, Number 20
Section III
Caribbean policy;
Bullets and bootstraps
Ducks briny Spring back to the Willamette Valley.
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
PDC offers jobs program
One o f the action plans in the
P o rtla n d Developm ent C o m m is
sion's proposal for economic devel
opment o f the Inner Northeast T ar
get Area is a jobs program.
U n em p lo ym en t in the area is
twice that o f the city as a whole and
unemployment o f youth is estimated
to be three times that o f the city.
The program outlines four areas:
•O utreach: This program would
id entify area em ployers, jo b cate
gories and needs for employees.
•Centralized I inployment Clear
ing House: Il would provide services
to prospective employees and to em
ployers to assure targe, area resi
dents knowledge o f and easy access
to job opportunities.
•F irs t Source Agreem ents: The
city has used this program to require
employers who receive certain types
o f city financial assistance to hire
city residents.
This concept could be extended to
require em ploym ent o f neighbor
hood residents. Jobs created or
identified through Outreach would
be accessible to area residents on a
similar basis.
•C oordination o f job training ef
forts o f the City and Portland Com
munity College. The college is devel
oping plans to upgrade its Northeast
facilities and improve vocational o f
ferings.
Jimmy Brown, who designed the
jobs program for P IK ', sees the pro-
grarn as crucial for Northeast resi
dents. “ One o f the main problems is
that the people who need jobs don’,
know where to find them. There arc
entry level jobs that require little
skill and no tra in in g — the type a
person can learn in a few days or a
week— but the unemployed people
in Northeast don’, know where they
are.”
T he C e n tra liz e d Em ploym ent
C learin g House w ould provide a
place where residents could find ac
cess to jobs. It also would provide
em ployers a ready lab or force.
" C E T A can offer support services
— such as screening prospective em
ployees. This would cu, down the
time and money the employer uses
to find employees— so it would be a
service to h im . But it would also
provide an opportunity for neigh
borhood persons to ge, those jobs.”
Brown believes this service should
extend to employers outside the tar
get area. “ Most people don't work
in the neighborhood where they live.
They w ork all over to w n .” Since
many o f the businesses in the targe,
area are sm all and hire few em
ployees, the option is necessary.
The developm ent o f jobs for
in n er-c ity residents has been the
area o f concern most expressed by
community residents. The potential
for the other elements o f the P D C
proposal— M inority Business devel-
o p m en t, recru itm en t o f business
and commercial enterprises, and site
d evelo pm en t— are all seen in the
lig h t o f em ploym ent: H o w much
com m itm ent w ill the C ity have to
econom ic developm ent that w ill
produce jobs?
The new C arib b e an p olicy the
world has waited for these past few
weeks offers little to the suffering
underdeveloped nations o f the C ar
ibbean— just bootstraps, bullets and
the opportunity to open their gates
to more investm ent by the U .S .-
based multi-national corporations.
Financial assistance will be lim
ited. A $350 m illion appropriation
will be “ concentrated in the private
sector” — and to business interests,
not to governments. This aid will go
primarily to El Salvador, Honduras,
Costa Rica, Jam aica, the D o m in i
can Republic and Belize.
•T a x incentives to U .S . corpora
tions to encourage them to invest in
the area.
•Assistance in investment promo
tion, export marketing and technol
ogy.
•F re e trade w ith o u t ta riffs fo r
certain goods im p o rted fro m the
area; 87 per cent o f the products are
already duty-free.
•U n s p e c ifie d help fo r P uerto
Rico, which is hard hit by cuts in
U S. federal social progams, and the
Virgin Islands.
Prior to his announcement o f the
program to the O rg a n iz a tio n o f
A m erican States, Reagan had re
peatedly expressed his adherence to
the “ bootstrap” philosophy— that
these nations should not receive di
rect U .S . aid but should im p ro ve
their own economies through coop
eration with U .S. corporations.
The Caribbean nations have been
deeply hurt by the current economic
crisis in the industrialized nations.
Although the prices they receive for
a g ric u ltu ra l products and other
goods have not risen— or are even
depressed— they must pay high costs
fo r m an ufactu red goods and aid
from abroad.
The recent increase o f 5« on the
U .S. sugar ta riff has devastated the
sugar industries o f m any o f these
same nations. The increase actually
meant a decrease in the price they
receive for sugar— from 13« to 9«,
as compared to the subsidized price
paid to U .S. sugar products o f 19«.
Unfortunately multi-national cor
porate investment has not been an
answer to the economic problems o f
these nations since m ore is taken
Reagan prom ised a d d itio n a l m il
ita ry expenditures. W ith angry
words at Cuba and other nations o f
the area that are labeled "leftist” by
the U .S. press— Grenada and Nica
ra g u a -R e ag a n designated the C ar
ibbean area as being in a state o f cri
sis.
“ The d ark fu tu re is foresh ad
owed by the poverty and repression
o f C a s tro ’ s C u ba, the tig h ten in g
grip o f the totalitarian left in Gren
ada and Nicaragua, and the expan
sion o f Soviet-backed, Cuban-m an
aged support for violent revolution
in Central Am erica.”
Foreign observers consider this
continuing threat to do “ whatever is
prudent and necessary to insure
peace” as a rationalization o f the re
fusal o f the Reagan Administration
to face up to the social factors that
PRESIDENT REAGAN
from the countries in profits than is
invested.
A long w ith his economic “ a id ”
are fo rcin g the L a tin A m erican
people to seek liberation from their
oppressive governments.
The new Caribbean program will
do nothing to lessen the revolution
ary movements taking place in the
United States’ “ backvard.”
U.S. investment in Latin America grows
U .S . c o rp o rate involvem ent in
L a tin A m erica goes back a long
way, but has been heightened in the
past few years.
In 1854 Grace Company, dealing
in chemicals and food, moved into
Peru. G eneral Electric opened its
first Latin American branch in Mex
ico in 1896.
Until W orld W ar I American cor
po ratio n s w ith branches in L atin
America were few and, except for a
few o il and m in in g firm s , were
small. In 1914, 50 per cent o f the
foreign investment in Latin America
came fro m E n g la n d , 26 per cent
fro m the U .S ., 14 per cent from
France and 10 per cent from G e r
many.
Because contact between the U.S.
and E urope was cut o f f during
W orld W ar I, U .S . firms increased
trade with Latin America. The U.S.
profited greatly and became the fi
nancial, commercial and industrial
center o f the developed nations. Be
fore the war the U .S . owed $4 b il
lion and when it was over Europe
owed the U.S. $10 billion.
By 1925 U .S . cap ital had dis
placed German and French capital
in Latin America and was about to
displace E n g la n d . By 1930 there
were 30 U .S. companies with offices
in Latin America.
The fastest growth in U .S. trans
nationals took place a fter W o rld
W ar II when the radical changes in
the nature o f the productive forces
led to a substantial increase in the
internationalization o f production
in the capitalist world.
The result was a great increase in
the number o f U .S. corporations in
Latin America and in the magnitude
o f their operations. By 1950 U .S .
companies had a total o f 225 branch
offices in L a tin A m e ric a , but by
1977 the figure was nearly 1500.
The strategy o f operation has also
changed. The key is more central
ized control by the home o ffic e , a
common strategy for all branches,
and maximum integration between
the home office and branches. This
means no matter how important the
branch is to the econom y o f the
country in which they operate, they
serve only their own interests.
A few months ago the U .S . D e
partm en t o f Com m erce reported
that 77 per cent o f all U .S. direct in
vestments in the T h ird W o rld are
concentrated in Latin Am erica and
that nearly 70 per cent o f the branch
offices o f U .S. companies in the un
derdeveloped w orld are in L a tin
America.
Economists have estimated that
investments by U .S . transnationals
in L a tin A m erica m ake up 14 per
cent o f the Gross National Product
o f the region whereas the figure for
the European Econom ic C o m m u
nity countries (where U .S . m onop
olies are essentially active) is only
2.5 per cent. These figures demon
strate the Latin American countries’
high level o f dependence on the in
ternationals.
There are many reasons why the
U .S . corporations are interested in
Latin America: The region contains
one-third o f the w o rld ’s copper re
serves, m ore than a th ird o f the
bauxite reserves, a fifth o f the iron
ore, 40 per cent o f the niobium and
98 per cent o f the nitrates. There are
huge o il and gas reserves. The po
te n tia l fo r hyd ro electric power is
twice that o f the U .S . and Canada
put tog eth er. T h ere are vast ex
panses o f arable land; there is a wide
variety o f c lim ate and soil. One
quarter o f the w orld’ s forests are in
Latin America.
The interest o f the multinationals
in L atin A m erica also explains the
interest o f the U .S . government in
El S a lv ad o r, G u a te m a la , N ic a
ragua, and the remainder o f Latin
America.
Salvadoran editor in exile:
Washington controls the the throttle of terror in El Salvador
by Jorge Pinto
Pacific News Service
Jorge P in to ‘s fam ily has been in
the newspaper business in El Salva
dor fo r nearly ltd) years. Pinto was
editor o f the independent daily El
Independiente until January. 1981,
when government troops destroyed
the paper‘s equipment and arrested
his staff. Though he supported
President Duarte editorially in the
elections o f ¡972, Pinto is now
forced to Uve in exile in Mexico
City.
M EXICO C IT Y —J oday. as in
decades past, it is the W hite House
— acting through its ambassador in
San S alvador — that controls the
throttle o f government violence in
my country.
In 1944 G eneral M ax im ilian o
Hernandez M artinez, a dictator re
sponsible for the death o f 3 0,(MX)
peasants who rose in rebellion, was
on the verge o f s trikin g v io len tly
again during a general strike o f day
laborers. But just at that moment,
a Salvadoran policeman killed a
young A m erican named Joseph
W right. Reprimanded by the then-
U.S. Ambassador Walter Thurston,
H e m tn d e z M artin ez abdicated his
o ffic e. The workers were saved
from another massacre.
I o ffe r this account to illustrate
what a “ re p rim a n d ” once meant,
t oday, however, to reign in the mil
itary in a country that has more
U.S. arms per square mile than any
nation in the world, words must be
follow ed by stronger dem onstra
tions o f W ashington's will to sub
due government violence.
I personally can testify to the
power signals from the White House
still com m and. In January 1981,
days after President Reagan made
his first pronouncements in support
o f the Salvadoran junta, the govern
ment parked a tank outside my
house and sent troops to destroy my
newspaper plant— though the news
paper had supported neither the
government nor any opposition
group.
Here in exile is where one feels
more impotent: but it is very prob
able that from here things can be
seen more clearly.
Each individual in El Salvador is
faced with the option now o f siding
with the army o f insurgents, which
represents some hope, or w ith the
government arm y, which has mas
sacred for 50 years and threatens
continued killin g for another h alf
century. T h at is not a political op
tio n . It is a con stitu tio n al option,
guaranteed by El Salvador’s consti
tutio n when people confront op
pression as severe as that which ex
ists today. President Duarte himself
lost his p opular appeal when he
chose to align himself with this same
army even after opposing it during
the 1972 elections.
I believe that we have come to a
crossroads, as the insurgents claim:
E ith er we are going to have the
country for all or the country for
nobody. One simply has to decide
which is more m oral: the insur
gency, which eventually could de
stroy the entire infrastructure o f the
country, but which attempts to re
flect the human aspirations o f the
Salvadoran people; or the current
regime, armed by the U .S ., which
leaves intact the infrastructure but
destroys human beings.
These thoughts come to me when
I read in the newspapers that the
United States will send m ilitary as
sistance, for hundreds o f millions of
dollars more, to the damaged Salva
doran army.
The Salvadoran arm y is now an
army o f intervention. The govern
ment o f the most powerful nation o f
the world is crushing the people o f
the smallest nation o f the hem i-
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