Page 4 Portland Observer, April 1,1982
EDITORIAL/OPINION
El Salvador turns right
President Reagan put himself in a trick bag
when he force elections in El Salvador. Because
the people, who never had the opportunity to
vote during fifty years o f U.S. supported dicta
torships, went to the polls in great numbers the
Reagan administration is calling it a great vic
tory over the guerrilla forces.
Mr. Reagan should take another look. Presi
dent Duarte— front-man for the m ilitary rulers
and Reagan’s hope for a “ reform” government
—is on his way out. The five minor parties that
are even further to the right than Duarte’s party
are attempting to get together to form a coali
tion government. I f they are successful the new
president w ill undoubtedly be ex-Major Roberto
d ’Aubuisson, leader o f death squads and sus
pected engineer o f the murder o f Archbishop
Romero. To add to U.S. embarassment is the
fact that the man who couid become president
was barred from entering the U.S. by the Carter
administration because he threatened the life o f
a U.S. official.
For the Reagan administration this w ill be a
problem. W ill Congress and the American peo
ple continue to provide m ilitary and economic
support to a butcher? W ill the administration al
low the El Salvador election to take its course or
will it intervene to force a more moderate result?
For the people o f El Salvador the situation
must get worse. The guerrilla forces— barred
from participation in the election— will continue
to try to free the country from the grip o f the
m ilitary dictatorship. Repression, torture and
murder o f innocent civilians by government will
increase. Thousands more will die.
The election was a farce no matter how it is
analysed. Only the right-wing parties were al
lowed to participate. The elections were carried
out in the midst o f a blood bath. The people had
more to fear from the army i f they refused to
vote than from the guerrillas who asked them
not to vote.
The election did not deal with the basic causes
o f the revolution: poverty, oppression, hopeless
ness. Those who fight for liberation have every
reason to continue their struggle.
The people o f El Salvador and o f the United
States would have benefited more from a nego
tiated settlement sought by the guerrilla forces.
Time for negotiation
Monday night the Black United Front exer
cised its right to protest and closed down the
School Board meeting. Perhaps those who say
the BUF should have used the channels provided
to influence Board decisions do not realize the
hours, months and years that have been spent
attempting to open those channels. The desires
and recommendations o f Black parents and
Black organizations have fallen on deaf ears—or
on uncaring ears.
Perhaps the demonstration Monday night
has opened some ears. Perhaps the message
has finally been heard.
Dr. Matthew Prophet has a unique oppor
tun ity to provide channels o f com munication
— to bring some hum anity, justice and equity
to Board decisions. It has been said that com
m unication between the Board and the com
m unity is a two-way street. We believe those
who hold the power should reach out to the
community— take the first step.
A n honest, open re-evaluation o f the Tub-
man siting and a pledge on the part o f Board
members to put aside old enmities and consid
er the needs o f neighborhood children would
do much to quell the conflicts that lie ahead.
The board should change its decision or con
vince the community that it is right.
Corporations find profits in Black consumer
by Manning Marable
In recent months there have been
numerous articles published which
advocate d iffe re n t strategies and
programs which are termed “ prison
re fo rm .” M any o f these proposals
include the expansion o f existing
penal facilities, and the building o f
new prisons throughout the coun
try. Few if any o f these programs in
clude a critical evaluation o f exactly
who is behind bars, and why.
In 1982, over 500,000 men, wom
en and youths were incarcerated in
more than 6500 penal institutions o f
various types. Despite the growing
recognition o f scholars and some
corrections o fficials that mass im
prisonm ents had not low ered the
U .S. crime rate, many conservative
white Americans pressed their elect
ed officials and courts for increased
ja il terms for persons convicted o f
violent crime. A desire “ to inflict se
vere punishment and to seek revenge
and re trib u tio n ,” com bined w ith
the tra d itio n o f racism , sent the
number o f state prisoners soaring in
the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1972
and 1978, for example, Florida al
most doubled its state prison popu
lation. In the same six year period.
D elaw are’ s prison p o p u latio n in
creased by 260 per cent. C ritic s
noted, w ith o u t a v a il, that one
fo u rth o f a ll persons im prisoned
were alcoholics. One h a lf m illio n
Am erican youths every year spent
some time locked away in a state re
fo rm a to ry or p riso n. A n n u a lly
another 600,000 mentally ill persons
are arrested and imprisoned for per
iods o f months or even years, and
few receive any psychiatric care. By
the early 1980s the annual national
incarceration rate o f 250 per hun
dred thousand was the third highest
in the w orld. Not surprisingly, the
leader was South A fric a , with 400;
but p ro jectio n s fo r U .S . prison
grow th could exceed that fig u re
within a single decade.
L ik e fascist South A fr ic a , the
American prison profile reflects the
brutal realities o f class exploitation
and racism inherent in a modern ra-
cist/capitalist state. Almost h alf o f
all prisoners in the U .S., at any giv
en time, are Black. 51 per cent o f the
entire prison population is 29 years
old or less; and 30 per cent is be
tween the ages o f 20 and 24; several
thousand convicts are not even old
enough to vote. 56 per cent o f all
prisoners never com pleted high
school, and over one quarter have
an eighth grade education or less. The
great majority o f prisoners are from
the working class: craftsmen (23 per
cent), operatives (29 per cent), ser
vice workers ( I I per cent) nonfarm
laborers (17 per cent), and clerical
employees (4 per cent). Almost one
third o f these men and women (31
per cent) were unemployed during
the four weeks prior to their arrest.
Most inmates had difficulty finding
steady employment, with 46 per cent
w o rk in g at th e ir last jo b fo r less
than six months tenure. Only 14 per
cent o f a ll prisoners had earned
$ 10,000 or m ore annual incomes,
w h ile 60 per cent earned under
$6,000. Such a large pool o f “ idle”
workers did not escape the notice o f
many corporations and politicians,
who put forward a prison "refo rm ”
program o f “ rehabilitative w o rk ”
in the early 1960s. Prisoners would
be hired to work at manufacturing
jobs while still serving their senten
ces behind bars. Businesses would
produce commodities at lower than
norm al wage rates, thereby saving
money. C hief Justice Warren Burg
er, among others, endorsed the pro
gram to convert prisons into " fa c
tories with fences.”
T h e A m erican c rim in a l justice
system operates effectively as the
conduit fo r enlargening the n o n
w hite prison p o p u la tio n . E very
y ear, over 8 p e r cent o f a ll A fr o -
Americans are arrested. As Lennox
S. Hinds, former National Director
o f the National Conference o f Black
Lawyers, has observed, “ someone
Black and poor tried for stealing a
few hundred dollars has a 90 per
cent likelihood o f being convicted o f
robbery with a sentence averaging
between 94 to 138 months. A white
business executive who has embez
zled hundreds o f thousands o f d o l
lars has only a 20 per cent likelihood
o f conviction with a sentence aver
aging about 20 to 48 months." Blacks
comprise over 25 per cent o f all A m
ericans arrested in a given year. A l
though whites are charged w ith
about 72 per cent o f all criminal o f
fenses. the crim inal justice system
tends to “ punish” them for certain
less serious crimes m ore so than
Blacks and other national m in o ri
ties. For exam ple, in 1975 whites
constituted 87.8 o f all persons a r
rested as runaw ay youths, 84 per
cent o f all charged for driving while
under the influence o f alcohol, 88.6
per cent o f those who violated state
liquor taws, and 83.3 per cent o f all
vandals. Blacks com prised m ore
than half o f all Americans charged
with murder and nonnegligenl hom
icide (54 .4 per cent), p ro stitu tion
U
h _ pvi i v u i / t t v u u v t ) ( j o . y | / v a
(JJ.U
cent) and gam bling (72 per cent).
Blacks also accounted for 45.4 per
cent o f all Americans arrested for
forcible rape, 39.5 per cent o f all ag
gravated assaults, and 41.4 per cent
o f those carrying a n d /o r receiving
illegal weapons. The p attern o f
American “ justice" that emerges is
obvious: white Am ericans are a r
rested generally for relatively minor
property crimes, whereas Blacks are
arrested for violent crimes which
carry substantial penitentiary sen
tences.
In a racist society, the penal sys
tem is only one o f several in s titu
tions which perpetuate Black exploi
tation in both political and econom
ic relations. U n til we understand
that the American penal system is
one o f "C rim in al Injustice," piece
meal attempts at prison reform only
make an in to lera b le c o n d itio n
worse.
fro m The Grassroots, © I VX 2
Letters to the Editor
Kian activities shock and anger
To the editor:
W e are shocked and angered by
the recent evidence o f racism in our
Most Livable City; I am referring to
the Ku Klux Kian action o f dumping
a dead chicken at a N o rth east
Burger Barn Restaurant.
The owners o f Burger Barn were
told in a related call that "next time
dynamite would be throw n" at their
establishment.
It is appalling that such a hateful
incident can occur w ith o u t some
strong public response and outcry.
This can hardly be termed a prank
and ignored; the threat o f violence is
too great to go unheeded.
W herever they have surfaced in
North America, Ku Klux Klansmen
have proven themselves to be terror
ists— in the real and most hideous
sense o f that word. They have his
torically used murder, rape and psy
chological violence to oppress those
people they deem undesirable, p ar
ticularly Blacks.
As white people committed to an
end to racist injustice, we demand
an investigation o f this incident, not
only to protect the owners and pa
trons o f Burger Barn, but also to ex
pose Ku K lux K ian members and
their tactics. This occurrence is all
too reminiscent o f last year’ s pos
sum-throwing activity. Could there
possibly be complicity between the
KKK and the police force?
Justice must be done in this case
for, unchecked, the level o f racist vi
olence will escalate. P o rtlan d w ill
become a place where not only
chickens and possums, but also guns
and bombs, are used to in tim id ate
and eliminate Black citizens.
Name withheld by request
Low income housing in trouble
(Continued fro m page I column 6)
units at “ 3.8 million units by 1985."
In a d d itio n , he said, a p p ro x i
mately $3 million will be spent over
the next two years to develop an 85-
unit mid-rise complex in Southwest
P o rtla n d , and a p p ro x im a te ly $2
million will be spent for an addition
al building (15 duplexes) at Unthank
" . . .and. to M t the mood for our naw crima fighting program. Chiaf Still ia mod
aling the naw polica officara’ uniform that ha and I have daaignad."
I
IP ■ ■
IB
11 1
Oregon
Newspaper
Publishers
Association
M
I
■
™
Plaza. The construction, to begin in
m id-M ay, should be ready for occu
pancy the first o f 1983.
During M arch o f this year, H u n
ter said, two H U D representatives
fro m W ash in g to n , D .C . were in
P o rtla n d collecting in fo rm a tio n
about “ cost o f project and manage
ment approach" to various housing
a u th o rities and w hat types o f
changes the Portland Housing A u
thority thought would bring about a
better program.
The Portland Housing Authority,
he said, believes “ . . .th at we are at
at U n th a n k P la za . T h e construc-
that we can cut any more people and
areas in the Section 8 program and
in one instance said, “ Besides the
sheer volume o f paper work for the
Section 8 program, the Housing A u
thority is required to reimburse the
la n d lo rd fo r unpaid tenant re n t,
damages, and vacancy loss (24 CFR
882.1121. In the private market, the
tenant and the lan dlo rd deal w ith
these disputes on their own, and any
third party involvement is at their
request and /o r expense.”
The Portland Housing A uthority
recommendations called for: " A l
low housing authorities to impose a
m inim um rent; m odify the income
adjustm entsd that tenants are a l
lowed; eliminate credit or negative
rents; m o d ify D avis-B acon [A c t]
Name _
Address
City____
Association - Founded 1999
Guatemala
(Continued fro m page I column 6)
homes burned. In a widely reported
massacre o f February 15h. 43 to 53
In d ian campesinos were to rtu re d
and decapitated.
Am id this b ru ta lity , the Reagan
government announced on February
28th that it is moving to restore m ili
tary aid to Guatemalu based on its
assessment that its human rights rec
ord has improved. Reagan is asking
Congress for $251,000 for training
Ihe Guatemala armed forces.
Subscribe today)
Receive your Observer by mail.
Only $10 per year
The P o rtla n d O bserver (U S P S 969 680) ie published every
Thursday by Exie Publishing Company, Inc., 2201 North Killinge-
worth, Portland. Oregon 97217, Post Office Bo« 3137, Portland,
Oregon 97208. Second class postage paid at Portland, Oregon
MEMBER
peh
and prevailing wage requirem ents
(40 U SC 276a et. seq. directs
housing authorities and contractors
doing business with them to pay the
p revailin g union wages as d e te r
mined by the Secretary o f L a b o r|;
streamline and tighten up Section 8
adm inistrative process; elim inate
the federally-m andated grievance
process fo r c on ven tio n al p ro
grams."
Portland Observer
Subscriptions: »10.00 par year in the Tri-County area. P o s t
m aster: Sand address changes to the Portland Observer, P.O.
Bo« 3137, Portland, Oregon 97208
N Ê W p Â
produce a product in accordance
with federal requirements."
H e said the housing a u th o rity
submitted an eight-page document
to the fed eral governm ent that
pointed out "restraints” by federal
regulations. The document cited 14
A . Lee Henderson, Publisher
A l McGilberry, Managing Editor
A I Williams, Advertising Manager
National Advertising Representative
Amalgamated Publishers. Inc.
New York
.State.
Portland Observer
Box 3137
Portland, OR 97208
.Zip