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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 30, 1982)
Page 2 Portland Observer, June 30, 1962 Conflict of interest complaint hits Clay Myers The People for Southern African Freedom has filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission, charg ing that State Treasurer Clay Myers has violated state law by accepting an expense-paid trip to South Africa. Oregon law prohibits state officials from accepting gifts worth more than $100 from any source having an economic interest in that o f f i cial’s actions. Myers’ recent two-week trip was funded by the Southern A frican Forum , a business group. Forum board members represent large f i nancial, mining, industrial and re tail corporations in South Africa. As State Treasurer, Myers is the state’s Chief Investment Officer, re sponsible for supervising the invest ment o f state monies and trust funds. Myers has testified before the Legislature twice, in 1979 and in 1981, opposing disvestment of state funds from corporations doing busi ness in South Africa. The People for Southern African Freedom (PSAF) charged that the Forum sponsored Myers’ trip be cause of his official actions against disvestment and because of the ex pectation that his official opposition to disvestment will continue. The Southern African Forum, es tablished in 1980, represents the white big-business community. Its members come chiefly from A f r i kaner-dominated firms; Afrikaners constitute the m ajority o f whites and the conservative backbone of the apartheid system of racial domi nation. The Forum also shares a number o f trustees with older pri vate foundations whose purpose, like the Forum’s, is to spread propa ganda favoring investment in South Africa. The Forum’s white trustees repre sent the largest Afrikaner industrial and gold-m ining conglomerate (Federale Volksbeleggings/Federale M ynbou/General Mining Union), South A frica’s third-largest chemi cal firm (Sentrachem), its second largest private, locally-controlled bank (Nedbank), a large insurance firm (S.A. M utual), and two large retailing chains (Pick *n* Pay and Beares). The trustees also represent the Afrikaners* national chamber of commerce, the Afrikaanse Handels- instituut, as well as South A frica’s most important private propaganda and lobbying group, the South A f rica Foundation, and another active propaganda outlet, the South Africa Freedom Foundation. Black and progressive organiza tions have long encouraged disvest ment of U.S. funds from South A f rica, a move that would destroy the economy and bring down the apart heid government. South A frican blacks also support disvestment, which, although it would bring im mediate economic hardship, would topple the current government and allow an opportunity for eliminat ing the apartheid system. U.S. corporations supply 20 per Mayor Ivancie discusses conference cent o f direct foreign investment, and the South African Reserve Bank admits that the country “ has to a large extent been dependent on for eign capital for developmental pur poses [and] is still highly dependent on foreign capital___ " U.S. banks supply one-third o f the loans to South Africa. U.S. investors control 70 per cent of the computer market, supply one-third of the vehicles and 44 per cent of the oil products, and provide crucial technology and in vestment in energy, electronics, nu clear capability, rubber, heavy equipment and others. PSAF states that the South A fri ca Forum board members have a di rect stake in U .S. investment and therefore their financing Myers’ trip is contrary to Oregon law. Among the U.S. corporations involved with the business interests o f Forum board members are: Dun & Brad- street, Union Carbide, U.S. Steel. Kennecott (owned by Standard Oil of Ohio), and Gulf and Western. STATE TREASURER CLAY MYERS Mayor Frank Ivancie, who attended the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Minneapolis, sale Portland was praised for its excel lence in international economic development efforts. Leslie Dennis o f D .C . Associates, Inc. told one workshop that during the 1981 economic development exhibition in Zurich, Portland's display attracted more interest and accolades than any other. Ivanice was impressed with a Coping with Urban Crime seminar where several mayors voiced support for strong, comprehensive city programs to fight crime. He was most impressed by M ayor Diane Feinstein o f San Francisco, who cited the success of the crime program in her city, where crime rates have recently gone down. “ W h a t’s worked for San Francisco has a lot in common with what we're trying to do in Portland," he said. “ San Francisco has added 350 officers. They've beefed up the street presence of police - added foot patrolmen and mounted officers. They’ve learned to concentrate police efforts where the worst problems are — like Portland’s Street Crimes U nit." Economic, social injustice root of El Salvadore war by Norma de la Cruz Concerns over the effects of "last m inute” U .S . foreign policy was one of the key issues addressed in a conference on "Central America in Revolution," held last Saturday at Lewis and Clark College. Speakers presented in two panels were Sister Antone Schedlo, Fran ciscan Sister o f Perpetual A d o ra tion, who worked in El Salvador from 1971 to 1981; Roy Proster- man, law professor at the University o f Washington and a specialist in land reform movements in El Salva dor and other C entral American countries; and Richard Clinton, po litical science professor at the Ore gon State University and a consul tant for UNESCO in El Salvador in 1977. Felix Kury, the West Coast spokesperson for the Revolutionary Front, the El Salvador political or ganization andDavid Pierce, U.S. Foreign Service Officer for the State Departm ent, spoke in the second panel. “ There is a constant tension, a clash between initial and recent re ports regarding plans and agendas set up for Central A m erica," said Pierce, who discussed the problems associated with each U.S. adminis tration. “ There are variations on the central theme. The fundamental question that should be raised here is, ’Is incremental change possible? Can the U.S. encourage that kind of change short o f violent destruction of the people in Central America, particularly when forces are blocked to make the change?’ " Pierce said he thought the U.S. reacted too slow and too late when it comes to serious and critical events involving social, economic and poli tical interests for both Central Am erica and the U.S. Kury, who was born in El Salva dor and active in the Young Chris tian movement in his parish (same as Archbishop Oscar Romero) agreed with Pierce. Compounding the problems with U.S. foreign pol icy in C entral America is that “ those who sign for foreign and in ternational programs don’t really know our nation. They live and work in W ashington, D .C .,” he said. “ I t ’s important for the U .S. to stop economic and military aid to our nation and try to negotiate be tween our countries,” he said. “ We want to bring an end to this war. There are no conditions that w ill provide support for this goal, but the willingness is there,” said Kury. Given the social injustice and po litical and economic warfare that have continued in the nation, C lin ton expressed the in evitab ility o f revolution in the area and stated that revolution was the viable form of self-defense among the people. violence is the only way to respond to the government, then the people must respond by violence.” Prosterman, on the other hand, felt revolution was not that simple a solution to the nation’s woes. Issues regarding land reform, for example, must be dealt with in order to search for a viable alternative to democ racy. As a result of portions o f a U.S.- aided land reform program sus pended in May, hundreds of subsist ence farmers from tiny plots have been ousted by landowners, some backed by military forces. Prosterman said the only remain ing opportunity for the U .S. is to suspend all military and economic aid until “ land reformation sustains its fu n ctio n ." T rad itio n ally, land was earned by a communal tenure until 1980. "Afterward it was ’land grabbing,’ with a view to growing export crops.” He said overpopula tion is one of the roots of violence in Central America. Sister Schedlo, who did pastoral work, teaching and working with women prisoners and youths in refugee camps for 9 years, said pro grams for land reforms were good until the takeover by powerful fam ilies. Urged on by such families, the military responded by using massive fraud to deny moderate and left- wing organizations any fair play in elections. The government has encouraged the rise of right-wing groups, terror izing peasant and labor organiza tions, destroying the Christian Dem ocratic Party’s infrastructure and murdering socially active priests. “ The m ilitary sees no value in lif e ," she said. “ Everyone is sus pected o f being subversive." In Central America there are two main groups; the government and the people. “ The Church is with the people, thus, we too suffer.” In the words of Archbishop Romero, a heroic spokesperson for justice for most Salvadorians, Schedlo described the view that the Church took after four American churchwomen were raped and mur dered. “ One who is committed to the poor must meet the fate of the poor. One is to be captured, tortur ed, to be found dead.” According to refugees Schedlo worked with before leaving the na tion, the general feeling towards U.S. aid was summed up as follows: "Tell them (the U.S. government) to leave us alone. Then when the war is over, you can come and help us reconstruct.” Ivancie said the San Francisco city government has met with neighborhood groups and listened to the problems of the people. They also constantly review their statistics so they can pin down problem areas. I saw many mayors at the Conference reaching the conclusion San Francisco did - that a lot of crime requires a lot of support for a city’s police." Ivancie credited the Zurich mission’s success with extensive preparation and follow up, which he said is yielding a “ strong level of response” from potential investors. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, attended by 250 mayors, was held lune 19th to 23rd in Minneapolis. “ In trying to create a just society, any kind o f revolution that tries to change the basic structure in govern ment will be opposed by m iddle- class elites who see their opposers as trying to eradicate the concentration of power,” said Clinton. “ I t ’s necessary and im perative that the countries in Central Amer ica are in a revolution. People who have more (the fourteen families who own most of El Salvador, for example) won’t give up their privil eges; thus the emergence o f right- wing death squads.” He said the government of El Sal vador refuses to acknowledge its most important resource— the peo ple. “ Any government that cannot provide at least employment first to its people is not to be tolerated. I f The next time you get all lathered and steamed up at the amount of your electric bill, ask yourself this: How much energy, hot water and money is going down the drain? • < Change a habit. Conserve your current and your currency. ’ £ Vivian Whitley has a dream. It’s Anheuser-Busch’s dream, too. V ivian W h itle y has always done good work in her com m unity. G iving people encouragem ent, helping them to fight for the things they want But V ivia n wanted to d o more. She had dreams o f being a social worker. She also had four child re n to raise. A nd that had to take p rio rity . But V ivian never forgot her dream. A nd when three o f her fo ur children were in college. Viv ian went to college, too. Gn an Anheuser-Busch Urban League C om m unity Scholarship. These scholarships are for people like Vivian who had to miss going to college for one reason or another. But they don't have to miss out now. I hey have a second chance fo r an education and a career. V ivian got her degree. She made straight A s, w hile w orking at tw o to three jobs and raising a fam ily. Yet she still found tim e to use her hard-earned skills to help the people in her com m unity. as president of her F I A . as a teacher in ner local church, and as the first woman chairm an o f the board of the Hum an Developm ent C orp loday. V ivian is still going to school, getting her master s degree ami the credentials she needs to feel q ualified to do the w ork she always wanted io d o . Vivian's taking her dream and m aking a future. < )ne we can all share in. A nd that's o u r dream A future we can all live w ith. Building a future. Dream by dream. ANHEUSER-BUSCH COMFANII.S Anhwoaer How h ( otnfMnim 'rw it the p r w t ounjMnv i«( Arvhwosrf How h Int » k r v w , of HurKwt-.s^f • M m M m heUrf»»I iih f igbf N«lwr«l I igbt How h a fiw iv
