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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 14, 1982)
H r* Frances Schoen-à'ewspaper Roo« U n iv e rs ity o f Oregon L ib ra ry Lugcoe* Oregon 97403 Observer Achievement Awards Summer work, summer fun Page 3 UJ Page 5 A Palestinian student speaks out PORTLAND OBSERMER Ju ly 14, 1982 Volum e XII, Num ber 40 250 Per Copy Tw o Sections USPS959 6H0-HS> Iran invasion to save Khomeini? Ira n has launched an invasion against Ira q , escalating the tw o- year-old war between the two M id dle East nations. The attack comes in the face o f Iraqi offers o f peace and a U .N . Security Council resolu tion proposing that U .N . forces oversee a cease-fire. Iraq withdrew its forces from Iran a month ago and announced a uni lateral cease-fire. A Tehran radio broadcase called the resolution a “ vote o f c o n fi dence” for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and declared it w ill c o n tinue the war to “ lib e ra te ” Ira q . Iran’s Ambassador to the U .N . said his country will never accept U .N . observers. Iranian students attending school in Portland state that the continua tion o f the Iran-Iraq war is an effort by Khomeini to maintain control o f his government by creating an o u t side enemy and a way to keep (he army busy in the war zone to m ini mize the danger o f a military coup. Although there were provocations by both sides, Khomeini is waging a personal vendetta against Ira q i President Hussein who refused to provide him asylum during the time CONGRESSMAN RON DELLUMS Dellums keynotes banquet U.S. Representative Ron Dellums o f C a lifo rn ia w ill be the featured speaker at the P o rtlan d Observer's first Awards Banquet to be held F ri day, July 16th. D ellum s is chairperson o f the House Committee on the District of C olum bia, a senior member o f the House Arm ed Services C om m ittee and chairm an o f the com m ittee's panel dealing with problems o f the island o f Vieques in P uerto Rico. Dellums is a former vice-chairman o f the Congressional Black Caucus and heads its Task Force on Nation al Security and Foreign Policy Is sues. He is a national co-chair o f the New Dem ocratic C o a litio n , an o r g an iza tio n o f progressive in d iv i duals w ithin the D em ocratic Party who are committed to party reform and im plementation o f progressive programs in the nation. Dellums has become the principle leader in the House o f Representa tives in the continuing legislative ef fort to curb m ilita ry spending and nuclear weapons escalation. An out spoken advocate o f nuclear arms lim itatio n , he has been in the fore front o f the movement for renewal of the S. A .L .T . negotiations and ex pansion o f the Nuclear N o n -P ro lif eration Treaty. From the outset, he has opposed the development o f the M X Missile weapons system, argu ing that it is econom ically disas trous, d ip lo m a tic a lly dangerous, militarily unnecessary, and environ mentally hazardous. In the 97th Congress M r. Dellums has re -in tro d u ce d his N a tio n a l Health Service A ct. This bill (H .R . 3884) is the most com prehensive health care legislation ever in tro duced in to the Congress. In his ju d g m e n t, com prehensive health care for ell Americans is a basic hu man privilege. The Achievem ent Awards B an quet w ill be held July 16th, 7:00 p .m ., at the H ilto n H o te l. (Please sec page 5.) o f the Shah. One stipulation K ho meini makes for ending the war is the abdication o f Hussein. Opposition to Khomeini and (he mullahs who control Iran has been organized in the N atio n al Council o f Resistance, which encompasses a broad spectrum o f political groups. K h om ein i came to power f o l lowing the February 1979 overthrow o f the Shah. A lthough internal is sues were overshadowed by news o f the hostages in the U .S . Embassy, violation o f civil rights came almost im m e d ia te ly . D e m o n s tr a tio n s against repression and continuing executions came to a climax on June 20, 1982, with a dem onstration by 500,000 Iranians. The government’s response was a massacre o f the dem onstrators. The N atio n al Council o f Resist ance reports that 15,000 persons have been executed since June 20, 1981, and that 45,000 are under tor ture. As many as 50 or 60 are exe cuted d aily, w ith 165 secret execu tions rep orted on tw jr days in M a rc h . O n M a rc h l X h 75 execu tions took place in T e h ra n ’s Evin Prison, and on March 26th 90 were executed. M any o f them were sup porters o f the People’s M ojahedin. 1, The provisional governm ent, Four hundred supporters o f the headed by President Bani-Sadr, will People’s M ojahedin were executed rule for six months. During that per in Mashad prison, and thousands iod the Constitutional and National are under arrest. Legislative Assembly w ill be con Last M arch Ira n ’s parliament ap vened through free elections and a proved re-establishment o f a min Constitution written to guarantee a istry o f state security and in te lli republican form o f government. gence to take charge o f internal sur 2) Until the formation o f the Con veillance. stitutional Assembly the N ational Amnesty In tern ation al reported C o u n c il o f Resistance w ill be re in F eb ru ary 1982 that m ore than sponsible for legislation and super 4,000 are known to have been exe vision o f the p ro visio n al go vern cuted since February o f 1979 and at ment. least 255 people were reported exe 3) I he political prisoners will be cuted in January 1982. The organi released; the Ira n -Ira q war ended; zation reported persons, including accused w ill be granted ju ry trials those held for political and religious with full rights; the government will reasons, executed w ith o u t tria l. ensure economic w elfare; women During 1981 A I received nearly 200 will have economic, social, political detailed statements describing tor and cultural rights equal to men; all ture. T o rtu re included bu rn in g , rights expressed in the U niversal beating, kicking, banging prisoners’ Declaration o f H um an Rights will heads against the w a ll, w hipping be guaranteed; the government will w ith cables and mock executions. prevent v io latio n o f personal and These and other tortures are similar social rights. to the abuses committed by the Shah Iran ’s economy is in trouble, with before the 1979 revolution. an in flatio n rate near 60 per cent. The N atio n al Council o f Resist The war with Iraq is draining the na ance has released its plans for the tion o f its resources. W ith a popula transitional period following the ex tion o f 35 million, 11 million are un- pected fall o f Khomeini. ( Please turn to page 8 column J) Layoffs revive affirmative action feud by Sieve Ask in Pacific News Service Doc Watson wants the Supreme Court to give him back his job. The Boston public school teacher, one of 700 who received layo ff notices this year, claims he’s a victim o f reverse discrimination because black teach ers with less seniority were kept on. His union, the American Federation o f Teachers ( A F T ) , has asked the Supreme C ourt to overturn a U .S . D istrict C ourt ruling which partly set aside union seniority rules lim it ing layoffs o f m inority teachers to preserve affirmative-action gains. M ild re d G o o d m an wants the courts to restore jobs for thousands o f “ R IF ed ” (short for Reduction in Force) black federal governm ent w o rkers. G o o d m a n , a leader o f Blacks in Governm ent (B IG ), was herself R IF e d fro m a c ivil-rig h ts enforcement post in the Department o f Transportation. Her group is su ing to reverse “ d isproportionate” layoffs o f black employees, citing a congressional study which revealed that m in o rity w o rkers, who hold about 23 per cent o f federal jobs, re ceive 35 per cent o f layoff notices in Reagan administration job cuts. Complaints like these are surfac ing across the country as layoffs and high unem ploym ent revive an old conflict between m in o rity workers and union seniority systems. Many c iv il-rig h ts activists consider m i nority employment more important than seniority, while unions insist that w orkers should be laid o ff strictly according to overall senior ity , w ith the last person hired the first fired. Some leaders in both camps wor ry that such jo b conflicts could set back joint labor-civil-rights efforts to challenge Reagan economic poli cies. That concern seems well warrant ed as la y o ffs reach crisis p ro p o r tions. The black unemployment rate as measured by the federal govern ment has soared to 18 per cent, its highest level since the 1930s Depres sion. M uch o f the current loss is concentrated in jobs that have pro- vided black workers their greatest o p portunities for w ell-p aid work: the public sector and heavy indus tries such as auto and steel produc tion. F o rty -fo u r state R IF e d public workers this year, or expect to do so, according to a B ureau o f N a tional A ffairs survey. ,n the private sector, about 350,000 workers were laid o ff in the first quarter o f 1982, more than one-third o f them in auto and transport equipment m anufac turing. The stage for the Boston teachers dispute was set last year when Mas sachusetts voters approved the tax cutting “ P ro p o s itio n 2 H .” Revenue losses forced massive pub lic worker firings. Seniority-based layoffs would have elim inated the jobs o f most black teachers hired since 1974, when U .S . D is trict Court Judge W . A rthur G arrity, in a school desegration decision, found the city guilty o f teacher-hiring bias and ordered it to assign h a lf o f all new teaching posts to blacks until they held 20 per cent o f the jobs. Be- fore new layo ffs began, that goal had almost been achieved. Last year. Judge G a rrity ruled that not m ore than one f ift h o f teachers losing jobs could be black, com pelling Boston to use separate w hite and black seniority lists for layoffs. A U .S. appeals court reject ed the A F T ’s reverse discrimination charge, paving the way fo r the Supreme Court appeal. A F T president A lb e rt Shanker considers his union the true civil- rights advocate in the case: "C o lo r blind, race-neutral seniority systems are perhaps the most im p o rtan t safeguard won by the American la b or m ovem ent in its 100 years o f struggle for jo b equality,” he said, arguing that this position places A F T in the “ m a in straem ” o f the civil-rights movement. His view is supported by the b lack-led, A F L - CIO-sponsored A. Philip Randolph Institute. M an y others in the c ivil-rig h ts m ovem ent disagree, however. N A A C P Legal Defense Fund attor- (Piease turn to page 4 column J) Stagnating economy brings flood of bankruptcies to Oregon by Nathaniel Scott “ I t ’s not right 1 It shouldn’t hap pen to anybody. As long as I have the money, I will pay my bills," said Jeff VanDomelen, a 21-year-old un employed electronics worker. " I don’ t make enough money to pay my hills, my creditors are h ar assing me on my jo b ," said 44-ycar- old Nadine W ood, the mother o f six children. VanDomelen and Mrs. Wood are just tw o o f a g row ing num ber o f people filing for bankruptcy. According to Terence H . D unn, chief deputy clerk, U .S. Bankruptcy C o u r t, D is tric t o f O re g o n , there were 6-8,000 cases open cases in the state o f Oregon as o f the last week in June o f this year. Tw o thousand o f those cases were filed this year, he added. Nationwide the number of bank ruptcy cases filed in 1981 was up 10.9 per cent over 1980. The calen dar year, January through Decem ber, showed an increase o f 523,825 in 1981 com pared to 363,847 in 1980. An increase o f 159,327 or 10.9 percent. VanD om elen said he was forced to file for bankruptcy because of an automobile accident which cost him $3,000. He m aintains that he was not at fault. Nevertheless, he has to pay. M rs. W o o d , a divorcee w ith six children, said because o f her divorce settlem ent she was “ ra ilro a d e d " into filing for bankruptcy. According to Mrs. Wood, the set tlement gave her everything: house, a ll the b ills , and fo r a period o f tim e, a child that her ex-husband had by a previous m arriag e. She said she is sick and tired o f it all and wants to be left in peace. F iling for b ankruptcy is serious business. It involves assets, posses sions and credit and can be filed by cither consumers (hom e owners, renters, etc.) a n d /o r business pro prietors. A ccording to D u n n , there are a number o f chapters that can be used when filing, but "the primary one is chapter 7— liquidation o f assets." C h ap ter 13, an o th er popular method, is like a debt consolidation program for individuals with certain m o n etary restriction s, he added. There cannot be more than $100,000 w o rth o f undisputed debts and $350,000 w o rth o f secured debts. Additional inform ation concerning bankruptcy and bankruptcy proce dures can be obtained by calling Tel- L aw , 248-0705. Refer to tapes 29, 30, 44 a n d /o r 76. Dunn said since January o f this year the number o f consumer cases filed under C hapter 7 are leveling o ff but the number o f business cases seems to be on the rise. “ For a w hile we were talk in g about the little guy, but within the past six m onths to a year, we are starting to see medium to big busi nesses file ," he said. " I wouldn’t be surprised to see the trend continue for awhile." D unn said i f you judge the economy by the number o f people filin g for b an kru p tcy, you would have to say i t ’ s b ad — and i f you judge it by the number o f business cases, you w ould have to say the economy is suffering. Normally, he said, Chapter 11 use involves a considerable am ount o f money. The number o f Chapter 11 cases filed by medium-range to large businesses in the P o rtla n d o ffic e from M arch through June o f this year is 32 cases. Quite often the key reason for fil ing is the loss o f one family member a n d /o r the d isillu sio n m en t w ith marriage, Dunn said. Just because you file bankruptcy doesn’t mean you a re n ’ t responsible fo r your debts. According to Dunn, you cannot file a straight bankruptcy more than every six years. I f you have filed a Chapter 13 and meet all the require ments, you cna then file a Chapter 7 w ith in six years. He added that if you pass the "good faith test" you can file a Chapter 13 as many times as you wish. The "good faith test" is an agreement entered into by the debtor to resolve all debts through certain allotm ents w ithing a given period o f time. Marion H . Chamberlian, clerk of the U .S. Bankruptcy Court for the District o f Oregon, feels that the es calation in bankruptcy cases is de rived from numerous causes: The state of the economy, advertising by attorneys and, for whatever the rea son, the repeated filin g by some people, like c lo c k w o rk , every six years. M s. C h am b e rlia n also recalled some hum orous times in vo lvin g people going through bankruptcy proceedings. Like the lady who filed some six years ago and listed among her creditors her ju n k m aiL And then there was the case o f the wine merchant— the man who auctioned o ff his wine, some o f which was val ued at $5,000 a bottle. A dditional bankruptcy inform a tion may be gained by visiting the Orbanco B uilding, 9th flo o r, 1001 S.W . 5th Avenue, Portland 97204, or by calling 221-2231.
