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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 1982)
Page 4 Portland Observer. August 25, 1902 EDITORIAL/OPINION Boycott of Greenberg is racist Arms sales help corporate profits by Bayard Rustin “ The sale o f American arms to other nations complements the defensive forces o f the United States and serves as an important constructive element in U.S. policies,” said James Buckley, Under-secretary o f State for security and techni cal assistance. Differing from previous administrations that lied, hid or at least did not offe r inform ation about the external sale o f arms, the Reagan ad ministration not only boasts about its course o f action but even proclaims the sales as a “ con structive element” o f its foreign policy. Jimmy Carter said, shortly before his election in 1976, that the sale o f arms is “ a dangerous and cynical business.” But he forgot his words soon after being installed in the White House, elevating exports o f arms by $3 billion. It is not known for certain whether there were additional sales since the government did not boast about such business. The U.S. has been gradually accelerating its export o f arms, in the process gaining advan tages for the administration and for the military- industrial complex, and is selling more sophisti cated and destructive arms, especialy to NATO members. Between 1950 and 1980 the U.S. government exported 26,800 airplanes and helicopters, 32,300 tanks, 50,000 transport vehicles, 31,900 ships, 29,700 pieces o f a rtille ry, and about 240,000 miscellaneous rockets. During the 1970s the U.S. government sent arms and war material to 131 countries, at a cost o f $123.5 billion. O f this total, $47.7 billion was sold to Middle East nations, generally to Israel and Egypt. The sale o f arms increased from $4.5 billion in 1970 to more than $20 billion in 1981. These figures arc probably low, since true sta tistics are not offered by the Pentagon. This also does not include non-governmental sales o f arms. Another factor that does not appear in the statistics is the export o f arms for "police” acti vity. In the last five years the U.S. has sent tens of thousands o f light arms to Chile, Haiti, Uru guay and South Korea, for example—also ar mored cars, tear gas bombs, communications equipment, cars, airplanes, bludgeons, gaunt lets, and other equipment used by rightist gov ernments to repress their people. This commerce directly benefits the military- industrial complex and its large corporations. The German magazine Der Spiegel said, “ The profits o f these firm s from arms in relation to their capital were three times greater than the av erage p ro fits o f the U.S. industrial corpora tions.” A Senate commission found that 164 of the 169 companies involved in the war industry made profits from 50 to 200 per cent. Three cor porations made more than 500 per cent and another more than 2,000 per cent. With this type o f profit it is obvious that these corporations and their supporters in government put their own interests above the peace and se curity o f the peoples of the world. market patterned after the Europe an Common Market. •A two-pronged national black selective patronage campaign: 1. Directing black consumer dollars to businesses that engage in meaning ful trade with black America (e.g., h irin g practices, advertising d o l lars); 2. W ith h o ld in g black con sumer support from those busi nesses who do not engage in recipro cal trade with black America. •Creation o f a black development fund that would loan and invest capital to launch and maintain black business ventures. Initial operating capital would be secured through co n trib u tio n s from the n a tio n ’ s black community. •Preparation o f a legislative agen da. Its firs t p rio rity would be the passage o f a Revitalization Bank. G overnm ent-operated, it would The Executive C ouncil o f the AFL-C IO voted last week to grant loan money to all American busi the George Mcany Human Rights nesses, emphasizing black business Award for 1982 to two champions development. o f black rights in South Africa. •Establish a committee to moni Dr. Neal Aggett, a white officer tor the flow o f black contributions o f the A frican Food and Canning to labor unions, including their pen Workers, a union o f black workers, sion funds, to assure that dollars are was honored posthumously. He was p ro p o rtio n a te ly invested in the only 28 years old when found dead black community through employ in Johannesburg jail. ment opportunities, venture capital, Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi is urban re vita liza tio n and sim ilar head o f the 350.000-membcr Na practices. tional C u ltu ra l Liberation move •Establishment of an Afro-Amer- ment, a black rights organization in ican/Caribbean and an Atro-Amer- South Africa, and is currently under ic a n /ln te rn a tio n a l Development tremendous pressure from the Services Fund; establishment o f an apartheid regime. A frican Business Inform ation Ex Last year, the inaugural award change. was presented collectively to Soli- Mayor Hatcher, major convenor darnosc, the Polish labor federa and host o f the conference, said a tion. Lech Walesa was scheduled to form al committee w ill be named accept it at the November 1982 within a few weeks to set about car AFL-CIO Convention, but was un rying out the specifics o f the plans. able to attend. Martial law was im posed in Poland a few weeks later. Aggett and Buthelezi are the sec ond recipients. Buthelezi has been notified and is “ delighted" with his selection. Neil Aggett was found dead in his cell in John Vorster Square, Johan nesburg, on the m orning o f in the public’s interest. February 5, 1982. Assertions by po Congressmen W yden’ s and lice that he had hanged himself are S w ift’s testimony and a wide range disbelieved both inside and outside o f views presented by industry, c iti South Africa. Aggett, 28 years old zens and local government officials when he died, is one o f over 50 peo were presented in four hours o f tes ple and the firs t white person to timony. have died in police detention. Portland Cable Access Corps, in Neil Aggett was born in Kenya cooperation with Cablesystems Pa and came to South A frica with his cific, videotaped the meeting which fa m ily as a child. He studied at is being run on local access chan Kingswood College, Grahamstown nels and Liberty Cable from gavel to gavel. KOAP broadcast the meet ing statewide. Portland was put on the map as a source o f leadership concerned with this nationwide problem w ith na tional attention drawn to this dis cussion o f the pros and cons o f local access federal cable legislation. I encourage my constituents to participate. For furthe r in fo rm a tio n , please contact my o ffice , phone 248-5219. Community control of cable TV by County Commissioner Gladys McCoy United States Congressman Ron Wyden o f Oregon and A l Swift o f Washington conducted a public meeting on S2172, the proposed re write o f national cable communica tions legislation. This meeting was held Monday, August 9, 1982, in the Portland Building Auditorium. S2172 would generally leave local government powerless in terms o f cable regulations. I support Con gressman Wyden’ s and S w ift’ s ef forts in holding this hearing because I believe it is essential for our com munity to keep control. We granted a monopoly to cable companies to provide services in the City o f Port land and the County o f Multnomah. Now it is in the best interest o f the cit izens that we as local officials main tain the a b ility to negotiate fra n chise agreements and control the lo cal cable companies. Some o f the negative irv ■ of this legislation mean nearly com plete federal jurisdiction over cable systems through the FCC; allows the FCC to eliminate all free public, educational, and governmental pro gramming by fin ding "unreason ably available a lte rn a tiv e s "; sets specific and rigid limitations on the number o f local access channels the jurisdictions can require; and elim inates any significant rate control (without which we have no leverage over a company’ s performance or responsiveness to com m unity needs). A t this tim e, S2I72 is in the United States Senate. This legisla tion is unusual coming from a Rea gan A dm in istratio n that has been promoting a "new Federalism” pol icy that returns to the states local control. I f S2I72 were adopted, this would have precisely the opposite effect. In my view, this is clearly not Portland Observer Of gq»'* 1 HH ifl P u b lis h e rs » i ~ I Asso, iation ™ Subscriptions 1 10 00 per year in the Tri County area Post m aster Send address changes to the Portland Observer P O Bo» 3,37. Portland, Oregon 97208 MEMBER N ê W p A L PER Association • Foundad IM S 4 / McGdherry, Editor/Publisher AI Williams, Advertising Manager and later at the University of Cape Town Medical School, where he qualified as a physician. After completing his internship in hospitals serving black patients in Tcmbisa dn Umtata. he worked at the Baragwanato Hospital serving the black population of Soweto, O r lando and its environs, where he be came interested in the development of the black trade union movement. W orking as a doctor, Aggett wrote, he saw "th e lim itations of medicine in an oppressive society What was needed was an end to oppressive conditions, if the health o f society was to improve. And the key to this was in the organization o f the people, especially the work ers.” A, the time o f his death, Aggett was the Transvall Regional Secre tary of the African Food and Can ning Workers Union. Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, C hief M inister o f Kwa Zulu, was born on August 27, 1982, at Mahla b a lin i, South A fric a , the son o f C hief Mathole and Princess C on stance Magogo Zulu. On his m other’ s side he is a grandson of King Dinizulu and a great grandson o f King Cclshwayo. On his father’ s side he is the great grandson o f C hief Mnyamana B ulhelizi, who was Prime Minister to King Cctsh- wayo. The Buthelczis serve as here ditary first ministers to Zulu ro y alty. Buthelezi, who was educated at Adams College and at Fort Hare University College and the Univer sity o f Natal, has led relentless op position to apartheid since 1957 Subscribe today! Receive your O bserver by mail. Only $10 per year ..o' t he P o rtla n d Observer (U S P S 959 6801 is published every Thursday by E«ie Publishing Company, Inc 220, North Killings worth Portland, Oregon 972,7. Post Office Bo« 3,37. Portland Oregon 97208 Second class postage paid a, Portland. Oregon side the courts. It is ironic—indeed perhaps tra gic—that they would vent their rage on Jack Greenberg, a talented and sensitive man who has contributed in no small measure to the freedom and dignity ol young black Americans There is something else underly ing the black protest at Harvard. It is the mistaken view that, somehow, the issues o f civil rights is an issue which is exclusively black. Nothing could be further from the tru th . Civil Rights is an issue of universal significance and, as such, should be im portant to ull Americans. C ivil rights, moreover, is an area in which progress cannot be attained without the building o f a strong and wide- ranging co alition o f blacks and whites, Christians and Jews Blacks, despite their large numbers, consti tute a m in o rity in American life . They cannot achieve progress by go ing it alone. Attacks such as the one against Jack Greenberg may have the harmful effect of discouraging idealistic whites from participating fu lly in the battles for civ il rights and social justice We don’ t need to w orry about Jack Greenberg He will not be dis couraged and his organization w ill continue to make a contribution to the advancement o f racial justice and human rights We have more cause to worry about the leaders of the Harvard Black Student C o a li tion. Unless they change their per spectives they will be ill-equipped to serve the cause o f c iv il rights, a cause which their recent actions have served to undermine. Fighters for black rights in South Africa recognized Action result of National Black Economic Summit In the closing hours o f the Na tional Summit Conference on Black Economic Development and Sur vival, held in Gary, Indiana’ s Gene sis Convention and Exposition Cen ter, an economic game-plan was adopted by delegates that stressed action, not resolutions, to advance America’s struggle to attain econo- nomic parity. Gary Mayor Richard Gordon Hatcher termed the conven tion actions, “ a workable strategy for the 1980s.” Delegates w ho journeyed to Gary for the five-day meeting, July 24-28, 1982, adopted more than a dozen action recommendations which echoed the persistent themes high lighted in papers, speeches, w ork shops and panel dialogue. C hief among the adopted agenda items are: •In itia tio n o f a black common Greenberg is eminently qualified both to teach civil rights law and to According to a recent report in direct an important civil rights o r the New York Times, the Harvard ganization. Indeed, during his twen Black Law Student C oalition and ty years as head o f the Legal De the Harvard Third World Coalition fense Fund, M r. Greenberg has are calling for a boycott o f a H ar shown him self to be one o f our vard Law School course on race and country’s most effective fighters for legal issues because that course will, racial justice and civil rights. Over in part, be taught by a white civil the years he has directly participated rights lawyer. The lawyer in ques in many o f the landmark civil rights tion is Mr. Jack Greenberg, execu victories which have been won in tive director o f the NAACP Legal our nation’s courts. Defense and Educational Fund. What, then, one might ask, has The leaders o f the boycott are provoked the m ilita n t protest o f protesting Jack Greenberg's ap Harvard Law School's young pointment for two reasons. Because blacks? Today, black law students he is white, the students believe that at Harvard feel frustration at the Mr. Greenberg, is, in the words o f fact that their less privileged coun the Third World Coalition, unable terparts in the ghetto are suffering to “ identify and empathize with the unemployment rates approaching social, cultural, economic, and poli fifty per cent. They feel great unease tical experiences o f the third world over the current a dm inistration’ s com m unities." Secondly, the stu callous disregard for such matters as dents are opposed to M r. Green equal employment opp o rtun ity berg’ s serving as director o f the They are angry at what they rightly NAACP Legal Defense and Educa perceive as an abandonment by the tional Fund, again presumably be federal government o f its legitimate cause he is not black. role as a leading advocate o f civil The objection to Mr. Greenberg's rights. In this context it is entirely role in teaching the Harvard course understandable that these students and to heading the Legal Defense would seek to make their voices Fund sim ply because he is white heard. It is regrettable, however, amounts to nothing more than bla that their militancy and sense o f so tant racism, i.e., the denial of a per cial responsibility manifests itself in son’s right to pursue certain activi this fundamentally destructive and ties solely on account o f his race. irresponsible way. Blacks, as victims o f racial discrimin Harvard's young blacks are pur ation, should be the first to reject suing their education not only as a the view that race can disqualify one result o f their abilities, but also as a from any particular pursuit. consequence o f the opportunities Anyone who objectively examines opened to them by the civil rights the record w ill conclude that Jack battles waited both inside and out when he assumed the chieflanship When South Africa imposed the sys tem of "Bantustans” or homelands on the Zulus as a prelude towards giving them so-called independence, Buthelezi accepted the position o f chief minister in order to block this "independence" move, which he characterized as a sham and a fraud, involving, as a price o f "indepen dence," the surrender or abdication o f the Zulus' claim to rights as South African citizens Buthelezi in sisted that if Kwa Zulu leaders were to accept, "they would go down in history as betrayers o f each and every thing our forebears stood for, suffered for, and fought lor There can be no right more inviolable than the right to be a citizen of the coun try o f your b irth ." In addition to hiv role as a leader o f some 5 m illion /u lu s , Buthelezi heads a potentially powerful nation al political base, the Inkatha Ycnku luleko Yesizwc (National C ultural 1 iberation movement). Inkatha has a paid-up membership o f upwards o f 350,000, making it the largest black liberation movement in South A frica, which includes many black trade unionists. Inkatha has among its aims: to help promote and en courage the development ol black people spiritually, educationally and politically; to ensure acceptance o f the principles o f equal opportunity and treatment ol all peoples in all walks of lile, to abolish all forms of discrim ination and segregation based on tribe, clan, sex, color and creed; to ensure observance of fun damental human freedom and trade union rights. Portland Observer Box 3137 Portland, OR 97208 'S kß K h' Name 283 248« National Advertising Representativa A m algam ated Publishers. 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