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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 22, 1982)
Page 4 Portland Observer, September 22, 1982 Quixotic search fo r economic alternatives EDITORIAL/OPINION The black elite vs. Reaganism U.S. must share blame The U nited States is deeply involved in Is rael’s actions against the Palestinians and Leb anon and must share with Israel the blame for the massacre of Palestinian civilians. • There is evidence that the U.S. government was aware o f Israel’s plan to invade Lebanon and supported that invasion. Throughout the siege o f West Beirut the U.S. repeatedly vetoed United Nations efforts to halt the invasion and even vetoed e ffo rts to allow food, water and medicine to be taken into the city. • The U.S. heavily finances and supplies Is- by Dr. Manning Marable "From The Grassroots" Part One o f a two-part series rael’s arms—supposedly for defense—and has refused to withdraw that support. • The U.S. provides economic aid to Israel, without which that nation could not continue to exist, yet the U.S. has not threatened withdrawal o f that support in light o f Israel’s expansionism. •The U.S. guaranteed the safety o f the Pales tinian civilians left behind in refugee camps when the PLO agreed to leave Lebanon. • The U.S. declined to send troops, requested by Lebanon to ensure that another massacre does not occur, unless approved by Israel—the invader. Chamber chooses white men The P ortland Chamber o f Commerce, a l though a private organization, represents the C ity o f P ortland and all its citizens in many ways. It projects an image o f the city, encour ages business, trade, and tourism. the Chamber has come under criticism for its luncheon invitation to the South A frican A m bassador a few years ago and for the recent trip of the editor o f its Portland magazine to South Africa and the resulting glowing report on that nation in the magazine’s pages. A little light can be shed on the Chamber’s in sensitivity by observing its board o f directors. The new board members to be elected in N o vember are all white and include one woman, the hold-over board members are all white men. The new president has the authority to appoint board members, and among them are the reap- pointment o f one black person, Dr. Matthew Prophet. So we have a total board which includes one minority and two women. A more diversified board might encourage the Chamber membership and staff to take a broad er view of the world and to be more sensitive to those citizens who are not white male business men. Editorial racism_____ Shame on the Oregonian for its reference, in its September 21 issues, to Indian “ squaws.” With its new format and new staff, the Oregon ian is still not alert to the racism in its pages. We had hoped for more. Letters to the Editor Attack problem, not women To the editor: We have formed the group. Friends o f Sisters On the Street (Friends o f S.O.S.) to protest the callous treatment o f the women on the street (prostitutes on Union A v enue) by the establishment, the me dia and finally by their own commu nity. We hope to align ourselves with them against hypocrisy and bigotry. Instead o f attacking the economic and sp iritu al problems o f society (unemployment, alcoholism, drug addiction, degradation o f women, loneliness), these groups have a t tacked one o f the most oppressed and exploited groups, the symptom rather than the problem. Little em phasis was put on the Johns who leave their plush, secure homes to come to our neighborhood and win dow shop for a sister. The main solution suggested was, as one official put it, to correct the problem o f “ inadequate female ja il space,” spoken as if cages were be ing added to the Humand Society. To see a group with the stature o f the Black United Front and other groups from the black community marching side by side with the same people who rehired the ‘ possum squad’ was a shock. The presence o f churches was a surprise since Christ had the greatest compassion for women persecuted in this way. Trying to have some o f His com passion, le t’ s look at her point o f view. The average woman on the street is not there because o f lust. She does not love “ turning tricks.” She feels she must do it to survive. Usually she is the only victim in the crime, the hurt being done to her. No woman would risk rape, dis memberment and death (a fear she must face every time she jumps into a car) if she thought she had some thing better. We hope the Black United Front and especially the Christian churches will find a better way to show com passion for their sisters than “ ade quate female ja il space.” We hope we can together offer them an alternative: jobs, shelters, counseling, and above a ll frie n d ship. Friends o f S.O.S. Receive your Observer by m ail— Subscribe todayl Only $10°° per year. Mail to: Portland Observer Box 3137 Portland, Oregon 97208 Name Hil My Mom and Dad raad the Portland Observer — why not you? Subscribe todayl 8 • * ■ — i ■ ■ w “ Oregon ’ir-ASh.llæl P ublishers I Association =9 R 3 ™ MEMBER Address City____ .State, Portland Observer M OTIONAL The P o rtla n d O bserver IU S P S 959 680) is published every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company, Inc.. 2201 North Killings worth, Portland, Oregon 97217, Post Office Bo» 3137, Portland, Oregon 97206 Second class postage paid at Portland Oregon Subscriptions »10 00 per year in the Tri County area Post m aster: Send address changes to the Portland Observer, P O. Box 3137, Portland, Oregon 97206 A l McGdberry, Editor/Publisher 4s»oc/*r/on - Founded 1883 -Zip A ! Williams. Advertising Manager 283 2486 National Advartiaing Representative Am algam ated Publisher*. Inc N ew York The struggle against Reaganism within the national black communi ty has sparked a rebirth o f a wide variety o f economic strategies to cope w ith unemployment, black business failures and accelerated ur ban decay. W ith the exception o f the black reaganites (e.g., econo mists Thomas Sowell and W alter Williams, etc.), black opposition to the present A dm inistration's p o li cies is virtually unanimous. But the specific economic programs which the black petty bourgeoisie are now proposing are neither original nor very progressive. Few attack the root causes fo r black undervelop- ment, and all are an expression o f the theoretical and program iatic poverty which h istorically has plagued the black middle class. The NAACP mirrors the econom ic contradictions o f the black petty bourgeoisie. Since I934, when W .E.B. DuBois left the organiza tion when it failed to develop a radi cal program to deal with the Great Depression’ s devastating impact upon Afro-americans, the NAACP had never proposed major economic initiatives to assist blacks. Under the direction o f Benjamin Hooks, in the last five years, the NAACP has re cruited 50,000 new members, 300 new branches and a budget S I.5 m il lion larger. W ith the recessions o f 1981 and 1982, Hooks authorized the creation o f an economics analy sis unit and a task force to assist lo cal branches to help black small en trepreneurs and black unemployed workers. In K okom o, Indiana, NAACP members have responded to Reagan cutbacks in foodstamps by organizing a food cooperative. N A A C P members in G alloway Township, New Jersey, pressured local officials to set aside half o f all new m unicipal jobs fo r blacks, women, and handicapped people. In Memphis, NAACP leaders persuad ed the Nissan C orporation to buy supplies fo r its local autom obile plant fro m black vendors. A t the NAACP convention o f June 28-July 2 in Boston, delegates endorsed “ O peration Fair Share,” a cam paign to hold nationwide boycotts against businesses that resist a ffir mative action efforts. Despite these new economic initiatives, however, the general thrust o f the organiza tion remains the same: support for liberal Democrats, voter registra tion, affirm ative action, and other modest social democratic efforts. Even with its new “ anti-Reagan economic agenda,” the N A A C P still suffers from its traditional crisis o f confidence. When William Perry, the N A A C P President o f M iam i, Florida, introduced a proposal for a “ Black Monday” —a plan to have blacks and whites to buy exclusive ly from black business on June 28, 1982, national officers were furious. Local whites in the N A A C P op posed the idea, and Earl Shinhoster, Southeastern Regional director o f the N AAC P, sent a testy inailgram to Perry on June 23, suspending him “ im m ediately and in d e fin ite ly .” Perry's explanation that the Black Monday “ was not intended to be a boycott, just a campaign to support black businesses" did not satisfy his authorities. Shinhoster argued that "any unit o f the NAACP is a subor dinate unit to (he national organiza tion. A utonom y (o f the local branch) only extends to issues that are within (he scope o f (he organiza tion.” Hooks gave Perry “ five days to explain what happened and why his suspension should not be made permanent.” Meanwhile, Perry re signed as president, and promptly organized an O peration PUSH chapter in M iami. Perry informed the Miami Times that Jesse Jackson and PUSH “ provide its local units w ith more autonom y than the NAACP gives its branches." The Urban League has continued its role as the right wing o f the black movement. When Reagan was elect ed, former League director Vernon Jordan made the most pathetic con cessions to the conservative trend. Reagan deserved "the benefit of the d ou b t," and it was "dangerous" in Jordan’s words to criticize him. Jor dan was willing to wait and see whe ther “ equality can be achieved by conservative means, to look at con servative approaches to see if they w ill help black people." Jordan’ s successor, John E. Jacob, has moved the organization only slightly to the left. Jacob denounced the re cent draft report of the Department o f Housing and Urban Develop ment which called for an end to Fed eral aid to inner cities. He revived a 20-year-old proposal developed by League d ire ctor W hitney Young which called fo r “ massive federal efforts” combined with "local pub lic-private sector e ffo rts” to retard unemployment and urban decay. Jacob called for jo in t Democratic and Republican party efforts to en courage “ investments in human capital, urban infrastructure, and economic resources needed to get the national economy moving again.” In Philadelphia, on June 9, 1982, the “ H ire One Y o u th ” Program was launched by the Rev. Leon Sul livan, chairperson o f the Opportun ities In d u s tria liz a tio n Centers (OICs). The stated goal o f “ Hire One Y o u th " was to encourage the private sector to hire 300,000 “ dis advantaged young people” during the summer, und an additional 700,000 youths by the middle o f 1983. “ I am appealing to the patri otism of American companies, large and small, in this critical and urgent time o f need to put the youth o f America back to w o rk ,” Sullivan explained to the press. “ Immediate bipartisan action on the part o f President Reagan, (he Congress, and the private sector is necessary." Behind Sullivan's appeal for jobs was an omnipresent threat o f urban rebellion. “ America must act now to put the unemployed youth in jobs before chaos and disorder erupt in our cities," Sullivan states bluntly. "The unemployed youth problem is social dynamite and it is about to ex plode." Sullivan reminded corpora tions (hat a $3,000 tax credit was available to all employers who hired Vietnam-eia veterans, cooperative education students, in vo lu n ta rily terminated CE TA workers, and teenagers from “ economically dis advantaged" areas. " I f every Amer ican corporation, business, school puts just one (youth) to w ork, we can get idle youth o ff the streets and into the productive mainstream of the American workforce." For all the media and p o litic a l support, it seems unlikely that the effort will generate one-fifth o f the number o f permanent jobs it seeks. Sullivan's O1C is a product o f Lyn don Johnson's Great Society pro grams. From 1964-1980, the O IC network o f job training and indus tria l education programs received more than $500 m illio n in Federal funds. According to one source, only 13 per cent o f those trained in the Philadelphia OIC were working in training related jobs. Many o f the O lC ’s nationwide "suffer from mis management and poor program per form ance." Under heavy criticism since the mid-1970s, the Reverend Sullivan authored the so-called “ Sullivan Principles” which p ro vide loose guidelines to justify con tinued U.S. corporated investment in South Africa. Sullivan has been a useful tool for both the Republican Party and U.S. corporate interests in a number o f ways. For example, in early 1981, Sullivan testified be fore the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in support o f form er Secretary o f State Alexander Haig. Since the mid-1970s. G ulf Oil and other major corporations have fun nelled tens o f thousands o f dollars to Sullivan. It would appear, given S ullivan’s history, that “ Hire One Y o u th ” is less a strategy to end black joblessness than a program to pacify the black ghetto while main taining the process of capital accum ulation within black America. AFSC uncovers secret plans P H ILA D E L P H IA — U.S. com panies are involved in a secret plan to help South Africa undercut inter national trade sanctions, according to a State Department cable released under the Freedom o f Information Act to the American Friends Service Committee, it was disclosed today. The cable gave few details but indi cated that U.S. companies in the white-ruled nation “ have already made plans to camouflage their op eration through subterfuges ar ranged with affiliates in other coun tries.” The document was revealed in a new report on the arms embar go and computer exports to South Africa, released by the Quaker orga nization in Philadelphia. The new AFSC study, Automatic Apartheid — U.S. Computer Ex ports to South Africa and the Arms Embargo, takes a critical look at the loopholes in U.S. controls on ex ports to South Africa and docu ments the use of U.S.-supplied com puters by the white supremacist gov ernment. U.S. computer companies “ virtually control the South African computer market, a function which allies them with the apartheid appa ratus and involves them in the main tenance o f white minority rule,” ac cording to the AFSC research team NARM IC (National Action/Re- search on the Military-Industrial Complex). “ NARM IC has broken new ground with Automating Apartheid by ferreting out links between U.S. corporations and Pretoria that have never seen the light o f day,” wrote Rep. William Gray III, PA, in a foreward to the book. The Quaker organization called on the Reagan Administration to re scind export regulations which allow U.S. companies to do business with the South African government, po lice, military and arms-manufac- turers. "U .S . companies doing business with South Africa say they are op posed to the apartheid system. Yet our research has turned up numer ous cases which indicate that ad vanced technology from the United States is available to Pretoria’s gov ernment, security apparatus and military establishment,” said Thom as Conrad, a staff researcher with NARMIC. • "C ontrol Data, IBM , Perkins- Elmer, Sperry and Hewlett-Packard have supplied hardware to South A frica’s largest state-run research facility which has been heavily in volved in military work, including missile research, computerized tar get acquisition, and the develop ment of poison gas, counter-insur gency vehicles and fingerprint stor age mechanisms. • “ Since at least 1970, the South African Department o f Interior has stored details on seven million South Africans classified as ‘Col oureds,’ Asians and whites on a computer provided by IBM which serves as the basis for the ‘ Book of L ife’ identity document (details on Blacks for the passbook system are stored on a British-made ICL com puter). IBM, NCR and Mohawk have also been helping computerize South A frica’s white-controlled lo cal government agencies. • "Several o f Pretoria’s arms- makers have computer installations based on U.S. hardware. Among the suppliers: Burroughs, NCR, Data General, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sperry. • " A range o f U.S. security gear is available on the South African market, including a Westinghouse microwave detector system, infrared surveillance equipment from Barnes Engineering and a computer-based system to detect clandestine radio transmitters made by Technology for Communications International of Mountain View, C A .” In addition to spotlighting the major U.S. computer companies in South Africa, and providing a list of the major known computer installa tions in that country, Automating Apartheid makes several specific recommendations for tightening and expanding U.S. controls on ex ports to South Africa. I hese include: I) a ban on sales to the South African military, police, government, and government front groups; 2) a ban on sales of all m ili tary-specification electronics and equipment on the U.S. govern ment’s Commodity Control List; 3) an extension o f the export controls to cover sales to South Africa from U.S. subsidiaries in third-world countries; 4, a requirement prohib iting any export to South Africa un less the U.S. exporter can prove that the product has no potential m ili tary or repressive application. N ARM IC’s research into the flow of high-technology equipment to South Africa has spurred investiga tions o f several corporations by the State and Commerce Departments, including Control Data, Burroughs, IBM, Philips, Kistler and Telonic/ Berkeley.
