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PORTWND OBSERVER
December 8, 1962
Volume XIII, Number 9
25C Per Copy
Two Sections
USPS 959 -680-855
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Reagan gives military aid to impoverished nations
Ronald Reagan took a quick pub
lic relation s swing th ro ug h L a tin
Am erica last week. Billed as a mis
sion o f peace and friendship, Rea
gan's m ajo r theme was opposition
to “ c o u n te rfe it re v o lu tio n a rie s ”
and "aggressors."
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Brazil
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Ronald Reagan em braces El
Salvador's interim prasidant,
Lula Alberto Monga.
First stop was B razil. C u rren tly
under an elected President but fre
q u en tly the target o f U .S . backed
coups, B razil has had one o f the
w orld's fastest growing economies
and has been viewed as a T h ird
W orld country building its way out
o f underdevelopment. The current
w orldw ide recession, however, has
brought economic crisis to Brazil.
The great decline in coffee prices
has seriously damaged Brazil's bal
ance o f tra d e , caused a 6 percent
drop in production, and a shortage
o f dollars with which to pay its $80
billion external debt. Brazil is on the
verge o f default. Brazil has appealed
to the International M onetary Fund
for $6 billion to enable it to meet its
im m ediate loan payments but this
w ill take some time to process and
approve.
Reagan promised S I . 23 billion in
emergency credit. The U .S . loan is
designed o nly as a h o ld o v er u n til
B razil can o b ta in I M F m oney. It
protects the U .S . banks, since the
d e fa u lt o f a m a jo r b o rro w e r like
B razil or M e x ic o could b a n k ru p t
m a jo r U .S . banks and th ro w the
U.S. into a major financial crisis.
Although Reagan offered a short
term loan his real message was for a
" fre e enterprise" answer to the fi
nancial crisis. He told Brazil's lead
ership that there are tight lim its on
what the U .S. is willing to do for de
veloping countries w hich “ c a n 't
talks to return the country to n o r
mal activity, the M -1 9 turned to ru
ra l g u e rilla w a rfa re . T h e c o u n try
was hit with nationwide strikes; the
government closed the universities;
unions were o u tlaw ed . M o re than
70,000 were unemployed; m illiions
were potentially employed. G overn
ment oppression included m urder
and imprisonment.
S im u ltaneou s w ith governm ent
oppression was brutality o f the drug
m afia, fighting to retain control o f a
large segment o f C o lo m b ia 's
economy.
When President Belisario Betan-
cour took over as President this year
he offered amnesty to guerilla and
political prisoners— hoping to cool
o ff the civil war and make some ac
comodation with the aspirations o f
the people. Whether the government
can m ake necessary changes to
come at the expense o f the devel
o p e d ." H is p res crip tio n fo r eco
nomic expansion in underdeveloped
countries, including B ra zil, is the
same as fo r the U .S .: incom e tax
breaks for high-income individuals
and corporations, reduction o f non
military budgets, and reliance on in
vestment of multi-national corpora
tions. In the meantime, 1,000 people
die each day in B razil o f diseases
that could be prevented or cured
and 40 million Brazilians have never
seen a doctor.
Columbia
C o lo m b ia is a n atio n caught in
two civil wars. Throughout 1981 the
m arg in al life led by most o f the
people and the unjust d istribu tion
o f material goods fueled the efforts
o f the M -1 9 g u e rilla m o vem ent.
Failing to involve the government in
avoid revolution remains to be seen
R eagan's visit to C o lo m b ia re
quired extensive m ilita ry security
with an air force helicopter hovering
only 23 feet away when he placed a
w reath at the B o liv ar m onum ent
Betancourt warned Reagan to end
the U.S. policy o f attempting to iso
late C u b a and N ic a ra g u a Belan
court also warned against outside
(i.e. U .S .) interference in the a lla ir s
of Central America
President Reagan's m ilitary pro
gram su ffered a m a jo r setback ,
Tuesday when the House o f Repre
sentatives voted 243-176 to kill the
M X missile program.
The M X missile was part o f a
$180 b illio n plan to m odernize the
U .S . war machine. This is the first
time since W orld W ar I I that either
House o f Congress has turned down
a P re sid en t's request fo r a m a jo r
weapons system.
Reagan responded belligerently:
" I had hoped (hat most o f the mem
bers in the House had awakened to
(he threat facing the United States.
That hope was apparently unfound
ed. A m a jo rity chose to go sleep
walking into the fu ture."
Reagan also threatened to take his
case to the people. M any opponents
o f the M X believe the people have
already spoken— through the N o
#C M
vember 2nd election, by defeating
m any representative« w ho support
Reagan's position.
The House voted to delete from
the budget the $988 m illion that was
earmarked for M X procurement.
The Senate w ill vote on the issue
w ith in the next week or tw o and
Senators M ark H atfield (R-Oregon)
and Ernest H o llin g s ( D - S .C .) are
leading the opposition. I f the Senate
approves the missile program the
House-Senate Conference C o m m it
tee w ill reconcile the budget d iffe r
ences.
Some opponents oppose the
"dense pack" theory which assumes
that incoming missiles would blow
thcmsclve up rather than destroy the
M X missiles. Others believe the mis
siles are not necessary because the
U .S . has an adequate nuclear and
conventional force.
W i
Hazel G. Hays
“ L e t's face it. I got a personal
high from my N A A C P activity and
I w ant th at in v o lve m e n t a g a in ,"
said Hazel G . Hays, who is a candi
date for President o f the N A A C P ,
Portland Branch.
" T h e N A A C P must be brought
back to life again. I must say that I
have been shocked to see that the
N A A C P is never m e n tio n e d — it
plays no role in the serious problems
that affect black people. The P o rt
land Branch is a tro p h ie d — it isn’ t
t-t
years. She also was elected Secretary
o f the Western Region.
M rs . Hays was ch airm an o f the
L a b o r and In d u stries C o m m itte e
during the four-year administration
o f Thomas R. Vickers. A discrimin
a tio n c o m p lain t file d against the
Postal Service brought changes in
hiring and prom otion nationally as
well as the first prom otion o f black
people to non-entry-level positions
in the P o rtlan d Post O ffic e . This
brought the branch the Thalheimer
A w a rd , the N A A C P 's highest a w
ard.
O ther activities included obtain
ing em plo ym en t fo r blacks in the
construction o f the A lb in a Hum an
Resources C e nter; o b ta in in g sub
co n tracts fo r black co n stru ctio n
companies; establishing the A lbina
Contractors Associaion; helping ini
♦.
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Parents o f T u b m a n M id d le
School voted not to invite an outside
com m ittee to investigate problems
between P rin c ip a l H e rm a n W a s h
ing to n and some members o f the
s ta ff. T h e problem s were made
public through an Oregonian article
in w hich teachers were q uo ted as
saying th at W ash in g to n is an a u
th o rita rian and that the m orale o f
the staff is deteriorating.
Based on remarks made by staff
at previous meetings and the state
ments in the article, Jackie Lynch, a
parent, expressed the opinion that
the only grievance is that " a black
man is in charge. Racism is w hat
we’re dealing w ith ."
Asked why the teachers who took
their grievance to the press were still
at the school. Bernard Farrell from
the Area O ffice, indicated that this
m istake. I hope we d o n 't do a n y
thing to make it w orse."
was an “ u n p ro fes sio n al a c t " but
they m ig h t n o t be subject to d is
charge. T h a t decision is left to the
principal and if disciplinary action is
taken the teachers have access to the
grievance procedure. He questioned
w hether the teachers’ statem ents
were racist since "there are different
perceptions o f what is racist."
Washington agreed that the usual
grievance procedure should be used.
"O n e person who spoke in the a rti
cle never had spoken to me even one
t im e ." H e stated that the D is tric t
has an option to evaluate him and
the school. "E veryon e has the right
to the grievance procedure i f they
d o n 't like what happens." H e said
th at the p ro ced u re had not been
used prior to the newspaper article.
Parents G erry A b ram and Herb
Cawthom e said the numerous prob
lems in other schools had never been
aired in the press this w ay. “ It's
more than a matter o f perception,”
Cawthorne said.
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R o n nie H e rn d o n spoke against
requesting a comm ittee o f inquiry.
“ It is m ore than a hot issue now.
When you talk about going outside
the normal channels you have trou
ble. Those teachers made a horrible
s .i
sents— they had more correct in fo r
m a tio n th an w hat they gave the
press. It was most unorthodox and
uncalled for; teachers have a proce
dure to use.
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“ I cam e to T u b m a n to try to
m ake a d iffe re n c e . I have ideas
about w o rk in g w ith ch ild re n I f
there are persons w ho fin d it e x
tre m e ly d iffic u lt to w ork in the
school they have options to leave.
4 ." .
“ M y jo b is to w ork w ith people
. . . As long as I ’ m the p rin c ip a l,
people have to w ork w ith me and
through the system."
W hen the a rtic le was published
W ash in g to n had alre a d y set up a
process to attempt to improve com
munication and thought the process
was beginning to work.
tiate the discrimination suit against
the In te rn atio n al Longshoremen's
and Warehousmen's Union.
An often heard reason for current
N A A C P inactivity is lack o f enthu
siasm by board members or lack of
help fo r vo lun teers. “ As I look
back, I believe Tom m y Vickers was
the best president this branch has
had since I ’ ve been in P o rtla n d ,”
M rs. Hays said, "a n d many times
there were only three or four o f us
to do all the work. That showed that
a few people can get a lot d o n e -
lack o f members is no excuse.”
The N A A C P must be returned to
the people, M rs. Hays said. In the
past, the branch was financed
through memberships. I f the black
community is supporting the branch
— buying memberships— then they
are going to ask what the branch is
doing.
She does not agree w ith the cur
rent national and local emphasis on
corporate memberships and corpor
ate donations. " I f I am elected pre
sident I w ill not go to the corpora
tions for memberships; I d o n 't be
lieve they have the same goals as the
N A A C P . I wonder what interest the
nuclear pow er industry has in the
N A A C P . I f the corporations want
to buy a m em bership, fine; but if
they really want to help black folks
they can p ro vid e job s fo r young
{Please turn to page 8 column I )
Bernard Richardson
by L am ia Duke
Grassrool News, N. W< — O n D e
cember 12th the Portland Branch o f
the N A A C P w ill hold elections to
f i ll the post o f President o f the
branch. Bernard Richardson, Direc
to r o f C iv ic A ffa ir s at P o rtla n d
General Electric, is running for the
office.
“ M y in v o lve m e n t w ith the
N A A C P spans a number o f years,"
a B S r p r . - ; -- -
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Cawthorne added that the school
has had four principals, each with a
different style. "T h e school will not
run w ithout a leader. The teachers
cannot run the school, but the prin
cipal has to have support."
“ There are s ta ff here who have
difficulty taking orders. That is why
they are upset. The article misrepre-
Richardson to ld the O bserver. “ I
w orked on the A C T -S O p ro g ram .
The Po rtlan d chapter has been in
volved in A C T -S O for five years and
we had four national winners. This
speaks very h ig h ly o f o ur yo u th .
When I became involved in A C T-S O
I started out in the fund-raising de
partm ent and the highlight came a
couple o f years ago when we had a
matching grant from the U.S. Bank
o f $ 3 ,0 0 0 . T h e co m m u n ity cam e
through with $4,300 and that was a
very heart-warm ing experience— to
have the co m m u n ity open up and
show their money support."
Richardson was also involved in
b rin g in g Rosa P a rk s , M a rg a re t
Bush W ilson and Benjam in Hooks
to Portland.
“ A n o ther project th at's dear to
my heart is P . O . I .C , which works
w ith basic skills to upgrade those
skills."
In 1910 the N A A C P was form ed
out o f the talented ten which was the
brainchild o f D r. W E B. DuBois.
Yet w ith the passage o f tim e the
Pan-Africanist foresight o f DuBois
was lost. As a member and possible
president o f the P o rtlan d Brancn,
Richardson gave his views on A f r i
can affairs in general and South A f
rica in particular:
" I would have to go back to the
constitution o f the N A A C P . It calls
for a number o f things regarding ci
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Tubman parents discuss staff complaints
Hays, Richardson vie for NAACP presidency
being used, it is never m entioned.
The fight at (he legislature for redis
tric tin g , the p ro blem s w ith the
school district and the police— these
problems were not attacked by the
N A A C P , yet they should be the
ones to identify problems, not react
after other organizations take up the
cause.”
Although she has not been active
in the P o rtla n d B ranch recently,
M rs. Hays' service has been exten
sive. An active member since age 17,
she was a member o f the Portland
Branch Executive Committee for 15
■ ♦ a ■
C oata R ica
Costa Rica is among the most sue
cessful o f the L a tin A m eric an n a
tions. A democracy w ith no viand
ing arm y, Costa Rica has had little
internal strife. Costas Rica is on the
verge o f bankruptcy w ith 100 pci
cent in fla tio n , u n e m p lo ym en t, a
growing trade imbalance and an in
ternal debt o f SI .8 b illio n . A 300
( Please turn to page 2 column /)
•ST/
House rejects M X
r
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vil rights. The National Association
has passed several resolutions in re
gards to South A fric a and we w ill
follow the dictate o f the national o f
fice."
The N A A C P was a prime factor in
the desegregation o f public schools.
I asked R ich ardso n how he felt
about desegregation as it was ap
plied in Portland:
“ W e ll, I 'm a p ro du ct o f Texas
and there we had many role models
for black children. T H is is one ele
ment that is lacking for our children
in the Portland area When you take
a black student out o f his own en
vironm ent as was done earlier this
created a host o f problems that we
had to deal with and rid the system
o f. T h e Black U n ite d F ro n t was
unique in solving this p ro b lem . I
found nothing wrong with the com
munity's decision to solve this prob
lem. I think in a couple o f years we
w ou ld have to go back and look
over this p erio d to see w hat was
right and what was w ro ng ."
W h y does Bernard R ichardson
want to become the president o f the
N A A C P 's P o rtla n d Branch? “ I
think every individual brings some
thing unique to the office. I believe
it would be a challenge more than
anything else."
O ne observation o f the N A A C P
in term s o f black o rg a n iz a tio n in
{Please turn to page 12 column I )
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