Page 2 Portland Observer, January 19,1963
Citizens Party says:
Wooing corporations won't bring economic recovery
by John Blank
The Slate Legislature Is now ¡ t i
ling dow n to w ork in Salem. W ith
the disarray o f the Republicans ‘ p o l
icies a n d Ik e lack o f clear a lte rn a
tives p ro po sed by the D em o crats,
the O bserver th o u g h t i t w o u ld be
va lu a b le to s o lic it the views o f a
th ir d p a r ly — the O reg o n C itize n s
P arty— on the problem s we fac e in
Oregon.
E d Blackburn was the co-chair o f
the Oregon Citizens P a rly in 1992.
In that year, the Citizens P arty a l
most doubled its Oregon vole totals
fro m 1990. Where it ran it won re
spectable percentages o f the vote 147
percent In a P o rtlan d non-partisan
race. 20 percent in a Eugene Slate
House race!. In Eugene, the P a rty
was the p olitical Jorce behind inde
pen dent C ity C o m m issio ner John
Ball's election. The Citizens Party is
a fo rc e politicians arou n d the state
are b eg inning to have to reckon
with. This year E d Blackburn is in
Salem w o rkin g as a L e g is la tiv e
Aide.
O b s e rv e r: H o w w o u ld yo u d i
a g n o s e th e e c o n o m ic p ro b le m s
O reg o n Is lacin g ?
Ed B la c k b u r n : B asically, what
we’re facing in the '80s are the conse
quences o f increased concentration
o f w ealth and d ecis io n -m ak in g
pow er over investm ents. This
concentration allows capital to be
moved very q u ickly fro m state to
slate and c o u n try to c o u n try , in
search o f the greatest possible short
term profit.
A lot o f this capital is moving out
o f Oregon. Naturally, this results in
a lot o f upheaval, for exam ple, the
wave o f plant closings and resulting
unemployment.
T he basic p ro blem has been the
unwillingness o f those who hold in
vestm ent c a p ita l— big banks and
large corporations— to invest it. Be
cause o f in flatio n and decreases in
p ro d u ctivity, the last 10 years has
seen a trend toward lowered corpor
ate profits. And corporations won’t
invest unless they see, not just some
profit, but large, short-term profits.
N o investm ent means no p ro d u c
tio n , unem ploym ent, no money in
the econom y to buy products a l
ready on the market, hence even less
investment— in short, a recession.
In th is receeelo nery p e rio d , do
you th in k O reg o n cen ta k e steps
t o w a r d s Its o w n e c o n o m ic r e
covery?
Definitely. O f course, fu ll recov
ery is im possible w ith o u t an im
provem ent in national conditions,
but we can begin a recovery this
year, in Oregon.
H o w do you see th is re c o v e ry
ta k in g place?
O ur philosophy is to exert public
c o n tro l over the p rerog atives o f
large corporations to export wealth
out o f Oregon. W e completely op
pose the conservative idea, now be
ing taken up by liberals as well, that
we must bend entirely to the wishes
o f corporate interests to save o u r
selves.
W e have to begin to say " N o , "
now, to corporate demands for tax
breaks, concessions from workers,
and outright grants.
A ll over the country, each state is
com peting fo r in d u stry w ith tax
breaks, etc. I t ’ s easy to see that in
this co m p etitio n most states can't
win. Even those that win w ill have
given away so much to attract new
industry they may actually hurt on
going industry. Someone has to pay
for these give-aways, after all. How
will it help recovery for workers and
the middle class to become im pov-
enrhed for the benefit o f a handful
o f corporations?
It sounds Ilka you would sup
port plant closura legislation.
W e supported the bill in the last
L eg is la tu re th a t called fo r six
months prior notification o f a plant
closing, and stressed corporate re
sponsibility fo r m aking up the cost
to the community, o f a shut-down.
Had an effective plant-closure bill
been passed by the last Legislature,
today Hyster might not be in the po
sition of blackmailing Oregon.
H ow do you propose to deal
w ith the problems of corporate
Irresponsibility and economic re
covery? What sorts of measures
would you support In this Legis
lative session?
F irs t, we su p po rt a progressive
tax— taxing more heavily those with
more wealth— not a sales tax.
The trend to w ard increasing the
tax burden on workers and middle
class consum ers— not to m entio n
the poor— is exactly the wrong way
to go. W e need a tax p o licy th at
keeps more money in ordinary peo
p le 's hands; i f people c a n 't buy
goods, no one w ill invest money to
produce any.
For exam ple, we w ould fa v o r a
homestead exem ption (on property
taxes) fo r sm all p ro p e rty owners;
fo r needed revenues, we fa v o r a
highly graduated tax which taxes the
rich — especially large corporations
— at higher rates. W e oppose the
trend o f the last 10 years w hich
shifted the tax burden aw ay fro m
business onto the backs o f the gen
era l p u b lic . O f course, we d o n 't
think small businessmen should suf
fer; we're talking about the big cor
porations— large industry, big retail
firms, the banks, the utilities.
Immediate meeeuree for economlf recovery
Oregon Cltiiana Party recommendations
• Fair tax ayatam: that would tax the wealthy, especially big corpora
tions, more heavily than the poor. Shift the tax burden to big business.
Homestead exemptions for small property owners N o aalaa tax.
• C o m m u n ity H n a n c a D a v a fo p m a n t C o rp o ra tio n : would sell bonds
and use the capital raised to invest in com m unity-based, w orker-
owned, minority-owned small businesses that create 80*» o f new jobs;
plus it would concentrate on investment in infrastructure (roads, sew
ers, etc ), the basis o f a sound economy.
• L in k -d a p o a lt a y a ta m : would link deposits o f state monies in banks
to evidence o f social responsibility in banks' investments— would re
ward in-state, job-producing investments.
These measures w ould be a first
step to w ard s c o n tro llin g c a p ita l
flight.
In addition, it's absolutely neces
sary to get the control over private
u tilitie s ' in v e s tm e n t— a m a jo r
source o f capital flight.
Ed, la n 't the creation o f all
these boards Juat another layer
of bureaucracy?
We emphasize the primacy o f po
litical struggle. Unless we can build
a political movement that can take
power, place people with good poli
tics on these b o a rd s, this w ill a ll
come to nothing.
We have to get progressive legisla
to rs, c o m m u n ity residents, and
w orkers on these b oard s. S im p ly
creating a bureaucracy which could
be controlled by the vested interests
solves nothing.
There's always a battle over who
controls the institutions o f society;
there's no way around that. Nothing
is possible without a popular move
ment whose goal it is to achieve
these things. W ith such a m o ve
ment, it's a//possible.
"Our philosophy is to exert public control over the
prerogatives o f large corporations to export wealth out o f
Oregon. ’’
These criteria would penalize cer
tain types o f irresponsible corporate
investm ents, lik e speculation and
mergers d irec te d at m a x im izin g
short-term profit. At the same time,
they would reward 'esponsible in
vestment in job creating enterprises,
within the state.
The system would link deposits to
a competitive bidding system, which
would stress the total number o f in
state loans made by the b a n k , the
am ou n t o f in-state loans as a p e r
cent o f the bank's assets, and the
loans targetted to low-income areas
as a percent of the bank’s assets.
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W hat other maasuras ara you
Intaraatad in?
W e raised two ideas in our recent
State House races which may be in
troduced this session.
First, we called for the creation o f
a Com m unity Finance Development
Corporation. Essentially, the state,
through this proposed body, would
have the power to package revenue
bonds fo r lo c al bodies, such as
townships, counties, or neighbor
hoods. The state can sell bonds at
lower interest than localities can, be
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The idea is to stim ulate com m u
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that are profitable, but not necessar
ily as profitable as a big corporation
might want. In addition, the criteria
w ou ld stress in fra s tru c tu re devel
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lay the basis for a sound economy,
at the same tim e as they p ro vid e
jobs.
Second, we raised the idea o f a
" lin k -d e p o s it s y s te m “ to ensure
th a t state monies are deposited in
banks according to criteria o f social
responsibility o f the bank's invest
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