Crisis in Zimbabwe
EDITORIAL/OPINION
6 v Manning Marable
aid" from counter-revolutionary
Part Two o f a Two Pari Senes
Dangers in 'high tech'
**High tech” is the buzz word o f the decade.
From school board meetings to the recent State
‘ ‘ M a rk e tin g C o n fe re n ce and M a n p o w e r
D e ve lo p m e n t
fo r
H ig h
T e c h n o lo g y ”
conference, we hear the cal, fo r “ high tech” .
The high tech age is fille d w ith fascination:
com puters solve problem s in a few moments
that would take men days or months; vehicles
explore the realms o f space; lasers send volumes
o f w ritte n m aterial across the co ntin e nt in
seconds; television bounces pictures o f f o f
satellites and sends them around the w o rld
almost simultaneously; the bombs can end life in
a few hours. The possibilities seem endless.
H owever, the technology that Oregon so
dearly wants to attract has its dangers because
the com puter chip industry uses thousands ot
m in im um wage w orkers, often m in o ritie s or
refugees, exposing them and their families to a
myriad o f dangerous chemicals. The dangers o f
com puter screens to the eyes are not know n
although their use is expanding rapidly in nearly
every industry.
There is also a second danger. O ur children
must be educated to live in a new age, to use
technology to make a better life for all j>eoplc —
to free workers from tedious tasks and provide
them more leisure and an adequate standard o f
living.
The rush o f school d istricts to enter the
com puter age is necessary, but it should be
tempered w ith consideration fo r the students*
future. Everywhere we hear the call to train chil­
dren fo r specific jobs in existing or planned
industry. The business/industrial community is
happy to provide projections on just what type
o f workers w ill be necessary ten or twenty years
from now. The corporations w ill even p a rtici­
pate in the training. But the public schools must
consider the interests and talents o f the child,
not the needs o f the employer.
It is true that every student should be exposed
to vo catio n al tra in in g , understand and
appreciate work, understand labor and manage­
ment. But in the effort to prepare the student to
obtain employment, we must be careful not to
restrict his options by training him fo r specific
jobs.-
Extensive and careful pre-vocational explora­
tion and vocational training in areas that o ffe r
numerous em ploym ent a n d /o r professional
choices w ill insure that the student has real
choices and is not “ tracked” at an early age.
It is the role o f the p ublic school system to
educate the c h ild to his greatest p o te n tia l, to
expose him to his highest options, and prepare
him to use his knowledge and talents to build a
better community.
Stop Indian wars
May 13th is American Indian Day — a day set
aside to remember the c o n trib u tio n s o f the
Native Americans to this nation.
Across the country there w ill be ceremonies;
governors and other state and federal officials
w ill make speeches, present awards, and
remember some o f the Ind ia n people who
managed to survive and to adapt to A n g lo
culture.
But the wars on Indians continue. The Indian
nations are in a continuous battle to protect their
treaty fishing rights; to regain property taken
from them illegally; to control the resources o f
their reservations; to m aintain their own laws;
and to protect their culture.
In Oregon alone, Indian fishermen face years
in prison fo r exercising their right to fish in the
C olum bia River. Dennis Banks, Kenny Loud
Hawk, Russell Redner and KaM ook Banks w ill
go to tria l in June on charges o f transporting
dynam ite, dynamite that was destroyed by the
FBI before it could be used as evidence. This
trial has been on again, o ff again, for eight long
years — a pure form o f government harassment.
Ind ia n b u ria l sites and other archeological
sites o f religious and historical significance to
Indian people are d a ily being destroyed. The
Oregon Legislature is just now considering bills
to give minimal state protection to a few o f these
sites.
The Siletz, U m atillas and Klamaths are still
attem pting to regain a small part o f what was
stolen from them as late as the 1950’s.
When we honor A m erican Ind ia n Day, we
should remember that all o f the land we now call
our own once belonged to the Indian nations. It
was taken fro m them through m urder, th e ft,
tricke ry and deccipt. It can never be returned
and much o f it has been destroyed.
The American people must take the responsi­
b ility to ensure that the rights o f Indian people
are extended and protected, that adequate
payments for stolen property are made, and that
government harassment and brutality cease.
Coup in Iran?
(Continuedfrom page I col. 6)
to expel the peasants from the land
that they had distributed amongst
themselves.
The powerful right-wing faction
that now controls the reins of power
has the backing of wealthy bazaar
merchants and big land-holders who
were upset with the increasing
radicalizalion of the Iranian poor.
Even Khom eini has not been
immune from the snares o f (he
labyrinth of power. It is conceivable
that facing a fa it accompli and not
wanting to risk excommunication
from the other Ayatollas for being
too soft on Communists made him
go over to the side of his opponents.
M any observers are already
announcing an end to the long
chapter o f religious populism and
egalitarianism that characterized
Khomeini's brand of Islam.
The most puzzling twist in the
unfolding drama was in store
for Iran's in flu ential Communist
Party. An endless line o f Parly
leaders appeared on television
denouncing the "infidel and foreign
ideology o f M a rx is m " , while
heaping praise on Islam and begging
for their own execution. They all
looked haggard and drowsy,
making even their most die-hard
opponents suspect foul-play. Said a
Party representative in Europe, as
is reported by last week's Le
-•i MIO •
M o n d e . have no doubt that our
leaders are the target of special mind
control drugs devised by the
American C . I . A . . the kind they
experimented with on inmates in the
mid-seventies.”
W hether drugged or not, the
televised "confessions” have been
unm istakably used by the new
leaders to shift the situation further
to the right.
To conjecture whether the recent
expulsion o f eighteen Soviet
diplom ats is anything other than
sending signals to the West is to
belabor the obvious.
As was reported last week, the
present situation is only a logical
conclusion to the bitter infighting in
the government. The anti-Khomeini
faction had quietly ensconsed itself
in all m ajor economic and social
spheres. For them it was just a
simple m obilization o f their
followers in the A rm y and the
Revolutionary Guards to finish the
job.
About a year and a h a lf ago, a
U.S. State Department analyst on
Iran said that " T h e consensus in
W ashington is to have a low-key
approach to Iran. The Revolution
will soon run its course and Iran will
come back to our fold." Although it
is premature to speak of the end of
Iran's stormy revolution, the new
leaders are doing their best to steer
the country back into the Western
orbit.
covered by sick pay. Baldness Is
a disease. Pregnancy, on the other hand, is the
natural state of wom en."
Portland Observer
,« » '
Th» P itr ile n it (M ite r te r (U S P S 959 6801 n p u b lu h id svery
Tho'tdav hy f « * Publuhing Company In t 2201 North Kiilmga
w ntth. Pooiand Oiagon 92212 P o u O H tci Bo> 3132 Potlland,
O a y n n 922I1B Second < la « poilaqe paid al Piwliand Dragon
» I.
k*»,
The l'i>rilunit Observer waa nuabi.ihad m 1920
MEMBER
Subscription« H O 00 po» year in the Tr» County sres Po«t
m a t t e r Sand attdra«« cha n y a t to the P o rilv m i
P O
B o b 3137, Portland Oregon 97208
Alfred I.. Henderson. Editor/Publisher
A! Williams. Advertising Manager
A h o c »sf »on * founded îMS
283 2486
N a tio n a l A d v ertis in g R ep resentative
A m a lg a m a te d Publisher« Inc
N e w York
The recent military actions of the
Mugabe government are remarkably
restrained, given the level of internal
attacks which that nation has en­
dured in the previous two years.
These acts o f terrorism and sabo­
tage include: the destruction o f
roughly $32 m illio n worth of
government arms and ammunition;
the destruction o f Zim babwe air
force jets; the bombing of Z A N U ’s
headquarters in downtown Harare;
the murder o f about one hundred
civilians, tourists and police by
Nkom o's forces in Mstabeleland.
Last December, after the deserters
committed a number of fresh execu­
tions and kidnappings, Mugabe
finally decided to act. The North
Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, com­
prised largely o f Shona and
numbering 2000, systematically
went through Matabele territory to
uproot the terrorists. Sadly, about
1,000 civilians, deserters and others
suspected of terrorism were execut­
ed. 450 ZA PU members were placed
under arrest, and the two top
m ilitary leaders loyal to Joshua
Nkomo, General Lookout Masuku
and Dumiso Dabengwa were
charged with treason. Nkomo
promptly fled the country. Media
charges of atrocities committed by
the Fifth Brigade were used to freeze
Western support to the government,
including a $17 milliong grant from
Sweden. A pending grant o f $60
m illion from the U .S ., beginning
this October, is also in jeopardy.
But as Zim babwe press secretary
Dan D. M anyika explained to the
Washington Post, Mugabe "had no
other options” left to restore order.
Only after an "armed assault on the
prime minister’s home," attacks on
"military and police outposts," and
the abduction of tourists "thereby
affecting the tourism industry," and
" th e
destruction
of
water
development equipment worth
millions of dollars" did "the gov­
ernment send troops into Matebele-
land to clear the mess. It is clear that
Z A P U dissidents and followers
alike won't recognize any govern­
ment not headed by M r. N kom o,"
Manyika concluded.
A
second
but
somewhat
overlooked element in the current
Z A P U -Z A N U struggle is the omni­
presence of the apartheid regime of
Pretoria. As Prime Minister P.W .
Botha informed a New York Times
correspondent in mid-February, his
regime would consider "requests for
groups across Black A fric a . “ I f
fellow Africans are threatened by
the evils o f Communism, we shall
assist them,” Botha promised. “ I ’m
an African and I believe Communism
is bad for A fr ic a ." The Botha
regime's covert support for Jonas
Savimbi's U N IT A inside Angola is
o f course well known. Since Feb­
ruary, there have been substantial
reports indicating that BOSS (apart­
heid's secret police) and m ilitary
agents were involved in the extensive
sabotage within Zimbabwe since its
independence. South A frica now
maintains at least four training
camps for anti-Marxist dissidents,
and perhaps as many as 1,000
former "loyalists" from the puppet
government o f Bishop Abel
Muzorewa are currently training
there. Late last year, pro-Nkom o
deserters were running low on
supplies and amm unitions. The
great cache* of AK-47s and other
Soviet-built weapons which South
A frican troops have captured in
their war against S W A P O inside
Namibia are now appearing inside
Zim babwe and are being used by
some Nkomo forces. Two points are
now clear: the Ndebele are an in ­
sufficient fo rc e (17 percent o f the
country's population) to gain
effective political hegemony; and
therefore, any acts o f dissident
terrorism serve not only to disrupt
Zim babw e, but also to reinforce
apartheid's powerful economic grip
over the entire region.
With Nkomo's recent flight into
exile, there exists some hope (hat the
leadership ZAPU will come to terms
with the government. Z A P U vice-
president Josiah Chinam ano has
quickly distanced himself from
Nkomo, and has vowed to support
Mugabe's "policy o f unity, peace,
and re c o n c ilia tio n ." P rivately, a
few Z A P U
lieutenants have
admitted to government ministers
that Nkom o was " th e biggest
stumbling block to cooperation
between the parties." The Soviets,
the chief supporters o f Nkom o
during the guerrilla war, have
refused to support their old friend.
Zam bian officials also close to
Nkom o declare that “ it would be
grossly wrong” for the country " to
embroil itself in the already sad and
tangled mess," according to the
Times o f Zambia. " It would also be
very wrong for Mr. Nkomo to even
seemingly seek refuge in Z am bia."
Perhaps the Soviets and Zam bia
leader Kenneth Kaunda are waiting
to see whether a covert relationship
exists between the apartheid regime
and the tebels in Matabeleland
On what terms can constructive
criticism o f Zimbabwe be placed?
One specific area of concern is that
of organized labor. In early 1983,
the government passed new
restraints on A frican workers.
Under certain conditions strikes can
be illegal; the government has the
prerogative o f ignoring and
invalidating union elections if the
winner is not to its liking; the state
can even dictate the movement o f
workers in a manner that parallels
the South African system of "influx
control." These legal controls over
labor are reminiscent o f the con­
strictions demanded by Kwame
Nkrumah in the aftermath of labor
unrest in Ghana in 1961. The labor
problem in this instance was finally
resolved with the purging of labor
m ilitants and the absorption of
trade unions as an ineffectual arm
o f the state apparatus. For
Nkrumah, the fact that trade unions
lacked any real independence meant
the loss of an effective proletarian
force on the left, and ultimately led
to his own 1966 overthrow by the
military. For Mugabe, the choices to
be made between the interests of
A frican labor vs. the growing
A frican bureaucracy must be
predicated by Nkrumah's failure.
The Mugabe government must
immediately come to terms with
elements of ZA PU and the Ndebele
leadership who disavow the
dissidents. In the long run,
N kom o’ s departure may become a
turning point in the Shona-Ndebele
co n flic t, if there is some kind of
limited regional autonomy that can
evolve for Matabeleland within the
overall fram ework o f the central
government. Mugabe must guaran­
tee the Ndebele national minority a
share o f effective state power.
T h ird , and most c ritically, the
decision to accept IM F intervention
in the troubled economy must be
seen from the vantagepoint of other
Third W orld nations — especially
Jamaica — as a step backwards
from socialist construction. No
workers’ state worthy of the name
can be built unless the A frican
working class has structural inde­
pendence trom the state apparatus,
and has decisive input into all
economic policy making. Despite
these and other contradictions,
however, Mugabe merits the critical
support o f the left here, and else­
where, as he and the people of
Zimbabwe attempt to build a new
society.
Salem Update_______
by Rep. Grattan Kerans
Speaker o f the Oregon House
I would like to take this opportu­
nity to comment on a bill that I have
introduced in the Oregon House of
Representatives, dealing with a
subject that we are all familier with
- R ISIN G E LE C TR IC . GAS AND
PHO NE RATES.
Every year, electric, gas and tele­
phone utilities come before the
Oregon Public Utility Commission­
er to push for billions of dollars in
rate increases. Arguing the utilities'
cases for them are high-priced
lawyers, engineers, accountants,
and outside consultants (all of
whom are paid by consumers, since
their fees are included in u tility
rates) Recent hikes in electric rates,
plus anticipated tripling o f phone
costs in the next two years demon­
strate the need for an organization
to represent exclusively the interests
of utility consumers.
House Bill 2934 calls on the State
to help form a Citizens U tility
Board. The Board would be a state­
wide. voluntarily-funded, citizen-
controlled organization that will
represent the interests of residential
utility customers on electric, gas and
telephone issues. Whenever regula­
tory agencies, the legislature, or
other branches of government make
decisions about the cost or quality
of utility service, CUB will be there
to make sure that the views o f
consumers are heard and their needs
served.
CUB will be a voluntarily-funded
organization. It will not be a slate
agency and w ill not receive tax
dollars. Instead, utility consumers
w ill learn about C U B through a
special notice enclosed in their
monthly utility bills. These notices
will describe CUB and invite people
to jo in for only three dollars per
year.
CUB will be managed by a Board
o f Directors elected by the C U B
membership. The state wide Board
will set CUB policy, decide on spe­
cific issues and actions and hire an
executive director and other staff
members (lawyers, economists,
u tility experts, accountants and
others).
The dem ocratically-governed
C U B w ill work on the issues o f
greatest concern to its members. Its
lawyers, engineers and economists
w ill immediately be able to chal­
lenge unnecessary or unfair rate in­
creases by presenting expert
analyses and questioning o f the
utilities* arguments. CUB can also
develop proposals to make utilities
operate more efficiently, investigate
the siting of new power plants, and
work to change unjust service rules
and policies.
Right now, Wisconsin is the only
state which has a CUB Over 80,000
Wisconsin residential utility con­
sumers have voluntarily contributed
an average of $5.70 per person since
the first notice went out in utility
billings in November o f 1980,
Dozens of other state legislatures
are considering C U B legislation
this year.
Wisconsin’s C UB has intervened
in 20 rate and policy cases, and has
already saved Wisconsin consumers
anroximately $43 million dollars. In
ad dition , it has presented expert
testimony on the telephone com­
pany's proposal to implement local
measured service, sponsored an
energy fair and produced several in­
formational newsletters for its mem­
bers. Its projected budget for 1982
was $405. (XX).
An Oregon CUB will certainly be
able to scrutinize the proposed tele­
phone rate hikes that are likely to be
imposed upon Oregon ratepayers in
the coming months.
On Wednesday, May 1 1, 1983,
the House Environment and Energy
Committee began to hear testimony
on the CUB bill. If you are interest­
ed in the concept of forming a C iti­
zens Utility Board, I urge you to call
or write your legislators and let
them know how you feel on this
issue. You can call your State Legis­
lator toll free by dialing 1-800-452-
7813.
I believe that CUB will not only
create a vehicle through which citi­
zens can pool their efforts and small
amounts of money to make effective
use of their rights, but it w ill also
balance the regulatory process now
tilled towards the utilities.
I think C U B is a good concept
and I intend to fight for its passage
in the House and then in the Senate.
If you agree with me that CUB is a
good idea, I hope you will join with
me in working for its passage.
Receive your Observer by mail—
Subscribe todayl Only $10“ per year.
Mail to; Portland Observer
Box 3137
Portland. Oregon 97208
N
a m
e __________________________________ _____
A d d r e s s ________________________________ ___ ___
C it y . __________________ State___________ Zip_______