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PORTLAND OBSERMER
USPS « * ^ a o -« s J
e £»» P u b ia k in ! C o
Volume XIII, Number 33
June 1, 1983
250 Per Copy
Inc l « t )
Boise Elementary closes doors
Boise Elementary School, N o rth
east Portland's only remaining K-8
school, will close its doors this
month and reopen two years later a*
an Early Childhood Center.
Principal David McCrea said
much community effort has gone
into the planning for the Boise
building and the $2.7 million reno
vation plan is a composite o f ideas
o f parents and community mem
bers.
Im portant in the plans are a large
multi-purpose room with a stage on
the first floor and a library media
center with a mezzanine. Each floor
will have "com mons” or open areas
as well as classrooms and special
purpose rooms.
Where the asphalt playground
now is, there will be grass, trees and
landscaping along with an asphalt
play area A sand pit and soft play
area will be installed, with a covered
play area planned for the future.
W hile the school is being remod
eled, the students will attend school
elsewhere Boise's Pre-Kindergarten
and Kindergarten children, about 90
students, will go to the W hitaker
building at 3135 N .E . Colum bia,
along with the students now at Eliot
School Betty Campbell, principal
of Eliot, will accompany the stu
dents.
McCrea will take Boise's first
through fifth graders to the Colum
bia building. 716 N .E . M arine Drive
(the C o lum bia/W hitaker Middle
School students will have gone to
the Adams High School building).
Boise's 6th-, 7th- and 8th-graders
will attend W hitaker M iddle School,
now in the Adams building. Boise's
students will eventually be assigned
to Tubman M iddle School (relo
cated at Eliot) but the students who
go temporarily to W hitaker will
have the option to remain there
McCrea regrets that all o f Boise's
students cannot remain together un
til they can go to the new schools,
because there is no empty building
that can accommodate them. Boise
is to be ready for occupation in Sep
tember o f 1984 but it is likely that
work delays will mean the children
are in temporary housing for one
and one-half to two school years.
Most of Boise’s staff will accom
pany the students. The only prob
lein in staffing is locating positions
for all of the aides, since W hitaker
does not use aides. Currently five
aides, a physical education teacher
and one secretary have not been
placed.
Transportation to the new schools
has not been finalized but McCrea
hopes to have all K-9 students
picked up at the Boise building
Portables would be kept open to
house them in rainy or cold weather,
with staff present. He plans to have
an aide on the premises for at least
Plana for Bolaa atudanta next
year will ba dlacuaaad at the
mooting of the Bolaa Improve
ment Aaaoclatlon on Monday.
Juna 8. 7:30p.m. at tha school.
the first three months of the school
year to help new students moving
into the district.
He has recommended that 6th-,
7th- and 8th-graders be picked up at
< Please turn to page 6 col. If
Wilson resignation requested
NAACP national board reinstates Hooks
Commissioner Charles Jordan puts soma muscls to the teak as
Commissionar M ike Undberg wetchee. Union Square la expected to
open by August.
City officials break ground
bv Charles Goodmocher
Union Avenue bust newel and res
idents received a tremendous boost
as construction began Friday, M ay
n , on the Union Square mini-m all.
The project is the first m ajor new
development within the black com
munity o f Northeast Portland in
several years. Several trees w ill be
planted on Union Avenue and o ff-
street parking provided.
Expected to be open the first or
second week o f August, the project
includes a m ajority o f black-owned
an d /o r operated businesses. The
largest store in Union Square will be
the Convenient Food M a rt owned
by partners Larry Wilson and Steve
Fletcher. The Flower King, which
features a drive-up window, is
owned by Alvin Manus. Operator of
the Sunshine Pizza restaurant is
Tom Devlin and M r. M azzick runs
Ronaldo's Ice Cream.
An outdoor patio is to be at
tached to Sunshine Pizza on the
south side o f the building. Several
trees will be planted on Union Ave
nue and off-street parking provided.
City Councilman Charles Jordan
commended the efforts o f all in
volved in bringing the project
toward completion, which he said
represents a "very strong partner
ship" between the private and
public sector. Union Square, said
Jordan, proves that "U n io n Avenue
does have a m id dle."
Other politicians on hand for the
construction ceremony at Union
Square were City Commissioners
M ike
Lindberg
and
Margaret
Strachan,
and
M ayor
Frank
Ivancie. Ivancie, saying. "1 used to
shop here,” when a Kienow's store
was at the location, called the p ro j
ect "th e beginning o f a big change
for Union Avenue.”
Opening the ceremony was P o rt
land
Development
Commission
Executive Director Patrick LaCrosse
"T h is level o f investment shows a
real confidence in Northeast Port
land. The area is one o f our major
economic development priorities,”
LaCrosse stated.
The Portland Development C o m
mission participated in the project
financing through a $128,000 Eco
nomic
Development
Revolving
Loan and a $47,000 Investor Re
habilitation Loan. Private financing
was provided by the O ffice and Pro
fessional Employees Union *11,
represented by Capital Consultants,
Inc., and construction financing by
Securities
Intermountain,
Inc.
(S IM C O ).
Jane and How ard Glazer are de
velopers o f the project. M r. Glazer
is a registered architect with The
Architects Forum and has developed
over $2 million o f projects since
1970. Mrs. Glazer is currently a
teacher at Catlin Gabel School.
N A A C P national board members
met in New York Saturday, where
they reinstated Executive Director
Benjamin Hooks, who had been
suspended by board
chairman
Margaret Bush Wilson, and request
ed Ms. W ilson's resignation.
The meeting, attended by 94 of
the 64 board members, was called in
response to Ms. W ilson’s M ay 18th
suspension o f Dr. Hooks and her
naming the organization's legal
counsel, Thomas Atkins, acting
director.
The Saturday meeting, which Ms.
Bush calls "unconstitutional" was
called
by
vice-chairman
Kelly
Alexander, Sr. in response to the
request o f 90 board members.
Neither Ms. Bush nor Atkins were
available to carry out the request.
After the meeting had been sched-
uled, Atkins announced that a
special board meeting had been set
for June I , but the 90 members con
sidered the problem too urgent to be
postponed. Ms. Bush, under pres
sure, had reinstated Hooks on May
26th.
The board members said the
suspension o f Hooks was " a rb i
trary, without precedent, contrary
to the policies of the association,
without cause, unwarranted and an
abuse o f discretion.”
A telegram requesting
Ms. W il
son's resignation, authorized by 48
o f the board members, was sent to
Ms. Wilson in St. Louis. There is no
authority in the N A A C P constitu
tion to remove a chairman, who is
elected annually, in January, by (he
board. Ms. Bush was first elected in
1979.
The board acted in several ways
to restrict Ms. Wilson's power They
ordered that she cannot act as the
organization's spokesman: ruled
that she cannot give direct orders to
the staff without permission of the
executive director nor interfere with
day -to-day operations; ordered that
she cannot authorize
spending
without board approval or, in emer
gencies, by the budget committee
They also assigned the keynote
address to the National Convention,
always made by the chairman, to
vice-chairman Alexander
The
board
restored
to
the
executive director all the powers,
duties and responsibilities of the
position of chief executive. They
ordered that any reference to the
suspension be removed from the
records of the association.
Hooks' suspension was the climax
of a power struggle that has existed,
though often denied, since his ap
pointment in 1977. Seven years ago,
when Roy Wilkins was executive
director but was elderly and ill,
changes in the by-laws deleted the
absolute authority the executive
director had over daily operations
and gave the chairman sweeping
power to act in personnel, finance
and other areas o f administration.
When Hooks came on board, Ms
Wilson retained these powers, and
conflict over the operations soon
developed Both Hooks and Ms
Wilson were "o ffic ia l spokesmen"
although their views often conflict
ed and Hooks found himself back
tracking in order to avoid open
conflict over philosophy and policy.
(Please turn Io page 4 column J)
Leaders find no solutions to economic crisis
The leaders o f seven "industrial
democracies" met in W illiamsburg,
Va. last weekend to discuss their
economic ills. They left with a hard
line statement on arms but little to
give hope for an improved economy
The Reagan administration's first
priority for 1983 is the deployment
o f medium-range missiles in Europe
and he was willing to forego conflict
over economic issues in order to
maintain the political unity neces
sary to get solid backing for his
plans.
The group’ s strong statement on
arms and especially the participa
tion o f Japan, which is not a
member of N A T O , in the arms state
ment, along with France, which
attempts to maintain military inde
pendence. is considered a victory for
Reagan
In the area o f economics, little
progress was made but the U.S.
made
minor
concessions
ine
nations agreed to maintain "dis
ciplined, noninflationary growth o f
the money supply" which is a refer
ence to the U .S .'s enormous recent
increase in money supply and its
large budget deficit, which is con
sidered by some to be a cause of
high interest rates.
Reagan's line is that the U.S. is
experiencing economic recovery and
this w ill bring recovery to the world
economy. Leaders o f the other
nations — France, Britain, West
Germany, Italy. Japan and Canada
— were not so optimistic.
U .S. high interest rates are a point
o f great concern. High interest rales
draw funds from investors abroad
who are seeking a higher return on
their money and deprive other na
tions of the investment in their owg
economies. This brings economic
stagnation and high unemployment.
High interest rales also cause havoc
with foreign governments, especially
third world nations, that must
borrow from U.S. banks. Although
continuously discussed, this prob
lem was not resolved
The problem o f the enormous
third world debt was not dealt with,
although France has called for a
more realistic realignment of re
sources among the developed and
developing nations and Canada
favors aid to the third world nations
because they are prospective cus
tomers.
Other issues left to solve them
selves were growing protectionism,
the contraction o f world trade,
threatening third world defaults,
and volatility in foreign exchange
markets. T o head o ff France’s
demand for a fixed monetary ex
change
rate,
which
the
U.S.
opposes, the group agreed to invite
their Ministries ot Finance to meet
with the U.S.-controlled Interna
tional Monetary Fund to consider
whether a high-level conference on
this topic might be helpful.
The strong U .S dollar, inflated
because of high interest rales, raises
the cost of U.S goods abroad This
not only makes importation of U.S
goods more costly, but lowers the
value of foreign currency on the in
ternational money market.
Expressing concern over interna
tional debts, they agreed that the
problem should be dealt with
through trade, private and official
financing and "effective adjust
ments and development policies by
debtor nations.” They did not call
for massive aid N o attention was
given to the low prices assigned to
commodities produced by these
nations or the high cost of imported
mine near W elkom on April 8 can
undoubtedly be linked with the
stepped up drive to boost uranium
production in South Africa and to
achieve nuclear self-sufficiency be
fore sanctions close in upon the
apartheid state. South Africa has
already become third among the
'world’s uranium-producing coun
tries. In 1982 it will produce
16,900 pounds o f uranium, and this
Is planned to rise by about a million
pounds a year until South A frica
attains second place in the world by
1989, with about 18,400 pounds.
Part o f this is being exported (to
the Federal Republic o f Germany,
for example) but the bulk is going
into the apartheid state's own
nuclear program, which includes the
production of nuclear weapons, at
least one of which has already been
tested.
During the past year there has
been a marked intensification of the
South African nuclear drive. It was
revealed in A pril, 1982 that 20
nuclear technicians had been lured
by high pay offers to South Africa
from Britain, all from the top secret
British nuclear plant at Dounreay in
Scotland. The vice-president o f the
Scottish Labor Party, Dr. Gordon
Brown, protesting against this, said,
"South Africa is quite clearly
(Please turn to page 4 column /)
Apartheid, nuclear power and mine safety
by IFIIHam Pomeroy
A n incident o f disaster in a South
African uranium mine on A p ril 8
provides an insight into a number o f
aspects o f the mining industry in
that apartheid country.
A t the Beisa uranium mine, near
W elkom in Orange Free State, an
underground explosion killed 16
black miners. Protesting the lack o f
safety measures, the m ajority o f
black miners refused to go under
ground when ordered to resume
work three days later. W hen securi
ty police at the mine sought to force
them into the shaft, the Black
miners rioted and destroyed nearly
$100,000 worth o f mine property.
Five o f the black miners were
picked out as leaders o f the protest
and arrested. About 900 others quit
their jobs and departed from their
homes in the segregated tribal
Bantustans
Such outbursts and mass w alk
outs have become frequent occur
rences in South African mines. They
are the instinctive actions o f
workers who are still largely un
organized into unions, which have
only begun to be accepted by white
mine owners.
Unsafe conditions are one o f the
main incentives to organization.
Among major mining countries.
I
South A frica has the worst record
for disasters. Last year 996 miners,
almost all black, were killed in
mining accidents, while 19,290 were
injured badly enough to have to stay
out o f work for at least two weeks.
The fatality rate has remained at the
same level, without a decline, for
over two decades.
In an underground work force of
900,000, o f which nearly four-fifths
are black, that fatality rate is 1.29
per every 1,000 workers. It is eight
times as high as the death rate on the
jo b for Britain’s 220,000 miners.
Contributing to this are the ad
verse circumstances in many of
South A frica's mines. In many cases
they are as much as 12,000 feel
deep, have very high temperatures
below ground, and are driven Into
geological formations where seismic
disturbances are common. There is
a high turnover of unskilled black
workers who are denied training as
part o f the skilled job reservation
maintained by the racist white Mine
Workers Union.
Despite the disaster record and
the large number o f miners (in all
categories,
below
and
above
ground, they total 700,000), there is
only one person in South Africa
employed to ensure occupational
safety in the mining industry.
The tragedy at the Beisa uranium
(Please turn Io page S column /)