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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1983)
Portland Observer, June 1.1983 Section I Paga 5 Washington Hot Line by Congressman Ron Wyden denies interracial dating or mar riage, had sought charitable tax ex emptions on the basis o f the church- connected activities at the schools In iu decision, written by Chief Justice Warren Burger, the court held that the IRS has the authority to deny exemptions to any institu tion acting "contrary to public policy." Further, the decision said that "there can no longer be any doubt that racial discrimination in educa tion violates deeply and widely ac cepted views o f elementary justice." The Court's ruling does not bar the schools from continuing their discriminatory practices, but, as Chief Justice Burger noted in the decision, the denial o f tax benefits The Supreme Court recently con ducted a special course in civil liber ties for the Reagan administration and the more than 100 schools in this country that practice racial dis crimination. It did so by upholding the right o f the Internal Revenue Service (IR S ) to deny tax breaks to such schools T h u ruling repudiates the adm in istration's claim that the Internal Revenue Service lacked legal authority to deny charitable tax ex emptions to two schools involved in the recent case before the Supreme Court. These schools, one o f which bans blacks from admission and the other which admits blacks but specifically will inevitably have a substantial impact on the operation o f private religious schools. The Court's ruling comes almost a ycar-and-a-half after the Reagan administration revoked the 1RS* authority to deny tax exemptions, saying it required explicit congres sional authorization. This action touched o ff a storm o f protest within the Congress and around the country, which caused the Justice Department to switch sides before the Supreme Court in an attempt to head o ff a ruling. Despite efforts to minimize pub licity about the abrupt policy change and later attempts to soften it, the action raised considerable contro versy even within the admimstra- tion, including a letter signed by 200 officials of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. The actions o f the administration combined with continued reports of racially motivated vandalism and violence unfortunately have proven that, twenty years after the civil rights fervor o f the I960'», the United States is still struggling to find a way to a truly equal society. The Court's decision is a beacon o f hope for those who have witnessed the seeming backward slide in civil rights progress during the past tw o-and-a-half years, but it is also a warning that we must be ever-vigilanl in our pursuit of equal justice under the law for all A m eri cans. Investing in South Africa Moral issue with a bottom line by C a rl A. Penn The main question on disinvest ment is what is the total impact o f American investment and does it contribute more to the welfare of nonwhites or does it strengthen the apartheid regime's reluctance to In stall real changes? For proponents o f divestment that question is an swered clearly by reviewing some current statistics: The average monthly wage in the mining industry is still discriminatory depending on color. W hite workers earn $1,056 a month, compared with $173 for blacks. The infant mortality rate is 12 per every 1,000 births for whites and 282 for blacks. W ith legislation now pending in more than 23 states and cities calling for withdrawal of public funds from companies doing business in South A frica, church, educational, labor and community groups are leading the call for United States divestment from South A frica. And the mo mentum o f their efforts parallels the rapid growth in public ownership o f corporate America. Through their pension funds, Americans today own nearly 50 percent o f corporate America, and with United States minorities cur rently holding a $75 billion interest, it's not surprising that when the question o f investing in South Africa arises, so does the question o f investment social responsibility Last January, following the lead o f Michigan, Connecticut, Philadel phia and other major cities and states, Massachusetts passed legisla tion that called for total withdrawal o f $100 million o f its funds from banks and corporations doing busi ness in or with South Africa. W hile many investors have toed the middle line for years, claiming that both divestment and investment involve great ambiguity, a large group is now beginning to move left o f cen ter on this issue. It is extraordinary, if not alarm ing, that all principle discussion has focused on equity for minority workers and has not included dia logue on the transfer o f necessary economic assets to the m ajority. In other words, in order for the m ajor ity to cooperate with the minority- controlled government, the majority must gain control over one or two o f the major sectors o f basic industry, i.e. coal mining or rail transporta tion. Moreover, American corpora tions are concentrating most o f their investment in high technology and manufacturing, producing capital- intensive equipment that will lessen the economy's dependence on black labor. Yet, South Africa still requires large amounts o f foreign investment to remain self-sufficient and a w ith drawal o f investment and restraint on new investment would force de pendency on imports of all cate gories, thus making the government more reliant, perhaps responsive, to the world's concerns about apart heid. In a study conducted by our firm on institutional portfolios over a 10- year period, we sanitized (hose se curities o f companies that had in vested in South Africa and allocated the value o f those securities into the remaining non-South African in vestments. In some cases, the allo cated value went into companies of the same industry, but which had no South A frican investments. The return on investment from the sanitized portfolio stock proved to be superior to the return from se curities that had invested in South Africa. It should be noted that our study was .-ompleted in June 1982, and does not include the last six months o f market surge. Apartheid, a persistent discrimi nation against people o f color in South A frica, has steadily become more thorough, more efficient and more severe. It impedes fam ily sta bility, spirituality, intellectual, per sonal and moral growth. It violently suppresses free speech. Worse yet. for 23 million people, it offers no vote in its government. This is slav ery, no matter how sophisticated its design. There is no question that the con tinuance of South Africa's racially repressive government has caused a qualitative shift to armed struggle by the South A frican nationalist movement. G uerrilla activity will intensify through this decade. Reso lution of (his struggle will depend on the timeliness of South African con cessions to nationalists at the nego tiating table, or Western-backed de militarization o f (his struggle As segregationists continue to de flect, channel and absorb nationalist opposition with broken promises of improved conditions, the brightest hopes for peaceful resolution fade. Demilitarization o f the nationalist movement through increased m ili tary and financial aid, in light o f no concessions and broken promises, will only strengthen the thorough ness, efficiency and srverily of apartheid, and thus continue to add risk to American investment in South Africa. Carl A. Penn is at Daniels A Bell, a New York brokerage firm. Apartheid, nuclear power and mine safety {Continued fro m page ! column 6) touting for nuclear scientists and technicians. It also seems clear (he purpose o f this is to get a nuclear bomb on the cheap.” Last June the apartheid regime restructured and brought into cen tralized control and direction its various nuclear agencies. Beginning on July 1, 1982, an overall Atomic Energy Corporation of South A frica began functioning. Under it are two large subsidiary bodies, the Uranium Enrichment Corporation o f South Africa and the Nuclear Development Corporation o f South the chairman of which is Dr. J .W .L . Villiers, former president of the old Atomic Energy Board, are the fol lowing: S.J.O . de Plessis, director- general o f M ineral and Energy Affairs; D .A . Etherredge. chairman o f Nufcor; M .G .A . M cM illa n , chairman of Palabora M ining Group; J .H . Smith, chairman o f Escom; J.A . Stegmann, managing director o f Sasol (the oil from coal extraction plant); D r. N . Stutter- heim, chairman o f Telephone M frs. o f SA and vice-chairman o f M intek; Donald Sole, outgoing Washington ambassador; and J. van Dalsen, director-general o f foreign affairs and inform ation. Africa. Included on the board o f direc tors o f the new state corporation. medicine, preferring olive oil as a cooking fat. • Tobacco got its name from the Y-shaped pipe called a tabaca, which Columbus saw Caribbean Indians using. • Long before the Susan B. Anthony dollar, there was the Martha Washington one dollar Silver Certifi The Beisa mine is a part o f the nuclear complex now run by the new Atomic Energy Corporation. It is a supplier o f the pilot plant at Valindaba. which is now producing enriched uranium and delivering it to the nuclear power plant at Keoberg. Formerly South Africa sent its uranium abroad, particular ly to the U .S ., for enrichment. Its attainment, with the help o f its Weatern allies, o f its own enrich ment process, is an ominous devel opment: South A frica has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. U .S . supplying o f South Africa with nuclear materials, suspended for a time due to international pressure, was resumed by the Reagan administration in m id -1982. According to Carlton Stoiber, d i rector o f the U .S. State Depart ment's Nuclear Export and Import Control Ofice, this was done “ as an inducement to the South Africans to be more forthcoming on non-pro liferation issues." Beside this vastly unbelievable statement needs to be set the many continuing declara tions o f South African generals that they possess the nuclear weapon capability o f dealing with their anti apartheid enemies. A t least five new unions are now recruiting among black, colored (mixed race), and Asian mine workers. Most o f the organizing is occuring in the gold mines and so far about I I * » o f the non-white miners have been recruited. H o w ever, unions are barred in the uranium mines (including in the huge Rossing uranium mine in cate, in 1891. Enough hot dogs are produced in the U.S. every year to reach the moon and back 2 % times. W e d o o o ^ lo business w ith S o uth A fric a . American State I . t < 1 K a J 1 a I a | Bank AN INDEPENDENT BANK Head Office 2737 N. E. Union Portland. Of »ton 97212 KILLS FLEAS.TICKS! Namibia owned by the British Rio Tinto Zinc company). The white gold mine companies were com pelled to deal with unions so that orderly negotiations could be con ducted with black miners, instead of having to confront the type o f chaos and disruption (hat has occurred at the Beisa mine. As the foothold of Black unionization spreads, the urnggle against conditions in the mines is bound to reach all sections of the South African mining industry. Oregon Reps buy missiles Oregon congressmen Les AuCoin (D ) and Ron Wyden (D ) joined their colleagues in the House o f Repre sentatives M ay 25 to pass 309-92 $454 million in additional funding for continued production of Persh ing I I missiles. In a speech on the House floor, AuCoin said the Pershing II appropriation was forced by the "outright arrogance o f the A rm y,” in pursuing production of the missiles, "contrary to the direc tives o f Congress." Congressman Addabo (D -N cw York) introduced amendments to both reduce and delete funding for the Pershing I I , but was defeated by voice votes in the Democratic-con- trolled House o f Representatives. Oregon congressman Wyden and AuCoin voted in favor o f the Addabo amendments. Nuclear Freeze advocates say that deploy ment o f the Pershing II will make a nuclear freeze impossible to achieve. The $454 million for Pershing II missiles was lumped together in a package o f appropriations totalling $4.8 billion for fiscal 1983. The measure granted additional funds for a variety o f other federal pro grams, including $12 million for re search on acquired immunity d efi ciency syndrome (A ID S ); $49 m il lion for restoration o f the west front o f the U .S. Capitol; and $50 million lor Farmers Hom e Administration (F H A ) guaranteed operating loans. Notice of Public Hearing on the Proposed Statement of Objectives and Projected Use of Funds CITY OF PORTLAND JOBS BILL PROGRAM The City of Portland intends to apply ” >• Department of Housing and Urban Development for 84,080,000 in supplemental Community Development Block Grant funds that have been made available begin rung August 1, 1983 through Title I of Public Law 9 8 8 , the "Jobe BUI" Theee fund* will be made available to undertake community develop ment activities that will result in productive jobe in the areas of houaing. neighborhood improvements, economic development and community services Following is a "Proposed Statement of Obiectivee and Projected Uee of Funds" for the Jobs Bill Program Citizens are invited to submit comments on the proposed statement by June 15. 1983. Comments should be directed to: Mark Davis, Bureau of Community Develop ment. 1220 S.W . FifthAvenue. Room 1120, Portland, Oregon 97204. Any comments received will be considered before developing and submitting the "Final Statement of Objectives and Projected Use of Funds" to HUD on July 1. 1983. A public hearing will be held before City Council at 10 a m. Wednes day. June 15. 1983 in City Hall Council Chambers. 1220 SW Fifth Avenue, Portland, to receive testimony on the proposed Jobe Bill Program. Additional information end details on the "Projected Use of Funds" can be obtained by calling the Bureau of Community Development at 798-5159 PROPOSED S TA TE M E N T OF OBJECTIVES A N D PROJECTED USE OF FUND S FOR S U PPLEM ENTA L HC D FU N D IN G (JOBS BILL) FISCAL YEAR 1983-84 CITY OF PO RTLAND The primary objective of the City of Portland's Housing and Com munity Development Program is the provision of decent housing, a suitable living environment and expanding economic opportunities, principally for persons of low and moderate income. Program emphasis w ill be on: • Improving Portland • public facHitiet and promoting • healthy economic environment by supporting project» that will reeult in productive |<>be or eapended economic opportunities • Providing eeei«tence to low and moderate income persons through houaing. commu nity «ervice and employment programs Proposed uee of the funds made availeble to the City of Portland in fiscal year 1963-84 undar tha Jobs Bill (Title I of Public Law 98-8) include: NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENTS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Street improvements, bike paths, traffic diverter» park improvements «treat light n g BuUdmg Code enforcement fstimeted budget 12 M 8 0B0 Economic incentive program, site >m provements to mdustnei commercial lend, implementation of urban service policy Estimated budget 11 187 236 ADMINISTRATION COM M UNITY SERVICES Siilewelk aubetdy ’ cm aenion. en ^ry en iy lood end fuel program». youth work e i penance, emergency houerng »ääntänee, eummer employment Io* teenä letim ated budget 1718 320 Estimated budget 1206 /flb TOTAL JOBS BILL PROGRAM BUDGET M.S80.000 MRS. C’s WIGS -M»ny_wig» priced »1 <4. »10 h >’* raids $3S0o„ 2 /$ 6 °° Betty Cabins, Proprietor Featuring wlge by N A O M I S IM S ANDRE DOUGLAS BILLIE b H A IA U t COLE ^N aU h^O le Reg 125» Reg S10— $15°° M R S . C ’a W IO S 707 N.E. Premont 2 8 1 -6 5 2 5 Claaad Saa. « Ska. OPIN Tasa. «m» «at f 1:30 AM la S:00 PM <
