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U n iv e r s ity o f Oregon L ib r a r y
cugene, Ora^sn 97403
Do your favorite entertainers olav in South Africa?
See below
Refreshing
summer salads
Will blacks protest
1984 Olympics? ( / Ç Ç )
Herero Danzers
spirit in motion
See Page 6
See Page 2
See Happenings, Page 8
¡PORTWND OBSERVER
U *P S 959-680-855
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Volume XIII, Number 40
July 20, 1983
25$ Per Copy
C o . tot I9U
Civil rights leader
pans Reagan record
by Ralph G. Neas. Executive
Director. Leadership Conference on
C ivil Rights
First day customers find fresh bargains at the
naw Farmers Market. Every Saturday through
October, local farmers and home gardeners will
sell produce. The Farmers Markst Is located on the
corner of North Williams and Knott, Just south of
Emanuel Hospital.
(Photo: Richard J. Brownl
Recent statements by the Justice
Department constitute an astonish
ing misrepresentation o f the Reagan
Administration’s record on civil
rights. For the Administration, un
less it change, course dramatically,
will be remembered for its repeated
attempts to weaken the civil rights
laws enacted over the past two dec
ades and to restrict the remedies
presently
available
to
Blacks.
Hispanics, women, and other m i
norities who have been victims of
unlawful discrimination.
T o combat its deserved reputation
for insensitivity, inactivity, and un
fairness in civil rights matters, the
Administration has launched an ex
tensive public relations campaign.
In addition to highly publicized
"field trips,”
the Justice De
partment has been maintaining
that the only real substantive d iffe r
ences between the Administration
and the civil rights community is a
disagreement over the use o f busing
and quotas.
Such an assertion is absurd and
defies the reality o f the Adm inistra
tion's performance on civil rights
over the past two and one half
years. Indeed, a case can be made
that the Administration is using
these two controversial issues to
mask the absolutely abysmal record
it has compiled in virtually every
area o f civil rights enforcement.
A brief review will amply demon
strate the nature and the extent o f
the Administration's lack o f com
mitment to civil rights. The A dm in
istration:
• led for many months the opposi
tion to a strong and effective ex-
tensionof the Voting Rights Act;
• tried to reverse the well estab-
Portland group gives aid:
Salvadoran refugees tell their stories
by Robert Lothian
Part two o f three parts
Flight from army scorched earth
campaigns has meant an almost un
imaginable survival struggle for
Salvadoran and Guatemalan refu
gees, say refugees in Portland and
representatives from C A M IN O , the
Central
Americans
in
Oregon
Refugee Support Committee.
"They have had an incredibly
hard hie, barely escaping with their
lives. "T h e y have incredible survival
skills," said Don Barnhart, pastor
o f Centenary W ilbur Methodist
Church in S.E. Portland.
Barnhart said he met one Salva
doran couple passing through Port
lan d who fled after discovering their
names on a death list dropped over
their village by airplane. The couple
spoke o f widespread and indiscrimi
nate repression, o f bodies floating
in the river near their village.
One local church fam ily is sharing
their home with a young Salvadoran,
and they are also providing him with
a part-time job.
Through an interpreter, he said he
left his homeland because he felt
that union activism made him sus
pect. H e feared for his life, he said,
because 200 people from his neigh
borhood had already disappeared.
" N o one can say whether they are
dead or alive, they’ve just disap
peared." he said.
Entering C alifornia illegally, he
was picked up by immigration au
thorities and detained for a year.
W hile awaiting deportation, he ap
plied for political asylum and was
bailed out by a local church. He
then came to Portland, has been
here two months and hopes to stay.
His asylum application is still pend
ing.
" T h e whole situation in El
Salvador since 1930 has been very
bad.” he said. W ar, repression, and
outrages perpetrated by the secret
police and right wing death squads,
are aimed at trying " to stop the
movement for a better way o f life ,”
he said.
“ A lot o f people think the Central
Americans come here for economic
reasons, but that's not tru e ." El Sal
vador is a poor country, he said, but
it is still possible to eke out a
reasonable living, in spite o f the
war. " T h e principal reason is p oliti
c a l," he said.
Now , after w ork, he combs the
streets looking for refugees who
need help, and ha, met about 20 Sal
vadorans and 10 Guatemalans that
way.
" T h e people on the street have
nothing. I t ’s hard living under
ground, but the Latin person is a l
ready used to living a kind o f under
ground existence in the U .S .”
“ The people on the committee
have done everything possible to
make sure there is help," and, he
said, the Medical A id for El Salva
dor campaign headed by Ed Asner
and other aid programs organized in
Europe and North America are
greatly appreciated back home.
Even though he finds it "cold all
the time here,” he likes Portland.
He desperately misses the warm
weather o f his homeland, he said,
however, also soccer, swimming in
Lake Uopango near San Salvador,
playing drums called timbales and
black beans cooked the way he likes
them with garlic and onions.
Portlanders have also contributed
"thousands" toward meeting the
basic living expense, of a Guatemalan
fam ily as they start a new life here.
Through an interpreter, they said
they barely escaped an army cam
paign during which relatives and
friends in their village were m ur
dered.
" I always say that I am not
political and neither is my fa m ily ,"
said the woman. "B u t now, people
suffer in Guatemala whether they
are political or n o t."
"T h e poor people who stayed
behind, somejutve disappeared for
ever. They died innocently. Some
are still alive but have been tortured
and can never work again.
" M y mother is being persecuted
and followed by the army. They
have tortured and killed many o f my
relatives.
"T h e government is concerned
with murdering people and getting
more arms. The government ha,
given permission to kill, it doesn’t
matter if it’s a fam ily,” she said.
Now , said the woman, " I want to
take the fear out o f my children."
Medical care, household necessi
ties, and clothing have been donated
to the fam ily, and volunteers act as
translators and are teaching them
English, and also helped them learn
to use T ri-M et and look for work.
In addition, new Portland friends
invited them on outings to the
country and to the zoo.
" T h e refugees have a really deep
need to be self-reliant, support
themselves and not have to go pick
up free bags o f fo o d ," said Terry
Rogers, C A M IN O coordinator.
"T h ey're dealing with heavy duty
poverty,”
she
said.
"T h e y ’ re
putting out their best effo rt to get
on their own feet. But often it just
isn’t possible, so money is neces
sary," and also "s a fe " housing,
clothing, food and employment "o n
a limited basis," she said.
Rogers said that Portlanders have
responded warmly to the refugees,
and the committee is looking to ex
pand.
“ There’s been a really positive
response by people here once they
realize who the refugees are, that
they’ re here, and that they can
contribute personally to their sur
vival,” she said. For more inform a
tion contact the American Friends
Service Comm ittee, 230-9427.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
lished federal policy o f denying
tax exempt status to schools
which discriminate on the basis o f
race;
has opposed the Equal Rights
Amendment;
has threatened the independence
and integrity o f the federal judici
ary by supporting legislation
which would strip the Supreme
C o u rt’s jurisdiction over certain
constitutional issues;
has jeopardized the independence
o f the Civil Rights Commission
by trying to fire every member o f
the Commission;
has repeatedly sought to impose
an "in te n t" test in discrimination
cases;
has refused to endorse the
W omen's Economic Equity Act,
legislation to eliminate sex dis
crimination in key economic
areas;
has been unable or unwilling to
enforce vigorously the law with
respect to discrimination in hous
ing, in education, and in employ
ment;
has tried to lim it the coverage o f
civil rights taws by narrowing the
definition o f "federal financial
assistance" and by prohibiting
discrimination only in those pro
grams and activities for which
federal funds are given directly.
In the coming weeks and months,
whether it is in the context o f de
fending President Reagan's unprec
edented actions regarding the U.S.
Civil Rights Commission or his dan
gerously weak fair housing bill, we
can expect much more rhetoric from
the Administration on quotas and
busing. But we must reject this
transparent attempt to deflect atten
tion away from the Adm inistra
tion’s terrible record on civil rights.
Indeed, we must demand that the
Attorney General and the Assistant
Attorney General for C ivil Rights
start enforcing fully all our civil
rights laws, including those with
which they disagree. O nly then can
they faithfully uphold their oaths as
the champion o f the victims o f dis
crim ination, rather than being per
ceived as their adversary. And only
then can they begin to undo the per
ception o f unfairness that best char
acterizes the Reagan Administration
policies regarding Blacks, Hispan
ics, women, and other minorities.
The 1 eadership Conference on
C ivil Rights is a coalition o f 163
national organizations representing
Blacks, Hispanics and Asian A m eri
cans, women, labor, the disabled,
the aged, religious groups and m i
nority businesses and professions.
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Entertainers join
South Africa ban
By M ichael Beaubein. A frica News
N E W Y O R K — The movement
organizing a cultural boycott of
South A frica continues to grow in
the United States despite the lack of
national coordination and despite
the absence o f an authoritative list
of artists in violation o f resolutions
adopted by the United Nations Gen
eral Assembly since 1968.
New York has evolved as a focal
point for the cultural boycott, and
activists here recently mounted
demonstrations to encourage boy
cotts o f the performances of Ray
Charles, Lou Donaldson. Dakota
Stanton, Chick Corea and Frank
Sinatra, all o f whom have per
formed in South Africa.
In some cases this type o f protest
has brought immediate results. A f
ter pickets virtually shut down her
concerts in New York and New Jer
sey, for example, M illie Jackson
joined with Stanley Turrentine and
pledged never again to perform in
apartheid South Africa.
The demonstrations here have
been led by two community-based
organizations: the Unity in Action
Network, sponsored by the Patrice
Lumumba coalition and the African
Jazz Artists Society (AJASS); and
the Coalition to E,nd Cultural Col-
laborajion with South A frica, which
was formed by the National Black
United Front (N B U F ).
The lack o f national coordination
for the movement will soon be ad
dressed by the lobby group Trans-
A frica, which is now promoting the
boycott as one o f its priorities. The
campaign was launched on June 4
at TransAfrica's sixth anniversary
meeting with a press conference fea
turing the O'Jays.
In addition to their pledge to sup
port the boycott, the O'Jays an-
nounced plans to underwrite the
costs o f the TransA frica Entertain
ment and Apartheid Symposium to
be held in Los Angeles during 1983.
The symposium is designed to in
form the entertainment industry
about (he United Nations-sanc-
tioned ban on tours o f South
Africa.
The problems that activists have
encountered due to lack o f an
authoritative list o f boycott viola
tors will soon be a thing of the past.
The United Nations Special C o m
mittee Against Apartheid has an
nounced plans to compile and pub
lish a register of cultural contacts
with South Africa.
The register will be compiled by
the United Nations Center Against
Apartheid in six-month intervals.
The first register w ill cover the per
iod o f January through June o f
1983 and will be distributed in (he
fall. Artists who visited South A f
rica during this period, however,
can escape inclusion by pledging to
respect the boycott in the future.
Activists have been heartened by
a growing list o f cancellations in
1983. Among those artists who have
turned down contracts and an
nounced their refusal to perform in
South Africa are Barry W hite, the
Commodores, Third W orld, the
Jacksons, Tony Bennett and Odys
sey.
A t the same time, however, Peter
Braham, a South African promoter,
boasted to the A frican Capetown
Times late last year that he had
signed M artha Reeves and the Van-
dellas, Harold M elvin and the Blue
N o es, the Stylistics, the Shilites, the
Three Degrees, Edwin Star, the
Temptations, Hot Chocolate, and
the Drifters for South African
tours.