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Page 4 Portland O b te rw c N o v m b f 16,1963
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High Tech fo r whom?
EDITORIAL/OPINION
by Dr. Manning Marable
Demand lead-free water
Portland’s pure water is poisoning residents
who have not been informed how to protect
themselves from lead poisoning.
Connectors or pipes containing lead or cop
per pipes with lead solders can cause lead to
leach into the water supply in homes, schools
and other buildings. Although expensive alter
ations may be required in many buildings, a
simple procedure will eliminate most of the
lead intake. Let your tap water run long
enough to flush out the pipes (about four to
five minutes) before you take water for use.
It is the City of Portland’s legal responsibil
ity to insure that the water reaching the con
sumer’s tap is pure, but the Portland Water
Bureau has no policy of ihforming the con
sumers of the danger or of quickly making the
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needed changes.
The individual citizen can contact the Water
Bureau and have the building inspected to see
if the City’s or the individual’s pipes contain
lead and to test the tap water.
The identification and elimination o f the
city’s lead-containing pipe and the identifica
tion of improper private plumbing should be
taken on as an emergency campaign by the
neighborhood associations. Only extreme po
litical pressure will move the City to perform
its obligations.
The public health and the development of
our children is at stake. There should be no
higher priority of city government than to pro
tect its residents.
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Corporations
and
politicians
alike have been feeding us a heavy
dose o f ’ ’high technology propagan
d a " in recent years. Many leading
Democrats, including neo-liberals
like Massachusetts Senator Paul
Tsongas and presidential aspirant
Gary H art, have claimed that the
rapid expansion o f high technologi
cal firms would resolve many of
America’s
long-term
economic-
problems But let's try to separate
the political rhetoric from the harsh
realities.
How has the high technology and
computer boom affected Black
workers? Labor force statistics indi
cate, first, that most Blacks perform
at low-skilled positions in high tech
firms. Blacks are almost never hired
as managers, but as low level opera
tives and clerical workers in such
companies.
Second, racial and sexual segrega
tion is already an organic part o f
high tech manufacture. Today,
whites comprise over 96 percent o f
all professional and managerial po
sitions in high tech-related firms,
such as insurance, computers, and
banking. Women and nonwhites to
tal over 90 percent o f the operatives
and clerical workers in these com
panies. Despite industry claims that
high tech could generate a huge de
mand for skilled workers, most poli
tical economists predict that high
tech will create only 900,000 new
jobs over the next ten years. And be
cause the vast m ajority of these new
positions will be clericals and opera
tives, Blacks and Hispanics now
entering the field won’t benefit m a
terially.
Third, high technology is rapidly
eliminating thousands o f jobs every
year which were ’ ’ traditionally" the
employment
sectors o f
Black,
Hispanic and women workers. Sev
eral hundred thousand Black wom
en are currently employed as bank
tellers, clericals, keypunch opera
tors, stenographers,, etc. Employ
ment in these vocations w ill drop by
at least one-fifth during the next 10-
15 years due to the expanded use o f
computers. T w o disturbing illustra
tions o f this dynamic can be cited.
One major New York bank re
cently issued a statement telling
depositors below a certain amount
that they would not be permitted to
see a teller for normal transactions.
Instead, customers »would transact
their business via a bank card ma
chine. This move meant that the
number o f tellers could conceivably
be reduced. Since 1970, further
more, the number o f telephone op
erators has beeun cut 30 percent,
primarily because o f the use o f com
puters. Corporate technology prom
ises to slash more jobs in the future.
According to social historian
Am y Dru Stanley, "Com puters and
automated data processors have
fragmented and simplified clerical
and service work, multiplying the
number o f low-wage positions."
Today over 97 percent o f all office
word processors are operated by
women, Blacks and Hispanics. By
1990, according to Stanley, " 5 0 to
75 percent o f all service work will be
computer-related.”
Secretaries,
cashiers, bookkeepers and other
low-income white collare employees
will be affected.
Fourth, American banks have
been largely responsible for subsi
dizing the high tech explosion
abroad, which in turn has under
mined U.S. jobs. Between 1960 and
f983, for instance, the sale o f fo r
eign made steel in the U .S. has exp
anded from 5 percent to 23 percent.
Why? Examine the behavior o f ten
major banks— C itibank, C hemic al
Bank, Continental Illinois, M ellon,
First Chicago, Wells Fargo. West
ern Bankcorp, Security Pacific. J.P .
M organ, and Rainier Bancorp. The
pension funds o f U .S . Steel and
Bethlehem Steel had, as o f the late
1970s, a total o f S I33 m illion invest
ed in the stock o f these ten bonks.
Using the same deposits, plus those
of other American workers, these
banks loaned Japanese steel com
panies more than one billion, 165
million dollars. Japanese steel forms
have taken U .S . workers' capital to
develop high tech steel production,
which in turn displaces the same
steelworkers!
The aggressive export o f high
tech-oriented production facilities
by U.S.-based multinationals, com
bined with the suppression o f fo r
eign workers’ wages, has sent hun
dreds o f thousands o f Americans to
unemployment lines. Small wonder
that the percentage o f foreign made
electrical components in the past 23
years has soared from 1 percent to
26 percent; the percentage o f con
sumer electronics, 6 percent to 95
percent; and the percentage o f cal
culators, 5 percent to 45 percent.
High technology could be used to
serve the interests o f the labor
movement, rather than the destruc
tive prerogatives of the banks and
the corporations. Technological ad
vances must serve the public policy
goal o f a full employment economy
at home, combined with the imple
mentation of more effective a ffir
mative action guarantees which ad
vance the interests o f Blacks, La
tinos and women.
Washington Hot Line
by Congressman Ron Wyden
as
_____ Letters. to tjie Editor.
Open letter to District 18 residents
•hree candidates, immediately after
the community vote offered his full
support and endorsement of the
comm unity’s choice, Margaret C ar
The Nov. 5th Community Forum
was the beginning o f something
good. It was an invitation to the
Black comnmunity to become in
volved in the decision-making pro
cess o f the State o f Oregon.
The primary organizers of the
forum ,
Herb Cawthorne,
Ron
Herndon, M arion Scott and Rev.
John tiarling to n. developed and
presented an opportunity for all re
sidents of District 18 to hear Black
candidates present their positions on
six major issues and receive ques
tions from the audience. Following
the question and answer period, re
sidents were asked to cast a vote as
to which o f the candidates they felt
would best represent the concerns
and needs of people in the district.
The organizers are to be com
mended for their diligence in devel
oping and presenting the forum.
The openness with which the meet
ing was begun and the organizers*
willirgness to openly review at the
forum how major decisions were
made, resolved the concerns for
process integrity.
ter.
Although the forum was a
positive step for the Black commu
nity, it was only one step. It is now
up to the community, the forum or
ganizers and the 22 supporting or
ganizations (as stated by the organi
zers) to carry the momentum fo r
ward.
The forum was successful at fo
cusing on the need for political unity
in the Black community, a need so
often expressed by Jesse Jackson. A
case in point for the beginning o f
such political unity was demonstrat
ed when Luther Strong, one o f the
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For the first time in this commu
nity’s history there is the beginning
o f a true political power base, the
Black vote delivered as a block. But
for this power to be realized the
community must demonstrate its
ability to vote as a block. It must act
positively to realize the full potential
of the forum's strategy.
However, a Black candidate can
neither be elected by nor only repre
sent Black voters when 56 percent of
the electorate consists o f whites, His
panics, Native Americans, Asians and
others, as is the case in District 18.
For this reason, any candidate se
lected by the Black community must
seek and gain the support and in
volvement o f all the people of the
district. Although the block o f
Black votes is a powerful tool, the
ability o f legislators to secure pas
sage of critical legislation is largely
dependent upon broad district sup
port as well as personal attributes.
The block vote and community
unity are extremely important, but
so is your involvement as a volun
teer informing your neighbors on
critical issues and motivating them
to become involved in the political
process. Equally vital is dollar con
tributions. The cost o f printing ma
terials and getting a message to all
residents o f the district is an expen
sive undertaking.
The block vote for Black people
can become a reality in Oregon and
the most diverse district in the state
can be unified. But all residents
must make the effort; they must
vote, volunteer their time and help
to pay costs. And the community's
candidate must meet and work
openly, accountably and responsib
ly with all the people o f District 18.
Fred M ilton
The Observer welcomes Letters to
the Editor. Letters should be short,
and must contain the writer's name
and address (addresses are not p rim
ed). The Observer reserves the right
to edit f o r length.
7-ówñeTnewspaper,
Subscribe today!
PORTLAND OBSERVER
News fo r and about
you.
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(Continued from page I column 6)
The City or private laboratories
yzed, but the results can be altered
by the sampling procedure. I f sam
ples are taken where the tap has
been allowed to run and the pipes
are flushed out, a minimum o f lead
will be found, so samples should be
taken o f stagnant water that has
been standing in the pipes for sever
al hours.
Solution
Barring o f lead solders w ill be
considered by the Oregon Health
Division at a public hearing Friday,
November 18th but this will affect
only future plumbing. The C ity has
the responsibility to replace all
rected to take into account the needs
of the elderly and other groups that
would have trouble affording a
phone when establishing their pro
grams.
Taken together, these measures
are a significant step toward keeping
the phone a common utility, avail
able to all. And I believe that is what
we must do. I have said again and
again that the value of a phone is
linked to the universality o f the
whole phone system. In other
words, it doesn't do me any good to
have a phone if 1 want to call some
one who doesn’t have one because
they can't afford it.
There is still much work to be
done. The legislation must pass the
Senate, be reconciled with the
House version and, finally, be
signed by the President. But, at least
we are over the first big hurdle and
that much closer to ensuring a ffo rd
able phone service for all.
offending pipes on public property,
but changes in internal plumbing are
the responsibility o f the owners.
A relatively simple and low-lost
solution would be the addition of
lime to the water to reduce its corro
sivity and prevent it from absorbing
lead.
Although Burt has attempted to
influence the W ater Bureau to take
the threat o f lead poisoning ser
iously, he has received little cooper
ation. The Safe Drinking W ater Act
requires that water services notify
their customers when contamination
exceeds allowable standards but the
Portland W ater Bureau has not
complied. A small notification, sug
gesting flushing o f pipes, appeared
in the newsletter mailed with water
bills but the item did not explain
why this is necessary.
Following publicity over the City
o f Seattle’s corrosion problem,
which causes millions o f dollars
worth o f damage to water pipes, the
Water Bureau commissioned a
study o f the results o f Portland
water corrosion but the 1982 study
did not include health factors.
Burt continues his work, urging
Portland residents to protect their
own safety until the City is forced to
act. This action could be hastened
when the first diagnosed lead poi
soned resident files suit against the
City for violation of the Safe D rin k
ing W ater Act.
Further inform ation can be ob
tained from Citizens for a Lead Free
Environment. PO Box 20696, Port
land. O R 97230.
Yes, I w o u ld Ilka a s u b s c rip tio n !
to the Portland Observer.
□ I have enclosed my check or
money order for 116, for a
one year
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1 O reqo't
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Newspaper
1 Publishers
Association
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Portland Observer
■.a' fiwa.
Th« P o rtla n d O t o r r .t r IU S P S 959 M O i >s p u b lis h « ! avant
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worth Portland Oregon 97217 Post Ottica Bo« 3137 Portland
Oregon 97208 Second class postage paid at Portland Oregon
Tha Portland O tn e r .tr was established m 1970
Subscriptions »15 00 par year at tha Tn County area Post
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local Bell companies.
But the fee was plainly unfair.
Under the access charge decision,
telephone customers would
be
charged a flat montly fee o f from $2
to $6 for access to long distance
lines even i f they never made a single
long distance call.
In addition to removing this un
fair charge for small businesses and
residential customers, the House
legislation would establish a fund,
the “ Universal Service Fund,”
which would guarantee that in rural
areas and other areas o f high cost
phone service, the phone rates
would not rise substantially above
the national average.
The bill would also create a " life
line service,” under which state
public utilities commissions are di
rected to provide reduced rate local
service for recipients o f Aid to Fam
ilies with Dependent Children, food
stamps or Supplemental Security In
come. State PUCs would also be d i
Water carries lead poison____ __
PLEASE PRINT
Mail to Portland Observe!
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For months, the battle to ensure
affordable phone rates has been
waged both here in the Capitol and
across the country. Late last week,
that battle finally came to a head in
the House o f Representatives and
I'm glad to report that common
sense won out.
At that time, the House o f Repre
sentatives passed the Universal Tele
phone Service Preservation Act of
1983 bringing us a step closer to
keeping millions o f consumers from
having to pay unjust and inequitable
fees for their phone.
The legislation, as passed by the
House, would exempt millions of
small businesses and residential cus
tomers from paying the Federal
Communications Commission's flat
monthly "access charge."
This fee. which is a charge for ac
cess to long distance lines, was de
signed to replace the revenue which
local phone companies would lose
when A T A T splits away from the
283 2486
Boa 3137. Portland. Oregon 97208
N a m e _______
A lfred L Henderson. Editor/Publisher
A l Williams. Advertising Manager
A d d ress ____
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S ta te
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f t . . .
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