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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 1983)
K" PCC childcare opens The world of hair What Kwanzaa really means Page 3 Page 5 Page 10 PORTMND OBSERVER Volume XIV, Number 10 December 28, 1983 25C Per Copy PUC grants rate hike Oregon Public U tility Commis sioner John Lobdcll on Tuesday granted rate increases to Pacific Power A lig h t and Portland Gener al Electric to cover a portion of their investments in the terminated W PPSS and Skagit nuclear power plants. Beginning in A p ril, PPAL will increase rates $19 million and PG E will increase theirs $16. J m il lion. Lobdell hasn't yet calculated the effect o f this latest rate increase on the average ratepayers bill. Lobdell's decision was criticized by representatives o f citizen groups which had opposed the utilities' rate increase proposals. According to Eric Stachon o f O S P IR G , the Oregon State Public Interest Re search G roup, the rate increases vio late Oregon law. “ Ballot Measure 9, passed by Oregon voters in 1978 by a margin o f two-to-one, clearly says that utili ties cannot charge ratepayers for power plants until those plants are com pleted," Stachon said. "A p p ar- ently Commissioner Lobdell cares more about utility profits than about upholding the la w ." Lobdell, who is serving his last week in office, expects his decision to be challenged in court. Stachon said O S P IR G and several other groups are reviewing the decision. He agrees that an appeal is likely. “ Someone has to represent the ratepayers." Stachon said. " I f the Commissioner won’t accept that re sponsibility, then we're forced to go to court. Jackson gains ground Jesse Jackson already has made Jesse Jackson already has made more progress in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination than Shirley Chisholm, the only pre vious Black contender, says the head of the nation's leading think tank on Black politics. “ Mrs. Chisholm was impatient in 1972,” said Eddie W illiams, presi dent o f the Joint Center for Political Studies. “ She just declared." But Jackson's decision to delay his announcement as long as possi ble allowed "tim e for accomoda tion” among Black leaders, said W illiams. The months o f "elongated discus- ' r JESSEJACKSON sion” allowed Jackson, first, to line up support from political “ risk tak ers," such as Tuskegee, A la., mayor Johnny Ford, and second, to mini- mize public opposition from such 'risk avoiders" as mayors Andrew Young o f Atlanta and Coleman Young o f Detroit, said Williams. Jackson's recent endorsement by Black Baptist leaders is only one sign o f Jackson's success in this area. “ Upwardly mobile, middle-in come Blacks in business, govern ment and academia are climbing aboard Jackson’s train in greater numbers than would normally take place," W illiams said " F o r every [Btack| leader who's hanging back, you can identify 10 or 15 who are publicly supportive,” said W illiams. Phone rates increase Sunday Public U tility Commissioner John Lobdell told customers o f Pa cific Northwest Bell Telephone Co. that the cost o f leasing or buying their telephones will go up Jan. 1 when PNB's phone equipment is transferred to American Telephone and Telegraph Co. (A T A T ). "N o w is the best time for PNB customers to decide if they want to buy a phone or continue leasing,” Lobdell said. "T h e ‘in-place’ phone prices offered by PNB will expire on Dec. 31. After that, customers who wish to buy will have to choose be tween prices set by A T A T or retail phone sellers.” A T A T recently announced lease and sale prices that are substantial ly higher than those charged by PNB In some cases lease prices will more than double by 1985. For example, the current PNB monthly lease on a Trim line Tough- Tone phone is $2.21. A T A T plans to charge $3.21 a month in January 1984, and $4 60 a month starting in January 1985 for the same phone. The purchase price for that phone will be $54.95 from A T A T as of Jan I . It can be purchased for as lit tle as $46.09 from PN B if it was “ in place" as o f Dec. 31, 1982. The transfer o f some PNB switches and equipment, including residential leased phones, is one fa cet o f the federal court-ordered breakup o f A T A T which will take place in 1984 A T A T lease and sale prices w ill not be regulated by the PUC. Lobdell said the A T A T divesti ture and other changes in the tele phone industry will mean higher rates for customers. He urged resi dential and business customers to closely evaluate their phone needs to find ways to reduce costs. In the long run it is advantageious for many customers to buy their equipment, either from PN B or another seller, and avoid long-term lease costs, Lobdell said. Wintar fun: Jaaon Banton. age 8. and Damanl Leach, age 7, enjoy the lea and enow that blanket ed Portland thia holiday weak by eliding down the front atapa on a cardboard carton. (Photo: Richard J. Brown) What went wrong in Grenada? by l am ia Duke REV. HERBERT DAUGHTRY (Photo: Richard J. Brown) Grassroot News, N .W .— Among the events, issues and personalities 1983 will be remembered for will be the invasion o f Grenada and the death o f its progressive movement and leader, Maurice Bishop. We hope history also records the statements o f Don Rojas, Bishop's press secretary and journalist, who spoke with Prime Minister Bishop less than an hour before he was killed In the December 26 issue o f Inter continental Press. Rojas said Bishop told him to make calls to the outside world, saying that. "President Fidel Castro and the Cuban Communist Pasrty had absolutely no involve ment in this crisis and the Grenadian people could solve these problems by themselves without outside inter ference or intervention." W hat really happened in G ren ada? According to a Grenadian who was not censored by the U .S. State Department, the problems arose from a bid for power by the deputy prime minister and finance minister, Bernard Coard. Rojas said the rank-and-file mem bership o f the New Jewel (Joint En deavor for W elfare, Education and Liberation) movement did not know about a proposal for joint leader ship between Coard and Bishop. He said they would not have accepted it. “ Bernard was not the kind of po litical leader who had struggled for the masses and made sacrifices for them the way Bishop had. “ Bishop and others were brutally beaten by Dairy's Mongoose gang (Eric Matthew G airy, dictator of Grenada before he was ousted by the New Jewel Movement). Coard was teaching at the University o f the In a statement Oct. 20th con demning the killing of Bishop on (he previous day, Fidel Castro warned Coard and his supporters that they had created the conditions “ for im perialism to find a convenient ex cuse to move in and crush the G ren adian revolution." The invasion of Grenada was not only a blow to the international Pan African struggle, but also to the Black liberation struggle in Am- Analysis West Indies and not subjected to Dairy's terrorism ." The mass media staled Coard had leanings toward a more Leninist o ri entation but Rojas said it was a bid for power that blew up in Coard's face. “ W hat happened in the weeks be fore, during and after M aurice’s house arrest was leftism run amok The party lost virtually all sup port among the masses. Many rank- and-file members o f the party be came alienated and disillusioned. “ There was such a serious demo ralization withing the armed forces that a mutiny would have broken out in a matter o f days." Rojas said Coard and his people let their own ambitions and egos get the better of them. ■ f erica. Bishop’s New Jewel M ove ment was inspired by the Civil Rights movement that occurred in America. The National Black United Front adopted a Grenadian slogan, " F o r ward together, backwards never!" In 1981, the president of N B U F , Rev. Herbert Daughtry, said in Seattle that Grenada represented a new world order that was a threat to the interests of the U .S. ruling pow ers. Rev. Daughtry said, "N ations are saying, 'Back o ff my resources.' And along comes Ronald Reagan who wants to play cowboy.” On national T .V ., President Rea gan talked about how the Grenadian airport was being built by Cuban forces and implied Cuba had a voice in the movement. Rojas said, “ I f there was any out side interference it would have come from the C IA using the opportunity of friction inside the party to manip ulate, divide and destroy the party and the revolution." Rojas cited history as a basis for his analysis that the C IA exploited the situatjpn and developed the ex cuse for the U .S . invasion. Facts are abundant about the C I A ’s involvement in Third W orld countries. Operating under the theme of protecting U.S. interests, they have plotted to overthrow gov ernments in Iran, Angola, Sudan, Syria, Guatemala. Ecuador, G u y ana, Zaire, Ghana and Chile. In more than h alf o f these countries they have succeeded. An in the U .S ., the F B I. has been implicated in the murders of M artin Luther King, M alcolm X, and indirectly involved in the assas sination of President John F. Ken nedy. A defector from Police Intelli gence in C alifornia, Louise E. Tack wood, said police conspired against famous political prisioners and groups such as Angela Davis, George Jackson, the Black Pan then, the Nation o f I -,1am, and Viet nam Vets Against the W ar, as well as ordinary citizens. The assault on Grenada appears I Please turn to pane 2, column 6,
