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PCC childcare
opens
The world
of hair
What Kwanzaa
really means
Page 3
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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,