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PORTLAND OBSERVER
Volume XV, Number 18
February 27, 1985
25c Copy
Two Sections
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School starts program
to avoid drug pushers
by Io n ita Duke
Benson High School's Travis West (can tar I won his
third straight state wrestling title Saturday at the U S.
National Bank OSAA Class AAA stats tournament.
Sea story on Paga 8.
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
Campbell boycott continues
by Robert Lothian
D uring his historic speech to the
Democratic convention, Jesse Jack-
son acknowledged efforts by migrant
farm w orkers
in the M idw est to
achieve better wages and w orking
conditions.
The Farm Labor Organizing C o m
mittee o f Toledo, Ohio, worked close
ly with the Rainbow C oalition in o r
ganizing a boycott o f C a m p b e ll’ s
products. F L O C called for the boy
cott in support o f M idw est tom ato
pickers.
C am pbell’s is the m ajor m anufac
turer of tomato juice and other toma
to products in the M idw est. F a rm
w orkers, m any o f them M exicans,
say that huge processing companies
like C a m p b e ll’s, through their con
trol o f the industry, force them to
work under conditions sim ilar to
those in the Third W orld.
Jackson met w ith F L O C presi
dent Baldem ar Velasquex and then
tried to bring C a m p b e ll’ s to the ne-
gotiating table, ’ ’ but soon discovered
that C a m p b e ll’s Soup C o m p an y is
not as easy to reason with as the Syr
ian g o vern m en t,” said the F L O C
newsletter. C a m p b e ll’ s has refused
to negotiate.
The farmworkers are struggling for
"ju s tic e , self-d eterm in atio n and a
contract with C a m p b e ll’s,” said the
newsletter. C om panies like C a m p
bell’s, according to F L O C , are reap
ing huge profits by charging consum
ers exho rb itan t prices com pared to
what they pay farm ers and fa rm
workers. The people who produce the
tomatoes — farm w orkers, farm ers
and cannery workers — receive 17
percent o f the gross receipts, w hile
processing companies take 83 percent
of gross receipts, said FLO C .
Hard-pressed farm ers, many o f
whom face ban kru p tcy and having
their farm s auctioned o f f to a g ri
business conglomerates like C a m p
bell’s, can’t affo rd decent wages and
living conditions fo r their m igrant
workers, according to FLO C .
Living conditions fo r the w o rk
ers are predictable — "housing with
no inside p lum bing, water must be
carried fro m a com m on building.
Lighting in rooms is fashioned from
festooned extension cords and bare
bulbs. A hard rain transform s the
camp's grassless grounds into a mud-
bath.”
" F o r bending, stooping and pick
ing a hamperful o f tomatoes (33 lbs ),
a w orker in northern O h io gets any
where fro m 19 - 25 cents, at least
ten cents less per hamper than is re
ceived by workers in other states,”
according to F L O C .
T he com m ittee is now concerned
about the return o f sharecropping
Under this arrangement, which (hey
call "Reaganism in the nelds," farm
workers become “ independent con
tractors.” The companies avoid social
security, unemployment and workers'
compensation taxes, w hile workers
tPlease turn to Page 7. Column I )
Death penalty seen as drain
by Lam ia Duke
G R A S S R O O T N E W S . N .W .— As
the dust from election year '84 settles,
voters not only selected political lead
ers but m arked th eir ballots to re
establish the death penalty.
Ballot Measure 6 exempts the death
penalty from the constitutional prohi
bition o f cruel and unusual punish
ment. Ballot Measure 7 imposes the
death penalty as the sentence fo r
aggravated murder.
M a rk K ram e r, an attorney at St.
Andrews Legal Clinic and a constant
opponent o f the death penalty, said
iu use is not a deterrent and predicts
it w ill be a tremendous drain on the
criminal justice system.
Michael Schrunk, District Attorney
for M ultnom ah County, said Kramer
is right.
“ I t ’ s a te rrib le expense fo r the
courts, prosecutors and defense. It
will be a drain on resources and draw
away from other prosecutions,” he
said.
Schrunk opposes the death pen
alty: " I t ’ s a self-in flicted w o u n d ,”
and stated his office will prosecute all
appropriate cases. He said he expects
the death p en alty to be applied to
those “ co m m ittin g the most ag
grieved crimes.”
K ram er added that voters re in
stated the death penalty because o f a
perception that the crim inal justice
system was tilting to favor the crim
inal.
“ That is inaccurate,” said Kramer
“ In Multnom ah County 95 percent of
persons charged are convicted through
trial or plea. There is a maximum of
five percent and a m inim um o f one
percent thrown out fo r errors or il
legal police procedures," he said.
"People are m a d ,” Schrunk add
ed. “ Those in the system brought this
on themselves by m aking mistakes.
The public is reacting to those mis
takes."
In election *84, both Kram er and
Schrunk said the public was confused
about the " V ic t im 's Rights B i l l, ”
Ballot Measure 8 and voted it down.
Schrunk said the Justice Service Levy
failed because voters did not want to
pay more money.
“ They looked at the death penalty
as a low-cost solution to all the prob
lems. But it is not. The rapist, robbers
and burglars are still with us,” Schrunk
said.
Kramer said he expects to see the
prosecutor utilize the death penalty
as an inducement to get guilty pleas.”
It w ill be a barg ain in g chip in the
hands of the prosecutor. People who
are innocent or certainly not guilty
of aggravated murder may be induced
to plea to a charge o f life im prison
ment because they fear in the hands of
the jury they may get the death pen
alty,” Kramer said.
Kramer has documented the racial
discrim ination in the application o f
the death penalty “ Discrimination in
the application is partly attributable
to discrimination in the criminal jus
tice system from (he decision to a r
rest, to the decision to release,” he
added
Whites are twice as likely to have
a commutation decision and less likely
to receive the death sentence for mur
dering a Black victim.
In 1981 Kramer wrote, "G iven the
court's recent stance and the public’s
overw helm ing ( i f u n in fo rm e d ) en
dorsement o f the death penalty, it is
unlikely that a wholesale invalidation
of the death penalty will occur in the
foreseeable fu tu re . T h e court w ill
continue to chip away at the unconsti
tu tio n a l sharp edges o f the death
penalty statutes w hile avoiding the
central issues o f discrim ination and
arbitrariness."
GRASSROOT NEW S. N W . —
Students at King Elementary School
will be provided with transportation
to avoid w alking through and near
open drug trafficin g which recently
migrated to the corner of Northeast
Grand and Alberta.
Harriet A d air, principal o f King,
has identified 40 students in need of
alternative transportation, “ But every
day we get more and more children
who express a desire to sign up. Last
week a couple of parents stood on the
corner and m onitored the students
who walked home that way.”
A d a ir added that the num ber o f
drug pushers on the corner varies.
"W e also are identifying times o f the
day when the dealers feel they can
stand on that corner and sell drugs
w ith o u t fear o f h arrassm ent,” she
continued.
Edna Robertson, co o rd in ato r o f
the Northeast Neighborhood office,
initiated this solution because o f the
growing number o f complaints from
parents, other residents and business
owners over visible drug transactions
a block aw ay fro m the school. O n
F eb ru ary I , a co m m u n ity meeting
was called and an alternative trans
p o rta tio n system was o ffe re d as a
short-term solution.
Ed Green, Director o f Transporta-
tion for the Portland Public Schools,
said the transportation will be provid
ed u ntil the end o f the school year.
M ac L o c k e tt, C h ie f o f Police fo r
PPs, said drug trafficking has slowed
but not slopped.
“ W e are w aitin g to see if drug
dealers plan to come out more when
the weather improves," Lockett added
Lockett said the presence of men in
uniform and cars were stopping and
slowing sales.
The migration o f the drug traffic,
which has been the kiss o f death to
tavern owners w ill not topple the
Eldorado Restaurant.
“ W e started charging a cover and
when they come into the parking lot,
I ask ihem what (lien intentions are,"
said A rth u r C o x , J r., owner o f the
Eldorado. “ I f it is to sell drugs or to
search fo r someone selling drugs, I
will call the police and press trespass
ing charges.”
Robertson called the im plem enta
tion o f an alternative transportation
system, “ a good idea. O u r children
should not see drug dealing in their
neighborhood.”
Cox said, " I don't want to see this
sort of thing because I don't want our
kids to think that this is a role model."
Tw o drug dealers calling themselves
the Portland Weed Sellers Association
said they would never approuch chil
dren. “ W e got kids o f our own, and
that is what we are doing out here —
taking care o f our kids.”
The dealers said until they get some
decent paying jobs, " th e y can con
tinue to take us to jail. W e'll be back
up here doing the same thing in three
hours."
Robertson is calling another in a
series o f meetings with tavern owners,
co m m un ity residents and o ffic ia ls
to develop a plan to keep drug deal
ers from congregating. The next meet
ing is M arch 12 at the King N eig h
borhood Facility.
Rights activist decrys U.S. aid
by Robert Lothian
Speaking with the moral force of a
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Artentin-
ian hum an rights activist A d o lfo
Perez Esquivel called for a withdrawal
o f the U.S. military presence in Latin
America during talks in M cM innville
and Portland last week.
Perez Esquivel was the keynote
speaker at a peace conference at
Linfield College in M cM in nville. He
also spoke at Portland State U n iver
sity.
For his work as head of Service for
Peace and Justice, a hum an rights
group which works on behalf o f the
oppressed throughout I-atin America,
Perez Esquivel won the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1980.
A fter a m ilitary dictatorship came
to power in A rgentin a in 1976, the
architect and artist was jailed and
tortured for 14 months. He was also
jailed in Ecuador and Brazil for his
work. Like M artin Luther King, he is
a follower of Gandhi.
Perez Esquivel expressed disap
pointment that the American people
seem uninform ed about what he de
scribed as the havoc caused by the
U .S . government in Latin Am erica.
He was especially critical o f the m ili
tary aid given to dictatorships.
I f that aid isn 't stopped, he said,
" C e n tra l A m erica might end up
worse than Viet N a m , and nobody
wants another Viet N a m .”
Perez Esquivel said he would travel
to Washington after leaving Portland
and ask the Reagan Administrtion for
" a w ith d raw al o f the U .S . m ilita ry
intervention in C entral A m e ric a .”
He will also ask the administration to
reopen talks toward a normalization
o f relations with Nicaragua, to p ar
ticipate in the Contradora peace talks
sponsored by Mexico, Venezuela and
other countries, to cut o ff aid to the
anti-Sandimsta rebels known as “ con
tra s ," and in general, to respect the
right to self-determination of Central
American countries.
The Soviet Union, from the stand
point o f imperialism, “ must be viewed
in the same lig h t,” he said. H e sug
gested that the two superpowers do
nate to the T hird W orld a sum equal
to the value o f a nuclear missile, to
be used to build large hospitals.
Argentina is a country that could
benefit from such aid . he said. It
inherited a $45 billion debt. 700 per
cent in fla tio n , m a ln u tritio n fo r 40
percent of the population and 6.5 m il
lion people who cannot read or write
from the military dictatorship, he said
The dictatorship was responsible
for a seven-year reign o f terror in
which 30,000 Argentinians, alleged
subversives, died or disappeared.
Perez Esquivel described what hap
pened as genocide.
The m ilitary was stripped o f some
o f its power after the Falklands fias
co, and Argentina now has a dem o
cratic government. But death squads
continue to operate; the situation is
shaky and could deteriorate, he said.
A happy Graca Collins and Clvde Hunter, maintenance worker at the
community canter, alt amidst office furniture donated by PNB
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
Grace Collins receives grant
The Northeast (P o rtla n d ) C o m
munity Relations Team from Pacific
Northwest Bell helped the Grace C ol
lins M em orial Com m unity Center at
128 N E Russell solve a couple p ro b
lems M onday. February 25. The team
presented (he center w ith a $1,500
check fo r the center's scholarship
fund, and delivered an assortment
o f much-needed o ffice supplies and
furniture.
The Collins M em orial Center has
been serving the co m m un ity since
1954. It's day care facility serves prin
cipally the N orth and Northeast sec
tions of Portland. However, because
o f its outstanding educational p ro
gram, it also draws students from the
Gresham and Beaverton areas.
The scholarship fund helps mothers
w ith lim ited incomes continue to
pursue their jobs, w hile allow ing
their children to benefit fro m the
center’s programs