Krs Frances Schaen-Netnpaper Koon
U n iv e rs ity of Oregon Lib rary
l u rene, Oregon 97403
Native American
Art
PSU apartheid
protest
Page 3
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kS^OFFS
PORTLAND OBSERNIER
Volume XV, Number 30
May 22, 1985
25C Copy
Two Sections
Lee Brown speaks out
by lam ia Duke
GRASSROOT NEWS, N W
Sounding more like a historian than
a criminal justice expert, Houston's
Police Chief l ee Brown challenged
the Portland Urban league to utilize
the strategy of "the b»x»k, the buck
and the ballot," along with coalition
politics at the 1 eague's annual dinner
and 40th anniversary on May 16.
With iheir new chief executive
officer — Herb Cawthorne — ap
proved by the National Urban I eague
Board, ihc Portland league umbrellas
a variety of programs to assist Port
land's Alro-American arxl low-income
communities.
Keynote speaker th ie f Brown
established the Criminal Justice pro
gram at Portland State University in
1968, served as sheriff and director of
public safety tor Multnomah t oun-
ty, and from 1978 82 Brown was
Public Safely Commissioner in At
lanta. Georgia
Brown proved to be a student ol
history as he compared the current
Lae Brown. Houston» Police Chief, addresses
by Robert Lothian
Ethiopia was once a potential
breadbasket for East Africa and the
Middle East, "but now is not adiread
basket, but a basket case," according
to a former Ethiopian Supreme Court
Justice.
Hapte Selassie was the keynote
speaker at a conference on food and
African development at PSU May 17.
The one day conference, sponsored
by the PSU Association of African
Students and the Black Studies De
partment, brought together students,
faculty and the public with govern
ment representatives from Ghana,
Gabon and Nigeria.
Several papers on African devel
opment were presented, and panels
discussed South Africa and African
women in development.
According to Selassie, who is now
a professor at Georgetown University
and Howard University in Washing
ton, D.C., most African countries
were self-sufficient and net exporters
of fixid until about 1944)
That changed with the rise of mili
tary-bureaucratic states whose ruling
elites are unable to deal with funda
mental s<x:ial problems, he said.
Selassie 4ecried negative media
images of Africa. "In TV reports,
Africa has been portrayed as a prob
lem continent," and Africans as
"helpless people," he said. "I know
Africa has many problems but cer
tainly it isn’t a problem continent "
“ Economics is not Africa’s prob
lem The fundamental problem 1 have
maintained is a political one.”
Using Ethiopia as an example,
Selassie said he is an outspoken critic
of the Ethiopian government, which
he described as an everwidening gap
between an expanding military-police
bureaucracy “ taking a great deal of
resources” and “ an increasingly alien
ated society.”
Ironically, in a coutry that is sup
posed to be socialist, "people who
are not essentially productive have
ended up ruling those who produce.”
A socialist development model that
forgets Africa's small producers is
imposed as an alien doctrine of social
organization, he said. "The small
farmer should be any African gov
ernment's first item on the agenda of
development." Ethiopia's govern
ment has been criticized for neglecting
small farmers in favor of flashy urban
development projects.
Selassie's personal history reflects
the changes that came with Ethio
pia’s release from colonialism. He
was born an Italian citizen when Ethi
opia was an Italian colony, while his
brother was born "a British protect
ed person," he said. “ When I went to
England one fine morning to study I
found out I was an Ethiopian."
A Iriend who was also a leader in
Ethiopia's government alter the 1974
revolution invited him to "come back
and help" in the new government. "I
don't regret it although I nearly lost
my life," he said
An Eritrean, Selassie said he sup
ports independence for the northern
province that has been waging a 25-
year war of secession. "What the
Eritreans are asking for has been
denied and a military solution im
posed upon them." The military
solution has failed and Selassie called
for a referendum — " l et the Eritrean
people decide." he said.
Dismissal asked
WASHINGTON, D C . — Demo
crcatic National Chairman Paul G.
Kirk, Jr., called for the resignation or
immediate dismissal of Marianne
Mele Hall, chair of the Copyright
Royalty Tribunal.
Hall, recently appointed by Presi
dent Reagan to the $70,000 per year
post, is the co-author of "Founda
tions of Sand," a book which states
that American Blacks "insist on pre
serving their jungle freedoms, their
women, their avoidance of personal
responsibility and the abhorrence of
the work ethic.”
were among the i hemes shared by
Brown.
In an inierview Brown dal noi
criticize Philadelphia's Mayor Wilson
Cxxxle or the police department for
dropping a bomb on the revolution
ary group MOVE that destroyed an
entire neighbor hood.
However, Brown stated, ‘‘I don't
think that would have happened in
my city. We have other ways to get at
a problem than dropping a bomb.”
Brown said the law and order cli
mate the country is currently experi
encing, "will not deal with the prob
lerns caused by crime, poverty and
unemployment."
Brown was Public Salety Com
missioner during the hideous Atlanta
I laid Murders Brown said he knows
Wayne Williams committed 23 of
those murders because they all had
evidence connected to Williams. "The
CBS docu-druma was untactual and
mixed reality with fiction. Bernard
Cxxrtz is another person that belongs
m jail," Brown added.
I
Portland Urban League'» 40th anmveraary dinner
(Photo Richard J. Brownl
Politics, military bedevil Ethiopia
political, social and economic cli
mate to those years alter the Civil
War
"We are going through our second
reconstruction. This one follows on
the heels of the New Deal and the
retrenchment from social programs."
Brown staled.
"Thirty years alter Brown vs. Board
of Education, there are more stu
dents enrolled in racially isolated
schtxrls and the Black high schixil
drop-out rale exceeds the Black grad
uanon rate,” he noted.
Summarizing the last .30 years.
Brown identified the 50s and the NK
as a struggle for basic civil rights. He
called the 70s a time to defend those
rights and the 80s as a tunc for parity.
"In 1985, it’s a struggle for sur
vival." he noted.
Brown advised the group to take
the profitability out of crime “ by
refusing to purchase stolen goods."
He added, “ An increase in the un
employment rate creates a corre
sponding increase in the crime rate."
The ties between economics and crime
Iran-Iraqi students demonstrate egainst the fight
ing in their homelands
(Photo: Richard J Brownl
Marchers seek Iraq- Iran peace
by Robert l.othtan
“ S d h ” means peace in Persian, the
language of Iran
A group of Iranians, others from
the Middle East and their supporters
demonstrated for sohl between Iran
and Iraq last week as they marched
through downtown Portland.
Wearing masks and carrying signs
in Persian, about 30 demonstrators
formed a halt circle in the park facing
City Hall They chanted "peace,
peace, peace in the Middle East” and
"stop the killing now."
A local engineer in exile from Iran,
who identified himself as Bahman,
said the Khomeini regime in Iran is
massing sophisticated weaponry for a
new offensive in the war that has
taken a half million lives.
“ Everything’s in place for another
massacre," he said.
Bahman, who represented the
Committee in Solidarity With the
People of Iran, said 15-year-old boys
are being sent to the front as “ cannon
fodder" in human waves sent against
the Iraqi lines.
An Iranian offensive in early March
resulted in over 27,000 deaths in one
week, and attacks against civilian
targets from both sides mean the war
is taking an appalling turn, he said
In both Iran and Iraq, he contin
ued, the war is responsible for human
rights violations and political deten
tion, torture and murder of war re
sistors. "Right now, you cither go to
the front or you go to jail," he said.
Bahman described the Khomeini
regime as worse than that of the Shah.
"Women arc nothing but slaves for
men.
Khomeini is making a mock
ery of Islam."
Ominously, the war could become
an excuse for direct U.S. intervention
in the Persian Gulf, he said.
"All of the people in the Persian
(iulf arc against this war The only
people benefiting (rom it are the death
merchants — the arms manufac
turers.”
Spokeswoman Kerry Gregory said
the international Committee in Soli
danty With the People of Iran formed
to inform the public about the tragic
turnaround in Iran since the 1978
revolution that deposed the Shah.
The war means that the promise of
"independence, freedom and jus
tice” that was the slogan of the revo
lution has been destroyed, said
Gregory. “ All ol the reforms that
were started have been eliminated.
The regime has been using the wai as
a means to divert attention away
from people’s needs,” she said.
Iran continues to have an illiteracy
nite of 70 percent, according lotiregory.
The Committee in Solidarity With
the People of Iran and other groups
supporting peace are working for a
United Nations negotiated settlement
ol the Iran-Iraq war, she said.
College offers
workshop
The fourth annual "Writer to Writ
er” summer workshop for talented
writers in grades 9-12 will be held at
Lewis and Clark College June 17-28
Offered cooperatively by the Contin
uing Education programs of Port
land Stale University and l ewis and
Clark College, the workshop features
some of Oregon's top professional
writers who help students improve
their skills and increase their under
standing of the press, the literary pro-
fes.ion and the realm of publishing