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PORTLAND OBSERMER
Volume XVII, Nurpber 39
August 5, 1987
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HERB'S
FAREWELL
Saying good-bye is always hard for me to do. The w onder­
ful friends I have made here in Portland will always be dear to
my heart. Even though I am excited about my new role in San
Diego, I leave Portland with the mixed emotions always invol­
ved when parting with dear people.
You can look forward to some fantastic changes which will
take place at the Portland Urban League within the next year.
Negotiations are taking place now to renovate a building one
block from our present headquarters to house our administra­
tive, employment, and youth programs. Once the renovation
Ron Daniels (I) and Lewis Carter (r) m et in P ortland last w eek to
meet w ith the steering co m m itte e o f the Oregon R ainbow C oalition.
They are w o rk in g on plans fo r the A ugust 21st Portland v is it of
Rev. Jesse Jackson.
photo by Richard J. B row n
Rainbow National Leadership
Visits Portland
by Jamie Partridge
As part of a whirlwind national tour to inspire and strengthen local
chapter, Ron Daniels, National Director of the Rainbow Coalition and
Lewis Carter, Rainbow Legislative Analyst, met last week with the steer­
ing committee of the Oregon Rainbow. Lending their expertise of decades
in the national civil rights movement, Daniels and Carter helped set the
stage for the coming August 21st Portland visit of Rev. Jesse Jackson,
president of the Rainbow Coalition and unannounced candidate for U.S.
President.
The Rainbow is much more than Jackson's run for President, asserted
Daniels. The Rainbow is "about fulfilling the unfulfilled American Revolu­
tion.” In the midst of current 200-year celebrations of the U.S. Constitu­
tion, the Rainbow remembers that the U.S. started out as a democracy only
for white, male property-owners, excluding Blacks, Indians, women and
non-propertied white males. "The continuing struggle for democracy,
which has seen great victories in the emancipation of slaves, women's suf­
frage, and the unionization of workers, is the heart of the Rainbow pro-
Rev. Jesse Jackson will be Portland Oregon August ,21. 1987
photo by Richard J. Brown
gram," said the National Director. The fundamental contradiction between
the "little people" and the "overwhelming concentration of wealth and
power in the hands of a ruthless few " demands that we "little people"
move beyond the "radical battleground" to our "economic common
ground".
"Jesse Jackson has embarked on a dangerous journey", warned
Daniels, alluding to the assassination of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King
soon after they broadened their anti-racist fight to the struggle against the
"economic system itself which breeds and manipulates racism." Rev.
Jackson leads in the tradition of these internationalist visionaries, who drew
attention to the worldwide racism of U.S. intervention against Third World
peoples.
Jackson's candidacy provides an educational vehicle for the Rainbow
vision, which sees the fight against plant closures and farm closures as part
of the international fight against transnational corporations. The Rainbow
vision is a threat to this "greedy, avaricious minority at the to p " because we
support organizing "little people" all over the world, from Central America
to South Africa, said the National Director. Jackson gets out the Rainbow
message that "unorganized workers anywhere are a threat to the gains of
organized workers everywhere."
BUILDING THE RAINBOW ORGANIZATION
Daniels and Carter noted that Rev. Jackson had been critized for being
long on rhetoric and short on organization. They countered that Jackson is
one of the great organizers of our time, for example, bringing together
white and Black farmers, farmers with urban mayors, the Free South Africa
with the U.S. Out of Central America movements. But, said Daniels, it's up
to us to pull together the nuts and bolts, to institutionalize the Rainbow as a
permanent, progressive political organization.
The National Rainbow Coalition is formally only one and one-half years
old, but it represents a historical current in U.S. politics that existed
before the Jackson candidacy and will live well beyond it. Ron Daniels
himself was a leading member of organizaions in the 70's and 80's which
pre dated the Rainbow but were built on the same vision. As president, in
1974, of the National Black Political Assembly, Daniels participated in an
attempt to draft a Black presidential candidate, who would run on a
Rainbow-type program organized by a multi-racial National Committee for
People's Politics. As chair of the National Black Independent Political
Party, Daniels helped launch African Liberation Day in 1981, an early effort
to tie the struggle of Afro-Americans with the liberation of Southern Africa.
Now the new National Director brings his vast experience in national
and grass-roots progressive organizing to the task of strengthening the
Rainbow Coalition. Daniels laid out plans for a strong national board and
for greatly expanded information exchange between the national and local
organizations. A National Rainbow newsletter will be published regularly as
well as a quarterly journal of analysis. Weekly news releases of nation-wide
Rainbow activities will reach progressive media such as the Observer and
KBOO radio. Major National Rainbow campaigns may be initiated, for ex­
ample against aid to the contras or for sanctions on South Africa. Multi­
cultural musical or theatrical tours will raise money and build Rainbow
membership. Networking among Rainbow chapters will grow, as evid­
enced by the presence at the meeting of Lou Gosset and Ron Wilsen of the
Washington State Rainbow.
Rainbow activists should expect to be very involved in empowering
local Rainbow democrat and independent candidates, to ride the Jackson
candidacy "coat tails", said Daniels. And although the Rainbow Coalition
as a non-profit organization cannot publicly "endorse" politial candidates,
which is why a separate Exploratory Jackson-for-President committee
exists, Daniels expects that "the political campaigns will shake the tree,
then the Rainbow will pick up the apples."
Herb C aw thorne
is complete, the current Urban League headquarters building
will be converted into a full senior citizens center, all programs
and activities in this building will then be focused on the needs
of the senior citizen population in our community. This will
allow our Senior & Adult Services staff to expand and enhance
the programs and activities they so ably provide.
Farewell, my friends. Thank you for all that you have given
to me. I leave with many, many fond memories. I will always
remember Portland as a beautiful city filled with wonderful
people. I am going to San Diego dedicated to creating an
Urban League that is filled w ith as much spirit and vision and
worthwhile work as the one here in Portland. Again,
thank you.
Cascade Campus Hosts
Visiting High School Seniors
Thirty-five high school seniors representing nine difference schools
from the Portland District visited Portland Community College, Cascade
Campus recently. The students are participants in the Careers Pathways
Program, which is a joint project between Portland State University, Port­
land Private Industry Council, and Portland Public Schools. The aim of
the program is to help disadvantaged high school seniors successfully gra­
duate from high school and gain entrance into college or obtain a full time
job," said Nick Barnett, PCC Admissions Coordinator.
The students toured Cascade Campus and were given briefings on
several PCC programs, including Electronic Service Technology, Media
Assistant, Library Assistant, Computer Field Service. They met the PCC
students and staff and heard presentations on "The High School Transi­
tion", "W hat It Is Like To Be A College Student" and other topics.
"It is very encouraging to see these young people taking their educa­
tion and future careers so seriously. Both the students and staff involved
in the Careers Pathway Project have a great deal of which to be proud,”
. s&id Barnett.
For more information, contact Nick Barnett, 283-2541, ext. 5291.