March 28, 199«
Portland Observer • Page 3
NATIONAL FORUM
T his W ay F or B iack E m po w erm en -
b\‘ Dr. ! cuòra l iila n i
You Can’t Be Proper and Fight For Our People
Black Workers in Crisis:
The Case of Flint, Michigan
Last month I spent several weeks lec­
turing in the Midwest and East coast during
African-American History Month. One of
the most interesting and disturbing stops
along the way was with the Black commu­
nity o f Flint, Michigan. The social and
economic devastation in Flint was largely
created by the flight of General Motors
from the town. The crisis which exists
provides important lessons to African-
American working people throughout the
country.
Flint is rich in labor history. Back in
1937 during the Great Depression, thou­
sands of Black and white workers organ­
ized a massive sitdown strike against Gen­
eral Motors. The factories were occupied
for 44 days, and hundreds of thugs were
hired by management to destroy worker
solidarity. Four thousand National Guards­
men, equipped with machine guns, bayo­
nets and tear gas, were ordered to crush the
strike. At the last minute, negoiators reached
a compromise settlement greatly beneficial
to the workers.
What has happened since this land­
mark sit-down strike? The people of Flint
were told that they could trust the good
intentions of General Motors. GM and the
auto industry in general was committed to
protecting the interests of working people.
But in the 1970s, GM began taking the
profits produced by working people and
exporting them in the form of new plants
outside of the U.S. By the middle of the
1980s, nearly a third of the parts in the
typical GM car were produced outside of
the U.S. The same kinds of trends also
occurred in other industries. The big auto
companies claimed that they were hemor­
rhaging millions a day, and that working
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people had to make economic concessions
in order to keep their jobs.
The city government of Flint made
major concessions. Between 1976 to 1986,
the Flint City Council gave GM a 50 per­
cent cut in taxes on $1.3 billion worth of
property. GM promised it would use the tax
abatement to make new jobs, and to save
existing jobs. Instead, GM eliminated 18,000
jobs.
GM began to take Michigan cities and
townships to court in the 1980s, demanding
dramatic reductions in property taxes.
Saginaw's city officials agreed to give GM
a 31 percent tax reduction.
Despite workers' concessions, the
V antage P oint
Articles and Essays by Ron Daniels
□
A Complex Interplay of
Forces Will Determine the
Outcome in South Africa
I have just returned from participating
in a seminar in Africa on “ U.S. and Soviet
Policy in Southern A frica." The seminar
was held in Zimbabwe under the auspices
of the East-West program of the American
Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and
the Southern African Political Economy
Series Trust (SAPES). Outstanding schol­
ars from the Soviet Union, the United States
and Southern Africa attended the seminar
in addition to representatives of the libera­
tion movements in South Africa - The African
National Congress (ANC), The Pan Afri­
can Congress (PAC), The Black Conscious­
ness Movement (BCM), and the Mass
Democratic Movement (MDM).
What emerged from the seminar was
an outline of the prospects for future devel­
opment in Southern African in general and
South Africa in particular given the current
state of U.S. - Soviet relations. There was a
consensus that the cold war competition
between the U.S. and the Soviet Union is all
but over in light of the dramatic upheavals
in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union’s
urgent pre-occupation with internal domes­
tic problems. There was substantia] dis­
agreement on what the collapse of the cold
war means for Southern Africa.
Soviet scholars generally articulated a
view that a new era of U.S. - Soviet coop­
eration, as reflected in recent agreements
around Angola and Namibia, portends well
in terms of peace and development for
Southern Africa. Scholars from Southern
Africa were quick to point out that Soviet
Union had tended to be very supportive of
the liberation movements in Africa, while
the United States had most often supported
colonial regimes in opposition to the aspi­
rations of the liberation movements. Seri­
ous concern was raised about the possible
withdrawal of Soviet military and economic
assistance for liberation movements. If the
Soviet Union becomes a non-factor in
Southern Africa the fear is that, left un­
checked, the United States could attempt to
impose its will in South Africa and through­
out the region.
This latter concern revolved around the
contention that U.S. interests in South Africa
ure essentially imperialistic and neo-colo­
nial in nature. That is to say that the United
States is interested in fostering or preserv­
ing relationships and structures which pro­
tect and advance the economic interests of
U.S. corporations and by extention the inter­
ests of western capitalism. Within the context
of the struggle in South Africa there was the
clear perception that the U.S. and Britain,
in pursuit of their interests, would press for
an outcome that would result in “ Black
power with guarantees for whiles.”
The net of effect of this outcome would
be Black majority rule politically with whites
retaining economic control - real power.
White economic control would keep intact
the privileged status of the minority white
population and maintain a safe and lucra­
tive haven for U.S. and western invest­
ments. The Black population would gain
“ political freedom” but would remain
economically disadvantaged and impover­
ished. Indeed African-American scholars,
largely with their white counterparts offer­
ing a dissenting view, argued that U.S.
policy would be guided by a passion to
insure white domination in Southern Af­
rica, Africa and the entirety of the Third
World.
African-American scholars pointed to
Zimbabwe as an example of how a libera­
tion struggle can gain political power and
yet not achieve economic empowerment
for the African masses. Because of the
Lancaster Agreement which provided ex­
traordinary “ guarantees” for whites, there
has been very little progress economically
for the vast majority of Blacks in Zim­
babwe. Ten years after “ independence"
the 100,000 white settlers who constitute
about 1% of the population control nearly
2/3 of all the wealth. Meanwhile the 9.3
million Africans control only 1/3 of the
wealth, suffer from an unemployment rate
of 25% and are plagued by massive under­
employment. Blacks “ control" the poli­
tics but whites control the jvealth.
Zimbabwe is often held up as a “ model”
of Black and white reconciliation and co­
existence. Is the Zimbabwe model what the
U.S. and its western partners have in mind
for South Africa? The African and African-
American scholars were of the opinion that
left to its own devises the U.S. would be
pleased with such an outcome.
There was strong agreement among
African and African-American scholars,
however, that the “ African-American lobby"
in the U.S. could be the decisive clement in
radically altering the intent of U.S. policy
in South Africa and the region. A combina­
tion of massive external pressure for genu­
ine political democracy and economic rights
for the Black majority in South Africa and
continued mass pressure by the liberation
movement inside South Africa might be the
only hope for a just settlement in South
Africa. Without that potentially potent
combination there is the prospect that pro­
tection for "w hite rights" will be the
dominant issue determining the outcome in
South Africa.
Next Week: U.S. Africa Aid is an In­
sult to African-Americans.
c,u>m?i(" I
economic destruction continued. Thousands
were continued to be laid off. In December,
1986, GM closed the Flint Chevy V-6 engine
plant. In May, 1987, it closed the Flint
Truck and Bus Line. Nationally, about a
quarter million GM workers lost their jobs
in the 1970s through the mid-1980s. In the
1980s, more than 30,000 people left Flint to
look for employment opportunities.
The changes in the auto industry have
had a disproportionately negative impact
on the African-American community. There
are several ways to measure this impact.
Changes in technology, and the use of
cybernation, have eliminated thousands of
jobs. According to one study by Samuel
D.K. James, in 1985 about 40 percent of the
white workers who had lost their jobs be­
tween 1979 to 1984 had not found replace­
ment employment; during the same period,
the figure for displaced Black workers was
60 percent. In a short three year period,
from 1977-1980, there was a decline of
almost 50,000 Black autoworkers at Ford,
Chrysler and GM, who were largely re­
placed by technological changes in the work
process.
Blacks comprise only about 11 percent
of the U .S. workforce, but they still account
for 17 percent of the labor force for GM,
Chrysler and Ford. Black autoworkers earned
over $3 billion in wages last year. However,
between 1979 and 1984, manufacturing
employment for all U.S. industries declined
by 18 percent, while manufacturing jobs
held by Blacks declined 27 percent.
In the states where automobile produc­
tion is dominant, the Great Lakes region,
Black manufacturing employment fell 36
percent. Significantly, many of the new
Japanese auto factories are being located in
areas where there are significantly lower
populations of Blacks than older auto pro­
ducing areas.
Today, sections of Flint look like they've
been blasted with neutron bombs. Black
youth unemployment is over 50 percent.
Teenagers complain that they have only
four real options: working at minimum
wage, becoming pregnant and existing on
welfare, joining the armed services, or sell­
ing drugs. The economic crisis has gener­
ated Black-on-Black crime, alcoholism, drug
abuse and the disruption of many institu­
tions such as the Black church.
The solution to the crisis of Black
working class people isn’t more conces­
sions. We need legislation restricting the
powerful corporations from moving capital
and factories outside the U.S. and from
state to state. More importantly, we need
new aggressive leadership in organized labor,
to fight for w orkers’ interests. We need to
revive militancy of the 1937 sitdown strike,
demanding that a job, health care, and drug-
free communities are human rights.
Nation’s First Black
Governor to
Address National
Urban League
Conference
The Honorable L. Douglas Wilder,
Governor of Virginia, and New York City’s
first Black mayor. The Honorable David N.
Dinkins will be among the many outstand­
ing speakers at the National Urban League
Conference, which will take place July 29 -
August 1 in New York City.
Governor Wilder, the nation’s first
elected Black governor, will speak Wednes­
day, August 1 at 9 a.m. on "Political Lead­
ership for the 21st Century "-stressin g the
political strides that African-Americans have
made in this country and the potential for
¡further political empowerment in the Black
community.
Mayor Dinkins will be the League's
Dinner Speaker on Wednesday, August 1,
1990 at 7:30 p.m. at the close of the four-
day conference.
that the Cosby’s should give their millions
to the Black communities and to the New
Alliance Party! Why?
Because Bill Cosby didn't walk out of
his house and onto prime time television, I
told the students. Millions of ordinary Black
people struggled to make it possible. No
one makes money like that in a vacuum—
not rich white men and not rich Black men.
We don’t need to be gTateful to Cosby; that
money belongs to us.
My talk was very controversial. Among
other things, I raised the issue of why they
had allowed the New York Times and the
rest of the white corporate-controlled media
to shape their attitudes towards the Rever­
end A1 Sharpton, a working class hero who
has been the target of a vendetta conducted
by the legal and political establishment of
New York State for the “ crim e” of listen­
ing to Taw ana Brawley, a 15 year old Black
child no one would believe when she said
My presence forces the students to
she had been raped.
think about what they’re going to do with
A young B lack man in the audience got
their lives, about where they’re at. Last
up to thank Fulani. This was the first time,
week I spoke at Spelman College in At­
he said, he had ever heard anyone say
lanta, probably the most prestigious Black
something positive about Reverend Al.
women’s college in the country. During the
The Black establishment doesn’t want
question and answer period a young woman
to touch Reverend Sharpton. They don’t
asked me why I’m so "h a rd ” on B ill Cosby
like him because they know h e’s danger-
(he and his wife donated $20 million dol­
o u s-h e makes difficulties for them. T hat’s
lars to the school), whose TV show is, in my
the reason Black administrators put pres­
opinion, nothing but an endlessly insulting
sure on the students to not rock the boat.
glorification of anti-poor and racist values
They’re telling them you can’t be too out
and role models. This student thought our
there, too radical, too controversial—be­
people “ need” shows like that.
cause you’ll spoil it for the rest o f us. But
I told her no. Not only that, I suggested
you can’t be proper and fight for our people.
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In touring college campuses during
International W om en’s Month, I have been
enormously moved by the responsiveness
of young Black women to my message of
radical independence.
“ A lot of us have the same politics as
Dr. Fulani does, except that we didn’t know
where to go or what to do with it," one
student told a reporter. “ By coming here
she opened an avenue for u s."
Another young sister said, “ My gen­
eration knows that we have not overcome.
But not many Black leaders are saying,
‘this isn'treally working.' Dr. Fulani is the
first Black leader I ’ve heard face up to
that.”
A third student called me up at home
less than 24 hours after I spoke at her school
to find out how she could start a chapter of
the New Alliance Party on cam pus-despite
the fact that she is graduating in May. “ I
don’t think I can leave here talking about
Dr. Fulani’s ideas but not doing anything to
incorporate them,” sheexplained. “ If I did
that I ’d just be a talker.”
Why are these young women—the
“ prom ising" ones who are told by their
college administrators that they can make it
if they plav by the rules and don’t rock the
boat-embracing independent. Black-led and
multi-racial politics?
A lot of these young women are the
sisters and cousins and daughters of poor
Black women. They’ve been put into a
process that’s intended to make them middle
class, but they’re not so different from the
ones who were left behind in the communi­
/
ties.
At school there’s a lot of pressure on
them to be who they aren’t. When I talk to
them, I give them "perm ission” to be who
they are, to bring their mothers and grand­
mothers out of the closet. I'm saying that
poverty is not their shame. It's the shame of
this country. I ’ve been calling on them to
respond to the need for radical solutions in
the ’90s.
It makes young people crazy trying to
play the role of a socially disembodied
“ student" when their brothers are being
murdered in the streets. They’re expected
to act as if nothing has happened-as it
everything is fine—while genocide is being
perpetrated against the Black community
and other communities of color. But the
communities aren’t in another world. And
the struggle needs to be brought directly
into the college.
Civil “
Rights Journal
Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr,
____________________________________ J
Support The Americans With Disabilities
On March 12,1990, a protest reminis­
cent of the civil rights movement of the
1960s took place in Washington, D.C. A
group of persons with disabilities in wheel­
chairs rolled down Pennsylvania Avenue to
the Capitol. There they crawled up the steps
to bring attention to the need to pass the
Americans with Disabilities Act. Rep. Major
Owens, an African-American, was a key
spokesperson for this demonstration of over
500 people.
Some twenty-five years after the pas­
sage of the major civil rights legislation of
the sixties, it is still legal under Federal law
not to provide access to public buildings in
the form of ramps for persons with disabili­
ties. The Americans with Disabilities Act,
passed in the Senate during 1989 and now
under consideration in the House of Repre­
sentatives, is supposed to change this.
African-Americans, Hispanic-Ameri-
cans, Asian-Americans and Native Ameri­
cans should be very concerned about the
fate of this bill. Racial/ethnic persons with
disabilities suffer a double barrelled form
of discrimination. Studies have shown that
African-Americans are twice as likely as
whites to become disabled. This can be
NUL Declares
Passage of Civil
Rights Act of 1990
Essential to Securing
Equal Employment
Opportunities for
Minorities
WASHINGTON, D .C .-John E. Jacob,
President and C.E.O. of the National Urban
League, testified before a joint hearing of
the House Committee on Education and
Labor and the House Judiciary Subcommit­
tee on Civil and Constitutional Rights said,
that passage of H .R. 4000, The Civil Rights
Act of 1990, would remedy recent Supreme
Court rulings that reduced civil rights pro­
tections offered by federal law against dis­
crimination in the workplace.
At the hearing, Jacob expressed his
concern that attempts should not be made to
dilute provisions of the Civil Rights Act of
1990 that provide adequate relief to victims
of discrimination.
" I t seems to me that when the judicial
system finds someone is wronged, they
should receive : just compensation. And in
those cases where the courts find gross,
intentional violations of rights that warrant
punitive damages, such punishment should
be enforced," said Jacob.
Citing Urban League and other research
studies in his testimony that proves w ide­
spread bias in hiring, training, and inequi­
ties in earnings and employment rates, Jacob
added that “ a considerable portion of the
gap between minorities and white workers
can only be accounted for by various forms
of discrimination."
“ America's competitive position in
this global economy will be severely dam ­
aged unless we do everything in our power
to ensure that minorities have equal oppor­
tunities to play a productive role in our
nation. Passage of H R. 4000 is an essential
part of that national effort," Jacob said.
attributed to poverty, poor nutrition, poor
housing, poor health care and unemploy­
ment. Many racial/ethnic persons with
disabilities live in poor neighborhoods where
curb cuts, ramps and other necessities are
not available. It is outrageous that most
working African-Americans and Hispanic-
Americans with disabilities earn less than
the poverty level.
Shameful as itm ay seem .m ostof these
injustices ar still legal. It is still perfectly
legal under federal law for persons with
disabilities to be turned down for a job that
they are qualified for. It is still legal not to
provide adequate access to public transpor­
tation. It is still legal for restaurants, stores
and other retail establishments to refuse to
serve a disabled person. In short, li is still
legal to openly discriminate against ap­
proximately 40 million Americans with
disabilities.
Many have pointed that this bill is one
of the most important pieces of civil rights
legislation since the 1960s.
It comes as no surprise that two of the
most outspoken champions of the Ameri­
cans with Disabilities Act are African-
Americans. The Rev. Jesse Jackson was the
first major presidential candidate to speak
out on disability rights.
Jackson began to speak out on this
issue in 1984. Most of us would not have
noticed that Jackson opened his remarks at
the 1988 presidential debate in Des Moines,
Iowa by thanking the signers of the bill. The
primary advocate and acknowledge leader
of the movement to pass the Americans
with Disabilities Act is Congressman M a­
jor Owens. He has been a long time advo­
cate for rehabilitation and independent liv­
ing programs, not only for racial/ethnic
persons with disabilities but for all Ameri­
cans with disabilities. He is the Chairper­
son of the House Subcommittee on Select
Education and one of the original drafters
of the bill. Congressman Owens deserves
our salute and support.
Persons with disabilities are no longer
willing to depend on infrequent charity.
They have rights like everyone else. Dis­
crimination against persons with disabili­
ties, regardless of race, is an injustice. We
urge everyone to write your representatives
in Congress to express your support for
passage of the Americans with Disabilities
A ct
The Census Counts
The 1990 Census kicks off April 1, and
it has to count as the most important event
of the year for minority Americans.
T hat’s because the census results will
affect just about every area of minority life.
The first, and most obvious, result of
the 1990 Census will be the use of its
population figures to reapportion election
districts.
Within a year, the Census Bureau will
release population data to state and local
governments who will use it to reshape
electoral districts ranging from congres­
sional districts to local offices.
Many federal and state programs are
also based on population figures released
by the Bureau. Federal aid programs total­
ing nearly $40 billion are distributed every
year on the basis of the census data.
Local services will be affected, too.
Officials use the numbers to determine
whether to close a firehouse in a neighbor­
hood that is losing population nd relocate it
to another that's gaining population. The
same holds for schoolhouses, libraries,
hospitals and other services.
And that is why it is so urgent for every
single minority person to make sure he or
she is counted by filing out the census
forms and returning them, and by being
helpful to the individual census enumera­
tors who will make visits to households.
The Bureau estimates that 78 percent
of households will return and complete the
census forms. Those that don’t return one
by the April 1 deadline will be visited by a
census worker.
In the past, the Census Bureau has
admitted that it missed many minorities.
In 1980, the census undercounted Afri­
can-Americans by about 6 percent, and the
undercount for young black males in some
inner city communities is estimated to be in
the 30 percent range.
Nationally, observers believe up to five
million people don’t get counted, and dis­
proportionate numbers of them are Afri­
can-Americans, Hispanics and other mi­
norities.
With the rise of homelessness, it is
likely that some of America’s poorest people-
those with the most to gain from an accurate
count-- will not participate. That’s despite
the Bureau’s efforts to canvass shelters and
public areas where the homeless tend to be.
After many years of minority com­
plaints about the undercount, the Bureau
appears to be making a good faith effort to
coun t every body. B ut the very nature of this
enormous undertaking virtually assures that
many will be missed.
The problem is particularly severe in
the big cities. The 1980 census results
prompted a number of cities, ranging from
New York to Houston, to sue. The govern­
ment agreed to canvass 150,000 house­
holds and then decide whether to adjust the
final 1990 count.
It says this is a purely technical deci­
sion, but the historic undercount of m inori­
ties and the importance of the final results
remove it from the purely technical arena.
Community groups and the cities will
be closely watching to ensure that the final
results are as accurate as possible and that
any undercount is effectively corrected.
But the best line of defense against an
undercount that takes political power and
government dollars out of minority com ­
munities and distributes them to more af­
fluent ones is to stand up and be counted.
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