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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 1994)
I ut P o r r . and O bserver • S eptember 14, 1994 P age A3 Í-S' •: by R alph N aher The Rainbow Coalition, Public Citizen, the AFL-CIO and other civil rights, labor and progressive organizations oppose implementing legis lation for the Uruguay Round of GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which would establish the World Trade Organization (WTO) based in Geneva, Switzerland. We oppose it because it is not good for working people or their communities; it will mean more eco nomic disruption, job loss and will probably add to the US trade deficit; it will aid countries and corporations seeking toexploit countries with low- wages and lower-standards of the developing countries. It will make more vulnerable the rights of work ers to associate freely and form unions; and it will make more vulner able environmental, health, food and safety standards. Big business, most Republicans, Conservative Democrats and the Clinton Administration are trying to “fast track” this legislation through congress before there is a democratic- debate and the American people are informed about GATT and the WTO. Specifically, there are four reasons to oppose the WTO: (1) U.S. Democracy And Sover eignty Will Shift To Unaccountable Trade Bureaucrats. Under the WTO, panels of three unelected trade bu reaucrats will hear challenges by other nations to U.S. laws. If a challenged U.S. law is found to violate its trade rules, the WTO could direct the U.S. to change the law or face automatic economic sanctions. This would sub- Civil Rights Journal Prairies Island, Politics And Power NATIONAL C O A L IT IO N Gaps In Gatt (WTO) jugate laws passed by state, local governm ents and C ongress to unelected, unaccountable trade bu reaucrats representing multinational corporate interests. The multinational corporation would be sovereign and the nation-state would be subservi ent. This entire process would be closed to the press and public. Docu ments would be kept secret and would not be subject to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. (2) U. S. Food Safety At Risk. The rules of the WTO prom ote the low ering of strong U.S. food safety laws to weaker interna tional standards. Also, U.S. food tal groups that supported NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) are opposed to the Uru guay Round. (4) U.S. C onsum er And E n vironm ental Laws Targeted By Trading partners As Illegal B ar riers to T rade. The E uropean Union report, “R eport on U.S. B arriers to Trade and In v e st m ent,” targets the New N utrition L abelling and E ducation Act, P roposition 65 (C alifo rn ia re quires the disclosure o f carcin o genic hazards), and limits on lead in ceram ic ware and wine. The European Union has already chal lenged the CAFE standards p ro gram and gas guzzler tax and the U.S. M arine M ammal Protection Act as illegal trade barriers. C all or w rite your congresspersons today and urge them to delay passage of the WTO imple menting legislation until the July, 1995 deadline. Don’t let them sneak this legislation through. The Ameri can people deserve to be informed, and democracy deserves to be prac ticed through a congressional debate of the costs and benefits of the legis lation. s 4 •-J C » ♦; S i' i. fi A lo n é T L e C o lo r L im e by Bernice Powell Jackson waste “Temporarily” above the ground in dry casks at Prairies Is I am told that as our native land. Dry cask storage is untested Americans ancestors made and no environmental impact state decisions, they considered ment for permanent storage has been not only the impact on their completed. In other words, no one own generation, but on seven knows whether such storage will be generations to come. safe, or for how long. And while Northern State Power has said that If only that decision-making it will be only temporary storage, mode had been used by our political there is no guarantee. Remember, forefathers (because there were few too, the earlier promise that the Prai foremothers included), we would rie Island nuclear plant would be all be better off today. Certainly our operational only for 20 years. water and air and land would be The most troubling part of the cleaner and less polluted and our story of the Prairie Island facility is environment would be much safer the process the Minnesota legisla for all. ture used to agree to the dry cask In Prairie island, Minnesota storage. Despite the possible im they know what I am talking about. pact to the environment, including At least the native American com the Mississippi River and the many munity there does. Theirs is a story states through which it runs, and worth telling. Theirs is a story which despite the possible health hazards cries out for justice. Theirs is a story of storing nuclear waste above the which could happen to any of us. ground, the Minnesota Senate held Prairies Island, Minnesota is a special, unscheduled floor session about 30 miles or so southeast of to vote on this bill. This action was M in n eap o lis. L ocated in the taken even after the Senate’s own Mississippi River, it also lies only Environment Committee had turned across the river from Wisconsin. down the Northern State proposal For 150 years it has been the home only two weeks previously. ol native American Mdewakanton It seems that after a meeting Dakota people. Despite the ob with Senate leaders and the North stacles placed before them and a ern State Power Company, the En political climate which passed an vironment Committee reconvened 1863 bill placing a $200 bounty on and passed an amended version of any “dead Dakota Indian" in Min the bill. A part of the amendment nesota. these people have built their included a provision to authorize homes as well as roads, a day care moving the members of the Prairie center, a government center and a Island native American community casino which is the only source of from their 150 year-old land to an revenue for their community. other part of the county. All of this But for the past two decades was done w ithout including Prairie Island has also been the home Mdewakanton Dakota representa of a nuclear power plant run by tives in the discussion. Northern State Power Company. A coalition of environmental, The Indian people of Prairie Island alternative energy, religious, peace were never partners in the decision and native American groups recently to place the power plant in their held a vigil for the survival of Prai community and were promised that rie Island. Some 800 people at the plant would close in 20 years. tended this historic event, which Now, two decades later, his received no press coverage. Still, tory is repeating itself as decisions this group pledges to continue to about the storage of the nuclear fight against the placement of the waste from that plant have been dry casks above the ground of Prai made by Northern State Power and rie Island. It is thought that the first the Minnesota legislature while the casks will be filled sometime next representatives of the Dakota people spring. were sitting in the hall. In the words The P rairie Island native of Darelynn Lehto, vice President American community deserves bet of the Prairie Island Sioux Nation, ter form the state of Minnesota and in her testimony to the Minnesota from their neighbors. Northern State legislature. “It isdifficult toexpress Power. Already they face a cancer to you the full extent of our risk six times higher than accept community's anger and frustration. able under Minnesota Health De Our people will be affected by this partment standards. Are they to risk decision more directly and pro losing their land as well as their foundly than any other group in the lives? entire State of Minnesota. Yet we We as a nation have avoided have been ignored, overlooked, the hard questions about where to patronized and insulted throughout put radioactive nuclear waste mate the legislature's consideration of rials. Too often our solution has this proposal." been to put these hazardous materi The question lacing the North als in communities of people of ern State Power Company and the color. We can begin by calling for state of Minnesota is what to do justice for the Mdewakanton Da with the waste left over from the kota people. We can write to Gov Prairie Island nuclear power plant. ernor Arne Carlson, State House, It is a question not only facing this St. Paul. MN 55155. We can begin community, but some two or three Io look around at our own commu do/en other communities with simi nities and our own nuclear power lar power plants. plants and find out where their waste The solution proposed by goes We can remember that what Northern Power and approved by we do today will impact lives for the state legislature, is to store the seven generations. safety standards, stronger than those of the WTO, could be ch al lenged by other nations as illegal trade barriers. If su ccessfu lly challenged, the U.S. would have to import contam inated food or pay econom ic sanctions to keep it out. Food safety laws at risk include: restrictions on the use of horm ones, like the Bovine Growth H orm one in m ilk and beef; limits on food additives that cause cancer; strict food in sp ec tion requirem ents; bans on d an gerous pesticide residues, like DDT; food labeling law s; and food irradiation restrictions. (3) Congress’ Hands Tied; En vironmental Laws Undermined. The WTO would limit legisla tors’ ability to pursue certain goals on issues reaching far beyond trade. Tying Congress’ hands with such international laws would limit Con gress’ ability to legislate in the best interest of the U.S. for instance, other nations could successfully Challenge landmark U.S. environmental laws including the Marine Mammal Pro tection Act ( which protects dolphins). The Clean Air Act, restrictions on hazardous waste, state recycling laws and other measures. Also, interna tional environmental agreements, like the Montreal Protocol protecting the ozone layer, could be undermined by the WTO. A policy such as our CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) standards and gas guzzler tax would be in violation of the trade rules, because it employs a means that is not “ least trade restrictive,” even if it’s the only politically feasible alter native. Congress would have to change successfully challenged laws or the U.S. would face perpetual trade sanctions. The WTO’seffects on U.S. environmental laws would be so dev astating that even those environmen- “Ben Chavis And The Crisis Of Black Leader by D r . M anning M arable In the months following Ben Chavis's appointm ent as NAACP executive director, he moved quickly to establish a new direction for the organization. He reached out to the Hip Hop generation, talking directly with gang leaders and rap artists. He pushed a more aggressive eco nom ic program favored by W il liam G ib so n , N A A C P b o ard president, which included pres s u rin g c o r p o ra tio n s su ch as D enny’s to sign agreem ents ad dressing em ploym ent and d is crim ination issues. C havis ex plored the developm ent o f an in ternational agenda, reviving the vision o f W.E.B. Du Bois by p ro posing the establishm ent o f a perm anent A ssociation office in post-apartheid South A frica. B ut C h a v i s ’s g r e a te s t strength was his youthful energy and creative determ ination for the NAACP to re-establish its p o sitio n as the c e n tra l force b u ild in g b lack s o lid a r ity in A m erica. C havis felt th a t no black leaders, how ever co n tro versial, should be excluded from the process o f dialogue. After the C ongressional Black Caucus weekend conference in S eptem ber, 1993, Chavis agreed to host a national sum m it o f black lead ership. M ea n w h ile , G ra d u a lly , a coalition o f interests began to em erge in opposition to C h av is’s “ new d i r e c t i o n s .” Som e opponentes came from the B alti more office o f the NAACP N a tional H eadquarters. C h av is's se lection o f attorney Lew M yers as Deputy D irector and Don Rojas, who had been the press secretary for the late M aurice B ishop. Prime M inister o f G renada, gen erated fears that he was incorpo rating black nationalist and left ist elem ents in the leadership o f the A ssociation. O pponentes in local branches began to pressure Gibson and C havis to rem ove Rojas, in an attem p t to deny Chavis his own sta ff people. C o r porations w hich had provided support for the NAACP in the past, began to question C h av is’s new initiatives. But probably the c h ie f critics w ere trad itio n al, white “ liberals” who had a long standing relationship with the integrationist posture and p ro gram o f the NAACP, and ideo lo g ic a l c o n s e r v a tiv e s w ho strongly opposed any p ro g res sive, realignm ent o fth e A frican- A m erican freedom m ovem ent. Many o f these white co n ser v a tiv e s w ere co n n e cted w ith Com mentary M agazine, The New Republic, and the Forward N ew s paper. Intellectually, they made absolutely no distinction between “ in te g ra tio n ” and “ e q u a lity .” They never com prehended the d e s ire o f A fric a n -A m e ric a n people to be perm itted the p o liti cal and social space to discuss their own problem s occasionally behind closed doors. They could not to lera te any o rg a n iz atio n which engaged in political d ia logues with an ti-S em ites like Farrakhan. But most im portantly, they feared being isolated from a new NAACP which was actively b u ild in g a broad-based, black united front around an ag g res sive, post-civil rights agenda. This had profound im plications for the entire Am erican liberal- left com m unity. As one prom i nent white publisher explained to me, “ We would rather have a black leadership which goes no w here, than a black progressive leadership which talks to Farra kh an .” Everything Chavis represented rang laud alarms within the white conservative establishment. The opening salvo in the assault against Chavis was a polemic in The New Republic in January, 1994 by Arch Puddington, an aide to the late inte grationist leader Bayard Rustin. The article ominously entitled, “The betters NAACP Turns Left,” warned that Chavis was a leader “consciously identified with the Left,” who “has not been above issuing a gratuitous attack on 'Zionism ’.” Puddington observed that Chavis had “begun to fill the NAACP staff with individu als who share his leftist political ori entation.” In short, Chavis was a dangerous presence within the civil rights community, an uncompromis ing rad ical who “ ch am pioned Leninist political movements” and who had "adopted a relentlessly anti- Israel stance during the 1980s” A similar diatribe was written also in January, 1994, by The New York Times columnist A M. Rosenthal, entitled "On Black Anti-Semitism.” Rosenthal charged that Chavis and the NAACP, as well as other black leaders such as Jesse Jackson, were “willing to ally themselves with the salesmen for a new Holocaust.” Other criticisms against Chavis gradually began to surface. Chavis was attacked for his efforts to reach the Hip Hop generation, including engaging in dialogues with gang members. His quiet support for the North American Free Trade Agree ment in 1993 angered many leaders o f black organized labor. But the simmering criticisms reached a boil ing point when Don Rojas, Chavis’s Communications Director, coordi nated a special “ invitation only” meeting with prominent black na tionalists and pan-Africanists in De troit. The private session, which was coordinated by the Detroit branch of the NAACP was convened to create “a deliberate mechanism for com munications” between black activ ists and the Association. A contro versy subsequently erupted over whether Gibson and other members ofthe board had been informed about this “private" meeting in advance. In the late spring, conservative critics on the board demanded Rojas's res ignation, and a vote o f “no confi dence" in Chavis. This abortive ef fort failed, but created real tensions and an atmosphere o f uncertainty within the Association’s national headquarters in Balt imore and among many branches across the country. W hen it became o b v io u s that C h a v is in te n d e d to m o ve the N A A C P b eyond the id e o lo g ic a l boundaries o f lib e ra l in te g ra tio n ist, an o rchestrated p o litic a l a t tack em erged both w ith in and outside the o rg an izatio n. One key b la c k o p p o s itio n fig u r e was M ic h a e l M eyers. M eyers heads a p a p e r o rg a n iz a tio n , the N e w Y o rk C iv il R igh ts C o a litio n , and p re v io u s ly served as an N A A C P assistant d ire c to r. D e sp ite the la c k o f any genuine s u p p o rt or re c o g n itio n by the b la c k c o m m u n ity in N ew Y o rk C ity o r a n y w here else, M eyers was rep ea t e d ly fe atured on n a tio n a l te le v i sion and on the op-ed pages o f The N e w Y o rk T im es. M e y e rs ’ m ain c ritic is m was th a t C h a v is ’ s quest fo r b la ck s o lid a rity d ire c tly c o n tra d ic te d the c e n tra l purpose o f the A s s o c ia tio n . M eye rs as serted: “ The N A A C P has never p u rp o rte d to be an a ll-b la c k big te n t’ o rg a n iz a tio n d edicated to ra cia l u n ity .” The June, 1994 Sum mit o f A fr i can-American Leadership also in creased the political attacks against Chavis. The m ajority o f the A frican- Am erican elected o ffic ia ls , trade union leaders and “ traditional” c iv il rights leaders such as Joe Lowery, head o f the Southern C hristian Leadership Conference, and Coretta Scott K ing, refused to show up. By contrast, about one hundred black leaders representing organizations totaling m illio n s o f people did attend the historic gathering. As black scholar Cornel West observed, “ this summit generated remarkable en ergy ... around the crucial issues o f economic development, youth and c o m m u n ity e m p ow e rm en t, and moral and spiritual renewal." Farra khan was in attendance, but only represented one out o f many d iffe r ent c o n stitu e n cie s and o rg a n iz a tio n s w ith a range o f id e o lo g ie s and p o litic a l perspectives. N e v ertheless, the show dow n to de te rm in e the fu tu re o f b la c k lead ership became in e v ita b le . 'ühe GLÏÏitor Send your letters to the Editor to: Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208 hen considering what taxes are being used for, our tax system has run amuck. It isn't providing enough mon ies for our schools, programs are being cut, high property taxes are putting people out of their homes, fees are exorbitant, and regulators of such are completely unreasonable. I could go on and on. With initiatives getting harder and harder to get on the ballot, this may be our last chance to reform the tax laws in Oregon. The 2% Equal Tax will generate more than enough monies for our schools and other services. It will do away w ith prop erty taxes, state taxes plus 35 other fees and assessments and is fair. The 2% Equal tax is not a pyramiding tax. Simple interest shows how it works. If you paid $100 in a transaction it would cost $102. If this transaction continued on, it would be $102.04, the 2% doesn't pyramid Our local area would not lose tax money - the distribution would remain the same Also, in the 2% Equal Tax Petition, Section 5, para graph 6 states: "Any funds generated by the Equal Tax above the base alloca tions and the appropriation fund, shall be deposited in the Equal Tax Stabi lization Fund will be deposited back into the Fund. This Fund shall be used exclusively as a supplement for any temporary future shortfall o f rev enue from the tax." For the first time, our state tax fund w ill have savings that can’t be dipped into except fo r temporary shortfalls! N ow, i f there is a shortfall somewhere, legislators meet to de cide whether to raise the cost o f your vehicle licenses, property taxes, state taxes, etc. and you have no control over it whatsoever! O r they decide what necessary service to cut (such as police, ambulance, fire, etc.) L et’ s do ourselves a favor and vote YES on Measure 10. Sincerely, Richard Middleton _ ;r J. - : ’K ••
