I ut P o r r . and O bserver • S eptember 14, 1994
P age A3
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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.
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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
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