P age A2
J uly 19, 1995 • T he P ortland O bserver
©
hose of you who
w atched C N N -T V ’s
“Larry King Live," with
Mario Cuomo hosting and
Jesse Jackson and Oliver North
as guest, know that North still
believes the Russians are
coming to get us.
According to North, Russia,
which could not quickly defeat a
small seceding republic, and since
the break-up of the Soviet Union has
cut its own military' spending by two-
thirds, is still a threat to the U .S. -
which is still spending 90 percent of
what it spent during the Cold War.
According to the Republicans and
Democratic Conservatives who ad­
vocate increased military spending,
we are still at risk, even though the
U.S. is spending as much on defense
as all o f the world combined.
The Senate Armed Services
Committee just voted $264.7 billion
and the House last month voted
$267.3 billion for increased Defense
spending in 1996. That is $7 and $ 10
billion more than the Pentagon re­
quested for itself!
Rep. Curt Weldon ( R - P A ) said,
"this is not an increase; it’s just stop­
ping the hemorrhaging." In fact, it is
so much o f an increase that it comes
close to ending the post-Cold War
decline in arms spending.
What w ill we spend it on?
Seymour Melman reports that both the
White House and the Republicans want
to fund six existing aircraft programs
as well as major new naval craft: the
RgwnW
C O A L IT IO N
Russians Are Coming!
U.S. Escalates Military Buildup
B-2 Stealth bomber; FA-18 Navy fight­
er; F-22 A ir Force fighter; C - 17A Air
Force transport; V-22 Osprey Marine
vertical-lift transport plane; Army
Apache helicopter, and the Navy's
New Attack Submarine and CVN -76
carrier-all of which he says are “su­
perfluous." He argues that they exist
to produce corporate profits and pre­
serve local jobs, not to defend our
national security. The total cost of
these programs--$391.4 billion!
Who else gets the money? Again,
according to Melman, the C .I.A . and
related organizations like the N a­
tional Security Agency, use up about
$28 billion annually. The Pentagon’s
administration and financing o f for­
eign military sales will cost $45.5
billion from 1996-2002.
The major nuclear weapons lab­
oratories—Los Alamos, Livermore
and Sandia-cost at least $3 billion
year. Am erica’s outlay for N A T O is
$80 billion ayear. Our 1995 military
budget o f $264 billion exceeds the
combined military budget o f all oth­
er N A T O members, which is $147.6
billion. Each ofthese programs could
be cut sharply.
The Joint Chiefs aie preparing
to fight two wars at once against so-
-called rogue states: Cuba, Syria.
Libya, Iraq, Iran, and North Korea,
whose combined current military
budgets total only $9.64 billion.
The Commission on M ilitary
Base Closings has made more rec­
ommendations, and the President
must approve or disapprove them by
July 15. Many o f his political advi­
sors are urging him to keep certain
military bases open in California for
political reasons-i.e., to proteetjobs
in a key electoral state.
It is certainly cruel to close bases
and leave trained workers unem­
ployed and families destabilized. The
Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views O f
The JJo rtla itb (Iftbseruer
alternative plan is to convert work­
ers' military skills to civilian use, and
military facilities to meet civilian
needs. Under such a scenario we
would actually gain not lose jobs.
Again, Melman reports that al­
most half o f the nation’s badly dam­
aged housing could be rebuilt for $98
billion. Education would be vastly
improved by spending the $100 b il­
lion needed for public school build­
ing maintenance and $4 billion could
be spent to finance major federal
education programs. For $ 15 billion
we could raise the financing o f high­
er education to the same annual per
student rate as Japan's.
For $ 180 billion we can electri­
fy all mainline railroads. A $135
billion capital investment would im­
prove and maintain the nation’s pub­
licly owned and maintained waste-
water treatment facilities.
Projected military expenditures
for 1996-2002 total $1.9 trillion,
much o f it political pork. Twenty-six
o f the 3 1 states represented by mem­
bers o f the House National Security
Committee will receive nearly $500
million in new barracks, family hous­
ing, and other military' construction
projects that the Pentagon did not ask
for. According to a study by Busi­
ness Executives for National Securi­
ty, an independent group that advo­
cates streamlining the m ilitary's bud­
get, child care centers have replaced
new National Guard armories as the
congressional pork-barrel project of
choice.
“Along The Color Line”
Violence Against American Women
D r . M anning M arable
here is a spectre of
violence which threat­
ens African-American
women at every levels of our
society.
by
©
That threat o f violence mani­
fests itself at the individual level and
institutionally. That is, violence may
be experienced at work, or on the
street, or in the home, by black wom­
en. Or it may be produced and per­
petuated by large institutions, such
as the criminal justice system and the
prisons, within the economy and so­
cial organizations. In either case, what
creates a context for the violence is
the deafening silence which occurs
when our sisters are abused, violated
and murdered
The most violent crime commit­
ted against women o f color which is
underreported is rape. The National
Women’s Study, funded by the Na­
tional Institute on Drug Abuse, inter­
viewed over four thousand adult
women about rape in 1990 and 1991.
The study found that the number o f
rapes in the U S was more than five
times larger than the National Crime
Survey had estimated and reported.
Police statistics seriously underesti­
mate the instances o f rape and other
violent crimes against women. The
National Women's Study estimated
that 12.1 million women have been
rape victims at least once Almost 62
percent o f them were attacked when
they were minors. About 29 percent
were attacked when they were young­
er than eleven years old.
Women are also subject to vio­
lence at places o f employment. Mur­
der, is the leading cause o f death o f
women at work. Accordingtoastudy
completed by the National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health
in 1991, 4 out o f every 10 woman
who died on the job were either “shot,
knifed, asphyxiated or beaten." A l­
though the risk o f being killed by
accident on the job is much higher
for males than for females, the per­
centage o f women who are murdered
on the job is 40 percent; significantly
higher than the percentage for males,
only 10 percent Black women are
almost twice as likely to be killed at
work than white women.
The pattern o f violence against
women must be seen in the broader
political context o f the federal gov­
ernment’s assault against the poor.
The Republ ¡can-controlled Congress
has targeted poor women by reject­
ing proposals to increase the m ini­
mum wage. The political assault on
welfare has been framed in the public
discourse in starkly racial terms, as if
women receiving public assistance
are virtually all black and Hispanic,
and live an “affluent lifestyle.”
But according to economist
Julianne Malveaux, nearly h a lfo fa ll
women on public assistance also do
some kind o f paid work, usually at
under five dollars per hour. The actu­
al A F D C payments can varydramat-
ically, from $613 a month fora wom­
an and two children in California, to
only $121 a month for that same
family in Mississippi. And in racial
terms, the largest single group o f
welfare recipients, as o f 1992, was
not black or Latino, but white.
Perhaps the most pervasive form
o f institutionalized violence commit­
ted against women is represented by
the criminal justice system. A com­
prehensive statistical overview o f the
status o f women in prison has been
compiled by Justice Works Com mu­
nity, a Brooklyn-based, nonprofit
project that serves women prisoners,
former prisoners and their families.
The project’s research states that
women are the fastest growing pop­
ulation in U S prisons and jails. A s of
1994, approximately 90,000 women
were incarcerated throughout the US.
The number o f women in prison in­
creased by 300 percent between 1980
and 1990.
The vast majority o f black wom­
en who are in prison are mothers to
dependent children. About 40 per­
cent o f all women prisoners were
either sexually or physically abused
prior to their incarceration.
The vast majority o f women
prisoners, 75 percent, are serving
sentences for nonviolent offenses.
But o f the remaining women, those
convicted o f violent crimes, were
charged with offenses against a
spouse, relative or acquaintance.
Many of these women, especially
black and Latino women, were only
defending themselvesagainst an abu­
sive partner.
What is the cost for this massive
incarceration o f women in the crim ­
inal justice system? The cost o f in­
carcerating a woman in a New Yo rk
State prison for one year is $30,000:
in a New Y o rk C ity jail, the cost is
$59,000 per prisoner. Hundreds of
millions ofdollars nationally are spent
to warehouse women prisoners, a
massive waste o f both human and
financial resources.
We need to look at alternatives
to incarceration, such as community
service, employment assistance and
job training, alcohol and drug treat­
ment, health care and mental health
services, and alternatives to prosecu­
tion and nonconfinement alternatives.
In effect, for black and Latino wom­
en, prisons and ja ils are the first
responses by the state and by those in
authority to social problems like fam­
ily violence, poverty and addiction.
We cannot create a movement
which frees or liberates black people
on the basis o f race, if we acquiesce
to the violence and patterns o f op­
pression experienced by black wom­
en, which are rooted in gender ine­
quality. Inevitably and inextricably,
such patterns o f domination rein­
force each other.
Our vision must be o f a society
and social relations which are not
coercive or exploitative; where our
children are freed from the shackles
o f hunger, fear and poverty; and
where our sisters are not victimized
by the dynamics of rape, domestic
assault and homicide.
Campaign For A New Tomorrow Creates Haiti Support Project
R on I h v n i s
sour delegation to Haiti
visited Cite Soliel, one
i
of the w orst slums
in the world, we observed
poverty and squalor on a scale
that is unimaginable.
But even in the midst o f these
unspeakable conditions we found
people determined to light for a bet­
ter life. Sitting in a little ramshackle
house we listened to women and men.
young and old, testify to the horrors
o f life under the coup and express
their fervent w ill to build a new Cite
Soliel and a new Haiti. One young
militant told us that twelve o f his
friends had been killed by the rein o f
terror unleashed on the Haitian mass­
es by General Cedras and company.
Standing with him was a woman or-
ganizer/leader who had been repeat­
edly tortured by the dread attaches.
A s we toured Cite Soliel both o f
our new found friends spoke pas­
sionately about their efforts to orga­
nize the people and their desire to
provide concrete services that would
improve the life o f the people and
spark hope for the future o f the com­
munity. One project which has been
initiated is a simple early education
program located in the home o f one
o f the community organizers. They
want to build a child care center and
health clinic in order to institutional­
ize this project. They would like to
establish and office that can become
the focal point for their work in Cite
Soliel. Our friends asked for our help
and as Africans in America we are
duty bound as a matter o f family
responsibility to respond.
At the invitation o f Chavannes
Jean Baptiste, the leaderof The Peas­
ant Movement o f Papay (M P P ), the
largest peasant organization in Haiti,
our delegation journeyed over bumpy
crater filled roads to Papay in the
central plateau region. Here we saw
first hand more evidence o f the cam­
paign o f repression, terror and bru­
tality which the coup leaders had
hoped would break the w ill o f the
H aitian masses. A s C h avan n e s
showed us around the M PP com­
pound he pointed to hundreds o f
thousands o f dollars worth o f de­
struction of buildings, generators,
storage silos, farm machinery and
tools.
Clearly the coup leaders were
intent on destroying the capacity o f
M PP to oppose their murderous re­
gime.
Chavannes also took us to mass
meetings with peasants from the sur­
rounding villages. Once again we
heard the terrible tales o f torture,
rape, murder and chronic day to day
brutality which was commonplace
under the coup.
A woman told o f being raped
repeatedly because she is a member
o f MPP. She told those assembled
that the more her tormentors tried to
get her to denounce her allegiance to
M PP, the more her devotion to MPP
grew.
Another person told how he had
been beaten time and time again be­
cause the authorities suspected that
he was a supporter o f President
Aristide These two comrades sur­
e r s / p e c t i r e
“So As A Man (Or Woman) Readeth,
So Shall They Persevere”
31
¡can”, No. 50305, 456pp. 1991
$4.98 Before General Colin
Powell, there was this great and
brave American warrior. "B om in
an era when potential was mea
sured according to race” (not that it
has really changed that much), the
dust jacket goes on to cite his “si
lent treatment" at West Point where
never the less, Davis finished 35th
in aclasso f2 7 6 ( 1936). There were
more hurdles
| for upon grad
The following
books may be ob­
uation, he re
By
tained
from
quested as
Professor
Daedalus Books,
signmenttothe
Mckinley
P O B o x 913 2,
A rm y
Ai
Burt
H yattsville , M D.
C o rp s , then
2 0 7 8 1 -0 9 3 2 .
clo se d
to.
Though I cite the individual price
blacks.
with each title and description,
On his way to becoming
please note that shipping and han­
three-star general in A m e rica’s
dling is $4.50 whether for one book
armed forces, Davis headed the
oranum berofvolum es Ifyouw ish
“99th Pursuit Squadron” and the
to use your credit card rather than
“332nd Fighter Group’’ - now know'
send a check, write them for a cat­
as the famed “Tuskegee Airmen
alog which w ill contain convenient
He and his men saw distinguished
order forms (or phone toll-free: I-
service over North Africa, Italy
800-395-2665)
and Europe during World War II.
"A d am C la yto n P o w ell. Jr.:
White bombercrews would request
The P o litic a l B io g ra p h y o f an
escort by the segregated black fly­
A m e r ic a n
D ile m m a ” .
ing aces to increase the odds o f
//No.41 163 545pp., 1991 $4.98.
their safe return from dangerous
T h is book was selected by both
missions. This African American
the New Y o rk T im e s and the
son o f a great general retired in
L ib ra ry Jo u rnal as one o f the
1970.
best o f the year. T e lls o f the
I have a very poignant mem­
e xtrao rd in ary rise and fa ll o f
ory ofthe earlier times, for when
the p ow erful and flam b o yan t
E n g la n d was in danger o f los
b la c k
co n g re ssm a n
fro m
ing the war to N a z i airpow er
Harlem A s the author, C h a rle s
(T h e battle o f B rita in , 1939-
V . H am ilto n says, “ we must ap­
4 0 ), B ritish and C an ad ian A ir
preciate him as a co n trad icto ry
Force recruiters were sw eeping
man liv in g in c o n tr a d ic to r y
A m e rican ghettoes fo r lik e ly
tim e s.”
p ilo t candidates. A m e rica had
Tho se o f who are o ld er re­
not yet entered the war and they
member him w ell as the able
appeared m onthly at our St.
and gifted m in ister o f the la rg ­
L o u is H ig h S ch o o l: H ave good
est and most pow erful co n g re ­
grades in math and fly yo u r own
gation in Harlem . Th e tall, hand­
S p itfire from C an ad a to E n ­
some P o w ell, alw ays a fig u re o f
gland (after some b rie f tra in in g
sartorial splendor, mastered two
o f co urse).
p ulp its, one in his church and
M illio n s have seen on tele­
one in co n gress. B efo re the rac-
visio n the planned d yn am iting
sts w ithin and w ithout our A u ­
o f the “ W endell P ru it” h igh-
gust fed eral le g is la tiv e body
rise h ou sing project in St. L o u ­
ere a b le to o u st him (on
is, Mo. this e arly experim ent in
trumped up ch a rg e s), P o w ell
s o c ia l’ architecture was named
was able to get m uch done for
after a classm ate o f mine who
is co n stituen cy and for the na­
became an a ce ’ with that 99th
tion as chairm an o f a pow erful
P u r s u it
S q u a d ro n
fro m
education com m ittee. Get this
T u sk e g e e before b e in g shot
one, for sure.
down o ver Italy . E n jo y your
Benjamin O. D avis Jr . Amer-
sum m er and your reading.
don’t know who said
that, or if anyone did.
But they c ertain ly
should have, for that has
proven to be an excellent path
to success and understanding
throughout history. Besides,
this week I am introducing
some very, very interesting
volum es at a very, very
economical price (Publishers
remainders).
C O R R E C T IO N : The Ju ly 12,1995 “perspectives" article should have
read;“ Peter A.Slayton... has excavated at sites in both Africa and Euro p e."
(Lite ^ o rtla rtit (Observer
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V a rd a g e . P o in t
nv
/ p
vived with their lives. Thousands of
Haitians were not so fortunate.
Despite these testimonies o f ter­
ror and intimidation the mood in the
meetings was hopeful. Chavannes
outlined plans for rebuilding MPP
and detailed what programs were
already underway.
Stressing the need for participa­
tion, self-reliance and self-sufficien­
cy as the basis for democracy and
d evelo p m en t, C h a va n n e s Jean
Baptiste challenged the peasants to
pool their resources to start credit
unions and community stores, to pur­
chase farm tools and breeding stock
to build up their lots o f livestock. He
also urged them to pool their money
to purchase a weapon to be shared
among neighbors to watch and de­
fend their families against the attach­
es and macoutes who are dislodged
from power but still armed and dan­
gerous.
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