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KENNEDY/WALLACE IN '76- A THREAT TO AMERICA

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EDITORIAL: DROUGHT IN AFRICA

United Nations officials have said that without large-scale shipments of grains and powedered milk, up to six million people face death this summer in the six African countries hit by drought and famine. (See story page 11.) They are Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Upper Volta.

A United Nations meeting to plan medium and long-term aid to the six countries was held in Geneva at the end of June. It was attended by all United Nations agencies involved in the relief and assistance effort and by representative of some 45 governments and organizations.

What is the U.S. government doing? It will do as little as the American people let it get away with. At the same time, baby chicks are drowned by the tens of thousands, potatoes are dumped into the ocean by the tons, abandoned automobiles line the country's highways and fill car lots; thousands of tons of usuable "waste" pollutes the land.

While the U.S. government can finance and mobilize fleets of bombladen planes for hourly assaults on the people of Indo-China, day in and day out, year in and year out, legislation allegedly stands in the way of responding to this unprecedented human disaster facing some 24 million peoples of Africa in accordance with their need.

A wide range of aid and assistance is urgently required. In addition to food, the means to transport that food to remote and isolated areas is required. Seeds are needed to replace those that have been eaten because food must be on hand for planting when and if the drought breaks. New sources of water must be searched out. Accommodations must be provided for the thousands who have been forced to abandon the parched countryside to find relief in the towns and villages. Medical care and medicines are required for drought and famine induced sicknesses.

Our community organizations, our churches, our leaders and our national organizations should respond to the urgent call of Congressman Charles C. Diggs, Jr., to use our political and moral strength to bring widescale and persistent pressure on Washington, D.C. to provide immediate, large-scale aid and assistance to the six stricken countries of Africa. Perhaps in this way the U.S. government might repair some of the moral damage it has done to America by its bestial destruction in Indo-China.

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Letter to the Editor

The letter below is another response, this time from (Rev.) William J. O'Donnel, to James D. Garbolino, Assistant Legal Affairs Secretary of the state of California. Mr. Garbolino stated in a letter to Ms. Exilda Groux that as a Catholic he was "appalled" by a letter she sent in the name of the National Association of Laity, a Catholic organization in Canada, to the California Adult Authority, demanding the parole release of David Hilliard. (See THE BLACK PANTHER, June 16, 1973).

July 2, 1973

Mr. James Garbolino
Assistant Legal Affairs Secretary
Governor's Office
Sacramento, California 95814

Dear Mr. Garbolino:

I have on hand a copy of your letter of Nov. 8, 1972 to Miss Exilda Groux of the National Association of Laity, Quebec, Canada, and am appalled by the abuse of your position.

How do you explain your use of the Governor's stationery for your own private opinions which at best are ill-informed? You attempt to "spank" politically and religiously Miss Groux, who pleads for the release of

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a victim of our society, Mr. David Hilliard, whose leadership is sorely needed in the ghetto from which he was illegally kidnapped.

To use your Catholicism as a weapon to oppress our people is an overworn tactic that is obvious to the community. It is just so embarrassing to us priests and sisters and Catholic ghetto dwellers that we have Catholics in high places working against establishing the Kingdom of God.

I hope by this time you have apologized to Miss Groux; such an act is never over-due. I will pray that as Catholics we will never forget that our first social obligation is to struggle to liberate ourselves and our brothers and sisters from every kind of oppression, racial, economic, social, religious and political.

Sincerely yours,

(Rev.) William J. O'Donnel
St. Joseph The Workman Church
Berkeley, Calif.

WJO'D: sa

cc: Miss Exilda Groux
Mr. David G. DuBois

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DAVID HILLARD, VICTIM OF WATERGATERS

We continue our special interview with Mr. Don Freed, Editor of the Los Angeles - based Citizen's Research and Investigating Committee, on the Gemstone/Watergate conspiracy to destroy the Black Panther Party:

Q: "Don, as you know, David Hilliard, leading member of the Black Panther Party, is still in prison. His parole is repeatedly denied on the pretext that he represents a danger to society. Could you say something about the tie-in of David Hilliard's case with Watergate?"

DON: "Yes. The starting point is obviously that the inter-agency intelligence unit, the spying operation of Gemstone, was organized to coordinate elements of the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Domestic Intelligence Agency, the Internal Revenue Service and the local and state police.

"In the case of David Hilliard, he was obviously a test of the efficiency of this new secret police strike force. The Internal Revenue Service used field agents to gather intelligence on and focus in on David Hilliard; massive surveillance to find any pretext or loophole to harass him.

"At the same time the FBI, through their wiretapping., through their offices, was practicing electronic surveillance and physical surveillance. The CIA, under the cover of the fact that the Black Panther Party had an international section, was trying to set up threat to national security charges, to entrap David Hilliard.

"California state police, through the special detachment led by the Criminal Conspiracy Section (CCS) -- E. Younger's elite secret strike force, were monitoring local police and the entire West Coast in order to introduce agent provocateurs, assassins and informers.

"Louis Tackwood, the notorious Black FBI agent, in a book he has written to be published in August, reveals all this and the role he played in it, posing as a member of the Black Panther Party, and as a Black militant.

"Also, the use of the Grand Jury, the co-orchestration of grand juries as the public face of the secret strike force, was well under way. Two grand juries sitting in the Bay Area were spending literally thousands of man hours and many hundreds of thousands of dollars, in order to build a case against David Hilliard.

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"What we have here in short is nothing less than a bill of attainder, with Bobby Seale, the Chairman of the Party, in prison during much of this period, Huey Newton in prison during much of this period and members of the international section of the Black Panther Party out of the country.

"David must have been seen as synonymous with the Black Panther Party at this time, the leading figure against whom the conspiracy was aimed. Remember the conspirators' declared aim of exterminating the Party.

"That's the most outrageous example of a national conspiracy focusing perforce on one man. No defense, no understanding of the need for his immediate release can be separated from the fact that he was literally … literally in the clutches of this gigantic conspiracy."

1968-69 Gemstone-inspired moves to provoke, intimidate, harass, immobilize and destroy the Black Panther Party:

1968

Jan. 16 - San Francisco police, without warrant, raid the home of Eldridge Cleaver. No arrests are made.

Feb. 25 - Bobby and Artie Seale are arrested in their home by Oakland police without warrant. Charges of "conspiracy to murder", made against Bobby Seale, are dropped. A year later the arrests for "conspiracy to riot" are ruled illegal and dropped on 1/29/69. Four other Panthers arrested near the Seale home on the same pretext are released. Charges against two are dropped. The other two had been killed by that time.

Apr. 6 - Cleaver, David Hilliard and six others are charged with the "attempted murder" of two Oakland policemen. Charges are dropped by the district attorney. Bobby Hutton is shot and killed by police after surrendering in an alleged "shoot-out".

Sept. 12-13 - Denver police arrest seven juveniles as "delinquent" and three Panthers as "contributing". Panthers are all released for lack of any testimony against them…

Sept. 23 - Colorado chairman of the Black Panther Party is arrested for arson. No evidence is offered for the charge and it is finally dismissed.

Nov. 19 - Eight Panthers are arrested on charges of shooting at police. Charges are dropped against seven. One is charged with the robbery of a service station in San Frncisco.

Dec. 28 - Panther headquarters in Jersey City is fire-bombed by "2 white men wearing police-style uniforms".

1969

Apr. 2 - 21 persons identified by police as Panthers are arrested in New York for conspiracy to blow up the Botanical Gardens, department stores, etc. No overt act is charged. No one had any recent or serious police record. Bail was set at over $2 million.

Apr. 28 - San Francisco police, using tear gas, raid Black Panther Party headquarters and arrest sixteen. Twelve are released with no charges filed. Four are finally charged with "illegal use of sound equipment".

May 1 - Los Angeles police raid Los Angeles Black Panther Party headquarters, seize weapons and arrest eleven. All eleven released with no charges filed.

(May 22 - 14 Black Panther Party members arrested in New Haven, Connecticut. They were charged with "conspiracy to murder".)

June 3 - FBI in Chicago raid Black Panther Party headquarters and arrest eight present for "harboring a fugitive". No fugitive is found. Police confiscate money, membership lists, literature. All eight are released with no charges filed. Confiscated material is not returned. Chicago police had cordoned off area in advance. The fugitive is George Sams.

June 4 - Denver police raid Black Panther headquarters and arrest three, charging office worker Anita Hartmen with possession of stolen goods. All three released; Hartman indictment dropped.

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June 5 - Denver police raid Black Panther Party headquarters and arrest ten. Two are held on federal warrants charging flight to avoid New Haven prosecution. Eight released with no charges filed.

June 5 - Black Panther Party lieutenant in Santa Ana is arrested by police, charged with shooting an officer and held for a month. Charge dropped 7/6/69.

June 6 - Sacramento police using tear gas raid Black Panther Party headquarters "in search of alleged sniper". No spiner found. Headquarters wrecked. Mayor condemns wanton destruction of food, office equipment, etc.

July 31 - Police raid Black Panther Party headquarters in Chicago. Headquarters is totally destroyed. Three wounded Panthers are arrested for "attempted murder, aggravated assault, resisting arrest" during the raid.

Sept. 4 - San Diego police raid Black Panther Party headquarters "in search of murder suspect" who is not found. Seize weapons and ammunition.

Sept. 20 - Black Panther member Walter (Toure) Pope is killed by two Los Angeles policemen, who claim he had fired on them.

Dec. 3 - David Hilliard, only Panther leader alive and free, arrested for threatening the life of President Nixon when Hilliard said (in the course of a public speech), "We will kill Richard Nixon - we will kill any motherfucker that stands in the way of our freedom."

Dec. 4 - Illinois Black Panther Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton and Peoria leader Mark Clark are killed by massive shooting raid of police on Hampton's apartment. Four other Panthers are seriously wounded. Two police injured.

Dec. 8 - Police raid Black Panther Party headquarters in Los Angeles. Three Panthers are wounded. Twenty-one are arrested in coordinated raids on three different locations including arrest of pregnant woman, who suffers a miscarriage.

Yet to come was 1970 - police raids, in New Orleans, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit and Baltimore equal almost a hundred new Panther prisoners and a million more dollars in bail.

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KENNEDY/WALLACE IN '76 - A THREAT TO AMERICA

KENNEDY/WALLACE in 1976!

Yes, the country's "liberal" standardbearer, Edward M. Kennedy, Senator from Massachusetts, heir to the now shattered Kennedy myth, and, the country's most rabid racist, George C. Wallace, the Alabama Governor who bodily barred Black youth from entering the University of Alabama.

They joined forces at "The Spirit of America" Fourth of July festival at Decatur, Alabama, to show the country and the world where the U.S. is headed unless the People move to stop them. William Randolph Hearst Jr., wrote that Kennedy received applause of "considerable warmth", while Wallace "was hailed tumultuously" with "rebel yells and roaring cheers".

So, here is the Democratic Party's alternative to a disarrayed and discredited Republican Party. This is the "choice" the American people are to be offered in 1976. It's either this or the Watergate/Gemstone conspiracy Republicans!

SPECTATORS

The New York Times wrote: "There were almost no Blacks among the estimated 10,000 spectators." The paper then proceeded to name and quote the remarks of three, Black Alabama "dignitaries" who attended this prophetically dangerous reunion. The Times attempted to establish that Alabama Blacks (and by inference America's Blacks) were split on Wallace.

Neither Alabama Blacks nor America's Blacks are split on Wallace. We will no longer be manipulated, despite the occasional misguided or traitorous fool trotted out for "color". What this KENNEDY/ WALLACE union represents is a total negation of Black America. And, in the process, the isolation of all truly progressive, justice - seeking Americans who still believe in democracy with a small "d".

This union foreshadows the most dangerous threat to this country since the Civil War. The danger is real when the highly regarded, liberal labled Christian Science Monitor can editorialize: "Men who seemed poles apart share a platform on the Fourth of July. Just possibly American politics has started to return to a blend of opposition and agreement and away from the damaging divisiveness of recent years."

Remember the states' rights demogogy of Wallace in defense of segregation, discrimination and disenfranchisement of Alabama's Black citizens? Well, listen to Mr. Kennedy at Decatur on the Fourth of July: "States and communities and individuals must reclaim that power which has been absorbed by bureaucracies ignorant of their needs and interests." And further: "We must find freedom for ourselves. We cannot find it when the conditions of our daily life are determined by remote officials in distant places."

The Democratic Party learned an important lesson from the 1972 Republican Party campaign: You don't need to make concessions to the Black vote to win a Presdential election. A KENNEDY/WALLACE ticket in 1976 intends to carry that ideal to its logical conclusion: The Black vote be damned!

That is exactly what the original, western anti-big business, small farmer Populists said in concession to the racist, southern big land-holding Populists in the 1890s -- the Populists Mr. Kennedy compares his union with. The result was the defeat of western Populism and the further entrenchment of racism.

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Mr. Kennedy has finally shown his true colors, vindicating those who never succumbed to the Kennedy myth; the psychological tricks played on Black and poor people by the Kennedy brothers, accomplished with the use of calm, charm and nothern "liberal" wit. For Black Americans the KENNEDY/WALLACE courtship represents a challenge for survival. For all Americans this union represents a challenge of conscience.

One choice and one alone is before us. It is urgent that the choice be made and acted upon. From the ghettos, barrios and slums of our cities, from the fields, the farms, the back roads of our vast countryside, from the assembly lines, the foundries, the mines, mills and offices of our great industries, from the campuses and from the streets A PEOPLE'S PARTY MUST ARISE!

With courage and conviction Americans must turn away from the established parties of war, fascism and racism before it is too late. We must build across the country, from the ground up, a party of, for and by the people, a people's party. To delay is to risk defeat and the country's descent into infamy.

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BLACK FAMILY SUFFERS IN OAKLAND PROJECTS

The indecent condition of Oakland's public housing is causing its residents untold strain and suffering. The situation of the Robbins family, who live in East Oakland's Lockwood Gardens, strongly illustrates this.

Four-year-old Authur Robbins has consistently had skin diseases which have appeared as pinkish, itching blotches or eruptions all over his body that become sores when scratched. His skin condition is caused by the bites of insects that infest the tall, untrimmed weeds and grass of Lockwood Gardens. In addition Arthur's ears bother him and he has trouble breathing.

Each night before Arthur would go to sleep, his mother, Mrs. Azzia Robbins, would rub his back until two o'clock in the morning. Because she was tired of watching her son endure great suffering, she recently took Arthur to Highland Hospital for tests. The tests indicated that Arthur had an ear infection resulting from a solution that was used when the Oakland Housing Authority exterminated the Robbins home for roaches. The tests also confirmed that insects had been biting him. But most importantly, the tests show that Arthur was allergic to the tall grass and weeds that fill the Lockwood Gardens' yards. If the yards were clean and the grass cut, Arthur would not suffer so much.

INSECT BITES

Later, in speaking with Mrs. Robbins, THE BLACK PANTHER learned that the other members of the family, Falepha, 8 and Farina, 10, as well as other residents of the housing complex also suffered from insect bites. It was also learned that the residents have tried to clean their yards, but they can't get the necessary cleaning equipment. The housing authority, which is supposed to supply the equipment free of charge, always gives an excuse as to why they can not supply the equipment. In addition the housing authority is supposed to maintain the front grounds of the buildings, but they have even been negligent in doing this. Nevertheless, in efforts to make the environment better for her son, Mrs. Robbins has paid as much as $10 for some one to come in and trim her yard. This does not help Arthur, Mrs. Robbins explained, he is still affected by the untrimmed yards of their neighbors.

Realizing this, Arthur's doctor asked the Alameda County Health Department to investigate the Lock wood Gardens area. When the Departmant's

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representative, Brother Joseph Martin, surveyed the area and learned the situation, he contacted Brother Bobby Seale, who also visited the housing area. Since the housing authority proved themselves irresponsible in meeting the needs of the residents, Brother Martin proposed a scheme in which the residents, with the Black Panther Party assisting, would engage in a cooperative effort to do the cutting and cleaning of the yards. The neighbors would buy the equipment themselves by contributing 50 cents a family per month.

This would improve the condition of the yards, but it would not altogether solve Arthur's problem. He needs special housing, which is completely sanitized, with controlled heating and air conditioning. Because Mrs. Robbins is a welfare recipient, the Welfare Department is obligated to locate a new home for her. But the Welfare Department and the housing authority have not done this and the Robbins are still suffering. In fact, due to the damage done to Arthur from his present environment he is required to go to the hospital for shots twice a week, every week for at least three years.

Arthur must take expensive medicine. Since Mrs. Robbins is on disability from a slipped disc, she cannot afford it. In addition she has no transportation to the hospital and no money to take public transportation.

On Friday, July 13, the Black Panther Party transported the Robbins family to Highland Hospital so that the other children could be tested. Members of the Party are also trying to obtain housing for the Robbins family.

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CHICAGO: ACTION DEMANDED IN LUCAS/WATTS MURDER

(Chicago, Ill.) - "There should be justice. Those guards should be behind bars…We want Justice!" This was all Ms. Emma Lucas had to say; it was enough.

Assembled in the State office along with Ms. Lucas and her daughter Dorothy, were representatives of twelve Chicago community organizations and Mr. St. John Watts. They had all come together to confront the new States Attorney, Bernard Carey, and his staff over the irresponsible handling of the jail deaths of George Lucas, Ms. Lucas' son, and St. John Watts, Jr., and to demand a full and complete Grand Jury investigation into the deaths.

Both Lucas and Watts, age 24 and 21 respectively, are believed to have been murdered by police and jail guards while in custody. The incidents, though unrelated, both took place in February of this year.

The meeting, which took place on July 2nd at Carey's downtown office, was the result of almost five months pressure on the States Attorney's office to intervene in the Lucas and Watts deaths. Organizations present at the meeting were: Alliance to End Repression; Illinois Congress of Ex-Offenders; Urban League; NAACP; National Lawyers Guild; Chicago Conference on Religion and Race; Black Training Center; Midwest Community Council; Citizen's ALERT; Lawyers for Civil Rights; the League of Women Voters and the Black Panther Party.

GEORGE LUCAS MURDERED

The meeting began with a discussion of the widely publicized George Lucas case, whose death in Cook County Jail on February 9th has dominated Chicago headlines ever since. (See THE BLACK PANTHER, June 23, 1973.) John Mendelsohn, a lawyer representing the Alliance to End Reression, summarized the obvious discrepancies in the handling of the case: (1) The "Blue Ribbon" Coroner's Jury, which consisted of four personal friends of the Assistant Coroner and one deaf man. (2) The original autopsy found that George Lucas died of "natural causes", a heart attack (this finding was made by pathologist who did not have a license to practice medicine in Illionis). (3) The testimony of two other pathologists, including the States Attorneys' George Lucas died of oxygen derivation and more specifically a Sickle Cell Anemia crisis was totally ignored. (4) The ignored testimony of two Cook County inmates ho both have said they saw George Lucas beaten by prison guards and then smothered with

The tragic murder of St. John Watts, Jr. was then described by his father, St. John had been arrested in late February, charged with disorderly conduct, and taken to the Fillmore police station. It was 2:00 a.m. when he finally got to the station to bail his son out, Mr. Watts explained, and his son persuaded him to hold onto the $25 since he (St. John, Jr.) felt the case would be dropped in the morning. The next morning, Mr. Watts said that he went to see his son and, after waiting a long time, someone informed him his son was in the hospital. Mr. Watts said he went to the hospital and was told to go to the morgue. His son was dead.

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The coroner first declared that St. John Watts' death was due to "walking pneumonia" and then, when independent doctors charged that this was impossible, changed the cause of death to "drug overdose". Despite the fact that the autopsy report found no drugs in St. John's system the Coroner's office still refuses to hold an inquest or allow the family's pathologist to review the slides of the autopsy.

Confronted by the community groups as well as the relatives of the deceased men, Bernard Carey conceeded that his office would conduct an immediate investigation of the Watts case and would consider prosecution in the Lucas case. But, as Carey continued to rationalize about the incompetency of his office, Ms. Lucas suddenly spoke up, raising the essential question of Justice. Carey then grew silent.

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STATEVILLE PRISON, ILL.: B.P.P. BUSING PROGRAM VISITORS PROTEST “LOCK-UP”

(Chicago, Illinois) - Sixty Black Chicagoans, friends and relatives of incarcerated Stateville Penitentiary prison inmates, were bussed out to the Joliet, Illinois, institution the first Sunday in July to question prison authorities about a "lock up" currently being imposed on the prisoners, and to visit their loved ones. The action was part of the Black Panther Party sponsored People's Free Busing Program in Illinois.

Prison authorities stalled the visitors at the registration desk with slow processing of registration. They refused to register anyone until the enthusiastic but angry visitors followed the desk sergeant's senseless procedure.

Sister Jean Williams phoned a clerk in the main administration building and explained that the community delegation had arrived and wanted to meet with Warden John Twomey. She was told that none of the Stateville or Department of Corrections officials were available. Ms. Williams had previously contacted an assistant warden to arrange a meeting with the warden. The warden was not available to answer questions and hear legitimate grievances of a group of citizenseven though he received two weeks advance notice!

When the visitors learned that the state's officials had ignored them, tension gripped the registration area. The people refused to continue registering. It was only then that two prison officials became available. However, Assistant Superintedent Louis Lence and Assistant Warden George Stampar, were still not sufficiently concerned to provide any answers.

"These policy matters should be discussed with higher officials… We cannot give any official answers or make any promises", Stampar said, Mr. Lence stated that the warden had never been informed that the people's delegation was coming. "Talk with someone from Springfield (the state capital) to get the facts straight…

Contact the institution there and they (the officials) will get back in touch with you", he offered. The run-around continued.

When aksed why authorities were not more considerate of weary visitors who'd traveled long distances to see their loved ones, Stampar said, "I don't think the people were really taken into consideration…"

Sister Williams voiced the opinion of all the disgusted relatives and friends who made the trip. "The present system has not only abused prisoners but their families as well. Someone has to accept their responsibility. We will be back."

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W. OAKLAND HEALTH CENTER WORKERS STRIKE

The employees of West Oakland Health Center have gone on strike following the medical clinic's board of directors refusal to consider a new contract. The new contract had already been approved by the administrative head of the center, Dr. Robert Cooper.

This action follows the seven-day work stoppage staged last month by the employees of this facility in which the employees and patients are mostly Black. The sit-down was staged to protest the firing of eleven workers and the overall unfair labor practices of the administration. (See July 7, 1973, issue of THE BLACK PANTHER.)

The all-out strike began on July 11th when over 100 employees and community supporters manned picket lines completely around the center. Most of the community support came from members of the New Oakland Democratic Organizing Committee and the Black Panther Party, who joined the workers on the line at 7:00 a.m. that morning. The center was closed down by the strike.

The decision of the employee's union to strike came after a meeting held the previous night in which the center's board of directors refused to discuss a contract that had already been negotiated between Dr. Cooper, the center's director, and Mike Houston, representative of Local 250, Hospital and Institutional Workers Union, AFL-CIO. The contract was to have gone to the board of directors for approval not for more negotiation.

The board, headed by Luther Smith and Elvis Hodges, both of whom have been in the past been charged with mismanagement of funds in connection with several poverty program boards in Oakland, wanted to re-open negotiations and throw out the contract that had been agreed upon previously. They stated that it might be another two months before they agree to sign a contract. This would mean that the employees, whose previous contract expired June 30th, will have worked for over two months without a new contract. After the meeting in which Mike Houston told the board that it would indeed strike, one board member threatened, "If it's a fight they want, then we'll give them a fight".

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They didn't waste any time. Last Saturday, While Mike Houston was walking through the parking lot at the center, a car attempted to run him down knocking him on to the hood. When the car stopped, with Mike still on the hood, a center doctor, Dr. Bovelle, got out, reached in his pocket and threatened to shoot Mike.

The police refused to arrest the doctor in response to Mike's complaint, and the district attorney and the police chief also refused to take any action. Fortunately, Mike was not hurt badly and continues to lead the striking employees. He plans to file suit against the doctor and against the police department for negligence of duty.

The board of directors of the center is chosen by the West Oakland Health Center Council. The council is supposed to be elected by the West Oakland community at large. However, elections have not been held in recent years, and the council and board of directors are now controlled by incompetent and corrupt officials. Measures are now being taken by several community groups to have the center returned to the control of the community.

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CANNERY WORKERS OPPOSE TEAMSTER TACTICS

(Palo Alto, Calif.) - On July 6th, an unusual event took place here in Palo Alto -- workers picketed against their own union.

The workers, cannery employees from all over northern California, converged on the Hyatt House hotel here to protest and publicize the corruption, racism and "duplicity" of their own supposed bargaining agent, the Teamsters Union. Inside the Hyatt House, seemingly undisturbed by the picketting outside, the Teamsters went on negotiating new, long-term contracts with representatives of the food processing industries of northern California.

The demonstrators, many of whom are members of the mostly Chicano

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Cannery Workers Committee (CWC), insist that the Teamsters are using their contract as another wedge in the continuing Teamster/United Farm Workers Union battle, while ignoring and compromising important issues related directly to cannery workers.

PICKET-LINE CLAUSE

One clause at issue in the contract negotiations is a so-called "picket-line clause" which would force the cannery workers to strike if the canneries handle produce picked by members of the UFW. This clause has the direct effect of dividing Mexican-American workers in the fields against the Mexican-American workers in the canneries. Ruben Reyes, chairman of the CWC said to reporters outside the Hyatt House Hotel for the assembled workers: "We are here to ask for equal time and a chance to present the cannery workers' side of the picture. It is time the public knows about the kind of protection the Chicano cannery workers get from the Teamsters Union. It is time the public knows the facts about the relationship between the Teamsters Union and the canneries in California, a sweetheart relationship that has been going on for the last thirty years."

TEAMSTER RACISM

Since 1945, the Teamsters Union has claimed to represent the cannery workers in California, 45% to 50% of whom are Chicano. Yet, that representation has been weak and racked with discrimination and out-right racism. Chicanos' possess less than 2% of the better jobs in the canneries and comprise the vast majority of the lowest bracket jobs.

In 1969, therefore, the CWC was formed, to fight not only the inequities within the food processing industry but within their own union as well.

The CWC has applied to all the civil rights regulatory agencies for a redress of their grievances. They not only substantiate the CWC's claims but also strongly implicate the Teamsters. However, Ruben Reyes said: "All we have gained is a stack of reports all confirming that racism does exist in the food processing industry. The federal government confirms it, the state government confirms it, every level of government confirms it. But that is as far as they go." The disputed "picket-line clause" has never been voted on by the union membership. Yet, the Teamsters have made this issue a principal point in the new contract talks.

At the same time, the Teamsters continue to ignore issues that are in fact important to the cannery workers. Among these issues are:(1) The weak wording of the bargaining agreement that makes such a basic guarantee as seniority basically non-existent. (2) The 20 week "exempt" clause by which the canneries can declare, any week they wish, a six day week and pay the workers straight time for 48 hours of work. (3) "Perishables", a clause which allows the canneries to work a seven-day schedule without paying overtime for the extra two days. These same "perishables" however, can be stored for 2, 3 or 4 days in order to avoid paying overtime when a holiday falls on a scheduled workday. (4) The inequitable pay scale, and (5) Civil rights.

Of course, the UFW is concerned over this situation particularly since the "picket-line clause" is to be used directly against them and the oppressed farmworkers they represent. They cannot however, provide the CWC aid because the cannery workers belong to the Teamsters Union and the National Labor Relations Board would surely pounce upon the UFW for union-tampering.

This leaves the corrupt Teamsters Union in the position of being able to divide Mexican-Americans against Mexican-Americans, while they, the growers and the cannery officials sit back; "Sweethearts" in an obscene relationship that profits off the misery of others.

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PRISONERS RIGHT TO SUE GUARD UPHELD

(New York, New York) - In an unprecedented court victory, Australia Johnson, a prison inmate in the Manhattan House of Detention ("The Tombs"), has recently won the right to sue a guard who brutally beat him in his cell. The 2 - 1 decision of the United States Court of Appeals will undoubtedly lead to more lawsuits filed by incarcerated brothers and sisters who are daily subjected to beatings, torture, and harassment by racist and sadistic prison guards.

Brother Johnson's rights were upheld when the court reversed an earlier ruling by district court Judge Whitman Knapp. The reversal allows him to file a civil rights complaint against guard John Fuller, who attacked Brother Johnson in his cell, "without cause".

The court's 12 - page majority opinion was written by Judge H.J. Friendly, with Judge Wilfred Feinberg concurring. Judge Leonard P. Moore voted against the ruling.

Judge Friendly noted an earlier decision by the court of appeals that held: "brutal police conduct violates a right guaranteed by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment."

However, the text of Judge Friendly's decision shows that he has no strong conviction against violence used by guards to control prisoners. He wrote, "The management by a few guards of large numbers of men and women may justify the occasional use of a degree of intentional force." He explained his decision by stating that in determining whether the violence violates a prisoner's constitutional rights. "A court must look to such factors as the need for the application of force, the relationship of the need and the amount of force that was used, the extent of injury inflicted, and whether force was applied in a good faith effort to maintain or restore discipline or maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm."

Evidently Judge Friendly does not understand that violence and brutality are used constantly in prisons, particularly against Black and poor prisoners under the pretext of "maintaining control" of the prison population. Even he and the other consenting judge understood that there are countless incidents in which guards arbitrarily

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and maliciously brutalize and torture prison inmates to satisfy their sadistic and racist whims.

The dissenting judge, Leonard Moore, voted to deny Brother Johnson his right to file suit, claiming that the beating was "only a single, isolated incident in which Officer Fuller, perhaps unnecessarily aggressive in the discharge of his duties, administered a few blows to the plaintiff". This is the attitude characteristic of most judges in this corrupt judicial system.

The appeals court upheld the earlier ruling which denied Brother Johnson the right to sue the warden of the Tombs. Though the warden showed negligence by failing to punish Officer Fuller for his actions or to attempt to eradicate the brutality by all guards, the court absolved him of all blame.

This court decision will spark similar action by prison inmates all over this country. The decision is an important one, but only the first step for Brother Johnson and others who may file lawsuits. Winning a suit against a prison guard when the judge has the kind of contempt for prisoner rights as Judge Moore, indicates that it is a difficult feat. However, it is clearly possible through concentrated and diligent struggle.

-- 6 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

MARINES FOR FREEDOM STOPPED

(Iwanuki, Japan) - Six U.S. Marines were stopped by military authorities on July 4th, for distributing a modern-language interpretation of the first five sections of the Declaration of Independence! A Marine Corps spokesman at the Marine base here said the leaflets advocated overthrow of the government. The leaflets said in part: "The government gets their power from the permission of the people they govern and whenever the people feel that they are not getting their rights, then the people have the right to change the government."

BLACK CHILDREN FOR BLACKS ONLY

(Springfield, Ill.) - Jerome G. Miller, Director of the Department of Children and Family Services, announced last week that the state of Illinois will in the future place Black children under its guardianship under a new policy for adoption only with Black families. Currently, there are about 250 Black children under department custody who are legally free for adoption.

EX-POW ADMITS ANTI-WAR STATEMENTS

(Portland, Ore.) - Former POW Sergent Robert P. Chenoweth, 25, of Portland, one of eight enlisted men charged by Air Force Colonel Theodore Guy with conspiracy (while he was a prisoner), courageously declared last week he had, indeed, made anti-war broadcasts while in captivity and that he would "do it again". "I definitely did make statements against American involvement in the Vietnam war -- absolutely, definitely. We were wrong. I made tapes. The tapes mostly were broadcast through the voice of Vietnam on Radio Hanoi. Nobody pressured me."

RECORD RANSOM PAID

(Buenos Aires, Argentina) - John R. Thompson, 50, head of Firestone Tire and Rubber company's Arguntine operations, was released unharmed by Argentine guerrillas in exchange for a record $3 million in ransom. Kidnapped on June 18, Thompson said after his release he did not know who his captors were. The three million was handed over by Firestone officials to guerrillas in a downtown hotel, and was hauled away in an armored car.

U.S. ZIONIST LEADER INDICTED

(Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine) - Rabbi Mier Kahane, leader of the terrorist Jewish Defense League, has been indicted here for conspiracy to abduct and murder foreign officials in the U.S.A. The court rejected Kahane's application for bail and ordered him detained until the end of the trial.

-- 6 --

TWO OF SUMTER 3 ACQUITTED

(Koza, Okinawa) - Two Black Marines of the Sumter 3 are now free from military prison as a result of their determined struggle to force the Marine command here to back down from its attempts to frame them. Roy Barnwell and James Blackburn were facing general courts - martial for a rebellion which occurred aboard the U.S. S. Sumter while it was off the coast of Vietnam in September, 1972. News of the victory was disclosed in the Omega Press, an Okinawa underground military newspaper.

The two brothers along with Brother Alexander Jenkins had been charged with three counts of mutiny and eleven counts of assault rising out of racial incidents which closely resembled those that occurred aboard the aircraft carriers Kitty Hawk and Constellation. During the five week pre-trial hearing many of the charges were shown to be ficticious.

The brothers' refusal to submit to the pressure of pre-trial agreements and their determination to expose the military's racism forced the Marine command to drop the charges against Brothers Roy and James and give them good service discharges in lieu of courts - martial. Brother Alexander received a three month sentence for two minor offenses.

-- 7 --

STERILIZAITONS: WHITE HOUSE RESPONSIBLE

(Washington, D.C.) - Once again the blood-stained hands of Richard Nixon have been found involved in a national scandal. This time the blood was that of Minnie and Mary Relf's unborn, unconceived children and those of at east 78 other young, mostly Black women.

Concerned eyes moved from Montgomery, Alabama, across the map to The U.S. capital last week when ex-OEO (Office of Economic Oppportunity) aide, Dr. warren Hern, revealed that the sterilization of the eleven girls might have been prevented were it not for White House orders.

Dr. Hern disclosed that he left his job as "chief of program development and project evaluation" for the family planning division of OEO when 25,000 copies of guidelines he'd prepared were suppressed by White House orders. These guidelines stressed the "knowing consent" of patients in sterilization operations.

The guideline were printed and ready to distribute on February 2, 1972, when, according to Dr. Hern, orders came from the president's administration to delay distribution until after the all-important (to Nixon) 1972 presidential election. He continued to try to have the rules distributed that could have halted the irreparable damage to at least 80 pre-teen and teenage girls.

When Dr. Hern tried to learn the source of the order he was met with "hostility, harassment, attempts at intimidation and pointed invitations to resign", he said. He finally did resign the following June.

Since Brother Lonnie Relf filed a one million dollar damage suit against the government for the illegal sterilization of his two daughters, it has been learned that at least 80 minor girls have been sterilized by the government in the last 15 months. Originally thought to have been an Alabama case, the facts now disclose that these operations have been performed on unsuspecting girls by the government in federally-funded clinics across the country.

Despite the number and regional diversity of this genocide, ex-OEO director Howard Phillips, a big-time Nixon crime partner, appeared at a Senate sub-committee hearing recently and publicly claimed that neither he or anyone else on the White House staff knew of the operations. When asked about the guideline distribution-ban Phillips maintained that this was not a block on "knowing consent" by patients, but it stopped all guidelines (to his knowledge there were no operations being performed).

When questioned about the complicity of the ringleader of this new-found lawbreaking, Phillips followed the example of the Watergate conspirators. He replied that he did not know "whether the President was personally involved in the issue".

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HYPERTENSION -- NO.1 BLACK KILLER

Point six of the Black Panther Party's Ten Point Program reads as follows; "We want completely free health care for all Black and oppressed people. Adequate and free medical care is a right, not a privilege."

Hypertension is a state of abnormally high blood pressure. The average blood pressure for an adult is approximately 110 (heart contractions)/ 80 (heart relaxations). A person's blood pressure may slightly vary from this norm; the upper limit of a normal blood pressure is 130/90.

High blood pressure is a serious health condition because of its harmful effects on different organs of the body. The heart is an organ of the body directly affected. The heart is a muscle, which pumps blood to all parts of the body through special blood vessels called arteries. When a person's blood pressure increases, the heart has to work harder to overcome the extra pressure. If it is unable to overcome this excessive pressure, it will swell and an abnormal amount of blood will accumulate in the heart. If the arteries are unable to withstand the pressure, they will be stretched and may bleed. This stretching and bleeding of arteries, in the brain, could lead to a stroke; if this occurs in the veins of the eyes, blindness could develop.

The effective operation of the kidneys may also be severely affected by hypertension. The kidneys are responsible for purifying the blood. Many things which are harmful or foreign to the body are filtered through the kidneys and leave through the urine; things that are useful to the body are returned to the blood. Hypertension may cause the kidney filters to become clogged.

SYMPTOMS

The more prominent symptoms of hypertension are headaches, vomiting, the feeling of light-headedness, frequent chest pains, shortness of breath, blurred vision and frequent urination. Or, hypertension may take its toll on the body without giving any warning signs to its victims. Hypertension can be caused by kidney disease, heart disease, tumors, pregnancy or hardening of the artieries. The vast majority of cases, physicians claim, are idiopathic (the exact cause is not known).

Many physicians attribute its cause to social conditions. Physicians agree that stressful or frustrating situations will raise the blood pressure and keep it up. This type of hypertension, which produces no symptoms, is called essential hypertension. Hypertession may also be hereditary. However, the social factor plays a greater role in the development of heypertension than the hereditary factor. But, if a person's parents are hypertensive, his/her chances of having hypertension are increased twofold. It is an important fact that the overwhelming majority of families which pass on hepertension from one generation to another, live in poverty conditions.

Serious observation of the actual conditions in the Black and other poor communities readily indicate that the overwhelming number of hypertensive patients have been victimized by this disease as the result of the stress and tension brought on by the oppressive conditions we live in. Hypertension affects an estimated 276 out of 1,000 Black adults in the U.S., while it affects only 147 out of 1,000 white adults. Still many hypertensive patients go undiagnosed and/ or untreated. A disproportionately high number of these patients are Black and poor. An even greater proportion of minority patients die from the disease. Treatment is known to be relatively simple and effective yet little is actually done to treat the patients. This conscious negligence is a blatant example of the racist and class orientation of American medicine.

There are many theories which try to determine why hepertension is so prevalent among Black people. Attempts have been made to relate hypertension to genetics, environment, physical extertion and social stress. The vast majority of hypertensive patients follow a specific socio-economic pattern. There is a rapid graduation of hypertension cases among people whose income is slightly above a subsistence level down to people below the subsistence level. The constant and daily confrontations Black and poor people have with indecent housing, inadequate incomes, the violence and brutality that is a part of our oppression and inadequatemedical services are reasons enough to explain how our people develop the degree of tension and furstration which makes hypertension highly prevalent in our communities.

As a reflection of our desire to serve Black and other oppressed people, the Black Panther Party has numerous survival programs in operation. One such program, which has been implemented in Washington, D.C. is the People's Free Health Service. Our health service provides free medical treatment and preventative medical care and attention to the Washington, D.C. community which is 75% Black. In accordance with our desire to provide complete preventative medical care and attention, several programs under our health service are made available to the community.

PEOPLE'S HEALTH PROGRAMS

These programs are the People's Free Health Clinic, which provides medical treatment and preventative care on a clinical level; the Sickle Cell Screening and Testing Out-Reach Program, which provides door - to - door screening to detect and counsel victims of Sickel Cell Anemia; the Health Referral Program, which obtains referrals from the Out-Reach teams to the Clinic, and from the Clinic to other medical institutions throughout the community. In addition, when people from our community are referred to other medical institutions, community health workers are made available to accompany the patients and aid in helping them complete the medical bureaucracy's process of filling out forms.

One of the more necessary programs in this health service is our General Physical Screening Out-Reach Program. It is staffed by licensed physicians, senior medical students and community health workers who perform general observation physicals which focus on hypertension, door-to-door. The objectives of this particular program are to discover hypertensive patients and have them come to the People's Free Health Clinic for a more thorough examination by a licensed physician, then treatment or medication can be prescribed. Our secondary concentration is on discovering patients who are just developing hypertension so that we might prescribe medication or treatment before the patient develops a chronic case of the disease.

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REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE

BY HUEY P. NEWTON

"FREEDOM"

The following is the third and final segment of "Freedom", one of the most informative, and illuminating chapters in Huey P. Newton's latest book, Revolutionary Suicide. Summing up a description of his first stay in prison, in 1964, and particularly in analyzing his direct experience of the isolation cell "soul breaker" Brother Huey comments, "… the way I was treated told me a lot about those who devised such punishment. I know them well." His lesson is one we all should learn.

CONCLUSION

Most people who know me do not realize that I have been in and out of jail for the past twelve years. They know only of my eleven months in solitary in 1967, waiting for the murder trial to begin, and the twenty-two months at the Penal Colony after that. But 1967 would not have been possible without 1964. I could not have handled the Penal Colony solitary without the soul breaker behind me. Therefore, I cannot tell inexperienced young comrades to go into jail and into solitary, that that is the way to defy the authorities and exercise their freedom. I know what solitary can do to a man.

The strip cell has been outlawed throughout the United States. Prisoners I talk to in California tell me it is no longer in use on the West Coast. That was the work of Charles Garry, the lawyer who defended me in 1968, when he fought the case of Warren Wells, a Black Panther accused of shooting a policeman. The Superior Court of California said it was an outrage to human decency to put any man through such extreme deprivation. Of course, prisons have their ways, and out there right now, somewhere, prisoners without lawyers are probably lying in their own filth in the soul breaker.

I was in the hole for a month. My sentence, when it came, was for six months on the county farm at Santa Rita, about fifty miles south of Oakland. This is an honor camp with no walls, and the inmates are not locked up. There is a barbed-wire fence, but anyone can easily walk off during the daytime. The inmates work attending livestock, harvesting crops, and doing other farm work.

I was not in the honor camp long. A few days after I arrived, I had a fight with a fat Black inmate named Bojack, who served in the mess hall. Bojack was a diligent enforcer of small helpings, and I was a "dipper". Whenever Bojack turned away, I would dip for more with my spoon. One day he tried to prevent me from dipping, and I called him for protecting the oppressor's interests and smashed him with a steel tray. When they pulled me off him, I was hustled next door to Graystone the maximum security prison at Santa Rita.

Here, prisoners are locked up all day inside a stone building. Not only that. I was put in solitary confinement for the remaining months of my sentence. Because of my experience in the hole, I could survive. Still, I did not submit willingly. The food was as bad in Graystone as it had been in Alameda, and I constantly protested about that and the lack of heat in my cell. Half the time we had no heat at all.

Wherever you go in prison there are disturbed inmates. One on my block at Santa Rita screamed night and day as loudly as he could; his vocal cords seemed made of iron. From time to time, the guards came into his cell and threw buckets of cold water on him. Gradually, as the inmate wore down, the scream became a croak and then a squeak and then a whisper. Long after he gave out, the sound lingered in my head.

The Santa Rita administration finally got disgusted with my continual complaints and protests and shipped me back to the jail in Oakland, where I spent the rest of my time in solitary. By then I was used to the cold. Even now, I do not like any heat at all wherever I stay, no matter what the outside temperature. Even so, the way I was treated told me a lot about those who devised such punishment. I know them well.

-- A --

OAKLAND -- A BASE OF OPERATION!: NEW CITY BUDGET SPELLS BANKRUPTCY

On Tuesday, June 26, 1973, the painful but predictable consequences of the corrupt long-time city administrative policy of subsidizing big business expansion through tax favors became clear. On that day, under the watchful eyes of the packed Council chambers, the Oakland City Council unanimously passed a $75 million budget for 1973-74. In the minds of everyone present, one fact was obvious: the city of Oakland is on the verge of bankruptcy.

The approved budget was $9 million in deficit when it was first proposed two months ago and in order to get the deficit down to a slightly less outrageous $6 million level, the City Council was forced to allot two and one-half years of federal revenue sharing money and increase the tax rate. Yet, even the $11.5 million in Oakland's revenue sharing monies plus the 5.5 cents increase in the tax rate are only temporary, finger-in-the-dyke solutions. These measures were necessary to fill the gap between the city's $64.9 million in available revenue and the $75.6 million in expected costs. By 1978, according to reliable projections, the city will be over $18 million in the red. By that time the dam will have burst.

Like most social disasters, the current financial crisis which besets Oakland could have been avoided, and could, with relative case, be eliminated. This fiscal crisis represents a contradiction, a conflict between what the local government spends on social needs and the financial resources available to the city. In the case of Oakland, as well as many other American cities, social needs are obviously on the increase as conditions within the cities deteriorate.

At the same time, the costs of maintaining even the most basic social services are skyrocketing in cost due to inflation and Nixon's inept economic policies. Yet, at the same time, the Reading administration continues to maintain an uneven and disproportionate tax structure which leaves vast sources of wealth and capital untouched (capital gains, corporate profits, stocks and bonds) and constantly squeezes more and more dollars out of those who can least afford it.

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This not only limits the funds available to the city government, it also limits the ability of the administration to provide adequate social services. The only results of this fiasco are social chaos and bankruptcy.

In Oakland, city government costs are increasing at the rate of about 6% per year. Through 1978, for example, the police will receive 7% annual salary increases, and other city employees will receive annual salary increases of 5%. The new $75.6 million city budget (less the $2 million set aside for working capital, including Reading's notorious "slush" funds), in fact, is nearly 8% greater than that which was spent in 1972-73. Practically all these increases, however, are due to inflation.

The only exception is, of course, the police, since their annual salary increases exceed the nationally-mandated rate of 5.5% set by the Cost of Living Council. Despite the inflation factor, over 60% of the increase in city spending over the next four years will be in the "public safety" sector -- the police and fire departments. In last year's city budget, public safety accounted for over 40% of the budget, a whopping $32 million. This year, public safety has an even higher increase. A listing of four of the principal increases in the new budget exposes this trend in detail:

-- Police and Firemen's mandatory pay raise (7.17% increase): $2,235,000.

-- Increase in Police and Firemen's current service retirement cost, due to the increased number of post - 1951 employees: $327,675.

-- Increase in Police and Firemen's prior service retirement costs, due to the increased number of pre - 1951 retirees: $425,000.

-- Increased jail costs due to the decision of Alameda County Superior Court on incarceration for drunkness: $151,945.

In addition, 19 new patrolman positions, expanding the daily helicopter flight schedule to 12 hours and continuing the automatic car locator system and crime file, adds up to $94,900 in budget increases.

Income projections for Oakland through 1978 are dismal. Even if revenue sharing is used to maintain the current level of city services and property and sales taxes are raised, municipal revenues will increase only by 2.5% annually. City Manager Cecil Riley has gone on record declaring that: "The next five years are going to be disastrous."

If the budget is balanced by reducing expenditures, the effects will be that social services to the community will be even further reduced. Although this year's proposal to cut over 300 jobs out of the city government was rejected at the last minute, the job cuts will definitely go into effect next year. This will cripple the minority job program in city government. As described in one of the Council's work sessions, the city uses what they call "bumping", better known as the old familiar "last hired, first fired".

BUSINESS PAYS LESS -- WE PAY MORE

Close examination finds that big business is paying less and less in taxes each year. Between 1962 and 1972, public utility assessments in California increased by a mere 9%, while assessment for all other property in the state increased by almost 98%. Even closer to home, in Alameda County, public utility assessment actually declined, while overall assessment doubled. This means that so-called public utilities like Southern Pacific, PG&E and Pacific Telephone are enjoying tremendous tax savings, while the rest of us take out loan after loan.

The only, and most obvious, alternative to this maddening spiral of consumer taxes, is to find new sources of revenue. During the recent mayoral campaign, Mayor Reading made a show of appointing a long-range task force to propose new sources of revenue for the city. To date, the task force hasn't had one meeting and probably doesn't plan to. Like Reading's promise of opposing any property tax increases, the task force was a campaign trick, not a white lie. However the 7 - Point Revenue Raising program proposed by Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown, as thousands of Oakland residents and many knowledgeable economists agree, remains the only real and viable alternative to the city's financial crisis. Designed to increased city revenues by more than $22 million annually, the bold and innovative Seale/Brown program hits at the problem squarely -- by increasing the taxes on-those who have the greatest ability to pay: public utilities, businesses, large stock bolders, and land speculators.

Everyone knows that the Port of Oakland, with its $90 million annual flow of cash, can shift some of its hefty profits into the city's coffers. By failing to impose its suthority upon big business and force it to pay its share, the Reading administration will continue to rape the poor. From the looks of the new city budget, it seems that they're all the guns necessary to do just that.

-- 10 --

BLACK PANTHER PARTY PROGRAM MARCH 29, 1972 PLATFORM: WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE BELIEVE

1. WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.

We believe that Black and oppressed people will not be free until we are able to determine our destinies in our own communities ourselves, by fully controlling all the institutions which exist in our communities.

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.

We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every person employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the American businessmen will not give full employment, then the technology and means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.

3. WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALIST OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.

We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over fifty million Black people. Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make.

4. WE WANT DECENT HOUSING FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS.

We believe that if the landlords will not give decent housing to our Black and oppressed communities, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people in our communities, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for the people.

5. WE WANT EDUCATION FOR OUR PEOPLE THAT EXPOSES THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS DECADENT AMERICAN SOCIETY. WE WANT EDUCATION THAT TEACHES US OUR TRUE HISTORY AND OUR ROLE IN THE PRESENT-DAY SOCIETY.

We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If you do not have knowledge of yourself and your position in the society and the world, then you will have little chance to know anything else.

6. WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE.

We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will also develop preventative medical programs to guarantee our future survival. We believe that mass health education and research programs must be developed to give all Black and oppressed people access to advanced scientific and medical information, so we may provide ourselves with proper medical attention and care.

7. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE, OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED STATES.

We believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States uses its domestic enforcement agencies to carry out its program of oppression against Black people, other people of color and poor people inside the United States. We believe it is our right, therefore, to defend ourselves against such armed forces, and that all Black and oppressed people should be armed for self-defense of our homes and communities against these fascist police forces.

8. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION.

We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem directly from the aggressive desires of the U.S. ruling circle and government to force its domination upon the oppressed people of the world. We believe that if the U.S. government or its lackeys do not cease these aggressive wars that it is the right of the people to defend themselves by any means necessary against their aggressors.

9. WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND POOR OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U.S. FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE WANT TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR ALL PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.

We believe that the many Black and poor oppressed people now held in U.S. prisons and jails have not received fair and impartial trials under a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free from incarceration. We believe in the ultimate elimination of all wretched, inhuman penal institutions, because the masses of men and women imprisoned inside the United State or by the U.S. military are the victims of oppressive conditions which are the real cause of their imprisonment. We believe that when persons are brought to trial that they must be guaranteed, by the United States, juries of their peers, attorneys of their choice and freedom from imprisonment while awaiting trials.

10. WE WANT LAND, BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE, PEACE AND PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

-- 11 --

Intercommunal News: MILLIONS STARVING IN WEST AFRICAN DROUGHT

In this world of highly developed technology and great material wealth thousands of human beings are dying because they do not have enough food. Famine caused by a five-year drought has produced starvation and death among the 34 million people in the West African countries of Mauritania, Upper Volta, Mali, Senegal, Niger and Chad.

These six countries were already among the poorest in the world, but the drought has made conditions worse. Some people, after days of unsuccessful searching for water, have died. Malnutrition has weakened their usual high resistance to fatal diseases; deaths are mounting from minor diseases to which persons were previously immune. Children, who make up half the regions' population, will never recover from the permanent brain damage caused by under-nutrition.

Why does such wholesale starvation and death occur in a world of advanced technology and abundant wealth? Surely those on this earth who can send a human being to the moon can prevent death by starvation. Even before the drought many people of this region lived at a mere subsistence level. This is a blatant contradiction, Africa is the most resource-rich continent on earth. But the domination of these West African countrys' economies by a foreign power -- France -- keeps them underdeveloped and unable to solve problems such as drought. All six countries were formerly French colonies.

Even in the best of times the six countries must import 300,000 to 400,000 tons of grain annually to supplement the harvests. The per capita income averages $95 per year (as compared to $4,000 to the U.S.). The illiteracy rate is over 90%, and the average life expectancy is only 38 years (the U.S. rate is 70.2).

Now, the surplus food that the people were able to store during good harvest years has run out. The 90% rural population that previously lived off of the agriculture and cattle is forced to eat the only available product - seeds they would normally plant for crops. The animals that are still left in the region have eaten everything; including the roots of plants.

In Mauritania alone more than 80% of the animals are dead; in Senegal more than 40% have died. Even camels, the durable animals so well known for their endurance in the desert, are dying. The remaining animals emigrate to the southern areas of Dahomey and Nigeria where water is more plentiful. It is estimated that over 16 million sheep, 21 million cattle, 18 million goats and over 1 million camels have fled to those countries in recent months, probably never to return. When the animals fled, so did the hope for human life.

Indeed, 10 million people in this region may die in the coming months. It is reported by some West African diplomats, for the first time in the history of their countries, men, women and children are committing suicide.

The drought has caused intense emotional shock. The people of these countries can no longer recognize their land, scorched black in some places by the sun, with dead animals all about. Lake Chad, previously one

-- 12 --
of the world's largest lakes, has shrunk to one-third its original size. It is now the size of three ponds. The mighty Niger River (the world's twelfth largest) can for the first time since anyone remembers be crossed on foot. The people who once lived primarily by the fish of these waters are now starving.

The relief supplies that have been sent to West Africa are still largely bottled up in the ports and existing rail and road networks. Black Congressman Charles C. Diggs, Jr. has urged Black Americans "to publicize the drought emergency and use political strength to make more U.S. supplies available". In a special message Congressman Diggs, the chairman of the House African Subcommittee and founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, called on Blacks to "discuss the seriousness of the drought in the sub-Sahara area with each church, community group or organization to which you belong", and organize to compel the U.S. government to supply massive, wide-ranging and immediate relief aid.

-- 11 --

U.N. CONDEMNS RHODESIA: ZIMBABWE GUERRILLAS HUNG

(Salisbury, Rhodesia) - Last month Ian Smith's White supremacist regime in Rhodesia hanged three Blacks who were charged with possessing arms for the purpose of committing "terrorism and sabotage" in Northern Rhodesia, an area of increasing guerrilla activity. This brings the number of known Rhodesian revolutionaries barbarously executed within the last two months to six.

In May, Smith arbitrarily sentenced three other Black men to death by hanging. One was alleged to have received guerrilla training outside of Rhodesia (known to Black Africans as Zimbabwe). The other two were local residents who were charged with transporting arms and supplies to liberation groups.

Following the last three murders, the United Nations Decolonization Committee adopted a statement condemning what the chairman of the

-- 12 --
committee, Salim A. Salim, U.N. representative of Tanzania, described as "the cold-blooded murder of African nationalists by the illegal racist regime in Salisbury".

The statement recalled that Ambassador Salim had appealed to Britain to intervene against illegal sentencing and executions, and expressed deep regret that that country had not responded. The committee strongly condemned what is called the "negative attitude" of Britain, and again urged that government to immediately terminate the illegal regime in Zimbabwe "by all available means".

-- 12 --

EUROPEANS BOYCOTT FRUITS OF APARTHEID

(London, England) - Europeans in sympathy with oppressed African people in the Union of South Africa have launched a boycott of Outspan oranges and other citrus fruits imported to Europe from South Africa. The boycott is aimed at wholesalers, importers and consumers.

Black Africans, convicted of violating South Africa's many racist apartheid laws are sentenced to long prison terms, "at hard labor", by the country's racist courts. They are then contracted out to manufacturers and growers such as Outspan, and shipped to the groves by the truckload.

With salaries ranging from 25 cents to 60 cents per 12 hour day they are forced to labor under a system in which there is no minimum standard of working conditions. If one of these modernday slaves escapes he is guilty of another crime under South African law and is hunted by the police, Army and Air Force, all heavily armed by the United States with the latest in advanced weaponry.

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Africa In Focus

MOZAMBIQUE

More than 400 Mozambique Africans, including women and children, were massacred by Portuguese soldiers last December 16th in one village. Several other villages were "wiped out in recent months", the Rev. Adrian Hastings, a British Roman Catholic Priest wrote, in a frontpage report in The Times of London, last week. Father Hastings said the attacks are part of the Portuguese government's war against the guerillas of FRELIMO, the Mozambique Liberation Front. The information came from Spanish missionaries in the area who had detailed information of the massacres and buried many of the dead. Two have since been arrested by Portuguese authorities and now languish in jails in Lourenco Marques, capital of Mozambique.

SOUTH AFRICA

An African has died in the hospital of Nelspruit in the Transvaal. The staff had refused to give him a blood transfusion on the grounds that no "Black blood" was avilable. The man had his leg amputated and the surgeon ordered a blood transfusion. When the doctor returned to the hospital two hours later, the transfusion had not been given; there was a lack of "Black blood". He then authorized the use of "white blood", but it was too late. The patient died soon thereafter.

LIBYA

Japan has become the 25th country to authorize Arabic language entries in the passports of its citizens who wish to travel to Libya. On recent orders of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafy, Libyan immigration officials have been refusing entry to foreigners who do not have passport details in Arabic. The U.S.A. is not included on the list of 25 countries that list passport details in Arabic.

NAMIBIA

The United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization has endorsed recent decision of the United Nations Council for Namibia (South-west Africa) and of the Organization of African Unity to the effect that contacts between the UN Secretary-General and the South African government on Namibia should be ended. They were detrimental to the interests of the Namibians.

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WATERGATE LOW LIGHTS

Former Attorney General John N. Mitchell swore last week that he had deliberately withheld information from President Nixon about the Watergate bugging, the coverup and the "White House borror stories" to prevent any damage to the President's bid for re-election. "Maybe, in retrospect," he told the Senate Watergate investigating committee, "I was wrong, but it occured to me that the best thing to do was just to keep the lid on through the election".

John Mitchell reiterated his characterization of the Watergate breakin as "a ridiculous caper that the news media has blown all out of proportion". We wonder how he would characterize his performance before the Senate investigating committee last week?

Former White House Aide John Ehrlichman was "fully aware" of illegal hush money paid to convicted Watergate conspirators and termed the payments "proper" and "necessary", Newsweek magazine reported last week. The magazine writes that Herbert Kalmbach, President Nixon's former personal attorney informed Ehrlichman of the payments and that Ehrlichman was "fully aware of the assignment".

The still secret list of large contributors to the Committee for the Re-election of the President contains the names of more than 250 individuals and corporations that contributed more than $10,000 each. It reportedly lists about 2000 contributors who gave more than $25 million. It has been revealed that Maurice H. Stans and other re-election committee officials pressured firms to contribute.

A White House aide who helped draft the 1970 master plan for gestapotype domestic "intelligence" gathering indicated last week that President Nixon never formally rescinded approval of the operation as he has claimed. The aide, Tom Charles Huston, was questioned last week by the House Armed Services subcommittee about involvement of the CIA in the Watergate affair. Chairman of that committee, Lucien Nedzi(Dem., Michigan), said after Huston's appearance: "So far as we could learn, no one at the White House gave formal orders to rescind the plan."

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Support the Intercommunal Youth Institute

THE CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE.
WITHOUT THEIR GROWTH,
WE, AS A PEOPLE, CANNOT
SURVIVE.

The Intercommunal Youth Institute is designed to help our children think. All instruction is made relevant to the survival of Black and poor people. We expand the concept that the whole world is the children's classroom.

The youth receive instruction in language arts, mathematics, science, health, physical education, political science and people's art. Our objective is the development of the well-rounded human being.

We need more instructors with ever expanding ideas to cope with the everexpanding ideas of the children. If you have teaching skills and can donate some time, please contact the Black Panther Party at 8501 East 14th Street, Oakland, California; or phone (415) 638-0195.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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DON'T SHOP AT SAFEWAY!

Safeway Supermarkets have long been the enemy of the impoverished farmworkers of this country and their union, the United Farm Workers Union (UFW). In view of their long and continuous train of abuses against the Farm Workers and Safeway's daily exploitation of our communities, THE BLACK PANTHER urges our readers to boycott Safeway Supermarkets. Boycott Lettucel Boycott Grapes! Boycott Safeway!

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BOYCOTT FARAH PANTS

Over 3,500 Chicano workers, the vast majority of whom are women, are on strike against Farah Mfg. Co., one of the world's largest manufacturers of men's pants.

Wages range from $1.70 an hour to $2.20 an hour after 20 years, high production quotas are used to deny raises and older workers are forced to quit before retirement and thus lose benefits. We urge you to join the growing number of people activiely fighting for an end to social injustice. Boycott Farah Pants.

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Aid The Farmworkers

On April 16th, the hard-fought contracts which the United Farm Workers Union had won only two years before from California's grape growers expired. Immediately afterwards, the rich and racist growers' signed contracts with the notorious Teamsters Union, despite strong protest from the UFW and the farmworkers themselves. The UFW, led by Cesar Chavez, promptly announced that another grape strike had begun; a lettuce strike was already in progress. Nationwide boycotts of both products are underway and are growing daily.

The farmworkers need our help. Their struggle is our struggle. To aid the farmworkers is to move us all closer to the goals of freedom and dignity.

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A PROGRAM FOR SURVIVAL

PEOPLE'S FREE MEDICAL
RESEARCH HEALTH CLINICS

Provides free medical treatment and preventative medical care for the people.

PEOPLE'S SICKLE CELL ANEMIA RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Established to test and create a cure for Sickle Cell Anemia. The foundation informs people about Sickle Cell Anemia and maintains an advisory committee of doctors researching this crippling disease.

PEOPLE'S FREE DENTAL PROGRAM

(Being Implemented)

Provides free dental check-ups, treatment and an educational program for dental hygiene.

PEOPLE'S FREE OPTOMETRY PROGRAM

(Being Implemented)

Provides free eye examinations, treatment and eyeglasses for the people.

PEOPLE'S FREE AMBULANCE SERVICE

Provides free, (24-hour) rapid transportation to people in need of emergency medical care.

FREE FOOD PROGRAM

Provides free food to Black and other oppressed people.

FREE BREAKFAST PROGRAM

Provides children a free nourishing hot breakfast every school morning.

PEOPLE'S FREE COMMUNITY
EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM

Provides free job-finding services to poor and oppressed people.

FREE PEST CONTROL
PROGRAM

Free household extermination of rats, roaches and other disease-carrying pests and rodents.

PEOPLE'S FREE PLUMBING
AND MAINTENANCE PROGRAM

Provides free plumbing and repair services to improve people's homes.

DAVID HILLIARD PEOPLE'S
FREE SHOE PROGRAM

Provides free shoes made at the David Hilliard Free Shoe Factory to the people.

PEOPLE'S FREE CLOTHING PROGRAM

Provides new, stylish and quality clothing free to the people.

INTERCOMMUNAL YOUTH
INSTITUTE

Provides Black and other oppressed children with a scientific method of thinking about and analyzing things. This method develops basic skills for living in this society.

LIBERATION SCHOOLS

Provides children free supplementary educational facilities and materials to promote a correct view of their role in the society.

INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS
SERVICE

Provides news and information about the world and Black and oppressed communities.

LEGAL AID AND
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

Provides legal aid classes and full legal assistance to people who are in need.

FREE BUSING TO PRISONS PROGRAM

Provides free transportation to prisons for families and friends of prisoners.

FREE COMMISSARY FOR PRISONERS PROGRAM

Provides imprisoned men and women with funds to purchase necessary commissary items.

SENIORS AGAINST A
FEARFUL ENVIRONMENT
(S.A.F.E.) PROGRAM

Provides free transportation and escort service for senior citizens to and from community banks on the first of each month.

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