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BLACK PANTHER PARTY CHALLENGES INFERIORITY THEORY

SEE STORY PAGE 3

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EDITORIAL: TOP 100 FOR WHAT?

On August 10th and 11th the chief executive officers of the so-called Black Enterprise 100, the country's 100 top Black businesses, met at the Essex House Hotel in New York City. Their host was Earl G. Graves, publisher of Black Enterprise magazine, which in its June issue identified the top 100 Black businesses.

In a press release following the two-day meeting Mr. Graves is quoted as saying: "Although we come together as businessmen to review ways by which we can increase our own profitability, we must recognize that there is a direct relationship between profit and the economic well-being of Black communities. Business cannot thrive in the midst of poverty, unemployment, crime and drugs. For this reason, our primary concern is how we as businessmen can help reduce the problems faced by the vast majority of the Black citizens."

These are fine words. But, according to the press release, little was accomplished even as a beginning on the "primary concern" of helping to reduce "the problems faced by the vast majority of the nation's Black citizens".

What was accomplished was confined to steps toward increasing the profitability of the top 100 Black businessmen that came together. "Many of the businessmen who had not met before", says the release "made arrangements during the two-day conference to do business with each other, to provide an opportunity for the businessmen to continue their business relationship and to make new opportunities known to other Black businessmen."

Our intimate and consistent contact with the Black community convinces us that survival is the primary concern of masses of Black people in this country today. The poverty inflicted on the Black community is part of the genocidal war being waged against us. The dope that floods the Black community is part of a scheme to immobilize and destroy the flower of our youth. The unemployment and under-employment that plagues the Black community is deliberate, to drive us to crime, demoralization and self-destruction -- reactionary suicide.

As meagre as their share is of the national wealth, Black businesses still can immediately and directly

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help reduce the problems faced by the vast majority of the nation's Black citizens. They can regularly and generously share some measure of the profits they realize from the Black community, with the most depressed segments of that community, through weekly donations of goods, services and funds.

By so doing the Black community, on whom Black businessmen must depend for their existence, will firmly support Black businesses. These businessmen will contribute to meeting the community's most immediate survival needs and help create the conditions for community action toward community control and liberation.

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Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I have become a dedicated advocate of Black power and Black freedom upon reading your paper. Before reading the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service I was a lost brother.

I was caught up in the White man's glitter of fortune and fame. I though that the world revolved around my music. I was ego-tripping But, through your publication, or I should say the people's paper, I have found myself.

I may be able to donate some money to the Black Panther Party and to the struggle. I am a jazz musician and I have written a tune called "Black Concerto". I am getting it copyrighted, Anagent from the Atlantic recording company is scheduled to come here to the insitution and tape it. I will donate a large portion of the proceeds to the Party if I am successful in getting it recorded.

Since my incarceration I have divorced my wife, due to a lot of reasons. One of them was being confined in the White man's concentration camp which seperates us from our loved ones.

… Upon my release I will be coming to Oakland. I would like to join your Party. If at all possible I would like to correspond with a sister who is dedicated to the struggle…

"Asante Sana" for your time.

Your brother forever,

James Wesley Moore
Ohio State Penitentiary
London, Ohio

Dear Comrades,

A young, devoted sister by the name of Emma Bowling and myself have been trying to keep open and expand the Third World liberation communications. Because of my experience with the Black Panther Party, Los Angeles Chapter (1968) and military regulations, we have chosen the Intercommunal News as the main source of information.

She in Germany (where it's really needed) and I here in Virginia have been helping brothers and sisters subscribe to the paper. This, we feel, helps to make them more aware while continously facing the brainwashing activities of the green machine and also will keep them (us) strong in the battle against racism and fascist-like acts…

Al Power to the People,

E. Walton II
Ft. Lee, Virginia

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COMMENT: CHINA'S 10TH C.P. CONGRESS

The 10th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has successfully completed its work. Yet all the Western press, particularly that in the U.S., can write about is the Lin Piao conspiracy.

Far more significant is the declaration contained in Premier Chou EnLai's report to the Congress concerning Sino-Soviet relations. Premier Chou said: "The Sino-Soviet controversy on matters of principle should not hinder the normalization of relations between the two states on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence.

"The Sino-Soviet boundary question should be settled peacefully through negotiations free from any threat. We will not attack unless we are attacked. If we are attacked, we will certainly counterattack. This is our consistent principle. And we mean what we say."

Those who are genuinely concerned about peace in the world should welcome this declaration by the Chinese Communist Party leadership. This statement above all else should have headlined foreign reports on the results of the 10th Party Congress. The Lin Piao conspiracy is purely an internal matter of the Chinese people. They have apparently taken care of it and are moving forward to greater victories in the building of socialism and communism.

We in America have our own conspiracy -- the Gemstone/Watergate conspiracy. The Chinese press and media have practically ignored this purely internal matter. They are not ignorant of its possible world-wide implications. But the Chinese people are confident that the American people will meet this challenge head-on, uproot the conspirators and set the country straight, as they have done with their conspiracy.

A fundamental principle of the five principles of peaceful coexistence is the non-interference in the internal affairs of a state by another state. Americans would be justly furious if the Chinese press were filled with reports, interpretations, analysis and wild speculations about Watergate and the Gemstone conspiracy.

We congratulate the Chinese people and the Chinese Communist Party on the successful conclusion of the 10th Party Congress. We wish them further victories on the road to building the good life for all their people -- in harmony, brotherhood and peace with the peoples of the world, including the people of the Soviet Union.

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BLACK PANTHER PARTY CHALLANGES RACIST TO INTELLECTUAL DUAL: SEEK GENETIC STUDY OF ALL MAJOR RACIAL AND ETHNIC GROUPS

On Tuesday, September 5th, the Black Panther Party announced an unprecedented intellectual challenge to Berkeley Professor Arthur Jensen's theories of Black inferiority. The announcement was timed to coincide with the end of the world-wide geneticists' convention in Berkeley sponsored by The International Genetic Foundation.

"We have heard a lot of talk about how Blacks compare with Whites", said Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, "but few scientists seem interested in comparing, say, Northern Italians with Southern Italians, Chinese-Americans with Japanese - Americans, Appalachian Whites with Social Register Whites and Semitic groups with others.

"Since these population sub-groups perpetuate each other through marriage, it is reasonable to expect that over generations they have produced clearly defined genetic strengths and weaknesses that can be compared with other groups", Seale added, noting that he had discussed this approach informally with geneticists. "This approach eliminates the racism of a study that would focus only on Blacks and is more scientific."

The intellectual challenge and proposal submitted by the Black Panther Party through Mr. Seale and Ms. Elaine Brown is based on the following background.

1. Berkeley Professor Arthur Jensen and Stanford Professor William Shockley contend that Blacks are intellectually inferior to Whites and thus Blacks should be denied educational opportunities afforded to the White community, such as access to prestigious public universities.

2. The Black Panther Party, the Black community, and the vast majority of geneticists and educators believe that Black intellectual potential is equal to White potential, that the greatest intellectual differentials are among individuals rather than races, and that no individual should be denied access to educational facilities solely on the basis of family background.

3. Most knowledgeable scientists believe that the Jensen approach and conclusions are unscientific and should not focus exclusively on one racial group.

4. The Black community does not fear truly unbiased scientific studies and the Black Panther Party believes that if we are to study any race we should study all races, major ethnic groups and genetically defined regions that comprise American society.

The Black Panther Party proposal for a universal genetic study is as follows:

1. The Presidents of the University of California, Duke, Harvard and Michigan appoint a Committee of Eleven to design a study of all ethnic and racial groups. (The universities were chosen on the basis of geographical balance and prestige.)

2. The Committee of Eleven is to consist of six (6) members of the public and five (5) prominent geneticists. One-third of the membership of the Committee is to be Third World.

3. The Committee will design studies that will include comparisons of differential intellectual potential among major ethnic and racial groups, as well as geographical groups that tend to marry primarily within their own region. Thus, the study might include comparisons of Japanese and Chinese Americans, Northern and Southern Italians, Scandinavians, Blacks, Semitic groups such as Jews, Polish-Americans, Irish-Americans and Mexican-Americans.

4. No study of any group will be released until studies of all groups are completed, in order to enable

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the Committee of Eleven to scientifically assess the significance and consequences of the studies.

5. The decision as to whether Americans wish to financially support such studies be left to the democratic process -- that is, the Committee of Eleven will seek appropriations from Congress.

"Let 100 such studies bloom if that is how the nation wishes to use its scientific resources. All the Black community seeks is to insure that 100 different population groups are compared and that we no longer approach the matter from a racist point of view", said Elaine Brown, a recent candidate for Oakland City Council and a leader of the Black Panther Party.

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GAINESVILLE 8 ACQUITTED: WATERGATE BREAK-IN JUSTIFICATION DESTROYED

(Gainesville, Fla.) - After participating in a five week trial presided over by a judge openly hostile to the defense and having been victimized by an unprecedented gag rule, the Gainesville 8 were acquitted last week, destroying what many feel was the Nixon administration's last attempt to justify the Watergate breaking.

The Gainesville 8, seven members of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War/Winter Soldier Organization, and a supporter were charged with conspiracy to incite to riot at last year's Republican Convention. After the Watergate burglars were caught, the Nixon administration needing to justify its illegal espionage, claimed it was afraid VVAW/WSO was going to provoke violence at the Republican convention. VVAW/WSO and the Gainesville 8 were the scapegoats in this Nixon administration plot.

The Gainesville 8 trial showed the lengths to which the government went to carry out its ill-intentioned plot, as well as the illicit bugging, spying and lying in which the men in the White House normally engage. Five prosecution witnesses were unmasked at the trial as paid government informers and a sixth was an undercover policeman. Three of the informers posed as good friends of the defendants, rose high in their organization and infiltrated legal strategy meetings. The defense, not knowing that two of their friends were FBI informers, was stunned when these agents testified against the Gainesville 8.

Trial Judge Winston Arnow permitted the testimony of these informers, although he did not allow the defense to present evidence showing the Watergate tie-in. "I will not allow government misconduct to be a defense in this trial", he said.

Despite Arnow's ruling, many government links to Watergate were uncovered. The most outright and undeniable instance of government bugging occurred during the trial itself, when two FBI agents were found in a locked telephone wireroom next to the offices in which the defendants met with their attorneys.

Testimony at the trial disclosed a break-in at the office of Gainesville attorney Carol Wild Scott who was representing defendant Scott Camil in another case. She said the only item missing was defendant Camil's file. Also, a suitcase belonging to defense attorney Larry Turner was taken by a federal marshall and kept for several hours during a flight from New York to Gainesville.

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Watergate burglar James McCord testified before the Senate investigating Committee he saw daily reports from the Justice Department internal security division which brought the indictments against the VVAW. Also, statements by FBI informer Pablo Fernandez that he was offered $700 a week be convicted Watergate burglar Eugenio Martinez to infiltrate protest groups at last summer's Democratic convention and "embarass George McGovern" for the Republican Party, were revealed. Fernandez said he declined the offer because he was already assigned to work on the VVAW by the FBI and Miami police.

Arnow put a gag rule on practically everything any of the participants could say about the case. So terribly anti-constitutional was the rule that one lawyer called it, "the most incredible withdrawal of first amendment rights".

After four hours of jury deliberations, smiles and handshakes were seen everywhere when the verdict was read. Some were surprised that it took as long as four hours to acquit the Eight, since the trial revealed nothing but the extreme criminal behavior of the government. "The verdict is obviously a verdict for the people", declared defense attorney Morton Stavis. "I hope the government gets the message and puts an end to this type of prosecution."

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HOUSTON'S SENIORS DEMAND REDUCED BUS FARE, REVENUE SHARING FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL

(Houston, Texas) - On August 22, members of the Senior Citizens Task Force, led by spokeswoman Mrs. Anniebell Fontano, went before the Houston City Council to request that some of the city's revenue sharing funds be allocated to aid senior citizens and to reiterate an earlier demand that the city reduce bus fares for the elderly. The city council declined to answer either request, but the Task Force plans to continue putting pressure on the council.

"The Senior Citizens' Task Force", explained Mrs. Fontano in an interview with THE BLACK PANTHER, "was elected May 2 at South Park Baptist Church. The Task Force is an instrument to mobilize every ethnic group for the things that we need, and to get everybody involved with the government, starting at the city level. Never before has Houston had a concrete senior citizens organization to deal with City Hall."

Mrs. Fontano said that some of the recommendations of the Task Force came from a 1971 pamphlet from the White House which explains how and where tax money should be spent and go to the library where a public list is kept on file.

Mrs. Fontano told us that after she checked a copy of the list of Houston's revenue sharing appropriations that were sent to her later, nothing had been allocated for senior citizens.

SECOND PETITION

The appearance before the August 22nd council meeting was the second time the Senior Citizen's Task Force had petitioned the city's governing body, Mrs. Fontano told us. "The first trip", she said, "was August 1st, when we asked for the reducing of bus fare for senior citizens." There is no reduced fare for the elderly in Dallas as in other cities, she said, and transportation is one of the biggest problems that seniors here face.

When asked if she thought that the S.A.F.E. Program (Seniors Against A

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portation escort service being implemented by the Black Panther Party in Houston, would help alleviate the transportation problem for the elderly Mrs. Fontano responded, "Yes, very much so. We're now afraid to go to and from places. There are times I sit at home and don't do anything. When we get those little 15¢ checks, we're afraid to go down the block from here to have them cashed. I think that all organizations that are fighting for human rights should fall in line with the Black Panthers."

Mrs. Fontano promised that the Task Force will continue to present their demands to the unresponsive city council, and work harder to involve all of the city's seniors in their effort to better the conditions of this neglected segment of the community.

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SEVERE POVERTY: 1.3 MILLION BLACKS IN APPALACHIA

(Atlanta, Georgia) - Recently, to dispel the myths surrounding the area of the country known as Appalachia, and to develop a realistic approach to this region, a new publication, Black Appalachian Viewpoints, has been released. Published by the Black Appalachian Commission, Inc., head-quartered here in Atlanta, Black Appalachian Viewpoints provides some surprising new information.

The magazine shows that the myths are widespread and common. So sterotyped has this region become, that by mere mention of the word Appalachia, a certain distinct picture comes to mind; poor White people, living in large families existing as almost throw-backs to earlier frontier times. Another part of the "Lil's Abner" myth of Appalachia is less obvious but just as distinct: the complete absence of Black people.

MYTH VS REALITY

"Are Black people in Appalachia a reality? There is a lot of speculation around this point. These discussions not withstanding, there are Black Appalachians, at least 1.3 million?", Black Appalachian Viewpoints declares. They add:

-- Appalachia is a thirteen state region, divided into four subregions.

-- The total population of Appalachia is 18.2 million.

-- Appalachians are 1 in 13 of the national population.

-- There are 1.3 million Black people in Appalachia.

-- Black Appalachians are 1 in 15 of the Appalachian population.

-- Appalachians are far below the national norms for poverty.

-- Most Black people in Appalachia live in worse conditions than White Appalachinas.

Named a "National Laboratory" by Congress in 1965, over $2 billion in federal funds for relief and regional development has poured into the area. Overseeing these funds has been the Appalachian Regional Commission, created by Congress, out of a growing awareness of "White" poverty in America.

As a result of this "L'il Abner" myth, according to the Black Appalachian Viewpoints, "Blacks in Appalachia… have not participated in the local, regional, or national decision-making and policy-making around these resources. To us, arguments regarding the cultural, historical boundries of Appalachia are `unreal',

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`reactive' and in opposition to the struggles of poor and oppressed peoples in Appalachia… Appalachia is a pluralistic society, possessing more than one race, and it must be recognized as such."

In Southern Appalachia, Black Appalachians are "marginal" (just above the poverty level) while the larger, more populous "Black belt" areas of eastern Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia receive whatever meager federal funds are available.

In Central Appalachia, Black people are invisible; according to the myth, Central Appalachia is non-racist and all-White. Being forced in many cases to live outside the city limits, perhaps the so-called experts simply missed the Black communities in their quick tours through northern Tennesee, Kentucky, and southeast Ohio.

In the Highlands and Northern Appalachia, the many and complex problems in the larger urban areas in southern New York and western Pennsylvania have overshadowed the plight of the Black Appalachians.

Taking the region as a whole, the federal Appalachian Regional Commission itself did not acknowledge or recognize the existence of Blacks and other minorities in Appalachia until 1971.

Addressed to the Black Appalachians themselves, the hope is to "… help each of us to understand our local situation, our relationship to the region, and our role and responsibility for making regional commonality and unity for Appalachian Blacks a reality and no longer a myth."

For further information contact: Black Appalachian Commission, Inc., 52 Fairlie Street, N.W., Room 305, Atlanta, Georgia 30303.

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GALLO WINE STRIKE: PICKETING FARMWORKERS ATTACKED, ARRESTED

(Livingston, Calif.) - On August 31st, over 100 members of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) were attacked by police and security guards while picketing at the Gallo Wine Vineyards here. Sixty farmworkers were arrested. Shortly after the attack, Aggie Rose, a spokeswoman for the UFW in Livingston, phoned in the following information to THE BLACK PANTHER. The UFW is presently struggling to get beneficial contracts for the predominantly Mexican - American farmworkers in Southern California, and are also fighting to keep the reactionary-led Teamsters Union, which developed a sudden rivalry with the UFW after growers paid off the corrupt union hierarchy, from signing "sweetheart" contracts with the growers.

UFW REPORT

"This morning, August 29, the United Farmworkers who have been on strike at Gallo Vineyards for 60 days were going out to the fields to picket at about 6:30 in the morning. While we were picketing, a group of farmworkers who are strike breakers were going by with the tractors, going into the fields to cross our picket line and pick grapes. Many of them were threatening the striking workers and some of them threw rocks at the picketers.

"At some point one group of strike breakers who were inside threw a snake into the crowd of pickets. There was a group of sheriffs lined up between the strikers and the strike breakers. The Gallo security guards, known for their racism, were there also. When the snake was thrown into the crowd the people became furious and about 20 to 30 of them broke the police line and went into the fields.

"As they tried to go into the field to talk to the workers, they were attacked by the security guards and the police. Sixty United Farmworker members were arrested and charged with trespassing and for failure to disperse and are now in the Merced County Jail. Children were arrested, as well as women. Several people over the age of 70 are in jail right now.

"The police beat several of our people; many required hospital treatment. One strike breaker was seriously injured and is in intensive care in the hospital. One of the policemen (a Gallo security guard), thought that he was a striker because he was Portuguese, hit him on the head and seriously injured him.

"We sent a telegram to the Sheriff's Department demanding that we get better protection because many of the scab strike-breakers carry knives and big sticks which had been given to them by the Gallo security guards. The security guards also throw rocks at our people.

"We are demanding that Gallo repudiate the fraudulent contract made with the Teamsters. Over 90% of the workers employed at the time the contract expired signed authorization cards asking for this union to represent them. We are demanding that Gallo Company allow our union to be the bargaining agent. We are demanding that they remove their professional strike-breakers and their goons from the fields. We are also demanding that they not evict 71 striking families and their 400 children who live in their housing. We also feel that we've made a stronger committment to the union. We're going to fight now until we win. We want all our supporters to refuse to buy Gallo wine.

"Anyone who would like to send donations of food and money can send it to our office at P.O. Box 286, Livingston, California, 95334."

Earlier in the week the Teamsters Union made a treacherous attack up - on the UFW by announcing that they plan to organize farmworkers in the San Diego county. Reverend John Bank, a UFW spokesman, stated that the Teamsters' move into San Diego County "is an affront to our jurisdiction. We have been organizing workers all over the state, including the San Diego area, and we plan to continue to do so."

The announcement of their plans to organize unrepresented, UFW workers in the area came only one day after Teamsters International President Frank Fitzsimmons, a union boss noted for selling workers out by collaborating with employers, repudiated 30 vineyard contracts signed by the Teamsters since May 9.

In some labor circles Fitzsimmons' announcement was blindly thought to be a peace gesture to the UFW. However, Cesar Chavez, head of the UFW, exposed Fitzsimmons' deceit by explaining that the Teamsters were just trying to divert public attention from the fact that a United Farm-Worker was recently killed by a Teamster goon.

Meanwhile, at Delano, California last week, well over 5,000 UFW members met in Delano Park, where families were signed up to fan out all over the U.S. to 63 major cities, passing out leaflets and calling on people to boycott lettuce and grapes.

In a related action, a "Caravan to Delano" left San Francisco last Saturday carrying food and financial support to farm workers in UFW struck vineyards. The caravan was organized by the Mission Community Farm Workers Support Committee.

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JOB DISCRIMINATION: FIRE DEPARTMENT: “THE LAST WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY CLUB”

(Washington, D.C.) - One of the clearest examples of the racism and segregation which grips our society is just around the corner -- at your local fire department.

Traditionally, a Black or other minority person in the fire department has been about as rare as a blue fire engine. Discriminatory hiring practices in the fire department are so bad that even the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control, an establishment organization ending its two year study of fire problems in this country concluded: "Our fire departments are correctly called, the `last white man's country club'." An official on the commission has called the situation "a national disgrace".

Statistics bear the commission's results out. As the graph shows, New York, a city with nearly 3 million minorities, maintains a fire- fighting force of close to 14,000 has only 600 minority people on their fire department; 510 of whom are Black. Boston has 2,000 fire-fighters 21 are minority. In Chicago, 196 out of 4,594 are minorities; in San Francisco, 25 out of 1,700; Houston 98 out of 2,000.

In the South, it's worse. In Miami, Florida, there are two Blacks in a fire fighting force of 654. In Jackson, Mississippi, there is one Black fireman out of 320. In Birmingham, Alabama, there is one Black in a force of 528.

Washington, D.C., a city which has over 70% Black population, has a fire department that is only 25% Black. Recently in D.C., when the first Black fire department chief in America was named, his appointment was bitterly fought, and then criticized, by White firemen on the force.

In early June, 1973, a federal judge in Los Angeles, California, ruled that 40% of all firemen hired by the county must be Black or Mexican-American until minority representation in the fire department reaches 29%.

At the time, there were only 179 minorities in a fire department totalling 3,049.

Some "experts" cite the extremely low number of minorities on local fire departments as a chief reason many fire-fighting units are fired upon when they enter poor and oppressed communities.

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WINSTON-SALEM POLICE INFORMER CONFESSES

CONCLUSION

(Winston-Salem, N.C.) - Last week THE BLACK PANTHER printed the first part of an interview with a police informer here, Wilbert Allen. He publicly confessed his involvement before a crowd at a community meeting held to air protests over a recent attack by police on more than 300 brothers and sisters gathered on North Liberty Street in the heart of the Black community. Part I concerned Allen's assignment to spy on several community leaders, including Larry Little, coordinator of the Winston-Salem Branch of the Black Panther Party. Part II deals with the racism and brutality Allen witnessed while working for the police and his reasons for publicly exposing himself.

THE BLACK PANTHER: What events or emotions led you to make your statement last night? Why did you choose to expose yourself as an informer at that public meeting?

ALLEN: In my undercover dealings with the Winston-Salem Police Department, I found that a lot of information they received was misinterpreted through other informers. This led to a lot of harassment of individuals who the police had under surveillance and were spying on. Anything that was loose talk was taken to be fact. Information I gave was often misused through their own department.

At the time of the meeting I felt that City Hall did not have an open ear to Blacks' complaints. I felt that it was time that this thing needed to be exposed. It meant putting my life, my welfare, and my job on the line, but at that moment I just didn't care because the truth had to be told.

THE BLACK PANTHER: Do you think that the police are capable of any reprisals against you?

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ALLEN: Sure they are. Just as easily as they sent Bobby Simms, who's an ABC (Alcoholic Bureau Control) officer, over here to infiltrate. The Dungeon and The Stag Clubs, I'm pretty sure they can get other officers or anybody else -- informers from other cities -- and put out a contract (a payment to kill) on me because of some of the things I've seen and heard. I feel that they woud try to do something bodily. I could possibly disappear. or be picked up on a petty charge and taken dowtown for speeding or something of the nature.

POLICE INTIMIDATION

THE BlACK PANTHER: What act of police harassment and intimidation or brutality have you seen since working with the police force?

ALLEN: I've seen people harassed, cursed, and dogged. I've seen police call people slur names such as niggers, motherfuckers, bitches, whores, prostitutes -- you name it, they had a name for it. After I gave them information or did any work, even though I was escorted home by police agents, sometimes I slipped back into the Liberty Street area and observed some of these seam officers who I had left 30 to 45 minutes before. Their tactics weren't very pretty. I observed them cursing; I observed them hitting pedestrians who were innocently walking through the neighborhood, with their nightsticks and clubs, sticking guns in people's faces, and knocking on cars, making people get out, sticking their guns into their ribcages.

AND WATERGATE?

THE BLACK PANTHER: What do you think of the national Watergate Conspiracy in relationship to a local undercover operation like this one?

ALLEN: I think that Watergate being exposed is beautiful. For years I've felt that this type of thing has existed in this country. For it to come to light now, exposing the racist people involved, is beautiful. I'm even happier that Black people in different states have gotten together and are helping to bring things like this to light. This thing in Washington is happening right now in different towns and cities all over the country. The fact that Watergate and other scandals are in the news media and citizens are becoming aware of them is very good. These are things which will help us get back to what they once called democracy, although I've never seen too much of that.

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INSIDE OUT

WILLIE BROWN:
PROMISES, PROMISES,
PROMISES

The California State Black Assembly (an outgrowth of the Gary, Indiana National Black Political Caucus) is still upset with Willie Brown, Black California State assemblyman. He was supposed to convene a state convention after the Gary national convention and hasn't. May be the reason he hasn't kept his promise to Black politicos in California is because he didn't keep his other promise -- to pay California's bill to the national convention…$5,000!

BERKELEY BLACK POLITICS --
MUD'S THICKER THAN
BLOOD

While Warren Widener's wife Mary is busy trying to ice the Black Mayor of Berkeley, California's old friend Ron Dellums, Warren is busy organizing to ice another old family friend, Black California state assemblyman, John Miller (a strong opponent of the death penalty). It seems Miller's seat can no longer be "controlled". Who do they have in mind? None other than newly - elected Black Berkeley councilman Henry Ramsey. Is that politics Black enough for you?

HOT - HEADED HENRY:
BERKELEY'S NEW
COUNCILMAN

Speaking of Henry Ramsey (who ran on a ticket with Wilmont Sweeney, the same Sweeney that headed the D'Army Bailey Recall Committee -- whew!!), we wonder how he's going to handle all this with his temper. Old rumors have it that when Ramsey was Deputy District Attorney of Contra Costa County (California) he prosecuted a young Black brother whose mother verbally attacked him for so vehemently trying to send another Black to prison. Ramsey literally fired on this mother right in front of the jury! Then, only last year Ramsey was charged and pleaded guilty to charges of shooting out the tires of his estranged wife's car!

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2 IN ATLANTA, 3 IN HOUSTON: POLICE MURDERS PLAGUE BLACK COMMUNITY

(Houston, Texas) - On August 9, D.H. Bingley fired six bullets from a .44 caliber magnum revolver into the body of Charles Barrett, on a dark back street in Houston, Texas, ending the life of the young Black man. Bingley had previously stated on several occasions that he was "out to get" Barrett. Bingley admitted firing the fatal shots.

However, he is still free to roam the streets of the Houston Black community. The murder of Charles Barrett was perfectly "legal" because his murderer is a tactical squad officer of the Houston Police Department. The only witness to the shooting was another policeman, who also fired six bullets into Charles Barrett.

The police claimed that Bingley killed Brother Barrett in "self-defense" after Barrett allegedly shot Bingley with a .22 caliber revolver, a crude, weak and ineffective weapon.

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The bullet is reported to have lodged in the bullet-proof vest Bingley customarily wears.

Barrett's friends said that he only owned one gun, a .25 caliber automatic. They further testify that Barrett was too cool and too smart to pull a "toy pistol" on Bingley on a dark back street.

Barrett is the second Black man Bingley has killed "in the line of duty". On May 22, Bingley fired four rounds of 00-buckshot at Walter Field, literally cutting his body in two. Blacks on Dowling Street, Houston's night club-filled "strip", and the businessmen in the area are wary of Bingley, who they term a "killer cop", totally impredictable.

Charles Barrett is dead, another victim of "justifiable homocide" and D.H. Bingley remains an officer in good standing with the Houston Police Department.

Two other brothers were killed by Houston Police within a four-day period prior to Barrett's murder. Twenty-nine year old Berlin Austin, Jr., was shot to death by G.E. Thyssen after Thyssen allegedly cornered Austin in a backyard on Lyndhurst Street. Reportedly, Austin was attempting to burglarize a house in the neighborhood and fired a .22 caliber pistol at Officer Thyssen.

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Also, on August 9, Dennis Stewart was killed when he allegedly tried to shoot a lawman who was chasing him after a burglary.

Berlin Austin and Dennis Stewart are dead, two more victims of "Justifiable homicide".

ATLANTA MURDERS

In Atlanta, Georgia, Ernest Hilson, a 60-year old Black construction worker, was limping across Whitehall Street on August 6, when suddenly bullets fired by police officer J.W. Carlisle cut him down, killing him instantly. According to police reports, Hilson attacked a White plain-clothes policewoman and took her gun. Supposedly Carlisle and three other officers came to aid her. Hilson then reportedly ran over to Whitehall Street.

Two passing motorists witnessed the shooting and stated they saw Hilson limping across the street and, all at once, they heard shots and was him fall to the street. Both are certain Hilson was not carrying a gun, and they saw police search Hilson's body and find no gun. Homicide investigators now claim they found a gun "nearby".

Ernest Hilson is dead, another victim of "justifiable homicide".

THE SIXTH VICTIM

In August, Charles Henry Underwood became the fifth Black male to fall victim to White, trigger-happy Atlanta detective, Daniel Bowens. Bowens has now been cleared of any wrongdoing, even though he emptied six bullets into the unarmed Black man while he was allegedly attempting to rob a couple in a parking lot.

Four of the five Blacks killed by Bowmens had been shot at least six times. All five were victims of "justifiable homicide".

These five Blacks murdered in Atlanta and Houston by police in recent weeks are only a few of the hundreds of victims of "justifiable homicide" that die continually in the streets of the Black community. This deadly disease called "justifiable homicide" is caused by a system of government which gives a policeman the right to be judge, jury, and executioner.

Only by completely purging the ranks of police forces of paid killers and replacing them with dedicated policemen from the communities they will serve can we destroy the disease of "justifiable homicide". Righteous community control of police is the only cure for this age-old plague.

-- [7] --

JUDGE RULES ALABAMA PRISON SYSTEM “FREE OF RACISM”

(Montgomery, Alabama) - U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. has ruled that although guards still use the term "boy" to refer to Black prisoners, the Alabama prison system is free of racial discrimination. Johnson admits that the prisoners "have shown substantial violations of rights guaranteed by the Constitution", on the part of prison officials. Nevertheless, Johnson declared that no one should think "that this court will unduly interfere with the operation of the Alabama prison system".

"Most of the plaintiffs named in this suit are troublemakers…" Johnson wrote. He apologized to the prison officials who resented his court order requiring adequate medical treatment for sick and injured prisoners last year. Judge Johnson childed the prisoners for the "continuous attempts to coerce prison employees by threatening to file suit in court".

The judge criticized the "almost complete breakdown of communication between prison officials and guards". However, he found that efforts to eliminate racial discrimination were "generally satisfactory" considering the low paid and "usually poorly educated correctional officers" in the Alabama prison system. Judge Johnson ordered that prisoners must be allowed their constitutional rights and the right to "due process of law".

On the evening of May 22, 1973, four prisoners at Atmore State Prison were released from their cell, number eight, to empty their waste buckets. They refused to return to the cell until they met with the warden who earlier had reneged on a promise to meet them. The warden was called and he came; bringing a shotgun and about twenty guards with him.

The warden, Marion V. Harding, still refused to talk. He only ordered the four from the cell in which they had taken refuge. Tear gas was discharged into the cell until three of the four surrendered. One by one they obeyed the order to strip and leave the cell. Naked, they were searched and beaten. Armed with clubs, ax handles, knives and bats, the guards sadistically inflicted fractured ribs, broken bones, cuts, bruises and lacerations. Brother William Boyd, the fourth prison inmate in the cell, refused the torture. Warden Harding discharged his shotgun into Brother Boyd's neck.

EVERY PRISONER BEATEN

Every Black prisoner in the cell block, segregation unit 3, was drawn from their cell and brutalized. One White prisoner was beaten for his sympathy for the Black victims.

When the Alabama prison system's only doctor arrived from his home, 96 miles away, he was shocked by the result of the brutality. He was fired when he protested the use of unnecessary force and brutality upon the prison inmates.

The prison inmates who were beaten badly enough were sent to Mobile General Hospital 53 miles away. For others the ordeal continued. That night the battered men slept naked on the floor of the punitive isolation wing. Blood, vomit and body waste covered the floor and intermingled around the weary men. Guards continously yelled obscenities and threats at the prisoners.

Judge Johnson ruled that cruel or unusual punishment did not exist at Atmore Prison or the nearby Mt. Meigs Medical and Diagnostic Center (also a prison).

-- [7] --

RETRIEVE PRISON BEATINGS: CITIZENS' COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE

(Houston, Texas) - A Citizen's Investigative Committee was formed here last week which plans to "play a key role in bringing about some reform in the prisons and jails in Texas". Gene Locke, head of the committee, said its formation comes after the June 18 beating of ten prisoners at the Retrieve Unit of the Department of Corrections and the "white-washing of the incident" by prison officials.

Composed of a cross-section of community people, the citizen's committee is independent of a legislative, investigative body to which two Black Houston congressmen, Mickey Leland and Anthony Hall were appointed by House Speaker Price Daniel.

The citizens groups has set as its goals to: 1) determine the magnitude and scope of brutality against prison inmates; 2) examine the particular situation of the June 18th incident at Retrieve Unit and make the needed recommendations; 3) document the need for prisoners' rights beyond those presently granted; 4) examine the racial composition of prison employees; 5) look into the forced labor of prison inmates to determine who reaps the monetary benefits of prisoners' work; 6) call for major legislative

-- 16 --
reform of the Texas Penal System, and 7) examine the extent of bribery, corruption and drug peddling by prison employees. The committee will publish a report after its investigation is completed.

Speaking at the committee's statewide organizational meeting, Locke said, "… such a report could be used to pressure the legislature to reform prison conditions". The committee has publicly called for the immediate suspension of the warden of the Retrieve Units "pending further investigation".

Locke is also the director of the Lynn Eusan Institute, an institution that specializes in solving community problems through organization and strategy. Locke said: "the beating of the prisoners at Retrieve Unit has forced the issue of prison reform to the spotlight. The state-appointed legislative committee has not even met, and, given the history of legislative committees on issues like this one, you might wonder whether it will truly do an in-depth investigation."

Prison officials admit that during the June 18 Retrieve incident, they "beat" ten prison inmates to force them to work in the fields. The officials claimed the beating was necessary to quell a rebellion and it did not constitute brutality.

-- 8 --

COURT OK'S FBI HARASSMENT OF WOUNDED KNEE DEFENSE LAWYERS

(Custer, S.D.) - On the evening of August 16, the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee (WKLD/ OC) learned that its call for a temporary restraining order against FBI harassment and brutality had been denied. The day before, two young Native Americans were attacked and bull whipped by a former sheriff's deputy and then arrested. In another development, members of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, descendents of the legendary Geronimo, are planning to sue the U.S. government for over 27 years of atrocities.

The original complaint was filed on August 12, and charged that WKLD/ OC members had been harassed, threatened, assaulted, falsely arrested and insulted by the FBI agents. The suit, which was argued in court on August 14, specifically named FBI special agent Morris Pierson, who has already been charged by Rapid City, S.D. authorities with issaulting a defense committee investigative photographer. FBI Director Clarence M. Kelley and U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson were also named.

In the suit, committee attorneys say, "the FBI and its agents have disrupted defense preparations for trial and have had the effect of denying the defendants the right to counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment". After the suit was filed, the attorneys said that:" This suit is part of a massive legal effort to ensure that our clients receive a fair and impartial trial. The Nixon dirty tricks department will not prevail here."

On the day after the committee's court arguments, August 15, Gerald Millard, age twenty, and Alan Duran, age eighteen, were savagely bull- whipped by Clayton Mostiller. Mostiller, a former Custer County sheriff's deputy, beat the two and when the whip wrapped around Millard's neck, dragged him behind his horse for four feet. Mostiller's employer, Ray Miller, delightedly looked on as the torture was carried out.

When the two young men walked into Custer for medical assistance they were met by Sheriff Ernie Pepin and arrested. The charge was public intoxication. Later, a charge of criminal damage to property was also lodged against Millard.

American Indian Movement (AIM) leader Russell Means and attorneys for the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/ Offense Committee questioned the police officials in Custer about the matter. Lawman Hobart Gates reluctantly agreed, after three hours of argument, to file a formal complaint against the two criminals who attacked Millard and Duran.

Other demands include a Grand Jury investigation of a possible drug ring operation in Custer and a subpoena to bring Sheriff Pepin before the Grand Jury to be questioned about this possibility. There is evidence that a conspiracy exists to transport large quantities of illegal drugs into the area. AIM believes that this might be a move by enemies of Native Americans to enslave them to "scag" and the results of heroin addiction that plague the Black community.

RENEW EFFORTS

Meanwhile, the Chiricahua Apaches plan to renew efforts started in 1949 to sue the U.S. government for damages inflicted upon the Apache nation. The government never denied the facts, but a 1971 Indian Claims Commission decision dismissed the suit. The Commission denied jurisdiction over wrongs suffered by individuals, claiming that it was empowered only to decide matters involving entire tribes. The Commission then declared that it was "irrelevant that each and every member" of the tribe was abused in this case.

The suit demanded monetary compensation for over 27 years of forced imprisonment of the Chiricahua Apaches by the government at an internment camp in Florida. The Apaches, originally from Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Mexico, were sent to Florida by the U.S. Army after they refused to remain on a reservation in Arizona. The elderly, women and children were the first to go and as the rebellious younger men, led by Geronimo, were caught, they too were "interned".

-- 8 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

NEW POLICE GROUP FORMED

(Sacramento, Calif.) - A lobbying group representing almost half of the full-time policemen in California has been formed to "enhance the police profession" through support of legislation and political candidates. Kenneth Anderson of the California Association of Highway Patrolmen said the new organization, called the California Alliance for Police Association, is comprised of 20,000 California law officers who are members of local police groups.

WATERGATE MATERIALS STOLEN

(New York City) - Watergate related materials of ABC News correspondent Bill Gill were stolen last month from his office at the ABC News building in Washington, D.C., the network said recently. An ABC spokesman said the thieves stole five audio cassette tapes, one of which "had sensitive information Gill had recorded as part of his investigation" of the Watergate case, as well as a manilla folder containing Gill's notes on the case.

NO - KNOCK RULE KNOCKED

(Sacramento, Calif.) - The California State Supreme Court last week refused to decide in favor of a no-knock rule. In a four to three decision the court held that a search warrant specifically providing that a police officer can enter a home without announcing himself cannot be issued.

VIRGIN ISLANDS ACQUITTED

(St. Croix, Virgin Islands) - The last two of seven defendants in this island's second multiple murder trial were found innocent last week. They were charged with killing two men and wounding another in an armed attack last November 7th in a restaurant. The verdict had been expected after U.S. District Judge Almeric Christian directed verdicts of innocent for five of the defendants earlier.

MAGEE PROTESTS MAIL HANDLING

(San Quentin, Calif.) - San Quentin prisoner Ruchell Magee, awaiting retrial for the August 7th, 1970, bid for freedom from Marin County courthouse, has called for an investigation by the Postmaster General because, he says, mail he sent out has "gotten no further than the hands of prison officials, the Berkeley Post Office and back to me with destroyed postage". Charging Warden Louis S. Nelson and Mailroom Lt. R. Milloy with tampering with his mail, Magee said each letter he sent to his lawyer, Howard Moore, Jr., was opened and returned with a note stating "no number".

-- [9] --

BY HUEY P. NEWTON: REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE

THE DEFECTION OF
ELDRIDGE AND
REACTIONARY
SUICIDE

Printed below is the first part of the final selection in this series from Huey P. Newton's latest book Revolutionary Suicide, that will appear in THE BLACK PANTHER. The chapter, entitled "The Defection of Eldridge and Reactionary Suicide", analyzes Cleaver's relationship with the Black Panther Party and the struggle of oppressed people. The selection contrasts Cleaver's life in the Party with the Party's vision when it began in 1966 and should clarify, for everyone, Cleaver's contradiction with the Black Panther Party and the Black community.

PART I

A revolutionary party is under continual stress from both internal and external forces. By its very nature a political organization dedicated to social change invites attack from the established order, constantly vigilant to destroy it. This danger is taken for granted by the committed revolutionary. Indeed, oppression first shaped the spirit of resistance within him, and so it can neither defeat nor destroy his resolve. But he has two far greater enemies - the failure of vision and the loss of the original revolutionary concept. Either of these can lead to alienation from those the revolutionary seeks to set free. Eldridge Cleaver was guilty of both.

When I came out of prison in August, 1970, the Party was in a shambles. This was understandable for a number of reasons: Bobby and I had been off the streets and in jail for a long time, and it had been difficult to direct the Party on a day-to-day basis from prison cells. Then, too, the Party was harassed and beleaguered. Intelligence organizations throughout the country had become obsessed with the desire to destroy the Black Panther Party. Many of the brothers had been hunted down, imprisoned, or killed.

These external assaults were formidable. But there was a far more serious reason for the Party's difficulties, one that threatened its very raison d'etre: the Party was heading down the road to reactionary suicide. Under the influence of Eldridge Cleaver, it had lost sight of its initial purpose and become caught up in irrelevant causes. Estranged from Black people who could not relate to it, the Black Panther Party had defected from the community.

The Party was born in a particular time and place. It came into being with a call for self-defense against the police who patrolled our communities and brutalized us with impunity. Until then, there had been little resistance to the occupiers. We sought to provide a counterforce, a positive image of strong and unafraid Black men in the community. The emphasis on weapons was a necessary phase in our evolution, based on Frantz Fanon's contention that the people have to be shown that the colonizers and their agents -the police are not bulletproof. We saw this action as a bold step in making our program known and raising the consciousness of the people.

But we soon discovered that weapons and uniforms set us apart from the community. We were looked upon as an ad hoc military group, acting outside the community fabric and too radical to be a part of it. Perhaps some of our tactics at the time were extreme; perhaps we placed too much emphasis on military action. We saw ourselves as the revolutionary "vanguard" and did not fully understand then that only the people can create the revolution. At any rate, for two or three years, our image in the community was intimidating. The people misunderstood us and did not follow our lead in picking up the gun. At the time, there was no clear solution to this dilemma. We were a young revolutionary group seeking answers and ways to alleviate racism. We had chosen to confront an evil head on and within the limits of the law. But perhaps our military strategy was too much of "a great leap forward".

CONTINUED NEXT WEEK

-- 10 --

NIXON AND THE TAPES: “…THE ROT IS NOT YET CLEAR”

When last Wednesday, August 29, 1973, U.S. District Court Judge John Sirica ordered President Richard Nixon to make available to him tape recordings of White House conversations related to the Watergate investigations, the so-called "Battle for the Tapes" grew more tense and heated. Subsequent announcements the next day by Presidential aides that Nixon "will not comply with the order" and will appeal Judge Sirica's decision only added fuel to the fire. With an unprecedented and historic Supreme Court ruling on the tapes just a few months away, mounting pressures are coming to a head and are threatening to explode.

Whether the inevitable explosion will be a mere tremor or will assume earth -- and government -- shattering propertions, no one knows. One thing is for certain however, It will rock this country at its very foundations, the U.S. Constitution. All in all, the "Battle for the Tapes" is not simply a duel between the President and a small select Senate committee. It involves some of the most monumental Constitutional issues in modern history: the doctrine of the separation of powers, Executive privillege, the public's right to know. Ironically, the Watergate controversy, which began as an investigation into the secret bugging of the Democratic Party's National Headquarters last June 17th, might possibly be resolved because of the discovery of another secret bugging even more bizarre -- that of the White House, ordered by the President himself.

The revelation that Nixon had bugged the White House came about almost accidentally. John Dean, the ex-White House counsel who seemed to have a tape recorder for a memory, had just finished his spell-binding testimony implicating Nixon and just about everyone else in Washgton, D.C., the Watergate cover-up. The next week, Nixon's top aides, Haldeman and Ehrlichman, were to take the stand before Sen. Ervin and his Senate colleagues. Both contradicted Dean on several key points. Doubts about the credible but unsubstantiated John Dean testimony began to be raised.

Suddenly, the chance to get to the bottom of the situation appeared. In a routine private staff questioning of Alexander Butterfield, a former Haldeman aide, a junior staff member asked whether "conversations in the President's office are recorded". Mistakenly believing that Halde man and another assistant had told the truth during previous questioning, Butterfield spilled his guts out. He revealed to the astonished staff members that in 1971, Nixon, "in the interests of history", had ordered the Secret Service to install recording devices in his Oval Office and in his working quarters in the Executive Office Building. These devices would automatically pick up any conversations Nixon had, in person or by telephone.

When Butterfield made his admission before the televised Watergate hearings the following Monday, the entire country came to the same, obvious conclusion: Get the tapes and play them.

Yet, as the country waited, Nixon arrogantly refused to release the tapes. Hiding behind his tattered and wornout cloak of "national security" and the seemingly absolute and limitless fantasy called "Executive privilege", Nixon dug in and began a maniacal last-ditch defense of his tottering administration: "…I personally listened to a number of them", Nixon wrote the Senate Committee, "The tapes are entirely consistent with what I know to be

-- 11 --
the truth and what I stated to be the truth." He added preparing the way for another of his hasty retreats: "However, as in any verbatim recording of informal conversations, they contain comments that persons with different perspectives and motivations would inevitably interpret in different ways."

Unimpressed by Nixon's mumbo-jumbo, the Senate Committee voted unanimously to subpoena the tapes, as did Archibald Cox, the special Watergate prosecutor. Sam Ervin, the Committee's chairman, drew loud laughter and wild applause when he commented on Nixon's letter: "…the President says he has heard the tapes or some of them, and they sustain his position. But he says he's not going to let anybody else hear them for fear they might draw a different conclusion. In other words, the President says that they are susceptible of, the way I construe it, two different interpretations, one favorable to his aides and one not favorable to his aides."

So, the Watergate issue returned to the court where it began. (It was in Judge Sirica's court, months before, that James McCord, one of the Watergate burglars, broke his silence and told all.) Defending Nixon, was Charles Allen Wright, recruited from the University of Texas at $150 a day. Seeking a peek at the tapes was the American people, represented by the special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, whose involvement in whatever future criminal proceedings arise from the Watergate hearings placed his claims to the tapes as legally more important than the claims of the Seante Committee.

Nixon's argument, as presented by Wright, was arrogant and self-righteous. Nixon, argued Wright, as President, is "beyond the process of any court". That's that; no more. no less. He is also the sole judge of which of his files, papers or tapes would or would not be made available. Judge Sirica asked Wright: "If the President is the sole judge of his own privilege, is there not a potential for grave abuses?" Wright, stunned for a moment, was forced to answer that "impeachment" is the only remedy.

Cox, on the other hand, presented a legally concise and forceful argument. "There is not the mere accusation, but strong reason to believe that the integrity of the Executive offices has been corrupted -- although the extent of the rot is not yet clear." Continuing, Cox declared: "Unlike a monarch, the President is not sovereign. Like the humblest citizen, he has the legal duty to turn over evidence to a grand jury if a court determines that doing so is in the public interest." As for the "Executive privillege" and "national security" arguments that Nixon and Wright flung around without impunity, Cox countered that the privilege was not absolute; it must be "administered by law and courts rather than Executive fiat", and "must yield to other more important interests than conflict with it". Maintaining his allusions to kings and monarchs, Cox in summing up his arguments dramatically quoted in Latin a 13th century English jurist: "The king ought not be under any man - but he is under God and the law."

Eventually, this historic confrontation between Nixon and the rest of us, the American people, will be decided in one or several Supreme Court rulings, probably in early October, when the high court returns from vacation. Until then, the debate roars on, Does Nixon, as the claims, have the right to authorize common burglaries, as he did in the Pentagon Papers case? Does Nixon have the right to declare war, in Indochina or elsewhere, and then cover-up and lie to the American people about that war (Nixon recently admitted lying about the bombing of Cambodia)? Does Nixon have the right to cover-up criminal acts of his aides, and himself, by invoking an Executive "right" not mentioned in the Constitution? Does Nixon, as Chief Executive, stand above both Congress and the courts, as the sole judge of his actions?

If the Supreme Court decides that he does, the coronation of King Richard I, Emperor of the Americas and the World, is but a strand of barbed wire away.

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to posterily, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States."

-- Preamble to the Constitution of the United States

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

-- 12 --

U.S. NAVY ADMITS USE OF ALCOHOL, PROSTITUTION: RACISM FORCED AT SASEBO, JAPAN

(Sasebo, Japan) - Black sailors stationed at the U.S. naval base in Sasebo, Japan are asking for help. In communications received by THE BLACK PANTHER, the Sasebo brothers tell of racist attacks for which three of them were unjustly arrested and convicted. In describing Navy racism, one of the brothers said, "I need help to control this institution that seeks to rob me…"

Airman Apprentice Henry T. Dean, Seamen Apprentice James L. Odom and Richard L. Silas were found guilty of charges as precarious as assaulting "unidentified Caucasians", during the week of July 16th.

When the three brothers arrived in Sasebo on May 26, aboard the aircraft carrier Coral Sea, racial fights on the base and in the bar district known as Sailor Town occurred frequently. Sailor Town is a tightly regulated and heavily patrolled area which supplies sailors with liquor and women. When the Coral Sea's 4000 crewmen, including 725 Blacks, disboarded, Blacks were refused service in all of Sailor Town's bars with the exception of ten that were reserved for them.

DISTURBANCES

On the night after the Coral Sea's arrival, tension erupted into racial fighting. The Shore Patrol responded by beating and arresting Blacks. By the next night the disturbances increased so much that the Marine detachment was called out twice. The conflict continued until the Coral Sea left three days later and two days ahead of schedule.

Attempting to disassociate his ship and his career from the conflict, Captain Peck transferred the eight sailors, all Black or Puerto Rican, who had been charged as a result of the disturbances and their witnesses, to the Sasebo base. Here, the command fanned animosity between Blacks and Whites. At a meeting of everyone in his command, Officer L. E. Mayes blamed Blacks exclusively for the disturbances.

Because the men under Mayes' command were the only prospective jurors for Brother Dean's and Odom's trials, Reber Boult of the National Lawyers Guild Military Law Office, defending the Blacks, filed a motion to have the courts-martial moved to a less biased place. At the trial, some of Mayes' unit testified to the highly charged atmosphere among the sailors in the nearly all-White command. Nevertheless, military judge Capt. James R. Brioer, denied the motion.

When we defense attempted to offer evidence that the disturbances resulted from the command's failure to end racist practices and from the ineptness and violence of the Shore Patrol, the judge disallowed it claiming that it was irrelevant.

DISMISSED MOTION

The judge also dismissed a motion to drop the charges against Brother Odom due to illegal arrest. Odom's arrest and charges resulted from a shore patrolman's "suspicion" that Odom had been present when a White sailor was struck by one of a group of six Blacks. When the judge said the suspicion was legal, "probable cause" for arrest, Boult called it the weakest attempt at probable cause he had ever seen.

Charles R. Williams, the single prosecution witness against Brother Dean, testified that he saw Dean swinging at Whites, four different times. Oddly, Williams, a Black shore patrolman, did not apprehend Brother Dean. When Williams was cross-examined about poor performance ratings in his service record, he boasted that they resulted from a disagreement with his commanding officer. He said the officer "didn't approve of his shooting six men" and he reported that the shootings were related to his belief in "one stern Navy".

Brother Odom was found guilty of assault and resisting apprehension, fined $1,200 and reduced to Seaman Recruit. Brother Dean was convicted on four counts of assaulting "unidentified Caucasions", sentenced to six months confinement, fined $1200 and reduced to Airman Recruit.

NAVY'S POSITION

The Navy's official position is that the disturbances were caused by the high prices for liquor and women. Even if this was so, said Boult, it is an "admission of an official Navy policy to rely on alcohol and prostitution to keep its men under control and an implication that it is the duty of the Japanese barowners to perform this function for the U.S. Navy".

The disturbances generated much interest among the Japanese press. Protestant chapiain for the base, Commander Riess, said that this press attention might be a major factor forcing an early closing of the entire U.S. base. In 1960, Sasebo base and a visiting carrier were a focal point of the Japanese student-led struggle against renewal of the Japan-U.S. Mutual Security Treaty. The Navy seems to fear that too much public attention might contribute to a revival of the militancy exhibited at that time.

-- 13 --

Intercommunal News: NAMIBIA UNITY MEETING SMASHED BY POLICE: 265 ARRESTED, 1 SHOT, SCORES INJURED

(Windhoek, Southwest Africa) - Two-hundred and sixty-five persons were arrested, one shot and many injured last week in a police assault against a meeting here, the capital of Southwest Africa. The meeting was called by the South-West African People's Organization (SWAPO) to protest South African control of South-west Africa.

The meeting was the latest in a series of protests against South African plans to divide Namibia (South-west Africa) into sections according to ethnic or tribal groups. Namibians prefer one united country. They over-whelmingly oppose South African efforts to encourage and stir up tribal rivalries and strife by dividing the country into sections.

Three weeks ago South Africa held an election in Ovamboland -- the largest planned area -- to select "leaders for the local administration". SWAPO called a boycott and only 1.6 percent of the electorate went to the polls.

Under so-called emergency regulations in force in Ovamboland, a region bordering on Angola, all gatherings, including church services, are illegal unless specifically okayed by the government. More than 40 percent of the population of Namibia lives in Ovamboland.

The latest clash with police in Windhoek, moves the center of protest south from Ovamboland to the seat of government. Following massive arrests, police sealed off a compound where migrant workers live. But reports that have filtered out say workers are considering another big strike.

NATIONWIDE STRIKE

Twenty months ago, a nationwide strike by 15,000 African migrant workers closed down mines, farms and factories. Among the hardest hit was the U.S. - owned Tsumeb Corporation which mines copper and other minerals. Namibia's largest industry -- Consolidated Diamond Mines -- was also affected by the three-month long strike.

The striker's major demands were not met. But, for the first time in history, the South African government was forced by Black workers to make some concessions. Although strikes by Africans are illegal in both South Africa and Namibia, the Namibian workers' action became the first of a continuing series of wildcat walk-outs in both countries.

Namibia was formerly a German colony. It is administered by South Africa under an old League of Nations mandate. The South African government refuses to recognize United Nations or World Court rulings that the territory is legally under United Nations jurisdiction.

During the past year, the United Nations Security Council debated the issue of Namibia and attempted to pressure South Africa to abandon its claim to the area. The international attention focused on Namibia has helped to encourage protests against South African rule by the Namibian people.

Workers of Namibia live under a system of contract labor that has been described by the International Labor organization (ILO) as "a kind of slavery". They work on the farms on one-and-a-half year contracts for a monthly salary of around $15.00. They live in huts supplied by the farmers with the barest minimum of facilities. During the period of the contract they are without any contact with their families.

It is against such conditions as these that the Namibian migrant workers are fighting. It is for the right to determine their own destiny that the entire Namibian people are fighting. (THE BLACK PANTHER is indebted to Africa News and the People's Translation Service for the information contained in this article.)

-- 13 --

DRAMATIC “SUICIDE” LEAP PROTEST PRISON CONDITIONS IN TRINIDAD

(Trinago) - In Trinidad and Tobago, two small islands off the northern coast of South America now called Trinago, a dramatic "suicide" leap to protest inhuman prison conditions and a successful guerrilla attack on a police station have been reported.

The two events occurred at a time when, said one Trinidadian, the "masses of Black people are demanding true and meaningful independence". Trinago is ruled by a Black puppet government dominated by England. "Trinago", said Sekou Atibo Enharo in a letter to THE BLACK PANTHER, "has reached a point where an explosion of suffering Black people can suddenly burst at any time".

"SUICIDE LEAP"

The "suicide" leap occurred August 10 when two prison inmates, Leo Smart and Alduryn Jacob, jumped 60 feet to the ground from atop Royal Gaol Prison after a four hour protest by eleven prison inmates. The two are now receiving treatment for leg fractures in a hospital there.

The protesting prisoners had threatened earlier to commit suicide by jumping onto the prison compound if they were not assured that prison conditions would be improved and only non-violent action taken against them for staging the demonstration.

When the prisoners, carrying placards, one of which declared "Voices of Oppression Crying in the Wilderness", climbed to the rooftop at 7 a.m., riot police and two fire units were called out. Frankie Koole, a spokesman for the prisoners, shouted to reporters: "All we are asking for is cups, spoons, plates, toothpaste, toilet facilities, a better welfare system and some work to do." Letters were thrown to reporters but were seized by police and a prison official who said that all letters from prisoners must be censored.

Brother Koole said the prisoners were beaten daily and there were two prisoners now locked in their cells who needed medical attention as a result of a beating they received two days ago. He also said that prison officials encouraged homosexuality.

The prison inmates said they would come down provided there would be no punishment for the demonstration; if they were permitted to discuss prison condition with members of the

-- 14 --
media present; if their lawyer could be present at the discussion and if a doctor attended to them. They also insisted on the presence of Mr. Tracey, a former Superintendent of Prisons who they wanted to see appointed Commissioner of Prisons.

Rather than listen to the prisoner's demands, the officials placed ladders against the prison wall. On seeing this the demonstrators shouted to the several hundred spectators that officers were coming up to beat them and they would commit suicide. The crowd begged them not to leap and many wept. The baton-weilding officers climbed on the roof and the prisoners ran screaming: "Oh God! We can't take it no more!"

GUERRILLA ATTACK

Meanwhile, in the town of Matelot, on the northeastern coast of Trinidad, a police station was completely abandoned following an armed attack by nine guerrillas, who removed 13 shotguns, a pistol and ammunition from the station. Eyewitnesses said the guerrillas went to a nearby beach where all of them escaped in a small boat.

The officer on duty at the police station escaped through the back door and was not heard from until the next morning. The day after the attack Matelot's police abandoned the station.

Retaliation for the recent events is likely. Brother Sekou says the government feels "threatened by the cries of our suffering brothers and sisters". A situation seems to be approaching, he says, which will appear to justify U.S. intervention in Trinidad. In concluding his letter, Brother Sekou attempts to convey the feelings of the oppressed Blacks in the Carribean. He says: "Let Uncle Sam know that any time he even thinks of killing Black people in the Carribean, there will be a Black explosion waiting for him throughout the world wherever our people exist."

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TORTURE IN SPAIN

(London, England) - Spanish authorities use "widespread, regular and virtually unrestricted" torture on political prisoners, opponents of the Franco regime, according to Amnesty International. The multi-national, prisoner rights group, released its finding in a 36-page report last week.

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Africa In Focus

ZAMBIA

American airlines, car rental firms, credit card companies, travel firms and others doing "business as usual" with Rhodesia are clearly in violation of United Nations sanctions and probably with U.S. law. A Carnegie Endowment report recently released points out that the UN sanctions against the rebel, racist regime of Rhodesia (which declared itself independent from Britian illegally in 1965) are backed up in the U.S. by presidential executive orders that provide for fines of up to $10,000 and up to ten years in prison for violations. The State Department has said that federal officials had been asked to investigate possible violations.

RHODESIA

The $500 million railroad being built from Zambia's rich copper belt region through Tanzania to the sea, has reached the Zambia border two years ahead of schedule. The 1,100-mile railroad is being wholly financed by an interest-free loan from the People's Republic of China. Chinese engineers and laborers work sideby-side with East African engineers and workers on the mammoth construction project. When completed the end of next year, the railroad will allow Zambia to reroute its vast copper exports around white-ruled Rhodesia, through Tanzania to the seaport.

RHODESIA

A new wave of massacres, tortures and persecution is being carried out by Rhodesian troops of the Ian Smith regime against the African people of Zimbabwe (Rhodesia). Last week the Rev. Canaan Banana, vice-president of the African National Council, said in Nairobi, Kenya, that more than 2,000 refugeeshave crossed into Zambia to escape what is seen as a systematic campaign of terror by the Smith regime. This follows recent talks between Smith and the leader of the African National Congress, Bishop Abel Muzorewa. It is a reaction by the White minority to moves toward African rule in Rhodesia.

SOUTH AFRICA

The Johannesburg, South Africa Consolidated Finance Co., and the Lobitis Mineral Company of Portugal have established a joint operation for the exploitation of mineral resources in an Angolan region of 7,000 square kilometers, in the district of Gunene. The zone has been proved to be rich in diamonds and uranium. The South African company holds 51% of the project, according to the weekly Jeune Afrique (Young Africa).

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Entertainment & Sports: FILM REVIEW: SOYLENT GREEN -- A LOOK AT AMERICA'S FUTURE

There have been many prophesies made about the way we will live in the 21st century. Techonological fantasy-lands conjured up in the minds of science fiction writers and totalitarian police states predicted by social commentators have all be shown in movies and books.

The average American probably sees the future his children will face and perhaps the surrounding scene of his own twilight years as a manifestation of present American society. It wil be the same material and technological wealth of today but more easily accessible, more streamlined and less human.

The film SOYLENT GREEN is a different and more believable interpretation of what the future will bring. The author bases the future he sees on the logical extension of the forces. acting upon society in the present. George Orwell also did this in his prophetic novel Nineteen Eighty four. Huey P. Newton foresees unemployment rising as technocrats use machines to replace people more and more. He saw long ago the need to organize the unemployables.

In SOYLENT GREEN, New York City's population is 40 million in the year 2022. People do not ride in streamlined anti-gravity cars; they do not press buttons to open doors. Apartment complexes do not spread luxuriously over the ocean floors or rise in resplendent and glittery majesty above the clouds.

In the overcrowded, polluted New York City of 2022, people huddle on bare floors and stairways to sleep. The temperature is always 90 degress, the air is a smoky yellow. Unemployment has reached 90% and clothing is dull, uniform and paper thin.

The executive board of the Soylent Corporation (a large food supply company) is run by a small group of men who have hoarded the remaining money and land. The people's hero, Charleston Heston, investigates the murder of a Soylent Corporation executive. He plays the New York Police Department detective who, in a cheap cotton uniform and tennis shoes, tracks down the answer to the murder and the secret of Soylent Green.

The other leading actor, Edward G. Robinson, plays an old man who recalls the good old days when the air was clear and Central Park had more than one tree. He helps Heston with the book work of the investigation -- what supplies the Soylent Corporation with the food stuffs to make Soylent Green chips.

When the policeman-hero battles the assassins sent to halt his investigation he uses not a ray gun but a .38 revolver. His job places him in a class barely above the common unemployable.

-- 17 --
employable. Everyone is poor and the rich control everything.

A far of strawberry jam costs $150.00, meat is almost unseen, there are no fresh vegetables or fruit. Soylent Green, by the way, is a light green-colored "miracle" food. Shaped and sized like a Saltine cracker, Soylent Green is the main odd staple of half the world's population.

The people of these days and time, when they die are sent to the "waste factory". If life becomes too miserable they may ask to die. For a price, those wanting it are given 20 minutes of pleasure, the sights and sounds of the "old days", when the earth was livable. When Heston's elderly friend "goes home" (to die), Heston follows his body to the waste factory and learns the secret of Soylent Green.

The shocked policeman returns to the city where his pursuers finally catch up with him. He is shot while inside a church by corporation employees because he knew too much. Heston screams that "Soylent Green is people!" as they carry him out. The weary and apathetic people symbolically sleep through his screams. He is ignored.

However, we can not ignore this film. It can happen. It will happen if we sit by and watch as "Phase 4" continues. We are given a message: stop them before they breed us like cattle, before we must destroy and eat our own families to finance the greed and lust of a soylent Corporation.

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CALIF. STATE LEGISLATURE SALUTES HENRY AARON

(San Francisco, Calif) - Henry Aaron was presented a California State Senate Resolution honoring him prior to the Atlanta Braves San Francisco Giants baseball game at Candlestick Park last Saturday.

State Senate Democratic Leader George Moscone, who authored the resolution with Los Angeles Sen. Mervin Dymally, said before passage of the resolution by the Senate June 29: "Henry Aaron … has served throughout his career as a model for youngsters across our country and throughout the world for his untiring dedication to excellence, his integrity as a ball player and as a man, and for the complete sportsmanship which has marked his great career."

The resolution says; "…Resolved by the Senate of the state of California, that the members commend Henry Louis (Hank) Aaron for his history-making career in professional baseball, and desire to convey by this resolution most sincere best wishes and every encouragement in his pursuit of the all-time batting record -- 715 lifetime home runs…"

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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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TOKYO RATIONS WATER

(Tokyo, Japan) - A drought is hitting the region around Tokyo, the capital city of Japan. The giant Mizusawa Dam reservoir, which supplies the city's eleven million people is almost dry. Rationing of water has begun.

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RAIDERS INDICTED

(Alton, Ill.) - 8 Federal agents and 4 local policemen have been indicted for a series of 6 drug raids on Carbondale homes in one week. Agents beat, bound, assaulted and drew guns on the victims, one of them a reverend. All six raids were said, to be "mistakes".

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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.

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.

DAVID HILLIARD PEOPLE'S
FREE SHOE PROGRAM

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

PEOPLE'S FREE PLUMBING
AND MAINTENANCE PROGRAM

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

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.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER

Provides 24-hour child care facilities for infants and children between the ages of 2 months and three years. Youth are engaged in a scientific program to develop their physical and mental faculties at the earliest ages.

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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