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OAKLAND MAYOR STEALS SEALE - BROWN TRADE IDEA

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EdiTORiAL: LEGAL MURDER

The California State Assembly has moved to re-instate the death penalty. The Senate is expected to follow suit. There can be no doubt that Governor Ronald Reagan will sign the new bill if it reaches his desk. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court remains indecisive on the issue.

Of the 631 executions in this country as of June 29, 1972, 351 were Black persons, 267 were White persons and the remaining 13 were Brown persons. These figures should make clear the special concern Black Americans have in opposing the death penalty in this country.

Who dares suggest that these figures accurately reflect the incident of death - conviction crime among Whites and Blacks in the U.S.A.? In other words nearly 60 percent of the death - conviction crimes have been committed by 20 percent of the population -- by Black people?

The "liberal" pleads that the awful poverty of Black America drives us disproportionately to crime. What about the awful poverty of White America? 1970 Census figures place 17,480,000 White Americans in the poverty category, while well under half that number, 7,650,000 Black Americans live in poverty.

The racist will claim Blacks are more inclined to violent crime than Whites; they base their assumptions on Hitler-type theories of Black inferiority. Yet, the daily accounts of violent crimes reported by the media repeatedly disprove this racist claim.

It is the racism of the cop on the street, the racism of the judge on the bench, the racism of the warden and guards in the prison and the racism that saturates American society that explains the disproportionately high number of executions of Black people in America. This same racism floods the prisons with Black and Third World people -- as high as 85 percent in many prisons across this country.

The taking of a human life should never be inevitable. If it is or is felt to be then there is something drastically wrong with the circumstances and conditions that created that inevitability. The life to be taken is a product and a victim of those circumstances and conditions. Each of us in some measure is responsible for creating and maintaining those circumstances and conditions.

Re-instatement of the death penalty makes it mandatory that the victim suffer the irreversible punishment for our crime -- our failure to eliminate those conditions and circumstances that make the taking of a human life inevitable.

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Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Having read many different articles about the recent acquittal of the Sumter 3 a few criticisms are in order regarding the publicity the case received. A few fallacies must be dispelled as to what constitutes a people's victory over the so-called "Uniform Code of Military Justice."

Originally charged with Mutiny for activities such as playing the music of the Last Poets over the ship's intercom, one of the charged -- Alexander Jenkins -- received a three month sentence by accepting a lesser charge and the other two -- Roy Barnwell and James Blackburn -- were given less than honorable discharges "for the good of the service." That the case of the Sumter 3 exposes the racist conditions which foment rebellion amongst our active duty brothers is abvious. But the discharges received by brothers Barnwell and Blackburn represent the ransom have had to pay for their freedom.

Having originally charged James, Roy and outrageous indefensible charges of mutiny, the Corps command had to drop the original charge the brass kept harassing the brothers with new and equally indefensible charges until under the pressure they were forced to accept punitive discharges inorder to gain their freedom. To them it must have appeared a victory but let us ask ourselves this: What were they guilty of and what sort of punishment did they receive?

Brothers Roy Barnwell and James Blackburn are guilty of resisting the racism of the military machinery. For this they were given discharges which will deprive them of all medical, educational and loan opportunities available under the GI Bill. These are rights they have earned and may desperately need when readjusting to civilian life. Attached to them now is not only the stigma of being Black but that of a life-time lable as a "less than honorable" citizen, One more basis for discrimination in this society.

Roy and James can appeal their discharges through a complex and unresponsible process. Dept. of Defense statistics indicate that one in seven appeals are successful and those are mostly white, middle-class, married men with money for legal assistance.

The "legal" actions against the Sumter 3 are typical of a long established pattern of military "justice," One which dealt out more than 500,000 bad discharges since the Vietnam War "officially" began in 1964. The vast majority of these discharges were given without any due process. Often the serviceperson accepts the discharge under threat of trumped-up-courtmartial charges.

So in a sense the brass has won another one. Through a process they frequently use on Blacks, political activists, drugs users, gays and others who resist being a tool of American imperialism, they have rid themselves of another nuisance and dished out a little more cruel and unusual punishment…

We rejoice in the freedom of the Sumter 3 and offer them our full support in their courageous resistance. But from experience we can recognize their case as an expensive victory. It is but one more step in a protracted struggle against the institutions and men which perpetrate vicious oppression all over the world. We take notice and continue to push; because if we don't push it, it won't fall. All power to Roy, James and Alexander.

Unity Struggle Victory
Bob Tioller
East Bay VietNam Veterans
Against the War/Winter
Soildier Organization

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COMMENT: DOES NIXON STAND ABOVE THE LAW?

(Washington, D.C.) - So, Mr. Nixon takes the offensive. That's show commentators have interpreted his appearance before the press on Monday, September 5th, here. Some think he pulled it off admirably. But, we don't believe the American people can be so easily taken in.

Despite his effort with his opening statement to turn the attention of the press and the nation to matters of state, vital as they are, Watergate raised its ugly head. His responses to the Watergate question confirmed our repeated assertion that President Nixon considers himself and his office as far above the law.

How does he dare stand as judge over the Supreme Court of the land? Since when in the history of this nation has any man taken it upon himself to determine whether a ruling of the Supreme Court applies to himself. When asked to define what he would consider a "definitive" ruling of the Supreme Court on the matter of the Presidental tapes on Watergate, Nixon refused.

CONFIDENTIALITY RHETORIC

When asked:" …Would you explain to us why you feel that you are in a different category; why this applies to you, that you will abide only by what you call a definitive decision and that you won't even define definitive", Mr. Nixon hedged over his reply with rhetoric about what he calls the principle of confidentiality, but did not answer the question.

The Congress of the United States has repeatedly raised serious questions about the usurpation of power by the Executive under Nixon. The issue of the war-making powers of Congress being taken over by the Executive in both the Korean and the Vietnam wars has still to be resolved. Devious Executive control of Congressional appropriations still vexes Congress and the nation.

Now it is the Judicial branch of the government that Nixon believeshe, as President, can supercede, overrule and ignore. Such is not presidential power as defined in the U.S. constitution. It is the Divine Right of Kings as defined in all the literature defending the monarchs of all ages.

If Nixon refuses to act in accordance with ruling of the Supreme Court ordering the release of the tapes, whether he considers it definitive or not, the country has only one choice before it: Impeachment!

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OAKLAND MAYOR STEALS SEALE/BROWN TRADE IDEA

The Multi-Ethnic International Cultural and Trade Center was part of the Seale/Brown Economic Development Program to Rebuild Oakland. (ARTIST'S CONCEPTION OF PROPOSED CENTER)

(Oakland, Calif.) - It seems that Mayor John Reading, upon his return from a brief visit to the Soviet Union, has discovered that tremendous trade possibilities exist there for American businessmen and "his" Port of Oakland, as it is reffered to in the San Francisco Chronicle story. Reading's revelation came to him following a two-day visit to a new $1.5 billion Soviet port complex, Nakhodka, Nakhodka, bigger in size than all the Bay Area ports put together, with 60 berths and a potential to handle 35 million tons of cargo annually, is presently being constructed some 55 miles from Vladivostok, a major Soviet port city.

The six-man delegation which Reading headed was invited to visit Nakhodka by FESCO, Russia's huge and rapidly-growing trans-Pacific steamship line and port operators. FESCO is now entering into the world of containerized shipping and is equipping ist new port facilities to handle this type of freight.

But, was this a Reading revelation? Everyone familiar with Oakland's recent (1973) mayoralty campaign will remember that a Multi-Ethnic International Cultural and Trade Center was first proposed by Brother Bobby Seale and Ms. Elaine Brown.

This idea, for Bobby and Elaine, dates back to the earliest moments of their decision to run for Oakland City Offices. As Elaine stated in her official candidacy filing declaration: "…Having traveled around the world twice, to many world capitals, trade and industrial centers, I have gained information and contacts that have prepared me to initiate programs to build trade and industry via our Port of Oakland, which will produce more jobs as well as increase business." From discussions in the community about this idea came the proposal for the Center.

A Multi-Ethnic International Cultural and Trade Center would connect Oakland, through its port and its International Airport with major trade and cultural centers from around the world. Replete with stores and shops, exhibition halls and arenas, restaurants, theaters and movie houses, outdoor plazas and an international hotel, the Cultural and Trade Center would have increased local business

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as well as provide much-needed jobs throughout the city. It was, and remains, an integral part of the overall Seale/Brown Economic Development program to Rebuild Oakland.

During the course of the hotly-contested campaign, John Reading was never able to rise above his scare and smear tactics and admit the tremendous advantages of the Seale/Brown Plan for the people of Oakland. At the time, this bold and far-reaching plan was summarily rejected by Reading and his business colleague supporters as "unfeasible".

Now, Reading, Port Executive Director Ben Notter and Port Commission President Thomas Berkeley, (the token Black in Reading's administration) all have discovered the feasibility of the international trade idea. The equally important cultural aspects of Bobby and Elaine's proposal, included so that the world's peoples might achieve a better acceptance and understanding of each others customs and cultures, has predictably been completely ignored.

The Black Panther Party maintains its support for the International Multi- Ethnic Cultural and Trade Center. Its implementation would greatly benefit the people of this city. We suggest to John Reading that he review the original Seale/Brown proposal which was much broader in scope than his "new" discovery and, include the People's Republic of China and other Third World countries in his plans. Trade without cultural understanding and mutual respect leads to international contempt and hostilities. This kind of "trade" does nothing to build the kind of world the people of all lands desire.

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ATTICA REMEMBERED

"We're not the criminals. The criminals are Tricky Dick Nixon, the Rockefellers, the Oswalds, those are the criminals. We've got brothers going into the courtroom who were brutalized and assaulted on September 13th and they still have bullets in them.

"What did we do? We stood up and asked to be treated as men. They came in and they showed who the criminals were because they didn't care. Not only didn't they care about us, they didn't care about the police. They killed everybody…in sight and moving. If anybody's going to be indicted, it should be the administration and the whole government.

"I'm giving you this from what I know, from experience, because I was there on that bloody Monday."

(Attica, N.Y.) - The powerful statement of condemnation above was made by Frank Smith, one of the sixty prisoners and former prisoners indicted for their part in the Attica Rebellion, which resulted in the massacre of 39 inmates and hostages by attacking police. Last week marked the passage of two years since the Attica Rebellion and Massacre, rallies and memorial services were held all over the country in tribute to the brothers of Attica who resisted and demanded to be treated as men.

Still, more than two years after state and prison authorities "punished" 200 rebelling Attica prisoners by sending in hundreds of assaulting, murderous local, state, and national policemen armed with a wide variety of weaponry, they are still continuing their cruel and unusual punishment by issuing 60 indictments against prisoners and former prisoners who were survivors of the Attica nightmare.

On September 5th, the defense in the Attica case presented a motion to dismiss the charges "in the interests of justice" in State Supreme Court. Among the grounds for dismissal given were bias of the grand jury; unfair practices by presiding Judge Carmen Ball and evidence of criminal acts by law enforcement personnel. All of the crimes prisoners are accused of -- murder, attempted murder, assault, etc. have been committed by law enforcement personnel; the ment indicted

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have already suffered extreme punishment.

In Buffalo, where the trials are to be held, an Attica Memorial Week was held. On September 9, people gathered outside Attica to discuss the little-changed conditions there today. Throughout the week workshops were held. (A large rally was held on September 13 closing the week's events.) The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression sponsored meetings and memorial services in several cities, including San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, North Carolina, Boston and Detroit.

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STATEVILLE PRISON REVOLT: PRISONERS DEMAND REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES

(Joliet, Ill.) -- "I was not an animal when I came here, but I am now. I could kill any man in the world! Your officers are alive because there are saner men than me in there. I would have killed them! If you don't change things, You're going to make as bad animals out of these men as you have of me."

So spoke George Carney, a white inmate for 13 years at Stateville Prison here, one of 13 prison inmates who "negotiated" with the Director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, Allyn R. Sielaff, following the rebellion last week.

The rebellion erupted when inmates of cellblock "B" seized eleven guards and held them for nine hours demanding the opportunity to talk to responsible officials in the presence of members of the news media about inmate grievances. The guards were released unharmed when Sielaff agreed to the meeting.

As a condition of release, the prisoners also demanded "institutional and judicial amnesty" for participation in the action. Before the release Sielaff clearly promised the rebellious prisoners "no reprisals". However, at the end of the meeting Sielaff said he had not primised amnesty. "We were tricked", the inmates shouted as Sielaff stalked out of the room.

A letter dated August 27th, less than two weeks before the rebellion, sent to a friend of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, describes in some detail some of the conditions that clearly led to the rebellion. The letter reads in part as follows:

"The deadlock continues…contrary to what Sielaff said a few weeks ago, the lock-up is still going on. Right now there are a few brothers let out of their cells on a very limited basis. But the vast majority of the population is still on lock-up…

"On Sunday, August 5th, there were three officers working on the 7 to 3 shift inside E-house; Sergeant Hayes and Officers Barton and Watkins. They were planning to send 43 people to 'the hole' for not standing for the 7 a.m. count. Officers Barton and Watkins were letting people out on 2 Gallery. Barton let out a brother named Azar.

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Well, when Azar came out of the cell and began walking, Officer Barton started pushing and shoving him.

"This continued for about 20 to 30 feet. Azar turned around as if to ask the officer to stop pushing him, but before he could say anything, officer Barton began to punch him in the face. Azar defended himself but Barton and Watkins double-teamed him.

"Sergeant Hayes and some other officers ran up to stop Barton and Watkins from pummeling Azar. Hayes grabbed Barton but no one grabbed Watkins, who started stomping and kicking Azar while he was lying defenseless on the ground. I witnessed this from my cell and I'll never forget or forgive the fascists for this…

"Another incident happened in C-house on August 2nd. Six brothers refused to come out of their cells to go to 'the hole'. They were attacked and brutally beaten by 50 to 60 guards armed with tear gas, plexiglass shields and four-foot long 'nigger sticks'…"

Nine of the 14 demands put forward by the inmates of Stateville are:

1. Full and complete amnesty for all inmates…No inmate who belongs to any group or organization to be harassed or intimidated.

2. Full medical care and attention.

3. The immediate removal of Superintendants Revis, Stampar and Buldak; of Food Superintendant Dowden, Captains Shifflet and Hall and Dr. Vinckus.

4. An end to all government and state sponsored experimental programs in any form. (a malaria program was recently conducted at Stateville)

5. That the news media review conditions at Stateville's isolation/cell-house areas.

6. An end to the censorship of newspapers, magazines, letters and other publications.

7. A psychological evaluation of all present officers and candidate officers. If, as a result of these examinations, any present officer is found mentally unstable, we demand their immediate removal.

8. The creation of an inmate grievance committee composed of inmates and institutional staff, to meet weekly on prisoners grievances.

9. Modified disciplinary procedures and television coverage of the Special Program Unit (SPU) at the Joliet branch and segregation procedures at the Stateville branch.

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TWO HOSPITALS CLOSE: BLACK COMMUNITY HEALTH NEEDS IGNORED

(Winston-Salem, N.C./Philadelphia, Pa.) - On July 31, Mrs. Minnie Atwater, 78, was taken to Forsyth Country Hospital after becoming very ill. She was examined, "treated", and released because, as the doctor told her, there were no beds available. She was still ill the following day, but when she returned to the hospital, she was Dead On Arrival.

Mrs. Atwater is the third Black person in Winston-Salem to die within the past two months after being turned away from Forsyth. Forsyth is now the city's primary public general hospital since the closing last year of Reynolds Memorial Hospital (a general hospital). Reynolds Memorial, a recently-built hospital in the heart of the Black community, was the primary hospital servicing Black people in the city. However, due to the lack of concern of city and county elected officials, the hospital was closed as a general care facility, despite angry protests from the Black community.

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Now, Black people have to travel ten miles to reach Forsyth Hospital, which has become seriously overcrowded. Because of the crowded conditions, doctors at Forsyth are turning patients away and Black people are always the first and most often rejected. The only other hospital in the area is N.C. Baptist Hospital, which is privately owned and does not operate a public emergency room.

Each of the three Black people who died due to Forsyth Hospital's neglect had to travel by Reynolds Memorial, now nearly empty, on their way to Forsyth. County officials now plan to add a new wing to Forsyth Hospital, at an enormous expense, although they closed Reynolds Memorial, a new facility, claiming that they "couldn't afford to keep it open".

STRONG MOVEMENT

A strong movement is beginning in the Black community to demand that city and county officials re-open Reynolds Memorial as a general hospital, before many more dying people are turned away from Forsyth.

A similar situation is now developing in Philadelphia. Mercy-Douglas, the city's only Black hospital, is terminating its service as a result of lack of financial assistance from the state of Pennsylvania and the city government.

Last year, the state and city governments built a long one-and-one half block hospital downtown, but denied funds to already bankrupt Mercy- Douglas. Since 1969, the eight-floor, 223-bed facility has survived on the payments of its poor patients. However, it can survive no longer.

Philadelphia's poor Black community will sorely miss Mercy- Douglas, for it provided medical care regardless of the patient's ability to pay. As a result of segregation, Mercy-Douglas was once the only hospital in Philadelphia where Black interns and nurses could receive training. Mercy-Douglas worked with the Black Panther Party's Free Medical Health Clinic in Philadelphia, treating and counseling Sickle Cell Anemia victims and carriers. The hospital also sent volunteer doctors to work at the clinic.

The city and state governments are responsible for all those who die in Philadelphia because of the closing of this hospital, as in Winston-Salem official neglect has caused the deaths of three people. Only by controlling the institutions which affect our lives in our communities can we stop fatal situations like these from occurring.

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YOUTH INSTITUTE OPENS

"UNDERSTANDING IS THE KEY
TO LIBERATION"

(Oakland, Calif.) - The first issue of the Intercommunal Youth Institute Newsletter has appeared, announcing the 1973-74 school year opening at its impressive new location, 6118 East 14th Street, in the heart of Oakland's Black ghetto.

"Nearly one year ago", the Newsletter states, "the idea of a community center to serve the needs of Black and poor people of East Oakland was conceived by a group of community organizers and educators." The Educational Opportunities Corporation (EOC) was created to secure such a center.

The new building has 35 meeting and class rooms, an auditorium that seat 350, a dining room and kitchen that can feed 200 and a large outdoor area. The Intercommunal Youth Institute opened its new school year here on September 10th.

The Newsletter points out: "The Intercommunal Youth Institute is the only Black community school in Oakland and was initiated in 1971 by the Black Panther Party as a direct response to the failure of the public schools to educate poor and Black youth.

"In the past the location was totally inadequate and far too small for the 40 students enrolled. With the purchase of the new facility, the Institute will be able to expand into a community based school serving the children of the wider East Oakland area."

The goals of the Intercommunal Youth Institute are to "teach Black children basic skills necessary to survive in a technological society and to teach children to think in an analytical fashion in order to develop creative solutions to the problems we are faced with".

The academic program of the Institute covers a wide variety of subject matter, including courses in

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Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Art and Music, Multi-Cultral History and Physical Education. The Intercommunal Youth Institute will serve as a model to the Oakland Public schools as well as other groups of people who wish to implement community based schools.

The Institute presently handles children from two and-a-half through eleven years, and covers learning equivalents through the sixth grade in the public school system. Children are prepared to enter public school at grade seven.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

The Newsletter also announces the launching of a campaign to gain financial support for the students at the school through the "Each One Teach One Association". "We are asking a minimum of $25 per year subscriptions", points out the Newsletter. All monies are going for direct support of the children.

The Newsletter contains two application forms for those wishing to subscribe to the Institute for the education of Black and poor children. Equipment, supplies, toys and clothing are also needed and can be donated. Applications and further information may be obtained by writing directly to the Institute.

The initial capital for the purchase and equipping of the new Center was provided by the Daniel J. Berstein Foundation, Pacific Change, The Youth Project, the Third World Fund and the Genesis Church and Ecumenical Center.

Many private contributors, including Tom and Flora Gladwin, Bert Schneider, Stanley K. Sheinbaun and Candice Bergen, have also given financial assistance. The Newsletter expresses the gratitude of the staff to these dedicated people for their invaluable help.

In the introduction of this first issue of the Newsletter, Huey P. Newton writes: "Black and poor youth in this country have been offered a blurred vision of the future through unenlightened and racist educational institutions. The Institute is the realization of a dream, then, to repair disabled minds and the disenfranchised lives of this country's poor communities, to lay the foundations so as to create an arena for the world without such suffering.

"Our aim is to provide the young of these communities with as much knowledge as possible and to provide them with the ability to interpret that knowledge with understanding. For we believe without knowledge there can be no real understanding and that understanding is the key to liberation of all."

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60,000 DROPPED: NIXON PLAN TO ELIMINATE BLACK POSTAL WORKERS

The number of Black postal workers has decreased nationally by over 60,000 since 1971 and is likely to drop by 100,000 by 1975 as a result of a Nixon Administration reorganization of the U.S. Postal Service, said officers of the Oakland local of the National Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees last week. Herman Blade, president of Local 1004, told THE BLACK PANTHER that the elimination of Blacks from the postal service is being done through the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970.

Brother Blade said the Act, authored by Wyoming Senator Gale McGee and Los Angeles Congressman Charles A. Wilson, aims to; 1) destroy the predominantly Black Alliance because it has been the only union to systematically uphold postal workers' rights; 2) mechanize and change the postal service to a private, profitmaking corporation, and 3) eliminate from metropolitan areas an organized Black labour force which might strike and tie up the country.

Robert Taylor, editor of the National Alliance's publication, Alliance Voice and a spokesman for the union, told us that Congress subsidized the Reorganization Act through 1985, but Postmaster General Elmer T. Klassen has a 5-year plan to fulfill the Act's goals, particularly the zation of profits, by 1975.

Already Klassen has reduced the of Black postal workers from in 1971 to 110,000 in 1973. Last year alone, the August 24th edition of the Wall Street Journal reported, Klassen eliminated 37,500 employees and installed labor-cutting, mechanized facilities. Letter sorting machines, which replace 88 workers per machine, have already been introduced in many post offices.

Along with mechanization, entrance examinations that bar Blacks from operating the machines have been introduced. In order to operate the machines, the post office says, scores of 93 and 100 and above must be achieved on I.Q. tests. It is widely known that these tests are based on White cultural patterns and Blacks usually score low on them, in the 70's and 80's, Taylor said. Last May, the Post Office destroyed 3,000 job applications because the I.Q. test scores were too low.

Attrition is also used to get rid of workers, especially letter carriers. The carriers who remain, must work extended routes for longer hours. The conservative Oakland Tribune reported recently that an official of the National Association of Letter Carriers told a Congressional subcommittee meeting in San Francsco that letter carriers in Oakland and San Fancisco have suffered heart

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attacks and other disabilities, there has been one death, as a result of increased workloads. Carriers are denied "time for the bathroom and time to relieve thirst", the Tribune reported.

The Post Office, Brother Taylor explained, is reducing retirement expenses by hiring 90-day carriers. Called "90-day casuals", they are usually college students or the young White unemployed guaranteed only 90 days employment.

Klassen wants to move bulk mail facilities to the suburbs, Brother Taylor said, away from areas where Blacks are concentrated. This has already been done in Chicago and Detroit.

To further cut jobs, the Postmaster General wants to centralize local postal stations. This plan would at out home mail delivery and require people to travel to a central location to pick up mail. Brother Blade explained that the Postal Reorganization Act was passed to end the loss of money by the post office while under Congressional management.

The Act revoked the National Alliance's right to be a bargaining agent and negotiate contracts. The Alliance was thus denied the essential union right to represent its own members. Brother Blade said the Nixon administration through the Reorganization Act is ignoring the rights of the over 50,000 hard-core National Alliance members and the rights of many others that the union represents.

(NOTE: Watch furture issues of THE BLACK PANTHER for more stories about the postal service.)

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FARM WORKERS MARCH IN MEMORY OF SLAIN BROTHERS

(Delano, Calif.) - More than 10,000 farmworkers marched silently through this small agricultural town, August 17, in memory of an Arab farmworker Nagi Daiffullah, who was murdered by a policeman three days earlier in Lamont, 45 miles to the south. In Arvin, near Lamont, over 5,000 people marched in the funeral of 60-year old farmworker Juan de la Cruz, shot and killed by strike-breakers on August 16th.

The deaths of the two United Farmworkers Union (UFW) strikers brought picketing by more than 3,000 strikers in the San Joaquin Valley to a temporary halt as the farmworkers mourn their losses and the UFW moves to avert more killings. However, picketing continues to the north in the wine grape fields around Livingston and Stockton.

SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE

The marching farmworkers were grim and angry in the wake of the two killings, the first death in the four month strike by the UFW against California's gaint grape growing corporations. "They say the union doesn't have the support of the people, of the workers" one striker said bitterly during the march in Delano. "What does this mean then, all these people here? Even some scabs are marching with us." Farmworkers came to Delano from all over California and as far away as Arizona for the procession.

The Delano march honored Nagi Daiffullah, a 24 year old Arab farmworker from Yemen, killed by a sheriff's deputy who beat him on the head with a flashlight, Daifullah's death has thrown a spotlight onto a little known aspect of the farmworkers struggle -- the role of workers from Arab countries, especially Yemen. There are more than 1,200 Yemini workers in the San Joaquin Valley, most of them imported by the growers as a cheap source of labor.

Just as with Filipino and Puerto Rican workers brought to California by growers, the Arabs are tightly controlled by the growers through labor contractors who speak both Arabic and English, and through company- owned labor camps which serve as concentration camps. "If we could provide housing", Cesar Chavez said recently, "we'd have a lot more strikers. If the Arabs strike, they are booted out of the camps, and where are they going to live?"

The UFW has issued a demand to

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the Justice Department calling for federal protection against more attacks. UFW director Cesar Chavez also wants the Justice Department to investigate charges by strikers that the Immigration Service is checking picketers for alien registraton papers while allowing hundreds of illegals -- Mexican citizens not holding the required visas -- to break the strike by working in the fields.

HIT FROM BEHIND

The focus of the strike has shifted from the Lamont-Arvin area north to the Delano area, heart of the table grape industry, the original home of the UFW. The strike is also moving north of Delano to Fresno and up further to the wine grape fields of Livingston and Stockton. A number of wine companies have broken off negotiations with the UFW over renewing old contracts, and have signed "sweetheart" contracts with the Teamsters Union. Over a thousand people have been arrested in the last month in Fresno County.

Close to 500 of these strikers were released recently from Fresno County Jail after spending as long as two weeks there without bail. They had been arrested in late July for violating various court orders restricting the size and positioning of picket lines in the grape fields.

In a recent interview, Cesar Chavez explained that the union has turned to mass civil disobedience against the court injunctions that restrict picketing because the injunctions were becoming outrageously restrictive. In Coachella, absurd court injunctions, if obeyed, would restrict picket lines to one marcher every 100 feet.

The continued boycott of grapes will become increasingly important as the harvest goes on. Preliminary union statistics indicate that the Coachella growers have only been able to harvest 2 million boxes of grapes out of a potential 3.5 million, and that a large proportion of those picked are only of second or third label quality. But the union must prevent the growers from selling the grapes that are picked in order to really squeeze the growers' profits.

"The boycott means a lot to us", one striker said. "People around the country now know of our union and our cause, and they realize the power of the boycotts in a number of areas. That is why we will win."

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REP. BARBEE URGES “UNILATERAL DISARMAMENT” OF POLICE: MILWAUKEE KILLING, PHILLY BRUTALITY TESTIFY TO POLICE ABUSE

(Milwaukee, Wisconsin) -- Commenting recently on another Black man killed by Milwaukee policemen, Wisconsin State Assemblyman Lloyd A. Barbee urged "all concerned citizens, once again to support a unilateral disarmament of law enforcement agencies". Rep. Barbee's plea was contained in a release from his office concerning the shooting death of 22-year old Andrew Friend two weeks ago.

According to reports, police saw Friend walking in the vicinity of 60th Street and Silver Spring Road. He said he was babysitting during this time at a home in the Westlawn Public Housing Project. Because two policemen who were patrolling the area thought his actions to be rather peculiar, they decided to stop Friend for questioning.

Friend ran, and finally returned to the home where he was babysitting. When the police arrived at the home, Friend was reputedly holding three of the children as hostages with a but cher knife. Policemen then shot Friend, who died instantaneously from two .38 caliber bullets; one would in is head and one in his back.

Despite the district attorney's opinion of justifiable homocide, Rep. Barbee said: "… We are placing our own lives, limbs and health in jeopardy by allowing police to patrol our streets with weapons and chemicals as in war. Without weapons of destruction and harm, these officers would not have over-reacted to the situation. Instead, they would have found a sane approach, using imagination and human psychology…

"What really comes to mind", continued Rep. Barbee, "was the use of weapons in such close quarters for the purpose of subduing a person who was presumably risking the lives of small children. It was more luck than anything else that saved these children…"

Beware of policemen doing favors, and definitely don't try to thank them. Mrs. Roberta Vinson never will. The last time she tried to thank a cop, she was beaten by three of them.

It occured one recent Sunday at 3 a.m. outside the Overbrook Diner in West Philadelphia. Mrs. Vinson, her son Clinton Lee and six other people were returning from a birthday party for a friend's son. "We stopped at the diner to get some food to take out", said Mrs. Vinson. "We stopped in a no-parking zone and we asked a policeman if we'd get a ticket for parking there. He got very nasty so we just went about our business."

PLACING THE ORDER

After placing the order in the er, Mrs. Vinson and Nancy Bro left to return to the car. Two other policemen followed them out, but Mrs. Vinson was pleased to see that she had not been given a parking ticket.

"The policeman who had been acting nasty was leaning on the car", Mrs. Vinson stated, "and I said to him, 'Officer, thank you very much for not giving me a ticket'. Then all of a sudden one of the other cops hit me from behind with his nightstick.

"I said, 'You bastard, what did you hit me for?' Then he hit me again, and those three cops were all on me like white on rice. They jammed me in the corner and beat the hell out of me. They also kicked me in the mouth and my teeth went right through my gums." Lee and his friends, who were still in the diner, saw the attack and rushed to Mrs. Vinson's assistance. Lee and a friend were also clubbed, and Lee and his mother were arrested and charged with simple assault.

Mrs. Vinson, who suffered a broken finger on her left hand and severe bruises on her right hand, chest and back, was not taken to the hospital until after she was transported to two police stations. Lee, a Vietnam veteran who recently completed four years in the Navy, and a friend were also bruised in the incident.

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INSIDE OUT

TOM BERKELEY
WOULD ROB YOUR MAMA

TOM BERKELEY, Editor - Publisher of the Black, give-a-way weekly The Post, and President of Oakland's Port Commission, has never actively supported community initiated affirmative action proposals for the notoriously racist Oakland port. Over his 3½ years on the Port Commission he has always managed to act as mediator between the commission and the community, in the final analysis issuing and submitting reports that upheld the ports racist position that it could not impose hiring policies on private contractors. Under the pressure of the Seale/Brown campaign this year an affirmative action proposal was adopted by the commission, despite Berkeley.

The same Tom Berkeley was hauled into court in 1970 by the Department of Charitable Trust of the Attorney General's office of California for mismanagement of $49,000 in pension funds belonging to the San Francisco Foundation for Aged Colored Persons. Seems as a trustee of the Foundation he invested the funds in business ventures in which he had personal interests. One was the Bay Wide Auto Services of Berkeley, which was founded by Berkeley and in which he was a major shareholder. It got $15,000 of the Black seniors' money.

ALBERT McKEE: HUMANITARIAN???

ALBERT L. MCKEE, Black owner-President of Fidelis Real Estate Company of Oakland, and a John Reading appointee on the Oakland City Off-street Parking Commission, pulled some powerful strings in this city a while back to win "development" rights on a plot of land in West Oakland. What he calls "development" is a high-rise apartment complex for "middle - income professionals earning $15-$20,000 a year". He was in competition with a West Oakland community group that wanted the plot for a low-income, family type complex including a child-care center. Oakland Redevelopment Agency initially granted the plot to the community group, but later, after the coattail pulling, reversed itself and gave the plot to McKee. The fact that McKee is a member of the Oakland Real Estate Board and a developer for the Oakland Redevelopment Board allegedly had nothing to do with the reversal.

McKee is quoted as having said in the course of this maneuver: "Too much attention has been given to the poor and underprivileged in Oakland. We need to give more attention to the middle class."

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LAST OF CAMP ALLEN BROTHERS CONVICTED: A.Q. JOHNSON SENTENCED BY NAVY TO 18 MONTHS AT HARD LABOR

(Norfolk, Virginia) - Brother A.Q. Johnson, the last of the Camp Allen 13 to be tried, has been convicted of a variety of charges stemming from the November 26, 1972, rebellion in the Camp Allen brig. Brother Johnson, a twenty year old Naval airman apprentice, is said to have been the leader of the rebellion, and has been the principal target of the Navy's racist wrath. Johnson's conviction is the last of thirteen guilty verdicts delivered against the group of Black prisoners, collectively known as the "Camp Allen Brothers", who were charged with creating the disturbance.

Because of the racist harassment and discrimination they faced the prisoners held in the brig at Norfolk took over a part of the prison. They seized a cellblock, a dormitory and the control office of the mostly Black facility.

Brother Johnson was convicted of five counts, the most serious of which is assault. He has been sentenced by the jury of Naval officers to 18 months confinement at hard labor, a demotion in rank, loss of all pay and allowances and a bad conduct discharge.

The General court-martial was unusually long for a military trial and attracted nationwide attention from progressive and movement organizations and individuals. The proceedings lasted 14 days, beginning on July 25, with preliminary hearings and ending on August 11, with sentencing. If Johnson had been convicted of the eight charges with twenty-three specifications against him, he could have been sentenced to over 100 years and given a dishonorable discharge.

Any discharge other than an "honorable" one makes it difficult for an ex-serviceman to find a job or take advantage of government G.I. benefits.

Part of the trial consisted of the defense presentation of testimony as mitigation. "Mitigation" is an excuse the defendant may offer after conviction showing that he is justified in having committed the crime in question. He can attempt to show that he was provoked or had no other alternative.

Johnson's attorneys, two American Civil Liberties Union lawyers and a Navy lieutenant, cited continual harassment of the prisoners by the guards as one mitigating factor. Others were racial prejudice in the medical department, a disproportionate amount of discipline directed against Black prisoners, polarization between White and Black prisoners and the failure of brig authorities to deliver the written requests of the brig inmates to the proper authorities. The delivery of such requests is required by law, but this law is often ignored by the Navy.

Brother Johnson's legal counsel even provided the testimony of a White sailor who was being held in the brig at the time of the rebellion. This sailor, Kenneth Olfred, testified that in his opinion there would have been no rebellion were it not for the abuse the Black prisoners suffered. Despite all this the court stood firm and maintained the conviction.

Admiral Roy G. Anderson, Commandant of the 5th Naval District and the convening officer of the court martial, was determined from the onset to get Brother Johnson. During the course of the trial a Lieutenant Rader testified that as he and Admiral Anderson planned the court-martial he suggested to the admiral that one of the thirteen other "Camp Allen Brothers" have his charges reduced to "breach of peace". The admiral became emotionally upset and threw a trial transcript at him. According to Rader, the admiral then declared that as far as he was concerned "all of these people should be discharged". This testimony, however, was too much for the trial judge, Marine Colonel Fallon, who had it stricken from the court record.

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IN MEMORIUM: NATHANIEL CLARK ASSASSINATED: SEPT 12, 1969

Nathaniel Clark was a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Panther Party when he was murdered September 12, 1969. A former UCLA student, Nathaniel Clark heard the words of Bunchy Carter and John Huggins, and heeded their call. His life was taken by the forces of reaction which beset our lives and our communities.

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DAVID HILLIARD DENIED SPECIAL ULCER DIET

(Vacaville, Calif.) - The harassment of David Hilliard by Vacaville (Medical Facility) Prison guards continues, seriously threatening his already deteriorating health. It is deliberate and aimed at producing severe complications in his ulcer condition.

Last week, suddenly and without cause, David Hilliard was refused his special ulcer diet and told his name had been taken off the special diet list for prison inmates who are ill. When he protested to the lieutenant in charge, one Hoffenberger, Hoffenberger told him that the chief doctor at Vacaville, Dr. Prout, had ordered that David's name be removed from the special diet list.

Believing this to be a lie, David refused to accept the regular diet meal. He also knew the regular diet would be injurious to his health. He protested vehemently to Lt. Hoffenberger, who refused to be moved by either consideration for David's health or the established prison authority.

Refusing to eat at all, David managed to get word of this obvious attempt at harassment out of the prison to friends. These friends immediately contacted the chief medical officer at Vacaville, Dr. Prout, who according to Hoffenberger, had ordered David's name removed from the special diet list.

Dr. Prout assured those persons that he had given no such order, that of course David was still on the special diet list and that he would immediately check with the officer who made the claim.

Another phone call to Dr. Prout later revealed that Hoffenberger had admitted to Dr. Prout that he told David that he, Prout, had taken David off the list. Dr. Prout told the caller that he warned Hoffenberger that if he did such a thing again he would receive a disciplinary write-up from Prout about his actions.

Two months ago, following an appearance before a full board of Vacaville Prison, David was given a special "medical" classification. He was moved from his location among the general population and placed among other prison inmates with "medical" classification.

It is impossible for any person in authority at Vacaville to be igno of David's serious ulcer condi Consequently, the action of Hoffenberger in deliberately removing from the special diet list was a clear act of harassment aimed at further aggravating an already aggravating situation for David.

David knew this and was able to act to prevent Hoffenberger from succeeding in his attempt. He has friends outside who understand the inner workings of Vacaville, David's special situation of danger and who will move to protect him.

But, what about the thousands upon thousands of Brothers and Sisters, men and women incarcerated throughout this land who are daily subject to such harassment, intimidation and

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deceitful behavior on the part of prison guards? Do they have concerned citizens on the outside who will come to their immediate defense? Don't let the fascist prison guards who predominate in our prisons continue to escape exposure and punishment for their crimes against prison inmates.

REMEMBER ATTICA!

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PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

COURT SURVEILLANCE TO CONTINUE

(San Francisco, Calif.) - U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti last week refused to halt Marin Country sheriff's deputies from photographing and checking the identification of spectators at the San Quentin Six trial. In a $100,000 damage suit, Stephen Schrieberg said his privacy was invaded and he was subjected to "unconstitutional surveillance" when Deputy Sheriff Kenneth Irving took his picture July 25 in Marin County Courthouse, where he was attending a pretrial hearing. "Plaintiff can see no use for these photographs except in compiling dossiers…", said Schrieberg.

CIA IN INDIA

(New Delhi, India) - CIA agents in India, operating under the cover of a research team working for the "Himalayan Borderland Project" have been uncovered by the Indian government. The agents claimed to be seeking to study the culture of native populations, but the government, operating with suspicions generated by the Watergate investigation and U.S. intelligence agencies, learned that the agents were actually concerned with potential military sites in this strategically critical area.

MULTI-NATIONAL CORPS. TOO POWERFUL

(Paris, France) - A United Nations Commission has proposed rules to guide multi-national corporations "in the exercise of their power". The commission stated that most of the corporations are American and each is worth at least 3 billion dollars, more than the GNP of at least eighty countries. Yet none of them are responsible to any elecorate. This makes the corporations dangerous to economic and political stability in the world, the commission said. The commission blames the corporations for the dollar crisis, controlling the governments of underdeveloped countriesand impending the development of an adequate social and political order in these countries.

FORMER PRISONER FRAMED

(San Francisco, Calif.) - Wilbert (Popeye) Jackson, chairman of the United Prisoners Union, said police planted heroin in his car during his arrest last week. Jackson denied ever using narcotics and said he never saw the heroin until he was booked at the Mission Police station. Jackson said police were after him because of his work with ex-prison inmates and his advocacy of prison reform.

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REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE: THE DEFECTION OF ELDRIDGE AND REACTIONARY SUICIDE

BY HUEY P. NEWTON

Everything is in a constant state of change. The passing of the old and the coming of the new mark the life of everything and life itself. When Eldridge Cleaver fell from the Black Panther Party like a scab from a healing wound, the Party was experiencing this process. Huey says:"Long before Eldridge's actual defection… he had taken the first steps…into spiritual exile, by failing to identify with the people." These first steps were the beginning of the passing process for Eldridge Cleaver and change for the Black Panther Party.

PART 2

Nonetheless, I believe that the Black Panther approach in 1966 and 1967 was basically a good and necessary phase. Our military actions called attention to our program and our plans for the people. Our strategy brought us dedicated members, and it gained the respect of the struggling peoples of the Third World. Most important, it raised the consciousness of Black and white citizens about the relationship between police and minorities in this country. It is difficult to realize now how much police relations with the Black community have changed in six short years. Our communities are still not free from brutal incidents and corruption, but it is nonetheless true that police departments have become more sensitive to the problems of urban minorities. Today, it is the rare police commissioner who has not tried to establish some form of public relations between police and Blacks. The average citizen, too, has a greater awareness of police abuses that once were systematically overlooked. This advance in consciousness is due in large part to our military phase. Ho Chi Minh said that military tactics made public for military reasons are unsound, while military tactics made public for political reasons are perfectly correct. We have done as he said. Our military strategies are now known for political reasons.

But revolution is not an action; it is a process. Times change, and policies of the past are not necessarily effective in the present. Our military strategies were not frozen. As conditions changed, so did our tactics. Patrolling the community was only one step in our ten-point program and had never been regarded as the sole community endeavor of the Black Panther Party. As a matter of fact, the right to bear arms for protection appeared near the end of our program, as Point 7, and came only after those demands we considered far more urgent - freedom, employment, education, and housing.

COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

Our community programs-now called survival programs - were of great importance from the beginning; we had always planned to become involved in Black people's daily struggle for survival and sought only the means to serve the community's needs.

But the Party was sabotaged from within and without. For years the Establishment media presented a sensational picture of us, emphasizing violence and weapons. Colossal events like Sacramento, the Ramparts confrontation with the police, the shoot-out of April 6, 1968, were distorted and their significance never understood or analyzed. Furthermore, our ten-point program was ignored and our plans for survival overlooked. The Black Panthers were identified with the gun.

CONTINUED NEXT WEEK

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WHITE HOUSE “PLUMBERS” INDICTED: THE RIGHT TO BURGLE?

Two years and one day after the incident ocurred, on Tuesday, September 4, 1973, indictments have been handed down by a Los Angeles grand jury for what has become, after Watergate, perhaps the second most famous "breaking and entering" in American history -- the break-in of the office of Pentagon Papers hero Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. To the surprise of no one, those indicted were members of that White House second-story team known as the "plumbers": Egil (Bud) Krogh; David Young, G. Gordon Liddy and, to top the list, the former presidential advisor on domestic affairs, John D. Erlichman.

Charges against the four are burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary. Additional charges of perjury were handed down against Erlichman. All four were previously high-ranking White House aides and admitted members of the spy and snoop squad, White House "plumbers" unit; so named because of their efforts to stop leaks in Nixon's secret government administration.

Nixon has admitted the formation of the "plumbers" unit as part of a secret, massive domestic intelligence and illegal surveillence program. Although he qualified his back-to-the-wall statement by the bold-faced lie that the Interagency Committee on Domestic Disorders operation was never put into effect, obviously the L.A. grand jury felt differently. The "plumbers" unit was the White House directed arm of the Interagency Committee, a secret police network that included the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Justice Department in an incredible web of illegal surveillance, subterfuge and crime. Ehrlichman, as the president's chief advisor on domestic affairs, ran the whole show.

As a defense in the upcoming trial, Ehrlichman will undoubtedly adopt the standard Nixon justification: national security. Previews of this shabby and over-used defense were presented by Ehrlichman in his arrogant and self-righteous testimony before the Senate Select Committee investigating the Watergate affair. Commenting that the September 3, 1971, burglary of psychiatrist Lewis Fielding's office was entirely "within the President's inherent Constitutional powers", Ehrlichman added that" after discussing this with the President, he expressed essentially the view that this was an important, a vital national security inquiry and that he considered it to be well within the constitutional obligation and function of the presidency." In other words, contrary to the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, the "right to burgle" was a presidential prerogative; a sensational claim to say the least.

The actual burglary of Dr. Fielding's office was carried out by two anti-Castro Cuban exiles, Eugenio Martinez and Felipe DeDiego. Outside, acting as look-outs were the directors of the scenario, White House plumbers G. Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt. They reported to their White House supervisors, Egil Krogh and David Young, who, in turn, reported to Erlichman. A memo sent by Young and Krogh

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to Erlichman indicates that Erlichman approved "a covert operation… to examine all the files still held by Ellsberg's psychiarrist". On the memo Erlichman wrote:"…if done under your assurance that it is not traceable." Until the heat was turned on for James McCord this past spring and all the rats began to leave Nixon's sinking ship, the burglary was not traceable at all. In fact, right now a Black man, Elmer Davis, languishes in a southern California jail having "confessed" and been falsely convicted of the Fielding office break-in.

Not content with a mere "breaking and entering" and finding that his concocted stories that Ellsberg had given the Pentagon Papers to unknown Soviet agents was thoroughly discredited, Erlichman followed his president's "get Ellsberg" orders all the way. On two separate occasions, once at the presidential palace at San Clemente and later in a Santa Monica park, Erlichman and Ellsberg's presiding trial judge William Mathew Byrne had talks about Byrne's possible appointment as director of the FBI. While Erlichman could not deny, when questioned by the Senate Committee, that he knew the Ellsberg trial was going on at the time, the flatly and disdainfully denied that there was anything improper about the talks. (The charges against Ellsberg and his co-defendant, Anthony Russo, were eventually dismissed by Byrne because of "government misconduct.)

"GET THE PANTHERS"

It also seems that the extracurricula activities of the "plumbers" extended beyond the one break-in in the Ellsberg case. Similarly, these same men acted upon Nixon's "get the Panthers" orders and rifled the files of both attorney Charles Garry's S.F. office and the NAACP Legal fense office in New York. Materials missing in both offices were related to the trials of Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, Both burglaries occurred in the same month and year that the Fielding office was burglarized, September, 1971. Newsweek, magazine, in fact, quotes "high administration officials" as admitting that "burglaries were committed in connection with the Seattle Seven, Chicago Weathermen, Detroit Thirteen and Berrigan cases". More recently, burglaries were discovered to have occurred in connection with the recently acquitted Gainsville Eight case in Florida. And finally the break-in that broke it all open, the Democratic National Headquarters at Watergate.

So, acting under the auspices of a self-made, self-justified and self-approved constitution, domestic affairs advisor Erlichman and his leader, Nixon, threw their lawbooks out the window. They then planned and arranged a program of domestic surveillance that included not only wiretaps, but burglary as well within its scope. Without hesitation, the Nixon administration methodically attempted to undermine the U.S. constitution, the Bill of Rights; the very foundations of law and government in America. The right to spy, the right to burgle, what was next? It is a cold and chilling thought -- their enemy was the American people.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmations and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or things to be seized."

-- Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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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 COMMUNITES.

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. the ultimate elimination of all wretched, institutions, because the masses inh of men an inside the United State risoned or by the 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 dicrate 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.

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Intercommunal News: 76 “NON-ALIGNED NATIONS” MEET IN ALGERIA: 60 HEADS OF STATE PRESENT AT HISTORIC ANTI-IMPERIALIST CONFERENCE

(Algiers, Algeria) - Representatives of 76 countries, including 60 heads of state and government, are meeting here at the 4th Conference of Non-Aligned Nations. The assembly is the largest anti-imperialist gathering of national leaders in history.

Included are forty countries of Africa, 14 African liberation movements, 12 South American countries, including Guyana, the Puerto Rican national movement and the Palestinian liberation organization. Asian and Southeast countries include the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Vietnam and the legitimate Cambodian government headed by Prince Sianouk.

United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim is participating. The only European countries in attenda are Austria, Finland and Sweden. The U.S. is NOT participating.

Algerian President Houari Boumediene set the tone of the four-day conference in his keynote address on September 5th, the opening day. Welcoming the delegates and participants to Algiers, President Boumediene made a stinging indictment of Western imperialist countries and called on the conference to agree on coordinated action to achieve political and economic independence from the imperialism of developed nations.

He also emphasized the need for concrete measures to help liberation movements in Mozambique, Angola and Guinea (Bissau), and the liberation movements of the Palestinian people, calling attention to the fact that Israel occupies portions of African (Egyptian) land. President Boumediene also called for economic liberation by means of recovery of natural resources from the clutches of Western multi-national and giant corporations.

HEADS OF STATE

Among the Heads of State present in Algiers, are President Yakubu Gowon of Nigeria, President Idi Amin of Uganda, President Anwar el Sadar of Egypt, President Moammar Quadaffi of Libya, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India, President Fidel Castro of Cuba and many, many more.

The conference is expected to issue a political declaration reaffirming the five principles of non-interference and national independence formulated at the first Non-Aligned Nations Conference at Belgrade, Yugoslavia in September, 1961.

The declaration is expected to call for the elimination of military blocs and foreign military bases wherever they exist, the evacuation of foreign troops and the liberation of peoples still under colonial or imperialist rule.

An economic declaration is expected to emphasize the need to control and profit fully from national resources, greater and meaningful participation by poor and developing nations in world monetary and trade decisions and greatly improved terms of trade between the developed and developing world.

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ISRAEL MOVES TO ANNEX ARAB TERRITORIES

(San Francisco, Ca.) - Recent news reports from Israel indicate that the Israeli government has adopted a provisional election platform for the ruling Labor Party providing for a four-year plan that aims towards encouraging and supporting the acquisition of Arab lands by private and public sectors of the Israeli business community, and the establishment of additional Israeli settlements in the Arab occupied territories.

The reports also confirm that Israel is planning to add another 35 settlements to the 44 settlements it planted in the West bank of the Jordan River, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula during the last six years of Israeli occupation since the June war of 1967.

In a statement issued by the Permanent Observer of the League of Arab States to the United Nations, Ambassador Talib El - Shibib, described the plan as a "violation of the spirit of the UN charter and an insult to the General Assembly of the United Nations and the international community".

The Ambassador, who made his statement in New York, also added that: "the Israeli plan for the annexation of Arab territories is a replay of the techniques the Zionists have used in chasing the Palestinians from their homeland during the last 3 decades and a clear violation of the human rights of the Arab population."

"This plan", the ambassador said, "makes a mockery of the resolution

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adopted on December 8, 1972 by the General Assembly specifically prohibiting Israel from carrying out any policies that would affect 'the physical character or demographic composition of the occupied Arab territories'."

The General Assembly resolution said the General Assembly "declares changes carried out by Israel in the Arab occupied territories in contravention of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 are null and void, and calls upon Israel to rescind forthwith all such measures and to desist from all policies and practices affecting the physical character or demographic composition of the occupied Arabterritories."

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LIBYA NATIONALIZES OIL

(Tripoli, Libya) - The Libyan government announced last week a 51 percent takeover of the holdings of all major foreign - owned oil companies still operating independently here. The decree, signed by Premier Abdel Salam Jalloud and Oil Minister Eyzedin Marbrouk, marked the fourth anniversary of the government headed by Col. Moammar Quadaffi.

The takeover affects California Standard, Texaco, Mobil, Shell, Esso, Atlantic Richfield and Grace Oil Companies. Last month Libya announced the nationalization of three other major foreign-owned companies.

U.S. oil executives are upset over the expropriations. In San Francisco, Emmit N. Butlon, a spokesman for Standard Oil of California said: "If you want to look at this the way we do, it amounts to a confiscation of our concession. This nationalization follows rejection by our negotiators of the government's most recent ultimatum which was that the company must acquiesce in the seizure of 51 percent interest in the companies interest and facilities…".

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PUERTO RICO: INDEPENDENCE RESOLUTION INTRODUCED AT U.N.

(United Nations) - The age old objective of all oppressed peoples -- freedom from foreign domination -- came one significant step closer to realization last week for the people of Puerto Rico. For the second time in two years, a special resolution has been introduced in the United Nations Decolonization Committee of 24 recognizing and re-affirming "the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence" and requesting that the United States "refrain from any actions that might obstruct" that right.

This year's resolution was introduced in the highly respected 24-nation body by the representative of the Congo, Albert Foungi, acting in behalf of his own delegation as well as the people and governments of Mali, Iraq and Syria. An amendment to the already strong resolution, "requesting that the United States insure that the rights of the Puerto Rican people are not violated by any companies under American jurisdiction", places the U.S. in line for another major international embarassment. Implicit in the resolution is the international recognition of Puerto Rico as a colony of the U.S., rather than the "Free Associated State" status the U.S. claims the island "enjoys".

OIL REFINERY "SUPERPORT"

The highly controversial amendment, highlighting the U.S. control of the island's economics, is a direct reference to the latest and most grandiose U.S. plan for exploitation -- the construction of a gigantic oil refinery/ petro - chemical "superport", With 13% of Puerto Rico's land already occupied by U.S. military bases, the construction of this huge complex will have disastrous effects.

The superport complex would make Puerto Rico the hub of a multi-national oil enterprise emanating from the Persian Gulf. As the plans are presently conceived, a gigantic port will be built on the west coast of the island, with the capacity of handling 300 million tons of crude oil yearly. Phase two consists of building the necessary oil refineries to process one million barrels of crude oil by 1977 and 6 million by 1980.

New petro - chemical plants are planned as subsidiary industry. The complex will occupy an additional 33,750 acres of Puerto Rican land, bringing the amount of land under U.S. government or U.S. industry control to 30.5%. The "superport" will triple U.S. investments in Puerto Rico, which, under U.S.-manipulated laws, are exempt from taxes for 12 to 17 years.

Typically, the effects of all this upon the Puerto Rican people and the environment of the island has been disregarded. Over one million people will be displaced by this complex; many will immigrate to an unreceptive and hostile U.S. Over 1,000 million gallons of fresh water will be daily consumed by the petro-industrial complex, exhausting water sources on the island by the year 2000. The salt water needed for use, 30 million gallons per minute, will be returned to the ocean 10 to 20 degrees hotter, destroying the marine life surrounding the island. Sulphur discharges from the petro-chemicals will create a yeallow aura around the island.

On July 4th of this year, over 20,000 Puerto Rican people rallied in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, to protest the proposed construction of this plant.

U.S. diplomats and apologists here at the U.N. have not been able to conceal their anger at what they hypocritically call the committee's "interference" in Puerto Rico's "internal affairs". This official "annoyance" however, was to be expected. The U.S. withdrew from the Decolonization Committee of 24 two years ago, allegedly in disagreement with the committee's methods -- that is, upholding the principles of self-integrity and the rights of self-determination enshrined in the U.N. Charter.

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Africa In Focus

UNITED STATES

The fact that a native born, White American could be a well paid employee of the Zambian government is apparently too much for this administration. Marshall Soghoian of Binghamton, New York, was charged last week with acting as an illegal foreign agent for Zambia. The FBI is now attempting to fabricate evidence that he violated U.S. espionage laws. Joshua Siyolwe, chief administrative officer of the Zambian Embassy in Washington, D.C., has described Soghoian as an adviser to the Zambian government on the purchase of sophisticated electronic and technical equipment from U.S. firms.

RHODESIA

African governments staunch opposition to the U.S. importation of Rhodesian chrome may soon pay off. John A. Scali, U.S. delegate to the United Nations and David Newsom, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, have called for repeal of 1971 legislation permitting the import from Rhodesia. Admitting continued imports from the White illegal, Ian Smith regime were causing "policy setbacks" with African governments who are "violently opposed to the Smith regime, Scali told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on African Affairs last week that the (Harry F.) Byrd amendment to the Military Procurement Act of 1971, permitting import of Rhodesian chrome as a "strategic material" should be repealed.

UNITED NATIONS

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of the United Nations said last week that there had been no progress in Portuguese administered territories where, "barbarous massacres, wholesale bombing and systematic repression were continuing". The Committee also found that the situation in Rhodesia was worsening, with various brutal forms of repression being used against national liberation movements.

KENYA

Kenya appealed to all United Nations members recently to deny transit or playing facilities to a basketball team from the U.S., reported to have taken part in basket ball matches in Rhodesia. Kenya recalled United Nations sanctions against Rhodesia as the basis for the appeal.

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ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS: “DON'T BOTHER ME, I CAN'T COPE”: A BLACK JOY

"Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" is described in the program as "musical entertainment". It is certainly this, but it is much more. It is an overwhelming affirmation of the beauty of the human spirit. "Cope" is one more demonstration that in the U.S.A. today Black Americans as a people are the richest source of belief in that beauty.

What gives "Cope" its special quality is its Black joy! It is the "I keep laughin' to keep from cryin' " underlying theme that runs through the two and a half hours of moving song and exciting dance. "Cope" comes from deep within the Black experience in racist America and reaches out in love and understanding to all humankind. This is art at its highest level.

It is impossible to leave at the end of a performance of "Cope" without feeling quite a lot better about life, people and the future. Black people come away feeling happier about being Black and beautiful. Whites come away a little wisher in their understanding of what being Black beautiful is all about.

There are no "stars" in "Cope" Each member of the large and youthful cast is a star. Each member of the audience is a star. Each is a necessary part of this celebration of the human potential to survive, "keep moving" and keep believing in the ultimate victory of human liberation.

VIGOR AND STRENGTH

The vigor and strength of all the performances is breathtaking; a manifestation of the vigor and strength of Black America caught up in the day-to-day struggle to survive, yet determined to survive with dignity, humanity and love.

During the joyous "Do a Little Living in Peace", reaching out number, only the most hardened skeptic remains unmoved as the company descends into the audience and joins hands with the audience throughout the theater. The audience is encouraged to join hands with their neighbors and all standing sway with the soulful music.

First credits for "Cope" rightfully should go to Sisters Micki Grant and Vinnette Carroll. The words and music are the work of Micki Grant, who also appeared in original productions of "Cope". Vinnette Carroll is responsible for the exciting staging and direction.

In the words of Ms. Carroll, the musical says, "that coping' is a basic commitment of a mature, purposeful, involved human being. That the ways we are similar are far greater than the ways we are different." Micki Grant and Vinnette Carroll have created a pride-full experience for Black people, a learning experience for White people and a joyous experience for all people.

A way must be found to take "Cope" into the communities of the poor and oppressed throughout this land. It is of, by and for The People; it is people's theater. To deny it to the people is to delay our day of liberation.

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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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HIGH PRICES HIT SCHOOL CHILDREN

The economic and social shortcomings of American society are going to hit school children a little more heavily next year. School lunch prices are going up and some schools may have to close during the winter months because of heating oil shortages.

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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 OPTOMETRY PROGRAM

(Being Implemented)

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

PEOPLE'S FREE DENTAL 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.

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.

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 citizen's to and from community banks on the first of each month.

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