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COUNCIL STALLS ON CITY CENTER HOUSING
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EDITORIAL: AGNEW
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What new outrage against the American people is brewing in Washington around Vice President Spiro T. Agnew? Are U.S. Justice Department officials seriously offering Agnew escape from possible prosecution for serious crimes in exchange for the Vice Presidency?

The story is being written without the slightest awareness of its devastating implications. What manner of men are these? In their attempt to protect each other, the highest officials in the land seem to be thumbing their noses at even a semblence of -- does one dare say the word? -- justice.

As we go to press the latest story out of Washington says: "Vice President Agnew's lawyers and Justice Department officials have been engaged in what was described as delicate negotiations concerning a possible Agnew resignation to be coupled with a plea of guilty to a relatively minor offense…"

What constitutes a minor offense in the area of bribery for an elected official? What major offenses are being ignored? Is it possible that the American people can sit by and watch this thing happening and still have any faith in either the individuals involved or the offices they hold?

It is rumored that President Nixon is forcing Agnew to resign. Surely, he cannot believe that an Agnew resignation that ended in saving Agnew from prosecution can in any way improve his already shattered image before the American people. Quite the contrary. One more infamy will be added to the growing list.

The poor and the oppressed of this land who fill the fortress jails across America know something about plea bargaining. The only trouble is they have little or nothing to offer in exchange for their freedom. The result is their prosecution and the loss of that freedom.

It does not matter that all this is rumor and unsubstantiated newspaper speculation. That it all can be put forward so nakedly as a perfectly normal procedure to solve an embarrassing situation involving the President and Vice President of the country confirms our repeated assertion: justice is in serious jeopardy in America.

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Letters to the Editor
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Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Enclosed is the renewal to my subscription. It snuck up on me this year; last year I happened to be in Oakland in August and had the pleasure of renewing it in person in your office.

To complete my understanding of contemporary events, I couldn't be without THE BLACK PANTHER. The September I issue received yesterday was simply "great." In the last year I have greatly appreciated the news coverage and commentary on many issues and contemporary events: Wounded Knee, Watergate, the Farm Workers struggle, the Oakland political situation, the prison issue, etc. Also I have appreciated the excerpts from "Revolutionary Suicide," and hope to soon be able to acquire a copy of the whole book.

In a recent issue, in the main editorial article on "Watergate," you raised the question of Senator Ervin's voting record on Civil Rights as it contrasts with his otherwise staunch support of the U.S. Constitution. I assume this means his voting record back in the 50's and 60's. We are all familiar with his more recent fight against "no knock" and "preventive detention" and his exposure of Government surveillance of private citizens. But like you, I have wondered often in recent months what his present attitude is towards the issue of racism as it affects Black people in this country. I was therefore pleased to find at least a small possible indication in an excellent article entitled, "Your Right To Privacy," a special report prepared by Sam J. Ervin Jr. for a church periodcal, "A.D." published by the United Presbyterian Church U.S.A. and the United Church of Christ. In this article Senator Ervin makes the following observation:

"The dissemination of so-called `raw' arrest information without any indication of the outcome of the case -- guilty, not guilty, not prosecuted, mistaken identity -- has proved particularly harmful. Statistics collected by the President's Commission of Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice indicate that general roundup arrests are so common in ghetto areas that a Black urban male stands a 90 percent chance of being arrested at least once during his lifetime. Dissemination of such raw arrest data serves to reinforce patterns of racial discrimination and tends to deprive Blacks equal opportunities in areas of employment, credit, and the like."

I hope the concern expressed in this observation indicates that Senator Ervin has genuinely grown beyond a double standard view of the Constitution as it applies to white and non-white citizens of this country.

Thank you again for your great contribution to the arena of public knowledge as well as the service you are rendering to the Black Community, and to all American and world citizens -- in short, to the people everywhere.

Very Sincerely,
Gerald A. Van Doren, Minister
Northwest United Protestant Church
Richland, Washington

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COMMENT: “THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES&rdquo
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The "Battle of the Sexes", fought on a tennis court in Texas and viewed by an estimated 50 million people was won by Billie Jean King. Her victory over 55-year old Bobby Riggs has escalated the sport of tennis in general and the women's game in particular to new heights of popularity.

Throughout all the talk the match prompted, the original issue which led to the court battle between Riggs and Ms. King was almost lost sight of: the fight for women to gain proper recognition in tennis, particularly, the low prize money women receive in tournaments.

Two years ago, when the women players, led by the outspoken Ms. King, were beginning to break through the social and economic boundaries in tennis, loudmouth Riggs, an attention seeker and self - proclaimed "hustler" in search of something new to ridicule, first issued his challenge to Ms. King and other women. He claimed that women had no right to share a large portion of tournament prize money, boasting that the best women players in tennis couldn't even beat "a tired old man.

Riggs happened to luck up on a good hustle by attacking women's rights in tennis. His abusive language toward women prompted moral and financial support from tournament sponsors as well as those who blindly oppose the advancement of women in tennis and elsewhere.

The King-Riggs match did not prove that women tennis players are better than men players, for Ms. King herself will admit that due to physical differences she cannot beat the top men players who play the power game, although she is as highlyskilled as they are. Most importantly, Ms. King proved that women's tennis does have great crowd appeal, lending solid support to her contention that women should receive prize money comparable to that received by men.

It is now her responsibility to push forward the main issues which started the "controversy", the increase of prize money for women players. Now that attention is focused on Ms. King, the primary burden she carries is to advance the struggle of women against economic and social exploitation.

Congratulations to Ms. King for a wonderful hard-fought match. We urge her to continue to keep the real issue at the forefront. Hopefully, "The Battle of the Sexes" will prove to be a sign of a bigger victory -- not only for women in tennis, but for progressive forces every where.

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COUNCIL STALLS ON CITY CENTER HOUSING
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"…CITY CENTER MAY NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY,"
SAYS ELAINE BROWN

(Oakland, Calif.) - A precedent setting redevelopment housing proposal is currently before the Oakland City Council, put there by community groups in cooperation with the city's Redevelopment Agency. The Black Panther Party played a major role in developing this proposal.

Last week's council meeting would have adopted the carefully worked out proposal if "liberal" Councilman John Sutter, still smarting from his defeat by Bobby Seale in the recent mayoralty campaign, had not tried to upstage the Black Panther Party and Brother John B. Williams, Executive Director of the Redevelopment Agency. Brother Williams made the presentation before the Council.

The proposal, aimed at providing suitable housing for persons displaced by the giant City Center Project under Construction in downtown Oakland, is the result of a city council directive to the Redevelopment Agency on May 22, 1973.

Sutter's maneuvers were typical of the "liberal" city interests. He was more concerned about the city's purse strings, than about those being displaced by the City Center Project. Only he and Mayor Reading questioned Williams on the proposal. Sutter's questions revealed his ignorance of the sound principles embodied in the proposal, but made it possible for the council to refer the proposal to "workshop" discussions.

It was the Black Panther Party, through its attorney, Fred Heistand (of Public Advocates, Inc.), that informed the City Council last May that the city was legally required to build the replacement housing because Oakland has a less than 5 percent housing vacancy rate as required by federal law.

The city claimed that its vacancy rate exceeded the 5 percent and proceeded to ask the federal government for a waiver of the requirement. However, after reviewing the Black Panther Party's position, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) concurred with the Party and refused to grant the waiver, requiring the city to provide the housing.

In a forceful statement before the Council, Elaine Brown, representing the Black Panther Party said: "This proposal is not merely a functional effort on the part of the City's Redevelopment Agency. It is, more than that, a product of a series of long and intensive meetings initiated by representative citizen organizations, primarily the East Bay Legislative Council for Senior Citizens, Oakland Concerned Citizens for Urban Renewal (OCCUR) and the Black Panther Party.

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"These fruitful sessions began last May, when we, the people, notified the council, through our attorneys, of the city's legal obligations to the citizens in regard to replacement housing for the City Center Project …

"In the process of these meetings, where the community and the city (through the Redevelopment Agency) grappled with ways to serve the public or human interest as well as the business interest, we learned together to look beyond the narrow issues of what is required by law. We found that urban renewal does not have to be the problem it has been in the past for cities and people throughout this country.

"Urban renewal, sadly, had come to mean `people removal' to the majority of those urban dwellers shuffled around from slum to slum to make room for skyscrapers … An imaginative and flexible city government that responds to and respects the needs and will of its citizens can serve both business and those citizens and create such a dynamic program as has been here presented."

COUNCIL WARNING

Elaine expressed her disgust with the Council's refusal to accept the proposal as presented and warned the council that continuation of the City Center Project itself depended on concrete action to provide proper housing for those displaced by the project.

She said: "I can say this to you in the name of the people who have worked very hard on this project. You can study, study all that you want to, study for the next three months. I am convinced, along with the people I represent, that not a single acre of City Center land, Phase II, will be acquired until you decision is made and made in the interest of the people!"

The proposal calls for the building of 300 units of quality housing at an approximate cost of $22,000 per unit, to be financed through a tax increment of $600,000 annually. Rentals would not exceed 25% of the monthly income of the tenants. A tenant's union would be open to membership for all tenants.

The plan calls for the creation of a management board which would include the Redevelopment Agency and community organization representatives and tenants. The board would formulate policy for the housing as a non-profit corporation, and be responsible for the general designing, construction and over Plans call for

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NEW ORLEANS: DOCK WORKERS REJECT NEW CONTRACT
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(New Orleans, La.) - New Orleans dock workers, who held a 12-day wildcat strike during the end of July and the beginning of August, voted recently to reject a union plan to settle their grievances. A majority of the Black workers in a segregated dockers local and a large minority of the workers in a smaller all-white local voted on August 17 to reject the union proposal, upholding the original wildcat demand that the International Longshoreman's Association and the Steamship Association account for royalty payment funds due the workers.

On July 23, over 1,800 longshoremen went out on a wildcat strike to protest the secrecy surrounding the royalty fund paid by the shipper to the ILA since 1968. The fund is to compensate for jobs lost due to containerization, a recent development, (cargo arrives in huge crates -- as large as 20 tons -- that areunloaded as units) thus requiring fewer dockers since cranes can haul the crates off the ships.

PARTIAL VICTORY

The wildcat ended in partial victory on August 3, when the union offered to pay $194 to each worker from the royalty fund. This totalled $892,000, which the union claimed was 90% of the fund. A U.S. District Court also ruled that the I.L.A. members must vote on a proposal before August 16. Irvin Joseph, one of the strike leaders, charged however that over $50 million is in the fund and that longshoremen have received none if it to date.

The strike focused their demands on local union presidents "Chink" Henry, president of Black local 1419 and Al Chittenden, president of the all-white local 1418, to account for the royalty payments. Later in September the New Orleans longshoremen will vote on a proposal to recall all present local union officials and to hold new union elections in the fall.

The wildcat faced opposition from several quarters including New Orleans mayor Moon Landrieu, city newspapers, and even ILA president Thomas Gleason, who flew from New York to try to break the wildcat. But

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[manuscriptimage] it was not until the Steamship Association -- a ship owners organization -- filed an unfair practice suit against five Black strike leaders that the strike was seriously threatened. In a blatant attempt to separate Black and white workers, no white workers were named in the suit.

By July 30, many dock workers, both Black and white were returning to work. Very few white workers stayed out on strike. Though work resumed as normal on August 4, few dock-workers felt that the union had told the truth about the royalty fund, as evidenced by the August 17 vote. Still to be settled are the issues of the royalty funds, the union recall vote, and charges of unfair labor practices against some of the strike leaders. It is likely that the five men will be cleared on those charges but it is uncertain whether they will retain their jobs.

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“UNITY FOR ACTION” IN CHATTANOOGA: BLACK COMMUNITY UNITY SURVIVAL CONFERENCE
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(Chattanooga, Tennessee) - The Chattanooga Branch of the Black Panther Party gave away hundreds of bags of groceries and distributed brand new, stylish clothing to the oppressed Black community at a 3-day Survival Conference here recently. A number of community notables and activists addressed the gathering and pledged their continued support to the people's survival programs. The conference also featured the presentation of "Serve the People" awards to community

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[manuscriptimage] organizations and individuals who have aided the survival programs.

Titled the Black Community Unity Survival Conference, twelve to fifteen hundred people attended. The men, women and children, young and old, who came together on August 29, 30 and 31, 1973, received more than groceries, clothing and a chance to meet with and hear their friends and neighbors, the people of Chattanooga's Black and poor community. The people came together to participate in collective association; uniting to survive with dignity and respect.

Reverend J. Lloyd Edwards, Pastor of the Cosmopolitan Community Church and one of the speakers, told the participants: "You don't have to fill out applications, say where you live, whether you're married or divorced. You don't have to say who your father-in-law is, you don't have to say who your mother-in-law is. You don't have to say where you work or tell how long you worked where you work. You don't have to say anything -- all you have to do is line-up orderly and get your groceries."

Brother Pierre Fletcher, a hair stylist and small business owner called the conference "Unity in Action". The name of this survival festival was chosen because of the united effort that made the event possible. The Black Community Survival Conference was a first step towards unifying the total Black community in Chattanooga. As Rev. Edwards said, "it was something that no one has ever done in Chattanooga".

Brother Walter C. Tate, a Black Justice of the Peace and a Ward Chairman, commented: "Unity is something we need in Chattanooga, in the whole United States. Black people need to become aware of the needs of Black people; Black people need to respond to the needs of Black people …I see faces, I see people out here I've known for years, and I know they have needs and yet the government is not responsive to these needs". Brother Tate pointed out the all too-common contradiction between the hopes of the Black community in regards to the actions of their elected officials and their practice, what these elected officials actually do for the people. "If they can't meet our needs, then we don't need them and that goes for me, too", he said.

"Serve The People" awards were given to Rev. Edwards, who has supported the Black Panther Party, its programs, and the Black community whenever and however he could; Brother Johnny Holloway and the local undergraduate chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority who worked on the People's Free Clothing Program all year. The "Soul Baron" clothing store, which contributed to the clothing program, was not neglected as the awards were handed out.

Brother Billy Springer received an award for his willingness to give the community a voice on his local "Grass Roots" radio program. The brothers and sisters who strove day-in, dayout, to make the Black Community Unity Survival Conference a success by bagging groceries, sorting clothing, selling papers, etc. were also given "Serve The People" awards.

All in all, the three-day conference was a blow to the backward city government of Chattanooga, Tennessee and the corrupt U.S. - Watergate regime. It was a boost to the poor oppressed people of Chattanooga, a spiritually fulfilling, materially satisfying and socially uniting all segments of the Black, poor and oppressed people in this southern city.

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ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLA.: 7 PRISON GUARDS INDICTED
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ALLOWED PRISONERS TO BE
BEATEN BY OTHER INMATES

(Ft. Pierce, Fla.) - Three present and four former deputy sheriffs were indicted by a federal grand jury here recently on charges of conspiring to violate the civil rights of inmates of a Florida jail by allowing them to be beaten by other inmates.

Named as defendants were Saint Lucie County Deputy Sheriffs Irving Opperman, Harold Savage, and Don H. Thompson and former deputies William Zorn, Robert Barrett, John Buetler, and Robert O. Webber.

All seven were charged with conspiring since June 1, 1971, to "injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate" St. Lucie County jail inmates by depriving them of their constitutional rights, not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment and not to be deprived of liberty without due process of law.

The conspiracy, the indictment said, included: "causing inmates to be beaten by other inmates, failing to halt the mistreatment of inmates by other inmates, and punishing inmates by placing them in darkened cells for extended periods of time without clothes or sanitary facilities."

CHARGES

Webber, Savage, and Barrett were charged in a separate count with causing two inmates, Stephen Lancaster and William Harding, to be beaten by other inmates on September 10, 1971. Thompson was charged with placing two inmates, Luther Clanton and Michael Hall, nude in a darkened cell without sanitary facilities from October 31 to November 5, 1971, for the purpose of imposing summary punishment on them.

Thompson, Opperman, Savage and Buetler were charged with causing Clanton to be beaten by other inmates between November 6 and December 1, 1971. Thompson, Opperman, Savage, and Buetler were also charged with causing Hall to be beaten by other inmates during the same time period.

Opperman, Savage, and Zorn were charged with causing another inmate, Murphy L. Hooker, to be beaten by fellow inmates on December 15, 1971.

The maximum penalties upon conviction are 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for conspiracy, and one year in prison and a $1,000 fine for depriving persons of their constitutional rights.

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PRE-TRIAL HEARINGS RESUME: SAN QUENTIN SIX LAWYER CITED FOR CONTEMPT
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(Marin County, Ca.) - An arrogant, scheming and cold Judge Broderick cited San Quentin Six lawyer Howard Moore for contempt last week at the Marin County Court House, before a packed and angry courtroom of supporters and the press. Thus began a day that ended with (pre-trial hearing judge) Broderick compelled to enter removal hearings at a date to be set later.

The contempt action prompted shouts of protests and demands to end the hearings from defendants Luis Talamantez and Hugo Pinell. Attorney Moore, who successfully defended Angela Davis, had been prevented by Judge Broderick from arguing a motion challenging Broderick's right to deny a prior motion to disqualify himself for prejudice against the San Quentin Six.

Broderick repeatedly interrupted Attorney Moore, ordering him to sit down and stop talking. Finally, Broderick cited Moore for contempt and fined him $500 and five days in jail. In an attempted show of magnanimity he suspended the sentence. Neither the defendants nor their supporters were impressed.

Broderick's action clearly established his bias against the defendants. Angered by the action, which occurred less than fifteen minutes from the opening of the hearing, defendants Talamantez and Pinell demanded that the hearing be ended on grounds that they could not receive justice under Broderick. Their shouts resulted in their being removed from the courtroom to an adjoining "holding cell,"

Throughout the day attorneys for the defense attempted to argue that Marin County court did not have jurisdiction over the case because of the nature of the charges. On technicalities Judge Broderick resisted submission of these arguments and attempted to impose his jurisdiction on the defendants. He was defeated in the effort when at the end of the day the defense lawyers succeeded in obtaining court papers requiring a hearing on the defense motion entered by Charles Garry for defendant Johnny Larry Spain for removal of the case into federal jurisdiction.

When court finally opened, two-and- a-half hours late, in an attempt to wear out the patience of the crowd of relatives, friends, supporters and press that arrived for the hearings, five of the six defendants were securely chained in their seats. They were Fleeta Drumgo, Willie Tate, David Johnson, Hugo Pinell and Luis Talamantez.

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Defendant Johnny Spain, one of the two Black Panther Party members of the Six, has consistently refused to sit chained in court during pretrail hearings arguing cruel and inhuman treatment by the guards. He was being held in the "holding cell" where court proceedings are audible through a sound system.

The removal of Talamantez and Pinell resulted in an early recess. Already separated from the court action by filthy, distorting glass paneling, the courtroom crowd was ordered out of the courtroom when the recess was ordered. The court does not want relatives, friends and the press to observe the inhuman shackling inflicted upon the prisoners.

INHUMAN TREATMENT

They are shackled by heavy chains around the waist, around each ankel and their hands are handcuffed to the waist chains. They are then seated in chairs and the chains secured to the floor. The shocked reaction of courtroom observers to this "security" measure has now prompted court authorities to conceal the treatment as much as possible from the public.

Following the recess, Johnny Spain, through his lawyer, Charles Garry who was making his first appearance in defense of the San Quentin Six, entered a motion for change of jurisdiction. Here Broderick raised the technicality to prevent consideration of the motion. Spain warned the judge that either the motion be considered or call a recess for his removal from the courtroom. The judge, complaining about the 20 minutes it would take to unchain and remove Spain, ignored the warning and ruled against the motion.

With this Spain deliberately and with clear intent prevented the proceedings from continuing demanding his right to be removed from the courtroom. Eventually, the judge was compelled to call a recess and order the removal of Spain to the "holding cell".

In the meantime, word reached the court that Hugo Pinell, in the "holding cell", was having a seizure and required medical attention. After protests by Pinell's lawyer and demands for adjournment because of physical disability of a defendant, the judge ordered that a court physician be summoned. After some time the physician arrived and proceeded to the "holding cell" to examine Pinell.

The physician reported to the court that he was unable to examine Pinell but, "it is my impression", he stated, that Pinell was fit enough to continue in the hearings. Shocked disbelief swept the courtroom when the judge accepted his obviously unmedical, opinionated "diagnosis", and ordered the proceedings to continue. At this point defendant Willie Tate vocally objected and demanded to be permitted to leave the room. The judge was once again forced to comply.

In his effort to push the proceedings through and in the face of repeated defense objections, Judge Broderick entered a "not guilty" plea for David Johnson on eight counts of the indictment. He was unable to make this move for any of the other defendants because of defense objections. Proceedings were ended with the arrival of the petition requiring a hearing on change of jurisdiction from state to federal court.

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KOHL'S BOYCOTT ENDS IN A PEOPLE'S VICTORY
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(Milwaukee, Wisconsin) - A two month long community boycott of Milwaukee's largest food chain ended September 11, in a people's victory. The victory occurred when Kohl's Food Stores agreed to donate an undisclosed amount of funds weekly to the survival programs operated by the People's Committee for Survival.

The People's Committee for Survival initiated the boycott after more than a year of attempts to get Kohl's to donate. When asked to donate last year, Kohl's tried to make one $50 "pay-off".

The People's Committee wanted the donations for the programs it sponsors in Milwaukee's Black and oppressed community: The Free Breakfast for Children Program, Free Busing to Prisons Program, Liberation School and a strong Free Food Program.

The boycott had met difficulties from the start. The mass media ignored the boycott and Kohl's coerced the Black newspapers into not reporting the boycott by threatening to withhold advertising. Other problems described by the People's Committee include, daily 12-hour picketing in frequent inclement weather, taunting remarks by Kohl's security guards, and constant harassment by Milwaukee police "guarding" the picket line.

During the close of negotiations, Kohl's representatives wanted the ending of the boycott to be kept secret because "they didn't want the community to realize the true power it possesses…Kohl's knows the people control his profits, that if the people stop spending their hard-earned dollars with him, he will go out of business." Kohl's depends on the Black and poor communities for most of its $250 million annual sales, the Committee said.

In addition to a consistent donation to the survival programs, the People's Committee demanded that Kohl's remove non - United Farm Workers Union lettuce and grapes from its stands in support of the struggle of Mexican-American farmworkers. It also demanded that the chain hire more Black managers at stores in the Black community and hire people according to the racial make-up of the area.

"Kohl's did not suddenly become responsive to the needs of the people", the Committee said. "He did it because the people made him. This is one concrete example of The Power of The People. With the unity in the community shown during the boycott, the people will win greater victories."

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FARMWORKERS APPEAL FOR SUPPORT
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FOCUS ATTENTION ON PESTICIDE POISONING

(Keene, Calif.) - Cesar Chavez, Director of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW), has issues a plea to all concerned organizations and individuals to support the UFW's righteous struggle by donating to the hard-pressed and struggling union.

During one of the most crucial and urgent states of their struggle, the United Farm Workers Union is steadfastly conducting a strike and boycott of grapes and lettuce. In their efforts to organize the farmworkers, they are opposed by both the racist growers who one the giant farms in California, and the Teamsters Union, who are trying to move out the stuggling UFW by signing "sweetheart" contracts with the growers.

In a message voicing the urgent need for financial support, Chavez said:

"Our fight is more than the passion of a small, struggling union. There are 2,000,000 desperately exploited farmworkers waiting to be organized and brought into the life and activity of progressive America. Our drive is a potent anti-poverty force using no government funds. The Farm Workers Union unites Brown, Black and White in a common cause.

"To survive we need your involvement - you who have supported us before and you who perhaps will be giving for the first time. The AFLCIO is helping us but we still need your support for our strikes, boycotts and other organizing. We need legal defense, bail funds, medical care, food and shelter for farm workers and their families, and we ask that you boycott all iceberg lettuce and grapes which do not bear our label - the Black Aztec Eagle - but if in doubt please don't buy any.

"We are facing great odds, but we can win our struggle for human dignity and basic rights. We are hopeful that decent people such as yourself will join with us. Please share our committment and faith by sending your check…a symbol of democracy and decency…today. Every contribution makes a difference and is greatly appreciated. Viva La Justica."

(check should be made payable to: United Farm Workers, AFL-CIO, and mailed to Cesar E. Chavez, La Paz, Keene, California 93531.)

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In other news related to the struggle of the UFW in California, attention is now being focused on the issue of the pesticide poisoning of farmworkers picking contaminated crops. One of the major demands of the UFW is the limitation of harmful pesticides sprayed on crops. The following is an excerpt from a statement by Diana Lyons; a farmworker organizer, regarding the dreaded pesticide poisoning in the field and vivid testimony to the lack of concern of those who would waste human lives in order to over kill insects by contaminating both the pickers and the food. Diana describes an occurrence when she was picking peaches at 15 years of age: "…After about an hour in the field, I noticed that when I wiped my forehead on my sleeve, I was leaving skin on my sleeve, doing such hard work prompts one to wipe the face on his sleeve frequently, and after doing so several times more I noticed that it was painful, and that the perspiration of my face, neck and forehead was burning me more severely as minutes went by, and I was getting dizzy and sick to my stomach.

WORK SICKNESS

"By mid-day I had stomach cramps and diarrhea on top of everything else (there were no toilets or sanitation facilities in the field), and I was about to admit that I was too sick to work, when my mother announced her own symptoms and we voted to knock off at 2:00 p.m. because `everybody seemed to be coming down with something'.

"…Within ten days we learned of the deaths of four small children who had been in the fields at that ranch…

"I see farmworkers, the people who bend their backs in the hot sun 10 and 12 hours a day, to put food on someone else's table, going home hungry, and with barely enough money to rent a shack to house their families.

"These hard-working people are subsidizing America's agribusiness conglomerates, and being subjected to the cruelest experimentation known to science. Without their understanding, knowledge or consent, they and their children are subjected to varying doses of poison daily and are denied medical attention because they cannot afford to feed and clothe their families, much less purchase medical care".

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LORTON CORRECTION COMPLEX: VA. PRISONERS FILE SUIT TO END ABUSE
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(Lorton, Virginia) - Forty-one prisoners at Lorton's Correctional Complex are filing charges against the institution and the officials responsible for its conditions. The hearing was set for September 11, 1973, in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.

This class action suit stems from the abuse protested against by prisoners during Lorton's September 26, 1972, work stoppage. These include: racial discrimination and segregation; physical brutality; denial of medical care; religious activity; proper hearings for forfeiture of goodtime; illegal disciplinary procedures and indecent living conditions. The infliction of reprisals upon prisoners for voicing grievances and complaints to the court are also to be investigated by the court.

The officials being charged are: Delbert C. Jackson, Director; C. Larry Swain, Superintendent; James E. Swoboda and Grady. Springs, Administrators; and Leon Keenan, Administrator

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[manuscriptimage] of the maximum security facility. This last official, Keenan, is rumored to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

For further information, contact Nathaniel Wright III, legal representative of the Inmate Grievance Committee of the maximum security adjustment facility, Dorm 21, Complex, Lorton, Virginia 22079. THE BLACK PANTHER received this report from Brother Wright and from Brother Raymond Brooks, both prisoners at Lorton Complex.

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INSIDE OUT
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IRA BALLS WHILE
BAILEY BOMBS

A lot of people want to know where ex-Berkeley councilman D'Army Bailey's running mate, Ira Simmons, was when the chips fell on Blackness in Berkeley's government. Perhaps he was too busy dodging collection agencies chasing him as a result of a wild binge in which he had indulged his Black ego with White fantasies on credit and racked up champaign bills on a taxpayer - supported beer budget. But, not only couldn't creditors locate this champion D'Army find Simmons as he hopped around the hot spots of Europe trying to forget his "troubles" while his "friend" sat on a hot seat in Berkeley in big trouble. With friends like these, who needs enemies.

THELMA SCOTT:
THE FAT CAT AT MODEL CITIES

As one of the Black brains behind Oakland's Model Cities program (administratix for the Community Demonstration Agency), it had been the assigned task of Ms. Thelma Scott to provide expertise to poor Blacks and help, thereby, carry out any effective Model Cities program. True to the city's form and demonstrating -- in true women's lib style -- that Black female lackies are just as good as Black male lackies, Ms. Scott accepts a large, man-sized salary to carefully lead non-experts, the community elected members of the West Oakland Planning Committee (Oakland's Community Advisory Board to the city on the Model Cities program) into disaster and thereby help to destroy the potential use of those federal funds toward the interest of the poor, Black community. Using her Black face to gain the people's confidence and intellectualized rhetoric that miseducated people find hard to decipher, Ms. Scott attends various community meetings and convinces unsuspecting listeners to support, in essence, the reactionary program of Oakland's city administration. It is certain that her pockets become even fatter than her salary permits when she, on the other hand, informs her superior, Oakland City Manager Cecil Riley, of what the people "down in the ghetto" are doing and thinking. As a result of all this faithful service to the city, the Model Cities program is being phased out of existence with the excuse that Black folks can't do anything for themselves even when given the opportunity. "Well done, oh good and faithful servant!"

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PEOPLE'S LAWSUIT MOVES TO SET ASIDE 1972 ELECTIONS
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(New York, N.Y.) - As revelations of the sordid Watergate affair continue to unfold and the first wave of surprise and amazement gives way to anger, the entire country has begun to ask the same question: "What can be done?"

One answer, and the best to date short of impeachment, is the proposal to file a People's Lawsuit, to set aside the 1972 presidential elections. Sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild the suit charges that the election of Richard Nixon and his crime partner, Spiro Agnew, was fraudulent, unlawful and unconstiuttional.

The basis for this argument lies in the constiutional right of the people to "free and open elections". It is held, and can be readily and legally established, that the American people were effectively disenfranchised by the "dirty tricks" and "White House horrors" associated with Nixon's 1972 campaign victory. While people were not physically stopped from casting their ballots, the path to the ballot box was paved with plumbers; serious crimes and misrepresentations had the effect of undermining the validity of the election.

Documentation for this charge is found in testimony given before the Senate Select Committee Investigating 1972 Campaign Activites. There, day after day, week after week, witnesses have given evidence not of just a bungled burglary, but of a systematic purposeful effort to subvert the democratic process. Former Attorney General John Mitchell swore that he "would have done anything" to ensure Nixon's election. The fact is, he did -- anything and everything.

The constitutional right of the people to participate in a "fair and open" election is the issue raised by the People's Lawsuit. All citizen's can participate in the suit as plaintiff's since it was we, the American people as a whole whose rights were violated, purposefully, willfully and maliciously.

Anyone wishing to join the suit as plaintiff, who would desire further information on the People's Lawsuit or would like to make a contribution to help defray the legal expenses should contact: The Committee To Set Aside the 1972 Election, c/o National Lawyers Guild, 23 Cornelia Street, New York, N.Y. 10014.

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GOVERNMENT FILES SUIT: CORPORATION RACISM CHALLENGED
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(Washington, D.C.) - In a rare civil rights action by a U.S. government agency, The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last week charged four of America's largest corporations and several major unions with job discrimination. The suit charging job discrimination on the basis of race, sex and national origin was filed against the General Motors Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Electric Company and Sears, Roebuck and Company.

Among the unions charged were the United Auto Workers, International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, United Electrical Workers Union and others in the auto and electrical industries. The commission said that "a major construction union" and the contractor and contractors' association with which it deals were also charged.

The charges could lead to court action against the companies and unions for violation of Title 7 of the Civil

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[manuscriptimage] Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment. But, it is reported, the commission prefers an out of court settlement.

Thousands of individuals have reportedly filed complaints against the four big corporations. General Motors alone received 1,800 complaints. The charges involve discrimination in policies on wage scales, fringe benefits, promotions, layoffs, qualification testing, re-call of laid-off workers, seniority, union representation training and apprenticeships.

The filing of charges was brought to fruition by the commission's National Program Division, founded earlier this year to direct commission resources to organizations against which complaints have been filed.

Other major corporations are likely to be charged. The corporations and unions charged thus far were selected on the basis of: the total number of complaints of discrimination already filed against them; an alleged strong potential for relief of the effected employees; the impact of the industries involved on the rest of the economy; compliance records of the organizations; the size and economic health of the organizations; and factors including the wages and skill requirements of the industry.

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A.I.M. LEADER TO RUN FOR TRIBAL PRESIDENCY
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(Wounded Knee, S.D.) - Declaring "We want an independent country. We must realize what the federal government and the Wasichu (white man) have done to us" and pledging to "fight for the people's right to live in safety and in peace in Wounded Knee and throughout the entire Pine Ridge reservation", Russell Means, a leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM), has announced that he will run for tribal president of the Oglala Sioux.

The news of Means announcement was accompanied by the sad disclosure that young Mary Ann Little Bear, a nine year old resident of Wounded Knee who was tragically shot the weekend before, would lose all sight in her left eye. Means denounced the shooting as a "cowardly attack by leaders of Wilson's terrorist goon squad".

The Wilson that Russell Means referred to is Richard Wilson, the traitor Native American, who so diligently worked along with the federal government and the reservation (BIA) police in attempting to remove AIM and their supporters during the five-month occupation at Wounded Knee. (Wilson is also the present tribal council president.)

The shooting of Mary Ann Little Bear is one of a long series of incidents since that historic occupation. Ignored by the press, the incidents began the very day the occupation ended when Wounded Knee homes were invaded and ransacked by BIA police with the sanction of the federal government. Dissenters to the Wilson

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[manuscriptimage] government have become automatic targets of terrorist attack, Means charged. He also asserted that this violence goes unheeded by law enforcement authorities, a fact with which most Native American residents agree.

The day after announcing his candidacy, Russell Means, along with Vern Bellecourt, who was taken from a hospital bedside vigil, and four other AIM leaders were indicted by a grand jury and immediately arrested. Bellecourt, was taken despite his request to maintain his silent and peaceful vigil at the bedside of his brother, Clyde, who had been recently shot in the stomach by snipers who are under Wilson's direction.

DEMONSTRATION

The six were all charged with alleged crimes connected with a demonstration held in Custer, South Dakota, in February, 1972. The demonstration had been called by AIM to commemorate the death of Raymond Yellow Thunder, a Native American killed by a white man in Gordon, Nebraska. Charges for the crime were dropped. During the demonstration, Custer police had attacked several mourners and, in the aftermath, the Chamber of Commerce building was burned to the ground and the country courthouse suffered heavy damages.

Prior to the indictments a series of penetrating challenges to the grand jury's selection and composition, were all denied by the district court judge.

Among the challenges were: the systematic exclusion of racial minorities from the grand jury and the atmosphere of prejudice which exists in Custer County making an impartial grand jury impossible.

In Russell Means' announcement to run for tribal president, he declared: "If I am elected, there will be an end to the tribal presidency, to the tribal constitution and council, and an end to the BIA and the Indian Reorganization Act. Oglala people will govern themselves … Each community will govern itself, and a federation of communities will comprise the soverign government.

"The gun is the white man's way. We can't win with the gun. But we do have a future if we pick up the sacred pipe; we do have a future with the treaty. Think of the good things… Maybe if we are strong enough as a people, little girls won't have to lose their eyes anymore."

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SUPREME COURT RULING: BLACK VOTERS RIGHTS UPHELD IN PETERSBURG, VA.
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(Petersburg, Virginia) - A recent Supreme Court decision has enabled a Black man to become the mayor of a town in the state of Virginia for the first time in this century. The decision also opened the way to the upset election, June 12, of a predominantly Black city council. The breakthrough came when the high court ruled that so-called at-large elections are unconstitutional when they discriminate against minority group voters.

At - large elections are contests where all the registered voters within a specific electoral region, such as a city, can vote for a candidate who will represent only a part of that region. This means that if a region is divided into four parts and a candidate is running for office representing only the southern quarter, voters in the northern, eastern and western quarters would still be able to vote for, or against him. If this southern quarter is a Black community and the other three quarters are White communities, a candidate will be elected who represents the interests of the White voters rather than the interests of the Black voters the candidate is supposed to represent.

As Huey P. Newton says, "Democracy in America (bourgeois democracy) means nothing more than the domination of the majority over the minority. That is why Black people can cast votes all year long but if the majority is against us, we suffer… This may be democratic for the majority, but for the minority it has the same effect as fascism. When the majority decreed that we should be slaves, we were slaves - where was the democracy in slavery for us?"

In Petersburg, the long-time White majority had become a minority. The Petersburg authorities wished to annex a nearby White suburban area into the city of Petersburg to offset the new Black voter majority. The Black voters of Petersburg appealed to the courts to halt the city's schemes over the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Under Section 5 of the Act, certain states, including Virginia, are forbidden from changing their voting procedures unless the local authorities can prove that the changes are nondiscriminatory.

The Black voters, the court, and the U.S. Justice Department agreed that the annexation plan would benefit Petersburg in many respects but would have a discriminatory effect in elections. The court ruled that the city would have to change from at large to single-member or ward elections if it annexed the suburb.

Although this is a significant victory for Black and other oppressed minority voters, it applies only to seven southern states and certain southwestern states where Blacks and Chicanos are severely effected by the treachery of bigoted election officials and government representatives. The decision is not a "blanket" ruling but may be applied only to an individual case after a court ruling when a particular election procedure is challenged.

Our victory is tarnished by these and other restrictions. We (Black and poor people) can still define our situation as Huey defined in his statement of May 1, 1973, "Our true interests and needs are not being served."

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PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE
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PRE-RECORDED VERDICTS

(San Francisco, Calif.) - California's first pre-recorded jury trial occurred here last week. The courtroom had two 23-inch television monitors, one for spectators and an 11-inch monitor for the judge. The questioning of witnesses, viewed on the monitors, had been recorded on video tape two months before the trial began. Closeups of facial expressions were "not adequate", said a juror. "If there's any place you need the human element, it's in court…"

SECRET POLICE ARSENELS

(Sacramento, Calif.) - Half a million dollars worth of modern riot control equipment is stockpiled at 14 secret locations in the event of large disturbances, state official said here recently. Purchased by the Office of Emergency Services with a $484,000 federal Safe Streets Act grant, the material includes riot vests, disposable plastic handcuffs, steel guns that fire "bean bag" ammunition, tear gas dispensers and special bullet proof vests. The locations of the stockpiles were not disclosed because "we don't want to alert dissidents", said an official.

CLOSE THE "HOLE"!

(San Francisco, Calif.)- Solitary confinement units at San Quentin and Folsom Prisons should be closed immediately because "they haven't changed much since the days James Cagney shot it out with wardens in crime films", an Assemblyman investigating California prisons said recently. Assemblyman Walter Karabian singled out B section at San Quentin and 1 - C at Folsom as "inadequate for decent housing of prisoners". A 143 page report by Karabian's staff said the rest of the state's 13 adjustment centers are in any case not rehabilitary for prisoners the state has labeled "extremely dangerous".

RETALIATION AT McALESTER

(McAlester, Oklahoma) - As a result of an August 20th hearing, lawyers expressing the desire to enter McAlester Prison to prevent retaliation by prison authorities and provide prisoners with legal advice on their constitutional rights, have been denied access until after October 1st, "…and even then its not guaranteed", said civil liberties lawyer Mary Bane. Conditions in the prison, stemming from the time buildings went up in flames in a rebellion last month are "unbelievable", Ms. Bane said. "There has been severe macing of prisoners."

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IN SEARCH OF COMMON GROUND
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CONVERSATION WITH ERIK H. ERIKSON
AND HUEY P. NEWTON

Every now and then a book appears that commands attention. In Search of Common Ground, the conversations of Huey P. Newton, cofounder and leading theoritician of the Black Panther Party and Erik H. Erickson, Professor Emeritus of Human Development at Yale University and a world-reknown psychoanalyst, is a such a book.

The conversations took place in 1971, in a formal setting at Yale University and, a few months later, in a more relaxed and informal gathering at Huey Newton's Oakland apartment. The conversations reflect these different atmospheres, as well as the hesitating starts and stops, ups and downs as these two brilliant men, one from "the streets", the other from "academia", exchange ideas on humankind.

In Search of Common Ground, represents not so much the agreed upon conclusions of the two participants, nor does it dwell upon their contrasts. Rather, by simply recording their sincere and honest attempts to meet, In Search of Common Ground, reflects a modern day quest for the common truth that can unite us all.

THE BLACK PANTHER is privilged to reprint excerpts from this work, to be published in October. Part I which follows is Huey P. Newton's opening statement in the talks, presented at Yale University.

PART 1

NEWTON: I'll start the discussion by explaining the Black Panther Party's ideology. We believe that everything is in a constant state of change, so we employ a framework of thinking that can put us in touch with the process of change. That is, we believe that the conclusions at which we arrive will always change, but the fundamentals of the method by which we arrive at our conclusions will remain constant. Our ideology, therefore, is the most important part of our thinking.

There are many different ideologies or schools of thought, and all of them start with an a priori set of assumptions. This is because mankind is still limited in its knowledge and finds it hard, at this historical stage, to talk about the very beginning of things and the very end of things without starting from premises that cannot yet be proved.

IDEALISM AND MATERIALISM

This is true of both general schools of thought - the idealist and the materialist. The idealists base their thinking on certain presumptions about things of which they have very little knowledge; the materialists like to believe that they are very much in contact with reality, or the real material world, disregarding the fact that they only assume there is a material world.

The Black Panther Party has chosen materialist assumptions on which to ground its ideology. This is a purely arbitrary choice. Idealism might be the real happening; we might not be here at all. We don't really know whether we are in Connecticut or in San Francisco, whether we are dreaming and in a dream state, or whether we are awake and in a dream state. Perhaps we are just somewhere in a void; we simply can't be sure. But because the members of the Black Panther Party are materialists, we believe that some day scientists will be able to deliver the information that will give us not only the evidence but the proof that there is a material world and that its genesis was material - motion and matter - not spiritual.

Until that time, however, and for the purposes of this discussion, I merely ask that we agree on the stipulation that a material world exists and develops externally and independently of us all. With this stipulation, we have the foundation for an intelligent dialogue. We assume that there is a material world and that it exists and develops independently of us; and we assume that the human organism, through it sensory system, has the ability to observe and analyze that material world.

Now the dialectical materialist believes that everything in existence has fundamental internal contradictions. For example, the African gods south of the Sahara always had at least two heads, one for evil and one for good. Now people create God in their own image, what they think He - for God is always a "He" in patriarchal societies- what He is like or should be. So the African said, in effect: I am both good and evil; good and evil are the two parts of the thing that is me. This is an example of an internal contradiction.

WESTERN SOCIETIES

Western societies, though, split up good and evil, placing God up in heaven and the Devil down in hell. Good and evil fight for control over people in Western religions, but they are two entirely different entities. This is an example of an external contradiction.

This struggle of mutually exclusive opposing tendencies within everything that exists explains the observable fact that all things have motion and are in a constant state of transformation. Things transform themselves because while one tendency or force is more dominating than another, change is nonetheless a constant, and at some point the balance will alter and there will be a new qualitative development. New properties will come into existence, qualities that did not altogether exist before. Such qualities cannot be analyzed without understanding the forces struggling within the object in the first place, yet the limitations and determinations of these new qualities are not defined by the forces that created them.

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK

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OPERATION GEMSTONE: “THE GREAT WATERGAGTE CONSPIRIACY”
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FLIGHT 553. THE WATERGATE MURDER?

With this issue, THE BLACK PANTHER resumes publication of excerpts from "Operation Gemstone: The Great Watergate Conspiracy". This weeks' excerpt begins the incredible story of the fateful United Airlines crash that killed Dorothy Hunt, wife of E. Howard Hunt, former CIA agent and convicted Watergate conspirator.

Operation Gemstone is a work in-progress by the CRIC. It is under the editorship of Donald Freed, author of Executive Action, a novel based on the events leading to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

THE BLACK PANTHER has been given exclusive prepublication rights to print excerpts from Operation Gemstone.

December 8, 1972

It was far from the light dress, short sleeve, easy weather of a sultry Washington, D.C., June. Seven months had passed since May of 1972, when E. Howard Hunt had first attempted to reconnoiter the Watergate.

Hunt and his wife, Dorothy, had left their rambling estate which he had named Witches Island, on River Road, Potomac, Maryland, and were headed toward National Airport, Washington, D.C. As they drove, one of the things the "ex"-C.I.A. couple talked about was his newly finished spy thriller, Berlin Ending, which was to be published in September.

A little less than twenty four years ago, September 7, 1949, the former Dorothy L. Wetzel from Dayton, Ohio, had become Mrs. Everette Howard Hunt, Jr.

The C.I.A. was only two years old in 1949 when Hunt, calling himself a "State Department Reserve Officer" (in reality he was the blackest of black clandestine operatives) appeared in Paris as liaison for the Marshall Plan between the American Embassy and the Economic Cooperation administration (a C.I.A. front).

It was there that Hunt met and married Dorothy Wetzel, who was also a functionary in the Paris C.I.A. station. He did not seem to mind when she informed him that she was full-blooded American Indian.

"C.I.A. COUPLE"

They were a "C.I.A. couple" from the beginning but they had made a life: children, books, homes, plots and counterplots in fiction and for real.

Now they were "old hands". Known throughout the espionage world. They were illegals, a "black" or clandestine couple with a house and children and pets and middle age. Hunt fought age: he had written no fewer than 47 novels; had created nom de plumes, nom de guerres and several fictional alter egos as heroes. The first was CIA agent Peter Ward, a younger version of Hunt himself (they both went to Brown University and felt they should have attended Harvard), and another was a casual, thrill-hunting Washington C.P.A. named Steve Bentley. They never failed.

Here, in the real world, the worst had happened. Their cover had been blown domestically; completely for him, with photographs and a newspaper biography for the first time. The both were out in the cold and the "company", the agency, could not move inside the country under the searchlight of Watergate. Their protector, CIA director Helms, had been fired by the "opportunists" in the White House. And the Agency, by identifying Hunt to the media, had betrayed their own cardinal rule of "deniability".

Dorothy glanced at the fair profile as they drove. "Eduardo" - the Cuban contract agents still called him "Eduardo" as they had when he led them all at the Bay of Pigs. Would they ever know, she wondered, that he, Hunt, had gone to Castro and sold them out? Not really, but as a ploy; he had had no choice: after Vice President Nixon, the Cuban "Action Official" in the Eisenhower White House, had been defeated by John F. Kennedy there looked to be no other way to get the official U.S. military into the invasion unless the landing threatened to become what Kennedy recognized as a total and humiliating debacle for the United States. So they had tried to set JFK up, but the Kennedy brothers had called the "company's" bluff, and they had been humiliated on the beach at Playa Giron. She sighed she saw the same bottomless resentment that Hunt had harboured for Kennedy consuming him again as Richard Nixon slowly sold them out.

As the road away from home ribboned greyly under the car, Dorothy suggested to her husband that he change the conclusion of his new novel. She told him that the "ending was just to pat" that the "good guys won too easily". She said, "The evildoers of the world are not always punished, sometimes the son of a bitch gets away with it and the good people don't."

Holiday decorations were going up. The Hunt's pulled into the airport. One condition of E. Howard Hunt's three month old indictment on six counts of conspiracy, was restricted travel. He could not leave the Washington area. Since September 15, it had been Dorothy alone who made all the trips with the money to keep the Cubans quiet. He had thought about disregarding the court order and taking this flight, up to the last minute. Then he had changed his mind.

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Solemnly the two strode into the airport; Howard looking like a retired English gentlemen in soft country tweeds and Dorothy like the horsewoman that she was. The porter offered to take the bag from the wealthy looking pair. Hunt casually declined.

They moved to the counter and checked the luggage through to Chicago. They put the quarters in the machine and withdrew a quarter of a million dollars of flight insurance. As Dorothy signed, Hunt scanned the terminal. They looked at each other.

Now six oblique and hectic months after the break-in at Watergate, Dorothy and Howard Hunt were here, saying goodbye at Washington, D.C.'s number two airport. She was fifty two and felt it for the first time. She had made it clear to them all that she was tired, wanted out, this was the last trip.

Was the plan to go to Chicago to take care of "business" or was Chicago just the first leg of a much longer journey out of the country?

Her husband was gone. Dorothy Hunt grapsed her handbag and moved through the terminal. She felt bulky, ill at case in her heavy winter travelling clothes. She concentrated on Hunt's secret papers; the ones that he had told her to say could "impeach the President ten times over" if the White House ever tried to turn her down financially. Time was about up on "the papers". The press was digging out the "eight cartons", their life insurance.

Two contradictory articles later appeared regarding these allusive cartons. United Press International told its readers that: Fight cartons of documents from the office of E. Howard Hunt, Jr., may have been locked in the trunk of a junked car for six months and then burned at a city dump … Roy H. Sheppard, who operates a Washington based delivery service, said that a woman he now believed was Hunt's wife, Dorothy, got in touch with him shortly after the Watergate … paid him $500 in $100 bills to keep the cartons … He did not open the cartons until November, 1972 … "When no one asked about them", he said he took them to the incinerator.

A DIFFERENT STORY

But the leading investigative journalist, Jack Anderson, knew better and was prepared to tell a different story. And Hunt knew he knew. My search for documentation meanwhile, led me to the Hunt papers … He packed his documents into eight cardboard boxes, obtained clearances to move the sealed boxes out of the White House, then arranged for a trusted associate, Roy Sheppard, a federal employee, to pick them up and stash them in his basement … But suddenly, in August (1972) Hunt contacted Sheppard who returned the incriminating boxes.

These were only two of the scenarious regarding the most wanted boxes in Washington.

It galled her. They had not only subpeoned her but her children. Lisa, Kevan, St. John and David were being teased and taunted at school. And Lisa had not been herself since the accident; she had had to see a pyschiatrist until Hunt stopped her. Maybe some psychiatrists don't talk, but their files can be gotten.

She thought about herself, having to dicker and beg for months in telephone booths for more and more White House money. She had lost her job at the Spanish Embassy on July 3, due to "adverse publicity". The press had identified her as a part-time "speech writer and translator".

Then there were all the compadres down south, who would do anything for Howard, their beloved "Eduardo". Waiting like bums with their hands out … patriots.

She had to deal with attorneys' fees, living expenses, bails, offers of executive clemency, memos, psychiatric aid for the "school teacher". Well, at least she had not gone round the bend like Liddy's wife, even if it might have been just an excuse for the cash. And Hunt's lawyer, Bittman. She was uneasy about William O. Bittman and his late Chicago crime big shot of a father-in-law, Michael Schiletti. How close was Bittman now with the mob? Was the lawyer just the White House's man or was there a mob angle to this that she, at any rate, had not guessed?

The stubby twin engine Boeing 737 jetliner, N9031U, United Airlines flight 553, was scheduled to leave National at 1:20 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, final destination Omaha, Nebraska, with one prior stop scheduled at Midway Airport in Chicago. Dorothy Hunt sensed the weight of her pocketbook. Then she noticed Michelle Clark, a handsome Black CBS news reporter, approaching the boarding gate. How much would she tell Ms. Clark this time?

Ms. Clark had learned from her sources that the Hunts might be getting ready to "blow the White House out of the water", and that before Howard Hunt was hung out to twist slowly in the breeze he would "bring down every tree in the forest". Hunt was claiming to have the data necessary to impeach Nixon. His co-conspirator, James W. McCord, has testified that matters were coming to a head early in December, 1972. "Mrs. Hunt was unhappy with her job going all over the country to bribe defendants and witnesses in the bugging case. She wanted out." The talk, further, was that Hunt's "bottom line" price for silence was a confirmation of the promise that he was going to get Executive Clemency and two million dollars in negotiable securities.

What was the in-flight exchange from the "bag lady", as the press would posthumously dubller, to the CBS correspondent, Michelle Clark, to be? Was it to be more tempting leaks, furthering the idea that the Hunt's did possess hard documentation which could follow if their money demands were not met. Or had the Hunt's blackmail already produced enough money for a new life with this interview simply a dodge to help cover Dorothy Hunt's trip to Chicago and beyond to familiar retreats in Uruguay, Costa Rica, Nicaragua or Spain? Or, was her plan, with or without the money, to rip the entire conspiracy of Operation Gemstone wide open and bring down this new set of betrayers, who had in effect abandoned them until they had fought back with blackmail?

MICHELLE CLARK

Michelle Clark of South Oglesby Avenue, Chicago, was twenty-nine. She had attended Roosevelt University and in less than two years she had gone from a summer journalism institute at Columbia University to a position as CBS' first Black woman correspondent. Now she was returning to Chicago from Washington where she had been appearing on the morning news broadcast. She was taking flight 553 for the express purpose of the exclusive Watergate interview with Mrs. Hunt.

The seat belts were fastened, chairs were being uprighted. All cigarettes were out. The costumed hostess had completed her work on the passenger list. All were accounted for. The cancellation of one Lawrence T. O'Conner of Chicago, had been noted. Then it was announced that "departure would be delayed by about ten to fifteen minutes".

Dorothy Hunt and Michelle Clark were now seated side by side. Outside, somewhere at a distance lay the Capitol shrouded in a wintry grey mist off the Potomac. While Ms. Clark was arranging her notes and her bag, Mrs. Hunt took a final look out the small window in what she thought might be the direction of the Washington Monument. Her husband's character Steve Bentley was right when he described the nation's capitol as "a great town if you've got the stamina of a Cape Buffalo and the wealth of a Punjab prince". She wedged her pocketbook tightly down beside her on the seat and half turned, rising against the pressure of the seat belt to peruse the cabin for anyone on whom she might bring to bear her free floating anxiety and her very valid suspicions. Giving it up, she sat back and turned her head. Michelle Clark was smiling at her.

Under the spreading chestunut tree,
I sold you and you sold me.

E. Howard Hunt, quoting
George Orwell

TO BE CONTINUED

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LIFE FOR DOPE PROPOSED
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(Sacramento, Calif.) - Following New York's lead, California State Assemblyman Raymond Gonzales introduced a bill in the legislature last week calling for mandatory life imprisonment without parole for persons convicted of selling or possessing narcotic drugs for sale.

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Intercommunal News: JUNTA EXECUTES THOUSANDS IN CHILE
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ALLENDE'S WIFE SAYS MURDER,
NOT SUICIDE

(Santiago, Chile) - What has happened here since the U.S. government supported fascist coup September 1st that brought the military to power?

So-called Marxist parties have been banned with non-Marxist parties slated to follow. Chile's five great copper mines, nationalized under the late President Salvador Allende, are being put back into private and foreign hands and popular guerrilla resistance grows daily.

A measure of the fear of the new military leadership is clearly evident with the nation-wide order that persons discovered possessing any arms after Sunday, Sept. 23rd, will be shot. An undetermined number of Allende supporters and others are being held. The minimum reported figure is 5,000. Some sources suggest the number is several times that figure.

Reports of torture, summary executions and killings numbering as high as 5,000, continue to filter out from various parts of the country; as also do reports of guerrilla resistance among workers and the rural poor in Santiago and throughout the country. Evidence that such confrontations are underway between the military and the people is last weeks report that Chilean army troops captured guerilla leader Jose Gregoria Liendo, known as "Commandante Pepe", and 17 others in the southern town of Panguipulli.

Richard Gott, correspondent of the British newspaper Manchester Guardian among the first group of foreign journalists allowed into Chile after the coup, reports a "massacre at the Technical University, bodies in the Mapocho river, the destruction of the Sumar textile factory" and evidence of wide scale repression throughout the country.

Against this background headlines the right-wing daily newspaper ElMercurio announced that Chile was to receive a new credit of $65 million from the U.S. dominated Inter-American Development Bank. The president of the bank is reported to have said when questioned: "… political changes in a country do not alter our long term intentions." This bank was among those that cut off credit facilities to Chile following the democratic election of Allende.

At this writing Santiago is still under an 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew, with persons subject to be shot on sight if caught breaking the curfew. In the southern town of Temuco hundreds have been arrested "for nothing more than cooperating with the Allende government", a foreign teacher told newsmen. Lists of local people wanted by the army are read over the radio and former Allende supporters have had their heads shaved.

Meanwhile, now safely out of Chile, Allende's widow, Hortensia Bussi de

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[manuscriptimage] Allende told reporters in Mexico City last week: "I am absolutely sure he (Allende) did not commit suicide. I think he was murdered because of the bullet wounds he received." She added that the U.S. had "a great responsibility in what happened. We often heard that the government and the State Department did not want Allende in power", adding, "financial interests always predominate".

Meanwhile, from both the West coast and the East coast, separate groups of concerned American citizens have appealed to the United Nations to investigate reports of bloody repression of workers and others in Chile.

The West coast group included singer Joan Baez, playwright Arthur Miller, poets Archilbald MacLeish, Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The East coast group consisted of four Nobel Prize winners.

Throughout the world democratic forces have condemned the Chile coup and U.S. involvement in it. The African press has been almost unanimous in condemning the coup and charging the U.S. with involvement.

The New York Times September 18th reports from Santiago that "visible symbols of Allende disappear but not loyalty". Reacting to the widescale police searches for "leftist" supporters of Allende, a factory worker told the paper: "We don't tell them anything at all and they know that some of us are helping to hide people from the left. So, we shall all go back to work like good boys, keep very quiet and get ready for the next time. And then we shall have our revenge!"

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NON-ALIGNED CONFERENCE
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The media in this country gave wide play to the so-called Castro-Quaddafi "clash" at the recently concluded Non - Aligned Nations summit at Algiers. It is only fair to tell the ending of that encounter.

A letter which has just arrived from a participant of the conference includes the following description:

"On the last day of the Conference Castro announced that Cuba was breaking diplomatic relations with Israel. Immediately Yassir Arafat (leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization) took Quaddafi by the hand, while somebody else got Castro and there, on the middle of the platform the Libyan and Cuban presidents embraced and kissed while all assembled rose to their feet cheering and applauding."

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UNITED NATIONS BEGINS 28TH YEAR
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MEMBERSHIP REACHES
135 -- AFRICA, ASIA
UNDER-REPRESENTED

(United Nations) - The United Nations reached a membership of 135 nations as the 28th annual General Assembly opened in New York, September 18. On the first day of the new General Assembly, the Bahamas, the German Democratic Republic and West Germany were admitted as members. The admittance of the three countries was viewed by many as a big step toward universality of membership.

Among those expected to attend the 28th session of the Assembly are Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Foreign Minister Chi Pengfei of China, Sir Alec Douglas-Home of Britain, Andrei A. Gromyko of the Soviet Union, Michel Jobert of France, Aldo Moro of Italy and Masayoshi Ohira of Japan.

The U.S.A. is represented by U.N. Ambassador John A. Scali and archconservative editor, writer and television personality, William F. Buckley; recently confirmed U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger is expected to make a major foreign policy statement before the Assembly. All eyes will be focused on Kissinger when he addresses the world body. The delegates will be closely listening for as much as a hint of peaceful intent in the speech.

U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

U.S. foreign policy is increasingly being perceived for what it is -- a stumbling block to world peace. Member states are more and more out-voting the U.S. in the U.N. Distressed by the growing inability of the U.S. to press its reactionary policies on members of the U.N., Nixon in 1972 arrogantly cut back U.S. financial contributions to the body. The crucial veto power of the U.S. in the Security Council, though, remains a major obstacle to U.N. peace actions.

At the traditional pre-Assembly news conference, Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, responding to U.N. critics said: "If there were a will to use the United Nations as an instrument of peace, it would work very well." Waldheim described the situation aptly. In essence, he was saying that the U.S., and the diminishing number of nations aligned with it, do not want peace.

Despite the ill intention of the U.S., there is still the possibility that all the world's peoples will one day soon be represented in the U.N. The peoples of Asia and Africa, particularly, are presently under-represented. The call should now be made for the admittance of a unified Korea and Vietnam, and an independent Laos and Cambodia, and others.

From Africa, liberated Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola should be admitted. When these countries join, the possibility that others, like Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), Azania (South Africa) and Namibia (Southwest Africa), now under colonial rule, will be admitted to the world body is great.

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NEW LIBYAN MISSLES
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(Washington, D.C.) - The U.S. is upset over Libya's recent purchase and installation of a new French-built anti-aircraft missle system. The purchase is being viewed as an expression of Libya's fear of a future Israeli air attack against Libyan airfields.

-- 14 --

Africa In Focus
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SOUTH AFRICA

The South African regime has issued banning orders on at least eight leaders of the newly formed Black Peoples Convention (BPC), a political group established to form a nationwide political party for Black people in South Africa. The banning orders, issued under the infamous "suppresion of Communism" Act, prevent participation in politics and bar attendence at meetings or social gatherings. They also include house arrests and restrictions on movement. No appeal is possible.

RHODESIA (ZIMBABWE)

The United Nations Security Council's Committee on Sanctions appealed recently for information from private individuals and organizations regarding violations of the international boy-cott against the illegal, White minority regime in Rhodesia. The Committee noted that information it has received in the past -- mainly from governments -- has enabled it to investigate many cases of violations of the mandatory economic and other sanctions. It said it felt, however, that other, untapped sources of information should be utilized by encouraging individuals and organizations to report.

ZAMBIA

President Kenneth Kaunda announced recently that his government was taking immediate measures to gain firmer control of Zambia's rich and vital copper industry from Western interests. Excessively profitable management contracts granted the two major American companies operating in Zambia in 1969 when Zambia took over 51 percent ownership of the copper industry are to be renegotiated. President Kaunda said that special privileges enjoyed by these minority-owners of the copper mines would be ended.

UNITED NATIONS

The United States and South Africa are among nations condemned recently by the United Nations 24-nation Decolonization Committee for failing to prevent their nationals from taking part in the "economic exploitation of the natural and human resources of the colonial territories, without regard to the welfare of the indigenous peoples". Other countries were Portugal, Britain, West Germany, France and Canada.

-- 15 --

ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS: FILM REVIEW: “BURN” -- TWO CENTURIES OF EVIL EXPOSED
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"Burn" is a movie that exposes imperialist intrigue in oppressed colonial lands. It is set on an imaginary island called Camada in the West Indies, during the 1840's.

Marlon Brando plays the role of Sir Wm. Walker, an early-day CIA agent of sorts working for the British Admiralty. He is conspiring with a small clique of traitors to overthrow Portuguese rule on the island and hand control of the island's only industry, the cultivation and harvesting of sugar cane, to the British Empire.

The man Sir Walker had been instructed to enlist to aid in the rebellion, a bandit named Santiago, has been captured and beheaded. Unruffled, Walker selects another local badman to take Santiago's place, the run-away bandit slave Jose Delores, the hero in this film.

Walker's plan is to enlist Jose in a bank robbery, secretly inform the Portuguese and at the same time provide arms for Jose and his men to fight the Portuguese troops. Jose must call the villagers to his aid and thus the ignition of rebellion. This perhaps is the major flaw of a good motion picture. Real people would have been considerably more prudent before starting an insurrection and more time and care would have been necessary to organize them.

PEOPLE'S VICTORY

However, the robbery succeeds, the Portuguese pursuit patrol is wiped out and the people are victorious. They sing and dance, men, women and children to celebrate the event. Again Walker pulls Jose aside. Is Jose going to leave them here to be hunted down and facesure, swiftdeath at the hands of the Portuguese tyrants? No! Jose loves his people. He will remain with them. The army of slaves that Jose builds carries its struggle forward and wins victory after victory in the countryside of Canada.

On the other side of the island Walker conspires with his other pawns, the White Portuguese traitors, to overthrow Portugals' control and establish free trade (with England). The British fleet holds the Portuguese fleet at bay and one of the traitors kills the governor. Through the plot, assassinations, murders, executions and military "deaths-in-action" are the result of Sir Walker's Special Forces, Green Beret, CIA-type style of work. When he is not pulling the trigger himself, he stands beside or behind the assassin.

When the governor's slayer is made president of the new provisional government, Delores as leader of the slave revolt must compromise and lay his guns aside. One concession is the abolition of slavery and the institution of wage-work (slavery). Sir Walker's mission is over and he is reassigned to Indochina. A British sugar company is given a 99-year lease on the island's sugar cane harvest.

However the movie doesn't end here. Before it is over Delores' is compelled to take up arms against the new government. The British army and Sir Walker intervene, Jose Delores is caught and hung, a knot of contradictions develop, unfold and are revealed before our eyes and in the uncut version of the film, Sir Walker is killed by a young Black revolutionary as he is leaving the island.

"Burn" leaves the evil of two centuries exposed like skeletal remnants of a forest fire expose the broken backbone of the forest. Imperialism's backbone is broken too, through the imagery of this film.

The sound, the camera work, the acting, the depiction of the power of masses of people, as well as the manipulations of the few, all combine to make "Burn" a very hot film.

-- 16 --

Support the Intercommunal Youth Institute
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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

-- 19 --

A PROGRAM FOR SURVIVAL
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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.

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 assitance 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.

-- [20] --