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WHITE HOUSE “ENEMIES” SLATED FOR DESTRUCTION
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EDITORIAL: IS THE B.P.P. REFORMIST?
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(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following guest editorial is taken from an interview THE
BLACK PANTHER conducted with Don Freed, Editor of the extremely informative
Citizen's Research and Investigating Committee (CRIC). Mr. Freed, a long time
friend of the Black Panther Party is the author of two highly acclaimed works,
Agony in New Haven: The Trial of Bobby Seale, Ericka Huggins and the Black Panther
Party and Executive Action. His most recent work with CRIC, "Operation
Gemstone: The Great Watergate Conspiracy", appears serialized in these
pages weekly.)
Q: Don, how would you reply to the possible criticism that the appearance of the Black Panther Party, Huey Newton, leading a list of organizations called "Enemies of the White House" represents evidence of its abdication from the revolutionary struggle because it's joined together with the middle grouping people?
A: Well, the short answer will be ignorance and envy but, I think it's important to understand what that list is. That list is an abstraction of course, and there are many fine and good people who are on the other lists, both formal and informal, or who in one way or another suffer for their beliefs. But that list represents a question of who is and was most dangerous to the pre-takeover agenda of those forces operating through the Nixon administration.
It is not an ideological list, it is a list based on power… That's why George Wallace is on it, that's why Huey P. Newton is on it and the Black Panther Party. That's why a number of multi-millionaires are on it. It is not a list of the left at all. It is a list of the left, center and the right who represent a threat, who have a base of power, who cannot either be immediately co-opted or exterminated. The fact that there's only one name and Party - symbolizing one group on the left is because in the estimation of the people who know best, they are the only group of which the administration has anything to fear.
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The anti-war demonstrations were influential and successful, but you can't list 250,000 people. When they came together on those days, once or twice a year to protest the war, then indeed they had great power, but as they left those marches to simply become individuals again or became involved in sectarian movements they did not represent any threat; they did not appear on the list.
So there was only one group that was not defined by the government, but simply in its organization, in its vision, in its growing grassroots hold on a large number of people, in their international reputation. They alone on the American left appear on that list. Because they alone have the potential to threaten the actual power of the government at some time in the future.
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Letter to the Editor
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The letter below is a response by two Catholic officials to a letter sent to
Ms. Exilda Groux of the National Association of Laity, a Catholic organization
headquartered in Quebec Canada. James D. Garbolino, Assistant Legal Affairs
Secretary of the state of California, wrote Ms. Groux that as a Catholic he
was "appalled" because of a letter she had sent in the name of her
organization to the California Adult Authority demanding the parole release
of David Hilliard. (See THE BLACK PANTHER, June 16, 1973.)
18 June 1973
Dear Mr. Garbolino,
A copy of your letter to Miss Groux concerning Mr. David Hilliard was sent to Father John Duryea, Catholic chaplain of St. Ann's Newman Center, Stanford University. Father Duryea and I have discussed your letter. We are surprised by your reaction to Miss Groux, who has a right to express her beliefs regarding Mr. Hillard's case.
As one who is familiar with his case, being present in court when evidence was presented, I firmly believe him to be innocent of the conviction concerning the 1968 shootout. On this firm premise, I consented to be his spiritual director while he was at Folsom State Prison.
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Father Duryea and I concur that the California Adult Authority should hear his appeal. Even if some people believe David to be guilty as charged, he already served two years of punishment. He is a very sensitive, compassionate human being who has forgiven those who have caused him to suffer great physical and mental anguish, yet his faith in people remains. Many of us at Stanford University, and connected with it in a religious ministry, are confident that his moral responses and spiritual resources will develop more fully in being released from prison.
Sincerely,
Miriam Cherry, Associate Chaplain
Fr. John Duryea, Chaplain
The Newman Center at Stanford University
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“OPERATION GEMSTONE: THE GREAT WATERGATE CONSPIRACY”
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PART 5
This week's excerpt from "Operation Gemstone: The Great Watergate Conspiracy", a work in progress by the Citizens Research and Investigating Committee based in Beverly Hills, California, continues the story of the finance operations of the Watergate conspirators and the Committee to Re-elect the President. THE BLACK PANTHER has been given exclusive advance publication rights to print excerpts from the work.
In addition to the $89,000 deposited and then withdrawn from Barker's account, there was another $25,000 in Barker's account at the time of his arrest, the origin of which is also revealing. The $25,000 had been deposited in Barker's account in April in the form of a cashier's check from the First Bank the Trust Company of Boca Raton, Florida, made out to and endorsed by Kenneth Dahlberg, who turns out to be the Nixon campaign's midwest finance chairman.
Dahlberg first denied knowledge of the check, then admitted he had turned over the check, which he claimed represented campaign contributions from midwest Nixon supporters, to the very busy Mr. Stans. Stans then gave the Check to Hugh W. Sloan, Jr., campaign treasurer.
Dahlberg subsequently admitted that the money was actually a contribution from Dwayne Andreas, chief executive of Archer Daniels Midlands (ADM), one of the nation's largest corporations, and chairman of the intero-ceanic Corporation. The $25,000 in cash was handed over to Dahlberg by Andreas on April 9 on a Miami golf course. This was after the dead of the disclosure law and the contri- bution was not reported. The generous Andreas also made large contri- butions to Hubert Humphrey in his 1968 Presidential campaign and 1972 primary campaign.
Two months after making the contribution, Andreas applied for another federal bank charter. Three months later which was very fast action for such an application, he was awarded the charter over two other applicants for the same charter. At this time Andreas' corporation was also under investigation by the antitrust division of the Justice Department.
The cash flowed from corrupt unions, organized crime and giant multinational conglomerates into the clandestine intelligence front (C.R.P.) and from there to the teams in the field. At this accounting, more than $15 million, over a third of the total C.R.P. budget of $45 million, was spent on secret, illegal operations.
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WRITE US
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THE BLACK PANTHER is your newspaper, so let us know what you think about the
opinions expressed in our columns. Write us. The Editor and staff are eager
to know your reactions. As space permits we will share your letters with our
readers.
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WHITE HOUSE “ENEMIES” SLATED FOR DESTRUCTION
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ASSAULTS AGAINST PARTY "TRIAL RUNS"
The appearance of the Black Panther Party at the head of the list of organizations designated as enemies of the White House by the Watergate/Gemstone conspirators should surprise no one. What has surprised many are those organizations and individuals that join the Party and Huey P. Newton on that list.
Other lists undoubtedly exist that would surprise no one. But the choice of this particular list for submission to the Senate Committee investigating the Watergate affair is revealing.
Added to the most recent Watergate disclosures, this list should make it clear that the clandestine and murderous assaults conceived, ordered and executed by the White House conspirators against the Black Panther Party were to them little more than trial runs of what they had in store for ALL opposition of significance to their drive for absolute power.
The Black Panther Party has repeatedly warned that a gestapo apparatus existed and functioned in this country as an arm of those who would drive the U.S. into the quagmire of fascism. We acted and spoke first in the interest of Black Americans because it is the Black community and Black people who are daily victims of this apparatus. But our warning was to the whole American people.
We understood that the assaults against us served two chief purposes: first, to destroy our Party in retaliation for our vanguard role in exposing the danger and sounding the warning, and second, to test popular reaction to gestapo methods which blatantly violated the democratic ideals upon which this Republic was ostensibly founded.
The danger continues, even in the midst of the Watergate disclosures. William Randolph Hearst Jr., Editor-in-Chief of the Hearst newspapers, commenting on the list in this week's Sunday newspapers, calls Watergate "A childish exercise", "a cheap clumsy affair", and the perpetrators "squareheaded". TWENTY-EIGHT OF OUR FALLEN COMRADES, VICTIMS OF THE CONSPIRATORS, DID NOT DIE AS A RESULT OF "A CHILDISH EXERCISE" OR A "CHEAP CLUMSY AFFAIR". THOSE WHO ORDERED THEIR EXECUTION WERE NO "SQUAREHEADS".
It took cool planning of mature minds and a firm committment to momentous (and evil) purpose to lay out and execute the strategy that kept leaders of the Black Panther Party in jails or in the courts on false or contrived charges almost from the Party's inception to this very day: Huey P. Newton from late 1967 to mid 1970; Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins from early 1969 to May of 1971 and David Hilliard from mid 1971 to the present.
Only the people can save America from the Watergate/Gemstone conspirators. That is why the Black Panther Party consistently advocates People's Power; the control of the institutions of this land by the people. This is what America is supposed to be all about. Only through the emergence of a genuine, unified people's political movement, arising out of the communities of this country's most oppressed and disenfranshised Black, poor and committed citizens selflessly dedicated to the realization of true people's democracy, can and will the conspirators be ultimately defeated. To this end the Black Panther Party continues to work.
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SECRET “ENEMIES LIST” NUMBERS 200
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Recent testimony by John W. Dean, a Watergate conspirator, before the Senate
Watergate Investigating Committee, has disclosed a secret list of about 200
individuals, groups and organizations whom the Nixon Administration considered
its political enemies. Dean says that the list came from White House files entitled
Opponents List and Political Enemies Project. Included are Huey P. Newton and
the Black Panther Party.
The list does not primarily contain, as would be expected, the names of people and organizations to the far political left. It is not an ideological list, but rather, it contains the names of those whom the Nixon administration labels, "enemies". The list includes progressive individuals and organizations, millionaires, athletes, labor officials, film actors and actresses, U.S. Senators and Representatives, U.S. Congressional Representatives,
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[manuscriptimage] corporations, intellectuals and various members of the news
media. Dean turned over the list and other related materials to the Senate committee
on Wednesday, June 27th.
Dean further testified before the committee that "Priority targets" were selected from the list by former White House Counsel Charles W. Colson and other officials in keeping with a plan to "use… federal machinery to screw our political enemies". Dean admitted that he personally drew up the plan in August of 1971, and submitted it in a secret memorandum to former presidential chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, Domestic Affairs Advisor John D. Ehrlichman and other members of the White House staff.
"Screw our political enemies" was related by Dean to mean determining what type of dealings those individuals named in the secret list had with the federal government and "how we can best screw them; e.g., grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, prosecution, etc."
Dean also said that he prepared a briefing paper, to be used as the basis of a meeting with Internal Revenue Service Chief Johnnie Walters, adding that a "lack of guts and effort" on the part of the IRS was responsible for the lack of auditing of individuals named on the enemies list or the "cracking down on the multitude
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[manuscriptimage] of tax-exempt foundations that feed left-wing political causes".
Charles W. Colson, whom Dean has implicated as having a major part in the secret enemies project, has stated in testimony that the list of names was kept solely to insure that those named "weren't invited to the White House for dinner".
The lengthy secret enemies list is divided into sections. We print here some of the names. Organiz.: Black Panthers, Huey P. Newton; Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Ralph Abernathy; National Welfare Rights Organization, George Wiley; Farmers Union, NFO.
Black U.S. Representatives: Ronald Dellums (Dem.-Calif.); John Conyers (Dem. - Mich); Shirley Chisholm (Dem. - N.Y.); Louis Stokes (Dem. - Ohio).
Celebrities: Bill Cosby, actor; Jane Fonda, actress; Paul Newman, actor; Dick Gregory, comedian.
Media: Sydney Harris, syndicated columnist; James Reston, N.Y. Times; William Hines, Chicago Times; Carl Rowan, syndicated columnist; Harriet Van Horne, N.Y. Post.
Other divisions of the list in which alleged enemies of the White House are named are Labor, Business, Academics and U.S. Senators.
Although many individuals named on the enemies list expressed only surprise, some even saying that they feel it an honor to be considered an enemy of Nixon's, the list is far from a joke. It suggests, and John Dean's Senate committee testimony confirms, just how far the Nixon administration is willing to go in order to crush any and all opposition and disagreement, from whatever source it may spring, to the government's criminal policies and programs. Dean's exposure of the enemies list is at least as equally important to the American people as the exposure of the Watergate Scandal.
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DAVID HILLIARD RECLASSIFIED “MEDICAL”
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IMMEDIATE RELEASE DEMANDED
(Vacaville, Calif.) - In a move aimed at undermining a growing demand for the immediate release of David Hilliard, Vacaville Prison authorities have reclassified him "medical". Demands for David's immediate release arise out of a steady worsening of his chronic ulcer condition added to his conviction on false charges and two years served as an exemplary prison inmate.
In an unprecedented appearance before Vacaville's top officials last week, David's application for minimum security visits was denied and he was reclassified. No explanation was given for the action or for the fact that Vacaville's top brass were required to decide denial of minimum security visits for David.
Officials who made up the Full Classification Committee were Vacaville
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[manuscriptimage] Warden Clennon, Deputy Superintendent Kitchell, Corrections
Captain W.L. Johnson, Program Administrators, Enis and Rice, Chief psychiatrist
South and Medical Cases Manager Lt. Vitlatchyl. Also present was T. W. McDonald,
Classification and Parole Representative of the California Adult Authority.
It is understood that the new classification will mean that David, who is presently in the hospital, will not be returned to his present location among the general population, but will be placed in "hospital" facilities on a permanent basis.
This action also should determine once and for all that David will not be required to perform laboring duties at the prison. Many officers and guards at Vacaville repeatedly hassle David about work duty and threaten him with work details as a means of intimidation and harassment, despite the fact that medical officials have previously ordered that his condition requires that he not be subject to work detail.
Even so, the harassments and intimidations continue for David Hilliard. Last week when visitors came to see David they were not permitted to visit him in the hospital. Instead, David was compelled to leave his hospital bed and come down to the regular visiting room in order to receive his visitors.
David's present hospital confinement is the third in the two years he has been incarcerated at Vacaville. At Folsom prison, prior to his transfer to Vacaville, David Hilliard collapsed in the visiting room and friends brought immediate legal, moral and political pressure to bear which forced Folsom officials to provide medical attention that saved his life. He was transferred to Vacaville where surgery was performed.
It is clear that David's life is in continuing danger as long as he remains incarcerated in the California prison system. Reclassifying him "medical" is no guarantee that his condition will improve or that he will receive adequate medical treatment. It comes more than two years late, and only as a reply on the part of the highest California prison authorities to continuing community efforts to obtain David's immediate release.
However, the community from which David comes and to which he must return is not fooled. Every maneuver of the California prison authorities to justify and continue the incarceration of David Hilliard will be exposed and our efforts for his release will be intensified until justice is done and David Hilliard is free.
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CHARGES AGAINST BEN CHAVIS DISMISSED
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(Wilmington, N.C.) - Charges of accesory after-the-fact of manslaughter against
Reverend Ben Chavis, a Black community organizer here, were dismissed on June
22nd following his five-day trial. Chavis, 25, and his two co - defendants,
Black activist Mollie Hicks and her daughter, Leatrice, were charged in connection
with the alleged accidental death of 18-year old Clifton Eugene Wright in March
of 1971, during racial disturbances in Wilmington. Mrs. Hicks was convicted
and released under $3,000 bond and a mistrial was declared against Leatrice,
19, but no indication was given as to whether she would be retried. Mrs. Hicks
and Leatrice were accused of telling police that Wright had been killed by a
White man as he opened the door to Mrs. Hicks apartment and Rev. Chavis was
accused of encouraging them to tell the story, which police say was false.
WHITE RACIST
Clifton Eugene Wright was killed at the home of Mrs. Hicks, as he, Donald Nixon and Jerome McLean, were guarding her home because of threats by White racists against her. Last January, Nixon plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter, testifying that he had shot Wright accidentally while engaging in a playful scuffle with a shotgun. McLean plead guilty to accessory charges, and both testified for the prosecution in return for leniency on these and other charges. Neither have been sentenced. Rev. Chavis was charged with advising Nixon and others in the apartment not to tell the truth.
Strong community support for the three was exhibited throughout the trial by a packed courtroom each day. At a rally held the day before the trial began, a crowd of 6,000 came out in support of the three to hear various speakers declare their support for the group. Larry Little, coordinator of the Winston-Salem, N.C. Branch of the Black Panther Party spoke of the need to free Rev. Chavis, Mrs. Hicks and Leatrice, who are all activists in the community, working for the people. The real criminals are the Watergaters and all members of the power structure, he stated. Among other speakers was Angela Davis.
For Rev. Chavis, this was the second false trial stemming from the February, 1971, disturbances, in which he was instrumental in organizing a boycott of the city's schools by Black students. Last September, he and eight others (the Wilmington Nine) were convicted on the trumped-up charge of bombing a grocery store. Rev. Chavis was sentenced to 34 years and the other brothers' sentences range from 25 - 35 years. That case is now on appeal.
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W. OAKLAND CLINIC WORKERS WIN GAINS
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The administration of West Oakland Health Center has conceded to most of the
demands of the employees of the clinic following a one week - work stoppage
and a strong community picket line. The agreement between the protesting employees
and the administration came as a victory to the workers who had failed in earlier
efforts to get the administration to agree to any demands prior to the week
of picketing by community supporters. The picket line included members of the
New Oakland Democratic Organizing Committee and the Black Panther Party.
PROTEST
The protest began on June 14th, when employees staged a sit-down work-stoppage to protest the lay-off of 11 fellow employees and in support of a list of 35 demands and grievances submitted to the administration. Despite the fact that they were told at that time that there would be no administrative reprisals against them, the following Monday, June 18th, they were told by Dr. Robert Cooper, executive director of the center, that their paychecks would be cut three hours for protesting. The workers again stopped work and picketing by community supporters began the next day, with mass numbers turning out the last days of the week.
On June 26th, Dr. Cooper agreed that no action would be taken against protesting employees, that pay cuts from last week's checks will be included in the next checks, and that employees will be able to be paid for time spent not working, having those hours count for vacation pay or sick-leave. In addition, Dr. Cooper agreed to drop the lawsuit he had filed against the employees union, Local 250 of the Hospital and Institutional Workers Union, and the union representative, Mike Houston. He had erroneously charged that Houston had organized the sit-down, when actually all he had done was to organize the community picket, which is credited for bringing about the agreement.
Many of the employees' grievances have yet to be resolved, but the administration is now in a position where it has to respond to the employees. A new contract is now being negotiated. According to Mike Houston, Cooper has already agreed to almost all of the union's demands, which include provisions for hospitalization and other benefits.
The employees of West Oakland Health Center and the Black community will continue to force the Center administration to change. The eventual goal, says Houston, is true community control of the medical facility. The administration has seen how the community can begin to achieve its rightful control over the institutions which serve it.
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HUEY P. NEWTON SIGNS GULF OIL PETITION
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In response to a request from U.S. Representative and Chairman of the House
Subcommittee on Africa, Charles Diggs, from the state of Michigan, Huey P. Newton,
leader of the Black Panther Party, has added his signature to a petition calling
upon Americans to boycott the products of the Gulf Oil Company.
The petition, orginating from the Massachusetts based Pan-African Liberation Committee, urges this action "in order to make known that the Africans who are fighting for self-determination, after five hundred years of colonial suppression by the Portuguese authorities, are not fighting alone".
The petition further states: "The unholy alliance that the Gulf Oil Company, the 6th largest industrial corporation in the world, has formed with the Portuguese government, the last external colonial oppressor in Africa, must be broken".
Gulf Oil, in pumping 150,000 barrels of oil a day out of Portuguese held African territories, exploits resources that rightfully belong not to the Portuguese, but to the Africans. "We demand", states the petition, "that the Gulf Oil Corporation cease this assistance it renders to Portugal, and cease this rapacious exploitation of Africa's wealth."
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READING BALKS ON APPOINTING WOMEN
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"Do you really expect me to appoint Ericka Huggins?" This off-hand,
flip comment by Oakland Mayor John Reading, referring to the Editor of THE BLACK
PANTHER and a leading member of the Black Panther Party, characterized his response
to the applications of women for appointment to the city's boards and commissions.
Reading's remark was made to Ms. Emily Stoper, who had earlier handed over to Reading large number of filled out applications. The comment followed last Thursday's City Council meeting attended by a large group of women and representatives of women's organizations, including Ms. Elaine Brown of the Black Panther Party. At that meeting the women presented the Council with the names of women applicants to fill vacancies in city government posts. The all-male council two weeks ago pledged to "substantially" increase the number of women in the city's boards and commissions -- presently there are only 11 women out of a total of 94 civic posts -- and the women were fulfilling their committment to give the councilmen their list of nominees.
Following the council meeting, after hastily looking over the 73 applications, Mayor Reading told Ms. Stoper he found only one application "acceptable". When asked what he meant, Reading responded that only one woman applicant "reflected his political philosophy". He then described himself as a "moderate", despite a consistent record of alliance with Oakland's big business, reactionary elements.
Not content to stop there, the mayor went on to say he would not appoint "liberals or radicals" and that when he had done so in the past, the results were "disasterous". He ended the conversation by complaining that he had seen applications from women who were members of the Black Panther Party, specifically mentioning Ms. Huggins.
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GENOCIDE IN ALABAMA: BLACK GIRLS TRICKED INTO STERILIZATION
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(Montgomery, Ala.) - Two Black girls in this southern city have recently learned
firsthand something of what America is all about. It was a cruel lesson, one
they will remember for the rest of their lives. Minnie Relf, age 14, and her
sister Mary Alice, age 12, three weeks ago were the victims of genocidal operations
that have left them unable to bear children. The childrens' father, Mr. Lonnie
Relf, has filed a $1 million damage suit in a U.S. District Court, in protest
against his daughters' sterilization.
The operations, ordered by the federally-financed Montgomery Community Action Committee(MCAC) and arranged by the Montgomery Family Planning Center (MFPC), occurred after the two girls' mother, who is unable to read or write, had been tricked into marking her "X" on sterilization consent forms by Planning Center representatives. The Planning Center now claims that the two girls were not "bright" enough to remember to take birth control pills.
There is growing evidence that there is an organized plot on the part of the MCAC and MFPC to employ mass sterilizations of Black people in Alabama. The Planning Center has arranged sterilization for 11 persons during the past year.
Further, the oldest Relf girl, Katie, who is 16, said that while her two sisters were in the hospital, workers from the center came to the Relf apartment and attempted to convince her that she should also undergo sterilization. She told the workers that she wanted to be able to have children and said that one of them told her, "I don't think you need any". Katie locked herself in her room until the workers left.
Georgia State Representative Julian Bond, who is also president of the Poverty Law Center of Montgomery, which is sponsoring the suit, recently asked famous San Francisco trial lawyer Melvin Belli to take on the case in behalf of the Relf family. In agreeing to do so, Belli said, "The first thing we'll do is raise it (the $1 million suit) to $2 million. It's an open and shut case of assault and battery. This is the kind of thing Hilter did."
Mrs. Crelia Dixon, head of the MFPC, which administers the Relf family's planning program alleges that the girls "…knew full well what happened to them and their mother understood exactly what she was doing". She did not explain, however,
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[manuscriptimage] how she or anyone else could logically reason that a 14 and
12 year old could understand the full implications of sterilization, nor did
she see fit to explain what has given her (or anyone else) the right to question
a child about being sterilized.
Before their sterilization, both Minnie and Mary Alice had been receiving periodic injections of a now banned drug called Depo Provera, which prevents pregnancy. The drug was banned by the Food and Drug Administration when it was discovered that it produces an abnormally high hormone count in females. It was for the continuation of these shots that Mrs. Relf thought she was signing.
Mrs. Dixon, speaking of the Relf children as if they were adults, said that "We talked to them about other alternatives that they could possibly use", after that it was "agreed" that the girls would have tubular ligation operations (a tieing of the fallopian tubes) which would leave them sterile.
Mr. Relf and his wife found out about the operations when a social worker who had been visiting them noticed that the two girls were absent from the home and investigated. The girls were found at Professional Center Hospital, where the operations were performed.
The $1 million suit was filed by Mr. Lonnie Relf who has been unable to work for the past two years, his family barely surviving on $165 a month from welfare. It includes the Montgomery Family Planning Center and the Community Action Committee as defendants and charges that his daughters nor his wife understood beforehand the sterilization plan. The suit demands that the Montgomery Community Action Committee "do everything humanly and medically possible" to reverse the sterilization and asks the court to put a nationwide ban on such operations in the future.
The suit also contends, and rightfully so, that the operations violated the two girls right to privacy and procreation and denied them due process, equal protection and the right to equality. It accuses the defendants of conspiracy, which is borne out by the fact that Mr. Relf, who was quite capable of understanding what was going to happen to his daughters, was never contacted by authorities involved.
Most Black people would disagree with the "assault and battery" part of Melvin Belli's statement, for those who must live the American nightmare daily, it is not a strong enough charge. Premeditated murder of a race would be a more fitting and accurate description of the Montgomery sterilizations.
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V.A. ADMITS 16 PSYCHOSURGERY OPERATIONS
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(Washington, D.C.) - The controversy surrounding the use of psychosurgery reached
furor proportions last week when it was learned that the Veterans Administration
admitted to performing at least 16 psychosurgery operations. Psychosurgery is
a type of brain operation performed mainly for the purposes of behavior modification
and control. Many doctors, psychologists and other specialists in related fields
claim that psychosurgery does not correct a person's problems but unalterably
dulls and destroys their minds.
The Veterans Administration (V.A.) disclosed its previously secretive practices in a series of letters to Senator Edward Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate health subcommittee which has been holding open sessions on the growing psychosurgery expose. The V.A., in fact, acknowledged that doctors employed by them have been performing these operations since 1961.
IRONIC ADMISSION
It was ironic that the VA should finally admit to these psychosurgery operations. In February, the government's chief psychiatrist, Dr. Bertram S. Brown, director of the influential National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) stated that such operations should not be done because doctors don't know enough about the brain. At that time, Brown commented, "Until we do more animal research, we don't want to move into experimental psychosurgery". Kennedy, commenting last week, acknowledged this glaring inconsistency, "The VA and NIMH are part of the same government. Why isn't there a single government policy on this?" He went on to add: "Because psychosurgery involves irreversible destruction of brain tissue, because it involves the control of human behavior, it must be approached very cautiously."
What Kennedy did not say, however, is that many of the intended subjects/victims of psychosurgery operations are Black and poor people, with operations being performed under the shabby guise of "violence control". (See the testimony of Attorney Fred J. Hiestand, on the proposed U.C.L.A. Center for the Study and Reduction of Violence which appeared in a series in THE BLACK PANTHER, dated June 2, 9, 16 and 23, 1973.)
PSYCHOSURGERY
Evidence is mounting that psychosurgery and other forms of human experimentation are becoming an integral part of a number of prison programs. For example, in a letter sent on September 8, 1971, Robert Procunier, director of California Dept. of Corrections, "alerts" Robert Lawson, executive officer of the California Council on Criminal Justice, of a proposal seeking funds for the implementation of psychosurgery for the "violent inmate". Procunier in his letter states: "The problem of treating the aggressive, destructive inmate has long been a problem in all correctional systems. During recent years this problem has been particularly acute…To date, no satisfactory method of treatment of these individuals has been developed". This letter was sent 17 days following the assassination of Brother George Jackson at San Quentin Prison.
The new Prescription(Rx) Program in New York State is another example of the prison systems' intent. Described by one source as "one of the most ambitious and dangerous of the calculated assaults on human rights", the Rx program definitely includes psychosurgery in its macabre array of "treatment" procedures. Understanding this, it is rumored that two well-known political prisoners, Edwardo Cruz, a Puerto Rican community activist from New York City and Martin Sostre, a Black community leader from Buffalo, New York, have been singled out as "volunteers" for Rx programming.
A leading opponent to the continuance of psychosurgery, Washington psychiatrist Peter Breggin has charged: "If America ever falls to totalitarianism, the dictator will be a behavioral scientist and the chief of police will be armed with lobotomy and psychosurgery".
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CAMP ALLEN: 13 BROTHERS STANDING TRIAL FOR BRIG REBELLION
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(Norfolk, Va.) - Last November 26th, the anger and frustration of Black sailors
imprisoned in the Camp Allen brig surfaced in rebellion; the brothers seized
a dormitory, a cell block and the control office. The Navy has singled out 13
men, collectively known as the Camp Allen Brothers, in connection with the rebellion.
Eleven have been tried, found guilty and sentenced. Two others still await trial.
Racism and harassment by White Marine guards, racism in their pretrial confinement and racism in their courts - martial sentencing had created a tense situation at the prison. However, on the morning of November 26th tension gave way to explosion when three Blacks were punished for stopping a fight between a Black and White prisoner. Retaliating, Black confinees swiftly moved to take over a dormitory. After holding it a while, the brothers allowed the guards to arrest them. Later that night, three guards beat a prisoner for attempting to talk to one of the punished men. A fight ensued and escalated into a full-scale rebellion during which the control office and second deck cell block were seized.
Some of the charges that the men received were disobeying orders, assault, rioting and use of provoking language. All who have been tried
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[manuscriptimage] have been found guilty of at least one charge, have received
bad conduct discharges, and all but one has been sentenced to more months in
the brig.
The November 26th rebellion was not the first time Camp Allen confinees had protested their plight. They held a work-stoppage the previous April, a solidarity demonstration on July 4, a mass refusal to exercise outdoors in October and a sitdown strike on November 21st. It was then that they met with one of the commanding officers. After grievances were aired the officer admitted that "some of the complaints were valid". He agreed that he would refuse to do outdoor exercises under the same conditions.
On May 8th, the Camp Allen Brothers Defense Committee, along with other community organizations, held a rally at New Calvary Baptist Church here in support of the Camp Allen Brothers. The main speaker was Jim Sweatt, a Camp Allen Brother, who described the savage repression the brothers have experienced since November. He explained how the brothers suffered in cells with only a pair of pants, no mattresses or blankets, the windows open and the air conditioning on all night. This was in the peak of winter - December. The men were denied soup, personal effects, writing materials, etc. When they did finally receive mattresses, they were all infested with crabs (body lice).
Food delivered by White Marine guards contained toothpaste and spittle; milk containing toothpicks caused on brother to choke. When the confinees protested this treatment by refusing to turn in their food trays, they were beaten. One brother was so covered with cuts and bruises that officials turned his mother away after travelling all the way from Chicago to see him. Nineteen year old A.Q. Johnson, whom the Navy has labeled "ringleader" of the rebellion, has spent 83 days in solitary and has been beaten numerous times. This cruel, inhumane behavior by the Navy prompted two of the confinees to file suit against the Navy.
Two aides of Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm have succeeded in visiting the prison to investigate the November 26th incident. Their recommendations to the Secretary of the Navy are, in brief, as follows: 1) Statements should be taken from Navy staff members involved in the incident. 2) An investigating team of civilians, officers and enlisted people should be named to inquire into the incident. 3) Postpone all courts-martials relating to the incident, pending completion of the investigation. 4) Suspend all sentences leveled at courts - martials pertaining to the incident, pending completion of the investigation. 5) Personally oversee the investigations and get directly involved. 6) Review all trial records pertaining to the incident to determine any inconsistencies, irregularities and misadministrations of justice.
Some of the Camp Allen Brothers are Mark Stoves, Bradley Edwards, A.Q. Johnson, Edsel Presley, Michael Saigre, Leroy Hair, Allan Jonson, Jeff Allison, James Sweatt, James Brice and David Jones. For more information contact: The Camp Allen Brothers Defense Committee/Box 1492/Norfolk, VA., 23501/(703)397-2129.
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HAYWOOD BROWN ACQUITTED IN 2ND TRIAL
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(Detriot, Michigan) - Brother Haywood Brown was acquitted last month of charges
stemming from the shoot-out with Detroit policemen last December. The shoot-out
was the second of three gun duels Brother Haywood was involved in with the police,
last month's trial was the second time he faced punishment for defending himself
in these incidents. No date has been set for a trial for the third encounter.
Haywood's ordeal began when, in 1970, he with some friends began to combat the heroin epidemic that was ripping their community apart. Haywood, along with Mark Bethune and John Boyd, had witnessed for years the plague that forces men to steal from their mothers and causes women to sell their bodies. Heroin traffic was everywhere ignored by the Detroit police.
As the brothers studied the problem, looking for more effective ways to halt its spreading influence, they learned the fine points of the heroin industry. They came to the inescapable discovery that drug merchants were protected by the police and that were it not for the corrupt Detroit police the heroin trade would be unable to flourish. In fact, many Detroit policemen were dealers themselves.
When, after two years, only 15 to 20 "dope houses" were closed through their efforts, Haywood and his companions decided to "cut off the head so the body would die". The high level dope pushers, the "Super Flys", were the target.
They followed the same methods they had developed before, collecting testimony from neighborhood witnesses, following and observing the pushers and finally, contacting the drug merchants and warning them to desist from their murderous profiteering. The patrols were always armed, their members understood the disregard for human life that their opposition felt.
One week after the start of the new trailing operation, the three brothers had gathered enough evidence to confront their first opponent. As their little, white Volkswagon stopped for a red light and the pusher's flashy Cadillac rode on, an unmarked police car pulled up behind them and the four officers inside opened fire. Minutes later, Haywood, Mark and John had escaped and all four officers, members of the notorious STRESS squad, lay wounded in and around their car. That was on December 4, 1972.
POLICE RAIDS
The next 22 days saw raid after raid as angry Detroit police made countless illegal arrests in attempts to find the first successful survivors of the STRESS squad's violent tactics. In its short history since its creation in 1971, STRESS had killed 18 people, 17 of them Black, under highly questionable circumstances. On the 23rd day after the manhunt started, STRESS found their targets again. Again the targets escaped. Patrolman Robert Bradford was dead and Patrolman Robert Dooley was wounded. Overnight, Haywood Brown, Mark Clyde Bethune, and John Percy Boyd became heroes in Detroit's Black community and the object of an intensive nation-wide police manhunt. The people demanded that STRESS be abolished. The Coalition to Abolish STRESS (CAS) was formed and STRESS became an issue in Detroit's upcoming mayoral race.
On January 12, Brother Haywood was captured after another fight for his life. He almost lost it anyway when twenty officers took turns brutally beating him with guns and fists. On February 23 and 27, Brothers Mark and John did lose their lives when they were gunned down by the STRESS squad's ally, Chief John Inman's racist Atlanta Police Department.
In the face of mounting community demands STRESS could not continue. Recently STRESS was renamed. The Felony Prevention Section is the new STRESS, with added duties, and a renewed "license to kill".
Remember to support Haywood Brown at his upcoming third trial. He will be tried for doing the job the police didn't do.
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BLACK WOMEN SEA FOOD WORKERS' STRIKE 4 MONTHS OLD
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(Norfolk, Va.) - The inhumanity inflicted upon 100 mostly Black women workers
at the J.H. Miles Oyster Processing Plant here has prompted a strike at the
plant which is now entering its fourth month. The Miles plant processes both
oysters and clams, which are sold mainly to the Campbells Soup Company to make
its canned oyster stew and clam chowder. The striking women are protesting everything
from the slave-labor wages they receive to the rotten maggot-infested meat which
sickens them on the job and is put into the Campbells soup for sale to consumers.
Considering the exploitation they suffer, the workers have made a modest contract request - a 45¢ pay increase over two years, an extra 10¢ for night work, an additional holiday and more vacation allowance. The company, however, has offered only a 10¢ hourly raise, has refused to consider improved working conditions, overtime pay, and the worker's demand for an end to racist harassment by White foremen and bosses.
Miles now pays its workers $2.15 an hour with no pension, retirement plan, or overtime. "We come in at 6:45 or 7:10 a.m. and work until they decide to let us go home, and we never know when that is, until they tell us", explained one worker. "That makes it especially hard on women, which are 95% of the work force, because we have responsibilities at home."
One striker explained some of the intolerable conditions at the plant: "We have to work in ice-cold water", she said, "some of the women have to stand in it all day. Plus there is no air-conditioning or sufficient heat, so that the place is cold in the winter and hot in the summer".
Commenting on the rotten meat, one woman said, "I used to buy Campbells clam chowder for my family, but since working at Miles, I'd be afraid to serve it to them. They claim that the work is seasonal to get out of overtime pay", said another, "but they work us from sunrise to sunset all year, even in the middle of the summer when the maggots are just running out of the clams. They want to triple production without increasing the work force.
"The foreman and the management are prejudiced against Blacks. They don't like to see Whites and Blacks talking. The foreman plays favorites and only likes Blacks that act the way they want Blacks to act." One worker was written up for insubordination and suspended for two days
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[manuscriptimage] because she did not stand at attention when she spoke to her
foreman. Another woman's foreman harassed her so much that she suffered a nervous
breakdown. And while she was in the hospital, the company sent her a note discharging
her for being absent.
The company has attempted to break the strike with a court injunction, private detectives, a professional anti - union consulting firm and the Norfolk police.
The Center for United Labor Action here is organizing a support campaign for the strikers and has called for a nationwide boycott of Campbells soups that contain oysters or clams. More information can be obtained from the Center for United Labor Action/P.O. Box 7002/Norfolk, Va. 23509. (We thank the Liberation News Service for the information in this story.)
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BROOKFIELD COMMUNITY UNITY FREES BROTHER
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The Brookfield community in the city of Oakland provides a striking example
of the way in which an organized and unified community can free one of its residents
from unjust imprisonment. Sixteen year old Robert Bailey had been unjustly imprisoned
for trying to defend his family from the wild gunshots of O.T. Sampler (known
as Pops), an elderly sexual molester of male youth.
On Tuesday, June 19, Robert's brothers, Ricky - 14, and Rodney-13, were in front of their home when Pops came up and tried to molest them. The two youths rejected his advances. Pops became angry, took out a gun and began shooting wildly at them.
At the sound of gunshots the youths' mother, Mrs. Bailey, rushed out of her home. When she asked Pops why he was shooting at her sons, he pointed his gun at her and replied, "I'll shoot you!" At this point Robert came out of the house. Although a baseball bat was his only weapon, he succeeded in defending his mother and brothers from the crazed man.
A woman, who came out of a nearby store, only saw Robert beating off the elderly man. She called the police, who came and arrested Robert.
During the confusion Pops' brother came up and took the gun and handed it to a small boy. Although police later picked up the gun from the little boy's house, there was no gun presented as evidence at the hearing and no record of Pops having fired shots. Robert was charged with assault. On trying to have Pops charged with assault with a deadly weapon, Mrs. Bailey was told by officials that she could not press such a charge.
Robert was not released from custody until organized pressure from the Brookfield community secured his release. One week after the incident, the people of Brookfield, tired of being victimized by the Oakland Police Department, held a community action meeting. There the people decided to organize hundreds of telephone calls to the mayor's office beginning at 9:00 a.m. the next morning to protest Robert's unjust imprisonment. The move was effective, Robert was released early that afternoon. At the meeting it was also decided to swamp the judge presiding over Robert's case with as many letters of protest as possible.
The Brookfield residents do not intend to end their organized activities. One activity being planned is a Unity Dance in commemoration of the people's victory they achieved when Robert was released.
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PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE
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"ANTI-CRIME" BILL PASSED
(Washington, D.C.) - The Black and poor communities of this country will undoubtedly have to prepare against a wave of police repression over the next 24 months. The House of Representatives has unanimously granted federal expenditures totalling $2 billion over the next two years "to help states and cities fight crime". A proposed "law and order" bill was passed 391 to 0 by the House and will extend the Law Enforcement Assistance Act through June 30, 1975.
OGLALA SIOUX
DEMANDS UNMET
(Kyle, S.D.) - Russell Means, American Indian leader, who is free on bail pending trial on charges stemming from the Oglala Sioux return to Wounded Knee, recently criticized the U.S. unconcern for Native Americans by saying the situation on the Pine Ridge Reservation has not changed. "The Justice Department is not doing anything", Means said, adding that, "The situation is as bad as before the takeover and it only serves to give the Indian people more reason to put their life on the line. We just keep dealing with rhetoric, not action."
BLACK WOMAN WINS
HOUSING SUIT
(Oakland, Calif.) - An Oakland municipal judge has ruled in favor of a Black woman, Ms. Bonnie Carter, who took to court a White landlord whom she attempted to rent a home from. The landlord told Ms. Carter that the home was already rented. However, when a White employee of the East Bay Housing Office inquired about the home shortly afterwards, he was told the home was not yet rented. Ms. Carter won a judgement of $3,000 and it is hoped her victory will urge other Oakland Blacks discriminated against in the same manner to take similar actions.
"WHITES LOOK ALIKE"
(Hamilton, Ontario) - A visiting Chinese man recently gave White North American bigots who are fond of saying, about Blacks and other Third World people, "They all look alike", pause for reflection. Chu Muchih, director of Hsinhau, the Chinese News Agency, who is heading a 21-member press group from Peking on a North American tour, in speaking of the physical appearance of Caucasians said, "We can't tell them apart from the faces".
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OAKLAND SCHEDULE: FREE BUSING TO PRISONS PROGRAM
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Saturday, July 7 - Soledad
Sunday, July 8 - Santa Rita
Saturday, July 14 - Folsom/Vacaville
Sunday, July 15 - Santa Rita
Saturday, July 21 - Soledad
Sunday, July 22 - Santa Rita
Saturday, July 28- Folsom/Vacaville
Sunday, July 29 - Santa Rita
All Saturday trips, to Soledad, Folsom and Vacaville Leave from Allen Temple Church, 8500 A. St., at 8:00 A.M. and return 6:00 P.M.
All Sunday trips to Santa Rita leave from 8501 E. 14th St, At 10:30 A.M. and return at 2:00 P.M.
For information please call: 638-0195
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REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE
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BY HUEY P. NEWTON
“FREEDOM”
Huey P. Newton has not only been subjected to the oppression and degradation that the masses of Black people face daily in this country, but he has survived one of the most grueling experiences ever forced upon a human being -- the "soul breaker" -- a solitary jail cell where one is deprived of everything normally required for survival. In this excerpt from his latest book, Revolutionary Suicide, Huey tells of finding true freedom in the most deplorable and repressive situation imaginable -- jail.
PART I
Jail is an odd place to find freedom, but that was the place I first found mine: in the Alameda County Jail in Oakland in 1964. This jail is located on the tenth floor of the Alameda County Court House, the huge, white building we call "Moby Dick". When I was falsely convicted of the assault against Odell Lee, Judge Dieden sent me there to await sentencing. Shortly after I arrived, I was made a trusty, which gave me an opportunity to move about freely. Conditions were not good; in fact, the place blew up a few weeks later, when the inmates refused to go on eating starches and split-pea soup at almost every meal, and went on a food striek. I joined them. When we were brought our split-pea soup, we hurled it back through the bars, all over the walls, and refused to lock up in our cells.
I was the only trusty who took part in the strike, and because I could move between cell blocks, they charged me with organizing it. True, I had carried a few messages back and forth, but I was not an organizer then, not that it mattered to the jail administration. Trusties were supposed to go along with the Establishment in everything, and since I could not do that, I was slapped with the organizing label and put in the "hole"-what Black prisoners call the "soul breaker".
I was twenty-two years old, and I had been in jail before on various beefs, mostly burglary and petty larceny. My parents were pretty sick of me in my late teens and the years following, so I had to depend on Sonny Man to come up from Los Angeles, or wherever he was, to bail me out. Since I had been "given" to him, he came whenever he could. But sometimes I could not find him. At any rate, I was no stranger to jail by 1964, although I had never been in extreme solitary confinement.
THE SOUL BREAKER
Within jail, there are four levels of confinement: the main line, segregation, isolation, and solitary - the "soul breaker". You can be in jail in jail, but the soul breaker is your "last" end of the world. In 1964, there were two of these deprivation cells at the Alameda County Court House; each was four and a half feet wide, by six feet long, by ten feet high. The floor was dark red rubber tile, and the walls were black. If the guards wanted to they could turn on a light in the ceiling, but I was always kept in the dark, and nude. That is part of the deprivation, why the soul breaker is called a strip cell. Sometimes one the prisoner in the other cell would get a blanket, but they never gave me one. He sometimes got toilet paper, too - the limit was two squares - and when he begged for more, he was told no, that is part of the punishment. There was no bunk, no washbasin, no toilet, nothing but bare floors, bare walls, a solid steel door, and a round hole four inches in diameter and six inches deep in the middle of the floor. The prisoner was supposed to urinate and defecate in this hole.
JUST LIKE A MOLF
A half-gallon milk carton filled with water was my liquid for the week. Twice a day and always at night the guards brought a little cup of cold split-pea soup, right out of the can. Sometimes during the day they brought "fruit loaf", a patty of cooked vegetables mashed together into a little ball. When I first went in there, I wanted to eat and stay healthy, but soon I realized that was another trick, because when I ate I had to defecate. At night no light came in under the door. I could not even find the hole if I had wanted to. If I was desperate, I had to search with my hand; when I found it, the hole was always slimy with the filth that had gone in before. I was just like a mole looking for the sun; I hated finding it when I did. After a few days the hole filled up and overflowed, so that I could not lie down without wallowing in my own waste. Once every week or two the guards ran a hose into the cell and washed out the urine and defecation. This cleared the air for a while and made it all right to take a deep breath. I had been told I would break before the fifteen days were up. Most men did. After two or three days they would begin to scream and beg for someone to come and take them out, and the captain would pay a visit and say, "We don't want to treat you this way. Just come out now and abide by the rules and don't be so arrogant. We'll treat you fairly. The doors here are large." To tell the truth, after two or three days I was in bad shape. Why I did not break I do not know. Stubborness, probably. I did not know. Stubborness, probably. I did not want to beg. Certainly my resistance was not connected to any kind of ideology or program. That came later. Anyway, I did not scream and beg; I learned the secrets of survival.
CONTINUED NEXT WEEK
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OAKLAND- A BASE OF OPERATION!: SAVE GROVE STREET COLLEGE
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Most of the students at Grove Street College (now called North Peralta Community
College) are poor, Black and over 35 years old. By those standards, it is not
a typical institution for so-called higher learning. Grove Street College is
what is called a community college; a place where, for a variety of reasons,
people who don't have an opportunity to attend larger colleges and universities
go to seek knowledge and hope for a better life.
Grove Street is what the Oakland power structure, which is replete with racism, offers Black and other poor people of color, pointing to it to "prove" that "they" don't want to "get ahead". That is, with dilapidated buildings, low-budgets and insufficient staff, it is expected that Black and poor students will "compete" on an equal basis with those who attend the large and glamorous white universities (like neighboring U.C. Berkeley).
Once called Merritt College, Grove Street College has set some historic and revolutionary precedents in education, with a student body that at one time included Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Snatching the original name of the school, the Peralta College District Board (which governs the junior colleges in five neighboring cities, including Oakland) moved Merritt College from its Black community location, to the hills, and left the dirty remnants to fade away. The hill complex that became Merritt College became too far for the sights of its average student, and many were forced to be phased out of an education or they accepted the decadence on Grove Street.
The president of Grove Street College, Dr. Young Park, has been, since the name-game change, trying to salvage the best education and educational environment possible for the student body. Although Dr. Park is trying to establish programs that truly serve the interests of the student body and potential students, as well as the community (he would like to keep the school where it is), he has been faced with some strong opposition. Much of the opposition comes from a small band of "hip" young Blacks and their white, Berkeley counterparts, who like to groove at Grove Street, and don't care what happens there. On the other hand, some Blacks, who feel that various government grants that they now receive will be eliminated if the school stays where it is and doesn't move to a "better" location, present some opposition. The general excuse used to discredit Dr. Park and his view of the situation is that he's not Black (he's of Korean origin).
Grove Street College is Oakland's only real community college. The school offers an Associate of Arts (A.A.) Degree. In its present physical state, it will not stand much longer. Grove Street College will become only the memory of an attempt to unite, on and off campus, the activities, needs and desires of a community. It can, with real improvement, provide a place where many ordinary people can go to get information they need to obtain better jobs. Along with Dr. Park and others, the Black Panther Party
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[manuscriptimage] believes that very little of the dream for people's education
can be accomplished unless Grove Street College remains open and functioning
to serve the community, as a community- controlled institution.
The beginning of Grove Street's salvation must come with the tearing down of some of its old buildings, to make way for new facilities. Even though there seems to be no money for improvements, Dr. Park has arranged for the demolition of many of the now-condemned structures, to make way and present hope for a new and better Grove Street College. Temporarily, most of the portable classrooms that have not been condemned will be renovated to be ready for classes in September. Other plans call for the renovation of the other buildings, the planting of lawns and trees, generally improving the school site for the whole community. Although these plans don't include the erection of new buildings (there are no funds), they will preserve and improve the site and the potential for new buildings that will be put up in the heart of the Black community. With no improvements (as many who oppose this plan want), the school could eventually be completely condemned, then the poor community will have no alternatives.
Many people, with aims other than concern for a real community college, don't want to see any of these plans implemented. If Oakland's large Black and so-called minority population is to begin to have control over its institutions, then that control must begin with institutions for learning. Without skills and knowledge, obviously an oppressed community will have little hope of ridding itself of oppression. Presently, Grove Street has an IBM training program, a program for para-medics, apprenticeship programs in many unionized trades, and other immediately employable skills, as well as a General Education Diploma for those who did not finish high school. In essence, Grove Street College has the foundation for building a place in the community where our interests in education are served. Let it remain then, not as it is, but where it is, where we, the people, can begin to build an institution that educates as we need, want and desire.
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BLACK PANTHER PARTY PROGRAM MARCH 29, 1972 PLATFORM
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WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE BELIEVE
1. WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
We believe that Black and oppressed people will not be free until we are able to determine our destinies in our own communities ourselves, by fully controlling all the institutions which exist in our communities.
2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.
We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every person employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the American businessmen will not give full employment, then the technology and means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.
3. WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALIST OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as for slave labor and mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over fifty million Black people. Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make.
4. WE WANT DECENT HOUSING FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS.
We believe that if the landlords will not give decent housing to our Black and oppressed communities, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people in our communities, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for the people.
5. WE WANT EDUCATION FOR OUR PEOPLE THAT EXPOSES THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS DECADENT AMERICAN SOCIETY. WE WANT EDUCATION THAT TEACHES US OUR TRUE HISTORY AND OUR ROLE IN THE PRESENT-DAY SOCIETY.
We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If you do not have knowledge of yourself and your position in the society and the world, then you will have little chance to know anything else.
6. WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE.
We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will also develop preventative medical programs to guarantee our future survival. We believe that mass health education and research programs must be developed to give all Black and oppressed people access to advanced scientific and medical information, so we may provide ourselves with proper medical attention and care.
7. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED STATES.
We believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States uses its domestic enforcement agencies to carry out its program of oppression against Black people, other people of color and poor people inside the United States. We believe it is our right, therefore, to defend ourselves against such armed forces, and that all Black and oppressed people should be armed for self-defense of our homes and communities against these fascist police forces.
8. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION.
We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem directly from the aggressive desires of the U.S. ruling circle and government to force its domination upon the oppressed people of the world. We believe that if the U.S. government or its lackeys do not cease these aggressive wars that it is the right of the people to defend themselves by any means necessary against their aggressors.
9. WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND POOR OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U.S. FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE WANT TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR ALL PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.
We believe that the many Black and poor oppressed people now held in U.S. prisons and jails have not received fair and impartial trials under a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free from incarceration. We believe in the ultimate elimination of all wretched, inhuman penal institutions, because the masses of men and women imprisoned inside the United States or by the U.S. military are the victims of oppressive conditions which are the real cause of their imprisonment. We believe that when persons are brought to trial that they must be guaranteed, by the United States, juries of their peers, attorneys of their choice and freedom from imprisonment while awaiting trials.
10. WE WANT LAND, BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE, PEACE AND PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
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Intercommunal News: AZANIA ORGANIZES FOR LIBERATION
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Mfanasekaya Pearce Gqobose is the Acting National Treasurer and a member of
the National Executive Committee of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) of Azania
(South Africa). Brother Gqobose, who recently visited the Bay Area on a fund
raising mission, was interviewed earlier in the year in Detroit, Michigan. THE
BLACK PANTHER here reprints an excerpt from that interview.
Q: Can you tell us something about the P.A.C.?
A: The P.A.C. is a liberation movement engaged in armed struggle in Azania. It was founded in 1959 and in 1960 launched its Positive Action Campaign against racism which resulted in the massacre of Sharpeville near Johannesburg on March 21, 1960 where over 80 African men, women, and children were killed and over 200 of them wounded by the White minority racist settler police.
That campaign, organized by the P.A.C., marked the beginning of armed struggle in Azania. The armed struggle from 1960 until the present has resulted in many casualties among the militants of P.A.C. and African people in general. The P.A.C. is the vanguard liberation movement in Azania. It made it quite clear from its inception that African people can only be free by overthrowing the White minority racist settler regime through armed struggle. The basic documents of the P.A.C. make this point quite clear. And we are in that armed struggle right now.
Other details about P.A.C. in armed struggle can be found at its External Office, P.O. Box 2412, Dares Salaam, Tanzania. In my lectures in this country, I do, of course, give more details about P.A.C.
Q: We understand that in Azania there are several other liberation organizations?
A: Yes, that is true.
Q: What would you say is the role of these organizations in the armed struggle in Azania?
A: First of all, there is the African National Congress, ANC, the Unity Movement, and the Communist Party of South Africa, CPSA, the Liberal Party and the Progressive Party.
The role of the Communist Party of South Africa, the Liberal Party and the Progressive Party is associated with what we call "THE WHITE LEFT" in our country. Historically, the White left brought serious confusion in our struggle for freedom since the beginning of this century. The White left influenced African political organizations to involve themselves in useless political activity by always reacting to what the Whiteminority racist settler regime was doing. The White left never had a clear-cut political goal, direction and positive programme of action for Africans. They were engaged in what the President of the Pan Africanist Congress, Mangaliso Sobukwe, defined as "confused and meaningless activity without positive action at any stage".
The Communist Party of South Africa vilified and insulted in no uncertain terms everything African, including its heritage and aspirations. After infiltrating African political organizations, it sought to control and direct them. It either destroyed or made lackeys of African leadership, such that the members of the C.P.S.A. became virtually the leaders of African political organizations. The C.P.S.A. was itself controlled from outside Azania, particularly by the Soviet Union.
It was precisely for this reason among others that the P.A.C. was formed by the members of the African
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[manuscriptimage] National Congress Youth League in 1959. There were those among
us who could no longer tolerate the insults of the Communist Party and their
stifling of our movement in South Africa.
I understand that Africans in this country have similar experiences with regard to the White left. Your experiences are as good as ours in this respect.
The A.N.C. and the Unity Movement on the other hand are political organizations of Africans with African aspirations and goals. The differences between the A.N.C., the UM, and the P.A.C. were mainly on what methods of struggle to be used to gain freedom. In recent years these differences have narrowed considerably mainly because all three organizations now believe in armed struggle as the only method of winning freedom in Azania.
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VIRGIN ISLANDS: U.S. OFFICIAL TORTURED V.I. 5
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(St. Croix, The Virgin Islands) - A recent pre-trial hearing in the case of
five Black Virgin Islanders disclosed new and condemning evidence of the corruption
and brutality of the U.S. colonial police in the Virgin Islands. A memorandum
dated one week after the hearing from the United States Attorney's office proves
the charges of brutality and torture that produced "confessions" from
the defendants.
On December 14, 1972, seven men were arrested and charged with the murders on November 7, 1972, of eight wealthy Whites at the Brahaus bar on a Virgin Islands golf course. Although the U.S. authorities first claimed that four men were responsible, seven were arrested and now the government has raised the ante to nine.
The small White minority settler population was shocked and shaken by the deadly attack and pressure bore down on the Black majority for these killings. The U.S.-controlled Virgin Islands police arrested the defendants with the same standards of justice that domestic U.S. police use. There was insufficient evidence to find a probable suspect. The first frameable people who could be found were taken into custody.
DEFENDANTS TORTURED
At the April 16 hearing, municipal court judge Antoine Joseph testified that he had told Attorney General Jeffrey Resnick to have the defendants taken before a magistrate immediately after their arrest. Instead Resnick, now resigned, had the men taken to the Fountain Valley Police Headquarters and tortured until they confessed. It was 12 hours later that the brothers finally saw a magistrate.
Numerous witnesses told the court that the brothers, Beaumont Gereau, Ishmael Ronald La Beet, Warren Ballentine, Meral Smith and Raphael Joseph were brutally beaten and subjected to plastic bag, water and electric shock tortures. Two lawyers and the assistant attorney general reported that they had seen V.I. police carry buckets of water into the storage room where the victims were being held and heard screams of pain coming from the room. Mrs. Mary Mercer, the assistant attorney general, testified to having seen Brother
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[manuscriptimage] La Beet beaten. When she asked one officer the purpose of
a strange device he was carrying, she was informed that it was an electric shocker.
Other prisoners testified to the inhuman methods of torture that they had seen used on the defendants and upon themselves. An ex-policeman, Anthony Powell, also gave his account of the torture and admitted his part in it. Powell, a Black Virgin Islander, admitted that he was one of the officers who'd taken Ismael LaBeet to a desolate area, given him a pocket knife and told LaBeet to "Make a run" so that they could shoot him down. When Brother LaBeet refused to run and the officer's fun was over they took him back to the Fountain Valley station, beating him all the way. They continued to beat and torture Brother LaBeet and the others throughout their stay at the police station, Powell admitted. The U.S. government offered thirty contradictory and confused lying witnesses. None of these witnesses could identify any of the defendants as having been at the scene of the eight slayings. The defendants were not identified in a lineup or by voice patterns. There is no evidence against the accused.
The Virgin Islands is only one colony of U.S. imperialism. Puerto Rico, Guam, "American" Samoa and the Panama Canal Zone are more examples. On any of these Third World territories, a person accused of violating U.S. law is tried in a U.S. District Court. Racism and apathy for the rights of the accused send many to jail unjustly.
Black and poor Americans, who have long known the brutality and terror that the Virgin Islands defendants have experienced must defend their cause. All progressive people should demand justice for the Virgin Island Five and independance from the U.S. for the Virgin Islands.
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“ENERGY CRISIS” LINKED TO U.S. MID-EAST POLICY
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(San Francisco) - "To believe that an Arab oil policy in the Middle East
is immune from Middle East politics is an unrealistic conception", a special
envoy of the Arab League told a press conference here last week. In an obvious
warning that America's "energy crisis" could be made more serious
by continuing U.S. support of Israeli intransigence, Dr. Clovis Maksoud said,
"The energy crisis in America is not separate from U.S. policy in the Middle
East".
Dr. Maksoud, who is Senior Editor of An Nahar newspaper in Beirut, Lebanon, emphasized that Arab oil producing countries are eager for more markets for their vast resources. He said the U.S. has great potential as a consumer of Arab oil.
"But, our primary concern is that Arab oil not be used to oil the war machine being built by Israel, through the supply of U.S. arms and the U.S. diplomatic shield at the United Nations", Dr. Maksoud said. Arabs are growing more vigilant against the possibility of their oil aiding present U.S. policy in the Middle East.
"At present", Dr. Maksoud pointed out, "U.S. oil companies control the production and marketing of oil in the Middle East." But the Arabs have two options open before them. West European countries and Japan have expressed serious interest in undertaking marketing operations of Middle East oil.
This means, the long-time Arab diplomat explained, that the Arab countries have the option of nationalizing their oil producing industries and turning over marketing operations to West European and Japanese concerns.
Asked if presentation of these options represented a threat on the part of oil producing countries to the U.S., Dr. Maksoud repeated his assertion that Arab oil policy is not immune from Middle East politics and pointed
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[manuscriptimage] out that the communication channels between U.S. policy makers
on the Middle East and Arab oil producing countries "have been closed a
long time, indicating U.S. indifference".
Dr. Maksoud emphasized that the Arabs have exhausted all diplomatic channels in their attempt to reach a just settlement on the Middle East issue. He said: "Israeli intransigence permeates all attempts at peaceful settlement. Israel is unanswerable to the world community because the Israeli state is predicated on the Zionist philosophy of the irreconcilability of Jew and man. Zionism (statehood for Jews) is based on the assumption that the Jew is not capable of integrating with the broader human community and that such integration is not desireable.
"Israel feels unanswerable because Zionism alienates Jews into a ghetto situation", Dr. Maksoud said, "making them unresponsive to normal international behavior." He cited as an example the Israeli demand for negotiations with the Arabs, while at the same time declaring that Jerusalem, Egypt's Gaza Strip and the port area of Sharm el Sheikh are not negotiable.
ISRAEL RACISM
Replying to a question regarding racism in Israel, Dr. Maksoud pointed out that racist discrimination against all non-European or non-White Jews in Israel is built into its system. Despite the fact that 56 percent of the population of Israel is Oriental Jews (Jews originating in the Middle East and North Africa), only 3 percent of Oriental Jews are found in the Civil Service. The 120 member Israeli Cabinet only has 13 Oriental Jews as members.
Dr. Maksoud explained Israeli concern for the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel in terms of Israel's deliberate attempt to bring more "White Jews" into the country. He pointed out that Israeli attacks against the Soviet Union for requiring exit taxes on educated Soviet citizens wishing to move to Israel are hypocritical because Israel itself imposes an exit tax on its state educated citizens who wish to leave.
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Africa In Focus
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ZIMBABWE
A British government mission sneaked into Salisbury last week for secret talks with Ian Smith's White minority government officials. African leaders are convinced a deal is in the making aimed at undermining African opposition to the 1971 "settlement" which would "legalize" White minority rule in Zimbabwe where Zimbabwean Africans out-number Whites 20 to 1.
NEW YORK CITY
The United Nations Special Committee of 24 on decolonization last week heard observers from three national liberation movements in Portuguese- ruled territories. They described conditions in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, and told of progress being made by their organizations against Portuguese colonialism.
KENYA
A transcontinental highway is to be built across Africa linking the Indian Ocean in the East and the Atlantic Ocean in the West. The proposed 4000 mile route running from Mombassa, Kenya to Lagos, Nigeria is intended to form the backbone of a major transport system joining 19 African countries. The $25 million highway, which is being coordinated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, is expected to be operational by 1975.
ALGERIA
The North African country of Algeria opened its third oil refinery last weekend and also laid the foundation stone for the world's biggest natural gas liquefaction plant. Algeria's oil industry is completely nationalized. The Japanese firm, Japan Gasoline, and Algerian companies built the oil refinery. The U.S. company, Chemical Construction Corporation, is building the gas plant. It will provide natural gas to the U.S. under a 25-year contract.
SOUTH AFRICA
A call for a world-wide campaign by workers and trade unions in support of oppressed workers in South Africa was issued on June 16 by the International Trade Union Conference against Apartheid, meeting in Geneva. The Conference urged among other measures a trade union boycott of the loading and unloading of goods traded with South Africa, union pressure on economic and financial groups collaborating with South Africa, moral and material support to the workers and people of South Africa, mandatory economic sanction to South Africa and the exclusion of South Africa from the United Nations.
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HAVE ANY COMPLAINTS?
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The Intercommunal News Service is constantly striving to improve our service
to our readers. If you are having any problems with your subscription or home
delivery of THE BLACK PANTHER, please contact Central Distribution at 8501 E.
14th Street, Oakland, California 94621, or call (415) 638-0195.
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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
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WATERGATE LOW LIGHTS
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Two-thirds of a 1,546 person sample surveyed by the Gallop Poll in early June
said they believed President Nixon was involved in either the planning or the
cover-up of the Watergate scandal. Public awareness of the scandal has now reached
97 percent and 47 percent considered Watergate a "very serious matter".
A whopping 99 percent of Blacks polled by THE BLACK PANTHER in Oakland Black
communities felt Nixon was involved in some way in the Watergate scandal.
Frederick C. LaRue, who was special assistant to John Mitchell at the Committee for the Re-election of the President, plead guilty last week to charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice. He has agreed to cooperate with the Watergate special prosecution force and to testify as a government witness at future trials. He admitted attending a meeting in late March, 1972, at which time the Watergate bugging was discussed.
The White House, in a counter-attack against damaging testimony by John W. Dean, that President Nixon was deeply involved in the Watergate coverup, declared last week that Dean was the cover - up "mastermined". The White House also described former Attorney General John Mitchell as Dean's "patron", and suggested that Mitchell was responsible for the intelligence gathering scheme that led to the Watergate break-in.
Attorneys for First Lieutenant William L. Calley sought last week to obtain full details of any White House involvement in an investigation of the My Lai massacre by two figures involved in the Watergate case -- New York policeman John J. Caulfield and "associate" Anthony F. Ulasewicz. Both worked on undercover projects for the White House for three years, under the supervision of John D. Ehrlichman. Both also interviewed My Lai participants on behalf of the White House.
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DON'T SHOP AT SAFEWAY!
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Safeway Supermarkets have long been the enemy of the impoverished farmworkers
of this country and their union, the United Farm Workers Union (UFW). In view
of their long and continuous train of abuses against the Farm Workers and Safeway's
daily exploitation of our communities, THE BLACK PANTHER urges our readers to
boycott Safeway Supermarkets. Boycott Lettucel Boycott Grapes! Boycott Safeway!
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Aid The Farmworkers
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On April 16th, the hard-fought contracts which the United Farm Workers Union
had won only two years before from California's grape growers expired. Immediately
afterwards, the rich and racist growers signed contracts with the notorious
Teamsters Union, despite strong protest from the UFW and the farmworkers themselves.
The UFW, led by Cesar Chavez, promptly announced that another grape strike had
begun; a lettuce strike was already in progress. Nationwide boycotts of both
products are underway and are growing daily.
The farmworkers need our help. Their struggle is our struggle. To aid the farmworkers is to move us all closer to the goals of freedom and dignity.
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A PROGRAM FOR SURVIVAL
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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.
PEOPLE'S FREE AMBULANCE SERVICE
Provides free, (24-hour) rapid transportation to people in need of emergency medical care.
FREE FOOD PROGRAM
Provides free food to Black and other oppressed people.
FREE BREAKFAST PROGRAM
Provides children a free nourishing hot breakfast every school morning.
PEOPLE'S FREE COMMUNITY
EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM
Provides free job-finding services to poor and oppressed people.
FREE PEST CONTROL
PROGRAM
Free household extermination of rats, roaches and other disease-carrying pests and rodents.
PEOPLE'S FREE PLUMBING
AND MAINTENCE PROGRAM
Provides free plumbing and repair services to improve people's homes.
DAVID HILLIARD PEOPLE'S
FREE SHOE PROGRAM
Provides free shoes made at the David Hilliard Free Shoe Factory to the people.
PEOPLE'S FREE CLOTHING PROGRAM
Provides new, stylish and quality clothing free to the people.
INTERCOMMUNAL YOUTH
INSTITUTE
Provides Black and other oppressed children with a scientific method of thinking about and analyzing things. This method develops basic skills for living in this society.
LIBERATION SCHOOLS
Provides children free supplementary educational facilities and materials to promote a correct view of their role in the society.
INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS
SERVICE
Provides news and information about the world and Black and oppressed communities.
LEGAL AID AND
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM
Provides legal aid classes and full legal assistance to people who are in need.
FREE BUSING TO PRISONS PROGRAM
Provides free transportation to prisons for families and friends of prisoners.
FREE COMMISSARY FOR PRISONERS PROGRAM
Provides imprisoned men and women with funds to purchase necessary commissary items.
SENIORS AGAINST A
FEARFUL ENVIRONMENT
(S.A.F.E.) PROGRAM
Provides free transportation and escort service for senior citizens to and from community banks on the first of each month.
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