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BLACK PANTHER PARTY DELIVERS ULTIMATUM TO SAFEWAY

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Editorial: THE CHOICE IS SAFEWAY'S

The Black Panther Party has given notice to Safeway supermarket managers in Oakland: stop purchasing, displaying and selling lettuce and grapes that are other than United Farm Workers Union produced or face a boycott. This is no light warning. It is a serious expression of the determination of the Black Panther Party to demonstrate our support for solidarity with the struggle of the Mexican - American workers of California, for a just for their back-breaking labor. as expected, the Safeway stores to accede to our demand, they be prepared to face the consequences.

years the farm workers of California have been faced with the ruthless exploitation by farm agro-businesses of this state. The Safeway Corporation is itself engaged in agricultural production, and therefore is a direct participant in this exploitation.

Any attempt on the part of Safeway Corporation to claim "non-involvement" or "impartiality" is a subterfuge and an insult to the farm workers. It plays into the hands of the growers by confusing Safeway customers and encourages them to believe that support of Safeway cannot harm the interest of the farm workers.

But, this is the point. The overwhelming majority of the residents of Oakland support the struggle of the farm workers. This community, whose majority is Black, Mexican-American and laboring White demonstrated this support in its rejection of Proposition 22, the anti-UFW measure on last November's ballot.

Elaine Brown, who announced the action in the company of Bobby Seale, represents a constituency of at least 37 percent of the voting population of Oakland. She and Bobby now head up the New Democratic Organizing Committee which is comprised of the more than 1,200 hard-working and devoted campaign workers who brought out that vote to the amazement of many.

It would be foolhardy of the Safeway management to underestimate the significance of this action. The wisest course would be to demonstrate its responsibility to the community upon which it depends for its survival by declaring that it will provide only UFW union lettuce and grapes for its customers.

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Letter to the Editor

June 26, 1973

Dear Comrades,

I'm here at Fort Lee, Va., reading the June 9th issue of the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service which I receive weekly, via mail, at much discomfort to the fascist dogs who command my unit.

I read about Brother Ray Rasak at Ft. Leavenworth. This is of no surprise to me to hear that this brother, who is more than likely innocent of all charges, was beaten unmercifully by racist guards. This is a common occurence in the war. I myself have been attacked by Military Police while in a detention cell here at Lee. I have been part of an attempted frame-up by C.I.D. agents and there have been countless incidents where brothers have been attacked and beaten by the M.P. and guards here and at Ft. Belvoir where prisoners are taken.

When Brother Rasak says, "We, Black people, have got to stop these swine before they kill everyone of us", he ain't never lied.

The swine all over the Army, indeed the forces of the U.S., have been and still are repressing and oppressing Black and other Third World people.

We must all unite now to stop these racist and fascist-like actions before it is too late. For if we wait and let the cancer of fascism grow they will surely, "kill everyone of us".

Sincerely,
Edgar Walton II
Fort Lee, Va.

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WATERGATERS PLANTED B.P.P. PAPER IN BREMER'S ROOM

BID TO PROVOKE
RACE RIOTS AFTER
WALLACE SHOT

Following the attempted assassination of then Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, Gemstone/Watergate conspirators moved to provoke racist violence against the Black Panther Party and Black people in general by implicating the Party in the assassination attempt.

"A Gemstone agent, bearing one credentials of TIPS (Trans-International Press Service), entered the police-guarded Milwaukee boarding house of Arthur Bremer, the would be assassin, and planted a copy of THE BLACK PANTHER newspaper", Mr. Donald Freed told THE BLACK PANTHER last week in a special interview. Mr. Freed is Editor of the Los Angeles-based Citizen's Research and Investigating Committee.

"TIPS is an intelligence front", Mr. Freed explained, "with West Coast offices at 746 Alvarado Street, Los Angeles.

"Within hours of the attempted assassination at a Laurel, Maryland shopping center on May 15th, Charles W. Colson, the arch-conspirator of Operation Gemstone, contacted Howard Hunt, his agent handler, and hatched the plot", Freed said.

"It was their decision to use an undercover agent in the Milwaukee area in order to implicate the Black Panther Party in the event of a national emergency should Governor Wallace die."

"One must imagine", Mr. Freed continued, "what might have happened had George Wallace succumbed to the assassination and the press announced that THE BLACK PANTHER newspaper was found in the assassin's lodging. There would have been absolute belief on the part of Wallace followers, as of most of the country, that his murder was a conspiracy in general and a Black Panther Party conspiracy in particular.

"In the minds of many Wallance followers the Black Panther Party symbolizes all those things that are most traumatic to them, I think there would have been riots or burnings, shootings and midnight rides. I think that

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there would have been a wave of terror across the South, perhaps unrivaled since the turn of the century.

"I think there would have been for the first time the regression to actual race riots, brought on by White provocation, in the urban centers of the East and the North, as well as throughout the South.

"I believe that the police would have moved on the Black community in order to decapitate those elements led by the Black Panther Party, which they considered first on their list, at that time Wallace was leading in the presidentail candidate polls. Imagine, a man whose followers thought was going to be president, whose expectations had been raised to fever pitch. To have a man who carries the literature of the Black Panther Party identified as this man's assassin.

"What one must conceive in that Maryland shopping center -- a gun is emptied into George C. Wallace that was naturally expected to kill him. One could also expect that the assassin would be shot dead on the spot. All that would be left would be that copy of THE BLACK PANTHER newspaper."

GEMSTONE

Mr. Freed, who is currently supervising the editing of "Operation Gemstone: The Great Watergate Conspiracy", excerpts of which are appearing regularly in THE BLACK PANTHER, revealed other tie-ins of the Gemstone conspirators and the Black Panther Party.

"There was a Panther Division set up in the Justice Department in 1969, when the Nixon Administration came into power", Mr. Freed pointed out. "This codified and centralized what had already become a national campaign for destruction of the Party. It was to be orchestrated under the Nixon campaign. Three of the most prominent figures in that Panther Division were Jerris Leonard, Will Wilson and Robert Mardian. All three are now under indictment for related matters. At least one, Mardian, will probably go to jail (unless there's a general amnesty declared in the wake of a resignation on the part of the President).

"The head of the Illinois Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has testified that Jerris Leonard told him: `We are going to exterminate the Panthers'. Former U.S. Attorney for San Francisco, Cecil Poole, announced that there had been a secret task force on the West Coast under no control of his, which was a Panther unit. He said they were out to get the Panthers.

"It is a fact of record that the offices of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in New York were broken into and rifled and burglarized of important Bobby Seale files by the team of E. Howard Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy and their contract agents. This field team flew from Beverly Hills, California, where they had just burglarized the Ellsberg files, to New York City, there to burglarize the NAACP files. This was in 1971, in the late summer, the same weekend. These files related to both the Chicago trial and the New Haven, Conn., trial of Bobby Seale.

LAW OFFICES RIFLED

"The law offices of Mr. Charles R. Garry, attorney of the Black Panther Party, were rifled twice. In the case of the second trial of Huey P. Newton, a tape that was fundamental to the defense was missing and, of course, the State claimed to have lost Huey Newton's law book which by that time had become the most famous piece of evidence in the trial.

"In the murder of Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in Chicago in 1969, there was a mystery man from Washington who appears to have been a member of the Hunt and Liddy team. Chicago's special Panther Squad was organized by District Attorney Hanrahan and a liason man from Washington.

"It is a matter of record that the mayor of Seattle, Washington, told the secret White House force: "We don't want any gestapo action here", in relation to its efforts to secure the cooperation of the Seattle police and administration in their bid to exterminate Panthers in Seattle.

TO BE CONTINUED

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B.P.P. DELIVERS ULTIMATUM TO SAFEWAY

BLACK COMMUNITY SUPPORTS UFW GRAPE AND LETTUCE STRIKE

On Friday, July 6th, Ms. Elaine Brown announced that the Black Panther Party will launch a major boycott against six Oakland Safeway supermarkets if these stores continue to stock and sell lettuce or grapes which are not picked by farmworkers belonging to the United Farm Workers Union (UFW). The boycott, Ms. Brown said, would be "on a scale unprecedented in California".

The announcement, the most forceful expression of solidarity and support to date between the Black Panther Party and the predominantly Mexican-American UFW, was made at a press conference held at 27th and West Streets (in West Oakland), in front of one of the six Safeway stores slated to be boycotted. Ms. Brown was accompanied at the press conference by Brother Bobby Seale, her running-mate in the recent Oakland municipal elections.

The remaining five Safeway supermarkets to be hit by the boycott are located at: 3232 Foothill Blvd; 7000 Bancroft St.: 18th St. and 2nd Avenue; 29th and Broadway and 40th and Telegraph.

Elaine explained that prior to the press conference, she and Bobby had hand-delivered six individual letters to the managers of these stores demanding that they "immediately cease to purchase, display or sell" non-UFW lettuce and grapes. The letters stressed the responsibility of the store to the community upon which it depends for its business.

Explaining the reasons behind this demand, Elaine said: "A number of people have been beaten down there (in Coachella Valley). We are aware of the fact that the Teamsters Union has weapons in the area… Very reminiscent of `Bull' Connor in the South, they're calling out from bullhorns and singing `Bye, Bye Blackbird' and firing weapons into the air. The situation is really extreme at this point…Safeway has supported the growers and is united with the Teamsters Union. We feel that a strong move has to be made, at this time to defend people's lives…" Bobby added that the Black Panther Party has "whole-heartedly" supported the UFW for some time and that the boycott will begin at the moment the Safeway stores refuse the demand, as they have done repeatedly in the past.

COMPLETE ASSURANCE

Both Bobby and Elaine agreed that the basis for their complete assurance that the boycott will be successful lies in the overwhelming number of votes they garnered in the recent Oakland elections. Elaine, stressing this point, said: "We'll be able to put a minimum of 10 people (picketing) at each store. We have over 1,000 people actively involved in the New Democratic Organizing Committee here in Oakland, which has formed out of the Bobby Seale/Elaine Brown committee. We believe that the people in the community understand this and we will be able to provide them with alternatives for the shopping needs.

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Our main point is to close these stores down…"

Although, at first, she dismissed Safeway's claim that they are "impartial" as "silly", Ms. Brown's growing anger and indignation was evident as she cited Safeway's "racist activities" against both the community and the farmworkers as evidence that they are not "impartial" at all. In fact, considering Safeway's large land and processing plant holdings throughout the state of California, Ms. Brown clearly demonstrated that Safeway had "overwhelmingly" allied themselves with the corrupt Teamsters and with the growers in particular. The people of Oakland have already made their views on this matter crystal clear, Bobby added, in their hands down defeat of Proposition 22, the anti - UFW measure, in last November's election.

The brief and concise letter Bobby had delivered to the store managers was undeniably forceful in its language. It concluded: "Your failure to acceed to this demand will leave us no choice but to mobilize the full force of our Party, the 2,000 and more individuals who diligently participated in our recent campaign…and the entire Black, Mexican-American and justice-seeking community of this city in a boycott of Safeway Stores in Oakland on a scale unprecedented in California."

In a historical note, Bobby reminded the press that four and a half years ago, the Black Panther Party effectively boycotted and closed this particular Safeway at which the press conference was being held. The issue at that time was Safeway's refusal to donate to the Free Breakfast for Schoolchildren Program.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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BEATEN IN COURT: SAN QUENTIN 6 MAY BE TRIED FROM JAIL

THE BLACK PANTHER thanks Ms. Amanda de Normanville, the author of this article.

(San Rafael, Calif.) - All six members of the San Quentin Six were badly beaten during a pre-trial hearing in Marin County Superior Court, Friday, June 29, according to sources at the Adjustment Center at San Quentin. At the time of the beatings all six defendants had been removed from the courtroom to the nearby holding cell. Presiding Judge Broderick had them removed for interrupting the procedure.

The San Quentin Six, Fleeta Drumgo, David Johnson, Hugo Pinell, Johnny Larry Spain, Luis Talamantez and Willie Tate are under frame-up indictments of murder, conspiracy and assault, for the deaths of three prison guards and two convicts at the time of George Jackson's murder on August 21, 1971.

The pre-trial hearings have resumed after a one year delay which was due to Fleeta Drumgo's motion in the Appelate Court to have an attorney of his choice appointed by the court. The motion was granted, but was overturned by the California Supreme Court in March of this year.

The Six have been fighting for attorneys of their choice, and these attorneys are willing to be appointed. Judge Broderick has denied all these motions and the Six still refuse to recognize their court-appointed attorneys. The judge has also denied the motions to remove the shackles and chains which restrain the defendants in court.

As the hearing began on Friday, June 29, five of the defendants were present. The sixth, Johnny Larry Spain, remained in the holding cell in protest against his court-appointed attorney and the tightness of his handcuffs, which have already caused nerve damage. His attorney, David Mayer, said that his client was complaining that his handcuffs, being attached to a waist-chain, prevented him from taking notes. The judge then said that he saw that Mr. Drumgo could write. Fleeta Drumgo responded that he could not and Hugo Pinell joined in. The judge ordered them removed for interrupting the court and declared a recess to do so. The court was cleared.

Some fifteen minutes later the proceedings continued with Johnson, Talamantez and Tate present. The judge

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said, "I am an infinitely patient man and I want you to stay in the courtroom". Luis Talamantez responded, "No, you don't want us in here". Tate and Talamantez were then removed.

Once more the proceedings began, with David Johnson the only defendant present. He too was shortly removed and the hearing continued with none of the defendants present. They could allegedly hear through a microphone in the holding cell. Judge Broderick suggested that the defendants may have to remain in their prison cells in future court proceedings. He suggested that some electronic device could be installed to enable them to hear the procedures. San Quentin, however, is several miles from the Marin courthouse.

David Mayer, Johnny Spain's attorney, tried to file a challenge affecting the judge, but Judge Broderick refused to file it and it was lodged instead. This means it is not placed on the court record but its receipt is acknowledged.

LOUD POUNDING

The hearing was interrupted by a loud pounding from the holding cell. The judge stated that it interrupted the whole court floor and could require the court to exclude the defendants from the floor. The pounding continued and the judge urged the attorneys to "try and ignore it".

Attorney Bob Y. Bell, who was there at the request of defendant Willie Tate, walked over to another attorney to say something. Judge Broderick, giving no reason, ordered him removed.

Discussion continued (as did the pounding) until Frank Cox, the public defender for David Johnson, interrupted. He said he could see his client motioning through the window; he was concerned for his client's physical safety. The judge would not permit Cox to see him. A few minutes later Mr. Mayer, Spain's attorney, said he could see that his client wanted to communicate something. "I'm sure he does" was Judge Broderick's response. "Continue", he said. (According to one source, after the hearings, the beatings were almost certainly the cause of the pounding. These were attempts to attract attorneys attention. Hugo Pinell has been beaten so many times in court and at San Quentin that his lawyer is requesting that Hugo be transferred and placed under the San Francisco County Sheriff's supervision.)

The next hearing is set for the morning of July 27, at Marin courthouse. September 7 is the date set for the Six to make their pleas.

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“…life in its turn has evolved death…”

DAVID HILLIARD ATTENDS BROTHER'S FUNERAL

Theodore Hilliard, the brother of incarcerated Black Panther Party member David Hilliard, died on July 2nd, in Oakland, California. His funeral was held at the Son of Man Temple on July 5th. (The temple has newly opened. Its purpose is to bring survival programs directly to the Black and poor communities.)

David was brought from Vacaville (Medical Facility) Prison to the funeral and was taken directly back after travelling to Mt. View Cemetery in Oakland, where his brother was buried.

For the oppressed people of this country death is a familiar thing. Our lives are shortened by the conditions of our existence. From birth as we grow into maturity we, as Black and poor people, are faced with certain obstacles. Poverty, racism and the inequalities of a system of government that serves the rich and neglects the poor make us old or tired before we have lived.

Theodore Hilliard realized the meaning of his existence in this country, he admitted to it and tried in his own way to help others to realize it.

He lived a full life. Like every man, he helped some that he met, there were some he never knew, there were those whom he loved and who loved him. Theodore "Bud" Hilliard's family helped to develop in him and his brothers and sisters a love for people and a great dignity known only to people who have struggled through and endured the mounting obstacles of life in America.

At the end of June, Theodore Hilliard suffered a heart attack. He died on July 2nd, after almost a week in a coma; he was 54. After David was told of his brother's death his lawyers made arrangements for him to come to Oakland from Vacaville Prison for the funeral.

David arrived on that morning dressed in his prison "blues" (the denim uniform prison inmates are forced to wear) demanding hope from everyone with his smile.

At the Son of Man Temple, a church based in the heart of the East Oakland Black community, many of Bud's friends and relatives came together.

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The message of this church is that people should realize their situation here on earth and try to change it through unity and a new kind of understanding of the needs of the community.

The funeral service was short. Elaine Brown sang "A Very Black Man", The Son of Man Temple Choir sang "We Are Soldiers", Bobby Seale delivered the eulogy for Bud and read for everyone the beautiful and simple message David wrote in memory of his brother:

"When he died I was in despair, as any man well might be. But soon, pondering on what had happened, I told myself that in death no strange new fate befalls us. In the beginning we lack not life only, but form. Not form only, but spirit. We blend in the one great featureless, indistinguishable mass. Then a time came when the mass evolved spirit, spirit evolved form, form evolved life. And now life in its turn has evolved death. For not nature only but man's being has its seasons, its sequence of spring and autumn, summer and winter. If someone is tired and has gone to lie down, we do not pursue him with shouting and bawling. He whom I have lost has lain down to sleep for a while in the great inner room. To break in upon his rest with the noise of lamentation would but show that I knew nothing of nature's sovereign law. So let Theodore sleep -- may he rest in peace."

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VACAVILLE PRISON: WOMEN GUARDS ASSIGNED TO “SKIN-SEARCH”

(Vacaville, Calif.) - Last month, the all-male population of the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, a state prison, encountered a striking variation from the normal prison routine. The prison inmates were ordered to strip naked and be searched in the presence of a woman guard, a Black woman who was recently hired.

"Skin-searches" are nothing new in themselves. "Open your mouth - turn head to both sides, for ears - run fingers vigorously through hair - lift arms - lift genitals - turn around - lift both feet, one then the other - bend over and spread 'em!" is the procedure every prison inmate knows by heart. After every visit with family or friends, after every major incident, comes the inevitable skin search. Always at Vacaville, the searching guard was a man.

Recently the California Corrections Department has employed women as guards. When a woman was assigned the duty of searching the prisoners returning from the visiting area, the Vacaville authorities made the Black woman a victim of their cruel joke. The prison inmates were outraged and immediately hostile to the new condition of skin-search structure. The prison authorities were hoping that the new guard would quit.

Some prison inmates saw the maneuver for what it was. They realized its implications. The naked search of a prison inmate by a woman, the opening of the anal passage for a finger probe, is humiliating and frustrating. To be searched in such a manner by a man is degrading.

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The human body is neither insulting nor shameful. The search itself is the real insult, the degradation. The Black woman guard or any woman guard is unwanted by the sadistic Vacaville authorities. They tried in this way to chase her away.

Looking further into the meanings of this new procedure, we question why Black Panther Party member Charles Bursey was brought up on charges for having responded humanly to a warm embrace with his woman friend during visiting hours recently. If man - woman contact is acceptable to the corrections department, why punish its results? Why aren't prison inmates allowed conjugal visits with their wives or their girlfriend's, if women guards can be allowed to search their nude bodies?

As prisoner consciousness rises in connection with this issue, the California Corrections Department's joke will back fire in its face. More women guards should be hired. However, then an almost normal situation would arise. They could not allow this. In prison, homosexuality keeps many prison inmates docile and the mounting tensions caused by sexual frustration allow the prison authorities to remain in constant control of the prison inmates.

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SON OF MAN TEMPLE OPENS

DEDICATED TO COMMUNITY SURVIVAL

In our ever-advancing struggle, the church has been the main institution controlled by the Black community and actively participated in by a great portion of the Black population. The church has been the main institution that has been able to aid in the survival of the Black community, although that institution has sprayed from its role of serving the people.

Many churches have now begun to become more relevant, serving not only the spiritual needs of Black people, but physical needs also.

The Son of Man Temple is one such institution recently launched here in Oakland by a group of people who felt that the community needed a church that would not only provide spiritual enlightenment, but could also serve the community through concrete programs and political guidance.

The philosophy of the Son of Man Temple, which is temporarily located in a large storefront building at 601-98th Avenue, is based on humanism; it teaches love for all people. This love is practiced through the programs sponsored by the Temple which include a free health clinic, a children's school, financial aid to prisoners, transportation to the prisons for families and a transport-escort service for the elderly.

The services are conducted by Bobby Seale, who was ordained as a minister in 1969, and has been preaching and practicing the concept of love, unity and service to the people all of his life. The growing congregation now numbers 200, and is rapidly increasing each week as members invite their friends and as the word of the activities of the church spreads. Services are held every Sunday at 10:00 a.m. Church officials plan to hold two morning services to accommodate the growing congregation. Services are open to everyone regardless of race or belief. The Temple plans to move to a large former church location in East Oakland, which will also provide facilities for some of the community programs.

In observing the services last Sunday, this reporter felt the warmth, love and human concern for people that the new church exhibited. The church choir sang many well-loved gospel hymns beautifully; many words have been revised to give more meaning to the community service concept. Their voices filled the church, echoing off of the high ceiling and walls, surrounding the congregation. Among the songs were "Peace Be Still" and "This Little Light of Mine". Bobby's message was centered around the

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Beatitudes, St. Matt. 5:3-11: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth…Blessed are the peacemakers…"

The Temple accepts the fact that each member has his/her own basic concepts and beliefs about God, and that God has been associated with that which is unknown. (Things beyond the scope of man's knowledge are attributed to the concept of God.) When man understands something formerly unknown, it is no longer attributed to God. As man understands more about what is presently unknown he will come closer to understanding the concept of God, the unknown. This understanding gives a real world view to the people who attend Son of Man Temple.

A key passage of scripture read by Bobby sums up the Son of Man Temple's purposes: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was hungry, and you gave me meat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came unto me." (St. Matthew 25:34 - 36.)

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GOVT. STATISTICS SAY WE'RE POOR

(Washington, D.C.) - "Poverty runs rampant" could be the concluding statement to reports issued by the Labor Department and the Census Bureau recently. When compared, the figures released by the two U.S. government agencies prove that the majority of all Americans, Whites and Non-Whites alike, do not earn enough to maintain even a moderate standard of living.

The Labor Department tells us that $11,446 is the new annual minimum to "maintain a moderate standard of living". But, the Census Bureau admits that the median Black family makes only $6,680, which is $4,586 less than the moderate minimum. Most Black families earn less than even the Labor Department's minimum level for "austere" living $7,386. The Census found 24.5 million Americans living in sub-poverty conditions. These statistics actually paint this dismal picture brighter than it is, because they don't take into account the high inflation rate over the past six months.

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BLACK CAPITALISM A JOKE

The fuss being made in some circles over the Black Enterprise, monthly magazine's list of leading Black-owned companies in the U.S., has amused San Francisco Chronicle columnist Milton Moskowitz. Under the heading "Black Capitalism -- Still Just a Trickle" he dramatically points out the fallacy of the Black capitalism concept. "How strong", Moskowitz asks, "is the Black-owned part of the economy? Well, you can easily assess the strength by noting these salient features:

-- The largest company, Motown, wouldn't rank among the 100 largest industrial corporations in the nation.

-- The combined sales of the 100 largest Black -owned compaines come to $473 million. Universal Oil Products, a company that ranks 269 on the Fortune magazine 500 list, does that much business by itself.

-- Only two of these companies, Johnson Products and H. G. Parks, have stock that is publicly traded.

-- Of the 100 companies, 53 are less than five years old.

-- The largest employer is Pittsburg-based All-Pro Enterprises, a hamburger and chicken franchise operation. Its reported payroll is 675 employees."

Although we know it won't, this should be the final word to those advocating that the road to Black liberation is Black Capitalism. We support those Black businesses that accept their responsibility to the Black community through regular contributions to community survival. But we also know that our real liberation lies in the seizing of political power, through establishing bases in our communities.

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BLACK G.I. CONVICTED

"RESIGNED" TO PROTEST U.S. AGGRESSION

(Kaiserslautern, W. Germany) - A military jury of seven high ranking Army officers has convicted Brother Larry Johnson of six charges, leveled against him after he "resigned" from the U.S. Army in protest against U.S. involvement in Portugal's colonial wars in Africa against the people of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. (See THE BLACK PANTHER, Saturday, June 23 issue.)

At a June 19th trial, which was both secretive and repressive, Brother Johnson was convicted of carrying out a sit-down strike, refusing to salute, refusing to wear his uniform and refusing to sign-in every hour. He had been required to do this as punishment.

The 22 year old Army private was acquitted of the charge of "breaking restriction" to the third floor. His commanding officer had placed this restriction on him to isolate him from the other men because he feared Brother Johnson's ideas would "spread".

The trial was held in secrecy. Dozens of G.I.'s were not permitted to attend. In response they took over the law library below the courtroom on the second floor and held a day long counter-trial.

Many of the judge's actions show the repressive nature of Brother Johnson's trial. The trial judge, Major Herbert Green, constantly refused to allow Brother Johnson to defend himself. In addition he tried to prevent Father Cesar Bertulli, who spent time in Mozambique with an Italian missionary order, from testifying for the defense. However, Father Bertulli was eventually permitted to testify as a character witness. He testified that he had been living in Mozambique for 25 years until he was expelled by the Portuguese for denouncing massacres. "Don't translate that", demanded Judge Green. Bertulli said that he had come to know and appreciate Brother Johnson for his sincerity and dedication. Referring to an article that appeared in the February, 1973, edition of Ebony Magazine titled "A Quiet War in Mozambique", Father Bertulli said that although this article is "very moderate in comparison with the real situation in Mozambique, it first provoked Brother Johnson into asking the army why the U.S. supported massacres in Mozambique".

Father Bertulli said that he had given photos to Johnson, taken by himself and other missionaries, showing tortures and massacres. Brother Johnson testified that he had seen the pictures of tortured African workers and of a Portuguese soldier with the head of an African in his hand, a big grin on the soldier's face. "We as Americans are aiding and abetting this", said Johnson.

At this point the trial came to an abrupt standstill; silence overcame Judge Green for several minutes. Then exasperated, he exclaimed, "Tell your client how to behave. Be quiet!" However, Johnson continued, "I was basically looking at myself -- people of my complexion struggling for their liberation. I saw how sick conditions were."

In his instructions to the jury Judge Green ruled that although "there is some evidence that the accused may have committed the offenses as a protest, war crimes or alleged war crimes are no defense". Although they pronounced Brother Johnson guilty, the jury handed down a relatively mild sentence: one month imprisonment, a deduction of $150 a month from the back salary owed him and a recommendation for a general discharge.

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S.F. BLACK CAUCUS OFFICIAL FRAMED

(San Francisco, Calif.) - Early in the morning on June 26th, Larry Pinkney, prominent Black San Francisco resident and his wife heard a woman scream down the hall from their apartment. Larry rushed down the hall to see what was happening, saw a man attacking a neighbor in her apartment, and tried to help her.

Less than fifteen minutes later Larry was being held by police, charged with attempted murder and attempted rape of his neighbor, a white woman. The assailant had escaped, and the woman, Lisa Henstell, allowed Larry to be implicated as her attacker.

The newspaper reports that followed imply that Larry, co-chairman of the San Francisco Black Caucus and former Black Student Union leader during the widely publicized student strike at San Francisco State College, had travelled across town and attempted to rape and kill a white woman. No mention was made that the incident occurred in his very own apartment building. In order to counter this slander, Larry contacted THE BLACK PANTHER and provided us with the actual account of the incident:

"Upon hearing the scream I got a pistol I keep at home for protection and rushed toward the end of the hall where the scream came from. I looked through the window of Miss Henstell's apartment and saw a Black man beating her, she continued to scream. I climbed in through the window and began struggling with the assailant. He escaped through the window and as I followed I fell through an outside window into the alley beside the building, breaking my wrist.

"In the alley, still dazed, I saw the police and called to them. When I told them what had happened and

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that I lived in the building, they said, `Shut up nigger. You don't live here'. Only after I was searched did they find the weapon, yet they claimed I pointed it at them three times. Anyone knows they would have shot me dead if that were true.

"They assumed I was the attacker, and Miss Henstell refused to tell them differently. On the way to the city prison I was hit, kicked, spat upon and sworn at. I was held for three days without bail being set."

Because the police and court officials know of Brother Larry's political activities as head of the Black Caucus, a very progressive organization in the city, they are certain to unleash all of their corrupt legal machinery to continue the frame-up. The district attorney has already admitted his views, stating that he didn't care if Larry was guilty or not, it was just another case to him.

Larry is badly in need of funds for his legal defense. Because of the lies and discrepancies in the police report, he has a good chance of beating the frame-up. Anyone who wishes to aid Larry Pinkney may send donations to: The Larry Pinkney Defense Committee, 161 Tara Street, San Francisco, California.

-- 6 --

13 DEFENDANTS DISMISSED IN PHILLY 14 CASE

(Philadelphia, Pa.) - Last month the fourteen victims of a "Gemstone" police raid that took place three years ago were brought to trial on a variety of charges stemming from the raid. Three Black Panther Party offices were attacked. The police were unable to justify their attack with any evidence. They claimed to be looking for weapons and hand grenades used in an assault in a police station. One officer was killed and another wounded in that assault several days before the police raid.

Last week the defendants appeared in Judge Herbert Cane's court to plead innocent to the charges against them. Judge Cane knew there was no case and a motion to drop the charges was granted.

One man, Brother William Brown is the exception. He is being held because he had no lawyer and was unrepresented at the trial. His case was severed from the others and he will face trial again at a later date.

-- 7 --

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA: MORE INVOLUNTARY STERILIZATIONS DISCLOSED

(Montgomery, Ala.) - It has now been disclosed that two young Black girls who were illegally sterilized by a federally funded birth control clinic were not the only victims of this agency. At least eleven young women are possibly permanently unable to give birth due to the treachery of the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic.

In each of these cases, pre-teen and teenage girls have been given surgical operations with neither their parents nor their own knowledge of what the results of the operations would be. The parents of two of the victims, Mary and Minnie Relf, ages 12 and 14, have filed a $2 million suit against the government.(See THE BLACK PANTHER, July 6, 1973.)

In some cases the parents of the victims were not even informed that their children were being operated on. According to Alabama law, any sterilization performed on a minor without the consent of the parents is considered "involuntary sterilization" and is illegal. In the view of the Black Panther Party the actions of the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic are genocidal.

Although administered by the Office of Economic Opportunity (O.E.O.) the agency is funded by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The Justice Department has reported that due to the scandal created through disclosure of O.E.O.'s and H.E.W.'s involvement in genocide, the Justice Department will launch an investigation.

The responsibility of the Nixon administration for further examples of corruption and genocide will be the finding of a thorough, honest investigation. Medical science has been the guise for genocide for a long time. The relatively recent disclosure of a U.S. perpetrated "Syphillis study" which has killed hundreds of Black men since its inception and continues to affect their families is proof.

-- 7 --

WOMEN STRIKE BERKELEY MASSAGE STUDIOS

(Berkeley, Calif.) - DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE! DOUBLE YOUR FUN! UNCHAIN YOUR FANTASIES. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED. I WANT YOU… TO MASSAGE ME.

These sensationalized headlines are typical examples of newspaper advertizing for any number of the massage studio's here in Berkeley. Including a life-size photograph of a nude or semi-nude woman staring "erotically" directly at the reader, the ads are completed by adding the price range for "topless", "nude" and "half and half" massages. Occasionally the names of some of the women to ask for are included.

Yet from within this world of titilation and pleasure, an opposition has arisen.

On May 15, 1973, the United Massage Therapists Union (UMTU) was formed. Simultaneously, a strike at Aable Massage Studio and a boycott of 12 other massage parlours was launched.

"The purpose of the UMTU", according to its president, Ms. Kathleen McGee, "is to raise or restore the status and image of massage therapists to a level of publically recognized decency and professionalism due any honest worker in America."

Ms. McGee, who was one of the few Black women working in Berkeley studios, pinpoints the essential problem and the over-riding concern of the UMTU. "It has become a nearly universal practice among massage studio owners to exploit the "sex angle" of a sexually repressed society for their own financial benefit. Profits have been phenomenal, thanks to the double exploitation of the persons seeking service and the women who, in many cases, are forced to perform illegal acts. The most viciously and directly exploited are, of course, the Black, Asian and poor White women of the ghetto."

The immediate cause for the masseuses' strike at Aable is (according to the UMTU) that the owner, William Henry, gave several inexperienced employees the impression that certain illegal "massage" practices were not only permissable but should be discretely solicited. This was after Mr. Henry had the women sign "no-sex" contracts so he, as owner, would be covered in case of arrests.

It was ironic that Aable Studio should be the first studio in Berkeley to be hit by the strike, according to Ms. McGee, because for a long time the studio was known for providing its customers with only "straight" massages. Yet the same pattern of events occurred from studio to studio. "At first, we were all against nude and topless massages, and refused to give them", Ms. McGee said. "But the studio began to lose business and then the owner went out and hired two girls who would massage topless or nude. The rest of us, in order to survive, had no choice."

The women masseuses normally earn the state's minimum wage, $1.75, plus between 30% to 40% commissior per massage, plus "tips". Depending on the studio, the women may or may not keep all their tips.

-- 13 --
Cut-throat competition exists within the studios, fostered and maintained by the owners, some of whom actually establish quotas for the women to fill. The women understand this exploitation of their bodies to which they reluctantly submit. The biggest problem the UMTU has encountered however, has been the complacent "it beats the streets" attitude.

Among the UMTU demands are: (1) Health standards rigidly maintained, and a basic health insurance plan (2) Required training in the art of massage and wages in line with those for state-certified masseuses (3) Sick leave and paid holidays (4) A child care center (5) A fair, 40% commission. (6) A union shop.

The initial UMTU strike at Aable Studio quickly spread to Normandy Studios, owned by Murry "I'm the big boy in the East Bay" Todris. Todris has recently reneged on his initial agreement to recognize the union and the boycott of his studios continues.

The harassment and intimidation of the UMTU has already begun. However, Ms. McGee states that it won't work. "One of the women was picketing on College Avenue when suddenly a car came up on the sidewalk after her. Another girl was knocked off her bike as she was riding to one of our meetings." But, Ms. McGee says, "We're fighting for respect, respect for ourselves as well as for our profession".

-- 7 --

HAVE ANY COMPLAINTS?

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 6501 E. 14th Street, Oakland, California 94621 or call, 638-0195.

-- 8 --

BROOKFIELD: HARASSMENT OF ROBERT BAILEY CONTINUES

At one in the afternoon on July 3rd, six Oakland police cars converged on the Bailey home, a Black family in East Oakland; six "peace officers" jumped out. They crashed through the doors and windows of the modest home on Edes Avenue demanding 17-year-old Robert Bailey. Robert's sister, Rita, protested. She demanded to see a search warrant and asked what they wanted with her brother. Robert, they said, (who had been in bed all morning) had that morning snatched a woman's purse and therefore had to be taken downtown to the police station for a lineup.

When Rita continued to protest, one of the police officers, (Badge #996), slammed her against a wall and crashed down the door of Robert's bedroom. Without cause or provocation the policemen repeatedly punched Robert and brutalized him. Robert received cuts and bruises on his face and body from the punches. He was taken away.

This vicious assault, a common practice in Black communities throughout this country, was executed in retaliation against Robert Bailey. Two weeks ago, Robert's arrest and detention for defending the life of his mother and brother was so vigorously protested by members of the community that the Oakland police were forced to release Robert. A court case hangs over his head, but he was out of jail until the assault, beating and false accusation on July 3rd.

Robert's appearance in the line-up did not produce an identification by the victim of the alleged purse snatching, and consequently the police were once again forced to release this harassed and brutalized young brother.

-- 15 --
Such is Mayor John Reading's law and order response to the increasingly severe suffering of the already depressed and disadvantaged Black community of East Oakland. The action of the police was not meant for Robert alone, but obviously for the entire Black community. For, it was the community that won Robert's release in the first incident and therefore, from the point of view of Mayor Reading's police, it was the community that had to be taught a lesson.

But, Mayor Reading and his police are in store for a lesson. The aroused community of which the Bailey family is a part, has no intention of accepting these acts of violence against them. California Congressman Ron V. Dellums and Alameda County Court. Judge Wilson, have been informed of both incidents. They have both agreed to urge the judge scheduled to hear the phony assault case against Robert Bailey to drop the charges.

In addition, serious consideration is being given to initiating legal action against the Oakland Police Department in general for their illegal, fascist-type break and entry action on July 3rd, and specifically assault and battery charges against Badge 996, a plainclothes officer, Mesker.

Such action on the part of police officers of this city can only further expose to the Black community the true nature of the present Oakland city administration. Such exposure contributes to the efforts undertaken by the New Oakland Democratic Organizing Committee to win the support and participation of more and more of this community's oppressed majority.

-- 8 --

REPRIVE PRISON, TEXAS: 10 PRISONERS BEATEN

(Angleton, Texas) - Prison inmates of the Texas Department of Corrections suffer under a system of slavery strikingly similar to that of the South over one hundred years ago. Here, the prison inmate is a chattel slave, a piece of human property. He is forced to labor in the fields from sun-up to sun-down under the whip of the guard. Although rebellion against this system of prison slavery calls forth harsh reprisals, rebellion occurs. The Retrieve Prison Farm at Angleton provides an example.

On Father's Day, June 17, a Sunday which is normally a day off, prison inmates were ordered to work in the cornfields by guards who, on this day, carried tear gas containers. Although the work squads are usually called out to the fields at the same time, the unusually large number of guards on duty, obviously expecting rebellion, had called out the squads one by one, the two honor squads first. Had the squads been called out simultaneously according to the normal procedure, all would have refused to work. In spite of the guard's precautions, however, ten rebel prison inmates still refused to go to the fields. They were placed in segregation units.

The next day the drunken warden and several guards called the ten from their cells one by one. After making remarks such as "Niggers you gonna get this corn out", the guards beat the rebel prison-inmates with ax handles, clubs and rubber hoses. One brother was beaten until he was breathless. He suffered a heart attack and was removed to the prison hospital. The other nine were forced to the fields. Three of them were later placed in isolation. The guards told all ten of them that if they forgot the "incident" no repercussions would result. The following Friday, the prison inmates did not work. However, nine of the rebel prison inmates were forced to labor in the fields (while armed guards on horseback stood over them), many of them still in need of medical attention.

Of the ten, five are Black, two are Chicano, two are White and one is a Sioux Indian. Those whose names are known are: Woodrow Winkfield (a 58 year old Black man who suffered the heart attack), Ernest McMillan, Roy King, Grant, Blaylack, Ayala and Joe Beaulieu.

For additional information please contact: United Defense for Political Prisoners, c/o The Community Voice, P.O. Box 45574, Dallas, Texas 75235.

-- 8 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

NO JOBS FOR BLACK YOUTH

(San Francisco, Calif.) - $396,000 in damages will be shared by non-whites who proved they were the victims of racial discrimination by Operating Engineers Local 3 in Northern California. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Peckham, who made the award, also awarded $140,000 in fees to private attorneys and legal aid societies who filed the class-action lawsuits. Earlier this year Judge Peckham ordered the construction equipment drivers' union to fill 70% of its apprenticeship openings with non-whites.

EX-POW DRIVEN TO SUICIDE

(Denver, Colorado) - The Pentagon and Vietnam veteran Col. Theodore Guy seemingly drove Marine Sergeant Larry Kavanough, a former Vietnam war captive, to fatally shoot himself. Kavanaugh's wife announced that she would take legal action against Guy, (who charged Kavanaugh along with seven others of being "turncoats") and against the Pentagon, which was investigating Kavanough. Kavanough felt he was being prosecuted because of his anti-war activities and was worried that the military would not treat him fairly.

COMPTON'S BLACK WOMAN MAYOR

(Compton, Calif.) - The first Black woman in America to head a moderate sized city was recently sworn in as mayor of this city of 78,000. Mrs. Doris A. Davis, 37, speaking before an overflow crowd at her inaugural ceremonies said that she hoped to make Compton "the most progressive city in America".

She pledged to work hard to bring economic development to the city and reduce it's high crime rate. The former City Clerk stated that young people would be given an important voice in city government during her administration.

DISCRIMINATION SUIT SUCCESSFUL

(Indianapolis, Indiana) - NAACP National Labor Director Herbert Hill told the NAACP Annual Convention recently that unemployment rates among young Blacks "have now reached disaster levels". If the rates continue said Hill, "and there is every reason to believe they will, then it is necessary to conclude that virtually an entire generation of ghetto youth will never enter into the labor force". Hill said government reports indicate that 50% of Black youth will be unemployed by the end of the summer. He called it "the worst situation since the great depression".

-- 9 --

REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE

BY HUEY P. NEWTON

"FREEDOM"

PART 2

In his latest book, Revolutionary Suicide, Brother Huey P. Newton recounts the way in which he responded to many of the situations of his life, the life of the Black man in America. One institution he encounters is prison and its "soul breaker", a solitary, deprivation cell void of all objects and visual stimuli; a human beings "last end of the world". As contradictiory as it may seem, this is where Brother Huey found freedom. This second, revealing segment of the chapter titled "Freedom" concludes Brother Huey's explanation of his path to freedom in the soul breaker.

One secret was the same that Mahatma Gandhi learned - to take little sips of nourishment just enough to keep up one's strength, but never enough to have to defecate until the fifteen days were up. That way I kept the air somewhat clean and did not have the overflow. I did the same with water, taking little sips every few hours. My body absorbed all of it, and I did not have to urinate.

There was another, more important secret, one that took longer to learn. During the day a little light showed in the two-inch crack at the bottom of the steel door. At night, as the sun went down and the lights clicked off one by one, I heard all the cells closing, and all the locks. I held my hands up in front of my face, and soon I could not see them. For me, that was the testing time, the time when I had to save myself or break.

Outside jail, the brain is always being bombarded by external stimuli. These ordinary sights and sounds of life help to keep our mental processes in order, rational. In deprivation, you have to somehow replace the stimuli, provide an interior environment for yourself. Ever since I was a little boy I have been able to overcome stress by calling up pleasant thoughts. So very soon I began to reflect on the most soothing parts of my past, not to keep out any evil thoughts, but to reinforce myself in some kind of rewarding experience. Here I learned something. This was different.

When I had a pleasant memory, what was I to do with it? Should I throw it out and get another or try to keep it to entertain myself as long as possible? If you are not disciplined, a strange thing happens. The pleasant thought comes, and then another and another, like quick cuts flashing vivdly across a movie screen. At first they are organized. Then they start to pick up speed, pushing in on top of one another, going faster, faster, faster, faster. The pleasant thoughts are not so pleasant now; they are horrible and grotesque caricatures, whirling around in your head. Stop! I heard myself say, stop, stop, stop. I did not scream. I was able to stop them. Now what do I do?

STARTING TO EXCERCISE

I started to exercise, especially when I heard the jangle of keys as the guards came with the split-pea soup and fruit loaf. I would not scream; I would not apologize, even though they came every day, saying they would let me out if I gave in. When they were coming, I would get up and start my calisthenics, and when they went away, I would start the pleasant thoughts again. If I was too tired to stand, I would lie down and find myself on my back. Later, I learned that my position, with my back arched and only my shoulders and tight buttocks touching the floor, was a Zen Buddhist posture. I did not know it then, of course; I just found myself on my back. When the thoughts started coming again, to entertain me, and when the same thing happened with the speed-up, faster, faster, I would say, stop! and start again.

Over a span of time - I do not know how long it took - I mastered my thoughts. I could start them and stop them; I could slow them down and speed them up. It was a very conscious exercise. For a while, I feared I would lose control. I could not think; I could not stop thinking. Only later did I learn through practice to go at the speed I wanted. I call them film clips, but they are really thought patterns, the most vivid pictures of my family, girls, good times. Soon I could lie with my back arched for hours on end, and I placed no importance on the passage of time. Control. I learned to control my food, my body, and my mind through a deliberate act of will.

After fifteen days the guards pulled me out and sent me back to a regular cell for twenty-four hours, where I took a shower and saw a medical doctor and a psychiatrist. They were worried that prisoners would become mentally disorganized in such deprivation. Then, because I had not repented, they sent me back to the hole. By then it had no fears for me. I had won my freedom.

Soul breakers exist because the authorities know that such conditions would drive them to the breaking point, but when I resolved that they would not conquer my will, I became stronger than they were. I understood them better than they understood me. No longer dependent on the things of the world, I felt really free for the first time in my life. In the past I had been like my jailers; I had pursued the goals of capitalistic America. Now I had a higher freedom.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- A --

OAKLAND - A BASE OF OPERATION!: SCHOOL BOARD SHUTS THE DOOR ON THE COMMUNITY

PART 51

On Thursday, June 28th, Judge Zook Sutten of Superior court formally denied charges lodged against the Oakland School Board and its Superintendant, Marcus Foster, of violations of the Brown Act and the Seale ordinance concerning anti-secrecy in local government. This decision ended, for the present, the latest attempts on the part of Oakland's Black, poor and progressive parents to gain some degree of control over and involvement in a school system which is growing, by leaps and bounds, increasingly foreign to the people it claims to serve.

The story behind this suit, filed by the Oakland branch of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) on behalf of the newly-founded Coalition To Save Our Schools, tells a tale typical in Oakland as well as in the majority of large urban school districts. While the specific charges in the suit maintained that the School Board had violated the guidelines for holding a private Executive Session -- supposedly reserved for personnel complaints -- the root of the problem lies far deeper; and is no less controversial. As usual the problem of money, federal and state funds for education, is involved -- Who is to control these funds and establish the priorities for funding, the community or the administration? In fact, who is going to benefit from these funds, the school-children of Oakland or the administrators?

Since 1966, the city of Oakland has been receiving funds from the U.S. Office of Education. These funds, called Title I money, go to local elementary schools ranked in order under two conditions: (1) where reading and math skills of the pupils are drastically below grade level and (2) where the school children themselves come from the so-called "economically deprived", a government term for poor and oppressed families. This year, 1972-1973 a total of $4.5 million was divided between 16 elementary schools in the Oakland Unified School District. (See figure 1)

There are also other important stipulations for receiving these funds. The most important of these are that parents be hired as instructional assistants to work in the classrooms with the children, thereby cutting down the teacher - pupil ratio. Parent advisory committees should be established to help create priorities within the schools and to establish better working relationships between the school and the community it is designed to serve. These two parent involvement conditions can be easily seen as potentially outstanding ways to better our children's education. They are also, however, like the parents themselves, treated by Marcus Foster and the Oakland School Board as if they didn't exist.

The current crisis within Oakland's schools comes from two seperate sources and have combined around the issue of parental involvement to spotlight the contradiction between the School Board and the community.

First of all, federal, state and local guidelines for funding have been radically but arbitrarily changed, cutting as much as 80% of the Title I funds from some schools. Although this news was somewhat expected, (Nixon had already announced at least a 10% cut in Oakland's Title I funds), it was thought that revenue to local schools generated from the state's new law (SB90) would offset these cuts. What was not expected, however, was the treacherous policy adopted by Oakland's (FIGURE 1)
Difference
1972-73
1973-74 *

Bunche
-80%
$69,400
$14,250

Clawson
-23%
99,400
77,000

Cole
-52%
82,600
40,050

Durant
-76%
158,500
38,450

Garfield
-28%
211,750
153,297

King
-72%
147,897
41,450

Golden Gate
+7%
148,500
159,550

Hawthorne
-8%
158,000
145,950

Highland
-17%
214,500
177,450

Lafayette
-37%
115,074
72,850

Lazear
-42%
98,300
57,450

Lockwood
-12%
307,000
270,550

Melrose
-27%
83,000
60,700

Prescott
-76%
158,000
37,400

Willow Manor
-36%
33,500
21,350

Woodland
-14%
110,750
94,850

school administrators; an illegal policy which ignores the community and federal guidelines demanding parental involvement.

Combining Title I and SB 90 funds, Oakland schools are to receive approximately $7.5 million for the upcoming 1973-74 school year. These funds are to be consolidated into a single program, which was to be developed jointly by the parent advisory councils and the School Board, then submitted to the State Department of Education by May 1,

-- B --
1973. This was accomplished, but parental involvement is yet to be realized.

Superintendent Marcus Foster and his assistants put together the $7.5 million program alone; subsequently it was rubber-stamped by the school board. Maintaining the trend in Oakland school budgeting, an outrageous 36% is appropriated for "administration". Foster also delivered the crowning blow to the cut-backs. He arbitrarily decided to establish the state's minimum per child expenditure, $350 per child for instruction. This money is allocated to not 16 but 42 Oakland schools. This act effectively cripples the special reading and math programs established at these 16 schools, which are the poorest in the city. Overall, this crushing decision cuts Title I funds at these schools by about one-third. (See figure 1.)

WHAT HAPPENED TO PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT?

Immediately, a number of questions were raised. In Oakland, Black and poor children do well in the early grades, but by the time they reach the 6th grade, their reading scores are low. Shouldn't they receive extra help before they "fail"? Also, what about the children who were doing poorly, but have shown marked achievements? Will they be able to sustain their gains? What, in fact, happened to parental involvement?

It was around this last, but central question that a group of Oakland parents got together to demand that the school department actually do their job -- the Coalition to Save Our Schools was formed. Led by Ms. Darlen Lawson, chairperson of the statewide California Congress of Parents, they and others jammed the school board meeting on April 24th, when the school board was going to approve the Title I/SB 90 program. They demanded to know how the school board could approve the program when community and parent involvement was totally absent from it. Coalition members pointed out that the "needs assessments" of the schools, which under federal guidelines was to be conducted by the PAC was ignored and in some schools had not ever, been completed. They pointed out that if the school board actually wanted to hire parents as instructional assistants, they would have to pay more than $2.51 an hour and increase the maximum from $2.87 an hour after 6 years. Flustered, the school board called for an end to the discussion and announced a private, Executive Session, with the school board controlled steering committee district advisory council on April 26th. (The district council, supposedly made up of leading participants of the PAC's throughout the city somehow includes two nuns, obviously not parents).

Prior to the Executive Session on the 26th, the AFT sent a telegram to the school board representing the Coalition To Save Our Schools warning them that to hold the session would be a violation of the Brown Act. Typically, the school board ignored the telegram. At this meeting they approved the program. Things began to move quickly at this point; Marcus Foster was getting worried. He hastily called a district-wide PAC meeting on April 28th which only served to add insult to already injured parent feelings. Of the nine school board members, not one attended. Only Dr. Donald Anderson, a Marcus Foster appointed administrator attended. The meeting consisted of Dr. Anderson holding up a 100-page program and asking the assembled parents to accept it as their own. When questioned, Anderson admitted that he had not read the program himself. Deluded into believing that unless they met the May 1st deadline the $7.5 million would be lost, the parents voted to approve the Foster program…with reservations. At the regular school board meeting on April 30th, Superintendant Foster had the audacity to "commend" the parents on their "involvement" and "achievement". When Judge Sutten denied the Coalition-sponsored suit, Foster's con game was completed -- Oakland's school system successfully closed it's doors to the community.

Between the school board meeting on April 30th, and Judge Sutten's ill-conceived decision on June 28th, the Coalition had written to Foster asking, among other demands, for an Executive Session and an open, public meeting to discuss the program. Another illegal Executive Session was held. Coalition members can testify that "personnel complaints" were not the focus of the meeting. However, Foster balked at calling a public meeting. Another letter was sent, but Foster refused to respond.

The Coalition to Save Our Schools firmly believe that the Oakland school administration has acted contrary to the best interests of our school children and only in the best interests of themselves. The facts make their assertion clear.

All Oakland residents who are concerned about this situation, concerned about their children and their children's future are urged to contact the Coalition to Save Our Schools by writing to Ms. Darlene Lawson, 9329 Holly St., Oakland. Call (415) 569-4082.

-- 10 --

BLACK PANTHER PARTY PROGRAM MARCH 29, 1972 PLATFORM

WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE BELIEVE

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

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

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6. WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE OR 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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Africa In Focus

SUDAN

A magistrate's hearing for Palestinian guerrillas accused of killing three diplomats, two Americans and a Belgian last March 1st, was postponed on June 15th. No new date has been set. The ten guerrillas have asked that the Arab Lawyers Association be allowed to join in their defense with 22 Sudanese lawyers. Arab public opinion opposes a heavy sentence, while U.S. pressures continue for maximum sentences.

SOUTH AFRICA

This year the South African government is spending about $360 a year on each White pupil in school, as compared to a total expenditure of about $31 for each Black pupil.

LIBYA

Libya demanded last week that the remaining major American oil interests in the country agree to an immediate government takeover of their operations. The demand places a great deal of pressure on the oil companies to accept what they consider to be a low compensation offer or be nationalized. The Deputy Petroleum Minister, Omar Muntaser, in an interview in Tripoli said Libya would only pay "net book value" for the U.S. installations. U.S. Commerce Department figures indicate that the market value is at least four times that of the net book value of about one billion dollars.

MOZAMBIQUE

Three battalions of White South African troops are now helping Portuguese troops in their war against African liberation forces in Mozambique, FRELIMO Vice-Chairman Marcelino dos Santos told a London audience last month. "This help was not of much use to the White colonialists, since they are losing their war in southeast Africa", he said, adding that 150,000 Portuguese troops are now trapped in their own base areas by FRELIMO liberation forces.

ZAIRE

The Rockefeller Foundation has moved its main offices in east Africa from Nairobi, Kenya to Kinshasa, Zaire. James Coleman, a well-known political scientist from the University of California, heads the imperialist cultural and education operation.

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Intercommunal News: UPCOMING ELECTION IN GUYANA HOTLY CONTESTED

General elections will be held on July 16th in Guyana, the sparsely populated country of less than a million people situated on the northeast coast of South America. Formerly British Guiana, Guyana is the only English-speaking nation on the South American continent. Julian Mayfield, the Black writer and long-time resident of Ghana, now lives and works in Guyana. The following are excerpts from an article on the coming elections by Mr. Mayfield:

(Georgetown, Guyana) - After several months of severe drought, the rains have come again to Guyana, and so have the general elections. Prime Minister Forbes Burnham surprised nearly everybody, including many members of his own party, when he called for general elections to be held on July 16th, giving the contending parties little more than six weeks to prepare their campaigns. Most people had expected the elections to be called around October of this year…

Mr. Burnham has not got it made by a long shot and he knows it. Each campaign which he has fought and won since 1964 has had clear-cut issues. But in 1973, Guyana is not faced with a national crisis as it was in 1964 after racial violence and a general strike had ripped the colony apart on the eve of Independence. Burnham, campaigning on a national instead of a racial platform, was able to promise "Instant Peace", and, in the coalition government he formed after the election, delivered on that promise.

Burnham led his people to Independence in 1966 and to Republican status in 1970, after his government had won a solid majority in the elections of 1968. His record is one of steady progress since he took office. There are more schools, roads, airstrips, hospitals, new and better sea defenses, low income housing projects, workers' benefits, and all the things by which a Caribbean government can be measured, than existed in 1964 under the government of Premier Cheddi Jagan.

School teachers, hospital workers, policemen, firemen and other public service employees are about to receive a substantial increase in salaries. Using voluntary self-help as labor, the PNC government has cut through the jungle and opened the first highway to Brazil. More of the country's children are in school, and the Curriculum Development Center of the Ministry of Education is doing pioneer work in producing its own supplementary books, with an accent on Guyanese history, for the schools.

Burnham's achievements on the domestic scene are enormous, but they are likely to be taken for granted by the electorate. His single greatest achievement has been the successful nationalization of the bauxite works at Linden. Bauxite is the major earner of foreign exchange for Guyana, and the former Canadian and American holdings at MacKenzie, now Guybau, owned and operated by Guyanese, are not only increasing production but showing an early and unexpected profit.

On the international scene the accomplishments of Forbes Burnham are just as impressive. Two years ago when this writer visited Guyana for the first time, hardly anyone outside the West Indies knew where Guyana was. But since then Guyana has become a leading force among the non-aligned nations of the world, having hosted the Conference of Foreign Ministers of Non-Aligned Countries in 1972. Guyana was also

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one of the principal nations to spearhead the movement towards normalization of relations with Cuba against the clear wishes of the United States, which a decade ago strong-armed Caribbean and Latin American nations into severing relations with Castro's revolutionary government.

In Pan-African affairs, Guyana has taken a clear lead ahead of the rest of the West Indies. Not only has she contributed to the war chest of the Organization of African Unity, but she has offered her vast 83,000 square miles as a sanctum for all who are truly victims of political persecution at home. Guyana's Prime Minister has welcomed to his country all Africans and Black Americans who have a contribution to make to the development of the country and who will work within the framework of the laws which govern all Guyanese. He personally lent his support to the setting up of the Pan-African Secretariat in Georgetown.

UNEMPLOYMENT

Unemployment, the bane of all Caribbean politicians, is nagging and persistent in Guyana, although under the Burnham government, it has been reduced from 25% in Dr. Jagan's time to 14% now, one of the lowest in the Caribbean. As was to be expected, some of the cooperative schemes which the government has launched have failed, due largely to poor planning and inexperience. Of this the persons opposed to Burnham may be expected to make the most capital.

The high cost of living is almost certain to be the hottest issue of this campaign, at least the one which will cause people to vote this way or that. Prices of food have gone up in the past few weeks, and this is where the average poor Guyanese hurts the most. It takes some sophistication to understand that every time a vendor adds a penny to the cost of a pound of cassava that it is not the fault of Forbes Burnham. His government has vigorously prosecuted the merchants who violate the price ceiling laws, only to come under attack for "racial persecution", because most of the merchants are East Indians.

The merchant class is trapped on the horns of a dilemma. Traditionally, the merchant in a colonial society is one who buys consumer goods overseas for one dollar and attempts to sell the goods at home for two dollars. He neither creates nor invests, except in real estate. The Burnham government has attempted to persuade this class to invest its money in small scale industry that will contribute to the building of the nation and relieve unemployment.

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MASS ARREST MARK ATLANTA BANK STRIKE

(Atlanta, Ga.) - The streets of downtown Atlanta have been the scene of police killing and repression in recent weeks. First, on June 19th, Kenneth Dozier, a member of the Black Muslim organization, was shot in the back and killed by a police assailiant. Now, a little over one week later, Atlanta police have descended on Black pickets and bystanders and arrested all of them.

More than 300 employees of Citizen and Southern (C&S) National Bank here walked off their jobs and set up daily picket lines at the bank. The grievances of the Black employees of C & S Bank focus upon racial discrimination and unfair labor practices.

Although even members of the management admit that C & S is a racist institution, the general concensus among them is that Black people should not embarass an old, established Southern institution that has meant "so much to the progress of all Atlantans". The Black employees, bearing the brunt of this particular "grand ol' tradition", obviously disagree.

MANAGEMENT

In order to present their demands to the management, the C & S employees have elected a committee of 10 persons, from the total body of strikers, made up to represent the wide range of C & S departments. The management however has flatly refused to meet with the committee. They will only agree to talk with Rev. Hosea Williams, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an official advisor to the striking employees and a "citizens committee" formed to aid them.

On Tuesday, June 26th, the C & S employees centered their attention on the downtown Merietta Bank branch. Shortly before noon, the recently expanded downtown police patrol moved in, on orders of the downtown business power structure, and methodically began to clear the streets of all Blacks picketting the C & S bank -- and all Black onlookers as well. Both C & S employees and by standers were charged with singing too loud and violating the "Safe Street and Sidewalk Act".

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Support the Intercommunal Youth Institute

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

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

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

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

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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LAMP POST TEAM LEADS SOFTBALL LEAGUE

The Lamp Post, a popular bar and restaurant in downtown Oakland, is sponsoring two softball teams for men and women as a service to its patrons and the community. However, these teams differ from the average softball teams in that the star pitcher for the men is Bobby Seale, and some players on both teams are members of the New Oakland Democratic Organizing Committee.

"The effort", Bobby told this reporter, "is to become involved with the various activities that people engage in, and make those activities more relevant to the community, organizing around them."

These teams are in a slow-pitch league sponsored by various restaurants and bars in Oakland. They include Guardia's Club, the Zodiac Club, and Bosn's Locker. The Lamp Post's Men's Team, providing a shining example of skill in playing as well as in organizing, is leading the league with a 5-1 record. The women are following in fine fashion, winning their opening game last Sunday.

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DON'T SHOP AT SAFEWAY!

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

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Aid The Farmworkers

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

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

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A PROGRAM FOR SURVIVAL

PEOPLE'S FREE MEDICAL
RESEARCH HEALTH CLINICS

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

PEOPLE'S SICKLE CELL ANEMIA RESEARCH
FOUNDATION

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

PEOPLE'S FREE DENTAL PROGRAM

(Being Implemented)

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

PEOPLE'S FREE OPTOMETRY PROGRAM

(Being implemented)

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

PEOPLE'S FREE AMBULANCE SERVICE

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

FREE FOOD PROGRAM

Provides free food to Black and other oppressed people.

FREE BREAKFAST PROGRAM

Provides children a free nourishing hot breakfast every school morning.

PEOPLE'S FREE COMMUNITY
EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM

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

FREE PEST CONTROL
PROGRAM

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

PEOPLE'S FREE PLUMBING
AND MAINTENANCE PROGRAM

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

DAVID HILLIARD PEOPLE'S
FREE SHOE PROGRAM

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

PEOPLE'S FREE CLOTHING PROGRAM

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

INTERCOMMUNAL YOUTH INSTITUTE

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

LIBERATION SCHOOLS

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

INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS
SERVICE

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

LEGAL AID AND
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

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

FREE BUSING TO PRISONS PROGRAM

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

FREE COMMISSARY FOR PRISONERS PROGRAM

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

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

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

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