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BRUCE (DEACON) WASHINGTON, BLACK PANTHER PARTY MEMBER, KILLED PROTECTING CHILDREN

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Editorial: HE WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN

"…But before we die, how shall we live? I say with hope and dignity; and if premature death is the result, that death has a meaning reactionary suicide can never have. It is the price of self-respect."

-- Huey P. Newton

Deacon died for believing in his people, and he sacrificed his life to back up his belief. He died in the process of creating with others a new direction, building a base from which to fight back.

Only five days before, the Community Learning Center marked the first anniversary of its well-received dedication/celebrations services which attracted over 700 people for "a look into the future," as one excited mother described the memorable event. Deacon was at that affair too, just as he was at the Swingers teen dance. For the past year Deacon devoted his time, his life, in forging a new future for his community at the Community Learning Center, working with the youth.

Deacon was there because he chose to be there, as he chose to sacrifice his life in protecting that future from conditions which threatened its survival.

For the past year Deacon worked at the Community Learning Center, worked with teen groups, senior citizens, the children of the Intercommunal Youth Institute -- people -- in fashioning out of struggle, determination and pride a community institution, a sense of freedom and liberation.

Deacon discussed not living to an old-age, the possibility of death. But he also knew the potentiality of life, of the people, of the power which lays down deep in all our souls.

And that soul, that spirit began to display itself quickly at the Community Learning Center, its educational, cultural and social programs touching the lives of countless people, with Deacon working right along to organize the new way.

Bruce (Deacon) Washington lived for the people and died for the people. He will never be forgotten.

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Letters to the Editor

(Editor's note: Elaine Brown, Black Panther Party spokesperson, was a guest on one of Carlo Prescott's shows on radio KGO recently.)

Dear Carlo,

Ever since I discovered your program two months or so ago. I have been meaning to write you a letter of appreciation and encouragement. I have never known any Blacks personally Carlo and your program lets me get acquainted with people whose experience has been full of jail, beatings, deprivation, outrage, attacks against personal dignity. I consider the Black militant movement the most significant thing that is and has been happening in our could-be-most wonderful America. I followed the Angela Davis trial -- that most beautiful and intelligent girl and grieved for the loss of George Jackson. Tragedy, I have never been in danger of my life, Carlo, but I have an imagination of how a man's (or woman's) flesh creeps under the threat of the enemy gun. The desire to live and be fulfilled is so precious -- so strong in us. I was a young girl when the brave and militant 1WW fought for the right of labor to organize against the B.C. lumber barons who put workers in stinking tents to dry their winter wet clothes around a stove in the room they slept in. Mud squashing up thru boards, no baths, rotten food, low wages. They were beaten and jailed. In my mind they are heroes -- wonderful, generous, compassionate and intelligent men. They didn't mean it to end in the hard-hat unions (widely dominated or infiltrated thru the corporations' subsidizing the John Birchers. Don't ask me to document this. Carlo, but I know darn well it is true). Are the Teamsters gangsters? I sent some of my pension to the Farm Workers -- I pray (in my own unorthodox way) that Chavez will win. So you see Carlo. I value you because you recognize that we poor are all in the same boat, that we must respect one another and write and godamit organize and be socially, politically and economically conscious.

I'm half deaf, sitting with my ear glued to this radio! That marvelous girl you just had on -- I couldn't catch anything but Elaine -- Black Panther officer. Is she a Muslim? Gosh darn. I think I am a spiritual person if spiritual means to love and value all living things. I bless God (the unknown) in every tree, bird, plant, sunset.

But the stars, so beautiful. I know to be a great flaming mass of atomic energy. But the little of a planet we must cherish and protect -- for it is all we have, and all we know, really. And how irrational that a few ignorant plunderers should be allowed to rape it, pollute it, slaughter the best of us, and make us like it and vote for it! Gosh Darn! I want to be optimistic and hope for impeachment and an end to this political gangsterism but I ask you. Carlo, would Teddy really be any better?

I was shaken to my Puritan soul by that Margo and hate prostitution. Human closeness and sex gratification should not be for money! I agree with her that sex is good -- God's reward to us for all our other ills. But I was glad you brought up the issue of just anyone off the streets! I'm glad your Mama taught you to be decent and fastidious. But I don't mean inhibited.

Kids who don't know how to read are a cause with me. Anyone can learn to read, but it takes a skilled teacher who knows her phonics and stuff.

If you pass this on to Elaine I have budgeted $25 for paper, pencils, or material for her school. I'd love to visit that reading class but I am afraid I might be rejected. No, Carlo, I am on the way out physically. But I want to share where it counts, my few dollars, since I can contribute in no other way.

Be of good cheer. If there is a god I hope you will be on the right hand of the throne.

Aunt Emma

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Dear Sir,

Your editorial condeming Nixon's pardon but not calling for his personal prosecution -- but for a good doctor to take his case was right on. Too many people think that all of us who wish to see radical changes in society are a mean bunch of wild eyed nuts who want to murder every capitalist in sight. This fits the picture of the Symbionese Liberation Army but has nothing to do with us.

If fascist force is unjustly used to stop us, we have a right to defend ourselves and should do so in whatever way is effective. But our objective is to bring about a society of justice and humanity of all -- not to just madly and blindly wreck things to no sane purpose.

And this editorial defending Mr. Nixon's right -- as a human being -- to mercy and medical treatment is an excellent example of what all honest and true revolutionaries want for all members of the human race, regardless of color, sex, religion, or anything else.

Sincerely,
Paul H. Dubnar

P.S. -- In (former) Portuguese Africa, the FRELIMO are showing that, when their right to independence and other basic rights are respected, they can get along in a proper and civilized manner with the Portuguese while the changeover to their independence -- long overdue -- takes place.

And, it is a great tragedy for all concerned that reason and justice in this matter could not have prevailed without all those years of war which brought needless suffering to both sides.

If my own ideas of foreign aid were carried out, the FRELIMO -- not the Portuguese government -- would have been the ones to be aided by our government.

All Power To The People,

This letter is a follow-up dealing with what is going down in this slow and backward part of racist amerika.

Brother Ed Johnson's trial and frame-up (B.P.P., Vol. XII, No. 4) was cancelled until Dec. 1, 1974. We will relay more information as we gather it.

Amanda Stewart, and the four other youths' so-called case is still going on. I'm sending you some information dealing with it.

Are you familiar with, or have you received any information dealing with the first two (2) people to receive the death sentence in the State of Virginia since 1967??

I am sending an article dealing with these (2) cases. We must drum up all the support that we can get, because it is clear that the establishment definitely plans to murder the Brothers, and they will succeed if the people are not mobilized to deal with this wretched situation!

All Power To The People
Maury Wright
Virginia Committee Against Racist
and Political Repression
P.O. Box 42
Norfolk, Va. 23501

Brother-Editor Du Bois.

I'm a poet-writer at the Nebraska Penal Complex that wishes to make a poetry contribution to your beautiful newspaper. The enclosed poem, called "Pan Afrikanism Is Love," is my spirited reaction to the recent victories of the PAIGC, FRELIMO, and the movements in Angola. I wish to share it with the Black Panther Party (Amerika's freedom fighters) and the readers of the Intercommunal News Service. Hopefully it will stimulate what I feel inside, and inspire potential freedom fighters to become committed fighters for freedom. Or at least feel the warmth for Nationhood.

J. Heshimu Monte

(Note: Brother Monte's poem is on page 19.)

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COMMENT: TOWARD A “NEW MOZAMBIQUE”

BY SAMORA MACHEL

PART 1

On Friday, September 20, 1974, after 400 years of foreign domination and Portuguese colonial rule, the last 10 of which were spent in intense and bitter armed guerrilla warfare, representatives of the Mozambican people, FRELIMO (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) militants, were installed as the leaders of a new transitional government entrusted with the task of guiding the country to complete independence which will occur on June 25, 1974. At the transfer of powers ceremony in the capital city of Lourenco Marques -- in which Joaquim Chissano, a leading FRELIMO member, was named as the interim prime minister and five other high-ranking FRELIMO representatives were named to head the Ministries of Interior, Justice, Economics, Information and Education -- a speech by FRELIMO President Samora Machel was read, outlining the nature and structure of the "new Mozambique" society.

In view of the tremendous significance of FRELIMO's triumph in Mozambique and in view of the profound revolutionary ideas and concepts set forth by Brother Machel in his speech, THE BLACK PANTHER, hailing FRELIMO's victory as a stirring inspiration for all Black and oppressed people throughout the world, presents, beginning this week, the full text of Samora Machel's message, as reprinted in the Daily News of Tanzania.

Mozambican Women and Men, FRELIMO militants and combatants:

The investiture of the transitional government opens a new phase in our history, the phase of the final march towards independence.

Today we are assuming leadership in the government of our country in a period of transition which will lead to the proclamation of Mozambique's total and complete independence on June 25, 1975, the anniversary of the founding of FRELIMO.

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We have inherited a difficult and serious social, economic, financial and cultural situation resulting from centuries of oppression and colonial plunder, aggravated by decades of colonial-fascist domination and repression and further exacerbated by the recent criminal adventure of a small band of racists and reactionaries in the city of Lourenco marques.

We are faced with a heritage of widespread illiteracy, disease, poverty and hunger. We see our people, and particularly the people in the countryside, living in subhuman conditions of poverty and exploitation. We see destruction, resentment and hatred created by centuries of oppression and instigated by the colonial war of aggression the reactionaries, colonialists and fascists launched in order to divide and confuse us.

DIFFICULTIES

It is thus a complex situation that the transitional government has before it, and the tasks it faces, therefore, are difficult. However, the difficulties were even greater a little over a decade ago, when we started our thrust towards national liberation. We do not hide the difficulties, nor do we shut our eyes to them. But nothing can make us forget that we are today entering upon an exalting phase in our history; for the first time the Mozambican people have a government of their own, a government of their own, a government of their representatives, a government to serve them.

Thus the Mozambican people have an instrument both able and prepared to face the serious problems of the present phase; a government led by FRELIMO and which has within it militants seasoned in the tough struggle for national liberation, in political and armed struggle, in clandestine struggle.

Our people's experience of a state and government, the experience of all workers has been that state and government are oppressive structures, hostile forces compelling us to submit and resign ourselves to foreign domination, to the domination of big financial interests.

Under FRELIMO's leadership, the transitional government has the fundamental task of creating the conditions for People's Democratic Power to be extended to areas which up to now are still under colonial domination. Whereas for the millions of Mozambicans who have established their power in the liberated zones this is already a reality and a practical experience, the same is not true for the remainder of the country.

This means that we all need to learn what our power is and how to exercise it. We shall all need to know what distinguishes our power from colonial power.

Power belongs to the people. It has been won by the people and it must be exercised and defended by the people.

Before the people's victory, power belonged to colonialism and was the expression of the domination of our countries by companies.

Who ruled? The rulers were those who served the interests of a handful of big exploiters.

Years of rule enabled them to accumulate fortunes through the abuse of power, by theft, large sums given in exchange for favors granted to the companies, rewards for ceding the country's resources and even for selling human beings.

After serving their term as governors they immediately joined the boards of directors of large enterprises where they received inflated salaries as payment for services rendered.

The government of the exploiter was characterized by privilege, despotic arrogance, favoritism, nepotism and lawlessness. Problems were solved through the system of string pulling, and such basic rights as the right to work were made to seem like favors from the rulers. Even a woman's dignity had exchange value for obtaining employment.

Today, for the first time in Mozambique's history, comrades are being appointed to government posts.

When we say "comrades," we are using a word bathed in blood and sacrifices. Comrades are those who have fought in clandestinity, those who have suffered torture and death in the prisons, those who gave of their bodies and intellect on the battlefield, those who built freedom, those who made us what we are, those capable of translating their aspirations into action, who have devoted their lives to the service of our people.

The comrades who are today being given the difficult task of conducting the state machinery until the proclamation of independence are precisely the representatives of the people in the leadership of the state.

This representativeness has been earned in the varied and hard tasks of the politico-military struggle for national liberation. They are all veterans of the people's struggle, seasoned in the toughest school of government: the struggle for national liberation and national reconstruction in the liberated zones.

PEOPLE

No one can claim that they are representatives of a race, ethnic group, region or religious belief. They represent the working people, their sacrifices and aspirations, the whole people from the Ruvuma to the Maputo, without distinction as to race, ethnic group or religion. No one fought for a region, race, tribe or religion. We all fought and are still fighting for the same nation, for the single ideal of liberating our people.

The authenticity of the people's representatives in the leadership of the state is more than just an assertion: it must be manifested in the content of government action and in the method of work.

To govern is not to issue laws and decrees which the masses do not understand the reasons for but which everyone must comply with for fear of being punished.

To govern one needs to know exactly the interests of the working masses, formulated and discussed with them and not merely on their behalf. To govern is to be able to fulfil those interests in the decision taking.

To govern is always to be closely linked with the masses in order to sound out their preoccupations and discuss with them as as to come to a correct decision together, not disregarding the details of everyday matters on the pretext that they are minor problems. A decision taken in this way mobilizes people and any difficulties or obstacles which crop up will be overcome because the people understand the decision and see it as their own.

Conversely, the government will be unable to solve any problem if it remains enclosed in a building, governing by bureaucratic and administrative methods. The solution of the problems of the masses and of the country is more political than administrative. Therefore it is FRELIMO's political line, forged in the intransigent struggle to defend the interests of the masses, that must guide government action, it is FRELIMO that must orientate the government and the masses.

In every factory, every department, every service, every commercial establishment in every agricultural enterprise, Party Committees must be formed to implement the watchwords of FRELIMO and transitional government, thus releasing the people's initiative and setting in motion the masses' creative ability.

We will thus establish true democracy throughout the country, which is the essential principle of FRELIMO which has guided political life within the organization and in national reconstruction in the liberated areas.

"POWER BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE. IT HAS
BEEN WON BY THE PEOPLE AND IT MUST BE
EXCERCISED AND DEFENDED BY THE PEOPLE."

TO BE CONTINUED

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ARGUMENTS FILED IN B.P.P. SUIT AGAINST INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE

(San Francisco, Calif.) -- A memorandum submitted by attorneys for the Black Panther Party in U.S. District Court here charges the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with "exercising administrative powers to go after an organization of minority persons because of its militant but lawful expression of political views."

Fred Hiestand, attorney for the Black Panther Party last June filed a $500,000 damage suit against the IRS, which had been issuing blanket summonses on banks and other businesses to secure information concerning contributors, supporters and members of the Black Panther Party. Both the Riggs National Bank in Washington, D.C., and First Enterprise Bank in Oakland have refused to hand over the detailed information sought by the IRS, pending the outcome of the damage suit (see THE BLACK PANTHER, June 22, 1974).

The defendants -- Donald Alexander, commissioner of the IRS; William Simon, secretary of the Treasury; Thomas Cardoza, regional head of the IRS; and First Enterprise Bank -- subsequently filed a motion to dismiss the Black Panther Party suit against them. The memorandum, submitted in the court of federal court judge Alphonso Zirpoli, October 7, was in opposition to the IRS motion to dismiss the Party's case.

The memorandum also charges that, "The selective exercise of

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administrative power for the purpose of injuring individuals or organizations because of their race, nationality, or political percussion" is un-Constitutional.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the Black Panther Party. Huey P. Newton, founder and chief representative of the Party, and a woman contributor listed by the fictitious name of Jane Murphy for fear of IRS reprisals.

The memorandum cites evidence which shows unquestionably that by demanding information about the Party from outside sources, the government is engaged in an un-Consitutional investigation to destroy and discredit the Black Panther Party:

1. An Activist Organization Project was formed by IRS in response to pressure from the White House to destroy so-called radical organizations, particularly the Black Panther Party, in July, 1969.

2. The IRS was chosen by high officials in the White House as a key part of the "available federal machinery" that needed to be made "politically responsive." In the words of former White house counsel John Dean, the Republican administration wanted to "screw our political enemies";

3. The Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton were named on a White House Enemies List prepared for use by the IRS and other government agencies;

4. In its efforts to destroy the Party, the government has decided that it must "determine the sources of plaintiffs' funds, the names of contributors and what it can find out generally about plaintiffs";

5. In its efforts to "find out about the plaintiffs," the IRS worked with other government agencies (such as the FBI) which shared information, often false or obtained illegally, with the IRS for the primary purpose of "misdirecting and discrediting" the Black Panther Party and its leadership;

6. The memorandum also shows that the Black Panther Party's First and Fifth Amendment rights were violated because the defendants abused their administrative summons power for the purpose of "chilling plaintiffs freedom of association and expression."

Citing a similar case, the memorandum argues that the "improper use of governmental power to dampen rights of free expression" is a scandal of the first magnitude in the administration of the tax laws of the United States. It discloses nothing less than a witch-hunt, "a crusade by the key agent of the United States to rid our society of unorthodox thinkers and actors by using federal income tax laws and federal courts to put them in the penitentiary."

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BRUCE (DEACON) WASHINGTON, B.P.P. MEMBER, KILLED PROTECTING CHILDREN

SACRIFICES HIS LIFE TO SAVE YOUTHS AT TEEN DANCE
"By having no family,

I inherited the family of humanity.

By having no possessions,

I have possessed all.

By rejecting the love of one,

I received the love of all.

By surrendering my life to the revolution,

I found eternal life.

Revolutionary Suicide."

-- Huey P. Newton

(Oakland Calif.) - Bruce (Deacon) Washington, a beloved and dedicated comrade of the Black Panther Party, died last Saturday morning as a result of gunshot wounds he received in the back while attempting to protect and save the lives of a number of children at a teen dance held at the Community Learning Center here.

Twenty-six years old, Bruce Washington died while undergoing over eight hours of emergency surgery at Highland Hospital. Revolutionary Memorial Services are scheduled to be held on Wednesday, October 30, at the Son of Man Temple, 6118 E. 14th Street.

Three people, including a 12-year-old youth, were wounded in the incident and were hospitalized, none seriously.

Wild stories and unfounded rumors which sprang up almost immediately following the shootings were just as quickly squashed by Ms. Elaine Brown, spokesperson for the Black Panther Party, at an early afternoon press conference held at the Party's Central Headquarters. At the gathering, Ms. Brown suggested that the entire incident was "prompted" by police.

Ending ridiculous rumors of "anti-Panther factions" and that four Black Panther Party members were shot, Ms. Brown told the press that having talked with the Party's attorney and receiving certain reports, she believed the event was part and parcel of ongoing efforts to destroy the Black Panther Party.

"…Having consulted with our attorney, Charles Garry and having received some reports of other activity of the Oakland Police Department," Elaine said, "I can only assume that the Oakland Police Department indirectly had something to do with prompting this entire activity at a Center which has been a haven for many Black children, senior citizens and teen groups for sometime now.

"We expect further activity of this type, by police agents or police officers simply because there is an attempt, as there always has been, to destroy our Party because of the works that we have been doing for the past eight years."

Ms. Brown went on to say that: "The police, I understand, arrived at the building within seconds of the first shots. A large number amassed there and yet the downtown police had no information as to why they were there in the first place. They were there almost simultaneous with the incident itself.

"…There has never been any incident there before so that is why we believe that this incident was purposely provoked to try and destroy the kind of activity that is coming from the Community Learning Center."

Supporting Ms. Brown's belief is the fact that the only person arrested was Walter Rozier, also a Black Panther Party member, who was charged with allegedly withholding evidence.

Bruce (Deacon) Washington worked at the Community Learning Center. He was active with the teen club, a senior citizens group, and fully involved himself in many warm and constructive educational, cultural and social programs functioning at the Center. Characteristically, when

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the shooting (of unknown origin) began, Deacon, the father of two young children himself, selflessly thought not of his own life, but instinctively moved to save the children's lives, to protect them from the wild gunfire. Equally characteristic, the children say that after he was shot. Deacon declined an offer to be carried and walked under his own strength to the car which wisked him to the hospital. Approximately ten hours later Deacon died.

Bruce Washington lived his life with integrity and self-respect, struggling against those forces and conditions which threaten to overwhelm us all. He died with honor and dignity, sacrificing his life for the youth, our future. The example he set will live forever.

Long live the spirit of Bruce (Deacon) Washington! Long live the People's Struggle!!

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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PEOPLE'S FREE MEDICAL RESEARCH HEALTH CLINIC: PREVENTATIVE HEALTH CARE FOR THE COMMUNITY

(Berkeley, Calif.) - World renowned for its Sickle Cell Anemia research and testing program (see article, page 5), the People's Free Medical Research Health Clinic here also has a wide variety of other health programs which provide free medical treatment and preventative medical care for the surrounding community.

Established in 1971, the Clinic, located at 3236 Adeline Street, offers a much needed alternative to the problem of inadequate health care in Black and other poor communities.

Private hospitals and doctors charge fees far more expensive than poor people can afford while public hospitals and clinics are so overcrowded and understaffed that their services are almost totally inefficient.

The People's Free Medical Research Health Clinic provides comprehensive free health care, including physicians' treatment of patients for common physical ailments and referral to specialists if necessary. Laboratory testing is also provided in conjunction with local hospitals.

Child health care is a serious problem, particularly in the Black community, and one of the Clinic's model health programs is the Pediatric Clinic. The Pediatric Clinic provides immunization; screening for Sickle Cell Anemia, iron deficiency anemia and tuberculosis; referrals and complete physical examinations as well as treatment of childhood illnesses.

Follow-up is emphasized by the Pediatric Clinic, and parents are encouraged to bring their children in for periodic check-ups. Special problems are given careful, ongoing attention.

Health care for senior citizens is another critical problem in Black and poor communities, and the People's Free Medical Research Health Clinic is actively working to combat this difficulty.

In conjunction with the Seniors Against A Fearful Environment (SAFE) Program, the Clinic earlier this week went to the homes of several senior citizens in Oakland and administered free flu shots. (See next week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER for details.)

According to Clinic Director Henry Smith, plans are underway for the Clinic to provide massive free flu shots to senior citizens throughout the Bay Area.

Aside from being free, one of the Clinic's most unique features is its dedicated volunteer staff, which puts its medical training at the service of the community. Doctors, registered nurses, laboratory technicians and medical students demonstrate a degree of love and concern for the Clinic's patients rarely found in public hospitals.

Future issues of THE BLACK PANTHER will explain in more detail the numerous health services offered by the People's Free Medical Research Health Clinic and how it is setting a nationwide example by providing free, professional, competent and preventative health care so badly needed and deserved by the community.

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THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

NOVEMBER 1, 1787

Marking an advancement for the Black community and setting an example for others to follow, the first free school in New York City, the African Free School, opened on November 1, 1787.

OCTOBER 30, 1831

After eluding capture for over two months, on October 30, 1831, Nat "The Prophet" Turner, leader of the famous Black slave uprising, was captured near Jerusalem, Virginia.

OCTOBER 28, 1862

In the first battle engagement by Black Union troops in the Civil War, the First Kansas Colored Volunteers repulsed and drove off a superior Southern rabel force at Island Mount, Missouri, on October 28, 1862.

NOVEMBER 2, 1875

Through the use of staged riots, political assassinations, massacres and social and political intimidation, conservatives won the Mississippi elections on November 2, 1875. This "Mississippi Plan" as it was called was later used to overthrow Reconstruction governments in South Carolina and Louisiana.

OCTOBER 29, 1923

The Charleston, a dance craze which spread throughout the world, first appeared in a Black Musical "Runnin' Wild," which opened at the Colonial Theater on Broadway in New York City on October 29, 1923.

OCTOBER 29, 1947

"To Secure These Rights," a formal report by the President's Committee on Civil Rights which condemned racial injustices in America, was issued on October 29, 1947.

OCTOBER 30, 1953

On October 30, 1953, the U.S. Defense Department announced the complete abolition of all- Black units in the armed forces, ending almost two centuries of segregation in the military.

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ALPHONSO GALLOWAY, JU JU AT SON OF MAN TEMPLE

(Oakland, Calif.) - Last Sunday's celebration services at the Son of Man Temple featured Brother ALPHONSO GALLOWAY, chief aide to Sylvester Brooks, candidate for the Alameda County (AC) Transit Board, District 4, and the popular jazz musical group JU JU (Radio Free Black).

Brother Galloway filled in for Brooks, who was ill. Galloway explained that Brother Brooks is running for the AC Transit Board in order to improve services for minority groups and senior citizens. Brooks, if elected, would set up a Citizens Advisory Board in order to establish greater community input into the transit service. Brooks, Galloway said, is well qualified for the Transit Board, holding a Bachelor's degree in public administration from Cal State at Hayward and currently serving as an administrator with the Department of Public Works.

JU JU, making its second appearance at the Son of Man Temple, was enthusiastically received by the audience. The group performed several of its own swinging musical compositions, including a soon-to-be released song called "Zebra," which judging by the Temple audience's response, is sure to be a smash hit.

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BERKELEY COMMUNITY CLINIC FIGHTS HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

(Berkeley, Calif.) - High blood pressure, the number one health problem among Black people in the U.S., is being actively fought by a newly created Bay Area program here, the Community High Blood Pressure Control Program.

The program's headquarters are located at 3284 Adeline Street, just down the street from another progressive health program in this Black and poor community, the People's Free Medical Research Health Clinic (see article, page 4).

Delores Green, a member of the staff of the Community High Blood Pressure Control Program, explained the Program's entirely free services to THE BLACK PANTHER. Ms. Green began by detailing the facts about high blood pressure, a disease affecting at least 23 million people and which the Black community has little understanding of.

Blood, under pressure from the heart pump, pushes against the walls of the body's vessels. Blood pressure is the measurement of how hard the blood pushes against the vessel walls.

High blood pressure is the unstable or persistent elevation of the force of blood flow above a normal range, which may lead to a damaged heart, kidneys or brain. High blood pressure is also referred to as "hypertension."

There are two types of high blood pressure, essential and secondary. Essential hypertension is elevated blood pressure due to an "unknown cause." About 85 percent of all people who have hypertension have essential

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hypertension. The remaining 15 per cent suffer from secondary hypertension, elevated blood pressure caused by a specific disease such as certain tumors or narrowing of certain arteries.

Although medical science claims it cannot determine any medical reason why Black people suffer more from hypertension than any other racial and ethnic group in the country, the added tensions and frustrations Black people face because of racism and being poor are two clear answers. Ms. Green noted that the disease is especially critical for Black males from the ages of 18 to 35 (also the ages of high unemployment), one out of three whom suffer from high blood pressure. Many Black doctors forthrightly assert that socio-economic conditions affecting Black people -- such factors as improper diets and excessive mental stress and strain -- account for the prevelance of the disease among Black people.

A South Berkeley Model Cities Project, the Community High Blood Pressure Control Program began operation this past June and stresses prevention and control of high blood pressure. Among the comprehensive community services offered by the Program are:

(1) Education and motivation -- a person trained in health education and motivation visits individual homes to inform residents about high blood pressure, its dangers, and how one can obtain treatment;

(2) Screening and detection -- the Program's staff takes individual blood pressures;

(3) Referrals -- whenever necessary, patients are helped to obtain the medical attention they need;

(4) Follow-up-patients may be asked to join a special Patient Health Education and Compliance Group designed to meet individual needs, such as the nonsmokers group, the exercise group, the diet and nutrition group and the health education group;

(5) Supportive Services -- child care, transportation for those physically unable to get around and counseling are provided for the Program's patients.

Ms. Green said that since the Program began, community response has been "overwhelming." She added that, "Our dedicated and volunteer community workers seek to meet the needs of the community."

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CREDIBILITY OF SICKLE CELL SOLICITORS SUPPORTED

(Berkeley, Calif.) - Fielding a broad and prestigious array of community and political support, a press conference called by the People's Free Medical Research Health Clinic last week put to rest false and misleading reports by the San Francisco Police Department concerning street solicitations for Sickle Cell Anemia with an impressive display of its facilities and its Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation.

Present at the press conference, held at the health care facility at 3236 Adeline, were Henry Smith, director of the Son of Man Temple-sponsored, People's Free Medical Research Health Clinic, Sandre Swanson, administrative assistant for progressive Bay Area Congressman Ron Dellums and Ms. Elaine Brown, a leading member and spokesperson for the Black Panther Party.

Press releases distributed to the sizable group of media in attendance stated that the Clinic was supported by Alameda County Supervisor Tom Bates and mentioned that Percy Steele, executive director of the Bay Area Urban League, and the Community High Blood Pressure Control Clinic, lent their support and praise for the Clinic's programs as well.

The reasons for convening the press conference and gathering support was to combat the recent San Francisco police-inspired publicity -- "scare stories" as Supervisor Bates noted -- which blanketly condemned and falsely discredited all on-the-streets solicitations for Sickle Cell Anemia.

As a result, donations to the Clinic's Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation, which is totally supported by the public, were slashed by 50 per cent. The People's Free Medical Research Health Clinic, which has tested over 40,000 Bay Area residents and through affiliated Clinics over 500,000 people nationwide, is not funded by the government or any other agency. In fact, the Clinic takes great pride in the services rendered by its largely volunteer street solicitation operation. Clinic director Henry Smith explained to the media that 80 per cent of the contributions received are used directly for testing and research of Sickle Cell Anemia, not for administrative salaries. The Clinic, Brother Smith added, conducts a comprehensive Out-Reach testing program as well as testing in conjunction with Children's Hospital in Oakland and at various Head Start Centers.

All authorized Clinic solicitors, Mr. Smith noted, carry laminated I.D. cards with their picture attached to the card.

Speaking to the press, Ms. Elaine Brown said that the Black Panther Party was particularly involved and lending its support to thwart the efforts by the San Francisco Police Department to crush the Clinic's Sickle Cell program. Commenting that Sickle Cell Anemia, a deadly blood disease whose victims are 98 per cent Black, has long been neglected by the federal government (refusing to fund various programs for example), Ms.

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Brown went on to mention that the Clinic had established the first major Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation in the country, beginning its work in 1971.

Brother Sandre Swanson, like Ms. Brown, reiterated the legitimacy credibility and competence of the Clinic's programs and denounced the rumors regarding solicitation.

All of the press releases issued to the media also praised the Sickle Cell testing program.

Congressman Dellums, for example, is quoted in the statement issued by his office as saying that "the police warnings have probably done more harm than good to the Black community" and that "the Clinic's vitally needed services are being threatened by a rash of police inspired publicity."

Likewise, Supervisor Bates' release quotes the White Alameda County politician as saying that "the police are upset because their ordinance regulating street solicitations was declared un-Constitutional by a court more than a year ago." Bates goes on to add that, "If the San Francisco Police and District Attorney feel this ties their hands unreasonably, they should get a new ordinance enacted, not sit on their hands and leak overly broad horror stories to the media which damage legitimate programs like the People's Clinic."

The Black Panther Party statement, released through its political organ, THE BLACK PANTHER INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS SERVICE, characterizes the People's Free Medical Research Clinic and its "very positive Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation" as "the best and most responsible public health clinic we know. Praise and favorable media exposure…is long overdue. Its achievements and advancements in the field of Sickle Cell Anemia testing, counseling and research are irrefutable." The Party release ends that, "We along with countless others, both present here today and in the community, hail the Clinic's ongoing efforts to fight and combat Sickle Cell Anemia."

VOTE NOVEMBER 5

-- 5 --

ANTI-SOLICITATION LAWS RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL

(Oakland, Calif.) - In a victory for the Sickle Cell Anemia Program of the Son of Man Temple-sponsored People's Free Medical Research Health Clinic, Alameda County Superior Court Judge George Phillips has ruled that the section of the Oakland business license code dealing with religious and charitable solicitations is un-Constitutional.

The case resulted from the false arrest of volunteer survival workers from the Clinic for soliciting money to fight Sickle Cell Anemia, the deadly disease whose victims are 98 per cent Black.

At the same time Judge Phillips declared that state Penal Code Section 647(c), the so-called begging statute, also is un-Constitutional on grounds that it is overbroad, vague and an abridgement of free speech guarantees. Phillips found the soliciting sections of the Oakland ordinance invalid on grounds that it is vague and gives the city "excessive discretion in setting standards for applicants."

Another lawsuit on behalf of the Clinic, challenging the soliciting section of the San Leandro business license ordinance, has been filed in Superior Court and will be heard this week.

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GUARDSMEN GO ON TRIAL FOR KENT STATE MURDERS

(Cleveland, Ohio) -- Eight former Ohio National Guardsmen indicted by a federal grand jury on March 9 are going on trial here in Federal District Court for violating the civil rights of four murdered students at Kent State University in Ohio in 1970.

Four years ago at Kent State, on May 4, 1970, students peacefully demonstrated against the United States military invasion of Cambodia and the Vietnam War. Four White Kent State male students were shot to death.

The shootings occurred the same week that two Black students at Jackson State College in Mississippi were killed by Mississippi highway patrolmen and Jackson, Mississippi, police officers, who emptied a barrage of gunfire into one of the dormitories on the campus.

As a result, two unarmed Black students were killed. Relatives of the students murdered at Jackson State College filed suits against six Jackson policemen and 43 officers of the Highway Patrol. But, the federal appeals court ruled last week that the relatives could not recover damages from the state of Mississippi nor the individual officers, although the court did acknowledge that the police and troopers did overreact when they fired into the dormitory.

Presiding Judge Walter L. Nixon dismissed the case, claiming that the police were protected by sovereign immunity provisions of the United States Constitution and Mississppi state law.

In the Kent State trials, a federal judge has ruled that statements made by eight guardsmen under indictment are

-- 21 --
admissible as evidence, overruling defense motions to dismiss the case. Jury selection in the trial has already begun.

Five of the former guardsmen are charged with felonies for willfully assaulting and intimidating the student anti-Vietnam War demonstrators, while three other guardsmen involved are charged with misdemeanors.

The Kent State trial is a culmination of four and a half years of investigations and open appeals by the parents of the slain students and others for the case to be reopened after then-Attorney General John Mitchell held that the matter was closed. Mounting public attention and pressure, which resulted from news media publicity of the Kent State tragedy, led former Attorney General Richardson to order a new investigation and impanel a federal grand jury.

-- 6 --

RACIAL VIOLENCE IN SOUTH BOSTON CONTINUES: BLACK TRUCK DRIVER BEATEN BY 4 WHITE MEN

(Boston, Mass.) -- South Boston remains embroiled in controversy following six weeks of court-ordered school desegregation here as racial tensions continued last week. A Black truck driver was pulled from his van by four South Boston White men, who beat him with a bat.

At both South Boston and Hyde Park High Schools, the authorities have begun using airport-style metal detectors, on loan from airlines at Logan Airport to check students for knives or other weapons.

WEAPONS

U. S. District Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr., was expected to rule on a motion by the National Association of Teachers to allow weapons searches of students in the racially troubled schools. John Mirich, attorney for the Boston School Committee, said, though, that a court order on searches might be unnecessary since the practice already had been implemented. Meanwhile Black civil rights leaders told President Ford last Thursday that his recent public statement on the Boston school violence had the effect of encouraging White racists to violate the law. The Black leaders had requested the meeting with the President to impress their views on him.

However, even as the Presidential criticism was being presented, racial fighting raged on at some schools here resulting in a number of student arrests, suspensions and expulsions. Thirty White students walked out at the Hart-Dean School, a ninth grade annex to South Boston High, following a disturbance at an orientation assembly for new students.

In another incident, three members of the American Nazi Party were arrested on charges of attempting to incite a riot in protest against the school busing order. The Nazis, who were making their third appearance in Boston in the last month, were arrested while they handed out anti-Black literature and urged people to disobey the integration order. Among those arrested was the leader of a group calling itself

-- 10 --
the Revolutionary Voice of National Socialism.

Also, National Guard troops remained on stand-by alert for any recurrence of the massive violence that occured during the first five weeks of the busing plan.

In other action, early last week, in the first visible demonstration of suburban support for the antibusing forces in the city proper, about 1,500 White parents and their children rallied to affirm their united opposition to school busing.

-- 6 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

BLACKS EXCLUDED
FROM CLUBS

(London, England) - The House of Lords, Britain's supreme judiciary body, ruled here that the country's 4,000 working men's clubs are entitled to exclude Blacks. The decision upheld an appeal by the Long-shoremen's Labor Club and Institute at Preston Lancashire and ruled the club did not violate the 1968 Race Relations Act by asking a Black man, Anthony Sherrington, to leave. The Race Relations Board attacked the decision and stated that it went against public policy.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION LAGS

(Berkeley, Calif.) - At a press conference held here at the University of California a spokesman for the University's Associated Students predicted that "We'll all be dead in our graves before affirmative action (increased hiring of minorities) takes place at Berkeley.

At issue is a two-year-old order from the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare for a plan to hire more minorities on campus.

GI BENEFITS VETO?

(Washington, D. C.) - According to the Senate Veterans Committee, President Ford has expressed displeasure about the raises in educational benefits for G.I.s and is "seriously considering" a veto of the $800 million G.I. education bill. His reason for vetoing the bill is that educating veterans would feed inflation.

RAY DENIES KING'S MURDER

(Memphis, Tenn.) - The accused assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., James Earl Ray, who once pleaded guilty to the murder, has contended he was duped and that he did not shoot the civil rights leader. He said he pleaded guilty only because he was subjected to pressure from his attorney, Percy Foreman, who wanted the guilty plea to spur sales of a book.

Ray's new lawyers contend that Dr. King was killed by two professional assassins hired by four wealthy Americans who hated the civil rights leader.

-- 6 --

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

(Cleveland, Ohio) - Jerry L. Boswell has been held in contempt of court here for allegedly impersonating the defendant in a robbery case. Boswell played his courtroom role so well that three witnesses identified him as the man who robbed them.

Boswell said an attorney for 24-year-old Dwight Lamar noticed a resemblance between Boswell and Lamar and suggested the switch to see if the witnesses really could identify his client.

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BLACK FEMINIST GROUP DENOUNCES “THAT'S MY MAMA” TV SHOW

(Atlanta, Ga.) - The Black ABC television series, That's My Mama, has come under attack by the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO), which charges that the program should be discontinued because "of the damage it has done in terms of perpetuating racist and sexist stereotypes."

In a recent press statement released in major cities across the country, the NBFO states that That's My Mama, a Black situation comedy new on television this fall, "is beyond any redemption" and that its characters "have no significance to the reality of what Blacks in America encounter.

"We do not say that Black people cannot be portrayed in comedic roles on television. What we do say is that this must be done in such a way that our efforts to maintain dignity and a sense of community and pride are not undermined," the NBFO press statement explains.

Commenting on the first three episodes of the series, the NBFO says, "(they) were blatant examples of sex exploitation. The intimate lives of Blacks were misrepresented and distorted in the most tasteless and derogatory manner. Black women were portrayed as foolish, devious, gullible, scheming, untrustworthy, manipulative incompetents. The men in these episodes, through their crude and condescending remarks, displayed and promoted an unhealthy disrespect for Black women.

DEGRADES

"Because That's My Mama actively degrades Black women and suggests the most negative images of all Black people, we urge the sponsors and producers of the series to take it off the air. It is an inappropriate portrayal of Black people which hinders our progress towards social responsibility."

The television industry has long had difficulty in creating Black-oriented series that depict Black people in a realistic, humane and nonracist manner. Among NBFO, complaints are:

"1) Black shows are slanted toward the ridiculous with no redeeming counterimages;

"2) When Blacks are cast as professional people, the characters they portray generally lack professionalism and give the impression that Black people are incapable and inferior in such positions;

"3) Few Black women…are cast as professionals, para-professionals, or even working people;

"4)Black children by and large, have no worthy role models on television."

The NBFO press statement, which emphasized the importance of keeping Black actors and actresses employed, challenged television producers and writers "to use their vast creativity in ways which project positive, strong images of Black people."

-- 7 --

INEZ GARCIA SENTENCED -- FIVE TO LIFE

(Monterey, Calif.) -InezGarcia, whose controversial rape-murder trial was headlined across the nation, was sentenced here last week to serve from five years to life in state prison for the murder of the man she says helped another to rape her outside her Soledad home last March 19.

When Superior Court Judge Stanley Lawson read the sentence the coalition of women's liberation groups which has actively supported Ms. Garcia in her claim of a woman's right to selfdefense chanted, "Free Inez, Free Inez."

The 30-year-old mother of two, Ms. Garcia, whose husband is an inmate at Soledad Prison, was convicted on October 4 of second degree murder for shooting Miguel Jiminez to death with a rifle. To the shock of many, she proudly admitted to killing the 300-pound Jiminez, whom she said held her down while 17-year-old Luis Castillo raped her. Castillo was not charged in the case.

The murder was committed just 17 minutes after Ms. Garcia said she was raped, and defense attorney Charles Garry argued that his client acted under the influence of post-attck "trauma," and shock.

Garry has filed an appeal in the case, charging that Judge Lawson showed prejudice against Ms. Garcia with various comments, grimaces, and gestures and that he improperly ruled out expert testimony by a researcher on the psychological effects of rape.

The judge's attitude toward the defendant was clearly expressed in a comment he made at the sentencing when explaining his refusal to let Ms. Garcia remain free on bail pending the outcome of the appeal: "I think this woman is dangerous, frankly."

DISMAY

The jury by and large was dismayed by Ms. Garcia's lack of remorse for the murder, as well as her assertions of dignity and pride. One male juror, interviewed after the trial was over, said that women have no need to defend themselves against rape because men are "just giving them a good time." (See THE BLACK PANTHER, October 12, 1974.)

The two basic legal issues concerning the Inez Garcia case revolve around the questions: (1) Should a woman be treated with leniency if under emotional duress she later kills her attacker; and (2) How can a victim prove rape actually occurred without undergoing humiliating questioning by police and lawyers?

The first question revolves around the psychological effects of rape on women, an area in which there is a definite need for more research since rape ranks among the most frequent serious violent crimes committed in the U. S. Policemen are notorious for taking a light attitude towards rape; having little or no concern for the feelings of a woman who has her honor violated.

-- 20 --

As long as rape victims are questioned by male police officers they will undoubtedly continue to be humiliated. Indeed, the prospect of such humiliation and degradation has resulted in less than one per cent of all rape cases being reported nationwide, according to Charles Garry. In a few cities, police departments are experimenting with having women police officers question rape victims in an effort to alleviate embarrasment.

There is also a great need for reform in rape laws. A recently passed California law says that a rape victim testifying at her accused attacker's trial can be publicly questioned about her sexual conduct with others only if a judge finds the information useful to measure her credibility.

-- 7 --

F.B.I. COMMUNICATION SYSTEM EXPANSION CONDEMNED

(Washington, D.C.) - An unannounced decision by the Justice Department, giving the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tentative approval to begin expanding its communication system, has been attacked by the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy as "potentially abusive."

John M. Eger, acting director of the Telecommunications Office, in a letter to Attorney General William B. Saxbe, criticized the Justice Department for giving the FBI's Crime Information Center the go-ahead to begin "limited message switching," which would begin to concentrate nationwide policing powers in the hands of a few men.

Eger said that the decision, if fully implemented, would violate an understanding made with Congress not to act until complex legislation concerning the limits and controls over the project had been worked out. He mentioned that the approval "…raises concerns over the protection of individual rights."

According to Eger, if the FBI assumes the function of the state-run system of communications, federal officials would be able "to monitor communications patterns between local and state law enforcement agencies."

The Ford administration, Attorney General Saxbe in particular, has recently emphasized a tough federal law enforcement policy, suggesting the establishment of a national police force which will result in serious infringements on the rights of all Americans. This latest move by the FBI seems to be a step in that very direction.

-- 8 --

LEAVENWORTH BROTHERS RECEIVE SENTENCES OF 10 TO 20 YEARS

(Wichita, Kansas) - Four Black Leavenworth Brothers were sentenced October 7 to terms ranging from 10 to 20 years for their role in the Leavenworth prison rebellion over one year ago.

After eight weeks of the trial, an all-White jury found them guilty September 24 on various charges of assault and inciting to riot.

The four brothers -- Odell Bennett, Jessie Lee Evans, Alf Hill, Jr., Alfred Jasper -- have maintained, from the beginning that the charges are a frame-up and an attempt to squelch prisoner activism. During the sentencing hearings, the four defendants' counsel made motions for acquittals and requests for new trials, based on the grounds of lack of evidence, conflicting evidence, racism among the all-White jury panel, and governmental misconduct.

"The evidence offered by the government was insufficient to take to the jury -- at least inconsistent," stated defense attorney David Brown, a member of the National Conference of Black Lawyers. Asking that the indictments issued by the grand jury and the verdict reached by the trial jury be voided, Brown added that "the grand jury and trial jury systematically excludes Blacks, Chicanos and other racial minorities."

"When we subpoena our witnesses, they are placed in the worst phase of solitary confinement," complained Chester Lewis, defense attorney for Odell Bennett. "We can have only one conclusion: that the warden and prison officials decided to punish the inmates for having the audacity to testify." Lewis also noted that the only evidence against Odell Bennett was a statement made by one government witnesss.

In spite of these repeated assertions, Judge Theis overruled all the motions for acquittals or new trials.

The sentencing hearings were accompanied by courtroom scuffles, characteristic of the eight weeks of trial. All of the defendants were brought into the courtroom separately for their sentencing, in shackles and accompanied by several U.S. marshals.

One confrontation occurred when Hill entered the courtroom for his sentencing and announced, "You should see what they did to Odell Bennett back there." When Judge Theis replied, "Isn't that too bad," Hill shouted at the judge, moving toward the bench. U.S. marshals closed in and held him by his head and feet. People in the courtroom angrily pointed out that he was shackled and therefore incapable of causing harm.

Throughout the trial, the defense tried to publicize the inhuman prison system that affects inmates at Leavenworth and other prisons.

Ed Hasse, spokesperson for the Leavenworth Brothers Offense/ Defense Committee, explains that the Leavenworth Brothers will be sent to other prisons throughout the country.

"The fact that none of the brothers are returning to Leavenworth -- one of the most antiquated, over-populated, repressive prisons in this country -- is a small victory for our cause of human dignity," says Hasse.

Yet two Leavenworth Brothers -- Alf Hill and Odell Bennett -- were whipped out to the U.S.

-- 22 --
penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, where they have already been committed to the Behavior Modification Control Unit.

In related developments, the trial of the two Chicano Leavenworth Brothers -- Jesse Lopez and Armando Miramon -- began October 15. Both are charged that Captain Cullins of the USS guards during the July 31, 1973, rebellion at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.

Lopez has pleaded innocent to the charge of kidnapping, maintaining that he merely acted as a mediator. Miramon, also charged with assaulting a prison guard allegedly taken hostage, has pleaded guilty by reason of temporary insanity and therefore not criminally responsible.

The defense will contend that prison conditions precipitated the action of taking hostages. In return for the hostages, the prisoners were demanding a meeting with the warden and news media to discuss longstanding grievances. For the previous year, the prisoners had been frustrated in all their attempts to go through channels to alter intolerable prison conditions.

(We thank Liberation News Service for the information contained in this article.)

-- 8 --

OUR HEALTH

BABY DRUGS
RECALLED

(Washington, D. C.) - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced recently the recall of all lots of a contaminated infant drug from U.S. and Puerto Rican hospitals. The FDA said bacteria found in liquid Lytren Oral Electolyte Solution posed "immediate or long range life threatening consequences to babies although no injuries have been reported."

AEROSOL SPRAYS
DANGEROUS

(Atlantic City, N.J.) - Every "pssst" of an aerosol spray can spreads a new kind of pollution around the globe. In every cloud of spray, as well as inside the cooling cells of refrigerators and air conditioners are man-made chemicals called fluoro carbons. While it is claimed there are no apparent present dangers, continued use of these spray cans may raise health hazards and perhaps even disrupt the weather between 25 to 50 years in the future, according to recent scientific studies.

MEDICAID ABORTIONS

(Washington, D.C.) - Medicaid, using federal and state funds, is paying up to $50 million each year to finance more than 220,000 abortions, a department of Health, Education and Welfare memorandum has disclosed.

TUNA CONTAMINATED

(Mount Vernon, N.Y.) - Rat hair and fly maggots are among the extra ingredients Consumers Union says it found when it took a close look at some canned tuna. An article in the November issue of their magazine Consumer Reports said that after testing 104 samples of 52 brands, the problem "appeared industry wide."

-- 9 --

FLUORIDATION OF EAST BAY WATER URGED

(Oakland, Calif.) - " `Look, Mom, no cavities!' can only become a reality with the passage of the Fluoridation Referendum that will appear on your ballot in the November 5 election," according to Stan Naparst, Democratic candidate for East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) Director, Ward 4.

Maintaining that the addition of fluoride to the water supply is the only way that our children can have healthy teeth, Mr. Naparst urges everyone to vote for Fluoridation Measure C on the upcoming ballot.

A statistician with the Alameda Health Care Services Agency, Mr. Naparst also wishes to establish equitable water rates. "The EBMUD structure favors the industrial user at the expense of the home dweller," says Mr. Naparst. "I propose to work for a rate system that is fairer to the homeowner and renter."

"The EBMUD Board must be made more responsive to the public." Mr. Naparst asserts. "To accomplish this," he says, "I propose:

(a) District elections of Board members rather than elections at large;

(b)Establishment of numerous citizen committees so that we can have more community participation;

(c)Making it easier for citizens to attend Board meetings in different parts of the District."

Mr. Naparst's extensive political activity includes participation in the campaigns of John F. Kennedy, Senator Eugene McCarthy, Congressman Ron Dellums, Senator George McGovern, State Assemblyman Moretti, and Alameda County supervisors Fred Cooper and Tom Bates. He is also a member-elect of the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee.

Regarding expansion of the water capacity, Mr. Naparst says that, "since we are moving into an era of limited water sources, I favor a large scale system of recycling: a) re-use of industrial cooling water as cooling water; b) new uses for treated waste water. Recycling also preserves the

-- 18 --
environment because damming of rivers can be reduced."

Referring to the need to improve EBMUD's relations with labor, Mr. Naparst points out that "the present Board's labor policies are as old-fashioned as the Model T. The Board is paternalistic; there is no full collective bargaining. EBMUD's labor relations must be improved so that we do not repeat last year's near disastrous strike. I pledge to work for fair and just working conditions and a strong affirmative action program."

POWER

Mr. Naparst would also like to expand EBMUD's electrical power productive capacity. "Private utilities are having, and will have, increasing difficulties in borrowing adequate capital to finance expansion of electrical power production," he says. "In future years we will have severe energy crises. To meet these coming crises EBMUD must develop plans for producing more electrical power.

"I would bring to the EBMUD Board of Directors a thorough knowledge of the history and present problems of EBMUD; a responsiveness to the concerns of all citizens within EBMUD's service area; a technical expertise in statistical data analysis; a long history of 16 years experience in political and community activites; and a strong desire to make EBMUD a more effective institution to solve the problems facing the constituents of EBMUD.

-- 9 --

RON DELLUMS CONDUCTS HEARINGS ON FEDERAL HOUSING POLICIES

(Oakland, Calif.) -- About 15 spokespersons representing various interests and groups testified last Saturday at an ad hoc Congressional hearing chaired by Democratic Representative Ronald V. Dellums of California's Eighth Congressional District on U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) policies and their implementation in the city of Oakland.

Most of the witnesses charged HUD's Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Program with failure in the areas of federal loans and guarantees, house abandonments, foreclosure policies, senior citizen housing and implementation of equitable appraisal procedures.

Opening the hearings, Congressman Dellums said, "We've been told by federal officials that given current administrative policies, it is becoming almost impossible for middle-income families to buy homes in Oakland …overall, we are disturbed by the meagre and haphazard approach to urban housing and the resulting and slow urban redevelopment and renewal projects …We greatly appreciate this opportunity to begin the arduous and difficult task of developing a policy and strategy that will improve the living conditions of all our citizens here in Oakland."

A formal report will be compiled of the findings of the hearing and submitted to the secretary of Housing and Urban Development and other pertinent officials.

COMMITMENT

Opening the testimony, the Rev. J. Alfred Smith of the Allen Temple Baptist Church, site of the hearings, delivered a fiery speech attacking the local and federal power structures for failing to meet the needs of the people. "I believe that we have the resources in this nation and in this city, but I don't believe that we have the commitment," he said.

Although the administration will not provide decent housing, he charged, "We can bring in the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) System so people who live outside the city can come into the city and work; we can build a Coliseum in East Oakland…we can build streets to get people to come through our community to get to the ballpark…"

John Williams, executive director of the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, called on Congress to declare East Oakland an emergency area because of its deplorable living conditions.

Charles G. Drasnin, President of the East Bay Legislative Council of Senior Citizens Groups, emphasized that there is a severe shortage of housing for senior citizens and that because rents are high, housing for the elderly should be subsidized.

Pointing out that there is a list of 300 elderly people waiting for an opening in senior citizen housing and that it will take four years for the last person on the list to receive housing, Mr. Drasnin said, "We don't have that time to wait. When you reach the age of maturity, the golden years, they get rather short and you just can't say we'll wait four years for an opening. We have to have more buildings now!

Ms. Elaine Brown, representing the Oak Community housing Company (a community-based nonprofit corporation which evolved out of a struggle to obtain replacement housing for the downtown City Center Project), could not testify as scheduled because she was conducting an important press conference on the shooting death of a Black Panther Party member the previous night at a Community Learning Center teen dance. (See article, page 3.)

A candidate for Oakland City Council in the upcoming elections, Ms. Brown will submit testimony via a written report to Congressman Dellums.

Other witnesses at the hearing included: Arlene Slaughter, Northern California chairperson of the California Real Estate Associations Equal Rights Committee; Cleo Sandle, chairperson. East Oakland Housing Committee; Richard Illgen, executive director, Oak Center Better Housing; Walter Taylor, president, W.J. Taylor & Co.; Lonnie Dillard, Coordinator, Elmhurst Urban" Renewal Project; Ellen Winborn, East Bay Area Club of National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women: Raymond Eng, vice mayor of the city of Oakland; and Barbara Thompson, executive director, Oakland Rehabilitation, Inc.

The head of HUD in San Francisco, Jim Price, who was severely criticized by a number of the witnesses, made a statement and called for a workshop to be held which would include federal officials, local administrators and community representatives.

Concluding the hearings, Congressman Dellums lashed out at President Ford for failing to cut the defense budget, at the expense of vital social programs. Criticizing the President's claim that appropriations to relieve pressing community problems such as indecent housing are inflationary, the California congressman said, "Spending money to save human problems is not inflationary, but military spending is."

VOTE
NOVEMBER
5

-- 10 --

NAVY HARASSMENT OF LITTLE ROCK BROTHERS SPARKS REBELLION

(Naples, Italy) -- Nine Black and one Puerto Rican sailor from the USS Little Rock, awaiting trial on fabricated charges of riot and assault resulting from racial fights aboard ship, have been forced into another confrontation with racist Navy officials and are now facing additional court-martial charges.

On July 5, almost one year after the first rebellion aboard the USS Little Rock, 30 armed marines charged into the Navy barracks at the Naval Support Activity (NSA) base here in a predawn action designed to drag off two of the Little Rock brothers, Donald Brookins and Edilberto Felix to pretrial confinement in Roto, Spain.

Attempting to separate the two brothers from the other sailors, Navy brass devised a scheme to have them flown to the Navy brig in Spain. The plan was foiled when the plane's schedule was changed to early morning. Instead of canceling the plan. Navy officials had all the Little Rock brothers awakened at 5:30 a.m. under the guise of a drug inspection.

After learning what was happening, the other Little Rock brothers demanded that their lawyer in Germany be called or that they all be taken to the brig in Spain together.

In a feverish rage, the commanding officer of the base, Captain Elfeit, ordered the marine riot squad in to transfer Brooking and Felix but the two brothers stood their ground. A young Navy officer present said later that the whole scene smacked of Gestapo tactics. "It looked more like an execution than an arrest," he said.

When the Black Marines on the riot force realized the situation and what they were being used for, they refused to raise their nightsticks against the brothers (and were later punished for their refusal). The rest, however, began clubbing the sailors, who by then had barricaded Brookins and Felix in a room and locked arms in resistance.

Outnumbered almost three to one by Marines, several of whom

-- 22 --
were brandishing 45s, the USS Little Rock sailors overwhelmed their opponents. The sailors then hung a sign out of the barracks window, visible to the whole base, which stated, "Oppression of Blacks at NSA."

The pleas of several Black senior petty officers prevented the situation from resulting in total mayhem and possible deaths. Negotiations resolved the conflict and the sailors were allowed to talk to their lawyer. In the end, Brookins and Felix were not sent to the brig in Spain.

In the pretrial sessions on October 2, the Court of Military Appeals upheld a defense motion that Captain Cullins of the U.S.S. Little Rock was a participant in the July 25 event and was illegally convening the courts because he was the accuser. As a result, Cullins was dismissed as commander of the Naval Support Activity Base.

The charges against the Little Rock brothers -- resisting arrest, assaulting the marines, and taking a hostage -- were transferred to new courts. Eight of the 10 riot charges and a few minor charges were dropped. The 10 original Little Rock defendants and two other Black sailors stationed at NSA are now on trial. The defense has considered filing a number of pretrial motions relating to wire-tapping by the government and the appearance of defense witnesses, many of whom have been transferred or discharged in the 11 months since the first incident…

An additional factor involved in seeking pretrial settlements of some of the charges is that the Little Rock defendants could never get a fair trial or jury anywhere in the Navy, particularly in the Mediterranean area where there is not a single Black officer…

-- 10 --

SUPPORT THE COMMITTEE FOR JUSTICE FOR HUEY P. NEWTON

THE COMMITTEE FOR JUSTICE FOR HUEY P. NEWTON is an independent citizens' groups made up of a cross-section of attorneys, clergy, students, political activists, and other concerned citizens. The Committee, which was formed in August, 1974, is pressing for a full investigation into the intensifying pattern of attacks by police and federal authorities against Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party. For further information contact THE COMMITTEE FOR JUSTICE FOR HUEY P. NEWTON. c/o Community Learning Center, 6118 E. 14th Street, Oakland, California 94621, or call (415) 562-5261.

-- 11 --

VOTE NOVEMBER 5: BLACK PANTHER PARTY ENDORSEMENTS

(Oakland. Calif.) - This week, in our centerfold section (pages 12 and 13), THE BLACK PANTHER lists its endorsements for the upcoming general elections to the held on Tuesday, November 5. As a service to our readers, the centerfold section has been layed out to display at a glance our newspaper's position on the various issues, candidates and measures. For those races in which there are more than one candidate vying for election, only the name of the candidate who has received our endorsement appears (with a large dot placed in a box on the right-hand side). In all cases, the wording printed in our centerfold section is exactly the same as that which will appear on the ballots of Alameda ounty voters on election day. We urge all ..lack and poor voters, regardless of where they may live or their political persuasion, to exercise their Constitutional electoral right and let their votes speak out on November 5. It is within your legal rights to TAKE THIS SAMPLE BALLOT WITH YOU TO THE POLLS WHEN YOU VOTE.

STATE RACES

Heading the list of state campaign (and capturing the lion's share of the headlines) has been the gubernatorial race between the youthful "liberal" Democratic candidate Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown and the "conservative," to-the-right Republican candidate Houston I. Flournoy. The leader in the polls throughout the summer and fall, Brown is big on environmental issues, opposed to the death penalty and favors lessening the stiff penalties against the use of marijuana. The latest reports indicate Flournoy is calling on the Republican's big-man. President Gerald Ford, the Watergate pardoner and hero of Boston's White racists to help him out in a last-ditch effort. Someone needs to help out Ford: VOTE FOR EDMUND G. BROWN FOR GOVERNOR.

In the Lieutenant Governor race, Mervyn M. Dymally, a Black state senator, opposes John Harmer, recently appointed by Ronald Reagan to temporarily fill the lieutenant governor's post vacated by Reagan's former righthand man, Ed Reinecke, now a convicted purgerer. That says a lot about Reagan and his friends. Let's hope Harmer's only keeping the chair warm: VOTE FOR MERVYN M. DYMALLY FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR.

Significantly, but in a negative way, we have NO RECOMMENDATION FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL. Evelle Younger, the Republican incumbent, is one of the ideological leaders for the anti-Black, antipoor people forces in the state of California. Quick and brutal repression became Younger's trademark when he was district attorney for Los Angeles County during the Watts riot in the 1960s and it is his trademark today. His right-wing political clout is perhaps unmatched except for Reagan. Last year Younger organized a powerful pro-death penalty campaign using the state highway patrol and other police forces as its base. Norris, his 1974 opponent, has not distinguished himself at all during a lackluster campaign.

Voter registration is the key to community control of politics.

CONGRESSIONAL

In the race for U.S. Representative in Congress from the 8th District, there is no question: VOTE FOR RONALD V. DELLUMS IN THE 8TH DISTRICT. This is an endorsement we make with great pride and in complete assurance that Congressman Dellums will continue to maintain his progressive stance in serving the interest of our Black and poor communities.

STATE LEGISLATURE

In the races for California State Assembly: VOTE FOR KEN MEADE IN THE 12TH DISTRICT AND VOTE FOR JOHN J. MILLER IN THE 13TH DISTRICT. There's no more to say.

COUNTY

Two Black men, both eminently qualified and sincere in their attempts to reform and transform their respective county positions, are battling for victory in this year's elections: VOTE FOR RENE DAVIDSON FOR COUNTY CLERK-RECORDER. Brother Davidson is currently Alameda County Voter Registrar and in this capacity has done an exceptional job, eager to help and serve the community. In the sheriff's race, Brother Victor James brings a new vision and a new, humanistic approach to the acknowledged problems of law enforcement. A teacher at Laney College, Victor James has pledged to revamp the sheriff's post through community input and involvement. He's good. VOTE FOR VICTOR V. JAMES, Jr., FOR SHERIFF.

S.F. BART BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT

Here again, two worthy Black candidates are seeking election in order to provide community representation on the so-called BART Board. The endorsements for Sister Ella Hill Hutch, which read like the names off of a testimonial dinner, just seem to go on and on. In Mrs Hutch's case the names are an impressive array of Bay Area politicians and personalities. With due respect and the utmost praise we add this newspaper to the list: VOTE FOR ELLA HILL HUTCH FOR BART BOARD, DIRECTOR, DISTRICT 7. Our other choice, Attorney Clarence L. Davis, Jr., is a long-time friend of the community whose practical knowledge of people's politics must not be wasted. The BART Board needs Clarence Davis as much as it needs stations located in the Black Community, desperately: VOTE FOR CLARENCE L. DAVIS, Jr., FOR BART BOARD, DISTRICT 4.

STATE MEASURES

State Measure 5 essentially repeals residency requirements for city employees in the state of California, and runs counter to the idea of community control and community involvement in local issues. City employees and public officials must not be allowed to flee from our problems in the evening, only to return the next day and make decision concerning our lives. VOTE "NO" ON MEASURE 5.

State Measure 6 increases the minimum permissible amount of a homeowner's property tax exemption from $750 to $1,750 of assessed value and requires that the legislature provide increased benefits to qualified renters comparable to legislated increases in homeowner exemptions. This measure acknowledges for the first time the "hidden" connection between rent hikes and property tax increases. VOTE "YES" ON MEASURE 6.

A "yes" vote on State Measure 7 provides for the right to an interpreter at state expense for criminal defendants who cannot understand English; that courts can grant release on one's own recognizance; and that property rights for noncitizens be the same as those for citizens. As its name indicates, this is a declaration of rights. VOTE "YES" ON MEASURE 7.

State Measure 10 amends the state constitution to restore the right to vote to persons convicted of specified crimes, following completion of their sentences or parole time. Although only a reform, still denying incarcerated prison inmtes or parolees their full Constitutional rights, it is a step in the right direction. VOTE "YES" ON MEASURE 10.

A "yes" vote for State Measure 11 changes the exclusively masculine gender of various terms in the state constitution in recognition of the fact that women exist, too. Long overdue: VOTE "YES" ON MEASURE 11.

Presently, California state law requires a local referendum vote before low-rent housing can be developed or constructed. Under cover of this law, rich, White suburbs have repeatedly refused to allow "others" in their communities, forming rigid boundaries defining racial and economic intolerance. State Measure 15 would change all that, repealing the referendum vote tie-in. VOTE "YES" ON MEASURE 15.

State Measure 17 is the result of an intense and bitter battle between environmentalists who want to save the Stanislaus river and the Army corps of engineers who want to build a $260 million, 62 story dam across its whitewater rapids. The Army's plan sounds shaky (as usual) and the Stanislaus is a unique and beautiful waterway, which should be protected. VOTE "YES" ON MEASURES 17.

For some time now THE BLACK PANTHER has been oriented towards increased electoral involvements by Black and poor communities as one method in which the power of our collective numbers might be realized. November 5 provides us all an opportunity to wield this power in our own interests.

REMEMBER, VOTE -- NOVEMBERS 5

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VOTE NOVEMBER 5
STATE

Governor
Vote for Once

EDMUND G. BROWN, Jr., Democratic
Secretary of State
-

Lieutenant Governor
Vote for One

MERVYN M. DYMALLY, Democratic
California State Senator
-

Secretary of State
Vote for One

MARCH K. FONG, Democratic
Assembly woman, 15th District,
California Legislature
-

Controller
Vote for One

KENNETH CORY, Democratic
Member of the State Legislature,
State of California
-

Treasurer
Vote for One

JESSE M. UNRUCH, Democratic
Businessman/Economist/Educator
-

Attorney General
Vote for One

NO ENDORSEMENT


Member, State Board of Equalization,
3rd District
Vote for One

WILLIAM M. BENNETT, Democratic
Member, State Board of Equalization
-

CONGRESSIONAL

United States Senator
Vote for One

ALAN CRANSTON, Democratic
United States Senator
-

Representative in Congress
8th District
Vote for One

RONALD V. DELLUMS, Democratic
United States Congressman
-

Representative in Congress
9th District
Vote for One

FORTNEY H.(PETE) STARK, Jr., Democratic
United States Congressman
-

Representative in Congress
10th District
Vote for One

DON EDWARDS, Democratic
United States Congressman
-

COUNTY

Supervisor, 2nd District
Vote for One

CHARLIE SANTANA
Councilman
-

County Clerk-Recorder
Vote for One

RENE DAVIDSON
Registrar of Voters
-

Sheriff
Vote for One

VICTOR V. JAMES, Jr.
Justice Department Consultant
-

STATE LEGISLATURE

State Senator
8th District
Vote for One

JOHN W. HOLMDAHL, Democratic
State Senator
-

Member of the Assembly,
12th District
Vote for One

KEN MEADE, Democratic
Member of the Assembly, California State Legislature
-

Member of the Assembly,
13th District
Vote for One

JOHN J. MILLER, Democratic
Member of the Assembly, 13th District,
California Legislature, Incumbent
-

Member of the Assembly,
14th District
Vote for One

BILL LOCKYER, Democratic
Member of the Assembly, 14th District,
California Legislature
-

Member of the Assembly,
15th District
Vote for One

CARLOS BEE, Democratic
Member of the Assembly, 15th District,
California Legislature
-

Member of the Assembly,
25th District
Vote for One

ALISTER McALISTER, Democratic Assemblyman,
25th District,
California Legislature
-

JUDICIAL

Judge of the Superior Court Office No. 1
Vote for One

MARTIN N. PULICH
Judge of the Municipal Court
-

DISTRICT SAN FRANCISCO
BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT

Director, District No. 3
Vote for One

RICHARD O. "DICK" CLARK
Bart Director/Councilman
-

SAN FRANCISCO
BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT

Director, District No. 4
Vote for One

CLARENCE L. DAVIS, Jr.
Attorney at Law
-

SAN FRANCISCO
BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT

Director, District No. 5
Vote for One

ALICE C. CLINE
Legal Assistant
-

SAN FRANCISCO
BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT

Director, District No. 6
Vote for One

JOHN W. GLENN
Transportation Specialist
-

SAN FRANCISCO
BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT

Director, District No. 7
Vote for One

ELLA HILL HUTCH
Labor Representative
-

DISTRICT

ALAMEDA-CONTRA COSTA TRANSIT DISTRICT Director, At Large
Vote for One

CHESTER C. McGUIRE, Jr.
Professor City Planning
-

Director, Ward No. 3
Vote for One

HECTOR "RENO CANNON" REYNA
Community Transportation Director
-

Director, Ward No. 4
Vote for One

SYLVESTER BROOKS
Public Administrator
-

Director, Ward No. 5
Vote for One

KIMIKO "KIMI" FUJII
Director, Alameda-Contra Costa Transit
District Ward 5
-

-- 13 --

CITY

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF BERKELEY R Shall Section 19 of the Charter of the
City of Berkeley be amended to increase
the compensation of the Mayor from $600
to $1200 per month and of Councilmembers
from $300 to $800 per month?
YES

NO
-

S Shall Sections 27, 28, 31, 33 and 35 of the
Charter of the City of Berkeley be amended
and a new Section 116 be added changing
the title of the Administrative Head of the
municipal government to City Administrator,
changing the number of votes required for
removal from six to five, and providing for the
powers and duties of the City Administrator?
YES
-

NO


T Shall a subsection (h) of Section 28 providing
that the chief officer of each
department may be removed by the City
Administrator only with the express concurrence
of the City Council be added to Charter
Amendment S if Charter Amendment S should
pass?
YES
-

NO


U Shall Section 30 be repealed and a new
Section 30 enacted providing that department
heads shall be nominated by the
City Administrator and confirmed by the City
Council if Charter Amendment S should pass?
YES
-

NO


V Shall a Section 29 be added to Charter
Amendment S providing that the City
Council shall have the power to appoint
the Chief of the Police Department if Charter
Amendment S should pass?
YES
-

NO

CITY OF BERKELEY INITIATIVE MEASURE W Initiative measure proposed: "DIRECTING
THE CITY OF BERKELEY TO
ACQUIRE THE PACIFIC GAS
AND ELECTRIC ENERGY DISTRIBUTION
FACILITIES SERVING BERKELEY; ESTABLISHING AN ELECTRIC
ENERGY COMMISSION TO MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR IMPLEMENTING THE ORDINANCE: AND PROVIDING FOR OTHER MATTERS
CONCERNING ACQUISITION, OPERATION AND OWNERSHIP
OF ELECTRIC ENERGY FACILITIES"
For the Measure
-

Against the Measure

CITY OF BERKELEY MEASURES X Measure proposed: "AMENDMENT
TO BERKELEY ELECTION REFORM
ACT TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL
METHOD TO MAKE SURE
THAT VITAL CAMPAIGN RECORDS
ARE NOT DESTROYED, LOST OR UNAVAILABLE
FOR INSPECTION"
For the Measuer
-

Against the Measure


Y Measure proposed: "SHALL THE
MAXIMUM ANNUAL PROPERTY
TAX RATE OF THE CITY OF
BERKELEY BE INCREASED BY TWENTY
CENTS ($.20) PER ONE HUNDRED
DOLLARS ($100.00) OF ASSESSED VALUATION
FOR A FIVE-YEAR PERIOD
COMMENCING IN 1975 FOR THE PURPOSE OF ESTABLISHING
A PARK ACQUISITION, DEVELOPMENT AND
RENOVATION FUND"?
For the measure
-

Against the Measure

MEASURES SUBMITTED TO VOTE OF VOTERS

STATE 1 THE STATE SCHOOL BUILDING AID
AND EARTHQUAKE RECONSTRUCTION
AND REPLACEMENT BOND
LAW OF 1974. Provides for a bond issue of
one hundred fifty million dollars ($150,000,000) to provide capital outlay for construction
or improvement of public schools.
YES
-

NO


2 CHARTERS FOR COUNTIES AND
CITIES. City or county charter provisions
may be adopted by majority of electorate,
without legislative approval. Financial Impact: None on local government and minor savings
to state government.
YES
-

NO


3 POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION COMMISSION
PERSONNEL -- CIVIL SERVICE. Exempts chief administrative officer
and three deputies of Postsecondary Education
Commission from civil service. Financial Impact: This measure involves little or no fiscal
effect.
YES
-

4 REGENTS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Adds members. Reduces terms to
twelve years. Requires new members to be
representative of state population make-up. Financial impact: Minor increase in state costs.
YES
-

NO


5 RESIDENCE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES. No city, county,
or district may require its employees to be
residents but can require employees to reside
within reasonable distance of employment
location. Financial Impact: None.
YES
-

NO


6 PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTIONS. Minimum
homeowner's property tax exemption
increased to $1750, but if Proposition Number
8 passes, makes exemption $7000 of full value. Financial impact: None in absence of increase
by Legislature of homeowner's exemption.
YES
-

NO


7 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. Amends
and reorganizes various constitutional provisions
relating to personal and property
rights. Financial impact: No increase in government
costs.
YES
-

NO


8 TAXATION AND STATE FUNDS. Constitutional
revisions relating to property,
insurance, bank, corporation and income
taxation and appropriation of state funds. Other
changes. Financial impact: Minor if any effect
state and local costs and revenues.
YES
-

NO


9 RECALL OF PUBLIC OFFICERS. Revises
and provides procedures for recall
elections for public officers and election of
successors. Financial impact: Local government
costs will be increased to the extent
recalls of local officials are increased.
YES
-

NO


10 RIGHT TO VOTE. Amends Constitution
to eliminate provisions disqualifying
electors convicted of certain crimes and
to provide for disqualification of mental incompetents,
and felons it prison or on parole. Financial impact: Minor increase in county
government costs.
YES
-

NO


11 MISCELLANEOUS LANGUAGE
CHANGES REGARDING GENDER. Recasts various terms presently couched
in the masculine gender to refer to "person". Financial impact: none.
YES
-

NO


12 PUBLIC UTILITIES. Repeals and reenacts
Article XII relating to public utilities. Transfers franchise material to
Article XX. No substantive changes intended. Financial impact: None.
YES
-

NO


13 SAN DIEGO COUNTY JUDICIAL
DISTRICTS. Permits cities in San Diego
County to be divided into more than one
judicial district. Financial impact: None.
YES
-

NO


14 STATE COLLEGE SYSTEM. Makes
president pro tempore of Senate an ex
officio member of state agencies administering
State College System. Financial impact: Minor, if any, state costs.
YES
-

NO


15 LOW RENT HOUSING. Repeals constitutional
provision requiring local election
before public entities may acquire or
develop low rent housing project. Financial
impact: Increased expenditures in amount
determinable only by experience.
YES
-

NO


16 STUDENT TUITION, UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA. Legislature to determine
whether students shall be charged
for instruction and instructional facilities by
University of California and the amount of
same. Financial impact: None in absence of
exercise of power conferred on Legislature; if
Legislature acts, financial impact will be dependent on type of
action taken.
YES
-

NO


17 WILD AND SCENIC RIVERS. Designates
portions of Stanislaus River as
components of California Wild and Scenic
Rivers System. Financial impact: Minor
cost to state.
YES
-

NO

COUNTY MEASURES A MEASURE A: Shall the Charter of the
County of Alameda be repealed, thereby
making the County a general law county,
effective January 1, 1975?
YES
-

NO


B MEASURE B: Shall the revenues allocated
to the County by the State from
taxes imposed on motor vehicle fuels be
expended for the construction and improvement
of exclusive public mass transit guideways
(and their related fixed facilities),
including the mitigation of their environmental
effects, the payment for property taken or damaged for such
purposes, the administrative costs necessarily incurred in the
foregoing purposes, and the maintenance of the structures and
the immediate right-of-way for the public mass transit guideways,
but excluding the maintenance and operating costs for
mass transit power systems and mass transit passenger facilities,
vehicles, equipment, and services?
YES
-

NO

DISTRICT

EAST BAY MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT Director, Ward No. 2
Vote for One

ROBERT KAHN
Certified Management Consultant
-

Director, Ward No. 3
Vote for One

NOEL A. PERRY
Administrative Analyst
-

Director, Ward No. 4
Vote for One

STANLEY NAPARST
Community Health Worker
-

Director, Ward No. 7
Vote for One

AL SMITH
Accountant
-

EAST BAY MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT MEASURE C PROPOSITION C: Shall EAST BAY
MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT add
fluoride compounds to the public water
supply of said District subject to the regulations
of the State Department of Health?
YES
-

NO

TAKE THIS
SAMPLE
BALLOT
TO THE
POLLS
WITH YOU

-- 14 --

SPEECH AT BOSTON COLLEGE: NOVEMBER 1, 1970

BY HUEY P. NEWTON

The following is Part I of a speech delivered at Boston College in November, 1970, by Huey P. Newton, leader and chief theoretican of the Black Panther Party. In Part I, Brother Huey explains the Black Panther Party's Ten Point Platform and Program, and how the Party arrived at its ideological position:

PART 1

Power to the people, brothers and sisters. I would like to thank you for my presence here tonight because you are responsible for it. I would be in a maximum- security penitentiary if it were not for the power of the people.

Tonight, I would like to outline for you the Black Panther Party's program and explain how we arrived at our ideological position and why we feel it necessary to institute a Ten-Point Program.

A Ten-Point Program is not revolutionary in itself, nor is it reformist. It is a survival program. We, the people, are threatened with genocide because racism and fascism are rampant in this country and throughout the world. And the ruling circle in North America is responsible. We intend to change all of that, and in order to change it, there must be a total transformation. But until we can achieve that total transformation, we must exist. In order to exist, we must survive; therefore, we need a survival kit: the Ten-Point Program.

It is necessary for our children to grow up healthy with functional and creative minds. They cannot do this if they do not get the correct nutrition. That is why we have a breakfast program. We have a busing program. We call it "The Bus for Relatives and Parents of Prisoners." We realize that the fascist regime that operates the prisons throughout America would like to do their treachery in the dark. But if we get the relatives, parents, and friends to the prisons they can expose the treachery of the fascists. This too is a survival program.

We must not regard our survival programs as an answer to the whole problem of oppression. We don't even claim it to be a revolutionary program. Revolutions are made of sterner stuff. We do say that if the people are not here revolution cannot be achieved, for the people and only the people make revolutions.

CONVENTION

The theme of our Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention is "Survival Through Service to the People." At our convention we will present our total survival program. It is a program that works very much like the first-aid kit that is used when a plane falls and you find yourself in the middle of the sea on a rubber raft. You need a few things to last until you can get to the shore, until you can get to that oasis where you can be happy and healthy. If you do not have the things necessary to get you to that shore, then you will probably not exist.

At this time the ruling circle threatens us to the extent that we are afraid that we might not exist to see the next day or see the revolution. The Black Panther Party will not accept the total destruction of the people. As a matter of fact, we have drawn a line of demarcation and we will no longer tolerate fascism, aggression, brutality, and murder of any kind. We will not sit around and allow ourselves to be murdered.

Each person has an obligation to preserve himself. If he does not preserve himself then I accuse him of suicide: reactionary suicide because reactionary conditions will have caused his death. If we do nothing we are accepting the situation and allowing ourselves to die. We will not accept that. If the alternatives are very narrow we still will not sit around, we will not die the death of the Jews in Germany. We would rather die the death of the Jews in Warsaw!

COURAGE

Where there is courage, where there is self-respect and dignity, there is a possibility that we can change the conditions and win. This is called revolutionary enthusiasm and it is the kind of struggle that is needed in order to guarantee a victory.

If we must die, then we will die the death of a revolutionary suicide that says, "If I am put down, if I am driven out, I refuse to be swept out with a broom. I would much rather be driven out with a stick because if I am swept out with the broom it will humiliate me and I will lose my self-respect. But if I am driven out with the stick, then, at least, I can claim the dignity of a man and die the death of a man rather than the death of a dog."

Of course, our real desire is to live, but we will not be cowed, we will not be intimidated.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 16 --

CAMPAIGN WAGED TO STERILIZE PUERTO RICAN WOMEN

(New York, N.Y.) - The U.S. puppet government in Puerto Rico has been waging a systematic campaign to sterilize Puerto Rican women of child bearing age, one-third of whom have already lost the ability to give birth.

"Now," says Dr. Helen Rodriguez, who was quoted in Liberation News Service, "the government is talking about developing a wider network of sterilization centers, of not putting any barriers to sterilization -- that is, age or number of children they've had before -- to really augment its campaign."

Dr. Rodriguez, a pediatrician who practiced in Puerto Rico from 1969 to 1970, cited a survey by Vasquez Carsada, who works in the Public Health School in the University of Puerto Rico. "For the past 34 years the government of Puerto Rico has carried on a systematic campaign to push sterilization as the main part of their program for population control," said Dr. Rodriguez.

"If you compare educational levels, it's by and large the women with the least education who get sterilized," she said.

"…Most of the women who get sterilized have had some failure in contraceptive use and do not have access or have not had access to contraceptives on an equal level with the women who are not sterilized.

"So there are many ways of pushing things. In a given individual, and this has been known to happen, it may happen that no type of consent was obtained…The hundreds of thousands of women being sterilized is done basically in terms of providing that as the main facility for birth control…

"Most birth control methods require a certain degree of basic education in the population. The rate of illiteracy in women is much greater than that in men in places such as Puerto Rico. When you want to develop an acceptable method and you want people to be able to use it, you have to develop wide, consistent and constant types of educational campaigns among the people, such as the Chinese have done."

Declaring that it is much easier to be sterilized then receive birth control, Dr. Rodriguez added, "Because abortion is illegal on

-- 18 --
the island and denied to women, then you have that last pregnancy, when you're really on the verge of starvation with that family. I think you're more likely to choose a final method."

Explaining why the government is pushing a policy of sterilization. Dr. Rodriguez said, "This is the Popular Party government which has been led for many years by Luis Munoz Marin. It is basically a Social-Democratic party which fell in totally with the colonial status of Puerto Rico. And rather than setting about to solve some of the basic problems of Puerto Rico, in terms of production, in terms of its ability to relate commercially to other countries, in terms of the control of the development of its own economy, it has simply fallen in line with the developing of population control as the main means of decompressing the situation on the island.

"And by population control we're not just talking about the planned, programmed and U.S.- sponsored mass migration to the United States. There are many documents attesting to the fact that most of the migration of workers to the U.S. took place under contract.

"…It means that the situation in Puerto Rico, economically and socially, is a situation that is detrimental to the Puerto Rican people. It's something people live with every day. The end of the thirties saw a peak rise in nationalist sentiments when Pedro Albizu Campos was our nationalist leader, who was most revered and respected, when there were mass movements based on nationalism.

"This was an explosive situation in terms of the U.S. control of Puerto Rico and colonization of Puerto Rico. Therefore the migration and control of population serves to keep an intolerable situation at barely tolerable levels because you always have an escape route for your discontented, for your unemployed, for your rebellious element in the population."

(A massive New York demonstration in support of Puerto Rican independence last weekend will be covered in next week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER.)

-- 16 --

AFRICA IN FOCUS

SOUTH AFRICA

"The government clearly is adamant to destroy the freedom of the press in South Africa," Hans Strydon, president of the South African Society of Journalists said recently, referring to draft legislation which would prevent press reporting of police actions in any "circumscribed" area of the country. Under the proposed legislation, which amends the Official Secrets Act, a "circumscribed" area is any area declared as such by the South African minister of justice. "If this law had been in existence in the past, it is possible that the press would have been prevented from publishing anything about the Sharpeville and Lanaga street demonstrations (two scenes of bloody police attacks on Black African civilians in 1960 in which hundreds were shot down and killed)…or police actions on strike scenes, to mention but a few," Mr. Strydon said.

ANGOLA

One of the more immediate results of the recent ceasefire agreement in Angola, ending 13 years of African guerrilla warfare against Portuguese colonialism, has been the open emergence of Zaire President Mobuto as a not-so-impartial negotiator for the country's three main liberation groups. Mobuto is generally credited with sponsoring and advocating the interests of Holden Roberto, leader of the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), while the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) is said to be held in disfavor because of its socialist politics.

UNITED NATIONS

The U.N. General Assembly's Fourth Committee on Colonial Issues turned its attention to the situation in White settler-controlled Rhodesia last week by receiving testimony from the country's two major African liberation movements, ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union) and ZAPU (Zimbabwe African People's Union), as well as spokespersons representing other political groupings in the country. No formal declaration of policy has as yet been issued.

-- 16 --

WESTERN POWERS THREATEN ANGOLA'S LIBERATION

(Lusaka, Zambia) - The treacherous nature of antipeople's forces in Africa, dedicated to impeding and destroying the people's liberation movements, is revealed in a recent war communique from the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the country's leading Black revolutionary political party.

Angola is finding it somewhat more difficult to shake over four centuries of Portuguese domination than its sister countries of Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique (see Comment on Mozambique, page 2). Angola's current efforts to negotiate self-rule with Portugal are being undermined by the activities of Western, neocolonial interests whose subversive efforts are explained in the following excerpts from the MPLA communique.

"The longest liberation war on the African continent is nearing its end. In the course of almost 14 years of armed struggle, the Angolan people, writing the most brilliant pages in their history, have won their right to independence at the cost of half a million dead and countless sacrifices…

"The growing strength of MPLA forces, both military and political, has always alarmed the

-- 18 --
enemies of the Angolan people. Thus, when the inevitable fall of colonialism came in sight, other forces tried to prevent their advance…

"In collusion with the colonialist forces, imperialism launched an offensive of a new type against the MPLA, simultaneously combining military attacks on especially our most advanced positions with attempts to disrupt our rear and our Movement itself, resorting to the infiltration of agents and spies. It was not enough to weaken it (MPLA)…

"Thus, agents of colonialism and imperialism organized a plot to assassinate the Movement's President (Dr. Agostinho Neto) and other leaders and cadres. The MPLA militants' vigilance caused the plan to fail, and other forms of pressure, all aimed at the destruction of our organization, came into play.

"…A multitude of political groups sprang up in Angola, almost all of them opportunist in character…marked by close collaboration with the former (Portuguese) regime, their purpose being to defend neocolonialism and fight the MPLA…

"While inciting the small settlers to racial struggle…(the opportunist political groups) are distributing fake pamphlets among the Angolan people, which, in the name of the MPLA and its President, exhort them both to massacre Whites and to wage a fratricidal (brother against brother) struggle of one tribe against another.

"In this way, groups of aroused settlers went over to acts of aggression against the Angolan people, causing loss of life in outbreaks of violence…The selfdefense measures taken by the population in the face of reactionary violence are legitimate and fully justified…

"As for the question of Angolan nationalism, the MPLA reaffirms that it has always advocated and endeavored to achieve a vast National Front for the Liberation of Angola, forged inside the country with all genuinely patriotic organizations.

"…This period implies continued struggle against the forces which have risen up to maintain colonialist or neocolonialist exploitation. Therefore, all MPLA militants, all the Angolan people, must redouble their vigilance in order to forestall, expose and smash all the maneuvers of the enemies of the Angolan nation, whatever the color of their skin."

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RESOLUTION PRESENTED TO EXPEL SOUTH AFRICA FROM U.N.

(United Nation, N.Y.) -- Spearheaded by the collective unity of representatives of Black-ruled Africa, an historic draft resolution recommending the "immediate expulsion" of the Republic of South Africa from the United Nations was introduced last week before the world body's Security Council.

With the resolution came a warning from a Black South African political leader to the 15-member Security Council that any nation which vetoed the resolution would be guilty of conspiring with international criminals.

Michel Njine of Cameroon, Security Council chairman for the month of October, along with the delegates of Kenya and Mauritania, introduced the draft resolution, which was expected to be voted on earlier this week. (See next week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER for results of the vote.)

A vote for expulsion would be the first such vote in the U.N.'s 29-year history. Adoption of the resolution requires backing by at least nine of the 15 Security Council members who, under the provisions of the U.N. charter, must recommend expulsion to the 138 members of the General Assembly, which has the ultimate power to expel South Africa.

Even if nine Security Council members vote for the resolution, a veto by one of the permanent Council members -- the U.S., Russia, the People's Republic of China, Great Britain and France -- could kill the drive to expel the racist White minority regime from the world body.

In addition to the People's Republic, and Russia, the nonpermanent Security Council members without veto power -- Cameroon, Kenya, Mauritania, Byelorussia and Iraq -- are expected to support the draft resolution. Other nonpermanent members -- Australia, Austria, Costa Rica, Indonesia and Peru (nonpermanent Security Council members are selected on a rotating basis) -- are undecided, according to The New York Times. An American spokesman declined to discuss what stand the U.S. will take on the issue, but at least one of the three Western powers -- the U.S., Britain or France -- is expected to veto the ouster of South Africa.

WARNING

Duma Nokwe, director of political affairs for the Black, African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, in warning against a veto on South Africa's expulsion said that "one day it may be necessary to challenge directly" big powers backing South Africa, a clear reference to the U.S., Britain and France. Mr. Nokwe told the Security Council that South Africa was a "fascist regime" and unique among the world's oppressive regimes because the country's racist apartheid (segregation) laws are combined with the sophisticated machinery of modern industrial society to perpetuate the superiority and privileges of the White minority.

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Earlier in the week, South Africa's U.N. representative, Roelof F. Botha, seeking to stem the growing international tide of criticism against his country, appealed to the U.N. to "keep open the channels of communication" to encourage further changes in the country's race relations.

Botha told the Security Council, "South Africa can be expelled from this organization, but not from the planet."

Botha admitted that South Africa had discriminatory laws and practices, but he denied that the country is racist. "We are not better than the Black people. We are not cleverer than they are. What we can achieve, so can they. Those laws and practices are a part of the historical evolution of our country," Botha said.

In other action last week, the Security Council extended for six months the mandate of the U.N. buffer force between Egyptian and Israeli troops in the Sinai peninsula.

Thirteen Council members voted for a resolution that prolonged the life of the United Nations Emergency Force until April 24, 1975, "to assist in further efforts for the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East."

-- 17 --

RACIAL VIOLENCE THREATENS FRELIMO RULE IN MOZAMBIQUE

(Lourenco Marques, Mozambique) -- The new wave of racial violence which hit this capital city last week, in which a gunfight started by off-duty Portuguese commandos resulted in the deaths of at least 49 people, points out the rocky road to total self-rule that FRELIMO (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) - will face during the next nine months.

The violence also pointed out the fragile relationship between FRELIMO and Portuguese officials who are cooperating to run an interim government in Mozambique until next June 24, when FRELIMO will assume complete control of the government.

Fifteen Black Mozambicans and 33 Portuguese (one body was so badly burned and mutilated that the victim's race could not be immediately determined) died, according to The New York Times, as the result of an incident sparked when a White Portuguese solider pushed a Black youth wearing a shirt decorated with the FRELIMO flag. When a FRELIMO soldier went to the aid of the youth, a fight broke out and the Portuguese commandos began wildly firing into the streets, defending the passers-by. FRELIMO troops shot back. More than 50 people were injured in the ensuing violence.

The incident brought the total number who have died in Mozambique since Portugal and FRELIMO reached their agreement last month establishing an interim government dominated by FRELIMO officials to over 150. Many Portuguese settlers, fearful for their future under FRELIMO rule, pledged after the violence they instigated in September that they would continue to stir up trouble in a blatant effort to undermine FRELIMO's progress toward total self-rule.

The Black community here, under the expert leadership of FRELIMO, showed the same remarkable calm that it displayed when it was so viciously attacked by the Portuguese last month. FRELIMO's work has resulted in a well disciplined and aware Black population, which by and large is mindful of the many troops that are being laid by Western, neocolonial interests to destroy the fruits of 10 years of armed struggle led by FRELIMO against the Portuguese.

FRELIMO's accomplishments have served as an inspiration to all Black and oppressed people struggling for liberation throughout the world. Because the Black political party has been so successful, Western powers and their allies are actively seeking to destroy its (FRELIMO's) credibility. The White racist governments of South Africa and Rhodesia are leading this undermining effort because of the certainty that they will soon be surrounded by Black-ruled governments, governments which no doubt will seek to free their brothers in South Africa.

One problem faced by FRELIMO is that the southern provinces of Mozambique were never totally organized by the party before the September agreement. Therefore, the consciousness of the people remain on a level whereby it will be easier for Western interests to set up agent provocateurs, who undoubtedly are behind the country's racial violence.

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WORLD SCOPE

CUBA

Cuban Premier Fidel Castro said in a taped interview last week with CBS television that he is willing to negotiate resumption of diplomatic relations with the U.S. if the economic embargo against Cuba is lifted. In a wide-ranging talk with CBS correspondent Dan Rather, the 47-year-old Cuban leader said he hoped for a change in U.S. policy toward Cuba under President Ford. Castro also said that the U.S. base of Guantanamo on Cuban soil would be brought up in negotiations, but he added, "We do not say that in order to start discussions they must withdraw from Guantanamo; rather we have posed a single condition: that the economic blockade be stopped."

UNITED NATIONS

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) head Yasir Arafat will not address the United Nations General Assembly this month on the Palestinian issue as had been expected, a PLO spokesman said last week. Farouk Kaddoumi, Arafat's deputy, will take his place, the spokesman said. The General Assembly has invited the PLO to take part in the debate on the Palestinian issue. Although no official reason was given for the change, security considerations were believed to have played a part.

CHILE

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) tried to finance an extreme right-wing