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Underground, Soundproof Death Chambers: DEMANDS MOUNT TO ABOLISH WAUPUN PRISON “SCREAMERS”

(Milwaukee, Wisc.) - The Milwaukee Chapter of the Black Panther Party reports that it is receiving overwhelmingly favorable support in its organizing efforts to abolish the new underground and soundproof "death chambers" presently under construction at nearby Waupun State Prison.

Since mid-June, when the Milwaukee Chapter called its first community meeting on this issue, over 5,000 signatures on petitions demanding the abolishment of the "death chambers" have been collected (see page 22), and correspondence has been received from as far away as Richmond, Virginia, and Tiburon, California, indicating that concern and support is mounting nationwide.

In addition, working in conjunction with progressive state Assemblyman Lloyd A. Barbee, one of several Black legislators who have signed and supported the petition, arrangements are being made for the coordinator of the Milwaukee Chapter, Ronald Starks, to address the Wisconsin state legislature when the signed petitions are presented to that body.

Last week, in response to distortions and misrepresentations of a prison inmate hunger strike called to protest the "death chambers" construction, the Milwaukee Chapter released a press statement, aired on WAWA, a local Black radio station:

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"On June 10, inmates at Waupun initiated a hunger strike to bring attention to the construction of these cells, which were built in secret.

"Waupun Prison officials attempt to divert the community's attention to whether or not the hunger strike continues. What is important is that the inmates have succeeded in stimulating community awareness so that the struggle continues -- with the community and the inmates as one -- in demanding the abolishment of the underground isolation cells."

Articles in the Milwaukee Journal and Survival News, a monthly newsletter distributed by the Milwaukee Chapter, have carried information on the soundproof cells, called "screamers," by the prison officials.

In its detailed account on the "death chambers," Survival News related that beside being underground and soundproof, the isolation cells are being equipped with sound monitoring and camera observation equipment. Each cell has its own thermostat unit which can be set for up to 100 degrees. (See THE BLACK PANTHER, June 30, 1975.)

The lengthy Milwaukee Journal expose on the "death chambers" and Waupun's Segregation Building also reported on the prisoners' common belief that the new isolation cells will be used to "break" them physically and mentally. The Milwaukee Journal said that prisoners' opinions against the construction of the cells was running so high that, if continued, a full-scale prison rebellion was likely.

In this regard, the following excerpted letter, written by Waupun inmate Don Kemp to federal District Court Judge James Doyle, is an insightful and articulate presentation of the views of the majority of the prison inmates regarding the new isolation cells:

"You have continuously failed to respond to the pleas from prisoners and citizens to cease construction of the death chambers at this prison. Now that substantial exposure has been given to this issue, I intend to use it to force the permanent closing of those chambers.

"Warden Ramon Gray made a statement saying that the chambers would be used only for `the screamers.' Why? So they do not disturb the other prisoners in the segregation building? There is screaming every day in the seg-shack…every time a prisoner is beaten, every time a prisoner sees that needle full of Sparine coming at him. There is screaming every day in that building. I hear it from here, every day, screaming.

"But we won't hear it any more, not after these soundproof slaughter bins are opened up. We won't hear the screaming, but we will know it is going on. When Gray announces another `committed suicide,' no one will be able to say any different, but we will know what happened. You have refused to stop the illegal construction of these chambers, because you figure your conscience will rest easier when legal actions for brutality decline, due to the fact that no one will know who is being beaten, no one can prove who is being beaten.

"SOMEONE SCREAMING"

"But I will write you, every week, to remind you there is someone screaming in the death chambers. I want you to think about it before you try to sleep at night, before you rehearse your witty remarks for the next day's proceedings, before you sit down to eat your steak and drink your imported wine, before you give a speech as to the effectiveness of the federal courts in the justice system, before you tell the people you are protecting their rights.

"The thermostat for each death chamber is individually controlled, and can be set for up to 100 degrees. Why 100 degrees Farenheit? That is very warm, is it not?… Considering the high levels of humidity in the segshack, that temperature can kill any living entity in short time. One small spray of mace against one's skin in that temperature will cause third degree burns. If inhaled, the respiratory system receives third degree burns, and results in instant bleeding and strangulation. Screaming, `Committed Suicide'…

"…Gray's sweat boxes will be used for Blacks, Chicanos, Indians, jail-house lawyers. He will convert them into `screamers' very fast, and no one will hear a thing. I want you to hear it all the time, as of today, June 1, 1975."

Judge Boyle presently has before him a lawsuit, filed by Waupun inmate Michael Cummings, seeking a court order to halt the construction of the new cells and that the entire segregation building be emptied and padlocked until an investigation can be made.

Letters supporting Cummings' suit and demanding the abolishment of the Waupun "death chambers" can be sent to Judge Doyle, U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

CENTRAL DISTRIBUTION 8501 E. 14th STREET OAKLAND, CALIF. 94621

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EDITORIAL: Israeli Aggression Condemned

As we go to press, reports are arriving of a major sea, air and land attack by the Israeli armed forces against the Palestine refugee camp at Tyre in Lebanon. Israeli sources are openly proclaiming the massive attack is in retaliation for the bombing on Friday, July 4, in Zion Square, in the heart of occupied Jerusalem, in which 13 persons died.

What would be the reaction of Americans if a terror bomb was exploded in the heart of Havana, Cuba, by an underground group of anti-Castro Cubans, and, in retaliation, the Cuban armed forces launched a massive air, sea and land attack against the refugee/exile community of Cubans centered in Miami, Florida?

By what right of international law does Israel dare to attack a neighboring state for its own inability to maintain internal security? What evidence is there that those responsible for the Zion Square bombing came from or had anything whatsoever to do with the refugee camp at Tyre in Lebanon?

For years Palestine guerrilla attacks outside the borders of Israel have been condemned by persons claiming that the struggle must be waged within Israel: that the injustices inflicted upon the Arab population of Israel are an internal matter of the Israeli regime and people and must be solved within the framework of whatever semblance of democracy exists within Israel.

The truth is, of course, that for the great mass of Arab Israelis there is no democracy. They exist in Israel as second, third and fourth class citizens. They are the hewers of wood and drawers of water. They are the "niggers" of the Zionist state. So long as this situation persists, terrorism in Israel will exist.

The attack against Lebanon is a blatant act of open aggression by Israel on a neighboring state. The act justifies the maximum of defensive action on the part of the Lebanese armed forces, and all those Arab armed forces and others that stand for the rule of international law. Every citizen of the world who believes in the rule of law, in peace and in justice must condemn this horrendous act of armed aggression by Israel and bring the force of world opinion down hard on the Israeli regime to end the oppression of its Arab population as a prelude to the advent of peace with its Arab neighbors and cousins.

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An Appeal To Our Readers

Dear Readers,

This is an appeal for help. THE BLACK PANTHER is in desperate need of funds in order to continue to appear. As with everything else in the U.S. today, our production costs have sky-rocketed, while the ability of those for whom we primarily publish our paper to afford even the 25 cents it costs grows more and more difficult.

We have been able to continue to appear because those of us who produce THE BLACK PANTHER receive no salaries. We all contribute our time and our skills because we believe strongly in what we are doing.

THE BLACK PANTHER receives no income from its ads. All the ads that appear in the paper are placed either in gratitude for regular contributions by the advertiser to one or more of the several Free Survival Programs of the Black Panther Party, or because the "product" advertised directly contributes to the liberation of oppressed humankind.

The many encouraging letters we receive from readers assures us that THE BLACK PANTHER is valuable and must not only continue to appear but must reach more and more readers. Its ability to do so depends on you.

THE BLACK PANTHER is your newspaper. We who produce it are only the instruments through which your voice is heard throughout the land. Help us keep your voice out there. Help us make it stronger and stronger. Send us whatever you can, and send it TODAY!

With every contribution of $25.00 or more you will receive free a one year's subscription. For every contribution of $100.00 or more you will receive free a life-time subscription.

But we need your $1.00, $5.00 and $10.00 contributions also.

By helping to keep THE BLACK PANTHER alive and well you will be directly contributing to your liberation.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

David G. Du Bois

Editor-in-Chief

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COMMENT: China On “The Rebirth Of Mozambique”

On the occasion of the historic proclamation of national independence of the People's Republic of Mozambique on June 25, 1975, People's Daily, official organ of the Chinese Communist Party, featured an editorial entitled "Warm Congratulations on the Rebirth of Mozambique," expressing fraternal solidarity and support between these two militant revolutionary Third World countries. The following is a reprint of that editorial, taken from Hsinhua news agency.

On the vigorous African continent which is fighting in unity, another independent country has gloriously come into being in the flames of armed struggle. Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, today officially declared its independence and solemnly proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of Mozambique. The Mozambican people who have suffered from untold colonial oppression have now stood up.

This is a great victory won by the Mozambican people in the wake of protracted armed struggle as well as a new success of millions upon millions of the African people in their united struggle against imperialism and colonialism. With immense joy, the Chinese people extend warm congratulations to the heroic Mozambican people.

The rebirth of Mozambique comes out of the barrel of a gun. For nearly 500 years, the Mozambican people have been waging a courageous and indomitable struggle against the vicious colonial rule of the Portuguese colonialists and for national independence and liberation. The Liberation Front of Mozambique (FRELIMO) was formed on June 25, 1962. Two years later, the Mozambican people, under the leadership of FRELIMO took up arms and embarked on the road of armed struggle.

After ten years of arduous fierce struggle, they have built up

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a strong armed force and liberated vast tracts of territory, thus dealing a crushing blow to the Portuguese colonialists and compelling the Portuguese authorities to recognize last September the Mozambican people's right to national independence. Since then, the Mozambican people have continued to advance on the road to complete independence and finally won the great victory today.

The victory of the Mozambican people has set an example of achieving national liberation through armed struggle for the people in southern Africa who have yet to win independence. It is bound to greatly encourage and propel the southern African people's struggle for national independence.

Their heroic exploits have added a new page in the annals of the national liberation movement in Africa. Their victory has testified to the truth! The people of a country, be it small or weak, can surely defeat their ferocious enemy and win national liberation so long as they dare to take up arms, enhance unity and persevere in struggle.

At present, the African people are advancing in giant strides in their struggle against imperialism, colonialism, racism, Zionism and big power hegemonism. The armed struggles of the people of Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola have overthrown the five-centuries-old Portuguese colonial rule in Africa. The people's armed struggle and mass movements in Zimbabwe, Namibia and Azania against White racism are daily growing in depth and incessantly dealing heavy blows to the reactionary regimes in South Africa and Rhodesia.

But the reactionaries will never reconcile their defeats. They will surely bide their time to stage a counterattack and make desperate struggle. Since the end of last year, Johannes Vorster of South Africa and Ian Smith of Rhodesia, under the instigation and with the backing of imperialist and super powers, have kept on changing their tactics. While stepping up armed repression, they are feverishly playing the "peace talks" fraud in a vain attempt to stamp out the flames of people's armed struggle in Zimbabwe and other parts of southern Africa. But all these efforts are in vain. More and more African countries and people have seen through their plots and intrigues.

The triumphant advance of the African people is not to be stopped by any force. The day is not far off when the whole of Africa will stand up.

The Chinese and Mozambican peoples and the African people as a whole are comrades-in-arms on the same front who have forged profound militant friendship in their common struggle against imperialism, colonialism and hegemonism.

From now on, following chairman Mao Tse-tung's consistent teachings, we will forever stand by the side of the great African people and resolutely support their just struggle until complete victory.

We are firmly convinced that after the independence of Mozambique and the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Mozambique, the traditional militant friendship between the people of the two countries will surely be further consolidated and developed.

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Visitors Skin Searched At Washington Prison

(Monroe, Wash.) -- Outraged citizens, including the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party, are threatening to sue officials at Washington State Reformatory here for the unprecedented subjecting of visitors to the prison to illegal skin searches.

On Monday, June 23, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department conducted dehumanizing skin searches on 14 visitors to the Washington State Reformatory, seven of whom were riders in the Free Busing to Prisons Program sponsored by the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party. Two of the seven were children, one five months old.

When the visitors arrived at the reformatory, they were falsely told that the bathrooms were out of order and that they would have to undergo a public skin search or they would be placed on a 90-day restriction from visiting their loved ones and friends.

Later that same evening, the inmates, uniting to show the prison administration their righteous anger over the skin searches that their families had been subjected to, looted the prison store in a three-hour rampage and refused to be locked down until Superintendent Look agreed to end the searches.

The next day the attorney general of Olympia, Washington, ordered the searches stopped until further research had been done on their "legality."

The Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party told THE BLACK PANTHER that this most recent action by officials at Washington State Reformatory is a further extension of their fascist actions directed at participants in

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the Party's Free Busing to Prisons Program. Since the bombing of the offices of the Olympia Department of Social and Health Services about a month and-a-half ago, the prison staff at Monroe has been increasing the harassment of the people who ride the bus to the prison.

Letters of protest are being sent to the governor of Washington, the state's attorney general, Washington State Reformatory administrators and Snohomish County Sheriff officials.

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CHICAGO B.P.P. SUPPORT GROUP CELEBRATES 5TH ANNIVERSARY: Justice For Huey P. Newton Committee Announced

(Chicago, Ill.) -- An overflow crowd of five hundred plus packed into the Hull House gallery room here on Saturday, June 28, for an afternoon of good food, speakers, discussion of future community programs, music, dancing, and a highlighted message from Huey P. Newton, leader and chief theoretician of the Black Panther Party. The occasion was the fifth anniversary of the Intercommunal Survival Committee (ISC), an organization of Whites founded under the direction of the Black Panther Party to serve the needs of the poor and oppressed White community.

It was truly a day of celebration. Speaking to the lively crowd, prominent Chicago James Chapman praised the ISC which "five years from its beginning is still here and growing stronger, in spite of all the harassment and repression, while so many organizations have failed after only a few years."

Eddy Ramirez, representing the Young Lords Organization, (YLO) explained the coalition between the YLO and the ISC -- which is based on self-determination and unity -- and brought greetings and best wishes from Cha Cha Jimenez (candidate for alderman in the recent municipal election.)

Jack Hart, a leading member of the ISC, explained in clear and enthusiastic terms that the "idea is now a reality." Jack listed the 15 survival programs the ISC has initiated in the last five years, everything from Free Food programs to Legal Educational and Assistance programs, and commented on the many issues of survival the ISC had worked on with the community.

"Through the commitments of hundreds, and the support of many, many more," Jack said, "the ISC has been able to take an idea and make it into a reality that can be analyzed and evaluated by the community at large. The development of organization in the oppressed White community, looking to the leadership of the Black Panther Party and the Black community, is a step towards eliminating racism. It is also a step towards a successful movement to transform a world controlled for exploitation by a profit-crazy few to a world of communities democratically united in self-determination, justice and equality."

The highlight of the afternoon came when Darron Perkins, a leading member of the Black Panther Party who had traveled from Oakland, California, for the occasion, brought a message of "love and solidarity" from Huey P. Newton. The community crowd listened excitedly, frequently shouting out "Power to the People," as Darron gave vivid descriptions of the preventative health care and senior citizen programs and, of course, the Intercommunal Youth Institute, the highly successful model school founded by the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California. But the people responded with indignant anger as the Black Panther Party member told of the many attacks and "dirty tricks" government forces had directed at the Party, at the Oakland City Council campaign of Elaine Brown, and especially at Huey P.

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Newton, who has been forced out of the country as a result of numerous frame-up charges and attempts on his life.

Noting that it was clearly in line with the Black Panther Party emphasis on the next generation that there were so many children among the audience, ISC coordinator Slim Coleman announced the formation of the Chicago Chapter of the Committee for Justice for Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party.

Mentioning the nearly 100 prominent doctors, lawyers, political figures, businessmen and community leaders, Coleman said that the only force that will make it possible for the Huey P. Newtons to function in safety to protect the interest of the poor and oppressed people in this country, is the people of the poor and oppressed communities themselves.

"We must not be content to see Watergate-styled activities exposed at the level of the Democratic Party national headquarters. The real threat to our welfare comes in the government Nixon-Ford, CIA-FBI attacks on grass roots organizations and civil right organizations like the Black Panther Party, working at the community level. We are going to petition, educate, rally and march and do whatever else we have to do to bring Huey P. Newton back home safely where he belongs!" Coleman said.

In another highlight of the moving afternoon, Community Service Awards were presented to James Chapman for his work in the new community service center; to Sonny Hills for his work in the first neighborhood learning center tutorial program on Sunnyside; to Rose Mathis for her work on the Kenmore Street Safety and Recreation Committee and to Cha Cha Jimenez, whose people's 46th Ward Aldermanic campaign electrified the city and helped to build a strong base for community action in Lakeview and Uptown.

Winding up the program, Slim Coleman announced that the ISC was starting a new Free Lunch Program, feeding 1,000 children per day, beginning on July 7. He called for volunteers in the program and explained that the lunches would include roast beef, corned beef or pepper beef sandwiches, fresh fruit and fresh cool milk, putting the inadequate city lunch program's third rate bologna and often spoiled milk to shame.

The opening of the 46th Ward Community Service Center was also announced. It offers legal, welfare and tenants' rights counseling and assistance from participating lawyers. The Service Center will also work to develop a community-wide network of neighborhood learning centers with math and reading tutorial programs as well as field trips and physical training and recreation.

COMMUNITY FORUMS

Slim called on everybody to attend the new ISC Saturday morning community forums, held at 10:00 a.m. at 4520 Beacon, where information relevant to the survival of the community is presented, guest speakers and entertainers appear, films are shown, and community action and community programs are initiated.

Finally, everyone clapped hands and stomped feet in unison and unity as Slim recalled Fred Hampton's reference to the "beat of the people": "Whenever we're down or discouraged, we put our ear to the ground, and hear the beat of the people, and we're not discouraged anymore, because the people can do anything."

After ten minutes of "clapping and rapping" the crowd turned to the serious business of eating lasagna and salad and ice cream and other home cooked food, to dancing to the music and to generally having a good time, confident that they were part of a strong people's movement that was really on the move.

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3 Of S.Q. 6 Tear Gassed, Beaten

(Tamal, Calif.) -- San Quentin 6 Brothers Hugo Pinell, David Johnson and Luis Talamentez were brutally tear gassed, taken from their cells and beaten last week by Adjustment Center guards for asserting their Constitutional right to refuse to appear for their trial in Marin County.

Terrorized in their cells, by the noxious, burning, blinding tear gas fumes, all three appeared in court later last Monday morning with puffy, swollen eyes and additional face bruises from the guard beating.

Along with Brothers Willie Tate, Fleeta Drumgo and Black Panther Party member Johnny Larry Spain, Pinell, Johnson and Talamentez are on trial in Marin County Courthouse in the celebrated case of the San Quentin 6, six Black and Brown prison activists facing frame-up murder and assault charges as a cover-up for the state's assassination of Black Panther Party Field Marshal George Jackson on August 21, 1971.

Recently, after sifting through close to 1,000 candidates, a jury of 11 Whites and one Black was seated for the case. Of the prospective jurors called, less than five were Black.

The lack of peer group representation has consistently been a point which the Six have exposed and protested against as an example of the injustice and blatant racism of the criminal justice system. They have also charged that the racial imbalance of the jury is a sign that they are being railroaded on charges for which they are innocent, therefore frequently choosing to remain in the holding cell outside the Marin County Courtroom or in their bleak, first tier Adjustment Center cells in protest.

If any single cell on the Adjustment Center's first tier -- where the Six are warehoused -- is tear gassed, the immediate and lingering fumes affect all cells.

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The Reggae Sound Of “Obeah” At The Son Of Man Temple

(Oakland, Calif.) - The driving rhythm of the reggae group OBEAH was featured at the July 6 Son of Man Temple Community Forum. The sound of reggae to the Black people of the Caribbean and the West Indies is what the blues are to Black people in America, an expression of the oppression that we suffer.

The program was opened by emcee James Mott, who presented some very relevant facts on Black history. After a collection for the Community Learning Center Free Music Program, the program moved into the reggae sound of Obeah. The group, consisting of brothers from Trinidad, Jamaica, and Panama, showed a mastery of several African instruments. They performed reggae calypso and African root with a warm and enduring enthusiasm.

The warm and friendly audience at the Son of Man Temple demonstrated its love and appreciation for Obeah and the message they brought to the Learning Center.

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SAVE THE CHILDREN

Intercommunal Youth Institute

The Intercommunal Youth Institute, located at 6118 East 14th Street in Oakland, California, is an accredited, model elementary school. The 110 children, ages 2½ to 11, are primarily Black and Chicano.

As we, the staff, work very closely with each child (the staff/student ratio is 1 to 11), we find through our interaction that we are able to resolve the age-old "mystique" of child upbringing and development. We would like to share with readers of THE BLACK PANTHER the knowledge we have gained through this interaction. We invite parents, instructors and students who have any questions regarding a child or the Youth Institute to forward letters to: The Intercommunal Youth Institute, 6118 East 14th Street, Oakland, Calif. 94621.

Below, a concerned instructor seeks help in her efforts to assist one of her students:

Dear Youth Institute:

I am a fourth grade teacher in an Oakland elementary school. There is a new student in my class who picks fights with the other children and therefore disrupts class often. He is from a very poor family and does not have adequate clothing. Please give me some suggestions.

Ms. V.M.

Oakland

Answer:

It appears that the child is having some home/family problems. First, find out if there is anyone in the class whom the child may call a friend or with whom he'd like to establish a friendship. The other student may be the one to help this child out of his socialization rut. The child's actions manifest: Fear (of a new situation): distrust, and therefore defensiveness, displayed through offensive actions. Have you talked to the child? You must know the child in order to help him. After you have become this child's friend, someone he can trust and respect, then he will be open to your guidance of his academic needs. Win him, but don't "spoil" him.

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2 BLACK YOUTH KILLED IN RACIST DALLAS MURDERS

(Dallas, Texas) - In two recent incidents here, Black youth have been murdered. This time, however, they did not die at the hands of racist police. In one incident a youth was shot by a security guard for allegedly shoplifting, and in the other incident a youth was shot by White snipers.

On June 3, 16-year-old Robert Rains Lee was shot and killed by security guard Gene Guinn for an alleged attempt to shoplift some records from Skillern's Drugs at 325 East Jefferson. Robert Lee did not have a police record and actually had not stolen anything, yet was shot in the back of the head with a .45 caliber pistol by Guinn, a self-proclaimed Nazi, as Guinn chased Robert out of the store.

Guinn was indicted for murder but later was released from jail after having his bail reduced from $25,000 to $5,000. At a hearing, Dallas police Detective Charles Hallam testified that witnesses saw Guinn shoot Lee as Lee ran from the store, and then Guinn went back in the store and placed the records beside Lee as he lay dying. Although the youth was shot directly in the back of the head, Guinn's lawyer has called the shooting "accidental."

DISARMED GUARDS

At one time the Dallas City Council considered an ordinance which would disarm security guards but instead adopted an ordinance without a gun restriction.

The other incident, which occurred on May 25, is a case of cold-blooded murder by White racist snipers. Johnny Kenner, 15, was shot by a sniper's bullet and died the next day when, crazed with pain, he snatched out a tube inserted in his abdomen.

The sniping incident occurred in the Frazier Court Projects in Southeast Dallas and was immediately investigated by community leaders, including Brother Fred Bell, coordinator of the Dallas Chapter of the Black Panther Party. The three snipers, Irving and Patrick Ray Warner, 22, and Thomas Leon Watson, 22, shot and wounded two other persons and are now facing murder charges. Patrick Warner and Watson are being held on $300,000 bond and Irving Warner is being held on $100,000 bond.

A meeting was held by tenants with a list of demands drawn up to be presented to Mayor pro tem George Allen. The list of demands calls for a strict barricade to be built around the projects to prevent outsiders from entering.

At the meeting a tenant, Ms. Mildred Janice, explained, "We don't want to riot, but we're not going to sit still either."

After the meeting, where tempers flared, Mayor pro-tem Allen expressed his sorrow and added that, "It (the murder) was an unexplainable act of random brutality which was met with swift legal action."

The tenants of the Frazier Court Projects and community leaders are continuing their investigation of the murder as they move to organize against such incidents.

End
Police Brutality

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Suit Filed Against Wisconsin School For Boys

(Wales, Wisc.) -- A class action suit challenging certain disciplinary practices at the Wisconsin School for Boys was filed here last week in federal court by Milwaukee Legal Services. The suit was filed on behalf of a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old youth and the mother of a 17-year-old Wales inmate.

Among the complaints listed in the suit is the placing of youth in solitary confinement, without a prior hearing, for long periods of time at the total discretion of the Wales staff, an action which violates both the Eighth and the Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution guaranteeing protection against cruel and unusual punishment and procedural safeguards to those charged with crimes.

The suit also charges that the plaintiffs have been subjected to unnecessary macings; have been deprived of materials for reading and corresponding; have had the lights left on in their cells 24 hours per day; have been deprived of daily opportunities for recreation and of adequate bedding and clothing.

DEFENDANTS

Defendants in the suit are Wilbur J. Schmidt, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health and Social Services; Roland McCauley, administrator of the Wisconsin Division of Corrections; Roland C. Hershman, superintendent of the Wisconsin State School for Boys at Wales; Lloyd Mixdorf, assistant superintendent for residential care at Wales; and Chris Ellert, supervisor of the Wales' Secured Discipline Unit.

Robert Blondis, associate director for Milwaukee Legal Services, told the Milwaukee Chapter of the Black Panther Party that the class action suit also challenges the conditions in solitary confinement at Wales. He said in "M" cottage, which has 24-25 segregation cells, life is the same as in an adult prison. The cells contain a bed which is chained to the floor and a toilet.

Wales is troubled with overcrowded conditions commonly found in adult penal institutions. Originally built for about 250 juveniles, Wales added two new

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cottages about 10 years ago, but no additional space was added to the school. It now has a capacity of 344 but a population of nearly 430. Some youth are forced to sleep in the dining-recreation areas of Wales' 11 living cottages.

Overcrowding has resulted in reductions in staff. At Wales there is one cottage counselor for every 40 boys and no substitute teacher.

According to Ron Patros, assistant superintendent in charge of treatment, the academic level of boys coming to Wales has dropped significantly in the last few years. Patros told The Milwaukee Journal:

"CAN'T TELL TIME"

"We have 30 kids who don't know the alphabet, who can't tell time after 6. They've had poor diets. Many haven't been in school for a long time when they get there. We have to start from scratch -- including hygiene," Patros said.

Superintendent Hershman admitted that some boys leave Wales without ever getting help. "If we could do more here, less would be needed at places like Waupun…," he said. He makes no apologies for placing youth who fight or steal in the segregation cottage, claiming that segregation is "the most humane way of handling a serious problem."

About 25 youths are in a special community program in which they hold jobs and can save money. Others are paid for jobs at the school, such as in the laundry. They receive a mere $1.00 a week allowance.

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Sen. Alan Cranston Visits Learning Center

(Oakland, Calif.) -- California Senator ALAN CRANSTON visited the Community Learning Center on Thursday, July 3. With Ms. ELAINE BROWN, director of the Educational Opportunities Corporation (EOC), the nonprofit organization which administers the educational and cultural programs of the Learning Center, and Ms. ERICKA HUGGINS, director of the Intercommunal Youth Institute, East Oakland's model school for Black and poor youth housed in the Learning Center, Senator Cranston toured the facilities of the building, stopping for a time to watch a summer arts and crafts class for Institute students.

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STRUGGLE AGAINST RACIST VIOLENCE IN PENSACOLA GROWS: BLACK COMMUNITY ORGANIZING TO STOP K.K.K. VIGILANTES

(Pensacola, Fla.) -- This town, located in the panhandle of Florida, has become a focal point of a struggle between a mass movement for human dignity and rights and a whole range of racist and reactionary forces. There has been incident after incident which have been reported by THE BLACK PANTHER, all pointing to head-on clashes for basic Constitutional and human rights.

In an attempt to intimidate the Black population, White racists have made Pensacola a target for their efforts. Robert Shelton, imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, has put it in an appearance along with presidential candidate George Wallace. Both of them have called for "law and order," for the purpose of stifling the people's movement developing in Pensacola. Shelton stated, "We have got to get fear back into existence to enforce the law."

But these attempts of intimidation are the result of mass rallies, marches and demonstrations geared to stop a recent onslaught of racist murders and repression. Recently two Black clergymen, Rev. B.J. Brooks and Rev. H.C. Matthews, were held under $22,000 bail on felony extortion charges stemming from a protest over the murder of a 23-year-old Black man, Windell Blackwell. Blackwell was shot in the face at point-blank range with a .357 magnum revolver by deputy sheriff Douglass Raines. The only weapon found on Raines was an empty .22 deringer.

At the time of this demonstration, another deputy sheriff, Jim Edson, made a statement which gives one an idea of the make-up of the sheriff's department. Edson was quoted in the St. Petersburg Times as saying:

"I love niggers. I would like to have two in my backyard for my dogs to play with because niggers are better than milkbones."

The authorities of Pensacola and the state of Florida have attempted to ignore the demands of the Black community of Pensacola, and the establishment media have imposed a news blackout of the situation.

This people's movement has been gaining strength since it began last November 29 when five Black men on a fishing trip from Atlanta fell victim to vigilante violence (see THE BLACK PANTHER, June 9, 1975). The movement has gained momentum with the current demand being the firing of deputies Raines and Edson, a demand which has been refused.

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THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

JULY 10, 1775

In a move indicative of the way in which racism permeates American history, an order issued on July 10, 1775, by Horatio Gates, George Washington's Adjutant General, banned Black soldiers from the American Revolutionary Army.

JULY 13-17, 1863

Hostility to the new draft system, a racist fear of Black people as the "cause" of the war and as potential competitors in the labor market, combined to create the New York Draft Riots, one of the bloodiest race riots in American history lasting from July 13 to 17, 1863. White mobs swept through the streets of New York City murdering Black people and hanging them on lamp posts.

JULY 11-13, 1905

Destined to be the direct forerunner of the NAACP, a group of Black community leaders from throughout the U.S. organized the militant Niagara Movement at a meeting near Niagara Falls, New York, on July 11-13, 1905. Delegates from 14 states were represented, led by the great W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter. The movement demanded abolition of all political and social distinctions based on color.

JULY 11, 1954

As if segregation and discrimination against Black people were not enough, a group of Whites organized the first White Citizens Council unit in Indianola, Mississippi, on July 11, 1954. This organization would become notorious for its campaign of terror and murder perpetuated against Black people in America.

JULY 10, 1962

On July 10, 1962, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was arrested in Albany, Georgia, after leading an anti-segregation demonstration. A few days later 161 Black people were jailed in their organized attempts to desegregate municipal parks and libraries. Before any changes were made, three Black churches would be bombed and King and many other ministers and community people would be beaten and arrested.

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13 RUN FROM TOWN: Committee Forms To Defend Taft Blacks

(Oakland, Calif.) - Representatives of California's Black communities have called for a series of protest moves against Taft Junior College, in Taft, California, in response to the recent racist attacks against its entire Black population resulting in their being run out of Taft by a mob of threatening Whites.

On May 25, all of the Black students of Taft Junior College, numbering 13, were run out of town by a mob of threatening Whites following a series of confrontations sparked by White resentment of the outstanding roles played by the 13, all of whom are leading athletes at Taft Junior College. (See THE BLACK PANTHER, June 16, 1975.)

Brother Ben Tapscott, educator and coach at Oakland's McClymonds High School, backed by East Bay Black leaders as well as others, told a press conference here last week that the Bay Area Committee to Boycott Taft was calling for a boycott of all intercollegiate athletic contests of any sort with Taft Junior College; a boycott of Taft by Blacks until a thorough investigation is concluded and law and order prevails; the filing of criminal actions against the attackers by the president of the college; and the resignation of Taft police chief Walter McKee.

In addition, the Bay Area Committee is demanding investigations

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by California Governor Brown's office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Justice Department, with the fullest public disclosure of the findings evidencing violations of the Black students' civil rights.

Further, the Committee is demanding that no further federal monies be released to the Taft, California, area for oil development projects until law and order is re-established and the civil rights of Blacks are guaranteed.

The 13 Blacks were football players at Taft Junior College, recruited by the college specifically to boost up its failing football team. Two of the 13 participated in the press conference with Brother Ben Tapscott. They were Steve Blackburn and Craig Tinson, both 19. "They told us we'd better get the hell out of town and never come back." Brother Tinson told the press conference. He also said that he was told that if he did return he would be killed.

NAACP

Among those participating in the press conference was Brother Alphonso Galloway, executive director of the Oakland Chapter of the NAACP. He told the conference that the Western Regional office of the NAACP is abreast of the situation and that a study of legal action is underway. Brother Sandre Swanson, representing California Congressman Ronald V. Dellums' office, told the reporters that Congressman Dellums was "outraged" at the action and has committed his entire staff to the investigation of the circumstances and present situation in Taft.

The two students described the alleged. "protective custody" they were provided by the Taft Police Department. The students asked that their convoy of cars be led by a police car and followed by a police car with a police helicopter overhead for protection. The police agreed to this request. But, instead, they forced all the students to pile into one car and only provided one police car to lead them on the hazardous drive from Taft to Bakersfield.

None of the students plan to return to Taft Junior College. Brother Tapscott said that the demands for thorough investigations of the situation are serious, and that if they are not forthcoming, a massive march by Black California citizens on Taft would be organized and carried out to dramatize the concern of the community.

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CONFERENCE MAPS PLANS TO ORGANIZE SOUTHERN WORKERS

Civil Rights Movement Citied For Laying Foundation

(Birmingham, Ala.) - The fight for jobs and a decent standard of living for all people is reaching deep into the South. On June 21, over 50 activists from six Southern states met here for a workshop on organizing against inflation and unemployment.

Participants included Black and White trade unionists, representatives of women's groups and tenants' councils, community organizers, ministers, young people from Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. People from Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi and Arkansas who were unable to attend sent messages indicating a desire to cooperate in the building of a unified Southwide movement around these issues.

The workshop, held at Miles College, was called by the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice, a Southwide network that has grown out of the old civil rights movement, and the Martin Luther King, Jr., Workers Conferences, a program being developed under the sponsorship of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to organize unorganized Southern workers into unions.

Before leaving Birmingham, the Southern Organizing Committee (SOC) responded to requests from workshop participants to establish a framework for follow-up throughout the South and the calling of another Southwide meeting in six months.

SOC agreed to set up an Economic Fight-Back Organizing Project which will field a Southwide traveler to help local groups develop broad community level coalitions, establish ties with national groups, spark Southwide participation in national actions on these issues, and publish a newsletter. There was agreement that a focal point for organizing will be building support for passage of the Hawkins Bill by Congress, in addition to work around local issues. The Hawkins Bill would establish programs to guarantee every citizen a job.

Two themes emerged in the workshop sessions. One was a desire on the part of participants to develop grassroots mass movements in their communities involving broad coalitions of people and organizations. The other was a shared belief that a mass fight-back on economic issues is possible today in the South because of the ground that was cleared by the civil rights movement in the last 20 years.

The Rev. Edward Gardner, president of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, stated this belief first when he welcomed the workshop to Birmingham.

"Because of the work that was done by the civil rights movement

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we have something new in Birmingham today," he said. "We have an air that makes it possible for Black and White people to meet together and plan what we can do about the economic problems that confront us all," Rev. Gardner said.

The theme was echoed by Don Bollen, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Southern organizer for the United Electrical Workers, and Carl Farris, Atlanta coordinator of the King Workers Conferences.

"Because of the civil rights movement, the South today is conducive to organizing unorganized workers. This is where the whole labor movement ought to be," Bollen said.

"The struggles of the last 15 years have made possible the unification of the working class, Black and White," said Farris. "And the people themselves feel this is the correct way to struggle."

Jan Phillips, Louisville, formerly an organizer for the Service Employees International Union, talked about the important role of women if there is to be a mass movement in the South.

After a report-back session from small group discussions, Jack O'Dell, formerly a staff leader of SCLC, now with PUSH, closed the workshop with an historical analysis of the present period.

"We in the South are part of a proud tradition of struggle," he said. "We meet in a city that symbolizes both the kind of tyranny that is our legacy and also our history of struggle. If we learn from the past, if we have a correct strategy and a timetable that includes revolutionary patience and tactical wisdom, we'll build again a mass movement that can confront this country."

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SHANGO ACQUITTED ON ALL CHARGES IN ATTICA TRIAL

(Buffalo, N.Y.) -- On Thursday, June 26, Shango Bahati Kakawana, indicted as Bernard Stroble, was acquitted on the murder and kidnapping charges brought against him by the state of New York as part of its prosecution of inmates for the 1971 Attica Prison rebellion.

Shango had been indicted on charges of killing inmate Barry Schwartz and of the kidnapping and felony murders of Schwartz and inmate Kenneth Hess during the rebellion. The felony murder charges were dismissed by Judge Joseph Mattina at the close of the prosecution's case, and the kidnapping charges were reduced to unlawful imprisonment.

The verdict, which was announced at 8:55 p.m. on June 26, set off a celebration in the courtroom by supporters who had been in the courtroom since 1:30 in the afternoon.

DELUGE OF LIES

Because of the deluge of contradictory statements and lies, the foreperson of the jury, Otto Leff, felt that the state witnesses had been "fed" their stories by the prosecution. Another juror said the defense didn't even have to put on witnesses to contradict the state because every witness the state put on ended up putting his foot in his mouth.

Haywood Burns, one of the defense attorneys for Shango, saw the verdict as a vindication of the defense's allegations of gross state misconduct in the Attica trial. "This should be an end to the Attica tragedy," Burns stated. "How many more millions of dollars will they spend in this useless prosecution?"

In his summation to the jury, Burns pointed out that the Attica trial was part and parcel of Black people's 400 years of victimization in America and that Shango was in reality being held responsible for the conduct of others.

The prosecution continually tried to brand Shango as the "ringleader" in the murders of Schwartz and Hess while the jurors themselves felt Shango was a positive force in the rebellion. Shango's role in the rebellion was as part of an inmate security force whose job was to protect people and keep the peace.

Shango was very objective in his afterthoughts on the trial, observing that his unrelenting position on his innocence was a major factor in the trial. He also understood the difficulties of his case because he had to educate a conservative jury on the corruptness of the prosecution.

Despite the success of his defense, Shango believes there is no reason to expect justice as the state continues its prosecution of the Attica cases. To make his point clear, his lawyers are working on a multimillion dollar suit against the state of New York. Shango feels that he has ample evidence to win this case, also.

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Oakland Mozambique Fete Raises $1,700 For FRELIMO

(Oakland, Calif.) -- Sponsors for last weekend's highly successful Mozambique Independence Day Celebration have announced that over $1,700 raised by the event will be forwarded to FRELIMO (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique), the militant revolutionary organization which assumed control of the government of the People's Republic of Mozambique on June 25, 1975. The money sent to FRELIMO includes all proceeds from ticket sales as well as books and posters sold at the East Oakland celebration, attended by a crowd of over 700.

Organized by the Liberation Support Movement, the Ethiopian Student Union, Vietnam Veterans Against the War/Winter Soldiers Organization and the Black Panther Party, the Sunday, June 29, event featured Brother Theo Ben Gurirab, U.N. representative for SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organization), the vanguard group which leads the struggle for liberation in Namibia; Sister Ericka Huggins, director of East Oakland's model school for Black and poor youth, the Intercommunal Youth Institute; and Brother T. Kangai, West Coast representative for ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union). The film A Luta Continua was also shown, providing a vivid account of the 13-year-long armed struggle, led by FRELIMO, against Portuguese colonialism. A delicious African dinner was served.

The East Oakland celebration was the only event honoring the great victory of the Mozambican people held in the U.S., and its success provides a positive indication of the rising consciousness of Black and Third World communities in the Bay Area in support of the ongoing struggles for national liberation in southern Africa and throughout the African continent.

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OUR HEALTH

Immunization
And Your Child

PART 1

The following is Part 1 of an article reprinted from the May, 1975, issue of Essence magazine.

Over the past five years there has been an alarming decline in the number of children immunized against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, polio, rubeola ("regular" measles), rubella (German measles) and mumps.

A 1973 nationwide survey, conducted by the Center for Disease Control, in Atlanta, Georgia, revealed that approximately 5.8 million of the nearly 14 million children, beween the ages of one and four, were not protected against any of the above diseases (except mumps). Today, between nine and 10 million children in that same age group are unprotected against mumps.

Epidemiologists reviewing 1970 outbreaks of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis in California, Texas and Arizona concluded that at least 80 per cent of a given population must be vaccinated in order to prevent epidemics.

A study performed by health department officials in Cleveland, Ohio, reported a generally lower level of immunity in economically depressed, urban areas. It was found that less than one-half of the susceptible children in these areas were adequately protected against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis or polio.

Although immunization against the various childhood diseases should be a routine part of your child's health care, many parents neglect to have their children periodically inoculated. But immunizations are essential to maintaining the health of all children.

Vaccines for some diseases are administered as early as the second or third month of life. In general, immunizations given in infancy are for diseases from which a child does not have natural (from the mother) protection. Other vaccines are given later in childhood because the combination of natural immunity and the low risk of exposure makes earlier inoculation unnecessary.

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Conditions At Rikers Island Termed “Critical And Deteriorating”

(New York, N.Y.) - A report from New York City's Board of Corrections describes the situation at New York City's Rikers Island House of Detention for Men as "critical and deteriorating," according to The New York Times.

The report warned that Rikers Island had become dangerously overpopulated and understaffed. There are 1,640 men at this facility occupying less than 1,500 usable cells, forcing some inmates to share tiny 8 feet by 5 feet cells.

Using statistics supplied by the jail, the Board of Corrections found that there is increased tension among inmates and jail authorities. For the first three months of this year there were 595 incidents in which inmates or corrections officers were assaulted or threatened, compared with 228 incidents for the same period last year.

The report also found that the personnel shortage has caused a minimum of institutional services and low officer morale, some of which is the direct result of budget cutbacks at a time when more and more inmates are being sent to Rikers Island. City officials have claimed ignorance of these conditions, and a spokesperson from Mayor Beame's office said a reduction of the population in the jail and improvement of physical facilities and services offered to inmates is "under study."

Many of the current problems at Rikers Island can be traced to the closing of the Men's House of Detention in Manhattan, known as "the Tombs," last December. Most of the inmates from the Tombs were transferred to the 42-year-old Rikers, which was originally built to house sentenced criminals, not defendants awaiting trial. Further overcrowding is expected as the Bronx House of Detention is closing, and most of its 300 inmates will be transferred to Rikers.

The Legal Aid Society of New York has filed a class action suit on behalf of Rikers inmates, charging that their Constitutional rights are being violated because of the overcrowded conditions and restrictions on educational, recreational and visiting opportunities.

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ED MORGAN VICTIM OF JUDICIAL TRICKERY

35-Year-Old Ph.D. And Ex-Jet Pilot
Sentenced To Life

(Tamal, Calif.) - The case of Brother Ed Morgan is an overt but unique case of injustice. Brother Morgan sent a sworn affidavit to THE BLACK PANTHER detailing an obvious case of judicial trickery and violation of Constitutional rights stemming from the fact that Brother Morgan is a poor Black man.

On March 27, 1974, Ed Morgan went to court for assault, the charge stemming from his alleged throwing of vinegar on another man. Before going to court, Morgan told his attorney to ask for a jury trial, but he was told not to say anything for fear he might be sent to the state hospital. He was told to keep quiet because everything was "fixed." But because of legal maneuvering unknown to him, his case was brought as a guilty plea before a judge and no jury. Morgan was found guilty of assault without ever saying a word. The judge told him he would be given probation with a right to appeal.

Morgan was never told that to submit his case on the transcript to a trial judge, which was done by his lawyer, was the same as a guilty plea. Morgan was never asked if he fully understood the consequences of the legal actions taking place.

In August of 1974, Ed Morgan was sentenced to life -- for throwing vinegar on another man. At the hearing he asked the court for permission to examine the reports on which his sentence was determined. His request was denied.

The next day Morgan filed an appeal and was given an appellate lawyer because of his lack of money. The lawyer never contacted or consulted with Morgan. This was, according to Morgan, "a sham and nothing more than a formal compliance with Constitutional requirements." His appeal was useless, and Ed Morgan is now in San Quentin serving a life sentence.

What is unique about the case of Ed Morgan is that, in his own words, he is a 35-year-old Black "clergyman, Ph.D. recipient, exjet fighter pilot, and ex-Congressional candidate … now doing life for throwing VINEGAR on another man."

Brother Ed Morgan's case is unique except that he is a poor Black man, which means that he cannot afford to have a fair trial.

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DELLUMS' CORNER: Blasts Congress for Failure To Produce Jobs Legislation

(Washington, D.C.) -- California Congressman Ronald Dellums has charged that the failure by the House of Representatives to override President Ford's veto of emergency jobs legislation points out how far the Congress is removed from the reality of the current problems in America.

"I am disturbed that this so-called `liberal' Congress appears to have only one major objective -- to avoid controversy so it can be re-elected next year," Congressman Dellums stated, adding that if Congress cannot override an issue of such importance as job creation then he doesn't think this Congress has the leadership or ability to enact any progressive legislation at all.

According to Rep. Dellums, many of the same members of Congress who refused to vote for 1.5 million jobs, supposedly because $5.3 billion was too high a price, only two weeks ago were unwilling to make "even minuscule cuts in a $26 billion military hardware bill…"

Dellums stated that this override was a true measure of our national security and that the message from Congress was clear: "widespread unemployment is now a fact of American life."

In conclusion he added that for millions of workers with no immediate opportunity for employment, "Ford and the Congressional majority now have slapped them in the face…"

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Gays Okayed By Civil Service

(Washington, D.C.) -- The Civil Service Commission has decreed that homosexuals may not be barred from federal employment unless their conduct "affects job fitness."

The directive to government agencies governed by Commission rules was among new hiring guidelines worked out to comply with recent court decisions and to balance "efficiency of operations and the rights of individuals."

"Court decisions require that persons not be disqualified from federal employment solely on the basis of homosexual conduct," the Commission said.

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SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS RIGHT: Defendant To Act As Own Counsel

(Washington, D.C.) -- The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 6 to 3 that a competent person accused of a crime has a Constitutional right to refuse professional legal assistance and conduct his own defense.

Speaking for the majority, Associate Justice Potter Stewart maintained that the Sixth Amendment, in guaranteeing a fair trial, "grants the accused personally the right to make his defense." This "right to self-representation is necessarily implied" although "not stated in the Amendment in so many words," Stewart said.

In the June 30 ruling, Justice Stewart also acknowledged that "it is one thing to hold that every defendant, rich or poor, has the right to assistance of counsel, and quite another to say that a state may compel a defendant to accept a lawyer he does not want."

This statement is a reflection of the dilemma that faces poor people many times, having to accept a court-appointed attorney who is either overloaded with cases or really is not concerned with a defendant's case.

One of the dissenters, Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun, accused the majority of putting into effect an old lawyer's saying that "one who is own lawyer has a fool for a client."

The Supreme Court's decision was prompted by the case of Anthony P. Faretta who was indicted for grand theft in Los Angeles, denied by the court the right to defend himself, and instead had to rely on a public defender. Faretta was convicted, but because of the Supreme Court decision, he will be entitled to a new trial during which he will conduct his own defense.

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ON THE BLOCK

What Does Freedom Mean To You?

ASKED AT BROADWAY-MacARTHUR MALL.

Julio Montezyokai
1461 Ellis St.
Liquor Clerk

Freedom is a presence of being, being able to have an idea and culminate it without being oppressed.

Casandra Lopez
475 38th St.
Postal Worker

Right now, it would mean a change of the government that we have. I mean, to have a government that would represent my interests as a worker and represent the interests of all people in this country, which it's not doing right now. That would basically be the beginning point.

Marion Jackson
620 58th St.
Postal Clerk

Freedom would be to live freely, which I can't do; to be able to give my kids things I couldn't get, which I feel stifled in some ways from doing, by just life in general in America. I don't feel I'm as free as I should be, as most citizens. You know what? Even the Vietnamese people coming here are freer than I am, and I was born here. They're going to be accepted before I am.

James Mitchell
522A 58th St.
Truck Dispatcher

To me, freedom means being able to control your own destiny. For Black people to say what they will do, what they won't do, and not being able to be dictated to.

Horace Pitts
Los Angeles
Bd. of Education

That's a hard question. You know, I never had freedom. I'm not free. I really couldn't tell you, because I'm not free.

Divia Garrett
181 Vernon St.
Flight Attendant

Whatever it is you feel like doing, and if you're able to do it freely, that's freedom. But I don't think there's any such thing in this country.

Katrina Smith
1711 55th Ave.
"Looking for a job"

Being free, doing whatever you want to do, what comes your way, anything that counts, without the police on your back. Just being free, getting high, partying, knocking it out, anything you want to do.

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B.P.P. Supports “A People's Salute To Cuba”

(Oakland, Calif.) - The Black Panther Party last week announced its decision to join as a sponsoring organization in the upcoming July 26 celebration, "A People's Salute to Cuba," and adds its name to the growing list demanding the right of entry into the U.S. of Dr. Melba Hernandez, a representative of the Cuban people, as the event's featured speaker.

Since the victory of the revolutionary forces of the Cuban people, led by Fidel Castro, in January, 1959, and the U.S.-imposed criminal blockade against the socialist reconstruction of the island in 1961, no Cuban national has been allowed entrance into this country. Dr. Hernandez, for 22 years a member of the Cuban revolutionary vanguard and presently president of the Cuban Committee in Solidarity with the Peoples of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, would be the first true representative of her people to come to America in 15 years.

The significance of the date of July 26 for the celebration reaches deep into the history of the Cuban peoples' armed struggle for freedom and liberation.

It was on July 26, 1953, that a tiny squad of Cuban nationalists, led by a lawyer student named Fidel Castro, and including Dr. Hernandez, participated in the heroic attack upon the then Batista dictatorship's Moncada Garrison. Although the majority of the young combatants were ruthlessly slaughtered, the Moncada attack is celebrated in Cuba and throughout the world as providing the spark -- the example -- which set the Cuban people in motion along the path of armed struggle against the Batista regime and its U.S. imperialist backers.

Both of the Bay Area and New York organizing committee's for "A People's Salute to Cuba," are calling upon all progressive and aware individuals and organizations to support Dr. Hernandez' visa request to enter the U.S. for the July 26 celebration.

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They are asking that telegrams be sent to the U.S. State Department, with a sample wording such as:

"For 15 years, the U.S. government blockade against Cuba has prevented us from hearing directly from a representative of the Cuban people, violating our First Amendment rights.

"We demand that Melba Hernandez be granted a U.S. visa to freely travel and speak to the U.S. public."

Telegrams should be sent to: Administrator, Office of Security and Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.

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FORD ATTACKS THIRD WORLD ON U.N. ACTIONS

(Washington, D.C.) -- In one of his most blatant attacks on Third World people and the United Nations, President Ford declared last week that the U.S. would resist efforts of Third World countries to "exploit the machinery of the United Nations for narrow political interests."

The attack was made during Ford's remarks at the swearing-in ceremony of Daniel Patrick Moynihan as the new chief U.S. delegate to the United Nations. Moynihan has been considered an enemy by Black Americans since a study he made while an official in the Johnson administration called for a policy of "benign neglect" of the Black community. Over 400 people, led by Black students, walked out on Moynihan recently when he gave the commencement address at Stanford University. (See THE BLACK PANTHER, July 7, 1975.)

Ford's threatening remarks directed at the Third World were an echo of a statement made earlier this year by Moynihan that it was "time for the United States to go into the United Nations and every other international forum and start raising hell" with its (U.S.) critics.

Praising Moynihan as an innovator and intellectual who "knows what America is all about and what it stands for," Ford claimed that the new U.N. chief delegate would pursue a "dialogue of candor, directness, understanding and respect" with the Third World but ominously added that "we will firmly resist efforts by any group of countries to exploit the mechanism of the United Nations for narrow political interests or parliamentary manipulations."

The Western bloc U.N. members, led by the U.S., is still smarting over Third World victories during last year's session of the U.N. General Assembly. Among other actions, Third World nations united to unseat the U.N. delegate from South Africa (from the 1974 session only) and invited Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) head Yasir Arafat to address the world body, which was a direct slap at Israel. Observers believe Ford's remarks of last week were the announcement of a new tough U.S. line in the U.N.

Recent statements made by Moynihan point out his hostility toward the Third World. He has told interviewers and has written in an article published in Commentary magazine that human rights issues have been politicized by Third World countries and communists. Among the actions Moynihan has accused the Third World of politicizing are a resolution by the U.N. Human Rights Commission censuring Israel for mistreatment of Arab war victims and charges made in the colonialism committee that the U.S. is repressing political liberty in Puerto Rico.

Following Ford's comments, Moynihan told the President he was aware that his role was that of Ford's representative and that "I would like to associate myself wholly with your remarks."

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Rights Groups Sue 71 School Districts

(Washington, D.C.) -- Lawyers for three civil rights groups recently asked a U.S. District Court to order federal officials to enforce the desegregation of 71 school districts in 21 Northwestern and Western states.

The suit charged that the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) has "deliberately renounced and abandoned its duty under the 1964 Civil Rights Act to make sure no federal aid is paid to districts that discriminate racially."

The suit was filed by the NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Center for National Policy Review.

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N.A.A.C.P. HEAD: WHITE HOUSE TO BLAME FOR DESPAIR AMONG BLACKS

(Washington, D.C.) -- Citing President Ford's recent vetoes of employment and housing bills, the chairman of the board of the NAACP last week charged the White House with helping to create a state of cynicism and despair among Black Americans at a time when their oppression is becoming increasingly complex.

Mrs. Margaret Bush Wilson, delivering the keynote address to the NAACP's 66th annual national convention held here, accused the Ford administration with being "indifferent and unresponsive to the humiliation and suffering that millions of Americans are enduring."

Addressing the over 4,000 delegates who attended the convention, Mrs. Bush, the first Black woman to head the NAACP's Board of Directors, reminded her audience that Ford recently vetoed a major appropriation for government-financed employment and a measure designed to increase the number of houses constructed across the country. In vetoing the bills, Ford used inflation as a scapegoat for his actions.

Mrs. Wilson said that while Black Americans are concerned about inflation, "A policy or projection which seeks a steady moderation in the rate of inflation but results in sustained misery for substantial numbers of Black people is not only unacceptable, it is disastrous."

Ford received a cool reception from NAACP delegates when he spoke before the convention later in the week, making comments to the effect that because he is "President of all the people," he will not make any effort to create legislation specifically designed to meet the needs of Black and other oppressed people.

The NAACP convention also approved a resolution calling on the government, the courts and Congress, if necessary, to ensure that recently hired minority workers will not be the first fired in an economic cutback.

Herbert Hill, NAACP national labor director, told the convention that the current economic crisis will last for another 10 years or more. Estimating that there are at least twice as many Black people unemployed as White people, Hill noted that past job discrimination and the "last in, first out" rule have combined to put a disproportionate share of the Black population out of work.

"The fundamental question for now and for the next 10 years and perhaps longer will be `who works?' "Hill said, adding, "Race conscious injuries require race conscious remedies. Affirmative action is as valid as ever regardless of the economic situation we're in."

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PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

Gruel Punishment

(Sacramento, Calif.) -- The California State Supreme Court ruled yesterday that keeping persons in prison beyond a time that is "proportionate" to their crimes is "cruel and unusual punishment." The decision stemmed from the case of Rudolfo Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty in 1952 to child-molesting and had served 22 years of a one to life sentence. He was ordered to be released from prison within 30 days. At the same time, however, the justices upheld the Constitutionality of the state's indeterminate sentencing.

Guard Admits Lying

(Cleveland, Ohio) -- On June 30 a former Ohio National Guard officer testified that he lied to fellow guardsmen and other persons five years ago about finding a gun on the body of one of four students killed at Kent State. The former guardsman, J. Ronald Snyper, was a captain on May 4, 1970, when the shooting occurred at Kent State and is one of 38 guardsmen being sued for $46 million by nine students who were wounded and parents of the four students who were killed.

Drug Charges Dropped

(Washington. D.C.) -- The federal government dropped drug-smuggling charges against a Central Intelligence Agency informer and a Peace Corp volunteer for fear a trial would compromise secret operations, the spy agency said last week. Senator Charles Percy released a CIA letter and memorandum in which the CIA detailed its role in the case involving the smuggling of 50 pounds of opium into the U.S. and Canada. Percy wrote the agency after assertions that charges were dropped because the CIA refused to cooperate.

Dick Gregory Arrested

(Washington, D.C.) -- Comedian activist Dick Gregory was arrested in front of the White House on July 4 for demonstrating without a permit. Police made the arrest as Gregory was beginning a fast for an investigation of the CIA and the assassinations of President John Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King.

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REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE “Starting Out”

BY HUEY P. NEWTON

In the conclusion of "Starting Out," the first chapter of Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton, leader and chief theoretician of the Black Panther Party, Huey gives us some closing thoughs on his early childhood. He tells of how he shared the cruel nightmare of the American dream. In the beginning of the second chapter, "Losing," he explains how the nightmare began with a description of his first encounter with America's racist educational system.

PART 5

My parents insisted that we learn to get along with each other. When there was a dispute, my father never took sides. He was always an impartial judge, listening to both parties and getting to the bottom of things before making a decision. He was a fair and careful judge about all disputes, and later, when we had trouble in school, my father went every time to the teacher or the principal to learn what had happened. When we were right, he stood up for us, but he never tolerated wrongdoing.

We were not taught to fight by our parents, although my father insisted that we stand our ground when attacked. He told us never to start a fight, but once in it to stand fast until the end.

CLOSE FAMILY

This was how we grew up -- in a close family with a proud, strong, protective father and a loving, joyful mother. No wonder we came to feel that all our needs -- from religion to friendship to entertainment -- were met within the family circle. There was no felt need for outside friends; we were such good friends with each other. (Even today my entire family lives in the San Francisco Bay area, close to our parents. Any disagreement among us are still taken to our parents for arbitration. When one member of the family entertains, most of the guests are other family members. Outsiders are rarely included in such gatherings.)

In this way the days of our childhood slipped past. We shared the dreams of other American children. In our innocence we planned to be doctors, lawyers, pilots, boxers, and builders. How could we know then that we were not going anywhere? Nothing in our experience had shown us yet that the American dream was not for us. We, too, had great expectations. And then we went to school.

"Losing"

The clash of cultures in the classroom is essentially a class war, a socio-economic and racial warfare being waged on the battlegrounds of our schools, with middle-class aspiring teachers provided with a powerful arsenal of half-truths, prejudices, and rationalizations, arrayed against hopelessly outclassed working class youngsters. This is an uneven balance, particularly since like most battles, it comes under the guise of righteousness. Kenneth Clark,Dark Ghetto

Because we moved around a lot when I was growing up, I attended almost every grammar and junior high school in the city of Oakland and had wide experience with the kind of education Oakland offers its poor people.

At the time, I did not understand the size or seriousness of the school system's assault on Black people. I knew only that I constantly felt uncomfortable and ashamed of being Black. This feeling followed me everywhere, without letup. It was a result of the implicit understanding in the system that Whites were "smart" and Blacks were "stupid." Anything presented as "good" was always white, even the stories teachers gave us to read in the early grades. Little Black Sambo, Little Red Riding Hood, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs told us what we were.

I remember my reaction to Little Black Sambo. Sambo was, first of all, a coward. When confronted by the tigers, he gave up the presents from his father without a struggle -- first the umbrella, then the beautiful crimson, felt-lined shoes, everything until he had nothing left. And afterward, Sambo wanted only to eat pancakes. He was totally unlike the courageous White knight who rescued Sleeping Beauty. The knight was our symbol of purity, while Sambo stood for humiliation and gluttony. Time after time, we heard the story of Little Black Sambo. We did not want to laugh, but finally we did, to hide our shame, accepting Sambo as a symbol of what Blackness was all about.

As I suffered through Sambo and the Black Tar Baby story in Brer Rabbit in the early grades, a great weight began to settle on me. It was the weight of ignorance and inferiority imposed by the system. I found myself wanting to identify with the White heroes in the primers and in the movies I saw, and in time I cringed at the mention of Black This created a gulf of hostility between the teachers and me, a lot of it repressed, but still there, like the strange mixture of hate and admiration we Blacks felt toward Whites generally.

CAPABLE OF LEARNING

We simply did not feel capable of learning what the White kids could learn. From the beginning, everyone -- including us -- judged smart Blacks in terms of how they compared with Whites, whether they could read or do arithmetic as well as the White kids. Whites were the standard of comparison in all things, even personal attractiveness. Bushy African hair was bad; straight hair was good; light was better than dark. Our image of ourselves was defined for us by textbooks and teachers. We not only accepted ourselves as inferior; we accepted the inferiority as inevitable and inescapable.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 14 --

Exclusive Black Panther Interview: PETE STARK EXPLAINS HIS APPLICATION TO JOIN THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS

California Congressman Fortney H. (Pete) Stark, a White banker reportedly worth $4 million and "liberal" Democrat, made headlines recently by applying for membership in the Congressional Black Caucus. His application was turned down by the Caucus without fanfare. THE BLACK PANTHER talked with Congressman Stark about his application last week in his East Oakland office, curious to know if it was serious or a press grandstand play. Stark denies it was a grandstand play. His office suggests that the Washington correspondent of the Sacramento Bee (where the story broke) got it from the Black Caucus and not from Stark's office.

B.P.: Now with the rejection by the Congressional Black Caucus of your application, what is your feeling?

STARK: I was disappointed that their decision didn't get us a little further down the road, but in any event it got us a start. In other words, I don't think Charlie Rangel (congressman from New York) and I really expected that they were going to say "Welcome, you're a brother. Come in." Charlie and I talked about the application probably a month or two before I sent the letter, so that I knew that it was going to be a problem for the Caucus and a question of dealing with their membership requirements. But, nobody was quite sure what the outcome was going to be, so, to make sure that it was treated as a serious request that I really wanted an answer to because I wanted a closer association, I did the letter.

And then, as I said in the letter, I felt that they were not just going to throw the membership open. They had to have some qualifications for membership. So the bad news was "No," but the good news was that we ought to work together to find a way to cooperate on the real goals, which are a legislative watchdog function on any legislation that touches our mutual constituents, sort of an ombudsman, generally, for the poor disadvantaged, culturally deprived, discriminated against. You probably couldn't find 17 members in the House who, as a group, all practically represent districts where those are serious problems. We're all kind of tuned into tremendous unemployment here in East Oakland. Ron (Bay Area Congressman Ron Dellums) has tremendous unemployment in his part of Oakland and Berkeley, so we both approach legislation, no matter what it is, similarly; our reaction is very similar when we come back to this district. It's just a question of how do we multiply our effectiveness by combining our staff information.

Charlie Rangel and I are on ways and means, so we deal with social security, welfare, health insurance. Ron's on armed services. He deals with discrimination in the service. Gus (Congressman Augustus Hawkins of California) is on education and labor, and Gus is one of the expert guys in the whole field of education and HEW bills. Parren Mitchell (congressman from Maryland) does housing and banking. I used to serve with him and we did whatever little good there was in that housing bill on supplemental, low-income housing, which somewhat protected poor people from getting completely screwed. Parren and I now have a little ad hoc, low income housing committee that just meets occasionally to survey what's going on. That's where we want to get. How do we get that kind of thinking formalized so that we're representing basically an urban, and in some cases a rural, poor group?

B.P.: I understand that there was a suggestion made about the creation of a companion-type caucus. What is your feeling on this?

STARK: That's what I guess. I would say how about limited membership, pay dues, help pay for the staff service, perhaps not be able to vote, either in limited voting or not vote at all, unless you're Black. That would have been an easy one, because then you come to the meetings, you can participate in the discussions, you can be on the mailing list, you can get the voting positions right away. Yet, you don't vote in the selection of officers and that sort of thing. That would have been one way to form an auxiliary which I've never liked on balance. I've never liked the fact that we have Black AmVets and White AmVets; that we have ladies' auxiliaries and men's; that we have junior Democrats and regular Democrats. I think that's a lot of crap. I say to the kids, "Don't go join the junior Democrats. If you're 18, you're a Democrat. Why be junior?"

B.P.: Of course the purpose of caucusing within a larger body is to deal with the special interests of a special group, isn't it?

STARK:…And that's where the key comes. The interests of the group (Ron and I talked about this) are, beyond question, multi-racial -- they don't stop at ethnic lines. But the identity of the group and the power base of the group and the success that the group has, and the national constituency of young people or anybody who feels they are excluded from politics because they're Black, demands that you have to be Black to deal with it, you see. How do you go to kids here in East Oakland and say, "Stay here in East Oakland and run for office. Don't go to Atlanta once you get your college degree. Stay here and you can make it in public office if you're Black?" They look at me and they say, "Yeh, how do you know?"

B.P.: It is your feeling, though, that there are special interests for Black people in the country and therefore special responsibilities for a Black Caucus?

STARK: No question, no question. I agree. There are some of those things that I could just have no comprehension of. Somebody said, "Would you cross the color line?" I said, "No. That's not where I'm coming from. I'm not trying to immerse myself. I'm just finding a whole lot of people in a group. In 99 out of a 100 times, we're going the same way on an issue or on a piece of legislation, or a problem,

B.P.: On the principle of representation -- I think it is 23 per cent Black in your constituency…?

STARK: Thirteen to 23. I tend to think it's higher.

B.P.: If the basis of participation in the Black Caucus were on the question of representation, how would you avoid certain reactionary elements who represent 20 or 30 per cent Black constituencies?

STARK: You get the real racists -- you get the George Wallaces, for instance. The only thing I could say is, look, for the same reason that John Russo, who is a John Bircher, doesn't join the Democratic Party. There are a lot of those guys who are not going to come and join the Black Caucus (they may have 40, 50, 60 per cent Black in their district, but their support and their money has traditionally come from the Whites) anymore than I would want to join the KKK and come back here with a sheet over my head and try to get elected in this district.

No, those guys from the South are not going to go back to the fire house and to the Elks Club and say "Hey, I'm with the good old boys, I'm a member of the Black Caucus." If they could have two constituencies, and on one day say they're members of the Black Caucus to their Black constituency, and belong to the Klan on the other days, they'd have the best of both worlds.

As a political reality, I really didn't see anybody joining, particularly if the membership requirements -- if you're in a caucus you know that a caucus has a mechanism to discipline itself, and I suppose, if a guy would vote with the Black Caucus every time, maybe they ought to take him, make a deal with the devil himself if you can accomplish your goal. But, I didn't think it was a practical matter, although that was expressed as a problem.

I really didn't think that just the percentage of Blacks in the district was the basis. That's what we understood. What do you do? The one thing the Caucus did for me -- we spent a lot of time discussing it and that's why I'm glad we ment through this exercise -- they really, seriously, tried to determine how they could widen the influence of their group, and I think we are going to continue to discuss that.

What we've really said, or what they've said, is no membership if you're not Black. Okay, that's "A," now we go to "B." How do we participate? And that's the dialogue we're into now. As far as I'm concerned that's really what we ought to be doing. How do we focus more attention on housing for the poor?

RACIST DISCRIMINATION

B.P.:I don't know if you saw in yesterday's Chronicle Lofton's column on your application (charging the Black Caucus with racist discrimination).

STARK: Yes, I did. You know, Les Kinsolving that used to be with the Chronicle did the same thing with a radio thing. Kinsolving has been thumping on the Mormons for years because they won't allow Blacks in the Mormon heaven or the Mormon priesthood, so Kinsolving is sitting there saying, "Isn't this the same thing?" I'm saying, "No," and Rangel had the perfect answer. Les looked at Charlie and said, "Doesn't this have to be considered a racist move by the Black Caucus?" and Charlie's answer was, "Only to a racist." That's your answer!

B.P.: Is it your feeling that the idea of a Black Caucus in the Congress has validity from the point of view of the special kinds of

-- 15 --
experiences of the Black congressmen and women?

STARK: That's tough. Now you're getting into an area that I can only perceive at a distance. Because I come to Congress different from most Blacks who are there: a banker, a high paying job, my parent were able to afford to send me to college. I come into this whole thing from a whole different route than most of the members of the Caucus. So, judging from that kind of difference, sure they have special kinds of problems.

I think what happens is that when the Caucus started the Black people in the Congress were there either as tokenism or entirely Black districts that reapportionment could not avoid. You couldn't have a White person representing Harlem. You had Adam Clayton Powell, you had Charlie Rangel and you have people out of Chicago. People didn't have very good committee assignments. They were tolerated in the Congress. Adam Clayton Powell was certainly never one to hide his light under a bushel, and was really a powerful figure in Congress. Others may not have been as active.

So, the Caucus gave stature, maybe more stature than a completely democratic sort of decision would allow; when you think of how 17 people as junior as many of them are could be on key committees, Rules, Ways and Means, Steering Committees, by really pressuring the leadership, they've, in effect, powered their way into key positions. Fine. To me that's just what should happen. That overcomes an idea that there's any kind of second-rate politician or second-rate representation. The Texans have done this. The Texans have had the key committee slots for 50 years in the Congress just by hanging together. All right that's not what anybody else doesn't do. It's just that there's a community of interest and there's a bond. Whatever that bond is, whether an ethnic identity or just a … it's an identity that obviously I cannot participate in, or a bond that I can't participate in, but it works, and works with some very disparate characters. I would hate to have to get in the cross fire when there's a battle over a philosophic difference in that Caucus, because I can't believe it's monolithic by any sense of the word, and I imagine it can get bitter as hell. But it never shows outside.

B.P.: I understand there is a proposal of another type of caucus which could be formed in the Congress with the specific objective of suporting the Black Caucus, supporting the special issues and concerns of Black people.

STARK: Yes this is where Ron and I, and Parren and Charlie, the ones I've talked the most with, we've each ended up. Ron and I did the ad hoc hearings (when I was a banker and when he first went to Congress) on redlining, and he called his own hearings because the banking committee wasn't doing anything. Parren called a group together on housing. Charlie and I are dealing with social security and welfare reform ad those sorts of things, in the Ways and Means Committee, whereas before it wasn't really dealt with. The Black Caucus seemed a good place to center around: How do we bring other people, and there are a lot of them in the Congress, really. Just around here; Don Edwards, George Miller, the Burton Brothers. My God, some of the most outstanding liberals …

B.P.: Isn't there a possibility of some sort of grouping there….?

STARK: You've got it! There! Now, how do we narrow it down so that we don't waste our time figuring out whether 20 angels can dance on the head of a pin and how many angels will be White and how many angels will be Black? We're dealing with, almost all of us, with the problems of education, health, housing, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, economic opportunity, cultural deprivation and righting the wrongs of a century or two of discrimination. And I don't care whether it's Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, New Orleans, here; the problems are not unique -- we're dealing with the same damn problems and they don't touch the guys in Wakaconneta, Ohio, Madison, Wisconsin, or Peachbottom, Georgia; that's a whole other thing, and that's what we're trying to get at. That's exactly it!

What I'm really saying is, hey, Black Caucus, you guys take the lead. Somebody wrote me, a lady from a bank in Brook, Illinois, it was a Black bank, she's the vice president. She said, "Hey, don't do this. I like you, I know what you did in banking. But, don't do it. Don't go helping." I wrote back and said I'm not about me helping. You got it wrong. I'm coming for them to help me. The times have changed. That's where we are. I said, really, the Caucus could take the lead on this, identify the issues.

You know, really, whether I'm honorary Soul Brother or an auxiliary member or whatever, that's where we're trying to go. I articulate that, because there are some members of the Caucus who I suspect said, or said to me, "Sure, let him in, why not." There are others that said, "Bullshit. He's just grandstanding. It's a cheap shot at press." The middle ground, I think is where the right was: "Let us think about it. What does this mean for the Caucus and how can we make the best of it."

B.P.:You had talked to Charlie (Rangel) about this before?

STARK: Yes, The truth is that Charlie had the letter probably a month before the press got a hold of it. Then his brother was sick and his brother died, and he (Charlie Rangel) was gone. When I say he was gone for two weeks, he missed two Caucus meetings in a row, so it was kind of there, and as long as it was there they were dealing with it. I talked to some of the members. Ron and I talked most about it. Parren Mitchell, Ron, Charlie, I think to some extent Andy Young, are the guys that I talked to most about it.

REACTIONS

B.P.: What sort of reaction have you received from your constituency here in Oakland?

STARK: Surprisingly, not a lot. A lot of people who heard about it have thought it was great. I haven't heard much about it since I've been turned down. In Washington, right around the Capitol where it probably attracted more attention because of the various political implications, it cut away the jocular kind of stuff. The Republicans, the right-wing guys liked to kid us about it on the floor. That's a constant, we get that all the time. But, other than that some members very seriously came to talk to me or to Charlie about wanting to join too. A few guys who wanted to jump on join every caucus. But I rather imagine that a half a dozen people could come together rather automatically: the Burtons (Don, George); Bella Abzug, Liz Holzman. You know, people who are right there. We're together on these issues anyway. Immediately when anything comesup, we say, "Hey, let's go." There's what network that exists. What we miss in Congress is that when you're on a committee you specialize only in those areas that your committee is into, and you depend on your brothers in the caucus -- the California Caucus is pretty important -- to tell you what's going on around here.

I guess what I'm looking for is some way we come together to get some kind of a little bill review, to get the Caucus position disseminated, so you won't have to wait until you get in on the floor to vote, and say, hey, what are we doing on this and have to look, and then you suddenly find you're on an issue where liberals divide and then I'll find that say, Ron and John Conyers and guys are going one way, and then Bella and Burton another, I say, "Wait a minute, no." Then I've got to go find out. "Why are you going this way, why are you going that way, because if both …" If you do that ahead of time sometimes we can avoid that split. Usually it's through a difference or an oversight, people say, "Oops, I didn't think about that." But by the time you're voting, you know, you've gone through hearings and the whole think, so if you're ahead of it, you've got it under you, you can work it out.

-- 16 --

THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY PROGRAM: MARCH 29, 1972 PLATFORM

WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE BELIEVE

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

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

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6. WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE.

We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will also develop preventative medical programs to guarantee our future survival. We believe that mass health education and research programs must be developed to give all Black and oppressed people access to advanced scientific and medical information, so we may provide ourselves with proper medical attention and care.

7. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE, OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED STATES.

We believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States uses its domestic enforcement agencies to carry out its program of oppression against Black people, other people of color and poor people inside the United States. We believe it is our right, therefore, to defend ourselves against such armed forces and that all Black and oppressed people should be armed for self-defense of our homes and communities against these fascist police forces.

8. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION.

We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem directly from the aggressive desires of the U.S. ruling circle and government to force its domination upon the oppressed people of the world. We believe that if the U.S. government or its lackeys do not cease these aggressive wars that it is the right of the people to defend themselves by any means necessary against their aggressors.

9. WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND POOR OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U.S. FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS, WE WANT TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR ALL PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.

We believe that the many Black and poor oppressed people now held in U.S. prisons and jails have not received fair and impartial trials under a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free from incarceration. We believe in the ultimate elimination of all wretched, inhuman penal institutions, because the masses of men and women imprisoned inside the United States or by the U.S. military are the victims of oppressive conditions which are the real cause of their imprisonment. We believe that when persons are brought to trial that they must be guaranteed, by the United States, juries of their peers, attorneys of their choice and freedom from imprisonment while awaiting trials.

10. WE WANT LAND, BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE, PEACE AND PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes: and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, whiles evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

-- 17 --

Intercommunal News: Zambia Nationalizes Major Industries

(Lusaka, Zambia) - Declaring that, "We have to behave as we are -- a poor nation," Zambia President Kenneth Kaunda last week announced a series of sweeping nationalization steps and other measures aimed at aiding Zambia's troubled economy and restraining a rapidly growing capitalist class.

Kaunda told the National Council of Zambia's governing United National Independence Party that all privately held land, movie theaters, private hospitals and the country's main newspaper, The Times of Zambia, and its sister Sunday paper, both owned by Lonrho, a British company would be nationalized.

Other areas President Kaunda slated for state control were privately-owned rented housing, tobacco factories and the printing company Printpak, also owned by Lonrho. In addition, Kaunda ordered private ownership of land to be abolished. All land now owned outright by farmers will be held under lease for 100 years by the present titleholders. Farmland not being used will be immediately taken over by the state.

The end of private ownership of land will affect numerous European farmers who still live in Zambia and an emerging class of Black capitalists, many of whom have bought large farms.

Although he did not specify it directly, President Kaunda's actions were taken to offset the falling prices of copper, from which over 90 per cent of Zambia's foreign exchange comes.

-- 25 --

Commenting on the nationalization of movie theaters, the majority of which are owned by Lonrho, Kaunda noted that he was taking this action because "we cannot have cinemas reflecting values contrary to Zambian values and interests." With the nationalization of Zambia's main newspaper and the Sunday paper, the country's mass communications industry is now completely under state control.

Kaunda cited examples of land profiteering by builders and decreed that all vacant plots of land around cities and towns which are already subdivided and ready for sale would be immediately taken over by the state.

The Zambia president made no mention of compensation for any areas which were nationalized outright but did order negotiations to be started with existing owners in cases of partial takeovers.

-- 17 --

BELGIAN OFFICER ADMITS KILLING PATRICE LUMUMBA

(Los Angeles, Calif.) -- In the wake of the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) admission that it considered assassinating Congo Premier Patrice Lumumba in 1960, a 1969 confession by a White Belgian patriot who admitted killing Lumumba has been revealed by the Los Angeles Free Press.

Free Press reporter Burr Jerger met with Lumumba's assassin, known as "X-Person," in a series of meetings near Antwerp, Belgium, and in West Germany in May and June 1969. X-Person showed Jerger the order for Lumumba's assassination, massive notes and photographs of the killing, "all amounting to `a confession' and `accusation beyond any reasonable doubt' against his (X-Person) co-conspirators," Jerger writes.

An agreement was drawn up during these meetings between Jerger, X-Person, and the go-between stipulating that the executioner's identity would not be revealed until he dictated his entire story exclusively to Jerger for the purposes of a book. The contract, on which the signature of X-Person is clearly written, is carefully hidden away.

When Jerger asked X-Person if the CIA had been involved in Lumumba's murder, X-Person replied, "I'd rather not answer that now. Those who know the real story are either dead, in prison or hold absolute power,' the latter being a direct reference to President Mobutu of Zaire (formerly the Belgian Congo), a known collaborator with the CIA in sabotaging the independence of Angola.

At the time of Lumumba's brutal assassination in February, 1961, Mobutu was commander of the Congolese army and Kasavubu, now dead, was Premier, Lumumba having been deposed in December, 1960, and immediately taken prisoner.

In his interview with Jerger, X-Person described a complex web of political rivalries that led to the death of Lumumba.

"Mobutu did receive monies and advice and support from foreign sources," X-Person told Jerger, "and I don't mean Russia. He was clever enough to help create the chaos after the Belgians withdrew and then use it as a pretext to eliminate Lumumba, "X-person continued.

He went on to say that owners of the large copper and iron mines in Katanga feared that Lamumba would try to nationalize the mines and that he was further considered a threat to the imperialist forces for his proposal to expel all Whites from the country.

Summing up Lumumba's fall from power and subsequent assassination, X-Person said:

"The whole tragedy was a betrayal of the Blacks and Whites in the Congo; a betrayal which shifted the political power to the strongest, which was Mobutu … It was a betrayal engineered and supported from beyond the borders of the Congo…"

According to X-Person, Mobutu ordered Lumumba to be seized and imprisoned and had him flown to a neighboring province "to be literally cannibalized." A corroborative report said that at the Kasapa jail, where Lumumba was to be killed, Katanga Minister of the Interior Munongo (whom X-Person said had a pathological hatred of Lumumba) hysterically picked up a bayonet and thrust it into Lumumba's side, and that "a Belgian Army officer," presumably X-Person, put his revolver to Lumumba's head to stop his suffering.

Jerger writes that X-Person clearly knew more about American and CIA involvement in Lumumba's assassination than he revealed in May and June, 1969.

-- 17 --

African Nations Threaten Boycott Of Davis Cup

(London, England) -- A boycott by African nations was hinted at last week after Davis Cup nations, meeting here, agreed not to ban South Africa from the international tennis series.

Austin Amoso of Nigeria, secretary general of the African Lawn Tennis Association, said he was not alone in his disgust with the decision.

"The African countries are not pleased that South Africa is being allowed to continue in the competition," Amoso said," and I will not be surprised if they withdraw from the Davis Cup."

Attempts to oust the apartheid nation were thwarted in a lengthy session marked by heated discussion. It was decided that South Africa should be allowed to compete at least through 1976. A representative from the U.S. stated that "his country was sick and tired" of politics in the Davis Cup competition.

-- 18 --

WHO OWNS SOUTH KOREA?

U.S. Control And Influence Revealed

The considerable economic dependence of the reactionary Park Chung Hee government of South Korea on the United States and the U.S.'s role in exploiting the masses of South Korean people is revealed in the following article, Part 2 of a series reprinted from the May/June issue of Korea Link, a newsletter published in Palo Alto, California by a group calling "For the Support of Human Rights in South Korea."

PART 2

From 1964-1970, the population of Seoul doubled to six million people. The official estimate is that 2.5 million of Seoul's residents lived in squatter settlements in 1970, half of them in wooden shacks or tents. The ex-farmers have become a huge reservoir of cheap labor.

Currency-devaluations and the high inflation rate distort Korea's GNP and export growth rate. Last December, the Korean won was devalued 21%. This meant that other currencies could buy more in or from South Korea. Exporters, however, reported that orders did not increase, but import costs did. The conservative-minded World Bank calculated the country's inflation rate to be 26.6% last year.

South Korea's exports are heavily dependent on imported raw materials. Plywood, the largest export item in 1973, is produced entirely from imported lumber. Oil costs skyrocketed from $262 million in 1973 to $864 million for the first eleven months of 1974. Along with the decline in agricultural self-suffciency, it should come as no surprise that South Korea has been running chronic trade deficits.

South Korea trades primarily with the U.S. and Japan. Many goods sent to Japan are re-exported to the U.S. "after Japan puts finishing touches and its own brand on them."

The government must attract increasing amounts of foreign loans to meet its trade deficits. As a result, foreign debt rose from $3.3 billion in 1973 to $5 billion last year.

One of Park's answers to the foreign exchange crunch has been to promote prostitution and emigration as earners of foreign exchange. South Korea's Education Minister Suk Min Gwan at a school in Tokyo last year:

"These kisaeng girls who have come to Japan in large numbers are working hard day and night selling their… and their patriotic devotion is praiseworthy."

Time magazine reported that 5,000 kisaeng (Korean hostesses") were registered with the government and at least 10,000 receive health care to "service" American G.I.s. Up until last September's government-sponsored anti-Japanese demonstrations, South Korea was rapidly becoming Japan's bordello (house of prostitution). In 1973, 450,000 Japanese tourists visited South Korea, five-sixths of them male. They helped provide, along with U.S. troops, an estimated $120 million in earnings.

The government also encourages overseas employment and migration. From 1964-1974, over 100,000 Koreans emigrated. Overseas employment stood at 90,000 in August 1974, with the largest number of workers, principally coal miners and nurses, in West Germany. The Vietnam war provided Park with at least $932 million in foreign exchange earnings from the 300,000 plus Korean mercenary troops who served there on rotation and the goods produced for the war effort.

Japanese companies have been exporting polluting factories to

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South Korea and Southeast Asian countries as pressure and awareness from Japanese environmental groups grow. Recently, however, Toyama Chemical Industries stopped from exporting a polluting factory producing mercurochrome to South Korea by aroused citizens' groups in both Japan and Korea.

Korean subsidiaries and joint ventures of Japanese and U.S. multinational corporations frequently receive second-hand equipment that is grossly over-valued or under-valued, depending on the tax benefits available from South Korea and the country of origin for the imported materials. The Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul complained last May that Japanese companies charge excessive prices for industrial raw materials to prevent Korea from underselling competing exports.

Despite savage government repression of any strong trade unions, there are indications of growing unrest among workers. Religious-based organizations, such as the Urban Industrial Mission and the Korean Student Christian Federation, are among the prime targets of Park's repeated crackdowns and frame-ups. The Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) has long controlled the country's only labor federation, the FKTU. At its last annual meeting in October 1974, FKTU unions openly demanded an end to government manipulation of the Federation and a halt to the suppression of labor rights.

The 1965 Normalization Treaty between Japan and South Korea launched Japan's economic penetration, providing for $800 million in grants and loans from public and private Japanese sectors. Japan's government and commercial loans to South Korea total over $1 billion. Many Korean-owned companies are controlled by the Japanese zaibatsu (Japanese financial grouping) as a result of loan policies. Hankuk Fertilizer controls 49 per cent of the urea fertilizer market and has a $45 million loan from Mitsui and Co; Han II controls 84 per cent of the acrylic fiber market and has a $24 million loan from C. Itoh.

The U.S. has been the largest source of loans for the Park government. Current U.S. public assistance includes:

- A $20 million low-interest Housing Guarantee Loan from federal savings and loans associations administered by the Agency for International Development (AID), part of the State Department.

- PL480 "Food for Peace" loans and grants ($82 million allocated for 1975).

- Military assistance grants and low interest credit sales (totalling at least $145-165 million for 1975).

- Insurance coverage totalling $415 million on U.S. investments by the Overseas Private Insurance Corporation (OPIC), a satellite agency of AID.

- $500 million in outstanding or committed credits, guarantees, and insurance policies for U.S. corporations by the Eximbank, a hybrid public-private multi-billion dollar financing bank.

U.S. economic assistance, of course, has been paralleled by U.S. military assistance. From 1966-1969, 30 per cent of Korea's foreign exchange came from the U.S. military.

TO BE CONTINUED

Fight U.S. Imperialism

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AFRICA IN FOCUS

Namibia

The illegal South African administration of Namibia (South West Africa) has announced plans to eliminate some of the meager tokens of racial segregation throughout the territory in response to growing militant pressure from Namibians and others to its illegal racist rule. Pending legislation would remove from public buildings signs proclaiming "Whites only" and "Non-Whites." Also, admission will be permitted to Africans, at the discretion of the owners to hotels, restaurants and cafes. The new moves were timed to influence United Nations debates on the illegal administration of Namibia by South Africa.

Mozambique

Britain has ended her nine-year naval blockade of Mozambique aimed at preventing the shipment of oil to Rhodesia in violation of United Nations sanctions imposed against the breakaway former British colony in 1966. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Britain suggested that the newly independent People's Republic of Mozambique would be able to maintain the surveillance against the blockade violations.

Somalia

Somalia President Mohammed Siad has once again assured the world and particularly the U.S. that Somalia has not and will not permit the Soviet Union or any other country to construct a naval, base on its territory. In an interview a few hours before the arrival of an American delegation headed by U.S. Senator Dewey F. Bartlett of Oklahoma, President Siad Barre reiterated his offer to the U.S. for naval refueling and supply facilities in Somalia "provided the Americans come to us as friends." He declared that his government was unalterably opposed to giving any military bases -- as distinct from facilities -- to any foreign power, and added "there are no weapons under Soviet control in Somalia. "The U.S. has charged Somalia with permitting the construction of a Soviet naval base in Berbera.

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APARTHEID AND THE AFRICAN WORKER: PROSPECTS FOR CHANGE

Apartheid, the system of strict racial segregation practiced in the Republic of South Africa, daily exacts its toll of misery and suffering from the oppressed and exploited Black African working class. The following excerpt, written by Dr. Susan Rodgers, is Part 3 of an official United Nations document detailing the efforts of the White minority to achieve near total control over the majority Black African population. Dr. Rodgers is currently a professor of African history at the City College of New York and received her Ph.D. from the University of Dallas Salaam, Tanzania, where she made an in-depth study of the racist apartheid system of South Africa (Azania).

PART 3

JOB TRAINING

The availability of job training for Africans, like every other aspect of their treatment in the labor force has been and continues to be determined solely by the requirements of the apartheid economy. These requirements are often in conflict.

White employers in South Africa need more skilled and semi-skilled workers th