--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- [1] --

20 MILLION AMERICANS COULD…BUT DON'T: ARE YOU ELIGIBLE FOR FOOD STAMPS?

(Washington. D.C.) -- In the midst of skyrocketing unemployment, economy shattering inflation/recession and spiraling food prices, comes a report from the Senate Select Nutrition Committee charging that the restrictive policies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture are preventing the national food stamp program from meeting the needs of millions of American people.

The report, released last week, estimates that there are 20 million Americans eligible for food stamps but aren't receiving them.

The Committee report charges that the Agriculture Department's requirements for verification of income, a complicated 15 step adjustment process used to establish food stamp eligibility, cost and quantity received, "are unnecessarily burdensome and not justified." The report says that the requirement guidelines are an inconvenience to both poor people and state officials who must administer the program.

In regard to eligibility. Newsweek magazine, in its February 24 issue, writes: "In most places, extensive documentation is required -- driver's license, social security cards for all members of the household, birth certificates of all children, voter registration card, rent receipts, bank statements and cancelled checks. Failure to produce one required document can mean having to start all over again."

The Senate Committee recommended that the eligibility certification in its present form

-- 16 --
be discontinued and replaced by having the applicant sign a simple sworn statement of eligibility. In addition, the Committee proposed that the U.S. Postal Service sell food stamps and that 20 per cent extra free stamps be provided to persons who medically require a special diet.

Despite the Senate Committee's allegations, however, the overall federal government attitude toward food stamps is hostile and patronizing.

Earlier this year, President Ford sought to raise the price of food stamps from 23 per cent of the average recipients "disposable" income, to 30 per cent. In response, Congress passed legislation blocking the move. Two weeks ago, Ford finally said he would neither sign the bill nor veto it, thus admitting defeat.

Food stamp recipients and potential recipients face a thinly veiled policy of "benign neglect" by the Department of Agriculture, the supposed overseer of the federal program.

Stamp allotments for each household is based on what the Agriculture Department considers to be what even Newsweek called "the cheapest nutritious menu possible" -- the "basic economy diet plan." According to the Senate Committee report, a study of sample food stamp households found that "fewer than 10 per cent …obtained RDA's (recommended daily allowances) for the seven most essential nutrients."

Constantly harping on possible food stamp "frauds," the Agriculture Department is issuing a new series of stamps bearing face values of $1, $5 and $10, a needless waste of taxpayer's monies.

As a public service to our readers, THE BLACK PANTHER presents the following information on food stamps and food stamp eligibility. We thank the New York based Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) for making this information available.

WHO CAN GET FOOD STAMPS?

Food stamps are given to "households," There are two kinds of households that can get food stamps:

a. A "public assistance household" is one in which every person in the household gets some form of federal or state welfare. Public assistance households are automatically eligible for food stamps.

b. A "non-public assistance household" is either one in which some household members receive welfare and others do not, or one in which no one receives welfare. These households can get food stamps if their income and resources are not too high.

CAN SSI RECIPIENTS GET FOOD
STAMPS?

SSI, or Supplemental Security Income, is the new federal assistance program which replaces the states' aid to the aged, blind, and disabled programs.

SSI recipients in every state except California, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, and Wisconsin will be automatically eligible for food stamps.

WHAT IS A "HOUSEHOLD"?

The federal law says that a "household" is a group of people -- related or unrelated -- that: (1) shares common cooking facilities; (2) usually buys food together; and (3) lives together as an economic unit.

CAN THERE BE MORE THAN ONE
HOUSEHOLD IN THE SAME HOUSE?

Yes, remember: in order for a group of people to be a "household," everyone must share all the income, resources, and expenses. If there are people in your house who take care of their own personal expenses or who buy and cook their own food, they can be a separate household. Both "households" could get food stamps, even though they share the same bathroom and kitchen, and even though they split the rent and utilities.

This would be especially important if the income and expenses are not shared and if the income of some people in the house would make everybody ineligible for food stamps. The food stamp office will assume it's one household unless you show them that there is more than one household.

CAN A PERSON LIVING ALONE GET
FOOD STAMPS?

Yes. A person living alone is a one-person household.

ARE ROOMERS AND BOARDERS PART
OF A "HOUSEHOLD"?

No. Roomers and boarders are not part of your "household" for food stamp purposes. You are allowed to have roomers and/or boarders in your home and still be eligible for food stamps.

Warning: You can only have 2 boarders in your home. If you have 3 or more, your home becomes a "boarding house" under the food stamp program, and no one would be eligible for food stamps. You may have as many roomers as you like and still be eligible for food stamps.

WHAT ARE THE ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
FOR A NON-PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
HOUSEHOLD?

There are two basic requirements: income and resources cannot be too high, in addition, some household members may be asked to register for work.

WHAT ARE "RESOURCES"?

Resources for food stamp program purposes include money on hand or in a checking or savings account, stocks and bonds, money from insurance settlements, inheritances, prizes and awards, and money you get all at once (lump-sum payments) from social security or other sources (not monthly checks). This includes resources of all the household members. There are also certain exemptions.

HOW MANY RESOURCES CAN YOU
HAVE?

Non-public assistance households can be eligible for food stamps if they have resources of less than $1,500. It does not matter how many people are in the household.

There is one exception: if the household has 2 or more people, and at least one of the people is over 60 years old, the household can have resources up to $3,000.

WHAT IS INCOME?

Income is all money that the members of the household receive from all sources, except certain exemptions and deductions.

CAN STUDENTS GET FOOD STAMPS?

Yes. The law does allow students to get food stamps. The law used to say that you couldn't get food stamps if you were claimed as a "tax dependent" by a household which was itself not eligible for food stamps. This rule is no longer in effect. If you know someone who was turned down because of the "tax dependent rule," tell him or her to apply again.

DO YOU HAVE TO BE A U.S. CITIZEN
TO GET FOOD STAMPS?

No.

HOW LONG WILL YOU REMAIN ON THE
FOOD STAMP PROGRAM?

Federal law says that once you apply for food stamps, you will remain eligible for a certain number of months (called the "certification period"). The certification period varies from one month to a year, but most households will be certified for three months. You should try to be certified for as long a period of time as possible.

The law also says that once you are found eligible, you must be told before your certification period ends if the food stamp office is not going to let you continue to receive food stamps. Otherwise, you must be certified again (or "recertified") before your certification period ends so that you can keep buying your food stamps on a regular basis.

DO YOU HAVE TO LIVE IN A STATE FOR
A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF TIME BEFORE
YOU CAN APPLY FOR FOOD STAMPS?

No. You can apply for food stamps right away.

WHAT IS A FAIR HEARING?

A "fair hearing" is the way to appeal any action taken by the food stamp office that is harmful to you. You always have the right to a fair hearing whenever you disagree with any food stamp office action. The fair hearing allows you to tell your story and to show why the action taken by the food stamp office was wrong and why it should be changed.

HOW DO YOU ASK FOR A FAIR
HEARING?

You should always ask for a fair hearing in writing. Either the

-- 25 --
head of your household, or someone he or she appoints, can ask for the fair hearing. If you have trouble doing this, the food stamp office will help you.

Send your fair hearing request to the food stamp office. It only has to be a statement saying you want a fair hearing, and the reasons you want the fair hearing. (For example, "My income was figured wrong" or "I was wrongly denied food stamps.") The food stamp office will arrange the hearing. But the time, place, and date must be convenient for you.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE TOLD
ABOUT ANY ACTION THE FOOD
STAMP OFFICE PLANS TO TAKE
AGAINST YOU.

Federal law says that the food stamp office must notify you 15 days before it plans to take any harmful action against you (like not giving you food stamps or charging you more.) They must give you reasons for the action, and must tell you of your right to a fair hearing.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO CONTINUE
RECEIVING FOOD STAMPS AFTER YOU
APPEAL.

You can appeal -- ask for a fair hearing -- usually up to 30 days after you've been notified of a planned action against you. But in most cases, if you appeal within 15 days of the notice, you have a right to continue receiving the same benefits until the fair hearing decides whether or not the planned action against you is right or wrong.

YOU HAVE IMPORTANT RIGHTS
UNDER THE FAIR HEARING PROCESS.

You have the right:

A. To adequately prepare for the fair hearing. This means the right for you or your representative to look at all documents and records which might be used at the hearing. This also means giving you enough time to do it well.

B. To have someone with you to represent you at the fair hearing (a lawyer, friend, or anybody you choose).

C. To bring witnesses to support your arguments.

D. To ask questions of any witness used by the food stamp office, or of anybody else.

E. To present arguments of evidence to support you and to reply to the food stamp office arguments.

-- 2 --

EDITORIAL: OPOA Racism

Robert Trestler, president of the White "Oakland Police Officers Association" dares to presume to lecture, by implication, Raymond Clark, president of the Oakland Black Officers Association, on whom the Black officers in Oakland's Police Department should associate with. He writes: "I am confident that no Oakland police officer could find his position so desperate that he would request or accept assistance from any person within or aligned with the Black Panthers…" (See story, page 5.)

At the same time, in reply to charges made more than a month ago before the Oakland City Council by representative leaders of the Black community of blatant, racist behavior by White policemen in the Black community and racism within the department, Trestler writes: "I resent the implication that we are as a group, racist…"

Trestler's assumption that the Black officers do not know what is in their best interest and that he must tell them, is the clearest refutation of his claim that he is not a racist. And, since he presents himself as spokesman for the Oakland Police Officers Association as their president, we assume he speaks for the membership of his organization.

No one wishes to be used as "pawns," Officer Trestler, least of all Black Americans who have vast experience of being used by the power structure of this country and the power structure of Oakland as an excuse for the deplorable conditions of our lives and the deplorable conditions of the lives of untold numbers of non-Black citizens of this country.

To assume that the Black police officers of Oakland would allow themselves to be used "as pawns to create a cause or platform to support an attempt to achieve political office," as Trestler writes, strongly suggests that these Black oficers are incapable of judging for themselves both the seriousness of the situation of police racism in Oakland and deciding for themselves the best ways to combat it.

There is little that concerns the dignity and welfare of the Black community of Oakland, Officer Trestler, that the Black Panther Party does not know about. The Black officers are part of this community, far more so than the White officers, most of whom live outside Oakland. That's how we got involved. And, that's why we will stay involved until police racism is no more.

-- 2 --

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

-- 2 --

COMMENT: “TURN PRISONS INTO GOLDFISH BOWLS”

By Tom Wicker

The following is Part 1 of an article published in the March, 1975 issue of More magazine and written by New York Times columnist Tom Wicker. In the article, Mr. Wicker, who was one of the negotiators during the 1971 rebellion at Attica State Prison, analyzes the role of the American press in reporting on prisons. He correctly charges that, "The greatest overall deficiency of the American press is that it relies too much on official sources. Nowhere is that deficiency more evident than in routine prison coverage, when there is any."

PART 1

When Jeb Stuart Magruder, confessed perjurer, came home to a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree (actually a cherry) in the front yard of his suburban home, The Washington Star-News recorded the moment with a three-column front-page photo above the fold, of smiling Jeb waving at friends. You would have thought he was an astronaut home from the moon, or maybe a right-hander who had just squeezed another million out of the tax shelter he pitches for.

Most ex-cons come back to broken families, no jobs, watchful police, a vengeful society and a good chance at nothing but going back on the street in order to keep body and soul together. Jeb Magruder's crime, of course, was not like that of most ex-cons. It was worse, since he had social advantages, a good education, including a Williams College ethics course from the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, high political connections and a position of public trust. Nor had Magruder done the kind of time most ex-cons put in. His was easier, since he did it mostly at Allen-wood farm and the Fort Holabird house for federal witnesses -- not at Attica or Moundsville or San Quentin or Raiford, or any of the other maximum security hellholes in which American society cages "real criminals."

-- 4 --

But perhaps of Magruder the least said the better. The point here is that three-column photo in the Star-News is as good a symbol as any of the failure of the American press to comprehend, expose or care much about that part of the criminal justice system laughably referred to as "corrections." (The picture is also a splendid symbol of the American press's tendency to turn sharpers, frauds, sex objects, sexists, parasites, promoters and outright crooks into glamour boys or girls, but that's another story.)

Not that the American press doesn't report on prisons; it does, all too frequently. Some of its reporting, moreover, is courageous, perceptive, hard-hitting -- exposes of prison conditions, studies of recidivism, personal accounts like that of Ben Bagdikian, who got himself sent up in order to do a series for The Washington Post. The New York Times once sent its food critic to sample the cuisine at Attica -- but then, the same critic was later assigned to check out dog and cat food, too.

I don't pretend to be an authority on prisons, nor much of one on press treatment of prisons and inmates. But I have been interested in both subjects since the Attica revolt of September 1971 -- an event that powerfully concentrated the minds of those present. Since then. I've come to the conclusion that enterprise stories, even when good and useful, don't rectify the basic prison-press problem, which is day-to-day coverage.

American prisons, after all, form one of the most tightly closed societies this side of Siberia. Their fortresslike construction is designed as much to keep the public out as to keep the prisoners in; in fact, the early Quaker's conception of the "penitentiary" was of a monastic place of solitude and quiet, where a criminal could have nothing to do but contemplate and repent.

Nor is it architecture alone that closes off the prisons from the public. Most of them, as in New York State, are located far from urban centers -- out of sight, as it were, of the masses of the public, therefore easily out of mind. In 1971, it cost $33.35 round-trip for the bus ride (nine hours each way) from New York City to Batavia and back -- then $12 round-trip for the taxi ride between Batavia and Attica.

Thus isolated in space and behind their walls, prisons are closed in still another way, by the bureaucracy which has the unpleasant, sometimes dangerous, usually thankless task of running them. In New York, as in some other states, this bureaucracy is knit together in three different ways -- by the civil service, through the corrections officers' union, and as a quasi-police force.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 3 --

PEOPLE'S ARTIST ELAINE BROWN PERFORMS AT COMMUNITY FORUM

(Oakland, Calif.) - Last Sunday's Community Forum at East Oakland's Son of Man Temple was a rare treat for all those who attended.

Popular community organizer Ms. Elaine Brown, candidate for the 3rd District seat on the Oakland City Council, is also a talented songwriter and singer, and on Sunday. Elaine shared her beautiful talent with members of the Son of Man Temple and their guests in one of the Temple's most memorable programs.

Appearing at the Community Forum was the dynamic Joel Dorham Afro-Latin Quintet. Frequent guests at the Community Forum, the quintet's Afro-Latin jazz sounds put the audience in a relaxed, mellow mood.

PEOPLE'S ARTIST

Elaine, who has been described by Black Panther Party leader and chief theoretician, Brother Huey P. Newton, as "the first genuine People's Artist America has ever produced," wrote all the songs recorded on two long-playing albums, Seize the Time and Until We're Free, released by Motown Records. Commenting on what it means to be a People's Artist, Elaine explained to the Community Forum audience:

"I don't really feel like I write songs. Songs are really the artist's expression of what a lot of other people do. I couldn't write these songs if it wasn't for the wonderful things people do."

Elaine then sang eight of her stirring, soulful compositions which brought smiles to everybody's faces and filled the Temple with frequent shouts of "That's right, Elaine. Sing it."

Elaine sang from the depths of her heart, as she says, out of her experiences as a Black woman who has suffered the racist, sexist indignities of America. Her wellknown "Until We're Free" was inspired by a conversation Elaine had with a friend in her hometown in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania, who told her about all their friends who were either dead, on dope or in jail.

"A Former Friend," one of Elaine's newest compositions

-- 24 --
was written about a friend of hers who now works for Frank Rizzo, the mayor of Philadelphia who made his nationwide reputation as a hard-nosed, anti-Black chief of police before becoming mayor. Elaine lamented about her friend, "How did they get to you?"

In recognition of the suffering and degradation which prostitutes must daily suffer, Elaine sang "Women of the Night," also a new song. The audience shook their heads and patted their feet, really relating to the message of this particular song.

Elaine received a standing ovation after singing the popular "I know Who You Are," dedicated to "one of my friends," Brother Huey P. Newton.

Other numbers sung by Elaine, who accompanied herself on the piano, were "There's a Mighty Tide Sweeping," "For Me and Mine," "We shall Meet Again," and "Somebody's Woman."

Preceding Elaine, Joel Dorham's Afro-Latin Quintet entertained the audience with some lively, swinging music, including "Africano," "Summertime," "Feel Like Makin' Love," "Green Dolphin Street," and "Sunflower."

Jazz lovers really enjoyed the quintet who will celebrate their twelfth anniversary together on April 6 at a special program to be held at Spider's Web, 5319 Grove Street in Berkeley. They will also appear on a nationwide TV special later this month.

The Community Forum was dedicated to the Free Busing to Prisons Program, whose services of free transportation to prisons for the families and friends of prisoners were explained by Brother Orlando Vaughn.

Following the program, a delicious "all-you-can-eat" for $1.00 meal was served in the cafeteria. As everyone raved about the program, they ate hearty helpings of potato salad, fruit salad, bar-be-que chicken, ham, corn bread, rolls, pineapple upside down cake and punch. The meal was an appropriate ending to a beautiful afternoon.

-- 3 --

ELAINE'S CANDIDACY: “SOMETHING DIFFERENT IN OAKLAND”: ENDORSEMENTS, FUND RAISERS QUICKEN CAMPAIGN PACE

(Oakland, Calif.) -- "On April 15, something different is going to happen in Oakland." Ms. Elaine Brown, candidate for Oakland City Council, 3rd District, told a crowd of enthusiastic supporters at a fund-raising party in her honor at Tolin's Banquet Room last Saturday night.

Elaine is right. In fact, "something different" is happening in Oakland now.

All over the city, large numbers of people are perking up to the frontrunning campaign Elaine is conducting, and gearing themselves for the April 15 city municipal elections.

Endorsements are flowing into the downtown campaign headquarters and Elaine and her campaign committee aides are constantly on the go, proving true to her pledge to maintain personal contact with the people of this city.

Recently, Elaine won the prestigious endorsements of the Alameda County Democratic Party Central Committee and COPE, the political education arm of the Alameda County Central Labor Council.

Individual endorsements have been just as strong. Indeed, just a partial list of these include; Congressman Ronald Dellums: Assemblyman Ken Meade; Dr. Kenneth Goode; Maria Auxilio Prendez; Nelson Fields; Attorney Fred Hiestand; Richard O. Clark; Dr. Edward Connally; Rev. Frank Pinkhard; Donald R. Hopkins; Rick Ellis; Mary Lou Ellis; Molly Dougherty; Cris Dougherty; Michael Dieden; Gary Robinson; Jane Robinson; Barbara J. Lee; Nayt Everett; Marsha Martin; Attorney Clarence Davis; and many others.

Also, keeping an eye on the fast-approaching March 16 deadline. Ms. Adrienne Humphrey of the Committee for Greater Voter Registration reports that as of last week, the group had registered a total of 16,200 Alameda County residents to vote. Of that total. Ms. Humphrey says, 14,900 are Oaklanders.

DRIVE

The Committee, Ms. Humphrey adds, is stepping up its community out-reach drive. Freshly printed leaflets are now being circulated, she says, informing local citizens that they can register to vote at three different locations on a daily basis until March 16:

- Food King, 88th and East 14th St.

- Eastmont Mall, lower lobby 73rd and Bancroft.

- MacArthur Broadway Mall.

Oakland is slated to use new electronic voting machines for the first time for the April 13 elections, and Ms. Humphrey says that the Committee, in its efforts to educate the community to their voting rights, can provide demonstrator models to display before social and civic groups, house meetings or interested individuals. Call (415) 444-VOTE in order to have the Committee send one of its volunteers either to register

-- 8 --
vote, display the new voting machines, or both.

The Friday night fund-raiser, sponsored by Roger Tolin and Larry Milton, was a well-attended, lively and spirited affair, typical of the celebrations given for Elaine since the February 7 campaign kick-off.

Performing before the over 200 friends and supporters, were Soul to Soul, United Black Artisits, and Love, Power and Strength, who almost brought down the house with their rendition of "My Imagination."

Elaine's brief remarks to the happy gathering were enthusiastically cheered and applauded.

Commenting that, "We have this opportunity to pull votes together, to get out in the streets and pull Black people and poor people -- to pull winos off the corner, and prostitutes off the corner and pimps out of their cars -- and to get every single man, woman and child that can vote to come together, and to realize that on April 15 we are going to have the first serious people's victory in this country," Elaine demonstrated her ability to capture the attention of wide and diverse types of people and successfully get her message across.

"Something different" is happening in Oakland. Elaine Brown's campaign is soaring.

-- 3 --

5,000 TO RECEIVE LEARNING CENTER NEWSLETTER

(Oakland, Calif.) - The first Community Learning Center Newsletter, featuring the annual report of the Educational Opportunities Corporation, the nonprofit, community-based group which sponsors the East Oakland complex, is presently being mailed to over 5,000 individuals and groups throughout the country.

Included in the initial eight-page monthly newsletter, says Ms. Joan Kelly, EOC chief administrator and spokesperson, are articles on the SAFE (Seniors Against A Fearful Environment) Seniors Dance, the Christmas play performed by the children of the Intercommunal Youth Institute, and a special "New Year's Greeting" from Ms. Elaine Brown. EOC Executive Director. chairperson of its Board of Directors, and currently a frontrunning candidate for the Oakland City Council, 3rd District seat.

-- 4 --

MILWAUKEE WELFARE RIGHTS GROUP SUES OVER FOOD STAMP OUT REACH

(Milwaukee, Wisc.) -- The Wisconsin Welfare Rights Organization (WRO) filed a lawsuit here recently against the state for failure to implement outreach requirements of the Food Stamp Act.

The suit was filed as a class action on behalf of all the organization's members and the approximately 355,000 persons eligible for food stamps but who are not in the program. (See Coverstory.)

WRO contends that thousands of individuals and families are being deprived of their right to receive food stamps because of poor or nonexistent outreach programs.

Under the Food Stamp Act, states have been required since 1971 to "undertake effective action…to inform low income households concerning the availability and benefits of the food stamp program and insure the participation of such households."

COMPLAINT

In studies cited in the complaint, it was estimated that of the 487,937 persons eligible for food stamps in the state, the highest number of persons actually receiving food stamps during the first three quarters of 1974 was only 132,313 people per month or approximately 27 per cent.

The suit says that other states, such as New Jersey, have increased their participation in the food stamp program to 63 per cent after recently implementing a food stamp outreach program.

The WRO says it is fighting for the outreach program, not just for welfare recipients, but for all low income people who are not benefiting from the food stamp program because they are not informed of eligibility requirements, benefits of the program or how to apply for food stamps.

In the suit, the WRO is asking the court to declare the lack of an outreach food stamp program to be inconsistent with the requirements of the federal law. They are also asking that state officials be enjoined from failing to devise and implement an effective outreach plan.

-- 4 --

THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

MARCH 9, 1820

Sailing from New York City harbor on February 6, the "Mayflower of Liberia" and its 86 Black passengers arrived in Sierra Leone, home to their mother continent of Africa, on March 9, 1820.

MARCH 13, 1862

Ending what one historian has called "the military slave hunt," the U.S. Congress on March 13, 1862, passed legislation forbidding Union officers and soldiers from aiding in the capture and return of fugitive slaves.

MARCH 10, 1863

In a crucial Civil War battle on March 10, 1863, two all-Black infantry regiments, the First and Second South Carolina Colored Troop Divisions, captured and occupied the key city of Jacksonville, Florida. The Black troops' gallantry, daring and determination is said to have caused "panic" along the Southern seacoast.

MARCH 15, 1933

Launching its lengthy attack against segregation and discrimination in education, the NAACP filed suit against the University of North Carolina on behalf of Thomas Hocutt, who was refused admittance because he was Black, on March 15, 1933. This initial case lost on a technicality when the president of a Black college Hocutt had previously attended refused to certify his scholastic record. It would be as late as 1951 before the University of North Carolina would admit the first Black student in its 162-year history.

MARCH 12, 1955

Charlie Parker, "The Bird," one of the founders and mainstays of the modern jazz movement, died on March 12, 1955.

MARCH 11, 1959

Lorraine Hansberry's Rasin in the Sun, the first play written by a Black woman to reach the Broadway stage, opened with Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil in the starring roles on March 11, 1959. The moving drama was the first to be directed by a Black man. Lloyd Richards, in over half a century.

-- 5 --

RICHMOND BLACK COPS SUE FOR $3 MILLION

(Richmond, Calif.) -- Black police officers of the Richmond Police Department have filed a civil rights suit against the city of Richmond, charging racial discrimination in hiring, firing and promotion of officers, it was announced last week.

Damages of $3 million are being sought in the suit filed in federal District Court in San Francisco by the organization of Black Richmond officers, Guardians of Justice. Guardians of Justice is a member of the Western Region of the National Black Officers Association, as is the Oakland Black Officers Association.

The 33-page complaint charges that only 15 per cent of Richmond's police officers are minority, while the city's population is 50 per cent minority, overwhelmingly Black.

Only four minority officers are currently serving above the rank of patrolman, the suit alleges, and minority officers are subject to different discipline procedures and are not assigned to several divisions within the department, such as the criminal investigation division.

APPOINTMENTS

The suit seeks to halt any further police department appointments to the rank of sergeant, lieutenant, or captain from the present "illegally constituted lists of eligibles" except under a plan which will assure appointment of one qualified minority officer for each White officer appointed.

Also sought by the complaint is a court order halting any further appointment of patrolmen except under a similar plan calling for appointment of two qualified minority officers for each non-minority appointment.

The Guardians of Justice, in addition, asks that the court halt any further "racially motivated terminations" and require that the city rehire those minority officers found to have been improperly fired, reinstating them with full back pay and seniority.

The filing of the suit was announced last week by David B. Rosenthal, attorney for the Guardians of Justice, at a press

-- 20 --
conference in his Point Richmond office. In addition to Rosenthal, six other attorneys are listed on behalf of the Guardians of Justice, including lawyers representing the Northern California Police Practices Project, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the San Francisco Lawyers' Committee for Urban Affairs and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Defendants in the case are listed as the city of Richmond, the police chief and two chiefs prior to him, the city manager, the city personnel director, members of the city council and city personnel board.

U.S. federal District Court Judge Spencer Williams has ordered the defendants to appear for a hearing on the suit in his courtroom at 10 a.m. on April 18.

-- 5 --

BLACK WOMAN POLICE TRAINEE WINS JOB, BACK PAY

(Oakland, Calif.) - Sister Barbara Terrell, who appealed her firing as a probationary Oakland Police Department dispatcher on grounds that she was discriminated against because she is Black, has been restored to her $218 per week job with about $1,500 in back pay by the Oakland Civil Service Board.

A dispatcher trainee since June 13 last year, Sister Barbara Terrell was fired January 10, with "unsatisfactory work" being given as the reason. She immediately contacted the president of the Oakland Black Officers Association (OBOA) who put at her disposal the legal team of the Association to appeal the firing. The legal arm of the Oakland Chapter of the NAACP also undertook her case.

APPEAL

The appeal was based on a civil service rule which specifically forbids discrimination against an employee during the probationary period (a year) because of race, creed, color, religion and sex. Sister Terrell, who was one of six trainees, contended her training was more inconsistent than that of others and that her time on microphone was scheduled to give her less practice.

She also charged prejudice by a trainer, derisive and insulting behavior by her radio room co-workers, and other abuses.

The decision to reinstate Sister Terrell was made by the Oakland Civil Service Board by a vote of 4-3 last week, after a hearing on her case. The board ruled that the police department had failed to apply its affirmative action program in Sister Terrell's case and that such failure resulted in discrimination against her under the civil service rules.

Observers here credit the favorable ruling to the fact that the Oakland City Council, under pressure from the Black community, is currently undertaking an investigation of charges of racism within the Oakland Police Department, and racist treatment of Black citizens by White police officers in the community.

The Oakland Black Officers Association has played a major role in documenting and challenging police department racism and has welcomed community efforts at improving the relationship between the police and the community.

-- 5 --

OAKLAND BLACK POLICE WELCOME B.P.P. SUPPORT: ISSUE COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER

(Oakland, Calif.) -- The Oakland Black Officers Association (OBOA) has publicly welcomed the support of the Black Panther Party in its fight against police department racism and for improved community relations, in response to racist charges of being used as "pawns to create a cause" made by Robert Trestler, president of the White Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA).

In the first 12-page issue of what will be a regular monthly Community Newsletter distributed throughout Oakland's Black communities last week, the OBOA's president, Raymond Clark, "by direction of its membership," characterized the inference in the White officer's charge as "petty and (reflecting) a negative perception, stereotype and paranoia that the OPOA has towards Black people."

REBUTTAL

In a three-page "rebuttal to the OPOA's newsletter" in which the charges were made, Brother Clark writes:

"There has been criticism of the OBOA because the Black Panther Party has been supportive of our community relations programs. We believe it is advantageous to this organization, the police and the community to have their support and understanding.

"People who support the OBOA represent the entire social, economic and political spectrum of individuals and organizations in Oakland."

Pointing out that the list is too long to include in the newsletter. Brother Clark states that "over 70 organizations" were represented at the first annual awards banquet of the OBOA.

"This support of other organizations, which includes Whites, far exceeds the aforementioned figure," he continues. "We consider the remark and inference towards the Black Panther Party petty and that it reflects a negative perception, stereotype and paranoia that the OPOA has towards Black people.

-- 24 --

"We believe it is imperative that the OPOA and the Oakland Police Department come into direct contact on a positive and consistent basis with those persons who are engaged in activities which affect the role of law enforcement in the Black community. A continuing interaction can only make effective this Association's efforts towards establishing a reasonable approach on the part of ALL peace officers in Oakland without diminishing their personal safety."

The White OPOA's newsletter containing the attack against the OBOA is a one sheet affair. In typical racist fashion Trestler writes: "I resent the implication that we are, as a group, racist, that we are not carrying out our sworn duties in a fair and impartial way."

Trestler claims "there is no evidence to support the charges made by J. Alfred Smith (pastor of East Oakland's Allen Temple Baptist Church) and Alphonso Galloway" (Executive Director of the Oakland Chapter of the NAACP). Pastor Smith and Brother Galloway were the chief spokesmen for the community before the Oakland City Council last month. Their presentation, supported by a wide representation of community organizations, including the Black Panther Party, resulted in the decision of the City Council to set up a special committee to investigate the charges of racism within the department and racist behavior members of the police department in the Black communities.

Later, by implication directing his attack at Brother Ray Clark, president of the Oakland Black Officers Association, Trestler writes: "I am confident that no Oakland police officer could find his position so desperate that he would request or accept assistance from any person within or aligned with the Black Panthers, or who is in sympathy with their philosophy or goals…

"…We cannot allow anyone to use us as pawns to create a cause or platform to support an attempt to achieve political office," the president of the White Officers Association writes. Elaine Brown, who was present at the City Council meeting at which the charges of police racism were made, is a leading contender for election to the Oakland City Council 3rd District seat and a leading member of the Black Panther Party. (See Editorial page 2.)

-- 6 --

TRIAL OF FOUR BLACKS ACCUSED IN “ZEBRA” SLAYINGS BEGINS

(San Francisco, Calif.) -- Court proceedings of four Black men charged with murder, assault, and kidnapping in connection with the so-called "Zebra" killings, began here last week. The four men -- Jessie Lee Cook, 30, Manuel Moore, 30, J.C. X (Simon), 28, and Larry Craig Green, 23 -- are charged with the murder of three Whites and the wounding of four others.

The actual trial is expected to begin soon. A panel of more than 150 persons will be reviewed for prospective jury duty, with questioning from both defense and prosecuting attorneys expected to be intense.

All four men, who are members of the Nation of Islam, have pleaded not guilty before Superior Court Judge Joseph Karesh on all charges. Defense attorney Charles White of Oakland will coordinate the defense while working with "strategist" Edward W. Jacks, Jr., from New York, a trouble-shooter for the Nation of Islam and former representative of Muhammad Ali. A third member of the defense team is White's associate, John F. Cruikshank.

Cook, who has already been convicted of one of the slayings, has a separate court-appointed attorney, Roger Pierucci.

The four were arrested May 1 of last year at a moving and storage company owned by the Nation of Islam in San Francisco. When the arrest was made, Mayor Joseph Alioto announced that police had "turned up" an informant to help them identify the group allegedly known as the "Death Angels."

The informer, Anthony C. Harris, a Black 29-year-old former prison inmate, claimed he had worked with Moore, Green, and Simon at the moving and storage company. Harris also claimed he had "witnessed" seven murders but not taken part in any of them. Since his statement. Harris has not been seen or heard of.

The case gained national attention because of the police practices of indiscriminately stopping and frisking Black males producing angry protest and charges of racism and fascist-type harassment by the Black community here.

Between October 20, 1973, and April 16, 1974, police claim 20 Whites were attacked, of whom 13 died, and credited the attacks to a Black man or group of men. Community leaders charged that the police were deliberately using the "Zebra" killings to "solve" crimes that they had been unable to solve and deliberately creating an anti-Black hysteria among White citizens.

Last April, the San Francisco Police Department embarked upon a program calling officers in "interracial areas of the city," to "stop" and make a "pat search" of all Black male persons who fit a general description of the two composite sketches of the alleged "Zebra" killer.

Through pressure from Black community and legal groups, U.S. District Court Judge Alphonso Zirpoli issued a preliminary injunction ending the forcible stops and frisks one week after the police plan was implemented. Blacks, after being searched, were given a card designating that a police check had been made.

-- 6 --

EYES ON CITY HALL

MODEL CITIES DIRECTOR QUITS

Maurice Dawson, executive director for the $500,000 Model Cities Program in West Oakland since July, 1970, sent a one-sentence letter of resignation to City Manager Cecil Riley last week, in the aftermath of an unsuccessful attempt to fire his top four aides. Giving no reason other than to say, "it was a situation where I had all the responsibility and limited authority to discipline my own staff," Dawson resigned after attempting to fire Avon Manning, evaluation division chief; Ms. Thelma Scott, chief of planning; Ms. Janie Young, chief fiscal officer; and Lonnie Carter, deputy director, on February 21. A follow-up memo from the City Manager's office later last month informed Dawson that only Riley had the authority to discharge Model Cities employees.

"LEARNING PAVILION" WALTZ

The proposed Peralta District "learning pavilion," slated to be located on Berkeley's "Hearst Strip" to replace Oakland's community-based North Peralta (Grove Street) College, took one step forward and two steps back last week. First, on Wednesday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge William Hayes denied a temporary injunction which would have stopped the district's trustees from buying the $400,000 land area from BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit system). The request for the injunction had been made by the plaintiffs -- including Bay Area Congressman Ron Dellums, the mayor of Berkeley and two of its City Council members, the Grove Street student government and others -- in a taxpayer's lawsuit charging the Peralta District with "fraudulently" wasting money in attempting to close down Grove Street and establish the "learning pavilion." The next day. Thursday, the newly-elected BART Board of Directors voted to cancel the option it gave to the Peralta District last year to buy the land, thus blocking the pavilion's development. The BART action is expected to be appealed.

-- 7 --

U. OF WASHINGTON CHICANO STUDENTS DEMAND MILITANT ART MURAL RECOVERY

(Seattle, Washington) -- Chicano students at the University of Washington here are up in arms over the claim by the administration that it has "lost" a giant ten by fifty foot mural depicting people's struggles, created by Chicano muralist Pablo O'Higgins in 1955.

Learning recently from concerned sources that the university, having gained possession of the mural in 1957, had it stored in crates in open-air sheds where it is exposed to rain, cold and general neglect, the students charge the administration claim of having lost the mural is a lie.

They charge rather that the mural has conveniently been "lost" because of the clear, anti-fascist, anti-imperialist, and anti-racist depiction of the struggle of working class people it represents, and are demanding that the mural be returned to the people.

MURAL FOR UNION

In 1955, the Shipscalers and Drydock Workers Union, Local 541, brought Pablo O'Higgins to Seattle to paint a mural for the union hall. The Shipscalers Hall was an older building in the 2100 block on Third Avenue in downtown Seattle. The membership of the union was predominantly Third World: Black, Asian, Chicano, and a few Native Americans.

Because of the construction of the hall and the size of the mural (50 ft. x 10 ft.), an outdoor mural was impossible, so Pablo painted his mural inside the building. He built removable frames of plaster, since the method of painting, fresco, is a process of painting on damp plaster. The frames were attached to the building, but could be removed without serious damage to the painting.

In his larger than life figures, Pablo traced the heroic struggle of workers of all nations and races to free themselves from their oppressors. Marx, Engels, and Lenin are clearly portrayed. The faces of men and women from the shipyards and waterfront of Seattle are also shown in the great mural.

Within two years McCarthyism took its toll in the Shipscalers Union. The progressive leadership, special target of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) anti-Communist witchhunts, was driven out of office. The local union was abandoned by their former international union and became a part of the reactionary and corrupt Laborer's International.

The leadership had now become indifferent to the fate of the murals and when the building was sold and the headquarters moved, they allowed the University of Washington to have them for "safekeeping."

Concerned Chicanos at the university recognize that the hiding of the mural is an insult to the working-class community and are currently negotiating with the university administration to obtain the mural for the benefit of the masses.

They are demanding:

1. The mural be given to the people.

2. The restoration of the mural be made at university expense.

3. The mural be mounted at a permanent location in the community at university expense.

4. Transportation of the mural to a permanent location be done by the University.

5. Pablo O'Higgins be transported to Seattle at university expense to head the restoration of the mural.

6. Public apology to the working class community.

-- 7 --

PROTEST CLARENCE JOHNSON FIRING AT KSOL RADIO

(Oakland, Calif.) -- Brother Clarence Johnson, the dynamic, forceful and "right on" radio commentator who was fired last year from radio station KRE because of his widely popular political commentaries that told it like it is, was fired last week for the same reason from radio station KSOL, where he has been employed for the past several weeks doing a four-times-daily commentary called "The Other Side."

Brother Johnson told THE BLACK PANTHER that when fired he was told by John Darin, KSOL general manager, that he had done a good job, and that the station was hiring another person at the same salary Brother Johnson was receiving to fill in the slot. He concluded as we do that KSOL management fired him because they did not like what he was saying.

We urge all concerned citizens in the Bay Area and beyond to write or call John Darin at KSOL, protesting against this action and demanding the reinstatement of Brother Clarence Johnson. Write to KSOL, 600 South Bayshore Blvd., San Mateo, California 94402, or call (415) 347-6638.

-- 7 --

DALLAS COP KILLS 58-YEAR-OLD BLACK MAN

(Dallas, Texas) -- Attempts by Joe Edwards, owner of the Alamos Food Martin West Dallas, to break up a boycott picket line organized by the Dallas Chapter of the Black Panther Party in protest against the police murder of a 58-year-old Black made in an incident involving Edwards, failed recently in the face of the outrage of the united Black and Chicano community.

The murdered man, R.D. Moore, a longtime customer at Alamos Food Mart and known by Edwards to have been a patient at the Terrell Mental Hospital, was shot and killed by police who had been called by Edwards because Moore allegedly ate a ten cent cake he had not paid for in the store.

Edwards and the police claim that when Brother Moore was asked to pay for the cake he backed out of the store. Edwards then flagged down the police who shot the brother because he allegedly pulled a pocketknife on them.

Eyewitnesses report that the old man was out of the store and in the street when the manager summoned the police. After conferring with the owner, the police turned on the old man and maliciously gunned him down.

One witness, a Chicano, says he personally pleaded with the owner and the police not to kill the man, even offering to pay the money. But the man was told, "It's too late" and the policeman fired three shots into Moore.

The Dallas Chapter reports that the community, "totally outraged by this racist indifference and disregard for human life" has shown "valiant support" for the boycott. The Brown Berets, a Chicano community organization, has joined the Black Panther Party in maintaining the picket line.

After only three days of the boycott, the owner offered one of the boycotters a bribe in return for calling off the boycott. He pleaded that after two days of the boycott his business had lost more than $3,500. The bribe was refused.

On the following day Edwards paid three Mexicans who had been drinking to disrupt the picketers. The three proceeded to harass one of the picketers. After several warnings to no avail, one of the three was righteously convinced to end the harassment and the other two left the scene.

The boycott organizers want the Alamos Food Mart out of the community and a community coop to replace it. They are also demanding the prosecution of the policeman for murder and an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people, people of color and all oppressed people.

-- 8 --

ANTI-IMPERIALISM PLATFORM: BLACK STUDENTS ORGANIZE FEBRUARY 1ST MOVEMENT

(Washington, D.C.) -- A new, anti-imperialist national Black student organization has emerged to rally and unite the various and individually weak Black student groups that exist on U.S. college campuses today. The February First Movement (FFM) was formed last December to provide Black students with a vehicle to, "accelerate the defeat of imperialism," according to their published statement of unity.

The FFM defines itself as a mass, democratic organization to function as an ideological and organizational center for the Black student movement. The FFM plans to concentrate on those students and those colleges with working class roots.

The FFM founding conference held at Princeton University in New Jersey, was attended by 70 delegates and five Black student groups, as well as independent collectives and individuals.

The theme of the conference was: "Now is the time to unite all Black students in the struggle against U.S. imperialism and national oppression."

PROGRAM

A seven-pont program was drawn up to outline the general types of organizational work the FFM will perform. These points are: the struggle for the right to an education; support for working class struggles; community struggles; the anti-imperialist struggles of Third World peoples and nations; the women's rights struggle and the struggles of other oppressed national minorities.

The primary objective of the next few months will be the mobilization of Black students against recent budget cutbacks in educational aid and programs. These cutbacks have had a particularly acute effect on Black students and Black colleges as these are the poorest and the neediest.

The need for an organization such as FFM has existed for a long time. This new group will hopefully provide the coordination and leadership that has been lacking in the Black student movement since the days of the turbulent protest, militancy and earnest courage that marked the Black student struggle in the recent past.

The February First Movement takes its name from the courageous action taken by four Black students in Greensboro, North Carolina, on February 1, 1960. The sit-in they staged at a local segregated Woolworth's lunch counter sparked similar anti-segregation demonstrations throughout the nation. It was the first of the famous "sit-ins."

The FFM is determined to follow the vanguard role set by these four young people.

The FFM appears to represent a merger of revolutionary nationalist, Pan-Africanist, Marxist-Leninist ideologies united around the anti-imperialist struggle. With a membership of several hundred, FFM is the only group of its type in the U.S. It already has chapters on more than 20 campuses, mainly in the South and the East. Land-grant and community colleges are its primary support base. Its headquarters has been established here in Washington, D.C. (P.O. Box 22007, Washington, D.C. 20002.)

-- 8 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

CONGRESS PRESSES
FOR JOBS

(Washington, D.C.) -- Congress has begun action on creating some 900,000 public service jobs. $5.9 billion is to be appropriated for the project. The fund was authorized for public service employment, government construction projects and federal purchases, in efforts made to create more jobs and establish an employment pool for private labor. House Speaker Carl Albert said the bill would "put two million people…back to work." However, he cautiously warned that "…it is not going to end unemployment overnight."

WOMAN STRIP
SEARCHED

(New York, N.Y.) -- Donna Micallef, 29, and a mother of three children, filed a $1.1 million class action damage suit for damages ensued when she was arrested and strip-searched for failing to pay an overdue traffic ticket of $15.00. According to the court, Ms. Micallef could not meet the three-week deadline to pay the fine because of financial difficulties. She was issued a bench warrant for arrest. While being detained at the jail, she was forced to strip in the presence of a matron and undergo a vaginal and rectal search.

MAYORS CALL
FOR AID

(Washington, D.C.) -- Twenty-two of the nation's mayors called for an additional $5.7 billion in federal aid at a "behind the monument" meeting recently. The aid was called for to combat the growing unemployment, lengthening welfare rolls, feared increase of crime and a breakdown of municipal services. Later at a luncheon, the mayors expressed optimism that the Ford administration will allocate the $5 billion designated for prevention of municipal layoffs. The mayors went to the capitol to solicit support from Congressional members.

-- 9 --

LEAVENWORTH BROTHER: “THE STRUGGLE IS FAR FROM OVER”

(Kansas City, Mo.) -- "The Leavenworth Brothers' struggle is far from over," is the cry of the 26 inmates who have been held in solitary confinement since their participation in an uprising at Leavenworth Penitentiary in July, 1973.

Brother Odell Bennett, one of the seven Black and Brown inmates who faced charges ranging from kidnapping to assault and murder for their alleged participation in the rebellion (26 were originally charged), made the plea in a recent letter to the community, calling for greatly increased support of the Brothers in their struggle for justice.

Brother Bennett writes:

DIABOLICAL SCHEME

"The Leavenworth Brothers' struggle is far from over. A diabolical scheme interrelated with these isolated confinements is on the Bureau of Prison's (BOP) drawing board for these and other political prisoners.

"In April, 1975, BOP is opening its $13.5 million Behavior Modification and Research Center at Butner, North Carolina. Methods employed to `deal' with politically active prisoners will be sensory deprivation cells, drug assaults and more `advanced techniques' such as shock treatments and psychosurgery. Candidates are selected by the warden of each prison!

"A halt must be put to these vicious plans and this can only be done with mass support of Y-O-U, the people. There is and cannot be any justification for BOP and individual wardens imposing the presently psychologically and physically deteriorating isolation on these Brothers.

"This is a call to action to all friends, to all brothers and sisters, to all supporters and sympathizers, to get involved and demand that these Brothers and all other political prisoners be accorded human decency. Only you, individually and collectively, can halt the crazed intentions of these prison bureaucrats. You are entitled to an explanation; you can demand a justification, an accounting for this cruel and sadistic punishment. Your inquiries of concern and interest can force the so-called law enforcers to be more responsive to your will, the will of the people!

"What you as an individual or group can do:

"1) Write or send a telegram to Norman A. Carlson, director of

-- 11 --
Bureau of Prisons, Washington, D.C. 20534

"2) Write or send a telegram to the wardens at the U.S. Penitentiaries in Marion, Ill. 62939; Atlanta, Ga. 30315; Lewisburg, Pa. 11837; and the director of M.C.F.F.P. at Springfield, Mo. 65802.

"3) Write or send a telegram to the senator and representative from your state and district.

"Ask each of these public officers for a report and justification as to why these Brothers are being held in isolated confinement (i.e. the specific acts or `Prison Rule' they have violated to justify such harsh and inhumane treatment). Ask to know when they will definitely be released to the general prison population and treated like other prisoners.

"Pass this on to a friend. As long as even one remains enslaved, no one is free."

-- 9 --

DELLUMS' CORNER: SPONSORS BILLS FOR MINORITY AMERICANS

(Washington, D.C.) -- California Congressman Ronald V. Dellums is sponsoring two bills now before Congress of particular importance to poor minority Americans.

The Bay Area legislator is co-sponsor of a bill that would ban "behavioral and biomedical experimentation" in federal prisons and would withhold Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) funds from states and local institutions which make their inmates -- who are overwhelmingly Black, Brown, Native American or belonging to another minority group -- available for testing.

Dellums describes the human experimentation practices now underway in prisons as "absurd."

Congressman Dellums is also the sponsor of legislation that would establish a consumer price index for the elderly in order to determine whether or not the current consumer price index accurately reflects the cost of living increase factor experienced by the elderly. The current consumer price index is based on price experiences of urban, clerical workers.

-- 9 --

ATTICA DEFENSE REVEALS PROSECUTION WITNESS LIED

(Buffalo, N.Y.) -- Defense attorneys in the trial of two former Attica inmates revealed contradictory statements last week by the chief witness for the prosecution on the alleged participation of John Hill in the death of a prison guard, during the September, 1971, Attica Prison rebellion, in which 43 inmates and guards were killed in a military onslaught by state and National Guard troops.

In cross-examination by defense attorney William Kuntsler, Royal T. Morgan, a former Attica Prison guard now employed at Auburn State Prison, said last week on the stand that he had first seen Attica guard William Quinn lying on the ground at a point midway in a 280-foot-long corridor, and that a group of inmates were surrounding the fallen man. He claimed that an inmate whom he identified as the defendant, John Hill, from that group him (Morgan) with a foot length of a 2 by 4 board.

However, a portion of Morgan's taped interview with state investigators on September 15, 1971, just days after the incident, read: "I noticed Officer Quinn on the floor curled up in a sort of ball, 20 feet from `Times Square.' There were no inmates, there weren't any inmates around and when I bent down to pick him up, that's when I got hit by one Puerto Rican." Both Hill and his co-defendant, Charles Joe Pernasilice, are Native Americans.

According to The New York Times (March 7, 1975), Morgan was asked if he remembered making the statement in the investigators' report and he repeated several times that "he did not fully recall." The prosecution, which under the rules of court procedure, had turned over the transcript to the defense, had stipulated the authenticity of the document.

The statement caused defense counselor William Kuntsler to ask, "Which (statement) is correct?"

Morgan replied that his most recent statement was, because. "My memory was better."

-- 20 --

The defense has called for the removal of Morgan's testimony entirely from the record.

Another guard. Donald Melven, had earlier said that he had some doubts if Hill actually had taken part in the attack on Quinn.

Melven had first picked out Hill from a line-up at Great Meadow Prison, where Hill was transferred after the rebellion. The trip was a special one to identify Hill, according to Anthony Simonetti, special assistant attorney general in charge of the Attica investigation.

The report stated that, "He (Melven) later retracted the identification only because inmate Hill did not have a brush (hair) cut at Great Meadow and he felt that the inmate striking Quinn had a brush cut." Melven also expressed confusion concerning skin blemishes on Hill and those on the attacker.

Meanwhile, two former Attica inmates, Herbert X. Blyden and Roger Champen, have been accused of embezzling funds from the Attica Brothers Legal Defense Fund. One case involved an $8,000 donation which was made to the Defense Fund by the Presbyterian Church through the National Conference of Black Lawyers.

According to Attica Now Collective coordinator Frank (Big Black) Smith. Champen and Blyden are not to receive any funds in the name of the Defense committee. Lennox S. Hinds, national director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, reported several checks missing from its check book. Several later turned up cashed and made out to Blyden with forged signatures.

-- 10 --

C.I.A. ADMITS 20-YEAR FILE ON REP. BELLA ABZUG

(Washington, D.C.) - William E. Colby, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), admitted last week that the CIA maintained a file for more than 20 years on New York Representative Bella S. Abzug, that included the contents of letters of Mrs. Abzug's it had opened and copied.

Mrs. Abzug said that she had received from Colby some but not all of the documents contained in at least two separate CIA files bearing her name. Colby was testifying before the Subcommittee on Government Information and Individual Rights, which Mrs. Abzug heads.

The file entries, she said, dated as far back as 1953. "Let's get one thing clear right away," Mrs. Abzug said angrily to Colby, "Opening mail of a lawyer representing a client is clearly illegal." Replying nervously, Colby conceded that "a considerable amount of the material in your file should not be in there."

Colby also acknowledged that, the CIA file begun on Mrs. Abzug, was one of four files on present or former members of Congress on whom special "counterintelligence" files were kept as part of the agency's operations against Vietnam war dissidents. Colby claimed that the operation was terminated in March, 1974.

AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

Colby said he had withheld from Mrs. Abzug some of the contents of her files on the ground that if disclosed they would make public "intelligence sources and methods." But, he said that the CIA would make available to American citizens, upon request, the "nonsensitive" portions of any files the agency had compiled on them "and to which they were entitled under the newly amended Freedom of Information Act."

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that Colby told President Gerald Ford about several plans for assassinations of foreign politicians "in which the CIA had been involved." It was later reported that the "foreign politicians" included Cuba's Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba, murdered leader of the struggle for independence in the Congo and assassinated former President Diem of Vietnam.

Earlier CBS News reported that President Ford warned associates that if current investigations into the CIA went "too far" they would uncover "several" assassinations of foreign officials in which that agency was involved.

According to Daniel Schorr, a CBS reporter, at least three such assassinations are believed to have taken place in the 1960s or the late 1950s. Mr. Schorr claimed that President Ford learned of the assassinations only after The New York Times carried a report last December on the CIA's domestic spying activities.

In other developments, Senator Frank Church, chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence Activities, said recently that he had received assurances that CIA employees testifying before his committee would not be bound by the signed secrecy pledge that the agency requires as a condition of employment.

The decision to waive the so-called "contract agreement" was made known to Senator Church in a meeting on February 27 with William Colby. However, Colby "turned aside" the Senator's request for a copy of a CIA report sent to President Ford last month that outlines domestic spying activities by the CIA, including the wiretapping of American citizens.

Colby told the senator, according to Mr. Church, that his request for the report should properly be directed to the White House.

Although the CIA's legislative charter specifically forbids its participation in internal police or security matters, a CIA spokesman told The New York Times that Colby had concluded that no criminal charges would be brought by the Justice Department against any of the agency's operatives involved in illegal domestic activities.

-- 10 --

ON THE BLOCK

WHAT'S YOUR OPINION OF THE RECENT COURT
RULING THAT MEN AS WELL AS WOMEN BE
ARRESTED ON PROSTITUTION CHARGES?

Dorothy Whitehead
1127 Linden St.

Well, it sort of gives both parties a picture of what's happening. Maybe the next time they'll be a little more careful.

Annie Blain
2812 10th St.
Mother

I think the man should be arrested but I don't think his name should be in the papers because he and his wife could really be happily married and that would break up a good house, a good family.

Vashti Gambol
1735 Derby
Retired LPN

I really think it's the people's business that are involved in the act. I don't think they should be arrested at all.

Virginia Johnson
Elsie St.
Welfare Department

Great. If it's a crime, then the men are also committing a crime.

David Catlett
1930 E. 27th St.
Student -- Merritt

It seems to me that it would bring the prostitutes and their customers closer together because if they're both "criminals" now, they'll help each other out.

Mildred Wright
588 57th St.
Unemployed

I think it's fair. The woman shouldn't get all the blame. After all, the man was participating in it, too.

Fred Lenry
4029 Foothill Blvd.
Mover

I dislike it.

-- 11 --

SUPREME CT. DENIES JACKSON STATE VICTIMS RIGHT TO SUE

(Washington, D.C.) -- The U.S. Supreme Court last week once again demonstrated its inability to apply justice equally to Blacks and Whites in this country when it refused to review lower court decisions denying Black victims of the 1970 police shootings on the Jackson State College campus in Mississippi, in which two students were killed and more than a dozen injured, the right to sue for damages.

Last April, on the other hand, the Supreme Court authorized the White parents of the four Kent State students killed one week earlier, in 1970, to sue the former governor of Ohio and National Guard officers for damages in that police attack.

The high court ruling last week also let stand a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals that upheld the results of a jury trial freeing the highway patrol and the city police of responsibility in the Jackson State College action. WHERE IS EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW?

-- 11 --

10,000 RALLY IN SUPPORT OF FARM WORKERS: DEMONSTRATION ENDS S.F.-MODESTO “BOYCOTT GALLO” MARCH

(Modesto, Calif.) -- Over 10,000 supporters of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW), led by Cesar Chavez, rallied here the weekend of March 2 in their continuing struggle for recognition of the UFW's representation of local farm workers and continuation of the boycott against Gallo products until that right is won.

Marchers, some having walked the 110 miles from San Francisco, poured into the area with cries and slogans of "Boycott Gallo" and "Viva la Huega." Dozens of representatives of California civic and labor groups, the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the American Indian Movement accompanied the marchers.

The massive support shown for the UFW surpassed estimations by farm worker opponents and police. Jim Drake, head of the UFW Southern California office called the march, "the biggest demonstration I have ever been in for a union. It exceeds what we had in Sacramento in 1966."

Many observers had assumed that the UFW would collapse due to the loss of union contracts to the Teamsters. In 1973, the UFW lost 95 per cent of its contracts with grape growers to the Teamsters. Nearly 100 major lettuce growers have also signed contracts with the Teamsters.

Such claims have been flaunted by UFW supporters.

"The reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated," remarked former UFW attorney. Alex Hoffman of Berkeley, one of the 250 who covered the full distance from San Francisco to Modesto.

In an attempt to counter the massive support demonstration. Gallo put thousands of dollars into full page ads in regional newspapers. One, which appeared on the weekend of the demonstration in the San Francisco Chronicle, quote four Gallo-employed farm workers expressing their satisfaction with higher wages without union protection against loss of employment.

MESSAGE

Marchers passed under a huge banner, a message from Gallo, as they pased the E. and J. Gallo Winery, the largest in the country:

"73 more miles to go. Gallo asks the UFW to support NLRA-type law in Sacramento to guarantee farm workers' rights."

Ernest Gallo recently denied claims that sales of his wines have decreased because of the UFW-led boycott on his products. He refused, however, to give figures to prove his claim, and also admitted some stores are refusing to handle Gallo products.

-- 24 --

In response to Gallo's message, Chavez replied:

"The message to Gallo from the farm workers is very simple:

"Mr. Gallo, give the workers the right to vote. Let them decide for themselves who should represent them.'

"If Mr. Gallo lets the workers vote, we pledge ourselves that if we lose, we will call off the boycott…"

Chavez went on to add that the union is ready to up a $1 million bond to guarantee to stop the boycott if the UFW loses the election. He also commented on Gallo's heavy advertising against the UFW, pointing out that Gallo's advertising budget has increased from $6.5 million to $13.5 million annually.

"Gallo's biggest problem is that it does not have truth on its side. They can spend millions of dollars in propaganda but money is not going to make truth of lies."

One of the marchers, Assemblyman Richard Alatorre, of Los Angeles, is the author of a bill, A.B.I. which would grant elections for farm laborers and which tacitly endorses the secondary boycott. Gallo claims to support closed elections, but has openly come out against the secondary boycott.

The huge support demonstration rallied at Graceada Park and heard Cesar Chavez urge the crowd to continue the struggle for farm workers' rights by intensifying the boycott of Gallo products.

Progressive folk singer, Joan Baez, sang a song in Spanish in memory of Juan de la Cruz; a UFW picketer who was shot to death by sniper fire during a demonstration in 1973. John Maher, of the Delancey Street Foundation also participated in the rally.

There were no incidents during the demonstration or march in the 18-month-old struggle against Gallo wines.

-- 11 --

BARBEE ASKS $10,000 IN REPARATIONS FOR WISCONSIN BLACKS, INDIANS

(Milwaukee, Wisc.) -- Black Wisconsin state representative Lloyd Barbee has proposed that the state grant $10,000 to disadvantaged Black and Indian residents. The measure is a modern day version of the "40 acres and a mule" that was promised to Black people after the American Civil War as compensation for years of suffering, exploitation and privation.

The bill, introduced before the state legislature on February 27, would make a $10,000 reparations payment to every Black or Native American person earning less than $5,000 annually and a portion of that sum for every Black or Native American making over $5,000 but less than $15,000 per year.

Representative Barbee, a Democrat, remarked that, "After decades of slavery in this country, the Blacks still haven't gotten their forty acres and a mule from the federal government. Nor has the Indian seen the White man's promises fulfilled."

He pointed out the late historical dates at which "universal suffrage" (voting for all) was extended to the Black and Red minorities in Wisconsin and throughout the U.S.

JIM CROW

"The humiliation and indignation suffered by Blacks and Indians as they were denied access to most public accommodations and the initiation of un-Constitutional Jim Crow laws …only goes to show that laws are one thing and justice is another."

Barbee pointed out that the purpose of the bill is to give the poor and oppressed Black and Indian populations of Wisconsin, "some financial incentive to get ahead," as White Americans have been doing for years.

"Money in the minorities' hands is better than proposals and programs in bureaucrats' hands," he contended.

-- 12 --

U.S. OFFERS “NEW DIALOGUE” TO CUBA: MOVES MADE TO RESTORE DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

(Washington, D.C.) - Mounting pressure at home and from Latin America forced the Ford administration last week to take the first steps in restoring normal relations with Cuba.

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger signaled the change in U.S. policy toward the revolutionary government of Premier Fidel Castro in a carefully worded speech in Houston, Texas, last week.

Indicating the administration's willingness to extend "new hemisphere dialogue" to Cuba, Kissinger said:

"We see no virtue in perpetual antagonism between the United States and Cuba…We have taken some symbolic steps to indicate that we are prepared to move in a new direction if Cuba will."

Kissinger also was compelled to recognize that the Organization of American States (OAS) will vote to lift economic and diplomatic sanctions against Cuba when it meets in Washington on May 8.

Twelve Latin American countries, two short of a required two-thirds majority, voted to lift the sanctions at an OAS meeting in Quito, Ecuador, last fall. The U.S. abstained.

MEASURES

Three days after Kissinger's Houston speech, two measures, prepared before the speech, were introduced in the Senate.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy introduced a bill that would end the 13-year U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba, as well as actions taken against third countries and shipping companies that deal with Cuba.

Senators Jacob K. Javits and Claiborne Pell introduced a resolution asking President Ford to consider taking steps to improve relations with Cuba and to report to the Senate by June on the progress made.

Javits and Pell, who spent three days in Cuba last September, were the first American legislators to visit the island since the U.S. broke ties with the Castro government 14 years ago.

If the OAS does vote to lift economic and diplomatic sanctions against Cuba, the action would free each OAS member-state to pursue whatever policy toward Cuba considered to be in that state's best interests.

Diplomatic sources in Washington indicate, however, that it will be some time before relations between Havana and Washington return to normal. A series of specific actions and reactions by both countries will be involved.

One of the "symbolic steps" toward normalization cited by Kissinger was last month's relaxation of travel restrictions against Cuban diplomats at the United Nations. The next U.S. move could be the end of the ban on travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba, except in specific cases. The ban automatically expires later this month unless Kissinger extends it.

ISSUES

Other issues that the two governments must resolve concern:

- Americans imprisoned in Cuba and the allegation of Cuban political prisoners; the reunification of families and visitation privileges to Cuba for Cuban exiles.

- The status of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo.

- Massive claims, including one of $3.3 billion and another of $1.85 billion, against the Castro government by U.S. firms and individuals for expropriated property.

-- 12 --

OUR HEALTH: VASECTOMY

CONCLUSION

A man who chooses to have a vasectomy (male sterilization) should do so with the understanding that the operation is permanent. There has been virtually no success reported in reconnecting the vas deferens -- the tubes through which sperm travel -- once they have been cut.

Vasectomy, which is performed under a local anesthesia, rarely fails. In a small number of cases, the cut ends of the vas deferens may join. To reduce the chances of this happening, a segment of the vas is usually removed when the operation is performed. There is also the possibility that a structure similar in appearance to the vas may be cut instead of the vas.

Despite these possibilities, vasectomy is a simple and permanent method of preventing unwanted pregnancies.

It is best for a vasectomy to be performed on a late Friday afternoon because in the first 24 hours following surgery, an ice pack is required. Most men can return to work on Monday.

A common question men have is how soon after surgery can they have sexual relations. This time period is usually from three to five days, depending upon how the individual feels.

There is a method used to determine the success of the vasectomy. The doctor who performs the operation has the patient take a sample of his seminal fluid for microscopic examination to a laboratory.

If no sperm are present in the fluid, the patient can be assured that the operation has been successful. However, if sperm are still present, the patient will be asked to submit further specimens for examination until there are no sperm present.

It is also suggested that a sperm examination be repeated one year after surgery.

Until no sperm are found in the seminal fluid, there is the risk that he can impregnate a female. It takes a while to be certain that there are no sperm remaining in the semen from before the vasectomy. Other contraceptives should be used until the doctor says they are no longer needed.

-- 13 --

THE GENIUS OF HUEY P. NEWTON

"There is a conception That will grow within you Its name shall be called freedom."

In the following essay, Huey P. Newton, leader and chief theoretician of the Black Panther Party, thoroughly explores the subject of freedom and the external and internal controls which dominate the lives of Black people struggling to survive in America.

PART 1

In order to truly understand the contemporary situation of the Black man in American life, it is important to understand the history of humankind in general. One basic or primary drive in the history of man is the desire to be free of all external controls, and our basic premise is that man wants to be free. However, a man living in modern society is characterized by his subjection to both external (sociological) and internal (psychological) forces which control him and thereby thwart his desire to be free. Freedom will require men to gain control of these forces which determine his existence and behavior.

The internal forces which influence and determine behavior are recognized by Freud as subconscious forces. He realized that many people become ill because they feel driven by subconscious forces to do things while at the same time they feel other subconscious repulsion from doing these same things. Feeling they have no control whatsoever over their behavior they become mentally ill. To free man from these inner forces, psychoanalysis attempts to make him aware of these unconscious energies on the assumption that such awareness is the first step toward controlling them, rather than being controlled by them. Such a man then experiences a feeling of freedom. This is in keeping with the primary drive of man's history -- the desire to be free and have the power to create -- or the power to productive creativity.

Marx realized the same thing: that man has a basic desire to be free of the external forces which determine his behavior and put these forces under his control. Marx analyzed the situation and concluded that the external environment influences the life of man through his relationship to production. As he gains freedom from the dictates of coercive institutions, he is then in a position to experience the power of productive creativity, and this is the godliness and holiness of man to man, and man to the Creator.

DRIVE TO FREEDOM

Man's drive to reach this plateau of freedom in a class or capitalistic society is a historical fact. Under capitalism the private owners who are interested only in making profits for themselves are in control of society. The people who are subjected to them and have to rely upon them for a living are slaves to the owners. Since the owners are only interested in profits they use the people as tools to increase their riches, with little consideration of the effect this has upon man, i.e., an obstruction of man the creator. This makes it necessary to destroy the private ownership of the means of production because it has such a great effect upon all people. Everyone has to live, and in order to live he must produce. In a capitalistic society, however, man does not produce for use he produces for profit. This is a slave situation.

PROFIT MOTIVE

It is a historical fact that Blacks were brought to the country as slaves for capitalistic reasons -- the profit motive. The ruling class at that time were the owners of the land and they needed laborers to till the land for them and produce profits from it. Not only did the onwers have labor, they had FREE labor and this was the ultimate of capitalism -- where a group of owners have men enslaved simply for his own profit motive. We have moved away from this feudalistic land-centered economy in this country to a factory-centered production economy. Yet the same relationship exists between the private owner and the worker because the factory owner is not interested in production for use, but production for profit. Such a relationship negates the whole freedom of man. Thus it is extremely necessary for the people to seize the means of production in order to gain their freedom. People everywhere want to eliminate the slavemaster (private owner) in order to gain that sacred freedom.

People must be involved in the decision-making process so they will be in control of the decisions which affect them. The things that we commonly use and commonly need should be commonly owned. We will collectively decide exactly what we need and share fully in the wealth that we produce. The whole administration of the government should be subject to the dictates of the people.

This does not exist at this time. At the present time in America the owners of the military and industrial complex, for example, have found war very lucrative. They are producing more and more war machinery. Furthermore they are involved in a "cold war" which keeps the country on a war footing so that the people will then be willing to produce equipment which is not for their own use, but only so owners of the military-industrial complex can make a fortune. This has been happening for the more than two decades since the end of World War II and the military-industrial complex now presents such a problem to the national economy that many people now question the legitimacy of the governmental administrators.

Administrators should be for the purpose of administering the people's desires, and the people should have the ability to eliminate those who do not serve their interest. In other words, it war is not in the interest of the people then the country should not engage in war, cold war or any other kind of war. But at the present time people have nothing to say about the matter. They are constantly brainwashed and indoctrinated with such fears that they will work and produce only what they are told to produce. The country is now so involved in a war economy. If we were to change to a peace economy there would be mass unemployment. It is thus necessary to have a planned socialistic economy to make the switch to a peace economy. The administrators are very relutant to even engage in discussion on planned economy because they would then have to take the wishes of the people into consideration rather than the wishes of the owners of the military-industrial complex.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 14 --

DAVID DuBOIS AT “HARD TIMES” CONFERENCE: “HAVE THE COURAGE TO STRUGGLE, HAVE THE COURAGE TO WIN”

On February 28 and March 1 of this year a "community meeting on the economic crisis," entitled "The Hard Times Conference," was held in Oakland. Twenty-eight community-based organizations jointly co-sponsored the conference. The conference consisted of several workshops on understanding the present crisis and methods of community organization to deal with its effects, theater skits and films.

Among the chief speakers was Brother Wilbur Haddock, president of the United Black Workers, Mahwah, New Jersey and David G. Du Bois, official spokesperson of the Black Panther Party. In response to numerous requests for copies of Brother Du Bois' speech delivered to a plenary session on March 1, THE BLACK PANTHER here reprints the complete text.

"The war commercial that we just saw and that was done last night at the opening session, produced a reaction from a European friend who is among us that I'd like to share with you. He said: `Probably only in America could such a dramatization produce laughter.'

"I don't say this to criticize the group that performed that particular commercial or to criticize the organizers of the conference, but to emphasize the seriousness of why we are here. To the rest of most of the world, war can not be in any way considered a joke!

NO ACCIDENT

"It's no accident, either, that Wilbur Haddock, president of the United Black Workers at the Ford Mahwah plant in New Jersey, and David Du Bois, spokesperson of the Black Panther Party, are among the chief speakers at this conference. We represent organizations that have proved their militant dedication and devotion to the interests of the people and we come from those most crucial sectors of the American people: rank and file industrial workers and the Black people.

"And yet, as we look around us in this auditorium and as we looked around in Oakland Auditorium last night, we noticed a very meager representation of Black people at this conference and of other minority peoples. Why? Essentially, and immediately because those organizations which represent Black people and minority people were not involved in any meaningful way in the planning of this conference. Our organization was approached and asked to co-sponsor the conference, but we were not asked at the time that the conference was being considered, thought of, conceptualized, for our participation. I suspect this is equally true of other organizations which represent minority groupings in this area. Had we some say, some role, in the planning of this conference, we could have guaranteed a greater participation of our constituencies. I'm sure organizations which represent, legitimately represent, other minority constituencies, could have contributed in the same way.

"So, what's the first lesson that we've got to learn at this stage, and I repeat, at this stage, of world history?

"The Third World people's struggles are in the vanguard of the world-wide people's movement against imperialism, war and capitalist exploitation. In this country that means Third World Americans, and first and foremost Black Americans, are in the vanguard of the struggle for the preservation of life with dignity and against capitalist exploitation and fascist repression in the factories, in the schools, in the communities, everywhere. Therefore, no attempt at the organization of militant resistance to the power structure in this country today can succeed that does not recognize this fact and organizationally reflect this reality.

"After Watergate, and in the midst of a rapidly approaching depression, already being suffered by Black and minority people in this country, the American people are angry. They are seeking real solutions. They are ready to respond to dedicated and committed leadership in seeking those solutions. They still believe in the possibility -- which is different from the reality -- of government of, by and for the people. The situation in this country for the organization and for the movement of people in their own interests is very good. So, what should we be about here?"

"First, we've got to break away from our isolation from the broad masses of the people. Stop just talking to ourselves and start talking with the people. Stop doing for the people and start doing with the people. If we claim to speak for a constituency then we've got to know that constituency -- go to it, listen to it, learn from it, become one with it. This means that all the places that people come together for whatever purpose must be our battleground; factories, shops, schools, including the high schools, churches, social clubs, special interest groups, fraternities, sororities, charitable organizations; the list is endless. The American people are the most unorganized, organized people in the world.

"And, when we go, we must seek out the honest leaders and spokespersons from these groups, talk with them, listen to them, take advice and counsel from them, demonstrate some humility, by realizing that with all our revolutionary ideology, there is much to be learned from honest community leaders about that community and how to move it. And here, when I say community, I mean community in the broadest sense. I mean the community of the shop, the community of the factory, the community of the schools, the community of the union, the community of the club, as well as the residential community.

And then, after going and establishing some kind of contact, talking and listening to, we must begin to work with these groups. We must find a basis for common action with them around the many, many issues about which the American people are angry and on which they are ready to move.

"The next step, of course, is choosing the issue. Choosing the issues has two basic elements: first, and this is a repetition of what I said earlier, listening and learning from those to whom we have gone, what their real concerns are; what it is they're mad about; what it is they're ready to do something about. And secondly, our understanding of the general scene today should help us in determining what issues, or what issue is to be chosen to work on. But, it's a two way road. We don't go in the community and say: `This is the issue which concerns you.' We rather go and find out what the issue is or issues are that concern our particular community, that really concern them and then we add to that our understanding of what we believe to be the major issues. The two should be one.

"For each constituency the issue may be somewhat different. But, if we understand the interrelationship of issues with the policies and the tactics of the power structure in this country, we can use whatever the issue to build a movement and to lead toward the undermining and defeating of that structure.

"What are the guidelines in choosing these issues? Choose the issue that is closest to the human concern of most people. Choose the issue that is least defensible; that is most vulnerable from the point of view of the power structure. Choose the issue that is dearest to the democratic ideals and dreams of the American people. And finally, choose the issue whose resolution would cause the sharpest contradictions between reaction and honest belief.

"Once the issues are chosen, then what do we do? This probably is where we have erred most in the past. We prepare carefully a sustained, protracted, step-by-step campaign towards well-defined, step-by-step goals. We've got to stop these one-time shots at one issue after another, issues and situations created by the enemy in order to keep us off balance. We've got to choose our own battleground. We've got to choose the issues that we know to be the real concerns of the people. We've got to decide when and how to advance, when and how to retreat. We've got to take and keep the initiative. Only thus can we build a people's mass movement.

"What comes next? Identifying. Identifying against whom and or what individuals or institutions the campaign is directed. We've got to plan actions that step-by-step, expose,

-- 15 --
confuse, and put the enemy on the defensive. At the same time that our action forces exposure, creates confusion and places our target on the defensive, they must guarantee wider and wider support, backing and involvement of more and more people. As these processes go on, we have a responsibility also to deepen the struggle, to deepen the campaign. We've got to clearly understand ourselves the interrelationship of the issue and the campaign with the larger issues of imperialism, war, fascism. When we understand this, then we can plan action that helps others to grow in their understanding of that interrelationship.

COALITIONS

"We've got to build coalitions by drawing in new leaders, new organizations, and new community forces. How? First, always let all the forces which we can reach know what we are doing. Let them know what we're generally planning. One of the ways in which the power structure prevents the growth of people's movements in this country is to prevent information about them from being known by the mass of the people. Secondly, always let the community know that you welcome increased participation, that you seek it, that you want it. And thirdly, when that participation tentatively, hesitantly, comes around -- and you've got to be sharp to recognize when that happens -- listen to it; take its advice; use its advice. Make people feel that they are genuinely wanted. Genuinely needed. Because it's clear to all of us that they certainly are needed.

CAMPAIGN

"The issue, the campaign should be tied in with local politics and the local politicians. You should move carefully here, but we must draw on the generally accepted idea among the American people that a true democracy is in fact governed by the people. We, our movement, our collective coalition, we are the people. Elected officials are supposed to be committed to the people's will. So we take the issues to the local political clubs. We take the issue to the alleged `liberal' politician in our community. And, we ask their advice, we ask their participation and we ask their support; in that order: their advice, their participation, their support. When there's resistance, we've got to force their hand by exposing them to the community, at each step along the way: `We went to Congressman so-and-so, or to Senator so-and-so or to City Council member so-and-so simply to ask his advice, and he refused to see us!' When there is resistance, force their hand, by exposing them to the community at each step along the way. And then repeat this process with ever larger forces, on whom those politicians depend for their positions. Finally, raise the question of getting rid of those who continue to resist and replacing them with true representatives of the people among our own activists or from among those political leaders and aspirants who did respond positively to our request for advice, involvement and support. This is people's politics.

ISSUE

"Finally, tie in the issue or the campaign with similar issues and campaigns that are underway in communities outside of your own. Seek out similar such actions that are going on around you, locally, regionally, nationally. Let others, similarly constituted, know what you're doing, from the very beginning, and keep them informed. Seek their declared support. And give attention to it, publicize it within your constituency. Urge them to publicize your actions in their constituencies. And, as opportunity permits, seek their support. But remember, they have their own tasks, which for them are and should be top priority. We don't depend on them for their active involvement in our struggles, but we allow for it, toward ever widening action of people's struggle.

KNOWLEDGE

"Brother Wilbur Haddock last night, at the conclusion of his address, cautioned us that to succeed we would need knowledge, patience, discipline, and courage.

"Always and constantly seek to know better and better the society around you. Study and observe carefully. Listen to the people you aim to organize. Learn from them. And finally, trust your own judgement. Allow yourself to be moved by your heart as well as your head. Patience derives from a sense of understanding that victory is truly and inevitably for our side. The whole world is relentlessly and speedily moving toward a total reordering of society, to one in which the exploitation of human beings and the natural wealth of the planet Earth for profit will exist no more. Therefore, time is on our side, and we must not be impatient, either with the people or with ourselves. Impatience leads to serious mistakes, wasted effort and dangerous vulnerability. Protracted struggle, step-by-step, planned and carefully executed struggle will result in a succession of small victories that will build and build to the great victory. This is the process of revolution.

DISCIPLINE

"Discipline requires a constant personal struggle and a constant organizational struggle. Discipline, first and foremost, in our own lives, our bodies kept strong and healthy: our minds kept open and growing in understanding; our behavior, always an example of service to the people; our appearance, always mindful of the sensibilities of those we work to organize and move.

"Discipline in our organization is in the first instance the result of the working of democratic centralism within that organization, the constant flow of the collective examination, discussion, and decision-making on the one hand, and, on the other, the hard adherence to those decisions democratically arrived at by the total collective, leaders and members alike. Discipline in our organizations also means regular and constant political education, as a part of, but not a substitute for, political action. Discipline in our organizations means system, order, and organization in the administration of our work. And finally, discipline in our organization means regular and well-planned physical training, recreational and social activities within the organization, as consciously a part of the overall political goals.

"On courage -- whether there is a devastating depression, world war or open and rampant fascism in this country in our lifetime, depends in large measure, but not totally, on us here and those like us across this land. We are in the belly of the monster, that is U.S. monopoly, capitalism, imperialism. It is a grave responsibility we have. The peoples of all the world look to the American people to fulfill that responsibility. Their lives and well-being as well as our own depend on it. Have the courage to struggle. Have the courage to win. All Power to the People."

(Following the address it was pointed out to Brother Du Bois that the organizers of the Conference had invited the Black Panther Party to sponsor the Conference and send a representative to a planning meeting sometime during the first week of February. The Party agreed to sponsor jointly with other organizations, but indicated it was not able to send a representative to the planning meeting due to the pressure of work.)

-- 17 --

Intercommunal News: FRELIMO DELEGATION VISITS YENAN, TAKANG OIL FIELD IN CHINA

(Sian, China) - Continuing its highly acclaimed, historic visit to the People's Republic of China, the friendship delegation of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), led by President Samora Moises Machel, visited the city of Yenan and Takang oil field last week.

(See last week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER for more on the FRELIMO delegation's visit to People's China.)

Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung lived in Yenan for 10 years during the period of October, 1935, and March, 1948, when he was leading the Chinese revolution in North Shensi Province.

The city was colorfully decorated with red flags to greet Comrade Machel and the FRELIMO delegation, who were accompanied by Yeh Fei, Minister of Communications for People's China.

Hsinhua News Agency reported that Chang Tse, vice-chairman of the Shensi Provincial Revolutionary Committee, made a special trip to Yenan from Sian, the provincial capital, to greet the FRELIMO delegation.

Among the others who greeted the Mozambican leaders at the airport were Li Hao, chairman of the Yenan Prefectural Revolutionary Committee, as well as over 2,000 local people.

EXHIBITION HALL

Brother Machel and the FRELIMO delegation visited the former residence of Chairman Mao Tse-tung and the exhibition hall on his activities when he lived in Yenan. The guests also met with Yang Pu-hao, a labor leader during the Chinese revolution.

Preceding their visit to Yenan, the FRELIMO friendship delegation received an enthusiastic welcome from the oil workers at the Takang oil field in Tientsin, northeast China.

Accompanied by Heh Fei and Hsieh Hseuh-kung, chairman of the Tientsin Municipal Revolutionary Committee, the delegation was greeted by Ma Yung-lin, chairman of the oil field's revolutionary committee.

-- 22 --

Yung-lin explained to President Machel how the barren salt flats were turned into an oil field in 10 years, providing People's China with a large amount of petroleum and natural gas.

The FRELIMO guests visited the work site of a drilling team and were greeted by the oil workers with an outburst of warm applause. The visitors observed how the workers used an entire set of home-made machines to drill a well over 3,000 meters deep. Brother Machel congratulated the oil workers on their efficiency in having introduced new methods to speed up oil production in their country.

The Mozambican leaders then visited an oil well, a distribution station and a calcium carbide plant.

Following the visit to Takang oil field, Comrade Machel noted:

"In the past we were liable to have blind faith in the so-called infallibility of what was from the West. This blind faith is done away with here…"

-- 17 --

Z.A.N.U. HEAD JAILED, Z.A.P.U., A.N.C. CLOSE RANKS: RHODESIAN WHITE AUTHORITIES FABRICATE CHARGES AGAINST REV. SITHOLE

(Salisbury, Rhodesia) -- Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), was arrested here last week by the White minority racist government, and immediately Bishop Abel Muzorewa, leader of the African National Congress (ANC), broke off talks with the government on steps to achieve Black majority rule in Rhodesia.

Robert Mugable, who is second in command to Rev. Sithole in the militant ZANU, predicted at a news conference following news of Sithole's arrest, that there would be an intensification of the guerrilla war being waged by the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) in the country.

Rev. Sithole, who has already spent many years in Rhodesian jails because of his leadership of the independence fight in his country, was arrested on charges of "plotting to assassinate some of his political opponents in an attempt to gain leadership of the ANC," according to a Reuters dispatch from Rhodesia.

REGIME

Talks between the Ian Smith regime and the ANC -- acting as spokesman for ZANU and the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) in preliminary negotiations -- were scheduled to resume last week. But Bishop Muzorewa said they would not take place until the Rev. Sithole was released.

Mr. Joshua Nkomo, leader of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), allegedly the rival Black nationalist leader threatened by Mr. Sithole, called the racist regime's charges a fabrication carried out in a belief that there was an element of Black leadership "prepared to do a deal" with Smith.

"This is, of course, nonsense," said Mr. Nkomo to a New York Times reporter. He added that, "we cannot continue to negotiate with a government that continues to detain African nationalists." Mr. Nkomo added, "We are not dealing with rational people."

Rev. Sithole was released in December from 10 years "detention" along with other freedom fighter leaders to take part in talks aimed at shaping the future government of Zimbabwe. Bishop Muzorewa is reported to have said that the arrest of Rev. Sithole affected the unity, power and peace of the group and the "achievement of Rhodesian independence."

Zambia, neighboring on Rhodesia, has denounced the arrest, saying it appeared to be aimed at sabotaging Black unity.

Since his release, Rev. Sithole has been the most militant member of the Black leaders in the coalition around the ANC. He has repeatedly demanded immediate Black majority rule and has always maintained that the armed struggle will go ahead until "one man, one vote," Black majority rule, is won.

ARMED STRUGGLE

ZANU, whose slogan is "Chimurenga" -- "armed struggle" -- has been the mainspring of guerrilla warfare against the minority racist regime. Mr. Mugable said he believed that the arrest of Mr. Sithole was meant to intimidate ZANU leadership in the ANC "into submission to Smith's politically dishonest constitutional contrivance, whose sole objective is the perpetuation of White settler domination of the African people in a legitimized political and constitutional order."

Mr. Mugable said that Mr. Sithole and other Zimbabwe leaders had been warned by the Rhodesian authorities in recent months to keep silent and not make militant statements.

"The action against the Rev. Sithole therefore comes as no surprise," Mr. Mugable said adding that the militant fact "judges that this action by the regime has finally shattered whatever there was left in the so-called detente and peaceful settlement exercise."

-- 18 --

THE ENERGY CRISIS IN AFRICA: ANGOLA'S CABINDA, NIGERIAN OIL RESERVES INFLUENCE CONTINENT POLITICS

The following essay is the second in a three part series on "The Energy Crisis in Africa" written by Ernest J. Wilson, a doctoral student in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. In Part 2, Brother Wilson examines the important role of the Cabinda, Angola, region in meeting the energy needs of the African continent and the potential influence of the country of Nigeria in determining the world oil market. We thank the Institute of the Black World for making this series available to our readers.

PART 2

The rising prospects of Cabinda (and the smaller Petrangol fields in Angola) are no doubt slightly easing the energy worries of the ruling cliques in South Africa. They have been anticipating an embargo for some time, and have, therefore, insisted that oil companies wanting to do business in South Africa build storage tanks as part of the contract.

Nonetheless, South Africa will be hurt if the embargo continues since it receives 80 per cent of its 7.4 million tons annually from the Middle East. Internal sources are marginal, though a number of companies, including Ashland, Mobil and Gulf, have prospected for oil both in South Africa and its colony, Southwest Africa (Namibia).

One can only hazard a guess at the effect of the embargo on the White supremacist policies of Lebensraum and territorial consolidation. In the short run, especially in industrial production, the oil shortage may rupture plans for economic expansion within the area.

At the same time, again in the short to medium term, the boycott may force the further integration of the racist regimes' economies. This may include stepped up mutual defense measures, and undoubtedly, a big push to complete the Cabora Bassa Dam. Though the relative level of mutual regime cooperation may expand (with continued help from the West), the fact remains that the boycott will cut off from southern Africa the one mineral it doesn't seem to have -- oil. Hence its long term productive capacity will be adversely affected.

As in other industrial countries, this is likely to lead to inflation and widespread labor layoffs, which in turn will fuel militant action on the part of the Black population. Because fuel supplies will be stored in huge depots, this may open such installations to stepped-up guerrilla attack.

South Africa is currently manufacturing oil through one of the world's few commercially operational coal gasification plants. In 1968, the production of these plants was doubled in the hopes of producing 30 per cent of their total oil needs by 1974. This is possible because of South Africa's coal reserves, and the low cost of its virtual slave labor. Thirty per cent, however, is a long, long way from self-sufficiency.

HYDROELECTRIC POWER

Rhodesia has no known oil reserves. It is rich in coal and hydroelectric power. Following the lead of South Africa, its own minister of commerce recently urged new investments into coal gasification.

In this period we can look for furious consultation between Lisbon, Johannesburg and Salisbury over the strategy to pursue during the energy crisis. In these discussions the fulcrum for balance will likely be the increments to current production in Cabinda.

For this reason Cabinda must move into the forefront of Pan-African solutions to the energy needs of the continent. To control Cabinda's resources can mean the control over the direction and magnitude of future central and southern African development. If European minorities continue to exercise complete control over the oil reserves, their hegemony over the southern one-fifth of the continent will be immeasurably strengthened.

If Africa can seize the time and return control of that valuable land to its people, it could very well mean a death blow to foreign domination while making a new source of energy available to expanding African economies.

The only Black African country with an important petroleum export industry is Nigeria, the world's sixth largest producer at roughly two million barrels per day (b/d). Its proven reserves are estimated to be 15 billion barrels. Also more than 40,000 billion cubic feet of natural gas are currently known.

Thus, Nigeria finds itself with a double advantage: it is off the Suez Canal route and hence not directly affected by events in the Middle East and, secondly, its oil has a very low sulfur content. Since it is also closer to the U.S., Nigeria is the third largest supplier of oil to America, Britain and France are her next largest customers.

In an effort to increase income from the exploitation of its reserves, the government recently completed a difficult round of negotiations with the industry's main producer in Nigeria, Shell-BP (British Petroleum). Through its Nigerian National Oil Company (NNOC), Nigeria will acquire 35 per cent equity participation in exploration and production; this will rise to 51 per cent by 1981.

MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION

The NNOC, like other national companies, is anxious to move downstream into marketing and distribution. When Nigeria is able to muster the organizational and personnel resources to achieve this, she will be in a good position to sell oil directly to other African countries. For instance, Sierra Leone and Nigeria have begun discussions for such an arrangement, and other countries may soon follow.

With oil, Nigeria has a powerful weapon at her disposal. The timing and target of the weapon will be dictated by world political developments and the political perceptions of the leaders of Nigeria. The government has in one sense already wielded this weapon.

After the civil war (with secessionist Biafra), the French company SAFRAP was penalized by the NNOC for its support of Biafra. Before the French company could resume operations, it was forced to accept considerable Nigerian participation and ownership in the Nigerian affiliate. The 35 per cent level of equity taken in 1971, will rise automatically to 50 per cent when production reaches 400,000 b/d.

It is also highly likely that the decision taken at the Arab summit conference in Staoueli, Algeria (in 1974), to cut off oil to the racist regimes in southern Africa was heavily influenced by Nigerian pressure. As a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), with a powerful Moslem population, Nigeria is in a good position to win friends and influence people in Arab oil circles.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 18 --

CAMBODIA GOVT. COLLAPSING

(Washington, D.C.) -- Informed sources in Cambodia report a campaign for the removal of President Lon Nol gaining rapid momentum. Many consider that only his resignation, or voluntary exile will avoid a blood bath.

Sources also revealed that eight Cambodian ministers will be removed on charges of corruption and that Premier Long Boret will be asked to form a new government.

-- 19 --

KUWAIT TAKES OVER OIL INDUSTRY

(Algiers, Algeria) -- The government of Kuwait, one of the richest oil producing Arab nations, has announced a decision to take-over and purchase full control and ownership of the country's important oil industry. Although the Kuwaiti government already owns 60 per cent of the Kuwait Oil Company, the remaining 40 per cent of shares is owned by British Petroleum (BP) and the Gulf Oil Corporation, both foreign interests.

Negotiations are scheduled to begin this week between Kuwait and the two Western companies which established the Kuwait Oil Company in 1938, when Kuwait was under complete imperialistic domination.

Pressure had been building in Kuwait's elected National Assembly for full managerial control of the country's national resource and Crown Prince Jabber al-Sabbah, who is also prime minister, finally agreed.

The announcement of the decision was made