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Harold Washington, Lionel Wilson Offer New Leadership: BLACKS POISED FOR VICTORY IN CHICAGO, OAKLAND MAYOR RACES

(Oakland, Calif.) - Throughout his remarkably broad-based campaign to become the first Black mayor of Oakland. Lionel Wilson has been complimented in many ways, always with superlatives and glowing respect -- "A Judge for all Seasons," "A Major Drum for Justice," "A man with leadership capacity, a man with compassion and intelligence… who has paid his dues," "The People's Candidate," "Everyone's Choice for Mayor."

Indeed, "our" mayor, as Black Panther Party chairperson Elaine Brown recently referred to the community-oriented, 60-year-old jurist, has won major backing from wide cross-sections of the city as a result of his deep commitment to the people of Oakland. Distinguishing himself from the other candidates in the field of 10, Wilson has established strong credentials as a person who cares about the people of Oakland, and as one who won't let the people down.

Since the announcement of his candidacy for mayor in early January, Judge Wilson has raised several key questions for consideration by Oakland voters, emphasizing in particular the issues of unemployment, rising crime rates and an eroding tax base as essential problems to be overcome.

At the same time, Wilson has stressed that Oakland, a port city of some 373,000, unique with a majority "minorities" population, has "the economic, human and environmental potential to develop into a Renaissance city."

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His sincere promise of "a new attitude and atmosphere, along with leadership that will listen and respond to the concerns of all segments of our city -- minority groups, women, working class citizens, industry and business, youth and senior citizens," sharply contrasts with the anti-Black, anti-community stance of the outgoing Reading administration, and has provided a basis for enthusiastic support.

Concerning the issues, Wilson has strongly opposed the proposed one per cent employee license tax as regressive and therefore putting "a greater hardship on the average working person."

Regarding the Port of Oakland, Wilson says: "The Port's primary function should be in terms of what it produces which is of value to Oakland -- that means that the Port has to produce revenue or it has to produce jobs which will in turn produce revenue… The Port isn't part of a preserve of anyone, but is, and ought to be, an integral part of the city."

In regard to Oakland's rampant unemployment problems -- with over 23,000 jobless out of an estimated 169,000 civilian work force - Wilson on several occasions has pledged to create a Labor and Management Advisory Committee to assist the mayor in seeking creative solutions.

He also sees a "receptive climate in Washington for the development of a youth program that would provide training and opportunities for the development of skills." Unemployment among Black youth in Oakland

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is cited as ranging between 40 to 60 per cent.

On city government, Wilson has said he favors a full time mayor and has hinted that he could support a move to discontinue Oakland's 46-year-old city manager form of government.

"I don't believe the people of Oakland are ready to change their form of government from a city manager…to a strong mayoral form of government." Wilson told THE BLACK PANTHER in an exclusive interview. "But I believe that a city manager form of government is outmoded for the purposes of a city the size of Oakland.

"…In a city the size of Oakland, with all its attendant problems, there ought to be someone who is responsible to the people. The city manager is not responsible to the people. He is not accountable to the people -- he's only accountable to the Council, and it takes a majority on the Council to affect a change…"

A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Judge Wilson's family moved to Oakland shortly after his birth. He has attended Oakland public schools from first grade through high school, graduating from McClymonds in 1932.

In 1969, then Governor Edmund G. Brown appointed Wilson as the first Black judge to sit on the Oakland-Piedmont Municipal Court. He was serving as presiding judge of that body when elevated to the Superior Court in 1964.

Clearly, Lionel Wilson has developed strong roots in Oakland. His trailblazing judicial career and his distinguished record of community service -- he sits on the Board of Directors for the Oakland Community School -- is unmatched. His position on the issues which, as he puts it, "affect the quality of life" in Oakland is clear-cut, and reflects his concern to serve the interests of all Oakland residents.

As he said at his campaign kick-off, his wife Dorothy standing by his side:

"This is our candidacy. I say `our candidacy' because I don't think of it as Lionel Wilson personally. Lionel Wilson is merely a catalyst, a conduit, through which we can express the needs that we have as a people in this city that so many of us love…

"I see Oakland at the crossroads -- it simply needs leadership. I think that with you, we can provide that new leadership and prevent our city from going the way of some of those Eastern cities. We're not going to let Oakland go that way."

VOTE FOR JUDGE LIONEL WILSON FOR MAYOR OF OAKLAND VOTE APRIL 19.

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EDITORIAL: WE DESERVE BETTER

Now that Black Oakland City Council candidate Carter Gilmore has buck danced his way to a new destiny, that is, of course, being the Carter Klan's "nigger in the woodpile," the voters and Black community of Oakland no longer have to indulge this pathetic figurine in any way other than with contempt and disgust.

Blacks are a powerless people, granted. We have all, at one time or another in our lives, been the victims of racist insults from some White slob -- (male or female), who couldn't even lick our shoes clean, let alone breathe the same air that we might eventually breathe -- and have not been able to retaliate immediately.

But there were no KKK holding the hangman's noose over Carter Gilmore's skinhead when that cracker, trashy brother of a cracker President answered his (admittedly asinine) question of whether or not they were related by belching, "We all have a nigger in the woodpile some where."

No one threatened Gilmore with castration to make him grin and shuffle in response. (You can almost hear him in his "Oh, thank you Massa," routine.)

The White Citizens Council wasn't yelling for his colored hide the next day when Gilmore played "dumb nigger" -- which evidently wasn't a hard switch from "nigger in the woodpile" for him to make -- and pretended he didn't know what the obese, redneck Carter said. "All I's heard was `woodpile,' "Gilmore justifies. "I didn't want to embarrass Billy by asking him to repeat it." Embarrass Billy! Doesn't Gilmore realize yet that that brown stuff oozing off his face ain't dirt?

Pride and dignity, feelings of self-love and group solidarity, are precious emotions for the vast majority of Black people. Confronted by a racist, hostile environment, struggling for bare survival, these are the bottom line drives that often keep us going -- the determination to overcome any and all barriers that springs from knowing our true worth as decent human beings.

Yet, Carter Gilmore deserted both himself and his community, skinnin' an' grinnin', shuckin' and jivin', leaving an important City Council race without a viable candidate.

That's not right, Carter Gilmore. We, the people of the city of Oakland, deserve better. And so do you.

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Letters to the Editor

"I READ THE BLACK PANTHER"

To The Editor,

Anytime I want true unadulterated facts, and not distorted confusing false facts, in reference to the lives of Black people in this racist society, all I have to do is read THE BLACK PANTHER newspaper.

As a sixty-year-old Black woman, mother and grandmother, I have experienced many hardships, I have also seen and read of the many atrocious, dastardly acts perpertrated upon the Black people all over the world by the blatant, cold, calculating, bigotry of the oppressor.

I just want you to know that I appreciate and enthusiastically read your most vividly informative weekly newspaper. I did say your newspaper but it is in reality the people's first Black revolutionary newspaper of this century.

I wish to sincerely thank the entire dedicated, hard-working Black Panther Party for their unending, beautiful and most meaningful work. You as a political organization, truly relate to and inform the Black masses of the struggle of Blacks everywhere.

Your newspaper gives its readers, and me, a thorough understanding of what we Black people all over the world are confronted with daily, because you reveal the actual causes that have produced the problem. And, by the way, these same producers are still in existence.

With this new keen awareness we, like your Party, must learn to take pride in ourselves, and be willing to take some definite action to deal constructively and effectively to bring about a change in our lives, and the lives of all oppressed people.

I am very grateful and indebted to you and the superior mental intellect and insight of the founder of the Black Panther Party. Huey P&dot Newton.

Yours sincerely,
Dorothy B. Clark
Los Angeles, Calif.

WONDERFULSHOW

Sisters and Brothers:

I would like to congratulate the Party and the young sisters and brothers that attend the Oakland Community School, for putting on a wonderful show for the people. A show that we as Black people can relate to by going to the root of our race.

Also, I would like to mention to my little brother Steven Smith, that we can use some of that (love it or leave it) ozone spray up here in Attica for some of these niggers that's running around with they heads chopped off. That ozone

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COMMENT: In Tribute To Mrs. Shirley Graham DuBois

Mrs. Shirley Graham Du Bois, noted biographer, playwright, composer, stage director, and widow of famed civil rights leader/- scholar Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, died of cancer at the age of 69 in Peking. People's Republic of China, on March 27. Although she was somewhat overshadowed by Dr. Du Bois in the latter years of her life, Mrs. Du Bois was well-known for her many talents several years before her marriage to the renowned Black author in 1951.

Following, is a biographical sketch of Mrs. Du Bois, excerpted from the New York Times, detailing the many achievements of a Black woman who dedicated her life to the struggle for human rights.

Shirley Graham Du Bois was the great-granddaughter of a freed slave, a blacksmith whose farm near Evansville, Indiana, was used as a station on the underground railway by runaway slaves who went to Canada before the Civil War.

She was born on the farm November 11, 1907, the daughter of the Rev. David A. Graham, a Methodist minister, and his wife, the former Etta Bell. The family traveled frequently form one of Dr. Graham's pastoral assignments to another, and Mrs. Du Bois spent stretches of her youth in New Orleans, Spokane and Colorado Springs.

In Colorado Springs, when she was 13-years-old, she first met Dr. Du Bois, a friend of her father. They weren't married, however, until 1951.

Her first husband, to whom she was married shortly after her graduation from high school in Spokane, died three years later, leaving her with two small sons, one of whom is BLACK PANTHER Editor-in-Chief David Du Bois. In 1929, when her father was appointed president of Monrovia College in Liberia, she moved to Paris, where she studied music composition at the Sorbonne.

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Through her associations with French colonial Africans there, Mrs. Du Bois learned much about African rhythms, and in 1934, while studying music at Oberlin College in Ohio, composed "Tom-Tom," a musical play featuring Black-oriented music.

From 1938 to 1940 she held a fellowship at the Yale Drama School, which produced her three-act play Dust to Earth.

During the 1940s, Mrs. Du Bois was active in a number of pro-Soviet causes espoused by her longtime mentor, Dr. Du Bois. She was married to him in 1951, a year after the death of his first wife.

By then she had written two operas and eight books, mostly biographies, including There Once Was a Slave, the story of Frederick Douglass, which won an award in 1946 as "the best book combatting intolerance in America."

In Ghana at the age of 93, Dr. Du Bois announced that after a "long and slow" decision, he had formally joined the Communist Party. His wife did not join him in the announcement, but she said she was a "proud apologist" for communism.

Since 1961, when the Du Boises moved to Ghana at the invitation of Kwame Nkrumah, then president, and became citizens there, Mrs. Du Bois had lived abroad. Her husband died in 1963, and in 1967, after Mr. Nkrumah's regime was ousted by a military coup, she was forced to flee Ghana and for several years lived in Cairo.

Like her husband, she was a longtime supporter of leftist causes and organizations. In 1971 she was temporarily denied a visa to come to New York. The Justice Department maintained she had been associated with more than 30 organizations on the attorney general's list of subversive groups. The Department subsequently relented, however, and allowed Mrs. Du Bois to visit the United States for two months.

While on a return visit to New York early last year. Mrs. Du Bois was a principal speaker at a memorial tribute in Chinatown to the Prime Minister, Chou En-lai.

Mrs. Du Bois will be buried in Ghana next to her husband.

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Exclusive Interview With Hampton-Clark Attorneys

The following is the conclusion of an exclusive BLACK PANTHER interview with progressive Chicago attorneys Jeffrey Haas and Flint Taylor, lawyers for the families of slain Rlinois Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark and the survivors of the December 4, 1969, predawn police raid in which the two BPP members were killed.

As we begin this week's portion of the interview -- in which Haas and Taylor have discussed the highlights of the plaintiff's case in the $47.7 million civil suit against police and government officials responsible for the Hampton-Clark murders -- Haas focuses in on former Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan, who, along with the FBI, master-minded the infamous raid.

CONCLUSION

HAAS: Hanrahan's whole program -- I call it "All Power to the Police" -- is in contrast to that of the Black Panther Party, which talks about "All Power to the People." He still comes on with that same line: If only people would support the police and everything they do, then, everybody would be okay.

I don't believe we've really scratched the surface on Hanrahan han. The same scary person is there, the same political instincts are still there; the same potential, which, although maybe discredited

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in this city, can always arise in a different form, is still around to appeal to people and say to them: If you would just trust the police, if you would just trust the FBI, if you would just trust us, then all your problems will be solved.

That's what Hanrahan was asking and still asks for people to do. He still hasn't learned that the people, particularly the Black community, rejected that notion following this incident (the raid). He's still the same Hanrahan.

TAYLOR: One other thing that goes from the idea of cover-up into the idea of how far these people will go to keep the truth from coming out to the public is the simple fact that Hanrahan and his lawyers have now collected over $1.75 million from the city of Chicago and Cook County in taxpayer's money to represent these people who are charged with murder and conspiracy to cover-up murder. They're private lawyers, and they worked out a deal with the judge and the state's attorney's office so that they could collect $50.00 an hour in attorney's fees. One lawyer, Coglan, has made over $500,000 just in attorney's fees; in other words, the money that goes in his pocket, not that covers expenses in the trial.

OVER $300,000

Secondly, the defense has spent over $300,000 to get daily transcripts of the trial. Each one of the defense lawyers gets a copy of each day's transcripts. We filed a motion -- and we talked to the court reporter who backed us up on this -- that they fixed the price to keep us from getting a copy of the transcripts. They set the price at $3.00 a page per copy to get it up to about $9.00 per page that the court reporter was getting under the express agreement that we wouldn't be able to get it for any less.

Since we're poor people and our clients are poor, we couldn't afford that, so we have sat through a 15-month trial in which they have conspired to keep us from getting a transcript of the proceedings.

That's another thing the judge has refused to deal with. He didn't see that as significant as throwing plaintiff's attorneys in jail for knocking over a pitcher of water. He won't deal with the largest claims and supported claims of cover-up and state misconduct.

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$100 MILLION LAWSUIT: B.P.P. FILES AMENDED COMPLAINT AGAINST F.B.I., C.I.A., I.R.S.

(Washington, D.C.) - Under an amendment filed in U.S. District Court here on March 30, the names of U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell and CIA Director, Admiral Stansfield Turner, both of whom assumed office in January of this year, have been added to the Black Panther Party's $100 million lawsuit against the FBI, CIA, IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and other federal agencies.

When the historic lawsuit was originally filed on December 1 of last year, money damages were sought by all 11 plaintiffs in the case. However, in an effort to bring the suit to court as quickly as possible, attorneys Fred Hiestand and Bruce J. Terris, counsel for the plaintiffs, amended the lawsuit to include:

Awarding damages in excess of $50 million to the Black Panther Party, its founder and chief theoretician, Huey P. Newton, and Elaine Brown, Party chair- person, "…for repeated and continuous violations of their Constitutional and statutory rights and to hold the defendants jointly and severally liable for such damages": and

Awarding "punitive" damages in excess of $50,000,000 to the BPP, Huey and Elaine "to be apportioned against each of the defendants."

In announcing the filing of the unprecedented lawsuit against 21 past and present high-ranking U.S. officials at a press conference here on December 1, Elaine explained that the legal action was intended "to bring an end to a long national nightmare" in which "violent actions were employed by high government officials against citizens of this nation." The lawsuit charges the FBI, CIA, IRS and other government agencies with civil rights violations against the Black Panther Party and its members, including the murders of several members of the Party.

In addition to the BPP, Newton and Elaine, other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include: Donald Freed, screenwriter, prize-winning author and founder of the Friends of the Panthers; Berton Schneider, Academy Award-winning film

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producer/director and BPP supporter; Thomas and Flora Gladwin, active BPP supporters; and John George, attorney and member of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Father Earl Neil, and Episcopalian priest and long-time Party suppoter who was instrumental in the implementation of the Party's Free Breakfast for School-children Program; and John and Elizabeth Huggins, parents of slain BPP member John Huggins.

Defendants include Edward Levia, former U.S. attorney general; John Mitchell, former attorney general; Clarence M. Kelley, FBI director; Robert Mardian, former assistant attorney general for internal security; George Bush, former CIA director; and Richard Helms, former CIA director.

Specifically, the BPP lawsuit charges that at the highest levels of government:

There was conspiracy to kill several BPP members and as well as the actual killing of Party members;

There was a conspiracy to discredit, destroy, neutralize and to kill Huey P. Newton, who is presently living in exile outside the U.S.

There was a conspiracy to obliterate the Party's right to freedom of the press by sabotaging its newspaper, THE BLACK PANTHER;

There was a conspiracy to eliminate financial support and to steal funds from the BPP by threatening the livelihood of its supporters;

There was a conspiracy to illegally demand and secure more than three million dollars in bails for false arrests of Party members; and

There was a conspiracy to carry out a massive program of psychological warfare against the BPP through a mass media propaganda campaign.

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Hanrahan Seeks Dismissal Of Charges In Fred Hampton Murder Case

(Chicago, Ill.) - Lawyers for former state's attorney Edward Hanrahan sought dismissal of charges in the $47.7 million civil suit filed against him and 27 other former and present law enforcement officials seating as defendants for the murder of Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark during a December 4, 1969, police raid.

Hanrahan's lawyers charge that, "This unfounded, frivolous and scandalous lawsuit has caused Edward Hanrahan and his family and all other defendants …incaluable (hardship) throughout the seven years it has been pending…"

The story that has unraveled throughout the 14-months of testimony, however, would suggest otherwise. In 1969, Hanrahan, as state's attorney, was wellknown as a law and order fanatic who had a passionate hatred of the Black Panther Party and particularly its dynamic, young Chicago leader Fred Hampton. It was on this "law and order" platform, along with a calculated attack on Chicago's Black youth, that Hanrahan built his reputation, as evidenced by his own obvious cover-up of the predawn police attack in 1969.

Hanrahan's interests did not lie in uncovering the truth, as he would like everyone to believe, but in further forging his self-proclaimed "war" against the Black Panther Party and the Black

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community.

Hanrahan had the authority on December 3, 1969, to order his police to serve their warrant and search through Hampton's apartment at a time when he knew from intelligence reports that no one would be home and and therefore, from his point of view, at a time when there would be least danger for his police officers.

Instead, he armed his special squad with a floor-plan of the apartment which included an X where Hampton's bed was situated and sent them there at 4:00 a. m. when he knew the occupants would be home and asleep. Several of Hanrahan's police officers carried their own weapons, including a Thompson submachine gun and a .30 caliber semi-automatic rifle which they used freely.

Early in the morning on December 4, without the benefit of any investigation, Hanrahan was already launching his coverup. He used a press statement to distort the true facts of the raid. In one instance he showed newsmen photos of the front door of the apartment pointing out various nail holes and proclaiming them to be bullet holes fired by Panther weapons.

Five of the seven survivors of the raid were wounded; all suffering serious injuries, with complications, even to this day. Two men, Fred Hampton, 21, and Mark Clark, 22, were both murdered execution style. But, according to Hanrahan, the suit is "unfounded and frivolous."

Hanrahan, soundly defeated by the Black community when he ran for re-election as state's attorney in 1972 has stepped back on Chicago's political scene with a new image of a "calm and experienced" public servant. In his present mayoral campaign, Hanrahan proclaimed that, "The Black community knows I was right and the Panthers were shooting." The Black community meanwhile, booed Hanrahan off the stage at Malcolm X College last month when he came to campaign.

In light of the April 19 primary, Hanrahan's request for dismissal is timely. As in his 1972 trial -- when Hanrahan faced criminal charges for covering up evidence in the murder raid -- he faces a sympthetic judge. In the 1972 trial bench Judge Romitti ruled Hanrahan "not guilty" just days before the election. In an eerie replay of history Judge Perry has pledged to rule on Hanrahan's motion before April 19 in spite of plaintiff attorney's pleas to wait until after election day.

Court observers point out that in 1973 Hanrahan's attorneys presented a similar motion to Judge Perry. At that time Judge Perry ruled in favor of dismising charges against Hanrahan in the civil suit. Only after this ruling was appealed through the circuit court was Hanrahan reinstated as a defendant. Many believe that Perry will duplicate this act and again dismiss the charges.

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RIGHTS FOR DISABLED AT ISSUE, B.P.P. LENDS SUPPORT: POWERFUL PROTEST BY HANDICAPPED AT H.E.W.

(San Francisco, Calif.) - A major rally in support of the more than 125 brave and spirited blind, deaf and wheelchair-confined people occupying the Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) offices here at the Old Federal Building is planned for Friday, April 15 -- what will be the 11th day of a powerful and significant social protest for human and civil rights of handicapped and disabled people.

People are the backbone of any legitimate political action and the demonstrators occupying the fourth floor HEW offices are not only lively and enthusiastic, but determined and committed to hold out in their sit-in.

At issue is the long-delayed implementation of Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which reads:

"No otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States…shall, solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." Section 504 is the first major civil rights law passed by Congress to protect and further the rights of disabled persons.

The group charges the Ford administration with foot-dragging on the development of concrete guidelines for 504's implementation, a delay lasting from 1973.

Further, the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (ACCD) -- the ad hoc organization which led eight simultaneous demonstrations at HEW regional offices around the country on Tuesday, March 5, with another protest held at HEW headquarters in Washington, D.C. -- charges that the Carter administration, particularly HEW Secretary Califiano, has "turned their backs on us."

ACCD spokesperson say Carter promised to sign 504 guidelines during a campaign speech in Warm Springs, Georgia -- symbolic as the site where President Franklin D. Roosevelt went for therapy. Not only has Carter backtracked on his pledge, group spokeswoman Kitty Cone remarks, but HEW Secretary Califano has "cut the guts out" of a compromise 504 guidelines package reached on January 21 of this year.

The demonstrators at the San Francisco HEW offices are demanding that Califano immediately sign Section 504 regulations as agreed upon January 21. In Washington, Califano has said he may sign a vastly watered down set of proposals, universally rejected by ACCD and its supporters, by early May.

Meanwhile, the occupation continues, aided by widespread and broadbased support. In this regard, the Black Panther Party has played a leading role in supplying food to the demonstrators.

On Thursday evening, for example, members of the Black Panther Party arrived from Oakland with a dinner of fried chicken, fish, salad, corn, potato salad, rolls, punch and assorted paper supplies. The next morning when tensions had heightened -- with all incoming telephone service abruptly cut-off, and all food denied entry -- Party members saw to it that a sympathetic guard "discreetly" allowed the breakfast foods they had brought upstairs to the demonstrators. That evening, the Party supplied a delicious meat loaf dinner.

Along with the Black Panther Party, San Francisco's Delancey Street Foundation has aided the disabled protestors, with the Party supplying dinners and Delancey St. providing breakfast. This support has been greatly appreciated by those occupying the fourth floor.

Other support was garnered at a Friday afternoon press conference last week. Present to provide statements of solidarity

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and to demand Califano sign 504 as agreed upon January 21 were: Rev. Norman Leech, interim executive of the San Francisco Council of Churches; Berkeley City Councilwoman Ying Lee Kelley and City Auditor Florence McDonald (both of whom participated in a high-spirited picket line and vigil in front of the old Federal Building); noted defense attorney Charles Garry; Ms. Enola Maxwell, member of the San Francisco Commission on Human Rights; Ms. Naomie Gray, from New Dimensions; and representatives from Senator Milton Marks' office, People's Temple and the Black Panther Party.

Also, messages of support were received from Congressman Ron Dellums; Assemblyman Tom Bates; United Farm Workers founder/President Cesar Chavez; and Local 3159, American Federation of Government Employees, those working in the building where the occupation is taking place.

In addition, local Congressman George Miller visited the demonstrators on Easter Sunday, and by way of expressing his support said that he would call for federal hearings on Section 504 as soon as possible. These hearings are now scheduled for Friday, April 15, with the rally planned as a simultaneous show of support.

What is perhaps most remarkable and encouraging about the occupation is the lively enthusiasm and progressive, open and warm spirit displayed by the demonstrators.

At one point last Thursday, a medical assistant playing guitar and a harmonica led a group of about 25 to 30 disabled people in a moving song fest, highlighted by the singing of "We Shall Overcome" as the group moved slowly through the corridors.

Despite stereotypes and stigmas, real and very much alive, capable and fine human beings -- people like Ron Washington, C.C. Weeks, Mary Jane, Jane Jackson, Lydia Lawson, Judy Heumann, Brad Lomax and others -- have embarked upon a serious drive to control and transform the oppressive conditions of their lives.

As one demonstrator remarked, referring to the need for Section 504, "If they'd take away the handicaps (like stairs, and others barriers for wheelchair-confined and otherwise disabled people), then we wouldn't be handicapped."

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This Week In Black History

April 16, 1862

As the civil war intensified, the Union forces became almost desperate for more manpower in its battle with the South. The gradual emancipation of the slaves became the only recourse. Consequently, Congress began the process by passing a bill which ended slavery in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 1862.

April 10, 1877

In one of the most treacherous political compromises in the history of America, federal troops were withdrawn from Columbia, South Carolina, on April 10, 1877. Black slaves thoughtout the South were at the mercy of their former masters, and recently-organized terror groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens Council. At a conference in Wormley Hotel in Washington, represenatative of Rutherford B. Hayes and representatives of the South confirmed an agreement which paved the way for the election of Hayes as President and the withdrawal of federal troops from the South. The Democrats -- many of whom were Confederate officials during the Civil War -- took over the Southern governments and the slaughter of Black people heightened.

April 11, 1956

Racism prevades all aspects of American life. A case in point occurred on April 11, 1956, when the great singer Nat (King) Cole was attacked on the stage of a Birmingham theater by White racists.

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DIRECTOR #2: George Rothman Seeks Quality Education For Oakland Public Schools

(Oakland, Ca.) -- George Rothman, candidate for School Director in the upcoming Oakland elections has been working diligently to update this city's educational program for the past 12 years.

A participant in such committees as the Master Plan Citizens' Committee, the Community Development Committee, the Committee on Safety and the McClymonds School Board, Rothman feels that his work with these various community groupings has given him valuable experience in dealing with the school district.

One thing he has learned, he says, is that "the Board only acts when it is confronted with community pressure."

The most serious problems of the Oakland school district, says Rothman, are: (1) improper maintenance of deteriorating school facilities; (2) fiscal mismanagement; and, most importantly, (3) the low achievement levels of students in this city.

"My first priority," explains Rothman, "will be to upgrade basic skills, such as reading, writing and mathematics, in our schools. Rothman feels that it is deplorable that 50 per cent of the students graduating from Oakland's high school are performing at sixth to eighth grade achievement levels. "Some of our students, Rothman points out, "aren't prepared to fill out job applications."

Many students are turned off by the irrelevant education in Oakland school says Rothman. Textbooks 25 years old, he says, reflecting White, middle class

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views, are used in a school district which is 83 per cent non-White. In order to motivate students Rothman believes that:

(1) Relevant educational materials must be provided to our schools;

(2) Teachers have to be concerned and hard working; and

(3) Parent participation must be more actively encouraged.

Rothman stresses that "students, parents, teachers, the administration and the school should be all one family" working towards the goal of quality education. Rothman feels that it is his duty to act as a catalyst towards that end.

Another way to solve the problem, he says, is to put 500 teachers who are on "special assignment" back in the classroom. This will have an immediate effect on cutting down classroom size, one of the keys to quality education.

DROP OUTS

By doing this we can cut down on dropouts and truancy, which is costing the district $8,500 daily. Also, we must "get rid of superflous administrative procedures and staff," Rothman says, which also cut down on resources available for teaching in the classroom. VOTE FOR GEORGE ROTHMAN, SCHOOL DIRECTOR # 3. VOTE APRIL 19.

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BLACK MAYORAL CANDIDATE SPEAKS OUT ON ISSUES: SEN. WASHINGTON LASHES OUT ON CHICAGO POLICE SPYING

(Chicago, Ill.) - Mayoral candidate Senator Harold Washington last week became the first public official to publically disclose his own police crime files.

Denouncing the notorious practice of the Chicago police department. Washington proclaimed, "If police Superintendent Rochford ever wants to know my views on any issue, he should call me up instead of sending spies to follow me.

"I could give him a piece of information which concerns him most right now, `Mr. Rochford, start looking for another job, because the day I take office as the mayor of the city of Chicago will be your last day as police superintendent.' His sucessor will be a professional who understands that the business of police is fighting crime not taking notes on political speeches."

The popular Black senator's files contain reports on meeting attendance, speeches made primarily concerning legislative activities, including congressmen's names who support increased benefits for welfare recipients, speeches made against racial discrimination in hiring, and in support of police reform. The speeches were all made at public meetings of Chicago civic groups and almost all involved outside surveillance.

Meanwhile, as the campaign pace quickens, grassroots organizations across Chicago have joined Washington's camp in hopes of wresting away political control form this cities notorious Democratic machine. On the Northside, in the 24th ward, now a stronghold for the machine and an integral part of the "automatic 11" Black wards that the machine has always counted on to win, Alderman David Rhodes courageously broke away to support Washington with the precinct structure divided in the 24th ward by the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party.

Washington faces a good chance of turning this traditionally machine controlled area around.

Senator Washington's record is

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an impressive one. He originally led the fight for representation for the poor in the Illinois state legislature and helped mastermind the final agreement which gave unprecedented responsibility to Black members of the state senate. He has sponsored legislation for witness protection and compensation for victims of crimes.

ILLEGAL SEARCH

Washington has fought against police abuse and illegal search and seizure and has authored a plan for inner-city economic development, while insisting that neighborhoods be improved rather than destroyed. He has played a leading role for better working conditions and full union rights for public employees and has led the fight to obtain more funds for minority business. Senator Washington also sponsored a bill making the late Rev. Martin Luther King's birthday a state holiday, has actively supported ERA and won a six-year fight for state unemployment rights.

In March, 1976, it was revealed that the FBI had concealed at least 80 per cent of the files on Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party which the federal court had ordered turned over in the $47.7 million civil lawsuit filed by the families of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark and the survivors of the fatal December 4, 1969, police raid. At this time Senator Washington (then a state assemblyman) along with state Senator Richard Newhouse, wrote a letter to then Attorney General Levi demanding to know the extent of his agency's role in the "outrageous situation."

In addition to an immediate and thorough investigation, the letter called for the firing of the three federal attorneys who were involved in the cover-up.

WORKING CITY

If elected mayor Senator Washington has pledged to make Chicago a working city for all the people. In this literature he has pledged to make his police force work with, not against, community residents; to end police discrimination, police brutality and spying: to use public works money to hire the unemployed to build their own communities; and to distribute city services equitably.

In education, Washington will put more parents on the Board of Education, support innovations and education in the neighborhood, such as child parent centers.

He has promised to plan community development for neighborhood needs, not downtown needs; outlaw redlining; and set up a fair hearing commission to stop exaggerated rent increases by landlords.

Washington has pledged to spend money for better, faster, safer trains and buses, not more expressways, and to reduce costs and fares by including better service to attract more riders.

VOTE FOR SENATOR HAROLD WASHINGTON FOR MAYOR OF CHICAGO. VOTE APRIL 19.

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DAVID RHODES EXEMPLIFIES NEW HONESTY: Black Alderman Backs Washington For Mayor

The following comment is submitted by the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, based in Chicago.

(Chicago, Ill.) - Alderman David Rhodes (Democrat, 24th ward) exemplifies a new king of determination, honesty and accountability previously unheard of by Black politicians of Chicago's West Side.

Rhodes is a new kind of alderman because he refuses to be controlled by a White "overlord." This glaring fact is unique among the other Black politicians of the West Side 24th, 28th and 29th wards. These wards help to make up part of Mayor Deley's "Automatic 11," eleven all-Black wards on the South and West Sides of Chicago which were automatically counted on to deliver the largest portion of the "Machine's" vote in every election.

At the same time the conditions in all 11 wards are more deplorable than other sections of the city. "Plantation politics" is the name of the game in Chicago's Black community.

When it became evident to the Daley machine that Black people living in all-Black wards would no longer tolerate a White alderman, major reshuffling had to occur. Blacks who could be counted on to follow the direct orders of a White Machine overlord were quickly elected to replace their White counterparts.

To give a concrete example, look at three all-Black wards on Chicago's West Side. Political control in these three wards does not lie within the grasps of their Black elected aldermen. Jimmy Washington, a Black man, is the 28th Ward Alderman, William Carables, Ward superintendent in the sanitation department -- also Black -- is the overseer. His responsibility is to watch over Alderman Washington and to report to his White overlord Edward Quately, deputy commissioner of sewage.

What happens in the wards the

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same pattern is repeated again and again. In the 29th Ward, where Leroy Cross is the Black alderman. Willie Flowers is the Black overseer who reports to attorney Bernard Manstein, the White overlord. The White overlord in the 24th Ward is Ervin Horowitz, an assistant county auditor, who controls Walter Shumpert. Shumpert is not only district superintendent of sanitation but also state representative of the 21st district. He is the Black overseer.

PATTERN BROKEN

The pattern is broken only by Black Alderman David Rhodes' refusal to be either bought or bossed. His positive independence in bucking the machine is providing his Westside constituency with the inspiration and example that the shackles of political bondage can be broken.

As the only Black alderman in Chicago to openly campaign and support state Senator Harold Washington, an independent Black man running for mayor, Rhodes is constantly attacked by the machine.

One of these attacks is manifested in the fact that community residents trying to reach Alderman Rhodes at his City Hall office were told by the City Hall switchboard operator that he no longer had an office there. Of course, when the news media learned of this City Hall personnel denied that it happened. This has been a small portion of what lies in store for a Black independent alderman who dares to raise the real issues of survival in the Black community.

In Alderman Rhodes' own words: "The only thing that keeps this community from being labeled a `concentration camp' is the absence of multiple strands of barbed wire. The guards are already in place. In order to release Chicago from political slavery, every registered voter should pull lever 10A for Harold Washington, for a dawning of a new day."

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John George Wins Support For Anti-Bias Housing Bills

(Oakland, Calif.) - On the motion of progressive Alameda County Supervisor John George, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors last week unanimously endorsed three bills against housing discrimination now under consideration by the California state legislature.

The three bills, Senate Bills (S.B.) 3, 6 and 7, were authored by Black state Senator Nate Holden. All of them attack the problem of housing finance discrimination by:

Requiring that lending institutions disclose to loan applicants the reason why a loan was denied (S.B.3):

Requiring that banks report quarterly to the state superintendent of banks on home loan activity by census tract (S.B. 6): and

Prohibiting financial institutions from considering neighborhood characteristics in deciding on home loan applications (S.B. 7, co-authored by Black Assembly member Theresa Hughes).

John George's motion to support the bills was seconded by Supervisor Fred Cooper, whose district includes most of predominantly Black East Oakland. George's district encompasses Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville and North and West Oakland.

George, the first Black person elected to the Board of Supervisors, said, "I am gratified that the Board has endorsed this package of bills. This is an appropriate action the state of

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California can take which will help to improve the condition of our inner-city housing, much of which has unnecessarily deteriorated because of redlining. I hope the federal government will soon turn its attention to housing -- one of the most important of the inner-city needs.

S.B.3 deals primarily with mortgage loans. The bill requires that a lending institution give an applicant a statement of reason why a particular loan was denied. The statement has to be given 30 days after the application.

The lender must also identify the person who made the adverse decision and specify his or her source of credit information about the applicant. Failure to comply with these requirements makes the lender liable for actual damages and $10,000 in punitive damages.

S.B.6 requires banks to report to the state on a quarterly basis with respect to home loan activity. Some of the information that is required is the following:

Number and amount of mortgage loans;

Loan foreclosed;

Percentage of loan portfolio of loans foreclosed; and

Loans made to borrowers who do not intend to reside in the property and the number of such loans foreclosed and other facts on lending practices.

This information must be submitted in relation to census tracts.

S.B.7 prohibits financial institutions from considering neighborhood characteristics in deciding whether to grant a home loan. The bill specifically makes it unlawful for lending institutions to consider the racial, ethnic, religious or national origin characteristics of a neighborhood when reviewing a loan application. This discriminatory practice is commonly called redlining.

Any bank or saving and loan agency found guilty of redlining is subject to:

The issuance of a cease and desist order;

A fine of up to $5,000 per offense;

A recommendation that the state not deposit funds in the institution;

A recommendation that the institution establish an "affirmative lending program";

A recommendation that government insurance be withdrawn.

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“YES” FOR MEASURES B AND F IN BERKELEY MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS: DELLUMS ENDORSES RENT CONTROL, TENANTS UNIONS IN BERKELEY ELECTIONS

(Washington, D.C.) - Congressman Ronald Dellums has announced his endorsement of the Rent Control Charter Amendment and the Tenant Union/- Landlord Relations Ordinance (Measures B and F) on the ballot for the April 19 municipal election in Berkeley.

In announcing his support for these initiatives. Dellums issued the following statement, in part:

"Our current national housing crisis has had dramatic impact on housing costs in Berkeley in recent years. This crisis has encouraged speculation and rent gouging; it has resulted in a grossly inflated price for rental property; and it has meant increased relocation of low income and minority residents to areas outside the city because they can no longer afford the exorbitant rents commanded by the rental industry throughout the city.

"The supreme court of the state of California, as well as numerous state and local governments throughout the nation, have recognized the viability and constitutionality of rent control as a solution to the problems that affect the tenant, particularly in our metropolitan communities. Rent control and an organized consumer presence are the methods best suited for achieving balance in the present unequal negotiating strengths of landlord and tenants.

"Without each of these programs, landlords and real estate speculators will increasingly be able to raise the price of rental property without regard to the interests of the community in maintaining its multi-ethnic heritage. In addition, so long as rents are allowed to increase solely on the basis of what the market will bear, speculation will result in a continued decline in the quality of housing and the environment in Berkeley. We face the prospect of mounting pressure to construct more and more expensive housing in the city and an attendant increase in tensions already evident over these issues," Congressman Dellums said.

Despite tremendous grassroots support, Measures B and F face strong opposition in the form of a big money campaign financed by powerful landlord and industrial groups, acting in conjunction with conservative forces within the Berkeley city government.

In an obviously punitive action, the Berkeley City Council recently voted to deny refunding to the Berkeley Tenants Organizing Committee (BTOC), the only group in the city that services and organizes tenants. BTOC has taken a leadership role in organizing support for Measures B and F.

Developed by the Berkeley Housing Coalition (BHA), an alliance of Berkeley groups working toward making decent, affordable housing a right for all, Measure B is based on the rent control law passed by Berkeley voters in 1972, with amendments to bring that law into compliance with a state supreme court decision which ruled the

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first law un-Constitutional.

If Measure B passes, rents -- for all rental units in Berkeley, with certain few exceptions -- will be frozen at their April 19, 1977, level for 90 days, after which all rents will be rolled back to June, 1976, levels until they are adjusted by a special rent control board.

Measure F, the Tenant Union-Landlord Relation Ordinance (TULRO), will require Berkeley landlords to bargain with tenant unions over rents, housing conditions and related issues -- recognizing as unions associations which gain membership of a majority of either tenants or apartments in a landlord's building.

The BTOC, Berkeley Tenants Union and the BHA were among the organizations which sponsored a press conference on Thursday, April 7, to protest the skyrocketing rents in Berkeley. The press conference was held outside an apartment building at 1790 Arch Street in Berkeley. The building was recently sold, and the new owner raised the rent so much that all of the tenants, many of them senior citizens, were forced to move.

Dennis Keating, a spokesperson for the groups, said that "the landlords' own figures show that Berkeley rents are outrageously high."

The BHA recently won a suit forcing the city of Berkeley to turn over 1972 and 1973 records of the Rent Control Board. Keating said that these records will show how high rents have been raised in Berkeley in the last four to five years.

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San Antonio Villa To Get Renovation Funds

(Oakland, Calif.) - After years of heated struggle with the Oakland Housing Authority and the federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), tenants of the San Antonio Villa housing project here recently learned that $1.8 million in renovation funds are almost certain to be allocated to bring the site up to decent living standards.

The announcment came unexpectedly and is regarded by San Antonio residents as one of the biggest triumphs ever in their fight to make local and federal housing authorities responsive to

p7. c. 4 MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS

Under the renovation program, major improvements are planned in the areas of plumbing, heating, kitchen appliances, grounds and building exteriors, recretional facilities and security. There will be a series of meetings between San Antonio residents and OHA officials to determine what areas will be given priority.

A tenant committee will be formed to take part in the decision making process and to

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insure that the wishes of residents will be carried out.

A few examples of renovations that are tentatively planned are:

Kitchens in the housing projects will be enlarged and stoves are to be equipped with hoods;

Grass will be planted in barren areas;

Buildings will be painted in the interior and on the exterior;

Plumbing will be repaired so as to prevent back-ups which are know to flood entire apartments; and

New bathroom fixtures will be installed.

After the particulars are worked out between tenants and the OHA a detailed proposal will be presented to HUD so the funds can be released.

One of the reasons residents of the decaying housing project were so surprised, is that prior to the release of these funds it seemed that neither the OHA or HUD showed any real concern for tenant problems. The last meeting between tenant representatives, OHA and HUD officials was completely unproductive.

However, now it seems as if the uncompromising stand taken by the people of San Antonio is beginning to achieve results. In addition to this, the struggle in the East Oakland housing project has enjoyed widespread publicity and mounting community support.

The high point of this struggle was when 150 tenants picketed the regional office of HUD in San Francisco, causing embarrassment to the highly-paid housing officials. Just prior the release of the renovation money, the project's pitiful recreation center underwent rehabilitation, which was a major accomplishment in that the Villa's 600 children had no place to play.

Mrs. Autrey Smith, a highly-respected leader in San Antonio, is very hopeful that major changes will occur but, as she says, "When I see them, I'll believe them."

Her feelings are the consensus of residents who have been lied to, insulted or ignored year after year.

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B.P.P&dot SUPPORTSMONTH LONGPROTEST: HIGHER WAGES, MEDICAL BENEFITS KEY ISSUES IN FLINT'S BAR-B-QUE BOYCOTT

(Oakland, Calif.) - Striking workers at East Oakland's popular Flint's Bar-b-que place said last week that they are prepared to close the Black-owned business down unless the owner agrees to their demands for a raise in wages and medical benefits.

In an interview with THE BLACK PANTHER, three leaders of the strike, Ms. Pat Leonard, Ms. Lodean Walker and Ms. Lillie Herold, explained why they initiated the highly successful month-old community boycott of Flint's, located at 6672 E. 14th Street.

Ms. Walker said that Flint employees have been seeking a wage raise from owner Margaret Flintroy for quite some time. With one exception, the workers all make $2.50 an hour, the federal minimum wage. Yet, Ms. Walker continued, most of the employees have been with the restaurant for several years. She has worked there six years, and Ms. Leonard and Ms. Herold each have worked at Flint's for five years. One of the striking employees has eight years of service.

Not only has Mrs. Flintroy refused to raise the wages of her workers to the $4.30 an hour they are demanding, but she has also resisted their efforts to become members of Local No. 28, the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartender's Union.

WEEKS AGO

A few weeks ago, Mrs. Flintroy hired a new manager with the power to hire and fire, ignoring the protests of her employees, who immediately sought help from Local 28. In addition, Mrs. Flintroy began to hire her relatives to take over the jobs of the workers.

"She (Mrs. Flintroy) brought in her niece and told me to teach her how to run the cash register," Ms. Walker said. "I told her that I wasn't going to train anyone to take my job. She told me I could just leave."

Following Mrs. Flintroy's refusal to negotiate with Local 28, her 10 employees decided to walk out and organize a boycott of the lucrative Black business. "We decide to let the public know what was really going on," Ms. Walker explained. "She just threw us out after we had put in so many years."

Ms. Herold said that on a typical weekend, Flint's grosses as much as $2,400-$2, 600 per day. "It's us, the workers, who have made the business a sucess. The customers really relate to us," Ms. Herold explained.

She added that Mrs. Flintroy "is really scared" now that such community organizations as the Black Panther Party have given their support to the boycott. "She remembers how the Black Panther Party closed down Bill Boyette's liquor store (in 1971)," Ms. Herold said.

Flint workers and their supporters have picketed the restaurant every day for the past month, remaining until the business closes, usually at 2:00 a.m. Their efforts have caused a severe drop in business for the restaurant.

Ms. Leonard attributes the overwhelming success of the boycott to the strong support the community has given and the unity of the workers. "If we hadn't stuck together, it wouldn't have worked," she said.

The three Black women said that while they may never work at Flint's again, they believe that their strike will create better working conditions for future employees.

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PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

Maternity Benefits

(Washington, D.C.) - The Hawkins-Williams Amendment introduced in Congress last month seeks to overturn the Supreme Court's ruling last year that employers can exclude maternity benefits from their health insurance policies. The bill -- which is widely supported by labor unions, women's and civil rights groups -- would amend the Civil Rights Act to specify that the prohibition against sex discrimination includes "pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.

Rust College Protest

(Holly Springs, Miss.) - A fire during a student protest caused the shutdown of predominantly Black Rust College here last week. Over 200 students staged a rally protesting the handling of student aid programs, dormitory conditions and the renewed contract of the school president, W. A. McMillan, who was the object of a three-day boycott of classes in December. A "colling-off period" of at least two weeks was ordered by school officials after a fire caused $500,000 in damage.

Redlining Regulations

(Sacramento, Calif.) - Governor Brown's administration announced here last week the adoption of "far-reaching antidiscrimination regulations…to curb redlining practices." The regulations provide the basis for revoking the license of real estate licensees who practice racial discrimination in the choice of properties offered and is aimed at curtailing discrimination in housing based on race, sex, age or the location of property to be purchased.

White Murdere Convicted

(Sun Flower County, Miss.) - The convicted White murderer of a 16-year-old Black youth was sentenced to life imprisonment here recently. Terry Barr was found guilty of lynching James Edward Calhoun, whom Barr had accused of raping his wife. Barr, who had been brutally tortured and shot, was found floating in a river with his hands tied behind his back.

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July 4 Coalition Plans People's Alliance

(New York, N.Y.) - The July 4th Coalition has issued a call to a National Conference to build a Peoples' Alliance to be held in Washington, D.C., over Memorial Day weekend, May 28 to 30th. An expanded meeting of the Coalition's Interim National Board met on March 26th and unanimously affirmed the importance of the Conference.

Participants in the meeting included representatives from local coalitions, and leading members of a number of people's organizations, including the Black Panther Party, International Indian Treaty Council, Marion Political Collective, Mass Party Organizing Committee, National Coalition of Gay Activists, Native American Solidarity Committee, Resisters League, and Workers World Party.

The meeting endorsed a document prepared by the Conference Planning Committee setting forth the underlying political perspective for the conference. The document outlined specific workshop areas around which the conference will be organized. The workshops will develop Action Programs for nationally coordinated activity over the upcoming months.

Workshop areas agreed to are: The Jobs and Production Crisis; A Progam for Survival in the Cities; International Struggles Against U. S. Imperialism; Government Repression; and Resisting the Threat of Nuclear Disaster. Initial convening committees for each workshop are now being formed.

Summarizing the goals of the

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Conference, the Committee stated in its document: "…the Conference will develop programs of united struggle and defense around the common enemy's most serious attacks on the people's movement. It will develop programs of united struggle and counter-attack aimed at those central weak links in the imperialist system caused by the present eruptions of the crisis of the system. And it will be in the course of the development and carrying out of these common programs that the learning process for the building of a people's strategic alliance will occur.

The Conference will be delegated representing local coalitions, the present National Board of the Coalition, and invited representatives of local, regional, and national organizations.

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$13.6 MILLION TRANSFERRED FROM DEFENSE BUDGET TO MEET HUMAN NEEDS: “FEED THE CITIES -- NOT THE PENTAGON” CAMPAIGN GAINS MOMENTUM

WHEREAS, the domestic needs of our nation, and particularly the needs of our cities, will never receive the major attention they deserve, or the financing they require, until there is a re-ordering of our national priorities; and

WHEREAS, the amount of expenditures for the Pentagon and foreign aid is not as important as the attitude that Pentagon expenditures, regardless of their size, cannot be reduced, whereas domestic programs, regardless of their size and merit, must be reduced; and

WHEREAS, if we eliminate the items which are fixed by law and contractual obligation…and eliminate fixed costs such as interest payments, pensions, etc., we find that only twenty-six per cent of the national budget is subject to appropriations controlled by Congress, as reported by the Budget Office of the United States Congress; and

WHEREAS, of that twenty-six per cent, eighteen per cent goes to the military (including military foreign aid) and only eight per cent for domestic civilian needs; and

WHEREAS, a responsible policy requires that if we advocate increased domestic spending, we must indicate where such funds must come from,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the United States Conference of Mayors calls upon the Administration and Congress to redress the imbalance between domestic expenditures and expenditures for the Pentagon and foreign aid, recognizing that the social defense of this nation is at leat as important to the national defense as is our military defense.

(Oakland, Calif.) - The above resolution, passed last year by both the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities, provides the basis for the "Feed the Cities -- Not the Pentagon" campaign fast gaining momentum around the country.

Sponsored by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the "Feed the Cities" campaign has recently enlisted the support of Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Parren Mitchell in sponsoring a Transfer Amendment attached to the 1978 fiscal year federal

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budget.

Under the proposed amendment, $13.6 billion would be cut from the expected military expenditures -- resulting in employment loss of 316,550 jobs -- while that same amount would be transferred into 10 social programs areas, creating 1,441,000 jobs -- an increase of 1.1 million jobs while providing funding for vital human needs.

The "Reduced Military Spending" breakdown for the Transfer Amendment goes like this:

Force reductions in Asia and Pacific, $2.5 billion reduction in funds, 25,000 jobs loss; end convert CIA intervention, $500 million reduction, 6,000 jobs loss; end aid to dictatorships, $200 million reduction; end nuclear weapons production and testing, $1.9 billion reduction; miscellaneous, including cancelling unnecessary weapons systems, $4.84 billion reduction, 264,550 jobs loss.

Also included under "Reduced Military Spending" are "Efficiency Savings" involving: Competitive bidding on weapons contracts, a two billion dollar savings; and correcting wasteful personnel practices, $1.7 billion in savings, 21,000 jobs loss.

Citing President Carter's public committment to reordering federal spending priorities and the National Democratic Platform recognition that the Ford administration "undermined the security of our nation by neglecting human needs at home while, for the first time in our nations history, increasing military spending after a war," the Transfer Amendment outlines the program for "Meeting Human Needs":

Economic conversion: community planning and assistance for displaced workers -- $500 million increased funding;

Child care services -- one billion dollar increase, 100,000 new jobs;

Rural development: housing and health care -- $1.3 billion increase, 416,500 new jobs;

Anti-recession aid to state and local governments -- $2.5 billion increase, 240,000 new jobs;

Minority employment -- two billion dollar increase, 376,400 new jobs (across three categories);

PUBLIC SERVICE JOBS

Public service jobs -- one billion dollar increase, 122,000 new jobs;

Older citizens employment -- $250,000 million increase, 62,500 new jobs;

Health insurance for the unemployed -- one billion dollar increase;

Education -- two billion dollar increase, 124,000 new jobs;

International hunger and development assistance -- two billion dollar increase.

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White Beats Out John Lewis For Atlanta House Seat

(Atlanta, Ga.) - Civil rights activist and former Voter Education Project (VEP) Director John Lewis was unsuccessful in his bid to win the House seat vacated by Andrew Young when he was defeated last week by his White opponent, Atlanta city councilman Wyche Fowler.

The defeat of Lewis leaves the section of the country south of Baltimore to east of Memphis without Black representation in Congress and Georgia with an all-White, 10-member House delegation.

In acknowledging his defeat Lewis said, "I'm going to continue to be effective in Atlanta politics and work here to serve the people of the city and the people of the district."

The district referred to by Lewis encompasses almost all of Fulton County, including northwest Atlanta and adjoining suburbs. The section represents a cross-section of Atlanta voters, from poor, inner-city Blacks to affluent suburban Whites. The district is 43 per cent Black and 57 per cent White.

Both candidates were Democrats and were viewed as "liberals." Lewis, 37, headed an effort by the Atlanta-based Voter Education Project which made it

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possible for thousands of Black Southerners to become registered voters.

Meanwhile, in Montgomery, Alabama, Mayor Jame Robinson was forced to resign after he was implicated in covering up the police murder of an unarmed Black man. The 32-year-old victim was shot by a White cop who allegedly suspected him of robbing a grocery store.

Since the shooting another person has been prosecuted for the robbery. The officer who killed the Black man claimed the victim was shooting at him. A gun found near the body, however, was found to have been held by police before the incident.

Harold Martin, editor and publisher of the Montgomery Advertiser -- Alabama Journal charged that Robinson was "the biggest deceiver of all" in a police cover-up of the shooting. Five cops have been dismissed for their involvement in the cover-up.

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BLACK GEORGIA YOUTH FALSELY CHARGED WITH MURDER: SUPPORT GROWS FOR DAWSON 5

(Dawson, Ga.) - Efforts are continuing here to organize badly-needed support for five Black Georgia youth scheduled to go on trial on false murder charges.

Recently, a fund-raising sing-in here and a rally in Augusta, Georgia, were held in support of the five young Black men -- Roosevelt Watson, Johnny B. Jackson, J. D. Davenport, Henderson, Watson, and James Edward Jackons, Jr.

A speaker at the Augusta rally stressed the importance of the case when he said, "Our purpose is to do whatever we can to save these young men from the electric chair."

Dawson, Georgia, is located in Terrell County, adjacent to Plains County, home of President Jimmy Carter. During the civil rights era of the '60s, it was known as "Terrible Terrell" due to savage repression meted out by local White authorities. During this era, three Black churches were burned to the ground by White bigots.

The five youth are charged with murdeing a White customer in a Dawson grocery store. The family of one of the five, Roosevelt Watson, regularly did their shopping in that particular store.

After the murder took place and the five were charged with the crime, a White official told a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), "I know we don't have much of a case on these boys, but they are the only ones we could come up with."

A Dawson Black man, when questioned by a Chicago Tribune reporter, commented that "they needed some suspects and no one else was available."

One of the defendants, Roosevelt Watson, admits that he confessed to state police officials after they threatened to castrate and shoot him and gave him a lie detector test that he thought was an electrocution device. Watson also said that one of the police officers said "he was going to circumcise me."

Watson and the other four young defedants insist that they were hauling water for the Watsons' mother when the murder took place, two miles away from the scene of the crime. Although the White store owner, Linward Denton, knew Watson very well it took him several days

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to identify the Black youth.

Watson is out on $100,000 bail and the other four defendants are still being held on $100,000 bail a piece. The SPLC. which is defending the five, is desperately working to raise the money.

A trial date for the youths has not been set as the state "is getting deeper and deeper into the lie," said attorney Robert Attman. The prosecution, he maintains, "is caught in a situation where they don't have any evidence." Yet, officials refuse to lower the excessive bail.

In response to charges that the case is a racially-motivated

However, in a country which is 70 per cent Black, as of last year the area's jury pool was only 26 per cent Black. That percentage was raised only after defense attorney Millard Farmer threatened federal intervention.

All of the defendants come from sharecropping families in an area where 58 per cent of the Black families live below the poverty level. Roosevelt Watson is one of the victims of an all-Black school district run by an all-White school board. He is in the 12th grade and cannot read.

This case has always had strong local support and is beginning to receive national attention.

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BEHIND THE WALLS: Lone Harlem 6 Prisoner Seeks Release

(New York, N.Y.) - Black prisoner Robert Rice, one of six Harlem youth unjustly convicted of murder in 1964, is seeking support in his effort to gain his freedom from New York state's Green Haven prison.

Rice is the only member of the Harlem Six who remains imprisoned. He was fist arrested at 17 and has spent the last 13 years behind bars serving out a life sentence.

In 1973, after two appeals and two retrials, four of the Harlem Six won their freedom with a full restoration of their civil rights. They were fortunate in having secured independent lawyers.

The fifth, who had taken a plea on the recommendation of a court-appointed lawyer, was sold out, sentenced to 10-25 years. However, a strong community campaign finally gained him freedom on parole in 1974.

Robert Rice should have been among those freed in 1973. On July 17, 1973, federal Judge Harold Taylor stated, "Given the record in this proceeding and those involving the rest of the Harlem Six, (Robert Rice should be) retired within a reasonable time -- 60 days from the date of this opinion -- or released." Yet, four years later, Rice remains in jail.

Seven corrections officers, including a prison superintendent, at Green Haven have written New York Governor Hugh Carey seeking Rice's release.

Friends, family and supporters of Robert Rice urge everyone to write: Governor Hugh Carey. The Capitol, Albany, N.Y. 12224. Ask the governor to immediately enact executive clemency on behalf of Robert Rice.

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C.A.P.A. Leads Protest Against L.A. Cop Killing

(Los Angeles, Calif.)-Over 200 people attended a rally and picket line here recently at the Southwest Division Police Station to protest the unjustified killing of a 40-year-old Black man by a White policeman.

Travis McCoy was killed in what has already been labeled an "accidental shooting death" by a Detective Kleeman. Kleeman is claiming that his revolver went off by mistake while he had it pointed at McCoy. The cop insists that McCoy hit the weapon "accidentally" causing it to discharge.

Kleeman has been taken off "active duty" and given a deskjob pending a police investigation. However, the friends and neighbors of Travis McCoy are demanding that Kleeman be charged with murder or mans-laughter. Many of McCoy's closest associates were on hand at the rally to denounce the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

Bob Duren, coordinator of the Southern California Chapter of the BPP and chairperson of the Coalition Against Police Abuse (CAPA), commented that, "The existing laws, by allowing police officers to draw their weapons on any pretense, encourage these kinds of police killings to occur regularly in the Black, Latino and poor working-class communities… these racist laws must be changed."

Presently, CAPA is into a Two-Year Plan aimed at placing an initiative on the statewide November 7 ballot. The initiative concerns making concrete legislative curbs on rampant police terror. In the immediate future CAPA will be contacting community organizations, defense committees and prominent individuals throughout the state to rally their active support.

A statewide educational and organizational campaign will then be implemented.

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Boston Racists Attack 200 At So. African Protest

(Boston, Mass.) - Over 200 protesters demanding "U.S. Out Of South Africa" were attacked in downtown Boston March 25, apparently by members of the segregationist Restore Our Alienated rights (ROAR).

The Boston demonstration was disrupted by a group of 30 White men. Shouting "Seig Heil" and racial epithets, the attackers began shoving the protesters, many of whom were Third World, as police stood by and watched.

Demonstration organizer Hattie McCutcheon told the Guardian that the attack was led by ROAR strong man Dan Yotts, head of the paramilitary South Boston Marshals.

INVOLVEMENT

While neither ROAR or Yotts has acknowledged their involvement, a caller claiming to represent the segregationist South Boston Defense Legaue phoned local radio stations following the incident and claimed credit for the attack. The caller vowed "to seek out" antiracist groups "wherever they go" and threatened violence against "left-wing scum" who "tried to penetrate our turf…Our community is tough, independent, and White and that is how it will stay forever."

A source who asked to remain anonymous told the Guardian, and ROAR leader James Kelly has verified the authenticity of the call, based on reports he has "been getting on the grapevine" that people from South Boston, Charlestown and Hyde Park are involved.

Observers have suspected for over a year that the South Boston Defense League is a paper organization through which ROAR avoids legal responsibility for its more violent provocations.

-- 11 --

OTHER OFFICIALS TO BE CHARGED: F.B.I. STUNNED -- FORMER SUPERVISOR INDICTED FOR ILLEGAL SPYING

(Washington, D.C.) - Former FBI supervisor John J. Kearney became the first agent in the 53-year history of the federal police bureau to receive a felony indictment when he was charged last week with five counts of illegal surveillance resulting from the 1970-1972 manhunt for the Weather Underground.

The unprecedented move by the Justice Department shocked leading FBI officials here and more indictments are expected in the near future.

Kearney was charged with five felony counts of conspiracy, obstruction of correspondence and illegal wiretapping. All of the crimes were committed from late 1970 to mid-1972, reports the New York Times, by agents under Kearney's direction. He headed the New York FBI office's Squad 47, a 60-man unit which dealt primarily with tracking down fugitive members of the Weather Underground.

This was the first indictment produced by a year-long investigation of FBI "black bag" jobs. During the probe, close to 50 agents, testifying with immunity from prosecution, detailed numerous instances of illegal activity sanctioned by high officials.

Many in the FBI hierarchy felt betrayed since the Justice Department indictment came unexpectedly. Attorney General Griffin Bell had pledged to them that past abuses would be forgotten or overlooked.

Kearney, a 25-year veteran who retired from the FBI in June, 1972, was charged with directing such activities as stealing letters from locked mailboxes, steaming them open, copying them and returning them. The indictment also charges that Kearney and others in Squad 47 wiretapped public and private phones to record the conversations of people believed to have contact with the Weather Underground. The mail openings took place so frequently that the practice was labeled by agents as the "mail run."

The indictment against Kearney was handed down on the suggestion of Justice Department lawyers who pointed out that the actions were specifically prohibited by a 1972 Supreme Court decision. The most prevalent mood in the FBI's main office in Washington, D.C., was described as "very grim." A long-time agent admitted, "This is one of the worst days we've had."

Privately, a number of FBI and Justice Department officials said the indictment of Kearney meant that Bell had accepted a recommendation by the civil rights division in his department to indict at least six officials.

"The handwriting is on the wall," an attorney for one of the FBI officials under investigation said last week. "They can't indict Kearney and not go after the higher-ups as well."

Jack Solerwitz, who represents FBI agents who were granted immunity in return for their testimony, said, "They'll never take it (Kearney's case) to trial." Solerwitz claimed that the indictment was too weak to stand up in court and may be dismissed since the trial may force the revelation of national security matters.

If convicted on all five counts Kearney could be sentenced to a maximum of 25 year imprisonment and a $34,000 fine. Although the Justice Department unveiled evidence of illegal break-ins committed by Squad 47, a five-year statute of limitations ruled out charging Kearney with any burlaries which occurred before April 7, 1972.

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N.Y. Times, F.B.I. Exposed In Rosenberg Frame-up

(New York, N.Y.) - The New York Times was involved in a conspiracy with the FBI to ensure the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, according to secret FBI files made available to the Guardian.

The files trace the collaboration among a Times reporter, FBI officials and Rosenberg trial judge Irving Kaufman to suppress revelations substantiating the Rosenbergs' innocence. The Times, through its complicity with the prosecution, offered to facilitate the Rosenbergs' electrocution in 1953 for "conspiracy to committ espionage."

And, after their deaths, it worked with Kaufman and the FBI to perpetuate the myth of a "fair trial" for the Rosenbergs and their codefendant, Morton Sobell.

The Times' cover-up of its culpable role in the case, like the frame-up itself, continues to this day.

"Surely, after a quarter of a century, it is time to end the vendetta against (Kaufman)," the Times editorialized March 20. It also in the same editorial criticized the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for calling on Congress to examine the relation between Kaufman and the prosecution during the 1951 trials of the Rosenbergs and Sobell.

Abundant information was coming to light at that time of judicial misconduct in the case and of the government's illegal efforts to obtain a conviction at any cost.

It is also highly unlikely that a Times reporter could initiate a contact of this sensitive a nature with the FBI without the knowledge and consent of his or her overseers on the paper. This offer of assistance and additional examples of the reporter's clandestine deals deals with other FBI officials and with Kaufman are flagrant violations of the Times journalistic policies and would have meant dismissal of the reporter, had the reporter's contacts with the judge and bureau not first been cleared with superiors.

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REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE: By Huey P. Newton: “The Penal Colony”

As we continue with the chapter "The Penal Colony" from Revolutionary Suicide, Black Panther Party leader and chief theoretician Huey P. Newton continues to examine prison conditions at the California Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo. Huey has just received a 15-year sentence on trumped-up mans-laughter charges resulting from a false conviction for killing a White Oakland cop. In this excerpt he describes how prison authorities use inmates' sexual needs to oppress them.

We call them penitentiaries and jails and refer to ourselves as convicts and inmates. This does not mean that we accept these labels as bad, only that we refuse to be deceived by the state's duplicity.

The California Penal Colony stands approximately halfway between Oakland and Los Angeles, about 250 miles from each, and getting there involves a major trip from both cities. In addition to its remoteness, it is not typical of California prisons.

Fewer than 10 per cent of the inmates are Black or Chicano, even though those two groups make up more than 50 per cent of the prison population in California. Since there have been no riots, the institution has a reputation as a model prison. The authorities like to claim a happy inmate population.

Yet, once inside it, the reasons for its calm reputation are easy to understand. The Penal Colony is divided into four self-contained quadrants, each with approximately six hundred inmates. Its layout and organization make it almost impossible for an inmate in one section to meet the three-quarters of the population in other quadrants. In addition, and very important, 80 per cent of the prisoners were homosexual, and homosexuals are docile and subservient; they tend to obey prison regulations.

I did not know one person at the Penal Colony when I arrived. Eventually, I met other prisoners and tried to reach them, but I found it hard to politicize men who lived largely for the next sexual encounter. To them, sex is all.

There men were exploited and controlled by the guards and the system. Their sexuality was perverted into a pseudosexuality that was used to control and undermine their normal yearnings for dignity and freedom. The system was the pusher in this case, and the prisoners were forced to become addicted to sex. Love and vulnerability and tenderness were distorted into functions of power, competition, and control.

Homosexual love at the Penal Colony was routinely simple. Each inmate, except me, had a key to let himself in and out of his cell during the day. A date would be made at mealtime or in the shower and a "point man" stationed in the hall to warn of approaching guards. This last step was unnecessary. The guards were content to look the other way as long as things stayed cool. Only political action brought quick, repressive steps.

The guards would simply threaten to put the political offender on a bus and send him away from his lover. These threats always worked. As a matter of fact, many guards were themselves homosexuals. Often, as I showered, a guard would stand in the doorway, talking, looking not at my face but at my penis, and say, "Hey, Newton, how you doin' there, Newton? Wanna have some fun, Newton?" I laughed at them.

The reign of homosexual life in prison has changed somewhat with the introduction of conjugal visits. Liberals see this as a step forward, but it is not. The same coercion and control are there, even more so, because guards can deny a man his woman just as they denied a man his man; but the inmate cannot easily find another woman. This is prison, where every desire is used against you.

Procedurally, the Penal Colony was Vacaville all over again. First I was taken to the warden, who told me that they would allow me to stay on the mainline if I went along with all the rules and did not attempt to organize. He was also against complaints; if I wanted to complain, I ought to wait until I got out of prison. Again, I said nothing. I expected to be there for fifteen years. This is enough time to achieve a purpose

After my meeting with the warden I was assigned to a counselor, who proposed that I go through a "rehabilitation program" to prepare me to return to society. I felt no need to be rehabilitated; my only crime was to speak in defense of the people. But the counselor went on describing the program. As the first step in my rehabilitation, he explained, I was to work in the prison dining hall at no salary. Eventually I would be able to move into a job in one of the various prison industries, where the salaries ranged from a minimum of three cents an hour to a maximum of ten cents an hour.

I absolutely refused to engage in such exploitation, working at first for no salary and then for wages so low they could not be considered as salary at all.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 13 --

THE COMMITTEE FOR: JUSTICE FOR HUEY P. NEWTON AND THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY

THE COMMITTEE FOR JUSTICE IS CALLING FOR NATIONWIDE SUPPORT FOR THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY'S LAWSUIT AGAINST THE FBI AND OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES RESPONSIBLE FOR REPRESSION AGAINST THE PARTY. THIS CRUCIAL LAWSUIT SEEKS TO REDRESS PAST WRONGS, AND TO EXPOSE AND STOP THE CONTINUING GOVERNMENT HARASSMENT.

PLEASE SEND ME:

-- 14 --

BLACK PANTHER RECOMMENDATIONS AND ENDORSEMENTS FOR THE APRIL 19 ELECTIONS

(Oakland, Calif.) - As a public service to our readers, particularly those in the East Bay cities of Oakland and Berkeley, THE BLACK PANTHER presents the following list of recommendations and endorsements of candidates and issues in the April 19 municipal nominating elections.

Of course, involvement in the world of electoral politics is always a precarious, shaky pastime. As can be seen in the breakdowns and explainations below, our support for some candidates and issues, like Judge Lionel Wilson for mayor of Oakland, has remained firm from the beginning. However, in an unprecedented move, described in full below, THE BLACK PANTHER formally withdraws its endorsement of the candidacy of Carter Gilmore for Oakland City Council, District 4. Gilmore's frivolous, demeaning response to an overt racial slur by Billy Carter deems him unworthy of ours and the community's support. (See below, and editorial, page 2.)

Yet, there is a positive side to the Gilmore incident, which is always to remain vigilant, mindful of our responsibilities to the community and involved in the ongoing political

-- 15 --
processes in which we find ourselves. Perhaps Gilmore's disgraceful behavior could not have been predicted beforehand, but once the act is done, our duty is to expose this to the people, who represent his potential constituents in this case, to let them decide.

The particularities of any situation, like those arising out of involvement in electoral politics, can become quite complex and often quite confusing, but as a general rule-of-thumb, that which uplifts the consciousness of the people and moves them forward to seize more meaningful control over their lives, is positive and progressive. Ultimately the salvation of Black and poor people living in technological America does not lie in electoral politics. This has been said time and time again. Yet our struggle is a process, and electoral politics can, at certain points in history, aid that process, that human movement surging, spiraling toward the total transformation of society. It is a tool which can be utilized in the community's interests.

It is within this context that THE BLACK PANTHER urges everyone to vote in the April 19 elections. VOTE APRIL 19.

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CITY OF OAKLAND ELECTIONS

MAYOR

LIONEL J. WILSON

Judge Superior Court Juez de la Corte Superior23

What else can you say? Judge Lionel Wilson is, as his campaign signs proclaim, "Everyone's Choice for Mayor." Seeking to become the first Black mayor of Oakland, Wilson has put together an attractive political program designed to promote unity in this frequently divided city. His commitment and concern for erasing the problems which confront Oakland in this latter half of the 1970s has earmarked his frontrunning campaign from its early stages. As he said in a recent campaign speech, "Lionel Wilson as a person is not important in the mayor's race. Lionel Wilson is an idea whose time should have come a long time ago, who time is now… We're talking about change, about power…" Right on, Judge.

VOTE FOR LIONEL WILSON FOR MAYOR OF OAKLAND.

City Council -- District 2 MARY MOORE

Alameda County
Comisionada de
36

Parks Commissioner
del Condado de Alameda

A longtime activist in city politics. Mary Moore is familiar and aware of the problems facing Oakland and is not too squimish to go out and do something about them. By far the most community-oriented in the field of four, Ms. Moore stresses the need to hire unemployed Oakland residents to stop the needless flow of tax dollars from the city. Her healthy optimism and boundless enthusiasm are to her advantage, as is her strategic alliance with the Wilson campaign.

VOTE FOR MARY MOORE FOR OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL, DISTRICT 2.

City Council -- District 4 CLIFTON DE BERRY

Socialist Workers
de los
41

Spokesperson
Oberros Socialistas

Socialist Workers Party candidate Clifton De Berry has an impressive record of trade union and socialist-organizing activity. A strong supporter of "Jobs, Not Jails," DeBerry has taken a leading position in the growing campaign to end city of Oakland investment in corporations that have links to apartheid South Africa. Calling for a massive public work program. DeBerry believes, "Only when people get meaningful jobs will the crime rate go down." We agree. VOTE FOR CLIFTON DeBERRY FOR OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL, DISTRICT 4.

City Council -- District 6

No endorsement. Although previously THE BLACK PANTHER recommended a Black man named Carter Gilmore in this race, that recommendation is withdrawn upon discovery that the "man" is only a colored "boy" and therefore not qualified to represent his people nor his community in any serious and dignified way.

What happened was that this past weekend. Carter Gilmore shuffled up to Billy "Redneck" Carter, who was in town to throw out the first ball at the Oakland A's season opener. The scene was a Friday night season ticket holders party, the day before the first game. Gilmore, who had adopted the campaign slogan, "Let's Elect Another Carter" -- which itself was a bitter pill to swallow -- said to beer-gussling Billy, "The fact is we're both named Carter. Can you explain that we're not related to each other?" (Before getting to what came next, notice how stupid and inane this question is, since Gilmore's first name is Carter, and the Redneck's last name is Carter.) "Well I hate to say it," giggled drunken Billy, "but we all have a nigger in the woodpile somewhere."

Carter's racist insult was carried over the P.A. system and, according to several newspaper reports, the crowd of some 600 howled in laughter. And how did Carter Gilmore react? Our colored "boy" candidate grinned. Gilmore showed 'dem pearly whites and probably shuffled backwards at bit. And out of the window flew Gilmore's dignity, his -- and our -- integrity and honor. And with it flew THE BLACK PANTHER's endorsement.

To make matters worse, the next day, at a fundraising party for Lionel Wilson, Gilmore pretended he didn't know what Billy Carter said -- in spite of the fact the Redneck said it directly to his face. "I's investigation'." Gilmore drawled, swaying to the side, like some obscene Step-in'-Fetchit, hoping no one in the crowd knew the terrible truth. "We're all related," he added, still absurdly pushing his repugnant line.

-- 15 --

Later that same day, Gilmore started his doubletalk, "justifin" as they say. "In recent years, the strain has been taken out of the word `nigger,'" Gilmore tried to explain. "It really doesn't mean anything anymore." No, maybe doesn't…if you've lost all sense of pride, self-respect and community, maybe it doesn't mean anything when some White racist cracker calls you "nigger." But we know a whole lot of people that being called "nigger" by some low-life White trash does, in fact, mean a great deal. People who would have responded with much more dignity than Gilmore.

Gilmore now has less than one week to redeem himself to the Black community. It is revealing that there is no other candidate in the 6th District race to adopt a pro-community posture worthy of our votes. (See editorial, page 2.)

City Auditor WARREN A. MOOREHEAD
Certified Public Accountant

49

As a certified public accountant, Warren Moorehead certainly possesses the right credentials for this vastly-underrated city position. His advocacy of an activist city auditor, one who takes a critical look at how funds and programs are utilized in the community's interest, makes good sense. VOTE FOR WARREN MOOREHEAD FOR CITY AUDITOR.

School Board -- District 1 GEORGE ROTHMAN
Business Consultant
Consulator de Negocios
61

RUSSELL BRUNO

Attorny
Management Consultant
Abogedo Consultor de
Direccion de Negocios
62

A dual recommendation for George Rothman (see page 5) and Russell Bruno. Both candidates seem to understand the time has come to cut back on needless administrators and upgrade the quality of classroom learning in Oakland public schools. Both would be responsive to community input if elected, and both represent a positive change from the hard-line, do-nothing, incumbent.

VOTE FOR GEORGE ROTHMAN OR RUSSELL BRUNO FOR THE OAKLAND SCHOOL BOARD, DIRECTOR 1.

School Board -- Director 2 SEYMOUR ROSE

Incumbent
Actual
65

An incumbent running unopposed, the quotes might be taken off "liberal" in referring to Seymore Rose if concerned parents and individual continue to push him in the right direction. Rose is, however, far better than the School Board's current conservative majority. Again for a public office of this importance, there should be more candidates.

VOTE FOR SEYMORE ROSE FOR OAKLAND SCHOOL BOARD, DIRECTOR 2

School Board -- Director 3 JAMES NORWOOD

Accountant
Administrator, Educator
Consider
Administrador, Educador
70

The top-flight candidate in all School Board races this year. James Norwood is seriously committed to improving the quality of education for all the city's school children. His vital and alive program consists of improving the educational standards of our youth, solving despairingly frequent auditing problems and bridging the communications gap that exists between the Board, and it constituents -- teachers, parents, students and the community at large.

VOTE FOR JAMES NORWOOD FOR OAKLAND SCHOOL BOARD, DIRECTOR 3.

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CITY OF BERKELEY ELECTIONS

City Council

MARGOT DASHEILL, YING LEE KELLEY, VERONIKA FUKSON -- Endorsed as a slate by Berkeley Citizens Action (BCA) as well as by several prominent Bay Area legislators -- including Ron Dellums, John George, John Miller and Tom Bates -- this progressive trio tops a field of some 20 candidates seeking election to four Berkeleley City Council spots. Ms. Dashheill, long active with the Berkeley Tenants Organizing Committee, is a well-known and well-respected Black woman openly committed and concerned with improving the welfare of poor and oppressed communities. Ms. Kelley, an incumbent, is similarly well-liked and committed.

BOTE FOR MARGOT DASHEILL, YING LEE KELLEY and VERONIKA FUKSON FOR THE BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL.

MEASURES

Yes on Measures B. and F. (see page 7)

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THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY PROGRAM: MARCH 29, 1972 PLATFORM

WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE BELIEVE

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

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

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- 17 --

Intercommunal News: American And British Mercenaries Recruited For Zaire

(Fresno. Calif.) - Some 450 American and British mercenaries are being recruited to fight on behalf of the reactionary government of Zaire in its losing war against the Katanganese rebels (see article, this page), the Los Angeles Times and Christian Science Monitor reported last week.

An ad appeared in the Fresno Bee on April I asking for resumes from people with military backgrounds for "high risk" work in Africa with a salary of $1,200 to $2,000 a month, depending on qualifications.

David Bufkin, a crop duster here who gained notoriety last year for his recruitment of Americans to fight with pro-Western forces against the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), placed the ad In an interview with the L.A. Times, the 40-year-old veteran mercenary said that $80,000 has been made available to recruit and transfer 80 to 100 Americans to Zaire.

According to Bufkin, preference will be given to those mercenaries who are at least 30 years old with Special Forces experience in Indochina and who could leave for Africa within a month.

The Monitor reported that an American mercenary source who recently returned from Africa says that the organization which last year recruited the British mercenaries who fought in Angola is now seeking about 300-350 new recruits for Zaire.

The "paymaster" for the

-- 22 --
Zairean mercenary operation is a Briton named Chet Akins, according to Bufkin. Akins was also involved in recruiting foreign mercenaries in the Angolan conflict in the early part of last year. Bufkin said that Akins is working closely with a "Col. Mizuki," identified only as a Zairean military attache in London.

Bufkin refused to reveal who is financing the Zairean mercenary operation but did say that the CIA is aware of his activities. Herbert Hetu, a CIA spokesperson, categorically nothing to do with recruiting Americans or anybody else as mercenaries anywhere in Africa," Hetu said.

The CIA came under severe criticism last year after it was revealed that the spy agency helped to bankroll the abortive foreign mercenary venture in Angola. Thirteen mercenaries, nine Britons and four Americans, were tried by the MPLA government. Four of the 13, including American Daniel Gearhart, were executed last July.

Bufkin said that the American and British mercenaries being recruited for Zaire would support the embattled forces of Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko to prevent his government's defeat by what Bufkin claims is a combined Cuban, Russian and Angolan force attempting to impose a Marxist government inmineral-rich Zaire.

Although it is against U.S. laws for Americans to fight in foreign armies, the Justice Department has not taken any action to prosecute Bufkin or other Americans known to have served as mercenaries abroad. Commenting on mercenary recruitment for Zaire. Robert Stevenson, a spokesperson for the Justice Department, simply said. "We're aware of allegations that (mercenary) recruiting has resumed."

Bufkin said he is not worried about being prosecuted. "The government would be afraid to put me on the stand because of what i could reveal. They would be afraid of what I know and what i can say on the stand. I know too much and besides. I was working with the CIA. I have done too many things for those guys for them to want to put me on any stand," Bufkin said.

-- 17 --

FRENCH, AMERICAN AND FLOWN IN FOR MOBUTU: U.S. GIVES MOROCCO APPROVAL TO ENTER ZAIRE REBELLION

(Washington, D.C.) - The Carter administration last week gave its unofficial approval to the decision of the Moroccan government to send troops to aid the embattled regime of Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko in its efforts to repel a force of Katanganese rebels in Shaba Province.

White House officials, the New York Times reported, denying that the administration encouraged Morocco's King Hassan II to dispatch 1,500 troops to Zaire, made it no secret that they hope the Moroccan forces can help the Mobutu regime retain control of mineral-rich Shaba Province.

Seeking to justify the White House's position on Morocco's aid. State Department spokesperson Hodding Carter III distinguished between assistance provided by other African countries such as Morocco and Egypt and that supplied by non-African countries. (Well-informed sources said that the Egyptian government would also send 1,500 soldiers to fight alongside the Mobutu forces which have suffered heavy losses in the six-week-old Shaba conflict.)

"Our position on outside intervention in Africa is well known," Hodding Carter said. "We are against such intervention. The affairs of Africa should be settled by Africans."

The Carter administration announced last Monday that the U.S. would send an additional $13 million in "nonlethal" military aid to Mobutu. One C130 cargo aircraft worth about $9 million, in addition to radio equipment, spare parts for airplanes and vehicles and assorted related material will be sent to Zaire.

The announcement of stepped-up U.S. aid to Mobutu came one day after France said that it had sent 11 cargo planes to transport supplies for the Moroccan troops. Officials in the government of French President Giscard D'Estaing claimed that French cargo planes would carry "exclusively Moroccan material and no troops whatsoever."

D'Estaing defended the French aid as an act of sending "signals of security and solidarity" to Europe's friends in Africa.

Associated Press corespondent Michael Goldsmith reported that Western military analysts in Zaire's capital city of Kinshasa say that Mobutu cannot retain control of Shaba (formerly Katanga) Province without the help of foreign forces. For political reasons, the Western officials state, these forces have to be African, and Morocco is the only African state willing to take on this task.

WELL-TRAINED

According to Goldsmith, "(King) Hassan's 80,000-man armed forces are well trained, well equipped by France and the United States, and highly mobile…"

Many African countries, including that of the People's Republic of Angola -- from which the Kataganese rebels launched their attack on Shaba Province on March 8 -- believe that the conflict in Zaire is an internal affair. The estimated 5,000 Katanganese rebels, said to be members of the National Front for the Liberation of the Congo (NFLC), are Zaireans who have lived in exile in Angola since the early 1960s. They were involved in an aborted attempt for Shaba to secede from the then newly independent Belgian Congo (Zaire's former name). Government forces led by Mobutu defeated the Katanganese.

-- 24 --

In keeping with its policy of nonintervention in the internal affairs of member states, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) is supporting the Mobutu government.

The San Francisco Examiner reported that the Israeli government secretly sent a cargo plane to Zaire bearing munitions for Mobutu's army. Zaire is one of the staunchest pro-Western governments in Africa, and Israel is a long-time supporter of reactionary Western allies on the African continent.

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GAINS MADE ON MILITARY, POLITICAL, DIPLOMATIC FRONTS: S.W.A.P.O. ADVANCES

Moses Garoeb, administrative secretary and member of the Political Bureau of SWAPO's Central Committee, recently gave an interview to the Mozambican press in Maputo. It was published in the Mozambican weekly magazine Tempo, and has been translated from the Portuguese by Liberation Support Movement.

QUESTION: How does SWAPO interpret the present Turn-halle discussions in Windhoek?

GAROEB: The Turnhalle Conference is composed of the South African government, colonialist representatives and tribal puppets. Ridiculous things have happened there, such as the fact that coference documents were all written by the South Africans because the majority of puppet delegates cannot read or write. Even between the colonalists there are differences. Their three delegates at the conference are Afrikaaners, which has caused opposition in the English and German communities. This is a case of tribalism amongst themselves.

The objective of Turnhalle is very clear: to "bantustanize" Namibia, to divide it ethnically. This is South African racism through the tactic of tribalism. But they won't get anywhere by this, because without SWAPO there is no possible solution. Their own delegates, particularly the puppets, are the first to admit this.

Q: Was it because of this need to bring SWAPO to the conference table that the South Africans tried to divide your organization?

GAROEB: Yes, they were trying everything to divide SWAPO. Within our organization they had counter-revolutionaries, even at the level of leadership -- in the Central and Executive Committees. One of these was Andreas Shipanga. At the beginning of last year the Turnhalle Conference had already been interrupted twice. Its reconvening was scheduled for June 3, and the following plan to destroy SWAPO was to be carried out then: First the South African press began to divulge that when the conference was begun again there would be a surprise. This surprise would be the presence of SWAPO. Second, they were getting some elements within the organization led by Shipanga, to support the conference. At the height of this Shipanga was Secretary of Information and member of the Executive and Central Committees. We now know that he had his collaborators. West Germany and England gave him money to recruit cadres of our organization; the amount was $120,000.

Shipanga was to leave Lusaka and in London would meet with the other traitors. Together they were going to land in Windhoek before the reopening of the conference and proclaim that SWAPO supported the Turnhalle discussions. The plane tickets had already been purchased. But first it was necessary to physically eliminate the SWAPO leadership. The assassination of leaders was to be executed on April 25, not by Shipanga and his intimate collaborators, but by other individuals from the organization who had been corrupted by money. On this

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day Shipanga would have been far away. Another part of the plan was for Shipanga to go to Robben Island, where Hermann ja Toivo, founding member of SWAPO, is imprisoned by the South Africans. Shipanga would try to convince Toivo that the Windhoek conference was the correct course, and that he could be freed from prison if he joined Shipanga's group at the conference.

IN TIME

"But our leadership learned of these plans in time, and Shipanga was immediately arrested, along with his collaborators who were meeting in Lusaka. Now we are more than ever united behind Comrade President Sam Nujoma, and determined to carry on the struggle until final victory."

Q: What was SWAPO's position when the South Africans were presenting the idea of organizing a referendum in Namibia.?

GAROEB: If South Africa wants to resolve the question of Namibian independence by peaceful means, we would be willing to participate in elections. But we have made the condition that the U.N. or OAU must supervise these elections, not the South Africans. It is clear that South Africa does not accept this.

For the final question, Garoeb was asked if it is true the South Africans have 50 thousand men stationed along the border with Angola.

"Yes," he responded, "when the South Africans retreated from Angola they concentrated near the border, along the whole length from the Atlantic Ocean to the border with Zambia. the border with Zambia. There are more than 50 thousand soldiers, and with them are groups from FNLA and UNITA who are being trained by the South African officers. It is from these bases in northern Namibia that they are now making aggressions into Zambia and Angolan territory."

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Africa In Focus

South Africa

Black American tennis star Arthur Ashe, who has long been criticized for playing in tournaments in apartheid South Africa, last week declared that he will never play again in the country. His decision followed an incident in which he was refused service at a White ticket booth at the Rand Stadium in Johannesburg. Ashe was told that he must purchase his ticket at the Black section. The U.S. tennis champion was in South Africa to do a program for American television on the apartheid state's sports, and one of three Azanian (Black South African) sports administrators whom he interviewed said that Ashe was "very angry" over the Rand Stadium incident.

Namibia

Maintaining that his country has the sole right to decide the future of Namibia (South West Africa), South African "Prime Minister" John Vorster said last week that he is willing to discuss a settlement of the dispute over Namibia. He made the statement after he met with the U.S., Canadian, French, West German and British ambassadors to South Africa who gave him a message from their governments demanding free elections in Namibia and the withdrawal of South African troops from the country.

Benin

The government of Benin charged in the United Nations Security Council last week that "reactionary, neocolonialist circles" in France and their "African accomplices" were responsible for the attempted overthrow of the government of Benin President Mathieu Kerekou on January 16 of this year. Thomas S. Boya, the Benin delegate to the U.N., said that a report by a U.N. inquiry panel had supported his government's charge that foreign mercenaries carried out the raid on the small west African country, formerly a French colony.

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E.P.L.F. Holds First Congress In Eritrea

(New York, N.Y.) - The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) held its first congress from January 23-31 in the liberated areas in Eritrea, reports Eritrea In Struggle, the newsletter of Eritreans for Liberation in North America (EFLNA).

Over 300 delegates, representing all units, departments of the EPLF and its mass organizations vigorously participated in the congress. In addition, representatives of a number of liberation movements and parties as well as friendly countries attended the congress.

The first congress of the EPLF incisively and thoroughly analyzed the 15-year-old armed struggle of the Eritrean people and the development of the EPLF; discussed and passed appropriate resolutions on all the crucial issues facing the Eritrean Revolution; discussed and adopted the EPLF program and constitution and