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Militant Protest Mounts: “STOP THE EXTRADITION OF DENNIS BANKS”

(Oakland, Calif.) -- It was more than a good feeling, rather, a rare, militant spirit of struggle and unity that pervaded Fremont High School's auditorium last Friday evening as a large, multiracial crowd of over 750 turned out to "Stop the Extradition of Dennis Banks" and demand that all charges in the federal government harassment campaign against the American Indian Movement (AIM) co-founder and leader be dismissed.

Sponsored by the Dennis Banks Bicentennial Legal Offense Coalition and the Student Coalition Against Racism, the gathering was a highly successful prelude to a massive march and rally scheduled to be held in San Francisco on April 3. Last Friday's rally clearly displayed the growing, broad-based interest and support surrounding Banks' fight to avoid extradition to South Dakota, where racist state officials have publicly issued death threats upon his life.

Featured speakers at the rally were: Lehman Brightman, a leader of United Native Americans, Inc., against whom charges were recently dropped of "harboring" Banks; Clyde Bellecourt, an AIM co-founder; Miguel Angel, a Laney College professor representing La Raza Educators; and Elaine Brown, leading member and chairperson of the Black Panther Party. Rashaad Ali of the Student Coalition Against Racism served as the fiery and fervent moderator.

In the early morning hours of January 24, Dennis Banks was arrested on a federal

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fugitive warrent when 40 FBI agents, armed with shotguns and M-16 rifles, surrounded Lehman Brightman's El Cerrito residence. Banks had been sought by the authorities since August 5, 1975, for failure to appear for sentencing following a frame-up conviction on riot and assault charges in Custer, South Dakota.

Leading off the program last Friday, Brightman focefully detailed the "double standard of justice" the Banks' conviction represents.

Briefly, Brightman explained an "incredible" sequence of events which began with the barroom murder of John Wesley Bad Heart Bull, a young Sioux man, by an arrogant White racist named Darald Schmidtz.

Three days later, Schmidtz was arrested for second degree manslaughter, although there were six eyewitnesses to the slaying who all heard Schmidtz say he was "going to kill an Indian" a few minutes before he plunged a knife through the young Sioux's heart. Schmidtz was later found guilty but only received a probation sentence.

In protest of the sentence, a meeting was arranged in Custer, South Dakota, attended by several AIM leaders, including Dennis Banks, and Sarah Bad Heart Bull, the dead you youth's mother.

While Banks and the other AIM members were allowed into the courthouse meeting, Mrs. Bad Heart Bull was denied entrance. When she persisted to demand her rights, a White state trooper grabbed her and began to strangle her in front of several hundred shocked Indian supporters.

When the Native Americans moved to protect Mrs. Bad Heart Bull, the state troopers attacked both the demonstrators and the group meeting inside. Before the incident was over, scores of Indian people were beaten and arrested. The Custer courthouse and chamber of commerce were also burned to the ground.

As a result of the incident, Mrs. Bad Heart Bull was sentenced to one to three years in jail. She served six months. Dennis Banks, who admits to using a police bill club to break out a window and escape the tear gas filled meeting room, was sentenced to 15 years on the trumped-up charges.

Labeling South Dakota "the Alabama of the North," Brightman brought out several outrageous features concerning Dennis Banks' trial in Custer, including:

(1) That state Attorney General William Janklow, a known rapist of a 15-year-old Indian woman on the Rosebud Reservation, personally tried the case against Banks, intimidating his lawyer to the point that he resigned in the middle of the trial;

(2)That murderer Darald Schmiditz, his wife and two cousins were seated on the jury to try Banks. Although Schmidtz and his wife were eventually removed, the cousins remained to return the guilty verdict.

"Many young Indians in this country look upon Dennis Banks with great respect," Brightman said in concluding his speech. "They look upon him as a man who stood up to the full might of the U. S. government and defied them …Dennis Banks is a symbol of strength…an honorable man."

Following Brightman, Black Panther Party chairperson Elaine Brown delivered a stirring solidarity message in support of the fight against extradition.

Pledging to do "all that we can to see that Dennis Banks remains in some sort of asylum." Elaine added that she fully understands the heart of the issue since, "We also had a member of our Party, Huey P. Newton, who had to do the same thing Dennis Banks did, who had to avoid the so-called court system and avoid certain death in the California prison system."

Saying that "The Black community of Oakland. I am certain, will become more involved in the issue of Dennis Banks," Elaine explained the "natural coalition" between Black people and Indian people:

"Not only did they come here and rip off this country from the Indian people, they also ripped off our territory and brought us here to work for them. The Indian people taught them what to do because they were too stupid to know how to work the land and then they broke our backs to do the work."

Continuing to stress the theme of a "natural coalition" that can survive the racism and divisiveness of the FBI and other government forces, Elaine added, "We must continue to build this coalition so that at least one state in this union can say, 'Listen, we are going to provide an asylum for Dennis Banks. We will all be Lehman Brightman. We will all open our homes. We will open up this state so that Dennis Banks does not have to back to South Dakota to be killed…'

"We have the power," Elaine said. "We the people are the majority …This is not just an `Indian issue.' This is not a `White issue' or a

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`Black Panther issue.' This is an issue of human beings who are beginning to struggle together, who believe in Power to the People."

Clyde Bellecourt, who spoke next on the program, eloquently presented the history of the American Indian Movement, while attacking the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Christian Church and the educational system as "three institutions that work day in and day out to strip Indian people of their language, their identity and their culture."

At the time of AIM's founding on July 28, 1968, Bellecourt charged that the average life span for Indian people was 43.5 years (compared with the national average of over 70 years); that 82 per cent of all Indian people in America lived in substandard housing, with 76 per cent lacking running water; that the average Indian annual income was $1,500; and that the suicide rate for Indian people was seven times higher than the national average.

"DIFFERENT" ORGANIZATION

Bellecourt said that AIM was intended to be a "different" kind of organization, one in which "Indian people would make decisions for themselves" and that its founders would be "willing to give their lives" in the "militant struggle for self-determination and sovereignty."

During Bellecourt's moving dialogue, he asked the audience to rise, and led by a group of young students from the AIM-sponsored Heart of the Earth Survival School, the AIM national anthem, a sacred Indian fire song, was presented.

Receiving a standing ovation as he took the podium. Dennis Banks gave a brief address on the complexities of his case and the need "for the first time in this country's history for non-Indians to stand in support of Indian people's rights." He added that AIM estimated that Califfornia Governor Brown had already received over 100,000 letters, telegrams and signed petitions opposing his extradition.

Stressing the April 3 march and rally, Banks explained that he was not the only one seeking "sanctuary" since, "Poor people everywhere are seeking sanctuary from poverty.

"People are running from poverty," Banks said, "running from slum conditions, running from substandard housing and seeking a decent way of life." That too, he said, would be a central theme of the April 3 demonstration.

"For those of you who feel oppressed in this 200th anniversary of Ameirca," Banks said, "think how we Indian people felt during the first 200. This is our second 200 years, you know. It's been a long time."

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EDITORIAL: REVELATIONS?

If -- repeat, if -- the headline making Senate Select Committee on Intelligence ever intended to do a thorough and serious job in its mission to halt federal government abuses of the Constitutional rights and civil liberties of the American people, then why was the Black Panther Party never contacted or asked to give the history of harassment and murders perpetrated against its leaders and membership over the past 10 years?

Certainly, as document after document has revealed, the Black Panther Party was a primary target for the federal guns. Thirty-one Fallen Comrades attest to the raw, naked violence perpetuated against us. Are we, and the rest of the American people, supposed to think that the Party does not possess clear cut documented evidence of its own concerning the widespread attacks against us? Or is it the old, "Who speaks for the niggers? 'De White man do!"

Suffice it to say that in regards to the Black Panther Party, "De White man do not!!"

And what have the Senate investigations accomplished but some kind of wierd, vicarious "return to the thrilling days of yesteryear" where Southern Black men are forced by the KKK to jump off a bridge or Black Panther Party members are murdered as FBI agents laugh and their killers are never prosecuted?

Reliving the tragedies and injustices of American society does not lessen the pain; it does not ensure that similar activities will never happen again; it does not even mean that they aren't happening now.

Take, for example, last week's "revelation" that wiretaps were installed in six Black Panther Party offices and that Party leader Huey P. Newton's phone was tapped and his home bugged with the only "microphone surveillance" on the 1971 list OK'ed by J. Edgar Hoover.

On the one hand, those facts are correct, yet on the other hand they are misleading. Every Black Panther Party office had its telephone tapped, not just six. Not only was Huey P. Newton's home under surveillance, Huey P. Newton himself was targeted for constant spying and harassment.

Who's to say it doesn't go on today? Certainly not the Senate Select Committee. And they won't ask us.

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An Appeal to Our Readers

Dear Readers and Friends,

The Distribution and Circulation Department of THE BLACK PANTHER is in desperate need of a van or truck, with which we could greatly increase the availability of our paper in the Northern California region.

Demands and requests for THE BLACK PANTHER have greatly increased in recent months. Many people have heard through word of mouth of the excellence of our paper and particularly its unrivaled and superior coverage of the African liberation movements of southern Africa, but they do not have access to it.

Those of you who are regular readers know THE BLACK PANTHER is the only newspaper in the country that has provided weekly coverage, in detail and accurately, of developments in Angola. Only because the American people in general and Black people in particular are kept misinformed and ill-informed about developments in southern Africa, could so heinous a scheme as Roy Innis' -- that Black mercenaries fight the legitimate government of the People's Republic of Angola -- be even listened to in the Black community.

It is of the greatest urgency that THE BLACK PANTHER newspaper be made easily accessible to this community and to every community in this country. A major leap forward toward that objective would be realized if our Circulation Department could secure a truck or van.

If you know anyone who has a truck or van they can contribute, please contact them or let us know. Also, please dig down into your pockets and pocketbooks and send us a generous contribution towards securing this much needed transportation. Every 10 cents will help. Help us now, as many of you have done so generously in the past.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE'

David G. Du Bois
Editor-in-Chief

Send checks and money orders to; Central Distribution

8501 E. 14th Street
Oakland, Calif. 94621.

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COMMENT: “The Puerto Rican Struggle Continues”

By Lolita Lebron

On March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican patriots, led by a 34-year-old woman named Lolita Lebron, launched an armed assault on the U.S. Congress, entering the U.S. House of Representatives and disrupting the proceedings with guns blazing and shouts of "Puerto Rico Libre!" The assault was in response to the enactment of Law No. 600 which declared the island of Puerto Rico a "commonwealth" under U.S. jurisdiction.

Following, THE BLACK PANTHER presents Part 1 of an eloquent and moving statement by Lolita Lebron excerpted from a recent interview conducted at the federal penitentiary in Alderson West Virginia and reprinted from the Guardian newspaper. Ms. Lebron and four other Puerto Rican nationalists are the longestheld political prisoners in the U.S.

PART 1

I am Lolita Lebron, Puerto Rican patriot and political prisoner; 56 years old, born November 19, 1919, at Lares, P.R., historical city of the first proclamation of the free and sovereign republic of the Puerto Rican nation.

Since July 25, 1898, Puerto Rico has been under the U.S. domination. The U.S. established itself by the force of arms in the Puerto Rican nation as conqueror of our land, hearts and minds. The U.S. government controls all life existence of the people of Puerto Rico, exploiting our nation in order to increase its treasures and work power through colonialism and denial of our innate birthright of nationhood. It controls militarily, politically, economically, socially, culturally.

As a little girl, I went to school where the first thing I learned was, after the bell rang and the line was formed, to place my little hand upon my heart to salute and pledge allegiance to the flag. I learned afterward that the flag was the highest symbol of the nation and that the nation was not Puerto Rico, but a faraway country named the United States

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of America. We were not taught the meaning of the words. Our education was taught in the English language by Puerto Rican teachers who had a strange sound or accent like this of mine.

My classmates were very pale, sickly-looking children mostly all barefoot and in rags, with swollen stomachs, skinny bodies, nervous and uneasy. Among the pupils were a few stable, healthy-looking and youthful children. These were the sons and daughters of the landowners.

The meals at the school were bad, the sanitation horrible, the latrines flooded. The children of the so-called good families did have special privileges, such as receiving their lunches in the school through the maids of their houses.

Diseases were rampant among the people. The peasants' wooden homes belonged to the landowners and were very old and broken. The rain would fall inside. There was always mud around them. It was impossible to keep these little houses clean, because for one thing they were built immediately close to the soil. Pigs and ducks and cats came freely into these little houses.

The peons and their families worked long hours for the landowners. For this they got a few cents. They never owned their homes. My father worked all his life, but he got deathly sick at 42. He did not have a home in which to pass his last days, nor for his widow and his children. I was 17 years old when my father died.

A DREAMER

In my childhood and adolescence, I had no interest but to contemplate the beauty of nature. I was a dreamer of faraway thoughts. I loved the moon, the sunset, the morning; I talked to the flowers; I journeyed in petals. What delightful journeys, the journeys of the children.

When I was in sixth grade, I knew that life's lessons in the classroom and in my environment taught two principles: to do the will of God, and to do the will of the United States of America.

But one day I heard myself saying to myself: if I could make another world, I would make it, a world where the hard working people would be able to live more abundantly, just like other people.

It seems to me that I still hear the sounds of the hammers as the peons constructed the caskets for the dead, whenever they died -- that was quite often. They would do this at the warehouse of La Casa, which means the big house, and is designated as the supreme headquarters of the landowner. Yes, I saw caskets close to sacks of coffee and of vegetables and fruits -- the produce that the same dead peasants had produced. Yet they died young because of lack of proper food, proper human care and attention. The sight of naked children playing in the mud is heavy with me.

I saw a peasant wife taking a piece of meat out of the garbage cans of the landowners. This beautiful woman took that piece of meat from inside that garbage can and refried it at the wood stove of a little kitchen and divided it among her five little hungry children.

Later I saw the same mother making herself an operation inside one of her breasts, where she had developed a tumor, from a fall coming from fetching water. This mother, one day in the early morning, awoke her children from bed and told them to kneel with her, which they did. She had a candle lit in front of us all kneeling there and with a stick of orange, went inside her breast to operate. This mother died of cancer -- and for the country. Tuberculosis and cancers were among the common diseases of the peasants of my childhood time.

FIESTAS

I remember those fiestas … how my mother woluld make me ribbon bows in my head, and the little children around me were so happy. Our fiestas were Lincoln's Day, Washington's Day, Columbus Day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day -- our holidays.

My father's dogs were named after American patriots because these dogs were supposed to be his best friends and guardians.

My childhood at school was unforgettable, of course. I still feel it for one thing: my childhood school was named Marianna Brasetti. We the children were never taught anything about who this woman was. I found out later that Marianna Brasetti was the woman who is known as the heroine of El Grito de Lares.

El Grito de Lares is the most distinguished historical event of my country. It was in this Grito de Lares that the first revolution for my country's liberation took place against the Spanish conquerors. And the first free and sovereign republic of the people of Puerto Rico was declared on September 23, 1868.

At 21, and amid a very difficult life and suffering, I was advised to do as the other poor women of my country were doing -- to sail to New York City where there were opportunities.

My life experience in New York City grew to greater knowledge of human oppression, exploitation, negation. There came a day in which, after having tried for three days looking for jobs, getting left in the trains, walking under snowfalls, without money for lunch or shelter, I had to deny that I was a Puerto Rican woman in order to have a job.

I had heard the name of Don Pedro Albizu Campos and about the Ponce massacre, but as with most Puerto Ricans these events were not clear or present beyond the abstract of consciousness. Yet I can say that it was the Ponce massacre, where the university students were attacked and murdered by the U. S. bullets that cultivated instantly my personal duty to the fatherland.

Colonialism, like male chauvinism, were things not heard in my life's younger years, although myself and thousands of women workers were victims of the two unjust and oppressive concepts of traditional society.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Quick Action By Seattle B.P.P. Prevents Police Murder

(Seattle, Wash.) -- The swift, action of members of the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party last week saved the life of a former Black mental patient who was confronted with trigger happy Seattle policemen ready to kill.

The incident began when comrades of the Seattle Chapter learned that Ms. Dorothy Walker, 50, had been seen waving a gun in her apartment building. The comrades immediately telephoned the local press to inform them of the situation and also summonded the Seattle Mental Health Institute to the scene.

SURROUNDED

When the police arrived, they quickly surrounded Ms. Walker's apartment building, armed with tear gas, shot guns, revolvers and sharpshooters -- ready, as usual to inflict violence and death.

When the Party members realized that none of the "established institutions in the community had the care or concern to come to the aid of Ms. Walker. Comrade Ron Johnson pleaded with the police to be given five minutes to talk with Ms. Walker before the police began their cruel and senseless onslaught.

When Comrade Ron approached Ms. Walker and talked to her, he learned that the primary reason why she would not put her gun down was that she felt the police were going to kill her. No sooner had Ron gained Ms. Walker's trust and confidence than the police stormed in unexpectedly, overpowering Ms. Walker and taking her gun.

The callousness of the policemen was exposed when it was revealed that they had not even bothered to summon an ambulance or aid car to the scene. A car from the Seattle Chapter's Sydney Miller People's Free Medical Clinic was called to take Ms. Walker to a nearby hospital where she was immediately treated and the situation resolved.

Eyewitnesses at the scene commended the Party members present for their bravery and humanity in resolving what could have been a bloody confrontation between Ms. Walker and the attacking police.

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FRED HAMPTON MURDER CASE: F.B.I. CONSPIRACY REVEALED TO SABOTAGE B.P.P. NEWSPAPER

(Chicago, Ill.) -- "THE BLACK PANTHER newspaper is one of the most effective propaganda operations of the Black Panther Party.

"Distribution of this newspaper is increasing at a regular rate thereby influencing a greater number of individuals in the United Stales along the Black extremist lines.

"Each recipient submit by 6/5/70 proposed counterintelligence measures which will hinder the vicious propaganda being spread by the BPP. "

Written to the Chicago Racial Matters squad by late FBI Director/czar J. Edgar Hoover, the above COINTELPRO plan proposed a nationwide conspiracy to sabotage the local distribution of THE BLACK PANTHER newspaper in the wake of the December 4, 1969, assassination of Illinois state Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.

This COINTELPRO plan was one of 40 internal FBI documents introduced into evidence last week by plaintiffs in the case during the extensive questioning of FBI agents Joseph Stanley and Joseph Macabe.

Both Stanley and Macabe were members of the FBI's Racial Matters squad in Chicago and as such were, from 1967 to 1971, primary coordinators of the local implementation of the COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) operation, directed towards "disrupting, destroying or otherwise neutralizing" the Black Panther Party.

Plaintiffs in the $47.7 million damage case -- the slain men's families plus seven former Party members who survived the predawn raid -- assert that the 28 law enforcement defendants conspired to murder Hampton and Clark and thus fulfill the COINTELPRO objectives.

Skillfully questioned by noted civil rights attorney James Montgomery, chief counsel for the plaintiffs, first Stanley and then McCabe fought to deny any violent intent to their activities. They clearly lost.

FBI VETERAN

Stanley, a veteran of 23 years of FBI service, headed the Chicago COINTELPRO operation from August, 1967, to July, 1968. In this capacity, he authored the notorious "hit" letter to P-Stone Rangers leader Jeff Fort; a letter to the Party claiming that Vicelords leader Edward Perry was a police informer; and a letter to a man named Kenyatta claiming that two members were sex perverts.

Like ex-station chief Marlin Johnson who testified before him, Stanley uneasily maintained that he "could not recall" significant portions of the COINTELPRO operation, remembering only

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alleged incidents of Party violence.

With the precision of a skilled surgeon, however, Montgomery brilliantly tore apart Stanley's testimony, exposing several contradictions.

On redirect, Montgomery had Stanley admitting that all his information of supposed Party violence was purely hearsay and rumor; and that the Judas agent provocateur whom he employed to infiltrate the Party, William O' Neal, was among those indicted in a media sensationalized 1969 kidnap; and that he rehearsed his court testimony with federal attorneys during every lunch hour break.

Smiles and open laughter broke out throughout the courtroom at one point as Montgomery trapped Stanley in his statement that he knew the Party was "violent" prone because he was told the "Red Book" was required reading.

When Stanley said, "Yes," he knew the "Red Book" was written by Chairman Mao Tsetung, Montgomery cracked, to the crowd's amusement: "Is this person the same fellow that Nixon and President Ford have been over in China eating lunch with lately?"

"During McCabe's reign over COINTELPRO, the Chicago FBI office sent out several derogatory and divisive cartoons suggesting that the Party was controlled by the primarily White college student organization SDS (Students for a Democratic Society).

Following the routine set by Stanley and Johnson, McCabe's testimony was filled with memory lapses and a denial of the conscious, violent orientation of the FBI's conspiracy to murder Fred Hampton.

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SUPREME COURT BLOCKS ADJUSTMENT CENTER IMPROVEMENTS: STUDY PROVES CALIF. PRISONS UNSAFE -- FOR GUARDS AND INMATES

(Washington, D.C.) -- Acting at the request of the California Department of Corrections (CDC), the U.S. Supreme Court last week temporarily blocked implementation of much of the landmark federal court decision won by the San Quentin 6 which condemned Adjustment Center confinement as "cruel and unusual" punishment.

Over three dissensions, the high court majority stayed those portions of the December 16, 1975, ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Alphonso Zirpoli prohibiting the unnecessary use of chaining and shackling, tear gas use and isolation cell confinement without hearings.

Zirpoli's ban against the use of neck chains and his order regarding daily exercise requirements were left standing.

CDC Director Enomoto had sought the Supreme Court ruling on the grounds that Zirpoli's order supposedly "jeopardized" safety in state prisons. The stay is temporary, however, since it only bars implementation until a federal appeals court can rule on an initial decision.

The original lawsuit was filed by the San Quentin 6 -- David Johnson, Hugo Pinell, Fleeta Drumgo, Luis Talamantez, Willie Tate and Black Panther Party member Johnny Larry Spain -- in December, 1973, as a result of their longtime confinement in San Quentin's notorious Adjustment Center. Hearings on the lawsuit were heard in the spring and summer of 1974 with prominent Oakland attorney Fred Hiestand skillfully defending the Constitutional rights of the Six in federal court in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, there were no court sessions in the San Rafael frame-up trial of the San Quentin 6 last week due to the illness of one of the jurors and defendant Tate. When court resumes on Monday, prosecutor Jerry Herman is expected to begin his cross-examination of Dr. Philip Zimbardo, a social psychologist called as an expert witness in Johnny Spain's defense.

Last week, THE BLACK PANTHER printed Part 1 of Dr. Zimbardo's testimony concerning his famous Stanford Prison Experiment. In this study -- using 24 normal Stanford male students divided in two groups of mock "prisoners" and "guards" and placed in a specially constructed "prison" in the basement of a dormitory -- Dr. Zimbardo clearly proved that inhuman prison conditions greatly affect the behavior of both inmates and guards, causing nervous breakdowns as well as uncontrollable anger and rage.

Part 2 of Dr. Zimbardo's court testimony follows:

PART 2

ZIMBARDO: "Several things happened where the mock prisoners though that they could not quit the experiment. The reason -- and that made it a real prison for them even though it was only two weeks. The reason that happened, and I think that is very important, because if you think you can leave at any time, then you have not really been deprived of your liberty or freedom.

"What happened is the first inmate that had a breakdown, when he came to see us to say he wanted to be released, I asked him why and he said he couldn't handle it, he can't handle the harassment and the intimidation.

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I said, `Do you need the money,' and he said, `Yes.'

"I said, `You can make the money and I'll tell the guards they need not harass you if you become an informer,' and he did not say no, even though he was the ringleader of the rebellion.

"I said, `Think about it, and we'll decide tonight. If you still want to leave, we'll let you leave.' When he went back to the yard and the other prisoners (who) had seen him screaming and yelling, they said, `Didn't they release you?' He said, `You can't get out, they won't let you out.'

"Obviously he was feeling guilt about whether he should become an informer or not. But once he told the others we wouldn't let him out and they saw him acting in that bizarre way, we learned later each of them said, `I realized there was nothing I could do to get out.' So that psychologically that oppression made it feel to them like a real prison.

"The simple point of the study is: we ended at six days because the level of dehumanization of the guards towards the prisoners, the level of physical and verbal abuse had reached such a point that we thought it was threatening to the life and security of the people in the prison.

PATHOLOGY

"The level of pathology that we saw in the prisoners, and by that I mean distorted time sense, they had become passive. Some of them were acting like objects, simply allowing the guards to do whatever they would do to them. Some of them in interviews, however, told us of their fantasies of escape. They did, in fact, try to plan an escape. Some of them were telling us about their fantasies, when it was all over, of beating up the guards.

"Some of them even thought in fantasy terms of killing the guards. At that point we thought it was no longer an experiment."

GARRY: "What do you mean when you say `in a fantasy sense?'"

ZIMBARDO: "Well, some of them said they woke up having a dream, having killed the guards or becoming guards themselves or torturing or killing a guard, but in the fantasy sense they just thought about it or expressed it only when we probed it from them.

"They said that's one of the ways they survived. That is, they got throught it. While they were taking this abuse, they were imagining in their own mind all the things they would like to do to this powerful person, but they never expressed it. They never showed this behavior directly to the guards.

SIX DAYS

"In short then, we ended the experiment at the end of six days. We conducted the briefing sessions and countersessions and this obviously was a very emotional experience.

"We followed up these inmates and the guards for two weeks, for a month, six months and a year. And the last follow-up was two years."

GARRY: "What was the purpose in the follow-up?"

ZIMBARDO: "Well, the purpose on the follow-up was the ethical issue in doing an experiment like this. People had suffered much more so than any other experiment that we know of. People suffered not for so minutes, but day after day. The prisoner suffered humiliation and dehumanization; the guards suffered. When the experiment was over, once they were distant from it and faced the real situation, (they could see) what the prison made them become. So we felt it was encumbent upon us to have settings and counter-settings, if you will. Let's even call it moral re-education, having them face the fact how the guards abused the power they had, how the prisoners allowed the situation to control them in this way."

GARRY: "These men all knew that the experiment was only for two weeks, didn't they?"

ZIMBARDO: "Every man knew that they had signed a contract which said the experiment would run two weeks. And in the experiment they would be deprived of certain civil and Constitutional rights in return for $15 a day. We guaranteed minimum health and dietary conditions, and we stuck by the contract. It was a legal contract drawn up by the Stanford legal counsel. "They knew that they could get out in two weeks, but that's the point I'm making Once your time sense is distorted, two weeks seems forever. That is, it's the equivalent of being in a dentist's office for an hour waiting to go in a chair. That hour seems forever.

EQUIVALENT

"It's the equivalent of waiting for something unpleasant to happen. In your normal sense, two weeks can be compressed and not affect you very much. (But) when you are in a condition of survival, of threat, an hour can seem like an eternity and two weeks seems like forever.

"This is what they said, that they could not have imagined lasting another week, certainly not more than that."

GARRY: "Doctor, before we go on to another area on the experiment. I've got one or two questions I want to ask you regarding the experiment.

"Since these men volunteered for the job for two weeks and were being paid for it, how did you know that they weren't faking it? Do you understand my question.?"

ZIMBARDO: "Yes. There are a variety of sources of evidence that I believe attest to the fact that the reactions of the inmates to the situation were real psychologically, behaviorly.

"In addition to the four inmates who reacted with extreme emotional distress -- crying, in a rage, punching a hole in the wall -- one of the inmates developed a psychosomatic rash over his entire body, which we had to have treated at the local clinic with cortisone.

"This was on the fourth day. There is a record of it in the Stanford University Clinic, and he had to be released.

"I would take that to be evidence of the reality of the stress of that situation to produce such a strong reaction. In addition, the inmates were all interviewed by a Catholic priest who had been a chaplain in a prison in Washington. He interviewed each of the inmates and interviewed one who was having a breakdown, and his analysis was that their behavior was typical.

HERMAN (the prosecuting district attorney): "Your Honor, I'm going to object to this. This is a psychiatric evaluation by the Catholic priest."

JUDGE BRODERICK: "If the doctor relies on information given to him by a Catholic priest who interviewed his subjects, then you can't take what the Catholic priest told him as evidence in the case, but you can take it as evidence of what the doctor relied on to reach the result that he reached."

ZIMBARDO: "All I was trying to say is: Why is it that I believe that the reactions that we saw were genuine, real ones, and not simply people faking or pretending or acting?

"This prison chaplain said the reactions were similar to those of first offenders that he had seen in the prison that he had worked in in Washington.

TO BE CONTINUED

Free
The
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THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

March 14, 1794

Many historians believe that the cotton gin was developed by some of Eli Whitney's many slaves. However Eli Whitney gained credit for developing the cotton gin when he had it patented on March 14, 1794. The development of the cotton gin made cotton king and increased the demand for slaves.

March 18, 1877

Well known as a great abolitionist and Black leader, Fredrick Douglass, following the Civil War, became involved in government. On March 18, 1877, President Hayes appointed Fredrick Douglass as marshall of the District of Columbia.

March 15, 1933

The NAACP fired the first gun in its attack on segregation and discrimination in education. It filed suit against the University of North Carolina on behalf of Thomas Hocutt on March 15, 1933. The case was lost on a technicality when the president of a Black college Hocutt had previously attended refused to verify the scholastic record of the plaintiff.

March 16, 1964

Some 464,000 Black and Puerto Rican students boycotted New York City public schools on February 3, 1964, but discontent and dissatisfaction continued as a second boycott was launched on March 16, 1964, when 267,000 students were absent.

March 17, 1971

A Commission of Inquiry, headed by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and NAACP head Roy Wilkins, revealed on March 17, 1971, that neither the federal or the state government sought to establish the truth about the December 4, 1969, raid by Chicago police which took the lives of Illinois state Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. Ramsey Clark and Wilkins later co-authored a book on the Commission's findings, titled Search and Destroy.

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RON DELLUMS ENDORSES TOM HAYDEN FOR U.S. SENATE

(Oakland, Calif.) -- Declaring that "if I can't endorse this man, then I can't endorse myself," popular Bay Area Congressman Ron Dellums last Saturday formally announced his support of veteran political activist Tom Hayden for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate from California.

The endorsement came at a press conference held at Congressman Dellums' Oakland community office, located at 4233 Telegraph Avenue. Paying tribute to Hayden as "a humanitarian alternative to traditional politics," Dellums said that he was "enthusiastically" endorsing Hayden for three reasons:

- His identification with "policies and programs that the U.S. needs to address."

- His ability to move as an activist both inside and outside the arena of establishment politics.

- His goals and objectives that "seek to deal with the eradication of human problems."

Dellums had special praise for Hayden's "foresight and perceptions" on Southeast Asia. Dellums recalled the congressional seminars he co-sponsored with Hayden and his wife, actress Jane Fonda, on the issues revolving around U.S. involvement in Indochina -- seminars the Bay Area congressman said were instrumental in moving Congress to cut off U.S. aid to the reactionary South Vietnam government, as well as similar regimes in Indochina.

Noting that "Washington, D.C., is a city dedicated to politics, but very few people have any politics," Dellums said that Hayden has "humanistic values" that the nation's capital -- where there is "no continuity of values," Dellums charged -- badly needs.

Congressman Dellums described 1976 as a "critical" year in America, "the turning point in the future of the country." With "millions of people living miserable lives," the Bay Area Black Democrat said, a person like Tom Hayden who "speaks to human conditions" in the U.S. is needed in public office.

Following Dellums' statement, Hayden expressed his respect for the congressman's "principled approach to politics" and thanked Dellums "for setting the stage for me. I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for people like you."

Turning to the political scene in Alameda County, Hayden said that less than two per cent of the two billion dollars in federal contracts for the county are spent on community service programs, small business loans and revenue sharing. He declared that "we must end the addiction to Pentagon spending" and develop viable economic alternatives for the poor and oppressed people of America.

Hayden, who last week received the endorsement of the prestigious California Democratic Caucus, said that polls indicate he can defeat any Republican candidate. "We've achieved enough adaptability to make the voters ask, `Which Democrat with which program do we send to Congress?' "Hayden said. He estimates that 60 per cent of the registered Democrats of California are undecided about whom they want for senator, and will not decide until late in the campaign.

In May, Hayden said that he wants to debate his opponent for the Democratic nomination, "liberal" Senator John Tunney, whom Hayden said he will easily defeat.

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Master Plan For New Calif. Prisons Opposed

(San Rafael, Calif.) -- A California Department of Corrections (CDC) created master plan for the construction of either eight new 600-inmate mini-prisons or two new 2,400-inmate "super" prisons is being sharply criticized as "empire building" by the Committee for Prisoner Humanity and Justice (CPHJ) which has demanded that the plan be scrapped immediately.

Ron Silliman, CPHJ's director of research and education, said the plan is being developed "with no public discussion and no input from outside the agency."

He suggested the California state legislature should form a task force "to look into the deeper, long-range questions which are too important to be left up to the self-perpetuating interest of prison administrators.

NEW WAYS

Silliman proposed that instead of building new prisons, California should look for new ways to "de-institutionalize" persons convicted of crimes and returning the responsibility for these offenders back to local agencies based in the community.

He called the Deparment's argument that it needs new prisons to put convicts closer to their hometowns "little more than an attempt to combine a felt need on the part of the CDC with a socially acceptable excuse."

Each mini-prison would cost $96.5 million to construct and would cost the state at least 38 per cent more to run.

Attacking the CDC's current budget of almost $230 million a year, Silliman said the Department" is unable to demonstrate its success by any standards whatsoever. It does not deter, it does not rehabilitate, it does not provide for equitable punishment, it does not protect the public."

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People's Free Clinic Participates In Health Week

(Oakland, Calif.) -- As port of its participation in Eastmont Mall's Health Week, March 8-13, the People's Free Medical Clinic tested over 50 people for Sickle Cell Anemia, general anemia and high blood pressure last Saturday. Throughout the week, the Clinic tested over 150 people, free of charge, for the three diseases. Above, Clinic volunteer GINA SCOTT (right) conducts a test for Sickle Cell Anemia.

Other local health organizations which participated in the Health Week were the East Oakland Family Health Center, Adventist Community Services and the Alameda County Health Services Agency. The People's Free Medical Clinic was the only agency which provided free health screening and testing for the public.

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BLACK ASBESTOS WORKER SUFFERS LUNG DAMAGE DUE TO INDUSTRY NEGLECT

Receives Only $8,000 In Compensation

(Pittsburg, Calif.) -- A former Black asbestos worker here is unable to move at "anything more than a deliberately slow pace" as a result of lung damage caused by asbestosis, which is responsible for half of the employee deaths in the asbestos insulation industry.

Harold Browner, 58, learned of his condition only as a result of a routine tuberculosis screening although a company doctor for the sprawling Johns-Manville asbestos complex, Dr. David Wise, had just months before, in 1957, pronounced Browner fit.

"I asked that doctor, `Why, why, why did you let this thing go so far without telling me," Browner said. He was forced to have part of his lungs removed by surgery. "That company got away with murder," he declared angrily. "Someone ought to find a way to make them pay the guys who survived this terrible thing."

Despite serious impairments due to his lung condition, Browner has received only $8,000 in workers' compensation benefits while the Johns-Mansville company pays only part of the tab for his continuing medical expenses.

MALPRACTICE SUIT

Another Johns-Manville worker afflicted by asbestosis, Marcos Vela, won a $350,000 malpractice suit against the present company doctor, Kenneth Wise, the son of the former company doctor who claimed that Browner was fit. After 33 years of work at the plant, Vela was diagnosed as having asbestosis only after a visit to an arthritis specialist.

The disease asbestosis causes scarring of the lungs as small indestructible deposits lodge in the finest air passages of the organ. According to a San Francisco Chronicle report, several types of industrial dust can cause similar lung diseases, but asbestos fibers alone are responsible for mesothelioma, a lethal form of lung cancer.

A recent study of the Johns-Manville plant and others in the Pittsburg area revealed that over 50 per cent of their workers suffer from lung diseases, while another study blamed asbestosis and mesothelioma for 40 per cent of the deaths of New York-New Jersey asbestos workers.

Presently there are eight lawsuits, each totalling $10 million apiece, on file in Contra Costa County Superior Court in an unusual three-way legal battle. Five of the suits have been filed against company doctor Kenneth Wise, charging him with deliberately withholding information from the workers that they had asbestosis.

Wise has in turn filed five $10 million cross complaints against his company, alleging the company had told him that it had a specialist who would be responsible for reading X-rays of asbestosis or silocosis. Wise claims he is unqualified to read chest X-rays for diagnosis of lung diseases.

Workers at the plant also point out that the Pittsburg plant also went to extremes in its attempts to persuade afflicted employees to retire on a straight pension rather than file for workmen's compensation -- although they could legally collect both.

Although conditions at the Johns-Manville plant are supposedly greatly improved over 10 years ago, in the words of one employee, "The asbestos is still flying. Every time a fork lift goes by, it stirs it up on the floor."

In a related development, researchers at New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital have discovered asbestos fibers present in various body and baby powders. Nineteen powders were tested and nine were found to contain the cancer-causing particles.

The powders with the greatest concentration (eight to 20 per cent) were: ZBT Baby Powder with baby oil, Cashmere Bouquet Baby Talc, Coty Airspun Face Powder and Rosemary Talc. Others containing smaller amounts (under five per cent) were Faberge Burt Talc, Yardley Invisible Talc, Yardley Black Label Body Powder, Mennen Shave Talc and English Leather After-Shave.

Manufacturers of the powders, who include Colgate Palmolive, Sterling Drugs, Inc. and Coty, claimed that in their testing they found no asbestos in their products.

In 1972, the Food and Drug Administration considered regulations to cover the use of asbestos-contaminated talc in cosmetics, but did not issue any regulations, allegedly because methods which would be used to enforce them were "too costly and time-consuming." Presently tests are being conducted on the dangers of the nickel compounds which are also highly concentrated in these powders, and some of which are known to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing).

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OUR HEALTH

H.E.W. Sterilization Propaganda

(Washington, D.C.) -- As part of its deadly campaign of genocide primarily against Black people, as well as other people of color, the federal government is selling 30-cent pamphlets which tell men and women that they may achieve "greater sexual pleasure" after sterilization.

The pamphlets are published by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) and are sold through the Government Printing Office (GPO) or distributed through HEW family planning and subsidized health programs.

HEW was directed by federal court order to print the pamphlets as the result of its illegal sterilization of two Black teenage girls in Alabama in 1973, the Relf sisters.

The two pamphlets written for women describe two types of sterilization operations, one in which the fallopian tubes are blocked and one in which the "tubes are tied." Both operations are almost certain to cause permanent sterility, the pamphlets say.

They go on to plug sterilization by saying that "you never have to use a temporary method of birth control again such as the pill or the IUD" and "you never have to worry about getting pregnant again. That brings peace of mind to many women, who may also experience greater sexual pleasure after they have been sterilized."

The most recently published vasectomy pamphlet for men tells them that one of the benefits of the operation is "you never have to worry about making someone pregnant."

Over 90,000 of these cold piece of propaganda were distributed last year by HEW at a cost of $8,000 -- primarily for use by government family planning and other health workers and patients in subsidized health programs. The racist pamphlets are written on a sixth grade reading level. Each is being translated into Spanish.

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Six Houston Cops Convicted Of Illegal Wiretapping

(Houston, Tex.) -- A federal jury has found six Houston police officers guilty on federal charges of conspiracy against the rights of citizens by illegal wiretapping and brutality.

In addition, four Houston cops were found guilty on charges of theft from suspects and three others were convicted of filing false income tax returns.

According to an article in The Houston Post, the March 2 verdict came after an eight man, four woman jury deliberated four full days behind locked doors.

The officers, all in the narcotics division at the time of the charges, are veterans in the police department, with seven to 18 years of experience.

Three former narcotics officers, testifying under court immunity, said they and the defendants monitored drug suspects for three weeks with illegal wiretapping equipment checked out from the police department.

Two defendants testified that when they were arrested, police officers stole some $9,000 and met later in a grocery store parking lot to split the money according to how much time each officer spent on the case. The defendants, Charles S. Jacobs and John R. Huston, both testified that they were repeatedly kicked and beaten by arresting officers.

During the trial both former police chief Herman Short and present police chief B.G. "Pappy" Bond gave testimony that was criticized by the prosecution.

Short denied knowledge of wiretapping or payoffs within the department while Bond told the court that he would reinstate the defendants if they were acquitted. Government attorneys charged that "Pappy" Bond by his lack of concrete testimony was participating in a "conspiracy of silence."

Bond's comments concerning possible reprisals against current employees in a memo to city attorney Jonathan Day in which he (Bond) asked if classified employees are subject to disciplinary action after testifying under court-ordered immunity later resulted in his being subpoenaed, before a federal grand jury.

Bond spent less than half an hour behind the grand jury door and then met with Day and Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Bennet, who will prosecute another case of 10 present and former officers charged with illegal wiretapping, scheduled for last week.

Two separate indictments against police officers remain to be prosecuted by the government. Three former narcotics officers have been indicted on charges of possession and distribution of heroin.

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MEDIA-SENSATIONALIZED “ZEBRA” TRIAL ENDS WITH GUILTY VERDICTS

(San Francisco, Calif.) -- The long, overdrawn and overpublicized "Zebra" murder trial ended here last Saturday with the conviction of four young members of the Nation of Islam.

Larry Craig Green, 24, Manuel Moore, 31, J.C. Simon, 29, and Jessie Lee Cooks, 31, showed no shock or emotion according to a San Francisco Examiner report, as the jury, after 18 hours of deliberations over the course of four days found them guilty of all 12 of the state's indictments.

The course of the year long trial of the four Black men and their resulting convictions seemed to many here almost predestined in view of the media-sensationalized racist inspired panic created in the Bay Area.

During the 1973-74 series of murders, former San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto hysterically ordered unprecedented nightly sweeps throughout the city's Black communities by special tactical police teams.

Over 600 Black men were arbitrarily stopped, frisked and harrassed by San Francisco cops carrying a supposed composite picture of the unknown "suspects" A federal court judge halted the indiscriminate practice -- code-named "Zebra" by the police teams -- as un-Constitutional.

It was within this highly charged atmosphere that seven Black men, all members of the Nation of Islam, were originally arrested in April, 1974. Charges against three of the alleged suspects were soon dropped for lack of evidence.

The state's case against the four hinged on the amazing story of 28-year-old Anthony Cornelius Harris, a self-proclaimed co-conspirator turned informant for immunity from prosecution.

Harris, also a member of the Nation of Islam, was paroled from San Quentin Prison in July, 1973, on burglary and assault charges. He said he worked at the Black Self-Help Moving and Storage Company, a business enterprise run by the Nation, which he claimed was the staging ground for the killings.

Harris' fantastic tale revolved around the never-proved existence of a splinter White-hating cult called the "Death Angels." Random murdering of White "devils," Harris said, was advocated by the group. He added that he "reluctantly" accompanied the defendants on numerous Death Angel slayings.

Using Harris' testimony as the basis for their case, the state district attorneys proceeded to parade 115 prosecution witnesses through the trial, presenting grisly evidence of 14 murders, seven deadly assaults, a rape and an attempted kidnapping.

Although several eyewitnesses and survivors pointed out the defendants as their assailants, defense cross-examination did manage to bring out certain contradictory accounts of the incidents.

Clinton White, chief of the four defense lawyers, immediately announced that the verdicts could be appealed.

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Persecution Of Flint Black Policewoman Continues

(Flint, Mich.) -- A young Black policewoman was arraigned here last week as a result of her self-defense shooting last December 27 of her White male partner.

In the incident, 20-year-old Madeleine C. Fletcher shot her White partner, Walter Kalberer, after he struck her with a nightstick during an argument over who would drive their patrol car. Other White cops came to the aid of Kalberer and fired 14 shots at Ms. Fletcher, hospitalizing her for five weeks with a gunshot wound in the chest.

Ms. Fletcher has now been charged with "assault with intent to do great bodily harm" and faces a 10-year-sentence if convicted. There have been continual complaints from the 51 Black policemen in the Flint Police Department of racist abuse from all levels in the 375-man squadron.

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FAMILIES OF SLAIN PRISON ACTIVISTS SUE WALLACE AND ALA. PRISON OFFICIALS

(Birmingham, Ala.) -- In an emotional news conference held here last week by the Dobbins-Dotson Legal Action Fund, Ms. Little Bracey, the mother of murdered Alabama inmate leader Tommy (Yukeena) Dotson, announced that she is suing Alabama Governor George Wallace, L.B. Sullivan, the ex-commissioner of Corrections, and several other prison officials, for $500,000 in the beating death of her son.

The news conference was especially timely as it came just one day before the Florida Presidential primary in which Wallace has been running as a "law and order" candidate.

Also speaking at the news conference were Mafundi, founding chairperson of the Inmates for Action (IFA), Alabama's radical prisoner organization, a leader of the Committee For Prisoner Support (CPSB), and Ms. Carrie Bush, the mother of George (Chagina) Dobbins. In May of 1975, Ms. Bush also filed a "wrongful death suit" against Wallace and others for the brutal murder of her son at Atmore Prison on January 18, 1974.

Yukeena, a strong Black man, had always been an outspoken critic of the Alabama prison system and was the chairperson of the IFA at Alabama's Holman Prison. As such he was under constant harassment and subjected to frequent beatings and threats by guards and other prison officials.

STRIPPED NAKED

On March 12, 1974, Yukeena was stripped naked and handcuffed, allegedly to be taken for a shower. On the way, seven guards attacked the handcuffed Yekeena, beat him for twenty minutes until he was dead, threw him down a flight of stairs, and then returned to beat him again. The autopsy report shows that Yukeena's skull had been cracked like an egg shell.

The Atmore-Holman Brothers Defense Committee went before the Escambia County Grand Jury last year to ask for criminal indictments against the murderers of Yukeena and Chagina. Needless to say, no indictments have ever been handed down.

Mafundi charged at the news conference:

"The people who are responsible for, and under oath to uphold the law and prosecute those who violate the law -- and who also get paid for this by taxpayers' money -- refuse to take criminal procedures against the murderers of Tommy and George. Gov. George Wallace, who now seeks the highest office in this country, set the climate for these types or racial murders to continue.

"The filing of these suits is the beginning of a campaign to bring to justice the murderers of prisoners and those who in office protect these murderers and encourage such murders in this state."

Grounds for both the Dotson and Bush suits are: 1) intentional deprivation of civil rights; 2) negligent deprivation of civil rights; 3) negligent hiring, training, and supervising of correction officials; 4) wrongful death; and 5) conspiracy to deprive civil rights.

The thrust of the suits is to maintain that because "Yukeena and Chagina were strong, outspoken Black people; because they were leaders of the IFA; because they refused to be degraded and humiliated; that because of all of this, guards and prison officials did conspire to murder these men, with direct assistance provided by Wallace, Sullivan, Staton, and the rest, who openly encouraged such treatment of rebellious inmates, especially rebellious Black inmates."

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PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

S.F. School Firings

(San Francisco, Calif.) -- Twenty of the 33 San Francisco school principals who were sent notices last week that they are to be laid off are members of minority ethnic groups, the Affirmative Action Review Committee revealed. School Superintendent Robert F. Alioto said he concurred with the Committee's concern about the number of minorities laid off. Revealing the underlying racism, he said, "However, we must be guided by the law in this regard," indicating that the last hired must be the first fired.

"Terror"
Appointment
Protected

(San Francisco, Calif.) -- A group interested in jail reform is strongly dissuading Sheriff Richard Hongisto from appointing Raymond Procunier, ex-director of the state Department of Corrections, and currently head of the California Adult Authority, as under sheriff of San Francisco County. The group charges that while Procunier was director of Corrections he "presided over a virtual reign of terror in which Third World and politically conscious prisoners" were subjected to "brutality" at Soledad and San Quentin prisons.

"Negroes" Multiply
Rapidly?

(Birmingham, Ala.) -- Black students at the University of Alabama are sharply protesting racist exams by a biology professor here that have been shrugged off by college administrators as "a biological question." One question, for example, was, "Which of the following communities multiplies most rapidly: (A) Rodents (B) Rabbits (C) Negroes (D) Benthos (E) Plankton?"

Jail Food Rotten

(Milipitas, Calif.) -- Women inmates report that county jail administrators have not yet taken any concrete steps to improve the food conditions here. From January 2 to January 8, the women inmates staged a militant hunger strike to protest the poor quality food, charging it regularly contained hair plus live and dead bugs. The administrators continue to play claim down the strike as "an isolated incident."

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Former “Freedom Rider” Sues F.B.I. For $600,000

(New York, N.Y.) -- A White civil rights worker who was beaten unconscious by a savage Ku Klux Klan mob -- 53 stitiches were required to close the wounds in his head -- during the "Freedom Ride" movement of the 1960s, filed a $600,000 suit here recently against FBI Director Clarence Kelley and six unnamed FBI agents for their open collaboration with the attacking Klan members.

On May 14, 1961, Charles Peck, who is now 60, was severely beaten outside a Birmingham, Alabama, bus station after stepping off a " 'Freedom Ride" bus. Just two hours earlier a fellow White civil rights worker, Walter Bugman, was mauled so badly by White bigots that he is partially paralyzed to this day.

The suit contends that the FBI collaborated with the KKK through undercover agent Gary T. Rowe, Jr., and had prior knowledge of the assault. FBI complicity was revealed during Rowe's recent testimony about his activities as an undercover agent before a Senate subcommittee.

Along with Kelley, the six unknown agents described in the suit are "the handling agent, special agent in charge and other supervisors of Gary T. Rowe, Jr."

Describing the incident, Peck explains in his suit that he and

-- 10 --
other Freedom Riders were approached upon entering the bus station and were taken to an alleyway where Peck was beaten until he was unconscious. Rowe testified that prior information of this attack was passed on to the FBI and that he met with police officers in a restuaurant who were seated six tables away as the attack was being planned.

Peck's suit seeks, $100,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages.

When asked why he filed the suit after 15 years. Peck stated, "Because I had no hard evidence until December 1, 1975, when I read newspaper accounts of the testimony of Gary T. Rowe, Jr. … Since I am still alive, I feel an obligation to file this suit … My suit relates not just to what the FBI did 15 years ago, but to a policy which the FBI pursues today -- the aiding and abetting of crime in the interest of maintaining an illegal and unjust status quo."

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BLACK STUDENTS TELL TALES OF TERROR AT SOUTH BOSTON H.S.: 2,000 WHITE BIGOTS MARCH AND RALLY IN BOSTON

(Boston, Mass.) -- In a recent march to South Boston High School, 2,000 White racists here continued their rabid outcries against school desegregation.

State representative Ray Flynn, along with Boston City Council members "Dapper" O'Neil and long-time outspoken Boston bigot Louise Day Hicks, were all on hand to stir up White racist ignorance and sentiments. Leo Kahian, a John Birch gubernatorial candidate, likened Black students to potential sex offenders who would be running rampant in lily-White Irish South Boston.

ROAR (Restore Our Alienated Rights) leader James Kelley concluded the rally with the statement, "We don't want their (Black's) culture forced on us. Theirs is a culture of drug users. Theirs is a culture of high crime rate. Theirs is a culture of flag-burners…"

Meanwhile, in midst of all of the hysteria surrounding the White racist mobilization, the daily dehumanization and brutalization of Black students forced to attend South Boston High goes unnoticed from public view.

EXCERPTS

Following, THE BLACK PANTHER features excerpts of statements given by several Black students to the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union, graphically depicting the terror of raw White hate and official negligence.

"Some days I see gangs of White boys, headed by a student they call Sean, just roaming around the halls in the school. Some days they all wear green army jackets, and it seems like there's trouble on days when that happens.

"One day in early October I saw a White student named Sean come into the school on crutches with his foot wrapped in a bandage. During homeroom, before the first period started, I saw Sean unwrapping the bandage from his foot, I heard him say, 'This is my new nigger beater. I am going to use this crutch on the first nigger that says anything to me.'"

"Three Black students were walking with me, all in single file. When we got to the lobby, I saw a longer row of White students the whole length of the corridor. One of the White students pushed Jack and said something about `nigger mothers' and `all niggers suck.' Jack said, `Whose mother are you talking about?' The White said, `Yours nigger.' The Whites all started dropping their books and started to make a big circle around us. The one started swinging at Jack, and I tried to pull him away. Other Whites started fighting us all. The police ran in and started pulling people apart it was over in about twenty seconds. I was suspended for three days for this incident."

HEALTH CLASS

"All year long I have not been in any fights, and I have not been suspended. One morning, Friday, October 31, 1975, I was walking to my first period health class, going right in front of the office. Three White boys were walking behind me, and one of them named John started to push me.

A teacher named Mr. Marc Scarsella was standing right there by the office and saw this happen. Mr. Scarsella grabbed that White boy John real quick. But John grabbed me anyway and ripped my coat and the other two White boys grabbed me, too, and I was knocked to the ground.

I did not try to fight back. I did not raise my hands. I kept holding onto my books until I dropped them when I was knocked to the ground. A lot of state troopers came running over and grabbed me, and the White boys continued to hit me and kick me as the troopers held me.

"Three or four of those troopers picked me up and carried me downstairs to the holding room.

"When we got downstairs one of the troopers, badge number 665, who I have seen lots of times in front of the office, said, `Drop the nigger.' They just dropped me on the floor like I was a dog or something."

"SAVAGE BEASTS"

"One of the White student demands was that music be played over the school P.A. system during the change of classes. They said they wanted this `because music soothes the savage beasts.'

"White kids were standing outside chanting, "Two, four, six, eight, assassinate the nigger apes." Later in the period some fo the White kids came back into the school. When they came into my homeroom some of the Whte kids continued to chant: "Two, four, six, eight, assassinate the nigger apes." Mr. Hamann told the students to be quiet but most of them continued anyway. He did not tell them they were suspended or anything then, and I do not think that any disciplinary action was ever taken against them."

(We thank the Militant for the information contained in this article.)

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PROS AND CONS OF GUN CONTROL DEBATED AT MERRITT COLLEGE

(Oakland, Calif.) -- A panel discussion on gun control was held last week at Merritt College before a predominantly White audience of about 200 persons.

The all-White panel consisted of four speakers who spoke in favor of gun control and four who opposed gun control. A question and answer period followed the individual presentations.

Speaking in favor of gun control, Alameda County Supervisor Tom Bates declared that this is a "violent society." With a handgun being purchased every 13 seconds, Bates said the U.S. has the highest per capita ratio of handguns in the world. He commented that some people see a gun as a "phallic symbol."

Oakland-Piedmont Municipal Court Judge Jacqueline Tabor also spoke in favor of gun control. Judge Tabor cited figures that claimed the U.S. has suffered 600,000 dead in all wars fought since 1776 but 800,000 U.S. citizens have been murdered by handguns since 1900.

SURPRISING POINT

A surprising point made by Judge Tabor was that all Supreme Court rulings in cases involving individuals with handguns have laid legal basis to the position that there is no Constitutional right for individuals to own guns.

Wayne Johnson, an ex-member of both the Stockton Police Department and the California Highway Patrol (spending a total of 14 years on both), spoke against gun control, saying that control of handguns was the first and "most critical" step in depriving people of their Constitutional right to own guns.

He went on to say that powerful sponsors are necessary for an individual to make his views on the issue known.

Wayne also, in the course of his presentation, pointed out that many European countries banned guns and subsequently their governments changed.

Phyllis Jones, a research chemist and competitive shooter, also spoke against banning handguns. Deploring the high "crime rate which has us thoroughly frightened these days," Ms. Jones asked the timely question, "but is banning handguns going to accomplish a decrease?"

Other panelists who opposed gun control were trial and business lawyer K. Lambert Kirk and James Welsh, one of the original founders of a sportsman's organization called SCOPE.

The other two panelists, San Francisco police chief Charles Gain and Daniel Hoffman, who is a Santa Clara attorney and a vigorous worker on behalf of the proposed gun control initiative, were staunchly in favor of gun control.

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ON THE BLOCK

What Effect Does Chaining And Shackling Of Prisoners
Have On Juries?

ASKED AT EASTMONT MALL.

Clifford Wilkins 1800 74th Ave.

As a person who has spent time in jail myself, I can honestly say that it's wrong for the person who's being tried. It's almost like when Nixon made a statement about (Charles) Manson being guilty and it hit the front page. Manson's attorney moved to have a dismissal or throw the case out of court because that could play too much on the minds of the American people. Those shackles stand for practically the same thing.

Susan Gray 6433 Telegraph Ave. Student Merritt College

Having them chained and shackled like they were guilty before they are even tried -- I don't think that should be done.

Phillip Hall 2464 87th Ave. Student Castlemont

It's going to make the jury think that man is wild and they can't calm him down so they have to chain him up. They 're going to lock him away anyway. If they can't calm him down, they're going to believe he's wild and that he's guilty regardless.

Cynthia Evans 1426 77th Ave. Unemployed

It might make the jury think they're really criminals and that they wouldn 't have any kind of rights if they were chained and shackled down like they were wild.

Jerry Pandry 5920 Geary St. San Francisco

I think it would make a person look more criminal, more dangerous, you know, which might cause him not to have the kind of trial he should have.

Faye Chambers 949 73rd Ave. Unemployed

They probably think they're wild or would try to get away and that's why they're chained. The jury would probably think that they are incapable of handling themselves in court.

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Kaulo Prescott Charges KGO-Radio Firing Racist

(San Francisco, Calif.) -- Former KGO Radio Black commentator Kaulo Prescott has filed suit here with the state Fair Employment Practice Commission (FEPC) charging that his firing late last year was racially motivated.

In a recent interview with THE BLACK PANTHER, Prescott said he was terminated from KGO on December 13, 1975, after being accused by the station's director of operations, Jerry Johnson, of refusing to follow the stated policies and guidelines of the KGO Radio programming department.

Originally hired in 1971, Prescott was the host of the highly popular Newstalk program aired over KGO Radio on Saturdays. He came to the station following 19 years of confinement in California prisons, having spent the longest stretch in San Quentin Prison.

FIRST HIRED

When Prescott was first hired, KGO touted him as a "communicaster who `tells it like it is.'" Yet it was his thought-provoking programs on a variety of social and economic issues that brought him the wrath of KGO's management.

The 42-year-old Prescott, who was hired part-time by KGO Radio, maintains that he never received any assistance from the station's production staff in booking his guest throughout his tenure. He added:

"Johnson had different guidelines for me to follow, which were not given to the others…" These guidelines, Prescott said, were put in writing by Johnson on November 3 of last year, a little over a month before Prescott was fired.

Prescott also charges in his FEPC suit that he never received any payment for overtime nor was he ever given a raise.

An East Oakland resident, Prescott is a frequent lecturer before groups ranging from elementary school children, college students to businessmen. He served as an advisor to Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the noted Stanford University social psychologist who conducted the famous "Stanford Experiment" on the psychology of imprisonment. (See article, page 4.)

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“MARY [WIDENER] HAS A LITTLE LAMB (WARREN)

Berkeley Era Of Cronyism Exposed

Following, THE BLACK PANTHER concludes a special three-part series on the hypocrisy and bold-faced opportunism of "Black" Berkeley Mayor Warren Widener.

In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, Widener's turncoat positions on key community issues and his "unholy" alliances with moderate/conservative forces were exposed. Prodded from behind by his wife, Mary -- allegedly the "brains" of the operation -- Widener's history on the Berkeley political scene has recently culminated in his shameless announcement to run against his former mentor, respected state representative John Miller for the 8th Assembly District area.

CONCLUSION

As mayor of the city of Berkeley, Warren Widener has displayed his own style of dirty, cheap politics. The mayor enjoys being able to reward his friends and punish his enemies, and he won't let the basic rules of democracy get in the way of what he likes.

Take the matter of secret city council meetings. Since he became mayor in 1971, Widener has used his power as the presiding officer of the city council to conduct a great deal of public business behind closed doors. Since 1971, Berkeley has had a "backroom budget," written by the mayor and his council majority in secret sessions. Some of these secret meetings have actually been behind locked doors in the city manager's office. Many of them have violated the law, such as when a majority of the council is present and the public is not.

Or take the matter of free speech and the right of the public to speak before the city council. As mayor, Widener has repeatedly prevented members of the public he disagrees with from having an opportunity to speak at council meetings. Widener claims the right as presiding officer to set the rules himself. The rules are that anyone can speak to the council if the mayor says its all right. It's usually all right for people the mayor likes to speak to the council. But when a citizen or a member of a neighborhood group the mayor doesn't like tries to speak, the mayor bangs his gavel and has the microphone turned off.

The mayor especially works hard to prevent people from speaking whose comments are requested by the council's progressive minority, Councilmembers Hancock, Kelley and Denton. People whom they ask to speak are prevented from talking unless a majority of the council (controlled by the mayor) gives its consent, which isn't very often.

Widener and his conservative council majority also passed a gag rule to keep the minority council members from speaking. Under the gag rule, debate is abruptly cut off at a certain point and the council minority kept from making motions or expressing their point of view, unless the council majority votes to allow more time. Widener is also known to have turned the microphone off councilmembers he wants to keep from speaking.

"ROUND TABLE"

The mayor and his conservative "Round Table" have attempted to monopolize everything in Berkeley, including appointments to the city's boards and commissions. Widener has staunchly refused to let progressive councilmembers appoint anyone to the all important boards and commissions, preferring to pack the commissions entirely with the majority's cronies. Thus, although the progressive council minority often receives 40 per cent or more of the Berkely vote, they received none of the appoint-

-- 22 --

The mayour does like to reward his friends. He and the other council majority members travel all over the country, supposedly representing the city of Berkeley. They spend the taxpayers' money lavishly and make no reports to anyone, except at election time when they claim to have done great things.

For $18,000 a year, the mayor and his majority hired a professional lobbyist for the city of ments. It was passed by the voters and has allowed for far greater community participation in Berkeley affairs.

Berkeley. This was a direct slap at Congressman Ronald Dellums who is Berkeley's elected representative. This $18,000 a year lobbyist also represents the city of Philadelphia, whose mayor is the arch-conservative former police chief Frank Rizzo. Maybe he and Widener are working together.

LOBBYIST

The lobbyist, however, does not seem to do any work, except pick up his paycheck. No one in Washington seems to have heard of him and he never reports to the city council. Probably the $18,000 a year is a reward for past political services from the mayor.

The mayor rewarded his 1975 campaign manager by giving him a job as a housing program consultant. The man's speciality is public relations and political advertising, not housing. This doesn't stop him from traveling all over the country with the mayor.

Mayor Widener wanted to reward the campaign treasurer of his class ally, Councilman Henry Ramsey, by appointing him as city manager. That plan fell through because it became public and smelled bad.

But you can count on Warren Widener to always be on the lookout for some new way to turn the city of Berkeley into a giant "pork barrel" for his friends and a poltical torture chamber for his enemises.

That's the Widener style which will now be turned against progressive Black Assemblyman John J. Miller, whom Widener is challenging in the June 8 Democratic primary. Hopefully, Assemblyman Miller will keep the Widener style from reaching Sacramento, inspiring the voters of Berkeley to drive him and his ilk from the local scene also.

-- 11 --

Support Yvonne Wanrow

(Oakland, Calif.) -YVONNE WANROW, a Native American woman of the Washington state Coleville Tribe convicted of second degree murder for slaying a known child molester who attacked her son, held a press conference here at the Intertribal Friendship House last Saturday seeking support for her appeals case.

Tried and convicted by a racist all-White jury, Ms. Wanrow faces a total of 45 years in prison for protecting the life of her children. For further information on her case or for pledges of support, contact: Yvonne Wanrow, Indian Legal Defense Committee, P.O. Box 49, Inchelium, Washington 99138.

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…And Bid Him Sing

By David G. Du Bois

Exciting Novel Examines Lives Of Black Americans In Egypt

The following is Part 22 of …And Bid Him Sing, a probing novel by BLACK PANTHER Editor-in-Chief David G. Du Bois concerning a group of self-exiled Black Americans living in Cairo, Egypt, at the time of the 1967 Middle East war.

PART 22

I rolled out of bed refreshed. I was expecting Suliman in the evening and had decided not to return to work. It was Saturday. I'd been in the office from early morning. Caught in a news lull, we'd been pressing to get out several features that had been requested. Despite the boss's attempt to generate an emergency about these features, none existed.

My sleeping galabiya was damp around the shoulders and back from my perspiration. The parquet floor felt cool under my bare feet. I headed straight into the bathroom and stepped under a cold shower.

Despite the heat I had slept nearly two hours. The shutters and windows throughout the apartment had been closed tight since early morning. This had kept in some of the coolness of the night before, and kept out the worst heat of the day. I'd climbed into bed immediately upon my arrival after lunch at around four-thirty. It was now going on seven.

LOUNGING

Over my naked and scrubbed body I pulled a floor-length cotton galabiya, made myself a glass of Turkish coffee, and stretched out on a wicker lounge chair on my balcony. I was enjoying the rich, sweet, steaming hot brew, engulfed in that reddish glow that follows a Cairo sunset in early fall, when the harsh, insistent screaming of the telephone jarred me out of my reveries. It would be the office calling to find out why I wasn't there and when I'd be coming.

In a rare instance of defiance I decided not to answer it. I'd find a suitable explanation on Monday morning. That would be easier than trying to explain to one of the staff on the phone now. It wouldn't be the boss. He would recognize my absence without explanation as defiance and he was helpelssly irrational when faced with defiance head-on. I had rarely failed to show up without his knowing why beforehand. And in those few instances when he hadn't known, I'd always called to explain. By now he'd be raving at the others at my unexplained absence, almost terrorizing them into producing the result he desired -- my presence in the office.

It had been several months since Suliman's first visit. In that time I had been to his place twice; he had been to mine many times. At first he seemed to have one purpose in coming: to convince me that "Egypt ain't shit." Then we'd get into it, hot and heavy. His knowledge of Egypt was limited to what he had seen and experienced in less than a year in Cairo. He'd not traveled outside Cairo. He knew nothing of Egypt's modern history and only faintly of its Pharaonic past. I'd given him some books about Egypt and the coming of Islam to Egypt.

He treated books with affection. He would return them to me in much the same condition they'd been in when he took them. Sometimes he'd mended torn covers or made covers for those that had none. Often he arrived with a list of questions or scraps of paper stuck between pages containing information he wanted to check. When I couldn't answer his questions I suggested where I thought he might find the answers. In those three months nothing more had been said by either of us about his poetry. But he had not returned the books of poetry I'd lent him.

RUNNING MATES

At the same time he and Fawzy had become running mates in the pursuit of sex. Their appetites were insatiable, and Fawzy's ability at procuring legendary. He taught Suliman economies Suliman couldn't believe, and Suliman taught Fawzy things about the art of arousing a woman that Fawzy found difficult to practice until he saw their results for Suliman.

It had been an older woman, a friend and neighbor of his mother's, who had introduced Fawzy to serious sex when he had just passed fifteen. Being aroused was not her problem. But now, following Suliman's example and instructions, Fawzy found himself enjoying women much more and he found the number of repeated performances at the request of the vanquished greatly increased. Suliman never told me about his excursions with Fawzy. But Fawzy told me about them, in great detail.

Mohammed and Ibrahim had been at Suliman's place the two times I visited, and Suliman had brought them by my place twice. Mohammed had come once after that on his own, wondering if there was some kind of publicity I could arrange for him through my contacts with Egyptian journalists. When he told me what he was into and what he hoped to be into soon, I suggested doing a feature about him for one of the stateside publications our office serviced. The idea gassed him and he promised to keep me informed on deveopments.

HARD TO FIGURE

Ibrahim was hard to figure out. He was the youngest of the four, just past twenty-one. In the three times we'd been together, he'd said little, but I'd observed, missed little behind his dark glasses. Suliman had told me Ibrahim was the only one who regularly attended Al Azhar classes. He was tall and thin, with sharp features; dark brown in color. His home had been Philadelphia. There was little else that anyone knew about him and he didn't invite questions about himself.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 13 --

REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE

By Huey P. Newton

"Patrolling"

In the chapter "Patrolling" Black Panther Party leader and chief theoretician Huey P. Newton explains how the Party began -- with a heavy emphasis put on educating and organizing the "street brothers. " Also in this portion of the chapter he explains how he laid out the Black Panther Party's original 10 point platform and program which puts forth the goals of the Party to the Black community.

PART 42

We asked them if they would be interested in forming the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which would be based upon defending the community against the aggression of the power structure, including the military and the armed might of the police. We informed the brothers of their right to possess weapons; most of them were interested.

Then we talked about how the people are constantly intimidated by arrogant, belligerent police officers and exactly what we could do about it. We went to pool halls and bars, all the places where brothers congregate and talk.

I was prepared to give them legal advice. From my law courses at Oakland City College and San Francisco Law School I was familiar with the California penal code and well versed in the laws relating to weapons.

I also had something very important at my disposal -- the law library of the North Oakland Service Center, a community-center poverty program where Bobby was working. The Center gave legal advice, and there were many law books on the shelves. Unfortunately, most of them dealt with civil law, since the anti-poverty program was not supposed to advise poor people about criminal law.

LEGAL SITUATION

However, I made good use of the books they had to run down the full legal situation to the brothers on the street. We were doing what the poverty program claimed to be doing but never had -- giving help and counsel to poor people about the things that crucially affected their lives.

All that summer we circulated in the Black communities of Richmond, Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco. Wherever brothers gathered, we talked with them about their rights to arm. In general, they were interested but skeptical about the weapons idea. They could not see anyone walking around with a gun in full view. To recruit any sizable number of street brothers, we would obviously have to do more than talk.

We needed to give practical applications of our theory, show them that we were not afraid of weapons and not afraid of death. The way we finally won the brothers over was by patrolling the police with arms.

Before we began the patrols, however, Bobby and I set down in writing a practical course of action. We could go no further without a program, and we resolved to drop everything else, even though it might take a while to come up with something viable. One day, we went to the North Oakland Service Center to work it out. The center was an ideal place because of the books and the fact that we could work undisturbed. First, we pulled together all the books we had been reading and dozens we had only heard about. We discussed Mao's program, Cuba's program, and all the others, but concluded that we could not follow any of them. Our unique situation required a unique program.

Although the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed is universal, forms of oppression vary. The idea that mobilized the people of Cuba and China sprang from their own history and political structures. The practical parts of those programs could be carried out only under a certain kind of oppression. Our program had to deal with America.

I started rapping off the essential points for the survival of Black and oppressed people in the United States. Bobby wrote them down, and then we separated those ideas into two sections, "What We Want" and "What We Believe." We split them up because the ideas fell naturally into two distinct categories. It was necessary to explain why we wanted certain things. At the same time, our goals were based on beliefs, and we set those out, too.

In the section on beliefs, we made it clear that all the objective conditions necessary for attaining our goals were already in existence, but that a number of societal factors stood in our way. This was to help the people understand what was working against them.

All in all our ten-point program took about twenty minutes to write. Thinking it would take days, we were prepared for a long session, but we never got to the small mountain of books piled up around us. We had come to an important realization: books could only point in a general direction; the rest was up to us.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 16 --

THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY PROGRAM: MARCH 29, 1972 PLATFORM

WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE BELIEVE

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

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

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If you do not have knowlede 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 tascist 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: Rhodesian Black Militants Form United People's Army Of Zimbabwe

(Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) -- The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and progressive elements of the Zimbabwe Africently formed the United People's Army of Zimbabwe (ZIPA) as the "supreme body in charge of prosecuting armed struggle an in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) …"

ZIPA was organized in the wake of charges by ZANU that its president, Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, and the reactionary leadership of the African National Council (ANC) have openly collaborated with the White racist Rhodesian government.

The following is the conclusion of an article based on a lengthy communique recently received by THE BLACK PANTHER from ZANU exposing the elaborate although unsuccessful plot conceived by the Rhodesian and South African governments to destroy ZANU and the armed struggle in Zimbabwe.

CONCLUSION

Meanwhile, Sithole was a "pampered, restricted" guest of Dr. Kaunda. "Money collected in England, West Germany and the United States by ZANU'S overseas branches and by ZANU support groups amounting to about 69,000 sterling pounds (over $172,000) and handed to Sithole for the prosecution of Party work has never reached the comrades starving at home, in Mozambique or Zambia," the ZANU communique said, adding that:

"The crucial question of food supplies for our troops and even for the small number of ZANU dependants left in Lusaka was callously neglected. Instead all his (Sithole's) energies were spent on expelling Nkomo (leader of ZAPU) from the ANC and on forming the ZLC, whose membership after the expulsion of ZAPU consisted of FROLIZI (Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe) elements and a few ZANU rebels … all of whom are proven power-hungry counter revolutionaries who had long ago discredited themselves within ZANU."

The communique went on to accuse Sithole of "playing power politics" and of failing to protest to Kaunda after the Zambian

-- 24 --
government's brutal murder of 11 ZANLA militants at Mboroma concentration camp in Zambia on September 11, 1975.

Exposing the imperialists' plot against ZANU the communique went on:

"It was now all too clear why the enemy had released the Rev. Sithole, for during the 11 years when he was held prisoner by the Smith regime, they had had ample time to study his character and weaknesses. They had had ample time to work to destroy him psychologically and morally.

"When they released him, they were counting on him to strike the final blows against his own party. They continued to do everything in their power to work on his psychological weaknesses, producing gruesome corpses at appropriate moments, giving him their official and completely fabricated version of the murder of Comrade Chairman Chitepo… and even going so far as to provide him with a Rhodesian spy/CIA agent as a confidante/ adviser…

"Within a very short space of time, he (Sithole) succumbed to the manipulations of the enemy, but in trying to destroy ZANU, he also destroyed himself, for without ZANU, he enjoys no political base whatsoever," the communique noted.

Following the denunciation of Sithole by ZANLA forces, the traitorous minister vindictively closed ZANU bank accounts and the ZANU office in Dar es Salaam. He had previously closed ZANU bank accounts in Lusaka -- actions he arbitrarily took without consulting with the ZANU leadership, "leaving thousands of Party cadres, freedom fighters and dependants utterly penniless," the communique said. The money is now in Sithole's personal accounts.

Despite Sithole's betrayal, ZANU has courageously survived since March of last year without any effective political leadership. Completely denouncing the "reactionary political line" of Sithole and the ANC, the ZANU and ZAPU freedom fighters who have formed ZIPA have achieved a new unity -- a unity that will "strike more effectively at the enemy until it is totally defeated."

-- 17 --

MOZAMBIQUE DECLARES OPEN SUPPORT FOR LIBERATION OF ZIMBABWE

(London, England) -- The foreign minister of the People's Republic of Mozambique said here this week that his country is determined to help Black Rhodesian freedom fighters overthrow the racist White minority regime of Ian Smith but without Cuban assistance.

Joaquim Chissano, interviewed during a brief stopover here on his way to a special U. N. Security Council session in New York, said, "We have never thought of the possibility of allowing Cuban troops into Mozambique to fight against Rhodesia."

Chissano said that the possibility of Mozambique becoming involved in Rhodesia's war of liberation depends on whether Smith "behaves."

The U.N. Security Council session is being held at Mozambique's request to discuss the impact of the world body's sanctions against Rhodesia. On March 3, Mozambican President Samora Machel declared "a state or war" with Rhodesia following the latter's alleged "hot pursuit" of Black Rhodesian guerrillas into Mozambique. President Machel closed his country's border with Rhodesia and imposed strict economic sanctions against the White racist regime.

In Lusaka, Zambia, the government's official organ, The Times of Zambia, said Rhodesian Black nationalists should quit negotiating and "organize to smash" Smith's government on the battlefield.

In a fiery editorial the newspaper said that if Zambia had the power, it would command Joshua Nkomo -- the leader of the reactionary wing of the African National Council (ANC), an umbrella organization of Black nationalists groups in Rhodesia -- "to pack up and find his guns." Nkomo has been holding "constitutional" talks with the Smith government for the past three months.

Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda declared that the issue of majority (Black) rule in Rhodesia must be settled by force. "We say to them (White Rhodesians): When majority rule has to come through the barrel of a gun, there will be no future for them in Rhodesia," the Zambian leader said.

Meanwhile, Ugandan President Idi Amin, the current chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), has called on the body's 47 member states to provide material, moral and military support to Mozambique in its resistance to aggression from White-ruled Rhodesia.

Commending the "state of war" declaration made by President Machel, President Amin said, "Africa must seek to liberate Zambia (Rhodesia.)" He added that the OAU must not give "our enemies the chance to label ours an organization that doesn't implement its decisions."

ASSISTANCE

Amin's call for OAU assistance to Mozambique was preceded by a day with a statement from the OAU Secretariat which praised President Machel's decision to close Mozambique's borders with Rhodesia. The Secretariat described the Mozambique president's move as "a courageous and historic decision" and "an honor to Mozambique and Africa."

The Secretariat also appealed to all OAU member states to provide all possible assistance to Mozambique in its "hour of great sacrifice."

United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim has called on the world body to give financial support to Mozambique to compensate for the eight-month-old

-- 24 --
Republic's decision to impose total sanctions against Rhodesia.

The leader of the militant wing of the ANC said that Russia is supplying military and technical advisors to the over 10,000 troops of the United People's Army of Zimbabwe (ZIPA) now training in Mozambique and Tanzania.

Jason Moyo told reporters in Nairobi that Blacks fighting to liberate Zimbabwe, under the leadership of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), intended to establish a socialist state in their homeland that would not necessarily be allied with Russia or the People's Republic of China.

Moyo also said that the intensity of the armed struggle against the White minority government of Prime Minister Ian Smith was increasing and that Mozambique's decision to close its border with Rhodesia "signifies our determination to liberate Africa."

MOYO'S SENTIMENTS

Moyo's sentiments were firmly backed up by Zambian Foreign Minister Rupiah Banda. In a recent interview in London with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Banda said that fighting in Zimbabwe could spread into the White-ruled Republic of South Africa and engulf the whole southern part of the continent.

"If they (Whites) fight, we will wipe them out…" Banda declared.

In Rhodesia, the Smith government reported increased infiltration of ZIPA freedom fighters along the entire length of the country's 800-mile border with Mozambique and said that it would beef up its counterinsurgency forces.

Since January, the Smith regime has increased its antiguerrilla units by 60 per cent settled 200,000 Black Zimbabweans along the frontier as a "buffer" to resist infiltration by ZIPA forces, the Associated Press quoted Ted Sutton-Pryce, a deputy minister in Smith's office, as saying.

Constitutional talks between the Smith government and Nkomo were scheduled to resume in Salisbury, Rhodesia, on March 11.

-- 18 --

INTERVIEW WITH S. W. A. P. O. LEADERS: M. P. L. A. VICTORIES IN ANGOLA BENEFIT ARMED STRUGGLE IN NAMIBIA

The recent political and military victories of the MPLA-led government of the People's Republic of Angola have positively benefited the nine-year-old liberation struggle in neighboring Namibia (South West Africa) where the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) joined forces with the MPLA in repelling the invasion of Angola by the racist regime of South Africa.

The following article is excerpted from a recent interview conducted by Guardian staff correspondent Wilfred Burchett with SWAPO President Sam Nujoma, and the organization's official representative in Angola and a member of the SWAPO Central Committee, Homateni Kaluenja. The two SWAPO leaders discuss the implications of the MPLA victories for Namibia's armed struggle to win independence from 56 years of illegal rule by South Africa.

(Luanda, People's Republic of Angola) -- The struggle for the liberation of Namibia has been greatly enhanced by the victory of people's forces in neighboring Angola.

With the victory of the MPLA in Angola, SWAPO has just opened a major office here. During our discussions, I first asked President Nujoma about the significance of the MPLA triumph for the SWAPO movement across the southern border.

VERY MUCH SHAKEN

"The South Africans are very much shaken by their defeat," Nujoma said. "They had been glorified as a 'very powerful military force' in the West, and had sent their elite units into Angola only to suffer a costly and humiliating defeat.

"This is only part of the shape of things to come -- and our SWAPO forces did their bit. Among other things, we shot down a plane with a South African brigadier general and two colonels in it. And our armed forces are now operating within 45 miles of Windhoek; the South Africans are very frightened."

Homateni Kaluenja continued: "I'd like to mention two points for a start. The MPLA victory opens up perspectives for us to drive the South Africans -- despite their considerable strength -- out of our country by our own force of arms.

"We feel that for the first time, we have a strong rear base for our revolution," Kaluenja went on. "At least we have a long common border with a friendly, independent and progressive people. New perspectives are opening up. Hundreds of young people are demanding to join our armed force. The situation has completely changed and we now see the possibility of liberating our country by our own strength…"

Kaluenja gave the African population of Namibia as about one million, dominated by some 95,000 Whites. This is the result of a stagnation of the African population and the terrible losses suffered in various wars of national liberation. Kaluenja estimated that the Africans lost about one million people in resisting the initial German invasion at the turn of the century, the warrior Herero tribe alone having been reduced from 800,000 to 15,000 between 1903 and 1907.

RAPID DEVELOPMENT

There had been a rapid development of SWAPO's People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) from the April 25, 1974, coup in Portugal -- up to which time they numbered only a few hundred guerrillas -- with further big spurts in recruitment after the promise of Angolan independence.

"The young people are flocking to join the struggle," said Kaluenja. "Some, like this lad (introducing me to a bright looking youth sitting on his hotel room bed) have crossed the frontier asking for arms. But he's only 15 and we are arranging for youngsters like that to get some schooling in new Angola."

He explained that SWAPO's main military activity was in the four northern administrative regions of Caprivi -- a narrow wedge-shaped strip of territory in the northeast, bordered by Botswana in the south and Angola and Zambia in the north -- Okavango, also in the northeast, Ovamboland in the north and Grootfontein in the north-central region. It was from Grootfontein that South Africa launched its Angolan invasion; the large military complex there is also used in the control of Namibia.

"Thus far," he continued, "we have not concentrated on liberating territory to set up a liberated zone, but more on hitting the enemy's base installations and camps. We try to keep him on the move, which facilitates ambushing his convoys."

Between April and December, 1975, Kaluenja said 500 South African forces had been killed in such actions and a dozen planes and helicopters were shot down. Harassing actions were stepped up during the South African invasion of Angola, but he did not yet have figures of losses inflicted.

LIBERATED AREAS

"When we do set up liberated areas in the next phase of our operations," he said, "we will start driving the South Africans south -- and we will never let up, until they have their backs to the sea in South Africa itself."

Although military and political policy at the moment is to hit exclusively military installations, Kaluenja said, it was inevitable that attacks would be extended to economic targets, transport and communications and that mine workers and others would step up their demands for better conditions so that the "Whites may start to wake up" and put pressure on the South African government. "At a later stage we may consider hitting civilian installations," Kaluenja said.

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Dealing with South African plans for political solutions by "trying to carve up Namibia into neocolonialist tribal states," he said such plans were doomed to failure.

ANY BASIS

At that point, I asked Nujoma whether, there was any basis for negotiations with the South African government. "We have six conditions that must be met before there can be any discussions. For us, South Africa must:

- "Respect the right of Namibia to self-determination and sovereignty;

- "Respect Namibia's territorial integrity and renounce any further plans to set up `bantustans,' promoting separatist movements or trying to divide Namibia on an ethnic basis;

- "Withdraw all troops and security forces from Namibian territory, because we will not negotiate at the point of a gun;

- "Recognize SWAPO as the sole representative of the Namibian people;

- "Release all political prisoners currently held on the Robin Islands (some 70 miles off Cape Town, South Africa. Under the so-called `Antiterrorist Act,' some 40 SWAPO leaders are serving life imprisonment. Many hundreds of others are in jail. They must all be released, including those detained elsewhere in South Africa and in Namibia itself.

- "Permit all Namibians in exile to return home without threats of arrest or victimization. Only when these conditions are accepted will we be willing to enter into negotiations with the South African government.

"South Africa has two options," said Homateni Kaluenja in conclusion. "To withdraw or be pushed out. There is no third way."

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AFRICA IN FOCUS

Ethiopia

A recent article in Ethiopia's government-owned newspaper Addis Zemen challenged the country's 17-month-old military regime to set a date for transfer to civilian rule. The article, signed by Bezeabeh Belatchew -- believed by observers in Addis Ababa to be a pen name -- also called for democratic and peaceful solution in Eritrea. Eritrea is fighting for its independence from illegal rule by Ethiopia.

United Nations

An official of the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid recently told the Committee that "a serious crisis in southern Africa" is rapidly developing. According to a U. N. press release, Nicasio Valderrama, of the Philippines, observed in a statement that the liberation of Mozambique and Angola had created an entirely new situation in southern Africa. He said that a bill has been introduced in the South African Parliament authorizing the dispatch of armed forces anywhere in Africa.

Uganda

Uganda's President Idi Amin last week congratulated Cuban Premier Fidel Castro for "his undaunted courage to erase the forces of imperialism from the world scene." In a telegram to Premier Castro, President Amin said Cuba's aid to the MPLA-led government of Angola was clear proof of its determination to translate into action its declared stand on international issues and not limit its revolution to Cuba's own borders.

Djibouti

The Organization of African Unity (OAU) has appointed a commission representing eight member countries to make a fact-finding visit to Djibouti in the French territory of Afars and Issas. The tiny territory is slated for independence in early 1977 and is the center of a dispute between neighboring Ethiopia and Somalia, both of whom lay claim to the colony. Liberation organizations in Djibouti and Somalia charge that once independence is declared, the territory will still be controlled by France. The eight countries included on the commission are Egypt, Tanzania, Senegal, Guinea, Uganda, Zaire, Mozambique and Liberia.

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Saharan Refugee Camp Bombed By Morocco

(Algiers, Algeria) -- The Polisario Front-led government of the newly declared Saharan Democratic Republic has called on world leaders to save the lives of 25,000 people -- mostly women and children -- at a refugee camp in the western part of the Republic which is being bombed by invading Moroccan aircraft.

In a communique issued here recenty in the name of the Polisario Secretary-General Sayid El Ouali and reported by Reuters news agency, the government of the Republic said that the first two attacks on the refugee camps, on February 18 and 20, had resulted in 45 killed, 378 wounded and 401 missing.

Mohamed Lamine, the new head of state, has severely criticized the United Nations and Spain for not fulfilling their responsibilities to the people of the Saharan Republic, formerly Spanish Sahara, which was proclaimed on February 27. The Polisario Front is engaged in a bitter armed struggle with neighboring Mauritania and Morocco as the result of a November, 1975, agreement with Spain under which the latter turned over its 91-year colonial rule of the Saharan people to Morocco and Mauritania. The agreement stipulated that beginning on March 1 the two countries would jointly administer the country.

On March 1 Morocco and Mauritania staged a "vote" by the national assembly of the Republic -- the Jemaa -- designed to legitimize the two countries' domination of the Republic. With 42 members of

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the 102-member Jemaa having fled to Algeria, the vote was declared illegal by U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim who said that Morocco and Mauritania have violated two General Assembly resolutions calling for self-determination by the Republic's 70 million people.

INTERVIEW

In an interview with the Algerian weekly Actualite, Lamine said that his government would call on the U.N. to "take adequate measures to halt foreign aggression" in the Republic. Lamine also said that the Polisario Front would take steps of its own to defend the country against "the aggressors."

Twenty-one member states of the 47-member Organization of African Unity (OAU) recognized the new Republic at the recent OAU Council of Ministers meeting at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, following the introduction of a motion by Algeria, the first country to recognize the Republic and one of its staunchest supporters. Morocco and Mauritania, both OAU members, have threatened to quit the OAU if the majority of members recognize the Republic, an action which is expected in the near future.

-- 19 --

WEST BANK MAYORS RESIGN OVER ISRAELI TERROR -- PALESTINIAN DEMONSTRATIONS ESCALATE

(Ramallah, Occupied Palestine) -- Angered by "a new phase of repression and terror," the Palestinian mayors and city council people of three towns in the Israeli-occupied West Bank territory resigned their positions last week in the wake of increased Zionist military brutality.

In a joint statement, the officials accused the Israeli military authorities of "brutal attacks" on a number of schools and Moslem holy places in the area, and violations of the Geneva convention on occupied territories.

The incident which sp