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San Antonio Residents Unite: TENANTS' UNION TO COMBAT INDECENT HOUSING, POLICE TERROR

(Oakland, Calif.) - By their own say so the residents of San Antonio Housing Projects here, like many public housing tenants throughout the country, are "angry, frustrated and just plain fed up" over the conditions of indecent housing and rampant police brutality in which they are forced to live.

But, unlike the situation in other areas, the people in San Antonio are organizing for immediate, positive change.

Last Monday evening, at a loud, vocal and freewheEling meeting held at the friendly confines of the nearby Oakland Community Learning Center (OCLC), dozens of San Antonio residents got together to form the San Antonio Tenants Union in a united effort to solve their problems.

At the same time, nonresidents of the beseiged 178-unit facility -- led by Elaine Brown, chairperson of the Black Panther Party, and Rev. Michael Dunn, pastor of Elmhurst Preshyterian Church and president of East Oakland Clergy -- formed the Citizens Concerned for San Antonio Projects as a firm support group for the Tenants' Union.

The immediate task before the Tenants' Union will be to organize others to attend a soon-to-be held meeting of the Oakland Housing Authority Commission (OHAC) to discuss the many complaints of area residents.

This meeting with OHAC, to be held in San Antonio "as soon as possible," results from a pledge made by OHC commissioners earlier in the day to set up such a meeting and to hear what the tenants had to say.

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At 9:00 a.m. on Monday, Elaine, Rev. Dunn and five San Antonio tenants confronted the OHAC at its weekly hearing at 1619 Harrison in downtown Oakland, charging the commissioners (with one exception) and Housing Authority Director Harold Davis with neglect and insensitivity over their plight.

Elaine began by explaining that the Black Panther Party had been contacted by a number of San Antonio residents regarding the "urgent situation" and "serious problems" they faced. Included in the housing problems the tenants told to the BPP, Elaine said, were "fearful reports of outright attacks by security guards."

Demanding that the Commission explain why only Earl Fletcher, the only Black on the OHAC, had the "decency" to attend the meeting the week before, Elaine told the commissioners it was time they began to deal with these very real problems.

Elaine was followed to the podium by the women from San Antonio who clearly set the record straight. They were:

- Ms. Jackie Walton: "You have rats running all over the parking lot. The children don't have any place to play. It's dirty. The security guards are harassing the children. I have a cousin and they beat him because he didn't want to show them an I.D. They took him behind the old folks home in Lockwood Gardens and beat him."

- Ms. Earline Mitchell: "It's pretty rough. The children don't have any place to play, no recreation department. We have maggots and roaches around the garbage chutes. It takes the maintenance men three or four months to put a window in. The security guards harass and mess around with the little children, stopping everyone for I.D.'s and all that."

- Ms. Blanche Murphy (fighting back tears): "I live in San Antonio and I've got teenagers. I can't let my kids go out and play. That's not right. The roaches and maggots are crawling all over my back door. You call maintenance and they don't even come. I think it's a shame to have to live in a place like that."

SECURITY GUARDS

- Ms. Patricia Golson: "I want to talk about the security guards. Their attitudes are really terrible. Not too long ago one of them ran right into me, and he didn't say 'excuse me' or anything. I had to fuss with him to make him understand that I am a human being, that you just don't knock me around like I'm a statue."

- Mrs. Dorothy Burton: "I've lived in San Antonio for 13 years. Rats are flying around outside just like birds in the summertime. The cockroaches we have to fight. They have these stinking garbage chutes they've sawed down and stuck in the backyard. And the security guards, I don't know. It seems they want to be policemen. When you call for maintenance, you get a security guard before the maintenance man."

When the residents finished, the commissioners -- again, with the exception of Fletcher, who lodged several strong criticisms against his colleagues -- and particularly director Davis played uniformly "dumb." Davis had the audacity to say he only had heard of one complaint, which was good "for an environment like that."

He was later branded a "liar," when one tenant said she saw the security guards jump out of their car, guns drawn and tell a 13-year-old up on the roof getting a ball, "Hold it. If you move, you're a dead nigger." Davis' assertions that he regularly attended meetings in San Antonio were met with open laughter.

Speaking for the group, Elaine attacked a series of Oakland Tribune articles, crediting the Oakland Police Department with solving a "Supermarket For Dope" problem in San Antonio, as a distortion.

Elaine (and other tenants at both meetings) charged OPD officers Tommy Turner, Gaston Musch, and Tyson and others with creating an "armed camp" in the projects, and collaborating with the security guards "to intimidate the residents, if they ever 'get out of line,' which is the was they put it."

Commenting on the whole situation -- and the need for swift change -- Mrs. Burton said:

"We need that hole, San Antonio, cleaned up. The cockroaches walk with my grandbaby. I'm not accustomed to living in a bunch of filth and I don't even care for it. If there's dope traffic out there, then its up to the police to find it, but they're not doing that. Instead, they're beating up little children, hitting people all in the mouth. The dope problem is none of my business. It's my business to live decently."

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EDITORIAL: ANGOLAN JUSTICE

The government of the People's Republic of Angola, led by the courageous MPLA, made a profound political statement during the trial of the 13 American and British mercenaries -- men who foolishly dared to invade Angolan soil in the service of the U.S. and her reactionary Western allies in a vain effort to overthrow the MPLA and thereby cause a major setback in the West African nation's ongoing revolution.

The Los Angeles Times was accurate in saying that through the trial the people of Angola, under the leadership of the MPLA, were able "…to show the world that an African country can defeat and then try as criminals the hired soldiers of the White world." Prosecutor Rui Monteiro expressed the sentiments of freedom and peace-loving people throughout the world when he portrayed the mercenaries as the "scum of human society" and harshly berated "the forces of imperialism" who sent them on their doomed mission.

During the trial, the Western press tried to gain sympathy for the mercenaries by characterizing them as "life's losers," men who were poor, jobless, lacking an education or a future, who went to Angola to make some money and escape from their problems. Although the People's Revolutionary Tribunal would have been completely justified in ordering the firing squad for all of the 13 men, it humanely judged each individual case. It should not be forgotten that Angolans sitting in the spectator section of the courtroom periodically chanted, "Death, Death" for all the men.

Monteiro emphasized that the trial would be an example of "revolutionary justice." One of the four mercenaries sentenced to death was an American, 34-year-old Daniel Gearhart of Kensington, Maryland. Gearhart angered the tribunal by saying that he had come to Angola "to stop a communist takeover," The MPLA, as well as other Black progressive governments in Africa, rightfully consider the U.S. the architect of imperialist attempts to subvert the Angolan revolution. Therefore, it was only "revolutionary justice" that at least one American be sentenced to death.

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COMMENT: “Ideas Of Freedom Are Always Dangerous…”

By Elaine Brown,
Chairperson,
Black Panther Party

Asked by CounterSpy magazine to comment on the FBI's COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence program), Black Panther Party chairperson Elaine Brown made the following response.

PART 1

Recently, new reports have indicated -- through the Church Committee's so-called investigation of domestic intelligence activity, particularly the COINTELPRO activities by the FBI -- that the Black Panther Party was targeted for destruction by the FBI. More FBI activity was directed against the Black Panther Party than any other organization (or individual), according to these reports.

There are several serious problems with these reports, however, that must be pointed out if we, the Black and oppressed people of this country, are to learn anything from such accounts. More importantly, we have to understand why such activities were promoted and realize that they still are today.

The reports reflect that the FBI did little more to Black organizations than cash in on natural divisiveness in the Black community or as one report said. "…let nature take its course."

The first thing we need to recognize is the falseness of this idea, of the encouraging of rival "gangs" to fight one another. We can recognize its falseness by definition alone: that the Black Panther Party is or ever has been a gang; that Black organizations rival -- for what?; that all the FBI did was set up situations.

We can get back to some of the specifics of these reports after analyzing why all this activity went on. J. Edgar Hoover, queen of every policeman's ball, was constantly trying to propagandize that no one could escape his network of "G-men," but the Black Panther Party flagrantly and openly advocated human rights over legal injustices and repression. It became an insult to Hoover.

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The Party truly did become dangerous to Hoover, as media attention grew. The Media was bent on building us up and wiping us out. It was out of the media's constant need to sensationalize that the true ideas the Party wanted to put forward came out: the right to bear arms (the Party's police patrols); the right to eat (breakfast programs); and the need to join electoral politics (running on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket), etc.

The Party was also dangerous because it grew up and came to life in the midst of the ghetto uprisings in Watts, Detroit, Philadelphia, and other cities. The Party synthesized and put into programmatic form the feelings of anger and frustration demonstrated throughout the country in the middle and late sixties.

TRANSFORMED

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X had just been assassinated after they had gotten together and transformed by having dismissed the tactic of nonviolence and the ideology of racism. Unorganised violence had blown up to country's centers of industry, but had been put down with the gun and the poverty program. All seemed well by 1966-67 when the Party began, despite the fiery speeches of the Stocky Carmichaels and the unrest on campuses of rich kids gone wrong.

The danger of the Black Panther Party emerged at the historic point when, the unorganised and disenfranchised began to identify with the Party's Ten-Point Platform and Program. The tenth point summed up what poor people, working people of all colors understood and expressed in many ways: "We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and *people's community control of modern technology (* added in 1972). Black Panther Party chapters sprung up everywhere -- in 32 cities in one year.

The Panthers were dangerous - to the power elite - because ideas of freedom, when spread, are always dangerous to oppressive forces. Among those forces was J. Edgar et. al., who knew it was too insulting, too embarassing for their image, to allow the Black Panther Party to continue. By 1968, Hoover, had declared that the Black Panther Party was the single most dangerous threat to internal security, only two years after its birth. Armed with more money from the American government, he thought it would be easy then to wipe the Party off the face of the earth. The year 1969 saw this overt program at its height - raids on homes and offices, rampant arrests, and assassinations.

The Party became more dangerous as it began to develop more services and programs, later called Survival Programs, which concretely demonstrated, more than any rally, speech, or newspaper, the contradictions in an over-developed, rich country that could not and would not provide for its citizens.

In Los Angeles, California, at this time a so-called Black cultural nationalist organization called United Slaves sprung into action at the heels of the Watts uprising. It was headed by a Ronald Everett to be called "Maulana Ron Karenage," a magna cum laude graduate of UCLA who had just rid himself of a White wife and a British accent. Everyone was regrouping in Watts trying to establish unity in the Black community. Karenga shaved the heads and minds of a few Blacks from the opposite side of town from Watts, gave them some dollars and guns and sent them out. They were to take charge of all the local Black groups through an umbrella organization called the Black Congress. Karenga's troops were feared by other Blacks as the most militant and the most "Black."

Within one year, Karenga had everyone who was developing any consciousness, thinking about how good it was to be Black and forgetting even the memory of Watts; all this for a corporation-sponsored dark-brown strutter's parade called the "Watts Festival."

People were still hungry, unemployed, poor, living in indecent housing, and suffering from inadequate education. The Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party came into being around that same time (late 1967), headed by a native of Los Angeles's black ghetto, Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter, who was a former leader of L. A.'s 2,000-strong Slausons gang and a former inmate of Soleded Prison.

Letters were not sent, but attacks on Party members were made, by two entities -- the police and Karenga. Karenga finally ordered the deaths of John Huggins and Bunchy Carter over the issue of whether UCLA Black Student Union members should work with the campus Brown Berets and SDS or remain isolated in a Karenga-produced Black Studies Program.

It is my belief now, as it was then, that Karenga works for and with the FBI.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Long Beach Black Community Protests Police Brutality

(Long Beach, Calif.) - Over 200 people from throughout Los Angeles County attended a spirited march and rally here on Saturday, June 19, to protest rampant police abuse in Black and poor communities and to demand that city officials establish a public review board to monitor police actions.

Co-sponsored by the Scott-Smith Committee for Justice and the Coalition Against Police Abuse (CAPA), the march-rally began at Martin Luther King, Jr., Park where the enthusiastic participants gathered for the walk to nearby McArthur Park where the rally was held.

Rally speakers included Bob Duren, co-chairperson of CAPA; Ms. Virginia Harris, spokesperson of the Scott-Smith Committee; Anhony Thigpen, CAPA spokesperson, and Rev. Al Dortch, founder of the Church of Survival, A tape recorded message by Mrs. Shellie Reedus, mother of 21-year-old Cartier Reedus who was shot and killed by Long Beach police on February 29 of this year, was also played.

In her moving statements, Mrs. Reedus said that on the night of his murder, Cartier was scheduled to leave for Oregon State University where he had a scholarship. The "nightmare" -- as eyewitnesses to the incident later described it -- began as Cartier stood in McArthur Park under a street light while two blocks away a White man was allegedly being shot by two Black men. A police helicopter that was flying overhead at the time spotted Cartier and flashed a bright spotlight on him.

Police officers in the area, Mrs. Reedus said, then surrounded the

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park on all four sides, turned off the lights of their cars and "sneaked like thieves through the night and gunned my son down." Mrs. Reedus insisted that police had no grounds for their cold-blooded murder of her son since "the only movement witnesses saw Cartier make came from the shots that were continuously pumped into his body as he lay on the ground."

Afterwards, Mrs. Reedus continued, when paramedics attempted to save Cartier's life, a police officer yelled at them, "Get, back into your truck. If he's not dead, he will be." Mrs. Reedus urged Black and oppressed people throughout Los Angeles County "to continue the struggle against police brutality."

In this comments, Bob Duren, whose sister Betty Scott was brutally murdered by a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer near Pleasanton, California, on September 20, 1975, explained that the Scott-Smith Committee -- organized shortly after Betty's death -- gathered 400 signatures on a petition that was presented in May to the Long Beach City Council. The petition demanded that the Council set up a community agency to investigate cases of police wrongdoing.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Duren said that the city manager referred the matter to the Public Safety Committee which has not yet met. "Meanwhile," he added, "we're documenting cases of beatings and killings that show a pattern of force by policemen. Victims of police crimes are poor, usually Black or Brown and not members of an organized group.

"A lot of people are still asleep. We want to wake up those people who are afraid to walk in the streets at night because they know the police will stop them," Duren emphasized.

CAPA is a countywide organization composed of numerous community groups that are exposing cases of police brutality. In addition to Ms. Scott and Reedus, the organization is also looking into the deaths of Anthony B. Wilkins, shot by police while chaperoning a group of youth at a concert at the Hollywood Bowl on August 2, 1974; Gene Lowe, 33, killed by a police sharpshooter while surrendering to police on New Year's Day, 1976, after an apparent ambush; and Kevin Michael Larry, 18, murdered by a blast from a police shotgun at the Carmelitos Housing Project on April 18. All of the victims were Long Beach residents.

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IN DEFENSE OF B.P.P. MEMBER JOHNNY LARRY SPAIN :CHARLES GARRY DEVASTATING IN S.Q.6 TRIAL CLOSING ARGUMENTS

(San Rafeal, Calif.) - Commanding his vast array of courtroom skills with the precision of a surgeon, attorney Charles Garry delivered a devastating closing argument at the San Quentin 6 trial here last Tuesday, Dissecting the prosecution's case and exposing a malignant growth of "lies" and "garbage."

Speaking in defense of Black Panther Party member Johnny Larry Spain -- indeed, in defense of late Black Panther Party Field Marshal George Jackson, as well as the five other defendants -- Garry's compelling arguments spellbound both jury and spectators, as over and over again he relentlessly hacked away at the prosecution's distortions.

Just prior to the court's evening recess, Garry commented: "Justice, the ascertainment of truth -- this is the most important thing in the world. I've tried a lot of cases in my time and run into a lot of rank prosecutions, but in this case before us now, it's incredible the extent they will go to cover up that horrible day on August 21, 1971. They're playing games with you. They're playing games with the law."

Garry began his closing argument, which is expected to last two or three days, by telling the jury that he was going to be "frank, brutal in analyzing the evidence with you." He was.

"Certain things about this case bother me," Garry said. "They bothered me for a long time."

He then listed some particulars:

- If, according to the prosecution's case, a woman named Vanetta Anderson gave Stephen Bingham the attache case with a tape recorder and a .9 mm. gun inside, "then where is this Vanetta Anderson? Why isn't she here before the bar of justice? Don't tell me that the state of California, with all its power, with all its wealth, couldn't find out about Vanetta Anderson?"

- According to the prosecution, there was an unidentified fingerprint on the .9 mm. "Don't tell me they couldn't isolate that fingerprint," Garry implored, adding, "but we still don't have the answer."

- "It bothers me that countless numbers of persons can go through San Quentin's gates without being searched or examined.

- "According to the prosecution's theory," Garry said, "on August 21, 1971, there was a plan to escape. But, let's look at this theory. Ask yourself; where were they going to escape to? With the exception of George Jackson and my client, Johnny Larry Spain, no one (inmates) went near the Adjustment Center door. The others congregated in the back…

"Despite what the prosecution would have you think, the men before you are human beings, human beings with intelligence. Assuming you went through the AC door, there are gun rails all over the place. How are you going to hurdle a 25-foot wall? Where could they have gone?

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"We have to use our common sense, our natural feelings," Garry said, appealing to the jury.

As the day wore on, Garry continually focused on three themes: (1) "the absurd notion" that George Jackson smuggled a gun into the Adjustment Center; (2) discrediting certain prosecution witnesses as spouting lies prepared for them by Assistant Marin County and his staff; and (3) depicting California prisons as "hellholes."

Concerning the impossibility of the prosecution's "gun-in-a-wig" theory, Garry began by reviewing the testimony of an Officer Beets who examined both the tape recorder and the attache case and is personally convinced no gun was contained in either.

Garry then attacked the testimony of an Officer Fleming, a Black San Quentin guard who admits being "badgered and haassed" by the prosecution, and made into a scapegoat. Although Fleming later denied searching George after his visit with Bingham, Garry pointed out that in a taped statement, Fleming said, "To my knowledge, I believe, not believe, I know, I searched his hair."

Although that crucial portion of the tape was "accidently" erased, Garry brought out that an inmate witness also testified he saw Fleming give George a pat-down search.

16 MONTHS

In some of the hardest-hitting language during the course of the entire 16-month trial, Garry called Urbano Rubiaco, the guard who says he walked up to George in the AC and touched a shiny metal object in his hair, "a liar supreme, a coward supreme."

Using this description, time after time Garry attacked Rubiaco as a man "Well trained as a goon, a man with a goon mentality, a goon method of thinking …a man who presented contrived testimony. Anyone with any self-respect would not do this, would not lie, but of course, his (Rubiaco's) hatred of inmates was so very strong he believed the ends justify the means."

Finally, Garry said "George Jackson knew full well that he couldn't go into the AC without being searched, that being strip-searched he would have to put his head down. Do you believe that he could have had a gun and two clips in his hair without having them fall out? Don't stand for this insult to your intelligence."

While most of the first day Garry concentrated on attacking Rubiaco's testimony, he also lambasted boty Sgt. Hawkins, an investigating officer, as manufacturing or destroying evidence which fit the prosecution's case, and summarily dismissed the whole of Sgt. McCray's testimony as coming from an "incompetent, unbelievable witness." McCray admittedly underwent psychiatric treatment following the August 21 incident and Garry pinpointed several bizarre and inconsistent areas of his testimony.

Concerning the dehumanizing prison and courtroom conditions, Garry remarked that California prisons are "hellholes, cesspools, human warehouses."

"You've only seen the AC when it was empty," Garry told the jury. "You didn't hear the noises, the turmoil, the groans and the pain of the people who exist in the Adjustment Center day in, day out."

Nothing the coming Bicentennial celebrations, Garry said, "Our prisons have not marked the time and progress that we, the people, claim and brag about. Our prisons are hellholes," he repeated.

"And, to draw no inferences from the chaining and shackling in this courtroom, as the judge has instructed you to do, is a test of human endurance.

"The atmosphere in this trial," Garry said forcefully, "reminds me of a trial on the battlefield."

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Ericka Huggins At Alameda County Strikers' Rally

(Hayward, Calif.) - Leading Black Panther Party member ERICKA HUGGINS (far left) was the featured speaker at a rally Alameda County public employees.

Speaking before the enthusiastic crowd of over 200 assembled in the parking lot of the Alameda County Adminsitration Building, Ericka emphasized the need for better services for poor and oppressed people of the county and expressed the Black Panther Party's support of the demands of the three striking locals of the Service Employees Internatinal Union (SEIU) for higher wages and "Jobs, not Jail."

SEIU representative Carl Halpern also addressed the ralliers, who, despite the near 100-degree temperature, marched through nearby Southland shopping center prior to the rally.

It was pointed out that the day before the rally six striking county workers were arrested by police with the aid of various officials who identified photographs of the workers taken while they were picketing country buildings.

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O.C.S. DIRECTOR ERICKA HUGGINS HIGHLIGHTS CHICAGO ALTERNATIVE SCHOOLS CONFERENCE

The following is the conclusion of the question and answer portions of a keynote speech by Ericka Huggins, director of the Oakland Community School and a leading member of the Black Panther Party, presented at a recent Alternative Schools Conference in Chicago.

CONCLUSION

QUESTION: "How are you funded?"

ERICKA: "In a number of different ways. As I mentioned earlier, the school is tuition free. However, we ask parents for a little money each month if they can afford it. If they can't, it's not mandatory, because as I said the parents are primarily poor. But they do contribute when they can.

"The bulk of our money comes from proposals that we write to foundations and agencies. We're trying to get some money from the state and the federal government if it doesn't affect the way in which we teach.

"We're coming to an understanding of the funding racket and how we can get around some of the red tape. We are doing what we say we're doing, so we feel that we should be funded. On that basis, usually we are. We get some small private contributions also, from month to month, and we do fund raisers consistently.

RADIOTHON

"As a matter of fact, at the end of February we did a Radiothon -- which is like a telethon only it's on the raido -- with KDIA Radio, which is a local community station. Our goal was to raise $15,000. People came from all over Oakland, from all over the Bay Area, to see and hear the entertainment that we had, to hear elected officials, community people, all kinds of people, speak about the school. It was a very moving thing. The bulk of that money came from teenagers, families and people who have a direct relationship to the school. Many people contributed in pledges.

"Also, we have proposals in to the California Arts Council right now for our art program. We have a proposal in for our music program. We have a proposal in for researching and assessing documenting our entire philosophy of education because we believe it can be used. We're going to pubish a journal soon about the things that we're doing. We've also gotten funding from the Episcopal Diocese of New York, as well as the Alameda County Foundation, the Third World Fund, the Vanguard Foundation and a number of other places. The money doesn't amount to very much since it costs us $22,000 a month to function as a result of all the services we provide to the children.

Q: "Do you feel children at your school are bringing conflicts to the classroom that they're picking up at home? Do you proivide counseling for that parent? What approach do you use?

ERICKA: "It depends on what the problem is and every one of them is different. Most of it goes directly back to the society, however. If people argue, it's for some reason. It's not because they feel like arguing. It stems from something. Many times it stems from people not having money and trying to figure out how they are going to live, or being frustrated about their conditions of life. They have misplaced aggression.

"We talk to people because we are people. We have the same feelings and worries and anxieties and frustrations. So as long as we don't believe we have all the answers and approach it from our knowledge of a thing -- as opposed to our understanding of all of it -- from having gone through it or knowing we will at some point, then we help to solve problems. We've done a lot in that area.

"What's going on in the home and in other places in a child's life seems to be the crucial thing in learning, once they've gotten to our school. Of course, if they're still in public schools, they're troubled by a magnitude of problems.

Q: "I have two questions. When people go to school, I mean teachers, they're taught a certain way, less how to think and more what to think. And you go from there and then you try teaching children how to think instead of what to think. It's like all of us have to go through changes ourselves. The question I have is; First, do the teachers get together and criticize each other and talk about things that could be better; and second do the children do that with the teachers?

ERICKA: "If we didn't do that, we certainly wouldn't have existed for five years. We grow on criticism and self-criticism. The staff meets every week on Sunday. We struggled for a while about what Sunday means in terms of people's leisure time, and we decided we didn't have leisure time with all the work that had to be done, so we meet on Sundays each week.

"We report to each other things that are going on. We share problems that we have with getting to each individual child,

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not problems that we have with them because they're not the problem. We always try to do things that are better than we're doing. And we change things also. Things are changed all the time because children change from day to day. People do.

The children have a Youth Committee. They make some decisions about the things they want to see happening in school. And within the Youth Committee there's a Justice Board that handles what problems the children might have on a peer level. Also, at any time they feel that they must criticize us -- constructive criticism -- they do, because we don't feel there's a major difference between us and them. The difference happens to be experience -- and maybe size -- experience mostly. We don't feel that the quality of our experience is that great.

So we listen to the children as often as we can. They tend not to criticize us harshly because they realize that we are trying to get through to them and they know they have to get through to us for the school to blossom and grow.

"The students are evaluated every two months in terms of their progress and the staff is evaluated every month.

Q: "My second question is that in Illinois, Chicago, are there any schools here that you have started?

ERICKA: "We don't have one going on here, but we'd like to see people start schools all over the country. That's why I said we're a model. We hope that people can take our example and do the same kind of thing.

"It takes a lot of people's energy to put a school like this one together. This school was not built just on community support. You must realize that in the beginning we were harassed tremendously, for just trying to put this school together. As we went along, people supported us in what we were doing. There wasn't very much that the city and its agencies could do to stop us completely because people wanted the school to survive so desperately. It's not a simple thing to do however. A building is not the major problem. It's the commitment and the motivation of the people working in it.

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THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

July 2, 1777

On July 2, 1777, Vermont became the first state to abolish the slavery of Black people. By 1783 slavery was prohibited in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Pennysylvania provided for gradual emancipation in 1780; Connecticut and Rhode Island barred slavery in 1784; New York gradually in 1799 and New Jersey in 1814.

July 2, 1822

It was a "house slave" that betrayed the Denmark Veseyled conspiracy for a slave insurrection. The Vesey conspiracy was one of the most elaborate slave plots on record. It involved thousands of Black people in Charleston, South Carolina, and the vicinity. White authorities arrested three Black people and four Whites. Denmark Vesey and five of his aides were hanged at Black Landing in Charleston, South Carolina, on July 2, 1822. A total of 37 slaves were hanged.

June 27, 1872

On June 27, 1872, Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio. Dunbar was one of the greatest Black poets, known for his ability to capture the moods and dialects of his people.

July 2, 1908

On July 2, 1908, Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Former chief legal counsel of the NAACP, Marshall is now the only Black member of the U.S. Supreme Court.

July 3, 1970

On July 3, 1970, the National Committee of Black Churchmen published a "Black Declaration of Independence" demanding "full redress and relief" from the injustice, exploitative control, institutionalized violence and racism of White America."

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Seattle B.P.P. To Employ Youth In Summer Job Program

(Seattle, Wash.) - The Sidney Miller People's Free Medical Clinic, a Black Panther Party Survival Program here, will be conducting a Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) workshop which will employ 26 Black and poor youth in various community projects.

The youth will be working in the Clinic's Sickle Cell Anemia and Hypertension Testing Project, the free Pest Control Program and the Summer Liberation School, all of which are sponsored by the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party.

BASIC EFFECTS

The youth will study the basic effects sickle cell anemia and hypertension have upon Black people and will learn the method of testing for the diseases. The tests will be anlyzed at the Clinic, and the 10 youth who are enrolled in the program will learn how to operate the machinery used in analyzing the tests.

In the Free Pest Control Program the young workers will be conducting a pest control educational drive in the Yesler Terrace Housing Projects, which is controlled by the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA). Due to the massive community pressure placed on the SHA by housing project residents and other community people, including the Black Panther Party, the SHA is conducting a pest control spraying and rat-baiting program in the projects.

Ten SYEP workers will be assisting the SHA by conducting an educational program informing residents about preventative measures to take against pests and the harmful effects they have on environmental health.

The six youth workers who will be involved in the Summer Liberation School will be assisting community volunteers who will be running the program. The goal of the school is to deal with specific weaknesses in the children's (ages three to 12 years old) learning abilities.

The school hopes to inspire the young children to seek meaningful roles in society. The curriculum includes math, language arts, science, contemporary problems and library skills. During the program, free meals will be served.

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ERICKA HUGGINS PLEDGES B.P.P. “FULL SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY”: JULY 4th COALITION DENOUNCES FEDERAL HARASSMENT

(San Francisco, Calif.) - Denouncing a rash of hysterical predictions of so-called violence -- and constant harassment -- by federal and local enforcement agencies, the July 4th Coalition affirmed at a press conference here last week that it will continue to sponsor several peaceful "People's Bicentennial Celebrations," both here in San Francisco and in several other U.S. cities.

Such was the declaration presented by Hilton Obenzinger, a media spokesperson for the Bay Area July 4th Coalition. Also at the press conference were: Dan Silva, a member of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and the Mission District's Cambio Drug Program, and Ms. Ericka Huggins, a leading member of the Black Panther Party.

Expressing the Party's "full support and solidarity," Ericka "one way we can have a voice on July 4 at the time the country is celebrating those very things that oppress people." She emphasized, "The United States was built on oppression, not democracy, and this oppression continues in the form of harassment, jailing and murder of Black Panther Party members throughout the country."

Obenzinger read a statement at the press conference which denounced the federal government campaign to harass and discredit the Coalition, which will be holding major demonstrations in Philadelphia, Seattle, San Antonio, Texas, Los Angeles and here in San Francisco on July 4.

The statement pointed out that:

- An informal White House task force is coordinating an "anti-terrorist" campaign to prevent alleged plans to disrupt the country's Bicentennial celebrations.

- Attorney General Edward Levi has authorized the FBI to investigate the Coalition, according to the Washington Post.

- Mayor Frank Rizzo of Philadelphia has asked for 15,000 federal troops to be on hand for the demonstration in the "City of Brotherly Love."

Silva also condemned the harassment of the July 4th Coalition and spoke out against the blatant police misconduct in San Francisco's predominantly Black and Chicano Mission District.

Ericka, Obenzinger and Silva tried to express the goals and direction of the Coalition, but they were rudely and constantly badgered by reporters who sought to deal only with the issue of alleged "terrorist" involvement in the Bicentennial.

However, it was repeatedly stressed that the planned July 4th protests will be peaceful ones. Activities for the San Francisco demonstration include a march through the Mission District, beginning at 9:30 a.m. at Garfield Park, Portrero and Army Streets, and a rally in Delores Park at 11:00 a.m. After the rally there will be a picnic in the park with one feature being the premiere showing of the San Francisco Mime Troupe's Bicentennial play.

-- 5 --

JULY 4th COALITION BENEFIT CONCERT SUCCESSFUL

(San Francisco, Calif.) - Over 1,200 enthusiasts packed Ben Franklin School here last Saturday in a mellow benefit concert for the July 4th Coalition.

Popular songstress HOLLY NEAR, accompanied by skilled pianist JEFF LANGLEY (left photo) and LOVE, POWER and STRENGTH (above), a dynamic a capella group from the Black Panther Party, provided the benefit with top-flight entertainment. Ms. Near's soaring vocals and Langley's keyboard magic brought the audience to its feet at the end of the concert, as the performers and the entire audience locked arms, swaying back and forth in a rare spirit of unity.

Also performing were Stepping Out, a fine women's dance collective, and the Lightning Bugs, a singing group.

-- 6 --

EYES ON CITY HALL

Santa Rita Revolts

Riot-eqipped Alameda County sheriff's deputies were needed recently to contain over 400 rebelling Alameda County Jail inmates as the prisoners refused to clear the "rehabilitation" center's compound at Santa Rita, California. The revolt began when one inmate asked a sergeant why another inmate had been removed earlier in the evening. The officer refused to answer and the inmate left. Later the inmate returned, backed by others, but the guard repeated his refusal an ignited the incident in which the inmates picked up rocks to throw at the officers.

Council chooses
Flowers Over Jobs

At a time when the city of Oakland is suffering from an alleged "fiscal crisis," the city Coucil has allocated $124,737 for unneeded luxuries. The city has just laid off 53 city workers, yet it has found the funds to allocate $59,443 for the maintenance of Morcom Rose Garden; $47,294 to put on chrysanthemum and dahlia shows, and $18,000 for the Sunday band concerts at Lakeside Park.

School Head Sets
Standards

Oakland schools superintendent Dr. Ruth Love has begun to take steps to drastically improve the city's failing school system. In local schools, only 28 per cent of the students are performing at or above their grade level, and half of the 4,000 recent high school graduates are performing below the seventh grade level. In her first move to change this dismal situation, Dr. Love was able to get the Board of Education to adopt precedent-setting tough minimum standards. Three basic standards are: 1) All third grade students must be able to perform at an established level in all basic skills; 2) From grades three to 12, students who are one or more years behind will be pulled out of the regular program and given special instruction; and 3) Graduating seniors must have one or two skills in order to receive their diplomas. To accomplish these standards, Dr. Love has set up an instructional strategy council made up of professionals as well as community people.

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WOMEN IN S.F. JAILS: “If You Don't Have A Strong Mind… Time Does You”

(San Francisco, Calif.) - Although maximum time in San Francisco country jails is only a year, it's a hard, cold year.

County jails get the least funding for rehabilitation programs since the average stay is so short and prisoners come and go so quickly. It's so hard to develop a sense of solidarity. Women, who make up a small part of the jail population, have it worst of all, reports Common Sense, a San Francisco community newspaper.

About 10,000 people pass through San Francisco's two county jails each year. There are currently about 300 men and 30 women in the San Bruno Jail and 350 men and 25 women in the Hall of Justice. Two-thirds of the prisoners are Third World in a county where more than half the population is White. The crimes for which people are sent to county jail are mainly crimes committed out of economic necessity; petty theft, prostitution, drug-related crimes -- misdemeanors.

Health conditions in the jail are poor -- so bad that a federal judge has ruled twice that they constitute "cruel and unusual" punishment. In March, 1975, the Department of Public Health took over the responsibility for the prisoners' health care from the Sheriff's office. But nothing has changed and since then two prisoners have died because of

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poor medical judgment and lack of trained personnel.

In the area of legal services, the poor lose out again. The San Francisco Public Defender's office, which in 1974 alone represented 96.5 per cent of all misdemeanor cases, was evaluated by the San Francisco Bar Association. Among its findings, the Bar stated that the lawyers had heavy case loads, that clients received little individual care or attention, and that as a result, clients received inadequate legal services.

"This inadequate legal service," the Women's Jail Study Group notes, "compounded with pretrial incarceration, means that those who cannot buy justice, pay in time."

Q: Can you describe a typical day here?

GWEN: We get up at 6:30 (in the Hall of Justice). Those of us who got chores to do, do chores. Of course we don't get paid nothing for work although we keep the whole place running. After that we go to eat something they call food. Here on the women's side our food comes cold as stone because it sits on the men's side for half an hour before it gets to us. We get about a half an hour to eat.

"ROUND US UP"

Then they round us up to go back to our cells where we're supposed to clean until 9. Then from 9 to 3 we have to sit in the day room on them hard, cold stone benches in these ugly dresses (at both jails the women wear hospital-type, very short smocks that leave them cold and mostly uncovered).

We don't never get out of here. There ain't no yard for us to run around. All we can do is sit straight and read. Can't talk loud or we get lock-up. Can't dance or we get lock-up. At 3 they make us go lie down until 4:30. Then they blow the whistle like we're dogs and we go have dinner at 5. Yesterday they brought us dog food for dinner -- no kidding, it really tested like dog food.

After dinner we shower. The first bed call is at 7:30. If you don't go to bed at 7:30 you can't go to bed until 10. So there you stay in that same cold day room. Can't put your feet up, can't lean no nothing, can't lean on a friend, can't even hide and go to sleep. You just sit in a chair all day like a statue.

Q: Who comes to the county jails? What crimes are they charged with?

DOLORES: The women that come here are charged with crimes that are really crimes done against them. What I mean is most women who come here had this jail coming to them from the day they were born. The police pick you up for something. Of course, to begin with they're out looking for Black and other poor people breaking their law.

MARKED

So they pick you up, it gets marked on the books. They let you go telling you to behave. Then they pick you up again. The police see you got something on your record, and off you go to jail unless you can pay bail.

Now you look around here. Most of our skins are Black or Brown. We get thrown in here for some dumb crime like prostitution, using, some robbery case. Hey, it ain't that we poor folk commit more crimes. It's that most crimes are committed against us.

Q" Do the men get better treatment than the women?

NINA: The men don't get locked up the same king of shit we get locked up for. They get more respect from the guards because they relate on their man-to-man basis. The men get the best stuff, better food. They got an exercise yard. But, you know, the men do have it bad too. They're in prison just like us.

Q: What's the worst thing about being in prison?

GWEN: The worst thing about being inside is that your kids are on the outside. I can't have any contact with my kids. They locked me up with no thought about them. I really worry. It's hard. My daughter was a good student. She's smart. They want to put her in some home where she doesn't know anyone. You uproot a kid like that and she'll turn to doing stuff she wouldn't normally do. I know I'm charged with a crime, but don't make my kid to crimes too.

Q: What helps you through your time?

DARLENE: Nothing! Nothing helps you but a strong mind. If you don't have a strong mind you don't do time, time does you.

-- 7 --

MISS. JUDGE ORDERS SWEEPING CHANGES IN PARCHMAN SEGREGATION UNIT

(Parchman, Miss.) - As a result of a legal motion recently filed by the Mississimi Prisoners Defense Committee (MPDC), badly needed changes will occur in the Maximum Security Unit (MSU) at the notorious Parchman Prison here.

Lawyers for the MPDC have filed a consent decree with chief judge William C. Keady of the United States District Court in Greenville, Mississippi, which will result in a new rule book for the MSU -- one that inmate representatives will have a part in writing and that will incorporate due process safeguards.

Also, there will be a handbook which will govern the day-to-day operation of the MSU, eleminating the ability of any one guard or official to arbitrarily change rules and procedures.

The conditions at Parchman Prison, particularly in the MSU, have been the subject of many legal struggles for years, states a recent edition of the Southern Coalition Report. The MSU is the place where 17 men are kept on death row and the prison's execution chambers are located. In the MSU, inmates are sometimes put into "dark holes" where they are kept in complete isolaton and filth for weeks or even months.

Many inmates have told of how they have been kept in the MSU for months without being given any reason for their punishment. In this unit, the food is worse than in the regular inmate population; medical attention is infrequent and often ineffective, and prisoners are only given 30 minutes a day, five days of the week, to exercise, shower and wash their clothes.

Visitors to the MSU are forced to see their incarcerated relatives or friends in an open yard no matter what the weather conditions are. The guards have the reputation of being the most brutal and toughest at Parchman. In what was a major inmate complaint, rule changes have been reported to occur at a moment's notice and could be issued orally by any guard or official. One inmate was reported to have been written up for a rules violation for merely asking for a new pair of bedroom slippers.

Now, by the terms of the consent decree, an inmate must be given a reason for his imprisonment in the MSU within 24 hours after he is placed there. In addition, a hearing must be held within a reasonable time so an inmate may "state any position he may have concerning his placement in administrative segregation."

The new rules and regulations to be put into effect by the consent decree "shall have as their purpose and effect the equitable, fair and reasonable resolution of all the issues…" concerning the treatment of inmates confined in the MSU.

For example, daily showers will be permitted; regular laundry services will be instituted; there will be regular medical care administered by a doctor, and alternative arrangements for visitation when the weather is bad.

The Southern Coalition Report commented that this ruling is just the "first step on a long ladder" but still a "step toward fair and equitable treatment" for the prisoners of the MSU.

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Washington Prison Psychologist Fired -- Forced Inmates To Wear Diapers

(Walla Walla, Wash.) - A Washington State Prison psychologist, Dr. William Hunter, has been freed and is under legal attack for conducting a behavior modification program in which inmates were forced to wear diapers, crawl on the floor and carry baby bottles.

Commenting on Hunter's program, a Johns Hopkins University expert remarked that Hunter beat people into submission. His program was even criticized by the state's director of adult corrections, Harold Bradley, who stated, "We still have a basic commitment in this system of maintaining the sanctity and dignity of human beings."

Justifying his crude actions, Hunter claimed, "If a grown man urinates in his pants and acts like a baby, he isn't punished by being put in diapers because it doesn't embarrass him.

"The point is to get him to realize what playing the role of the baby is all the way," he continued. "In fact, all that the penitentiary is is a big babysitting operation.

"The make-up of the psychopath's (inmate's) personality is such that he does not comprehend the feeling he is trying to cover up," Hunter claimed.

SICK BOAST

Hunter sickly boasted, "In 18 months to two years of treatment, I can change their (inmates') behavior." He also denied allegations that his hospital attendants acted as a "goon squad" to brutalize unwilling inmate patients. Over 1,200 patients were victims of Hunter's treatment in the 10 years he served with the Washington state correctional department.

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WIDESPREAD COMMUNITY PROTESTS STALL N.Y.C. BUDGET CUTS

Hostos, Medgar Evers
Colleges To Reopen

(New York, N.Y.) - The movement to resist New York City cutbacks continues to grow after scoring a series of recent victories, including the reopening of Hostos and Medgar Evers Colleges.

The New York City Board of Higher Education had planned to close these two predominantly Third World schools but stiff, militant opposition to the cuts forced the state legislature to restore needed funds.

At Hostos, in particular, there was bold resistance as students, faculty and community activists took over the school on two separate occasions, vowing to keep it open. The community college, which is over 90 per cent Latino and Black, is the only bilingual college on the East Coast.

WORKERS

Prior to the announcement of the two colleges' reopening, over 5,000 City University of New York (CUNY) faculty, students and campus maintenance workers marched to protest the closing of the 270,000-student university. CUNY was shut down -- for lack of operating funds -- right in the midst of final exams, reports the Guardian. The protest came after the Board of Higher Education, which governs CUNY, had approved the imposition of a $900 per year tuition fee and rolled back on its "open admissions" policy. The charging of tuition and the limitation of "open admissions" will force thousands of Black and poor students out of CUNY, the country's largest university system.

The school shut down on May 28, and some 16,000 faculty members were owed one month's pay. On June 14, the teachers did receive pay checks for the three weeks in May, but the city has hinted that university employees will not be paid for the two weeks in June when the school was shut down.

In other areas of city services which face cuts, resistance continues to mount.

Thousands marched 60 blocks to New York Governor Hugh Carey's office to protest daycare cuts scheduled for July 1 (see last week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER) while Third World members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the daycare workers' union, are demanding that the union leadership take more drastic steps.

In another development, city workers have temporarily blocked the closing of four public hospitals as 18,000 hospital workers are threatening to go on strike if planned layoffs are carried out. A strike such as this would effectively close the city's 16 public hospitals.

In addition, workers in the city's private hospitals have voted to authorize a strike -- covering 40,000 workers -- as contract negotiations are being held. The union, Local 1199 of the National Union of Health and Hospital Workers, has vowed to strike unless they receive a pay increase. Meanwhile, owners of the city's 52 private hospitals are claiming wage increases are impossible because New York state Medicaid subsidies and Blue Cross will not reimburse them for increased labor costs.

-- 8 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

Identity Cards
For Americans?

(Washington, D.C.) - A proposal that every American be issued a national identity card or domestic passport has been temporarily squashed following the Federal Advisory Committee on False Identification's rejection of such a plan as a threat to personal privacy. A Justice Department task force has proposed a series of changes in the law to deal with problems of false identification, illegal immigration and Social Security fraud -- among them the establishment of minimum federal standards to tighten application procedures for birth certificates and drivers' licenses and interstate procedures for matching birth and death certificates.

Mobil Oil
Trade Illegal

(Washington, D.C.) - The Mobil Oil Corporation has for a decade violated trade sanctions against the White minority government of Rhodesia by secretly supplying large amounts of fuel oil to that country, according to documents recently made public by the People's Bicentennial Commission. The information revealed that Mobil, through its South African and Rhodesian subsidiaries, conspired with the Rhodesian government to provide the major portion of all gasoline, diesel fuel and aviation turbine fuel going to the breakaway British colony over the past 10 years.

Seek Police
Arrest Controls

(San francisco, Calif.) - A coalition of community groups recently asked the San Francisco Police Commission to pass guidelines which would allow citizens to witness street arrests by police officers. Nearly 100 persons crowded into the Commission's meeting room at the Hall of Justice in support of a proposal which would allow citizens to remain close enough to a street arrest to hear what is being said. The Commission took the proposal under advisement.

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F.B.I. Kidnapping Of Political Activist Exposed

(Washington, D.C.) - FBI agents kidnapped a radical political figure within the last five years in an effort to frighten him and end his political activity, a well-placed FBI source told The New York Times in an article published last week.

The incident, masterminded by agents in the New York City FBI field office and about which little additional information could be learned, may spark an investigation by the Justice Department into the widespread use of other illegal techniques by the FBI, including burglary, the FBI source said. An ex-agent formerly assigned to the Bureau's New York office told the Times that he could confirm that kidnappings were directed against domestic political activists and foreign espionage agents, raising the possibility that evidence exists to support federal indictments on these charges as well.

FOREIGN AGENTS

In March, 1975, the Times reported that the FBI had kidnapped and interrogated foreign agents it discovered operating undercover in the U.S. In interviews with the Times, the sources who revealed kidnapping of foreign agents said that this technique was also used to coerce information from, or to "disrupt" the activities of, figures in domestic politically progressive groups.

Another source said he could recount at least one kidnapping that had occured within the last five years in which two FBI agents had been involved in seizing a radical political figure to "disrupt" activities he had planned. According to the source, the victim, who was not named, did not know he had been kidnapped by FBI agents and was led to think his abductors were members of the right-wing antiwar movement.

The source revealed that the two agents had apparently acted "on their own" since the Bureau gave no formal authorization for the kidnapping.

Both sources providing information on the kidnapping of the activist said that this was not an isolated incident and that some of the FBI agents who had conducted illegal burglaries knew

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about or had been involved in such kidnappings.

A well-placed government source has confirmed that the Justice Department has already presented evidence in the investigation of FBI burglaries to a grand jury, but he refused to disclose the location of the hearings. Another source with extensive contacts among present and former FBI agents said that indictments are expected as early as September and may involve an initial group of 28 agents or officials.

William L. Gardner, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division attorney who is conducting this investigation, has told certain FBI agents that they may have to go before a federal grand jury. The Times reported that he has also offered a "deal" to the agents whereby they would be granted immunity from prosecution for their part in burglaries in exchange for their testimony.

-- 9 --

SUPREME COURT MAKES LANDMARK RULINGS ON RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

(Washington, D.C.) - In two landmark decisions on racial discrimination, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that Whites are entitled to the same protection under the law that Blacks have against preferential treatment because of race and that private, nonreligious schools cannot exclude Black children because of their race.

The vote was 7-2 in the first ruling -- an issue commonly referred to as "reverse discrimination" -- which was written by Justice Thurgood Marshall, the only Black member of the high Court. A major Reconstruction civil rights law and Title VII of the civil Rights Act of 1964 were cited by the seven justices as grounds for their ruling.

The decision came in a 1970 case involving three employees, two White and one Black, who at the time were employed by the Santa Fe Trail Transportation Company. The three men were charged with misappropriating 10 cases of antifreeze in September, 1970, at the company's terminal in Houston, Texas. The two White employees were subsequently fired but the Black man was not.

A complaint filed against Santa Fe by the White men contended that the firm had discriminated against them on the basis of their race and that their union had agreed to the discrimination by failing to provide one of them with adequate legal counsel. A district court dismissed the complaint on the grounds that laws are "inapplicable to racial discrimination against Whites" and that the facts of the case did not specifically fall under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court's decision, but in its ruling last week, the Supreme Court said that the 1964 Civil Rights Act is "not limited to discrimination against members of any particular race." Writing the majority opinion, Justice Marshall said, "While Santa Fe may decide that participating in a theft of cargo may render an employee unqualified for employment, this criterion must be applied alike to members of all races."

In the ruling on segregation in private, nonreligious schools, the vote was also 7-2. The decision arose from suits against two of the some 3,500 private schools started by Whites in the South since the 1954 Supreme Court decision outlawing racial segregation in public schools. The Court, acting in cases involving two Virginia private schools, ruled that the 1866 Civil Rights Act gives Blacks the same rights as Whites to "make and enforce contracts."

The Court made it clear that it was only ruling on racial discrimination in private, nonreligious schools, leaving open the issue of racial exclusion in religious schools. Legal experts, however, indicated that the logic of the opinion seems to be applicable to religious schools.

BLACK COMMUNITY

The private school decision was immediately hailed by the Black community and civil rights leaders because it came at a time when the Ford administration is taking serious steps to limit the use of busing as a tool to desegregate public schools. President Ford submitted antibusing legislation to Congress the day before the Supreme Court ruling on private schools. The President, fighting to win the Republican presidential nomination, said on a recent television show that he believed White parents should be allowed to send their children to private schools that exclude Blacks.

Other decisions made last week by the Supreme Court included:

- A ruling (6-3 vote) that school boards have the Constitutional right to fire teachers whom the boards believe are illegally striking while negotiations are underway for a work contract.

- A ruling (5-4 vote) reversing a 1968 decision of the Court extending federal minimum wage and maximum hour provisions to state and municipal employees.

-- 9 --

400 Protest South African Massacre

(San Francisco, Calif.) - Over 400 spirited demonstrators jammed the downtown Montgomery Street area here last Wednesday, June 23, in a angry protest in front of the South African Consulate.

The purpose of the demonstration, sponsored by the Southern Africa Solidarity Coalition, was to denounce the murder of hundreds of unarmed Black youth by the racist apartheid government of South Africa and to demand an end to all forms of U.S. support for the White minority regime.

Similar demonstrations in other cities on the same day -- which also marked the start of the meetings between U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and South African "Premier" Vorster -- expressed support for the liberation movements in South Africa, called Azania by Black Africans.

-- 10 --

Indians Shock Whites -- Walk In On Custer Memorial Ceremony

(Custer Hill, S.D.) - Over 100 Native Americans surprised a mostly White gathering of over 500 last week when they walked in on a ceremony commemorating the famed Battle of Little Big Horn where General George Custer and his cavalrymen met defeat on June 25, 1876.

Gathering on the very hill where Custer and fall of his 225 men met their death during the infamous "Indian campaign" waged against the great Sioux Nation by the U.S. Army, more than 500 people were on hand when the 100 Native Americans, among them former American Indian Movement (AIM) leader Russell Means, walked in on the ceremony.

The Indians, most of whom were Sioux from South Dakota, came to protest the lack of Indian participation in the centennial commemoration and demanded a memorial to the Native American warriors who fell in the battle. Also, they demanded that the hated name, Custer, be dropped from the name of Custer Battle National Monument.

VIETNAM

"I couldn't imagine a Lieutenant Calley National Monument in Vietnam," stated Means. Park Service officials claim that they are thinking of asking Congress to change the name of the monument because it is unusual for it to be named after a single person.

As Whites talked about the legacy of Custer's downfall, Indians marched up the hill singing, "Custer Died for Your Sins," Stickers on many of the cars owned by Indians who came to the event declared, "Custer Had It Coming."

Although no Indians were scheduled to participate in the ceremonies, Oscar Bear Runner, a Sioux, sat on the raised speakers' platform, holding his "sacred pipe of peace." Afterwards, the Native Americans were scheduled to hold their "Victory celebration," the first ever.

Austin Two Moons, a descendant of the warriors who fought in the Battle of Little Big Horn, explained that no Indian celebrations were held previously because in the years that followed Indians were too afraid of U.S. racist reaction.

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GOVERNMENT WITNESSES DESTROY “AMBUSH THEORY” AT PINE RIDGE F.B.I. MURDER TRIAL

(Cedar Rapids, Iowa) - A government witness destroyed the prosecution's theory that two slain FBI agents were ambushed by Native Americans last June at the Pine Ridge Reservation in his testimony at the murder trial of two Indian activists here last week.

In the trial of Robert Robideau and Darrelle Butler, charged with the deaths of the agents, 16-year-old Norman Brown told the court that he and the other Native Americans were taken by surprise by the shooting they heard and that they felt surrounded and besieged by unidentified enemies on the day of the shootout.

He explained that there was a constant fear of attack by federal agents or "Dick Wilson's goons, and that it was the duty of the men in the camp to protect the women and children in the area.

He said there was never any discussion of ambushing the FBI agents before the shootout, and that he heard that the agents were dead from a radio report the next day. He described to the jury how an eagle led them out of the shootout area which was surrounded by 275 agents. The bald eagle appeared on a tree top as they were praying.

Brown testified that when he was approached by the FBI, he requested that his attorney, Jack Schwartz (a member of the defense team in this trial), be present, and that he had shown the agents a letter from Schwartz stating that Brown was his client. The agents did not permit him to contact his attorney, and threatened to charge him with the murder of the agents if he did not talk with them.

Earlier in the week, another Native American government witness, Wildford Draper, testified that he too had been near the scene of the shootout. Defense attorney John Lowe's cross-examination brought out several conflicts between Draper's testimony here and his testimony before a South Dakota grand jury.

Draper admitted lying to the grand jury and to this court on several points. He said that assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sikma and three FBI agents had supplemented his testimony with additional information. Draper testified that he had been promised a clean criminal record and freedom from indictment for the FBI deaths, as well as a new identity, education, protection during and after testifying, and $14-a-day plus hotel accommodations while testifying at this trial.

APPROACHED

He said that when he was first approached by the FBI regarding the events of June 26, he was thrown against a car by an agent, then taken to an FBI office, handcuffed, belted to a chair, and told that he would be charged with the murder if he did not talk about the shootout.

On June 26, 1975, the two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, invaded the Pipe Ridge Reservation without any authorized warrants. During the early part of that day, these agents had been to several houses and had abused and threatened numerous Native Americans on the reservation. By noon, however, both of the agents were dead.

Although no evidence exists, the government indicted four Native Americans, Butler, Robideau, Jimmy Eagle and Leonard Peltier. Eagle is now in prison and Peltier is currently fighting extradition from Canada.

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Ohio Inmates Hold “Death-Fast”

(Lucasville, Ohio) - Six inmates at Lucasville Prison here have begun a "Death-Fast" in order to force action on their request for safe passage from the United States, correspondence received last week by THE BLACK PANTHER revealed.

An "open letter" written by the six inmates, Jerry Artrip, Richard X Armstrong, Robert Schieb, Mike Lane, Fred Smith and Ross Caudill, stated that "on June 21, 1976, we, six prisoners at Lucasville Prison, Lucasville, Ohio, began a 'Death-Fast' to force our issue of safe passage from America.

IMPERIALIST MONSTER

"For two hundred years," the statement continued, "we have waited for this moment in history as the imperialist monster of the Western world attends its birthday party. We are serving notice upon this so-called Christian nation of the Western world -- the plane or the coffin. No other terms are acceptable to us. We will not compromise our position, flying or dying as the candles are lit. Do not let us die in silence!"

On the dya the "Death-Fast" began, phone calls were made to Tom Wicker of The New York Times, William Hart of the Detroit Free Press and Sam Perdue of the Columbus (Ohio) Citizen Journal to further publicize the inmate's unprecendented protest against America's penal injustices.

A further indication of the seriousness of the inmates is that they have sent a copy of their sworn "Last Will" to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, which reads in part:

"…We have not dropped the bomb, poisoned the water, or fouled the air. Knowing such, we leave with the inner peace of Beauty and Truth. Our passing shall be as the passing of pure ones.

"We express to the world our final wish…`Do not bury us in the Western world. Do not let our remains lie within the devil land. Take our remains back to the garden. Let us lie in peace at Mecca!'"

-- 11 --

Seattle Coalition Seeks Protective Labor Laws

(Seattle, Wash.) - Coalition for Protective Legislation spokesperson Cindy Gipple accused the Washington State Industrial Welfare Committee (IWC) of joining in a "despicable and criminal alliance with big business," recently, after the Committee adopted permanent industrial work orders.

The new regulations, charged Ms. Gipple, "deny working people in this state the right to make a living without being forced to sacrifice the health, safety, and welfare of themselves and their families."

The Coalition for Protective Legislation is an alliance of community groups whose goal is to insure the improvement of protective labor laws and their extension to men after the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in Washington State.

The industrial work orders were adopted at a public hearing in Olympia where the Coalition joined a solid contingent of labor, feminists, and community groups in vehemently opposing their passage. Foremost in the criticisms of the standards was the lack of any provisions guaranteeing the 8-hour day with no forced overtime, rest breaks, weightlifting limitations, or standards for a humane work environment.

In testimony for the Coalition, Kathleen Huntington also reminded the Committee that adoption of the standards "would leave unorganized workers, most of whom are women and racial minerities, virtually without protection."

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V.E.P. REPORTS BLACK WOMEN GAIN IN SOUTHERN POLITICS

(Atlanta, Ga.) - A total of 220 Black women currently hold public office in the 11 Southern states, according to a research study of the Voter Education Project, Inc. (VEP).

"Women have played a crucial role in the long, historic struggle of Blacks in the United States," said John Lewis, civil rights activist and executive director of the Voter Education Project. "Our struggle for equal rights owes much to the strength, creativity, and dedication of Black women. It therefore comes as no surprise to document that Black women are a growing force in the politics of this region and in the nation as a whole.

"With little public visibility, Black women have literally been the backbone of the civil rights movement," said Lewis. "When we marched for voting rights on 'Bloody Sunday' in Selma, Alabama, in 1965, it was mostly Black women and children who had the raw courage to nonviolently face the brutality dealt out by Alabama highway patrolmen."

Black female public officeholders are geographically located throughout the South as follows: Alabama, 25; Arkansas, 16; Florida, 11; Georgia, 24; Louisiana, 20; Mississippi, 44; North Carolina, 24; South Carolina, 14; Tennessee, 15; Texas, 16; and Virginia, 11.

"We're in a new era of Southern politics now, with a highly visible and politically effective Black women like Representative Barbara Jordan providing national leadership in the U.S. Congress," observed Lewis. "Women are now providing leadership at all levels of government from the U.S House of Representatives to local school boards," he added.

STATISTICS

The VEP statistics, compiled by research director Stan Alexander, indicated the following breakdown of Black women officeholders by position: members of Congress, 1; state representatives, 11; county supervisors, 19; other county offices, including one commonwealth attorney in Virginia, 14; mayors, 2; city governing bodies, 69; other city offices, 19; law enforcement, 23; and school boards, 62.

The Voter Education Project is based in Atlanta Georgia, and operates programs of voter registration, citizenship education, technical assistance, and research on minority politics for the 11 Southern states from Virginia to Texas. VEP's nonpartisan programs are supported by tax-exempt contributions from foundations, unions, businesses, religious organizations, and individuals.

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Black And Poor Probationers Abused By Milwaukee Judge

(Milwaukee, Wisc.) - Circuit Court Judge Christ T. Seraphim has been blantantly overstepping his powers in court by revoking the paroles of Black and poor probationers, disregarding the opinions of the Milwaukee Probation Department and showing obvious contempt for the defendants, the Milwaukee Journal reports.

Many Black and poor people are unable to meet the financial obligations of their probation, and Seraphim is attempting to overstep the probation department by jailing probationers despite their obvious inability to pay.

In one case, Heinz Hammerick was put on probation with an understanding that he would pay $4,900 for an alleged burglary charge. Calling Hammerick "this no good burglar," Seraphim asked why he hadn't paid off the restitution.

Hammerick explained that neither he nor his jailers had been able to find him a job while he was serving a sentence (he was allowed work days) at the Milwaukee House of Corrections.

Seraphim revoked this man's parole and asked the probation officer, James McCarty, why Hammerick was not in prison for parole violation. McCarty promptly explained that under the circumstances, his supervisors have refused to revoke probation.

Seraphim thundered, "We'll find out about this," as he ordered the man's probation revoked unless full payment was made in 30 days. Then he demanded that the probation department call him as a witness in any test case.

In another case, Jack Howard, convicted of stealing $782, explained that he couldn't pay restitution either because he wasn't working, but offered to pay anyway with money he was receiving for his education. Seraphim blasted, "Now they are going to pay us back for the damage they did with our own money."

Seraphim called Howard a "natural born thief."

-- 12 --

… And Bid Him Sing

By David G. Du Bois

Exciting Novel Examines Lives Of
Black Americans In Egypt

This week's excerpt of… And Bid Him sing by BLACK PANTHER Editor-in-Chief David G. Du Bois, continues the description of Malcolm X's famous 1964 visit to Cairo, Egypt, where he attended the annual meeting of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

PART 36

The office had been bedlam for several days. The OAU conference had opened and every major newspaper the office serviced had sent its own special correspondent to Cairo to cover it. Although this freed us from the responsibility of doing news stories for these papers, we were responsible for giving every kind of assistance to their reporters.

Most had been in Cairo on previous hot-news occasions and knew their way around. For a few this was their first exposure to the intricacies, subtleties and difficulties of news gathering in this highly sensitive and tightly controlled capital.

Much to my relief, however, at the last moment my boss had permitted me to apply for a press pass for the conference. He knew I was in close personal contact with most of the representatives of the liberation movements resident in Cairo and that I knew personally the Cairo ambassadors of some of the key OAU countries.

He hoped that I might be able to get leads and stories on some of the behind-the-scenes activity that other reporters couldn't. So he'd taken over direct responsibility for supervising the office staff and given me considerable freedom to plan and set up stories and contact sources. This preparation kept me out of the office much of the time now.

From the A.P. office I'd just learned that Malcolm had requested permission to submit a special memorandum to the OAU conference on the conditions and demands of Afro-Americans in the United States. There was also talk that he had been granted permission to participate in the conference, but no one knew in what capacity.

I was on my way to the Isis to check this to with Malcolm. It had been ten days since our first visit. Suliman had gone back the next day with Kamal to pick up the brochure. But I had not had a chance to talk with him about that visit. He'd called and told me they'd only spent a short time with Malcolm because he had been busy with some Egyptian officials.

The same man who had been on the Isis's reception desk ten days ago greeted me with a smile. "Mr. Malcolm left us a week ago. He's now at the Shepheard's."

"Oh? Thank you very much, "I said.

"Your name, please," was the reply from the elegantly dressed receptionist at the Shepheard's when I asked for Malcolm's room number. The procedure was unusual. But I had learned to expect the unusual from Egyptian officials in unusual circumstances and to respond accordingly.

"Bob Jones," I answered, producing my OAU conference press card. Shepheard's was home for many of the top OAU delegation members during the conference. This created an unusual circumstance for this, the fines thotel in Egypt. With my card in hand the receptionist moved away form where I stood, picked up a telephone and spoke into it. I heard him repeat my name. He looked at me with more than passing interest as he spoke into the mouthpiece. After a moment he hung up, returned to where I stood and handed me my press card.

"He's in 819. The elevators are around to the right."

The bank of elevators separated the reception area from the massive, high-ceilinged lobby alive with activity. Dark, carefully cut business suits predominated as the conference participants came and went or stood and sat around in small, intense groups. This made the occasional resplendently attired Nigerian, Guinean, or Ghanaian in colorful national dress stand out against the backdrop of the tastefully done lobby - soft fall colors, low lights, comfortable high-backed armchairs arranged in regularly spaced groups around low tables.

Thick carpeting covered the entire area. Unavoidable sounds were muted, avoidable ones discouraged in such a setting. I never entered the Shepheard's lobby without being reminded of the sharp contrast between it and the uncomfortable, modern, bad taste of the noisy Hilton lobby.

I stepped off the elevator on the eighth floor and turned right. I was familiar with the Shepheard's and knew the general direction of 819. Two men were seated in striaghtback chairs on either side of the door. It was the last door on the corridor. As I approached they both stood.

"Mr. Malcolm," I said, somewhere between a question and a statement.

"Your name, pleasee," the one on the left said in self-conscious English.

"Bob Jones."

"Edfuddle," the second said.

I knocked, Malcolm opened the door. He was in shirt sleeves and tie and apparently recognized me immediately. "Come in, brother. I'm glad you've come. I've wanted to get in touch with you, but didn't know how. Come in."

"I'm sorry I've come without letting you know beforehand. The receptionist at the Isis told me you were here. Hope I'm not disturbing you?"

"No, not at all," he said as he led the way through a tiny entrance hall, up two steps and into a sun-lit sitting room of sumptuous furnishings. "Have a seat. I'll be with you in a munute."

SITTING ROOM

It was an L-shaped corner suite with a narrow winding staircase off the sitting room leading up to a second level. From where I sat I looked into a small alcove that contained a fancy writing desk. Filled sheets of lined yellow tablet paper were spread over it. Apparently Malcolm had been busy at the desk. He was now looking through his attache case. which rested on a chair beside the desk. From where he stood he asked, "What would you like? Tea or something cold? "

"Nothing, thank you. I'm apparently interrupting your work. I won't stay long. Thank you."

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 13 --

REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE

By Huey P. Newton

"Growing Pains"

In this portion of Revolutionary Suicide by Black Panther Party leader and chief theoretician Huey P. Newton, we conclude the chapter "Growing Pains" and begin "Raising Consciousness." In the beginning of the new chapter, Huey discusses value judgments -- good and eviland how they have been used to thwart the consciousness of oppressed people.

PART 57

Carrying our message as it did right into the homes of the people, the paper was a source of great satistaction and pleasure to us. It explained events from a community point of view. For instance, in THE BLACK PANTHER the people read the true explanation of why we went to Sacramento and what happened there. We reported on events and meetings in Black communities all over the Bay Area. Until that time the black Panther Party had been maligned by the Establishment press, which was interested only in the kind of sensationalism that sells papers. But once we began to give our own interpretation of events, Black people realized how facts had been twisted by the mass media. They were glad to get our point of view, and the paper sold well. It became a steady source of funds to help us continue developing our programs.

I was satisfied with our movement in 1967. Our newspaper was reaching the people; the Sacramento stance had received tremendous support; new chapters were springing up in many cities; we were exploring new ways to raise the consciousness of Black people. Everything was working well.

AUGUST, 1967

My only sadness was that Bobby Seale was going away to jail for six months in August as a result of the Sacramento confrontation. We had made a deal with the courts in Sacramento: Bobby would do six months for a misdemeanor in exchange for a charges being dropped against the others. Six months was not long in the life of our struggle, but Bobby was a good organizer, a man who got things moving. He would be missed. Still, we expressed no sorrow when Bobby was taken away from us. This was a small price to pay for the liberation of the people. Also, it was only a question of time before they would be after me, and then Eldridge. When Bobby left in August, 1967, we were not to be together on the streets again until June, 1971.

PART 4

Black men and women who refuse to live under oppression are dangerous to White society because they became symbols of hope to their brothers and sisters, inspiring them to follow their example.

"Raising Consciousness"

"The mobilization of the masses, when it arises out of the war of liberation, introduces into each man's consciousness the ideas of common cause , of a national destiny, and a collective history. In the same way the second phase, that of the building-up of the nation, is helped on by the existence o this cement which has been mixed with blood and anger."

Frantz Fanon
The Wretched of the Earth

Nommo: Swahili for "the power of the word"

The Black Panthers have always emphasized action over rhetoric. But language, the power of the word, in the philosophical sense, is not underestimated in our ideology. We recognize the significance of words in the struggle for liberation, not only in the media and in conversations with people on the block, but in the important area of raising consciousness. Words are another way of defining phenomena, and the definition of any phenomenon is the first step to controlling it or being controlled by it.

When I read Nietzche's The Will to Power, I learned much from a number of his philosophical insights. This is not to say that I endorse all of Nietzsche, only that many of his ideas have influenced my thinking. Because Nietzsche was writing about concepts fundamental to all men, and particularly about the meaning of power , some of his ideas are pertinent to the way Black people live in the United States; they have had a great impact on the develoment of the Black Panther philosophy.

Nietzsche believed that beyond good and evil is the will to power. In other words, good and evil are labels for phenomena, or value judgments. Behind these value judgments is the will to power, which causes man to view phenomena as good or evil. It is really the will to power that controls our understanding of something and not an inherent quality of good or evil.

Man attempts to define phenomena in such a way that they reflect the interests of his own class or group. He gives titles or values to phenomena according to what he sees as beneficial; if it is to his advantage, something is called good, and if it is not beneficial, then it is defined as evil. Nietzsche shows how this reasoning was used by the German ruling circle, which always defined phenomena in terms complimentary to the noble class.

For example, they used the German word gut, which means "godlike" or "good," to refer to themselves: nobles were gut. On the other hand, the word villein, used to describe the poor people and serfs who lived outside the great gates of the nobleman's home, suggested the opposite. The poor were said to live in the "village," a word that comes from the same root word (Latin: villa) as the term "villain."

So the ruling class, by the power they possessed, defined themselves as "godlike" and called the people "villains" or enemies to the ruling circle. Needless to say, when the poor and common people internalized these ideas, they felt inferior, guilty, and ashamed, while the nobles took their superiority for granted. Thought had been shaped by language.

"BLACK"

We have seen the same thing in the United States, where, over a period of time, the adjective "black" became a potent word in the American language, pejorative in every sense. We were made to feel ashamed and guilty because of our biological characteristics, while our oppressors, through their whiteness, felt noble and uplifted. It the past few years, however -- and it has been only a few years -- the rising level of consciousness within our Black communities has led us to redefine ourselves.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 14 --

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE STATEMENT BY MOZAMBICAN PRESIDENT: SAMORA MACHEL:“THE POWER IS OURS…”

Following, in tribute to the celebration of the first anniversary of the liberation of the People's Republic of Mozambique on June 25, 1976, THE BLACK PANTHER is proud to reprint the historic and profound declaration of independence read by esteeemed President Samora Machel.

"'Mozambicans,

"'Workders and peasants, workers on the plantations, in the sawmills and the concessions, workers in the mines, on the railroads, in the ports and factories, intellectuals, officials, students, Mozambican soldiers in the Portuguese army, men, women and youth, patriots.

"'In your name, FRELIMO solemnly proclaims today the armed general insurrection of the Mozambican people against Portuguese colonialism, for the conquest of Mozambique's total and complete independence. Our battle will end only with the total and complete liquidation of Portuguese colonialism.'

"With these words almost eleven years ago, on September 25, 1964, the Central Committee of FRELIMO promulgated the historic declaration that launched the armed general insurrection of the Mozambican people against Portuguese colonialism and imperialism.

"This declaration met with a deep response among broad masses of Mozambicans from Rovuma to Maputo, subjected alike to the cruel yoke of the occupiers, to their avaricious exploitation, their barbarous repression, their infamous and constant humiliation. The Mozambican found himself deprived of his national personality, with his civilization and culture scorned and denied, his actions and customs ridiculed, made a foreigner in his own homeland.

"The brutality of the repression and the terror that reigned: the systematic and deliberate cultural obscurantism (opposing human progress) that tended to uproot the person from his environment; the coldly calculated dissemination of alcoholism and other vices: prostitution; the practice of racism and its inherent complexes; the programmed division of the people on the basis of religion, ethnic and regional origin; the generalized passivity and submission to colonialism with the active support of the churches, were all methods used by foreign domination to stifle the spirit of resistance and the creative ability of the masses and keep them divided and impotent.

"But if colonialism existed for conquest and physical domination, it did not succeed in dominating the spirit and destroying the liberation desires of the masses. The more blind the repression became, the greater was the hatred against the barbarous aggressors; the greater the oppression and humiliation, the stronger the desire for liberty; the more brutal the exploitation and pillage, the more powerful the will to revolution.

"Throughout their long history of wars of conquest, the Mozambican people constantly rose up heroically everywhere against the colonialist rape. From the resistance of Monomopata to the rebellion of Bafue, Mozambican history prides itself on the glorious feats of the masses in the struggle to defend liberty and independence. The defeat of the people's historical resistance was due exclusively to the betrayal of the feudal ruling classes, to their greed and ambition which allowed the enemy to divide and subjugate the people.

"Even after colonial domination was established throughout the territory, the opposition to foreign domination became stronger, more intense: rebellions took place against the colonial administration, the exodus of workers abroad increased, protest movements demanding rights were organized in the urban areas.

"The transformation of colonialism into colonial fascism could not affect the people's determination and only sharpened existing contradictions. Everywhere children were educated by their mothers in the traditions of national resistance.

"With the elimination of nazism, the creation of the socialist camp, the victory of China, the defeat of the colonial armies in Indochina, the Algerian insurrection, the emancipation of the African and Asian peoples, national resistance was stimulated.

"Although disorganized, popular uprisings took place in Mueda and Xinavane. The blood shed by the imprisoned; deported, assassinated and massacred workers awakened national consciousness.

"It was then that the Mozambican patriots, led by Comrade Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, launched the new and victorious phase of national resistance on June 25, 1962: the creation of FRELIMO, which permitted the organized and united struggle of the Mozambican people.

"The creation of FRELIMO provided the Mozambican people's struggle with the basic and decisive weapon of unity. Rooted in the purest traditions of the centenary struggle of the Mozambican working masses, assuming the true interests of broad sectors of the exploited, oppressed and humiliated, FRELIMO was able to define with clarity their objectives and methods in the independence battle.

"In two years under the slogan of unity and struggle against Portuguese colonialism and imperialism, FRELIMO created the necessary conditions to move from the liberation struggle to the phase of armed general insurrection, thus bringing into reality and putting into practice the unity which had been won.

"Under FRELIMO's leadership and as an integral part of it, the Mozambican people redeemed the blood that had been shed over generations, and again took command of their own history, making the sacrifice of their lives useful, destroyed the enemy's vital forces, and fully affirmed their African and revolutionary personality, and defeated the fascist colonial regime.

"Under the leadership of President Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, whose glorious and unforgettable memory we honor, the Mozambican people consolidated their existing unity, structure, organization and, after exhausting peaceful means, launched the armed national liberation battle.

"Under the leadership of FRELIMO and guided by a clear political line in the formulation of objectives and in the definition of the enemy, the Mozambican people defeated the Portuguese national army.

"Mozambicans,

"Workers, peasants, fighters,

"Mozambican people,

"In your name and at zero hour today, June 25, 1975, the Central Committee of FRELIMO solemnly proclaims the total and complete independence of Mozambique and its establishment as the Poeple's Republic of Mozambique.

"The Republic that is born is the concrete expression of the aspirations of all Mozambicans, it is the extension to the entire country of the liberty won during the armed liberation struggle in certain parts of our country, it is the result of the sacrifice of the nationalist fighters of the entire Mozambican nation, it is the confirmation of our victory.

"Our People's Republic emerges out of the blood of the people. Its consolidation and development is a debt of honor for every Mozambican patriot and revolutionary.

"The sovereign and independent People's Republic of Mozambique is a people's democartic state in which, under the leadership of the alliance of peasants and workers, all patriotic sectors are a part of the struggle to

-- 15 --
destroy the remins of colonialism and imperialist dependency, wipe out the system of man's exploitation of man, build the material, ideological, political-cultural, social and administrative base of the new society.

"The People's Republic of Mozambique, state of the Mozambican working people, will be led by FRELIMO, the instrument of organization, of mobilization of the Mozambican people in the battle for national liberation, which will continue to direct them in the new phase of the struggle for the construction of the people's democratic state, for national reconstruction, for the liquidation of man's exploitation by man.

"The priority of the Party's decisions and structures over those of the Government will be affirmed at all levels.

CLASS LIBERATION WAR

"The People's Liberation Forces of Mozambique, under the leadership of FRELIMO, educated and forged in the class liberation war, represent a vanguard sector of our poeple, their fighting arm, the force for mobilizing the masses, an instrument of national reconstruction and fundamentally a conscious revolutionary force for the defense of the interests of the working masses.

"In the process of the material construction of the new society, with agriculture as the base and industry as a dynamic factor, the People's Republic of Mozambique, relying on its own forces and supported by its natural allies, will build an advanced prosperous and independent economy, will ensure control of its natural resources for the benefit of the masses at all levels, through its democartization guided by the state, the liquidation of elitism and of educational discrimination based on wealth and the formation of a new people's and revolutionary mentality among the new generations.

"Youth, the vitality of the nation, will be protected and the state will guarantee their education constantly linked to life and to mass interests.

"The state will promote knowledge, reinvigoration and national and international dissemination of Mozambican culture, an element of consolidation of national unity and an essential part of the Mozambican personality.

"Elimination of diseases, one of the aspects of colonialism and underdevelopment, will be a primary concern. The People's Republic of Mozambique will extend the network of health services throughout the entire country, especially in the rural areas, in order to benefit the working masses.

"The People's Republic of Mozambique will protect the family and promote development that favors child birth and child care.

"Following the line of FRELIMO, the People's Republic of Mozambique will pledge itself to fight for woman's emancipation, for her complete liberation from the various forms of traditional and capitalist oppression, in order that she may assume her roel as a citizen with full rights in our society, making her complete political, civic and social contribution to it.

HONORABLE DUTY

"The People's Republic of Mozambique considers it an honorable duty of all Mozambicans to provide special protection to war orphans and windows, to those incapacitated and wounded in the war, who are symbols of the sacrifice that millions of Mozambicans made throughout the colonial domination and the armed national liberation struggle.

"The People's Republic of Mozambique will be a lay state in which there will be complete separation of state and church.

"Born of the liberation battle for national independence, the People's Republic of Mozambique has a deep solidarity with the national liberation movements and makes militant internationalism a basic constant of its national and international policy.

"The People's Republic of Mozambique considers itself an integral member of bumanity's oppressed peoples and classes fighting for the transformation of the world and the establishment of a new and just social order.

"The People's Republic of Mozambique has as its natural allies the socialist countries which represent a liberated zone of humanity; the young states, chiefly the African states, committed to the national liberation movement, which represent one of the chief sources of anti-imperialist battle, the democratic and progressive forces, the working class of all humanity.

"The People's Republic of Mozambique which emerged from a long, hard and difficult struggle, knows, defends and appreciates the value of peace. For that reason it will unfailingly continue a policy that seeks the establishment of real peace based on justice, and it declares itself from the moment on in favor of universal, general and complete disarmament. Because of the particular responsibility it has due to its geographic position, the People's Republic of Mozambique is committed to the battle to transform the Indian Ocean into a peace zone.

"The People's Republic of Mozambique expresses it adherence to the guiding principles of the Charter of the United Nations Organization and of the Organization of African Unity.

"Mozambicans,

"This is the first state in which the power is ours, this is our free and independent country born out of sacrifice, blood, ruins.

"In saluting our flag, symbol of our victory, we salute our honorable insignia of study, production, combat.

"United from Rovuma to Maputo under the leadership of FRELIMO, engaged in the liberating work that all are performing, with the standard of vigilance held high, we are building, consolidating and developing our state, our power, our victory.

"LONG LIVE FRELIMO!

"LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF MOZAMBIQUE!

"THE STRUGGLE GOES ON!"

-- 16 --

THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY PROGRAM: MARCH 29, 1972 PLATFORM

WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE BELIEVE

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

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

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving there 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 goverment, and to provide new guards for their future security.

-- 17 --

1,000 KILLED IN REVOLT: “We Want Freedom From The White Racists“

(Soweto, South Africa) - "We won't be satisfied with anything but freedom from the White racists. They argue that Blacks here will suffer if revolution breaks out, but don't they realize that Blacks have been suffering all along?

"Perhaps now, for the first time, they will be suffering with a purpose… and the White man, he will be suffering too."

So spoke an 18-year-old Zulu youth, a native of the Soweto "township" here, reflecting on the week of open Black revolt against South Africa's apartheid system of racial segregation.

Last Wednesday, one week to the day that a Black school children's protest over a needless language requirement had sparked the greatest Black rebellion in modern South African history, the United Nations Committee Against Apartheid received reports which charged that:

"Leaders of the Black people estimated that about 1,000 Africans have been killed in the recent massacre."

The report, received from the U.N.'s Center Against Apartheid, grossly contradicts "official" statistics, which put the Black death toll at 174, and confirms allegations of wonton murder by White South African police forces. "It's no use firing over their heads," one White senior police official was heard to say.

-- 20 --

The report goes on the charge that many of the Black victims were killed by 22-caliber bullets, which are not South African police issue. Black leaders in the "townships" said that bullets of that caliber were used by a White vigilante group called Citizens Reserve Force "which was allowed to go into Soweto to murder the Blacks."

Following police repression of a demonstration of over 10,000 school children who marched through the Soweto "township" to protest the compulsory teaching of the hated Afrikaans language, open rebellion broke out in 18 "townships" outside Johannesburg and Pretoria, as Black South Africans gave voice to their grievances against apartheid, which denies them any meaningful control over their lives. Under apartheid, most recently called "seperate development" by the minority government, the country's 18 million Black live as virtual slaves for the 4.5 million White population.

For example, under apartheid: the 70 per cent Black population is packed onto 13 per cent of the land; average wages to Black workers are well below the official poverty line; the White minority regime spends $41 per year on the average Black student compared to $700 for the Whites every Black over 16 is required to carry a "pass book," controlling all movement.

In the Soweto "township" where the revolt started, 1.5 million Blacks are crammed into shanty huts and barracks-like dormitories designed to accommodate 60,000. And as the icy, winter winds last week scattered dust and debris through the dusty, unpaved Soweto streets, the smoldering rebles made clear the extent of the Black frustration and rage.

At the pitched peak of the battle, angry roving crowds of Black youth burned busses, and bear halls, overturned cars, and gutted the dilapitaded Bantu school buildings and other White administrative structures.

It was the youth, primarily -- although the entire citizenry was ultimately involved -- who displayed a new militancy and political consciousness -- youth who chanted "Black Power" and "Power-Soweto" slogans, sang the nationalist anthem, "God Bless Africa," and lead the rock-throwing resistance against the submachine-gun carrying police and special "antiterrorist" military squads.

Government assertions that the rebellion was the work of a small number of agitators have been openly mocked by even the "liberal" South African White press. Said the Sunday Tribune: "There are agitators at work, of course, the 'agitators' are poverty, frustration and the cruel laws of apartheid."

Close observers of the South African political scene indicate that the hard-line, no-compromise stand adopted by South African "Prime Minister" John Vorster and his ruling Nationalist Party assure that there will be more Sowetos.

-- 17 --

Intercommunal News: ONE AMERICAN, THREE BRITONS TO BE SHOT BY FIRING SQUAD: FOUR MERCENARIES SENTENCED TO DEATH IN ANGOLA

(Luanda, People's Republic of Angola) - One American and three Britons were sentenced here on June 28 to die before a firing squad fro their role as mercenaries for the U.S.-backed forces that earlier this year unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow the legitimate government of Angola, led by the MPLA.

Thirty-four-year-old Daniel Gearhart of Kensington, Maryland, appeared "shocked" and "wilted" when his death sentence was declared by the five member People's Revolutionary Tribunal, Associated Press (AP) reported. Gearhart's wife Sheila told reporters at the couple's suburban Washington, D.C., home that she would have no comment on the verdict until the U.S. State Department had officially confirmed it.

The Britons sentenced to death are Costas Georgius, alias Col. Tony "Mad Dog" Callan -- who admitted that he ordered the execution of 14 British mercenaries -- Andrew Mckenzie and John Derek Barker.

Angolan President Agostinho Neto must confirm each of the four death sentences.

Gustavo Grillo, 26, of Jersey City, New Jersey, an Argentineborn U.S. citizen, was given 30 years in prison, and 21-year-old Gary Acker of Sacramento, California, was sentenced to 16 years. Acker's father Carl told reporters in Sacramento that he and his wife were "happy to hear that our son's life is to be spared, but we're deeply concerned and upset that others are not to be." The elder Acker said he had no plans to try to visit his son in Angola.

Britons Michael Wiseman and John Marchand received 30 years each. The Tribunal ruled that the two men "behaved with intensely accentuated malice." John Lowlor, Collin Evans and Cecil Fortuin were each given 24 years; and John Nammock and Malcolm McIntrye, 16 years. All are Britons.

The Tribunal pronounced sentences at varying lenghts that took into consideration the defendants' ages and specific charges against the individual men. They were charged with a 139-count indictment of murder, massacre, laying minefields, abuse of civilians, pillage and destruction of property. All were found guilty of the general charge of being mercenaries. Under Angolan law the verdicts cannot be appealed.

The pronouncement of sentences had been originally scheduled for June 25, but the state postponed the verdicts in order to allow the court more time to decide whether to order the death penalty for all the men.

During the trial, numerous demonstrations were staged in Luanda in which Angolan citizens demanded death for the mercenaries. There were also outcries of "Death,. Death" from the spectator section during the course of the trial. Prosecutor Rui Monteiro, in wrapping up the state's case, demanded death for all the men, branding them as the "scum of human society."

The newly established people's Republic, known worldwide for its humanity, according to an article published last week in the Los Angeles Times, successfully accomplished the goal it set out to achieve in publicly trying the mercenaries:"…to show the world that an African country can defeat and then try as criminals the hired soldiers of the White world."

-- 18 --

SALIM A. SALIM, CHAIRMAN OF U.N. SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON DECOLONIZATION: TANZANIAN U.N. REPRESENTATIVE INTERVIEWED

Following, Africa magazine interviews Salim A. Salim, permanent representative to the United Nations from Tanzania and the highly respected chairman of the U.N. Special Committee of 24 on Decolonization.

PART I

QUESTION: The Committee of 24, of which you are chairman, has recently visited the four frontline states in the struggle for liberation in southern Africa. What were the principal objectives of your mission?

SALIM: The main objective of our mission was to consult with the leaders of the frontline states and the leaderrs of the liberation movements Zimbabwe and Namibia concerning the current situation in southern Africa with particular emphasis on developments in Southern Rhodesia and Namibia.

Such consultations were considered essential in view of the rapidly changing situation in the area and the need for the Committee to have an up-to-date and proper evalution of the current phase of the struggle there, so as to enhance the capacity of the Committee and through it the international community to contribute effectively to the speedy process of decolonization of both Zimbabwe and Namibia.

The presidents of Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia -- the four frontline states -- have been actively involved in concerted efforts in support of the liberation of Zimbabwe. They have taken a number of important initiatives. For the United Nations Decolonization Committee, therefore, it was important to have the assessment of these leaders on the current developments in Zimbabwe as well as to solicit their counsel and advice.

Q: What would you say were the salient features in your findings?

SALIM: First, I should say that our mission's objectives were completely fulfilled. At the level of consultations with the governments, we had extemely important, useful and frank exchanges of view with Presidents Nyerere, Kaunda, Seretse Khama and Samora