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60,000 Protest Bicentennial In Philly: DELLUMS CALLS FOR PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE

(Philadelphia, Pa.) - "Viva Puerto Rico Libre!" was the resounding cheer of the 60,000 people gathered here in Fairmount Park on July 4 for this city's "People's Bicentennial Celebration" after they heard the text of a resolution authored by Black California Congressman Ronald Dellums calling on the U.S. government to "unconditionally and without reservations" transfer all its powers in Puerto Rico to the people of that Caribbean island colony.

The resolution -- read to the assembled crowd by Black Panther Party chairperson Elaine Brown, a featured speaker at the July 4th Coalition-sponsored march and rally -- was submitted to the House of Representatives on July 1. Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP) Secretary General Juan Mari Bras, one of the keynote speakers for the day, hailed the Dellums' resolutions as an act of solidarity with Puerto Rico.

"Nobody could validly oppose the formula presented by Representative Dellums," Mari Bras declared. (See page 8 for the text of the resolution.)

The torrential rains that poured down over the city toward the end of the People's Bicentennial Celebration" -- the largest of four such demonstrations sponsored by the July 4th Coalition across the country -- did little to dampen the spirits of the representatives of some 400 political, labor, religious and other groups who came from as far away as Minnesota.

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A lively march through the predominantly Black community of North Philadelphia preceded the rally in Fairmount Park. Colorful floats highlighted the march, which was dominated by the 10,000-person contingent of the PSP, led by Mari Bras. The PSP contingent was the largest one at the event.

An attempt by the "City of Brotherly Love's" right-wing mayor, Frank Rizzo, to sabotage the event completely failed. Rizzo, who faces a recall election because of the widespread corruption of his administration, had earlier asked President Ford to send 15,000 federal troops to Philadelphia to counter what Rizzo alleged would be a "terrorist" demonstration. Despite the massive number of people on hand, the event was noteworthy for the peacefulness and orderliness of the Black, Puerto Rican, Chicano, Native American and other progressive people and organizations who participated.

In addition to Elaine Brown and Juan Mari Bras, other speakers at the celebration included Clyde Bellecourt of the American Indian Movement (AIM); Dave Dellinger, well known antiwar activist; Rev. Bernard Lee, executive vice-president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); Arthur Kinoy of the Mass Party Organizing Committee; and Helen Rodriguez of the Committee to End Sterilization Abuse.

The need for the unity of all poor and oppressed people in the U.S., in order to continue their struggle for human dignity, was the common theme of the day. In her pointed remarks to the Fairmount Park crowd, Elaine Brown, a native of Philadelphia, said:

"… Today we must mark the beginning of a New American Revolution or face years more of the same and ultimately the total destruction of us all at the hands of madmen, who, in the name of God and Freedom, shall destroy this very planet rather than lose the power they hold, which is rightfully ours….

"Let us mark this year, this time and this place as the end of the old and beginning of the new…." Elaine declared. (See last week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER for the text of Elaine's speech.)

Juan Mari Bras, who, as secretary general of the PSP, is a leading figure in the Puerto Rican liberation struggle, noted, "We (Puerto Ricans) know that we are not alone in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism, as we are not their only victims. We realize also that the great majority of the peoples of the United States are victims of imperialism the same as we are…"

AIM leader Clyde Bellecourt, welcoming the ralliers to "Indian country," said that 27 AIM activists are presently incarcerated in the U.S. for their efforts to achieve self-determination for Native American people. "We pledged four years ago when we seized the Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Washington, D.C., that if our demands were not met, we'd return today to blow out the candles on their Bicentennial birthday," Bellecourt told the crowd, which roared its approval.

Meeting on the eve of the Philadelphia celebration, representatives of the progressive groups that make up the July 4th Coalition decided to continue their work and strengthen the unity they have achieved through organizing the various "People's Bicentennial Celebrations." Participants in the meeting wrote a document highlighting the history of struggle of the people of America and the need to unite in order to organize a "counteroffensive against the attacks which the government has perpetrated against the people."

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EDITORIAL: CROCODILE TEARS

Is it really the "End of the Olympics" as the newspaper headlines scream? Has "politics" -- which conveniently becomes such an ugly word -- destroyed the "great Olympic tradition"?

No, not at all. What all this dribble and pompous public hysteria comes down to is the increasing isolation of the U.S. and its puppet allies from the rest of the world community in every arena and forum -- from the United Nations to the Olympics.

It was just last year that commentators predicted the hasty demise of the United Nations when the Third World united in overwhelming majority votes critical of U.S. imperialism policy. Suddenly, the specter of a "tyranny of the majority" at the U.N. became the catch phrase for right-wing reactionaries and their friends in the media. "Woe to the U.N.," they boo-hooed, crying crocodile tears of indignant displeasure as the Empire came under attack. This year it's the Olympics.

Approximately 5,000,000 people or less inhabit the small island of Taiwan, situated off the coast of the People's Republic of China. In international sports competitions, like the Olympic Games, athletes from Taiwan have competed under the banner of the "Republic of China," thus misrepresenting the 800,000,000 Chinese in the People's Republic who proclaim Peking as the capital of their liberated territory and Chairman Mao Tse-tung as their beloved leader.

Suprisingly, the government of Canada decided this was the year to end this mockery, this bogus charade. Presenting its non-negotiable position, Canada told the Taiwanese that under no circumstances could they represent the "Republic of China" at the Olympics. They could only represent Taiwan -- the puppet U.S.-backed regime which really represents nothing at all.

But were the "sacred" Olympics ever free of "politics?" Why then are national anthems played at the end of each competition? Why is each winning country's flag raised during awarding of medals? When the Olympics were the U.S. showcase for cultural dominance, when the "Stars and Stripes" proudly waved, there was no outcry. But now, in the era of the clinched Black fist and progressive principles, false outrage rules the day.

"Are the Olympics dead?" -- don't believe it.

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Letters to the Editor

BLASTS ATTACK ON SEATTLE BLACK STUDENT

Dear Editor:

I would like to comment on the case of Anita Louise Whitfield, a Black student at Jane Addams Junior High School who was overwhelmingly elected as next year's student body president -- by a student body that is overwhelmingly White -- and then subjected to Nazi-style or Ku Klux Klan-style terrorism. (See THE BLACK PANTHER, June 19, 1976.) I am glad to say that this terrorism has brought a White backlash against those terrorists who have not yet been caught but who have been forced, thus far, to keep out of sight by a White reaction they hadn't expected. Some particulars on this matter are as follows:

I have talked to White people, who, not particularly progressive in some ways, personally know this Black family as their neighobors and speak personally very well of them. These people have been learning what I've known since childhood, growing up in an interracial neighborhood -- that the "reasons" for keeping Blacks out of the neighborhood are pure garbage, not based on fact. Then, when these Nazi tactics are inflicted on a family, they know and respect, their reactions have been that one of "our own neighborhood kids is being kicked around and we're not going to stand for it." Incidentally, the fact that this terrorist treatment was aimed at their own neighbors -- regardless of color -- has aroused a White backlash against this injustice which might have been harder to arouse in the case of a child artificially transferred into the neighborhood school from outside.

Of great importance, this clearly points out the value of equal education, for free development of all people, regardless of racial origin. Once segregation of residence is abolished, "transfers," "busing," etc., will have outlived their usefulness and there should be better education and better life for all.

Paul Dubnar
Seattle, Wash.

THANKS FOR PANTHER PAPER

Comrades:

I want to thank you for the Party paper which you have so generously sent to me over the past months. I am very pleased to report that the paper gets well read by the brothers who have not been programmed by the oppressive dictates of the prison system.

It is unfortunate that I cannot relate to you the oppression that we must undergo here. To do so would mean this letter would never reach you, and even now it may not. However, a situation much the same as the one you recently printed in the paper from the MPISC (Maryland Penitentiary Intercommunal Survival Committee) exists here and daily it becomes worse.

Keep the paper coming this way. Until we meet, rise up to victory for the people. Stay strong and be at peace with yourself.

Also, please send me information as to requirements for membership in the Party.

All Power to the People
Ralph Arbogast #106817
Maryland Correctional Institute
Route 3, Box 2000
Hagerstown, Md. 21740

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COMMENT: To The Poor, Violence Is An Empty Stomach

By
Robert McAfee Brown

Robert McAfee Brown, the author of the following Comment, is a progressive-thinking Protestant theologian employed as a professor of ecumenics and world Christianity at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Mr. Brown also serves as a prominent sponsor of the Committee for Justice for Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party.

Violence is much more pervasive in human society than we usually admit. Indeed, what is overtly present in a world at war is covertly present in what we often mistakenly call a world at peace.

Few men have perceived this more acutely than Dom Helder Camara, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Recife, Brazil. He speaks of the "spiral of violence," whose first step is "Violence No.1" : Injustice.

For example, children condemned to grow up in a slum -- whether in Watts or Recife -- are having violence done to them all the time. They die of starvation, suffer early malnutrition that causes permanent brain damage, or have their lives otherwise twisted or warped by the unjust conditions of their upbringing. Dom Helder insists that where such conditions prevail, a society is violent.

When this situation persists long enough, he goes on, those who are its victims engage in "Violence No. 2: Revolt. Depending on the degree of their desperation, they may riot or take up arms in more organized rebellion.

But when rebellion occurs, those in power respond with "Violence No.3": Repression. This involves employing overt force to suppress the revolt and to insure it will not break out again. That, of course, increases injustice ("Violence No. 1"), and the spiral begins anew, though with

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greater intensity. Worse injustice causes more extreme revolt, which demands greater repression that produces even greater injustice, etc.

How are we to break the spiral? Dom Helder contends that when we speak of halting violence, we almost invariably mean "Violence No. 2," the overt physical act of revolt. But at that point it is too late to arrest the spiral. What we must learn is to start with "Violence No.1," for only when we root out injustice will we free human society of violence.

In my view, Dom Helder's analysis applies fully to American society. If we are concerned about violence in the United States, we must direct our attention to injustice and to the violence of the status quo, to the structural and institutional violence through which America abuses so many of its citizens.

This will, of course, require a deeper understanding of violence than Americans have previously possessed. Violence occurs not only when a person is mugged, raped or shot, but also when minority people are denied job opportunities, when Blacks are harassed by the police, when Chicano workers are denied collective-bargaining rights, women are given unequal pay and when the impoverished are given inferior schooling. Such injustices destroy people and, as such, are acts of violence…

The American majority -- those who are White, middle-class and comfortably situated -- must begin to see themselves and the world through eyes other than their own. As beneficiaries of the status quo, most Americans believe that their society and the world are just -- but believing something does not make it so. One person's peace is another's violence; justice for one people may entail violence against another.

POWER

If the U.S. majority ever begins to view the world from the perspective of the disadvantaged, they will also discover that Americans are among those with the power to decide how change is to come. Let me elaborate on the significance of that discovery with a story:

About 10 years ago in Colombia, a Catholic priest named Camillo Torres was killed while fighting alongside antigovernment guerrilla forces. He had tried to work for change in the usual ways -- speaking, writing, organizing and voting. But eventually he saw that his nation's repressive regime, representing a tiny minority, was unwilling to share its power and resources with the dispossessed majority.

So Father Torres chose the only option open to him: He joined the guerrillas attempting to seize by force what the minority was unwilling to share peacefully. To the end, this priest insisted that the decision about whether change would be peaceful or violent had been made not by the guerrillas but by the government.

Since Colombian society was manifestly unjust, Father Torres argued, change was inevitable. If the minority insisted on perpetuating the violence of an unjust status quo, it would leave the oppressed no option but to seize power violently.

I see Father Torres' story as a parable of our world today. The American majority has immense power and resources; in fact, all Americans benefit from the social structures created and protected by that tremendous power. Yet U.S. citizens are a global minority, constituting just six per cent of the world's population while consuming 40 per cent of its resources.

Clearly, then, our world is one in which a tiny minority controls an inordinate share of power and wealth. I do not believe that the deprived minority of the human family will let such a state of affairs go unchallenged much future that includes drastic pressure for reallocating the world's goods and resources.

That is where the issue of violence becomes a central concern for Americans. Will the United States continue a global course based on "Violence No. 1" (injustice) until "Violence No. 2" (revolt) becomes inevitable and America is forced to respond with "Violence No. 3" (repression)?

OVERT ACTS

Will Americans continue to believe that only overt acts of rebellion by the deprived are violent? Or will Americans begin to see that, from the perspective of the dispossessed, the world is already filled with the violence of injustice? How else must the world seem to the poor who send their children to bed hungry knowing full well that most children in America have more than enough to eat?

It is my rather desperate hope that the American nation still retains enough compassion to realize that it cannot go on piling up goods and power regardless of what happens to the dispossessed. As John Kennedy once remarked, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

Unless Americans reflect seriously on those words, that aphorism (statement) could become America's epitaph.

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California's Indeterminate Sentencing Challenged

(San Francisco, Calif.) - Current and paroled inmates of California prisons are challenging the state's inhumane indeterminate sentence law in a federal court case that began here last week.

Presiding in the case is U.S. District Court Judge Stanley A. Weigel who will hear over 100 witnesses scheduled to appear in court over a 10-week period. Three parolees and three prisoners are the plaintiffs in the suit against the California Adult Authority (CAA), originally filed in 1972, which seeks to have the indeterminate sentence law declared un-Constitutional. Under the law, a person is arbitrarily sentenced at the discretion of the court.

WITHOUT STANDARDS

B.E. Bergensen III, attorney for the plaintiffs, told Judge Weigel in his opening statement that the CAA acts without proper rational standards and that it denies prisoners due process rights to counsel at parole hearings. Bergensen said he will produce inmates as well as Adult Authority Board members to prove his contention.

He argued that the standards used by the Adult Authority are "mere window dressing" that result in arbitrary and discriminatory denials of parole.

Criticizing the lack of expertise of Adult Authority members, Bergensen stated, "The evidence will show that the members are

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all ex-law enforcement people and haven't any special training. … (people) such as guards."

The first witness for the plaintiffs, Charles E. Brown, a former member of the Authority and former Richmond police chief, supported Bergensen's argument that severity or leniency in judgements in parole is sometimes affected by policy dictated by the governor's office.

"You'll find that when there is a public clamor," Brown testified, "the Board will get tighter … with outside pressure." He cited one example in 1972 when there was a higher rate of denials of parole, "one result of the word from the governor's (Ronald Reagan) office."

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DUFFICY PRESENTS CLEAR EVIDENCE OF GEORGE JACKSON ASSASSINATION: CLOSING DEFENSE ARGUMENTS END AT S.Q.6 TRIAL

(San Rafael, Calif.) - Closing defense arguments for the final three defendants -- Fleeta Drumgo, Willie Tate and David Johnson -- highlighted by attorney Michael Dufficy's skilled presentation on the "mystery rifle" used to murder Black Panther Party Field Marshal George Jackson, were the center of attention here at the San Quentin 6 trial last week.

In fact, the state's planned assassination of the famous Black author/revolutionary was at the heart of all six closing statements, just as the name and spirit of George Jackson has asserted itself throughout the 16-month proceedings, the longest and most expensive in state history.

Dufficy, representing former "Soledad Brother" Fleeta Drumgo, began his arguments charging that Urbano Rubiaco, the single witness against Drumgo, was a "willful liar."

Rubiaco, a young White guard whose throat was slit three times on August 21, 1971, but who somehow survived, testified he saw Drumgo kick Paul Krasnes in the face when the late guard was bound and gagged on the Adjustment Center floor. Among other offers of proof denying Rubiaco's statement, Dufficy pointed to a photograph of Drumgo's shoes in his cell (1-AC-7) and read Krasnes' autopsy report, which implies that the severe bruises on the slain guard's face could not have been made by a barefoot kick.

Dufficy traced Rubiaco's hatred of Drumgo back several years -- to the O-Wing in Soledad -- and quoted the guard's comment, "Drumgo, I'll see you in the Green Room (San Quentin's gas chamber)," made little more than a month before August 21.

Turning to the assassination of George Jackson, Dufficy carefully reviewed the conflicting autopsy reports, one of which was changed four years later just before the celebrated trial began, in order to conform with the prosecution's case.

The bearded, well-dressed attorney then meticulously detailed the impossibility that Jackson's ankle wound was inflicted by a rifle shot from Balcony 1 -- located to the right of the AC -- entering the right instep of George's left foot, making a 90 degree turn, and exiting from his upper calf.

Dufficy convincingly argued that, eliminating the first possibility, then the rifle shot fired from behind the AC must have accounted for the ankle wound. According to the prosecution's case there were only two shots fired, one from Balcony 1, to the right, and one from Balcony 8, to the rear. (Guard Frank Bortfield testified that he always believed his hasty shot from Balcony 1 missed Jackson entirely.)

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"The question you (the jury) have to resolve is who killed George Jackson and why," Dufficy said. "George Jackson would have told the world what happened (on the 21st) and had to be silenced."

He then went on to explain that three .30-.30 rifles had been sent to the state criminal investigation section (CII) in Sacramento; the report on the third "mystery rifle" has never been revealed. Dufficy contended that the defense believed that this was the rifle used to murder George as he lay, bleeding and wounded, unable to walk, on the roadway near the AC yard.

John Hill, attorney for Willie Tate, laid out a many pronged argument that his client, the only one of the Six not chained and shackled in court, was still locked in his cell during the height of the violence. Hill also attacked the prosecution's "gun-in-a-wig" theory as absurd.

Representing David Johnson, Marin County public defender Frank Cox said, that, "The only conspiracy was not by inmates, but by prison guards who lied in court to cover up what really happened."

Arguing that the prosecution's case was an accumulation of "stacked evidence," Cox Said:

"We heard a lot about the so-called `convict code' during this trial, meaning that inmate snitches -- those who cooperate with guards -- can get killed.

"But I submit there is also a guard code in which the guards protect each other just like inmates do.

"And in this case, that guard code has been a conspiracy of silence and a conspiracy of lies about what happened that day."

To support his argument, Cox first cited pages of testimony in which guards claimed they never saw anyone beaten or brutalized after the retaking of the AC. He then turned to other selections of testimony and hospital records describing the vicious guard reaction on the AC lawn, where the 27 first tier AC inmates lay naked and hogtied for eight hours.

Prosecutor Jerry Herman's final rebuttal is expected to take place in the middle of the week, with the case going to the jury in the third week of July.

Following, THE BLACK PANTHER presents Part 2 of noted attorney Charles R. Garry's two-and-a-half-day closing arguments in defense of Black Panther Party member Johnny Larry Spain.

GARRY: "I do not intend to discuss (jury) instructions with you. I do not intend to go into any detail with the instructions. Some of the other counsel may. I believe that Mr. Cox, who is going to be the final reporter of these arguments, is going to go into that phase of it for you more extensively.

"I intend to talk to you about various aspects of this case. I intend to tell you frankly, exactly what I think of this evidence, as supported by the record.

"Many of the things that bothered me when I first came into this case still bother me, and I have not received and gotten answers, even after some 10 and one-half months of evidence being supplanted here.

"The name of Vanita Anderson keeps popping up in my mind, in my thinking. If Vanita Anderson brought this attache case with the tape recorder in it, and it had the .09 millimeter weapon as the prosecution would have you believe, then where is Vanita Anderson? Why isn't she before the bar of justice, if indeed she's in any way connected, either directly or indirectly, with the atrocious charges that are made against these six defendants?

"Like I said, I have not received an answer. When I first came into the case, and after these many, many months, I still do not have an answer. Don't tell me that the state of California, with all of its power, with all of its strength and all of its wealth, could not go and find out about Vanita Anderson.

"Another thing that bothered me right from the inception, once I became familiar with some of the facts that have been presented to us, is that there was a fingerprint, a fingerprint on the .09 millimeter weapon that has not been identified. But the power of the FBI, in Washington, D.C., where it has millions and millions of prints, and the power of CII in the state of California -- the investagive powers of the state of California, together with the FBI and all the others -- don't tell me that they could not isolate who that one fingerprint impression belonged to.

"Like I said, that bothered me when I first came into the case, and it's bothering me now. We don't have answers to that.

"It bothered me that countless numbers of persons can go through the prison gates without being examined, all of the custodial officers can, and all of the personnel can. We also find that if you have a badge, a police badge of another jurisdiction, you can go through without being examined.

"We've always found during the course of this trial that officers other than county officers of this county, Marin County, can come through with weapons or a weapon, without even having to be checked through, if you have the proper credentials.

"I was always bothered, when I first came into the case, and I have found no answers to the case yet, how is it possible that George Jackson, according to the theory of the prosecution's case, can bring in a weapon without being detected?"

TO BE CONTINUED

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N.C. Blacks Protest White Woman's Acquittal

(Henderson, N.C.) - A White woman on trial here for shooting an unarmed Black man in the back and then driving away was acquitted of first degree murder charges last Saturday, July 10.

Sandra Dupree, the 34-year-old wife of a Free Will Baptist preacher, admitted she shot Harry Lee Dickens, 21, in the back, but claimed she was attacked. Three eyewitnesses at the scene of the incident, testifying at the trial for the prosecution, denied that Dickens accosted the White woman or her son.

Outside the courtroom, the Rev. Jeremiah Week called on a group of demonstrators to continue the struggle for justice. The determined young Black protesters (above) had daily picketed the trial, objecting to the woman's release on bail. The trial was moved to Henderson, a small town deep in eastern North Carolina, following similar demonstrations in Scotland Neck, the site of Dickens' murder.

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SPONSORED BY S.A.F.E. CLUB, BLACK A.C. TRANSIT EMPLOYEES: OAKLAND SENIORS ENJOY RELAXING BUS RIDE DOWN PACIFIC COAST

(Oakland, Calif.) - Thirty Oakland senior citizens were treated to a very relaxing and enjoyable bus trip down the Pacific Coast last Saturday, July 10, sponsored by the Seniors Against A Fearful Environment (S.A.F.E.) Club and Progress In Action, an organization of the Black employees of the Alameda/Contra Costa (A.C.) Transit District.

The S.A.F.E. Club and Progress In Action planned the successful trip from start to finish as S.A.F.E. volunteers contacted and organized senior citizens for the but ride and the Black A.C. Transit employees provided a chartered bus and driver along with a tour guide.

After leaving the Oakland Community Learning Center, the seniors made their first stop at the historic Muir Woods State Park where they took an educational hour-and-a-half walk through the scenic forest. Here the very knowledgeable tour guide discussed in detail the various historical markers and points of interest encountered by the group.

In the park everyone ate a sack lunch which consisted of chicken sandwiches, fruit, sodas and other snacks. Some of the seniors remarked that the lunches reminded them of the way Black families used to eat on long bus trips as they traveled in and out of the South.

From Muir Woods, the group continued down the coast to Drake's Bay. On the way everyone was amazed at the dexterity and skill of the bus driver, who maneuvered the big bus up and down winding, sharp curves. After reaching Drake's Bay and taking in some of the beautiful scenery, everyone boarded the bus for the trip home.

Many of the senior citizens commented on how relaxing and soothing the trip was -- being able "to be out in the woods, instead of in a hot house all day." They were very grateful that the trip was free, thanks to Progress In Action. Many seniors love to go on such trips but cannot afford them because of the meager income they receive from their retirement and Social Security checks.

Many of the seniors who participated in this event have various ailments -- the most common of them high blood pressure -- and stated that this little excursion really calmed their nerves.

Because of the overwhelmingly favorable response of the seniors who went on the trip, the S.A.F.E. Club indicated that it will be sponsoring similar activities in the near future and expressed its gratitude to Progress In Action for the group's dedicated and selfless participation.

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Ericka Huggins At Benefit For County Strikers

(Berkeley, Calif.) - Oakland Community School Director ERICKA HUGGINS (left) was one of the featured speakers at a benefit program held at La Pena Cultural Center and Restaurant here on July 7 for striking employees of Alameda County and Berkeley teachers recently fired because of budget cuts.

Ericka, who was sworn in on July 1 as a member of the Alameda County Board of Education, commented on the need to eliminate racism in education and invited everyone to visit the Oakland Community School, "a place where there is no racism," She pledged her total support for the striking workers and the fired Berkeley teachers.

THE AFRICAN STUDENT CULTURAL ASSOCIATION of the University of California, Berkeley, one of numerous groups and individuals who entertained at the benefit program, was enthusiastically applauded by the audience for its superb performance of the "Revolutionary Boot Dance" of Azania (South Africa).

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THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

July 17, 1794

On July 17, 1794, Absalom Jones and his followers dedicated the First African Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia. Jones, as an Episcopalian, was the first Black minister ordained in America and later that year with Richard Allen was a co-founder of the Free African Society.

July 13 - 17, 1863

Hostility to the draft and a fear of Black people, who allegedly were the cause of the Civil War, led to the New York Draft Riots of July 13-17, 1863. The draft riots were one of the bloodiest racial conflicts in American history. White mobs swept through the streets, murdered Black people and hanged them on lampposts.

July 11-13, 1905

A group of Black intellectuals, led by Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter, organized the Niagara Movement at a meeting near Niagara Falls, New York, on July 11-13, 1905. Delegates from 14 states demanded the abolition of all distinctions based upon race. The Niagara Movement was the forerunner of the NAACP.

July 12, 1951

Governor Adlai Stevenson called out the National Guard to quell a racial conflict in Cicero, Illinois, on July 12, 1951. A mob of 3,500 White people attempted to prevent a Black family from moving into the all-White city.

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PRISONERS' HEALTH PROJECT: Suit Demands Improved Jail Health Care

(San Francisco, Calif.) - In a press conference here last week at the Federal Building, representatives of the Prisoner's Health Project (PHP) announced their support of legal efforts, in the form of a civil rights suit, being made of force the city and county of San Francisco to improve jail health conditions and health care for prison inmates.

In the civil rights action, Smith vs. Hongisto, representatives of the prisoners (plaintiffs) will ask federal District Court Judge Schnacke to prevent the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mayor George Moscone from illegally slashing funds earmarked for jail health care.

In a statement read at the press conference, the PHP argued, "Over the years, the insensitivity of the Board of Supervisors has led to constant refusals to pass a budget necessary to bring health care up to standard. Today -- for the third time -- attorneys are going to court in an attempt to force the city to assume its long-neglected responsibility -- that of providing adequate health care for prisoners -- many of whom have never been in court.

"During the last two years the Prisoners' Health Project has developed several health care programs for prisoners and has further demonstrated the need for improvements in jail health care…. We fully back today's legal action to continue these programs."

A separate statement issued at the press conference by the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation, counsel for the plaintiffs, read:

"Medical care at the (S.F.) county jails has already been declared `woefully inadequate' by the California Medical Association

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and found to be un-Constitutional as `cruel and unusual punishment' by the court in this case as early as 1973. This drastic decrease in basic medical services for women and men in terms of personnel, equipment and supplies will only aggravate an already deteriorating and illegal situation.

"Even Dr. Francis J. Curry, San Francisco's director of the Department of Public Health, one of the agencies being sued, has stated to the court that his proposed budget was `barely adequate to maintain the present level of services.' The final budget has been so severely axed that it has little resemblance to the original.

"Of the 46 new positions requested, including a doctor, nurse-specialists and medical screeners, the city has refused to fund all but one and one-half of the positions. Over 41 per cent of the much-needed equipment and medical supplies asked for has been cut as well.

"These cuts have taken place at the same time as funding for CETA (Comprehensive Employment Training Act) and PHP has declined enormously. Two-thirds of the jail health care workers have been supplied from these programs, with the city's prior agreement to take over the funding.

"The court action will ask for the restoration of the funds and an order that the city meet its continuing responsibility for upgrading the deplorable conditions throughout San Francisco's county jails."

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WALKOUT ON COMMISSION MEETING AFTER PRESENTING GRIEVANCES: ANGRY SAN ANTONIO TENANTS LEAD O.H.A. ON “TOUR” OF PROJECTS

(Oakland, Calif.) - "Tear it down," muttered one Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) commissioner as he was led through San Antonio Housing Projects last Tuesday evening by a crowd of angry tenants who pointed out the wretched conditions within the small 178-unit facility as they walked along.

It was a tremendous political statement by the tenants, and a mind-boggling experience for the commissioners and media who "toured" San Antonio -- seeing firsthand the backed-up sinks, the faulty wiring, the roaches, maggots and overflowing garbage disposals, the dingy, dirty "rec" center with its half ping-pong table as the only recreation.

Harold Davis, the arrogant "Black" executive director of the OHA, at first refused to enter the dilapidated "rec" center, only doing so as the chants, "Davis, go on in," "What's wrong Davis," grew louder and louder.

The impromptu "tour," which lasted for over an hour and a half, came about when spokespersons for the newly formed Tenants' Union decided that talking was not enough, and led a walk out of the special OHA Commission meeting called to discuss the conditions in San Antonio.

As the group left, they invited the commissioners and media to accompany them down to the projects. "You can even spend the night," one angry woman yelled out in jest as the tenants left. Not surprisingly, none of the commissioners later took up her threat.

At the meeting, held in Havenscourt Junior High School, Tenants' Union spokesperson Bessie Smith and Dorothy Burton took the commissioners and director Davis to task for not upgrading the indecent housing conditions in San Antonio.

Mrs. Smith led off the tenants' presentation by commenting: "We've been reading in the Oakland Tribune the statements that have been made about how the conditions where we live are our own fault. I'm here today to say that the OHA has not kept up its share of the bargain.

"We have close to 600 children with no play area, garbage pick-up once a week… Any fool knows that you do not put grass seed on top of hard, concrete dirt, water it and let it roll back to the sidewalk…

"I have a feeling that our intelligence, those of us down in the Villa, is being questioned. We do not enjoy living the way we do. We would like much better for our children."

Moving on to the problem of police harassment, Mrs. Thomas continued: "We've been put under martial law down in the projects. Our children can neither walk out nor enter without being stopped. I don't think this is any way near fair, just because we are low income people, just because people feel we can't fight back. They wouldn't do this up in Piedmont…"

Addressing this same theme, Mrs. Burton said: "They say the police are there under the pretense of dope traffic. Let me tell you: they have not arrested one dope pusher, not one dope addict. All they (the police) are doing is harassing innocent people's children…"

Speaking in support of the tenants were: Ms. Julia Blackwell, an Alameda County public defender who voluntarily serves as attorney for the Tenants' Union; Rev. Michael Dunn, president of East Oakland Clergy; and Ericka Huggins, director of the Oakland Community School and a leading member of the Black Panther Party.

"San Antonio projects is not a plantation," Ericka said in her brief statement of support. "These problems can be alleviated if you people who sit there are concerned at all about human beings, about children, about people."

Both Ms. Blackwell and Rev. Dunn commented that the meeting -- called in response to a demand presented two weeks ago by Black Panther Party chairperson Elaine Brown and several area tenants -- was not held in San Antonio as the commissioners had previously promised, nor were tenants consulted concerning input into the agenda, time or date for the meeting.

The commissioners were also presented a typed statement from the San Antonio Tenants' Union, signed by close to 30 active residents, listing specific grievances.

(See next week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER for the text of the Tenants' Union statement.)

-- 6 --

GRAND JURY CLEARS KILLER COPS: N.Y. BLACKS STORM COUNTY MEETING, PROTEST POLICE MURDER

(New Cassel, N.Y.) - Over 300 Black people marched into a Nassau County Board of Supervisors meeting here recently to protest the cowardly police murder of a 24-year-old Black man. A grand jury cleared the killer cops of any wrongdoing.

Larry Cowan was murdered on June 21 by Nassau County police officers Joseph Marino, Robert Cuervo and Steven Schochet who shot him eight times. The three officers claimed that Cowan, who had just been released from parole three weeks earlier, pulled a gun from his back pocket and pointed it at them "as he attempted to escape." No warning shot was fired because, according to police, "it was all instantaneous reaction."

However, Ray Neals, an eyewitness, saw the incident in a different manner. He said, "Two cops walked up to Cowan, who was talking to two guys. They moved him away from the guys, one on each side, holding him.

REACHED

"They were talking when one of them reached for Cowan's back pocket. Cowan jumped back, either grabbing at his pocket or knocking away the cop's hand. He took two steps back, turned around and ran. The cops grabbed their guns, one going into a kneeling position while the other stood, and they began shooting."

Police said Schochet observed the incident from a short distance away and fired at Cowan as he fled from the other two officers. It is believed that Schochet fired the fatal shot.

The police officers allege that they shot Cowan because they saw a gun in his hand, but no gun was ever found. According to Neals, "There was nothing in his (Cowan's) hand as far as I could see."

In order to deliver their angry protest to the Nassau County Board of Supervisors, the 300 protesters marched five miles in 90-degree heat. When they came before the Board, the first speaker, Rev. Daniel Hines, declared, "They murdered this boy…the problem will become larger unless justice is done."

Another New Cassel resident, Edward Askew, warned, "We came here to seek justice and if we don't get it we will tear this county apart." He brought the audience to its feet, shouting, when he said, "When you put a bullet in that man's head, you put a bullet in every Black person's heart in this county."

Rev. Granville Burnett of Westbury, New York, stated, "I'm sure that we will hear once again that this is a case of overreacting by police, but what we need is police that can tell the difference between an animal and a human being."

After about an hour of vehement and angry protest, the entire group left, all at once, not even bothering to listen to the excuses offered by the supervisors.

As expected, the three cops responsible for the murder of young Cowan were cleared by a Nassau County grand jury. The grand jury listened to 30 witnesses, 19 of them New Cassel residents. After hearing a full day's testimony, the grand jury handed down a "no true bill," stating that there were no grounds for indicting the officers.

When Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Stephen P. Scaring was asked to describe the racial composition of the 23-member grand jury, he declined, stating, "It might compromise their integrity."

The New Cassel Black community was not surprised by the ruling because in the words of Ed Askew, "We didn't expect any miracles."

"This is a classic example of what happens when they (the police) see a Black man running," said Rashidi Khalfani. "This is just the last straw."

-- 6 --

Sunday Forum Swings

(Oakland, Calif.) - The powerful sounds of REGINA RANDALL and the SOUND OF FUDGE band (left photo), along with the singing group EMPORT/EXPORT, filled the Oakland Community Learning Center (OCLC) with soulful atmosphere last Sunday at the OCLC Community Forum.

Regina, backed by the Sound of Fudge, belted out a wide variety of melodies, ranging from some of the downhome tunes of Aretha Franklin to the silky smooth music of Nancy Wilson. Then, Emport/Export literally dazzled the crowd in the OCLC cafeteria as they sang some of the hit tunes of the Dramatics, O'Jays and the Temptations. As if this wasn't enough, they came back with an a capella (without music) routine which left everyone talking about them well after the show had ended.

-- 6 --

Consumer Concerns

Fruit From
The Farmer

California consumers will be able to buy excess fruits directly from farmers through a program which was recently announced by the state Departments of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs. Representatives of the departments expressed the hope that this program will bring about lower prices for consumers and increased sales for farmers. An information center has been established in Sacramento with a toll-free number, 1-800-852-7525.

Used Car
Warranties

California Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Director Taksugu Takei recently announced his full support of the Used Automobile Warrant Act. The bill was drawn up after a number of public hearings were held during the summer of 1976 in which it was determined that there were misunderstandings concerning used car warranties. Under the provisions of this bill, used car dealers selling a car for an amount in excess of $1,000 would be required to provide the purchaser of a used car with a minimum warranty guaranteeing the vehicle to be free of mechanical defects for 60 days or 2,000 miles, whichever comes first.

Tax Returns

Many Californians are unaware that beginning in July, 1974, all individuals and companies who prepare tax returns for a fee must be registered with the state and are subject to provisions of Section 9891 of the California Business and Professions Code. Dan Procida, administrator of the Department of Consumer Affairs Tax Preparers' Program -- which regulates, registers and bonds tax preparers -- said that about this time each year a pattern of complaints begins to emerge. Procida said that the tax preparer is obligated to pay penalties and interests resulting from errors he makes only if the contract and/or advertising included such a statement. He also reminded consumers that the DCA will provide taxpayers with the names of tax preparers' bonding companies upon request.

-- 7 --

F.B.I. DIRECTOR KELLEY, SENATOR CHURCH TESTIFY AT MURDER TRIAL: KUNSTLER CHARGES A.I.M. “TARGETED” FOR F.B.I. ATTACKS

(Cedar Rapids, Iowa) - In an exclusive interview with THE BLACK PANTHER, William Kunstler, the progressive attorney for two members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) on trial here for the murder of two FBI agents, charged that AIM was "targeted" for selective federal government harassment.

Commenting on the course of the trial in the aftermath of testimony by FBI Director Clarence Kelley -- who appeared as a defense witness under threat of contempt of court charges -- and Senator Frank Church, who headed the recent Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearings, Kunstler said:

"What we are trying to establish is that, like the Black Panther Party, AIM was a `targeted' organization by the FBI for COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) activities. Among the techniques used against them, again, like those used against the Black Panther Party, were those of causing confrontations by spreading untrue information, either concerning informers or the `dangerous' quality of the targeted organization.

"For example, just a week ago we received teletypes that were sent out which indicated that AIM, with 4,000 `dog soldiers,' was going to do a number of actions between July 1 and July 5 of this year, including the assassination of the governor of South Dakota, the break-in of the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to assassinate an inmate, sniping at tourists along the interstate highway, and so on.

TELETYPES

"I showed one of the teletypes to Senator Church and asked if this was a technique used by COINTELPRO. He said that it was.

"We wanted Kelley there in order to indicate that COINTELPRO really hadn't ended, but was still very much a part of the FBI's plan."

Q: "Did he admit to that?"

KUNSTLER: "Kelley already admitted before the Church Committee that in individual instances the FBI will use such techniques if it is felt they are necessary. Senator Church said his Committee found that the FBI had not rejected the principle of COINTELPRO, even though it claimed the actual program had ended in 1971."

Q: "What is the general defense that you are using in the case?"

KUNSTLER: "It's a tri-pronged defense. Number 1: there is absolutely no evidence that these guys -- Robert Robideau, 29, of Portland, Oregon, and Darelle (Dino) Butler, 33, of Rouge River, Oregon -- killed anybody. Number 2: what happened here was a shoot-out that was provoked by shots coming into the camp from the outside, presumably from the FBI or the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) police. Number 3:

-- 22 --
AIM defendants were selected because they are members of the American Indian Movement and because AIM was a `targeted' organization."

Earlier in the week, after first balking and being threatened with contempt of court charges if he failed to appear, FBI Director Clarence Kelley was trapped in several lies concerning the federal government's harassment of AIM and progressive Native American people.

FORCED TO ADMIT

Although Kelley testified that the FBI does not consider AIM "objectionable, subversive, or un-American," he was later forced to admit, under intense questioning by Kunstler that, in fact, AIM was listed as a "terrorist" organization in the June, 1976, issue of the Bureau's Domestic Terrorist Digest, a publication loaned by the FBI to local law enforcement agencies. Kelley also admitted that the FBI used secret informants against AIM members.

Kunstler and other members of the seven-person defense team also questioned Kelley about the use of teletypes to relay information concerning organizations such as AIM to FBI field offices and other law enforcement agencies. It was this activity, the defense asserts, which led to the atmosphere of fear which pervades the Oglala Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Following Kelley to the stand was Senator Church, who claimed his Committee never investigated AIM deeply enough for him to make specific comments.

Also testifying last week was Vine DeLoria, a noted Native American author and attorney, who said that residents of most Indian reservations till expect massacres to occur when government authorities enter their land.

"There is a built-in expectation, particularly among Plains Indians, that in any incident that goes beyond the shouting stage, there is a very real possibility that the U.S. government will come in and kill everyone," DeLoria said.

Citing several 19th century massacres and explaining that the memory of them is still fresh among Indians, DeLoria said that, "It is like there were no years between when the actual massacres took place and now."

According to attorney Kunstler, a basic issue at the trial is the atmosphere of fear and violence that prevails on Pine Ridge.

-- 7 --

Flint Black Policewoman Acquitted

(Flint, Mich.) - Black policewoman Madeline Fletcher has been acquitted here of assault charges that were brought against her after she acted in self-defense against an attack by a White racist policeman. She has yet to be reinstated on her job.

Ms. Fletcher was attacked last December 27 by her White partner, Walter Kalberer, following an argument over who would drive their patrol car. Mauled by Kalberer, Ms. Fletcher attempted to run but was chased by the White officer. To defend herself, the Black policewoman shot Kalberer in the thigh. Ms. Fletcher was fired upon at least 14 times by several White officers, suffering a gunshot wound in the stomach.

In the aftermath of the incident, Kalberer was placed on sick leave and later returned to active duty while Ms. Fletcher was charged with "felonious assault" and "assault with intent to do great bodily harm." She was also suspended from duty without pay.

A jury of four Blacks and eight Whites acquitted Ms. Fletcher as her attorney, the popular and progressive Ken Cockrel, maintained that she acted in self-defense, charging that the atmosphere of racism and sexism in the Flint Police Department was the cause of the incident.

The jury foreman, a Black woman who had the windows smashed out of her car by known racists, said she would have "stayed out for six months, if necessary," to obtain an acquittal.

-- 7 --

Top F.B.I. Officials Charged With Criminal Misconduct

(Washington, D.C.) - Criminal misconduct in the FBI, involving the commission of illegal burglaries and financial corruption, currently under investigation by the Justice Department is touching a growing number of present and past officials -- including some in the highest echelons of the Bureau -- The New York Times reported last week.

An indication of the widespread nature of the corruption was suggested by one federal official who, when asked how many Bureau agents and executives have been affected by either of the two probes, replied that a list of their names would take up "a lot of space."

Those officials and agents under Justice Department scrutiny have apparently been badly shaken by the investigation. According to one source close to the FBI, many of those under suspicion, through their attorneys, have approached the prosecutors about the possibility of testifying against each other in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

Among the top present and past officials being investigated concerning the illegal break-ins are Andrew J. Decker, an assistant FBI director; Horace Beckwith, a supervisor in the intelligence division of the Bureau; Edward S. Miller, former head of the intelligence division; and W. Mark Felt, who served as deputy FBI director under L. Patrick Gray.

Another source said the FBI Director Clarence Kelley has begun an investigation to determine who within the Bureau withheld from him until a few months ago information concerning illegal FBI burglaries committed within the last five years.

The Justice Department started its inquiry into the burglaries last March after the discovery of files in the New York City FBI office revealing that the homes of friends, relatives and associates of members of the Weather Underground had been illegally entered and searched in an attempt to learn the whereabouts of Weather Underground members sought by the Bureau.

Kelley issued a statement two

-- 25 --
weeks ago claiming that the newly discovered burglaries had been "limited" in number and confined to a period of several months in 1972 and 1973 while L. Patrick Gray served as FBI director. Gray succeeded J. Edgar Hoover who died in May, 1972.

However, the FBI source (who asked to remain anonymous) said that these break-ins were carried out by the "hundreds" over the last five years in New York City, San Francisco, Albany, New York, and other places and that the practice continued until as recently as April of this year. The source also said that illegal burglaries -- or "bag jobs" as they are called by the FBI -- not mentioned in the files obtained by the Justice Department were committed against a wide variety of organizations, including Puerto Rican nationalists, the Mafia and some right-wing groups.

1966 DIRECTIVE

In a 1966 directive, Hoover officially ordered the halt of break-ins aimed at domestic groups, but a source said that the burglaries were resumed by FBI agents almost the moment after Hoover died.

The investigation of financial corruption concerns kickbacks to Bureau executives from companies that supplied electronic and other equipment to the FBI. Officials involved in this scandal are Nicholas P. Callahan, current associate FBI director and Kelley's top aide; Thomas J. Jenkins, one of Callahan's two deputies; and John P. Mohr, who, until he retired in 1972, was the FBI's administrative chief and next to Hoover, its most powerful and influential official.

Callahan, Jenkins and James B. Adams -- Callahan's other deputy who it is said will likely remain untouched by the Justice Department investigation -- have been described by Bureau sources as a "triumvirate" that is loyal to the memory of Hoover and that has maintained extensive control over the organization's operation. Kelley has denied suggestions that he is in less than complete charge.

All Power
To
The People

-- 8 --

Dellums' Resolution On Puerto Rico

The following is the text of the resolution submitted to the House of Representatives on July 1 by progressive Bay Area Congressman Ronald Dellums calling on the U.S. to end its colonial rule in Puerto Rico and supporting the just right of the Puerto Rican people to self-determination.

"Whereas the people of the United States in the Declaration of Independence of 1776 made a commitment to the principles that all colonial people have the inalienable right to self-determination and the right to assume their place as free and independent states among the nations of the world, and whereas the Constitution of the United States mandates that the status of inferiority for any peoples presently under the control of the United States be forthwith abolished:

"Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that all powers and authorities presently exercised by the three branches of government of the United States, Legislative, Judicial and Executive, and all the agencies and instrumentalities, including the armed forces of the United States, over the territory of Puerto Rico are hereby relinquished and transferred unconditionally and without reservations to the people of Puerto Rico, in order to allow them to fully exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence, in accordance with their freely expressed will and desire.

"In order to implement the purposes of this resolution, the Congress urges the people of Puerto Rico to freely convene a constituent assembly with the proportional representation for all the people of Puerto Rico in order to organize the body politic of the Puerto Rican people and fully exercise their inalienable right to determine their own future."

-- 8 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

Too Many Drugs

(Sacramento, Calif.) - California Secretary of Health and Welfare Mario Obledo announced recently that his office will investigate claims that state hospital staff members overuse drugs to calm mental patients. The study will probe the forced taking of drugs and the issue of whether or not patients should be committed to state hospitals without their consent.

Death Penalty
Racist

(New York, N.Y.) - Officials of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund announced last week that they will continue to fight against the death penalty on the grounds that its application is racially discriminatory. In response to last week's 7-2 Supreme Court ruling upholding the concept of the death penalty, Jack Greenberg, director of the Fund, released figures at a recent press conference, listing 562 persons on death row, including 334 non-Whites and 12 women. NAACP figures showed 310 Blacks (52 per cent), compared to 258 Whites (43 per cent) -- figures highly disproportionate to total population percentages.

Infinite Spiral

(Livermore, Calif.) - Two physicists here are proposing that the universe is even older then generally thought -- 20 billion years, instead of 12 billion to 17 billion years -- reports the San Francisco Chronicle. If it is accurate the estimate, based on newly obtained data from the Viking Mars expedition, adds weight to arguments that the universe will expand in an infinite spiral, rather than collapse back on itself in a reverse action replay of the "big bang" theory of the beginning of the universe.

Jobs Veto

(Washington, D.C.) - President Ford's recent veto of a job-creating public works bill is expected to draw heavy opposition from Congressional Democrats. House and Senate leaders say they believe Congress will override Ford's veto of the $3.95 billion bill, designed to create or preserve 400,000 jobs. The veto was the 52nd since Ford became President in 1974.

-- 9 --

BLACKS SKEPTICAL: Milwaukee “Specialty School” Desegregation Plan Presented

(Milwaukee, Wisc.) - A new, three-year, $7 million voluntary desegration plan was announced here recently, submitted by the local School Board in response to a federal court order requiring one-third of the city's schools to be integrated by September.

Although it is likely to be modified due to changes in the racial make-up of certain schools the School Board plan centers around a so-called "specialty school."

Through this "specialty schools" concept, Milwaukee schools superintendent Lee McMurrin seeks to achieve desegration on a voluntary basis, the big "if" being the question of whether or not the "specialty schools" attract students from all over the city.

There is a provision in the plan which calls for selecting students at random or by lottery if there are not enough "voluntary" transfers, the Milwaukee Journal reports.

Under the School Board plan schools would be divided into zones and leagues to facilitate integration, without changing existing school boundaries.

This new report came as a direct result of a federal court order by District Court Judge John W. Reynolds, which demanded the Milwaukee School Board to achieve a 25 to 45 per cent Black enrollment in one-third of its schools by this fall. The order came after the School Board refused to accept a previous voluntary desegregation plan submitted by Special Master John A. Gronouski. Gronouski was appointed by Judge Reynolds to draw up the plan after a January 19, 1976, ruling ordering the desegregation of Milwaukee Schools.

GUIDELINES

The Milwaukee School Board is now claiming that it cannot meet Reynolds' guidelines because of changes in the racial composition of the city's schools. Schools superintendent Lee R. McMurrin stated that it is impossible to satisfy the court order as Milwaukee grade schools become 50 per cent or more Black, which, according to the Board, is going to happen soon. The Board is now seeking a change in the required ratio of 20 to 60 per cent Black enrollment in all schools.

The community is naturally skeptical of this voluntary plan and concerned about the fact that most of the students to be transferred out of their present schools will be Black.

-- 9 --

CLOSING OF WISCONSIN DAY CARE CENTERS DELAYED

(Madison, Wisc.) - As a result of strong community pressure, the state of Wisconsin has delayed for one month the enforcement of strict new federal guidelines concerning day care centers which would have forced thousands of working mothers and fathers onto the welfare rolls.

The new standards will require some of the state-operated day care centers to double their staffs, and many will be forced to close because of the lack of funds to expand their staffs. When the new regulations were passed, President Ford vetoed a $250 million appropriation to help put the new rules into effect.

After protests from community organizations and day care centers, led by the Wisconsin Early Childhood Care Association Administration, the July 1 deadline was extended to August 1 to allow time for new legislation -- the Packwood Compromise bill -- to make it through Congress. The bill would return the $250 million to day care centers that are in need of the funds to meet the new federal regulations.

Before the announcement of the month extension, many working mothers and fathers faced the possibility of going on welfare rolls or enrolling in the unpopular, federally sponsored Family Home Day Care (FHDC) program. Under the FHDC program, children of working parents would be placed in selected homes, usually those of welfare mothers, and the person would be paid for watching the children.

FHDC has come under criticism because its program excludes the educational benefits of a day care center and does not offer any kind of insurance for the child while in the home.

Working mothers and fathers are caught in the middle of a federal-state conflict, and many will be forced to give up their jobs if the federally funded day care centers close due to the new guidelines.

-- 9 --

Clues Sought In 1972 Arkansas Murders

(Oakland, Calif.) - Charles J. Berthia, Jr., a local resident, is seeking information concerning the mysterious deaths of his three relatives -- Kerry Berthia, 15, his 17-year-old brother Marvin and their uncle, Prentis Reynolds, 34, -- on Interstate 30 near Prescott, Arkansas, on September 10, 1972.

According to David N. Henderson, 26, of Chino, California, the Hot Springs, Arkansas, men were lying shoulder-to-shoulder on the highway, face up, when the truck he was driving hit them. Henderson said that when he saw the three Black men, it was too late for him to stop his truck. An autopsy performed on the three concluded that no "foul play" was involved in their deaths.

Charles Berthia, cousin of Marvin and Kerry, enlisted the aid of Bay Area Congressman Ronald Dellums in 1973. The congressman subsequently wrote to the Department of Justice demanding that an investigation be made to determine whether the civil rights of the dead men were violated. In July, 1975, Dellums was advised by the Department that an FBI investigation had found no evidence of murder.

Charles Berthia and the entire Berthia family remain unconvinced that Kerry, Marvin and Reynolds would lay in the middle of a busy highway and thereby endanger their lives. It is believed that there are witnesses to the incident, and the family is asking their help in solving the case. Contact: Charles J. Berthia, Jr., 1500 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, California 94611.

-- 10 --

Suit Filed Against Involuntary Confinement In Mental Institutions

(Oakland, Calif.) - A suit was filed here recently against Alameda County officials in an effort to prevent the arbitrary and involuntary commitment of persons to state mental institutions.

The suit, filed by psychiatrist Lee Coleman and a California mental patient identified as Jane Doe, names Alameda County Conservator George Simmons and Oakland Police Chief George Hart as the defendants in this civil rights action.

One of the principal provisions challenged by Dr. Coleman and Ms. Doe is the vague statutory standard defining who may be involuntarily confined in California mental hospitals. At the present time California law permits the involuntary confinement of any individual who is unable to provide for his basic personal needs for food, clothing, or shelter as a result of mental disorder.

Dr. Coleman's and Ms. Doe's attorney, Peter Sheehan of the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County, point out that this standard has been interpreted by Alameda County officials as authorizing the confinement of persons who, although able to obtain employment and shelter, simply exercise poor judgement in the eyes of the Alameda officials.

CONFINED

As one example of this, the suit alleges that Jane Doe was confined against her will at Napa State Hospital even though she had obtained part time employment and was able to obtain adequate housing. Ms. Doe was released by the Alameda County conservator only after she had filed a suit in the Napa County Superior Court.

The suit also seeks to halt all future commitments of individuals to California state mental hospitals from Alameda County under the challenged statute unless such persons are afforded adequate notice and time to prepare reasonable doubt standard of proof. Counsel for the plaintiffs point out that these protections are available in numerous other states throughout the country.

The suit also challenges the present California laws which allow the involuntary confinement of a person in a mental hospital on the basis of an unsworn statement of any police officer.

-- 11 --

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN TRUDELL: A.I.M. Leader Details F.B.I. Repression

(Oakland, Calif.) - In the aftermath of last week's successful July 4th Coalition rally in San Francisco, THE BLACK PANTHER conducted an exclusive interview with John Trudell, the national director of the American Indian Movement (AIM). In the interview. Trudell talked at length about the current trial of AIM activist Bob Robideau and Dino Butler in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the savage FBI repression AIM has had to endure since its inception. The following are excerpts from that interview:

Q: "John, what are the latest developments in the trial of Bob Robideau and Dino Butler?"

TRUDELL: "The defense has subpoenaed FBI head Clarence Kelley, Senator Frank Church, Representative Otis Pike and a man whose name I can't remember …He's the head of public relations for the FBI.

"I'm very surprised about this because it is the first time where we are going to get the head pig, Kelley, down to where we can at least ask him some questions. It's an indication that serious questions are beginning to be raised about the whole issue to the FBI's involvement in the suppression of people's movements in this American state. The FBI has been operating outside of the law from the beginning of the Indian movement and now it is accelerating its tactics.

"I don't know how much this is going to help Dino and Bobby. They are charged with two counts of first-degree murder but they are not charged with shooting anybody. They are charged with aiding and abetting all because they will not talk to the FBI."

Q: "We understand that you were to testify in their trial."

TRUDELL: "I was to testify when the defense got the case. My testimony related to special agent David Price, who was in charge of the whole Pine Ridge Reservation operation. He was one of the agents who arrested Dino Butler and Anna Mae Aquash. They told Dino that if he would cooperate and name names he would get a new identity, a new place to live, federal protection and money. They offered Anna Mae Aquash the same deal. All she did was cuss them out.

"Special agent Price told Anna Mae at that time, `If that is your attitude, I'll personally guarantee I'll see you dead within a year.' Anna Mae was later busted in Oregon, sent back to South Dakota on charges and she dropped out of sight while she was in federal custody.

"Then, they `found' Anna Mae's body on Pine Ridge and said she died of `exposure.'

-- 23 --
When Anna Mae's family demanded a new autopsy, they found out she had been shot at extremely close range with a .32 caliber pistol. She had been executed gangland style. We know that the FBI did it. Agent Price had made good on his promise".

Q: "Why do you feel that the FBI has singled out AIM for such attacks?"

TRUDELL: "Because we are fighting to control our land, its natural resources and our destiny. We have to understand that the FBI is acting as a conduit for the LEAA (Law Enforcement Assistance Administration) which is trying to nationalize the police forces in this country. Wherever you find LEAA money, you find the FBI controlling where the funds go.

RUNNING POINT

"The FBI is the running point for this country's police structure and has attacked AIM with submachine guns, helicopters, tanks and armored personnel carriers. On the Pine Ridge Reservation, the FBI literally runs the Bureau of Indian Affairs."

Q: "What has happened to Leonard Peltier in his attempt to gain political asylum in Canada?"

TRUDELL: "Leonard Peltier lost his extradition case in Canada because that country has a large Indian population (like the U.S.) and does not want to create a haven for militant Indians."

Q: "What are your feelings about today's (July 4th Coalition's) rally?"

TRUDELL: "I hope that those in attendance will continue to struggle past July 4. Now is a crucial time to wage an intense struggle against the FBI. It is actually possible that the FBI could be brought down.

-- 11 --

30,000 PROTEST FORD'S PUERTO RICAN SUMMIT TALKS

(Dorado, Puerto Rico) - Over 30,000 people turned out here last week to greet President Ford's economic summit with protests denouncing U.S. imperialism and demanding Puerto Rican independence.

The two-day talks among the Western powers -- Canada, Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S. -- were expected to proceed along the lines of developing "stable economic growth" among the seven participating nations. The seven are responsible for two-thirds of the world's industrialized production, all seven long-time exploiters of Third World peoples and resources.

The 30,000 demonstrators were participating in activities organized by the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP) and the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP).

The first demonstration took place at 10:00 a.m. in front of the Dorado Beach Hotel. It was organized by the PIP, and, according to the press, numbered 5,000 to 6,000 independistas.

Ruben Berrios Martinez, president of the PIP, pointed out to the rally that the choice of Puerto Rico by the U.S. as a site for the discussion of imperialist strategy was "a slap in the face for the Third World" because Puerto Rico is part of the Third World.

LIAR

The PIP leader also called the colonial governor, Rafael Hernandez Colon, "a liar" for not keeping his promise, made at a meeting of all the major parties in the governor's mansion, that access to the front of the hotel would be given to the demonstrations.

According to the colonial police, the Secret Service overruled that "gubernatorial decision" and the demonstrations took place in front of the gates to the hotel grounds -- well out of sight of the seven imperialist heads of state.

As the PIP militants and supporters were leaving the site at the end of the demonstration, they passed and warmly greeted the 20,000 to 25,000 PSP members

-- 22 --
and sympathizers marching to the hotel from a massive rally at Sixto Escobar Stadium in San Juan.

Speaking on why Puerto Rico was chosen as the site for the summit conference. Juan Mari Bras, secretary general of the PSP, said, "The imperialists who absorb the riches of this nation already know that the victorious course of this struggle for independence and socialism is irreversible."

Referring to Ford's threats against the international movement in solidarity with the independence of Puerto Rico, Mari Bras predicted, "Ford's threats will have no effect."

While U.S. imperialism continues to decline, he explained, "the rising forces, which today represent the numerical majority, are all committed by principles to the cause of Puerto Rican independence."

Ford's arrogance toward the Puerto Rican people was clear from the first day. When he arrived on Saturday he read a statement threatening retaliation with "appropriate means" against Cuba and any other nation supporting Puerto Rican independence -- a "hostile act."

In contrast to the militance and fervor expressed by the thousands of Puerto Ricans who denounced Ford, the colonial governor and his troupe showed a different kind of determination.

It was reported that while on his way to greet Ford, colonial governor Rafael Hernandez Colon was delayed by a flat tire just outside Muniz Air Base, where the presidential plane was to land. In order not to be late, the governor had a police car knock down a fence in order to get in.

But the Secret Service stopped him and wouldn't believe he was the governor. Finally, when Colon convinced them that indeed he was the honorable governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, he ended up crossing a muddy field to get to the reception area, where Ford snubbed his attempt to embrace him.

"This tence jumper," said Mari Bras at the rally in front of the Dorado Beach Hotel, "does not represent Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is represented by the forces fighting for its independence." He went on to point out that it is "in the name of that force…that we demand the unrestricted right of our nation to the exercise of our national sovereignty and independence."

-- 12 --

…And Bid Him Sing

By David G. Du Bois

Exciting Novel Examines Lives Of
Black Americans In Egypt

Shortly before his assassination on February 21, 1965, Malcolm X founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), which was dedicated to the Black liberation struggle in the U.S. In the following portion of … And Bid Him Sing, Malcom explains the purpose of the OAAU to a Black American journalist named Bob Jones. This week's excerpt from BLACK PANTHER Editor-in-Chief David G. Du Bois' exciting novel continues to describe Malcolm's famous 1964 visit to the Organization of African Unity (OAU) conference in Cairo, Egypt.

PART 38

Looking into his teacup with an expression indicating pleasure that I had asked the question, he said: "The OAAU should be a single organization with two parts -- one religious, the other political. The one part should not interfere with or hamper the work of the other part. There must be room for all those brothers and sisters who want to work in defense of Black people everywhere.

"Islamic practice and instruction will be available for those who wish it. But no one will be forced to adopt Islam or to follow the Moslem teachings. Ideally, those who do follow Islam will provide an example of high moral behavior as well as dedication to our people that will win others to Islam. But the purpose of the OAAU is first, last and always, defense of our people.

The careful way he said these words, the intensity of his expression and the eagerness with which he spoke indicated to me how deeply he felt about the purpose of the OAAU, how much careful thought he had given it.

"Is the political activity of the OAAU to be limited to defense?" I asked.

Malcolm was silent a moment. When he spoke some of the certainty had gone out of his voice. "The organized defense of our people, by all necessary means, particularly in the South, but in our communities in the northern cities as well, will make great and unpredictable demands on our people and on the OAAU. We will be required to prepare for every possibility."

He paused, took a sip from his teacup, put it down, rose from his chair, pushed his hands into the pockets of his trousers and moved slowly over to the curtained french doors that led out to a balcony. He stood looking out for a moment, then turned slowly to face me, his back to the french doors. The sun, striking him from behind, created a reddish-brown halo-like glow around his head. His features were obscured.

"We are not Allah. Only He knows what is to come."

I was dissatisfied with this answer. But it was clear that Malcolm himself was still searching, so I decided not to indicate my dissatisfaction. "Could we establish an OAAU group here in Cairo?"

"Cairo is a good place to have one of the first groups. Anywhere brothers and sisters are outside the States, OAAU units can be formed. They will be established throughout Latin and South America and the Carribean. We will pattern ourselves after the Organization of African Unity and create and maintain close ties with the OAU.

"I've had some discussions with OAU officials and representatives here about this, and will be having more." He moved from the window back to his chair and sat down.

"Do they show an interest?"

"Most, so far, have. They've asked a lot of questions. I hope to answer some of the most frequent ones in my memorandum. Most of our African brothers are badly misinformed about our conditions and our struggle."

"I suppose that would be one of the most important jobs of overseas OAAU units, like one here in Cairo -- to help get information to the Egyptian people about our struggle." I was really asking the question.

"That would probably be the most important job…that, and in Africa, to help maintain contact and links with OAU bodies." He sat back in his chair, looking tired.

MADHOUSE

"I'm sorry I didn't get in touch with you earlier. Our office has been a madhouse. I've taken enough of your time now," and got up. He rose with me:

"I wasn't in Cairo for six days. I was in Alexandria…to see some people there."

"It's a beautiful city, isn't it?" I said as I moved toward the steps that led down to the entrance.

"What I saw of it was very beautiful. I would like to go back one day…when I can enjoy it."

"I'm sure you will," I said, not at all certain. "I'll come by at around nine-thirty in the morning to pick up the memorandum. And I'll have it at the mimeo office by Noon. We may be able to get it finished by tomorrow night. I'll let you know how it's going."

"I'll be waiting for you with coffee." He said this with the same seriousness in his face it had held throughout our conversation, and it suddenly struck me that he had not once smiled since I'd been with him. I wanted to say something that would make him smile, but I didn't know what to say. As I took the two steps down into the entrance hall, I said:

TRUSTING ME

"Thank you for your time, Malcolm -- and thank you for trusting me with this task. I know how important it is. We'll do the very best we can."

The smile came. It was tentative and embarrassed, but it was there, pushing itself into the corners of his face. "I'm sure you will, brother. Thank you for coming." I took his extended hand, returned his smile and left, closing the door carefully behind me.

The two men were standing together on one side of the door, their hands clasped behind them.

"Mutasheker. Salem wa alaikum," I said to them in my best Arabic. In unison they replied: "Ma Salam," and smiled.

Waiting for the elevator in the silent, softly lit corridor I wondered: The President returned from Alexandria two day ago to open the OAU conference. Malcolm was in Alexandria then, while the President was. Did Malcolm go to Alex to see the President? Did he see him? Is all this one result?

To BE CONTINUED

-- 13 --

REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE

By Huey P. Newton

"Raising Consciousness"

In this excerpt from the chapter "Raising Consciousness" from Revolutionary Suicide, Black Panther Party leader and chief theoretician Huey P. Newton offers a concrete, concise statement on the long-range goals of the Black Panther Party. Huey also explains how Christianity has had a negative effect upon Black people and how the concept "All Power to the People" is intended to counteract that.

PART 59

Another expression that helped to raise Black people's consciousness is "All Power to the People." An expression that has meaning on several levels -- political, economic, and metaphysical -- it was coined by the Black Panther Party around the same time as "pig," and has also gained wide acceptance.

When we created it, I had in mind some distinct philosophical goals for the community that many people did not understand. The police and the press wanted everyone to believe that we were nothing more than a bunch of "young toughs" strutting around with guns in order to shock people. But Bobby and I always had a clear understanding of what we wanted to do. We wanted to give the community a wide variety of needed programs, and so we began in a way that would gain the community's support. At the same time we saw the necessity of going beyond these first steps.

In developing our newspaper, we were working toward our long-range goals of organizing the community around programs that the people would come to believe in strongly. We hoped these programs would come to mean so much that the people would take up guns for defense against any maneuvers by the oppressor.

ONE GOAL

All these programs were aimed at one goal: complete control of the institutions in the community. Every ethnic group has particular needs that they know and understand better than anybody else; each group is the best judge of how its institution ought to affect the lives of its members. Throughout American history ethnic groups like the Irish and Italians have established organizations and institutions within their own communities.

When they achieved this political control, they had the power to deal with their problems. Yet there is still another necessary step. In the Black community, mere control of our own institutions will not automatically solve problems.

For one thing, it is difficult to get enough places of work in the community to produce full employment for Blacks. The most important element in controlling our own institutions would be to organize them into co-operatives, which would end all forms of exploitation. Then the profits, or surplus, from the co-operatives would be returned to the community, expanding opportunities on all levels, and enriching life.

Beyond this, our ultimate aim is to have various ethnic communities co-operating in a spirit of mutual aid, rather than competing. In this way, all communities would be allied in a common purpose through the major social, economic, and political institutions in the country.

This is our long-range objective. Although we are far from realizing it, it is important that the people understand what we want for them and what are, indeed, their natural rights. Therefore, the slogan "All Power to the People" sums up our goals for Black people, as well as our deep love and commitment to them. All power comes from the people, and all power must ultimately be vested in them. Anything else is theft.

Our complete faith in the people is based on our assumptions about what they require and deserve. The first of these is honesty. When it became apparent in the early days that the Black Panthers were a growing force, some people urged us to take either accommodating positions for small gains or a "Black line" based solely on race rather than economic or social strategy.

BLACK GAME

These people were talking a Black game they did not really believe in. But they saw that the people believed that the Black line could be used to mobilize them. We resisted. To us, it was both wrong and futile to deceive the people; eventually we would have to answer to them.

In the metaphysical sense we based the expression "All Power to the People" on the idea of man as God. I have no other God than man, and I firmly believe that man is the highest or chief good. If you are obligated to be true and honest to anyone, it is to your God, and if each man is the ultimate being, then you will act according to your belief. Your attitude and behavior toward man is a kind of religion in itself, with high standards of responsibility.

It was especially important to me that I explore the Judeo-Christian concept of God, because historically that concept has had an enormous impact on the lives of Black people in America. Their acceptance of the Judeo-Christian God and religion has always meant submission and an emphasis on the rewards of the life hereafter as relief for the sufferings of the present.

OUTCAST

Christianity began as a religion for the outcast and oppressed. While the early Christains succeeded in undermining the authority and confidence of their rulers and rising up out of slavery, the Afro-American experience has been just the opposite.

Already a people in slavery, when Christianity was imposed upon them, the Blacks only assumed another burden, the tyranny of the future -- the hope of heaven and the fear of hell. Christianity increased their sense of hopelessness. It also projected the idea of salvation and happiness into the afterlife, where God would reward them for all their sufferings on this earth. Justice would come later, in the Promised Land.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 14 --

SOUTH AFRICA MENTAL INSTITUTIONS FACE U.N. INSPECTION

(San Francisco, Calif.) - South African sources report that the government of that country is secretly pumping several millions of dollars into an extensive "facelifting" operation for its controversial mental health camps in preparation for expected visits by investigating teams from the World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations agency, and the International Red Cross, Freedom News Service, the independent journal of the Church of Scientology, reports here.

Formal invitations were extended to WHO and the Red Cross by South African "Minister of Health" Schalkvan der Merwe, who said in a televised interview the invitations were "absolutely necessary… for the image of psychiatric services in South Africa."

International newspaper accounts of more than 8,000 Black mental patients being "warehoused" in abandoned mining compounds and hired out to private business as a slave labor force, have prompted the invitations to quell what has become a scandal of worldwide proportions.

In response to an article published in Sweden's Dagens Nyheter, the United Nations Economic and Social Council's Social Committee has asked WHO for a full inquiry into psychiatric services in South Africa.

Dagens Nyheter charged that patients confined in the psychiatric camps are forced to work in fields, wear torn clothing, and defecate on the floor. The article stated that the inmates generally remain in the institutions until death.

The existence of the privately owned "mental" camps came to light in August of 1970, when a Church of Scientology researcher stumbled onto the Rand West Sanitorium, part of the chain of camps owned by Smith-Mitchell and Company, while looking for directions for Johannesburg. Further research ensued, and in February of this year, the Church's human rights newspaper in South Africa, Peace and Freedom, published an expose on the camps including a series of photographs. Van der Merwe has accused the Church of being the motivating force behind the international expose and vehemently denied the existence of the labor camps.

Last month van der Merwe admitted that he had not, in fact, sent formal invitations to WHO and the Red Cross when he had previously told the South African Parliament that he had received no response to his invitations to the two groups to investigate the psychiatric facilities.

Following numerous exposes on the camps, including articles in the Johannesburg Sunday Times and the London Observer, van der Merwe introduced an amendment to the Mental Health Act which outlawed the publication of photographs or sketches of any South African mental institution without the prior approval of the South African Department of Health.

PSYCHIATRIC ABUSE

According to Church of Scientology officials in the United States, the legislation was aimed at silencing their newspaper, which had printed many other instances of psychiatric abuse and was calling for major reforms in that area.

"The legislation will ultimately fail," predicted Reverend Christian Volz, spokesman for the Scientologists, "as it seeks to suppress freedom of the media. The conditions in the institutions in South Africa are very real and public opinion around the world is a already opposed to efforts to sweep this sort of thing under the rug…."

The initial Peace and Freedom articles exposing the conditions charged that the South African Department of Health has been selling licenses to a private company, Smith-Mitchell, to take charge of mental patients as a financial proposition. The article stated that the patients (mainly Blacks) were being kept in vacant mine compounds and mine shafts and were being farmed out as a labor force to outside businesses. The articles also revealed that Blacks who received electro-convulsive shock treatments (ECT) were not given anesthetics because of financial considerations while White patients were anesthetized. (Giving ECT without anesthetics can cause broken teeth, bones, spine, and even death.)

During three years of research it was discovered that over 8,000 Black South Africans were being warehoused in the institutions. The patients were used as slave labor to make coat hangers, brushes, luggage tickets for airline companies and numerous other items and were in some instances even hired out under contract to member companies in the Smith-Mitchell group.

The arrangement, sanctioned and funded by the South African Department of Health, has resulted in admitted profits in excess of 1.5 million pounds (three million dollars) per year for Smith-Mitchell. Church spokesmen say they have "serious reason to believe the profits are in fact astronomically higher."

"We are there to make a profit, otherwise we would't be doing it," a Smith-Mitchell official told the Rand Daily Mail in 1975.

-- 15 --

Blacks Tortured In South African Prisons

(South Africa) - African National Congress (ANC) activist Masobiya Mdluli, 50, was arrested by security police of the White minority government of South Africa (Azania) late on the night of March 18 of this year. The next morning police informed his wife that Mdluli was dead. When Mrs. Mdluli was finally allowed to see her husband's body, she found a large swelling across his forehead; his lower lip was bruised and cut; his stomach was expanded to twice its normal size; two criss-cross cuts were at the base of his skull near the back of his left ear; and a "watery substance" was cozing from his wounds.

Police told the widow of Solwandle Ngudle, who was detained for 90 days under the regime's repressive Terrorism Act -- indefinite imprisonment in solitary confinement without access to anyone -- that her husband hanged himself. A judge blocked efforts of Ngudle's attorneys to produce evidence in court from another political prisoner that Ngudle died as a result of torture. He was subsequently banned posthumously (after death), thereby making it illegal to publish any statement made by him.

Torture and other abuses are common experiences for all Black prisoners in South Africa, regardless of the reason for their incarceration. Africa magazine reports. The record number of Black Azanians arrested in the aftermath of the Soweto rebellion (see last week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER) has focused attention on the brutal treatment of Black prisoners in the White racist regime -- many of whom are beaten to death for such minor offenses as forgetting to carry their passes. Mdluli was the twenty-third of 30 mostly former ANC activists to die while under interrogation following their arrests in the latest police swoop. Despite concrete evidence of torture, the cause of death in these murders is always given by police as suicide, accident or "unknown."

A judge described as "an orgy of ill-treatment which is just a disgrace" the vicious brutality of five Leeukop Prison wardens who were tried in 1974 for their attempts to discover the whereabouts of 40 pounds (about $96) which they accused two Black prisoners of stealing. The inmates were continuously beaten with a baton for hours on the soles of their feet, submerged in water and then jumped on with their stomachs full of water. One of the two prisoners died as a result, and the other was permanently disabled.

Typical of the justice given to White South Africans convicted of committing a crime against Black people, three of the wardens were sentenced to 18 months in prison, and two received suspended sentences, including one who was promoted to captain and resumed his duties the next day. The judge said that the trial revealed "serious evils" in the country's Prison Department and that there was evidence that torture and assaults were common at Leeukop Prison.

The government denies that there are political prisoners in the country despite the thousands of people detained each year under the Terrorism Act, the Suppression of Communism Act, the Riotous Assemblies Act and some 17 other laws relating to "state security. "It is difficult to determine the exact number of people arrested in South Africa since the government does not disclose figures, but it is known that between 1960 and 1967 over 120,000 people, mostly Black, were convicted under the various security laws. One in every four Black adults is imprisoned in South Africa every year.

Political prisoners in South Africa are not limited to people who have been incarcerated for their opposition to the apartheid regime or other political beliefs considered dangerous by the government. The overwhelming majority of Black Azanians and Namibians (South West Africans) -- South Africa illegally rules Namibia -- are there for "crimes" that apply to Blacks only, often simple violations of apartheid law which would not be considered crimes in any other country except perhaps Rhodesia.

Conditions in South African jails are extremely harsh and violate United Nations standard minimum rules on the use of lashing as a punishment. Treatment is different for Blacks and Whites. While a Black inmate is lashed naked. White prisoners are allowed to keep their trousers on, and the lashing is immediately stopped at the first sign of bleeding.

Given the government's suppression of information about conditions in the prisons, the situation is likely to continue unchecked. Under the Prisons Act of 1959, it is a crime to publish any "false" information about prisons. The law has been an effective deterrent to exposes on prison abuses because (1) the burden of proof is on the accused to prove that they took reasonable steps to verify their information and (2) the South African courts widely interpret the clause concerning verification of information. It is virtually impossible to prove that reasonable steps were taken.

-- 16 --

THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY PROGRAM: MARCH 29, 1972 PLATFORM

WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE BELIEVE

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

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

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-- 17 --

Intercommunal news: Angola Struggles For Free Nationwide Health Care System

(Luanda, People's Republic of Angola) - The Angolan government is currently waging the new Republic's "Second War of Liberation" -- the battle to establish free, quality health care services for the six million people of the country.

The Angolan Ministry of Public Health, led by Dr. Mario Alfonso de Almeida -- a longtime MPLA militant and a founding member in 1961 of the Angolan People's Liberation Forces (FAPLA), in which he served as a squadron commander during the 14 years of armed struggle with Portugal -- has the following goals in national health care:

- The nationalization of medicine;

- Free medical care for all without distinction;

- Gradual elimination of private practice;

- Training of health care cadre;

- Creation of the conditions for the nationalization of foreign trade in medicines; and

- Control of the internal distribution of medicines.

The Angolan people suffer from inadequate health care as a result of over 500 years of Portuguese colonialism. Under the colonial system, workers were unable to earn enough wages to properly feed thier families. Thus, there is widespread malnutrition in the country, causing tuberculosis, sleeping sickness, malaria, intestinal parasites and other diseases.

In a recent interview with the Cuban daily Granma, Dr. Almeida

-- 24 --
explained that under Portuguese rule there were only 450 doctors in Angola, which is twice the size of Texas. The majority of these doctors were Portuguese, had private practices which the masses of Angolan people could not afford, and were located in urban areas. Only 10-15 per cent of the people live in cities.

Presently, there are over 150 doctors in Angola, nearly 50 per cent of whom are Angolans. Work teams, including a large number of health workers from Cuba who have volunteered their services, are active in nine of the country's 16 provincial capitals.

Elaborating on the efforts of the Ministry of Public Health to better health conditions in Angola, Dr. Almeida told Granma:

"The immediate objectives of the Ministry of Public Health include the quest for precise information on the conditions of public health and hygiene in each of the 16 provinces of Angola and we also plan an inventory of our material and human resources in order to distribute them more equitably.

"We are already working on short, intermediate and long-term programs in accordance with the national health policy whose objectives we have previously outlined. That is why we are immediately concerned with naming provincial health directors in every province so as to carry out the inventory as soon as possible.

"Training of cadres, mainly at the auxiliary and intermediate levels is an urgent matter which our ministry feels is very important. We have a school of medicine training nurses and intermediate level technicians. The school of medicine comes under the Ministry of Education and Culture but our ministry works closely with it in the preparation of medical training programs which are worked out by the general cadre training directorate.

TECHNICAL SCHOOL

"The technical schools which are functioning now will be reorganized. We plan to set up more schools for the training of intermediate level technicians in order to have at least one or more schools per province as quickly as possible. We plan to train nearly 20,000 intermediate level technicians and auxiliary workers in the next five years; 15,000 of them are the so-called `promoters of health' who are being selected by the people in each hamlet. These technicians will return to their homes once they have been trained. They will receive quick courses which will enable them to take preventive action against a number of diseases.

"We are sure the `promoters of health' will solve many medical and health problems we face in rural areas thanks to their work of informing and educating the people in these matters.

"We also plan to put provincial and some municipal hospitals into service by supplying them with the required people and material. Gradually medical care will be extended to the rural areas, to the people in the countryside who are our main target.

"The efforts of the Ministry of Public Health are aimed at extending free medical care to each and every part of the country and getting the masses to participate actively in the protection of their own health. Thus we are working on a plan for the 1976-80 period, taking into account our present human and material resources and the technical and material help we expect from friendly countries, especially those of the socialist camp."

-- 17 --

“REVOLUTIONARY JUSTICE” IN ANGOLA: Firing Squad Executes Four Mercenaries

(Luanda, People's Republic of Angola) - A firing squad executed one American and three British mercenaries here on July 10 just one day after Angolan President Agostinho Neto upheld their court-ordered death sentences, declaring that, "The practice of mercenarism must be finished on the planet."

Progressive governments and freedom-loving people throughout the world hailed the execution of the four mercenaries. They, along with nine other co-defendants, were convicted on June 28 for their participation in the efforts, earlier this year, of CIA-supported Black reactionary factions to overthrow the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the legitimate government of the country.

Daniel Gearhart, 34, of Kensington, Maryland, and Britons Costas Georgiou (alias Col. Tony "Mad Dog" Callan), 25, Andrew McKenzie, 23, and John Barker, 35, were shot to death by members of the Angolan military police -- FAPLA -- according to a brief announcement issued from the Angolan press agency Angop. Angop said that Angolan Justice Minister Diogenes Antonio Boavida, members of the MPLA and FAPLA were among officials present at the execution.

The four dead men and the nine surviving mercenaries -- who received prison sentences ranging from 16 to 30 years -- were convicted by a five-member Revolutionary People's Tribunal. Despite popular demands of the Angolan people that all of the 13 mercenaries be executed, the Tribunal judged each case on an individual basis, finding the crimes of Gearhart, Georgiou, McKenzie and Barker punishable by death.

Gearhart, who left his wife, four children and $30,000 in debts to join the mercenary army in Angola, was described by the Tribunal as "a highly dangerous character" who advertised himself as a mercenary in an American publication called Soldier of Fortune. Georgiou was sentenced to death for killing one mercenary, ordering the massacre of 13 others and killing two Black Angolan prisoners. McKenzie was convicted for having taken part in the same massacre for which Georgiou was sentenced; and Barker was convicted for his role as a commandant of an airfield at Sao Antonio do Zaire.

Even after the four were sentenced to die, President Neto delayed a final decision on whether they would be executed in an effort to weigh international opinion. (See last week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER.)

However, last Saturday the Angolan leader announced that the four men would be executed. Explaining why he had chosen to uphold the death sentences, President Neto said:

"Every Angolan remembers the vile and cruel behavior of the mercenaries who have sown death and despair in African countries in return for pay; trying in this way to put a brake on the higher interests of a people for a few coins.

"We are applying justice in Angola not only in the name of our martyred people but also to the benefit of the brother peoples of Namibia (South West Africa), Zimbabwe and all the peoples of the world against whom imperialism is already preparing new mercenary aggressions," the MPLA leader said.

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

Following, THE BLACK PANTHER presents Part 3 of an interview conducted by Africa magazine with Salim A. Salim, Tanzania's permanent representative to the United Nations. As chairman of the U.N. Special Committee of 24 on Decolonization, Salim recently returned from a tour of Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana and Tanzania, the frontline Black independent states involved in the struggle for the liberation of southern Africa.

PART 3

QUESTION: Explicit in the Kissinger proposals was an offer of American assistance to any country in the southern Africa subcontinent which may wish to close its borders with Rhodesia. Do you think he was referring to Botswana? What were your findings: (a) of the likelihood of Botswana taking such action; and (b) of the economic cost it would imply for the country?

SALIM: It is possible that Secretary Kissinger had in mind Botswana. In any case, it is important to understand and appreciate Botswana's situation. Let me summarize that country's position as conveyed to the Ad Hoc Group when we were in Gaborone, on the consequences -- economic and otherwise -- of her application of sanctions against Rhodesia.

ECONOMIC HARDSHIP

Botswana has done its utmost to reduce its trade with Rhodesia, and, with resultant severe economic hardship and sacrifices, it had been able to eliminate completely the trade in nonessential goods. As regards the railway running through Botswana from southern Rhodesia to South Africa, which was owned, operated and maintained by the minority regime, Botswana has been able to stop all strategic material, military hardware and petroleum from being hauled through the line. To sever the railway totally, a serious, if not insurmountable obstacle existed, namely, the question of defraying the initial capital cost of about 70 million rands. In addition, it would necessitate employing some 500 expatriate workers to maintain the operation and providing their housing and accomodation.

Even if massive external aid were to be received to enable Botswana to operate the railway and to overcome those difficulties, during the two-year minimum period required to mobilize that aid to build the necessary infrastructure, the economy of Botswana would receive irrevocable damage, as the country has no alternate route for its exports, owing to the fact that its capacity for surface transportation of goods has been extremely limited.

This explanation roughly clarifies for us some of the difficulties confronting Botswana -- the difficulties which must be taken fully into account when considering the question of possible closure of the border. Members of the mission were clearly conscious of the extremely difficult and indeed precarious situation of that country -- surrounded more or less as it is with hostile minority racist regimes.

DETERMINATION

Yet we were moved by the commitment and determination of the government and people of Botswana in support of the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe. Considering this bold and courageous commitment, we have no doubt that Botswana will spare no effort in promoting the achievement of United Nations objectives in Zimbabwe. But bearing in mind her special circumstances, it is only fair to state that the capacity and extent of Botswana's contribution must be perceived in terms of the preparedness of the international community to take adequate and meaningful action to strengthen Botswana.

Q: Are you satisfied, from your own observation and assessment in the country, that the international community is providing enough assistance to Mozambique in the wake of President Machel's decision to close the borders with Rhodesia? If not, what further recommendations would you make?

SALIM: Our stay in Maputo gave us an on-the-spot insight relating to the magnitude of the problems facing Mozambique in the wake of the commendable decision of the government of Mozambique under President Samora Machel's leadership to close the borders with Rhodesia. Clearly the need of Mozambique for immediate external assistance is most acute.

TO BE CONTINUED

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S. Africa Military Step-Up In Namibia

(Luanda, People's Republic of Angola) - Faced with defeat by liberation forces in Namibia (South West Africa), the South African government, which illegally rules the territory, has stepped up its military operations in the area, the Guardian reported here last week.

Among the forces South Africa has engaged to fight guerrillas of the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) of Namibia -- the territory's leading liberation organization -- are remnant troops of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the Black reactionary faction soundly defeated by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in fighting in the West African country earlier this year.

Israeli soldiers are also fighting SWAPO forces in Namibia just across Angola's southern border in the 600-mile long strip of land recently evacuated by the South African regime. The Israelis have been using helicopter-born commando groups to swoop down on SWAPO liberation forces, particularly in the frontier areas between Namibia and Angola.

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AFRICA IN FOCUS

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean (Rhodesian) liberation leaders last week told a U.S. congressman that their demands of immediate and unconditional majority (Black) rule are not negotiable. Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) leaders Robert Mugabe and Edgar Tekeri told New York City Congressman Stephen J. Solarz -- who visited the ZANU officials in the Mozambican coastal city of Quelimane -- that ZANU is opposed to a two-year transitional period between White and Black rule in Rhodesia and ruled out guarantees for White settlers who may choose to remain under a Black government.

Mozambique

President Samora Machel addressed a mass rally of 60,000 people held at Mozambican Heroes Square in the capital of Maputo on July 8 to protest against the recent