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Prosecution Admits It Has No Case: DAWSON 5 MURDER CHARGES DROPPED

(Atlanta, Ga.) - Murder charges were dropped against the Dawson 5 this week when the prosecution finally admitted that it had no evidence.

The five young Black men -- Roosevelt Watson, 21. Henderson Watson, 24, Johnny Jackson, 19, James Jackson, 18, and J.D. Davenport, 20 -- had spent periods in jail ranging from nine to nineteen months while awaiting trial on the false charges. Since their arrest in 1975, a nationwide movement had been formed to protest this glaring example of "Southern justice."

The prosecution's decision to drop the case came one week after Terrell County Superior Court Judge Walter Geer suppressed a "confession" obtained from Roosevelt Watson, who was intimidated by Dawson police. Watson was accused of firing the shot that killed a White ranch foreman, Gordon "Bubba" Howell, during an alleged holdup of a grocery store in Dawson, Georgia, in January of 1976.

In his ruling Geer stated. "The evidence, taken as a whole, showed that the statements were not freely, voluntarily and intelligently made." During a preliminary hearing it was brought out in court that police had coerced Watson into confessing -- while he was wired to a polygraph (lie detector) machine -- with the threat that he would be electrocuted if he didn't. Watson was also later threatened with castration if he didn't confess to Howell's murder.

In the hearings that were held last August,

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former Dawson policeman William Rucker testified that he was present when a Terrell County sheriff's deputy put a cocked pistol to the head of defendant. James Jackson, called the youth a "nigger" and ordered him to find a nonexistent murder weapon in a secluded swamp.

In his ruling, however, Geer made no mention of the threats made against the defendants, and in the tradition of the South, commented that, "Roosevelt Watson did not have the intelligence to have a polygraph test administered to him so that results could be reflected for evaluation."

Watson's trial was to have begun, after long delays, on December 27.

All five of the youth and their supporters insisted that they were carrying water from a well close to the Watson home at the time of the holdup and slaying. Defense attorneys contended that the youths were charged with the crime to satisfy the demands of vengeful White racists that Howell's killer be found immediately.

Since the state had no physical evidence in the case, reports the New York Times, the suppression of the "confession" destroyed the state's case. No usable fingerprints were found and the murder weapon was never recovered.

The state would have been forced to rely on the testimony of the grocery store owner, Linward "Tiny" Denton, who identified Watson as the killer two days after the holdup. However, Denton's identification was highly questionable since Watson was a regular customer of Denton's, who should have recognized him immediately.

"Terrible" Terrell County, where the case took place, is only 20 miles from President Jimmy Carter's hometown of Plains. In the 1960's, the reaction of White bigots to the civil rights movement was so violent that the movement chose to withdraw its forces. Although the county is 70 per cent Black, there are no Black elected officials.

Many Black citizens in "Terrible" Terrell braved physical and economic reprisals to come out to show their support for the Dawson 5. A meeting attended by over 400 people earlier this year was the first sign of activism in the Black community for nearly a decade.

After Geer's ruling, Millard Farmer of the Team Defense Project, a non-profit Atlanta-based legal organization which defended the Dawson 5, exclaimed, "It's all over with. These men are free!"

Fanny Lou Watson, mother of Roosevelt and Henderson, said that she was "happy and glad it was over," sounding more relieved than jubilant.

After nearly two years of terror and coercion, most of which was spent with the death penalty looming over their heads, the Dawson 5 are finally free of the concocted charges of Terrell County's White power structure. Nationwide protest played an important role in forcing the prosecution to drop its extremely flimsy case.

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Additional Funds For Education Neglected: CARTER REJECTS INCREASED URBAN AID

(Washington, D.C.) - Indications of a deep and growing rift between the White House and Department of Health. Education and Welfare (HEW) officials surfaced last week as President Carter announced his refusal to commit additional urban aid funds to help depressed cities in the 1978 fiscal budget.

Inside sources at HEW told the New York Times and others that top officials in the Department were "livid" over White House handling of a carefully prepared draft report proposing an expansion and "targeting" of a number of federal programs in the hopes of creating jobs and generating economic growth in neglected urban cities.

HEW officials criticized Carter's announcement of no additional funds last week as indicating that the President and his top advisers are unwilling to make the political and financial commitment that an effective national urban policy program would demand.

White House sources explained the refusal by blaming unnamed "experts in urban affairs" for not yet developing a satisfactory policy.

One staff member who was present at a meeting last week quoted Carter as complaining, "Don't tell me we'll spend more money all around and then we'll call it an urban policy. Give me something worth funding if you want more money."

On the other hand, other advisers indicated that the President does not want new programs but would rather make present efforts work more efficiently.

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Either way, White House officials admit the delay in seeking additional monies will delay Congressional action on revitalizing the nation's cities until the 1979-80 fiscal year.

Last spring, Carter appointed a Cabinet-level team, called the Urban and Regional Policy group, to develop a concrete strategy to alleviate the blight of many metropolitan areas. The team consists of representatives of six departments and is headed by Patricia Harris, the sole Black official in the Carter administration.

Following mounting Black political protest this summer and fall over growing unemployment rates and official neglect, Carter activated the group, and last month passed on its report to the White House.

Although the cost to implement the report's recommendations, estimated at between $8 to $12 billion dollars, was known to be far more than Carter was willing to spend, those who drafted it expected "a winding down once a basic policy was agreed on."

Carter's domestic policy staff, directed by Stu Eizenstat, denies they understood the draft report was to be pared down, while describing its proposals as "bureaucratic logrolling."

So mad were HEW officials over the matter that last Wednesday they fired off a 15-page memorandum containing what they believed to be the five main points that should be included in a comprehensive urban policy.

The points were:

A substantial effort should be made to reduce unemployment in the core cities and to help those cities develop economically.

Action should be taken to eliminate the disparity of services that makes living and working more attractive than in the cities.

There should be increased housing subsidies and a revitalization of city neighborhoods.

State and other governments in metropolitan areas should be given incentives to help cities solve their problems.

The federal government should enact and enforce tougher equal opportunity and affirmative action programs to assist minorities.

Meanwhile, as far as anyone can determine, the Times reports, the national urban policy currently being developed inside the Carter administration has no explicit new educational component.

HEW has agreed to insure that the money appropriated to improve schools in which poor children study is used in those schools. Beyond that, however, administration officials with some knowledge of the developing policy indicate that it includes no new urban education programs and that budgetary constraints may preclude the allocation of any additional money for existing programs.

"Why should there be additional money for poor children? Does it really take more money to provide a good education for poor children than it does for advantaged children?" budget officials and the White House are said to ask.

Urban experts outside the administration are puzzled since the White House knows the efficacy of special educational programs for poor children but remains reluctant to put more money into them, despite a clear need.

"How can you have something you call an urban program and not have an educational component in it?" William L. Taylor, director of the Center for National Policy Review, asked.

"If you don't make the effort to give poor children a chance in life, to read and compute well enough to hold jobs, you're really not doing much about the nation's problems."

At J.H.S. 164 in Harlem, principal Donald Tippett seemed incredulous at the administration's budget-makers' questions.

"Of course, it takes more to educate poor children," he said. "Their parents are victims of both poverty and racism. They can't give them the supports at home that advantaged children get from their parents.

"To teach kids as deprived as this, you need individualized instructions to the extent you can get it. It costs money for those paraprofessionals. They give individual help and free the teacher to concentrate on one student at a time. And the remedial materials, both the workbooks and the machines, cost money. They work, but they're not free.

"It's heartbreaking to know what we can do for these children and not have enough money to do it."

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EDITORIAL: DOCTOR “BLACKOUT”

Not meaning to spoil anyone's Yuletide spirit, but simply to point out why some people's "spirits" this time of the year -- or any time of the year, for that matter -- are a little more lively than others, this week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER contains a pair of articles on page 11 that merit our serious attention.

The lead article on the page reports on a New York City Department of Health finding that a virtual "Doctor's Blackout" exists in certain oppressed neighborhoods in the South Bronx and Brooklyn -- areas, the report asserts, where deprivation and neglect are so thick that a stiletto, not a scalpel, is the closest blade around. On the other side of town, of course, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, the place is so overloaded with doctors that they'll even check your French poodle's tonsils. Or your chauffer's …if he's lucky…and White.

The headline of the second article on that page tells the whole story, "U.S. Health Care Still Lily White" -- unless, that is, you care to read over the grim statistics documenting that, "Non-Whites are five times more likely to die of this," "Four times more likely to succumb to that," and so on. Be you non-White man, woman or child, the chances are you are more likely to be diseased and infirm -- and to die from your illness -- than if you were of the Caucasian race of our human species.

You get the feeling, "Where am I?" "What year is this?" Is this really a picture of America in 1977, nineteen hundred and seventy-seven years since Christ died on the Cross, to use a religious description to explain the bitter pain and horror such indings awaken.

What does all this mean?

It means that health care is a privilege, not a right, in America.

It means that the government's not doing its job, that a national health care policy which delivers quality, preventative medicine to Black and other poor, non-White communities is a must and fast, for the issue here is truly one of life or death … and death doesn't take a holiday.

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Letters to the Editor

SUPPORT B.P.P.

Editor,

How can anyone be expected to believe that members of the Black Panther Party are killing each other? We know that the FBI conducted a vicious, subversive campaign resorting even to murdering members of this party.

Not only are the Richmond police absurd in this frameup and insulting our intelligence but it is a horrible reminder that they and the FBI continue their ruthless disregard for the U.S. Constitution in oppressing elements who challenge the status quo. The seventies are here but nothing has changed.

Alex Goree, Oakland

(Reprinted from Oakland Tribune, 12/13/77)

FUND FOR OPEN ACCOUNTABILITY FORMED

Dear Friend,

A new organization, the Fund for Open Information and Accountability, Inc., (FOIA, INC.), has been formed to help enforce the Constitutional guarantee, under the Freedom of Information Act, of the people's right to know.

In light of recent disclosures, on the nature of past government abuses, the American people are demonstrating growing concern that government must continuously account to the public and not use the cloak of national security to conceal activities which touch upon the lives and democratic rights of the people. Despite legislative and judicial efforts to curb these abuses, government agencies and officials continue to resist accountability and avoid informing the public.

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Numerous individuals and organizations, presently seeking government disclosure of documents by use of the Freedom of information Act and other methods, have demonstrated that government agencies and officials are deliberately continuing to resist opening their files to public scrutiny. Tactics of delay, the imposition of prohibitive search and copying fees and the withholding and deletion of materials are the common practice of most agencies faced with requests for their files.

FOIA, INC. seeks to aid in compelling disclosure of government files of critical importance, particularly in the areas of political and civil rights. FOIA, INC, will disseminate information obtained from these files to promote public understanding of the issues involved in the abuses of power by government agencies and officials.

The need for an organization of this type is immediate. The guarantee of the people's right to know will not be achieved until the American people understand the nature of the abuses of government and the threats these abuses pose to the guarantees under the Constitution.

We believe that the opportunity now exists to unearth the truths about improper and illegal government activities and the subsequent abuses in hiding those truths from the people. But the opportunity will be lost without your active support and sponsorship, FOIA, INC. needs your support if it is to be successful in its outreach to all major institutions which influence the course of American life -- religious, educational, cultural, scientific, trade unions and community groups. With your support, FOIA, INC. can be a primary force in ensuring that government be accountable.

An effort of this magnitude requires a great deal of money, effort and active commitment. The costs and labor of copying, centralizing and researching material obtained and the essential publication of information for public use are enormous. The success of this effort relies heavily upon the active support and financial commitment of all concerned with ensuring that knowledge of government activities is made the domain of the American people and not the exclusive property of government agencies and officials.

Please join with us by formally becoming a sponsor and contributing generously to FOIA, INC.

Sincerely yours,
Fund for Open Information and Accountability, Inc.
P.O. Box 1951, Grand Central Station
New York, New York 10017

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COMMENT: National Welfare Reform Coalition Of No. California Position Statement

The following comment is excerpted from a longer position statement of the National Welfare Reform Coalition of Northern California.

The National Welfare Reform Coalition of Northern California is composed of welfare recipients and other people with firsthand knowledge of the way the welfare system works and the effect it has on people. The Coalition is concerned about the nature of the welfare reform program that has been proposed by the Carter administration.

There is much useful, socially productive work that needs to be done throughout this country. It is clear, given the consistently high unemployment rates of the past several years, that the private sector of the economy is unable or unwilling to hire all those who want to work or to create the jobs that need to be done.

Therefore, the responsibility falls on the government to bring about a full employment economy -- real, meaningful jobs with decent pay at the prevailing or union rate, not second-rate, substandard jobs.

People without any income are equally in need, whether they are married or single, childless or with children, able or unable to work, regardless of age. Everyone who is in need should be eligible for assistance. Welfare programs that categorize people create artificial divisions among people with common interests.

Any attempted "reform" of the welfare system must be accompanied by a commitment to devote an adequate portion of the resources of this country to the needs of its citizens who are unable to work at income-producing jobs, unable to find employment, or are not paid a living wage. To speak of welfare reform in the absence of this commitment is a fraud on everyone, and above all on recipients.

But overall, the Carter welfare reform bill, H.R. 9030, which has been given the name "Better Jobs and Income Act," will not result in either better jobs or better income for poor and

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working people. A critique of the bill must focus on three major areas:

(A) The Jobs Program does nothing to deal with the nonexistence of adequate jobs in the economy. Moreover, the program would be detrimental to all working people.

Rather than promoting the development of decent, meaningful jobs at adequate pay, the only move toward any kind of job development contained in the Carter bill is the creation of 1.4 million public service jobs. No single individual or childless couple would be eligible for these jobs, which would pay only minimum wages with no fringe benefits -- an annual rate of less that $4,800. But even these figures are deceving.

First, included in the 1.4 million "new" jobs would be the already existing 725,000 CETA jobs. The average pay for CETA jobs now is $7,800 per year plus fringe benefits, and these jobs often approach pay at the prevailing rate. But these would become minimum-wage jobs under the "Better Jobs and Income Act."

Second, 300,000, or nearly half, of the remainder of the proposed "new" jobs would be only part-time. The way the figures add up, the government will not be investing any more for the 1.4 million "new" jobs than it is now spending on CETA.

Not only is this "jobs program" a cruel hoax on poor people who are desperate for decent employment; it is also a threat to the job security of all working people. The public service jobs component of Carter's program would create an army of 1.4 million people working at the minimum wage, thus undercutting prevailing and union wages everywhere and offering no assurances that workers currently employed at wages they struggled for would not be replaced by this army.

(B) The Grant Levels do not provide even a subsistence level income.

The government's own statistics show that the minimum amount necessary for a family of four just to live is $6,440 per year. Yet, President Carter proposes to "reform" the welfare system by providing that family with less than two-thirds of this minimal amount, or $4,200. In 38 states, under this bill, families would be in worse straits financially than they are under the present system with AFDC and food stamps.

But $4,200 for a family of four is not even the lowest grant level set by the bill. If one member of that family is in the "expected to work" category, the family is expected to exist for eight weeks at an annuall income level of $2,300 while that member looks for a job -- approximately one-third of the poverty level!

(C) The bureaucracy that would be created by this program is infinitely more complicated than the present system and would be disruptive to family life.

H.R. 9030 divides people into more categories than the present system does. Families of the same size could receive widely varying grants depending on whether anyone was expected to work, whether one or two adults were present, the ages of children, and whether an "expected-to-work" family member was engaged in a job search or had completed that eight-week period.

The complexity of the system for determining the initial grant to a destitute family when it first applies for assistance almost defies belief. The income of the household unit over the previous six months will be calculated (just the verification problems will be monumental) and considered to have been spread out evenly over that time period, so that the family may be "deemed" to have some money availabele when it applies for assistance, even if in fact it has absolutely nothing.

Finally, despite the rhetoric of the Carter administration about the need to keep families together, this bill, with its job search requirement imposed on primary wage earners (usually fathers), would have the opposite effect. A two-parent family where the father is out of work will receive a higher grant if the father leaves than if he stays, both because income he earned over the past six months will no longer be attributed to the family and because with no expected-to-work member present the family will not be subject to the eight-week job search penalty period.

CONCLUSION

Unless the welfare reform legislation proposed by the Carter administration is changed so that it complies with the criteria previously stated -- Adequate Program, Universal Coverage, Fair Administration, and Realistic Funding -- it is not deserving of support.

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Fallen Comrade: STERLING JONES

Assassinated:
December 25, 1969

Black Panther Party member Sterling Jones, 17, was mysteriously killed on Christmas Day, December 25, 1969, three weeks after the assassination of Illinois BPP leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in a COINTELPRO plot enacted by the Chicago police. Sterling responded to a knock at his family's apartment door and was shot directly in the face by an unknown assailant who fled after murdering the young, dedicated Party member. Long Live the Spirit of Comrade Sterling Jones! Long Live the People's Struggle!

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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CONFIRM EX-AGENT'S VALIDITY AS INFORMANT: L.A. COPS ADMIT INFILTRATION TACTICS AGAINST B.P.P.

(Los Angeles, Calif.) - Three Los Angeles police officers have admitted a department effort, headed by its Criminal Conspiracy Section (CCS), to infiltrate and disrupt the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

The trio, all longstanding veterans in the department, also confirmed in their sworn statements key details in a Black ex-agent's accusation of a federal and state law enforcement conspiracy to assassinate prison activist/ author George Jackson.

The statements from the cops came in the form of depositions they were required to make in a wrongful death damage suit filed by the widows of three White prison guards slain along with Jackson and two inmate trustees at San Quentin Prison on August 21, 1971.

In their depositions officers Daniel Mahoney and Donald Beasley, both formerly in CCS, admit to widespread infiltration of the Southern California BPP Chapter by agent provocateurs employed by the LAPD.

Mahoney specifically named Melvin "Cotton" Smith and Louis Tackwood as two of at least four agent provocateurs who infiltrated and spied on the activities of the Southern California BPP Chapter.

Smith is known to be the police agent who set-up the notorious December 8, 1969, predawn raid on the Southern California BPP headquarters at 4115 South Central Avenue in Los Angeles. The assault lasted five hours, from 4:00 a.m. to after 9:00 a.m., at which time, a tank was brought to blow the office to smitherenes and 12 BPP members inside the headquarters surrendered before the watchful eyes of an aroused angry community. One BPP member was shot and injured in the attack, instigated by the presence of illegal weapons Smith brought into the office.

Both Mahoney and Beasley provided bodyguard protection for Smith when the Judas agent surfaced in early 1971.

Tackwood is the Black ex-agent who shocked the San Quentin 6 trial last year with a hardhitting account of a law enforcement conspiracy to murder BPP Field Marshal George Jackson. His misadventures as a paid police spy for the LAPD -- his code name was C-14 -- have been chronicled in the book, The Glass House Tapes, edited by noted researcher Don Freed.

Together with the sworn statements of the third cop, Lawrence Brown, the officers' testimony confirms many of the key details described by Tackwood (both in court and in an exclusive 1976 interview with THE BLACK PANTHER) concerning the Jackson assassination plot.

Mahoney admits, for example, that in late 1970 he and his immediate supervisor in CCS, a Sargeant Sharrett, along with Tackwood, flew to San Jose where they were joined by several FBI agents and a state law enforcement official. Together the group participated in an unsuccessful raid on an alleged BPP encampment in the Santa Cruz mountains.

In fact, the cops' depositions confirm almost every allegation presented by Tackwood, starting from when he was a paid informant for Brown in the Special Identification and Investigation (SII) section of the LAPD in early 1969, to his recruitment and transfer to the "Black desk" squad for CCS in the early 70's, to other LAPD conspiracy incidents in 1971.

The sole point of disagreement

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is Mahoney's denial of a Tackwood accusation that he (Mahoney) participated in smuggling a defective snub-nosed .38 revolver into San Quentin in August, 1971, to be used in the Jackson set-up.

During the marathon San Quentin 6 trial, a now transferred guard testified that he saw such a .38 in the hands of one of the inmates during the short-lived prisoner takeover of the Adjustment Center on August 21. The gun was never officially accounted for, although Tackwood has said he later saw the .38 in the possession of a Lt. Robert Keel, the officer in charge of the CCS squad, at LAPD headquarters.

The documents also confirm that Tackwood's first assignment for CCS was "gathering information" from James Carr, then a close associate of BPP founder and leader Huey P. Newton, on Party activities in Northern and Southern California -- and verify the close network of federal, state and local police agencies involved in an ongoing conspiracy to disrupt and destroy the BPP.

A front page story in last week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER revealed that the US organization assassins of Southern California BPP leaders Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John Jerome Huggins on January 17, 1969, were in fact employed by the FBI at the time of the slayings.

When the widows' suit was first filed it focused solely on the Black and Latino men charged on a multitude of counts in the aftermath of the Jackson assassination. Following Tackwood's testimony in court last year, however, and as a result of other revelations, the suit was later amended to include the LAPD among the defendants.

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F.B.I. -- The Myth Exposed

(San Francisco, Calif.) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation's public image of diligent and dedicated agents fighting crime and protecting the country against foreign enemies is quickly fading in the public eye, as greater numbers of FBI abuses are being exposed and brought to the attention of the public media.

Over the last several years, headlines in national media have brought to light numerous Bureau "dirty tricks."

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), for example, a Quaker pacifist and relief agency formed in 1917, was under surveillance by FBI for over 55 years, according to recently released Freedom of Information Act documents.

Informants, plants, illicit sex and attempts to break up families as a method of splintering groups, surveillance of citizens and harassive use of supoenas, are all "tricks of the trade" which the FBI has employed against law-abiding U.S. citizens instead of concentrating investigation on violent and dangerous criminal elements in society.

The scope of the abuse which the FBI has engaged in, Freedom News Service reports, starts to become apparent when one studies the results of their investigations.

Not one single individual or group has been prosecuted since 1957 under the laws which prohibit planning or advocating action to overthrow the government, although the FBI conducted over 500,000 separate investigations of persons and groups under the "subversive category." Groups were included in this category -- such as the Black

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Panther Party -- based on the "possibility" that they might be likely to overthrow the government of the United States -- or so said the FBI.

As of March, 1973, the FBI had 6,426,813 intelligence evaluation investigation files. This is more people on file in the FBI than the combined total populations of Detroit and Miami.

From 17,528 individual cases investigated by the FBI field offices in 1974, the following results were obtained: 3 per cent were referred for prosecution; 6 per cent were prosecuted: 1.3 per cent were convicted; 2.7 per cent resulted in the FBI obtaining advance knowledge of planned activities.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE

Ineffective U.S. intelligence by the Bureau cost the American taxpayer $82.5 million, according to testimony of FBI and Justice Department officials in 1975. The FBI budgeted over $7 million for its domestic security informant program for 1976, which was more than twice the amount it spent on informants against organized crime.

The FBI's dirty tricks and inefficiency have not only been costly in terms of money and hardship on innocent persons and groups. They have also been a drawback to police and other intelligence agencies' activities. A local police chief stated at Congressional hearings that FBI reports that crossed his desk were almost completely composed of unsorted and unevaluated stories, threats and rumors.

He further commented that these unverified reports had in part made their way from the Bureau field office to Washington, where they had gained completely unwarranted credibility and had been submitted by the director of the FBI to the President of the United States. These reports seemed to present a convincing picture of the impending holocaust.

FBI reports on "dissident Americans" were forwarded to the CIA at a rate reaching 1,000 reports a month, and CIA officials who regarded names in these reports as a request for information on these persons, had their agents, who had infiltrated domestic organizations for other purposes, supplying general information on the groups' activities.

The Secret Service destroyed over 90 per cent of the information disseminated to it by the FBI, without ever putting it in its own intelligence files, apparently finding it worthless.

The intelligence agencies, including the FBI, have come under fire and been prime targets for Congressional investigations for their violations of statutory law and the Constitution.

The Department of Justice, however, has succeeded in staying out of the limelight, although the responsibility for FBI policies and activities, as well as many other agencies, rests with it.

Evidence gathered shows that no attorney general in recent years has inquired fully into the FBI's operations nor has any check been placed on excesses of domestic intelligence. Attorney generals have urged the FBI and other intelligence agencies to engage in activities which violated statutory law and Constitutional rights of Americans.

Instances of this include:

Attorney General Biddle's approval of the wiretaps for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce in 1941:

Attorney General Tom Clark's authorization of a wiretap on a former aide of Roosevelt in the 1940's:

Attorney General Brownell's approval of the microphone surveillance of Congressman Cooley and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1954;

Attorney General Robert Kennedy's approval of "technical coverage" of a Black leader in 1964:

Attorney General Nicolas Katzenbach's approval of a wiretap on the offices of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1965:

Attorney General John Mitchell's approval of a series of three wiretaps on organizations involved in planning the anti-war march on Washington in November of 1969.

I.D.I.U.

The Inter-Divisional Information Unit (IDIU) of the Justice Department received and passed to the attorney general information gathered by numerous agencies, and did not set limits to intellgence reporting or provide any clear policy guidance. The FBI, Army IDIU, local police and many others set their own policies (or failed to) and the result has been massive and excessive collection of information on law abiding citizens.

In the absence of any policy guidelines imposed by the attorney general or other members of the Justice Department, the FBI has continued to collect domestic intelligence under sweeping authorizations issued by the Justice Department in 1974 for investigations of "subversives, potential civil disturbances and potential crimes." These authorizations were explicitly based on conceptions of inherent executive power, broader in theory than the criminal statutes.

At the urging of the attorney general, the FBI expanded its use of informers for gathering intelligence about domestic political groups, and as of 1975, the FBI was using a total of 1,500 intelligence informants.

Although the use of informants is the investigative technique with the highest potential for abuse, the Justice Department imposed no restrictions on informant activity or reporting, and established no procedures for reviewing the Bureau's decision to use informants in any particular case.

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I.Q. TEST BIAS TRIAL: EDUCATOR LINKS READING SKILLS AND E.M.R. PLACEMENT

(San Francisco, Calif.) - A Black Los Angeles educator said last week that many children are mistakenly labeled as mentally retarded simply because they can't read well.

Ms. Alice Watkins, director in charge of developing programs for the educable mentally retarded (EMR) at California State University at Los Angeles, told federal court judge Robert Peckham that some children are wrongly placed in EMR classes because they are not fluent in standard English or in "the use of verbal skills that are part of the middle class culture."

Ms. Watkins added that many Black children are put into EMR classes on the basis of tests which misjudge their true skills.

The Black educator's testimony came in support of a class action lawsuit filed by six parents and their children seeking to halt the disproportionate placement of Blacks in EMR classes on the basis of I.Q. tests that are racially and culturally biased. Standard tests, the plaintiffs have argued, systematically underestimate the intelligence and learning ability of non-Whites.

Although Judge Peckham, in 1972 and 1974, issued a temporary injunction barring the defendant city of San Francisco and state Boards of Education, respectively, from putting children in EMR classes solely on the results of I.Q. tests, the discriminatory placement, plus the tests, have continued.

In Oakland, for example, Black schoolchildren make up close to 88 per cent of those in EMR classes, although the school district is 67 per cent Black. Only 7.7 per cent of those in the slow classes are White, although the district is 16 per cent White.

Asked if the standard for determining EMR status was "general intellectual functioning below the average of the general population." Ms. Watkins said:

"I see youngsters who are not functioning below the general population in their community but within the school community they are labeled EMR because they can't read."

Ms. Watkins said she favors integrating EMR students into mainstream classes.

"The moment you pull a youngster out and segregate him, limit his access to the large school scoiety, I think you also limit his ability to learn how to socialize with the world community," she said.

"Within the school environment, children learn to be active, participating, contributing members of a mini-society."

Despite a federal law that now requires that a placement committee include a parent of the child in question, Ms. Watkins testified that, "A large number of minority parents are not sufficiently informed to exercise that right," she said.

"Some are simply intimidated by the school system and therefore are fearful of exercising their veto power.

"As a result. I think the parents' veto power has failed to be an effective check on the misplacement of children in special-education classes."

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The Week In Black History

December 25, 1951

Harry T. Moore, a Florida NAACP official, was killed and his wife was seriously injured by a bomb blast set by racists which destroyed their home in Mims. Florida, on December 25, 1951.

December 20-21, 1956

On December 20, 1956, federal injunctions prohibiting segregation on buses were served on Montgomery. Alabama, state, and bus company officials. The next day, on December 21, the year-long Montgomery bus boycott was called off during two mass meetings. The boycott, which started when Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, solidified Montgomery's Black community and gained international attention.

December 25, 1956

On Christmas Day, December 25, 1956, the home of Rev. F.L. Shuttlesworth, a Birmingham civil rights leader who was one of Dr. Martin Luther King's closest associates, was dynamited by White bigots.

December 19, 1969

A seven-man team of Justice Department lawyers was sent to Chicago on December 19, 1969, to investigate the December 4 police murders of Illinois Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. According to the Justice Department, the team would be joined by a specially designated grand jury. Federal, state and local police were later to be cleared of any wrongdoing in the blatant assassination which was engineered by the infamous FBI's COINTELPRO program.

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Suburbs Called Destructive To Children

(Washington, D.C.) - According to a University of Illinois researcher, the White suburbs are emotionally and psychologically destructive for young people despite the belief that they are the ideal places to rear children.

Suburbs, especially those that have sprung up since 1950, isolate children from reality, prolong childhood and fail to provide the kind of emotional experiences necessary to prepare young people for adulthood, argues the study by Edward A. Wynne of the University of Illinois.

ANTISOCIAL CONDUCT

This leads, he said, to antisocial and self-destructive conduct, including high suicide rates, drug use, delinquency and introverted behavior, according to a Washington Post report.

Sociologist Wynne laid the blame on many of the things that have made suburban living attractive to two generations of Americans: big lawns, shopping centers, safe streets and large, modern schools.

Parents, he said, assume that such things "provide ideal child-rearing environments. Unfortunately, there is no indication that these virtues -- beyond a very modest threshold level -- have much to do with raising emotionally healthy children."

Children who grow up in suburbs, he added, "are uniquely isolated from diversity," outside stimulations and most real-life situations, making it hard for them to adjust to later life.

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“WE WANT NICKERSON TO FIX OUR HOMES”: BLACK TENANTS LAUNCH LA PERALTA RENT STRIKE

(Oakland, Calif.) - Undaunted by the intimidation of their landlord. White millionaire real estate operator William E. Nickerson, the predominantly Black tenants of La Peralta apartments launched a rent strike last Monday, vowing to withhold their rents until the substandard living conditions of the downtown Oakland building are upgraded.

Enthusiastically chanting the slogans on the picket signs they carried -- "Rats And Roaches In Our Home, We Won't Quit Until They're Gone," "Right Is Right And Wrong Is Wrong. We Want Nickerson To Fix Our Home," the tenants demonstrated in front of the La Peralta, located at 184-13th Street, throughout the chilly day.

One angry resident of the apartment complex, Johnnie Lott, explained why he had joined the rent strike.

"This building is infested with rats and roaches. When I woke up this morning, there were a couple of roaches in the bed with me.

"I have lived here for almost a month, and the water in the kitchen has been running ever since. Whenever I try to get the manager to fix it, either I can't find him or he makes some excuse. I'm tired of these indecent living conditions."

Rents in the La Peralta range as high as $265 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. Yet, slumlord Nickerson, whose ownership of the building provides a classic example of his well-known book, How I Turned $1,000 Into A Million In Real Estate In My Spare Time, consistently rents filthy apartments. Not only has he refused to clean them, but until THE BLACK PANTHER initially toured the building on December 5, none of the numerous repairs needed in the building were made.

Kirmet Pooney, former assistant manager of the La Peralta, who resides in the building, organized the tenants several weeks ago after Nickerson fired him in October. Rooney, hired at slavelike wages as the building's repairman, became angry when he was repeatedly asked to install electrical wiring and plumbing that violated city housing codes.

When Rooney complained to Nickerson about the dangerous wiring and plumbing (Rooney is not a skilled electrician or plumber), Nickerson fired him.

Rooney subsequently filed a complaint with the city's Housing Conservation Division that led to a partial survey of the La Peralta in late November. Division Inspector Gary Needles found numerous violations of the Oakland Housing Code, including defective wall outlets, leaky steam heating units, a defective bathroom ceiling that is falling in and "roach infestation throughout the structure."

Housing Division official Warren W. Wildman sent a letter to Nickerson ordering him to obtain the permits necessary to correct the building's deficiencies "in the interests of public health and safety."

Nickerson's slowness in meeting the order and his attempts to appease tenants by making minor repairs and improvements led Rooney to seek assistance from the Black Panther Party's Free Legal Aid and Educational Program.

Following the first day of the rent strike, which drew wide-spread media and public attention, Nickerson made the token gesture of firing the apartment building's manager, Don Van Winkle.

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LA PERALTA: Major Tenant Victory -- Inspection Ordered

(Oakland, Calif.) - Tenants of the La Peralta scored a major victory last Wednesday. December 21, when officials from the mayor's office and the city housing department, after touring the apartment complex, ordered a major inspection of the building in addition to ordering owner William E. Nickerson to immediately begin to repair its numerous deficiencies.

Tenant spokesperson Kirmet Rooney told THE BLACK PANTHER that Ms. Toni Adams, a Black administrative aide to Oakland Mayor Lionel Wilson; Howard Young, supervising housing representative; and housing inspector Gary Needles found 15 housing code violations in his apartment alone.

Among those deficiencies are defective walls, defective plumbing, faulty electrical wiring and defective bathroom fixtures.

In addition, the city officials found fire code violations in the downtown apartment residence located at 184-13th Street.

Rooney, very pleased with the city officials' visit and order that millionaire real estate operator Nickerson immediately act to upgrade the slumlike conditions of the La Peralta(see article, this page), credited the rent strike initiated by the tenants on December 19 and the aid of the Black Panther Party's Free Legal Aid and Educational Program with the city's action.

Rooney said the city officials promised that a full report on the La Peralta's deficiencies would be forthcoming within a week. See next week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER for further details.

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K.D.I.A. Sponsors Black Conference

(Oakland, Calif.) - KDIA Public Affairs Director Dr. HAROLD VARNER (right) announced last week that the popular Black radio station will sponsor its first Annual Black Leadership Conference in early January. Dr. Varner said that the conference, a five-hour live forum featuring five panels with Black elected and appointed officials, as well as various business, social and community leaders, will be held at Merritt College from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. on January 8. Accompanying Dr. Varner in making the announcement were KDIA News Director WES MOORE and the station's program director, KEITH ADAMS.

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N.Y. Cop To Stand Trial For Killing Of Black Youth

(New York, N.Y.) - A White off-duty cop who shot and killed an 18-year-old Black youth last September was indicted by a grand jury last week on charges of second degree manslaughter.

If Roger Scheid, 26, is convicted for the murder of the youth, Frank Thompson, he faces up to 15 years imprisonment. He was suspended immediately by the New York Police Department pending the outcome of his trial.

Scheid claims that he, his brother and two women were driving through New York's Coney Island section on September 2, 1976, when one of the women -- Scheid's date -- pointed to a Black youth in a playground and said he had tried to rob her earlier in the day.

In civilian clothes, Scheid got out of his car and confronted Thompson. After a scuffle, Scheid chased the youth into an abandoned building. Scheid claims that when he ordered Thompson to come out of the building, the youth lunged at him with a knife.

Scheid fired six shots, hitting Thompson twice in the chest. The youth was pronounced dead on arrival at a Coney Island hospital.

The grand jury that handed down the indictment spent over two months listening to dozens of witnesses. It rejected requests from the district attorney's office for a charge of second degree murder -- which involves intent to kill -- or first-degree manslaughter.

Instead, the grand jury agreed on second degree manslaughter, meaning that it felt that Scheid had been "reckless" in killing the teenager. Thompson was employed by a federally-financed poverty program at the time he was shot, reports the New York Times.

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S.274/H.120 CALLED REPRESSIVE: COALITION OPPOSES NEW LEGISLATION ATTACKING G.I. RIGHTS

(Washington, D.C.) - The Coalition to Defeat S.274/HR. 120 was recently formed to alert the American public to a bill which poses a grave threat to the Constitutional rights of members of the armed services and civilians alike.

The Senate passed S.274 by a 72-3 vote on September 19th. It is presently before the House Armed Services Committee and a vote by the full House is expected in February, 1978. The bill's chief advocates are Southern arch-conservatives Strom Thurmond and John Stennis.

There has been virtually no public discussion of this legislation, despite its potential impact on millions of Americans.

S.274 swept through the Senate atop a wave of hysteria about American G.I.s possibly joining labor unions. While aimed at preventing union membership or collective bargaining, the bill defines "labor organizations" in such sweeping terms that virtually all outside assistance to G.I.s in their struggle against injustice and racism may be outlawed.

The Washington, D.C.-based Coalition includes the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Washington office: Center for National Security Studies; CCCO (Philadelphia): Citizen Soldier; Enlisted Times; National Lawyers Guild; and the National Pres. Association Civilian (Guard) Technicians.

These organizations have been working for many years to aid servicemembers in their efforts to secure just treatment from the military command. The Coalition charges that S.274/HR120 constitutes a serious threat to both civilians' rights of free speech, petition, assembly, and association and those of G.I.s.

According to the House testimony of Professor Ed Sherman and Jay Miller, representing the ACLU, S.274 makes it a felony for members of the armed forces (and civilians in some instances) to engage in any of the following:

1) Association, by joining a labor organization.

2) Organization, by soliciting or

-- 8 --

encouraging other G.I.s to join a labor organization (individual civilians and groups are also prohibited from this).

3) Advocacy, by actively supporting any labor organization activity which: (a) is a protest against, or for the purposes of changing pay, conditions of work or service; or (b) supports, advocates, or asserts the rights of G.I.s to join, or be represented by a labor organization.

4) Use of military facilities, for any union activity or any activity supporting labor organizations or of membership in such an organization. Defense Department (DOD) employees are also criminally liable if they permit such use.

5) Recognizing, negotiating, or bargaining with any group or individual purporting to represent G.I.s with regard to work conditions, job grievances, etc. (applies to all DOD supervisory employees -- including civilians).

S.274 also strips 60,000 civilian technicians employed by the National Guard and Reserves of their right to union membership. About 14,000 of these "dual status" (civilian/military) workers are currently union members and work under collective-bargaining contracts.

In their Constitutional analysis of S.274, the Coalition explains that the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment includes the right of employees to associate to further their economic and social goals. Freedom of association has been found by the courts to include the right of public employees to join and participate in the activities of a labor union.

The Coalition urges concerned persons to write President Carter and/or your U.S. Representative expressing opposition to HR.120.

-- 7 --

Indian Coalition Calls Pending Bill “Genocide”

(Davis, Calif.) - The National Indian Coalition announced here last week that it would initiate recall proceedings against three congressmen due to their open support of reactionary legislation, particularly H.R.9054, which would violate the rights of Native American people.

The Coalition charged Congressmen Jack Cunningham and Lloyd Meeds of Washington state and James Abdnor of South Dakota with plotting to commit genocide against Native Americans due to their active support of H.R.9054.

H.R.9054, which was drawn up by Cunningham, would abolish all existing treaties held between Native Americans and the U.S. and would effectively destroy all claims to Indian control over Indian lands.

The Coalition recently closed a two-day emergency meeting here at D-Q University where 700 representatives of 74 Indian tribes met to plan a national drive to oppose H.R.9054.

Dennis Banks, D-Q instructor and former American Indian Movement (AIM) leader, told the conference:

"We have resisted extermination, we have resisted acculturation, we have resisted assimilation

-- 20 --
and Congress must know we are opposing abrogation (abolishment)."

H.R.9054 contains the following provisions which will take away what little rights Native Americans have at the present time in relation to preserving their sacred culture:

Indian reservations and land will become subject to federal, state and local laws:

Indian hunting and fishing rights will be abolished and replaced by federal, state and local laws; and

Indian tribal laws will be abolished.

H.R.9054, the so-called "Native American Equal Opportunity Act," is in direct opposition to the aspirations of progressive Native American leaders seeking sovereignty for their people.

One portion of the bill states clearly that members of Indian tribes "shall not be entitled to any of the services performed by the United States for Indians because of their status as Indians:

"All statutes which affect Indians…shall no longer be applicable to members of the tribe, and the laws of the several states shall apply to the tribe and its members in the same manner as they apply to other citizens or persons within their jurisdiction."

What this means is that if H.R.9054 becomes law, all of the already meager concessions made to Indian people by this government in return for the wholesale slaughter of Native Americans and theft of Indian lands will no longer be in effect.

Another bill proposed by Congressman Meeds, H.R.9950, will also place severe limits on Indian jurisdiction over tribal lands in relation to hunting and fishing rights.

Both of these bills, coupled with the repressive S.1437, which expands the scope of federal laws applicable to crimes on Indian reservations, are a direct attempt to destroy a rapidly growing movement among Native Americans for self-determination. These bills would start a new "land grab" on Indian lands, which contain the bulk of this country's natural resources.

The Coalition has announced that a protest march will start on February 11 in San Francisco -- with Washington, D.C., as its destination -- to rally nationwide opposition to these bills which seek to take away the few remaining rights the American Indians have in the U.S.

-- 8 --

GODBOLD NAMED PERALTA COLLEGE DISTRICT VICE-CHANCELLOR

(Oakland, Calif.) - The highly respected and popular Black president of Merritt College, Dr. Donald H. Godbold, was recently named vice chancellor for educational services of the Peralta Community College District, a system of five community colleges which serves the predominantly Black and minority communities in the East Bay area.

The distinguished Black educator assumed the major district position last month.

The new vice chancellor was named president of Oakland's Merritt College in 1973. At the time of his appointment he was vice president and founding chief administrator of the Auraria campus of the Community College of Denver.

Prior to his work in Denver, Dr. Godbold was provost of the Orchard Ridge campus of the Oakland City College system in Michigan. He has also held teaching and administrative positions in the Detroit public school system.

Dr. Godbold holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Wayne State University and a doctorate from the University of Michigan.

In 1970, he was the recipient of the Detroit Council for Youth Services award and the following year he received the Community College of Denver Faculty Award for leadership in establishing the Auraria campus.

He was a founder of the Western Region of the Council for Black American Affairs, and has received that body's distinguished service award.

He is national chairman and a board member of the Council on Black American Affairs, a member of the Council of the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges (AACJC), and was a board member of that organization from 1973-75.

Dr. Godbold is a member of the American Council on Education Commission on Collegiate Athletics, a director of the California Community and Junior College Association (CCJCA) and chairman of that organization's Committee on Disadvantaged, Commission on Equal Educational Opportunity.

Locally, Dr. Godbold is a member of the board of directors of Goodwill Industries of the Greater Bay Area: a member of the Oakland Rotary Club: New Oakland Committee: and the Oakland Symphony Orchestra New Spirit Committee: and a jury member for the Montera Film Festival.

Mrs. Constance Ormond, presdent of the Peralta Board of Trustees, said that, in choosing Dr. Godbold as vice chancellor, Board members were entrusting him with one of the key positions in the district.

Chancellor Thomas W. Fryer, Jr., joined trustees in welcoming Dr. Godbold to the new role.

"There is no doubt in my mind," he said, "that the position of vice chancellor for educational services is one of the most challenging jobs in Peralta. A great deal of thought went into my decision to recommend his appointment to this crucial post.

"I am sure that Dr. Godbold's expertise and dedication to education will be of great value to the entire Peralta District."

-- 8 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

Homocides
And Blacks

(Washington, D.C.) - The decline in life expectancy for Black males during the 1960's resulted, in part, from a rise in violent deaths, according to figures released last week by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Life expectancy of Black men was only 60 years compared with 66 for all males, according to statistics from 1969 to 1971. In 1976, life expectancy reached 64.1 years for non-White males and 69 for all males. The NCHS notes, "Homicide is a leading cause of mortality among non-White males, particularly among young men age 15 to 34. Their homicide rate is 10 times that for Whites."

Abolish L.E.A.A.

(Washington, D.C.) - Attorney General Griffin Bell last week proposed abolishing the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) and replacing it with a National Institute of Justice. White House officials said the proposal is little more than a name substitution. However, the changes would give state and local governments much more leeway in spending federal anti-crime funds.

Coalfield Explosions

(Washington, D.C.) - Explosions in Virginia coalfields and picketing at a West Virginia railroad yard were reported last week as 188,000 United Mine Workers in 22 states continued their nationwide coal strike. Two early morning explosions rocked a coal company store and a nearby snack bar in southwest Virginia, resulting in two arrests but no injuries. No immediate evidence linked the walkout and explosion.

Tucker Cleared

(Dauphin County, Pa.) - C. Delores Tucker, who was the highest ranking Black woman state official in the country, was recently cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by the district attorney's office here. Ms. Tucker was the secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania until she was fired by Governor Milton Shapp for alleged misuse of her staff and services. Ms. Tucker had proclaimed that the charges were politically motivated.

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C.I.A. In Turmoil Over Recent Dismissals

(Washington, D.C.) - The CIA, already shaken by investigations and revelations over the last several years, is now experiencing its most serious crisis of the last 15 years, aggravated by the recent dismissal of some 200 covert operatives and plans for another 225 or more firings by the end of 1978.

But the deeper problem apparently stems from what Agency employees see as arbitrary actions by President Carter's CIA director, Stansfield Turner.

Carter's former Annapolis classmate is now being called the "remote control dictator" inside the Agency for his isolated rule through a host of trusted Navy aides he brought with him to replace long-time CIA people in key positions. Internews reports.

Most of those fired or scheduled for dismissal in the coming months are from the CIA's clandestine branch, the Deputy Directorate of Operations (DDO). Many of them were "spooks" in Indochina -- the reports on the firings reveal that at one point, nearly 2,000 CIA agents operated in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam -- although the vast majority of the DDO personnel to be let go are now operating out of the CIA's Langley. Virginia, headquarters.

Turner's goal is not just dismissal of these people, but the elimination of their jobs -- 800 out of a total of about 4,500 covert

-- 25 --
operators.

Turner has also given the ax to some important people now in the filed. He has reportedly fired the CIA's agent with best access to top levels of the Israeli government, and has dismissed at least seven station chiefs, including those in West Germany, England, Austria, and Canada.

The purge is continuing. Henry Knoche, who was deputy director and acting director before Turner took over, resigned August I after being frequently overruled and frozen out by his new boss, Knoche's deputy, Louis Latham, is resigning under pressure. William Wells, the director of DDO, is also under pressure and may soon be forced out.

"You really heard them crying, haven't you," Turner commented to Newsweek when asked about the reports of the summary firings without even a "thanks" for service.

The admiral later expressed "regret" for that "unfortunate remark," and emphasized that he was simply carrying out plans of previous administrations to cut back the CIA by up to 1,200 operatives over the next six to eight years.

He had collapsed that timetable into two years, he said, to save taxpayers' money.

Conservative columnists Evans and Novak, who are opposed to Turner's purges of covert operatives, have raised the specter that the firings "will create a pool of unemployable, middle-aged intelligence agents, some of whom might be ripe for going public with intelligence secrets (as many other ex-CIA agents have recently done) -- or even for recruitment by the Soviet KGB."

Revelations or defections by former agents, however, apparently did not result from the last major purge of the CIA in March, 1973, when James Schlesinger eliminated about 2,000 employees from all parts of the Agency.

What Turner is up to is apparently a well-kept secret from the rest of the CIA. Some speculate that he has cut back DDO because he prefers electronic intelligence to human intelligence gathering and is skeptical of the value of "dirty tricks." Turner denies he is favoring electronic intelligence.

But even if this is the case, the firings will leave about 80 per cent of the jobs in the clandestine branch of the CIA, and presumably most of the Agency's covert capability, intact.

-- 9 --

LEADERS PROTEST “TOTAL SILENCE FROM WASHINGTON”: CARTER “KINDLES FIRE” BY IGNORING FARM STRIKE

(Denver, Colo.) - As the nationwide farmers' strike entered its second week, leaders of the protest accused the Carter administration of ignoring their demands and warned that "total silence from Washington" might be met by intensified picketing during the final days before Christmas.

Fifty tractors representing every state in the country moved slowly around the White House on Wednesday morning, December 14, to kick off the strike for a badly needed increase in government price supports.

Later that day, rallies and tractor barricades interrupted the distribution of warehoused groceries, and picket lines were set up to boycott supermarkets in some 31 states.

"It's a very volatile situation. They (the Carter administration) keep kindling the fire by ignoring the strike," said Colorado farmer Keith Thomas, a spokesperson for the American Agriculture Movement which organized the protest. "There has been nothing -- total silence from Washington -- since we started the strike.

"What is Jimmy Carter doing?" said Thomas. "Is he trying to force the nation into a chaotic situation?… All it's going to do is increase in intensity until it reaches a very explosive state."

The Carter administration has tried to downplay the strike, and the farmers' demand for 100 per cent parity -- the cost of production plus a "fair" return.

"It (the strike) is symbolic more than anything else at this stage," said Deputy Agriculture Secretary John White. "It's a little difficult to deal with. The 100 per cent of parity is a slogan, and it's hard to negotiate with a slogan," White arrogantly stated.

Last Monday, December 19, Colorado farmers set up picket lines around food distribution points in Pueblo and began asking grain elevators in the state to close.

Thousands of tractors converged on large Texas cities and a tractorcade of more than 600 vehicles would its way through downtown Abilene for a rally at the fairgrounds.

Many farm belt merchants closed their shops in support of the strike and farmers in western Nebraska parked their tractors on highways at the Nebraska-Wyoming border and put up signs asking truckers to "look to see what you're hauling. If it's farm products, stop and talk."

"And they are stopping," said striker Bonnie Deboer. "They are talking and they are turning back."

Also, dairy farmers in Nebraska have vowed to turn grade-A

-- 25 --
milk into poweder and store it until after the strike.

Agriculture Department market news specialists said the strike was having a definite effect in Georgia, where 13 of the state's 16 livestock auction markets were closed in a two-week sympathy demonstration.

Also, in the President's home state, 100 farmers packed a federal courtroom in Macon where attorneys for Southern Railways were seeking an injunction to prevent the strikers from blocking railroad tracks.

To back their demands, farmers say they will withhold their products from the market, will refuse to buy anything except bare necessities, and next planting season will refuse to produce.

In the background of the strike movement are large surpluses of grain, which have led to a sharp decline in prices. The Carter administration is apparently using the surplus as leverage to undermine the farmers' threat to withhold their products.

Farm prices have fallen drastically in the last two years. Net farm income this year is expected to plunge to $20 billion, 50 per cent below a record 1973 level.

The latest edition of the U.S. Farm News attacks the capitalistic core of the farmers' present dilemma in reprinting an article which appeared in the 1961 issue of the progressive publication:

"The U.S. Farmers Association wants full parity income for the tillers of the soil.

"In today's complex economy, with most farm costs and the things farmers buy being `administered prices,' fixed by law, by boards or commissions or by some monopolistic market masters, it appears quite obvious that parity can be attained only by a federal program that gives to farmers some of the corporate power of the government that has long been extended to other groups and industries….

"In the face of such economic realities, farmers need to realize that legislative action is imperative, and that only the federal government is competent to deal with this situation.

"Farmers must hold to the thesis that agriculture cannot continue to buy in a protected market while selling in an unprotected market."

-- 9 --

1,200 Welfare Mothers Forced To Stand In Cold For Clothes

(Hartford, Conn.) - "It's not worth it for me to stand here and get pushed and shoved or killed for $25," said Cassandra David.

But over 1,200 other Connecticut mothers on welfare couldn't afford to give up. They stood in line with their children in freezing temperatures here on December 5, trying to get into the welfare office. There were similar scenes in New Haven and Bridgeport.

The mothers were hoping to sign up for a $25 a child emergency clothing allocation from the state. They knew that the funding was on a first-come, first-serve basis and there was only enough money for less than half the 95,000 children on welfare who needed it.

The situation was described by observers as "pitiful," "an insult to the dignity" of the welfare clients. The 30 policemen who attempted to keep order in Hartford were forced to close off the street in front of the office.

Eight women, most of them pregnant, were treated at a local hospital for fainting, frostbite or other injuries suffered in the pushing and shoving. One glass window broke in the melee. In New Haven, five people were hospitalized.

The next day, Gov. Eila Grasso was forced to amend the program so that "every family" on welfare could receive the bonus.

-- 12 --

But the measure came too late for many women, who had already spent many wasted hours on the line in humiliation and in fear for the safety of their children. And the $25 doesn't even begin to cover the expense of clothing a child.

Joy Reddick summred up the anger of those who had waited when she said. "They just wanted to put us through this trouble because they wanted to see us beg."

Most of the people waiting in line wore only lightweight jackets and sweaters, though snow was falling. Increasingly, mothers lifted children over their leads and passed them down the line so they could wait inside the welfare offices.

Roberta Lynch, a West Hartford resident who had been waiting for four hours by noon-time, pointed to her four-year-old daughter and said, "She's been crying for two hours."

By the end of the day, John Ely, head of the Department of Social Services office in Hartford, said his group had processed 1,248 applications representing 3,919 children. These were only a fraction of the children who needed the money.

-- 10 --

New Trial Ordered For Filipino Nurses

(Detroit, Mich.) - A federal judge here, in an order accusing government prosecutors of "persistent misconduct," ordered a new trial last week for two Filipino nurses who were falsely convicted last July of poisoning patients at the Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Hospital.

Judge Philip Pratt of the U.S. district court here stated that "prosecutorial misconduct" in the case had "polluted the waters of justice" and "judicial conscience" demanded a new trial for the nurses, Filipina Narcisco and Leonora Perez, reports the New York Times.

Ms. Perez and Ms. Narciso, who faced possible life terms in prison, have been free on bond and living in Ann Arbor while they awaited Pratt's ruling.

"It's a great relief," said Ms. Perez.

The two nurses were convicted last July 13 after a 13-week trial of poisoning five of their former patients in 1975. They were accused of causing breathing failures by injecting a muscle-paralyzing drug called Pavulon into the patients' intravenous medication tubes.

In his ruling, Judge Pratt pointed out that the prosecution never proved that the two Filipino women ever had Pavulon in their possession or that they had injected the drug in any of the patients. According to Pratt, the government's case was "entirely circumstantial."

Pratt wrote, "Overwhelming prejudice to the defendants arising from the government's persistent misconduct prevented the jurors from receiving the case free of taint."

The prosecution was also charged with frustrating "the ability of the defense to prepare for trial effectively" and for presenting "improper suggestions of fact and law to the jury."

Pratt went on to say that the underhanded legal tactics used by the government subverted "the trial from a search for truth to a game of five-card stud poker."

Disregarded by the prosecution was a chilling confession by a mentally ill White nurse that she had committed the killings. The White nurse later took her own life.

Following the frame-up convictions, numerous protests sprung up throughout the country denouncing the verdict and demanding a new trial.

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VIRTUAL LACK OF M.D.s IN SOUTH BRONX, BED-STY, BROWNSVILLE: DOCTOR “BLACKOUT” HITS N.Y. NEIGHBORHOODS

(New York, N.Y.) - In a city that has nearly twice as many physicians per capita as the national average, the New York City Department of Health has found a number of neighborhoods in poverty-stricken areas with grinding health problems that have virtually no physicians to deal with them.

A statistical study just completed by the department has finally pinpointed all of the city's 18,137 physicians -- something that has never been accomplished before.

While the department did not expect to find many physicians practicing in South Bronx or in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, its top officials expressed shock at not finding any in some neighborhoods.

Moreover, the absence of practicing physicians corresponded with new health indexes that confirmed that most of the neighborhoods were in full medical crisis, reports the New York Times.

With that in mind, Dr. Pascal J. Imperato, the city's commissioner of health, was scheduled to meet last week with health officials from the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare in an effort to get more federal health aid for these neighborhoods.

Dr. Imperato also is expected to ask the federal officials to consider sending in public health physicians who would serve poverty neighborhoods much like they serve rural areas or Indian reservations. A similar request was recently made by city health officials in Newark.

The city department cited health planning Area 18 in the Tremont section of the South Bronx. It has a population of about 10,000 and not one practicing private physician except for a Medicaid clinic.

A few blocks to the southeast in the Morrisania section, health planning Area 59, within sight of where President Carter visited recently, has no physicians either, and only one Medicaid clinic.

The nearest hospital facilities are divisions operated by the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center.

In Brooklyn, the department identified the 20th health planning area in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section as having only one physician for a population of 19,000, and in another health area in Brownsville, the 59th, there was only one physician for 22,000 people.

While the department pointed to these four neighborhoods, it said there were dozens more just like them. The one thing they all had in common, the department said, is that the worse their health become, the fewer physicians there are to deal with them.

As a consequence many of the neighborhoods that have lost their physicians have seen their key health and mortality indexes -- such as malnutrition, alcohol and a long list of diseases -- soar.

In contrast with the four Bronx and Brooklyn neighborhoods, the department cited two health areas on Manhattan's East Side between Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue.

In one between 61st and 79th Streets, there are 974 physicians serving a population of 23,000, or 42.3 doctors for every 1,000 people.

Between 79th and 96th Streets there are 1,089 physicians for 32,000 people, or 34.1 per 1,000.

Other health indexes between the two East Side neighborhoods and the four in the Bronx and Brooklyn were equally lopsided.

For example, the infant mortality rate was 24.2 and 28.7 per 1,000 babies in the Bronx neighborhoods and 24.9 and 28 in the two Brooklyn ones, compared with 11.1 and 16.9 in the two Manhattan areas.

In addition the department cited another key health indicator: the percentage of children five years old or less living in a female-run household. In the Bronx, the percentage was 48.7 and 46.8, in Brooklyn 47.4 and 33.6, and on the East Side 5.3 and 6.1.

According to Dr. Imperato, the health problems in poverty neighborhoods without physicians are particularly criticl because families neglect their health needs rather than travel to a hospital by subway or bus and wait for hours.

As a result, small medical problems became worse, eventually becoming critical and requiring far more costly inpatient hospitalization.

While Manhattan, with all of its medical centers and physician offices, has 6.3 physicians for every 1,000 people, the rest of the city reflects that national average. But again the doctors are concentrated in more affluent sections, leaving poor areas without any.

For example, 161 of the city's 340 designated health areas have less than one physician for every 1,000 residents, about a third below the national average…

-- 11 --

U.S. Health Care Still Lily White

(Washington, D.C.) - The nation's medical system still gives better health care to Whites than to non-Whites, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

It listed in a recent report four main reasons: high costs combined with low incomes, barriers such as discrimination or localized shortages of doctors, lack of follow-up care, and "too little emphasis on some conditions affecting non-Whites.

Among the ways to improve health care for non-Whites, the report said, are "more vigorous" affirmative action programs in medical schools.

The report, requested by two members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Representatives Parren Mitchell of Maryland and Louis Stokes of Ohio, said government health programs that provide health services directly serve non-Whites more effectively than programs that give government money to private health care facilities.

It suggested that the government supply health care directly where the private sector falls short.

Statistics cited by the report to illustrate the disparity included a 70 per cent higher infant mortality rate for non-Whites, 50 per cent more bed disability days, a life expectancy six years shorter, and a greater chance of suffering from specific ailments that proper health care would improve.

The report -- which classified all persons of Hispanic heritage as White -- said non-Whites are four times likelier than Whites to die of heart disease and chronic kidney failures, three times likelier to die of high blood pressure, and five times likelier to die of tuberculosis. Non-Whites' chances of death from diabetes are twice that of Whites, the report said. It added that non-Whites are seven times more likely to be victims of homicide.

-- 12 --

Black women are five times more likely to die of complications in childbirth than Whites, a fact that -- combined with the higher Black infant mortality rate -- "suggests a continuing lack of prenatal care, "the report said.

It cited "discrimination" in the Medicaid program, the main provider of health care for the poor. In 1969, it said, Medicaid paid an average of $213 in health care costs for each non-White beneficiary, compared to $375 for each White beneficiary -- 75 per cent more.

Physicians in inner-city areas are most likely to refuse to serve Medicaid patients, the report said. And it noted that the Southern states, which tend to have lower Medicaid benefits, also have a high proportion of poor non-Whites.

Medicaid served 24.4 million beneficiaries in fiscal 1976, according to government figures, and paid $15.5 billion in claims. Some $8.6 billion of that was federal money.

The report said the federal government could help in the short run by standardizing Medicaid benefit levels for all states -- at an additional cost of roughly $10 billion to $11 billion in 1978.

It also said documented discrimination exists in nursing, homes.

-- 13 --

REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE: Huey P. Newton “Surviving”

In this excerpt from the chapter "Surviving" from Revolutionary Sucide, Black Panther Party founder and chief theoretician Huey P. Newton describes the treachery committed against him in his second trial on false charges of killing a White racist Oakland cop.

The book had my name written in it, in my own handwriting, and my blood was all over its pages. It had been a very important piece of evidence in the first trial, for it countered the prosecution charge that I had carried a gun that night. Garry turned to the court clerk and asked for the book, which had been entered into evidence in the first trial. The clerk replied that it had been "lost."

For a moment I could not believe my ears, but I quickly realized that they were serious. They actually did not have the book. How could such a major piece of defense evidence disappear? Their explanation was that when the Appellate Court reviewed the trial and the evidence, they had taken everything related to the case, and somewhere between the Appellate Court and the Alameda County Court House the book had been lost, although all the other exhibits were available. My second trial, which had at first seemed just a charade, now appeared to be turning into a circus.

Although he claimed to be "upset" by the "loss" of the book, the prosecutor was not too convincing. He offered a photograph of it to be entered into evidence and generously stipulated that the photograph was a facsimile of my book and had indeed been a part of defense evidence in the first trial. But a photograph is not a book.

The prosecution had a witness on the stand who said that I had turned and started firing at two policemen on October 28, yet the piece of evidence that disproved this claim, the only object I was carrying that night, was missing. And now they wanted to replace it with a facsimile.

The jury could not see my bloodstains on the pages: they could not read my name on the flyleaf; and they could not see where I had underlined the relevant portions of the criminal code about reasonable cause for arrest, the section I always read to police and citizens during our encounters. Charles Garry protested this loss of crucial defense evidence and asked for a mistrial. It was denied.

Then the trial went from charade to farce. The state had still another stunt to pull, and it came the next day when a squad of plaincloths men escorted a timid and very frightened man into court -- Dell Ross. It had not occurred to us that he would be called as a witness in the second trial, because his credibility had been so thoroughly destroyed in the first. But we should have known better.

Dell Ross appeared out of nowhere, well not exactly out of nowhere, since he related how the prosecution had sequestered him in another state and brought him in for this trial -- just as they had done with Henry Grier. I suspect that Ross had been pushed around and threatened, because he was very fearful. The papers referred to him as an "ex-motorist," in reference to his explanation that he had "been traveling" since the first trial.

On the stand Ross said what was expected of him. He testified that he had lied in the first trial and then went on to give the testimony that he had offered before the grand jury. After listening to his admission that he had perjured himself in the first trial, the court was nonetheless agreeable to his placing his testimony in evidence. Yet anybody who saw that intimidated soul meekly agreeing to the questions of the prosecutor would have had trouble taking his testimony seriously. I marveled that they had the gall to put him on.

At first I felt sorry for him all over again, but I soon became angry with the prosecutor for staging such a ridiculous farce and calling it a trial. I was looking forward to the moment when Charles Garry would go to work on Ross in his cross-examination. But because the district attorney had not told us that Ross would be called to the stand, Garry was unprepared to question him. He asked for a recess to return to San Francisco to get the tape and transcript of the interview he had held with Ross before the first trial.

This evidence was extremely important because it demonstrated what an unreliable witness Ross was and cast doubt on his testimony. But the judge denied this reasonable request and ordered him to proceed with his questioning of the witness.

At this point, I could hold back my anger no longer. I felt that a cruel injustice was being done to us, and the need to make my views known was too strong to be overcome by the protocol of the courtroom. I stood up and declared that the trial would not continue unless they gave us time to prepare a proper cross-examination of Dell Ross.

The defense was justified in asking for time. I declared, particularly in the light of the fact that the day before an important piece of defense evidence had been confiscated by the state. Now they refused us an hour's recess to secure critical information, although the prosecutor was routinely granted such delays. The courtroom was tense as I went on and told them that I had stood between "the ignorance of my own people and the violence of the state with a lawbook in my hand, and now you have `lost' it."

ANGRY CROWD

I told them to take me back to jail. Turning to the angry crowd. I urged them to be calm. "If they touch me, you know what to do," I said, "but be disciplined now." The people were beautiful and remained in place until I told them to leave the courtroom. Then they congregated in the hall outside and refused to clear the building, so I went out of the courtroom into the hall where the police were beginning to gather their forces.

It was obvious that they wanted a mass arrest so that we could be caught in a net of charges, bail, and trials. Realizing that they ought to clear the building. I told them to go, that I could deal with the state and serve time for this. They left quietly.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 14 --

Pre-Chistmas Concert: “WISHING ON A STAR” FEATURES FINE COMMUNITY SCHOOL TALENT

(Oakland, Calif.) - Displaying their superb singing talents, the children of the model elementary Oakland Community School (OCS) presented a delightful pre-Christmas concert entitled "Wishing On A Star," to a beaming audience last Sunday.

ABLE DIRECTION

Under the able direction of James Mott, head of the OCS Music Department, and Level 2 instructor Pamela Ward -- with fine piano accompaniment by music instructor Charles Nutting -- the 160 children of the East Oakland-based school sang a medley of their favorite songs, several of them featuring solos sung on the level of professional singers.

The children of Levels 1, 2, and 3 opened the program with two spirited versions of "This Old Man," the latter version being sung in Spanish. Following, the Level 4 children, attired in "hillbilly" hats, sang the well-known "She'll Be Comin' Roun' The Mountain."

The older children of the School, Levels 5, 6 and 7, next took the stage to expressively sing a number of songs that, in the words of James Mott, "They like to sing, songs that reflect how they, as children, feel about life."

With solos by Sherrie Elliott, Lavonnie Littlejohn, Rona Means, Dejada Metcalfe and Richard Littlejohn, Levels 5, 6 and 7 youth sang "Wishing On A Star," "We Can Do Anything." "The Greatest," "One Note Samba," and "Be Thankful For What You've Got."

The program was an unusual departure from the skits and plays that are usually featured in OCS monthly performances, and demonstrated the wide variety of talents that the School has developed in its predominantly Black and poor youth.

Add "Wishing On A Star" to the long list of memorable performances by the children of the Oakland Community School.

-- 15 --

Tourism Takes Priority Over Human Needs: VIRGINS ISLANDS -- TROUBLE IN “PARADISE”

(St. Thomas. Virgin Islands) - A jungle-green parrot sits perched on the tanned shoulders of a slim blonde woman. Beside her stands a tall, athletic man, smiling and chatting with friendly strangers. All the people in the silver disco sip daquiris and pina colladas and throw back their heads, laughing.

This is the St. Thomas created by the Virgin Islands tourist brochures, and there is a fortune invested in this image. A conservative estimate, reports Liberation News Service, is that $1,272,500 was spent in magazine and newspaper promotion in fiscal year 1975-1976. This doesn't include the amount spent for airline and hotel advertisements, airline-sponsored travel agent tours, the full-time staff in the V.I. Division of Tourism, or the tourist offices in New York and London.

What the tourists find most attractive is that this is all under the American flag. The U.S. government bought the islands from Denmark during World War I for use as a naval base, and they are officially considered an "organized unincorporated territory" of the U.S., under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Islanders are considered U.S. citizens, though they cannot vote in U.S. elections.

Government and business spokespeople have tried to sell island residents on the benefits of tourism which they say betters economic and social conditions for the people. Nearly one million tourists passed through the Virgin Islands in 1976 alone, according to the government's first quarter Economic Review (1977). But in spite of all the money they spend here, little of it filters down to the residents of St. Thomas. St. Croix and St. John, whose living conditions are a far cry from those in the lush hotels.

For example:

Food and housing are more expensive here than in New York City. After World War II, nearly all of the Virgin Islands' food was grown in the neighboring British Virgin Islands: now most food is imported from the U.S. and shipping costs are high.

A high official in the Virgin Islands (V.I.) Department of Agriculture says that the Virgin Islands could cultivate tropical crops by developing a water resources program, giving the islands a measure of self-sufficiency. However, the government has allowed a California-based health spa to buy up one of the wettest plots of St. Thomas; in another case, St. Thomas Dairies may re-incorporate into a golf course and club.

Poor working conditions have triggered many strikes and walkouts. Public school teachers are consistently refused contracts and cost of living increases Teacher turnover is distressingly high.

Nurses on St. Croix have been resigning in clumps of four and five each month. National figures show that as of August 1, 1976, nurses in the V.I. ranked 40th in the salary range for nurses in the United States and Puerto Rico. The local attorney general said, "The government simply has no money at this time to offer the nurses."

Water and electrical workers on St. Thomas walked off their jobs recently protesting salary and hiring practices. And V.I. telephone employees struck for seven weeks over a wage increase and a cost of living clause.

Over one-third of the Virgin Islands' population are "down islanders" -- Blacks from other Caribbean islands. Their insecure resident status has been another way for employers to control the workforce of the islands.

Water, St. Thomas relies on four desalinization plants for drinking water, and it is rare that all four function at once. A common Daily News headline reads, "Water Supply Drops with all Plants Out." Three million gallons of water are needed a day for St. Thomas. Even with two plants operating, only 1.7 million gallons are desalted. In the event of a hurricane or earthquake, there's a real potential for an ecological disaster.

Houses not connected to the drinking water system rely on basement cisterns. When these run dry, residents must pay a private hauler $80 for a 5,000 gallon truckload of government desalted water. During the last week of November, people in St. Thomas' public housing were without water for three days.

OBLIVIOUS TOURISTS

The tourists are often oblivious to these problems. And as far as the large corporations which have property holdings are concerned, the Virgin Islands are paradise. The now defunct V.I. Hilton ushered in the tourist industry in the early '50's: Frenchman's Reef in St. Thomas, a Holiday Inn (American Motor Inns) christened its solar energy system last September. Seventy-five per cent of the project was federally funded.

Bolongo Bay Beach Resorts, a Club Mediterranean, has been granted a 100 per cent exemption on excise taxes for construction materials, 75 per cent exemption on income taxes and a 100 per cent exemption on income taxes and a 100 per cent exemption on real property taxes under industrial incentive laws Panamerican Corporation, frequently engaged in tropical airport construction, is contracted to build the airport runway extentsion in St. Thomas -- even though there is a perfectly suitable one in St. Croix.

The richest, most lush resort extravaganza -- Caneel Bay on St. John, where celebrities, politicians and the well-heeled bask -- belongs to the Rockefellers.

The islands' problems can wait, as govenment officials and businessmen see it. Politicians are now engaged in writing a new constitution for the Virgin Islands. The constitution they claim, will define the Virgin Islands as a decolonized body still politically affiliated with the U.S. This doublethink means that the constitution will not meaningfully alter the Virgin Island's colonial status. Congress or President Carter can veto anything in this constitution authored by Virgin Islands.

-- 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 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 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 bonds 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, when ever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

-- 17 --

Intercommunal News: “PARTY OF THE WORKING CLASS”: M.P.L.A. ORGANIZES NEW POLITICAL PARTY AT FIRST CONGRESS

(Luanda, Angola) - "Either there is capitalism or there is socialism -- there is no other way."

With these words Angolan President Agostinho Neto sounded the theme of the First Congress of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). which opened here December 4.

The 250 delegates to the meeting will draft a constitution for the Marxist-Leninist party now being built in Angola, the Guardian reports.

The Congress is meeting just after Angola's second anniversary of independence. The past two years have been marked by imperialist aggression, neocolonialist subversion and sharp internal class struggle. It has also been a time of militant mass mobilization, the start of national reconstruction and the firm decision to follow a socialist path.

In a speech to militants of the People's Liberation Armed Forces (FAPLA) just before the Congress opened. President Neto had outlined the MPLA's most pressing task.

"If in the past our fight was against Portuguese colonialism and for our independence, which we obtained, today our struggle is being waged on different ground," he said.

"It is a class confrontation today," the president told the soldiers. "It is a class confrontation which we cannot avoid and which we must try to transform into a victory of the proletariat, of the peasant class, in order that those classes most exploited under colonialism should take up the leadership of the country."

The delegates entrusted with mapping the way forward have been drawn from among proven people's fighters.

Of those participating here, 41 per cent fought arms-in-hand in the liberation war against Portuguese colonialism. Another 20 per cent were clandestine MPLA militants in cities, towns and villages who mobilized popular support for the struggle, recruited guerrillas and cadres and supplied logistical support and information. An additional 30 per cent had been political prisoners, many of whom suffered for years in Portuguese jails and concentration camps for their MPLA work.

The delegates will divide into three commissions to study ideological questions, economic development and defense and security. Papers and proposals in these three areas of work have been circulated in recent weeks to MPLA cadre and the people as a whole for broad discussion and debate.

The nature of the new party into which the MPLA is being transformed is defined in its proposed program, now before the Congress.

"The MPLA is the party of the working class, uniting workers, peasants, revolutionary intellectuals and other workers dedicated to the cause of the proletariat in a

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solid alliance," the program states.

"The MPLA, a Marxist-Leninist party," the program continues, "is an organized political force resulting from selection of the best elements of the working class and other militants forged in the struggle to build a new society. The party will be made up of a majority percentage of working-class elements."

Congress proceedings began with a five-hour MPLA Central Committee report delivered by President Neto. The presentation detailed the Angolan people's economic and political achievements over the past two years.

FIERCE STRUGGLE

The report also analyzed the fierce political struggle that had culminated in a reactionary coup attempt last summer. And the "tremendous class struggle" still ahead was an important theme of both the Central Committee statement and the proposed party program.

Angola's progressive international stand was reflected in the presence in the conference hall of representatives of most socialist countries and many independent Third World countries and liberation movements.

"Your Congress will adopt statutes and a program for action for a new period of the revolution," a representative of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam told the delegates.

"This will supply the working class and Angolan patriots with an invincible weapon to take Angola forward on the socialist path chosen by the Angolan people."

Much of the MPLA's proposed party program is of course an extension and development of its program as a liberation movement. The formation of a working-class vanguard party is meant to assure the Angolan masses' hold on power and thus guarantee the program's full implementation.

-- 17 --

Iron Fist Of F.A.P.L.A. Protects Angolan Revolution

The following article, reprinted from the Cuban daily Granma, describes the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola [FAPLA].

(Angola) - The amphibious tanks entered the water and cut through it like a knife through butter. Their engines soon began to rev and it seemed as if their cannon were "sniffing" the horizon searching out the target that had to be destroyed.

After a few minutes the tanks moved into combat formation and all towers turned to face the same direction. A few seconds later explosions shattered the air, and it was clear the mission had been fulfilled.

The area had been a beehive of activity from the early hours of the cool morning.

-- 22 --

Comrade Lucio Lara, secretary of the Political Bureau of the MPLA, arrived at about 9:00 a.m. in the company of senior officers of the General Staff of the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA).

The young soldiers were happy and excited and rightly so, for their period of intensive training was now coming to a successful end. The hours of study, the efforts of their instructors, the confidence placed in these rookie soldiers who came from all corners of the country had not been in vain.

In three study areas in the field, the leaders and guests were given a detailed report on the powerful tank: its technical features, functioning, firepower and other matters of interest.

After they had been briefed, the visitors went to the left shore of a nearby lake to watch a practical demonstration of what they had been told about.

The visitors could not resist applauding as the amphibious tanks passed in review. The commanders of the tank crews stood in the open hatches and saluted.

Three years after the founding of the FAPLA and a few months before the celebration of the second anniversary of independence, the heroic people of this country have a new contingent of trained and courageous fighters capable of striking effective blows at enemies from within and without.

"We will be true to the cause of the working people: we will always maintain our combat readiness and will strugle for national unity."

HOMELAND SOIL

Kneeling on the soil of their homeland, on the soil which had been soaked by the blood of the finest sons of the people, they took the oath of alligence to the MPLA, to Commander in Chief Agostinho Neto and to the cause of socialism and proletarian internationalism.

Juan Samuel Cruz, Barbaro Rito and Lindo Mateus were honored by their comrades for being the best tank commander, driver and loader, respectively.

The enemies of the Angolan Revolution are unable to explain it, but everything is very clear for the revolutionary people who fought ceaselessly against Portuguese colonialism first and then against the puppet bands and the invaders from South Africa and Zaire. Such things are only possible when a real revolution is made.

Now the enemies of Angola will have to give more thought to any new military adventures against this country, because if they decide to carry out new attacks they will have to face the iron fist of the FAPLA.

-- 18 --

“WE HAVE DIMINISHED THE ELEMENT OF FEAR IN BLACK PEOPLE”: LAST INTERVIEW WITH STEVE BIKO

Steve Biko was the most important leader of opposition to the South African apartheid system of recent years. His organizing, until he was banned, and the powerful influence of his ideas, which reached all over the country, made him feared by the Pretoria regime.

The following interview with Steve Biko is one of the few firsthand recordings of his thoughts in the last years of his life. The tape of this interview has been circulating underground in South Africa. It was recently smuggled out. Because of its clandestine nature, both its origin and the identity of the interviewer are unknown.

The interview is reprinted from In These Times.

PART 1

QUESTION: What are the origins of the Black Consciousness Movement?

BIKO: The history starts after 1963-64. If you remember this era, there were many arrests in this country which stemmed from underground activity by the PAC (Pan Africanist Congress), by ANC (African National Congress), and this led to some kind of political emasculation of the Black population especially, with the result that there was no participation by Blacks in the articulation of their own aspirations.

The whole opposition to what the government was doing to Blacks came, in fact, from White organizations, mainly student groups like NUSAS (National Union of South African Students), the Liberal Party and the Progressive Party.

When I came to university, some time in 1966, in my own analysis and that of my friends, there was some kind of anomaly in this situation where Whites were, in fact, the main participants in our oppression and at the same time the main participants in the opposition to that oppression. The arena was controlled by Whites in what we called "totality of White power."

We argued that changes can come only as a result of a program worked out by Black people. For Black people to be able to work out a program they need to defeat the main element in politics working against them, a psychological feeling of inferiority, which was deliberately cultivated by the system.

So, equally, the Whites in order to be able to listen to the Blacks, needed to defeat the one problem they had, which was one of superiority.

Now, the only way to come about this, of course, was to look anew at the Black man and what is lending him to denigration (casting of aspersions) so easily.

So first of all, we said Black students could not participate in multiracial organizations which were by far White organizations because of the overwhelming number of White students at university. Second, these organizations were concentrating mainly on problems affecting the White student community.

And third, of course, when it came to political questions, they were far more articulate than the average Black student because of their superior training, and because of their numbers, they could outvote us on any issue. This meant that NUSAS gave political opinions that were largely affected by the Whiteness of the organization.

So in '68 we started forming what is now called SASO, the South Africans' Student Organization, which was firmly based on Black consciousness, the essence of which was for the Black man to elevate his own position by positively looking at those value systems that make him distinctively a man in society.

Q: To what extent have you been successful?

BIKO: To the extent that we have diminished the element of fear in the minds of Black people. In the period of '63 to '66, Black people were terribly scared of involvement in politics. The universities were putting out no useful leadership to the Black people, because everybody found

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it more comfortable to lose himself in a particular profession, to make money.

But since those days, Black students have seen their role as being primarily to prepare themselves for leadership roles in the various facets of the Black community.

There is far more political talk now, far more political debate, and far more condemnation of the system from average Black people than since 1960 and possibly before.

I'm referring to the oppressive educational system that the students are talking about. And [the police, in fact the government, wants to further entrench what the students are protesting about, by bringing police saracens (armored cars), and dogs, and almost soldiers, so to speak.

Now the response of the students then was in terms of their pride. They were not prepared to be cowed even at the point of a gun, and hence, what happened, happened. Some people were killed and these riots just continued and continued, because at no stage were the young students, nor for that matter at some stage their parents, prepared to be scared.

Everybody saw this as a deliberate act of oppression to try and cow the Black masses. Everybody was determined equally to say to the police, to say to the government, "We shall not be scared by your police, by your dogs, and by your soldiers." Now, this kind of lack of fear I see as a very important determinant in political action.

Q: Do you think that the 499 young Blacks killed since June, 1976, will be a deterrant?

BIKO: No, I think it has been a very useful weapon in merging the young and the old.

Before then, there was obviously a difference in the outlook of the old generation to the younger generation. The younger generation was moving too fast for the old generation.

The old generation was torn between Bantustan politics on the one side, old allegiances which were not progressive, you know, to groups like ANC, PAC, without any resultant action. And there were those who were simply too scared to move.

Q: Do you condemn Bantustan leadership altogether?

BIKO: Yes, of course. We condemn Bantustan leaders, even the best of them, like Buthelezi. Our attitude here is that you cannot, in pursuing the aspirations of Black people, operate from a platform which is meant for the oppression of the Black people.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Africa in Focus

South Africa

(Johannesburg, South Africa) - Leaders of Soweto "township" last week called for a period of mourning through the Christmas holidays for Blacks killed or detained by police. Student leaders and the Soweto Action Committee (SAC) urged the 1.5 million residents of the sprawling Black "township" to boycott seasonal festivities and substitute "silence and meditation" until January 1. "We cannot afford to be merry when our leaders, brothers and sisters are in jail. We cannot be merry when hundreds of Black families have lost their loved ones in the name of the struggle." The SAC said in a statement.

Rhodesia

(Salisbury, Rhodesia) - Freedom fighters of the Zimbabwe People's Army (ZIPA) last week attacked Rhodesia's main forward military air base near the Mozambican border, killing one enemy soldier and wounding six others. The ZIPA guerillas, according to an official bulletin from the White minority government's military command, shelled the Grand Reef air force base, about eight miles from the Mozambican border, with rockets and mortars. The attack, staged with small arms in addition to the rockets and mortars, was described by the Associated Press as one of the guerrillas' "boldest operations in five years."

Namibia

(Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) - The People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), the armed forces of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), have intensified the armed struggle against South Africa in recent months, launching successive attacks on enemy forces. A press statement released here recently by SWAPO Foreign Relations Secretary Peter Mweshihange said that from October 25 to 27 PLAN freedom fighters fought against South African groups in the Ondwi area in northeastern Namibia, during which 82 enemy troops were killed and more than 130 wounded.

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“WE WILL DEMONSTRATE OUR REAL STRENGTH”: MUGABE VOWS MAJOR Z.I.P.A. ATTACK ON RHODESIA

(Chimoio, Mozambique) - Patriotic Front co-leader Robert Mugabe said here last week Zimbabwean freedom fighters will launch their biggest attack yet on Rhodesia in the upcoming rainy season.

In an exclusive interview with United Press International (UPI), Mugabe declared, "Our real strength will be demonstrated in the next few months."

Denying the Rhodesian government's claim that it killed 1,200 armed guerrillas of the Zimbabwe People's Army (ZIPA) -- the military wing of the Patriotic Front -- in the White minority regime's recent raid into Mozambique, Mugabe said that most of the 500 persons killed were civilians.

"We lost women and children, food, farm implements and educational facilities," he told UPI reporter Tony Avirgan.

Equipped with jet fighters and bombers, Rhodesian troops last month staged a vicious attack on two Zimbabwean refugee camps in Mozambique, one on the outskirts of this town and the other at Tembue in Tete Province to the north. (See THE BLACK PANTHER, December 10, 1977.)

Mugabe, leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which, along with the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) comprises the Patriotic Front, has repeatedly denied that the Chimoio and Tembue camps were ZIPA bases.

"Our forces are in Rhodesia," he said. "They (Rhodesians) can't fight us on this side of the border." The ZANU leader added that the Rhodesian attack would have no effect on the armed struggle being waged by ZIPA.

The tall grass found in many parts of Rhodesia provided protection and concealment for ZIPA forces during the rainy season and this season of the year has become the traditional time for major guerrilla activity.

Part of the refugee camp at Chimoio was used to grow food for the ZIPA forces and Zimbabwean (Black Rhodesian) refugees fleeing from the war-torn breakaway British colony. Children, a number of whom were killed in the November massacre, attended school in special classrooms.

It was in this part of the camp that most of the casualties were inflicted, according to Mozambican journalists who visited the demolished camp shortly after the raid.

A survivor of the attack said that the refugees were unprepared for an enemy attack.

"There were no foxholes or trenches dug for protection against

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an air attack…When the Rhodesians came, we just ran."

Mozambique, one of the five frontline states in southern Africa that is providing military and other aid to the Patriotic Front, does not have an air force although it is reported to be training and forming an M.G. squadron.

ZIPA guerrillas who arrived on the scene later said that the two raids revealed Rhodesia's use of anti-personnel weapons similar to those used by the U.S. in