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Support For B.P.P. President Grows: HUEY P. NEWTON DEFENSE FUND DRIVE TAKES SHAPE

Huey P. Newton, Founder and chief theoretician of the Black Panther Party (BPP), has returned from Cuba to stand trial in Oakland, California, against the false criminal charges largely responsible for initially forcing him into three years of political exile. His decision to return at this time and risk possible life imprisonment rather than continue to live freely and safely in the Republic of Cuba is, of course, the best refutation that the $100,000 bail sought by the prosecutor and presently set by the court, is confiscatory and unjustifiable. It is also, as a brief review of the facts surrounding his departure and return will show, a personally courageous and politically correct decision.

BACKGROUND

In August, 1974, when Huey P. Newton disappeared for several months to later surface in Cuba, only certain facts were known and others suspected. The Black Panther Party then enjoyed wide support in the Black community of Oakland, California, which it had declared a "base of operation" only two years before, when Huey was released from prison after reversal of a conviction for shooting a White policeman in 1967. The numerous "Survival Programs" -- a Community School for Children, Free Escort and Transportation services for the elderly, and Free Breakfasts for Children, to name but a few implemented under Huey's leadership -- were primarily responsible for this support.

Two Black Panther Party members, Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown, had recently run for mayoralty and city council seats and garnered impressive votes (38 per cent of the total for Seale and 43 per cent for Brown) indicative of substantial community support.

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Of course, as the Black Panther Party grew in political strength those threatened by and opposed to its programs increased their opposition. The Oakland police chief confirmed that drug dealers and pimps had placed at least a $10,000 contract on Huey's life because of the BPP's opposition to their activities. Huey's apartment was burglarized in his absence by several armed men with silencers on their guns.

Police arrests of BPP members openly and peacefully soliciting contributions for various survival programs increased despite court orders affirming the legality of their fund raising efforts. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had begun an audit of Huey's tax returns for the past three years and served summonses on banks and others demanding information about members and supporters of the BPP. Agents of the FBI continued to call upon and question family members, friends employers and associates of the BPP.

THE FALSE CRIMINAL
CHARGES

It was in this context that numerous criminal charges were filed against Huey P. Newton within a two-week period in July and August of 1974. The first charge was for assaulting an undercover Oakland policeman. Fortunately, there were numerous witnesses to this incident and Huey was, and still is, prepared to prove that the assault was by the police against him and other BPP members.

In fact, it has since been revealed that this policeman was assisted in the arrest of Huey by plainclothes federal agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms who had been tailing Huey for weeks and Knowingly placed a false federal charge -- later withdrawn -- against him to delay his release from jail on bond. In addition, the particular policeman Huey was accused of assaulting was later suspended from the force for shoplifting, and lying under oath.

The second charge, two weeks after the incident with the police, was for assaulting an alleged Black tailor who, after having solicited Huey repeatedly to fit him for a suit, finally gained entrance to his apartment and started a fight. Huey voluntarily turned himself into the Oakland police immediately after this incident and was prepared to stand trial on it also. While awaiting arraignment in the Oakland jail, however, the police broke down the door of Huey's apartment and ransacked it supposedly looking for evidence relevant to the incident with the tailor. Then, after Huey was released on bail, the prosecutor added another charge of assault with a deadly; weapon -- an alleged shooting two weeks previously of a young, Black prostitute. The police then claimed that, despite several eyewitnesses to this shooting, no one recognized Huey until a search of his apartment uncovered the incriminating evidence of a shirt and shoes similar to those worn by the alleged assailant.

DEVELOPMENTS SINCE EXILE

In the face of these circumstances, Huey P. Newton fled for his life from Oakland, California. In his absence, the woman he was charged with assaulting was transferred after several months to a county hospital and died almost immediately. The charge was then changed to murder.

In addition, the local prosecutor filed a complaint against Huey for the felony of falsely imprisoning and assaulting two other women -- also allegedly prostitutes -- during the same two-week period in which the other incidents occurred. (Again, fortunately, there are numerous eyewitnesses to this incident who will testify that it, like the police assault, was "set-up" and that Huey is innocent.)

Politically, during Huey's exile the Party has continued to expand its Survival Programs and strengthen its base of support in Oakland. The election of the first Black mayor and county supervisor are credited to BPP electoral efforts. Ericka Huggins, a prominent member of the BPP, was elected to the Alameda County Board of Education.

Most importantly, during Huey's exile significant evidence has come out confirming a concerted effort by government law enforcement and intelligence officials -- national and local -- to destroy the BPP by, in the words of J. Edgar Hoover, "discrediting, misdirecting and otherwise neutralizing"its leadership, particularly Huey P. Newton.

Published reports of the Senate and House Select Committees on Intelligence show that the FBI's COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence program) effort to destroy the Party included activities that range from the extreme of setting members up for assassination, to more common place, albeit still unlawful, arrests and placing of false criminal charges against members.

The BPP recently filed a civil lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C;, seeking injunctive relief and damages against former and current government officials for conspiring to destroy the BPP politically. (Black Panther party v. Levi, Civ. No. 76-2205, D.D.C. 1976.) The court denied the government's motion to dismiss and discovery -- which will be strenuously resisted by the defendants -- is now underway.

As one of Huey's attorneys recently noted, an essential objective of Huey's criminal defense "is to use the information gathered from our [civil] case against the government to show that Huey … was [and is] the victim of a government conspiracy."

Unfortunately, the pace of discovery in civil litigation is invariably slower than the process of a criminal suit. Hence, the offensive action commenced by the BPP in federal civil litigation in Washington, D.C., must be effectively implemented as part of the criminal defense of Huey P. Newton in Oakland, California.

California law permits the defense of "selective prosecution" in criminal cases; in other words, a person may defend on the grounds that the charges are part of a pattern of intentional, purposeful and invidious discrimination, Bits and pieces of evidence showing the conspiracy to destroy the BPP by discrediting and imprisoning its founder, Huey P. Newton, have been found.

However, this is only the "tip of the iceberg." As with any largely successful conspiracy -- as the one to convict Huey P. Newton could become -- the evidence is difficult to uncover. Were it not for the revelations of Watergate, the Church Committee and others in the past several years, the very assertion of this defense on his behalf would likely be received by even those sympathetic to the BPP with, at best, skepticism, and at worst, suspicions that his defenders are "paranoid."

In sum, the defense of Huey P.Newton marks a critical juncture in the history of this country. Even more than the successful movement in the late 1960's to "Free Huey," the effort now underway to get at the truth of the conspiracy to imprison and destroy him deserves wide political and financial support. The state will spare no expense to convict him and to resist producing evidence incriminating government authorities of conspiracy to falsely convict him. Extensive investigation, use of expert witnesses and legal work for the defense will require the literal setting aside of essentially all other work for the investigators and attorneys' involved. Estimates are that conservatively, to achieve Justice for Hey, approximately $100,000 -- exclusive of bail -- will be required.

Further information regarding the breakdown of costs involved can be obtained from his attorneys, Sheldon, Otis, 1632 Union Street, San Franciscol, Ca., (415) 885-5912, or Fred J. Hiestand, Claremont Hotel, Suite 217, Berkeley, Ca.,(415) 849-4041.

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Blacks Denounce F.B.I. Director-Designate: WEBSTER WON'T RESIGN FROM WHITE CLUBS

(Washington, D.C.) - Blasted by Black groups as a modern day "Adolf Hitler," FBI Director-designate William Webster last week refused to resign from four all-White social clubs to which he belongs.

During two days of testimony at the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearings, Webster, a federal appellate court judge in St. Louis, said he had no plans to resign from the White social clubs.

Grudgingly admitting, "I suppose I have always been aware that they (clubs) had no Black members," the 53-year-old judge claimed that, "I am as color-blind as any man in this room."

Webster's memberships in the Noonday Club, the Mysterious Order of the Veiled Prophets, the St. Louis Country Club and the University Club have been severely attacked by civil rights groups in St. Louis and by Blacks across the country.

Testifying before the Judiciary Committee on January 31, Ms. Jacqueline Bell, vice chairperson of ACTION, a human rights organization in St. Louis, angrily said:

"After what this man (Webster) said yesterday he would have indicted himself before the United Nations as a war criminal. But no, you will confirm him because most of you are infested with the same disease as Webster.

"And one racist institution will always serve the interest of another racist institution. At this point, you would confirm Adolf Hitler for the FBI directorship."

In what the New York Times described as "skillfully navigated" testimony, Webster explained that action on any illegal activities of FBI agents would have to be decided by the Justice Department.

In cases where FBI regulations rather than criminal laws were violated, he added that he would report such violations and take disciplinary action.

The federal judge, appointed to the bench in 1970 by ex-President Richard Nixon, made the

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following points in his testimony:

- If the President wanted information from Bureau files on an individual's background, as happened during the Watergate scandal, Webster said he would require the request to be in writing. He said he would not surrender information to the White House for the purpose of discrediting anyone.

- Asked his position on FBI burglaries, opening of mail, and infiltration of extremist groups by informers -- activities still carried out by the Bureau against progressive groups and individuals in the U.S. -- Webster said that only mail coverage, "under proper guidelines," would be "appropriate."

- Concerning the Bureau's leakage to the press of information damaging to individual citizens, Webster said he would not condone such activity.

Well on they way to becoming a millionaire, with total assets of $898,296 and liabilities of $17,489, Webster is considered a shoe-in for confirmation of the 10-year position by February 15, the date of current FBI Director Clarence Kelley's retirement.

Meanwhile, in Chicago a newly released court document revealed that the FBI deliberately hid from Justice Department lawyers the fact that agents of the Bureau helped to prepare a 1973 grand jury interrogation, using private correspondence stolen from the jail cell of the witness to be questioned.

A series of federal civil suits in Chicago charges the city's police department, local FBI, the Army and a number of other federal agencies with illegal surveillance of private citizens in the city during the last 25 years.

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EDITORIAL: “GAS'EM” VS. “HANG'EM HIGH”

The recent announcements by arch conservatives Evelle ("Gas'em") Younger, a.k.a. "The Butcher of Watts," and Ed ("Hang 'em High") Davis, as Republican Party candidates for governor of California in the 1978 election certainly places Black, minority and progressive -thinking voters in an unfortunate and uncomfortable position.

The problem, and its importance shouldn't be minimized, is this: given that Younger and Davis unquestionably rank among the foremost right-wing racists around; given that their campaigns will be overwhelmingly rejected by left of center voters; therefore, the pressure upon the state's Democratic Party standbearer to make concessions to or to deliver badly-needed services to Black and minority communities is significantly reduced.

No establishment politician -- and despite his liberal Zen image, Jerry Brown falls within this category -- has ever promised or fulfilled promises that they didn't have to. ("Power concedes nothing without demand," and all that".)

There's no debate that Younger and Davis are far out fanatics.

Younger, who personally directed the brutal police-National Guard repression of the Watts Uprising in 1965 (when he was district attorney for Los Angeles County), most recently sought to make the state's death penalty retroactive, and so eliminate 53 human lives in San Quentin's gas chamber.

Davis, the former notorious chief of police in Los Angeles, has in the past suggested that alleged skyjackers be lynched on the spot. Last week, in Sacramento, Davis blasted the few appointments of minority and women judges, calling for an "affirmative action" program for White males.

And where does that leave Black and minority voters? No where, with the delusion of a fair and equitable two-party system that turns out to be no choice at all, with an "era of limits" shoved down our throats, stifling righteous demands and protest.

It's a proverbial "trick-bag" and, unfortunately, once again, we're the "tricks."

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Letters to the Editor

BALTIMORE SURVIVAL CENTER SEEKS SUPPORT

Dear Comrades,

Would you please print this in the Black Panther paper. We are currently engaged in building survival programs in the Baltimore area and would like to spread the word through the paper for the purpose of soliciting support. We distribute both Keep Strong and the Party paper in Baltimore.

Any aid that you can give will be a boost to our efforts. We remain in solidarity with the Black Panther Party for the positive example that it offers to the people.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Dear Friends,

The Community Survival Center has been a reality since October when we secured our building. Since then we have been involved in transforming it from slumshape to a safe, secure and workable structure from which we can operate survival programs. This has taken a lot of work -- hustling for materials, keeping bill collectors off our backs, plastering, painting, repairing -- which has been done primarily by the community, particularly the youth.

Simultaneous to this effort we have also initiated a youth counseling program which ties into the Seventh Step Program operating out of the state penitentiary. This program brings youth from the community to the prison to be counseled by prisoners on the reality of the criminal justice system and survival on the streets. The youth have embraced this program and have approached it enthusiastically. Also we have aided different social, legal and survival problems, which have come up in the community. This has included a Free Food Giveaway on December 24th to aid families in having an adequate Christmas dinner.

Right now we are still working on the Center, still initiating survival programs and still working in the community. But we have a problem which we are asking your assistance in dealing with. We badly need money and materials to continue our progress. Our community is a poor community and these resources are not at hand. Our survival as individuals and as a community grows harder and more threatened as the days pass and so we call on those of you that could help.

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We offer determination and our sweet and time in the building of the survival programs…… and we won't stop here. As we pull together as a community and examine the reality of our situation we also are scheming on how to lift ourselves from poverty and oppression and we offer the same sweat and determination in the struggle to gain liberation of all our communities. We won't stop here.

Please respond to our urgent request. Again we need money and supplies and we also invite you to come work with us and share in our collective experience.

With love as our guide,
Tom Culotta, on behalf of the
Community Survivla Center

"Always bear in mind that the people are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children." -- Amilcar Cabral

For more information, contact the Community Survival Center, 200 West Lorraine, Baltimore, Maryland. (301) 467-1780.

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COMMENT: American Slave Insurrections Before 1861

Keeping alive a certain spirit found throughout Black History, THE BLACK PANTHER this week reprints excerpts from a highly informative essay on slave insurrections in the pre-Civil War South written by Harvey Wish and taken from Black Protest, edited by Joanne Grant.

A graphic illustration of the cyclic fears of Negro uprisings is afforded by the remarks of several Whites of Mississippi in 1859 to Frederick L. Olmsted:

"Where I used to live (Alabama) I remember when I was a boy -- must ha'been about twenty years ago -- folks was dreadful frightened about the niggers. I remember they built pens in the woods where they could hide and Christmas time they went and got into the pens, fraid the niggers was risin."

The speaker's wife added her recollection to this comment:

"I remember the same time where we was in South Carolina, we had all our things put up in bags so we could tote 'em if we heard they was comin' our way."

Slave outbreaks and plots appeared in both North and South during the colonial period. Sometimes the White indentured servants made common cause with the Negroes against their masters. This was the case in 1663 when a plot of White servants and Negroes was betrayed in Gloucester County, Virginia. The eastern counties of Virginia, where the Negroes were rapidly outnumbering the Whites, suffered from repeated scares in 1687, 1709, 1710, 1722, 1723, and 1730. A patrol system was set up in 1726 in parts of the state and later extended.

Two important slave plots, one a serious insurrection, disturbed the peace of New York City in 1712 and 1741. In revenge for ill-treatment by their masters, twenty-three Negroes rose on April 6, 1712, to slaughter the Whites and killed nine before they were overwhelmed by a

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superior force.

The retaliation showed an unusual barbarous strain on the part of the Whites. Twenty-one Negroes were executed, some were burnt, others hanged and one broken on the wheel.

In 1741 another plot was reported in New York involving both Whites and Blacks. A White, Hewson (or Hughson), was accused of providing the Negroes with weapons. He and his family were executed; likewise, a Catholic priest was hanged as an accomplice. Thirteen Negro leaders were burnt alive, eighteen hanged, and eighty transported. Popular fears of further insurrections led the New York Assembly to impose a prohibitive tax on the importation of Negroes.

The situation in colonial South Carolina was worse than in her sister states. Long before rice and indigo had given way to King Cotton, the early development of of the plantation system had yielded bumper crops of slave uprisings and plots.

An insurrection, resulting in the deaths of three Whites, is reported for May 6, 1720. Ten years later, an elaborate plot was discovered in St. John's Parish by a Negro servant of major Cordes. This plan was aimed at Charleston, an attack what was to inaugurate a widespread war upon the planters. Under the pretense of conducting a "dancing bout" in the city and in St. Pauls Parish the Negroes gathered together ready to seize the available arms for the attack. At this point the militia descended upon the Blacks and killed the greater number, leaving few to escape.

Owing partly to Spanish intrigues the same decade in South Carolina witnessed many more uprisings, on September 9, [1739], the Stono uprising created panic throughout the southeast. About twenty Angola Negroes assembled at Stono under their captain, Tommy, and marched toward Spanish territory, beating drums and endeavoring to attract other slaves. Several Whites were killed and a number of houses burnt or plundered. As the "army" paused in a field to dance and sing they were overtaken by the militia and cut down in a pitched battle.

Charleston was threatened repeatedly by slave plots. These reports are confirmed officially in the petition of the South Carolina Assembly to the King on July 26, 1740. Among the grievances of 1739 the Assembly complained of:

"…an insurrection of our slaves in which many of the Inhabitants were murdered in a barbarous and cruel manner; and that no sooner quelled than another project in Charles Town, and a third lately in the very heart of the Settlements, but happily discovered in time enough to be prevented.

Repercussions of slave uprisings in South Carolina sometimes affected Geogria as well. This was particularly true in 1738. In 1739 a plot was discovered in Prince George County. To many slaves St. Augustine on Spanish soil seemed a welcome refuge from their masters.

Indications of many other insurrections in the American colonies may be inferred from the nature of early patrol laws: the South Carolina law of 1704 for example contains a reference in its preamble to recent uprisings in that colony.

In the British and French possessions to the south, particularly in the West Indies, affairs were, much worse and put the planter of the North in constant fear of importing rebellious slaves and the contagion of revolt.

In considering the insurrections of the national period, it is at once evident that abolitionist propaganda played the charges of southern politicians after 1831.

Slave unrest seems to have been far greater in Virginia rather than in the states of the Lower South. Conspiracies like those of Gabriel in 1800 and Nat Turner in 1831 attained national notoriety.

The Gabriel plot was developed in the greatest secrecy upon the plantation of a harsh slave master. Thomas Prosser, several miles from Richmond. Under the leadership of a young slave, Gabriel, and inspired by the examples of San Domingo and the emancipation of the ancient Israelites from Egypt, some eleven hundred slaves had taken an oath to fight for their liberty. Plans were drawn for the seizure of an arsenal and several other strategic buildings of Richmond which would precede a general slaughter of all hostile Whites. After the initial successes, it was expected that fifty thousand Negroes would join the standard of revolt.

A faithful slave, however, exposed the plot and Governor James Monroe took rapid measures to secure the cooperation of the local authorities and the federal calvary. Bloodshed was averted by an unprecedented cloudburst on the day set for the conspiracy and the utter demoralization of the undisciplined "army."…

Between Gabriel's abortive plot and the Nat Tarner uprising, several more incidents occurred which disturbed the sleep of Virginians. In January, 1802, Governor Monroe received word of a plot in Nottaway County. Several Negroes suspected of participation were executed.

The war of 1812 intensified the apprehensions of servile revolt. Petitions for troops and arms came during the summer of 1814 from Caroline Country and Lynchburg. Regiments were called out during the war in anticipation of insurrections along the tidewater area. During the spring of 1816 confessions were wrung from slaves concerning an attack upon Fredericksburg and Richmond.

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ANONYMOUS LETTERS SOUGHT TO DISRUPT B.P.P. AFFILIATE, NATION OF ISLAM: SECRET F.B.I. ACTIONS IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, DISCLOSED

"Richmond believes that one of the best ways to thwart the efforts of militant Black nationalist groups and individuals is to discredit them. In this regard it is felt that the offices of origin on said groups and individuals should fully develop and furnish to interested offices any derogatory information developed so that this information can be `released' to appropriate news media, informants and sources. By `releasing' derogatory data prior to a speech or appearance of a militant would assist in planting the seed of distrust and thereby diminish the militant's effect."

(Richmond, Va.) - FBI documents recently received by THE BLACK PANTHER have disclosed a variety of federal police COINTELPRO plots designed to disrupt growing Black consciousness and sow dissent not only between the Black Panther Party and its local affiliate here, the Richmond Information Center (RIC), but also between the BPP and the then Nation of Islam.

37 MONTHS

The documents received by THE BLACK PANTHER cover a 37-month period, from April 1, 1968, to March 3, 1971.

In the first of the previously suppressed files (quoted below) -- which evidently came in response to the initiation of a nationwide FBI campaign to harass Black organizations -- the Richmond office wrote Bureau headquarters in Washington, D.C., that:

"The only Black Nationalist Movement known to exist in the Richmond territory is the Nation of Islam (NOI)…The Richmond office has informant coverage of this organization and through its informants and other sources has determined that the NOI in Richmond is a non-militant Black nationalist group."

The memo adds:

"Intensive efforts have been undertaken to develop Negro racial informants to assure Richmond is cognizant of the formation of any militant Black groups as well as to develop additional coverage in the NOI and Negro ghetto-type areas."

The next two memos, dated December 23, 1969, and February 27, 1970, discuss the Richmond office's attempts to crush the beginnings of growing Black unity.

Evidently, a number of Black groups showed signs of uniting in a coalition -- never fully titled or formed because of questionable FBI conduct. Acting without even the hint of illegal activity, the Richmond office writes that it has actively attempted "to disrupt the group's organizational efforts and to sow seeds of distrust among those interested in the group."

Sources contacted by THE BLACK PANTHER indicate that the coalition was never formed.

Also, regarding the Nation of Islam (now World Community of Islam in the West), the Richmond FBI office, noting that both the Richmond Information Center, then a fledgling chapter of the BPP-affiliated National Committees to Combat Fascism (NCCF), and the NOI sold newspapers on the same downtown street, proposed to send a phony anonymous letter to "cause these respective groups to direct their hatred toward one another."

The proposed letter, made to appear as if it was being sent by a dissatisfied member of the NOI, read:

"Dear Brother (name censored). As-Salaam-Alaikum: You boys is sellin' panther papers on Broad Street and there cuttin into our territory and hurtin our selin papers. Them black panthres got the rong ideas any way. You should know better. You can't deal with this devil."

Washington, FBI headquarters, however, rejected this proposal, suggesting instead that the Richmond office draft a letter to NOI headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.

This anonymous letter, later approved and actually mailed, read:

"Dear Honorable Elijah Muhammad, As Salaam Alaikum: I don't want to say who i is but i do want you to no somethin you should no and need to no because it is bringin disgrase on your Mosque in Richmond, Va. For a long time the brothers has been sellin the paper on Broad St., now a few weeks ago them panthres start in to sell there paper and some of the brothers has been seen jiven with them panthers. Last week more panthres was seen sellin there paper than the brothers and people is sayin some of the brothers has join the panthres and other brothers is afraid to sell the paper when the panthres is selin there. Them panthres is no good for the so called american negro and i think them panthres is going to take over your Mosque in Richmond."

According to the January 14, 1971, memo, from Washington

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granting authority to send the letter out, "The purpose of this letter is to cause dissension with the possibility that Elijah Muhammad may issue some directive to the Richmond Mosque which could further this dissension between NOI and NCCF."

A few months later, on March 5, 1971, the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover also approved the mailing of another anonymous letter, this time to disrupt the relationship between the BPP chapter in Washington, D.C., and the Richmond Information Center. In his "airtel," as the memos were called, Hoover advises, "You should assure that the anonymous letter is prepared and mailed in a manner so that it cannot in any way be traced to the Bureau."

The contents of this phony letter, detailed by the Richmond FBI office in a February 8, 1971, memo, but held for release until an appropriate time, were designed to be highly inflammatory:

The letter began, for example:

"This is to officially let it be known that the organization which used to be called the Richmond Information Center has officially purged itself of the Black Panther Party."

"BULLSHIT"

After allegedly explaining its reasons why -- "you're all full of bullshit" -- the fictitious letter ends:

"So as far as Richmond is concerned, you and your party can go fuck yourselves. YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN RICHMOND."

Other FBI memos, dated throughout the year 1970, detail the Richmond office's proposals to distribute phony flyers and leaflets to disrupt BPP speaking engagements in the Virginia area.

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Huey P. Newton In Court

(Oakland, Calif.) - Black Panther Party President HUEY P. NEWTON (shown above greeting a supporter) had a brief hearing in Alameda County Superior Court last week, in which presiding Judge Martin Pulich merely repeated the schedule for upcoming hearings. A hearing on a defense motion for discovery of incriminating F.B.I. and other law enforcement agency documents is next set for February 24, at 2:30 p.m. Pulich scheduled two other hearings on defense motions for March 3, at 9:30 a.m., and March 17 at 9:30 a.m. They will all be held in Department 11, located on the 7th floor of the Superior Court building, 1225 Fallon Street, Oakland.

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BLACK HISTORY SPECIAL FEATURE: BLACK FARMERS TILLED SOIL IN NEW YORK IN 1640's

(New York, N.Y.) - Before it was Chatham Square, before it was Astor Place, before it was Greenwich Village and before it was Herald Square, the crowded Manhattan land now designated by those names was farmland, and in the 1640's, while it was controlled by the Dutch, much of it came into the hands of freed Black slaves.

It was a casual remark by a history buff, Paul O'Dwyer, the former city council president, that there were Black farmers here in the time of the Dutch that set a New York Times reporter on the trail of further information about the little-known fact. And along that trial, even professional historians were encountered who had never heard of the 17th-century Black farmers in Manhattan.

Shortly after Peter Minuit bought the Island from the Manhattan Indians in 1626, 11 Black men arrived.

They came on a ship owned by the Dutch West India Company, which had sent Minuit to be Governor of Nieuw New) Netherlands, a trading post to which the company had sent 30 families with horses and cattle in 1623.

Manhattan land was rich and fruitful then. There were huge trees, weeds that were strawberries, catnip and blackberries: wild geese, turkeys, wild pigeons and ducks. The rivers were full of perch, sturgeon, bass, herring, mackerel, weakfish, stonebeam and eel. Oysters were so large that "one must cut them in two or three pieces," an enthusiastic Dutch settler wrote to a friend in the Netherlands.

Eighteen years after Minuit purchased Manhattan, in 1644, 11 Black slaves petitioned the Dutch West India Company for their freedom and, possibly to their own astonishment, got it.

All of the 11 freed slaves may not have been the same 11 who came to New Amsterdam in 1626, but at least four of them were. These four, whose names probably indicate their country of origin, were Paulo d'Angola, Simon Congo, Antony Portuguese and John Francisco.

The others freed in 1644 were Big Manuel, Little Manuel, Manuel de Gerrit de Rens, Peter Santome, Little Anthony and John Fort Orange.

The slaves were granted their freedom, and land in Manhattan on which to farm, as a reward for 18 or 19 years of service to the Dutch West India Company, according to records of that time.

An examination of other contemporary

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records of events and circumstances of 1944 and preceding years indicates that the company was probably acting in its won interest as well.

Farm produce was desperately needed in New Amsterdam. The White settlers, now numbering 400 or 500 and including men speaking 18 different languages, were not interested in farming. There was more money to be made trading with the Indians for food, and for beaver skins to send by the thousands to the Netherlands.

During 1659 and 1660, several additional grants were made to Blacks -- this time by Peter Stuyvesant, who had become the New Netherlands governor.

The average size of all of the grants was 12 acres, but Simon Congo received 45 acres.

The largest number of grants to Blacks lay in the area bounded on the north and south by 23rd and Franklin Streets -- along what are now Broome, Spring, Houston, Blecker, West Third and West Fourth Strets. On the east and west the farms were between Fourth and Sixth Avenues, along Fifth Avenue, Broadway and University Place, nine Greenwich village.

LITTLE KNOWN

Little is known of these early Black farmers except for their names, and more than one name seems to have been applied to some of them.

Peter Santee's six acres went, on his death, to his sons, Lucas and Solomon, concerning whom it is recorded that Lucas was a physician and Solomon was the first patentee of another large farm.

Anna D'Angola and Marycke, who were granted six acres each in 1647 and 1643 respectively, are described as widows.

The English governor who captured New Netherlands from the Dutch and renamed it New Your confirmed the Blackss' ownership of their land in 1667.

However, not long afterward the British introduced chattel slavery into New York and imposed severe restrictions on freed Blacks, including a prohibition against owning property.

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“Max Place” At O.C.L.C. Forum

(Oakland, Calif.) - A "Live Disco Night Club Presentation" by MAX's PLACE turned out a near capacity crowd of 250 last Sunday, February 5, at the Oakland Community Learning Center (OCLC). The performance was sponsored by the popular OCLC Teen Club. Clockwise PAMELA NELSON performs modern dance; Max's Place's youngest performers show out; director producer MAXINE HOWARD stirs audience with solo number; and Pam and EARNEST model in mini-fashion show.

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This Week In Black History

February, 1817

Frederick Douglass, one of the greatest Black leaders in history, was born in Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Maryland, in February, 1817. After his escape from slavery in his early teens Douglass went on to become the foremost speaker in this country's abolitionist movement and founder of the famous newspaper The North Star. Throughout his entire life Douglass fought bitterly for Black freedom and equality. He died in Washington, D.C. in 1895.

February 12, 1865

Henry Highland Garnet, a leading Black abolitionist, became the first Black man to preach in the Capitol Dome in Washington, D.C., when he delivered a memorial sermon on the abolition of slavery on February 12, 1865.

February 9, 1906

Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the first Black poet to gain a national reputation in the United States, died on February 9, 1906. Dunbar was also one of the first to use Black dialect in his works. His most famous book, Lyrics of a Lowly Life, established him as one of the major literary forces of his time, especially in Black poetry.

February, 1940

Richard Wright's best-selling novel, Native Son, believed by many to be one of the most important works of Black literature in history, was published in February of 1940.

-- 5 --

SHADY LAS VEGAS CONNECTIONS, OWNS NUMEROUS TENEMENTS: OAKLAND SLUMLORD EXPOSED

(Oakland, Calif.) - Millionaire slumlord William J. Nickerson is the business partner of a man who owns numerous tenement dwellings throughout the city of Oakland, THE BLACK PANTHER learned last week.

In an exclusive interview, karen A. Viscia, a local housing activist, revealed that Albert J. lowry and Nickerson are the owners of the Las Vegas, Nevada, based Educational Advancement Institute which specializes in training people how to become successful real estate operators.

Ms. Viscia, the ex-manager of an apartment building owned by Lowry which launched an unsuccessful rent strike last summer to protest the building's substandard conditions, has done extensive research on Lowry's real estate holdings and has tied him to Nickerson.

Nickerson, author of the wellknown book How I turned $1,000 Into A Million In Real Estate In My Spare Time is the owner of the La Peralta apartments, a downtown Oakland residence cited by the city's 'Housing Conservation Division for numerous building code violations.

With the aid of the Black Panther Party's Free Legal Aid and Education Program, in December, the predominantly Black La Peralta tenants initiated a rent strike against Nickerson, demanding that he repair the building's numerous deficiencies. Last month, the wealthy real estate operator-author was forced to sign an agreement obligating him to make the necessary repairs. (See THE BLACK PANTHER, January 14, 1978.)

Ms. Viscia learned of Lowry's and Nickerson's partnership when she recently attended a real estate seminar conducted here by the two men.

INFORMATION

Information obtained by Ms. Viscia from the Alameda County Assessor's office and provided to THE BLACK PANTHER show that Lowry has extensive land holdings in the East Oakland and Fruitvale areas.

One of this apartment, complexes in East Oakland recently reopened after being condemned by the city as the result of constant complaints by tenants of rats, roaches and other defects. Lowry was forced to extensively remodel the complex.

The partial listing of Lowry's East Oakland and Fruitvale holdings show that he owns 21 buildings in these areas.

Ms. Viscia explained that she formerly worked for Lowry as manager of an apartment building located at 878 East 28th Street. Her initial dispute with Lowry came when she was asked to discriminate against Blacks and refused.

Subsequently, last summer tenants of the building organized a rent strike to protest their indecent living conditions, conditions almost identical to those in the La Peralta apartments.

Following a partial inspection of the East 28th Street building, the city Housing Conservation Division found 40 building code violations.

The tenants of the residence were later evicted.

(See next week's issue of THE BLACK PANTHER for more on the latest developments in the La Peralta rent strike.)

-- 5 --

“WE'RE GOING TO BREAK THEIR BACKS”: Stockton Housing Projects Initiate Rent Strike

(Stockton, Calif.) - Tenants of the Sierra Vista and Conway Homes housing projects began a rent strike February 1 in an effort to obtain improved living conditions, according to tenant spokespersons. Located in South Stockton, the two projects, with a combined total of almost 900 units, are the largest of the 3,500 federally subsidized housing units operated by the San Joaquin County Housing Authority (SJCHA).

The rent strike, which threatens to severely cripple the housing authority, follows in the wake of the recent firing of Housing Authority Executive Director Wallace K. Sheppard, 42, and a subsequent grand jury tour of Sierra Vista on January 26.

Sheppard, who had only taken over his job on November 1 of last year was fired on January 20 by a 5-2 vote of the Housing Authority Commission, a seven-member civilian panel appointed by the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors.

The commissioners charged that Sheppard, who is Black, had taken hiring and promotional actions in defiance of policy; interfered with a labor agreement between the Authority and its employees' union; made personal use of a housing authority vehicle; and provided inaccurate minutes of meetings. The commissioners also complained that Sheppard "talked down to them."

Sheppard contends that his only offense was trying to bring about better organization of the 140 employees of the authority, which he feels is administratively top-heavy, and for bringing to the attention of the commissioners certain problems that existed before he took over.

At the hearing where Sheppard was fired, over 150 tenants, the majority Black and Hispanic, expressed their support for Sheppard and angrily denounced the Commission. The Commission has only one Black and one Hispanic member.

Tenant representatives have charged that the Commission has done little over the years to remedy the many complaints raised by tenants.

-- 26 --

Ms. Polly Chase, president of the Sierra Vista Tenants Association explained:

"The living conditions here can be explained in one word, UNBEARABLE. All we want to do is get some decent living conditions. We're tired of going to bed with cockroaches. We're tired of washing the walls and having them turn into paste. They've let things go too long.

"There was one 70-year-old woman who had to go across the street to go to the bathroom for four days waiting for maintenance to come and fix her toilet. I had to sleep for two months with the windows open at night because of a leaking gas heater. They're supposed to do a Home inspection every year to find out what needs repairing. I've lived here for three years and four months and they've never been in my home.

"Mr. Sheppard helped to motivate us. How can the commissioners make policies about us when they never come out to see us? We went to the supervisors and asked them for an investigation. Because of the tenant pressure the supervisors sent the grand jury out."

What the panel of three jurors saw openly shocked them -- the vice-foreman of the jury, James McMahon, said he was "dumb-founded" by what he saw. The jurors heard and saw complaints of unabated rat and roach infestation, long-overdue repairs, slipshod work by private contractors and poor supervision of maintenance crews. One tenant showed the jurors a dead rat killed minutes before the tour began.

The jurors also visited units that had been vacant for months and were still not ready for occupancy. Out of 464 units at Sierra Vista, there are some 50 vacancies, even though there is a long waiting list. Those units that were certified ready for occupancy seemed hardly to have been touched by maintenance men, the jurors observed.

OCCUPANCY

"I haven't seen one building they say is ready for occupancy that actually is ready," said McMahon, a retired manager of maintenance for Pacific Gas and Electric.

Since the grand jury tour, the Commission has appointed Alberta Jackson as acting executive director. Ms. Jackson has been assistant director for the past nine years. She has proposed to the Commission various actions to take to correct problems.

Ms. Chase believes the Commission is only motivated because "the heat is on, take it off and they'll forget about us."

"The Commission has to learn the tenants are the backbone and we're going to do it by breaking their back. We're tired. Poor people are oppressed. I'm not here by choice. If anybody told me this is where I'd be at four years ago, I'd have told them they're crazy. But as long as we're here we're going to see this thing through."

-- 7 --

BRUTALITY COVER-UP: No Prosecutions In L.A.P.D. File Shredding Case

(Los Angeles, Calif.) - In a decision described as "totally unjustified." Los Angeles County has decided that there will be no prosecutions in a police file-shredding case in which four tons of records containing "unsubstantiated" complaints against policmen between the years of 1949 and 1975 were unlawfully destroyed.

Charges of perjury, conspiracy and obstruction of justice were considered against several deputy city attorneys and policemen but rejected in a investigative report which, harshly criticizes City Attorney Burt Pine's office while at the same time clearing the Los Angeles Police Department of any wrongdoing.

Two members of the police department's internal affairs division in Pines' office and Municipal Court Judge David Perez, formerly a top aid to Pines, all were investigated in connection with possible perjury violations.

As a result of the investigation, reports the Los Angeles Times, District Attorney John Van de Camp is considering making a suggestion "to break Pines" office in two" as a way of getting rid of conflict-of-interest problems.

-- 25 --

Many court observers feel there is a built-in conflict for the city attorney's office when its lawyers have to defend cops against misconduct charges in civil suits and then prosecute in cases where persons are making charges against the same officers.

Deputy Public Defender Robert Berke insists that criminal offenses were committed.

DESTRUCTION

Berke believes that the destruction of the police files deprived defendants charged with assaulting police officers of information that might indicate a pattern of violent conduct by the officers.

Berke, along with Deputy Public Defender Donald Randolph and Municipal Court Judge George Trammell have stated publicly that members of both the city attorney's office and the police department lied on the witness stand.

Berke commented, "As a lawyer, I am distressed that the agency responsible for assuming fair trials finds no obstruction of justice in conduct that has affected the fairness of trial for over a year and a half.

"As a member of the public," Burke said, "I am equally concerned that the public has no remedy for such shocking conduct."

-- 7 --

DAVIS PLEDGES TO APPOINT ONLY WHITE MALE JUDGES: YOUNGER ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR

(Sacramento, Calif.) - Attorney General Evelle Younger, whose bid to execute 53 Death Row prisoners was rejected last month by the state Supreme Court, officially announced his candidacy for governor last week.

Among his remarks at news conferences in six cities Younger, who is the state's top law enforcement official, charged that Governor Edmund Brown, Jr. has become "a conscientious objector" in the "war on crime."

"His appointees to the Youth Authority have reduced sentences to dangerous young criminals by 15 per cent," said Younger.

Meanwhile, another Republican candidate for governor, former Los Angeles police chief Ed Davis, said last week if elected governor he would appoint only White male judges, claiming they have been a victim of "reverse discrimination" in the Brown administration.

Younger, in his news conferences, reserved most of his passion for the traditional conservative causes of lower taxes and less government spending. In an obvious appeal to the White middle and upper income populous, he called for: a tax cut and property relief program to reimburse people who were "over-taxed" a tripling or quadrupling of the homeowner's tax exemption; a stringent state budget; and a policy of no new government programs.

Younger also called for a crime program to: send what he termed "habitual violent offenders" to prison for at least 15 years; increase sentences for all "violent" crimes; restructure a stricter bail system; and allow for preventative detention pending trial of "dangerous" crimes and prohibit sending young persons 18 years of age and older who are convicted of age and older who are convicted of a crime to the Youth Authority.

Concerning his crusade to revive the use of capital punishment, Younger said he opposed a proposal by another Republican candidate for governor, state Senator John V. Briggs, for a stronger death penalty law, explaining, "Law enforcement generally is very satisfied with the death penalty bill that we now have." Younger rejected Brigg's proposal on the basis that it would "increase the chances that some appellate court is going to search for some hook to declare it unconstitutional."

Younger has some serious liabilities. His tainted career includes questionable retirement benefits from four public pension plans and some past ties to convicted Goetek oil promoter Jack Burke. Those ties include a loan from Burke which Younger repaid after a Goetek scandal broke.

Younger enters the race as the frontrunner in the polls among five Republican contenders. The latest California Poll found Younger leading four GOP rivals with 39 per cent compared to 22 per cent for his closest competitor, Ed Davis.

Davis speaking at a convention of the California Robbery Investigators Association in Sacramento,

-- 25 --
said he would look for White male judges who "have the intestinal fortitude to sentence to protect the public" with longer terms for "violent" offenders.

In a vicious and racist tirade, Davis attacked the governor's appointment of Blacks and minorities to the judiciary.

"The governor in most of the big counties has systematically discriminated against White male lawyers in judicial appointments. That's going to have to be balanced out at some point in the future," Davis said. (Although Brown has appointed more minority and women judges than his predecessors, the largest number of his judicial appointees have, in fact, been White males.)

WHITE LAWYERS

"So we're going to have to have an affirmative action program for White male lawyers and make up the three years of discrimination. I intend to see that White males again are returned to an equal position with everyone else in society, at least in the legal profession," he said.

In a blunt law and order speech, Davis also attacked Brown's signing of the fixed sentence prison bill and called for longer prison terms.

"If they are robbers, they are going to continue to be stickup men. They aren't going to be rehabilitated. They never have been. They never will be in the future. The only thing that's going to rehabilitate them is old age," Davis said.

-- 7 --

Kingpin For Radical Right Gears Up For '78

(Washington, D.C.) - Ten years ago, selected staunchly conservative congressmen found a crude solicitation in the morning mail. It promised, for a fee, computerized fund-raising services.

The letter was mailed from a small apartment just a few blocks from the capitol. The author of the mail-order letters was Richard A. Viguerie.

Viguerie and other have put together a tangled web of organizations and alliances that threatens to take over the Republican Party and run a hard-nose conservative for President in 1980. But Viguerie is the key, according to Wesley McCune, a 16-year knowledgeable observer of the conservative movement in this country.

"It's impossible to say how many groups he controls, or how much money he raises for conderivative candidates." McCune says, "but there's no doubt about it -- Viguerie is the kingpin!"

Richard A. Viguerie has moved to the Virginia suburbs now. From a five-story complex in Falls Church, he touches the pulse of the reawakening conservative movement, that part of the spectrum he calls the New Right.

The New Right promises a "massive assault" on Congress, and Richard A. Viguerie Co. (RAVCO) will be in the vangurad, with 300 conservative clients for his multi-million dollar RAVCO computers, large staff and mailing lists.

The mailing lists are the heart of Viguerie's operation. With 15 million names and addresses of potential donors to conservative candidates and causes, Viguerie raised $6 million for George Wallace's Presidential bid in 1976 and is likely to produce a banner year for the New Right in 1978.

"This will be a good year for Republicans, and, more specifically, conservative Republicans," says Representative Philip Crane, the Illinois Republican who is as much the bright star of the New Right politicians as Viguerie is its master fund-raiser.

"Richard has a degree of sophistication in fund-raising that no one else even approaches," says Crane. "He knows who gave and who didn't give, he knows the last time they gave, and how much."

Crane, who is chairman of the American Conservative Union, expects the New Right to gain at

-- 20 --
least 20 seats in Congress this year.

In the next election, 60 House seats will be vacant, leaving a void that fundraising machines such as RAVCO can exploit for attracting conservatives.

Viguerie's track record so far has been mixed, but his ability to raise cash is unquestioned. Ask freshman Senator John Melcher of Montana who was to have been one of Viguerie's victims in 1976.

Melcher saw a record $630,000 funneled to his opponent. He says Viguerie's fund-raising brought with it "as many pluses as minuses," but his top aide, Ben Strong, has a more candid assessment.

The Viguerie operation can raise a lot of money, but that's just part of it, Strong says. "He also supplies the mud and the dirty tricks."

Viguerie often has been cited by opponents and colleagues alike for his "quasi-hysterical appeal." Governor Meldrim Thompson, Jr., of New Hampshire, for example, recently signed a solicitation from the Conservative Caucus asking for donations to lobby for the recall of United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young.

Enclosed with Thompson's letter, mailed from Viguerie headquarters in Falls Church, was a picture of a horribly burned child. The child was the victim of "a wanton act of violence by "Black Power" terrorists. "Andrew Young has long sided with such Communist-inspired terrorists," Thompson wrote in a note on the reverse side.

Despite this kind of appeal, Viguerie -- a native Texan and former executive director of Young Americans for Freedom -- has a client list that reads like Who's Who of conservative America: Senators Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, Orrin Hatch and John Tower, and Representatives Larry McDonald, Robert Dornan and Robert Livingston.

The Nixon White House used Viguerie to rally public support for the nomination of Warren Burger as chief justice. Even George McGovern asked for help when he was a Presidential aspirant in 1968. Viguerie refused. ("I kind of like McGovern," Viguerie says. "He's got a good grasp of marketing. But I didn't like his politics.")

Ask the University of Houston graduate and law school dropout about his own politics and Viguerie says, "I'm not a Republican, and I'm not a Democrat. I'm a conservative."

Viguerie detests so-called "big government" and "mainstream Republicanism." Gerald Ford, he says, is "too liberal -- he added to deficits and big government."

The New Right is making a concerted effort to build new bridges to the "social conservative," or blue-collar worker through messages on gun control, abortion, the Panama Canal and welfare.

Viguerie readily admits the Republican Party, and not a third party, is the only alternative open to the New Right for the forseeable future. Ronald Reagan is its most likely standard-bearer.

"If Ronald Reagan wants the (Republican) nomination in 1980, he probably can have it," says Viguerie, who is sure to play some role. "I would be very sympathetic to a Reagan request for help."

-- 8 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

Filipino Nurses'
Case Dismissed

(Detroit, Mich.) - Two Filipino nurses falsely accused of poisoning hospital patients were freed last week after two years of imprisonment when the prosecution dropped the trumped-up charges in their second trial. Filipino Narciso and Leonora Perez were convicted last July in the non-fatal poisoning of five patients at Veterans Administration Hospital in Ann Arbor. Judge Philip Pratt, who presided over the first trial and later overturned the guilty verdicts, accepted the prosecution's dismissal motion.

Jews Against
Dellums

(Oakland, Calif.) - A wealthy group of Jewish community leaders in Los Angeles, angered by Bay Area Congressman Ronald Dellums' past refusal to vote for military aid to Israel, secretly offered $250,000 to prominent Democratic Party leader to run against the progressive Black legislator in the 1978 primary, the Oakland Tribune reports. Mary Warren, Alameda County Democratic Party chairperson, and state party vice chairperson, last week confirmed reports that she was approached last August by the group, but said she promptly refused the offer.

Doctors To
N.Y. Neighborhoods

(New York, N.Y.) - The federal government is preparing to send 20 to 50 physicians into several poverty-stricken neighborhoods in New York City, under the pressure of recent disclosures that there are no physicians in the predominately Black and minority communities which have been targeted. A recent survey by the New York City Health Department showed that 161 of the city's 340 designated health districts have fewer than one physician for every 1,000 people. The physicians will be assigned to the South Bronx, East Harlem and several poor neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

Desegregation
Plans Rejected

(Washington, D.C.) - The Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) last week rejected the college desegregation plans of Virginia and Georgia and threatened the loss of millions of dollars in federal aid. HEW also turned down the desegregation plan submitted by North Carolina for its major universities. If acceptable plans are not submitted within 45 days, proceedings will start that could lead to loss of federal funds.

Anti-Bakke
Activities

(Berkeley, Calif.) - The National Committee to Overturn the Bakke Decision (NCOBD) is moving ahead with its plans for tow periods of nationally coordinated activity scheduled for later this month and early April. February 19 to 25 has been designated national Week of Education and Action Against the Bakke Decision and Racism. Activities during this week are viewed as a build-up for a major demonstration in Washington, D.C., on April 15, which will be preceded by numerous local demonstrations across the country on April 8.

Okla. Teens
Form K.K.K.

(Oklahoma City, Okla.) - Nearly 150 White teenage boys have organized Ku Klux Klan chapters at two local high schools, and are waging a campaign of terror against homosexuals. The young KKKers were quoted as saying that in late November they used baseball bats to attack patrons at a club that reportedly caters to gays. In that incident, several gays were injured, tires slashed and cars vandalized.

Carter Friends
Visit Mob

(Washington, D.C.) - An FBI raid on the home of gambling czar Joe Nesline turned up papers showing two close friends of President Carter once consulted the mobster about investing in an $85 million Atlantic City gambling casino. Implicated in the January 14 raid were Nathan Landow, multimillionaire builder, and Smith Bagley, a Reynolds Tobacco and metals heir. Bagley, whose Musgrove Plantation on St. Simons Island. Georgia, has been used as a Presidential vacation retreat, is rumored to be in line for a diplomatic post, possibly ambassador to Britain. Landow, a heavy campaign contributor to Carter, is believed to be under consideration as ambassador to the Netherlands.

-- 9 --

INTERCOMMUNAL SURVIVAL COMMITTEE SAYS “NO”: WILL CARTER'S URBAN POLICIES WORK?

The following analysis of President Carter's dismal urban policies was drafted by the Chicago based Intercommunal Survival Committee.

President Carter carried the votes of millions of poor and working people in the cities across this country during his election, with promises of "new life" for the urban areas and new solutions to city problems. As awareness has grown around his failure to produce in many other areas he promised to deliver in, the central focus has come on his failure to develop programs to help the cities.

Until November of 1977 he had come up with absolutely nothing but cuts in existing programs, leading to sharp criticism from established organizations like the Urban League and the NAACP, and a boiling anger at the grassroots.

Finally in November of '77, his staff produced a document for discussion that is only now being made available to community leaders. Legislation following from this new policy statement will be introduced in spring 1978, and programs will therefore not go into effect, probably, until 1979 or 1980.

Perhaps Carter is hoping that he can carry the cities on the basis of freshly funded urban programs with new titles untested and unproven in the hard realities of the inner city. In any case, the November policy statement gives us the opportunity to see what he plans to offer.

CARTER'S POLICY

The basic elements in the Carter policy can be summed up in the following points:

1. Increase jobs by extending CETA public service jobs and developing transportation from the city to suburban job locations;

2. Concentration of federal jobs in the cities;

3. Federal inducements for firms to locate in the city;

4. Treat the city as part of a metropolitan area to increase the tax base cities can draw on to provide services;

5. Provide more housing loans for rehabilitation;

6. Develop more mixed-income housing and develop more "towns in towns";

7. Fund community groups that work in cooperation with the city;

8. Strengthen the affirmative action laws and guidelines on federal funding.

PROBLEMS WITH CARTER'S
POLICY

The first thing to say about Carter's new policy is that none of it is new, and none of it has worked very well before. The conditions of the cities are getting worse and worse, but not because anyone can't find a way to make them improve.

They are getting worse because powerful people are making money from what is happening to the cities, and the Carter policy, as might be expected, does nothing to challenge these people.

The Carter policy says nothing about the planning process, the process by which housing, community development economic development, education development and social service is planned. Most cities are really now two cities. One is the city of those who own it, govern it and plan its future. The other is the city of those who have labored in it, been born in it, suffer in it, have no representation in governing it and no part in planning its future.

The present administration has not even attempted to enforce the citizen participation and affirmative action guidelines in the planning process which are already on the books.

The city of the owners and the planners is seen as a place that will someday soon be lived in primarily by the middle-class and the white collar workers involved in business administration, finance, trade and advertising. Their planning calls for the elimination of neighborhoods which are predominantly Black, Latino or poor White.

For instance, in Chicago, the Economic Development Commission developed an overall economic development plan that calls for "strengthening the strong areas first" and for clearing out the weak areas.

In spite of Carter's policy statement, 90 per cent of federal funding will go to the cities on the basis of their plans which are aimed at eliminating the poor and underemployed communities and in the preparation of which these communities had absolutely. no say.

The extension of public service jobs is destined to be a total flop since Carter is calling for a tax cut and an increase in defense spending at the same time. There simply won't be enough money to make any impact, and what jobs are produced will continue to be used by cities like Chicago to maintain already employed city workers in the highly paid political machine.

The program to develop more transportation from the city to job locations in the suburbs has been used for years as an excuse to provide deluxe transportation for those who live in the suburbs and work in the office buildings of the inner city. The brutal facts are that there are no jobs even now in the suburban industrial locations, and the situation will become worse as more and more of these plants are closing up and moving to non-union areas or out of the country entirely.

Incentives to draw industry into the city have been tried before, and on the limited basis outlined in the Carter proposal, have been a total failure. The banks that control the cities have financed the move of industry out of the city and are not likely to finance it back in. that is the major problem.

Secondly, plants are automating, cutting their work force in

-- 26 --
half, moving to areas where labor organization is weak and getting write-offs for leaving behind their abandoned plants. The Carter proposal does nothing to stop this rip-off.

With 99 per cent of private money going into developing middle and upper-income housing in the cities, the Carter proposal suggests that federal money should be used to build this type of middle class, town in town housing. An additional program to support the development of mixed-income housing really amounts to the same old developments with a quota of 20 per cent low-income tenants, who are forced to move out in five years as the neighborhoods develop a middle class standard of living.

The program to encourage metropolitan government is also right in line with the plans of the banks and power elites of the cities. Faced now with Black, Latino and poor White majorities growing ever more conscious at election time, the elites have already been attempting to negotiate forms of metropolitan government.

In the larger metropolitan areas, Black, Latino and poor majorities would become again controllable political minorities, and it is unlikely that any of the increased tax base would be spend on the needs of people in the inner city.

Funding community groups on the basis of their cooperation with the city means that community projects will only be funded if they are consistent with the power elite's plan to eliminate poor people from the city, or if they are so small and complicated that either they won't work or they won't have any effect.

Affirmative action, under the Carter administration and the present Supreme Court, has already proved to be little more than blatant hypocrisy.

What will the Carter urban policy finally amount to? When it is finally funded in 1979 it will amount to the same old thing with a few new names. It will not challenge those who are destroying our lives in the city. It will aid them in their projects.

At the best points, the Carter urban policy will create a series of underfunded programs with a large number of paid staff in communities across the cities of this country who, without the money to do anything constructive, will fight among themselves, create divisions in the community and give the appearance that there is community leadership participating in the Carter program.

A PEOPLE'S POLICY FOR THE
CITIES

A effective urban policy would give communities significant control over the planning process for their own communities:

- It would create a massive program to build public low-income housing that would be turned over to the tenants over a period of time:

FEDERAL FUNDS

- It would put federal funds along with private funds to develop neighborhood production centers, with cooperative community shares in the business backed up by the federal funding:

- It would provide that industry leaving a city without the permission of the city must pay a very heavy penalty;

- It would cut defense spending and put massive amounts of money into public service jobs in needed, developing service institutions.

It is possible to develop a working economy in the cities with full employment. Production would have to be decentralized to meet the specific needs of the diverse communities in the city, say for specialized and localized textbooks in the schools. And real, livable housing must replace the complicated, unreachable promises of loan programs that never work.

It is possible, but it is not on Carter's agenda. We have two years to put it on our agenda and make it the agenda of the whole country.

-- 9 --

Voter Registration Drive Urged

(New York, N.Y.) - Blasting President Carter's continued betrayal of the Black community, NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Hooks last week called for a massive voter registration campaign, with particular attention focused in the North.

Hooks charged that as a result of what he says is a resurgence of the conservative movement in this country, Carter "is more concerned about balancing the budget than meeting human needs."

Hooks quoted Roger Wilkins, an urban affairs columnist with the New York Times, to underscore the mounting dissatisfaction with the President in the Black community:

"Nobody in the Black community thought that Carter would have been as good as he said he was; but nobody thought he would have been as bad as he turned out to be."

Addressing a NAACP conference in Harlem, Hooks emphasized the need for an intensive voter registration drive in the North. "We have too many people whom we have put in office who are doing badly," Hooks said. So "we are going to be like the Lord: the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away."

-- 10 --

Black Activist Cop Arrested In Chicago

(Chicago, Ill.) - The executive director of the Afro-American Patrolmen's League (AAPL), Renault Robinson, and another Black officer, Sergeant William Bigby, were falsely arrested at a recent meeting of the National Black Patrolmen's Association here following an attack by White cops.

Police sources are claiming that the incident nearly ignited a racial brawl at Chicago police headquarters when members of the AAPL rallied in support of Robinson and Bigby, according to the Chicago Daily Defender.

VAN

Robinson said that he and Sgt. Bigby were arrested as they loaded a van outside the hotel following a weekend meeting of the National Black Patrolmen's Association. While loading the van, they were approached by a White policewoman, Dorothy Bahi, who said she was going to ticket the van.

Robinson explained, "We had a bellman delivering supplies from the hotel into the van. The woman had already looked at the car and seen the AAPL sticker. We told her we were police officers. She said she didn't care who we were." Robinson continued, "We said, look if there's any problem, call for a supervisor. She said, `Shut up, niggers.' She called for a sergeant."

Robinson said that the next officer to arrive, Sergeant William Morrin, slammed Bigby against a police van and forcibly handcuffed him. Altogether, five police cars and a van arrived on the scene.

"I wasn't handcuffed at all. I got in and voluntarily rode down to 11th and State Streets (the Central District police station)," said Robinson. It wasn't until I got down there that they told me I was under arrest.

"They wanted us to beg for forgiveness," Robinson went on, "They asked me to come into Commander Paul McLaughlin's office and beg. When I didn't do it, he said, `We'll get you for this.'

"This Chicago," said Robinson, "and anyone who ever believed that the Chicago police department has reformed is mistaken."

Robinson explained that the AAPL rally in front of police headquarters was a show of force by Black police officers. The Chicago police department is a bastion of racial chauvinism, says Robinson, adding, "Black officers will not continue to take abuse."

Robinson, a popular activist Black police officer, was released on $1,000 bond on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. The AAPL executive director said that this incident was meant to harass the League and destroy preparations for the National Black Police Convention, which will be hosted by the AAPL in Chicago later this year.

Due to racist harassment, says Robinson, the AAPL may have to reconsider having the meeting in Chicago.

-- 10 --

BEHIND THE WALLS

Joliet Inmate
Acquitted

(Joliet, Ill.) - A Black inmate here at Joliet State Prison was acquitted on trumped-up charges of murdering a White prison guard last week. During the week-long trial of inmate Charles Jennings the prosecution failed to produce one credible witness to the January 10, 1977, murder of prison guard Peter Burd. The state's star witness was forced to admit on the stand that former Joliet warden David Brierton offered favorable parole consideration to those prisoners who cooperated with the prosecution.

When Judge Michael Orenic announced the acquittal, some 50 courtroom supporters staged a jealous celebration. One supporter commented, "For years guards have been vicious in their attacks on Black prisoners. Then on January 10, 1977, two White guards were stabbed, one to whom died. The trial of Jennings and three other members of the `Statesville Four' (who were previously absolved) was the state's attempt to intimidate and punish resistance inside the prison. It failed."

San Francisco
Sex Probe

(San Francisco, Calif.) -Two San Francisco sheriff's deputies are currently under investigation on charges that they took a female prisoner from her cell and persuaded her to have sex with them. Acting Sheriff James Denman said that the two officers involved have been transferred from their post at the San Francisco Jail pending the outcome of the investigation.

One of the deputies involved took the inmate from her cell, marched her out the front doors of the jail and took her to an undisclosed location and had sex with her. After bringing her back several hours later, the sergeant bragged about the incident. Then another deputy took the same prisoner to a remote area of the jail where he had sex with her also.

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S.F.P.D. Accused Of Brutalizing Black Man

(San Francisco, Calif.) - A 26-year-old Black man, Franklin Nash, was recently charged with attacking San Francisco police officers despite the fact that he was the one attacked and beaten to the point where his friends could hardly recognize him.

Following a vicious beating from San Francisco cops, Nash is suffering from facial cuts, two swollen and blackened eyes, a sore neck and a wobbly left knee. "I can't eat," says Nash, "I can't open my mouth that wide."

Nash is presently charged with battery against the officers who mauled him. When questioned by the San Francisco Sun Reporter about the incident the Internal Affairs Department of the San Francisco Police Department responded, "We cannot release any information on the case until the investigation is over and only if he (Nash) wants us to."

According to Nash, he and his roommate, Vanessa Moore, were arguing outside their apartment. A neighbor called the police and after a 15-minute talk the matter was resolved, reports the Sun-Reporter.

When the officers left, Ms. Moore called a battered women's organization to find a place to stay for the evening. Apparently, the organization called the police, who quickly came back to the scene.

When the police arrived, Nash had a brief talk with them and closed the door of his apartment. However, the police forced their way into his apartment and beat him mercilessly for no cause.

Now, after being beaten almost to a pulp, Nash is facing false battery charges.

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“WILDCAT” CLAUSE THREATENS COAL STRIKE SETTLEMENT

(Washington, D.C.) - Tentative agreement was reached in the record nine-week nationwide coal miner's strike last Monday in the wake of dwindling stockpiles which have dropped to critical levels in some parts of the country.

The longest coal strike in American history continues, however, while the union's 39-man bargaining council and finally the 160,000 United Mine Workers' (UMV) rank-and-file members decide whether or not to ratify the pact worked out by UMW President Arnold Miller and the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA), the coal industry's bargaining arm.

A key issue which could possibly stop approval of the tentative accord is the coal industry's effort to end wildcat strikes. Miller is already under attack in the coal fields for agreeing to an industry proposal that would fine individual miners as much as $22 a day for engaging in wildcat work stoppages. Also, leaders of wildcat strikes could be discharged.

In what many coal miners have charged is a sellout. Miller agreed to a "worthless" concession by the owners, a so-called mutual responsibility provision. It would levy penalties against the mine operators for wildcat strikes found by independent arbitrators to have been provoked by mine management.

Following the February 6 agreement, it will take at least 10 days before the full membership decides whether to accept the contract, and if it is ratified, it probably will be late this month before the mines can be operating at near normal levels aging.

In recent weeks, many utility companies in the Midwest and central Appalachians have reported coal stockpiles down below 30-day reserve levels, federal officials say. Some industries are expected to close for lack of coal-generated power even if the strike ends quickly.

Some 28,000 non-miners nationwide have been idled by the strike.

While the three-year contract includes a wages increase of $2.35 per hour, provisions for the restoration of the union's health and welfare funds, the other major issue in the walkout, which the owners have tied to the non-wildcat strike clause, may prove to be unacceptable to the miners.

The owners have sabotaged the union's health and welfare benefits by linking them to total production. With the serious reduction in coal mined by wildcat strikes -- unauthorized work stoppages by miners to protest the coal industry's frequent refusal to adhere to various agreements in past contracts -- the miners have been left with no benefits at all.

For the first time since the strike began on December 6, with owners boasting of record stockpiles of coal, the now dwindling reserves and the bitter winter weather of the last three weeks have forced the coal industry to heed some of the miners demands.

About two weeks ago, coal supplies at power plants in Ohio and parts of Kentucky, western Pennsylvania and Indiana were reduced to drastically low levels.

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This led to hysterical demands for President Carter to intervene to force a strike settlement by panicked governors in the affected states, headed by James A. Rhodes of Ohio.

Nonetheless, the miners have remained staunch in their determination. Last week more than 200 riot-equipped state troopers, firing tear gas and under a heavy barrage of small arms fire, stormed through nearly 200 striking miners to escort seven non-strikers from a house near the Cupps mine in Oakman, Alabama. The militant UMW members were attempting to prevent the scab coal workers from sabotaging the walkout.

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Attorney For Jo Anne Little Faces Disbarment

(Raleigh, N.C.) - North Carolina attorney Jerry Paul will go on trial here in April on charges stemming from his 1974 defense of JoAnne Little. charges which could lead to his disbarment from the practice of law.

Paul has been an unpopular figure in North Carolina since he, with the help of some other attorneys, including those from the Southern Poverty Law Center, won Ms. Little's acquittal on charges of murdering the jail guard who raped her.

Paul exposed both racism and sexism in the legal system and did it in such a way that many powerful North Carolina figures became very angry. After the trial, he was tried and convicted for contempt of court and that charge will be used against him again in the disbarment proceedings.

Denise Leary, one of paul's volunteer attorneys, said his defense has been hindered by denial of motions for discovery of evidence and by a lack of funds.

In all, there are seven charges against paul, but Ms. Leary said the issue boils down to "a question of proper standards" in deciding what a lawyer can and cannot say about his client.

Paul is charged with professional conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice because he made statements to the news media in which he allegedly called the presiding judge "old-fashioned" and said the North Carolina legal system was "racist" and that his client was "innocent,"

Paul is accused of making "self-laudatory" statements which would attract clients (a lawyer is forbidden from seeking clients), partly because he allegedly called himself "a freedom fighter."

One of the problems in raising money for Paul's defense is that people take the changes lightly, Ms. Leary said. "People read the complaint and can't believe this is serious, but they are They want to stop Jerry from practicing law.

"This is very much an issue of free speech," Ms. Leary said.

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Tubman Stamp Issued

(Washington, D.C.) - A commemorative stamp honoring Black abolitionist leader Harriet Tubman, the first Black woman to ever appear on a U.S. postage stamp, was issued here on February 1.

Ms. Tubman risked her life over 30 times to lead runaway slaves to freedom in the North and in Canada on the "Underground Railroad." The first day issuance ceremony was held at the Metropolitan AME Episcopal Church and will be followed by a procession and luncheon at the Mayflower Hotel.

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REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE

Huey P. Newton

"China"

Continuing with the chapter "China" from Revolutionary Suicide, Black Panther Party Founder and chief theoretician Huey P. Newton concludes his description of his 1971 trip to the People's Republic of China. In the chapter "The Defection of Eldridge Cleaver and Reactionary Suicide" Huey explains how the Party had defected from the community while he was in prison.

Everything I saw in China demonstrated that the People's Republic is a free and liberated territory with a socialist government. The way is open for people to gain their freedom and determine their own destiny. It was an amazing experience to see in practice a revolution that is going forward at such rapid rate. To see a classless society in operation is unforgettable. Here, Marx's dictum -- from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs -- is in operation.

But I did not go to China Just to admire. I went to learn and also to criticize, since no society is perfect. There was little, however, to find fault with. The Chinese insist that you find something to criticize. They believe strongly in the most searching self-examination, in criticism of others and, in turn, of self. As they say, without criticism the hinges on the door begin to squeak.

It is very difficult to pay them compliments. Criticize us, they would say, because we are a backward country, and I always replied, "No, you are an underdeveloped country." I did have one criticism to make during a visit to a steel factory.

This factory had thick black smoke pouring into the air. I told the Chinese that in the United States there is pollution because factories are spoiling the air; in some places the people can hardly breathe. If the Chinese continue to develop their industry rapidly, I said, and without awareness of the consequences, they will also make the air unfit to breathe. I talked with the factory workers, saying that man is nature but also in contradiction nature, because contradictions are the ruling principle of the universe. Therefore, although they were trying to raise their levels of living, they might also negate the progress if they failed to handle that contradiction in a rational way. I explained that man opposes nature, but man is also the internal contradiction in nature.

Therefore, while he is trying to reverse the struggle of opposites based upon unity, he might also eliminate himself. they understood this and said they are seeking ways to remedy this problem.

My experiences in China reinforced my understanding of the revolutionary process and my belief in the necessity of making a concrete analysis of concrete conditions. The Chinese speak with great pride about their history and their revolution and mention often the invincible thoughts of Chairman Mao Tsetung.

But they also tell you, "This was our revolution based upon a concrete analysis of concrete conditions, and we cannot direct you, only give you the principles. It is up to you to make the correct creative application."

It was a strange yet exhilarating experience to have traveled thousands of miles, across continents, to hear their words. For this is what Bobby Seale and I had concluded in our own discussions five years earlier in Oakland, as we explored ways to survive the abuses of the capitalist system in the Black communities of America. Theory was not enough, we had said. We knew we had to act to bring about change.

Without fully realizing it then, we were following Mao's belief that "if you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience."

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“The Defection Of Eldridge Cleaver”

"We must undoubtedly criticize wrong ideas of every description. It certainly would not be right to refrain from criticism, look on whole wrong ideas spread unchecked and allow them to monopolize the field. Mistakes must be criticized and poisonous weeds fought wherever they crop up."

Chairman Mao

A revolutionary party is under continual stress from both internal and external forces. By its very nature a political organization dedicated to social change invites attack from the established order, constantly vigilant to destroy it. This danger is taken for granted by the committed revolutionary. Indeed, oppression first shaped the spirit ofresistance within him, and so it can neither defeat nor destroy his resolve. But he has two far greater enemies -- the failure of vision and the loss of the original revolutionary concept. Either of these can lead to alienation from those the revolutionary seeks to set free. Eldridge Cleaver was guilty of both.

When I came out of prison in August, 1970, the Party was in a shambles. This was understandable for a number of reasons; Bobby and I had been off the streets and in jail for a long time, and it had been difficult to direct they Party on a day-to-day basis from prison cells. Then, too, the Party was harassed and beleaguered, Intelligence organizations throughout the country had become obsessed with the desire to destroy the Black Panther Party. Many of the brothers had been hunted down, imprisoned, or killed.

These external assaults were formidable. But there was a far more serious reason for the party's difficulties, one that threatened its very raison d'etre: the Party was heading down the road to reactionary suicide. Under the influence of Eldridge Cleaver, it had lost sight of its initial purpose and become caught up in irrelevant causes. Estranged from Black people who could not relate to it, the Black Panther Party had defected from the community.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Art Program: OAKLAND COMMUNITY SCHOOL - A MODEL IN ACTION

The following is Part 7 of a series of articles on the educational program of the model elementary level Oakland Community School (OCS), which has been cited by the California legislature for having "defied the myth of the uneducable child." This week's article features the Art curriculum.

PART 7

(Oakland, Calif.) - Art education in American public schools primarily focuses on the study of art for art's sake. Children are taught to admire certain works or styles of art, which, in essence is little more than art appreciation.

Children at the OCS, however, learn that art is a means of self-expression and individual creativity and that far from being an abstract discipline, art can be a tool used for the liberation of Black and poor people.

In Levels 1-3 OCS art classes provide instruction in how to draw the human body. The children are made aware of the different parts of the body, such as the arms, legs, nose, ears and hands -- body parts that are commonly left out when children ages 2½-5 draw figures.

The study of the three geometric shapes is also introduced in the primary skills art classes. The children learn how to identify, draw and create different things from circles, squares and triangles.

Moving into colors, the children learn that red, blue and yellow are the primary colors and that by various mixtures of these colors, they can obtain the secondary colors, of green, purple and orange. Knowledge of colors then permits the children to learn the techniques of watercoloring.

In the area of art history, the children compare art in other countries. The information they obtain about other cultures from their Social Science classes gives them a better understanding of non-American art foams. They are introduced to Chinese, Japanese, Latin American, Native American and African art and make projects characteristic of each culture.

One of the most popular parts of the OCS Art curriculum is the making of different crafts. Using a variety of materials, such as paper, tin, plastic, miscellaneous "scrap" materials and bottles, the children create attractive crafts, many of which are purchased by their parents and other people in the community.

As the children move into Levels 4-6, those interested, experiment in drawing human portraits. This skill develops in relation to the children's ability to draw the parts of the human figure in proportion.

Other topics covered in art classes for the older children are the use of perspective in drawings and the concepts of texture and shadows.

In addition to their regular classes, trips to art museums provide the children with an opportunity to observe the variety of ways human beings express their wants, desires and needs through art.

For example, an art assignment in which the children are asked to draw their community the way they want it to look can be very revealing for a group of Black and poor children, such as those who attend the OCS.

Children at the OCS are encouraged to learn at their own pace. Since art is largely an individual's expression of the world around him or her, the School's art instructors help each of the children to feel comfortable with their own particular style.

OCS children learn that art should not be for art's sake alone, but for people's sake -- a means for people to come up with creative solutions to the problems with which they daily struggle.

TO BE CONTINUED

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“Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace, Friendship”: CUBA TO HOST 11th WORLD FESTIVAL OF YOUTH AND STUDENTS

(Havana, Cuba) - Spirited preparations are currently in full swing for the upcoming 11th World Festival of Youth and Students in Havana, Cuba, July 28 to August 5.

The Festival will bring together youth from over 140 countries. "Anti-imperialist solidarity, peach and friendship" is the slogan of the Cuban delegation. These aspirations undoubtably unite the thousands of young people who will gather at the Festival, and the millions more they represent in national and international youth and student organizations.

The delegations will be made up of people with a wide range of political views, and life experiences: cultural figures, young legislators, athletes, artists, activists, women and men, people of all races and religions.

For two weeks. Havana will become the young people's capital of the world. Through meetings and discussions, sports events, dancing and entertainment, and conversations into the night, Festival participants will get to know one another, and to appreciate the culture, history, and ideas that each delegation brings to the Festival movement.

The 10th World Youth Festival was held in Berlin, East Germany, in 1973 and was attended by more than 20,000 young people. It was in the aftermath of World War II that the youth of 70 countries founded the Festival movement and met in Prague for the First World Festival. Created in the spirit of the fight against fascism and for peace, the Festival movement has since contributed to the development of joint activities by large numbers of youth and students around the world in the continued pursuit of peace and freedom.

Since Cuba as selected as the site of the 1978 Festival, its people and especially its youth have engaged in a long and hard-working period of preparations. A First National Festival of Youth and Students was attended by more than 500,000 people, young and old, in Havana. Also, thousands of pine trees were planted by Cuban youth in the eastern section of Havana near the La Guayaba dam.

In Cuba it is a great honor to be selected to the delegation which will officially represent the host country at the Festival. Delegates, which are chosen in spirited public elections, regard themselves as being honored to represent the transformation which has taken place here since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

A moving appeal to the youth of Cuba by the Young Communist League (UJC), which was reprinted in the daily Gramma newspaper, certainly shows the exemplary attitude and vanguard role Cuban youth are playing in laying a foundation for peace and freedom throughout the world in generations to come.

"In this year of the 11th Festival, of the centennial of the Protest of Bargain and of the 25th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Garrison the young people of Cuba reaffirm before their people their determination to work with great zeal so that this event will be a new and great victory and so that our country can be a magnificent backdrop for Fidel's moving remarks:

"Together, our young people will experience new and better fruits of the heart and mind of man! Together, our young people will experience loftier feelings of brotherhood!

"The profound significance of our Revolution will make itself felt at the Festival and in the deeply-felt aspirations of the meeting of the revolutionary, democratic and progressive youth movement inspired by the watchword of `anti-imperialist solidarity, peace and friendship.'"

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THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY PROGRAM MARCH 29, 1972 PLATFORM

WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE BELIEVE

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

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

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.

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

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

We believe that this racist government has robbed us and 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.

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Intercommunal News: ETHIOPIA IN CONFLICT: War Of Words Over Horn Of Africa Heats Up

(Washington, D.C.) - Frustrated by a political situation in the Horn of Africa that limits U.S. options, the Carter administration is challenging the Soviet Union's large-scale military support for Ethiopia in an escalating war of words.

In his State of the Union message, the President warned that there is a "danger that the Soviet Union and Cube will commit their own soldiers" to the war between Somalia and Ethiopia, "transforming it from a local war to a confrontation with broader strategic implications."

Earlier, at a news conference, Carter assailed the Soviet Union's "unwarranted interference" in the Horn. He said Washington had complained to Moscow in "very strong terms" about continuing shipments of Soviet arms to Ethiopia and what he termed Moscow's "dispatching Cubans into Ethiopia." U.S. sources estimate that Moscow has delivered $1 billion worth of military supplies to Addis Ababa.

In a blistering reply, the Soviet Union accused Carter of "deliberate distortion of the true state of affairs," saying he "ignored the fact that an aggression had been committed" against Ethiopia by Somalia, and that the West had initially egged Somalia on to invade and occupy Ethiopia's Ogaden region last summer.

The Carter administration is under growing pressure from allies in Europe and the Middle

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East to move beyond words to actively challenge Moscow's support for Ethiopia, Internews editor Steve Talbot reports. According to a January 12 report by conservative columnists Evans and Novak, "Behind the public pomp and oratory of his world tour, President Carter was warned by leaders in Western Europe and the Persian Gulf that the U.S. must `countervailing pressure' to deepening Soviet intrusion in Ethiopia or risk signaling that the antai-Communist world in the end may lose by default."

Evans and Novak are not the only domestic critics who have an apocalyptic view of Moscow's role in the Horn. In a January 15 New York Times column, liberal James Reston placed the Ethiopian-Somali war in the context of what he sees as a global Soviet challenge to U.S. power.

"The first question under discussion in Washington," Reston said, "is why the Communists are being so active and provocative not only in Ethiopia and Angola, but in the politics of Italy, France and Portugal. And the second question is what should be done about it."

Somali President Siad Barre charges that the Soviet Union and Cuba are planning to back an "imminent" full-scale Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, which would give Moscow "control" over Ethiopia's 33 million people as well as Somalia's strategic coastline.

But the Soviet Union and Ethiopia both vehemently deny that Ethiopia plans to invade Somalia. Many observers agree.

A Soviet-backed invasion would bring immediate condemnation from the Organization of African Unity, create an international crisis, and provide the United States, Western European powers, Iran and Saudi Arabia with a justification for intervention on behalf of Somalia. The Soviet Union is not likely to risk such a major confrontation over Somalia.

The Soviets, Cubans and Ethiopians insist that their objective in the Somali-Ethiopian war is to counter Somalia's occupation of the Ogaden desert -- nearly one-third of Ethiopia. The issue of Somali aggression -- never mentioned by Reston or by Evans and Novak -- has, in fact, won tacit OAU approval for the Soviet-Cuban effort on behalf of Ethiopia.

Borders are an extremely sensitive issue in Africa. The OAU states in its charter that African nations, for better or worse, must accept the boundaries drawn by colonial powers in order to avoid a rash of fratricidal borders wars.

Somalia -- which claims territory in Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti inhabited by ethnic Somalis -- has never accepted the OAU position, and consequently has little support from even the most anti-Soviet African nations for its conquest of the Ogaden.

As long as Ethiopia confines itself to ousting Somalia from the Ogaden, few if any African countries will publicly take Somalia's side -- even though many of them are hostile to the Ethiopian regime.

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WIDELY-ACCLAIMED AUTHOR WHISKED OFF BY POLICE: KENYA JAILS LITERARY CRITIC OF NEOCOLONIAL RULE

(Nairobi, Kenya) - Like the other political dissidents in Kenya novelist and playwright Ngugi We Othiong'o lived with the irony that his success in mobilizing the dispossessed raised the likelihood of his disappearance from public life.

Kenya's foremost writer, Ngugi has long worn a reputation as a leftist, but it was only this past December that his sharp critiques of Kenyan society landed him in prison. Following the banning of a political play co-authored by Ngugi and acted by a company of peasants before standing-room only crowds, the 41-year-old writer was whisked off by police in the early morning hours of December 31.

Since then Kenyan authorities have refrained from comment on his fate, except to say that his detention falls under public security laws. The police unit that arrested Ngugi found in his home a quantity of Chinese and other banned Marxist literature, and told his wife he would be held briefly for interrogation, Africa News reports.

Ngugi's most recent play, Ngahlik Ndenda, deals with a tenant farmer who is swindled out of his small holding by wealthy landlords. Rooted in Kenyan history, the drama portrays the peasants who fought against colonial rule in the Mau Mau rebellion as today's downtrodden, while those Kenyans loyal to the British end up with positions of power.

Ngahlika Ndenda was performed to packed houses for a month in the Kiambu village community center before the local district commissioner halted the production on grounds that it stirred up old animosities. Cancellation of the play left Ngugi and other sponsors, who had poured some $10,000 of borrowed funds into the construction of a community theater, in a desperate financial situation.

Prior to the opening of the play, Ngugi had been tolerated by the government he implicitly criticized in other writings. His widely-acclaimed novel Petals of Blood, which continues to sell rapidly in Kenyan bookshops, was launched in early 1977 with the blessings of none other than Finance Minister Mwai Kibaki.

Ngugi has held the chairmanship of the University of Nairobi's literature department for several years. Prior to that he taught at Northwestern University in the United States, at the University of Leeds in England, and at Uganda's Makerere University.

His first three novels, Weep Not Child (1964). The River Between (1965), and A Grain of Wheat (1967), deal largely with problems of colonial influence on Kenyan society in the pre-independence era. Petals of Blood, five years in the writing, shifts emphasis to the inequities of what Ngugi charges is neocolonial system in Kenya.

Other dissidents of Ngugi's statue have been jailed, fired or killed when their influence could be seen in grassroots action -- a phenomenon that he describes in Petals of Blood. The author's own

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case is little different, as indicated by a recent article in the influential Weekly Review, which criticized Ngugi for excessive zeal: an "inability to relate to the limits of an author's operation… in areas where ideas, however noble, can be translated into actions which then have far-reaching implications for the general pattern of law and order."

His latest novel, Petals of Blood, is both an impassioned outcry against the Kenyan power structure, and a complex tale of inter-woven lives of three men and one woman, spun against the backdrop of dramatic social upheavals. Friends of the author speculate that the book escaped being banned in Kenya solely because it was published in London (by Heinemann) and written in English -- a language which can be read only by Kenya's educated elite.

While the brief excerpts presented here can do no more than hint at the subtle character developments which bring the book to life, they do distill some of the ideas which have earned its author a jail cell.

The book begins with the murder of three prominent businessmen whose enterprises have brought swift changes to a pastoral village. Munira, the schoolteacher, one of four people suspected of the killings, describes the atmosphere:

"Who could not feel the subterranean currents of unrest in the country? Schoolboys and girls on strike…workers downing their tools…housewives holding processions and shouting obscene slogans in protest against high food prices; armed robbers holding up banks in daylight with crowds cheering; women refusing to be relegated to the kitchen and bedroom, demanding equal places in men's former citadel of power and privilege -- all these would try the nerves of those entrusted by the ruling classes of this world with maintaining man's ordained order and law.

"In my mind I now put this wretched corner beside our cities; skyscrapers versus mud walls and grass thatch; tarmic highways international airports and gambling casinos versus cattlepaths and gossip before sunset. Our erstwhile masters had left us with a very unevenly cultivated land; the centre was swollen with fruit and water sucked from the rest, while the outer parts were progressively weaker and scraggier as one moved away from the centre."

"Within a few months time the villages of Ilmorog see their old patterns of life slip away, as leading Kenyans enter into joint ventures with foreign corporation and banks. Nyakinyua is one whose ancestral plot of land is swallowed up by the new order:

"She was not alone: a whole lot of peasants and herdsmen of Old Ilmorog who had been lured into loans and into fencing off their land and buying imported fertilizers and were unable to pay back were similarly affected. Without much labor, without machinery, without breaking with old habits and outlook, and without much advice they had not been able to make the land yield enough to met their food needs and pay back the loans. Some had used the money to pay school fees. Now the inexorable law of the mental power [money power] was driving them from the land.

"Munira folded the newspaper and went to Wanja's place to break the news…news of the threatened sale must have reached them to. They had come to commiserate with her and others similarly affected, to weep with one another. They looked baffled: how could a bank sell their land? A bank was not a government…what kind of monster was this bank that was a power unto itself, that could uproot lives of thousand years?"

-- 18 --

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ASSASSINATION OF AMILCAR CABRAL

January 20, 1978, marked the fifth anniversary of the tragic assassinating of Amilear Cabral, founder and Secretary-General of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands (PAIGC), the first of Portugal's three major African colonies to achieve liberation after over 400 years of colonial repression. The following is the conclusion of a fascinating account of Cabral's assassination, reprinted from Cuba's Tricontinental magazine.

CONCLUSION

Before the operation of January 20, 1973, which would end with the assassination of the great nationalist leader, Barbieri Cardoso went to Bissau on several occasions. He conferred with Spinola who, although he was up-to-date on the case, did not want to be the person directly responsible for it. The governor entrusted the operation to one of his confidence men, Major Mario Firmino Miguel, at that time in charge of the COE (Special Works Center).

(Following the coup d'etat of April 25, Mario Firmino Miguel would be named minister of defense by Spinola. During the crisis of July, 1974, Spinola even tried to make him prime minister. But the Movement of the Armed Forces reacted and imposed General Vasco Conclaves at the head of the government. Mario Firmino Miguel retained his minister of defense functions and abandoned them only when Spinola renounced the presidency of the Republic on September 30, 1974).

To ensure the success of the plot of January 20, 1973, the army's collaboration with the PIDE-DGS was essential. In the months preceding the assassination, Major Firmino Miguel placed at the disposition of the political police several men -- African -- whose objective it was to infiltrate the ranks of the PAIGC. In Conakry, the major's confidence man was Inocencio Kani, one of PAIGC's naval cadre. He was linked to former leaders of PAIGC held in the movement's prison in Ratoma, near Conakry. In addition, Inocencio Kani maintained ties with the head of the PAIGC prison who would release the prisoners on the night of January 20.

The details of the operation were completed in Bissau at the end of 1972. Mario Firmino Miguel and Barbieri Cardoso believed the kidnapping of Cabral and Pereira would cause no problems. Several PAIGC launches would leave Conakry, carrying Cabral and Pereira tied up, to surrender them to the Portuguese. In order to ensure the success of the operation, Firmino Miguel decided to send a Portuguese naval unit off the coast of Conakry in order to cover the withdrawal of the PAIGC boats and take over the two prisoners as rapidly as possible.

At first, J-Day was set for January 15. But at the end of the month, Cabral went to Accra to participate in a conference and then to Bissau. The date of his return wasn't certain. So the operation was postponed.

-- 24 --

J-Day was definitely set: January 20. The date was particularly appropriate. That afternoon, a member of the executive committee of FRELIMO, Joaquim Chissano (today prime minister) held a conference in which a large number of PAIGC members participated. In the general headquarters in Ratoma, Inocencio Kani's confidence men were ready to ensure "cover."

Late in the afternoon of the 20th, in the port of Bissau, a Portuguese ship weighed anchor under the captaincy of an officer, Marcelino d'Amata, who maintained radio contact with Inocencio Kani, in Ratoma.

At 22:30 (10:30 p.m.), Amilcar Cabral and his wife, Ana Maria, left the residence of the Polish ambassador. The route from general headquarters was blocked by a Soviet jeep. Among its occupants: Inocencio Kani.

What happened then is well known: Kani, machinegun in hand invited Cabral to follow him and tried to tie him up. The leader's violent reaction made him lose his cool. Maddened, he fired. Cabral fell wounded. A few minutes later he was shot again and killed. Ana Maria was seized by Kani's men who took her to the PAIGC prison from which the political prisoners had meanwhile been released.

At general headquarters other men penetrated into Aristides Pereira's office and were able to tie him up and take him to the port where they forced him to mount one of the PAIGC launches that immediately put out to sea.

But even as the boats took off from Conakry, the strike had already failed. Near PAIGC general headquarters, Guinean security had been alerted by the shots. Then the PAIGC militants who had participated in the FRELIMO conference began to reach their homes and many of them went to general headquarters.

Forty-five minutes after Cabral's assassination, Sekou Toure was already aware of what had happened. The two PAIGC launches carrying Aristides Pereira hadn't been gone for more than a quarter of an hour. Inocencio Kani, who took command, requested radio instructions from Marcelino d'Amata, who was in contact with Bissau. Radio orders also went out from Bissau to the Portuguese cover ship and the two PAIGC launches, which retransmitted them to the men in Ratoma.

But two fast units of the Guinean Navy were already i