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AT EASE: VINCE MATTHEWS AND WAYNE COLLETT IGNORE TRADITION AT MUNICH OLYMPICS

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AT EASE: VINCE MATTHEWS AND WAYNE COLLETT IGNORE TRADITION AT MUNICH OLYMPICS

The 1972 Olympic Games have not strayed in the slightest from its sordid history of condoning and practicing racism against Black athletes.

With every event that Black, Asian and other athletes of color have participated in during the Olympic Games, a controversy was to be expected; there was always a racist ruling against us by Olympic officials. Black athletes around the world have protested the bias and racism at the Olympics

The 1972 summer Olympics began with Black protest. The International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) made a decision to allow the racist and apartheid (separatist) country of Rhodesia admittance to the games, Black athletes threatened to boycott the games if Rhodesia participated in them. In the face of this threatened all Black walk-out, Olympic officials were forced to rescind their invitation to Rhodesia. However, they sought revenge against the Black athletes later. Events that Blacks had clearly won were said to have been won by white athletes. Black runners were pushed off of the track by racist white athletes as they participated in races. Two Brothers, Eddie Hart and Ray Robinson, were disqualified from track races because they were purposefully given the wrong starting time for their trial runs.

It is not surprising that Black atheletes would retaliate against the revenge of the Olympic racists. On Tuesday, September 7, 1972, Brothers Vince Matthews and Wayne Collett won the gold and silver medals in the 400-meter race at the Olympics. While they stood on the victory stand, the band played America's National Anthem; but Matthews and Collett did not stand at attention. They chatted with each other and stood casually while the racist spectators booed and whistled. The two brothers actions bring to mind the Mexico City, Olympic Games of 1968, where Tommy Smith and John Carlos gave the clenched fist salute while receiving the medals they had won.

In the Olympic Games of 1968, the question of racist Rhodesia's participation in the games also spurred Black protest. Many African nations threatened to withdraw unless segregationist Rhodesia was excluded from the Olympics. The protests of Smith and Carlos caused both of them to be kicked out of the Olympic Village by the International Olympic Committee.

The I.O.C. immediately banned (for life) Collett and Matthews from participation in the games, but it is doubtful that the two Brothers care at all. They have no reason to. Both have seen and experienced how Blacks are treated abroad at the Olympics and at `home' in the United States. The (United States) National Anthem, in Brother Collett's estimation, "does not represent the true attitude of whites toward Blacks". In regard to the racist crowd who jeered at their protest, Vince Matthews said: "If I knew the people were going to boo and whistle, I would really have given them a show."

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When they left the victor's stairs with their medals, they began to twirl them nonchalantly on their chains. Soon after this, Howard Cosell, one of the ABC sports commentators asked them why they did it- why they refused to give respect to the `National Anthem'; why both of them stood on the No. 1 tier of the victor's stairs (they came in first and second). The officials were confused and upset, but Vince Matthews and Wayne Collett were quite pleased. They did not feel it was a protest at all. After the disrespect shown the Black athletes, they felt at ease accepting their medals and walking away. They won them. They ran for them. They waded through all the nasty, racist actions and remarks for them.

This is only the beginning, people all over the world are rising in anger at the way in which America and its European friends treat people of color. This summer the Olympic games became the avenue of expression for oppressed people's deep-seated hatred for racism and anti-freedom. After thinking about the inequalities in the respect that was to be given to the Americans and supposedly received by people of color, Wayne Collett said it perfectly, "As long as we don't embarrass them (the Americans) here, it's all right." This time the arrogant United States was wrong -they got embarrassed in Munich from the beginning to the end and the people of the world looked on.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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THE COURT CAN'T SILENCE RUCHELL

The trial of Ruchell Magee, lone survivor of the August 7th Uprising (in which Comrades Jonathan Jackson, William Christmas, and James McClain were viciously murdered by fascist prison guards and State police) will finally begin on October 11, 1972. The charges against Ruchell are murder, kidnapping and conspiracy and the State of California intends to convict him of all of them. According to "law" in California, Ruchell would get a mandatory death sentence if convicted. With the ban on the death penalty, in California, this means a slow death -- a life sentence.

Since the original indictment was returned against him, Ruchell has demanded -- in a number of pre-trial hearings -- the right to act as his own attorney, and has repeatedly introduced many motions by which he attempts to defend himself against the biased judicial system of the State of California. They are: (1) That the "law" demanding the death penalty for an inmate who "attacks" a non-inmate be declared unconstitutional. (2) To obtain a dismissal of the charges on the grounds that he was not afforded a speedy trial as "guaranteed" by the U.S. Constitution. (3) That his case be tried in a Federal court, where the current judge in his case, Morton Colvin, a well-known racist, would have no legal jurisdiction.

Judge Colvin has repeatedly denied Ruchell the right to act as his own attorney. He (Colvin) cancelled a previous court order from Judge Leonard Ginsberg, which allowed Ruchell to act as co-counsel in his trial. Colvin, who never fears displaying his racism, has insisted that all court business be conducted by Ruchell's court appointed attorney, Robert Carrow, and that Ruchell could in no way address the court. Ruchell continues to speak out

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against these injustices.

The means the State is attempting to use to keep Ruchell Magee from defending himself will be to have him declared "incompetent" (ignorant of courtroom law and therefore unable to adequately defend himself). There have been a number of determinations made by various judges, in pre-trial hearings, that Ruchell is incompetent. These determinations have been made without concern for the fact that Ruchell is not in a position to produce witnesses or evidence in his own behalf to disprove the "incompetency" lie.

As a matter of fact, the judicial system of California seems to have conveniently forgotten the brilliance Ruchell has shown in the courtroom, in regard to law. Through his knowledge of law, Ruchell has managed to challenge the right of eight racist judges to preside over his case. This challenge resulted in all eight of the judges being disqualified due to Ruchell's perfectly structured legal motions.

The court has destroyed its own argument by trying to convince the people that Ruchell is an "illiterate". The State's Prosecutor, Eric Collins, stated that Ruchell should be denied a typewriter in his cell because "it is an instrument that can be turned into a weapon by an ingenious person".

Another trick used by the State in its plan to destroy Ruchell is to assign him to a variety of lawyers; court appointed "defenders" who have tried to persuade Ruchell not to represent himself in court. One after another, Ruchell has "dismissed" these tools of the court, and has remained firm in his insistence on acting as his own counsel.

The pre-trial hearings of Ruchell Magee are continuing in San Francisco, California. They have settled into an ugly pattern: Judge Colvin convenes the hearings by telling Ruchell to "behave himself". Ruchell then proceeds to produce his legal documents and argue his motions, purposefully unaware of Judge Colvin's warning to remain silent.

On September 7, 1972, when the trial date was set for Ruchell, it had been more than two years since the August 7th Movement; more than four months since Angela Davis, Ruchell's former co-defendant, was acquitted of the same phoney charges for which he has become the State's sole scapegoat.

Ruchell Magee, the only survivor of that day, August 7th in San Rafael, California, has fought a long and bitter battle against the courts of California, and the attempts of the men who run them to rob him of his life.

His struggle is our struggle, Brother Ruchell deserves the support of the entire Black community, of all poor and oppressed people who feel strangled by the hang man's rope of American "justice".

Just as we, the people, helped to free political prisoners across the country from the cluthes of the jails and prisons, so must we free Ruchell Magee. He is our brother and must not be forgotten.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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SISTERS HALT PRODUCTION AT FOREMOST: RACISM AT FOREMOST COMPANY SPARKS BLACK WOMEN WORKER'S STRIKE

Black and poor people throughout the United States have, in steadily increasing numbers, found that it is virtually impossible to obtain adequate and meaningful employment. If, however, Black people are "fortunate" enough to acquire employment from the racist businesses of America, we quickly learn that we were "accepted" not out of concern for our poverty but usually out of the necessity for these businesses to obtain a few more Black slaves. We are underpaid, overworked, harassed and discriminated against by these businesses at every turn, and if we complain we are shown the way out to the street, to unemployment.

In Oakland, California, there is one such company, Foremost-McKesson's Computer Services Center, located at 5400 Telegraph Avenue. Foremost is a big business with many different money making operations. While it is primarily known for its milk and dairy products, Foremost's other operations include liquor stores and supermarkets. At its office building in Oakland, there is a Data Processing Department. The workers in this department are mainly Black women, who belong to Local 29 Office and Professional Employees Union.

These women have suffered countless abuses from the racist business officials at Foremost. They have recently been harassed by two white officials in particular: William Rainford, the Data Processing Manager, and Charles Reese, a supervisor. Both Rainford and Reese, in upholding the company policy of discrimination, have gone out of their way to harass and intimidate the Black women workers at Foremost in their efforts to keep them in "line".

One such instance is the case surrounding the firing of Rose Abrams, who was a shop steward at Foremost until September 6, 1972. Previously, on Saturday, September 2nd, she called in sick to Foremost and was told to bring in a doctor's slip whenever she returned to work (when an employee is ill and has to leave work, they are sometimes required to bring to their place of employment a statement from a doctor, verifying that they were `honestly' ill). Sister Rose Abrams came to work on Tuesday but did not have the statement from her doctor. She had been trying to get the required statement earlier that morning, but she had to leave the hospital where she was treated because

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she wanted to work for a least five hours on that day. She was then told by the manager, William Rainford, that she was suspended from her job until she produced the doctor's slip. On the next day, Rose Abrams brought in the required statement from her doctor, only to be told by racist Rainford that the statement was not "bonafied". She was then told that her services were no longer needed, and that she was to leave the premises of Foremost immediately.

Another Black shop steward, Alice Bartley, outlined a number of grievances Black women workers voiced against Foremost: they are constantly being intimidated for minor things, such as being a few minutes late for work; they are the victims of constant verbal harassment, physical threats and forced overtime work.

At the time Rose Abrams was fired, a sister employed at Foremost, Barbara Duke, asked William Rainer why the Black workers were treated so badly by the white managment staff from day-to-day. Supervisor Charles Reese intervened for Rainer and told Barbara Duke that she was then suspended from work for a one week period.

To be Black and female in America is to feel even more intensely the nature of this society. Of oppressed people in this country, Black women are not given the respect due a `beast of burden'. Not only does she suffer the abuse offered a race of supposedly `inferior' people, but she suffers the added abuse offered the supposedly weaker, less capable sex.

On September 8, 1972, the Black women workers of Foremost decided to strike in support of Sister Rose Abrams, who had been unjustly fired from her job, and also to support Sister Barbara Duke, who merely questioned the racist practices of the Foremost Company and was `punished' with suspension.

The entire union, Local 29, has joined the picket lines in allegiance with the striking Black sisters. Black, white, Spanish-speaking and other concerned groups of people have made their demand for Foremost to cease its racist policies. The Black Panther Party, in support of the striking sisters, designated some of its members to walk the picket lines. With community support such as this, the women have promised to carry on the strike until their demands becomes a reality.

What companies like Foremost-McKesson fail to realize is that their business depends upon their workers; that without their employees they have no means of production. The 24-hour picket line that the strikers have formed hurts the company more than its workers. It is ironic that their entire functions are dependent upon the very people it mistreats. Black people have endured a life of suffering, we can face the loss of profit from a job and still survive. Foremost can not survive without labor, for labor produces business. Without business it will be swallowed up by the larger, richer corporations, which like vultures, are waiting for the smell of a dying industry.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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O.E.O ATTEMPTS TO UNSEAT THE COMMUNITY

On August 3, 1972, four community organizations were elected to the Berkeley Community Development Council's Board of Directors; two organizations were re-elected. The four newly elected organizations came under fire from the Office of Economic Opportunity (O.E.O.), both in San Francisco (regional office) and Sacramento (state office), probably with specific instructions from Ronald Reagan himself. On August 9th, they were told that these organizations were not representative of the total community. This is an excuse always used when organizations representing Black and poor people are being discussed.

O.E.O., since it's beginning, has always been known for its misunderstanding of the concept of community. `The community' is not an idea, it is a reality. The programs developed in communities across the country were established to quiet the shouts of poor people. They were designed to put out the fires in the Black, Spanish-speaking and Asian communities, when the summers were too hot, the streets too crowded and the food too scarce.

The letters sent from both the regional and state offices stated that the four organizations -- The Black Student Alliance, The Committee of Prisoners Families and Friends United, The Berkeley Welfare Rights Organization and The Berkeley Black Caucus were neither "from business, industry, labor, religious, private welfare, and private education groups or other significant minority groups and other major private groups and interests in the community". BCDC was enjoined (stopped) from actually seating any groups until such time as the BCDC board met federal requirements. The guidelines were not written to benefit poor people. This is clear to us by the description of the kinds of groups they wanted. Words like `significant' and `major' never apply to poor people.

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of BCDC, on August 15th, two representatives from the OEO offices appeared. One, Douglas Peterson, and the other, a Black man, Ted Carter. They were there to present the need for "fairness, equality, and a broadly based community board." When they were asked why the Black Studen Alliance and the Committee of Prisoners Families and Friends United were singled out, Douglas Peterson calmly said "because they are Black". He had neither investigated their membership nor had he even read their petitions requesting seats on the board. Ted Carter then agreed that it was not racially correct to have so many Black groups on a board that should be 1/3 public organizations, 1/3 private organizations and 1/3 representatives of the poor. This in itself denies their own guidelines; ethnic divisions should have nothing to do with their directive. The letter he wrote stated that the board was now "excessively oriented towards one ethnic group". They quoted sections, clauses, memos, acts and guidelines to the board representatives. None of this even slightly related to the survival of human beings. It was all mere words on paper. They were asked by the board members on September 5th, with the directors of their offices to explain why a `community action program' should not have in its private sector (groups which are not established by the city, state or federal government) people who represent community organizations.

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Ted Carter returned to represent the state and Douglas Peterson returned with C. Mack Hall (Chief of the Northern California Community Support Division of OEO) and the Deputy Regional Attorney Robert Kinney, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent. The meeting was a lesson in deception. They tried to disguise their obviously biased and arrogant statements with rules and policies, written by `professionals' for poor people. They constantly repeated that their only concern was that the business community, the white community be allowed stable seats on the policy-making board of the council. They asked why the American Red Cross, the Police Athletic League, the Boys Club, and the Y.M.C.A. did not get invitations to sit on this board. They said matter-of-factly that these types of organizations could bring money and help into our community.

The Berkeley Welfare Rights Organization was sneered at for being an organization which only serves poor people and the Black Student Alliance was said to only serve Black students. The Berkeley Black Caucus and the Committee of Prisoners Families and Friends United were both only for a particular segment of the community, too small. If they had investigated as thoroughly as they had when the Black Panther Party members were seated, they would have found that the Black Student Alliance reaches all of the junior colleges in the Oakland area and works closely with poor and oppressed students of every ethnic group. The Berkeley Welfare Rights Organization is in service to Black, Asian, Spanish-speaking, Indian and white working mothers who receive AFDC (aid to families with dependent children). The Berkeley Black Caucus trys to solve problems for the whole Berkeley community and the Committee of Prisoners Families and Friends United even busses the loved ones of prisoners of each ethnic group in the community to the prison camps in the state, free of charge. These are the reasons why they wanted them removed from the board and is exactly why the people in the community became angered.

Earlier, on that day, the four organizations gave a press conference in front of one of the BCDC offices. We have reprinted a portion of the press release here:

"In the early 1960's the Johnson Administration dangled another false hope before Black and other oppressed people: `The War on Poverty'. They promised that we would overcome. Millions of dollars poured into Black and oppressed communities through the various local offices of Economic Opportunity that sprang up all over the country.

"Momentarily, we believed, that this dream, this promise was real. It is with this understanding that sectors

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of Berkeley's oppressed community came before the Berkeley Community Development Council to present their programs and proposals for improving and uplifting the standards of living for Berkeley's poor at a board meeting in August.

"We are calling this Press Conference today out of concern for the recent denial by the Regional and State offices of Economic Opportunity to allow certain newly elected community organizations to take their seats as members of the Private Sector of the Berkeley Community Development Council Board of Directors…"

On Thursday, September 7th, at the BCDC board meeting which is open to the community, the people from many community organizations came out in support of the seating of the newly elected members. The meeting began as usual. As the items to be discussed moved to the seating of the new board members, the people from the Berkeley poor community listened quietly to descriptions of the OEO challenge to unseat the organizations. The board's alternative was to be suspended and defunded. This means that OEO would refuse to grant any operational, or usable money for the next funding period. The members of the board who were present at the August 15th and September 5th Executive Committee meetings gave specific examples of the manner in which each directive was handed down without concern or understanding for the Berkeley poor community. It follows the same pattern across the country. OEO is a joke. The `official' dislike of the make-up of the board in the recent past seemed to have some bearing on `official' actions toward the board. (In July, OEO labeled the Black Panther Party subversive and directed BCDC to analyze its moves. At that time the people decided that if the four members seated from the Black Panther Party were subversive then the people who elected them must be. If that is true then, as one senior citizen stated, "…bags of groceries must be subversive…").

Just as the people in the Black community did not allow the members of the Black Panther Party to be unseated, the people refused again to follow the directions of OEO. A motion was made to seat the new organizations and to implement the board's right to self-determination. The motion was unanimously upheld by the older members of the board and the new members were seated.

On the next day, Ted Carter, from the state offices of OEO, announced on radio that he knew nothing of all this talk about self-determination, he only knew that the BCDC Board of Directors was clearly in defiance of federal law (OEO guidelines).

We can only determine what will occur in the future through community support. Just as the people exposed the GIG gang in Oakland, California, we together can begin to expose the OEO `officials' in Berkeley, California. Wherever we are, if the survival of the people is threatened then we must struggle to remove the bearer of the threat from our communities.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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TALKING LOUD AND SAYING NOTHING: REPRESENTATIVE LLOYD BARBEE COMMENTS ON VICE PRESIDENT SPIRO T. AGNEW

Lloyd Barbee is a State Assemblyman running for re-election (in the 6th Assemly District) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. An outspoken political critic, Brother Barbee has often made statements that have opened the eyes of many people.

His statement that follows is about Spiro Agnew, the Vice-President of the United States government:

Vice President Agnew, that verbose peddler of disapproval, has indicated his campaign tactics and rhetoric will be somewhat different this campaign year. The Vice President says his mood will be more conciliatory and that he will no longer be the President's meat-axe man.

However, through his appearance on nationwide television last week, the nation's number two executive became a meathead when he lambasted Black leaders in the U.S.

For the second time in his 4-year rise to national fame, Agnew has advised Blacks that they can learn from their "brothers" in Africa. It is no surprise to me that Agnew and other whites feel they are in the best position to advise Blacks on the appropriate methods for liberation from the evils of racism and poverty which the whites themselves perpetuate.

The Vice President criticized U.S. Black leaders for their "querulous complaints and constant recriminations against the rest of society". Claiming they do not reflect the real opinion of the Black community, Agnew charged the leaders with constantly harping on the inadequacies and just as constantly overlooking the constructive changes.

He further states that Blacks in this country could learn much from secondary Black leaders in Africa. What the Vice President is actually saying is -- despite the plight of Blacks, despite their oppression, and despite all the broken promises, they should keep their chin up and look on the bright side.

In the past, Agnew has not hesitated in citing specific individuals to support his criticism of the press, student activists or the poor. However, in a departure from previous haranguing, he refused to be specific in this case and would not name the Blacks to whom he was referring.

The former governor of Maryland surely makes a fitting running mate for Nixon, who has nixed more programs and progress for Blacks than anyone. It will be interesting to see how recently purchased Black mouths and bodies will explain the new Agnew-Nixon team to garner Black votes.

Perhaps a moral can be drawn here: If you are a white in general, you don't have to be for any Black in particular -- lump em all!

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OAKLAND -- A BASE OF OPERATION!: PART VIII: THE COST OF LIVING

In Part VIII of a continuing series of articles, Oakland- A Base of Operational, the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service will attempt to examine the corrupt and illegal tax rate system imposed upon the people of Oakland. While one aspect of this tax system has already been the subject of our investigation, (See The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service, Vol. VIII #20, August 5, 1972; "Quality Education in Oakland: Where Does Our Tax Money Go?"), the following discussion will focus upon the variety of taxes proposed and accepted by the Oakland City Council, those elected administrators directly responsible to the community for the "smooth" maintenance of the city's functions.

As is the case with most tax increases, the poor always suffer and Black people, in particular, suffer most. In spite of this, the recent tax measures adopted by the Oakland City Council have all called for tax increases in a city in which 12% of the families are "officially poor". (The federal government has established a so-called "poverty line", which claims; that a family of 4 can sustain itself on $4,000 for one year and anything below, that is poverty. While this figure is extremely low, the actual poverty level is probably closer to 20-25% of the population, using this base the city of Oakland is still almost 4% higher than the poverty level for the state of California).

It is hard to understand, when we are told that the population of Oakland is approximately 40% Black people, that in contradiction to the great American ideal of taxation with representation, taxes in Oakland are levied without representation, by the all-white Oakland City Council. Any ideas or proposals for representation according to population of ethnic groups within the larger society have been quickly thrown out.

The city of Oakland and the actions of the Oakland City Council are not isolated instances of greed and corruption existing within city governements. From New York in Chicago, from San Francisco to New Orleans, Black people suffer from high taxes with little or no control over the increases. We focus upon Oakland to expose an inhuman structure which places business interests before people's interests, profits before survival. We can only look to the future, to the candidacy of Bobby Seale for Mayor and Elaine Brown for Oakland City Councilwoman. In this way, united community action can begin to change the very nerve center of this society; change what is backwards to what is progressive and in so doing devise a method for achieving freedom and liberation for us all.

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The recent tax increase approved by the Oakland City Council forces us to re-evaluate the expenditure of funds is the city of Oakland. We already realized that our money which becomes federal taxes is being used to finance the United States war machine in Vietnam and various other defense projects. This disregards the need of the Black and oppressed communities within the country itself. Food, shelter, clothing have all been pushed into the background, while the federal government directs its military might towards the forced enslavement of people in other oppressed communities of the world, in order to create a market for American business. In spite of this open misuse of our hard-earned money, it is sometimes felt that our city taxes are actually used to benefit us. A close investigation will prove this is not the case.

We must look closely at the 11 cents increase in the Oakland city taxes. With this increase, the tax rate for each 100 dollars estimated value on a house has gone from $2.80 per 100 dollars estimated value to $2.91 per 100 dollars estmated value. This means, for instance, that if your home is valued at 5,000 dollars you must pay $145.50 in taxes; if your home and property are valued at 10,000 dollars, you pay $291.00 in taxes. For the majority of Black people, this tax works indirectly, to our disadvantage. Through this tax the landlord is justified in raising the rents, and usually does so by making his rents even higher than the actual amount. In dollars, the taxes will cost to him. Since supermarkets and department stores will be paying more for the large amounts of property they own, food and clothing prices will rise also. Those who will suffer most from this type of legislation, of course, are those people with a fixed income -- mothers on Welfare (A.F.D.C.), senior citizens who recevie social security benefits or assistance, the unemployed who collect state benefits; poor people in general. Black and oppressed people not only feel the tax squeeze in terms of increased taxes on the inadequate property they do own, they must pay higher prices for necessities such as food and clothing. Businesses, particularly, the corporations suffer the least, for them it is a matter of adjusting the prices to increase their profit, if not, they can hold their prices steady, and expand by driving smaller companies or corportations out of business.

The reasons for which this particular tax increase was created are even more insulting to the people. More than half of this increase will be used to finance the Oakland fire and policeman's retirement funds. As any one living within the Black community known, these groups are the two most well-known for destroying the already unsteady lives of the poor. Police and firemen have never served the interests of people, instead they serve property and money. Many homes within the Black community have burned to the ground because the fire trucks arrived late. Or, if they did arrive, they proceeded to unnecessarily as or soak with water those few possessions which might have been saved. The barbarism of the Oakland city police need not be mentioned; their acts of treachery, brutality and murder are a part of our lives. Yet, the city expects the Black community to pay the retirement pensions of man who hold our very lives in contempt; who deprive our families of the very fundamentals for survival, who brutalize, jail and kill us. They have never been concerned about our well-being.

Nearly 3 cents of the 11 cents increase is going to the City Center Redevelopment Project, rather than into the general city fund. This redirection of funds forms the basic for the overall "tax increase finance plan" the Oakland City Council has adopted. Under this devious plan, the Oakland City Council can redirect tax returns from all areas of the city to locations where there was `urban renewal' projects. As a direct slap in the face of Black and other poor communities, the Oakland City Council has allocated ¾ of the money to the downtown central business district. It does not matter that poor people need newer, more adaquate housing. Specifically, $500,000 goes to the City Center garage; $200,000 for parking facilities in the northern section of the business district; $200,000 for City Center public transportaion; and $300,000 for a convention center which the City Council has not even approved.

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These are all luxuries designed for businessmen and working people traveling from the suburbs. This money represents 1.2 million dollars, out of the 1.6 million dollars, this "tax increase" scheme makes available. The money should be provided for the people who need it, not turned into city decorations. Perhaps the full impact of this farce can be felt if we consider that the Oakland City Council has set aside $700,000 for parking cars alone, while the Black and poor communities struggle from day-to-day without even the basic necessities. The Oakland City Council has no real desire to serve the people of the city.

Of the four alternative plans avaliable, the Oakland City Council chose the one plan which denies the Oakland school system $560,000 in tax returns that it would have gained from the downtown business district. As a result, rather than the downtown businesses providing funds for our children's education, the Oakland Board of Education (another unconcerned institution of the government) has raised its tax rates (a tax rate seperate from the one imposed by the City Council) to almost 50 cents more. This is a fantastically high raise considering the poor education our children receive.

This is not all. The people of Oakland now are forced to pay a 6% "transient occupancy tax" on hotel or montel bills (⅔ of this money goes to the already mentioned convention center). This means that if a person stays a night or two in a motel or hotel it is considered translent (non-permanent) occupancy and the person is taxed for it.

Another instance of the city's robbery is the Bay Area Rapid Transit's (BART) ½% gasoline tax (BART makes only one stop in each of the Black communities of both Oakland and San Francisco). Another is the increase in the business liscense tax; and the last in this group is a 5.5% utilities tax (gas, electric and water).

As if this were not enough, two more taxes are being considered. One is a 2% entertainement tax for such things as movies and sporting events, the other one is Mayor Reddings' "bedroom tax" which will be imposed if the Mountain Village projects are accepted. This absurdity, calls for tenants in Mountain Village (in the Oakland Hills) to pay betwen $200-$500 for each bedroom, if there are more than one. In effect, this "bedroom tax" would exclude any Black and poor people (or people with faimiles) who might be considering living in Mountain Village.

The Black and oppresed communities of Oakland will be literally "squeezed to the bone" by the illegal taxes imposed on them by the Oakland City Council. This is all being done without concern for anyone but the business interests who take their money not only out of our communities, but out of the city of Oakland.

The Oakland City Council continues to claim that they are building a strong city this way, while, in fact, the people can only see the destruction and weakness they have caused. With no representation on the City Council, and a minimal amount of money being directed in their interests, the Black community, in particular, can not help but see that the present conditions cannot be allowed to continue.

Poor people in America have been complaining about rising taxes ever since the colonies broke away from England. We were not a part of that. We were physically enslaved then. Now that we are faced with the same problem, we must put a brake on the economic drain the cities are causing. We must make a break away. We can put money back into the communities of poor people who have struggled to earn it. We must elect people to the Oakland City Council, representatives of the poor and the Black.

BOBBY SEALE FOR MAYOR OF OAKLAND
BLAINE BROWN FOR COUNCIL WOMAN

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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A PROGRAM FOR SURVIVAL

Free Breakfast Program

Provides children a free, hot breakfast every school morning.

People's Free Food Program

Provides free food to Black and other oppressed people.

Liberation Schools

Provides free educational facilities and materials to Black and other oppressed children to promote a correct view of their role in the society.

Intercommunal Youth Institute

Provides Black and other oppressed children with a scientific method of thinking and analyzing things, basic skills for living in the society and a concrete alternative to established learning institutions.

Legal Aid Educational
Program

Provides full legal assistance to those involved in legal problems, as well as legal aid classes.

Free Bussing to Prisons
Program

Provides free transportation to prisons for families and friends of incarcerated men and women.

Free Commissary for Prisoners
Program

Provides imprisoned men and women with the funds to purchase necessary commissary items inside the prison.

David Hilliard People's Free
Shoe Program

Provides free shoes to the people made at the David Hilliard Free Shoe factory and elsewhere.

People's Free Clothing Program

Provides new, stylish and quality clothing free to the people.

People's Free Medical Research
Health Clinics

Provides free medical treatment and preventative medical care for the people.

People's Sickle Cell Anemia
Research Foundation

Instituted to test and establish a cure for Sickle Cell Anemia, to create better educational programs around Sickle Cell Anemia and maintain an advisory committee of doctors already researching Sickle Cell Anemia.

Intercommunal News Service

Provides news and information about the Black and other oppressed communities throughout the U.S. and the world.

People's Free Ambulance
Service

(Being Implemented)

Provides free, 24-hour speedy transportation to people in need of emergency medical care.

People's Free Dental Program

(Being Implemented)

Provides free dental check-ups and treatment for the people, as well as an educational program for dental hygiene and preventative dental care.

People's Free Optometry
Program

(Being Implemented)

Provides free eye examinations, treatment and eye correctional equipment (glasses, etc.) for the people.

People's Free Plumbing and
Maintenance Program

(Being Implemented)

Provides free plumbing and repair services to improve people's housing conditions.

Community Cooperative
Housing Program

(Being Implemented)

Provides decent housing, cooperatively owned and managed by the resident families.

People's Free Furniture

(Being Implemented)

Provides free, decent furniture to improve our living standards.

People's Free Linen Program

(Being Implemented)

Provides new sheets, towels, blankets, etc. free to the people, to make daily living more healthy and comfortable.

People's Free Community
Employment Program

(Being Implemented)

Provides free job-finding services to poor and oppressed people, who cannot find work.

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BLACK PANTHER PARTY PROGRAM MARCH 29, 1972 PLATFORM

WHAT WE WANT

WHAT WE BELIEVE

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

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

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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WHY THE VIETNAMESE ARE WINNING: PART V: THE VIETNAMESE USE BATTLEFIELD “LULLS” TO ORGANIZE THE PEOPLE

Although Richard Nixon would like to present the illusion that the U.S. aggressive war in Vietnam is coming to a close because American and allied strength are defeating the "communists", nothing is further from reality. If the war is coming to an end, it is because the recent Vietnamese Spring Offensive is setting plenty of fire to American troops and running them out with full speed. With computerized bombs, lasar beams, and super-electronic equipment, Nixon still cannot defeat either the fighting spirit or the fighting ability of the Vietnamese people.

Black people in the United States can look with hope to this situation. There are only, approximately, 40 million Vietnamese people; there are nearly that many Blacks in this country. The Vietnamese people, like Black people here, are a poor people; have little access to modern defensive equipment; and are faced with a giant, over-equipped war organization bent on either enslaving the people or committing complete genocide of the entire people. We, too, are faced with a similar predicament, while able to watch the mighty United States unable to achieve its military victory or its "Vietnamization" program inside a small and poor community.

The following is Part V in a series, outlining the concrete ways in which our Vietnamese Brothers and Sisters are warding off genocide, while struggling for self-determination of their homeland. This very complete report was gathered by Tom Hayden, anti-war activist, writer and one-time co-defendant of Chairman Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party during the "Chicago Trials". We would like to thank both Tom Hayden and Ramparts Magazine (from which the article was extracted) for allowing us permission to print this valuable information.

The same Western orientation to the Vietnam problem causes a false optimism in Washington with the arrival of each "lull" on the battlefield, as if these lulls represent a withering of the offensive or even a collapse. This concept of a lull is based on the military notion of a regular army hammering forward in a straight line, confronting obstacles and becoming bogged down. This conception has nothing to do with the structure and mode of operation of a guerrilla army -- even a guerrilla army employing tanks or other advanced and sophisticated weapons. A guerrilla army is by nature not even primarily military, but political. This means, for example, when Quang Tri province is completely liberated

-- 13 --
from U.S. and Saigon control, the liberation armed forces are confronted with massive political, economic and medical problems having to do with the care, sheltering, feeding, and evacuation of an entire population of hundreds of thousands of people. Americans are told in the media only of the few thousand Vietnamese who flee from Quang Tri city, and the debate in the U.S. becomes whether they are fleeing from "communist terror" or American bombs. While it is essentially the latter that they are fleeing from (there is little real evidence of Vietnamese shelling Vietnamese civilians), the major point is that the great majority of the invisible people of Quang Tri province remain in Quang Tri and have immediate survival needs that the liberation army has to contend with.

Americans are futhermore told that the next step of the offensive after the fall of Quang Tri must be the attack on Hue, and American observers are "puzzled" as to why the other side does not press its advantage quickly. This too is a military notion based on Patton's armor and John Wayne's heroes crashing forward in simple, straight military lines.

The difference between conventional warfare and people's war in this regard was clarified by a South Vietnamese schoolteacher from the liberated zones near Da Nang whom I met in Paris immediately after she returned from the center of the offensive. She stressed the importance of the fact that the offensive has reversed the "forced urbanization" process designed by Samuel Huntington and other American officials to crowd refugees into more easily controllable urban areas and camps of South Vietnam. The offensive has been the high point of a process, she said, in which large numbers of the people are returning to the countryside where life -- even under the bombing -- is more liveable than in the American-controlled cities, with their disintergrating culture, their state of nearly total joblessness, and their oppressive conditions from the draft to the penitentiaries. She said that the "absolute majority" of the people in the newly liberated areas are staying in the countryside, and that thousands of others are joining them from the cities and from the variety of refugee camps previously controlled by the Americans. As this fundamental process of consolidation rolls on, the guerrillas are faced not only with the military problems of continuing the offensive, but the general political problem of supporting the growth of the liberated areas of countryside. What appears as a "lull" therefore, can be a most important consolidation of power before future military thrusts.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 14 --

No Name in the Street James Baldwin

NO NAME IN THE STREET is James Baldwin's latest book -- his most eloquent, personal, and complete statement on the political and social agonies of America. It is also a remarkably candid look into Baldwin's years of self-exile, participation in the civil rights movement, and his now transformed political beliefs.

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PEOPLE'S PETITION

FOR IMMEDIATE PAROLE OF BROTHER DAVID
HILLIARD FROM THE CALIFORNIA PRISON
SYSTEM OR AN APPEAL BAIL BOND WITH
A RETRIAL JURY OF HIS PEER-GROUP.

WE THE PEOPLE, RESIDENTS OF THE WORLD COMMUNITY, IN THE SPIRIT OF REVOLUTIONARY INTERCOMMUNALISM, DO HEREBY REDRESS OUR GRIEVANCE AND PETITION THE COURTS OF AMERICA AND THE CALIFORNIA STATE GOVERNMENT AND PAROLE BOARD: THAT DAVID HILLIARD BE RELEASED FROM HIS PRISON INCARCERATION IN THE CALIFORNIA PENAL SYSTEM TO THE PEOPLE OF OUR COMMUNITIES ON PAROLE OR AN APPEAL BAIL BOND.

BROTHER DAVID HILLIARD, POLITICAL PRISONER AND CHIEF OF STAFF OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY, WAS IN FACT WRONGFULLY CONVICTED ON FALSE CHARGES BY A PREDOMINATELY WHITE RACIST JURY, AS ALL MEMBERS OF THE OAKLAND BLACK COMMUNITY WERE SYSTEMATICALLY ELIMINATED FROM THE JURY SELECTION PROCESS IN HIS TRIAL.

IN LIGHT OF THESE FACTS, WE THE UNDERSIGNED, THEREFORE PETITION THAT DAVID HILLIARD BE GRANTED HIS HUMAN AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, THAT IS, PAROLE FROM PRISON OR AN APPEAL BAIL BOND BY THE AMERICAN COURTS PENDING APPEAL OF HIS CASE BEFORE HIGHER COURTS, AND THAT HIS RETRIAL JURY BE OF HIS PEERS, A TRUE REPRESENTATION OF A CROSS SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY. NAME
ADDRESS
CITY/STATE/ZIP CODE
COUNTRY
IF IN THE
U.S.A.
REG. VOTER

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