Table of Contents
NO JOBS FOR BLACK VIETNAM VETERANS Page [1]
EDITORIAL: NO HALF-MASTS FOR ARABS Page 2
POLICE LIST SCORED BY PANTHERS Page 2
NIXON BUDGET: 113 SOCIAL PROGRAMS SLASHED Page 2
ERICKA HUGGINS BREAKS OPEN CITY COUNCIL'S SECRET DINNER MEETINGS Page 3
LANDLORD NEGLECT KILLS 3 CHILDREN IN FIRE Page 3
BOYCOTT FARAH PANTS Page 4
CLARK TRANSFERRED TO AVOID OPEN TRIAL Page 4
RUCHELL MAGEE TRIAL: JUDGE BARS RAMSEY CLARK FROM DEFENSE Page 4
BOBBY AND ELAINE MEET THE PEOPLE ON OAKLAND BUSES Page 5
WHITES MEET ON CAMPAIGN TACTICS FOR BOBBY, ELAINE Page 5
PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE Page 6
BLACK VETERAN WRITES FROM JAIL Page 6
SOUTHERN U. MERGER OPPOSED Page 7
PLAINFIELD, N.J.: RETRIAL GRANTED IN '67 POLICE MURDER CASE Page 7
“IS THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY SUICIDAL?” Page 8
INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS: U.N. RULES PUERTO RICO A COLONY Page 9
“BLACK POWER STIRS IN SOUTH AFRICA” Page 9
A SPOKESMAN FOR THE PEOPLE Page 10
BLACK WORKERS CONDEMN NIXON BUDGET Page 11
SUPPORT THE SAMUEL L. NAPIER INTERCOMMUNAL YOUTH INSTITUTE Page 12
KISSINGER GOES TO CHINA HAT IN HAND Page 13
PHILLY TEACHER STRIKE: BLACK BITTERNESS OVER WHITE PICKETS Page 14
CORRECTION Page 14
A PROGRAM FOR SURVIVAL Page 15

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NO JOBS FOR BLACK VIETNAM VETERANS

-- 2 --

EDITORIAL: NO HALF-MASTS FOR ARABS

Where are the cries of outrage at the criminal murder of 106 innocent persons by Israeli fighter pilots last week? Where are the demands for retaliatory raids against Israel?; flags at half-mast, demonstrations in the streets and charges of "terrorist", "barbarian", "inhuman", "criminal"? What makes this Sinai disaster a mere news story while the events at the Munich Olympics involving Palestinian guerrillas were made into an "international tragedy"?

The only impartial and therefore reliable evidence of what occurred over Israeli-occupied Sinai is contained in the tape of the last 10 minutes of conversation between the French pilot of the Libyan airliner and Cairo Airport tower. The Israelis now admit that the flight recorder (Black Box), recovered from the crash supports that evidence! The pilot thought he was over Egyptian territory and nothing had occurred to indicate to him he was over enemy-held territory up to the moment the airliner was fired on. From the beginning Israel lied about what happened. The country continues to try to place the blame on the pilot of the plane, while regretting the "incident".

But, far more important to us is the callous way in which this country has responded to the murder of 105 Arabs (one passenger was American), compared with the anti-Arab hysteria that swept over this country in response to the Munich Olympic event, in which 9 Israelis were killed and 5 Palestinian guerrillas were martyred.

Responsibility for the callous response rests first with the U.S. media which has done everything possible to play down the tragedy and white-wash Israeli criminal responsibility for it. However, the media could only succeed in this effort because of the blatant racism of the majority population in this country; the racism that makes the majority population in the U.S. view the life of an Arab, like it views the life of a Black person, of less value than the life of a white Israeli.


-- 14 --

Add to this the high degree of zionist and pro-Israeli ownership and control of the U.S. media (press, publication, radio, TV and screen), and the picture becomes clear: Arabs who kill Israelis are criminal monsters; Israelis who kill Arabs, at worst use poor judgement.

The severest condemnation of Israel is demanded and the payment of full compensation to the families of all those who died is a minimal requirement. Libya also must be fully compensated for the loss of the airliner.

But maximum compensation cannot begin to fulfill Israel's responsibility for this crime. Israel's military who gave the order to shoot down the airliner must be brought before the International Court of Justice and tried as the international criminals this act reveals they are.


-- 2 --

POLICE LIST SCORED BY PANTHERS

The San Francisco Police Department has released a bulletin, with names and pictures of Black people who allegedly belong to the so-called Black Liberation Army. These men and women are being singled out by the police to cause fear and doubt among Black people -- country-wide.

The Black Panther Party condemns this list and its circulation. It is being used only for bounty that is, the police departments intent is to frighten so many people into the belief that these people are criminal that great numbers of people will stop struggling against oppression and for freedom.

They infer that the Black people on the "Restricted Information" list are dangerous, that they are out to destroy the government and particularly the San Francisco Police Department. But, we know who the real criminals are.

This and other subtle and not so subtle tactics of condemnation and guilt by association, which are reminiscent of Hitler's Germany, are naive ways of trying to expose former Black Panther Party members and others to rightwing attack.


-- 2 --

NIXON BUDGET: 113 SOCIAL PROGRAMS SLASHED

The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service reprints here a Guardian (Feb. 7, 1973) Nixon budget analysis that we feel expresses our view as well as we could express it ourselves:

President Nixon unveiled his new fiscal budget last week, surprising few that despite the Vietnam peace agreement, military outlays increased and social programs were axed to pieces.

What Nixon called a "true peacetime budget in every sense of the word" slashed or obliterated 113 social programs including health, aid to education, job programs, urban renewal programs, the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and more -- resulting in a "saving" of about $6 billion.

At the same time funds for the development of the Trident sea-based ballistic-missle system, the B-1 advanced manned strategic bomber and the strategic submarine - launched cruise missle will continue to be spent. The military budget was increased by $4 billion to a proposed $81.1 billion -- almost as high as the record 1945 outlay of $81.6 billion when the U.S. was developing the first A-bombs.

Aside from military spending, the main aspects of the fiscal budget include a 7.5 per cent increase in funds to fight crime with the largest amount, $1.8 billion, going to the Justice Department. Nixon said fighting crime was a "major committment".

Federal job-training and emergency programs are being turned over to state and local governments. Nixon proposed the largest cuts for the agricultural programs, taking deep chunks from the school milk program, conservation programs, rural housing subsidies and price supports.

In research, the highest priority was for energy -- investigation into the uses of atomic and non-nuclear types. Funds for space, ground and air transportation, were reduced.

No new programs will be approved for urban renewal. Model Cities programs, open space, neighborhood, water and sewer programs and publicly funded low-rent housing projects will be scrapped. New housing will be built only for the affluent.


-- 13 --

Health care for the aged got the major slash in the health area. Nixon proposed to reduce Medicare payments by $1.6 billion. The country's fixed-income population will have to pay twice what they now pay for medical expenses. Hospital construction programs were wiped out entirely.

Elementary and secondary education programs would be replaced by revenue sharing grants for the same purpose -- meaning guidelines against discrimination and stipulations that the money be spent for inner-city areas would no longer exist. No direct aid to colleges or universities is suggested.

In civil rights, aid to minority business enterprises is stressed, rather than to the minority poor. More is proposed for the agencies that fight sex discrimination…

The President's proposed budget, which will now be argued in Congress, wipes out many of the basic social programs begun in the 1930's after the Depression. All the programs had deep flaws and did not serve all the people they were intended for, but they were an advance for many working people and the poor…

The revenue sharing proposals to be instituted in many cases do nothing for the people. They are flat grants that may be spent in any way in specific areas.

Nixon's budget, if passed, will result in more poverty, frustration, crime, disease, ill health, rundown housing and unemployment.


-- 3 --

ERICKA HUGGINS BREAKS OPEN CITY COUNCIL'S SECRET DINNER MEETINGS

On Tuesday evening, February 20th, the movement for open government in Oakland swept past a major blockade, as Ericka Huggins, editor of the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service (BPINS) attended the regularly scheduled secret dinner meeting held by the Oakland City Council. Previously, only the Oakland Tribune enjoyed the privilege of being allowed to attend.

Ms. Huggins' attendance at the dinner appears as a major victory for the Anti-Secrecy in Government movement sparked by Brother Bobby Seale. Three weeks ago Bobby initiated this drive with his proposal of an Anti-Secrecy in Government Ordinance before these same city councilmen. Although the city council has "tabled" discussion on "the Seale proposal", obviously neither Bobby, a candidate for Mayor in the April city elections, nor Elaine Brown, candidate for City Councilwoman, consider it to be a dead issue.

Present at the dinner meeting, held at Burnett's New Luckey's located at 2268 Telegraph Avenue, were Oakland councilmen Raymond Eng, Fred Maggiora, Paul Brom and John Sutter. The remaining councilmen, as well as the Mayor, John Reading, were conspicuously absent. Also present were a representative of KPFA radio and Fran Dauth, the regular Oakland Tribune city reporter. Ericka was accompanied by Eugene Jones, director of public relations for the Community Committee to Elect Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown to City Offices of Oakland.

Ericka's precedent-breaking attendance at the dinner proved quite informative. Amidst all the subtleties and mumblings of the astonished councilmen, it was learned that a drawing had taken place at the Alameda County Superior Court that same afternoon, to decide on the order of names on the April 17th city ballots.

This event was an aftermath of a court suit first filed by Bobby Seale in California's Supreme Court. This trail-blazing suit sought to prohibit the unjust procedure of listing the incumbent Mayor's name first on the ballot, with the rest of the candidates following in alphabetical order. In the course of that suit, Bobby's attorney provided documented scientific studies which proved that the first name on the ballot usually receives those votes of people who are confused or uninformed.

The curious results of this event, the actual drawing being conducted by the City Clerk were: John Reading, first; John Sutter, sixth; and Bobby Seale, tenth (and last) on the ballot. When word that the drawinghad taken place spread, the community was outraged over the fact that candidate Seale was uninformed. Other candidates were reported to have been informed before hand and were present.

In an interesting side note to Ericka's attendance at the dinner meeting, the BPINS learned that the councilmen's dinners are paid for out of taxpayer's money in the amount of between $4,000 - $7,000 yearly. Sister Ericka paid for her own meal.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE


-- 3 --

LANDLORD NEGLECT KILLS 3 CHILDREN IN FIRE

Bernadine Young, a young Black woman who lives in Berkeley, California, with her family, was the tragic victim of indecent housing and landlord criminal negligence last week. Three of her small sons were killed in an explosion and fire caused by faulty wiring in an electric stove.

Ms. Young had been asking the landlord, Leon Brooks, to repair the stove for at least five months prior to the tragedy. It was never removed or repaired. She paid the landlord $167.50 a month rental.

Ms. Young told the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service(BPINS) that she had been visiting a friend, in the same building, last Saturday after her children Edward, 3, Charles, 6, and Mark, 8, were asleep. Her fourth son Aaron, 9, was asleep in the apartment of another of their friend's who lives in this building. She informed this reporter that at approximately 3 A.M. she heard a noise that sounded like an explosion. "I couldn't do anything", she said, "I just screamed." Her apartment was only yards away from the apartment in which she was visiting a friend.

When the fire department arrived, Charles and Mark who had been asleep in her apartment were dead, Charles died from suffocation, Mark from severe burns. Edward, lived for two days in Children's Hospital (in North Oakland) following the fire, the cause of his death - suffocation.

Only days after the fire, the Welfare Department sent a letter to Ms. Young which stated that her assistance (Aid for Families with Dependent Children) would be cut, from the amount allowed one woman with four children, to the regulation amount allowed one woman with one child. She will now receive $190 a month. The letter also stated the Department of Welfare would be holding her food stamps until they could "recompute her budget".

The letter was sent with an attached note which stated, "We are sorry to trouble you with financial matters at this time, but…"Ms. Young can baresurvive on $95 every two weeks. All of her belongings were lost in the fire.


-- 14 --

The Black Panther Party contributed to Ms. Young by giving her the necessary funds to buy clothing for her two sons so they could be viewed.

In the near future, the legal defense program of the Black Panther Party will demand that Leon Brooks, the landlord, be sued for damages and neglect.

From all of the information that the BPINS has gathered, it is quite evident that the landlord is negligent; that he has no concern for the tenants of this building, who are mostly Black, or tenants in any of the other buildings his company owns.

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.

-- Pt. #2, Black Panther Party
10-Point Program


-- 4 --

BOYCOTT FARAH PANTS

MEXICAN-AMERICAN STRIKE
GROWS

(El Paso, Texas) - Since May 9, 1972, 10 months ago, over 3,000 Mexican-American workers have been on an unpublicized but growing strike against Farah Manufacturing Co., one of the world's largest makers of men's pants. The strikers, members of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, attempt to: force the non-union company to raise wages that average $69 a week; establish a viable retirement plan and allow for collective bargaining of worker-employer grievances. The national boycott of all Farah products is continuing to gain support.

Last week, the strikers gained their most powerful ally to date as the Rt. Rev. S.M. Metzger, the Roman Catholic Bishop of El Paso, called upon fellow Catholic Bishops throughout the country to support the Farah strike. Bishop Metzger's letter cited several of the major complaints which led to the walkout as well as criticizing some of the so-called employee benefits claimed by the company. He noted: "The quota system amounts to 3,000 belts per day; in an 8-hour work day… 6 belts per minute … The girls say that it is only possible to sew 5 belts per minute, even with the modern machines they operate." Bishop Metzger's support will undoubtedly have a significant effect on the employees still on the job, most of whom, like the strikers, are Mexican-American and Catholic.

Farah Manufacturing Co. is owned by Willie Farah, a determined racist, who it is rumored, would close down his business rather than unionize his firm. With annual sales from his II plants (7 in Texas, 2 in New Mexico, one in Belgium and the last in Hong Kong), averaging close to 160 million dollars, Farah's feelings are obviously quite strong. Since the first push for union representation in 1969, Farah policies have gone from merely firing workers to color coding I.D. badges in order to spot union supporters in departments other than their own; all personal conversations have been restricted during working hours.

Despite the crackdown, the unionization gained strength and last May, after hearing that Farah workers in San Antonio had walked out, workers in El Paso and in other plants struck too.

Willie Farah's response typified his past conduct. Plant guards were issed guns and vicious dogs -- as a precaution against "boozed-up Latin kids". A friendly judge granted a


-- 14 --
questionable injunction against mass picketing, and soon mass arrest tactics, accompanied by unjustly high bail bonds followed. A local judge has threatened in court that the arrests would continue until the strike is broken.

Perhaps the most foul of Farah's strike-breaking tactics is the reported use of illegally immigrated Mexican laborers from across the border to replace striking workers. These laborers are then said to be intimidated by the threat of jail if they join the strike.

More than unionization is at stake in the Farah work strike. Rather, the more fundamental question of the rights for this country's Mexican-American population, again, as with the United Farm workers grape and lettuce strikes, faces the rigors of racist reaction.

BOYCOTT FARAH PRODUCTS


-- 4 --

CLARK TRANSFERRED TO AVOID OPEN TRIAL

Steven Clark, the white prisoner at Vacaville (California) Medical Facility (prison) who stabbed Black Panther Party member Charles Bursey last month, has been transferred to Soledad prison, informed sources told BPINS last week.

Immediately following the stabbing, Bobby Seale, candidate for Mayor of Oakland and member of the Black Panther Party, charged that "possibly there is a very important link between the stabbing of Brother Charles Bursey and recent legal moves in defense of David Hilliard", a well-known Black Panther Party member incarcerated at Vacaville. The attack on Brother Bursey occured only days before a retrial hearing for Brother Hilliard, held on February 13th.

Prisoners at Vacaville have called for a public trial for Steven Clark, outside any prison facility. They insist that a prison investigation and disciplinary action will do nothing to end the atmosphere of intimidation, harassment, violence and murder that characterizes Vacaville and every other prison in this country. Only through public awareness of the actual prison conditions can our incarcerated brothers and sisters have hope for an improvement of their conditions.


-- 4 --

RUCHELL MAGEE TRIAL: JUDGE BARS RAMSEY CLARK FROM DEFENSE

(San Francisco) - Last week, Ruchell Magee trial presiding judge, Morton Colvin refused defense counsel Robert Carrow's request that former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark join the legal defense team in associate status.

Judge Colvin's excuse for refusing appointment to the internationally known jurist and anti-war activist was that he (Judge Colvin) was not personally acquainted with Mr. Ramsey Clark. The judge insisted upon imposing on the defense an attorney of his choosing who was totally unfamiliar with the case. Attorney Carrow rejected the judge's choice.

This action reflects the growing desperation of the racist court as the prosecution ended its case without providing any clear evidence of Ruchell Magee's guilt. Magee is being tried on murder and kidnapping charges stemming from the August 7 events at Marin County Court House in San Raphael, California, in 1970. It was here that Brothers Jonathan Jackson, James McClain and William Christmas were killed by a small army of San Quentin guards; the judge that Ruchell Magee is charged with murdering was killed on that day.

Defense arguments now being presented are attempting to prove that the judge died as a result of the hail of bullets shot at the escaping van that held the brothers and the hostages. All eyewitness reports have said that the police shot first.

This action further illustrates that justice in the Ruchell Magee trial will depend solely upon the support of the people.


-- 5 --

BOBBY AND ELAINE MEET THE PEOPLE ON OAKLAND BUSES

The Voter Registration drive sponsored by the Community Committee for Greater Voter Registration, of Oakland, took an upward swing this week. More emphasis is now being placed on registration, with more people becoming registrars, and many more registrars going into the community to seek out and register Oakland's potential voters.

Last Sunday, February 18th, a meeting was held at the Fox-Oakland Theater for about fifty voter registrars. After hearing Bobby explain to them the importance of their task, they dispersed to register people at churches all over the city.

On Saturday, February 24th, a concerted effort was made to put as many registrars into the community as possible. Over 100 deputy registrars went out, determined to reach as many people as possible. The registrars met at Grove Street College Gynmasium at 9:30 A.M. There, Bobby organized the workers, dividing the group up so that each person was sent to a location where people normally gather on Saturday. Before leaving, all of the workers were treated to a wholesome breakfast of eggs, toast, grits, bacon and orange juice. The registrars then spread out to supermarkets, department stores, shopping centers, and other places busy with shoppers. While registrars were busy at these places, Bobby drove by, stopped and talked with the people and urged them to register and vote on April 17th.

Bobby and Elaine had begun the week of campaigning, on Monday, by riding Oakland city buses from 6:30 to 8:30 in the morning with people on their way to work. The candidates, were accompanied by several campaign workers who boarded the bus several blocks ahead of them and saturated it with material about the candidates and their campaign. When Bobby and Elaine boarded the buses, the people wearing frowns on their faces because they were going to work, immediately responded with warm handshakes and looks of surprise. They showed astonishment that candidates were actually boarding the buses so early in the morning just to speak to and meet them. Many times this provided excitement to an otherwise dull and routine morning. One brother said to the candidates, "I don't know of any other politicians who would come out this early. Most of them are too lazy."

Bobby made short speeches in the front of the buses concerning campaign


-- 12 --
issues, because as he said, "I want you to vote for me not only because of my past practice and because you know me, but I want you to understand the issues that I'm talking about; understand how we can get more funds from the city budget and the Port of Oakland to establish more jobs in the community."

Bobby and Elaine rode the buses with the people the next two days also. In addition, they drove by, jumping out at bus stops to shake hands and meet the people waiting there. At one bus station where many domestic workers take buses to the white suburbs, one woman told Elaine after she had met Bobby, "I heard him on the radio this morning talking about the wonderful things he's going to do. I'm so glad I met him."

Before riding the buses on Thursday, Bobby and Elaine were at the parking lot of the large General Motors factory on East 14th Street and 106th Avenue at 6:30 a.m. to shake hands and talk to the workers. The response was overwhelming, all the workers, regardless of race, stopped to talk to them. No one refused to take a campaign brochure. The two dedicated candidates moved from car to car as the laborers drove in. Many times they had to dodge cars coming in too quickly, especially when the late-comers were arriving at the expansive parking lot.

Following this they rode the buses again, as they did the next morning. These early morning operations will continue until election day.

On the previous Monday, Bobby attended a Candidate's Night at Jefferson Elementary School in East Oakland. Mayor Reading did not come to the meeting and does not come to any meeting he is assured Bobby will attend, apparently because he knows that his lies will be exposed. Instead he sent someone with a written message to read. Three other Black persons running for Mayor preceeded Bobby. They spoke poorly and didn't discuss the main issues at all. They spent much of their alloted time trying to slyly throw mud at Bobby. But, they only succeeded in making the audience of Blacks, whites and Latinos aware that there are really only two candidates in the race: the present Mayor, John Reading, the candidate of big business and Bobby Seale, the candidate of the people.

The People Will Win in '73


-- 5 --

WHITES MEET ON CAMPAIGN TACTICS FOR BOBBY, ELAINE

The White Community Committee for Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown held a voter registration convention at Oakland Technical High School on Saturday, February 17th. The purpose of the convention was to organize white people to work in behalf of Bobby and Elaine.

The candidates themselves were the featured speakers, joined by Charles Garry, noted attorney of the Black Panther Party and defender of justice in the courts.

The convention opened with music by the Norman Williams Quintet. The music was followed with a voter registration class. Nearly fifty people participated in the class and became deputy voter registrars.

The opening speaker was Jo-Ellen Fehrle, the assistant coordinator of the White Community Committee for Bobby and Elaine. The groups' coordinator, Robert Truehaft, outlined the Committee's goals and how they hope


-- 11 --
to accomplish them. He then introduced attorney Charles Garry to the crowd.

Elaine Brown talked briefly about her background and why she feels she can be helpful in solving the problems in Oakland. She introduced, "the next Mayor of Oakland, Bobby Seale", who described some of the experiences he has encountered since the campaign began. He told the assembled crowd that the situation that exists in Oakland is not one of Black against white. Bobby emphasized that his job program would reduce unemployment in the city thereby reducing the welfare rolls. To those concerned about rising property taxes, he explained that if the monies already available in Oakland are spent correctly, there will be no need for tax increases.

A second voter registration class was held after Bobby finished speaking. Following the class the crowd moved into the cafeteria for refreshments of cake and coffee and chatted informally with the people's candidates.


-- 6 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

COERCION IN TUSKEGEE STUDY

A citizen's panel investigating the Tuskegee syphillis study disclosed that the Black men who were subjects of the study were coerced into participating. Some of the brothers requested treatment for syphillis and were told that if they took the treatment they would be put out of the study, thus losing the cash and free burial they had been promised. A doctor who participated in administering the "experiment" said he never saw any evidence that the men had given informal consent to participate.

NAVY TRAINS DOLPHINS
FOR WAR

Reports of an incredible nature have been deliberately allowed out of the Pentagon concerning the Navy's $30 million "top secret" sea-mammal program. The Navy trains dolphins to place and retrieve monitoring devices and explosives to attack enemy divers and to ward off sharks. One scientist admitted that dolphins can be programmed and kept under control for several miles.

WELFARE RIGHTS SUE NIXON

The National Welfare Rights Organization is suing the Nixon administration for failing to enforce two recent Supreme Court decisions on welfare eligibility. The class-action law-suit filed in U.S. District Court asks that the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) be required to issue regulations forbidding states from defining eligibility rules more narrowly than federal law permits. HEW has not complied with a December, 1971, Supreme Court ruling that welfare may not be denied to students between 18 and 22.

NERVE GAS NON-NUTRITIOUS

Contaminated lettuce from California's Imperial Valley has been seized and destroyed at such points as: St. Louis, Missiouri; Charlotte, N.C. and Canada. The United Farm Workers Union asserts that large shipments of contaminated lettuce are unaccounted for. The contamination was caused by a pesticide similar to nerve gas.

LIBYANS STORM U.S. EMBASSY

Demonstrators in Tripoli, Libya, smashed windows at the U.S. Embassy and burned the American flag to protest the Israeli downing of a Libyan airliner. The protesters attacked the American Embassy because the U.S. is the main supplier of jets and other military equipment to Israel.


-- 6 --

BLACK VETERAN WRITES FROM JAIL

The following letter from an incarcerated brother in Leavenworth came to BPINS through the Vietnam Veterans Against the War at Kent, Ohio:

Dear Brothers and Sisters.

My name is Alf Hill. I am a Black, disabled veteran of the Vietnam War presently incarcerated in the Leavenworth Federal Concentration Camp (prison). I'm twenty-five and have been confined for the past two years…

I was a member of the U.S. Army from 1967 to 1970. During the Tet offensive of 1968, I served as a combat medic with the 101 ABN. Div. at Hue, South Vietnam.

In June of 1970 I received a General Discharge under honorable conditions with my sanctions. The reasons for my discharge were listed as `apathy' and `inability to adjust to the military service'.

Less than six months after being discharged, I was arrested and charged with a number of felony offenses. All but one of these were without merit. I was guilty of car theft.

Three days prior to my arrest, my wife had been granted a divorce and the car. This was all done without my knowledge, so I had no idea that the car, bought and paid for by me, had been awarded to my ex-wife and that she had reported it stolen the same day the divorce was granted.

After being held in jail for three months without bail, I was charged with first degree murder and two counts of armed robbery, both on a government reservation, in Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.

After being beaten and held in solitary confinement in the county jail for one full year, I would still not confess to anything I was not guilty of. I was constantly reminded that if I did not plead guilty, I would be sentenced to death when found guilty by a jury.

I was finally taken to court on November 22, 1971. With the assistance of a white, court-appointed attorney, an all-white jury, and in short an all white court, I was tried and acquitted of the murder charges. My acquittal came as a complete shock to the court. Since I knew I was not guilty and knew that I had been framed and during the course of the trial had seen no evidence, I too, was somewhat surprised.

Recently released from the Army, a new resident of San Antonio, Texas, recently divorced with no relatives in the state, Black, poor, and in jail on the ridiculous charge of car theft, I was a simple and almost perfect scapegoat. I speak in terms of "almost" because the court and judicial system had without a doubt looked into these circumstances and assumed that I would plead guilty, whether in fact I was guilty or not.

Two weeks after my acquittal, I was taken back to court with a different court-appointed attorney, of course. The armed robbery was to have happened at the same time and place as the murder.

The results of this illegal conviction was a maximum penalty of 15 years. I had no previous criminal record and up until the time of my divorce, which had only been a matter of days before my arrest, I had been working a full time job, attending school full time, buying a new house and married with two lovely children…

I have been in prison for the past two years and it seems to me a complete waste of time, energy, effort, and me.

I cannot believe that the Vietnam veterans are individually responsible for all of our problems. But being the strong men we are, created by the circumstances, we are forced to react. We react here in this country for the very same reasons we reacted in Vietnam -- survival.

Thank You,

Alf Hill


-- 7 --

SOUTHERN U. MERGER OPPOSED

LA. OFFICIALS LAUNCH ATTACK AGAINST BLACK STUDENTS

(Baton Rouge, La.) - The relentless wheels of American racism and injustice have steamrolled mercilessly ahead recently, as Louisiana state officials continue their attacks against Black student - dominated Southern University.

First, a local district judge in Baton Rouge ordered six Blacks students permanently barred from the Southern U., Baton Rouge campus, on the grounds that they had contributed to campus unrest.

Following quickly on the heels of this outrageous ruling, the student body president of the largely white Louisiana State University campus (LSUNO) issued a press statement last week in support of a proposed merger between the New Orleans campuses of Southern and L.S.U. The statement drew an immediate response from the Southern U. campus.

In this latest double-barreled attack, the State intends to keep up the pressure against Southern U., particularly in the wake of findings which prove, beyond a doubt, the culpability of state and school officials in the shooting deaths of two Black students on Southern's Baton Rouge campus this past November.

In other related developments, obscured in the local press but of prime importance, excerpts from an uncompleted FBI report revealed that both Black students, Denver Smith and Leonard Brown, were the victims of a single round of buckshot fire, triggered by a sheriff's deputy. Although the report does state that it was No. 4 buckshot which killed the two students rather than .00 buckshot as was expected, the name of the deputy sheriff who fired the round is being withheld. A grand jury investigation is being demanded.

State District Judge Lewis Doherty's ruling permits three other Black students, among the nine Black students accused, to return to campus. All nine were charged in the suit, filed by Southern's president G. Leon Netterville, as "instigators" of the campus protest which swept through the Baton Rouge campus this past fall. According to Judge Doherty the six Black students who were permanently expelled and barred from trespassing on campus showed "resolve and determination to pursue the same activities as before…"

Surprisingly, the ruling mentioned that the students were correct in their claim that school officials had denied them due process of law by expelling them without a hearing. Further comment was noticeably evaded by adding that this was not the primary issue before the court.

It came as no surprise, however, when Rochelle Stern, president of L.S.U.'s New Orleans campus, issued her press release. It was not Ms. Stern who spoke but rather the guilt-ridden white state officials who seek to bury their blame by destroying Southern University. The response to this, issued by Brother Keith Medley, co-chairman of the SUNO Information Center, speaks many truths:

"…We view the American educational system on a whole as being bankrupt. While it is true that a merger would bring on five times as much physical plant for SUNO students, it would also subject us to five times as much bureauacracy, five times as much racism, and five times as much irrelevancy…

"…As a result of the movement, we have achieved many avenues of input on decision-making levels… A merger not only negates the gains made but would also subject Black students to the vicious type of institutional and individual racism that confronts our brothers and sisters at LSUNO.

"Finally, and most importantly, the New Orleans Black community has demonstrated that they want SUNO saved and developed. In addition to the 2,700 students at SUNO who would fight on all levels to prevent a merger, grass roots organizations who have developed rapport with the masses … have stood in firm opposition to SUNO's destruction…"


-- 7 --

PLAINFIELD, N.J.: RETRIAL GRANTED IN '67 POLICE MURDER CASE

Two young Black people, Gail Madden and George Merritt, have been granted a retrial in the case of the beating death of a Plainfield, N.J. policeman during that city's popular rebellion in the summer of 1967. The two were among thirteen originally charged with the act, and the only two to be convicted.

The two have already spent over 39 months in prison following their original conviction.

The case stems from a July 16, 1967 incident in which a white policeman, John Gleason, shot an unarmed Black man, Bobby Lee Williams, during the course of the rebellion. Onlooking community residents were so angered by this that they beat Gleason to death.

Two months later the police raided the Black community and indiscriminately arrested 13 people and charged them with this act. In 1968 twelve of these men and women were tried together. Ten were acquitted, but someone had to be held responsible for the death, even if there wasn't any concrete evidence of their guilt. Gail Madden and George Merritt were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life terms in prison.

A group of citizens who were convinced of their innocence formed the Plainfield Joint Defense Committee and started a legal campaign in Madden's and Merritt's defense. The prosecutor and the court conspired together to keep this man and woman in jail, even after a higher court had granted their release pending retrial. The prosecutor sought to deny them a retrial but this right, thanks to the community support for their case, can not be taken from them.

Gail Madden and George Merritt are sure that with the support of the people, they will be free. Black communities across this land must provide that support.


-- 8 --

“IS THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY SUICIDAL?”

BY J. HERMAN BLAKE

CONCLUSION

Dr. J. Herman Blake, noted social scientist, concludes his analysis of The Man and the Panthers by Betty Lou and Charles A. Valentine.

On the other hand, if the potential victim is politically aware, he will see that even though he must die he can still strike a blow against those reactionary forces. Thus those who cause his death will realize that they impose the reactionary forces on the community at their risk, and in so doing these hostile forces may lessen. The victim recognizes that death is inevitable but he also moves against the deathly forces. This is a revolutionary act and death is then also a revolutionary act-revolutionary suicide. It does not represent a death wish at all; it represents a desire to live but not at the price of acquiescing in the face of oppression.

Newton takes two knowns, revolution and suicide, and puts them together in such a manner as to redefine both of them and develop a totally new concept. This new approach to suicide cannot be wholly understood apart from the context in which it was developed. When truly understood it forces people to look at death in a new way. Most analysts and commentators have approached Newton's concept from their old understandings and therefore completely misinterpreted it. The Black Panther Party is not a suicidal organization and its members have no death wish. It is an organization dedicated to the liberation of oppressed peoples in different communities and it will take whatever actions are necessary and sufficient to bring about this goal within a reasonable amount of time.

Yet there are some people who say, as the Valentines point out, that Panther rhetoric invites repression and destruction. One evening I put this question directly to Newton, and his response was in terms of the logic of the commentators and the self-serving nature of their theories. He pointed out that if one accepted their premise one could also say that the rhetoric of the National Liberation Front was suicidal and invited destruction because they talk revolution at the same time that they are being wasted by TNT and B-52s every day. But no one extends the logic that far because they are unwilling to admit that they are part of the very system which is perpetrating violence. To say that the Panthers or anyone else is inviting destruction because of their rhetoric is to turn one's eyes away from the social system which promotes violence against the oppressed. As the late Malcolm X said, it was like people lynching a man and accusing him of violence because he struggles against his lynchers. The Panther approach is to focus the attention of the community upon the system, so that people can understand what is really happening to them.

This brings me to what I consider the only flaw in an otherwise fine paper. Near the end of the paper the Valentines state:

One further argument sometimes used by proponents of the self-destruction thesis is that if the Panthers were interested in effective survival as revolutionaries they would go underground. This does point to a problem of Panther theory and practice, and we suspect it is a problem which must be faced by all revolutionary organizations except the narrowest elitist conspiracies.

If we understand the concept of revolutionary suicide as articulated by Newton, this becomes even less of a problem. The act of going underground is a way of avoiding death and trying to survive according to the understanding of the outsider. However, death is not at issue here. What is at issue is how the revolutionary will live his life. The revolutionary may last longer if he is underground, but he will not effectively accomplish his purpose of teaching the people through example and political education. Thus it is necessary, even if more dangerous, for the Panther to remain in public view. The point is that one who recognizes that his death is unavoidable and is willing to move against the social forces bringing it about is not going to disappear so completely that he cannot educate others and move them to a higher level of understanding. It is not likely that the Black Panther Party will go underground until they have created such a high level of understanding in low-income communities that they will no longer be needed as models or teachers. Then the Party will probably dissolve as a result of the change they have brought about.

What are often seen by outsiders as problems in Panther theory are not problems at all because they have been given careful attention by the leadership of the Party. Actions which are often interpreted as contradictory have a distinct place in Panther understandings because they have worked out a very careful ideology to guide their behavior. The problem is that, since Newton has not been very much in public view, the ideology is not very public. Those close to him are fully aware that these issues are a part of a well - developed ideology. Even though it is a well-articulated ideology, it is by no means static. Newton believes that the only efficacious ideology is a dynamic one which relates to ever-changing social forces. Therefore, by the time the ideology is written and published, it will have changed with a clear understanding of why the changes are being made.

Panthers recognize that one cannot rely upon a fundamental ideology which does not change as the opposing forces change. They perceive that revolution is a dialectic process, and one's activities must be organized and adjusted in response to the changes made by opponents. Therefore, Newton holds that publishing the ideology of the Black Panther Party will not make it permanent for all time. To him, the important thing is to have a consistent and conscious ideology as a guide to behavior.

Betty Lou and Charles A. Valentine have obviously made the effort to get beneath the surface of the Black Panther Party by meeting and interacting with members of this organization. The understanding which they have developed as a result reveal that the public image of the Party has been badly distorted. Not only have they given us an excellent paper on the Party, they have also shown that much of the distortion is self-serving. If we are going to be the kinds of scholars we like to think we are, we will have to devote much more effort toward overcoming the perspectives which prevent us from seeing phenomena as they are rather than as we would want them to be. The Valentines have certainly given us outstanding leadership toward this goal.


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INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS: U.N. RULES PUERTO RICO A COLONY

(United Nations, N.Y.) - Recently, the United Nations Committee on Decolonization issued an important statement calling for the self-determination of Puerto Rico. This decision is tantamount to an official declaration by the world organization that Puerto Rico is a colony and that the United States is a colonial, imperialist power.

The U.N. is now to begin discussion as to how to alleviate the tyranny created by the United States' domination of the Carribean island and its people. The following account of the situation of Puerto Rico under U.S. imperial rule, is excerpted from a memorandum submitted by Dr. Ricardo Alarcon, the Cuban delegate to the General Assembly of the U.N.:

"On July 25, 1898, Puerto Rico was invaded by the armed forces of the United States which placed the territory under military occupation, dissolved the Parliament and established United States rule by force of arms.

"The effects of this situation on the living conditions of the people are easy to imagine. According to official statistics, Puerto Rico has 100,000 unemployed, that is, 14.3 per cent of the labor force. One-third of the population has been forced to emigrate to the metropolitan territory of the United States where they are subjected to harassment and discrimination, reduced to accepting the hardest and least well-paid jobs, crowded together in the ghettos of the big American cities."

The Black Panther Party believes that the U.N. has taken a just position in supporting the Puerto Rican people in their struggle for independence from foreign exploitation. We stand in strong solidarity with the Puerto Rican people, both in their independence struggle on their home island and in their struggle against oppression and racism, here in the continental U.S.


-- 9 --

“BLACK POWER STIRS IN SOUTH AFRICA”

Black Power Stirs in South Africa appeared as an editorial statement in the Christian Science Monitor on February 20, 1973.

For the second time in just over a year a mass walkout by Black African workers has spotlighted the inequities of South Africa's apartheid labor structure.

The first big strike was by members of the Ovambo tribe in South-West Africa 14 months ago. The second was a month long strike wave in and around the port city of Durban, South Africa's third industrial city, which has just ended.

The Durban Africans struck in protest against their incredibly low wages, in many cases far below the poverty line. At its peak their walkout involved some 50,000 workers and 100 factories, in addition to the Durban municipal services. The bitter irony for many of the Africans is that the firms they work for have had soaring profits in recent years. In Durban white employers hastened to salve their consciences by granting wage hikes to get the Africans back to work.

Black workers in Africa have no legal right to strike and no legal trade unions to represent them in negotiations with the employers. Both in South-West Africa and Durban the pent-up frustration of the Africans finally spoiled over into a spontaneous demonstration, despite the official ban on strikes. It is interesting that both strikes were confined mainly to workers from a single tribe: the Ovambos in South-West Africa and the Zulus in Durban. This gave the strikers a feeling of brotherhood and unity. In both cases the government reacted with caution, obviously anxious to avoid a repetition of the Sharpeville disaster 13 years ago, when police fired on African protesters killing some 70 of them.

Most significant of all, both strikes showed that the Africans, in spite of the fact that they have no representative unions, can exert pressure on the government and on their white employers through united action and sheer weight of numbers.

The industrial front is the point where the government and its apartheid policies are most vulnerable. South Africa's burgeoning industry depends largely on the country's huge reservoir of Black manpower. Unrest among this vast army of African workers could shake the foundations of the state. In Durban, both the police and the majority of Zulu workers showed restraint. But when thousands of embittered men come out on strike without any responsible leaders, a spark could ignite an explosion.

The Durban walkout has led to considerable soul-searching on the part of many white South Africans. The Financial Mail of Johannesburg called African wage scales "shameful", and the Rand Daily Mail said white employers must "end their greediness and selfishness and share more with their Black workers".

Unfortunately, the soul-searching does not appear to have reached as far as the government, which shows every sign of clinging to its rigid policies, and refuses even to allow African workers the safety valve of adequate bargaining machinery which would enable them to negotiate with the employers. Yet surely Durban showed, even more than the Ovambo strike, that such policies are not only grossly unjust but untenable in the long run.


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A SPOKESMAN FOR THE PEOPLE

HUEY P. NEWTON DEVASTATES BUCKLEY ON “FIRING LINE”

PART II

Huey P. Newton, as guest on William F. Buckley's "Firing Line" network TV discussion shown recently devastated his host. The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service (BPINS) is presenting the conversation for the benefit of those of our readers who may have missed the show on television:

BUCKLEY: As you no doubt know, the word "people", the term "popular support", is used by Chairman Mao, as you refer to him in your book, with some sense of proprietorship. That is to say, he always talks about "the people". But the people are in fact never consulted about anything. They have never been consulted about Chairman Mao, about any of his regulations, or about any of his foreign policy.

HUEY: I differ with you. I think that too much of the time, because of our cultural differences, we only consider being consulted within the scope of what we feel being consulted is. For instance, in the West, as well as in Latin America, people say there's no democracy in Cuba because they're not putting the ballot in the box. So therefore people are not consulted. On the other hand, Fidel Castro says that the people are consulted in an even more severe way; that the authority is put to the acid test. The acid test is that for a long time the people can be fooled, but they can't be fooled and misused all of the time. The test would be the doom of authority through armed revolution. That is the way the people are consulted in the final analysis.

BUCKLEY: I don't know what you're talking about and I don't think you do either.

HUEY: Well, you can only speak for yourself. I'll be more clear. I'm going to explain a principle. The principle is how the people are consulted in a democratic society. I'm saying that Westerners have a particular definition of what democracy is about, and I can appreciate that definition. Here in the West it is felt that the only time the people are given democratic rights is when they can put the ballot in the box. You vote for a particular person within a particular framework. What I'm saying is that sometimes people are heard, people participate, and it could be called democracy because what matters is who defines democracy. In the West much of the time if you're not allowed to vote by putting the ballot in the box and choosing an administrative person, if this does not take place, then in the West we're inclined to say there's no democracy. This is not necessarily true, if democracy is defined as all of the people getting a fair share and a fair deal of whatever wealth there is and some control over their administrators. But here, you can only vote within the scope of the definition of the institutions and the authorities that control them.

BUCKLEY: Democracy consists not only of being permitted to vote but in being permitted to organize an opposition so as to discover whether people are latently on your side. There is no practice of democracy, as commonly understood, in Cuba. The assumption that an organization is democratic or otherwise the leader would be overthrown, is naive.

HUEY: There's one fallacy in what I think you would consider a democracy. You could only organize in opposition within the scope defined by the authorities that have control anyway. And this is true in the socialist society as well as in the capitalist society.

BUCKLEY: Give me an example.

HUEY: The example is this. In this society you are not allowed to organize in opposition against the authority through armed resistance, with intent to overthrow the government.

BUCKLEY: We call that rebellion.

HUEY: By law. But you've already agreed that if you had lived in 1776 you probably would have chosen Washington. This definately would have been against the law. I'm saying, when we talk about organizing opposition, no government in this world, that I know about, has the audacity at this point to allow anyone to organize in opposition against the authority any way they like.

BUCKLEY: I don't understand you. If you want to organize in opposition in the U.S. short of killing people…

HUEY: Hold it right there. Short of killing people. Why do you say that?

BUCKLEY: Well, because those are the rules.

HUEY: That's just what I'm saying. You have to operate within a limited scope.

BUCKLEY: The rules of democracy are that the art of persuasion has to be practiced short of assassination.

HUEY: I understand that. There is also the same principle operating in socialist or communist countries.

BUCKLEY: Give me an example, where?

HUEY: Well, let's choose the People's Republic of China.

BUCKLEY: Tell me one authority on


-- 11 --
China who says you can do that?

HUEY: We could start with Chou En-Lai. I spoke with him in the People's Republic of China. I had six hours of private talks with him, and I had many hours of talks with responsible members of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. I was shocked. I suddenly realized how brainwashed I had been by Western thought. As I sat there it was said that all State Administrations are oppressive to someone. And he started to explain that the capitalist state, that the people who own the capital are a minority; they oppress the majority through exploitation. He said that in the national state sometimes a whole nation will oppress the rest of the world with their state national administration, so they' restilla minority oppressing the majority of the world's people, like the Hitler regime attempted to do, and like this (American) regime attempts to do. What I thought was so shocking was that he said," while you have state administration, we expropriate from the people. If the people in this country earn $10 an hour, we only give them $8. The difference between us and the capitalist state is that our expropriation is different. We don't have private ownership, so we would give the $2 that we expropriated from the people back for their own welfare. The capitalist state gives it to themselves, into their pockets. Therefore, the people are still not free as we would like. However, we work for the dissolution of a State -- for our own disappearance."

When he said that, I realized that he was saying that he is working for the end of the Communist regime in China. I thought that was very honest. That was a statement that led me to believe that if he's working for the dissolution of the state, then opposition could arise to work to wither away territorial boundary lines.

BUCKLEY: I'm attempting to pin down a point and I'm loosing track of it. I said, who agrees with you and you said Chou En-Lai. And then you proceeded to tell me what Chou En-Lai said to you.

HUEY: I can tell you of other people: Comrade Tung, Comrade Li; you wouldn't know the difference. I named a person that you're probably familiar with. They say that you're well read and you are conscious of world events, so I only named one of the officials in China so that you could identify him. I doubt if you've been to the villages, the countryside of China. Did you go?

BUCKLEY: Yes, I did go. Are you aware of the messages that Chou En-Lai sent to Allende (the President of Chile)?

HUEY: Yes, I saw the letter.

BUCKLEY: And you remember that he said that he does not believe that Marxism can be ushered in by a Parlimentary democracy? You know that Chou En-Lai, in that particular statement, said that he does not believe in the right to organize an opposition that is contrary to the dialectics of Marxism.

HUEY: I would like to make this clear, for the audience and for you. I don't know about Chou En-Lai, but I'm not a Marxist. I think the whole concept that Marx tried to lay down as a scholar, a historian, a philosopher, has been distorted. People became priests of Marx. I am not … I think that Marx was a scientist. He tried to point out a very advanced method of analyzing phenomenon; it is called dialectical materialism. You can't usher in dialectical materialism because that is the whole order and process of the universe. In other words, I explained one of the principles, that contradiction is the ruling principle of the universe; it gives motion to matter.

CONTINUED NEXT WEEK


-- 11 --

BLACK WORKERS CONDEMN NIXON BUDGET

(Washington, D.C.) - The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) has called a series of regional meetings to rally opposition to the Nixon Administration's proposed cuts in the federal budget -- a budget the Coalition leadership called one of "austerity, indifference and disregard" for Black people, minorities and the poor.

The Coalition is a national organization of Black union leaders and rank-and-file members formed last September at a conference in Chicago. More than 1,200 persons representing 37 different international unions are involved.

The CBTU scheduled its first regional meeting for Saturday, February 24th at the headquarters of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters Union, 4858 South Wabash, in Chicago. The daylong meeting will be open to all interested union members in the area.

Subsequent meetings are scheduled to be held in Cleveland on March 10; Detroit on March 31; and New York on April 14, according to the CBTU steering committee.

In a statement responding to the President's proposed budget cuts, the steering committee expressed concern "because the recommended cuts affect the lives of so many workers".

"It is ironic that everytime cuts and reductions are made by the administration, it is the poor who must bear the brunt" the CBTU said.


-- 14 --

Opposition to Nixon's budget is of top priority for Black workers. The Congress has yet to act on this budget. An organized and coordinated campaign of opposition, concentrated in the major industrial states and aimed at members of Congress from those States, could favorably affect final Congressional action.

The CBTU has the potential for providing the leadership for such a campaign. Rank and file workers are looking for such leadership. Their established leadership has betrayed them.


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SUPPORT THE SAMUEL L. NAPIER INTERCOMMUNAL YOUTH INSTITUTE

The Samuel Napier Intercommunal Youth Institute is a school designed to help our children think. It is located in the Oakland Bay Area and it points out through example that other schools have provided only the most basic courses; courses that have little relevance to the survival of poor people. We are trying to expand the concept that the whole world is the children's classroom.

The youth at Samuel Napier receive instruction in language arts, mathematics, science, health, physical education, political education and people's art. All of these courses are geared to the development of a well-rounded human being.

We need the help of all interested people in making our school run smoothly. Since its inception in 1970, its enrollment has rapidly increased. We need more instructors; instructors with everchanging ideas to cope with the everchanging ideas of the children.

If you have teaching skills and can donate some of your time, please contact the Black Panther Party at 8501 East 14th Street, Oakland, California; or phone 638-0195. The children, our youth, are our future. Without their growth, we, as a people, cannot survive.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE


-- 13 --

KISSINGER GOES TO CHINA HAT IN HAND

From all the fuss made in the media one would think Henry Kissinger has the People's Republic of China licking out of his hand. But, it appears that the reverse is true, only Kissinger and Nixon are not smart enough to know it.

Americans forget that the People's Republic of China never asked or wanted to be isolated from the world community. It was the concerted policy of the West and particularly the U.S. government that created conditions for that isolation. Instead of compromising principles in order to win dubious friendship of America's ruling clique through the past 2 decades, the new China held fast to its original goals and busied itself in working toward those goals internally.

The eagerness with which the West now wants to win influence and inroads in China is proof of the success of its internal policy of massive self-reliance and dependence on the will and determination of its 850 million people.

Just what, concretely, did Kissinger get on this last visit? Check it out: the promised release of two American pilots shot down over China and the review of the case of a third, a civilian CIA agent; agreement to negotiate claims on assets of each which are frozen in the other's country; increased cultural and technical exchanges, and agreement by each to establish liaison offices in the other country.

That's really not much. Yet, the media treated this agreement as if it was nearly equal to the establishment of full diplomatic relations. The establishment of the liaison offices has been made to seem the "great accomplishment". Kissinger said on his return the offices would "cover the whole gamut of relationshps". That statement may well be more wishful thinking than fact. If Kissinger or Nixon think China will engage in "the whole gamut of relationships" with the U.S. while its military sits just off-shore China on the island of Taiwan, they had better think again. The liaison offices will be a means. The ends remain to be realized.

Further, if, as the Western press reports, the USSR is disturbed over the growing contact between China and the U.S., it must hold itself to blame. It has been the continuing movement toward US-USSR cooperation -- at the sacrifice of revolutionary principle and as it particularly concerns the national liberation movements of the people of the Third World -- that has convinced China of the need to intervene and frustrate that cooperation by holding up a larger carrot to the greed of U.S. capitalism.

The frenzy in U.S. reaction to the limited accomplishments of Kissinger's visit represents the U.S. capitalist scramble to get at that carrot. How high they have to jump and who or what gets knocked aside in the scramble remains to be seen.


-- 14 --

PHILLY TEACHER STRIKE: BLACK BITTERNESS OVER WHITE PICKETS

(Philadelphia, Pa.) - Schools in mostly Black North Philadelphia have been the target of massive union picketing after white racists complained that their schools in the Northeast section are completely closed down. The Black schools are being kept open at the community's insistence and because many Black people feel that the strike will not benefit them.

In the Black community there is growing bitterness and anger towards both the striking teachers and city officials. A feeling of resentment grows as white pickets from closed Northeastern schools come into the Black community to picket Black schools which are open.

Black parents are enraged because even though the children go to school they aren't learning anything. Black students are unhappy about their education being interrupted and they accuse the picketing white teachers of attempting to incite them (the students) to violence. Sister Clara Wright probably expressed the Black community's sentiment best when she said, "No one (in authority) is really concerned about the school strike because the school system is mostly Black and Puerto Rican."

This is illustrated by the fact that the police continue to arrest pickets at schools throughout the city for violating a court injunction which banned the strike. Many of the pickets arrested are not members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) but are from unions as far away as New York and New Jersey.

Labor leaders in Philadelphia are planning a 3 1/2 hour work stoppage and demonstration on Wednesday, February 28th, to show support for the teacher's union. Several unions however, have issued statements saying they will give the teachers financial and picket line support but they will not join the walkout.

School board president William Ross resigned but Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo said it made no difference since he (Rizzo) was going to decide what the strike settlement would be anyway. He also makes the false claim of being a lawyer for the taxpayers. Despite the loud noises he makes, Rizzo will not decide the fate of the Philadelphia schools, ultimately, the people will.


-- 14 --

CORRECTION

The telephone number for contact with the Teen Family Planning Program given in the BPINS article, February 24, 1973, should have been 451-7900, Ext. 488.


-- 15 --

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 Busing 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.

Seniors Against A Fearful
Environment (S.A.F.E.) Program

Provides free transportation and escort service for senior citizens to and from community banks the first of each month.

People's Free Community
Employment Program

(Being Implemented)

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

People's Free Medical Research
Health Clinics

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

People's Free Plumbing and
Maintenance Program

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 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.

People Free Clothing Program

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

Intercommunal News Service

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

Free Pest Control Program

Free household extermination of rats, roaches, ants and other disease carrying pests and rodents.

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.


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