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WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER POW'S?

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Editorial: PROVOCATEURS BEWARE

The provocations have begun. We've expected them. We're prepared to deal with them. But, let the provocateurs be warned. Their insidious attacks will not produce the desired results. In fact, they may very well backfire.

Last week in downtown Oakland, a Black man physically assaulted several persons, shouting at them, "You better vote Democratic. You better vote for Bobby Seale!" Before he could be apprehended by bystanders, he fled from the scene.

Such provocations on the part of candidates for public office aimed at discrediting their oposition are standard operating procedure in the political game pawned off on the people as "American democracy". These and smear campaigns aimed at character assassination are the main body of pre-election tactics for many office holders and office seekers as well. For this reason, and the fact that the important issues are most often totally ignored, nearly half of all Americans of voting age are discouraged from bothering to go to the polls in local as well as national elections.

But the campaign Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown have been waging in Oakland is something very different. It has been a sustained, people's campaign, built solidly and single-mindedly around the issues most affecting the lives of the people of this city. It is an open and aboveboard campaign. It has been and remains a spotless campaign. It is, has been and will continue to be a campaign completely devoid of the smear tactics or "character assassination".

Bobby and Elaine have no need to use such tactics. They are way out in front of all other candidates. They've been way out ahead, and will remain there up to and through April 17. Victory celebrations are already being planned as we watch every other candidate in the "race" trying vainly to catch up.

Thousands upon thousands of Oakland citizens have personally met and talked with Bobby and Elaine. Thousands more will do so before election

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day. These people know what Bobby and Elaine are about. They have had their questions answered and their concerns dealt with, honestly, openly and rationally.

Consequently, Oakland's citizens should see the acts of provocation for what they are: desperate efforts to prevent People's Power from being realized in Oakland; to undermine the people's campaign. Bobby and Elaine know the only road to People's Power is through winning the people's love and admiration. The deep love, admiration and respect that Bobby and Elaine have won and continue to win from the people of Oakland has created a massive wall of defense around the people's candidates against the provocateurs and enemies of People's Power. Every underhanded blow against Bobby and Elaine in this campaign will be a blow against the people and will be remembered with a vengence when we go to the polls on April 17th.

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SUTTER SHOOTS HIS LOAD: CAMPAIGN LEAFLET A JOKE

It has come to the attention of the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service (BPINS) that Oakland City Councilman, John Sutter, a man with ill-conceived aspirations of becoming the next mayor of Oakland, is producing thousands of leaflets in an attempt to convince Oakland's voting public that Bobby Seale does not have a chance of winning on April 17th.

This devious leaflet, scheduled for distribution one week before election day, quotes a reporter from the Oakland Tribune who wrote that Bobby Seale "probably cannot take more than 10,000 to 12,000 votes". Doesn't Sutter and his cronies know nearly that many people are directly or indirectly involved in actively working to elect Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown to Oakland city offices?

The leaflet goes on to say that, "Informed political observers know that Bobby Seale has absolutely no chance of winning." To the contrary, many trained political observers have stated that the campaign of Bobby and Elaine is well out in front of all other candidates and that a landslide victory for them is likely.

All in all, with this leaflet John Sutter is foolishly trying to say that he is the only candidate that has a chance of defeating the present mayor, John Reading. Yet, even Reading doesn't believe this, for he has called Bobby Seale a "formidable opponent".

If John Sutter really believes that Bobby has no chance "whatsoever" of winning the mayoralty seat, why

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does he devote so much leaflet space to pose the question: "How About Bobby Seale?" If Bobby is no threat, why bother to say anything about him?

It should also be noted that nowhere in Sutter's leaflet does he address himself to the pressing issues that affect the lives of Oakland's citizenry; issues such as jobs, housing, medical care and education. What are Sutter's plans to offset the Federal funding cutbacks? These remain a mystery.

It is clear then that Bobby Seale is a threat -- a threat to corrupt city government. On April 17th, back-room politics, as well as the underhanded smear tactics of which Mr. Sutter seems so fond, will be pushed into the past and a people's government will be born. Bobby Seale will be elected Mayor of Oakland and Elaine Brown City Councilwoman.

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NIXON DEATH PENALTY: “WITHOUT PITY”

"Law and order", the two-faced, double-meaning slogan for white conservatives and the reactionaries in this society, again found its prime spokesman in the form of Richard Nixon last week. Nixon dramatically announced his new proposal to restore the death penalty into federal law. In a radio message Nixon spoke scornfully of what he called "soft-headed judges" and the "permissive philosophy" which claims that social injustices breed crime. In callous words, with the drawl which sounded like orders to begin the construction of the hangman's noose, to prepare the prisoner for the gas chamber, inhumane words which pulled the symbolic electric "switch" in already disturbed minds, Nixon crudely remarked: "I am convinced that the death penalty can be an effective deterrent…The death penalty is not a deterrent so long as there is doubt whether it should be applied. The law I propose would remove this doubt."

The proposed legislation would revive the death penalty for five major areas of presidental concern: assassination, treason, air hijackings, murder of law enforecement officials and murder of prison guards. He announced that he had asked the Attorney General to draft these into law so that they would withstand review by the Supreme Court, Last year, the Supreme Court, by a 5 - 4 vote, outlawed capital punishment as "cruel and unusual", but only when the decision was left to the discretion of a judge or jury. One would suppose then, that Nixon is calling for a mandatory death penalty in these cases.

With relentless blows, Nixon's radio message also demanded that new legislation combat drug dealers. Rather than stop the CIA and other federal government and big business sources from bringing heroin and other drugs into this country, Nixon preferred to focus attention on the small time drug pushers. This he would accomplish in three stages: (1) a mandatory five year minimum sentence on conviction for the sale of heroin; (2) a mandatory 10-year sentence on conviction of heroin dealers

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with larger amounts; and (3) life imprisonment without parole for a second conviction of a drug felony. Not only would this be mandatory but those arrested would not be allowed parole before sentencing. As an after-thought, Nixon again mentioned that, "the line against dangerous drugs is now drawn on this side of marijuana".

The new fascist design also calls for special hearings, after the trial, to determine whether any "rational standards" would be considered prior to the death sentence. Since these hearings would not be part of the official judicial proceedings, we would have to suppose that "Justice" Nixon will also propose by what guidelines these hearings will be run, as well as what "rational standards" these hearings will consider valid.

Underlying it all, President Nixon outlined hisand therefore, by his logic, the "American people's" philosophy towards crime. That is, "Society is guilty of crime only when we fail to bring the criminal to justice. When we fail to make the criminal pay for his crime, we encourage him to think that crime will pay…" Nixon added, that as his goal, he called upon America "to attack crime…the way crime attacks our people -- without pity."

To the Black and oppressed communities throughout America, Nixon's proposals must be taken as a dark and foreboding threat. To deny the economic basis for so - called "crime" is to deny the realities of life itself. Poor people go to jail, not rich people, and, in particular it is poor, Black people who are disproportionately sentenced to death and executed. Every statistic accumulated since 1930 (when statistics for executions from death sentences were first kept), bears out this fact. Since 1930, 2,065 Black people have been executed for so-called "capital offenses"; 2,065 Black people or 53.5% of all state executions in this country.

The Black Panther Party firmly condemns President Nixon's latest maneuvers toward the genocide of Black and oppressed communities. In doing so we take our stand as one with all humankind, upholding the forces of life as opposed to the terrorous forces of death. We again state and fully re-affirm the "Peoples Petition For the Total Abolition of the Death Penalty" which ran in our newspaper (the BPINS) not long ago:

"All life should be held sacred, for the right to live is the most basic of all human rights. No government has the right to arbitrarily take the life of a human being. Death should only come when determined by the forces of nature, not by the legal murder machinery of the State. Government does not have the right to legislate death to any individual, or act as God with human lives. Death is final, and leaves no room for redress of grievances. When a government shows no respect for human life, can it lay any claim to legitimacy?"

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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ENTHUSIASM HIGH AS VOTER REGISTRATION ENDS: VICTORY FOR BOBBY AND ELAINE JUST ONE MONTH AWAY

Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown, people's candidates for Mayor and Oakland City Councilwoman, attended the final voter registrar's pep session last Saturday morning at Hamilton Elementary School in East Oakland. Two days remained for official voter registration activity before cut-off at midnight Sunday, March 18.

The Community Committee for Greater Voter Registration, which organized the 8:30 a.m. session, provided hot coffee and doughnuts for the more than seventy-five registrars that were present. The meeting was called to organize a maximum voter registration effort in the thirty-six hours remaining.

"The work of voter registrars is one of the reasons that we are far ahead in the race for city offices," Bobby told the assembled workers. "The people of Oakland associate voter registration with our campaign because Elaine and I daily urged them, by direct contact, on the radio and in campaign literature, to register."

One registrar present reported that when he asked a registrant what political party he would like to affiliate with, the registrant replied, "The Bobby Seale Party". Many present reported that throughout the community people had indicated that they had given up on taking part in the electoral process and were now registering to vote only because Bobby and Elaine are running.

Following the pep talk by Bobby, enthusiasm was high and the registrars dispersed from this East Oakland location to spots throughout the city with the knowledge that each person registered brings them one step closer to people's power in Oakland.

Last Tuesday afternoon Elaine Brown attended and spoke at a meeting called by the Alameda County Association for the Mentally Retarded to protest against proposed federal guidelines which would cut off funds to the workshops and centers for the mentally retarded throughout the county. The meeting was held at the Association's workshop on East 14th Street in Oakland.

Following an Association official who explained the situation and the problems involved, Elaine spoke, suggesting that those present organize the building of a massive effort to educate the community on the issue in order to involve the people. "We must not only strive to maintain present funding", she explained, "but we must also seek to raise our present level of operations, because the mentally retarded are neglected by this society as are Black people, Spanish speaking people, senior citizens and many others."

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Later that day Elaine appeared at a rally called by the Association of Federated Teachers (AFT) outside the Oakland School Administration building in downtown Oakland. The rally was called to protest against the School Board's plans to cut back on teachers in the next school year. (See article on page 13.)

After presenting a statement of support at the rally, Elaine joined other protestors who entered the building to attend the School Board meeting. There, on behalf of the people of Oakland, she demanded that no classroom teachers be cut in the upcoming year, emphasizing that the cuts should come from the unnecessarily large numbers of administrators that overload the school system.

On Saturday evening Bobby and Elaine spoke at a meeting of the Oakland Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees at the Rainbow Sign community club in Berkeley. The Alliance is the only national union of federal employees that is predominantly Black.

The people's candidates explained the issues of the campaign and their positions to the assembled group. They described in detail the workings of the Community Committee to Elect Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown to City Offices of Oakland and the tremendous response the Committee has received from the residents of Oakland.

As this reporter struggles to keep up with these two fast moving, hard working, tireless candidates of the people, the most moving and beautiful thing to see is the response of the people of the community to Bobby and Elaine.

The other candidates have stopped campaigning against the incumbent. Mayor John Reading, and have begun to concentrate their efforts in verbal attacks against Bobby, as Reading has been doing all along. As April 17th draws closer, it is becoming clearer and clearer to the people of Oakland that the entire community of Oakland is involved and that the people will elect to city offices their true representatives, Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown.

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VOTER REGISTRAR ASSAULTED: SISTER ATTACKED BY PAWNSHOP OWNER

Lintonia Sheppard, a Deputy Voter Registrar and full-time worker for the Community Committee For Greater Voter Registration, was brutally assaulted by a white merchant at Broadway and 9th Streets in Oakland last week, while registering citizens to vote for the April 17th elections.

The owner of the Eagle Loan pawnshop attempted to forcibly eject Sister Lintonia from his shop without warning or cause. In the ensuing battle the merchant ended up on his back on the sidewalk outside his shop, shouting profanities at the sister and at the circle of bystanders watching.

It all began when Lintonia approached a brother in the Eagle Loan shop to ask him if he was registered. Before the brother could reply and without warning, the merchant lunged at the sister shouting, "If you're not 21, get out!" He then grabbed Lintonia at the neck and attempted to push her out of the shop, without giving her time to reply or to complete her conversation.

The brother intervened, pulling the merchant away from Lintonia as she wrenched herself free from his grasp and left the shop. Not content, when released by the brother, the merchant came out of the shop and repeatedly assaulted Sister Lintonia, striking her and cursing her at the top of his voice. Fortunately for the sister, she had a knowledge of certain self-defense tactics and was therefore able to prevent herself from being badly hurt.

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About fifteen minutes after the assault ended Oakland police came on the scene. They questioned the merchant and Sister Lintonia, but refused to press charges against the merchant.

Sister Lintonia explained that she is well acquainted with rules and regulations regarding voter registration. Had the merchant asked her to leave his shop without assaulting her, she would have done so, she said. "But, he shouted at me and tried to push me out of the shop without giving me a chance to say a thing. I was talking to the brother, who didn't even have a chance to tell me if he was registered or not."

Thousands of people have been assaulted, arrested and many murdered in the attempt to register our sisters and brothers to vote, particularly in the South. Here in Oakland and in other communities throughout the country all that is required to register is the will. In Oakland Black people, poor people and oppressed people have candidates committed to our needs -- VOTE April 17th.

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URGENT APPEAL FOR BLACK TEACHERS

(Vacaville, Calif.) - An urgent appeal from inside Vacaville prison is being made for Black teachers. The appeal has been initiated by David Hilliard, a leader of the Black Panther Party, and reflects the determination of that growing cadre of Black and other prison inmates throughout the country to prepare themselves for meaningful service to their communities when released.

Prison inmates are unanimous: the great majority of so-called "rehabilitation" programs in the prisons are totally inadequate. Black prison inmates point to the same inadequacies in prison programs that exist in the society at large for Black people, irrelevant education ingrained with racism, of little or no use to the Black community in meeting the pressing needs for jobs, an end to police brutality, housing, medical and other services.

Vacaville, like a few other prisons around the country, maintains a program which permits persons from the outside to come in on a regular basis to teach evening classes to the prison inmates. Black prison inmates are urging Black teachers and other professionals to take advantage of this opportunity or insist that such programs are developed in the prisons in their localities.

The experience of brothers and sisters inside have established that too often those "education" programs that exist are treated as part of the "reward and punishment" method of guards and prison authorities. This usually means that those prison inmates of highest consciousness and consequently most desirous of improving their minds in wide-ranging fields are most often denied these "privileges".

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This has been the experience of Brother David Hilliard. Despite an exemplary record during his incarceration, he has repeatedly been thrown out of a variety of education programs, including group therapy classes, music appreciation classes and philosophy classes. A variety of reasons were given to deny David Hilliard the opportunity he seeks to use his time inside to improve his mind and his understanding of the world around him.

But, in fact, since all the teachers have been white, what really caused Brother David to be removed has been the inability and unwillingness of the racist white teachers to deal with the mind of a Black prison inmate that is superior to their own; with ideas and concepts rooted in devotion and service to the people.

It is Brother David's opinion, and that of Black prison inmates generally, that Black teachers would be much less likely to feel challenged by the minds and abilities of the Black prison inmates. They would rather feel greatly stimulated and encouraged in such teaching situations. Inside there is a great thirst for knowledge. The prison inmates have time to study and read. More and more are coming to understand that study is the way to turn their incarceration into a positive good.

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COURTROOMS OF THE FUTURE

(Sacramento, Calif.) - A "courtroom of the future" is being built for a Sacramento law school experiment. Replete with soundproof isolation chambers, one - way glass, closed-circuit TV, special remote control and extra-sensitive security devices, the future would appear to be the notorious 1984 society come to life -- "Big Brother Is Watching You" and will be putting you on trial as well.

Among the more simple, harmless, changes in the courtrooms are desks for jurors, who will be encourged to take notes and 9-inch TV screens on these desks to permit the jurors a close-up look at the evidence.

The more treacherous innvoations include:

-- A special viewing area for news reporters, behind a one-way glass, "to reduce interference and increase the view".

-- Remote control locks on courtroom doors and super-sensitive weapons detectors at the doorways as technological "guards", to supplement the human ones.

-- Sound proof isolation chambers for "unruly" defendants, from which they can hear and see what is going on without being able to "interfere".

-- Closed-circuit TV of the trial into a public viewing room "in the event the audience disrupts the trial and must be excluded".

-- Circular rooms so that jurors can turn their backs to the audience (the community) "and thus be free from distractions from spectators".

This is only a model, an experiment, a test of what our communities will tolerate. Already, most Black and poor people suffer from the decisions of non-peer juries. Courtrooms such as this seek to end, even more so, the community's involvement in the judicial prcess. Most of the "innovations" tend only to isolate the defendant and curtail their, and our, participation in courtroom proceedings. The juror's back to the audience -- an almost world-wide sign of disrespect and disdain.

Our response must be to disband this mock courtroom, and begin to construct, in our own way, people's tribunals, a people's justice.

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RACIST HUNCH RAILROADS BROTHER

(Chattanooga, Tenn.) - Recently, a 19 year old Black man was sentenced to ten years in prison here for the alleged robbery of an insurance salesman.

For the past several months Chattanooga Police Commissioner Gene Roberts has repeatedly sent his police troops into the Black community on harass and arrest missions. This has been his reply to the "Law and Order" racists of Chattanooga, who have been encouraged by Richard Nixon's backwards rhetoric. As a result, the Hamilton County criminal courts are overflowing with cases involving Black people.

Brother Craig was convicted on the "hunch" of the white arresting detective that anyone having the name Craig is a criminal.

Chattanooga police, having already convinced juries to send two of Michael's brothers to prison, were determined to get Michael too. Prior to his arrest on the robbery charge (for which he was convicted) he'd been arrested on burglary charges. It turns out that the police followed Michael's car from his home one day, stopped it, searched it and came up with a tire iron. This, they claimed, was evidence, a burglary tool. When the jury would not accept this crazed theory and threw the case out of court, the police continued their vendetta against the Craig family and re-arrested brother Michael on their robbery "hunch" before he got out of the building.

At his trial, only the jury was unable to see Brother Michael's innocence. His employer, William Dunn, a Black contractor, testified that Michael was at work at the time of the robbery. Many witnesses appeared in his defense and other Black witnesses were denied the right to testify by the court.

The Chattanooga police and court have been successful. They have taken another son away from Mrs. Lonnie Craig, Michael's mother, because his last name is Craig. Because judges and juries hand down decisions in the American courts does not mean that they are just, fair or equal to decisions made for the white or rich of this country. We must seek to control institutions, like the courts, which affect all of our lives.

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WOUNDED KNEE DECLARED SOVEREIGN STATE: SIOUX NATION FORMS - - DEMANDS STILL UNMET

"Our struggle will go on, so long as the grass shall grow, sun shall shine, and rivers flow to the sea…"

-- Ancient Indian saying.

"Wounded Knee is now the Oglala Sioux nation, a soveriegn state. If any foreign country, specifically the United States, tries to enter the village, it will be considered an act of war and treated accordingly."

-- Russell Means, a leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) Sunday, March II, 1973.

(Wounded Knee, S.D.) - The echoed voices of the past merged with resounding voices of the present to form symbolic and significant harmony. Last week, the Native American occupants of Wounded Knee vowed to remain at that historic site until their demands are met.

With the approval of some of the more traditional Oglala Sioux, excluding of course, the elected Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, whose immediate removal is one of the occupant's foremost demands, on Sunday, March 11, the Native Americans declared Wounded Knee an independent nation based on a 1868 government treaty with the Sioux. Dennis Banks, another AIM leader and an original participant in the seizure of this tiny community added, "We're here at the request of our grass roots people; and we'll stay as long as we are wanted." The 1868 U.S.-Native American land grant treaty has been broken time and time again (the original area includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana). This is only one of the 371 Indian treaties flagrantly violated by the US government in their relentless persecution of Native Americans.

Following this declaration of sovereignty, the federal authorities reestablished their barricade around Wounded Knee and threats of "starving them out" were issued. The reestablished blockade included 15 armoured personnel carriers and 300 federal marshals, FBI agents and Bureau of Indian Affairs police. The US marshals at the scene comprise an elite volunteer force called SOG (special Operations Group). SOG has been given "credit" for ending the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island, and Indian people's occupations in various parts of Minnesota. They are only deployed at the request of the President or U.S. Attorney General.

Prior to the re-establishment of the barricades, however, carloads of Native American supporters, most of whom were armed, joined their brothers and sisters holding Wounded Knee in occupation. Approximately 150 Native Americans are said to have entered their people's camp, raising their number to more than 300. (An FBI official was wounded in one of the many shooting sprees which have marked the Wounded Knee seizure from the beginning. Once again, our sources report that it was the U.S. officials that instigated the shooting by firing first.)

In other developments last week, a young student was killed by federal marshals in Rapid City, S.D., after being arbitrarily accosted and harassed. The man, a Mexican-American, was a student at "D.Q." in Davis, California, a university for Chicano and Indian students.

The death, news of which has been squashed by the network media, is the first at all related to the three week old Native American seizure at Wounded Knee. Over 150 Native Americans, many of whom are women and chidlren have been arrested either attempting to enter or leaving the occupation site. These arrests have particularly angered Native Americans throughout the country, since the women and children were "promised" safe passage out if they left the campsite. (Following their departures and arrests, it must be noted that sniping that was previously infrequent grew to its present constant level.) Even more treacherous, as well as foreboding, four U.S. marshals, disguised as postal workers, were forcibly evicted from the occupied land when it was noticed that all 4 were secretly armed. The fact that the four were on their way to a meeting with Russell Means and Dennis Banks, two top AIM leaders, makes this an obvious assassination attempt.

Also last week, a federal grand jury,

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meeting in Sioux Falls, S.D., indicted 31 persons (to be named later) on charges of civil disorder, conspiracy, burglary and larceny, stemming from the original armed seizure of Wounded Knee on Friday, March 2. The day before, the reactionary Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, feeling the pressures from their adverse exposure, attempted to remove all non-Oglala, including representatives from the National Council of Churches, from their reservation. The clergymen have been accused by the fearful Tribal Council of supporting the Native American occupants of Wounded Knee and have been threatened with jail on the reservation.

Perhaps one recent event more than all others, can be said to have hardened the determination and resolve of the Native Americans at Wounded Knee, and calling forth the outrage and disgust of progressive people everywhere, eliciting tremendous support for the Native American cause. That event was the acquittal, on Friday, March 16th, of Michael Morgan, the admitted murderer of Richard Oakes, one of the Native Americans who led the seizure of Alcatraz Island in 1968. Morgan's acquittal, occurring as it did, during one of the most tense moments in the Wounded Knee occupation, only serves to confirm the realities of American justice; a criminal justice, which from the murder of 300 Indian people at Wounded Knee in 1890, up to the present has yet to move from its blood-stained "white might makes right" philosophy.

"The Trail of Broken Treaties", a Native American movement, a people's movement -- for dignity, for self-determination, for justice -- continues to slowly wind its way toward the inevitable victory.

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MARINE BRUTALITY EXPOSED: BROTHER JAMES SIMMONS RECOUNTS HIS YEARS IN THE MILITARY

Mrs. Vivian Simmons, an Oakland mother, contacted the Black Panther Party recently to ask our assistance in exposing to public view the brutal, racist treatment her son James received while a Marine Corps recruit at Camp Pendleton in Southern California.

Mrs. Simmons was successful in obtaining the indignant intervention of California Representative Ronald V. Dellums, and finally the discharge of her son.

The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service (BPINS) interviewed Brother James Simmons at our office recently. We print that interview in two parts.

Part I follows:

BPINS: Why did you enlist in the Marine Corps?

SIMMONS: Because it was hard for me to find a job out here on the streets and I thought I would have some type of future, as far as providing for my family. I have a wife and four children. When I was out here in the streets I didn't have a job and my family was suffering.

BPINS: How old were you when you joined the Marines?

SIMMONS: 23 years old.

BPINS: How long had you been in the corps before you realized the brutality which the military keeps hidden from the public?

SIMMONS: I noticed it the first night I spent in `boot camp.'

BPINS: What happened?

SIMMONS: The officers were cursing us and calling us profane names. If someone forgot to say "Sir" they would grab him in the collar and shake him up. When we arrived in camp we did not know that we were not supposed to say "I" or "you". When one of the recruits said "I" the sergeant poked him in the eye and said, "We don't say `I' or `you' in the Marine Corps." I realized then that there was a lot of brutality involved, but I decided to remain in the corps. Later, when I became aware that they were trying to brainwash me and the other recruits I realized that the Marine Corps was no place for me, because I refuse to be brainwashed.

BPINS: What did this brainwashing entail?

SIMMONS: Well, they put what they want in your head. For example, if they program your mind to walk through a wall, you would try to do that because this is how they brainwash you with what they want. This is why brutality exists in the corps. They think that they are getting the civilian way of thinking out of your mind and putting the military way of thinking into your mind.

BPINS: What methods do the officers use to do this?

SIMMONS: By punishing you; by making you do exercises until you fall out or they jump on you and take you into an isolated room and beat you in the ribs and stomach so the bruises can't be seen. The sergeants put recruits in a sand pit and make them exercise in the pit, sometimes they make you remain in a push-up position on your knuckles until your knuckles begin to bleed. I've seen some brothers who were exercised so hard in the sandpit until they fell out unable to breathe.

When the whole thing began with me it was because I wouldn't exercise in the pit. One of the recruits made a mistake during the drilling, so everyone had to suffer. We had to go into the sandpit and exercise and after we finished exercising we had to lie on our stomachs and throw dirt into each others eyes and noses. I stood up and told them that I was not going to have any more dirt thrown in my eyes because it could blind me. They told me I was disobeying an order.

TO BE CONTINUED

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DELLUMS APPOINTED TO HUMAN RELATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE

(Washington, D.C.) - Congressman Ronald V. Dellums, the first Black member of the House Armed Services Committee, last week was appointed to a special "Human Relations" subcommittee which will deal with problems of minorities within the military.

The appointment came one day after Dellums specially requested that a special subcommittee set up last November to investigate recent racial clashes in the Navy be expanded to include minorities and women in its membership. The new special subcommittee replaces the subcommittee which dealt with incidents on the carriers Kitty Hawk and Constellation.

"I am gratified that Chairman Herbert has chosen me to serve on this important subcommittee," Dellums said in a statement. "Problems of discrimination and sexism are so wide in the military today that our national security may be endangered. I hope this subcommittee will be able to quell these problems at their sources, and to provide for each member of the armed services justice and equity."

In addition to the "Human Relations" subcommittee, Dellums was appointed to the regular "Military Compensation" subcommittee. That subcommittee, headed by Rep. San Stratton (D.-N.Y.) deals with questions of pay and allowances, recruiting, promotion and retirement.

In another development Congressman Dellums last week joined with Congressman John J. McFall, (D. Calif.) and more than 100 other members of the House of Representatives to introduce legislation to extend the life of the Economic Development Administration for another year.

Congressman Dellums noted that the Administration plans to eliminate the EDA and its programs by June 30, unless the Congress takes action to retain EDA.

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COMMUNITY COMMITTEE TO ELECT BOBBY SEALE AND ELAINE BROWN TO CITY OFFICES OF OAKLAND: Campaign Offices Near You:
493-62nd Street
658-8193
4421 Grove Street
658-9547

5229 East 14th Street
536-1420
8129 MacArthur Blvd.
636-0840

601-98th Avenue
632-1605
1524 29th Avenue
532-6566

2100 Market Street 763-5629

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“UNTIL WE'RE FREE”: ELAINE BROWN'S LATEST ALBUM RELEASED

Elaine Brown, community activist and candidate for Oakland City Councilwoman, is also a musician, composer, lyricist and song stylist. On March 22, her second album was released. It's called "Until We're Free", the title song. Elaine wrote both the music and words for all nine songs she performs on this Motown Records release on the Black Forum label.

"Until We're Free" and "No Time", a song planned for a single 45 rpm release shortly, sum up what this album is all about, Elaine told the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service (BPINS) last week. "These two titles are our statement of the condition of our people at this moment in history", she explained. "If we're to survive, we have `no time' to engage in so many of the human, personal, lovely things because of the horrors of today's reality, of so much of today's world. Not `until we're free' can we know and experience freely all the beauty that surrounds us."

Elaine refuses to assert her personal authorship of the songs she writes. "I'm simply a chronicler, a notetaker and interpreter", she insists. "These songs were actually written through the experience of people in struggle." The song, "If We Do Not Die", for example she explains, grew out of her visit to Korea and was inspired by a visual presentation of the horrors of the anti-Japanese war of the Korean people. At that same time while in Korea Elaine learned of the death of Jonathan Jackson. The impact of these two experiences produced these lines:

"There is a man/who stands in all our way/And his greedy hands/ reach out across the world/But if we stay this man/we'll have peace in this land/and this glorious struggle will be done/And we shall meet again/If we do not die…"

The song from which these lines were taken will be the reverse of the 45 rpm containing "No Time". Other cuts on the album are "Jonathan", "We Shall Meet Again", "Can't Go Back", "I Know Who You Are", "To A Little Baby" and "A Child In The World".

Among the people who participated in the production of "Until We're Free", Elaine singled out Suzanne de Passe, Vice-President of the Creative Department at Motown Records, Horace Tapscott, who arranged all the music and Ewart Abner, President of Motown Records.

It was Ms. de Passe, a 26 year old Black woman, member of the 3-person team that wrote the screenplay for "Lady Sings The Blues", a strong candidate for an Academy Award, who Elaine insists was the motivating force behind "Until We're Free". "She understood our aims in making such a record", Elaine said.

Elaine described Horace Tapscott as "a Black musician who never compromised with racism in the entertainment world, who fought the musician union's anti-Black policy and has been a long-time advocate of a Black musicians union. She described Brother Tapscott as "a beautiful Black man".

Elaine has been singing since she was a child. Her early training was in the Junior Choir and later the Adult Choir of the Jones Tabernacle A.M.E. Church at 21st and Diamond Streets in North Philadelphia. She had never sung outside the framework of either the church or her organization. The Black Panther Party.

Elaine's first record, "Seize the Time", produced in 1969, was the result of being heard by David Hilliard at the funeral of Bunchy Carter, fallen comrade in the struggle for life with dignity. At that funeral, Elaine sang Bunchy's favorite from her compositions, "The Meeting" and his mother's favorite, "Precious Lord Take My Hand".

David urged Elaine to pursue a career and through the efforts of Ed Michel, now with ABC Records, Elaine made her first album. She says today that she owes a great deal to Ed Michel for his very great help and support at that time.

Elaine also revealed that she had signed a song writing contract with Jo-Bete Publications, a Motown affilliate.

-- 7 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

FIGHTING ERUPTS IN PHILLIPINES

There has been an upsurge of the fighting between liberation fighters and government soldiers in the Phillippines. N. Cotobata province is the scene of the heaviest fighting. At least 20 major towns north of Cotabto City are involved. Shaken by this latest threat to his regime, Dictator Ferdinand Marcos is pouring government reinforcements into the area.

PLOT AGAINST ZAMBIA

President Kenneth Kuanda has revealed the existence of a plot hatched by South Africa and Rhodesia in a press conference in Lusaka, recently. "They will attack the many centers of population in Zambia on the pretext that these centers are freedom fighter settlements.

ARAFAT WARNING

Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said last week that members of Al Fatah, Turks, Iranians and representatives of struggles from the four corners of the world are active in the Black September organization. He warned that if the international community continues to ignore the rights of Palestinians "they will be pushed more and more into the policy of assassinating the world's peace and quiet."

TAILORED BY APOLLO

The Soviet Union reportedly wants to buy spacesuits like those the Apollo astronauts wore on the moon. A spokesman for Computer Exchange Incorporated said delivery of the suits may be completed this year. The Russians bought ten of the space-suits for comparative studies at a cost of $185,000 each. This business deal indicates the current capitalist trend in opening new markets formerly forbidden territories.

"WRONG WAR"

At a reception in Saigon last week, General Tran Van Trade, NLF delegate to the Joint Military Commission spoke benevolently about his old enemies. He said, "the Americans were good soldiers but they fought the wrong war. They did not have the ideals our soldiers had.

-- 8 --

A SPOKESMAN FOR THE PEOPLE: HUEY P. NEWTON DEVASTATES BUCKLEY ON “FIRING LINE”

CONCLUSION

In a recent appearance on William F. Buckley's network television program, "Firing Line", Huey P. Newton clarified the Black Panther Party's ideology and discussed current world events with Buckley. Buckley was left tongue-tied and amazed that his adversary was so able a spokesman for the people. This is the conclusion of a five part series in which the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service (BPINS) has printed the text of this discussion:

BUCKLEY: Mr. Moots?

MR. MOOTS: I have a question for you, Mr. Buckley. Much of the emphasis on modern research, perhaps the concern of students here, has been viewing the Panthers in the last two or three years and seeing a great deal of metamorphosis that has taken place. Probably we have many more questions for Mr. Newton about where the Panthers stand now, compared with the past. I wold like to ask you if you have undergone a metamorphosis in your own appraisal? Some of your earlier statements about the Panthers were rather strong. I was curious about your present appraisal.

BUCKLEY: My judgement has been publicly made of the Panther movement. It was made on the examination of its literature. I've read the Panther paper and described it's contents and its publication. But I don't think that it's an historical exaggeration to say that the Black Panther Party, to the extent that one could infer its thoughts from these declarations, was based on its need to despise the white race.

MR. MOOTS: Could I suggest an example. In one piece, I believe it was in Look Magazine, you disagreed strongly with Dick Gregory, who had indicated that the militant stance, symbolism and rhetoric functionally could actually displace violence, if you see what I mean. Could you perhaps accept that as a phenomenon…?

BUCKLEY: Yes.

MR. MOOTS: Of a positive good that the Panthers have…?

BUCKLEY: Yes, yes I could. Unfortunately, as much could be said of the Klu Klux Klan. Dick Gregory gave an example to me that you may not remember about a Black woman who felt intimidated. This was about two or three years ago, and she called the Black Panther Headquarters and they sent someone to look out for her. And he was armed. On the basis of the assurance that she got from his presence, she did calm down, and recovered her stability. And there is an impression that people can perform that kind of a functioning, armed in that kind of a way. I have no doubt that the Black Panthers did it.

HUEY: I would like to say this, and I'm sorry if I interrupt, but when people equate the Black Panther Party with the Klu Klux Klan and White Citizens Council, I get upset. But- the point is that dialogue, dialectical struggle, or struggle through words, I would hope that that the next will be an advance man will make; that he will put down the club. But I think there are certain difficulties to face before that point. I think that things don't just happen, they start. But as long as there's a special economic interest one has to support, an authority that one must support, then he creates a rhetoric that he uses in order to sell ideas to a group, an army or a henchman. I think that this kind of dialogue would be inflammatory and cause much violence. I think that rhetoric ran amuck in the Black Panther Party while the leadership was under the influence of Eldridge Cleaver. It caused murders of many of our people. It laid the foundation so that even the Black community could say, "Oh, see those bad guys are out there, you see, they always want violence and robberies and so forth…" This kind of rhetoric, I think, can provoke physical conflict. Dialogue itself carries no virtue unless it's pointed in a direction to resolve a problem. You see?

MR. MOOT: What about the role today of the Panthers? You indicate in your "To Die for The People" that one of the first priorities is education. But you don't actually define that. Do you mean political education, the use of the media, or do you mean formal education? For example,

-- 14 --
would you have advice for the Black students here today?

HUEY: Most of us have been taught, we've been programmed by our schools and universities, to think in categories. That's very different from thinking dialectically. Many, many things are in play at the same time, but we think of education to mean formal knowledge perhaps, or maybe political education. When I say education I mean a raising of the consciousness of the people so that external stimuli will bombard the human organism and from that process a person will begin to have some sort of awareness of what is going on. I agree with Sigmund Freud in that the first step in controlling what's wrong with you in relation to the social forces is to know what you're dealing with. When I say education, I mean it in the broadest sense of the word. Technical education -- we're living in a very technical world now, thanks to the West -- is a contribution to humanity. I don't like the way they arrive at it, I accuse them of trespassing. They took away other peoples' goods and they dominated other people as their very own, and certain people were able to inherit without ever working at all -- such as my friend here (Buckley). They (the West) protect that interest of the right to inheritance. I say that being educated is to be conscious and know as much as you possibly can so that we can start dealing with this garbage pile we call society.

BUCKLEY: For the record, while you were relaxing in jail I was working.

HUEY: Maybe you call working running your mouth on these T V programs. I don't see any callouses on your hands.

BUCKLEY: I was writing all those books you didn't read.

HUEY: Is that right? From what I understand of the books, it didn't take too much time to do that. They're very much like your conversation here. I'm only joking with you, because I really enjoy talking with you. No truly, I think you're very entertaining and I like the hot kind of debates in which we have to struggle to get to the seed, you know? So, I'm sorry if I was hard to take. You've proven yourself to be the gentlemen everyone says you are, in spite of all the other criticisms.

-- 8 --

A NEW IMPORTANT BOOK: REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE / HUEY P. NEWTON

Huey P. Newton's story is at once unique and universal in its interpretation of the Black experience. It is the story of an American journey, a journey toward a new American revolution. The reader of this graceful, moving and eloquent docment will understand that the author does not speak lightly when he says, "We will touch God's heart; we will touch the people's heart, and together we will move the mountain."

Published by:
HARCOURT BRACE
JOVANOVICH, INC. $8.95

A Book-of-the-Month Club Alternate

(Soon in paperback)

At your bookstore April 1st

-- 9 --

INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS: WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER POW'S?

"It is not really proper to call them men any more. `Shapes' is a better word -- grotesque sculptures of scarred flesh and gnarled limbs…they do not stand up. Years of being shackled in the tiger cages have forced them into a permanent pretzel-like crouch. They move like crabs, skittering across the floor on buttocks and palms…"

This is the way Time magazine correspondent David DeVoss describes POWs recently released from the infamous "tiger cage" prison island of Con Son in South Vietnam in a current issue of Time. DeVoss interviewed several of these POWs at Cholon hospital in Saigon recently.

Saigon puppet President Nguyen Van Thieu claims to have released 20,000 POWs and 20,000 civilian prisoners early in February. However, U.S. sources in Saigon insist not more than a total of 10,000 prisoners have been released. In violation of the ceasefire accords, these POWs were not released to the NLF. They were simply "set free" -- somewhere, at some time. Will we ever know how many were murdered by Thieu's police?

And yet, Thieu henchmen in Saigon categorically deny the existence of the "shapes" described by Time correspondent DeVoss. "How can these men be alive?", DeVoss quotes a knowledgeable and honest government security officer as saying, "No one ever comes back from the Con Son tiger cages alive."

It's little wonder. A firsthand account of the treatment given prisoners under the Saigon regime that appeared in the New York Times March 2, issue details the conditions and methods of torture used. The information comes from four former prisoners and was secured in an interview conducted by Sylvan Fox. The prisoners have been held in the infamous Con Son Island prison. They were released from that prison on February 16.

The former prisoners, fearing for their lives, refused to have their names published. A 23-year-old Buddhist activist told Fox that he was "beaten and tortured off and on for a whole year" at the national police headquarters in Saigon after his arrest in December, 1967. He described being beaten with a stick "until I vomited blood or until the blood came out of my eyes or ears." His jailers manacled prisoners' hands behind their backs and then hung them from the ceilings by the handcuffs until they became unconscious.

The ex-prisoner described the notorious "tiger cages" as small, concrete trenches with bars on top. In these cells, as many as seven prisoners would be squeezed into a space five feet wide, six feet long and six feet deep. "During that time not a single day passed that we were not beaten at least once. They would drag us out and beat us until we lost consciousness."

Following a worldwide scandal ending in an exposure of the conditions on Con Son Island, the old tiger cages were replaced by new ones built by an American contractor and paid for by the United States. Since the cages now only housed one prisoner each, the ex-prisoner told the New York Times correspondent, "the jailers would not beat us from above but would open the steel bars, jump in and beat us."

The daily food ration for each inmate in Con Son was "a few spoonfulls of rice and some water". When prisoners protested this starvation diet last January 6, they were answered by a brutal attack in which guards injured seventy prisoners. Thic Hanh Tue, a Buddhist monk, was denied medical treatment despite grave injuries suffered as a result of the guards attack. He died several days later.

Two young French teachers imprisoned for two years in South Vietnam for anti-war activity in Saigon, after their release and deportation, insisted that the Thieu government is systematically forging records and shifting prisoners from prison to prison, so that thousands of its political captives can be reported as common criminals. The reason: so they can be kept in jail, in violation of the Paris cease fire agreement. Once released, Thieu knows, these prisoners won't hesitate to join the political opposition to his regime.

These are some of the conditions described by former civilian prisoners held by the Saigon government. Saigon is holding more than 200,000 civilian prisoners. The number of National Liberation Front (NLF) POWs being held by Saigon is in sharp dispute. Saigon says they hold only

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27,000. The NLF insist the number ips many times that.

If civilian prisoners were treated in the manner described above, how much more awful must have been the conditions and treatment of military prisoners of war? The ex-prisoners Fox interviewed "assumed they had been released because they were disabled and sick; all said they were convinced they would soon be rearrested."

South Vietnam's President Thieu is scheduled to make an official visit to the U.S. from April 2 to 6. Anti-war and peace groups are planning massive demonstrations everywhere he goes. He is scheduled to meet with Nixon April 2 and 3 in San Clemente, at the West Coast White House. He is scheduled to be in Washington, D.C. April 4 - 6.

The National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC) and the Student Mobilization Committee (SMC) have called for antiwar demonstrations throughout the country to coincide with Thieu's visit. The Black Panther Party supports these actions and adds its voice to those who demand: "Honor the Paris Peace Agreement", "End support to Thieu", "No U.S.-imposed regimes", and "U.S. out of Southeast Asia now!"

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“CRIME AND CRIMINALS”: CLARENCE DARROW'S 1902 SPEECH AT COOK COUNTY JAIL IN CHICAGO

PART III

Clarence Darrow, renowned criminal attorney during the early 1900's expressed his views on crime and the criminals in a 1902 speech to prison inmates in Cook County Jail in Chicago. The opinions expressed by Clarence Darrow in 1902 closely resemble the views of the Black Panther Party. For the benefit of our readers, the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service (BPINS) is reprinting the third segment of "Crime and Criminals".

The more that is taken from the poor by the rich, who have the chance to take it the more poor people there are who are compelled to resort to these means for a livelihood. They may not understand it, they may not think so at once, but after all they are driven into that line of employment.

There is a bill before the legislature of this state to punish kidnapping children with death. We have wise members of the legislature. They know the gas trust when they see it and they always see it - they can furnish light enough to be seen; this legislature thinks it is going to stop kidnapping children by making a law punishing kidnappers of children with death. I don't believe in kidnapping children, but the legislature is all wrong. Kidnapping children is not a crime, it is a professon. It has been developed with the times. It has been developed with our modern industrial conditions. There are many ways of making money - many new ways that our ancestors knew nothing about. Our ancestors knew nothing about a billion-dollar trust; and here comes some poor fellow who has no other trade and he discovers the profession of kidnapping children.

This crime is born, not because people are bad; people don't kidnap other people's children because they want the children or because they are devilish, but because they see a chance to get some money out of it. You cannot cure this crime by passing a law punishing by death kidnappers of children. There is one way to cure it, there is one way to cure all these offenses, and that it to give the people a chance to live. There is no other way, and there never was any other way since the world began; and the world is so blind and stupid that it will not see. If every man and woman and child in the world had a chance to make a decent, fair, honest living, there would be no jails and no lawyers and no courts. There might be some persons here or there with some peculiar formation of their brain, like Rockefeller, who would do these things simply to be doing them, but they would be very, very few, and those should be sent to a hospital and treated, and not sent to jail; and they would entirely disappear in the second generation, or at least in the third generation.

I am not talking pure theory. I will just give you two or three illustrations.

The English people once punished criminals by sending them away. They would load them on a ship and export them to Australia. England was owned by lords and nobles and rich people. They owned the whole earth over there, and the other people had to stay in the streets. They could not get a decent living. They used to take their criminals and send them to Australia -- I mean the class of criminals who got caught. When these criminals got over there, and nobody else had come, they had the whole continent to run over, and so they could raise sheep and furnish their own meat, which is easier than stealing it. These criminals then became decent, respectable people because they had a chance to live. They did not commit any crimes. They were just like the English people who sent them there, only better. And in the second generation the descendants of those criminals were as good and respectable a class of people as there were on the face of the earth, and then they began building churches and jails themselves.

A portion of this country was settled in the same way, landing prisoners down on the southern coast; but when they got here and had a whole continent to run over and plenty of chances to make a living, they became respectable citizens, making their own living just like any other citizen in the world. But finally the descendants of the English aristocracy who sent the people over to Ausralia found out they were getting rich, and so they went over to get possession of the earth as they always do, and they organized land syndicates and got control of the land and ores, and then they had just as many criminals in Australia as they did in England. It was not because the world had grown bad; it was because the earth had been taken away from the people.

Some of you people have lived in the country. It's prettier than it is here. And if you have ever lived on a farm you understand that if you put a lot of cattle in a field, when the pasture is short they will jump over the fence; but put them in a good field where there is plenty of pasture, and they will be law-abiding cattle to the end of the time. The human animal is just like the rest of the animals, only a little more so. The same thing that governs in the one governs in the other.

Everybody makes his living along the lines of least resistance. A wise man who comes into a country early sees a great undeveloped land. For instance, our rich men twenty-five years ago saw that Chicago was small and knew a lot of people would come here and settle, and they readily saw that if they had all the land around here it would be worth a good deal, so they grabbed the land. You cannot be a landlord because somebody has got it all. You must find some other calling. In England and Ireland and Scotland less than five per cent own all the land there is, and the people are bound to stay there on any kind of terms the landlords give. They must live the best they can, so they develop all these various professions - burglary, picking pockets and the like.

TO BE CONTINUED

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“THE OTHER ISRAEL”

The Other Israel: The Radical Case against Zionism, is a recently published anthology of articles written by Jews and Arabs living in Israel. It contains some important truths deliberately kept from the American people by this country's controlled press. The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service (BPINS) reprints excerpts dealing with the so-called Emergency Regulations governing the lives of Arabs living in Israel.

The Emergency Regulations are laws originally enacted by the British to contain the great Palestinean peoples' revolt of 1936-39 against British colonial rule in Palestine. After 1948, the year of the creation of Israel, these same laws were incorporated into the legal system of this puppet, paper state.

The Emergency Regulations enable a military commander, "at his discretion and without any sort of judicial review, (to) imprison an individual indefinitely, prohibit travel inside or outside Israel or expel an individual permanently from the country; restrict anyone to his home, locality, village or town; forbid anyone to make use of his own private property; impose police surveillance on any individual and order him to report to a police station several times a day; bar an individual from seeking work or accepting a job."

Moreover, these actions can be taken against whole villages or groups of people, not just individuals. The Emergency Regulations also allow the confiscation or destruction of property, including homes; the proclamation of unlimited curfews; and the closing of whole areas so that it is forbidden to enter or leave them. Since 1966 the Emergency laws have been administered by the police instead of the Army.

These laws are enforced selectively against the Arab population. One way they are used is to restrict "Arabs to their areas because a license is needed for changing one's residence, which Arabs are not granted as a rule. In fact, very few people are aware of the fact that not only are Israel's `socialist islands' - the kibbutzim and co-operative villages (moshavim) - hermetically sealed against the Arabs, but almost all Jewish cities and towns accept Arabs only as day laborers, not residents. In all of Israel there are only six towns (and one or two small villages) with mixed populations: Haifa, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Acre, Ramle and Lod. The policy of segregation is official only in a few cases (in Carmiel, Arad, Eilat); mostly it is unofficial policy. Very rarely is the Israeli public allowed to hear of an Arab who is prohibited from buying a house in Tel Aviv…"

The Other Israel is edited by Arie Bober, and published by Doubleday, New York City. A paperback edition costs $2.50.

-- 12 --

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 --

OAKLAND SCHOOLS GO BEGGING: $ 726,000 IN TAX REVENUES DENIED

Recent cutbacks in both state and federal funds for Oakland's schools, as well as the Reading administration's embezzlement of Board of Education funds to divert them to "urban renewal" through the hands of Oakland big business, has left the school board searching for enough funds to keep the schools open.

As a result of a predicted student enrollment drop of 4,000, the state will be cutting back over $1 million in state aid to Oakland's schools. In the past such cutbacks resulted in the dismissal or transfer of teachers and further overcrowding of classrooms.

This year, in addition to state cutbacks, Richard Nixon's cuts of federal programs will take even more money from the school board's budget. Nixon seems to dislike children. Even as child care programs are eliminated and mothers are forced on to welfare, he is cutting federal (ESEA) Title I money 9 1/2% from its present mark, cutting the quality of the education our children receive.

It has recently been learned that the Reading administration has been keeping money it was supposed to be allocating to the city's schools. The city should, by state law, pay the school board all the money that would ordinarily be collected in taxes from the owners of land that is presently being taken over by urban renewal. The city has not been making the payments.

Once urban renewal took the land the school board lost the tax money, and Reading channeled the money the school board should have been getting from the city elsewhere. The "lost" money amounts to over $726,000 in tax revenues.

Reading's lack of concern is typical of his attitude towarde the poor and minority groups. Oakland schools are 79% non-white in population and 24,000 of the 60,000 students come from families living on welfare incomes. Black and poor children suffer most when Oakland schools are neglected or abused. Although Reading's robbery of children, his diversion of school funds into areas that he chooses -- contrary to state law -- is criminal, the school board's neglect and incompetence, is not much less criminal.

Last year, when state funds were cut, the school board planned to dismiss or transfer teachers to save money. The community protests and questions why bureaucrats' administrative positions were to be conserved while classroom personnel, teachers and instructional assistants, were to be dismissed, made the school board think harder this year about where to cut the budget or get more money. There are also a number of school board commissioners whose seats are open to re-election in less than a month who would not want to have any bad publicity now.

The school board thought harder and realized that they could dismiss some of the scores of "consultants", psychiatrists, and other "do-nothings" they employ. This step was too much though, and the school board decided to hold back these cuts and look elsewhere for the money. The "Head Start" program is going to be cut and teachers who retire or quit will not be replaced. An opposition candidate for a school board post in next month's election suggested that the city be compelled to pay the $726,000 that it owes the board. The board directed its attorneys to study this question.

Meanwhile, there is a March 15th deadline by which the board must inform anyone it dismisses that they will be fired. This deadline date has passed, so all personnel, teachers and bureaucrats, must be kept on by law.

The board's plans had included money that they hoped would come from revenue sharing funds. These funds, however, have already been barred from going directly to schools because of legal limitations on the ways in which they can be spent. The $726,000 in stolen tax revenue, even if it is recovered, is not nearly enough to replace the money cut by the state and federal governments.

Where the funds will come from is still uncertain. The education and the future of our children is also uncertain. As long as Reading and others who are unresponsive to our needs and desires administrate the government, our lives will be uncertain.

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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 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.

-- [16] --