Support South African ™acks!
Still fresh in the memory of many black
Americans is that not too many years ago a
young black preacher from the South was
.awarded the coveted Nobel Peace Prize for
his efforts in leading peaceful efforts in a
quest for social justice and equal opportuni
ty in the economic and political arena. Of
~ cum be, wc ate teferring to-the late Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. and his conscious
raising pursuits that led to many progres- -
sive changes beginning in the 1960s.
A parallel to this background occurred
this week when the black South African
Bishop Desmond Tutu traveled to Sweden to
receive a Nobel Priae for his efforts
in seeking a similar sense of economic and
social justice and anti-apartheid activities
oh behalf of the masses of black people in
his native South African homeland.
It was undoubtedly* out of the similar
experiences of King and Tutu for the need of
black people that four black Americans
sought a visit at the South African Em
bassy in Washington on Thanksgiving eve.
" The four black Americans sought to discuss
the fate of 21 black South African social
activists who had been detained and arrest
ed without charges after a nationwide strike
of black workers earlier in November;-—
• '
When discussions with South African’s
white ambassador Bernardus Fourie
proved to be unproductive, the four Ame
ricans refused to leave the embassy. Fourie
called the police to arrest Mary Francis
Berry (a former Civil Eights'Commission
er), Walter Fauntroy (a Congressman from
D.C.) and two others.
In the three weeks since that incident 13
congressmen have been arrested in Similar
protests outside the embassy. Furthermore,
hundreds of people have marched daily in
picket lines at South African diplomatic
facilities in several American cities. Sur
prisingly, sympathetic response of interest
have come from about 40 conservative
Republican members of Congress. Iron- >
ically, this has occurred while the Reagan
administration is seeking to strip many of
the hard-fought civil rights gains won by
black Americans in the 1960s and 1970s.
Reagan’s so-called conciliatory policy of
“constructive engagement” toward South
Africa has been severely criticized. This
pressure finally led Mr. Reagan to make a
strong public attack on South Africa’s
minority white government when he said,
“We view racism with repugnance’’ while
signing a proclamation marking the begin
ning of Human Rights Week. Significantly,
on the same aay, the South; Africans
released from detention 14 black and Asian
opposition leaders. *
While this is a small but significant
beginning, and a long overdue show of
support by black Americans for their racial
brothers in Africa, we must riot forget that
while 89 percent of black Americans voted
against Mr. Reagan, nearly 63 percerit Of
white Americans supported him and, there
fore, don’t agree with the views of most
black Americans. Significantly, it Is quite
possible that America is moving toward a
form of black-white apartheid - separation -
at least in a philosophical, political sense
which can easily translate into political
economic reality such as the jobless rate of
black youth - always twice that of white
youth.
What this then should clearly remind us
as we should have already known is that the
struggle for justice and equality of oppor
tunity is a never-ending pursuit. There
fore, the moral and physical support offered
by black Americans to black South Afri
cans is a recognition that ours is a common
struggle at different levels and different
needs but with the same intensity in a quest
for justice and equality of opportunity.
New Weslside Library Branch
Wes (side residents have been pressing for
nearly five years to get a branch library
with such intensity that they had threat
ened to withhold support from the library
bond issue if their requests were not
honofed.
Finally, the residents did support the
bond issue and got their long-awaited
.library branch in the form of a 1,600 square
foot modular building. The glass and steel
building is designed to seat 32 people and
will store up to 16,000 books, reports Library -
Director Ron Kozlowski. The building is
movable, ah added feature of considerable
merit Kozlowski notes because libraries are
reluctant to build free-standing buildings
because of possible population shifts, and
we might add poor use of tlte facility by a
neighborhood.
me new ^estside library BWfiinai A
of $200,000, and the first modular library
branch to be erected in Charlotte, was also,
made possible by an NCNB Corporation gift
of a 2.3 acre site located at West Boule
vard and Dalton Village Drive. !
Westside residents can be proud of their
persistent efforts to gain this greatly needed
.service. It should serve, too, as a model of
what can be accomplished to enhance a
community when citizen groups, public
officials and private enterprise join forces
for an improved quality of life id a bigger
and better Charlotte.
Now, residents, let’s go to the Ibrary and
read and read and read in a quest for new
knowledge and a greater world of good
living.
• SLACKS HAVE BEEN AWAKENED.■?
IT IS UP TO US, BLACKS WHO CARE ABOUT THE BLACK
^FUTURE, TO IMPOSE ORDER WHERE NONE EXISTS TODAY.—
^ WE HAVE TO DO IT BECAUSE WE CANNOT ASH OUR OLD PEOPLE
TO SPEND THE REST OF THEIR LIVES PASSING THROUGH A
GAUNTLET OF MUGGERS.
on. te con ax
/v.v nsoAziyE
"" 111 * ' 1 * 1 1 ■ __ -•■■ -
Causes Of Decline In Food Output!
The cruel famine in Ethio
pia and its East African
neighbors will become a per
manent condition by 1988 un
less steps are taken now to
tackle the root causes of the
decline in food output. The
famine now is a symptom,
not a cause.
In Ethiopia, per capita
grain production there and in
23 other nations has fallen
steadily two percent a year
since 1970. At that rate the
amount of home-grown
cereal grain available to feed
each person in the region in
1988 - in a normal year with
normal rai_1 - will be
roughly equal to the famine
Harvests of 1984. Prior to the
current famine,'nne of every
five Africans in the region
was fed with imported food.
Frankly, this is unsuit
able: these economies can
not afford to import at those
levels.
The United Nations’ Office
of Disaster Relief Coordina
tion in Geneva estimates that
35 million Africans (ap
proximately 10.5 million
under the age of five) are
threatened with starvation
as a result of the drought
during the 1981-82 growing
season.
Sabrina
Charitable organisations
and governments in the
United States, Europe and
Japan have rallied to pro
vide food to the nations hat
hardest by the famine.
Recently, a U.S. Congres
sional delegation visited
and toured Ethiopia - and
reported that the ULSL
should offer intensive aid to
the region.
These kinds of efforts are
essential. However, if the
short-term charity is the
wealthy world’s only re
sponse to the famine, then it
will not be enough and
could possibly get in the way.
The heed reaches far be
yond food for today, money,
advice' and domestic policies
are needed that will produce
more food for tomorrow. One
major step is for African
nations to increase the prices
farmers are paid for their
crops. Farm prices are -
dangerously low, so low that
even in non-drought regions,
farmers are affected and are
not producing a surplus
above and beyond family
needs.
As difficult as it is to push
domestic food prices up
during a famine, but if farm
ers are to produce more -
economic incentives may be
the golden key. A prefer
ence is to have prices set by
the market but that seems
impossible in Ethiopia since
ilf hM hnon under a mewtist
tfcgime since 1974. With the
current crop in Ethiopia
declining, officials realize
that direct action must be
taken to improve and step up
farm prices prior to the next
planting season in May and
June. Other African na
tions in that region are mov
ing to change their farm
price structures.
In the famine struck na
tions, only small amounts
can be done. For example,
seed will be needed for next
year’s crop since the people
are eating. In addition, they
will need money for fertili
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From Capitol HiU •
Pendleton Rushed tn Where Reagan Fears To Ttead?
By Alfreds L. Madison
Special Ta The Past
Juat to paraphrase Clarence
Pendleton, Chairman of the Civil
Rights Committee, who said, in
•peaking of comparable worth for
women, “as probably the looniest
idea since looney tunes came on the
■creen," in his television appear
ance denouncing comparable worth
and his speech to an Akron busi
ness group he seems to be the
looniest person since looney tunes
came on the screen.
Clarence Pendleton is really ad
vocating that 19.7 percent of all
the children in this country in
homes headed by women included
in that number are « percent of ail
black children-sliould be legally dis
criminated against. He is consign
ing them, eternally, to a life of
inequities and poverty they will
never be able to compete with those
from male-headed homes. ,
Pendleton, who waa appointed
chairman of the commission which
waa created to Investigate agen
ties' practices on equity and justice
for ail citizens, and to make re
eommendeUena, seems to be per
petuating a policy of inequality,
injustice and unfairness to certain
groups of American citizens
Dr. Mary Barry of the Civil Rights
Commission, said that Mr. Pendle
ton violated Commission policy, of
making public statements on issues
that had not bean discussed by the
full Commission. When asked about
this, Pendleton replied that It waa an
oversight on hia part. Forget
ting the organization's policy is a
poor excuse for making such a
drastic mistake.
A day before the comparable
speech announcement, the Com
mission Chairman denounced Mack
Alfreds
leaders. He said they led blacks on a
“suicide mission" when they were
urged to vote for Mandate. He said,
"I say American black leadership
opened the plantation gates and let
us out. We refuse to be led into
another political Jonestown as we
wars led during the presidential
campaign. No more Kool Aid,
Jesse, Vernon, and Ben." Pendle
ton stated that if Reagan wanted to
get political, blacks wouldn’t get a
thing because they voted nine to one
for Mondale
Pendleton needs an understanding
of the , basics of the American
Constitution, which requires the
President to be the Chief Executive
of sll the American people,
irrespective of how they use the
voting privilege. Seventy percent of
the eligible voters in the United
■States not vote for Ronald
Reagan the 1M4 election, 45
percent did not vote at all. Ig
noring the Constitution, Pendleton is
saying that Mr. Reagan should only
be concerned about 90 percent of the
eligible voters.
Clarence Pendleton, like the con
servative think tank, the Heritage
Foundation, is against busing to
achieve integration, affirmative
action enforcement and the con
gressional mandate ten percent set
aside in government contracts for
black businesses. He has no pro
blem with the huge government
contracts that big white corpora
tions receive.
In a telephone conversation with
this reporter, Mr. Pendleton seemed
anxious to explain his statements.
He said that he only wanted to start
thinking on the part of blacks. He
stated that, black leaders should
have attempted a brokerage policy
with the President. Since Rea
gan came into the presidency
committed to the mandate of the
Heritage Foundation to make get
ting rid at civil rights a top pri
ority. to attempt any brokerage with
him is like asking a Klan realtor to
begin selling homes to blacks in the
better neighborhoods where whites
live, when the realtor Is even trying
to remove blacks who are already
living there, back to the ghetto
Brokerage with Reagan would have
meent no Voting Rights Actor one so
weak that it would have Just about
been useless, tax exemption for
schools that discriminate, resegre
gatlon of schools, perpetuation of Job
discrimination and a widening of
racial gaps. What Pendleton, evi
dently, means is humble submission
to the Resgan civil rights assault
policy.
When Clarence Pendleton likens
around 30 million blacks to Slave
plantation owners, of black leaders,
he, like Ms boes. President Rea
gan, underestimates the intelligence
of the black community. Since Cla
rence considers himself as one of the
rarest breed of intelligent thinking
blacks, perhaps if he walks out of the ,
White Houee plantation, occasion
ally, be might run across some other
Mack thinkers. _
It is rumored that the White House
wrote the comparable worth state
ment that Pendleton made and that
someone wrote the Akron speech.
Whether or not this is true, the White
House certainly knows about it. The
black community feels that Pendle
ton is being used by the Admin
istration to make ridiculous state
ments that it would not dare to
make. Some blacks feel that Pen
dleton and Sam Hart are the type of
blacks whom tBI Reagan Admiiiis
(ration likes to present to the pu
blic. Blacks feel people do not
represent the beat black thinkers
and those who are concerned about
civil rights for the black com
munity. Mr. Pendleton did stimulate
these thinking aspects among Uw
black community.
Mr. Reagan will only be in office
four more years. What will happen
to Clarence Pendleton then?
Dus to City hoUdayk for ChrMmas
and New Year’s Day. the schedules
for backyard and curbside trash
follows: During the week of Christ
mas. December 24 to M, backyard
garbage collection will be on Wed
nesday or Thursday and curbside
collection win be on Friday only.
During the week of New Year’s Day,
December II to January 4, back
yard garbage collection win be on a
Monday-Thursday, Wednesday
Friday schedule, and curbside col
lection will be on Thursday or
Friday. Christinas trass placed at
the curb by December 31 will be
collected December 31 to January 4.
For more information about gar
bage collection in the dty, call the
City Sanitation Division at 33* 2873
zers, better farm equipment
and improved food distribu
tion systems.
The world bank - the
West’s leading development
loan agency is attempting to
harness some of the current
public support for famine
relief to get more long-term
aid for the region. The Bank
at its Joint Annual Meeting in
September with the interna
tional monetary fund, plans
to devise an outline for
tackling some of the deejv
rooted economic pro
blems. In addition the Bank
is encouraging domestic /
policy changes that will hel^
the nations help them
selves.
However,
efforts have i
by limited av l.
the Fntemat
ment Association (I.D.A.)
its principle vehicle for help
Possibly the money short
age is^rootaHn the Reagan
increase U S. contribution to
I.D.A. blended with the un
willingness of other donor
nations to pick Up a greater
collective share in I.D.A.
Presently, the United
States - the wealthiest Of
I.D.A.’s donors * contributes
25 percent of the associa
tion’s budget - approximate
ly 1750 mUlion annually. That
leaves 75 percent divided by