Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 November 1976 — Page 15

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER Dar c IR SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 27. 1976

Editorials and Opinions

"Power concedes nothing without a demand - it. never did and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you've found out the exact amount nf injustice and wrong which will be imoosed upon

them. This will continue until they resist, either with words or blows or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they

Prison society hard, but stark reality

To the Editor:

oppress.

« *

Frederick Douglass

Buying a piece of apartheid

The South African Chamber of Mines’, Intgeraational Gold Corp. Ltd., retained a New York advertising agency one year ago to try to sell gold coins to Americans like Kelloggs sells cornflakes. Hie agency, Doyle, Dane & Bern bach [DDB] testmarketed the Kruggerand [named after former South African president S.J. Paulus Druger quoted above] using newspaper ads and TV spots in three cities: Los Angeles, Houston and Philadelphia. Robin A. Plumbridge, vice president of the Chamber of Mines came to New York in September 1975 and told Daily News reporter Ray Howard why the South Africans want Americans to buy the gold coin. Howard explained: u Well, it seems that South Africa needs the bread. Gold exports are vital to the economy [they earned $3.8 billion last year [1974]. Yet gold production has been falling recently, as has the price of gold. Excited by gold prices which reached $197 an ounce last year. South Africa has made some major, long term investments. To pay for those investments. South Africa has to sell more gold." [N.Y. Daily News 9/25/76]. The Kruggerrand is an attractively-packaged investment. According to the ads it is “the world’s most popular gold coin.” Since it is legal tender, there is no assaying charge that is tacked onto the price of gold bullion bars. It is one troyounce of pure gold, and the buyer can find its price listed in the paper every day, just like a stock or bond. Apparently, DDB's testing was successful. By December 1975 the three test cities were reporting sales increases of 40% in the gold coin. So it is that we have been inundated with commercials on the television and full page ads as part of a new $4 million, 25 city, three-month campaign to lure Americans into buying 1 million coins before Christmas. At the current rate, this would earn South Africa $130 million in foreign exchange. In less than a week’s span 6,000 calls came in on the toll-free telephone line for information about purchasing the coin. One New York firm even prepared a special question - answer brochure on the Kruggerrand. Yet in all the publicity, one question is never discussed. Who mines the gold? Black miners earn on average 1/15 that of white miners. There are an average of 3 deaths per shift on the mines of South Africa. Black miners work on 18 month contracts, are forced to live in barracks separated from their families who are not allowed to live with them. Trade unions and strikes are outlawed. South Africa is facing a severe internal economic crisis. The price of gold has slumped from $175 per ounce in April 1975 to $123 in November, 1976. Unemployment is rising by 22.000 a month and will reach nearly 2 million by the end of the year. The rate of inflation is estimated at 11.5% with a no-growth economy. South Africa is faced with a balance of payments deficit estimated at $1.7 billion for this year. This economic crisis is compounded by greatly increased defense spending, up 42% from last year. There is perhaps no more direct way to invest in the oppression and super-exploitation of apartheid than to purchase South African gold.

[Paul Irish is executive associate of the American Committee on Africa. The Committee urges readers to protest sale of the Kruggerrand to the coin exchanges, banks and brokerage houses selling it, and the media carrying ads for its sale]. The. Africa Fund (associatedwith the American Committee on Africa] 305 East 46th Street New York, N.Y. 10017 [212-838-5030

>uJineJ3

in the Biacl By Charles E. Belle

Here is money for your business

Parti

There are programs both public and private to benefit the black business entrepreneur in securing money and

sales for his business. Under section 8 (a) of the Small Business Act, certain “economically disadvantaged” small businesses can obtain federal procurement (sales) with SBA assistance, without having to go through the competitive bidding process. The SBA helps such businesses by both funding the potential contracts that meet the requirements of the act and actually negotiating with the government agency in behalf of the black business. Basically, the negotiations are aimed to produce a contract price for the business' products or services- that are “fair and reasonable" to both parties but without the necessity of competitive bidding, except when the SBA is representing more than one such business

concern.

While this is one method of obtaining some sales for your business, the prime problem for most black businesses is getting some capital money. Money is available to any business at a price. The SBA is in business to keep that price ^ as low as possible for “economically disadvantaged” small businesses. The various programs of the SBA are not intended to provide seed or risk capital to start businesses; they are not intended to finance non-profit or cooperative ventures; nor will they provide money to help a community set up a community development corporation. On the other hand a number of their programs can be an important source of money for any profit-making businesses a local community developement

* nr IS INCONCEIVABLE TOME THAT WE WHO HAVE PREVAILED IN SPITE OF THE BARBARISM OF WHITE PEOPLE SHOULPJN THE LAST QUARTER OF THE 20tk CENTURY, STAND AS MUTE SPECTATORS TO OUR own doom:'

0RDE COMBS N.Y MAGAZINE

One of the grimest aspects of the prison system is how obvious it is that the conditioning factors in the penitentiary for crimes are more effective than the factors for rehabilitation. Over and over again I hear how the craft of crime, how to crack a safe, how to do a holdup (such as don’t pull the hammer back until you have their attention), how to forge a check, how to make a knife (called a shank) out of a spoon handle. All these things are passed on in a rough but ready apprentice systesm. Not only is the knowledge passed on but th^attitude as well. Prison wages for legal work have a high of around $30 a month and a low of $8. For hustling (selling pop and candy) on the, “walk, selling rings (homemade), one can make $40 to $80 in a day on payday and always more than the prison jobs. True hustling is illegal, but it is also the only expression of free enterprise in the prison. There is no Better Business Bureau in the joint and there is enough turnover to ensure new customers. People who fall for this kind erf thing have also learned the tricks and can recoup the loss by doing it to someone else. If you get robbed, which is fairly easy here, you must keep your mouth shut or it might be your life next time. The only way the systsem might protect you is to put you in lockup.

1 am constantly told, “You may tell the truth now, but if you stayed here long enough you would have learned to lie.” This brings up the question of time. I know of at least 4 men who have sentences of two life terms and two sentences of 10 to 30 year. Some of these were . given to afford revenge to the families, and some of these sentences are not even for a killing, but are made of smaller sentences running consecutively. The obvious thing from in side is that anything over 20 years is meaningless, for the best an inmate can do with a life sentence is between 20 and 25 years. But it all is a situation of how are you pulling your time, and then again too much time for some begins to serve no purpose at all except to weigh on the soul. No juror or lawyer or even judge can understand time without experiencing it themseleves. Do they know or understand that they are creating contempt among all men and further turmoil between the entire legal system within the prison. What is the object of prison? If the object is to create despair, disrespsect, anger, hate, liars and fear, it works real well. It does not create good citizens. It creates people who stop talking when a guard approaches. Also when a man admits witnessing a robbery, homosexual rape or spoon handle sticking, he has to go to

lockup for protection and the persons who did or committed the act also gets locked up. In case one may think the prison authorities are unaware of the situation, let me quote from the rule book some years old: “The correctional society that you are to become a part of differs greatly from the one that you have just lett. it has its own set of values and laws, none of which are sactioned by this department."

Nonetheless, that society is

maintained by the state’s tax : payers expense of app

approxi-

mately $4000 to $12,000 per year per man. Most of us that come here under good conditions for retaining our identities, can and do constantly remind each other that this is not the life for us; we have powerful backing from family and friends. We have jobs to go to, our wives are secure and faithful, our children are fed, and we have visits and mail. We can confide in each other in total trust, and we feel we have done no wrong and will not be conditioned by the crime college. Most of the other inmates here in this cacility do not have these advantages, however, and they have a high chance of being changed in way s htat society does not control or understand. Some of them might belong to you. You might not recognize them when they come home. Raymond Keith Miller Box 41-7272

W/»o settled in South Africa

first--the whites or blacks

COMMUNITY CONTROL ... BY WHOM?

RY /ERNON E. JORDAN JR. Executive Director National Urban League

Retreat on job rights

corporation has created, provided, however, that a certain amount of private capital has already been invested. In essence, the SBA can be used to significantly augment private funds, thereby making it easier to raise additional money. SBA money is available if someone is thoroughly familiar with SBA programs and devotes a great deal of time and effort to going after the money. The SBA can make loans to small businesses directly without many restrictions. It may also guarantee up to 90 percent of loans that are made to small businesses by private lending institutions (banks). Loans for working captial must generally be repaid in approximately five years; for investment purposes, the payback period is generally 10 to 15 years. In general, these loans are only made if the small Business cannot obtain suitable funding at a reasonable rate of interest through other conventional financial sources (banks).

,f*r * The federal government is preparing to sabotage fair hiring rules for colleges and businesses that get govrnment contracts. And it is doing this under the cover of “reforming” and “streamlining” compliance procedures. If anything, civil rights enforcement needs strengthening but the new regulations planned by the labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) seriously weaken such enforcement. The flap over enforcement regulations should be studied by citizens who want to know how our system really works. Congress passes laws and Presidents issue Executive Orders; how they are implemented depends on the regulations adopted by the government departments administering them. Sometimes, as in this case, those regulations can defeat the purpose of the law. In this case, Executive Order 11246 is the basis for mandating equal employment opportunities for government contractors. The OFCCP’s regulations and the way it enforces them ult imately decide whether or not the Order is observed. The OFCCP proposes to change its civil rights compliance regualtions in such a way that government contractors will be better able to evade their responsibility to fulfill

minates most pre-award con-

tract compliance reviews.

Another change provides for something called “notice of deficiencies”, that lets contractors know they are in violation of the Executive Order mandating equal employment opportunity. This is much weaker than the show-cause order it replaces, potentially a better weapon in the hands of

enforcement agencies.

Still another regressive change would exempt contractors from filing affirmative action plans unless they employ at least 100 workers or the contract is larger than $100,000. Both figures are double the old requirements and mean many contractors will escape the need to implement affirmative action plans, since they have millions of dollars in federal contracts but no single one over the $100,000 mark. Here’s a beauty for loophole lovers: the OFCCP wants its Director to have the power to exempt an agency or person from equal opportunity requirements if he finds “special circumstances in the national

plants maintain affirmative action plans for each plant or nationally, as they desire. This means a contractor could hire minorities for one plant and fail to do so in others. The compliance angency, not the contractor, should decide whether affirmative action plans should be national or local in

scope.

There are other changes too numerous to mention here, but they all have the same effect of weakening present compliance procedures and they represent yet another major withdrawal from the federal commitment to equal opportunity. Defenders of the changes would argue that they’re trying to reduce “government interference” but what they are actually doing is reducing government protection of the powerless and throwning up roadblocks to fair employment ‘practices. These innocent looking regualtions are part and parcel of patterns of discrimination that should no longer be tplerated by a democracy. And it is unconscionable that

these changes be

rammed

interest so require.” That’s one through before * new Adyou could drive a truck through ministration takes office. Such and it will be used to help some important decisions should be contractors and universities left for the Carter Administraavoid compliance. tion to make in January and not* Still another change would slipped past an unsuspecting

put”

let large employers with many public.

Teachers 'criticize' criticism

equal employment opportuni

Some of the proposed of school boOfc/’s Of. J. RiqqS

changes m regulations appear innocent but are actually de

signed to sabotage effective govenment enforcement of the

law.

One change, for example, would raise the amount of contracts requiring pre-award reviews from $1 million to $10 million. Those are contracts that must meet non-discrimina-tory hiring procedures before they’re signed. Raising the contract amount effectively eli-

To the Editor:

Remember!

"Crime has its neroes. ERROR HAS ITS MARTYRS: Of true zeal and false’, what VAIF JUDGES WF ARE!

FRANCOIS MARIE AROUET (Voltaire) 1604-1778

The columns of The Recorder (voieff of thp people) are open to all readers of the community, state or on the national level to present their opinons on the total of human interests or activities.

Hesse confine your conynent to 500 words or less lie reserve the right to edit copy, particularly in regards to 'academi<|fact (Encyclopedia Britannica, ate*' •All copy must positively include the name and address P**®" o* - persons submitting the same. However ®*eee will not necessarily be published.

We would like to comment on the criticism directed toward Dr. James Riggs, a member of the Indianapolis School Board. We are a group of IPS teachers who support Dr. Riggs’ interest in school atomosphere and

teacher morale.

We believe that is important for school board members and administrators in the Education Center to spend time in schools and classrooms talking and observing children and teach ers alike. We welcome any

must work together for the sake of the children. We would like to see teachers and parents support the efforts of Dr. Riggs so that he can continue to improve the quality of education for the children of IPS.

Concerned Teachers :

South Africa’s whites have strong economic reasons for wanting to maintain their grip on the country. They are trying to justify themselves by arguing that they were in the area first. It is true that Dutch settlers came there 300 years ago, but it is not true that blacks appeared afterward. There were Bantu people in the agricultural areas of South Africa a century and a half before the first Dutch settlers founded Cape Town in 1652. Other black groups, the Hottenots and Bushmen, were there too, some as long as 2,000 years ago. The whites’ arguments to justify their minority rule are fictions. Their strategy for keeping power is a tough reality. It depends on two basic policies, the first is to deny all political rights to blacks. The second is to “divide and keep conquered.” This part of the system is a major obstacle to black advancement. Here is how the government keeps the people disunit ed. First, through apartheid, it segregates all racial groups. There are separate living areas, separate schools, and universities for whites, blacks, coloreds, and Asians. The coloreds (mixed) get somewhat better treatment than the blacks - better jobs and less severe restrictions in everyday life. The most important part of the policy is the setting up of “national homelands” for blacks. The government claims that these homelands, called “Bantustans,” are based on tribal divisions. Their territory altogether is only 14 percent of south Africa and the Bantustans cut this 14 percent into many small areas. These territorial divisions foster political rivalries, which is what the government wants. In addition, the Bantustans allow the government to abolish civil rights for blacks. The government decreed in 1970 that blacks are not citizens of the Republic of South Africa but citizens of their Bantustans. The Bantustans are an application of an old device used by the former colonial governments. On today’s map of Africa you see small countries where larger units could have been established. The larger units would have made better

The most recent outbreaks represent growing militancy. The issues now are not only economic rights, but basic civil rights. Recent demonstrations and strikes have involved more than the industirial workers - they have included students and school children. All this increases the urgency of Secretary Kissinger’s peace-making efforts to southern Africa. Kissinger knows that time is running out in Rhodesia, in Mamibia, and even in South Africa.

So far, the white minority governments in Rhodesia and south Africa have been able to rely on black policemen and black soldiers to help maintain their rule. Some day, maybe soon, black soldiers and black police officers may turn a?ainst their government employers and side with their brothers. On that day, the present Rhodesian government will fall by violence. And Kissinger’s nighmare of Communist penetration into Rhodesia and South Africa may come true.

Benjamin L.

Hanks

FCC Commissioner

Leaving FCC, but not the struggle

visitors and wish we would see more, especially parents. Hie only people who are afraid of questions and unannouneed visitors are those who have

something to hide’.

Dr. Riggs’ ideas are innovative and deserve consideration and support from the other school board members and school personnel. This is the first time all teachers have been invited to openly express their opinions to a member of the school board. If IPS has problems, let’s not be afraid to face and deal with them. Teachers, parents, board members, and administrators

The gift that grows.

J 1

Tims Stock in America. No*BanfcprslnaMmfcst*

sense. They would have been more emcient economically, and better able to function politically. But then they would have been harder for the former colonial powers to handle. The excuse for dividing up African lands into small units was always that the divisions followed tribal or historical boundaries. But actually the boundaries cut across tribal groups. There is just as much tribal diversity within some countries as there is betweeu countries so ethnic unity within countries doesn’t explain the political map. Th*®’ ^ lere w real tribal differences. Some have led to bitter enmities. In spite of everything, coloreds have now thrown in their lot with blacks b 7 demonstrating in the streets. Blacks have organised raajor industrials Strikes and h * v * »on pay boosts.

Last week I tried, in my humble way, to tell my readers how I felt being unable to answer their many queries in respect to rumors regarding my future at the Federal Communications Commission or with the NAACP. It is true I had no concrete answers to give for there had been no concrete offers made. But let me tell you, I was exhiberated. I was doubly blessed, I felt, to be the center of real speculation for positions of power and esteem that any man or woman dedicated to public service would be proud to assume. This was a humbling experience. It gave me pause. What, I asked my self, have I done to deserve this? Am I big enough for either chairman? Both posts carry with them awesome opportunities to do good or ill. Great opportunities always carry with them enormous responsibilities. Was I equipped spiritually, morally, ethically to assume both? These questions of course cannot be answered definitively not until the mantle is assumed and the job is done. I looked back over my life. As a youth in Tennessee I was taught by my parents to always do the best I could at any job I undertook. There was no excuse for sloppiness or doing a thing half way just because the task at hand was small or seemingly insignificant. Do it right, do it to the best of your abiltiy, they sternly warned, or don’t do it all. If the attention span was short, sterner measurers applied to the seat of the pants, usually was enough to bring it back into sharper focus. And so the lesson became deeply embedded an internal part of me and I have certainly had no reason to regret that it has. I have tried to train myself both academically and morally to play a leadership role in the civil rights moverment and as such have played such a role as i lawyer, minister, businessman for many years. Whether all this is enough, only time and circumstances * will tell. I do know ther has never been a time, since I was old enough to sort things out for myself, that I have not wanted to serve my people and the Lord and not necessarily in

that order. Many have expressed reservations over my leaving the FCC amidst rumors of an impending chairmanship. I do not think they should fear that I am leaving the struggle. I do believe my presence at the Commission has had an important impact on making their portant impact on making broadcasters more responsive to the tastes, needs and interests of all segments of their respective communities and that I have been able to be a voice for those previously not heard. I also feel I can do so much more, for so many more people in my new post. I do believe now I will have an opportunity to address some of the great issues and problems of the day affecting out nation and its minorities - something I might not have been able to do with as much force and candor as a federal official. I will not, however, turn away from the great issues inherent in broadcast communications. I intend to do my level best to encourage government at all levels - executive, legislative, administrative and judicial -- to be responsive to the needs of all the people in such areas as affirmative action, penal reform, overhaul of criminal justice systems, putting an end to massive black joblessness, excellence and quality in education and so many other important areas. To those who ask: “Will you do what you can to see that another black gets your seat on the Federal Communications Commission?” I answer an unqualified “Yes.” Not only that, but I will wort to see that all of the powerful federal regulatory agencies - the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Federal Power Commission (FPC), Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), etc. - have a “Black presence” on their commissions. It is only fair and we must have it. But we will not accomplish this task without making a concerted demena. I expect blacks, other minorities and women, and fairminded whites to join me in this struggle. (NNPA)