Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 April 1994 — Page 2

PAGE A2

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

SATURDAY, APRIL 16,1994

Teamsters fighting corporate downsizing

EDITORIALS

A Summer of Hope or a Summer of Dread ? For the third time in as many years, The Indianapolis Recorder is calling for the development of a comprehensive citywide summer recreational program. By combining a little imagination and adequate resources, with a lot of planning, it would be possible to provide most 10to 15-year-olds with a wide range of activities. From track and field to the arts, there are numerous venues where such programming could and should occur. From school buildings to the art museum, to the parks to the zoo, there should be opportunities for kids from all neighborhoods and economic circumstances to have fun in safe and supervised environments. This is not an impossible dream. There are enough facilities, enough youth workers and enough interested potential volunteers available to implement such a program. There are enough corporations and foundations, and individuals capable and willing to support such a program. There are of course disparate programs for kids at many places, and there are some programs that are free of charge. But what is needed is much more comprehensive programming. As we have said before, any city that can organize the Pan-Am games can organize a citywide program for young people. So far, all that is missing is the will to initiate the activity, which could become the most important enterprise this city has ever embarked upon. Indianapolis could become a city of hope. People are filled with apprehension concerning this summer. Public officials have openly stated that they are worried about the rise in random violence among teens. People in low income neighborhoods are frightened for their safety. People in the suburbs are frightened every time they notice strangers. There is an almost universal dread among adults as they think about getting their own kids past summer without any harm befalling them. This is especially true in our city’s core. We have become a community afraid of and for our children. And as Claude Brown put it, “where does one run when he’s already in the promised land?” Well there is nowhere to run. We had better go to work. We had better start doing things we know how to do, so that we can deliyer on the promise of hope and good fortune that America has held for some people. Unfortunately, America seems to be holding back on the promises we’ve made to the current band of tired, poor and huddled masses, many of whom are American born youth. Some of our youth while not being poor in a material sense, are instead, poor of spirit and we have too few among us who are willing to share with these youth a vision of service and concern for others. There has to be a moral call to action. As another summer goes by we will see more of our youth succumb to the evils of drugs and violence and we will see more of them expose themselves to AIDS. We can either begin now to save the next generation or we can build more prisons. We can create new and positive experiences for our young or we can continue to watch America turn into an expanding marketplace for drugs. We can start here in Indianapolis or we can let our cities turn into penal colonies. We could become the world’s greatest ex-democracy.

INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER DIRECTORY

Oaorg* P. Stewart Foundar-CdNor-

Marcua C. Stawart Sr. EdHor-PubNahar 1S2S-19S3

Euntca Trotter EdHor-tn-CMaf Publlahar IMS-1990

WNNam a May*

Vice Prea/Ganaral Manager Charte* Blair Executive Assistant KaW R Lester Ait Director John L Hurst Jr Assistant Art Director Jenary Sellars Creative Director Martin Raaheem X ArVProductlon . Ranay Brewer Managtfig Editor Connie Games Hayes Copy Editor. .Adarrel LaFswn Owsley EducatlorVJAWS Shonda McClain Arts S Entertainment, Bryan Thompson Bustneas Armens L Anderson Sports Stephan B. Johnson

Circulation Manager Circulation Coordinator Classified Advertising Religious Advertising. Local Display Advertising

Advertising AssMtant Controller Business OtRoe

PHONE (317)924-5143

Deborah Wa tier Marion Sims Sharon L Maxey Senovia Robinson Mike Harden Karen Russel Shauns Shelby Pam Jones ErtcMulhn Sundra Tale Crystal Dalton Jo Ann Himter KM

The Teamsters is one of the largest of our nation’s organized unions with its membership of 1.5 million. But their truckers and freight workers fraternity is besieged by conflict from the inside and the outside. Some of the conflict the Teamsters currently face offers much insight about the status of organized labor in the current economy. From the inside, Teamster president Ron Carey is encountering two big challenges. His proposal to eliminate regional conferences in the name of efficiency has struck many in the rank-and-file the wrong way. Northern California leaders say the conferences are being eliminated because rank-and-file members oppose Carey’s move to increase dues. Infighting among Teamstersas characterized by the losing

A Malveaux Moment By JUUANNE MALVEAUX

vote on increased dues and moves to stop regional meetingsmay be poorly timed. Externally, Teamsters are fighting corporate downsizing and attacks on the ways truckers make a living. A dues increase might finance a war chest in the event of a strike, which could be imminent. Teamster infighting draws attention away from the external battle to reduce the hold that organized labor has on the trucking industry. The dream of a good job paying decent wages is

disappearing for truck drivers and their families as more and more companies shift to nonunion carriers or close down completely. And the combination of deregulation and changes in company policy has affected truckers just as negatively as the downward trend in trucker wages. In Massachusetts, wages have dropped by 12.7 percent over the past 15 years. In Ohio, the shift to non-union jobs and wages has resulted in a loss of $17.1 billion to the state’s economy over the same time span. To dramatize the way wage cuts have affected the economy, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has organized caravans of truckers in Cincinnati, St. Louis, Springfield, Massachusetts, and Albany, New York. Part of the impetus for the caravans is the

proposal to create part-time workers who would earn less than half as much as full-time workers- about $8 per hour. The Teamsters’ embattled status may well be symbolic of the turmoil throughout organized labor. With the number of organized workers on the decline, the labor movement is weakened by both internal politics and the ugly economics of downsizing. But how can workers fight for survival when they do not see survival the same

way?

Only l-in-6 workers belongs to a union, with the highest incidence of union membership among those over 45 years of age. This bodes ill for the Teamsters and all organized workers. Ultimately, however, based on the way organized workers’ wages influence overall wage levels, this bodes ill for the future of working people.

Preserve Justice Blackmun’s rich legacy

When Justice Harry A Blackmun retires from the Supreme Court in June, he will have left a rich legacy of growth and accomplishment. Growth, because when he was appointed to the Court in 1970 by President Richard Nixon, he was seen as yet another narrow-minded conservative who would be unsympathetic to the struggle’s of African-Americans and other minorities. That view was based on his appointment by a president considered to be hostile to civil rights, who acted on the recommendation of then-Chief Justice Warren Burger. Once on the Court, Justice Blackmun’s voting record caused many to deride the two judges as the ‘Minnesota Twins.’ But, it wasn’t long before the junior of the pair began to assert his independence and to rise far above the limitations of his background. By 1973, Justice Blackmun was the author of Roe vs. Wade, which narrowly affirmed the constitutional right to abortion, causing dismay among those who had supported his appointment. In 1978, in the Bakke case, he supported a medical school’s affirmative action program. His opinion in that case continues to stand as a rebuke to today’s opponents of affirmative action: “In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently. We cannot - we dare not let the Equal Protection Clause perpetrate racial supremacy.” As the Court swung rightward, this conservative gentleman became a stalwart defender of civil rights and human dignity. By June, he will no doubt add to his luster by his opinions in several key cases to be decided by the Court. But, his recent condemnation of the death penalty, which he once supported, joins the brilliant legacy he leaves. His career is a tribute to a thinking and feeling intelligent person’s ability to grow to meet new responsibilities and challenges. It also demonstrates how such a person can rise above provincial, settled thinking to the broader, more encompassing responsibilities of national leadership. Justice Blackmun leaves the Court at a critical moment.

The long-standing conservative majority is fracturing. Some of the Justices are moving toward the center, isolating the three diehards on the Court who are trying to turn the clock back. The president has not yet nominated a successor to Justice Blackmun at Recorder presstime. It is important for the president to name a person who shares the values and views of the retiring Justice to maintain the Court’s balance. Including Justice Blackmun, two of the last three members of the Court to retire were liberals. The balance should be preserved. The liberal

minority should not be pared further in an attempt to rzjjjr; increase the centrist majority. As long as the Court is home to a hard-core voting bloc of 4, three extreme conservatives, t its liberal wing should be beefed up. ■HL j| We need strong, outspoken voices for justice on a Court that has in the recent past been ambivalent about its role as protector of our freedoms and defender of our constitutional rights. The president should rise to the challenge of reshaping the Supreme Court, so that the Supreme Court can preserve our constitutional rights into the next century.

Clinton must show some guts with Haitian policy

Haiti is a country with a rich and proud history, of which many Americans are unaware. We don’t know, for instance, that Haiti’s fledgling little army defeated the renowned army of the emperor Napoleon. We don’t know that Haiti has been independent since 1804. But, Haiti is also a country with a long tragic history of political chaos, instability and terrorism, a history of a people longing for democracy. The United States played a pivotal role in Haiti’s history at least once in the past, during the early part of this century when the U.S. occupied Haiti. Now, the U.S. once again holds Haiti’s future in its hands. The Clinton Administration must decide whether it wants to go down in history supporting real democracy in Haiti or whether it wants to be a friend to a government which rules its people by terror and rape. The Congressional Black Caucus recently wrote a letter to President Qinton, saying bluntly, "The United States Haiti policy must be scrapped.” It added, “It is ineffective, counterproductive andencouragesthe continued torture and murder of Haitian civilians.” Indeed, a recent visit by the U.N. Civilian Mission to Haiti, a human rights monitoring team, found that there have been dozens of kill ings and disappearances, and that there is a frightening and new phenomenon of

Civil

Rights

Journal

By BERNICE P0WELUACKS0N

rape being used as an instrument of political violence. Now, the next generation known as the Front for Advancement and Progress of Fraph are running rampant. A recent article on the editorial page of the New York Times described “facial scalping” by these blood-thirsty soldiers who are intent on keeping terror in the hearts of Haitians and democracy out of Haiti. The irony is that former candidate Ginton vociferously denounced the Haitian policy of President Bush, who had ordered the U.S. Coast Guard to pick up people fleeing Haiti by boat and to return them to Haiti without considering their requests for political asylum. Only a few days after becoming President, Clinton reinstituted that same policy he had decried. Both candidate Clinton, and President G inton have said that human rights is a priority of this Administration. The ignoring of the illegal trading of gasoline and other

goods to Haiti despite a U.S. supported United Nations embargo and other pol iciesconcerning Haiti thus far belie this statement. In recent months, the State Department has put a dangerous policy that assures amnesty to the leaders of the coup which ousted the democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide. It doesn’t set a target date for his return to Haiti. It has also put forth a HaMi legislator widely known to be clMctcd with the terrorist Fraph group “Our entire Haiti pol icy appears to be a series of machinations on the part of the world’s sole superpower to derail the democratic program so painfully and movingly embraced by our hemisphere’s poorest people,” according to the Congressional Black Caucus. As new stories of horrible human rights violations appear daily, it is imperative that the Clinton Administrationchange its Haiti policy. First, it must denounce the campaign of terror now going on in Haiti and demand an investigation into these actions. Secondly, it must work to make the embargo of oil a reality, which would include preserving the neighboring Dominican Republic, which has surreptitiously allowed oil into Haiti and imposing sanctions against any country that violates the embargo. Thirdly, the U.S. must stopsending

Haitian refugees back to Haiti without giving them a hearing by U.S. immigration officials. Never before in U.S. history have we taken such steps and such actions that have easily lead to charges of racism. Finally, the Ginton Administration must look into its own soul and admit it has an inadequate state department plan. Such a plan sabotages the Governors’ Island Accord, which the U.S. itself sponsored only months ago. It makes the world question the sincerity of our public pronouncements about democracy. The history of the U.S. is rich with stories of the contributions made by those fleeing persecution and terror. It is this history which calls us to do better for the people of Haiti. They deserve a fair hearing and to receive equal treatment as they flee a country under military rule. They deserve to be able to elect and be served by their own government. Congresswoman Carrie Meek from Florida, has introduced a bill requesting the government to be fair to the people of Haiti, HR 3663. You can write your congressperson in support of that bill at the U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515, or write to President Ginton asking him to end the current U.S. policy toward Haiti at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. Washington, D. C. 20500.