Albany
Serving The
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ROCKY needs four more years, at least ', GOLDBERG o
to defend what he’s done for twelve
By Pete Pollack
Many people believe that Nelson Rockefeller
has sought to remain governor only as a stepping
stone to the presidency. His real interests, they
say, are national politics, oil, and Latin America.
New York is just secondary.
This may be a cynical exaggeration of the
truth. However, if he used New York politics to
aim for presidential nominations in the past, it is
unlikely that he expects a change in 1972 or in
1976 (when he would be 68-years old).
Rockefeller must be really interested in New
York. The question is why?
In his 12 years as governor, Rockefeller has
increased the annual budget from less than $1
billion to more than $7 billion. He lists his
accomplishments as building up the State
University system, construction of State office
buildings, cultural centers, medicaid and more. He
has developed the concept of state and regional
planning; aided the state’s businesses and kept
corporation taxes low.
Like the president of a giant corporation,
Rockefeller would have us re-elect him for having
increased the wealth and power of the business.
The stockholders in New York’s wealth are
obviously happy with Rocky’s regime, despite the
rumblings from welfare recipients and campus
Fadicals. ——~ eae
But this still doesn’t help us understand why
Rockefeller wants to continue for the next four
years. After all, most politicians would be happy
to escape alive after 12 years in the same position.
Part of the answer must lie in the incomplete
policies and programs in which he has a vested
interest, for example, the South Mall, Urban
Development Corporation, industrialization of
the lower Hudson Valley. And part of the answer
must lie in the _ political connections and
relationships established during the past 12 years.
Again, the analogy of the corporation helps
explain Rockefeller’s motivation. If a business
commits itself to producing fancy, high-powered
cars, instead of sturdy, economical, non-polluting
cars, the management of that business will forever
justify that decision. Rockefeller has decided on
the future course of the corporation of the State
of New York. To decide whether we want what
Rocky has planned for us, we must examine what
he has given us in the past.
WHO’S WHO HERE
Before we look at Rocky’s record, we thust
state our point of view. If we look at a
corporation’s record from the management point
of view, naturally (if profits are high), we'll
describe it favorably. On the other hand, if we
look at the record from the view of the workers
and the consumers, we get a truer picture. New
York State may be another one of the 75
Rockefeller family foundations and trust funds to
Nelson, but to us it is our government.
Page 2, The Liberator, October 23, 1970
The managers of New York are people |
make decisions for the State-administrators of the
State University, commissioners and department
heads in the state bureaucracy, as well as, judges,
police chiefs and other local officials. These
State-paid managers work directly with the other
managers in our society—the bankers and brokers,
law, insurance and real estate executives and
upper management of GE, Kodak, Sterling
Winthrop, Marine Midland, Allegheny Ludlum,
etc.
The state provides the managers with the
machinery to run their businesses whether they
build and sell computers or license drivers or
contract for state purchases. The tax structure
favors management with investment incentives,
tax loopholes, regressive taxation, such as, the
sales tax, and low corporate taxes. Planning
boards take taxpayer money to do research for
corporations. And universities provide
taxpayer-paid experts to assist the managers in
their decision making.
On the other side of the coin are the
non—managers in the _ society. The state’s
employees—teachers, civil servants, probation and
parole officers social workers—depend on the
state for their livelihood, yet have no decision
making power. All residents of the. State are
consumers of the State’s goods and services.
However, managers and working consumers
receive different treatment.
The working consumers are housewives who
are concerned about the State-inspected meat
they purchase in the market; farmers, vacationers
and hunters, who are concerned about the
ecology of our environment; students and parents
who depend on the schools; drivers who use the
State’s highways, and so on.
The working consumers pay taxes for all of
their services. In addition, they pay the salaries of
the politicians and bureaucrats who run the State.
We will look at Rockefeller’s record from the
point of view of working consumers to see if we
are getting our money’s worth in terms of goods
and services, or if the managers of the society,
whose salaries are paid by us, are reaping the
goods of Rockefeller’s policies.
EMPLOYMENT, TAXES AND WELFARE
The manager of a corporation aims at paying
his workers the least possible wage and giving the
consumer goods which cost as little as possible to
produce. Rockefeller has shown the same attitude
towards the lower income consumers of the State.
Persons -who work in the State’s service
industries; hospitals, restaurants, and plant
maintainence, receive a wage below poverty level.
The managers desire a high unemployment level
because this prevents service workers from
organizing to increase their wage.
Continued on Page 11
CHANCES?
SNOWBALL
IN.....?
BY L. VAN DYKE
Goldberg’s chances of beating Rockefeller “are
about as good as mine” said a maintenance man
of Albany Medical Center. Talk to the local —
politicians around the ambassador, depending ~
upon what party they belong to, you will hear —
such things as ‘“‘out side chance,” to ‘“‘no chance
at all.”” Speak to the young black’s on the corner,
with their Afro’s, bell bottoms, and Dashiki’s or
the Black who was born in the twenty’s and has
lived through the ‘chicken in every pot,” fair
deal, new deal, new frontier, the great society,
and now “let us reason together’’ promises seem
to be saying by word or deed, what difference
does it make. One hunky is about the same as any
other when it comes to keeping their promises to
the black people.
Talk to Goldberg backers and they will tell you
that there certainly is a difference. Goldberg was
born in the ghetto’s of Chicago and worked his
way through Northwestern University law school
(class 1929-graduated top in his class). He was on
the special council for the American federation of
labor and congress of industrial organizations and
general council of the United steel workers of
America. He has been in the fore front in the
struggle against big business’s encroachment on
the rights of the little guy. When the question is
brought up that even though Goldberg has been a
champion of the little guy (their terminology),
labor (my terminology); why should Black’s vote
for him when historically labor has been cool or
viciously hostile when Black’s attempt to enter
their ranks. What is pointed out is that in spite of
or despite“‘Some”’ of labor’s attitudes towards
Blacks they have benefitted from the laws that
labor helped put on the books, through the
talents of such men as Mr. Goldberg such as social
security, minimum wage, Wagner act, and
medicaid.
His followers will go on to tell you that he has
been a civil libertarian for years, for instance
director of the national legal aide association and
a host of others too numerous to mention.
‘Continued on Page 6
CE RTE OE Bea ee EF ER ee ES
po ee Te eee ae NGF gee Et ge f ee Sia SO ee SRST ssn Me
livicwpoint!| TON
Goldberg/Patterson
The Liberator has always contended that there
are basic flaws in the political and economic
structure of this country. To see the conditions
under which the majority of blacks are made to
live in this country; slum housing, poor
education, inadequate medical care, injustice in
the courts, indicates that we are right in our
contention. When we read that poor whites are
living under these same conditions in all parts of
this country, be it in Maine or West Virginia, we
are convinced further that we are right. When we
are told in a sermon that some two million people
have died in wars since 1945 and know that figure
will increase because of this countrys involvement
in the Indo-china war, we know we must attempt
to do what is in our power to stop this madness.
The Nixon-Agnew axis will tell you that there
is nothing wrong with this country, that putting a
few radical militants in jail wouldn’t solve. To
most thinking Americans this is far too simplistic
though it seems that the present Governor of our
State, who is a thinking man, thinks that if it does
not solve the problem, it will at least get him the
votes.
Liberal, radical, antiwar groups, black and
white must bury their differences and join
together behind progressive candidates to defeat
reactionary candidates such as Rockefeller and
Buckley.
Mr. Kockefeller’s link to the Nixon/Agnew
acministration is all too obvious. He tacitly
supports Goodell, a candidate who is running on
the Republican ticket. But if you will notice he
has not at all criticized Mr. Buckley. This, and his
bid to the groups that are out-and-out resentful
of, and even hostile to blacks, has made it very
clear that he is seeking the support of the people
who want law and order by any means necessary.
All of us want order and certainly most of us
know that we need laws, but justice is a
prerequisite in having law and order.
After taking these things into consideration,
and looking at all the other candidates and
parties, be they socialist, communist,
independent, Democratic, we think that Mr.
Goldberg is the only candidate that has a chance
of stopping the takeover of state government by
conservative, reactionary forces. Mr. Patterson,
his running mate, has shown, as a State Senator
from Harlem, that he is a champion of the poor
and a militant in the State Senate for Human
Rights for all citizens. The State Democratic
Party has shown that they are. concerned about
people who are going to vote for progress and not :
whether a man is Jewish or Black.
Locally we support the candidacy of Ned
Patterson against Carleton King in_ the
congressional race in the 29th district.
For State Senator we support Mr. Langley.
Locally, in tiie other races, we have no choices,
simply because those who are in office have
shown little or no concern about black people
and those who are trying to replace them have
shown in the past that they would vote the party
line.
EXONERATION OF THE GUARD
4 rae H \ ta ae
< SOON SN!
THESE ANGELS LIVE AMONG US
North side Health Association
For well over a year there has been meeting
after meeting about where the- north side
community health center should be built and how
it should be run.
The operation of this center, funded 1.2
million dollars by O.E.O. will be determined by
the North Side Advisory Council, which is elected
by the North Side Health Association and the
Albany Medical College: The priorities, the
medical treatment that patients receive in this
center, the power that north side advisory council
has in its relationship to the Albany Medical
College, will be determined by the people who
join the North Side Health Association. So it is
important that all groups, that are alarmed about
the type of medical treatment that is being made
available to the poor, make it their business to
join the North Side Health Association. These
would include especially the Welfare Rights
Group, Black Minority Coalition, NAACP, Black
Action Now, Urban League, and students who
belong to the Third World Liberation, Black
Student Alliance, who live in the city of Albany.
People who would like to know how to join call
465-3281 or write to North Side Health Advisory
Council, 35 Clinton Avenue, Albany, New York.
Vote yes for an elected school board on Nov. 3
GUEST EDITORIAL, NEW YORK
AMSTERDAM NEWS
Angela Davis
(An Editorial)
When one considers the /Angela Davis case, one
nust pause and reflect before passing any kind of
judgment.
But first of all, any judgment in her criminal
case should be suspended until it is brought to
trial.
But it is the case of estrangement of Miss Davis
from the American society that gives us pause.
Here is a good-looking, brilliant and eloquent
woman who became so alienated from what this
country offers that she became a committed
radical, a dedicated member of the Communist
Party (no crime in that) and, as one newspaper
put it, a “symbol of academic freedom, youth,
emancipated woman and black militancy all in
one.”
There are those who would compare Miss
Davis’ dedication to justice and freedom to
former revolutionaries, such as Patrick Henry,
who is hailed in our history books.
And there are those who say that until this
country, which claims it fights for the freedom
abroad of the South-Vietnamese, while still
denying Blacks justice and freedom here does give
that justice and liberty and freedom to Blacks and
other minorities, there will be more Angela
Davises.
As it stands now, if the present system is right,
then she is wrong. But if she is right, then the
system is wrong.
You figure it out.
There are two ways to finance a newspaper.
One is through advertisement--which means
that you are very consciencious of what might
offend the advertisers. The other way is through
subscriptions. Both ways we intend to try.
Another way we feel will allow us to come out
more regularly, and allow us to think
independently but responsively, and) responsibly
to the community is strived for people who think
there is a need for a newspaper in the Capital
District that will present the
liberal/Radical/Militant viewpoint. So we ask
those of you particularly over 35 who have
scratch, to join the $5.00 a month club. If the
Liberator is to grow we need your help.
Es
FLEDGE
ON
Enclosed is my$
month of November.
Enclosed is my$
three months
Enclosed is my$
Six months
Enclosed is my$
twelve months
Checks should be made out
Liberator/Pledge
35 New. Scotland Ave.
Albany, New York 12208
The Liberator. October 23. 1970. Page 3
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Giffen school program angers
black parents
Program smacks of teachers
planned racism
A program introduced at the Giffen School this
fall has become the source of parental confusion
and anger.
Folks in education claim that the program was
designed ‘“‘to provide instructional services
tailored to the characteristics of children
determined by neurological and psychological
testing to be either educable retarded, brain
injured, emotionally disturbed or hyperactive.”
But execution of the program makes it appear at
worst extremely racist in nature, or at best a
dumping grounds for students who may be
disliked by their teachers.
The most apparent group of flaws in the
programs execution is that students were removed
from their regular classroom situations, to an
entirely different school, without parental
consent or proper and honest explanation given
to the parents of the children involved.
On paper alone the program contains two
glaring flaws. Class size and teacher-pupil ratios
are listed in the program for all the types of
“handicapped students” involved in the program
except those termed ‘‘hyperactive.”? This would
appear to make that area wide open to the whim
of the administrative personnel involved. Another
point: nowhere in the programs summary form
does it say that children will be bussed to a new
school altogether.
The whole ball of confusion apparently began
this summer when parents were contacted by
phone and told that a lady from Giffen School
would be by to pick up their children for brief
periods of time. It seems that none of the
children involved at this point reported to their
parents what had taken place during these visits.
(Parents were later informed that these visits were
actually testing periods for the children.)
Next a number of parents of Giffen School
students were sent letters stating that their
children would be sent to School 26 to attend a
special class planned to improve their reading
skills.
Parents, confused and uptight, began making
phone calls to find out more details of the
program. Administrative personnel apparently
sensed trouble and cancelled a PTA meeting
scheduled for Oct. 6.
On Oct. 9 a group of parents confused by ,the
fact that they were told rather than asked about
this endeavor, went to School 26 to clear up the
confusion.
When they got there they were not allowed to
go into the classrooms and were informed for the
first time that the classes were not planned for
reading improvement, but for ‘problem
students.”
Page 4, The Liberator, October 23, 1970
One of those involved was Mrs. Rendie Rouse,
secretary of the Thatcher Tenant Association, and
mother of one of the students involved.
“We called Charles Gallagher (head of the
program) and he met us at school 26,” says Mrs.
Rouse. “‘He admitted that the program was for
hyperactive and brain damaged children.”’
At that time the parents asked on whose
authority their children were removed from
Giffen School. They were told that the necessary
tests had been administered to determine the
children who belonged in such a class.
Mrs. Rouse pointed out that she had never
sensed that her daughter had needed such
facilities. Another mother, who had previously
thought that her son was a problem child had sent
him to a doctor quite a while back. The doctor’s
findings proved nothing wrong with the child,
although he was later to enter the school 26
program.
Vote yes for an
elected school board!
Mr. Gallagher was to have admitted that not all
the children were administered a valid series of
tests. Most of the names submitted for the
program had come as a result of a survey of
school teachers. Their judgment alone accounted
for a number of students being placed in the
program.
(Letters sent to the parents of those students
who had been tested explained that their child
was in need of special educational facilities, and
not remedial reading, a program that already
exists at Giffen School.)
Through the efforts of these parents, a PTA
meeting was finally rescheduled for Oct. 13 at
7:30 p.m.
According to one spokesman, the meeting had
not begun by 8 p.m. When business did finally
begin, PTA members were confronted with a.
puppet president that none of them remembered
electing. Since the minutes of the previous
meeting and official membership cards of
dues-paying PTA members seemed to be missing
no one could justifiably say that the “acting
president”? had the authority to preside at the
meeting.
A member suggested that since no minutes
could be produced, actions taken at the meeting
should be declared invalid and school principal,
Joseph Robilotto, allegedly picked up on this to
say that the meeting was no longer a PTA meeting
and therefore the folks gathered at the school had
no right to be there.
Prior to that statement the meeting was
apparently in a state of confusion since there w.
no mention of the School 26 issue on the agenda.
Teachers were said to have acted in a manner
antagonistic to parents, telling them how to act at
such a meeting and a heated argument was Carried
on between at least one PTA member ang
Robilotto.
Mrs. Rouse said she went to get Mrs. Elizabeth
Johnson, who members remember having
elected as president, and although some members
left when Robilotto adjourned the meeting, a
number stayed on to complete business.
Robilotto himself stayed outside in the
corridor and the required minimum number of
teachers remained so that the meeting could b
valid.
As a result those present came up with a list of
demands to be presented to Robilotto.
The demands include that the existing program
be abolished until it could be restructured with
community representation. Future programs a
could not be set up without parental participation _
and future testing to determine the child —
educational needs would be valid only if it was
executed by trained personnel of the parents
choice. Until the program is restructured only
those students whose parents wish them to
participate will continue to do so. All others have
resumed regular classes at Giffen.
The slate of officers voted in at the meeting
include Mrs. Ernestine White, president; Mrs.
Rendie Rouse, vice president; Gloria McConnley,
secretary; and Mrs. Venola Thomas, treasurer.
Both the slate of officers and the list of demands
were signed by Robilotto the following morning.
Continued on Page 10
VOTE
YES
NOV. 3
Asay lata tit EERE MET a oe ee, LORIN erate e ne eee a8
s ee sina a a Sees WORN danas -
NAACP CHARGES
GOVERNMENT
DISHONEST
Testifying before the New York State Advisory
Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights in Albany this past week, Herbert Hill said
“The record of non-enforcement of the body of
law prohibiting racial discrimination in
employment in New York State, especially in the
construction industry, stands as the classic
example of the wholesale political nullification of
fair employment practice laws.”
Addressing the federal investigators near the
beginning of what was to be an all-day open
hearing on discrimination against minority groups
in the state’s construction trades, Mr. Hill
testified, “If the governor were honest, he would
close the offices of the New York State
Commission for Human Rights; and if the
attorney general were honest, he would do the
same with the Civil Rights Bureau in the office of
the attorney general.”
He said, they attempt to create an illusion of
civil rights law enforcement, but in reality they
have administratively nullified the law.
Furthermore, the NAACP officer explained that
billions of dollars in public funds are used to
directly subsidize the racist pattern in state
financed construction projects.
Calling the failure to enforce the laws
prohibiting racial discrimination one of the great
social tragedies of contemporary American life,
Mr. Hill castigated public officials for calling upon
the black community to observe law and order
when these same public officials refuse to enforce
the law in protecting the rights of black workers
against discrimination in employment.
Citing anti-discrimination laws which have been
on the state books since as early as 1935, Mr. Hill
took labor unions to task for the same failures
based on reluctance to comply with existing laws.
*‘The broad pattern of discriminatory practices
by the building trades unions of the AFL-CIO in
the state has been documented again and again,”’
he said and went on to cite half a dozen instances
and full reports. outlining the _ minority
discrimination in cities from Albany to Buffalo.
The so-called Buffalo Plan, an area wide
approach designed to secure equal opportunity
employment in construction for minority workers
through a program of apprenticeship, on-the-job
training, in that city, consists of little more than a
plan for pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship
training, according to Mr. Hill.
‘It does not establish contractual duties and
obligations.” he said, “It contains no legal
sanctions or timetables (and) There
are no guarantees of union membership or
anything else,’ the NAACP official told the
investigators. He said that, in short, the Buffalo
Plan is a fraud and will perpetuate control of
entry into construction jobs by the building
trades unions and employeers who have a vested
|
interest in maintaining the racial status quo.
Continued on Page 8
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Sull tims
Student
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:
PRACTICAL LIBERAL
Continued from Page 2
Listening to the supporters of labor’s lawyer,
labor’s first secretary of labor (Kennedy
appointed), ambassador to the United Nations
(Johnson appointed), Associate Supreme court
justice and now democratic candidate for
governor of the state of New York one of
Rockefeller’s political slogans of ‘‘he’s done a lot
for us and he’ll do a lot more” starts creeping into
your head.
Goldberg detractors will tell you for instance,
jthat at one time he may have been for the little
guy (their terminology not mine) labor
organizations (mine) in his testimony before the
Senate labor committee against the Taft Hartley
act, Feb. 3, 1949 when he said “‘the Taft Hartley
act has hampered and obstructed the organization
of the organized.” In a country where labor
jorganizations include one third of those eligible
for membership, organizations of new members
has slowed down to a rate where it scarcely equals
the loss of members due to death and retirement
and big labor (A.F.L. C.I.O.) have the same
interest and that Goldberg has profited from this
unholy alliance that has worked against the
unorganized and the consumer. Persons who have
been anti big labor or anti Goldwater have
cynically said there is little difference between
Question of the week
MR. LAWRENCE BIRWELL
Urban League
“I wouldn’t say any major improvement. It
appears that, that unit is highly responsive.
But needs to transfer that sense of
responsibility to the rest of the
department.”’
“It’s hard to say, It’s hard to say... I can’t
see any visible improvement---it maybe
internal.”
MR. JEREMIAH BLANTON
Community leader
Page 6, The Liberator, October 23, 1970
from industry, they will tell you that big business .
the almalgamated trust & savings bank of
Chicago, the almalgamated life & health insurance
company in which he was on the Board of
Directors of both and the Ford Fund which is
controlled and owned by you know what
family-for which he was also a director. Mr.
Goldberg has been a hawk on _ Viet-nam,
ambassador to the U.N., supported the Johnson
policy, the Bay of Pigs, the intervention of
Guatemala, the invasion of Lebanon and like
most negotiators he is mistrusted by friend and
foe alike.
Goldberg has been described as a practical
liberal which could mean at times he is trusted by
friends and foes alike and mistrusted by them
also; for instanee, even though he was a strong
critic of the Taft Hartley act, played a major role
in bringing about the merger of the A.F.L. C.LO.
and proposed the name for that organization he
was not one of the names that George Meany,
president of the A.F.L. C.I.O. recommended to
President elect John Kennedy for secretary of °
labor; as a matter of fact some opposition to him
being labor secretary came from labor leaders. On
the other hand when the nomination came before
the senate labor and public welfare committee,
right wing republican Senator Barry Goldwater of
Arizona called Goldberg the most outstanding
choice for the incoming cabinet.
MR. HARRY HAMILTON
N.A.A.C.P.
“No, but I haven’t had any day contact
with them.”
“T haven’t heard anybody speak of any
improvement. _ I don’t see any
improvement. How about you?”
REV. ODELL W. SURGICK
Mt. Olive Baptist Church
To the exasperation of his supporters but not
necessarily to his friends, he has made baffling
statements like “If governor I would ask the state
legislature to declare the war illegal’’ but then two
days later when questioned by reporters about
this statement, he was reported to say that if they
(the legislature) did vote the war illegal he might
have to veto it for constitutional reasons.
After a long speech .at the Democratic state
convention at Grossingers aN important county
leader grumbled, “this guy is no candidate he
could be the worst disaster we’ve ever had.” Mr.
Goldberg has a habit of (no doubt from his
bargaining days, representing the unions)
continuing to speak long after his audience
becomes visibly restless. He also gives the
appearance of being arrogant or pompous -
talking about himself all the time... starting with
“J don’t mean to sound egotistical, but,” or
stories that end with “so I told the president,” or
‘like Justice Holmes I decided.”’
Democratic and Liberal politicians in Harlem
and Bedfordstyvesant support the Goldberg
Patterson team. Walk through Harlem and you
will see billboards that say “‘You can’t have one
without the other- vote the Patterson-Goldberg
ticket. A liberal party
Continued on Page 7
Do you see any improvement between the citizens and the Police
department since the police’s community relations unit has been started?
MRS. CATHERINE BODDIE
Welfare rights
“Umm- I don’t know I haven’t had that
much to do with them lately. It looks like
another front to me.”
“T haven’t heard any body react to it one
way or another.”
REVEREND WARREN BROWN
Walls Temple Methodist
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GOLDBERG,
Continued from Page 6
add in a Negro paper New York City based states
“strike a blow for Human Rights— vote the
Goldberg-Patterson ticket.” Despite the
impressive, ticket of Walinsky, Ottinger, Levitt
running for Attorney General, Senator and
Comptroller respectively Mr. Goldberg is fighting
an uphill battle. Take an accursory glance at some
of Mr. Rockefeller’s support: the A.F.L.C.1O.
endorsement, big business endorsement,
Rockefeller’s camp seemingly successful appeal to
the white ethnic, race, war, welfare conscious
minorities, unlimited amounts of money and Mr.
Goldberg’s chances seem even less than the
maintenance man’s.
After all is said and done maybe it doesn’t
make a difference— maybe one hunky is about
the same as any other when it comes to keeping
promises to blacks. But maybe, just maybe...
MORATORIUM ON
SATURDAY, OCT. 31
On Saturday, October 31, there will be another
Viet Nam War moratorium. Albany will be one of
the thirty two national headquarters this year,
and the main issue will be immediate and
complete United States withdrawal from South
East Asia. Supporters will assemble at Draper Hall
at 11:00, where the march down Washington
Avenue to the Capitol should leave shortly after
noon. The rally itself should last until about 4:00
p.m.
Clyde Trudeau, from Nassau College in New
York City is scheduled as a guest speaker. He
spoke at last spring’s demonstration in defense of
Bobby Seale. This year he will talk about the role
of the Viet Nam War in political repression at
home. Also scheduled to speak is Tom Bell, a U.S.
Army veteran from Boston, and chairman of the
Boston chapter of the Young Socialist Alliance.
Other tentatively scheduled guests are speakers
from local labor unions, a high school student
from the New York public school system, and an
active G.I. from New York City. The platform is
also to those persons who wish to say something
about the aggression in South East Asia.
Richard and Lee Wilkie will be singing peace
and protest songs, and The Wheeling Steel, a
jugband from Albany involved in the movement,
will be playing.
This October 31st rally was first proposed last
June at an emergency conference in Milwaukee
just after the Cambodian invasion. At this time
there was a serious split in MOBE, and out of this
the New'MOBE Committee and various labor
committees joined together to form the National
Peace Action Coalition, a new anti-war coalition.
The N.P.A.C. is endorsed by John T. Williams,
Vice President of teamsters Local 208 in Los
Angeles, Bill Banta, international representative
of A.F.S.C.M.E. (American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees), the Cooks
Union, and some steel workers.
Locally, the rally has been organized primarily
by members of the Student Mobilization
Committee, currently headed by Marilyn Vogt, a
student at SUNYA. She anticipates that the day
should be peaceful, but about twenty more
marshals would be helpful.
Interested people should call 457-4665.
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Laws of 1970 providing for a seven-member
elective Board of Education of the city school
“Shall Subdivision 9 of Section 2553 of the
Education Law as added by Chapter 462 of the
district of the city of Albany be approved?”
Chek th th hht hth tht Paes Lh shit pg@ghha shh shhhhitsspis
a
VEMBER 3rd
VOTE YES FOR AN ELECTED ALBANY SCHOOL BOARD ON NO
vestion means you
ALGANY VOTERS MUST ANSWER THIS QUESTION
ELECTED
Board of Education.
want an
3rd
AT THE POLLS NOVEMBER
NY COUNTY
SUPPORTED BY THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF ALBA
—
a i A el A A ee
Continued from Page 5
According to Mr. Hill, state administrative civil
rights agencies do not correctly perceive the
nature of the problem, that is, he said, that
complaints of employment discrimination are not
isolated occurrences { but are evidence and
manifestation of of broad underlying patterns of
institutionalized racism. He said that the state
Commission for Human Rights, after a quarter of
a century of operation, has failed to recognize
that specific acts of discriminatory employment
practices are deeply embedded in the basic
institutions of the workplace, such as in collective
bargaining agreements.
“At best,’ he continued, “the commission
usually after long delays attempts to resolve an ©
individual complaint with little or no attack upon
the underlying problems which provoke the
complaint.”
Given the very significant increase in the
non-white labor force, it is clear, according to Mr.
Hill, that the percentage of non-whites, in the
craft occupations has not changed in any
significant way during the past decade.
It is estimated by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics that by 1980 the total non-white labor
force will have risen by 41% compared with only
a 28% increase among white workers.
Manpower Administration date reveals that
well over 70% of the white journeymen in the
craft unions donot advance through a formal
apprenticeship program and about three-fourths
of all the skilled construction workers in the
country are normally trained on the job.
“It is only blacks and members of other
minority groups who must climb the slow
apprenticeship ladder,’’ he contended.
Claiming that there was little relationship
between apprenticeship training and actual work
performed, he called the entire system obsolete.
Concluding, Mr. Hill said ‘‘The assumption that
all white union members must be fully employed
before blacks can be permitted to work, the
notion that white workers have a prior right to a
job is clearly an expression of the racist mentality
within the craft unions. These assumptions have
no basis in law and certainly not in any concept
of morality.”
Also testifying before the state committee was
Dr. Harry Hamilton, president of the Albany Area
NAACP, and Lawrence Burwell, executive
director of the Albany Urban League.
David Riker, director of the Albany Urban
Renewal Agency, was asked to testify at the open
hearing, but did not appear. A statement was read
into the record to the effect that the city of
Albany did not appear to care to cooperate with
the committee. Mayor Corning, a long time
member of the committee, did not appear either.
BURWELL, Hamilton substantiate labor dir. charges
Basically, Dr. Hamilton and Mr. Burwell
substantiated Mr. Hill’s remarks and localized
them in the context of construction trade
discrimination in this city. Dr. Hamilton cited a
case involving the plumbers union, in which he
said it is a normal practice to tell minority
apprenticeship laborers that they have failed the
plumbers exam for a union card whether they
have passed or failed.
Mr. Burwell told the federal investigators of the
common Albany practice of using Canadian
Indians on steel work rather than training
minority laborers.
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immediate and
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VOTE yes for an elected Albany School Board on November 3rd
Page 8, The Liberator, October 23, 1970
-By Rod Such
Angela Davis, the black Communist hunted for the
past two months by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
was arrested in New York City Oct. 13 on the charge of
“unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.”
The arrest and her subsequent imprisonment have
initiated efforts to build a national movement, led by
the Communist party. for-her freedom and against the
government’s repression of the black liberation struggle
generally.
Agents of the FBI and the New York police Bureau
of Special Services seized Davis and a companion, David
Randolph Poindexter, in a motel room at the Howard
Johnson Motor Lodge in midtown Manhattan. She was
arrested on the basis of a fugitive warrant issued after
charges of murder and kidnapping were brought against
her in the state of California in connection with the Aug.
7 attempt to liberate three black San Quentin prisoners
in a San Rafael, Calif., courtroom.
The arrest ended a two-month, nationwide hunt that
also extended into Canada for the former assistant
professor of philosophy at the University of California in
Los Angeles who was dismissed from her teaching
oosition last June because of her membership in the
Communist party and active support of the Soledad
Brothers and the Black Panther party. During the search,
Davis was placed on the FBI’s 10 most-wanted list and in
wanted posters circulated throughout the country
described as “‘armed and dangerous.”
Extradition proceedings
Following their seizure, the two were taken into
federal custody and arraigned the next day before U.S.
commissioner Earle Bishopp, who set bail at $250,000
for Davis and $100,000 for Poindexter. Later that day,
however, when warrants arrived from California, Davis
was turmed over to the custody of New York police and
imprisoned without bail in the Women’s House of
Detention in Manhattan to await hearing on her
extradition to California Nov. 9.
Poindexter, charged with “harboring a fugitive,”’ was
able to secure his release Oct. 16 when his mother raised
the necessary $100,000 bond. The 36-year-old black
man, repeatedly referred to as the “mystery man” by
the police, was ordered to report daily to federal
authorities in New York or Chicago, his home and to
limit his travel to those two cities while also awaiting
extradition to California.
At the federal arraignment, U.S. attorney John Doyle
said that Davis stayed in Poindexter’s apartment in
Chicago from Aug. 14 to Aug. 16. He also said that they
were known to have been in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on
Sept. 28 and then in New York at a Holiday Inn on
Sept. 30. The FBI said that it had been able to discover
their whereabouts through tracing a car registered in
Poindexter’s name.
Davis was represented by attorneys John Abt and
Margaret Burnham at the brief hearing which was merely
an orchestrated maneuver to impose bail until the
warrants from California arrived. Only 14 spectators,
mostly supporters of the two, and nearly 40 reporters
crowded into the small chamber while outside over 400
people picketed the federal courthouse building in Foley
Square. Davis stood silently before the commissioner
who quickly concurred with the U.S. attorney’s request
for bail at $250,000 despite Abt’s argument that she was
in no way a witness to the San Rafael incident and that
the only “evidence” against her was that she supposedly
purchased the weapons used in the liberation attempt.
As she was escorted from the room by FBI agents, a few
clenched fists were raised and a black woman shouted,
“You will be free, Angela!”
Poindexter was brought in immediately after and
represented by attorney Stanley Arkin. Little informa-
tion was made known about Poindexter. Chicago police
claimed that he belonged to several radical groups in
Chicago and that his name appeared on a list of persons
to be watched during Presidential visits. According to
the New York Times, his late father was a Communist
party candidate for alderman in Chicago in the early
1930s.
Lengthy persecution
The lengthy persecution of Angela Davis, beginning
with the efforts of California Gov. Ronald Reagan and
the state uniiversity’s Board of Regents to oust her from
a teaching position at UCLA, climaxed Aug. 7 when
police claimed that she had purchased weapons used in
an attempt to free three black prisoners at the Marin
county courthouse. Un@r California law, anyone who
“aids” or “‘abets” a fnajor crime is considered as guilty as
the actual participants in the crime. Consequently, Davis
is charged with murder and kidnapping and faces the
death penalty if convicted.
On Aug. 7, Jonathan Jackson entered a courtroom
where James McClain, a black San Quentin prisoner was
on trial for his life on charges of assaulting a guard, and
handed weapons to him and two prisoner-witnesses,
Ruchell Magee and William Christmas. Taking the judge,
Angela Davis,
a district attorney @nd three jurors hostage, the group
attempted to escape in a Vi&kswagon van, but San
Quentin guards and police opened fire on the van, killing
Jackson, McClain, Christmas and the judge and
wounding Magee.
Jonathan Jackson was the younger brother of George
Jackson, one of the three Soledad Brothers now
imprisoned in San Quentin awaiting trial on the charge
of killing a prison guard. Both Jackson and Davis were
active in the defense efforts for the Soledad Brothers,
who face a mandatory death penalty if convicted.
California authorities lost no time in immediately
‘connecting Davis with the San Rafael liberation attempt,
‘although she was not reported near the scene. Police
charged that a pistol, 4 carbine and a shotgun used in the
escape were registered in Davis’ name. Police also raided
the office of the Soledad Defense Committee, ransacking
it and seizing Fania Jordan, Davis’ sister, for questioning.
With their arrest, support for Davis and Poindexter
was immediately forthcoming and by the end of last
week, defense committees had been formed in at least
three cities. Demonstrations of several hundred persons
were organized within a three-day period at the Women’s
House of Detention, the federal courthouse in Foley
Square and outside New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s
Manhattan office where demonstrators demanded that
Rockefeller not sign the extradition orders. The
demonstrators included members of the Communist
party, the Black Panther party and Youth Against War &
Fascism.
The Communist party released a statement Oct. 14
from Gus Hall, secretary-general of the party and
William Patterson which read: “Angela Davis, brilliant
Black communist and freedom fighter whom Nixon’s
Department of Justice seeks to frame in an attempted
prison break in San Rafael, Calif., has been seized by J.
Edgar Hoover's ruthless FBI agents. It is imperative that
a movement of national proportions fighting to free this
heroic woman be immediately organized. There is no
time to lose.”
Repression of black liberation
The statement added that, “Nixon’s government
seeks to sharpen its racist terror. It seeks to blunt the
national liberation struggles of the millions of Black
citizens, their progressive friends in iabor’s ranks, the
militant white students, peace forces and others who
demand an end to racism in the U.S.” The party’s
newspaper on the East Coast, the Daily World, wrote:
“The freeing of Angela Davis and David Poindexter
demands urgently the organization of a mass movement
to repeal the barbarous assault. It is now a foremost task
in the defense of constitutional liberties and democratic
rights for all the common people in our country.”
At a press conference outside Rockefeller’s office,
Hall also. said that the charges were a “fraud and a
frameup,” but that Davis had chosen not to flee the
country. “Miss Davis had the right to say at what
moment she wished to fight back,” he said.
“Being from Alabama, Angela Davis knows the nature
of American justice and the chance of a fair trial for
black Americans in the U.S. today. She decided to wait
for the proper time to face charges and clear herself of
them,” he said, adding that, “it was for her to say what
that moment would be for her to fight back.”
Rightist attack -
The appointment went unchallenged unti! a UCLA
student and former FBI undercover agent wrote in the
July 1, 1969, student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, that
Davis. was a communist. In,voting to fire Davis, the
Regents knowingly violated university regulations and
supreme court rulings of the past which had struck down
saws barring Communist party members from teaching in
public.institutions.
Davis was reinstated at the university when a superior
court judge ruled Oct. 20, 1969, that the Regents acted
unconstitutionally in firing Davis and declared null and
void an Oct. 3 decision that she could not teach for
credit while her case was being considered. In the
meantime, the UCLA faculty had voted 539 to 12 to
condemn the Regents firing; 169 students had signed up
for her class, and the UCLA chancellor Charles Young
announced that he “strongly disagreed’ with the
Regents’ decision. The Regents, in turn, had charged
Young with “insubordination.”
Davis continued to be the victim of anticommunist
and racist persecution through the remainder of the
school year. Several threats were made on her life and
she reportedly had purchased weapons in response to
those threats.
Then, last June, the Regents voted not to renew her
_ teaching contract for the next year on the basis of her
“extramural activities.” Davis was active in defense work
with the Black Panther party and the Soledad Brothers
and as a member of the Che-Lumumba Club, the black
youth wing of the Communist party in Los Angeles.
Liberal support ended
_ In her fight against the Reagan administration, liberal
support rallied briefly. The San Francisco Chronicle
called her court fight, “the most explosive academic
freedom case to arise since the loyalty oath fight during
the McCarthy era.” But with the renewed attack from
rightist forces following the San Rafael liberation
attempt, liberal support disappeared altogether. The Los
Angeles Times, shortly after the courthouse shooting,
wrote in an editorial: “The Angela Davis case has
damaged, severely, the good name of academic
freedom.”
“Let there be no doubt—my stand is forthright,”
Angela Davis replied to the university and the Regents a
year ago last September. ‘As a black woman, my politics
and political affiliation are bound up with and flow from
participation in my people’s struggle for liberation and
with the fight of oppressed people all over the world
‘ against American imperialism. The fascist encroachments
of boards of Regents, governors and presidents upon the
rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United
States are designed to perpetuate and increase that
oppression.”
ANGELA DAVIS, flanked by FBI agents, as she was captured in New York Oct. 13.
The Liberator, October 23, 1970, Page 9
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Food for Chought :
Cataldo’s believe it or not!
Seventeen Albany construction trade unions
have become gift horses for $150,000 toward
Arbor Hill’s Pieter Schuler housing project. But at
the risk of looking them in the mouth, the
Liberator finds the statements of Ralph Cataldo,
president of Laborers Union Local 190, hard to
believe. He said the money was made available
“because we just plain care about our
community. We don’t go out and wave flags and
try to grab headlines, but we do get involved in
every community program in which we’re
invited.”” He was speaking on behalf of the
Building and Construction Trade Unions of
Albany, believe it or not.
JUSTICE
Canadian style
The entire Canadian Province of Quebec is
under martial law thanks to Prime Minister
Trudeau’s ‘“‘go-ahead-and-bleed”’ attitude toward
the Quebec Liberation Front, which has received
the wholesale blame for murdering Quebec Labor
Minister Pierre LaPorte. The police is still
arresting FLQ’ers, their sympathizers and any
other suspicious looking characters under the
awesome powers of the War Measures Act, which
has six months to go unless Parliment rescinds it.
The question is, could it happen here? The answer
is “yes,” if this country’s swing to the political
right is not checked. It would probably come at
the pleasure of the so-called Silent Majority of
Nixon-Agnew fame, which has libraries chocked
full of historical accounts on how to solve
problems with war measures.
JUSTICE
American style
The federal commission said everybody got a
piece of the action and everybody should share
the blame for the Kent State student murders last
summer. But, the Ohio Grand Jury says it ain’t
murder if you are wearing a uniform and happen
to have a loaded weapon during a campus riot. All
those National Guardsmen, who were
toy-soldiering around the Kent State Campus on
that fateful day have been exonerated by the
grand jury. Now the students and some of their
professors are being methodically arrested by
police after being indicted, for the most part, on
inciting to riot charges. William Kuntsler, the
Chicago Seven attorney, is reportedly taking on
the case, but even he is going to find it tough
going to prove that justice is blind as far as you
can see in America.
Page 10, The Liberator, October 23, 1970
JUSTICE
Strikes Again
Again proving American justice is blind, U.S.
District Court Judge Julius J. Hoffman, at the
direction of the federal government, has dropped
conspiracy to riot charges against Black Panther
Party Chairman Bobby Seale, but has sealed his
fate by delivering a decision that Seale must serve
16 three-month contempt. sentences. The
sentences must be served consecutively, rather
than concurrently which stretches the months to |
four years. That’s four years for contempt
sparked during a trial in which the Chicago Seven,
minus Seale, were found innocent of the same
charges just dropped against the Eighth
Defendant. Seale is appealing the contempt
sentences, but is now awaiting trial in
Connecticut on charges of conspiring to murder a
former Panther. Contempt- the feeling anybody
would have about serving four years for
protesting trumped up political charges that did
not stand up in court.
Meanwhile, several leaders of the Revolution in
America have made daring escapes from the jaws
of American justice and are directing the
Revolutionary soldiers from exile in Algeria. In
fact, Eldridge Cleaver, High Priest Timothy Leary
and Weatherman Bernadette Dohrn are reported
alive and well. While Cleaver has been in Algeria
long enough to know his way around, Leary and
Dohrn just made it. Leary took the trip after an
escape from a California prison where he was
doing time for a drug conviction. Weatherman
Dohrn waited until the FBI put her on the
10-most wanted list. Right on!
War is... well?
And then there is still the Vietnam War, which
has been well-expanded by the Nixon plan to a
point of encompassing most of Indochina. As of
mid-October, 43,775 American men lost their
lives in combat. Non-combat deaths were set at
8,622 and 290,001 have been wounded in the
war. At least 1,551 men have been listed as
missing or captured.
Students taken
from classes
Continued from Page 4
Another issue included in this and other
meetings concerned the rights of a staff member,
Mrs. Shirley Hunter, employed by Giffen School
asahomeschoolaide. Mrs. Hunter is the only staff
member not listed on the staff roster, on which
even school janitors are listed. As a non-roster
staff member, Mrs. Hunter has not been allowed
to attend staff meetings, an obviously important
part of the work of one who works as a liaison
between families and school PTA members signed
petitions demanding that Mrs. Hunter be placed
on the roster and given the full rights of any other
staff member.
If all this were not enough, there are side lines
to the School 26 program that make it even more
appalling. Perhaps the most important was
pointed out by one man present at the meetings
who has knowledge of the funding of such a
program.
The $105,175.50 alloted to this program
originated from Title I, Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA), a federal
program. According to this spokesman, under
provisions of federal law, a program set up with
the federal funds must meet certain requirements
before it is earmarked for a given project. One of
these requirements is that community
participation be an integral part of the planning
of the program.
The program seems to have severe racial
overtones as well. Out of the class of 26 students
in the special class at School 26, 20 of them are
allegedly from Giffen School. One spokesman
said that he thought no more than three of the
total 26 students are white.
Vote
Ves
for An Elected
Paehoo l
Boord
Vor 3
on
ROCKEFELLER:
He’s done a lot of damage-he’ll
do more, if we just let him
Continued from Page 2
When Rocky raised the minimum hourly wage
to $1.85 recently, it was because of the threat of
organization among these worker—consumers.
The Welfare Rights Organization had placed
before the public a demand for a $5,500
minimum income for a family of four. This would
have meant increasing the minimum wage to over
$2.50 per hour.
Rockefeller and Nixon presented a policy of
cutting welfare budgets at the same time their
monetary policies were increasing the number of
unemployed. The Welfare Rights response was to
demand decent paying jobs, a minimum income,
and the abolishment of the welfare bureaucracy in
favor of an affadavit system. Clearly the
consumers have rejected Rockefeller’s policies on
the issue.
Health services have been another area of
dissatisfaction. Medicaid led to a large increase in
prices charged by doctors, dentists, hospitals,
drug companies, and health bureaucrats. Middle
income people felt the pinch the worst, and
Rocky was forced to cut back eligibility levels.
The real tragedy of medicaid is that it showed
how many people don’t receive adequate health
care. The hospitals and doctors offices were
overcrowded by people who might have just
suffered or died prior to medicaid. Nothing is
being done about the scarcity of doctors and the
other technical of the health field. Little has been
done about the need for neighborhood clinics and
more hospitals. A lot of working people who were
once against any form of socialized medicine, are
now forced to accept medicaid. The call has been
made for a program which provides health care as
a right, not as a privilege to the rich. The
management of health care, however, still under
LAWYER
?
control of the rich doctors and drug companies, is os
: AMILY PROBLEMS
holding back on the solution. Rockefeller gave us MARRIAGE BREAKING UP
medicaid, but medicaid has almost killed the NEED SUPPORT FOR YOUR CHILDREN
patient. : : .
LANDLORD REFUSING TO REPAIR
FACING EVICTION FROM YOUR HOME
DON'T UNDERSTAND YOUR LEASE .
ENTERING INTO A BUY-RENT AGREEMENT
se e e
CAN'T PAY YOUR BILLS
WAGES BEING GARNISHEED
EMPLOYER HOLDING BACK SALARY
PURCHASED POOR QUALITY GOODS
SALESMAN DEFRAUDED YOu
In spite of the manipulation and repression, : ° .
poor blacks and whites must begin to build besdintrtbienerer diac BUILDINGS DEPARTMENT - MOTOR VEHICLE BUREAU
together social and political institutions that will SOCIAL SECURITY ‘UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
5 N ATION -
enable them to successfully restructure the itUUr*:£itc<
society in a manner that will allow them to have
an equal share of the American Pie. Until this is
done, their choice of political managers of the
State and country will always be between Nixon
and Humphrey, or Rockefeller and Goldberg.
This is like saying, “‘who would you like to guard
the chicken coup, the fox or the wolf?”
Plte Legal Aid Society of Albany, me
78 NORTH PEARL. STREET © ALBANY, N.Y. 12207
FOR THE PERSON IN TROUBLE WHO CAN'T AFFORD A LAWYER
The Liberator, October 23, 1970, Page 11
State University at albany
COLLEGE OF GENERAL STUDIES
*ANNOUNCES
NON-CREDIT CONTINUING EDUCATION OFFERINGS OPEN TOALL ADULTS ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS
USUALLY DO NOT REQUIRE PREVIOUS EDUCATION OR SPECIAL EXPERIENCE. THESE OPPORTUNITIES ARE
SCHEDULED AT CONVENIENT TIMES AND AT A REASONABLE COST TO PERMIT CLOSE ADAPTATION TO THE
NEEDS OF THE INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS THEY SERVE.
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WE WELCOME YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL OFFERINGS WHICH YOU FEEL MIGHT HELP US TO
BETTER SERVE THE NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY. IF YOU WISH TO DISCUSS THE POSSIBILITY OF ADDITIONAL
OFFERINGS, ADDRESS YOUR INQUIRIES OR SUGGESTIONS TO:
COLLEGE OF GENERAL STUDIES
AD 24]
State University of New York at Albany
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12203
Page 12, The Liberator, October 23, 1970
