APRIL 12 - 18, 1987 THE MICHIGAN CITIZEN
3
Paul Bobeson on his 60th birthday
By leRoy Wolin
In 1958 Paul Robe on celebrated
his 60th birthday with a series of public
parties from coast to coast in early
April. His actual birth date April 9th, he
was in Chicago, Il, where the Chicago
Council of American-Soviet Friendship
hosted the meeting-party in the largest
hall of the old Masonic Temple Build­
ing,32 . Randolph St.
Over 400 people filled the seats and
overflowed into aisles, age and the
vestibule. A Secretary of the Council I
organized the meeting and gave the fund­
appeal speech, keyed to the need for
green money to help in the fight to win
back his green passport.
My heart was really in it a a fello
victim of the Hou omrni tee on
un-American Activi ies ho p port
was cancelled like Robeson' . t the
end of the meeting, Robeson cut hi
birthday cake flanked by Council Board
members l-r Chairman Mandel Terman,
Robert Ba er LeRoy Wolins and Lulu
Saffold.
Continued on P e 7
Torture under' t e
hammer of apart aid
By G en c inney
IS - "It is better for me
to fail temporarily in a cau
that will ultimately. succeed,
than to ucceed temporarily in a
cau that will ultimately fail."
South African Reverend
Tshenu eni imon Farisani -
beaten, banned and brutally
tortured - recently a d hi
life under the hammer of apar­
theid in tho philo phical
term. Fari ni, receiving treat­
ment at the Cent r for Torture
Victims in St. Paul, innesota
a relea d from a South
African pri n January 30 after
a three-month detention and
month-long hunger ri e.
sive prote t by human
right and church organiz tions
led to hi relea and forced
the apartheid government to
allo the 39-year old Lutheran
pa or to come to the .S. for
treatment.
hile in detenti n in -19 1,
F ri ni s severely be ten,
tortured ith electric shoc s
and uffered two heart atta s.
'The bi e t problem i the
footprint that the South
frican police have left in my
REV. T HE UWE I F RJ­
SA I - victim of South African
torture.
mind. . . But my suffering
should not be viewed in isola­
tion. I'm one of millions who
have to endure the indignity
of detention torture and ex­
posure to the brutality f the
South frican oppres rs." said
Farisani during an interview
in t. Paul, Minne ta. I
He was there in arch
attend in a ationa1 Conference
on amibia ponsored by er
branches of the Lutheran'
hurch. It a the first uch
ent held in ,the U.S. drawing
more than 600 amibians
church activists and uman
right advocates.
'The problem of the mi- ,
bian people is one and t same
a that of uth fric '
have a common oppre
ommon t ruggle '
commented.
Indeed,
den war in amibia has claimed
ores of casualties. Torture
and detention have been m [or ' ..
t ols of the South Afri an
occupation according to a rie
of reports on human rights
violations in amibia issued by
Amnesty International and
church-sponsored fact-finding
groups.
Exact figures on the num­
ber of amibians presently in
detention are not available.
Opponents of South Africa's
20-year illegal occupation main­
tain that m st of the human
rights offenses occur in the
n rthem region of the country
where more than 75 percent
of the amibian people live.
Security 'restrictions include
a du to <fawn curfe , impo d,
by the South African Defen
Force which maintains an
e timated 100 000 troops in
that county of 1.4 million
people.
Civil rights bill
o 'fast trac
By Larry . Still
PA Correspondent
HI GTO n all out
ivil
t and Fair
.. ere n aft
trac in the nate and H u .
indicatin early pa sage of the
measures accordin to Ralph G.
eas e ecutive direct r f the
Leadership onferen e on ivil
Right. hich i rallyin up­
p rt f r the legislation.
The L Ria oaJition of
5 lab r, religious, ivil right
cial welfare, educati nal and
community groups or anized
during the height of "The
ovement' against racist Jim
Crow segregation laws 30 year
a o. Recently the coaliti n
has been strengthened by the
addition of wome'n' group
senior citizens, ethnics and the
disabled.
The coalition was founded
by Arnold Aronson veteran
Jewish leader: the late A. Philip
Randolph pioneer African­
American leader who organized
the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters, and Roy Wilkins late
AACP president. Rev. Ben­
jamin Hooks, current AACP
president, is present LCCR chair­
man.
The Civil Rights Restoraton
Act, which failed passage last
year in the conservative 99th
Congress was introduced
this year by Sen. Ted Kennedy
(D-Mass) in the new Democrat
dominated senate. He was
joined by nine party colleagues
and two Republican sponsors,
along with 42 co-sponsors in the
lOQ member senate.
In the Hou of Represen-
tatives, the chairman of the
Labor and Human Resources
and the Judiciary committees
are the principal p nsors.
,
u-
preme urt d i i th
Gr ve ity alif. in
19 3, th vernmeru may n w
ubsidize di
eas. The
fund could e pr hi It
in specifi a ts. The biparu
Civil Right Re t rati n
would prohibit Federal fuidn
by reviving f ur arne b:
ring su h a ti n gain t
persons becau f ra e
disability or age.
However pa of th pro-
po d ne law are threatened
again by veral amendment
exempting religious
and per ns ' ho
hav an abortion."
vigoruously oppo the
amendments. .. hich would
gut" the effe tiveness of the
legislation said eas.
F air Housing legislation has
pas d several times in the
House of Repre ntatives since
1977 but failed in the Re­
publican controlled Senate
under the leadership of Sen.
Strom Thurmond R-S.C.. It is
expected to pass no with
the help of the e bipartisan
coalition and the support of the
Leadership Conference on ivil
Rights which is gro in
tronger.
