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.