INFORMATION FOR EMPOWERMENT
SyRonS gel
Corrgpoltd.",
The Michig n Stat Legi lature
approved budget reduction
pro d by Governor John Engler
completely eliminating General As-
i lance aid for tho e who do not
have children and are not "di abled."
The predominantly 'Democratic
State Hou e of Repre entative
passed 8 bill which would provid
South
African
family fight
d port tion.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -
Iph and n Gu tell
d 't nt t
home to South .Afrlc - where
they carried h ndguns and lived
behind eight-foot walls.
So the Guastellas, fed up with
the government's racist policies
and treet battles, came to the
United States and claimed politi­
cal asylum.
In January, thcy ended up in
Knoxville, where Ralph Guastel­
la found work as an electrician
and the children enrolled at the
Knoxville Baptist Christian
School.
But the Immigration and
Naturalization Service issued an
opinion saying Guastellas' claim
to political asylum is not valid.
The INS says conditions have im­
proved in South Africa, and the
government should be
"rewarded" for making those im­
provemen ts.
In July, President Bush lifted
U.S. sanctions against South
Africa after the Pretoria govern­
ment.repealed racial segregation
laws. Earlier this month, Presi­
dent F.W. de Klerk announced
proposals for a post-apartheid
constitution that would allow
Blacks to vote.
Guastella said he understands
immigration has to be strict, but
the family has provided INS a
seven-page affidavit detailing
threats against them because of
their outspoken opposition to
apartheid.
"If they only knew how bad it
is there. If they want to send me
back, fine. But don't send my
children back," he said.
help for th e who agree to p r­
ticip te in a work training program,
but Democratic le de are uncertain
bout wh ther this would pas the
Republican dominated Senate or
whether it would be igned by the
Governor.
As of now, many client re
receiving no aid whatsoever.
M ureen Taylor of the Highland
P rk b ed ch pter of the Welfare
Rights Organization. aid, "It's not
good. 100.000 people (who were
removed from General Assistance)
cannot p y th ir rent."
David Weiner, aide to State Rep­
entativ D vid Holli ter, who i
leading th Democratic fight for
providing ome aid through work
training program, expres ed that
many of th e people would be un-
ble to get b Ip frOm chariti or
from th ir f roili dod
forced twit the
GO VE 0 Engler' office
h ugge ted that this would pre -
Se PAIN, A-10
. Community organizing
helping poor escape
shackles of poverty
BY DAVID PACE self-help, out-of-poverty pro-
_;,,;A;...;;.S.;;_SO_C_I_A .... T_E_D_P_R_ES_S_W_R_I_T_E_R__ • gram that I've ever seen th at's an
unqualified success," said en.
WASHINGTON - For more Wyche Fowler Jr., D-(J a., a
than two decades, Don Ander- longtime friend of Ander on's
son has toiled quietly in the and member of the association's
Black belt of the rural South, board of directors.
striving to prove that poor Blacks Indeed, counties where as-
can break the cycle of poverty scrnblies have been organized
through organized community have shown remarkable progress
action. over the years, not only in
With a' small budget and a eliminating poverty but also in
staff often numbering no more improving relations between the
than two, the NationalAssocia- Black community and white
tion for the Southern Poor that
Anderson founded in 1968 has power structure.
organized more than 40 coun­
tywide "assemblies" of poor
Blacks in Virginia, North
Carolina and Georgia.
The assemblies, based on the
principle of democratic par­
ticipation, are designed to pro­
vide the structure for entire
communities to identify, attack
and solve the problems respon­
sible for their poverty. .
"I can say without the usual
qualification that it is the only
. THURMAN WILLIS JR., a '
bank president in Monticello,
Ga., said the assembly organized
in central Georgia's Jasper
County two years ago has been a
positive force in industry recruit­
ment and development of a
recreation complex.
"It's been used as a vehicle, as
a mouthpiece for anything that
they have wanted to do," Willis
See POVERTY. A·10
Scientists link slavery, to
Black hypertenslon rate
Scientists have found a genetic link
that may explain why Blacks in the
Western Hemisphere have a high in­
cidence of of high blood pressure.
A "salt retention gene", magnified by
the horrible conditions under which
slaves were shipped from Africa, and
which they endured in the '
New World, may be the
culprit, according to a
report from . the
Drew/UCLA Hyperten-
ion Research Center in
Lo Angeles and Queen
Elizabeth Hospital in
Barbados, reported by
the Reuters news service. ��!!!!!!!I1!JI�1Ik�
Blacks taken as slaves as-H�-.j
may have died of exces­
sive salt loss enroute to the West and in
the hot and oppressive conditions they
endured later, according to Clarence
Grim, director of the California center.
Those Blacks who survived - and from
whom today's Western Hemisphere
�,� Blacks are largely descended - did ,�o be-
cause they may have carried and passed
on a gene that' increases body alt and
water.
High body saltlevels are a principal
cause of high blood pressure.
Blacks in the United States and other
Western Hemisphere countries including
the Carribean and South
and Central America,
have twice the rate of high
blood pressure as do,
people of European,
Hispanic and native
American ancestry.
Scientists have recog­
nized the phenomenon, .
but disagree over the
cause, be it diet, stress,
heredity or a combination.
"The tudies provide strong evidence
that a greater African genetic heritage
tends to be associated with a higher blood
pressure in Western Hemisphere
Blacks," Grim said.
LIEG
cau e they ma e promi e
during election and if they
haven't lled tho e promises we
can get rid of them."