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Production: KI
Advertising Represen tives: T rry Broyl
J rom Ky· Bob ZWlllk
EDITORIAL
Union welfare vs. universal welfare
The Detroit public chool children at at home I t wee membe
of Local 547 of th International Union of Operating Engineers refused
to go into the chool buildings and fire up the boilers.
The walkout got the public' attention. Everyone suddenly realized
the engineers wanted a new contract and they wanted that contract to
provid a five percent pay hike and full health insurance coverage at
taxpayer e pense.
What r ulted w a hurry-up bargaining sionplannedforthenext
day. In good faith th engineers went back to work but it didn't 1 t.
o pite invitations by the tate mediator to come and sit down with
the engin rs, Superintendant Deborah McGriff and Board members
tayed away from the bargaining table the next day. In anger, the
engineers tormed out of the negotiations and the children stayed home
again.
The battle lines appear to havebeendrawnon the issue of health care.
The Board demanded that pay increases be linked to cost cutting
mcasur in health insurance.
The union aid no, they weren't going to pay even the 10 percent of
their health insurance premium, the board was asking them to pay.
Th old contract between the board and the engineers called for the
Board of Education to pay 100 percent of the health insurance premiums.
Union officials said they weren't going to go bac to the bad old days of
having to h lp pay for their health insurance.
All of thi drama, poutin ,po turing and demanding was played out
in a ch I y tem with a drop-out rate approaching 50%; in a chool
y tern wh retest cores lag behind all of Michigan and most of the U.S.;
in a city with an infant mortality rate that exceeds all but one third world
country in this hemisphere; in a city where life expectancy falls years
behind that of the national norms.
Engineers were demanding that their families be provided with a
neces ity that rno t of those footing the bill- Detroit residents -cannot
afford for their own children, health care,
Since World War II, the same battle has occured over and over.
Unions have historically provided for their own whatgovemmentshould
provide for all of us.
And as unions have gained �ental care and comfortable
retirement benefits for their m�bers, taxpayers have been asked to foot
, the e bills in higher taxes when it's a matter of payiIiA public workers;
and paying higher prices for consumer goods when it's a matter of union-
made products, -
Thus, all of us are paying for the health care of a few just as we see
the Engineers Union in Detroit asking us to do now.
And, as the union has battled and won for its members and others in
the workplace health insurance and pension benefits, the workers have
more and m�re resented the government provding these same necessities
to the unemployed or underemployed. David Dukes built his political
career on that resentment.
Universal health care must be every American's right. No longer
must worker be pitted against the unemployed or underemployed in a
struggle for the necessities of life, necessities all other industrialized
countries except South Africa and the U.S. provide for their citizens.
Then, too, when universal health care is provided, education dollars
can go to educating children, rather than giving the school workers what
the kids and their families don't have for themselves.
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tion.
arm embr of th St tu
of Liberty, therefore, and the wel-
coming/proc in nter at Ell'
Island were 1 rgely meant for E 0-
P
Despite the f t that the popula-
tion of various people of color i on
the incr e in the U.S., th e in­
cr es in m ny instan es are occur­
ringinspiteofU.S. immigration quo­
t ,not beca e of them. And Afri­
cans from the continent and tb
di pora, Blac people, have faced
the most restrictive immigration quo­
tas.
IN A N nON obsessed by race
ad plagued by racism, restricting tb
growth of the Black population has
been and continues to be of great
importance.
Other people of color are far more
likely to be acccepted as immigrants
to the U.S. than Black people. The
point is that there is a double stan­
dard. That double standard is cur­
rently victimizing Haitian refugees
eeking to gain access to the U.S.
How else does one account for
By BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS, JR.
We have just received a firsthand
report from the Sudan Relief and
Rehabilitation Association (SRRA)
concerning the emergency life and
death situation in Sudan, Africa's
largest land-mass nation. Hundreds
of thousands of Sudanese children,
women and men are facing death as
a result of Sudan's terrible civil war
compounded by widespread famine.
This is an urgent plea for help.
We are grateful for the upport
many of you have given to peoples
and struggles that we have endorsed
in the pas 1. Today, there is no greater
human crisis in all of the world than
the critical situation in Sudan. Many
of the Sundanese who arc at risk of
immediate starvation are the thou­
sands of persons who had taken ref­
uge in Ethiopia from the war in S u­
dan but are now back inside of south­
em Sudan.
We spoke with Paul Anade
Othow, a native of Sudan and coor­
dinator of the Sudan Relief and Re­
habilitation Association, who just
returned from a trip to southern Su­
dan. The world media does not focus
on Sudan, yet, mass killings and mass
starvation are now the daily reali ty.
According to Othow, Sudanese are
now refugees in their own country.
Tho whohaveretumedfromEthio­
pia are referred to as "returnees."
It i an international outrage that
the repressive government of Sudan
i t n
orne prop g v lue
cepting peole who were fleeing
"communi t me ceo "
App enUy there e no propa­
gand point to be cored from
cepting Bl c refugees flee ng op-
p ion from a "non-communist"
country like Haiti.
In the wake of the overthrow of
tb "democratically -elected" gov­
ernment of President Bertrand
Aristide, a rein of terror w un­
leashed against his upporters.
Hundreds of Haitians "yearning
to breath free" have ta en to the ea
in hopes of being welcomed in the
U.S. Instead of being welcomed,
however, th e Haitian refugees are
being detained off hore on U.S.
Coast Guard hip in a state of politi­
cal limbo.
The U.S. appears to be planning
to return the Haitian reguees to their
homeland if and when President
Aristide is returned to power.
Unfortunately this latest episode
comforms to a pattern which, has
developed as it relates to Haitian
refugees.
NO BlACK
HAITIANS II
l\LLOWED. ·
has recently increesed its attacks on
villages and towns insouthemSudan
where thousands of returnees have
gathered to received aid and relief.
OTHOW VISITED the towns
of Pochala and Kapoeta as well as
other relief centers in southern Su­
dan. For the record, the government
of Sudan based at Khartoum in the
north i controlled by Arab funda­
mentalists and military dictators. The
southern region of Sudan is popu­
lated by indigenous Africans. The
civil war is fueled by more than
differences in race, religion and cul­
ture.
This hideous onslaught is being
waged by the government of Sudan
against the people of Sudan for the
control and exploitation of the vast
mineral and oil resources of southern
.Sudan which has been estimated to
be potentially Africa's largest oil res­
ervoir.
According to the eyewitness' re­
port of Paul Othow: "In Pochala, I
saw more than 140,000 returnees
who had been refugees in Ethiopia
and among them in one place called
Go rkuo , I saw more than 9,000
unaccompained children. The con­
ditions there were very severe and
appalling. There were almost no
shelters for these people and most of
all there was not enough food for
them to eat. "
Othow explained tbat the local
people welcomed the returnees back
•
, .
, ,
no doubt peri hed at ea in futile
efforts to gain entry into the U.S.
A few years ago African Ameri­
can and other people of conscience
expres ed their outrage when the
bodies of a number of Haitian refu­
gees w hed up onto a beach near
Miami.
DESPITE THESE prote t ,
there has been no significant relax­
ation of immigration quotas for Hai­
tians and there has been no greater
willingness to accept Haitians flee­
ing chronic political terror in that
country.
The "huddled masses" of Haiti
remain unwelcome. In the mean­
time, it is ironic to note that the U.S.
i et to admit some 400,000 new
immigrants to the U.S. over the next
few years based on some special
revisions in immigration policy.
The new policy gives priority to
udan:
"
to Sudan but the war has prevented
the kind of sustained relief efforts
tbat are necessary to save this mass of
people from dying. In the towns of
Naslrand Pokok, Othow saw 150,000
more Sudanese suffering from dis­
placement and hunger.
The International Committee of
the Red Cross (CRC) has been help­
ful, but the airdropping offood items
has been grossly inadequate. Othow
stated, "A family of 5 to 10 persons
now can only expect to get at best a
few grams of sorghum when it is
distributed and they will have to wait
sometimes 3 to 4 day for the next
dis tribution.
IT IS aslow and awful proc of
unnecessary death and destruction."
The Sudan Relief and Rehabili
tation Association based in Wash­
ington, D.C. is now working with the
Red Cross, and other international
agencies to develop a plan to r eule
the returnees to safer areas in outh­
em Sudan. Yet, past attempts to
resettle returnees have been disrupted
by the military junta in Khartoum.
Othow s ressed, "We hope the whole
world will at last take note of the
flagrant criminal acts being perpe­
trated by the government against the
people of outhem Sudan. t,
Othow witnessed the killing of
innocent civilians in Kapoeta from
bombings by the government. Othow
explained that the foreign policy of
the United States in the past has
wei oming immigran who have
either "wealth or ills." I think that
it i fair to ume that mo t of tb
p ple dmitted to tn U.S. under
these pecial provisions will be whit .
refugees being
t of Florida have
n itherwealthnor kills and they are
also th "wrong complexion to get
the protection."
The current Haitian refugee prob­
lem is just the mo t recent example
fo the use of a double standard in
U.S. policy. That raci t double stan­
dard must be Changed.
There must b a uniform immi­
gration policy which must be ap­
plied to all immigants and refugees
fleeing political perseccution irre-
pective of race, color or country of
origin.
It's time for the U.S. to top ban­
ning Black people from America!
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from
epor
help needed now!
Ron Daniel - erve as President
of the Institute lor Community Orga­
nization and.Development in Young­
stown, Ohio. He may be contacted at
(216) 746-5747.
- (
I
,
"Urgent
upported the various governments
of Sudan and has not raised effec­
tively the issue of human rights for r
the people of Sudan. Othow emo­
tionally ighed, "We appeal to you,
.e pe ially the American citizens, to
peak out and to put pres ure on the
junta in Sudan to stop killing inno­
cent people,
We appeal to you to help the
Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation As-
ociation to find the resources that
are necessary for the rehabilitation
and development of the returnees as
they are r ettled in their homes and
villages."
If you wi h to join us in helping
the work of Paul Othow and the
Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation As-
ociation, you can contact them at
SRRA, P.O. Box 27200, Washing­
ton, D.C. 20038 or call 301-608-
37131202-347-3507, Fax: 202-347-
3418.
The p ople of outhem Sudan
need our help and they need it now.