BQ:Mad in I rnov
,callo ,cold,
in pol
hi tio to impact popularity poll presen
murder to further
nize
Op n Up th mayoral
pia forms
Someone, omewhere already nowed the field of 25 candi-
da for mayor down to a elect few. .
As candidate forums are scheduled and reported, the coverage'
limited to what the major media h decided are the frontrunners:
Dennis Archer Sharon McPhail, Paul Hubbard, John Conyers, Arthur
Blackwell and Charles Costa. Thosenam represent one-fourth of the
total li t of candidates. There are 25 people running for mayor and the
voters de erve the right to hear from all 25, not the handpicked few
who are better known to the media.
Voters have to demand fair coverage if they want it. Voters have to
speak up at forums where only the favored few appear and k where'
the rest? Voters have to call and complain to the radio and newspapers
that they want to coverage of all, not a prescreened few candidates.
Open discussion, equal ace s to media coverage and fair reporting
will raise the level of the campaign. Anythi ng les holds Detroit back.
bad
gamble for
African American
By WILUAM LACY
African Americans have an impor­
tant take in a new trade agreement
now pending in the Congress. That
trade agreement is the North Ameri­
can Free Trade Agreement, or
NAFfA as it is better koown. '
Very· little has been written in the
Black press about NAFr A, but the
economic implications of this trade
agreement for African Americans are
enormous.
Currently, there i a big debate on
the benefits -that U.S. industry could
yield from NAFfA, but little i said
of the grave and evere impact that
will be suffered by African Ameri­
cans if this pact i approved.
Relative to their white 'counter­
parts Black workers are more likely
to be employed in industries which
will experience large job 10 to
Mexico, including automobile and
trucks, apparel, household glassware
ceramic , major household appli­
ance , and electronics. History has
proven that U.S. workers woo are
throw n out of work because of import
competition do not climb, up th job
ladder. Instead, they fall back to lower
wages orworse end up in unemploy-
ment line. '
J 10 t to imports from Mex-
ico imports from Mexico are high­
wage manufacturing jobs. In 1991,
average hourly wages in those indus­
tries running a trade deficit with Mex­
ico ranged from $830 to $16.30, with
wag in six of the nine affected in­
dustries averaging more than $12 per
hour.
Threa to move production to
Mexico will dep manufacturing
wages well undercut wag in
other sectors of the economy. One
economist concluded that NAFT A
will inflict an average annual wage
lo of $1, p r wor er for the
lower 70 percent of th U.S. labor
force.
To be ur ,in reased unemploy­
ment and wag depr Ion will have
powerful ripple effects throughout
every African American community.
Less dl posable income will r ult in
hrinki ng retail ales for neighbor­
hood busi . Th local tax b e
will erode, drying up funding for criti­
cal government programs and serv­
i . Public tor workers who are
di proportionately female and minor-
ity, will be lai1 off.
In addition to the obvious eco-
nomic b8(;klash of N A, there are
also social cost--chiefly, drug traf- .
ficldng-to be considered. NAFf A is
likely to put more crack cocaine on the
streets of our inner cities.
A RECENT U .. intelligence re­
port warned that drug traffickers have
started buying Mexican manufactur­
ing, trucking and warebouse business
as fronts {or drug shipments. There i
already a massive drug enforcement
problem on the border; NAFf A will
make it worse.
NAFr A proponents claim that
firms are not moving to Mexico for
low wage, but rather to reach the
Mexican consumer market. That
claim is ridiculous.
The Mexican market is tiny, less
than five percent of the U.S. market
By almost any criterion, there are
more attractive consumer markets
right here in the U.S, including Afri­
can American communities.
Consider this, in 1 , the aggre­
gate purchasing power of the Afro­
American community was $265
billion, roughly equal to Mexico'
Gross Domestic Product-all private
and public ector sperding=of $270
billion.
IN TFAD OF policies to make
Mexico more attractive to investors,
the U.S. government hould ercour­
age investment in our own African
American market. If the American
business community were making in­
vestment in job , plants and equip­
ment in our inner citi and poor rural
communities, as it is doing in Mexico,
Black unemployment would plum­
met from its current 14 percent.
Let' be clear: the real motivation
behind AFfA is'the lure of cheap
labor for U.S. investors. NAFfA i a
m ive amble with America' eco­
nomic future. For African Americans,
the odds are overwhelmingly tacked
against us.
William Lucy is Secretary-Treas­
,ur.er of the American Federation of
Stale, County and.Municipal Employ­
ees and President of the Coalition of
Black Trade Unionists.
T pill g of the
environm nt and the rutbl exploi­
tation oft laJXI, resources and labor
of conquered peopl resulted in a
global pyramid of gro inequality; a
pyramid which permits few to it
comfortably at the top with enor-
ous wealth, power and privilege
a direct consequence 0 the exploit
. that
BI peopl m t pire k> crea
new society; a ciety which pee
and nurtures the environment and
m th ppi d fulfillment
of the [ority of hum . d its
principal goal; a society where peo­
p I and t environm nt rome before
profit, property and m eri acquisi­
tion; a society where every human
being is enti tied, a b ic human
right, to a d nt job or income, af­
fordable ho ing in a clean, afe am
ecure envi ronm nt, universal heal th
car , and a quality education.
T new society we eek to mold
m t b free of inequality, and ex­
ploitation of human bein by other
Lester's World
SorrY fella', but we
don't get into that
ethnic sort of stuff.
Why do Black folks seem to gravitate to everyones culture ...
... Except their own?
a
Clar
n
come the order of the day wi th ordi­
nary people, in a much more
decentralized tructure of govern­
ment, formuJati and monitoring
public policy .
THE ELECTO political
arena m t becom th domain of the -
majori ty of poor and working peopl .
The people must w t control of the
y tem away from the moneyed in­
teres who buy and ell politicians at
will d thereby domina public
policy in their interest
Public policy m t afeguard the
m es of the people from the forms
of elite rule which has ruined the
lives of poor and working people hi -
torically.
The monopoly of the two tab­
lishment parties m t also hattered
by removing private money from the
electoral process, abo I ishing res tnc­
tive ballot access requiremen and
'initiating a system of proportional
representation.
New political parties must
emerge to unequivocally represent
the interests of poor and working
people.
The quest for a socially responsi­
ble economy, for economic and po­
Ii tical democmcy, the struggle to
create a new society must be at the
top of the Black Agenda
INDEED, THE complexities of
race and class as they relate to the
struggle for Black liberation dictate
that Black people and people of color
lead this vital struggle for a new so-
ciety. iW
It i our challenge not to succumb
to tbe temptation to embrace the cur­
rent system in exchange for the "suc­
cess" of a few Black people. It is our
task, even in the race of racism, to
challenge white poor and working
people to take off their blinders aoo
rise up against a system that also
victimizes whi poor and working
people.
It is our challenge, while remain­
ing ever vigilante against racism am
its real consequences, to engage the
struggle to unite the many to defeat
the few. The sy tem of economic'
exploitation and domination m�
fall, and Black people must lead the
charge.
Ron Daniels s� as President
of the Institute for Community Or­
ganization and Development in
Youngstown, Ohio. He may be con­
tacted at (216) 746-5747.
o
a
?
r
By JAf.£S�. ALSBROOK BI�ck provo t and at 38, be is the
Two talented and highly educated youngest person ever named pro­
Black women appeared brilliantly in vost, the second highest job at Stan­
the new spotlight late in May when fo .
Dr. Yolanda T. Moses was appointed She is a Soviety specialist and a'
President of the City University of full professor. She will assume her
New Yor and Dr. Condoleeza Rice new position on September 1, aJXI
was appointed provost of Standford inherit problems resulting from Stan­
University. ford's alleged misuse of federal
Nothing imiJar in prestige for money.
Black women educators has oc- Sh will be working wi th a new
curred ince 1976, when Dr. Mary. president who has emphasized deter­
Franc Berry became the first Black mination to "clear up the problem"
wo�an to e chancellor of a major wi th the help of Dr. Rice who be­
mainstream educational institution, longs to a new generation that the
the University of Colorado. president, Dr. Gerhart Casper aid he
Dr. Moses 1 the first Black per- would like to ee assume a more
son to head the large and troubled but. dominant role in all aspects of Stan­
prestigious CUNY. Sh is 46 and ford' life.
was vice-president for acadenuc af- Dr. RIce joined Stanford's f ulty
fairs at th California State Univer- in 1 1. In 19 ,her expertise in
ity in Dorninquiz Hill a Rus ian language, hi tory and poli-
predominantly Black suburb of Lo tics caused the Bush admini tration
Angel . to name her Special i tant to tll
The CU trustees aid they President for ational Security Af-
cho e her because of her previous fairs for the anonal Security Coun­
and ucces ful experience with ex- ,cil. Her fluent Rus ian peech
tensive cultural diversity and her enabled her to. translate for Bush at
educational philosophy whi h they various meeting.
believed to be pecially appropri te
for CUNY at t.h.i time.
DR. RI
I Stanford' first
re-
at Dr. Rice w "roughed
ret Service personnel
when they aw her move near Presi­
dent Bush and were not aware that
she was uppo ed to be at his ide as
a translator.
Dr. Rice returned to Stanford in
1991 and erved as Assi tant Direc­
tor of the Center for International
Security and Arms Control.
Tbe performance of Dr. Moses
will be interesting to watch, for h
will face tbe consequences of legal
action brought against CUNY by Dr.
Leonard Jeffries head of Black Stud­
iesthe� .
Jeffries has argued rrectly that
history i di torted against Blac
people and that motion pictures have
perp tuat d tereotypes to justify
race prejudice.
B peech .Dr.
Jeffri also aid nch J w fin need
the lave trade and that Jew and the
Mafia conspired t derugrat Black
people In Hollyw od m vi .
He deplored tereotypes such as
the "Sambo" "R tus" " Aunt
Jemina" roles play d by Stepin
Fetchi t, Hattie McDaru 1 and others
and condemned productions uch as
"The Emperor Jon ," "Porgy am
B "" a in in th Sky," and oth­
ers.
. ,.
He contends that derogatory per­
forman such as these give white
people a "false sense of superiority"
and give Black people a "false sense
. of inferiority."
J RI WAS removed as
Black Studies chairman when influ­
ential Jews and Italians accused him
af misrepresenting history and caus­
ing trife. He sued CUNY, contend­
ing that his "free speech" had been
denied. He won damages . 0
$4 ,000.
Wb n a truth-seeking Black per-
on challeng a strong, tradi tion-
upporting power tructure that j
10 ing the battl ,that power tructure
frequently 'tries to change its image
and red e its psychological vulner­
abili ty by getting another Black per-
on to advocate its po ition.
. The vi ual imp t and clarity of
th conflict become redu ed ard
fuzzy when a BI patsy "fronts for"
and supports the offending power
tructure. Thi tactic w used when
tb Reagan-ki ing Clarence
Thorn was named to th U.S. Su­
preme Court.
I CUNY planning to make Dr.
Mo the Clarence Thomas of edu-
cation?
..
,