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The Augusta News-Review - February 26,1976 -
Walking With Dignity
by Al Irby
Exploitation Os Black Africa Sowed The
81-Winds-Now The "Guns for Hire”
Are Reaping The Whirl-Winds
The recent crop of mercenaries in Angola were beaten out of
their racist socks. They did not find a picnic against the Soviet
and Cuban might, like they did in Katanga.
In 1965, a big bully by the name of Mike Hoare commanded a
gang of “Bounty Head Hunters”. They were known as the “Fifth
Commandos, who strutted and swaggered with a “band of
blood-thirsty merchants” of death against the ragtag Congolese
ill-trained army. This so-called “Fifth Commandos” was
composed of white European cut-throats, who, like most white
inuderers, elate in killing Blacks anywhere, Africa or America.
But in Angola these cowardly riff-raffs met their “Waterloo”.
Angolan and Cuban troops hunted them down and gave them
more than they had bargained for. Since the start of the Angolan
civil war, thousands of men from South Africa, Britain, France,
Portugal and the United States have signed on to serve with the
pro-Westem forces. As late as last month, more than 2,000
mercenaries were fighting with the retreating pro-Western racist
armies in northw Angola, and another estimated 1500 more, plus
3,000 Portuguese-Rhodesian volunteers with Dr. Jonas Savimbi’s
troops in the south.
But the ecstatic dream of killing Blacks, that many of them
dreamed of before going to Angola, proved to be a hellish
nightmare, according to those that ran like Hades to save their
“Bounty-Hunting” lives.
A murderous mercenary, calling himself Colonel Callan,
ordered 16 of his cowards to be shot because of showing their
real color when they met their equals who happened to be better.
This out-law cut-throat accused them of cowardice. This
rambunctious so-called colonel, upon investigation, proved to be
a former British paratrooper and thief; this is the type of villian
that the other Angolan groups were hiring to fight a war of Black
Liberation.
Dr. Neto’s MPLA is composed of Socialists Freedom Fighters
with a mission of liberation. Prime Minister Harold Wilson said
the recruitment of mercenaries, with vast sums of money, was a
potential threat to democratic governments. The articulate Mr.
Wilson would not come right out and say who he thought was
funneling money to these murderers for hire. But many Britians
believed he was referring to our nefarious CIA.
More direct charges of CIA meddling came from one John
Banks, who recently had been recruiting for a fly-by-night
mercenary hiring agency, called Security Advisory Services. Banks
figured Lawrence Katz, an attache in the American embassy in
London, as the link man for these buyable cut-throats. Os course,
our double-talking officials in Washington said the charges were
—
PARTY
The Holiday Rip-Off
Have you ever noticed that practically every holiday celebrated
in this capitalist country (a capitalist country is one where the
means of production and distribution of goods are owned and
controlled by a small group of people and not by the masses of
people) is associated with encouraging you to go to the store and
buy things, most of which you really do not need. The capitalist
is trying to fool you into believing that the only way you can
celebrate a holiday is to go out and BUY! BUY! BUY! They have
created sales (“pre” and “after”) for practically each one of their
holidays: Thanksgiving sales, Easter sales, Fourth-of-July sales,
Christmas sales. New Year’s sales, etc. The capitalists depend on
such holidays to put more emphasis on encouraging you to
over-buy and get yourself into deeper debt. These sales are to the
capitalists’ advantage because they help them get rid of the
unnecessary goods that they have over produced and at the same
time put more money in their pockets while taking money out of
your pocket, particularly money you know you really should not
spare or do not have.
The biggest holiday that the capitalists abuse is Christmas.
They have turned a supposedly religious holiday into a
commercial holiday. Just ask yourself is it necessary to buy loads
of expensive gifts at Christmas time to show others that you love
and care for them. Aren’t there other more worthy human ways
you can show your African brothers and sisters that you love and
care for them without buying things you really cannot afford?
THINK ABOUT IT. Don’t believe the capitalists who have been
telling you that the only way you can show your love is by
buying expensive items. All they are interested in is trying to
psyche you into giving your money to them and trapping you
into the game of debt. By looking at how the capitalists use their
holidays to rip-off people, you can see that their major concern is
to make money (profits) at your expense.
THE BLACK
BICENTENNIAL
QUESTION
We live at a very special moment in his
tory as living participants in the commemo
ration of the two hundredth anniversary of
the birth of this nation. Yet I earnestly won
der, how many of us who are celebrating
this occasion are also paying tribute to those
Black Americans who have distinguished
themselves in service to both their people
and their country.
In this year of bicentennial festivity,
Americans of various races and of all per
suasions are becoming intoxicated with the
philosophical dream of justice and liberty.
Page 4
. . .DOWN
TO
BUSINESS
DR. BERKELEY G. BURRELL
President, National Business League
Lost in that euphoria is the tragic fact that
for large segments of the American populus,
the bi-centennial dream of 1776 is still only
a dream today.
I am reminded of the very gifted Fred
erick Douglass who once said: ’Above your
national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mourn
ful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and
grevious yesterday, are today rendered more
intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach
them.” He shared that insightful wisdom
when asked to deliver an address marking
the 76th Anniversary of America’s birth.
Today, though many of Uw chains und
shackles which so characterized the lives
of Douglass’ contemporaries and our fore
fathers are no longer visible, the progress
is indeed suspect
false, but who believes anything that eminates in our nation’s
Capital?
But it had to be an ultra-rich country to engage these exclusive
goons. The standard mercenary salaries offered in European
capitals were 5350 a week for 26 weeks. For 1,000 men, that
would come to almost ten million - not including transportation,
weapons, room and board. In Africa, it was taken for granted that
some powerful Western government was issuing out the heavy
loot; and the money paid out was brand-new, fresh from the
presses American currency, still in the wrappers, and bound
together in sequential series. Lee Griggs, a Time correspondent
said, “There are more big-denomination U.S. bills floating around
Kinshasa’s Black market than there are in all of Las Vegas’s
gambling casinos.
Mother Africa will get its portion of attention since the Soviets
and Cubans came a visiting. The United States and Great Britian
are conveying messages to South Africa and Rhodesia. Our State
Department released a blunt message to Rhodesia’s prime
minister, lan Smith, saying that the current situation concerning
his country is at a critical point that could lead to invasion by
Soviet-trained guerrillas from every state in Africa. Rhodesia was
urged to start negotiating realistically with Black nationalists and
warned there will be no help coming from the United States or
Great Britian. England told South Africa’s white government to
hurry and transfer power to Black majorities in Namiba
(South-West Africa).
All this urgent concern is caused by the collapse in Angola. The
victories of the Popular Movement also dealt a mortal blow to the
romantic image of the invincible white mercenary - the white
nations “wild geese” forces that had put on a fake swath through
the Congo and Biafra, but this time around, it’s all together
different. In the recent battle for the important oil-refining center
of Santo Antonia, British mercenaries employed by Holden
Roberto’s National front turned tail and escaped to Zaire before
Dr. Neto’s victorious troops.
CONGRESSMAN RANGEL OF NEW YORK-ASKS PROBE OF
ROY INNIS’S RECRUITING OF
300 BLACK VETERANS FOR ANGOLA
This recruitment, openly admitted by CORE’S Director Roy
Innis, is in violation of Title 18 Section 959 of the U.S. Code,
which prohibits enlistment, or the recruiting for enlistment, of
U.S. citizens to serve in the armed forces of any foreign country.
Innis’s men would help the cause of the U.S. Watch and see if the
Justice Department will lock up wild-man Innis, or is he working
for the CIA?
GUEST COLUMN
The Token Black Syndrome
By Joseph C. Jones, NAACP President
The day has come when we are no longer shackled in cotton
fields, no longer tarred and feathered, no longer denied the right
to vote, no longer seated on the back of the bus, no longer
segregated from “white only” restaurants, no longer go on
freedom rides, no longer have race riots. But the struggle is still a
long and difficult one, one which has to be dealt with in different
terms on different levels, for Blacks no longer are legally and
obviously in bondage, but rather we are bonded in the shackles of
America’s economic trap within the bottomless pit of prejudice.
The subtle but constant perpetuation of racial discrimination is
made justifiable by the economic pinch as Blacks are still the last
to be hired and the first to be fired. As if there were not enough,
Blacks have become caught up in their own act of destruction,
systematically instilled by “token Black” syndrome.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Act has made it illegal
for Blacks to be discriminated against in employment practices
and at the same time has given Blacks the opportunity to take
advantage of the law, thus falling into the hands of the oppressor
to be dismissed justifiably. Unaware that Blacks are now being
hired to work and not necessarily being hired as token, we half
perform or don’t perform, becoming arrogant when confronted
with the idea that we are owed something. Yes, we are owed
something, the opportunity to receive just as fair a chance to be
hired as the next person.
The responsibility of performance is up to the individual. But
more often than not that responsibility is not taken seriously. Os
course, this is not the only problem, but quite an unnecessary
one, and believe it or not whites complain about working
conditions just as much as anyone else. So make no mistake, the
fact is that prejudice and unfair working conditions exist and are
not being overlooked.
It is a fact that when the confrontation comes to be, we can
have the law behind us. There are problems, sometimes more than
we care to deal with. But if we could in our own lifetime
withstand the fire hoses and the police dogs, then surely we take
on the responsibility of performance.
But at the same time, not wanting to be overly conservative, I
must mention something which concerns me a great deal; that is,
training and direction. Traing is inadequate, direction is poor.
Eighty per cent of the job applicants who come through our
office and who have completed secretarial school are unprepared
' '... s.
When the founders of this Republic were
called upon to frame the Declaration of In
dependence, they drafted ordinances declar
ing their independence, guaranteeing protec
tion, equal privileges, equal opportunity and
equal rights to all citizens —except blacks. It
was clear at that time that no other premise
could secure freedom and independence for
the American people, the question was
whether they would include all Americans in
realizing the fruits of liberty.
If nothing eise. the history of the past two
hundred years has proven that to deny those
principles is to endanger the very foundation
of government. It seems very clear to me
that whenever a government fails to secure
for all its citizens that which it guaranteed,
then that government is nearing dangerous
grounds. When those guarantees are denied
to some—a fundamental principle of govern
ment is abused, distorted, and abandoned.
And like a cancer, it will continue to grow
and spread until finally it gnaws at the na
tion's most critical organs.
In my opinion, the character and conduct
of this nation toward Black Americans has
moved from open hostility to quiet indiffer
ence. Whether we turn to the declarations
of the past, or to the professions of the
present, the conduct of this nation seems
equally revolting.
The celebration of this country’s inde
pendence primarily reveals the immeasurable
distance, the great disparity, between Black
. * RAPE HAS OECOME
- A BLACK CRIME"
r PUS I A BLACK DETROIT
STOP ; POLICEMAN
| RECENTLY STATED.
CAQI x HE SAID IN ONE 24
JWgg hour period eight
mpeswere
REPORTED. ALL
' VICTIMS WERE BLACK.
- ; i SO WERE THE RAPISTS.
LAW ABIDING BLACKS MUST SPEAK OUT
BUSINESS IN THE BLACK By Charles E. Belle
Financial Fiasco
The Nixon-Ford administration can claim credit for allowing
the financial foundation of the country to deteriorate to its worst
shape since the depression. They have really put to test the
safeguards for the people’s dough designed during FDR years.
Risks of a bank panic was put on Congress’s head when it
sought recently to find out about the financial conditions of
individual banks. Authur Burns, Federal Reserve Board chairman,
said such an investigation might be the cause of an “enormous”
risk of ticking off a run on the banks.
But the banks are not the only large financial institutions in
trouble. The head of Firemen’s Fund American Insurance
Companies which survived the San Francisco 1906 fire and
earthquake is sounding the alarm for the insurance industry.
Myron Du Bain, chairman and president of the factual
Firemen’s Fund, tipped his fire hat to the members of the
Western Association of Insurance brokers last month and warned
them the worst was yet to come.
He saw where Best (the insurance industry rating service)
revealed that the industry paid out about $107.70 for every SIOO
it received in premiums. The final underwriting loss will be more
than four billion dollars. 1975 was a bad year for the property
and liability insurance industry. Bad loans made by New York
City banks in recent years are also coming out now.
Citibank, parent company of First National City Bank, second
largest U.S. bank, and Rockerfeller controlled Chase Manhattan
Bank are both on the Federal Reserve Bank problem list.
Confidential reports are that some of the itinerant loans are to
the Italian government
Italy has been the scene of a collapsing economy with sounds
of a communist take-over echoing around the Mediterranean Sea.
While Burns wouldn’t talk about specifics, it’s a serious matter
with the banks. A Congressional subcommittee, sought a
subpoena after the Controller of the Currency’s office refused to
supply reports voluntarily. A final sentence is bound to hit the
fan in the near future.
POOR PEOPLE’S PENSIONS
Fortunately, these high finances will have little to do with the
with typing speeds of less than 45 words per minute. Our
members are researching this problem presently, in an effort to
improve it if not correct it. Os course, the source of training may
be inadequate but we must also realize the mass problem of poor
direction.
Youth are no longer programmed to exceed in their discipline,
to perfect their discipline. They are no longer programmed to be
self-motivated, no longer programmed to be competitive. And
like it or not, that is the American way. Yes, it is true that
“Getting your foot in the door” is the hardest part, but once we
get it there, the problems that fall on us can be eliminated if we
are prepared to perform as well as programmed to perform. And
this all points back to the “token Black” syndrome which has
been systematically instilled within the past few years to create a
mentality which all to often takes training for granted and jobs
for reimbursement and gives the OPPRESSOR the opportunity to
use the economic decline for reason of dismissal and then present
your employment file for proof of inefficiency when approached
by the law. Carrying our own weight is not going to stop the
prejudice and the discrimination, but it will begin to eliminate a
part of the justification. And like it or not, ical foundation for
justification does exist, like it or not.
and wnne America—a disparity trial nas
grown wider as the nation has grown older.
The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, pros
perity and independence secured by the
blood and toil of our forefathers is not en
joyed in common today.
It should be evident to the thoughtful
among us that we are passing through one
of the most serious periods of our existence
in this country Questions that immediately
concern the liberty and well-being of more
than fifteen per cent of the population are
pressing for treatment as never before. The
unfinbL ’ F <iness of the American Revolu
tion is to ,‘xtend the great principles of eco
nomic freedom and of natural justice to the
twenty-five million Black Americans in this
country whose battle cry has become: Parity
for the People. No greater task faces this
nation today.
Our own history tells us that there can be
no justice without strength. Because of the
unfortunate condition of our disorganiza
tion. we have been harassed, trampled upon
and belittled. For hundreds of years, our
disorganization made us prey to those who
sought profit out of human slavery. And if
that disunity continues, we are bound to
lose out in the great scramble for survival.
If we do not move seriously and quickly in
the direction of economic parity, it simply
means that our doom becomes imminently
conclusive. The question is not can we, but
rather will we as a unified people, get down
to business.
every day life of littel people. The largest liquid savings of any
working person is likely to be in a company pension. These funds
are protected by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
PBGG is a federal agency created by Congress to insure private
pension plans up to $750 per month for each individual covered
by the plan. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, will protect all
of us for bank deposits of up to $40,000.
We will be paying for the problem in the near future if Myron
Du Bain has his way. He is called for higher prices for his product
and services. Rate increases are the first answer for the insurance
industry, says the Firemen’s Fund President. (NNPA)
Our Giants Speak:
Frederick Douglass On Color
“If what is called the instinctive aversion of the white race for
the colored, when analyzed, is seen to be the same as that which
men feel or have felt toward other objects wholly apart from
color; if it should be the same as that sometimes exhibited by the
haughty and rich to the humble and poor, the same as the
Brahmin feels toward the lower caste, the same as the Norman
felt toward the Saxon, the same as that cherished by the Turk
against Christians, the same as Christians have felt toward the
Jews, the same as that which murders a Christian in Wallachia*,
calls him a ‘dog’ in Constantinople, oppresses and persecutes a
Jew in Berlin, hunts down a socialist in St. Petersburg, drives a
Hebrew from a hotel in Saratoga, that scorns the Irishman in
London, the same as Catholics once knelt for Protestants, the
same as that which insults, abuses, and kills the Chinaman on the
Pacific slope - then may we well enough affirm that this
prejudice really has nothing whatever to do with race or color,
and that it has its motive and mainspring in some other source
with which the mere facts of color and race have nothing to d 0...
“If color is an offense, it is so. entirely and apart from the
manhood it envelopes. There must be something in color of itself
to kindle rage and inflame hate, and render the white man
generally uncomfortable. If the white man were really so
constituted...this grand old earth of ours would be no place for
him. Colored objects confront him at every point of the
compass... He would require a colorless world to live in -a world
where rivers, lakes and oceans should all be white; where islands,
capes and continents should all be white... In such a white world,
the entrance of a Black man would be hailed with joy by the
inhabitants. Anybody or anything would be welcome that would
break the oppressive and tormenting monotony of all-prevailing
white.”
-From THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW
132 (July, 1881).
Frederick Douglass was born in 1817 and died in 1895. Young
Black Americans especially should find many causes for
inspiration in Douglass.
Douglass wrote as though he were living in our present day. He
wore an “Afro” - as he had no other choice - and he spoke the
language both of Blackness and of brotherhood.
Douglass kept two tools constantly by his side, his Bible and a
dictionary. Every word he did not fully understand he looked up
in his dictionary. He saw in his Bible the grandest piece of
literature for liberating ideas and actions.
Our young people today may do well to memorize many of his
words, take his thoughts seriously and to emulate his masterful
use of language as a means of achieving his life’s goals.
(Your class, if it subscribes for group copies of this paper, may
wish to discuss this article and the important issues which it
raises. Or you may wish to make a scrapbook containing all the
articles entitled, “Our Giants Speak”, which will appear weekly.
The quotations may be an excellent source for term paper
reference in high school and college.)
Key Questions:
1. What are three main issues raised in this article?
2. What does this article suggest about our life situation today?
3. How many words did you look up in the dictionary? (If we
do not use a dictionary daily, and for every world whose FULL
meanings we may not know, we cannot grow individually and
assure the best use of our resources for group freedom and a
better America.)
THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW
Mallory K. MillenderEditor-Publisher
Frank Bowman Advertising Manager
Robert Lee Moore Managing Editor
Audrey Frazier Editor-At-Large
Michael Carr Photographer
Stan Raines Circulation Manager
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