fUfNmr Prisoners -■ library NOV 10 m S>ECIAU ::idr.ight Special ■G.P.C. Box 1772 Mew fork, New York lOuOl October 1977 Vol. S, ^12 WELFARE'S, WORKFARE This is an interview with a man who is presently on the mandortory ’ ’ Workfare Pro gram ” Workfare requires all employable welfare recipients to work three days a week without pay, or be thrown off welfare. m. f. 1 ' i 1 inp@iaapniiiiiiiir fS ETTrSTfSTfSTrSTlfSTSTTS ques : ans : ques : ans : ques : ques : ans : ques : ans : ques : ans : ques : ques : ans : ques : How long have you been on welfare? six months What was your reason for getting on welfare? Because I lost my job and my house burned. I had no place to live and and no job to go to. I had to get on welfare Could you describe your experience wh'en you first went to apply for wel fare? They didn't put me through any changes b^ciause of my situation. My house b^Fned down and I had no where to live. They put me into a hotel, un til I found an apartment. Do you have any dependants? lio , only myself How much does welfare pay you? They pay according to your rent. They pay up to $150 dollars per month for a single person. I get $47 dollars, every two weeks, for food stamps and what ever Do you find it hard living on that small amount of money? I certainly do Your forced to survive on $47 dollars every two weeks. What thoughts go through your head when you hear that David Rockerfeller , is having a $1,000 dollar a plate dinner, at the Waldof Astoria? , I'm not really concerned about Rock- erfeller, I'm basically concerned with myself. I'm looking for a job everyday to get off this program and hope I'll soon have one. What type of work do you normally do? Do you have a skill? Well, I can type and I was in security before I lost my job. What was your reaction when you were told that you had to work three days a week without pay or be thrown off welfare? -7-.' ^ ContiHutHi on / ‘ a^v 19 TABLE OF CONTENTS BLACKOUT BLUES'77 ’ Pg-2 NEW KLAN OFFENSIVE Pg-3 INJUSTICIA Pg-6 STATEVILLE Pg.'^ WOM^N IN PRISON pg-R mass prison MOVEMENT pg. 10 AMERICA'S NEXT ATTICA !pg. 16 aliMlHld BLACKOUT BLUES 77 On the night of July 13 in New York City the lights went out. That was the night when people all over the city rose up. the poor and the working. Blacks and Puerto Ricans. We sec the great Blackout rebellion of ’ 77 as symbolizing the op pression and hypocrisy which are such an important part of the American society. On the night and days following the Blackout the police reacted first with confu sion and then with massive police violence and arrests to put down the rebellions. Some of the political and big business interests used the power failure and its after- math to make some money, get some publicity and win a few votes, all at the ex pense of the people who arc held down every day in so many ways in the ghetto -r '/ JOBS, < JWL? When the lights first went out the police didn ’ t know what to do and there were no cops on the streets in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Then the cops were giveh orders to get out on the streets in force. In the Brooklyn Bushwick section the police got on loudspeakers and told everybody to get off the streets. They declared they would bust the ass of anyone who stayed outside. The police did in fact brutalize thousands of people (they arrested over 4000), but still the people went out in the streets; many headed for the stores. Different people must have had different thoughts as they headed for the stores but almost all those people were motivated by the poverty which is such a pervasive force in America. One woman told a reponer for The Daily \ews. People took what they need Cot a 12-year-old hoy next door got ftife pairs of sneakers. One of mine offered to buy a patr. Other boy -wouldn't sell. ".Miss Dotty, my feet were cold all last winter and I'm gonna have shoes this year. I ain't gitting up none of them. ” They're bis security plain and simple. Security, she said. Those merchants had it coming for a long time they been overcharging and charging big interest for years in this neighborhood. Now I feel sorry for some of them. This siter is describing one aspect of the poverty, oppression and frustration which are dominant realities in all ghettos and which drove the people to seize the opportunity to take back something from a system which has taken everything from them. AU the poor neighborhoods in the city are riddled with examples of social neglect, deteriorating housing, non*cxistani medical facilities, second rate education, widespread unemployment and pure gouging businessmen. The people are exposed to the glitter of the American dream consumer economy and yet they arc denied entry into that dream of possession of its goods. This social denial creates the frustration which sent people down to the stores on Blackout night to get some satisfaction. Many of the people breaking into the stores that night were youth and this is testimony to the overwhelmingly high rate of unemployment among Black and Puerto Rican teenagers in N.Y.C. This past summer every time there were a few summer jobs available through Manpower or some similar program there were crowds of thousands of teenaged applicants who lined up for hours before being turned away without being seen. Some statistics from the Department of 1-abor tel! more of the story; New York City has the highest rate of youth unemployment among I / major ...... American cities, according to a Federal report The study reported that in June, 74% of New York City whites between the ages of 16 and 19, and 86% of Flacks and other niino ^^ did not have a full time job. the study painted a picture of youthful unemployment that was more grim than normal. It was particularly dramatic in its figures for New York City-where it said only^Jn, 000 youths of 515,000 had jobs. Another refuart released a few weeks later goes on ; UnettSploymeni has reached a record high among Black youths, who were virtually excluded from a small summer hiring surge enjoyed by young whites, the Labor Department said today. Unemployment among Black youths rose by 100.000, an increase of 3.8 percent over the year. Thus the disparity between Black and white youths in jobs grew even larger than it had been. (Reprinted from The New York Times, 9/1/77) These youths were denied both employment and the meaningful education which might bring hope for the future. Some of them saw an opportunity in the Blackout to share in the American Dream, so they stepped into one of the stores and took it. The powers of the city responded by clamping down an unofficial form of mar tial law on the ghettos. The police were out making large scale arrc'Sts and beating every Black and Puerto Rican they could find. They did not stop to find out if people on the streets had anything to do with the looting. They just jumped on people and busted them. People were herded into pi»licc precincts and put in deten tion pens or chained to radiators and desks while the arresting (>fficers went out to bust more people. Men and women were packed into these detention cells like cattle in the 95 degree heat. One man, Berkley Miller, died while being held under this detention. Once a person is arrested the law says that they should be bn>ught before a judge (arraigned) within 24 hours of the arrest. Instead these thousands i»f people were held in stifling, hot. filthy, overcrowded courthouse detemitm pens and pre cinct lockups for three or four days before seeing a judge and having a bail set. During this period these people were held incommunicado and the police refused to give information about the whereabouts of pet>plc who were arrested. Family members^fire worried for three or four days with(»ut any kni)wledgc of what had happened to their kin. During this period, prisoners were denied access to lawyers while the police got their stories together. I \ .Ik I YiMtfh bring arrested for taking apair of sneaken. CITY POLITICIANS In the days following the Blackout most of the city ’ s politicians gleefully used the rebellion to keep their faces in front of the TV cameras. Mayor Beame started it off in his desperate bid to use the law and order Issue to win re-election. He called the people who took to the streets “ animals ” and “ criminals. ” For more than a week afterwards Beame held daily press conferences and issued press releases de signed to portray himself as a forceful leader. The other politicos chimed right in. Describing some of the demogoguery of the city politicians, The New York Times says; With no conservative Democrat in the race for the party's mayoral nomina tion, Rep. Edward Koch appeared to be talking the most conservative posi tion on the looting with his argument that the National Guard should have been called out and a curfew imposed in the troubled areas Later on. in describing the position of Percy Sutton, The Times continued; Aides to Mr. Sutton conceded damage to his campaign and noted that he bad delivered an 18-page speech on the subject Sunday at the Abssinian Baptist Church in which he attacked the ‘ ‘ marauders" and "criminals" who would “ drag an entire people backward and downward into the primeval ooze and slime of riot and disorder. ” (New York Times, July 21. 1977) Continued on Page 0 NEW KLAN OFFENSIVE National and local TV, radio, magazines and news papers have been bringing coverage of the Ku Klux Klan to millions of people in the U.S. The news is: the Klan is spreading across the country; the Klan js actively seeing visibility and publicit}^ through the media as well as througi. public rallies'and marches; the Klan's new war cr> ’ is that the rights of whites have been denied and that their fight is therefore the righteous and respectable crusade for civil rights; and there arc more than a dozen prominent Klan groups, whose leaders enjoy the competition for dues, public attention and the status of being the most racist - James Venable of Decatur Georgia, the Imperial Wizard of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. said of David Duke, another Imperial Wizard, he ’ s “ not really interested in the preservation of the white race. ” (The Sew York Times. 7/11/77). The Sew York Times' article-feebly summarizes, “ there is no hard evidence that its iKKK ’ s) membership or influ ence is significantly expanding. ’ ’ !!! It is clear that the Klan and its associates have launched a new offensive; whereas the Klan has oper ated relatively freely in prisons throughout the coun try for years, such white supremacists were usually compelled to operate "secretly ” outside the prison walls; now, the Klan is making a bold, nevv bid for acceptance in any white community which will recog nize them. During the 60 ’ s and early 70’ s. the resistance to racism had the initiative, because there was a “ move ment ” then, a fairly organized base able to sustain the initiative. There is no organized, mass based anti racist movement at this time, the economy is falling apart, and so the Klan, the Nazi Party, the National State Rights Party, the Aryan Brotherhood and the anti-busing movement see the vacuurn, are getting organized, moving in and taking the initiative. The media and white liberals have been giving the Klan and allies a friendly reception. Imperial Wizard David Duke has run so many radio and newspaper advertisements that he is often given a discount on the ground that he qualifies as an advertising agency! Duke has appeared on more than 100 talk shows, 18 of which were h(ew York appearances. On June 13th Detroit ’ s TV-2 News featured a live phone interview with the head of the Nazi Party, Chicago's Frank Collins, as its lead story on the 11 o ’ clock news; later that night, over 300 white youths attacked and bru tally beat Black motorists in three different cars on Detroit ’ s Belle Isle. The TV station claimed they were only allowing the Nazis their right of free speech. As TV and radio shove exhortations of white supremacy into the family living room and public places, some white liberals and lawyers arc actually assisting the growth of fascist groups by developing a legal justification for their existance; this justifica tion is based on a grotcsque\and decadent reinterpre- ution of the civil rights legislation which was achieved only because of mass, organized resistance against racism. The American Civil Liberties Union is now engaged in an extensive battle for the civil liberties of the Klan and the Nazis in the prisons, the military, and in communities across the country. FROM SLAVERY TO PRISONS TO SLAVERY The Ku Klux Klan was created in 1868, to fight for the preservation of white supremacy, then threat ened by Reconstruction. When slavery was legally abolished, the 16th Amendment made explicit excep tion for those incarcerated in prison. And it was after the abolition of slavery that prisons began to develop into the enormous, total institutions they are in America today. The Klan and its supporters have always been able to maintain a stronghold in the prisons and now. the Klan is bent on increasing and extending its domination of prisoners. Napanoch (Eastern) Prison is located in the Hud son Valley area of New York, where the Klan has been organizing since the 1920 ’ s. Prisoners at Napa noch began organizing against the Klan in 1973, when the Klan launched a systematic campaign of terror against Black and Puerto Rican prisoners, their poli tical groups and the educational programs in which they were involved. The prisoners exposed a teacher at Napanoch. Earl Schoonmaker, as Grand Dragon of Northern Independent Klans, Inc.; located in nearby Pinebush, N.Y.; and the prisoners then exposed an other 35 guards as Klansmen! The Eastern Branch of the NAACP and its president. Frank Khali Abney, have been both the leaders of this struggle and the target of vicious assiults by KUn guards; Khali and the NAACP branch have taken out two class action suits against the Klan in the prison and in the sur rounding communities; the suits should be coming to Federal Court in New York City this fall. The long, righteous struggle of the Brothers at Napanoch against the Ku Klux Klan erupted on August 8th, when prisoners took hostages to express their outrage at the prison ’ s racism; one of the Brothers ’ main demands was the demand for the firing of two Klan guards, one of whom was pro moted last year to sergeant. The rebellion was met with brutal repression; 45 Brothers were quickly transferred to other state institutions, including ‘ Clinton, Auburn. Greenhaven, Comstock and Sing- Sing. Khali and some other prison leaders were trans ferred to Sing-Sing, then held incommunicado. Al though the Brothers have been assigned 18B lawyers from Ulster County, there have still been no indict- ments-they are expected any day. Earl Schoonmaker Jr. .(without a hood) the Grand Dragon of the Independent Northern Klans, Inc. N.Y. states largest KKK order, stands with wife and other top ranking members at Pinebush, N.Y. At San Quentin Prison in California, racist.prison guards and other prison employees have been organ izing and facilitating the growth of the Nazi Pany and the Aryan Brotherhood among white prisoners for years now; the Nazi Party has historic (the Nazis and the KKK considered merging in the 30 ’ s) and contem porary ties with the Klan. In July, guards at San Quentin left a Black prisoner, Charles J. Captain, alone with armed Nazi prisoners; the Nazis murdered Charles J. Captain; they were then allowed to attack other Black prisoners and two of the racists were killed. The next day the warden allowed the Ameri can Nazi Parry to demonstrate in uniform at the pri son gate. This past spring there were two incidents of racist attacks by the Nazis on black prisoners, one of whom was murdered. Following the second attack, the warden of San Quentin, infamous for his long lock downs, ordered the inmate population confined to their cells 23Vi hours a day. This order was lifted only two days before the racist attack in July. Statesville Prison in Illinois has been pjl^ucd/or years with a reign of racism, brutality and coverup; three Klan guards at Statesville were finally fired several months ago as a result of the public attention generated by several class action suits filed by prison ers and one by the U.S. Justice Department. Demonstrating outside of Maryland Penitentiary, 100 people from community and local organizations demanded an investigation of the KKK, the Nazis and other racist organizations ’ infiltration of middle man agement at the prison. The Reverend Frederick Douglas Kirkpatrick, who works with the Black Theology Project and visits prisoners all over the country', recently stated that the Ku Klux Klan is becoming increasingly active, and in fact is, “ the fastest growing organization in the U.S. ” JULY FOURTH: A SHOWDOWN On July 4th, the Ku Klux Klan put forth its con cept of freedom and independence to American whites in Columbus. Ohio. Chicago, Illinois, and Plains, Georgia, in light of the recent shift to the right by many whites, the bold resistance to the Klan and the Nazis by Blacks and whites on July 4ih repre sented a significant challenge to the fascists and the , local governments which supported them; anti-racist ^ I «U41|I naif ltFV-4h demonstrators took the initiative away from the Klan. at least temporarily. In Columbus. Ohio, 600 demonstrators partici pated in a militant picket of a statewide KKK anti- Imsing rally at the Siatehouse in one of the largest demonstrations held in that city in recent hist»>ry. When the Klan rally began. 30 to 40 of the demon strators moved anu>ng the 20 ti> 25 Klansmen. gave them a hard way to gi> and broke up the rally. Dale Reusch, the Imperial Wizard. wa.s unable to make his speech; instead, he was thrown ti) ijte grt*und, hit by eggs and his purple Klan uniform torn off. In Chicago, the Nazi organization, the National White Socialist Party, was unable to have its planned July march through the predt)minanlly Jewish suburb of Skokie ; after massive opposition to the march, the local courts ruled that the Nazis could not march with their swastikas, and rather than march without their symbol, the Nazis decided to postpone the march while appealing the court decision. With their man in the White Mouse, some of the' whites in Plains, Gei»rgia, felt free tt> describe their July 4th Klan rally as a "patriotic display. ” Only a surprise occurred, and it came from where the Plains KKK leay expected it-Buddy C;ochran, a ihiriy-year- old white, ex-Marine and veteran of the Vietnam War, a passerby wht) was st> outraged by the Klan filth, that he rammed his ear into the speakers ’ platform during a harangue by Imperial Wizard Bill Wilkinson. The response of the police and the courts to this righteous resistance against American fascism on July 4th made the position of the state clear; the white supremacists were protected, the demonstrators ar rested. With regard to Buddy (Cochran, Sumter Coun ty Sheriff Randy Ih.waVd stated. “ The 19 charges of aggravated assault were filed on behalf of those per sons Ithe h'lanl admitted to the ho.spitaJ. ” (The News World, 7/4/77.) Cochran ’ s bond was set at $190.«00. $10,000 on each count. And Jimmy Carter confirmed the positi«in of his state; he made no comment on the Klan rally in his hometown, but he used the media extensively to reprimand Vernon Jordan. Jr., Black President of the Urgan I.eague Corps, for raising the hope of Blacks in expecting government protection from the same kind of racism and fascism celebrated in his hometown on July 4ih. RACISTS BUILDING BASE FOR WHITE POWER WHITE STUDENTS! mntmm ■IAN TOWTH coart The Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis were sobered by their setbacks on July 4th; they realized that Black people and some white people would fight against their white power. Nonetheless, these racists are making plans for extensive expansion this fall. White supremacy is making a bid for more state power, and it is attempting to entrench its power base in the police forces and among pristm guards, while also running candidates for local and slate officials. Continued on A'l/gc 5 WELFARE CHILDREN ORDERED TO GET SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS NEW YORK (LNS)-For most Americans a social security number is something to worry about when you're ready to get your first job. But for welfare recipients, the numbers have now become something required from the day of birth. Although social security cards state that they are not to be used for purposes of identification, the federal government is reported to have ordered wel- .fare offices to collect social security numbers from every recipient of Aid to Families with Dependent Children, r>o matter what age. Recipients who do not provide numbers for all their children are to be cut from the rolls. States which do not complete the process by October 1 are to lose federal funding for their ADC programs. Since the government has already moved to re quire special photo ID cards for welfare recipients, federal computers may soon have a central bank of information on anyone who ever receives welfare from infancy on, all indexed by social security number. (9/10/77 — Thanks to "Keep Strong" maga zine for some of this information.) WHITE FAMILIES LEAD WELFARE ROLLS WASHINGTON. April 15 {UPI)-For the first time in a decade, more than half the Americans on family wafare rolls are white, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare said today. Welfare families also are moving from b^ger cities to smaller ones, according to a department study, and they have fewer children, spend more time on the rolls and live more often in homes headed by women. While the greatest number of persons on welfare has almost always been white, this was the Hrst time since 1967 that the majority of those receiving family welfare aid were white. Whites made up 50.2 percent of A.F.D.C. recipi ents, up from 46.9 percent in 1975; blacks were down from 45i8 to 44.3 percent; American Indians were unchanged at 1.1 percent, and other minorities down from 6.2 to 4.3 percent. A.F.D.C. is the govern ment's major welfare program, dwarfing all others in the numbCT of recipients. When the study was conducted, such spending totaled $8.8 billion a year for 11.4 million persons. Current annual spending it estimated at $10.3 billion for 11.1 million individuals .. (Reprinted from The New York Times) CANCEROUS CONTRACEPTIVES FOR THE THIRD WORLD Depo-Provera is an injectable contraceptive pro duced by Upjohn International of Kalamazoo, Michigan; use of the drug increases a woman's suscep- I tibility to cancer of the cervix and the breasts, ac- j cording to a July 6 Manchester Guardian report. I Depo-Provera contains an artificial hormone, medrox- ! progesteron (MPA); it was tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1974, and the drug was shown to induce cancers in female beagles, the standard test animals for hormonal contraceptives. After this testing, the imperialist pattern was then, set into motion; in November. 1975, the FDA for-* mally banned contraceptives containing MPA in the U.S.; shortly, MPA was banned by most "developing" countries, including Britain, France, Japan and Sweden; the drug remained legal, however, in 64 countries; all but seven of these countries are in the Third World. The same American Medical establishment which has made family planning a real possibility for some white, middle class women in America uses the bodies and communities of Third World women for its geno- cidal research; the result to the women and their communities is social chaos, disease and death. Depo-Provera was first tested on a small scale in Puerto Rico, but apparently to avoid protests the testing was moved to Thailand, where it was con ducted by a United Sutes Missionary physician. Dr, E. McDaniels, at MacCormack Hospital in Bangkok. McDaniels has become the chief advocate of this drug which is now administered to more than 500,000 women in Asia who do not realize the possible con sequences. “There is an incredibly callous attitude in the West," Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury. a noted Bangla deshi physician, told the Manchester Guardian. "Western doctors feel they can do experiments on Asian women because they are poor and illiterate. They do not regard them as people." The main agencies financing the use of Depo- Provera in Asia are the U.S. government, the Swedish government, the World Health Organization and International Planned Parenthood Federation; Inter national Planned Parenthood Federation (i.e.. Rocke feller) is the largest distributor of Depo-Provera; the Federation is almost entirely pnanced by the U.S. NEW KLAN OFFENSIVE unf At Un€ Hi nctIVit (Coutiuucd from Pagf j blackout BLUES 77 (Continued from Page 2 All these politicians want to play the game of manipulating public opinion to their advantage by creating a general public fear of people living in the oppressed communities. Once they create this fear then they present themselves as the saviors. None of these concerned politicians want to address the social realities which con demn millions to poverty right here in the U.S. of A. These are people who never visit the ghettos except maybe the day before each election. In the days following the Blackout Bcame sent a letter to David Ross, the city's administrative judge. Beame urged that the looters be dealt with "must forcefully" and "most harshly." Recent statistics released by the State Division of Criminal Justice show that the city district attorneys and judges arc being unusually vindic tive and oppressive in their treatment of prisoners: Tvienty percent of the Blackout cases have been held for consideration by a grand jury which means that felony charges are being pressed. Normally - only S% of the city wide criminal cases are held for a grand jury on burglary related offenses \ Under normal conditions 30% of those sentenced in criminal court receive some jail time. By contrast. 70% of the so-called Blackout defendants were sentenced to jail. (The New York Times, 8/16/77) And so it goes with American style justice. Recently many of the store owners who have filed for emergency relief as disaster victims have been charged with de frauding the government with their claims. Still the real criminals continue to go free. The big business interests steal millions everyday from poor and working people and they are given protection and assistance by the government. On the day following the power failure Mayor Beame got on the radio to advise people not to go to work that day. Many people followed Beame's instructions and when they reported to work the next day they were told by the bosses that they would not be paid for the day or they would be relieved of a day of their personal leave time. Louisville Blacks have long accused the police condoning, if not instigating, the often-vioient pro tests in that city against schoti! busing. FBI docu ments recently obtained thrtmgh the Freedom of Information Act now document that in early 1976, the United Klans of America opened a new Klavern in the Louisville area to recruit, “ exclusively persons employed with local law enforcement ” (l.N.S packet. 9/23/77). This klavern was to recruit members from both the Louisville Division of P»»lice and the Jeffer son County Police Department. The group was char tered by William Chancy, tirand Dragon of the UK.\ Indiana Realm. In February 1976. at a.Klan educa tional meeting in Kokomo. Indiana, Grand Dragon Chaney announced that one Louisville police officer had been promoted to Exalted Cyclops and Kleagle (recruiter) in his Klan cell. Dale Reusch, the Imperial Wizard who was bat tered on July 4th in Columbus, Ohio, says he is con sidering running for Governor of Ohio, based on the strength of the anti-busing movement in that state. Chicago police slopped a march through the .Mar quette Park by the Marlin Luther King Jr. Mttvemem, but allowed angry white mobs to go on a rampage. Time Magazine reports, "l.ately, crt»wds of up to 1,500 beer-swigging white ytmrhs have swarmed around the (Marquette) park, brandishing l>aseball bats, stones and bottles, and attacking black motor ists. ” (lime Magazine, ft/15/77) .Marquette Park is the headquarters of Nazi leader Collin who now threatens. "Come hell or high water, .Supreme Court or no Supreme Court, arrest or no arrest, violence or no violence, we will go into Skokie before the end of the year. ” (Time) The truth is Collin knows from experience that the police are on his side. Prisoners tend to be more aware of the KKK and other fascist groups because prisoners must fight for their survival while in prison, and the growing f<*rces of white supremacy arc threatening their survival as never before. We must educate people outside the prison walls about th<c Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi Party, the Aryan Brotherhood and other fascist groups, not only by supporting prisoners' struggles against these '^oups, but also by exposing and attacking the Klan and allies wherever they exist, in our cities, towns and communities. M » S Another recent federal study indicates that New York City workers lost about five million dollars in wages because of the electricity blackout. Those wages were kept by the capitalists. Millions qj people lost unknown amounts in food and medicine spoilage. Con Ed, the company which owns all the electricity in New York City, has been forced to admit that the Blackout was a result of the company ’ s ineffcc- .^ive control procedures and not due to a lightning strike as had originally been claimed. Con Ed is one of the big monopolies which runs the country. They- have been well known for a long time because of their pollution of the environment, their outrageously high electricity bills, their racial hiring practices and their chairman Charles Luce who is paid a $200,000 salary plus $58,000 in deferred pension bene fits annually. We think that Con Ed is a good example of why big businesses in this country qualify to be called "organized crime. ” The politicians have called people who participated in the rebellion "animals" and "marauders." As far as they are concerned all Blacks and Puerto Ricans who refuse to identify with the white American ruling class and be its lackeys, or who arc so oppressed that they are forced to rebel, all these people will always be con sidered "animals ” by the rich. But the truth is that Blacks. Puerto Ricans and other oppressed people had every right to the goods that they took from the capitalists. It is the stolen labor of Black slaves and other poor people which created the wealth which today rules America. If some of the fruits of that stolen labor had been returned to Black people in the form of the 40 acres and two mules which were promised by the government at the end of the Civil War. then they would have an economic base which could pro vide for the peoples ’ needs. Today 112 years later Blacks arc still waiting to sec some justice. The rich in America are able to- keep most people under control by letting them have a few material goods to whet their fantasies and keep them loyal to the Amer- |can dream. Poor people, such as those who participated in the Blackout Rebellion. I have nothing, and therefore nothing to lose. WELFARE AOVOCACY GROUPS CALL CARTER'S welfare REFORM PROGRAM "DISASTROUS" "If this country is ^ing to reform welfare, for crying out loud, reform It so we can live and not die." -Mrs. Lee Williams Milwaukee County welfare mother quoted in "Welfare Mothers Speak Out" NEW YORK (LNS)-Not too long ago presidential aspirant Jimmy Carter was campaigning as a cham pion of the poor, promising “ A JOB FOR EVERY AMERICAN WHO WANTS ONE. ” and fiscal relief for cities (and states) severely overburdened with welfare costs. Now barely a year later, Jimmy Carter has become President Carter, and with that transfor mation. one campaign promise after another has faded away. The long-heralded welfare reform program un veiled by Carter in early August does not guarantee the promised jobs, does not guarantee an income equal even to the official poverty level, and does not follow through with the promised federalization of welfare costs. In fact, although the program ’ s name has been changed to a ‘ ‘ program for better jobs and income ”- an effort to avoid the word “welfare ” and create the impression of a radical departure from the old sys- tem-the program does not really measure up to anything all that new. The Hconomist, a respected London weekly, noted immediately that the much touted work-requirement in the program resembles “welfare reforms ” unsuccessfully pushed by the Nixon Administration in the early seventies. And the Wall Street Journal reported August 8 that Carter ’ s program would actually reduce aid for vast numbers of recipients. “ Administration officials aren ’ t eager to disclose that their proposal decreases benefits for substantial numbers of current welfare recipients, affecting about three million people or 10%.,^ the Journal revealed. “ Most of these arc on the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and food stamp pro grams." Both AFDC and the food stamp program would be scrapped under Caner ’ s plan and replaced by a combined program of cash assistance and jobs, with a strict work requirement for all “able-bodied ” re cipients. The cash allotments are so low that it is essential for recipients to work if they are to receive an income even approaching the official poverty level. Since proposed benefits would actually be lower than those currently offered in 39 states, it is ex- peaed that many states will decide to supplement the benefits to bring them up to current levels. Many of these details, as well as other aspects of the bill, still have to be worked out. "Required Work" Under the Administration's plan, ail recipients who arc not aged, blind or disabled, and who arc not single parents of children younger than seven, arc classified as “expected to work. ” and are required to undergo an intensive job search during which time they receive a lower level of benefits. A single parent with a child between the ages of 7 and 14 will be expected to work part-time if child care is not available, and full-time if it is. Single parents with children 14 and over will be expected to work regardless of whether after-school care is available. “ From evcr> ’ thing we can gather so far. it ’ s going to be disastrous for people," said Theresa Fumicella of the Welfare Advocacy Center in New York City. She explained that two levels of cash assistance have been designated for all those in the “expected to work" category. Everyone enters at the lower level, where, for example, a famil> of four is allotted S2300 a \ear-a figure that is t»nly 36% of the 1976 .poveny guideline of S5780. lOfficial poverty levels arc considered far below what is needed to live adequately.] • If the “employable person ” cannot find a job after a five-week job search by the individual, and then a three-week search by government agencies, she/he will then be ehgiblc for one of the 1.4 million public service job slots the government has said it will create. These jobs would pay the minimum wage of $2.30 an hour-40% less than the present average wage for federally-created public service jobs. How ever, there is already considerable doubt that the government will be able to create these jobs. If placement in one of these temporary job slots is not possible, the recipient is automatically placed in a higher benefit level, where, for example a family of four would receive $4200 a year-66% of the 1976 poverty level. If for any reason someone refuses a job placement, she or he would remain at the lower benefit level. _ , Second Class Jobs “ My feeling is it's an attempt to establish an entire subculture of people who will be a cheap source of labor and who will have no union rights, ” says Fumicella. “It leaves people with no choice of what job to take or where to put your child in daycare. You take the job that ’ s given you, or else you survive at the lower level. “ The minute you quit,-no matter what the condi tions —you ’ d immediately go down to the lower bene fit level. ” Tim Casey of the Center on Social Welfare Policy and Law in New York City stre-sses that the work issue is in some sense “ a phony issue, ” because wel fare recipients will not be provided with substantial work opportunities. “Our experience is that the overwhelming number of people on welfare want to work. ” says Casey. “But they want real jobs, with decent wages and benefits. The jobs they ’ re talking about creating have second class status. They won ’ t be paid the prevailing wage, they won ’ t have vacation leave, employment security or the right to unionize. They ’ re not perma nent jobs and there ’ s no guarantee that if you worked at one of these jobs, for six months say, that you'd have priority for regular hiring. Every year, you ’ ll be required to go through another period of intensive job search. ” Inade< THOUSANDS LOSE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS NFW YORK (I.NS) - Tens of thousands of jobless workers have lost their unemployment benefits^^^, result of Congressional legislation enacted thi^ngl Previously, individual states paid for 26 wceW of benefits, and people still unable to find work could then receive 1.3 weeks of federal extended benefits (KB) and then fedenii^ppleniental benefits (E-SB) for an additional 26 weeks, .Ml together, the thou sands ttfv^eiims of long-term unemployment ct'uld reeeiv«^?enefits for 65 weeks. I'hat was until the .Xpf^^utbaeks; the effects »>f which include • l-Mi ihh-il hi-mjits have been eliniiiuited in .37 states, eitirin^ »}j benefits f ur 200.000 workers. In these M states, highly disputed jiovernment figures showed that uneinpluyinent had dropped below and federal legislation forced these states to discontinue payments. • The T'Sli was cut from 26 to 13 weeks as of April .to and will he eliminated altogether as of October 30. 1977. \ loophole in the legislation has allowed the states who have so far elimi nated T it to also drop T'SH. • ,lln«v workers in stales still offering h'.SB are being dropped because they can't afford to take jobs at salaries lower than their unemployment benefits. Hecenl legislation .signed in .Xpril forces people to accept any job thiy are of fered, whereas previously, unemployed workers had to show that they were searching for work in their own occupation. This new provision has been strongly criticized by workers because of its depressive effect on wages nationwide. .Meanwhile, the official unemployment rate for young black pe»>ple hit a new high reeenily-35%. Real unemployment is actually higher' than official rates, moreover. Official unemployment figures ilon ’ t count workers who have given up hope »>f ever find ing a job and workers who could find only part-time As the program now stands, single people and couples without children will be the worst off. Not only arc they ineligible for the public service job slots, but also if they are unable to find employment after an 8-week search, they will be forced to survive at the lower level of benefits- $1100 for an individu al, and $2200 for a couple. Furthermore, til? program does not guarantee job placement for anyone. “ The only way that most poor people could even come close to reaching the poverty level of income under this proposal would be by having earnings from paid employment so that they could combine income and cash benefits, ” concludes a lengthy report on the welfare reform proposals recently completed by the Center on Social Welfare Policy and Law.-M New York City. “ The proposal is deliberately structured to achieve this result because of the administration ’ s belief that peo,ple who are working at paid employment should always end up with more money than people who arc not .” Fiscal Relief Unlikely Since federal benefits arc in jxi<ist,cascs lower than current