Labor ‘Task Force’
aids civilians

WILLIAM ALLAN
we DETROIT
den orkers, Build-
kers a Teamsters, Steel
itin nd other trades
Rohe 4 Labor Task
this cite the 100 block
city, smashed, torn

erid
Ip i bullet perforat-

Un . ee
juists in the city, of

Negro, mostly

’ nay be, UAW presi-
Ona) pater, Teamsters
fg ee ident Rob-
Builg; Olmes,
: nus Trades, Charles

Others Ove, Steelwork-

de wiles, Woods and
Teo nists, spoken to
te wai Said the Labor
Dat Work week-
Move debris with

hove

told 4 Y Reuther.
5 reg. Meeting of =
br mayen™unity leaders

at one Jerome Cava-
€d labor will
Unds . Johnson for
Homes «rt building

or the 5,000
Ing Oy other thou-

atinfested, di-

oMUAM ALLA

Reuther, in a bitter denuncia-
tion of U.S. Congressmen, said
they recently voted down a re-
quest for $20 million for rat-con-
trol but passed an anti-riot bill.

“These people are a million
miles away from reality, and we
got to get them back to earth
and see the problems we face
here and in scores of American
cities,” said Reuther.

While critical of Congress, he
made no mention of the wiping
out of the war on poverty for
the war on Vietnam, and that
Detroit lost $7 million in one
cut meant for jobless youth,
mostly Negro. He did say that
200,000 Detroit youth between
the ages of 14-17 were living in
the poverty areas (ghetto) and
that 23 percent were jobless.
They were the victims of the
war on poverty slashes to pay
for the war on Vietnam. .

Reuther said, “the Negro com-
munity is not responsible for
what happened here in the last
five days. The key to the situa-
tion is Negro-White unity to
change things. Labor has to get
into this, do something meaning-
ful and do it now.”

“Bobby” Holmes, Teamster
vice president, said: ‘our union
leadership has met and we are
checking our members. Any that
are in jail, we want them out on
bail, reasonable bail. We want
them to go back to work. No
one will be fired who has been
arrested.”

Asked ‘what about President

Here is the way, its lining up:

e The House Un-American Ac-
tivities Committee are threaten-
ing to come to Detroit.

e The President’s 11 member
advisory commission is named as
a “stacked deck” by some De-
troiters.

e U.S. Senator Dirksen terms
it a “Communist plot.”

e@ Colonel David of the Michi-
gan State cops also sees “Reds.”

e Governor Romney hints mys-
teriously about a “Black Power”
conspiracy.

qeebainge OMY
itieg st Which th

mys
tin, made ot
et Bovern, Will of
Rs thected thro

the? asic a
he r ing
Vernin

tha ol th

Te neith

S.N
hat in
€s all t
Ny
lable Us, and
md just soc
against

te COur
hy ,nan rat

: i .
time PPI o

“tion,
au.
. Sty,

= inciting black people to commit an
€st against the law, a law in which
People have any say in preparing.
uy, e we protest was directed (the law
ey 1 £2Rsider co" 1s the law which established this
8 neither morally nor legally bound
That Y a body in which I have no repre-
o the people is the basis of the
» IS a principle universally acknow-
Bhout the civilized world and con-
ation of freedom and justice. It is
Class be morally and legally bound
1S Country, It should be equally
» aS black people, should adopt the
4 ere €r morally nor legally bound to
Ie in Ppregg ae Made with our constent and
Or Can we be expected to have
terpret and enforce such laws.
he laws, he drags us before his
he sits in judgement over us.
tety cannot mount a successful
‘ black youth who breaks a win-
ime plead that it is powerless to
) Americ QO are be
» Meet iS hompet Temocracy a reality. Each time
pt My » Each ti or burned, it is an act of violence
Bach i ae a black body is found in the
blac Alabama, that is violence in our
‘Ane 80Ver uman rights workers are refused
ag: Mericg f nment, that is anarchy.
or what it is, and we recognize our

R
a Brown, Chairman,
9n-Violent Coordinating Committee

ing murdered because they

Johnson’s new commission and
the general Detroit situation?”,
Holmes replied:

“Commissions, its commis-
sions, study groups, on top of
one another—we don’t need that
or anymore like that. Let the
President send in a huge sum of
federal funds to rebuild the
burned out homes, buildings,
small businessmen’s places.

“I agree with Reuther, all
these upheavals all over the na-
tion has to see organized labor
move fast. All the politicians do
is talk, the people are sick of
that. Labor has to use its great
powers of pressure, independent
political action, to get funds to
wipe out the ghettos, and not to
build new ones on the ashes of
the old. Labor has to cleanse it-
self of this stigma of discrimina-
tion, refusing to see what’s hap-
pening to these Negro young-
sters who can’t get jobs; to the
older workers, unemployed and
to the Negro workers generally
who earn less, work less because
of employers tactics of using dis-
crimination and tossing them
into the scrap heap when they
don’t need them.”

Holmes was scornful of those
who keep saying its not a racial
issue what happened in Detroit
in the last five days and referred
to his above remarks. Ho!mes
was not at the community lead-
ers’ meeting, but spoke to news-
media on what the Teamsters
thought and were doing.

Red Herring Dragged out

e Tom Joyce, Detroit News,
sees Detroit as part of a “nation-
wide plot.”

This reporter asked Governor
Romney if he had any knowl-
edge of the House un-Americans
coming in, and the governor re-
plied, “I don’t know.”

Congressman Conyers was
asked by newsmien and he said,
“they’d better not come in here
—they’ll get it.”

State Senator Coleman A.
Young (D.) said, “that figures,
also the conspiracy deal. After
all, Detroit Negroes had to be
‘misled’ by some outside force
and the Black Power and the red
herring are the coverups — so
that the real story of ghettos,
discrimination, police brutality
and all the rest won’t surge to
the surface.”

Local cops are accusing the
black power forces here of “or-
ganizing” sniper fire, seemingly
forgetting that a number of
whites, some with high power
rifles, with telescopic sights on
them were caught. Also on La-
Salle and LaMothe avenues,
three white youths, names with-
held, were caught with a .22 ca-
libre rifle, shooting at Negroes
walking by. One was the son of
a former Detroit police captain.
All three said they came to
“shoot n - - - - rs.’ Two came
from Garden City, a practically
all white area outside Detroit.

The Detroit News ‘is advertis-
ing on its front page a piece in
one of the national magazines,
that professes to have gotten an
inside story from people with
rifles in Detroit and declares that
sniping here is highly organized.
Neither the anti-Negro Detroit
News nor most other news
sources here report the arrests
of white snipers in a prominent

place.

THE PROBLEM

Negro unemployment is double that of whites and is
growing.

Urban renewal has meant Negro removal not hous-
ing.

Housing problems have reached the critical stage.
Pais brutality is still a constant feature of ghetto
ife.

Higher prices, rents, and interest rates are com-
monplace in Negro areas.

Negro casualty rate in Vietnam is double that of
whites.

The income gap between Negro and white contin-
ues to grow.

Detroit, the auto capital of the world, is no exception.
Last February the chairman of the U.S. Equal Oppor-
tunity Commission disclosed that:

Only 2.4 percent of the auto industries’ skilled
tradesmen. are Negro.

Negro males comprise only 1 percent of the auto
industry professional, technical, and sales workers.
In construction trades, Negroes are practically ex-
cluded from plumbing, electrical, sheet metal, iron
workers trades, and what is worse, the present ap-
prenticeship schools have only 1.7 percent Negro
enrollment. _ .

Unemployment among Negro youth in Detroit is
currently more than double that of white youth.
Grossly inadequate representation at all levels of
government decision making on matters affecting
the daily lives of Negro people.

THE RESPONSIBILITY

The major banking, financial and industrial trusts
of our area set the employment patterns, housing
and realty practices. They encourage and finance
the racists and segregationists in our city.

The Johnson administration has shamelessly de-
faulted on all of its glowing promises to the Negro
people. It has to all intents and purposes killed
the anti-poverty program, the model cities program.
It has put through drastic cuts in education, health,
housing, etc., etc. At the same time it squanders
$80 million a day — $27 billion a year and over
12,000 American lives in a racist war against the
colored people of Vietnam. When President John-
son thought it politically useful, he acted with dis-
patch in sending Federal troops to Detroit. Where
were the troops when they were needed to protect
the Negroes of Mississippi against racist violence?

THE ANSWERS

That the mayor and governor call on the auto and
other corporations to undertake the recruiting,
training, and employment within a six-month period
of at least 2,000 Negro youth for skilled and tech-
nical jobs in their plants and offices.

That the mayor, governor and federal agencies
involved anncunce that, effective immediately, no
city, state or federal funds will be spent on any
project or contract thut does not specifically under-
take active and substantial hiring of Negro workers.
That all unions involved in apprenticeship programs
will be required to submit to the State Civil Rights
Commission by Labor Day, specific plans to guar-
antee that 50 percent of all apprentices will be
Negro, or face prosecution.

The federal government must immediately make
available, from funds now being allocated for the
war on Vietnam, $1 billion to be used to reconstruct
Detroit's devastated areas. This will provide for a
comprehensive, planned and fully integrated com-
munity, including low rent public housing, parks,
playgrounds, swimming pools, and other recrea-
tional facilities. New schools and other educational
facilities, utilizing the most advanced techniques
must be a prime feature, within the over-all plan.

A Presidential executive order to be issued imme-
diately declaring that all restrictions on equal hous-
ing opportunities are henceforth illegal and that
violators will be vigorously prosecuted.

Detroit's police force must be composed of at least
50 percent Negro personnel at all levels of its oper-
ations. Policing of predominantly Negro areas must
immediately be placed under the command of
Negro officers.

Election of city council must be by district rather
than city-wide to guarantee full proportional repre-
sentation.

Negroes must constitute 50 percent of all city policy
and administrative bodies.

The federal government must immediately autho- |
rize emergency housing in hotels, and provide other
necessities, for all families and individuals displaced
by the fires—until such time as the government can
provide them with adequate housing that is finan-
cially within their means.

Michigan State Committee,
Communist Party U.S.A.

See VR er ee