Buffalo Criterion, 1983-08-17

              niagara region the buffalo criterion rochester ■ i i ~ _ z vol 5g - no 34 ih ii i iit if ml in ii i wednesday august 17-2:1 1983 mlk's dream lives on thru 2nd march on washington jobs peace & freedom-theme of march buffalo — people from around the world will re-enact the historic march on washington that was led by the late noble prize winner dr martin luther king jr 20 years ago organizers say that it is a fitting way to pay homage to the great martyr of social justice and to remind the world that although they killed the dreamer the dream lives on there are almost as many reasons for marching on washington as there are marchers twenty years later there are too many native born americans of diverst ethnic origins who still live on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of materia prosperity many of the original marchers are returning to dramatize these shameful conditions they refuse to believe that the richest nation on earth is bankrupt these demonstrations for jobs peace and freedom refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity ao that americana who re hungry arid homeless through no fault of their own have to sleep in the streets they are returning to washington seeking homes for the over 2 million homeless not overseas but here in the united states of america they feel that the safety net has not worked all too many of the people who were thrown off the cliff to appease the great god free market have hit rock bottom most of today's economic casualties are making involuntary sacri fices a great number of the victims of this particular recession were not the unlucky haphazard targets of inventory reductions or business cycles many middle-aged men and women who have lost their jobs homes and peace of mind have no realistic hope that they will ever have the same economic position or confidence that they had before they received their pink slips or their foreclosure notices or the auctioneer's gavel similar to those who survived the great depression many of those people are suffering so severely that their heirs will inherit some of that pain some of them are joining the march seeking liberation from economic bondage a disabled veteran of world war 11 and the first march on washington expressed a view , that the unemployed the homeless the bankrupt business person and farmers have a legitimate claim just like that of those who were victims of wars he said that they suffer the same mental illinesses classified as shell-shock the leaders intend to bring together by abdullah luqman a massive march on washington on august 27th to reaffirm dr king's dream and continue to unite around specific goals and common objectives to develop a broad non-partisan coalition to press for basic legislation to turn this nation around in the areas of jobs peace and freedom to work for passage of legislation that would designate january 15th as a national holiday to work on the state and local levels to implement the agenda of the new coalition of conscience resolutions of demands of the 1963 march on washington read by bryon rustin and taken by dr martin luther king jr and other leaders to a 5 p.m meeting with president john f kenned 1 we demand that we have effective civil rights legislation no compromise no filibuster and that it infliidan nubile accdnunimlttilon decent housing integrated education fetc and the right to vote 2 we demand the withholding of federal funds from all programs in which discrimination exists 3 that we demand that segregation be ended in every school district in the year 1983 4 we demand the enforcement of the 14th amendment the reducing of congressional representation of states where citizens are disfranchised 5 we demand that an executive order banning discrimination in all housing supported by federal funds 6 we demand that every person in this nation black or white be given training and work with dignity to defeat unemployment 7 we demand that there be an increase in the national minimum wage so that men may live in dignity 8 we finally demand that the rights given to any citizen be given to black men and men of every minority group including the strong fetc locally the march is being sponsored xv th i.0 c leadership conference sclc the buffalo metropolitan ministries bamm and the afl-cio who held a * rally in martin lather n ktai -' pma "" saturday aug isth ™-**- —— some comments from those attend ing rev h v reid president sclc we are going to washington to stop robin hood reagan from robbing the kemp urges the lowering of rising interest rates washington dc — rep jack kemp thurs day warned federal re serve officials that they are tangling with a sleep ing giant in congress if they do not lower the unnecessary high interest rates that are threatening economic recovery i have long been a staunch supporter of the independence of the fed in the execution of its policy and have resisted several attempts in con gress to change that relationship but if the ominous upward trends in interest rates are not reversed and current trends as reflected by recent weakness in hous ing retail sales and steel orders produce another credit crunch i can assure the board of governors that congressional action will be bold swift and bipartisan in nature kemp said on monday the major banks raised their prime lending rate to 11 % from 10 the first mrliistrv .*,**,- me lr*t industry - wide leap in almost a year and a half kemp said he believes the recent _ in ■ of federal reserve actions the federal funds rate has gone from below bvi % in early may to nearly 10 in recent weeks it is the primary interest rate the fed precisely controls and impacts heavily on decisions with regard to the prime and other interest rates rates ' there is plenty of room for cooperation between republicans and demo crats in ending destructive interest rate increases kemp said when jobs are destroyed because the price of credit is skyrocket ing monetary policy right ly becomes the cardinal economic and political issue in congress this is not to downgrade the need for budget restraint which would reduce the total burden of government on the economy but clearly the jobs and hopes of americans are being threatened out of abstract concern for one narrow measure of the money supply a policy we thought the fed had discarded last year _ kemp said congres sional instructions to the federal reserve passed in december told the fed not to return to arbitrarily targeting the money sup ply at the expense of the real economy and every price signal that the real economy is reflecting points away from the need for the fed to restrain credit at this point in the recovery he added that a number of congressional demo crats including reps wright and st germaine had pending legislation that would put the fed under strieker control as a result of my discussions with members of the black caucus and republican leaders in the house i am convinced that a bipartisan consen sus has emerged that the fed can no longer hold the economy hostage to high interest rates kemp said in reviewing the ex tremely strong demand for dollars overseas and un employment here at home i strongly urge the fed to at least bring the federal funds rate in line with the discount rate in order to keep the economy on its revived growth ' path kemp said it is clear that one of the economy's key price levers interest rates are far too high and one of the economy's key price levers interest rates e»-r w nf v/>/f z are tar too high and unpredictable today for many consumers and busi . no.m " to expend their wosßßtk activities """*■* kemp said that fed policy makers must re ject the dangerous notion that economic growth causes inflation and that criterion writer sees grave decisions ahead for american blacks ' says mark o riley the american economy as it is now constructed cannot and will not survive unless america can create and sustain a world conflict this nation became an economic super power with the destruction of the american indian and off of the backs of countless african slaves regardless of what one may claim as to the value of american education and know how it proves of little relative value with the continued brute force third class american blacks are now called upon to help slaughter defense less south american wo men and children and poverty stricken african sisters and brothers make no mistake about it regardless of what emerg es out of washington d c white democrats and and white republicans are in agreement on this foul course of action many money-hungry american blacks will be bought and paid for in one form or another so as to maintain their silence black american soldiers who themselves joined the american armed forces because there was no room in the white american economic inn will now be asked to kill and be killed and otherwise destroy self and own kind in order to keep white rich america rich and white yet as world champ joe louis once said you can run but you can't hide this certainly applies to so termed black american leadership who must now call a spade a spade much sooner than was thought possible dollars make sense benjamin l hooks executive director of the national association for the advancement of colored people naacpi holds a susan b anthony silver dollar and a two dollar bill — the denominations the naacp is urging blacks around the country to use exclusively during the upcoming labor day weekend to dramatically demon strate the spending power of black americans called black dollar days the demonstration — conducted through the association's 6 regional offices and 1,800 branches — urges blacks to secure silver dollars from banks prior to the holidays and to use them between sept 1 - sth by spending money in these denominations hooks has said the power of the black dollar will be clearly demonstrated and this knowledge will lead to new job and business opportunities for blacks photo by bryan berteau - times picayune/states item committee to sponsor cocktail party for pitts a cocktail party will be given by the committee to re-elect james w pitts councilman of the ellicott district thurs aug 25 from 6 to 9 p.m at the little harlem hotel 496 michigan aye the donation is 12.00 per person councilman pitts is a man of action his accomplishments are visi ble throughout the ellicott district and his voting record on the common council speaks for itself the committee to re elect mr pitts says that in order that councilman pitts be returned to city government and continue his excellent job that he has been doing for the past s'/i years hey need the support of all bell issues statement clifford bell a candi date for councilman-at large makes the follow ing statement in the process of moving toward the goal of being elected councilman at-large for the city of buffalo one of my primary aims is to give better representation to small business and some of the problems associated with - the operation of small ! business as a recently appointed member of the western new york business ad visory council will allow me the opportunity to stay abreast of legislation that affects small business and take the steps necessary to try and protect our inter est in the near future i hope to call together a group of business persons who will get the opportu nity to air their views and propose some logical answers to some of our mutual problems if you feel inclined i would be grateful for your support in the upcoming election both physical and financial if we are to win we need the voice of small business in the council chambers make your check payable to friends for cliff bell thank you - cliff clifford bell bellamy gives view on small business date for councilman-at large a businessman in the buffalo area pinpoints as one of the critical concerns of his platform the promotion of small business in the buffalo community mr bellamy feels that small business represents the backbone of many communities serving as the eyes and ears for the residents he identifies small busi ness as a vehicle for boosting the economy by providing jobs for youth and adults within the immediate neighborhood he further views small business as a curtailment to crime through the formulation of a communi ty wide networking system which often identifies offenders to the proprie tors of small businesses construction of facilities for small businesses eliminates vacant lot eye sores which detract from the beauty of the land scape in addition small busi ness provides a convenient outlet for essential ser vices i.e groceries drug stores bakeries service stations and makes these services available within the im mediate georgraphic area of the residents herbert bellamy candi rutkowski griffin wage fight on proposal to increase telephone rates erie county executive edward j rutkowski and buffalo mayor james d griffin have taken the first step to form an upstate coalition to fight the new york telephone company's bid for nearly si billion in rate increases the two officials sent a joint letter to the state public service commis sion seeking intervenor status in the rate proceed ings the letter said they will ask other communities to join the batle at the same time mr rutkowski sent assistant county attorney laurence k rubin to a county attorneys symposium in canadaigua to enlist sup port the genesee finger lakes regional planning council sponsored the meeting friday we also have contact ed the state attorney general's office and the state consumer protection board we think the unprecedented size of the rate request requires un precedented action mr rutkowski said the rutkowski-griffin letter stated it is our intent to intervene as a consortium of local gov ernments not only in regard to the size of this request but more impor tantly to the dispropor tionate impact of these proceedings on western new york the company's august ist rate request would increase buffalo area monthly telephone bills by an average of 15.7 percent and hit hard at other upstate communities compared to the statewide average of 6.6 percent mr rutkowski also is alerting the county legis lature that he may ask for funds for erie county's role in the fight he acknowledged legislator ralph m mohr's pending resolution pledging sup port in recent proceed ings the county hired consultants to review com plex rate data it is imperative that we present a united front because the company re quest involves the tripling of the cost of a pay phone call and the cost of individual timed message service setting differnt message unit rates in different parts of the state requiring local social ser vice agencies to certify persons as eligible for lower cost service doub ling the cost of individual untimed message rates service a 100 percent increase for business mes sage service charges and increasing flat rate service costs by 80 percent mr rutkowski said in addition consumers will face the 2 long-dis tance access charge re cently imposed by the federal communications commission he said mr rutkowski first rais ed the prospect of asking for intervenor status last week when he called on the psc to impose a moratorium on rate hikes pending completion of the at&t divestiture review schmid calls for economic development of the 5th district alexandra lawkowski schmid the democratic candidate for the sth district seat in the erie county legislature has urged the erie county economic development agency and the city of buffalo's dept of commu nity development to devel op a short and long term strategy for bringing jobs and businesses back into the sth legislative dis trict schmid see page 2 march see page 2 kemp see page 2 r serving working leading in ww inner cities l since 1923 i price only 20 c per copy