one himself. He may not be dead when we go to press but this is his obituary, for he has long aspired to heaven, been helped for forty years by the angels and encouraged by the Pope at the shrine of Fatima. I believe in God but not in History', he has said, so let us rejoice at his departure into the celestial regions and off the map of History.
He was a perverse, old reactionary who made a virtue of swimming against the tide of history. Who indulged in a tortuous doctrine made up of personal truths and euphemisms, known in Portugal as Salazarism. We would like to put his euphemisms and his anachronistic, medieval ideas in the grave with him, but his successors will try their best to preserve them. Needless to say they will not succeed. Salazar's disgust at the unbricled idealism of today' is nothing compared to our disgust at the unbridled facism of yesterday. Let us expose the myth of benevolent despotism' and "disinterested patrotism" with an accurate assessment of a malevolent despot Whose lack of interest in the suffering of the Portuguese people was much stronger than his patrotism.
Salazar has gone and with him we hope has gone that most pernicious of myths — "the happy Portuguese peasant, the myth of the virtue and warmth of poverty and exploitation. With his death there is a new ray of hope for the men and women of the Alentejo who hire themselves out from sunrise to sunset, toiling in the fields for 18 months at a stretch for a meagre 10 shillings and counting themselves lucky for there are many who do not work at all. For forty years they have been at the mercy of the weather, the harvests, the land owners and a vicious, repressive regime. Now West German money is being used on a massive plan to irrigate the Alentejo, so perhaps the wages of the peasantry will rise slightiy, but the rise will be notning compared to the rise in pronts for the West Germans. "This happy nation of hard workers' tourists are often heard remarking. The average wage of a stonemason in Lisbon is about El a day, while that of an electrician is about 25-. Certainly, where wages are at their highest, many of them are happy for they know no better, but when people speak of that great patriot salazar, perhaps they should bear in mind that his love for his country caused 100,000 of its citizens to leave it every year. Sometimes risking their safety and sometimes their lives they crossed frontiers, as hostile to Spain, to be less exploited but more alienated and wretched in countries such as France and West Germany. Meanwhile the Salazar regime has continued to thrive on tourist receipts and the foreign exchange waich these immigrants send back to their families. The death of Salazar comes at an opportune moment for as he is buried let us bury with him that old euphemism which he was so fond of quoting — "There are no colonies — there are only parts of Portugal across the seas. This concept is also being buried by the freedom nighters of Guinea, Angola and Mozambique. He used to tell the world "Angola is a Portuguese creation and does not exist without Portugal. The only national conscience rooted in the Province is no Angolan but Portuguese; there are no Angolans, but Portuguese of Angola'. We say that there is no euphemism for the rape of the continent. That the cold indifference with which he treated time and history was shattered for once and for all by the outbreak of revoiution in Angola in 1961. His regime was suddenly dragged, gibbering and distraught, into the 20th Century and sent off hot-foot to search for support and investment in that bottomless pit of speculation - the house of the German tinancier Krupp, who now came to Salazar's aid as he had Our U.S. Correspondent since vanished from the scene; the pital, saying "I just shot two dudes". assault.
Then the guns. The city reacted evidence. What was quoted in court, the portunities for dissent. Meetings station, was *I only had my lights and assemblies were prohibited, the on. I couldn't... I did get a clear are town was declared a "civil disaster view of his face." Defence attorney атеа", and anyone "loitering" Charles Garry read this to the jury. between 8 p.m.
though naturally those arrested were recording amplified and convinced in plain clothes, who called them- party leaders. exclusively drawn from the ranks of the judge that what those without creases in their actually said was "I couldn't.. I Having blackjacked the Panthers to trousers and whose hair covered didn't get a clear view of his face" more than the nape of their necks. The judge ordered the transcript For the next ten days everyone altered. But when the new version cooled it. The pigs had armaments was delivered to the jury in their ranging from the ubiquitous MACE room, the alteration was not pointed to a "pepper gun" which can single out to them. The usher merely said out sections of a crowd for special blasting. Everyone stayed super-cool.
All that was nothing compared to jury they didn't even bother to go revealed.) what the blacks were going through over it again.
Huey Newton, founder of the Black Curiouser and curiouser is the Panthers, was last week found guilty verdict. The bus driver testified he victory, though he wouldn't say so October. The verdict is completely Huey of wounding inconsistent, let alone indefensible. brought in "voluntary manslaughter"
The prosecution's star witness was for Frey where the prosecutor had he cannot be found guilty of murder will be a bus driver who happened to be demanded a verdict of first degree near the scene when Huey was murder, punishable by death. stopped by Frey, insulted in the "Voluntary manslaughter" is killing usual fashion ("Nigger" etc.). and under extreme provocation. The frisked. Frey called up another cop, Officer Heanes, for support: they all told everyone to cool it while the some sense, it may be, but as far as knew Newton in the police department, and every pig had a list of uniformed cops in their official cop the license numbers of all Panther car emptied their official revolvers cars. The prosecution claimed that into the Black Panther headquarters Huey was carrying illegal in Oakland, which prominently disweapon, and that he was anxious plaved posters of Huey and Eldridge not to have a stack of pot dis- Cleaver, the Presidential candidate covered. Huey denies having either on the joint slate of the Black a bit of history. pot or gun. The prosecution's. star Panther and Peace & Freedom witness claims he saw Huey pull a Parties. gun and shoot at both pigs. There was another witness who claims to stay away from the office.
Huey stopped his car and, being two pigs were suspended, then fired.
This is California, fact that the Panthers have "intemperate', 'false', driver selves the Law Enforcement League. In the ground, the pigs then stormed state their programme, into the courtroom, causing the point one divided into "what we defence lawyer to complain he was being intimidated. The pigs' real target was the judge, who they ac- mine the destiny of the black com- their national destiny." cused of being "soft" on the blacks. munity; full employment- if white "Here is the transcript you ordered", May and Lindsay called for a full businessmen won't give it, the means black and according to a member of the report. What it said has not been of production should be taken from within the white mother country".
them and vested in the black comAccording to Huey's lawyer, the munity; "an end to the robbery by "manslaughter" verdict is a great the white man of our black comHeanes, and reversal of the verdict without the restitution for slave labour. death penalty hanging over Huey: they will accept it in currency which Most militants think the idea crazily distributed among black in a retrial. Moreover the decision communities. The Germans paid makes a liar out of the chief prose- reparations for killing 6 million cution witness and proves that the Jews. American racism has been penalty is two to fifteen years. Huey not find Huey innocent. Victory, in 50 million black people: reparations case went to appeal. Meanwhile two the Panthers are concerned they will housing, not stand being pushed much fur- build it the land should be made ther before implementing their into co-operatives so that the comadmittedly vague threat that *if munity, with government aid. can Huey goes, the sky's the limit". To build its own; education that exunderstand the reasons behind this poses the true nature of decadent for their political inspiration. threat it is necessary to go through American society and that teaches The black panther, Huey ex- and role: exemption for all black The place was wrecked - plained, is an animal who will not men from military service - why luckily Huey had warned everyone attack. If attacked, the panther backs should they fight for a racist society The up until there is no room to back. that does not protect them?-and an Then he strikes and wipes out his end to police brutality and murder anything from traffic offences to HUEY!
the sky's the limit they 1968, in it is Minister of Defence — was defence groups (the party's original were kept for the maximum cars around at a legal distance in held in jail, since they have not Bobby Seale, the co-founder of the derers. "These statements, he said, and prominently displayed. When- people must be tried by a jury of into by pigs without warrants, both and ever a cop car stopped, so did the their peer group or people from times when they were asleep with irrational'." (In New York City Panthers. The result was a decrease their black communities, as defined their wives. Severe beatings were Panthers about to enter a courtroom in brutality against ordinary mem- by the American Constitution; and routine, as were false charges on our major political objective, a guns by pigs in cars. Shooting began contrast to white radical United Nations-supervised plebiscite and the Panthers took shelter in a groups, the Panthers are not afraid to be held throughout the black house. After about 90 minutes La ten- colony in which only black colonial shooting by some 50 members of the subjects will be allowed to partici- Oakland police, who set fire to the want" and "what we believe". These pate, for the purpose of determining house and filled it with tear gas, the demands include the power to deter- the will of the black people as to Panthers were forced to surrender With floodlights covering the house Eldridge Cleaver has defined the 17-year-old Bobby Hutton walked communities as a "colony out, hands high, unarmed. He was shot dead. Four Panthers attending This, of course, validates the black the funeral later were MACEd and struggle for self-determination, fol- arrested on suspicion of robbery. lowing Fanon among others, but it Having been kept three days, over a munity" in the form of reparations: does not necessarily carry with it weekend, nothing could be proved It's facts like these make the Now in which to live and do their thing. Panthers talk of the sky being the limit. But their power is limited: old-fashioned: look how badly the they know the white community Indians did on the reservations, they prepared for genocide, to wipe out say. and besides, considering what the blacks 11% of the population the US does to foreign "colonies" if necessary. Therefore they stay decision was political: they dared responsible for the deaths of over like Santo Domingo when they get cool. They are realists, none more so out of line, how will a colony within than Huey, their leader, arrested are due. Also demanded is decent the country fare? The Panthers re- for an alleged traffic violation, un and if the whites won't gard their self-determination of their armed, charged with the death of a communities necessary to establish pig in all probability caused by the power bases from which to challenge other pig's gun, appealing against a the white power system. They do not verdict whose inconsistence unmasks wish to return to the 19th-century its political motivation, brought in by a jury containing one black man, With so sophisticated and articu- a banker who was elected foreman.
the black people their true history late a programme, plus the evidence It is these circumstances - pathetof the intention to achieve it, it is ically tragic — that ought to unite hardly surprising that the pigs the white radical community acting on orders from the system echoing the cry for political and began picking on Panther leaders for legal justice and freedom: FREE