OLLIE NORTH'S COCAINE

CONNECTION Pg. 14

A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES JUNE 17, 1994 • $1.75

BY JAMES CULLEN don't have the answers—I've never icons Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roo- claimed to. But this much I know: It is time sevelt, but he offered little to substantiate Fort Worth to change the course of the Federal govern- the allegation that he is now, or ever has LL THAT WAS MISSING was the ment that our administration inherited," been, a Democrat. "America is sick of the balloon drop. Fisher said. divisive partisanship...Our job is to put an Richard Fisher, the Democratic He invoked the names of such venerable end to the politics of obstruction and sheer nominee for the U.S. Senate, ap- partisanship," he said. peared to borrow more from In January 1993, after he had Ronald Reagan than past served as an adviser to indepen- Democrats as he took the stage at dent presidential candidate H. the state Democratic convention Ross Perot but before Fisher on the evening of June 3 while launched his first Senate bid, he Copland's "Fanfare for the Com- told a newspaper "the Democratic mon Man" swelled over the public Party is dead in this state." After address. Fisher's speech was sup- the Republicans placed that quo- posed to introduce him to the tation on a billboard outside the party faithful and to convince pro- Tarrant County Convention Cen- gressive Democrats and particu- ter in a jibe at the Democrats as- larly Jim Mattox partisans that the sembled there, Fisher explained Dallas financier was worth sup- that his election showed a New porting in the general election. Democratic Party was alive in Fisher gave no offense to the Texas and it stood for: Change. convention, which was a relief to (As long as it doesn't interfere the party regulars over whom he with Business.) had flown in his primary cam- That new Democratic Party paign. He showed off the Spanish champions "economic growth, he polished as a child in Mexico. not just redistribution," he told He also produced his wife, Nancy, the convention. It also champi- whose Screen Actors Guild card ons "civic responsibility, not just (though unused of late) gives the entitlement" and working men family a union connection, and the and women—as well as those en- four Fisher kids who look like trepreneurs who create jobs. And they came straight out of central he cedes to no one the platform to casting. His speech touched on his speak for the family. "We must family values (He was late arriv- recapture our role as the advocate ing at the convention because his for the basic American values of 14-year-old daughter was graduat- hard work and personal respon- ing from middle school the after- sibility," he said. In the end, noon before the speech.) and he Fisher went so far as to quote seemed intent on restoring the na- Helen Keller, who once said, tional character with buzzwords "Life is either a daring adventure that have become the hallmarks of or nothing." the conservative Democratic He did come out in favor of Leadership Council. choice on abortion rights. Fisher pledged to take to the If Fisher's speech lacked what U.S. Senate the cause of innovation and re- Democrats as Thomas Jefferson, Andrew party poopers might call substance, he nev- form, as practiced by Texas Democrats Jackson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and such as Dan Morales and Garry Mauro. "I Bobby Kennedy, as well as Republican . Continued on pg. 2 Transforming the Democrats ertheless had the delegates cheering and Texas, she clearly believes the Democrats clapping, particularly as he closed his can capitalize on reaction against the funda- speech with the Texas Tornadoes song, mentalist movement the way the Republi- "(He is a) Tejano." But Fisher is a Nuevo cans capitalized on reaction against the civil Tejano and when he can pour $3 million rights movement in the 1960s and '70s. into his own Senate campaign he can ride "The Republicans set out to use the radical far above the storm clouds that buffet mere right, to take their extremist votes but tried mortal politicians and still never has to to keep them, as best they could, at arms- break a sweat. His appeal to progressive length in public," Richard said. "Instead, Democrats is mainly by default; still, that they have invited a Trojan horse into their may be enough to get him into the Senate. midst and they've created a tremendous Jim Matt& joined in the love-fest as he danger not only for them but for all of us... endorsed Fisher and appealed for They have turned the party of Lincoln into Democrats to unite behind the party ticket. the party of Operation Rescue," she said, "As painful as defeat has been, I know you evoking cheers, although not everywhere in A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the haven't rejected the progressive stands I the crowd. Richards looked past the Demo- truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are ded- have taken over the years," Mattox told the cratic delegates, to the TV cameras, as she icated to the whole truth, to human values above all in- terests, to the rights of human-kind as the foundation of convention. "Bill Clinton is leading us into a welcomed potential Republican refugees. democracy: we will take orders from none but our own new progressive era." Mattox added, "We Then she closed her speech with "I'll see conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater are a party that can be proud of its past and you on Congress Avenue when we take to the ignoble in the human spirit. that is going to be a force for change in the back the Capitol one more time," the public Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in future." He was later seen on the convention address played "Theme from Chariots of publishing them we do not necessarily imply that we floor, looking for his ride back to Austin. Fire" and an honor guard of schoolchildren agree with them, because this is a journal of free voices. Delegates appeared willing to overlook appeared with a bouquet of roses and SINCE 1954 questions about Fisher's credentials. Collis Richard Fisher. Cannon, a Rainbow Coalition veteran from Publisher: Ronnie Dugger Beaumont, said Democrats have little choice HE PLATFORM, 28 pages of party Editor: Louis Dubose but to support Fisher. "He'll reap the benefits boilerplate, got easy approval after state Associate Editor: James Cullen of my hard work," Cannon said: "We can't Representative Roberto Alonzo of Dal- Production: Peter Szymczak T Copy Editor: Roxanne Bogucka sit on our hands and slow down. We've got las, the chairman of one of two feuding Mex- Editorial Interns: Todd Basch, Carmen Garcia, An- to pick up momentum and not even talk ican American Democrats factions, got an gela Hardin. about not voting." agreement that the party was not going to en- Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink, Warren Burnett, Brett Campbell, Peter Cassidy, Jo Clifton, gage in immigrant bashing. Alonzo was crit- Carol Countryman, Terry FitzPatrick, James Harring- NN RICHARDS took the stage on ical of Attorney General Dan Morales, who ton, Bill Helmer; Jim Hightower, Ellen Hosmer, Molly he morning of June 4 with a promo- had announced that his office would file a Ivins, Steven Kellman, Michael King, Deborah Lutterbeck, Tom McClellan, Bryce Milligan, Debbie Att" onal video but no fanfare; she was lawsuit to force the federal government to re- Nathan, John Ross, James McCarty Yeager. greeted by 'chants of "Four More Yeari" and imburse the state for the cost of providing Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, Austin; she adopted a fighting pose for her reelection services to undocumented immigrants, on the Frances Barton, Austin; Elroy Bode, El Paso; Chandler Davidson, Houston; Dave Denison, Cambridge, Mass; as, in her inimitable style, she brought the grounds that the federal government is re- Bob Eckhardt, Austin; Sissy Farenthold, Houston; convention up to date on the progress of her sponsible for securing the border. Ruperto Garcia, Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, Cam- administration and her determination to keep Alonzo said party leaders did not pressure bridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Austin; fighting for the people of Texas. (See the text him to back off, and he felt the need to raise Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, Jr., of her speech, page 22.) the issue after Mexican Americans com- San Antonio; Willie Morris, Jackson, Miss.; Kaye When she said, "Our fight is for the small plained that they were being blamed for un- Northcott, Fort Worth; James Presley, Texarkana; business owner who strains to make a documented immigrants. "The party leader- Susan Reid, Austin; Geoffrey Rips, Austin; A.R. (Babe) Schwartz, Galveston; Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. profit, it's for the industry that cares about ship understood that this was an important Poetry Consultant: Thomas B. Whitbread clean air and clean water," some nitpickers issue that needed to be incorporated in the Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic Hin- might have wondered where the fight was platform. For example, in the platform com- terlang, Alan Pogue. in a governor who has been criticized as mittee there was a discussion and debate Contributing Artists: Michael Alexander, Eric Avery, Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, Beth being too open to compromise with pol- that we don't want to educate undocu- Epstein, Valerie Fowler, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin luters. A group from Midlothian was pass- mented kids and the party leaders said 'Hey, Kreneck, Michael Krone, Carlos Lowry, Gary Oliver, Ben ing out fliers attacking her appointees' fail- whether you like it or not, that's the law and Sargent, Dan Thibodeau, Gail Woods, Matt Wuerker. ure to stop pollution from cement kilns. But that's the way it's going to be done.' Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson most observers would agree that Richards' Morales, cornered by Alonzo in a hotel Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom Administration is more progressive than lobby, tried to assure him that the Texas Development Consultant: Frances Barton those of her predecessors, as long as pro- lawsuit would be unlike efforts by officials SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $32, two years $59, three years $84. Full-time tecting the environment does not require of the states of Florida and California to students $18 per year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Micro- shutting down major employers for ex- deny state services and benefits to undocu- films Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Any current sub- scriber who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no tended periods of time. mented immigrants. "We are simply talking one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. about correcting the imbalance that exists INDEXES: The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary Richards was well into her stride by the Index to Periodicals; Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 1981,The time she referred to the "Johnny Come between the federal government and the Texas Observer Index. THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/USPS 541300), entire contents Latelies" from the Republican Party who state government," Morales said. "The un- copyrighted, 0 1994, is published biweekly except for a three-week interval between issues in January and July (25 issues per year) by the Texas Observer presumed to offer themselves for public of- documented immigrants are paying income Publishing Co., 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) 477-0746. E-mail: [email protected]. fice and she attacked the fundamentalists tax and social security taxes and payroll Second-class postage paid at Austin, Texas. who are making over the GOP into the taxes. They are matched by Texas busi- POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Christian Soldiers' Party. While it is a cal- nesses but every dime of that tax money culated risk to take on the religious right in goes to Washington. Then it is the state tax-

2 • JUNE 17, 1994 payers and the local taxpayers given the Senate. He's not the most liberal person, burden of providing services." but he came out for choice in his speech... • The Governor' s Office of Immigration "If you're brand new in the system, you r ., THE TEXAS and Refugee Affairs in 1993 estimated that might not think this is progress, but I've Texas had 550,000 undocumented immi- been in Texas politics since 1952, when the grants. Morales estimated they could cost issue was whether the state party would put 111 0 server the state more than $1 billion while the fed- the Democratic presidential candidate on JUNE 17, 1994 eral government has budgeted only $350 the ticket. Obviously, from my perspective, million in assistance to all impacted states. I see this as great progress." VOLUME 86, No. 12 Morales said he believed the "vast major- Although she admitted she was disap- ity of Hispanic leadership" was supportive pointed Richards had not accomplished FEATURES of his effort to recoup those costs, as were more in her first term, Gandy was not dis- most members of the Valley delegation and appointed in Richards, given that the Gov- Transforming the Democrats the Bexar County delegation. "I'm only ernor has relatively few powers, other than By James Cullen aware of one member out of the entirety of the power to veto legislation and to appoint Whistleblower: the Hispanic caucus in the House and the people to state boards. "I get tired of people Is Anything Being Done? Senate who has raised concerns and that is who say 'If I can't have perfection, I don't By Brett Campbell 5 Representative Alonzo," Morales said. "I want to participate.' You can't afford to sit respect his opinions and I respect his rights it out. Liberals need to spend more time COPS at 20 to voice them but I believe that once he has working on state legislative races...We By Geoff Rips 6 the opportunity to review the specifics of need to find home-grown liberals in rural the lawsuit and the specifics of what the areas that can replace some of those right- China Hands state is petitioning for, that his fears will be wing legislators." By Michael King 8 assuaged." 011ie Takes a Powder . But Alonzo said the lawsuit talk already OU WOULDN'T THINK the reli- By Dennis Bernstein & Howard Levine 1 4 was having a negative impact in feeding re- gious right, after its stealth cam- sentment of immigrants, and Mexican ypaign to take over the Republican DEPARTMENTS Americans are an obvious target. "When Party, would take the bait so obviously of- the bashing occurs they don't look at fered up by the Democrats. But Cathy Editorials whether you're a citizen or a resident or un- Adams, president of the conservative Texas North and Nicaragua documented. The bashing just happens." Eagle Forum, called Richards "an anti-reli- While Morales was reporting wide- gious bigot" who does not reflect the con- Molly Ivins spread Hispanic support for the immigra- servative and religious beliefs of most Tex- Bikers and Bible Thumpers 16 tion lawsuit in South Texas, the League of ans. "I feel very insulted that she is United Latin American Citizens, meeting representing me as a Texas woman. Most Jim Hightower in Laredo, was split over the immigrant Texas women are ladylike and God-fear- Supreme Court Choice; Heal lawsuit. ing. Ann Richards has none of those quali- Thy Staff; Corporate Fronts. 17 As for the MAD feud, which related in ties," Adams was quoted in the June 7 Books and the Culture part to differences over the 1993 Senate Houston Chronicle. candidacy of Jose Angel Gutierrez, both State GOP Chairman Fred Meyer, despite Dillinger Alonzo and Norberto "Beto" Salinas of the bum's rush he is getting from the Chris- Book review by Rod Davis 18 Mission, chairman of the other faction, tian Coalition, whose first priority is to re- Tiananmen and Tata said they expected to work together on get- place him, shows no sign of crossing the di- TV review by Steven G. Kellman 20 ting out the vote for the general election. vide. Dolly Madison McKenna, the moderate candidate for state Republican chair, and Speech AT GANDY of Houston, a veteran Betsy Lake, the moderate Harris County Re- Fighting for Texas Again progressive and the new state Demo- publican chair who has made a tenuous peace By Ann Richards 22 pcratic committeewoman from Senate with her local fundamentalists, were quoted 24 District 6, was glad to avoid major floor saying they would stay to fight in the GOP. Political Intelligence fights, particularly as her Senate district Cover art by Emily Kaplan was recovering from a hard-fought, four- EMOCRATS are hoping that dis- way race that, after a runoff, finally pro- gust with the increasingly funda- duced the county's first Hispanic state sen- Dmentalist Christian tone of the Re- Democratic convention in , a push to repeal ator in state representative Mario Gallegos. publican Party will swing the tide of victory the mandatory helmet law? At least they pro- "I think, as a feminist, the party is chang- their way this November, but an increasing vided some color for the relatively bloodless ing to our way of doing things," Gandy number of independent voters will be mak- convention. But the bikers got there because said, hopefully. "The times are changing ing choices based not on party affiliation nobody else showed up at the precinct con- and this is one 62-year-old woman who's but on who will promise to cut crime and ventions, just as Richard Fisher got the glad of it. I can't win fistfights any more." taxes. Neither George Bush (Junior) nor Democratic nomination because labor and She sees no problem embracing a ticket Kay Bailey Hutchison will be bound by the liberals did not turn out to vote earlier in the that includes Fisher and Richards. "In an religious right's platform, the new state day. Now the Democrats are stuck with a 45- ideal world, I'd like a more liberal and pro- chairman or anything else that comes out of year-old multimillionaire who, if they are gressive ticket, in some respects. But I'm the Republican convention. Instead they lucky, will take less time than Lloyd Bentsen basically satisfied that we've got a winning will be bound by tracking polls and focus did to let his progressive streak show. And ticket," Gandy said. "Certainly I'm encour- groups, as they have been in the past. "Sputnik," the bikers' organizer from Santa aged that we can get Ann Richards re- What about the few hundred motorcyclists Fe, promised they would be back in greater elected and possibly Richard Fisher into the who were elected as delegates to the state strength at the next convention. 11

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 3

• American Hero

OST IN THE DIN of public protest about his contempt for the Constitu- ion he had sworn to uphold, lost in the newsprint protesting his lying to Congress, is the fact that Oliver North is responsible for the death and disfigurement of a lot of people, many of them noncombatants—in a war in Nicaragua that was in clear viola- tion of laws passed by Congress. In winter of 1985, I left the Mexico City hospitality of the late Austrian physician . and psychoanalyst Maria Mimi Langer and set out on a short trip to Nicaragua. For sev- eral years Langer, then in her mid-70s, had been involved in the reorganization of Nicaragua's only medical school. A quintessential Jewish humanist, who could pack her history into her suitcase and move on to begin the good fight in her next coun- try, Langer, who began her career as a nurse on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War, had dedicated her life to fighting fas- cism. It seemed appropriate that the last fight of her life placed her across the lines from Oliver North. Doctors, she said, were desperately needed in Nicaragua. 011ie North exacerbated that need. With funds raised by bilking wealthy widows and right-wing oilmen (as Dave Denison reported in these pages in March 1986) or by running a CIA drug operation (as Den- nis Bernstein and Howard Levine again re- Managua Children's Hospital, 1988 ALAN POGUE port on page 14 of this issue), Oliver North saw to it that the Contra war in Nicaragua dents: killed, 649, wounded, 34, kid- "There was another special case of cru- continued after Congress voted to cut off napped, 45; Agricultural experts: killed, elty on that same contra operation. An 11- funding for it. 147, wounded, 57, kidnapped, 54; Labor- year-old girl, Christina Borge Diaz, was In Managua in 1985, the signs of 011ie ers: killed, 302, wounded, 102, kidnapped, visiting her uncle. The uncle was on the North's war could be seen in the streets 254; Professionals: killed 29, wounded, Contras' list and they came and killed him. around the Davila Bolorios Military Hospi- 21, kidnapped, 17; Peasants: killed, 2,376, When they saw the little girl, they decided tal, where young men tentatively tried out wounded, 1,681, kidnapped, 5,713; Ac- to have a little fun, so they used her for tar- new prosthetic devices. They could also be tivists: killed, 12, wounded, 14, kid- get practice. The first one took a shot at her , heard in places like the casa comunal of the napped, 7; Drivers: killed, 70, wounded, from a galloping horse. He missed. 'Kill Parish of Nicarao, home to a working-class 63, kidnapped, 30; FSLN party members; her,' he told a companion. And the other Catholic congregation where, before the killed, 48, wounded, 19, kidnapped, 12; shot her in the back. Another bullet grazed priest could begin the Liturgy of the Eu- Unspecified occupations: killed, 134, her scalp, another hit her in the right hand, charist on this particular year's Feast of the wounded, 129, kidnapped, 133. Total and another in the left hip." Miraculously, Assumption, 30 tired parishioners offered killed, 3,935, wounded 2,177. said Feltz, the girl recovered and was up some 60 personal supplications on behalf One can personalize these statistics, treated in Managua. She told her story to a of their boys and girls in the army. drawing one example, like the one Father group of U.S. -based missionaries and vis- Not all the casualties were soldiers. Con- James Feltz described in the El Guyabo re- iting bishops in February 1986, according sider the numbers collected by the Jesuit gion where he worked, from the abundant to Washington's War on Nicaragua, by publication Envio, published at George- anecdotal evidence: "There, there's a little Holly Sklar. town University at the time it released hamlet called San Francisco, and they Dime con quien andas, y to dire quien numbers of documented civilian casualties killed several people there; they killed peo- eres, goes an old Mexican saying. Tell me of the Contra war between January 1990- ple if they were members of defense com- who you walk with and I'll tell you who August 1988: mittees or shopkeepers or maybe members you are. The men who made possible the Teachers: killed, 130, wounded, 27, of the militia. But nobody was armed. They above statistics and participated in the kidnapped, 56; Doctors: killed, 27, raped a 14-year-old girl. Then they slit her event described by Father James Feltz are wounded, 20, kidnapped, 18; Nurses: throat and cut off her head. They hung the the people U.S. Senate candidate Oliver

killed, 11, wounded, 10, kidnapped, 6; Stu- head on a pole along the road. North walked with. —L.D.

4 • JUNE 17, 1994 Whistleblower Is Anything Being Done?

BY BRE'fT CAMPBELL

FTER A TRAVIS County jury up- bearer of bad news, and then to deny or ig- the practice in which contractors underesti- held George Green's accusation nore the abuses he tried to reveal. mate costs on a project, then charge high Athat the Department of Human Ser- One state official, however, did pay at- prices to modify the original proposal. vices had retaliated against him for reveal- tention. "One of the jurors on the case Under Pouland' s new policy, GSC (which ing unsafe and possibly illegal construction wrote me a letter after they had rendered provides management services for some and contract practices, it seemed logical their judgment, and I called them back and but not all state construction projects) will that the state would pursue some of Green's we spoke about it at length on the phone," review any change orders above a specified charges. After all, if the allegations are true, says John Pouland. He chairs the state Gen- percentage of the total project cost. contractors are ripping off Texas taxpayers eral Services Commission, the agency that Pouland has also made the agency' s in- to the tune of millions of dollars a year. oversees purchasing for state government spectors more independent, reporting to "The construction industry or develop- and manages construction of many state him and other high GSC officers instead of ment industry in Texas looks at the state as buildings. Some of Green's charges in- to the managers whose projects they're an easy mark," says Green. "And the reason volved mis- or malfeasance on the part of evaluating. "The problem in this state is is that, historically, we do not look at our General Services personnel. that we don't do constructions, we just su- responsibility as bureaucrats as managing Pouland reviewed the files on the Green pervise them. But there are no checks and hard assets. The taxpayets fund it if we fail case, and found instances in which his balances. The inspectors work with the pro- to get contract compliance." agency had fallen short in managing state ject managers as partners. The benefit of Furthermore, once it was determined that building projects instituted before he ar- that arrangement is that they work together, DHS had retaliated against Green, it seemed rived at General Services two years ago. but the loss is they can cover each other. reasonable that the officials responsible for "Nothing of a criminal nature, but poor Our inspectors are inspecting our jobs, and the retaliation.would be disciplined. The management and mismanagement," he ad- that means if we're screwing up, our guys timing for reform of contracting policy and mitted. As a result, some employees were can cover our guys. I think you can be part- agency culture was perfect: The retaliation reassigned, others asked to leave, still oth- ners without having to report to the same against Green took place under a Republican ers were scrutinized more closely by upper person. I've made the inspectors more inde- administration in Austin, and a new Gover- management. Pouland wouldn't name pendent; they've got direct access to me." nor, Attorney General, DHS chairman and names or go into more detail, but he did What about banning bidders with a history director, and General Services director had back up Green's assertion that several state of abuses such as excessive change orders or all taken office since then. Unburdened by buildings were rip-offs. faulty work? Pouland wants to do that, but past involvement in shady contracts or retal- "His allegations about Winters [the DHS warns that it will mean lawsuits. "When I iation, these officials could use Green's case headquarters complex in Austin, in which was in the private sector, we almost auto- as a spur to clean up corruption and waste. Green says taxpayers received poor value] matically threw out the lowest bid on a pro- It didn't happen. Even though, over the are correct," Pouland says. "It's the worst ject if it was way below the others, because past four years, Green has written (and in building in our inventory... it's very poorly you knew they were probably underbidding several cases had personal meetings with) a constructed." and would make up for it in the change half-dozen state officials [and the Observer Nor is Winters an aberration. According order," he explained. "Now, we operate on reported on the case in "Killing the Mes- to Green, "The state of Texas has a target on the premise that lowest isn't necessarily senger," 7/12/91, and "Whistling While He its back, and every astute contractor and best. We look at the institutional history, the Waits," 6/3/94] only one state official ap- landlord knows that." They're able to target percentage of change orders a contractor pears to have taken his charges seriously. leases and contracts and say, 'It's a $2 mil- asks for. I look at that personally in some Green, who has followed those agencies as- lion job, all we've got to do to get the bid is cases now. If we're not happy with the job siduously since his firing, says he knows of to allocate $1 million plus for it, and if we they've done, we've got to document that. no one at DHS who was disciplined for re- get caught we'll probably be able to get a But when we make a decision to award to taliating against him. (The agency's press change order to cover the cost overrun." someone other than low bidder, we've got to office did not return Observer phone calls Does Pouland think Texas has a target on have something we can stand on in court." attempting to confirm this assertion.) Green its back? Pouland is ready to defend his policy in also says he never received a response from "I agree. A lot of contractors that did court. "The law never said we have to take any of the state executive branch officials quality work wouldn't deal with state be- just the lowest bid, but the lowest and best he contacted after their initial meetings. cause they felt they wouldn't get its busi- bid. I have told [Gov. Richards] to be pre- The attitude of the state—as evidenced by ness. They thought the bids would go to a pared—we're going to test that theory. If the hardball tactics used by the AG in pros- low bidder who'd use substandard labor, we win the first one, then people realize it's ecuting Green—has been to attack the lots of change orders. Well, you get what not in their best interest to sue, then maybe you pay for." they'll knock off the suits." In fact, several Pouland said he has instituted some pol- contractors have already challenged GSC Brett Campbell is a former Observer editor icy changes as a result of Green's allega- now living in Eugene, Oregon. tions, including reining in change orders, Continued on pg. 21

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 5 COPS at 20

BY GEOFF RIPS

San Antonio decades, was being displaced by a group to enter the lobby of Frost Bank, the history T THE 20TH anniversary conven- of North Side developers, who success- of San Antonio was forever changed. We tion of Communities Organized for fully ran candidates for mayor and city walked in with pennies in our hands de- APublic Service (COPS), held in San council. Taxpayer money and bond money manding change. Today that same lobby is Antonio on May 29, a room with seats for was being routed to provide the infrastruc- now the city council chamber. COPS will 5,000 people was overflowing as Governor ture for new development north of the cen- be returning to that lobby...continuing to Ann Richards, Comptroller John Sharp, tral city, first anchored by the new county force change for a more just future for our Mayor Nelson Wolff and Archbishop hospital and a branch of the UT medical children and our children's children." Sara- Patrick Flores led assorted local office- school and later, farther north, by the cre- bia asked the veterans of those first wars to holders and business leaders onstage, ac- ation of the University of Texas at San An- stand, and they did, gray-haired for the companied by leaders of COPS.- Behind tonio. Regents, a mayor and their friends most part, sprinkled among the delegations them were the words: "1974-1994: From had no small interest in the development of representing parishes and schools. Oligarchy to Democracy." How much had the land north of San Antonio. And as they Twenty years before, the then-fledgling changed? coordinated efforts, the center of power community organization had helped these I've known San Antonio's COPS for 20 and public and private capital in the city neighborhood leaders find a resource years, ever since founding organizer moved farther north. within themselves that enabled them to Ernesto Cortes held a house meeting in the work together and stand together to con- home of my neighbor in 1974. I subse- Demanding change front the established order, the oligarchy quently attended more meetings—at the that had governed the affairs of their city local parish church, Our Lady of Sorrows, Enter Communities Organized for Public for decades. It was what historian and for- and at other churches, where leaders of the Service. In May 1974, several children on mer Observer editor Lawrence Goodwyn COPS parish organizations got together. I the West Side drowned in a rainstorm. calls an "unsanctioned idea": that the peo- remember another neighbor urging me to After COPS leaders were turned down by ple will participate in the process by which come to a meeting. "This isn't like those city officials in their request for immediate their lives are organized. other groups," she said. "This one will do action on a long-delayed drainage project, Twenty years later: something." they turned to the city archives. There they • the inner-city communities organized We were living in a neighborhood di- found that the drainage projects desper- by COPS are served by nearly one billion vided by a big scar of land cleared for a ately needed on the West and South Sides dollars worth of new sewers, streets, side- freeway that had been delayed by court bat- had been authorized by bond elections walks, parks, drainage systems, libraries, tles—a wasteland of cement supports, half- many years before. But the money had literacy centers, clinics and street lights; graded gravel entrance ramps to nowhere, been diverted to projects on the North • there are more than 1,000 new units of ditches and weeds that would soon become Side. Hundreds of COPS leaders filled housing in the inner city, another 2,600 re- the W. W. McAllister Freeway. One-half City Council chambers demanding action. habilitated houses and new owners of an- block away the streets flooded with the Four hours later, the city staff had drawn other 1,300 inner-city homes; smallest rain, the local elementary school up a plan for a $46.8 million bond issue for • almost 650 inner-city residents are en- was falling down and Trinity University 15 drainage projects, which passed later rolled in the first class of trainees of Project was creeping south toward our homes. that year. That same year, COPS also de- Quest, a worker-training program put to- But it was nothing like the West or South veloped a "counter-budget" for $100 mil- gether by COPS, the Metro Alliance (a Sides of San Antonio, where whole fami- lion in capital improvements on the city's North and East Side San Antonio Industrial lies were washed away in rainstorms, South and West Sides. When representa- Areas Foundation,or IAF, organization), where Castroville Road past General Mc- tives of COPS couldn't get the attention of city, state and federal governments and the Mullen Drive became Castroville River, city leaders, 'they went to the corporate business community, guaranteeing gradu- where vacant South Side lots became the community that backed the city council. ates high-skill jobs upon completion of waste dumps for the entire city, where there Early the next year, after Frost Bank chair- training; were no real parks, the schools were too man Tom Frost and the chief executive of • 2,000 high school graduates have at- small, too poor, too old, where the odors the city's biggest department store refused tended college through scholarships pro- from stockyards and the smoke from coal- to assist in arranging discussions of the vided by the San Antonio Education Part- fired plants overwhelmed whole neighbor- counter-budget with the city, COPS lead- nership, organized by COPS, the Metro hoods and you could only go outdoors ers spent all day trying on clothes without Alliance and local businesses; when the wind was right. buying anything in Joske' s department • an after-school recreation and tutoring Meanwhile, the Good Government store and later lined up 10-deep at teller program serves 15,000 children at 60 ele- League, which had run the city for cages at Frost Bank, changing pennies into mentary and secondary schools; dollars, then dollars back into pennies, • a community college campus serves the bringing business to a halt. COPS was sud- previously unserved southwest quadrant of Geoff Rips is a former Observer editor. denly on everyone's radar screen. the city; and Rips is currently director of a project for At the May 29 convention this year, • parents and teachers are actively in- the Texas Center for Policy Studies in col- COPS' first President, Andres Sarabia, re- volved in restructuring 12 inner-city San laboration with the Texas IAF Network. called those days: "In 1974, when we dared Antonio schools, as part of the IAF Al-

6 • JUNE 17, 1994

liance Schools program, providing new was coming to town. We all subscribed to state funding for new education strategies. Rules for Radicals [by IAF founder Saul This is Texas today. A state So was this simply a celebration of 20 Alinsky]." Cheever now chairs the IAF Pro- years of achievement? A celebration of the ject QUEST job training project—now a full of Sunbelt boosters, replacement of local oligarchy with democ- target for Rush Limbaugh, a clear indication strident anti-unionists, racy? Was anyone standing up in front of that QUEST must be on the right track. oil and gas companies, COPS and the Metro Alliance worked 5,000-plus delegates saying, as we do on nuclear weapons and power Passover, "Dayenu (It would have been with the City of San Antonio to provide enough)?" after-school tutoring and recreational pro- plants, political hucksters, "Congratulations, but don't rest on your grams in 60 schools, serving 15,000 chil- underpaid workers and dren. Mayor Nelson Wolff was on hand to laurels," Old Testament scholar' Ernie toxic wastes, to mention a few. Cortes shouted to the convention not long pledge support for an additional 75 elemen- after it began. "You've got a lot of work to tary and middle schools. Comptroller John do... Make sure they can hear you in Austin Sharp agreed to work with the Texas IAF BUT DO NOT DESPAIR! and Washington, D.C. Make sure this con- Network to increase funding and flexibility roll, THE TEXAS vention stands for something." for the restructured Alliance schools cre- Am I getting older or is COPS getting ated by the IAF organizations. Sharp told younger? the gathering that, while the state's past li OP economic well-being was based in agricul- server One thing this convention clearly stood for was a generational change. While the ture and oil, "the future is people, people, first presidents of COPS sat or stood at the people." TO SUBSCRIBE: back of the stage, COPS leader Martha Tovar declared: "We are a new generation Eseuche us following in the footsteps of our courageous Name first leaders." "Every success you've had has demon- In contrast to COPS's 10th anniversary strated that something can be done, that convention, dominated by past presidents problems of the community can be solved Address and COPS veterans, this convention was led by the community," Governor Richards told by a few of the original leaders who were the convention, while pledging to put up joined by a host of younger leaders, includ- $500,000 in discretionary funding to be City ing Lydia Ibarra, a Flanders Elementary Al- matched by COPS from other funding for liance School parent; Betty Jean Huerta, a Project QUEST. The governor punctuated single parent who was able to buy a home her speech with the refrain: Escacheme [lis- State Zip through a COPS initiative; John Acosta, a ten to me]. (Her pronunciation of the "me" with an English long "e" sound instead of father of two who had been laid off after 15 ❑ $32 enclosed for a one-year subscription. years on the job and is now at Palo Alto the Spanish long "a" brought laughter from • Community College in the second year of the delegates and accentuated her emphasis ❑ Bill me for $32. the Project QUEST job training program; on the word "me.") "Escacheme," she said. "The reason these programs are working is Teri Morado, co-chair of COPS's education 307 West 7th, Austin, TX 78701 committee and Rita Cardenas-Gamez, a because you the people are making it hap- leader of Our Lady of Guadalupe COPS. pen...and you must continue the fight to If you are talking about drainage or keep it or they will take it away." We all , streets or garbage dumps, it makes more seemed to know who "they" are. - As she spoke, it dawned on me, that what 4 sense that a long-time resident or home- ") ‘'‘‘% Sea owner in an affected neighborhood becomes is occurring in San Antonio and in varying ALS 0 the family member most engaged by the or- degrees around the state is the creation of a 00 Horse ganization. If you organize in churches, new agenda for economic development and • Inn again) the older adults in a family would in education in the state—an agenda created in • many cases be the most likely to become in- house meetings and parish halls, percolating 0 Kitchenettes — Cable TV volved in an organization. But if you begin into the consciousness of a state bereft of Heated Pool to talk about schools, first-time home buy- solutions to large problems. In the late e heAide the Gulf of Mexico ing and job training, you are suddenly talk- 1970s, COPS restructured the federal grant on /Witching IS"/(mil ing directly to the interests of people in their process for the city's infrastructure by de- oil° Available for private parties veloping a counter-budget based in real 20s and 30s. Unique European Charm And so, COPS' agenda for change is cen- community needs and a political will to see • ,_: ,Aunasphere tered around housing, job training and that grassroots budget to fruition. The same schools. At the convention, representatives may be happening on a state level—as Pro- v .0,noinical spring and smnincr Rate, 00. from Frost National Bank, Broadway Na- ject QUEST restructures the job training Pets Welcome it tional Bank, USAA, Texas Commerce process to meet the real needs of the unem- Bank and NationsBank pledged $110 mil- ployed and industry, as the Alliance Schools 1423 11th Street 110, lion to back a COPS initiative to provide provide a mechanism for communities to re- 0 Port Aransas, TX 78373 '$ loans to families purchasing or rehabilitat- structure their public schools for the 21st ing inner-city homes. Broadway Bank Pres- century. Here they are, 20 years later, with S call (512) 749-5221 ident Charles Cheever told those assembled: new, young leaders, a history longer than f or Reservations / "Twenty years ago, I was one of those busi- that of almost every politician now in office, ness men who was quaking in his boots and an agenda for change. ..■■•‘2■1.% ,46 %, ...121w.4. up Irs ...... or when I heard Mr. Ernie Cortes and the IAF Escache them. ❑ %

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 7 China Hands

BY MICHAEL KING

Houston And the letter's plea for assistance became Union lawsuit charging that the com- ECESITAMOS ayuda de inmedi- the first salvo in an ongoing battle between pany's managers slandered union organiz- ato. "We need immediate help." the workers and the company, a battle ers, repeatedly describing them in meet- N The letter from Houston, dated marked by a bitter struggle to organize a ings with employees as "communists." February 7, 1993, arrived a few days later union, charges and countercharges of "ex- Because of the pending slander suit and in- on Laura Germino's desk at the offices of ploitation" and "communism,' and U.S. vestigations by the National Labor Rela- Florida Rural Legal Services in Department of Labor actions against the tions Board and the Occupational Safety Immokalee, Florida. It was from Miguel company for unfair treatment of workers, and Health Administration, Wang's man- Angel Martinez and Hector Alfredo Vil- unsafe working conditions and inadequate agement in California and local company lalobos, two friends who were workers at a compensation. officers have declined repeated requests small factory in Houston. for information about the company, or for Handwritten in tentative and slightly for- IGUEL MARTINEZ and Hector the company's version of the labor-man- mal Spanish, it began politely, "By these Villalobos closed their letter agement controversy. The company's gen- means, I greet you hoping that as you re- with the address and name of eral counsel, Justin Ong, would issue only ceive this you will be in good health." In their employer, as they knew it—"7920 a general denial that his company is as he two alternating, hesitant hands filling both Westpark. Allied Fibers"—and the plain- said it has been described, a "'sweatshop sides of a lined sheet of notebook paper, tive request: "We need immediate help." exploiting the immigrants.' This is abso- the letter described workplace conditions Martinez and Villalobos knew their em- lutely not true at all. Absolutely not true. that sounded both bizarre and oppressive. ployers as Allied Fibers because that is the There was a labor and management fight, The factory workers, Martinez and Villalo- name that appears on their paychecks. In there's no question about that. And there bos wrote, were mostly Hispanic and the fact, the business they work for is incorpo- has been some information that has been company was run by Chinese managers rated in Texas as two distinct companies, disseminated which [is] not true." who "treat Hispanics as if we were their Poly Sac, Inc. and Allied Fibers, Inc. Com- From the outside, the Allied Fibers/Poly children and they insult us as they like." pany spokesmen describe Allied Fibers as Sac plant doesn't look like a stereotypical There were additional, more serious the "employment arm" or "labor contrac- manufacturing sweatshop. The company is charges. The workers described what they tor/supplier" of Poly Sac, and Poly Sac as located in an unremarkable, one-story, saw as threats and intimidation, arbitrary "the marketing company which engages in concrete-slab building.in Southwest Hous- firings, denial of unemployment compen- all the marketing and selling of the fin- ton, at the corner of Westpark and Fairhill sation, denial of medical care or compen- ished products." But the local management in a small industrial park like many others sation for work-related injuries, all of and personnel of the two companies are along the six-lane commuter road. There is these problems compounded by a lan- indistinguishable, and Allied Fibers, Inc. no sign on the Allied Fibers/Poly Sac half guage barrier between employers and em- appears to have been created by its owners of the 7920 Westpark building, which it ployees. Workers, they wrote, were some- primarily as an attempt to shield the par- shares with another business that adver- times required to acknowledge or sign ent companies from employment-related. tises "Affordable Auto Glass" on a banner disciplinary "warnings" or other docu- liabilities. above its showroom. Driving by, you ments that they couldn' t read or under- The finished products of Poly Sac, Inc. might presume this is solely the location of stand, and were subject to firing without are polypropylene bags used primarily for a discount glass maker. apparent reason. the shipment of commodities (rice, beans, But based on stories told by its employ- The Hispanic workers claimed theY potatoes, etc.), and the labor process in- ees, since opening for business in Houston were even denied access to the lunchroom, volves the fabrication, forming, cutting in the mid-'80s, the low-profile Poly Sac which was reserved for the Chinese. Most and printing of the plastic bags. company has habitually abused its em- distressing of all, they reported, the com- According to Texas state incorporation ployees, committing numerous health and pany seemed intent upon replacing the records, the president of Allied Fibers is safety and wage and hour violations. Dur- Hispanics with apparently undocumented Lawrence Chou, and that of Poly Sac is ing the past year, under pressure from Chinese immigrants who worked long Jerry Wang. Both companies are appar- workers, regulatory 'agencies and the cam- hours and were paid, according to the let- ently owned and operated by Jerry Wang, paign to organize a union, the company ter, "$1 an hour." a California man who also owns similar made some attempt to correct certain vio- Although Martinez and Villalobos businesses elsewhere in Houston and in lations. But in April, government agencies couldn't have known it at the time, these California and Oregon, under the general still found both safety and wage violations last details pointed to a trail that runs from name of the Pan Pacific Group. The ma- serious enough to merit heavy fines and fi- Houston to California and on to the Peo- chinery in the Allied/Poly Sac plant is nancial penalties. ple's Republic of China—the apparent ori- mostly labeled' as made in Taiwan. But it Full details of what has been alleged to gin of those mysterious Chinese workers appears that Wang also has good business be the company's most abusive labor prac- allegedly kept in a state of virtual slavery. connections in the People's Republic, tice may never be known. According to mainland communist China. people who worked at the plant at the time, The Chinese connection is ironic, as in late 1992 a group of young Chinese- Michael King is editor of the Houston Wang's company is now faced with an In- speaking employees suddenly arrived for Press, in which a version of this appeared. ternational Ladies Garment Workers work at the plant, taking up positions at

8 • JUNE 17, 1994 workstations alongside the company's em- mentary evidence that the Chinese workers use of spies among the union supporters. ployees. These new workers never left the of Allied Fibers/Poly Sac ever existed. According to the union, various levels of factory site; when not on the job, they were retribution have continued to this day. The housed in a small corridor of private rooms EANWHILE, prompted by em- union has filed unfair labor practice in one corner of the building. ployee complaints during the past charges against the company with the Communication between Chinese- and M year, the Department of Labor NLRB, accusing the company of firing, re- Spanish-speaking workers was difficult, began reviewing plant payroll records and assigning or otherwise discriminating but over the course of nearly a year, talk- investigating shop conditions. On April 11, against at least seven employees in retalia- ing in monosyllables and sign language, OSHA cited Allied Fibers; Inc. and Poly tion for their union activities.The NLRB is the groups of workers exchanged names Sac, Inc. for numerous violations of health currently investigating the union charges. and bits of information. The Chinese and safety regulations, most of them "seri- workers described being recruited by a ous" and involving unsafe use of poisonous OSE ORELLANA was one worker factory near their homes and being told chemicals, high noise levels, failure to pro- dismissed as a consequence of his ac- they would travel to America for "train- vide clean and safe eating facilities and in- j tivities in the union campaign. He and ing." What they knew of America was a adequate safety programs. his wife, Maria Flores, who also works at long journey and the four walls of the Al- Then, on April 15, pursuant to a back- Allied/Poly Sac, emigrated to America lied/Poly Sac factory. pay settlement negotiated between the from El Salvador in February 1991. Most The Hispanic workers asked about the DOL' s Wage and Hour Division and the of the declared union supporters are Sal- newcomers' immigration papers and work company, Allied Fibers, Inc. issued checks vadoran refugees, who came in flight from documents, required for em- that country's civil war. ployment in America; the Chi- Some were unlettered la- nese workers had none. By borers and conscripts, but simple symbols, the workers others were university stu- compared pay scales, which dents, one an accountant, for the Hispanics began at the another a civil engineer. minimum wage of $4.25 an Orellana had worked as an hour. The Chinese workers in- administrator in the Sal- dicated they were being paid vadoran government for 22 $1 an hour, $2 if they worked years, and Maria Flores overtime. managed her own restau- At first, their Hispanic col- rant. leagues assumed the Chinese Like most Central Amer- workers were from Taiwan; *. ican immigrants, they took that is what they wrote in their work where they could find letter to Laura Germino. But it. Within a year, that work one day some of the Hispanics took them to Allied arranged a brief, private con- Fibers/Poly Sac. At a mini- versation between a few of the mum wage of $4.25 an hour Chinese women and a local each could earn, on straight Chinese-American priest. Fa- pay, $8,840 year, or to- ther Francis Chang, pastor of gether a gross of $17,680 - Ascension Church in Alief, hardly enough to support says the women were fright- themselves and their ened and mistrustful, and youngest son, still living at would not tell him much about home. At minimum wage, their situation. But they did let the workers describe a him know that their homes "good job" as one that pro- were not in Taiwan. "They vides at least six days or were from mainland China," Maria Flores and Chinese co-workers... more of work each week. Chang says they told him. As a rule, minimum wage "Definitely the People's Republic. Com- to all its employees, covering two years workers rely on second jobs or overtime to munist China." (the statutory limit) during which the em- piece together a living wage, and when the According to the Labor Certification De- ployees had been routinely required to overtime was available, the Orellanas partment of the Texas Employment Com- work "preparation time" for which they worked 12- or 16-hour shifts. Because mission in Austin, foreign workers in the were not paid. workers depend upon overtime for ade- country for a month or more would have to Many of the employees of Allied/Poly quate incomes, company manipulation of be registered with the TEC. TEC records Sac say the recent government actions, al- overtime assignments—including denial of going back to 1990 indicate no alien though welcome, address only a small part overtime—can be a useful method of keep- worker registrations for that period in the of the company's mistreatment of its em- ing employees in line. Moreover, accord- name of either Allied Fibers or Poly Sac. ployees. The coming of union organizers ing to the union, the company's calcula- None of the company management will put pressure on the company to correct tions of overtime pay were often comment on the background, nature or cir- some of the most visible abuses and al- inaccurate, with hours unaccounted for or cumstances of the employment of the Chi- lowed for the first time orderly documenta- payments only 30 percent above straight nese workers. tion of the workers' problems. But the pay, rather than the time-and-a-half re- A few lunchtime snapshots, taken im- company's reaction to the union campaign quired by law. promptu for a remembrance by one of their was harsh, involving a campaign of re- When the Chinese workers appeared in fellow employees, provide the only docu- quired anti-union meetings as well as the late 1992, the Hispanic workers began to

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9 fear not just for their overtime, but for their provided with proper, fitted respirators or Houston locals they were put in touch with jobs. At first it appeared that the Chinese were not. instructed in their use. Maria her- the Dallas office of the International workers had been brought in to replace self has suffered from respiratory prob- Ladies. Garment Workers Union, because them, or to at least drive wages down. But lems -she believes are a consequence of the of that union's history of organizing immi- as Jose and Maria began to learn more chemical fumes and dust, once missing grant workers. about their new co-workers, it became im- three weeks of work because of illness. The ILGWU, however, was hesitant to possible for them to feel anything but com- She says such illnesses, often severe, as move into a very small plant in an unfa- passion for the newcomers. Looking over well as skin inflammations and rashes miliar industry and territory. Still, after the photographs of four Chinese women from contact with the chemicals, are quite some eiploratory meetings with the work- whom she had befriended, Maria said sim- common in the plant. ers, union leaders decided to take on the ply, "I loved them and I also felt sorry for According to Maria, one of the Chinese organizing effort. As Houston organizer them, and the manner in which they were women developed an open sore on her Andy Garza describes it, "Many unions being treated." hand from repeated contact with the chem- don't want to spend [organizing] money The Orellanas are loyal and outspoken icals used at her machine, and a bright red and not get enough workers back again. union supporters, but they're reluctant to rash ran from the ulceration up to her These workers wanted to be represented, discuss current conditions at the factory, shoulder. Soon she was too sick to work, and nobody wanted to touch them...." saying only that in the wake of the and was confined to her quarters for a At the time Martinez and Villalobos labor/management disputes, the atmo- week. When the woman finally returned to wrote to Laura Germino, they were aware sphere has been "tense." her machine, she was required to work a of only one other worker who shared their But speaking through a translator, they week of 16-hour days to make up for the concerns and was willing to do something became quite animated in speaking of their time she had lost. about them. But once word got out at the friendship with the Chinese workers and Frustrated at their inability to 'di- plant that someone was interested in their the conditions under which they had la- rectly with the Chinese workers, thethe His- plight, several more workers responded to bored. They spoke of exchanging names by panic workers contrived a ruse, convincing CARECEN's arrangement of meetings pointing at each other in turn, and of trying their supervisors that they wanted to take with the ILGWU. The Orellanas were to develop a simple sign language that the four Chinese women for a drive to among the first to take part, and soon would work to exchange basic information. show them a little of America, and perhaps found_ themselves in leadership roles. Even in normal circumstances there take them to lunch at a downtown Chinese Since this campaign was the union's first were only one or two people in the plant restaurant They took a brief tour of Hous- in the Houston area, organizers Ricardo who were bilingual in English and Spanish ton, including Hermann Park, and Father Medrano, Betty. Boyer and Stella Lindsey - managers would give orders to a bilin- Chang was waiting for the group when traveled from Dallas to get the work going. gual secretary, who would translate for the they arrived at the restaurant. He says the On weekends they might be joined by or- workers. No one could speak both Chinese women were frightened and mistrustful. ganizers from El Paso or elsewhere, and and Spanish, so the communication be- The priest was able to discover little more they asked Garza, an experienced Houston tween the two immigrant groups was halt- than the Hispanic workers already knew. organizer in the steel and construction ing and difficult. And conversations oc- Aside from his discovery of the workers' trades, to help them out in the off-hours curred only during breaks, or on night mainland China origins, he learned little. from his day job as an asbestos abatement shifts when there were fewer foremen The women refused to discuss their situa- instructor. around to eavesdrop. Jose described how tions at the factory with him. About 75 people are employed at the fearful the Chinese workers were of their "They say they are not [treated badly], Poly Sac plant, 61 of whom were poten- bosses, how afraid they were to do or say they are okay," Father Chang recalled. tially "qualified" employees, under Na- something that might be forbidden. One "But maybe they don't know us, or the tional Labor Relations Board rules, for day during a break he bought two sodas union people, [and] they fear for them- union recruitment. During the summer of from a vending machine, hoping to share selves. They come from a totalitarian 1993, the workers began spreading the one with his new Chinese friend, whom he regime where workers don't have much to word through the small plant about the knew only as "Li." But Li, afraid that say. So I suspect these ladies were prudent- union. They got a good response among drinking the soda was forbidden, kept re- and felt they didn't know who these people the workers, although some were afraid to fusing the offer, peering in all directions are-if they did something the bosses didn't have anything to do with either the union for signs of a supervisor. Jose insisted. Fi- like, they suffer the consequences." or the government agencies in charge of nally Li accepted the soda, but he would factory investigations. And perhaps with not drink it in plain sight. IGUEL MARTINEZ and Hector good reason; the union supporters say that Retelling the story, Jose crouched behind Villalobos had written to Florida once Allied/Poly Sac managers learned of the table where we talked, miming Li's fear Rural Legal Services because the union activity, they retaliated. Union as, in order to drink the soda yet remain un- when Martinez lived in Florida, Laura sympathizers were reassigned to less de- seen, he ducked down behind a pile of shop Germino had helped him with immigration sirable jobs, given split shifts and abrupt materials stored in the plant yard. difficulties. He hoped she might now be changes in work schedules and had their Maria' s tales are more harrowing. Con- able to let him know "what rights we overtime hours cut back. They would be fined to the plant, she said, the Chinese [have] to be able to have them treat us bet- told to wait at home to be called back in to workers were at the mercy of their em- ter in [the Allied/Poly Sac plant]." work, but the call would never come. ployers and afraid to make minimal re- Germino contacted Houston's Central With the union campaign out in the quests, even for medical attention. She re- American Refugee Center, part of a na- open, a certification election, which would called one young Chinese man's injuring tional network of legal-assistance organi- sanction the ILGWU as the official bar- himself on a machine, and continuing to zations devoted to the problems of Central gaining representative of the Allied/Poly work as blood streamed down his leg. American immigrants. The CARECEN Sac employees, was scheduled for Decem- Chemical fumes and dust filled the fac- staff felt that the Allied/Poly Sac problems ber. Both sides began to campaign in tory air, and as documented in recent required additional assistance, perhaps earnest. The company began to hold regu- OSHA citations, workers either were not from a union. After speaking to several lar meetings with employees to warn of the

10 • JUNE 17, 1994 consequences of voting for unionization. clutches of the union. A vote for the union, were hidden, pointing to a rear entrance to The passage of the North American Free said the cartoons, might bring a small pay the bedrooms that had been left unlocked. Trade Agreement offered a new weapon: raise. But that would soon be eaten up in The inspector went up to the door Flores Workers were told that if the union won the union dues, strikes and fines for those who had indicated but refrained from opening it. election, the company would simply close refused to follow union orders. He said he didn't know if the women on the up shop and move to Mexico. The organizing and election campaign other side were dressed. Still, he confirmed The reprisals continued. Jose Orellana became intense in early October. Since most that he heard voices behind the door. found his hours steadily cut back, and on of the workers were on the job six days a (OSHA inspectors, citing ongoing investi- September 4, his foreman told him not to week, the only time available for meetings gations, would neither confirm nor deny come back to work until he was called. was generally Sunday mornings. The com- Flores' story.) After three weeks without a phone call, pany countered with mandatory meetings of Flores thought that she had finally found Jose got the message. But when he applied its own, where supervisors would denounce a way to help her Chinese friends. She told for unemployment compensation, the com- the union. The union charges that one super- Eva Hernandez, another union supporter pany claimed Orellana was "still on the visor, Cai Nam Sinh, would never refer to and the only one bilingual in English and payroll," and therefore ineligible. In other the ILGWU or even the "union." To him, Spanish, what she had done. words, they would neither let him work nor the organizers were simply "the commu- That night, the Chinese workers were fire him. nists." Another supervisor, head company rounded up and taken out of the plant. Al- Jose Orellana hasn't been able to find an- manager Dinna Kou, is also alleged to have lied/Poly Sac employees who saw them other steady job since. His wife, Maria Flo- slandered three ILGWU organizers by said some of them were weeping, and they res, has been reassigned and did not know where they has had her hours cut back. were going. One of the And, according to the union, women asked for Flores, to their treatment isn't • unique. say goodbye. Told that Flo- Indeed, several other union res was not at the plant, the supporters have received simi- woman asked that some- lar treatment, and in seven body give Flores three cases the union has filed small remembrances. Flo- charges with the National res still has two of them: a Labor Relations Board. tiny bear made from hair On September 25, Allied/ and a Christmas decoration. Poly Sac workers filed with The third, given to a super- OSHA a detailed complaint visor, was not passed on to concerning plant conditions. her. Flores never saw her Department by department, friend again. the complaint listed more than Three days later, on De- 50 allegedly dangerous or un- cember 10, the certification healthy conditions, including election was held at the malfunctioning packing ma- plant. Of the 61 workers el- chines, exposed electrical igible to vote, 52 cast a bal- wires, clogged and leaking lot. The final count was 28 plumbing, weaving machines to 24 against the union. that gave off electrical shocks, Miguel Martinez, whose high noise levels and a lack of letter to Laura Germino for ear protection, poor ventila- help had begun the entire tion, no protection from haz- employee campaign, was at ardous chemicals, and poorly home ill from a work-related maintained lavatories. injury, and wanted to come In apparent anticipation of in to vote. But the company the OSHA inspections that The only evidence the Chinese workers existed. disqualified him, saying he would follow the employee had quit and was no longer complaints, the company made efforts to claiming they were "involved in the crime on the payroll. He has since been "rehired," clean up the factory. Injured workers were of cocaine trafficking." but as a "new employee," beginning again at allowed to consult their own doctors, venti- Throughout this period, union supporters the minimum rate of $4.25 instead of the $5 lation was improved, some electrical work were puzzled that the company seemed to he been earning when he was dismissed. was done, the lavatories were cleaned up know what they were planning and when • Among such small numbers, it was fairly and, in a symbolic if small victory, toilet they were holding meetings. Union sup- easy to determine who voted for and against paper was finally placed in the washrooms. porters would find their work schedules the union. Eva Hernandez and one other OSHA inspections were scheduled to juggled without notice just before a worker, thought to be union loyalists, al- begin in November; in the meantime the planned union meeting. legedly turned out to have been taking part company and the workers prepared for the On December 7, an OSHA inspector vis- in union meetings on behalf of the company, December 10 union vote. Union supporters ited the plant in the course of his investiga- an action illegal under the National Labor became increasingly identifiable by their tion of the health and safety complaints. As Relations Act. Eva Hernandez no longer at- ILGWU caps and T-shirts. For its part, the usual when outsiders were present, the Chi- tends meetings of the union supporters. She company taped large posters to the wall, nese workers were herded behind the has been promoted to supervisor. featuring cartoon characters describing in locked doors of their living quarters. Maria But the company's victory may have been broken English and Spanish what would Flores saw a chance to help the Chinese short-lived. Actions taken by the NLRB and happen to the workers if they fell into the workers, and told the inspector where they OSHA in April could be the prelude to fur-

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 11 ther government intervention on behalf of lease form in order to get the check. One peared to be a workman's compensation the employees. The union says it is confi- worker initially refused to sign, and was check in the amount of $167. dent it will win its slander suit against the called into a room, warned not to "make Everybody in the room, including the company, and that the NLRB will rule in its trouble" and told to sign the form. young man telling his story, laughed out favor on the unfair labor practices. Organiz- A copy of the form confirmed that it was loud. Garza smiled and told him he would ers say they are expecting another election what the union feared: a waiver of rights to do what he could. within the next year. any future litigation over back pay. The On the whole the workers seem relaxed, Wage and Hour Division of the Department calm and confident, perhaps heartened by N THE AFTERMATH of the lost elec- of Labor told the union the payments were recent OSHA and NLRB actions. Or per- tion, ILGWU organizer Betty Boyer re- based on a settlement reached between the haps after more than a year of persistence I flected on what might have gone wrong Department of Labor and the company over they are simply accustomed to thinking of in the campaign. She thinks the organizers unpaid "preparation time," and that every- their fight as being for the long term. It may have underestimated the potential one in the plant got a check. There was no may be months before they win another strength of the union support, and overesti- word on what amount the workers claim battle, or can even hold another election. mated the willingness of the workers to en- was unpaid or underpaid back overtime. But however the regulatory agencies and dure the company counterattack. The meeting began to break up as the the courts react, despite their setbacks the Following the election, the union's sup- AIM officers said they would continue to union supporters seem surprisingly confi- porters formed an auxiliary Associated In- look into the matter, among the other prob- dent and united. They say they lost a few ternational Members group under the aus- lems. One young man came up to union or- supporters immediately after the vote, but pices of the ILGWU. At a recent Sunday ganizer Andy Garza and explained with an they've gained back more in the aftermath. morning meeting, held in the small hotel embarrassed • grin that he thought he Jose Orellana and Maria Flores are asked room off Highway 59 that served as the needed help. He had been out sick with a how they've kept up their spirits in the af- union's makeshift headquarters, about a work-related injury and had received some termath of the election defeat and their dif- dozen AIM members gathered over coffee correspondence in English, a language he ficult personal circumstances. They smile, and cookies to discuss ongoing business. can't read, from the company's insurance but they seem a little puzzled, as if the The walls were papered with union firm. He had asked a friend he thought was question is beside the point. They answer posters, snapshots of union activities, more fluent in English, and the friend had that they are simply doing what they must hand-drawn company organizational told him it was a doctor bill for his injury. do, including telling their story to anyone charts and a pencil-sketch layout of the Al- After he had torn it up in anger, another who will listen. "We need help," they say. lied/Poly Sac factory. In one corner, an old friend had informed him that the letter ap- "We need some strong help." ❑ computer sat on a table amidst a stack of papers and files. The meeting was late getting started, be- cause several members worked the Satur- day late shift at the plant. A couple of oth- Who is Poly Sac, Inc.? ers called to say they couldn't make it because of family emergencies. While the CCORDING TO state records, Poly Company spokesmen were similarly re- adults talked, a few small children played ASac, Inc., incorporated in 1985, was luctant to discuss the company's Chinese and whispered in the hallway. formerly located at 4800 Clinton Drive in connections. At the company's Heyward, After a few minutes of joking and gos- east Houston, and moved to its present lo- California offices, Jerry Wang was said to sip, followed by an opening prayer, Jose cation in 1991, the same year Allied be unavailable because he was "in China, Orellana quietly took charge of the meet- Fibers, Inc. was incorporated. Poly Sac's on business," and that no one was autho- ing. He introduced a couple of visitors, president is Jerry C. Wang, its secretary is rized to speak on his behalf. A man who who were greeted with polite applause, Ying Y. Wang, and its registered agent is would identify himself only as "Robert, an and reviewed ongoing business. The meet- general counsel Justin Ong. Ong declined accountant," said Wang might be in China ing began with a discussion of immigra- to confirm whether Poly Sac or Allied as long as six months. tion matters and tentative plans for a fund- Fibers is owned by Wang or his company, All expressed ignorance or refused to raising party. , The Pan Pacific Group. comment concerning the alleged employ- These administrative matters soon gave The 4800 Clinton location is an old, ment of Chinese workers at the Houston way to more immediate concerns. In mid- white-tile two-story factory building a plant. Poly Sac manager Dinna Kou said April, OSHA issued a report and fined the quarter of a mile off the road, identified that Allied Fibers had been in business for company more than $28,000 for health and only by its address and a puzzling sign on three years, but refused to discuss the the safety violations. And on Friday, May 20, its facing announcing in huge letters, relationship between the two companies. the workers were surprised to receive sec- "Manufacturing Company." According to Asked if either company has any Chinese ond paychecks, which appeared to be vari- incorporation records, this is the address business connections, Kou said "No." ous amounts of back pay. A union orga- of "American Bag Mfg., Inc.," "A&A Asked for identification or any response nizer had spent much of that Friday night Plastics Mfg., Inc." and "Inter-Pacific Bag to the photographs of the Chinese workers, and the following Saturday talking to Mfg., Inc." with the factory site of Allied Fibers/Poly workers, trying to figure out what the pay- Among the corporate officers for these Sac clearly visible in the background, ment was for and how it had been calcu- companies are listed Jason Wang, Sherry company attorney Cliff Couch said: "This lated. Most had received payments of $105. Wang, Hua Lung Wang and Helen Wang. is the end of the line. As long as the court Supervisors had offered differing expla- Asked whether these companies are part of case proceeds, however long it takes, nations: some workers were told the Jerry Wang's Pan Pacific Group or are oth- we're not speaking about anything having money was back pay, some that it was due erwise affiliated companies, Justin Ong in to do with the company, its personnel, its to an accounting error, one that it was a sisted, "They are not related in ownership; employees, anything.... We're not answer- "bonus." But the NLRB was mentioned, they are related in family relationship." ing any questions." --M.K. and workers were required to sign a re-

12 • JUNE 17, 1994 Where immigrants Turn

l FIBERS/POLY SAC workers Houston are hard to come by, because so immigrant workers, including those in the MMigueligue Martinez and Hector Villalo many remain undocumented and fearful of changing international demographics of bos had written for help to Florida Rural U.S. authorities. But the 1990 census offi- recent years. Legal Aid because they knew no one to ap- cially counted more than 50,000 Salvado- Ricardo Medrano, who was among the peal to in Houston. When Martinez had rans alone living in the area, and the total ILGWU organizing group sent to Houston, lived for a time in Florida, Laura Germino of Central American immigrants of all na- describes his union as a natural choice for had helped him with immigration prob- tionalities came to over 100,000. Univer- the Hispanic employees: "The majority of lems, and he thought she now might be sity of Houston sociology Professor Nestor our staff is bilingual, and there are a lot of able to advise the Allied/Poly Sac employ- Rodriguez, co-author of a 1989 study on minorities on our staff; since communica- ees. Central American migration, estimates tion is crucial, that's how we got involved Germino could do little for the men from that the actual number is probably at least in the picture." her office in Immokalee, but she did know 10 to 20 percent higher. Rodriguez also The union met with the Houston work- of somebody closer who might be able to says that the passage of time has begun to ers in the spring of 1993, gauging their help. She contacted , an immigrant legal as- alter the presumably temporary status of level of interest and commitment, mean- sistance organization. Houston's Central the immigrant community, and that in while researching the company for its sta- American Refugee Center (CARECEN), striking contrast to their earlier attitudes, a bility, the chances it might relocate, and Germino forwarded the workers' letter to majority now say they expect to remain in whether the industry itself might present CARECEN, briefly summarizing what the U.S. indefinitely. They talk about an opportunity for additional organizing. sounded like several potential violations of going home, but they behave like they're After several weeks of research, they were U.S. labor laws. Overall, there seem to be staying here permanently. convinced that the desire for a union at minimum wage violations, illegal deduc- While still handling many immigration Poly Sac was genuine and strong, and that tions, workers compensation and unem- matters, CARECEN now finds itself de- there was a broader need for unionism in ployment violations, and discrimination voting more time to the problems of per the Houston area's plastics industry as a (at least). manent residents, including various sorts whole. More directly, they say they re- Germino added an understatement: of labor problems. Udell says the employ- sponded to the needs of these particular From the letter's content, it sounds like the ment problems generally fall into roughly workers, whose circumstances were in- Chinese employees also have serious com- three basic categories: Wage and hour mat- deed extremely difficult. plaints. ters (payment of minimum wage and over- The organizers describe the Allied CARECEN was founded in Houston in time); discrimination in hiring and firing; Fibers/Poly Sac factory conditions as 1985, by a coalition of Salvadoran immi- and worker's compensation problems (no among the worst they'd ever seen. Despite grants and American volunteers attempt- payment for injuries incurred on the job). the daily use of heavy machinery and dan- ing to respond to the local immigration cri- The litany of troubles recited by the Al- gerous chemicals, safety equipment was sis created by the increasingly bloody lied Fibers workers certainly included the non-existent or inadequate; the company Salvadoran civil war. It joined a loose na- ones familiar to the staff at CARACEN. doctor routinely ignored worker injuries tional network of five independent offices, But this factory situation seemed to require and refused to authorize compensation devoted to addressing the multiple legal larger resources than CARECEN could when workers were, ill or incapacitated. problems of Central American immigrants offer. They contacted various organiza- Simple employee needs and requests were to the United States. tions which might intervene on behalf of treated with contempt or indifference. The According to CARECEN's Eric Udell, the workers, and soon were convinced that lack of company concern extended from the organization and its volunteer lawyers a labor union might be the answer. accurate payment and consistent schedul- spent several years responding to the emer- But getting a union involved in Houston ing down to matters of plant maintenance gency situation for wartime refugees, try- workers' causes can be difficult, especially and cleanliness. Workers complained, for ing to help as many people as possible. when the workers are non-English-speak- example, that the lavatories and toilets As the intensity of war diminished in El ing immigrants, often considered to be available to workers were often inoperable Salvador, but the numbers of long-term competing with American workers for or leaking, and that despite repeated re- refugees living in Houston continued to jobs. Unions are also reluctant to initiate a quests, the company even refused to sup- grow, CARECEN found itself more and campaign in a small factory where the ply toilet tissue for the bathrooms. more concerned with the problems of Cen- chances of success are uncertain. If they Although those who have looked into tral American immigrants who had be- win, the local may not be large enough to the situation at the Allied/Poly Sac factory come, by default and the passage of time, be self-sustaining, and should they lose, say the conditions there are extreme, they U.S. residents. The Immigration Act of they may only make matters worse for the confirm that the circumstances are all too 1990 granted Temporary Protected Status the workers they were trying to help. familiar to immigrant workers in Houston. to Salvadoran refugees (on the grounds No Houston-based union was willing or Eric Udell describes the factory as "not an that they were fleeing armed conflict and able to take on the Allied Fibers campaign. uncommon situation for immigrant work- political persecution), and with CARE- CARECEN was directed to The Interna- ers in Houston. The conditions here were CEN's help thousands of refugees regis- tional Ladies Garment Workers Union, pretty severe, but it's really not uncom- tered for the new protected status, which based in New York but with offices in Dal- mon.... In construction these types of con- has since been extended through the end of las. Founded upon its turn-of-the-century ditions seem to be quite widespread: Immi- this year. base among the European immigrant grants are assigned the dirtiest, most Accurate estimates of the number of workers of New York's garment industry, dangerous jobs." Central American immigrants living in the ILGWU has traditionally welcomed —M.K.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13 011ie Takes a Powder A Texas DEA Agent Once Tracked Oliver North's Contra Drug Deals

BY DENNIS BERNSTEIN & HOWARD LEVINE

F IRAN-CONTRA prosecutor Law- that we would comment on." F THAT WASN'T enough to compel rence Walsh had wanted to know the ex- investigators to pursue North himself as I tent of former Colonel Oliver North's ELE CASTILLO joined the DEA in I a drug dealer, Castillo provided them involvement in the smuggling of drugs 1979, after a tour with the First Cav- with what should have been the clincher. In from Central America to the United States, C alry in Vietnam, where he earned a a February 14, 1989, memo to Robert Stia, Walsh might have made at least one phone bronze star, and a six-year. stint as a police the country attaché in Guatemala, Castillo call to Celerino "Cele" Castillo in San An- officer in Edinburg. His first DEA assign- laid out in minute detail the structure of the tonio. From 1985 to 1991, Castillo was the ment was in New York, working undercover Ilopango operation and identified more Drug Enforcement Administration's main investigating organized crime. After that— than two dozen known drug smugglers who agent in El Salvador, where, he says, he un- because of his Vietnam experience—he was frequented Hangars 4 and 5. covered—and reported—a huge drug and transferred to Lima, Peru, where he con- . Huge quantities of drugs and guns were gun smuggling operation that was run out ducted air strikes against jungle cocaine labs being smuggled through Ilopango by mer- of the Ilopango military airport by the and clandestine airstrips. In 1985, he was cenary pilots hired by North, Castillo "North Network" and the CIA. transferred to Guatemala, where he oversaw wrote. "Now, all these contract pilots were North, now the Republican nominee for DEA operations in Belize, Honduras and El documented [in DEA files] traffickers, the U. S. Senate in Virginia, prevailed at the Salvador. Castillo posed as a member of one Class I cocaine violators that were being nominating convention last weekend by po- of the drug cartels, he said, and almost im- hired by the CIA and the Contras," the sitioning himself far to the right of his rival, mediately became aware of the drug smug- memo stated. "And the U.S. embassy in El former Reagan budget director James gling operations at Ilopango's hangars 4 and Salvador was giving visas to these people Miller III, promising that if elected he will 5. "We took several surveillance pictures ... even though they were documented in our work to "clean up the mess" in Washing- and they were running narcotics and computers as being narcotics traffickers." ton, and cultivating the support of the same weapons out of Ilopango, and with the Among those Castillo identified was Car- fundamentalist Christian Republicans who knowledge of the U.S. embassy." los Alberto Amador, "a Nicaraguan pilot responded to the direct-mail campaign to fi- Though Castillo had been reporting his mentioned in six (6) DEA files....The DEA nance the North defense committee. findings all along "to no avail," a Decem- was advised by a source at the U.S. em- But Castillo—the first government offi- ber 1988 report prepared by theCongres- bassy in San Salvador that personnel from cial with first-hand knowledge of North's sional Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nar- the CIA had allegedly obtained a U.S. visa drug dealing to speak publicly about it— cotics and International Operations (the for Amador." Amador, Castillo discovered, says North belongs in prison, not in the U.S. Kerry Committee) confirmed Castillo' s al- kept four planes at Ilopango, and a frequent Senate. "We saw several packages of nar- legations and concluded: "There was sub- companion of his was was Jorge Zarcovick cotics, we saw several boxes of U.S. cur- stantial evidence of drug smuggling who "is mentioned in twelve (12) DEA rency, going from Ilopango to Panama," through the war zones on the part of the in- files," and "was arrested in the U.S. for Castillo said. According to Castillo, the en- dividual Contras, Contra pilots, mercenar- smuggling large quantities of cocaine." tire program was run out of Ilopan.go's ies who worked with the Contras, and the Walter "Wally" Grasheim was another hangars 4 and 5. "Hangar 4 was owned and Contra supporters throughout the region." smuggler tagged by Castillo. "He is men- operated by the CIA and the other hangar The committee, chaired by Mas- tioned in seven (7) DEA files," Castillo was run by Felix Rodriguez, or 'Max sachusetts Senator John Kerry, also found wrote. "He is documented as a cocaine and Gomez,' of the Contra operation [directed that on March 16, 1987, a plane owned by arms smuggler from South America to the by North]. Basically they were running co- known drug smugglers was seized by U.S. U.S. via Ilopango airport. He utilized hangars caine from South America to the U.S. via customs officers' after dumping what ap- 4 and 5. Grasheim is also known to carry Salvador. That was the only way the Contras peared to be a load of drugs off the-Florida DEA, FBI, and CIA credentials to smuggle were able to get financial help. By going to coast: "Law enforcement personnel also cocaine." "Wally Grasheim," Castillo said, sleep with the enemy down there." North's found an address book aboard the plane, "was an American working hand-in-hand people and the CIA were at the two hangars containing among other references the tele- with Colonel Oliver North." Grasheim lost overseeing the operations "at all times," phone numbers of some Contra officials his life while accompanying CIA contract Castillo said. and the Virginia telephone number of arms smuggler Eugene Hasenfus, whose CIA spokesman David French said Robert Owen, Oliver North's courier." the plane was shot down during a clandestine Castillo' s allegations are "not something committee reported. And on July 28, 1988, flight over Nicaragua in 1986. When the DEA, agents testifying before Kerry's com- DEA raided Grasheim's house in El Sal- mittee said it was North's idea in 1985 to vador, agents found explosives, weapons, Dennis Bernstein is an associate editor with give the Contras $1.5 million in drug radio equipment and license plates, Castillo Pacific News Service. Former Bay Area money being used by DEA informant Barry said, adding that much of the weaponry and Guardian news editor Howard Levine is a Seal in a sting operation aimed at the drug other material was traced back to the U.S. freelance journalist. Both writers live in cartels. embassy in El Salvador. Castillo said that Berkeley California. when he tried to gather more information on

14 • JUNE 17, 1994 the munitions, he was told by the Pentagon to then-Vice-President at a cocktail party at vestigation and obstruction of justice. But drop the investigation. It would not be the last the ambassador's house in Guatemala City. even those convictions were overturned time Castillo was told to back off. Nor was it After describing his job to Bush, Castillo when an appeals court ruled that they were the last time he ignored such an order and detailed North's operation. Without missing based on testimony North gave under a kept on digging. a beat, Castillo said, Bush "shook my hand grant of Congressional immunity. Much of Castillo's information came and he walked away." Even though Castillo Although they talked about drugs, neither from a DEA informant who had worked at couldn't get anyone to act on his Ilopango Walsh nor the Iran-Contra committee ever the Ilopango airport, doing flight plans and information, in July 1987, attaché Robert seriously investigated the drug-dealing keeping flight logs. The informant, who Stia recommended him for a bonus and a charges: North, who did not return phone used the pseudonym "Hugo Martinez," was promotion. "Castillo is an extremely tal- calls made to his campaign headquarters in in an ideal position to witness and docurrient ented agent," Stia wrote,"...a tireless Virginia, has consistently denied being in- North's drug deals. Martinez passed the in- worker, exceeding all requirements of over- volved in drug smuggling. formation he gathered on to Castillo. In an time and work hours. His administration of Another former DEA agent, Michael interview, Martinez confirmed Castillo's cases is outstanding." Levine, said he has pored over North's di- story about widespread drug and arms deal- Nevertheless, as Castillo continued to aries and found "hundreds" of references to ing by the CIA and the North network at pursue the North investigation, he fell from drugs that "have never been investigated." Hangars 4 and 5. favor with his superiors, who suspended For example, Levine said, on July 9, 1984, Castillo said additional information ob- him for three days in 1990, and then in 1991 North writes: "DEA, Miami. Pilot went, tained after he was transferred talked to [Federico] Vaughn, from El Salvador to San Fran wanted aircraft to go to Bolivia cisco confirmed what he had to pick up paste, want aircraft learned in El Salvador. While to pick up 1500 kilos." tracking drug smuggling into "My god," said Levine, au- Miami, Texas and San Fran- thor of The Big White Lie, cisco in 1991, Castillo arrested "when I was serving as a DEA the wife of Carlos Cabezas. In agent, you gave me a page an attempt to make a deal for from someone in the Pentagon his wife, who had attempted with notes like that, I would've sell Castillo five kilos of co- been on his back investigating caine, Cabezas, a Nicaraguan, everything he did from the told Castillo that he was one of minute his eyes opened, every the pilots who had worked for diary notebook, every phone North, smuggling vast quanti- would have been tapped, every ties of cocaine into the United trip he made." States from Ilopango. Cabezas But both Levine and Castillo described in detail the opera- said the investigation never tions at Ilopango and identified happened. (DEA officials have many of the traffickers who not returned repeated phone worked there. The information calls.) In an interview, the he provided matched Castillo's FBI's Foster said, "Of course I own findings. can't confirm or deny that [his interview with Castillo]. I am EGINNING in 1986, aware of Mr. Castillo and his Castillo tried to report position on Central America," Bwhat he had discovered, Foster said. "In the course of launch a full-scale investiga- Cele Castillo and George Bush, 1986 the Iran-Contra investigation, tion, and shut down the smug- it's no secret that I was involved gling operation. On several occasions, he transferred him to San Francisco, where he in that and was the FBI investigator in that, met with Edwin Con, the then-U.S. ambas- worked undercover, investigating Hells An- but I am prohibited from commenting." Fos- sador to El Salvador, to tell him about the gels in Oakland. In June 1992, after further ter said he is very skeptical about the drug operation. "His words to me were that it was conflicts, Castillo resigned from the DEA. claims generally. "There are individuals that a covert White House operation run by Before resigning, though, in 1991, he tried have a loose relationship with the govern- Colonel Oliver North and for us to stay to give the government one last chance to use ment and those people are not all choirboys away from the operation. the information he had gathered on North. He and they have been doing all kinds of weird "My feeling was the fact that Con did not secretly met with FBI agent Mike Foster, things. But I think you would be hard pressed agree with what was going on at Ilopango who was assigned to Special Prosecutor to show a concerted government backing or but his hands were tied. He was only fol- Lawrence Walsh. "Foster said it would be a involvement in [drug trafficking]." lowing orders from the White House to give great story, like a grand slam, if they could It is just that kind of attitude, Castillo all the assistance he could to Oliver North put it together. He asked the DEA for the re- said, that led officials to ignore North's op- and his covert operation." Con, now a pro- ports, who told him there were no such re- eration, allowed him to evade prosecution fessor at the University of Oklahoma, would ports. Yet when I showed him the copies of for drug dealing, and now has him poised to only say, "I deny Cele' s allegations that I the reports that I had, he was shocked. I never move into the United States Senate. "There told him to back off on the basis of White heard from him again." was nothing covert going on in El Salvador House pressure." On May 4, 1989, North was convicted on regarding the 011ie North operation and nar- Castillo even managed to give the infor- the relatively minor offenses of illegally ac- cotics trafficking," Castillo said. "What mation he had gathered directly to George cepting gratuities (his famous security we're talking about is very large quantities Bush. On January 14, 1986, Castillo met the fence), interfering with a Congressional in- of cocaine and millions of dollars." ❑

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 15 MOLLY IVINS

Bikers and Christians grounds that both are pro-choice and even in politics to whom compromise and tol- common ground with the lesbian/gay cau- erance are not virtues but words they use Fort Worth cus on grounds that both are concerned to condemn others, people who openly This year's Texas Democratic Convention with privacy issues. advocate violating the Bill of Rights, then was depressingly harmonious, perked up Their leader (they tell me this is the polit- you are not looking at democracy in ac- by only one round of fisticuffs, the wel- ically correct terminology for him), a Mo- tion but at an attempt to undermine come advent of a bunch of biker-delegates hawk-haired biker named Sputnik, said, democracy. and some fine displays of excess cheer. upon being complimented on his political In a more perfect world, Sputnik, in black It's a bit of a shame because we count on skills, "Hey, you tell us the rules, we'll play leather and Mohawk-with-a-ponytail, Texas Democratic conventions for enter- the game." would be dispatched to the Christian Coali- tainment, not harmony. But as party As a stonewall fan of democracy, I was tion to explain to those worried folks just pressperson Joe Cutbirth said, "It's like enchanted. This is what the system is for— where it is that they're missing the point of being cruise director on the Love Boat." so citizens who have a grievance with the democracy. And in a more perfect world, Happily, the most politically correct del- government can get together and get it they would have the tolerance for differ- . lib- egation in the whole state, those lovable changed (in this case, a little harder to do ence to listen to him. erals from Austin, managed a duke-out. because some federal highway money de- The proximate cause was left-over resent- pends on the helmet law—but I bet the bik- Medium Rare Chair ment from this year's split in the Mexican- ers win in the long run). American Democrats. (Mexican-American I got to wondering about why I, always Meanwhile, the last days of Danny Ros- Deinocrats are always split, with great en- so pleased to see new players in the polit- tenkowski remind us once more of the ergy.) Someone from the losing side re- ical game, would feel so comfortable with many curious parallels between Texas and ferred to a woman on the winning side as "a the bikers (who are fairly colorful, cos- Chicago politics. One striking feature of Nazi female-dog," as it were, causing the tume-wise) and so worried about the ad- both worlds is that the pols always amaze large husband of the insulted party to lurch vent of fundamentalist Christians in poli- one by selling out so cheaply. It's not as out of his chair and smite the ignoble insul- tics. Should we not welcome the though they were taking $100,000 bribes ter. (This was very politically incorrect, as Christian right—heretofore not notice- to vote for some special-interest bill, like women are now assumed to be able to de- ably players in the political system— the Abscam rats. No, it's always this fend their own honor in political debate, but coming along and speaking their piece, nickel-dime stuff. Cheating on expense ac- what can you do about Texas men, even the too? I think the difference lies in the counts and stealing stamps, for goodness ones from Austin?) words of the inimitable Sputnik: "You sake. We once had a Texas legislator who Ann Richards wowed4'em: with a vintage tell us the rules, and we'll play the game." bought a pickup truck with his office Annie-speech combining pure populism, It seems clear that the radical right-wing stamps, thus surprising the folks at Joe rueful reflections on how hard it is to Christians, on display last weekend in Don's Ford no end. You always look at a change government, zingers aimed at her Virginia and this coming weekend in Fort guy like Rostenkowski—power, reputa- opponent and some genial philosophy Worth, don't want to play the game, they tion, great legislative record—and ask, about how to fix things. The reaction to want to change the rules. "Why?" And the answer is always so de- Richard Fisher, for whom this convention Theoretically, in our democracy, if pressing: He grew up in a political world was his formal introduction to the party, there are enough of you, you get to where "everybody does it" and never was harder to read. One skeptic said after change the rules, all except the ones in the learned that's not an excuse. I don't think Fisher's speech, "I sure wish I could be- Bill of Rights. But the only reason he should get off light, and I don't think he lieve that guy is what he says he is." The democracy works is because of compro- should be punished to the full extent of the more general reading seemed closer to an mise and tolerance. When you find people law. Medium will do. Amarillo delegate's patient explanation: ❑ "We need to get guys like that back in the party if we're going to win." One of the unexpected charms of the convention was the presence of a couple hundred biker-delegates, there to pursue their single-issue agenda: They want to re- peal the law requiring them to wear hel- mets when they ride motorcycles, a fine libertarian cause. They lobbied, they de- PEOPLE bated, they forged coalitions, they com- Make a world of difference ! promised—they were terrific. Professional We're proud of our employees. and their contributions to your lobbyists envied their preparedness with • success and ours. Call us for quality printing, binding, mailing statistics and arguments. They found com- mon ground with the women's caucus on and data processing services. Get to know the people at Futura. P.O. Box 17427 Austin, TX 78760.7427

Molly Ivins, a former Observer editor, is a FUTUM 389-1500 columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. COMMUNICATIONS, INC

16 • JUNE 17, 1994

JIM HIGHTOWER

Breyer and Business .• Clinton and give him hell: 202-456-1414. Kid himself erased any doubts about who Hey, this Stephen Breyer is not a bad was who in the 20th round of an epic fight Supreme Court appointment...for a Repub- Heal Thy Staff in San Francisco when he KO'd another lican president. Pioneering movie mogul Sam Goldwyn renown boxer, leading a newspaper there Why in the world did Bill Clinton was better at making "talkies" than he was to coin a phrase we still use today. choose a nominee whose whole career has a getting the English language straight. He Well today it's not in the boxing ring, been marked by his devotion to serving once mangled a perfectly good metaphor but in politics where you might get sucker- large corporate interests at the expense of by declaring, "You've got to take the bull punched. A host of so-called "public inter- small business, workers, the environment by the teeth." est" coalitions have cropped up, claiming and consumers? Ummm...I don't think so, Sam. to be "the real McCoy," when they're actu- I'll tell you why: Because Bill Clinton is Well, speaking of throwing the bull, the ally shabby fronts for corporate interests. "thixotropic." That's the same quality American Medical Association—the offi- The National Wetlands Coalition, for mayonnaise has—it's solid, until a little cial "doc lobby" in Washington—has been example, whose logo has a duck flying heat is applied...then it turns into a liquid. saying it opposes President Clinton's over a marsh, is made up not of duck-lov- The president clearly favored Bruce health-care reforms because his plan ing environmentalists, but of oil compa- Babbitt—a moderate progressive who has doesn't allow patients to choose their own nies and others who want to drill, pave, at least lived outside Washington and has doctor. Fair enough, but now it turns out drain and otherwise destroy our wetlands. taken on corporations occasionally as Ari- that something besides altruistic concern Another one, the Coalition for Health zona attorney general and governor. for us patients might be behind the doctors' Insurance Choices, is now running a multi- But Clinton was spooked by a gaggle of opposition. You see, Clinton's plan would million-dollar TV campaign pretending to Republican senators from the West who require employers to pay for most of the show "consumer" concern about health hate Babbitt for trying to make timber, health care premiums of their employees. care reform. But don't be suckered: the mining and ranching companies pay a fair Now you'd expect doctors to want ev- "Coalition" was created from scratch by price for the public resources they ex- eryone to be covered, but don't forget that insurance companies opposed to health- ploit. Senator Orrin Hatch—a guy with a doctors are employers themselves. Look care reform. five-pound tongue in a four-pound around their office: nurses, receptionist, Then there's the American Council on head—was especially noisy, and Clinton clerks. The Clinton plan means doctors Science and Health, that say it's a "con- backed _down. Can you imagine Lyndon would have to cover their own employees. sumer education consortium." Ha! More Johnson or Ronald Reagan backing off You mean they don't? like a consumer extermination consortium. because some whiner like Hatch was in . A study done for Money magazine by It's fought against banning of cancer-caus- their way? - Harvard Medical School finds that half of ing pesticides, against nutrition labeling, Yet, pressured by Republicans and by the staffs working for self-employed doc- against asbestos clean-up and generally Wall Street representatives inside his own tors are offered no health insurance what- against anything real consumers are for. White House, Clinton turned to liquid and soever. Say you're a doctor's medical Well, no wonder: its major funders are named a guy who will oppose his own eco- clerk filing claims for patients so the doc- Monsanto, Exxon, Dow Chemical, Coca- nomic program and constituency. This is tor can get paid. But if you get sick, you've Cola, DuPont, and other giants whose in- an embarrassment. got no coverage at all. terest in consumer safety is like the interest Well, now the spin doctors in the White Some might call this ironic, but here at the wolf had in Little Red Riding Hood. House say Clinton simply wanted some- the Chat & Chew Cafe, we call it stupid, If you run across a example of a group one who could "build consensus for unan- greedy, and tacky. We're not talking here claiming to be a "real McCoy" citizen's imous decisions." This is pure, policy about your average mom & pop small coalition, which is really a corporate pre- wonk B.S. "Build consensus" is just business, grinding out maybe $20,000 a tender, call the Advocacy Institute, a true Washingtonese for "protect the status year, but of MDs who average $200,000 a public interest organization that's collect- quo," and status quo is Latin , for "the mess year in personal income. Plus, these are ing information to help unmask the pre- we're in." employers who know personally, even tenders: 202-695-8475. ❑ Who needs unanimous decisions if painfully, that everyone needs health cov- they're all against workaday Americans and erage. And guess what? Nearly every doc- in favor of The Powers That Be? Clinton tor who denies coverage to their staff pro- can put out all the spin doctors he wants— vides it for themselves. ANDERSON & COMPANY he can even hire some whirling dervishes— We're got to take the bull by the horns. COFFEE but he still can't cover up the fact that he's Bill Clinton's right. It's not reform unless TEA SPICES trying to saddle us with another pro-big everybody is covered—even the doctor's TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE business ideologue to vote with the Court's office. AUSTIN, TEXAS 78731 Republican majority. To fight back, call 512 453-1533 Corporate Front Groups Send me your list. "Kid McCoy" was a legendary boxer in the Name Jim Hightower, a former Observer editor and 1890s who won most of his fights by Street Texas agriculture commissioner, does daily knockout. He was so terrific that a host of City Zip radio commentary and a weekend call-in talk imitators began roaming the country show on the ABC Radio Network claiming they were "Kid McCoy." But the

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 17 BOOKS & THE CULTURE Saint John of the Double Cross

BY ROD DAVIS

DILLINGER: THE UNTOLD STORY There's almost something to admire in At first I thought the no-revision strat- By G. Russell Girardin Dillinger. egy a mistake. I wished for much more with William J. Helmer. At far less public expense. His two-year Helmer and much less Girardin, but in 368 pp. Blomington, Indiana: "reign of terror," 1933-35, netted less than time I found the latter's matter-of-fact as- University of Indiana Press. $27.50. $300,000. The S&L guys who never got sembly of details—a quaint, violent soap gunned down in cold blood in the presence opera—to be compelling. Because of KNEW THERE was something odd of their girlfriends—as was Dillinger's lawyer Piquett' s deep involvement in about longtime Observer contributor fate—stole up to $500 billion. This is not Dillinger's work—he even helped smug- and Playboy senior editor Bill Helmer to say. Dillinger was a saint, or even a gle in a wooden gun for the gang's infa- I mous jail break at Crown Point, Indiana- when he tried to get me to join the "John Robin Hood (though he did on at least one Dillinger Died For You Society." It wasn't occasion destroy loan records in a bank Girardin's glimpses are equivalent to a that I bought Molly Ivins' old characteri- heist), but that he behaved in a way, and in documentary made by a reasonably adept zation of Helmer as "loopy"—which is a time, not completely out of sync with the home video aficionado. Dillinger might've like Clayton Williams calling Bill mores of nascent capitalism and deepening liked the metaphor. Not long before he Clements "out of touch"—but what is one Depression. As one of his many girlfriends died he wanted to make a movie entitled, to make of a Texas exile who has taken it remarked, "Johnnie' s just an ordinary fel- "Crime Does Not Pay." It didn't, of upon himself to become the nation's lead- low. Of course he goes out and holds up ing expert on a Chicago, Prohibition-era banks and things, but he's really just like killer? I had further qualms. Helmer's UT any other fellow, aside from that." master's thesis under the late Joe Frantz Assiduous collector of Dillinger lore that was on the Thompson submachine gun he is, Helmer might have remained nothing Shot in the Back (later published as The Gun That Made the more than a perverse fan except for a Twenties Roar) and as a sculptor Helmer chance meeting in the summer of 1990 ri, ILLIN GER S KILLERS natu- had created an entirely new oeuvre from with G. Russell Girardin, a retired Chicago arrally do not wish it thought that melting and cutting guns into objets d'art. advertising executive. Once a confidante of his death was simply an execution. It I'm using all this French as a way of get- Dillinger's lawyer, Louis Piquett, Girardin must be remembered that the authorities ting to how some writers become in- had not only written a series of weekly ac- firmly believed they were dealing with trigued, even obsessed with the commen- ' counts in 1936-37 for the Hearst newspa- perhaps the most dangerous criminal of tary the criminal makes on society. From pers on Dillinger's exploits, but had put to- all time, so claims that he resisted arrest way back, even before Genet was canon- gether his own Dillinger biography, based should be weighed against evidence ized and La Femme Nikita reshot with on contacts with Piquett and numerous oth- from past performances. When trapped Brigid Fonda and Deconstruction invented ers, including Dillinger himself. The 600- in the apartment of Mrs. Longnacre at during an all-night drunk, the French have page, onion-skin manuscript had lain on a Dayton, Ohio, Dillinger made no atempt been fascinated with rule-breakers. Not shelf for more than 50 years because Gi- to use his guns. When challenged by po- that Helmer is French; but, if one tries to rardin ran into a legal tangle with Hearst lice in Tucson, Arizona, he was carrying understand Jerry Lewis and Derrida, one over publication rights. a machine gun but surrendered without a must try to understand a Dillinger nut. Helmer persuaded Girardin of the impor- struggle. When surprised by a Chicago I think I finally do. A near-fluke, partly tance of the document—"a Dead Sea scroll police car while with O'Leary in the posthumous collaboration, Dillinger: The to Dillinger historians." They began to work park, he would have submitted to arrest Untold Story, provides not only what it on it together. At Helmer's insistence, the if confronted by guns. In other words, claims—unique, primary source history, original manuscript was left unrevised, with Dillinger showed no desire to die and but also a wryly subversive commentary updates in the form of lengthy footnotes and surrendered peaceably on all occasions on the eternal, infernal interplay between appendices. They further decided to break when he felt resistance to be futile. This law and lawbreaker. Finally, I think that the biography into five segments, each intro- makes it hard to believe that upon leav- maybe Helmer isn't so loopy; that duced by a commentary by Helmer. The ing the Biograph, finding himself out- Dillinger's violent, nasty, brutish and short book thus reads like two: the punchy, terse numbered and surrounded on all sides, career in the 1930s is every bit as impor- style of '30s journalese in the Girardin nar- he would have attempted to use his pis- tant to U.S. history as anything his white rative, and Helmer's analysis of the surpris- tol knowing it would mean certain collar descendants, the S&L crowd, ever ingly profound impact of the Dillinger era death. However it came about, John pulled off in the '80s. I misstate that. on the U.S. legal system. In another twist of Dillinger was shot down from behind, fate, Girardin, in ill health, died in Septem- with no attempt worthy of the name ber 1990, leaving the project to be com- made to capture him alive." Rod Davis is a former editor of The Texas pleted by Helmer and his editors over the from Girardin's narrative Observer and now lives in Dallas. next several years.

18 • JUNE 17, 1994

course. Virtually everyone in the Dillinger world. He raided police stations and seized ate government lies, aided by Hollywood's gang was hunted down and killed or jailed, their arsenals. compliance with glamorized G-Men as were accomplices ranging from plastic Later, when police firepower lost its movies, created a climate of semi-hysteria surgeons to waitresses. Piquett was con- competitive edge, Dillinger helped pioneer in the 1930s that did little to stop the mob victed and disbarred for his involvement entirely new forms of lethal weaponry. In but much to advance the creation of the and died a broken old man. one of the quirky annotations which bring FBI and its new emperor, who, in gratitude, Remarkable throughout is Dillinger' s the book to life, Helmer traces Dillinger's displayed Dillinger's death mask in a glass code. He shot when shot at; that he shot supply route to—where else—Texas. case in his office. "The irreverent have better kept him alive. He was loyal to Through "Baby Face" Nelson, the gang since credited Dillinger with sacrificing his friends, though ultimately betrayed by purchased specially modified machine life to give his country its first comprehen- them. He was generous and honored his guns and machine pistols from Hyman S. sive criminal code and make Hoover a na- own debts—once paying off a doctor's bill Lebman, a dealer in San Antonio, in turn tional hero," writes Helmer. "He just didn't for one of the members of his gang. He was supplied through Wolf & Klar, a distribu- do it intentionally." tough as nails. Wounded on several occa- tor in Fort Worth (also purveyor to Ma- Helmer and Girardin also conclude that sions, he underwent facial plastic surgery chine Gun Kelly). For his role, Lebman Dillinger, gunned down 60 years ago this with a half-effective local anesthetic and was later prosecuted but not convicted summer—July 22, 1934—in front of the Bi- took nothing to kill the pain when he had under Texas' new machine gun statute, ograph Theater, may have been one of the his fingertips burned away with acid to which prefigured a federal machine gun early victims of the cooperation between the alter his prints. And he had a sense of law that itself owed much to wild and government and the mob it wanted to con- humor—in the midst of an intensive man- rarely checked government exaggerations trol. It's not known who actually shot hunt Dillinger went home for Sunday din- about Dillinger's operations. Dillinger in the trap sprung by Melvin ner at his father's house, rightly figuring As Girardin' s invaluable manuscript Purvis (later purged by a jealous Hoover), the Chicago cops and the "G-Men," the piles up the details, Helmer elaborates his but the evidence indicates the three fatal government-approved monicker for its new central thesis: that the sudden fame of bullets came not from the G-Men but from federal agents, would be too stupid to look America's first officially designated "Pub- corrupt East Chicago cops. The concern was for him there. And he was a loyal Cubs fan. lic Enemy Number One" was more than a that if Dillinger were captured alive he He also had panache: In those days you little connected to the push within the new might implicate the syndicate boys in a didn't just buy automatic weapons at the Roosevelt Administration to create a na- number of questionable enterprises, not neighborhood pawn shop, like today. tional police force and national crime laws least the contracting of bank hold-ups to dis- Dillinger's first source of ordnance was the to deal with what was about to be a new na- guise massive embezzlement. Mourn him, same used by guerrillas throughout the tional problem—organized crime. Deliber- Charles Keating. ❑

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THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 19 Of Tiananmen and Tata

BY STEVEN G. KELLMAN

ESCAPE FROM CHINA ditions, passing as a peasant. Eventually, that became Memories of Tata, Tata, born Directed by Iris F. Kung he stole back into Beijing; from there, in Nicaragua in 1911, was a feeble old man MEMORIES OF TATA sympathizers smuggled him to Hong undergoing slow and lonely death in a Cal- Directed by Sheldon Schiffer Kong. He now lives in exile in another sort ifornia nursing home. He died on July 7, of Northeast: Princeton, New Jersey. 1989, despised by wife Rosa and daugh- KNEW MAO'S NAME even be- "For this he went to college?" Zhang's ters Ariana and Martha. AU mother queries. Ted Bundy's mother "I hate the man," says Aunt Martha. "I fore I knew my father's," says I Zhang Boli, whose own name might have asked the same question. Fre- don't want any relationship with him." Ar- was listed as one of 21 student leaders quently dazed and ailing, Zhang, whose iana, Schiffer's mother, recalls being wanted by Chinese police. Though Zhang voiceover narration is rendered in English beaten, at age 12, for failing to sew a button once served as secretary of the Communist by actor B.D. Wong, is not a Chinese onto her father's shirt: "At that moment I Youth League, the Party was a god that Sakharov or Solzhenitsyn. Instead of stopped loving him." Rosa, who endured failed. "More than 20 million people moral grandeur, we see loneliness and an- marriage to Adam for 50 years, offers this starved because of Mao's bungling," he guish. For two years, Zhang is separated summation: "He was a man who solved ev- concedes. In 1989, Zhang became presi- not only from confederates but also from erything with a knife, a punch and a gun." dent of the ad hoc "University of Democ- his family, and the most agonizing mo- Schiffer, in his late 20s, is more ambiva- racy" that, with attendance exceeding a ments of Escape From China come when lent. "I can't forget the love that I have for million, convened in Tiananmen Square. Zhang speaks of Little Snow, the daughter my grandfather, and I can't forget what he After the June 4 massacre, he fled and, that fortune forced him to desert when she did to my family." Memories of Tata con- alone of the 21, eluded capture. was barely two. Zhang's pretty wife, Li cludes with images of Schiffer and the "I could never imagine that I would be- Yan, weeps on camera, recalling how, three women gathered to toss Adam's come an enemy of the state," states Zhang, after two year's without word of her van- ashes into the Pacific. The film is a mixed a young patriot who became prey to the ished husband, she married again. "I don't valediction to the kindly, cruel abuelo state that controls more than a billion like politics, and I don't understand poli- whom Schiffer recalls with fondness and human beings. Iris F. Kung, pseudonym tics," she says, and, for all Zhang's virtu- loathing. for a Chinese journalist now living in the ous self-sacrifice, his understanding seems "To be a man is to know how to behave United , States,. does more than imagine scarcely more sophisticated. well," Adam, once barber to the president Zhang's transformation from model citi- Over archival images, Zhang reviews of Honduras, tells the camera during his zen into outlaw. She dared take her camera planning disasters that produced massive final weeks. To illustrate manhood, Adam back over the path Zhang trod during the famine and persecutions that were recalls his own uncle, who, unsuccessful at two years he spent evading arrest. In Es- prompted by the Cultural Revolution. He breaking a horse, calmly shot it dead.. cape from China, Kung in effect also cre- explains how the death of Hu Yaobang in- Adam asserted his own manhood by ram- ated Return to China, a witness to extraor- spired rallies to support reforms he es- pant philandering. He boasts of having had dinary adversity and valor, not least in the poused, how demonstrations culminated in as many as eight women in a day. Yet he four months that the clandestine director violent suppression. Yet in this film, at bears a lifelong grudge toward Rosa, who spent back in the belly of the beast. An- least, Zhang is silent about atrocities in he claims lied when, as a young bride, she other in the splendid series of independent Tibet and what form genuine democracy in offered herself as a virgin. "And for that nonfiction works paCkaged by PBS as China might take. That he is neither Nel- there is no forgiveness." P.O.V., it is scheduled for June 21 broad- son Mandela nor Vaclav Havel does not For Schiffer, who mentions that his cast; check on whether and when your diminish by one whit Zhang's fortitude or mother divorced when he was a baby, Tata local affiliate is airing it. Kung's grit. Less than a month after the seems the only other man in the family. After the military pogrom at Tianan- Clinton Administration extended Chiria's What happened to Schiffer's father? To men, Zhang slipped out of Beijing toward Most Favored Nation trading status, Ariana's marriage? To Martha's husband? Harbin, in the desolate Northeast. Orders Americans disagree over whether eco- Does Tata have anything to do with their were issued to shoot him on sight, and he nomic, diplomatic, or military pressures absence? Such probing questions pry, but kept out of rifle sight by passing as a local discourage injustice in the earth's most Schiffer is too selective in where he vio- farmer, The landscape was bleak, the life populous nation. But Escape From China lates family privacy. Nor does Memories lonely, and within six months. Zhang was discredits any doubt that the Beijing of Tata resolve implicit issues of ethnicity. desperate enough to cross a frozen river regime flagrantly abuses human rights. Co-presented by the National Latino Com- into Russia. Rescued from a ,snow drift Kung has produced an important work of munications Center, the filth offers after 30 frigid hours, he was seized by the craft, cunning and conscience. logue in Spanish, with English subtitles, KGB and returned to the border. He spent and Spanish subtitles for English dialogue. the next 18 months living in primitive con- HE TATA in the title of Sheldon If there is something uniquely Latino or Schiffer's autobiographical' in- even Nicaraguan about Adam's behavior, T quest—scheduled for P.O. V. broad- the film does not inquire, nor does Schiffer Steven G. Kellman teaches comparative cast on June 28—is Adam Morales, the confront his apparently non-Latino her- literature at the University of Texas at San filmmaker's grandfather. By , the time itage. He remembers grandpa, but that is Antonio. Schiffer began shooting the home movies not enough. ❑

20 • JUNE 17, 1994 Continued from pg. 5 tracting process and makes it harder to keep tomer," he said. "Nobody is really squawk- track of scofflaw contractors. According to ing about [these abuses]. The staff can't do it decisions to reject dubious low bids. Yet Pouland, there is no formal structure for because they're afraid they won't get another Pouland says he welcomes the chance to sharing information between state agencies. building, or get their air conditioning shut off win a few high-profile court cases to show "I've even suggested that agencies inspect if they do. Too many state employees just shoddy contractors that the state will de- each other's projects, not necessarily in an don't have a sense of service to government. mand quality. "The position we've got to adversarial way, but to ensure quality." There's no sense of responsibility of clients be in is, 'We want you to sue us so we can It's too early to tell whether Pouland' s to customers. They just don't have any incen- tell the world what kind of a rotten job you changes will actually save the state money tive to excel. It's not rewarded." did in the past. Can your business afford to and prevent abuses of the sort Green al- If there is any place in state government be held up to public scrutiny? By the time leged. Pouland acknowledges that GSC where change is needed, and where the Gov- the trial is over, their reputation in the pri- hasn't undertaken any major construction ernor can make a difference, it's in making vate sector will be shot." projects since he came on board; But his the state bureaucracy more responsive and Green and Pouland have revealed a struc- thoughtful, common-sense attitude and accountable to the taxpayers. In the four tural problem in state contracting: Different forthright admission of past problems mark years since Ann Richards took office, the state agencies—transportation, criminal a refreshing change from the denial and in- New Texas allegedly arrived—and George justice, MHMR, DHS—jealously guard the ertia prevalent among other state officials. Green was illegally fired. Texans are still prerogative of supervising their own build- Such a change in attitude may be as impor- waiting for a shakeup in the agencies that ing projects, occasionally allowing General tant as changes in policy, Green believes. exist to serve them. If George Green's $13.6 Services to assist in managing them. This "[State officials] don't have sense of making million 'judgment against the state isn't diffusion of authority fragments the con- a payroll or that they need a satisfied cus- enough to inspire change, what will? ❑ Continued from pg. 24 tions. One of the movement's strategies is to of Dallas in District 5; Michael L. Brandes, peel back not only environmental laws but Mark M. Wetzel and Jeff Davis, all of percent of its units.) also health, safety, labor, civil rights and Austin, in District 10; John c.c. Hamilton of consumer laws under the guise of combat- Cuero in District 15; Kerry Lynn Lowry of ✓ BOWING TO BETTORS. While ting the "taking" of private property. "What Midland in District 21; and Greg Pepper of horse racing promoters are putting the best is being pursued, however, is clearly the Alvin in District 22. The Libertarian Party face on concerns that the new racetrack in `taking' of the public's rights to a healthy, also will nominate candidates for at least 10 Houston is drawing fewer suckers (that is, safe environment as well as many other as- statewide offices in addition to the U.S. players) than expected, the Texas Council pects of the quality of life we enjoy today," Senate, 12 Congressional districts and sev- on Problem and Compulsive Gambling Inc. the newsletter stated. Last year a "takings" eral legislative districts at its convention reports an increase in calls about compul- bill passed the Texas Senate but died in the June 11-12 in San Antonio. sive gambling problems associated with House and the Sierra Club expects similar video poker, casino gambling and wagering bills next year. For more information, call ✓ IMMIGRANT WORRIES. Re- on greyhound races. Since May 29, 1993, the Sierra Club in Austin at 512-477-1729. garding the recent demagoguery on the cost almost 200,000 callers have dialed the toll- of immigrants to the United States, Carlos free number, seeking help for themselves, a ✓ CHALLENGERS FOUND. An off- Guerra, writing in the San Antonio Express- friend or family member. The majority of shoot of the Ross Perot campaign, Citizens News, noted that the 22 million foreign-born problem gamblers mentioned the lottery as in Search of a Candidate, has come up with residents of the United States comprise 8.5 the game most frequently played (76 per- four candidates for Congress in Hams percent of the population, which is one-half cent), followed by bingo (22 percent), County. Betty Potts, who was active in the rate of immigrant population in 1920. sports betting (20 percent) and horse racing Perot's Northern California campaign in He also noted that 2.2 percent of nonrefugee (14 percent). Two-thirds of the calls were 1992 but moved to Houston shortly after the immigrants of working age were on welfare, about male gamblers, a ratio which Sue Cox election, placed an ad in the Houston compared with 3.7 percent of the native said corresponds with data from other Chronicle in December, seeking indepen- working-age Americans receiving assis- states. dent Congressional candidates. Three can- tance. (In Texas, undocumented immigrants didates managed to get more than 500 sig- cannot receive welfare.) ✓ GETTING WISE. Calling the "Wise natures required to place their names on the Use" movement the "single most important general election ballot. They include J. V MAGS REVIVED. Rising from the threat facing the protection of the environ- Larry Snelling, a business consultant, in ashes yet again are D Magazine and Houston ment in Texas and the rest of the nation," District 18, where Sheila Jackson Lee al- Life. The Dallas Morning News reports that the Sierra Club, Lone Star Chapter, is hold- ready has unseated incumbent Craig Wash- Glenn Solomon, formerly of New Orleans, ing a workshop June 25 in Austin on ways ington in the Democratic primary; Sarah has bought the logo and subscriber list of de- to counter the conservative groups that are Klein-Tower, a lawyer, in District 25, which funct D and hired Beth Hall Wilbins, former seeking to undermine environmental laws Democrat Mike Andrews gave up to run for vice president of the local Lone Star Cadillac and regulations. The Sierra Club, in its May the Senate; Bill Felton, a grassroots activist dealership, as the new editor. Wilbins told the 27 State Capital Report, noted that the Wise and author, in District 9, which Democrat News' Alan Peppard the first issue would Use (or Resource Abuse, as the Sierrists put Jack Brooks represents; and Russ Klecka in come out this fall. Tim Fleck's Houston In- it) movement grew out of a 1988 conference District 8, which Republican Jack Fields sider newsletter reports that the monthly sponsored by the Center for the Defense of represents. Potts said the candidates agree Houston Life, which has been revived by Free Enterprise in Reno, Nev., to fight "en- on the need for a line-item veto, term limits Mark Inabnit as an insert in the Houston Post, vironmental extremists." Some of the and a return to a citizen legislature. - may be expanded into a "local advertising, groups associated with the movement are Other independent Congressional candi- lifestyle and community cable channel" to (in mining and timber interests and land devel- dates include Thomas "Jefferson" Mosser Fleck's words) "spread the message of home opers as well as farmers and ranchers who of Mount Vernon in District 1; Regina redecoration, gardening and better living to are concerned about encroaching regula- Arashvand of Dallas and Barbara J. Morgan the unwashed and uncouth of the city." ❑

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 21

-4.r.....A.,■•••41. • .10,0 Fighting for Texas Again

Gov. Ann Richards spoke to the Texas Our fight, my friends, is for the peace of- Austin and into the towns of Texas... Democratic Party convention on June 4 in ficer who walks the beat, putting their lives We have worked hard for these first three Fort Worth. That speech, edited for length, on the line every day; it's for the firefighter and a half years, so when DPS and law en- follows: who is ready to answer the alarm and it's forcement tells me that, because we have for the teacher who makes learning fun and stopped that revolving door [in prisons], we T SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE that it has exciting for our kids. Our fight is for older have cut back parole for violent, offenders been almost three and a half years since Texans living on a fixed income, who have and we have committed to build the prison I we met on the bridge down by the a tough time making ends meet. beds to make sure that every felon serves IBEW hall [in Austin, on inauguration day] Our fight is for the small business owner his sentence, the crime rate is down more and gathered ourselves up and set 'off on who strains to make a profit, it's for the in- than 18 percent in the last two years, I know this great adventure. It was an incredible, dustry that cares about clean air and clean we have made a difference. But when I hear emotional day. I remember looking up at water. Our fight is for our community and about someone being attacked in their own the buildings and seeing people leaning out it's for that sense of belonging and for that driveway, when I read the headlines of of the windows, smiling and waving...If we that sense of security...and hope that our some kid who was accosted by another kid did not know it before that day, I think we town or our city is a place that we can be on the way home from school, I know that all realized at that moment we had done proud to call home. our fight is not over yet... something truly extraordinary. We took This fight...is for the people of the state People say to me, what does it back this state for the people of Texas. of Texas. mean...about Texas that we're going to That day was our declaration of in- have 75,000 new prison beds? It dependence...independence from means that if you come to Texas and every outmoded idea, wrong-headed commit a crime, we've got room for policy and thin-lipped power broker you in the penitentiary. that was holding this state back... When the dropout rate is as low as Most of you remember what was it's ever been...and our students' SAT going on. It was a time when the courts scores are at a 14-year high, I know were threatening to close the public that you and I will say the difference in schools of Texas. It was a time when the quality of education has something there was a revolving door in our pris- to do with it. But when I hear that ons and my Republican predecessor . seven and a half percent of our high was letting 150 inmates out a day, school seniors are not passing the sometimes literally in the dead of TAAS exit test, I know the fight is not night. It was a time when the New York over yet. Times and the Wall Street Journal said And I will guarantee you that our that things were hopeless in Texas and fight is not over until all our teachers economically we were washed up and get a professional salary that they de- I am telling you after three and a half serve. We put $700 million of lottery years there's a new pride in Texas... money into education, and none of it We started out with the understand- would be better invested than it would ing that change has always been a be in a good teacher's salary... friend to Texas...and we wanted to put When I am told that, for the last change to work for us again. We came Governor Ann Richards FILE PHOTO/PATRICIA MOORE three years in a row, we have created on strong, determined to shake up the more jobs in Texas than any other bureaucracy and open the doors of govern- I don't care whether it is battling, insur- state in the United States, that there are a ment to all of the people of Texas. And we ance companies that are charging outra- half-million more people working in Texas have done that, my friends. geous rates, or nursing homes who sacrifice today than there were when I raised my We knew it was not going to be care of older Texans on the altar of the hand to be sworn in, I know we have made easy...and we knew it would not happen almighty dollar, or polluters who don't care a difference. But every time I hear about a overnight. And we knew that when we took about the world our children grow up in. Texan who is out of work or every time I on the status quo, we were taking on a fight. We have taken on all corners... hear of a so-called downsizing...I know our But that's OK with me, because I am a We have done our best to take the fight fight is not over. fighter and I will always fight for Texas... out where it belongs—where it makes a dif- We passed the most far-reaching envi- Our fight is for the families of Texas, the ference in people's lives—whether it in- ronmental legislation in Texas history. We women and men who go to work every day volved working with the employees at Gen- extended immunization from childhood and pay their bills; who worry about how to eral Motors in Arlington to help them save disease to every child in Texas, regardless provide for their kids; and who worry about their jobs, where the union got together to of their ability to pay. We turned on the tap how they're going to care for their parents help them create more jobs, or working lines and the sewer services in colonias in as they get older; who too often feel that with kids—some of them already in trou- Texas, along our border, that had never had government is something that takes their ble—in youth summits to help them find water or sewer services before. And we ex- money and gives them nothing back but out how we can help them take back our tended our major university systems into potholes and excuses. schools...or moving the Capitol out of South Texas, which is the fastest growing

22 • JUNE 17, 1994 and most in need of higher education. think you're so cute I think you ought to run been around the block a few times; we're . But our fight is not over yet. for governor." leading the fight for individual rights and When I had to, we took the fight to Wash- It really disturbs me...because a lot of we were there when we fought for civil ington. We fought hard to win battles for what I see being said today by people within rights and we have been there when we have trade, to keep the space station, the super- the Republican Party tells me that they're fought the battles for Texas. When the is- collider, the V-22 Osprey and the F-16 and trying to take us back to some version of the sues come to the floor of the Texas Senate, sell Bell helicopters. We made the case for 1950s, a place that has a lot more in com- and even before, when Bullock was Texas jobs and we fought for Texas inter- mon with witch hunts and the John Birch comptroller, he was there. He was there for ests. We won a lot more than we lost, but the ° Society than what we saw as the All-Amer- public education. He was there fighting the fight is not over yet. ican family in "Leave it to Beaver." battle against crime. He was there, fighting I told Richard Fisher: ...You're going to Just when you think you've whipped the battle to keep our air clean and our water be a great United States Senator but believe these mongers of hate, just when you think pure and I am proud to be on the ticket with me I am concerned because there is an oxyr you've gotten rid of these people who would Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock once gen deprivation inside the Beltway in divide us and who would preach their again, serving Texas. Washington, D.C.... You've got to take an anger—It's just kind of like old Jack Nichol- I know what we have done in the Texas oxygen machine with you. You've got to son said in that movie, "They're back." Legislature in the last three and a half years put it in your office, because perfectly good You know how bad it has gotten when you wasn't me. It was a partnership...with mem- and reasonable people get up there and their hear Republicans criticizing Barry Goldwa- bers of the Legislature, Republican and brains turn to raisins. Some of the mandates ter for being too liberal...The Republicans set Democrat. It was a partnership with Bullock and some of the financial demands made on out to use the radical right, to take their ex- and one of the finest speakers of the House Texas...are simply outrageous. So you are tremist votes but tried to keep them, as best that we could possibly ever ask for, Pete not going to catch me defending any fool- they could, at arms-length in public...Instead, Laney from Hale Center. When you talk ishness in Washington. And, for that matter, they have invited a Trojan horse into their about heavy lifting, it is going to be won- you're not going to find me defending any midst and they've created a tremendous dan- derful to have Richard Fisher sitting on the foolishness in government in Texas. ger not only for them but for all of us. floor of the Senate in Washington, D.C.... After three and a half years in office, I have Now some mainstream Republicans feel You know, early in January, when I an- heard every excuse, every half-truth and unwelcome in their own party and the nounced for reelection, I decided to go every dumb lie that can be conjured up...to stealth techniques that the radical right have home to do the deed. I hadn't been back to explain some asinine government snafu. used to take over the Republican Party are Lakeview in a long time. And I went back to And I won't take a second seat to anyone being used to threaten every aspect of soci- the house where I was born...It was still when it comes to frustration with the way ety. They have turned the party of Lincoln there, just a little asbestos-shingled house bureaucracy greets every proposed reform, into the party of Operation Rescue. They like thousands of other houses in Texas. usually with a "maybe" or "we're working want to prevent a woman's right to choose There's a single mother and her little girl on that" or "we had a meeting and we talked whether or not she intends to bear children living there now. In fact, that little girl lives about that." And I tell them, "It's time to and we will not stand for it. They want to in the same bedroom where I was born. stop talking and stop meeting and start act- tell us how to run our kids' schools...They It really is remarkable to think that the lit- ing!" want to tell us how to run our lives. Well, no tle girl who started out in that little house so But what really mystifies me is why we thank you sir. long ago now lives in the house where Sam suddenly hear from people at election time This is not about faith. My faith—my Houston once lived. But it is not so remark- who have actually filed to run for statewide church—they are important to me, as they able when you understand that this is Texas. office when we have never heard an idea on are to you. But my faith and your faith do This is a place where we still believe that government from them before. I mean the not call on us to make enemies of our fellow hard work will get you somewhere...Texas people who never seemed to have the slight- citizens or win victories at any means nec- was founded on hard work. There ain't est interest in what the people care about— essary. This nation was founded on free nothing in Texas that's handed to you on a who were never there when there was a speech and the freedom to live our lives in silver platter...and that includes the people piece of legislation discussed or debated, whatever fashion. you've put in office who have 'worked hard who was never there for a public hearing, The Republican Party that is going to and proved themselves. who never wrote a letter asking for his posi- meet here next week has a litmus test for Our challenge today is to ensure that the tion or any help on anything that we've true believers that very few Texans could little girl who lives in that modest house in done in government. Suddenly they pop out pass—or would want to. A lot of Republi- Lakeview now—and all our kids—will of a PR backroom claiming they have a bet- cans will arrive here to find that their party have their same opportunity to go wherever ter way of doing everything. has left them. And so today, [speaking to their ability and wherever their determina- It's just like your brother-in-law, who Republicans] we want to extend an invita- tion is going to take them. That's what we was supposed to help with the moving and tion to all those of you in the Republican are really fighting for. None of this really then he shows up after it's all done and tells Party who, because of the dogma and be- and truly is about us. Most of this is about you the furniture is not in the right place. All cause of the right-wing radicals in your our children: Whether this state is going to we have to say is: Where were you when we party that make you feel unwelcome. We embrace these children of ours, regardless were doing the heavy lifting? want to tell you we are delighted to have of their color, regardless of their creed, re- These Johnny Come Latelies...Running you in the Democratic Party. This party be- gardless of their ethnicity. Is this state going for public office is not like some sort of lieves in inclusion. We welcome anyone to be inclusive in the future for all of them? beauty contest...You've got to have some who believes that we must be more con- We've got to ensure that. experience with people. You've got to serve cerned with what unites us as Texans than My friends, we've never run from a fight on the local level and understand the impact what divides us... yet and we're not running from this one. of what is happening...when state laws filter This Democratic ticket...is outstanding. And, God willing, that is a fight we're going down to the local level...You can't wake up Bob Bullock knows more about the opera- to be working hard to win in November and one morning and stand there shaving, look- tion of government than the entire Republi- for the next four years. I'll see you on ing in the mirror and say "Mmm, mmm. I can ticket put together. Bullock and I have Congress Avenue.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 23 Postmaster: If undeliverable, send Form 3579 to The Texas Observer, 307 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

✓ PRISONS BURGEON. The U.S. ing Rights Act, notified the state that the insurance program for small Texas busi- Justice Department reported that Texas' new courts are illegal because at-large vot- nesses, Sherry Jacobson reported in the 16.2 percent increase in the number of ing dilutes minority voting strength. Four Dallas Morning News. Women under age prison inmates in 1993 was second only to existing Tarrant County courts may be 30 would be charged at least $61.92 a Connecticut's 20.1 percent increase and ruled illegal because they had not received month, 127 percent more than the cheapest Texas' 71,103 prisoners were second only federal approval in 1986, when they were rate for men for a bare-bones insurance to California's 119,951, but those figures created. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals package that mainly covers hospitalization, apparently overlooked the 29,536 Texas in- last year ruled that minority groups who including maternity care. First Lady Hillary mates convicted of felonies but held in brought the lawsuit had not proven that Clinton recently noted that women have a county jails awaiting room in state prisons. countywide judicial elections illegally di- greater stake in health care reform than men With 948,881 people imprisoned in the luted minority voting power but Patrick because they not only are the care-givers in United States in 1993, the Justice Depart- wrote that the burden was now on the state society, but they are less likely to get insur- ment reported, 351 out of every 100,000 to prove the new courts are not designed to ance through their jobs. A study by the In- Americans are locked up, outdistancing dilute minority voting strength. stitute for Women's Policy Research in South Africa, which was next in the world- Washington reported that while 55 percent wide imprisonment derby with 311 per ✓ WATER COLORS. While San Anto- of men aged 18 to 64 were insured, only 37 100,000 in 1992. Texas already has an in- nio business leaders fretted that a federal percent of the working women in the same carceration rate of 553 per 100,000. By the judge might put emergency restrictions on age group received coverage that way, al- end of 1995 the state is supposed to have the Edwards Aquifer that would threaten though many other women get coverage space for more than 140,000 inmates, embattled Kelly Air Force Base, delegates through their spouse or public programs. which would giye the state prisons an incar- to the state convention of the League of ceration rate of nearly 800 per 100,000. United Latin American Citizens in Laredo ✓ HOUSING MANDATE STALLS. The U.S. prison population has nearly agreed with the Mexican American Legal A lack of financing has hampered the U.S. tripled since 1980, when 329,821 were Defense and Education Fund that any board Housing and .Urban Development's man- locked up. The Justice Department attributed that controls the aquifer must be elected. date to set aside foreclosed multifamily half of the prison population growth to an in- Gov. Ann Richards and San Antonio offi- apartments as affordable real estate for low- crease in drug offenders. Tony Fabelo, exec- cials had blasted MALDEF's opposition to to moderate-income people, the General utive director of the Texas Criminal Justice a compromise management plan that, at the Accounting Office reported to Congress. Policy Council, said 20 percent of Texas behest of developers, called for an ap- HUD's inventory of foreclosed properties prison inmates are serving time for drug of- pointed board that could more easily be has increased from about 10,000 units in fenses but approximately one-half of the controlled by vested interests. The U.S. Jus- 1990 to 31,000 units in 1993 and HUD had state convicts in county jails are drug offend- tice Department, also siding with initiated foreclosure on another 38,000 ers and one-third of new convictions are for MALDEF, has rejected the change to an ap- units as of the end of 1993. In a survey of 19 drug offenses. pointed board, which it said would violate HUD-owned properties (with 3,636 units) The Associated Press quoted Professor minority voting rights. in Dallas and Kansas City, Mo., the GAO Alfred Blumstein of Carnegie-Mellon Uni- found that subsidized units had an overall versity, who noted that U.S. incarceration V TAX PROBLEMS. Turns out Teresa vacancy rate of 39 percent, while 55 percent rates remained around .110 people per Doggett, the Republican candidate for of unsubsidized properties were vacant. 100,000 population from the 1920s through comptroller (the state tax collector), is a top The study found it would cost an average of the 1970s, then began shooting up past 300 executive in three companies that have been $14,200 to rehabilitate subsidized proper- in the 1980s. But over the past 20 years, delinquent in paying state corporate fran- ties, while unsubsidized units cost an aver- Blumstein said, "murder rates have re- chise taxes. But that does not faze outgoing age of $4,700 to rehabilitate. Two-thirds of mained absolutely flat, robbery has grown Republican Chairman Fred Meyer, who the tenants in the subsidized properties had about 1 percent and burglary has declined said he expected her to stay in the race. "I incomes of 20 percent or less of the area's somewhat." Texas has shown more fluctua- think she's well qualified and will be a great median income, while two-thirds of tenants tion, with major crimes up 37 percent since candidate," Meyer was quoted in the Fort in unsubsidized properties had incomes be- 1974 but down 19 percent since 1989. Worth Star-Telegram. Doggett said the tax tween 21 and 50 percent of the area's me- problems were the responsibility of her hus- dian income. (A subsidized property is one that, before HUD acquired it, was receiving ✓ NO MORE COURTS. The U.S. Jus- band, John N. Doggett III, and have been tice Department has raised objections to the resolved. a mortgage assistance subsidy or a housing creation of countywide courts in Harris, assistance payment for more than 50 per- Midland and Fort Bend countieso Deval ✓ WOMEN COST MORE. Texas cent of its units. An unsubsidized property Patrick, who heads the Justice Depart- women of child-bearing age cost 'their em- was receiving assistance for fewer than 50 ment's Civil Rights Division that reviews ployers at least twice as much as men of the changes in political districts under the Vot- same age for coverage under a new health Continued on )pg. 21

24 • JUNE 17, 1994

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