BAHAMA HONK
The government of the Bahamas has recently instituted a so-called courtesy campaign aimed at making the natives more respectful to the American and European tourists who frequent the islands. The program is, in effect, one of the most fascist official proposals from a government since apartheid became a way of life in South Africa.
Fearful of a surge of nationalism and pride among the predominately Black population, Prime Minister Lynden O. Pindling has taken steps to insure that his country’s image of carefree, happy-go-lucky Uncle Toms is not damaged.
In a racist editorial the Nassau Tribune declared, “A lovable people whose friendliness has made this a haven of retreat for wealthy people from all over the world, have become arrogant, rude and hateful.”
Tourism is the mainstay of the Bahamian economy. Arthur Foulkes, former tourism minister, sees a need for an educational program to teach the average Bahamian, who’s Black and poor, in ways that he can understand, exactly what the tourist dollar means to him and his family.
Foulkes is now the president of Roberts Realty, an imperialist Canadian financed company exploiting the island.
The Bahamian government is telling the people that if they smile and kiss the tourists’ ass they will be better off financially when actually men like Arthur Foulkes are the only ones who benefit.
The government is not concerned with the islanders’ image of the people as some kind of sub-human slave and the government’s image of the people as a passive, money-making object.
Alright, Prime Minister Pindling, continue to placate the foreigners while you neglect the psychological and physical needs of your citizens. Oppressed, neglected people all over the world are creating 2, 3 many Vietnams and the Bahamas may be next.
FISH SCREWED
Before doing a performance in Boston, Country Joe and the Fish were greeted by a party of 75 uniformed police, 25 plainclothes detectives, one captain and an unhealthy assortment of clubs, guns and mace. The squadron presented the group with a warrant for the arrest of Country Joe Mc Donald concerning a concert held in Worcester, Mass.
He was charged with using obscene language, in fact one word, in connection with a popular underground song, Fixin’ to Die Rag. Usually, before this anti-war song is played, audiences have joined in with a spell-out of F-I-S-H.
But at the Worcester gig the Fish responded to the healthy sexual attitudes of the freak audience by screaming the 4 letters F-U-C-K instead, a word he felt everyone could more easily relate to. Country Joe couldn’t understand why the charges were brought only against him when everyone else participated.
It seems, in the conservative small town of Worcester, the police believed an example should be set to deter all youngsters from fucking or even talking about it.
In a statement by the rock singer he maintained that, The kids are finding out that the real obscenities and the real immoral acts are committed by the establishment, the adult community, which chooses to manifest its hang-ups by poisoning the rivers and the food we eat, and by forcing their children to go off into a foreign country and murder for them. I think it is pretty clear to youth that the older generation has disqualified itself from any right to supervise the activities of the young.
The maximum sentence for the offense is two years in the local House of Correction and/or a fine of $1,000.
SHOUT THE PRESIDENT
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LNS)—Nixon must be getting very uptight about the protest movement, or maybe he’s just looking ahead to 1972.
A new bill, supported by Nixon and introduced by Senators Hruska and Eastland, would make it illegal to utter loud, threatening or abusive language or engage in disorderly conduct in or near a building which has the president inside it.
The Washington Office of the American Civil Liberties Union has issued a statement denouncing the new bill, charging the administration with seeking a way to be walled off from the voices of dissent and unhappiness in our society.
LEARY IN DEFENSE
BERKELEY, Calif. (LNS)—’Timothy Leary, who has been convicted by a Texas court for possession of marijuana, still faces further prosecution in California.
He is currently in the Orange County Jail in Santa Anna, Calif., awaiting trial. The total legal charges against Leary add up to 30 years. With Leary at 50, that constitutes a life sentence, writes the Leary Freedom Fund.
Allen Ginsberg, the poet, issued a statement on the Leary case, urging people to send money
“Since I hope to breathe together with Dr. Leary on earth decades more, I vow to pay his legal life dues and hope all who have benefitted from his humane, mind-expanding research will join their energies to make money to pay for legal defense of his freedom….Some way must be found among us to fund Dr. Leary’s Constitutional appeal, or alter the entire economic structure of the law so that citizens kidnapped by police bureaucracy need not be ransomed to freedom by victimized families.
Contributions may be sent to Leary Freedom Fund, 1230 Queens Rd., Berkely, Calif.
‘BAMA HONK
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (LNS)—The Rev. Richard C. Boone, executive director of the Alabama Action Committee, was sentenced March 1 to seven years in jail. He had been charged with second degree arson for allegedly requesting a band of youths to burn down a Montgomery radio station which was not relating to the black community.
Rev. Boone was convicted by an all-white, all-male jury on Feb. 27. The only evidence against him was contradictory testimony by two young black men from New York, who had allegedly conspired with Boone but were promised freedom if they testified against him.
An appeal is planned, and funds are needed. Contact Alabama Action Committee, P.O. Box 1545, Montgomery, Ala. 36102. Phone 205-269-1183.