WGBH Journal; Cesar Chavez

Good evening and welcome to GBH Journal I'm Greg Fitzgerald and tonight the United Farm Workers shift the focus of their lettuce boycott. We'll discuss that ship with sails I shove it. One hundred thousand people will be traveling to the nation's capital this weekend for the first National Gay and Lesbian march on Washington. Amy sands will have a record. An MIT economist says don't be alarmed over the confusion of the underlying reasons for inflation. So is the government. And finally Louis lines tries to demystify inflation and he also looks at radiation. All that on tonight's journey right after a look at some local news. Massachusetts welfare recipients for welfare reform held a new noon press conference at the State House today demanding a payment of the state's emergency assistance funds the emergency assistance money is a section of the state's budget set aside to help low income families with utility and rent bills. Participants in the press conference claim the welfare department is still enforcing an old restriction that was repealed in June. That restriction established rules that bar welfare recipients from receiving emergency assistance aid. The group held a press conference after meeting with Senator

or Massachusetts Senate majority leader Chester Afghans. Barbara Deborah was there also according to Chad Adkins Governor King is breaking the law by not enforcing. The law. What he told us today the governor King was breaking the law he recommended that we go the court route. But we know that justice is very slow we don't have time to go to the court. The court room we had a snowstorm in the city yesterday. We have many families in the city that do not have electricity now they do not have heat. I don't know what's happening to those people. If my lights shut off that means I don't have heat because my electricity controls my furnace into the state house with my children I'm serious. I see absolutely no other recourse. Now the news today at Tufts University physics professor will share a Nobel Prize for his work in X-ray technology. It was announced today Alan Cormac of Winchester was startled this morning to find he will share the one hundred and ninety thousand dollar prize for his work

that led to development of a CAT scan or a sophisticated X-ray mechanism that can diagnose tumors without surgery. The CAT scan or process gives doctors a three dimensional look at a slice of the brain and other parts of the body that was unavailable prior to its development. Cormac will share the Nobel Prize with Godfrey hound's field a research engineer with the British EMI company. California governor Edmund Brown today told an audience at Boston University at the sooner the U.S. ends its quote unquote addiction to nuclear power. The better the end a cleared candidate for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination also charged that the nation's nuclear industry is gearing up for a 1.6 million dollar media blitz to convince people that write you active wastes meltdowns and decommissioning nuclear plants are not problems. A court battle is beginning in Norfolk Virginia which could have far reaching effect on the scores of asbestos related suits pending in Massachusetts courts. The government in the as best as manufacturers are squaring off in a trial that may fix the blame for its

best health problems on the nation's Navy shipyards. Presently as best as manufacturers are suing the government after they were forced in court to award a former shipyard worker damages for us best related health problems its best as producers said the government was at fault for the worker's health problems and want to recover the money which the worker was rewarded. Lawyers say the outcome of the trial should provide a landmark decision in a Special Litigation. In brief tonight the state attorney general's office and the Conservation Law Foundation today appeared in federal court to begin a court challenge of the planned sale of offshore oil and gas leases. The plaintiffs contend the Interior Department failed to assure the preservation of ecological balance the George's Bank and finally had a hearing in Washington today clinical investigators testified that a Boston researcher used an experimental drug labeled only for animal use on human subjects. The senate health subcommittee is looking into how medical researchers test experimental drugs for pharmaceutical companies. The name of the

doctor who was involved with the drug experimentation was not released. And that's the news. Don't buy red coach iceberg lettuce. That is the new slogan of the United Farm Workers and represents the thousands of workers presently on strike at 15 lettuce growing fields in California. The UFW has been urging consumers to boycott nonunion lettuce since last summer but because of the confusion over just what lettuce was nonunion nonunion grown the campaign has been ineffective. So today in Boston Farm Workers president sands or Chavez announced a new campaign to target red coach iceberg lettuce red

coach which is sold extensively in New England supermarkets has grown by the Bruce church company the largest nonunion grower in the country. I asked Chavez this morning why the farm workers have focused on the Bruce church company and how affected how effective he feels the boycott can be in the England. We have a strike with them which is not very successful because of the importation of illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America. We have three big charges against them. Last year the company tried to decertify the union and always worked. Vice President was in charge of the campaign. Some of their goons got Dolores. They they kidnapped her put her in an office and went over to well you know around Sam. We also have charges a state there of course Labor Relations Board is charged Bruce church with a number of m for labor practices there refusing to bargain

in good faith. And then we also have besides a have a dispute on pesticides. Where we can i get Bruce church to declare the pesticides that they're using to us across the negotiating table so we can then begin to see. What isn't there what is it that they're using so we can begin to to make a demand in those chemicals that are you know they're using Iraq toxic or or carcinogenic for people. What are you expecting to accomplish here in Boston your visit this weekend and how has Boston in the past fared in in the you know you have w boycotts. Well to answer your last question first Boston has been in the New England area has been our best by far our best boycott area in the country Boston and San Francisco has something in common in those terms that. If we can get the word out. To the consumer their reaction is very very good here in Boston and it's instantaneous provided we can get the word out.

Here we came to meet with some of the supermarkets to get asked and do not to care Bruce church red label red coach rather the Red Coats label. Not to carry it and to support the boycott. We also came here to get the word out to the media for the press and also for the to meet with some students for planning sessions and also due to meet with with staff from from Canada who will be meeting with us for the purposes of planning their campaigning and I question how you fared so far in trying to convince the supermarkets not to carry red coach. I think a lot better than we have in the past I think that they're realizing that they don't want to get in a fight with us they don't want to have pickets in front of their stores. They're realizing that what we're asking now is something that everybody else is giving us its nothing that different. And they're saying that they

can't they don't want to be caught. They want to be caught in between us and the redcoats people. And so the response is pretty good nothing very definite but very good and a lot of a lot of hope that there will be cooperation. United Farm Workers president says Chavez in Boston today. By day's end Chavez and local organizers had convinced five large supermarket chains in the region to stop selling red coats iceberg lettuce. They include the Sarah Tani capital Fernandez and capital chains. Chavez spoke with Stop and Shop executives today and they will make up their minds this week on the boycott. The Star Market change is not presently stock redcoats lettuce and indicated that they would not change their buying habits in light of the UFW boycott. Well I think first of all I'm going because it's the one thing I mean how many

times have we marched on the Capitol. I think it's very nice to be around all the time. They're going by plane they're going by bus to going by train they're going by car out of Boston at least 2000 are going out of Texas 10000 agoing and fourteen hundred are on a special Amtrak track train from San Francisco. It's the first National Lesbian and Gay national march on Washington scheduled for this Sunday October 14th and expected to draw about 100000 people. Any sense as more I'm sure they may fancy Boston. And I want to know how I think in Washington. How many people I think are going to come. How do you know. Indications from the

hindsight that they didn't think. That was Brandy more at the Washington D.C. logistics headquarters of the Lesbian and Gay national march in Washington. The march was called by an ad hoc coalition of local gay activists from around the country. It is both a lesbian and gay pride event and a demonstration aimed at specific legislation pending in Congress. According to Steve dean at the gay rights national lobby in Washington there are two pro-gay rights bills on Capitol Hill. One in the house and one about to be filed by Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas in the Senate. A third bill is actually a sense of Congress resolution. It is vehemently anti-gay and was filed by the new right wing group Christian Voice.

That resolution would give a sense of Congress that they would NEVER provide civil rights. It's possible right for most into gay men. But I guess I'd like to tell a bit more about this Christian Christian Voice. Christian voice started essentially just this year in it. It's already grown to have almost a hundred thirty thousand members around the country. They have a war chest of over a million dollars for that they're using for direct mail this year to reach out to people that hold the same basic orientation. It's financially a right wing fundamentalist organization. The bill that they found what they're going to do is use that to get into gay people around the country to write to Congress and you have thousands and thousands and thousands of anti gay people write to Congress urging opposition to gay civil rights. And we do not have an equivalent number of people writing to Congress in support of civil rights for gays. It's going to be you know a congressperson. Think long and hard about how much support they want to give tickets for right.

So sounds like they might just kind of happening at a really critical point. Absolutely I think it's extremely important that as many people as possible they can attend the march and know if they cannot attend the march should sit down and I think we should sit down right away and write to their senators and congresspeople urging support for civil rights for gay people. The Boston area March organizing committee has already filled 11 buses with demonstrators including one for 22 day youths which will be leaving the city Saturday morning. In addition to Gail and travel agencies have sold out all the available exclusions airline seats to Washington for Friday night and Saturday morning. Unknown numbers of people are traveling by train and car. One Boston organizer estimated 2000 lesbians and gay men will leave for the march from this area. So why going to the march. Well you know I like you know from taking over the street. I think this is a really important

demonstration because it's to ratify people who are totally with world market I think the most important thing about any kind of market share numbers of people. And even though I find speeches boring and that sort of thing and kind of intervening to get at me I think. I pointed out that there be one more body down there. You know I thought energy and I think that even if you think about it are you getting there. Are you going to be putting to me how many people it's important for GBH Journal. I mean the scenes GBH will air the complete two hour rally following the Lesbian and Gay national march on Sunday night in a live on type broadcast at 10:30 p.m. and you this Sunday October 14 at 10:30. P.M..

There. Was somebody. Speaking. To me. Inflation was the topic last night at the Cambridge forum as part of its problems and prospects series. The guest was Dr. Jay Forester professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT and a proponent of the system's dynamic approach to studying the economy. What that means is that Dr Forrester uses a computer to act out the roles of different segments of the economy to try and learn what effects they have on the system as a whole. Forrester explained to the forum at the causes of the current inflation are a source of great confusion to the public largely because the press and the

politicians keep it that way. Inflation is an easy way out for government. Inflation is a form of confiscation of assets. And yet by professing not to understand the process there is almost a vested interest in maintaining confusion about inflation. And I suspect a lot of people don't want to understand it or they understand it well enough that they don't want it to be generally understood. And it just true that some elements in a society are not particularly bothered by inflation. Others are profiting by it. However as inflation gets worse and worse and there's no way out of this trap you can't just have a steady mild continuing 3 or 4 percent inflation because the system would stabilize back to the same conditions under constant inflation as it would under constant zero inflation the only

way to keep ahead of the inflation process is to have inflation continuously increasing. Now the history of buyout as I understand it in various countries is that the way in which it falls on different people depends a great deal on the severe other than of the inflation and how long it's been going on for example labor unions and nationally do not suffer much from it. They have escalator clauses as the inflation rate goes up still higher weak unions suffer because they can't negotiate fast enough. If you get into a German inflation of the nineteen twenties where prices were being reposed at four times a day for what meals cost in restaurants because of the rate of inflation there is no possibility of any labor union renegotiating wages fast enough to keep ahead of it. And so who benefit. Who has leverage who doesn't pay or depends rather much on how long it's been going on and how

severe it gets. There are some that are doing all right. But more and more you're getting a bigger and bigger group that's not doing all right. The inequities grow too or you get social and political breakdown and at some point governments fall and Archey may set in and to ward this off citizens must be alert to start with and must be very firm and the pressure must come from the public. Forester added that he is encouraged by the recent move by the Federal Reserve Board to begin controlling credit supply rather than just interest rates. He predicts that if the government sticks with that policy inflation may be slowed down. Louis Lyons is back with us tonight.

Unlike the rest of us he's got some comments on inflation as the excitement over the pope's visit passes. We get back to material things to find that bank interest has shot up to a fantastic fourteen and a half percent and that a sodden band of young people has been fanatically engaging a thousand police all week in the rain to stop a nuclear power plant in Seabrooke New Hampshire. The headlines dramatize these two reactions to the two threats of inflation and radiation. But beyond the headline facts the public condition is confusion. People don't understand either of these problems and don't believe the experts do either. Chairman Wagner of the Federal Reserve Board whose drastic no money control policy has sent the stock market into a tailspin. I was asked to give a simple explanation. It's hard to be simple about a field as abstract as money he said. President Carter still blaming the UN

solve the energy problem as the chief cause of inflation. Told his news conference. Energy is one of the most difficult things I ever got involved in. The intent of the Fed's policy is plain enough. They mean to change the expectation of the inevitability of inflation Volcker says the money supply was increasing too fast. We want to bring money under control. So besides raising the rate they charge banks for money. The Fed is requiring banks to hold more in reserve so reducing their capacity to land the fall of 48 points in the stock market in three days is counted as evidence the policy is working. So speculation typically operates on borrowed money. The Fed aims to make it harder to borrow but the forced rise in bank interest is itself adding to inflation in the housing industry. It makes mortgages cost more. So the new secretary of Housing says this is forcing his department to develop a new federal housing program. Briefly it means that government subsidy is now

provided for housing for the poor must be extended to those of middle income arising unemployment is an expected price of this new move against inflation. Government economist was surprised it hadn't shown yet. Indeed unemployment was reduced some in the last monthly figures. It was thought that political pressure would push the president off the new anti-inflation policy. But he said yesterday he fully supports it as the top priority of the administration. Yes the inflation policy leave just confused. The nuclear problem induces schizophrenia. We find ourselves divided in our own individual thinking about it. On the one hand we're told it's the only sufficient answer to our energy and heating needs. The only escape from the fantastic price of Arab oil for the years it will take to develop solar wind or other as yet hypothetical sources on the other hand the danger radiation starkly faces this in the still unsolved question of the Three Mile Island fiasco here was not only an accident

that the most elaborate of foolproof electronics was guaranteed to prevent but uncertainty that lasted for days whether it threatened all the population for miles around. The government didn't know whether to order a massive evacuation and nobody could tell him. But at the plant were foolproof the disposal of the nuclear waste staggers the imagination. It's this that has disturbed many scientists. Its radiation will last a quarter million years. There are not enough salt mines to bury a know. So Page One headline and yesterday's go when the new Tell it is shelves plan for nuclear plant in Oregon one of the reasons for shelving the plans for one and a half million dollar plant. A company spokesman said it was public reaction to the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident and the work of the president's commission on that both contributed to an uncertain future for nuclear power he said. So the only electric system is put together a plan of its own. The company will convert

six or burning plants to coal and supplement the power so generated by water powered by solid waste fired generators by wood burning plants and such miscellaneous sources and wind power. It estimates that these means can use that two thirds of its needed new capacity for all of the other thread with the system depend either on the Seabrook and Pilgrim nuclear plants in which it has a stake or purchase it from Canada. The combination when realized is counted on to save more than a billion dollars over the next 15 years. But the key to the anticipated economy is a plan of energy conservation to hold down the annual increase in demand for power by the incentive of time. Hughes writes The company expects to maintain a level load eliminating peaks of demand load management audits will educate customers in cycling and conditions using solar water heating and induce industrial customers to create energy in their own production

processes. Commentator Louis Lyons. And with those comments from the lines we end this edition of GBH journal for this Thursday. Our producer director that was Marcia Hirtz with engineering provided by was you know years ago we had lots of help tonight from Barbara Rudolph Lorna Feldman nude Walker and we need to know that. I'm correct this jail Good night. Mm.

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