MonitoRadio Daily Program; [1990-02-06]

From Boston, this is Monitor Radio, a broadcast service of the Christian Science Monitor. I'm Marty Haas, coming up on this Tuesday, February 6th. Gorbachev's proposals to shake up the Communist Party, shake up the Central Committee in Moscow. Desmond Tutu praises South African reforms, but warns that the pillars of apartheid still stand. And full circle plays some jazz and some rock, but don't call it fusion. Those stories just ahead on Monitor Radio, right after a summary of the day's news with Lisa Watts. A crucial meeting of the Soviet Communist Party leadership is being extended into a third day. Delegates say the session was suspended so a commission could complete changes to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's platform, which includes an end to the party's monopoly on power. We'll have more on today's meeting later in our broadcast. Meanwhile, the one -day extension could push the meeting into the visit by Secretary of State James Baker tomorrow, who will be meeting with his Soviet counterpart Edward Chevronadza. Thousands of people fill the old town square and Prague today to demand that Soviet troops get out of Czechoslovakia. The troops are

seen as occupiers who crushed the Czechoslovak Prague Spring Reform Drive back in 1968. In the first reports of Nelson Mandela's reaction to reforms announced by a South African President F .W. DeKlerk, the jailed African National Congress leader has called DeKlerk's reform speech courageous and hopeful. Patti Clay reports from Cape Town. Arab states are

seriously concerned about the massive exodus of Soviet Jews to Israel. They're sending out special delegations to Washington, Moscow, and the European community, asking for the immigrant flow to be cut down from Tunis Penny Gibbons reports. In other news, President Bush is starting a trip to counter demands for a bigger defense spending cuts. He arrived in California today to address troops and watch wargames at Fort Irwin. He warned of what he

calls uncertainties and dangers, despite the reforms in the Soviet block. Meanwhile, back in Washington, Democratic Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Les Aspen, kept up the pressure for changes. He said the administration's defense budget failed to match the new political realities at home or abroad. A federal appeals court is considering whether to throw out to Oliver Norse Iran contra convictions. North was the main player in the arms to Iran and secret aid to the country's affair. His lawyers contend that publicity from his nationally broadcast testimony to Congress back in 1987 and properly influenced his indictment and trial. Advocates for a new voter registration method received a welcome boost on Capitol Hill today. The House put the so -called Motor Voter Bill on the fast track toward becoming law. Aaron Cohen reports from Washington. This is one thing at the Department of Motor Vehicles that won't cost you anything. The Motor Voter Bill would register all eligible voters who want to be at the time they get a driver's license with the goal of increasing voter turnout.

White House opposition to the bill puzzles House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt. If the White House is looking at this bill with criticism because they're worried it's going to hurt Republicans, then they're making a horrible mistake. Some Republicans have complained that Motor Voter registration will be too cumbersome and too expensive for many states that argument may have impressed the Senate out of which no spokesman for the bill has emerged. For monitor radio, I'm Aaron Cohen on Capitol Hill. And finally, the Dow fell nearly 16 and a half points on Wall Street today, closing at 2606 .31. For monitor radio, I'm Lisa Watts. Soviet Communist Party leaders added an unexpected third day to their crucial meeting in Moscow today. The extension is a clear sign of the controversy generated by President Macau Gorbachev's proposals to revamp his country's political structure. Correspondent Ben Ro has details. The Moscow

Party meeting has been dubbed the hardliners last stand and they're not going quietly according to accounts by plan and participants and from the official toss news agency. Many of Gorbachev's radical proposals envisioning a multi -party system, a strengthen presidency, and a new top party structure have come under blistering attack by conservative party members. The most critical solvows came from Hardline Polypiero member Diego Ligachov, whose speech was reportedly interrupted three times by applause. Soviet ambassador to Poland, Vladimir Gorbachev, called the draft hardly acceptable. Gorbachev, who is a central committee holdover from the Brezhnev era, said it contained no assessment of mistakes in the perestroika period. It has become fashionable to blame all our disasters on the past, he said, but what we are facing now is not the result of yesterday's stagnation, but of perestroika. But in spite of the attacks on the right and the left, plenty of attendees say Gorbachev's platform is receiving broad support. Central committee member Gennady Yagodon, in particular, likes the call to reduce the

ruling body size. I agree with the suggested measures about perestroika, the central committee of the party, not just a reduction of the number of members as Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev suggests, but in reducing the number, we bring each remaining member to life. And even Yagod Ligachov reportedly joined the call for doing away with Article 6 of the Soviet Constitution, which guarantees the Communist Party's monopoly of power. It was also echoed by Soviet Prime Minister Nikolay Rishkov, who said a multiparty system was a threat to complete. Gorbachev's draft platform will be voted on tomorrow and then introduced at the 28th Communist Party Congress, which was moved up from October to early summer. But a predicted major reshuffle of the party's central committee and ruling Politburo may not occur until the next plenum meeting, due with the end of February. For modern radio, I'm Benjamin Rowe in Moscow. Last Friday, South Africa's President Frederick DeClerk

legalized the Long Band African National Congress and set the stage for eventually negotiating an end to decades of a partake and repression. The reaction to DeClerk's bold moves has ranged from overwhelming international approval to outright opposition from extremist South African whites. But most South Africans, and nearly all of its majority black population, greeted DeClerk's Friday speech with enthusiasm. Many people are still reeling and seeking to believe that it has actually happened. Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu. There's still a great deal of joy in most of the people, but people are also more sober in their assessment. I mean, they realize that the pillars of a party are still there. So we still have major obstacles, but we are on the way, it seems. In a conversation with monitor radio, Archbishop Tutu attributed

DeClerk's willingness to negotiate with South African black leaders to international pressure. The South African white community and the government particularly can no longer take a siege economy. And he's a pragmatist. He recognizes his reality and knows that an order for South Africa to survive, for the white people to survive, that is going to have to be very major accommodation with the aspirations of the majority. Tutu hailed the unbanning of the African National Congress, but sounded a note of caution. It has been operating as an illegal entity for 30 years and now is going to be coming out and having to operate above board. But it has a head start on most organizations in having an almost spontaneous, automatic, fervent support in the black community. Another major element of

President DeClerk's speech was his promise to release anti -apartheid activists Nelson Mandela from jail. Desmond Tutu calls that a much needed step, but cautions that Mandela will not leave prison until certain conditions are met. One of them is obviously lifting the state of emergency. Another is the whole question of the emnesty for political prisoners and exiles. We don't have a general emnesty. It is a selective emnesty. And it may also be that the question of his own personal safety is an issue to be considered. Overall, Desmond Tutu is excited about the latest developments in his country, but urges opponents of apartheid to continue to press the South African government to reform. On Sunday, the Archbishop called on Harvard University to sell $139 million worth of shares and companies that do business in South Africa until it becomes clear that the promised reforms will take place. Anti

-apartheid activists have issued similar calls for years in the hopes of applying economic pressure on Pretoria. Investors have in fact shied away from becoming or at least appearing to become too cozy with South Africa. But monitor business analyst Bill Bruce says that seems to be changing in the wake of President DeClerc's promises of reform. Bill, what have you seen in the past few days in investments in South Africa? Well, Marty, it may be that South Africa is losing its pariah status among international investors. During the first two trading sessions this week, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's Industrial Index was up more than 7 percent. That's because people have the feeling perhaps that President DeClerc's announcement is the start of something big in South Africa. Then are you saying that these investments will become a sure thing? Oh, not at all, Marty. Already, South Africa's main right -wing political party is calling on South South African whites to act against

DeClerc's announcement. And there will undoubtedly be more turmoil as negotiations move forward. But investors obviously think that this is a bullish thing that DeClerc's announcement Friday was a bullish thing for investing in South Africa. And they are investing. They've pushed the industrial index there up quite strongly. And privately, some brokers say there's there's lots more foreign money on the sidelines. I want to point out that it's very difficult to get most investment people in this country to talk about what's going on there. But I have been told by a few that there does seem to be foreign money on the sidelines, and it's sort of a wait -and -see posture that they're taking. Take a minute for us if you would and contrast investment in South Africa versus investment in Eastern Europe or the Pacific Rim, for instance. Well, there are certain similarities. I think that we could use the broadly use the word reform as a keyword here. I tend to think it was an expansion of the economic brotherhood of man, if you would, where everyone gets a shot

at what we used to call here the American dream of ownership of property and the right to choose and to be free. That's a very big investment impetus. And I think that that's happening all over the world right now, as we've seen through various indices, the Pacific Rim, Eastern Europe, and now, of course, South Africa. Monitor business analyst Bill Bruce. You're listening to Monitor Radio, a broadcast service of the Christian Science Monitor on American Public Radio. I'm Maddie Haas. In all likelihood, the Environmental Protection Agency will soon become the Department of the Environment. It would be more than just a name change. It would be a kind of promotion to the cabinet. EPA

Administrator William Riley urged the change today in testimony before the Senate, and President Bush and members of both houses of Congress are supporting it. But Monitor Radio's Ken Barkas reports that some consider the probable change to be merely cosmetic. It is with some irony that historians will note that it was on Ronald Reagan's anti -government watch that the Department of Veterans Affairs was added, making it the 14th Cabinet -Level Department. While George Bush initially regarded cabinet status for the EPA as unnecessary bureaucratic tinkering, he too is approving cabinet inflation. In all likelihood, the EPA will soon become the Department of the Environment. That effort began in earnest today before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Ohio Democrat John Glenn. May sub -cabinet EPA sends the wrong signal to the rest of the world about the priority and the leadership given by the United States to the cause of environmental protection. Environmental protection, which has been the agency's emphasis since its creation in 1970. At that time, the EPA was a small

independent agency with the mission of protecting the nation's water and air. In subsequent years, it has blossomed into an agency with wide ranging responsibilities, 16 ,000 employees, and a $5 billion budget. EPA Administrator William Riley says cabinet rank will put him in a better position to deal effectively with other government agencies. We find ourselves negotiating with, collaborating with, sometimes arguing with other agencies of the Federal Establishment. I think that cabinet status cannot, but help in strengthening the recognition for the brief we carry to those negotiations. We have had agencies who have ignored environmental laws. We've had federal agencies who have ignored federal environmental laws, and they have been able to do that because it was easy for the Secretary of Defense to tell the administrator of EPA that he didn't have to listen. Sharon Newsom is

with the National Wildlife Federation, a group that has led the effort to get the EPA cabinet rank. While most environmentalists are pleased with the proposal, some are concerned that the move is politically motivated. That George Bush, the self -acclaimed environmental president, is looking for an inexpensive way to silence critics who complain that the administration is long on rhetoric and short on concrete proposals. Senator David Pryor today raised that concern with William Riley. My fear is that by elevating EPA to a cabinet level status, there is going to be merely wind addressing. Senator Pryor today criticized the EPA for what he called its dependence on outside contractors and consultants to do much of its work. The Arkansas Democrats cited examples of the EPA hiring consultants for such tasks as writing congressional testimony for EPA officials and even drafting internal memos. A practice he likened to the tale wagging the dog. This is on your watch, Mr. Riley. I'm trying to be helpful. I just want to remind you of

really what is going on and I hope that you know. I think you're concerned about a very important problem. I do know about it and I respect your leadership on it and will issue some comprehensive guidance on this in April of this year that we have been working for some time to prepare. There are other environmental experts who have doubts about the symbolism involved in elevating the EPA. Kathy Kushner, Environmental Director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees that the move does send a signal, but she sees it as the wrong one. This will be seen, this will be reported as proofs that Bush is serious about the environment when in fact it indicates exactly the opposite that he's not going to look for any fresh approach to environmental policy. He wants to build a consensus and that's not an environment in which bold policy initiatives take place. Others argue that as the issue of global warming gains in international importance, a cabinet level department of the environment

goes a long way in meeting the challenge. Legislation making the EPA a cabinet level department is on the fast track in both houses of Congress. The president would like to sign the bill on April 22nd, the designated date for Earth Day. From Washington, I'm Ken Barker's reporting. The AIDS epidemic and its effects are being felt worldwide. The World Health Organization today said it has sent two AIDS experts to Romania to follow up on reports that the East European nation has an epidemic of AIDS among children. In Poland last week, half a dozen AIDS sufferers needed police protection to hold off an angry mob as they were being transferred to a care facility in Warsaw. In this country, AIDS victims rarely meet that sort of overt hostility anymore, but at least one organization claims that AIDS sufferers are meeting hostility of a more subtle variety. Monitor correspondent Meredith Lewis reports from New York. Act up the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power will

pick at anyone or anything it sees standing in the way of their fight against AIDS. If ACT UP appears extreme, members say it's because many of them have AIDS and they are fighting for their lives. This time, the target of this demonstration is the Federal Center's for Disease Control in Atlanta, which ACT UP claims is underestimating the actual numbers of AIDS cases. ACT UP took its first big demonstration to Wall Street last September, where they interrupted treating. The protest dramatized the high price of AZT, a drug which then cost AIDS patients $10 ,000 a year. Although manufacturer Burles welcome later said it reduced prices because sales went up, ACT UP claimed a major victory when AZT

became more affordable. ACT UP is also succeeded in getting experimental drugs to AIDS patients earlier than usual. Normally, it takes years for the government to approve an experimental drug. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health says ACT UP's participation in all of this has been constructive. The difficulty was is that the process did not allow for those people who had absolutely no other option who could not get on the clinical trial. So with they, together with ourselves now, but they played a major role and it brought up the point that we have to be more flexible. But ACT UP's results on other AIDS issues haven't been as clear cut. The group has attacked New York's Catholic Archdiocese, whose hospitals get state funds for AIDS care, but whose leader John Cardinal O 'Connor will not allow his hospital's clinics to teach what most health professionals call safe sex methods. We do try to teach safe sex in

a way that sex outside of marriage is usually or frequently unsafe and that the safest sex is complete abstinence. Last December, ACT UP invaded services at St. Patrick's Cathedral, desecrating communion, interrupting O 'Connor's sermon. Many New Yorkers were furious. What's happened is they've become as do all people who believe that they somehow have some specially chosen God -given right to knowledge and that anyone who disagrees with them is not only wrong but evil. Dr. Stephen Joseph is New York City's former health commissioner. They become the very kind of intolerance that they that they argue against and I think that's very unfortunate. Larry Kramer, the co -founder of ACT UP, defends his group's actions. We want to end the epidemic, but we're not afraid to be angry. We don't care whether you like us or not. We have very specific goals in view and short of violence. I think we will use almost any means to get there.

While ACT UP continues its highly publicized events, the group now meets regularly with government health agencies, which is seen as a measure of their growing political clout. Following studies which showed the effectiveness of lower amounts of ACT, ACT UP campaigned to get the government to lower the recommended dosage. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration agreed and reduced the dosage by one half. For Monitor Radio, this is Meredith Lewis in New York. Full circle plays an eclectic blend of jazz, contemporary classical, gospel rooted rhythm and blues and rock and roll. The quintet won the 1989 Boston Music Award for outstanding jazz group on a major label and is currently working on material for its third album. The Christian science monitors music critic

Amy Duncan recently spoke with two members of Full Circle, keyboard player Carl Lundberg and vocalist and percussion man Philip Hamilton. Lundberg was reluctant to define Full Circle's music as fusion. It's not fusion, but it is fusion. It's a fusion of all kinds of different music, people, places, experiences. I know that you've got to, in the band, that you have a couple of people from Scandinavia and I think you're your background of Scandinavian as well. And then on the other hand, you're bringing in elements of African Brazilian Caribbean. Am I right? Yeah, it's one of the strong points of the group. Actually speaking about Full Circle, what it is is when we first started the group, it was mainly a jazz group, but the more we started incorporating each of our individual influences in the music, it's all come back Full Circle to where we all came from now. Now when you listen to Full Circle, you're elements of rock and and funk and reggae and clips, so which is a lot of my background too. Right.

Yeah. You know, Philip, you're up there and you're singing in something that sounds like an African tongue. What is this? Well, it's actually a language that there's no particular language. What I've been doing the last few years is listening to music from Brazil and different parts of Africa. And because I can't, I don't have time to learn the languages, I've taken certain phrases and inflect vocal inflections and made up my own language that incorporate all of that. Can you speak it and make me understand what you're saying? Not at this time. Not yet, but you know, we're working on it. Well, I think it really adds a nice sound.

Also, I like the sound of the flute. I think this is, as you were telling me before when we were talking, is that it's one of the things that sets Full Circle apart from your sort of run of the mill fusion. Yeah, a lot of jazz and jazz fusion and modern jazz and contemporary jazz groups are pretty concentrated around saxophones, guitars, trumpets, sort of the traditional instruments of jazz. And as soon as we got rid of those instruments, I love those instruments. Everyone loves those instruments. But as soon as we started working with instruments that were different than that, suddenly we had a very different sound and the flute and the voice are very sort of prime evil sounds. They're not complex. They're very simple. They mesh well. So that there's a whole tapestry of colors and sounds that we can get with the voice and the flute and the synthesizers and all blends. It all goes together. That's some pretty stuff. I really like that. You've got a new album coming out and you want to fill me in. We should

be recording it sometime in April and it should be in the record stores, May or June. But the next album looks to be it's taking Full Circle a step further. That's what I was going to ask you. Are you going to continue on in the same veins or anything really startling and new? On this next album, I let a lot of doors open that were previously unopened from our collective past. A lot of jazz musicians have a tendency to have been very closed in their upbringing. They listen to jazz. They listen to culture in Parker and that's fine. But that's all I did. Well, I think that's where this band is a little different because I listen to a lot of Genesis and art rock and weird things like that. A lot of classical music. Philip listen to a lot of reggae. So there's all these different influences that I think we're letting that come out. The music of Full Circle brings this edition of Monateradia to a close.

Tomorrow, children's literature specialist Amy Cohn takes note of Black History Month with a review of children's books by Black authors and illustrators. I hope you'll join us. We'll talk with you again from Boston. Thanks for listening. I'm Marty Haas and this is the American Public Radio Network.