University of Virginia Library

Dellums Calls Injustice No. 1 Problem,
Advocates 'Coalition Politics' As Solution

By PAT GRANEY

CD/Arthur Laurent

"Human Life Is The Most Valuable And Beautiful Product"

"There is one basic problem
in the country today It is not
racism, poverty, military
exploitation or sexism, but
human injustice All issues we
discuss are outward
manifestations of these
powers," Congressman Ronald
V. Dellums of Berkeley. Calif
told a sparse Cabell Hall
audience last night.

"Human life is the most
valuable and beautiful
product "he said, "yet we
continue to bomb and kill each
other, and destroy the birds,
flowers and trees and prevent
the flowering of life."

"Radical Extremist"

Mr. Dellums, who has been
labeled "a radical extremist"
by Vice President Spiro T.
Agnew, addressed the problems
of war, racism, corporate
despotism, health legislation,
drugs, economy, education,
environment and the unjust
penal system

"The Vietnam war is illegal.
immoral and insane," Mr.
Dellums lamented "We kill
and destroy human life in
Southeast Asia, yet rarely do
we pin medals on the chests of
those who work for the desire
to live."

"We have made Vietnam a
very glorious war, yet if
democracy is real," he asserted.
"we ought to invest in it and
tell the people the horrible human
injustice committed there."

"I didn't come to Congress
to sit around for 40 years to
become a fat, senile old man. I
don't agree with the
philosophy that when you
enter Congress, you
immediately start working for
reelection. I don't play that
game."

Advocates Amnesty

The congressman advocates
amnesty for draft dodgers and
praised those who "stood up
against the great human
injustice of America in this
war. We should welcome back
the people who deserted this
country for the cause of
humanity."

Mr. Dellums, a defender of
the Black Panthers and a critic
of the Nixon Administration,
was elected to the House of
Representatives in 1970 by
capturing 60 per cent of the
vote in a predominately white
district He denounced the
middle American society which
prevents blacks from
recognition as first-class
citizens

"Why are blacks in this
country prevented from
flowering and flourishing as
human beings? It is unjust to
pose the color of skin for the
basis."

Emphasizes Public Health

The congressman
emphasized the need for more
concern for public health "We
aren't coming to grips with the
issue when blacks have to
go on television and beg for
money in a country where the
Gross National
Product is over one trillion
dollars."

Mr. Dellums vehemently
attacked sexism which has
"caused us to become
ineffectual human beings That
is what we have done to
women and to ourselves."

Citing statistics from the
Nixon Administration's
Department of Commerce. Mr
Dellums pointed out the
inconsistency in the job market
produced by the Vietnam war

"When the United States
spends one million dollars on
warfare, it creates 59,000 jobs,
and when the government
spends one million dollars in
peacetime it creates 110,000
jobs or specifically twice the
jobs generated by killing."

Mr. Dellums, an advocate of
"Coalition Politics," received a
standing ovation and
concluded,"If we are ever able
to bring political forces
together in the country,
we must take America from
madness to humanity,
exploitation to equality, racism
to freedom and war to peace. I
join you in that effort."