The Aletheia (Dickens-Dayton Publishing Co., Chicago, IL), 1971-02-10

              It/A a, VOLUME RUTH WELDO^ Richard Friedman is the Republican candidate for mayor of the city of Chicago, running against Richard Daley. That's like Yoko Lennon announcing her candidacy for Queen of England. In this era of political realism, one must consider Friedman's action as either obeying the whims of the Daley machine or as quixotic action of political suicide. There is reason for both assumptions.One may ask why the Republican party must reach outside its lines and take an independent Democrat as its candidate. That action could cause bitterness among loyal party members and unless there is some special reason behind Friedman's candidacy it seems unlikely that the Republican would-be kingmakers would nominate an outsider. But suppose you don't 1 ike to ... a poor, TOM HARTMANN A few weeks ago, the Rev. Jesse Jackson announced that he would circulate petitions for his nomination as a mayoral candidate. On Monday, February |, Rev. Jackson submitted nominating petitions containing more than 7,000 signatures to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners in City Hall. The 7,000 signatures fell short of the number set by law as the number equal to five percent of the total vote in the last A rich, white executive think that a deal could have been made between parties to throw a candidate to the wolves and then reward him for faithful service— the question arises of why Richard Friedman left a good position as Executive Director of the Better Government Association (B6A) which he had since 1969 to try to defeat the totalitarian government and dictator that run Chicago. According to Friedman, the BGA "conducted more than 100 investigations into government corruption, bungling and inefficiency and saved taxpayers more than $50 mill ion." If this is true, then Friedman obviously could do a great deal of good at the post by reveal ing the corruption that keeps the machine and Daley al ive. Instead, he chose the path where he can be stomped into political oblivion, where he can do no harm at al1 to those in power. What reward will he have for this—a shoebox to hide in his closet? Or is this attitude over- A A NUMBER A JOURNAL OF ISSUES AND EVENTS FOR UNIVERSITY READERS F£V3.10,1S71 TINKERING WITH TH MACHINE black preacher general elect ion—58,000. Regular party candidates need only .5 percent. Presently, Jackson is appealing the federal court ruling that dismissed his challenge of that state law the court rebutted with the decision that regular party candidates face difficulty insofar as they must run in party primaries. The appeal contends that the law places undue hardship on independent candidates, that the federal court ruling was split 2-1» and that one panel member is a former law partner of tne present mayor. While Jackson waits for the Supreme Court to hand down its ruling, he isn't talking about the case. In a formal speech on Saturday, Feb. 6, before Operation Breadbasket members, Jackson instead spoke about the purposes behind black candidacy. He spoke of the need for proper representation of blacks and minority groups and the pervasive hope for proper application of government. On black participation in all aspects of city government, Jack- ly cynical? To give Friedman credit his main issue is political patronage, and he is attacking the man responsible for it in Chicago. In a speech delivered to the Public Relations Club of Chicago on January 13, 1971 he refers to a certain mayor as "King Richard, Master of the last big-city bosscontrolled political machine in this nation." He points out the inefficiency of the machine: "...Of all the taxing districts taking bites out of the propertyowner's pocketbook...the city of Chicago's rate increased the most ...by forty cents per $100 of assessed valuation. "The mayor may smirk...and his party backs may laugh...when I say that my studies of the new city budget—a budget that is bloated by an additional $55 million this year alone—shows a waste factor of 20% or $150 million a year." While this may not be a rallying cry to the youth of the city, son called black expectations "the same as anybody's: to run our 1 ives, to plan our future, to reap the rewards of our efforts." Because whites work for themselves, and because blacks work for whites, Jackson continued, "we have nobody doing ours (work). We want full equality, power, and what is rightfully ours. Politics is a way to gain a fair share of power." In the past blacks got representation, he says, but what is needed is a share of power, the abi 1 ity to act. Rev. Jackson called for a fair share in the management of city agencies: "We must run our lives from the planning stage to the action stage. We need a share of seats on the Chicago Housing Authority. More blacks are needed. The chairman of the CHA is white, the director of the CHA is white, and |0 of 12 board members are white. Yet we make up 90 percent of the housing. We will no longer accept mere token seats we must have a share of the control." And on the problem of patronage and may not have much meaning for the blocks stuck in ghettos, it does have some significance for the man who owns his house. In another quote from the same speech, Friedman calls attention to the corruption in Urban Renewr al. "...Urban Renewal wastelands. Past Urban Renewal projects have actually reduced the amount of low-income housing in the city of (continued on page 8) jobs he demanded a change in, or equalization in the system. As it exists now, the patronage wastes over $100 million yearly. The last point Jackson made was in regard to the units attached to the mayor's office (the units being the budgetary division, model cities, economy and cultural development, inquiry and information, the data center, public relations, and investigation divisions) one black man is the head of the model cities unit, but no other division is headed by a black, or for that matter, a woman or Derson of Spanish descent. What kind of representation is that? he asks. In terms of governmental spending Jackson notes what the priorities are today, and implies what he thinks the real priorities are. $35\ 500,000 goes toward cleaning the city streets, while air pollution receives just $2,500,000. One mi 11 ion dollars will now build subways which do not adequately serve the south- continued on page 8)