Wilmington (1970, sound)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] The National Guard was called into Wilmington, Delaware in April 1968 and remained on patrol for the next 10 months. The military occupation of Wilmington was proof that American rulers will use armed intervention in their own cities to preserve their private interests. Open violence against blacks is the most extreme reaction of a system which in fact represses each class of its people and is only one of its means of control. [Music] Delaware and the city of Wilmington have been for two centuries the private domain of the DuPont Company, the largest chemical corporation in the world. company has made its fortune by providing munitions and explosives for the US military, by controlling stock and General Motors and other giant corporations, and by creating markets for its products in the United States and in every principal country in Europe and Latin America. In order to invent new products, create more markets, and make bigger profits, it invests billions of dollars in research, almost all of which takes place in its native Delaware. In addition to Dupont, most of America's big businesses have their headquarters in Delaware because the state designed special tax exemptions and privileges favorable to them. The presence of so many corporations brings the state additional revenues and also conveniently lowers taxes for DuPont. The DuPont family has the largest private fortune in the United States. In order to protect this fortune in this commercial empire, DuPont requires complete stability in its city and state. There is virtually no institution in Delaware which the Dupants do not control. The family has run its own candidates for the state senate and legislature in either party without opposition. The major banks are owned or controlled by the Dupants. This means control over investments and loans and the power to determine how the money is used. As the state's largest employer, DuPont and its related industries control the job market, too. The company itself hires 30,000 people in Delaware, most of them whites. The media is another essential part of DuPont control. They own and run the city's only newspaper. They also provided the financing for Delaware's TV station. This control is made to appear beneficial. The Dupants have therefore built two high schools for Wilmington. Their money has financed the University of Delaware, churches, hospitals, and expressways. Such corporate generosity feeds the myth that big business is necessary to public well-being. It is actually a long range investment in the white community. In return, the city and the state provide the Dupants with stability. [Music] [Applause] [Music] the whites in the community probably you've never seen the guard but I felt oh that I was oppressed though by having the guard simply drive by when I was downtown on occasion and uneasy about living in a police state. And when I was asked to attend a meeting of the white coalition where I thought that this at least would provide an opportunity perhaps for me to do something about this concern, I offered to be involved and became a co-chairman of the study and research group of the white coalition. Most of us are in this neighborhood are professional people who have come here to work for the Dupont company. I'm a research supervisor at the DuPont experimental station and was working in the laboratory until in September when I was promoted to this whole job. I felt no pressure from DuPont. As a matter of fact, my colleagues at work and my supervision have been more supportive of the action that I've taken within the white coalition than my own neighbors or the people in my local church. DuPont encourages its upper level management to be active in civic affairs. Public concern for the black community projects a benevolent corporate image without actually challenging the institutional racism which serves the company. The well-being of white workers relative to the poverty of blacks is useful in keeping the workers from recognizing their own oppression. What's more, they cannot organize for their real demands because they're kept from joining national unions. In Delaware, all DuPont plants have company unions with no strike clauses. There hasn't been a strike against DuPont since 1930. To mask its tight control over its bluecollar workers, DuPant hands out a few fringe benefits. Well, I'm Al Meyers and I'm a associate professor of psychology at the University of Delaware and uh I'm in trouble here at the university. mainly trouble being defined as I'm losing my job uh because I uh uh have been involved with political activity on the campus. The Dupants oversee not only their employees but also the students who are their future managers and technicians. To this end, they have provided the University of Delaware with most of its endowment. They have also erected many halls and laboratories to guard this investment. They control the board of trustees, the majority of which are dupants or company officials. By having absolute sway over all university policy, they can be sure that disruptive influences are removed. Well, the whole thing started, I guess, a year ago when we had a um antiot uh demonstration on the campus. We used to have compulsory ROC. Likewise, the boards of most of the local high schools are run by company men. In this way, all schools are designed to produce docil citizens who will serve Dupont interests. Should the students try to act in their own interests, they are dealt with. Okay. Hi, I'm uh Rod Beaton. I'm a senior lexicide high school. I was suspended this year uh about a couple months ago for inviting an outside speaker to come speak to a uh club. You know, there was a very involved situation. And I had scheduled one speaker to come talk on the uh firing of two professors, both, you know, liberal to radical, whatever, however you want to classify them, at the University of Delaware and the alleged DuPont complicity in their firing. And um the next morning I was called in and told I was being suspended. And when I asked exactly what the charge was, the charge was general insubordination. And I was suspended because uh I was circulating communist propaganda, which merely was an announcement of a meeting. And uh the leaflet just told the time and place and some of the things that might be discussed there. And this was communist propaganda. When you have an appeal, what do you have to do? You have to go to the board. What do they do? Pon. And so it's a dead end. And they do control the schools. Uh when I wrote my article in this that heterodoxical voice, a principal calls up my father who surprisingly enough is an employee of DuPont knowing that he's going to get some sort of intimidation, some sort of repercussions, and maybe not get the advancement that he wanted. And uh you know this is what we're up against. In the fall, the governor installed special monitors in city schools to police the students. Right after the death of Martin Luther King, they called the police in. He grabbed me and told me I was under arrest and uh he wouldn't, you know, he never said why. I uh resisted and uh that I mean, you know, he'd like I mean I thought I was playing football. He tackled me in the hall. Two weeks before the National Guard was mobilized, state troopers were being used to attack students from Delaware State and welfare mothers who were demonstrating at the state capital. DuPont itself prefers to use nonviolent methods to deal with the black community. Black people, even though they are half of Wilmington's population, don't get hired by DuPont. The company has no use for them as a workforce. But the Dupants do have to pretend to reckon with the needs of the black community because it threatens the city's stability. They contrived to create a special agency, the Greater Wilmington Development Corporation, which funnels money into the ghetto via various smaller social agencies. The board of directors is headed by the Dupont family. But just the other day, $200, Ray said, "Right, here it is." And you boys go ahead and do what you got to do. That this kind of crap is not going to be tolerated by the black community any longer. GWDC, you can read it in the paper. They're not ashamed to admit it. They're through with social organization now. That's that's the end of it. Governor Peterson has been elected. You know, we've dibbled and dabbled into this community crap. They had what they called a failure with one youth youth group in town. Now it's all over. The black communities are not going to be pawns of the white power structure to play games and then get tired and give it up. In Wilmington, direct corporate interference in ghetto agencies puts limits on the possibilities of open militancy. In the particular case of WAC, Dupant used its front GWDC first to hand out funds then to cut them off when the group began to show political power. When these maneuvers failed to stop WEAK activity in the community, the police were given a free hand to harass and arrest its staff and leaders. [Music] Well, weak at the uh offset was a very close-knit small group which was well organized and they were together. But after they started moving and and getting bigger and WDC come in uh giving support and this to me was sort of like a a way to end a political, social or economic threat. All right. They busted me when I go when I go to court. Uh the uh uh the the judge says, "Well, $1,000 bail uh next case." I work for Weak. We hackers just started. So he said, "Well, wait a minute. You sit down over here." Next thing I know, here come two white lawyers. I don't know where they come from. They want to handle my case. So everybody else goes to the prison and they cut me loose. Dupant turned the repressive situation to its own liberal advantage when company executives themselves bailed out some of the weak prisoners. Others remain in jail. DuPont money and police intimidation work hand in hand. Tonight will be the last night that National Guard Jeep patrols will roam the streets of Wilmington, unless they should be called into action in some future emergency. Governor elect Russell Peterson has broken his self-imposed post election silence. The patrols have helped breed fear and suspicion and hate and have tended to divide the black and white communities at a time when the overriding need is for unity and mutual trust. Once the troops had accomplished their purpose, Delaware's political powers decided it was time to propose peace. The removal of the National Guard was the first step towards consolidating a new liberal reputation and towards dispelling the uneasiness caused by prolonged military occupation. It also served as a pretext for expanding the local police. Like other corporation Republicans, they've learned that the most effective long range answer to political disscent is to institute so-called reforms. To handle the job, DuPont called on its liberal politicians. The new governor, Russell Peterson, was a DuPont executive for 23 years. Harry Haskell, the new mayor, is married to a DuPant and is the son of a company vice president. Because of his vast personal fortune, he has generously declined to be salaried by the city. Many of his new aids are former DuPont executives. Political power is nothing new for the Dupants, who have always controlled both parties in Delaware. The new regime gives the Dupants more direct control of state power. No matter what liberal face they put on, they will be forced to use the same means to maintain it. I have reached the following decision. Immediately upon my inauguration as governor, I shall order the new agitant general to withdraw National Guard troops from Wilmington. I do so with the firm assurance that the citizens will not only be fully protected but will be better protected than they are today. Corporate liberalism is designed to make people think that the system will make changes for the better. But the dupants have always been the rulers and they have no intention of giving up their power.