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on
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with The Final Call

When President Bill Clinton signed the historic Trade and Development Act of 2000 May 18, opening up markets in this country to products manufactured and produced in Africa and the Caribbean, he gave the first ceremonial pen to Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), the law�s chief author and the chief shepherd of the bill through its five arduous years of legislative battles. Rep. Rangel, is a founding member and former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. He is the senior Democratic member of  the Committee on Ways and Means and  the dean of the New York congressional delegation. In this interview, he tells Final Call correspondent Askia Muhammad that his role in crafting legislation to formalize U.S. trading relations with Africa and the Caribbean represents his proudest achievement. And he said the Million Family March, set for Oct. 16, 2000  in Washington, three weeks before election day will be an important five year anniversary of the Million Man March because: �Anything that would be as well planned and as well organized as the Million Man March, has to have an impact. It has to, there�s no question about it.�

Final Call (FC): Does Congress have the will to make the hard decisions that are necessary to ensure the stability of Social Security in the future?

Charles Rangel (CR): I guess the question really is: Are they prepared to do it in an election year? And the answer of course is no. Are they prepared to do it in the future? It could very well be that it would take a bi-partisan commission, or a non-partisan commission on which none of the people are elected. Because the real fear is that they�re trying to decrease the benefits; that people would start talking about extending the retirement age because people are living longer; or getting rid of some of the survivor benefits, or disability benefits.

But for some of us this is a promise that was made and is a promise that has to be kept if there�s a way to do it. It�s not really a question �if we have the courage to do it.� It�s something that has to be done. It�s just not going to happen this year.

FC: Speaking of the election year, there�s speculation that the Democrats may be in a position to win back control of the House this year. What are those prospects?

CR: Well, we�ve been blessed. The Republicans have 23 members of the House of Representatives that are not running for re-election. Those seats are much easier to win than if you had a Republican incumbent that you were challenging. We only have five seats that are vacant, and in those we have three former members of Congress running for them. We have been able to raise money so that we�re going to be competitive. We have excellent candidates. We really think that their (the Republicans) lack of leadership on Social Security, on Medicare, on patient-bills-of-rights, on gun safety, on minimum wage, there�s not one thing that we can think of that they should feel proud in going to the voters. On the other hand, it�s a long time between now and November. I crisscross the country every week, raising funds, supporting candidates, and all of us are doing that. We can only hope that the people will give us another opportunity to lead and be in the majority.

FC: This election year there are concerns�even though yourself and other Blacks are in prominent, influential, positions in the Democratic Party and the Gore campaign�there is still a sense among some that the Party is taking Black voters for granted. Is there a need, and/or a mechanism for keeping Al Gore and the Democratic Party honest?

CR: There is, but I don�t think you achieve that honestly by splitting your vote, because the Republican Party refuses really to open up its doors. In the House of Representatives they�ve got one Black member, one Latino member, and one Jewish member, and so the door is not even cracked. There is so much more that we could achieve in the Democratic Party, that in my opinion, you don�t achieve it by staying home and not participating, but by getting active in the Democratic Party and demanding that your voices be heard, that representation be given, and that opportunities be had. It just seems to me that since we have to win on all fronts�the legislative front, the executive front, the judicial front�that we can�t afford the luxury to say that we need George Bush in the White House, or we need Tom DeLay in the House, or we need Clarence Thomas in the Supreme Court.

FC: Criticism persists of your Africa trade bill from those who say that the bill really favors corporate America more than it does Africa?

CR: The whole art of legislating, is trying to get something passed, and knowing that sometimes, the more that you can achieve in terms of the language of your legislation, the more votes you�re losing in terms of getting it passed. Then too, there are some critics who just don�t know what they�re talking about, but still would like to have a rallying point to have it appear that they know better what is for Africa than the African leaders and the African business people do. That bothers me a little, because, as a Black American it seems as though I always remember some liberal white saying what was best for me. For those who say that American corporations benefit. I suspect initially, if the U.S. was trading with anyone, we would be trading with foreign companies.

So, technically we could say that the entrepreneurs, both foreign and in the United States, initially are the ones who are going to be successful. But these are the ones who take the risk. These are the ones who invest their monies, build the factories, and employ the people. Hopefully, the people themselves will be able to have savings and disposable incomes and be able to go into businesses for themselves. When 48 heads of state and foreign trade ministers, and every diplomatic ambassador says: �Hey. This is what we want,� I listen respectfully to the critics, but quite frankly, I am convinced that we did the right thing.

FC: You�ve had a very long and distinguished career, which continues with the prospect of being Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Is there a moment that sticks out as being your proudest in Congress?

CR: No one has ever asked me that question before. And while I have passed bills that certainly would have more of an economic impact in our country: the Empowerment Zone bills; the low income housing credit; the targeted jobs credit; the protection of local and state tax deductibility; the dropping of 6 million low-income people from the tax roles completely. But to tell you the truth, when I traveled with the president (to Africa) last year, and he asked me what part of the trip was most memorable to me? I thought and I told him: �Mr. President, you know, what�s memorable to me is that I left the United States feeling I was a pretty good American, and I came back a better human being, knowing that Charlie Rangel is not a minority.� To be able to see these millions of Black folks and brown folks, all over Africa, and to realize that for 69 years I have accepted without contesting, the fact that people have labeled me a minority. I never even felt the heavy weight of being a minority until I realized I wasn�t one of them. That then, made me realize that I have a heavy responsibility to Africa, and to Asia, and to South America, and to the Caribbean.

When I was in Mozambique during the independence celebration, I was having dinner that evening with the minister of finance. He said to me: �You know Congressman, when the Portuguese and the French were bombing my country, we would come out after the bombing and look at the bomb casings, stenciled on those fragments, was �Made in the U.S.A.� � He said �Congressman, are you made in the U.S.A.?�

It was then that I knew that Africans never considered Blacks in the United States as Africans at all. They only considered us as Americans. The reason that they felt this way was because after our color and our features, we had been stripped of everything to identify us with Africa, even to the extent that in my neighborhood, in the schools, one would insult each other by calling them African.

Then came the United Nations. Then came people of all different colors, and different cultures, and different languages, and to think that before I died, a Black kid from Lennox Avenue was able to say: �Let�s formalize our relationship with these African people and do business.� It�s nothing that I could ever give a speech on in terms of how proud I am, but there is no question in my mind that that would be really the high point in my legislative career.

FC: Any regrets?

CR: It�s hard to say. Because to be very, very honest with you, I was shot off of a half-track vehicle on November 30, 1950 in Korea on a freezing dark night. I was behind the lines, shot for three days. I prayed to God that if He or She ever got me out of that, that I would just be  one of the most worshipful people that ever was born.

Since that day, November 30, 1950 Charlie Rangel has not had a bad day, ever. Ever.

FC: Congressman, thank you so very much.