Jackson Assails GOP Jobs Policy at 2 L.A. Rallies

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, campaigning Saturday in Los Angeles, told union workers at two rallies that he wanted to reverse Republican economic policies that have encouraged corporations to close factories in America and export those jobs overseas where labor is cheaper.

Speaking to a crowd of about 1,000 at Todd Pacific Shipyard in San Pedro, the Democratic presidential candidate said he would seek to combine a program of economic development in Third World countries with domestic efforts to halt plant closures.

The Todd work force in San Pedro has been cut from 5,000 to less than 1,000 in three years, a period in which much shipbuilding work has shifted overseas.

“Either we’re going to raise the living standard in the Third World countries, or they’re going to lower the living standard in this country,” he said. “As long as coal miners are enslaved in South Africa, coal miners in West Virginia and Kentucky will have their jobs threatened.”

Jackson told the workers they must rise above race and band together to battle plant closures and layoffs by large corporations.

‘Corporate Barracudas’

“The issue today is not about black fish, white fish or brown fish,” he said. “It’s about big fish eating up little fish. These corporate barracudas eat small fish everywhere, whether you’re a small-fish shipbuilder, small-fish truck driver, small-fish day-care worker, small-fish maid.”

The San Pedro rally began an hour late after a speaker announced that the delay was due to Jackson being hospitalized in San Francisco with a stomach ailment. Rick Roberts, his local campaign spokesman, confirmed the hospitalization report, but Jackson immediately denied it when he took the platform.

“Let me set the record straight. This morning in San Francisco, we sat on the runway for nearly an hour, and it threw our plane late,” Jackson said.

“There was some rumor about my health. My health is fantastic. Ain’t nothing wrong with me; feel so good, I want to jump off the stage. Feel so fine,” he said.

Campaign spokeswoman Delmarie Cobb blamed the report on a mix-up in communications.

Raises Anti-Drug Theme

Later, at a rally near downtown, Jackson hit again on his familiar anti-drug theme.

“Nobody has a right to terrorize our neighborhoods,” he told the mostly female Service Employees International Union. “I wouldn’t take it from the klan and the rope. I’m not going to take it from a neighbor and dope.”

He said he was glad to see that his Democratic rival, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, and Republican Vice President George Bush had begun to talk about a war on drugs. But, he said, their proposals do not go far enough.