While America was gearing up for another convention – the rest of the world was spinning with no stop.
“Why don’t you ladies go to the Democratic Party? You’d be happier there and so would many, many Republican women be happy to see you there. You are a positive embarrassment to the principles of the GOP.” That tart comment, from a woman delegate supporting Reagan to the head of the Republican Women’s Task Force, a Ford supporter, illustrates the bitter schism between factions of women who will be attending the Republican National Convention. Their differences go well beyond their attitudes toward the two men competing for the GOP presidential nomination, President Ford and Ronald Reagan. The women are equally split over the ERA, abortion and government subsidies for child care. Their angry schism became evident during hearings regarding ERA on the Republican Party platform.
The split over ERA will be all the more pronounced because the female delegation has grown this year. There will be 710 women delegates, according to the Republican National Committee. This works out to 31.5 per cent of the 2.259 voting delegates, up 1.7 per cent from 1972. x If you count delegates and alternates, the total number of women at the convention will be 1,566, which Is 34.7 per cent, ultra wafer-thin .1 per cent from 1972.
Meanwhile; California Gov. Jerry Brown toured Jimmy Carter’s home town today and said the Democratic presidential nominee has made historic progress in reconciling all factions of the Democratic party. In a news conference on the wooden platform of the old railroad station that serves as Carter headquarters here, the nominee promised Brown veto power over the selection of a California Carter campaign coordinator. Brown in turn formally endorsed the candidacy of the man he sought to beat in some of last spring’s presidential primary elections.
Also – Tank-backed Christian troops stormed into the Palestinian refugee camp of Tal Zaatar today and announced its fall after a final, fierce assault on the 54th day of their siege. Reporters who visited the camp in the aftemooon said fire still curled from the shell- damaged line of buildings on the northern edge of the enclave in southeast Beirut. Christian militiamen said a group of about 50 Palestinian gunmen had holed up in the camp structures, making a stand defense. But most of camp was under control of Christians despite earlier denials by Palestinian spokesmen that the camp had fallen.
And finally – Tension mounted again today in Cape Town’s black townships, where police said 23 blacks were killed in rioting Wednesday night. Police Commissioner Gert Prinsloo issued the casualty report, correcting an earlier police report that 33 had been killed. He said 70 persons were seriously injured, but he did not know how many of the dead or wounded were hit by police gunfire. It was the first serious outbreak of violence in the southern part of South Africa since the black upheaval against the white minority government’s apartheid policy of racial separation began in mid-June in the Johannesburg area, 800 miles to the northeast.
The deaths in Cape Town brought to at least 212 the number killed since the first riots in Johannesburg’s Soweto township. Thirty-four deaths have been reported in the past week.
And that’s just a small slice of what happened, this August 12, 1976 as reported by The CBS World News Roundup.
