Bradley Says Racism Stirs Foreign Investors’ Critics

Mayor Tom Bradley took his reelection campaign to an international forum Thursday, telling the Los Angeles World Affairs Council that criticism of foreign investment in the United States “is a dangerous strain of racism.”

In a wide-ranging talk, Bradley covered such topics as the city’s anti-apartheid policy and the way the city’s gang wars are hurting tourism. The worldwide press, Bradley said, wrongly portrays “a revolution citywide” where “every street corner and every intersection is covered with automatic rifles jutting out the windows of the cars, spraying people wherever they stand or walk.”

To an ethnically diverse audience of 350 at the Los Angeles Hilton, Bradley sought to focus his discussion on Los Angeles’ role on the world stage. But the city’s social problems--homelessness and housing, gangs and violence--were the foremost topics during a question-and-answer period that followed Bradley’s prepared remarks.

Rather than a threat, Bradley depicted foreign investment as a critical source of jobs and tax revenue needed to help Los Angeles overcome its social ills.

“Some politicians find it fashionable to rail against foreign investment--to conjure up images of foreign takeovers,” Bradley declared, without naming names. “At its best, this is nothing but political grandstanding. But at its worst, this is a dangerous strain of racism that must be rebutted.

“Make no mistake about it: Some who criticize foreign investment are really expressing outright prejudice against non-Anglo participants” in the U.S. economy.

Bradley emphasized that, nationwide, Japan ranks behind Great Britain and the Netherlands in holdings. In the Los Angeles area alone, he said, Japanese investment has created 200,000 jobs.

Bradley’s comments represented his strongest, most comprehensive statement yet in the ongoing national debate over trade policy and foreign investment.

Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis made concern over foreign investment a primary theme of his failed presidential campaign while Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) voiced similar views during the primary. Councilman Nate Holden, a challenger to Bradley in the April 11 election, has also been critical of foreign investment.

Bradley has often been criticized for his extensive foreign travel during his 16 years as mayor, but the mayor said his role as ambassador is important in luring foreign commerce to Los Angeles-area firms. Departing from his prepared speech, Bradley took credit for helping secure large foreign airliner contracts for North American Rockwell and helping ITT get overseas work orders that created jobs in the San Fernando Valley.