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Seventy-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
New Fascism American Style?
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: DAVID KNOKEI
I
After the Referenda:
A Time for Student Action
STUDENTS HAVE always been an in-
tegral part of the University, but have
very rarely been granted a voice in form-
ing its policies. The issue of whether
University researchers should be allowed
to do classified work is a case in point.
Ailthough student leaders were con-
sulted before the Faculty Assembly
Committee on Research Policies wrote
its controversial Elderfield Report ap-
proving most classified research, stu-
dents were not allowed to participate in
the drafting of the report.
This coming Tuesday and Wednesday,
students will have a chance to take a
stand on the classified research issue and
on the question of the University's par-
ticipation in the Institute for Defense
Analyses (IDA) by voting on two ref-
erenda questions on the Student Gov-
ernment Council election ballot.
UNFORTUNATELY, the referenda do
not constitute student participation
in the decision-making process because
they promise to be virtually ignored by
the faculty and administration.
A typical reaction comes from Vice
President for Research A. Geoffrey Nor-
man who says he would "probably be a
little troubled" if students voted over-
whelmingly for the elimination of classi-
fled research.
"This is a very complex issue," Norman
adds. "A quickie vote by a student group
adds nothing and may only serve to con-
fuse the issue."
Norman feels classified research "is
particularly a faculty issue" and is
happy to see it was "handled in a re-
sponsible way" by the Faculty Assembly
committee.
Granted, faculty members have a sub-
stantial stake in the issues and should
not lose their voice in the final decision.
Credibility Gap
FORMULA RHETORIC Department.
January 15: Even if it means scrimp-
Ing on other things, we will hold the line
against a tuition increase for this coming
fall semester.
January 15: Under no circumstances
can I conceive of there being a dormi-
tory fee increase next fall.
January 15: Frankly, I feel no urge to
become a candidate. If nominated I will
not run, if elected I will not serve.
March 15: UnlessF the legislature re-
stores the cuts in our appropriations,
there may be no alternative to raising
tuition for next fall.
March 15: If the unions get collective
bargaining privileges, we may have to
eat those words about there being no
dormitory fee increase.
March 15: I repeat, I am not a can-
didate. I will only accept an honest draft.
June 15: The shortsighted legislature is
dangerously near forcing a tuition hike
on this University.
June 15: Irresponsible unions are on
the verge of forcing our office in to levy-
ing a dormitory fee increase nobody
wants to see.
June 15: I think I hear my country
calling.
AUGUST 15: We know that this 25 per
cent tuition increase may force some
students to tighten their belts a little...
August 15: Our projections indicate
,that after this last $100, students will
not have to tolerate another dormitory
fee increase in the future.
August 15: Without the responsible
leadership my candidacy offers the coun-
try, the United States will lapse into an-
other four years of bankruptcy, ineffec-
tual leadership, and impending Com-
munism.
Only in ...
-URBAN LEHNER
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Editorial Staff
However, Norman misses the point en-
tirely when he assumes this or any issue
at the University is of little concern to
students.
The University should exist primarly to
educate students. Everything at the Uni-
versity has a direct relationship to this
process. Because students are to a large
extent the best judges of their educa-
tional needs, they should have a signi-
ficant say in all University policy-mak-
ing decisions.
SINCE IDEALLY the primary reason
faculty members undertake research
is to become better instructors, students
have a strong interest in the kind of re-
search being done.
Furthermore, student interest in fac-
ulty research is spurred by the fear that
such research will be done at the ex-
pense of instruction time.
Because of their interest in research,
students should be provided with a me-
chanism to participate in the University's
research policy-making.
Students are expected to show strong
support for the cessation of classified
research and the withdrawal of the Uni-
versity from IDA in Tuesday and Wednes-
day's elections.
If University officials ignoe the ref-
erenda, already tenuous student-admin-
istration relations w i 11 be severely
strained.
SOME STUDENT leaders are already
thinking in terms of very militant
action if the voice of the students is
totally ignored. They suggest sitting-in at
the University's Willow Run Laboratories
in Ypsilanti where about $9 million of
classified research projects are currently
being performed.
Though such an action would unfairly
ignore faculty opinion, it would be un-
derstandable in light of administration
and faculty refusal to recognize the in-
terest of students in the matter.
Unlike the student power movement of
November 1966, the activists will not tol-
erate the formation of new tri-partite
commissions to study the problem. This
time they will demand immediate action.
Very likely President Fleming has been
waiting until after the referenda to pull
out of IDA so he can use it as a com-
promise proposal. Students realize this
and will not be fooled.
Students have much too little control
over a university which was established
for their benefit. If this campus blows
up over the issue of classified research,
it will be only because the faculty and
administration has continually refused
to grant students the power they need to
help improve their own education.
-MARTIN HIRSCHMAN
J'Accuse
WHILE ONE OF the first casualties of
any war is the democratic tradition
of moderate and responsible debate, this
does not excuse the intemperate and ill-
considered outburst of Senator Robert F.
Kennedy (D-NY) Thursday on the Senate
floor.
Kennedy in a fit of vitupertive excess
asked, "Are we like the God of the Old
Testament that we can decide .. . what
hamlets in Vietnam are going to be
destroyed?"
At best the outburst reflects the bias
inherent in Gentile World History.
And a dispassionate examination of the
historical record-preferably based on the
works of one of 14 leading Jewish his-
torians-will reveal a consensus that if
the God of the Old Testament was not
a great God, he certainly fell into the
category of good deities.
Without the support of a solid base of
tradition, the God of the Old Testament
acted swiftly to meet such unforeseen
challenges as Adam and Eve's shift to-
ward aggressive, expansionist apple-
munching.
WITHOUT THE aid of sophisticated
technology, the God of Wrath re-
sponded to the threats of an era far
more fraught with danger than the per-
iod of the New Testament. And the qual-
By HARVEY WASSERMAN
Editorial Director, '66-'67
A fascist government is a one-
party system, highly centralized
and authoritarian, with rigid con-
trol over every phase of a na-
tion's life . . . This government
is militaristic, nationalistic and im-
perialistic and it claims dogmatic
political faith.
--Herbert Matthews of the
New York Times on Nazi Germany
IT CAN NO longer be accepted
that the troubles of our govern-
ment and our society stem from
men who are well-meaning but
misguided, that if the conserva-
tive Lyndon Johnson were re-
placed by a liberal Kennedy
things would be substantially dif-
ferent, that the Vietnam war is
in any manner of speaking a
mistake.
Nor can it be accepted that
the approaches practiced by the
Johnson administration in Viet-
nam, in urban Americaror in re-
gard to civil liberties are in any
way alien to the ideology of
American liberalism. On the con-
trary, the excesses of the Johnson
administration are the ultimate
expression of Americanliberalism,
Liberalism as it is practiced in
America is a profoundly conser-
vative . doctrine. The two-party
system here is based on Lockean
consensus-property rights, repre-
sentative democracy and corpo-
rate privilege are the assump-
tions; the parties differ basically
on how best to maintain the sta-
tus quo. The liberal-reformist ap-
proach has dominated since 1932.
Liberalism combines a smatter-
ing of humanitarianism with the
often correct observation that the
best way to preserve the status
quo is to get at the causes of un-
rest, poverty, people turning to
communism, etc. In this way the
Marshall Plan was sold and this
too was the rhetoric of much of
the Kennedy reform of the early
sixties.
BUT WHEN liberal reform fails
to cope with the needs of the peo-
ple on the bottom we find that
the essence of liberalism is not
humanitarianism but rather so-
cial control. The Rostow ap-
proach to "underdevelopment" is
the classic case. The American
approach to the Third World is
couched in the rhetoric that fast
industrialization along the lines
of parliamentary capitalist de-
mocracy is the best way to serve
the needs of a starving people.
(That such development serves
the needs of American corporate
capital is also evident).
All American aid moves from
this basic assumption of develop-
ment-the rest is detail. When
deviations alien to that system
of development-such as revolu-
tion in Cuba or Vietnam or radi-
cal reform in the Dominican Re-
public occur - the international
guard is called out.
It would be nice to be able to
deal with this in terms of strict
economic exploitation and im-
perialism, but that explanation,
while important, is not entirely
adequate. There is simply too
much more involved.
THE ROSTOW approach to in-
ternational development is mir-
rored in the Kerr approach to
education, the Daley approach to
domestic reform, the Humphrey
ex-ADA approach to civil liber-
ties. The key words are elitism
and order; there is no strict phi-
losophy to their actions, each ap-
proach their domain with a gen-
eral view whose rhetoric is based
on the needs of the general wel-
fare. Each will listen to those who
are being administrated but only
with the clear understanding that
ultimate power resides at the top.
To ignore the administrative de-
cision is to break the law and
create disorder-in no cases will
this be tolerated.
Indeed, this is the one thing
that cannot be tolerated, for per-
sonal self-determination on the
bottom is a threat to the entire
carefully ordered structure. The
elite of the party machines, the
labor and management corpora-
tions and the other spinoff cor-
porations (such as education and
welfare) maintain a semblance
of democracy while basing their
existence on a totalitarian sta-
bility of the law and order de-
signed by the legislatures they in
fact control.
A serious challenge to that or-
der, however grounded in moral
right, will always evoke a hard-
line response in the name of law
and against "anarchy."
Thus insurrection in the 'ghet-
tos, which could ultimately have
been avoided by allowing them to
become self-contained financial,
and political communities, is less
a price for a mayor to pay than
allowing poverty funds to be
handled on a local level.
Thus the liberal mayor of New
York prefers to spend $500,000 a
day on the National Guard rather
than allow garbagemen $130 a
week in an "illegal" strike. Thus
university administrators will pay
a sit-in' to preserve their own
autocratic rule.
WHY? IN ONE sense it seems
we are confronted with a bunch
of sacred, insecure men deathly
afraid of "alien ideologies." The
system of bureaucracy and; con-
sensus is so ingrained in our cul-
ture that men in power have lost
their psychological tolerance for
any conflict whatever.
As historian Norman Pollack
has said: "(We face) the desire
to eliminate uncertainty from
one's existence. Rigid ego-defens-
es are erected against against see-
ing what one does not want to
see. Conflict cannot be tolerated.
Contrary ideas cannot be admit-
ted, for fear they will threaten
one's very identity."
But ultimately we must recog-
nize that the threat to these bu-
reaucrats is real. American society
is now being strained as it never
was before. The liberal reform of
modern social science has proved
inadequate and can never cope
with the real physical and psy-
chological shortcomings of life on
the bottom or even in the middle
of the heap. The choice is be-
tween a radical relocation of the
loci of social power. and the po-
lice. The liberals, when pushed,
rapidly and unabashedly join the
conservatives in 'opting for the
police.
THIS IS not without precedent.
If the socio-political approach of
society's leadership is based on
the totalitarian assumption that
a government can and must de-
fine order and the good life for
all who live under it, then when
that order is threatened it is only
logical to expect similar totalitar-
ian response. Totalitarian liberal-
ism, however humanitarian, helps
lay the base for totalitarian reac-
tion as well.
After World War I Italy and
Germany found themselves caught
between extreme dissatisfaction
on the bottom and the remnants
of corporate elitist control on the
top. When challenged by a weak-
er revolutionary left the corpo-
rate (and formerly reformist)
right played on the frustrations of
the bourgeoisie to preserve a so-
cial structure in which they dom-
inated. The rallying call was that
of an authoritarian restoration
of law and order: the call was
maintained with a war economy
and a liberal dose of racism.
All the same elements are pres-
ent in the United States today.
One does not use the term
"fascist" lightly. To evoke the
spectre of men who deliberately
exterminated six million civilians,
who built a society on racism
and exploitation and whose scien-
tists treated human beings as if
they were mere objects to be ex-
perimented on is to evoke the
worst human aberration the
modern world has seen,
BUT IT IS time to realize that
the United States is repeating all
that Nazi Germany did. It is
fighting its third war in less than
thirty years against the yellow
race; its politicians are playing
on the racism of the middle and
lower classes at home; its foreign
and domestic "welfare'' and "ed-
ucation" programs are based on
the treatment of human beings
as if they and their societies were
objects to be administered into a
preconceived mold of none of
their own doing.
The economy of the country is
increasingly based on war, the
rhetoric of its welfare is con-
tinually ;based on military termi-
nology, the country is purposely
kept in a permanent state of na-
tional crisis and semi-panic, and
everywhere the police are given
freer reign and taken further
away from public control.
If there are differences between
the German Nazi party and the
American liberal-conservative elite
they are defineable in differences
of the objective conditions of the
two countries at the two times,
not in terms of the relative worth
and needs of the reactionary elite.
In Germany the intellectual elite
either fled or sold , out; in
'America the intellectual elite has
designed the plans for consolida-
tion of control.
It is time to stop playing with
words-these men are the fascists
of a mass technocracy and must
be recognized as such. If they can
be stopped at all it is only a dis-
affected, well-informed mass with
a plan and a will for self-deter-
mination that can do it.
t Park
THE MAJOR problem qualified
blacks have in getting into busi-
ness is not non-black competition
per se, but lack of funds, inability
to obtain bank loans, and exhorbi-
tant insurance rates.
Banks, for whatever reasons,
generally don't lend money to Ne-
groes to start businesses.
Insurance rates in Negro areas, *,
especially riot areas are so high
that it exceeds my verbal ability
to express it. Try to imagine the
face of an insurance salesman
when you present a black face,
with what little money you and
your friends could scrape together,
asking for insurance on that "nice
litle burned out place on 12th St.,
Detroit" that you plan to rebuild.
The Lehner-Shapiro plan would
virtually kill all commerce in the
riot area (those who riot rarely
stop to think about such things,
only the 95% who don't riot.)
What will this do to "ghetto
residents unable to transport
themselves to the low price subur-
ban shopping plazas," mentioned
in the article?
I THINK the Kerner Commis-
sion report is in the right ball-
park playing the right games. It
deserves more attention and credit
than you gave it, and I am firm-
ly convinced that a program along
the lines indicated by the report
will be the only successful pro-
gram and should be started im-
mediately.
-Carl Robinson, '68
Letters: Right Game, Right Bal
To the Editor:
THE EDITORIAL on the Kerner
Commission Report by Ur-
ban Lehner and Walter Shapiro
("Who's Afraid of White Ra-
cism?" Daily, March 5) had a
couple of good points but the sug-
gestion on riot control was ill-
conceived.
It is true that black people
want control over the political
institutions that govern them
(like all other people), and it is
true that the unrealistic and pet-
ty laws that govern much of the
welfare program cause unnec-
cesary hardship and resentment
in persons receiving aids. But the
chance that the last part of the
editorial, on riot control, was not
written in jestrcaused me to sub-
mit this letter.
The authors suggested that:
When riots occur, all symbols
of white authority-including
the police-should be removed'
from the ghetto. The army-
not the national guard of po-
lice-should take up positions
on the perimeter of the ghetto
and merely prevent it from
spreading.
Where would you establish this
perimeter? Around the block
where the first brick was thrown?
the area where you anticipate
In the Defense of Biafra
To the Editor:,
DESPITE HIS wrongheadedness and moral obtuseness, Mr. Saks
(Daily, Feb. 20) deserves an answer, for his letter typifies so much
of the attitude towards the fate of Biafra which my article sought
to combat. I had pointed out the disquieting equanimity with which
C. L. Sulzberger accepted the necessity of uniting Nigeria "no matter
how gory the Ibo experience." This "gory Ibo experience" "doesn't even
trouble Mr. Saks. Having safely ignored the issue, he blamed the
Ibos who, he says, "promptly took up their marbles and ran home."
What, one wonders, should they have done in the face of the genocide.
Surely Saks must know that communal suicide is not an alternative
that any people will consciously contemplate embracing-be they Jews
or Ibos. Dr. George Steiner recently drew our attention to the grim real-
ity in which a man can read Goethe or Rilke, play Bach and Shubert and
still go to his daily work at Auschwitz. Our critics Sulzberger and Saks
remind us of no less harrowing grimness: that it is possible to suffer the
experience of Auschwitz and not be touched by a pang of conscience
when others are subjected to the same fate.
I DON'T KNOW which is more deplorable in Mr. Saks-his sheer
ignorance or his intellectual dishonesty. He quoted Time (Feb. 9) as
his authority for his assertion that "colonialist Portugal" aids Biafra
whereas Nigeria is the "corner-stone" of "progressive" Africa. One who
turns to the article in Time will in fact discover that Nigerian "MIG
fighters were flown mostly by Egyptian and other (South African)
mercenary pilots." Yes, white South Africans-those stalwart defenders
of black African humanity! What the curious will also discover is that
the Time article was devoted almost exclusively to reporting the heroic
struggles being waged by the Biafrans in their determination to survive
the Nigerian policy of extermination. The only mention of the role of
Portugal in this issue was to the effect that private planes "fly badly
needed medicines, along with arms and ammunition, from Lisbon
to Port Harcourt, Biafra." This was Mr. Saks' sole evidence for Por-
tugal's aid to Biafra.
INDEED, in the same week Newsweek (Feb. 12) reported substan-
tially the same news under the heading "Biafra's burning spirit of
resistance," but with the additional information-which Time omitted-
that Nigerian planes were used to bomb "schools, markets and hospitals"
in Biafran villages and cities. Mr. Saks-who must be very knowledge-
able about Africa-assures us that the regime which came to power in
January, 1966, ruled with clenched iron fist" (never mind his hope-
lessly mixed metaphors). We are never told how this tyranny manifested
- 11 ___ii_ «t r+, v. A- - + - :-o -rm 9 7n h nnl e R it
trouble? the whole black com-
munity; for instance, all of Har-
lem, or Watts, or maybe even the
entire city of Washington, D.C.
(67% Negro)? Then what about
the overwhelming majority of
blacks and non-blacks who do not
participate in the riots and who
are now inside your surrounded
area, without police protection, or
food (stores ususally closed), or a
route out of the area (the troops,
remember)? Does this plan in-
clude taking this lack of police
protection and lick of other pub-.
lic services (garbage collection,
for example) into account at tax
time? This is racism in one of it's
most blatant forms, not even a
slight revision of the ancient mot--
to "they're all black, so let them
all suffer."
BESIDES, when does an inci-
dent become a riot? When a
group of people become unruly,
say five people, ten, fifteen? May-
be it should be 25 black people
or 50 non-blacks, since black peo-
ple are twice as potent. With
proper police handling, many riots
can be prevented anyway. What
incentive does a policeman have
for meeting situations fairly and
squarely, if he knows that if he
botches it, and it gets out of hand,
that he gets a three day vacation
(instead of the many sleepless
nights that he can now look for-
ward to) ?
If this society is to survive, the
establishment, including the po-
lice, must give all citizens, black
and non-black alike, equalsprotec-
tion like being on duty in every
area when disturbances of any
kind occur.
Suppose you did bring in the
army anyway, and surrounded
what you finally decided was the
desired area, end somehow dis-
posed of your conscience. You
would most probably be mistaken
if you thought that the army
would repeat it's previous suc-
cesses.
Among the reasons that the
army has enjoyed success in riot
control are these:
The army is not the normal
symbol of the establishment (ex-
cept to those classified 1-A), the
police are-A situation that would
be quickly remedied if the troops
automatically (Federal laws aside)
responded to major disturbances.
The establishment, according to
the man throwing the brick or
over the police, the firemen, and
the national guard by the time
the federals get there, so they are
willing to call it quits. But if the
army got there first, a perimeter
couldn't be established far enough
away (and still be meaningful)
to avoid continued and sustained
tests of their mettle and com-
petence.
Even the best units are com-
posed of men with guns; men are
fragile beings. Don't underesti-
mate the skill, resourcefulness, or
daring of the rioters who have
nothing, and therefore nothing to
lose. Confronting them with a
heavily armed force could lead
to low cycler guerrilla warfare or
worse.
The authors continue their art-
icle by saying:
By allowing looters to strip
store in the ghetto of every
piece of merchandise, the gov-
ernment would be discouraging
white merchants from returning
to the ghetto after the riots.
When this happens, blacks can
take a major and significant
step toward self determination
by running their own shops as
cooperatives.
Along with implying that Ne-
groes could run their own neigh-
borhoods unhindered if they
ruined the place so badly that no
one else would want it, the au-
thors showed a lack of under-
standing of the reasons a Negro
has trouble going into business for
himself.
"Don't Be A Coward - Try It Again"
\,, 196
196
A . A