Saturday, November 9, 1968 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three Saturday, November 9, 1968 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Three GRIEVANCES NOT REMEDIED -llexican student unrest smolders By PHILIP RUSSELL College Press Service MEXICO CITY - The con- trasts of modern Mexico are probably clearest in the way Mexicohas treated the youth of the world coming to the Olym- pics, and the way it has treated its own youth, the students. The Olympics were televised around the world, but one sees little of the Mexican students. This contrast was sharpest Oct. 2 when the National Stu- dent strike council called a meeting in the plaza of a hous- ing project near the center of Mexico City. Several thousand j striking students, sympathizers, and residents of the housing project gathered to hear the strike leaders speak. As the meeting was going on soldiers backed up by armored cars began to approach the plaza from the two sides not flanked by buildings. Suddenly * two flares appeared in the sky and the army began to shoot into the crowd. Forty minutes later the crowd was dispersed, and in the plaza and the sur- rounding apartments, also tar- gets of the soldiers, lay a hun- dred dead and five hundred wounded. The official version is that a sniper fired on a soldier from an apartment building drawing fire from the army, which then shot back killing .35 unarmed members of the crowd. The movement dates back to July 23, when the students of two high schools were having a rumble of no political signifi- cance,, which was broken up. with more than the usual police brutality. In response to this the students decided to stage a protest rally three days later. The police, rather than letting the protest run its course, waded in and broke it up with tear gas, clubs and bullets.- The students responded by heaving rocks, hijacking city buses, and later in the demon- stration burning barricades. After three days of demonstra- tions, things calmed down and the students demanded the firing of the police chief, lib- erty for those arrested, and payments to the families ,of those who had been killed by the police. When these demands had not been met by Aug. 9, a student strike was called by the 80,000- student National University, the Polytechnic Institute, and the numerous high schools associ- ated with it.- I The students rormed a na- tional strike council which ad- ded to the demands to be' met before the students would re- turn to classes. Included in the new demands were the aboli- tion of the police riot squad, the release of all political pris- oners, and the repeal of Mexi- co's "social dissolution" law, which is used to suppress poli- ical dissent. However, just as the Berkeley and Columbia movements went deeper than Telegraph Avenue til and Morningside Heights, the student movement here is a product of more than unre- strained police brutality. Gen- erally the school facilities have been crowded and government expenditure on education has been relatively low even for Latin America. Often the pro- fessors had professional careers outside the University and took little interest in their students. For more than a month after the start of the strike, things went along peacefully-the stu- dents having meetings and dem- onstrations and trying to sway public opinion; the government saying it would listen to the students' legitimate demands and that it was willing to talk. Then suddenly the govern- ment began to take a hard line., On Sept. 18 the army was sent. into the National University to dislodge students who had been using the idle facilities as a strikemheadquarters. Although the army met absolutely no re- sistance, all those found on the- campus were arrested.,The sev- eral days of street demonstra- tions which fo11 o w e d were swiftly repressed. The government moved in to occupy the' Polytechnic Insti- tute on Sept. 23. Police and troops succeeded in occupying the campus only after fighting their' way through burning buses, Molotovcocktails, and scattered sniper fire. The uneasy truce following the occupation lasted until the massacre of Oct. 2. In the days following, hundreds of students who attended the meeting or who had been active in the strike were arrested and charged with crimes ranging from minor offenses to homicide. . Strike activity, because of the repression, came to a nearly complete stop, at least for the duration of the Olympics. Just before the opening of the Games, students held a meeting, this time surrounded by protective machine - guns. The strike's main activity now consists of small neighborhood meetings to build up public sup- port. News of what scattered activity there is, is almost com- pletely blacked out by the press. Whenever its end, the strike has had great effect on students who, becoming political radicals overnight, have seen for the first. time how the Mexican govern- ment operates. -Associated Press 'This way out, Hubert' President-elect Richard Nixon and Vice President Hubert Hum- phrey meeting yesterday in Miami. They joined in urging national unity, and both men pledged to work together in the years ahead. Nixon said he will especially look for Humphrey's assistance in the fields of foreign affairs and national security. POVERTY PERSISTS: Farm 1 e1rs'problems far from resoltionI] in $GC elections ELECTIONS COMM. '1i I NDERGROUND at the Vth Forumi N D E R G R 0 u N D. 5th Ave. at Liberty, 761 -9700 Thurs., Fri., Sat., Sun.-11:00 P.M. -separate admission required BLACK POWER, WE'RE COIN' SURVIVE AMERICA-by Lenny Henny-Produced in~ cooperation with the Black Panther Party. Portraying the struggle for Black Liberation, the inside story of Huey Newton, and a dynamic speech by Stokely Carmichael. Highly recommended.' THE GRATEFUL DEAD-by Robert Nelson-The story of the San Francisco Rock group done by one of the best independent filmmakers around. A visual equivalent to the sounds the Grateful Dead make. The visual and the auditory enhance and fortify each other. WE SHALL MARCH AGAIN-by Lenny Lipton-Aprobing documentary on the attempted protest march on the Oakland Army Terminal by'students from Berkeley and the opinions of "straight" cit- izens about the action as well as an examination of the "police riot" that ensued. QUIXOTE-by Bruce Baille-Climaxing this famed film-maker's first period of work, it examines the mores of the Western World, especially its orientation toward conquest. A complicated film and sound montage that portraits America, protests its ugliness, and memorializes its beauties. "A visual trip through the contemporary environment." "H" THE STORY OF A TEENAGE DRUG ADDICT - An early (1950) W.C.T.U. anti-dope film. Highly educational with certain camp features. Get yourself together for this one! SPOEKER MANDALIA- -changing colored mandal background. By DON KENDALL WASHINGTON R~) - Agricul- ture was not a major issue in this, presidential campaign simply be- cause farmers' problems are in- finitely more subtle and old-hat than those of Vietnam, poverty, city crime and world affairs. Serious problems do exist in American agriculture, but they are hoary, deep-'rooted shadows that are too elusive for most peo- ple concerned with other issues. No true crisis has emerged to force agriculture upon voters. There is, ample food. There is no widespread, prolongedsdrought of Dust Bowl proportions. There have been no riots among farm- ers, no procession of tractors marching on Washington. But the lack of dramatic epi- sodes does not minimize the prob- lems of rural America. Poverty and hunger persists amid the af- fluence; farmers continue to leave the land for city jobs; rising costs of production continue at record pace. Hubert H. Humphrey, the Demo- cratic presidential candidate, ac- cused Republican Richard M. Nixon of not fully explaining what he would do about government farm programs. Nixon called for new ideas and charged that farm income after eight Democratic years is "intol- erable" and that "farmers are en- titled to better." Third-party candidate George C. Wallace urged higher govern- ment farm price supports - up to 100 per cent of parity - and do- ing away with federal production controls. Each recognized that farm prob- lems exist. Each in varying de- grees suggested that some sort of government action is required. Nixon said he would seek "a new approach" in federal farm programs, "energetically imple- mented" by a secretary of agri- culture experienced in farm mat- ters. The question of how American agriculture is to be operated in the future is whether it will con- tinue mostly in the hands of re- latively small private investors or will emerge as an integrated giant turning out food and fiber as a factory produces automobiles. The story is not new. In 1940 farmers comprised about 23 per cent of the nation's population. In 1948 they totaled less than 17 per cent. In 1952 they dwindled to less than 14 per cent. The latest estimate by the De- partment of Agriculture -- for 1968 - is 10.5 million persons liv- ing on farms, around five per cent of the population. As people leave the lands, farms become larger. Successful farms are businesses, operated with the knowledge, investment, and fi- nesse required in industry. Whether those remaining in ag- riculture will have the capital, ex- perience and other resources to remain as "family farmers" if the exodus continues is a major ques- tion. The alternative - the replace- ment of family farming with cor- porate-style operations - is an overriding factor in whatever pro- grams are recommended by the next president. And while its political stock is not high today, the impact of a thriving-or a suffering-farm community is unmistakable and, in some measure, has had to do with the solution of the other, more energetic issues of this pres- idential campaign. the news toda b) The Associa/ed Press and College Press Seri ice NORTH VIETNAM REJECTED last night a plan pro- posed by South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu for conducting expanded peace talks. Thieu had proposed an "our side, their side" format for the talks, with Saigon heading the allied negotiating team. However Xuan Thuy, chief negotiator for the North Vietna- mese delegation turned down the proposal on the grounds of last week's talks with the United States, in which it was agreed there would be four separate delegations at the new talks - the U.S., North Vietnam, the Saigon government, and the National Liberation Front. Thieu has refused to send a delegation to talks held un- der the four-team format, forcing the United States to post- pone the first meeting, which was to be Wednesday. U.S. officials have made no comment on Thieu's plan, while seeking clarification of some of the points involved. Thieu's plan is most likely aimed at keeping the NLF in a subsidiary role to North Vietnam's delegation, while the Sai- gon government receives a prominent role in the talks. * . . CHANGING THE METHOD of electing our president was called "a top priority item" yesterday by Senator Birch Bayh (D-Ind). Bayh, the chairman of theSenate Constitutional Amend- ments sub-committee, a unit of the Judiciary Committee, said at a news conference yesterday that direct popular elec- tion of president is the only plan that is going to capture the imagination of the people sufficiently to stand a chance of adoption. "The near brush with catastrophe" in Tuesday's election has convinced him that now is the time to try to build up public support for the constitutional change, he said. Bayh's subcommittee held hearings earlier this yea on various plans to abolish the present Electoral College system, but was unable to come to agreement on any plan to recom- mend to the committee as a whole. THE TOP OFFICIALS in the Johnson administration began handing in their resignations yesterday. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Fowler and Undersecre- tary of State Nicholas Katzenbach both formally resigned yesterday. Secretary of HEW Wilbur J. Cohen also announced he will leave government service in January. The resignations are expected to take effect specifically late next month. All of the other Johnson administration of- ficials will most likely submit resignations before President- elect Nixon takes over January 20. Cohen said he plans to return to Ann Arbor to take up the professorship he left in 1961. He is a professor in the social work school. UN SECRETARY-GENERAL U Thant denied yester- day that attempts to negotiate a peace settlement in the Mid-East have failed. Envoys to the discussions in New York from Jordan and Egypt left the talks Thursday. However Thant said it was necessary for them to return home after being away from their capitals for some time. Meanwhile, Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban remained in New York and scheduled 'a news conference for Monday. Statements by all three representatives indicated that Gun- nar Jarring, the Swedish negotiator, has made little progress toward a settlement. Jarring has been trying to gain a settle- ment for 11 months. * ." 0 PORTUGUESE TROOPS have invaded Zambia from Mozambique. The announcement was made in the United Nations yes- terday by Zambian representative Vernon Mwaanga. Mwaan- ga said Portuguese planes have bombed the eastern region of Zambia several times, but said the attack yesterday on the village of Kamata "is the worst incident to date." The General Assembly's trusteeship committee is cgr- rently debating the situation in the Portuguese territories in Africa. Mwaanga said the issue of the attacks will be raised in this committee. * . EFFORTS WERE LAUNCHED yesterday to create a United States of Europe. ! Michael Stewart, the British foreign secretary, endorsed yesterday a proposal for a West Eurolean summit conference open to any country that wants to join. In addition a Declara- tion of Europe prepared for formal issuance today outlines the growing influence of America and Russia on Europe and Eur- ope's decreasing importance in world affairs, due, to its lack of unity. The summit proposal has not been endorsed by any other nations of Europe, however Stewart said he will have until January to see what action can be taken. 167 PERSONS WERE ARRESTED Thursday night as a result of anti-Soviet demonstrations in Prague, and other cities across the country. During the demonstrations, Soviet flags were pulled down and burned while gangs of youths roamed the streets shouting "Russians go home." The Interior Ministry, in making the announcement of the arrests, said they were organized and carried out "by irre- sponsible groups of citizens" who made "fairly serious provo- cations." The Ministry also said that names of demonstrators would be put on lists and circulated to schools, plants, and businesses. 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