g4r Mirti gan DaiIJ
Seventy-nine years of editorial freedont
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
------under the ru
The death of non- violence
by %ele 0Me
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Editarials prmt( in The Michigan Daily( xpr, s We individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: DAVID SPURR
I
Anotlier day,
inotier travesty
TJ'HE J US'T'ICE Department once again
displayed its propensity to act blindly
as it announced Tuesday its intention to
investigate leaders of the New Mobiliza-
tion.
Deputy Atty. Gen. Richard Kleindienst,
whose name is fast on its way to becom-
ing a household word, declared that the
department is investigating whether cer-
tain New Mobe leaders are guilty of vio-
lating federal anti-riot statutes.
It is tempting simply to scoff at Klein-
dienst's stat ement, but unfortunately it
is backed by his undeniable power and
inscutable sense of injustice.
EFUSING TO name names or elabo-
rate examples, the deputy attorney
general was sphinx-like (or McCarthy-
like, if you prefer) in his presentation of
the government's position. But his mean-
ing was clear: The Justice Department,
acting under the aegis of the present ad-
ninistration, is seeking to inhibit free
expression, organized dissent, and even
conscientious protest.
Kleindinst vaguely alluded to the fact
that the New Mobe had the authority to
allow three of the defendants in the Chi-
cago 8 trial -David Dellinger, Jerry Rub-
in and Abbie Hoffman---to take part in
t he Washington demonstration. The Jus-
ti ce Department seems to have reasoned
that if those people are already accused
of crossing st ate lines to incite to riot
(and they must be guilty), then they
s h o u l d not be permitted to protest.
Kleindienst accused the New Mobe of
exercising poor judgment in yielding the
microphone to "a person like Mr. Del-
linger, who has a background and a his-
tory ofi violelice."
Of course, nothing could be further
HjIE KIWANIS Club is doing its bit for
Christmas charity this year by spon-
soring a football game-dubbed the "Pig
Bowl"-between the Washtenaw County
Sheriff's deputies and the Ann Arbor
Police.
Harvey's Horrors and the A-square
Goats vow to come to the game well-
equipped. In fact, the only thing the
teams seem to lack is a good referee.
I W ABOUT Bill Ayers?
-J.,. and I1.G.
C EE E itAN r
LANIE L IPPINCOTT~ Asociate Manatting Edit or
LESLiE WAYNE . Arts Editor
MAY P Al KE Contr iung Ed
LAwRENCE lOBBINS Photo Editor
WALLrEli SHAPiRO .Dail Washington Corresponden
from the truth - Dellinger
pacifist. But what can one
Justice Department?
NEW MOBE speaks well
defense:
is a lifelong
expect of a
in its own
"We are shocked at the arrogance of
the government in its belief that a clear-
ly peaceful demonstration for peace . .
is a possible violation of the law.
"The government was unable to deny
the constitutional right of these people
to march in order to express their dis-
sent. Now after the act, the government
is stooping to illegitimate means and to
innuendos in an attempt to discredit a
demonstration of public opinion against
the war.
"Clearly, an investigation such as that
announced by Mr. Kleindienst is uncalled
for."
But Mr. Kleindienst counters that "Any
time you have to determine if persons
you suspect come across state lines to
engage in violence, then you have a duty
to investigate to see if they violated the
anti-riot laws."
THIS CLAIM is a pretext. As New Mobe
effecively argues, the demonstration
organizers obviously did all they could to
encourage peaceful protest.
The deputy attorney general's investi-
gation, aimed at no one in particular, and
therefore at everyone, must be prompted
by other considerations. The Justice De-
partment seems bent on intimidating dis-
senters with threats of harassment. That
in this case the threats will probably not
be made good is little comfort.
The illogic might be: If these guys are
oing to criticize us, then we will harass
back. But the results are more profound.
The government will extend full freedoms
only to those citizens -- the great silent
maiority to be exact -who do not fully
exercise them. Citizens who utilize and
exhaust all constitutional liberties will be
treated no differently than organized
criiminals who flaunt the law; the Mafia
and the Mobe will be harassed with equal
intensity .
IHE JUSTICE Department is thus guilty
of perverting the law, changing it
from a device for protection to an instru-
m nt of repression. It is thus driving the
Social Democrats into the camp of the
Po l'4 heviks.
Tf the long-predicted -wave of govern-
ient repression is making itself mani-
fest. it has not happened as foretold. The
,overnment is not insidiously depriving
the masses of civil liberties; it is clumsily,
onenly infringing on the rights of minori-
ties with the silent support of the silent
1malority.
-HENRY GRIX
Editor
NOW THAT THE Washington ego trip is finished,
and all the bleeding heart liberals have purged
their consciences by wearing buttons, carrying signs,
marching, rallying, and singing; it's time to think
about where this movement should go from here.
One thing should be clear: the Mobe-style mass
marches and rallies have fulfilled their political
usefullness--they aren't going to end this war---
and more important, they aren't going to change
this society.
One of the reasons is that the government, the
police, and other authorities have learned that it
is counter-productive to "over-react" with physical
force against these non-militant tactics.
They employ farmoire subtle (and effective
forms of repression to deal wtih dissent.
Rather than beating the heads of peaceful (and
innocent-looking) protesters, the administration
resorts to neo-McCarthyism, impugning disloyalty
and other bad motives to the demonstrators.
Then, after framing charges of violence and
"inciting to riot," the government and its agents
emasculate the movement by arresting its leaders
and trying them before specially arranged Kangaroo
Courts. (The fact that Judge Julius Hoffman is
presiding over the 'Chicago 8' trial is no accident).
The days when police would indiscriminately
club and jail peaceful protesters have for the most
part disappeared, and when they do react with
force, the authorities are careful to document how
the protesters "provoked" it with rock throwing or
window smashing.
The Martin Luther King ideal of nonviolence
was effective primarily because of the cattle prods
and water hoses of Bull Conner and his counter-
parts.
The Yippies, Weatherman, and other ultra-
radical groups have realized this fact, but they
have nonetheless misinterpreted the political reali-
ties of the situations.
They believe--and rightly so-that more mili-
tancy is needed. But when the Weatherman faction
responds with apolitical sprees of violence, rock-
throwing and pointless confrontation, they play
right into the hands of Spiro Agnew and his
lawnorder freaks, while isolating themselves from
practically every potential ally on the radical left.
BALANCING the non-analytical violence of
Weatherman is the equally apolitical "mass move-
ment" approach of the New Mobe and its liberal
backers, who are so worried about alienating
potential supporters that they usually fail to pro-
vide any political and social analysis of American
society.
Words like "imperialism" and "capitalism" are
taboo because Sen. McGovern and the other liberal
hacks shudder at the thought of such language.
So instead everyone talks only about how horrible
it is that all those American boys are dying in that
Asian war.
And on the other side, the Weatherman faction
throws rocks and rhetoric, and leaves the political
analysis to New Left Notes.
BOTH THE Mobe and the self-styled ultra-
radicals seem to have forgotten the need for grass-
roots organizing, education, and political dialogue
among workers, students, black people and other
potentially radical groups.
The Washington march cost at least 5 million
just to transport the hundreds of thousands of
demonstrators to Washington.
A little arithematic will reveal that $5 million
is enough bread to hire 1,000 full-time organizers
for the next year. Such an expenditure would most
likely have been far more productive in the long
run, but it wouldn't have served as a cathartic for'
all the middle-class, liberal students who make
the annual trek to Washington for a mass march.
The Mobe holds its rallies, the Weatherman its
rampages, and the war goes on, the military con-
tinues to squander $80 billion a year, and the U.S.
continues to oppress people throughout the Third
World.
THE MOBE AND the Weatherman should realize
that they are fighting the most resilient political
system in the world.
American capitalism has proven to be incredibly
adaptable, using co-optation and reformism to
emasculate threatening radical movements.
In the face of radical unionism 50 years ago,
the American ruling elite developed and nurtured
the concept of the management union.
To meet the threat of Big Bill Haywood and
Gene Debs, the capitalist kingpins produced docile
and non-militant unions which did their own share
of exploiting the workers while making them believe
the union is fighting for the workers benefit.
The political parties carefully adopted selective
reforms taken from the socialist candidates of that
day, while still maintaining their manipulative
control over the electoral process.
SOCIAL SECURITY, minimum wage, and child
labor laws were used to disarm that potentially
revolutionary situation. Now that discontent is
on the rise again, similar measures are in the offing.
Nixon will revise the draft. Sen. McGovern will
acquire funds to combat hunger and starvation, and
the Pentagon will pull ROTC off college campuses.
The power structure believes such measures
will severely undercut the present movement and
return alienated youth and workers to the folds
of the silent majority. Unless the Mobe and the
Weatherman are able to take more effective action,
McGovern and his cohorts may prove to be right.
Unwittingly, groups like New Mobe are signifi-
cantly aiding the liberals in this process by pro-
viding them with a forum to reach youth and use
it to ride the tide of discontent into office with
vain promises for phony reforms.
Moreover, if antiwar protesters are not careful,
they may find when the Vietnam mess finally does
end that they are left with neither a cause nor
a constituency.
AMERICA HAS developed the most sophisticated
techniques for repression that the world has ever
seen, and this society cannot be overthrown by
wishing it away. Our society maintains control
mechanisms far more clever and equally as effective
as George Orwell's scenario for 1984.
Coercive thought control is unnecessary, for in
America we have a school system which is astonish-
ingly effective in repressing unAmerican ideas and
activities by its inmates.
By the time they reach puberty, most Americans
are thoroughly imbued with the sentiments of
patriotism, anti-communism, religion, and male
chauvinism; Despite the much-touted youth revo-
lution, the rebellious are still a minority.
Later in life, institutions like the draft, the
military, the capitalist business structure and its
pressures for success shape the great silent majority
to serve its purposes.
American political institutions are controlled
by machine politicians whose election is based more
upon their ability to solicit funds and support from
the wealthy capitalists whom they are to serve.
THE NEW MOBE'S liberal followers should re-
member that their hero Gene McCarthy consistently
voted in favor ofhthe oil depletion allowance, and
that Seni. Fulbright consistently opposed even the
most innocuous of civil rights legislation.
Weatherman, on the other hand, should under-
stand that it is facing an incredibly resilient sys-
tem, one which requires more than cant rhetoric
and window breaking to destroy.
There are viable alternatives to apolitical peace
peace rallies and senseless rock-throwing sprees.
They are more painstaking and require a great deal
more commitment, but they at least have some hope
for restructuring this repressive society.
WHAT IS needed is a new and creative militancy
and massive radical education drive.
Sit-ins, lie-ins, and lock-ins can replace timid
marches, but they must be accompanied by tho-
rough dialog, analysis and political justification.
"Capitalism,' "imperialism," and "repression"
are not dirty words and the movement leaders must
discuss them.
It should be remembered that it is difficult to
characterize such tactics as violent. They involve
civil disobedience, but they are neither destructive
nor violent.
If a little window-breaking does take place, we
should ask others to weigh that minor destruction
against the wasting of whole villages and popula-
tions by the U.S. military.
And lastly, such antiwar activities can be organ-
ized and fought on local levels without the need
for a lowest common denominator approach to mass
movements.
-Daily-Thomas R. Copi
If Sptro T. run TV
By NADINE COHODAS
VICE PRESIDENT Spiro Agnew,
the man of the month - or
is it mouth? - is upset with the
nation's television networks. They
have too much power, he says.
And they malign his b o s s too
much with "instant analysis" and
"querulous criticism" of the Pres-
ident's speeches.
Besides, Agnew maintains. the
majority of these "self-appointed
analysts" express "hostility" to
what Nixon has to say.
X''HAT'S A Vice President to do?
There seems to be two choices
- either accept the criticism like
the other 36 Pr'esidents and their
Vice Presidents have done. Or, buy
up the networks and staff them
with pals.
Number one apparently is im-
possible. This. of course, leaves
number two as the viable alter-
native.
With that in mind we jump a
few months in to the future to
watch the March 10. 1970 post-
Nixon Vietnam address discussion
aired on the nation's newest net-
work - ABS --A new Broad-
casting System.
"GOOD EVENING, ladies and
gentlemen. This is Strom Thur-
mond, ABS anchor man at ABS
headquarters in the Blue Room
at the White House.
"With me to provide an objec-
tive analysis of t h e President's
magnificent, perceptive and won-
derful 30-minute address is Viet-
nam expert David Eisenhower,
who just returned from a seven-
week tour of duty'in Vietnam as
a bellhop in the Saigon Hilton.
"First, however, I will briefly
summarize Mr. Nixon's fabulous
speech for those viewers who had
the misfortune to miss a great.
great performance.
"WITH HIS customary per-
ceptiveness and sensitivity, the
Presidentsnoted early in his re-
marks that 'presently, we are in
a war. This w a r Is costing us
many, many dollars and many,
many lives. This is real sad and
what I would term a shame.'
"Ladies and gentlemen, I feel I
must depart f r o m my objective
summation to point out the glor-
iousness of such verbiage. Doesn't
this capture the real essence of
the turmoil? - Doesn't this hit
that old nail on the head in a way
you've never seen it hit before?
"TO CONTINUE, President Nix-
on then outlined what magnani-
mous and truly gentlemanly at-
tempts at negotiating peace he
has made - attempts like writing
Ho Chi Minh a letter on the Pres-
ident's very own White House sta-
tionary with his very own BIC
pen.
"Nixon concluded his studen-
dous address with a creative and
heartening plan f a r withdrawal
sometime before the turn of the
century if H a n o i agrees to go
away.
"This in brief, then, is a cap-
sule version of the President's ex-
cellent speech.
"AND NOW DAVID, do you
agree w i t h the President's re-
marks concerning Vietnam a n d
plans for withdrawal?"
"Yes, Strom. I think Dad has
made some g o o d points in his
marvelous speech. He called it on
the nose when he said there's a
war a going on, Why, in my first
week at the Hilton I saw four gen-
erals, three colonels and a lieu-
tenant walk through t h e lobby.
And besides that there were two
convertible Air Force jeeps park-
ed in the Hilton driveway.
"Now as far as Dad's withdraw-
al plans go - well, I think that's
something he has to figure out for
himself - furthermore I --"
"EXCUSE ME for cutting in
David, but we must break away
for a word from our sponsors, 'Pat
'n Julie's Frozen Pies.' But we'll
be right back in a jiffy with more
analysis of President Nixon's fan-
tastic speech . ."
Letters:
'Pushed around
by a gang of armed
men'
I ,
To the Editor:
THIS EVENING (Monday ,
about a quarter to six. I happened
to be standing on the sidewalk
near the corner of Washtenaw
and East University when a group
of Pershing Rifles --- the elite
ROTC drill team - came march-
ing along the sidewalk.
As I stood there, watching in
curiosity, the platoon marched up
to me and with nary a warning
nor an attempt to avoid hitting
me, one of them struck me on
the shoulder, knocking me aside
and out of the way of t h e i r
march.
The platoon kept right on
marching with no notice of what
had been done. and when I ran
after them and called out, "Who's
your leader? Who's your leader?"
I was totally ignored as they
kept on marching. I later found
out they were under orders not
to permit civilians to break up
their line of march.
NOW. UNDER military law this
action may have been perfectly le-
gal and proper. But this university
is not a military base and under
civilian law, this action consti-
around by a gang of armed men.
I HAVE identified the m a n who
actually struck me, and if such
an apology is not forthcoming, I
am ready to file charges of as-
sault and battery against him.
I don't want to do this unless I
have to, because these very serious
charges could wreck his career.
But I will, if need be, because the
Pershing Rifles simply have to be
taught that the streets belong to
the people.
-T. A. Heppenheimer
Nov. 17
Por'tentis?
To the Editor:
A LOT HAS been written about.
the marches in Washington this
past weekend. I will therefore be
brief -_ describe a moment, and
make a suggestion.
The mnoment was that when my
wife, three children and I -- dur-
ing the March of Death on Friday
- walked by the south facade of
the White House, and each of us,
following instructions. shouted the
name written on the placard across
of the March of Death marchers
crossed the bridge over the Poto-
mac from Virginia to Washington,
but we did not see it.
We did, however, standing in
front of the Capitol at the march's
end, feeling at loose ends, see the
sky clearing in the west, present-
ing a red band as an edge to the
black storm clouds overhead, and
luridly illuminating the needle of
tht Washington Monument.
We hope the one, or the other,
were signs of a better future..
AND A SUGGESTION. Why not
practice what we have preached
for 20 years, and turn over the
matter of Vietnam to the UN for
arbitration, an arbitration whose
results we promise ahead of time
to accept? An extraordinary step,
but the situation calls for it.
It could cut the knot of Mr.
Nixon's dilemma.
Is is too much to hope--and
work-for?
-Prof. John A. Bailey
Near Eastern Languages
and Literature
Nov. 18
relevant question concerns the
role of the degree and the oppor-
tunities it affords.
If the student is interested in
graduate work in any discipline, I
think it reasonable to expect that
the admitting department will look
at the courses the student has
taken and not at his departmental
concentration. As long as the re-
quirements for admission to a
graduate school program are com-
pleted, concentration, I feel, will
not be necessary.
IT WOULD be appropriate for
the LSA honors council to allow
a student to receive a BGS with
honors. I would think it also pos-
sible for a department to award
departmental honors to a student
who did outstanding work in that
department, without regard to the
student's field of concentration.
This should be the case, even
for the standard B.S. or B.A. de-
gree. Why should it be the rase
that only majors receive recog-
nition for outstanding work in a
particular field?
Since the BGS is not an in-
ferior degree, students enrolled in
the BGS should have every op-
have made inquiries abut the BGS
degree have met, I think, wvith un-
fair responses from those of us re-
sponsible for helping the student
make decisions concerning his
academic career.
I've heard altogether too often
the suggestion that the BGS is
an inferior degree. There seems
to be an underhanded effort to
denigrate the whole concept.
Frankly, I think such efforts to
undercut the program do the stu-
dent and the university a disserv-
ice. Those of us who proposed the
BGS degree feel that it provides
a reasonable alternative for t h e
student who wishes to take greater
responsibility in planning h i s
educational program.
Further, we had hoped that, if
the BGS became popular, depart-
ments would compete for students
in an open market. This in turn
might lead to a total reevaluation
of the undergraduate educational
enterpr-ise, something which I per-
sonally feel needs at least as much
attentionn from faculty and stu-
dents as other current campus is-
sues.
--Prof Ronald T. Tikof'sky
- Ali %ba T