Seventy-Sixth Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS . _ here Opinions Are Free. 420 MAYNARD ST.. ANN ARBoR, Mica. Truth Will Prevail NEwS PHONE: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: BRUCE WASSERSTEIN The Lesson of Ohio State: Reformers Must Be Realistic THE NEWS from Columbus that Ohio State University's speaker rule has been significantly relaxed is of a good deal of importance for students all over the country, and for those of us at the University especially. In years past, the free speech move- ment at OSU followed the path of the all- too-evident majority of student move- ments. It came and it went in bursts. Leaders jumped to the fore with their ever - present "more-liberal-than-thou" attitudes and led ill-organized, ill-in- formed, and ill-conceived demonstra- tions with all the sporadic emotional en- thusiasm of youth. Of course they failed, as such movements have failed on cam- pus since time immemorial. But when Jeffrey Schwartz and a small group of intelligent workers took over the leadership of the movement in Septem- ber of 1964, it became a concerted, well- led, well-directed and persevering at- tempt to win a battle rather than glory. BEFORE RESORTING to demonstra- tions, the leadership put in a good four months of hard work and solid, rational meetings with University officials. The officials, President Novice G. Fawcette at their head, had statewide popular and journalistic support, as well as the con-. sensus of opinion in the state legisla- ture and the popular vote of the state of Ohio and the city of Columbus to back them up. In addition, they were conserva- tives themselves-so they refused. It was then and only then that demon- strations were called, into effect. The stu- dent leaders built carefully on founda- tions of 1) past peaceful efforts, 2) care- fully solicited faculty support, and 3) gen- .une student support. At every turn, no demonstration went without intricate and well-calculated planning, and without an assurance of genuine conviction, support and understanding on the part of the students. Demonstration was not for its own sake, but for the sake of a means toward a specifically identifiable end. There were no demagogues, but there were sincere, calculating leaders. Factions only began to play a part near the end of the year, when graduating honor student Schwartz began to pack his bags for Columbia. The result was that every rally, the hellish 24-hour sleep-in at the adminis- tration building, and the 5-mile march to the statehouse all were made by 2-300 students who knew what they were doing and why, who weren't following leaders who would yell "are we going to march?" by whim, who weren't in it for the power and glory of the front of a line, or for the headline. The activities were demon- strations, not immature and senseless antagonism-and they finally succeeded. COMPARE THIS to what happens here. We don't have a town of 50,000 peo- ple who sincerely believe demonstrators are Communists. Nor do we have an ex- tremely influential local newspaper which does not hesitate to label demonstrators as such, and press for their expulsion and their being fired from summer jobs, as Schwartz was this summer. Nor do we have a right-wing state legislature and governor, each located right in town, breathing down a right-wing trustee council's back to maintain the status quo. What we do have is a liberal newspaper, a liberal community, far more intellect- ually oriented student body than Ohio State's and far more concrete and de- fensible issues to fight for than Schwartz's Free Speech Front had. Yet they won their protests on campus issues this year, and we have kept on los- ing-at least until now. Only with the coming of something concrete-the re- cent Voice building proposal, the prod- uct at last of some obviously genuine work-do we seem.to be within reaching distance of a breakthrough on the eco- nomic welfare issue at the University. The Voice plans were presented to and respected by the administration - what besides these have campus activists pre- sented the administration in the past that could be respected? The Hatcher tea last fall? The protest of increased mo- vie prices? YET AT THE VOICE housing rally last week, there were those Voice members who were ready to antagonize-to throw eight months' work back in the admin- istrators' faces. The University student is not going to succeed in his objectives until he stops sitting in without some- thing to sit on. Yelling for some cause is fun, and jumping to lead an emotionally motivated rally is glorifying, and getting one's pic- ture in the paper for some intellectually identified cause is neater still. But noth- ing happens without hard work and or- ganizing, as Ohio State and Jeff Schwartz indicate. The final Voice housing plans have yet to be completed, but when they are, let's hope they are well-founded-as I think they probably will be-and that they are presented in good faith, and, if neces- sary, demonstrated for with intelligent, moderate leadership and sincere motiva- tion. The eye should be on the achieve- ment of an-end, not on the camera and the others around us. -HARVEY WASSERMAN Ethics, By JEFFREY GOODMAN THE TRAGEDY of American foreign policy at this particular point in history is two-fold and is only too clearly illustrated by our actions in VietsNam: 1) We fail to understand the nature and requirements of the revolutionary and revolutionizing drive which is gripping the under- developed nations of the world; 2) We have yet to develop an ethic to govern the use of our power and influence which would be consistent both with that drive and with our own professed ideals. 1-a) THOSE WHO are politi- cally aware in the new nations and the great majority of those they claim to represent perceive that the benefits of social con- trol over the development and dis- tribution of wealth and the ques- tion of whether there will be de- velopment at all depend on a re- structuring of the political and economic relationships by which their nations are governed. It is primarily this perception -one which is nottnecessarily de- rived either from the ideology of other nations or from control by foreign elements of local progres- sive forces - which informs the struggle to free one's nation from the domination of foreign capital interests and/or indigenous aris- tieratic elites. The thrust of this struggle, therefore, is necessarily nation- alisticsand self-deterministic. In all cases the feeling is that the revolutionary changes (political as well as economic) which must be made can be accomplished only if thepopulation of the country runs its own affairs and asserts its political and cultural integrity. THIS DOES not mean that aid from foreign governments is not wanted, either before or after "the revolution." It does mean, how- ever, that nationals desire and must have as nearly complete con- trol as is possible over foreign and domestic policies, in order to ensure that their resources, their labor, their progress, their revo- lutionizing changes are not ma- nipulated for the interests of oth- ers. Indeed, this nationalism is nec- essary to ensure that there will be basic structural changes in the first place-as opposed to mere ameliorations, which can only be tokenistic, which do not change the relationships of power and which therefore make a people de- pendent on the whims of foreign governments or ruling classes. This is basically the process which is still occurring in Viet Nam and in most of Latin Amer- ica. To widely varying extents, the stages of initial revolution have already been completed in most of Africa, in the Middle East, in Indonesia, in the Indian subcon- tinent and in the now-Communist nations. What remains for this latter category of nations is to consolidate-and often complete- their revolutions and begin the task of modernization. 1-b) THAT IN MANY nations this process (either as revolution or as established government) is aided and sometimes directed by men from Communist nations should not lead to the simplistic conclusions of the American gov- ernment and people that Commu- nism is overrunning the world. We are witnessing today the slow but steady disintegration of what the West used to perceive as a Monolithic Communist Bloc. The split between Russia and China, Russia's own coming-of- age in the community of indus- trialized nations, the gradual fall- ing-away of the Soviet Union's Eastern Europe satellites, Cuba's growing independence of foreign direction andthe well-known ha- tred and fear of Chinese hege- mony on the part of both North and South Vietnamese - these forces indicate both the nation- alistic orientation of Communist governments and the increasing impossibility of a unified, confi- dent, powerful Communist force directed against the collective West. 1-c) THERE ARE numerous factors which recommend, as a model for the underdeveloped'na- tions, governments which are egal- Another f On Discri To the Editor: 1) BYLAW 2.14 states in effect that there will be no dis- crimination in the University. 2) In the IFC rushing booklet most fraternities make no state- ment emphasizing that they choose members without rgard to race and religion. From these "premises" Peter R. Sarasohn of The Daily concludes (September 15) that "(fraternity life) at the University (must) suc- ceed better than it has so far or itarian in terms of economic poli- cies (such as the distribution of wealth and social control over the means of production) while at the same time being non-civil liber- tarian (i.e., not allowing full free- dom of the press, not encouraging or allowing the growth of opposi- tion parties, etc.). The factors which recommend this model in the poor countries relate to the economic conditions which must exist before there can be meaningful democratic proced- ures: the existence of viable, self- conscious economic classes; the possession by those classes of the economic means to form and run political parties and to utilize both mass media and educational fa- cilities; a generally high level of education for the nation as a whole and sufficient national wealth to support the conceptual and intellectual processes (full time for some people, at least part time forall people) which are necessary for political (and other non-productive) activities. In the United States, for in- stance, these conditions adhere only in the middle and upper classes. Therefore our political parties and procedures reflect the values and needs of these classes almost exclusively; not so strictly speaking, there is no party for the poor, no party for the Negro, no party for the intelligentsia. IN THE UNDERDEVELOPE7D nations, the absence of the con- ditions upon which democracy de- pends is maximized. The existence of economic classes depends not so much upon the identification of various social groups with cer- tain sectors of the economy as it does upon the ability of those groups to control and utilize the resources and output of a sector and upon the potential wealth of the sector in the first place. In the poor nations, which are either still colonies or just recent- ly free, only one group has, by these criteria, constituted a viable class, and whatever merchant-en- trepreneur-bureaucrat class is just now emerging in these nations is still too diffuse, too small. More- over, its skills are so crucial to the nation's development that it need not be too politically con- cerned for its own welfare. By and large, the mass of peo- ple do not possess sufficient wealth or power to form parties. They have always been servants of oth- er groups (i.e., not really control- ling even their own labor) and are thus without the means to afford political activity. MOREOVER, they have always been without the stimulus of po- tential political power which would have lead them to identify as a political-economic class or to seek the necessary economic means for activity as a class. Characteris- tically, then, the one party which does emerge in the new states draws support from all economic levels and focuses on the basical- ly external issue of nationalism. Only the gradual economic de- velopment of the nation within an ideology of egalitarian distribu- tion of wealth and at least some social control over economic sec- tors can reverse this situation. In this regard, it matters less that there are initially civil liberties than it does that control over the economy is exercised in the inter- ests of the whole population. It is this condition which so- cialistic governments in the new nations fulfill far better than those arrangements which grant mean- ingless liberties (if they do even that) while exploiting the nation for the sake of foreign capital interests and indigenous elites. THE OTHER general issue - that of level of education and control of both education and mass media-also relates to the economic condition of the nation. Education, using scarce energy supplies but not producing goods, is essentially a luxury (despite its longer range significance for de- velopment). Moreover, decentral- ized control of education and of the mass media depend on the possession of sufficient wealth by many different groups in the so- ciety. And if people are to have the enriched and stimulating environ- ments which psychology tells us are necessary to conceptualization tiewoint mination line of distortions (one cited above) which it prints. -Charles M. Wynn Department of Chemistry Responsibility To the Editor: I AM WRITING in protest (isn't everyone lately?) to SNCC's Viet Nam poster displayed in the Fishbowl. Without actually tak- ing sides on the issue, let me just sav this Freedom of sniech and and the ability to think and un- derstand abstractly, there must be more to their lives than ex- haustingly and boringly eking out a mere subsistence. None of this should be taken as an absolute justification for authoritarianism. Certainly it is more desirable to achieve economic development and also to have civ- il liberties-and in many of the new nations this is perhaps pos- sible. THE POINT is that the previ- ous conditions of servitude of most of these new nations have so im- poverished their people, so polar- ized the potential bases for eco- nomic classes and so little en- couraged the growth of autono- mous, democratic middle class ele- ments that there is often very little choice as to which social grouping might serve as a base for government. One must often take either the established elites, supported by foreign capital, or the national- istic and socialistic revolutionar- ies. To the extent that the choice is this clear, it seems obvious, at least to me, that the revolutionary forces are preferable (not to men- tion the fact that, for better or worse, they are usually the most accurate reflection of actual pop- ular will). FOR IF THESE revolutionary forces can accomplish the eco- nomic development of their na- tion, they are inevitably planting the seeds of their own destruction. Development will finally allow the formation of viable classes and parties, and those groups, all of them wishing the means of ex- pression and influence in govern- ment, will eventually loosen or destroy the single-party system which has ruled the nation. Already we are seeing signifi- cant manifestations of this ten- dency in the Soviet Union. The question-which our government seems always to answer wrongly -is which initial form of govern- ment will do the job best. 2) IF THE ABOVE is, indeed, the nature of the revolutionary force which issweeping the un- derdeveloped world, what ought to be the American response? It seems fairly clear at this point that if the United States sincerely desires to foster freedom and equality across the globe, then we ought to support instead of opposing nationalistic and socialis- tic revolutionary forces. At the least, we should allow them to fol- low their natural course without any interference. Better yet, we should lend verbal support, advice and advisers and even arms (though not troops) to their fight. Once they are established, we should do everything in our power to aid them economically. We shou-ld foster the feeling that these new nations can depend on us for help, without having to be dependent upon pleasing us (as by adopting our form of govern- ment and economy, by not criti- cizing our domestic and foreign policies, by allowing our capital interests to continue exploiting their people) for the receipt of much-needed aid. Only with this use of our pow- er and wealth can there be sub- stantial, creative, real progress in the world. And only with this use of our power, by the way, can we establish better relations with the other great powers, both Commu- nist and capitalist. IT IS NOT too hard, however, to imagine that we are either not at all sincerein thisdesire or that freedom and equality mean some- thing very strange to our policy- makers. Probably, as in most cases, the "objective" truth of the matter lies somewhere between these two extremes. What we are doing in Viet Nam, for instance, is to absolutely en- sure that we shall never be sought by or identified with the progres- sive movements and sentiments of the world's poor. Our war in that country is against a popular, na- tionalistic and economically egali- tarian movement and for a series of non-representative puppet re- gimes which have almost no in- clination toward egalitarian mod- ernization and which, considerably at our initiation, have more in- clination than the National Lib- eration Front toward anti-civil li- bertarian suppression. EVEN IF THE nature of the opposing sides in Viet Nam were different, we are still using our tremendous militarypower reck- lessly and inhumanely. All at the same time we flaunt a war with China (French author Jules Roy contends that almost all concern- ed Europeans believe our war is merely a pretext to become involv- ed with and destroy China), strain relations with Russia and insist on fighting a war which can only be won with the genocidal destruc- tion of all Viet Nam. Our "peace" terms-as well as those of the North Viet Nam gov- ernment, which is not even a principal in the struggle and which is naturally forced to de- mand much in order to save face with its people-our terms amount to a demand for unconditional sur- render, and we are unwilling to show our good faith by halting our bombings in the North. Even were the nature of the op- posing sides not so clearly dis- tinct, our war in Viet Nam can only appear to the world's people as a war of white against yel- low, rich against poor. We are proving to those people that our power is something to be feared and hated instead of something to be enlisted on their side. We are proving that we are ruthless, that we are governed not by patience, reason and love but by our sadis- tic passions and our tendency to destroy that which does not bend to our will. ALL OF THIS can only increase the anti-Yanquism of the world's people and their resistance to any- thing we might later want to do to help them. So we are doing wisdom and Foreign Policy exactly the opposite of what we should be doing if we really want- ed to foster freedom and equality instead of hatred, militarism and the internal repressions which these breed. Nor would we consider with- drawing, even if we could admit our folly to ourselves, for we must always preserve our prestige. Yet again our ethic is lacking, for there is no ability to understand that prestige is much more than the "determined" (read stubborn) exercise of power, no ability to understand that a great power can err and that we have far more to gain by admitting and correcting our error than by pursuing it, per- haps to the ultimate destruction of everyone. LET ME briefly outline an al- ternative solution to the Viet Nam war which I think would be con- sistent with the principles I have developed: Very soon, the U.S. should cease bombing both North and South Viet Nam and announce that it seeks a truce to freeze the exist- ing military situation and nego- tiations consisting of representa- tives from Saigon, Washington, Hanoi, China and the National Liberation Front. These talks would work out the particulars by which a United Na- tions force would gradually take over positions held by U.S., North Vietnamese, Viet Cong and South Vietnamese troops, with the sub- sequent withdrawal of troops from the two "foreign"powers and the disarming of troops of the two indigenous forces. At the same time a UN provi- sional government would establish headquarters in some city located centrally between the 17th parallel and the southwestern tip of South Viet Nam. It would begin both the functions of government and prep- arations for UN-supervised general elections (in which, I contend, North Viet Nam could also be con- vinced to participate) which would establish a unified government for all Viet Nam. It would, of course, be just as difficult to convince the NLF and Hanoi to accept this kind of set- tlement as it would be to con- vince the U.S. and Saigon. This is why the main roles must be assumed by the UN and why the U.S. must make strong and clear statements concerning its good faith; its admission of misjudg- ment; its willingness to cooperate with and aid-no strings attached -whatever government emerges from the elections; its general willingness to at least refrein from opposing progressive, natioi- alistic, socialistic revolu- tions throughout the world and its willingness to abide by tem- porary UN rule in Viet Nam. SUCH MUST BE the nature of our ethic if there is ever to be a humane and promising end to the Viet Nam war and if the cu"ggnt world revolution is not ultimate- ly to burn the whole globe in nu- clear flames. Of course it asks a great deal, but I do not think less will do. 4" AO s Censorship-No Solution SOME OF THE RECENT debate within and without the Fishbowl about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com- mittee's "war crimes" sign has taken a decidedly unfortunate turn. Specifically, some have proposed that future Fishbowl displays should be subject to some form of content control in addition to present regulations which require only advance notice for posting signs. The problem with criticizing such pro- posals is that at first sight they seem Very defensible. Preventing the Fishbowl from becoming a center for the dissem- ination of libel and character assassina- tion seems a noble cause indeed. And in fact, it is a noble cause, The real question is who should pursue it, the individual student groups or some higher censorship body? Would it in fact be justified for a cen- sorship group to be established for Fish- bowl posters? The answer must be strong- ly negative. THE FIRST REASON for this answer touches on the real crux of the .issue of poster censorship: that no matter whose interests might be profited by cen- soring the SNCC poster, everyone's in- terests would suffer. A basic key to the maintenance of the viable political dialogue students de- serve is the imnle right for them to at- THERE IS A SECOND major danger in- herent in a censorship mechanism. Once it has been established, it must in- variably surround itself with an aura of righteousness, egging itself on to further and further control of the public media. Even worse, because censorship would not allow the proper expression of a group's beliefs, it would divert them from their normal interests into a fight against an administrative ruling. Attacks on is- sues would thus become attacks on the establishment, with a resulting decline in meaningful campus debate. This implies that poster censorship, for whatever reasons, is antithetical to student political freedoms; indeed, it is inconceivable that the two could coexist successfully for any length of time. IN FACT, if anyone ever begins to draw the line on what may or may not be posted in the Fishbowl, on whatever bas- is, however "moral" or "practical," the action will be an intolerable blot on the University's record of student freedom of speech and action. The counter-argument is, of course, that freedom of speech and action must be tempered by reason and responsibil- ity. This is no light invective, and activ- ists of whatever shade, who are fond of ignoring it because it is unusually a delay- 4- . ninnn -Ff. nn nnan -s-c. cl nIA r - f U .M'a "Of N-