Seventy-Fifth Year EDIE AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 'NDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS DEPENDENCY AND REVOLUTION: U. S. Policy Economic Exploitation ere Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD $T., ANN ARBOR, MIcH. 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. THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: MICHAEL BADAMO 'Rights' Orientation In Russia Increasing Post-Stalinist Russians are now experiencing a new liberalization in the legal structure. However, only the first steps have been made. It is still difficult to believe that Soviet leadership will reach the proletarian stage in civil rights in the immediate future. JjN THE TWO-DAY conference on the "Khrushchev Era and After," held here last week, Prof. John N. Hazard of Columbia University, presenting his views on the Soviet legal system and its pres- ent, trends, said that the post-Stalin Rus- sians are becoming "rights oriented." In support of his case, he reviewed events after Stalin's death, pointing out the following significant changes in le- gal policy: -Denunciation of Stalin's execution policy by the Soviet law journals and the end of police terror; -Setting aside the death penalty for economic reasons; -Reinstituting some Western trial pro- sedures; -Improvements in the Soviet prison camps. The prisoners now have legal rights to defend themselves, and -Recognition of the fact that the So- viets do not have real election rights. Hazard believes that the reason be- hind these changes is the presence of a hiumanitarian element in Soviet lawyers, who are seriously concerned about the progress of Soviet law. PERHAPS THESE CHANGES are in the process of actual implementation, but Ado tion Plan Must Remain Pure THE MICHIGAN STATE University Peo- ple to People Association, a group which plans to "adopt" a South Vietna- mese village, began its fund-raising pro- gram last week by sponsoring a talk by Vice-President Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey's speech, aside from rais- ing a great deal of money for the cause, also raised a serious question about the direction the program is to take. The originators of the people to people program feel that their economic action -their "adoption" of the South Vietna- mese hamlet of Long Yen-will do a great deal to, help rebuild that war-torn na- tion, and will be a significant contribu- tion to the people of Viet Nam. Such economic assistance-by itself- Is commendable. Their cause has been 'further strengthened by their repeated emphasis on the non-political nature of their organization, certainly a refresh- ingly different tack, if nothing else. ]BUT THERE IS A GREAT danger that this "non-political" group will be sub- verted into a political vein, a possibility which Humphrey's talk made this pain- tfully evident. Humphrey referred to the people to people program as a weapon tobe used to "defeat a new and pernicious form of aggression against mankind." By turning this economic assistance program into Sjust another facet of the ideological war- fare being waged in Viet Nam, Humphrey robs it of its most attractive quality. Such a program would only supply med- ical facilities, educational services and the like. The group's funds should not be used for such things as military supplies or even uniforms for the village militia. Aside from avoiding such overt political activities as these, the backers of the people to people program must remain constantly alert to prevent their venture from being dragged into the political arena. HIS IS EASIER SAID than done, how- ever. But the group must be prepared to make lively protest if anyone-even the Vice-President-tries to use the peo- ple to people program as a political tool. With this in mind, last week's talk by Vice-President Humphrey was not a good beginning for the program. The MSU group should have politely but firmly re- mindd Huimnhrev-either before or after one cannot forget the tyrannical regime of Stalin. The long period when the So- viets experienced frequent punishment without any legal trials is still fresh in our memories. In fact, most Western observers of So- viet law say that the rights orientation has been a mockery in Soviet law, so far as the question of practical implementa- tion is concerned. This is, however, the conciliation that at least the text of the present law provides some degree of justification. One argument is that Khrushchev was very humanitarian and was therefore re- sponsible for bringing about these chang- es. Of course, he did introduce these re- forms, but there is little evidence that Khrushchev was really humanitarian. As a matter of fact, it was the necessity of circumstances which he realized and act- ed upon. The man in the street and in the courts had persistently demanded the stimula- tion of rights consciousness, and it would have indeed been unwise not to make some changes during Khrushchev's time. Changes came in Soviet criminal law procedure in 1958. These provided that a person accused of a crime would not be convicted without trial. Undoubtedly, this may be regarded as a big switch-over in Soviet policy. ANOTHER SIGNIFICANT development was to bring down the number of So- viet law articles from 456 to 156. Khrush- chev did so, claiming that it would make law easier and understandable. It was also stated that no one would be pen- alized outside the scope of these articles. The abolition of the Special Boards and elimination of the famous "analogy pro- vision" has given a deep sense of re- lief to all and fostered hopes that Soviet law is becoming stabilized. The dangerous "analogy provision" made the definition of crime so flexible that anyone could be punished without justification. Although there is now a provision in Soviet law that no one will be punished without a trial, it is still far from pro- viding complete justification. Its biggest weakness is that the accused is not en- titled to keep a lawyer for his defense until the charges are made and trial is set. This denies the accused the right to seek defense and legal advice at the earliest stage of the case. Soviet lawyers apparently realize this and are in fact very much embarrassed when criticized by legal experts from France, Great Brit- ain, Germany and the United States on this point. THE ORIGINAL CODE change of 1958 has also reduced death penalties to a small number. The Soviet law journal mentions a list of death penalties in its January 1965 issue. The changes have heralded the movement towards rights orientation, .putting pressure on Soviet law. Moreover, it has been much influ- enced by lawyers seeking more liberaliza- tion. Shifting political circumstances are also playing a considerable role in the changes. Even an idea like multi-candi- dacies in elections has come up in the party meetings, and the old idea that one could not think of rival candidates now seems to be fading. However, it does not mean that the Communist Party conceives of more than two candidates in elections. The editor of the Soviet law journal wrote recently that, "The concept of multi-candidates is not a conception of secondary import- ance in comparison to the Stalin period." Besides, he said, political measures more important in considering rights are being discussed for the new constitution, coming within the next three years. This will recognize the need to change the EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article is an excerpt from the in- troduction to an unpublished hon- ors thesis, "Process and Revolu- tion in Latin America: The Role of the Intellectual" (April, 1965). By STEPHEN BERKOWITZ THE WORLD TODAY is in the midst of a revolution so vast in scope, so thoroughgoing in its goals, and so intense in the de- termination those 'dedicated to it bring to the task of securing them, that it is an act almost of abject faith to state-with any semblance of surety-what the political structure of world so- ciety will be like from one mo- ment to the next. Throughout the world-in Latin America, in Africa and in Asia- people are emerging from the darkness of the poverty, misery and repression which has been the only form of living they have known, into the realization that the fruits of a modern technologi- cal age may properly belong also to them. This "revolution" - variously called "the revolution of rising expectations," "the revolt of the masses," "the social revolution"- hasappeared in many different places and in many different forms. IT IS NOT NEW-it is only, now, "very much with us." In the parts of North Africa and Asia which formerly belonged the colonial powers, the term "so- cial revolution" has been associat- ed with a form of nationalism which seeks a liberation not only from ,the political domination of the European state system-but also from its conceived framework of international relations. Hence we have the phenomenon of "neutralism.- IN LATIN AMERICA, which has been largely independent for almost a century and a half, the revolution strikes not only at the political and social disease which lies within its borders, but at the place the rest of the world has relegated to it in the economic scheme of things. , The tendency of Latin Ameri- cans to think of further changes in their social enviornment in terms of alterations in an eco- nomic "system" is significant. The rest of the areas touched by the expanding social revolu- tion in progress today have just entered into-or are about to en- ter into-the sort of relationship vis-a-visthe economically more developed nations that Latin America has enjoyed for a long time; e.g. one inwhich de jure control of a country rests in the hands of the people of that coun- try (or rather those of their elite) and its de facto control, to a greater or lesser extent, rests in the hands of the foreign investors that own or dominate the coun- try's economic resources. THE REVOLT-the upsurge in revolutionary sentiments - which we are in the midst of, began with the increased share in the goods of society given the common man by the technologically more ad- vanced nations of Western Europe and, then, spread rapidly among the peoples of ther colonial poses- sions. In doing so, however, the revo- lution altered its character in certain ways. To the people of these coun- -Associated Press AN ANTI-AMERICAN CROWD topples a sign in Buenos Aires in a demonstration protesting U.S. Inter- vention in the Dominican Republic. Such anti-American feeling has often focused on U.S. investments of the U.S. greet the intellectual community is a special form of madness.. In view of the fact that much of the ostensible foreign policy of the United States aims at influ- encing just these people-those who lead or will lead new nations -what, precisely are we doing wrong? What are the processes whereby the U.S. might come to under- stand the role it is, in fact, play- ing in much of the world today? IN THE FIRST instance, it should be noted that the views intellectuals throughout the un- derdeveloped world share as to the nature of the American image is rooted in the economic facts of their life-space. To them, the "American" is not a Peace Corpsman, or an Ameri- can missionary of the economic or religious sort; he is the owner of a large industrial combine that takes minerals from their earth and leaves them in rags.. . . To many' of them, even American aid has about it one essential demeaning quality which operates to'the exclusion of all the others: it is directed to and through governments which are, not of their own choosing... THIS BELIEF is a sound one- for such governments rarely pass these benefits along to their people. Yet, exploitation alone tells only part of the story. The primary effect of American investment upon the economies of the underdeveloped portion of the world is not, simply, to drain off capital or increase the inequit- able distribution of wealth within many portions of that area... In a larger sense, it is, to create economies which are uneven in their growth-thus either over- inflating or over-taxing govern- ment, creating vast urban slums, and draining from the country 4 economic resources which will be essential to its development later on. The effect of this pattern of economic disruption, moreover, has been to create further dis- ruptions and incongruities within the fabric of the societies of these countries as a whole. around the world. tries, a higher standard of living and independence were but two sides of the same coin: when the Europeans left, they thought, an economic Utopia would follow. THIS, IN FACT, is not what happened. In the first instance, the ending of the colonial system - which rested upon the direct political and economic control of the rest of the world by Europeans-has not freed most of these new coun- tries from the economies left be- hind by their erstwhile masters. The ties of economic depend- ency, forged during the colonial era, remain. Thus what has persisted after the liquidation of these empires, is a line etched deep in the sur- face of the international com- munity between the rich and poor -the independent and dependent -countries of the world. In some places, such as the Congo . . . major industries left over from the colonial period, re- main in the hands of those who held them before independence. In other areas, the control of the economies of former colonial possessions, while becoming sub- tler (that is to say it proceeds in- directly, through banks, holding companies, the regulation of in- ternational markets), remains as decisive. THIS PATTERN is not, of course, always an adequate des- cription of the relationships which exist between the larger economy and that of a particular country . . In much the same way that a map offers not reality, but an approximation of that reality, however, the value of the notion of "economic dependency" ought, in the first instance, to be gauged by the potentiality it offers for the prediction and description of the phenomena it incorporates. All formerly colonial countries, however, have not been content to remain in a dependent status in relation to their "mother" coun- tries. INCREASINGLY, the world so- v . ' 1 - cial revolution today addresses itself to the task of seeking 'to free the economies of newly in- dependent (and newly functionally independent) countries from the grip of foreign domination. "Africanization," "Nationaliza- tion," "economic readjustment," "sociolization"-these words in their several senses relate to the felt need on the part of the people of these countries to direct the fruits of their economic resources to their own betterment. Yet, the people of the under- developed parts of the world see many serious impediments in the way of their economic and social progress. Not the least of these . . . is the role being prayed by the United States in world af- fairs. IN AN AGE in which the rest of the highly developed capitalist countries in the west are in the' process of diminishing-or modi- fying-what economic relation- ships they enjoy to the rest of the world, we seem determined upon a course of action which is the precise opposite of this trend both in force and direction. In the face of a revolutionary climate of world sentiment-- when confronted by a situation which would seem to inveigh against just the sorts of actions we are undertaking-the U.S. seems about to embark upon what ... (might be) . . . called its "Period of Second Empire." In Latin America, in Asia, in Africa we are pursuing a course of behavior which the former colonial powers have given up as crude and wasteful. Our foreign policy seems geared more to the understandings and moral as- sumptions of the 19th than the 20th century. IN BRAZIL, in Viet Nam. in many parts of the world where the specter of revolution rises forcefully from amongst the people, we have chosern to retreat -on the level of rhetoric at least -into the outrageous moral plati- tudes of a half-century ago. In the face of this, then, the disregard, with which the actions H UMPTY-DUMPTY: Machines--Extensions of Man 0; HUMPTY-DUMPTY is the fa- miliar example of the clown unsuccessfully imitating the acro- bat. Just because all' the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty-Dumpty to- gether again, it doesn't follow that electromagnetic automation could not have put Humpty-Dumpty back together. The integral and unified egg has no business sitting on a wall, anyway. Walls are made of uni- formly fragmented bricks that arise with specialisms and bur- eaucracies. They are the deadly enemies of integral beings like eggs. Humpty-Dumpty met the chal- 1 N ,s ~, ,. L t f i lenge of the wall with a spectac- ular collapse. When Europeans used to visit America before the Second World War they would say, "But you have Communism here-" What they meant was that we not only had standardized goods, but everybody had them. Our mil- lionaires not only ate cornflakes and hot dogs, but really thought of themselves as middle-class peo- ple. WHAT ELSE? How could a mil- lionaire be anything but "middle- class" in America unless he had the creative imagination of an artist to make a unique life for himself? , It is strange that Europeans should associate uniformity of en- vironment and commodities with Communism? ... We really have homogenized our schools and fac- tories and cities and entertain- ment to a great extent just be- cause we are literate and do ac- cept the logic of uniformity and homogeneity that is inherent in Gutenberg technology. This logic, which has never been accepted in Europe until very recently, has suddenly been ques- tioned in America, since the tac- tile mesh of the 'V mosaic has begun to permeate the American sensorium. TO MISTAKE the car for a status symbol, just because it is asked to be taken as anything but a car, is to mistake the whole meaning of this very late product of the mechanical age that is now yielding its form to electric tech- nology. The car is a superb piece of uniform, standardized mechanism that is of a piece with the Guten- berg technology and literacy which created the first classless society in the world. The car gave to the democratic cavalier his horse and armor and haughty insolence in one pack- age, transforming the knight into a misguided missile. IN FACT, the American car did not level downward, but upward, toward the aristocratics idea . The car, in a word, has quite re- fashioned all of the spaces that unite and separate men, and it will continue to do so for a decade more, by which time the electronic involved the entire society in the decision-making process, shocks the old press man because it ab- dicates any definite point of view. As the speed of information in- creases, the tendency is for poli- tics to move away from represen- tation and delegation of constit- uents toward immediate involve- ment of the entire community in the central acts of decision. Slower speeds of information make delegation and representa- tion mandatory. Associated with such delegation are the points of view of the dif- ferent sectors ,of public interest that are expected to be put for- ward for processing and consid- eration by the rest of the com- munity. WHEN the electric speed is in- troduced into such a delegated and representational organization, this obsolescent organization can only be made to function by a series of subterfuge and make- shifts. -Marshall McLuhan "Understanding Media, The Extensions of Man" Federal Aid Falls Short ELPING deserving young men and women to finanice their college education is a worthy cause. It's one in which private enterprise is playing an important role. In 1960 a small group of far- seeing men determined to help open college doors to self-reliant young Americans, regardless of fi- nancial standing, and to do so through existing private agencies. Out of this determination there was established an organization known as United Student Aid Funds, Inc., which guarantees loans made to students by their home-town bank. The first loan was made on Feb. 1, 1961, and by the same date in 1965, the organization had guar- anteed 68,379 loans totalling $39.8 million, and 685 colleges and 5,- 522 banks were cooperating in the program. of