The Michigan Daily-Thursday, September 7, 1978-Page 59
Counci dances
to a GOP tune
Daily Photo by ANDY FREEBERG
Members of the Washtenaw County Coalition Against Apartheid protest University investments in South Africa.
'Campus Iactivists pla0y poli,1t ics
(Continued from Page 58)
I'm misunderstanding this, but .
Like Morris, Greene represents the
Second Ward staunchly, especially on
issues of student concern.
Susan Greenberg (D-First Ward) is
the Democratic newcomer to Council
but she has wasted no time in taking her
role as a minority party advocate
seriously. At the very first session of
the new Council, it was Greenberg who
nominated Morris for the position of
Mayor Pro Tem over Republican
choice Gerald Bell because "it is im-
portant to have a woman in that
position" and for purposes of "minority
representation" of the Democrats.
BELL WAS chosen Mayor Pro Tem
by the Republican majority, partly as
his reward for "doing more for the par-
ty than anyone else." Bell was one of
Mayor Louis Belcher's loudest
cheerleaders in the last electoral cam-
paign, and has become known as the
strong party man on Council..
As Bell is strictly partisan, Ronald
Trowbridge (R-Fourth Ward) is the
Republican maverick. Trowbridge is
the most colorful Council member, a
professor of English literature who
talks in witticisms and makes
irreverent jdkes on the most serious
topics.
In the Third Ward, the Republican
junior member is Louis Senunas, a low-
profile Ford Motor Company employee.
Only recently has Senunas been obser-
ved to be "coming out of his shell" by
more than one Council observer.
THE NEWCOMERS on the
Republican side, and completing the
seven-four Republican majority, are
freshmen Clifford Sheldon (R-Third
Ward), David Fisher (R-Fourth Ward),
and James Cmejrek (R-Fifth Ward).
Sheldon, a 35-year-old Ann Arbor
Bank vice-president is a traditional
less-government Republican who wants
to see the city bureaucracy made more
efficient. And like most Ann Arbor
Republicans these days, he sees road
repair as the major task ahead.
Cmejrek, like Sheldon, has yet, to,
establish an independent identity, but
he does have his own area of special in-
terest. Cmejrek, a local attorney, cam-
paigned on the theme of government
reorganization and restoring a weak-
mayor system to Ann Arbor.
The other Republican newcomer is
the Fourth Ward's David Fisher, civil
engineer, certified public accountant;
and former Wolverine gridiron star.
The election of the buly, but dapper,
Republican wa's"the only real surprise
in the last elections, since Sheldon's-and,.
Cmejrek's seats were considered
'safe" for Republicans.
Fisher's critics - and there are
many - accuse him of being a puppet
of James Stephenson, Ann Arbor's last
Republican mayor. It was Fisher's
election. that prompted Greenberg to
remark that. she would have to wear a
football helmet to Council meetings "to
protect me from all the shit that's going
to fly.
By RICHARD BERKE
Most incoming students have at least heard of
the radical, politically progressive individuals who
composed such a large chunk of the University's
student body in the 1960s.
Ann Arbor is the town where national leaders of
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) were
educated and, not long after, 2,000 students jammed
in front of North Hall demanding an end to U.S. in-
volvementin the Vietnam War.
THOUGH THESE events are but history now,
some new students may be surprised to see just how
many of their peers wanted Ronald Reagan to win
the 1976 election or that the majority of their
classmates shy away from any kind of political in-
volvement. Indeed, the University's student body
had followed the national trend away from political
activism and on to political serenity.
But remnants of the rebellious 1960s have not
completely vanished from campus. In fact, Ann Ar-
bor still can boast a wide offering of political
organizations, though they are not as plentiful as in
the past.
The Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade
(RCYB) is one of the more established and most
visible political groups in Ann Arbor. Called the
'Revolutionary Student Brigade until last February,
the group conducts various campus activities
espousing Maoist principles. RCYB members have
demonstrated against CIA recruitment on campus
and, more recently, have actively denounced the
University's ties with corporations operating in
South Africa.
ALSO ACTIVE on campus is the Spartacus Youth
League (SYL),, whose members seek to sway
students to the Trotskyite program of the worker
revolution. Active on campus for five years, the
group has a history of radicalism in Ann Arbor and
has been known to stay independent of other local
political groups.
"We want principally to win students to our
politics, Marxism, and to become revolutionaries,"
says SYL member Mitch Wright. "We try to inject a
little social realism into Ann Arbor."
WITH FIFTEEN members in the city, the Young
Workers Liberation League (YWLL) is a Marxist
organization. The group's purpose is to stand up for
the right of youth to "earn, learn, and live," accor-
ding to one YWLL member. YWLL conducts bi-
weekly fall meetings and one of its major activities
has been to raise money for the Wilmington Ten,
the jailed group fighting for civil rights. Last fall,
YWLL also sponsored a forum on affirmative ac-
tion.
The Young Socialist Alliance (YSA) reorganized
themselves on campus last year after two years of
inactivity since its past members graduated from
the University.
YSA member Dave Lechner stresses that his
group wishes to get involved with concrete issues to
help students and doesn't involve itself solely with
philosophical principles.
"WE LIKE GOING along with the majority as
much as possible," Lechner states. "We are in-
terested in getting something done."
On the political scene, the Socialist Human Rights
Party (SHRP) is an established alternative to the
two traditional party organizations. SHRP's
heydays were in the early 1970s, when the group
successfully ran three candidates for City Council.
Formerly called the Human Rights Party, the
organization pushed for Ann Arbor's now-famous $5
marijuana fine.
SHRP NO LONGER has the effect on city politics
it had in the past, however. In the 1977 mayoral elec-
tion, SHRP candidate Diane Slaughter received
only 356 votes compared to the more than 10,000
votes won by each of the other two candidates. In
last April's special mayoral election, Slaughter un-
successfully fought to have her name placed on the
ballot.
With the increasing controversy over South
Africa, local groups which have emerged to protest
U.S. and University ties with corporations in that
country have gained recent prominence.
The Washtenaw County Coalition Against Apar-
theid has been the most visible group, with mem-
bers appearing at Regents meetings and holding
forums denouncing racist policies in South Africa.
The African Student Association and more radical
South African Liberation Committee have also
gained momentum. and support as South African
apartheid becomes a critical campus issue.
AT YOUR
SERVICE . .
Billing 764-0550
Circulation 764-0558
Classifieds 764-0557
Display 764-0554
News 764-0552
(including happenings)
Sports 764-0562
Coop businesses offer an alternative
(Continued from Page 57 )
Alternative businesses attract
workers who have goals for "social or
political change." Often they would not
be doing such work unless they were
part of an organizational alternative.
Even in low-skill businesses, the RC
group found, workers were excep-
tionally well educated, frequently
college graduates, with many holding
graduate degrees. In these
organizations however, education does
not bring with it the usual status, and
physical work likewise carries no
stigma.
The food coops, located at 722
Packard and 212 N. Fourth are
probably the best places for newcomers,
to enter the alternative business world.
WORKING AN hour a week at a coop
entitles coop participants to a 17.8 per
cent discount on food bought at that
coop or at any of the other coops in
town. A bulletin board lists suggestions
for daily tasks and volunteers often find
themselves weighing raisins, prunes, or
dried apricots, cutting cheese, working
the cash register, or driving the coop's
truck.
But one need not work at a coop to
shop there.
Attending the coops' general mem-
bership meetings or working on hiring,
designing and remodeling, or fund-
raising committees also earns the
discount. Many coop members have
found that working for coops has taught
them valuable business and
organizational skills.
CAROLENA GOEHRING, a coor-
dinator at the Packard People's Food
Coop, stresses that the cooperative at-
mosphere at the coop makes it "really a
people's store." She says, "As a fresh-
man, I would have found it very ex-
citing."
Wendy Page-Echols, a Packard coop
coordinator whose infant son occupies a
favored position in a cradle on the
coop's desk, says freshpeople can
"supplement their 'quaddie' diet with
cheese, snacks, juice, trail mix and
even organic popcorn" by shopping at
the coops.
In addition, the coops sell over two
hundred different herbs and spices,
books about nutrition, organic tooth-
paste and soaps, herbal teas, and, of
course, coop t-shirts.
oll Mtjbtga :43atU
Daily Photo by JOHN KNOX
A local shopper scrutinizes the goods at the People's Food Coop.
NEW & USED
GUITARS
GIBSON
MARTIN
EPIPHONE
YAMAHA
FENDER
Accessories
LP'S-TAPES
STRINGS
& MISC.
MIKES
P.A. SYSTEMS
HARMONICAS
AMPS
ROAD
FENDER
EARTH
FREEDOM
E.M.C.
Here's the cotton knit T-shirt young men are
collecting in evrery color to team with their
summer denims and khakis. The ring neck and
sleeve detailing adds a touch of fashion to
our wardrobe of colors. Ecru, navy, light blue,
red or yellow. Sizes S-M-L-XL, 4.25.
DRUMS
LUDWIG
SLI NGER-
LAND
BANJOS
GIBSON .
HARMONY
% IWP' A