94t E itiitganD
Eighty-one years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University'of Michigan
superscription
Good manners: At peace with war?
10
by lynn, weiner
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily expres3 the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1972
NIGHT EDITOR: SARA FITZGERALD
Viewing bias from within
TfHE'RECENT REPORTS by the Com-
mission for Women's cluster groups
should not be cast aside as just another
complaint in the long list of sex discrimi-
natioi' charges levied against the Uni-
versity.
The same criticisms-salary dispari-
ties between men and women performing
the same job, placement of women in
lower jobs than they are qualified for,
and generally lower pay across-the-
board--all have been heard before and
will be sounded again.
But there is a difference this time.
The cluster group reports were prepared
not by the Department of Health, Educa-
tion and Welfare, the "watchdog" on sex
discrimination, nor the Commission for
Women from its quasi - administration
position, nor groups such as PROBE,
which have spearheaded moves to
eliminate campus sex discrimination.
Instead, the reports have been pre-
pared by women on the inside, profes-
sors, secretaries, and administrative per-
sonnel, who took a look at the Univer-
sity at the departmental level.
The investigations were painstakingly
and probably somewhat painfully done.
Not only did they require several months
of work, but also a degree of "going out
on a limb" to study the hiring prac-
tices of their own departments and in-
directly criticize the supervisors that
hire and fire them..
REPORTS came up with some
noteworthy conclusions.
Over two thousand University secre-
taries, for example, are paid at such low
salaries, that those with one dependent
can qualify for food stamps-placing
them at a near subsistence level in the
eyes of the government.
Another conclusion: the professional
and academic sectors of the University
have seen "no intent by the University to
place women in managerial positions."
And finally the groups questioned the
whole validity of the University's prof-
fered goals and timetables for increased
hiring of women. The University's pro-
jections count women who are not em-
ployed full-time by their departments in
projections for regular positions. In ad-
dition, the charts provide no information
on vacancies or promotions-important
to women who find themselves in posi-
tions with little chance of advancement.
THE LESSONS of the cluster group re-
ports are at least two-fold.
The University should assume an ag-
gressive stance toward eradicating sex
discrimination at all levels of the Uni-
versity. Why should women, who hold
full time jobs, who serve on the commis-
sion and committees, have to devote their
free time to monitoring the University's
efforts to make sure the job gets done?
In addition, deans, department chair-
men, supervisors and administrators
should all heed the reports of the women
who work around them. Sex discrimina-
tion does exist at the University. It is
time that these men stop trying to ignore
the problem and insead take some real
"affirmative action" toward ending it.
-SARA FITZGERALD
IT'S A BIT impolite to keep writing about
the war.
One can't keep publishing the same stuff
over and over - it's bad manners.
We become desensitized so quickly to
outrage that soon we'd rather pretend it's
not there. So to bring up once again the
killings, the bombings, and the recurring
rape of a country is boorish, even rude.
Student Government Council member
Arlene Griffin has, then, committed a
gross faux pas. In a curious breach of
etiquette, she has not accepted the pre-
valent view that the war is no longer
news, and that activism is a relic of the
past. Today, she is in Paris, attending the
World Assembly for the Peace and In-
dependence of Indochinese Peoples.
She is un unblushing anachronism, a
dinosaur who forgot to die when the en-
vironment changed. While most h a v e
buried their activism against the war with
their memories of the sixties, Griffin still
believes that individuals can and m u s t
continue to battle against the war - and
against a social system which fosters such
events.
THE ASSEMBLY, sponsored in Paris this
weekend by the Stockholm Conference on
Vietnam, consists of 800 people from 75
countries, all of them as rude as Griffin.
None of them will follow social niceties
which shrug away political commitment.
A conference of dinosaurs.
Instead of ignoring the war, these peo-
ple are discussing the electronic battlefield,
war crimes, and "Vietnamization" with
the goal of again seeking ways to end the
Indochinese tragedy - and again boosting
international publicity for a waning move-
ment.
lies. The assembly will allow us information
directly from Vietnamese, unfiltered by the
American media, which we can bring back
home and share with- others in America."
Shocking. This will never win her social
approval. Hasn't Griffin heard that activism
is "out" and apathy is "in"? Even SGC
refused to sponsor her trip, and only after
searching and scraping did local peace ac-
tivists come up with the funds to send
a single delegate to Paris.
In the face of this pessimism, Griffin
still has the audacity to believe that anti-
war activism has had an effect on the
government - even if only forcing it to
cloak the war in new terms.
"If public relations is the front now,"
she argues, "we must break it down through
conferences like this, by pointing out the
discrepancies and the- falsehoods reported
by our government."
"We hope to learn the undistorted re-
sponse of the people of Indochina to the
most recent peace proposals and bombing
raids."
IT ISN'T, NICE for people to remain
this active, this shrill ab.ut the war.
Yet Griffin still insists that "the horrors
of the war must be put back in the head-
lines, so people won't forget it's going on."
It's true that tenacious peace activists
like these are not very courteous. It is
discomforting not to be allowed to forget
the war, and easier to label determined
activists "Communist inspired agitators"
or anachronisms. It is rude of them to
keep harping on an unpleasant subject.
But an uncivilized phenomenon does not
deserve civility. Hopefully conferences like
today's will nourish and bolster a crucial
movement which so many people would
like to forget.
4
WILLIAM PORTER (left), U.S. ambassador to the Paris Peace Talks, suspended
the talks Thursday in protest of this weekend's international anti-war assembly
in Paris, charging that SGC member Arlene Griffin (right) and 800 other delegates
were a "horde of Communist-controlled agitators."
They are succeeding, in any event, in by the Amy Vanderbilt American press.
their quest for publicity. ALL OF THIS, cynics point out, has been
In its first day yesterday, the group pro- done before. A year ago this week, in fact,
tested the U.S. move to suspend the Paris hundreds gathered here at the Student
Peace Talks because of the assembly. and Youth Conference for a People's Peace.
American Ambassador william Porter in- And the growth of its People's Peace Trea-
definitely postponed the talks because the ty - endorsed by thousands of Americans
assembly, which he said consisted of a - has not replaced the government's war
"horde of Communist-inspired agitators," with a people's peace.
was ruining the "neutral atmosphere" of So why another conference? Isn't it just
the talks. an embarrassing social blunder? A case
The peace group is planning to m e e t of bad manners? Doesn't society now dic-
with North and South Vietnamese repre- tate that we must be at peace with war?
sentatives, Laotians, and Cambodians in "We just can't give up," Griffin says.
their efforts- to hear some unfiltered re- "There is still the reality of dying and
ports from Indochina, reports unwashed suffering, not the reality of diplomatic
Big firms get rich:. It's a small world
p4
Pushing PIRGIM leftward
By BRAIN MISTRUST
BUSINESSMEN HAVE been
making claims about the mul-
tinational corporation (MNC) in
their inner circles, in their house
publications, and now the w o r d
reaches us.
Some writers claim that by the
year 2000 there will be 200 or so
large corporations producing the
bulk of output in the entire world.
This concentration of power in a
limited number of corporations,
which we have already experienc-
ed in the United States, has so far
resulted in an economy and so-
cietythat diverts resourcesatoward
product proliferation, forced ob-
solescence, advertising and mar-
keting, and away from pressing
social and economic problems.
These problems are becoming a
world of big banking, corporate
law, and giant industry.
Radical historian Gabriel Kolko
reports that "60 per cent of the
key foreign policy decision-making
posts during the period 1944-60
were filled by men from t h i s
element, and another 15 per cent
were held by career government
men who later transferred into the
economic world." These are the
people who exercise power in the
United States; the influence of the
public is minor.
A more extensive Brookings In-
stitution study, covering 1935-65.
revealed that 63 per cent of all
cabinet secretaries and 86 per
cent of the military secretaries
were either businessmen or law-
yers prior to appointment.
OR THE LAST few weeks, literally
hundreds of University students have
been canvassing the campus, getting
signatures on a petition urging the es-
tablishment of a Public Interest Research
Group in Michigan (PIRGIM).
The idea seems hard to knock-a non-
profit, non-partisan student controlled
group to serve a Nader-type function in
Michigan, investigating and crusading
against such evils as pollution, sex and
race discrimination, and violations of
wage-price controls.
However, the enthusiasm with which
students rush to create PIRGIM must be
tempered by a serious commitment to
make the group a strong, viable youth
lobby to deal with important issues.
UNFORTUNATELY, THE omens aren't
good. The Minnesota PIRG group,
often cited in the Michigan campaign,
has rallied Girl Scouts to check on the
base price listings of Minneapolis stores
and obtained injunctions blocking de-
forestation in one locale until more is
known about its environment.
Laudable accomplishments-but not
good enough. For PIRGIM to be worth
the $3 per student per year it is asking,
it must plan to use its potential $900,000
budget better than that.
In addition to, for. example, checking;
for defective parts in automobiles, it
should examine the relationship between
the auto industry and the State Legisla-
ture.
Iri addition to pledging to remove the
"bugs in your telephone," as one article
mentioned, PIRGIM should pledge
investigate the whole rate structure
the Michigan Bell monopoly.
to
of
PIRGIM SEES ITS tactics as investiga-
tion, lobbying, and bringing law-
suits-working totally within the system.
Perhaps picketing and sit-ins ought also
to be considered, if PIRGIM wants to be
effective.
The blueprint calls for a full-paid staff
of lawyers and researchers to be hired by
the student board. An excellent idea,
but the board should be especially con-
cerned with attracting good lawyers and
researchers - who can play rough. It
might be easy for PIRGIM to become a
haven for unemployed young lawyers
seeking a soft glamorous job.
The PIRGIM idea has real potential-
it could become a strong anti-establish-
ment force delivering meaningful blows
at the industrial power structure of the
state.
Or, it could be just another channel to
which one complains about non-working
telephones.
TVHE GROUP IS SUPPOSED to be stu-
dent-controlled, and it's up to stu-
dents to exercise the control that could
make PIRGIM a viable radical force in
the state.
Signing the petitions, fighting to get
the group functioning is just not enough.
Making sure it functions strongly and
effectively is.
-TAMMY JACOBS
In 1969, major industrial polluters spent
$1 billion to advertise their efforts at pollu-
tion control -- 10 times more than all U. S.
companies spent for air pollution control de-
vices in the same period.
:era: - a-: ":.:":ra++.:--. ..a a r
Department, told a group of mid-
west businessmen that he sees the
multinational corporation tending
"toward the most "efficient and
generally lag-free allocation of the
world's productive resources."
He warned, however, that "there
are, of couse, the counter-revolu-
tionaries who consider national
loyalties more deep-rooted and en-
during than multinational invest-
ment."
Business . Week describes the
power of the multinational corpora-
tions: they concentrate investment
and management resources wvher-
ever business conditions are most
favorable, draw on alternate sourc-
es of supply in countries where
costs are lowest, and sell through
corporate networks that span con-
tinents and leap over boundaries.
Resembling the adage linking
General Motors to the U.S. Gov-
ernment, the business magazine
continues, "What is good for the
multinational companies, in the
long run, should be good for the
global economy that is slowly
emerging." Business Week claims
that the growth toward a global
economy cannot be stopped.
WE DISAGREE. The multina-
tional corporation and its global
economy must be stopped. Daily
these institutions make decisions
that profoundly alter the lives of
people from Chicago to Saigon, yet
the world's population has no ef-
fective control over these behe-
moths.
The multinational corporation is
constantly extending its influence.
It will control such a huge pro-
portion of the world's resources,
finances, and technical know-how.
that the third world (Asia, Africa,
and Latin America) will be totally
dependent on it for capital and
techniques needed to develop -
even in places where there has
been a socialist or communist re-
volution.
This reduces the third world to
a source of cheap labor, extracts
crisis both here and abroad, and
the corporations, which are bas-
ically responsible for these condi-
tions, show no sign of dealing
with them in a substantial way. An
example of corporate responsibil-
ity is that, in 1969, major indus-
trial polluters spent $1 billion to
advertise their efforts at pollution
control - 10 times more than all
U.S. companies spent for air pol-
lution control devices in the same
period.
THE MEN who staff the multi-
national corporations also hold
strategic positions in government.
The upper class in our society en-
joys a predominance of power and
has established its own outlook
as the prevailing ideology. Many
of the key decision makers in the
federal political structure h a v e
been drawn from the interlocking
A QUICK LOOK at Nixon's Cab-
inet reveals more of this same
government-industry interlock.
Nixon and Mitchell are former
partners in a New York corporate
law firm; Secretary of the Treas-
ury Connally was an attorney for
oil operators for 11 years; Secre-
tary of Labor Hodgson was with
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation
from 1941-1969; Secretary of Trans-
portation Volpe was chairman of
the biggest construction firm in
Massachusetts; Secretary of Hous-
ing and Urban Development Rom-
ney used to lobby in Washington
for Alcoa, before heading Ameri-
can Motors; and the list goes on.
They are businessmen and they
look at the world through corpor-
ate eyes. For example, Philip
Trezise, Assistant Secretary f o r
Economic Affairs of the S t a t e
precious nonreturnable natural re-
sources, and brings the profits
back to the corporate homeland.
The host country loses control of
its economy to outside rorces;
any decisions made in distant cor-
porate board rooms are out of
touch with local reality, be it in
America or Burma.
TO BUSINESS and government,
the multinational corporation is
the natural extension of capitalist
competition to the international
sphere. Between 1929 and 1964
U.S. direct overseas investments
declined from $7.9 to $7.2 billion
a year; but between 1946 and 1967
they increased eight times to $60
billion. And, according to the com-
merce department, private direct
investment has just about doubled
since 1962 and last year rose by
nearly nine per cent to $71 billion.
TOTAL ANNUAL production of
American companies abroad comes
to some $200 billion, about equi-
valent to the gross national pro-
duct of Japan. This global stake
in the wealth and resources of the
rest of the world forms the basis
of U.S. foreign policy.
The object of that policy is to
create the most favorable condi-
tions for the extension of its influ-
ence. The corporate penetration
of the rest of the world is a criti-
cal part of this influence.
Brain Mistrust is a radical
research/action group based in
Ann Arbor and working with
progressive groups in the Mid-
west. This article is reprint-
ed from the American ,Re port.
4
41
Stalemate in Indochina.
Letters: Blasting the 'treason charges'
I
THE AIR WAR in Indochina has been
fortified. And President Nixon says
he will grant no further "concessions" to
Hanoi since the North Vietnamese ap-
pear less than serious about negotiating
with him-on his terms.
After having announced, just two
weeks ago, an eight point peace proposal
that contained no new hope for ending
the war, the President's surprise news
conference Thursday was, regrettably, a
consistent surprise.
Despite the fanfare of the eight point
peace proposal and gala surprise press
conferences, the latest speech reflects
nothing more than what has been this
country's war policy for years. And now,
the prospect of further stalemate in
Southeast Asia is depressing indeed.
For now the United States is locked
into a new morass of verbiage, President
Nixon maintaining he will offer no "new
concessions" until the representatives
from Hanoi agree to negotiate "serious-
ly;"
EXACTLY WHAT is meant by "serious-
ly" is unclear, especially in light of
the American response to North Viet-
nam's latest offer of negotiation.
Perhaps what Nixon meant by serious
is a concession of defeat, as the United
States has received in past yars. And if
this is what the President meant, it is
not difficult to understand why he has
intensified the bombing campaign.
What is hard to comprehend, however,
is how Nixon justifies the continuing
deaths of Asians through the use of
American technology. Hanoi has offered
+n anr.ap tn mat+ n fthe Amerion rncnli_-
To The Daily:
IT SEEMS that Nixon's clique
is out to spread fear and mistrust
again. Monday, I viewed the news,
and to my disbelief H. Robert
Haldeman, a special assistant to
the President, charged political
opponents of Nixon's deceptive war
policies with treason - not by
saying "treason," but by para-
phrasing its constitutional defin-
ition.
(Haldeman said some of t h e
President's critics were "c o n-
sciously aiding and abetting the
enemy.")
This is serious when one thinks
about it. Any high government of-
ficial who lashes in this manner
at others in government unfortun-
ately taints the accused with guilt.
While this is probably an unsophis-
ticated view, one should remem-
culture. This is why Nixon and
his crowd must be tossed out. Nix-
on is "killing" people. This "mur-
derer" must go.
-Bob Firth '75
Feb. 7
Axe for hockey?
To The Daily:
IT SEEMS that Sara Krulwich.
has a misdirected ax to grind in
her article " 'U' male chauvinism:
..,.. ;.
F
.
I i
f
*AW NOrRaROldS ea
gy OF IHI5
A sporting affair" (Daily, Feb. 9).
From her article she has appar-
ently been carrying the crusade for
women's rights as a sports photo-
grapher since she had some trou-
ble with football officials at the
Michigan Stadium three years ago.
Presently, she is upset over her
treatment at a recent hockey
game. At the Michigan Coliseum
she tried to gain admittance with-
out the proper press credentials.
Later, she became irritated when
she joined a group of photograph-
ers who were blocking the fan's
view and she was told to move
to relieve partially the congestion
in that area.
Yet she bitterly laments h e r
treatment. To show her intense
displeasure, she concluded her ar-
ticle by saying it made her happy
that the Michigan hockey team was
with the University, or out West
with a very lucky team? Thurs-
day night (Feb. 3), under a care-
free attitude, your SGC voted six
to 4 (RAP members dissenting) in
favor of sending a letter to com-
mend Stanford University Band
for its "very entertaining, c o n-
temporary, and socially relevant
half-time show in the 1972 Rose-
bowl."
Agreed that "Red, Red Robin"
was not the best selection that
could have been played, but for
quality, precision, organ-like tone,-
and leadership, Michigan was far
superior.
Our band members went nut to
California with good team spirit
and fair play attitudes. However,
they were met with incidents of
stone and mud throwing, not to
mention being expectorated upon.
a
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