Sciturday, February 12, 1,972
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Fire 1
Saturday, February 12, 1972 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five
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Berkeley:
Only the
beginning ...
Max Heirich, THE BEGIN-
NING: BERKELEY, 1964. Co-'
lumbia University Press, $6.95.
By PFTER K. EISINGER
It is the set of photographs
which accompanies Max. Hei-
rich's account of the Berkeley
Free Speech Movement that
first strikes the reader: one
need only glance at them to re-
alize the extent to which they
symbolize the distance between
the student movement of 1964
and today. Mario Savio, the lea-
der of the Berkeley movement,
stands in one picture, bullhorn
in hand, with close-cropped hair
and clean-shaven face. In ano-
ther shot, student demonstrators
clad in coats and ties march
through Sather Gate on the
Berkeley campus behind a ban-
ner reading "Free Speech".
For college students today the
Berkeley movement is ancient
history, involving a generation
of young people for whom issues
like the war in Asia, Dow re-
cruiting, and Black Studies pro-
grams were yet to come. Indeed,
the culture of youth has under-
gone substantial change since
that time: in another photo-
graph Joan Baez sings "We
Shall Overcome"; neither she
nor that song would be present
today at a campus protest.
But in spite of all that is dat-
ed, the Berkeley movement has
profound connections to the pre-
sent. It was, as Heirich makes
clear in the title, "the begin-
ning," and for that reason the
book is worth reading. It makes
explicit the origins of contem-
porary student political aware-
ness. One begins in addition to
understand the rise of Ronald
Reagan, his fortunes built in
large measure on his antipathy
toward the university. Certain
issues were raised too, in 1964,
that were to be themes later in
other campus movements. And
here for the first time in the
modern era were hundreds of
police on campus to quell a po-
litical demonstration, setting the
tone and precedent for Colum-
bia, Wisconsin, and finally, Kent
State.
Heirich, who was a graduate
student at Berkeley in 1964 and
is now a sociology professor in
the Residential College, has pro-
vided us with a meticulously de-
tailed account of the entire Free
Speech controversy and its af-
termath. This is a blow by 'blow
case study, relying on' Heirich's
own observation, on his subse-
quent access -to the files of the
participants on all sides, and
on the innumerable flyers and
broadsides that accompany such
a conflict. Fortuitously for Hei-
rich, a local radio station tape
recorded a number of meetings
and speeches, and he makes full,
if not occasionally heavy-hand-
ed, use of the transcripts. At
one point he notes, for example,
that students responded to one
speech by cheering and whist-
ling for twenty-two seconds. Yet
for all its detail, the book is
exciting reading; even for one
who remembers how it all came
out, the flow of events is com-
pelling.
For the scholar, perhaps, the
book is not so useful except in-
sofar as it provides raw data. It
offers little explicit analysis of
the events it records; it imposes
no useful framework on the data
other than that of simle chron-
ology. Heirich has nevertheless
anticipated this complaint and
has written a second book on
the subject, (The Spiral of Con-
flict: Berkeley, 1964, Columbia
University Press) providing a
technical sociological analysis of
the dynamics of conflict as ex-
emplified by the Berkeley events.
The Free Speech Movement
developed from what appeared
at first to be a relatively simple
issue: the right of students to
recruit participants and collect
money on university property
for off-campus political activi-
ties, notably the civil rights
movement, then at its peak,
What precipitated the contro-
versy was the students' use of a
strip of sidewalk on the edge of
the campus, set outside of one
of the main gates. Most students
assumed that the land belonged
to the city, not to the university.
When the vice-chancellor be-
came aware of the political
hawkers and organization tables
in this area, he set into motion
a series of meetings that led to
an attempt to enforce the ban
on such activity in accordance
with rules formulated several
years earlier by Clark Kerr, the
University of California presi-
dent.
When several students chal-
lenged what they believed to be
an infringement of their First
Amendment rights by deliber-
Rapoport's 'Bomb Machine'
R o g e r Rapoport, THE
GREAT AMERICAN BOMB
MACHINE, Dutton and Co.,
$5.95.
By MARK DILLEN
If you ever have some time on
your hands, you can sit down
and read 150 pages verifying
thingseabout America's nuclear
weapons business that you have
probably suspected allalong.
It's lively, sarcastic (but not
overly so), and thorough, but
unless you've been living for
the past ten years in one of
tho s e government promoted
fallout shelters Mr. Rapoport
so nicely describes, you won't be
surprised at all by it.
Basically, Rapoport's book is
an assorted mish-mash of all
or at least a goodly number,
o
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it
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Growing up early
Rafael Yglesias, HIDE FOX,
AND ALL AFTER, Doubleday,
$5.95.
$y TONY SCHWARTZ
Published novelists under the
age of 20 do not abound. At age
15, I considered reading a full-
length novel an achievement.
But Rafael Yglesias was read-
ing Henry James at 8, the same
year in which he first fancied
himself a writer. At 15, he com-
pleted his first novel, Hid Fox,
and All After.
Tl.e novel is a transparently'
autobiographical account of a
young and brilliant boy strug-
gling with an adolesence he has
in most ways outgrown. It is
about the coups and setbacks a
person faces when he tries to
take himself seriously at 15.
The action is simple and its
simplicity is one of Yglesia's
sweetest successes. Raul, (a fit-
ting contraction of "Rafael'") is
an aspiring actor-writer who is
suffocated by the structure of
high school. School is an im-
position and Raul's reaction is
simple: Skip ten days of it here
and two weeks of it there. Ap-
pearances at the prestigious pri-
vate school he calls Cabot, but
is actually New York's Horace
Mann, are kept to a minimum.
Mostly they are in the after-
Nervous
Robert Ward, SHEDDING
SI N, Harper and Row, $6.95..
By TIM DONAHUE
I have great respect for books.
This Is vot su egotistical anmoun-
cement of virtue; this is the
confession of an excessive-com-
pulsive. I love possessing books,
almost without regard for their
content. Like Sandburg's char-
acter who was crazy for win-
dows, I'm crazy for books. The
act of purchasing my first hard-
cover was like 1 o s i n g one's
"cherry," as some of my coarser
friends might put it. It an-
nounced my manhood.
I read recently that 35,000
new books are published each
year in America, I drooled.
One of the 35,000 that will
eventually be published this year
is Robert Ward's Shedding Skin.
It seemed to cheapen the other
34,999. books. Not that it isn't
entertaining;, not that Ward
doesn't seem to have a fantastic
control of the '70's sort of hu-
mor, but it doesn't deserve a
hard-cover.
You should read it; you'd
probably like it, but wait till it
comes out in paperback, if it
ever does. It's well worth ninety-
five cents or even a dollar-and-
a-quarter, but not six-ninety-
five.
The story is about a boy named
Bobby Ward (A-ha!) Bobby has
an iMaginary, friend narped
Warren. When B~obby is quite
young, be is the kind of kid that
tells Warren, "This is no way to
grow up. This is liable to do very
bad things to my consciousness.
I am liable to become de-
mented."
Warren is omniscient. War-
ren replies, "That's true." And
the good reader who finishes the
book finds out that Warren is
right, but first lBobby has con-
flicts with parents, he some-
uri14't . e. cif..nncnnf t', hnnr.,tr or.
Giggles
Ah, but that point! In the last
chapters, Ward's Bobby Ward
goes crazy:
The idea has come into my
mind that I am crazy. This is
not wacky crazy that we all
laugh at. This is CRAZY crazy
where you will stand in a white
room for days on end. This is
not black humor. . . . I am
standing on the psychedelic
street, shaking badly. More
thoughts are going through my
head, and mothers are com-
ing by in cars, looking at me
and thinking how lucky I am
to be free. This is irony.
Finally, and not unpredictably,
Bobby jumps out a window. I
think. I'm not sure. It's hard to
kill yourself in the first person.
This last section is a little
"precious," very obvious, and
unsatisfying. You can ignore it
though, because the rest of the
book is so damn funny.
There are even some segments
that say something revealing,
remarks that strike home, at
least for me. Bobby says of cer-
tain of his mental states, "And.'
oh, pure horror ! The horror of'
knowing that what I was doing
was all theater. . . . All of it just
a stage show, but I was the ac-
tor who would suffer the part."
At another point, there's a re-
vealing parenthetical expression:
". . . the crowd of hippies (my
brothers, my generation, and
they are---they are in spite of
anything else I may tell you, for
do you see any alternatives?)t"
Bobby, when he first makes it
to San Francisco, is given some
acid by an oriental stranger who
says, "Laughter is lies, man."
Robert Ward, author, can't real-
ly believe that, can he? I mean,
he's written a very funny book.
But this book, like so many of
its contemporaries, is funny only
in a very black way. Maybe one
sees after a while, and the reali-
zation is only creeping up on me
noon during play rehearsals. A
Raul agonizes throughout be- h
tween submitting to the struc- c
ture and following his better in- in
stinct by dropping out. And n
during the struggle we are a
thrust into his growing ,rela- b
tionship with Alec.M
Alec is a couple of years older in
and most notably a recognized b
sexual tiger. When Raul and m
Alec get the leads in the school n,
play (Rosencrantz and Guilden- s
stern) they immerse them- t
selves totally in each other and P
in the script for a month fol- g
lowing. During that time a deep a
and important relationship ap- p
pears to be growing. But it is g
ill-fated. When Alec's basic in- o
sensitivity and insecurity fin- hi
ally and inevitably surface, the ti
relationship is shattered. Raul's st
pain is genuinely felt. w
Nevertheless, at the novel's R
end, Raul gains a certain bitter- b
sweet victory. He regroups his u
forces and despite opposition a
from all sides, drops out of d
school. It is the right decision n
but his future appears uncer-
tain. At the time of the actual t
event, Yglesias' future was al- p
most surely unclear. It is fair:---
to assume that this autobio-
graphical work became his fu-
ture.
Yglesias writes with a cool de-
detachment, standing at a dis-
tance which often allows him to
illuminate his own frailties,
pretensions and immaturities.
The' result is refreshing. He
doesn't attempt to catalogue his
every life experience; chooses
instead to tell a tight, convinc-
ing story.
Almost always, the style is
maturely honed. But even the
occasional lapses into awkward
or immature phrasings hold a
certain fascination, a d d i n g
somehow to the reality of the
events. The novel is largely dia-
logue and it is Yglesias's ability
to control this difficult medium
which gives the action much of
its swift pace. The following
interchange is typical:
"Why are you in black?" Alec
asked in an interested tone.
Raul knew that tone. He spent
hours getting it himself.
"I'm in mourning for my
life."
Alec smiled unsure, but
charmed. "Who is that from?"
"Chekov."
"'Ah yes, but what play?
"The Sea Gull, I think. Yes,
definitely The Sea Gull."
He knew damn well it was
The Sea Gull. But the foot-
work was marvelous. The two of
them were being ironic about
their irony."
The passage also makes clear-
er Raul's dilemma. He isn't
really convinced that the foot-
work is all that marvelous. He
c .n-Qn ,if ,,n -sor p rnfarinn .~ nr. i,
ne feels) the mistakes, ques-
ionable dealings and exam-
mples of just plain stupidity of
hat military - industrial com-
ine we have allowed to protect
?) us for so long. These peo-
le, Rapoport informs us, "have
aised the nation's infant mor-
;lity rate, permanently con-
aminated 250 square miles in
revada, scattered radioactive
ebris .in Greenland and Spain,
xiggered small earthquakes in
Las Vegas and polluted the
rime Western watershed with
adioactive waste." But, after
01, being the ultimate agents of
estruction; is it really any sur-
rise that these weapons are
ess than (as an early sixties'
est seller reminded us) fail-
afe? And in the hands of those
xacting perfectionists, the mil-
tary . . . ? Well, I think we're
bit more inclined to wonder
vhy weahaven't blown ourselves
p already.
And with this much Rapoport
ems to agree. The bomb
uilders, under the aegis of the
tomic Energy Commission,
ave a sloppy production re-
ord and have difficulty keep-
ng highly combustible pluto-
ium materials from igniting
nd contaminating areas. They
uild production facilities near
najor urban areas, like Denver,
nstead of elsewhere. Then fires
reak out, costing taxpayers
nillions of dollars, the contami-
ation is buried somewhere
upposedly out of the way and
he information is hushed up.
Pre-limited test ban above
round tests destroyed'an island
nd dangerously exposed some
olynesian natives; u n d e r-
round tests contaminate areas
f Nevada because the ground
as a tendency not to be air
ight when several kilotons
hake it. Bombs stored for a
'hile tend not to be so safe. Yes,
Rapoport resolves, it's taken a
it of luck for us to get by so
inscathed when these occasion-
I incidents point out the real
anger of messing around with
uclear weapons.
The question Rapoport lightly
reats is "why we let this hap-
en?" Why is it, that despite
all dangers of dealing with sup-
er-weapons, we continue to
have them around; telling our-
selves that they protect us,
when in fact they are a con-
stant threat to our survival?
Granted, the government's pen-
chant for secrecy has not en-
couraged wide publicityy of the
incidents Rapoport writes about,
but still the basic details of
what has happened and is hap-
pening are public knowledge.
The fact that producing and
deploying nuclear weapons is
not a very immediate or ob-
vious problem unless something
goes wrong is probably closer to
the point. It was the high pos-
sibility, after all, that wide-
Today's Writers . ..
Peter Eisinger is Assistant
Professor of Political Science at
the University of Wisconsin.
Mark Dillen, a successor to
Roger Rapoport on The Daily,
was recently appointed editorial
page editor.
Tony Schwartz, unlike the
author of Hide Fox, did not
write a novel at 15. But at 20,
he'd still like to.
Tim Donahue is one of the
few confessed biblomaniacs liv-
ing in Markley dormitory.
spread damage would be caused
by the Amchitka blast that
caused the protests, wasn't it?
Had the threat been not so ob-
vious and the Canadians not
so uppity, t h e continuing
threats that such explosions
represent would not have arous-
ed such ire.
So, chances are that people
won't get too excited about Mr.
Rapoport's new book. Besides
they've seen a good deal of it in
magazines already and the fin-
ished product adds little. In
fact, it reads just like a series
of magazine articles that have
no focus. Though Rapoport was
once editor of the paper you're
now reading, this writer's re-
spect for Rapoport's past con-
tributions can't change the
faults with this book. I'll wait
for a better book or-like every-
one else - a bigger mistake.
ately violating the ban, the ad-
ministration ordered arrests. A
police car drove onto the central
campus plaza to carry off one of
the arrestees, and students by
the hundreds sat down around
the car, blocking its exit for 32
hours. Negotiations between the
students, now organized as the
Free Speech Movement (FSM),
and Kerr resulted in an agree-
ment to establish a committee
to review the rules on political .
involvement of students.
For a variety of reasons, the
month-long deliberations of the
committee came to nought, and
the students walked out. Mean-
while, FSM was attempting to
have charges dropped against
the students who had been ar-
rested. Promises were made by
the administration, then appar-
ently broken. The Board of
Regents supported the admin-
istration and asked that new dis-
ciplinary proceedings be started
by the university against stu-
dents who had violated the rules.
This decision led finally to
the famous seizure of Sproul
Hall, the summons of the police
in the early hours of the morn-
ing, and the arrest of nearly 800
students, a procedure which took
the rest of the morning and at-
tracted a great crowd of incred-
lors on-lookers. Shocked at the
sight of police on campus and
prompted by reports of police
brutality, faculty and students
alike mobilized a general strike.
The Academic Senate voted no
confidence in Chancellor Ed-
ward Strong, and came out in
support of the student demands
for uninhibited political activ-
ity. The Board of Regents subse-
quently bound themselves in
ambiguous fashion to uphold the
First Amendment and a new
chancellor, sympathetic to the
students' demands, was hired.
In the end, of course, it was
not -clear that the students had
won. While they were able to
set up political tables on cam-
pus, Ronald Reagan was elected
governor a year later in a cam-
paign in which he promised to
bring law and order to the cam-
pus. The first thing he did was
to fire Clark Kerr, and the uni-
versity has steadily been losing
distinguished faculty members
ever since. Today it is in serious
financial difficulties.
What makes the Berkeley con-
troversy important for under-
standing campus events today is
that the FSM raised for the first
time several issues that have
become focal points for contem-
porary student unrest. One con-
cerned the nature of the large
university. Clark Kerr had char-
acterized Berkeley as a "multi-
versity" and likened it to a
corporation. Students claimed
that if the university were in-
deed like a business, then they
were the raw material in the
factory and the faculty, in Sav-
io's words, "a bunch of em-
ployees." The FSM controversy
helped to crystallize the sense
of the impersonality of public
institutions of higher education.
Students suddenly found expres-
sion for their feelings that their
needs were secondary to the con-
cerns of' the university, which
seemed primarily to center on
research and public relations.
Savio's famous speech prior to
the seizure of Sproul Hall was
an eloquent invitation to revolt:
Mario Savio, Sproul Hall, 1964
There comes a time when the
operation of the machine be-
comes so odious, makes you so
sick at heart, that you can't
take part; you can't even pas-
sively take part, and you've
got to put your bodies upon
the gears and upon the wheels,
upon the levers, upon all the
apparatus and you've got to
make it stop. And you've got
to indicate to the people who
run it, to the people who own
it, that unless you're free, the
machines will be prevented.
from working at all.
Another theme which links
the FSM to the present is the
issue of the university's con-
.nections with the military and
corporate institutions of Ameri-
ca. The argument employed by
the administration in rationaliz-
ing the ban on political prosely-
tizing was that the university
must remain politically neutral,
a place to examine dispassion-
ately the ideas of the times but
not to offer a forum from which
to promote them. Yet students
responded then, and do so now,
by pointing out the university's
complicity with the military ef-
fort. By on means, they argued,
is the university neutral: it re-
mains a bastion of the estab-
lished order, and thus to impose
neutrality on the students is to
erect a double standard.
Finally, the Berkeley contro-
versy saw the first mass student
revolt against the notion of the
university in loco parentis. Stu-
dents no longer wished to be
excluded from the making of
decisions that determined how
they would live on campus. The
deans and chancellors could not
legitimately claim absolute par-
ental authority. Today the pres-
ence of students on university
committees as well as the rela-
tive freedom of expression and
life styles found on university
campuses attest to the power of
these claims.
The ,Free Speech Movement
was an important event, mark-
ing the birth of large-scale stu-
dent political action in America.
Max Heirich has recorded the
birth pangs so skillfully that
one realizes that universities
have never been the same since
1964.
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