Mayoral

race:

Divergent

philosophies

Cornell opposes
capitalist system
This statement was written and approved by members
of the Radical Independent Party as representative of
the views of its candidate for Mayor, Doug Cornell.
Liberal - adj. 1. Having, expressing, or following
social or political views or policies that favor non-
revolutionary progress and reform.
Radical - adj. 1. Arising fOom or going to a root or
source; fundamental; basic.
r E RADICAL Independent Party of Ann Arbor is
part of emerging social forces struggling to revo-
lutionize the world and to deal decisively with the root
and source of social injustice.
A central fact of human history is the terrible con-
centration of power wielded by international capi-
talism. Thus capitalism is the root of the problem,
then politics is defined ultimately by the question: Do
you support capitalism or do you oppose it? No social
or political question can be properly posed-much less
answered-until its relation to the prevailing eco-
nomic order has been analyzed.
America grew and flourished on exploitation. The
slave trade was not merely the first attempt to inte-
grate Mississippi, it was a very successful mechanism
for accummulating wealth. That same iron law of
profit hounds black men and women today from Watts
to Harlem and from Birmingham, Alabama to Birm-
ingham, Michigan.
Political economy only partially explains racism;
but as long as racism is profitable it will persist. Radi-
cal change is not a sufficient condition for the abolition
of racism; but it is a necessary one.
In fact, none of the serious problems facing society
can be solved, or even understood, without dealing
with the social and economic conditions that per-
petuate them.
Ecology is yet another example. Pollution is a
function primarily of production. Care for the environ-
ment is subjugated to the profit motive and its corol-
lary, the growth ethic. As long as profit is the number
one. national priority, we will continue to watch the
environment decay.
EVEN THE best of liberal Democrats can only deal
with the symptoms of the problem. They, like the Re-

lounge off in the distance where we happen to think
they ought to be.
Likewise we are serious about gaining seats in
public office-not because we think ultimate power
resides there-but because it will give us a chance to
agitate uncompromisingly for radical programs in the
public eye. These programs will not begin to be rea-
lized until a mass based organization united with the
working-class directly challenges the power of Ameri-
can capital.
It ought to be obvious why RIP is opposed to working
within the Democratic party. That party is defined by
its relationship to the power elite. Its historical role
has been to co-opt the emerging Left. The Democratic
Party lures the unwary idealist into thinking that it
will exchange some of its power for a small price:
"All we ask of you is to dress your program up a bit,
cut its hair, trim its beard and for God's sake put a
tie on it."
IN THEORY IT is possible to co-opt the Democratic
Party, in practice it co-opts you. All we have is our
politics and our potential; compromise is a luxury
only the powerful can afford. We must never negotiate
from weakness, for, without strength any compromise
is a defeat.
What then of our program? Is it true as Robert
Harris claims that RIP's program is the same as the
Democrats' program, were the latter properly funded?
Clearly not. The RIP platform calls for a comprehen-
sive system of municipally-financed social services
controlled directly by the people who receive those
services.
We challenge the right of anyone to profit from the
basic human needs of others and insist, instead, that
the fulfillment of those basic needs is an inalienable
right. For example, RIP feels that adequate housing
is a right and those who interfere with that right by
charging "what the trade will bear" for that service
should be driven out of business. Our platfzrm states
this explicitly, and in detail describes a comprehen-
sive, realizable method for providing non-profit low-
cost housing for all.
Does Harris really agree with that? Does his run-
ning mate in the Second Ward, Bob "Faber's Fabrics"
Faber, who himself is a landlord, agree with that? Of
course not. When Harris was asked two years ago by
the Ann Arbor Tenant's Union if he would publicly
support them, he replied he could not because a mayor
must remain neutral (?). In fact, Harris has always
supported the right of landlords to profiteer by prac-
tically any means short of physical violence.
RIP differs from the Democrats, not only in purpose
and program, but in party structure. Our candidates
are bound to our program before and after the elec-
tion. Candidates are selected in open meetings on
the basis of their adherence to the party platform,
which itself was hammered out in open meetings and
,represents the majority position.
A RIP candidate is not free to significantly modify
our platform-it is not his or her position, it is our
position. When a RIP candidate is elected (as Jerry
DeGrieck may be) he will be bound (to vote) on City
Council according to directives given by frequently
held ward meetings open to all residents of the Sec-
ond Ward.
Finally, a few points about the up-coming election.
Harris is going to win and going to win by a huge
margin. We know that Democratic Party workers
were told to vote for Garris in the primary-the Ann
Arbor News spoke of the Democratic "cross-over"
vote and on the night of the primary, Harris himself
expressed his pleasure at Garris' victory. Harris is
being sized ' up by the inner-circles of the Michigan
Democratic Party as a possible candidate for Lt.
Governor. He needs a decisive victory in this election
to secure that position. ,
RIP says to Harris: enjoy the next two years in
office: we are equally convinced that the "Lesser-of-
Two-Evils" strategem will work for you. The poverty
of your programmatic politics demands a right-wing
scare campaign. You were lucky, next time the Re-
publicans won't put up a "what-his-name". RIP will
be waiting. You are riding on the back of a dinosaur.
Time is on our side.

Harris: Liberal
coalition needed
By ROBERT HARRIS
The author, a University law professor, is Mayor of
Ann Arbor and Democratic candidate for re-election.
THE DAILY has focused attention on the Republi-
can candidate for mayor, although less space
has been devoted to the horrifying fact that he
has a 50-50 chance of being elected. Much of the
Daily readership may be unaware of the support
his candidacy has in some other parts of the elec-
torate, where there is a real desire to crack down
on youth; to have "Chicago-style" police handling
of confrontations; to ban all electronic music from
all parks; to "concentrate" all public housing in one
location (near someone else), to run "undesirables"
out of town; and to eliminate the Model Cities pro-
gram, the Human Rights Department, and the city's
Grievance Officer.
Certain citizens desperately want a mayor who
will scream how he hates crime and drugs and who
will tell the school board how to run the schools
to please his constituency. If you think it can't hap-
pen in Ann Arbor, take another look. It has happen-
ed elsewhere, and we may be on the threshold of a
similar performance here. Hopefully, those citizens
who don't want this type of city government will
turn out and vote for me, so that this particular
threat to the city's stability and progress can be
avoided.
The concern over my opponent, however, has di-
verted attention from the policies and values of
the five current Republican candidates for C i t y
Council, all of whom have endorsed the Republican
mayoral candidate (Garris) and all of whom con-
tinue to urged his election. It was not necessary
for these five candidates to do this: incumbent
Republican Councilman Weaver refused to go along.
Former Republican Councilmen Hathaway and Crary
refused to go along. But the five Republican Coun-
cil candidates have chosen to run with Mr. Garris
because their values are not significantly different
from his. And the four conservative Republicans now
on City Council similarly endorsed Mr. Garris be-
cause their policies and values are not much differ-
ent from his either.
FOR EXAMPLE, Republican Third Ward Coun-
cil candidate Peter Wright was asked at the Colonial
Square debate to state in what respects, if any,
he disagreed with Mr. Garris. He answered that he
disagreed only with respect to concentrated public
housing.
Another example: Second Ward Republican Coun-
cil Candidate Don Robinson on March 22, came out
with his first Ann Arbor News ad that had some
written content and not just his name and picture.
His total discussion (of what he considers one of the
more important local issues) was: "I see no justifi-
cation for flying alien flags at City Hall." This was
long after the same newspaper had carried my
"
arris: o seek
a cleaner' city
The following is the text of an interview The Daily
conducted with Republican mayoral candidate Jack
Garris.
HOUSING: I think we've made some inroads In
solving the problem of low-cost housing. I don't
disagree with public housing - if we need it we
must get it. But I'm against the scattered housing
site concept because the director of the Housing
Commission when Harris took office said scattered
housing is hard to control, deteriorates rapidly, and
you just are better off having a concentrated housing
project.
I hear Mayor Harris'saying, "Look at the ghettos
created by the concentrated public housing in De-
troit and New York." Good heavens! They've got
hundreds of thousands of people in those projects but
we would have no more than a couple hundred fam-
ilies involved.
It would be my intent to build no further scat-
tered housing sites until we've had time to evaluate
whether this is the best approach or we decide to go

back to concentrated housing projects. In the mean-
time, if we do need further public housing we should
build concentrated public housing. Then, we should
have a Year to evaluate it.
I am against Council and the mayor removing the
residency requirement (necessary) for people to be
eligible to get these public accomodations. This is
wrong because although we want to serve the needs
of the people in our community, we don't want to get
involved in building excess public housing just to
bring outsiders in.
POLICE: I think Mayor Harris has interfered
with the police in doing their lawful job. As mayor,
I would certainly not interfere with the work of the

statement of regret that at a peace rally of 3000
people which I attended in front of City Hail a
Viet Cong flag was raised several minutes without
my approval or consent. The distribution between
Mr. Robinson's political style and Mr. Garris' poli-
tical style is a fine one indeed.;
As a final example, Fifth Ward Republican Coun-
cil candidate James McCormick has the distinction
of writing the letter to the editor of the Ann Arbor
News which first introduced partisan politics into the
Ciy Council discussion of the marijuana penalty
ordinance which the Blue Ribbon Committee had
recommended unanimously to City Council.
Perhaps Daily readers have not been able to follow
the positions that the four conservative Republican
Councilmen have been taking on Monday nights. If
so, they may be unaware that a bipartisan coalition
of Democrats and the one moderate Republican
have been lined up against conservatives Stephen-
son, Edwards, Fairbanks, and Weber as the latter
have time and again championed the same posi-
tions Mr. Garris now uses in his campaign.
BANNING ALL electronic music in the parks is
not the exclusive idea of Mr. Garris; Councilmen
Edwards, Weber, and Stephenson called a special
Council meeting to propose it in the summer of 1969.
Limiting park permits to certain political groups,
but not the White Panthers, was also proposed by
these three Republican Councilmen at that meet-
ing. The patently unconstitutional antipornography
ordinance aimed at the Ann Arbor Argus was sup-
ported by Councilmen Stephenson, Weber, and Ed-
wards.
The effort to destroy the City's Grievance Office is
currently being conducted by Councilman Edwards,
Stephenson, Fairbanks, and Weber.
Councilmen Edwards, Stephenson, and Weber vot-
ed in May 1969 to halve city support for the city

bus system, and the recent Republicaln Platform
makes veiled hints of ending the bus system -
Councilman Edwards' pet plan.
In April 1970 Councilmen Edwards, Weber, Step-
henson, and Fairbanks voted against the model Cities
First Year Action Plan and against the site for the
Senior Cities (Low-Income) High Rise Apartment
Building.
Councilmen Stephenson, Edwards, Weber, and
Fairbanks voted against the ordinance 'the City
Council recently passed on recommendation of Gov-
ernor Milliken and the Citizens Blue Ribbon Com-
mittee on Problems of Drug Abuse - to make use
or possession of marijuana punishable by up to 90
days in jail.
THE TIP-OFF to conservative control of the
City Republican Party came in the Spring of 1970
when the Party, (in sharp contrast with its 1969
campaign) chose to woo the electorate with a series
of cartoon ads in the Ann Arbor News to the effect
that the police were shackled, the town had been
turned over to anarchists, and vastly overstating the
real cost of the city's bus system. Facts were distort-
ed, fears were preyed upon, and the stage was set
for the emergence of Mr. Garris as the leader of the
City Republican Party. I, and my fellow Demo-
crats, chose not to reply to this kind of crudity, and
our delicacy cost us four out of five City Council
seats. Hence the necessity of these frank statements
at this time.
Whether the next mayor is named Harris or Gar-
ris, he, should have a majority on City Council of
his own general political persuasion. I hope that if I
am elected the Council races also are resolved in
favor of liberals and against the Garris-Edwards-
Stephenson wing of the City Republican Party.

il

publicans, are heavily committed to the present power
structure. They cannot and will not deal with the
cause-the manipulation by business and high finance
of the nation's productive forces.
Thus, it is only by reference to our anti-capitalist
analysis that RIP's positions and practices become in-
telligible. The sometimes sad, sometimes comic cen-
fusion of liberals from Arthur Goldberg to Zolton
Ferency arises from their refusal to face the questi(n:
Are you pro-capitalist or anti-capitalist? Even their
conservtive alter-egos favor liberty, equality and fra-
ternity. In theory, who doesn't?
For some honest liberals this equivocation is real.
They have never asked that question, hence it is hard
to determine if: (a) they share their conservative
colleagues' commitment to capitalism and attempt to
fudge the question or (b) they have the best of inten-
tions but are analytically confused. In practice they
are usually both concerned careerists and opportun-
istic altruists.
RIP OPPOSES the myopic realisnii of the reornist.
We refuse to exchange short-term gains for long-term
losses. We understand that change comes slowly, very
slowly. Were RIPcandidates suddenly to be swept
into office in Ann Arbor on April 5th, and if on April
6th Walter Krasny was hustling for nickels and dimes
in Mark's Coffee House, and if on April 7th the entire
RIP platform became municipal law-change would
have barely begun.
We enter into the electoral arena because large
numbers of Americans still "believe" in it. As long
as this arena is politics for the average American, it
is the duty of rdicals to go where the people are; not

police administration nor would I involve myself in
the judicial system. Each has their task and the out-
lines in which to work.
If the police get out of line, it's a policy matter
that should be handled by city council, with the
mayor setting policy - and that policy should be
followed. If there is anything the police do wrong, it
could either be handled by the (police) chief, a de-
partment chief . . . or the courts. You break down
effective law enforcement when you politically in-
terfere.
The grievance officer is a duplication of what
they had previously. When you had a complaint you
used to take it to a department head and if you
didn't get satisfaction you might seek out your coun-
cilman. Having the grievance officer is a waste of
money.
BLACKS: I've been here since 1946 and we've
never had a polarization of the black and white com-
munity as we have had in the last two years. And
we've had a Human Relations Department or a Hu-
man Rights Department in excess of ten or twelve
years. We have had personnel that. work there quiet-
ly and effectively and they tended to do a good job
in race relations.
So I cannot say the Human Rights Department
is something new un d e r Mr. Harris, but (now)
they've really polarized the community because of
their handling of that department. They have done
a great disservice - in particular to the black com-
munity - because it has pitted even the black com-
munity aainst itself.

some of them are not even students) are causing
problems on the University campus that involve the
rest of Ann Arbor.
The University and the city have not been work-
ing as calmly as they should. This is because the
mayor, being a University professor, isn't in a good
position to bargain with the University or repre-
sent the city in its bargaining with the University for
the services the city renders them.
The serious, responsible citizens don't blame the
University for some of !the radical activities that are
emanating from the University campus. I think the
residents do feel, though, that the University should
be more active in policing its campus so these trou-
blemakers and radicals don't get a foothold at the
University and cause these problems.
I don't oppose dissent but I do oppose anybody
endeavoring to change the system by violence.

A

Letters: The necessity of defeating Garris

To The Daily:
WE HAVE BEEN watching the
emergence and development of t h e
Radical Independent Party with great
interest. We are all well aware of the
need for an alternative to the Demo-
cratic and Republican machinery in
the Ann Arbor community a n d are
hopeful that the R.I.P. will provide
that alternative for the people who
want to take a more active role in the

the over-throw or destruction of our
American way of life, from finding a
haven in our city").
Garris' first public action as an or-
ganizer of the "Concerned Citizens,"
was to print 40,000 copies of programs
of the White Panther Party and the
Black Panther Party and mail them,
addressed to "Occupant," to almost
every home in Ann Arbor, creating an
atmonnhere nf hvsteria and charging

THERE CAN BE no question that,
as the R.LP. has stated, both parties
exist primarily to serve the interest
of the local ruling class. We have no
disagreement with R.I.P. on that
analysis. But the crucial point is how
these interests are served in practice,
and how that practice affects the peo-
ple in the community on a day-to-day
basis.
It's time to stop playing politics and

to speak out now to help insure the
very survival of our people. We are not
talking in abstract terms.
We are involved in daily full-time
work to serve the needs of the people
which are not met by the present ad-
ministration or society as a whole. We
have been doing it for a number of
years, some of us, and we are con-
cerned that all the work we have been
doing is not thrown away by people

I