. -
-__ - Iiphdiaq Chahey
'-
ZtM Siritgan ha OW
Eighty years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Brother: Have I got a deal for you!
i
_____ ,I
k I
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
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 oil reprints.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1970
NIGHT EDITOR: DAVE CHUDWIN
Women's eration
4 0
. .Honest dialog needed
THE TYPE of sexual separatism t h a t
Robin Morgan and several of the
more radical participants in last week-
end's Women's Liberation Teach-in ad-
vocated is detrimental to the development
and success of the liberation movement.
This movement has the potential for
becoming one of the major forces shaping
our society. Its potential membership cov-
ers more than half of this country's popu-
lation as well as the hundreds of millions
of women living in the rest of the world.
Yet sexual separatists are undercutting
this massive support base by advocating a
liberation policy which is both unwork-
able and unsuitable for the large major-
ity of women.
Women do not hold positions of power
comparable to those of men' in most of
the institutions which are so important
in shaping ,and ruling our society. Due
to this lack of female participation, a so-'
ciety has evolved which to a large extent
does not perceive or cater to women's
needs and wants. Another consequence of
men's societal domination has led to the
formation of a society which does not
perceive a womanas a man's equal.
XPERTS FEEL this social structure is
the result of a basic insecurity which
men feel in not being able to live up to the
myth of virility and man-as-protector
which has been imposed on them 'as so-
ciety developed from the hunting stages
to its present form.
As a consequence of their inability to
live up to this myth, men find it necessarv
to uphold their own self-assurance and
psychological stability at the woman's
expense.:Men do this by degrading and re-
pressing the woman's role in order to more"
easily dominate her and demonstrate
that they are living up to the masculine
image imposed by social norms.
The -Liberation movement's main tac-
tic then must be to open up an honest,
unadulterated dialogue between the sex-
es. Only in this, way can men and women
rid themselves of the misconceptions they
have of each other - including their sex-
ual roles - and work together to create
honest and equal relationships.
THE WOMEN in the liberation move-
ment want to build a better society
which is based on - among other things
- sexual equality. But simple biological
necessity makes it impossible for women
to create a society without men. And a
just society cannot be built unless every-
one who will be a part of the society con-
tributes to its building and mainten-
ance. The racial problem in this country
today is an example of this situation
where a segment of the population has
been prevented from making a meaning-
ful contribution to s o c i e t y. And just
as the racial problem is as much a psy-
chological, emotional, economic and -so-
cietal problem with which whites must
deal, so must men be an integral part in
the process of liberating women from the
inferior position they hold in society.
SEXUAL separatism does have a purpose
for women who are "getting their
heads together" - who are trying to
develop a personal identity unadulterated
with "man-made" norms - and who feel
they cannot develop a female identity un-
less they withdraw temporarily from to-
day's male-dominated society.
But once these women have developed
an intensity it is important for them to
lead the dialogue and help lead the fight
- with men - which can create a better
society.
Sexual separtists have confused what
the focus of Women's Liberation should
be. Women's Liberation should not per-
ceive men as women's enemies. B u t
women should instead see as the enemy
the beliefs and ideas which the great ma-
jority of today's men hold, and we must
work with men to eradicate these beliefs
from our society.
-JUDY 'KAHN
Personnel Director
DURING THE last few weeks,
seniors at the University have
been receiving telephone calls
from an organization which calls
itself the Consumer Buying Serv-
ice.
"We're promoting a new serv-
ice," chirps the chipper voice on
the other end of the phone. "It s
a buying service," she says, and
members of the service can pur-
chase a wide variety of products
at low costs because the service
buys its goods directly from the
manufacturers.
"We want, to get your reaction
to it," she concludes, "and if you
come down for a 30 to 40 minute
group orientation, we'll compen-
sate you with a nice gift."
The idea intrigued me enough
to spend the time to go for my
orientation at the buying service
office, located on Fourth Ave., next
to the Western Union office.
T was greeted by a substantial
man who introduced himself as
Mr. Becker. One other person,
Lawrence, was waiting for the
orientation. Mr. Becker informed
us that some other people were
expected, so we waited. They
never camne, and after a few min-
utes we moved into a back room
where we began our orientation.
Becker began by informing us
that the buying service is called
Consumer Buying and Educational
Services, and is backed by the
Grolier Society, which is the
world's largest publisher of ref-
erence materials. I was skeptical
of the phrase "world's largest," so
he showed us a picture of their
corporate headquarters-a gleam-
ing skyscraper in,New York. I was
slightly reassured, and when he
said the Grolier Society sponsored
the television shows Jeopardy and
Kaptain Kangaroo, I knew things
were all right.
Becker next brought out a
couple of charts which showed
that retailers always raise prices
over the manufacturers' cost to
them. The average price mark-up,
according to the charts, is 69 per
cent. I was totally outraged to
learn how the merchants are
making money, but my anger
turned to smug joy when we were
told how to beat the high cost of
retail buying.
BECKER INFORMED us that
the buying service buys items di-
rectly from the manufacturers,
and buys in quantity, thus elim-
inating the retailer, and the sav-
ings are passed on to members.
The service uses professional buy-
ers (who really what they're do-
ing), and the organization has
been in business for 16 years, so
they have whole bunches of con-
nections which can get them the
best deals on everything.
Mr. Becker then t h u m b e d
through a little catalogue which
showed some of the merchandise
which members of the buying
service can get, and the low prices
which they pay. The items avail-
able include, automobiles, stereos.
televisions, cosmetics and patent
medicines.,
"What do you think of that?"
he asked, pointing tota bottle of
,5.000 vitamin pills-with the same
chemical composition as One-a-
Day-and a price tag of $20.00.
I was duly impressed. At one pill
a day, that bottle would last near-
ly 14 years.
Another item was a stretch wig
for $14. "This is such a fantastic
bargain," he claimed, "that the
manufacturer wouldn't let us use
his name." Apparently the manu-
facturer figured the fantastically
low price would incite people to
rioting, and they would storm his
warehouse if they knew who he
was.
AFTER THE presentation on
the buying service, Mr. Becker ex-
plained the Educational in their
name, saying that consumers in
this day and age, need informa-
tion on where they can get the
most value for their money.
He then followed with the
logical conclusion that consumers
need the Encyclopedia Interna-
tional and the Grolier 50 volume
set of Great Classics.
Mr. Becker mentioned with a
great deal of pride, that the set
of Great Classics was six feet long,
placed side by side. He also claim-
ed the encyclopedia was edited for
easy reading by the editor of the,
New York Times. Having never
heard of a position, at the Times
called "editor" I. expressed inter-
est in that fact. He changed the
paper to the Daily News, and said
he could show me an advertise-
ment with the editor's name. I
asked to see the advertisement,
and after a bit of rummaging, he
produced the ad, which he said
had been in Life magazine.
THE EDITOR turned out to be
George Cornish of the N.Y. Her-
Myths of
a Palestine
By MICHAEL SCHNECK
RECENT EVENTS in the Middle
East have once again brought
the Palestinian Arab guerrilla or-
ganization to the attention of the
world. Since the Six-Day W a r
these g r o u p s have been in the
forefront of the so-called demo-
cratic revolutionary movement to
free Palestine from the Israelis.
When discussing Arab guerrilla
organizations, the' main focus of
the many guerrilla groups, it
sets policy for most of the smaller
organizations. Fatah claims to be
organizing a national liberation
movement based on guerrilla war-
fare. However, this is far from
the case.
It is a truism in all modern,
guerrilla warfare theories that
success is first and foremost de-
'pendent on t h e mobilizations of
mass support as a means to dis-
rupt governmental functions.
No evidence of this mass sup-
port has been forthcoming from
the occupied West Bank area. It
seems that Fatah does not en-
gender strong feelings from those
Arabs living under Israeli rule. Or
perhaps life is tolerable enough;
for those Arabs that they do not
want the deprivations which they
would face should massive civil
resistance break out.
FATAH CLAIMS it is not mo-
tivated by racist feelings but that
it only wants to destroy the Zion-
ist character of Israel. They as-
sert that no genocide of'the Jews
will occur if their struggle suc-
ceeds, and that Jews and Arabs
will live in peace as brothers.
On the surface it would appear
t h a t Fatah is an organization
composed of revolutionaries dedi-
cated to liberating both A r a b s
and Israelis from the oppressive
system of Zionism. In fact, it asks
... Time to come together
SUNDAY, THE final event of this week-
end's Teach-in on Women was held.
But what was intended as a panel dis-
cussion on the possible directions for the
women's movement resulted in a raucous
circus which alienated many of those
who came.
The disruption began when a coalition
of radical women claimed that the panel
format, with its limitations on speaking
time, was typical of the opuosition wompen
have always felt when they attempted
to speak out. The group asked that all who
agreed with their position sit on the
stage floor. They then proceeded to turn
the panel into a disorganized discussion
session.
After ,the coalition had shouted down
speakers, grabbed a microphone away
from Congresswoman Martha Griffiths,
and overturned glasses of water on the
speakers' table, a majority vote of the
audience returned the program to its
original panel format, with the provis-
ion that speakers could talk as long as
they wished.
What Robin Morgan, Marlene Dixon,
Nadine Miller and the others who sat on
the stage floor must realize is that there
is a huge gap between the radical femin-
ists and the average American woman,
who, though she is oppressed by society,
doees not yet realize is.
JjORGAN and the coalition claim "there
is no' such thing as an expert on
women's liberation because each woman
is an expert on her own oppression." This
is not the case. The vast majority of
women readily accept the discrimination
they face in jobs, as wives, and as sex
objects. The six women who sat on the
panel were in a position to provide in-
formation on how women are oppressed
- through statistics and by relating per-
sonal experiences.
Gardner's tears and Miller's account of
life as a radical lesbian, when they fin-
ally spoke, made the audience under-
stand the oppression women face more
than did the inane arguments over the
'organization of the afternoon session.
AT ONE POINT, those on the stage tried
to force all the men in the audience
to leave. However, this attempt was dis-
allowed when Barbara Newell, special as-
sistant to Robin Fleming and tle panel
modesrator, explained that University
functions are open to all. This attempt
to exclude men from the meeting is indi-
cative of a mentality that can be an
impediment to change, because unless
men realize how they manifest t h e i r
supremacy, there will be no change.
PERHAPS THE person on stage who
made the most rational comment was
Gardner, who cited two reasons why she
joined her sisters on the floor. She said
she wanted to support her sisters, even
if she did not agree with their ends or,
their means. She said she had also given
up being "lady-like" in favor of being a
person.
Gardner is right. For the sisterhood to
be effective is must have compassion for
all women, whether they are members of
WITCH or suburbanite housewives. And
with this compassion must come the de-
sire to educate their sisters, who may still
be struggling for their self-identities.
Women must also stop being "lady-
like" and instead try to be real persons.
This means working for a cause without
trying to fit into a social mold. But the
-obnoxious behavior of those onstage Sun-
day can only force new converts to wo-
mens liberation back into their "lady-
like" cocoon.
4 FEW WEEKS ago a counter-group
staged an "Honor Womanhood" Day,
when all women were urged to wear a rib-
Letters to The Daily
Feminists
To the Daily:
THOSE FEMINISTS who were
active in disturbing the Su n d a y
afternoon meeting of the Women's
teach-in at Hill Auditorium should
know they were actively destroying
leanings which some of us have
had toward their movement.
The amount of flack directed at
professional women who are work-
ing within the system was sur-
prising. The active feminists of
Sunday might do well to realize
that by their words and their be-
havior they have possibly direct-
ed women to the professional
groups they despise rather than
drawn women to themselves, as
they say they wish to do.
-Mary Ann Rodgers
Oct. 11
Women in office
To the Daily:
THE DECLINE over the past ten
years in the number of women in
elective and appointive office is
so remarkable that the statistics
deserve to be stated as clearly as
possible. Compared with an esti-
mated 18,000 women jn county
elective office ten years ago, there
are now less than 4,000 women in
such offices in the U.S. In 40
states reporting, appointive jobs
held by women dropped from
about 43,600 in 1959 to 4,800 in
1969.
A decade ago 347 women sat in
state legislatures. In 1969 there
were only 299. Since 1959 the
number of women in the U.S. Sen-
ate and Congress has shrunk from
17 to 11.
-Jean King
Oct. 12
Violence
To the Daily:
THANK YOU for repeating
ald-Tribune-a statement which
I haverno reason to doubt, since
Mr. Cornish probably had a lot of
time on his hands after the Her-
ald-Tribune folded seven years
ago.
There were other educational
things. One was a reference serv-
ice where you write in to get an-
swers to various questions. Then
there were sets of books - ge-
ography sets, art sets, science sets
- all from the world's largest
publisher of reference ,materials.
AT 'tHIS POINT, I got the feel-
ing that Mr. Becker was trying to
sell me books, which seemed
beration
one to believe that most Israelis
want to be liberated from Zion-
ism.
Yet, an examination of the
writings of Fatah, reveals the op-
posite conclusion. Fatah sets out
the objective of the war against
Israel in bold type:
The liberation action is not
only the wiping out of an Im-
'perialist base but, what is more
important, the extinction of a
society: I n q i r a'd mutjtama
(Arab words for extinction of
a society). Therefore armed
violence will necessarily assume
diverse forms in addition to the
liquidation of the armed forces
of the Zionist occupying state,
namely, it should turn to the
destruction of the factors sus-
taining the Zionist society in all
their forms: industrial, agricul-
tural, and financial. The arm-
ed violence necessarily should
also aim at the destruction of
the various military, political,
economic, financial, and Intel-
lectual institutions of the Zion-
ist occupation state to prevent
any possibility of a re-emer-
gence of a new Zionistrsociety.
Mlitary defeat is not the sole
goal in the Palestinian Libera-
tion War, but it is the blotting
out of the Zionist character of
'the occupied land, be it human
or social.
Fatah propagandists' normaly
avoid the more blatant forms of
genocidal expression s u c h as
"throwing the Jews into the sea"
and use instead "liquidation, or
the uprooting of the Zionist exis-
tence or entity." However, when
the implications of their objective
come to be spelled out, it is realiz-
ed that Zionism is not only a po-
litical regime or a superstructure
of sorts, but is embodied in a so-
ciety. Therefore, the society must
be liquidated which must involve
a great deal of killing.
TnE EXISTENCE of Israel is
founded upon the existence of a
concentration of Jews - so the
destruction of this state m u s t
mean their dispersion. To where?
Fatah says that Jews will be al-
lowed to live in a democratic Arab
state after Israel's extinction.
They clarify t h i s statement by
saying only those Jews and their
descendants who lived in Pales-
tine before the Zionist aggression
started. Zionist aggression, ac-
cording to Fatah, started in 1917
with the Balfour Declaration.
Thus, part of the Jewish popula-
tion must disappear. How?
If Palestinian Arab guerrilla
organizations are not anti-Jew-
ish, why is it that the hostages
not released in the recent hijack-
ings were mostly Jews. True this
was not done by Fatah but by a
Marxist oriented group.
slightly deceptive, since the originaf
phone call implied the "oienta-
tion" was only to get reactions
to the consumer buying service.
Mr. Becker than asked Lawrence
and me if we saw anything among
the various books and the refer-
ence service that could be of use
and appreciation to us. Lawrence
said "no" and walked out. I want-
ed to see the rest of the demon-
stration, so I said yes.
Becker explaine that the con-
sumer service is available in a
combination offer with selected
book sets and the reference serv-
ice. To start with the books, he
said I could have either the Great
Classics or the encyclopedia. I
chose the encyclopedia. With the
encyclopedia, I was also entitled
to two other sets of books from
among several offered. I picked a
geography set and a science set.
The complete combination offer
thus included: membership in the
consumer service for one year, I00
opportunities to use the reference
service, the Encyclopedia Inter-
national, a set of science books,
and a set of geography books. The
total value was $1,200.
NOW, CAME the great news.-
Since Grolier was interested in
advertising its products, if I would
agree to let my .name be used in
their office as an endorsement of
the buying service, and if I wrote
a letter about the service and the
books (which would be used in ad-
vertising), then I could have the
whole combination for only $510.
This price just to cover manufac-
turing costs, and the company
makes no money in the deal.
I asked if this was the whole
demonstration. Becker said "yes."
I said "thank you, but the price is
too much."
As I turned to leave, Becker, who
seemed a little surprised, said
earnestly, "Did you know that of
the people who buy a Grolier pro-
duct today, 82 per cent of them
will buy a Grolier product again
in 10 years? Now, how's that for
a recommendation?"
How's that again?
front
It becomes clear that the demo-
cratic unbiased nature of the
Palestinian liberation movement
is not really so unprejudiced.
Their attitude is clearly anti-Jew-
ish as well as probably genocidal
in its objectives.
IT IS UNFORTUNATE that
radical groups today are so quick
to accept the Palestinian's claim
that their war is the same libera-
tion movement that is struggling
in Vietnam and'that was won in
Algeria. Any analysis, but the most
superficial, must show many fal-
lacies in this claim.
First of all, what the Ar a b s
claim to be their liberating guer-
rilla war has not been going on
for years and years. In fact it is
a relatively recent phenomena. Al
Fatah was started and acted un-
der the aegis of the radical Syrian
Baath party. Fatah receives most
of its financial support from the
reactionary oil sheikdoms along
the Persian Gulf and from King
Feisal of Saudia Arabia. Yassir
Arafat alias Abu Ammar, leader
of Fatah, has previously b e e n
connected with the conservative
Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt. He
had to flee from Egypt in 1954 be-
cause of the Brotherhood's abort-
ed attempt at a revolution.
*"
'.
1
4}
4
y w7
--~ - HAV(IYAAOPL.
~ C,4 C C
LET US EXAMINE the analogy
that Fatah makes with the in-
dependence struggle in Algeria.
Algeria was a French colony with
a small minority of Frenchmen
and ten million Algerians. Israel
proper has over 2.7 million Jews
with 250,000 Arabs. The French
had France to which to return;
the Israelis have nowhere to go.
The Algerian people could para-
lyse a large French, army by guer-
rilla warfare, owing to the vast-
ness of Algeria which is 852,600
square miles. In this terrain, there
are many mountains, thick bushes
and roadless regions which ren-
dered movement of the army dif-
ficult and made way for successful
guerrilla warfare. As regards
Palestine, most of t h e occupied
territory is settled with fortified
settlements connected, by an ex-
tensive network of roads which
facilitates army movements.
When the revolution erupted in
Algeria, its' active organizations
were in Algeria. As for the Pales-
tinians, the organization of a rev-
olution must grow outside the oc-
cupied territory.
There are many other points
upon which the Algerian analogy
breaks down.
ISRAEL IS NOT a dictatorship
as is t h e government of South
Vietnam. Well over a majority of
its people firmly believe in t h e
state. The Arabs in Israel proper
have the highest living standards
in the Arab world. No one claims
Law Quad
To the Daily:
CIRCULATED throughout resi-
dence halls has been a campaign
statement for a student candi-
date for the Board of Governors;
which alleges that ". . . the Direc-
tor of Housing very generously
(and very quietly) agreed to as-
sume the Law Quad's $500,000 de-
ficit into the Residence Hall bud-
get . . ." This statement is com-
pletely without basis. The financ-
ial transactions involving Univer-
sity Housing are widely known. No
portion of ,residence hall monies
supports the Lawyers Club.
-John Feldkamp,
Director, University Housing
cannot give any money to a n y-
body. It is true that a meeting was
held at the Beth Israel Synagogue,
(I was at that meeting, so I
know) when members of the BEDL
and WRO stated theii case and
asked for funds. Money was col-
lected and people who attended
that meeting, gave out of t h e i r
own pocket, as individuals, I re-,
peat, because this is important, as
individuals, because we felt that
the cause was just and that the
WRO was in need of funds to
clothe children for the winter. We
gave the money, which is not tax-
deductable, and riot the B e t h
Israel Congregation. There were
also Jewish people at that meet-
ing, who are un-affiliated or be-