Spain endures more Franco By PAUL O'DONNELL "SPAIN: END OF Franco's Era?" read the headline of the magazine page of Detroit's largest newspaper; the article that followed dealt with Spain's attempts to enter the Common Market, the growing number and power of the groups that oppose Franco, the regime's heavy-handed methods, and the dicta- tor's old age. The article was dated February 18, 1963. Eleven years later, after a six-week absence from power due to illness, the 81-year-old former assoc- iate of Hitler and Mussolini is back in the driver's seat, and many of the problems mentioned in the decade-old article still remain unresolved. Burying Franco before he dies is an easy trap to fall into, even with the knowledge that people have been predict- ing Franco's death or downfall for years. Journalists recently reacted to news of Franco's serious illness by writing about "Spain after Franco" and "the difficult transition from Dictatorship to Mon- archy." Much evidence did, however, point to a new era in Spanish history. Prince Juan Carlos' assuming the posi- tion of chief of state, political turnover in neighboring Portugal, and increased activity of anti-Franquist groups inside and outside Spain led many observers to conclude that Spain's hour had come. Then, on September 1, doctors declared Franco to be "clinically cured" a n d physically capable of once again as- suming the responsibilities which he had delegated to Juan Carlos. The state-con- trolled television talked of a "guarantee of stability and continuity," but the Cau- dillo's comeback did nothing to answer the real question: what happens after he dies? WHILE THE NIXON resignation and the Ford succession proved that Amer- ica's power-transfer mechanism operates efficiently, events in the past year under- score the uncertainty of Spain's political future. A year ago, Franco's successor Juan Carlos was to have been aided by Premier Luis Carrero Blanco, Franco's trusted deputy, in case of Franco's death. Carrero Blanco would have guid- ed the first steps of the new chief of state, for Juan Carlos, although the grandson of Spain's last king, will never be the "strong man" that Franco is. Just as Portugal's Caetano represent- ed Salazarism after the death of Salazar, so Carrero Blanca would have assured the continuity of Franquism after the Caudillo's death. When Carrero Blanco- was assassinated last December, the me- chanism for orderly succesion broke down. When the new government, head- ed by Carlos Arias Navarro, was nam- ed, the divisions within the ruling oli- garchy became increasingly obvious. Spanish internal policy has since var- ied between cautious liberalization and political crack-downs, arrests, and execu- tions. MEANWHILE, PORTUGAL'S revolu- tion of flowers, which last April depos- ed a dictatorial regime which was even older than Franco's, did nothing to en- courage optimism about stable transi- tion in post-Franquist Spain. Before the Portuguese revolution, Spain and Portu- gal shared the dubious distinction of be- ing the only two dictatorships in Western Europe. Now Franco is all alone; even Spain's Mediterranean neighbor, Greece now has a civilian government. After the military takeover in Portu- gal, many Spaniards speculated openly about the possibility of a similar action taking place in Spain. The man most often suggested to lead the hypothetical takeover is Gen. Manuel Alegria, a poli- tical moderate. An unconfirmed rumor circulated in backroom political dis- cussions that Diez Alegria received doz.- ens of monocles in the mail after the Portuguese coup. The momocles, as the story goes, were to en..xurage Diez!. Diez Alegria to "do like Spinola." Such an eventuality seems far-fetched for many reasons. Diez Alegria, who has never commanded troops and has neither the political nor the military influence that Spinola does, was recently relieved of his functions as chief of the High General Staff. All this makes him an unlikely candidate for being the Span- ish Spinola. Certain fundamental differ- ences between the Portuguese and Span- ish armies also discourage the possibil- ity of a similar coup in Spain, among these the facts that the Spanish mili- tary has remained closer to the right- wing authoritarian traditions of the re- gime than its Portuguese counterpart, and that the Spanish army hasn't been involved in bellicose action in over twen- ty-five years. That a Spanish Spinola might exist, somehow and somewhere, is mostly wishful thinking on the part of the anti-Franquist opposition. DESPITE the government's recent moves towards limited political liberali- zation, the majority of the Spanish peo- ple live, and have lived for thirty-five years, in a political vavuum. The Fran- quist regime's standard operating pro- cedure has been one of barring demo- cratic elections and political parties, opposing free speech, and m'Iffling t h e press when it sees fit. Due to news suppression inside Spain, Spaniards can often find out about poli- tical events in foreign -ountries soon- er than they learn of goings-on in their own country. Just as the Portuguese people and its leaders are having diffi- culties making the transition from dic- tatorship to democracy after almost a half-century of dictatrshio, so Spain will have to face the problem of a poli- tically unexperienced populace if it ever embarks upon a democratic venture. Despite the "de-politicization" of the general populace, however, important currents of political thught are devel- oping. At the university level, student strikes, protests, and unrest have been continuous over the past several years, especially in the large population cent- ers. Political organizations on a clandes- tine level have also seen consolidating their forces over the )ast few months. Among the left-wing .>position forces that have recently come together are the "Democratic Congress," which in- cludes many non-Communist groups (Socialists, Christian Democrats, a n d Social Democrats), and the "Democrat- ic Junta," which was created by the exiled chief of the Spanish Communist Party and other figures of opposition who are also in exile. For the moment, however, both the left and the right- wing oppositions are waiting for Franco . .. AND WHEN Franco goes, J u a n Carlos will step up, but it is difficult to tell what kind of country Juan Carlos' Spain will be. A constitutional mon- archy? A dictatorship with a figurehead king? A military democracy? A repub- lic? Spain, which has been governed by two different dictators, one king, and one republic during the twentieth cen- tury, doesn't lack historical models. Whatever the political future of Spain may be, Franco's return t) power does not make that future any clearer. One Socialist leader went so far as to say Franco's return merely "compli- cates the political situation, increases tensions and will make peaceful change more difficult." Paul O'Donnell is a Daily European Correspondent. 94c Airi t axen4a D Eighty-three years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Wednesday, September 18, 1974 News Phone: 764-0552 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 The musical street sign name Sarah Bad Heart Bull ANY LATE-HOUR traveller negoti- ating the streets of our fair town might well depart dazzled with vi- sions of municipal efficiency unpar- alled. Among Ann Arbor's most resonant PR voices are those ubiquitous street signs controlling the wee hour roost- ing patterns of vehicles the town over. When the itinerant or new resident first spots the "No Parking: Mon, Wed, Fri, 2 am to 5 am" rising above the parkway, he or she is stricken by the notion of a garbage- guzzling armada of street-cleaners vigilantly scouring the town every other weekday night, lest a dozing citizen might awaken the next morn only to step on a deserted Tootsie Roll wrapper. However, no such delusions of curbside grandeur afflict more sea- soned Ann Arborites. It's common knowledge that our City Fathers might do better to cleanse our high- ways and by ways by equipping Shak- in' Jake with a 20-foot scarf and magnetic soles. THE FACT IS - brace yourselves - Musical Street Signs is just an- other version of the imaginative money - mongering game in which this city prides itself. Probably the most compelling fea- ture of this town's revolutionary street-cleaning system is its conspic- uous absence. If anybody out there ever actually sees a street-cleaner, take a picture of it. If you're sober when you take it, have it developed. Playi,,ng m-usic IN ADDITION TO the bad emotional taste that Gerald Ford's "clem- ency" deal left in my mouth, enough serious ethical and legal questions about his "earned re-entry" program remain unanswered to create sus- picions about his intentions and the amnesty proposal's efficacy. To my knowledge, never before has ,a U. S. president offered conditional amnesty after hostilities have ceas- ed, The closest parallel is Abraham Lincoln's offer to secessionist troops during, not after, the Civil War. On one hand, Ford's position makes sense, sort of, because the American government continues to finance the war in Indochina that drove so many to resist induction and so many oth- ers to desert the military. But, if this is the correct reading of his cere- brations, why not offer to pardon insurgent Vietnamese if they will lay down their arms? On the other hand, his whole out- line is screwy. If Ford indeed wanted to let bygones slide, as he intimated in his proclamation, would it not have been more reasonable to grant a blanket pardon (there is a presi- It would be fruitless to simply sug- gest that the city remove the signs. However, a more candid relationship with its citizenry would no doubt be well-received. The city certainly knows that it is downright impossible to keep those signs straight night after night. The driving masses, for their part, are keenly aware of the bloating ef- fect the parking game has on city coffers. Each night the violation machine makes its kill. That is inevitable. There is a way, nonetheless, to gorge the treasury without as much popu- lar pain. Under the new, revised parking meter plan: 0 STREET - CLEANING S I G N S would restrict parking only one or two nights a month, or however often the street is actually cleaned. " On the other nights, the "Ann Arbor Metropolitan Parking Viola- tions Lottery" would go into effect. Each night, a preset number of ve- hicles would be randomly chosen as "losers" and plastered with tickets. The Losers Quota would be scientif- ically designed to maintain the park- ing bureau's present nightly take, adjusted to cost-of-living, naturally. Outrageous, you gasp? Of course, we retort - but certainly no more outrageous or- demeaning than the "one-two-three, jump!" system now plaguing us. Besides, just think how exciting it will be to choose the Lottery Com- mission members. -PAUL HASKINS al street signs by a given date, instead of hanging an ambiguous penance over the heads of men who make a pretty good argument that they have com- mitted no crime? Or does one have to stand behind the presidential seal and intone "I am not a crook" three times before mercy enters into the picture? FVER SINCE MEN began resisting the draft, questions of involun- tary servitude and compulsory mili- tary service, especially in times when Congress has declared no war, were raised by those who felt that the Selective Service Act violated the Bill of Rights. With our present "may- be you'll get off with two years" set- up, discussion of that question will be shelved until the next "police ac- tion" rolls around; and then it will be too late. Also, the process by which military resisters become eligible for "clem- ency" smells sort of fishy when com- pared with the Fifth Amendment. What Ford has done is to establish a judicial system outside the frame- work of the Constitution. TN ANY CASE, our new president acts Predatory justice and White By LIA PAYNE THIS LAND we live on is In- dian land. Land we have immorally and often illegally, even in accordance with our own European laws, stolen. Not only have we stolen it, but we are poisoning it and mutilating it - and the Indian, the original inhabitant of this land, is pois- oned and mutilated at the same time. The American Native People have never received justice un- der our immigrants system. We attempt to take everything from them, not only their land and their means of economic self- sufficiency - but their relig- ion, their language, their cul- ture, their human dignity - the very core of any people's life. We attempt to leave them naked and empty in the starkness of modern America's waste-land, where all vital values are for- gotten. These vital values are inherent in, and cannot be sep- arated from the Indian way of existence. W have not conquer- ed them yet, and our desire to is a sickness, as much as cover- ing up the live earth with arti- ficial rock, or the obsession to toy with nuclear explosives, is a sickness. We need the Ind- ians and what they have to of- fer us in learning about the val- ue of life itself. THE AMERICAN Natives will fight the sickness in our sys- tem to the end. They have seen what we have already done to their country, in the span of a few hundreds years. Only a short time ago, this, was an entire continent of untouched beauty. Their way had never been to be loud and aggressive. It has been much more "live and let live," in total harmony. But we force them to be loud. They have found that otherwise their voices go unheard. They never chose to be ruled by our law and way of life, and it does not work for them. Yet the Indian is still compelled to try to find justice under this law and this system. And for the people who everyone would rather annihilatet- or at least forget about this is like try- ing to find a needle in a hay- stack. Sarah Bad Heart Bull is one Indian person in -the thick of the struggle of Indians striving for their native rights in their own land. She is the 44 year old mother of 6 surviving child- ren. Two of Sarah's children, young Indian men, were mur- dered at different times by white men. In-January of 1973. Wesley, 20, was stabbed to death by a white businessman named Darly Schmitz. D a r y I Schmitz was charged by t h e state with only second-degree manslaughter, before certain alleged eye-witnesses to the killing had even been question- ed. ON FEBRUARY 6, 1973, 200 Indians, very angry, but unarm- ed, went to Custer, South Da- kota to meet with the state's attorney, Hobart Gates, to pro- test the lack of investigation in- to Wesley's murder, the len- ient charge given this white murderer, and to demand jus- tice. Sarah Bad Heart Bull was among these 200 people, as well as two of her friends - Ro- bert High Eagle and Kenneth Dahl. The peaceful demonstrators at Custer were met on the Court- house steps by police in full riot gear. Sarah attempted to climb the Courthouse steps in order to go into the Courthouse where the meeting between the state's attorney and A.I.M. leaders was being held. She was forcefully beaten back by the police. In the melee that followed, a gas station and a bulk oil plant were damaged by fire, and the sin- gle story frame chamber of com- merce was burned to the ground. Several abandoned po- lice cars were also trashed. Twenty-two people have b e e n charged with assorted crimes stemming from the incident. Last summer, the murderer of Wesley Bad Heart Bull, was acquited of his charge by an all white jury. ON JUNE 20th of this year, Sarah, Bob High Eagle, and Ken Dahl were found guilty, by an all-white jury, of riot where arson was committed. During the sentencing of the three, the defense was- given opportunity to present evidence in favor of mercy and mitiga- tion. Regina Brave Dixon, also a mother and Custer defendent, gave testimony explaining her motive for going to Custer: "I went to Custer as a mother be- cause I did not want the same thing to happen to my sons that happened to Wesley Bad Heart Bull. I don't want my daughter to grow up and have that hap- pen to one of her children. It was time that Indian people stood up and protested the dual system of justice that we've had to accept in the past." The court, shortly later sen- tenced Sarah to one to five years in prison, and Bob and Ken to five to seven years. The court denied any bond pending appeal, and was upheld by the state supreme court. There was merica a defense motion for a months stay of execution for Sarah so that she might make custody ar- rangements fcir her surviving children. This motion was de- nied. The defense then request- ed a week's stay or sentence. This was also denied. The judge was then informed that Sarah's children were waiting outside in her car. Finally he granted her 24 hours to find a new home for her children. Sarah Bad Heart Bull, in a mother's grief, feeling the fu- tility of being an Indian trying to live today, went to Custer to ask for justice over her son's death. Tired of seeing her child- ren murdered one after another by white hate and cruelty, she was angry. For destruction of property and lack of respect for our white "superiority", Sarah is now separated from her remaining children as she is locked in jail: The murderer of her child was acquitted for his crime, and now goes free. Where is justice for the Ind- ian People? Where is our hu- manity, to allow such happen- ings to occur and go uncheck- ed? Letters to The Daily *l/ clericals To the Editor: WE WISH to protest the ob- viously biased reporting of the Michigan Daily on September 17, 1974. AFSCME does not represent clericals at all of the universi- ties in Michigan. Even by their own admission, they represent clerical employees at only 4 colleges - not all of them. The Daily implied that the UAW is male dominated. Per- haps you haven't observed that the campaign on campus has been directed, organized and run by clericals: read women. AFS- CME's campaign has been run by union hacks like Jerry Gor- don and Bob Johnson while the clericals on their staff run the errands and distribute the leaf- lets like good little secretaries should. THE DAILY also implies that the UAW hasn't bothered to or- ganize the clericals at Ford or GM. What you fail to mention is that when the UAW wins a new contract for their Chrysler clericals, Ford and GM automat- cally pass on the benefits to their own clericals to keep them from organizing. Thus the Ford and GM clericals benefit from the strength of the UAW without called upon the UAW for assist- ance - not AFSCME. If AFS- CME's expertise is so advanc- ed, why do public employees call upon the UAW for help? The Daily also implies that a group of clericals broke off from the Concerned Clericals for Ac- tion after we decided, by a democratic secret ballot vote to support the UAW. That "group" of clericals who decided to work for AFSCME consisted of a to- tal of two. You also stated that both the Letters to The Daily rhould be mailed to the Editorial Director or delivered to Mary Rafferty in the Student Publications business office in the Michigan Daily build- ing. Letters should be typed, double-spaced and normally should not exceed 250 words. The EditorialhDirectors re- serve the right to edit all letters submitted. UAW and AFSCME submitted cards and were both certified. The cards AFSCME submitted were not accepted because they did not have the necessary thirty percent. Read: we a r e the Petitioner, AFSCME is the Intervenor. AFSCME tried later to certify another set of cards with a new petition. Our first petition was held to be valid and theirs was not accepted. Read: we are the Petitioner, they are Intervenors. We have worked hard and long on this campaign to dis- seminate a clear, concise set of issues and facts. We wish the Daily would do likewise. -Dan Byrne, Rackham Jane Gould, SAB Gail Klein, Law School Deborah Moorehead, Social Work Dawn Chalker Linda Pedell Pamela O'Conner, ICLE Sept. 17, 1974 Tia Payne works for the Wounded Knee Legal De- fense/Offense Committee in Lincoln, Nebraska. Pardon pie on Ford back burner By STEVE ROSS SINCE PRESIDENT FORD pardoned citizen Nixon last week, the White House has been deluged with pardon requests from every prison in the country. "We're getting at least one thousand letters a day," moaned one overworked secretary from behind a mountain = of letters. The White House staff has been working night and day to plow through the letters. President Ford has only seen a few letters, the ones which seem to have the best chance of pardoning, and the worst, to entertain the President during odd moments of spare time. "I just hope he doesn't get them mixed up," sighed one staff member; she added, "If he looked through all of them it would take him the rest of his term. The problem is most people might not be able to tellthe difference." So the staff has to screen the letters. "The President was considering hiring more staff people, but felt it would be inflationary," grunted a staff member as he wheeled in another batch of mail. 'rO MEET THE crunching demand, the President decided to have his staff send each prisoner a form letter. The staff was aided in this effort by a member of the U of M's Admissions Department, who comnosed the basic form of the letters. First, after a letter is opened, a staff member reaches into a thick pile of acknowledgement letters. They read: Dear I have received your letter requesting a pardon. I have received many similar requests and it will take }: time to review them all. Please be patient. I will con- sider your case as soon as possible. Sincerelv: Gerald R. Ford There are similar letters for the denial and granting of Contact your reps- Sen. Phillip Hart (Dem), Rm 253, Old Senate Bldg., Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. 20515. Sen. Robert Griffin (Rep), Rm 353, Old Senate Bldg., Capitol