1te 3rtd an Taily Eighty-four years of editorial freedon Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan The Joanne Little case Up against it, By WENDY WELLS Southern style Saturday, February 22, 1975 News Phone: 764-0552 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 Gino's Jr.: Motley mutant A NEW BUILDING is gracing the campus area. A photomat was recently erected on South State next to Gino's, the noted fast food em- porium. And the much-abused cam- pus environment has taken another blow. The photomat can be described simply as an eyesore. Sitting in a sea of concrete, it is a small, box- like structure topped by an over- sized roof. The garish Maize and Blue color scheme gives the building a remarkable resemblance to Bob Ufer's outhouse. The campus area has existed up until now without a Photomat, and doubtless could continue to do so into the indefinite future. But the Photomat now exists, and does so be- cause the city of Ann Arbor willed it. Posted on one of the windows of the structure is a building permit, signed and approved. POSSIBLY BECAUSE environmen- tal issues get a lot of attention, people assume that the environmen- tal movement is concerned with the preservation of wilderness, clean wa- ter, and open spaces. But most Amer- icans do not live in daily contact with fields and forests. This is an urban country, and the environment of the people is overwhelmingly ur- ban. The Photomat and Gino's are sym- bols of recent trends that have gone far in degrading the urban environ- ment. . One is reminded of Oswald Spen- gler's "Decline of the West" when passing Gino's. An old, attractive, historic house was torn down to make way for this dispensory of plas- tic food and its newly constructed companion, the Photomat. True, the service is fast and the business is pro- fitable, but no one would have starved and the capitalist system would have continued had Gino's never been built. THE FAULT, AS WAS stated be- fore, lies with the city of Ann Ar- bor for its consistent development policy of preferring business over en- vironment. If we must live in Ann Arbor, we should make it clear to those in power that a city is a place to live, and not a spot to turn a few quick bucks. JOANNE LITTLE was the only prison- er in the Beaufort County, N.C. jail the night she killed the jailer trying to rape her. Now, charged with first degree murd- er, she waits for her trial on death row, in a state which still has capital punish- ment. Because her case is riddled with blatant sexism and racism, it has drawn the furor of feminist and civil rights groups across the country. Lending national support for Little's case is civil rights leader Julian Bond and his Southern Anti-Poverty Law Cen- ter, the National Organization for Wo- men, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Oppression and the National Church of Christ Com- mittee for Racial Justice. These groups are protesting the sex- ist/racist aura surrounding the incident and the injustices against Little that be- gan well before it. The local committee in Support of Joanne Little will hold a rally at 6 p.m. Sunday in the Bethel A.M.E. Church, 900 Plum. CLARENCE ALLIGOOD, a 62-y e a r- old f a r m e r and former truck driver was the only guard on the midnight shift. He had been do- ing small favors for the black woman, - who was in jail for breaking parole after a burglary conviction - bringing her sandwiches after jail deadlines. Sex- ual demands by the all-white, all-male jailers were common, according to wo- men who have spent time in the jail, and since Alligood thought Little was a prostitute, he decided she should pay him back that evening for the amenities. Defense attorneys say Alligood, clutch- ing an icepick he kept in his drawer, removed his shoes and pants outside Little's cell and demanded "I've been nice, now it's time you came across." The two struggled and the 110-pound woman stabbed the 190-pound jailer ele- ven times before he fell, severely wound- ed but alive. Little gathered her clothes and fled, hiding in the home of a sympathetic stranger while sheriff's deputies and their dogs scoured the country. Deputies three times searched the house in which she was hiding and nearly smothered died "in the line of duty" and the media carried stories of the 'jail-break' before it was disclosed Alligood was found nak- ed from the waist down with his shoes outside the cell. The dead jailer was a member of a prominent local family and the grand jury that indicted Little included several of Alligood's relatives. Beaufort County, where Little is to be tried, is 40 per cent black, but the courts call few blacks of either sex to serve on juries. The whites in the area hold deep-seeded Southern racist atti- tudes towards black women, their moral- ity, sexuality and worth. Defense attorn- ey Jerry Paul sarcastically character- izes the outlook of the prospective jur- ors: "They know a black woman can't get raped since they're all sex maniacs any- way, and its all right for the good ole boys to have a little fun - in (the juror's) mind, she should have submit- ted." DESPITE THE obvious impossibility of being tried by an impartial jury of her peers, the court has denied Little a change of venue. While North Carolina authorities refuse to discuss the case, the state is expect- ed to argue that Little lured Alligood into the cell and then stabbed him to death: a prostitute plying her trade to win her freedom. Judging from the pre-trial publicity, the prejudices of the potential jurors and the hostility of law enforcement agen- cies, the state's ploy may succeed. Un- less a chance of venue is granted through an appellate court, Little will be tried not on the facts of the case, but on the sexist racist bias of southern whites who do not recognize a woman's right to protect herself against sexual oppression. THE IMAGE of the non-violent, pas- sive woman who must submit to sexual demands as an intrinsic component of her role will be the standard against which the jurors will measure Little. Under these conditions, a guilty verdict and a sentence of death are predictable. Wendy Wells is a Daily staff writer. JOANNE LITTLE: Her attorney sarcastically characterizes the outlook of the prospective jurors as being, "They know a black woman can't get raped since they're all sex maniacs anyway, and its all right for the good ole boys to Keeping the facts straight have a little fun - in (the juror's) her when they sat on a mattress under which she was hiding. LITTLE CONTACTED her attorney who convinced her to turn herself in before county officials declared her an "outlaw" and the legal target of any shotgun-toting citizen who spotted her. Little was immediately charged with first degree murder, even though the state medical examiner corroborates her self-defense plea warranting a lesser charge. The autopsy found Alligood had recently ejaculated and discovered stab wounds in Alligood's legs but not his pants, suggesting his pants were not on when he was attacked. State law enforcement officials are mind, she should have submitted." thwarting all attempts for objective jus- tice even before Little's trial begins. For example: 0 The state refuses to hire a criminol- ogist to re-construct the crime and pro- vide vital testimony to Little's defense. * The jailer's clothing and other crit- ical evidence has been scattered among county agencies, exacerbating attempts by the defense to examine the materials. Requests for establishing a safe, central location for the evidence have been denied. THESE INCIDENCES are mild, how- ever, when compared with the actions of the press and the judiciary. Editorials peppering the newspapers herald Alligood as a fine citizen who WHILE THE DAILY maintains its position of emphatic support of the GEO's fight for a just contract with the University,' it must be pointed out that both sides involved in the negotiations have misrepre- sented issues to their supporters in the past two weeks and are on the verge of betraying the trust of those supporters. It is fully recognized that both the GEO leadership and the University have axes to grind in the matter, and that both, parties have a clear right to rouse support for their re- spective positions. However, the weight of that sup- port carries with it an additional burden of responsibility. The crucial issues at hand demand fair represen- tation to the public. All factions af- fected by the strike - graduate stu- dents, faculty, and particularly the undergraduates - do not deserve to be misled given the high stakes involved. Both sides have on occasion misrepresented issues concerning the status of the strike and negotiations. Unfortunately, whether or not the inaccuracies were intentional doesn't change their undesirable consequences. Either way, the public is swayed unfairly. FOR EXAMPLE, the day before the strike President Fleming appear- ed before the faculty Senate Assem- bly to urge that bargaining was TODAY'S STAFF: News: Barb Cornell, Chuck Lipsitz, Sara Rimer, Tim Schick, Curt Smith, Jeff Sorensen, Jim Tobin Editorial Paae: Peter Blaisdell, Paul Haskins, Debra Hurwitz, C h e r y 1 Pilate % Arts Paqe: David Blomquist Photo Technician: Ken Fink "down to the final ingredients" and that walkouts under such circum- stances were highly unusual and il- logical. Fleming's "final ingredients" in- cluded major divisions on six re- maining disputes. The faculty rep- resentatives were unmoved, however, and voted to urge the GEO to post- pone their strike deadline for forty- eight hours in the hope that a settle- ment could be reached without ex- treme action. Even under the threat of a post- poned strike deadline, it seems doubtful that a settlement could have been reached during the two day extension. President Fleming and the University negotiators have been aware of the GEO's strike deadline since October. Certain GEO leaders, in their zeal to build support for the walkout, have exagerated situations to their members. AT THE MASS MEETING before the strike vote, union leader Mark Kaplan apparently perceived a threat to the burgeoning strike momentum when several members voiced con- cern about the true degree of sup- port which the powerful Teamsters' union had pledged to the GEO. Kap- lan leaned to the microphone and declared, "There ain't gonna be no truck that's gonna cross our picket lines," and "The Teamsters have all the trucking." In fact, neither of these claims were totally true. While Kanlan may have been misinformed on the situa- tion himself, he nevertheless had no business presenting these imoortant statements as undeniable facts. Leaders of the two sides are only jeopardizing their own positions with distorted rhetoric. Profound distrust can be the only result. Letters: Silent majority ripped by 'U' trash feeble attempts to arouse : h e - many prejudices that students To The Daily: may have. If this is the type .f SOME OF THE trash that the editorials we are going t3 be Daily accepts as legitimate edi- subjected to in the future, I'm torial opinion prevents the sure the comic pages of other Daily from achieving a status legitimate newspapers will at- anything above second rate. tract much of your former read- Wayne Johnson's editorial in the ers. At least the comics make February 13 issue written by no attempt to tell a logical Wayne Johnson is exactly such story, something Johnson ex- trash. I wouldn't be surprised pects us to believe he is doing. to find that the honorable Mr. Johnson has trouble thinking his THE GEO needs student sup- way through the daily comic port, and they will get i:, as page. His logic reminds me very long as students can suc :ess- much of Zero in the "Beetle fully ignore "zeros" like Jo'n- Bailey" strip. son, and as long as they can The graduate employees are weed they're way through Daily engaged in a struggle that is editorials that make no attempt indeed serious. Johnson's all is- to be logical. ions to Arab money and United -Mark Pontoni, '77 Negro College Fund money are February 13 sidcswipcs I Burgers, roadsters go way of the bulls By BOB SEIDENSTEIN - LOOSEBU\\ \ t 11 jt t"LIA jJ;i \ \\ V i#~ /1 TRUT FUND , -' f, i. I ..r ('©CAUSING A SUJMP IN .MPLtoYMENr ,® pRO lPINj ;5q1) ' ME AAVFTO i ®NWATCH4WIL. INCREA6E HIGjHWAY' CfNiTUC17ON 60 ©IATILA UP 1ci'. RE MERRILL LYNCH is still bullish on America, even though the last time they felt that way they filmed their television commercial in Mexico. The older version of the revived commercial, in which a thundering herd of bulls runs across a parcel of land too dry to support a solitary cactus, was Richard Nixon's favorite advertisement at one time. However, since the American economy has gone the way of Nixon recently, the commercial obviously needed a new twist. So, we are told that the Wall Streeters can offer us invest- ment ideas for a "changing" economy. WE SHOULD applaud their creative use of the English language and their willingness to admit that things are not necessarily the same as they were during the days the economy was being propped up by a little scuffle over in Asia. Let's face it, we too may as well admit that things are changing. We all can recall those happy days when change was something we got back from our dollar enabling us to buy Alka-Seltzers after we invaded our stomachs with those rubber cheeseburgers we ate by the billions. But those times are no more. Things have not only changed, they have, as a few purveyors of pessimism might claim, gotten worse. Fortunately we have not yet reached the times we might refer to as "worst." We are not yet selling apples on street- corners, although no one has ever satisfactorily explained in an economic sense where all the apples were coming from, who was buying them and whether competition drove down their price. INSTEAD OF DEALING with fruit, we are unsuccessfully trying to hawk overpriced roadsters to each other. One outrage To The Daily: THE FEBRUARY 12, 19 7 5 Daily carried an outrageous let- ter to the Editor signed by Everett Ehrlich and Jerry Cap- rio, two graduate employees who attempt to rationalize their scabbing on the GEO strike with a barrage of fake leftist prases. Ehrlich's and Caprio's strike-breaking is a dangerous example of what Lenin called "infantile leftism.' Marxists recognize that stu- dents generally come from "privileged" backgrounds and are heading for "privileged" futures. But Marxists also con- sistently support student pro- tests agaist their own oppres- sion and the oppression of oth- ers. As Lenin put it, "we must make it our concern to direct the thoughts of those who are dissatisfied only with conditions at the University, or in t hbe Zemstvo, etc., to the idea toat the entire political system is worthless . . . our task is to utilize every manifestatibn of discontent, and to gather and turn, to the best account every protest, however small." During the period of school and "getting established," GSA's are subject to genuine unemployment, genuine exploi- tation, and often genuinely op- pressive working conditions. GEO was formed in reaction to precisely these cireumstan-es, as the GEO contract demands demonstrate. Even after they are out of school and establish- ed as professionals and te;hnic- ians, former GSA's who main- tain some integrity will suffer the genuine oppression ef hav- ing to sell themselves to the bonrgeousie in order to make a living and having to d- the work that capitalist society is willing to pay for, rather than the work they know is neejed. STUDENTS will be drawn to the side of the working cl ss )r to an anti-capitalist position only to the extent that they themselves engage in sruggles against specific capitalist abus- es and come to realize that the entire bourgeous order is at fault. It is of no use for Ehrlich and Caprio to argue that suc- cess of the GEO strike "entails the reproduction of the society around it" or will not work "against the systematic class and raising the political level of their participants that a re- volutionary program can ever be achieved. A GEO victory will make it financially more possible for working class and minority stu- dents to work their way through the U of M. Obviously ths re- form will not alter the bour- geois nature of the University. But neither will the reforms proposed by Ehrlich and Caprio. Certainly breaking the G E C strike will only set back t h e struggle. Instead of calling for scauhing on the GEO strike, Marxists should be calling for a unit-id and coordinated strike of all the unions at the University, plus students and non-union em- ployees, behind a program for their common needs and the transformation of the Univer- sity (and ultimately socie y) i a "truly progressive" way. -Peter Solenberger February 16, 1975 support To The Daily: AT ITS Wednesday n ig h t meeting, the LSA Student Gov- ernment Executive C-uncil passed a resolution supporting the initial six demands made by the Third World Coa':ti n Council. The motion read: "That the LSA-SG express our sup- port for the original 6 demands of the TWCC." By roll-call vote the motion passed 8-6. Six Aca- demic Action Party members on the Executive Council voted against this motion. While all of us are in principle supportive of the TWCC's de- mands, we found ourselves un- able to support the motion be- cause of the unsatisfactory na- ture of the first two demands. They were: (1) "That the TWCC be recognized as the sole bargaining agent to peo- ple of color in the Unive "sity. and (2) "That Cleopatra Lyons be re-instated in the Nursing School." The AAP concern aboit the first demand is directed :,gains; the constitution of the TWCC it- self. We rcognize the lWCC represents the views of a signi- ficant number of minority stu- dents on this campus. However. the TWCC is not democrari -.ly elected by the Peonie it pro- fesses to represent, so it cannot claim to be the legitimate bar- gaining agent of those ne )ie We sympathize with the need to establish a representative or- ,-mni e t ., armriy 4t e n statement to the Nursing School. However, we demand a proper investigation of the student's dismissal. We will support the decision resulting from such an investigation concerning h e r eligibility for continued enroll- ment in the School of Nursing. We support the four remain- ing original demands and hope our position has not been mis- construed as opposition to the TWCC's efforts. We join in spirit the movement to remedy all racial and minority discrim- inations as practiced by t h e University Administration, and hope for a meaningful negot- iated settlement of the current conflict. Nate Fulk, Tom Hammond, Stephanie Hazelton, K a t h y Hunter, Rick Pattison, Jeanne Sellnau. --Academic Action Party February 19 To: Michigan Daily: WE, THE clericals of t h e School of Social Work, have found it difficult to continue "business as usual" in view of the GEO strikers who are pick- eting the Frieze Building. We hold the administration, not GEO, responsible and ask for a speedy settlement in favor of GEO. Deborah J. Helbig, Helen Col- by-Bernstein, Pamela Rands, Nola Ward, Alaine Mussett, Joette Goudie, Nancy E. Still- well, Emily Warren, Sue Meyer, Carol Sulkes, Evelyn DeSmet, Sandra Banks, Deborah Moore- head, Penelope Frey, Sharon Jones, Sandy Rod. February 17 lan guage To The Daily: WE ARE writing to ask you, President Fleming, to settle the dispute with the Graduate Em- ployees Organization. Currently we are students at the English Language Institute. We have come a long way to the United States to study Eng- lish. Learning English is very important for us because we plan to attend the University. We have (or our governments have) paid a lot of monsy for this course. We hope that this problem is solved as soon as possible. Takako Yadomae (Japan), William Cruz (Venezuela), Om- aira Cruz R. (Venezuela), R. A. Zenaidy (Saudi Arabia), F r o Uah Rafi-Tahrni (Tran) .Tn MMUS, . 0 . N\l Rk s .ca\J