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March 25, 1975 - Image 4

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1975-03-25

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Eighty-Five Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan

I

Camejo: .A

So

Tuesday, March 25, 1975

News Phone : 764-0552

420 Maynord St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104

I

Days of "dum-dums"

over?

WALTER KRASNY HAS never been
a particular friend of the Daily.
During his years of tenure, we have
disagreed with many of his profes-
sional assessments, and the manner
in which his department has been
run.
But we were gratified to note, that
it was he, and not City Council, who
decided that city police officers will
no longer carry the controversial
hollow - point "dum-dum" bullets.
And we were further pleased to note
that the Ann Arbor Police Officers
Association quickly announced their
support for the measure.
The motivation for such actions
remains unknown. It may be that
the police, led by Krasny, were sway-
ed by the factual and emotional ap-
peals mounted by the Human Rights
Party (HRP) intended to have Coun-
cil forbid the use of such bullets.
If this is so, it's much to the credit
of the police, for the HRP demon-
strated to our satisfaction that the
dum-dums were indeed an unneces-
sary component of police armament.
Banned in international warfare by
the 1949 Geneva Convention, hollow
point bullets inflict more bodily
damage in those they enter than do
conventional bullets due to the "dum-
dum's" physical qualities.
PRIOR TO KRASNY'S surprise an-
nouncement, a police spokesman
had defended their use by claiming
that hollow point bullets richochet
less than solid-tipped ammunition,
which is a legitimate consideration.
Clearly we support any reasonable
measure that reduces the likelihood
that innocent bystanders will be in-
jured while the police pursue their
duty.
But the same officer pointed out

that municipal police fire an average
of only 1.5 times per month; fortu-
nately that argument carries little
weight, with such a fortuitously low
rate of fire, the odds in any case
are low that stray bullets will strike
an unintended target.
The main police defense of hollow-
point bullet use was that the dum-
dums were a necessary force for sub-
duing people. The spokesman de-
cried the use of force, but added,
"When you pull a gun you have to
stomp a man - right then -before
he shoots you." That still doesn't
justify dum-dums.
IT MAY WELL be that the police de-
cided to come out against the
bullets they formerly packed for
purely political reasons, an argument
we have heard advanced by cynical
observers. After all, they reason, city
elections are coming up; the possi-
bility that Mayor Stephenson and
some of his cohorts who have been
quick to support the police at every
occasion, will be replaced by those
inclined to question police tactics
looms increasingly lar
While some may argue Krasny was
trying to save his neck, (after all,
many have campaigned on a pledge
of removing him if given the chance)
it does seem to prove he is susceptible
to political pressure, or to use a nicer
term, responsive to the wishes of the
community.
CITY REPUBLICANS LED by Steph-
enson, seem increasingly flexible,
this time apparently beyond the
bounds of rationality. Political par-
ties differ on matters of policy, but
it is particularly reprehensible to see
the Republicans defending the use
of brutal weaponry for political rea-
sons at the expense of humanitar-
ianism.

By DEBORAH MUTNICK
WAS IN high school when I first
heard Peter Camejo speak. The
Young Socialist Alliance held their con-
vention in New York City that year, and
Camejo spoke the one evening I attend-
ed. This wiry, energetic man related a
history of the world in two hours with
a clarity and excitement rarely matched.
Only socialists can do something like
that: because they are not in awe of his-
tory; because they actively use the les-
sons of history; and because they are
the only ones who command a compre-
hensive, integrated understanding of his-
tory.But even then, few socialists can
evoke the kind of powerful response
Camejo did from every member of that
audience. He is now the Socialist Work-
ers Party presidential candidate for
1976 and Ann Arbor will have the good
fortune to hear him speak at the Mich-
igan Union on March 28 at 8:00.
35 year old Peter Camejo has been
a member of the Socialist Workers Par-
ty since 1959. He has been involved in
the Civil Rights Movement continuously,
protesting Woolworth segregation poli-
cies in the South in the early '60's and
joining in opposition against racism in
Boston in 1975. A leading defender of
the Cuban Revolution in 1968, Camejo
spent three months there as a guest
of the Cuban government.
IN 1962, THEN national secretary of
The Young Socialist Alliance, Camejo
played a leading role in the Berkeley
student movement. He was elected to the
University of California Student Senate
(with the largest vote total of all those
elected) and was suspended that same
day for speaking at an anti-war rally of
10,000, held against the University's ban
on mass protests. 3,000 students occupied
university buildings in protest of his
suspenion. Arreted several times after
that for his involvement in anti-war and
free speech demonstrations, Camejo's
activities inspired Ronald Reagan to
denounce him as ". .. involved in every
large-scale demonstration."
In 1969, Camejo spoke to the enormous
crowd of 100,000 anti-war protesters in

American countries.
BUT WHY, you ask, should socialists,
who are opposed to the system, partici-
pate in capitalist elections? Not to get
votes. Not to make reforms. Not to in-
fluence capitalist politicians. Rather, soc-
ialist campaigns serve three important
purposes: To legitimize and provide im-
portant legal opportupnities; to reach
masses of people through the media and
publicity of an election race; and to ex-
pose the government, political parties,
and liberals.
It is often said there are no differences
between Democrats and Republicans -
they're all capitalists. But that simpli-
fies the real conditions revolutionaries
must confront. Camejo writes in his
pamphlet, "How to Make a Revolution in
the U.S.", that there is "'. . . a real liv-
ing struggle between different positions
within the ruling class. The ruling class
resolves many of the smaller tactical
differences they have among themselves
through means of elections."
THE REAL QUESTION is how to use
capitalist candidates and their apparatus
to build support for a revolutionary
movement. Lenin, in discussing his atti-
tide toward election campaigns in Wes-
tern Europe and the United States, said
that socialists ". . . everywhere should
strive to rouse the minds of the masses
and to draw them into the struggle, to
catch the bourgeois on heir own state-
ments, to utilize the apparatus they have
set up, the elections they have appoint-
ed .
A power relationship exists between
the masses of people in this country
and the ruling class which continually
forces the capitalists to broaden, or at
times to deny, certain democratic rights.
"Because of this power relationship, you
can do many things," Camejo writes. "It
gives us what we call free speech. It
gives us free assembly. It gives us the
right to organize."
When you are denied these rights, you
fight to retain them. Exemplifying the
importance of such struggles are t h e
recent disclosures of the role govern-

'cia list
AS RECENTLY AS March 18, th
F.B.I. was compelled, by court order, t
release 3,138 pages of internal document
to the SWP and YSA. The New Yor
Times described it as ". . . one of th
largest disclosures in the history of th
bureau."
Election campaigns, then, allow socia.
ists to reach broad segments of th
population through speaking tours, lik
Camejo's, and through pamphlets, pe
titions, and debates with other cand.
dates. As Camejo concludes, in his dis
cussion of the ruling cltss, "The onl
hope the ruling class has is if it can isc
late the revolutionaries. That is wh
the number one task of all revolutionar
ies who really want to change the sys
"Arrested several times foi
his involvement in anti-wat
and free speech demonstra.
tions, Came jo's activities in.
spired Ronald Reagan to de-
nounce hin (is '. .. involved
in every large-scale demon-
stration.'"

op tion
e boycotts against scab lettuce, grapes,
o and wine. In order to implement the
s gains that can be won by these struggles,
k the formation of a mass socialist party
e will be necessary. The SWP concludes
e their description of the new Bill of
Rights: We are ". . '. campaigning for
l- a new society -- a socialist society -
e where wars, racism, sexual oppression,
e and all other forms of human degrada-
- tion no longer exist. We believe that this
i- is a realistic goal, and a necessary one,
if humanity is to survive. Join us in
y this struggle."
3- One of the effects of the radicaliza-
y tion of the sixties and the economic cris-
es of the seventies has been to broaden
- and deepen peoples' response to socialist

"SWP is 'campaigning for a new society - a socialist socie-
ty - where wars, racism, sexual oppression, and all other
forms of human degradation no longer exist. We believe
this is a realistic goal, and a necessary one if humanity is to
survive. Join us in this struggle.'''
;.:}r,,}.}rrv::.::;rra w::}:r:.":r , "n{:: :. ::: : : a m e n r: r " ..: xm a

tem is to know how to reach the peo-
ple."
1976, is, of couse, the anniversary of
our revolution against the tyranny of
England. The Bill of Rights emerged
from that struggle, securing us, at least
on paper, such freedoms as speech and
press. One hundred years later, the Soc-
ialist Workers Party is proposing the
creation of a new Bill of Rights for
Working People, containing eight inalien-
able rights:
-Right to a job
-Right to an adequate income,
-Right to a free education,
-Right to free medical care,
-right to secure retirement,
-Right to know the truth about econ-
omic and political policies that affect our
lives,
-Right to oppressed national minori-
ties to control their own affairs, and
-Right to decide economic and politi-
cal police.
THE MAJOR difference between the
SWP program and Democratic or Re-
publican programs is that the SWP does
not expect The Bill of Rights for Work-
ing People to be won by votes, or by
electing them into office. Rather, these
goals will be achieved by the people
themselves through mass actions, such
as strikes for higher wages, rallies to
demand jobs, demonstrations against
cutbacks in education and social services,
marches against racism in Boston, and

UNFORTUNATELY, some of the reac-
tions have been not only negative, but
dangerous bomb attacks on the city of
Los Angeles began with the bombing of
Socialist Workers Party headquarters on
February and continued throughout the
month. On February 22, two bombs were
placed in KCET-TV, which had earlier
announced scheduling of the Cuban film,
t"Lucia." A similar attack occurred
from 1968 to 1970 against the SWP alone,
and it was then indicated by L.A. police
that the CIA had been involved.
Peter Camejo; campaigning on unem-
ployment lines in Pittsburgh, also met
with enthusiastic responses to socialism.
When Camejo said, "This system puts
profits before human needs," an older
worker nodded in agreement and add-
,ht. Just yesterday they
were jiving about sending someone to the
moor or Mars or something. Well, that
don't feed nobody. That just ties up
$30 million. Think how many unemploy-
ment checks that could be, how many

ideas.

On to Geneva for results

AT LONG LAST Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger's "whirlwind"
shuttle efforts to reconcile Egypt and
Israel and restore peace to the Mid-
east are over. It has evidently be-
come clear, even to the erstwhile dip-
lomat, that all the shuttle diplomacy
in the world will not reconcile two
nations who want essentially the
same thing.
Quite early in the negotiation pro-
cess, Egypt insisted on the withdraw-
al of Israeli troops from the Sinai
desert, while Israel demanded a
pledge of peace from the Egyptians.
As neither side was willing to com-
ply with the demands of the other,
Kissinger's attempts to force peace
were unsuccessful. The negotiations,
for which he flew so busily back and
forth between Jerusalem and Cairo,
have been at an effective standstill
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Barb Cornell, Mary Harris, Jo
Marcotty, Cheryl Pilate, D a v i d
Whiting
Editorial Page: Paul Haskins, Debra
Hurwitz
Arts Page: David Weinberg
Photo Technician: Pauline Lubens

for some time.
Perhaps now that Kissinger has re-
turned to Washington and abandoned
his shuttle diplomacy, the parties in-
volved can proceed to Geneva for a
full-scale peace conference, surely a
more realistic means of arriving at an
acceptable solution to the problem.
SHUTTLE DIPLOMACY IS not and
should not be seen as a viable
means of resolving political tangles.
It seems self-evident that a dispute
cannot be peacably reconciled when
a cold distance is maintained be-
tween the disputants.
In order to settle the dispute sat-
isfactorily, representatives from the
two nations must fact each other
across a negotiating table. It is not
sufficient for Kissinger to carry mes-
sages from Israel to Egypt; is a com-
promise is to be reached, Israel and
Egypt will have to learn to deal with
each other directly.
Hopefully, Geneva will provide the
place and a peace conference will
provide the opportunity for a direct
and peaceful confrontation between
these two nations. Such a confron-
tation could be the first step toward
a viable agreement.-

Washington, D.C. at the October 15 Mora-
torium. In 1970, he ran for the United
States Senate in Massachusetts and the
pro-Kennedy Boston Globe admitted,
"The young man Camejo draws a big
response from students at greater Boston
campuses who hear him, more than
Senator Edward Kennedy . . ." Although
there are ten to fifteen million U.S. citi-
zens of Latin American descent, Camejo
is the first Latino to run for President.
He is also the author of: "How to Make
a Revolution in the U.S."; "Liberalism,
Ultraleftism or Mass Action"; and sev-
eral pamphlets on Chile and other Latin

ment agencies have played in illegal
surveillance of private citizens. T h e
Socialist Workers Party has filed a class
action suit against the federal govern-
ment for such illegal acts. Jane Fonda's
attorney, Leonard Weinglass, defending
her in a similar suit, received a letter,
admitting that the C.I.A. had inter-
cepted and copied Fonda's correspond-
ence. Ironically enough, Weinglass had
to go to Washington, D.C. to obtain the
letters because the C.I.A. would not
forward them, concerned -- so they
said - with . . . the right of privacy of
the senders."

food stamps that could buy."
THINK ABOUT it.
Come hear Peter Camejo speak
Michigan Union in the Anderson
on March 28 at 8:00.

at the
Room

Deborah Mu/nick is an LSA senior
and a former in ember of the Young So-
cialist Alliance.

Privileged Pinkertons patrol populace

By LINDA SISKIND
Y)ID YOU know the person
working next to you cocid
be a con? Maybe not a city or
a state policeman, but a man
or woman, hired by yoir em-
ployer to check on anyhing
from morale to grand larceny.
Private security has become a
multi-billion dollar a year indus-
try. Other businesses may suf-
fer from economic woes, but se-
curity company earnings are
higher than ever.
Pinkerton's, for example -
the nation's oldest and largest
private security agency -- wul
show a "sizeable increase' over
last year's earnings. Pinkerton
made $176 million in 19/3 - 500
per cent more than a dozen
years ago.
No longer just a meal ticket
for the sleepynigilt watchman,
security today means sophisii-
cated alarm systems, closed cir-
cuit TV, baggage X-rays a n d
computers. But people - watch-
men, armed guards and under-
cover agents, - are still at the
center of the industry, and in
ever increasing numbers.
RENT-A-COPS, as they a r e
sometimesmcalled, outnumber
police in most cities across the
country. In New York C i t y,
for example, there aye three
"privates" for every cop, with
the ratio going up to 20 to 1
in the Wall Street area.
You can see priva'e cops at
stores, offices, banks, h lipital ,
sporting events, rk concerts,
airports, hotels, shopping cernt-
ers and universities.
You can't see them on assern-
bly lines and in the offices of
major corporations bu} they are
there, too.
The private sec'ie'ty compan-

ruptions. Isn't that enough :>f
an indicator of why businesses
want protection?"
BOMBINGS AND hijackings
are not the only cause of corpor-
ate anxiety. At one ind:wtrial Fe-
curity conference, Guardsmark
(sixth largest) warned of t h e
dangers from wild-at strikes
and civil rights demonstrations.
And Pinkerton asked the gain-
ered executives; "how much do
you really know a ut the peo-
ple you hire?"
Most recently, securny ager-
cies are seeking 'o capitalize
from worries over a tight econ-
omy. A Burns ad :n the Wall
Street Journal warns "A tough
economy means tight profit
margins, problems witn person-
nel and inventories. It also
means greater risk cf theft,
vandalism, spying and sabo-
tage."
Guardsmark is even more
blunt. Under the heading "Who's
4.......;':Emm Sa
You can see private
cops at stores, offices,
banks, hospitals, sport-
ing events, rock con-
certs, airports, hotels,
shopping centers, a n d
universities.
ir?'.ir : ?' : r:::=: i :::: :: ">c:,: .. r ..:: :: :::2:r. . ......
stealing from you?" it tells po-
tential customers "if you have
100 people on your payroll, the
odds are strong that 10 or more
are stealing."
OTHER INDUSTRY and law
enforcement personnol y
there is no way of knowing the

ness before the reforms that
are necessary be;ome effec-
tive," one executive told a sem-
inar.
-As a result, busineiss has come
to rely more an I more on pri-
vate enforcement.
IN CALIFORNIA, for exalr-
ple, the private cop is protect-
ed by law from supplying in-
formation to anyone his em-
ployer doesn't want :o get it
So the private con's role in-
side a workplace remain: a s.-
cret known only by his boss at
the security agency and his
boss's client. Every so often,
though, these activx.is see the
light of day - as the subject of
labor arbitration or a lawsuit.
Many companies handle work-
place crime out of court. An
employer will press charges
only to set an example or to re-
cover a large amount of money.
More often, an employee is pen-
alized or fired simply as a result
of an investigation.
In one precendent-setting case,
three California men were fired
from a supermarket after put-
ting sugar in the gas tank cf a
supervisor's car. A Pinkerton
agent had tricked them into con-
fessing by telling them he had
pictures incriminating them,
when in fact he did not. These
procedures came out when the
union representing the men ask-
ed for labor arbitration. The
union argued the men were en-
titled to the same rights as any-
one suspected of criminal activ-
ity.
NOT SO, said the employer.
This was a simple case of in-
subordination and constitution-
al protections do not apply. The
arbiter found in favor of the
employer.
In another case involving Tir-

a client's property, it is not re-
quired to protect the client's
employees.
As the sugar in the tank case
shows, private security agents
enjoy more freedom of move-
ment than public law enforce-
ment personnel. Th Ws because
the law does not dis'inguisa be-
tween private cops and private
citizens -- and in many ways,
citizens suspected of a crime are
only protected from agents of
the state, not from each other.
AS A RESULT, a privat: cop
can introduce more incriminat-

name is free, but for two or for
a change in the orignal, it costs
ten dollars,
INSURANCE adjusters, re-
possessors, privare detectives
and all kinds of security agents
are lumped into one category.
California's licens} ig law, like
most state's, requires no train-
ing. And "in-ho-is e ' security
agents working di.-ectly for a
company, hospital, stadium, etc.
are not regulated at all.
So far, security comp;Qnies
and their clients have taken re-

In one precedent-setting case, three California
men were fired after putting sugar in the gas
tank of a supervisor's car. A Pinkerton agent
had tricked them into confessing by telling
them he had pictures incriminating them, when
in fact lie (lid not.
vvKr i . ;t: i"t: 4 i.. {... . . ..,:a:, :. .;": :i:.;":.{orf;rg".{<-r.K': :""Cn"i.yY'{r '

ing evidence in a court of law.
He can introduce a confession
he obtained without warning the
suspect of his rigis to silence
and to an attorney. And he can
introduce physical evidence he
has taken or stolen from a su-
spect, while public off cials are
prohibited from doing this by
the Constitution.
The private detect:vc may be
sued for invasion of privacy or
trespassing, but the evidence he
has gathered will stand up in
court whatever his method,.
There are few legal lmnta-
tions on a private cops' powers.
The principle restriction on the
activities of private cops is sim-
ply the setting of a bond re-
iuirement to insure them from
lawsuits.
In California, for example, a

sponsibility for the agents' ac-
tions. But as private cops take
on more of the stree patrolling,
building protection and under-
cover work that public cops
would be doing, :t becomes
more likely that ae states will
have to get involved.
The Supreme Court has ruled
that when a state permits a
private business to do the same
things as a municipal corpora-
tion, the public activities of that
business become a matter of
state concern. If this applies to
the private security business,
the states may have a lot of
cops on their hands vwham they
know little or nothing about.
UNTIL THE li ies of respon-
sibility are drawn more strongly

'

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