'i y 1;e fAir4an Dail Eighty-three years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan 1 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 News Phone: 764-0552 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1973 An unwarranted crackdown WITH THE ARREST of several persons on charges of illegally posting hand- bills, the police have added yet another offense to the ever-growing list of vic- timless crimes they have seen fit to crack down on. The harsher policies were first demon- strated in the police bust of the sparsely attended "marijuana melee" in late Au- gust. Following that butt Police Chief Walter Krasny and Mayor James Steph- enson issued thinly-veiled' threats of large-scale drug arrests at the Blues and Jazz Festival. Fortunately those arrests never materialized. Bicycles were the next target of the men in blue. Illegally parked bikes as well as those committing the heinous act of travelling the wrong way down a one-way street were issued traffic tickets. AFTER EACH wave of arrests, Krasny has denied that his department has changed its enforcement policy. The chief's comments not withstanding, the people of Ann Arbor, particularly stu- dents, can feel the heat. Just why the department has decided to waste its manpower on these harmless violations is unclear. Quite possibly the budget squeeze at City Hall has put addi- tional pressure on the police to generate more revenue. And what better way of raising reve- nue than imposing a series of fines that will discriminate heavily against the stu- dent community. Taxing one's enemies is of course better politics than taxing ones friends. WHATEVER the motivation, the change in police priorities is a reprehensible development. Police would do well to spend their valuable time trying to stem the rising tide of serious crimes rather than chasing errant cyclists. With their concentration on victimless crime enforcement, the Republican pow- ers that run this city have added a hollow ring to the cries of law and order that brought them to power. Budget crisis must be faced CITY HALL officials have finally rea- lized Ann Arbor is in the midst of a financial crisis which will rock that building to its very foundation. Over the past several years, the offic- ials looked the other way as the city op- erated at a deficit, but now the debt has hit the $1 million mark and is simply too large to ignore any longer. Some indications that the city budget was very ill have surfaced recently. The Republicans made "fiscal responsibility" a campaign issue last April, yet have not offered concrete solutions. Perhaps, though, nobody knew just how grave the fiscal condition actually is un- til last Monday when the administration presented City Council with a report warning of the distinct possibility of "payless paydays" for municipal em- ployes come next April. WHILE CITY Administrator Murray urged action aimed at alleviating the mess he inherited a month ago when he took over the city's top post, the council- looked for somebody to blame. The vari- ous council members took turns blaming the other political parties for the prob- lem or accusing the administration of lying about budget information. Admittedly, council probably has not been adequately informed on the city's financial status. Furthermore, although the reasons and responsibilities for the budget condition ought to be determined, this should not be done at the expense TODAY'S STAFF: of concrete solutions to the problem. Looking back and finding a scapegoat will not pay city workers next spring. COUNCIL members talked tough about demanding more accountability and a closer watch on all future expenditures. Fine. That will keep the situation from getting worse. However, a definitive pro- gram to reduce the debt is needed imme- diately and is already long overdue. Under state and city law, Ann Arbor cannot operate in the red. When the pres- ent budget was, drawn up, the Michigan Municipal Finance commission mandat- ed more money be ear-marked for debt reduction. Moreover the state could, if it so chose, step in and completely design future city budgets in an effort to im- prove the fiscal outlook. Such a possibility seems extremely re- pulsive, but even more upsetting is the thought that council with its conserva- tive majority will set policy on solving the money crisis. OBVIOUSLY, personnel cutbacks and consequently a reduction in city services must be expected. Unfortunately, the Republicans will probably starting trimming social services such as drug help programs, low income housing, and the Human Rights Department charged with enforcing local anti-discrimination ordinances. Cuts could better be made in the police and refuse collection departments. The Republicans, however, hold law and order and superior garbage pick-up dear to their hearts. As a result, the police and refuse departments will in all likelihood continue to prosper while social programs get the axe. Ultimately, whatever specific debt re- duction proposals are instituted they should reflect the city's best interest _ not partisan political concerns. Chilce By CHARLES ROONEY "I am ready to resist . even at the cost of my life . as a lesson in the ignominious history of those who have strength but not reason." - Salvador Allende Gossens, Pre- sident of Chile, Sept. 11, 1973. A FEW minutes after he spoke these words, Allende did in- deed pay with his own life. His death marked the end of an epoch, the end of any belief that social- ism can be built within the belly of the monster without armed struggle. Allende believed deeply that a different road to power than that of Cuba was possible in Chile. He was wrong. In one respect his assassination had a meaning similar to the as- sassination of Martin L u t h e r King. Now, as then, those who con- tend that fundamental change is possible without physical conflict are faced with a severe contradic- tion to their belief. Those whose power is threatened by change are willing to respond with less than total violence as long as that is suf- ficient to protect their privilege. When it' ceases to be sufficient, more drastic action is inevitably taken. HOWEVER, we must be clear that the revolution in Chile is not over, that resistance has not stop- ped. Allende was a key person, to be sure, but not an irreplaceable one. Indeed, he may have been ir- replaceable to the left if electoral politics were to be the forum in which the next period' of struggle was to be joined. Allende is a magnetic figure at this point and probably the only one who could have united the factions of the left enough to win a presidential elec- tion. However, electoral politics will not be the forum in the coming per- iod. The generals, after all, stag- ed the takeover precisely because the class interests they represent had been betrayed by popular elec- tions. They are not likely to make the same "mistake" again. Thus the reports now coming out of Chile indicate that the generals plan and have begun total liquidation of left leadership; party leaders, intel- lectuals, student leaders. SINCE THE challenge of the next period will be primarily to devel- op and begin to implement a stra- tegy, certainly including armed struggle as a major component, Al- lende probably would have been more a symbolic figure in an v case. And that function he fulfills by his death as much as by his living. His very death presents a living contradiction to those who suggest in the future that revolu- tion should depend on the forms of the old order for change. Several myths now being created by the establishment press's ana- lysis of Chile need to be answered. This can be done by responding to several key questions/ charges from that source: 1) Did Allende go "too fast," thus losing the support he would have otherwise had? (The implication here is that his Popu- lar Unity (UP) Coalition did not in fact have popular support.) 2) What were/are the principal con- tradictions resulting from t h e movement toward socialism: That is, which classes were benefitting and which were losing? 3) What forces were behind the coup? DID ALLENDE GO TOO FAST? Largely in response to the Viet- namese war, the position of the "liberal" press in this country has in recent years changed from anti- communism to one of saying "peo- ple should be able to choose any kind of government they wantas long as they do it democratically." (This has never been the real pol- icy of the U.S. government, of course.) But we soon saw that the liberal media were still able to reject a constitutionally elected revolution- ary'government in Chile by discov- ering that that government had "lost the support of the people. ' And they have an explanation for this loss of support: The govern- Chilean National Police round up suspected snipers after Allende's overthrow. Snipers and armed workers have protested the coup. ment wasn't willing to compromise and it pushed socialism by uncon- stitutional means; consequently, it lost the support of the middle class (presumably a unified group, pre- sumably the only force opposed to the UP, presumably the people that really matter in Chile.) THE FACTS do not support any of this analysis. The UP not only had not lost popular support, but had demonstrably gained consid- erable strength recently. Allende was elected with a plur- ality of 36.3 per cent in 1970. In the congressional elections of March 1973, after many months of severe strife, shortages and long lines, rapid inflation, etc., the UP gained about seven per cent more of the popular vote (43 per cent), ple would just not have allowed that to continue. The Congress, con- trolled by the opposition, voted un- animously to nationalize the mines. THE PROBLEM, therefore, was not the pace of the change but the fact of the change of control- as is seen from the attempt to overthrow Allende by ITT after his election but before he was even in office. The UP did move quickly on agrarian reform, taking over the very largest farms and re-distribut- ing the land within two years. In the industrial sector, the govern- ment took over management of some of the biggest industries, such as textile mills, because they were underproducing at a time when redistribution of income had giv- "The myth propagated by U.S. news reports from Chile has been that the "middle class" represents the majority, of a very large number of Chileans." an unprecedented upsurge in off- year elections, and totally unexpect- ed in view of the difficulties fac- ed by the government. A public opinion poll in July, 1973, in Santiago, showed Allende with the support of '51 per cent of the eligible voters. In Santiago in July, 1973, over 400,000 workers publicly demonstrated in support of the government. (Metropolitan Santiago has roughly the popula- tion of metropolitan Detroit - one wonders how the press would ex- plain a rally of that size in De- troit for Richard Nixon or Hubert Humphrey!) A RELATED charge about going too fast is that the government should not have nationalized the multi-national corporations like the Kennecott and Anaconda copper companies, ITT, and so forth, for tactical reasons, but simply taxed them and "controlled" them. To do that would have been to abandon any serious attempt to take control of the Chilean econ- omy. Moreover, it would be a pipedream to believe that the small Chilean government could control what the powerful U.S. government cannot. For example, Kennecott expat- riated from Chile an average pro- fit of 52 per cent on investment per year from 1955 to 1970, in spite of a Chilean law that prohibited ex- patriation of more than 12 per cent per year. The profit rate was 212 per cent the year before Al- lende took office. The Chilean peo- Strength-not reason A News: Penny Blank, Charlie Gene Robinson, David Stoll Editorial Page: Marnie Heyn, Schiller, Eric Schoch Arts Page: Diane Levick Photo Technician: Steve Kagan, Coleman, Zachary en working people considerably more buying power than ever be- fore and demand was very high. This was legal under Chilean sta- tutes. The government won control of the banking system by purchasing stocksokthat the ruling class was suddenly confronted with the fait accompli that their key control over the economy had been lost. This tool was entirely legal. Like- wise, multi-national corporations were always reimbursed forina- tionalized property under Chilean law. IN OTHER important areas, the government needed to move quick- ly but could not, and this failure to win control of significant sectors of the economy was disastrous. A prime example was the transporta- tion network. The vast majority of goods in Chile are transported by truck. Yet over 70 per cent of that net- work was in private hands, and these owners were able to strangle the economy by strike or by diver- s ion of goods, especially food,vbe- fore they reached the markets. Indeed, the truckowners exercis- ed this power with the publicly- avowed intention of overthrowing the legitimately-elected govern- ment (i.e., sedition). Yet J o h n Knight of Knight Newspapers in- sisted that the reason for Allen- de's overthrow was his unwilling- ness to compromise. In fact, Allende's fatal weakness was his inability, due to the econ- omic boycott from the U.S. and the internalcopposition of the con- gress and courts, to effectively take control of the key apparatus of the economic system. Thus a terrible black market in goods was created, hoarding and profiteering by the rich was rampant, 'and chaos was the outcome. THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN CHILE Any serious analysis of w h a t happened in Chile has to be ex- plained in terms of the fundament- al conflict between the interests of the working class and the inter- ests of the upper class and the petty bourgeoisie. The myth pro- pagated by U.S. news reports from Chile has been that the "middle class" represents the majority, or a very large number of Chileans. By implication readers are led to conclude that the real conflict of interests was between this "mid- dle class" and the working class. In fact, there is no "middle class" in Chile that is any kind of a unified entity. Those w h o would correspond to what in the versity and editor of The Chilean Road to Socialism: agricultural workers (25 per cent); industrial workers and miners (20 per cent); marginal workers (20-25 per cent); white collar workers (minor bur- eaucrats, clerks, etc., 20-25 per cent); and upper class and upper- middle class (less than 15 per cent). It is the latter two, groups that have formed the implacable op- position to the movement toward, socialism, so that at most this opposition amounts to 35 per cent. In fact, sectors within the white collar category have supported the government, and sectors of +he working class have supported the Christian Democrat Party (but not a reversion to the capitalist mod- el.) The visible sectors of the opposi- tion have come from the w h i t e. collar workers and the petty bour- geoisie (truck-owners, small shop- owners and businessmen, doctors, lawyers, etc.). These groups saw a threat in the movement toward socialism to their favored position. But they, are not the economic heart of the opposition. Rather, that is the very small traditional ruling class of Chile composed of a few hundred fam- ilies, who have controlled bank- ing, land, any major industry, newspapers (e.g., El Mercurio, one of two Santiago newspapers per- mitted by the new regime, is own- ed by the Edwards family, which has important ties with the Coca Cola Co.) It is this class above all that was being hurt by t h e measure and direction of Allende's government. It is this class, combined with the multi-national corporations and the CIA that almost certainly bank- rolled the crippling strike of last October (Stage I of the plan to overthrow Allende) which destroy- ed the agricultural sector and in turn led to the shortages and re- cent economic chaos, and t h i s year's strike as well. It is this class that comprises the military elite, which by State De- partment admission, directly com- municated its coup plan to U.S. officials several days before it hap- pened. It is this class that recog- nized the writing on the election wall, and it moved ito take control before the 1976 elections when the. UP may well have takenmajority control and dealt the death-blow to traditional upper class hege- mony. And it is this class that repre- sents the interests of the U.S. cor- porations in Chile. Let us have no doubt that the U.S. government had close ties to events of recent months in Chile. FORCES BEHIND THE COUP? At this writing very little is knowntabout the individuals direct- ing the coup. But inferences are not difficult. They represent t h e most fascist elements of the mili- tary: Complete repression and to- tal violence directed against work- ers is evidenced by reports of Air Force strafing of the poblaciones (ghettos) and factories, the report- edly enormous number of casual- ties (15,000-20,000 deaths), the ex- ecution of leadership such as Jacques Chonchol, Clodimiro Al- meyda, Mara Harnecker, and Al- lende himself, and the threat to "eradicate Marxism." An equally important index, pro- bably more important in terms of long-term consequences, is the move to kill or send back to cer- tain death, more than 10,000 exiles from the brutal repression in Bra- zil, Bolivia, and Uruguay, who were given refuge in Chile under Allende. This is a counter-revolu- tion bent on destroying not only the revolution in Chile, but in all Latin America. The direct col- laboration of the Bolivian and Bra- zilian governments would be evi- dence enough that this will be the severest possible repression. WHAT TO DO? Spend two dollars today to send a telegram to either Sen. F u 1- bright (D-Ark.) of the Senate Foreign Relations committee or your senator, demanding: 1) no recognition of the military govern- ment, 2) immediate cut-off of all military assistance to same; and 3) maximum pressure on the dic- tatorship to grant free passage of foreign exiles to a country of re- fuge (probably Argentina or Mex- ico, possibly Peru.) Or a tele- gram to one of those embassies in Washington asking for refuge for these political exiles. Longer-range financial and other aid will be needed to aid the strug- gle, which will be protracted. Re- late to the organizing work around this issue being done on campus. Talk with friends about the issue. The Archdiocesan Commission on World Justice and Peace (Detroit: 963-3680) as well as others will have speakers, slide shows and literature available. The workers of Chile have de- veloped ahigh state of conscious- ness in the last seventy years of struggle. Their revolution is n o t over. Charles Rooney, a member of the Conunission on World Justice and Peace of the Catholic Archdiocese in Detroit, is a Ph. D. candidate at /he University and a lecturer at the University of Detroit. He returned in July from seven weeks in Chile and Brazil studying politics and conducting interviews. The Editorial Page of The Michigan Daily is open to any- one who w is he's to submit articles. Generally speaking, all articles should be less than 1,000 words. I J ice President and Mrs.p..,A9wew coria/y invile yoe. Ia r home /fordinner on a date w~iC4 is convenieni A ryou E g I I - U ~ mmmmmmmmq /71'!_ ff f u J R (iePrt~idenf I IL 0"4 eA;0.4 4AMO"* 1 A I I ~-