e rigan 3aint
Eighty-three years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan

HRP: Alive and growing in Ann Arbor

420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104

News Phone: 764-0552


WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1973

Missing the point on veto

SOMETIME THIS week Congress will
vote to sustain or override President
Nixon's veto of the war powers bill. Due
to flagrant abuses of warmaking powers
by past and present Presidents, this news-
paper believes the veto should be over-
ridden.
However, a few of the more liberal
representatives, notably Bella Abzug (D-
N.Y.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.), have
taken a principled position with which
we cannot agree.
The war powers bill would limit the
time a president could commit American
troops to a foreign conflict without the
approval of Congress to 60 days. After
that time only the approval of both
houses of Congress would permit con-
tinued American troop commitment.
REPS. CONYERS and Abzug have pub-
licly stated their intent to vote to
sustain the Nixon veto on the grounds
that the bill gives the President power he
presently does not possess.
While this position is well founded in
the Constitution, it seems to ignore the
harsh realities of Presidential power in
the nation today. The fact that the Con-
stitution gives the power to declare war?
solely to Congress has not prevented
American Presidents from committing in-
numerable acts of military intervention
in this century.

The examples of American involve-
ment in Korea and Indochina demon-
strate that "Presidential" wars can be
tortuously long. The war powers bill is
designed to deny the President the power
to sustain such long-term involvement.
UNDOUBTEDLY the war powers bill has
significant faults. It would not cur-
tail the kind of quick military action
which the United States used so success-
fully to crush leftists in the Dominican
Republic in 1965.
Nor would the bill bring an end to the
clandestine warfare carried out by the
CIA in Laos and Cuba.
Surely Congressional action is needed
to control these other forms of American
military intervention.
But, with the memory of American ar-
mies fighting indefinitely in Indochina
clearly in mind, a vote to override Nixon's
veto of the war powers bill represents an
important first step in Congressional ef-
forts to regain the war making power
usurped by the executive branch of gov-
ernment.
The vote on the veto may well be ex-
tremely close. We urge everyone to send
letters and telegrams to their Represent-
atives and Senators urging them to over-
ride Nixon's veto of this urgent legisla-
tion.

By NANCY WECHSLER ter am
IF THE HUMAN Rights Party - RE
is as dead as The Daily's Chris your tir
Parks would have us believe, then CIL (t
for the last year and a half I must bankers
have just thought I was going to be on c
HRP meetings, HRP demonstra- LAR P
tions and discussions. Our office on pot). R
William St. too must have been a majo
a figment of my imagination. All paign.1
the people I talk to on the streets support
or in Ann Arbor's meeting places it the D
must also be under the same illus- time tr
ion that they are still HR mem- takingt
bers. Could so many peopd be so the issu
wrong as to think HRP still exists
and is growing? After all, The DeFi rst
Michigan Daily says HRP is just e
about dead, and we all believe posin
what we read! lice de
the cone
admitte
R~y l with th
Ordina
with su
proper
crimina
Krasny
ON A
HRP involve
cmmu
To say
the par
means1
had no
HRP and radicalism is anything with th
but dead. As a party and as in- mens n
dividuals we are involved in the are ex
lettuce and grape boycotts, the for real
Chilean support coalition, the tui- - grou
tion strike, the Teachin Fellows ficant p
union, the Impeach Nixon drive, Impli
GAWK, and GLF. In the past we feeling
have always wanted to be more its con
involved in non-electoral activity, should
and now we are. and get
forming
AS A PARTY we are preparing us to d
an anti-rape legislation packet for ofdthe 1
the city council to consider. We idea pe
have been working on this with But it
the Womens Crisis Center, and will oc
anti-assault squad for months. environ
HRP is working on collecting For mo:
signatures to put three major char- flict wit
.Farah wo
By ALEXANDRA BECKETT
-ARAH PANTS is one of the largest man-
ufacturers of men's pants in this coun-
try, with nine plants in Texas and New
Mexico, one each in Belgium, Hong Kong,
and Sweden, and plans to establish one
in Australia.
On May 9, 1972, after several attempts
on the part of the Amalgamated Clothing
Workers of America at organizing a union,
workers at an El Paso plant began walk-
ing out. The company had harassed and in-
timidated them, discharging workers for
union activity, and telling them that if they
insisted on having a union the company
would close all the plants and put them
out of a job. Today there are 3500 Farah
workers on strike, 2000 in El Paso and
550 in San Antonio alone, receiving a meag-
er strike benefit of $15.00 a week.
The fact that 94-98 per cent of Farah
workers are Chicanos, 85 per cent of them
Chicano women, reaffirms that the Chicanas
and Chicanos of the Southwest are among
the most exploited segment of the Amer-
ican working class. One of their grievances
is that in spite of the ethnic make-up
of the work force there is not a single Chi-
cana or Chicano supervisor.
THE PAY RATE is $1.70 an hour, with a
raise to $2.20 an hour after twenty years of
service. No one at Farah makes $2.20 an
hour. Because all jobs pay the same, there
is no such thing as job advancement. Nei-
ther is there job security; if women take
too long in the bathroom, refuse to go out
with a supervisor, talk on the production
line, or fail to meet' the ever-rising quota
for their particular job, they are liable to
be fired.
There is no sick pay at Farah, no ma-
ternity benefit (all seniority is lost after a
maternity leave), and only one person has

endments on April's ballot
NT CONTROL (landlords,
me is up), PAY FOR COUN-
o allow people other than
s, lawyers and professors to
ouncil) and the FIVE DOL-
EOT FINE (control rent, not
tent Control is sure to be
r issue in the spring cam-
HRP is the only party to
Rent Control. Rumor has
)emocrats are working over-
ying to find a way to skirt
a stand by trying to keep
e off the ballot completely.
Ward councilman J e r r y
ieck and myself have been
g the practices ofathe po-
partment to the scrutiny of
mmunity. Chief Krasny has
d publicly he is unfamiliar
ie cities own Human Rights
nce. He has referred to gays
ch words as inmoral, im-
behaviour, improper dress,
l elements. HRP demands
be fired.
kND OFF council HRP is
d with more issues -i n d
nity groups than in the past.
there is no enthusiasm for
rty among its constituency
to me that Mr. Parks has
contact recently (if ever)
e gay community, the wo-
movement, or renters (who
cited about the prospects
J rent controls in this cty)
ps which make up a signi-
ortion of our city.
cit in Parks' article is the
that HRP is too radi:a! for
stituency, that the p a r t y
stop its radical rhetoric
down to the business of -e-
Ann Arbor. He calls on
o this 'o seeking the heip
Universi'v brain powe° and
-ople.
is naive to believe cIange
cur because some brilharnt
rmentalist has a goof idea.
st 'good ideas' run into con-
h the desires of busincss to

make more profit. And profit is
what capitalis n is about.
THE CIVIL RIGHTS legisation
of the 60's did not come as a result
of a law professor who thought it
was time for blacks to have some
rights. It was a product of d-ron-
strations and street riots. Impeach-

for childcare, THRP woul Invu: have
been able to pressure the c .uncil
to allocate $200 000 for child care.
Had gays not been organ::ed IRP
would not hav- been a~'1e t,} get
amendments to the Human Rights
Ordinance passed.
I welcome th help, advice, and
suggestions from expert; and idea

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"It is naive to believe change will occur because
some brilliant environmentalist has a good idea.
For most 'good ideas' run into conflict with the
desire of business to make more profit."
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ment proceedings are not the re-
sult of our hc'orable congresspeo-
ple feeling in their hearts that Nix-
on must go . . . impeachment is a
reaction to mass public pres sure.
In fact all significant chiange
comes about through colective ac-
tion - not through the -izes of in-
dividuals. HRP is fighting for
real change. It hopes to further
mass movements as they develop.
It hopes to eventually be a part of
a national left wing parjy wzich
can challenge the Demo'ratic par-
ty and the philosophy of lesser
evilism it espouses. Th_ Democra-
tic and Republican party's both
support capitalism, both support
American intervention abroad to
protect American busiae-js, both
support repressive measures at
home.
I WAS NOT elected to run the
city for you. I wias elect ad . ra se
political issues, expose ypocrascy,
and lies, and along with all of you
push for reforms and change. One
voice will not be heard, many
voices -will be. Had thte womens
movement not raised tne demand

people. Our rent control amend-
ment would not have bean written
without such help. But ihave nio -
lusions as to the amoun, of change
we as individuals can bring about.
As proof of HRP's demiise Mr.
Parks reminds us of the party's
failure to elect anyone ::, office in
the November 1972 and April 19;3
elections. But since whea is vic-
tory for the left measi-ed o n 1 y
by our ability to elect people to
office?
IN NOVEMBER HRP took a
stand critical of the Democratic
Party's nominee George McGov-
ern. It was an unpopular stand in
a town which went solidly for Mc-
Govern, and it probablh lost us
some votes. But as we all watched
McGovern run to the right during
and after his campaign, a', we
watched his gutlessness en abor-
tion, drugs, gay rights, his drop-
ping of tax reform and defense
budget cuts, his disavjw il of the
reform rules, and his apparen.
readiness to lead the charge
against the Indians at Wounded
Knee . . . we can safe'y say that

McGovern deserved some critic-
ism from the left.
But even in that campaign HRP
got over 20 per cent of the city
wide vote. Statewide we received
over 20,000 votes for our Senate
Candidate Barbara Haipert. We
became the first leftist party to
receive enough votes to stay on the
ballot.
Then came last Spring's city
council elections. Once again The
Daily is astute in pointing out that
we won -no seats. But ThA Daily
does not point ot that this was the
first time leftists ran against
young, liberal looking Ri sound-
ing Democrats, many of whom
were women.
THE DEMS chose c ntidates it
thought cold capture HRP's con-
stit'ency. Up against a Democra-
tic left liberal women, HRP, Frank
Schoichet lost by only 165 votes.
Up against a Democratic black lib-
eral incumbent HRP's Andrei Jos-
eph lost by only 500 vo'es in a
ward redrawn to be 0 votes
weaker for us than in 197.
The Democrats want d to wipe
us off the man, but they only suc-
ceeded in barely beating us. We
picked up, more non-student sup-
port in that election than in past
campaigns - .i key to oor future
as a party.
As radical activity in Ann Arbor
and around the country grows; as
discontent and di~illusionrten, with
our system of government, o u r
President, and, our Congress
grows; as frustration over the
economy grows: - the left and
third parties are bound to grow.
Change will not come :m!ernight,
but it will corn And it will come
as a result of hundreds of thous-
ands of workers, studems, wonien,
gays, and mino-it'es organizing to-
gether and demanding their right.
Nancy Wechsler is a Iuman
Rights Party councilwotman from
the Second Ward.

C
I.

tl

orkers wage struggle

In need of a 'better idea'

THE APPARENT insensitivity of the
Ford Motor Co. to safety conditions
within its plants literally blew up into its
face yesterday when twelve workers were
injured in 'a large explosion in its Michi-
gan Casting Center in Flat Rock.
Luckily the injuries to the workers were
minor, but the severity of the blast,.
which buckled heavy steel beams and
blew over a concrete wall, could just have
easily resulted in more serious casulties.
Company officials have laid the blame
on "human error," but United Auto Work-
er (UAW) officials have argued that the
explosion was just one of a series of safe-
ty hazards that have plagued the plant.
Previous to yesterday's explosion 176
workers have been burned by so-called
Business Staff
:ILL BLACKFORD
Business Manager
RAY CATALINO................Operations Manager
SHERRY CASTLE..............Advertising Manager
SANDY FIENBERG.................Finance Manager
DAVE BURLESON ....... ............. Sales manager
DEPT. MGRS.: Steve LeMire, Jane Dunning, Paula
Schwach
ASSOC. MGRS.: Joan Ades, Chantal Bancilhon, Linda'
Ross, Mark Sanc-ainte, S u a n n e Tiberio, Kevin
Trimmer
ASST. MGRS.: Marlene Katz, Bill Nealon
STAFF: Sue DeSmet, Laurie Gross, Debbie Novess,
Carol Petok, Mimi Bar-on $
SALESPEOPLE: W e n d I Pohs, Tom Kettinger, Eric
Phillips, P e t e r Anders, R o b e r t Fischer, Paula
Schwach, Jack Mazzara, John Anderson
41
f:*
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Al
4,
'.~- Ua

"flame-outs" or "puff-outs" in which
flames shooting out from doors in fur-
naces have injured those working near-
by. To avoid burns workers have often
been forced to make dangerous leaps to
safety.
THE IRONY OF the situation is that the
$200 million two year-old plant is
considered to be one of the most modern
of its kind in the world. This situation on-
ly dramatizes the fact that despite man-
agement rhetoric, working conditions in
industrial plants are often unsafe, even
in new, modern facilities.
The UAW has threatened to shut down
the casting plant and is requesting an in-
vestigation by the federal Occupation
Safety and Health Administration. It is
unreasonable to expect people to work in
unsafe conditions, and considering Ford's
lack of attention to problems at the
Michigan Casting plant, a walkout is cer-
tainly justified.
Historically, industrial management
has been slow to concern itself with safe-
ty. In this instance it is apparent that it
again must be forced by the government
to act.
TODAY'S STAFF:

retired from a Farah plant in its fifty-
three year existence, entitling her 'o $20.00
a month from Farah. Farah workers are
allowed one two-week vacation at Christmas
time and after eleven years are allowed an
additional week in the summer.
Workers are strongly encouraged to par-
ticipate in the no-interest savings plan.
Willie Farah, the president of the company,
banks the money and pockets the interest.
The averge yearly earning of El Paso

its stocks, from a high of 491 in 1972 to
the low 7's in June of 1973, in spite of the
fact that Farah went from a 6 million dol-
lar profit in the fiscal year of 1971 to
a reported tax loss of 8.3 million for the
fiscal year of 1972, in spite of the fact that
the first three months of 1973 brought
a 9.1 million dollar drop in sales compared
to the same period last year, Willie Farah
expresses the sentiment that "The union
did us a favor by cleaning house, getting

"The fact that 94-98 per cent of Farah workers are Chicano,
85 per cent of them Chicano women, reaffirms that the Chi-
canas and Chicanos of the Southwest are among the most
exploited segment of the American working class."
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for union
stay out and win their fight. They under-
stand that those who still work for Farah,
the so-called "happies", are working for
financial reasons and nothing else., (And
now the work week at the El Paso plants
has been cut to three days because of a
sharp drop in the demand for Farah Pants.)
THE FARAH Distress Fund is in ser-
ious need of money. Contributions of mon-
ey, clothing, and food, as well as messages,
can be sent to Farah Distress Fund, Box
998, El Paso, Texas, 77941. You can join the
Dollar a Month Club of the Farah strike
Support Committee and send your dollar
to them, c/o the Office of the Chicano Ad-
vocate, 326 Michigan Union, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, 48104.
The Farah Strik Support Committee
meets Sundays, 7:30, in the Greene Lounge
of East Quad and all are welcome. We
would be glad to send a speaker to a meet-
ing -of your local union or organization.
In Ann Arbor, Farah Pants are sold at
Checkmate, Marty's, Ann Arbor Clothing,
Pacemakers, and Fiegel's. These stores
have been contacted and an ttempt made
to convince them to stop selling Farah
Pants. They have refused: If you support
the Farah strikers in their struggle, don't
shop at these stores. A picket line is plan-
ned at Fiegel's, 318 S. Main, near Williams,
for Wednesday, October 31, fr.m noon until
3 p.m. We need your presence to make
it effective.
The Farah strike is now in jt' 18th month.
Its success depends on a nationally organ-
ized boycott of Farah pants. We must force
Willie Farah into recognizing the union,
into giving workers a living wage, into
giving them their "dignidad."
Alexandra Beckett is a member of the
Farah Strike Support Committee of the At-
tica Brigade.

Farah workers is $3500, making them the
lowest paid clothing workers in El Paso,
where clothing workers rank among the
lowest paid industrial workers in the first
place.
WILLIE FARAH is a staunch believer in
the antiquated "patron" system of man-
agement. Strict discipline is maintained
within the plants through such divisive tac-
tics as requiring- workers to wear coded
tags to indicate what section they work in
and punishing those found in the wrong
area. It took a court order to make Farah
hire authorized Mexican aliens (those hold-
ing "green cards"), because, as he said,
"It is the worst form of treason for the
American businessman to use foreign la-
bor to the detriment of American labor.
In spite of the fact that Farah has suf-
fered a spectacular drop in the value of

the troublemakers out. With that filth gone,
the plant is more cohesive,"
THE SITUATION at Farah is another
symptom of the ever-accelerating trend of
manufacturers to move to the Southwest
where labor is cheap because unions are
virtually non-existent. El Paso now bids
fair to surpass New York City as the cen-
ter of this country's garment industry, with
20,000 clothing workers, only 2,000 of whom
are unionized. George Janzen, president
of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, con-
sidered with horror that he had heard that
Farh strikers were actually being paid
not to work, paid the fat sum of $15.00
a week.
The strikers .on the picket line have
been harassed by guard dogs. Two of them
were struck by cars, and picketers at the
Paisona plant were shot at from a passing
car. Still, the strikers are determined to

News: Charles Coleman,
Cindy Hill, Christopher
Robinson

Della DiPietro,
Parks, Eugene

Editorial Page: Eric Schoch, Chuck Wilbur
Arts Page: Diane Levick, Jeff Sorensen
Photo Technician: Terry McCarthy

i

To The

Letters: Questioning Armstrong cause

.
a;1 3

e Daily:.

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THE DAILY recently carried a
justification for the bombing of the
Army Math Research Center at
Madison, Wisconsin in which a
young physics graduate student,
Robert Fassnacht, was killed. For
many of us who have been active
in the anti-war movement for sev-
eral years, this act desecrated the
movement. We now find it further
desecrated by the curious defense
:)f the man who has claimed re-
sponsibility for the bombing. He
was, we are told, "motivated by
deep feelings of love .
We are assured that "all precau-
tions possible were taken in the
assault" on the AMRC but that in
spite of these good intentions, a
man was "inadvertently" killed.
Karl Armstrong, the man who ad-
mits planting the bomb, is "sor-
rowful" about what he no doubt
considers a regrettable accident.
We are asked to support him in his
trial for what is called ah"poliical
act" because he is "shouldering
the responsibility and the repres-
sion now."
The burden of the apology, of

the truth of these points but reject
them completely as justification
and defense for Armstrong's act.
We don't accept the accidental
nature of Fassnacht's death any-
more than we accept the accide t-
al death of countless civilians
through American bombing in Viet-
nam. Both are the thoroughly
foreseeable consequences of im-
moral and unjustified Picts. Arm-
strong's bombing of the' AMRC
and attendant murder of Robert
Fassnacht is, of course, only a
miniature of American horrors in
Vietnam. But the justification tak-
es on no added validity merely be-
cause the act involved is on a
smaller scale.
The October 18 issue of T h e
New York Review contained a
manifesto signed by a group of
fintellectuals identified with the
left and the anti-war movement.
The manifesto suggests some pr3-
mises which are well worth quoting
in this context. "There is no prob-
lem of ends and means, the means
being an integral part of the end.-.
Consequently, all means that are
not oriented in relation to the de-
sired ends should be firmly re-
_. ._ L. - _ w .r. Y .

napping, threats to hostages . . .
are not good or bad according to
which cause they defend. They are
all bad, whatever one may think
of the responsibilities or ultimate
objectives involved . . . Violence is
part of today's world and we have
no illusions that it can soon dis-
appear. But to recognize the role
of violence in history . . . does
not authorize us to excuse or jus-
tify it."
-William Gamson
Zelda Gamson
Oct. 25
To The Daily:
FRIDAY'S IMPEACHMENT ral-
ly on the Diag became an affront
to decency at the point that a
speaker used the gathering as a
means of "enlightening" us to the
'plight" of Karl Armstrong, a
murderer. He justified Armstrongs
action because it was done for
deeply held moral reasl)xs. This
type of talk was also used to ex-
cuse American involvement in Vie,-
nam: We were there to save peo-
ple from Communism, os:ensibly a

one who brings scorn on what
should be an honored position, just
as it cannot tolerate fanatlcs who
blow up those they disapprove of.
-Michael Silverman
Oct.- 26
Daily priority
To The Daily:
SUNDAY MORNING found me
with a miniscule Daily edition. T
don't mean just in number of
pages but also in content. rhere
was an apology on the front page
giving a shortage of printing pap-
er as an excuse Paradoxically, as
you turned to page two and three
of Sunday's paper, there, as bold
as the twin World Trade Buildings
in New York City, were two full
pages of advertisements blemish-
ed by two small articles that were
ashamadly concerned with the mid-
east crisis and Watergate. I don't
see the purpose in sacrificing the
quality and quantity )f the news
in order to maintain financial sup-
port. After all, is not the purpose
of the Daily to communicate news?
When I snicit a nan ur I have

to cancel my ubscirirtion if an
improvement is n,, attmpted.
-David Shulman, grnd
Oct. 28
EDITOR'S NOTE: The point raised in
this letter appears, at least on the
surface, to be a valid one. It is, of
course, the major responsibility of a
newspaper to provide its readers with
a comprehensive report on the Import-
ant events of the day. We feel that re-
sponsibility very keenly and have there-
fore been viewing with dismay verging
on despair the shrinkage of space for
editorial copy in The Daily. There is,
however, an imperative even more im-
portant than carrying a volume of news,
and that is survival.
Unlike most college papers, The Daily
is totally independent of University
support and relies solely on subscrip-
tions and advertising for revenue. As we
are a rather small operation, our profit
margin is dangerously thin. As things
stand we have sharply reduced solici-
tation of new advertising. To take the
drastic step of actually refusing ads
would mean operating at a loss and
running the risk of eventually losing
our cherished financial (and hence, edi-
torial) independence. We deeply regret
the cut-backs which necessity has forc-
ed upon us. We hope our readers will
understand our dilemma and bear with
us until this unfortunate situation re-
solves itself.)
F-- 1

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