POLITICS OF LSA

>.........................................................................

Reform and

the

need

for revolution

Confessions of a

By JONATHAN KLEIN
WE HAVE SEEN that the com-
pulsory education system in
this country rose in response to
the needs of the rising corporate
state. It developed as a means of
socializing and disciplining the
work force necessary for the new
industrial mode of production. Or-
der, respect for authority, and
humility were all required by the
new corporate order and these-
more than cognitive skills-were the
product of the schools. But this
was not the only way the school
helped stabilize the social order-
it legitimized it as well. The meri-
tocratic tradition - reward on the
basis of ability - has been a con-
stant. myth of American educa-
tion if not American society at
large. The Progressive "reforms"
of vocational tracking and "ob-
jective" educational testing solidi-
fied this tradition. If thechillren
of the poor failed, it was only be-
cause they were, objectively, less
intelligent. Occasional exceptions
of the Horatio Alger type were
not to the contrary - for every one
who made it to the top, ten stayed
down. Education became a lay-
ered set of tests through which
only the worthy (read rich) could
pass.
THE UNIVERSITY of Michigan
is at the top of a system of stra-

tification within higher education.
Mean income of families of stu-
dents who attend the U of M is
significantly higher than the na-
tional average. We have discussed
the class function of the junior
college-college - university hierar-
chy. Since the high prestige-salary
jobs in our society are apportioned
on the basis of educational creden-
tials ,the inequality is apparent.
Now, what about educational re-
form? We started out by complain-
ing that we've been knocking our
heads against a brick wall (the
University) for almost three years
now with little or no success. We
thought that if we sat on enough
committees, talked well enough,
and did enough good research that
we could beat the administrators
at their own game. In short, we
thought we could hustle them.
Right at the start we said that
this analysis is an attempt to un-
derstand the University's reaction
to attempted change. Now we are
ready to reach some tentative
conclusions, both from our experi-
ence and from the historical analy-
sis we have done.
WHEN REFORM measures were
threatening to the power structure
and the social relations of the Uni-
versity, they failed miserably. A
proposal for student/faculty parity
on the governing assembly of LSA

lost by about 100-4. Grading reform
,did only slightly better. Even aft-
er we tried to pack the meeting, it
still lost by about 221-45. And no
matter how much we plead our
protest, the faculty selection pro-
gress is still carried on behind
closed doors, away from students.
The publish or perish ethic re-
mains as entrenched as ever.
Other, less threatening, reform
appear successful. This can hap-
pen only when they are either (a)
totally non-threatening and easily
co-optable, or (b) a result of mass,
organized pressure.
THE BEST EXAMPLE of a co-
copted reform is the BAM (Black
Action Movement) demands. After
a ten day student strike in 1970,
the University administration com-
mitted itsel fto achieving a 10 per
cent black enrollment by Sep-
tember of 1973. That concession
was achieved, not by outtalking
the administration on a committee,
but by a well organized mass ac-
tion .By September of 1973 black
enrollment was only 7.3 per cent,
or more than 25 per cent short of
the goal. In fact, the total gain
had been only slightly over half of
the projected increase. Further-
more, the University made no
committment to and little pro-
gress in the recruitment of Chica-

nos, Native Americans, and other
oppressed minorities.
The University failed to live up
to its commitments because it was
under no pressure to do so. Those
responsible for the 1970 strike
failed to maintain a strong, ongo-
ing organization to keep the heat
on the University.
EVEN SO, regardless of which
reforms fail and which ones suc-
ceed, they are all ineffective in
changing the fundamental nature
of the University, which has its
roots in the larger society. By at-
tacking the University, we have
been cursing the symptom rather
than the disease: the universities
are, in fact, extremely responsive
to the larger capitalist system
which they serve so well, the pro-

test of the sixties has come and
gone, yet the universities continue
to train elites, do war research,
and contribute to the oppression
of minorities.
We don't want to demean our
educational reform efforts of the
past. They were, for the most
part, well-meant attempts to hu-
manize education and our society.
Unfortunately, they were played
out as a struggle to make things
more fair and equal within an in-
herently unfair and unequal sys-
tem. And because of this, we could
be, and were, co-copted to make
the system run a little more
smoothly than it had before.
Our analysis demonstrated that
the University is subservient to
the society. It responds quickly
and accurately to the needs of

money and power. The nature of
education, therefore, will not
change significantly until . we
change the nature of our society.
The economic reorganization of
society is a necessary pre-condi-
tion to solving the problems con-
fronting education.
This is the importance of the
critical awareness we can develop
as students. The question is whe-
ther or not we will allow ourselves
to be processed as elites, or whe-
ther we can use our radical con-
sciousness to aid in the struggles
of oppressed people for human
liberation.
This article is excerpted from
the PESC Papers on Education. Re-
printed with thanks.


Letters to The ID


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

420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104

News Phone: 764-0552


SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 1974

Senate passes financing bill

yESTERDAY'S 53 to 32 passage by the
Senate of the campaign financing
bill marks a milestone in American poli-
tics.
It was an attempt at honesty.
Provisions of the bill provide for the
use of tax funds in financing primary
and general election campaigns for fed-
eral offices, and for the establishment of
a federal election commission for the
supervision of federal elections. The
commission would be empowered to take
criminal action against those who vio-
late the rules of financing.
Also, for the first time, there would
be a ceiling on the spending of those
running for federal offices and on the
contributions they could accept.
The new Senate anti-filibuster bill was
invoked by a one-vote margin to choke
off a filibuster that would have sent the
Senators home without the passage of
the bill which they wanted to have be-
fore the Easter holidays.
THE CONTROVERSY centered around
certain aspects for public financing,
but all attempts to remove this part of
TODAY'S STAFF:
News:'Bill Heenan, Cindy Hill, Cheryl
Pilate, Jeff Rivkin, Judy Ruskin'
Editorial Page: Clifford Brown, Marnie
Heyn, Sue Wilhelm
Arts Page: Ken Fink
Photo Technician: Karen Kasmauski

the bill were defeated. In their rush to
get home for the Easter holidays, the
senators accepted an amendment under
which all federal employees making over
20,000 dollars a year would have their
personal income tax audited for the past
five years. The measure also states that
a candidate can spend 12 cents per voter
in the general election and 8 cents per
voter in the primary election.
The bill also limits the amount that a
candidate or political party can receive
from an individual or an organization to
25,000 dollars from an individual, but no
more than 3,000 to a single candidate.
Organizations are limited to contribu-
tion of 6,000 dollars to any single candi-
date. The bill would make election day a
national holiday and would have a uni-
form time for the polls to close nation-
wide. No announcements of results would
be permitted until before midnight EST.
NOW THAT ONE MILESTONE has been
reached we must work together to
make sure that the House is not allowed
to defeat the bill. President Nixon is
also against the bill, as you might ex-
pect, but do not cringe fellow justice
lovers, for together we can get the bill
passed. On the impeachment letter that
you write to your representative in
Washington tell- them on the bottom of
the letter that you would like to see the
financing bill passed and- Dick thrown
out on his nose.
-CLIFFORD BROWN

undergrads
To The Daily:
I WHOLEHEARTEDLY a g r e e
with your editorial titled "Uncon-
cern for the Undergraduate" of
March 21.
I came to the University fully
aware of its size and the implica-
tions that it would have upon my
education or so I thought. Re-
gretfully I have found that facul-
ty-student interaction on a person-
al level is almost totally absem.
If I want to speak with a pro-
fessor, I feel a tremendous pres-
sure that I must be careful not
to waste his time. After all, don't
professors at a research univer-
sity have more important things
to do? It is as if they are obli-
gated to answer a few precise
questions concerning the subject
matter of the course, and that is
all. The opportunity to go in and
just "talk" to a professor rare-
ly, if ever, presents itself.
With a few notable exceptions, I
think I would drop dead if, when I
came to a professor's office, I
was told, "Sit down, my time is
yours".
I DON'T MEAN to place all, or
even most of the blame uponthe
instructors; the University admin-
istration is mainly at fault. The
constant emphasis upon graduate
education and research, as pointed
out in your editorial, causes the
undergraduate to become estrang-
e.d from the professor, te sub-
ject matter, and finally the uni-
versity as a whole. It has come
to the point where I no longer feel
that my experience here is an
education, but a training, some-
thing to be gotten over with.
Please don't think that I com-
plain from an. inexperienced view-
point. For a long time, I felt that
the impersonal atmosphere could
be overcome through a cncerted
effort on the student's part. I
hought that by utilizing insruc-
tors' office hours and everything
else individualized I could lay my
hands on, I could beat the system.
But its a losing battle, they have
more people on their side than I
have on mine. The good programs
that are available are too few and
often so imbedded in red tape
so as to be almost inaccessible.
I HOPE that the University will
stop taking the undergraduate for
granted. For if they coni'ue to
expect people to come acd es the
country and pay $2800 for a second
rate education, they are ever so
slightly insane.
-Mark Sullivan '76
March 22
To The Daily:
AS A FINANCIALLY n e e d y
student in Ann Arbor, I find my-
self belonging to a group of people
who will do any kind of work for
any kind of pay out of despera-
tion and the lack of enjoyable high
paying jobs available. Around
three weeks ago, after a weary
Jay of hunting for employment, I
came acros a sign in the window
of Stadium Pizzeria on S. State
3t. Experienced Waitresses Want-
ed, it said. I went in and gave
my name and phone number to
the cashier because the manager
was busy, he would call me, I was
told, within a few days. Know-
ing that he would probably never
call I decided to come back at a
time when the boss could say to
me in person whether or not I was
hired. On interviewing me the first
question that the manager asked
was "Are you smart?" This ques-
tion has more than one answer, I
had a few replies in mind.
"No I'm not, that's why I want
a job here."
"Yes, but I'rh also desperate."
"Yes and I'm sorry it doesn't fit
your qualifications."
BUT INSTEAD of using them I
maintained a proper respect for

"authority" and answered m,*ekly
"I guess so." Later, in an undocu-
mented consersation, one waitre:s
told me Bill (one of the managers,
had fired four girls because they
were "stupid.' Unfortunately. I
got the job and was told to start
the next day at 5:00 p.m. and work
urti'l closing firm at , .J9 a.m. I

the restaurant as fast as I co ld
because one was not paid for ary
overtime after 2:M. Cleaning --he
restaurant consists of f.ling all
sails, peppers, sugars, catsups,
dresings, wiping down every table
wvh vinegar water, collecting ash-
tra3s, cleaning and drainig t h e
coffee machine plus other similar
tasks. They are all easy y!t time
consuming and take two waitress-
es (one waitress is always sent
home early) at lea..t an hour. Std-
ium does not cl9 l until 2.00 and
very often customers linger, it's
practically impassible to get every-
thins clean without working over-
time. In three weeks at Stadium
nrt once have . made it outside
their door before 2.30, 2:45 some-
times even 3:00 a.m No one ever
complains about chi, policy, for
fear of being fired Keeps everyone
quiet.
THE NEXT WEEK Bill was on
dut, and I had not yet been init-
i aed to his gruff temperment. I
fig- red it was best t> star+ off on
the right foot so I was friendli
and followed all his orders. Spring
break had begun on the lam. Fri-
day and business was slow When
there is no bus+i ue33 the waitress-
es are allowed to sic in +he back
of the restaurant and rest their
Feet, the cooks, dishwashers and
mar.agers also sit in ack. I sat
across from Bill and began a pet-
ty conversation with im, it ended
with his relating of how he had
fired one woman because shA sup-
p irted her boyfenJ monetarily
and Bill did not thhk it m;.rally
right.
l don't want my money gong
to nc bum-va know what I
n'ran?" he sail. I 'ind it hard
to believe that s'c'i things actually

.aily.
and Sammy told me the only thing
I could do was t i'k to Bill. He
w otld be in, Sammy said. a. 5:00.
I went again at 3:30, Bill was sit-
ting in back.
"Can you tell m why I'm not
scheduled?"
"We have too many waitresses,
that's why."
"Are you trying to tell me I'm
fired?"
"No - I'll call you when I need
you.' i
I walked out determined to find
mother job and to inform the media
an.l also to start a local ;hapter
of The Hotel and Restaurant Work-
ers Union.
SAMMY PHONED me on Satur-
lay morning and asked if I would
come in. I knew that If Sammy
called then, Bill would not be.
working - I happened to need the
.noney so I went to work. When I
got there Sammy apologized for
Bill's treatment and said it would
aot happen again. But it did. After
an hour or so Bill entered the
restaurant. I saw him but all my
sustomers were taken care of and
he could not say a word (or so I
:hought). I sat in back with the
3ther employees. Bill started
screamingly violently at Sammy in
a foreign tongue. A few minutes
later he stormed up to me.
"You're fired."
"Why?" I had no ijtention of
being meek.
' Because yu sit on your ass."
"All of my customers are taken
care of."
"I don't care you're iired - go
home."
"You have no reason to fire
"You were supposed tr. show up
on Sunday and you never showed
up."

med school dropout
FPC: What would you say is the state of Western medi-
cine?
Tom: You can't discuss Western medicine out of the
context of Western society because they work hand-in-glove.
Western medicine does not take the initiative in seeking to
maintain the health of the people, but hangs around waiting
to "conquer" disease as Western society generates it. It's
passive aggressive! You come in with a bacterial infection,
you get an antibiotic, and you're sent right back out the
door, in much the same maner that phychiatrists turned
shell-shocked soldiers back to the front in WWI &. U.
Meanwhile the underlying causes are never dealt with: the
dietetic imbalances, the psychic imbalances, economic con-
siderations. All these things are environmental, but they're
never treated, or even acknowledged. It's nothing more
than patchwork.
FPC: What's its historical development?
Tom: In the 19th century the major killers were the
viral and bacterial epidemic diseases: smallpox, influenza,
diptheria, cholera, tuberculosis, mastoiditis, pneumonia, and
the like. Antibiotics, vaccination, and public health measures
have suppressed such killer diseases of old at the expense
of sensitizing the populace to antibiotics and the creation of
resistant and more virulent bacterial disease. Today the
major killers are more the direct products\ of fast living
and its stress: heart disease, stroke, cancer, hypertension
and so on. These illnesses are qualitatively different from
those of the last century. They are caused by our entire con-
ception of lifestyle. Running after more material possessions
and higher status doesn't bring you any closer to happiness,
only closer to heart disease.
FPC: What's the effect of the food industry on diet?
Tom: Terrible. The quality of food has decreased over
the past decades in proportion to the control f agricultural
prductin by huge industries that see food as an economic pro-
duc rather than a life-sustaining substance. Rats fed on
"enriched" white bread and water die of malnutrition with-
in a couple of weeks. Our food is devitalized, subtly and ,not-
so-subtly poisoned, filled with carcinogenic chemicals such
as coal-tar derived Red 2, the red dye in marachino cher-
ries and lip sticks.
When I was in medical school for example, we were
told of two separate cases where men came into the hospital
because their breasts were enlarging. Upon taking careful
histories, it was found that they both liked to eat chicken,
especialy the neck. Well, the way chickens are raised
nowadays, in order to boost production and profits, ,the
breeders insert female hormone pills into the necks of
the chickens. They're supposed to difuse throughout the bird,
but they don't. Chicken necks contain significant residues
of these hormones. So eating chicken necks for these two
men was like taking female hormone shots, and their breasts
began to develop.
But medical school just doesn't deal with these things.
All the nutritional instruction I got in medical school was
one week tacked on at the end of a course of biochemistry.
It was a laugh. For one thing, to survive in medical school
requires expediency. You live your life from test to test; study
only what's on the test, take it, get it over with, then study
for the next one. So they gave us this nutrition course the
last week of school when you can't pay attention because you
have to bust ass for the final, but that's OK because it
doesn't cover nutrition anyway.
This one lamentable week of so-called nutrition was fill-
ed with biochemical mumbo-jumbo but based mainly on the
caloric value of foods, that is, the heat energy inherent i
them. But this is a very simplistic, mechanical analyss
because living systems are much more complex than that.
Doctors are taught that a tomato is a tomato - that all
tomatoes are essentially the same. There's no discussion of
the important differences produced by. acid or base soil,
whether it was treated with chemical fertilizers or organically
mulched; sprayed, dyed, etc., which makes one hell of a
difference in the trophic value of the food. Trophic value is
the actual value to the organism of eating the food. It's, a
more real measure of a food's value, whereas calorie counts
are abstractions, the heat released when the food is burned.
Calorie counts tell you nothing about the real effect of the
food on the health of the organism.
And it's not really that surprising when you look at
the U-M Medical Center as a whole. If you go into the
hospital cafeteria, you see they use produced meat, white
flour, white sugar, and they fry up egges that have been pro-
duced by chickens pumped with dyes and amphetamines. It's
testimony to the amazing power of the body to heal itself
that people can get well on that fare.
FPC: Would you talk about physician-induced illness?
Tom: Well, in medical school we were taught about
doctor-caused disease very carefully, in a circumstantial
manner, but not about its alarming extent. That was revealed
by a sociologist, Martin L. Gross, who wrote a boo called
The Doctors. In it he cited a survey of doctor-caused ill-

nesses and deaths made by the chief resident of Yale New
Haven Hospital and published in the Annals of Internal Medi-
cine. In his book Gross concludes: "It might be conservative
to estimate the deaths from doctor-caused diseases in the
magnitude of 200,000 per year." What this means is that
physicians and modern medicine have become one of the
leading killers - right up there with cancer and heart
disease.
FPC: How do doctors kill patients? What is physician-in-
duced illness?
Tom: Doctor-induced illness is caused to some extent
by medical mistakes, but mostly, in my opinion, by the pre-
sent course of theory and practice of therapeutics, since
Western medicine is based on a kind of bludgeoning attitude
toward the body. Doctors don't seek to work with the body,
but instead of it. They either cut out of a part of the
body surgically or try to alter the body with drugs.
The side efects of drugs are enormous. Drugs are not
specific to the task, and do all sorts of things to the body
we don't even know about. Antibiotics, for example, kill not
only disease bacteria, but other bacteria inside the body that
are essential for harmony and well-being, like those that
aid in the absorption of nutrients, and protect us from in-
vading disease organisms.
Nowadays, for example, between 5 and 10 per cent of
the adult population is alergic to penicillin. If they take
it, they get an allergic reaction and can die. And yet anti-
biotics have only been available since the late 1940's. When
they were first introduced, no one was allergic. It's all
happened in just one generation.
FPC: So where's it all headed?
Tom: Western civilization produces a life-style which
guarantees a large amount of disease You can think of it
as a leaking boat with holes that are growing larger. The
doctors in the boat look down and see the water coming in
and think: 'We'd better bail!" Then, as more water rushes
in, they cry: "Bail faster!" Never thinking that first they -
need to plug the leaks. It's a mindless escalation that in-
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to place in 1974. Little did I
know that I was his next dismis-
sa!.
On Saturday night I shared a
shift with two other wai.ressus.
Bi" sent one waitress home early
but she gladly went because he h; d
inimidated her a eveiing calling
her slow and stupi 1. The remaining
waitress told me that Bill constant-
ly used vile language w:th her and
that she was getting sick of putting
u, with it. I did nA sit in back
that night because the thought of
s.irng across frim Bill nauseated
me. I checked tne schedule and
breathed a sigh of rePef that Satur-
day was my last night of wyork n-
til the next Friday. When it cage
towards closing time Dill began
caing me slow and told one to
quit F g around.
It's debatable whether i'm slow
or not," I ans vered, "you're
wrong if you think I don't want to
get out of here as fast as pos-
sible."
MY NEXT scheduled day vas
Frday, again !rom 5.30 r m. un-
til 2:00 a.m., the)reticdhy. I iE-
ceived a phone call frr-m Samr~y,
the other manager, on Thursday
asking me why I had baen fired

"You didn't schedue r.e
Sunday."
"I'll show you."

for

He then unlocked a drawer and
broug it ut a schedule with my
name down for Sunday from 5:00
p.m. until 12:00 p.m.
"I 'hecked the schedule 1 a s t
Saturday and I was-i t supposed
to work until this Fr2day."
"You ddn't show un so I fired
you.'
ON MY WAY out ore of the
other wra resses stopped me and
asked w hat was going on I told
her and +., added that I wanted
to organie a strike. qhe said
that the waitresses should defin-
itely organize and she knew of a.
least tan other waitresses w h o
would be willing to risk their jobs.
There wi e other r :staurants, I
have Leal d, that practice the
same degrading and chintzy poli-
cies as Sadium. The purpose of
this letger is to opea the public's
cyes to roost likely a very com-
mon ocrrrence in Ann °rbor, one
of non union labor being hired and
fired inde'crimiately hzcnuse of

I I

I