Page 4-Wednesday, January 11, 1978-The Michigan Daily
WIb £ibirgrn atQ
Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 83
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Lesbians are mothers, too
A
Organizing the unorganized
Last of Two Parts
Given the history of the campus labor de-
feats described yesterday, the first step in
building an effective campus labor movement
must be to oust all the bureaucratic factions
in all the unions. The bureaucrats' betrayals
and stupidities have cost campus workers too
much already. On a national scale, their kind
are responsible for the tragic fact that each
year a smaller and smaller proportion of
American workers are organized.
This series was jointly written by the
AFSCME Committee for a Workers'
Government, Clericals for a Democratic
Union and the Committee for a Militant
GEO.
L AST JUNE, an Oakland County
court took 11-year-old Jillian
Miller away from her mother because
the woman is a lesbian. The girl was
placed in her father's care after he.won
custodial rights in the case.
The mother, Margareth Miller of
Ann Arbor, was able to take the verdict
to the Michigan Court of Appeals, and
earlier this week the higher court heard
her case.
What is particularly disturbing
about this case is that Miller could very
Well have maintained custody of her
daughter, had the fact that she is a
lesbian not been introduced into the
chase. Instead of considering the custody
question in terms of how well Miller
x took care of her daughter, the issue was
decided upon by publicizing the
mother's sexual preferences.
Miller's attorney, Shirley Burgoyne,
y believes she was able to secure an ap-
peal because the original court didn't
make its findings according to the
state's child custody acts. In addition,
Burgoyne said, the judges made it clear
they felt it was dangerous for a girl just
entering puberty to be living with a
homosexual - even if that homosexual
happens to be her natural mother. The
lower court ignored a psychologist's
recommendation that Jillian remain
with her mother because of their emo-
tional attachihent.
It has been said here before and it
will no doubt be said here again that
sexual preference is no grounds for
discrimination. While there may be
some reason to defend a homosexual
teacher's performance, it feels rather
foolish having to defend Margareth
Miller's right to perform as a mother to
her own offspring.
An Appeals Court decision is not ex-
pected for some time, but many believe
that when it arrives an important
precedent will be set for determining
parental custody in Michigan. The
Oakland County coWyt's ruling must be
struck down. It's time for some real
justice to be dispensed.
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It would be absolutely wrong, however, to
equate the bureaucracies with the unions. The
unions are the rank-and-file. Membership
control through union democracy can replace
the present sell-out bureaucracies with mili-
tant, democratic leadership. The unions then
can begin to chart a course of real class
struggle in the interests of all workers.
A MAJORITY of campus workers all still
unorganized, however. Clericals are the
largest group of unorganized workers, num-
bering more than 3,000. Lower-level, non-
supervisory P&A's are close behind, with
nearly 3,000. Technicals total nearly 1,000.
Without a union, these workers are atomized,
isolated and at management's mercy. Cam-
pus labor as a whole is weakened. Thus,
organizing the unorganized is an urgent
necessity. As a first step, all campus unions,
workers and students must support ther CC
drive to organize clericals. Once the clericals
are organized, technicals and lower-level,
non-supervisory P&A's should be able to
organize, too. After that, even non-workers -
the faculty and professionals - might begin
to get it together.
Organizing the unorganized campus
workers is not enough. So long as manage-
ment can divide the campus unions from one
another, it can conquer them one-by-one. The
only way to move management and Lansing
enough to win major gains is to apply the
collective muscle of 12,000 campus workers at
the same time. Ultimately, this must mean
the amalgamation of all the campus unions
into a single, campus-wide union, which itself
would be a local of a single, state-wide cam-
pus union. The state-wide union would unite
campus-wide locals across the state. In ad-
dition, of course, the all-campus union would
cooperate with associations of non-workers -
faculty and professionals - whenever our in-
terests coincided.
CAMPUS LABOR militants must consider
carefully how to build a single state-wide,
campus-wide union. We cannot build such as
"industrial-type" union by having someone;
simply proclaim one big union and deman-
ding that all campus workers decertify their
own unions to join the new one. Campus
workers won't do this. The way to build an in-
dustrial-type union where there are already a
number of established "craft-type" unions is
The Labor
Scene
Part Tfwo
to amalgamate the existing unions. We should
begin by establishing common expiration
dates, common demands and joint strikes
among the unions. We may have to pass
through a phase of federation, but the
rnalgamation process must lead tobacom-
plete unification. The all-campus union
should certainly be affiliated to one of the ap-
propriate Internationals and to the AFL-CIO,
to draw on - and contribute to - the strength
of the general labor movement.
The potential gains from a militant, demo-
cratic, all-campus union are enormous. Such
a union would have the power to shut the en-
tire campus - indeed, all the campuses -
down tight with mass picketing. It would have
the muscle to prevent layoffs, attrition and
speedup. It could win A thirty-hour week for
forty hour's pay ("30 for 40") to promote jobs
and to give workers more time for self-
development and political activity. It could
win a full and unlimited cost-of-living
allowance and a decent, fully paid pension, as
well as complete sickness, accident and
disability pay. It could win health and educa-
tional benefits for all campus workers better
than any the existing unions could win sepa-
rately.
AN ALL-CAMPUS UNION could tackle the
critical problems of racism and sexism by
winning a strong, campus-wide seniority
system and union control of hiring, recruit-
ment and training. So long as "affirmative
action" is left to management and the gover-
nment, it will be used only to divide workers
and not to advance women and minorities. An
all-campus union would have the strength to
enforce real affirmative action.
While most campus workers can become
quite enthusiastic about the possibilities with
an all-campus union, we must not forget the
limitations of such a union. 12,000 workers are
powerful, but not all-powerful. In 1970
General Motors defeated 450,000 UAW
workers in a long and bitter strike. Even
without bureaucratic sabotage, in a purely
economic struggle, the employer is stronger
than the workers. While supporting
vigorously the everday struggle of the
workers, Marx long ago pointed out: "At the
same time, and quite apart from the general
servitude involved in the wages system, the
working class ought not to exaggerate to
themselves the ultimate working of these
everyday struggles. They ought not to forget
that they are fighting with effects, but not
with the causes of those effects ... Instead of
the conservative motto, 'A fair day's wage for
a fair day's work!' they ought to inscribe on
their banner the revolutionary watchword,
'Abolition of the wages system!' "
The undersigned organizations recognize
the important truth that every class struggle
is a political struggle. Trade union strugglex
always involves politics. The question is sim-
ply, whose politics, the politics of the
capitalists, or those of the workers? Labor
bureaucrats want to tie the unions to the
politics of the capitalists, to the Republican
and Democratic parties of the owners. We on
the other hand, say that workers need a party
of our own, a workers' party based on the
trade unions. Not the trade unions as we know
them, and not a reformist workers' party of
the type of the British Labor Party or the
European Social Democratic and "Commu-
nist" parties., Certainly not a party like Ann
Arbor's own reformist third party, the
"Socialist" Human Rights Party. Rather, we
need to oust the labor bureaucrats and 'to
build a militant workers' party.
.Our workers' party must fight to expro-
priate the major corporations and banks,
without compensation to their wealthy
owners, and to place them under workers'
control. It must help to organize labor/black
defense against racist and right-wing
terrorism. It must help to organize political
strikes against the capitalists' wars, against
their interventions and against their support
for right-wing dictatorships. It must fight for
a workers' democracy and a workers' gov-
ernment. The workers' government will
"abolish the wages system" by expropriating
the capitalists' resources and building a
workers' economy rationally planned to meet
human needs!
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Treating the intoxicated
. strain on already-overworked hospital
ANY STUDENTS may not have personnel and facilities, and will sub-
been aware of it, but being caught ject emergency patients to unnecessary
runk in Ann Arbor is a criminal
isdemeanor. It will remain an incar- trauma and inconvenience.
rable offense until January 15, when ' The program still has not been
state law decriminalizing given funds by the state legislature.
new state aw deriminaizingLawmakers are reportedly hashing
'unkenness goes into effect. Monday, over the appropriation of $2.5 million
ty council took initial steps toward now. If, for some reason, the funding
implying with the Michigan law, does not go through, counties and cities
assing its own decriminalization or-d
nance on first reading. may be left with the task of paying all
The state law abolishes thewell-costs of the program.
3Tabhe sot hrlaw abois dheuneks- The new intoxication treatment
tablished practice of throwing drunks centers offer only short-term treatment
tD jail cells, in favor of placing a for the one- or two-time drunk. The
ublicly intoxicated individual into the state ,has failed to address the problem
ands of capable health personnel. The of alcoholism and the role it plays in
ew law provides for the establishment bringing some individuals back to the
rspecial intoxication treatment cen- intoxication center again and again.
an be ceved focuntiy in hy eh drunks The centers do not attempt to cure an
The idea is not new. Michigan is the alsholdbegicton.pgrate
ath state to change its official attitude ficials should begin now to upgrade the
sward public drunks. Decriminaliza- treatment program to a more long-
on makes good sense in view of recent term level - even if it means only in-
soveries gconcerning walcoholism. corporating a referral service at intoxi-
Zischaegisltors gare tobcoim.cation centers to steer alcoholics
ichigan legislators are to be com toward groups such as Alcoholics
ended for their enlightened attitudes. Aoygou.
Threar roles ih the nw Anonymous. -
There are problems with he new In spite of the decriminalization
gislation, however, which will have to law's shortcomings now, the state's ef-
e reckoned with before the drunk forts to treat drunks more humanely
rogram can be considered successful: aretreare. oe unday
are remarkable. Come next Sunday,
" Less than half of the counties in the public drunks will be removed from the
tate currently have officially- streets by a health system, not a legal
esignated intoxication treatment cen- system.
ers. While some areas are due to open It may take everyone - police,
hese centers soon, many counties will hospitals, cities and even drunks them-
ave to use hospital emergency rooms selves - some time to adjust to the new
or an extended length of'time in treat- laws, but it will be a worthwhile adjust-
nadrnnkc This will obviouslyn ut a ment.
Letters to
The Daily
M band disappoints
To The Daily:
Aside from being completely
perplexed as I presume you, Bo,
the playersand many millions of
viewers, etc., etc., are as to why
"Mighty Michigan" can't win the
big ones I have another sore sub-
ject to bring up.
I am directing this letter to you
as its contents have to do with a
very vital part of each game.
After watching eight, yes eight,
half-time band shows Jan. 2nd
and seeing bands from all over
the country perform; on a scale
of one to ten, I would have to rate
the Michigan Band's half-time
show a minus five.
Fans who enjoy the band shows
every bit as much as the games,
of whom there are thousands,
want to see a snappy, stirring
band performance-not a con-
cert. That sorry show in
Pasadena should have been
played in the Hollywood Bowl.
Back in '37, '38 etc., we always
felt if we couldn't beat them we
could 'out band' them. For-
tunately, a winning team came
along to compliment a winning
band We still have great team
material. though ni-
maginative coached, and we
have great kids and wonderful.
musicians in the band, however
the choice of band routines star-
ted getting too "hi-brow" a
couple of seasons ago.
I am tired of defending our
band's performance, not the
band, but the choice of program.
You can't musically educate
106,000 people on a Saturday af-
ternoon, or at a bowl game. I
should think the difference bet-
ween the rousing cheers for our
opponent's band and the polite
hald hearted applause after our
show would tell the director
something. Even the post game
shows are no longer worth
staying for.
I guess I am writing this letter
because I am, as I said, tired of
defending the lousy half-time
show our band keeps putting on.
Maybe I am a musical slob at
heart but if and when I want to
letters should be typed and limited
to 400 words. The Daily reserves the
right to edit letters for length and
grammar.
; AI MM00MONO MM
hear a concert, I'll use the $50 to
$75 it costs to, go to a football
game and put it towards a trip to
Boston to hear the Pops Or-
chestra. I know I am speaking ftr
............................................... ..-
Editorials which appear without a by-line represent a con-
sensus opinion of the Daily's editorial board. All other editorials,
as well as cartoons, are the opinions of the individuals who sub-
mit them.
TO FLY
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a large contingent of Michigan'
supporters in Grand Rapids as
well as around the country.
-Dale McAfee, '3E
Gand Rapids
Health Service Handbook
By SYLVIA S. HACKER
and NANCY S. PALCHIK
QUESTION: I've been seeing ads about a new contraceptive
called "Encare" which sounds terrific., Does Health Service
have it? Is it as great as it sounds?
ANSWER: To start the new year off with a bang (pun in-
tended), our pharmacy will be offering this newly developed
contraceptive for women. It is a non-hormonal vaginal supposi-
tory called the Encare Oval and works on a double-action prin-
ciple. A chemical, Nonoxynol 9, acts as a spermicide while, at
the same time, an inert substance dissolves to form a physical
protective coating: As the suppository dissolves, it effervesces,
distributing the substance and forming a shield across the cer-
vix about 10 minutes after insertion. The chemical, Nonoxynol 9,
is the same as that used in many spermicidal foams and
creams, with a reported 2 to 3 per cent of the population having
sensitive reactions to it.
This one-inch long suppository appears to be quite well
tolerated, although when it effervesces in the vagina, it pro-
duces a warm sensation and has sometimes been described as
feeling rather hot by both females using it and by male partners
having penile contact with it.
The advantages of the Encare Oval over foam, according to
the manufacturer, are that it is more stable (its effect lasting for
about 2 hours as opposed to /2 hour for foam), and also that it
does not require a mechanical applicator since it is inserted
manually. Although the manufacturer claims 98 to 99 per cent
effectiveness, sinceit has not yet been tested in this country by
our standards, our gynecology clinic recommends using it in
conjunction with a confom. This is consistent with their recom-
mendations about using contraceptive foam together with the
condom, since it has been shown that simultaneous use of the
two is nearly as effective as taking the pill.
We are alerting users that a new oval be inserted for each
act of intercourse. Also, tampons should not be used post-
coitally since key might interfere with the protective coating.
For similar reMons, women who choose to douche (although it
is not necessary since the normal vagina is self-cleansing)-
should wait at least 8 hours.
QUESTION: I came to Health Service at 9 p.m. Saturday
and it was closed. How come?
ANSWER: Due to utilization and cost considerations, effec-
tive January 7, 1978, Health Service will no longer provide 24
hour service on weekends. Our medical clinic will still be open
Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and Sat-
urday, 8:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon. Our after-hours emergency
service will be the same as usual Monday through Friday, that
is, from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m. the next day, When the medical
clinic closes at noon on Saturday, emergency service will be.
available from noon until 8:00 p.m. We will then be closed until
the emergency clinic re-opens on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. The Sun-
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