l1je itI$9an IBath Eighty-Six Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104 Princely dilemma ... ... to execute or not to execute Thursday, November 20, 1975 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan k n By STEVE WEISSMAN AS ECHOES OF outrage settle over Europe after Spain's recent execution of five alleged terrorists, 15 more accused terrorists sit in Spanish jails await- ing trial. Their fate - to live or to die - will be the first dra- matic test of Spain's future under Prince Juan Carlos de Bourbon y Bourbon. If the government - and Juan Carlos as head of state - stop the expected executions and spare the lives of the 15 men and women, most observers here and in other European capitals will see the Spanish rulers as breaking with the fascist regime of Gen. Francisco Franco. This could move Spain toward a new era of national reconciliation and reform and closer integration with NATO and the Common Market nations. But if, as seems more likely, the government and Juan Carlos permit the executions to go ahead, Spain will be seen as succumbing to pressure from her right- wing hawks and hunkering down for a last-ditch de- fense of the old regime-"el Bunker;" as the Spanish now call it. The 15-and the number may even be higher-are all alleged members of revolutionary groups, par'tic- ularly the Basque nationalist E.T.A.-Euzkadi Ta Az- katasuna, or Homeland and Liberty. Each of the 15 stands accused of killing one or more policemen, or of participating in the December 1973 assassination of Spain's prime minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco. THE TRIALS HAVE not yet been scheduled, at least publicly. But they could begin almost immediately, and government prosecutors have already requested the death penalty. In past terrorist trials, which most observers found largely pro forma, the judicial tribu- nals generally went along with prosecution demands. The previous execution of five alleged terrorists Sep- tember 27 led to a strong plea for clemency from Pope Paul IV, a wave of boycotts and bombings throughout Western Europe and a widely supported two-day gen- eral strike in the Basque provinces of Spain. In response, hardliners within the regime cried out for even tougher measures, and in a largely unreport- ed "mini-coup," a group of right-wing generals tried to oust more moderate colleagues from key military posts. Any further executions could fling Prince Juan Carlos into the midst of even more violent crosswinds, damp- ening the widely voiced hopes for reform that greeted his succession to the position of head of state following Franco's recent illness. Death sentences, especially in the cases involving the accused assassins of the former prime minister, could also put the prince on the spot personally, since the final power to grant clemency is now his. UNDER EXISTING Spanish law, the military tries cases of illegal strikes, sabotage or terrorism, and the trials are speedy affairs. Defendants have few rights compared to the U.S. or Western Europe. And according to a recent report by the London-based Am- nesty International, "There is strong evidence . . . that torture is used systematically whenever the individual does not immediately confess voluntarily." As a rule, little time is lost between sentencing and punishment. The terrifying swiftness of Spanish justice was demonstrated in the recent military trial of two Basque militants, Angel Ortaegui and Jose Antonio Garmendia, who were accused of assassinating a member of the Para-military Guardia Civil. Ortaegui was one of the five alleged terrorists executed September 27. Ortaegui, though charged only with lodging Gar- mendia and giving him information, was convicted on the strength of a confession extracted from Garmen- dia at the hospital after he had been shot in the head during his arrest. The prosecutor offered few witnesses and little material evidence beyond the confession. LATER GARMENDIA'S death sentence was com- muted on grounds of "diminished mental capacity" - but the man his confession had convicted was shot. The entire process, from trial to execution, took less than a month. Another of those executed September 27-Juan Pa- redes Manot ("Txiki") -- only came to trial Septem- ber 19, and was tried under the even hastier provisions "Any further ex- ecutions could fling Prince Juan Carlos into the midst of even more violent crosswinds, dampen. ing the widely voic- ed hopes for reform that greeted his suc- cession to the posi. tion of head of slate following Franco 's recent illness." of the new Decree-Law for the Prevention of Terror- ism announced August 26. Of the present defendants awaiting possible death sentences, two are extremely well-known here as lead- ing Basque militants - Jose Mugica Arregui and Pedro Perez Beotegui ("Wilson"). Both face several charges, including participation in setting off an ex- plosion under the passing car of Prime Minister Car- rero Blanco, hurtling the car and its occupants some five stories into the air. The E.T.A. organization has claimed credit for the assassination and published a detailed account of how it was done in a clandestinely distributed book called Operation Ogro. THE ASSASSINATION of the prime minister cre- ated enormous anger here, especially among the right- wing, and it would take decisive political will for either the government or Prince Juan Carlos to spare the lives of the accused assassins. Steve Weissman is a freelance writer based in Lon- don who covers European politics for PNS. Copyright, Pacific News Service. Put student rep on Board THE REGENTS WILL vote today or tomorrow on a Committee to Study Student Governance (CSSG) recommendation. This particular re- commendation, on whether a non- voting representative should be elect- ed to the Board of Regents, is one of the most important ideas to come out of the regent appointed committee. If the regents are concerned about the rights of students ,about the right to at least a student voiced opinion on the policies instituted by the University, they will vote in fav- or of the recommendation. But if they surrender to a fear of complica- tion, of creating a precedent which at some future point may work against them, they will vote no. At this point there is some power- ful opposition to the proposal. Presi- dent Fleming and some regents have voiced their disapproval because, they believe if students get a seat, even a non-voting-one, every other faction in the University will begin clamoring for a similar position on the board of regents - everyone from TODAY'S STAFF News: Glen Allerhand, Bev Jackson, Jo Marcotty, Jeff Ristine, Jeff Sor- ensen, Bill Turque Editorial Page: Marc Basson, Paul Haskins, Debra Hurwitz, Linda Kloote, Mara Letica Arts Page: James Valk Photo Technician: Pauline Lubens the faculty to labor to the students on the Flint and Dearborn campuses. RUT STUDENTS ARE a unique con- stituency. They have no contract to protect their rights, they are not salaried and therefore have none of the protection inherent in salaried positions. The fact that the administration fears similar demands from the Flint and Dearborn Campuses is indicative of their sentiment toward the, CSSG proposal. Why should'n't they have a voice? They too are students at the University. This University should exist be- cause of and for the students, but presently, they have no, or very lim- ited means of being heard - a pe- culiar form of tyranny. To believe labor and faculty would demand a position on the board is absurd. They have contracts. Stu- dents don't and to be a student at this University is to be subject to ad- ministrative control. That is why there should be a student representa- tive on the board of regents. Ideally, even this proposal is not enough. A student member should have the 'right to vote. But this mea- sure is a start. However, in the tradition of the University, all we can do is wait and see. For right now there is no stu- dent to tell the regents what the stu- dents want. MECHA To The Daily: IN REFERENCE to a poster that has been tacked up all over the university by one, Bob Mat- thews, we the membership of MECHA, the Chicano's Umbrel- la organization, and members of the Student Organizing Com- mittee, wish to state a position about Mr. Matthews lack of knowledge as to what he at- tests to in the poster. Not only is SOC an equal op- portunity organization, as we can easily prove, but SOC is in our opinion the only student Letters party that has demonstrate4 true awareness of other people different than they, not just tokenism. Mr. Matthews obvious ignorance comes as no surprise to non-white members of SOC, his easily used terminology such as "white racist" comes from long practice of just such a position. As for Mr. Matthews totally unfounded statement that SOC "abolished and destroyed SGC minority affairs committee," our position is that had SOC in fact done this it would have been as, a favor to all minorities. Obviously, Mr. Matthews would to HEALTH SERVICE HANDBOOK Morning routine: Floss, don't flush like to see minorities separated, segregated, isolated, fumigated and finally gased out of exist- ence. WE WISH TO make all minori- ties aware that "minority affairs committees" are crumbs and token efforts by a racist ele- ment of society trying to make us think that they are aware of minorityhneeds and this is their way of "getting us off their backs and pacifying us for awhile." Mr. Matthews statement im- plying that SOC and anyone else associated with whomever was responsible for the misplacing of $19,000 is just as guilty; is without a doubt a truly assinine assumption. Mr. Matthews alleg- es that Lee Gill, a black stu- dent was the scoundrel, would he then also assume that since Mr. Gill is black that all black students would be as guilty;. based on his assumptions it leaves no room for doubt that he does. Again he proves his racist attitude toward all minori- ties. Chicanos on this campus are asking that everyone think about the necessity of existing togeth- er in this world without preju- dice, racial hatred or separa- tism. We feel that is the only way to progress towards a posi- tive and productive future. MECHA Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano De Aztlan November 19 The Daly SOC bors and they were exiled - To The Daily: represented a promise of free- dom to those Jews who had long RUTH GERSH'S letter of Nov. suffered under the anti-semitic 14, 1975 condemning Zionism policies of hostile peoples and ignores the context in which the governments. Zionist philosophy and goals developed, and consequently has World War II and its after- a myopic and distorted vision math illustrated once again the of Israel and its purpose. need for a Jewish homeland. To speak of a country that is Thousands of survivors from designed for Jewish citizens as Hitler's death camps were "racist" and "built on the as- herded into refugee camps and sumption of a certain superior- confined there, for they had no ity of the Jews" indicates that where to go, as the nations of Ms. Gersh has a complete mis- the world had very restricted understanding or ignorance of quotas on Jewish immigration. history. Only through the relentless ef- forts of Jewish organizations - When Zionist beliefs caught which defied armed opposition hold in Europe in the late 19th did these refugees escape to and early 20th centuries, the the safety of Israel. Jews were being terrorized and slaughtered by pogroms in Rus- That such a refuge for Jews sia and Eastern Europe (and is still vitally needed today is the Dreyfus case had revealed evidenced by the plight of the the latent anti-semitism of Russian and Syrian Jews. Western Europe). Wholesale slaughter and rape of Jewish Zionism was - and is - the villages caused Jews to flee in promise of freedom to Jews search of safety and new homes. throughout the world from per- Oppression and forced emigr secution through inquisitions,' tion was nothing new forhe pogroms, and Hitlers. Israel is Jews: in previous centuries they the embodiment of that promise. had experienced much the same Gale Chameides treatment in many nations of Nov. 19 Western Europe (which was the reason for their original emi- gration east). Letters should be typed THE ZIONIST GOAL -- to and limited to 400 words. returtH ohendTwGeAe-Jew The Daily reserves the return to the land where Jews right to edit letters for once existed as a nation, before , length and grammar. it was conquered by its neigh- __________ NYC: More give than take By KEVIN STIERS WNE OF THE BIGGEST political hdt po- tatoes in recent months has been the budget crisis of New York City. The Republicans accuse the Democratic administration of N.Y.C. as being squanderous and wasteful. The Democrats accuse the Ford administra- tion of being callous and impervious to the needs of New Yorkers. The banks keep ex- pressing their concern over the city's sol- vency, threatening to stop investing in the tax free bonds which the city must sell in order to raise cash to meet it day-to-day expenses. And the labor union leaders are mostly quiet, musing philosophically that a few thousand workers laid off today may mean jobs for all tomorrow. The city faces y budget deficit because its expenses have risen faster than its tax revenues. That much is self-evident. First of all, inflation has pushed up the cost of everything the city buys. Second, unem- ployment and the general decline in busi- ness activity have cut down the city's tax income. But is the real problem that the city government has been "too generous" with social services and wage and welfare, payments? Residents of Harlem, Bedford-Stuyves- ant, the South Bronx and the Lower East Side might disagree with such a statement. They might suspect that their "excessive" living standards are not the cause of the crisis. And they would be right. FOT. DESPITE ALL the talk about the fAd(rrl oreirnment "hailing out" New York, the simple truth is that New York the main reason for the crushing tax bur- den on working people. And they are a vast drain on resources that could be used to provide jobs and improve the quality of life in the cities. Furthermore, there is the problem of debt service to investors in city bonds. Since the interest payments on the bonds are completely tax free, they are a favorite investment of wealthy individuals looking for tax shelters. The major New York banks have an estimated 10 to 15 per cent. of their total capital in N.Y.C. bonds. New York's annual interest payments have sky- rocketed from $470 million ten years ago to an estimated $2 billion for this year. The immense burden of interest payments is to- day the biggest single cause for the New York budget crisis! ONE DOESN'T HEAR too much about these aspects of the crisis from either the Republican and Democratic politicians, or the bankers, or the labor bureaucrats for that matter. Nor should one expect to hear much about this from them in the near future. As workers and consumers of New York continue to receive pink slips and cuts in social services, however, they will undoubtedly begin to look for alternative explanations. If a sentiment of bitterness and anger should be coupled with an aware- negs of whence the crisis originates, we will be hearing a lot more from New York- ers in the coming months, and the bankers pa' noliticians will have a difficult time dishing out the same old song and dance. For a further examination of the roots of the crisis, and what can be done to pro- By SLYVIA HACKER and NANCY GARWOOD Question: I dropped a com- plaint into the question box last week. Does anyone ever read those things? Answer: Not only are they .read by our ombudsperson -whom we recently described in this column, but the Xerox works overtime on things like that. All parties concerned get a copy and then it is brought up to the medical staff. Many of the physicians here have told us that they would like to dis- cuss some of these complaints personally, but unfortunately most of them are thrown into the question box unsigned. We urge you to be brave and come forth openly. Sign your com- plaint and you will be contacted to talk about it. You will also be pleasantly surprised at the amount of warm blood circu- lating around here. Didn't we say this was the service with a heart? Question: I always thought a woman was supposed to douche regularly to clean her vagina but now I hear that this is un- necessary. What do you think? Answer: Although it is ex- tremely important for women (and men too) to be concerned about the cleanliness of their external genitalia, douching, which involves washing the in- sideof the vagina with water or other preparations, should never be a routine procedure. As was noted in an editorial appearing in Obstetrics and Gynecology, the cleansing of the healthy vagina is unneces- sary and should "never be a part of the daily toilet of wom- en. The wholesomeness of the vagina rests on, its acid state. This depends on the organ's natural flows ... Patients must be told that not only is it un- necessary to douche, but also that such a habit is potentially harmful because it may inter- fre~ with the vainai's own aerrn- Question: Even though I brush my teeth after every meal, I still get cavities. My dentist says I should use dental floss. How much better is that than brushing? Answer: Among our rich sup- ply of resources here at Health Service, we have a dental clinic which has furnished the follow- ing mouthful in response to your question: There is a disagreeable sub- stance known as dental plaque which is a tightly adhering film consisting of bacteria along with their secretions of protein and sugar, and which collects on the teeth daily. It is thought that plaque, unless gotten rid of thoroughly, may cause tooth de- cay and gum disease (pyor- rhea). Even the most efficient toothbrushing technique fails to remove all plaque from the sur- faces of the teeth adjacent to each other since it is physically impossible for the bristles to reach deep into the in-between spaces. Waxed or unwaved den- tal floss is supplementally used for oral hygiene to aid in re- moving dental plaque from ap- proximating sides of the teeth beneath the contacting area. The floss is passed gently between the teethpand underneath the edge of the gum tissue. While being held tightly against the side surface, it is pulled slowly toward the chewing surface of the tooth. Both sides of every tooth should be cleaned in this manner with dental floss. Clean- liness is, readily evidenced by a squeakingsound as the floss slides along the tooth surface. It should be pointed out that incorrect or careless use of floss may be harmful. It must be placed carefully and not moved back and forth in a "sawing" fashion. People inter- ested in good dental care have a motto, "if you've got 'em, floss 'em." Send any and all questions to: Thealth Educantors SGC NOTES Participation breeds power By DEBRA GOODMAN TODAY MARKS THE last day of the SGC election, and no matter what the results of this election may be I feel that they mark the beginning of a great- er interest and participation in the Student Government Coun- cil. Many half-term SGC members did not run for re-election in this election, but will continue to participate in the affairs of the student body through the council. Many candidates who are running for council have indicated an interest in playing an active role on the council whether they win or lose. So regardless of which seven peo- ple are elected to the council our ranks will be swelled with hardworking concerned people. The second positive result of this election is the increased awareness among students that SGC exists. Student Government Council has been working very hard doing research and talking to administration and the state legislature about the problem of high tuition at the university. We have represented and sup- ported groams fighting for af- firmative action, for quality edu- cation, and for innovative or cul- tural programs like the Teach- In, the African Students' Asso- ciation. GEO, and LS&A student place for student movements to organize and grow. It is, per- haps, unfortunate that the struc- ture of elections can, while pro- viding us with a democratic, choice of leadership, be ex- tremely divisive, and therefore a destructive experience in the life of a student government system. While most of the stu- dents campaigning in this elec- tion are trying to run serious positive campaigns without name-calling and interference with other candidates' cam- paigns, it is difficult for those of us who care not to get caught up in the in-fighting that goes on during an election. I hope that at the conclusion of this vote, we remember that our major goal is to work to- gether on the issues that con- front us daily as University of Michigan students. Rumors of a December tuition hike are cir- culating. The CSSG report, which would provide a more powerful structure for student input on campus, is not even on the Regents' written agenda this month almost a year after its completion. The hiring freeze promises increasingly over- crowded and unwieldy classes, and in LS&A, where the execu- tive board's agenda is not even available for inspection by the LS&A student government, all of council members, those of us who are working on SGC al- ready will stop to take a look at what we've done this year, and how we can be more ef- fective. This is the prime time for increased positive input in student government affairs. The all campus constitution guarantees students the right to, form and maintain a student government, for good reason. A student government provides the forum for individuals and groups to come together and act as a body on issues that affect them all. A funded student govern- ment (also provided for in the bill of rights) has the resources to publicize, research and build a movement around these cru- cial problems. Our government has no guar- anteed power -- and for that reason our outspokenness on the issues, our 'research, and our lobbying are all ineffective un- less it becomes evident that we really are working with large numbers of students at the uni- versity to pressure the admin- istration and the state. THE ADMINISTRATION ex- pects a small voter turnout in this election to reaffirm their knowledge that students are not organized on campus in any large numbers. There is still time to vote in the SGC elec-