nMta tiian aang l EigLty-Six Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104 Passage of Ozone laws looks doubtful Thursday, January 29, 1976 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Reps do well on Angola MAYBE THE WIND has started to change. Tuesday's decision to halt any fur- ther aid to pro-Western factions in Angola was a prudent and praise- worthy act on the part of the House of Representatives. The fact that Republicans joined Democrats in a resounding defeat of White House in- terventionist policies, especially in an election year, is a sure sign of one thing. Our representatives are con- vinced that the American people want no part of any African adventures. Could there be any doubt of that? Sooner or later, the hauling out of flags and the bellowing of the gen- erals wears thin. Sooner or later a nation gets weary of gore. WHEN THE Angolan people were struggling to be free of an op- pressive colonial regime, the leaders of the United States s m il e d and quietly armed the Portuguese colon- ists. Now that Angolans are engaged in a political conflict among them- selves, we are told: "Here is a bat- tleground of democracy. Freedom is on the line." But Americans h a v e heard that tune before. They have seen the butchered vil- lagers, the s t a r v i n g babies, the countless living men with dead faces. And big words don't go over so well anymore. Representative democracy w o r k s slowly, if and when it works at all, but the House has finally responded to the wishes of the electorate. WHEN HOUSE Speaker Carl Albert called Administration plans to get involved in the Angolan Civil War, "about the most useless enterprise I have ever seen undertaken," he spoke for all of us. By yesterday, predictable reactions were being heard. P e n t a g o n and White House officials were warning that the House action is the last straw in l e t t i n g the anti-Soviet forces lose their battle in Angola. As we have stated before, this argument fails upon closer inspec- tion: it is the Soviet-backed faction that has the greatest claim to "de- mocracy" in Angola. For the ump- teenth time, the United States is not only taking the wrong action but backing the wrong side. TODAY'S STAFF: News: David Garfinkel, Jay Levin, Rob Meachum, Sara Rimer, Jeff Ristine, Karen Schulkins, Bill Turque Editorial Page: Dan Biddle, Stephen Hersh, Tom Stevens Arts Page: Kevin Counihan, Jeffrey Selbst Photo Technician: Steve Kagan By MICHAEL YELLIN A committee vote is sched- uled today on State Rep. Perry Bullard's (D-Ann Arbor) bill to ban in Michigan the sale of aerosol sprays using fluorocar- bon propellants. But due to heavy lobbying by the state Chamber of Com- merce, it seems doubtful that the bill will survive. RECENT research supports the claim that the release of fluorocarbons into the atmos- phere, and eventually the upper atmosphere, causes a decompo- sition of the protective ozone layer. Concern about the effects of the depletion of the ozone layer first surfaced with research showing that the ill-fated SST would have a disturbing effect on the natural balance of gases in the atmosphere because of nitrous oxides in its exhaust. One of the first scientists to publish findings in this field was the University's Dr. Ralph Cicerone. In hearings by a Senate sub-committee investi- gating the ozone problem, Cicer- one said last year that a 3-5 per cent reduction in ozone could be reached by 1990 even if a ban were to be effective immediately. Cicerone calls ozone "a natural resource, ab- sorbing ultra-violet rays that if permitted to penetrate, would harm all plant and animal tis- sue." He says, "Excess doses of ultra-violet light causes skin cancer in light-skinned people, harmfully affects the ocean's phytoplankton, and even the slightest increase affects DNA." FLUOROCARBONS released by aerosol sprays or from leaky refrigerators and air conditioners ascend rather slowly to the upper levels of stratosphere. Then they are de- composed by short wave ultra- violet light. In this process at- oms of chlorine are released. Once freed, a single chlorine atom may convert as many as 100,000 molecules of ozone into molecular oxygen in a single year. With the production of freon in America at 800 mil- lion pounds a year, many scien- tists agree that we may be de- stroying ozone much faster than under natural conditions - at a deadly rate, in fact. In June, 1970, a task force representing 14 federal agen- cies recommended a ban on the use of fulorocarbons by 1978. Satellite observations of the stratosphere support the hypo- thesis that such chemicals, used as propellants in aerosols, may be depleting Earth's protective ozone shield. Other experiments including rocket probes and di- rect sampling of gases by bal- loon - borne devices add sup- port to proposed theories. THE FUTURE OF the aero- sol industry employing fluoro- carbons remains in doubt. Last year, after a quarter century of growth in which aerosol pro- duction rose from 4.3 million cans in 1947 to an outstanding 2.9 billion in 1973, production dropped to 2.7 billion cans, re- flecting both the ozone contro- versy and the current economic slump. R. II. Powey, marketing man- ager for aerosols at the Ameri- can Can Co., says, "The aero- sol business in America and throughout the industry is down about 25 per cent. I'd say about one third of that drop repre- sents a loss to the ozone issue." The three - billion - dollar aerosol industry, in the hopes of postponing additional eco- nomic decay, has started its own study, is conducting intense lobbying against restrictive leg- islation and has expanded its research and development pro- grams. The industry asserts that like everyone else, it does not want to see more skin cancer cases. The companies argue that flu- orocarbon production should not be stopped without conclusive proof of damage done to the en- vironment. They contend that they have been sentenced guil- ty before proved innocent. With the production of freon at 800 mil- lion pounds a year, we may be destroying ozone much faster than under natural con- ditions at a deadly rate, in fact. : :,,F: a v.:i"v;..;r tii;"";";;yar..{6S ;F:,;y,"",,.."wSY.4:":4ii:. .... .. Dr. Ralph Cicerone A FEW COMPANIES have taken action already assuming fluorocarbons will be banned. Johnson Wax has removed all fluorocarbon propellants from their production lines in the United States. Gillette and Bris- tol - Myers have opted to re- instate the old fashioned pump sprays instead of using alterna- tive propellants. About half of all aerosols manufactured are not propell- ed by fluorocarbons. Freon is comparatively expensive and usually accounts for 45-95 per cent of the ingredients in an aerosol can. A report by the National Academy of Sciences is due late in February. This study will probably decide what actions the government will take con- cerning the ozone issue. No ma- jor national legislation is ex- pected to become effective be- fore 1978, and it looks like Michigan will follow suit. Michael Yellin is a Resident- ial College sophomore and a new member of The Daily staff. Carl Albert We wonder a litle about Congress' reasoning. It may be that some poli- ticians see Angola as an insignificant battleground - where a loss to the R u s s i a n s would be insignificant enough to not warrant a big Ameri- can commitment. The "Angola isn't important" line is wrong, too. One of the reasons for American disengagement should be the importance of free choice for the Angolan people, and the moral bank- ruptcy of U.S. support for South Af- rica's racist regime-support which has taken the form of aid to South Africa's allies in Angola. NOW THAT the House has acted sensibly on the single issue of Angola, we can be more hopeful that our representatives will see through the larger, ongoing mistakes of U.S. global p o 1 i c y and goals that made Tuesday's vote necessary. Photography Staff KEN FINK yPAULINE LUBENS Chief Photographer Picture Editor Editorial Staff GORDON ATCHESON CHERYL PILATE Co-Editors-in-Chief DAVID BLOMQUIST................Arts Editor BARBARA CORNELL .. Sunday Magazine Editor PAUL HASKINS ........ Editorial Director JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY Sunday Magazine Editor SARA RIMER .................. Executive Editor STEPHEN SELBST .................. City Editor JEFF SORENSON ......,...... Managing Editor Sports Staff BRIAN DEMING Sports Editor MARCIA MERKER ........ .. Executive Editor LEBA HERTZ.........Managing Editor JEFF SCHILLER .......... Associate Editor CONTRIBtJTING EDITORS: Al Hrapsky, Jeff Liebster, Ray O'Hara, Michael Wilson NIGHT EDITORS: Rick Bonino, Tom Cameron, Tom Duranceau, Andy Glazer, Kathy Henne- ghan. Ed Lange, Rich Lerner, Scott Lewis, Bill Stieg Brazil s 'economic miracle' is a failure By FRANK MAUROVICH and KOOS KOSTER RIO DE JANEIRO (PNS) - From South Korea to Peru, In- donesia to Argentina, the "de- veloping world is collapsing un- der the staggering weight of its debts. And in Washington and New York, concern is growing that the capitalist world's major banks - holding roughly $40 bil- lion in private bank loans to the underdeveloped countries - could sink with them if they start defaulting. At the core of the crisis is the failure of the "development model" vigorously promoted by U. S. officials to the Third World -- bring in foreign capi- tal, gear production to export, and guarantee political stabil- ity. Brazil - long a close ally of the U. S., favorite investment spot for American and Euro- pean businessmen, and touted as one of the Third World's eco- nomic miracles - is the most striking example of that fail- ure. For seven years, the "de- velopment model" brought Bra- zil's booming export trade and oil imports skyrocketing, the country faces a trade gap in the billions; its growth rate is plummeting toward zero; and 35 per cent of its export earn- ings are going to pay back for- eign loans and credits. Compounding the financial crisis is growing political un- rest -- the inevitable result of the model's priority on rapid economic growth at the expense of wages and social spending. In the past year alone, Bra- zil's military government has scrapped its program of grad- ual democratic reform a n d jailed hundreds of opposition leaders. The key to Brazil's economic boom and bust cycle was al- most total dependence on for- eign investments and foreign markets - built into the "de- velopment model." OFFERED GENEROUS in- centives and a minimum of re- strictions, multinational cor- porations poured into Brazil ov- er the past decade - bringing with them their advanced tech- nology and marketing tech- niques. The result spurred the economy but also kept local competition from developing or forced existing competitors out of business. Ten years ago, for example, Brazilian manufacturers sup- plied 70 per cent of the local market for radio and television sets. Today, 80 per cent of that market is controlled by foreign firms - and 60 Brazilian com- panies involved in the electron- is field have gone bankrupt. Three new companies are formed every day in Brazil with foreign capital, according to economist Jean Benet. Foreign interests control 95 per cent of the automobile in- dustry, 90 per cent of phar- maceuticals and 59 per cent of the production of heavy ma- chinery. Last year Brazil pro- duced 900,000 motor vehicles, virtually all controlled by Volks- wagen, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. MUCH OF THIS foreign in- vestment was aimed at the ex- port market rather than the Brazilian consumer - with the result that sophisticated pro- ducts like computers were fa- vored over basics, like textiles. The theory was that these products would find a market in neighboring underdeveloped countries not equipped to make them and in industrialized na- tions which could not produce them as cheaply because of higher labor costs. The theory worked. The U.S. began ordering automobile en- gines, Japan bought ships, West Germany purchased precision instruments and Switzerland even imported watches. share for the poorer half drop- ped to 10 per cent during the same period. Today, one twen- tieth of the population divides more than one third of the na- tional income. Nearly half of the 19 million Brazilians in the labor force earn less than $80 per month, not enough to feed and clothe a family of three at current prices. And due to the lack of medi- cal services, from 30 to 40 per 'At the core of the economic crisis of the Third World is the failure of the "develop- ment model" promoted by U.S. officials... Brazil, touted as one of the Third World's economic miracles, is the most striking ex- ample of that failure.' r?:%::n}:v:^.:t{4:a '... .; . . . . . . :? ically raised to keep pace with inflation w-as recently scrap- ped in favor of a diluted ver- sion. The government has also an- nounced a series of austerity measures, including a 25 per cent increase in gasoline prices. And food prices are rising as more and more food is designat- ed for export to alleviate the trade deficit. Even if the Brazilian govern- ment favored increasing social spending and wages at this point, such a move would be impossible. With foreign firms so important to an economic recovery, wages and taxes must be kept low enough to attract renewed investment. Meanwhile, massive military and police expenditures contin- ue to eat up the bulk of. Bra- zil's annual budget. 1974's mili- tary budget was $1t2 billion - almost double that of Argentina and 10 times more than Chile. Brazil's anti-subversive police apparatus - justified in terms of maintaining internal stabil- ity - is one of the largest on the continent. Like South Korea, Mexico, In- donesia, the Philippines and a host of other underdeveloped, non-communist countries, Bra- zil is now in much the same po- sition as our own New York City. In debt over its head and forced to repay if it ever hopes to borrow again, Brazil has lost not only its "economic miracle" but its freedom to determine its own economic future. Frank Maurovich and Koos Koster work for Latinamerica Press in Lima, Pern, Mauro- vich as editor and Koster as a reporter. But with the decision to at- tract foreign capital and pro- duce inexpensive export pro- ducts came the need to keep a lid on wages and corporate tax- es. Strikes were outlawed and labor unions tightly controlled by the government. And with the, emphasis on reinvestment of profits rather than taxation for social spending, low prior- ity was given to social serv- ices, medical care and educa- tion. The result - while the economy boomed, the gap be- tween rich and poor widened. THE LATEST census figures shows that while the wealth- iest 10 per cent of the popula- tion increased its share of the national income to almost 50 per cent from 1960 to 1970, the cent of the population suffer tuberculosis. Brazil has the highest TB mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere. With the low priority given to education, only 4 per cent of eligible age young people attend universities. Thirty per cent get to high school and 53 per cent are enrolled in primary schools. Urban development is also neglected. Nine million people live in Sao Paulo, but only half the homes have running water and only one third ar linkd to the municipal sewer system. WITH THE economic crisis, Brazil's poor are being hit even harder. Their one protection - a price indexing system where- by all wages, pensions, rents and other values were automat- i Letters Angola To The Daily: This is a response to the As- sociated Press article by Larry Heinzerling, "The MPLA'S 15- year struggle," which appeared in The Daily on January 22. At present a U.S. aircraft car- rier, Independence is off the coast of Angola ,alongside other US warships. The U. S. govern- ment has denied this. Indepen- dence is loaed with "several thousand tons of napalm", among other things. What is happening in Angola? The U. S. claims to be re- sponding to Soviet moves to supply MPLA with arms. In fact the US arms lift to FNLA/ UNITA began (at least on the present scale) in January 1975, three months before the first large - scale arms supplies to the MPLA (April 1975). The USSR response - which it what it is - was also preceded by President Ford's orders to the CIA (last spring) to organize "the largest covert operation ever undertaken outside south- east Asia" (see London Observ- and South African armies as the only real military threat to the colonial regime. Venter, offic- ial South African reporter, wrote in 1968: "The Portuguese military authorities admit the MPLA threat is the most ser- ious they have encountered since the start of the war. This was even true in northern An- gola, supposedly the FNLA stronghold. The Johannesburg Star (of South Africa, that self- appointed guardian - and sym- bol-of western civilization and 70 per cent of the world's gold etc.) described MPLA "as the most effective group" (May 13, 1971). In 1970 Holden Roberto's CIA-supported FNLA claimed to have an army of 30,000 men in control of one-sixth of Angola. In 1972 a revolt broke out in the FNLA's Kinkuzu camp in Zaire. The army, it turned out, consisted of 1,000 men, none of whom had been entrusted with arms - which is why they re- belled against Roberto. In nor- thern Angola, writes Basil Da- vidson in 'The Eve of the Storm', the UPA (FNLA) "has undertaken the lob of eliminat- to Th o trolled over one-third of Ango- la, contrary to your report that they had been wiped out. ROBERTO'S commitment to Angola's liberation is evident by his career. During the 60's he set himself up in Zaire - ruled since 1965 by CIA installed dic- tator Mobutu - as a Zairean businessman / politician. le bought several properties in Kinshasha, Zaire, paid for in part by U.S. 'aid'. At the same time Agostino Neto, MPLA lead- er, established a number of medical clinics in the refugee camps there, until Mobutu / Ro- berto, alarmed at his popularity and 'radicalism', threw him out. Heinzerling claims that the U. S. refused aid to MPLA be- cause Neto was a "communist". Neto did come to the U.S. (1961) and was refused aid to fight the Portuguese colonialists. The U. S. turned him away - as it did Ho Chi Minh - because the U. S. was committeed to prop up the Portuguese colonial re- gime in Angola. In 1974 the U.S.'s Gulf oil gave Portugual royalties of $400 million, with e Daily in 1972 alone the U. S. gave Portugal over 4,000 times as much as it gave Roberto in the previous ten years. Roberto was bankrolled in case of Portugal's defeat at the hands of MPLA. The Portuguese did lost, so the CIA "activated" its agent, Ro- berto. PERHAPS we should read the record of these groups, and base our judgements of what they did for/to the people they claimed to be fighting for. Jane Bergerol, who visited the MPLA's southern front in December 1975, reported "evi- dence of high morale of MPLA forces and of efficient organiza- tion. Women soldiers have been integrated into mixed units. Soldiers are being organized in- to study groups on "the divi- siveness of tribalism and the cultural oppression of African women." FNLA / UNITA have always been tribally based and seccessionist; MPLA is a na- tional movement committed to a non-racial, non-tribal, society. Of the FNLA/UNITA, the New York Times wrote "that THE ABOVE is confirmed by other reports. A. J. Venter ('The Terror Fighters') inter- viewed a Portuguese captain in Angola in 1968: "Whereas MP- LA men will ask villagers for food, UPA (FNLA) fighters will take it. MPLA guerrillas rarely touch the women of their hosts - something apparently drummed into them while they undergo training. UPA men have no qualms whatever about ;ttemnting to seduce women- one of the reasons why they have alienated so many tribal Africans in northern Angola." Venter continues: "young MP- LA guerrilla trainees are more reliable than both the Portu- guest officials with whom they have fleeting contact and the grab-all-UPA terrorists. Hope is the supreme motivating force of Africa and the MPLA offers oodles of it." The U. S. has consistently tried to destroy the MPLA and consistently failed - precisely because the MPLA are support- ed by the people, they are the people, because they are fight- ing for an indenendent Angola a.. ,. :iVV tm. ' \A: A\. A jA\