ige Airesan 3eail
Eighty-Six Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Inside Soviet newspaper
Wednesday, March 31, 1976
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Sometimes you can't see the forest for the
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By PATRICK WORSNIP
MOSCOW (Reuter) - Pushkin Square,
four p.m., and hot off the press it comes
-Izvestia, the Soviet government news-
paper, circulation eight million.
In this building where Izvestia has
spent most of its life, they print a mil-
lion-and-a-half copies for Moscow and
the surrounding area where it appears
as an evening paper.
%5 1Y'a""S' -% }r.v.a r,{{i. h
'"Soviet construction is
the main theme of our news-
paper,"' Izvestia declares.
Praising the heroes, scourg-
ing the slackers and encour-
aging others - these are the
aims.'
About three hours later a second edi-
tion will be ready for the rest of the
country where it comes out next morn-
ing. Twenty-two Soviet cities get page-
proofs by facsimile transmission, and
another 20 have the matrices flown to
them.
The eight million daily copies serve
a variety of ends. The party faithful.
study the front - page sermon urging
greater efforts in building Communism.
Foreign diplomats and journalists ex-
amine Izvestia for signs of shifts in
Kremlin thinking. Building workers
make paper hats of it.
Though Izvestia looks like a news-
paper, it is not precisely what most
countries understand by one since de-
spite its name - which means "news"-
its primary function is not the simple
dispensing of information.
Instead it tries to live up to Lenin's
dictum that a newspaper is not only a
"collective agitator and collective prop-
agandist, it is also a collective organiz-
er."
In a country where most things are
done as part of some campaign the news-
naver's role is clear, and it is Izvestia's
boast that five million acres of unused
land were brought under the plow thanks
to a campaign in its pages.
"SOVIET CONSTRUCTION IS the
main theme of our newspaper," it de-
clares. Praising the heroes, scouraing
the slackers and encouraging others -
these are the aims.
The newspaper was founded in Febrii-
arv. 1917, in Petrograd, now Leninerad.
After the October revolition of the same
year it was Troduced by the Bolsheviks
at their headquarters in the city's
In March, 1918, Izvestia followed the
Soviet government to Moscow, where it
came to acquire its full title of "news
of the soviets of working deputies of the
U.S.S.R."
By contrast with Pravda, the com-
munistpartysdaily. Izvestia has slightly
less emphasis on party theory and or-
ganization and more on practical prob-
lems.
However, those who look for differ-
ences of opinion between Pravda and Iz-
vestia look in vain. "We follow the party
line, just like Pravada," editors say
frankly.
Do you have to be a party member to
write for Izvestia? A newspaper spokes-
man assumes a surprised look. Good
heavens, no, and many journalists are
not. But all the sectional editors belong
to the party, he adds.
ATOP THE HIERARCHY is editor-in-
chief Lev Tolkunov, who as a candidate
member of the party central committee
is able to transmit ruling on controver-
sial questions.
Below him are four deputy chief edi-
tors and a secretariat which deals with
layout and arbitrate in disputes over
space.
Altogether, Izvestia has 110 writing
journalists at head office, 56 permanent
correspondents throughout the country,
100 stringers employed by provincial
newspapers and foreign correspondents
in 34 countries.
They produce a paper that runs at
most to six pages (costing three ko-
pecks or about five cents).
But print is small, there are no ad-
vertisements and editors say there is as
much reading matter as in thicker wes-
tern newspapers.
But they would like to see it bigger.
"We've got a paper problem and we
don't hide the fact," one said, noting that
the total daily circulation of all Soviet
newspapers is 150 million.
EFFORTS WERE BEING made to
step up paper output, and it was hoped
that soon the pages would be increased.
"That's our little secret," he smiled, as
visiting Moscow correspondents looked
glum at the prospect of an additional
work-load.
A paper with a circulation of eight
million would be a colossus in most
countries, but Izvestia is outstripped by
Pravda (nine million) and Pionerskaya
Pravda - organ of the soviet equivalent
of the scouting movement, the Pioneers
-which prints more than 12 million
conies daily.
With possibilities of increased size and
circulation, Izvestia is moving ts edtor-
ial offices into a new building being built
next door.
Thailand teeters
Smolny Institute. Its initial circulation
was about 35,000.
It also plans a vast new printing plant
on the city's outskirts and will then con-
sider whether to print by web-offset.
The conventional linotype machines
now in use are operated almost exclu-
sively by women, who get a 10 per cent
Sex ruling regressive
THE SUPREME COURT'S decision
Monday upholding a lower court
ruling that states may try and sen-
tence adult consenting homosexuals
is a shocking and dangerous move.
By a vote of 6-3, the Court has re-
versed a trend toward the constitu-
tional right to individual priv-
acy and opened the floodgates to pos-
sible new infringements.
This ruling is firmly in keeping
with previous judgements of the Bur-
ger Court. In the Burger era, the
Court has been restrictive on issues
of personal privacy and has relegat-
ed the power to define obscenity to
the states. So it was a logical step
for the Court to concede to states the
right to determine whether homo-
sexuality is legal.
The ruling supposes that there is
a standard of universal morality that
may be applied, and that various
states may pass judgement on such
a thing. This is nonsense. There are
such things as legalities, true - but
to assign a concept of lawfulness to
various sexual acts and not to others
is at best arbitrary and at worst
hypocritical.
THE SECOND ISSUE is that Amer-
ican citizens, supposedly guaran-
teed a right to privacy in the Consti-
tution, are denied this right as the
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Phil Bokovoy, Lani Jordan,
Pauline Lubens, Mike Norton, Rob
Meachum, Tim Schick
Editorial Page: Stephen Hersh, Tom
Stevens
Arts Poge: Kevin Counihan, Jeffrey
Selbst
Photo Technician: Steve Kagan
on briniy
By LYNNE WATSON
and MICHAEL CHINOY
BANGKOK, (PNS) - Thailand, the last
U.S. ally on the Indochinese penin-
sula, is teetering on the brink of an un-
certain and possibly explosive future.
With U.S.-Thai relations serving as the
focal point for confrontations between
left and right, some observers here fear
a military coup before or soon after the
April 4 elections.
Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj an-
nounced the end of all U. S. military op-
erations in Thailand Mar. 20, although
final withdrawal of U. S. troops--except
for 270 advisers-was postponed to July
20.
A Mar. 20 deadline had been set last
summer after Thai-based U.S. planes
bombed Cambodia in the Mayaguez af-
fair.
Mounting violence here, including 20
assassinations in the last year and four
new deaths when a bomb was thrown
at a student march, has fueled specula-
tion that rightwing military factions
might now step in. Anger over continued
leftist agitaion and Kukrit's decision to
remove U. S. bases runs deep in the
Thai military.
(A MILITARY GOVERNMENT ruled
Thailand until Octdber 1973 when mass
demonstrations brought it down).
Rumors of a pending takeover have
been fanned by two military alerts in the
last six weeks ,one reportedly to fore-
stall a coup by disaffected officers.
Bangkok is now tense and uncertain.
Even candidates for the April 4 elections
are hardly visible, apparently fearing
for their safety. Dr. Boonsanong Pun-
yodyana, the leader of the small Social-
ist Party, was gunned down in front of
a Bangkok hotel several weeks ago.
One newspaper recently noted that the
atmosphere of turmoil, bombings, alleg-
ed killings by rightists and military al-
legations of communist infiltration re-
sembles that in the Philippines in 1972,
just before martial law was declared
there.
While the explosive issue of the U.S.
presence in Thailand remains in the
spotlight; the Thai government also faces
labor unrest and rural insurgents.
AFTER TWO YEARS of unprecedented
strikes, a general strike in January by
Bangkok's labor unions triggered Pre-
mier Kukrit's decision to dissolve the
National Assembly and call for new elec-
tions.
In the south, a separatist Moslem
movement has clashed with Buddhists
and Thai government security forces. In
January several thousand Moslems dem-
onstrated against security forces whom
thev accused of throwing a grenade into
a Moslem crowd, killing 13.
And in the northeast, the Thai army
is fighting a jungle war against an esti-
mated 10,000 communist insurgents.
With such tension on the domestic
scene, military leaders are wary of Thai-
land's communist neighbors. If the com-
ing elections strengthen the military,
they could invite the U. S. to retain its
Thai bases - a possibility which has
sparked student demands that the bases
be dismantled immediately.
But if the left makes gains, the mili-
tary may decide parliamentary govern-
ment must go. Supreme Commander
Adm. Sangad Chalawyoo told a recent
Supreme Command Headquarters party
that the military "will play the role if
the Leftists start moving."
Izvestia
bonus because of the health hazards of
working with hot metal.
Printers' wages are by no means high.
A senior operative in the block-making
room admitted to 260 dollars a month.
"We know printing is a privileged indus-
try in your country," a production man-
ager said. "But it's not here."
TOP MILITARY LEADERS are al-
ready identified with the two largest
ultra-right organizations in Thailand,
both of which are militantly anti-com-
munist.
The largest, Navapol, claims two mil-
lion members and is directed by a group
of senior army officers. "It is the re-
sponsibility of Navapol to prevent a com-
munist takeover in Thailand," says one
leader. "But how we're going to do that
remains a secret, which the world will
know soon enough."
A smaller paramilitary group of about
25,000 - many of them former Thai mer-
cenaries in Laos - is led by the chief
of one division of the Thai Internal Se-
curity Operations Command (ISOC),
which commands counter-insurgency ef-
forts against communist guerrillas.
"We believe in our king and our re-
ligions and are proud of our nation," he
says. "If any group creates trouble or
unrest in the country, we will get rid of
it." And he adds, "We make our own
plastic explosives."
With U.S.-Thai relations
serving as
the focal point
for confrontations between
left and right, some observ-
ers here fear a military coup
of fall
before or soon after
April 4 elections.'
the
Buriger
The Saigon shuffle
ruling allows private acts to become
public record. The public at large has
no business whatever passing judge-
ment on someone else's private acts
unless the acts actively damage
someone else. Yet "moral fiber", the
only possible commodity which the
Court might argue could be damaged
in a homosexual encounter, is a re-
ligious concept, and, as such, is rele-
gated to the choice of the individual.
We cannot allow the reintegration of
church and state. Too many people
died in 1620 for its separation.
And, as all these rights go down
the drain, the right to remain free
of governmental snooping will dis-
appear also. Criminal testimony must
not be garnered in bed. Sex acts must
not be the subject of criminal testi-
mony.
Clearly the Supreme Court has
made a grave error.
By LINDA HIEBERT
SAIGON (PNS) - As the Vietnamese
near the end of their first year of
peace in decades, the story of the mil-
lion-plus homeless children untouched by
the American babylift is becoming clear.
The Provisional Revolutionary Govern-
ment (PRG), starting with 138 orphan-
ages left from wartime, is building a na-
tionwide system of childcare centers to
provide homes for all who need care.
Mrs. Tran Thi My, in charge of four
orphanages in Saigon, told PNS that
the PRG is asking "neighborhood ad-
ministrations to locate, feed and clothe"
children still on the streets until enough
childcare centers can be built. Thous-
ands of children are already in orphan-
ages.
In addition, the PRG is pushing a pro-
gram to help unemployed people move
out of Saigon to settle in "new economic
areas" in the countryside. Many fami-
lies, impoverished by the war, gave up
their children because they could no
longer feed them. The PRG hopes the
new program will enable these families
to care for their children again.
AT THE CHILDCARE centers now in
operation, most of the pre-PRG direc-
tors and staff are still at their jobs. But
Mrs. My explains that they are being
trained to change their attitude from one
of simple care for the children to one of
personal responsibility, taking the role
of second mothers.
Despite the new program, the effects
of the war remain ever present. The
government, short of funds, can supply
only rice and clothing. Milk, meat, medi-
cine, equipment and furniture must come
from the Red Cross and other donors.
At Mrs. My's Nha Tre orphanage,
four-and-a-half pounds of meat has to be
divided among 192 children, and there is
only enough milk to give each child one
glass a day. The roof leaks, and three
children share two beds.
Mrs. My and the Red Cross say the
orphanages also face shortages of soap,
antibiotics, eye and skin medicines, vita-
mins, beds, chairs and clothes.
Linda Hiebert is stationed in Vien-
tiane, Laos and reports frequently on
Indochina.
THIS GROUP, THE Red Gaurs, (nam-
ed after a notoriously fierce species of
water buffalo), is believed to be behind
many of the recent assassinations. In
February one member was blown up
when a bomb he was planting in a cen-
trist party headquarters exploded.
Despite the formal ending of U. S.
military operations in Thailand, U. S.
military aid continues and opponents of
the U. S. presence predict the sophisti-
cated U. S. electronic communications
facilities will remain intact. (The Ford
Administration requested $132.7 million
this year in military aid to Thailand -
more than the war years of 1973 and
1974.)
These outposts, including a new $20
million radar station atop Thailand's
highest mountain, are linked with over-
head reconnaissance satellites to monitor
troop movement in Vietnam, radio com-
munications in China and Indochina, and
Chinese atomic and missile tests. To-
gether with the growing U.S. Navy base
on Diego Garcia, they are part of a
worldwide U. S. communications sys-
tem.
TIHE COMMUNTCATTONS B A S E S
officially ceased operations March 20. No
government observers or reporters have
been allowed to visit the installations
and the Thais have no plans to moni-
tor the withdrawal. Prime Minister Ku-
krit has stated that efforts to sunervise
hp wihdrawal would damage U. S.-Thai
relqtions
LYnne Watson and Michael Chinov
are foreign correspondents for Pacific
News Service.
-4 .1-4.
Letters
\N
I
to
TIhe
Israel houses, severe curfews and oth-
To The Daily: er collective punishments have
THE CURRENT CIVILIAN up- become routine procedure. All
rising in Israeli-occupied Arab genuine political activity has
Jerusalem and the West Bank been banned whilecontrolled
are the latest in a chain of elections are the rule.
acts of protest since the begin- Significant in this latest up-
ning of the occupation nearly rising is the clear reminder that
nine years ago. Throughout the the liberation of Palestine is not
occupation, Israel has persist- merely that of those areas occu-
ently attempted to alter the pied since 1967, but the libera-
legal status and the political, tion of the whole of Palestine
economic, cultural, demographic from Israeli colonial rule. Dis-
and physical character of Jeru- tinctive is the unity displayed
salem, the West Bank and Gaza. by the Palestinian Arabs occu-
This has been done in total dis- pied before 1967, to whom the
regard for the rights of the uprising has spread, with those
Palestinian Arab people and in occupied since. The Arabs of
contravention of the Geneva Galilee are protesting the latest
conventions. Israeli land expropriations there,
Israel's methods have been while in Haifa the protests are
many. Jerusalem was unilater- the result of increasedpreven-
ally and illegally annexed. Doz- tive detention and other civil
.+ y ___-._.___ rh rn~ m~t
of living of even the privileged
Israeli has been eroded by the
declining economy, despite the
billions of dollars poured in by
the U.S. government and the
world Zionist movement.
As for the Palestinian Arabs,
due to the so-called absorp-
tion" of their economy into the
Israeli economy, they too are
subjected to the oppressive Is-
raeli devaluations, steep infla-
tion and high taxation. In addi-
tion, they are exploited as a
cheap labor pool for thosejobs
disdained by the Israelis which,
ironically, then frees the Israelis
for those military and adminis-
trative tasks which make the
occupation possible. Likewise,
occupation has granted Israeli
capitalhthe opportunity to mo-
nopolize the Palestinian con-
rDa
unanimous vote of the
ing 14 Security Coun
bers deploring that si
Uprisings such as t
inevitable as long a
colonialism remains i
of Palestine. The only
to this grave miscar
history is the generou
fered by the exploited
exploiters - the esta
of a democratic, secu
within the whole ofF
dedicated to protecting
thering' the rights of
citizens, Muslim, Chri
Jewish.
Organization of
Students
University of M
Chapter
March 30, 1976
~ly
remain- photo appears racist to me. If
cil mem- the intent is to make fun of
tuation. America's plantation past, then
hese are why not paint the statue white?
s Zionist The youths seem to be enjoying
n control themselves at the expense of
y solution minorities. The juxtaposition of
rriage of the statue and the sign on the
s one of- Dance gives the impression of
to their ridiculing the black man, ("You
blishment know, blacks have rhythm.")
lar state The photo appears to say,
Palestine' Look, we can all live like
fall its- honkies if we sublet through the
stian and Daily." By printing such a pho-
to, the Daily editors reveal a
fArab lack of sensitivity and con-
sciousness. Naively, I had not
Michigan expected anything this racist
from the Daily, since some of
the editors had in the past writ-
. m ten positively on affirmative
1(ICiS~fl action.
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