Page 4-Friday, May 11 1979-The MichiganbDaily
HMichigan Daily World policies propel
Eighty-nine Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI. 48109 us t ward rd wa
I
Vol. LXXXIX, No. 8-S
Edited and m
at the Univ
News Phone: 764-0552
nanaged by students
ersity of Michigan
By the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade
Project Outreach
unjustly crippled
BY FORCING Project Outreach to make tre-
mendous structural changes in its program,
the LSA Executive Committee has not only
reduced the number of available experiential
learning opportunities at the University, it may
have also endangered the future existence of the
program.
Outreach can no longer allow undergraduates
to supervise other undergraduates in the course
as the course has traditionally been run.
Executive Committee members have said it
violates University policy to permit un-
dergraduate teaching, claiming it exploits the
students. This argument loses validity when the
program is viewed in practical terms.
A committee from the Psychology Department
reviewed Outreach and concluded it was an ef-
ficiently run program whose experiential
benefits are invaluable to students. Students who
have worked their way up through the program to
assume supervisory roles have staunchly defen-
ded the undergraduate teaching structure saying
teaching assistants (TAs) would probably be
unable to perform as well as students with years
of project experience. Therefore, Outreach does
not exploit students, but rather gives them unique
opportunities for leadership which are not
available elsewhere in the University.
In addition, this mandate forces the Psychology
department to hire additional TAs to supervise
Outreach projects. Because of financial con-
straints, it would be difficult to hire enough TAs to
oversee all the projects currently offered, and
many will have to be cut. This seriously jeopar-
dizes the existence of Outreach, and will seriously
injure many community programs which depend
on Outreach for assistance. Also, many students
will no longer be able to opt for Psychology 201 in
the future, since fewer sections will be offered.
The Executive Committee also decided to chop
the credits allowed from 12 to six hours, even
though the LSA curriculum committee voted
against taking such action.
The Executive committee has committed a
grevious error by dealing experimental learning a
crippling blow. We can only hope the Psychology
Department will be able to keep this valuable
program alive-without sacrificing the unique
opportunities that have long been made available
to University students.
SPRING EDITORIAL STAFF
ELIZABETH SLOWIK
Editor-in-CheI
JUDY RAOWSKY
Editorial Director
JOSHUA PECK
Arts Director
MAUREENO'MALLEY
LISA UDELSON
Photographers
STAFF WRITERS: Sara Anspach, Amy Diamond, Julie Engebrecht John Goyer,
Patricia Hagen, Vicki Henderson, Adrienne Lyons, Beth Persky, John Sink-
evmTim Yagle.
Subject to Congressional ap-
proval, a House Committee rein-
states military registration for
those 18 years and older. The
government says "full speed
ahead" with the construction of
nukes despite massive protests
and an obvious danger to the
public. A new SALT agreement is
on the verge of being signed-one
that, rather than promoting
peace, merely sets the terms for
continued growth in the arms
race.
Why are these things hap-
pening? Are they merely for-
tuitous events? No, they are not.
In fact, if one digs beneath the
mountain of rhetoric, these even-
ts begin to make sense only in the
context of growing preparations
by the two superpowers for a new
world war. Why else are they
bringing back the draft? A recent
article by a columnist for the
New York Times points out that
all the talk about a shortage of
manpower, and about the "in-
ferior" quality of the volunteer
army is a hoax! The real thrust of
the reinstitution of the draft lies
in the ability, by the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, to mobilize enough man-
power for a major military con-
flict!
Or take the nukes. Carter says
that . "Our national strength is
dangerously independent on a
thin line of oil tankers stretching
half-way around the earth."
What if oil supplies were to be
disrupted in the event of war?
The capitalists are clearly coun-
ting on being able to depend on
nuclear reactors for their source
of energy, not to mention the fact
that one of the main products of
these reactors is plutonium-the
stuff nuclear bombs are made of !
OR TAKE THE inernational
situation. Every "local" conflict
is increasingly taking on the
character of a proxy war between
the two superpowers. The Shah of
Iran falls, and immediately
Secretary of Defense Harold
Brown issues a statement saying
that the U.S. will fight the Soviets
before it will allow the Saudi
Arabian oilfields to fall into "un-
friendly" hands. China invades
vietnam seven days after the
visit to the U.S. by vice-premier
Deng xiaoping. The U.S. feigns
neutrality, but when the Soviets
send a 'contingent of warships,
the U.S. responds by sending a
contingent of its own, and the two
fleets face off in the South China
- Sea.
Civil war breaks out between
North and South Yemen. The for-
ces of the Soviet-backed South
are led by Cuban and East
European advisors. The U.S.
sends in 200)?) "advisors" of its
own, and offers to men the Saudi
Arabian air force in exchange for
Saudi bombing runs wver South
Yemen. Even the recent
take over of Soviet-backed
Uganda by Tanzanian-led forces
takes on the character of a proxy
war with the Amin regime giving
way to one that openly declares
its intention of establishing
"close ties with the U.S." As was
the case prior to the two world
wars, countries in every corner of
the globe can be seen lining up on
one side or the other-either
"voluntarily" or by means of
"external assistance" (as with the
recent pro-Soviet coup in
Afghanistan.)
The rulers of the U.S. and those
of the equally capitalist Soviet
Union need and want to be able to
expand thir economic, military,
and political spheres of influence,
and such expansion, sooner or
later, can only result in the total
undermining of one or the other
of these empires. In the face of
such events, the superpowers are
no longer able to confine them-
selves to third-party
maneuvering, but must employ
the method of direct intervention
in order to prevent a situation in
which, they would lose
everything.
It is in this context that the Mi
dIe East acquires its singular ir
portance-not only as a crucil
source of oil with which to wag
war itself, but also as the jugula
vein of oil-dependent Europe as
Japan. As Business Week recei
tly noted, in its issue on "Tb
Decline of U.S. Power," "Tb
danger, illuminated with start
clarity by the explosion in Iran,i
that a vast global shift in politiea
alignments would occur if contr.
of the Persian Gulf's oil weret
fall into hostile (read: Sovie
hands." As James Schlesinge
put it, "Given their dependent;
on that part of the world, Japa
and Western Europe would ha
to change their orientation." I
other words, the U.S.'s stronge
allies, might leapfrog over to t
Soviet aide and turn their gun
around toward the U.S.
ALL OF THIS highlights wh
the U.S. ruling class caann
longer content itself with mere:
working from behind th
scenes-the stakes are too hig
Sooner or later, the conflict
eimpre between the two sop
powers can only be resolved
means of all-out war! This i
TAKE THE MIDDLE EAST, what underlies all the propagaD
for example. In the aftermath of da (as with the ten-part series a
the fall of the Shah, the U.S. ABC) about military prepared
ruling class is summing up the ness. There is even a book ou
"Nixon Doctrine" as a failure. written by a top British genera
(The Nixon Doctrine, developed (with assistance from U.S. ar
in the aftermath of Vietnam, NATO military experts) thn
amounted to a policy of building postulates such a war will brea
up and relying on regional gen- out in 1982! This question of worl
darmes for the suppression of war is no idle nightmare-it is
liberation movements, and for reality staring us in the face.
"containing" Soviet expansion).
They cite their own studies, such Whatever plans we might has
as the one produced by the had for our lives don't amount)
Brookings Institute, as demonst- a hill of beans unless we face thi
rating that nothing has proven so question squarely. Faced wit
effective in the past for the this prospect, we need to be cla
protection of U.S. intereststas on what the situation is, who i
sending in "the good, old responsible, what we can d
Marines." They clamour for the about it, and who to fight
establishment Sf new military Brothers and sisters, it is time t
bases and the stationing of per- open our eyes, to delve deeply in
manent military forces in the to these questions. As Ma
Middle East. And of course, this ZeDong once said, "The bom
merely increases the likelihood of will not destroy mankind
a major direct U.S.-Soviet con-. mankind will destroy the bomb!
frontation. But, in order to make this hap
But many people say, "how pen, we have to be prepared, bot
could they, after the Vietnam in terms of our understandin
fiasco, be so brazen as to send the and in terms of what course of ac
Marines into a country like, say, tion we should take.
Iran or Saudi Arabia?" It's not a
question of could they, but rather The capitalists are making
that they must. The heart of their their plans around this question
global strategy is one of retaining it's time that we make ours.
and expanding those sections of
Europe already in orbit. Europe
is the area of the world most
coveted by both superpowers. Interested persons can at-
Outside the superpowers them- tend the conference on World
selves, it represents the greatest War: "World War III: Is it
concentration of capital, coming, and what should we
markets, and technology do about it?" Saturday, May
anywhere in the world (and it is 12 from 10:30 a. m. to 4 p.m.
also the place where the U.S. has r
over 50 per cent of its overseas in conference rooms 1, 2, and
investments). The alignment of 3 of the Michigan Union. Fof
Europe's military forces could more information, call 662
prove crucial in a new world war. 16165.