The Michigan Daily
Edited and managed by Students at the
University of Michigan
Saturday, June 14, 1975
News Phone: 764-0552
Congress needs leaders
THE FAILURES OF the veto-proof Democratic Con-
gress andSenate have become intolerable.
Since the beginning of the year, President Ford's
policies have scored a number of major victories. The
sustaining of the veto on the strip-mining veto is the
worst example, but Ford's vetoes have also been sus-
tained on bills to aid the unemployed and the handi-
capped.
Now it appears that Ford will obtain his desired
increase in the defense budget, and that his energy
policy will be the one adopted by Congress. Just this
week, Democratic efforts to establish a stiff tax (23c a
gallon) on gasoline, and a penalty on low mileage cars
have failed due to a lack of coherent leadership in the
Congress.
President Ford isn't necessarily a whole lot smarter
than the Democratic leadership of the Congress. The
reasons he succeeds, the reason his policies are so con-
sistently adopted are very simple. President Ford does
his homework. Unlike the leaders of Congress, President
Ford actually has an energy policy, a program for the
military budget, and, most importantly, a comprehen-
sive knowledge of the fiscal feasibility of any program
which he wishes to advocate. Moreover, he is able to use
his supporters in Congress to the best of his advantage,
enlisting them as his mouthpieces in debates and pre-
venting defection to the Democratic ranks.
THE RESULT OF Congress' lack of leadership is that
the wishes of the majority of the American people
are being contravened by an executive whom they did
not even elect.
In light of a recent move in Congress to remove
House Speaker Carl Albert, the role which other Demo-
cratic leaders have been playing must also be exam-
ined. Senator Mansfield and Majority Leader O'Neill
have also failed to make themselves heard in crucial de-
bates, and, even worse, have failed to develop responsi-
ble alternatives to Ford's policies.
Because it is unfair to expect men who are not in
leadership positions in the Congress to assume such
leadership, we believe that the Democratic leaders in
Congress should be removed from the positions in which
they have been entrenched, and replaced by younger,
more energetic men who will force the Congress to stand
together for the wishes of the people who elected them.
soresisirr
Fr 14
it ov, ,

Letters! September too late

To The Daily:
I ATTENDED the June 11
clerical meeting at Rackham
and was about to get my turn at
the microphone when the meet-
ing was adjourned. This w as
a frustrating experience - now
I'd like to have a little input
into the clerical controversy. I
was most struck by the feeling
of suspicion toward the lead-
ership and the membership's
lack of information on union is-
sues, so I'd like to comment
briefly on these points. I11 save
the rest for the next general
membership meeting - t h is
time I'll, get to the microphone
early in the debate.
For years, University person-
nel practices have pitted cleri-
cal against clerical, competing
t nromotions and merit rais-
es: tt is no great wonder that
now, as a result, we don't trust
each other. But in order to be-
come a strong union, we must
begin to trust each other. A
good beginning would be to trust

the recommendations of our bar-
gaining committee. They h a-v e
worked hard on negotiating our
contract, and to me that work
gives their judgement a great
deal of weight. We elected them.
I think we should listen to them.
I was first amazed, then
amused, then made angry by
the ignorance ofthemem
the ignorance of the member-
ship at the meeting on Wednes-
day. I haven't been able to go
to the regular Tuesday n i g h t
meetings, but I have had no
problem getting information
anyway. The answers to many
questions raised durig t h e
meeting are readily available
and have been all along. How-
ever, people must be interested
enough to look for that inform-
tion. Our role as clericals has
made us used to being passive
and waiting to be told what
to do and think. The University
has been doling out data to us
on everything affecting our jobs,
and the portions have been

mighty small. Now :we must
learn to be active and get what
we want. Call your steward,
cal the union office, get to the
most vocal union sympathisers
you can find (every unit has it
least one) and don't stan til you
know what you feel you need to
know. And then go back to your
unit and spread the word.
And please give some thought
to this before our next meeting
-Is Sept. 7 such a gosd time to
strike? If we have the power
to shut U-M down, don't we have
it year around? Every umt I've
seen functions throughout th
summer - after summer ii
soent getting ready for fall. I
think that we're all scared of a
new and unfamiliar situation. I
think it can best be faced by
remembering that we are all in
this together.
-Doyle Sharbach
C-4
Natural Science
Library

U.S. IN LATIN AMERICA
The view from Havana

Editor's Note: The following
is reprinted from the June 8
issue of Gramma, the official
newspaper of the Central Com-
mittee of the Cuban Commun-
ist Party. It's perceptions of
the American experience in Lat-
in America contrast markedly
with those of American govern-
ment officials and businessmen
who contend American involve-
ment in the Latin countries' in-
ternal affairs is necessary to
"preserve those nations f o r
democracy."
Thousands of millions of dol-
lars are invested every year in
Latin America in pro-imperialist
propaganda. In Brazil, for ex-
amole, according to figures pub-
lished in Economic World, more
than 200 million dollars are in-
vested annually in this field.
The press publishes paid ads of
imnerialist consortiums and of
foreign advertising agencies,
which are U.S. firms for the
most part. Much daily press
snace is taken up by such ad-
vertising. In September, 1972,
the Bra7ilian Information Front
stated, "We're not exaggerat-
ing when we say that 52 per
cent of the space in Bra:ilian
dailies is taken snp by a: sorts
of ads. The Sunday edition of
o Estada de Sao Paulo, one of
the largest circulation Brazilian
dailies, reserves 87 oer cent of
its space for ads." The most
imnortant advertising agencies
in Brazil are subsidiaries of U.S.
agencies and control the budget
of the largest information med-
ia. Genival Ravelo in his book
O Capital Estrangeiro na Im-
prensa Brasileira (Foreign Cap-
ital in Brazilian Enterprises)
wrote, ". . . Of the 270,000 mil-
lion cruzzeiros annually handled
by 300 advertising agencies,
more than 50 per cent were in
the hands of ten such agencies,
and only four of these - all
U.S. firms - handled more than
100,000 million.
Imperialist penetration and
-domination are most clearly
seen in the advertising field.
Foreign corporations concen-
trate their investmeats in just
a few agencies, which are in
charge of exerting pressure on
the mast media; in this way,
cultural channels are put at the
services of monopoly interesis.
In a study on Chile, Armand
Mattelart wrote, "Of the twen-
ty advertising agentses in the
country, five- are Chilean sub-
sidiaries of U.S. firms, including,
the top two in the country. In
1968 the Chilean subsidiary of
McCann Erickson handleJ the

publicity for 51 commercial
firms, 18 of which are foreign
firms. The Chilean subsidiary of
J. Walter Thompson nandled the
publicity for 56 firms, 27 of
which were foreign-owned, and
in 1967 handled a total of 1.5
million dollars' worth of ads."
To control the information
media, the United States a 1 s q
manipulates the Latin American
regimes of Uruguay, Paraguay,
Chile, and Brazil, to mention
regime guarantees the spread-
a few. The Brazilian military
ing bourgeois ideas. The Bra-
zilian regime suppresses a 11
news that has a bearing on the
people's liberation struggle.
The so-called ten command-
ments of the tyranny implicitly
"In Brazil, the so-
called ten command-
ments of tyranny im-
plicitly prohibit publi-
cizing any information
on the activities of the
progressive sectors,
student struggles and
the labor movement."
prohibit publicizing any inform-
ation on the activtes of the pro-
gressive sectors, students strug-
gles and the labor movement;,
the news must only focus on
"consumated events." Books,
magazines and newspapers can-
not be published without t h e
okay of police headquarters.
Censorship prohibited the show-
ing of the film "Sacco and Van-
zetti" in Brazilian movie thea-'
ters. Meanwhile, in Chile, t h e
executive editorial hoard of "El
Mercurio," the country's most
powerful news agency, is at the
service of the fascist junta and
its anticommunist campaigns.
Moreover, imperialist ideolo-
gical sabotage may Ice seen in
yet another area. The United
States Information Agency has
played an important role in th:s
connection. The USIA - a coun-
ter-revolutionary agency par ex-
cellence - has the Task of fos-
tering currenfs in Latin Amer-

ica that are favorable to im-
perialism and of showing in
these countries that "the ob-
jectives and policy of the United
States are in harmony with their
progress and legitimate aspira-
tions for freedom, progress, and
peace." To this end, the USIA
fills up the mass media organs
in Latin America with news
and commentaries and utilizes
libraries, movie houses and ra-
dio stations, 60 of which are lo-
cated outside Yankee territors.
With an annual budget of over
200 million dollars, this enor-
mous propaganda-network push-
es the ideology of imperialism
and at the same time is able to
organize other little "jobs" for
the CIA and the U.S. S t a t e
Department.
In its struggle to halt progres-
sive tendencies and commurict
ideas, in 1960 imperialism found-
ed the Inter-American Federa-
tion of Professional Jsur-ialists
as a means of exerting political
control over organizations of
journalists. Needless to say, the
program of this federatio:1 is
not committed to helping the lib-
eration struggles or the auto-
nomous development of the Lat-
in American countries. Accord-
ing to reports, in 1967 alone, the
federation received more than
a million dollars to use in cor-
ruption and bribes to un'dermine
the joirnalist union m>vement
and place it at the service of- a
foreign country's poli:y.
Meanwhile, thehInternatiosal
Prows Society, which Peru ian
President Juan Velasco Alvar-
ado labelled "a club of traitors,
Mafioso, and hucksters," con-
stitutes one of the most efficient
tools of imperialism in its
manipulation of the various edi-
tors of the Latin American bour-
geois press. In 1964 this or-
ganization, which also dabbles
in political espionage, played a
direct part in the coup that
overthrew Brazilian President
Joao Goulart.
Anti-Communist and pro-ill-
perialist propaganda atimzes
numerous methods, an d t h e
stronger the socialist sys:em be-
comes the greater the resources
imperialism mobilizes against
it. This is why, after the vic-
tory of the Cuban Revolution,
and the rise of the revolution-
ary, nationalist, anti-Yankee
movement in Latin America, the
United States launched an enor-
mons ideological offenive
through the mass media.