4 Page 4-Tuesday, March 25, 1980-The Michigan Daily Niniey Years of4 Editorial Free(hlom Vol. XC, No. 137 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Let's not flush student fund's own the Fishbowl With Mugabe's victory, the real power struggle begins I IN JUST a few hours, the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) could flush $15,000 of student money down the bowl. At their regular meeting tonight, MSA members are scheduled to vote on a proposal to renovate the Angell Hall Fishbowl. And if somebody doesn't stop them, student dollars - which are intended for funding of student programs - will be paying for improvements to a University building. For several months, members of the Student Alliance for Better Represen- tation (SABRE) party have been pushing the Fishbowl renovation plan. If funds are approved tonight, work will begin soon on improvements in- cluding seating, tables, notice boards, and electrical outlets. The University will provide $15,000 for the plan, with student money raised from the man- datory $2.92 assessment providing. another $15,000. SABRE supporters of the plan reasonably argue that students would like the busy Fishbowl to be a comfor- table, attractive student gathering area. But to transform the admittedly- drab Fishbowl into a luxury aquarium with $15,000 of student money should hardly be a budget priority of our MSA representatives. Indeed, it is curious that one week MSA members should discuss raising the mandatory student government fee assessment, and the next consider spending a significant portion of the MSA budget on a frivolous project. The Fishbowl plan is more than curious; it is blatantly political - the MSA elections are only two weeks away. Student money can ;be best used for, student programs; MSA has traditionally apportioned its $77,000 per year budget to various student groups requesting program funds. To spend this student program money on a capital improvement that the University should fund is nothing less than abuse of student dollars. What's worse, the Fishbowl renovation plan does not call for a mere one-shot expenditure. Rather, $5,000 per year for the next three years will be devoted to the improvements. This plan effectively ties the hands of future Assemblies. With the Damoclean sword of huge tuition increases hanging over all our heads, now does not seem the ap- propriate time for $30,000 -worth of tables and benches in the Fishbowl. Even MSA President Jim Alland, a SABRE member and supporter of the plan, has said, "This is not a' renovation that is really needed in a time of budget crunch.' We can all live with the Fishbowl as it is. Let's not take this dive. As most foreign observers predicted, Robert Mugabe and his "Marxist" forces in the Patriotic Front won a majority of the black seats in the recent parliamentary elec- tions- in Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia. The size of Mugabe's victory took almost everyone by surprise, however. Mugabe's supporters won 57 seats in the 100 member Parliament, enough for Mugabe to be named Prime Minister-designate without the endor- sement of his former ally, Patriotic Front leader Joshua Nkomo. Across Africa and throughout most politically informed Afro-American circles, the Mugabe victory was met with intense satisfaction and resounding joy. The long guerrilla war between the patriotic Front and the racist regime of former Prime Minister Ian Smith had at last ended. The puppet government of Bishop Abel Muzorewa, established last year to preserve white con- trol over the central bureaucracy and economic institutions of Zimbabwe, was defeated in a democratic general election. The only notable black American who received the news of Mugabe's victory with great displeasure was conservative columnist Bayard Rustin, who promptly registered his "sour grapes" in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. MISSING FROM MOST accounts of the news from Zimbabwe, however, was any detailed historical understanding of the roots of the conflict between the African nationalists and the white settlers. More im- portant still was the lack of commentary on white South African perceptions of Mugabe's victory. The real guerrilla struggle between whites and blacks in Zimbabwe began in 1893, shor- tly after the representatives of a commercial company, the British South Africa Company, settled the territory. In 1893 and again in 1896- 97, Africans fought the colonial expansion of white settlement. These early black protests were vigorously suppressed. The first national election in the colony of Rhodesia occurred in 1923, when white voters severed their dependence on the British South Africa Company and opted for responsible government. Eventually the nation was tran- sformed into a self-governing colony under a British governor. Technically, the British government retained the right to discourage By Manning Marable and even to void any legislation which discriminated against the black- population. But in practice, this meant that several thousand white settlers would have un- challenged rule over several million Africans. IN 1915, AFRICANS were said to live in an area of about 24 million acres in, Rhodesia. White immigrants were granted 3000-acre farms per single family, but began to demand even greater amounts of land. The result was the Land Apportionment Act of 1931; which limited the amount of African-held land to 7 million acres, amounting to only 6 acres of voters roll. Thus, white supremacy in politics was tied directly to white supremacy over the land. The victory of the Patriotic Front in last month's election was a vote for peace and the construction of a new, democratic, biracial government. Such a state canonly exist when the economic basis for the racial confron- tation-the ownership of the land and all its resources-is redistributed to the African majority. Mugabe must be prepared to weather the storm of white opposition from white South Africa and the U.S. government in returning the land to its rightful owners. TO DATE, THERE are some indications that Mugabe may not be prepared to engage in this kind of struggle. Indeed, some South African officials have concluded privately that Mugabe's "socialist" government would be less likely to attract Western capital in- vestment than a regime led by either Muzorewa or Nkomo. Subsequently, Zim- babwe would become economically a vassal4 or dependent state of South Africa, receiving most of its food, technology, and financial assistance from the apartheid regime. Mugabe has already declared publicly that his new government would not give bases to black guerrillas fighting against apartheid in: South Africa. Only hours after Mugabe's vic- tory, Brian Grubb, president of the all-white Rhodesia Chamber of Commerce, pledged his: support to him. One bank director, Sir Henry Macdowall, declared that Mugabe would eventually "appreciate the value of main- taining a viable free-market economy" dominated by whites. From the vantage point of African history, Mugabe's recent electoral success must be seen as only a brief moment for satisfaction. The dictatorship of the Smith government has ended. But the real cause of the strife-the inability of African people to control their own socio-economic strategies for develop- ment-still festers. Last month's victory of the Patriotic Front amounts to the beginning.. of the real struggle for black power in southern Africa. Manning Marable is an associate professor of history at Cornell Univer- sity's Africana Studies and Research Cen- ter and is a leader of the National Black Political Assembly. Robert Mugabe land per African in the territory. As the African population grew from one to six million by the 1960s, the demand for land became the central concern of militant African protest leaders in Zimbabwe. When white Rhodesian leaders declared their "unilateral declaration of independen- ce" from Great Britain in November, 1965, the black struggle for land was elevated to the level of a war for national liberation. The government of Ian Smith initiated a new Land Tenure Act in 1969 which forcibly removed thousands of black families from lands allot- ted to whites. Simultaneously, the Smith regime eliminated blacks from the common LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Comm unistParty has active campaign Big brother not welcome as a visitor in the boudoir E VEN THE truest patriots of this, great nation may be violating cer- tain statutes in a place they would never imagine they could-their bedrooms. For the better part of this country's existence, sex laws inspired by our Puritan forefathers have stood on the books. In more than 25 states, all man- ners of sexual activity other than in- tercourse between married men and women is proscribed by law. Some states go so far as to officially limit the diversity of permissibje activity even between a married couple; oral sex is cited as being illegal in some areas while other, laws go after such "problems" as couples who would mate in positions other than those at- tributed to the Christian missionaries. If it sounds as if the state gover- nments' ideas are a little antiquated, well, few lawmakers would deny that. But imagine what would happen to the brave state legislator who attempted to get such intrusive legislation purged from the books: he or she would become the object of the ire of thousands of self-styled moralists. Besides, those laws have their pur- poses. They can be used to prosecute people whose other offenses don't amount to much of a jail sentence, but whom the courts somehow want to get off the streets. So the silly statutes stand, and are perpetuated even by the judiciary. The Rhode Isand Supreme Court recently, upheld the state's fornication law, ruling that sex between consenting unmarried adults does not fall within their right of privacy. One wonders what aspects of one's life are protected by privacy safeguar- ds, if sexual behavior is not. Sexual prohibition may just be the most offen- sive example of big government. Those who participate in what must surely be Ann Arbor's most popular pastime remain technical outlaws. So the next time you find yourself in the arms of that special someone, be alert. The vice squad may be wat- ching. To the Daily; .z When I read your March 19 article "Students organize for Presidential choices," I was disappointed to note that all the "choices" were from the Democratic and Republican parties. In fact, there are several third party campaigns underway. One of these-the campaign for Gus Hall and Angela Davis of the Communist Party. U.S.A.-is perhaps the most active Presidential effort on this campus. Under the theme "People Before Profits," the Hall-Davis program addresses the real issues of the '80s and suggest serious proposals towards solving the problems we face. Among the proposals are cutting the immense military budget and transferring these funds to needed social programs for education, housing, health care, jobs and the like; nationalizing the greedy energy corporations; closing all nuclear power plants and placing these under public control; requiring serious affirmative action programs in every school, office, and plant: and providing socially useful jobs for all. For University students, who face 11 per cent tuition and dorm rate hikes, a meager 6.1 per cent black student enrollment, the threat of unemployment or underemployment upon graduation, and now a possible military draft, the benefits of these proposals are evident. Like all independent parties, the Communist Party is faced with restrictive ballot laws such as the requirement to collect 18,000 signatures of Michigan voters to get on the August primary ballot. (A party must- then get a certain number of primary votes to get on the November ballot). The Ann Arbor Young Workers Liberation League has been especially active in collecting signatures and in publicizing the campaign. Since January, literally' thousands of University students have signed petitions to put Gus Hall and Angela Davis on the ballot and many have been spoken to or received literature about the campaign. The students supporting Hall and Davis are organizing seriously and actively for a°-¢ Presidential choice and deserve the attention of Tlhe Michigan Daily. -Tim Freeman Ann Arbor Young Workers Liberation League March 21 I Militarism and capitalism Labor is under attack l d1 0 -17-F THE MILWAU KEE JOURNAL sow /WE vom BELIM I!1! 19 AT RESURRECTION. To the Daily: Today American labor is under attack by big business and the government with a viciousness not seen in decades. Giant cor- porations are wreaking havoc with the lives of millions of workers. In Detroit alone tens of thousands of autoworkers have been thrown out in the street with no prospects of finding another job. Union militants are being persecuted for standing against Carter's austerity program. Last July in Detroit at the Communication Workers of America National Convention, Jane Margolis, an elected union delegate representing thousands of workers was seized, handcuf- fed and dragged from the conven- tion floor-all to prevent her from speaking against the anti-labor policies of Carter! Margolis is suing the U.S. Secret Service, challenging this outragious at- tacl on the independence of the labor movement from gover- nment intervention. In the Steelworkers Union, which is prevented by its own bureaucratic misleaders from the right to strike, Keith Anwar is prevent more and worse- defeats for campus labor. An Ann Arbor cult/sect called Revolutionary Workers Group (RWG) which politically suppor- ts the Clericals for a Democratic Union (CDU) and Campus Labor Support Group (their student front group) claims to pose a strategy for campus labor solidarity. But what have they done? In their one big chance to prove in action that they stood with campus labor, members of CDU stabbed the AFSCME workers in the back by crossing their picket lines during that bit- ter strike 3 years ago this month. Coal miners have one word for this: scab. With this record it's no wonder that CDU, following the decer- tification of UAW 2001, lost a cer- tification drive in '78. The Spar- tacus Youth League is the only real campus labor support group on this campus. We didn't cross the picket lines of AFSCME in '77, we walked them, urging all students and workers to stay off the struck campus. The SYL stands for this fundamental prin- ciple of trade unionism: picket To the Daily: The current upsurge in militarism is the logical prbduct of the present capitalist system-a system based on the exploitation of the many by the few. In order to dominate foreign markets and gain access to sour- ces of raw materials and pools of cheap foreign labor, the U.S. ruling class requires a large and modernized military force. Militarism is also a bulwark of class rule at home. At a time. when capitalism's economic crisis is intensifying, it should not be forgotten that military forces have been used in the past to crush strikes and quell social unrest. To the Socialist Labor Party, the vast Miajority of the American people are workers. They have no stakerinesupporting Movie ag To the Daily: So the Daily didn't like the movie "Chapter Two" (Daily, March 19). 1 should have known. Do you know how nice it is occasionally to see a movie in which everyone is'rich, beautiful, skinny, and has no greater problems than the spectre of a former spouse? No one worrying about inflation, where their next meal is'coming from? No acne or heartbreak of psoriasis? No the military plans of the Carter administration. But to protest those plans without taking a:class position is not enough. Any opposition to the increasing manifestations of militarism must ultimately come to grips with the class-divided basis of capitalist society that makes militarism a certainty. Only with the establishment of a Socialist Industrialist Republic of Labor under which goods would be produced for use instead of for profit and the industries would be collectively-owned, can a world free from war, poverty, and suf- fering be brought about. It is im- perative that the Russian "t workers convey a similar message to their rulers. -Archie Sim March 21 reat escape agony of defeat--only the ecstasy of a happy ending? Frankly, the movie didn't even deserve the extensive coverage that the Daily's reviewer afforded it, but it was a great escape. You know, there are days when the public can't even stand the suffering of Bambi or Snow White-we do enough on our own. Sometimes, it's realistic to be unrealistic. -[Wlla [.each MiarchlIII A bbs' quote clarified I To the Daily: I wish to clarify a statement quoted from Shelagh Abbs in the March 12 Daily. Although Shelagh is a member of The Fund for Animals, she is not a spokesperson for the organization. It is important to nnt that it is NOT the intentinn of quoted was what Shelagh meant. It is our intention that in the. hope of deterring future acts of. cruelty to animals, the visibility of our "IN MEMORY OF B.K."- buttons will serve as a reminder to all that deplorable acts of this kind are not acceptable or ex- eusable. and will not he tolerated '&. ~X