S __aOPINION Wednesday, March 25, 1981 The Michigan Daily Page 4 Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Questions on the Polish crisis Richard Davies, the Vol. XCI, No. 141 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, Mi 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Progress in Zimbabwe HE REAGAN administration has wisely decided to contribute $75 million to help fund a comprehensive plan to develop rural Zimbabwe: This development program, if it receives the economic support of other Western industrial nations, will likely stabilize and strenghten the Zimbabwe economy and ease social tension in the fledgling black-ruled nation. Democratic rule would thus be ensured a strong foothold in the strategically important southern African region. The international funds donated to the plan will be used to buy large tracts of fertile farmland owned by only a handful of white farmers. Fifteen thousand landless, poor families would then be resettled there and farm the currently unused land. Putting this land, which makes up a large portion of Zimbabwe, back into production will help feed thousands of families, provide countless jobs, raise the wages of laborers, and bolster Zimbabwe's economy overall. This will help make Zimbabwe's transition from an elitist, white government to majority rule successful. The new government of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe will have fulfilled many of its promises of social reform and will have returned Zimbabwe to economic and political stability. Zimbabwe's future is central to that of the black-ruled nations which surround it. And the friendship of Zii- babwe and its neighbors in this mineral-rich southern Africa is, in turn, vital to the United States. If Zim- babwe's efforts aimed at a relatively peaceful transition to majority rule succeed, they will set a strong example for Zimbabwe's neighbors. If they fail, and Zimbabwe is plunged into economic and social disaster, others will be encouraged to adopt a more violent, and possibly pro-Soviet, ap- proach to the inevitable transition. If Zimbabwe's development plan fails to receive the international economic support it needs, it will be forced either to renege on its promise of land reform or to seize the white- owned land - without compensation, thus endangering its relations with Britain, the United States, and many Western nations. Therefore, it is clear that this plan is the most reasonable approach to satisfying Zimbabwe's commitments to both its people and the international community and deserves full inter- nationalsupport. The $75 million promised by the Reagan administration is simply not enough to finance the $2 billion plan. Even top U.S. officials in Salisbury have acknowledged that more U.S. aid is needed. Both the United States and other industrial nations, particularly Britain, should commit themselves completely to this program of equitable, just reform. American ambassador to Poland from 1972 to 1978, has been involved in foreign ser- vice for more than 30 years. He has served many functions for the U.S. State Department in a variety of nations, in- cluding the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, and India. Last Friday, he was in Ann Arbor to discuss the crisis in Poland, and his views on proper American strategy in dealing with the crisis. After his ad- dress in Lane Hall, he spoke to Daily staff writer Steve Hook about the situation in Poland. A partial transcript of that in- terview follows. An interview' with a member of the Polish Solidarity member will appear on Tomorrow's Opinion Page. * * * A mbassador Davies, given the renewed hostilities in Poland this past week, do you foresee an in- vasion by the Soviet Union? Davies: No, I don't see a Soviet intervention. I have never thought, from the onset of the present crisis in Poland last August, that the Soviets con- sidered the situation had gotten so out of hand that they would seriously think that they needed to invade Poland. Such an invasion would clearly be against Soviet intertests in general-ecomonic, social, and political-would it not? Certainly. The disadvantages and the burdens the Soviet Union would incur, in my opinion, would heavily outweigh any advan- tages. Of course, you have to con- sider what some people call the "x-factor." That is to say, I can see a lot of reasons why they should not intervene. I cannot possibly - and nobody in the West can - put himself in the place of the Soviet leadership, sit- ting in Moscow and looking at the world from that vantage point. We are not they, and we cannot think as they do. Based on all the considerations, of which we are aware, that they must be looking at, I do not believe they are seriously con- sidering intervention now, nor that they have seriously con- sidered intervention at any time since last August. Is it correct to say that the labor unions in Poland actually control the fate of this crisis? They have a great deal of authority. More to the point is the fact that the Communist Party has lost almost all authority as a result of the failures of its policy over the past ten years, and par- ticularly over the past five years, since 1976. One can't say simply that the unions are in control. There are the conclusions of that history of 25 years-that they must have their own independent trade unions in order to make their voices heard. 0 Daily Photo by DEBORAH LEWIS FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR Richard Davies gestures during a discussion last week of the current labor unrest in Poland. The new administrationin' Washington has taken a much r more hard-line stance vis-a-vis the Soviet Union and the Soviet Bloc. Are you optimistic that, at the end of the current term, the East-West relationship will be improved? You're asking me to look ahead a full three or four years, and. I:; cannot do that. I can hardly see, what's going to happen. tomorrow, not only in Poland but in the world generally. I have been unhappy with this view thatbhas been expressed by the new administration. This country has got to have positive, goals. It's not enough just to be anti-Communist. Certainly, I'n' anti-Communist. I think. most: people, in thelight of everyth 1g that has happened in the post-war * period, feel that way. But this is not enough, just to say 'We're' against that.' What are we for' America stands for something iri the world, it always has, and God willing, it always will. The cornr-" mon people in other countries' look to us. This is the country to which their relatives came in search of freedom and a better life. We do represent that, and we represent the claims of ordinary 'people, to be able to determine for themselves the kind of system under which they're going to live. The present administration ought to be reflecting some of these things that this country stands for, not just saying 'We're against Communism and we're going to draw a line.' One can draw a line, and say 'If you step a foot over the line we're going to start throwing our nuclear missiles.' Well frankly, I don't believe we are going to start throwing our nuclear missiles. Whoever starts the nuclear war is lunatic; he's mad. Because not only will he destroy the enemy but he himself will be destroyed. So we have to develop a positive program, and that has nt_ emerged from the new ad- ministration's statements so far. In light of the violence that oc= curred last week, do you remain confident that the workers' movement will remain primarily non-violent? I don't perceive the seeds of a more violent protest movement. There is enormous confusion in Poland now; the Party is in fun- damental dissarray. But I don't Y think Thursday's violence is a sign of future developments. We have to see what happens. Many people in Poland will be working very hard to ensure that' this is not the beginning of -a violent trend. And among those people will be very high leadersof the present Polish Communist government. It takes two to tango HE SUPREME Court's ruling that statutory rape laws are valid even if they punish only males for having sex with a consenting minor, is not only archaic, it is blatantly discriminatory. By upholding this ruling, the high court has said, in essence, that only the male is responsible for sexual inter- course. Any high school biology text book, however, will make it clear that the female also plays a role in the reproductive cycle. A law that punishes a male for having sex with a consenting minor, and doesn't punish a female for the same offense, creates a double stan- dard and perpetuates the sexist belief that the man is the only one who can sexually seduce another individual. In addition to discriminating against men, such statutory rape laws are out- dated. Recent statistics show that most 16-year-olds are sexually active. If a court decides that a minor is consen- ting-aware of the implications of having sexual intercourse-it should not punish either party. Certainly, such laws should hold for cases dealing with incest, where the child does not consent or does not un- derstand the implications of engaging in sexual intercourse. But statutory rape laws, as they stand now, are ludicrously archaic. three major power centers in the country. Despite its loss of authority, the Polish Communist Party does have a good deal of potential power, because all Poles recognize that its continued existence, and its functioning, or at least the appearance of its fun- ctioning, is an extremely im- portant protection for Poland against the Soviet Union. If the party were to crumble, to disap- pear, to melt away into nothing, then I would have to revise my answer about an invasion, and say that the possibilities have in- creased substantially. The second power center is Solidarity, around which prac- tically the entire industrial working population of the coun- try, together with a lot of private farmers, have grouped them- selves. There is, however, a third and very important power center, and that is the Roman Catholic Church, headed by the Primate Cardinal Stefan . . . who has been playing the role of a moderator and a mediator bet- ween these two, one shouldn't honestly say., rival power centers -the Party and Solidarity. He, and the other leaders, are striving to prevent a situation from developing in which there would be such a deterioration as to invite Soviet invasion. Do you think the crisis in Poland will spill over into other Soviet Bloc nations? There has already been a significant spillover effect. We can see some of the symptoms of that effect; we can't see all of them. We know that in Czechoslovakia, in Hungary, in East Germany, and in the Soviet Union, efforts have been made to strengthen the trade union struc- tures. An effort is being made to get feedback, to use that modish word, from the workers, which goes far beyond anything that has been practiced in the Soviet Bloc for a long time. In terms of the workers, there is not such a spillover, for a couple of reasons. The first and most important-reason is that the economic situation, so far as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and East Germany are concerned, is not nearly so bad as it is in Poland. There has been some popular dissatisfaction, but it is not nearly so high as it was in Poland last summer, leading to the strikes. Another reason arises, and I hope I'm not betraying a prejudice, out of the tradition of the Polish workers, who have been increasingly active over the post-war period. They have a record of 25 years of political ac- tivism, and now they have drawn Weasel Nk/ RLIIN4ALON LIftLIE q1RI-AD IF YOU jET pRE iHAW, 1DON~'T COME WItI~ (0l FRA /BRTN j N1 ... '4Ei-j-, N~r YEr - Bur LyE.BEANM SAJ'MG Yau R f(AutY s~ous uA I ,jR S - A$OUT 7i-us "SUR'JL'AtlAST 1"MESS S5UcKEfS DRY $ARD 1t1N6, A '( o.? As RC K, YCU K~MW- a E N4AVE .Y X) B004*uT AN SrfoOL-1)Hos' ME u~-rlL. r~unts c aMMUvN YTr? _ N sMv u ~ MONEY rr 3uy Sa , R~EAL AMMO( Al YW'jE tOul. Y ONOSES ~fAVrEN'r Yck)NOTICEp THE INFILTRA11pN 6F CMtNST TRAINEP CJeANS Itt+'t 2 FEDOM (. 5I / YOU MEAN ~TNT. / NER1ANPE2 B~o7NER$'? j ThoSE TWO L-ITIL$ &v'YS up o oZN VUJHFto- WH-o ciu.TSr iT WNEtR Rcco'. ALL PA'%? I by RZobert Lence T+AT's wrtr 'fFE1(w, r YU t Ti WMK, WHIt. THEY, ' TtIUSANgS LIKE 'fl-IM, PLtor' TO o6F TFP..w JS Al ZstRoW Yau, WAT s, BUT l NOT ME, GAuaS YEAH, Yoc'LL UusT BEAN EM WrIH YOUiZ I I Y r t- r ; 4 LETTERS TO THE DAILY: A student voice in city government' To the Daily: Believe it or not there are over 20,000 University students registered to vote right here in Ann Arbor. To each of you a little reminder: there's an election related to the property taxes that your landlord pays. Higher property taxes mean higher ren- ts. So, unless you don't mind being an altruist, you might as well get something back in the nonexistent streetlights shed- ding their nonexistent light. You need to study at the UGLI at night but don't like to walk home? Make sure you're done by 11 p.m. because there's no tran- and a party which does care, about you. Mary Smith Burger is a student running for City Council in the Fourth Ward. As a student, she shares and understands youi nnxnn~~~r~ a .o nr-.n e ni sr iii iiriir , ;% iiiriiiiiiiiii : __ _ . - _:: iiii iii ii iiiii idiiiiiiiii