OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, March 2, 1982. The Michigan Daily Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Let's ignore the neo-Nazis Vol. XCII, No. 117 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Saving the auto industry TNIONWORKERS at the Ford Motor U Company overwhelmingly approved a new labor contract Sunday that will trade worker's wage and fringe benefit concessions for management assuran- ces of job security. The unexpected size of the approval - 43,000 votes for the new contract, compared to 15,900 against - now almost'undoubtedly will signal to other industry unions, such as those at General Motors, that such negotiations may be successful. Though both labor and management seem happy with the new agreement, perhaps there are better ways to solve the ailing auto industry's problems. The Ford/United Auto Workers agreement is decidedly short-term in its vision. According to UAW president Douglas Fraser, labor con- cessions will save Ford $1 billion over the next two and a half years, through limits on wage increases and cost of living expenses. In return, Ford will :share its profits and guarantee con- .tinuing wages to senior workers who yget laid off. Supposedly this new con- tract will allow Ford to cut its car -prices and consequently save thousan- :As of jobs. These concessions, however, may iot be the best method of reviving the stalled auto industry. Because the concessions focus on relieving the auto ianufacturers current financial problems, and not their long-run dilemmas, the nation soon may hear .more, cries of distress coming from Detroit. The problem that underlies so much of the nation's economic troubles, and which is also a central problem in the auto industry, is a lack of foresight. American industry-especially the auto industry-has become obsollete compared to the industrial innovations and advances made in Europe and Japan. Our plants suffer from an abundance of inefficient equipment and outmoded management techniques. The cliched cry of "look what the Japanese are doing" is unf or- tunately appropriate in the auto in- dustry's case. Productivity lags because we are using plants and following trends created forty years ago. If the auto industry would sink some of its long-accumulated profits into new plants and equipment, realistic improvements in working conditions, and attempts at worker/management harmony, America might be able to compete with the amazing success of the foreign manufacturers. Instead the auto industry's management still pays its stockholders large dividends and then bargains with its workers for lower wages. Certainlyslabor and management's ability to achieve a compromise is laudable. Hopefully General Motors and the UAW will reach some sort of equivalent agreement. But at the same time there is a dangerous, and potentially disastrous neglect of the future built into these negotiations. The decline of an industry cannot be halted by a single agreement - long- range, comprehensive planning toward a more efficient future, coupled with such agreements, offer the only salvation for Detroit and the auto in- dustry. Suppose a handful of ill-educated rubes sporting the latest in K-Mart paramilitary fashions (you know, Dacron safari shirts, black polyester double-knits, Nu-Vinyl jack- boots, and plastic Darth Vader helmets) an- nounced plans for a demonstration in front of the Ann Arbor City Hall, complete with crudely lettered signs and inarticulate slogans. Would anybody care-or even notice? If they were members of the Revolutionary Howard Communist Youth Brigade or the Save the Whales Foundation or the Women's Garden Club, the answer would certainly be no. (Well, okay-maybe the sight of the Women's Gar- den Club marching around with helmets might turn a few heads). But these simian goons, these pitiful morons, these backward dregs from the ef- fluent of society will be wearing swastikas on the arms of their Dacron shirts. Which tran- sforms them from polyester clowns into powerful neo-Nazis-or so you would think judging from all the attention they are get- ting. LAST WEEK, while most of us were away on vacation, the "S.S. Action Group," a Detroit-based neo-Nazi group with a mem- bership of 15, announced plans for a rally in front of City Hall on March 20. - Immediately the papers lunged for the story and the television vultures started cir- cling overhead, while back on earth various community.groups planned strategy sessions and the police department dusted off its riot gear. It all went off like clockwork. The neo-Nazis set the time and the alarm started blaring. Most Congressmen couldn't generate such furor if they ran naked through the streets promising to vote for a tax increase. But the neo-Nazis can. And they know it. They are perhaps the most skillful manipulators of the media since Joe McCar- thy. Year after year, in city after city, the neo-Nazis have had only to announce plans for a demonstration and the media have rushed up like lap-dogs to a biscuit. And year after year, in city after city, the public has com- plained about the extensive media coverage-all the while continuing to buy papers and watch TV news. MOST OF THE time the neo-Nazis don't even have to show up for their scheduled rallies. They have gotten so many column in- ches, so many videotape reels simply as a result of their announcement that they don't need to rouse themselves from their seedy mobile homes or polish up their vinyl. For the cost of a phone call or a postage stamp, they can double or even triple their ranks as a few more crazies are attracted by all the free publicity. My question is this: Why repeat, this whole pattern again in Ann Arbor? There is, after all, something we can do about it. We can manipulate the media just as the neo-Nazis do. First off, let's try to understand that the media generally produce what sells. If a newspaper editor senses that his audience is only interested in one or two stories about Zimbabwe, then that's all he's going to publish. By the same token, if a TV producer feels that her audience wants two minutes on the neo-Nazis every night for a week, then that's what we're going to see. Economics is the bot- tom line. WHY DO YOU suppose most newspapers don't publish the names of rape victims or juvenile delinquents? Sure, some lofty ethical principles enter into it. But mostly, the audience won't stand for it. If enough people write angry letters or can- cel their subscriptions or stop patronizing ad- vertisers or turn the channel, you can be sure the newspapers and television stations will quickly modify their coverage. So there's one power we hold-and there are a lot more of us than there are neo-Nazis. But we have an even simpler, more effec- tive weapon at our disposal. We can dismiss the neo-Nazis for what they are-an incon- sequentially tiny band of sociopaths not wor- thy of the legitimacy that our attention gives them-and ignore them. Certainly anti-Semitism and racism are growing problems in our society. But let's ex- pend our anti-defamation efforts by educating the bigoted and helping the oppressed-not by reacting to the hollow taunts of some half- baked neo-Nazis. Just remember: The bigger the conflict, the juicier the stories and the longer the film clips. We have it in our power to determine whether the neo-Nazis get a 20-inch story on Page 1 or three inches on Page 10. Witt's column appears every Tuesday. -N Sinclair Higher education trends rK " AIL sue ' r ..%- -- \ \\ I 4p C £I&CLI ROl " ,, , ; b 4 "Et a t. It f tie 6il 11 1l W. ANEW AMERICAN trend is catching on in Europe this year. But unlike the harmless fashion or mnusical fads that often cross the ocean, this new trend-drastically cut- ting funds for higher education-may bring harmful consequences if it spreads rapidly. A recent analysis by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reveals that the majority of free market European countries currently are following the Reagan administration's policy of sacrificing support for higher education for budgetary con- siderations. The overwhelming con- sensus among European university leaders, the analysis reveals, is that their governments have shifted economic priorities and, imitating the United States, have given education a dangerously low status. This is not the first time the United States-has inspired European educational trends. In the 1970s many European countries attempted to catch up with the broad American university system by widening course offerings and student access to their colleges. Many European educators hoped that the 1980s would usher in an easily ac- cessible, broad-based university system to rival America. Instead of finding new opportunities, however, Europeans will now rival the United States only in the size of their educational funds cutbacks. Univer- sity presidents in both Great Britain and France predict that their gover- nments will continue the American policy of foregoing higher education support to meet economic difficulties. Both the United States and Europe have a similar need to salvage their economies with new policies. But the similarity should end there. The disastrous consequences of repeating educational cutbacks in Europe are obvious. Cutting funds now will destroy the potential an educated, vital youth can give to an economy in the future. Europe can avoid the Reagan ad- ministration's shortsighted mistakes by recognizing that higher education, because of the benefits it brings to youths and to nations, deserves con- tinued and consistent support. Europeans should realize that making higher education an expendable item is not a trend worth following. F f IrI~) , T.- 1.:1 a; I-, ~ .. r - l i r 1 J t 1 1 P ) l LETTERS TO THE DAILY: F GEO dictates rules to union members To the Daily: As a graduate student affected by the recent ruling permitting unionization on this campus, I would like to know whether we are being allowed to form a union or forced. I contend that the latter/is the case. It is my belief that the majority of students attempting to work their way through graduate school by holding positions in the University structure do not want or need the political hassles of the Graduate Employees Weasel Organization. It .is a fact that GEO is trying to force the issue on the student worker. GEO is demanding the same amount of money from each student whether the student joins the union or not. If one joins, the payment is "dues," if not, the money is considered a "volun- tary contribution." Isn't that an interesting distinction? In case the student balks at the choice, GEO wants the University to fire the student. It is an outrage that this kind of blackmail should occur at an in- stitution of free minds. I challenge GEO to demonstrate that they truly represent the majority or to reveal that they are merely a dictatorial oligar- chy. The proof can be found in the vote tally on a single question. Do the graduate students working in the University system need or want a union? This question can- not be answered by returning postcards indicating our "preferred" mode of payment No free choice is involved in tha process. I therefore urge all graduaf students being shafted by GE( not to return their postcards unt GEO can answer that singl question to the satisfaction of a the student workers they claiml represent. -Catherine Markwiese Graduate Student Staff Assistant February 16 Reagan r By Robert Lence WCASEL,.JjCAN'[ GTINTO STUPY'ING .. OOtAFTEMK t~Q~l T2 BREAK. 4OULL VeES TE.5 fI N F RROc, FUCK UTRJ-AT .I WF4ATS IT fAlI In? 1 PLANET OF THE- IZOPS." I i II { i I I I