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OPINION
Page 4
Friday, September 17, 1982
The Michigan Daily
i
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Sinclair
~fI~l All ThI0OE[ OLITI(AL (\fTEAL
A\ PRIMEgR kTEw~1T
Vol. XCIII, No. 8
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Travels wit
T TOOK reporters a little
,I questioning, but finally the truth
Ppped out: A senior Reagan ad-
ministration official admitted that
'resident Reagan didn't bring up the
subject of human rights with Philip-
dine President Ferdinand Marcos
during their meeting yesterday. The
topic simply wasn't raised, and the
dame.administration official described
the meeting between the two men as
'extremely amicable."
U "Extremely amicable," indeed. One
would think that the president had
been meeting with Helmut Schmidt, or
lMargaret Thatcher, or Pierre
Trudeau. He, of course, wasn't.
He was meeting with a man who,
since 1972, has ruled the Philippines
under martial law; a man who rules in
a country where torture, mysterious
disappearances, and killings are
common; a man who hardly bats an
eye when sending his opponents to
prison, exile, or worse while claiming to
fight for democratic ideals.
Even by the Reagan ad-
ministration's dubious standards,
Marcos is a despot's despot. In the
course of his 17 years in power, Marcos
has thrown out the country's con-
stitution, made himself president for
life, and put his wife next in the line of
succession in the best Peronesque
tradition. He has enriched himself and
his family, and lived a life of amazing
ostentation in a land plagued by per-
sistent poverty.
Marcos' visit is his first to this coun-
try since before he was elected to the
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Marcos arrives on a state visit
Philippine presidency, but he didn't
come to check up on the sights. He
came to add legitimacy and stability to
a regime that's starting to sag. He
came because his rule is coming under
increasingly sharp criticism and
because there's nothing quite like a
visit to the United States-the Philip-
pines' former imperial master-to put
a new shine on a tarnished image.
And, instead of using any leverage
he has to make life a little better in the
Philippines, Reagan is playing right
along with the game. He's providing
Marcos with what he needs to continue
in power, while exacting precious little
in exchange.
Marcos is getting a lot for a little,
and in the process is making the United
States look cheap.
No more Solidarities.
Polish leaders plan ahead
.6
Same old grind
B ACK TO SCHOOL.
Second week of classes, and already
there's too much work to handle. Who
do those professors think they are? It's
not like students have no social lives,
no girlfriends, no drinking buddies.
God, the summer went quickly.
Each professor demands that his or
her work is done first, as if nothing else
at the University exists except
Calculus 115. In the next class, the
teaching assistant has dreamed up
some new cure for insomnia and just
thought he'd try it out on his students.
OK, fine. They want work, they got
it. To the UGLi.
But the UGLi's already got a
capacity crowd, with the fraternity
crowd on one side, and Bo's boys on the
other. And those damn cubicles, with
three white walls in front of you and a
snoring freshman behind you. The two
Markley girls to your right just won't
stop talking about dorm food.
Time to take a break.
The Stop 'n' Go is always waiting,
with "Guzzler" cokes and bite-size
Cheetos to revive you. And if that's not
enough, just stop by the Simulation
Station for an hour of completely min-
dless, totally unedifying electronic
pleasure.
Time to grab a lemonade at Drake's,
or maybe a coke at Mac's. Anything
will do, as long as it's not studying. No
more Boswell, no more Johnson.
Anybody but Paul Samuelson. Ahhh.
Okay, take a walk down South
University. Watch them drain beers at
Charley's and split up pitchers at the
Jug. One beer with some friends at
Rick's-they said they'd be there at
9:30. Just one.
Uh-huh, no way. Study.
Back to the UGLi and watching the
assistants pick books off tables and put
them onto those shelves on wheels.
Then some joker decides to wear
wooden clogs, and everyone's head
rises slowly from behind the pink and
orange partitions.
God, the summer went quickly.
Second week of classes, and already
there's too much homework.
Back to school.
By Roman Szporluk
On the heels of the second anniversary of
the Gdansk Accord, which accepted the
creation of the independent trade union
Solidarity, it is clear that the rulers of Poland
and their sponsors in Moscow are in a fighting
mood.
They are determined that never again will
there arise another Solidarity in Poland or
any other communist nation. They make it
clear now-which they did not do even as late
as December 1981-that they will not permit
any free trade union, something they view as
a threat to socialism as they understand it.
IN SHORT, they have returned to the
Leninist concept of the dictatorship of the.
proletariat under which the party is the
leading force of all organizations and in par-
ticular of trade unions and youth
organizations. Any departure from this
system, in their view, leads directly to coun-
ter-revolution.
Although no authoritative statement from
either the Polish party or the Soviet party has
been issued, it is possible to piece together a
comprehensive picture of the emerging con-
sensus from articles in elite party
publications in the Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe.
The main conclusion on which all par-
ticipants in those intra-party debates agree is
that the Polish crisis was caused by the
previous Polish leadership's departures from
the Leninist prescription as to what a socialist
state should be like.
ACCORDING TO this view, the Polish crisis
was not caused by the communists' failure to
adapt their policies to Polish conditions. On
the contrary, former party leader Edward
Gierek is accused of having been too much
concerned about Polish specifics. His major
error was to establish too close economic,
technological, and cultural ties with the West.
One of the consequences of this dependence
was that the political regime within Poland,
which is criticized for its extensive' contact
with the West, became too tolerant of op-
position.
Pravda even has pointed out that one of the
factors behind the Polish crisis is the presen-
ce of thousands of Polish-American retirees
who make their home in Poland and live off
U.S. Social Security benefits. They are
viewed as having been a subversive factor.
GIEREK'S mistake, as interpreted by his
present successors, was to assume that a
developed socialist society had managed to
establish itself firmly in Poland. In fact, we
are now told Poland is an underdeveloped
socialist country, both in social and economic
respects, because it still has private
agriculture and the ideological consciousness
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of the masses is lacking.
Thus, social and political integration of the
Polish nation will be achieved only through
class struggle, including application of coer-
cion against anti-socialist forces. Ole might
say that the Polish, communists are back to
1945, back to square one. The difference is
that today they may be unable to appeal to
young people with a convincing explanation of
the failures of the economy, as they could af-
ter World War II.
What specific goals is the present leader-
ship setting for itself? Several target areas
have been identified. One is the question of
contacts with the West. The leaders are
determined to control them more closely,
especially in ideologically sensitive areas.
There will be a corresponding effort to
promote closer contacts between the U.S.S.R.
and Eastern Europe, under strictly controlled
conditions to make certain that the Poles will
not infect their Soviet partners with anti-
socialist ideas.
THE SECOND problem area which they
are going to face is agriculture. The question
of collectivization of agriculture is back on
the agenda. Even though the leadership is not
united on how to proceed, collectivization is
now recognized as something that cannot be
avoided if the country is to move ahead.
The party is aware that Polish agriculture is
in a very desperate situation. The trouble lies
in the fact that the policy of the previous
leadership was to tolerate private farming
and at the same time to prevent its moder-
nization. The result is that 60 percent of
Poland's privately owned farms are under
five hectares (about 10 acres), which i$.
almost exactly the same proportion as in 1931.
Most of these farms are, in fact, under two
hectares, which means they are totally un-
productive. ete
The party thus is facing the choice of either
allowing the establishment of stronger,
productive private farms the size of 20 hec-
tares on average, or of opting for collec-
tivization. It appears that those who prefect
the latter choice are now in the stronger
position, although the other view also has its
supporters.
THE NEXT major problem area is the
Catholic Church, which communist leaders
view as incompatible with communism. They
admit that the church not only has survived
as a powerful element in Polish society, but
has managed to win the support of social
groups which previously did not look to it for
political guidance. This applies specifically to
the industrial working class.
What practical measures will they adopt
toward the church? The goal, since Decembet
1981, has been to defuse the power of the chura
ch, to separate it from the political opposition,
The party has been relatively successful in
this effort and has managed to weaken the
church resistance by cleverly manipulating0
the carrot of Pope John Paul's planned visit tq
Poland. However, it is unthinkable that the
pope will be allowed to come to Poland in the
style of his 1979 visit. It is most likely that he
will not be allowed to come at all.
As for the problem of the ideological con=
sciousness of the masses, the party is aware
that during the Solidarity period the official
ideology lost its credibility for the vast
majority of the people. Leaders were
especially stung by the argument which was
common in Poland before December 1981 that 0
the communist regime is a foreign import, a
force lacking Polish roots.
Official propaganda will be stressing the
domestic national roots of the communist
system in Poland, trying to present it as an
authentic national force. At the same time
there will be a renewed emphasis on the im-
portance of Poland's integration with the
socialist community headed by the U.S.S.R
This probably will coincide with a renewed
emphasis on the teaching of Russian as a
means of inculcating new ideological
awareness.
Whether or not all of thgese goals can be
achieved, one may assume that the Polish
leadership will be firm on the one overriding
lesson of the last two years: There will be no
more Solidarities.
Szporluk is a professor of history at the
University. He wrote this article for the
Pacific News Service.
Li e inside the
institution
By Robert Honigman
The research-oriented and
graduate/professional university
is notorious for breeding unhap-
piness and alienation. Clark
stitutional values. The institution
values only people who serve it,
the faceless drones and the
superstars. The more human you
are, the less it will value you.
" If you are deeply unhappy and
are failing to "adjust", don't
breakdowns, drug addiction,
divorce, and suicide. If you
believe only the strong survive,
your rationale will fail you.
Animals survive. People live.
" Don't imagine you'll find an
answer in sex, drugs, drink, or
have been burned in fire. If you
find them-trust and love them
for awhile and then move on and
heal others.
" Words can heal. Not words
alone in dead books, but words
spoken quietly by living people..
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