4
OPINION
Page 4 Tuesday, October 16, 1984 The Michigan Daily
i
4 r
World Party leader figh
Gloria LaRiva, vice presidential can-
didate on the 1984 Workers World Party
1984 ticket, was recently in Ann Arbor and
spoke with Daily reporter Dan Swanson.
La Riva, a Chicana activist from
Albuquerque, New Mexico, ran for mayor
of San Francisco last year, receiving S per-
cent of the vote. Currently, she and her
running mate, Larry Holmes, are on the
ballot in .16 states, including Michigan.
She talked about the World Party's view
of the U.S. political scene.
Dialogue
Daily: Originally the Workers World party
supported the Jackson campaign. Jackson lost
the Democratic Party endorsement and tran-
sferred his support to Mondale. Why didn't
your party follow suit?
LaRiva: Jesse Jackson's campaign was, in
reality, a movement. It was a resurgence in
the struggle against racism, national op-
pression, and the stacked deck of the
Democratic Party leadership. The Democratic:
Party uses labor as an issue to make people
think they have representation when in fact
they do not. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition
was a true coalition.
Daily: By appealing to the progressive
element of the American electorate, you will be
drawing votes away from Mondale. Do you see
that as aiding the Reagan cause?
LaRiva: We don't see Mondale as any dif-
ferent than Reagan. We don't see (the elec-
tion) as a fight against either one of the major
candidates. It's a question of fighting the whole
right-wing course of the ruling class. Their an-
swerto solving the economic crisis is cutting
back on union wages and benefits;, trying to
wage war in Central America, the Middle East,
and elsewhere; and in building up nuclear
weaponry.
Daily: What about Ferraro?
LaRiva: We don't feel that Ferraro is going
to be any different than Bush under Reagan, or
Mondale under Carter. She's going to do what
the ruling class wants. It is, however,
significant that, a woman has been slated on a
major ticket.
Daily: In one of the Workers World pam-
phlets it said that the Ku Klux Klan is a
terrorist organization that should be banned
and destroyed. Are you advocatingwviolence?
As a small party outside the mainstream, don't
you feel such intolerance could work against
you?,
LaRiva: Fascist organizations like the Klan
and the Nazi Party have no right to advocate
genocide; racist policies or violence, and their
existence shouldn't be allowed. What we're
calling for is that the police not protect them.
Every time they come out in a rally in any city
or town, they get protected by hundreds of
police. That's why they exist; because the
state supports them.
Daily: Don't you feel that the communists
get the same police protection?
LaRiva: (rolls eyes) No. Look at the people
who were killed in Greensboro. There was
collusion between the U.S. government, the
local government, and the Klan and Nazi Par-
ty. If the state didn't support them, they
wouldn't have the courage to come out into the
open.
Daily: Do you believe in a competitive press
or should the party control public access to in-
formation?
s the rig
LaRiva: We believe in class truth, that is, no
one should have the right to deliberately falsify
information about the worker's struggle for
liberation.
Daily: Do you believe the U.S. Constitution
should remain basically as it is?
LaRiva: We think there are some
progressive parts of the Constitutiod; the
separation of church and state, for example.
But we feel a few amendments should be added
on. The right to a job, the right to free
education, free medical care, day care.
Daily: What about ascent to power?
LaRiva: You can't have a transition from
capitalism to socialism without the masses of
people, the majority of people supporting it.
We're not for violence, but we know that
they're not going to give things over peacefully
to us - that's why they hale an army and a
national guard. For now we're publicizing our
party - holding rallies and raps - and getting
support from people. We're telling them,
there's no guarantees under capitalism. The
only right you have is to be poor and to go
hungry. You have no guarantee 'to life and the
pursuit of happiness. Capitalism can't solve
the crisis it's in right now.
Dialogue is an occasional feature of the
Opinion Page.
ht wing
Gloria LaRiva, vice presidential candidate of
the Workers World Party, praises Jesse.
Jackson's Rainbow Coalition and the
nomination of the first woman vice president4
on the Democratic Party's ticket.-
Wasserman
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCV, No. 35
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Terrorism:IRA style
TN~1NGrS HAVE REALLY CHAN~ijb S%(
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YOU DON'T have to travel to the
Middle East to find senseless,
destructive terrorism. The Western
world can lay claim to a savage group
of its own: the Irish Republican Army.
Last Friday the IRA claimed
responsibility for the bombing of a
Brighton, England hotel aimed at
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
that left two dead and 34 wounded. In a
grisly admission of failure to kill the
Prime Minister, the group's statement
read, "Today we were unlucky, but
remember we only have to be lucky
once." Unfortunately, even when the
IRA is "unlucky" innocent people die.
Unlike recent attacks by Moslem ex-
tremists on U.S. installations in the
Middle East where the terrorists relied
on an open gate or lax security
precautions to succeed, the IRA's ef-
forts are calculated and executed with
the greatest precision - luck does not
play a great part in their success or
failure. Friday's bombing required a
detailed knowledge of demolition
strategies and the hotel's layout and
very nearly succeeded in killing That-
cher. The suicidal act of a Lebanese
truck-bomber is quite different from
the polished cunning of the IRA.
Last December the IRA exploded a
bomb in front of Harrod's department
store in central London killing six
people. While that act could not be
termed polished, it was a successful at-
tack for the army since their goal, and
indeed the goal of all terrorism, is to
elicit outrage and get exposure for
their cause. The IRA's is a special
brand of high-publicity and high-
casualty terrorism.
They've also succeeded in making
terror -big business. They have a
"publicity bureau" in Dublin' that
issues formal releases of intent, they
actively raise funds in many parts of
the world including the United States,
and undoubtedly possess a formidible
arsenal. Last month Ireland seized an
IRA trawler carrying several tons of
arms and ammunition. The result of
the IRA's well-oiled organization is
lethal.
The activities of terrorist groups
come out of a failure to accept the
values of a democratic society. A
striving for social and political change
is turned from constructive effort, to
destructive power. The IRA is no ex-
ception. Frustrated by the many real
problems in Northern Ireland, the
group has turned its back on realistic
efforts toward a solution and resorted
to murderous violence that leaves a
legacy of waste, not of progress.
The goal of the bombing was to
disrupt efforts to achieve settlement in
Northern Ireland. In recent weeks
representatives of the British and Irish
governments have been discussing a
peaceful resolution and have ex-
pressed optimism.oButaas former Nor-
thern Ireland Secretary James Prior
said, the IRA is "worried about the
possibility of peace."
Why is the IRA worried about peace?
Because when democracy and
peaceful efforts succeeded, their op-
ponents fail. The IRA has a lot to lose
if peace is found since they are not a
group of revolutionaries attempting to
right society's wrongs, they are
terrorists. And-no matter where you
are in the world, that means the wan-
ton destruction of innocent life.
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY
Nite-Ride unsafe
for women
v-
t
To the Daily:
Yes, "It's hard . . . being a
woman." I thank Allison
Salerno for her column "A Nite-
Ride Nightmare" (Daily, Oc-
tober 11). In hope that a better
system be initiated by making
people aware of the problems, I
would like to add to Salerno's
statement. The first time I used
the Nite-Ride service there were
two other men as passengers, ob-
viously the driver's friends.
Being the only women in a car
with three strangers presented
an uncomfortable situation. Both
their presence and their rude at-
titude made me feel uneasy in an
atmosphere that is created to in-
sure my safety. At the time I
thought it must have been an
unusual circumstance and was
willing to use the service another
time.
The next time I tried Nite-Ride
the driver arrived one hour and
fifteen minutes after my call,
although I had called the dispat-
cher a few times. The driver
picked me up and proceeded to
pick-up and drop-off other
students in a random manner,
despite the previous passengers'
protest ("not a cab"). After a
half hour the other women and I
demanded he take us home (now
2 blocks from my apartment.)
Thus, I arrived home at almost
two a.m., my original call was at
11:45 p.m. (Quite an incon-
venience on a school night). In
both cases the drivers were rude
and careless.
I hope that now people will
realize the importance of a safe,
inexpensive, efficient system.
The Night Owl is not of service to-
off-campus women, and the Nite-
Ride is not a service. I hope that .
the men and/or women in charge'
of these programs will better un-
derstand what it feels like to fear:
the night. -Sherry Kohn -
October 13
-- - - -.----
...........
DOES ThE GREA - E ATK C A U 5 0T ThE EL UMI Ii J
R~EALLY APPEAR ON Ot)oV. ( 1
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. . . ..
!S:!!
Women weak as men
Unsigned editorials
pearing on the left
ap-
side
To the Daily:
I would like to respond to
Jackie Young's article concer-
ning male and female
chauvinism "Women's code of
non-academic conduct" (Daily,
October 14).
Let me first say that the
column did a good job of
illuminating the diverse forms of
sexism. The arguement,
however, suggests that female
chauvinism is rising as a respon-
sleeve. Both male and female
chauvinists are exceedingly
small people. From my point of
view, it is absurd to respect such
people for this attribute. If this
trend continues, I think women
will soon have the female answer
to - yes - Bobby Riggs!
- David Battaglia
October 14
BLOOMCOUNTY
1r n
of f this page represent a
majority opinion of the
.Daily's Editorial Board.
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