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%( WG ~ W SC{OL-' COLLF_&E V1DS Rt2 RAL CONSERVATIVE THEY RE SUQEQ-NATtONALISTIG AHD GuNG-Ho FoR R AUA I / PKMI ooo coop - 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. I I'LL K-T VIPCOULD C~kA~ECe 7"Th \' \Nc- 650TOUT PAND To BRING B~PCk THEDRAFT cI OQRP\N41lD Qo WMT2' ~ -- -I ' d i l "V II- 4 NA & o a oF l : z h 'I d) '1 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 NAL-OWE I , W ALE ? . . . .. !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. bY-- Berl-e Breathed rworc -Mozr!< /IMZ wswaml -7777 [ i ,, rMJMIX/