4 OPINION Page 4 Wednesday, December 4, 1985 The Michigan Daily S. African poet: Apartheid doomed Dennis Brutus, an exiled critic of apartheid South Africa and former political prisoner held at the notorious Robben Island, won his case against deportation from the US in 1983. The legal attempt by the US federal gover- nment to deport Brutus lasted three years. Dialogue One New Right publication (ab- breviated as "I" in the interview at- tempted to link Brutus's activism to the Soviet Union, but found itself unable to publish its direct questioning of Brutus on the matter. What follows is that in- terview. In speaking to Daily Opinion page staffer Henry Park, Brutus extended thanks to all those who helped in effec- ting the University's 99 percent effective divestiture from companies operating in South Africa. Asked what he thought the next step in the movement to cut ties to South Africa was, Brutus mentioned "labor action, " which would "scare them [United States policy-makers] shitless." Interviewer: One of the things Gordon Winter wrote in his book [inside BOSS, the Bureau of State Security in South Africa ] is that you received 10,000 pounds from Fidel Castro in 1966 to be used in your legal defense fund. Is this true? Brutus: The publishers said that they had made an attempt to get a correction and it was at the printers. The fact is that I received no money from Castro. Winter also says that I had a private audience with the Pope, and that is not correct either. I: Are you in favor of ending US invest- ment in all countries with discriminatory or oppressive practices? B: I would say that the US should be committed to human rights everywhere. This would include socialist countries, communist countries and capitalist coun- tries, but there are two special dimensions to South Africa. One, you are dealing with a country whose constitution denies all political rights to 80 percent of the population. It is not a matter of convention or tradition. It is in the constitution. Two, you have to distinguish between the coun- tries where the US trades and is an accom- plice to the denial of human rights, and countries where the US has no direct in- fluence on the political structure. There are over 400 American cor- porations in South Africa. There are 14.6 billion dollars of American money in South Africa. The United States is South Africa's number one trading partner. It buys more from South Africa than any other country does. It sells more to South Africa than any other country does. It sells enriched nuclear material for weapons. It supplies South Africa with technology to control the 80 per- cent black population - computers, Motorola walkie-talkies. You are in a very special situation. While I make a general statement for all countries, I would still say South Africa is a special case. [The interviewer also asked about Brutus' difficulties with governments allied to the apartheid regime. Defense witnesses were questioned in court as to whether or not Brutus was or is a communist.] I: The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) mentioned "secret evidence" as a possible reason to deny you permanent resident status. Do you know what evidence they could have been referring to? B: No, but I did try to find out. One of my attorneys asked the judge three very specific questions. He asked him: "Does this classified information refer to any organization, or to any particular country, or to any particular dates?" The judge said there were no dates, no organizations and no countries. He said that all the infor- mation had done was to embarass him. He had not felt that it was significant. I: You were quoted in the New York Times as saying that you feared that the INS has information from the South African Bureau of State Security files. B: Mainly, of course, I'm referring to the book by Gordon Winter, who is a defector from the South African secret police and who says that he handed over a dossier which he had prepared on me to the US of- ficials in London. So we have that suspicion, but we don't have hard evidence: I: Winter also wrote that someone, he didn't know who, had tapped your phone in London. He said that you had mentioned in a conversation that you were privately war- ned by an American official that your visa would not be renewed if you started agitating politically in the U.S. B: As you said, we don't know who was tapping my phone. I think it may have been BOSS in collaboration with the British In- telligence Service. I know that some of the information Winter has is correct. The thing about agitation I don't recall precisely. I: Nevertheless, given your temporary residence status over the last ten years, have you felt at all intimidated? B: Yes, in the sense that I often had dif- ficulty when my visa came up for renewal. The last time, as you know, my file was lost. Then they said that my application was late, but that was more of a bureaucratic dif- ficulty than a political difficulty. I: Are you saying that your problem with getting permanent residence was a bureaucratic, not a political problem? B: No, on the contrary, I think it was both. That's where the secret evidence comes in. If it were a purely bureaucratic fight, classified information would not have been introduced. When the judge did not allow me to see the classified information, it became a political fight. I: You are a very in demand person. Do your political efforts take time away from the poetry you love? B: The three years I spent in a depor- tation fight were very time-consuming and a great waste of energy, and in that sense, yes, I think my writing suffered. But, in terms of my political efforts, whether they affect my writing, I believe the answer is no. I see my political work, and my creative work as all part of one pattern directed to the same goal. So when I am speaking and could be writing I don't regret that, because I see both writing and speaking as serving the same goal. I: So you consider your poetry and your politics as one and the same? B: They are different expressions of the same action. I: Do you support armed resistance to apartheid? B: It seems to me that to overthrow the apartheid regime at least three factors will have to be involved. One will be political pressure, external and internal. You will have strikes, sit-downs, protests and civil disobedience, which will eventually paralyze apartheid. One will be economic pressure - embargoes, boycotts and so on. But because the apartheid system is com- mitted to preserving itself at the point of a gun, it will be inevitable that there will be a third component to that struggle, and that will be armed struggle. The apartheid government has stated that it wants to stay in power for a thousand years, that it will fight until the blood comes up to the horse's bits, and that they will never surrender. Because they have made it illegal for chan- ge to take place through peaceful means, I am convinced that armed struggle will be part of the change. I: Roughly how much time does apartheid have left in South Africa? B: My own analysis is two-fold. A victory for the people of South Africa is inevitable, but how long it will be before we arrive there will depend on the United States. If the United States withdrew its support for the apartheid regime, I think it would crumble in one to three years. Otherwise of course the struggle will take longer. LETTERS: Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Call for mutual respect in Mid-East Vol. XCVI, No. 63 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Freedom fighter F REEDOM IS A word which has different meanings for dif- ferent people. In today's super- power struggle, both the Soviet Union and the United States em- ploy various interpretations of freedom to protect strategic in- terests in compliance with their realpolitik policies throughout the world. As so often stated throughout his tenure as president, Ronald Reagan upon returning from Geneva last Friday reiterated to the nation his standard defense of freedom and the right to self- determination for all peoples. In addressing this issue, Reagan cites regional conflicts in Afghanistan. Nicaragua, Ethiopa, Angola and Cambodia. He argues that these are all conflicts "where insurgen- cies that speak for the people are pitted against regimes which ob- viously do not represent the will or the approval of the people." While noble in theory, Reagan systematically ignores the fact that human rights abuses stem from both excesses of the autocratic right as well as from the Communist left. Reagan's freedom in the name of anti-communism has reper- cussions both at home and abroad. At home, crusading anti-com- munism has led to a collective self- delusion of American righteousness, excessive patriotism, and a marked growth of the military-industrial complex at the expense of an increasing trade deficit and an unprecedented national debt. Abroad, anti-com- munism has brought us the ar- maments race, increased nuclear terror, and the strengthening of nnnressive aitneraeies around the world. As Reagan understands and publicly condemns, communist rulers have consistently proven themselves as adept at surpressing political dissent and exercising autocratic power. One need only to recall the Stalinist purge trials of the 1930's, and the successive in- vasions of Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Afghanistan in 1980. If the U.S. truly opposes those uses of power which violate the human spirit than it must not limit its opposition to communist tyran- ny but must also oppose persisting injustice, exploitative privilege and despotism as found today in- such U.S. supported "democratic allies as the Philippines and Chile. Since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's historic signing of the historic Atlantic Charter in 1941, successive American presidents have pledged traditional support for the self- determination of free peoples everywhere. In reality, however, strategic considerations such as the maintenance of the Clarke and Subic Bay bases in the Philippines or ITT investments in Chile have come at the expense of human rights. If Reagan acknowledged and justified human rights abuses in thse areas and elsewhere as a tragic necessity of strategic security instead of denouncing the Soviets as if it were evangelistic saviors of the "free" world, U.S. policies would probably be easier to swallow. But until U.S. policies match its often puritanical rhetoric, Reagan should abandon his double-standard denunciations of the Soviet "evil empire." To the Daily: In response to the letter "Zionism is racist expression," (Daily, Nov. 21) I would like to expound upon a few points. Mr. Khoury suggests that the same system of "secular democracy" that is applied here in the United States in the attempt to solve con- flicts and problems of minorities, also be applied to Israel, as perhaps the first step in a move toward equal rights of the Palestinians there. With respect to this suggestion I am in agreement; all voices of a state should have an equal opportunity for constructive and critical in- put. However, the basis of any stable democracy presupposes the existence of separate political groups wishing to contribute to the democracy through peaceful means and not through terrorist acts. The prime objective of the PLO (the most agreed upon representative of Palestinian people) is not a peaceful con- tribution to any political system, nor is its sole purpose the establishment of a homeland for Palestinians (perhaps through some agreement of land sharing), instead the PLO's prime objective is the destruc- tion of the Jewish state of Israel. So when one speaks of racism, he should indicate which party is clearly the threat. Zionism is no more racist than the desire of any people bound by either religious or cultural reasons to establish a safe homeland. Zionism is for Jews what the liberation of Palestine is for the Palestinians, the only major difference is that Jews need not destroy the Palestinians to achieve this end. Both peoples are entitled to live in peace in the Middle East; both claims to land are legitimate, but one group can not be sacrificed so that the other may achieve its goal. Zionism does not presuppose this, can the PLO say the same? On the other hand, people (Mr. Khoury included) may argue that Israel is unjust in denying rights to the Palestinian refugees, and again I am in agreement; it is a great injustice. Yet the barriers to a Middle East settlement lie not just with Israel, but with all the parties concerned. Peace, fairness, and a Palestinian homeland will only occur when all sides sit down and "democratically" discuss the issues. Nothing will be solved when the Arab countries (with the exception of Egypt) walk out of the U.N. General Assembly with one another and talk. Stop the bombings. Stop the retaliation. Stop the walkouts. And especially stop the generalization that the desire for a Jewish homeland within secure To the Daily: No, I do not think someone could contract AIDS from a door knob. Monday's Daily, ("Misconceptions Surround AIDS Causes," Dec.2) however, reported that I hold this ridiculous belief. This comical remark came af- ter some ten minutes of conver- sation. I had pointed out that the AIDS virus has been found in blood, semen,sand tears. The Daily reporter and I were discussing the extent of the myths concerning the disease, whenbIibrought up this asinine possibility concerning doorknobs. I used thenpronoun "I" as quoted because of the conver- sational atmosphere; few studen- ts would say in a relaxed conver- sation, "If one touches the same doorknob and bites his/her nails, that person could get AIDS and die." This gross misrepresentation of my opinion, unfortunately, permeates the entire news story. I have no misconceptions regar- ding AIDS. In the beginning of my conversation with the inter- viewer, she had quizzed me on my knowledge of AIDS, and had told me I understood the subject well. She also said I had a few misconceptions about AIDS. There is, however, great cause to be alarmed with AIDS. It has no curerand kills the victim. A medical doctor who teaches physiology oncampus recently spoke to my residence hall. In conversation following the meeting, it was mentioned that AIDS could be the next plague, killing one-third of our population. The doctor agreed. My opinion, to summarize, is that we do not know a lot about the AIDS virus, and how it can be transmitted. For that reason, we should be careful with how we deal with it; we cannot afford to take AIDS lightly. Why, then, did the reporter choose not to show my correct opinion in her article? I can only guess she needed somebody to appear misinformed in order to make her point - that students BLOOM COUNTY do not know about AIDS. This is a point well taken, but to make this point, she must not misrepresent a student's opinion, print his real name, and make him seem an uninformed fool. She should not need to distort the truth. She did just that, however, showing poor taste, and poor journalism. Kenneth Gordon December2 borders is inherently racist. Nothing will change; in fact things will just get worse until a mutual respect for the basic rights of both peoples is acknowledged, not only by the Palestinians and the Israelis, but also by the world community as represented by the U.N. -Razum Lyuday November 24 View on AIDS misrepresented Action against AIDS To the Daily: On November 4, 1985 I attended a semi-annual medical center employee meeting held by John Forsythe, the hospital's chief operating officer and ad- ministrator. At this meeting Mr. Forsythe reported on the "state of the hospitals". He very proudly announced that the University is hoping to become nationally recognized pioneers in two fields. These will be sports medicine and heart transplants. He also told us that the University will be looking into developing several other fields, or "centers of excellence" as he termed them. During the question and an- swer part of the meeting I asked him whether there are any plans for the University of Michigan Hospitals to become a center of excellenceton Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome(AIDS). I mentioned that the University has no medical research being done on AIDS, that there are no standard policies for staff or students either with AIDS or testing positive for the AIDS anti- body, that there are no nursing homes or convalescent centers in all of Southeastern Michigan that will accept AIDS patients, and that there is a glaring and pressing international need for a center of excellence on AIDS. Mr. Forsythe told us that the University had considered this option, but that it had been flatly rejected. The first and foremost reasn being that the medical complex suffers from a lack of parking places and that this would inconvenience the current staff far too much. AIDS patients would simply take too many of our precious parking places! Mr. Forsythe went on to state that a center of excellence in AIDS would not be cost effective. Little more needs to be said. It is clear that the U of M cares nothing about the raging public health crises for gay men, IV drug users, Haitans, Central Africans, and really ALL human beings. It is also clear that the health care industry in the United States exists NOT to benefit poor and oppressed people, but to make billions of dollars for drug companies, medical equipment companies, insurance com- panies, doctors, administrators, and the rest. Meanwhile it is now estimated that nearly two million people in the United States have been ex- posed to AIDS and over 14,0000 have contracted the disease. But because this disease hit gay men first in the United States it is being called a "gay disease" and is not receiving the necessary funding for research, treatment, and support services. AIDS and anti-lesbian/gay bigotry must both be fought. Mr. Forsythe may have some hard lessons to learn. Medicine in this country will never be able to meet tha nDeds of the vast majority people as long as it is run for profits. Health care must be run by working people, minorities and health care professionals, not big business! In Ann Arbor, Action Against AIDS-Ann Arbor(A5) is organizing to bring about changes in the U of M's attitude and policies on AIDS. The nex meeting will be on Tuesday December 10 in the Michigan League. Clearly we have a very big, but important task ahead of us. -Judy Levy December 3 Levy is a member of Task Force on sexual orientation. by Berke Breathed _ I I I i I I I "V i T 1