0 OPINION Page 4 Thursday, January 30, 1986 The Michigan Daily I e tnan t Michigan Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan OFFICIAL SYMPATHY SURVEY Vol. XCVI, No. 85 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 IN THE CONTINUING BATTLE OVR AIEDI MLPRACTICE CASTS, WI~OM~ VO YOU FGLso Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Election watch N THE FURY and excitement of a campaign for president such as the one going on in the Philippines, it is easy to forget political and social realities and become caught up in election euphoria. Despite the challenge of Corazon Aquino to Ferdinand Mar- cos's twenty years of American- backed dictatorship, there is already much evidence that points to the eventuality that little will change after the February elec- tions. USA Today reported that in the event of fraudulent elections in the Philippines, the U.S. would denounce the fraud but continue to "do business" with Marcos. As the State Department said, the miilitary bases will always be the "bottom line" in the Philippines for the U.S. Also, as Time magazine points out, American private investors are responsible for 10% of all economic activity in the Philippines. The United States has a considerable interest in "doing business" with the Philip- pines. , Elections in the Philippines are very much contrived to suit the United States. Marcos announced them a few days after a pointed visit by Reagan confidant Senator Laxalt. Also, whether it be American reports concerning Marcos' imminent death, fraudulent war hero stories, or property in Manhattan, Aquino has penefitted. The U.S. can demand snap elec- tions and even breathe life into the opposition, but short of direct military control the U.S. can not overcome Marcos' ownership of five major television stations, his control of the army or financial ability to offer millions of dollars to the public. Parliamentarism is not embedded in the Philippines. Already there are reports of six assassinations of Aquino campaign workers and foreign observers will not be allowed within 150 feet of ballot boxes. Marcos' power to set the election terms is probably the deciding factor behind White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan's conciliatory recognition of "doing business" with Marcos. Perhaps most disheartening of all is the reality that in any case, Aquino is cut from the same social fabric as Marcos. According to Time magazine. Aquino is the daughter of a sugar baron; has friends and relatives who are for- mer senators and one of her cousins is Marcos' closest economic crony - head of the coconut monopoly. As if to under- score Aquino's aristocratic background, the Marcos courts recently expropriated Aquino's sugar plantation for redistribution to peasants. The bottom line for Aquino is also that the American bases will stay at least until 1991. The U.S. government has never had sufficient moral fiber to stand up against Marcos and American economic and military interests. Rather Marcos is at worst a "strategic liability." Policy- makers just do not want to support a losing dictator. Aquino could be comparable to Marcos, but if she wins the election and beats the guerrilla insurgents, American policy-makers will toast another victory for democracy. ~0 0 ~ The p'oor; cowntxrod otr Q2s2cL (c4 . . >RVY ~- - --- I Ieh S" hIowly5 tfl'iderJaid lIav exs The sallC, StivduT _ _ _, jNOTE: YOpJ CA~N ONLy VOTE FOR ONE. '861. ewrEMS Peruvians fight Sexist signs By Sharon McGee A revolutionary war of immense impor- tance is raging today in Peru. Although largely blacked out by the US media since the Communist Party of Peru (PCP - sometimes called "Sandero Luminoso" or Shining Path in the press) launched the ar- med struggle in 1980, the Peruvian revolution has continued to gather momentum and, lately, to increasingly attract both attention and attack. In an editorial of U.S. "hotspots" world- wide, W. Randolph Hearst, Jr. devoted several paragraphs to the guerrilla struggle in Peru, terming it "potentially the most explosive situation of all in the Western Hemisphere". Edward A. Lynch of the Heritage Foundation, now a White House consultant on Central America, reported that "if the US waits too long, saving Peru will require more effort and more money than preserving Peru.. . Full scale war would be far worse than the current El Salvadoran war." Accordingly, last February, Congress at Pres. Reagan's request doubled US military aid to Peru, making it the largest recipient of such aid in South America. In August, 247 Marines maneuvered with Peruvian troops in the northern jungle area. And the Soviet Union, which has had military "advisors" in Peru since the late 1960s, joined in with an offer of $50 million in arms for the regime. What is it about this guerrilla war which so alarms both superpowers that they have backed a wave of repression against it within Peru, while fostering a cloak of silence about it abroad? Perhaps, in large part, because the war is being fought in direct political and military opposition to both the US and USSR and their blocs, making it unique in the world today. Despite being called "mysterious" and "enigmatic" in the press, the PCP has been crystal clear about its short- and long-term goals. In their manifesto Develop Guerrilla Warfare they state: "We are firm prac- titioners of the great principles of reliance upon our own strength, as we are firm followers of proletarian internationalism, unfurling that immortal call of Marx and Engels, 'Workers of all countries, Unite!' and as communists we always raise up the three great banners together of Marxism- Leninism-Maoism." The strength which the guerrillas refer to is the strength, not of one or another coun- try, but of the Peruvian people themselves, who have come forward in the thousands to support and in fact join this revolution. Among other things, this means that the guerrilla army's appearance and fighting style differ quite a bit from that of guerrilla armies elsewhere. Its ranks consist in large measure of Indian peasants from the moun- tainous areas, who comprise the most im- poverished strata in the country (one-half of Peru's population is Quechna or other In- dian groups, and another one-third are mestizo). Many of these Indians wield traditional weapons like the "huaraca," or Inca slingshot. In well-planned raids on local prisons or police outposts, they will use these to lob homemade bombs or dynamite smuggled to them by miners, blasting open the outer walls to capture ar- ms or to free captives. The guerrilla forces also involve an un- precedented number of women fighters, some reports indicating that they outnum- ber the men. It is common for units to be led by women. To quote the New York Times, September 7, 1984, "In Peru's traditional society, many people have been shocked by the fact that women have not only joined the guerrillas but at times, have reportedly led attacks. Holding her baby born in jail 2 months earlier, Lilian Torres, 23 years old, said she had worked as a maid and street vendor in Lima since she was 17. She had been afraid at first 'to join the Par- ty,' she said but became aware of her responsibility when she learned about 'the class struggle,' and the 'offensive of world revolution' taking place in Peru. 'Now I am happier,' she said. 'I have stopped being a vegetable.' " Because it is composed of such forces and is fighting to create a whole new society free from the chains of the past, this army is a genuine people's army, able to move freely among supportive masses like fish among water, and able to give full play to a fighting style first described by Mao Tsetung: "courage in battle, no fear of sacrifice, no fear of fatigue." All recent reports since the big offensive begun June 1984 point to the People's Guerrilla Army having grown now to several thousand fighters, able to strike simultaneously at points throughout the country, from the coastal cities to the remote interior, from the jungles to the high plains of the Andes. In the first five years of struggle from 1980 to 1985, it carried out more than 22,000 actions, the vast majority of them successful. But perhaps the most exciting aspect of the revolution in Peru is what has been established in the areas that it has liberated for periods of time. In the dry sierra around the city of Ayacucho, where the PCP is building the most durable of its base areas, about 100,000 people are now governed by and participate in a new political power in the form of People's Committees. These are 5-member committees elected covertly by each village to divide harvests captured from the landlords, to organize work and collective planting and, increasingly, to exercise political power when the landlords and their henchmen are run out. These are areas where for centuries the peasantry were little better than slaves, confined in some cases to sowing a few rows of grain with sticks, and where the landlord's word was law; enforced by the rural police and troops. The Peruvian fighters still have a long way to go before they are able to carry out their stated intention of "surrounding the cities from the countryside" in order to seize power nationwide. But even now it is clear to their enemies internationally that such a victory would be far-reaching. Far from scrambling to accommodate to the demands of the US or IMF (Peru has one of the highest foreign debts per capita of any country in the world, $14 billion with 18 million people), this is a revolution which would strive to thoroughly remake the fabric of society, extricate Peru's economy, from the web of imperialism, and pour its energy into assisting revolutionary gains throughout the region and across the globe. With the material support of the US, the Peruvian regime has therefore tried to crush the revolution brutally and without mercy. The newly elected "democratic" government of President Alan Garcia has publicly sanctioned any and all actions taken by its Armed Forces, including its massacre last August of an entire village of 55 men, women and children which was destroyed, the people machine-gunned, then burned, the women raped and tortured. More recently it was reported in the world press that the regime murdered 30 prisoners at the infamous Lurigancho prison by machine-gun and flame-throwers. Garcia's response to all this was, "I must defend the Armed Forces and give to them my absolute confidence and sympathy." But what could be expected from the same man who declared that voluminous charges published by Amnesty International in 1984 were "not yet proven"? Those of us who live here in the country most responsible for the oppression of the Peruvian people have a special respon- sibility to learn all that we can about the People's War there, which the U.S. and its agents are trying to crush. This Friday at 7 p.m. in the Kuenzel Room of the Michigan Union there will be a slideshow, display of art by peasants, political prisoners and fighters in the revolution and a speaker. Sponsored by supporters of the People's War and some people who simply want to hear a sym- pathetic viewpoint of the People's War in Peru, the speaker is a Peruvian who lives abroad and has toured several countries as part of the Worldwide Tour to Support the People's War in Peru. IM C H ICHIGAN STUDENT MWL Assembly President Paul Josephson should be recognized for his condemnation of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity poster which displayed Greek letters over the tight shirted chest of a woman. It's possible that SAE was Unaware that its posters were of- fensive. In fact, the advertisement vas not unusual. Typically, :women's bodies are used by men to promote male-oriented products nd clubs. The prevalence of sexist advertising in indicative of the inisconceptions which underly them, and certainly is not limited to University fraternities. While Josephson's quick respon- se prompted SAE members to tear "down their posters, changing at- litudes requires time and com- mitment to re-evaluating old ideas. Fortunately, there are programs, such as women's study courses and the rape and preven- tion workshops, which offer students the opportunity to discuss and learn about sex-role stereotypes that perpetuate sexism. SAE fraternity members should make an effort to attend. Correction: Wednesday 's editorial "Over-due education" incorrectly portrayed the rape education program as an action of the Michigan Student Assembly 's women's issues committee. MSA should not receive credit for the program's development or implementation, as it is a result of the work of an independent group of staff, students, and ad- ministrators with the help of the Assault Crisis Center in Ann Arbor. ..-x ."4 ,.t.. ....?:v::. .........::"+-ri ..... :::."}:::.,.v;.::.. "":"r.":.:v. }..:"....:.r:v:v:.:..::.;...... . ... . ..~:."".. ... ....:}: "v:v........ :?~ .v.. . . ......;v..+Y}}}:r?^? ...::?:v. . .. n...}. ....v.: .......:....v............'. ". 4.... . .............. ::.::}" . .t.. x .:4.".. :::r~::vv 4 "......... . . . . . . . . . . McGee is a political activist who lives in Detroit. LETTERS: Space Shuttle must keep WRITERS In its ninety sevent h year of the Daily editorial freedom Opinion page seeks enthusiastic, To The Daily: We sit in the wake of a tragedy unheard of in America until yesterday: the death of astronauts in flight aboard a spacecraft. In the twenty-five year history of the US space program. no one has ever been people could not be more wrong. We, the people of America and the rest of the world, need the shuttle projects. We have already learned so much about the Earth and the environment around it from these missions, with a promise of much more to rnmPTRt mn£im 1Vtmn tmvi w o us better understand our own planet). I talked last week with Carl Henize, a University of Michigan graduate who was a mission specialist last year on one of the Challenger missions. He talked about the glory of an orbital flight, the sheer fun of li..:g :n frnnf ani tn going The Space Shuttle must not be stopped. The airline industry did not close up after the first air- plane crash, and cars each year kill tens of thousands of people. Seven good people died yester- day, heroes, but we must not forget the name of the vehicle in ...h fh - -rn i --mnc . nnp t politically aware writers to join k