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Page 2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 25, 1988
VP
hopeful for workers
BY MICHAEL LUSTIG
Would you vote for a person who
promised a $10-an-hour minimum
wage?
Gloria La Riva, vice presidential
candidate for the Worker's World
Party, is making that promise, but
doesn't expect many people to take
her up on the offer.
"We're obviously not running for
the vote," said La Riva in a recent
interview with the Daily. She sees
her candidacy as a protest against
Republican George Bush and Demo-
crat Michael Dukakis because she
thinks they are not addressing the
political and economic concerns of
poor and working people.
"We see no difference between the
policies of Bush and Dukakis."
La Riva criticized the presidential
campaign as one of empty promises,
intentional obscuring of issues, and a
"shallow battle of personalities." She
added that she expects the economic
conditions of poor and working peo-
ple to decline. "We say this with
certainty."
The Workers' World Party is
designed to only represent poor and
working people, La Riva said. "We
offer a way out - through struggle."
This struggle will eventually
come, she predicted, and it will
probably be violent. The struggle
cannot begin until poor and working
people develop a feeling of group
consciousness. Once they realize
their common goals and needs, they
will join together in the struggle, she
said.
Corporations are the root of the
problems of today's society, La Riva
said. They are the cause of racism
because they work to keep poor and
working people divided.
The WWP helped defend Tawana
Brawley, a Black New York woman
who claimed to have been raped re-
peatedly for several days by a group
of white men a year ago. A New
York state grand jury recently con-
cluded her story was false, but La
Riva said the state's decision was an
attempt to "squelch the Black move-
ment for justice."
The WWP saw Jesse Jackson's
presidential campaign as the begin-
ning of a movement paying attention
to the needs of poor and working
people. Had Jackson been the Demo-
cratic presidential nominee, she said,
the WWP would have campaigned for
him.
The focus of the WWP's message
is "money for jobs," La Riva said.
To pay the $10 an hour minimum
wage, she would impose a 100 per-
cent tax on corporate profits.
Corporations are also to blame for
poor environmental conditions, La
Riva said, adding that she favors
criminal charges for corporate execu-
tives of companies that pollute.
She supports a complete disman-
tling of the Pentagon and ending use
of nuclear power and nuclear
weapons.
In foreign affairs, La Riva said she
would end all aid to Israel and South
Africa and end military involvement
in Central America. She supports
demands of Palestinian people for
self-determination of their political
future.
La Riva and her running mate,
Larry Holmes, are on the ballot in
Michigan and 14 other states.
Gloria
World
La Riva, vice presidential candidate of the Workers'
Party, says corporations are the root of many of
society's
problems.
Party aims to help workers, poor
BY MICHAEL LUSTIG
A little respect and a decent living.
Scott Jones didn't think those two things were
all that much to ask. And when he realized he
wasn't getting them, he found some others who
agreed.
Jones and 25 people, all workers, banded
together to form Workers Against Concessions, a
Michigan-based political party aimed at im-
proving the living standards of working and poor
people.
The party formed after a three-month strike
against Blue Cross and Blue Shield last year,
Jones said, and is comprised of "workers who are
fed up with Republicans and Democrats - I'm
one of them."
Jones, who is running for a seat in the state
House in the upcoming elections, said in a recent
interview with the Daily that he and the other
candidates in WAC would be better able to
represent poor and working people politically. "If
anybody should speak for workers or the poor, it
should be a worker or a poor person."
Workers and poor people need parties like
WAC, Jones said, because Democrats and
Republicans are parties for rich people and
corporations. "They haven't earned the right to
speak for workers or the poor because they're not
and haven't been." Politicians do not know what
it is like to live paycheck to paycheck, he said.
Jones is running in the 53rd House District
against Democrat Perry Bullard, the incumbent,
and Republican Rich Birkett. The district is
comprised of the University and downtown Ann
Arbor.
The party does not have a set platform, but
opposes plant closings, cuts in social services,
and cuts to Social Security and pensions.
WAC candidates campaign on foot, acquiring
funds through sales of buttons and T-shirts.
Sally Bier, a clerical worker, is running in the
U.S. Senate race; eight people are running for
Congressional seats, all in districts in
southeastern Michigan; 13 are running for state
house seats, mostly in and around Detroit; two
are running for the Wayne County Board of
Commissioners; and two are running for seats on
the State Board of Education.
IN BRIEF
Compiled from Associated Press and staff reports
Manhattan building caves in
A six-story building in Manhattan's Garment District collapsed yester-
day afternoon, injuring at least nine people and disrupting rail and subway
service, authorities said.
The injuries were described as minor, but rescuers were searching for
up to five other people possibly trapped in the building when the west
wall and the interior structure collapsed, Fire Commissioner Joseph
Bruno said.
The building, on West 31st Street, housed a handbag manufacturing
company and other fashion-related businesses. Fire Department spokes-
person Efrain Parrilla said 13 people were believed to have been in the
building when it collapsed at about 3 p.m.
The cause of the collapse was not immediately known, but Parrilla
said a trench had been dug along one wall of the building. He said the
wall had been propped up with 2-by-4 boards.
Banks extend credit to Soviets
FRANKFURT, West Germany (AP) - West European bankers are
offering the Soviets huge amounts of credit to use in modernizing their
consumer economy, but Japan's bankers are holding back.
"Credit not only from West Germany but from all of Western Europe
will be increasing and expanding in coming years," said Peter Pietsch, a
finance and trade expert with West Germany's Commerzbank.
Commerzbank is part of a consortium of West German banks that ar-
ranged a credit of $1.6 billion to the Soviet Union.
Italian and British banks have already offered the Soviets over $2.4 bil-
lion in credit, and French banks have proposed a $2 billion credit.
Japanese bankers are taking a much more cautious approach. An
analyst in Tokyo said similar large credits from private Japanese insti-
tutions are unlikely, mainly because of cool Soviet-Japanese relations.
EK-Marines to help locate
old landmines in Vietnam
NEW YORK- Three former Marines extended a peace offering to
Vietnam yesterday in advance of a mercy mission to that country in
which they will look for land mines that might still be in place 20 years
after they planted them.
The Americans presented a plaque at the Vietnamese mission to the
United Nations saying: "In the hopes of preserving the peace, we come to
Vietnam once again, this time to help the preservation of human life.
11th Engineers January 1989."
While the nine-day trip to be made by six former Marines from the
11th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, is a private and, in some
ways, sentimental journey funded by an anonymous businessman, it had
the blessing of both the U.S. and the Vietnamese governments.
The January 9 trip is the latest in a series of moves between the two
countries to improve relations.
Soviets to help trapped whales
BARROW, Alaska - Two Soviet icebreakers steamed toward U.S.
waters to join the drive to save two stranded whales yesterday, while
rescuers at the scene focused on a huge ice ridge blocking the mammals'
path to open water.
The California gray whales must get over the shoal and through the
ice ridge to reach an open lead, or pathway, through the ice. The nearest
completely open water is 200 miles away in the Chukchi Sea.
The icebreakers, requested by Greenpeace USA, and by the State
department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
were expected to arrive during the night. It was hoped that at least one of
the Soviet vessels would be able to breach the ice ridge.
Biologists said they were considering the possibility they might have
to airlift the animals to open water, but were afraid the whales might be
injured.
EXTRAS
MSU bells may ring again
Beaumont Tower is silent today, but Michigan State University
students who never have heard its 47 bells chiming the Alma Mater want
to revive the campus centerpiece.
More than 90 percent of the Class of 1989 recently voted to try to
raise $128,000 for the first phase of a project aimed at bringing the caril-
lon back to life.
The plan calls for reorganizing the bells within the tower, recon-
ditioning the clappers and headpieces, improving the mechanical part of
the carillon, replacing corroded bolts and cables, returning the treble bells
and building a new console.
"How can you have a more universal project than that?" asked Craig
Heldman, one of three members of the Senior Class Gift Committee.
"It's the landmark for the campus."
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday
through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the
University of Michigan. Subscription rates: For fall and winter (2
semesters) $25.00 in-town and $35.00 out-of-town, for fall only
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The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and the
National Student News Service.
Editor n Chiefr.............REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN MargicHeinlen Brian Jarv.. an, D. Martin Lowenstein,
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Council
Continued from Page 1
positive impact on the city.
However, Councilmember Ann
Marie Coleman (D-First Ward) said,
"I think any of these groups, if they
had a quarter of a million dollars,
would make an impact on the com-
munity."
City Clerk Winifred Northcross
made a plea to the council, en-
couraging councilmembers to help
solicit workers for election day,
Nov. 8. Northcross said the clerk's
office still needs more than 100
people to help with the election.
Zia s death shadows
Pakistani elections
Brater
... endorses Proposals C and D
FROM THE
PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE
With the prospect of national
elections on Nov.16, Pakistan stands
at a crossroads only two months after
the death of President Zia Ul-Haq in a
plane crash. Although at first
considered accidental, the official
finding is that the plane crash re-
sulted from sabotage.
Zia was the linchpin of a political
order which had become thoroughly
militarized over years of U.S.-backed
army rule. Now for the first time in
11 years, the positions of president
and army chief are separate.
Acting President Ghulam Ishaq
Khan could become Pakistan's first
popularly elected civilian president.
But the people in general and the op-
position parties in particular remain
suspicious of how the army will be-
have.
It was Zia who developed an ide-
ology that gave free rein to the mili-
tary's aggrandizement. He regarded
the military as his sole constituency,
and argued that is had to safeguard
not only the country's territory but
also it's Islamic character.
Although Zia failed to persuade
the National Assembly to set up a
National Security Council of army
officials with veto power over all
other state organs, the appointment
of a 13-member Emergency Council
after his death accomplishes the same
thing. The council includes three
army chiefs and four of the five
civilian members are retired generals.
Not surprisingly, veteran politi-
cian Nawabzada Nasrullah has warned
that unless the Emergency Council is
disbanded soon, it could become a
precedent for shaping the political
future of Pakistan.
Zia's decade of militarization also
damaged Pakistan's overall economy.
Even though Pakistan has a $13 bil-
lion foreign debt and 44.5 percent of
the budget goes to defense, the mili-
tary has resisted efforts to cut its
budget. Some $42 billion in U.S. aid
hardly goes beyond supplying mili-
tary hardware.
With election scheduled for Nov.
16, the Supreme Court recently
guaranteed the opposition the right to
campaign. But whether civilian rule
can emerge remains in doubt.
BEA:AR::: TE:EW
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