Page 8 - The Michigan Daily/New Student Edition - Thursday, September 7, 1989



L ASC:

Through education and
build bonds with Latin

action they
Americans

by Dave Austin
Associate Opinion Editor

The Latin American Solidarity Committee is dedi-
cated to supporting the legitimate aspirations of Latin
American people to self determination. LASC works
to accomplish these goals by increasing awareness here
about the contemporary realities of Latin America,
United States involvement in the hemisphere, and by
pressuring the U.S. government to change its military,
political, and economic policies toward the region.
LASC was founded in 1979 by five people con-
cerned with U.S. policy towards Nicaragua. From that
small beginning LASC has grown to have an active
membership of approximately forty, with hundreds of
others contributing their time, money and talents.
LASC's work has broken down into two main
areas: education and direct action. In the past year
LASC has sponsored such diverse activities as a talk
by Guatemalan activist Rigoberta Menchi; talks by
two student representatives of Michigan's sister
university, the University of El Salvador; Central
America Awareness Week, with activites on the
culture, history and politics of the Central American
countries and U.S. policy towards the region, and a
fundraising dance for hurricane relief in Nicaragua and
the opposition movement in El Salvador.
In addition to education as it is traditionally defined,
LASC has always used direct action as an educational
tool. LASC has disrupted campus recruiting by the
Central Intelligence Agency. These protests were in-
tended to reveal the CIA's role in violating both U.S.
and international law, as well as fundamental human
rights throughout the world. Another LASC target area

is the office of U.S. Representative Carl Pursell (R-
Michigan). At the largest of these, in March, 1986,
118 people committed acts of civil disobedience to
protest Pursell's support of aid to the Nicaraguan
contras.
In the coming year LASC will continue this work.' 90
The war against Nicaragua is not over and as the popu-
lar struggle in El Salvador intensifies, so will U.S.
support for an unpopular government that stays in
power only through U.S. aid and massive repression of
the civilian population through death squads. The CIA
will be back to recruit in the fall, and LASC plans to
confront them.
LASC will start the year with a fundraising concert
by the Nicaraguan reggae band Soul Vibrations.
LASC is also organizing a boycott of Domino's
Pizza, because of the actions of its owner, Tom 9
Monaghan. Monaghan is active in a number of right
wing Catholic groups that have ties with the Central
Intelligence Agency and have openly supported the
contras in Nicaragua. Additionally, Monaghan is an
open exploiter of cheap labor in Central America, and,
owns a clothes factory in Honduras which produces
men's slacks for the U.S. market, carrying a price tag :
of $200 each, while the Honduran workers earn around
$4 a day.
Those people interested in joining LASC can con-
tact the office, room 4120 of Michigan Union or come
to a meeting, which are held every Wednesday evening
at eight o'clock. The location can be obtained at the
information desk of the Michigan Union. 0 ;

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As part of last March's Central America Awareness Week, the Latin American Solidarity Committee organized
this car caravan to protest the United States aid and involvement in El Salvador.
Just what does Monaghan deliver?
Avoid Domino's Pizza
by Phillis Englebert
Disabled Student Services

In January the National
Organization of Women declared a
boycott on Domino's Pizza. Their
call was in response to Domino's
owner Thomas Monaghan's support
for Proposal A, the proposal to end
Medicaid-funded abortions for poor
women in Michigan. The boycott
call was also in protest of Domino's
cancellation of a NOW hayride and
fundraiser, to be held at Domino's
Farms in May, 1988. In contrast to
its treatment of NOW, Domino's
Farms has several times hosted
fundraisers for Right to Life of
Michigan.
A new group, the Coalition to
Boycott Domino's Pizza, has
recently joined NOW in the boycott
effort. The Coalition is comprised of
members of several women's,
housing activist, labor, and peace
and justice groups including the
Latin American Solidarity Coalition.
There are several reasons in
addition to infringement on women's
rights, to boycott Domino's Pizza.
Thomas Monaghan, the sole
stockholder of Domino's Pizza,
engages in right-wing activities in
Central America, anti-union
practices, discriminatory employee
practices, and socially irresponsible
and environmentally unsound
development.
Monaghan is an influential
member of Word of God, an Ann

Arbor-based "Christian" cult which
believes that women are
"handmaidens of men," forces
arranged marriages, and operates on a
hierarchical authoritarian model, in
which the organization heads control
all aspect of members' lives.
Interestingly, there'is a noticeable
overlap between the membership of
Word of God and Operation Rescue
in Washtenaw County.
According to Penny Lernoux,
writing for The Nation, Word of
God has ties to the CIA. The Word
of God affiliate in Nicaragua, called
Sword of the Spirit, is headed by
Cardinal Obando y Bravo, and works
to oppose the Sandinista
government. Monaghan in 1987
opened a Domino's pizza franchise
in Honduras (now there are 4
franchises), the profits from which
flow to Word of God activities in
Honduras.
Monaghan is founder of Legatus, a
club of Catholic CEO's of
companies which earn over $4
million yearly. This self-proclaimed
"spiritual" organization employs a
quite distinct right-wing agenda in
Honduras and in the Philipines'
counter-revolutionary movement.
Monaghan is also a member of
Knights of Malta, which has
funnelled millions of dollars in
supplies to the contras.
The boycott also calls for an end

to development, Domino's style. In
March 1989, Domino's Farms Corp.
announced plans to construct a 600-
acre exclusive community of 138
homes ("The Settlement"), each
costing about $1 million, on the
northeast edge of Ann Arbor. The
plan also calls for the construction
of a golf course with a country club
and driving range, membership to
which will cost "several times
$10,000." Neighbors of "The
Settlement" fear pesticide runoff
from the golf course (into one of the
cleanest creeks in the area-the one
which flows through the Botanical
Gardens) and the possible impact of
the proposed on-site sewage
treatment plant.
In addition, in 1985, Monaghan
purchased 1,700 acres of Drummond
Island, an 8,700-acre island off the
eastern tip of the Upper Peninsula.
Originally claiming he would use
the land for his vacation home, in
the last two years he has converted it
into a corporate retreat and has built
homes for himself and his top
executives. He cleared the woods to
build an 18-hole golf course and
made a pond and sewer plant.
"Monaghan talked of plans for more
- condominiums, marinas, lodges,
banks and golf courses. While he
pledged his support for conservation
by stopping his bulldozers from
See Domino's Page 9

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AMIT BHAN/Daiy
At an El Salvador protest in Detroit this summer one protester urges the public to boycott Domino's Pizza be-
cause of the Central American politics and policies of its owner Tom Monaghan.
Muslim Student Association 2
overcomes Islam's global image,,.
by the Muslim Student
Association origins back to somewhere in the powers like the United States, who
Third World. are very much concerned with main-
Malcom X, Ayatollah Khomeini, The most heavily populated taining accessibility to these re-


Mohammar Qaddaffi, and Yasser
Arafat are not very popular with
white Americans - an attitude
which has transcended personalities
and politics to include the reputed
religions of the above "trouble-
makers" - Islam. Consequently,
Islam is commonly perceived as
being the religion of fanatics, of
terrorists, of violence and so on.
The purpose here is to show (1)
such perceptions about Islam are
false and (2) such perceptions arose
and are maintained due to political
and economic reasons.
Across the United States there are
estimated to be 4-6 million Mus-
lims. On this campus alone, there
are approximately 1200 Muslim
students and faculty. Muslims come
from diverse backgrounds, but the
majority can easily trace their
AnnE _.

Muslim country is Indonesia, fol-
lowed by Pakistan, and then either
China or Bangladesh - all told,
there are one billion Muslims
worldwide. The fact that most of
the world's Muslims are in the
Third World is significant, because
it helps explain why Islam is so
misrepresented in the United States.
It's common knowledge that
most of the Third World was under
the colonial rule of one Western
power or another. During this time,
the West dominated its colonies
culturally, politically, and econom-
ically. Such domination permitted
the West to extract the resources
and wealth of their dependents at
maximum efficiency. Muslim peo-
ple, therefore, as with many other
peoples of the Third World, had
very negative experiences with the
West.
During the early-to-mid 20th cen-
tury due to a variety of forces,
much of the colonized world began
to to slowly rid itself of Western
domination. In doing so, ideologies
critical 'of the colonialists and/or
indivous ~i~to the neonle wre nn-

sources - concerned enough to at-
tack any challenges to its interests.
Challenges in the Middle East are
given special attention and are con-
sidered especially threatening.
Therefore, U.S. rhetoric and propa-
ganda works heavily against any
"problems" in this region. In the
past, challenges to Western power
in predominantly Muslim areas
have come from a diverse group of
people such as Qaddaffi, Khomeini,
and Arafat. In the process of smear-
ing these people with accusations
of terrorism and fanaticism in order
to justify harsh measures taken
against them, Islam has also beer.
dragged into the dirt.
Similarly, Malcom X posed a
threat to U.S. interests, specifically
U.S. oppression of African-
Americans. In order to discredit the
man and his message of Black em-
powerment, Islam became a specific
target in attacks by various power
institutions in the United States.
Even after Malcom X adopted
mainstream Islam which allowed
him to renounce his earlier claims
concerniniz whites. the attacks on

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