Win Magazine Volume 12 Number 4

February 5, 1976

I
*

PEACE 8, FREEDOIIT THRU ¡,IONVIOLENT ACTION
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CAN THE GANDHIAN
MOVFMENT IN

INDIACHANGE
THE GO VERNMENT?
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More on Amer¡can Corporations in
Liberia;
Bicycling to a New Society;
Living Gay Love in America

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30d

enthusiasm for a popular cause." Hitler's moves into Austria and Czechoslo-

Wendy Schwaftz [WIN, 1/15/76]
describes her meeting with a man "who
had no politics." She says,

vakia before World War II were also
quite popular with the Gefman people.
Now we must go back to analyze the
reasons for their popularity.

.nt

_MICHAELBERKOWITZ

,nJ

Menlo Park, Callf.

I'm puzzled about why you published
that long letter from Tip Hillian
[WIN, 1/15/76], describing the leisure

In her attempt to be fair minded, Susan
Mercer has been too kind to the perpetrators of "The Green March in the

Sahara" lWlN,

I / 22 /

7

trips of

61,

Fronted by thousands ofunarmed
civilians, backed by 18,0ü) battle-ready
troops, King Hassan, Morocco's conservative, anti-socialist monarch,
sought to aggtandizethe Spanish
Sahara. This act of imperialism seems
to have been a unilateral move designed
to thwart self-determination for the
people ofthe Sahara.
Hassan has been increasingly uneasy
about the Polisario, the Sahara's
nationalist independence movement.
Fearing that the Polisario would win a
popular referendum suggested by the
UN, Morocco has increased its efforts to
seize the Sahara. This'is why the march
was called by Hassan and known internationally as "The March of Conquest." Perhaps it was later dubbed
"The Green March" because Hassan
hoped to gain control of Spanish
Sahara's 1.7 billion tons ofphosphates,
the essential ingredient in chemical

{

1ù

fertilizers.
The march also seems to have been
designed to redirect the consciousness
of Moroccans away from their own
domestic woes. Territotial aggrandizement has been a classic strategy of ruling elites in countries expedencing internal problems. Morocco has an
illiteracy rate of 807o, per capita income
of $170, low life expectancy (47 years)
and high infant mortality (149 per 1000).
Unlike its more fortunate neighbots,
Morocco lacks the oil resources to help
increase the quality oflife.
Perhaps Metcer, or other \{IN
readers, could explore some ofthese
problems in greater depth. This would
be of more use in understanding the
march than characterizing what hap- .
pened-the rapes, murders, starvation,
tobbery, fraud, swindling, enslavement
and attempted conquest-as "small
quibblings in an overall picture of mass

a male-headed bourgeois
nuclear family and thinking it relates
somehow to the earlier article on single
parenthood. Both the Hillian letter and
the earlier Thorndike article were
grossly disappointing to me since I
thought they might deal with sexism,
but neither showed the least awareness
of socialism or feminism. The boring
ramblings of bourgeois men seem very
out of place inamagazine like WIN,
which-I thought was about revolution.
So I was glad to read the article by
Gary Mitchell Wandachild [WIN,
l/22/761 on patriarchy. However, I
have one serious complaint about it. (I
assume Gary Mitchell Wandachild is a
man, although the article didn't make
that clear.) When men talk to each
other, they (we) most often are overly

'lfls

5psks

soME GOOD NEWS,

to me about his life, the corporation he
works for, how he got a draft deferment.
I was bored." She proceeds to a discussion of out failute to "reach" people
like this man and "the question oÍ how
to present our politics to the uncommitted," She winds up saying, "As we
make our way throughout neighborhoods on the Continental Walk, and as
we meet and talk with people all
through out lives, I hope we will have
the humilitv to soeak to their needs
first, to prq'sent ideas that will enlighten
them inõteåd of aggrandizing us. "
Along the way shèiaises several interestins oueltions. but the one that
fascinatËs^me most'is: How do you find
out wh¿t a person's needs ate, much
less speak to those needs, ifyou

get

theirlivei? -

marine was $10,571.75 short of its goal.
wtrãt this meãns is that the proiection that we made earl.y
tasì¡ v¿ãr ias unduly pessimis¿ic. instead of $50,000 the submarínes eoal should have been 947,126.n. As you can see þeiòw, its cõurse has been adlusted accord¡ngly
..
The gap between our exÈectations and our actual financial
positioñ ii the result of a cómbination of two factors:.the
senerous resDonse of our readers and sëvere cutbacks on exõãni"t- lt is unlikely that WIN'q find.of "reader-supported
iournatism" can ever become ful[¡ self'st¡pporting' But the
Lood news is that our deficit on December 31 was almost two
dotlars less than th at otÍ a year earlier
ãhousand
- fñis means
that we have real momentum go¡ng. Let's keep it
. -rylN
up. Onty $6,545.65 to

,.

'

go!

W. SROGES

-AICHARD
New Orleansr Ia.

,r"

EXPENSES

INCOME
Subscriptions:

Reneival
New
Lifetime
Advertising

The statement by the Fifth Estate, conintellectual, and keep tryingto show
cerning responsibility for the death of
Richard Welch [\ryIN, 1/15/76], is only
themselves off as cool and more together than the next man. My own
partially correct, in my opinion.
I agree that the Fifth Estate, merely
struggle is to try to brçak out ofthat
by identifying in its journal, Cou¡ter.
conditioning, be more nurturing and
personal, and less coldly intellectual
spy, Richard Welch as a CIA operative,
is not responsible for his death. The
and competitive. Gary's àrticle is
packed full of male ways of exprestruth does not kill; only people murder
each other. But the statement that. "if
sion-totally "cool" with not the
slightest hint ofvulnerability or peranyone is to blame for Mr. \[elch's t
sonal feelings. He exptesses no desire
death, it is thc CIA that sent him to
to coopetate with other men-just a
Greece to spy and intervene in the aflong stream of insults at other men for
fairs ofthe Greek people and to rendezbeing stupid and sexist.
vous with a death symbolic of the horIf Gary Wandachild were really inrible essence of the ÇIA" needs qualiterested in ''feminizing" himself, I wish fication. It is true thát the CIA, böcause
he would describe how he, personally,
of its provocative use of violence, must
has struggled in his own life and
share in the responsibility for the killing
whether or not he has learned to stop
of Richard \{elch. On the basis of this
competing and claiming to be the
reasoning, Welch himself must shpre in
one-and-only male "authority" on a
the responsibility for his death. But
given subject. I myself have still not
those who did the killing must also
gotten very far with this, in the years I
share in the responsibility. To suggest
have been trying to overcome my own
otherwise is sophistical. The best that
sexism. What we as men need to learn
can be said for them is that they chose
is how to cooperate and be tender, and
an immoral means (murder) to achieve a
noble end (ridding Greece of the CIA).
to stop b eins compett,t""jî-$Ëi"ft
Holyoke, Mass.

LAST!

Here is WIN's balance sheet for the yedr 1975. As of the end of
iËãu"ãt the debt stood at $7,698'15.'At the same time the sub-

:

bored when he tells you about his life?
Is it that people'sneeds are unrelated to

Al

$ 25,352.34
12,245.18
'1,370.00
3,665.18

Sales:

2'835.03
Sinele Copv & Bulk
Boõks, Poïiers, Reprints 1,289.23

Subsidy
Contributions'
Special Grants*
Bènefits*
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8,i00.00

TOTAL 94,982.61
* Counts towards annual fundraising
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g 34,M6.21

Printing

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Layout

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Society / Louie Crew
16. Heads and Tales; Our Friends
the Vegetables / Bob Pinkus
17. Changes
20. Reviews

Cover: Drawing of Indira Candhi and
political prisoners by Peg

Averill/LNS.

3,095.83
4,060.00

STAFF

4,0E6.23

Dwisht Ernest Mary Mayo Sus¡n Pines
FreðRosen MurrayRosenblith

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25,634.29

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Promotiog
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TOTAL 102,ffi.76

Maris

Cakars

Susan Cakars

UN¡ND¡CTED
CO.CONSPIRATORS
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_JIMMISSEY

Stevens Polnt, VÍls.

'Member of WIN Editorial Board

$25,ooo

WIN is oublished weekly except for the first two weeks
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4. Can the Gandhian Movement *
Meet the Challenge of Fascism
in lndia / Dattid Morris
10. A Personal View of lndia's Crisis
Kumar Mehta
11. Liberia Turns a Prof¡t for ManY
American ComPanies
Roger Walke . ,
13'. Beating the System bY
Bicycle / Ed ArszmaP
14. Hiding WÌthin Straight

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February 5,1976

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Can the

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I
Museum oJ Art
1sth century lnd¡an tapestry from ìhe Metropol¡tan

Mêet the Challange
of Ihscism in India?
q

BY.DAVID MOBR,trS
According to all reports from lndia, lntlira Candhi
and her supporters have succeeded far beyond
anyone's expectations in setting up a structuré of
fascism. This poses the most serious challenge to
lndian Candhianism since the death of Mahatmaji
Candhi. How welì has the lndian Candhian movement met the challenge and what is likely to.be the
future of the nonviolent movement in lndia?
To answer these questions it's important to
understand the underlying causes of the recently
declared ".state of Emergency" and the responses
of different sectors of lndian society.
1976 will mark the tenth year that lndira Candhi
has been lndia's Prime Minister. During thosê
years, there häs been ongoing political struggle
inside and outside of the ruling Congress Party
which has centered around three political issues:
central ization vs,. decentral ization,
'industrialization vs. an agrarian society and
parliamentary democracy vs'. revolution. There
are other important secondary considerations like
political opportunism, the effects of caste, the
flexibility of the tndian joint family, and the
ancient tiaditions of .manipulation and political

maneuver, but these three issues are the
dominant themes.
These themes can also be foqnd in the American experience. The debate over the.United States
Constitution and the later: Federalist/Anti-Feijeralist quarrels were quarrels over the degree of
centralized power that the new United States
government should possess. One aspect of th'e
Civil War (or.Second Américan Revolution) was
the quarrel between industrial capital, mostly
located in the north and landlord capital; mostly

.

David Morris regutlarly covers tndia Íor WIN

'

based in the South. The conf lict between the
capitalist development of the United States and
revolutionary alternatives can be traced from
Robert Owen forward.
As the editorial writer for the Hindustan Ïimes
told me in New Delhi last August, lndira Candhi is
the representative of those groups in lndian
society that support the growing industrialization
of lndía and therefore also.support the greatgr
ã"niruäzãt¡on òt po*ur uv trrd índian stãte. fhese
groups include the large private industrialists like
thè lata and Birla families, the small and medium
entrepreneirrs who operate "modern,l'
mechanized factories, the managers and planners
of the state-owned industries, trade union leaders
who see the fúrther industrialization of lndia as

increasing the strength of the laboiu movement and
the members and leaders of the Communist Party
of lndia (pro-Moscow). Along with some groups of
farmers who have developed American agribusiness techniques and the military, these
groups rule the lndian state, dominate its
economy and, through the iivil servicé, are trying
as hard as they can to "modernize" lndia.
There are powerful groups opposed to this centralization and emphasis on industrialization:
most landlords, the network of small and large
moneylenders that extend to every village in ln:dia, the'large and diverse community of
, Candhians, radical intellectuals committed to
revolutionary forms of socialism (as well as radical
intellectuals who are out of power and therefore
rebellious), professionals used to Western forms
of political activity (especially l4wyers and doctors), members of the various Maoist-oriented
revolutionary groups, as well as the Brahmins,
priests and artists committed to maintaining the
traditional forms of lndian society.
There is a third sector which is uncommitted to
either vision of what lndia should be, partly be,cause neither side has won their allegiance; These
are the rank-and-f ile of organized industrial labor,
the millions of workers in unorganized, often
.

primitive factories that produce solely forthe
domestic market, and the vast numbers of rural
landless workers, some of whom àre "f¡ee" and
otbers of whom work under semi-feudal conditions
for the large rural landlords. This sector is the
sector that holds the key to lndia's futi.lre, since its t
support is vital to all, revolùtiona¡ies and reactionaries alike.
There is a fourth sector of small shopkeeper"s,
lower level professionals like teachers, nqrses þhd
civil servants; small urban landlords and the educated unempÍoyed, who are capable of creating
urban disturbances but who lack a commanding *
position in lndian society.
The conflict between those committed to centralization and industrialization and those opposed
came to a head when J .P. Narayan led a portion of
the Candþian movement into open confrontation
with lndirä Candhi and her supporters. Before the
"J P Movement,"'the opposition to Indira Candhi
andher supporters had been in the hands of
Moraji Desai, one-time Deputy Prime Minister,
and representative of the entren'ched landlord and
moneylender groups. Hovt4ever) their "Crand
Alliance" of Hindu nationalist groups and
landlqrd/moneylender/rich peasant parties were
unable to capture much support, since these
groups were älso the oppressors of the fhird sector
of industrial and agrarian workers. Their version
of "decentralization" was a return to the "good
old days" when the rural elite of landlords,
moneylenders, rich peasants and priests ruled the
countryside
J.P. Narayan and the "left sarvodayas," surfacing in Bihar in1974, began working for broad
socia[ and political change. Since the Candhian
heritage of the struggle for independence gave .
them the legitimacy that the revolutionary
Naxalite groups were denied through repression,
they quicklv attracted thepupport of the fourth
group of urban "small bourgeoisie." This group
'
was suffering from the horrendous inflation ,
governmentãl corruption, and a combination of '
iecession, drought, iloods, and the deteriorating
!" .'i
qualityof urban life (Bihar is the blessed state that
suffers droughts and floods constantly, usually at
the same time).
J . P. Narayãn is not only a leading Old
Candhian; he is also a veteran of the Acharya .
Bhave movement who hâs seen.the suffering and
misery of the rural landless workers. While he wäE
trying to broaden the base of the agitation to include mass involvement of rural workers, he also
attracted two normally antagonistic groups: the
iight-wing rural elite parties like the J ana Sangh
and its paramilitary wing, the RSS, led by Moraii
Desai, and the left-wing Naxalites. For Moraji
Desai and his followers, .it was an attempt at yet
anodher comeback; while for the Naxalites, it was
a chance to broaden their own base and receive
some protection from the continuing repression
under the DIR and MISA (State of Emergency)
regulations.
The battle between the J P Movement and the
Congress Party in Bihar broadened as it spread to
WIN

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1

Cujarat,,T.his state was the scene of violent rioting
and rebellion in 1973, when university students
joined the small bourgeoisie and some industrial
workers to oppose a corrupt state government and
the deteriorating economy. The "J P Movement"
swelled with theaddition of Jana Sangh, RSS, Old
Congress, Communist Party of lndia (Marxist)
and Naxalite cadre, plus newly recruited
sarvodaya from many places, including the universities. lt seemed (as thd struggle continued
into 1975) that the lndira Candhi government was
going to be driven to the ropes and then replaced
by some broadly popular decentralist government
dédicated to the þrinciples of Gandhianism.
Yet the weakness of the J P Movement also became apparent when it proved unable to'respond
to the national railways strike that developed during this same time. Part of it was because of the
confusion and turmoil within the ranks of the J P
Movement as cadre of the various political persuasions rubbed elbows, but part of it was also
because lndian Gandhianism has never developed
a principled position on industrial workers and its
stand on industrialization has been one of almost
total opposition.
Without the support of the organized'industrial
workers, and with the presence of landlords and
moneylenders scaring off rural workers, the J P
Movement was forced to rely on the volatile but
essentially powerless alliance of idealists, small
bourgeois, opportí.rnistic rur¿l elite politicos and
university students. This alliance was capable of
producing a certain amount of flame but very little
sustained heat.
Meanwhile, those committed to industrialization and centralization had been at each other's
throats for years. The battle lines were drawn between those who sought to develop the lndian
economy along the path of USSR state capitalism
and those who favored integration with the
capitalist world market. The technocrats pledged
to the process of state planning and the.Communist Party of lndia (pro-Moscow) sought restraints on the privatebàpitalists, while the
private capitalists complained bitterly that they
weren't being given the freedom to develop as
high a rate of prof it as they could earn.
The sight of a crystallizing Opposition and a
grgwing awareness that the entire process of industrialization in lndia was increasingly
threatened began to force the antagonists to i'ally
around lndira Candhi, who was and is firmly committed to both Russian and Western models of
rapid modernization of the lndian economy and
lndian society, by almost any means necessa/y.
This closing of the ranks among those who favor
further centralization and industrialization was, of
course, encouraged by lndira Candhi, who spread
the message that " . . . l'm not in trouble, we'rein

trouble..."

ì\

the stage was set fpr a resolution of the ten
yeãrs of lareäly nonviolàÉt political debate. The
"civil war" itself verged on open rebellion in
those May and J une days when the Opposition,
So

6WIN

lndian carving of the god Síva, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

now increasingly under the leadership of Moraií
Desai, agitated in the streets of New Delhifor ln-

dira Gandhi's immediate resignation because of
the Allahbad court judgment finding her gqiltlaof
corrupt election practises. At the very moment
when it seemed that the Opposition.was at its
strongest, it was actually at its weakest: the
internal strains of the decentralist Opposition
were creating such tension that towards the end
J,P. Narayan and Moraji Desaiweren't speaking.
The Candhian movement to purge and renew lndian society had been taken over by the cadre of
of so much I
the rural elite, themselves the cause
I

rural misery.
And now it's possible to see that at thg moment
that lndira Candþi seemed to be at her weakest,
she was actu4lly cementing together a coalition
that would let her and her supporters rule with
greater strength than before.
J udging by the gtandards of the supporters of
this experiment in fascism, the Emergency has
been far more successful than anyone would've
predicted. The monsoon rains were heavy and
timely, so that the 1975-1976 crop will be one of
the best ever. The jailing of the Opposition and
the purging of the civil service helped create
enough fear so that urban life runs more smoothly
and efficently.than before. The good crops,-the
worldwide.recession and the new order prohibiting str:ikes have brought inflation down to the
point that the government is claiming "negative
inflation." The cohesiveness of the alliance of in-

dustrializationists depended on the abiliiy of the
Ããw fasc¡st government to win international supoort. oarticularly foreign aid, trade agreements
ãÀ¿ ã'tiU"rul credit/investment agreement with
ifr" Unite¿ States that would give lndia the high
iäãtlnotogv knowledge that its industry drdsperatelv
needs.
'' iËãiã
t uue all been forthcoming, despite the
hostile reaction to lndira Candhi personally by
most of the Western media. The World Bank has
siened agreements for $850 million; agreements
have been signed with the lnternational Monetary
Fund and the lnternational DevelopmenfAgency,
as well as with the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP). These loans are mostly for "ing that these
f raslructure development, " i ndiçqti n
lndia-can
be
thht
believe
agencies
US-dominated
fruitfully integrated into the capitalist world
market.'A trade treaty with lran was signed for
over $1 billion; the lndo-J apane.se Joint Trade
Commission successfully negotiated another $'l
billion in trade, much of it the "third party" deals
that lndia is increasingly accepting. (An industrialized nation like Japan sets up a factory in lndia to use cheap lndian labor, producing products
for export to other countries; ¡n essence, runaway
shop agreements.)
dut ihe icing on the cake came in the first week
of October, when External Affairs Minister Y'8.
Chavan and Henry Kissinger met in Washington
for a two day session of the lndo-US Joint Commission. When the talks had concluded, lndia and
the United States were more f irmly trade partners
than ever before, with lndiaoþening up formerly
protected key sectors of the lndian economy to
multi-national investment and with the US committed to giving lndia some of the sizable credits
and much of thé advanced technolpgy that it asked
for. There was also a suggestion tliat President
Ford might visit lndia in the spring-or summer. lt .
*as conãidered quite a coup fôr lndira Candhi and
her supporters, who had been worried about yvhat
stand ihe Unitéd States would take, since media
hostility was so great. lt wâs also a viçtoryfor the
united States Cñambers of Commerce and the
Federation of lndian Chambers of Commerce
(FlCCl), both backers of further trade alliances
between the US and lndia.
The series of diplomatic successes rests on the
international recoþnition that the lndian government is now willing to do whatever it has to- in
order to become aþart of the capitalist world
market, while retaining its ties with the Soviet
Union. The program ofexport subsidies has been
put into effect and exports are running at a higher
iate although it'p too early to tell if the rate of exDorts can bé sustained. Since strikes are banned,
broductiori is up, but production is not so much
ihe problem as demand, and there has been no
vast redistribution of wealth in lndia. The government is getting more income from the crackdown
on black money speculators, smuggling and income tax raids, but little of this f ilters down.
The attempts at rural land,reform are not purely rhetoric; lndia has followed a policy of building

its jndustrial structure at the expense of agriculture, but is now going to try and develop þroductive smallfarmeis. This has been made politically
much simpler by the fact of the landlord support of
the Oppodition parties. This isn't neces.sarily as \
radicål'as it souhds, either, since even the World
Bank encourages far reaching agriculture reforms
and a transformation from "prifnitive" agricull
;:
ture to "cap¡talist" agriculturg.
lf this strategy were completely car'r¡ed through, lndia would have a much smaller percentage of its populãtion engaged in actual farm-'
ing, w-ith mosi of the farmers small, eff icient
prõducers using the latest Western technology to
achieve high yields, while agribusiness technioues would be used in other areas. This demands a tremendous amount of capital to pay for
fertilizer.s, special seeds, machinery and skilled'
labor. But it would helÞ "stabilize" the countryside¡with a new kulak class and might raise food
productivity.'of There would also be trèméndous
m¡llions of people, Ss always when
bislocation
this sort of modernization is attempted. This is
one place where the centralized power of the state
. is absolutely necessary to squash the inevitable
rebellions of the uprooted.
What can be learned from Mahatma Candhiji's
political and moral teachings that would be of use
io the hundfeds of millions of lndians now oppressed not only by the new fascism but by the
iemi-feudal, semi-colonial society that blocks
their oersonal and political liberation? First of all,
Candh¡ii piaced a great deal of value on political
analysii, as shown in the selection of tactical atr tacks Iikô the Salt March. Secondly, he constantly
worked to develop a broad "United Front"; in the
situation before tndependence, a "national
'
liberation front" of all lndians against the BritiSh.
"to
the
Third, he constantly took his campaign
massés" and insistôd on the importance of winning agrarian support at a time when more
Weltein¡zed politìcos like Nehru,were concerned
with upper class urban society. Foqrth, Candhiji
constanily stressed the need for "Cultural
Revolution" within the ranks of the liberation
movement, even to the extent of withdrawing"
from the struggle until he had personally made
changes in himself that he thought were important. Ánd, of course, he was thoroughly com- ,
,
mitted to the creative use of nônviolence to

¿

.e

achievesocial,personalandpoliticalchange'

¡:'

The main problem in forming "United Fronts"
is the questiõn of who you're willing to unite with
and who you're unifying against. This calls for
political clarity and analysis. -However, the recent
round of lndian Candhian political activity showed
a great deal of fuzziness and confusion/ as
dðmonstrated in the alliance with the landlord/
rural elite/Hindu nationalist groups like the Janq
Sangh, the RSS and Moraii Desai's wing of the old
ConÉräss Party. This is part of the larger problem
of thã "right.left" tendencies within the movement and their basic antagonism, although all
concerned believe they are the heirs of the
Mahatma.
wtN.7

t4

For too many lndian Gandhians, the tact that
the rural elite is under attack by the industrial
state is suff icient to accept them as allies. This
leads to a whole series of assumptionsi thatthe
cadre of the landlord /rural elite parties are
genuinely concerned with Candhian ideals and the
social welfare of the oppressed. Arrests of
Candhian satyagrahas and political cadre of the
right-wing parties are counted together; yet how
many of these are dédicated Candhians and how
many aie representatives of the old feudal orders,
fighting for survival? Similiarly, some lndian
Candhians were tremendously upset by the arrest
of Moraji Desai and referred to him as

1

'

"Morajibhai," "Respected Older Brother Moraji
Desai." Yet there are many others who would feel
that Moraji Desai is no friend of the rural worker
and certainly not a progressive in the Western
sense of the world.
Again, some lndian Gandhians feel that the
state of Cujarat is an oasiç of libérty because it is
ruled by the Opposition "United People's Front."
But what political groupings are represented in
this United Front? The Jana Sangh, the Desai-led
Old Congress and the KMLP, a landlord/rich
peasant political party headed by the same
Chiminbhai Patel who was the target of the earlier
J P agitation in 1974.
ln short, for many lndian Gandhians, the main
unifying prirìciple of the "underground opposition" is still opposition to lndira Candhi as a person and as prime minister. This is a fatalistic,
negative analysis; opposition to Indira Candhi is
not a political prograni nor a positive demonstration of nonviolent social change.
Butihis focus on the removal of lndira Candhi
allows an avoidance of more basic issues. The
failure of the Opposition can be blamed on the
news media or on the "welfare state." Yet neither
of these excuses display any understanding of
what a healthy movement is about. Certainly the
liberation forces of China or Vietnam didn't need
the newspapers to tell them what was going on.
And while the "passiveness" of the people might
be blamed to a certain extent on welfare statism in
thê advanced industrial nations, it's not had much
of an effect in lndia, for the sinrple reason that the
vast majority of the lndian people receive nothing
from the lndian government. Simple arithmetic
will bear this out: the entire non-military budget
of lndia comes to about $5 billion annually. There
are over 600 million lndians; that means about
$8-$9 per lndian per year, hardly enough to encourEge any false sense of security.
I do not question the sincerity of those lndian
Candhians who accept such explanations for the
sudden collapse of the opposition. However,
ther-e seems to be another exþlanation that makes
more sense in light of the lndian situation. This
would be that the serious and highly principled
o¡iginal J P Movement was genuinely trying to
dèvelop a broad mass base and build ties with
rural workers and others who had becomê
alienated by the corruption and misrule not only oÍ

srouos to

can one reconcile the task of

a"leÍt"

revolutionary United,Front

iootda in the masses of rural landless wörkers, at
the same time reaching out to industrial workers
with the vision of a decentralized, worker-cont.oit"a society, achieved through creative non-

the ruling Congress Party but also the rural elite.
However, at the same ti-me, there was a loose alliance of political parties who were being forced
into extinction through the Congress Party's increasing control of the parliamentary system. This
struggle to control the parliamentary system was
also a struggle to control the lndian state, a conflict which the industrialist/centralists were winning because the rural elite parties essentially
were also the oppressors of the rural landless
workers and the outcastes.
Thé Opposition was a movement without roots;
the J .P.-led Movement of Candhians and
sarvodayas was developing a base among the
small bourgeoisie of the towns and some rural
landless. Political opportunists like Morali Desai
then made the overtures towards alliance and joint
action against lndira Gandhi and the industrialist/
centralists, a move which at first w.as welcomed by
J.P. Narayan and the socially coñcerned cadre of
the J P Movement which was trying to build a
broad United Front in much the same manner as
Candhiji had, 40 years before.
Unfortunately, it was a serious mistake on the
part of the embryonic "left Candhians." The
presence of people like Morali Desai in a movement fqr broad social change was like the
presence of Coldwater in the Continental Walk.
It's true that Coldwater is opposed to the
"liberal" state-capitalist drift of the Democratic
Party, but are we all really on the same side? For:
the peasants in lndia the answer was no. A party
that included representatives of the rural elite oppressors was not a party that met their needs,'no
matter how revolutionary thè tactics or rhetoric.
Within months, the followers of Desai came to
dominate the Opposition-J P Movement alliancd
and the search for a unified revolutionary Indian
Carrdhianism was abandoned in favor of more conventionai opþortunistic porùer politics. The traditionalist, essentially reactionary forces took over
the control of an otherwise promising step forward
for both Candhianiqm and leftist decentralist
politics. lt was true that the Opposition's willingness to operate outside the parliamentary system
was a radical step, but it was a radicalism of
desperation, not of strength.
This raises another problem, perhaps best
summarized by an ex-Maryknoll friend who
worked with Mayan tribespeople in Mexico: how

:

violence. Nevertheless, I think it reallywill be
suicide not to undertake this 'lCultural Revolution" right Ítow, even under present repressive
conditions. The moräl and political clarity that
would develop, I believe-, would far surpass the
momentary advantages of a continued alliance
with the J ana Sangh et al. Orice it was clear that
there was a nonviolent, revolütionary alliance in
opposition to both the present fascist policy of
i ndustrial ization/central ization and the conti n ued
dominance of the landlords. l.believe the"lndian,
situation woúld reward creative ngnviolence.
, lndira Candhi and her supportbÌs aren't blind to
thesil realities and are taking steps to neutralize
opposition from this key "third sèctor" of landless r
wofkers and industrial workers. By using the carrot and the stick selectively, and through a constant "testing" of the politicalwaters, they remain on the offensive. J.P.'s release from jail
Nov. 17 can be seen as part of this "testin!"
process; as of right now, it's too early to tell what
êffect the ailing J .P. will have, since he is doubtlessly closely watched by the police,
Tl're structure of fascism is being reinforced
through such measures as additional amendmehts
to the MISA/DIR detention rules and a purge of
the lndian medla. The new amendments mean
that neither the prisoner nor the lawyer norù havê
a legal right to find out what charges have been
inade. The restructure of the lhdian media (with
the co-operation of most of the newspaper owners)
involves firing many of the outspoken editors and
replacing them with more sympathetic (to the
gbvernmlnt) personnel. ln úhefall¡t seemed likely
ihat the Eméigency would bq lifteci in time for the
March electioñs, in which lndira Candhiand her
supporters aie bound to do well, by hook or by
cróok. However, now it appears that the Emergency won't be lifted until the leaders of the indu.sti¡al¡stslcentralists, lndira Candhi., heir supporters, etc., are convinced that it is no longer
necesiary. This means that the Emergency won't
be lifted until the basic features of the new
fascism have been written into law; then, when
fascism is fully legalized, the Emergency will be
abolished. This cosmetic change will not, therefoÈe, bring any more freedom to lndia.
However. their streneth conceals their weakness. Success in penetrãting the capitalist world
ntarket means increasing exploitation of the
domestic population. Nomatter how much the
ðãrrorund siick are used, the burden falli on the
ñà;;iñ;iñit eis aña ttíeiural landless, and
there will be an ongoing potential for rebellion and

I

Photo from the Metropol¡tan Mu.seum of

Art.

.

"conciliation" with

the realities of "class struggle?" This is a
problem in all formsof political activity and I have
no ready answer. But this one thing I feel sure of :
unless the lndian Candhian movement enters into
political alliance with industrial workers and the
rural landless, and rejects the support and
political activity of the landlord-dominated rural
elite, lndian Candhianism will never developthe
broad mass base necessary to overcome the daily
violence of lndian society and the lndian state.
Recalling the adage about changing horses in
mid-stream, I understand it seems like suicide to
advocate a principled move away from cadre and
politicos of the rural elite parties/opposition

revolution.
Will the lndian Candhian movement, and other
decentralist revolutionary forces be able to rise to
the challenge? This is the question of the moment
to those concerned with nonviolence and an'end to
casteism, sexism and landlordism in lndia.
wrN9

SWIN

i
i
I

t
I

1

a

)

A Personal View

of lndia's Crisis
KUMAR MEHTA
On the invitation of a rural development group
consisting mainly of university students, I had the
opportunity this summer to spend a week in a
rural area in Madhaya Pradesh. lt was rice transplanting season. Men and women, both young and
old, were working in knee.deep mud under a hot
sun. After 10-12 hours of hard labor, what was the
compensation? I was told that they were landless
workers whose daily wage consisted of one kilogram of coarse grain. The land was owned by a

{,.'

rich landlord. No doubt, there were land-ceiling
laws, but with some help from friendly politicians
and bureaucrats, the clever landlords managed to
escape them. For instance, the titles to legallypermíssible pariels of land were held under difierent names, but for all practical purposes the
entire 6@ acres of land were owned and managed
by one and the same man.
Over 90% of the village population consisted of
landless workers. They lived in dilapidated mudhuts with thatched roofs which leaked very badly
during rain. There were no sanitation or drinking I
water facilities. lt is hard for me to forget that
bread made from edible wildflowers (mahua
f lower) was a regular part of their food because
there was no other way to provide two meals a day
to all the members of a family, which frequently
included old parents. Since the work on the land
was seasonal,.many were part-time artisans such
as blacksmiths, shoemakers, weavers, masons,
carpenters, etc. The wages for artisan work were
so meager that there was never enough money to
meet minimum personal n'eeds of food, clothing,
health care and education. About 35 years ago I
had spent a few years of my childhood in a rural
area, and I vaguely remembered the poverty in
villages during the British raj. But never expected
to find so much visible poverty after 28 years of
self-rule. What happened to Candhiji's dream of a
prosperous countrys ide?

.

*

****

Surprisingly, after lndia won independence from
the British rule in 1947 , the Candhian path of lndia's progress through rural prosperity was ignored- in favor of the so-called "modern'f path of
progress. lndia adopted a Western model of
socialism by capitalistic strategies involving big
money, latest technology, and centralization of

from a longer piece.
10WlN

Drawing by LNS Womens Craphics Collective

economic and political powerl For a predominantly agricultural nation, the governmental planning
andixpenditure of national resources focused
heavily on the industry and the city. Therefore it ís
not surprising that during the years 1947-75, afle.r
many dams, steel plants and chemical factories,
the masses in the rural areas remain very poor.
According to statistics released by the Covernment of lndia,4O%o of the population continues to
be below the poverty line. The poor, comprised
generally of landless peasants, earn as agricultural labor about 200 rupees a month for a family
of seven. The families live in single-room huts,
and can àfford only one full meal a day and have
rarely an extra set of clothes for a change. Thus, it
came as a shock to me that after independence.the
number of people below the poverty line has not
decreased, but has aÒtually doubled from 120
million in1947 to24O million in1975.

****

economic'reward as the barber's; a life of labor is
the life worth living. This is why Candhiji advocated that both economically and otherwise the
value of mental work should not be considered
superior to manual work. He said that perpetuation of class and caste'ridden economy and polity
would not end unless society recognizes that
worth of every human being and the necessity of
providing work and adequate compensation for
work. Candhiji wrote in the Youn g India of
November 28,1928, "Economic constitution of
lndia, indeed of the world, should be súch that no
one should suffer from want of food and clothing.
ln other words everybody should be able to get
suÎficient work to enable him to make two ends
nieet. This ideal can be universally realized only if
the means of production of elementary necessities
of life remain in the control of masses.f '

*****

It is interesting to note thatonly aboutl5o/o of the
people in l'ndia are affected in any significant
manner by the national emergency. Only the rich,
the middle class and the industrial employees,
which make up the top 15o/o, enioy some economic
2l

',1

:

The Gandhian ideas of political economy, which
were ignored by the post-independence leaders of
lndia as being old-fashioned and irrelevant to the
20th century,tappear to me now not only highly
relevant but essential to the solution of lndia's
problems. Mahatma Candhi was against mass
production and distribution of goods because
these are associated with concentration of
economic and political power. He wanted a communitarian society with all sharing control over
govern i n g, produci n g and distributi n g processes.
His model of self-sufficient, self-ruling villages
was based on the concept that location of power
nearer to the people is essential to prevent its
possible abuses. Candhiji's socio-economic
thoughts, which were influenced by Ruskin, show
three key elements: the good of the individuaf is
contained in the good of all; all have the sâmd
right of earning their livelihood from their work,
therefore, a lawyer's work should have the same

Continued on Page

;

BY tioqeRlVitlc

o

NTURNs

A

I was surprised and very pleased to see the article
on Liberia by Edward Honnold in WIN (12/11/75).
I thought pi:rhaps a few more bits of-information
on Firestone, and on other US companies in
Liberia, would interest WIN readers. Firestone's
position in Liberia is of course not nearly as
dominant now as it was before the advent of the

stgel companies.

fonMnNy
AvrER¡cAN
o

rEs

'ln 1969 there were at least 43 US companies in
Liberia. At least 19 of them had gross revenues
that year larger than Liberia's 1968 Cross Domes-tic Product. Sixteen of them ranked in the top 200
of Forbes magazine's annual ranking. Six were in
the top 20.
Liberia's iron mining industry is its largest industry ín terms of capital investment and export
value. Rubber is its largest in terms of employment and land area used. Two US steel companies, Bethlehem Steel and Republic Steel, share
dominance of the iron mining industry with
Swedish and West Cerman companies. Three US
rubber companies- Firestone, Coodrich, and
Uniroyal -with another smâll Ameri.can-owned
company hold four of the six rubber concessions.
(The other two are held by West Cerman and
Dutch interests.) The largest rubber concession,
of course, is Firestone's.
Liberia is highly dependent on exports: in 1966
half of her Cross Domestic Product came from exports (4.3o/o of the US's came from exports).
Liberia's exports depend heavily on just the two
commodities, iron ore and rubber: together they
made up B9%o of her exports in 1967 . Liberia's
foreign trade depends on only a few countries: in
Roger Walke is a member oÍ the Departmentof
Anthropology at the University of Oregon at
,

Eugene.
wlN

11

.t

3\ys of Liberia'à exports wgnt to the US and
28o/o to West Germany.
Notonly !iberia's foreign lradg, but her
government revenuesf and the jobs and income of
ñer wage workers (as yet a small percentage of the
population), are very dependent on iron ore andl
iubber. Between 1951 and 1960 Firestone and the
(then) only iron mine'in the country paid an average of 4O%o of the government's total revenues;
'the new rubber and iron ore concessions since
then can only have raised that percentage. ln 1960
over 35o/o of the total wages of Liberia's wage
workers was paid by foreign concessions (chiefly
rubber and iron ore); in 1961 they employed about
42o/o of the total wage workers.
Another 10o/o of Liberia's government revenues
came from ship registrations- Liberia is a "flag of
convenience," and in 1973 had the world's largest
merchant fleet. An American bahk is Liberia's
Maritime Administrator, or ship iegistrar.
Firestone's profits from its rubber plantations
in Liberia are hard to ascertain, but here are some
old figures on return dn investment. Firestone's
total i-nvestment in Liberian rubber from 1926 to
1961 was about $30 million. lts total profits during
the five years 1956-196O were $95 million; its
after-tax profits were $66 million, or about $13
million a year. So for that five-year period alone,
Firestone's return on its total investment was
about 43o/o a year- in other words, Firestone was
making back its 30-year investment once every
.21/t yeárs.ln the late 1960's Firestone's total wage
payments averaged $4 million a yearf or about
3Oö/o of its annual after-tax profits of a decade
earlier. lf labor is the largest part of its annual
costs, you can imagine what Firestone's return on
annual sa/es is.
According to US rubber industry analysts, Firestone holds the dominant industry position in
natural rubber. This gives it a competitive edge
over its rivals in the production of radial tires,
which (at least in mid-1974) are 45o/o natural rubber, whereas conventio¡al tires are only 22o/o
natural rubber. (Some sort of metaphor about
Americans' almost literally riding on the backs of
Liberian rubber workers comes to mind here.)
Firestone also supplies latex to the carpeting,
garment, and dipped-goods industries, and sells a
latex non-rubbei polymer (natural latex is only
about 35% rubber) to the adhesives industry.
Besides being the largest producer.in Liberia,
Fir:estone is the largest buyer of rubber there'
1967

lq

,

local

rubber.

.

subsidiary.
Other countries are also important in Liberia.
West Cermans and Swedes, whose companies are
just about as important as US companies in the
iron mining industry, make up the bulk of the expatriate managment of the mines. ltalian and lsiaeli f irms dominate construction. Retailing is
chiefly in the hands of small Lebanese famiJy ¡
f irms, as well as a few large West German f irms.
Transportation (mostly taxis and buses) is in the
handsof lslamic,Africans, most of whom are
probably not Liberian. The vast majoríty.of cars
.and busôs, by the way, are J apanese and West
Cerman imports. And most retail goods seem to
be, not Amèrican, but cheap Far Eastern and
European goods. I mèntion these facts because I
want to em-phasize that it is not particular companies at fault here, or just the US. A great many
companies, from a great many countries (includ:.
ing those nice Swedes and those worker-participating Cermans), are involved in the exploitation
of thgThird World. lt ¡s a world-wide system; and
Fireston is just one example from one country.

a bus

B€NlINC

ÎH€ Svç΀trl
R/

t

Liberia had seven commercial banks in 1968
(not three). Three are US-olyned, and another is
partially US-owned. The only wholly Liberianôwned bank has a correspo¡dent-bank relationship with a US barik, the Chemical Bank of New'
York. Citicorp (First National City Bank of New
York) owns the Bank of Monrovia; Chase Manhattan owns a branòh in Monrovia; Bankers Trust
shares its ownership of a bank with Mediobanca (a
major ltalian bank); and the International Bank'
(noi the IBRD, but â private company) owns B0olo
of another bank. The Bank of Monrovia is the
targest and most important one. lt is the official
depository of the Liberian government; it
þerforms f iscal agent functions for the govern-,
ment; and it was in 1962 the largest domestic
creditor of the government, holding 1'l^.60/o of the
national debt. Not bad, even for a Citicorp

line; and I thought that surely u pq*ò;
without a car could get a iob here. Yet the personnel managef of this particular factory wanted
to interview iób applicants who had cars. He þreferred them, he said, because he thought tley
were morê reliable in showing up forwork. And {
this job category started oüt at $2.50 per hourwith overtime workgrs maYbe,cpuld take home $90
a week! You could öossibly feed a car on sucþa
satary, but you couid never raise a family, es-,i'
pecially not a family and an automobile combined.
That is how the system works. lf you are poor
and born in the ghetto, if your father cannot buy r
you a car because he's never had the money to buy
one for himself , then you iust never really get
started in the system. Without a car you don't .
-work, and without work you'can't get a car. Unless
you steal one. And that usually brings you up
against the other repressive institutions of this

{

Most of the six foreign rubber concessions in the
country buy rubber produced by Liberian rubbergrovriers (both big officials and small peasants
ãt¡te). They are the Liberian ¡ubbei-growers' only
market. Firestone, as the biggest buyer, has an
interest in letting its arm be twisted "to adiust
wages to the local scale," because that way it
helþs keep its suppliers' costs-down, so it won't be
facäd w¡th pressures to raise the prices it pays for

BICVCL€
I

ED ARSZMAN
The lowly, humble bicycle i s the vehicle of the
s strugEurdpean working class. ln
gle in America is very
tude toward bicycles
will ever have'an
not the poor will
poverty depends

freeways

s

imaginative
it is corrupt
Look at it

ten mil

s

at that.

that are

.

iceable Schw inn 3-speed once
, it was one of the better

sron

A

oppression I
cities and in
cities work.

cycle is the most readil v
the
h the ..
basically
.

er and the
e can go
places besides

a

and a few

nally, the bicycle is
s to

Cars

the

universally.
es

th

s

pollution;
lnes of
of either
ica's

of'
lutely unrelated to the work on the job itself '
.t rómember once talking to the personnel
manager of a factory offerinþ $2.50 an hour iobs.
These were simple machine operator occupations
involving no blue print reading or specialskills. At
that wage level thê employer could not ask for
much. What is more, the factory was located
within ten blocks of the downtown area; it was on
.

Ed Arszman recentlv made a "Bike for Jobs"
cross-count fv bicyctê trip. He is a Íounder and
èoordinator of The Committee for Zero Auto'

mobile Growth, PO Box 44666, Indianapolis, lN

452M.

le in

ch

e

cars,

allkinds
Vietnamese
and the peopl e on bicycles won

the
about
motor
, and
The
es primarily,
o thêir ever-

lasting credit they won.
Ride a bike and support the revolution

.tY
ìzwtN

lily

? Well, the bicycle is-the vehicle
Almost anyone can own a bike. I

society

subtle
and the
forms of

that feels

because it lives

allthe

Background draw¡¡g by Mark Morris

!

wtN

1-1

,
I

Witness:the most ¡mportant felony I have per-

i

son al ly ever. comrfì ¡tted

I

:

Our marriage, like our courtsh.ip, \as been conventional . lt was love àt f irst sight when we met at
the elevator iust outside the sixth-Íloor tearoom of

rL

¡l

the AtlantaYMCA. Ernestwas afãshion coor:
dinator for a local department store, I a state co/lege professor from 100 miles awQY, dgep in the
oöach and pecan orchards. One of us Black, the
'other
white; both native Southerners . We com'
muted every weekend for five months. Our triends
weren'tst¡rprised when we decided to marryWe would have wasted our time to senid an announr"r"'nt to the local papers. Besl'des, the bank
ämpióiéei spread the word ìust as effectiue.lv
when'we took out a ioint account. Our wedding itLouie Crew has published over B0 items recently,
in Christian Century, Harper's, Saturday Review,
and scores ol collegiate and literary magazines.
Hè is an editor of ÑOtf and lntegrity, and is
listed in Leaders of Black America' This paper was
originally read 7 /12/75 at a symposium on victim/esi crimes held at IJ. of South Florida, St. Petersburg.

se/f was 'private,lust the two of us and the Holy
Spirit. Pàrents, though loving, would not have
welcomed the occasion, and our priest had no
Eoiscopal authoritv (or desire) to off iciate. Two
neiehbórs, historians, sent a bottle of
"õ^ri^,ent
chumpagne; a psychologistfriend droppe.d in .
earlier to propose a toast; others sent welcomtng
tokens.
We unloaded the heavier gear from the car before
'ã^cnbeginning the ceremony. Then we carried
oíhe, acrãss the thresho ld (a neat trick, reallvl into the dining room, where the table was set
,hít¡ t*o wine glásses from Woolworth's, one lone
and lighted red candle instead of our customary
two gieen ones, a vase with one early narcissus
(aÍter all, I am an English professor!.), and an open
Bookof Common Prlyer. We read theservice
Áeivousty, its fearsome biddiJtc and pledges. The
words woman.and wife translated readily as
:
spouse, man, husband, Person. All tookonly

aboutten minutes
One could be too quickto sentimentalize a few
details, such as our bed, a 2\0-year-old four'
ooiter'bu¡lt bv the s/ave ancestor of one of us for
'the
Íree ancestor of the other ' Perhaps we were
futlitlingtheir dream? Or Dr. King'sdream- - . ?

20 million commit civil disobedience

d,-{

But we lind day-to-day living too difficult for us to
negotiate other people's drearns: we uibrk at living
our own dream, a dream no difÍerent from the
dream of niany other couples, a dream of a home
-with much love to bridge our separateness.
Even at the risk of wrongly seeming to speak for.
all Gays,,a i¡eople rrruch too numerous and
beautifully diverseto be locked into only one
dream, I stress first the personal noté mainly be,
cause we Cay felons are typically viewed not as
persons, but as numbers or object's for manipulation. The distance gained by third person pronouns is the space the law úsés to institutionalize
the hostile feelings of the majority, while at the
same time freeing the majority from thq discomfort of taking responsibility for the personal and
human consequences of those h$tile feelings.
There are, by the stingiest of nonCay estimates,
between 15-25 million Americans who have a
major portion of our sexual arousal and response
with members of the same sex. All action in
response to such natural arousal, however, is a
felony in 39 states. (The eleven who have repealed
such laws are California, Colorado, Connecticut,
Delaware, Hawaii, lllinois, Maine, New Mexico,
.

.

:

Reeves
iust by being gay. Photo by Lana

North Dakota, Ohio and Oregon.) FurthedÈnore,
even to suggest the possibility of'acting'on'súch
arousal (as in the seemingly innocuousstatement
to a friend, "You turn me on; let's get together")
is in most of these states deemed "solicitation to
commitian immoral act" and subject-tö òiim¡nal .
prosecútion.
The consequences of these antiCay laws (or
. i:
"sodomy statutes" as yott call them).cannot be
measured in the admittedly low numberof afrests
and convictions actually sought, but in the eË
fectiveness of the laws in thus institutionalizing
the taboo perceived by the majority. In jobs and
housing, for example, an admitted felon, whethe¡
convictèd or not, has no clout in claiming her civil
rights. Hence, there is monumental p-ressure on
Cay persons to "þass," to pretend (often even to
" ourselves) that we are not really Cay. Thereby
many of us affirm our second-class citizenship and
make mockery of our "freedom of association,"
rqlegating "freedom" to the criminal undergiound which the law thus creates; with its threats
of blackmail and concomitant abuse;
Further more, understandilfg parentç of Cay
children (and there are damn few parents who
know how to understand, much less love, their
Cay children !) are placed under the formidable
burden of knowing how to counsel their children to
integrate their. Gay sexuality with their whole
personhood and still protectthem from the severest disenfranchisement effected by the law.
Because of the illegal status of Cay relations,
Cay persons are denied positive visibility
throughoút our culture, particularly on the media
and in the institutions of Church and higher education. Cóntrary to fact, all achievers are pre'
sumed to be heterosexual, and Cays are denied
'
ready access to knowledge of our extensive con-- '.
tributions to history and to this society. Caï, '
childien (and we are all children of our more than . :
'
a0 millioÀ nonCay parents, as we have not yet
,;
developed means of repiodtrction !) are thus
' denied access to the kinds of positive models that i
will help us grow up as healthy Cays, while there :. .
is not one shred of convincing evidençe that such '':',.'
censorship has ever kept even one Cav child from
growing up Cay.
- Orie ðonsequ'ence of our long hiding in the
heterosexual society is that we Cays know much
more about non'Cays than noncays know about
us. As an outsider, I 3ee nuch in the hetero rivorld .
of which I disapprove: your burgeoning divorcCi .
rate, for example; your millions of loveless
fainilies still hanging together; your raging sex- :' ..
ism; your high incidence of violence in sexuality;
your pleasure ¡n commbrcializing your brand of
sexuality. My,husband and I do not want to "smell
clean." for Lifebouy; nor do we want to be on your
Ceritol ads! Yet it would never occur to us tp illegalize your affectional preferences or even to
deprive one hetqro person of our regpect because
of what we disapprove in" another hétero person.
Yet such legal and social maneuvers are your oppression of us and of our Þeople by the millions
daily. Your laws are madness and your behavior is
' inhumane to the extreme. I pray that you may find
deliverance
,

..

.

o

I

I

BV Louie
14

WIN

Crew

-rv

WIN

15

may have than fatten the profits.of the agribiz

HEADS AND TALES is an occasional column for essays of human
liberation and personal experience. Should you care to write abut
where your head is at, please lim¡t your contribution to 800 words.

giants.
A statement that the state, the church, the corporation, the organization, does not belong interfering in one's life is meaningf ul. ln essence the
realization that all of these institutions are creations of humanity on a power trip is important.
Change in the basic concept of what humanity is
about is what i's needed if these manifestations of
the present power-mad self-image are to be
changed. To change that conception of self one
needs to change one's thoughts, one's words,
one's deeds. Gandhi called for Ahimsa-nonviolence- in all of these aspects of one's life.
Putting that on a practical level vegetarianism is a
first and easily attdinable step for ãnyone. lt does
not require forceful action, demonstrations,
bombings, petitions. . .for anyone can become a
vegetarian simply by switching one's diet. No
one's permission is required to change except
one's own. ln this way we will have demonstrated
an essential truth to ourselves, a truth oÏ nonviolence by affirming our basic harmless natures
as human beings. lt is this'r.éassertion of
humanityls basic goodness which is necessary if '
humanity is to overcome the traps of avarice,
murder and other power trips which go hand in
hand with flesh eating,
Yes, there are good people who are still tied to
the habit of eating animals, or even people, in
some parts of our world. But these people could
become even better people if they would bury
their hatchets, make their swords into ploughshares and take the daggers off their belts, ln fact
the belts themselves need not'be made of the
skins of murdered animals. lf we can abandon

ChAN
l

I once believed that one needed to use force to end
oppression. Later, when I examined that pfemise

it seemed that thouþh it might be valid in certain
cases on a practical basis, in the basic sense it
represented a contradiction. For how could one
really teach others to cease the use of force by the
use of force?

4,

1à

Finally l'realized that if in one's day to day ac,tions one were an oppressor, whether of humans
for profit or power, or of animals for food or clothing, then one would expect that oppression would
become the rule of lÍfe. Oppressors in fact must
expect not only to oppress but to be oppressed.
lf one could abandon oppression and live in'
peace and harmony.with one's neighbors, not
interfering with their lives, not eating or wearing
them, perhaps one could change one's relations
with everyone, could build a better world.
At this point vegetarianism became meaningful
to me and I became a vegetarian. I have been one
since. Many, I suspect, have become vegetarians
for similar or identical reasons. We need to build a
world of love in which power is not the motivation
for life. To build such a world will require that
èach of us in day to day life live a life of love. To
live without taking life sçems to be the basic beginning for a compassionate world's creation.
For many vegetarians the knowledge that one
need not kill animals to live is enougih of a reason
to become vegptarian and to help to spread the
word. For others the realization that one can live
on less than Yz the 2,000|bs. of grain required by
an American flesh-eater theôe days if one consumes one's food directly rather than inefficiently
via animals gives one reason enough in a world of
hungry people to become vegetarian and to spread
the word. For some compassion begins with the
self , the realization that better health is possible
on a natural vegetarian diet is motivation from
which to grow into other forms of compassion. Still
ôthers realize that a vegetarian diet costs less and
thus enables us to do more with what money we
16

murder in daily life perhaps we can come closer to
that utopia of love and compassion which we all .
really want. Vegetarianism is a primary and '
'meaningful step in that directions.
CONTACT:
There are many reasons for vegetarianism and
there are many vegetarian journals which can help
one to understand them. North American Vegetarians,501 Old Harding Highway, Malaga, NJ
08328 publishes Vegetàrian Voice and offers
autonomous affiliation to any vegetarian group
ready to affiliate.
Vósetarian World, published from suite 216,
8235 Santa Monica Bouleúard, Los Angeles, California 90046 offers diversified news to vegetarians
and membership in a Vegetarian Book Club as
well as subscriptions to this quarterly newspaper
of broad ranging interest.
The Vegetarian Review & Digest published
from Box 211, Haverlord, Pennsylvania 19041 is a
new vegetarian newspaper published on a
quarterly basis which gives news of interest to
vegetarians and others and publishes the thoughts
of vegetarians and vegetarian groups. Subscriptions are'available.
The1976 North American vegetarian convention will be held for eight days in early August in
Ithaca, New York, hosted by the North American
Vegetarians of Malaga, NJ 08328.

PROTESTS AGA¡NST US

DEATH OF
PAUL ROBESON
Paul Robeson, actor, singer, athlete, scholar, social phílosopher
and polítical activist died on Friday, J anuary 23 atthe age of 77
Universally acclaimed as a
brilliant actor and powerful vocalist, Robeson was hounded from a
TTTE

INTERVENT¡ON INANGOLA
HELD IN NEW YORK AND DC

:

BOB PINKUS

E5

"

Demonstrations in New York and
Washington, DC drew hundreds
of people to protest US interyêntion in Angola January 17 and'19.
ln New York an enthusiastic,
multi-national crowd of 1,2OO,
marched over a mile in subfreezing weather to a rally in a buildint+
off Union Square. The demonstrators attracted many followers
on the way and people waved in
support from windows on the
route.
Speakers at the rally, included
Maritza Arrastia of the Puerto
Rican Socialist Party, Dennis
Serrette, president of the New
York Coalition of Black Trade
Unionists, Paul lrish of the MPLA
Solidarity Committee in New
York, Nick DeFreigas of Youth
Against War and Fascism and
others.
Upwards of 400 people demonstrated in Washington, DC-t¡ruÒ
days later to demand an end to US
intervention, in Angola. The
J anuary 19 protest was timed to
coincide with the beginning of the
final debate in the House of Rep- 'j
resentatives that would cut off all
funds for CIA activities involving
Angola except for those intended
for " intel ligence gathering. "
The demonstrators converged
on the Capitol steps at noon and
heard speeches from J udge
William Booth, president of the
American Committee on Africa;
con gressional representative
Bella Abzug; activist Cora Weiss
and others.
"ln phrases reminiscent of the
immoral and unpopular war in
lndochina, the Administration has
said that our purpose in Angola is
'to help people to defend them.
selves"' organizers of the
demonstration said in a press
conference earlier in the morning.
"And yet when the people of
Angola were fighting to free
themselves from Portuguese
colonialism the United States gave
the IPortuguese] Salazar and
Caetano regimes invaluable

.

successful career on stage and
screen by McCarthy era attacks on
his political convictions. Throughout his career Robeson vigorously
fought racial discrimirfation and
publ icly embraced social ism.

Though he denied being a
member of the Communist Party,
his unabashed admiration for the
Soviet Union and his refusal to
compromise his political and
social beliefs resulted in rnanyof
his appearances being cancelied.
Vigilantes attacked a crowd waiting outside one of his concerts in
Peekskill, NY in August, '1949..Joe
McCarthy attacked him numerous
times in his Senate Committee.
Despite the harsh treatment he
received in the Uníted States, he
was still widely acclaimed duiing
professionaltours in Europe. He
moved to London in 1958 and
though he claimed at the time: "l
don't want any overtones of suggestion that I am deserting the
country of my birth," many felt he
left in bitterness over his treatrnent by white Americans.
Robeson remained in England
until 1963 when he returned to
New

:

York.

-WlN

political and economic support,
thus assisting them to retain their
African colonies. What the US is
now doing is a continuation of the
same policy, seeking to prevent
the people of Angola from reach.

ing true independence. "
The House will be voting on the
Angola amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill within a
few days. The Amendment already passed in the Senate in a

54-22vote in mid-December, a
clear expression of opposition to
mounting US covert action in
Angola.

But the amendment has substantial loopholes. ln addition to
al lowing f unds for' iinte{l igence
gathering" activities, it doeín't
affect the fi27-35 million already
spent in the last seven months nor
the $6-9 million already allotted *
for Angola but not yet spent.
Nevertheless, demon strators on
Capitol Hillfelt the amendment is
a f irst and important step and will
continue to push for a total end to
US intervention in

Angola. -LNS

2 HELD 8 MONTHS

FOR CONTE.MPT
Two activists, Ellen Crusse and
Terri Turgeon, who refused to co-

operate with a federal grand jury,
were freed Dec. 19 from Niantic
State Prison in Connecticut after
serving eight months for con-

tempt. The grand jury had been
seeking information on the
whereabouts of Susan Saxe and
Katherine Power.
Saxe and Power were alleged
accomplices in two politically
motivated bank robberies during
the mass protests in 1970 against
the government escalation of the
war in lndochina. A police officer
was killed during the Boston,
Mass., holdup. Saxe was arrested
last year after f ive years as a fugitive. Power remains underground.','
Federal grand juries such as the
one in Connecticut have been
used as a weapon to harass activists in the women's movement
with whom, the government.
charges, Saxe and Power sougþt

refuge.

j

Crusse and Turgeon were freed

after a nationwidetampaign
against such grand jury harassment. The campaign, involving
many feminist organizatiöhs and
activists, was organized by the
New York-based Crand J ury
Prolect. The project is currently
calling for increased pressure for
the release of a third prisoner, J ill
Raymond, who has been held in a
Kentucky prison for over a year
for her refusal to cooperate with a
similar grand jury.

WIN

wlN

17

'-'

One of the focuses of the project
is on the illegality of the govern-

1

DEMONSTRAT¡ONS ON
MARTIN LUTHER KING'S

BTRTHDAY FOCUS ON JOBS,
ment's use of grand juries to
BUSING & POLICE BRUTATITY
harass women, minorities and the
left. Under current practices, if
J anuary 15, 1976 saw demonstrations across the country comrecipients of grand jury
memorating the birthday of Mar;
subpoenas exercise their constitin Luther King, and addressing
tutional right to remain silent,
many of the current political and
they often face prison for the
economic problems facing Amerilength of the grand jury.
Letters demanding freedom for cans, and particularly black
Americans.
J ill Raymond should be addressed
Many cities and states officially
to Eldon Webb, Acting US Atrecognized King's birthday, intorney, Federal Building,
cltrding New York, New Jersey,
Lexington, Ky. 40501
St. Louis and Chicago. There were
Guardian
-The
marches in Memphis, Tennessee,
where King was murderqd in 1968
while leading a sanitation workers
strike, and in Montgomery, Ala' bama where he led ¿ bus boycott
twenty years ago. Three citiesAtlanta, Ceorgia, Louísville;
Kentucky, and Columbia, South
ine- saw particularly large
Carol
LËSBIAN MOTHER SUIT
demonstrations.
Mary Jo Risher, a lesbian mother,
Atlanta-"We marched to dehas lost custody of her nine-Yearmand jobs, full employment,"
old son as a result of a decision
said one of the organizers of the
passed down by a domestic relaAtlanta march, which drew some
tions court jury. Risher's attorney
20,000 people in a parade that
attempted to prohibit the defenstretched for nearly two miles.
dant's sexual preference from be"lt was the thinking of Coretta
ing made an issue in the ca5e, but
King and many of us who worked
the motion was denied bV J udee
with Dr. King, that if he had lived,
Owen Chrisman.
in light of the economic situatioñ
Risher has had custody of her
in this country, he would have had
two sons,,J immy¡ 17, and
us take no other focus than that of
Richard, 9, since 1971 when she
jobs. So we used.his birthday as a
and her husband were divorced.
springboard to speak to one of the
Last summer J immy left his
most pressing and relevant issues
mother's home to live with his
in the nation unemployment. "
father who subsequently filed suit
The march began at the
to gain custody of Richard on the
Ebenezer Baptist Church where
grounds that the boys' mother
King was once pastor, and ended
was unfit because of her homoin downtown Atlanta. Speakers at
sexuality.
the rally included Atlanta mâyor
During the custody trial Mary
Maynard J ackson, the mayors of
J o Risher testified in the presence
New York, Detroit and Cary, ln=
of a jury of ten men and two
diana, and Coretta King.
women that her love for Ann
¡ Louisville-"ln Louisville,
Foreman, with whom she had
busing was the issue," said a
been living for two years, does not Southern Christian Leadership
interfere with her ability to raise
Conference (SCLC) organ izer
Richard. Attorney Aglaia Mauzy
about the J anuary 15
told the jury that Risher was a
demonstration there.
"warm, loving mother" who
Some 2,500 people led by black
provided a"good, clean environactivist Dick Cregory and memment."
bers of the SCLC marched one
The câse is being appealed. For ' mile to the Louisville federal
more information contact: The
courthouse. Later the demonMary Jo Risher Fund, c/o Dallas
strators held a rally in a local
County NOW, PO Box 12431,
church.
Dallas, TX 45225.
Throughout the fall there was
-Majority Report much víolent white opposition to
lBWIN

school desegregation in the city.

ln early September hundreds

o

were arrested and dozens inlured
when anti-busing forces burned
buses and broke store windows.
' "l think the march was a show

I t-

of strength," continued the SCLC
organizer, "to show that black
people in Louisville feel that the
I buses must roll foreach black
person there to receive a quality
education.

"

Columbia-An estimated
10,000 South Carolinians came out

in Columbia, the capital, January
15 in what many described as the'

largest civil rights demonstration
in the state's history. Of major
concern to many marchers was
police brutality and in particular,
the fatal shootings of eight black
people by white policemen in the
state in just over a year.
"We are here because we are

:

tired of the indignities we have
suffered because of bigotry, ignorance, racism and greed," said
'one speaker, Rev. Matth'ew D.
McCollom, president of the
Southern Conference of the

NAACP.

-tNS

NATIVE HAWAIIANS MOVE
TO TAKE BACK ISLAND
. Thirty native Hawaiians denlan$
ing the return of the island of
Kahoolawe-now used as a Navy

bombing range- " invaded" the
island in early J anuary on a fleet
of sailboats
The 30, without weapons, sailed
from Maui, eight miles away,
after hearing that the government
. was delaying consideration of
whether to return Kahoolawe for a
year while a "feasibility" study
was being conducted. Some of the
native Hawaiians are members of
the Hawaiian Coalition of Native
Claims. A groups called the

ALOHA (Aboriginal Lands of
Hawaiian Ancestry) has been demanding the return of the island
since 1973 as part of a billion dollar reparations progfam to native
Hawaiians.
Two of the 30 native Hawaiians
stayed on the island for two days
before they could be hunted down
by the navy and Coast Cuard. The
two were cited for trespassing,
but as yet no formal charges have
been filed.
-The Guardian

The proposed draft registrattorl
day of March 31 has been
temporarily postponed. lf and
when such an event occurs there
will be resistance, including sorìre.;;
who will refuse to register for any
type of conscription. A special ¡ssue of the Catho/ic Agitator on
"Choosi n g Alternatives "
presents thoughts about resistiñg
the draft by Bruce Baechler, a
nonregistrant now serving a 26month prison sentence, Dave
Lumien, and the writer of this
column, who refused to register

during World War ll. The good
people who publish the Agitator
have printed several thousand
extra copies for distribution. lf
you would like to distribute some,
write to the Catholic Agitator ,
Ammon Hennacy House of Hos' pitality, 605 North Cummings St.,
Los Angeles, California 90033.
Martin Sostr'e, according to Marlene Nadle writing in the Village
Voice, is as intransigent as ever,
despite many years in prison,
some of them in solitary confinement. Recently Sostre said in an
interview, "Oppressors count on
terror to make people submit.
They {on't know what to do when
it doesn't work. They have no defense against nonsubmission. lt
lousps up the machine." That, of
course, lies at the heart of active
nonviolence as a method for deal.
ing with oppression. lt is good to
know that Sostre plans to continue
his work for human rights for
prisoners and others who are victimized by our social order.
The Decem ber, 1975 issue of
NEPA News includes an excellent
article on the rights of parolees
which calls attention to Morrissey
v. Brewer , a federal court decision
which grants dnyone facing parole
revocation a right to two hearings,
a preliminary and a final hearing,
and also spells out the rights and

when taxpayers are,increasingly t

proceedings which' shou lã govern
such heariñgs. The article is
based on a forthcoming Publication of the American Friends Serviee.Committee. Those wishinþ
more information should contact:
David Collins, AFSC,48 lnman
St., Cambridge, MA 02139.

demanding an accounting for their
money, the waste and negative
results inherent in our prison
system should be exposed whenever possible.

ln a landmark ruling, Federal
udge Frank M. Johnson stated
that imprisonment in Alabama's
overcrowded prisons constitutes
cruel and unusual punishment as
prohibited by the eighth amqndment to the Constitution. J udge
J ohnson refused to accept the excuse of lack of funds as adequáte
reasori for the telrible prison conditions. He issued forty-four
guidel i nes which constitute
minimum standards if Alabama is
to adhere to the Constitution; and
gave Covernor Ceorge C. Wallace
and other state officials six
months to put the guidelines into
efféct. Accôrding tõ the New York
Times, the judge noted that
"rampant violence and [a] jungle
J

atmosphere"

exi st

throughout

Alabama's penal system, and
commented that any person
qntering those prisons had "no
chance of leaving the institution
w¡th a more ¡iositive or constructive attitude than the'one he or
she brought

in."

The answér of several Ohio legislators to overcrowding in the
prison.s is to propose a constitu-

tional amendment providing $250
million in bonds to build new
prisons and youth detention
facilities. Such a measure would
only compound the problem.
Col umn ist William Raspberry
recently noted that nearly half the
,cost of crime was for supporting a
criminal justice system and commented: "And what do we get for
those outlays? Virtually nothing.
Not crime reduction, not rehabilitation, not safety." At a time

!

'

The United Prisoner's Rights
Movement in Canada organized
and carried out two very successful demonstrations during the
end-of -the-year hol iday"season
On Christmas day, 1975, despite a
.

20 below temperature, one

thousand demonstrators marched
around Parthenais Prison in
Montreal to draw attention to the

"indignities, frustrations añd
shocking treatment" taking place'
inside the walls. Another similar

sized group demonstrated in front
of the women's section of
Tãnguay Prison for the same
reason and in the same fräezing
temperature. The very fine leailet
they distributed quotes offiçials :
on the uselessness of pripons,
raises questions about Canada's
prisons which must be answered
in 1976, and points out that tax
money spent on prisons is wasted
and personal safety lessened.
French philosopher, psychiatrist
and historian, Michel Foucault,
expressed an interesting viewof
the role of prisons in an interview
first published in Le Monde,4nd
partly reprinted_on the Op Eci .
page of the New York Times. ' ,

Among other things, Foucault
said:

"Lawbreaking is not an accident,
a more or less unavoidable imper-

fection. Rather, it is a positive
element of the functioning of
society. lts role is part of a general
strategy. Every legislative arrangement sets up privileged and
profitable areas where the law can
bé violated, others where it can be
ignored, and others where infractions are sanctioned."

-Larry

Gara
wtN

19

',:\

The flashes of insight ín Cryer and Ford,s first album, along with the more sophisticated song, f-m
their shows , are a promise of some real
accomplished music by them and for women in the
near future. As they begin to deal with asoects of
women's. lives.other than our relationshipi with rnun,
their song.s will herald the full joy of the irLe¿om thai
rèplaces the anger of oppression.

{
-

c

-Wendijõlrrrirt,

* @ Fiddleback Music Publishing Co., lnc. (BMt).

THE FOOD CO.OP HANDBOOK
The Co-op Handboók Collective / Houehton
Company, Boston / 1975 / pbk $4.95 -

{
CRYER & FORD
Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford

"Oh l've been around:

/

RCA Records

When a woman no longer needs to be defensive and
feel angry, the fever of her personal struggle has
broken. She can be free to express loneliness, to
need love, and to be just a bit proud that she came
through the pain and frustration without sacrificing
the vulnerability that makes her human. And she can
revel in thejoyof her new independence. Cretchen
Cryer and Nancy Ford write for the women who have
reached this plateau.
The political awareness of Cryer and Ford has always been a cut above that of most comniercial
composers and playwrights. An early Off-Broadway

4.

production, "Now ls the Time for AllCood Men,"
dealt sensitively with the problems of a CO returning
to a small town in the Midwest after serving time in
prison. (The hero was undoubtedly modeled after
Cryer's brother, Peter Kiger, who is well-known for
his activism to both WIN readers and assorted law
enforcement officers who contributed to his record of
30-odd arrests.)
Another Off-Broadway success of Cryer and Ford
was "The Last Sweet Days of lsaac," two one-act
satires that poke fun at the search for the {'meaning
of liÍe," "meaningful relationships" which can be
spawned and consummated in a stalled elevator, and
civil disobedients who understand neither the situation they were protesting nor the gravity of their own
acts.

That both these productions played to large and
diverse audiences is evidence of Cryer and Ford's
good feel for the public's tolerance level. Hopefully
their f irst'album as a duo will not only find its audi:
ence also, but will introduce some women to the idea
that independence is the best trip tO take.
The songs in this album deal with relationships ot
one kind or another between a man and a woman.
One, probably to a former lover, "Long Time Cone,"
contains the theme of the album:
"l've learned to love another
But loving's not the same
I

take it with a grain of salt

l'm keeping my own r'ìame. . . "*
The idea of maintaining distance in a relationship is
developed further in "You Can Never Know My

Mind":

Cot the map of the country on my face

Highways of broken

promises

:

Crossroads whereihings were left behind
Oh l've been aroundl've done and l've been done to
And I don't trust that anyone
Can ever know my mind. . . "*
The treasure among these unusu al "love" songs is
"Do Whatcha Cotta Do to Make Yourself Happy."
It's a story of a woman and her younger lover. While
its lyrics and production are not as rich as those of

Dory Previn's similar "Lemon Haired Ladies,"
neither does it convey the sadness and desperation
usually found in Previn's songs. Rather, it promotes
the idea that it is the young man who is the'lucky half
of the partnership, the one who must guard against
his "hot stuff growing cold." lt oftên seems that
eloquence comes easier to those writing of sorrow,
but Cryer manages to avoid the Norman Vincent
Peale quality that pervades many songs oÍ atticmæ
tion by injecting a delicate humor into her tale:
"How will I break it to my mother
He's younger than my very youngest brother
I guess l'll have to tell her when it's all said and
done
She didn't lose a daughter, she just got a grand-

son!"*

The other love songs are interesting melodically,
but largely repetitions of the same theme. Cryer and
Ford make a beautiful sound together, one which
distinguishes even the most pedestrian of the songs;
and all the melodies are new and lively. The album is
orchestrated heavily: because I had previously heard
them perform only to piano accompaniment, it took
a whilê for me to hear the bass, percussion, drumg
etc. as anything but a detraction, but after listening
to the songs a dozen or so times, the lush background seems to enhance rather than diminish.
My favorite cut on the album happens to be the
only one that doesn't focus on a relationship. "Hang
on.to the Cood Times" is a mother's advice to her
daughter. The tune is one I find myself humming -as
frequently as I hum. The simplicity of the lyrics bely
their importance. O, to be sent off to face life with a
sense of aff irmation! This kind of philosophy is
where Christian parents in the Midwest and J ewish
ones in the East show their real differences.

Mifflin

Food co-ops can be the crossroads of a whole series
of social conditions and resolutio¡rs in a community:
þigh prices circumvented by collöctive buying;
hi erarch y rep aced.by col lective deci s ion ñrakl'n g;
a.lienation b.V real change. ln many ways, co-operatives can bring into focus the visions of aiternátives
to capitalism we've kept in our minds. tn the modern
cofporate state, we'refortunate to have an expanding movement of people who are conscioüsly éoming
together to work collectively. But sometimes co-ops
are.at.once.sophisticated in systems and production,
and diluted in politics...More movement feople nee to examine this broad-based so-cial modèl nòt only to
feed themselves more economiðally, but to devàlóp
skills in building a decentralized allernative to
capitalist production and distribution.
The many people participating in the new co-ops
are beginning to control the quality and distributìon
of their food. Yet there seems,to be little development of the political identity of co¡ops. Large co-ops
can have economic impact, but are usuallyþoliticálly'
ineffecutal. ,Small co-ops can be anywheré politically
and may drift in economic obscurity. ln both cases,
new inp.ut seems needed to gauge.whether co-ops
are duplicating oppressive formi, or leading to a
I

liberating society.
' People-who participate in co-ops are dealing with a
variety of problems that develop their communit¡es
politically. To accelerate this political growth and to
ensure_that grass roots control does not evaporate
into political blandness, co-ops could use two things:
a..lot more Rgoplq who are oriented towards politicãl
dialogue rather than consumerism, and information
about where co-ops are at and what their potential is.
The Co-Op Handbo.ok, written by a foui person re_
:9ul!l gnd writing collective Blves.an extremely
complete account of collective food distribution. lt is
A PERSONAL VtEW OF f ND|A,S CR|SIS continued from page 10.

prosperity. The benef its from the state of emergelcy, namely, that inflation Ís controlled, crime
is dory1, strikes are banned, discipline in factories
and off ices is improved, the trainj run on time, ali
these touch primarily the lives of upper classes.
No doubt they have lost some politicäl privileges
but they.continue to have economic security as.
long as they don't step out of line or criticizã thè
government. With a. show of authoritarian force,
and by making the threat to the sovereignty of the
country an issue, the government has quickly
lined up support from the inf luential sections of
I

an easily read reference/study work that should help

co-op people and political activists understand the
many aspects and styles of food co-ops. Profits above
supporting the writing collective for its past work will
be used foi a national co-operative eduiation fundl
The book tackles each niajor step of food co-op organizing and draws upon the experiences of many
co-op activists to illustrate a variety of poòsiblþ,cooperative alternatives and ramifications. lf a eo-op
intends to stay small, the Handbook people suggest
it hook up with other small (and large) có-ops iñto
federations. All will do better economically, remairt
autonomous, and develop politícally as weil. Th'e
Handbook also emphasizes how organizing urban
tood co-ops can be the first step in developing
neighborhood unity in dealing with the oppression of
landlords and politicians.
At times the organizing methods outline in the
Handbook seem politically ambivalent. The writers
seem to suggest that co-op organizêÈs.are mobt
valuable as aloof manípulators, seldom connected to
the communities they organize.'ln addition, the
contradiction of a hierarchy of áctivists which often
exists in co-ops should have been further examin'ed.
There exist hístorical examples of people in self-

suff icient co-operative/col lective situations. An
examinatíon of the possible forins of co-operative
exchange of labor or material would have been valuable in expanding the political vision of co-ops.
The book collective's ability to effectively communicate a vast amount of information to almost
anyone involved to any degree in co-op work makes
the book extremely valuable. lncluded are excellent
sections on physical space, membership, logistics,
f inances and organizing, as well as the þolitical aspects of nutrition, decision-making, and sexism.
Most chapters deal quite specificially with real co-op
problems, and close with reference sources. Appendices contain regional contacts for co-op federations, organic farmiñg groups, and a nationat cooperative directory.
A theme that thô Handbook collective develops is
that co-ops should be open to everyone, and thãt the'
co-op premise, a member-owned and controlled
operation, will become the catalyst for consciousness
development as people see whatthey can accomplish
together. lf questions of political direction receive
more immediate attention by co-op members a¡d
others, we all may bettèr understánd the non-liie¡archical potential of the co-operative.form. j:
-Stephe Prieston

the society. For the bottom B5o/o, or the overwhe-lming major:ity of the lndian people, nothing
has really been changed by the proclamation of
emergency. But the act of taking away the basic
rights of citizens, who are not yet aware of their
potential, cannot be condoned.unless it is a
temporary measure which is sincerely taken by
the government for the purpose of accelerating
the process of human development. Also, we must
not forget that the dreadful efficiency of totalitarianism is always less in instilling new convictions,
and more in destroying the capacity of the individual to form independent convictions.

20wtN
wlN

21

Í

,{,
lnstitute seeks unselfish,
New Midwest Research
sociallv-conscious, non-careerlst' MA-PhD
pol¡tical scientists, etc.
¡.iöüËveÑr
to get grants or ra¡se f unds. SemiMUST be able ".onom¡sts,
feconvers¡on, etc.
scholarlv studies on war_peace
ncÀo iross and Osterman '- I he New ProfesTerkel
"Working" pp
Studs
¡¡-Zz,
szs-szz . llz -sn' claudra ure¡lus "Radical Life'1206
N 6th St ,
itutes.;"r.¿¡¿west lnstitute,
Cólumbus, OH43201'

tilî"fr; -

rI.N
(

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Eastwind Community- located. in Ozarks. $eeking
members. Promot¡ng non-punlshlng, nonviolent,
eealitarian society. Grow¡ng qu¡ckly. Presently 50
miembers. Assoc¡ated w¡th lw¡n Oaks ¡n VA. lnterested ¡n -MO
lo¡n¡ng, wt¡teorcall-Eastw¡nd,

T 1

Tecumseh,

pui¡ucet¡ots

LßCR

WohøExprr¡o

WHAT lS BEINC? by Robert Head,

f€aturfng articlê6

POLITICAL ECOISMY OF

,d

S.E.

ASIA

U.S. TPREIGN FOLICY
published every other nonth by
P¡CIFIC STTJDIÊS CEIÙTEA
1963 Uritverslty.Ave,

.rt
J

East Pâto

Alto,

from

lntegrity CAY EPISCOPAL FORUM-the naqghty
sassy voice of literate street queers, faggots finèH
w¡th the Holy Chost, sisters and fathers claiming
again our own children, ioint heirs with J esus
Christ, preaching the råíieion of disrespectability
right at the foot of the crois, the meek inheriting
the earth . . . Sample iss¡re, $1, 10 ¡ssues for $10,
from 701 Orange St., f6, Ft. Valley, CA 31030.
Chapters in 33 cities.

'MI'I,TINATIO¡\lÀI,S

C,A

94303

EMPIRE: A Bicentennial Appraisal, by Richard
Krooth, $1.50 from Harvest Publishers, 907 Santa
Barbara St:, Santa Barbara, CA 93101.

i L2 Lsâves/ 2 yeats
lndlviduali $6.00 (Uq$?.2O
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(ttfl$Ig..2o fgrêign)
WORLD'S Most Outspoken Publication, Natural
Health, Healing, Organic Cardening. Free Coþy_
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LONELY PR]SONERS NEED TO HEAR FROM
YOU. Most are soon to be released and need outside contact and encouragement: Robert Laws,
135-587. and Ceorge Burtôh, 133-335, Box 787,
Lucasviile, OH 456,18; Donald Evans, 141-975, Box
69, London, OH 431,10.

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CAMBODIA: THE POLITICS OF FOOD. Feb/Mar
lndocliina Chronicle, 751. One-year subscription

lagues

$10.00, low income rate $6.00. lndochina Resource
Center, PO Box,t000-D, Berkeley, CA94704..

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and plan to visit Community Assoc¡ates Printing
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The

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and south, ancient and modern.
Peoples Press. $2.95.

7'16-271-9439..

BUY"CENTENNIAL RECESSION BLUES? What
this economy needs, is an {merican Revolut¡on!
Peoples Bicentennial Commission, Washington,
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U. S. Governmdnt's nilmber one TOP SECRET (the
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independent researcher after 6 months of full t¡me
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Keep the Fedo honest by calling me collect if you
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For those with IBM Composers: We are selling
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Humanist photographer wants to dociment your
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Whnlng Eearts and Mlndq poetry by Viet Vets.
¡g¡lls and Borc, by Eugene Debs. . . .
Auûoblogtsphyóf MotherJones. .. . . .

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WOMEN OF VIETNAIT4 by Arlene
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TNDOCHINA CHRONICLE. Journal
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Recent issues: The Nì4on-Ktssinger
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R.l. S. E. - Cure unemploymént/inflat¡on. Recovery
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and Ed Sanders commented that

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In THE RECANTATION OF GALITEO GALILEI, Eric Bentley portrays Galileo as
spoiled darling of thê Establishment until he fails in his effort tó convince his
contemporaries of his view of the Universe. Only then does he rebel, becoming a
scientific and social revolutionary. Dan Berrigan calls it ' 'A brave and skillful play.
It sheds light on the dark spaces-qfthe soul añd the even darker spaces ofthe woild.
' There in the century ofGalileo and our own, ruffians seek to ex[inguish the skill and
bravery which are only light." This illustrated historical drama, Publisher's List
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Or, we'll se4d you WINI\ING HEARTS AND MINDS. Edited by Larry Rottman,
Jan Barry and Basil T. Paquet, this is "nqt only a collection of poetry by Vietnam
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Enclosed is $-for-subscriptions to WIN, at $11 per year. Please send me
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF POWER.
Ronald Sampson answers ¡n de-

tail: "What price do we pay,
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