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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 1972)
meat ary Bob Zagorin Concert is more than music Friday night’s “Free Ball in the Ballroom” is a New Rising Sun production and a Freedom Celebration for John Sinclair. I want to explain what this means to me, because this “Free Ball” is more than a way to kill another Friday night, more than entertainment. John Sinclair is a young man from Ann Arbor, Michigan who at one time was the manager of the M.C. Five rock band. But he was more than a rock promoter. He became aware of what was going on in the world and particularly he saw the way business capitalized the music of youth culture, exploited it, packaged it, and sold it back to youth at a profit while retaining power and control over the artists, their art, and of course their audience. He saw how the artists and the bands were seperated from their people and their culture by promises of stardom and material success, he saw this for what it was and is: divide and control, the oldest con game known to humanity. And John Sinclair correctly defined this process as imperialism and defined the youth nation that was the victim of this practice as the youth colony. He saw how this was related to the imperialism practiced by capitalists on the people of color in the world although, of course, on a less vicious level. But the parallel he drew was true: exploitation by one group of another group by exploring, developing, controlling the natural resources of that group; extracting them, manipulating and packaging the resources, and then marketing them at a high profit to those to whom they originally belonged. The net result was and remains the same. You may call it capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, or simply the organized rip-off. It is what happens to every social group that remains un conscious of its relative position in society and as a result unorganized and unable to determine the forms of its own existence. Began organizing - John Sinclair and his brothers and sisters began organizing young people in the Detroit-Ann Arbor, Michigan area, particularly those involved in the rock music-youth culture scene, in an attempt to regain some control over their own lives and institutions and to counter govern ment policies in Vietnam and elsewhere. They were also quite interested in relating the music of youth culture to its roots in rhythmn and blues and thereby broadening the understanding of the youth communitiy’s relation to the struggles of black and other people for their freedom and self-determination. They founded the White Panther Party, following the example of Huey Newton and the Black Panther Party in organizing the young black community. There were many mistaken beliefs and practices involved in the White Panther Party in the beginning despite its courageous efforts to organize the youth community for self control and against the war. There was little attempt made to deal with the male chauvinism of the rock culture and superstar image and this macho was carried into the Party from the beginning and there was also a feeling of revolution is a game, that was evident in much of their early efforts. But the national and local police came down heavily on the White Panther Party and in effect put it out of existence. Many of its leaders were forced to flee or were jailed. John Sinclair was set up and arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison *or the alledged possession of two marijuana joints. Every one knew John was a political prisoner and that in attempting to organize youth he was endangering one of the central mechanisms by v/iich those in power remain in power, the unorganization of those political groups having the potential to demand and receive power for themselves. John Sinclair’s brothers and sisters recognized the importance of his work and he was not forgotten in jail although kept in isolation in a northern Michigan penitentiary. They have been organizing against marijuana repression and for John’s freedom ever since. The party was reconstituted and a community service organization, the Rainbow People’s Party and the people involved went through lots of progressive personal changes and kept on working. Today the Ann Arbor youth community is one of the most progressively self-organized people’s communities there are and if my in formation is correct has gone a long way towards the solution of its own internal problems such as hard drugs and apathy. And following a final Free John rally, featuring 15,000 people, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Archie Shepp, Stevie Wonder, Teagarden and VanWinkle, Up and other right on bands and people like Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale and Allen Gins berg, John Sinclair is free on appeal bond. After two and one half years in prison, as a political prisoner, John Sinclair is free because the people knew what he was doing and kept working for and demanding his release. His release is an effective demonstration of the work he was pur suing when he was jailed, the power of youth organized as a political force to determine their own destinies. The next step is to demand and get the release of all brothers and sisters jailed under the pretext of marijuana laws. The words New Rising Sun come from brother Jimi Hendrix and the album “Rainbow Bridge” and are a symbol of the creative energy of youth organized as a class. Please don’t mistake class for mass. Masses are like pudding, like television audiences. Classes are made up of feeling, thinking, and acting individuals united by common interests. Youth is a class today as it has never been before because an entire generation is in communication with itself and therefore has the seeds of a developing collective consciousness. Youth is a class because it has been denied the power to determine its own future when it is clear that those who are exer cising that power are usurping and abusing it. Youth is a class because it must take an active part in the fundamental reorganization of a society on a human basis or doom itself to at best a life of meaningless leisure and at worst a generational catastrophe. Youth is a class because the control techniques that you encountered back in grade school have failed. The attempt to divide young people and make them compete for grades and status so the teacher could manipulate and control them; their attempt to divide young people on the basis of economic and sexual category by tracking them, all these control devices are breaking down and youth emerges as one class. Hie events in Ann Arbor are a herald of the emergence of youth as a politically maturing class; a class that can organize around sensible political objectives and achieve them; a class that can organize to determine its own wants and needs; and a class that can unite with other political groups to achieve common political ob jectives Youth as a class has been through its rejection and dejection, just as nature goes through fall and winter and now like the New Rising Sun of spring and summer we will take our place among the progressive people’s of the world. We hope you enjoy the ‘‘Free Ball in the Ballroom" Friday night and get it on with the music of Coal and Pooka. If you look around at your brothers and sisters that night I am confident you will feel the rising creative energy and power of us all together New Rising Sun-Youth is a Class. Letters Everyone Pays Do you believe cigarette tax increase is discriminatory? Many people feel this is so, but if we look at some facts that directly concern us all we will see that a tax on cigarettes is a user tax, the most fair system of all. Our state and federal government spend huge sums for forest fires and fire protection every summer. Cigarettes are a major cause of forest fires. Our state loses valuable aesthetic and timber resources. These losses cost Oregonians dearly. Our local fire departments fight many house fires caused by careless cigarette smokers. What about innocent people losing their lives. Most life insurance policies take into account illness and death rates of smokers, causing non-smokers to pay higher rates. Insurance rates and building costs for public buildings are higher because of fire danger (mainly due to cigarettes), and these costs are passed on to the consumer and tax-payer. How about research being done on emphysema, cancer, and other cigarette related illnesses? The victims of these diseases constitute a large percentage of the clientele in our public hospitals. Oregon tax-payers foot the bill again. If we total up these costs to Oregon’s public, they may very well be close to, or above, the 17.2 million dollars the cigarette tax will raise. USER TAX! Hm, son-of-a gun. DeNorval Tate ASUO Chief AdmimsU ative officer Vandalism Your recent article regarding vandalism on the campus and the questions it raised in a recent letter to the eiiiUa brings to Oregon Daily Emerald mind another type of vandalism that is occuring. 1 work on the third floor 01 Science I. From the north windows of my work area I can look up to the fourth floor of the Arts building where those having offices on the east side of this building also have an open air patio. There are three of these patios visible and on these patios are four metal stools, three metal folding chairs, one plastic chair and one wood chair. All sitting outside in the rain 24 hours a day. On the south side of the bridge type wing to Science I, on the fourth floor, is a plastic chair, also sitting out in the rain 24 hours a day. These acts of neglect should be classified as vandalism too. Lee Vernon Biology Mb. again In your lead story of January 12, 1972, you used the title “Ms.” 10 times in two half columns plus one caption. In every case it was used to identify the same person, Ms. Kate Thompson. On the other hand, you referred to four different male subjects in the course of the story, and in each case used their full name plus title in the first citation, and in all subsequent ones their last name only, which is, as I’m sure you’re aware, the style consecrated by almost anyone's stylebook. sexist or otherwise In your heavy-handed zeal to convince your readers that you are really with it and. like, liberated, you have managed to insult Thompson's stylistic equality to males at least 9 times, and the intelligence of your readers nearly always. I would suggest that, as a newspaper, your first duty is to report the facts, honestly and clearly and only second (or perhaps last) to reeducate the reader, whose ability to reason and think for himself you apparently hold in very low regard. Eric Charles Kofoid Biology ASUO Thursday’s Emerald contained an in teresting article by John Piper concerning delayed Senate assignments. It dealt with the claims of Senate President Stephanie Larsen to assign members who were more ‘‘representative of the student body” to committees. Some members felt slighted. I am adding my two-cents worth to the story. During Fall term I was interested in being appointed to a committee. I knew that any student-senator or non-senator was eligible for a position on a committee. This enables a wider representation of students to be in student government It includes students who do not hold Senate positions, but still hold some position in the student community. Unfortunately, at the time the announcement that applications were available for committee positions was made to the Senators, the publicity to the students in the Emerald or other news media sources was very small, if any at all I filled out the application just before the deadline and turned it into Stephanie. No assignments to the Fiscal and Governing committee had been passed by the Senate yet In Thursday’s article, Stephanie listed her criteria for making committee assignments to be: experience, ability to work with people, and a com mitment to do research and work. I was never asked about any of this. I was disappointed in her lack of interest toward students not known to her in the Senate. John Stewart seems to be a figure of controversy in the delay of Senate com mittee assignments. I understand that Stephanie did not feel he measured up to her criteria list. John served on the Fiscal committee as a voting member 2 terms and a non-voting member 2 terms. That is over a year’s worth of experience that can be contrasted to the inexperience of two members recently assigned to the com mittee He does not lack experience. What about his ability to work with people: John has always surprised me in his ability to find and organize people to work for what he supports in politics. In the past two elections I have seen the results of his efforts in campaigns. Last Fall he was re elected by one of the largest majority votes of any candidate. As well as con sidering whether a “New" member will make a committee more representative of the student body, I hope the Senate President considers the “Old”. John's concern over this reappointment to the committee and the time he spent as one of its members seems to speak for his committment to do the work. It appears that Senate President Stephanie Larsen’s committee assign ments and reassignments were not all based on her list of criteria. I would like to see more representation of students on the committees too, but perhaps first we will have to keep in mind who is making the appointments and on what basis they will be made on. “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." Nancy DeBusk Junior. English Page 9
