Oregon daily emerald., January 21, 1974, Image 1

Photo by Trish Weisman
William Kunstler, famed activist lawyer, speaks to students at the
University on the injustices the federal government is committing to
silence its dissenters. Kunstler is currently involved in the defense of
the American Indian Movement (AIM).
Kunstler charges government
misuses justice to stifle critics
By TOM SOWA
Of the Emerald
Activist lawyer William
Kunstler, speaking Friday night
to a crowd of more than 1,000
persons, denounced the misuse of
justice by the government in its
attempt to stifle legitimate
criticism.
“They,” the government, in
Kunstler’s opinion, harass in
dividuals and movements with
continuing legal action in order to
intimidate them and force them
to consume time and energy in
their defense. The result is that
those who could do most harm to
the government are “tied down,”
in Kunstler’s words.
This misuse of the law, said
Kunstler, should be seen as
“perverted, evil and dangerous.”
He described its effect this way:
“The misuse of the law is more
effective than the assassin in the
highway.”
Kunstler’s remarks were
delivered as part of Third World
Week and drew a standing
ovation from the audience.
The well-known lawyer began
his talk with the remark that
“most lawyers should be in jail.”
Then before examining his main
topic—the failure of the con
spiracy trials to solidify public
opinion against the critics of the
present administration —
Kunstler explained his decision to
become an activist and partisan
lawyer. He had once wanted to
achieve the “American Dream.”
But what he claims to have found
was a nightmare “full of cheap
gods, cheap ideals, and
dangerous nonsense.”
Kunstler next recounted the
failures of some well-publicized
“conspiracy” trials to disarm the
radical movement. He drew
repeated laughter as he listed the
string of blunders and fiascos
committed by the government in
Gate crashers hinder future gigs
The future of concerts at the University will be
decided later this week after EMU officials try and
reconstruct the whys and hows of a disastrous
Commander Cody concert last Friday night. The
second of two shows produced a near-riot situation
at the doors which resulted in the arrest of one
person and the ejection from the EMU of several
more people.
After a near-perfect first show which reatured
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen and
Ramblin’ Jack Elliot the second show, which began
at 10:15 p.m., turned the opposite direction. Before
the show even began EMU officials confiscated
nearly 30 bottles of wine and whiskey from the line
of people who had formed to enter the second show.
As soon as people began to file into the Ballroom
the troubles began. At the door several people tried
to force their way into the concert without tickets.
At one point a gate at the terrace was rushed by
about 30 people who knocked over the student
guards and made their way into the show.
According to Mark Hunter who was in charge of
the student crew at the concert, there were at least
10 separate instances of fighting that broke out
during the show. Many of these were between
concert goers and the EMU crew.
The arrest came later in the evening when John
Patrick Stone was asked to leave the EMU because
he did not have a ticket and the building was
closing. Stone locked himself in the television room
next to the Fishbowl and when he was finally ex
tricated he broke away and kicked in the glass door.
At this point Stone was arrested by the Eugene
Police Department on a charge of criminal
mischief.
In addition to the troubles outside the gates the
concert itself had problems. Ramblin’ Jack Elliot
was hooted and yelled off the stage twice and called
the crowd the worst that he had ever played for.
Elliot said, “I’ve never walked off a stage before in
nearly 30 years of performing, but I refuse to play
for a crowd like that.” Earlier Elliot had said on
stage, “You sure can tell the difference between the
two audiences.”
After Elliot left the stage the audience refused to
abide by pleas from EMU officials to keep the stage
area clear because of the equipment and wires in
(Continued on Page 14)
its cases against the Chicago
Seven, Dr. Benjamin Spock, the
Berrigans and the Vietnam
Veterans Against the War.
As a result he now sees a better
atmosphere in the country. Part
of this is, in his opinion, the
refusal to believe a single word
coming from any level of
government. But Kunstler also
decried a complacence and “loss
of goals” that have settled over
the former vanguard of the ac
tivist movement. He insisted that
there is no reason why people
should not halt the conspiracy
trial of Wounded Knee defendants
Russell Means and Dennis Banks
by filling the streets of St. Paul,
Minn, and preventing anyone
from entering the courthouse.
On the subject of the necessity
of violence in reaching political
ends, Kunstler avoided openly
and completely endorsing its use.
He saw it as necessary
“sometimes and in some degree”
when other measures have been
tried and have failed.
Kunstler closed his talk with an
exhortation to not forget the
powerful activism of four years
ago. It is not enough, he advised
his listeners, to note that in
dividuals in power have failed to
usurp illegitimate authority in
1973. “We are still faced by the
danger of encroachment of
government power, and what
someone failed to do this year
someone may successfully do in
1984.”
What form this activism should
take, Kunstler did not specify. In
pleading his case for the
resurgence of popular activism
he did state, “Much needs to be
done and it won’t get done if we
first sit down and meditate.”
Kadding says AbUO
misrepresents power
ASUO Comptroller Bob Rad
ding and the Incidental Fee
Committee (IFC) accused the
ASUO Executive branch of
misrepresenting its authority at a
Friday meeting of IFC and the
Educational Opportunities
Services (EOS) directors. The
meeting had been called to
clarify confusion among ASUO
agencies as to the administration
of EOS monies.
EOS is an ASUO fund for loans
and grants to minority students
through the Black Cultural
Center (BCC), Bridge, Sesamex
and the Native American Student
Union. In allocating $12,500 to
EOS last spring, IFC stipulated
that the money was to be divided
equally among all EOS programs
and that determination of
whether loans or grants were to
be given in individual cases was
to be left to the discretion of the
program directors. Although the
money was allocated by IFC last
spring, the four programs which
allocate the funds were not all
established until October.
Radding stated that the
Executive hhd instructed him to
leave all EOS money in the
Executive account, even after he
received memos from IFC in
October and December directing
him to establish four separate
accounts for the programs’
funds. He claimed that he was
further instructed that the only
person authorized to sign
requisitions for EOS money in the
Executive account was Debbie
Barnett, which, he said, violated
another IFC stipulation that the
program directors were
authorized to requisition EOS
funds.
Barnett claimed that her EOS
authorizations were limited to
those relating to the BCC, one of
the four EOS programs, during
the period when the BCC had no
authorized director. Warren
(Continued on Page 4)
Board to consider
increase in fees
Students may be asked to dig a
little deeper into their pockets
before too long and come up with
proposed tuition and dormitory
increases being considered by the
State Board of Higher Education
at its monthly meeting Tuesday.
The board will act on the
Finance Committee’s recom
mendation to increase resident
undergraduate tuition rates from
$136 to $140 a term, nonresident
undergraduate tuition costs from
$530 to $555 a term, graduate
student tuition costs from $223 to
$229 a term and UO Law School
tuition rates from $334 to $344 a
semester.
Proposed increases in dor
mitory fees would raise the
double occupancy costs to $1,150
and single room occupancy to
$1,450. These rates would be
standardized among all the state
insitutions but would vary intra
institutionally depending on the
service provided, accom
modations and contract terms.
The board will also consider
authorizing each of the schools
within the state system to
establish a nonrefundable room
deposit of up to $100.
The board’s Finance Com
mittee will meet today at 10 a.m.
to discuss these and other fee
increases in Room 338, Smith
Center.