_editorial
Bigger voice, no vote
Oregon students have been tossed a bone.
The recently passed HB 3043 affords students of higher education in this
state more direct representation in faculty collective bargaining than exists any
where else in the nation. The bill grants students the opportunity to attend all
bargaining sessions and comment in good faith, to have access to all pertinent
written documents, and to to meet and confer with faculty representatives and the
public employer regarding the terms of the agreement. If Governor Straub signs
the bill, student representatives will be able to do virtually everything but vote.
Even without the vote, students will be in a powerful position to wrest their
interests from the two natural adversaries in the bargaining process. Students will
be admitted to executive sessions not covered by the open meetings law, and
they will be present and active at every stage of negotiations, not having to react
after the fact to new developments.
HB 3043 is a big step toward eventual recognition of students as a collective
bargaining force, but a little skepticism is in order. A bone is not an acceptable
substitute for supper.
Letters
Unthinkable vandalism
About four months ago, a serious crime
was committed and was not publicly dis
closed. Last January 23, during the early
morning hours, an antique object valued
over $200 was taken from a privately
owned vehicle on private property. One
cannot imagine that someone would com
mit such an act of puerilism. It is not as if this
is the first time anything like this has ever
happened.
During the weekend of May 3rd and 4th,
two speeding bicyclists were seen throw
ing paint on the same vehicle after which
they executed a hasty retreat. During the
months of March and April, a set of custom
license plates were stolen.
I do not share my repugnance alone for
every brother I have backs me 100 per cent.
God help the person or persons if they are
caught stealing any more of our private
property from us!
In conclusion, I myself would like to make
a sincere plea for the return of at least the
antique spotlight for our unadorned fire
truck. No questions will be asked. I can’t
emphasize enough how much I would ap
preciate the return of it. If some of you knew
how much sweat, time and effort I alone
have put into that old firetruck, you might
then begin to realize how much it would
mean to me to have the spotlight returned!
The firetruck director,
Ray. R. Glur
Sigma Phi Epsilon
Open letter to Bernau
Dear Mr. Bernau:
I’ve just been talking to a friend, a young
single parent, who attended a meeting
Wed. June 4th on Child Care. I couldn’t
believe what she told me. Is it true that you
asked them (parents) to beg? Surely you
would not put these parents in such a de
meaning role.
I am a student without small children,
however, I would be willing to give my
breakage fee to the Child Care Center, but
that is not the point. The point is that these
parents, who are already subjected to far
too many pressures do not need the added
burden of having to “beg.’’
If I sound “corny” so be it— still the
wealth of our country is our children
whether they be mine, or yours, or the next
door neighbors’. Give parents the dignity
that they deserve; so that in turn they may
serve as models for tomorrow’s world.
Surely we childless ones can share.
Especially when it is for such a worthwhile
program as the Day Care Center.
Laura Fisher
Counseling
Israelis oppresive
In reference to the letter of Mr. Yom Tov
Meged in your issue of May 30,1 would like
to express my opinion as a non Arab, re
garding his claim of “Arabs in Israel have
the same rights as Jews ....”! The tragic
condition of the Arab workers in Israel,
alone will show the shallowness of this
myth.
Mr. Amitay Yona of Hebrew University
states “ it is the Arab workers who build
the road, who build the houses and the
factory, and then the Jews dwell in the
modern houses and take the clean jobs in
the factory, the Arab remains the dish
washer, the rubbish cleaner...’’ They begin
working at the age of "Pt-15. He never gets
steady work. Either he returns every day
from the distant town to his village, or as a
great mercy he is permitted to sleep in un
furnished houses, open on all four sides.
“The dish washers sleep usually on a fold
ing bed in the kitchen, others in the toilet
room...” No wonder the Zionists claim
that ‘The Arabs age so quickly”! For the
10%, there is de facto segregation. It is not
only the “Socialist Islands,” the Kibbutz'
that are hermetically sealed against Arabs
Most of the Jewish cities and towns will
accept Arabs only as day laborers, not as
residents, many industrial plants especially
the larger ones, accept no Arabs as perma
nent employees, israei s largesx roreign ex
change industry is the diamond industry; its
slogan is, "No Arabs need apply." Weitz, for
many years the top official of the Zionists
explains: “Between ourselves it must be
clear that there is no room for both people in
this country...we shall not achieve our goal
of being independent people with the Arabs
in this country ... and there is no other way
but to transfer the Arabs from here to the
neighboring countries; to transfer all of
them: not one village, not one tribe should
be left..
But the Zionists had a better idea! Arabs
are a source of cheap labor. The economic
boom since the 1967 war has helped them
toward this goal. Unskilled labor in roads,
construction, and industry is now largely the
province of Arabs. Among these, the Arab
laborers from the occupied territories
(5,000 in Tel Aviv alone) present a special
problem for the labor bureaucrats because
of their extremely low wages, about one
tenth of what a Jewish laborer receives!
But the oppressed Arab workers have not
sat idle. The evidence shows that through
gradual political awareness and constant
strikes they are becoming a base for the
revolutionary movement inside the
enemy's camp. They are more and more
realizing that Zionist's internal and external
policies and its colonial nature cannot be
understood separately. This racial institu
tion is nothing but an appendage of U.S.
Imperialism!
Ali Naseri
om-mmm
THERm BE WRING
ONCE M ^¥MLE..._
opinion'
Food co-ops eliminate middlemen, additives
By NICHOLAS VON HOFFMAN
Boston (KFS)—Art Danforth of the Cooperative
League of the USA will tell you that the mortality rate
of co-ops relying entirely on volunteer labor is very
high, 15 per cent per year or more is his
estimate. Running a small buying club demands at
least minimal knowledge of the grocery business.
The new wave of co-ops, however, comes from
people to whom the principle of shared work, re
sponsibility and decision making is as important as
cheap, wholesome food. Even those who don’t go so
far as to speak about the co-op as an “alternative
structure” think of it as a tool for service and social
change that can’t realize itself by attracting people to
it only in the role of customers.
The Common Market Food Co-op of Denver,
Colorado, is trying to combine the stability and com
petence of paid staff without killing off the volun
tarism. This Denver Co-op claims 1,600 active family
members who are required to do an average of one
hour of work per month per adult at the store. They do
the relative unskilled work about the place, and so
that they do it with some efficiency they work side by
side with five full- or part-time employees. The store,
which hopes to do about $2 million worth of business
in the coming 12-month period, has another 26 full
or part-time people who handle all money are
“engaged in what we euphemistically call manage
ment.” This last quote from Larry Hotz who with
Kathy DePoala are the Common Market’s execu
tives.
Everybody in the place is paid, according to
seniority, anywhere from $2.81 to $3.92 an hour, with
Kathy and Larry getting a flat $10,000-a-year salary
for their 80-hour weeks. Art Danforth believes this
arrangement should provide enough continuity and
competence to give the Common Market a better
than-average chance for survival. (In case you want
to learn about the tricks and pitfalls of starting up and
running a co-op, you can write Art at 1828 L St., N. W.,
Suite 1100, Washingrton, D.C. 20036.)
The Common Market is located in a middling
sized (8,500 square feet, five checkout counters)
store in the inner city. The rent is cheap and the
fixtures only cost the Co-op $5,000 because they
took the place off the hands of Safeway, which in
good capitalist fashion dumps any facility whose pro
fits come in under the corporation-wide curve. There
are a lot of old people with incomes too small to
make them desirable Safeway customers. They live
in run-down hotels where they have few food storage
facilities and, anyway, the oldies-but-not-goldies can
only carry a few items at a time so it costs too much to
process their little orders.
The Co-op is seeking to serve the older people,
enrolling them sis volunteers and attempting to post
on the shelves nutritional information intended to
help men and women of advancing years. They’re
also indulging in certain ethical practices which could
get the chairman of the board of Safeway or A&P
fired. Every item in the store is either “red tagged" or
“green tagged.” A red tag on an item means the
Common Market’s price isn't competitive and that the
customers can get it cheaper elsewhere if they want.
A green tag means the Co-op price is the lowest.
Customers sire also routinely warned against buying
sugar cereals, cigarettes, soda pop in recyclable
csins, bacon, hot dogs and most other kinds of pack
aged meats, all items that are loaded with what many
consider the most dangerous food additives on the
supermarket shelves. Instead of chemically tainted
food, the Co-op is offering their people ground beef
which hasn’t been fed dangerous substances like
DES.
That requires teaching people to cook their
meat somewhat differently, but food and health
education is an integral part of most cooperative
enterprises. The reason the Common Market sells
things like cigarettes and Sweetie Flakes is to lure
people inside who re addicted so they can get a hold
of them and work with them to kick the habit.
Common Market along with a number of other
co-ops is trying to eliminate the middleman by deal
ing directly with ranchers and farmers. Some of the
middlemen, however, like millers and butchers, can't
be eliminated. They serve a better purpose than
injecting colors into foods to make fruits and vege
tables conform to the idealizations in the advertising.
Here in Boston a cooperative middleman ven
ture nas been started. The New England Food Co
op Organization (NEFCO) does the buying of pro
duce, grains, dried fruits and cheeses for about 150
local co-ops and food-buying dubs. By pooling their
purchases through NEFCO, local groups are able to
get lower prices than they could going their indi
vidual way, especially with these kinds of items. Co
ops have a much harder time forcing down the prices
of meats and canned goods, although even when
co-op food isn't cheaper, it is usually better for the
same price.
NEFCO also is interested in direct-marketing
arrangements with farmers, but all of these things
take capital investment, the lack of which stunts the
co-op movement’s growth and keeps it restricted to
the more liberal sort of college-educated consumer
who doesn’t believe he has an obligation to contri
bute to other people’s profits and would prefer to
keep the money himself. The sad thing is that the
people who might most benefit from the co-op
movement haven’t even heard of it or, if they have,
associate it with homosexuality or Unitarianism.
Farm cooperatives were able to secure the capi
tal they needed through a spedal government bank,
but consumer co-ops have never been given the
same access to loans. Art Danforth’s organization is
preparing legislation to remedy that, but with Jerry
Ford spending his time wandering down memory
lane so he can relive the Berlin Airlift with himself as
hero, who is there to listen?
Copyright, 1975, The Washington Post-King Fea
tures Syndicate
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