f--editorial->.
In order?
Sunday, an unidentified person seemed bound and
determined to support the recent anti-smoking campaign
of Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph
Califano.
A curious Emerald reporter, seeking a nicotine fix
from the cigarette machines in the EMU, was more than a
little surprised to find pink “out of order” signs on all of the
machines in the building.
Suspecting something foul afoot, the reporter dutifully
shoved his 60 cents into the machine in spite of the persis
tent warning.
The machine worked. The sign didnt.
k____'
•*** * asffigi iKSMP *" w
Letters
Church clarified
Reviewing Carol Queen’s arti
cle in the Jan. 16 Emerald:
While as all members of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints may be known as
“Mormons ”, not all Mormons are
members of the Church. A Mor
mon is anyone who professes to
believe the Book of Mormon —
this includes about 80 denomina
tions in existence now, these
sects containing anywhere from
three members, to the thousands
of the Reorganized Church, to the
four million of the Church (head
quarters at Salt Lake City). The
"homosexual caucus” referred to
in the article is not a part of the last
one mentioned. The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
does not condone homosexuality.
All revelations from God on the
subject, past and present, con
demn homosexual relationships.
Barbara Selby, secretary
LDS Student Association
Senior, General Science
Emerald off base
Friday’s coverage of the occu
pation of Johnson Hall has again
exposed the Emerald's position
on the campaign to get the Uni
versity out of Southern Africa. The
Emerald, while it may give lip ser
vice to divestment, has repeatedly
opposed and discredited any real
action which could achieve that
end.
First of all, we denounce the
outrageous slander, distortions
and outright false reporting in an
article covering the occupation.
The article states two different
places that we were “trembling’’
and “shaking” as if terrified of the
consequences of our actions. If
we were so scared, why didn’t we
run out of the building as soon as
the cops showed their faces? Why
were we chanting all the way to
the police vans if we were “trembl
ing” with fear? In fact, a glance at
the photo of the occupation on the
cover of Thursday's Emerald is
enough to expose the falsity of the
image presented in the article. If
anyone is a coward, it is the corpo
rate front-men on the State Board
who, seeing their policies at
tacked by scores of students, hide
behind the armed force of the
state to achieve their ends.
The occupation of Johnson Hall
was carried out to enforce the de
mand that the State Board begin
immediately to sell its stock in
corporations doing business in
Southern Africa. To strike a blow
against these imperialist corpora
tions who prop up the apartheid
system is striking a blow on the
side of the Southern African free
dom fighters. This is by no means
“misdirected,” but is actually hit
ting the nail on the head.
Besides the article, Friday’s
editorial rushed to distort the
whole purpose of the demonstra
tion. The editor couldn't say often
enough that the action was "mis
directed” on the justification that
the issue is "in the judicial pro
cess.” This is nothing but a regur
gitation of the excuse put forth by
the Board in order to squirm out of
taking any action on the divest
ment decision it has already
made.
According to Ed Branchfield,
the Assistant Attorney General,
there is at this time no legal barrier
to selling the stock. In fact, Attor
ney General Redden issued a
legal opinion in 1976 on this ques
tion; he ruled that the State Board
is the agency with authority to set
investment policy and that the
Oregon Investment Council is the
“subagent” of the Board. As this
makes clear to say the Board is
rooting around for any excuse to
stall divestment in hopes that
people will forget about it is not
“dogmatic rhetoric.”
The real reason the editor so
frantically attacks the occupations
is that he is opposed to any effec
tive action that would strike a blow
at the Southern African regimes
and their rich backers in this coun
try. He labels the struggle in this
country to support the peoples of
Southern Africa “theatre of the
absurd.”
Such statements will come to
no better end than the one made
in an Emerald editorial of
10/25/77 which said: “Students in
the 70s tend to be more apathetic;
there is no storming of Johnson
Hall or mass demonstrations
against the apartheid system...."
Myra Delay
David Miller
Gregory Sayles
Propaganda shot
David Greene, in a letter ap
pearing in the Oct. 30 Emerald,
expressed a “Love it or Leave it"
attitude towards political protest.
His suggestion was that if the stu
dents who staged the recent sit-in
at Johnson Hall were so violently
opposed to the University holding
stock in companies which support
apartheid in South Africa, then
they should divest themselves of
the University thereby removing
their individual support for the sys
tem.
While I cannot agree with the
“Love it or Leave it” attitude (after
all we can't just get up and go
every time the University or the
State of Oregon or the Federal
government makes a mistake) I
can certainly sympathize with
Greene’s implied suggestion that
the members of the Revolutionary
Communist Youth Brigade and
the Southern Africa Liberation
Support Committee leave the
University.
Sit-ins and picketing are well es
tablished and respected forms of
protest in the United States; how
ever, they lose their effectiveness
when they are clumsily used as
they were by the RCYB and the
SALSC at Johnson Hall. These
two groups, much to the discredit
of their worthy cause, gave the
impression that they were made
up of irresponsible and irrational
people imagining that they were
carrying on the '60s spirit in the
70s. Sitting in at Johnson Hall
made about as much sense as sit
ting in at City Hall on that occa
sion. Neither had a damned thing
left to do with the sale of the South
African stock.
The State Board had already
voted to sell the stock and it was
(and still is) up tc? the Attorney
General’s office to determine
whether the State Board or the
Oregon Investment Council has
the authroity to sell it. The stu
dents at the sit-in were told this by
Vice-Chancellor Freeman Holmer
but decided to remain and get ar
rested anyway. This so that, the
next day, they could hand out
what was nothing less than a
Scandal Sheet with a bold head
line reading “23 STUDENTS AR
RESTED” and stating in the copy
that the State Board was stalling in
a last ditch effort to “keep the
stocks despite their vote to sell
them" which is patently false.
It was a very poor propagandist
shot. If there was to be a sit-in then
it should have been at the Attor
ney General's office. Apparently,
though, the members of the RCYB
and the SALSC are more con
cerned with getting their names in
the papers than with making a
genuine effort at supporting their
cause.
I am saddened to see so worthy
a cause as this soiled by the
clumsy self-seeking tactics of
these pseudo-revolutionary
groups.
Bruce Robinson
Freshman, Undeclared
Alienating protest
Yes! I heartily agree with the
Emerald editorial (Jan. 27) on the
anti-South Africa protest sit-in or
Wednesday. I thought the protesi
was misdirected, inappropriate
disruptive, uncalled for, alienat
ing, childish and potentially harm
ful to what is otherwise a worth
while cause. Perhaps the CIA haj
infiltrated the groups involved in
order to alienate the left from the
anti-apartheid cause. I noticec
that the RCYB has had theii
rhetorical, dogmatic hands in the
affair, taking all the credit they can
get.
Let them be credited with their
misdirection! I am afraid that many
individuals will abandon the anti
apartheid cause if their sort of intol
erant action continues; I person
ally am alienated by the self
glorifying and potentially violent
methods used in the protest.
I am afraid the Emerald’s
coverage of the RCYB and its an
tics fails to give the majority of the
left in the University a fair shake. I
would like to see Richard Seven
give more media coverage to
other left groups on campus.
For example, the People for
Southern African Freedom is an
active anti-apartheid group that
seems to be a little more compe
tent than the groups sitting in on
the wrong office at the wrong time
There are socialist alternatives to
the RCYB, such as the Young
Socialist Alliance, and whoever is
selling the Guardian on campus
There is a chapter of the New
American Movement here that is
proposing socialist alternatives to
a number of community issues
The ecology groups, feminist or
ganizations and the GTFF are
permeated by leftists who are
working just as actively for these
causes as any member of the
RCYB.
There is a Socialist News Col
lective and a Pacific Northwest
Research Center, which carry
news and research issues from a
left standpoint. They don't go
marching through the EMU or
sending self-glorifying editorials to
the Emerald. They nevertheless
deserve media coverage for the
progressive work they have done,
in hopes of attracting potential left
ists instead of alienating them
with misdirected protest.
Tony Hoffman
Graduate Student, Psychology
Letters policy
The Emerald will accept
and try to print all letters and
opinion columns containing
fair comment on ideas and
topics of concern or interest
to the University commun
ity. Letters and opinions will
be run on a first-come,
first-served basis. Both let
ters and opinion columns
must be typewritten, using
65 character margins, and
should be triple-spaced.
Letters and opinions must
be signed and the author s
field of study (or faculty
status) noted.