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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 11, 1978)
Letters I’d like to respond to some of Lynn Greene's statements in the Emerald regarding the provisions of the gay rights ordinance. She stated that the ordinance would guarantee homosexuals “privileges beyond what other people enjoy.” She also stated in a news broadcast that the ordi nance would allow homosexuals the privilege of “flaunting” their homosexuality. Straight people as a group or class are not discrimi nated against simply because they are straight. The mere know ledge or suspicion, minus any in dicative behavior, that a person is gay gives the employer the right to fire or not employ him/her. The difference between the two groups is that gays are being dis criminated against and thus need protection, whereas straights are not and never have been discrimi nated against and thus do not need protection. Greene says the ordinance “denies people free dom of thought and conscience." Discrimination is behavior, not feeling, belief, thought, or consci ence. A person can think, believe, or have as many prejudices against gay people as he/she wants to have. The law would only provide recourse against be havior, the discriminatory act of denying access to jobs, housing, and public accommodations merely because someone is gay. “Flaunting” as apparently Greene defines it applies only to who is engaged in the behavior, not the behavior itself. Consider for example: If two straights hold hands, put their arms around each other, or kiss in public, this is not flaunting. If gays do exactly the same thing in public this is called flaunting. Straights are free to talk about their spouses and children, but if gays talk about their partners and families, this is called flaunt ing. At faculty, staff or student par ties involving spouses or dates, coupling for straights is not flaunt ing, but if a gay person brought a date or their partner, that would be flaunting. It would appear to me that providing the same rights and “privileges" that straight people enjoy, would be all the gays want. They certainly do not even have those let alone having “privileges beyond what other people enjoy.” Yvonne Parkinson Doctoral student Higher Education Fight continues In the State Board’s continuous efforts to aid in the corporate plunder of Africa, yet appear blameless of doing so, they are now resisting all attempts to com pel them to testify in court next Tuesday at the first of the trials of the 23 people they had arrested Jan. 25th. When a student tried to serve an official court subpoena on State System of Higher Educ. Chancellor Lieuallen Tues., April 4, he ran (no kidding!) from his lobby to the inner office in an at tempt to avoid the subpoena. Vice-Chancellor Holmer, when approached with a subpoena a few minutes later, backed away and muttered, “Who gives you au thority to subpoena me?” But neither of them was fast enough to avoid being served. Two days later, Fri., April 6, they went to court to quash (cancel) our subpoenas so they wouldn’t have to appear at the April 11th trial. They falsely claimed that vice Chancellor Holmer was not present during the Jan. 25th occupation (pictures put that lie to rest in court!). Next they sputtered that Chancellor Lieuallen’s subpoena was “oppressive"! Why? It would cut short his 10-day Canada Moose Hunt — force him to come back for the trial! Suddenly the slave wages, the apartheid laws and shooting stu dents down in the streets of South Africa are less oppressive than Lieuallen’s missed vacation time. The State Board’s nearly five months of stalling on divestiture is less oppressive. The arrest of 23 for protesting U.S. investments in Southern Africa is less oppres- , sive. What Lieuallen and Holmer find really “oppressive" is the prospect of being questioned in public about their stalling on S. Af rican stock divestiture and the U.S. imperialist interests that it serves. Since neither the courts, the State Board, nor the IBMs, Stan dard Oils, and Ford Motor Cos. they serve want to put U.S. im perialism in S. Africa on trial, the judge may save Lieuallen's Canada Moose Hunt. But this only shows more clearly what forces we have to fight in order to get the U.S. out of Southern Africa! David Miller of the Southern Africa Liberation Support Committee -—-opinion-— Help the 23 arrested students Submitted by Renee Romanoff of the Southern Africa Liberation Support Committee On Tuesday, April 11, the first of the 23 people arrested for occupying Johnson Hall in January will be tried for trespassing. But this charge is not the real issue at hand; the real “crime” here is the fact that students dared to take a political action against the state system of higher education’s complicity with apartheid and the racist regimes of Southern Africa. It was forced to concede that vote last Nov. 18, only to begin stalling once it felt it was off the hot seat. The Southern Africa Liberation Support Committee (SALSC) calls for support at a 12:30 demonstration at the Eugene Municipal Court on Tuesday before the trial. United we forced the State Board to vote to divest; united we will win this trial and beyond that, force the State Board to dump the stocks altogether. This trial is not an isolated event, but is a part of a movement in this country to end U.S. involvement in Southern Africa. Hundreds were arrested in dem onstrations in California last year. Thousands par ticipated in last May’s Africa Liberation Day dem onstrations. The Universities of Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Amherst College have been forced to divest their South Africa-related Stocks. Merrill Lynch was forced to stop selling the Krugerrand, South Africa’s gold coin, because of mass protest. These fights are being waged in support of the black liberation struggles against the apartheid system of extreme exploitation of the black workers and op pression of the South African people in all aspects of their lives. The American people are in a strategic position to aid the just liberation struggles because the U.S. is the main economic prop of the white minority regimes. Over 300 U.S. corporations are in South Africa for only one reason — the same reason they are found all over the world — to make profits. South Africa is particularly attractive to them because the systematic control of the blacks as a labor force, especially in enforcing super-low wages, makes the blacks a source of super-profits. Serving as a tool of these monopoly corporations is the U.S. govern ment, which acts as an outspoken apologist for the white minority regimes in the international arena, like when it opposed economic embargoes on South Af rica. We in this country have no stake in supporting U.S. involvement in South Africa. The same corpora tions which make millions off the black workers there, by paying them slave wages, exploit working people here too. The same imperialist system which profits from the vicious oppression of the peoples of South Africa is responsible for the oppression of blacks and other national minorities such as the Chicanos, Na tive Americans and Asian Americans right here in its own back yard. We have no interest in standing with those who rule over us here in their plunder of South Africa; we share common interests and a common enemy with the Southern African people. The State Board voted to divest all stocks in corporations operating in South Africa on Nov. 18. Does that one act demonstrate their support for the people of Southern Africa? Even when it took a mass movement mobilized against U.S. imperialism in Southern Africa in leaflets, demonstrations, and re ferendums to win the vote? Even when they have failed to take one step to divest, or any other action in support of Southern African liberation for almost five months? No, State Board members, one meaningless act doesn’t get you off the hook! Yes, they were forced to concede that vote. And that shows the power in building mass opposition to apartheid among the people of the U.S. But their actions since the vote, and those of University Pres. Boyd, Attorney Gen eral Redden, the courts and the cops have shown us how far those who serve the corporations will go to protect the super-profits gained in Southern Africa. The spectre of a militant movement that would stand up to U.S. imperialist plans to continue plundering Southern Africa gives them nightmare memories of Vietnam. Even though this movement against U.S. imperialism in Africa is just beginning, they clearly see the need to crush it. That explains the arrest of 23 SALSC members here in Eugene, the maximum $100 bail for persons with no criminal record, and the refusal of the judge to save court costs by consolidat ing all defendants into one trial. But their efforts to crush us one by one rather than see us stand united in support of the people of Southern Africa will not work. So far all their efforts have only fanned the flames of our movement. It will be a long term effort to get the U.S. out of Southern Africa and overthrow the apartheid system — an effort linking the American people’s support to the just liberation struggles in Africa. The fight to get the State Board to dump the stock is only a part of those efforts. A victo^ in the upcoming trials is a victory for the people of Southern Africa! But win or lose the trials, support for the people of Southern Africa will continue to grow. -opinion In favor of divestment Submitted by Ahmad Razemandeh of the Iranian Student Association The issues of Southern Africa and apartheid are becoming an increasing concern for students in this country. People are hearing more and more about the exploita tion, repression and discrimina tion of the African people by the South African white minority rule. These regimes are becoming in creasingly open and vicious in therr attempts to quell the growing resistance of the black African people. All black and opposition newspapers have been banned, Page 4 many prominent blacks are con fined to house arrest, and Steven Biko was brutally murdered by tor ture while in prison. Furthermore, all blacks are required to carry passes and permits in order to move about or work, and families are separated for 90 percent of the year by the rule that prohibits any black not working in a city to live there. It is not surprising to find that these Southern African regimes are supported by the most op pressive governments in the world, among them the Shah of Iran and General Pinochet of Chile. The Shah, despite con demnation from the Organization of African Unity and the United Na tions, continues to supply Vorster's South Africa regime with 75 percent of its oil. It is also well known that large corporations such as I.T.T., Ford, Mobile, I.B.M., etc. do business in coun tries such as South Africa and Iran in order to exploit the cheap labor sources and raw materials. While making enormous daily profits these companies pay below pov erty level wages and deny all workers’ rights to the people they employ. 1 The University, by holding shares in the stocks of these cor porations becomes a supporter of this type of exploitation, and last fell, the students voted over whelmingly to divest of University-owned stocks in colo rations doing business in South ern Africa. In November, due to growing pressure from the stu dents and community, the State Board voted to divest of the Stock. There the action stopped. “Sud denly,” there were serious ques tions as to the “tegafity” of the State Board’s move, a move they have been making for years whenever a stock becomes un profitable. This stalling move shows that there exists within the State Board a clear opposition to the divestment vote, and that they hope that by this stalling the issue will be forgotten. Today it is the “problem of legality” tomorrow there will be another problem. This problem will not be solved by sitting and waiting for the At torney General's decision, forth coming “within ten days”, but rather by putting pressure on the university and the State Board to go through with the divestment procedure. We feel that the occu pation of Johnson Hall by the 23 students should be viewed in this context and should be supported by all the students on campus. More actions of this kind must be taken before a substantial change will come about, and if this action was “misdirected” one should take place. The first trial of a student in volved in the Johnson Hall occu pation is coming up next Tuesday, the 11 th of April at 1:00 p.m. at the Eugene Municipal Court, and we are asking that all organizations, groups and individuals opposed to apartheid and repression in Southern Africa show their sup port for dropping charges or aquit tal and divestment of the stocks by attending the trial.
