Oregon daily emerald., May 18, 1978, Section A, Page 3, Image 3

Tom Hayden
Hayden urges economic reform
By TOM WOLFE
Of the Emerald
Sedate calls for U.S. economic reform
characterized the message delivered to
several hundred people in the EMU Ball
room Wednesday night by Tom Hayden, a
prominent political activist of the 1960s.
Ten years earlier he would have been
calling for them to burn their draft cards and
forget their textbooks, but Wednesday night
the original president of Students for a
Democratic Society talked economics on
the system’s own terms.
The ex-Vietnam War protester stepped
out on the stage 20 minutes late dressed
like an aspiring district attorney — “What
ever happened to the sixties?” he asked the
crowd.
"It isn’t easy to put the need for a new
economy on a picket sign,” he answered.
‘ People like to celebrate apathy. But
apathy is a cover for a frustration so heavy
and complicated that it finds a hard time
expressing itself.
“This generation starts with a heavier
burden because it is less naive and more
sophisticated than students of the sixties,’’
he began.
“This generation has to face the fact that
for the first time they will be less wealthy
than their parents. The safety valve in
America has been the dream and occa
sional reality of upward mobility — for too
many Americans that’s not true anymore.”
With that introduction, Hayden began a
three-point attack and outline for economic
reform and redistribution of economic
power.
“Economic development has become
the buzz word of the seventies,” said
Hayden. “We have achieved democracy in
the political arena but we lose that power in
the economic arena.”
Corporate heads are now more powerful
than the president and one percent of the
American people own half the stock, he
said.
“We need a redirection of tax dollars and
I’m not even sure that's enough. A progres
sive tax system is very far away — tax re
form really hasn't come very far in the last
70 years.”
Hayden called for laws and institutions to
model alternatives, executives with the
power and determination to carry out such
plans and the organization of people to
support them.
“You can't have an economy based on
greed, avarice and corruption and then ex
pect people to rise above all that in their
own lives,” he warned.
Hayden cited corporate and union pen
sion and holdings as reservoirs of money,
solar energy as a reservoir of power. Both
could be used to effect needed changes, he
said.
Hayden explained his attraction to solar
power as a cheap, environmentally sound,
non-discriminating way of providing energy
for everyone. "Solar power is Democratic
power,” he said. "The sun shines on rich
and poor alike.”
The speaker said he would "also like to
go after the corporate structure itself.” He
mentioned several ideas, regulation, con
sumer representation and trust-busting, but
said one idea has yet to emerge as the
answer.
When asked the difference between his
desire for “economic Democracy” and
socialism Hayden answered that it’s a lot
easier to get elected on a platform of
economic Democracy. “It doesn’t have all
the baggage.”
Groups join for rally
against Redden ruling
on state board stocks
By RICHARD SEVEN
Of the Emerald
The ASUO, People for South African Freedom (PSAF) and the
Portland Citizens against Racism will sponsor a rally Friday to support
higher education’s divestment of South African-based stocks.
The rally will begin on the EMU Terrace at 12:30 p.m. A bus and car
caravan will depart for Salem at 1:30 p.m. The Salem rally will begin at 3
p.m. in front of Attorney General James Redden s Salem office.
The rallies, of course, are to protest Redden's May 2 decision
which said the State Board of Higher Education cannot divest itself of
South African stocks.
ASUO Pres. Gary Feldman says the groups are also preparing to
challenge Redden’s opinion before a state court.
The attorney general’s formal opinion against divestment, which
was released after five months of study, centered on two points: first, a
1975 Act gave the Oregon Investment Council (OIC) control of the
investment powers for higher education funds, and second, the Prudent
Person rule in governing trusteeship of endowment funds constitutes a
barrier to divestment. It says state investment managers must not make
judgments based on political or moral basis, but only on the safety and
probable return of investments.
Walt Sheasby, spokesperson for PSAF, says the state board does
have the authority to invest stock under the Oregon constitution. He
maintains the 1975 Act merely gave the OIC day-by-day control of
divestment decisions. The state board thus retained its discretionary
and supervisory authority to set investment policy.
Sheasby says the ‘prudent person” rule has never before been
used as a barrier to divestment, but merely as a requirement that it be
carried out in a careful manner.
"We have concluded," says Sheasby, “that the attorney general, in
trying to erect legal barriers to prevent educational institutions from
setting investment policy according to any other than monetary di
vidends, represents a smoke screen.”
Don Chalmers, director of the Office of Student Advocacy (OSA),
says state scholarship students and other beneficiaries of the endow
ment funds, are being contacted to serve as plaintiffs in court.
The Oregon Federation of Teachers also passed a resolution last
weekend to urge the OIC to divest all stocks relating to S. Africa in the
Public Employee Retirement Fund.
r
1
Rally
for
Divestment!
EMU 12:30 PM
Friday, May 19
Rides leave for Salem from EMU 1:30 pm
Rally at Attorney General’s office 3:00 pm
Sponsored by ASUO, PSAF,
Portland Citizens Against Racism
My Girlfriend Spent
The Night And My
Landlord Threw
Me Out. -
He said he didn’t want “that
sort of thing” going on. But
I don’t think it’s any of his
business, as long as I’m a
good tenant. I found out
that the ‘gay rights’
ordinance could help me.
That was a surprise. The
ordinance protects all of
us. I’m voting Tuesday.
Pad ECHR, PO Box 402. Eugene OR 97440
Phil George Treasurer