mike rust
rust never sleeps
It is sad to report that atten
dance of Wednesday’s Friends
of the Revolutionary Communist
Youth Brigade’s "forum” on the
Gang of Four trials was limited
to less than 20 people — a
dismal turnout for a campus
with a proud history of sucking
up to the more fashionable var
iety of totalitarianism.
The low turnout is symptoma
tic of the sinking fortunes of
some former campus cultural
heroes. Mao’s star has been in
decline for some time, and the
possibility exists, when all is
said and done, that he will
emerge in the pages of history
as little more than the pudgiest
mass murderer of our century.
Some of the Great Helms
man’s one-time colleagues still
are hanging around, however.
But the times may be a-changin’
for them as well.
Take for example the case of
Fidel Castro, whose revolution
ary aura has been fading as of
late. While the civil war in El
Salvador has occupied most of
the press’ Latin American focus,
a one-time comrade of Castro
has been providing evidence
that the Cuban Revolution
might be reactivated
Last year, Huber Matos, once
leader of the Cuban Revolution,
was allowed to leave Cuba after
completing a 20-year prison
sentence. Matos was among the
leaders of the revolution that
threw out the Batista dictator
ship, and after the success of
Castro's revolution he was, for a
brief time, in charge of
Camaguey province.
He resigned his post, how
ever, when it became clear that
Castro was assuming dictatorial
powers. On Oct. 21, 1959, two
days after his resignation, he
was arrested and charged with
treason. He emerged last year at
the age of 60.
Matos’ release was little her
alded — it’s unlikely you were
aware of it unless you read
Amensty International publica
tions. In the time since, how
ever, he has sought to build a
Cuban liberation movement —
an effort that resulted last fall in
the founding of a new organiza
tion, Cuba Independiente y
Democratica.
Resistance to Castro is noth
Law Clinic
Continued from Page 1
detractors, like Eugene timber
producer Aaron Jones, to
launch a political attack. And
according to law school Dean
Derrick Bell, the attack has been
pervasive.
“Somebody called me and
said that the major topic of dis
cussion up there is the law
school and its environmental
clinic," Bell said. “Those people
(legislators) are dealing with a
lot of problems they are not
really in control of, and they've
got to find something else to
focus on.”
In January, 44 legislators sent
a letter to the dean expressing
their support for the program.
Included in that number were all
members of the Eugene
delegation except Rep. Vern
Meyer, R-Springfield-Eugene,
and Rep. Larry Campbell, R
West Lane. Records on file with
the secretary of state show both
Meyer and Campbell heavily
supported by timber interests,
with Campbell receiving $600
from Jones’ timber company.
Bell dismisses claims by the
clinic’s opponents that they’re
interested only in ensuring the
cleanliness of the educational
system.
“They're talking about the
ethics of it," Bell said. "There’s
no problem with the ethics or
principle. People who make
money cutting trees don’t want
us to be involved in any way in
any thing that makes it harder
for them to cut trees."
According to Portland's Wil
lamette Week, a major portion of
FORE’s funding comes from the
timber industry.
Prof. Gene Scholes, past pre
sident of the Association of
American Law Schools, said
because the legal system in this
country is an advocacy one,
students involved in actual
cases have to argue a certain
view point.
"If you want to have exper
ience on public issues, it's go
ing to be impossible to consider
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them in a clinic unless there is
somebody on the other side,"
Scholes said. “If we have the
opportunity, we would very
much entertain other issues and
other sides of issues.”
But Scholes doesn't see
timber interests funding a
similar clinic.
Most of those who are able
to go out and hire their own
attorney simply aren’t very in
terested in us."
ing new. Many have suggested
that Cuba for all practical pur
poses is an outpost of Soviet
colonialism, with a political sys
tem as brutal as its economic
system is unworkable. Even
Rolling Stone a couple of years
ago published an article about
the dissatisfaction of youth in
Cuba at the time of a tout by
American musicians.
However, in an article in the
latest American Spectator, Carl
Gershman, the vice-chairman of
Social Democrats, USA,
suggests that because of Matos'
past revolutionary record,
social democratic orientation
and commitment to political
freedom, Matos’ words carry
“unique moral authority.”
Matos, Gershman says, feels
that internal dissatisfaction
makes a Cuban uprising “inevi
table if not necessarily immin
ent." In addition to the deterior
ation of the Cuban economy
and last year’s exodus of over
125,000 people, it is estimated
that as many as 3,000 Cubans
have died in combat in Angola
during the past five years.
Those deaths, as a portion of
the population, exceed Amer
ican combat deaths in Vietnam.
However, Matos also says
there are 12,000 — not 3,000 —
Soviet troops in Cuba. Which
raises the interesting question
of what American policy should
be in the event of a Soviet at
tempt to quell a Cuban uprising.
It’s a question, Gershman says,
that should be addressed
"before we are overtaken by
events."
The opinions expressed in
this column are the writer's and
are not necessarily shared by
the paper.
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