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Capetown, March 21.- Sixty-Nine Africans Killed Today by Police During Demonstration Against Pass Laws Sharpeville Twenty-Five Miles South Johannesburg. Prime Minister Vorster Told House of Assembly Tonight Crowd in Riotous Aggressive Mood and Stoned Police. Eye Witnesses Report However Demonstration Completely Peaceful and Most Victims Shot in Back Fleeing Police Fire.
Bulletin Ends
Thanks to the article on Creative Adolescence in the last "Salient", I am now a mere youth once more. Fortune has smiled on me!
Imagine my previous state. Compelled to be always munching toffee apples I could never make more than brief sallies away from the corner dairy. How was I to be a student in those circumstances? And my mates used to laugh at me. Tension and frustration appeared to be my lot in life.
Now having read that wonderful article I rejoice in my regained adolescence. You see I have taken up T.M. or a form of it anyway. For like my mates I do it, not alone, but using any bird who happens along. Birds are so obliging.
Well, using these bits of skirt, I have made tremendous progress. Tension is gone, I am concerned about nothing and no one. In the past week I have been to two lectures, made the decision to throw out those crazy ideas of love and marriage, and am reading more comics than ever.
Such a great transformation you would hardly believe. So thanks to that nice group the I.M.S., Mr P. Ness and those easy birds, I remain as a comfortable adolescent....
I've spent six summers now looking at the rocks of the Transantarctic Mountains and so was rather distressed to learn [Wilkes writes to P.M., "Salient", March 14] that I, and a number of students at this university, have been participating in "basically a military exercise in polar warfare operations using "scientific support" as an excuse for cover". I don't know what goes on at Harewood, but I've spent a lot of time at McMurdo and Byrd Stations, wandered around the radio rooms there, been at flight scheduling sessions of VXE-6 squadron (which does the flying for the U.S. and N.Z. programmes there), and I have yet to see any activity that I could not relate to the scientific programme. True, the flight crews get experience in polar flying, but the Antarctic Treaty allows the use of military personnel for logistic support, as Mr Wilkes notes.
"Salient" and Mr Wilkes do not mention that the U.S. government has reduced the level of military support anyway, and that the U.S. Navy now operates under contract to the U.S. National Science Foundation. N.S.F. have looked into the feasibility of total civilian logistics, but, despite Mr Wilkes' casual comment, it is not easy to find a civilian organisation that can operate and maintain 4 ski-equipped Hercules aircraft and 6 helicopters on a regular schedule for 5 months of the year in Antarctica; each season build and maintain snow runways at McMurdo and two inland stations, and provide landing and navigational aids to international airport standards — and provide two ice-breakers and three transport ships, including a tanker, for three months in the summer all for $20,000,000.
As long as there is a military around this seems like one of the better ways of using it. It even gives us a chance to raise their level of consciousness.
(We are grateful to Mr Barrett for his comments, but maintain that there is a solid body of evidence to indicate that the Americans are using 'Operation Deep-freeze' scientific research to cover up military activity.
We have fuller documentation in the Salient office to bear this out and we urge anyone interested to come in and see it. We regret that the length of the article is such that we cannot print it in full. —Eds)
The comments on the U.S. Supreme Court decisions on abortion in "Up From Under" (March 7 Salient) are misleading. The decisions legalize abortion "on demand" for six months of pregnancy throughout the U.S. It would be inaccurate to characterize the decisions as providing the states with an "escape hatch" for "reactionary" purposes. The sweeping character of the Court's decisions was designed to terminate litigation on this matter. The court does not wish to deal with the divisive, emotion-laden issue of abortion again. The decisions therefore are not intended to produce evasive legislation which would again be subject to legal challenge.
"Up From Under" notes that the right to abortion can now be exercised (under the Court's rulings) under "medically safe conditions". This consideration, a protective one, involves state intervention; an unqualified individual cannot terminate pregnancies without incurring criminal penalties, nor can inadequate facilities be utilized for these purposes. An individual who misled women about qualifications to conduct abortions would be in violation of the laws; caveat emptor and laissez faire are principles without application to the consumption of medical practice. The Supreme Court has granted to women the absolute right to abortions through the first six months of pregnancy. The States' intervention is limited solely to ensuring that medically safe conditions prevail, particularly during the middle trimester of pregnancy. Moreover, the decisions clearly obligate states to ensure that requests for abortion are met expeditiously since delay can alter the legal status of the women involved. It is likely that requests for abortions in the U.S. will be dealt with on a fairer, more closely supervised, more equal basis than any other matter involving medical care.
The opportunities available to women for early, safe abortions render unlikely requests for abortions beyond six months. The Court's decisions do not explicitly authorize the arbitrary prohibition of abortions during the final trimester; the judgements appear to anticipate that state statutes governing this period will erect safeguards around abortions carried out for medical reasons. The Court does not expect non-medically motivated abortions to be performed during these final three months. Few women would decide in their seventh, eighth, or ninth month to undergo an abortion, when safe, legal opportunities were available for the previous six months. The Court argued, however, that the foetus was viable at this point; consequently, a right to "potential life" becomes more real, and a decision to terminate pregnancy must hence be less casual, more restricted. This sensitivity to the unborn's life, resting on medical evidence and a controlled ethical sense, does not weaken the decisions, nor does it warrant a crusade.
The Court's rulings - which summary violates perhaps more than it elucidates — deal carefully, at great length, with the medical, legal, religious, historical, and ethical arguments and perspectives surrounding this important, fundamental problem. Those concerned with the complexities of abortion law reform should consult the Supreme Court's decisions (Doe et al v, Bolton, Attny-Gen. of G.A., et al; Roe et al v. Wade, D.A. of Dallas County;
A less emotional approach to this issue in New Zealand, which would transcend the present repetitive debate, might centre on recommending to M.P's a careful reading of the Court's opinions. Their application to New Zealand would liberate mothers and fathers from the suffering involved in the trap of unwanted pregnancies, while ensuring that unborn children are not aborted arbitrarily or casually when capable of external life.
I write to you on behalf of the Marxist Labour Group in connection with the article "Sectarian Sabotage" and the" editorial published in Salient on
You refer to the small number of persons who make up the aggregate national membership of The Socialist Action League and the Marxist Labour Group. You are, no doubt, approximately correct in estimating this at about 50. Is it, however particularly meaningful to contrast this number to the figure of 250 who recently attended a Wellington Hart meeting?
I suggest that there are other indicators which throw a different light on matters. At last year's National Anti-Apartheid Conference, the motion to oppose the Hart-Care non-violent disruption tactic was lost 126-73 (these figures are from memory and may be slightly out. Of the 73 who voted for the motion, 3 were M.L.G. members and, I estimate, 12 were S.A.L. members. On this basis, among activists, on the tour tactic question there would be 4 persons outside of the combined ranks of SAL—MLG, who agree with their policy for each one inside.
How do matters stand outside the activists on the suitability of the tactic?
A survey by a Teaching Fellow at Canterbury University Mr A.D. Paine, showed that 70% of those who opposed the tour were not in favour of the disruption tactic.
If this survey is valid, then it would seem that among the people who already oppose the tour and are hence disposed to some extent to follow the lead of anti-Tour organisations the tactic which Hart-Care proposes is unattractive.
M.L.G., as you say, does not wish to create an organisation which will run counter to the many excellent educational activities of Hart and Care, but seeks to open an organisational avenue for those who rightly or wrongly do not agree with the Hart-Care tactical approach re non-violent disruption. Seemingly, there would be many who are potential supporters. We hope to create a united-front organisation to reach them.
Relieved to see that someone has finally exposed the 'virtues' of Mrs Brown's Accommodation Service ('Salient' Wed 7th
The 'help' we received from Mrs Brown last year consisted of her visiting the flat we were anxious to move out of, and commenting that it was a terrible place for anybody to have to live in. Needless to say we did not get another flat through Mrs Brown's service.
I suggest that the service be investigated by Student Association and if need be Mrs Brown should be ousted from her sinecure and replaced by somebody who is willing to act on the behalf of students.
I would like to comment on a letter in last week's Salient (
He was criticising a letter printed in the Salient on
Firstly I would suggest that he doesn't know a thing about Christianity except the word itself. And secondly he shows a hang-up on adolescence, for I quote:
"Finally — just because you grasped onto something that gives you a 'pious-trip' every Sunday, along with other boys and girls (lovely, so sweet and adolescent)".
He seems to think that church is a pretty and sweet place for boys and girls, but any deep-thinking person knows better. If Brent could try and grasp the idea that there are many intelligent and tolerant people in the church he would be better off, for his letter is written in great ignorance and shows just how intolerant he is.
P.S. — I am not the writer of the letter dated
I cannot sit back passively and observe the good names of other men dragged in the mud, as has been done in the last edition of Salient over the Rotherham vs Lee case.
I am not making a comment on the incident of the 5th March, for I cannot be the judge, but I do wish to say something on the way in which the whole affair has been handled.
Every man has the right to a good name and every man must see to it that he respects the good name of other men. If this is not the case, what sort of society do you want? The difference between what is right and wrong would become of little consequence. Yes, I am writing in defence of a Principle, for which I make no apologies.
Whatever the act in question was, Mr Lee's right to a good name has been violated. I would call it straight out detraction, and the abuse of a human value. (Thrifty anti-racists would take this incident up as another example of the subtle forms which racism is taking in our "fair land".) It doesn't matter what was done, the varsity library was not the place from which to tell the world. It looks suspiciously to me like a crafty advertisement for the Hart organization, which, curiously enough, is devoted to the cause of oppressed human rights. Just where is your revolution leading to if, in the fight for a better life you abuse the rights of others?
If I am to be logical I must also complain about the editors comment which appeared after "a Malaysian student's" letter. You were equally as destructive of the standing of certain other men in our community. The Verbal Violence which was engaged upon, was the cause of much damage which is irreparable. This form of violence is far worse than any form of physical violence and equally more contemptible and ought to be dealt with in correspondingly stringent ways.
Turn to page 15 for more anti-Salient letters.
A number of letters in this issue accuse us of being left-wing bigots who print propaganda worse than anything produced by the dailies. "Surely at least one person in the 'Salient' office has questioned the teachings of Karl Marx by now", writes one critic.
Underlying many of these criticisms is a belief that the 'truth' can be discovered by making a dispassionate and impartial survey of the 'facts' of any particular case. The rarefied atmosphere of the university classroom and library seems to enable students to kid themselves for a long time that they can be truly objective about their studies and the world outside.
It is rather ironic that some students should have such a strong belief in the importance of total objectivity. Over the last decade the most horrible acts of brutality in world history have been committed by the United States Government in Indochina. These acts were in the main dreamed up not by crazy generals but by rational, liberal academics, hiding behind their mask of academic objectivity.
Attempts to subordinate beliefs to the myth of complete impartiality can only result in complete self-deception. We believe that newspapers should state their beliefs openly and frankly. We try to do this in Salient, and it may be worth mentioning that we do print opinions we disagree with, we do try to provoke debate rather than an unquestioning acceptance of our ideas, and there are people on the Salient staff who have questioned the teachings of Karl Marx.
There is, however, at least one student paper in New Zealand which attempts to be unbiased. In their first editorial of the year the editors of Critic said their predecessors had devoted too much space to overseas features about left-wing political features. Critic must try to keep abreast of overseas news, they stated, "but let's not forget the issues facing this city and this university in particular". In the next issue one of the editors wrote a stirring editorial berating Otago students for littering their campus. People who want that sort of payer should head for Dunedin, as we don't intend to adopt such a policy.
We invite readers to disagree with us and tell us where we go wrong. But people who merely scream "you're biased" are just pulling themselves. Their cries of righteous outrage are wasted on Salient. Those students who believe in the myth of objectivity should go down to the politicians, the business leaders, the editors of the dailies, and the magistrates and tell them to be completely impartial in what they say and do. After all, they run this society; we don't.
For the fourth week in succession Salient was edited by Peter Franks and Roger Steele. An eloquent tribute to their efforts to date appears in the Latest issue of 'Socialist Action'. While Peter was red smearing the entire international Trotskyite movement. Roger led the learn of artists; Gyles Beckford, Chery Dimond, Ted Sheehan and Graeme Collins, who laid out the copy typeset by Irene Kennedy and proofread by Talahatchie and Ann Usherwond. Tony Ward, Thomas Proctor and Joris de Bres were on the job writing stories. Grub and Bob Good took the photos and Don Franks drew the cartoons. We still need people for all sorts of jobs: reporting especially University news), researching, typing illegible hand written copy, proofreading, layout, photos, graphics etc. If you're interested in Salient and have sume free time, come and see us in our happy cubbyhole.
Salient office: 1st Floor. University Union Building. Phone 70-319 (ext. 75 & 81). P. O. Box 1347. Wellington. New Zealand.
All copy should be left in the box outside the Salient office, or handed to the editors no later than Wednesday evening. It should be typed or written in legible printing doublespaced on one side of the page only. Late contributors will be axed with the Salient ice pick.
Roger Green, the advertising manager can be contacted at Salient, phone 70-319 (ext. 75 & 81) or at home 793-319.
Could be a little friendlier and should be addressed as such. Stuff them into the box outside the office or post them to Box 1347.
Printed by Wanganui Newspapers Ltd., P.O. Box 433 Wanganui, and published by the Victoria University of Wellington Students Association Inc., P.O. Box 196. Wellington.
Resistance is a bookshop of left-wing and "alternative" publications that doubles as a radical action centre. It was founded in Cuba Street in
As originally conceived, Resistance is a form of co-operative, with many people participating. If the willingness of people to help falls away, it weakens the basis of the shop. Resistance is still run on considerably different lines to ordinary bookshops, but is slowly moving towards their system of organisation.
At present, Resistance makes a 'profit' of $37 a week on a turnover of $150 (if you know anything about bookshops, you'll know that's a very small profit margin). Rent and general costs come to $28, leaving $9 total profit which doesn't cover the increase in stock each week. Debts are rising, and stand at present at $1300. A high turnover is obviously necessary for the business to progress. Besides this, there is at present something of a radical information revolution overseas. Much of it is capitalistic rip-off or Trotskyist double-think admittedly, but there is a lot of good stuff that Resistance would like to get hold of, but doesn't have the finance.
Besides continuing the present adventures, the Resistance group are intending various new actions, including setting up printing apparatus. Uses for the gear include a Secondary Schools Students' magazine, a Resistance magazine and local pamphlet printing. A gestetner duplicator will be freely available (if one can be procured) for any competent shareholder to use. A new 'bureaucracy' under the name of Resistance Print is to be set up. This requires expensive equipment which, to be frank, is totally beyond Resistance's means at the moment. Once the thing is set up, profits will eventually pay it back, but the initial high capital expense is the biggest problem at the moment.
Resistance also has various other ideas (some grandiose) planned to further the cause of radicalism in New Zealand. These include:
These intricate plans will obviously need money. At the moment two schemes are operating, but neither has been very successful, largely due to public apathy. They are: One, buying shares in the Cuba Bookshop Society Ltd. at $2 each. About 600 have been bought in 2½ years. Besides money, the Society concept was to allow ideas to filter up from below. This has failed. Of more interest to armchair radicals is the 10% reduction on book purchases and the planned Gestetner operation.
Three of the four signatories want to quit, so new blood is needed quickly. Two, a later idea is for a pledge system whereby people automatically give $2, $4, $6, $8 per month from their wages or incomes.
If you're interested in any of these ideas and want to help, get in touch with Resistance at Box 1126 Wellington, or better still wander into their shop in Willis Street (just down from the Dixon Street intersection on the left), perve over a few 'Young Lust' comics, and introduce yourself to the people.
Not on your life! Since men have not been subjected to an intensive and demoralising advertising campaign to convince them that they smell, they are unlikely to entertain the idea that an aerosol deodorant is necessary to keep their genitals clean and sweet.
Why then is there a demand (according to retailers, and judging by the proliferation of brands) for "intimate" sprays for women when such things did not exist until about two years ago? Mainly because of advertising. The message has been coming across strongly for years that women in their natural state smell nasty, that to be sexually attractive they must be deodorised from top to toe. Now the last bastion has been attacked, the hygeine ethic has gone too far — is the vagina really so rank?
Let's have some facts:
Vaginal deodorants are unnecessary, they are dangerous, and they are a prime example of Demand Created by Advertising.
It is interesting to note that although the Students' Association Exec. has banned the sale of Rothman's cigarettes in the Union on the grounds that this would imply support of racism, it has implied support of sexism by allowing representatives of this company to distribute samples of a new cigarette, Belvedere, that "separates the men from the girls". One of the men distributing the samples refused to give one to a woman who asked for it, because, he said, they were "for men only", and she should smoke Topaz. Both of these brands are manufactured by Rothmans but have totally contradictory advertising campaigns. Topaz is aimed at the new "liberated" woman, and as a specifically woman's cigarette claims to be a step towards equality — yet another attempt to pervert the rising feminist consciousness for commercial ends. The Belvedere campaign, on the other hand, is cashing in on the reaction to feminism — "Belvedere ... is for men and men only. Let's keep it that way". The obvious contrast between these two campaigns shows up the blatant hypocrisy of the manufacturers. The Students' Association should dissociate itself from sexist advertising of this kind.
Te Kainga, the only free childcare centre in Wellington, has for some time now been in severe financial straits, and is fighting against threatened closure. Added to these difficulties now is a shortage of helpers. If readers know of anyone, male or female, any age, who likes children and would be prepared to give even just an hour of their time now and then to help out, Te Kainga is very anxious to get in touch with them. Education students may find this a good opportunity to work and play with some real live children. People who can speak Maori would be particularly welcome. The phone number of the creche is 553-104, or ring Helene at 759-706.
Contributions to this column may be posted to P.O. Box 3871 Wellington, or handed into the Salient Office. University Feminists meet every Monday night at 8pm Lounge, U.U.B.
The banning of sixteen student leaders of the National Union of South African Students and the South African Students Organisation continued to dominate South African news last week. Mrs Cathy Taylor, shadow Minister of Education in the "opposition" United Party, resigned in protest at the fact that four United Party members had signed the report which ted to the banning of eight members of NUSAS two weeks ago.
The editor of the South African "Sunday Times" has called for the resignation of the leader of the United Party, Sir Villiers Graaff. He was also greeted with calls for his resignation when he spoke to students in an attempt to justify his Party's complicity in the bannings.
In Maritzburg, a large group of students "broke the law" by reading out loud passages from the writings of one of the banned NUSAS leaders, Mr Phillippe le Roux, at a meeting of 900 people at the University of Natal. It is illegal to quote people banned under the Suppression of Communism Act.
Moves are afoot to organise protest demonstrations, although these too are against the law. Mrs Helen Suzman, the sole Progressive Party M.P., sent messages to students in English language universities throughout South Africa warning that they faced "severe penalties" if they held protest processions without the permission of the local chief magistrate. In a statement Mrs Suzman said it was not generally known that the
Mrs Suzman, said the
Although students still plan protests, MUSAS itself has ended its campaign Against the bannings. The decision to halt protest action was taken at the National Council Meeting of NUSAS last weekend. The Council decided to concentrate its efforts on the various projects already planned for this year, including its education programme of free education for Blacks and Whites, its labour programme for underpaid and exploited workers, and a cultural programme for blacks. A NUSAS spokesman said: "It was possibly the implementation of these projects which led to the banning of the NUSAS eight".
The Black People's Convention said in a statement that for the black man, life in jail, or under banning orders or any other restrictions, was no different from ordinary life.
"Black people are restricted by job reservation, influx control, house permits, lack of freehold rights, poor amenities, poor wages, and they perpetually suffer the diseases of poverty and squalor."
The statement called "on all Black students in Black high schools and universities and general members of the community to come forward and replace any members of Black organisations who are "temporarily incapacitated" by the restrictive laws."
Two young boys were seriously injured by police bullets in South African towns last week. The police suspected both youths one aged fourteen, in Brixton, the other aged sixteen, in Cape Town, of having "committed a crime". In at least one case, the Johannesburg Star commented, the police "knew they were not dealing with a desperate criminal but a frightened boy who had already been detained". The fourteen year old was shot as he attempted to escape from a police station by breaking a window. He was "dreadfully injured".
The law in South Africa permits the police to shoot people, if there is no other means of effecting an arrest.
Cape Town — Banned NUSAS leaders living in the same houses are coping quite well despite "the unnecessary and ridiculous inconvenience"caused by their banning provisions, according to Miss Jeanette Curtis, sister of the banned ex-NUSAS president Neville Curtis. She said the banned people managed to avoid each other pretty well. They were able to speak and eat with members of the households who were not banned.
At the house in Mildene Road which is shared by five students, including two of the banned people; Paula Ensor, banned secretary-general of NUSWEL, has moved into the lounge so that she is at the opposite end of the house to banned NUSAS president Paul Pretorius. Previously their bedroom doors opened onto the same passage.
On Friday, March 11th, a feeling of exultation could be sensed among students in Athens. News of their activities during January and February, which had been banned in Greek press and practically cut out from the reports of foreign journalists, had at last been publicised in a fifteen minute broadcast from West Germany and a couple of articles in Le Monde on March 7 and 8. Now their own people and sympathisers in many countries could understand clearly what was behind their struggle and how much pressure had been put on them to quieten down and give credit to the dictator Papadopoulos' boast that there was "perfect order" under his regime.
Since
On February 12th, the junta, infuriated by its loss of face, imposed a new Obligatory Law, according to which suspension of military draft for students would be cancelled in the case of any students on strike. Demonstrations against this tyrannical intimidation became still more vigorous. On February 14th, when 700 students were demonstrating inside the Polytechnic campus, 500 police rushed in and attacked the youthful demonstrators with even more violence, it is said, than was seen in Athens during the German occupation (
By now the ordinary citizens of Athens were aware of what was going on. On February 20th, 3,500 students undertook a two-a-day sit-in strike in the Law Faculty. They shouted slogans, reiterating above all "Elefteria"! (Freedom) a cry which had not been heard since
When the students left the Faculty on February 22nd, they were at once attacked by the police and by a reactionary students' organisation. But the populace supported them and a large demonstration took place in the centre of the city, in spite of violent police action.
Two days later, 500 students from the Polytechnic Engineering School at Salonika in northern Greece demonstrated on campus against the threat of military service for political activists. They were attacked by right-wing students and five activists were injured.
At Athens Polytechnic, police dispersed several hundred students on the same day as they attempted to organize a demonstration. Nearly 100 students were taken into custody for taking part in unlawful public protests.
The Junta, for the first time in almost six years, was rocked. The students' action had seemed unbelievable to them and they were forced to compromise and grant some of the students' demands, which had strengthened as a result of their activities.
Briefly these damnds were:
Papadopoulos and his military Junta can never claim again that the young are behind him. The students have defied a ruthless regime and brought back to a disconsolate people the vision of "Freedom". New demands will certainly be made as the year goes on, and the international news media will have to pay them increasing attention.
Last week Kathleen Davis, an 18 year old unemployed waitress pleaded guilty in the magistrates court to a charge of being idle and disorderly. The police prosecutor told Mr Wicks S.M. that on the 13th of March '73 Miss Davis had been found "at her place of residence lying in a sleeping bag on a mattress". She had told that she was not currently employed. She had $3.60 in her possession at the time. In mitigation Miss Davis said that she had earned the money at work, which she had left a week before, and that she had only been out of Arohata Women's Borstal for a month. She was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence in three months if called upon.
Kathleen Davis committed the crime of taking a week's holiday after a term of imprisonment in the notorious Arohata. She should have stayed at her waitressing job like a good little cog in the capitalist machine. It might have been an illpaid job, she might not have enjoyed such a servile deadend occupation, but so what? That's no excuse for being idle and disorderly is it? We can't have magistrates and policemen slaving away all day while Kathleen Davis lies round ... "In a sleeping bag on a mattress". Kathleen was punished for being recently out of Arohata, for being a worker who refused to work like a robot and for thinking that she could be like the boss and take time off when she felt tike it.
We can't have working people being idle and disorderly all over the place. That's the prerogative of the people who live off the profits of their labour. The people who tax them, fire them, take their rent, take their surplus value. And the people who convict them and order them to come up for sentence in three months' if called upon.
Netana Te Ringa Mangu Mihaka (Nathan Mihaka to the "Evening Post" is currently serving ten days imprisonment. On the 16th of March he was convicted for contempt of court. He had protested (twice) from the court gallery when two Maori youths appeared without representation.
In his defence Mihaka stated that it hurt him to see young Maori people appearing in the dock without representation or adequate knowledge of legal proceedings.
Mr Wicks S.M. stated that people without knowledge of procedure or representation were properly catered for. Mihaka denied this, saying that such people were usually "intimidated by the whole setup". When Mihaka refused to apologize for his actions he was convicted and sentenced to ten days jail.
The Nelson Race Relations Action group, authors of the paper "Justice and Race" (published in the first issue of Salient
Mihaka was quite correct in stating that Maori Youth are intimidated by court procedure. There is nothing in the courtroom calculated to inspire confidence or hope. Many working class youths, Maori and otherwise are unrepresented by counsel. The legal aid system that some defendants are provided with is more often than not a mere token defence.
Mihaka was jailed for telling the truth.
Encircled mouths sucking on daisies that associate city rubbish bins with festival entertainment, groups of flags and drums, and a programme which only your neighbour received, have been the City Council's Public Relations method of manifesting a community festival. Festival Wellington 73 opened officially on Friday night at Civic Centre, with brass bands, pipe bands, clowns, marching girls, dancing in the streets, a masked ball for the city's elite, a barbecue for the plebs and a melee sponsored by the Mongrels (glass courtesy of N.Z. Breweries).
Mercer Street was blocked off early in the night and thousands of citizens crowded the stage area hoping to catch a glimpse of the mayor and other dignitaries between the ranks of bands and marching girls. And a splendid scene it was too!
The "invitation only" Festival Masked Ball began at 9.00pm on Friday, The masks no doubt were to allow the dignitaries to get really pissed without being recognised. The supper was appalling — fruit salad and cream, potato salad and Watties peas and chicken and ham. I stood in my hippie disguise munching ham next to Muldoon and the past three "Maori of the Year" winners, a little perturbed that I had forgotten my tuxedo.
The scene outside was equally reflective of N.Z. culture, featuring the old tradition of hoonery and bottle smashing. Apparently the Festival Committee freaked out after Friday and demanded that bands vary their music. This was because the Police (well known authorities on rock concerts) had advised the Town Clerk that a Sociologist whom they had exclusive contact with, said it was "the continuous beat of the bass and drums which turned the audience into zombies making them smash bottles and riot". So the band for Saturday night, Mammal, were actually asked to play "Knees up Mother Brown" and "Irish Eyes are Smiling" and to take lead guitarist and drummer off for half an hour. They didn't, of course, and the Saturday dancing went off without incident.
More about the Festival next week. But remember Saturday night's Hot Rock Concert with the Tamburlaine all at the Union Halt, Saturday, 8.00pm, $1.00.
About the time sausages were distributed amongst the crowd at the festival opening, the premiere of N.Z.'s latest 'Rock Opera' began at the V.U.W. Memorial Theatre.
It would be extremely satisfying to report that the audience of middle-class culture hounds seen baying at the heels of the trendy "Taniwha" fled in disarray before the sheer artistic grossness of what confronted it. Satisfying, but not true. In large part this clutch of rock opera afficianadoes (by now, one assumes, immunised by exposure to the worst Farquhar can produce) lapped up the seeping effluent deposited by this festering sore of a piece with avidity bordering on relish.
To say that "The Taniwha" is bad is to understate the case. No simple excuse can be found for such blithering incompetence on so broad and apparently heavy a front. Professor James Ritchie has produced a libretto rivalling in its monstrous banality "La Fanciulla Dell' West". Such a succession of rivetting cliches and "Whole Earth Catalogue" rejects has never been seriously presented to the accompaniment of cacophonous bleattngs and inept staging reminiscent of the last placed entry in the British Drama League One Act Play Festival of
The first half hour of action reveals the five principals removing and putting on their trousers. The males had some difficulty in doing up their flies, apparently because the 34" waist got the 30" pants. The dialogue was choked by self-conscious blasphemy and the odd daring "fuck"
The Blertas were stacked behind the staging, very
Perhaps if the libretto had been in Maori it would have both made the show much more "liberal" and saved many people the embarrassment of comprehending, thereby raising it to the esoteric.
Those who were drawn by the advertised Rock aspects were the victims of the large scale rip-off. "Taniwha" secured $1,000 from Q.E.I I Arts Council to produce this hybrid of genres. The sooner trendy producers like McDonald and Farquhar realise that rock music is something more than hiring an electric guitar, bass, and drums to play their own inferior brand of show tunes, the better for those rock musicians who have built their reputation on hard work and musical ability. It seems that as soon as this particular form of music had become respectable (which means profitable in the middle class mentality) these money hungry wankers crash in from their staid background of straight music and rip-off the musicians by scoring bread from such bodies as Q.E.II and gullible trendies who condescend to attend such shows after claiming their open minds in listening to "Sergeant Pepper" and sitting through the entire performance of "Hair".
McDonald's claim to represent rock music is as valid as Mantovani's adaption of Rolling Stones' songs to string orchestras.
The climax is the discovery of the Taniwha, the evil within ourselves, the only point that came across seemed to point to the evil in homosexuality or perhaps the Taniwha was a horrid realization of the clap.
Cars
Don't drive them when you can walk or cycle. Support the dying buses.
If you live miles out, operate a Car Pool don't all have cars.
Since reading the above quotation from last year's Salient, I have heard of hundreds of invitations to buy this car or that. I've heard of no invitations to join a car pool or of any pool being formed. The time has surely come to get a varsity car pool started and to spread the idea to the rest of the community,
A car pool is simply a form of organisation to enable a large group of people to use a number of vehicles in the most efficient way. In this case the cars and the organisation would be centred at the university. The 'car pool' need not be confined to cars; motor scooters, small buses, even caravans and boats could be included. The pool would need a constitution and an annual membership type structure subscription from members. People already owning cars could sell or lease it to the pool and automatically become members.
With the spread of community instead of private ownership of vehicles it would once again be possible to have suburbs designed around the needs of people instead of the needs of cars.
Often individuals when buying a car consider doing it in partnership. Usually they reject the idea because of inevitable personality conflicts. But ten people using one car should present less of a problem than one car between two people as the community interest should prevail. Since ten cars among 100 people is a more flexible proposition than one car among ten the success of the pool system depends on everybody's support.
A list is in the Contact Office to place your name if you are at all interested. A meeting wilt be held to work out plans for the car pool as soon as there are enough people to make it viable.
I've just read the Sunday Times "Comment" on the
The police approach was low key as the paper described, except when they were making arrests. Then they used all the strong arm frogmarching, knee and boot action, in fact all the trademarks that our police share with the gestapo anywhere and anytime. Also low key but effectively inflammatory was the hectoring, patronising way policemen tried to get the crowd to disperse. They had many variations of "come kiddies, it's well past your bedtime", and used them all.
The Sunday Times predicts from Friday night's events that the police will be able to handle the disruption if the tour comes. They are fooling themselves, and misleading the public about the police tactics and about the causes of general discontent. If the police and the public continue to ignore the problems in the organisation of entertainment and the social conditions that have caused a large section of the country's youth to be prepared to violently confront the establishment, they wilt have only themselves to blame when there is a greater eruption of violence.
The conclusion I drew from Friday night is that the police will in fact not be able to handle such an eruption. They were successful on Friday night only because the Mongrels lacked conviction. In a typical instance three policemen, hundreds of yards from their fellows, arrested a bottle thrower and marched him a long distance to the van. About twenty of the arrested man's mates followed their progress. One shouted, "Let's get them, there's only three of them and twenty of us". If they had tried to free their mate and maul the policemen they would have succeeded. But the best they could do was to chant "Pig, Pig, Pig".
After all the bottle throwing, brawling and arrests were over, I overheard a fifteen year old boy boast "I killed three pigs tonight". On the night it was no more than a wish. Soon it may be a reality.
* * * * * *
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While the police were wading through the
I, however, had seen it and been disconcerted by the hectoring, blunt police action, and I found
Passers by would not have lingered to watch B5 when the pressure was on. As his fellow policemen were frogmarching arrested youths back to the van and throw ing them in,
I wasn't able to get close enough to discern whether he continued smiling, or smiled more, when he was putting the boot in. When I did confront him shortly after his action, to get his number, I remarked in the mildest tone I could man age that I wasn't over impressed with his unnecessary
* * * * * *
Not all policemen are thick-skinned vulgar yobboes; some of them are friendly sensitive people, just like you or me. Take C.P.007* for example. I came upon him in the corridor of the Magistrates Court the other day, having a cozy chat with a police witness. A well dressed, female, police witness. She smiled charmingly at C.P.007 and stroked the fringe on her handbag as though it was something else. I asked C.P. 007 if it was in order for him to talk with his witness before a case. He assured me that it was all right, provided that the case itself was not discussed. I took C.P.007's number and wrote the first three verses of "The Daffodils" in my notebook. This had a marked effect on the proceedings. The cozy little chat assumed the character of a furtive conspiracy. Suddenly our hero marched halfway up the corridor and invited me to join him there for a talk.
"Now look", he said, breathing a bit heavily in my face "Don't you go taking my number without asking me first see. It makes me very edgy". I remarked that the big silver numbers on his epaulettes had probably been put there to save him the inconvenience of being asked all the time.
"Well I don't care, I like to be asked, see I'll even tell you my name if you ask me". I did. It sounded something like Machiavellie. How was it spelt?
"That's for me to know and for you to guess" said C.P.007 triumphantly. I finished the "Daffodils" transcript and turned the page before he saw it.
"It's no good you writing down things I say and quoting them off" said our mate. "I'll deny it all, as you well know".
I did well know. So I began on "The Wreck of the Hesperus" instead.
"You aren't dangerous to us Mr Franks" said C.P.007 getting flustered. "You aren't dangerous to us at all. We've got more important people than you to get you know". I told C.P.007 that this was great. It gave me more room to move in. He leaned over me angrily, dismissing science for weight.
"Got anything I can arrest you for Mr Franks? Got any money owing to the justice department?" No there wasn't sorry. Would C.P.007 be'happier if there was? No answer. Only "just don't you take my number without asking see, it makes me annoyed. Very edgy it makes me".I promised never to take his number again with out first asking his permission. As I said before, you don't meet such a thing as a sensitive cop everyday. "I'm just watching these people like a shepherd tending his flock" C.P.007 told me at one stage in the conversation. How many such poets' hearts must beat beneath the blue serge pigskin?
"Names and numbers have been changed to protect their owners from possible embarrassment.
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"Wreckers", "disrupters", "attempts to undermine the economy", "F.O.L. bosses running the country", "Peking Parrots" . . . Terms such as these are commonly used by the press, politicians and employers whenever trade unions take industrial action. The use of such emotional language may be designed to cover up the real causes of conflict, and condition people to blame any dispute on workers and trade unions.
Two weeks ago Salient published a short history of government attempts to restrict the right to strike. This week Michael Law, a product of the Auckland University Political Science Department and former student leader, who is now a trade union bureaucrat and part-time law student, shows how the present Industrial Relations Bill is aimed at completely shackling workers and the trade union movement.
Throughout the western world, economic problems facing the capitalist system have developed to such a chaotic situation that only co-ordinated action against wage and salary earners can restore stability to the world's economies. Because the prewar disciplinary force of sustained unemployment is no longer an option to employers and governments, they have developed 'incomes policies' (i.e. sophisticated union bashing) as a means to keep labour subservient to capital. As the British writer Ken Coates has put it: ". . . international competition demands that margins be considered even more tightly, and basic costs be budgeted over longer periods within narrower limits of fluctuation. Hence the over-riding concern about inflation, and the constant preoccupation with the 'stabilisation' of wage costs. Wages must be brought under control if the cutting edge of capital is not to be dulled to a degree intolerable to its masters". (Essays on Industrial Democracy,
All over the western world governments have introduced these 'incomes policies' and developed systems of industrial relations designed to restrict workers' demands. New Zealand has been a little slower than other countries to formalise such policies into long term legislation, but last year the National Government caught up when it introduced the 'Police Offences Act (Industrial Division)', better known as the Industrial Relations Bill. According to a government statement at the time it was introduced, the Bill "is the first major restructuring of New Zealand's industrial legislation and institutions since In fact the Bill is nothing more than a programme of disciplinary regulations for labour, a sophisticated plan for union bashing that is no different from past anti-worker legislation (which was described in Bert Roth's article two weeks ago — Eds).
The post-war era has seen a dramatic transfer of power among the major western powers. In New Zealand, for example, the influence of British finance has diminished in comparison to the influence of American finance. Many of the ostensibly 'British' companies are in fact controlled by American interests. The United States protects its economic and political influence in a number of ways. Stable countries like New Zealand are controlled through international finance institutions such as the International Monetary Fund. Key strategic countries like South Africa are provided with heavy investment from Europe, and protected by buffer states like Angola and Mozambique, where the Portugese colonialists are provided with NATO arms. For countries which do not toe the line there is the lesson of Indochina.
New Zealand's entry into the I.M.F. in
Anyone who has lived in New Zealand in the last decade will have experienced the effects of life under the I.M.F. The Welfare State has been systematically dismantled. In the areas of Health, Education and Social Services, the state has steadily pulled back and placed greater reliance on private medical schemes, school bottle drives, voluntary child care centres etc. More and more women have been forced into the workforce because of the drop in real family income. For the upper middle class and the rich however, life has improved. Reductions in company tax and in the upper levels of personal income tax have provided them with increased funds to speculate and profit. The government actually established a climate that was conducive to massive speculation, especially in land and housing. The rich did not suffer from the rundown in social services. A very careful subsidy scheme meant that those who had money could obtain further government support. Tremendous amounts of money were made available to private hospitals with rates of interest of less than 2%. But no worker could afford to take advantage of this. Nor could he afford to live in the suburbs where there was sufficient initial capital to earn a government subsidy for primary school libraries, pre-school centres and other educational facilities.
It took workers a long time to wake up. In
In late
Within the trade union movement the reaction was one of shock. Throughout the negotiations only a select few union leaders knew what was going on, and even after the Bill had been submitted to government some members of the F.O.L. Executive didn't know what was in it. One is known to have telephoned the Employers Federation to obtain a copy. At Trades Council level there were questions about the Bill, but no answers. The draft was a victory for right-wing union leaders. Since the 'Nil Wage Order' in 1968 they had wanted to get their members back into an Arbitration Court system, which entrenched their authority and transferred power out of the hands of the rank and file and back into the hands of the leadership. But even the right-wingers got a shock when they saw the final draft of the Bill. The Government had taken advantage of the weakness of the F.O.L. and included a number of new provisions designed to completely shackle workers.
The new arrangement will be headed by an Industrial Relations Council, with members from the F.O.L., the state
While al Government concentrated ention onto 'political' strikes ole against French bomb tests ingbok tour), the legislation n heavily on all strikes.
This means officials must under the Bill be- ts of the system, rather than tives of their members. Further- nus of proof is on the defen- he prosecution.
If all this doesn't work to the benefit of the employers or government, the Minister of Labour can deregister the union. This power, which has existed since The Bill also gives the Minister of Labour the power to cancel the membership "of any specified class" of members of a union. This clause had its origins in the seamen's dispute of
As several unions have told the Labour Bills Committee, the Industrial Relations Bill is completely obnoxious and should be thrown out. But the Government ean-not do so unless it is prepared to bring about fundamental structural changes in the economy. In the sixty-two years of its existence the Labour Party has always been a reformist party which exists to protect the capitalist system by alleviating grievances through social welfare schemes etc. Some of the early Labour politicians, like the party's first leader Harry Holland, did believe in fundamental social change, but they quickly became irrelevant to the main course of Labour's development as an electoral force.
What this means is that the Labour Government and its cousin, the Federation of Labour, have a vested interest in reasserting order and control over rank and file trade unionists. If they cannot do so their reason for existence becomes very questionable. Therefore while the more obviously fascist provisions will no doubt go, much of the Bill is likely to become law.
For the revolutionary however, it is unfortunate that the Industrial Relations Bill will not be enacted as drafted. Recent experience in Britain proves that Government and management cannot force punitive legislation on workers and expect them not to react. If the present draft Bill was to be introduced it would go further than any other single act towards educating workers about the real nature of our economic system. It would inevitably produce bitter conflict, especially in the so called essential industries, which include the transport industries, traditional the home of the more militant unions.
When you go to a meeting of a group that calls itself Ecology Action, what do you expect to happen? Do you expect that the people who are running the meeting will be able to recognise the fundamental nature of the problems of conservation and pollution?Unfortunately, the meeting held by Ecology Action on 14th March was a disappointment — it might have seemed to an observer that most of those present were there without knowing what they were up against. The group aims "to work towards a revolution in environmental management", but at present progress, any such revolution must be in the distant future.
Ecology Action has been divided into five subgroups: population, water conservation, re-cycling, scenery preservation, and curriculum development. But at the moment, these groups are by-passing all the basic issues. With scenery preservation, for instance, it is all very well to keep New Zealand nice for tourists to look at, but if we are to preserve our scenery, the people to get at are those who destroy the scenery. And the reason they attempt to destroy scenery is, of course, for profit. The problems of Lake Manapouri, the Clutha Valley, the Waiwhetu stream are all based on this, just as are rubbish tips for Petone and Porirua. And the environment is only one victim of the capitalist's endless search for profit.
Look, for example, at the attitude of the capitalists to population expansion. We have the president of the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation calling for more immigration of skilled labour to this country for "the successful development of industry and its increased productivity." When this sort of thing happens, one questions the worth of the actions of the population group of Ecology Action in pressing for family planning clinics. The same issue arises again when one is discussing water pollution. If a factory is discharging its effluent into the air or into a waterway, it is going to cost it money to process this effluent to make it less harmful. What capitalist is going to spend money like this willingly if it does not increase his profits? No wonder shingle and ready-mix concrete companies want permanent water rights to discharge into the Hutt river! Legislation is useless when the government has big ideas for industrial development.
Ecology Action dodges the issue again with their re-cycling group. Why should we have to buy all this junk that needs to be re-cycled anyway?Again, the issue is one of profits. To make profits — which are, after all, the backbone of our society — the producer must be able to sell as much as he can at the price he gets for his product. The more plastic, cardboard, and pins that he can sell with a shirt, the larger is the price that he feels able to charge. The only limitations are imposed by competition, not by any form of morality. It is rumoured that the better teaching of such methods of exploitation is the reason for the establishment of a Chair of Marketing in the Business Administration Department. That, of course, says a lot for the curriculum development group of Ecology Action.
Perhaps not all aspects of the activities of Ecology Action are bad. Only two known Trotskyites were present at the meeting. And although a large part of the meeting was of the opinion that the Values Party had all the answers, a motion to officially endorse the Values Party was rejected on the grounds that it might bring politics into ecology. It seems possible Ecology Action may, at some time, wake up. And though breweries will ignore their barrages of beer cans, the publicity at least increases awareness of the symptoms of the problem. But a revolution in environmental management is impossible by itself — perhaps a more far-reaching revolution is called for.
Reward If person who removed overcoat from toilet on second floor, Union Building on Saturday night, March 17th will return it to me. Phone David 558 303 Wgtn.
On the 18th of March 1871 the Paris Commune was founded by the people of that city in opposition to the French Government. Louis Napoleon ruthlessly crushed the commune which has been remembered by Marxists ever since as a heroic example of working class struggle. 50 years Utter the Soviet government of Russia put down an uprising of sailors and workers at Kronstadt, at the same time as it was celebrating the anniversary of the Paris Commune.
Today anarchist opponents of communism see the Kronstadt uprising, and its suppression, as proving that the Bolshevik regime in Russia was rotten from the beginning. In the article below Graham Rua, a former law student and now a construction worker, argues that Kronstadt represented "the death agony of the working people".
The three years of civil war which followed the overthrow of the Kerensky government in
By
The immediate result of the ending of hostilities was the widespread desire among the revolutionary workers and peasants for some evidence from the Bolsheviks (soon to be known as the Communists) that the rank and file would in fact exercise control. Repression of several other 'soviet parties' (those also claiming to seek control by workers and peasants councils) had built up since
Large strikes broke out in Petrograd some 17 miles from Kronstadt, and the sailors and workers of Kronstadt announced the formation of a Provisional Revolutionary Committee to run the fortress-city. Strikes also broke out in Moscow and other large centres. The reaction of the Bolshevik Central Commit tee was pitiless. Trotsky issued an immediate ultimatum, warning that the rebels would be 'shot like partridges' unless they surrendered immediately. Complete censorship was clamped over the uprising. There could never be any compromise, and in fact the Kronstadters never surrendered. Such was the feeling within the city itself, that local Bolsheviks joined the rebels en masse. The Kronstadt Commune lasted nearly three weeks, appealing all the time over Radio Kronstadt that theirs was not a counter-revolution. It was to no avail, and the final Government assault swept an estimated 18,000 to their deaths. Countless survivors disappearing into the secret police dungeons. Within days of the defeat factions were outlawed within the Bolshevik party and the course was set for the eventual clash of Stalin and Trotsky; the potential dictators!
The 18th of March must take its place in the anniversary book of all those at present wrestling with the standard-bearers of Marxism. Very few would today contest the fact that the Soviet Union has ceased to provide inspiration to world revolution, but just when this relapse took place is a matter of some debate. Numerous, and doubtless well-intentioned people pace the campus and streets, shouting the praises of one L.D. Trotsky; they at least have the sense to see through the thinly veiled lies sown abroad by Leon's adversary Joe Stalin; what they fail to understand is that the communist dream evaporated in the year
Incredible though it may seem, it was on the very anniversary of the founding of the Paris Commune, acclaimed by Marx as the 'glorious harbinger of a new society, that the Bolshevik leadership directed the last troops into the shattered fortress of Kronstadt; a centre which Trotsky had proclaimed 'the cream of the Revolution', a mere three years before. The last shots were fired as night fell on the 18th.
The story of the Kronstadt Commune, as it has become known, can only be viewed in regard to the collapse of popular control over the events which followed the fall of the Kerensky Government. That Lenin's famous slogan 'all power to the soviets' was nothing more than a slogan, is obvious. Nestor Makhno, an anarchist fighter, whose victories over White Russian armies were rewarded with about as much kindness as that bestowed on the Kronstadters, provides an interesting insight into the fundamental dishonesty which has characterized the leadership of the Soviet Union to this day. Lenin asked what the Ukrainian peasants made of the slogan, and Makhno replied that they took it seriously. To this Lenin retorted, "then the peasants are infected with anarchism". The crime of the Kronstadters (and the Makhnovites, struggling a thousand miles to the south of the Baltic fortress) was that they believed in just such a slogan. That the feeling was widespread, was born out in a letter to Petrograd. Commissar for the northern sector, on the Kronstadt front, one Oublanov, wrote on March 8th: "I consider it my revolutionary duty to report on the morale of the troops. We had occupied Fort No. 7. But today we had to abandon it because of the dejection among the soldiers. I must report on their qualms: they want to know what the Kronstadters demand and they want to send their own delegates to them." Such was the 'dejection' in fact, that whole companies went over to the rebels and numerous reports speak of troops driven at gun-point across the ice towards Kronstadt; indeed the enthusiasm of the soldiers was such that the 10th Party Congress being held in Moscow, was postponed while 300 of the delegates raced to bolster the attacking forces. The myth of Leninism was stripped to the bone the dictatorship attacks its proletariat!
Despite the years of distortion which have followed the collapse of the Commune, and despite the hypocrisy of both Stalinist and Trotskyist alike, in acclaiming the Paris Commune while reviling the Kronstadters as counter-revolutionary, it is self-evident that the Commune at Kronstadt represented the death agony bf the working people.
In the interests of revolutionary demystification ... and more on Comrade Leon ... write to: Solidarity, P.O. Box 3255, WGTN
In the
From then on developed one of the, most famous battles in American Labour history to free the 'Scottsboro Nine'. Argued back and forth in the Courts for years, it was not until
In
Dan Carter has now produced an extensively researched and well written book. It has always been very clear that Scottsboro stood for much more than the actual case. As Carter says in his preface: "For most white Southerners it raised the spectre of Communist subversion and racial insubordination; for Negroes it was a mirror which reflected the three hundred years of mistreatment they had suffered at the hands of white America; Communists and other radicals saw Scottsboro as the inevitable offspring of an economic system based upon racism and class exploitation; and for American liberals it became a tragic symbol of the sickness which pervaded the South's regional culture".
There is no doubt that Scottsboro played a vital role in raising the consciousness of the black people for liberation, and showing them who were their real friends and enemies. Carter brings out a wealth of detail surrounding the long drawn out battle in the courts. His accounts of the Alabama trials of
Much space is devoted to the constant struggles between the International Labour Defense (an organisation set up by the Communist Party in
While accepting the need for legal action, the ILD saw the Scottsboro case in the context of the whole struggle against capitalism and national oppression. It believed, and rightly so, that it was necessary to develop mass action outside the Courts and legislative bodies, and to alert and gain the support of workers in every country. The NAACP, on the other nand, believes in using only the Courts, and relying on the support of white liberals and the Negro middle class. In his often scathing criticism of the Communist Party and its leaders, Carter's 'objectivity' looses credibility. No doubt mistakes were made, but it was the ILD which developed the campaign and was the main force throughout in supporting those in gaol.
In his preface, Carter states that hopefully his book "also tells something of what it meant to the nine Negro youths whose lives were changed forever by one morning's ride on an Alabama freight train". For me he does not succeed. Carter is highly critical of the book, "Scottsboro Boy" written by Hayward Patterson in collaboration with Earl Conrad, when Patterson was on the run after
He calls his book 'a tragedy of the American South'. That is one-sided. The Scottsboro case, like that of Sacco and Vanzetti, played a significant part in raising the consciousness of American working people, black and white, for their emancipation.
Nonetheless, "Scottsboro" is an important book to read.
A good autobiography is never autobiographical at all — it transcends itself to become a history of its time. The extent to which it does so is a measure of the greatness of its subject. Before he became a journalist, Burchett's story has himself as subject. From the time of his first press dispatch, his subject is the people he meets
"
My concept of reporting is not just to record history but to help shape it in the right direction...I believe reporters should regard their responsibilities as being above contractual obligations to editors...(they) cannot remain coldly aloof and objective when basic human issues are involved."
Journalism often seems a vicarious sort of existence, and the stature of the journalist often seems to depend upon the people he interviews. To some extent this is true of Burchett, though he has achieved an identificalion with the struggles he describes which enables him to unify his practice with his writing.
"Passport" is divided into three sections. The first deals with Burchett's early life in Australia, mainly with his experience of the depression; the second, and longest section deals with his work in Southeast Asia as a foreign correspondent; and the short third section deals with his difficulties in travel etc. caused by the refusal of the Australian authorities to grant him a passport.
Burchett himself notes that it is in many ways too early for him to write his autobiography, and indeed much of the present volume has already been published elsewhere. Still there is great value in the book, especially as it was published while the controversy over the official Australian attitude to him still raged, Burchett has now been welcomed back into Australia, after many years as an exile. He was previously not even allowed back into the country to attend his father's funeral.
Why is it that a journalist has provoked so much controversy?
Part of the answer lies in Burchett's conception of reporting. "As members of the human race ! believe reporters should regard their responsibilities as being above contractual obligations to editors ... A reporter is not an electronic computer digesting dispassionately the facts with which it is confronted. He is endowed with reason and conscience bequeathed by many centuries of human experience. He cannot remain coldly aloof and objective when basic human issues are involved. My concept of reporting is not just to record history but to help shape it in the right direction". Hence Burchett's leading roles in the world campaigns for nuclear disarmament (he was the first allied journalist to visit Hiroshima) as well as the world movement in support of the Vietnamese struggle, he has travelled and lived for extended periods with the liberation forces in Vietnam, since the time of the French defeats.
The other part of the answer will be clear already, that is Burchett's tenacious insistence on going to the root of matters, to see for himself what is happening. He has done this in China, Japan and Indochina at great personal risk. Coupled to this is his refusal to accept the press handouts which dominate western news-making Indeed during the Korean settlement negotiations, Burchett was continually correcting United States press information through his contact with the Korean and Chinese diplomats us well as personal ventures into the war zones. The outstanding example is his chapter dealing with United States' use of germ warfare in Korea, which was denied at the time, thoroughly investigated by Burchett, and is now tacitly admitted by the Americans.
Indeed it was Burchett's activities during the Korean war which really put him offside with his home government, particularly the part he played in visiting prisoner of war camps and telling prisoners about the situation of the negotiations. Though reactions to his visits varied from the enthusiastic to the decidedly hostile (for example the Australian prisoners who told him they had come to kill 'commies' and would like to kill him) among the prisoners, he was officially denounced as having participated in 'brain-washing'! Burchett convincingly deals with these charges and his activities which gave rise to them.
The Committee on Vietnam is selling "Passport" for just $1.00 to coincide with Burchett's impending visit to this country. I thoroughly recommend it as 300 pages of excellent reading for anyone who wants to see what journalism can really be like. "Passport" is also available for the same price from the 'Salient' office.
Art students have always been among the leas secure members of the university community. While they often affect to care little about their own future and only about the progress of their art, in reality they have a singular predicament. Unlike most other graduates who can scan the newspaper columns for a job, artists will not find an advertisement in the "Dominon" saying "Landscape or Abstract painter wanted at $4000 per annum". They have to find their own way and create work (and a market) for themselves.
Art students are now being trained in their thousands to paint pictures, but for a market which is already at bursting point with professional and amateur artists. In England and Wales there are now more than 50,000 art students. In the U.S.A. there are more than a quarter of a million, and here in New Zealand there are about one thousand students. Few ever realise what is little more than a dream. The vast majority will get jobs in industry, photography, advertising, general design and teaching in art schools. No more than a minority will paint a professional picture when they complete their studies and a smaller minority will be able to write "Professional Painter" on their driver's licence or passport. Many art students never really leave school. They remain, usually on a part-time basis, to teach other students to become painters, who in turn, teach other students to become painters. . . and so it goes on.
Here is an exhibition of some of the best works recently produced at the Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland University. It is of interest for many reasons. These are works by skilled university students of fine arts. But can other students and people beyond the university relate to the work, or relate to Art itself? And these are works by artists aware of artistic and social trends in N.Z. and overseas. But do the works reflect any knowledge of art history, of the place of art in society, and any real social consciousness?
This week, walk a few steps off the beaten track, go to the Memorial Theatre foyer, and perhaps reconsider a segment of your culture.
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One of the more justified complaints of local actors is that overseas talent is imported for NZBC productions when local talent would do the same job as well or better. This complaint was given some force by Ewen Solon's disastrous performance in "Section Seven". Now comes Peter Adamson (of Coronation Street fame) to star in Pinter's "The Dumb Waiter" with Grant Tilly. All the people 1 have asked describe Adamson's performance as inferior to Tilly's, who was paid only half Adamson's fee. Why bring out these overseas artists when capable talent exists here? At best it is just putting into effect that stupid old belief that everything imported is superior to the local product.
Giving the award to "An Awful Silence" on the basis that it contributed to the development of local television was unfortunate but predictable. The play itself was badly written, the secondary actors useless, and the whole production had an air of antiquity about it. If it had played in the afternoon, it would have slipped by without comment. My vote (With the usual disclaimers about rating programmes as best/worst etc ) would have gone to either "Miss Julie" or Pacific Film's "The Unbelievable Glory of the Human Voice".
"Love Story" on Wednesday night looks good, despite the appearance of Nyree Dawn Porter. "All In a Day", a new BBC series, may be interesting as it breaks new ground in documentaries. If your cooking needs improving, Des (Coachman) Brillen has a good series on early Monday evenings. Jim Allen, the playwright who wrote the amazing "The Big Flame", has made a contribution to the 'Thirty Minute Theatre' series on Sunday night. Finally, a word in praise of a late night Sunday series, "A European Journey", a semi-documentary in which two noted foreign correspondents do a lazy European tour, telling very funny stories all the time.
If you have complaints about television programmes, don't bore your friends with them. Write in to the Director General, NZBC, P.O.Box 98, who will then pan your complaints on to the minions who actually schedule and make the programmes. This is the only way to get any response from the organisation.
If you like your films to have something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, then two of last week's releases might be worth the visit. 'The Red Tent' and 'Murders at the Rue Morgue' will not appeal to everyone, but to those fans of the action spectacular and the tale of terror respectively, they deserve a look in.
The stirring story of the Nobile attempt to land a zeppelin on the North Pole and its subsequent failure made excellent reading every time it appeared in the Boys Annual: the slightly more grandiose version of which 'The Red Tent' consists makes equally good viewing. The melodramatic story line is not without inconsistencies in the incidental detail, nor is it without some rather predictable moralizing; nonetheless it is strong enough, and appealing enough to overcome these momentary difficulties. More than this however, it provides ample opportunity for some stunning footage of the desolate arctic wastes, and for some delightful character acting from a bevy of enthusiastic Italian actors. With Peter Finch performing with customary aplomb in the major role, the film scrapes up enough substance to overcome any charges of vacuity, and goes on to reach the standard of such gilt-edged epics as Zulu and Khartoum. One may be suspicious of much of the motivation attributed to the characters, especially that of Amundsen, and the disorganised efforts to explain it away with psychological jargon, bul this is only to quibble. The sullen grandeur of the Arctic, and the comfortable familiarity of the proceedings (we all know what it means to be lost; in an adventure story at least); taken thus, on its own grounds, the film makes both sense and plenty of fun.
'The Murder at the Rue Morgue' is not much fun, but it is one of the best horror films to come our way for a long time. Following Edgar Allen Poe's tale of the same name very closely, it has a polished precision and sufficient understanding of the mechanics behind successful horror to place it far above its many rivals that have appeared here recently. There is real intrigue, real suspense, and real ghoulishness at hand, all of it is photographed very well, and the direction is sustained from the outset by the genuinely frantic pace. With seasoned performers in the starring roles the film has certain winners going for it — Jason Robards, Herbert Lorn and Alfredo Celi swirl their capes and twirl their moustaches with a panache one does not find in the hordes of television has-beens to be found roaming the sets of most horror films. Admittedly, the whole affair is taken a little too seriously, and some of the fantasy sequences are unduly self-conscious, but this does little to impair the total effect which is both bemusing and frequently inspiring. The most edifying aspect of the film, however is its American origin. High camp horror has been a traditionally weak spot in the American movie industry: should this be an indication of a new acquired understanding of the genre, then the thought of the doubtless innumerable successors is not so daunting. This is a splendid little film.
Of particular interest are some of the attractions soon to be seen at the Lido. Over the last six months this quaintly inconsistent theatre has shown some very poor stuff, but it seems that is about to be altered. A re-run of Fred Zimmerman's memorable 'Man for All Seasons' follows a new version of Euripides' 'The Trojan Women', with an extremely good cast headed by Katherine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Genivieve Bujold and Irene Papas. As well as this, 'Battle of Algiers', seen at the film festival a year ago, is scheduled for Sunday 25th March; this brilliant depiction of the Algerian revolt against their colonial masters is required viewing for anyone who doesn't believe that cinema is a political medium. Shot in a quasi documentary style, it is both very spectacular and very violent — don't miss it.
is Downstage's current answer to those critics who complain about its light-weight programming. It is an interesting failure to reconcile 'Punch' type satire (the coauthor, John Arden, has described himself as a 'right-wing anarchist') with a romantic plea for the overthrow of capitalism. Although much of the format, for example the deliberate caricatures, breaks in action with choruses and asides, is a derivation from Brecht, the authors get bogged down in solemn, obvious speeches, and realism. They forget Brecht's dismissal of the 'naturalistic' theatre as 'a branch of the bourgeois drug traffic'. Instead of respecting their audience's imagination and ability to draw conclusions without having them repeated past saturation point, the authors drag the theme out. We are offered characters to get involved with, and to identify with. The hero who is killed under interrogation rises from his grave to warn the capitalists that 'there are many more of us', thus ending the play on a false note of security and confidence. I could not help thinking how frustrated the audience would have gone home, if Brecht had handled the theme, since he offers no such easy solution, indeed, none at all. Nevertheless, the Downstage production was to the point, with a powerful performance from John Banas. Although it is impossible to realise successfully because of the inclusion of so many disparate elements and ideas, these in themselves provide a stimulating evening.
New Theatre — that is — students at the Q.E.II Drama School ventured out into Cuba Mall on Wednesday (also again on the 22nd) at lunchtime to try their hand at street theatre — from the safety of the permanent Mall stage. 'I Once had a Friend a Long Time Ago' begins with theatrical overgesture and pretentious conversations about 'Life' and 'Relationships', very intense and emotional. Luckily the performers gave this up to don effective face masks and concentrate on simple unaffected communication. The result is pleasant, if of no great depth. The value of masks, particularly in inexperienced groups, is that the actor can shed his own personality in his effort to become the mask, and that his usual inadequacies, particularly the unwillingness to loose sight and grip of his own ego, are locked behind the mask. I think this is one of the reasons why the use of masks is increasing, after their introduction and propagation by Theatre Action, who deserve a Q.E.II subsidy for this alone. They popped up in the Beggars Bag fable of rugby, a taut and exciting piece if political theatre, and again in Living Theatre's 'The Cup', although in a less decisive fashion — the masks added to the beauty of the group's movements, which were, unfortunately, without meaning or significance.
There was an appearance even in "Ballygombeen Bequest", when the hero's head during interrogation is covered in a bloody sack, thus successfully divorcing the implications of the act from the fate of a single man. Interestingly enough — that is, it fits in nicely with my thesis, the one local group not to try masks, are Amamus, whose Christmas show was an embarrassing melange of outdated stereotypes, ego-trips, and which gave to its audience a content feeling of superiority, thus the illusion of good theatre! Perhaps Amamus could recover their lively appreciation of Kiwi interpersonal politics by making and wearing some masks too.
Downstage's late-show offering during Festival week is a revue, harsh at times, I'm assured, with a dig not only at Wellington, but also Wellingtonians' apathy towards their environment. It began when those involved sat down to talk about what they liked about the city, only to find that the only definite landmarks were its defects. A little of "Ballygombeen Bequest's" politics may also have slipped in, but not stridently.
If you enjoy "The Archers" then "Straight Up" now playing at Wellington Repertory Theatre will appeal to you.
From the pen of Syd Cheattle comes a so-called spoof based on the trendy topics of sexual sadism and religious fervour. But in writing, Cheattle must have forgotten the mechanisms of the well-made play and thus much was alack in Bryan Aitkcn's production. The actors were especially guilty in not providing the link between the script and production. Some glimpses of hope were seen in the performances of Jim Grant who portrayed the sex-crazed civil servant, and Michael Hooper who performed the best drag I have seen for ages. But the production as a whole was in a quote from the play: "half-way to desparate".
Trudging our way through Wellington's wettest, most miserable day this year, we arrived at the Spectrum Bar of the Lion Tavern for an EMI promotion in aid of Lutha's new album "Earth", and Craig Scott's new single about his wife, "When Jo Jo Runs". The invitations to the party had arrived in little pots containing a packet of seeds, which were supposed to be presented at the door. "No Pot, No Admittance", the invitation stated flatly.
Dripping water, we walked straight in. Nobody questioned us and there was no sign of any pot. The only obstacle to our advance was the carpet in which I nearly wrenched my ankle. Discreet muzak surrounded us : The Hollies with "Magic Woman Touch", Seals and Crofts' "Summer Breeze", and a night-club soil piece which began "People say they want the best things in life ... ." so I switched off. We must be fair, though. Like a diamond in this mire was the National Lampoon's brilliant parody on Les Crane's "Desiderata" — which they transformed into "Deteriorata".
A poster for a Galliano cocktail called a Harvey Wallbanger catches my eye; at $1.10 it's the dearest cocktail in the bar, the rest range upwards from 75 cents. Around the bar is a cluster of young executives — suits, ties, expensive leather gear — whose uniformity is disturbed by a few freaks. Some of New Zealand's musical giants have already arrived : Alan Galbraith, looking pallid after his trip to England; Steve Allen, who is engrossed in conversation with another junior businessman model: "He's so money hungry that guy, it's incredible" ; Mammal's Tony Backhouse, and the grandfather of them all, Craig Scott, nattily attired in a grey suit.
EMI pro, Alan Martinson, has taken control, and is introducing Lutha, who will play four numbers. "The album is really good. We like it and think it's going to go a long way......It's getting a lot of airplay on 2ZM. On 2ZB, too?(snigger). He pauses until he hears a mumbled affirmative from his captive audience, then says "Good". In the middle of the crowd, 2ZM programmer, Midge Marsden, is saying "Right On, Right On. No that's not right. What was it? Yeah, outasight. Outasight".
Lutha takes the stage. They start with "Here and Now", and follow through with the Righteous Brothers' oldie, "My Babe", and "Earth". The flawless execution of the songs was interrupted only by the collapse of organist, Kevin Foster, after the first number. He knocked over a Conga on his way down, but recovered.
The overall impression was of watching a group that had had its fire and creativity sandpapered away in an attempt to produce a marketable commodity. Garry McAlpine certainly, could lay claim to one of the better rock voices in this country, as anyone who saw Pussyfoot in action will tell you. On this night, he appeared alternately bored and pissed off. Understandably, as most of his audience was there to drink and watch each other. What was that? Did I hear someone mention Tom Wolfe's "Radical Chic". No, I must have been mistaken.
One of Louise Warren's flatmates tells us we really shouldn't write anything scathing, after all, the booze is free. On stage, Garry injects enthusiasm into his voice to thank us all for coming along. I drift over and talk to him by the bar. He's friendly and genuine, as he talks of the Mad Dog performance at last year's Auckland Arts Festival.
The album is, like the promotion, perfectly produced, but the overall impression is one of sterility. Lutha write their own material and play it well but they run out of steam in transferring it to disc. The culprits responsible for this are Garth Young, who put together the stereotyped brass and string arrangements, and the producer, Mike Le Petit. They've aimed at perfection, and accepting the limitations of the material, they've succeeded. But at the expense of excitement, unhappily, and isn't that what rock music is supposed to be all about? On the publicity sheet which came with the review copy it said that the album had taken seven months to complete. To maintain any freshness over that period requires genius. Brian Wilson hit the jackpot with "Good Vibrations", whereas Paul Simon's attempt at a studio masterpiece, "The Boxer", failed miserably. I hope that Le Petit is wrong when he says that "Earth" is just a fore-taste of things to come. Lutha are capable of much more than this electric mish-mash.
Finally, the album was for me, succinctly summed up by a conversation between a gay gentleman and Lutha's lead guitarist, Graeme Wardrop, in the toilet:
Gay Gentleman; "But you must admit you've produced a very commercially-orientated album? Wardrop: "Yes, but......"
Following last week 's article regarding the Science of Creative Adolescence movement Mr. P. Ness has been stimulated to come forth with the following reply —
"Although it is true that the practical technique of the Science of Creative Adolescence is primarily a do-it-yourself thing, the programme continues for those who wish to come together occasionally. The whole thrust of the practice is to learn how to handle the slippery affairs of everyday life in the same fashion as one handles oneself during the regular period devoted to the practice. One finds in one's life that things no longer get out of hand but that one simply takes it as it comes. Members of IMS find it much easier to stick up for themselves.
It is true that when we first opened the centre in Wellington there was only a trickle of a response, but once we had pulled things together, people really started coming, so that now things are not as hard as they were.
The oral communication of the technique to another person has been likened to the planting of a seed in him. This grows and grows until he too is able to pass this seed on to others. This technique is not one of withdrawal, that is, we don't believe in pulling out of life but in getting stuck into it. The SCA programme is for those who wish to come up and stay up in the world".
Three letters have now appeared in your paper above my name. None of these letters were written by me. I would not stoop to concretise the perspectives of these letters and I have never projected any perspectives in an infantile paper such as yours. I am distressed to think that great new layers and segments of our society will have read these lies. 1 hasten to reassure them that they are not my work at all, but the vile smears of Stalinist mis-leaders. I hope that this will end the matter.
I have sat and watched with increasing dismay as any left-overs of literary sensitivity and philosophical rationality have oozed out of Salient's pages, leaving behind a super-abundance of polemic. Obviously "Salient" still has its uses in conveying information, e.g. the "Food Co-op" article in this week's effort, and no doubt the advertisements are useful and interesting to someone, but our soap box editors' half-eyedness on any subject they consider political is a tragedy for the University.
Having heard several reports of forged letters being published, and blatant censorship on anything considered by their Omnisciences to be detrimental to the students' interests (e.g. Young Socialists' letters), it was still more rational to refrain from asserting anything until more definite proof was obtained. When, however, the editors admit in their own words that "there is no room for a particular person's views (in this case Rotherham's) in Salient", we see a principle of censorship operating which reminds one of South African repression of all, which is not agreed with.
I appreciate the need to produce a paper in which an informed radical viewpoint can be expressed without fear of censorship, but surely the editors can't be so bigoted as to believe that all the students want to ingest is emotional radical propaganda. As for editors who themselves seem to respond fanatically and irrationally to the external stimulus of a Trot, a Jesus Freak or any other arbitrarily—designated conservative, but will print with the least persuasion any article which reinforces their own views, regardless of its standard of journalism or literary value, there is no question that even those who still read "Salient" arc not in favour of this state of affairs.
Don't you have any ideas of your own? It's depressing to read so much dreary, socialist tub-thumping in the pages of "Salient".
Why this constant talk of "bourgeois ruling class oppressors", "capitalist exploiters" and so on? It has all been said a thousand times before, in a thousand different publications, and it's getting bloody boring.
Readers could be excused for thinking that the entire editorial staff habitually shuffle around in cloth caps and musty blue overalls with photos of Ramsey Macdonald and Micky Savage stuffed in the pockets.
Surely at least one person in the "Salient" office has questioned the teachings of Karl Marx by now. Or do you all still believe that a great, burning, blood-soaked revolution is suddenly going to leap out of Naenae, or Gisborne, or Christchurch, or Eketahuna?
The university would be much better if more people thought for themselves instead of slavishly following Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Hitler, Freud and other venerable dead bodies. "Salient" should encourage people to think as individuals.
There are many ways of interpreting current events, so why not toss Trotsky, Mao, Marx and the rest out the window and do your own thinking? Viewing the world through other men's spectacles distorts the vision.
I have just read my first copy of "Salient" — may I congratulate the Editors on their adherence to the name of this paper; like "Truth" adheres to the Truth.
For example.
Owen Wilkes, in a front page story supporting him, appears one hell of a lot like Castro.
And again? Attacking the merger of Wellington dailies, "Salient" overlooks its own monopoly, and the relationship of its own printers with the group it is attacking.
More? While recognising that government (presumably) breaks up trouble by removing the individual (See, page 2) "Salient's Crime Reporter" (page 5) attacks the group (police) but not the individuals who must have displayed their constable numbers during this reported incident with alleged Mongols.
That's enough.
"Perhaps we need an opposition newspaper" (conscripted subscription also of course), I suggested to a "student face" lunching at my table.
"I wouldn't think so", he suggested "No-one takes this seriously".
If not, Editors, why not?
In the last edition of Salient there was a cartoon of a student, bound and blind-folded, being fed garbage labelled 'capitalist propaganda'. Thi: same Salient makes the worst capitalist propaganda I've ever encountered smell like roses by comparison. Every article contained emotive language, dubious hidden assumption, biassed arguments, and cant phrases like U.S. imperialist aggression'. In fact, Salient is trying to feed us garbage just as rotten as the stuff the 'capitalists' are supposedly ramming down our throats.
I'm not a rightist, a Nixon-lover or a brainwashed bourgeois. I just believe that propaganda proves nothing and convinces nobody. I think that dishonest arguments are bad no matter who uses them — 'capitalists' or 'socialists'. Down with all slogan-chanters and crap-gulpers, even the ones who write Salient!
Your utterly groundless, immature accusations against all Malaysian students at campus, excepting one, surprised me. Particularly insulting and provocative is your sentence: "If you and other Malaysian students had been less gutless and stood alongside Lee ..."
My dear Sirs, there is no magic in that chap Lee; his views do not necessarily reflect that of the Malaysians at Victoria, The exception offered to your hero from the barrage of insults in the "Salient" volume 36, Number 3, is itself evidence that he is the black sheep in a community which probably regards him as a pain in the arse. Would you stand alongside one whose actions you disapprove of ?Won't we be gutless if we were to subject our views to that of one, Lee's?
Human beings arc born with differences; only primitives assault another because different views arc being shed. Assaulting another person "an insignificant incident?" Would you like to be at the receiving end. Sirs?
We have accepted to satisfy the conditions of our student permits. Perhaps it was felt that before Lee achieves world fame, he might (perhaps) set his House in order: charity begins at home.
I would be glad if you retract your allegations.
Your criticism and insult on 'A Malaysian Student' and the rest of the Malaysian students in "Salient", Mar. 14th was very unjust and unnecessary.
I am ashamed of you and your effort. Afterall, why should I and other Malaysian students show our 'guts' by supporting Mr Lee if we do not believe in his cause.
Tell us, what have you and other students with 'tons of guts' done to prevent Mr Lee's deportation.
(There are two points Itere to clear up. Firstly, our reply did not ask Malaysian students to believe in Mr Lee's cause, but to stand alongside him when he was being attached for expressing his views.
Secondly, many students and others did make several attempts to prevent Mr Lee's deportation. These included approaches to the Minister of Immigration (twice), an approach to the Prime Minister and lobbying of other Government MP's. 'These efforts were made over a period of months-after the elections, but two Malaysian students offered to help only a week or two before Mr Lee was deported. That is to their credit, but certainly not to Mr Liew 's or other Malaysian students' at this university. We stand by our original comments. — Eds)
I stand amazed at your magnanimity as editors. Do you not think that printing a letter critical of your comrade and mine. H.T. Lee, is too great a concession to the liberal (a dirty word) principles of free speech? Also, is leaving the signature in its original form not a 'de facto' concession to the forces of reaction, despite it demonstrating your remarkable self-control in resisting temptation.
However it is reassuring to see that in your reply you exercise your critical judgement, governed, of course, by sound revolutionary principles, and refuse to print the 'hypocritical snivelling' of a member of the Socialist Action League. We can't have too much criticism of our colleagues — can we!!
I thought it was very considerate of you to print the reply in heavy type as it is obviously more significant than anything else on the page, in fact a truly creditable summary of the whole situation.
I was wondering however, if you don't find it somewhat incongruous that H.T.Lee's actions towards P. Rotherham are described as 'the courage to state his opinions openly and boldly' whereas similar actions by Colonel Lowe towards Mr Alex Shaw, at last year's P.B.E.C. conference, were not regarded in the same light. Or is this what is called journalistic licence? I'm sure you will come up with some sort of an answer.
It seems a shame to me that Salient has to be spoiled by articles which are obviously written and "researched" by someone with an inherent prejudice against a minority group on this campus. I refer of course to Don Franks' article entitled "The Long Arm of the Church". The fact that he has to live with a pathological aversion to Christianity is obvious but if he wants to put this in print please let him do so in a consistent and articulate form.
Mr Franks is always criticising the Christians on this campus for their lack of practical Christianity yet when he sees some of it he immediately condemns it because it clashes with his political aspirations.
On a more positive note, I think it is commendable that someone of Major Major's stature and ability is able to pull a few strings to ensure deserving cases receive fair treatment. Mr Franks would no doubt be content to sit and watch these cases unfairly dealt with.
I think the real test would be to ask those who have received help through the Major's service as to what they think.
two letters in your last issue move me to comment. Robin Peter's reply to my review of "Sexist Society" contains at least three errors of fact. I did not dismiss the book entirely — I argued that it would be a useful work within its limits. I cannot "afford to wait fairly comfortably for my revolution" — Socialist revolution in New Zealand will not be my own little possession but the work of the masses — "the festival of the oppressed", as Lenin put it. He who waits for such an event — fairly comfortably or otherwise — will find themselves against the wall with Jim Wattie and the Socialist Action League. I am sorry that I am not a woman. However, this handicap has not precluded me from seeing at least something of the suffering in our sexist society. If Robin Peter would like to take me out to dinner or a play and then sweep me off my feet back at her liberated flat we might explore this topic a little further. Shall we say 8.30?
Mr Tripe suggests that all laws and courts be totally abolished and any compromise with this is "Marxist Lenninist piffle". Utopian anarchism is a perepnial pseudo intellectual hobby of bourgeois students. Last year it took the form of messages reading "Anarchy Lives" written in black ink on lavatory walls. This year we may see a "Peking Review" burnt on the front lawn or a date stamp in the library's copy of "Bakunin — the Man". It matters little. The laws, the courts, the monopolys and the whole capitalist state will stand firmly until they confront organized working class revolution. And after that revolution we will need at least one court to try Tripe in, on a charge of aiding and abetting the Ruling Class by default.