A ft a n ; i r i E. 3 J I' 7 c Opinions, of The Daily Tat Heel are expressed on its editorial page. "AH unsigned editorials are the opinions "of the editor and the staff. Utters and columns represent oiry the opinions of the individual contributors. Monday, March 15, 1971 Tom Gooding, hdilor ElecttSoimss. low-lkej but sffll imporftamtt The spring student elections, despite the ridicule presented by a handful of students, are a very important factor in shaping the direction and image of the student body. Some students have charged that the low-keyed nature of this year's campaign shows the irrelevance of Student Government. Most of these students have made their proclamations as if they carried the weight of law and with the pompous nature that they are the first to make the discovery. These students have spoken out pf ignorance of the past. Students spoke of the death of Student Government in the fifties with the same certainty as some of our contemporaries. ; There are numerous faults with Student Government. Many of these faults will not be corrected during the next decade much less by any of the current candidates. However, most of these faults have come about because Student Government has not had enough EdecaMoeal bfiFeired by The New University Conference is offering UNC students a chance to get a different view of socialism this week. The Socialist Liberation Festival which begins on campus Tuesday and runs through Friday won't be the normal leftist festival. The NUC has lined up an impressive list of speakers, 79., Years of Editorial treedoty Torn Gooding, Editor Hod Waldorf Managing Ed. Mike Paraell News Editor Rkfc Gray t, . Associate Ed. Chtfs Cpbfcs : ; 'Sports ECl Frshk Vanish : , . Feature Editor Ken Rley . . . National News Ed. John Gellman ....... Photo Editor Terry Cheek NjJit Editor 4- Robert Wilson v. . Janet Bernstein . . . . Business Mgr. . .Adv. Mgr. Gerry Cohen Campaign GM is a consumer group trying to work changes at General motors. Tliis Tuesday students will vote on whether or not to support Campaign G$I. After precious little soul-searching, the University's Board of Trustees has decided to support General Motors management ngain. Weeks of patient petitioning and meetings with Board members have failed to convince the seven-member Finance Committee to support the proposals of Campaign GM, a Washington group trying to make GM management more responsible to both its stockholders and to society at large. I Among its large corpdrate holdings, the University controls a block of 6,100 shares of GM stock, worth $500,000 at current market prices. This coupled with several millions of dollars of other stocks gives the University a large stake in the corporate system. The proposals of Campaign GM are XL autonomous power in the past. The way to help correct that situation in the future is to elect qualified individuals to the top student government posts and to ths editorship of the DTH. Last year's election campaign was far more hectic than this year's. Of course, this entire year has been low-key compared to last year. There are fewer candidates and issues this year to arouse student interest. There have been many other campaigns in the past that were low-key and this year's campaign fits naturally into the mold. That fact does not in any way decrease the importance of the elections tomorrow. The students elected tomorrow will speak for the entire student body throughout the upcoming year; they will appropriate $250,000 in student fees and they will decide what direction students on this campus will take in solving problems during the upcoming year. chance "f estiva including Dave Maggy esy, the former pro football player who -wrote an expose of college and professional football entitled "Out of Their League"; Charlene Mitchell, the national chairwoman t of the Free Angela Davis Committee; and James Coleman, a member of the Gay Liberation Front. The speakers, who would provide an impressive festival alone, are not the only thing on the NUC schedule, however. ; Also on tap are a long list of films, workshops and discussion groups and a rock concert Tuesday night. The Festival, in the whole, offers UNC students a chance to learn much, and it offers that chance without merely presenting a group of speakers of impressive credentials and letting it go at that. Meggyesy has been making a national tour, and his book has received goo reviews from much of the national press and an outburst of alarm from the sports world. Coleman's speech of the Gay Liberation Movement will be the first open discussion of that movements this campus, and the variety of events offered will let students pick and choose what they want to hear. The NUC has done a good job in planning the four-day event, and the students can do well if they will take advantage of what is being offered. body not revolutionary, they represent a logical extension ot legitimate demands by consumers and shareholders for control over the things they buy. The first Campaign GM proposal would require management to list opposition candidates for the Board of Directors on the management proxy. Since most corporate decisions are made by proxies, and since the management proxy is the real device for control shareholders should have access to the proxy. GM mails the proxy to its 1,350,000 shareholders at a cost of $81,000 in postage alone, at company expense. It is a financial impossibility for any consumer group to make such a distribution on its own, and no challenge to management can be effectively mounted if its candidates are not listed on the management proxy. It will cost management nothing, and it will take the votes of a majority of the 284,000,000 shares of outstanding GM stock to elect a new director. Yet the UNC Board of Trustees has rejected this proposal. by Lana Stones and Dr. Takey Crist (Due to the increased attention drawn to abortion the past few weeks we will once again deviate from our regular format. This week we present information on abortion the figures, the methods and the history of the laws. ) There are one million criminal and 10,000 legal abortions annually in the U.S. Eighty-five per cent of illegal abortions are performed by doctors, but the other 15 per cent may be sexual perverts, alcoholics, drug addicts or bungling amateurs. Performed by a licensed physician in an accredited hospital, an abortion is one of the safest operations. The general abortion procedure is a "D and C" (dilation and curettage) in which the cervix is widened by the insertion of a metal dilator and the lining of the uterus scraped out with a curved blade called a curette. It takes only about 20 minutes and a day's stay in the hospital or clinic. It is a simple, harmless, standard medical procedure which properly performed will not affect health or reproductive fertility. The "D and C" is a safe medical procedure up until the twelfth week of pregnancy. After that week the fetus is too large to be emptied by a simple dilation of the cervix, " but a salt procedure may be used. In the salt procedure, the amniotic fluids are drained and then replaced by a hypertonic salt or sugar solution. The woman, as a result, goes into labor and passes a dead fetus. The hypertonic solution technique was first used in 1934. The exact mechanism by which these solutions induce contraction and cervical dilation remains an enigma. Another method of abortion, a suction curettage, involves the insertion of a tube in the uterus and the fetus and placenta are extracted by means of a vacuum pump. The concept of utilizing suction for abortions did not arise until 1958 when, a group of Chinese physicians showed their method to visiting Russian and Yugoslav gynecologists: The method was quickly adopted and IMB. JBIBo D uniann Just try talking PHI CA5UAtty To A VWMOFm (HEUO,.I Dft.ScHUTZ.NKk DAY Jmdml J i The third proposal (skipping number two because it is more controversial) would require GM, in its annual report to stockholders to give data about its efforts in the anti-pollution and auto-safety fields, and make public the extent of minority group employment. Although GM must make such data available to the government, it has steadfastly refused to let its own shareholders know what the company is doing. GM opposed passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970 (Senator Muskie's bill) and is now trying to sabotage its implantation. The U.S. Department 0f Transportation has said one-fourth of all air-pollution, by tonnage, is caused by General Motors products. Only yesterday, the state of Louisiana (yes, Louisiana) sued GM for "conspiring during the period 1953 to 1969 to make anti-pollution devices unavailable ..." a similar charge has been made by the U.S. Justice Department. On the auto-safety front, GM also mm is widely used in Communist countries. In 1964, Czechoslovakia reported no deaths in 140,000 legal abortions and Hungary only 2 in 35S,000. The operation takes only three minutes and minimizes injury. Anesthesia (local or spinal), asceptic technique, and cervical dilation are required as in curettage. The bluntness of the instruments and mechanics of aspiring uterine contents are extremely safe techniques of uterine evacuation. A new experimental method which would eliminate surgical risks, infection and damage employs prostaglandin F alpha, a hormone-like substance derived from semen to induce labor. Experiments at Kings College Hospital, London, have used protaglandin to abort women 9 to 22 weeks pregnant. An abortion is safe if done by a doctor in a hospital, but in an illegal situation the odds are drastically changed. Tragically, the techniques employed for the vast majority of illegal abortions have no resemblance to the hospital methods. A woman stands only a 40 per cent chance of having a criminal abortion without infection or pelvic damage. A criminal abortionist who knows only the "D and C" method cannot cope with the size of the fetus after 12 weeks. In Joe Hill Treaty The Peoples Peace Treaty is a response to the peace proposal of the Vietnamese people. On September 17, 1970, Madame Nguyen Thi Binh of the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) of South Vietnam put forward in Paris a comprehensive eight point proposal for peace in Vietnam. The PRG proposal stipulated that if the U.S. government set a date for total withdrawal of all its forces, there could be an immediate cease-fire and an immediate exchange of prisoners of war. The PRG would accept a coalition government as long as Thieu, Ky, and Khiem were not part of it. The American negotiator in Paris, David Bruce, joked that this proposal was merely "old wind in a new bottle." However, following Madame Bum's proposal, on September 27, the editor of Saigon's largest daily newspaper and a prominent member of the South MAY IHTO t M VO YOU MAN M fOlBY THAT IT 15 GOOD fOfc yocf I CERTAIMiy YOU pON'T K6AN TO T?TRI0UT &OOPfOS5,r TO tH PAY A5 A PHY5ICAL CfUTfc&lcK), 5UT" 15 uViitxi) d Me wMa Gainnipais:e resists government and consumer pressure to change. Insurance Industry figures show that a collision at 10 miles an hour between two GM cars causes damage of $255.00 to each car. Methods of making bumpers that will withstand collisions of up to 25 miles per hour exist. The only way GM will install these is by either governmental regulation or stockholder action. Our Board of Trustees has rejected proposal number three. The second proposal, is, as I have said, more controversial. It requires a substantial change in most corporate thinking. Yet it is in the direct interests of both stockholders and society to approve it. The proposal calls for one member of the 20 member Board to be reserved for a GM employee, one for General Motors Dealers, and a third for owners of GM automobiles. Constituents of each of these three groups would nominate candidates for the Board, but the regular stockholders would be the only ones addition, his tools may range from coathangers to sticks and his "clinic" from a cheap motel room to a service station. These unsanitary conditions and implements invite infection and perferation of the uterus. Many women try to abort themselves by injecting soapsuds or other chemicals into the uterus, or probing with coat hangers or knitting needles. Criminal abortionists will try to dislodge the fetus with chemicals such as douches, soap, or turpentine, but since there are no blocks in the reproductive tract, these chemicals are often forced through the tubes, ovaries and blood vessels into the peritonurim and cause chemical peutonites. Other drugs used to cause labor in later stages of pregnancy carry the risks of rupturing the uterus with a titanic contraction. Abortionists also try to dislodge the fetus by filling the uterus with air, but like chemicals air can be forced into the bloodstream, carried to the heart and cause fatal air embolism. But why should a safe, hospital abortion be so unattainable? The history of the laws yields some of the answers. Abortion became a statutory crime in England in 1803. The U.S. followed the can end Vietnamese National Assembly, Ngo Cong Due, announced in Paris the demand for total, immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops, an end to U.S. support of the Thieru-Ky-Khiem regime and the creation of a provisional coalition government which could organize free election in South Vietnam. The Due statement was immediately endorsed by many persons and organizations inside South Vietnam's cities. The people have formed the Popular Front for the Defense of Peace, representing over 1000 national and regional organizations not affiliated with the N.L.F. who are now in open political struggle against the Thieu-Ky-Khiem government. This Popular Front includes the Vietnamese Women's Association, the Buddhist Women's Federation, the Committee of Women's Action for the Right to Live, The National Movement . AcAPEMtc ejcpERjEHCE, you 5& TMPTD TO pL-UMGC A F06 OF AefVRTloMSJ THE- DANQErV THAT TH A8fLfTY-.Tl--THASK HAY 0 RBFL-A Cap aY THE- ' INSTINCT TO CONCknuflUit. PHrtx so phV, WHCN TAKtN To TUtt (NTtLLEcTuAL I OP oous THAT THI TWAPDLt CoULi) GO Otf POKEXJBR, BUT SoKMoW IT COMES (hi p5 crext FACKAatS MTA - OP EXACTLY Ort ESTER . 1L voting in the three new elections. Management could still control the three seats, but the way would be open for persons affected by Company policy to have representation on the GM Board. Not un-expectedly, the Finance Committee, composed of Corporation executives, rejected proposal number two. Several weeks ago, an engineering student from State and I were given the opportunity to speak before the Finance Committee. Although several of the members were genuinely interested, the majority seemed unaware of the situation. The three Campaign GM proposals were supported by the Student Legislature, and many other students, and there was not a word of opposition raised to the proposals by other members of the University community. Even ECOS, an environment group, backed the proposals. The Board rejected them. One member told me, "It is nice students are interested in auto-safety devices." Because of the Board's oppositon, the model when IHIsqis made abortion before qukkenir.g Cal in IS 27. The first therapeutic exception was granted in 1829. During the ISCOs harsh laws allowed abortion only to save the life of the mother. The objective of these laws was not to protect the rir-.ts of the fetus and "to prevent the procurrir.g of abortions so much as to guard the health and life of the mother against the consequences of such attempts." The consequences were the high medical risks of surgery. At this time, carrying a pregnancy to terra was safer than an abortion, but today the reTerse is true. In early nineteenth century New York; for example, the mortality from major surgery averaged 3S per cent, but only 2 per cent of women died in childbirth. The situation is different now. There are 20 deaths for every 100,000 live births in U.S., while only three fa every 100,000 in hospital abortions. A pregnancy, in other words, carried to term is seven times as dangerous as a therapeutic abortion. (Letters should be addressed to Lana Starnes and Dr. Takey Crist in care of Hie Daily Tar Heel, Student Union, Oiapel Hill. N.C 27514) the wo. ir for Self-Determination, the High School Teachers' Union, the Student Committee for Human Rights, the Catholic Labor Youth Movement, the Committee for Reform of the Prison System, the National Progressive Force, the Progressive Labor Liaison Committee, various trade unions (including dock-workers, railway workers, civil servants, vendors, petroleum workers, market workers and bank clerks), the Vietnamese Student Association, the Saigon Student Union, the Buddhist Student Union and the 1965 Peace Action Committee. Thus, the Popular Front is a mass-based organization with grass-roots support, as opposed to the isolated, repressive Thieu-Ky-Khiem regime propped up by U.S. troops and money. i; . . A delegation of 16 students prganized the U.S. National Students Association trip to Vietnam in November 197$, to investigate (he feasibility of - framing u a treaty of peace between the American and Vietnamese students. Because of. the Peace initiative of the PRG and the now mass anti-war movement inside "South Vietnamese cities, the Vietnamese said that a separate peace treaty was necessary not only with American students but with all people in this country. , They strongly welcomed this intiative, coming at this dymnamic moment in their own history, when American and Vietnamese co-ordination has the potential of ending the war. Despite efforts by the Thieu-Ky-Khiem government to stop the student delegation's making contacts in South Vietnam, one delegate member was able to slip through Saigon's security net and engage representatives of non-NLF student organizations in the drafting of the treaty. At the same time, student leaders from the DRV (North Vietnam) and the NLF developed a treaty with the U.S. student delegation in Hanoi. The two documents were formally joined into one statement in Paris. The final document represents the hopes and demands of every respected Vietnamese leader in North and South Vietnam. The political struggle in Vietnam is intensifying-and what we do here in America can influence the outcome of , events. Bypassing Nixon and the Paris negotiators, negotiating directly with the Vietnamese people to end the war, will show American support for the Popular Front and the PRG peace proposal, as well as increase pressure on the U.S. government to end the war. For 25 years the Vietnamese have been bearing the weight of war. It is time we shared their burden by actively supporting the student government has shares of GM stock to bought two demonstrate student concern about GM management. This Tuesday, March 1 6, there will be a referendum on the regular student, election ballot, giving support to' Campaign GM. I would hope that students who support Campaign GM, who are in favor of ending pollution as soon as possible, would go to their polling place and vote YES on the question which says: The only course the University should take concerning its holdings of General Motors stock is to support the proposals of Campaign GM." For this IS the only course the University should take. An overshelming vote yes will vote the Student Government symbolic share c GM stock in favor of Campaign GM, a-d will indicate to the Board of Trustees Campaign GM should be supported by 1 the University. Six U.S. Senators, 22 Congressnn and Ralph Nader endorsed Campai GM The student body should join thernT GM

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view