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The Rama rent strike concerns all tenants, not just the families under siege in the Hutt Valley. If Rama wins, property vultures throughout New Zealand will know they can exploit people with absolute impunity.
The problem is not just that Rama is a bad landlord, but that the law allows him and other landlords to exploit people's need for housing. The rent strike has shown just how little redress tenants have under the law. Under the
For all its rhetoric during the election campaign about protecting the "little man" and guaranteeing every one the right to good housing, the Labour Government's only achievement has been to increase the number of Cabinet Ministers responsible for housing.
Mr Kirk and his colleagues talked a lot about gangs and bikies during the campaign. They promised that such trouble makers would be speedily suppressed. But the Labour Party never connected its rhetoric about bikies with its rhetoric about bad housing. For it is the lack of decent housing, and the inadequacy of our middle class education system, which forces people into boring, soul destroying jobs, that produce bikies, gangs and a host of pressing social problems which the Labour Party has been unable to make political capital out of. It is not enough for the Minister of Maori Affairs to hold meetings with Rama's lawyers, and to try to buy tenants off with state houses. What is needed is the repeal of the laws that allow landlords to charge unfair rents and to exploit tenants.
One of the most encouraging features of the strike has been the amount of support the Rama tenants and the TPA have received. Students have helped protect the flats from further invasion by Rama's hired thugs, and have kept the property repossessed on Sunday under guard in the Union Building. The TPAs in Auckland and Christchurch have pledged their support, as have a number of trade unions.
The Rama rent strike has a clear message for the Government and landlords that tenants are not going to be trodden on any more. If the Government fails to take action it can expect rent strikes up and down the country.
If the Labour Party doesn't wake up, stop blathering about law and order and start paying attention to the causes of social problems, the working people of New Zealand will take direct action against the Government, as well as against landlords and the rest of the boss class.
July, 1972: Wellington Tenants Protection Association holds inaugural meeting, with several MPs signing on as members. John Prebble Chairman.
August: Organised squatting starts in Wellington to obtain vacant houses for homeless families. TPA's answering service gathers complaints from tenants, members give legal advice etc. Frequent complaints about a landlord called Rama.
September: TPA members visit all known Rama flats i.e. about 75 to collate information and complaints. George Rosenberg becomes Chairman of TPA. Picket of Rama's house at 56 Coromandel Street, Newtown.
October 8th: Meeting of Rama's tenants and TPA. Tenants decide to withhold half their rent to persuade Rama to negotiate. They want fair rents; tenancy agreements fair to tenant; receipts for bonds and guarantee of their return, and an end to "administration fees".
October 12th: Rent Day — the strike begins.
October: Rama hires lawyers and gets them to send long threatening letters to tenants warning them of the consequences of their action. Chairman appointed in each block of flats to collect and hold rents.
November 5th: Demonstration at Rama's house in Newtown. Tenants hire bus to bring in large contingent from the Hutt Valley. Window smashed. Demonstrators visit Rama's lawyer, Stacey.
November 25th: Labour elected with promises to 'protect the little man' and 'bring the people out of the slums'.
December: The squeeze begins to tell on Rama: the mortgage about to be foreclosed on one of his houses. At the last minute he races in with a fistful of money to avert this.
February 1973: A girl rang up about an advertised flat in the Springfield block (relatively attractive). Rama took $30 deposit from her then drove her to Lerwick Flats (slum) and left her there, saying that was all she could have. She didn't want the flat and asked for her money back. "No. You pay me money and I keep it". Police no help.
March: Another tenant left flat, couldn't take all furniture at once. When she went back to get it, it had gone. Summonses sent to striking tenants.
April: Rama wins a few cases against tenants.
April 10th Tuesday: Unable to wait for further court action, Rama hires bailiffs, and sends them to seize tenants' possessions, while men and most women away at work.
Bailiffs force or trick their way into flats. Take furniture and equipment whether it belongs to tenants or friends. Amanda Russell, TPA, arrested for slapping face of Rama's son, a lawyer. Chattels removed into Rama's storage.
That night, TPA members, students and others visited all raided flats to get inventories of what was taken and what was left. Tenants' houses stripped of all but beds and eating utensils. No heaters, no music. Tenants bewildered. Rama has never negotiated. Tenants angry.
April 11th Wednesday: TPA lawyers proceed with writs to sue Rama for exceeding the powers of the 'Distress and Replevin
April 12th Thursday: Special TPA meeting to plan tactics for direct action and demands for delegation to cabinet ministers.
April 13th Friday: Delegation of tenants and TPA members see Matiu Rata, Minister of Maori Affairs (either because most tenants are Maori or because Kirk picks Rata to buy off radicals). Rata says he will look into the matter and declare a 'freeze' over the weekend on further action by Rama or the tenants. But Rata promised nothing.
Meeting held in Student Union Building to consolidate student support. Large numbers turn up. Leaflet 'Tenants in Distress' handed out at railway station — good public response. Telegram campaign to Kirk and Finlay (Justice) started.
Saturday 14th: More information gathering in the Hutt. Halloran, founder of Auckland TPA, arrives in Wellington. Support coming in all the time, from the public and from various unions.
Sunday 15th, 2pm: Meeting at Waterloo Plunket rooms, of tenants, students, other interested people. Whetu Tirakatene-Sullivan's Secretary and Trevor Young, MP for Hutt, present. Rama has broken freeze — he seized a push-chair from one flat. Fearing that Rama will sell seized goods, tenants agree in principle that they should be reclaimed.
Paul Halloran sets the tone of the meeting: "What happens here will determine what will happen to tenants all over the country . . . . The Government has fallen back on its statements issued before the election and has done nothing for tenants in their fight for reasonable conditions. It has come to the time when more direct action be taken and increased pressure be placed on the Government". Halloran said that support for the Rent Strike was coming from all directions and that if the Government made no stand over landlords like Rama then Rent Strikes and other actions would be taken on a nation wide basis. According to Halloran, Rata had said when the Auckland TPA was formed, that he would be prepared to squat and support the withholding of rent. "None of you are doing anything the Minister of Maori and Island Affairs said he wouldn't do, and if he goes back on that there's a word for him, and as an ex-seaman he'd know what it is". Trevor Young gave support to the tactics and objectives of the meeting and in fact encouraged pressure on the Government in the form of direct action. He said he did not think that this would not prejudice the Government's inquiry into the strike.
The meeting reiterated the tenants' demands for independent arbitration of the dispute and for negotiation of fair rents. Rama has at all times refused to negotiate with tenants. They also want receipts for key money, bonds, etc., and a guarantee that they will be paid back at the end of tenancy. They want freedom from harassment by their landlord.
Sunday 5.30pm: A group of about thirty friends of the Rama Tenants organised a fleet of trucks, vans, and cars, and headed for Fergusson Drive, Upper Hutt. They gained entry to a house where some of the tenants' gear was stored, and liberated it. They headed for High Street, Lower Hutt, where more gear was stored, and carted it all away to the Student Union Building, Wellington.
Students locked up goods and kept all night guard.
Monday 16th: Lower Hutt CIB investigates "burglary" of seized goods. They find out the location of the goods when it is broadcast on the radio. Fearing confrontation they do not come onto campus. It is as well — students are armed to protect the goods.
Rama's son visits flat in Upper Hutt. He seizes a guitar, claiming that it had been repossessed from Rama's storage when other goods liberated. Refused to accept woman's explanation that she had found guitar lying outside the deserted house and threatened she would be charged with receiving.
Monday afternoon: Three Salient staff members photographing Rama's ex-storage in High Street ran into Rama. Surrounded by 5 police cars and questioned by police. Kimber, head of Lower Hutt C.I.B. told them they'd be charged with wilful trespass if they entered the property again. "You see", he said, "we have this problem. There's Rama on the one hand and you on the other, and we have to decide who is right".
Monday evening: 50 students form branch of TPA at University. Graham Soughtton elected interim Chairman, Maureen Werd interim Secretary. AGM to be held next week. Main aim of branch to provide manpower for TPA and use university facilities to help organise TPA activities.
Tuesday 17th: Rata has meeting with Rama's lawyer Buddle and others (Rama lost the services of Stacey in December last year).
Thorndon Branch of the Labour Party calls on the Government to force Rama and all similar landlords to sell all their flats to the government under the Public Works Act. The flats would then be converted into state houses in line with government policy of buying houses on the private market for state rental accommodation.
What woman would not welcome a five minute menstruation period! For many feminists in the United States this is a reality. With a blood sucking gadget the fluid can be removed in a few minutes. A secondary characteristic is that the device can bring on a miscarriage. Some of the American National Organisation for Women ( Now) groups have their own clinics where women can test themselves for pregnancy and where this device is available for abortion.
Wellington feminist, Alison Laurie, who has recently returned from overseas, revealed this and other fresh information to the Victoria University Feminist Organisation when she was guest speaker at its AGM last week Alison has spent the last nine years studying feminist and gay liberation groups in Scandanavia and the United States.
Gay and feminist legislation in these countries's not always as liberal as it might seem, but it at least is far in advance of New Zealand and the groups have made some important innovations.
A woman applying for abortion in Denmark will be housed in a mother care centre in the country and her case summed up. Unless it is proved the pregnancy will he psychologically or physically harmful to the mother to be, an abortion is not granted. But at least the stale covers the Cost of housing and providing for the woman throughout her term.
Marriage laws in Denmark are being reviewed with the possibility of including a marriage contract between members of the same sex and between groups of people. In both Denmark and Germany a couple may choose whether it wants to take the man's or the woman's surname or invent a new one.
Alimony in Denmark is rare and the support of children in a divorce is shared equally where economically possible. The notion of calling a child illegitimate just because the child's father could not be identified is ridiculous. A child is legitimate as long as it knows its mother, Alison Laurie argued, "The question of illegitimacy could only arise in a patriarchal society". In this respect Denmark is similar to New Zealand, where attitudes have been influenced by the initial setting of middle class English immigrants, with their fixed roles.
Methods being used in the Stales to squash this role thing include private radio stations running both feminist and gay programmes. If includes universities running women's studies and gay liberation courses which count as full majors. There is a stress on the sharing of the bread winning/household duties. Five couples, that is, ten people might share five jobs between them so that activities and responsibilities could be rotated. It is also interesting to note that in the husband and wife relationship, the wife works for two weeks then the husband works for two weeks so that caring for the house and working are shared.
Feminist bookshops and centres are a feature of many cities in the States and in Denmark. These places provide room for meetings, workshops, creches, bars, cafeterias and a crashpad for women with nowhere to stay. An interesting feature of overseas feminists is the YWCA. It is fully involved in the Women's Liberation Movement and has the amenities to provide a wide range of services for women.
Speaking about university women's liberation groups Alison Laurie said that as long as they continued to hold their meetings in the university buildings, they would be handicapped. At present, for example, there is one factory worker and no Maoris, Polynesians or Asians belonging to the VUW group. This is a problem common to most women's liberation groups. The solution to this problem of course is to have a Women's Liberation House where women from all walks of life can meet.
Another common problem is the decision to include or exclude men at meetings. Alison is definitely against including men because she thinks many women become reticent in front of men and address their comments to the men in the room as if asking for approval. Besides, men often become committee members and it is not desirable to have men liberating women. In Denmark there is a men's liberation group working separately.
Alison placed emphasis on the relationship between the gay liberation movement and women's liberation. She contended that both these groups often fail when they become concerned with side issues only. For instance when the suffragettes achieved the vote their movement folded, yet it was only one facet of the whole.
Friction often arises in the gay groups between the men and the women because the lesbians found themselves helping the men push for acceptance in the society where women still had additional problems. Because of this many lesbians have found they are more closely allied with women's lib. than gay lib. However, even these two groups, women's lib and lesbians lack awareness of the opposite movements. So called "straight" women are either afraid that lesbians will make a pass at them, or if the lesbians do not, then the women feel unattractive. Either way the lesbians are turned into sex objects.
The first thing in women's liberation is a revolution in one's head, not in the street. Secondly, the movement needs to relate to gay lib, to other racial groups and to the working class woman and housewife. The important thing Alison stressed is that a woman should relate first to herself and then to her sisters. A meeting of women discussing dishwashing was more important than marching for a big political label which promised things. Before joining any movement which professed feminist sympathies, Alison said she would check to see the group acted out what it professed. So often they consist of men in the lead positions with women supporting the men, doing things that they think are important.
An ideal society, according to Alison Laurie, is one which does not define people because of their genital organs, into roles or labels of any kind. In her ideal society, people would love one another as people, regardless of sex, colour or religion. Alison sees people living together in any number and any mixture or concentration of sexes. Society should allow a person to act as a human without being labelled. There should be no status derived from what a person is: "People would not force their own trip onto others".
Kirk's postponment of the tour does not mean that H.A.R.T. and the Anti-Apartheid movement have had a victory. Far from it. In fact if we do not study the situation objectively we will have sustained a loss. I can see two obvious reasons why we must work harder than before.
Firstly, the Tour has only been postponed, not cancelled. This has only been done to give the white South Africans a chance to arrange sham trials to pick a 'multi-racial' team. Judging by past experience in other sports the white South African Rugby Board will buy off the stooge Coloured and African unions and isolate the genuinely multi-racial' South African Rugby Union. The aim of this exercise would simply be to put a more acceptable face on apartheid sport. Kirk is doing no more than offer Danie Craven a pot of whitewash.
Secondly, New Zealand has not broken all sporting contacts bowls, surfing, softball etc. All these sports are just as important to apartheid as rugby. Remember our name. Halt AM Racist Tours.
Further more the Government has shown strong signs of intending to crack down on people who use direct action. During the election campaign Kirk and other Labour candidates raved about the bikies and how they were a terrible threat to the community. Now they have turned to political protestors. At the moment the police are making every effort to pin the blame for the Papakura fire bombing on the anti-apartheid movement, and Kirk has given them a free hand to find a scapegoat.
Some newspapers are trying to stir up hostile public opinion against 'disruptors'. Take, for example, the editorial in the "Evening Post" last Thursday. This warped piece of writing began by distorting H.A.R.T.'s policy to "threats of violent action", and presented the movement as a bunch of extremists who "will be casting around for a fresh peg on which to hang a fresh campaign - any peg will do so long as an emotive catch-cry can be associated with it".
"Peaceful protestors" were all right because they were considered ineffectual and therefore harmless. "However when it comes to calculated disorder, damage and disruption......a very different attitude must be adopted".
The editorial concluded: "Tolerance and leniency have been interpreted as weakness. A harder attitude must be adopted. There is no alternative whatever. If those who are at present brandishing a jagged bottle in the face of society start whimpering when the community strikes back in appropriate fashion, let them how. They've asked for it. And it's been a long time coming".
The editorial began by talking about protestors and ended up talking about people "brandishing a jagged bottle in the the face of society". Such an attempt to prove guilt by association is typical fascist reasoning: everyone who disturbs the suburban middle class, from the bikies to the radicals, is a cancer that has to be "rooted out - painful though the operation might be".
The "Evening Post" was not expressing a minority right-wing point of view. Many members of the Government probably think along the same lines and groups like H.A.R.T. will find it a lot harder in future to operate without police harrassment.
It is too easy for people to see a victory in the present circumstances. We will not have even a partial victory until we have caused the New Zealand Government to break all sporting contacts with South Africa.
Our most important task is to work to help the African and Asian working class of South Africa obtain a form of slavery nearer that of the white minority working class in that country, and workers in New Zealand. Then we can go on together to smash the source of racism everywhere international monopoly capitalism.
"No doubt the workers' fight will go on regardless, but they will find it somewhat easier with only one hand tied behind the back instead of both arms fettered", writes Bert Roth in reply to Mike Law's analysis of the Industrial Relations Bill in Salient, March 21st.
Law argued that if the Bill was enacted with all its penal clauses against strikes intact it would inevitably produce bitter conflict, especially in the transport and freezing industries. Roth however believes that the discussion an the Industrial Relations Bill should not be entirely negative. "While hoping and working for the millenium, when all our problems will find their ideal solution, we still have to make the most of the present Bill here and now".
In the article below Roth focuses attention on the demand of many trade unions that the right to bargain directly with employers, as opposed to a system of compulsory arbitration, should be included in the Bill.
The Industrial Relations Bill constitutes the first thorough revision of our industrial labour law since the Arbitration Act was passed in
It was to counter radical-sounding but essentially defeatist arguments of this nature that Georgi Dimitrov, in his speech to the seventh world congress of the Communist International in
Dimitrov referred to the great sacrifices made by the British working class before it secured the right to strike, a legal status for its trade unions, the right of assembly and freedom of the press, extension of the franchise, and other rights, and he quoted Lenin to the effect that "the proletariat will be unable to prepare for victory over the bourgeoisie unless it wages a many-sided consistent and revolutionary struggle for democracy".
What does "struggle for democracy" mean in the context of the Industrial Relations Bill? I see the key issue in the provisions relating to direct, collective bargaining or, more correctly, in the provisions which seek to restrict such bargaining and replace it once again with compulsory conciliation and arbitration.
Throughout the present century at least, the Arbitration Act has acted as a bridle (as "Labour's leg-iron", in the words of Harry Holland) on active, militant unions, which could have gained better wages and conditions in direct confrontation with the employers. Whenever these unions tried to get out from under, as they did during the "Red Fed" offensive of
It is one of the myths of New Zealand labour history that the unions clamoured for the return of the compulsory powers of the Arbitration Court, and that the new Labour Government, in
The Labour Government ignored this view and reimposed compulsory arbitration on all registered industrial unions. The Federation of Labour, which came into being in
The turning point came in It must unfortunately be acknowledged", the N.Z. Employers' Federation told the Minister of Labour, "that militant unions have achieved greater results than have the unions which take a more moderate line". That was in
In a desperate attempt to halt the spread of direct bargaining, the National Government introduced the Stabilisation of Remuneration Act and set up a new Remuneration Authority over and above the discredited Arbitration Cout. This was a holding operation pending the introduction of a new Industrial Relations Bill which was to restore the old compulsory arbitration set-up in a refurbished form and under a different name.
Speaking to a seminar in Dunedin in March of last year, Mr G.H. Andersen, the Secretary of the Northern Drivers Union, stressed that "direct bargaining had provided the basis for improved conditions and had strengthened the unions". Once the new Bill was introduced, with its vicious penalties for political strikes this point was lost sight of. Unions concentrated their attack on the penalty provisions, but while it is almost certain that these clauses will be dropped from the Labour Government's new draft, it is equally clear that the new draft will restore the powers of compulsory arbitration and will seriously curtail the opportunities for direct bargaining. The new Minister of Labour spelled this out when he told the Accountants' Society early last month that "direct bargaining between employers and unions would almost certainly be discouraged in the new Industrial Relations Bill" because "we have got to get back to a system of conciliation first and arbitration later".
When presenting evidence to the Parliamentary Labour Bills Committee, Mr W.J. Anton, of the Federated Labourers' Association, demanded that the Bill be redrafted to allow free collective bargaining with a minimum of restriction, but with a right of the parties to agree to arbitration. Mr Skinner, who gave evidence on behalf of the Federation of Labour, was more cautious, but he too stressed that "workers are entitled to bargain and use all the strength at their command in the making of agreements with employers concerning wages and conditions". More recently still, in their wage dispute the freezing workers successfully resisted all attempts by the employers to force them into arbitration.
There are of course some weak and small unions, with little economic punch, which will wish to rely on the proposed new Industrial Commission for their wages and conditions, but the policy of the Alliance of Labour in If the Government succeeds in imposing compulsory arbitration on everybody, this can only work to the detriment of wage and salary earners, for it will force the sellers of labour power to accept a poorer price for it than they could obtain on an open market.
The war in Indochina will be best remembered for the failure of the world's greatest military power to defeat the people of a poor peasant country.
In their attempt to subdue the Vietnamese, the Americans launched an all out war against the environment. Technology was misused as in no previous conflict, upsetting man's traditional harmony with nature.
In this article, which is abridged from a feature in the Far Eastern Economic Review of March 5th, Thomas Brindley describes the ecological effects of the Indochina war.
The American bombing has left countless craters in the rice paddies and along canals, often rendering the land unfit for farming. Large areas such as Northern Quang Tri Province have been devastated. Farmers, once secure, have moved to cities, towns and refugee camps.
Nearly all the villages in Eastern Cambodia, eastern Laos and many parts of both North and South Vietnam have been destroyed. Large areas have been de-populated and, in many sections, "free-fire zones" where anybody can be shot on sight have precluded any normal activity by civilians.
While estimates of deaths run into millions, the corresponding environmental impact is a hastened process of urbanisation and the depletion of jungle and rural tracts. Saigon, for example exploded within ten years from a peaceful peasant city of 350,000 to a modern urban area (largely slums) of 3.5 million.
Indiscriminate bombings over large areas of forests, especially by B-52's were excused by the US military and the State Department as the land was considered uninhabited and therefore "expendable". But it had been considered a homeland by many.
The major forms of devastation caused by military action, especially American airpower, are: the removal of the vegetation cover and the actual physical displacement and alteration of the land itself; pollution and poisoning; and the destruction of habitat and living communities. The combined effect has been to destroy the existing eco-systems in widespread and extensive areas of South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Even regions that may not have been touched directly— and there are relatively few since Cambodia was included as a target — will undoubtedly show effects.
For instance, the extensive erosion of watersheds combined with the pollution, mining and poisoning of rivers may lead to serious inter-related consequences in future water use or in the very stability of the watersheds themselves.
The most war devastation in Indochina has been caused by the Americans. While the N.F.L. and the North Vietnamese have progressively been fighting with more sophisticated weapons, such as tanks and artillery, the general scope and level of their fighting has been "close to the ground". The liberation forces have not used herbicides, nor have they engaged in carpet bombing. The Americans have not only used airpower to the fullest extent in heavy bombing; they have even dropped enormous 15,000lb bombs, euphemistically called the "Daisy Cutters", which obliterate everything within an area the size of a football field and kill most animal forms within a radius of three-fifths of a mile by the concussive shock wave.
It has been estimated that by last year the number of bomb craters in Indochina exceeded 26 million. In one relatively small area alone — south eastern Laos along the Ho Chi Minh Trail — from 1968-71, 973,000 tons of bombs were dropped, a large number of them 500 or 750 pounders released from B-52's or F-4's. A 500 pound bomb will make a crater 30ft long, 6ft deep and will impact the soil as hard as concrete. Thus within an area about the size of the state of Maryland, American bombs have blasted nearly 4 million craters, turning the area into a moonscape.
Furthermore, the land in
One of the most insidious and pernicious weapons, the defoliant, has been used extensively. The effect of these herbicides has been to kill the tropical vegetation. The larger trees of both the upper and secondary layers of the jungle are often poisoned with one spraying. Even the third canopy and the topsoil have been affected in areas of heavy spraying.
From late
The total effect of military action on the soils will not be determined for many years. But, judging by what is known about the kinds of soils and vegetation structure involved and discerning the extent of their destruction, soil geologists such as Dr Clyde Wahrhaftig of the University of California at Berkeley expect to see serious long term consequences that may be irreversible
The gross amounts of toxic pesticides and herbicides that have been released in Vietnam will eventually find their way as unbroken compounds into the water: Poisons — picloram, cacodylic acid, CS and 2:4:5T — may have raised the toxicity levels in streams and soils to the extent of setting the stage for the population's future sickness and ill health wherever people live. The poisonous substances will tend to accelerate the growth of algae and bacteria, depleting the oxygen.
The overriding effect of the war damage has been the destruction of mature, rich and highly diverse biological formations. These climax ecosystems, as they are called, have existed for many years in a state of balance. The bomb craters, the clearings, ploughing and hillside erosion have so significantly altered the land forms in many areas that quite different species of plants and animals will be permitted to grow.
Thus, nature must begin all over again and the early stages of regrowth will feature a very simple environment which will have animal and plant species that are reduced in variety, quality — and often — in number. As biologists have shown, the simpler an environment the more dangerous becomes the maintenance of such a fragile community
The extensive destruction caused by defoliation, bulldozing, and bombing will certainly leave far greater and longer lasting effects on the land than earlier primitive forms of clearing the jungles.
The evidence that has already come to light, despite many classified military documents that have been withheld from the scientific community, is unmistakable; the US, wittingly or errantly engaged in a policy to destroy the lands and waters of Indochina.
A delegation from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam wilt visit New Zealand at the end of May at the invitation of the Wellington Committee on Vietnam.
The Committee decided at its Annual General Meeting last week to bring the six man delegation here after its visit to Australia at a cost of about $3000. The trip will be part of a campaign to press the Labour Government to recognise both the D.R.V. and the P.R.G.
At present New Zealand has adopted a very partisan stand towards Vietnam by recognising only the Thieu regime in Saigon, the Government of the Republic of Vietnam. The C.O.V. decided that the best way to end this position was to press for the recognition of the P.R.G. and the D.R.V. The meeting rejected a proposal by the local branch of the Communist Party to also call for the Government to break relations with Thieu. The majority of people felt that New Zealand should respect the Paris Peace Agreement which recognises two governments in South Vietnam, the P.R.G. and Thieu's Regime.
The meeting received a report from the Vietnam Aid Appeal, a subcommittee of the C.O.V. Last year the appeal raised $10,500 which was sent to the British Medical Aid Committee in London. Medical supplies were purchased with the money and sent through Eastern Europe to the D.R.V., the P.R.G. areas of South Vietnam, and the areas controlled by the liberation forces in Laos and Combodia.
This year the Aid Appeal will join with the long-established New Zealand Medical Aid Committee in Auckland to launch a nationwide campaign for medical and reconstruction aid to Vietnam. This aid will go to the same areas as last year.
The meeting decided to support this campaign and to expose the World Vision appeal for aid to Cambodia and Vietnam. World Vision is a pseudo christian 'aid' organisation which was set up in Korea in
World Vision has boasted in a leaflet distributed throughout the country that it was the first private agency to aid refugees in Cambodia after the Lon Nol regime seized power. Lon Nol has asked World Vision to build a "Christian hospital" in Phnom Penh, which will be financed by its latest appeal. Mr John Calder, the Managing Director of South Pacific Construction Ltd., is to give his time voluntarily to help finalise planning of the hospital and to supervise construction. One wonders whose company will get the contract for the building?
A major resettlement programme in South Vietnam is the other major part of World Vision's plans. The aim of this programme is to place refugees who were bombed out of the countryside in model housing projects around Saigon. The refugees will be kept in areas under Thieu's control and prevented from returning to their homes in rural areas controlled by the P.R.G.
These proposals, which are supported by the Prime Minister and a number of church leaders, are cases of politically motivated aid at its worst. The aid that has been given by the C.O.V. and the N.Z. Medical Aid Committee to areas controlled by the liberation forces in Indochina is also politically motivated. But unlike World Vision the Vietnamese have been given medical supplies that they requested. In future the D.R.V. and the governments in the Iiberated areas of South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos will be given cash so they can spend it as they wish.
While World Vision is planning to "do something beautiful" for the local fascists in Indochina, the Thieu regime is still holding about 300,000 political prisoners in its jails. The C.O.V. participated in a recent delegation to the Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joe Walding, about 5 leaders of the Young Christian Workers Movement who have been kept in prison after being found not guilty by a Military Court.
Although Walding agreed to take up the case of the Y.C.W. leaders with the New Zealand Embassy in Saigon and the Thieu Embassy in Wellington, the Government has shown little concern about all the other prisoners. It still insists that the Saigon regime is holding only 21,000 prisoners, even though respectable organisations like Amnesty International and the International Committee of Conscience have estimated the number of prisoners at 15 times this figure.
When he was in New Zealand Wilfred Burchett reported that Vietnamese exiles in Paris have documented evidence of Black Lists of political prisoners marked down for execution by the Thieu regime. According to the Peace Agreement political prisoners have to be released by the end of April but so far practically none have been released by Thieu.
Although the C.O.V. recognised that the Ceasefire and Peace Agreement was a victory for the international anti-war movement, as well as the Vietnamese people, the feeling at the A.G.M. was that the Committee's work was far from ended. In Cambodia the U.S. Airforce continues to bomb the countryside and the people in a desperate effort to save the Lon Nol regime in Phnom Penh. In Vietnam Thieu continues to violate the ceasefire by attacking P.R.G. positions and more recently invading Cambodia. In New Zealand the Labour Government has shown that it supports the Thieu and Lon Nol regimes just as much as its Tory predecessor.
NZUSA needs billets for us May Council delegates. Sleeping only accommodatioion is required from the 10th of May until the 14th If you can help, please ring Dave Cunningham, phone 883-100 or 70-319 (ext. 73).
Anzac Day - A Memorial to the Living
The Peace Council will hold a service and wreath laying at the Cenotaph on Anzac Day, April 25 at 1.30 p.m. The service will concentrate on the 300,000 prisoners held by Thieu in South Vietnam and the need for medical & reconstruction aid throughout Indochina. Make the Cenotaph our place end Anzac Day our day.
The Americans are going ahead with their plans to knock clown Thorndon houses to build a new embassy. Despite protests from the Tenants Protection Association and other bodies the Yanks will make no concession to the housing shortage and only a kitsch concession to the history of the area. They intend to set aside a room in the new embassy as a memorial to Katherine Mansfield, who used to live in one of the houses they are knocking down.
Last week Hilary Watson and I went to the present U.S. Embassy in the IBM Building as a delegation from the Tenants Protection Association.
At the Embassy, we saw Mr Romano who is the Administrative officer. The Embassy has been lacking an Ambassador for some months and there is no sign that one is on the way from Washington in the near future. Mr Romano is very embarrassed by this situation. It means that there is no one in New Zealand able to make a decision on things like the simplest TPA demand: that the house be used to house people until it is actually pulled down. The house, which is actually a sprawling mansion with an uncountably large number of rooms, is currently lying idle with only a couple of rooms used for storage. As well as there being no one in New Zealand capable of deciding to open the door and let the homeless people in, Mr Romano didn't know if anyone in the Stale Department in Washington would be able to make such a decision.
It may be comforting to learn that the greatest military/capitalist machine in the world is but a faceless, incompetent, bureaucracy but it would be premature to conclude that the State Department in Washington has forgotten that New Zealand exists. They are keen, or at least the Embassy staff hopes so, to build a new Embassy here. In Mr Romano's account they are keen to show their goodwill and businesslike intentions towards New Zealand. The way they do this is to knock down houses and erect a monument to imperialism like a gravestone.
Actually, it's more in the shape of a fortress. We were graciously allowed to look over the plans. I could not help feeling that I had seen pictures of a similar building — could it have been Fort Knox? The plans show an awesome combination of acres of slab concrete, barely relieved by tiny windows. Mr Romano told me he was unhappy that the Embassy had to be built in such a rundown area as Thorndon. He was disconcerted when I said that I thought Thorndon to be quite an attractive area, with its quaint old houses, and the lovely Katherine Mansfield Park opposite to which the Yanks plan to build their embassy. This discussion was getting a bit aesthetic, but the planned concrete monstrosity is undoubtedly going to be an eyesore and the rest of Thorndon a picture in comparison.
It was at that point that the political realities of the Embassy's plans began to unfold. The idea of small windows is, and I kid you not, to present as small a target as possible to throwers of rocks and explosives. "The planned Embassy is less than a stone's throw from a number of points including an obvious getaway trail, Murphy St. Mr Romano candidly admitted that the architecture of the Embassy had been influenced by the possibilities of missiles. Hinting at the plans in the minds and armouries of the new-look demonstrator, I suggested that according to his logic he might as well go all the way and build a fortress in the Rimutaka hills. He didn't seem keen to go along with this. The reasons for the Embassy's shift from the IBM building also emerged: IBM are kicking the Embassy out. They say it's because they need the space and after all it's their building. But when we asked why the Embassy insists on having its own 2 storey building and not sharing in a multistorey building which would be far more efficient usage of land, the real reason came to light. The yanks, can't share with anyone else because they're so embarrassed when they have to ask everybody in the building to whenever there's a bomb Scare. "Whenever anybody happens to disagree with one of our policies", the Ambassador disarmingly explained.
The situation was getting so candid, I was moved to ask the man whether he would mind being quoted, "Well", he simpered, "if you want to make us Americans look like foots, I guess it isn't too difficult. It's been done before. I suppose I can't stop you doing it again".
The Administrative Officer's general line about the house was very diplomatic. "I sympathise with your position, I really do, I just wish I could help". But he couldn't. Only that morning he had been ringing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which administrates embassies), complaining that his embassy was embarrassed to be put in a position between the TPA and the government. But just as he wasn't able to help us, they hadn't been able to help him. Only the day before Norm Kirk had replied, to a TPA telegram requesting a government enquiry into the situation, that TPA direct its demands to the embassy.
Mr Romano spent most of the sessions with his brow knit, bemoaning the Americans unpopularity, but he only succeeded in making it all too easy to despise them more. He couldn't even consider our other requests. No. the location for the new embassy couldn't be changed — after all, the plans had been drawn for the Thorndon site, and soil sample had been taken! And while a was true that the new embassy was displacing not only vacant houses but also a block of flats currently housing embassy guards they would just rent other houses for their sprawling staff of sixty or seventy. Build stall quarters rather than compete with kiwis for their flats? No, they didn't want to do anything as constructive as that. The embassy building came first, the kiwis could always go and live in Featherston.
When he wasn't revealing his discomfort, the administrative officer seemed to regard us as the ultimate test of his diplomatic skills. After a few minutes of our talk, patently prearranged telephone call came through — "No", said Romano, muffling his voice, "everything okay in here, no trouble at all".
Actually it was nice to have him to usher us in and out — otherwise we could well have tripped on the plaster eagles and star spangled banners that perched on the walls and drooped in every corner of the embassy. At the end of the interview, Mr Romano offered to conduct us around the building, to show us the sue of his operation. On the eleventh floor, he glided us through the combination locks on passage doors and into the sanctuary where the Ambassador hangs out, when they've got one. The room was empty but for one gigantic desk, the luxurious carpet, and the "breath-taking" views over the city. We were being told of the embassy's size and why they would need more space but it was hard not to think of how many people could make their home on the thick white pile of the Ambassador's carpet. Then we were being ushered out, past the faithful Andrew Wyeth (Nixon's favourite painter) reproductions, past more flags and eagle crests, and past the coded door locks. Whisking down the lifts and onto the street, and still suavely by our side the glib Romano, by now no more than a refrain, "I'm sorry, we'd like to help, but . . ."
We are indebted to General Westmoreland. General Abrams and many other distinguished and extinguished personnel of the United States Armed Forces and the New Zealand Armed Forces for the information contained in this feature. Understanding, as we do, that many useful and peaceful applications of technology have been developed, and sometimes originated by the armed forces, we present this information to students as part of their general educational experience. It is, of course, neither practicable nor sensible that one should have any more than an esoteric and purely theoretical understanding of these aspects of military science. It is supposed that some reading in the martial arts will broaden the students' understanding of the duties, responsibilities and difficulties that the military experience as almost uniquely their own problem. Hopefully students may perhaps then become a little more tolerant of the armed forces and understand the reasons for their existance, even if remaining reluctant to concede them a status better than a "necessary evil".
When planning and preparing for commitment into operational areas to support an Indigenous force in unconventional warfare, the Special Forces combat engineer specialist will conduct extensive training in the use of conventional and expedient demolitions. The primary consideration here is in the preparation and combat employment of a trained guerrilla force against an enemy. The engineer specialist will develop tactics in the use of destructive techniques in the interdiction of highways, railroads, bridges and other lines of communications. He will be prepared to train and assist selected auxiliary and underground elements in the construction and use of sabotage devices and other techniques designed to harass the enemy and cause him to divert his fighting force, as well as destroy his will to fight. In planning unconventional warfare operations, the detachment commander and his engineer specialist must consider the preparation of defensive positions, the construction of obstacles and booby traps, and the use of antipersonnel and vehicular mines. The construction of small shelters for medical facilities and storage facilities for equipment and material may have priority in some areas. Climatic conditions will dictate the need for construction of living shelters and other facilities as well as field fortifications to protect outposts and defensive positions.
Generally, the destructive techniques discussed here are applicable to unconventional warfare. In a counterinsurgency environment where Special Forces detachments are advising paramilitary and local indigenous forces in construction projects and establishment of defensive positions, the use of conventional demolitions may be employed and may be the only requirement for effective road building, land clearing, airlanding construction and obstacle removal projects. Logistical procedures normally permit the extensive resupply and use of conventional demolitions. However, when committed into an operational environment both unconventional warfare and counterinsurgency operations involving training and directing indigenous forces in combat operations. Special Forces personnel will find that the lack of logistical support air delivery capability, and mobility may require using demolitions on a limited scale. The amount of demolitions that may be carried for operational use will result in Special Forces personnel improvising destructive charges and employing them to gel maximum results from a minimum amount of material.
These charges normally are fabricated from plastic explosives using principles of explosive force and direction to destroy or immobilize select targets.
General. The saddle charge is used for cutting steel bars and shafts 5.08 — 20.32 cm in diameter. Turbine and propeller shafts, if motionless, are examples of targets on which saddle charges can be used. The saddle charge achieves results by employing what is known as the "cross fracture." The fracture forms below the base of this triangular shaped charge, cutting the steel target.
Preparation. The saddle charge is shaped to form an Isosceles triangle. The short axis (base) is one-half the circumference of the target. The long axis is twice the length on the base. The depth or thickness of the sliced plastic explosive is one-third a block of C4 for targets 1 5 centimeters and less in diameter; one-half a block of C4 if more than 15 centimeters and less than 20 centimeters for the hardest steel. Thicknesses less than 2.54 centimeters may be used for milder steels. The charge is primed at the apex of the triangle. To protect the charge en route to the target, wrap it in a thin layer of paper, tinfoil or parachute cloth; insure that no more than one layer of material is between charge and target.
General. The diamond charge is used for targets similar to those for which the saddle charge is used but requires access to the complete shaft. When detonated, the shock waves, meeting in the center of the charge, are deflected at right angles cutting down into the target.
Preparation. The long axis of the diamond-shaped charge must be equal to the circumference of the target. Use sufficient explosive to be sure that both ends of the long axis touch. The short axis of the diamond charge is equal to one-hair the long axis. The depth or thickness of the diamond is always one-third block of C4 or 1.67 centimeters to cut a target composed of 2 centimeters of high carbon steel. However, the explosive need only be one-half centimeter for targets of mild steel. Protection of charges is the same as that noted above for saddle charges. Simultaneous detonation is mandatory. Equal lengths of detonating cord may be used with non-electric blasting caps crimped to the ends or electric blasting caps fired simultaneously.
General. This charge will effectively breach dense concrete and occasionally certain timber targets up to 1.22 meters in thickness. Excellent results will be obtained with relatively small amounts of explosive when properly constructed, placed, and activated. The simultaneous activation of two diametrically opposed charges on the target causes the shock waves to meet at the target center. The resultant pressure causes internal damage.
Preparation and placement. The actual size of the charge is governed by the target thickness, in meters, of the target to be breached. Multiply the diameter or thickness of the target to be breached by the constant, 5, which gives the number of pounds of plastic explosive required for reinforced concrete. Round off to the next higher meter for any fractions less than I meter. For example if a concrete target pier measures 1.06 meters in thickness the total amount of plastic explosive required is 6 pounds (2.72 kilograms). Divide the required amount of explosives in half and place the halves diametrically opposite one another on the target. Both sides of the target must be accessible in order to position the two charges against the sides of the target. To secure the charges against the target one of the following methods may be used:
Pruning, Simultaneous detonation of both charges is mandatory. The most common procedure is to crimp non-electric blasting caps to equal lengths of detonating cord; prime at the center rear of the charge; join the two free ends together at a point 15.24 centimeters from the end and tightly tape the blasting cap of the firing system to the parallel detonating cords.
General. The platter charge is most effective against POL storage containers, transformers, and similar thin-skin targets that are usually made inaccessible by fencing. The size of the charge is governed by the weight of the platter. The configuration of the platter may be any shape; but, concave shape raises the temperature of the platter during flight, thereby assisting in igniting the POL upon hitting the target. The explosive, upon detonation, projects the platter through the air and into the target. If a chain-link (cyclone) fence is between the charge and the target, the fence will be penetrated and the platter will continue to the target.
Preparation of charge. A container of any kind with a diameter of the platter may be used. Both ends of the container should be removed. Position the platter at one end of the container with the concave side facing out. A platter of any material other than metal will result in a greatly reduced range. Steel provides the beat result with effective ranges of more than 40 meters. The amount of explosive required to propel the platter should equal the weight of the platter. The explosive is then packed firmly in the container. When no container is available, the explosive may be taped to the platter and hung by coat hangers on fence.
Placement of charge. The platter container is positioned on Us side with the concave face of the platter directed toward the target. The maximum, effective range is dependent upon the size of the target, and may extend to 40 meters or more.
Priming, Prime the charge exactly in the rear center. Exact rear-center detonation of the charge is essential for uniform distribution of shock waves and proper propulsion.
Ribbon Charge (fig- 6). This charge. If properly calculated and placed, cuts mild steel up to 5 centimeters in thickness with considerably less explosive than formula computed (P 3/8A) charges. It is effective on non-circular steel targets up to 5 centimeters. It can be shaped for use against 1- and T- beams. On the corners and ends where the detonators ore placed, it may be necessary to "build up" this area with additional explosives since the charge will be less than 1.27 centimeters thick.
These are charges normally made from standard explosive materials such as plastics explosives, but using improvised casings and firing devices and attaching additional metal for a more destructive effect.
General, A shaped charge is designed to concentrate the energy of the explosion on a small area to make a tubular or linear fracture in the material on which it is placed. The versatility and simplicity of shaped charges makes them an effective weapon, especially against armor plate and concrete. Shaped charges are easily improvised.
Improvised shaped charges (fig. 7). Almost any conically shaped container may be used to make a shaped charge, however, best results are obtained by using a cavity liner of 3-mm copper, and with the angle of the cone at 42 degrees. Tin, zinc, or cadmium are also satisfactory. Cups, bowls, funnels, wine bottles, and cocktail glasses are items which may be used. If no cavity liner is available, a reduced, shaped-charge effect may be obtained by cutting a cavity into a block of plastic explosive. The narrow necks of bottles or glass containers may be cut by wrapping them with a piece of twine or string soaked in gasoline and lighting it. Hold the bottle upright until the flame goes out and submerge the bottle, neck first, into cold water. A narrow band of plastic explosive, when ignited, will produce the same effect. The approximate dimensions and characteristics suitable for an improvised shaped charge are—
Grenades (fig. 8). A simple grenade can be constructed by the use of a 0.225-gram block of explosive, scrap metal, time fuse, and non-electric cap. The time fuse is used as the delay element. Bolts, nuts, nails, or other pieces of metal are secured to the grenade for fragmentation effect. A small metal pipe may also be used as the grenade jacket. The grenade is detonated by a nonelectric blasting cap crimped to a short piece of time fuse, Insert the blasting cap into the explosive and tie or tape it firmly in place. Small V-notches are cut Into the fuse. As the time fuse burns, a spurt of flame appears at the V-notches. After the flame appears at the last V-notch, the grenade is thrown. If desired, only one V-notch (closest to the cap end) may be used- The V-notches should be taped to keep out moisture.
Dust Initiator (fig. 9). The dust initiator is used to destroy buildings and certain storage facilities. The basic purpose of this device is to achieve two distinct but rapidly successive explosions. This is accomplished by constructing a main charge composed of equal amounts of powedered TNT (obtained by crushing TNT in a canvas bag) and magnesium powder and inclosing it in a cover charge of a scattering agent of any carbonaceous material which can be reduced to dust vapor. Examples are cornstarch, flour, coal dust, or gasoline (when using gasoline, never use more than 11.4 liters.) Thermite may be substituted for magnesium in the mixture. From 1.36 to 2.67 kilograms of surround should be provided for each 28.32 cubic meters of targets The 0.45 kilograms (0.225 Kilograms TNT and 0.225 kilograms magnesium powder) charge will effectively disperse and detonate up to 18.14 kilograms of carbonaceous material. Upon activation, the main charge detonation distributes the cover charge material, which is initiated by the action of the incendiary explosion. This causes the entire atmosphere to be saturated with burning materials. The destructive effect of this device is increased by closing all windows and doors in the target building. This charge may be detonated elcctrically or non-electrically.
Further Installments of this Feature Will be Provided Over the Next Few Issues, Thanks to Those Wonderful People Who Brought You Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand......
A philosopher produces ideas, a poet poems, a clergyman sermons, a professor compendia and so on. A criminal produces crimes. If we look a little closer at the connection between this latter branch of production and society as a whole, we shall rid ourselves of many prejudices. The criminal produces not only crimes but also criminal law, and with this also the professor who gives lectures on criminal law, and in addition to this the inevitable compendium in which this same professor throws his lectures onto the general market as "commodities". This brings with it augmentation of national wealth, quite apart from the personal enjoyment which . . . the manuscript of the compendium brings to its originator himself.
The criminal moreover produces the whole of the police and of criminal justice, constables, judges, hangmen, juries etc.; and all these different lines of business, which form equally many categories of the social division of labour, develop different capacities of the human spirit, create new needs and new ways of satisfying them. Torture alone has given rise to the most ingenious mechanical inventions, and employed many honourable craftsmen in the production of its instruments.
The criminal produces an impression, partly moral and partly tragic, as the case may be, and in this way renders a "service" by arousing the moral and aesthetic feelings of the public. He produces not only compendia on Criminal Law, not only penal codes and along with them legislators in this field, but also art, belles lettres, novels, and even tragedies . . . The criminal breaks the monotony and everyday security of bourgeois life. In this way he keeps it from stagnation, and gives rise to that uneasy tension and agility without which even the spur of competition would get blunted. Thus he gives a stimulus to the productive forces. While crime takes a part of the superfluous population off the labour market and thus reduces competition among the labourers — up to a certain point preventing wages from falling below the minimum — the struggle against crime absorbs another part of this population. Thus the criminal comes in as one of those natural "counterweights" which bring about a correct balance and open up a whole perspective of "useful" occupations.
The effects of the criminal on the development of productive power can be shown in detail. Would locks ever have reached their present degree of excellence had there been no thieves? Would the making of bank-notes have reached its present perfection had there been no forgers? Would the microscope have found its way into the sphere of ordinary commerce but for trading frauds? Doesn't practical chemistry owe just as much to adulteration of commodities and the efforts to show it up as to honest zeal for production? Crime, through its constantly new methods of attack on property, constantly calls into being new methods of defence, and so is as productive as strikes for the invention of machines. And if one leaves the sphere of private crime: would the world-market ever have come into being but for national crime? Indeed, would even the nations have arisen? And hasn't the Tree of Sin been at the same time the Tree of Knowledge ever since the time of Adam?
Salient was edited by Peter Franks and Roger Steele. Among the workers were Bruce Robinson. Neal Pearce, Cheryl Dimond. Gyles Beckford. Irene Kennedy, Meg Bailey, Jonathon Hughes. Helen Pankhurat, Lloyd Weeber and Don Franks. Despite his onerous duties keeping the varsity gardens in order and serving as quarry consultant to the 1st Brigade of the Red Militia, Lea Slater also helped. Photographs were taken by Grub, Hillary Watson and Mike Curtis.
Salient Office: 1st Floor, University Union Building, phone 70-319 (ext. 75 & 81), P. O. Box 1347, Wellington, New Zealand.
All copy should be handed in to the editors, or left in the box outside the Salient Office in a plain brown wrapper, no later than Wednesday evening (Anzac Day), unless it is hot news. It should be typed or written in legible printing, double-spaced on one side of the paper only.
is in the hands of bright young Roger Green who can be contacted at Salient (phone 70-319 ext. 75 & 81) or at home, 793-319.
are best sent in the form of a dart, aimed straight between one of the editors' eyes. They can also be thrust in the box outside the office or posted to Box 1347. If you can't type it or write it in legible printing, double-spaced on one side of the paper only, in the space of 300 words come and see us.
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.
The Students Association has decided not to celebrate Capping this year.
The Association feels that Capping is an anachronistic activity. It divides student from student — the "Successful" who "passes" the magic number of units to get a degree is honoured while the rest grind on in the oppressive University Machine.
In place of Capping the Association will celebrate May Day, the day on which international working class solidarity is particularly remembered.
The main celebration will be a function on May 1st, organised by the May Day committee of the Wellington Trades Council. Students will join with rank and file workers and delegates to the Federation of Labour Conference in an evening devoted to "Solidarity with the South African Workers". The gathering will be addressed by the Rev. Bob Scott and anti-apartheid films will be shown.
The activities organised for May Day Week are:
Monday April 30: Anti-sexist evening, Union Hall, 8pm. (Organised by the University Feminists).Tuesday May 1: May Day Celebration. Films, speaker, supper and refreshments. Union Hall 8pm. $1 per person.Thursday May 3: Celebration Rock Concert. Union Hall, 8pm.Friday May 4: Nga Tamatoa Social/Dance /Hangi. Union Hall, 8pm. $3.50 single, $6.00 double.
In the Magistrates court last Monday a 22 year old forklift driver pleaded guilty to receiving 2 cameras, cigarette lighters and binoculars. The police prosecutor told the court that the accused's home had been searched after the robbery of a Wellington Chemist's shop. The accused had stated that a friend had temporarily left the property in his keeping and that he knew the property to be stolen.
Counsel for the defendant stated that his client had been ill in bed under heavy medication for the week leading up to his arrest, and just got up before receiving the property. The friend had called late at night and asked permission to leave the property temporarily. The defendant had nothing to gain from the act and had co-operated fully with the police, despite his weakened condition. Counsel for the defendant submitted that the receiving was of a technical nature and should be dealt with accordingly.
Mr Trapski S.M. was of a different opinion. "I'm concerned, and I think that everyone in Wellington is concerned at thefts from chemist shops", he said. "This has overtones which we're all aware of". He fined the defendant $450 court costs $5.
Mr Trapski added that in case any people got ideas from any advertisement of the case the defendant's name was to be suppressed.
The fact that the cameras, watches and binoculars were stolen from a chemist's shop seemed particularly significant to Mr Trapski. So significant that he made cryptic noises about "Certain overtones" of chemist shop thefts — a pretty obvious reference to narcotics. But the defendant had not stolen or received any narcotics. He had not even stood to gain from the crime he had actually committed.
$450 is a heavy fine for such an offence and a large sum for a young married worker to find. In this case at least it may be more accurate to speak of certain overtones of which we're all aware in relationship to the trial rather than the offence.
In the No.2 Court last Friday Mr Wicks S.M. sentenced Brian Warwick Baker to 18 months imprisonment for homosexual offences, involving three charges of indecent assault.
Counsel for Baker submitted that a psychiatric report had indicated that alcohol was the main problem underlying his client's offences. He stated that little harm had come to the complainants and that the offences differed in character to previous convictions of the accused. Baker was able to continue in his employment and the programme of periodic detention and probation suggested by the probation officer's report would be a positive attempt at reforming him.
Passing sentence Mr Wicks stated that he had read the probation officer's report and that everything possible had been said.
"You appear on three charges of indecency with people who have befriended you", said Mr Wicks. "These acts are still crimes in New Zealand, not withstanding the efforts of the homosexual Law Reform Society". Mr Wicks went on to refer to Baker's previous convictions and stated that in his opinion the penalty suggested by the probation officer would not stop Baker drinking.
"The public interest requires that you should be locked up for a while, then you won't be able to drink", Mr Wicks concluded.
Mr Wicks remark is a favourite of many magistrates. The prisons of New Zealand are full of people such as Baker — "Locked up in the public interest". Baker had only recently been released after a period of several months imprisonment for a similar offence. Will the same thing happen again (to the detriment of Baker and the rest of the public) when Baker is released from his current term in prison?
The public interest might be served better if a greater effort were to be made to deal with the problem rather than merely to postpone it.
The practise of imposing terms of imprisonment on homosexuals and alcoholics for the "safety of the community" and the "benefit of society" very often seems an admission that our society is unable or unwilling to cope with such problems in a more constructive manner.
In this country one man in twenty is a homosexual. Such a large portion of the population deserves more attention focused on its problem as a minority than our present laws and their daily practice are prepared to expend.
Get to Australia cheaply this May with STB.
Group departs Christchurch for Sydney 8 May, returns 22 May. Return fare $166.00.
Also group going to Fiji in May departing Auckland 9 May returning 22 May. Return fare $136.00.
See Jane Mulryan, STB's Travel Advisor at Victoria, for imformation and bookings.
New Zealand is part of the Pacific, and as such must work with the other Pacific nations. It is hard to know how this should be done. Up until now all that we have done has been to provide 'aid' — which is a one way thing and invites many New Zealanders to adopt a patronizing and superior attitude towards those they are 'helping'. We don't think that present 'aid' is necessarily the right form of involvement.
Volunteer Service is only a small part of this total 'aid'. Aid in a wider sense is feasible only at a government level; VSA is a small private organization set up to cater for just one small section of 'aid'. VSA does not claim to be a total aid programme; this could not be possible. This must be done at an inter-govermental level and with such organizations as Who, Unesco etc.
VSA has taken just a small section and specialized in it. It has been as successful in its volunteer programme as larger similar organizations such as Peace Corps (USA), VSO Britain, and AVA Australia. Success is as measured in terms of the dropout rate of volunteers and the quality of personal standing in the communities in which they work. Because VSA is a small, low budget organisation, it has decided to concentrate on providing short term aid and doing it thoroughly.
It is responsible for providing volunteers for specific tasks until the host country has sufficient qualified people. Volunteers are asked for by the people they are going to be working with, Public Works Department, hospitals, schools, etc. No volunteer is sent to a job that is not specifically requested of VSA. The posting is checked by a VSA field officer after the request is received to ensure that the volunteer is really necessary.
The total number of volunteers in the field has remained steady over the last three years. The number of school leaver volunteers has dropped from the highest point of 45 in
This drop in school leaver numbers follows VSA's policy of flexibility and sensitivity to the changing situations in the host countries. As an example school leavers were phased out of the school where they were teaching in Western Samoa because sufficiently qualified teachers became available.
Western Samoa now has no school leavers and in the last five years has had a total of only twelve school leavers, all of them employed by the same private church school. In Western Samoa at present there are eighteen fully qualified adult volunteers and two teacher trainees.
The Pacific is a big place, the people, cultures, and needs differ. Individual volunteers with various personalities and skills are carefully selected to fill the positions that are requested. VSA responds to requests for specific jobs and for many years it has not been able to fill the requests made to it. No volunteer is placed into a situation where he will be of no use whatsoever — if there is no job suited to his personality and skills, he stays at home.
VSA is particularly careful about selection. Although there is a need for more people, only about 20% of the school leavers and 65% of the adult applicants are accepted for service. This is because selection panels seek to find people who will not adopt a colonial missionary type of attitude. This is very important because VSA is looking for people who are able to work well with all kinds of people. However, VSA is an organization of human beings which means that it is not infallible.
VSA is now exploring the means of creating a reciprocal volunteer programme, so that Pacific volunteers can come here and fill assignments where they are needed, eg. teachers of Pacific studies in schools. Reciprocal volunteering is one way of overcoming the unidirectional nature of aid. Volunteering aims to be a "two way street". As Keren Clark, (VSA's former Selection and Training Officer, said in an article in "New Zealand Volunteer"
"Volunteering has a reputation for changing people, bringing maturity, 'upsetting' them — and so it should. Living with the truth of the essentials of life, and directly responsible for oneself in a way that rarely happens where one is protected by a familiar home culture, many volunteers learn what the substance of their life may be.
Poverty has something to do with it: food, friendship, shelter, work are shared with others, and given to the volunteer in return for his energy and commitment. A balanced sharing of essentials with communities which we (the Europeans) traditionally believe have nothing to give but must take all".
Volunteering is only a small part of 'aid' as it exists. VSA is only a small, but much publicized, part of New Zealand's involvement in the Pacific. Criticisms levelled at VSA are often made because people expect VSA to be a total aid organization; or because they expect something different and comprehensive than 'traditional aid'. These points should be directed to the governments of the countries involved — it is only at intergovernmental level that really meaningful, long term aid can be worked out.
As we said earlier, VSA specializes in short term aid — it does not pretend to do anything else. Present aid is not the answer; New Zealand ought to look at more realistic ways of becoming involved in the Pacific it is a part of. This takes time. Short term, stopgap measures are needed, provided that they realize that their death heralds their success.
Jennie Wren, Carol Robinson, Rosemary Dixon. Elizabeth Harper, Helen Robbins. Charlie Moore, Vivien Spanton.
At the fast Student's Representative Council I was elected Students Association Enviromental Officer. I see my job as a generally educative one while specifically trying to reflect and resolve those environmental issues which affect the ordinary student, with particular reference to the campus enviroment itself.
In this regard an immediate problem is that of parking. The idea that the problem could be eased by cutting away at the areas of grass and trees should he resisted. The damage done would be permanent and such an action cannot have more than a marginal effect on parl parking space and may serve to hide the need for bolder thinking. The plans for the Cotton Building should be investigated. Most comments I have heard about the new lecture blocks are highly critical. They are not only unsatisfactory to work in but look awful. It may still be possible to avoid repetition of such errors on a yet grander scale, or at feast retrieve something from the wreckage.
The fullest possible support should he given to those working for the creation of an Environmental Studies Unit. Clearly the Wellington City environment as a whole is of concern to students. In this regard I would like to see what pressure the S.A. see what pressure the Students Association can bring to stop BNZ 's plans for a 31 storey office block in Central Wellington, where any block of that size would be disasterous.
Anyone who has any other ideas as to what I should look into should contact me, by leaving a message at the Students Association office.
Bruce Symondson 555-814
'Butterflies are Free' is a better film than its title suggests, even if it is no more honest in its sentiment. Transposed by Milton Katselas from the very successful Broadway play of the same name, this film is like the many well made American comedies that find their way to the screen for no other reason that there's a quirk buck to make out of it, but better in that the buck's well deserved. For, although the visuals remain oppressively theatrical, the film has a soundtrack with sufficient verbal felicity to make a visit to the Embassy worth one's white.
To be quite fair, this is not the greatest story ever told - films about the blind never were, 'Jane Eyre' included. Instead, this is the modest but touching tale of Donny, the bravest blind boy in the whole world, and his attempt to go it alone. We sec, and so does he, in his Way, his apparent success, his real failure, and his dubious compromise with the bane of sightlessness that's moving isn't it? Ah well, there is more: there's Donny's supermom, she gets hurt, when she learns that Donny no longer needs a mothers help, but Jill's instead. Jill? Yeah well Jill, she's a frivolous dolly with an emotional credibility gap about seven miles wide, and more to the point, she can be a butt for Donny's philanthropic tendencies, which is more than can be laid for his Mom. I mean she's been giving Donny blood sweat and fears since the day he was born - why change the habit of a lifetime?
Like I said, its not a story to write home about, but i makes up for this lack by disguising it in a string of tightly scripted and expertly handled singing matches. Donny's Mom, who has a mouthful of daggers, takes on her son's snappy sarcasm and Jill's blatant contempt like they were conversational gambits at a colonial garden party: or what the pleasure people take from watching quick wilted antagonists pull each other to bus. The film's success stands firm. That something is really happening behind this barbed wire exterior, is evident; but its plausibility is not enhanced by the quality of the repartee. If you can imagine a combination of 'A Patch of Blue' and Edward Albee, you have both the good and bad of this film, excepting the excellence of the acting. Edward Albert struggles with the soap opera in Donny, but handles tongue flailing with finesse. Goldie Hawn prances around in her underwear with her typical Fey abandon admittedly it is the only card she plays, but this is the very reason she plays it so well, However it is Eileen Hackett who steals the show: looking very relaxed in Katy Hepburn's old pumps, she is Utterly convincing, and, making a virtue of necessity, touches on the conflicts that inform the bellicose condesension associated with contemporary American motherland.
This may not be a film for everyone, espectally those who demand insight into social processes, or those more sensitive about blindness than the makers of the Film; for others there's a laugh to be had, and a little something to ponder. For those who want more, Alan Arkins moving but very depressing portrayal of a deal mute in Heart is a lonely Hunter' (shown at the Union on Tuesday), was the job.
Something lighter, and less likely to offend sensibilities of any kind is 'The Mechanic ', now showing at the Majestic. A pot-boiler from Micheal Winner, this straightforward gangster idy II consists of Charles Bronson scowling around a lot of dark alleys, and a fresh faced freak by the name of Jan Micheal Herbett impersonating David Cassidy: both of them to relatively little purpose. With a host of low key action sequences the film proceeds at a sure and entertaining pace but to nowhere in particular Gangster films generally don't, but then they usually exhibit a little more flare than this one does. All that needs to make it work is a shot in the arm in the form of Alain Delon and John Cassevetes; Considering the amount it owes to the work of these two excellent gangland champs, the Mechanie might as well have got them right into the act.
Even before you pull Preserve Wildlife from its jacket to hear what it's all about, the cover photograph hits you right between the eyes. It pushes the top half of Mama Lion's vocalist at you, together with a large quantity of breast, on which a lion cub is being suckled.
Inside, Mama Lion try to recapture the harsh, jagged feel that worked so well for Big Brother and the Molding Company on Cheap Thrills, and to a certain extern, they succeed. The obvious parallels are there: both groups were/are spearheaded by a loud and raucous female vocalist shrieking out their lines above an equally loud and raucous backing. The crucial difference is that Janis complementted Big Brother, Lynn Carey dominates Mama Lion.
While Cheap Thrills wasn't exactly artistically valid, it was exciting, the group compensating for its lack of technical expertise with the sheer ferocity of its attack. This could also have been the case with Mama Lion had not the stricture of overproduction been imposed upon it. The final result is a backing group that sounds like Big Brother with its rough edges chiseled off.
Miss Carey is in a different place, altogether. From the strident roar that kicks off the opener. "Ain't no sunshine", right through to "Cry" at, the end of the other side, you know she isn't just a pretty nipple. The best example of this is "Wildcat", with its lyric about balling couched in hackneyed words, but it's delivered as if she means it, across a distorted Stooges-type wah-wah backdrop.
Libbers who are tempted to bellow "exploitation" as soon as they clap eyes on the cover will find plenty of food for thought in "Sister, Sister, (she better than a man"), but my personal inclination is towards the pleading Stevie Winwood song, "Can't find my way home", because of the higher lyric standard.
Loudon Wainwright is a singer with a bunch of fine musicians behind him who play on most of the tracks. Their support is restrained and serves mainly as rhythm to Wainwright's acoustic guitar but this is curiously effective. A little like the music behind Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. His voice is strong and melodious and suits the mood both when it is sad and happy . . . well, . . . happier.
He wants to find the 'Muse' he fears is vanishing and leans on whiskey and drugs
His choked desperation makes for a horrifying song but any drug song that speaks any truth must do this. The man knows what he is talking about and strangely, right throughout the record Wainwright seems to be singing about Wainwright.Oh Must where are youI keep drinking, smoke stuffI don't know what to do!
He has a very clever lyrical style. Watch this on 'Needless to Say' where he uses assonance in an incredibly clear lyric.
'Dead Skunk' and 'B.Side' could be said to be examples of Wainwright's sense of humour. Oddly enough he was recommended by an overseas paper for his 'sense of humour'. I find his humour lacking and at its worst, very sick: too sick to quote.
'New Point' is another song — the title tells a lot about the song. Wainwright complains about getting older when it's harder to feel the same; to find the enthusiasm to continue.
Wainwright is not a happy man and I suspect he drinks heavily. Alcohol might deaden the pain hut it finally becomes the source of it. But as he points out on 'Drinking Song": there hat vet to be a perfectly straight line.
On the best of these songs Loudon Wainwright seems to break through, to cry up to the joy he knows he can touch. He has none of the slickness or refined 'beauty' so many singers of this ilk aspire to. The man is coarse, sometime disgusting but he is honest. The songs are about Wainwright, be portrays a struggle but occasionally be seems to stop fighting and play some of the best music I've heard this year.
Bobby Whitlock has every right to sit proudly in his gilded hall of mirrors (see backcover); this is one of the best rock 'n roll records I've heard for a long time. Raw, gutsy, munching but with a distinctly softening velvet touch. Whitlock's tough, gravelly voice screams its way through exciting self-penned rockers like 'Bustin' My Ass', 'Case your Pain' and 'Tell the Truth' (a considerably better version than Eric Clapton's).
The sound is very similar to other bands he has been involved with such as the Shelter People, Delaney and Bonnie and especially Derek Dominoes (the guitarist, Rick Vilto, plays very like Clapton) and the recording has that same deliberately blurred quality.
If you've come to Carly Simon through "You're So Vain" then check out the other two albums before thinking of this one. The lyrics don't stand up to her first LP, and the melodies are weaker than in the second, in fact side one is almost just recitations to orchestral accompaniment. But for all that, her magnificent voice almost carries these songs off; the double cover packaging is excellent, some great photos, and helping out instrumentally are such talents as Paul Buckmaster, Lowell George and Mr Carly Simon. I wonder why "Waited So Long", easily the next strongest cut, wasn't chosen to follow up "You're So Vain". Did that "I'm no virgin" line scare somebody?
"Write a column in Salient", said the familiar voice over the telephone.
"I wouldn't even know where to start", I disclaimed modestly. "What do you want, some sort of fearless expose of the corrupt world of professional rock, or perhaps a quick plug for the group's latest hot waxing"?
"Yes, something like that", said the voice hurriedly, "I'm asking Rick Bryant of Mammal to tell us what it's really like to be a NZ Rock Idol, so you can really write anything you like. And as an added inducement, you're not going to make very much money out of this". Click. So how could I refuse.
It's easy enough for Rick — he spends all his day writing things on the bottom of people's essays . . . "Not good enough", "See me", "You're wasting your time and mine with this rubbish", etc. It all tends to hone his writing ability to a razor's edge. The academic mind, so to speak. An article like this comes under the heading of "Child's Play" with that type of mind. I've written a couple of songs and done a crossword or two in the last twelve months, but 1 haven't had to hand in any of those opuses, opi or opes to the vigilant hand, eye and blue pencil of an Editor, to my knowledge. Still, they can't have hired me as a journalist, so I'll try just writing off the top of my head and see what happens. Now I can begin. Where was I?
Some joker stopped me in a certain pub, which will remain nameless (it was the Duke of Edinburgh) and said:
The implications of this thesis seem to be: 1) and 2) You play what people want until you "Make it" and then slip in what you "Really Want to Play" (you know, "progressive" stuff, "heavy head" music that widens the boundaries of "rock" music) and 3) Only the lead guitarist or perhaps the lead singer, or at any rate the lead something or other can "Guide the Group's Musical Direction". Isn't that silly.
I suggested to the joker that, if he was dissatisfied with the group he was in, he leave and join a band more to his liking, that would play some of his songs and wouldn't play the stuff he didn't want to play, you know the popular, commercial stuff he was complaining about a few tines up.
"But I'd starve", he wailed.
"Well get a job, you lazy bastard," I advised.
"Oh no", he protested. "I'd want to put all my time into my music".
"Starve then", I encouraged, "It's good for the soul and it might spur you to pull you finger out and get on with some of this alleged progressive music".
"Oh no", he moaned, "I'd be too scared..."
Impasse. So the joker gets the best of all possible worlds: the satisfaction of moaning to people in the pub that he's better than he seems to be, since "they" are preventing the real, talented him from getting out, plus avoiding any troublesome effort involved in doing anything about it.
If you want to join a group and play your own type of music or whatever, do it, don't talk about it, just get on with it. If you want to play or sing stuff that "people want to hear", buy a very cheap Yamaha guitar and go to a party.
This business of "playing for the people" and its presumed opposite, "self-indulgently playing for yourself" add up to a joint myth that need exploding. People don't want to hear any group outside a twenty-first party playing request after request: it's n one-way ticket to utter boredom. Just about everyone I've met with any interest at all in music wants to hear something that attracts their attention and most important, sustains it, played by musicians who look as if they're enjoying it and who look as if they've gone to a little trouble to entertain the audience. If I didn't play what I wanted to play I'd be a combination juke-box and idiot. An audience can soon tell if a group isn't enjoying its music, and will soon turn to another group who is. Whatever you play, if it's good, if you like it and you play it well, other people will like it. If people don't like it, try and play it better, don't start moaning: "We'll go commercial and play Grand Funk and watered-down Deep Purple". Well, you can, but you won't enjoy it. And surely enjoying it is what it's all about. Thank you.
P.S. If you haven't got anything better to do, just an odd Philosophy lecture, or Biology prac. or perhaps a Torts terms test, pop into your friendly local record shop, say Tiffany's and ask the man behind the counter to put on Side One, Track One of Rebirth by the Tarnburlaine Showband. After twenty minutes of that, ask him to put on Side Two. Track One. He won't mind at all, and you have wasted Forty minutes pleasurably and cheaply. If at the end of that time he insists that you buy it, well that's not my fault, is it?
It's never loo late to correct a mistake! And I would like to correct a printing error towards the end of the article in Salient April 11 th Pg.9 on "The Morning After Pill".
It is pretty effective as an emergency method only but it should never be thought of as a once-a-month method, at least in its present form.
[We regret that this mistake escaped our notice. The article should have read:
Why Shouldn't It Be Used as a Oncea-Month Method? Because there are better and safer methods available which have less side effects.
What Do You Mean Safer? Doesnt It Always Work? It's pretty effective. In the medical literature there are now over 5,000 cases and virtually no pregnancies as long as treatment has been given early enough and in high enough dosage.]
Your editorial hinted at the real fault with this university - the students. Indeed it is they who are the university's weakness. For the most part the so-called students are merely apprentices for status. If they were genuine scholars/ genuine students they just would not put up with the sloppy teaching, the crazy divisions of academic propriety and the mixing of learning with competition for social approval.
How can we rectify this? The obvious answer is to abolish the student (in his current form). This could be done by not awarding any more degrees. Enrolments next year would be down about ninety per cent. All that would remain would be a few people who just want to know, sitting at the feel of a small group of philosophers. (Which is exactly what we need and haven't got now). I for one, want to know. When I say such things some of my fellow students say "Yeah, but I've got so many essays to write I never have time to read anything". Others just look sick.
With respect, it would be better if this great institution did not exist. I absorb so much creative energy. Without it new things could grow.
I find Charlie Chan's statements outrageous, biased and aimed at stirring unpleasant sentiments amongst Singaporeans and Malaysians.
As the majority in the university Malaysians obviously have a better representation in the MSSA. and probably dominate it. As Singaporeans and Malaysians are students in the country shouldn't they forget their political differences and have an association where attitudes and views could be exchanged and activities. Being of very similar cultural and ethnic background, having two associations representing them can only result in unpleasant rivalries and duplication of activities which is inevitably wasteful. Perhaps I should remind Mr Chan that Singaporeans have been minding their affairs exceptionally well since their separation from Malaysia, and so his claim that Singaporeans are prasites is utterly baseless.
As to Mr Chan's statement that we are dividing Malaysians into two associations I can only say that the continued struggle between the two associations is due to the conflicts between their leaders. Both are equally ambitious and unwilling to compromise for fear of having to forsake their posts, and it is unfortunate that Singaporeans should be made the scapegoat. Furthermore Mr Chan's jibe about our crew cuts illustrates the mentality of people of his type. Mr Chan does not have to wear a crew cut, but it might go a long way towards eradicating that sort of childish mentality if he would care to rid his head of some dead cells.
I like to take this opportunity in thanking all my friends. University staff and fellow colleagues in giving me a fabulous time while I was a student. I cherish all memories dearly.
I will be very pleased if all my friends will write to me or personally call me when they are in this part of the world: My address is as follows:
In your letter to Salient dated
Your first fault is that you put too much trust in your trolling mate, Peter Rotherham's 'open letter'. Perhaps you are a TAB fan and could not venture beyond the perimeters of Hun Park to Find out for yourself, the many misleading accusations and statements in Rotherham's open letter.
I admit I did grab and push Rotherham. But I did not thrust my hands under his nose, for to do so would have required 'all the perfumes of Arabia' to clean my hands again. Peter Rotherham is nearly twice my size. If he had any guts, he would have retaliated, instead of playing 'Penguin'.
In the open letter Penguin Rotherham stated that there were no demonstrations planned on Sharpeville Day, implying there were no activities planned at all! How misleading! On Sharpeville Day, the activities organized by the National Anti-Apartheid Co-ordinating Committee were successful, whereas Rotherham's "mass demonstration" crapped out badly, proving my point that 'trotting down the streets was indeed a waste of time.
Rotherham also claimed the mass demonstration was endorsed by, many 'Trade Unionist, Labour leaders, and student leaders'. However he conveniently forgot to mention how he deceived them into endorsing the demonstration. When the cat was let out of the bag again, most of the people who initially endorsed The demonstration withdrew their support. Deceiving and misleading people is nothing new to Penguin Rotherham and his associates, the SAL. It had happened many times before and would occur again. So much for your Hutt Park heroes.
In your letter, you accused me of being 'a pain in the neck on campus'. Perhaps you are right. 1 am indeed a pain in the neck on campus to you and your kind; to the right wing, the fascist and racist on campus; to the University Administration; to your so called democratic mates in Kuala Lumpur; and your trotting mates of Mount Leon. But I am certainly not a pain in the neck to the progressive elements, the left, and those students who put their time, energy and effort into the Students' Association and other progressive organisations.
I am a liability rather than an asset to the cause of Hart, you claimed. The amount of time and energy I put into the cause of Hart is more than the amount of 'rice and lies' you have swallowed. Perhaps if you had cared to venture out of the 4-walls of your Ivory Tower and the perimeters of Hutt Park, you might have vomited out some of the lies and might not have accused me of being a pain in the neck on campus and a liability to the cause of Hart.
Finally, your accusation that to me 'the democratic rights of other students are not important', shows the true colours of your hypocrisy. If you sincerely believe in the principle of "democratic rights of others', you should at least be consistent enough to champion the democratic rights of your own fellow countrymen — your countrymen who happen to hold different views from the facist dictatorial Malaysian government and are now rolling in prison camps dotted all over the country; and your fellow overseas Malaysian students whom upon arrival home, had their passports confiscated, their freedom of association denied and movement restricted, because they had enough guts and convictions to stand up against the injustices of the Malaysian government. Instead you not only prefer but choose to don a "white mask" over your gutless face and throw smearing paints at others, who have the courage of their conviction to stand up and be Counted.
People like your kind not only give me a pain in my neck, but also a pain in my guts as well.
It seems that the abortion issue can be reduced to a basic conflict concerning the rights of the foetus. The pro-abortionists claim that the foetus has no rights or at least fewer than those of the woman who bears it, and their claim to legal abortion for those who desire it is thereby consistant. The anti-abortionists, claiming that the foetus has rights as a human being, are at best inconsistent in granting those rights in a manner which denies the woman her rights. (Which I assume they respect). So it would seem that the anti-abortionists are in the shit, not knowing who deserves what. How then, can the necessarily conscious-stricken beasties ease their burden? Their primary objective should be to nip the problem in the buds by pushing world-wide anti-conception.
For the anti-abortionist, whether a woman has an abortion or not should make tittle difference since either way one party gets a raw deal. Hence, to blow the benevolent brain, why not solve the woman's problem and give the wee nipper a chance too? Make abortion legal and accessible and work towards providing an alternative life support system for the wee dit (thus keeping the pro-abortionists happy too). So here it is folks, you grab the out-going blob, toss it straight into a bucket to be left there for the regulation 9 months, then whit it out, dry it, spank it and air-freight it direct to an adoptive morally relaxed, ex-
I have a complaint. It may seem a dumb one but what with exams and all that shit approaching, complaining and raving on is my safety valve.
Now, let's get down to it! Who is the fuck-wit who came to varsity by boat?Why is the "Reo Moana II" berthed outside the Hunter Building?Why do I get threats, abuse and warnings when I park my car in front of Hunter?
Those fucking pricks scream about a lack of parking space so fuck off you students but make way for my, boat!
O.K. So maybe he/she/it got permission to berth his boat there. Fine; pass the bloody buck. So who's the fucked-up no-wit who gave him permission?
You bastards! Get off your fat arses and move that pharking boat because this is one complaint that I've got a solution for.
Milton once said 'they also serve who only stand and wait', I respectfully submit with great deference to Milton, he is a lambent fool . . . If he had ever had to stand in tiresome line, in the tiresome queue in the tiresome 2nd floor university dining room this line would never have entered his bloody head.
The university dining facilities are abnormal which is merely a self-evident Truth, indicative of the organisation behind them. One waitress is a sonambulist, another is the waking equivalent, and the food is the jaundiced anaemic culinary equivalent of the drab decor. I would seriously suggest to the aberrant wit who expects us to take our dishes back (to cut costs) that he gets his own mental dishes mentally washed and mentally stacked in his cracked crockery cerebrum, and then, yes and then, has one of his own meals and convulsively suffers as our alimentary canals are forced to.
Hector MacNeill's letter concerning Graham Rua's article on Kronstadt completely falsifies several points. Mr MacNeill speaks of Makhno's "atrocities against jews". Yet Makhno frequently expressed his opposition to any form of ethnic or national discrimination. Makhno himself shot a fellow revolutionary who had written "Defend the Revolution! Long Live Makhno! Down with the Jews"! Sure Makhno was responsible for the death of some Jews, but they were wealthy bourgeois. Makhno wrote that while the rich Jews would naturally side against die Anarchists, die poorer Jews were the friends and comrades of the peasants.
Mr MacNeill further distorts the truth when he speaks of the lack of support of workers and peasants for Makhno. Makhno's main commanders comprised eleven peasants and two workers (Voline's figures). It was Lenin who made the sneering remark: ". . . the peasants are infected with anarchism", and continued to say that the "mere peasant" enthusiasm would seon bum itself out. Makhno had the solid support of the peasants who were strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Devikin (a leading counter-revolutionary general).
As for Trotsky, he was indeed responsible as Minister of War, for the repression of the sailors and peasants in Kronstadt and the Ukraine. True he made peace with them for a while, yet this was due to his recognition of their capabilities as powerful fighters and great tacticians. Once he had used them, he turned on them like a traitor, to impose the communist state and all its authoritarianism upon the people. On and Trotsky declaring Kronstadt guilty of meeting and ordering Kronstadt to be suppressed. On March 5 Trotsky issued an ultimatum. And on March 7 Kronstadt was attacked, signifying the death of freedom in Russia.
If people wish to get the true story of Kronstadt, told by one who was there, they would be best advised to read The Bolshevik Myth and The Kronstadt Rebellion both by Alexander Berkman, and not to write to Hector MacNeill for his warped trash.
In reply to the letter criticising the Counselling Service (Salient, April 11), I have several comments to make.
There is a staff of three in the Counselling Service, and they are the only people who have access to the Counselling Service files. The University Administration, the Labour Department and the Security Service do not have access to them. If they requested information, they would be refused.
It is Mr I. H. Boyd, Director of Welfare Services, who assists overseas students, if they wish to have assistance, with student permits or other matters involving the Labour Department. When overseas students approach the Counselling Service for help in these matters they are referred to Mr Boyd, but he does not have access to Counselling Service files. If an overseas student especially asks a Counsellor to help him in matters relating to the Labour Department, then it is the Counsellor who helps. On a few occasions Mr Boyd has been absent from the University and the Counsellors have stood in his place for overseas students who have needed emergency help.
Any student who wishes to have his file destroyed has only to ask. Lee Foundation applications from past years have been destroyed.
I am amazed that your record reviewer, Mr P.F. O'Dea is so "with it" that he does not know that the Stone The Crows album is titled Ontinuous Performance and that the English sleeve was in fact a single cover like the New Zealand version, not a "fold out".
Constructively critical record reviews are welcomed but Mr O'Dea's ignorance of die facts sometimes makes his reviews "ham fisted", which fools no one, except perhaps Mr O'Dea himself.
Referring to the review of Loggins &- Messina, I would advise your readers that whilst Mr O'Dea may personally prefer New Riders Of The Purple Sage to Loggins & Messina (and that indeed is my own personal preference), the record buying public of New Zealand have shown a marked preference for Loggins & Messina (in line with a wordwide trend).
We at Phonogram feel both groups are musically excellent and deserving of the high praise received from record reviews both here and overseas (all of whom I am sure would know that the Stone The Crows album is titled Ontisuovs Performance).
How refreshing it is to come across a letter in your paper which is written by a real human being, rather than by a Socialist, Abortionist, Catholic, Malaysian. Christian, Liberationist or other egotistical bigot (e.g. Don Franks). I refer of course, to that gem of sarcasm and wit by Diane Hopper in reply to the account of my traumatic experience with an exploding can of pet food. Of course I worry about walls more than cats; after all, what use is a nine-year old paranoid ginger torn with no teeth, no balls and the most pathetic of miaows compared to a liquid-lightning sparkling clean kitchen wall (shines so brightly you can sec yourself in it).
I would also suggest, dear Diane, that whatever kind of meat I choose to feed to Oedipus, it would be 80% moisture whether it was beef, fish or human (see directions on can).
One further comment:- it is dangerous to make sweeping generalizations about students' values from the contents of a single letter by a single student (for Christ's sake). In fact, as a wall-loving cat hater, I am probably unique.
[We are offering a year's free subscription to Salient for the best entry in a competition starting today and closing at the end of the week. All you have to do is write a short essay entitled "Why Don Franks is an Egotistical Bigot". We'd like to know Eds]
I was interested in reading the letter to Salient last week about the secrecy or otherwise of the Student Counselling Service. I would like to add to this an account of the case of a friend of mine, a bloke who went to see the counselling service in
He had no more problems - finished his degree Ok the next year and at the beginning of this year applied for a job with the university. He gave the Student Health as a medical reference and it is presumably through this that the university found out that he had been to the counselling service.
What happened then we don't know but the end result was that Miss Swatland prepared a report on this person for the university authorities saying how long the person had been seeing her and detailing his personal pro blems and disturbances.
So friends if you are ever going to apply for a job with the university don't go within spitting distance of the Student Counselling Service cos they will sell you down the line every time.
In reply to the letter regarding the counselling service signed by 'A Group of Rebels', who are apparently so ardently rebellious that they find it preferable not to identify themselves by name, I should like to say that while as they suspect the Student Counselling Service may well be playing an important role in supplying information about students to the Labour Department' their spirit of rebellion evidently does not extend to the simple act of first inquiring of the counsellors as to whether or not such events do in fact occur. Neither, it would appear, have they bothered to find out answers to their further questions such as whether or not a personal file of a student will be destroyed on request, or regarding the nature of the power relation of the counselling service to the University authorities.
The paragraph regarding the petty stories of the academic staff sounds itself more like petty backyard gossip than a statement made on the grounds of evidence, and it seems most unusual and contradictory to say the least that those who would choose to see this service as one with aims of diverting 'the rebellious tendency of the students against the establishment', should regard staff members of this university as being in need of protection. Judging from Neil Wright's article on academics in this year's handbook they are not really grossly suffering at the hands of anyone let alone at those of the counselling service.
There is little doubt that many social work services, and the counselling service is a social work service, do function as 'tools' of the so-called 'establishment' and many of these services should be investigated and questioned. The counselling service, however, is hardly as guilty of performing such a role as are the social work and welfare services offered by such organizations as the Department of Social Welfare, of Justice, of State Advances, of Health etc.
The 'Rebels' letter further suffers from a confusion as to just when overseas students and their specific problems are being referred to and when all students are included in the remarks made. While conceding, then, that there is, in all probability, a case to be made in the interests of overseas students, as regards the rest of the student body in general, no-one is 'forced' to place themselves under the 'power and influence' of the counselling service. Unlike many people in New Zealand who come into contact with social work counsellors, students have both a choice in, and an awareness of, what they are doing when they ask to see a counsellor and they are free to leave an interview and reject the services as they please. Many of 'A Group of Rebels' fellows living in this country are refused both this valuable freedom of choice and the awareness of the functions of the social work process in relation to the power structure in our society.
These self-described 'rebels', therefore, would have a more effective case if they had first investigated the activities of the counselling service before presenting their garbled complaints, and further if they would cast their myopic pseudo-radical eyes in the direction of those people whose 'anger' really is being 'checked' and whose 'unrest' realty is being 'calmed', people to whom a university is a foreign country and students aliens, but people whose money is being used to enable such 'rebels' to be in a position to write such ill-constructed and inadequately substantiated accusations.
K.S. Allan, is not a wanker — he's intelligent, truthful, thoughtful, educated, bases his arguments on solid facts and is good in bed.
In your letters column in your April 11 issue a Mr Bonante cited the fact that a Socialist Unity Party spokesperson had called me an 'ultraleftist', and at a Hart meeting on the same evening Mike Law (National Deputy Chairman of Hart) had described me as 'a right wing agent'. Mr Bonante seemed rather puzzled by all this, and asked that die 'confusion' be cleared up. As the person most directly concerned, I will attempt to do just that.
The first charge (that I am an ultraleftist) was made in relation to the Trotskyist movement's condemnation of the Russian invasion of Hungary (Sup spokesperson in an attempt at discrediting this position, and 'justifying' his own party's slavish support for all the twists and tums in Soviet Union policy.
In attempting to hang the ultraleftism label on me, the Sup spokesperson simply demonstrated his party's complete lack of understanding of what this term really means. In line with everything else the Stalinists do, this spokesperson used a term which has a precise meaning in revolutionary theory, and twisted that meaning in order to justify his party' — bankrupt political positions. This simply follows from the Stalinist movement's long history of 'justifying' their sell outs, reformism, etc. The Stalinists are experts at rallying support for their bankruptcy from the revolutionary theory of Marx, Engels, and Lenin - through artificially injecting new meanings into the terms these men used, tearing quotations out of context, and so on.
The second charge (that I am 'a right wing agent') was made by Law when I was excluded from a Hart meeting on April 4. It is nothing more than a vicious smear. Law is fond of employing this kind of contemptible tactic and, like all those who use it, attempts to win his political point by hurling out absurd and unfounded abuse. Notice that he makes no attempt at proving his assertion (which he knows is a lie); he simply 'lays the charge', in a crude attempt at discrediting the political positions I support.
It is worth noting that this kind of smear has its origins in the Stalinist movement. Back in the
In short, I am neither an ultraleftist, nor a right wing agent. "The Young Socialists, the political positions of which I support, is also neither of these two things. I trust therefore that Mr Bonante's 'confusion' can at last be laid lo rest.
Attached please find:
You're totally fucked. Yippie! What are you — a movement or a myth? In your own language, any movement is "bad" — yet you say "publicity is the lifeblood of the movement". What movement? Yippie movement! That's? damn good synonym for a "group spreading the myth of revolution" at far as I'm
I'll start again, dive. Yippie! What are you — a publicity freak or a jetsetting teenager? Or a means to a "bloody important end?" Whose? Mine? Fuck off! Get back on your jet, you publicity freak, and write home! See you in next week's Salient.