Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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A UVM Student
Newspaper
Right-Wing
Being Formed
In Chittenden County
Margaret Martin
The Eagle Forum has landed in the
Burlington area and it's not a pretty
sight. Phyllis Schlafly's proteges and
co-conspirators-Ied
by Nancy Stringer, the woman who brought you
the death of Vermont's ERA-have
taken the form of the Vermont Task
Force on Families in Crisis. Their
stated mission is to combat domestic
violence and preserve the family unit.
Their actual mission-despite
public
statements
to the contrary-is
to
counter nationwide the strong and
growing network of services for victims of abuse, and simultaneously
send
women
somersaulting
backwards
into the "homes" they
finally had the strength to leave.
Essex junction was chosen as the
group's fifth "experimental site," and
since May of 1986, when the program
recerveo a
$62.2,905
U.S. Department
grant
from
the
Interview With
Bernie Sanders
Cruic Photo
r r
Chrissie Damon
women to work when they could be Gadfly: How did you in your youth
taking care of the kids." Voth con- view electoral politics, both on a natinued by saying that "Every time a tional and on a local level?
family breaks up you're creating the Sanders: I don't think any differently
tragedies of tomorrow," referring tC: than anybody else in my family, my
the children of divorced parents, all family was a reasonably non-political
family. So the issue: electoral/nonof whom end up leading tragic adult
electoral was not relevant.
When I
lives, of course.
was
a
kid,
!
think
!
was
reasonably
The main idea behind Dr. Voth's
program is that there simply aren't .sensitive to the plight of the underdog.
Both within the context of
enough professionals
to efficiently
classrooms
as well as nationally:
work on the problem and that the
'black
people,
native americans, these
very simple solution is to find older,
sorts
of
issues.
more experienced and mature couples
Gadfly: When you ran for student
who have had successful marriages
body president in high school. did
and match them up in a counseling
you view yourself as a serious consituation with a young couple whose
fender or were you running for some
marriage
is
on
shaky
of the same reasons you espoused
ground-"asssuming
that they have
sense enough to look for help." He later with Liberty Union, as a gadfly
of sorts?
suggested that the project begin with
Sanders:! was a child thenl ... No, incouples who aren't physically violent
terestingly enough, in running ... (and
to show that it can work, because
! did not win); in running ! was
"the violence part doesn't bother
serious.
on page 17
Page 1
t LRT.
Interview
continued from page 1
W
0 . 0 so WI
one 0 er for his actions. "
Porum sls~ers, namely
ottie
The simplistic fact that souse
J.1I.hen, dunng. phone
tnterb
be
P
~
........ ~
FraIn Toll.
II u~ must
stopped is obvious.
s;,..rt T<Jltdlyopinion StrJ.na-r BuI"~ptloc.-oF~irvI'h.
__ ..
_ ..... _.
'" t ~
re th fa
that th way
....
~
\n wN<:h _
~\
\0
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"""
.. aM ~
_'-. \fte\<r
~w.m.
\ . endint!.
h
M' nd h
_._~ aww.ve \Tea_en\ m a spouse) has a
o~e\ ~n a
er own O-p\- great eUec'l on their personal ~\ation';"_ _~.~ e two ~~~en
are ships and, ultimately, the structure of
lu.:TS U1. U\e same \:.asw;.,
'[orce an d h
.
.
.
t h
h d
k
t e sOCletym which we live. Nancy
.
ave
a
\:.0 wor
together Strin er kno
thO
d al h
older
\ewhat intimately on at least one clai';s that ~~m \s~.an . It ough she
\:.0
.. ~.
es
1~ VlO.
ence
1S
an
ence. Either there lacks a great deal ~~o~~~cal~ssue:n~ .Just simply must
communication
between the
. ppe -w IC It must and is the
,rious participants in this national ~~~ad co;cern-there. are diffe~ent
:ganizatlon or Stringer has been
0 s 0 accomplishmg that fmal
eglecting to keep up with her goaL One IS to offer the victim
,ading of the lengthy TFFC Newslet- nothmg more than temporary-if
er she undoubtedly finds in the any-asylum
from her relationship
nailbox next to her monthly cop of WIth an abuslv~ spouse and one corrhe Phyllis Schlafly Report.
y
rect way of hfe m the traditional
What specific effects will the TFFC ~~n;,I1Ystructure, all the while "helplave on domestic violence and the g her to beheve that she is
,resent network of services in the s~~eho,;" responsible for her and her
lrea? Bob Greene, who works at the c I dren s sItuation. The other is to
:enter for Change in Burlington sur- off~r the vICtimevery possible oppornises that there are two 'main tumty for real freedom from her
.ossibilities. The first is basically dbesltructlveSItuatIon and help her
,
, e leve that h d'd
lone, aside from the fact that it could..
~ e I not create that
[rain away possible funding from fSltu~tlonand IS'~ no way responsible
or It.
.
the_FINALCONFLICT
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19t;
16
The Gadfly
,"1
8.
:asion
-V2
..
organization,
developed
neighborhood
Brooklyn,
it
was
significantly
process and other areas, such as utili- every direction that you can move in.
ty rates, to educate people and to
For example, and I throw this out
organize people.
hypothetically do I think that in the
From that point on, in every single great scheme of things, it is terribly
place, people would hear not only important who becomes student
from a Democrat or a Republican, council president of the University of
but hear form a progressive as well. Vermont? Obviously in one sense it
We had some really outstanding can- doesn't, the issues student council
didates. Michael Parenti, Nancy Cof- presidents deal with are not the burnfman, Martha Abbott, someone from ing issues of our time. However, if a
the trade unions ran for Lt. Gover- serious group of students at UVM
nor, etc. We had a number of ar- wanted to compete in that arena and
ticulate and bright people who could won the presidency and then used
use the debate formats, radio, televi- that office to make radical demands
sion and newspapers, to offer the on the University of Vermont, as to
people of the state of Vermont an what kind of University it could be I
alternative vision. The early years think that would be a fine effort. Is
had focused primarily on the opposi- that the only thing they should do?
tion to the war in Vietnam, and a No.
need for radical changes in the
So I guess the answer to electoral or
economic structure of the country.
non-electoral, is that nobody has conWhen people ask how I became vinced me that it is not sensible for
mayor, I stress that the election in people to enter that arena if you can
1981 was proceeded by over ten years educate people, if you can show up
of very hard work on the parts of a the contradictions of the system, if
lot of people in this state to educate you have the opportunity to debate
the public' not only about political, against democrats and republicans.
social and economic issues but about This media is very tightly controlled
the fact that there was an alternative in the United States. It is very hard to
to the democratic and republican par- get out an alternative point of view.
ties. And that third party tradition The electoral system is one means by
has gone 'on in the state of Vermont which one can do that. Occasionally,
for twenty years. The people of Ver- very rarely, a progressive will win.
mont have twenty years of knowing
In the United States today, we
there is an alternative
to the believe we are the only third party in
democrats and the republicans. The office in the entire country. It doesn't
people who founded Liberty Union in happen every day. Was it good or
the late sixties deserve a lot of credit, was it bad that we won? I think what
they were a small group of people and history will show, what the acthey did a good job.
complishments of the last six years
Gadfly: Todd Manley of the Liberty will show is that in many areas it was
Union said in 1973 that; "The Liberty important that we won. Not only for
Union does not believe electoral the specific concrete achievements
politics offers a real chance of solving that we brought about which improvVermont"s
problems,
or Americas fundamental
of
However, when you understand that about that, uniquely now. People are
you are going to be out spent by one going to start picking that up. If I
hundred to one, you realize it's a long were not mayor of the city of Burlshot. I think what Todd was saying ington, we could not do that.
was that nobody in the Liberty
The state of Vermont now has
Union, nobody that I know now in three Congresspeople, all of whom
the progressive movement, thinks are voting again.st contra aid. My
that electoral politics is the only guess is that the people of Vermont
answer. One has got to be an idiot to by a pretty strong vote would be
believe that.
against contra aid. That did not hapThere is no one way. Not to use pen in a vacuum, it happened because
electoral politics in this country as a many people in the state of Vermont,
means to educate people, for exam- including myself for the last five years
pie, to use the opportunity of have spoken out on that issue. We
challenging
the' democratic
or uSe this office not only to deal with
republican opponents, to use the the day to day problems that we have
newspapers ... is absolutely stupid.
to deal with, and I think we do a pretOn the other hand, if someone says; ty good job on that, but we use it also
"I believe in electoral politics, but I as a educational forum to talk about
don't believe in building a mass. why things are the way they are.
movement, and a grass roots move- Gadfly: Some would say that while it
ment to deal with the basic social con- may be effective to work in electoral
f1ictsthat exist in this country", ",ell, . politics on a local level either for exyou gotta be crazy not to understand ample, in student government or in
the importance of that.
You move in
continued on page 18
Page 17
R.".nlnc:. TtL
-----
.v
Interview
continuedfrom page 17
Gadfly: Perhaps I should not bring up
the Mayors office, on other levels, Murray Bookchin as he is frequently
such as within national politics, elec- accuse of being a left basher, yet he
toral politics is not effective.
suggested a couple of weeks ago that
Sanders: That is a valid point. These perhaps because of the fact that you
are very difficult questions and I have were elected there are not more peoto tell you at the start I don't have all pIe involved in Burlington politics.
the answers.
But I am not sym- Sanders: Let me tell you the danger of
pathetic to people who think they do that argument. It smacks of the arguhave all the answers.
ment that took place in the late twenTo give you an example; is Jessie ties and the early thirties, in GerJackson's presence good or bad? I many. Communists were saying/it
think you would have to be crazy to is better Hitler than the socialists
not understand that Jackson has had because now the air is clear and we
an important impact on the American know which side we are on." There
political scene. I am not a member of are those people who hold that type
the rainbow coalition I am a member of a view.
of the progressive coalition. I do not
Here we have double the voter turagree with Jessie Jackson on all of his nout in the city of Burlington, we
issues by any means and I disagree have involved significant numbers of
with working within the democratic people, this is clearly the most
party. O.K.? But when you have a politically conscious city in the state
person who commands a national au- of Vermont, by many, many times.
dience, talking about Nicaragua, We have increased the voter turnout,
talking about the basic inequities we have educated people about
which exist in our country, talking political issues there are real debates,
about environmental protection or we have started neighborhoodplannthe progressive point of view and ing assemblies. Are we perfect? No.
communicating to millions of peo-' But compare us to who? So to say
ple .... Is this important, or is this not that it is too bad that they got elected,
important? I think it's important.
doubled
the voter
turnout,
But it is much simpler, no question significantly increased voter turnout
about it, dealing on a local level.
because if they had not got elected by
I am not a great fan of the situation God then .... What would have hapin the left today. The left is not in par- pened? Well, I don't know what
ticularly good shape in America, (ob- would have happened. But that is the
viously and it goes without saying) argument that says it is better for bad
and it hasn't been for many, many people to be in office than it is for
years. And one of the things that good people to be in office and I don't
amuses me is that half the people on accept that.
the left spend all their time criticizing Gadfly: Another goal of the Liberty
the other half of the people on the left Union Party spoken about by Todd
and they are all sure they have the Manley, was towards building a
magic way in their particular move- radical party with revolutionary aims
ment to solve all of the problems of instead of reinforcing the reformist
the world. I disagree very strongly democratic party. Could you define
with that and I try to function and those revolutionary aims?
our movement tries to function in as Sanders: Flaming rhetoric Todd usnon-sectari~ way as we can.
edt It is hard for me to go back fifteen
One of the areas that the left in my years. But I am pretty sure I know
view, has not paid enough attention what he was talking about. What we
to, is the whole concept of local were saying then, I say we but we
government. I am disappointed that were different people and I don't
after being mayor of this city for speak for everyone, is that from an
seven years, still as I look around the economic point of view to start with,
state of Vermont, I do not see a this nation has the resources to promovement inany other community in vide a decent standard of living for
this state. And I can not tell you why every man woman and child. Pover-
C'Ul"re.I1t
continued
o~
from page 24
to Reaganism. So I
when .s a result
system? What would be the reaction' of people pointing the finger of guilt
01 the ruling elites nation-wide iI the at them, they suddenly become proLiberty Union or any other third Reagan because they see a segment of
party" s goals were taken up by this city or of this society, threatening
them with their job existence.
Vermonters?
The way to stop the war machine is
Sanders: It is difficult. For example,
taxation. We believe in progressive to change the, government. I think
people lose sight of what the real issue
taxation. The legislature has refused.
Why?
The legislature
gives is. The real issue is power, who has it
cockanany reasons. If we broke the who is using it. And what we know,is
dependence on property taxes, we of course that it is not discussed. How
would be an example. We attempted many demonstrations take place in
a couple of years back to change, to front of the banks, in front of the
restructure electric rates. We were television stations? That is where
shot down. I ran for governor so that power really is, with people who
Vermont could set an example. Ver- have money. Two percent of the
mont could set an example to the rest population controls one third of the
They will
of the nation similar to the type of ex- wealth in this country.
determine
whether,
we
have
afforample Nicaragua is setting for the rest
dable
housing,
they
buy
and
sell
canof Latin America. And yes, the
didates,
democrats
and
republicans,
Reagan administration
would be
they own the media, they own the
concerned.
Gadfly: To get back to the Liberty Burlington Free Press.
The issue is not to me all of the
Union party, why did you leave
good
causes, there are thousands of
L.U.?
good
causes
out there from save the
Sanders: The L.U. was successful to a
whales
on
up.
And they are all right,
ty, racism,
sexism,
could be certain extent in educating people but
and
they
are
all
good. What has got
eliminated. I can't fly to the moon, it we were not successful in bringing
to
develop
is
a
mass movement,
would be silly for me to say that I together large numbers of people.
which
seeks
to
change
the control of
could, but you can have a society That's basically it.
the
economy
from
billionaires,
from
where people have decent housing, Gadfly:What does it do to you moralcorporate
executives,
from
banks
decent income, decent health care, ly to have to take positions that opto a
pose those you believe in? For exam- from large corporations,
decent educational opportunities.
Where you can have people con- ple not being able to take a strong democratic type of society.
trolling their own lives rather than stand on GE's production of the Gadfly:1 think a lot of people are starworking for other people. Fewer peo- Vulcan mini-gun an 'issue that began ting to understand that now but in
ple now control the system than ever in 1983, your decision to back Mon- order to protest the whole system you
before. It is not like the rise of the dale/Feraro in 1984 or the current do have to raise awareness on specific
gigantic corporations but you are see- decision to remove the homeless en- issues. How do you raise issues of
militarism without bringing up GE
ing through the control of - the campment from City Hall Park.
media .... we used to have lots of Sanders:First of all to begin with the and how do you bring up the issue of
media, well now you don't. Increas- issue of the homeless; I get very upset GE without alienating workers?
Sanders: I think you need to do
ingly you have CBS, NBC, ABC, few when people make these accusations.
people with the power, other people Would Madaline Kunin have remov- several things. The last rally held, the
did very well, the
become docile and follow instructions ed them from the lawn of the State Moratorium
You
whether they are workers, TV con- House7 No. Because Kunin would literature was exactly right.
continued on page 19
sumers or consumers in general. So I never have let them be there in the
August
1987,
the
Central
themsleves
to not
permit
the accords
the indispensable
continued
d?J1arsare going
Nicaragua. That
!O kill
IS
the people oE
.'
.
the
problems
manl.\est
Page 18
Sanders
from page 18
make.
.:
-~'
. -
on page 20
know how you do it? You say to the If you go around saying that Mondale
people, the reason your property would be a great president you would
taxes are so high, the reason you be a liar and a hypocrite. That is not
can"! afford health care, the reason what I was saying. Now there has
that your streets are not paved, the been terrible pain and suffering in
reas~n your ki?s are not getting the Nicaragua, with Mondale, would it
quality education they deserve, is have been any different?
Who can
because of all your God-damn tex say?
by violating
that is so. I can't tell you why in Brattleboro or in South Burlington, there
has not been a greater grassroots
movement to involve people in local
politics. What we have done here in
Burlington among oiher things' is
double the voter turnout. Twice as
many people now vote in local elections as did before I became mayor. I
would love to see that type of movement spread out I would like to see
local government become strong in
the state of Vermont because local
government is a manageable level.
People can be involved. We try and
involve people in the process and we
are a city of forty thousand.
You
have a city of two thousand, you can
involve people, people can serve on
the board of selectpersons. And we
have not done enough of that.
the region.
Immediately after the accords were
signed, the CIA began rapidly increasing its daily level of supply
flights to the forces it maintains in the
field in Nicaragua. They have doubled since September, and they have
probably about tripled by October.
Daily U.S. supply flights, if not more,
were already being flown by the time
of the so-called Spring Offensive that
was designed to cause enough terror
and murder and destruction to what
are called "soft targets," like health
clinics and cooperatives, so as to convince Congress and liberals that the
Contras would be violent and
murderous enough to merit further
funding. That's essentially the issue
terrorists?
Chomsky
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