ustxtxb_obs_1988_04_22_50_00020-00000_000.pdf

The free advice you get at a coc ktail party is usually worth about what you paid for it, At Futura, the advice is free, but the results can be invaluable. Our friendly account representatives are trained to help you through the toughest print job and they’re backed by years of experienced, professional service. Call us at 442-7836 for a prompt quote on your next project. COMMUNICATIONS, INC. AUSTIN, TEXAS 1714 S. Congress 442-7836 Data Processing Typesetting Printing Mailing 20 APRIL 22, 1988 Ow?. , .164e’ .1,11 and Associates 1117 West 5th Street Austin, Texas 78703 111111 65 Representing all types of properties in Austin and Central Texas interesting & unusual property a specialty. 477-3651 I it REALTOR This publication is available in microform from University Microfilms International. Call toll-free 800-521-3044. In Michigan, Alaska and Hawaii call collect 313-761-4700. Or mail inquiry to: University Microfilms International, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. component of the Reagan economic recovery. “Military Keynesianism,” Schor calls it. Dollar for dollar it is not an efficient way to create employment. And labor bears its share of the defense burden: military operations in the Third World cost the average American family $1,400 per year. Working class families also remember that during the Vietnam War a disproportionate number of their fathers and sons served and died in Southeast Asia. \(One Congressman’s Reagan policy in Central America might prove to be a catalyst in the crucible of modern organized labor. It boiled to the surface at the 1985 Anaheim, California AFL-CIO convention when, as delegates prepared to vote on a motion that condemned the Sandinistas but failed to condemn the contras, Kenneth Blaylock of the American Federation of Government Employees rose to speak. Blaylock had traveled in Central America: . . As I visited the [Nicaraguan] coffee plantations and the farms up close to the Honduran border, we talked with Miskito Indians, we talked to campesinos who do not fear the Sandinistas. They are carrying weapons from sticks to rifles to protect themselves from the contra. Then I have a young farmer tell me about an attack on his farm where his wife was raped and then killed, [and] he lost two children, not from the Sandinistas, but from the contra. . . .Now I don’t know about the rest of you people here but when I look at Iran, I look at Vietnam, I look at Nicaragua, I look at El Salvador, Guatemala, I would like for one time for my government to be on the side of the people, not on the side of rich dictators living behind high walls. . . .So every fiber in my body triggers my reflexes and my basic instincts says to me, if Ronald Reagan supports these efforts and if friends like the Coors family, who responded after Congress cut off the money to the contras. . . [and] started raising private funds, if these two people are for it, we damn well better be against it. The resolution passed but Blaylo . ck’s speech was followed by others who for 90 minutes participated in the first public, rankand-file labor debate on American foreign policy. And last year, thousands of union leaders and members ignored Executive Council dogma and joined in anti-war demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco. Twenty-one unions, accounting for slightly over 50 percent in AFL-CIO membership and fees, are now on record as opposing the contra war. No longer, it appears, can workers be expected to support every foreign adventure in defense of corporate profit. Tunnel Vision concludes with a call for labor to adopt a new agenda that includes: Support for democratic trade unions abroad that allow self-determination for workers, An end to labor’s “shunning doctrine” by which affiliates are discouraged by the national Department of International Affairs from communicating with “undesirable foreign unions,” A critical approach to labor-managementgovernment arrangements known as tripartism, Acceptance of the important democraticsocialist current in Third World unionism, Careful monitoring of _the flow of capital around the world, And making common cause with labor’s international allies who share an interest in equitable economic and social relations Tunnel Vision is a snappy little book. Chapters are prefaced with rock & roll epigraphs, complemented by abbreviated explanation of issues and concluded with brief summaries. Despite the Reverend’s Nightline nonperformance, I suspect that he or his campaign understands what this is all about. So buy a copy of Tunnel Vision. Read it twice. Then mail it to Michael Dukakis. 0 PACCA and other Central American titles can be ordered through the Central American Resource Center, P.O. Box 2327, Austin, TX 78727. Observer Bequests Austin attorney Vivian Mahleb has agreed to consult with those interested in including the Observer in their estate planning. For further information, contact Vivian Mahlab, attorneyat-law, P.C., at 1301 Nueces, Austin, Texas 78701, or call 512/477-9400.