Message at Campobello
McCarthy, Abigail
connect the nuclear arms race and Central America to the need for economic conversion, defense workers insisted that this would be disastrous for their movement. Most defense work- ers, and...
...One person, tortured in a Latin American prison, who became the subject of a letter-writing campaign, has written, concerning a letter which got through to him, "It said in Spanish 'Take heart...
...It has often improved their conditions, even brought their release...
...In her more than a dozen years as First Lady--more years than any other First Lady was ever to have--and in her fifteen years of vig- ELEANOR ROOSEVELT & HUMAN RIGHTS orous world leadership thereafter, she T HERE IS SURELY something seren-dipitous about the fact that the first woman to be nominated to one of the highest offices in the land should have been nominated in the year of the Eleanor Roosevelt Centennial...
...Roosevelt did for human rights...
...In ringing tones commanding the complete attention of everyone there, former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan reminded the assemblage of Eleanor Roosevelt's part in the adoption of the Charter of Human Rights by the United Nations...
...Nor should we forget our obliga- tion to hold ourselves sensitive to the abuse of human fights and to see that our government does not take cover in hypocrisy or lip service...
...This was how she was remembered this year when guests gathered under lowering skies before the Roosevelt cottage on Campobello to take part in a moving commemorative service ma}king the hundredth anniversary year of her birth...
...It is natural this year to look to her as the preeminent forerunner of today's independent woman...
...Slavery was extinguished...
...In limited ways, while still a busy wife and mother, she pursued careers of her own as a teacher and as a small business entrepreneur...
...The only thing lacking is the political will of governments to do so...
...The issue was not economics but politics: who would control the company...
...The strong emphasis on the jobs of defense workers disap- pointed the participants from peace organizations and those representing groups concerned with economic justice and the rights of minority groups...
...But, said Barbara Jordan, it still remains for the United States to honor that legacy by ratifying the charter...
...Although Mrs...
...Labor unions from defense industries had been able to discuss their concerns with a broad range of groups from the rest of American society, and to receive the support of those groups...
...The contribution of political authorities has been important in the successes that conversion has achieved thus far...
...Moreover, management often views alternative product plans submitted by workers as threats to the hierarchical stmcl ture of industry...
...So can torture be...
...Only government can provide industry with enough eco- nomic inducements to persuade it to consider experiments in the civilian marketplace...
...Roosevelt her- self thought of it as her greatest legacy...
...Second, most conversion successes, and especially the Lucas Plan, have come from labor, not from management...
...While the government's immediate concern would be defense workers' jobs, its intervention would reinforce the principle of multipurpose government, one involved throughout the eco- nomy to promote the well-being of all citizens...
...If the latter did not share that perspective they at least had the opportunity to hear it spelled out by people who were willing to share and support the workers' own concerns...
...The most flagrant, the most terrible of these violations, is the systematic use of torture by one-third of the world's governments, even though in 1975 the United Nations adopted the Declaration Against Torture unanimously...
...As ~i young wife she was an active participant in the activities of newly enfranchised women--in voters' leagues, political groups, and the efforts to improve conditions for working women and their children...
...If we are as alive to human dignity, as conscious of the rights of the individual, as responsive to duty as was Eleanor Roosevelt, we will honor her by joining in the campaign to do just that...
...It was for this reason that in her later years--the years alone, she was called "First Lady of the World...
...We must also remember that there are individual memorials in time, money, and effort which can be made to further the kind of work Mrs...
...That relationship may have been one of the conference's more important achievements...
...Political coalitions in Connecticut and Minnesota have been promoting legislative initiatives that would commit their states to more active conversion roles...
...Most defense work- ers, and especially its management, are hostile to disarmament proposals, both for ideological and economic reasons...
...Secretary of State Edmund S. Muskie, vice chair- man...
...It will be important not only in the effort for economic conversion, but for the continued development of broad-based progressive politics in this country...
...In that charter, she said, for the first time in history, the in~lividual, rather than his or her government, became party to an in- ternational agreement...
...The industry is reluctant to leave the comfort of government contracting to participate in a more competitive civilian economy...
...Eco- nomic conversion has to be presented as an opportunity to save American manufacturing jobs and provide steadier employ- ment for defense workers...
...It requires extensive planning and cooperation among government, labor, and management...
...All of these shared a more left-wing perspective, and some of them had hoped for a similar orienta- tion by the defense workers...
...As Seymour Melman has repeatedly pointed out, military contractors have become much less efficient than their civilian counterparts...
...What better way to mark the centennial than by ratifying it this year...
...Other Catholic partici- pants noted Pope John Paul II's support for a worker-oriented economy in his encyclical Laborem Exercens, and these points were warmly endorsed by participants from a variety of Protestant denominations...
...The world knows you are alive.' . . . That letter saved my life...
...The emergence of such a coalition is an event to be noted and applauded...
...Roosevelt sought to serve all humanity...
...By means of that charter a man or woman robbed of a personal right could appeal across bor- ders for redress and protection, could bring his or her plight to world attention...
...There is no doubt that ratification is the memorial Eleanor Roosevelt would pre- fer to all others...
...Today, a hundred years after Eleanor Roosevelt's birth, in an era of supposed progress, and many years after her death, in a period of rebuilding and renewed hope, the violation of human rights goes on...
...At the time of this year's observance, Premier Hedard J. Robichaud of New Brunswick was chairman, and former U.S...
...That will we can supply by persuasion, by pressure, by publicity...
...The fog-shrouded summer place which was her husband's "beloved island" was also a place Eleanor Roosevelt grew to love, and to which in her later years she returned for peace and refreshment...
...The conference concluded on a note of hope engendered by the unique character of the gathering...
...This has been a problem in American f'Lrrns as well...
...ABIGAIL McCARTHY 7 Seatember 1984:459...
...Mrs...
...Roosevelt should not abandon the effort to bring it about...
...Campobello, a part of the Canadian prov- ince of New Brunswick, is now an in- ternational park established by the gov- ernments of the United States and Canada and overseen by a commission chaired alternately by representatives of both countries...
...Experienced workers repeatedly described the intransigence of the industry in the face of proposals from workers for the development of new products...
...Throughout the conference there was strong support for economic conversion by representatives of religious groups...
...To see her as that alone, however, is to diminish her achievement...
...Roosevelt was spiritual heir to Ferraro's candidacy as the logical exten- those pioneers of social reform in the sion of twentieth-century woman's Settlement house movement and in com- march toward full mutual responsibility munity organizations who attacked the for the world in which she lives...
...I I I Third, while economic conversion might provide labor with greater influence on policy, it might also give political institu- tions greater control over economic planning...
...Although there is little hope that, in the distractions of an elec- tion year, this could be achieved by the date of her birthday in October, those who seek to so honor Mrs...
...It is a tried and true tactic of Amnesty International to encourage the ordinary citizen to write telegrams and letters on behalf of prisoners known, to be held or thought to be among the "disappear-ed...
...Roosevelt established her identity made it clear by teaching and example that woman had not only a right but a duty to take part in the things which afand her public life within the conven-fected her life, the lives of her children, tional boundaries of her role as helpmate, and of all humanity...
...Congressmen Mavroules and Weiss have proposed a federal commitment in this effort...
...Economic conversion, particularly if workers share in the planning as they have abroad, could mean a more influential role for American labor in determining industrial policy...
...KEVIN J. CASSIDY (Kevin J. Cassidy is assistant professor of politics at Fair- field University, Fairfield, Conn...
...Bishop DeRoo's address systematically set out the Catholic teaching that grants labor primacy over capital, and supports democratic planning of the economy...
...Her tireless work and her great diplomatic skill were decisive factors in bringing that about...
...This gives hope to the prisoners and their families...
...She was a young woman when the suffragettes were making their final, eventually victorious struggle...
...The most impor- tant thing to know about torture in the eighties is that something can be done about it...
...Amnesty International (304 W. 58th, NYC), the...
...evils of slum-ridden cities at the turn of Commonweal: 458 the century, before women had the vote...
...Conversion cannot happen in a laissez-faire economy...
...MESSAGE AT CAMPOBELLO It was Eleano~ Roosevelt who laid Of several minds: Abigail McCarthy c|aim once and for all to the public sphere as part of woman's domain...
...Lucas workers were repeatedly turned away with their proposals --proposals that wereinvariably adopted later by other firms --because management was unwilling to accept worker participation in policy-making...
...she would certainly welcome Geraldine Mrs...
...agency which works to protect prisoners' rights everywhere, can document in- stances of torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners in ninety-eight coun- tries, "from security headquarters in Spain to prison cells in Iran, from secret police centers in Chile to special psychiatric hospitals in the Soviet Union...
Vol. 111 • September 1984 • No. 15
