Datelines

...It was a generalization...

...And the employees will be on the board of directors," added David Brownlee, at twenty-one the youngest member of the cooperative...

...Just a few blocks from the deserted Front Street store, at the UFCW union hall, the future worker-owners have been meeting two or three nights a week since March...

...newspapers last fall told readers that "U.S...

...At the same time, divisions among Santa Monica's Left on this issue replicate splits in other American communities where Jews and non-Jews alike have been slow to reevaluate automatic support for Israel in the face of the Begin government's mounting militarism...

...That's what being a cooperative means...

...Industry spokesmen admit overspending for oil and gas tracts to show Congress that windfall profits are going into exploration...

...firms, Pfizer and Squibb—which collectively control some 75 per cent of Bangladesh's estimated $100 million annual drug market, of using their superior resources to manufacture simple and sometimes unnecessary drugs, when they should be concentrating on essential drugs which only they have the technology to manufacture...

...As guests of the Israeli Association for the Welfare of Soldiers—a rough equivalent of the USO— the duo made the trip in part as a "morale boost" for the advancing Israeli army...

...Here, we'll hire a manager, and if we don't like him, we'll fire him...

...Goals like those prompted a reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News to write recently that the cooperative supermarkets sounded "like something out of Karl Marx's Das Kapital...

...We've had input all the way down the line: What we call ourselves, whether we wanted just one store, even the selection of a store manager...

...If such weapons had been available in Vietnam, they would certainly have been found more cost-effective than Agent Orange or other chemical defoliants...

...Though the Bangladesh initiative is in line with the domestic drug policies of most developed countries and with World Health Organization guidelines, it is proving a hard pill for the multinationals to swallow...

...A full-page advertisement in many U.S...

...Mayor Goldway says she was motivated to write the resolution by her strong belief that "it is important for people in the United States to express our support of Israel...

...and formulations containing clioquinol, an anti-diarrheal restricted in the United States and banned in some other industrialized nations...

...What you won't read about in the popular press are the military applications of these new technologies...

...Medical and agricultural research aimed at controlling disease can be turned around to create disease...

...In 1974, the chain had 3,468 supermarkets...

...It is likely that the military's ability to protect troops will not lag too far behind the development of new weapons...

...The commercial applications are many—pharmaceuticals, food processing, agriculture, and energy...

...Production and reserves of U.S...

...Now the alleged progressives of Santa Monica—mostly Gentiles—have undermined our efforts in their crude play for Jewish votes...

...Progressive Jews have worked for years against the 'Israel right or wrong' mentality and the general rightward drift of the Jewish community," adds activist attorney Jeff Cohen, who lives in nearby Venice...

...Production in even the most oil-rich states, Texas and Louisiana, has fallen by 50,000 barrels a day in the last two years and by more than one million barrels a day since 1972...

...And we can do that through cooperation...

...Well, I hope so," said Maiorini, the hybrid worker-owner, capitalist-cooperator that the 1980s economy will probably spawn more of...

...In a regular supermarket, that's unthinkable...

...We think the oil and gas are out there...

...And given the priorities in military decision-making, that means they would have been used...

...Special "drug courts" will impose penalties, including stiff fines and confiscation of property and equipment, for manufacturers and traders who violate the drug policy...

...Stock people, deli clerks, assistant managers, cashiers—all have been grappling with how much power to give their new managers, how much to pay themselves, how to split profits, how to negotiate with the union as workers and owners, what to sell, what to call their stores...

...liquid and gaseous petroleum peaked in the early 1970s and generally have declined since despite considerable increases in drilling effort," concluded a study by Charles A.S...

...After a generally harmonious first year in power, a bitter dispute has flared within the victorious coalition—though not over the city's appreciable gains in implementing effective rent control and removing urban planning from corporate hands...

...Bangladesh's efforts at reform began last April, when the Ministry of Health appointed an expert committee, headed by a respected scientist not associated with the multinationals or their friends in Bangladesh's health establishment, to review the nation's drug policy...

...Tom Hayden, the Democratic Party nominee for the state assembly district encompassing Santa Monica and west Los Angeles, is closely allied and identified with the Santa Monica city council's progressive majority...

...When Congress was considering additional windfall taxes in 1979, Mobil and Exxon splurged $75.2 million and $20 million respectively on bids for Georges Bank tracts when the nearest competitors came in at $3 million...

...The trend toward "monocultures" of genetically identical crops in many countries increases their vulnerability...

...Many of the shortcomings of existing biological weapons, such as lack of specificity, danger to the user, and dangers of dispersal, can thus be overcome with the aid of the new technologies...

...Forty-four of the stores closed in the past year were in the Philadelphia area...

...The study measured the energy cost of drilling against the yield per dollar of petroleum and gas delivered...

...But civilians will not have access to such protection...

...Norman Solomon (Norman Solomon is co-author of the new book "Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America's Experience with Atomic Radiation, " published by Delacorte Press and Delta Books...

...A number of "stripper" wells (producing less than ten barrels per day) were revived in the Southwest, for example, as higher prices made them profitable again...

...It estimated that domestic oil and gas reserves will cease to be a net energy source by the year 2015 or much sooner, depending on the drilling rate...

...Health Action International, an informal cooperating network of public interest groups active in health issues based in Malaysia, points out in a briefing paper, "The Bangladesh authorities may yet overcome the opposition and problems that stand in the way, but it will be a unique achievement if they do...

...The controversy centers on attitudes toward Israel and its invasion of Lebanon...

...But when asked where these deposits exist, Joe Ramey, New Mexico's conservation director and an official of the organization, said, "It didn't refer to specific deposits...

...John Baxter of the University of California recently received a $70,000 grant from the Department of Defense...

...It is also because such efforts appear to offer-a 'solution' to the decline in domestic oil production when it appears that no genuine long-term solution CX1StS' —Patrick McCaffrey (Patrick McCaffrey, a former reporter for The Baltimore Sun and The Atlanta Journal, is a free-lance writer in Santa Fe...

...Yet the Director of Life Sciences at the Pentagon recently confirmed that the Defense Department has a half-dozen recombinant DNA projects and stated that the research program was growing rapidly...

...But it is also a down-payment on job security, self-governance, mutual respect, and jobs where the workers will call the shots...

...They show, in fact, that oil and gas reserves and production continue to decline, even if at a slower rate...

...Pharmaceutical manufacturers cite failures in Pakistan and Sri Lanka to enforce 1970s drug policy reforms that included provisions for selling generic drugs...

...Among drugs deemed unnecessary are cough mixtures, throat lozenges, combinations of analgesics which have no therapeutic advantage and are more toxic than single formulations, and "restoratives" and "vitamin tonics" reminiscent of patent medicines...

...The opportunity to prevent development of lethal biological weapons may be slipping through our fingers right now...

...A spokeswoman for the Institute conceded that these increases are from known fields...

...by last February, it was down to 1,055...

...companies' concerns, though the State Department denies it holds any position on the law...

...New biological weapons will, like existing chemical weapons, be much more deadly for civilians than for soldiers...

...He is thought to be developing biological agents which either mimic the effects of nerve gas or help protect troops against nerve gas—the goal of his research has not been made public...

...Additional drilling has demonstrated that previously unsuspected large deposits of natural gas exist," a resolution asserted...

...Such optimism sometimes leads the industry to overstatement...

...Something New at the Old A&P PHILADELPHIA It was a hot August day, and under the parcel pick-up sign of an empty A&P store on Front Street, a man lay sleeping in the sun...

...The Lebanon invasion has forced many liberal and moderate Jews to join us for the first time in questioning Begin's policies...

...A letter signed by twenty-nine staff employees (60 per cent of the rent control work force) denounced the city council's resolution for "sanctioning untold violence and needless death...

...Nonetheless, such statements apparently impress the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees natural gas prices...

...oil production in 1980, the first year of deregulation, was 8.6 million barrels a day, a figure greater than that for 1979 but lower than 1978's 8.7 million barrels a day and considerably less than 1972's 9.4 and 1973's 9.2...

...If use of past technologies is any indication, this means that the U.S...

...Hall and Cutler J. Cleveland of Cornell University...

...Alexander Hiam (Alexander Hiam is a free-lance writer and consultant to biotechnology firms...

...The development of new offensive biological weapons is prohibited by various treaties dating back to the Geneva Protocol of 1925...

...The United Food and Commercial Workers union here suddenly found it had more than 2,000 members out of work...

...The U.S...

...It seems likely that some compromises will be made, possibly on such issues as licensing arrangements, generic names, or price controls...

...troops to be immunized so that only the population singled out for attack would suffer...

...Based on the drilling rate since the early 1970s, the study predicted that oil alone could reach the break-even point by the mid 1980s...

...The fact is that no developing country in which multinationals dominate the market, and in which private medicine flourishes, has yet succeeded in eliminating even a small proportion of the total number of bad, indifferent, and overpriced products there...

...People are being misled terribly," contends Hall, warning against such expensive drilling...

...A recent article in the magazine Nature quoted a scientist who had seen classified military budgets allocating hundreds of millions of dollars to genetic engineering research...

...Despite these gloomy figures, the industry remains optimistic that the surge in exploration will produce results...

...The four who voted for the resolution, including Mayor Ruth Yannatta Goldway, had been propelled into office by the Santa Monicans for Renters Rights coalition...

...But the remark just brought laughter from the members of the cooperative's Worker Education Committee, who were working one night at the union hall on a charter and a handbook for new members...

...It was neutral on the invasion...

...Perhaps, if Bangladesh becomes one of the first Third World countries to take control of its national health and to insist that drug companies behave responsibly, even Americans may ultimately reap benefits from Bangladesh's drug ordinance...

...Each has ponied up $5,000 for a share and a 'Were going to take advantage of the entire individual.' vote in the business...

...Last year, a special expert panel convened by the State Department concluded that the "impact of genetic engineering in biological warfare against people" was nonexistent...

...This arrangement heads off any reluctance A&P might have about selling stores to workers—the poisonous kind of management resistance that kept Youngstown, Ohio, steel workers from buying their closed mill from U.S...

...oil production declined each year for most of the 1970s, but increased in 1980 (following deregulation...

...Hayden has made no secret of his ambition to become a major force in the California (and national) Democratic Party...

...It also accused the eight multinational pharmaceutical companies— including two U.S...

...He winced at the word, as if socialism were some itchy long underwear...

...Both requests have been turned down...

...However, if the law does stand, even in part, its significance will extend beyond Bangladesh...

...He added: "We're going to take advantage of the entire individual—all his capabilities...

...That's a big risk, particularly for the laid-off...

...The results of our analysis," he says, "are that such efforts may not be in the best interest of the nation due to the lower efficiency of delivering petroleum at higher drilling rates...

...The Pentagon insists its research is purely defensive...

...A fungus that destroys sugar cane, for example, could damage the Cuban economy, and it might be impossible to prove who was responsible...

...Eventually these may have the far greater impact on society...

...And the increased prices, according to some scientists, are driving up the cost of exploration...

...When the co-op came, I had the idea of socialism," said Rick Cassel, a frozen food clerk laid off after sixteen years with A&P...

...In early July, Hayden and his wife Jane Fonda (both Gentiles) visited with wounded Israeli troops in Lebanon during a self-described "humanitarian and factfinding" stay in the Middle East...

...But the resolution was widely viewed as an endorsement of Israel's attack on Lebanon...

...As might be expected, the multinationals doing business in Bangladesh are mustering all their clout to persuade the government that it should soften its new policy...

...Though the original study was done two years ago, just before oil prices were deregulated and vast new exploration efforts were inaugurated, Hall said a recent update showed that the few unexpected increases in reserves come not from new fields, but from known fields and old wells of low-quality oil that weren't worth pumping before prices rose...

...On June 29, as Israeli forces besieged Beirut after plunging into Lebanon several weeks earlier, the Santa Monica city council approved by 4-to-3 vote a resolution declaring support for Israel's right "to secure borders, including its threatened northern border" and "to defend against the military threat of the PLO to Israel's existence...

...Biological weapons such as a fungal disease which attacks marijuana plants, tested recently by plant pathologist Arthur McCain of the University of California (under a grant from the U.S...

...In the Los Angeles area, many activists in progressive groups such as Democratic Socialist Alliance and New Jewish Agenda—as well as some with long histories of participation in the Santa Monica coalition—regard Hayden's Middle East journey as blatant opportunism...

...She also said their depletion projection is correct unless substantial new finds are made...

...The list of dangerous drugs includes codeine...

...But the fact that no other country is known to be involved in military genetic engineering research, and the extraordinary potential for developing new, deadly life forms, belie this claim...

...The 1980 figure represents an increase of 2.7 billion barrels over 1979, which Hall attributes to known fields and revitalized wells...

...The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention prohibits development of "microbial or other biological agents . . . that have no justification for prophylactic, protective, or other peaceful purposes...

...Mary Williams (Mary Williams is a contributing editor of The Progressive...

...Department of Energy figures, considered optimistic by the industry, domestic oil reserves have declined from 34.3 billion barrels in 1975 to 29.8 billion in 1980...

...In late July, it sent a delegation there to meet with government and health officials...

...The trip was arranged through Bangladesh's Foreign Ministry, with the help of the U.S...

...But we're more diehard capitalist than most," said Leo Maiorini, an eighteen-year A&P veteran who was helping manage a Super Fresh store but would soon go to work for the cooperative...

...What is not so typical about Bangladesh, though, is a government decision to crack down on abuses in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of drugs...

...Since this trait is so well understood, it would be a simple matter to develop not only organisms (bacteria, viruses, and fungi) causing diseases which cannot be treated with existing antibiotics, but also new antibiotics or vaccines for each new "super disease," enabling U.S...

...That makes it important to assess the military applications before they become a fact of life...

...True Friend' Tom Splits the Left SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA This coastal city of 86,000, bordering on Los Angeles, has become known to some as "the People's Republic of Santa Monica" since a progressive coalition gained five-to-two control of the city council in the spring of 1981...

...Around him were reminders of corporate flight: boarded windows, broken glass, scattered tires, a toppled entrance sign...

...But the failures seem to stem as much from corporate pressures as from quality control problems...

...One obstacle stands in the way of an open debate on the merits of genetically engineered biological weapons: Nobody is willing to admit that research is going on...

...Alaska and California are the only states to show any substantial increases since 1979...

...Similarly, the Interstate Oil Compact Commission, a group of public officials from thirty-seven energy-producing states, called on the Federal Government last year for faster deregulation of natural gas (now due to phase out in 1985...

...Government has been attentive, as always, to U.S...

...But then A&P suffered four straight years of losses, lapsing into fourth place, and began boarding up its windows across the country...

...The Vietnam war years were "a blip on Tom's life and on the life of this country," according to Hayden's press secretary, Stephen Rivers...

...Jews make up one third of the electorate in the district Hayden hopes to represent in the next California legislature...

...Along with other council members, the mayor contended that the resolution "was not necessarily in support of the invasion...

...All this is reported regularly in the popular press, where genetic engineering is hailed as the answer to all the world's problems, from cancer to food shortages...

...For most of Santa Monica's progressive city council members, the controversy over the resolution on Israel has pointed up a need to maintain closer communication with those who elected them...

...The results can be disastrous, as the situation in Bangladesh demonstrates...

...However, a State Department spokesman admits, "We would like to delay implementation of the law to allow the government of Bangladesh and the drug manufacturers to work out their differences...

...set up a national drug committee which must approve any advertisements or claims a company makes about a drug, and reserve the government's right to set maximum drug prices...

...In Third World countries, public health is often left to the multinational corporations that control the drug markets...

...In June, the government adopted most of the committee's recommendations in its tough new drug ordinance...

...Alison HlCKS (Alison Hicks is an editorial intern at The Progressive...

...Perhaps more important, weapons directed at crops and livestock could create widespread famine...

...In Bangladesh, too, the PMA is playing hard ball...

...Natural gas reserves have declined from 211 trillion cubic feet in 1975 to 200 trillion in 1980...

...I wondered as I watched them writing: Was the gamble worth it...

...Some scientists have spoken out against this research...

...Oil production slipped again in 1981 almost to the 1979 level, and it is expected to drop even lower this year, despite 12 per cent more drilling...

...The former anti-war activist and member of the "Chicago Eight," with ready access to millions of dollars, places little importance on the role of the Left in his drive to capture the electoral center...

...Much basic research in molecular genetics has focused on antibiotic resistance in bacteria...

...Scientists discovered, however, that some of the wells were actually being operated at an energy loss...

...There is strong suspicion that the council's resolution was partly aimed at boosting Hayden's image as a "true friend of Israel," a phrase headlined in a current Hayden campaign flyer...

...Furthermore, the multinationals expect to score one third of their sales volume in the Third World by the 1990s, and they fear that the Bangladesh ordinance could set a precedent for other developing countries...

...State Department...

...The cooperative supermarkets are part of a broader labor agreement under which A&P is also reopening some twenty-four stores on its own, with new management, a new name—Super Fresh—and a new concept...

...What it did not tell readers was that 1980 production, while slightly higher than 1979, trailed six other years in the 1970s...

...military will develop, and use, these weapons as quickly as possible...

...The store itself seemed a kind of monument, to "marginal" profits, decisions made far away, lost jobs...

...Their markets were flooded overnight by products of uncertain quality," claims Jay Kingman, vice president for international affairs of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PMA...

...Empty Wells, Empty Promises SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO Oil and natural gas companies claim that deregulation and higher prices have led to more exploration and the discovery of more oil and gas, but geological studies of proved reserves do not support their claims...

...Department of Agriculture), could be used against other crops...

...It's the kind of job you have...

...Super Fresh workers bought their jobs back with pay cuts and reductions in benefits, but they believe they are getting quid for their quo...

...According to the U.S...

...the results have not yet been made public...

...Later, an official of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds most academic genetic engineering research, agreed there was no military genetic engineering research...

...Existing technology and research could also be used to destroy livestock and crops quickly, easily, and cheaply...

...Jonathan King of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology asked the American Association for the Advancement of Science to take a stand against work on biological weapons...

...Other scientists apparently plan to profit from the growing military interest in genetic engineering...

...Figures compiled by the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group supporting expanded exploration, are compatible with those of Hall and Cleveland, showing a relatively small increase (about 10 per cent, attributable to Alaska's Prudhoe Bay) as a result of increased drilling...

...We're not just justifying prices," says Peter Hanagan, executive vice president of the Oil and Gas Association of New Mexico...

...We're in it to make a profit...

...Genetic engineering techniques are naturals for military use...

...You go in and you meet your manager...

...Steel...

...The UFCW fought back, though, with a tactic more and more unions are considering as companies close shops and demand concessions: It bought two of the closed stores...

...They will be the first supermarkets in the United States owned and controlled by their workers...

...Until a few years ago, A&P led the nation's major supermarket chains in volume, and stores like this one prospered...

...Richard Goldstein of the Harvard Medical School and Richard Novic of the Public Health Research Institute recently asked the NIH to include in its guidelines for recombinant DNA research a prohibition of military research...

...tetracycline syrup, which causes retardation of bone formation in children...

...Kicking the Habit WASHINGTON, D.C...

...The mood was one of determination: Each of the new cooperators has a lot of time, energy, money, and hope at stake...

...In response to the visit, the government of Bangladesh appointed a committee to review the law...

...Inside the Santa Monica city government, most of the rent control workers— whose jobs were created by the coalition's success—voiced their displeasure as well...

...Only about 10 per cent of the banned drugs are manufactured by the eight giant firms, but they account for a disproportionately high volume of sales...

...Biological weapons will be extremely practical and cost-effective from the military strategists' point of view...

...guarantee the manufacture and distribution of 250 "essential drugs," forty-five of which must be sold under generic names only by 1983...

...The committee recommended a total overhaul of the drug laws, noting that almost one third of all money spent on medicines is wasted on "useless, unnecessary, and at times harmful drugs" and that only 20 per cent of the population has access to drugs deemed necessary to public health...

...A spokesman said it is considering accelerating deregulation of gas from wells drilled before 1978 and gas found between levels of 10,000 and 15,000 feet rather than investigating industry claims...

...Any rational human being would have to come to the conclusion that it supports the invasion," says Joel Gayman, a Los Angeles area member of New Jewish Agenda, an organization which opposes Israel's military actions in Lebanon...

...This is but one of the areas in which industry sources concede that higher oil and gas prices drive up the cost of exploration...

...Stung by recurring allegations that he is pro-PLO, Hayden has worked hard in recent years to establish impeccable pro-Israel credentials...

...More energy (gas, oil, electricity) than the wells produced was being used to pump the gas and oil...

...Since 1979, the industry spent $800 million for tracts on Georges Bank, over $1 billion in Alaska's Beaufort Sea, and $1.9 billion offshore in the Gulf of Mexico...

...A quality-of-work-life program gives employees a say in store operations, trains them to run stores of their own, and gives them the first right to buy any stores A&P decides to close...

...Across the street, a monument dealer displayed a fitting array of tombstones and plastic floral wreaths...

...U.S...

...Thus industry spending is achieving its purpose of justifying higher prices and faster deregulation...

...Costly, unnecessary, and even dangerous medicines, slickly marketed to physicians and the public, glut the market there while the health needs of most people are ignored...

...If all goes as planned, the plywood will come off the windows by October...

...Obviously, they increase regularly as oil, gas, and electricity prices rise...

...Was this really the best way to hang on to a job...

...As a Jew, I resent what they've done...

...As for financing, A&P will put 1 per cent of Super Fresh's gross annual sales in a worker-controlled fund to be invested, in part, in other worker-owned businesses...

...While a small portion of the research may be related to defense, the rest is most likely directed at creating new weapons to defend against...

...DATELINES Sending DNA to War BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA The new genetic engineering techniques allow scientists to manipulate the genes of microorganisms, and eventually plants and animals as well, to an extent never before possible...

...Major provisions ban the manufacture, import, distribution, and sale of 1,707 drugs considered harmful or ineffective...

...A lot of times," he added, "I think it's not just a matter of keeping a job...

...But, most important, there are the new cooperatives...