Datelines
Ellner, Samuel H. Day Jr., Jonathan Tasini, Aaron Epstein, Dan Mintie, and Steve
DATELINES Bringing the War Home AMES, IOWA "It was the most successful speech I ever made." Dave Dellinger, a political activist who has made many of them, was reminiscing in the student...
...The controversial presence—"outside interference," many call it—of slick American consultants began in 1975 when Joe Napolitan, who had been Hubert Humphrey's media expert in 1968, guided the presidential candidate of Democratic Action to an upset victory...
...We thought you'd know how to take good care of him...
...I call that betrayal," said Pete Beltran, the local's president, at a March rally which, despite severe rainstorms, attracted 700 people in Los Angeles...
...Cherf says monthly heating bills for the courthouse have been about $250, one-tenth what they were with the old oil furnace...
...Geothermal, by its very nature, is going to allow much greater citizen participation...
...Auto workers are concerned that GM will shut down the local plant, as the company has done to other California factories such as Freemont and Southgate...
...Secret Service and FBI officials claim they are more trustworthy than their predecessors of a decade ago, and they promise to be more cautious about infringing on rights...
...Listen, you yellow-bellied pacifist son of a bitch," he replied...
...If the suspect is sought for a crime somewhere, the computer registers a "hit...
...What Ephrata had stumbled on was geothermal energy...
...After cooling, the water is pumped into the city's potable water system to serve its second purpose...
...The day after the strike had ended, the guards seized the recalcitrant prisoner and marched him off to a section packed with former soldiers and sailors who had been* drummed out of the military for serious crimes—Lew-isburg's meanest and toughest...
...is a contributing editor of The Progressive...
...I had to go out with a little road show before people began to understand that we'd stumbled on something that was actually worthwhile...
...Lewisburg was getting fed up with him...
...This was how the guards introduced Dellinger to the "fuck-ups": "We want you to meet a guy who thinks he's too good to fight for his country...
...For its part, GM has kept public statements regarding the campaign to a minimum...
...Financing is the major obstacle currently facing towns and cities that hope to shift from oil to geothermal heating...
...Pollsters from the United States have also come under attack...
...After the election, Napolitan accused him of being overconfident and power hungry...
...He picked at the food on his plate and thought back on the time, forty years ago, when his speaking powers were tested at the Federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania...
...From the beginning, we focused on the alliance between our local, the white community, the Chicano community, the black community, and the religious groups," said Mann, who has been coordinating the campaign...
...Five years later, David Garth, who has engineered New York Mayor Ed Koch's media campaigns, lent his services to the Christian Democratic party, which managed to pull off an upset of its own...
...Various proposals have recently been presented to the Electoral Commission to prohibit the diffusion of misleading survey information...
...But their track record is that they have lost every plant in California...
...Brody asks...
...The workers threaten a consumer boycott against the company if GM doesn't go along with the idea...
...An 85-degree aquifer lying beneath the town had been located, and the city had begun pumping water from a newly drilled potable well...
...Suspecting the layoffs were a prelude to shutdown, United Auto Workers Local 645 initiated the anti-closure campaign...
...A local cop stops a suspect and checks the FBI's national crime computer, a gold mine of data containing information on tens of thousands of wanted persons...
...They called it the "fuck-up" section...
...In addition, there may be political benefits to the kind of development occurring in places like Ephrata...
...Complaints from clients, though, are tame compared to the criticism the consultants draw from Venezuelan nationalists, who say Garth and Napolitan are privy to secret information that should not fall into the hands of foreigners...
...I've been out there fighting our battles...
...Look," he said...
...I felt bad about that—and a little guilty," Dellinger told his listeners at the cafeteria table...
...But instead of standing idly by, the workers have launched a campaign to obtain a "loophole-free" commitment from GM to keep the plant open and operating at full strength for "as long as there is a General Motors," says Mann...
...He wants the Germans and the Japs to win the war...
...But other boosters of geothermal energy are not as optimistic as Jordan...
...He's going to be with you for a while...
...Samuel H. Day Jr...
...Dellinger pulled the covers over his head and gave a silent prayer as the footsteps approached...
...The seeds of the campaign were sown last fall, when GM officials told the Van Nuys workers that the factory might be closed in the near future...
...The president of the Electoral Commission has called for the prohibition of outside publicity agents, and the superintendent of foreign investment has announced that such consultants unnecessarily drain the country's foreign exchange reserves...
...A cool shower was not to be had, and tap water needed refrigeration before anyone would drink it...
...The debate over the expanded scope of surveillance involves the question of what standards, if any, the Secret Service should meet before designating a person as potentially dangerous...
...The more decentralized an energy system is, the more democratic it is going to be," says Matthew Jordan, executive director of the Puget Sound Conversion Project, a citizens' action group concerned with issues of economic democracy...
...They also cite the Venezuelan constitution, which expressly forbids outsiders from participating in the nation's politics...
...Late that night, as he lay in his bed, the sound of footsteps made him wonder whether his time had come...
...In a letter to the Justice Department, the ACLU noted that the Secret Service "maintained a file of over 47,000 persons, including such noncriminals as Ralph David Abernathy, Cesar Chavez, Walter Fauntroy, Coretta Scott King, Benjamin Spock, and Roy Wilkins...
...In Venezuela, Napolitan and Garth have endured an uneasy partnership with their clients...
...Dellinger did not bring the revolution to Lewisburg that day, but he did manage to save his own skin—and to win grudging acceptance from his fellow inmates...
...But bringing back the second shift won't necessarily ease the workers' concerns, since the Southgate plant closing was announced shortly after the second shift was brought back there...
...I think we would riot," says Jenko...
...Since their initial work, Napolitan and Garth have become virtual fixtures in Venezuelan politics...
...But Edwards is skeptical...
...Still, the local union members are unlikely to find support from the UAW leadership for any future boycott effort...
...We have no plans to close the plant," he says...
...What assurances do we have that this [new] system will not evolve into the sort of system maintained by the Secret Service in the 1970s, when 'dangerousness' and 'threat' were interpreted to include political dissent...
...DATELINES Bringing the War Home AMES, IOWA "It was the most successful speech I ever made...
...The union leadership stressed that GM has been using $3 billion in contract concessions from the union to buy stock in Isuzu, the Japanese car company in which GM now has a 40 per cent share interest...
...Are you going to believe that crap...
...The Shadow of Your File WASHINGTON, D.C...
...People from Southgate are saying they wished that they had done something instead of rolling over and playing dead...
...The heat is then transferred to a secondary loop that provides space heat for the Grant County courthouse and for a few units of low-income housing...
...Secret Service spokesman Joseph Petro concedes this is a "rather subjective and difficult decision...
...He had persuaded them that their grievances were with the system, not with him, so they left him alone...
...The leftist party, Movement Toward Socialism, has taken to labeling the propaganda of Napolitan and Garth, "Made in U.S.A...
...After recounting this experience, Dellinger said, "I don't want you to get the idea that the prisoners in even the toughest joints are that much different from you and me...
...They've been force-feeding me, trying to break me down, because I've been trying to get better treatment for the prisoners here...
...It was just that he was already in trouble at the time, and he had to protect himself...
...Look, we ought to try to stick together and help each other where we can," Dellinger recalled saying...
...He and four other objectors had just completed a thirty-five-day hunger strike followed by thirty-five days of forced feeding to protest racial discrimination and other injustices at the prison...
...We've been involved with the whole process," Brody says, adding that the drive to keep the plant open is "supported by [UAW president-elect] Owen Bieber...
...What are we going to do, boycott our own product...
...Jonathan Tasini (Jonathan Tasini is a free-lance writer in Los Angeles who covers labor issues...
...We got some pretty irate calls down at city hall," remembers Jim Cherf, Ephrata's chief engineer...
...Weak, wobbly, half-deaf and blind from prolonged hunger, Dellinger looked around in panic...
...The procedure is routine...
...We make GM cars all over the country...
...Don't believe the lies they tell you...
...They passed by his bed, then disappeared...
...The union local has made a concerted effort to gain the support of other organizations...
...Then the guards left...
...Proponents of geothermal development are quick to point out benefits beyond cheap energy...
...And Garth's aggressive style is at odds with Rafael Caldera, this year's sedate Christian Democratic candidate, who sees himself as a champion of national consensus and harmony...
...Napolitan had troubles getting along with the Democratic Action's presidential candidate in 1978...
...Part of the problem is that a project like this can be seen as a local government's challenging a utility for the supply in a certain area," says Pollard Dickson, the town's planning director...
...If we just sit around and do nothing, the big energy companies— Chevron, Arco, and the like— will move in and drill the wells and produce the steam," says Gordon Bloomquist, who chairs the state's Inter-Agency Geothermal Development Council...
...Well, if you ask me, I can't think of a better thing that could happen in this country—particularly here in the Northwest...
...he began, peering through bleary eyes at the shadowy figures around him...
...In mid-April, GM announced it would begin rehiring 2,000 people at Van Nuys...
...Energy Underfoot SEATTLE On a summer day in July 1978, the cold water ran hot in the small town of Ephrata, Washington...
...Listing them in the FBI's National Crime Information Center provides "an invaluable tool" for alerting Federal agents to the whereabouts and activities of such "dangerous" persons, says Secret Service Director John R. Simpson...
...Dave Dellinger, a political activist who has made many of them, was reminiscing in the student cafeteria at Iowa State University during a recent Midwestern conference on campus militarism...
...media consultants and pollsters in political campaigns here...
...While acknowledging "the overriding interest" in guarding the lives of Presidents and other important officials, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has warned of potential abuses...
...It seemed to me I should have done something to help the guy...
...And civil libertarians also are troubled by the prospect that local police forces will use the computer data to harass the innocent people who have landed on the rolls...
...One month later, the company eliminated the second shift, throwing the 2,500 employees off the assembly line...
...He even spits on the flag...
...Steve Ellner (Steve Ellner is an associate professor of economics at the Un-iversidad de Oriente, Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela...
...Aaron Epstein (Aaron Epstein is national correspondent for Knight-Ridder's Washington bureau...
...It was an uncertain security, however...
...But the workers have not had an easy time obtaining the active support of the UAW's regional and national leadership...
...The other man looked his would-be benefactor in the eye, drew a knife from his pocket, and pointed the blade at Dellinger's chin...
...asks Representative Don Edwards, the California Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights...
...But because utility and oil companies stand opposed to local energy self-sufficiency, it may be some time before more towns join Ephrata and North Bonneville in making the switch to geothermal...
...Company spokesman Kurt Antonius says the union is creating a controversy where none exists...
...Everybody in the community knows about our campaign now," says Kelly Jenko, a member of the plant closing committee and a laid-off single mother with four children...
...Geothermal power is "clean," they say—it doesn't destroy the environment—and it is also "low-tech," requiring only modest amounts of investment capital...
...To civil libertarians, however, this attempt to bolster Secret Service protection carries grave risks...
...Not just for me, but for all of us...
...Dan Mintie (Dan Mintie is a Seattle-based writer on Northwest issues...
...Samuel H. Day Jr...
...The plant is operating with one shift, and we hope to bring back the second shift...
...The international has always believed that negotiating with GM is best if you play it cool and that the market determines whether you work or not," says one auto worker...
...A Plant That Won't Die VANNUYS, CALIFORNIA "We are raising serious questions about the rights of workers under capitalism," says Eric Mann, one of the 2,500 employees laid off by General Motors here...
...Later, the guy who said that to me turned out to be a pretty good fellow...
...Later he learned that another prisoner had been pulled out of bed that night, taken to a washroom, and gang-raped...
...Advice and Dissent PUERTO LA CRUZ, VENEZUELA Venezuela's next presidential election won't take place until December, but one issue has already caught the attention of Venezuela's voters: the role played by U.S...
...I do not think we would walk as quietly as we did at Southgate...
...The Secret Service claims these people represent "a potential danger" to the President and other high Government officials...
...Early this year, Ephrata's geothermal heating system went into effect...
...So, at the first opportunity, the peace activist approached the rape victim and offered his sympathy...
...You come near me one more time and I'll cut your fucking throat...
...After the March rally, UAW higher-ups did endorse the campaign, and Marvin Brody, the UAW's assistant regional director for the western region, denies resistance to the campaign...
...In the past, Venezuelan parties have contracted with American firms to conduct opinion polls designed to generate favorable data...
...North Bonneville, Washington, a little town some 150 miles south of Ephrata on the Columbia River, has had a well for two years, but its geothermal project has been stalled because of insufficient capital...
...The nation is once again facing "surveillance by a national police of people who have never committed a crime," says Edwards, who promises to introduce legislation to modify or ban the new computer program...
...Last year, GM sold 126,000 cars in Los Angeles alone...
...World War II was on, and Dellinger, a conscientious objector, was serving time for refusing to register for the draft...
...His tablemates, most of them less than a third his age, were pressing him about his early days as a war resister...
...Nationalism is strong here, and many feel that native advisers are at least as effective as foreigners who know less about Venezuelan culture and politics...
...You guys should be ashamed for not being out there on the line with us...
...And even a leading member of Democratic Action has conceded that 1983 may be the last election year when foreign consultants can dip into their bag of tricks...
...Water is pumped from the original well and the temperature of the waiter is boosted to about 115 degrees...
...Night time was fear time at Lewisburg, when personal scores were most apt to be settled...
...Such a role is not uncommon for these public relations whizzes: Napolitan has rented his talents to Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, while Garth lavished his skills on Israel's Menachem Begin...
...Now, in the aftermath of John Hinckley's attempted assassination of President Reagan two years ago, about 400 new names are being added to the computer— names of individuals with no criminal record and wanted for no crime...
...If GM were to close the plant, the reaction from workers would probably be more severe than the company is accustomed to...
...The effort has already been endorsed by dozens of area groups who fear the sort of adverse effects that a shutdown had in nearby Southgate, where other businesses have closed down and where the incidence of alcoholism, suicide, and domestic violence has increased...
...Antonius says the company is committed to keeping the Van Nuys plant open, but points out that "neither GM nor any company is going to guarantee that a facility is going to stay open...
Vol. 47 • May 1983 • No. 6
