——— ARE STUDENTS By JEANETTE MICHEL ee ivory tower is on fire,” ee Charlie Boylan but who (be- €s the students, the faculty — a few conscientious par- €nts) gives a damn. Brot people are involved in rie of a living, pinching pen- inp » Stretching dollars, post dat- we checks for overdue bills, ste Over youngsters, and a 8gling to find some meaning- Consequences to their hard r Pressed existences, and here, as if from the St : forth er clarion call rings nea € Ivory Tower is Burn- Me May I humbly suggest that seems ¢ in S preoccupation cle ma dly irrelevant. His arti- some y be accurate reporting in ‘ Connects: but if so, so what? ale is es that the class strug- versitiee wing over into the Uni- thig aa and I contend that if nag the case why try to har- he effects of a revolt with- *PPing its source. ae sagree with Charlie’s em- Dense sf Personalities at the ex- tend ae basic issues, and I con- ny nat democratization of in eyeesities is not a major issue mong: Meas of the system of that Poly capitalism. I contend arlie’s apparent accept- ers 4 d defence of Jerry Far- Bument inittedly unscientific ar- illogical Students as Niggers” is Sse Mann Marxist, and pro- My oni eeists should never, in any eee take a holiday in their public critical analy- en ance an top of a Church class consciousness and specific working class economic condi- tions. Of course students require democratic educational systems but the workers need for a truly democratic government is far more basic and important. Of course students require better housing “and better job oppor- tunities, but so do miners, gar- bage workers, lumbermen, etc. Are students so special that their physical needs require separate devise a new system of defence to rationalize the same system and our dear Charlie will no doubt set forth in all his glory to slay the new phony giant who is called forth to glorify and main- tain the educational system which supplements and compli- ments monopoly capitalism. Per- sonalities, I submit, do not mat- ter, the system does. Let us .therefore attack the system (the basic one). © As a Marxist student I also contend that Charlie’s apparent preoccupation with student re- volt (worse still, his suggestion that students must revolt in or- der to prove their manhood) without qualification or explana- tion as to how this revolting be- haviour may be related to, or correlated with the basic class contradictions is a prize example of irresponsible inane journal- ism, and pseudo intellectualism. Regardless of the state of re- volutionary consciousness of the miners, lumbermen, farmers, fac- tory workers, etc., the roots of the contradiction and the focal point for any major change is here. A revolution can never be sparked by burning an ivory tower (if indeed an ivory tower is combustible), and since Char- lie obviously likes to utilize me- taphysical medieval allegories to demonstrate his point (the burn- ing of towers and Frye holding court) I know he will forgive me if I do the same. To try to burn down the castle by laying waste the outhouse is no way to “The ivory tower is on fire," says Charlie Boylan, but who (besides the students, the faculty and — a few conscientious parents) gives a damn. _seenecn, sec ee : caller the system of logic belie dialectical marterialism. I Wsis that even his critical ana- 5 of Frye’s interpretation of Proletariat is specious since hig bean presumes to present Doing unition from the vantage both Of a Marxist, why even : €r to discredit it as non- TXist, DhalS@pprove of Charlie’s em- our» Of Student problems with- inte Blving his subject any clear Trélationship to working treatment? As to my first contention. Charlie’s preoccupation with one man’s stand (albeit, a_ typical bureaucratic university adminis- trator’s stand) is clearly avoid- ance of the main issue. He seems to forget that Frye is only one man, a product of a system, and as such his arguments in de- fence of that system should not be seen as a-major target for vilification. If Frye’s arguments are disproven, another Frye will -versities, destroy the monarchy, and to em- phasize the inadequacies of uni- a mere appendage (though an elaborate, essential one) of a glaringly corrupt sys- tem, is an attempt to do just that. The least it will accomplish is to alarm the king’s servants in the cellar (who don’t have access to the king’s outhouse) who in turn will be inclined to stomp out the fire including the im- pertinent marauders, and the most it will accomplish is to bring down the king’s soldiers (who are now casually pilfering around in the countryside) who in turn will consolidate their power, systematize their thieving and all to the detriment of all the king’s faithful subjects. To promote revolution where there is no real revolutionary situation (no real exploited, and no real exploiters in the strict basic economic sense) is to be unwit- ting provocateurs of fascism. The need to fight for democ- racy in the University (and I agree it is a need) is rather a moot point, when democracy does not exist in an economic sense for the majority of Cana- dians. At best it is a supplemen- tary tactic and at worst is a fu- tile maneuver unrelated to the - goal of socialism in Canada. Taranees FOaTEU ONSET THe ee ee CTT SO SPECIAL the vast proletariat, and he sug- gests and I agree, there is a need for dialogue between the acade- dic community and the largely inarticulate proletariat. Yet, I be- lieve a reversal of tactics toward this end, would be in order. I have personally known and know of hundreds of common rela- tively inarticulate folk who take courses from English Lit. to po- litical science in a naive strug- gle to comprehend the’ world from a new vantage point and understand things in a more meaningful way, yet I know of very few students (not compell- ed by economic expediency) who have voluntarily worked in the mines, fields and forests in order to understand the world from the worker’s point of view. Nor have I seen much evidence of students participating in a strike, or manning the picket lines and it seems to me that the best way to destroy a tower is not to try to reconstruct it from the top but nant by the presence of faculties and subfaculties dedicated to the study of germ and psychological few student pickets and brilliant- ly articulate oratories for the purpose of exposure will never dismantle such projects. Why? Because the American public mind is conditioned to accept the necessity of psychological warfare. (Press agents are essen- tial and advertising helps, are domestic forms of the same pro- cess) and they are not prepared to accept the proposition that Major Nelson (of I Dream of Jeannie fame) or Sargent Bilco, those loveable carefree bumbling soldier boys with equally endear- ing superiors are capable of such completely incompatible un- related acts. Yet strangely the public (because of ‘the method of news presentation) believe that students and hippies are capable of anything. After all they are the ones who carry these repul- sive gory pictures of war vic- rather to shake its foundations. Charlie’s acceptance of Jerry Farber’s contention, namely that the objective grievances of the Negro people are exactly the same as the objective grievances of the university students is, an extremely queer equation of lo- gic. How can one logically relate in qualitative terms psychologi- cal grievances with physcial op- pression? The Negroes are a race of people of African origin. What is the race or ethnic origin of the student movement? They may indeed be a rare breed, but let us not allow our sentiment to obscure our common sense. The Negro people have struggled through centuries of oppression, both economic and psychologi- cal, What, may I ask is the his- tory of student oppression? The Negro people are a socio-econo- mic group of people directly re- lated to the lower classes of ex- ploited poor whites. Their aims, with the exception of narrow opt out elements within the so called black power movement, are to become an integral part of prosperous well educated mid- dle class America. The aim of the student movement is to either alter, destroy, or opt out of American society. It is therefore obvious that Jerry Farber’s con- cept as expressed in Students as Niggers is a completely illogical thesis and Charlie’s carte blan- che acceptance of it is even tims, they are the ones who dress queerly, act strangely (marches, sit-ins, snake dances, warfare on campus, and I sug- gest that they overcome their nausea and make use of the faci- lities available in order to reverse such deadly national trends. A political rallies on campus, etc.) It follows that they are there- fore the ones who deserve con- demnation and need to change their ways. Besides educated people don’t dress like bums, grow long beards and long hair and even though they may feel related to the Indian Fakirs (in their mind’s eye) they are related in a very real sense to the Ameri- can people and should dress ac- cordingly. These young people by their gesture and dress ap- pear to the public mind as the obvious aliens in their midst. For Charlie’s benefit and hope- fully for the enlightenment of ‘other misguided young men and women, I shall try to demon- strate how the students are un- wittingly the main impediment to the fulfilment of their bright- est dreams for a peaceful and progressive America. One of the impediments is because they tend to live according to the brilliant light of their most trea- sured dreams, laudable but not very realistic because life is not built by dreams, it is built by practicable insight. ‘I shall close: this portion of bite al Wis ce | 4 It seems to me that Charlie is © Worse. ; 2 my. rebuttal by: repeating,. “The. i ye ‘attempting: to” present ' the ‘stu-°'- Charlie’ Says that’ students ‘aré’ ' Ivory : Tower: is, Burning’ /..s0 0” 7 Rt -© dent’s' case’ for the edification of .' generally -nauseated