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'.

"I was attached to this city as upon a grea.andnoble horse, which was somewhat slug-gish because of its size and needed to bestirred lip by a kind of gadfly."

-Sccrates in The Apology 30.J.

A UVM StudentNewspaper

Task ForceRight-WingBeing Formed

FamilyChittenden County

Margaret Martin

The Eagle Forum has landed in theBurlington area and it's not a prettysight. Phyllis Schlafly's proteges andco-conspirators-Ied by Nancy Str-inger, the woman who brought youthe death of Vermont's ERA-havetaken the form of the Vermont TaskForce on Families in Crisis. Theirstated mission is to combat domesticviolence and preserve the family unit.Their actual mission-despite publicstatements to the contrary-is tocounter nationwide the strong andgrowing network of services for vic-tims of abuse, and simultaneouslysend women somersaultingbackwards into the "homes" theyfinally had the strength to leave.Essex junction was chosen as the

group's fifth "experimental site," andsince May of 1986, when the programrecerveo a $62.2,905 grant from theU.S. Department of justice, the TFFChas lost no time in infiltrating thecommunities of Seattle, Honolulu, In-dianapolis, and Bossier City, Loui-siana. The grant is to be given in twoparts, with the second part contingenton the "success" of the programswhich have been implemented to thatpoint. Previous projects have suc-ceeded in drawing much criticism andproviding more than enough impetusfor groups such as the National Coali-tion Against Domestic Violence tocreate a special committee to monitor

(him) so much" since "it's not a daily,ongoing thing." Voth then went on togive a specific example of the sort ofinteraction which might take placebetween the couples: an older womanmight say to the younger one "Well,honey, can't you see that when yousay these things to your husband thatit makes him angry?" When a femalemember of the audience asked if hebelieved that a man was justified inhitting a woman, he assured her("No, my dear") that the wife merelyneeds a maternal figure showing thatshe is pr~voking her husband.

Inand implement prevention strategies"seems to be simply another well-intentioned effort to reduce the pro-blem of domestic violence. It isn't un-til the various individuals involved inthe project reveal themselves andopen their mouths that it becomesevident who and what must bestopped.The presentation panel at the

Radisson was made up of five menand two women and provided ahighly representative smattering ofthe TFFC Cast of Characters. Four ofthese are especially worth descrip-tion: Dr. Harold Voth, the man whodeveloped the theory on which theproject is based; Paul Hegstrom, areformed batterer whose theories arealso part of the project; Tottie Ellis,president and executive director ofthe TFFC and vice-president of theEagle Forum; and, last but not least,the chosen site director of the EssexProject, Nancy Stringer.Dr. Voth. who is Chief of Staff at

Colmery-O'Neil Medical Center inTopeka, Kansas, a retired NavyReserves rear admiral. and a"psychiatrist and psychoanalyst,"was the main speaker of the eveningand began by stating that our societyis "riddled with immature people whodon't have personal strength," thenexplained that this leads to a highdivorce rate which, in turn, "forces

TFFC ideologue Harold Voth stated, "theviolence part (of family life) doesn'tbother me so much" since "it's not a daily,ongoing thing. r r

the TFFC's activities. News of impen-ding danger travels quickly, even in acountry the size of the United States,and, as a result, there was no lack ofhostility in the air at Burlington'sRadisson Hotel on October 29 whenthe Essex junction project was in-troduced in a "community forum."The forum followed an exclusive day-long planning conference to whichfew of the leading local domesticviolence counselors had been invited.Packets presented to those atten-

ding the evening public forum werechock-full of statistics relating tospouse abuse and to family violencein general. followed by emphaticstatements like "IT MUST BE STOP-PED!" Also included was an explicitlyvague outline of the project's goals.At first glance, the TFFC's three-prong plan to "raise communityawareness, discover and developprivate sector resources," and "design

women to work when they could betaking care of the kids." Voth con-tinued by saying that "Every time afamily breaks up you're creating thetragedies of tomorrow," referring tC:the children of divorced parents, allof whom end up leading tragic adultlives, of course.The main idea behind Dr. Voth's

program is that there simply aren'tenough professionals to efficientlywork on the problem and that thevery simple solution is to find older,more experienced and mature coupleswho have had successful marriagesand match them up in a counselingsituation with a young couple whosemarriage is on shakyground-"asssuming that they havesense enough to look for help." Hesuggested that the project begin withcouples who aren't physically violentto show that it can work, because"the violence part doesn't bother

When questioned as to the sort oftraining that the older couple wouldreceive with respect to the emotional-ly delicate nature of domesticviolence and the accompanying in-tricate cycle of abuse, Voth answeredthat "their training is life." He saidthat he sees this process replacingcounseling and therapy, and caution-ed, when questioned further, that thekey was lack of rigidity, adding "If itdoesn't work, you'll know it."As Paul Hegstrom stood up to take

continued on page 15

Interview WithBernie Sanders

Cruic Photo

Chrissie DamonGadfly: How did you in your youthview electoral politics, both on a na-tional and on a local level?Sanders: I don't think any differentlythan anybody else in my family, myfamily was a reasonably non-politicalfamily. So the issue: electoral/non-electoral was not relevant. When Iwas a kid, ! think ! was reasonably.sensitive to the plight of the under-dog. Both within the context ofclassrooms as well as nationally:'black people, native americans, thesesorts of issues.Gadfly: When you ran for studentbody president in high school. didyou view yourself as a serious con-fender or were you running for someof the same reasons you espousedlater with Liberty Union, as a gadflyof sorts?Sanders:! was a child thenl ... No, in-terestingly enough, in running ... (and! did not win); in running ! was

serious.Gadfly: When you turned 21 did youvote7Sanders: Actually, ! didn't. Politicsinterested me in the sense of basicsocial issues such as social justice,poverty, the condition of black peo-ple or war and peace issues, but !would say, I certainly did notgravitate towards electoral politics. Ithink probably, I won't swear to it,that the first time ! voted was in thestate of Vermont, probably formyself.Gadfly: When you were involved inpolitics in college; the civil rightsmovement etc. did these activitiescomplement a commitment to changewithin the existing system or wereyou already committed to radicalchange through other channels 7Sanders: When! went away to col-

continued on page 17

The Gadfly Dec. 1, 1987 Page 1

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Family Task Forcecontinued from. p~~e 15 .

other programs such as the Unitedffed and surprised at that remark, Way. Some local programs, such asnsidering the fact that he mention- DAIP and WHBW, do not receive. several times what great effort he federal funding to begin with. In ad-rd gone to to get here and present dition, the TFFC could be a projecte program. Did Stringer really need simply for the sake of a project, and,have him come all the way to Ver- the participants will sit around con-ont to tell her about the program? gratulating each other while Nancye presented it earlier this year, in Stringer will have another an-pril, in Shreveport, Louisiana (the tifeminist job for which she willirger city next door to Bossier City) receive $8000.t that community's TFFC public The other possibility is far less)ru~. The ."possibility" of using benign. Greene thinks the communityamllres Helping Famllres must have may see more battering and moreeen quite strong when the TFFC in- deaths, literally and figuratively inromation card (included in the hand- the courts as women are left without'lit packets) was sent off to the money and options such as the.safety

Bob Green fears that TFFC will placeresponsibility on the victim when, in ac-tuality, "battering is not an interpersonalproblem. Change must be incumbent onthe abuser."

rinter, since it describes both Voth of shelters. He fears that TFFC willnd his program with Nancy Str- place responsibilty on the victimiger's name and the local TFFC ad- when, in actuality, 'battering is not'ess and phone number right below an interpersonal problem. Change

must be incumbent on the abuser"rt is understandable that Stringer Pat Faye-Brazel al 0 1 . tuld . h di . h If's a counse or aWIS to rsassocrare erse the Center Eor Change and projectn a "military man" like Dr. Voth. cordinator for DAIP, agreed sayingless easy to understand why she that "the b tt . I 'bl'd ish t d th f h a erer IS so eyaccounta eW 0 . 0 so WI one 0 er for his actions. "Porum sls~ers, namely !ottie The simplistic fact that souseJ.1I.hen, dunng. phone tnter- b be P~ ........ ~ FraIn Toll. II u~ must stopped is obvious.s;,..rt T

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Interview

R.".nlnc:. TtL T .v

think what Todd was referring to, isdemocracy. Democracy is prettyr~volutionary. What democracymeans to the greatest extent possibleis that people have the right to con-trol their own lives.And again, nobody but an idiot has

.a blueprint of how you bring thatabout in a country of two hundredand thirty million people in a highlycomplex economy. We do know adirection in which we should be mov-ing. Democracy means public owner-ship of the major means of produc-tion, it means decentralization, inmeans 'involving people in theirwork. Rather than having bosses andworkers it means having democraticcontrol over the factories and shops

first place. While Burlington hI d h . . as notreso ve t e situatIOn of h

homeless, it has not been for lac~ o~effort. Within the last three yBI' h . earsur ington as spent more than450,000 dollars on programs for thhungry and homeless. ' eThe issue of GE is a good example

of where my politics differ with thoseof some of the left or peace move-~ent. My concern with what is goingon at GE, is that I don't believe thatthe closing down of the GE plant herein Burlington, and the throwing oftwo thousand people out of work andthe replacement of that plant in thesouth with non-union labour, is goingto be a very positive development interms of building an anti-war move-

q

Chomskycontinued from page 24

and Israel. joined the Unites State .. h s Inopposing t e resolution calling on allstates to adhere to international 1That was last year. On Nove:~r

12, 1987 the U.N. General' Assemblyonce again voted. on that resolun(Th' IOn.15 was not reported in the press).This time only one other states joinedthe U.S. in opposing it. Since it wasnot reported in the press, I'm not cer-

American presidents did reach theGuatemala City Agreement. Theevents since then have been in-teresting. If you read the GuatemalaAgre?,ents, you'll discover that theymention one indispensable elementtoward the achievement of peace inthe region. That element is the ter-mmatlOn of any aid on the part ofany . Iregiona or extra-regionalpowers--the United States--to any ir-

Essentially th~ issue in Congress is: (arethe C~ntras) inept or are they successfulterrorists?

tain what the other state was, but Ipresume it was Israel. [imagine ElSalvador dropped off, giving at leastthe formal show of acquiescence to theCentral America Peace Agreement.That's not even worth reporting in theU.S. But the day before that, therewas, howver, a U.N. Gen~'ralAssembly decision that was worthnoting, and the New York Times cor-respondent had a long article about it.That was the U.N condemnation of theSoviet Union for violating Interna-tional law by invading Afghanistan.That's ideologically serviceable, andtherefore worth reporting ....

U.S. Assault on Central AmericaPeace Agreement

In August 1987, the Central

regular or insurgent forces. And as acorollary, the states of the regioncommit themsleves to not permittheir territory to be used for suchforces for attacking some other coun-try. Actually, that indispensable ele-ment was redundant because a higherauthority than Central Americanpresidents have already determinedthat that is a requirement, namely,the International Court of Justice.Just as the United States disregard-

ed the decision of the World Court,so it has disregarded the CentralAmerican Agreements, and onceagain did so with the complete ac-quiescence of Congress and of liberalopnion. which simply have notmentioned-or barely mentioned--theimmediate move by the U.S. toundermine the accords by violatingthe indispensable element: For peace in

, ,

the region.Immediately after the accords were

signed, the CIA began rapidly in-creasing its daily level of supplyflights to the forces it maintains in thefield in Nicaragua. They have doubl-ed since September, and they haveprobably about tripled by October.Daily U.S. supply flights, if not more,were already being flown by the timeof the so-called Spring Offensive thatwas designed to cause enough terrorand murder and destruction to whatare called "soft targets," like healthclinics and cooperatives, so as to con-vince Congress and liberals that theContras would be violent andmurderous enough to merit furtherfunding. That's essentially the issue.in Congress: are they inept or a-iethey successful terrorists?Notice, incidentally, that it's

agreed on all sides, at least tacitly, theContras don't even have the remotestresemblance to a guerrilla force.Nobody flies daily supply flights toauthentic guerrillas--for example in ElSalvador. No, this is a mercenary ar-my; it's- a proxy army which can bemaintained in the field only by theoverwhelming use of Unites States

continued from page 18

force, including continuous penetra-tion of Nicaraguan air space (ofcourse, 'illegal) on supply flights,surveillance operations, coordinationof military activites, and so on .... Allof this in a committed and dedicatedand successful effort to ensure thatthe accords cannot be implemented,at least in terms of their actualcontent.The CIA, immediately after the ac-

cords were signed, approachedMiskito Indian leaders, offering them$3,OOO-a-month bribes to continuethe conflict instead of accepting thepeace settlement that was takingshape in the Atlantic Zone. Again,not reported; it is again assumed.Remember, we are assuming that theUnited States has the right of forcefulintervention and violence that's ac-cepted on all sides.

Unmentionables: Honduras, ElSalvador, Guatemala

The U.S. client states indicated atonce that they would not abide by theaccords. Honduras, the major UnitedStates military base, made this quite

continued on page 20

Sandersknow how you do it? You say to the If you go around saying that Mondalepeople, the reason your property would be a great president you wouldtaxes are so high, the reason you be a liar and a hypocrite. That is notcan"! afford health care, the reason what I was saying. Now there hasthat your streets are not paved, the been terrible pain and suffering inreas~n your ki?s are not getting the Nicaragua, with Mondale, would itquality education they deserve, is have been any different? Who canbecause of all your God-damn tex say?d?J1arsare going !O kill the people oE Being a mayor is very very dif-Nicaragua. That IS the contrast you ficult. It i~especially hard because itmake. is in tne cities and town~ o\. J\:met\caAnother issue you have to talk where the problems manl.\est

about is that there are mmions of themselves. But on the other handworkers who are scared to death of the cities and towns do not have thepeace. They are afraid of losing their tools, the financial resources to dealjobs. So what you need right now is a with these problems. The governormassive effort on the part of the announced the other day that she hasfederal government to convert the a twentyfive million dollar surplusweapons factories the whole ar- because she has a dozen broad basedmaments industry into peaceful pro- taxes. We have the God damned pro-duction '. It is not easy but that is the perty tax which is a regressive way totask which has to be undertaken so raise revenue. So we have the pro-the workers will understand. The blems and they have the revenues.

continuedfrom page 17 Gadfly: Perhaps I should not bring upthe Mayors office, on other levels, Murray Bookchin as he is frequentlysuch as within national politics, elec- accuse of being a left basher, yet hetoral politics is not effective. suggested a couple of weeks ago thatSanders: That is a valid point. These perhaps because of the fact that youare very difficult questions and I have were elected there are not more peo-to tell you at the start I don't have all pIe involved in Burlington politics.the answers. But I am not sym- Sanders: Let me tell you the danger ofpathetic to people who think they do that argument. It smacks of the argu-have all the answers. ment that took place in the late twen-To give you an example; is Jessie ties and the early thirties, in Ger-

Jackson's presence good or bad? I many. Communists were saying/itthink you would have to be crazy to is better Hitler than the socialistsnot understand that Jackson has had because now the air is clear and wean important impact on the American know which side we are on." Therepolitical scene. I am not a member of are those people who hold that typethe rainbow coalition I am a member of a view.of the progressive coalition. I do not Here we have double the voter tur-agree with Jessie Jackson on all of his nout in the city of Burlington, weissues by any means and I disagree have involved significant numbers ofwith working within the democratic people, this is clearly the mostparty. O.K.? But when you have a politically conscious city in the stateperson who commands a national au- of Vermont, by many, many times.dience, talking about Nicaragua, We have increased the voter turnout,talking about the basic inequities we have educated people aboutwhich exist in our country, talking political issues there are real debates,about environmental protection or we have started neighborhoodplann-the progressive point of view and ing assemblies. Are we perfect? No.communicating to millions of peo-' But compare us to who? So to sayple .... Is this important, or is this not that it is too bad that they got elected,important? I think it's important. doubled the voter turnout,But it is much simpler, no question significantly increased voter turnoutabout it, dealing on a local level. because if they had not got elected byI am not a great fan of the situation God then .... What would have hap-

in the left today. The left is not in par- pened? Well, I don't know whatticularly good shape in America, (ob- would have happened. But that is theviously and it goes without saying) argument that says it is better for badand it hasn't been for many, many people to be in office than it is foryears. And one of the things that good people to be in office and I don'tamuses me is that half the people on accept that.the left spend all their time criticizing Gadfly: Another goal of the Libertythe other half of the people on the left Union Party spoken about by Toddand they are all sure they have the Manley, was towards building amagic way in their particular move- radical party with revolutionary aimsment to solve all of the problems of instead of reinforcing the reformistthe world. I disagree very strongly democratic party. Could you definewith that and I try to function and those revolutionary aims?our movement tries to function in as Sanders: Flaming rhetoric Todd us-non-sectari~ way as we can. edt It is hard for me to go back fifteenOne of the areas that the left in my years. But I am pretty sure I know

view, has not paid enough attention what he was talking about. What weto, is the whole concept of local were saying then, I say we but wegovernment. I am disappointed that were different people and I don'tafter being mayor of this city for speak for everyone, is that from anseven years, still as I look around the economic point of view to start with,state of Vermont, I do not see a this nation has the resources to pro-movement inany other community in vide a decent standard of living forthis state. And I can not tell you why every man woman and child. Pover-

I ran for governor so that Vermont couldset an example ... to the rest of the nation,

that is so. I can't tell you why in Brat-tleboro or in South Burlington, therehas not been a greater grassrootsmovement to involve people in localpolitics. What we have done here inBurlington among oiher things' isdouble the voter turnout. Twice asmany people now vote in local elec-tions as did before I became mayor. Iwould love to see that type of move-ment spread out I would like to seelocal government become strong inthe state of Vermont because localgovernment is a manageable level.People can be involved. We try andinvolve people in the process and weare a city of forty thousand. Youhave a city of two thousand, you caninvolve people, people can serve onthe board of selectpersons. And wehave not done enough of that.

ty, racism, sexism, could beeliminated. I can't fly to the moon, itwould be silly for me to say that Icould, but you can have a societywhere people have decent housing,decent income, decent health care,decent educational opportunities.Where you can have people con-

trolling their own lives rather thanworking for other people. Fewer peo-ple now control the system than everbefore. It is not like the rise of thegigantic corporations but you are see-ing through the control of - themedia .... we used to have lots ofmedia, well now you don't. Increas-ingly you have CBS, NBC, ABC, fewpeople with the power, other peoplebecome docile and follow instructionswhether they are workers, TV con-sumers or consumers in general. So I

We use this office not only to deal withthe day to day problems,., but also as aneducational forum,

to as great a degree as you can. Itmeans people actually participatingin the political life of their countryrather than sitting back and listeningto thirty second TV adds as a basisfor electing their government.This was what Todd was talking

about, that we can fundamentallyremake the society to make it a justsociety. And certainly thatcapitalism as an economic system hasgot to be radically altered and chang-ed. And that we have to move into anew type of economic relationship inorder for that to come about.Gadfly: Are third party candidatestolerated within the C'Ul"re.I1t political:system? What would be the reaction'01 the ruling elites nation-wide iI theLiberty Union or any other thirdparty" s goals were taken up byVermonters?Sanders: It is difficult. For example,taxation. We believe in progressivetaxation. The legislature has refused.Why? The legislature givescockanany reasons. If we broke thedependence on property taxes, wewould be an example. We attempteda couple of years back to change, torestructure electric rates. We wereshot down. I ran for governor so thatVermont could set an example. Ver-mont could set an example to the restof the nation similar to the type of ex-ample Nicaragua is setting for the restof Latin America. And yes, theReagan administration would beconcerned.Gadfly: To get back to the LibertyUnion party, why did you leaveL.U.?Sanders: The L.U. was successful to acertain extent in educating people butwe were not successful in bringingtogether large numbers of people.That's basically it.Gadfly:What does it do to you moral-ly to have to take positions that op-pose those you believe in? For exam-ple not being able to take a strongstand on GE's production of theVulcan mini-gun an 'issue that beganin 1983, your decision to back Mon-dale/Feraro in 1984 or the currentdecision to remove the homeless en-campment from City Hall Park.Sanders:First of all to begin with theissue of the homeless; I get very upsetwhen people make these accusations.Would Madaline Kunin have remov-ed them from the lawn of the StateHouse7 No. Because Kunin wouldnever have let them be there in the

ment. In fact the result would be thatyou would have two thousand verybitter people who in fact would pro-bably swing to the right and believethat the peace movement is out todestroy their economic existence. Yettheir kids are the ones who can't af-ford housing. Those workers knowthat their kids are the ones who aregoing to get killed in the jungles ofNicaragua. Its not going to be thecollege 'kids who are going to go.Think about it. They know what theissues are. Around all of the issues,philosophically and ideologicallythey are opposed to Reaganism. So Iget very discouraged when .s a resultof people pointing the finger of guiltat them, they suddenly become pro-Reagan because they see a segment ofthis city or of this society, threateningthem with their job existence.The way to stop the war machine is

to change the, government. I thinkpeople lose sight of what the real issueis. The real issue is power, who has itwho is using it. And what we know,isof course that it is not discussed. Howmany demonstrations take place infront of the banks, in front of thetelevision stations? That is wherepower really is, with people whohave money. Two percent of thepopulation controls one third of thewealth in this country. They willdetermine whether, we have affor-dable housing, they buy and sell can-didates, democrats and republicans,they own the media, they own theBurlington Free Press.The issue is not to me all of the

good causes, there are thousands ofgood causes out there from save thewhales on up. And they are all right,and they are all good. What has gotto develop is a mass movement,which seeks to change the control ofthe economy from billionaires, fromcorporate executives, from banksfrom large corporations, to ademocratic type of society.Gadfly:1 think a lot of people are star-ting to understand that now but inorder to protest the whole system youdo have to raise awareness on specificissues. How do you raise issues ofmilitarism without bringing up GEand how do you bring up the issue ofGE without alienating workers?Sanders: I think you need to doseveral things. The last rally held, theMoratorium did very well, theliterature was exactly right. You

continued on page 19

Page 18 The Gadfly Dec. 1, 1987

.:

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Capitalism as an economic system has tobe radically altered and changed,

average worker here would just assoon be producing refrigerators asguns if the wages were the same andwe have got to do that.Gadfly: How do you counter theargument that by participating inelectoral politics you are legitimizing. the system?Sanders: You used the examplebefore about my campaigning forMondale which in fact was a very dif-ficult thing to do. So do you knowwhat you do 7 When I'd go aroundtalking about Walter Mondale Iwould say ihat if elected president, Ifelt, Walter Mondale was going to bea pretty bad president. But I was do-ing this because I am concerned aboutnuclear war and I am concernedabout the destruction of the people ofNicaragua. And that is why at thatmoment I explained that I thoughtMondale would be superior toReagan. Of course you are honestwith people! Now sometimes youmay have to make painful decisions.

The people look to city hall andthey say, "my god there is problemthree blocks away, do somethingabout it." So to conclude; I am veryproud of what this city has done in awide variety of efforts. We havemade progress not only in cleaning upthe Lake, but in opening up the lakefront to people of all different parts ofthe town. There is the bicycle path,we have increased park facilities, wehave worked on zoning which is go-ing to discourage poor development.I am proud of many of the things thatwe have done. It is too easy to say"all of that is irrelevant, we knowwhat the issues are." The real truth isthat you have to spread it out everysingle day and do the best that youcan, raise peoples consciousness,educate people to what are the basiccauses of social problems.It is not easy. I said before, you are

up against a system which is spendingtens of billions of dollars to lie and toobfuscate what the real issues are.

The Gadfly Dec. 1, 1987r :..'