SW

Grinnell College
Grinnell, Iowa

11/19/76 Vol. 85, No. 10

 

Forelgn trade expert

discusses U.S.-Soviet
relations

by Jim Strickler
Commercial trade between the
U S and the Sowet Union follows
political guidelines according to
Thomas Niles, head of the United
States Department of State
commercial offices in Moscow.
Niles was on campus Friday to
speak with students about US.-
Soviet relations,
in an evening discussion in South
lounge. Niles Said that there have
long been economic reasons to
encourage trade between the
grilled States and the Soviet Union,
owever. trade didn't begin to
develop until 1971 He said Nixon
and Kissinger must receive a “tair
share" of credit for easing the
toiitlcal tensions enough to allow
the increase in trade It was this
normalization of relations that
brought about the establishment of
US. commercial offices in Moscow
and Soviet otfices in Washington.
DC Niles. a longtime foreign
. rvice officer. was sent to Moscow
in 1973 to head up this new oihce.
The job of the commercial onice
is complicated by multinational
corporations. according to Niles
Sometimes. he said, it may be in
Q best interests of the United
tates tor a Soviet contract to go to
a supposedly ioreign company that
is actually based in the United

N1 tes
riiany nations have some type oi
screening process in dealing with
the Soviet Union so that only one
company in the nation makes a bid

 

tor a Soviet contract, Niles said.
Often times, there are several US
firms competing against each
other as well as against a German
company. a Japanese company
and others. He said that he has
strong reservations about the U.S.
trying to use a system like that.
First of all he said that type of
collusion is currently illegal
Secondly, Niles feared that
collusion abroad may lead to
collusion at home,

Economic relationships are
“embryonic," according to Niles
He said that future trade
agreements will depend on use
Soviet political relations. pare
ticularly the success of the up
Coming SALT talks. t-te delended
the previous SALT agreements
from critics who say that they are
not effective limitations on the
arms race. Niles believes that the
agreements are better than
nothing

Nilessaid that political acts such
as the Jackson amendment to the
us Soviet trade agreement oi
1972_ hurt trade prospects The
Jackson amendment requested
that the Soviets loosen lheir ime
migration restrictions This
prurision was unacceptable to the
Soviets, so the treaty was never
signed Closer administrative
consultation with the Congress is
needed. Niles said, to prevent such
“misguided” actions from hap-
pening in the future

Unscheduled exhibition

annoys

Griniiell College has its very own
' .her. in the past month a young
man has been appearing suddenly
and disquietingly in the dorms and
’ ‘hrooms of several North and
ﬁlth campus dorms

While the police department is
investigating, they report that they
have no substantial leads, A
College security patrol member
stated however that the culprit is
described as a white male between
the ages oi 15-20 vvith dark hair
styled in a “Prince Valiant” cut,
and tat to chunky in build. Anyonc

campus

observing suspicious behavior
should call the police immediately,
then notify their IRA. or S.A

In February oi 1926 the can
reported that the women’s campus
was subjected to a “peeping tom "
A clever coed, aware that she was
being watched, notiiied another
resident and then spent ape
proximately fifteen minutes
(lisrobing and getting into bed until
police arrived . With the arrest of
the son oi a local farmer, the
”peeping tom" of 1926 ceased to
bother Grinnell College coeds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Socialist economist sees
olim outlook for capitalism

“The United State: is wider and abettor of all that ia- ‘

retrograde, and makes the

world revolution toward

socialism a more painful process than it need be."
——

by All]! Staptctoii

Noted soctalist economist Paul
Sweezy, editor of Monthly Review
magazine, delivered two lectures
in South lounge last Tuesday. At
4:15 pm, Sweezy addressed the
topic ol “What every intelligent
Grinliellian should know about
socialism." chczy did not at»
tempt to define the term
“socialism" as he felt that it would
be more confining than helpful in
understanding the concept. He
stressed the [act that socialist
ideology came about as society’s
expression of longing for a totally
different and radical change in our
postrindustrial Revolution way oi
life The first real socialism took
place in France around 1800, and
the first socialist group in America
was the Owenites. a utopian group
of the 1820’s

The Industrial Revolution of the
mid-eighteenth century tran-
sformed English society through
the introduction of the iactory
System, thecreation of Cities which
divided the rich and poor, the
alienation oi workers from society,
and the development oi a ruling
group of manufacturing capitalists
who did not Consider the workers'
conditions, Such conditions were so
repellent to a majority of the
people that they created utopian

n ‘_t’ . t

st. .

 

principles of social equality,
human solidarity, cooperation
among individuals, and shared
troubles and enjoyments, Many
small utopian socialist societies
were set up in the hope that others
would follow the example, These
attempts had little impact on the
majority of the population.

In the 1846's, Marx's and Engels
torm oi socialism came into being
They had little faith in the “good
example” theory, Rather, they
believed that socialism would
come about through the strength of
a dissatisfied proletariat who had
an interest in transforming society
ior the better. Sweezy said that it is
wrong to counterpose Marxist
socialism with utopian socialism in
terms of what each wanted to
accomplish, The difference is that
Marx and Engels believed that the
proletariat is strong enough,
through revolution, to establish
socialism as the prevailing
economic system This rapidly
became the doctrine of the
European working classes

After the revolution of 1548,
Marx was exiled and went to
England where he had access to
the British Museum and could
therefore obtain the materials
necessary to his research in his

l

15 a radical idea, in that it
necessitated a totally different
concept of society, This concept
incorporated cooperation among
people. lack of competition. and a
withering away of the state as
attainable goals,

The vision of the socialists began
to erode near the end of the Cen-
tury. The working classes
emerging from the Industrial
Revolution were exploited and
were not protected by social
legislation, The proletariat was

*ltke that described in the Com-

munist Manifesto, nothing to lose,
and the world to win, The socialist
movement of the era. while
espolistng Marxtst philosophy.
became increasingly revisionist.
concerned only with small anti
piecemeal reforms within tiie
existing social system.

Marxism did not have much
impact on England. the country in
\ttlich Marx developed most of h
philosophy, Volume I of his oat
Kapital, originally published in
l867. was not translated into
English until 1883. four years after
his tleatli

Sweezy s'dld that, although his
interpretation is not necessarily
accepted among orthodox
academicians of the social
sciences, he believes that the
expansion oi capitalism has
dependent'upon the subjugation of
less poweriul countries by the
"core" powers In order to obtain
access to inexpensive raw
materials. The only colonists who
benefited from this mastersslave
relationship were the small ruling
groups who acted as “local police"
for the countries in power. The
world began to split into two
groupsetheoverdeveloped andthe
impoverished. the rapists and the
victims.

It used to be an article of faith,
even among early Marxists, that
underdeveloped countries would
advance and progress through
trade with advanced nations,
Sweezy used the example of India,
long dominated by Britain, to show
the falsehood of this notion While
the standard of living in Western
Europe improved. the majority of
the world's people remained imr
povei-ished, without hope for imr
provement. This led to a rebirth of
socialism, similar to the one which
resulted from the industrial
Revolution .

in the Third World today,
Marxist socialism prevails. The
people of the Third World are also
a group with nothing to lose and the
world to gain. Sweezy believes that
socialist philosophies other than
Marxism. such as African and
lndian socialism, are losing
ground. Socialism in southern
Europe is a pale revisionist
movement, a basic reformist
movement accepting the
framework oi the existing social
system it is, however, being
severely hampered by some of the
world‘s most repressive military
dictatorships chezy says that
there is a definite revolution now

 

taking place within the Third

 

