access to them. It’s a division of opinion which I don’t think the Citizen’s Party wants to take a position on. My opinion is, the tribes have suffered for many years from the lack of access to their own resources and they ought to get it, and it’s up to them to decide what to do with it. They may make decisions that I disagree with, but they’re their decisions to make. As it works out, some tribes, when they get access to their resources . . . AMTRAK: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, this is the last call for the snack car . .. Commoner: . . . decide to exploit them, to mine coal and uranium. LaDonna Harris’ organization was set up to help those tribes that decided to do it, to deal with their resources in the safest and most effective way, which I think is a good idea. LaDonna Harris — like I am and the Citizen’s Party is — is against nuclear power, against the mining of uranium. But we are in favor of the rights of tribes to make those decisions for themselves. CSQ: Can you enunciate your stand on the rights o f racial minorities within the United States further than what y o u ’ve just said? Commoner: Well, 1 think one of the most serious problems we have in the country is the discrimination against blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and we take very intransigent stands on that issue. We’re in favor of the rigorous protection of the civil rights legislation, but beyond that, our economic program makes it possible for people who theoretically have a right to a job to get a job. It doesn’t do any good to have the ERA if there aren’t enough jobs around so that women who want to work can get ’em. CSQ: What about the rights o f sexual minorities? Commoner: Oh, we’re for complete civil rights for gays, anyone with alternative sexual preferences. We are for free choice in abortion, with federal funding. CSQ: What role would you like to see cooperatives play in a new American economy? Commoner: An extremely important idea, because one of the things that we’re concerned with is ways of building social governance of productive entities that match the profit structure. One of the things we’ve proposed is the creation of energy cooperatives as a way of building neighborhood cogenerator-based power systems, that the people in the neighborhood will own and operate. I think that the growth of food cooperatives ought to be vastly expanded, giving them the help that they need to meet problems that they can’t solve now. For example . .. AMTRAK: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, East Milwaukie is approaching . . . Commoner: In the Hudson Valley of New York, there are quite a few food cooperatives. One of the things they’ve done is to get together and set up a cooperative trucking operation, to carry supplies back and forth. Many of them need canning facilities. Some of them have their own gardens that produce more food than they can consume. We would be very much in favor Of a loan program, to allow groups like that to set up canning facilities, production facilities, so that they can cooperatively produce the kind of food they want. CSQ: What would you like to see changed in U.S. agricultural policy? Commoner: We are probably the only party with a real agricultural policy, and we have some pretty strong feelings about that. One is that the grip of the oil and petrochemical companies on agriculture has got to be broken, for the sake of the farmers, for the sake of the quality of food, for the quality of the environment. We’re very much in favor of improving the overall economic position of agriculture. Since 1950, the terms of trade of U.S. Agriculture as compared to the rest of the economy — that is, the fraction of the output We ’re in fo r a bad four years of the economy that goes to agriculture — has declined sharply, and I think that’s a bad mistake. Steps ought to be taken to restore that, partly by improving the role of agriculture in the energy system. We are very much in favor of devising ways of adding to the production of agriculture and, for that matter, of timber, methods of producing fuel. It is entirely possible for all of the gasoline to be replaced by alcohol derived from crops and forest products. CSQ: What kind o f timeline do you see fo r this? Commoner: If we really did it, with a crash program, I think that could be accomplished in the next 15 years. CSQ: But y o u ’re not talking about having Exxon doing it? Commoner: Exxon can’t do it. Exxon can’t do it because it has to be done on a farm scale. The most efficient way to produce alcohol in agricultural communities is to have, at most, five to ten farms cooperating. Exxon is not going to be able to do it and, in fact, the farmers are going to start putting Exxon out of the gasoline business, which I think is a good idea. CSQ: What relationship would you like to see exist between the federal government and state and local governments? Commoner: That’s an interesting situation. Most of the progressive things that we propose require relatively little from the federal government, except backing up with funds and, on the other hand, state governments may not be quite structured right. We may have to move eventually to some kind of regional government based on some kind of regional characteristics, or their resources. That’s an interesting question. CSQ: Do you see potential fragmentation in the structure o f the nation as the result o f that? Commoner: No, I don’t think so. I think it’s simply a question of having things done best, having things done on a scale where they can be done best. CSQ: Do you support a strong presidency? Commoner: I don’t know what that means. I support an intelligent presidency, a competent presidency — something we haven’t had for a long time. CSQ: I ’m talking about the President vis-a-vis the Congress. Commoner: That’s a false issue, really. The trouble is, we have no sense of national purpose; we don’t know where the country is going. I think we have to establish that. Then I think we can find suitable things for the President to do, and the Congress, and the rest of us. CSQ: You really do believe, then, that within your lifetime, our lifetime, we can address the issue o f energy self-sufficiency in the United States. Commoner: Oh, absolutely. No question about it. CSQ: And that is the most critical issue that we are facing at this time from what you are saying. In the unlikely event you were elected President, do you feel humanly capable o f dealing with the plethora o f issues that a President as an individual has to face? Commoner: I will not respond to what is a totally hypothetical situation. I will not be elected at this time . . . CSQ: In light o f recent history, do you think that the office o f President has grown to complicated fo r one man to handle competently? Commoner: I’ve given you the reason for the incompetence of our recent Presidents. The reason is that we’ve done just what we did before the Civil War: elected non-entities because the two parties don’t want people in office who are ready to talk about the fundamental issue of social governance of the means of production. Just as Buchanan, Tyler, Polk and Pierce aren’t remembered in history, neither will Carter, Reagan or Anderson. That’s the reason for the inadequate presidency. I don’t think it’s the job; I think it’s a false issue. CSQ: Are you looking forward to considering Presidential candidacy again in 1984? Commoner: Well, I’m not running in order to make a career of being a candidate; I’m running to perform a service to the Citizen’s Party because they asked me to do it. What I’ll do between now and 1984 is work as hard as I can for the Citizen’s Party. CSQ: So you see, and many, many people see, the Citizen’s Party as a long-term approach? Commoner: That is the whole reason for it. We intend to become a majority party. It’s not a one-shot campaign. guitars • amps • drums • sound systems • authorized music man dealer horseshoe music co. 2419 se 39th portland, Oregon (503) 235*7095 16324 sw bryant lake oswego (503) 635*6799 Nov? O p en U n t i l 7pm M o n - S a t W e buy used books and records. W e do special orders. Cards • Calendars • "Posters 9 2 2 N W . 2 1 s t at Polejoy 2 2 3 - 4 4 1 6 33
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz