University of Virginia Library

By Rod MacDonald

The Right
Strikes Back

Entering students at colleges and
universities are generally treated as
the lowest element among a
stratified atmosphere of social
wheels. But last week's registration
showed how important the 1969
first-year class is to the various
organizations battling for its brains
and efforts for the coming political
grind.

The left wing of the student
body has sought for about three
years to recruit neophytes, and
their efforts culminated last year in
a "counter-orientation" throughout
the dorms that presented the other
side of adjusting to life at the
University. Its goal was simple to
carry the message that all was not
southern gentility, bigotry, inaction
and fraternity power-politics that
produced little.

The other side, traditional and
conservative, had rarely responded
to what was generally considered a
weak threat anyway. But spring of
1969 brought the Coalition,
demonstrations, and activism to
respectability here, and the right
began to mobilize.

The Young Americans for
Freedom, the principle national
antagonist of SDS, appeared with a
booth outside the registration
building. In true 'Virginia fashion,
the group refused to consider itself
totally bound by the national
posture and retained its old name,
Students For a Free Society. But
the YAF is its national affiliate, and
the philosophies and propaganda
differ little.

Socking it to the Left seems as
major a goal as has been nationally
announced, led by the "New Left
News," supposedly published by
the "Students For a Demented
Society." Most of the publication
strived to picture SDS members as
illiterate killers who thrive on
violence, strikingly similar to many
rednecks and young conservatives.

YAF's program is stated in a
small flyer called "A Dynamic
Program For Today's College
Student." It says the group is
against Communism, Fascism,
Racism, and Socialism, and is for
constitutional government, free
enterprise, freedom of individual,
and a strong free America.
Presumably the group is against
racism but thinks everyone has the
right to be free to practice it,
leading one to believe the
"dynamic" program is essentially
static.

Supports Action

But several ideas stand out. The
YAF supports an action program to
educate the public on the
advantages of a volunteer army, and
urges activist students to work
together in political action and
education programs, all without
causing any inconvenience to any
other individuals, of course, it all
smacks rather strongly of being
against all things bad, for all things
good, and thinking both can be
attained without affecting any
bystanders.

The most interesting group
battling for first-year brains was the
Radical Libertarian Alliance, a
group of self-styled anarchists who
believe that there should be no
obstacles whatever placed before
individuals. They are against the
draft, against ROTC, against
control of universities by either
administration, faculty, or students,
and devoted to the "Student
Libertarian Action Movement."

Manned by former members of
all sorts of groups, including the
YR's, some left-wing organizations
and even the Ayn Rand Society,
the RLA circulated copies of the
Libertarian Forum. The
newspaper-styled sheet is a basic
statement of philosophical
outgrowths on libertarianism, such
as "Thoughts On Black Power and
Capitalism": "To argue that laissez-faire
is responsible for racist
oppression is to argue for the basic
inferiority of the black race. For
the only way a Black could sink to
the lowest social strata in laissez
faire would be with the precondition
that this Black man had no
talent, no ability, no drives."

"Right" Move

Just what are the long range
effects of the surging right wing's
drive? The University is well behind
the rest of the nation's better
schools for activism and concern,
but the signs point to more protest
as it continues to sit still. The war,
racial policies, the draft, and many
other issues are virtually unchanged
from last year when students may
have had more patience.

And so when the first move
takes place, the right-wing groups
will play a crucial part. They will
probably allow the administration
to remain in the background and
prey on student disunity while
YAF leads a counter-demonstration.
YAF may, if the administration
takes it seriously, provide a
replacement for last year's "Goon
Squad" that stood on Founder's
Day between B.F.D. Runk and the
opponents of 150 years of racism.

And the RLA's position, should
it gain its full complement of
members, will be a real curiosity.
When a student strike is called for
October 15 to protest the war, will
its members exercise their libertarian
right to attend classes, or
support the individual's right not to
fight in a stupid war?

Individualism always has an
essential dilemma. If students are to
be free, they have to fight for it.
Freedom from the war will not be
obtained by playing ostrich and
attending classes during such,
strikes; Blacks will not be free at
this university until they and others
force the administration to wake
up. Such things are gained through
dedication, not individualism.