European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 2, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 a the stars and stripes sunday september 2,1990 columns William f. Buckley deaf crisis offers Opportunity to break open the president has travelled to Washington to meet with congressional leaders who asked him Many questions about the Mideast crisis. The mandate we were Given to understand was to get from the president an idea of what we Are going to get out of this. Those senators and congressmen Are now going Home Many of them to speak to their constituents. They would like to be Able to say something other than a we prevented the iraqis from taking Over saudi As previously acknowledged the United states is not in the business of guaranteeing National boundaries. There has to be a reason Why we went to saudi Arabia to preserve its boundaries and to ask for retroactive restoration of the boundaries of Kuwait while ignoring Boundary disputes in other parts of the world for instance Africa and latin America. We Are Back to the question of our vital interests and the president should not have a difficult time in establishing that the flow of Oil from the persian Gulf is a vital interest. Here Are the figures for last years primary Oil exports in saudi Arabia. The saudis Oil production of 5 million barrels a Day is scheduled to double five years from now and since the iraqi invasion of Kuwait has increased by one half which increase together with contemplated increases in Nigeria and Venezuela and perhaps Iran will make up the 4.6 million barrel per Day loss from Iraq and Kuwait. In 1989, the United states imported i will round off the figures 410 million barrels of saudi Oil Japan 425 million Canada 20 million Italy 75 million France 110 million the United kingdom 40 million and West Germany 25 million. When the dust settles on the current crisis a and that May be sooner than projected by those who think in terms of blockades lasting through the Winter months a we should have a Long term contract with saudi Arabia. The contracting parties would be the United states Japan Canada Italy Germany France and the United kingdom. The terms the signatory nations would guarantee the Independence of saudi Arabia. In return saudi Arabia would sell Oil Over the next 15 years to each of the signatory Powers in quantities of up to 150 percent of the signatories purchases in 1989. The Price would be the same As the Price on the free Market at Galveston Texas. Once this document has been signed open is finished. Without the cooperation of the saudis the balance of the open oligopoly would be powerless to resume the David Broder extortion engaged in during the 1970s. The argument that we would have engaged in an imperialistic act is Only sustainable if critics Are prepared to argue that paying the free Market Price for Oil is an imperialistic act. A Long term contract with a supplier for a 15-year Supply of the most indispensable Industrial product there is makes indisputable Good sense. To pay for it at the unmolested free Market Price is indisputably fair. To compensate the saudis for suspending their right to wage economic warfare on Oil Consumers is perhaps extravagant but an extravagance in the genial self serving Mode. The Public position of saudi Arabia would thus be a we were threatened by an Arab neighbor. The United states backed by every Arab country with the exception of Yemen backed by the major Industrial Powers and acting on the authority of the United nations effected the liberation of Kuwait and the Protection of saudi Arabia. We gladly Exchange any marginal surplus we might earn in the future by the Cartel nation of Oil in return for continuing guarantees of National Given that in order to give effect to the military guarantee the signatories would need bases in the area it would follow that enough troops and facilities to guard against a Blitzkrieg would be kept in place. We would see in saudi Arabia a truly International Force representing All the signatories who have contracts for Oil Over the next 15 years. Any objections raised on the grounds that there might be a political evolution within saudi Arabia in the direction of democratic government would be irrelevant. The compact guarantees the Freedom of saudi Arabia not the perpetuation of the present government. And any new government that came in would of course be held to existing arrangements. And american troops would have come Back with the Bacon. C Universal press Syndicate vigorous Trumka gives new Hope to labor the United mine workers Union is 100 years old this labor Day. Richard l. Trumka its president since 1982? is at 41, the youngest major labor Leader m America. Last october he took the ump Back into the Al Cio 42 years after John l. Lewis walked out. In january he gave organized labor what May Well have been its biggest Victory in years when the Pittston co. Agreed to Settle a bitter 11 month strike and restore threatened health benefits to Active and retired Coal miners. The Victory made Trumka a a Reform minded insurgent whose polish heritage fiery temperament and bristling moustache invite comparisons to Lech Walesa a something of a hero to a labor movement notably Short of compelling figures. He a in demand As a speaker at conventions of other unions and has been welcomed As a prodigal son by his colleagues on the Al Cio executive Council most of them a generation older. Less than a year after he brought the mine workers Back into the fold there is speculation that he will some Day bid for the presidency of the labor federation. But in a recent interview Trumka sounded anything but gloating a and not Only because a Virginia circuit judge had just refused to dismiss $52 million in fines the Union had incurred for violating strike restrictions during the Pittston Battle. A this is kind of a bittersweet moment a Trumka said. A at the Micro level a lot of unions including ours can be pretty Happy. There Are some Good signs of resurgence a and of Solidarity. But at the Macro level we re not organizing on the scale we need to. We still have 37 million people without health care. We still Lead the Industrial world in deaths and injuries on the Job. We Haven to been successful with child care or parental leave legislation. And workers in Germany Japan Canada Australia the scandinavian countries Italy who used to envy our situation now look at our Laws and see they re archaic and hostile to it is no secret that organized labor has Felt beleaguered for the past decade. Ten years ago unions represented almost one fourth of the workers now barely one sixth. And three straight Republican presidential victories have taken the formulation and administration of labor Laws away from Union allies. Ever since Ronald Reagan fired the striking air controllers in 1981, doubts have grown even about the Efficacy of labors Basic weapon. That is Why the Pittston strike became so important to All of labor Why Al Cio president Lane Kirkland and 18 top officials of other International unions went Down to Lebanon va., a year ago to be arrested with Trumka in what Trumka called a civil disobedience and the courts called illegal picketing of the Pittston site. Long before then Kirkland had begun telling unionists to Stop whimpering about the a a hostile political climate and to use the resources they still commanded to achieve their own goals. But it took Trumka and the Pittston Battle to show How it could be done. The company provided the opening when it decided to use a deadlock in negotiations As an excuse to cancel its contributions to the Industry health plan. That plan was supposed to a a guarantee health benefits for retirees As Well As Active workers. Pittston a action left 1,500 disabled and retired miners and their families out in the cold. Trumka and the Union exploited that emotional Issue to mobilize wide support among churches Community leaders and even other businesses in Southwest Virginia. Church meetings hymn singing Boycotts and mass demonstrations reminiscent of the civil rights movement fuelled the strikers determination to stay out despite the fines and arrests for a illegal picketing and sporadic acts of violence. At the same time Slick ads were used to mobilize National opinion even Wall Street investors were asked to pressure Pittston to relent. Secretary of labor Elizabeth Dole intervened in the situation something re publican administrations had refused to do with the equally bitter Eastern airlines strike and earlier disputes. On new years Day she announced a settlement giving the company some of the work Rule concessions it sought but restoring All the threatened health benefits to the miners. Trumka is careful not to claim too much for the ump. A Pittston is not the blueprint for Success in every future situation a he told me a and the Victory there does not mean that labor is Back and standing tall. But it does show that when working people believe in themselves what they can do is virtually Trumka who worked in the Pennsylvania Coal mines before getting his accounting and Law degrees at Penn state and Villanova clearly believes that himself. A three years ago a he said a a you a go to a Union meeting and the people you d see had had All the Hope shot out of their eyes. They a lost Faith in their ability to shape their own lives. But now its starting to come Back you can see it. And that a what a always preceded real social and political change. It s been a Long while since anyone As Young As Trumka with his passion and doggedness and skills has talked that kind of language in Union Halls. And that fact alone makes this labor Day different. C Washington Post writers group
