European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 18, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes tuesday december 18, 1990 r a a a 3i Flora Lewis More i Moscow a by sonic kind of self inflating Media hype the notion is spreading that the russians Are starving and the world must Rush to their Aid. Its coming to sound As if another Mission were needed like the one Herbert Hoover led after the devastation of the russian revolution. That simply in t True. But its an ominous myth that can seriously damage soviet efforts to pull itself together. And the West a future willingness and capacity to work effectively with the soviet Union. A number of factors seem to have contributed to the impression of a vast humanitarian emergency this cards fashionable cause. Doubtless nobody set out do Ibera Tely to mislead but that is the effect. One reason is simply the Way television works. The state owned food shops Are empty and the pictures of Bare shelves arc Stark. Ever eager for visual drama some Western editors Are pressing their correspondents for images of famine piteous children with swollen bal lies. The correspondents can t comply but it is always possible to find some film of the sad and the distraught. The result is enthusiastic overreaction particularly in Germany where charitable groups arc making up Relief packages to show sympathy. But television does no to show the hoarded food which has a lot to do with the distribution breakdown. Panicky Consumers buy up everything in sight. Shopkeepers and producers hold Back supplies a to sell on the Black Market to wait for higher prices to barter on the Side. Many factories and offices give workers rations to take Home. Its that or lose much of the work Force to the queues on the Street. Tic result is that it takes a lot More time and Effort for people to provision themselves contributing further to the breakdown of production and distribution. There arc hardship cases for example pensioners who have nothing to barter who can to afford the Black Market who done to have Access to special supplies or even to the gossip about where something has suddenly become available. Nutrition is More unbalanced. Traditionally the big cities especially Moscow were the Best off. That has been reversed with the crumbling of the system so expectations Are refuted adding to the  a a a another reason for the air of distress comes from Mikhail Gorbachev a handling of the situation. His speeches calling for economic cooperation and invest mint used to include a statement that a we Are not seeking alms a a a a he does no to say that anymore but he asks for credits when he meets foreign leaders. Soviet diplomats in the West have been told to Issue Public appeals for Aid. A sardonic Lapel Button has appeared in Moscow it shows Gorbachev say log with a smile a everything will be  the problem is to a Large extent psychological but the remedy Isnit a Button. V people Are angry and bewildered. They say if Gorbachev a running around the world instead of looking after things at Home were really a Boon to the country Why can the get his friends to make things better Here that leads him and other officials to plead More and More openly for help. That leads to humiliation.  they say we must feed the people but its wrong a said Yegor Yakovlev the outspoken editor of Moscow news a a people need to feed themselves. In five years of perestroika nothing has been done so people can feed  a \ some specific needs could and should be alleviated. Medicines Long a chronic shortage Are disappearing. Vitamins would help. But. Pouring. In food would Only. Delay urgent attention to systemic measures to Correct the Supply and distribution flow. Humiliation Seldom brings gratitude. The West May come to feel it a a saved the russians when the russians desperately need to feel they Are saving themselves. Resentments will get in the Way of the Long term Effort to turn this Economy around. A this country faces a great racking transformation. The sooner it gets started on making things work which it really Hasni to yet the better. That is also in the West a interest a a a a a a a a a a \ i a a honesty and realism not emotional steam and More lies Are essential to the Taski compounding the contusion As we Are on the Way to doing is no help. A. 1 a a newyor1<tlimos a a a a. A. A a a. William f. Buckley  misses Point in defense of strike Cardinal John of Connor proclaimed last tuesday at a rally supporting the striking Union members against the new York daily news that he spoke As a the proud son of a lifelong Union Man a one wonders How it is relevant for Cardinal of Connor to cite this Datum. The contrary Case can be made a i.e., that the Cardinal May be less than ideally situated to pronounce objectively on the quarrel Between the unions and the news Given his background. Usually if you cite your background it is to make the print that you Are taking a position different from what you might be expected to take Evi Deuce of the deep thought you have Given to the question. Thus at a Jackson for president rally a speaker might say a i am the proud great grandson of a slave owner and i say vote for Jesse jackson.�?T1 but the Cardinal has not done very much to clarify the questions raised by the strike. On dec. 11 he was quoted As saying a to lose unionism would be to go Back to worse than  surely the Cardinal can to mean that eighty three percent of american workers Industrial and clerical Are non Union and it is not widely supposed that we ought to be ready to fight another civil War to emancipate them from working conditions they themselves elected Given that there Are Laws that protect the rights of workers to unionize if they want to. The non Union workers in America include the clerical staff of the new York archdiocese. I know a number of these and am not prepared under oath to aver that they consider their working conditions better than slavery but even so id resent it if anyone referred to Cardinal of Connor As a slave master and then the Cardinal says that the hiring of permanent replacements of the strikers a raises moral  that a True but it is also True that the activities of the unions raise moral questions and these the Cardinal has not Dweller upon. James Goodale a former vice chairman of the new York times and an attorney widely known Lor his fair mindedness summed up the problem. A at the daily news and some other Large City papers there Are 15 men on a press when Only seven Are needed More men put the a paper on the trucks than Are needed and the Drivers gel paid for a seven Day week when they work Only five. According to Wall Street Esli males the news probably has 50 percent More workers than it needs and pays More than 10 percent of its payroll on unnecessary overtime required by out of Date Union contracts a the news has lost $110 million As a result of such exaction and it is certainly a moral question to which the Cardinal has not drawn attention whether it is a a rights to threaten the survival of a Large business and cultural Enterprise by the device of systematic extortion. / the cardinals Faith sets High standing on the Freedom of conscience. A reporter who elected to stay on the Job when the Drivers Union pulled out had the following experience. He attended a packed courtroom to cover the Mike Tyson trial in a . District court in Manhattan. A they Scab a shouted fight promoter Don King a Alex Alex i thought you were on strike. Did you Cross the picket line a a laugh  an observer Kennrtt no i. Ter a an observer reports Quot Oroke out in the  a what about your status your Honor a the fight promoter continued taunting him. Alex was silent. The news is fighting to stay alive which Means to continue to employ a great Many people though fewer than those who now make a handsome living off the fruits of Feather bedding. Everyone deplores violence but some More full throated by than others. That there is violence is in a police statistic 8s8 incidents of Battery arson and damage to people and property Are recorded 145 assailants have been arrested. The president of the teamsters local proclaimed exult Antly on nov. 1 a we Are looking at a sea of Union people. We Are going to fight to keep this a Union town. Not one teamsters truck will deliver newsprint to the daily news. Not one teamsters truck will bring Ink or Oil to heat the building. They Wilt have to cart the garbage away in their own cars. The executive director of another Union chimed in with his fraternal contribution a rest assured there will be no peace in this town until we wan Quot there certainly has been no peace for those who seek to deliver the newspaper to people who want to read it. If one City Council member wiggled his Little Finger to stand in the Way of 25 readers receiving tomorrows Issue of screw Magazine the entire civil liberties world would descend on him and from coast to coast the Mapplethorpe lobby would be reactivated to defend the first amendment. In new York a half million people Are prevented from Reading a paper and what we get is talk about a return to slavery and hoho Hearty promises to bring turmoil to those who want Only to work and to read. Universal Pess Syndicate. \