Daily hansan
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
59th Year, No. 108
Thursday, March 22, 1962
ChargesMadeAgainstAction
By Mike Miller
Two of the organizers of Action, KU's proposed third political party, have severed their affiliation with the group and accused it of being "created for the personal advancement of a few people."
Charles Patterson, Rockville, Ill., junior, and Bruce Bee, Mission senior, said that the party has deviated from its original purpose, has some incompetent and inexperienced leaders, and has planks to its platform which are "impractical and unrealistic."
BEE CHARGED, "After starting out seriously, I now question the structure, goals, and leadership of the party."
Patterson said that the platform and some of the points in the constitution were a complete surprise to him in view of Action's original purpose.
He charged that Menghini has used the proposed party for advancement of his personal ideas and plans and has used the party's officials as a mouthpiece for these ideas.
Speaking of Charles Menghini, Pittsburg senior and another of the organizers of the party, Bee said, "the unstated goals of the party have become primarily an extension of Menghini's ego. His lust for power is fantastic."
Bee and Patterson agreed that they were "disillusioned by what they considered the original goals of the party.
PATTerson SAID, "I am disappointed that Bruce and I were not apprized of the party's progress in view of the initial impetus which we supplied."
When asked if Patterson and Bee were intentionally eased out of the party heirarchy, Menghini said, "Chuck and Bruce were not excluded from any meetings but simply did not come to the scheduled ones."
Fatterson and Bee charged that the control of the party is in the hands of a few, rather than in the hands of all the members as had originally been proposed.
Patterson said that the part of the party's constitution which says that a quorum shall consist of 10 per cent of the membership when the party is not discussing elections means that only one tenth of the
party can decide the policies for the whole group.
HE NOTED THAT since the group is made up of individual membership, a small quorum is necessary, but such a small quorum puts too much power in the hands of too small a group. He added, "This keeps the power where Menghini wants it."
Bee said, "When we initially started talking about the subject of discriminatory clauses in the national constitutions of some of the KU fraternities, Menghini said that the party was to be organized to encompass all students, including the Greeks.
"A week ago, I told Chuck (Menghini) that I thought Action's stand on discriminatory clauses (they advocate the withdrawal of University recognition of those living
groups who do not remove their discriminatory clauses by September, 1965) was a contradiction of what he had previously said about encompassing the wishes of all the students.
"I said that it looked to me like the party was evolving into a fight between Greeks and independents. When the party gets going, it will become a group of independents organized against the Greeks."
He added that Menghini shrugged his shoulders and agreed with him. Bee said, "There is no question in my mind that Menghini is anti-Greek, regardless of any statement to the contrary by him."
PATTERSON AGREED with Bee, saying, "It is definitely not a plank to attract the Greeks."
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Brian O'Heron, Torrington, Conn. senior and temporary president of
Action, said, "This plank was not meant to 'attract the Greeks,' but to take a stand on an issue that concerns the majority of the students on this campus."
In turning his attention to other party leaders, Eee said. "It is interesting to note that Bob Boseseu (Pittsburg junior and temporary treasurer of the group) was elected treasurer even though he had never attended a meeting prior to when he was elected. At least not to any of the meetings which I was invited to attend."
When asked his reaction to O'Heron, Patterson said, "O'Heron is unimportant."
They did, however, say that Harold Johnson, Ft. Leavenworth senior and temporary vice president of the
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(Continued on page 12)
Action Says Its Planks Were Taken From UP
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Action last night joined the campus political merry-go-round of charges and counter charges by saying that one of the Action planks with which the University Party found fault was contained in two previous UP platforms.
In answer to a charge by Thomas Hardy, Hoisington junior and cochairman of UP, that it is not the place of the ASC to expand its operations to include national and international issues as Action advocates, Brian O'Heron, Lawrence senior and temporary president of Action, quoted the 1961 UP platform:
"WE CANNOT ACCEPT the assertion that the student is only an observer of world affairs and must accept the social and political environment imposed upon him. We feel that students, as potential leaders of the future, not only should investigate and discuss the problems which confront our nation but that they are qualified to express opinions on these important issues."
O'Heron continued quoting the UP platform for the fall of 1960 which read:
"With this platform the University Party seeks to broaden the base of student government, to enlarge its scope of interest and to create and maintain an atmosphere favorable to the free exchange of ideas and opinions."
Hardy replied to the statement saying, "A party is to elect the best people and it is not its function to give party lines. The platform reflects the ideas of those running at that time.
The people who ran under these platforms are no longer with us."
THE ACTION CONSTITUTION was approved by the members of the General Assembly without much discussion.
The General Assembly for last night's meeting was made up of all students interested in the party rather than the block type membership of the other two campus political parties. Attendance was approximately 75.
Missionary Says Portuguese Torture People in Colonies
A Methodist missionary imprisoned by Portuguese for four months charged last night that forced labor, brutality, and slave trade is being practiced by the Fortuguese government in Angola and Mozambique.
Brancel and the Rev. Mr. Malcolm McVeigh, also a missionary to Angola, appeared last night and told a startled audience of the tortures forced upon the Angolan people by the Portuguese government.
Fred Brancel, deported by Portuguese authorities, said at the Wesley Foundation that the Portuguese government is trying to trick the United States government into supplying foreign aid in order to buy arms with which to suppress the natives of Angola.
He said more than 200,000 natives have fled across the border into the Congo to escape the daily torturing and killing by Portuguese soldiers
McVEIGH SAID THAT 1500 Europeans and over 30,000 Africans have been killed in the revolts of the African people against "inhuman treatment by the Portuguese mili-tia."
and that the United States is afraid to come out against their "NATO partner."
McVEIGH DESCRIBED a system of what he called "forced labor" and said that natives were taken from their homes and forced to work for the government. Women and children do most of the work on secondary road construction, he said. "No one would even think about complaining or criticizing the inhuman way they are treated because they would be jailed or killed at once, he said.
McVeigh said the government "encourages" the natives to work by threat of torture and he demonstrated with a 13 inch length of hard wood with which he said Portuguese militia beat the natives. He said the stick is struck against the palms of the native's hands 150 times each. The torture called "Palmerio," is rocks and the
McVeigh said a group of natives had revolted and quit work in the cotton fields of a valley of Angola in defiance of the Portuguese troops
McVEIGH SAID THAT in North Angola the natives also revolted, killing five Europeans but no missionaries. "The Portuguese government then figured that the missionaries were behind the revolt," McVeigh said. "Government militia bombed villages and killed missionaries 250 miles from the revolt.
but that not one European was killed. As a result, he said, Portuguese troops bombed many villages with napalm bombs, killing thousands of natives.
"The Portuguese are trying to divide the Africans religiously into tribal groups that hate each other," Brancel said. "They try their best to build hatred."
BRANCEL SAID THAT he remembered one case where a minister was taken by Portuguese militia in the middle of his sermon and beaten to death. The people in the church at the time were forced to "tear the roof off the church" before they were allowed to leave. The church was "flattened" immediately by the militia.
The group also approved the following planks for a platform for the coming Spring ASC elections.
- The expansion of ASC interests to take in national and international issues.
- An explanation by the ASC of the reasons for "stifling" the petition concerning a referendum on the football seating plan. If this explanation is not received, the group advocates an investigation into the matter.
- An investigation of high prices in the Kansas Union Cafeteria and explanation of why the Union does not make annual financial statements easily attainable to the students.
- Granting the Faculty Senate power to set University policy in areas of direct student concern.
- The revoking by the ASC of recognition of all living groups which do not remove clauses from their
This spring's UP platform appears on page four of today's Kansan.
constitutions or bylaws which have to do with discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, or creed.
- A fund raising drive for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee which is coordinating activities in the South for registration of Negro voters who have been denied voting rights.
- SUPPORT OF THE ASC'S HUMAN Rights Committee as long as the committee continues its function of investigating racial and religious discrimination wherever it exists.
- Reaffiliation with the National Students Association while at the same time supporting the Current Events Committee and People-to-People.
- Changing the ASC constitution to allow all voting districts at least one representative.
- A reforming of the House Un-American Activities Committee through the help of the All Student Council. Action advocates that the ASC pass a resolution concerning reforming HUAC and send copies of it to Congress, the HUAC, the At-
(Continued on page 12)
Weather
Partly cloudy this afternoon, tonight and Friday with a few light showers east-central portion this afternoon and scattered thundershowers extreme West Friday afternoon. Cooler West this afternoon. Low tonight in the 30s. High Friday in the 50s.
CHUCK PATTERSON — "party is in hands of a few."
CHUCK MENGHNI — "did not exclude Bee and Patterson."
BRIAN O'HERON — "many Action members are also CRC members."