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Thursday, April 7, 1977
University Daily Kansan
Focus on Western Europe
Opinions on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Kansas or the School of Journalism
Allies in political flux
There is, needless to say, a lot more to Western Europe than postcards and travel brochures.
From the Norwegian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, from the White Cliffs of Dover to the Austrian Alps, the nations of Scandinavia and Denmark have a period of considerable instability and change.
EURO-COMUNISTS attack Moscow as much as Washington and get more and more
power. The Common Market tries to become more like a United States of Europe without losing Britain.
So many things are happening that this page can only be a superfuture glimpse of the site. Don't expect it to be very detailed.
The roots of our culture are thoroughly Western European. They have been our traditional allies. What is happening to them may indicate what will happen to us.
Something is going wrong in Western Europe and no one is quite sure how to stop it.
In French elections two weeks ago, 60 important towns fell to the side of the alliance, giving the alliance two-thirds of the larger urban centers in the country of parity, equality and fraternity.
Economics, politics shake Europe
If the current voting trend continues, the Socialist-Communist coalition will win a parliamentary majority in the 1978 national elections. French president Valéry Giscard d'Erménon will be forced to resign or to call for new elections.
THE COMMUNISTS also are facing a crisis in Italy. Not only are they losing ground with students and far-far radicals, but if the party supports the government in breaking a
Italy has been troubled by a series of riots by students who are over completing their studies. The government has taken such drastic measures as terminating demonstrations in Rome.
wage-price agreement, it will lose control of Italy's trade unions.
If the Communists don't break the agreement, Italy will lose a $83 million International Monetary Fund loan, which the country sorely needs. Without the loan, Italy faces economic
month. Tindemans had failed to come up with a parliamentary majority in what would have been the eighth government reshuffle.
Only Spain gives a glimmer of hope to the political climate of Western Europe. The country continued its shift toward*
in attempts to gain a majority in elections.
Diane Wolkow
Editorial Writer
BELGIUM'S PRIME minister, Leo Tindemans, dissolved his parliament and called for new elections this
Even quieter nations on the European continent are having the right to govern in the Netherlands broke up two weeks ago in a dispute over a minor part of the cabinet's reform measures.
ruin the country could be plunged into revolution.
The European Democratic Union (EDU) is to be set up in Brussels or Strasbourg. EDU will embrace right-wing parties both in the European Economic Council (EU) and elsewhere in Europe.
democracy by announcing it would hold its first democratic elections in a few months. The right to vote gave workers the right to strike and to form unions and parlay them into the Spain's 170 political prisoners.
WHILE WESTERN Europe continues its slow shift toward the political left, parties on both sides of the ideological spectrum are trying to establish transnational political parties
The Eurocommunists also are trying to form some agreement. They support a new brand of communism combining socialism and Western-style democracy.
HOWEVER, IDEOLOGY isn't the problem; it is merely a symptom of Western Europe's fears. The prevailing trends are a reaction against the mediciate leaders who now govern Western Europe and an effort to deal with the economic crisis in Europe just can't snap out of.
Pooer countries, such as Portugal, aren't the only ones having troubles balancing their payments. France simply cash on the prices and stagnating world trade. Germany and Switzerland regard inflation as their principle problem. Germany—with Europe's strongest economy—is plagued with a high rate of unemployment and a decrease in trade exports.
IN VIEW OF the current leaders' inability to solve Western Europe's economic challenges, leadership might be refreshing,
However, to assume that politics alone can cure economic ills is naive. The current recession is tided to some extent over which European politicians have little or no control.
Europe is powerless to dictate the price of petroleum—which the EU has been makingcent in the past four years. Nor can ideology determine ecological constraints or the scope of limited natural resources.
She can only hope that the new trend in Western European politics embraces not only a political shift but also preemption of why Europe is "going wrong." New insight is needed, mere rhetoric is not.
Callaghan losing influence
Last month it looked as if it might be the end of the line for Great Britain's Prime Minister James Caghan.
After all, Callaghan's own Labor party voted against a Labor-proposed motion to cut government spending by one per cent. The Laborites' vote, when combined with the vote of the opposing Conservative party and other political factions, resulted in a 293-0 defeat for Callaghan's government.
The Conservative party's contention in opposing the cut was that it was too small and unpleasant. It was also an sluggish economy any good.
And who would have been Callaghan's successor had he failed to muster a majority?
MOST LIKELY it would have been Thatatcher, who many regard as the first potential woman prime minister in Britain's long parliamentary history.
But Callaghan was saved moments before the no-confidence vote came up in Maryland. Steel. Steel promised Callaghan the liberal vote of 13 members in return for a Liberal voice in government. Callaghan was insulted by the governor's, his 322 to 298, as a result. Indeed, if the Liberal votes had gone to the other side he would have been the lead of their pencils in anticipation of a national election.
Thatcher did for education what Attila the Hun did for Western Civilization.
Thatcher is hated by many
MARGARET Thatcher,
leader of the Conservatives,
concluded that "we have no
confidence to vote before the
House of Commons. If such a
vote had been successful,
Callaghan would have had no
suffered." Elizabeth to call new election.
NEVERTHELESS, there are enough Britons who like Thatatcher that Conservatives are a strong 16 points ahead of Labour in polls. The reason for Conservative popularity undoubtedly is Britain's sagging economy.
Jay Bemis Editorial Writer
Britons who regarded her policies as Secretary of State for Education and Science from 1970 to 1974 as being too elitist. There are several reasons for their thinking so, but perhaps the more important ones are the following:
- $She strived for more governmental control of student unions in an attempt to depoliticize them.
● Thatcher increased the price of school lunches by one-third and eliminated free milk rations for 3.5 million children. She also raised her reasons for doing so, that milk had nothing to do with education and that the $2.7 million savings could be used to upgrade the political system; to fund funds for higher education; and to
These policies seemed so elitist that one Laborite said
The pound declined sharply in value last year; dropping as low as $1.66 in value last fall from $2.03 in January, 1978. Britain lured the euro away to loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but it had to do so by promising to cut down on government spending and raising its tax revenues. This provision strayed from Labour's usual philosophy of being an insurer guaranteeing full employment.
At the end of last year, the country's rate of inflation stood at 2.5%, up from the Chancellor of the Exchequer Dennis Healy has said that it probably won't get much lower than 10 per cent this year, and the government will continue to hover around its present 15 per cent mark.
Despite Thatcher's spending policies during her days as education secretary, Britons seem to respect her attitude toward reviving the economy in what she describes as a "tough budget," and goals for recovery are to reduce the amount of government expenditures, balance the budget and adopt sound monetary policies. These goals are similar to the provisions of the original 1974 budget. Thatcher seems to have had in mind for several years now.
Thus, the time seemed to be ripe for Thatatcher to challenge the government of Callaghan and London. London books were actually 5 to 10s that Callaghan would be leaving as prime minister. But the Conservatives failed to gain support of Steel's small liberal faction and Callaghan is being inducted after only a year in office.
he was able to survive what he called "the moment of truth."
The travel posters show a soft, green, beautiful land where the talking never stops and the pups never close.
Wrong, right split two Irelands
But that is only the stereotype of Ireland. The European community, which has seldom
experienced prolonged periods of calm, still is upset by the constant Irish sectarian battles.
There are two Irelands, really. There is a "right" Ireland and a "wrong" Ireland.
THE "RIGHT" Ireland is
Finns' freedom battle laudable
The balance of Americans know very little about the world more than 100 miles from home. They should know more. A lot more. The freedom and independence as much as the United States does should recognize and give tribute to those countries whose rival its own. Finland is one such country.
Finland is half the size of Texas, with a population about equal that of Mississippi. The climate is mild; only 13 per cent of its land is suitable for agriculture and because of its extremely high productivity is quite low. Most of the remaining area is wasteland.
BY ANDY WARREN
Guest Writer
Despite those natural encumbrances, Finland has the 10th highest standard of living in the world. Social welfare is advanced.
THE FIINNS ARE among the world's most educated people. For a country with such a small population, Finland has produced a truly amazing number of outstanding architects, artisans, musicians, designers. Of this fact there can be no exaggeration or over emphasis.
If the Soviets could have had it their way, Finland too would be a satellite feature. Feeling the need for a buffer zone from Nazi Germany, Russian forces invaded Finland in December 1899. Planners in Moscow and Berlin demanded their forces to breeze past what Finnish defenses there might be and occupy the smaller nation in a few days' time. They paid dearly for their errors.
LOGISTICALLY the Soviet Army had it made. In war, as in everything else, however, the Finnns proved themselves capable of dealing with the best and promptly astonished the Reds. For three months an army from Finland, a nation of barely more than 4 million people, waged war with its titan neigh-
Southern Ireland, more properly known as the Republic of Ireland. It is a relatively
bar of 100 million. Highly mobile and courageous in battle, the Finnns outmatched the Soviets from the beginning. Gliding silently on skis through the snowy forests, the Finnns isolated Russian columns and then up them nicely time after time. Other negative build-up of Soviet arms and personnel and favorable weather gave Russia a partial victory.
WHEN HOSTILITIES broke out between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Finland found itself allied with Germany in hopes of regaining lost territory. The Finns cooperated in none of Hitler's nastility disputes with Soviets and quickly re-established the pre-1939 borders where they then held fast.
The Soviets, perhaps remembering their experiences with the determined Finnis in 1939 and their monumental victory, still have fortitude in continuing battle this feisty neighbor. The Soviets agreed to negotiate, albeit from a clear position of superiority.
With the disintegration of Noran Germany, Finland found itself in a position of facing a well-survived persecuted and even larger Red fury. Seeking the futility of further negociated for peace.
The people who have suffered the most from the IRA are those the IRA supposedly is trying to
PEACE WAS expensive to the Finnns. It cost them 10 per cent of their land and seven per cent of their people were dead or crippled. Though not so badly damaged as many other national schools, industrial capability was gone. Reparations to the Soviets have been estimated to equal as much as $800,000,000 at the 1948
To prevent such a thing from happening, and to maintain the considerable freedoms that many countries allow, we delicate, please peerless, in their handling of their precarious position. What may at times appear to be slavish subservience to the Soviet Union is in fact the desire to Finnish independence.
After nearly 800 years of foreign domination (Swedish and Russian), after suffering the crushing effects of World War I, Finland burgessed aftermath, Finland thrives with life, freedom and prosperity.
rate. They also were saddled with reparations to the western allies, and to their credit, Finland is the only country in the world that is paying its reparations to the United States on schedule. Finland was forced to sign a treaty guaranteeing its neutrality and friendship between France and preventing it from joining any alliances against Moscow, which the Russians interpret as including the European Economic Community.
TODAY FINNISH leaders walk a tightrope between the Soviet Union and Finland's own independence. Moscow takes every action to see that Finland remains as subservient as before, and Nearly everything short of direct intervention has been used to influence domestic Finnish politics. Finns know that active resistance to Soviet demands is probably equivalent as anything less than another Grand Duchest of Moscow.
Andy Warren is a sophomore majoring in political science and geography.
The "wrong" Ireland, in Northern Ireland, there have been more than 1,500 people killed during the sectarian strife, which has plagued the country and shows no signs of letting up. It is more outstanding, albeit grim, facts about the northland.
peaceful country, especially compared with the North. The people, mostly Catholic, have a moderate standard of living.
THE PEOPLE in Northern Ireland are known for their endurance, and they work at a variety of jobs. However, the jobs are mostly held by clerics, who appear reluctant to hire the Catholics, whom they outnumber three to one.
The standard of living in the North is much lower because of the high, mostly Catholic, unemployment. It was for this purpose that, in 1968—to protest job discrimination against Catholics. From these demonstrations, which soon turned ugly, has grown the scourge of Northern Ireland, the Irish Republican Army.
The Irish Republic, on the other hand, is less of the naster various of religious bigotry in Ireland and are too numerous to feel insecure. There are 2.7 million Protestants and only 130,000 Protestants.
THE IRA was supposedly intended to liberate the Catholics from oppression by the Protestant majority. It hasn't happened yet. In fact, no war of liberation has ever been fought with so little support that it could be liberated. The IRA seems to have lost sight of its goals, if it ever had any, and now functions mostly as an organization of terrorists-at-large.
Paul Jefferson
Editorial Writer
They have suffered from the reprisals organized by the extremists, the searches and seizures by British troops looking for IRA members in Afghanistan, and the IRA itself whenever the terrorists stop to violence or otherwise have defied IRA tactics.
IRONICALLY, the Catholics initially welcomed both the IRA and the Greyhounds north, thinking that both would surely protect them from Protestant extremists. Now Catholics chief antagonists.
protect from the Proestant extremists: the Catholic minority.
The presence of the British troops is another thorn in Irishmen's sides, north and south.
But the Ulster government, which is mostly Protestant, disagrees with the Dublin Ulster council and the Ulster politicians like the current division. They think that a united Ireland would be a Catholic state, and they might be systematically excluded. They have to agree in order for the unification to occur.
For the time being, unification efforts will fail, and there will continue to be two Irelands. The right one is easy to know; the wrong one is painful to believe.
Efforts are begun every year to try to legislate the unification of both Irelands, to try to remedy their individual economic and social issues in 1973, and in 1975, said in the Declaration of Sunningdale that she wouldn't oppose unification efforts.
They see their sectarian strife as a purely domestic matter, and the British troops, sent there to keep order and to protect, wind up on the growing list of victims.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
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