themselves up as judge, jury and 'lord h...

themselves up as judge, jury and 'lord high executioner', damning Gill with a sneak attack of slanderous literature, and trying to remain anonymous about it.

The leaflets, malicious enough alone, were only part of an extensive, multi-faceted attempt at political sabotage and mudslinging. In Gill's own words, "I have been accused of just about everything under the sun." There were purposely planted rumors and accusations, such as that Lee assaulted Dave Schaper (a charge made by Schaper, which a court threw out within 15 minutes, with Gill acting as his own attorney), and that Gill conspired with U-M officials Robben Fleming, Allan Smith and Henry Johnson, as well as the Michigan Daily, to jointly cover up illegal activity, stole a desk, stole a $2 bottle of wine from Village Corners and raped white virgins under the age of 16. The accusations still continue ad nauseam. And the elitist status quo did what it set out to do; i.e. to force Lee Gill out of a predominantly white power structure.

THE AFTERMATH: PETTY POLITICAL GAMES

A lot of hopes for SGC died when Lee Gill stepped down. One Council member noted that "When he led the meetings, there was an atmosphere of order, decorum and organization of purpose that hasn't been repeated since." On the night that Gill resigned, tensions reached their breaking point, and a general melee erupted. Racial animosity and outright chaos has become increasingly apparent ever since, as witnessed by the blatant disrespect and baiting of minorities evident in the UFW/lettuce eating episode. But as was mentioned previously, this was not the first of Hoffman's racist power plays. And the voting records prove that he is not alone here, but is consistently supported by other Screw SGC members and David Faye's Campus Coalition, the virtual "powers that be" on SGC. Let the record speak for itself: *Hoffman introduced a motion to set up a "Director of Scotspeople Affairs", while one of his followers, Patrick Heller, entertained a motion for a "Director of Male WASP Affairs" and a "Director of Heathen Affairs". All of this was intended to be a slap in the face of the Directors of Black, Chicano, and Asian Affairs. Amazing how much energy people on SGC seem to expend purely for the purpose of insulting people, isn't it? *In addition to trying to recall Gill earlier (which failed), efforts were also initiated to try to recall every other non-white person who held a position of power, including two blacks, Henry Bernard Clay (Vice President for Minority Affairs) and Terry Talbot, (Talbot later resigned along with Gill and two others, Rosemary Mullin and Dave Fowler), Lydia Ortiz (Director of Chicano Affairs) and Ted Liu (Director of Asian Affairs). While attempting to recall and thus remove from power every minority person of color, SGC has also seen fit to appoint a new position, Director of Jewish Affairs, held by Suzy Prog; and to extract $650 from minority funds for Jewish interests such as a newsletter and Zionist speakers. Getting back to the question of whether or not SGC tends to act in a manner of self-interest, it is interesting to note that at least half of SGC is composed of Jewish persons, and that it ranks Jewish oppression in Ann Arbor on the same level with that of Blacks, Chicanos, Native Americans, Asians. etc. The Fishmans, Marcia and Dan, are the only Jews on SGC who disagree with this priority, on the basis that "there is just no comparison between the levels of oppression for, say, Jews and Blacks in this country. Socially and economically Jews tend to identify with the middle and upper-middle class"

*Both David Faye and Matt Hoffman have further initiated action to effect blanket recall of minorities by changing the structure of the constitution, or to find loopholes in the present one. Hoffman filed a suit to this effect, which was defeated by Lee Glll.

*Hoffman set in motion a resolution to censure the Supreme Court "Affirmative Action" directive, aimed at urging universities to recruit minorities and include more minority programs and interests. This was followed by a condemnation of the BAM (Black Action Movement) demands presented after it was disclosed that the U of M did not fulfill its promised 10% black enrollment, but rather filled a token 7% enrollment. The very next week, a large gathering of blacks attended SGC, and this censure of BAM demands was reversed to become an affirmation of those same demands. But make no bones about it, without that strong public pressure, SGC would've let their outrageous censure of BAM stay on the books.

*So what is a predictable move by David Faye? He presented an "unruly constituents resolution," implicitly designed to keep selected groups from being able to attend these public sessions of student government, blacks in particular.

*Since Gill's resignation, an estimated $10,000 in funds for "minority affairs" have been frozen by a Central Judiciary suit, again, by Hoffman.

EPILOGUE

In the above list of some of SGC actions relating to minorities, it is no coincidence that the names of David Faye and Matt Hoffman come up so often. These two have consistently expended the most energy in undermining the political struggle of black, red and yellow people. Many people reading this may not be aware of the power structure in SGC, because it's a complicated matter. In simplified form, it lines up like this--Far right: Hoffman "Screw SGC" Right to Far right: Faye "Campus Coalition", Left: Fishman "Student Rights Party", Campus Coalition holds the greatest amount of power, by far, and most of its members will vote in a block with their spokesperson, David Faye, who is solidly aligned with Matt Hoffman's "Screw SGC" faction. From what has been observed of the present deterioration and political reactionism that SGC is wallowing in, it seems that the next SGC election in late March is going to be crucial. The political situation can either be cleaned out, or made even worse. The last election was marked by campus-wide apathy, and many people were elected by 1 vote (their own, in many cases). To give you an example of the situation, in one race, 6 were to be elected and only 5 people were competing for those 6 spots. That is the race that brought you Matt Hoffman. It cannot be stressed enough that U-M students can effect a lot of good in the next election by voting wisely and with some degree of political awareness. SGC, with its access to University funds and resources, could potentially be a tremendous asset to the entire community. Note: See flash on Feb. 14's abolishment of Minority Affairs Committee. 

--Jeanne Hing

JUST AS WE WERE GOING TO PRESS, DAVID FAYE AND HIS REACTIONARY FOLLOWERS PASSED A SERIES OF AMENDMENTS WHICH COMPLETELY DESTROYED LEE GILL'S MINORITY AFFAIRS DIRECTORSHIPS, IN EFFECT ROBBING ALL NON-WHITES OF ANY REAL POWER IN STUDENT GOVERNMENT, AND INSTITUTIONALIZING THIS RACIST POLICY VIA CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. Keep your eyes on issues to come, for the continuing and sordid saga of SGC.