For the Record

Anti-abortion march in Washington was high-water mark of resurgent leftists, spring ’89. Gloria Steinem told the crowd: “We were organized well enough to keep Reagan from being as lousy as he could have been, but our rights are in danger now.” . . . Morgan Fairchild confessed: “I never got off my rear until Reagan was elected.”. . . Onetime pro-lifer Jesse Jackson marched arm-in-arm with Hollywood’s Cybill Shepherd. Back in 1982, before he got bit, Jackson wrote in Our Sunday Visitor. “[Abortion symbolizes] a definite drift to Sodom and Gomorrah in our culture.” . . . After all the Hollywood hype, commented Anne Taylor Fleming in a New York Times wrap-up story, “the march itself seemed a strange sort of letdown . . . devoid of those old Sixties shivers, the tension and the passion”—in part, she concluded, because the official prochoice language does not resonate. . . . Pro-abortion movements are proliferating on the Coast. Among them: the Bay Area Coalition against Operation Rescue, Pasadena’s Socially Conscious Singles, and San Francisco’s Men Who Care about Women’s Lives. . . . Washington march followed in short order orchestrated anti-Salvador agitations coast-to-coast tied to the elections won by right-wing ARENA. In Washington, William Sloane Coffin of SANE/ Freeze and Angela Sombranno of CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) were among those arrested for blocking entrance of State Department. . . . On the Coast, sponsors of various demonstrations included the Communist Party, the Oakland-Berkeley Rainbow Coalition, and (our favorite) the Harvey Milk Gay Democratic Club. . . . Both of Maryland’s Democratic senators, Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes, embarrassedly backed off as sponsors of a banquet to honor former Democratic Congressman Parren Mitchell (who also backed off) when it was disclosed beneficiary of dinner would be People’s Daily World, the organ of the CPUSA. . . . Coca-Cola has become a no-no in Connecticut River valley. Mount Holyoke students have voted 2 to 1 to ban Coke from campus until Coca-Cola severs all ties with South Africa. Can Smith and Amherst be far behind?

Battle lines are shaping up on U.S. sale of high-tech items to USSR. Evans & Novak see confrontation over issue between James Baker at State (pro trade) and Dick Cheney at Defense. . . . Sen. Bill Bradley (N.J.), possible Democratic presidential candidate in 1992, opposes what he calls “romantic capitalism.” Why do bankers favor lending billions to the Soviets? he asked one banker, and was told “Senator, you give bankers too great a credit for being smarter than they are. It’s fashionable now.” Commented Bradley: “I would argue that we should be rational capitalists, not romantic capitalists.” . .. Not only should we not advance credits to Soviets, says hard-nosed Rep. Don Ritter (R., Pa.), but we—and the world community—should demand Soviet reparations to compensate Afghanistan for war ravages of the last nine years. . . . Sudan, incidentally, has become third country to recognize interim government of Afghanistan, along with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. . . .

Featured Tags

Anti-abortion march in Washington was high-water mark of resurgent leftists, spring ’89. Gloria Steinem told the crowd: “We were organized well enough to keep Reagan from being as lousy as he could have been, but our rights are in danger now.” . . . Morgan Fairchild confessed: “I never got off my rear until Reagan was elected.”. . . Onetime pro-lifer Jesse Jackson marched arm-in-arm with Hollywood’s Cybill Shepherd. Back in 1982, before he got bit, Jackson wrote in Our Sunday Visitor. “[Abortion symbolizes] a definite drift to Sodom and Gomorrah in our culture.” . . . After all the Hollywood hype, commented Anne Taylor Fleming in a New York Times wrap-up story, “the march itself seemed a strange sort of letdown . . . devoid of those old Sixties shivers, the tension and the passion”—in part, she concluded, because the official prochoice language does not resonate. . . . Pro-abortion movements are proliferating on the Coast. Among them: the Bay Area Coalition against Operation Rescue, Pasadena’s Socially Conscious Singles, and San Francisco’s Men Who Care about Women’s Lives. . . . Washington march followed in short order orchestrated anti-Salvador agitations coast-to-coast tied to the elections won by right-wing ARENA. In Washington, William Sloane Coffin of SANE/ Freeze and Angela Sombranno of CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) were among those arrested for blocking entrance of State Department. . . . On the Coast, sponsors of various demonstrations included the Communist Party, the Oakland-Berkeley Rainbow Coalition, and (our favorite) the Harvey Milk Gay Democratic Club. . . . Both of Maryland’s Democratic senators, Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes, embarrassedly backed off as sponsors of a banquet to honor former Democratic Congressman Parren Mitchell (who also backed off) when it was disclosed beneficiary of dinner would be People’s Daily World, the organ of the CPUSA. . . . Coca-Cola has become a no-no in Connecticut River valley. Mount Holyoke students have voted 2 to 1 to ban Coke from campus until Coca-Cola severs all ties with South Africa. Can Smith and Amherst be far behind?

Battle lines are shaping up on U.S. sale of high-tech items to USSR. Evans & Novak see confrontation over issue between James Baker at State (pro trade) and Dick Cheney at Defense. . . . Sen. Bill Bradley (N.J.), possible Democratic presidential candidate in 1992, opposes what he calls “romantic capitalism.” Why do bankers favor lending billions to the Soviets? he asked one banker, and was told “Senator, you give bankers too great a credit for being smarter than they are. It’s fashionable now.” Commented Bradley: “I would argue that we should be rational capitalists, not romantic capitalists.” . .. Not only should we not advance credits to Soviets, says hard-nosed Rep. Don Ritter (R., Pa.), but we—and the world community—should demand Soviet reparations to compensate Afghanistan for war ravages of the last nine years. . . . Sudan, incidentally, has become third country to recognize interim government of Afghanistan, along with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. . . .