Harrington Asks For Reduced Corporate Role

Michael Harrington, national chairman of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), said yesterday the student movement as a part of DSOC must work for the democratization of the corporate system and extreme changes in government policy to solve immediate social crises.

"The problems are radical and the solutions must be more radical than President Carter is willing to undertake." he told a crowd of about 450 in Science Center C in a lecture entitled, "Dumping Carter: A Progressive Program for the 80's."

Harrington said the DSOC program calls for the end of corporate control of American political decision-making.

The change would bring about full employment, help abolish corporate control of energy sources and change the western focus of American foreign policy, he said.

Carter's anti-inflation and full-employment programs will fail because they are geared to private corporate-profit interests rather than immediate social concerns, he said.

Harrington said the "energy crisis" is a political problem of corporate domination and although "we must say no to the nukes," control of alternative energy sources must rest with the public.

"Exxon would buy the state of Arizona, put a huge reflector over it, and plug in the rest of the country," if corporate power controlled solar energy. Harrington said. He added Exxon would manage to make solar energy life-threatening in the process

Harrington said the nation's problems with foreign policy relate to the American mentality. If Third World nations stop insulting the United States and multinationals and work harder. Americans seem to think these countries will progress as the United States has, he said.

Harrington praised Harvard students who are working for corporate divestiture in South Africa, ending with a call for solidarity. "Unless all social movements join together, they will find that they are fighting against themselves rather than against corporations," he said.