Author - SftP Archives

Nuclear Tragedy

If you think that the AEC's concern for reactor safety can be counted upon to protect you from the potential hazards of a nuclear power plant, then consider the following case history in which two men have already died because of criminal negligence. June 6, 1968: Virginia Electric and Power Company (Vepco) begins...

Runaway Electronics

Radios, refrigerators, radars, generators, and electrocardiographs-Americans have never used more electrical equipment. Yet two-hundred thousand fewer people can now fmd work in the industry than just two years ago. Where have all the jobs gone? Have they been lost to the Japanese competition? In part, but not nearly...

Stilbestrol — Cancer-inducing Estrogen

Stilbestrol, a synthetic estrogen hormone, was used heavily on women from 1945 to 1952 to prevent complications of pregnancy and for scientific research on pregnancy . Science and the media have only half-heartedly discussed the direct connection of Stilbestrol to the vaginal cancer now being discovered in the young...

Workplace Politics: Honeywell Capers

Honeywell Information Systems is a branch of Honeywell corporation specializing in the manufacturing computers. In 1968 Honeywell launched a major effort to produce a new line of 'fourth generation' computers, which if successful would constitute a major challenge to IBM. In 1970 Honeywell acquired from the General...

What’s Happening? Reports from Groups and Chapters

The SESPA Science Teaching Group held a science conference on Saturday, March 10 at the Cardinal Cushing High School in South Boston. The 150 participants included students and faculty from local high schools and colleges. The conference was organized in response to a need felt among science teachers to begin a...

Political Life in Science for the People? — A Discussion on the Lack of It

At the 1970 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago we passed out the New University Conference analysis, People's Science by Zimmerman et al [Science for the People, vol. III, no. 1, Feb. 1971]. Last year at the 1971 AAAS meeting in Philadelphia we passed out the pamphlet...

Which Side Are We On — A Forum on the Class Position of Technical Workers

In the following pages we present, for the first time in Science for the People, a forum — a group of articles and commentaries that are directed to the same question. That question is, "What is the class position of technical workers (technicians, computer programmers, scientists, engineers, etc.) and what is their...

Learning from History: Chilean Struggle and the U.S. Left

Addressing Chile's Congress, Allende referred to the circumstances of Russia in 1917, of the examples of the Soviet Union and China. He was no academic, no theorist, he was a practical man who considered himself no more nor less than an instrument of the struggle of the Chilean working class. To be able to contribute...

Colleen Meier 1946-1972

Colleen Meier, a founder of Science for the People, part of the Helen Keller Collective, veteran of many actions for peace and against the misuse of science, physiologist and graduate student took her life on August 3rd at the age of 26. The following text was part of a memorial service organized by friends in her...

Rat Control: People’s Science in Philadelphia

During the summer of 1969 a group of Black students of Community College of Philadelphia challenged the Chemistry department to make chemistry relevant to Black students and their communities. Many communities surrounding Community College of Philadelphia have problems that can be solved by technical and scientific...