Category - No 1

American Chemical Society Actions

Several centuries ago Newton postulated that a body at rest tends to stay at rest. The consequences of this postulate are distressing when applied to a body with the mass of the American Chemical Society (ACS). SESPA first experienced the inertia of the ACS in April, 1972, at the Boston national meeting (see SFP, Vol...

Controlling Aggressive Behavior (or Stopping War Research)

In March 1969, a demonstration against a Dow Chemical Corporation (napalm manufacturers) recruiter led to a demand for access to the university's research files in an effort to expose suspected direct involvement of the university with the military. A group of over 100 demonstrators entered the graduate school offices...

The Atomic Establishment – A Review

The Atomic Energy Commission was formed a year after the holocaust at Hiroshima and Nagasaki gave the world its first exposure to atomic energy as an instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy. The McMahon Act of 1946 set up a 5-man Commission, all civilians, to advise the President on all possible manifestations of this new...

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...

A Modest Proposal

An alternative program for technical work is no panacea. Scientists must realize that in this society almost any type of research stands a chance of being perverted. For science to serve the people the basic social structure will have to changed. New tactics are needed. We can't get very far by organizing people...

Midwifery: An Alternative

Women Act To Control Healthcare (WATCH) is a Chicago based women's group composed of healthcare workers and consumers concerned about the institutional healthcare services available for women in Chicago. In the past year, we have been working around two related healthcare institutions: the presently existing Chicago...

A Call to AAAS Actions

...the AAAS meeting is not simply a gathering of well-intentioned scientists. It is an important scientific and ideological tool for preserving the status quo. It serves to obscure the essential political relations of science while perpetuating the elitist, technocratic attitudes which have characterized the...