Medical institutions derive their wealth from patient fees, research grants and real estate investments. The wealth of many medical empires is measured in the tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars. Using this measuring rod, free clinics are but fleas on the hide of the elephantine medical system. Since the...
Tag - 1972
Since Nixon announced his new economic program, the American left has been searching for an effective response. In its reaction to the program and the underlying economic crisis, the left has not yet escaped some of its most familiar failings. On the one hand, many radicals cling to an image of cataclysmic economic...
It's happened once again. Another puppet has stepped forward, scientific credentials in hand, to mouth the scientific justification for an unjust social order. This time it's Richard Herrnstein, Harvard professor of psychology and noted pigeon researcher, who has recently joined the ranks of Jensen, Banfield...
Three years ago a few members of the American Physical Society startled their colleagues by wearing a lapel button which read "Science for the People". The reaction of some older established members was: "What do you mean- the people? Am I not the people too?" The question that I want to examine is how science relates...
For the past three years Science for the People has held actions at the annual AAAS meetings, questioning the political manner in which science priorities are established and the hierarchical and elitist way in which science is organized. The AAAS finds itself in a curious (maybe not so curious) position in the face...
Many of us in SESPA who are doing or have done scientific and engineering work, feel a deep sense of frustration and exasperation about the use of that work. We teach, we do experiments, we design new things—and for what? To enable those who direct this society to better exploit and oppress the great majority of us...
Contrary to what we would like to believe, there is no such thing as a structureless group. Any group of people of whatever nature that comes together for any length of time for any purpose wiil inevitably structure itself in some fashion. The structure may be flexible; it may vary over time; it may evenly or unevenly...
At the request of a member of the Union of Vietnamese in France, the Science for Viet Nam group began looking into the military use of weather modification techniques. They discovered that most of the Department of Defense appropriations in the area go to classified projects. But published reports, brought together...
Thus, the December-January issue. And just in time, too, for the upcoming AAAS meeting in Philadelphia. The task of preparing this issue was much complicated by a felt need for a reply to Richard Herrnstein's "I.Q.", to appear in this issue. We eventually ended up considering three such articles at once, an unusual...
Attempts at doing people's science — a theme big enough to fill an entire issue-is explored in a challenge to SESPA members to take part in occupational health organizing, and in a description of a rat control project carried out by students at a community college in Philadelphia. The articles approach the same issue...