First, thank you to the lowa State University community on behalf of The September 29th Movement for supporting us during the recent abuse of power by ISU’s Office of Judicial Affairs (OJA). President Martin Jischke has denied the administration lessened the penalties on five of the Beardshear Eight because of pressure and claims they acted out of “concern for the students.” However, this “concern” was conspicuously lacking when the OJA refused to reschedule closed hearings during Dead Week and Finals Week last semester for any of our members. Some hearings were delayed by our attorneys only after the OJA refused what was eventually granted: reprimands to everyone charged. We know ISU community support for The Movement, and for the principle of free speech, carried the day. Again, thank you.

Fascism is a word that has admittedly been abused, misused and misinterpreted, mostly by the political left in accusations against brutal police and sometimes inept bureaucrats and politicians. Furthermore, suggestions that any form of fascism has crept into the political life of the United States inevitably meets with disbelief or derision. When most of us hear the word, we envision iron-fisted dictatorships, vicious storm troopers and secret police coming in the night.

However, in “Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America” (New York: M. Evans and Co., Inc.. l980), Berkarn Gross defines fascism more clinically and explains why he has added the adjective “friendly” to describe a power dynamic he saw taking shape nearly two decades ago. Gross, a former government planner, detected “the outline of a powerful logic of events” that “points toward more concentrated, unscrupulous repressive, and militaristic control by a Big Business-Big Government partnership that — to preserve the privileges of the ultra-rich, the corporate overseers, and the brass in the military and civilian order — squelches the rights and liberties of other people both at home and abroad. This is friendly fascism.”

If those squeamish about the word “fascism” substitute “hegemony,” the point about Big Business and Big Government working in concert for “more concentrated, unscrupulous repressive and militaristic control” remains the same. For the ultra squeamish, try using the phrase “top-down management.”

Fascism conjures images of violence and fear because we see it coming from Big Government, coupled with an oppressive military. What happens if fascism comes instead from the Big Business side? Storm troopers become unnecessary for a populace narcotized by the dubious virtues of capitalism and consumerism. You don’t have to use secret police if the level of political dialogue is so narrow that any other “isms” — you know the ones I’m talking about — are considered anti-American and virtually seditious.

If the ideology of capitalism and consumerism comes packaged as a university “education,” if students willingly accept corporate-style administrators with mandates to run universities like businesses, friendly fascism practically polices itself. Martyred South African freedom fighter Steve Biko said it well: “The greatest weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

What does all this have to do with Iowa State University, The September 29th Movement and President Martin Jischke?

When Jischke arrived at ISU in 1991, he came with a mandate from Gov. Terry Branstad to run ISU like a business. Under this kind of corporate CEO-style, decisions should not be questioned, they should be carried out. Underlings (read “students, faculty and staff”) have no say in naming buildings, corporatizing the environment or picking a student regent to represent their interests; these decisions get made at the top.

Most universities in the United States today, including ISU, have become little more man elite vocational schools, ideologically speaking. The primary mission now is to get a good job, not learn how to think. Make no mistake, getting a good job is important. But more important than freedom and democracy?

Top-down management creates a different kind of reign of terror than government fascism does. It fosters an atmosphere of fear that allows administrators to tell faculty members that it may be time to do away with the concept of tenure. Top-down management cultivates a climate that gets union leaders fired who dare to speak up on behalf of union members. This reign of terror — no secret police here — keeps many untenured faculty members silent, makes staff workers fearful and intimidates graduate students who want to organize unions for better working conditions. Through all this, we praise the virtues of capitalism and there’s big bucks for CEOs who maintain a bottom line, as well as large payoffs for executive types who leave under clouds of suspicion while tight-lipped administrators hide possible wrongdoing behind codes of “confidentiality.”

What all this has to do with ISU, The September 29th Movement and President Jischke is this: Carrie Chapman Catt Hall, and all the ills at ISU the naming process of that building symbolizes, represents a certain kind of exclusionary thinking that ignores large segments of the university population even as they pay lip service to diversity. Only white administrators and alumni were involved in the decision to name Old Botany after Catt; only one person of color was involved in the building dedication process and her warnings about Catt’s political racism and xenophobia were ignored. Just a few of the systemic problems that result from a lack of democracy and CEO-style management at ISU include, but are not limited to, a seriously flawed star-chamber judicial system, low retention and recruitment rates for virtually every underrepresented group on campus, abysmal support for ethnic and gender studies programs, the gutting of power in me Office of Minority Student Affairs in 1994, and so on.

The September 29th Movement categorically rejects the hegemony that results from attempts to run this university primarily like a business. We reject the notion of top-down management that treats students as product and statistics, an odious concept that slices the very heart out of democracy and freedom. We understand clearly that this rejection of collegiate-style friendly fascism has placed The Movement on a collision course with President Jischke for well over a year.

We will not submit!

We will continue to study and learn and offer political education because we believe that education — learning to think — is far more important than training. If you can think, you’re gonna get a job. We are grateful that many ISU professors agree with The Movement, and provide education as well as training. You know who you are, and you know this places you at odds with ISU’s primary mission: train students to be docile and quietly accept their places in some corporate community without making waves. Don’t make waves at school; don’t make waves at work. Tiptoe quietly through life so you may arrive safely at death.

It’s time to take back our universities. They know this at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and at SUNY Binghamton and at UC Berkeley. Rest assured that the CEOs probably won’t return our universities willingly. Remember: President Jischke is doing what he’s paid to do.

Is it his university or ours?

Milton McGriff is a graduate student in English and spokesman for The September 29th Movement.