Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1988. január-június (42. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)

1988-04-07 / 14. szám

Thursday, April 7. 1988. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ 9. AmERicAn nunc ARI ARS FOUNDATION PROVIDES NEW OPPORTUNITIES BOOK REVIEW "The Cold War Against Labor": An anthol­ogy edited by Ann Fagen Ginger and David Christiano. Published by Meikeljohn Civil Liberties Institute. P.O. Box 673, Berkeley, CA 94701. "The Cold War Against Labor" is 2 paper­back volumes priced at $19.95.- and worth every nickel. Some 100 trade unionists, writers, educators and journalists give us their reflections on cold war experiences. Ranging from Honolulu to Buffalo, San Francisco to Memphis, with a chapter on Central America. Even those who participated in these events were not aware of the devastation that took place. Here are first-hand accounts of the Hawaian workers (Chapter 54 Red Scare in Paradise, ILWU in Hawaii) taken out of bondage to Dole Pineapple by the ILWU. They had to start over when their leadership was indicted. Chapter 75 "Effects on Union McCarthysm on Black Workers" by Philip Foner tells how areas, where black workers had obtained union conditions had lost everything. Unions such as Mine, Mill <5c Smelter, Fur, United Eíecrical Workers, the National Maritime Workers had to take on the gov­ernment, the employers, and parts of the labor movement. They didn't always win. When Rosa Parks sat down in 1955 and the boycotts of Southern towns began.there was no help from organized labor. In Chap­ter 78 Ann Braden, journalist and veteran activist reports that the CIO had withdrawn cooperation with the Southern Conference of Human Welfare, the Highlands School, and the National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax. The Southern Negro Youth Congress was wiped out and the NAAPC was busy red baiting its own people. That the Montgomery Boycott succeeded is a tribute to the tenacity and guts of the black people in the area. This lack of leadership continued through the civil rights struggles the fight against the Viet- Nam War, and the present labor crisis. It may be an oversimplification to say it, but labor's problems started when they chased out the communists . but I'm going to say it anyway. The book has a section which indicates that labor is developing new tactics to meet the attacks of the state and employers. "The Cold War Against Labor" can be obtained by writing to the Meikeljohn In­stitute or at the Unity Book Store 235 W. 23 St. B.K. A two-day meeting entitled "Jewish Folklore in Hungary" was held in Budapest, at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The meeting was organized by the Ethno­graphical Research Team of the Academy. Besides the Hungarian researchers, well- known scholars from some twenty countries of the world arrived for the important event. The twenty-four lectures held at the session dealt - among others - with folk- poetry, music, as well as with Jewish folk customs and beliefs. "The objective of the Foundation is to support the evolution of Hungarian society. As a foreigner I am not qualified to deter­mine what shape that society should take, but I have a strong conviction that it tought to be many-faceted and rich in opportu­nity. This is precisely what the Foundation seeks to accomplish: to enlarge the possi­bilities for creative activity and to support new initiatives in culture and education." This quotation is taken from the state- mant on the establishment of the Soros Foundation. It is already known by many in Hungary that the signer György Soros is Hungarian by birth, emigrated in 1947, and became a businessman -millionaire. On the other hand few know that the Foundation estab­lished by him is an American one. It should be known in this connection that in 1984 when he decided to establish a foundation independent of the Hungarian state there was no provision in Hungarian law for such an eventuality. The Commit­tee of Foundation, of which the chairman' is György Soros and the co-chairman Kal­man Kulcsár, deputy general secretary of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (H.A.S.) started with 1 million dollars, and deals with the applications submitted four times a year. The Committee was set up in May 1984. The founder had the idea to earmark an annual 1 or 2 million dollars for this purpose. However, given the rapid development of programmes, this amount proved to be by no means large. Hence the funds available for creative work have, by 1987, increased considerably in a number of special fields, particularly that of social sciences. Initially a single general competition was announced by the Committee, inviting under it applications for dollar and forint grants alike, with the reservation that, apart from exceptional cases, the dollar grants were not to be outright: the forint equivalent of the amounts was to be paid to the account of the Committee, and it was from that account that the Secre­tariat was to disburse :he assistance to the winners of the forint applications. For natural science, medical and technical purposes only reimbursable dollar grants came into question, and profit-oriented enterprises and the matter of Hungarian inventions were from the very beginning excluded by the conditions of competi­tion. These basic principles continued to remain in force. However, on the basis of appli­cations received the Committee outlined its programme more precisely, including in the conduct of special competitions for definite activities. Thus for example, the Committee announced as early as 1985 its competitions, for scholarships in fiction and social sciences, entrusting the judg­ment in both cases to a special body, the so-called advisory board. The Committee likewise announced in 1985 its project of assistance to young Hungarian professionals for their travels and stays abroad with the purpose of attend­ing conferences. It also made available support for covering fees of publication in In the Scientists' Club of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences a co-operation ag­reement was signed in 1984 between the H.A.S. and the Soros Foundation of the USA; the signators were István Lang, Deputy General Secretary of the H.A.S., and George Soros for the Soros Foundation. foreign professional journals. In addition, the Foundation offered a support to those young professionals who want to attend the-Dubrovnik development center. In the meantime, lots of new competi­tion possibilities have been added to the repertory. Above all, the Foundation and the Ministry of Culture announced a com­petition for professionals having an ap­propriate background and programme to make study tours in America (or in justi­fied cases in Europe). For judging the ap­plications a special committee was set up, and the decisions are made by a committee established by the Foundation in the United States. For 1987 the Foundation has earmarked special funds for the purposes of a competi­tion under which young researchersof natu­ral and social sciences, with invitations from institutions abroad, may receive per diem allowances or support for their travel costs. Since the establishment of the Foundation a total of 2663 applications have been sent in, of which almost a thousand have been accepted. It is worth taking a look at the last report of the Committee of Foundation. The multifaceted character of the applications accepted proves on its own the significance of the Foundation, with these covering management training, history, sociology, economic sciences, musical science, psychology, public edu­cational affairs, performing art, architec­ture, natural sciences, and public health. The financial statement at the end of last year shows the value of supports in money terms, but there is also a value which cannot be expressed in financial terms. For example, for applications a total of 82 million forints and for domestic scholarships 22 million forints were approved by the Committee, while for study tours abroad nearly 2 million forints was disbursed. M.P. Editor HUNGARIAN AMERICAN Your English page is great. Can you use a short Hungarian-oriented article once in a while? All best to you Cordially5 John T. Gojack

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