Letters to the Editor Calling All Students... All students, past and present, and that includes those of us who have moved on to faculty and administrative positions, have good reason to be proud of our history. Throughout centuries students have, in the main, struggled against injustice, hypocrisy and tyranny. The tradition of student protest is founded on a core of moral integrity. In defense of that integrity countless students in many countries have given their lives. In recent times the most notorious event was the massacre of students before The Gate of Heavenly Peace in Tiananmen Square and when later the student leader, Wang Dan, served almost four years in jail. He was detained again in May last year and held for trial on charges of writing articles criticizing the government and _ for organizing self-help groups for dissidents freed from jail. Theirs is the struggle for democracy. It was students again who led the © pro- democracy movement in this year's months of protest in Yugoslavia against the Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic who refused to honour opposition victories in the municipal elections. Universities welcome diversity of opinion. More—they encourage it, without any coercion towards a commonalify of thought, opinion or creed. | This is their essence and their strength from which generations of students germinate their individual search for truth. Set against this history of struggle for freedom against coercion and tyranny, how is it that membership of student unions is one of total compulsion—and also that this is completely supported by university administrations? This is plain hypocrisy and it is time to put our own house: in order, “Wis a glasshouse from which stones should not be thrown any longer. lf a union us worth joining—then no coercion should be needed. And the corollary is that if coercion is necessary, it must indicate weakness, not strength. Enforced “marriage” of any kind is immoral and to call any such arrangement “a union” is a delusion, the ramifications of which call for intimidation and tyranny, witness USSR's breakup struggle with Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia; Yeltsin’s massacre in Chechnya and so on. From international affairs to personal relationships it is indefensible. There are students who want to exercise their right to freedom of choice and that might entail their not wishing to not join a union. The reasons anything from a supposed misuse of the money they would have to subscribe, to an antipathy to various activities undertaken by the executive. Whatever their individual feelings, the right to choose must be observed and honoured. Of the several such Books on Fourth Phone 563-6637 ‘Fax 563-6610 Toll Free 1-800-303-2950 In The Former Danish Interiors Building 1685 Third Ave. Prince George, B,C V21 3G5 may be. students that | have known, | recall one who (ldter to graduate with greatest honours} phoned the union asking what would happen if she didn’t join the union. The response was blunt and brutal, “Then you don't graduate.” A totalitarian response if ever there was one. This attitude is iniquitous and untenable. If all the studying has been done, the papers written .and the examinations passed—the relative qualification has been earned. That much cannot be gainsaid. There is no connection whatsoever between a level of work satisfactorily achieved—and membership of some club. Unions are fine and necessary. About that there is no argument. But enforced membership is antithetical to their much vaunted principles. The main argument for the closed shop is that as all .membersy:.of