Ed Meese wages war on porn-and Constitution

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By WEINSTEIN President Reagan's attorney general, Edwin Meese III, has set up a Commission on Porno -graphy. Last month, the commis -sion issued a report aimed not at pornography but at the First Amendment to the Constitu -tion-free speech.

Social researchers who have studied pornography and its alleged relation to the increasing violence against women are up in arms at the methods used by Meese's commission. Aggrava -ting their concern is the release of this report before the members of the commission could meet and approve any conclusions.

Several of the commission's main researchers charge that the report's major conclusions result -ed from a biased reading of inconclusive and contradictory evidence—ignoring some research findings and emphasizing others.

For instance, Allen Sears, the executive director of the commis -sion, arguing that "science does not give the complete answer," simply ignored the scientific evidence. Instead, he featured unsubstantiated testimony from such inherently biased elements as law-enforcement officers and members of the clergy with a political axe to grind.

Allen Sears, a prominent member of the conservative "religious right," lets no grass grow under his feet. Before the ink was dry on his commission report, he sent threatening letters to owners of the chain of 7-11 stores, Warner Publishing Servi -ces (parent of Warner Books), KMart (parent of Waldenbooks), and Rite Aid (parent of Encore Books).

The letters warned, Attorney General's Miese STEM Commission on IN THIS ISSUE • THE GIRLSO REPORI • SEX IN CINERY DI • SEMGUIDE company is involved in the sale or distribution of pornogra -phy...Failure to respond will necessarily be accepted as an indi -cation of no objection."

Sears' publication of these letters amounted to a clear boycott threat, clubbing distri -butors into banning the targeted publications-or else. No due process, no formal hearing, no legal recourse. The charge is equal to conviction and senten -cing-Joe McCarthy strikes again!

Fall into trap

Unfortunately, some feminists have fallen for this kind of witch hunt and are in serious danger of allying themselves, with those whose real interest is censorship of newspapers, TV, magazines, and books for their own reactionary political ends.

Sears and his cohorts aim to divert attention from the institu -tionalized, legally sanctioned, economic and social violence against women. Sworn enemies of women's rights, these crusaders against pornography hypocritically applaud the wanton murder and mayhem practiced by Business Manager: DON MAHONEY Circulation Manager: RALPH FORSYTH Francisco, Calif.

St., No. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110. the U.S. capitalist government in places like Hiroshima, Korea, Vietnam, and Nicaragua.

It is the repression of sex and the "normalization" (if not "glo -rification") of violence that leads to violently sick sex in male-dominated capitalist society.

In fact, Beryl Kutchinsky, a psychologist at the Institute of Criminal Justice in Copenhagen, reported in April 1986, that the rate of occurence of rape has remained constant or even declined over the last 10 to 20 years in those European countries that have abandoned all restric -tions on sexual materials. of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials. Closing date: May 25, 1986 Willie yan, per No.

San The actions of the women's movement-fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion rights, equal job opportunities, and equal wages— have done more to combat the sexism and violence against women than all the hoopla against pornography.

It is no accident that the religious crusaders oppose this struggle for equal rights. It is to the credit of the Natic ›nal Organization for Women that they have not fallen for this phony "anti-pornography" fight of the political Rambos.