Subject: CSS Today 95022

From: [email-masked] (Yuan Wei)
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 95 09:58:49 PDT

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            ]]]    ]]]   ]]] ]]]   ]]] ]]]]]]]]]   ]] ]]    ==========
            ]]]    ]]]   ]]] ]]]   ]]] ]]]   ]]]    ]]]     No.  95022
            ]]]     ]]]]]]]  ]]]]]]]]  ]]]   ]]]    ]]]    _1995.08.09_

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CSS Today Editorial Board                             <[email-masked]>
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		     I N    T H I S   I S S U E                 No. of Lines
============================================================================
In The Community
    o  Again, United We Stand ........................................... 91
    o  Wake Up, the Honeymoon Is Over ................................... 38

Open Forum ------------------------------
    o  IFCSS is dead. Long live the IFCSS ............................... 59
    o  From IFCSS to Reality. .......................................... 100

=========================<<<< In The Community >>>>=========================
Again, United We Stand .................................................. 91
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIN Jianhong                                                      CSST 95022

Prelude:

Everybody knows the BILL-HR1915, how killing, inhuman, near-sighted is it?
As simple as this: you feel dry, hungry, isolated, intimidated and extremely
frustrating when you SUDDENLY find that it takes timeless time to hope you
can win your H-1B work visa(only a VISA/permission), it takes even your
sweat,blood and tears to timelessly wish you can WIN/EARN a Permanent
Residency in AMERICA!

Residing in US for what? -working for your boss, your company, your hosting
country--America! Don't you feel you are exhausted, yet you feel proud,
because your intelligence, skills, courage, independence, your basic human
quality OF COURSE worth all the things you earn, whether it is $ or GC or
H1B.

You and Me, US, sacrifice everything, at most our motherland, to win this
PAPER work, a visa, a card. and this seems all our life dream, at least for
the near future.

What a situation we are in!

Response:

Many CSS are worried, some are angry, like me, and also some say: NO USE to
do anything!!! How come? Don't remember how you strive to go the new land?
how you study/work IRON HARD to SURVIVE here??? Where is your courage, even
at least as a struggling human being to say NO, NO, NO to ANYTHING insulting
you, threatening your life, dream in America.

Many CSS are supportive, FEW CSS are standing up against the TIDE, the
FATE!?

Hear Ghandi's word: "anything you do will be insignificant, but it is
important to do something in your life"!!! Doing is better than nothing, in
this case!!

1, getting smart:

** try to understand the bill thoroughly, train your ability to explain to
all walks of your community, esp. CSSs.

** try to make friends at least while you're making support, you at least
have more friends, or speak better English.

2, Local Strategy:

 a) starting with: a good petition letter, your own univ. CSSA; 
 b) contact other chinese professional groups for support, telling them their
relatives' plan to study/work in US will also loom if big cuts in H-1B/GC;
 c) contact your univ. other student groups, showing your letter; d) contact
local Chinese community/taiwanese, etc. local Chinese politicians e) contact
your local church leaders, american friends.

3, Organizational design:

 You MUST form an ACTION committee, or coordinating group locally, your
buddies, your CSS colleagues, some sympathetic, willing people.

 But you must take the LEAD, because HR1915 is most directly about YOU, and
you are the self-acclaimed leaders in this net. Don't be shy, too polite,
too worried about your current study/work.

 Show your fairness, frankness, goodness of your basic personality, and pray
for GOD's help, like me.

 You know what: all people in this CSS net will support you, as real friends
because we have nothing uncommon: we are Chinese struggling in America, that
is it, no more, no less. And it is profoundly enough, isn't it?!

Seems Final Word:

take patience, take your reason, and your courage to move ahead;

make more friends than BEFORE, study a bit about US Politics/Law, study a
bit about writing/speaking English, make small but concrete moves in your
locality.

AUGUST agenda:

In Chicago, we are forming an action committee, we writing to local
newspaper, writing to local statesmen/congressmen, contacting professional
groups, orgs, contacting local Taiwanese/political community, and reach out
for american community................................

We will see how amazing things we can achieve if we hold to our belief in
fight for the RIGHT thing! Let us fight, learn and encourage together.

What a wonderful life fight in America!

Our spirit will always be up!

=========================<<<< In The Community >>>>=========================
Wake Up, the Honeymoon Is Over .......................................... 38
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
LUO Ning                                                          CSST 95022

Although many Chinese student and professional (CSP) organizations and
individuals have got involved in the effort to counter the current
antiimmigration tide in the US, the majority of the CSP community has not
been put on alert about the seriousness of this crisis. It is not because
they don't believe that "things could not become THAT bad", it is rather
because most CSP from mainland China could not IMAGINE HOW BAD IT COULD
BECOME.

Our generation of CSP come to the US after 1978. In terms of the general
attitude of American public toward Chinese people, this 17 years is the best
period since Chinese started to immigration to the US in mid-19th century.

_From the brief chronology of the US immigration policy attached in the
following we can see that the Asian Pacific Islanders (API) have been
excluded or discriminated against LEGALLY in immigration and work for the
MOST PART of the last 100 years. Chinese, the largest ethnic group among
API, was the first fell under the attack (Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882).
The reason for the API to be singled out consistently is because this group
is racially distinct.

Many of us might have thought that it is hard enough to get a waiver for
J1's two-year home country residence requirement, or to get a H-1 or labor
certificate. Many also feel the economy is now much less generous toward the
people with advanced education than 10 years ago. However, if you compare
our situation with what our forerunners had to face, we are still in the
paradise. It may be hard to find a job which can fit your education or
desire now, but in the most time of the last 100 years, a Chinese could not
even find ANY decent labor job in this "land of opportunity".

The problem is that this honeymoon is over. We must wake up from our
hypnotized sweetened version of "American Dream", and face up the reality.

It is imperative for us to educate ourselves, to learn about the past
history, and to understand working of the forces brought these changes.

More importantly, we must stand up and speak for ourselves. We can no
longer "hind behind the crowd", for the whole crowd is under attack now.

============================<<<< Open Forum >>>>============================
IFCSS is dead. Long live the IFCSS! ..................................... 59
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
LUO Ning                                                          CSST 95022

The IFCSS as we knew it, the IFCSS which was born out of a community-wide
mobilization due to 6.4 and the spirit of self-governing, had been speaking
for the hearts of thousands of CSS for years, and had been working on
several vital issues concerning the CSS community at the national level, in
particular the CSPA and the CSS rights protection, is dead.

The sickness of the organization started a few years ago, when AEIC
(Academic Exchange Information Center, initiated by a group of IFCSS
activists to promote exchanges with China) was excluded out. That was when
the spirit of tolerance toward different political opinions started to die.
There were downs and ups since then, but the overall trend is down in terms
of the most vital sign --the representation.

The dying process was a long and painful one. It started in February of
1994, in a "Round Table Meeting" in Washington, DC. The new blood in the 5th
term council was attacked by the CCC and its allies for council's effort to
unearth the truth about the financial operation of the 5th term HQ run by
Lin Changsheng and Shi Heping. Before that time, these people had managed to
maintain the delusion that they cared about the opinions of those CSSA
representatives within IFCSS. The sixth annual convention last year did give
people some new hope for IFCSS's return to CSS. Unfortunately, the CSS
community's hope was shattered again. The final run-down started in February
of 1995, when Li Jinghong and his supporters initiated the impeachment
process. The dying process was accelerated greatly by the involvement of
Arent Fox, trying to protect its investment in IFCSS.

The death of the IFCSS was pronounced on July 13, 1995, when Li Jinghong and
his supporters filed to the DC court to deny the legitimacy of the Special
Convention, called by more than one-third of the IFCSS members and
participated by 96 members, 12 more than the required quorum of 84. The
court ruling to protect the Blacksburg meeting was almost inevitable, given
the unreserved devotion of Arent Fox to support them.

One of the articles distributed at the Special Convention, written by Kang
Hua, Chen Xi and Hu Hai at SUNY Buffalo, pointed out one of the reasons for
the CCC to be able to take over IFCSS: the general apathy of CSSA toward
their national interests. Had there been 50% more participation from the
true CSSA representatives, the situation of IFCSS would have been overturned
three years ago.

We could still say that if there is sufficient participation in the future,
there is still some possibility to take IFCSS back to CSS. But this is a big
"if". It is more likely that the level of participation will only go further
downward than the other way around. Even with the partially revived
participation after 6da and the strategic position of the HQ, the effort to
return IFCSS has not been able to succeed, the probability for future
turning back would be very very slim, if not none at all.

The "IFCSS" is still there, headed by Xing Zheng, "elected" in a meeting
with 70 mostly anonymous "delegates". The number is less than the half (84)
of the delegate number last year's annual convention, and much less than the
number of participating organizations in the Special Convention. Who knows
how many among these 70 were the true CSS representatives?

The "IFCSS" is still there. But the IFCSS, the one with the true spirit of
1989, is dead.

Long Live the IFCSS!

============================<<<< Open Forum >>>>============================
_From IFCSS to Reality. ................................................. 100
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TANG Huang                                                        CSST 95022

The farce of IFCSS was over. After the catharsis ensued from the show, did
we learn anything? As an outsider, I would like to share with you some
reflections on it. I don't mean to be patronizing to IFCSSers (some of whom
are my friends). To be sure, the failure of IFCSS is also the failure of our
CSS community. Like it or not, it's viewed that way.

First of all, somehow from the first day of IFCSS, it's doomed to be like
what it is now. The reason is pretty simple: nowhere on this planet exists a
single political party where both liberal and conservative, radical and
moderate, pro-life and pro-choice, or in short enemies, can live peacefully
together under the same roof.

Is it possible for one political party to please everybody? The answer is
obviously no! If there is one organization (actually many) that can please
all, then it has to be nothing more than a non-political, professional
society with as few political agenda as possible or none. American Chemical
Society has 140,000 members, much larger than IFCSS, and it's nothing, as
you know, but chemical. Can you possibly imagine how ACS will be if its
chairman or board members come out waving pro-abortion slogans in the name
of ACS? That's why you got hundreds of parties and organizations in the
society. That's why people gather under different parties or clubs where you
can share your ideology, hobbies, or common dislikings, with your pals,
where you don't have to put up with something you firmly oppose to, and
where you don't have to bargain on such a tetchy thing called "principle".

In a democratic country, there are bound to be so many parties fighting each
other, but tell me who wants to join one that fights within? It seems to me
very odd that on one hand we're fighting for a multi-partisan, democratic
system for China; on the other hand, some of us insist bull-headedly that we
have one and only one party (IFCSS, that is) for all politically-minded,
diverse CSS? Do we contradict ourselves?

I understand the previous IFCSS infight was all about power for
"legitimately" representing all. But the infight exactly signaled why IFCSS
would run amuck.

Secondly, some IFCSSers and supporters have a grand illusion that as long
as there are a set of perfect, democratic rules or by-laws and as long as it
is made exactly the same as the successful "model", US government, it ought
to work as well as a democratic government, like US system. But the reality
tells us loudly that this is impossible. The reason is also simple, and of
common sense: an organization is not at all a government, no matter how much
you make it look like one. No matter how perfect or imperfect the by-laws
are, the driving force for a successful organization is internal affinity,
not rivalry; internal cohesive relationship, but internal animosity. Unlike
a government, if you don't like guys around you in the party, you don't have
to put up with them. At worst you can quit, and you have nothing to lose.

Now the resounding question is: can we tolerate each other and make
compromises? We all know democracy works because people involved have to
compromise and tolerate differences. But believe me, in any system, you
never make political compromise unless you absolutely have to, because...we
are all human. We all love, hate, detest, intolerate... We never easily
compromise to others, least our political enemy, especially with respect to
the magic stuff -power. This is the human weakness. Therefore the failure of
IFCSS is due partly to the human weakness. It's wicked, but it's surely
there.

Now can we overcome it? Yes, but not readily and automatically by setting up
some rules. There are some *external* conditions to make this working. For
example, President Clinton has no other choice but compromise when he faces
strong oppositions from Congress in, say, passing his budget plan. Hate it
or like it, he has to pass a budget. Otherwise he is incompetent as a
president. In doing that, he has to compromise to get the work done, even in
only 10% of what he intended. If a professional politician fails to deliver
his work, he will probably lose chance to be re-elected or even lose his job
entirely. That is, you have to compromise, to tolerate (even you hate it),
to behave yourselves, or you are out. In other words, these are the external
constraints, social or personal, that make the compromization possible, make
two political rivalries working together (think if democracy works between
enemies?) Could it work without these constraints? Well, it could, but you
got Taiwanese Parliament, where one can punch his opponents in public and it
doesn't really matter; or you got IFCSS hooliganism on public nets that was
all in the day's work, and nobody can do anything about it. In these cases,
the value of all rules and by-laws are just on a piece of paper, and nothing
else. With all the considerations, it's still tempting to imagine if Bill
Clinton and Newt Gingrich can tolerate each other within one party? :-)

Another factor that causes the "democratic" IFCSS to fail to its
representativeness -the foundation of democracy. When a ten-membered folk
dancing club has the same voting priviledge as a 3000-membered CSSA while
the word "democracy" is mentioned, you got to be practically joking. The
closest thing for it is aristocracy.

Everyone knows that the slogan of IFCSS is to practice democracy. That seems
to be the common goal or interest for all to stick together. But wrong.
Democracy in its very essence is just a way of ruling. You can learn all
things on paper about democratic theories or procedures or political jargons
and carrying them out in a do-as-cook-book-says way, you have yet to come
out and do something else. Now the questions are: what are you going to do?
or what're the goals, long term or short term? what are we supposed to do to
be the representative of all CSS, not one faction of them? what are you
going to respond facing a controversial issue? and how? These were largely
unanswered in the past IFCSS, IMHO.

Hopefully we do learn something from the experience. As a final word, I
would rather have ten national CSS organizations representing each portion
of CSS and doing some solid, concrete things for the community, than a
hotch-potch, flame-war-prone, politically-charged IFCSS.

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