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WPIRG belongs at the University of Waterloo r'eli8 . WATERUWtMrt0MtxE. -t0tEtmAVttErtEMt.t t& I“ Ths wonderful organization is trying to force a referrmdumaimed at cutting off funding to Waterloo Public Interest Research Group (WPIRG). A petition was circulating on campus. as well as a sad sheet of, shall we say inaccurate, propaganda. First year students were being asked to ngn the petition, even before they knew the truth about WPlRG. And if enough signatures are collected - about 1500 or 10 per cent of the student population at UW - a funding referen. dum could be called. And now the "clinging to the Paat" award goes m...a group of UW students callmg themselves the "Committee for Progress, Technology, and Free Enter. prise. Why should anyone care? Well, be. cause WPIRG is the city's only environ. mental group. Because it is part of a natiorrwide movement of public interest groups formed after American consumer actmst Ralph Nader toured the country m the early 1970s. Opinion And becéuse they have an important role to play in Waterloo. Indeed. WPIRG members are very active in the city's recycling committee, where they've played two important roles: as vohur teers And In Ministers of informa. tion from their extenuive library of environmental and social material. As well, they have been asked by the city to comment on the draft report of the growth committee WPIRG has grown up to be an impor. tant contributing member of the Water. loo and university communities. This is not a group of far-left wingnuts and dryetoking hippies. Tftey're apoliti'chl. a collection of peo- ple of all political stripes and leanings working at collecting and disseminating City Seen Ian Kirkby' This namecalling may backftre. Even if they achieve their 1500 signatures (and that's unlikely in an age where people are coming to terms with the importance of environmental groups) Their drivel states: “WPIRG is a lefU'at organization which advocates and prom- otes ecological, anti-industrial ideas. The ecology movement stands opposed to cities, culture, industry, technology, and the intellect...WPIRG'5 prime goals are not to 'save' the environment, but to advance certain socialist aims." Makes you proud to live in a country which allows hee speech, even when it's thig garbage, doesn't it? information on important issues - issues dealing with the environment, Canada's covert support of apartheid angsthe Third World. Hardly dangerous st . But just when it seems like the youth of this wonderful country understand these issues better than their parents do, along comes a group like the committee for. progress. technology and free when they claim to he follows: of 20th century philosopher Ayn Rand. Rand believed in individual responsibility, as well as freedom. And die also was clear thattherighttothmwowmhendedat the other person’- none. It’s also the central but of environmental groups such an WPIRG. thir vs vu‘uvmm - - WIIYIBHI Or the objection-Nu,» they were bore generally tttlt, mod th A scary bunch, T to vie wi the MarxiabUninirti It the title of the most obnoxious, not: minted group, never afraid to un dirty tactics. ' _.auite. am My "all! widenns the Federation (I'm my disallow their petition bongo-a of the inaccura- cies, according to pande' at David Reahnan. Good tor them. - So who is this irr0ttP d people? They haven't had the courage to sign their names to the propaganda that. They do, however, sound like I group of radicals tliatttedtoh-gtuutirmapotmy alma mater (and in the pd have shown themselves to be no out of WPIRG or of e1ttrir1mtnentaiutt9 - the olitsetiyiats