Bid to Fight Affirmative Action Ban Announced

Accelerating their counterattack now that a proposed initiative to ban affirmative action is winding its way toward the November ballot, opponents of the measure Thursday announced a “Freedom Summer 1996” effort that they hope will bring college students from across the country to California to fight for the rights of women and minorities.

The campaign, which organizers hope will attract 2,000 students, is modeled after the 1964 effort in Mississippi, which occurred at the height of the civil rights era.

This one, however, will have a strong dose of gender rights attached to it as well. Strategists against the measure openly acknowledge that if the “California civil rights initiative” is seen only as a minority issue, it will win. If it is seen as a measure that dramatically affects laws governing treatment of women--as many legal scholars say it will--then, they believe, they have a good chance of beating it back.

The college effort is already being organized on 129 campuses nationwide, including more than 100 in California, according to Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority and one of the leaders of the effort to defeat the initiative. The student drive began locally Wednesday night with a recruitment session at Occidental College.

“What happens here in California is a national issue,” Smeal said during a Los Angeles news conference. “If we lose here, it could lose nationwide.”

Smeal said petitions identical to the California measure are circulating in five other states--Florida, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Illinois--and have been introduced as bills by legislators in 17 states. A separate effort to ban affirmative action at the federal level also has been presented to Congress.

The announcement of the summertime push against the initiative came one day after backers of the far-reaching measure turned in more than 1 million signatures collected in hopes of getting the initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot. Only 690,000 valid signatures were needed, making it probable that the measure will qualify.

As the signatures were turned in, Gov. Pete Wilson argued that the measure was an effort “to restore fairness to California.” The alliance against the initiative argues that it would do exactly the opposite.

According to legal scholars, the initiative would ban all manner of affirmative action programs or those that are tailored to a particular group, including mentoring programs for girls in math and science, or outreach efforts to attract women and minority business owners to bid for state contracts.

As troubling to the women’s organizations, the measure also would strip from the state Constitution the current protections women have against sexual discrimination in the workplace. Under current law, women cannot be discriminated against unless there is a “compelling need.” The initiative would allow a far lower level of scrutiny, allowing discrimination if it is “reasonably necessary.”

Even as they announced their plans, organizers against the initiative acknowledged that voters have yet to understand their point of view. Public opinion surveys have repeatedly shown that voters favor the initiative.

To change that, opponents are counting on the students and on women’s and minority organizations, which are marshaling their resources. The newly installed campaign manager for the effort against the initiative, Patricia Ewing, said television and radio ads explaining their position also are in the offing.