Vol 1-1 INTRODUCTION

     This newsletter is to inform people of developments in an
effort to advance computer education. Workers at the Ford Rouge
Plant in Dearborn, MI. were denied computer programming classes.
There was an effort by administrators of the UAW-Ford program at
the Dearborn Engine Plant to kill interest in computers and
computer programming. We want to keep interest alive because
computers are the future. We want to disperse information to
users about computers. Since the computer is still in the early
stage of development, the ideas and experiences of the users need
to be shared and built on if this technology is to advance. To
this end, this newsletter is dedicated to all people interested
in learning about computers. We welcome articles, programs,
reviews, etc. We want this newsletter to help people use their
computers in ways that will be useful and fun.

DAWN OF A NEW ERA

   From the Age of Darkness to the Age of Enlightenment -- from
the Machine Age to the Mind Age, here we are. Let not any force or
forces keep it under wraps. Let it be free to cir culate in the
Public Domain. Let us base it upon principle, not on price, like
Truth or Love. From the Great Wall to the Great Pyramid, from the
hieroglyphics to the screen of the computer, mankind is still
progressing. So make the new born science, that has given us the
computer for the amateur and not as a prerogative of the pro-
fessional to be shrouded in secrecy from humanity, the choice of
the individual, not an election of a minority. From the falling
star to the falling apple, from the minute to the multitudinous,
from secrets to disclosure, I am pleased to endorse the amateur
method. Therefore I implore all to plan and to participate even
though I have been on disability for 26 years and have not had
the opportunity to participate in the great sea of knowledge that
has flowed over the Dam of Secrecy since I was inactivated
physically and mentally -- in my advanced years and state of
general debility I still see the mind of man the greatest
computer of all -- So Let Us Continue to Make Use of It to the
Advantage of the Masses - Come, Let Us Reason Together. With an
open mind and a free spirit, let me reiterate, there is so much
more to know, that what we do know, is still insignificant. It
gives me great pleasure to endorse this free-for-all program of a
restless mind.
      Floyd Hoke-Miller, UAW Retiree and Flint Sit Down Striker

DEDICATION

     This first issue of the "Amateur Computerist" is being
published on February 11, 1988. This date was chosen so that this
issue could be dedicated to the Flint Sit Down pioneers on the
victory of their battle to win industrial unionism 51 years ago.

   Floyd Hoke-Miller, whose article "Dawn of a New Era" appears
else where in this newsletter, was a sitdowner in Plant 4 in
Flint, MI during the Great Flint Sit-Down Strike. He continues
to participate in the battle for industrial unionism and for the
progress that industrial unionism has brought to this land.

   Another pioneer of the Flint Sit-Down Strike, Jack Palmer,
when he retired, wrote an article in his union newspaper in which
he tried to sum up the gains and unresolved problems that the
sitdowners had left behind them. He wrote, "Each generation has
to solve its own problems. The sit-down generation solved the
problem of organization. The postwar generation solved the
problem of pensions and inflation. Not entirely, but a good
start was begun. The present generation is faced with the
greatest problems of all. They are Automation, Peace and
Politics." (from "The Searchlight" (newspaper of UAW Local 659,
Flint, MI), April 21, 1960, p 2).

   The "Amateur Computerist" is an effort to encourage discussion
on the problem of Automation. Microcomputers are now an
important fact of life. They are new. The first microcomputer
design was announced to the public only 14 years ago. (It was the
Mark-8 by Jonathan Titus featured on the cover of the July,1974
issue of Radio Electronics.) Today, personal computers are
everywhere. They are affecting and changing homes, factories,
offices, etc. They are revolutionizing all fields of knowledge.
Therefore, it is crucial that computers not be kept from people -
that knowledge about computers be available to amateurs as well
as professionals.

   In a book written shortly before the invention of the personal
computer, Ted Nelson warns against allowing a computer
priesthood to develop. He writes,"Knowledge is power and so it
tends to be hoarded. Experts in any field rarely want people to
understand what they do, and generally enjoy putting people down.

   "Thus if we say that the use of computers is dominated by a
priesthood, people who splatter you with unintelligible answers
and seem unwilling to give you straight answers, it is not that
they are different in this respect from any other profession.
Doctors, lawyers and construction engineers are the same way."

   "But," he goes on, "computers are very special, and we have to
deal with them everywhere and this effectively gives the computer
priesthood a stranglehold on the operation of all large
organizations, of government bureaux, and anything else that they
run...."

   "It is imperative," he concludes, "for many reasons that the
appalling gap between public and computer insider be closed. As
the saying goes, war is too important to be left to the
generals....Guardianship of the computer can no longer be left to
a priesthood....Indeed, probably any group of insiders would have
hoarded computers just as much....But things have gone too far.
People have legitimate complaints about the way computers are
used, and legitimate ideas for ways they should be used which
should no longer be shunted aside." (from Computer Lib, pg 1-2.)

   Thus to deal with the problem of automation, it is necessary
for people to be familiar with computers, to use them, and to
know their capabilities and limitations. To that end, this news-
letter is dedicated to continuing the work begun by the Flint
Sit-Down Pioneers.