The Cristal Experiment: A Chicano Struggle for Community Control

5. Schisms Emerge in Cristal's Power Structure (1972-1974)

5 Schisms Emerge in Cristal's Power Structure (1972-1974) During the first two years of the politics of community control Jose Angel Gutierrez relied on the organizational power of his emerging political machine, CU, to build RUP locally and to develop the peaceful revolution's many changes and programs. However, as he consolidated his power, CU became part of RUP's local community power structure. By 1974 this centralization of power was causing internal schisms that were weakening CU. The schisms reflected a simmering discontent that emerged between 1972 and 1975 among CU's contentious power elites. RUP's Elitist Power Structure Who governs in the United States has been the basis of an often emotional and controversial debate among social scientists. Political scientists , especially, have been caught up in the controversy for years, attempting to answer several pertinent questions: Who makes the important political policy decisions? How widely is political power shared? What influence do economic and other elites have on government policies? How accountable are these elites to the public?! The question of power distribution has been vigorously addressed by those who advocate pluralist theory. Pluralists assert that power is widely 142 Copyrighted Material Schisms Emerge in Cristal's Power Structure 143 dispersed among the various competing power groups, all held in check by the public and by each other. Conversely, ruling elite theorists contend that power is concentrated in the hands of a small group, subject to little or no control by the rest of society.2 During its first three years the peaceful revolution produced a quasi-monolithic community power structure headed by what can be described as a "demosocratic elite:' The phrase, which refers to a combination of various aspects of pluralist and elitist theories with a slant toward pluralism, was coined by Harold· Lasswell and Abraham Kaplan in their work, Power and Society. They explain that a demosocratic elite is a form of rule in which the base value of the predominant form of power is affection. Since this must be widely dispersed to serve as a basis of power, demosocracy is rule by the popular, the favorites of the people. Rule is always by an elite; but the principle of elite recruitment and the relations between elite and mass differ considerably from one form to another. A demosocracy is constituted as such, not by its having no elite, but by the fact that the elite owes its position to popular affection.3 Thomas Dye defines elites as those few that have power in society as opposed to the masses that do not. His definition buttresses the work of prominent elite theorists such as Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca, Robert Lynd, and Harold Lasswell and Daniel Lerner, who concluded that every society is governed by an elite. However, Robert Michels 's Iron Law of Oligarchy best describes RUP's power structure:"He who says organization says oligarchy." According to Michels, the Iron Law of Oligarchy governs any social system.4 Elite theory posits that elitism is endemic to all societies. Cristal's power structure was no exception. By 1974 Cristal's power structure was demosocratic in theory, but in practice it had evolved into a much more hierarchical and oligarchical power elite. In orchestrating the second revolt and RUP's peaceful revolution Gutierrez deliberately developed CU as an elite political machine comprised of the most supportive and influential families and the leaders of the community.5 In theory, public policy was a function of the elected officials, but in practice power emanated from Gutierrez. Gutierrez was the elite of elites. No one else within CU's multilayered elite infrastructure exercised the influence and authority that he wielded. Throughout the golden years of the peaceful revolution (1970-1975) Gutierrez relied on a form of democratic centralism in the decisionmaking process. This meant that within CU's various tiers of power, debate and discussion of issues or criticism of individuals were tolerCopyrighted Material 144 Part Two. The Politics of Community Control ated until a decision was reached. However, once the decision was made by Gutierrez, the board, and especially the membership, the decision was binding. Attempts by recalcitrant members to buck a decision were condemned as "fractionalism" and subjected to some form of censure by Co. This process of decision making was in part what Gutierrez's adversaries used to describe RUP's peaceful revolution as "communistic and a dictatorship." As the political boss...