# I PEACE AND FREEDON'THRU NON .t October 3, 1974 / 201 , ALOOK AT LESSONS WE CAN LEARN FROM CHII.E QUAKERS AND GAY LIBERATION ,DAN BERRIGAN ON PALESTINIAN TERRORISM TED GLICK QUITS THE CAT,HOLIC LEFT, ,ACT'ON e01 Þþ r¡il ñu 1CItu3lüt sIi{' oNVl3À11} qe'igra¡rbdzlr't' ua-ijsh¡v'l¡ u 0I-.tL f' ,tl We must work to open the eyes of Ameri cans to the fact that the US Government is ô Robert Bi¡rch Questions to ask your Congresspeople while the issue is hot: l. How is it that in the name of mercy, in order to relieve the sufering of the Nixon family, hopi4g to insure domestic t¡ar quility, and so as to close the tragic book of Watergatg President Ford can grant a full, free and absolute pardon to Richa¡d Nixon; but at the same time hê will not issue a universal and unconditional amnes ty to the Vietnam War resisters-those men who went to jail, who took up exile in Canad4 who dese¡ted the a¡med forces, and who received less than honor4ble discharges because they could and would not support the Vietnam War? 2. Do not the war resisters merit mercy even more than Nixon, when their crime is refusing to support a questionable war and Nixon's c¡ime is that of subve¡ting and urr dermining our democratic system of goverrr ment? 3. Have not the families of war resisterô suffered dt least as ntuch as and for a much longer period than the Nixon household? 4. Can the dbmestic tranquility be regained and maintained any less by the complete and unconditional amnesty of all the war resisters, than by full, free and absolute þardon of Richard Nixon? 5. And why close only the tragic book of Watergate, while the tenible sc¡r of Vietnam lies open and unhealed upon the face of our nation due to the lack of amnesty? 6. Congressperson (or Senator), what have you to say on this issue? Will you tell our new President what I and so many other of your constituents desire-universal and urr conditional amnesty? And will you support legislation granting universal and uncor¡ ditional amnesty? -STEVE BORTON East Lansing MI I am g[ad to hear that other war resisters react as I do. to the Ford proposals on "clemency'' for us We must'reject these and work for thE kind of America.which can be honest enough to change its mind and its ways This would mean a turning away from milita¡ism; Unconditional Am. nesty would only be a step in this direction. 2 WIN the Vietnam criminal, not us. It seems to mg though, that some of us might give thought to offering some coÞ crete alternatives to the punitive Ford proposals This is not to suggest compromise, but to clarify and help keep diaiogue and movement possible If we do not do thiq we are likely to see a continuing standoff fo¡ some time. The government will do nothing to clarify the controversy, since it stands to lose f¡om a popular recognition of the truth about Vietnar4 so the burden of insisting on t¡uthfulness falls upon us, and the initiative in further dialogue will have to be oufs. What a¡e the basic ¡ealities of the War which the P¡esidenfs proposals seek to cor¡ ceàl? In his Press Conference Fo¡d must have used the phrasç "heal the wounds" ûve o¡ six times.Of course he was referring to the woundg predominately psychological and political, whieh Americans and America suffered over ou¡ war in.SE Asia.. The President's remarks, however, in fixing attention on American suffering, are an ext¡eme example of the continuing government attempts to cove¡ up what we as a people did in Southeast Asia. IVe killed 'míllions of peoplg wouqded (quite literally) millions more in the course of our war there. lVe systematically tried to destroy whole sections of society; we did irreparable ,damagé to the environment over vast areas of SE Asi4 ¿nd th¡eatened even. the precious genetic resources of whole populations, I don't mean to underplay the srfferings of Americans, which have been real and terrible But the pain of our own people sltould not blind us to the fact that Asians suffered far, far mo¡e than Ame¡icans did in that terribly onosided war (and they are still suffering lest we fq¡get that too). In the light of the abovq I zubmit the following proposals in an attempt to stimulate dialogue about how war wounds might truly be healeû 1. That antiwar groups and individuals in the US and elsewhere cofisider volunteering ?t program of peopleto people repdrations and reconciliation by way of human serv.ice work in Southeast Asia. for and organizi.ñg 2. That such wörk be caried out by a fully autonomous, nongovernmental agency set up and administered by the volunteers thenr selves That, rather than being associated with any governmentq political parties, etc., service work by this alency be tied to the efoits of UN Peacekeeping forces, and/or to the work of the,United Buddhist Church of Vietnam and simila¡ noraligned" nongorrernmental reconciliatory groups in Laos 3. and Cambodia. 4. That the primary wo¡k ofsuch a service agency be done in SE Asi4 but that this work shçuld also be supported by fundraiv ing and educational projects in the US and elsewhere, 5..That this agency be funded at leæt in part by monies dive¡ted from the US mili tary budget, as, for example, fronl the savings which could be effected by abolishing and dismantling Selective Service. That.such US funds-without strings-be made p41t of an Unconditional Amnesty for wa¡ ¡qsi$tors -'^-åJ,,'*:f ,fS It's unfair for Straíght Oeek to taugh àt thå titles of Chinese Songs [WIN, Change¡ 9ll2l74l Poetry never translates we[.anyway, and did you ever read a list of tiúejof old pop songs from USA? Some of the. Chinese tunes are real good, and I ençlose* a couple which I learned there two years ago, and which I'm now recording for FolkwaysI multiple dubbed these renditions , The slower melody is the theme.song of one of the favorite revolutionary operas "White Haired Gi¡I." The spiightly marching , tune is title{ believe me: "The Three Rules of Discipline and the Eþht Rules of Attention" It seems that 27 yeas ago when the soldiers of Chiang were deserting to the Red Army most of them wefe illiterate, anil had to be taught some rules in a hurry. So (in eight verses) this song says, "Obçy o¡ders, march in step, never molest wgrpen, help the peasants gather crops. Never.take anything; not even a needle or thread. with out paying for it-and pay a fair price, . ." and so -PETE SEEGER on. Beacon, NY ìPete sent us a tape:hte l¡stened and we bdieve: The tunes are -kryN lovely. Arthur Ha¡ris ('Learning at Home," Sept 5) has described well what can hapþbn tó privileged ahd overprivileged childten whose homeq parents and expectations aie all geared to lite¡acy, achievement and indulgence Certainly there is no argumériÎ from me that inore ¡eal learning takes plãte-under such conditions than could happerÍ in a classroorn But what about kids whó donJ have access to books about astronomy; tcl seeing plays to fire thei¡ interest (eg,' 1776 and the American Revolution); or six month trips to Mexico? Home education fo¡ kids without such a privileged environment will indeed educate thenl but not in literacy, math and science. If we assume literacy is a survival necessity in our societS we have got to avoitl narrow solutions such as described in "Ledrfiing at Home"" Poo¡ kids deserve more from a society which already gives them little enousr'. -ANtä#;J.iï5ii ,Arthu¡ S. Haniq Ir. says (Sepl 5, 1974) of mind. Yuk Sounds to mg Arthur S. Ha¡riC gestiön that it's.a beach not just "to read aboüÇ but to duplicate." The problem, though, is that people-with o¡ without st¡its-are still wrappetl in cars. Consequently, thè boaches.they come to use are seriously ' threatened'and in many pases destroyed, by the vehicle they're encouraged to usé'(newer highways, parking lotq etc). l_ wish Schechter had elaborated.on this. What Cape Cod needs mos{, in our opìnion, is a "guide for peoplo' using boats & bicycleg jitneys & bups," a guide similar to one þublished this year by Friends Fo¡ Bikecology: "Diçcovering Santa Ba¡b¿ua. . .without a car." Which is to suggest that ifsocialism comes by bicyclq the , nude society will come by openair, piggyback -JOHN DOWUN Phila, Bicycle Coalitíon . transport ('Vie peo Mike says. easily "aroused to violent pas síôns," why would people have to do all the things Mike notes that we do in order to go to wat? Why would we have to demean and dehumanize our potential enemies by câlling them gooks (or Nips or Krauts) instead of 'Vietnamese (or Japanese or Germans)? as the hoìro, oi *a, increases, does it become more necessary to separate soldiers from actual effects of their actions (hiding thcír "behind banks of buttons, switches, "diqls and gauges on their control panels," as Mike says)? If we're really violent by nature, really bloodthirsty unde¡ ou¡ ve neer of socialization, why is all this neces saly to get us to fight wari? Is there an answer to this seeming cohtradiction? ,,"There is not. All this is necessary because people are not inherently violent (and, I should mentior¡ neither are they inherently nb4ïiolent: \ile are c¡eatu¡es with the capacity for both, but are.by iaturê neither). We are, rathdç complex creàtuies with conflicting social mores, confliçling teaphings ¿'the about violence and broiher/iisterhood:. Golden Rule," the 10 Commandrhents, and dfiy, Contrary to Mike Abell's assertion lence and the Movies," \VIN, July 11), ple have not constructþd elaborate defenses against the notion that they "might some, , .bloodthi¡stiness in their personalities." "loye your neighbor" clash rather mightlly More and morg people have been with nationalism and the willingness to !ó quite the opposite: internalizing saying tp war under certain conditions. Faced comes as a result of our animal with þreater and greater confliôts between. claiming that the¡e will always be violence I the humanistic ideals and the reality of war, because it's instinctual,. we cqnvince ourselves that it can't be helped, The simple blunt fabt-a fact that that it's inherent in our very natures. And pacifists seem unwilling to face*is that ii since what is natu¡e can't bè dealt wit¡þy. 'ùl ' all nonsenss The¡e is no rêliable ethological, reason or logic, it must bb ¿é¡t wifn anthropological, sociologic4 or psycholpgi force. And so the circle co¡itiriues. .-LARRY ERICKSON cal evidence to support the charge thçt ple are by nature violent, or even tha¿ Loíg Brancl, NJ ple by 4ature have a violent side to their per"sonalities Therç is quite obviously an¡over- After reading the notès "La PlazaGabriel" , abundance of evidence that péoploftave. in WIN of Sãpt 12 I wish we had a war capacity to he violent but that is just memorial in Yellovl Springs. Maybe we do, obviously not lhe same as being violent but I ¡vas born and raised here without evel noticing one. Maybe it was torn down years . One wonders why, if people were in -DON HOLLISTER viòlent by nature..if. in fact. we could be, Yellow Springs, OH contain doing it i! heritage, etc. even is - peopeo the as by fact ago. 6 nature' \ like you've been to too much schooL -EMMA EVECHILD Minneapolig MN Danny Schechtet's "On The Beacli The Movement fo¡ a Nude Society" [WIN, 9l l9l24l is one of those articles that makes Oçtober 3,1974 | Vol. X, No. 33 4. Lessons of Chjle I Eot Nicnot 8. Ten Days Against Yiolence I Ann Morrìssett Davidon 10. Checking in rúith George Lakey Mork Mqïis '1! 12. Poet lmprisoned I Jon Boch i 13. Three Poems I Alfred. Sonny ttowetl 14. Revolution/Retaliation I Dan Berrigan 17. An Open Letter of Resignation from , ; -ìthe carho"lfc Left. I Ted Glick 19. Changes " 21. Reviews COVER: Phóto by Batya Weinbaum/LNS School room in a school bus ln Chlle durlng the Allçnde reglme. STAFF Maris Cakars . Susan Calt¡ts -- Chuck Fager. Mary Mayo ..î Mark f4orris . Susan Pines Fred Rosen . Martha Thomases .4 Because of popular demand we're having another WINE AND CHEESE TASTING PARTY AT THE HIGH TOR VINEYARDS sAT., SEPT. 28rh! UNINDICTED CO.CONSPIRATORS Lance Belv¡lle . Jerry Coffln ' Lynne Coffln Dâvies . Ruth Dear . Ralph Dlcla ':.Dlana .Br¡an Doh€rty . Seth Foldy . ,Jlm Foróst ' Leah Frltz . Larry Gara - Nell Haworth Ed Hedeman , Grac€'Hedemàh . Marty Jezer , Becky Johnson . Nåncy Johnson' 'Pàúl þhhton'.: All¡son Karpel . cra¡g KarÞeI : "Taken tp its infinite end, one could wonder whethe¡ schools with all those instructional hours don't sometimes hinder lea¡ning." Infinite end? ! Wondei? ! Somedimes!? I was a fuIl 7 years old when I came to the conclusion that schools were/á¡e right.' now delnitely always a hindiance not ônly to learning but to general well being and peace to order another l0 WIN subscrip tions'for oui friends-outstanding! As a long' timê beacher at Truro, I can applaud the sug' us want Come sample the splendid wines of High Tor and taste cheeses of five nations. Go on'a tour of the winery and vineyards conducted by the winemaker himself, Father Tom Hayes. Enjoy the majestic beauty of High Tor Mountain overlooking the Hudson.'(Near New City in Rockland County.) Our last wine tasting fundraiser at HiglfiTor was such an enjoyable way to make money for WIN that we just had to do it again! " This time it's all happening on Septçmber 28, from two to:four in the afternoon. The price of admission is still only$5. There is stilt space. So call tóday to make your reservat¡on. 91+339-4585, Find out for yourself why High Tor wines are among the most prized wines of Nsw York State. , WIN * Box547 * Rifton,NYl247"l * 91+339-4585 John Kyper . Eliot Linzer . Jacksoñ'Mectow David McRoynolds . Mark Morrls . Jim Peck Tad R¡chârds . lgal.Roodsnko . Nancy Rogen Wendy Schwartz . Bêverly Woodward -'; ._ box 547 ' rifton new york '12471 telephone 914 339-4585 wlN ls publ¡shed weekty except for thê flfst two.weeks ¡n Januart, 2nd week in May, last 4 weeks in August, and the last weêk in óctober þy thê WIN Publlshlng Empire wtth the support of the War Reslsters Leaguq Subscripilons'are $7.O0 per year. second. class Þostage at New Y_ofK NY 1O0Ol. lridlviduál writers ô16 r€spon. s¡blê for opinions oxpressed and accuracy of facts g¡ven. Sorry-manuscripts cannot bê 16turned unless accompânled by a self.äddressod stamped envetope. Prlnted in U.S.A" . WIN3 Þrawing þy Cl l-ElLNS ,; ¡ Pll{ocltff Lessorrs of Chile ROBERT NICHOLS I thought I hod understood copitalism, but what I hod done wos assume on ott¡tude-meloncholy sodness_ toward it, -From a short story by Donãl¿ Barthelme There have been three stages of capitalism in Chile_ each.happier than the last for the Americans, less so for the Chileans. Export capitalism, invesimént capi_ tal¡sm, and now that practised by the big lnternatíonal lompanies., SJarti ng. wìth min ing (the G uggenhei ms, Anaconda, US Steel) they have gone intoãl branch'es of man ulac tur i ngand serv.ici ng: petreche m i cals, man u_ lactured.food stuffs, textiles, off'ce equipment, cery1! slf t, oil distriburion, erc. The repórt on Chile by NACLA has the best documentation of this. But the reality is obvious: Chile is a ,,modern" country. What the average North American does not know-it is the study of the economists-is that the system works to the disadvantage of Chile. Foreign companies often take out of an undeveloped country a good deal more than they put into iL ln recent years ('1967-9) the copper industry proar"ø u l.rturn on invested capital of 27%and all United States investments averaged 'l7o/0. At these rates ,,it would take a North American company four to six years to recoup its ínvestment and another four to sii vears to lak-e a 1000/o profrt That is, after eight io 12 years the foreign company is a net exportõr of caoitãl from Chile." Allende's economists måde the ooint that in the last 70 years ten billion dollars have been taken out of Chile; that is, an amount equal to the total capital accumulated in Chile over four centuries. Another point not generally recognized is that Noith American firms don't even have to use their own caþital; increasingly this is ,,Creole', or iraiive ,9apt?l in a socalled "mixed enterprise" in which the local partner raises the money and'participates in the control inítíally.^Here is the,way this works (from Çu,1da¡ Frank,. Copitaltsm ond Underdevelopment in Latln America): e metropot ita n (internat iono t) corporation,s moi n contribution to the jo¡nt enterprise is a technologicat pøckage of potents, des lg ns, i nd ustrio I processes,-hig hTh 4 WrN solaried technicions and, lost but not least, trodemorks and solesmonship; most of the finance copital is Lotin AmerÌcon as ore the tox, exclusive ticense ond other q a n d- pe r h a ps. mo st I m por to n t_ to ri ff p ro tection, The international monopo,ly corporotion' then proceeds to toke full advantoge of its techit¡cot monopoly, .its finoncial reserve, and its direct or indirect ryll.tÍcol pgwer; to dmw inêreasingly more profrts than its Lotin AmerÌcan príners out ol1he¡r ro'mmon e* c o n c.es s ì o n terprße, to reinvest these and gain increosìng control, , , its Lotin Ameri:con business ãoimro o¡9_9olltrcoil¡t emosculated and then usea ío siay tne Lotin Americon governments to creote a still better investment climote for ,,foreign,, copitol. ln the process The result of all this money gone and the foreisn,. control is a kind of cruel joke, an il lusion. The f,oi'åv t¿ken out means that new plants are not buiiiand the native.economy is not devéloped. (From a Chitean magazine): ll thesgenterprises hod been Chileon or if leqislation thqt offected them hod been enacted in the ñotionol ilter:st,-we coutd hove had. , .fìve iui"áiüår'fir'il" steel refrnerÌes), fìve times the hydroelecù¡c ;oft ntlxgp gnd frve t¡mes the oil pumps ond explorotion of oil thot we today possess. One could add that the output of Chilean industrial pl_arlts, which during the last decade naá run àt'SO_ l5Yo of capacity, could have increased. And the same with agricultural productivity which had droooed drastically during the last half century. Chile, iamous lor tts wheat exports during the l9th century, now imports food. These options have been lost to history. At the same time itseems that the benefits do cóme from the foreign companies. (This situation ís not confined to underdeveloped countries. lt is the same inside the US with the oil crisis. All alternative forms and development strategies for energy have been eliminated and bought out by "Big Oil." But if facq these compan¡es provide our fuel.) There is afurther irony. ln addition to cutting in the Creole investo¡ the ínternatio¡al companies seer¡ to be subsidizing rhe governmeht itself. ln Chile it was said that all government salaries and operational iosts were paid for through taxes on copper during t fREr cl/. writes me: "ln five months Pinqchet has recçived help of about 200 million dollars from the US, ttìd Mone tary. Fund, BID and Brazil, while in three years Allende's government only receivod 40 millions.'r It would seem thad in the long run this system,wi[l be unworkable. Too much will have been taken oút of Chile, the buying power will be tqo low to sustain the preserirâi.lraclive level'of profit. Then the international companies will simply close the books and "de-capitalize" (allow their equipment to become ob- the Frei governmenl ld fact çopper was a relatively small percentage of 'national revenue: five times more than that came from indirect taxes on the middle class and the poor. Another difficulty is caused by "convértibility." A foreign corporation has an unlimited rightfo exchange local currency (escuedos) for dollars-thus guaranteeing a balance of payments'deficit Devaluation of local currency-one of the Chilean Junta:s first decrees after the counter-revolution*simply increased thp repatriation of US dollars There is a further difficulty: foreign investments t'capital-intensiv,e"l that is, in labor'savare generally ing machinery. ln a country with a rising population this causes unemploymenl From thè above it is clear why even a third world country that seems rich-such as lran-can go into debt and have to be financed by forelgn loans. lran's foreign debt last year was two and one half billion dollars. Quoting from Harry Magdoff: To appreciote whtat the continuol growth in Cebt meons, an exercise in simple orithmetìc ß helpful, If o country borrowq say $1000 o yeor, before long the service payments on the debt wìll be largter thon the inflow of money each year, . .On o 20 year loan rit 5%, by the 15th year the capital oütflow wìll be Iorger than the capitol inflow. In the 20th year the bolrower ß poying out more thon $1.50 on past debt every $1,00 of new money he borrows "" ln 1970 almost $700 million of the 7.8 billion Chile owed various international financial agencies had not even been received, it staye{, in the bank, as interest Davmenl The fäcú islhatalt 20th century Chilean governments'have turned to this solution.'One ofrthem was the socalled "lbuanez Dictatorship" which pursued a progressive and reformist policy in many way-ex' cept for the foreign loans. The Army made this couþ in 1924 interestingly enough on the same day-Oc' tober 1 1 th-that General Pinochet chose for his coup last year. The lbanez coup was supported by the Communist Party. Pinochet and the present Junta is doing what every Chilean government did before them-only atagreatly accelerated pace. My young friend, now in exile, T I s t solete). Meanwhile "real" wages go down and the people suffer. The Chilean working class is eating a good deal less than their fathers and grandfathers-and they know it lncreasingly, the middle class is being squeezed-but they may not know it. They may well . believe what they read in the papers and what'the ads tell them. ln the short run, Yes. But in the long run-maybe in the middle run-No. The present system will not work. Meanwhile those that run it have the power to eliminate all thé alternatives The Chilean Military Junta and their backers could not afford to let it be seen there were other options. This is one of the mean' ings of the murder of Allende. ' . '. TFIE'S¡GNIFICANCE OF CHILE TO THE AMERICAN LEFT .*ir. .,.. . The coming oi ir'r hîlitarv jtiritä to power in Santiago . ' ; ¡ri Séptêrhber, '1973, meant the gpposite of the recenß: army take-over in Portugal: repression. No one can tell how long this repression, and the wiping out of a democratic and socialist Chile, will last. Horl much time? Time will be a morass for Chilean exiles of the Left in foreign countries: boredom, the faltering of hope, unemploymenl For their US sympathizers, the memory will dim. ' , TWO SCENARIOS I imagine two scenarios whereby somedoy a resurgent Chile will affect the United States crucially and be of help to the left They are both farfetched. The first scenario is the "imperialist" argumenl ln 50 years, a crisis in the Third World will be inevitable. WIN 5 Energy sources, strategic materials will have been monopolì.zed among the big bloçks. Various countries-Chile, Kenya, lndoneiia-will not yield a sufficient rate of return for foreign investmänt; in any, case-will have been squeezed ðry. Then socialism in theformer satellites will be inevitable. Led possibly by China, a re-nascent Third World will eveåtuilly' come.into being and batter down reactionary Fortress America. During a long period there might be some vital and nourishing link between members of the American left and a Marxist government in Chile. The second scenario-less conventional-is along the lines of a regional anarchism. The relevanc, to õhil. necds explaining. Though expressed in terms of anti-colonialism and nationalism, the Chilean butlook is also regionalist. They have 4 strong feeling for their place. -Chile is a geographical region: a plain between the mountains and sea, running from the desert to icy Terra del Fuego.- ln fact it is geographically simílar to the West Coast from, say, the tip of Lower California north to Anchorage. With a present population of l0 million ,,nation,' of Qn{ in 50 years 25-30 million), the small Chile would correspond to this United States region. It would correspond in the sense that it would have the_same problems. The,main regional problem: re slsting assimilation into the world-wide capitalist free market system. We never pose the problem iri this way because we are in fact totolly integrated into the US economy and culture. Witn ús theré are no ,,real', regions. But neither is there a real Chilean nation under the present system. lf in the future there were to be an indeþendent socialist Chile, it would be in a better position to de. fend its own regionalism. And as a region, one of its main struggles would be defensive. I see anarchism as a defensive strategy_mainly uSe_ ful to us here among the Norrh Americãn Lefr li is !ot_ at any rate has not been-applicable to Chile. Chilean working-class tradition is clearlv Marxist. Anarchism wÒuld seem sentimental to dhem. But ín style Chilean socialism is anti-bureaucratli. ãctivist and.spontaneous. lt is existentially anarchísL Anarchism is a defensive strategy: relevant to our own situation here in the United States, most particularly_æ regards the development of regionå ism. Paul Goodman-that wonderful draweiof pictures-argued that America is populist and anarchist; but he never pushed his conclusions rlgorously. lnstead he gave examples from small entèrprises and the counter-culture: WBAI. . .the communes. Or, al-. ternativel¡ in the American pAsfi the Federal¡st Era (1 79G1820) was a paradise of the de-centralists. There are so many anarchist/regionalist stra¡ns converging now: the most important is Murray Bookchin: a technology using alternate energy sources (wind, solar:) and smaller-scale, more complex machines (the electric steel furnace and planetary míll). T¡sss ¡svy become practicable within the region. Another is E.F. Schumacher and the lntermediate Tech.nol ogy. Dev_elopment G rou p. Sch umaðher (author of The Small is Beautifull argues capital-intensive technology (global oil, steel, fertiliz'ers) is contradic tory for underdeveloped areas of the world which demand a labor-intensive technology, capable of maintaining and reproducing itself cheaplv with locaf means. Alsq there are innumerable American grouos: Land Trust Movement; farmer-producers ãoopäratives (Natural Organíc Farmers' Association of Veimon¿L: communes drawíng on the technology of the lWtoë Earth Cotolog; Allen Ginsbergrs farm with its .' exemplary windmill running the water pump and hi-fi; the-country-wide ex peli mental gróu ps'promoted by the Malne Times. What all these decentralist groups have in cornmon is that the moment they are eituUtistr"A 1tn" technology rs practical), they run into the problem of competition with the A&P and Exxon; ín other words, defensive-the same problem as nationalist Chile. '- @ What socialism really meant for Chile was control. I have¿ Unidad Populai poster on the wall, showíng' n{g.hiqs_rylne workers. COBRE lA ERES'PATRIÃ. NO N PE RM l,TE R EMOS I UGA R'CONT| GO. (Copperth.ere is thccountry. We won't allow them to þtay with you.) To break'away from the world-m4iket economy and to smash the class administeríng it locally means simply control .over one's own livelihood and one's basic LNS 6 WtN resources. i I Socialist planning means control. Could there be such a thing as regional planning and development? I return now to the second sðenario. Whatwill hap p.en 50 or a hundred years hence? lf we pose the quer tion in terms of framework, structure-where the power líes-the answer is obvious. ln the future we will have Fortress America,(with armed guards on the Mexican border-as.now-to keep away ihe hungry). And other Fortresser And to the side,'their client staúes: lran and Brazil will be the models. But if we pose the question in another wäy-the dynamics, the internal chemistry at.work-that may be a different story. ln a hundred years let us simply suPpose a socialist Chile (let's say part,of the Andean- Tráding Federation). And let us suppose àn economically mqre-9r,-þss autonomous region within the Uriited States (the 5ame size as the future population of.Chile--25 million). Let's imagine this is ih the Pacific Northwest and run by the Wobblies. Let's call it the ",WOBBLY . KÑcoorr¡." How would these two places.be reaçh¡ng out towards each other, and in what way would members' of the left of both,be in touch with each other? What would be the tendencie3? Here are some Future Political'ChemistryEleme¡ts at random: j' ' " t' 1. Cost of Fertilizer irñ, *¡tfr investments from oil income. is noù (year 2024\ producing most of the world's 5'10-5 cpm' mercial fertilizer. A loss of 1,000 tons of fertilizer means a loss of 10,000 tons protein. Probably Chile with her left-over nitrates is doing okay. But the US agra-business is doing poorly, cost:wise. But in our imaginary "Wobbly Kingdom" clusters of opr organic farmer producer cooperatives are making out fine. it , i LEnergy Extreme centralization (monopoly) in gene¡ation of electric power is inefficient. See near-bankruptcy of NY Con Edison in refusing to allow World Trade Center and Coop City to ge¡erate their own power. Probably our socialist Chile'(with its anti-bureaucratic "Cordones lndustriales") has avoided this, and décentialized. As for.our "Wobbly Kihgdom" they are probably still operating within the uS power grid, but have a stand-by system: of water, wind, solar energy, etc. ln any case (using Buck Fuller as a consultant), they have worked out the scientific technqlogy of alternate energy forms. ln some cases, thii may even be organized to a degree where a local factory or even a Present-day chllean army troopera Photo by 5. Julienne/LNs. But what is happening nationally would be less rel.e vant to our regionalists.) There would also probably be a small Wobbly political third party (called, of course, "the Organic Democrats"). This would have fraternal ties to Santi' county-wide manufacturing complex is competitive with the predo mi nant gas/oil /nuclear power-based commerce. ago. 3. Bugs and Pests r. There are advdntages to variety farming over monoculture and agra-iñdustry. Less cropfailures: as with Texas onionslast year. High developriient of.botany and biolggical sciences among the smart heads of' Wobbly Kingdom. Maybe more than iust srúsistence farming on i commune scale, but into good trading' (lt should be remembered that Rome wasnrt beaten; it fell apart. As it did'so, the Chr¡stians were organiz: ing grain storage. ln the end, the citizens and cen' ruiións becamõ dependent ón Gregory V granaries.) Forèign PolicY The US, 9f course, would be Fortress America-a paranoid s@ie1y-.(thöugh quite rational within North Âmerican bordèis). Within the. US borders, the many regiiins of the Wob b y Ki rigao*nts- as,als q.Chjl e-.-w o u d s ta n d on t h e .Side'of the*world's poor. And the question of the I world's poverty will be the paramount questions in .5. I , I time to come. Our children will have to start dealing with the chemiS- try. Order 4. Politics, Law and t, Socialists in Chile would be supreme. Howéver, in our Wobbly Kingdom in.North America the Wobbl¡es would be dominated by Washington, aswe all are and always will be-any display of force being interpreted by the sate as a wèlcomed provgcation. Our Wobblies i Bob Nichols spent several months in Chlle prìor to the overthrow of the Allende government: He fre.quently wrìtes about Chile for )UlN.' would be peaceable. Hence the differences in politics. ln the Third World: Socialism. Within thè US the advantage lies with the revolutionary technique of anarchy. (A small Maoist party would have ties to Peking of course. : , wtN 7 ;tl ,1|) DATS ttGtrtNST lYlOl/DNOD ANN MORRISSETT DAVIDON Sitting ln th,e offices of the Radical Party in Rome, in late July', I fett myself back in the ofüces of the Mârch on Washington coalitions at the height of the Vietnam \{ar. People of all ages (mostly young) wander through in clothing ranging from casual to bizárre, long hair: and beards âbound, many young men and woñren wear white'T shirts which bear the Party symbol of a rose in a'clenched f¡st with the words underneath: "Cambiamo.la vita?,-Let's change (our) life.'t The floors are strewn with paperN there are odd desks and chairs haphazardly arrayed with people sitting and chatt¡ng,llyping, telephoning. The entire floor þiong 2, vla 1ÌTone Argentina /8) is occupíed with sympathetic groups: the League for Conscientious óbi-ection, League for the lnstitution of Divorce, League lor the Rights of Women, United Revolutionary Fiont for Homosexuals, On the walls are large posteri; the most provalent one says "Contro ll Regime" above the large red rose in the clenched fist; aì the side it says: "to rescind the authoritarian laws of the church and the military." It is this chaotic collection of civil rights groups, coordinated (if you could call it that) mainly by the Radical Party, that sponsored "Ten Days Against Violence" (Dieci Giorni Contro Lo Violenzo\, which consisted of an encampment of several hundrgd young people from various parts of ltaly on the grounds . across from the huge basilica of San Paolo (where St. Paul's remains are supposedly interred). Eaèh day was devoted to one of the following aspects of overt and institutional violence: the viole"nie'oi liã urm¡ vio lence of the police; violence of the Church; vioience of the fudicial system; violence of the bosses; violence of false information; violence against youth; violence against women; violence against free sexuality. These meetings and demonstrations fror¡ July 26 to August 4 had nearly ended as I left Romd on Saturday morning but I learned later that demonstrations continued into the following week. That Saturday evening a number of well-known singers and bands were scheduled to take part in a mass rally which included speakers like Marco Pannell4 the civil rights leader in Ror¡e who had been receiving much publicity for his hunger strike of more than two months in order to get Parliament to open up discussíon on-among other things-the controversialabortion bill which it has been sitting on. lt is es, timated that many thousands of women die every year in ltàly from íllegal abortions, and the feelings run strong on both sides of the question in this Catholic country where conservatives and Comrnunists nearly balance each other. The Communist Party, infact, has been reluctant to raise these issues, and ít was Marco Pannella and the little Partito Radicale (which ís not a real political party, and which Pannella no longer offcially heads) that brought the issue of divorce to a referendum in 197O lt was Pannella and the Radical Party affiliates who also brought abotl¡t the law al. 'å wr¡¡ lo¡ving for.conscientious objectio n in 1972. Both times Panella went on a hunger strike to dramatize the ex- "r tent of his commitment to these specific issues. (ln his , fasts he does take limited liquids-this time three glasses.of milk a day-and he continues to smoke, on which he tpld me his body was now so dependent that,j, he was unable to cut it ou! though eventually he , thought he would.) Pannella is a striking man of 44 , with strong attractive façial features and longish gray ,: hair. When he passes throùgh the Party offices a small ,, . whirlwind seems to surround him, and when he speaksl. his deepset eyes burn and he talks energetically for t,., long stretches, especially when speaking in public. The' prima donna image that is somewhat forced on h¡m þy, 1 " , the focal role he plays ís one he tries to talk others out of, but one senses he gets some enjoymen{-or at it too. He is professionally a journalist and knows how to present his points forcefully least energy-from .:-; , to the public and the press, though there is no doubt ; (at least among those who know and work with him) , . of his sincerity and devotion to the causes he takes up. Neither Pannella nor the Radical Party attempts to present an over-all ideology, political or ecpnomic, to, the public but rather to focus on specific issues, and though they are not specifically Marxist their thrust,.is more radical (and by impf ication anarchosocialist) ,, . than most of the Left parties; especially the Com. ,,, munist Party-which. has shown some interest mainly, when Radical Party issuqs begin to receive public attention and support, Other issues that Pannella and the Radical party are trying to raise are those of Family Rights (which . has to do largely with extending women'i righis in legal relations of the family), and freedom oi the pbss, making communications media independent of both the Christian-Democratic government and othér mafor, political parties, and breaking the government monoÞ , oly in TV so that minority views can be heard. Pannella was given a quarter.hour on national TV shortly before I was in Rome which was spoken of as a major bieak-through, his speech powerful and mincing no ,, words on the issues. On the day before I left Rome, ' about 30 people from the camp, including Pietro Pinn4 sat in for several hours at the offices of //' , Mesmggarq one of the largest papers in ltaly. The ; , , editor finally,came out (after pblice failed to move ,: , the occupiers) and talked with them for an hour and. a half about theír objectives and the faílures of the press to deal with the issues. ' During the coming months the Radical Party aimed .at obtaining 500,000 signatures on eight referendum,.r points regarding the relationship between the Republic and the Vatican, and on military codes, laws re communications, and a penal code left from Fascist days , which includes stiff laws against abortion. The last . threemonth period in which they unsuccessfully at-, tempted to collect a half million signatures neverthe' less raised these issues more widely and may have helped create pressure for more liberal laws regarding , non-government and cable TV, for example, which . were before the Parliament ln addition to the several hundred people camping across from SL Paul's, hundreds more came and went . during the day and especially gathered for lþe evening orosrãms which took place on a large platform set up at one end of the main field. Flciodlights än 'lon poles '(somewhat erratically) on speakers and pe-rfãcusr¿ (many excellent and'profe$io-nal) of them formers wandered off and on the stage, and amplifiers who 'oroiected the,sqund over the entire area andpbouhced ít oh tt'r. basllica and apartment buildings which were iãme disr¿nce away (and whose tenants com¡ilained on noisier nights). A light âttack by a small gioup of Fascists on one of the earlier nights led tô heated die cussions next day between a few of th'e oampers who wanted to respond next time, if it should happen æain, with violence ("that's th'e ônly thing !þey un' dãrsánd") and a larger nilmber who wanted"to present a united nonviolent front and try to engage the Fascists in dialogue. To my knowledge the Fascist group never returned. ,1 ,{ . Another person vísible on the scene of these fen ' Days, more in the capacity of a quiet organizer than a public figure, was Pietro Pinna, a dark and soulfullooking man in his mid'forties who had served in prison in the early '50's as one of ltaly's first con' scientious objectors. He has had periods of jail since. iãinis ant¡-n{ilitarist act¡v¡i¡es, påo facãs possible iþprisonment o.f a few months soon because of a poster he helped compose nearly two years ago¡vhich.was found offensive to tlre military (a law still extant from Fascist days). The poster listed aggréssive ekploits of the ltal¡an army during recent history that can be read in any history book. Pietro had just come with me to the encampment frofn Turin, where we both attended a week of Council medtings of the Wæ Ra sisters lnternational at a big old seminary above Rivoli, a suburb of Turin. His Swedish wife Birgitta was al' ready atthe camp, and wê srayed a few nights with 'about ten others in the Rome apartment of several young rnen active in the RR Later the three of us moved to the family aparTment of a young radical feminisfi her family was on vacation,go this apart' ment too became a crash pad for seveiral others we collected on the last feù evenings, folldwing the most heated progiam of the week: the Rights of Women. lnstead ofspeeches from up on the stage, the women asked for comments and debate from both men and women down below and for sevçral hours the microohone was handed from onê vehement ;Ñik;iJ;;ôther, with vigorous applause from ' women (and a few mgn) for the woinen (á"rid a few men) who spoke up for women's rights, especially for the right to legal abortion, and with much.laughter and catcalls fróm clumps of mên who appéäred to be either fairly hostile or at least uncomfortablg convinced thesè issues were being exaggerated or were relatively unimportanl I was annoypd at first that the program had been removed fromthe stage and wusþfuing so much time to male speakers on the oné night the women were supposed to have thf Stage' but xrãdually I began to feel that this innovatién was itself ã kind of symbolic feminist contribution: removing "authoriti" figures and bringing the- discr¿ssion "down tq earth." ' ' After well over an hour of feminist songs by a good group of women singers and guitarists, some of the largely male audiencè (which included, as on other nights, a number of soldiers) got restless and some wñat abusive. As a dozen or so women gathered togethel on the stage foi a final rousing song with hands upraised together in the feminists' sign current in . stage â' - .Europe-a ðiamond shape ¡esembling a cunt-groups , men gathered around both back and front and arguìed loudly, a few afmost getting-into scqffes with sðveral wonién. l.urged Pietio's wife Bir:gitla, of , lovely and sensitive woman in her 40's,.t-o- overcome her siryness and speak from.{he stage, whïch she finally did, breaking the atmosphere of teniion and. raising feminist issues above p'erxànal grievan€es ; ., : i and ." t" æmotiõn into a somewhat broader framework.- There was no doubt, however, that this subiqct, scorned þi so many male radicals as insignificant compared to the more "ímportant" issues of conscription and war, hit some of the deepest nerves of everyone and revealed , ¡ itself as more basic ("theffnal conflict?") than most revolutionaries wouid like to admit. Again, ai in every struggle against oppression, the point kept .. getting lost and had to keep.gelting made that the, . ' struggle was ñot against the oppressor bUt agáfn¡t the .. systéms and customs which men actively or passively sustain. part of my last nigþ[ in Rome at ilíe Sr Päúl encampment, the ninth of thé ten days. Earlier I had been searching for a lypewriter-that had ' a keyboard l',n accustom"ã to and'iRnally found orie . .; l spent the later :' , at the CBS News office, where I exchariged good conÏ I versation and vibes with the nice Englishman on the night shift Unfortunately f missbd Saturday nþht, thè climactic night of the Ten Days. We had tried un" !ì successfully to get Joan Baez-with the persistent ef.forts of a:ebarrning ltalian named'Rolando Parachini bf tne np who had met her a few weeks before, when she had sung in Milan-to stop off for the event between her engagements in Jerusalem and London. As the Milan rally was largely Communist-sponsored, which she had not been previously aware of, it would ' tiave been a gesture closer to her own political posi' : tion to turn up for the climax of the Ten Days in Rome, following on the WRI conference and the anti- ' .¡ '' ' militaiist marchrin the north from which many..ef ul. .: i just come. But she was tired, as she told Rolando . had ' , by phone from Jerusalem, and could only send her ' . :1u .. greetings and best wishes. ' . ,:; These Ten.Days-and an extended week of activities, which followed on the enthusiasm that had been built up-may not have shaken the world, or even $ome, bút it is sgmewhat incredible that they could have happened 'at àll, gathering some thousands oî young ltalians io'.' gether fór more than.a week of rock and grooving and, talk and action'"foei¡sed on. nonviolent ways of trying i @ Cet? just order. j. Postscripû lryhèrr'l féttdñçd tg Blussels from ltalyi I ,-opehed.â nelvspaper and saw ä ph-oto of some of the' "Îén'Days" dernonstrators sitting with signs on the steps of ihe Ministry of lnterior. ln the US, to my knowledge, there was no mention of any of these events. On the way to Brussels from Rome I was to take a train from Florence to Milan which was rerouted via Pisa because a train earlier had been blown . up and twelve people killed. This violent act of a small group of Fascists'was of course widely puÞ lioized. (You can imagine the publicity the Radical Party might have had if it had billed its encampments .'æ "i0 Dâysof Violence!") Ann Døtidon was rece-ntly ln Europe to rëprcsent the, WRL øt the Jilar Resìsters lnternotlonal Council meet* tng. She is o freelonce wrlter as well as peace octlvist wtN I Thot's greot. Did your coming out result in any or' ganized gay actìvities ot the conference? cifically on building communities of awarenéis. We in' were t"lking about the Society of Friends as an-[hen creasingly aware community. Berit spoke first' I spokdand toward the end of my tal k l brought it up almostànecdotally-as an illustration of a point I was making about the importance of r:isk taking. l''took my risk. How did Berit cope with this? Did shë know in:odvonce you were going to do ¡t? ' , Oh yes. I'd agonized over it for monthvbeforêhand. Berit & I had t¿lked about it albt. She felt good about ir CHECKING IN WITH GEORGE LAKEY \ Did you get ony hostile ence Center, MARK: Tell me qbout Friends Generol Conference eorlier thìs year, GEORGE: My report on the conference would be even more subjective than most because it ryas a very special occasion out for me. lt was the time when I came certainly notin my meeting-but it shouldn't be advertised & talked about astho it's a perfectly respectable thing to do. The steering coçnmittee took that question up in light of these complaints, deciding they were perfectly comfortable that I'd said what I'd said. They felt that it was important fol those who had ob'jecti'ons to.talk directly to me.'fiaving this support But you did it ln o very careful way, That's true. For one thing I was embarrassed tq colhe out in a big,deal way becãuse I was so late compared wrth. a number of people in the Society of Friends you think of anything etse you would like to soy? Yes. For me this has been a good example of how a political act reflects back on one's internal life & eonsciousness. After coming out.l was faced wi,th a whole lot of things I had to think thru. I had to start taking positions on controversies, to start working out an ethical stance-one that wouldn't work merely for 'msbut fh¿it.was shareable with others. l ¡ealized then that I've been pretty irresponsible. l've really had my gay sexuality in a closet intellectuall.y as well as. be' haviorally. I had not been workingat integratiñf my gayness into the rest of my political work. I hadn't been reading much of the gay liberation writing..l hadn't been attending nieetings on gay liberation. Most important, I hadn't been trying to think gayness into my world v.iew. For.examplg the "Manifesto for a Nonviolent'Ri:volution" thet l hâd a hand in drafting mentions gay liberation only once. My book, Strotegy for a Living Revolution mentions it only in passing, as part of a list of groups that need liberating-blacks ¡.f appreciated this. Sometimes it rvas an almost inardculate rage. But these were only a few. Most of the feedback was positive. Our speeches were in the beginning of the conference, so there was a lot of time for the pot to boil. And it did boil. There were some Friends who complained to the steering committee of Friends General Conference. They thought the conference should not have allowed this kind üf thing to be said in front of impressionable youth. That maybe these sorts of things do go on in private somewhere- a bisexual. I made my announcement to an audience of a thousand. or 1500. That was"a very powerful thing for me because the Society of Fiiends for,more than 15 ye,ars has been my famiíy_¡1, really.big extended family. l,ve valúed very much the regard of Friends, really wanted their gooá opinion or me. I was worried that if I came out maybe they wouldn't like me any more. I did come ouí and at' least a good many Friends still seem to like me. as Can reoction? Yes. a few men came up afterwards. There was no immeáiate hostile reaction from womenfbut these men were very upsel Thank goodness they could express this anger to me directly. I told them how much I AN INTERVIEW BY MARK MORRIS G.eor-ge Lakey is a long-time peace lct¡vist &. one of the foundeis of Movement toward a New Society. He lives in Philadetphiq in on iVtNS comniii l¡tn his wife Berit & their three children. ln addition to his work with MNS he works part-time for Friends Peace Committee, Thìs interù'iew tooi plnre'ii'tn, llRL National Conference at Genevo point Coifer_ Gay Friends are probably reasonably well organized. There are two gay organizations. One is Gay Friends, , and the other is Friends Committee on Bísexualify. Both groups had business mee6ings scheduled at the èonfei'encg and consciousness-taising sessions. And, there was sort of a gay coffeehousë. Thus there al-. .*.. ready was a hiehlv visible gay preience, and my state. ment didn't spark anything new. But I'm pretty sure that my statement díd inspire some people to look into it more, to go to a lecture on gayness or whatever. need liberátion, women need liberation, gay people neqd liberation. So coming out has'been a really powerful kick in the pants for me to help me inte grate my life. made me feél.good. !, wllo'v.g been.coming out over the last several years, who did it when it was a much riskier thing td ào. 'For many of them, because of their employme"nt, the stakeswere much hígher than they weie tor hã. So I lelt, "Good grief! I'm so late I don't want to make a big deal of iL,' But on the.other hand it did seãm im_ portant that I do it, if oply to signal to younger Friends wno were torn about theír gay feelings, who look , around them and see most Quakers tó 'be_at least on the surface-straight. Or not even to have sexual lives at all. But..don't you th¡nk the Friends have olways been reolly good on sexual issues ìncluding goyírrr? Compared to other religious groups I think that's true. Þut even sq there's an expectation ofstraightness. lf there's a!?rtyt a covered dish supper, fri.ñäi'w¡ll ust asrngte l-r¡end tô feel free to bring his girlfriend. There's a straight world assumptiJn tfrit Vóu are heteros€xual unless you make a point of itatins other_ wrse. Ihe social life of Friends is often organizõd.in a family way. I don,r think it,s easy for tãeñãle-öuaters to fee].thar one perfectly accept;ble an¿ tráñãÀole sexual li{estyle is a gay lifestyl'e. Thus it ,..rãlirnportant for me to come out. evening was just perfect for iL My wife Berit andI!,: I had been asked to speak on community_spe_ of ceorge Lakey by Grace Hedemann. Phg_to Surface tl suck blow dive ï l . i a hair seal -Michael Corr j wlN 11 inside a concrete line o ": thrown uP in a square ' a shot gun burst and again again and vollying of revolvers the bark punctuating * automatic weaPons with a kind of excitement little boys in t gas mask and helmets caught uP in PlaYing war the do weaPons let their pow-povÚ'pow l-8ot1You-You' re-dead and it goes.òn and on POET IMPRISONED for real for the longest time until bodY'after bodY fortY-nine in all sPlash down in red Pools to Scream no more - slow to forgive the breach of prison etiquette. Next JON BACH A friend of _us all (who is known both as poet and ex_ con) has defined poetry as that which exists beyond mere survival: what is left over from the immediacies of coping the enervation of just,,making it." That's exploded into a much higher rñagnitude for men ancl women in prison. Where there is so much desert, somuch arid, desolate acreage, the poet's voice rs a s.tgn o1 lrte, and that, rightfully, is a sign of danger for those who enforce Death. That'voice,ãnd the life it comes o-ut of, must be silenced. Brokeñ, it is a remtnder tor others who might transgress beyond absolute control. For men and women and children in prison time has weight as welt as lengrh. The burdéni¡;åoing time" will, of cou.rse, be alleviated only by fellow in!na.t9E 1nq.!h.e price extracted for forming community inside the Wall is nearly prohibitive. Alfred gonny Howell writes poetry, he draws, he paints, he sculpts, he teaches, he cróates beauiy,he t"ll: thg truth. He has persisred in doing this ín spite of the fact that for the past four years ñe has beån ín,, a succession of federal prisons. A Black who refùses to be segregated, a man who refuses to be broken, a poet who refuses to be silenced, Sonny has felt the heavy hand of repression fqr hii nonvi'olence. resistance, community; in shor! for his art. in the fedeial prison in Danbury, ^ I met,Sonny Conn. where he had come directly from a Mass. State joint for acts stemming from a foimer life. We were involved in an ill fated production of Leroi lones' I h.e I oilet involving Blacks, Whites and Spanish in a prison culture which demanded the three'stay ipart ,i2'there and at each others, throats. ln the spring of was a work stoppage, unequivocally noñviolent. which lasted for nine days and involved ail SOO inmatés. Sonny played a prominent role and the authorities were 12 WIN came a water tower takeover. Sonny and six others made the climb and unfurled a banner directed at the bombing of Cambodia. lt was rare that prisoners would address anything other than their own self interests. Sonny had that perspective. A few months later eleven inmates began a month's fast protesting the war;.Sonny was there. Transferred to a larger penitentiary,. Sonny continued the process, tr/ing to slartagreat books cfass, drawing together divergent ole öateye git back bloodhound ole cateye's on the loose head pop'n like fwo bed sheets. got fire in his boots tired of till'n the bottom land so t'he bõssnian git his fill elements of.the population, fomenting commuñity, crossing racial lines. He was marked añd door^ned¿" He spent the better part of a year in solita?y fõr organizing. There were trumped up charges ofstrikes and riots. He could not be broken. He was denied any dental and medical care. lnsulted and humiliated, he remained unembittered, lost no dignity, did not re- while gators in the swamP wait for the kill He was transferred again, this time to Leavenworth, the endpoint of federal progressive penology. During " the transfer, Sonny's journal, four years of his life,swor( was "losL" The fed's claimed no knowledee. no responsibility. Doily-minded men living arrophiéã lives had finally discovered a way to hurt Sonny. Four years of creativity, of beauty, of truth, of life itself: gone, irreplaceable. They were right it did cause untellable pain, and it was not easy to live with. bid'n bye to sorrow now don't matter if he win out his coattail shaking he's and losing with a gri,¡. treat into silence. Sonny's greatest poem is his own life, and that's something no censor, no inhuman bureaucrat will ever be able to confiscate. His life has touched many of us, and ther.e's no_removing that. I think there's a gift quaiity to all legitimate art: the artist or writer presenting something to people which he or she considers precious, a truth. With his poetry and with his being, freedom and life amid oppression and death, Alüed Sonny Howqll has enriched and educated all of us who knew him in prison, and it's time we expressed some grat¡tude. Thanks, Brother. grass flat foot hoofing novY, po'n anY You eVer seed the rolling of freight trains is freedom at his sPeed the last bomb the east wind moans wafting scents of burnt flesh across pock marked rice fields the earth trembles angrilY . she too misses the children their di¡tte¡flY, ðátchi ngs their,proud mothers eYe now ttarjng lncred r¡lousl Y beyond her dnioldeiingvillage I "i beyond the monsoon forest where her man laid dead tr beyond the unseen transitorized pilots and his last falling bomb opening the ea'rth sucking here into a hole in small bits and pieces Three Doems by Alfied Sonny Howell Jon Bach is a member of the /onah House Collective in Boltimore. wtN 13 in the camps) shall live and who shall die? Why frasile left in that country, a sense of the humanism, ä¡giitV and purpose of the Palestinian people and Revoluúlon Refaltaflon OR, HOW WE FINALLY DISPOSED OF THE CHILDREN DANTEL BERRtcAN, S.r. Messrs. Hawatma and Arafat- Some weeks agq a friend and I sat with you on separate occasions, in remote areas of Beirut. We came. in under your guns, a,vivid reminder of the long loneliness and instant dangér you both endure. Mr. Hawatm4 I remember above all else, the un_ assailable. dignity with which you spoke. Wñen we requested permission to tape your words, you responded: Of course; I do not have one speech for the public, another for private consumption. . .When we took up the question of terrorism: óur group has renounced such acts since ,l969. . . How then. we asked, do such acts as Kariash Mona occur? Vou said: You must know that the life of the camps, deprived and.crowded,, spawns all kinds of fringe mâ¿näss. - And you, Mr. Arafat, I remember four exhausted face meeting our own. We had been sümmoned back from Damascus for the meeting, you had obviously been on the road all night, had-come that lone distance especially to sperid a few serious hours úith us. You.also spoke of renouncing terror. lndeed there was.less¡eed.of pressing the question with you, the leader of the "moderates.,' But you voluqæãr"á, in a, strong terms as Hawatma: We are a political movement above all else. We do not even presume to call our_ selves teachers of the people. We would rather say, we learn from the people. . Andwþ.ile you were.so speaking, Mr. Hawatma, on that night in.April, you were evenîhen planníng the seizure of school children as hostages at'Maalot]As you must have foreseen, many of ihem died. as did the three Palestinians who suirounded and invaded the school. Shortly after your conversation with us, Mr. Arafat, your moderate group entered thd lists. ,"nâins three comm.andos to the village of Nahayirí in lsrael, to terrorize the community, to murder a young mother an.d her two children. Such are the facts of life, as your lives for a brief period touched our own; a period upon which I have reflected with a troubled mind since my return to the us. And especially because a question of thé truth arises, inevitably. Because the established world of diplomacy, as we well know, has debased the coinage of speech, to the point where our language is another 14 WtN among the casualties of life today; along with damaged minds, corrupted consciences, broken ¡ä¿¡es. lost l communities,. murdered children. Human language ii thus another item in the devastation wrought-by"the polished savages who have claimed the earih foi their own.in our century. lndeed the judgment now commonly accepted as 1 working prínciþle, is simply that the..higher one's political auihoriqy,'thé less responsibility one recognizes toward the-truth. That statesmen lie is of course no news to anyone. We expect ig we endure it. We also know that we must take an opposíte tack. So wd keep searching for those few places in the world, those few politicai groupings, those few leaders, who still respect the function of words, who still as they say, Ëeep their word,.who are free of fear and ambition, wh'o say what is on their minds, who.thus allow tîeir peoþle to be heard from on isiues that touctr tf¡e ìiie'an¿ death of all. . We do not expect the truth from,the modern state. And-coming as we did to the palestinian people from the.firs.t super state of all, we confess to tiein! trtlly f underdeveloped in our expectation. . But we do expect the truth from you. lt was in that hope that we approached you; the hope tiat 3llong the Palestinian leaders (as earlier amone the V¡etn¿mese leaders) we had mòved outsiáà ihË orUit ot chicanery, privilege, lethal politesse, self aggrandíze me.nl, dtzzy olympianism, dread of change, the fa_ mrJrar packaging tailoring and death dealing of our culture. Who needed more of all that? No, úe hoped that with you, we could pose certain questions of the most serious impor! having to do wid a vision of history, ¿ conception of human life, a moral stance in a bloody world-that we would be heard, respected, disagreed with perhaps, but dealr with iruthfuliy. We hoped that in spite of all the immense chasm of geograp,hy, birth, destiny,- incidence of disease, poverty, malnutrition, uprootíng that separated yóúr peoól'" ïrom ours,-we hoped to come away with a sense'of wìere you stood; just as we hoped to convey a sense 01 where we stood; you and said our good byes. ln the , We.thanked thSl followed, we slogged rhrough ihe dusty is|ay: la¡ds of hell, the camps your people have enduréd for years-people without a country, landlocked, !! |gr9among adntt the makers and breakers of history, the classic expendables of a world urrung.rrniinui. ullows whole Rloples simply to disapp-ear frãm ifie world's face. Then we returned to'lsrael, to speik of what we had seen, to tryand persuade úpoì if.,. leaders. their -"-itl.n vou, Arafat, violated your word. I do not hesitate t'o uie such language. When you said: We renorn". violence, you made a pact with us' l.n^the .iäoiãtt of termi,'you were giving us to undêfstand; i'reteive yôu as brothers' Otñers are duplicitor'¡s, but we are trúthful. You may be Ceceived elsewhe¡e, but not here. I do not hesitate to say that when the first child prior was seized at Maalot, there had already'been a honor, fro-m yourself. fallen You had casualty. lt was from giace, from the truth. You had fallen frpm the privilãged place due to a man who in a world twisted ' äut oflts skull, refuses to degrade the mind,-Jo misto violate friendship. , .. use speech, lndeed, it is not only statesmen wþ lie. Everyone lies; lies'are a universal, debased, cynical, interchangeabló, diabolic world bank. Presidents draw on it, ditr lomats of all camps, highly placed churchmen, cor' poration heads, bankers, labor leaders, movie stars, intellectuals, hustlers. People lie to the press, lie on television, líe in cabinet meetings, in the international truthfulness. as- r, 'Ño. yôu fell from the truth-into diplomacy, which is- to say, into murder.' you took responsibility for Maaf ot, we took responsibility for denouncing yqu,all press coniãõntt ín Tel Avii. ln doing so, we were thinking.not onLv of the children who died, or of the commandos iÉã Ji.ã. wè were thinking also of vour pêop.le, [he people of the camps, whom your resolve iç'.Çftect con- iolí'tn to death. demned -' fot yo, knew as well as we, -that the lsraélis would qqtlce on retaliaté. You knew the price of "serving. I he prlce exist.'' Palestinians the that Kissinger Mr. women children.and was ttrat rñany Palestinians, pald. the prlce; among them, would cease to exist' You those who it;,since exacted point, ;; ñä;;tí,re vou ãi.ä i" trté ult å¡at ón th. tutpt were never consulted about their fate. in Ánd this viscous web of terror and repri¡al' *flitf'ri.opf on both sides are .cluclt 1n! c"', " thou t *itni n g, tho ut, choi -so.!!d9r' *äiâf tttl v, wi iflt-it -wi certainty not to be thought of u.t ttuolltfl:.',' 't " of unq ãìåuãiií p"i"dy of the iiue method -lY.ttic." (the simplv hell;.or like ññ;;ñ;úã' lt it toi" rum. ttting¡ ãnother validatio.n of the- status.quo' for lf ever we t".t ugu¡n, ì will have a,question authoritv l sacrificial people, whether of 70 years or.of seven i oi s.v.i months, to consent to..die, þy' naor shelling? Dg yoy þalm 'keep or anti-personal weaponry this list of volunteers consciehtiously, a¡{ do' i'r.rãi.ålãn. pãiiir'r *rl" have chosen to.doso? Anq,þ. safeguard' this necessary freedom, so dìffcult to main: tainînder armed assauit by air or land, have yciu contrived some miracle of technique by which every bomb, every gun shot, arrives only in its appointed r and willing flesh? To pusñ my odious Question further' Do you, leaderi togetÉer with your families, consen-t to be Or, granted " the firsî viðtims of the inevitable reprisals? that your own qualities of moral.acuity, intellilence and sîoutness of heart are absolutely indispensable (leaders are always and everywhere ablqlutely indispensable)"are yoú ready in the name of. humanity, ' and as an example to your people, to push]our Ôwn children into the furnace of burning içlly? That ques-" tion I realize,'is a harsh one. lt wil.!- perhaps not further our friendshíp-a friendship begun so auspiciously in Beirut, under the sign of devotion to truth and .aversion fiom terrorismlsome ten days before Maalot and Nahayira I wish io pay a kind of tribute to you both, in pushing.dre i¡uêstion so'h¿id. l only long to push the question as hard, at Dayan or Meier or Rabin- But then, they are chiefs of state, engineers of human resoivg military true believers, Old Hands at death, friendíof the "'Pentagon Friends of Humanity'" Our ¡ expectations of such worthies are necessarily quite môdest, dedicated as they âre to the truth when ex' pedien! and violence as a matter of course' But you bentlemen are another matter entirely, chiefs of a óurportedly revolutionary movement. AnoJher'w.qdd, : i : years or semblieí, in classrooms, in private to one arlother. Still, we thought, tltere must be a small number of people immune from the plague. After Maalot.we icnow that the number is even smaller thañ we had calculated. And this'was the source of our 4gony and disappointment. We went to meet you with modest tropäi. We knew that a revolution begins with.a revolu' tionary resolve, and we hoped that you would be faith' ful to ihat resolve, which.is'so simple a thing as that the truth must be spoken, that one is forbidderÍ"to lie' We were convinced that unless the revolut'ion began with such a resolve, there yvould be no revolution at all. There-would simply be thë"old filthy method revving up onóe more, to move in and tighten up and . buy off or frighten off or kill off that rarest of goods and fairest of services; call it by whatever name; san- itv. trust. are the doome'd beople never he¿rd from? Or. when yoy decide that liraeii school çhildren must be seized, do you also hold an election in the Palestinian camps, or ' ásk for volunteers for self-immolation? Do you ask yJ. it;;;;;"tãir''''iî iír." this'. BY,that õ;ou ?ã.ì¿. who in"tñe lsraeli villages.þsRabin ;;ib" astce¿; By whai'iuthoritv do vou decide who another conception of history, altogether different connections with people. As men so gifted and so burdened, your meani¡g surpasses your movement. It reaches out toward people everywhere, as did the Vietnamese resistance.'lt invigorates and brings hope. ln a world governed by death dealers, you speak for a oeople wño refuse to be ground under, to'f assimi' laie" r,üith the dead. Such a people, such leaders, I do not hestitate to say, raise others from the dead. We rook heart fôo in. thíäking of you. For we had before us (so our hopes ran) a desperately crucia.l and pala leadership, that in spite of óudi" "xumplq;.a'peóple, tó*iùiiiitit to'she'fatp dqJed out to them by. ll:"refuse [nå ndurotnnial savages. A people, a leadership who ' - ' irîut"¿- täliã down ãnd die. Our hope of course, did not distinguish between the Palestinian people and their leaders' This we thought entirely right.and proper;'we saw the Reo.plg in vou. we saw you with your people. You were their hoôe writ large, made public, given a voice, 4n ethos, . a tradition to link with a common future. When we the leaders, we thought that in them, the ' thoueht ofthe people would stand clear in an even of virtuõs more heroic degree. And when we pondered the,hopes of humanity, nearly extinguished, often betrayed by the leaders of nations, the two virtues I have spoken of seemed crucial, both to tþe needs of Î.he people themselves, and the needs of the times. I speak of truthfulness and respect for life. ...i i, wtN 15 ,T Truthfulness, at least to this degree. One would never announçe a grave moral position, while at the same time planning to violate ihat position. And respect for life, at least to this degree. Unlike almost all governments and their spokesmen and allies and ideologueE one would draw a firm line (and hew to that_line) between the treatment of enemy.combatants .and "enemy" children. ¡ You drew that line, apparently, with us. Even while in.anticipation, you'stepped over it. Do you know what you díd at that moment, in that move? You joined the pack. you joined thé executioners. You became a government. you sabotaged yourselves and your people, and ourselves, that foùrthãn¿ nfttr-and sixth world whose real poúerty consists in our deprrivation of living human metaphors. I mean our deprivation of men and women who will spring like the door of a stinking tomb, the presslng and ùcious claim of death upon us, the living. , I think back on those days and nights of our meet_ ings, of the courtesy and dignity witñ which you re-ceived us. I think too of the choices that weré open to you when our friends in Beirut approached you, suggesting a meeting with us. you could have said îo yourselves: We are sick of moderation; we are planning Maalot. Therefore we will refuse io méei tñöm. o, you could have said: We have momentous and bloody plans; we will meet these friends,,and argue the merits of terror as a necessary tool, in fäce of tñe monstrous odds that oppose ur tiut you made a third choice. You met us, and lied to us. .l look back on our meetíng with ashes in my môuth; a dry ieirse that a greîtrhunr" luÃe;¡il.r"¿ ed and was tosr. Whom did wé meer in Beiruù Whom diJ we think ro meer? Men of íntegrity,;;;f .ärnpur_ sion? O¡: stereotypes, state depãrtriãnt spòkesmen, those who in Socrates, phrase know so well ,,how to make the worse appear the better argumen!" sophists? .We spoke that evening of the need of taí