Win Magazine Volume 6 Number 15

movement news and reviews
september 15,1970

ID

F

ERRATA

L

In our August issue we failed to
note that we'd done some edi-

4
&

ting of Gordon Yaswen's "Sunrise Hill: Post Mortem". The ful!
text is available from Gordon at
a cost of $1 per copy. His address is simply Star Route, Montague, Mass. 01351.
ln our September 1 issue we

HOME FOLKS
Ofelia Alayeto

Marilyn Albert
Maris Cakars
Susan Cakars
Bruce Christianson
Donna Christianson
Diana J. Davies

Ralph DiGia
Karen Durbin
Jen Elodie

16.

mitter

Apologies to all concerned.

into

3:

Marty Jezer
Peter Kiger
Dorothy Lane
Marty Lauritsen

Burton LeVitsky
Jackson Maclow
Mary Mayo
David McReynolds
Peter Merlin
Don Mochon
Jim Peck
Lana Reeves (Photos)
Paul Rilling
lgal Roodenko
IrYendy Schwartz
Connie Sohodski
Bonnie Stretch

Mayer Vishner

4:.

page

Denis Adelsberger (Box 7477, Atlanta,Ga.)
Ruth Dear (5429 S. Dorchester, Chicago, Ill.)
Paul Encimer (c/o Venice Draft Resistance,
73 Market St. No, 11, Venice, Calif.)
Seth Foldy (2232 Elandoa Dr., Cleveland Heights, Oh.)

Jim Giddings (1028 E. 6th St.; Tucson, Ariz.)
Erika Gottfried (4811 NE 107th, Seattle, Wash. 98125)
Paul & Becky Johnson (Somewhere in New Mexico)
Wayne Hayashi (1035 University Ave., Rm. 203,
Honolulu, Hi.96822)
Rose LaBelle (713 NE Adams, Minneapolis, Mn.)
Timothy Lange (1045 14th St., Boulder, Co.)
Mark Morris (3808 Hamilton St., Philadelphia, Pa.)
Paul Obluda (544 Natoma, San Francisco, Ca. 94103)

f{umber 15, 15 September, 1970

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The Soldiers

page

9:

Senryhore and SonB are Against

page

10:

The Fringe Benefits

page

12'.

Notes from ttrc Lindergnound
of Petty Ginre

of

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Prison

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A Wmld Wthqrt

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Five Poens by Larry Eigrrer

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IN THE PROVINCES

Unite

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page 21:
page a):

Linda Wood
Mike tilood

Ha

Chages

Squatters

Hendrick Hertzberg

VI,

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natio
page

Leah Fritz

Volume

failed to credit Lowell Naeve for
his art work which appeared on
page 5 and Tom Lewis on page

menu
page

Neil Haworth

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Prisons

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peace and freedom

UF\

through nonviolent action
339 Lafayette Street
New York, New York 10012
Telephone 12121 228-A27 O

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WIN is published twice-monthly (except July, August, and January
when it is published monthly) by the War Resisters League in
cooperation with the New York Workshop in Nonviolence.

Subscriptions are $5.O0 per year. Second class postage paid at New
York, N.Y. 1Oo01. lndividual writers are responsible for opinions
expressed and accuracy of facts given. Sorry-manuscripts cannot be
returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

Printed in U.S,A., WIN is a member of the Underground
Syndicate and Liberation News Service,

Press

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Bas

As part of the second stage, a

CALIFO RNIA FARM WOBKERS
PHEPABE NEXT MOVE
Having settled their strike with

California's grape tycoons, Cesar Chavez's

United Farm Workers Organizing Com-

mittee (tJFWOC) have been propelled
into a new phase of their struggle.
The same week that the graPe growers signed with the union, the Teamsters Union settled a strike in the rich
Salinas Valley, source of most of the
nation's lettuce and carrots. The Salina5 growers agreed that the Teamsters

-Todd Gitlin/LNS

farm workers for five years.
UFWOC's response was immediate.
They had what they thought was a gentleman's agreement with the Teamsters: the Teamsters would represent
cannery workers, UFWOC would represent farm workers, and neither would
raid the other. UFWOC rePorts that
Salinas Valley farm workers have been
told they will lose their jobs if they
don't sign Teamster cards, and that the

PHISON VISITORS' SEBVICE
IN PENNSVLVANIA
Prison provides not an altogether
easy existence for those on the inside
of one of those big wall iobs or any of
the other type prisons; neither is it
one of easy living for their families and
lovers on the outside. And one of the
big hassles for those on the outside, is
usually scraping together the money
needed for transportation, hotels, etc.

foremen have been making

to travel to their loved ones inside the

these

threats. UFWOC's idea about uniting
all farm workers in a single union was
dramatically undercut. The Teamster
threat has now forced UFWOC to step
up its organizing campaign.
Four UFWOC marches converged

pens and spend the meager time allotted to them each month by the offici-

on Salinas on Sunday, August 2, where
a rally of farm workers and supporters
dres some 2.000 people. To shouts of
"Huelga!"(Strike) Chavez brought the

tentiary and the Allenwood

spirit of Delano and the grape strike
to this largest political gathering in the
Valley town in anyone's memory. He

ject called the Prison Visitors'

would have

to be brought to

the
UFWOC membership, but implied the

t

i'ir
lc e.

lew

";:
pe.
'e9!

cano, strongly prefer UFWOC representation over Teamster, and believe,
with UFWOC, that the Teamster's contract is a sweetheart deal. lf UFWOC
had been wondering how to proceed
in the wake of the grape victory,.the
question virtually answered itself.

should represent the Valley's 5,000

said the question of strike and boycott

l

Chavez emphasized that all Teamsters were not the enemy, rather it was
a few Teamster officials who had sabotaged the gentlemen's agreement.
The evidence says that Salinas Valley farm workers, overwhelmingly Chi-

response would be favorable.
Chavez singled out two Valley firms

as branches of national and international conglomerates: Fresh-Pic, a division of Purex Corp. (makers of purex
Bleach and Brillo soap-pads), and
lnter-Harvest, a division of the United
Fruit Company. well known for Chiquita bananas and an exploiter of labor
throughout the hemisphere. United
Fruit also.owns A&W Root Beer and
Baskin-Robbins

I

ce Cream.

financial aid service would be set up to
,offset some of the transportation costs
of those who cannot afford the expensive car, bus or plane trip to get to
Lewisburg. And a miscellaneous fund
would be available to meet any emergencies ahd unexpected expenses that
may arise while visitors are in Lewisburg.
Stage three consists of trying to rent

or buy a house which would serve as
office space and a hospitality house.
Those visitors who would plan on
staying overnight, would be able to stay

there rather than having to pay for a
hotel room. Until this part of the project becomes a reality, visitors would.
be able to stay in the homes of people
working with the project.
Needless to say, money is in great

need so that all three stages

of

the

project can be fulf illed. lf you can help
ip any way, want more information, or

are a visitor to the prisons,

please

write:
Prison Visitors' Service
P.O. Box 663
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
Pass

1

7837

the word along-we are

-

here!

Bruce Christianson

MARYLAND DHAFT BOARD FIRE
Beisterstown, Md., Aug. 20

An early morning fire damaged a
draft board office in this suburb of
Baltimore today. The Baltimore Coun-

als.

A

group of people from the area
around Lewisburg, Pa., which is inhabited by the Lewisburg Federal PeniFederal

Prison camp, have realized some of the
problems faced by visitors to the prisoners within, and have developed a proService

to help alleviate these problems. Basically, there are three stages to the
project. The first concerns itself with
the transportation of the visitors from
the bus depot and airport to the prisons.
Rather than the visitors having to dole
out money for the expensive taxi ride
from these two points to the prisons
and back,.free transportation would be
arranged. Also, some visitors arrive a
few hours before they are allowed into

the prisons--facilities would be made
available to them so they can rest and
eat between the time of their arrival
and the beginning of visiting hours.
This part of the project has already
been initiated on a limited basis.
3

ty police said the blaze was the work

of arsonists. The fire did heavy damage
to the office and most of its records.
The police said that intruders appar-

ently opened file drawers at random,
with gasoline and set

doused them
them afire,

-

Reuters

BLACK SIX ACOUITTED
Two yearsago in May, Louwille had
its long, hot summer. The West End,

Louiwille's Black ghetto, erupted in
rioting. When the violence ended, the
state of Kentucky placed six under

of conspiracy to destroy private property, Their case became a major cause among those who felt the
Black Six were being used to hide the
charges

real causes of the anger. the appalling
conditions in Louiwille's slums. With
impetus from the Southern Conference
Educational Fund and other groups
many in Falls City rallied to the supp-

ort of the Six.

Because the Black Six
had so much support in the Black compleare turn
to paga 27

THEY

SHAtt NOT BE MOVED

llth Street looks like a normal New York Lower East Side tenement house on a fairly quiet block between 3rd and 4th Aves. lnside, the halls are clean and
well lit. The apartments are large, in fairly good condition,
with nice appliances. Recently, however, service has been
decreased. The halls are no longer kept clean, and junkies
and thieves are roaming u.ound the hallways. Tin has been
put on the windows of the five vacant apartments, and
the whole building is looking run-down. In addition, there
are plans for this building to be demolished completely,
so that a luxury unit can be erected. To try and improve
conditions in the building, and put a stop to the demolition plans, six families moved into the vacant apartments
on Friday, July 10, around 1l p.m. These people were
squatters, part of a rapidly growing, exciting new move118 E.

they must be in the proper zoning area (which refers to
density ofpeople per square block.) E. llth St. is presently in R-7 zoning (450 families per square block) and the
landlord is waiting for R-10 zoning to go into effect (2000
families per square block.) While waiting for this to go
through, the landlord does not rent apartments as they become vacant. This results in buildings full of empty apartments-an open invitation for junkies, thieves and drunks
to start hanging around the hallways and breaking into the
houses. At 118 E. llth, at a time of severe housing short-

land

hous

ed tr
and

o
occu
day

morl

lbrn
him

age, there were six large 4-room apartments, with rents

Wedr

from 55-85 dollars, unrented.
On July 2, 1910, the tenants got together with Fran
Goldin of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, and peo
ple from the Third Avenue Tenants, Artists and Business-

mon
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arms
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ment, dealing with the housing problern in New York
City.
Squatting originated in England. It grew out of a desperate need for housing, and people started to occupy abandoned buildings and castles throughout the country. The
government responded by providing more housing; 65 to
80 percent of post-war housing in England was financed
by the government. New York started picking up on it
several months ago, first on the Upper West Side and then
down on the Lower East Side. It is this area that I will
discuss, since I was most directly involved in the actions.
There are over 50,000 apartments in New York, in fairly decent condition, with reasonable rents, which are vacant. Many landlords want to tear down these buildings and
build luxury housing on the same site, in which apartments
would go as high as $150 per room. In order to do this,
4

mans' A.ssociation, and decided to move squatters into the
building. The idea was to find families and single people,
who needed a pTace to live, to move into the vacant apartments. The rent was to be collected and held in escrow
for the landlord, if and when he decided to accept them
as tenants. But it was more than j'ust an apartment that
these people were moving into-it was a commitment to
an ideal and a movement. Eight families are involved, and
by and large there was a real feeling of collective involvement, and support for each other. They moved in on Friday night, with the help of supporters, tenants, and organizers of the movement.
On Saturday afternoon a big rally was held on the
block, to get support from the rest of the llth Street
residents. There was a great deal of enthusiasm generated
at the rally. The general theme was: we won't let the

men
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landlords tear down our buildings in order to build luxury
housing that we can't afford to move into. People responded to the call for support of the squatters with money
and volunteers.
Once the squatters were in, the apartments had to be
occupied constantly. Supporters stayed in each apartment,
day and night, replacing each other in shifts. On Monday
morning we sent a telegram to the landlord, otticially inlbrming him that the squatters had moved in and asking
him to grant them legal residence. Nothing happened until
Wednesday, at which time the landlord sent a summons
seryer to serve us with criminal trespass and burglary summons. We were instructed by our lawyers (from a radical
law collective) not to open the door, but to just stick our
arms ou.t and take the piece of paper. It was made out to
John or Jane Doe, and read "known to the complainant
by sight". When we appeared in court that Friday, the
landlord and his lawyer were there. They asked the judge
to place us all under arrest immediately, but our lawyer
pointed out that they had to first prove that we were, in
fact, the people to whom the summons had been served &
"known by sight" to the landlord. Of course neither the
landlord nor the summons server could identify us, although they tried to convince the judge that if we held

out our arms he could identify us. Even the judge smiled
at that inanity. Eventually, the case was thrown out because there was no proof of identity. We went back to the
apartments, and that evening the landlord returned to try
and serve the summons once again. This time we were ready with about 30 tenants, squatters and supporters in the
apartments. The landlord was intercepted on the stoop of
118 E. llth Street, and the confrontation turned into a
rap session between the landlord and his lawyer, and us.
For an hour we talked, persuaded, cajoled, yelled-both
sides trying to convince the other, and finally a compromise was decided upon-a moratorium for the weekend,

The implications of the squatter movement can be very
far reaching. There has been lots of publicity on them,
and the city is realizing that they are not to be treated
lightly. Eventually they will have to understand that if
they can't provide decent housing for us, low rents, we
will take the matters into our own hands.
The struggle is a potent one. It deals with a basic
human right-for each person to have a decent place to
live. And it is growing. There are three other buildings
that I know of with plans for squatters actions, and more
in other areas. On July 24, the NY Times had an article
announcing that the city was declaring a moratorium on
eVictions for demolition purposes. They attributed their
action directly to the squatters. That's nice, but it's not
enough. Hopefully, the various squatters buildings will
come together and draw up joint demands to the citythat there be an end to the demolition of habitable housing, that the 50,000 vacant apartments be opened up, and
that the squatting be legalized. If we keep growing at the
rate we have been, these demands will have to be dealt

with.
Sally Ann Goldin

wave of squatting in empty New York City
T.
"rrr.nt
had its pioneers this spring-I50 families who
apartments
occupied City-owned buildings on the west side and Mrs.
Kinble who, with her 9 children,' moved into a building
owned by Columbia University.
Latest squatters include:
-6 families that moved into vacant apartments in buildings owned by the NY Eye & Ear Infirmary on June 5. The
apartments, in modern, sound buildings on 13 St. between
1st and 2nd Aves., were vacant because the hospital plans to
tear the buildings down and build nurses'residences (at $70
a room) and a doctors parking lot.
where we promised not to move in any more squatters
The squatters got the support of tenants on the block,
and they promised to remove the police and leave us alonewho were being forced out by the hospital's plans and who
until Monday night. At that time, there was to be a negotwere worried sick about where they would go. Because
iating meeting with the landlord. This was good for us, as
some of the apartments were vacant, there had been robit gave us the weekend to get more contacts with the
beries, drug addicts in hallways and on the roofs, and the
community, and more press coverage for the movement.
landlord's agent, RMA, had been cutting services to the
Monday night's meeting resulted in the following proposal
bone. He had even created leaks in the plumbinb, to make
from the landlord: that the squatters would be allowed to
it
more difficult for the tenants to stay.
stay until December, although not as legal tenants, and
Higher morale on E. 13 St.
would pay a lump sum of 80 dollars for the 4-room apartMove-ins by the squatters lifted the morale of the whole
ments and 100 for the 5-room apartments, plus two months
block and made the tenants feel they could change the hossecurity which would be returned when they left. If they
pital's plans, if all the apartments were occupied and the
refused to leave, the security would be used to pay for
tenants were united. They suggested alternate sites to the
on
proposal
was
bad
The
evict
them.
marshalls to forcibly
hospital-build over the doctor's parking lot & convert the
several accounts-if it was agreed to, we would be agreeing
old Eye & Ear hospital to nurses' quarters, and use the air
to let the landlord throw us out of the apartments in the
rights
over the old hospital. The hospital has refused to
dead of winter, with no place to go, and we would also
these proposals.
even
discuss
apartments,
on
those
be paying more than the legal rent
At a trial of the squatters July 15-21, attorneys for the
set by the city. At this time, negotiations are still going on.
squatters turned.the trial into a full-fledged attack on City
There were two other squatter actions on the Lower
poiicy which allows decent apartments to be kept
housing
East Side. The 13th Street actions got a civil court sumthe
market
and which allows demolition of sound housoff
jury,
The
appealing.
it,
and
are
lost
mons, had a trial by
ing during a time of the worst housing shortage in the city's
15th St. squatters got busted two days after they moved
history.
in, and after negotiations with the landlord and the city,
The squatters lost in court but the deeision will be app
are living in another house while the original squatter
ealed.
into.
back
them
to
move
for
building is being renovated

Squatters on E. Ilth St.
Then, on July I l, 8 familiei moved into empty spacious
four and five-room apartments at 120 and 118 East 1l St.
Here, the landlord has 20 vacancies out of 60 apartments
in four buildings. He is waiting for the City to raise the zon-

ing limit

to

R-10 along this 3rd. Ave. strip. This would innumber of apartments he could put in a new buil,ding and make it profitable for him to tear the old buildings down. The new apartments would rent at $ 150 a room
a month or more.
Tenants still in the buildings formed a committee and selected their squatters whom they call "Refugees in Residence." The families included a young couple with a 3-month
son and a woman with 5 kids-blacks, whites and Puerto
Ricans. This was the first squatting in a privately-owned
building and tenants all over the city are watching with
great interest.
crease the

Squatters on West 1Sth

On July 17, a group of tenants moved into an empty
builfing on W. 15th St. The building is being'renovated'
into luxury apartments. Three days later, they were evicted,
roughly and abruptly, and arrested.
The next day, the tenants and their supporters, including
MCH and the Chelsea Save-Our-Homes Committee, went to
City officials and demanded that the City take over the
building. After the visits and picketing of the landlord's
home, the City agreed to buy the building for low-rent
public housing after the owner renovates it.
Squatters in Morningside Heights

On Saturday, July 25, another move-in took place, and
by the next day 53 families had occupied two buildings,
500 W. I 1th St. and 1046 Amsterdam Ave., which Morningside House planned to tear down to build a home for affluent white elderly people. Within a week over 200 prorninent individuals and organizations from the area came out

in support of the

squatters and negotiations were taking

Martin zurlalstudio

7O

place between Morningside House and the squatters. An
agreement was reached

to

relocate all the squatters into

good housing in the area if the supporting organizations
would move no more squatters into the buildings. At a
public rally called to announce this victory twenty-five families, carried away by their desperate need for decent housing and the strength of the movement, dashed into the
buildings and took over 25 more apartments. Evictions are
now being threatened but the spontaneity of the movement is obvious!
What it all means
With the help of the Metropolitan Council on Housing's
Squatters Committee and a good deal of spontaneous movement, groups from throughout the city are getting help
moving in squatters. People are desperate for apartments.
Yet, at the same time, apartments are torn down for* City-sponsored "urban renewal"
* Expansion by hospitals & colleges

* Luxury housing
* Office buildings, parking lots

* Luxury rehabilitation & renovation
The squatters are breaking this scandal wide open for
everyone to see. The squatters are taking matters into their
own hands. If this movement grows, it can reverse the
demolition policy and stop it and also force the building of

low and genuine middle-income housing on vacant or badly used commercial land.
We are demanfing city take-over of ALL buildings in
which squatters are living and conversion to public ownership with tenant control. A united squatters movement can
provide the clout to force such a radical and meaningful approach on the city.
JOIN IT! Call Met Council (W[1-6027) if you want to
welcome squatters into empty apartments in your building.
Or if you have found it impossible to find a place to live,
call and sign up as a squatter.
Frances Goldin

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MORE SPII.iT BIOM

The most common question from

passers-by as well as the press was "ls
it real blood?" Thursday, August 13th,
seven persons expressed their sympathy with Dan Berrigan and their opposition to our inhuman society in a dem-

N NEW IONK

The marshalls ordered photographers
off the steps and took one slow moving photographer into custody. Though

I thought it pointed
out the hypocrisy of the system until
I realized that the system was being
he was released,

onstration which may very well be an
anachronism but which was also human, beautiful, political, good and a continuation of struggle in these times so

completely honest but that I was being
innocent, They're outto get us because
we are unnecess.try for their business

unreceptive to opposition.

for their

Carrying two gallon jugs of steer's
blood each in paper bags, they walked
to the top of the Foley Square Federal
Courthouse, uncovered their jugs and
tipped them over releasing a stream of
thick red blood which moved slowly
over the steps out onto the sidewalk,
toward the people who had gathered
to view the spectacle. After four people had been quickly arrested by building guards, a score of federal marshalls
came out to stand on the portico. They
did not arrest anybody but just stood
around grinning, raping us and the protest, laughing because it was not their
blood on the steps and they knew it
might soon be ours. One of them gingerly dunked a f inger in the blood and
tasted it. Soon several marshalls were
tasting the blood probably to provide
clinical. definite macabre evidence at
some later trial that, by God!, it certainly was blood spilt on the steps. Photographers and sight-seers walked among the remaining demonstrators.

and unwilling

to prostitute ourselves

pleasure. Merely our existence antagonizes them,
It was taking so long to get arrested

Henry Gordillo

as planned that one demonstrator wondered out loud,"What are we waiting
for? We can all go home for all it matters". Finally, tired of tasting our
blood and refusing to accept the seri-

ousness of the protest, the marshalls
walked over to the last demonstrators,
asked them if they had spilt the blood,
and upon receiving a positive answer,
the marshalls good naturedly placed
their arms around the demonstrators'
shoulders and, like some scene out of
a big brother commercial, led them inside the building.

Other spectators walked by, marveled at the scene and then whispered,
awe-struck, "They all got caught; none
of them got away." This time the protesters agreed to get arrested; maybe
next time we ought to "get-away" so
that we don't build up the imageof the
omnipotent state. We were too nice.
Berrigan jumped bail to build the resistance; the gentle people of lndochina steeped in Buddhist tolerance and
pacifism have begun political struggle.
Here, we've all objected to the system
in various ways, the point now is to
change it.
On the portico, a black maintenance
man in an antiseptic white uniform
was ordered out onto the steps to hose
the blood off under the direction of a
white marshall. The streets f lowed
with diluted blood-Pontius Pilate attempting to wash his hands.
Henry Gordillo
7

T1

Alder

of tl
Dsar

THE SOLDIERS

wear

Part

I:

Part

II:

Part

The Men

For what comfort numbers can afford,
we huddle together, mute, frowning,
appearing neither fearful nor bored
over the quick loss of our freedom.
No longer will we.live at random,
for now our simple lives have meaning
although we don't matter. Some things
are more important, the noncoms tell
us. The world crawls like our trucks, destined
for a resolution of those things.
"Draftee soldiers, we ain't unkind,"
one says, then laughs. "But war is hell!"
It's just a game now, but tomorrow
a tougher game begins. Intuit
what we may, we are not soldiers yet.
A killer's knowledge can't be borrowed.
We must learn what soldiers can't forget:
To learn properly, we must do it.
Thb Place

The barracks are roofs and barren walls,
no more. All else is in addition
to their blankness. "Everybody's pals
in this outfit," the Sergeant says.
"A11 equal. I don't want no pissin'
and moanin', neither The Man nor me.
If you got problems, the chaplain's hour
is yours, not mine. I got no problems
but you, and you ain't no problems.
My job is to make killers of you,
and I will. Please do not misconstrue
what I have said. And take your showers."
So we are assembled; numbered first
then named, society's unseasoned
green youths, bound for an object lesson
in an art that never was an art.
But who's to say, if worst comes to worst,
that numbers are bad? They set us apart
and give us an identity
we couldn't feel 'in a battery
of similar names. Unfamiliar
as our numbers are, less familiar
are the shaven faces and shaven heads
bordering us in camphorized beds.

III:

lette
t'

or

The Training

B

Late spring finds us inhaling the green
smell of leaves from behind spaded earth.
Each raw trench, fresher than a new grave,
openi in mock-warfare and gives birth
to yelling trainees, while a lean
tanned Medic looks on, impassive, suave.
But uncertainty matches resolve.
We are never allowed to forget
impassive, foreign, yellow faces
that wait with Oriental patience.
They are the problem we must solve:
We practice harder with our bayonets.
The burning days engender sufllmer
and summer brings tanks. In earthern pits
reinforced with logs, we crouch and wait.
Fifty tons of armor eclipses
the worlds we occupy: we shiver,
inhale dust, and spit it out as mud.
Our training ends. Now our final end
focuses on a paper command
that means more than God to most

of

its u

L

lier

time

I

I

us.

Those who study war from high places
deploy us now, individualized rats

to

individual

races.

Part IY: The l4lar
From the dark immobilization
of earth bunkers, our probing patrols
infiltrate jungles. A cold moonlight
is smothered by the trees, and we mold
purselves to dark brush, hoping to sight
&n unseen enemy. And they will come.
$s soldiers, we forget tomorfow,

Lth
and

taine

ing

n

rebor

ping.

"MaI

ablisl
tremr

and finally, nothing matters
as much as it should. We have today,
and by the grace of Generals, a stay
of execution. Our lives narrow
around living's uncertain center.

ina
from
most

ft isn't likely a solution

to human problems will come of this,
but soldiers can't be human and be
soldiers. Patrols end. Bodies are placed

CCS

C

life

a

phet:

sing i

in blank graves. There, past human praise,
they lie in stiffened resolution.
-llilliam

(

It
signal

Childress

tical,
Witcl
"Witr

accus

ions,
The (
stery

the

s

SEmap*RE ond SOME ARE AGAINST
The now famous peace symbol, adopted in l95g at the
Aldermaston Peace Marches in England is a stylization
of the semaphore signal letters "N" and "D" for Nuclear
Disarmament. Many libertarian and radical pacifists began
wearing, it reversed tn 1961, signifying the semaphore signal
letters, "IJ" and "D" for either Unilateral Dsarmament
or "Universal Disarmament."
But the symbol does have a history which long antedates
its use by the peace movement.
In 1960 research was undertaken to ascertain actual earlier use of the Peace Symbol. What was uncoyered at that
time follows:

I

In the ancient Runic writing, common to the Scandinavian
and Celtic lands, the symbol
Con_
f Signifies ..Man Dying,,.
tained within a circle, O the symbol signitiei ..Man Dying in harmony with the established forces of Nature, to be
reborn." Likewise, the symbol f signifies ..Man Worshipping." Contained within a circle,
@ the symbol signifies
"Man affirming Life in harmony with the Cosmos, the establistred forces of Nature." In both cases, the symbol is extremely positive, an affirmation of the place of the person
in a creative Cosmos, and from this ancient use as well as
from its later derivation from the Semaphore letter, it is
most appropriate to signify the fact that surrounded by forces of hatred, death, and destruction we must choose love,
life and creativity. In the words of the Old Testament prophet:"I have set before you this day life and death, a bles
sing and a curse. Therefore, choose life !"
It is quite true that certain Medieval writers chose to designate a symbol similar to the Peace symbol but not identical, va: rI
as being a "Devi]'s Foot," and "Sign of
Witchcraft." If one investigates the history of the Medieval
"Witchcraft" trials, one firtds that in most cases the persons
accused were merely following one of the old Nature religions, and were persecuted for primarily political reasons.
The Church, in other cases, borrowed heavily from the Mystery religions and the so-called Pagan Nature religions, in
the symbolism of the Mass, the Vestments, the adoration

of the Blessed Vlrgrr, the pults of the Saints, etc. and which
had maintained that all religions found their perfect fulfillment and culmination in the Christ Event, the person of
Jesus and the Mystery of Golgotha, saying with St. August_
irle "The True Religion has always existed, even from the
foundations of the worlds, until the coming of Christ Jesus,
from which time on that same True Religion has been called
Christian." That same Church, when it desired to persrecute
persons to achieve their property and or when persons persons persisted in carrying on the practice of their Old Religion, maligned them and accused them of being in league
with the Devil and seryants of the Antichrist, etc.
Of course, prior to the reign of Constantine, when the
Church both became legitimized and began blessing violence
it was possible for a person to be both a practicing Christian and still remain an initiate in the Mysteries or in the old
Nature religion. It was tlre first Council of Nicea, which
alsoviolated the Gospel by allowing Christians to bear arms,
which laid the groundwork for these later charges of "paganism" and "witchcraft."
If, as is said by many even within the Churches today,
the Movement is that which presents the sole possibility of
recalling Christianity to its revolutionary roots and dedicating it anew to the struggle for peace, freedom and human
dignity, then it is indeed appropriate that it is that same
Peace Movement which has, as it were, "baptised" the ancient Runic writing of the Nature religions and made it a
part of that rebirth of the radical Faith.
Rt. Rev. Michael Francis ltkin, B.L.C.

the frfiVofrensl tbt ol

fttsoy1 =;

There are many good reasons for avoiding jail and only
one bad one: being afraid of it. In our white middle-class
America this fear of jail is widespread and a voluntary
going to jail is beyond comprehension.
We can understand Russian revolutionaries being jailed
by the Czar, and Gandhians by the British Raj. And we
understand (and denounce) the jailing of blacks here and
in South Africa, Jews in Hitler's Germany, anarchists and
Catalonian separatists in Spain, Nazarenes (and other pacifist Christians) in Yugoslavia, rightwing deviationists in
Peking, leftwing deviationists in Czechslovakia, gypsies
in Britain, antifascists in Greece-it all feels ngnr everywhere but here.
But political prisoners in America? We don't really believe it. If we did, we wouldn't act so surprised. Our minds
know better! We see through Washington's denials just as
we see through the denials of Lisbon, Moscow and Saigon.
But our reactions of surprise and outrage are possible only
if we still believe the great American myth of political

i!ir .):iti

freedom.

My political assumptions are that there is a great chunk
of middle-America which has been moved and can still be
moved by genuine humanitarian concerns; that we critics
and activists have, by and large, been more involved in displaying our disgust than in creating dialogue with middleAmerica; and that one of the most direct ways of doing
this is by going to jail. Since, to them, the American myth
is still valid, they can explain middle-class whites voluntarily going to jail only in terms of personal integrity-a very
rare commodity in American politics. At that point many
will listen.
But my concern here is not so much whether jailings
do move the public, but how truly is jail a totally bad experience? It's bad enough, but I would like to list some of
the mitigating elements.

'' t/1,

l. Particularly if you are a citydweller, jail might give
you the first adult chance for a prolonged facing of yourself. Here we are so constantly surrounded by escapes
from ourselves that we rarely get to that time and place
of quiet to examine ourseives and our values and assumptions. (Not that jail isn't mainly life in a fishbowl, but in
federal prisons there is often a fair chance of getting the
kind of work assignment that carries with it a private cell.
At first it can be frightening. After the fever of arrest
and trial, transportation, arrival, examinations, fingerprinting, showers, prison clothes-you are led down a corridor,
shown into a cell, and the door is locked. There you are:
four walls, a cot, table, chair, sink, toilet, a door and a
window-and you. You say, Day One-999 to go, and how
am I going to do them?
You try to answer the question all at once, but the total change in environment makes it easier for you to discover that there are no deadlines. Busy exploring your new

like;there you have to learn to deal with them. Here the
beguilements are almqst infinite in number and variety;
there, much more limited. Since we were always locked in
during bad weather, I soon began to yearn for the feel of
rain on my face-and still relish it. In a life full of pastries,
one forgets the taste of good bread.
2. For the first time you might find yourself free of
world, you give yourself tentative answers, knowing that
doubts and guilt feelings about whether you're doing enyou can change them. Life slows down, horizons shrink-not ough against the war and the draft, for the revolution, or
all bad, anymore than the tiny world under a microscope
however you express your goals. Now the record reads
is "worse" than the "normal" world or that of the teleclear, for yourself as well as for the world to see. Or, at
scope.

Out here you can avoid people and situations you don't
t0

least, more clearly than before.
3" The clear record stays with you. When

I

stand up be-

fore
as on

civil

I

r

hav,

this

i

much

Vietn

Ur

ment

withi:

jail

se

withir

Gerr

the war in Vietnam. (Look at the growing number of confessions by former LBJ cronies.)
4. Jarl may be as close as you will ever get to a situation of identity with that 90% of humanity which is not
white, middle-class and comfortable. Our Southern black
brothers were right when they asked us to leave the South,
saying that no matter how concerned and committed we

were, no matter how much we put up with, we could always go home. In prison you can't. lt is still not the same
for us as for the broken, the black, the unschooled. But
we begin to feel in our bones the misery, the anguish, the
hopelessness of the suppressed. This is important ior two
reasons:

Personally, our jailmates become individual human be_
ings to us instead of the neat stereotypes and statistics we
pick up in sociology classes. You begin to lose the condescension for "our poor, unfortunate brethren.,, In its place
you discover men of flesh and blood with that variety of
and rotten qualities that people have everywlrere-.
]gva-ble
To learn how to relate to people and their problerns more
on their terms and less on ours-this alone ii almost worth
the price of admission.
Politically, this brings us close to what may well be the
major human conflict now and for the next few decades:
the growing rebellion of those many who have nothing_
within the nation and around the world- against the few
who are fat and comfortable. your lifespan is apt to be
more full of that polarization than less, and-whether or
not you like being white, middle-class, American_building
a more decent world will in part depend on how many hu_
man bridges there are between the questionable lucky few
and the many.
5. Some fringe benefits:
In some states, a felon is denied the right to vote. This
is particularly useful when the choice is between Blah and.

ffi
K
ffi

Blah-blah.
Not only. did

I have enough time to read all of the New
York Times every day and come out extraordinarily well_
informed, but-discovering with Thoreau how much every
newspaper is like every other except for minor details*

I've hardly read any papers in the lwenty years since then.
This has saved me time and money, and has saved ecolog_
ically important chunks of good timberland for mankind.
I know several men who started work on the Great
American Novel while in prison. I don,t know of any completed work, but you, too, can try. In twenty months in
prison (half of them with extra free time beiause of a
work strike) I did not exhaust the Sandstone prison lib.

tary'
fore a group of stran_gers, youngsters, and am intioduced
as one who has done time-and some of the anti-war and
civil rights offenses are mentioned--three-fourths of what
I have to say is already said before I open my mouth. If
this is true for one who resisted the anti-Hitler war, how
much more is it, and will it be, true for resisters to the
Vietnam war?
Unless you are not really divorced from the establishment-and dream of ultimately finding a comfortable niche
within its structure-you needn't feai that a principled
jail sentence will ruin your future. I even expect that
within a few years after the end of the war, many .,good
Germans" will start claiming that they, too, had opposed

***

if you can, but if what is most beautiful
in you-most important, most holy-says that you must
go, then go with a somewhat lighter tread. Read E.E.
Cummings' The Enovmous Room (Modern Library) where_
in he describes his few months in a French prison during
the first World War. More important than the descriptioi
(as magnificent as that is) is his attitude, one almost of ad_
Avoid prison

yenture. I've met no healthier, more self-assured,
more
buoyant approach than his!
- Jail, like many other things around us, was not designed
for your joy, edification, and growth. But if you approach
it aware of its potentials, you will change some of lis dross
into your own pure.gold.
Igal Roodenko

lt

too(

anol
deal
have

byl

I

T{OTES FROM

in

tr

resF

THE UNDERGR()UNI}
I r.u.t

ofreading, writing, and discussion in a
short-term county prison. The men in the group are mostly
black, mostly drug addicts and almost all many-time repeaters. In general they like talking and reading, but many mistrust writing for a variety of reasons. When I asked them to
write about prison and themselves, the writing poured in.
This should not have surprised me. because I haye learned
that there is a large and complex literary culture strared by
prisoners in all institutions, but unknown outside. One of
my first students presented me with a ten-page ballad, sentimental and obscene, called "The Fall", about the perfect
prostitute, the poet's abandonment ofher and her revenge*
his fall (or conviction). A sort of epic with many local variants, the poem is a communal endeavor (to which different
prisoners lend personal touches. "The Fall" is one ofa genre
of poems called "toasts", all highly inflected poems which
celebrate, rationalize, and laugh at the life they know and the
special arts of the professional prisoner. "The Signifying
Monkey" incites, amorig other things, the lion to fight the
elephant; "Mexicali Rose", I'm told "is about a pimp who
becomes a simp." There is a lot of individual poetry written
as well, some about the fabulous lies and dreams spun in stir.
a class

Writing about oneself in prison without the comforting
support of these familiar forms may be more painful, but it
is as natural. Whatever else is true, prison, for men who
live in the streets, provides a rare and isolated opportunity
for reflection.
I suggested that they describe prison life and attempt to
define its functions in society. Many made the point that
for them the prison isn't so different from the streets.
"Busted again and back in the slams! Man, this is a bitch. I
thought I was getting over pretty alright, but here it is, the
fall is for real. The same with the 90 days the iudge gove me.
All the fellas put me on the pan when I returned and I took
it good-naturedly, outwardly that is. Inside I wos one angry
stud. Back in the stinking ass Penitentiary. 90 damn days to
spend just surviving, waiting till it's over and I'm out again.
No way to make time serve me because here they haue nothing really thot a man can improve himself by. You come
in, get processed and receive the khaki pants snd shirt. Then
you get in population and into the bid. Thut is, if you're not
kicking the "Jones" and need medical attention. In that case,
ifyou perform long enough and loud enough you might get
it. As for the food, the quulity is passable most times but
the quantity is nearly always insufficient. The cats working in
the kitchen make nice money selling sandwiches on the side
and there is no lack of customers. A lot of the dudes take up

OT PETTYCRIME

the same hustles they had in the street. The gambling, the
dope-selling and shooting, pimping on JAggots, taking oll
other inmates' cells, conning the police. It's almost the same
ghetto thing here as most of the dudes were confronted
with on the street. A bit more conftned but no less sovage.
The man knows what is going on but as long as his rules are
outwardly obeyed, as long as he can maintain a surface calm,
then these things are seen and not seen, so to speak. I found
out through my numerous vlsils back and forth to different
sites oI tncarceration that there's really a lot of intelligent
cats in jail. I think too what a strong force we could be against
the evils of the System if we could motivate.our energies to
that end in a unifted way. The man tries to couse conflicts
in our rsnks, by such petty means as coddling the cooperative
ones and downing the cats who express their disapproval . . .
I can truthfully only define pison in one woy and that is, as
a place where the society hides away those who are mast
qualified to point out to it the mistakes and iniustices inhe'
rent within the. System. "
Others emphasize the stagnation they see at the heart of
the Corrections system. One said, "Corrections isn't geared
to change you, but to arrest your gowth and make you repeat." Another wtites, "The institutions are set up to keep
the prisoners quiet and out of trouble while he is a resident
there. No thought is given to the inmate as a man, an individual with problems, And no measures are taken to prepare
the man to face these problems upon release."
The jail program aims only at running a smooth show.
After work, you have Ping Pong, T.V., movies, and other
assorted amusements to help you pass your spare time in
idle abandon. As long as you are content, you are happf and

quiet. This pleases the prison officials, because this is running a good show.
Just is being done to rehabilitate or prepare a man for
taking a responsible position in society is quite beyond me.
I can see no difference in the man when he leaves, except
he's a little older, he's full of good intentions, false hopes,
and future fears. And the fear is well justified, for what hope
of a future does he really have, how is he any different than
from when he came in? The most he could possibly have attained while he was here is a high school equivalency diploma.
And the beneficial value of that is overshadowed and nullified by the conviction record he now bears.
"Time has stood still for the inmate, worse, it has regressed
for him, he has to run twice as fast to get half as far . . .Many
of the other skills available lead nowhere, because they are
all union-held positions. And the union will not have you.
You are scarred for life as surely as if you wore a number ta-

the

wril
ture

tenl

of

rr

SWei

my

lovi
love
conr

largr
som

timt
pail
t

we'l
Tha

1

onel
begr

my'

son.

Anyt

upt

Elm

mys

first
A$€

t

littlr
ing

r

area

atio,

aba

1

prol

I

ing

derl.

fron

judi,
favo

ple

t

than

fullt
in tl
the

t

poss
l

to tl
sent,

last

shot
heqt
gtrVe)

attel
siste

tooed on your forehead." In a discussion ofprison conditions,
alother prisoner used a curious expression: .-.I possess a great
deal of larceny". I asked him to explain, and he said ..Thly
have me in a position where I have to steal my manhood or
by force have it accepted.,,

I asked the men to write about why they were there, not
in terms of charges and convictions, but in a larger sense. In
response, a couple of the white prisoners have touched on
the Oriental philosophy which ii their main interest. One

writes about self-denial and resolves ..to remember and nur_
ture the memories of unpleasantness, thereby foiling the in_
tent and purposes of the incarceration system. The iystem
of rewards, of pleasures and punishments. For all thit is
sweet is not good, and all that is bitter is not bad. By taking
my punishment and embracing it all the more fervently and
lovingly because it is my chosen companion. An exercise in
love." Another white prisoner hints in a different way that
conviction served a psychological need: ..Curiosity played a
large part in my coming to iail since this is my firit arrest and
somehow I knew this would be the best thing for me at this
time. But most of all I was tired. Tired ot cariyrng a lunch
pail every day, tired of rules, war, and the semi-fa-scist society
we're living in, so I turned to drugs and crime to obtain them.
That's why I'm here."
The sense that external factors are as decisive as internal
ones goes deeper with the black prisoners, even when they
begin by denying it. "If I was to tell you I'm here becausi of
my environment, I would be lying to you and me. The reason I'm here and most other people is because we don't have
anything useful to do and because we are trying to be or live
up to someone else's idea. For the time that I have spent in
Elmira Reformatory I have gotten o more open mind about
myself and other* I have looked the situation head on. But
first, let me point out to you, being young and living in an
age of machines brings a whole lot of problems. l, there,s
little to do with your time; 2, you hsve too many drugs flying around; and, 3, there's too many stores and shopping'
areos to steal. This is iust an outline of mine and others' situ_
ation. To try to understand this more would for me to write
a book. That I do not have in mind for another year or two.,'
Ten years older than this writer, a repeater sees the double
problem in a more political light:
. I can't really see why it is I am in jail again. I'm not refer_
ring to the crime of which I wos ajudged but to the real inderlying reason as to why I got into the position to be confronted by the commercialized workings of this country's
judicial system. I feel as though I had a lot of things in my
favor when I was outside qnd I realize there were a lot of people willing to help me, with no thought of personal gain other
than the satisfaction of seeing me intelligently and successfully applying myself. Yet the foct remains I am again here
in the penitentiary serving 90 days. It's a prime example of
the type of injustice a person like myself, black, poor and
possessmg a past criminal record, can expect. I'm reJ'erring
to the fact that on the same charge for which I this time wos
s-entenced to 90 days, I received o one yeor sentence on my
last bust. A comparison of my circumstonces then and now
shows that then I was out of a job, using drugs and stealing
heavily. Circumstances now were identical qnd yet I was
given a lesser sentence, possibly due to the
fact that I was
attending college but still, this tells me a lot about the consistency of iustice in Ameica If my attending coilege did

influence the judge's decision, I ask myself, then suppose I
had been a little moie prominent a personage or naa a bale
of cosh? Chances are that I would have made bail and not
ever seen isil. So, to what some would consider abstract reasoning, score another point, in that no argument con persuade
me to ever believe that the "double standard of justice for
some and pseudo-justice for others" is not a blunt fact. My
major problem, I believe, is that I compulsively continue to
commit individuql acts of rebellion that seem to get me nowhere but back in joiL l have been jailing and living the lift
of the streets for a long time and I mention this because I
believe thut I am the sum total of my expeience. The fact
that I am motivated by this and tend to identify with what
I have been doing for most of my lift, I know is unfortunate
for me, but also it is very hard to avoid. Like Pavlov's dogs,
I have been conditioned to o way of life and when the bell
rings, I unthinkingly respond to it. I struggle daily to break
this pattern."

Another tries to explain why freedom didn't work for him.
Last yeor it was my disodvantage to be released on parole.
I had no meaningful program to help motivate staying free.
"Upon leaving this prison. I didn't have anv reol strong
feelings about anything, except I was going to see my daughter,
which at the time was my only real enjoyment, also the reason I had motivated myself to learning as much as I can about
the people in the country, as well as myself,
"l|hen I did arrive home, I was picked up by the police,
who stated they had a warrant Jbr my arrest. Ilhen checked
out, il was found to have been dismissed. My feeling at the
time was to get a job, so I could be left olone.
"lhe.very next day, after picking up my clothes from my
mother's, my father and I were on our way home. He was
aslling me what my plans were. I had none except finding a
job, which I told him. I was ogain stopped by the poticeind
asked what I had in my bagt I wanted to grab his gun and
kill him right there, but I merely said I didn,t think it was
his business to which he replied that I was to occompany
him to the station. I wqs about to reluse since t Jelt he hod
no reoson to stop me. Everything perverted that I believe
possible, I wish on him. To me he was every white person
in the world, whom I had learned to dislike in the last yeor
or so. My father asked me to go aheacl and he would come
along. I knew he was disturbed. (Not at any time has my
father been involved with the police, and although he knows I
am not an angel of any kind, the police are no better. He
feels I should have never gotten involved with the police from
the start. I guess every father feels his son should know better and if he's black that's a fact.) I guess this was my real
reason for being as angry as I was ot thot moment.
"The next morning I went to the State employment. After
pulling my lile, a great revelation took place. *you are a
drug addict," she told me, to which I replied I had
iust retumed from iail, also my problem wqs now I needed a job.
She in turn told me she would have to get a statement
from
igil, st-atinq I was off drugs.-I said to myself, ,,Amazing!,'
She then informed me in the meantime shU would haie me
tested to see what I was best able to do. She then made a
call, and told me I would be tested in two weeks. Two weeks
and nothing to do but be on the street to on addict is like
putting a match to fuse with dynamite at the other end. At
that very moment I sow my path leading to where I am now

writing this."

t?

aworld wlthout

After the revolution, let us hope, prisons simply would
not exist-if by prisons we mean places that could be experienced by the men and women in them at all as every
place that goes by that name now is- bound to be experienced. lJi priions that have exiiied in our society to
date put people away as no human being should ever be
put away. I tried to write about this in PRISO// NOTES.
They attempt a kind of insane magic-attempt to wish
the "criminal" out of existence, because he is a problem
to society. This not only commits an outrage (casts prisoners out of the human race) but is absurd of course,
because the prisoners-unless they are in for life-return
to society. And they return, after this.experience-unless
they are particularly hardy of spirit, which happily, some
men and women are-not "rehabilitated" but wounded
in their selfhood.
Of course it can be said of jails, too, that they tryby punishing the troublesome-to deter others' No doubt
in certain instances this deterrence actually works. But
generally speaking it fails conspicuously. There is one
more thing that they can be said to attempt-that is, to

Before she had been given adequate medical attention or
even allowed the rest that she needed, she was forced to
go down to the police station for questioning. There she
told the police that she doubted that she could identify
her assailants, and was reluctant to try, as she fidn't believe in punishment.'But they would not let her leave.
And so she had to endure now a prolonged second violation-their bullying questioning. No concern for the one
who has been hurt. Only the one obsessive concern-to
find someone to punish.
After the revolution, it might well renrain necessary
to place people where they could not do harm to oth-

ers. But the one under restraint should be cut off from
the rest of society as little as possible. There should be
no censorship of mail. Family and friends should be allowed to visit at will-in fact, to move in with the prisoners if they wished. And if safety permitted, the prisoner should be allowed to make visits outside. He-or
she-should be allowed to live as happy and productive
a life as possible. The point would be to seek how to
mend hiJ relationship to socie$2. These non-prisons

(

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,\

1/r:

place people who are doing harm

to others where

they

cannot do that harm. Though more often they put people who are doing harm to themselves-for example,
drug addicts and alcoholics (those without money, that
is)-where still more harm will come to them. After the
revolution, surely the only good reason for institutions
that could still be called prisons-because they take people and place them under restraint-is this reason: wanting to keep people from harming others.
But if institutions of restraint might still be necessary,
they should no longer be institutions of punishment at
the same time. Punishment cannot heal spirits, can only
break them.
What would these mstitutions of restraint be like? A
prefacory note: After the revolution, when one person
injures another, society would concern itself most immediately to give help to the person who has been injured.
Present-day Justice" is carel'ess of both the "criminal"
and the victim-wears its blindfold when either one
stands befor'e it and asks to be seen. (This "justice" has
,always been pictured as a woman, so I know that I am
supposed

to write not

"it" but "her", but I

find that I

balk at this.) I recall, just for example, the experience
of a young woman who was raped by a group of youths.
a4

prisons

^_2)

in depth-with the help of the prisquestion:
why did he act as he did? See the
oner-the
book about Chinese prisons (by the Ricketts, I think;
was it called PRISONERS OF I'IBERATION?) which
describes methods of group discussion about prisoners'
should investigate

antisocial behavior.

But I would add emphatically: one question should
always be raised very seriously in such discussions: Does
the "antisocial" act perhaps reveal that society needs

it frustrating or oppressing its citizens
some unbearable way? For the act might have been
one stemming from selfishness (counter-revolutionary)and so the prisoner is the one to be helped to see this
and to change-or it might have been one stemming very
naturally from a response to some felt injustice.
These non-prisons, then, should above a1l be schoolsin the most deep sense. And they should not be places
that are.considered, as prisons now ate, beyond the paleplaces fiom which "good citizens" (except for occasional
grey ladies)keep away. They should be continually entered, as scholars, !y those who are the most seriouS citizens-for here their society can be studied at its weak-

more changing-is

in

est

Point'

-Baybara Deming.

fivepoems
by
Jamyeigner

Feb 23 69 number 291

oil at st .a barbara
grass-roots

sky-high
violence
earth mined

Feb 16 69 number 288
one

number 251 Oct 13 68

little

increase the bombing

thin saturn

along the road

spiritual rin
g

quite a cigar

in the big life circus

the lights

sin

to burn when dusi< comes on

dig down

the wires
some other planets
beyond the pale

underground
where the water seeps

miraculous
the distance
what speeds

number 243 Sept. 16 68

should we take

the sound behind
sweeping

walls

the horizon

wherever

it's

a

Plane

there

going

horseback riding

what ways the streets
what

clouds

rabble

are

cries

it

reads

horses and pe.ople

fish
landing

on the

it

its own wind
on the fields

rnakes

dirt

blows
hills
waters

the level

forces

number 269 Dec.3 68

why should there be death
over that

hill

how bofily do you travel
years maybe

without a scratch on a finger

mt

who reside within the boundaries of the United States. But since I think there are many

jine economtsts outside the U.S. I have to
inehtde in mv own survev economists the
world over, Controry to you I find that

IMPERIALISM

THD BASS-C()FFIN
NEP()RT
wrN,

In his review of Scott Nedling's and Joseph Freeman's Dollar Diplomacy in the Jult

of

imp
I

think there is a tremendous amount of confusion and disagreement over imperialism. In
particular, lots of people parrot the same old
-1\{arxist-Leninist
cliches that the overwhelming majority of economists-radical, liberal,
or conservative-reject. In fact, even Marxist
economists who are more than party hacks
frequently present such elaborate qtalifications to the traditional Marxist-Leninist the
ory of imperialism that I would argue that
they have basically conceded the point. A1though, for sentimental reasons, there is lots
of the old theory in their text, most of it is
taken out in the footnotes and qualifying
phrases.

There is a romantic notion that the Vietnam war is being fought over tungsten. Since
most people don't know what tungsten is.
much less its industrial uses and market sources, it is very easy. for people to believe even
the most outlandish fantasies about it. Those
who read the financial page are aware that
those Americans who control the companies
that are dependent on foreign raw materials
or markets are among the strongest opponents of the war. As intelligent businessmen,
they realize that is far cheaper to buy tungsten from the Soviet Union or anyone elsc
than to fight the Vietnam war for even a few
days.

Imperialism is far older than capitalism.
to Alexander the Great wanting
to conquer the world to give it the blessings
of Greek culture-and even earlier. It includes
the wars unleashed by Muslims to give the
world the blessings of Islam and those unleashed by the Church to convert the Infidel.
Economics has sometines been important if
only because countries imagined that colonies
would bring greater riches than they did.
More often than not colonies have brbught
their mother oountry closer to bankruptcy
than anything else. Partly because the eighteenth century English ruling class believcd
colonies were profitable they struggled relentlessly against American independence. To
practically everyone's surprise the profits of
English business on its trade with America
increased fantastically after the revolution.
In fact, the growth of America unleashed by

It

goes back

l6

r-

the revolution was one of the rnost glorious
things that ever happened to English Business" Liberal English economists like Huskisson
argued on the basis that England should let
all its colonies go. However, the glory of empire evidently moved stronget than strictly
economic motives and so England held on to
its colonies.
The most important motive of imperialism
has bcen the persistent urge of nation-states
and religions when they control nation-states
to remake the world in their own image. As
has afflicted not just capitalist states
socialist states, kingdoms, theocracies,

such

but

it

and what not. For literally thousands of
yeius men have heard the call:
"From Greenland's icy mountains,
From India's ooral strand...
They call us to deliver
Their land from error's chain"
We will be afflicted with thc ravaging and
devastating effects of this call until we elther
do away with nation-states or nation-states
le arn to let other nations work out thcir own
destinies. The former seems more likely to me.

Henry Bass

Atlanta, Georgia

ll"o,

lTlat

fits

unl

world's economists dejine themselves as
Marxists.
These Marxist economists to be certain
have not limited themselves to the rote use
of Marx's 19th century witing on economics. They would be poor Marxists if they
did! No, instead they have continued to develop and refine the economic theories and

BDGINNDRS:

issue of WIN, Jerry Coffin claims: "Most
us know what imperialism was and what
erialism is." I disagree. As an economist,

/

iali

at least a majority (and probably an overwhelming maiority though I'm not so incautious as to state it as a llat fact) oJ'the

for

f)ear

Mt

Hrnry'

My thanks for the constructiNe
criticism, One of my failinTs is the ossumpt'
ion that others have the same information
I have. In my writing, especially, I'm prone
to "thror*away" statements that simply
assume the reader agrees, understands, etc.
Such was the case with "Most oJ us know
what imperialism is. . . ." It seems, as Henry

coftectly points out, most of us don't know

what imoeralism is about- At least, that is, if
most llIN readers reflect your viewpoint
since he either doesn't understand imper'
ialism or rejects the dialectic which causes
many of us in the movement to refer to the
IJ.S. as an imPerialist Power.
I'm sorry you weren't able to spend
more time on your letter. I'm really interested in seeing some sources and supporting
evidence for a few ol'the rather sweeping
statements you make. Specifically your lbeling
that the maiority o!'economists have reiected Marxian economics as relined by Lenin.
This statement certainly Jlics in the lace of
evidence available to me unless ofcourse,
one limits the title "economist" to those

findings of Marx in lisht of the continuing
development of capitalism. The understand'
ing of imperialism has as a result gone be'
yond the initial writings of Marx. As for
Lenin, he was responsible for a great step
forward in the understanding of impeialism.
In his classic Imperialism: The Highest
Stage of Capitalism he laid the theoretical
base for our understanding of current American imperialism.
For our purposes here, a simple defin'

ition of contemporary imperialism would be
the export of capital from a capitalist nation-state to another nation-state and the

import of profits (surplus value) accompanied by the political and military machinery
necessary to make the process work. Many
people make the mistake of labeling as
"imperialism" things which quite clearllt are
noL This mislobeling is then used as "evidence" that the United States is not an imp'
erialist nation-state. You did this by confusing the empire-building of Alexander tlrc
Great and the early expansionism of the
Muslim religion with imperialism.
Alexander (and we might add Atilla, the
Greeks, the Romans, the Phoenicians, ad in'
finitum) was involved in an entirely difJerent pre-capitalist process. That was simpl.y
the military capture and tbrcible exprop-

riation of the accumulated resource of ano
ther nation-state andfor peoples. No effort
was made to tum the expropriatcd resources into production. It was ripped-ofl-and
usetl and that was that. There was sotne re-

finement of course including the earliest
protcctio,l racket where the powerful told
the less powerJul to pay tribute or face get'

ting trashed. Another

re linement

was to ex-

propriate a natural resource and import the
product to the conquering natiott stute. These
were exception, ltowever, the rule \)as rape,
rip-off, and run.
The ll[uslims were in a slightly different
bag, Their expansionism was largely Iircd by
religious fervor. Thcy were an early day
Billy Sunday and they overran land and
people in order to ge t to more people .for
lha purposc ol conrersion. To be surc. lhcy
were engaged in territorial expansion ond
resource expropriation. They key difl-erence
was in their sprcading what they had (religion, cultur<:, etc.) through this expansion.
There wos very little if any carting back to
the home place the resources oJ'other pec>
ples since their goal wos to buikl a prosperous Muslim world not iust to inctease the

weolth oJ a particular area. Alsc.t there wos
almost none of the wholesale enslavement of
conquercd populations since once people
converted they were needed to work and

lll€t

At
um

wht
neu

Ini

t8t,

outl

grea

Bay
The

ofc
waf
ures

imp

,{

I
,l

cern

ital.
and
The

duct
l

mat

I

side

inve

plus
erial

the
ers i
impr

so tl
peol

I
brolt
alisn
new

were

reint

reaci

poin
the

tr

beca

ital

:

coml

prott
was

grapl
them

portt

A

ther t
ment
than

coun
e lse.''
hove
leodi,

time

lbw

.

arSul

forct

in

th

prim

for

p

ize

E

thot
port.
Engl
hold

make prosperous the additions

Muslim world.

to the new

Acapitalist country becomes an imperialist country when it has completecl iis pri_

the war hdd devastated and impoverished
both- countries and every bit of capital wos
needed tbr domestic investment. A costlv
e,rror (though not bankruptingl compouided
by_the power bf the indigent peoplis o!.the

colonies who waged nonviolent and violent
mary accumulation; capital is invested, prr>
wars of national liberation. These instances
fits are taken and resultant capital reiniested support the Marxist-Leninist analysis of imp_
until the full investment potential (invest_
erialism rather than yours.
ment in "profitable" ventures) is realized.
You madc a good point when you
At that point either capital is simply accbrought up th( pr;cilcei oJ the Soviet [Jrtumulated and the primary law oJ capitolism
ion. It's quite obvious that the Soviet {Jn_
which is profit maximization-is broken or
ion is behaving similarly to, say, the United
new outlets for capitol investment are found. Stotes which is on imperialist nation.
It
In the rudimentary copitalism of the late
doesn't necessarily follow, however. that the
lSth and early 19th centuries these new
Soviet Union is an imperialisr nailon. Con_
outlets lbr capital investment were the
fusing? Yes, but let's use o little of that
gleat mercantile companies such as Hudson,s Marxism that some are
fond of regarding as
Bay Company ond the East India Company.
a collection of cliches and see if we canThese companies uied tremendou, o*ouri,
work our way out of the confusion.
oJ capital since they had to hire armies ond
war ships to protect their mercantile ventwrote inThe lSth Brumaire or
ures, These ventures coucln,t be considered
Lous Bonaparte that "men make their own
imperialism, however, since thev were conhistory, but they do not make it just as
cerned.with lhe export o/goods ancl not cap_ they please; they do not make it under cirital. Tle goods were produced domestically
cumstances directly found, gi,en and transarid sold, bortered or traded in other areai
mitted Jrom the past." Historically Russia
The difference between the cost of the pro
was not ready economically or politically
duct and_its selling price was the,profit. It
for a sociolist revolution when it occured.
mattered not that the goods were sold out_
Lcnin knew this as dict Trotskv. Thev knetv
that if the sicialist revolution in Russia was
lide the producing country. The capital was
invested domestically. This means ih, ,urto sun)ive it needed the economic and polplus value (the diflbrence between the mat_
itical help of the western working closs. For
etial cost ol-production plus lobor cosr and
Russia to survive as a workers state it needthe selling price) was credted bv the worked to be wrrounded by other cooperating
ers in the producing country. ,ihe essence of
workers states- Thus they spent their enerimperialism is exporting capital other areas
gies working for revolution in the areas to
so the surplus value is taken from another
the west.
peoples.
Stalin, being low man on the totem
I.n thc
pole, and a damned smart bureaucrat of the
.broke
.l,9th rcntury the inclustrial age
and brought in contemporary c.apit
Machievellian school, spent his time organalism for domestic capital investmint. These
izing and consolidating the Russian bureaunew avenues for domesfic capital investment
cracy. At Lenin's death Stalin, acting in the
were able to use the generated copital in
historic role ofa new tsdr articulated his
reinvestment until the safiiration point was
'socialism in every country' theory, chased
reached in the late lgth centurv. At that
out his one rival, Trotsky, (and was able to
point Ihc weight ol'uninvestcd capital caused because Trotsky hacl no real Russian power
the great surge of copitol exportation that
base-though his popularity prevented Stabecame the classic age of imperialism. Caplin lrom killing him-then) and trashed the
ital wos invested in other oreas by the griat
remaining Bolsheviks. And then, datnn poor
companies, the militory was soon needed to
Marxist that he was, he tried to turn o peaprotect investments, political control soon
sant economy into a socialist economy. Well.
was needed to eJJiciently manage the gec>
we're all familiar with the rest oj' the story.
graphical areas of investment and protect
Pyimgry capital accumulation come out ol'
them.from competition by other cipitat_ex_
the hides of the small Russian working ciass
porting countries and colonies resrlttecl.
artd the large peasantry. Tltcre w<,n. ll,,,a
At this point I haye to disaxree with ano
capitalists to expropriatc so eyeryone wos
ther ot your sweeping unsupportcd staleexpropriated. Thus was "socialism" built i.
ments. That is your feeling that "More often
one country,. Only because of thc way it
tlton ilol colonies havc hrougltt thcir mother
was done whal wos crcotL'd was not ;o(ial_
country closer to bankruDtcv thon dnything
ism, not a workers state but what Trotsky
else." Agoin, I'm sure that you wouldn't
colled o "degenerote workers state.', Theie
horte mode such an obviouslv Ialse anrl miswere no capitalists, true, but there was in
leading statemt.nt as this had .ro, ,p"nt *or"
their place a top-down dictatorial hicrarchv
time on his letter. The statement takes a
that nndc tht decisions thc workcrs shouid
Jcw Jatts and sceks to weov( a convincing
have been making.
argument by ignoring the complax historic
ln Russia by thc eve of llll II the pri_
mary capital accumulotion had occured ancl
forces at work on capitalist nations. Italy
in the 19th century hact barely completed
the industrializotion which mokes possible
primqry capitol accumulation when her king
socialism wos well under way. And then
for prestige sako alonc attempted tp coloncame the war. In the course of' the wor ihe
ize Ethiopia. It was o costly failure since at
Russian peoplc fought on Ruisian soil abthat time ltaly dirln't have any capital to exout twicc the numbcr oJ'Germans as all the
port. At the end of llll II both F'rance and
othcr allies combine:d Jbught in North AJEngland tbr tradition's sake attempted to
rica, Italy, and Europe. By wor's enci Stalin
hold th<:ir colonies in spite oJ-the fact that
was in Berlin but Russia was ruincd. The

illoru

capital accumulated at such terrible human
cost was dissipated by the tuar. The indust-

ry

so

painfully built was ruined. The

Russ-

people could not, would not, go through
the process ogain. So Stalin rippei off easi
ern ELrrope. l-actories, tools, everyth'ig
portable in eastern Europe was used to re_
build RLtssia. At the same time the economies o.l'eastern Ettropean countries were integrated into the Russian economy. Their
aconomic li{e btood was used to revive tlte
economy oJ'Russia. Outside the economic
sphere the military and social needs of
Russia dictated the credtion of a nei
strategic situation in Europe, Invoders could
not again be allowed to enter the Russian
homeland so Eastern Europe became the
bulfer between her and the Germanv that
ia-n

devastated Russia.
.. This history then is

for the most part dicto
dictating the current Russian relationship
yith 91st9rn Europe. Eastern Europe is'still
Russrak buffer and stilt integroted into the
Russian economy. It,s not imperialism
becouse Russia did not export capitol to east_
ern Europe. But ot the same time it's damn

similar because while the men who rule
Russia didn't consciottsly set up the conditions that enabled the theft of iabor value
they ;ure as hell are stealing it. The Chinese
call it "Social Imperialism,'. That means in
crude Jbrm that while Russia isn,t imper_
ialist because it doesn't foilow lhe model
and isn't capitalist it sure as hell behaves
lke an imperialist. Antl I'll go along with
lha t.

Erotty. I don't know anv

whose thinkrespect that says the Il.S. war against
Vietnom is imperiolist because the U-5.
wonts tungstefi. The war is imperialist bebecause the people of Indochina decided
ing

I

they want to better their lives by utilizing
all the value ol'their labor. This precluded
outside capital which expects to return prc
Jits (surplus value) to another countr),. Tlle
IJ.S. wagcs tht' war beruusc it must ieep
thot area-ond all areas it possibly can open
for the tremend.ous omount ol iapital tie
U.S. must export- Just in passing I'll add that
the U.S. would Jight Europe iJ' U.S. capital
were prevented lrom entering- But that's
not likely sinca the gross product resulting
Jiom U.S. capital investment in Europe amounts to what would be the third largest
GNP

in

th<: world.

- I hope this rather lengthlt reply tct your
lett<:r clariJ'ies the conlilsion oboit imp
erialism wltich I ncglectctl to adclress my-

to in the rt:view ol'Dollar Diplomacy.
Lthilc this is long as a reply to a letter, it is,
nonetheless, by necessity a very incomplete
and simplistic over-vit:w oJ'a complex subiect. Impr:rialism is the driving Jbrce behind
tlte Juggarnaut we conliont in this country
and we'll neyer oyercome thc iuggcrnaut unless wc kttotp ond undcrstand imperialism.
Unfortunotely my own understanding of
economics is not as it should be. Perhaps
we cal all contribute to greater common
understanding oJ this complcx subject iJ
lilIN readers would share their insights using
the pages and lctter columns oJ WIN as our
st:lJ

mcdium.

Jerry CoJlin

l7

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Dave

debates because he acknowledges no previous thoughts on

of these matters. We will return to this point.)
Another example: In a chapter called "The Myth of

any

GOLIATH
David Harris

A Sidereal Press Book
New

York

1970

$4.95

t

The front flap of Dave Harris'new book Goliath promises
us a political alternative to "Spiro Agnew on the one hand
and screaming street revolutionaries on the other." It turns
out that the front flap is the most Right On part of the book
because what we get inside is a collection of notes for Dave's
first novel. Some of the notes are in the form of short stories
and fantasies, some in the form of metaphysical raps ("In
the beginning there is man"), some are good descriptions of
the countryside, and some take the form of politicai analysis. Some of the stories could make it as parts of some
longer narrative. Most of the metaphysics tells us a great
deal about the metaphysician, so it too could find its place
in some biographical (or autobiographical) narrative. But it
is the political analysis which is supposed to be the crux of
the book and therefore on which the book should be judged.
Now Dave has the right ideas, he's given yeoman service to

the inovement, and

I

love him, but his book is just not

ready for the publisher.

Just a few examples: He keeps rapping about something
called "the state" but he never really tells us what "the

state" is. He tells us, that "to achieve the assurance of
existence in the practice of America is only possible through
identification with the state." Now many Americans do
indeed affirm their humanity by identifying with the old
Red, White and Blue, but many of these same people and
many others identify first with the company they work for,
the conglomerate they hold stock in, the ball team they
root for, the soap opera they watch, or the local fire
department.
In a certain sense all these things are manifestations of
the "state", or the state of America, and the statement is
irrefutable. But in another sense, you can love the Mets and
not care who wins the war, or who gets elected, and you
can love the flag and not know who the governor is. Which
is to say that the "state" may not be the same thing as the
"government", but Dave never tells us just what he has in

mind so we cannot go anywhere with the

discussion.

He also tells us tirat a "social elite exists as a function of
the state...serving as its priests, embodying its virtues, and
performing its public rituals." Now I've heard it said that
the state exists as a function of a social elite, (or more
properly a socio-economic elite,) supplying the elite with
its priests, embodying the .elites' virtues and performing
the elite's public rituals. Again, there's a good debate here,
but we can't get into it until Dave tells us just what he
means by "the state." (Of course it would be preferable if
Dave himself got into the debate, but Dave gets into no

Power" he debunks the myth that human societies must always contain elements of "power" (meaning "power over,'
or oppression) and states that any change within this myth
is a "realignment" and not a "reformation." Fair enough,
this is an old anarchist idea and was the substance of the
split between Bakunin and Marx that led to the dissolution
of the lst International a century ago. Surely any new discussion of the matter should go beyond the substance of
these debates. Bakunin found the state (the army, police,
national boundaries, protection of capital) inherently oppressive and felt that state power should be dissolved as a
necessary precondition for the building of the good society.
Marx felt that the objective interests of the old ruling class
would never a1low it to accept the institutions created and
imposed by the revolution. He thought these institutions
had to be protected by a temporary "dictatorship of the
proletariat," a new state power. Bakunin thought this would
slowly but irretrievably turn the revolution away from the
goal of creating a good and just society. He further thought

that the revolution must

be lived, that ends and means were

identical, that a revolutionary organization had to mirror

the society

it

Marx believed

wished to create or be hopelessly corrupted.
in sacrificing these principles to revolution-

ary efficiency.

David Harris believes that the state is inheiently oppthat state power must be dissolved (albeit nonviolently) as a precondition for the building of the good
society. He further believes that the revolution must be
lived, that ends and means are identical, that a revolutionary organization has to mirror the society it wishes to create or be hopelessly corrupted. I believe it too, but I haven't
written a book about it. And I haven't written a book about
ressive and

it because the Marxists have some pretty convincing arguments on their side (in theory and in practice) which I am
not sure I can answer (though I can answer them better having read Murray Bookchin's terse pamphlet "Listen Marxist.") Dave has no trouble with these arguments because he
doesn't acknowledge their existence.

His scenario for the revolution involves conversion
through example. People'come over to the revolution because they are shown that the revolution offers them a better way of life. "It is not the statement," he says, "but the
practice of a reality that makes it available. People must repossess their lives by forming new communities based upon
cooperation and sharing. "A community is organized: it is
arranged. As it grows it becomes an alternative to the state.

Its processes make it an alternative." So far so good: the old
anarchist principle of exemplary action. But I have certain
questions; like who does this exemplary action appeal to?
When Kropotkin wrote of the "propaganda of the dead" he

had in mind the, mobilization of the working class in the
struggle against the capitalists. Dave seems to want to mobilize everybody. Will Richard Nixon give up his wealth and
power to join a new community? Henry Ford? Roger
Blough? Maxwell Taylor? Teddy Kennedy? And what happens when they don't? Dave mentions sorle non-violent
"tools" (he rejects "weapons") which center around noncooperation.

In the conflict with the

state, we have a number of
2t

tools. The conflict takes place around-the resource ot'
authority. Both the state and the new politics need to be
participated in if they are to exist, but they can't be
participated in at the samq time. Thus the Ohoice of
participation is a choice of realities. As the people deny

the state's authority for the sake of new-reaiity,

and,

and
self
com
the
belit

thL

state loses power. A new reality can deny the state the
lives it feeds off. This process continues until the orders
of the state are ignored, and it splits apart like the shell
of an egg, exposing a new reality. At the edges of this
process, where the conflict is engaged in, it takes the
form of noncooperation, occupaiion, boycott, strike,
and organized disobedience. As these tools are used to
establish a reality, the politics extends itself. America
will not function without people to do it. As those lives
do different, America atrophies. We engage in the con-

notl
use

ntze
statt
wro.
bear

2d,:

F

aske

flict in an attempt to extend the expeiience of the
politics to all involved. We organize the conflict as an
experience. At each point of it, we come forward with
an alternative reality to that of the police, the bankers,
the functionaries, the frightened and the lonely. Our
success is that reality's concrete existence. (page 132.)
But he never deals with the real problems. How for
example does the new culture avoid being swallowed up by
the old, as happened with the old utopian communities of
the l9th and early 20th centuries, so many of which are
now small Republican towns. (Nirvana, Michigan went for
Nixon in '68...and the revolution records for Vanguardright?) And if we avoid that, how do we defend our communities should that necessity arise? There were some great
collectives going in Spain during the Civil War which got
smashed, first by the Communists and then by Franco.
Will we 'have to deal with that danger? Or are conditions
different here? Dave doesn't mention that problem. And
then if we get past that, what is the alternative reality to
police, bankers, functionaries, lonely people and frightened
people? Is it dope? Rock and Roll? Fucking in the streets?
I mean what kinds of unalienating work can people do?
How can we humanize (and ecologize) the great techno.
logical apparatus at our disposal? Or do we do away with
it? How does production get organized? Dstribution of
goods and services? Sexual relations, family relations, child
rearing, education, individual conflicts, etc. etc. etc.? And
how do these communities relate to one another? Are they
all self-sufficient, or do they compliment one another?.We

certainly don't expect a blueprint, but we don't even get
any hints. Indeed, like all other problems, these remain
simply unacknowledged. And I have still a heavier complaint.
There is a line in an Italian anarchist poem that goes,
"Give flowers to the rebels failed." The greatest objection I
have to Dave's book is that he doesn't even give them footnotes. He plunks himself down in the middle of the anarchist-pacifist tradition without once mentioning the words
"anarchism" or "pacifism," or giving us even the slightest
hint that such a tradition exists. There is not one word
about any of the great rebels failed, or for that matter, the
great rebelssucceeded. Not a mention ofProudhon, Kropotkin, Bakunin, Gandhi, Tom Paine, M.L. King et. al. or even
Marx and Engels, all of whose ideas he is constantly elaborating, debating or simply restating. Not a mention of the
Paris Commune, the Barcelona Collectives, the lndian Revolution, the nonviolent civil rights movement, etc., etc. whose
examples he is implicitly exhorting us to follow. Dave should
acknowledge his ancestral debts because that's only honest.
22

thin
forc

you
thel

he'
coul

Furthermore, he should avow the tradition he speaksfrom,
because the tradition makes all of us strong. Commrinities

make us stronger than we could ever be alone and the
revolutionary tradition (or any branch of that tradition) is
a great historical community that can give us the hope and
sustenance to carry on. Indeed, if it is "not the statement
but the practice of a reality that makes it available" then it
is all the more important that revolutionary history be in
the foremost parts of our conscjousness.
Well, Dave has the beginnings of all the right ideas, but

he hasn't decided what kind of book to write. As it is,
Goliath at best is a kind of statement of faith to be used as

not,

mac

tow
imp

forc
betr

tact

funr
forc

1

a rough framework for the analysis that still has to be done,

clair
and
stra

for the revolution that still has to be

effe

made'

-

b.red Rosen

star

ASSU

ADVICE FOR CONSCIENT!OUS OBJECTOBS IN THE
ARMED FORCES

parl

By Mike Wittels
Central Committee for Conscientious 0hjectors,
lst Edition, April, 1970
The Pentagon reports that in Calendar Year 1969 over
2,300 applications for C.O. status were received at depart-

thal
lnar
doa

mental headquarters. In the Defense Department's usual
manner of reporting statistics, this number is accepted by
military counselors and lawyers as much lower than the
acttral figure. ln 1970 this figure may well double, especially
in light of the recent Supreme Court rulings in belialf of
moral and philosophical objectors. The need for a comprehensive handbook for C.O.'s in the armed forces and their
counselors has been the reason for the failure of many
applications. There was just no information other than the
bits and pieces counselors could manage to collect from a
wide variety of sources.
At long last, the Central Committee for Conscientious
Objectors has printed a thorough and sensitivc handbook
for C.O.'s in the armed forces written by CCCO's Western
regional secretary Mike Wittels, a military counselor whcr
was himself discharged from the Army as a CO. Mr. Wittels' treatment of thinking through the CO position and
answering the questions on the application is very human

the

it

tl

shar

awa

witl
Ii

finer

facil

the r
char
wide

brut
then

Glr
inter
and

com

othe
ons
loca
Con

wirl

and, at the same time, practical. He outlines many thoughts
and questions that should be considered and asked of oneself in order to fully express one's beliefs, sincerity and
commitment. Particularly impressive is the section handling
the question, "Under what circumstances, if any, do you
believe in the use of force?" Mr. Wittels says, "There's
nothing in the law that requires a man to refrain from the
use of force at each and every level before he can be recognized as a CO. In fact, a recent Court of Appeals decision
stated that: "Agreement that force can be used to restrain
wrongdoing, especially as the last alternative, has little
bearing on an attitude toward war." I U.S. v Purvis, 403 F.
2d sss, I SSLR (2d Cir. 1968).1 "
He writes further, "One question that COs are often
asked in personal interviews-and one that some people

think is implied in the written question on the use of
force is: What would you do if someone were to attack

your mother? Very few individuals could say for sure what
they would do in such a situation, but one could say what
he would try to do, what his ideal would be. And one

could certainly say what he would not do. Most COs would
not, for instance, drop napalm on the attacker. Or grab a
machine gun and mbw down his family. Or burn down the
town in which he lived." These last few sentences are very
important to this section of the book as Witlels tries to put
force and violence into a rational perspective differentiating
between individual force (of a restraining nature or the
tactics of non-violent force), police force (whose ideal
function is to restrain and prevent violence) and military
force (whose purpose is not restraint but destruction).
The book also includes the procedure for filing the CO
claim and what happens while the claim is being processed
and after the claim has been ruled on. It dea.ls with administrative and court remedies for the denied claim and, in
effect, the whole system (with all of the possibilities) from
start to finish. At times, the book seems rather naive in
assuming that procedures will be followed because they are
part of the law. I feel that Wittels deals inadequately with
the problems that Gls face with harassment and the fact
that the military doesn't aiways follow the rules. In fact,
many counselors work on the theory that the military will
do anything it can get away with and only backs down when
it thinks it may be exposed (via Congress, the courts or a
sharp counselor, lawyer, or brave GI). The GI should be
aware that he should seek counseling if anything goes wrong

with his application.

My only other disappointment is the chapter on "Confinement". In this chapter, Wittels says, "Most confinement
facilities are reasonably clean, some even scrupulously so, as
the military preoccupation with cleanliness extends to those

with operating confinement facilities. Despite
widely publicized exceptions, the incidence of physical
brutality in most stockades and brigs is considerably less
then in the rest of American society." My experience as a
GI counselor and the reports of many GIs whom I have
charged

interviewed after being in confinement in various stockades
and brigs across the country contradicts Wittels' statement
completely" Many of them are not fit for animals and most
others are sub-human. The large Federal-type miJitary prisons (Leavenworth and Portsmouth) are exceptions, but the
local confinement facilities are nothing short of nightmarish.
Confinement is nothing like the romantic martyrdom that
Wittels portrays.

As an overall guide andresource book, Wittels'handbook

is a must for the GI thinking through or applying for
discharge or non-combatant status. Counselori

CO

andhilitary

lawyers will find it an excellent guide for counselling COs
and preparing CO applications. As a military counselor, I
am very happy and relieved to see this handbook.
Copies are $1.00 with special discounts for bulk orders
and counseling agencies. To order Advice for Conscientious
Objectors in the Armed Forces, write..
East coast: CCCO

2016 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, Pa. 19103

Mid-west: MCDC
71

I South Dearborn Street

Chicago,

Il1.

60605

West coast: CCCO-Western Region

437 Market Street
San Francisco,

Calif. 94105

-

Jerry Wingate

RADICAL LIBERTABIANISM:
A BIGHT WING ALTEHNATIVE
by Jerome Tuccille, (lndianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970),

109

pp.

$5.00.

It

should be said at the outset that Jerome Tuccille is
He is not even a fair writer. But his book
has importance since its author is one of the major warriors
on the battlefield that the political Right-wing in America
has become in recent years;it is the first book to document
the breakaway from Conservatism made by many capitalists in the 1960's and the first document of the emerging
Left-zught Coalition politics.
The American Right-wing has been schizophrenic since

not a good writer.

World War

II,

divided between

a faction that prized

"rugged individualism" and "free enterprise".and a larger
segment that sought tradition, law-and-order, and victory
over "international Communism." The larger segment, reP
resented by the John Birch Society and William F. Buckley,
succeeded in ruling the individualistic, libertarian faction
by appealing to their shared fear of communism. But in
recent years the lessening of that fear, combined with a
recognition that America is becoming a police state, has led
most of the individualists on the Right to break with Buckley and with his junior auxiliary, the conservative Young
Americans for Freedom. Tuccille has been a major activist
in the breakaway movement, and it was largely through his
etforts that an adamant group of libertarians split apart the
Y.A.F. National Convention in August, 1969.
RADICAL LIBERTARIANISM gives a dramatic account
of that convention, and of the reasons and actions that have
led to an apparently permanent schism on the Right. It also
explains how the views of those breakaway individualists
are compatible with New Left radicalism and calls.for LeftRight cooperation in limiting the state.
Like many laissez-faire capitalists these days, Tuccille is
an anarchist. He favors replacing the government with
means of free enterprise and voluntary social order and
cooperation. He believes that, without government, capitalism could become the most honest and efficient way of
serving the,people. He seems to want community control
23

of communities and participatory democracy, goals that
S.D.S. was advocating in 1961, and from the way he talks
trft-Right Coalition seem almost plausible.
His immediate hopes are that Right and Left can work
together in tax and draft resistance, in support of Black Liberation and rafical government decentralization, and in
he makes

opposition to "foreign imperialism" and "domestic fascism." If Tuccille is indeed a "Rightist", then the Rightwing stereotype is shot all to hell.
The book has many weaknesses. Its explanations of how
government would be replaced by capitalism are vague,
imprecise, and raise more questions than they answer. Tuccille answers many obvious weaknesses with pat, dubious responses, often more emotional than factual: e.g., "Small
towns outside the cities manage their police and keep them

relatively honest with little or no effort." One wonders
what was the last time Mr. Tuccille was in a Southern town,
or what "honest" in such contexts means. In another in-

stance, he assumes that if and when all schools are private
even the poor will be able to afford them;as with miny other examples, he reasons here that when taxes cease everybody will have more money, a belief that overlooks the rjl-

ativity of buying power and the question of how our society can make the transition into Mr. Tuccille,s world.
Tuccille doesn't seem too sure about getting from here
to there. He speaks of the need for ..revolution,,, but the
actions he speaks of are more along the lines of tax resistance and such, of boycotts and not bombs. As has been the
trouble with most anarchists, his indictments of the government are valid, his schemes are interesting if vague-but his
answer seems incomplete. Still, it seems very hopeful that
Tuccille and many of his fellow radical capitalists can bed

down with the New Left, and perhaps the movement
spawned by their mating will come up with solutions. His
book makes interesting reading; now, maybe Tuccille and
company will make interestiing activists.
Lowell Ponte

u1

of pt

with-

legen

ment
drew
other

WAI I

inten
exiles
raider
selors

war

.

coura

port.

T1

AND No\A/...

of

i\aovlE EErr8
,r

hr

devel

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goYer

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ties,

book

CARBY IT ON
Produced hy Christopher G. Knight
Directed by Robert Jones and Christopher G. Knight
United Productions of America
Carry It On, the cinema-verite documentary about the
lives and work of Joan Baez and her husband David Harris,
spans

a four-month period last year during which

Harris

began serving his three-year prison sentence for refusing
induction. There's not much to be said for the style of the
film, which seems to have been designed to obfuscate rather
than illuminate its subjects. No attempt has been made to
impose an orderly sequence on the various episodes; without explanation, the ciunera simply cuts in on a situation
and then just as suddenly cuts out again. An early sequence
showing Harris conferring with authorities on his way from
an evidently aborted speech at a school is photographed,
for no apparent good reason (a tracking shot would have
been not only clearer but more feasible), with a spastically
hand-held carnera. Later on, one of Miss Baez'concert performances is visually destroyed by frenzied jump cutting.
In fact, Christopher G. Knight and Robert Jones have
directed much of Carry It On as if any letup in pyrotechnics would result in boredom with their material.
Their assumption may have been correct.
The first fifteen minutes or so, prior to Harris' incar-

devoted mainly to speeches before various
groups. Harris, who has a strong, clear voice and knows
how to bring home a point, would be a good speaker if
content could match means. Unfortunately, he speaks as if
teaclr-ing kindergarten, is content to state and then restate
the obvious, and underlines every remark with a little

ceration,

24

is

of self-satisfaction. Even so, he is quici< to-poi'n\
out that the Movement should not give rise to attentionsnicker

seeking leaders, thereby forgetting for a moment his partici_
pation in the movie. His letters from prison, addreised to
his wife but written for all the world tb hear, as indeed we
do, are given to poeticizing with all the facility of a greeting
card versifier. I began to wonder what Miss Baez ever saw

in him.

Her husband having been hauled away (one of the film's
two good moments shows the "Resist the Draft" sticker
that someone pasted on the Feds' rear bumper as they drove
off with their prisoner), Joan vows to "continue the revo-

lution" with

her. songs, and the cameras follow her on a
U.S. and Canadian concert tour. Stopping off in New York,

she appears on the Joey Bishop TV show, somehow not
realizrng how impertinent he would be ("My parents came
to this great country to escape repression", etc.), and
enjoys herself backstage, as on other occasions, by asserting
her moral superiority. (At one point the film-makers chide
her for having browbeaten the TV program's assistant pro
ducer into having doubts about liking her job.)
Joan Baez sings eleven songs in Carry It On, so there's
something to be thankful for. Her compositions and her
singing, of course, remairl remarkably simple and, yes, disarming. But for those of her fans who would rather she be
heard and not seen, the film is a disappointment. The other
good moment, by the way, comes at a concert when she
spontaneously joins a group of black women to sing "Oh
Happy Day". The result is inspiring. But I suggest to you
go instead to see Ely Landau's magnificent King: Mont-

gomery to Memphis, which is inspiring from beginning
to end.

*

Martin Mitchell

resist

the

resist
tanc€

thost
aidec

day

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In

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who

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toh
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UP AGAINST THE WAR

Norma Woodstone

Tower, $.95
Up Against the War tells the stories
of people WIN readers will be familiar
with*some of whom have become
legends of sorts in the anti-war move-

ment, Peter Kiger, Howard Levy, Andrew Pull6y, Dave Zimmerman and
others. Norma Woodstone chronicles
war resistance of recent years through

interviews with several draft resisters,
exiles, GI's against the war, draft board
raiders, and draft and military counselors-attempting to demonstrate that
war resisters are decent, thoughtful,
courageous people who deserve sup
port.
The author gives a lengthY account

of her own background and political
development. She makes no claims to
be a revolutionary, but describes herself as a "weekend radical" who came

to that position through moral

outrage about the Vietnam war and the
government's perverse economic priorities, and this comes through in the

book. This is clearly a picture of the
resistance movement bY someone on
the outside looking in. She defines
resistance exclusively in terms of resistance to the draft. She characterizes
those who have destroyed draft files,
aided deserters, or who do the daY to
day work of keeping the peace move-

ment rolling as "supporters of resistance," as if they are any less com-

mitted than a man who refuses induction into the armY.
Indeed, the entire book seems not a
cail for stronger and more responsible

resistance, but for support for those
who have already resisted. Such a tone
is counter-productive to the movement
today, because what is necessary is not
to have more people signing petitions
in support of draft resisters (though

this is certainly desireable) but to have
those who up til now have on /y signed

petitions

to

respond to the war in

a

much more active, perhaps more jeoP
ardizing way:
Up Against the War is reallY the

story of the anti-war movement of

three years ago. Woodstone talks about
the resisters who reacted to the emerging horror of Vietnam by burning their
draft cards or refusing induction-who

have by now either won or lost their
cases and moved on. Now we have a
broader war and a more sophisticated

consciousness, and we have a radical
resistance of a different character than
we had three years ago. Howard Levy
says in Up Against the Wa4 "The idea

our energies ineffectually.
At the end of the book, Woodstone
gives a factual and non-rhetorical run-

arrest is not applicable to a government

drawing the logical conclusions (or the
conclusions that seem so logicai from a

down of exactly what is wrong with
of making a moral point by inviting this country. But she barely misses

to

not

moral suasion." A

amenable
conclusion that willing'arrestees of the
past are only recently coming to. Correct or not, Levy's observation is typi-

radical vantage point). She does not
call for a bottom-to-top overhaul of
the economic system, she does not call

cal of definitive changes in the resis- for revolution. However, in that, Up
tance movement oYer the Past few Against the War may be a good book
years. Up Against the lilar sheds light for middle America to read, since it
on where we are now only insofar as it appears they cannot relate to the
shows where we were before, and is of "revolutionary" manifestos movement
little help in understanding 1970 radi- mimeographs are currently spewing
forth,
cals.
- M.A.
Norma Woodstone falls victim to the
subtle machopolitics of the Resistance

movement that many of us-particularly the "chicks who said yes to the
guys who said no"-did a few years
back. She idealizes resisters and they
receive from her the unqualified praise
of someone who doesn't work with
them every day and therefoie recogruze lhat even the most conscientious
among us have faults. The book does
not reveal any of the internal problems
the movement faces-male supremacy,
class prejudice, ego tripping, etc. and
so presents a rather dishonest picture
of movement life.
Norma Woodstone makes the mis-

take of characterizing the

resistance

movement as almost exclusively pro

pelled

by youth. It is dangerous to

categorize a movement this way-as so

many of us do-because it may cause
us to lose sight of why people become

radical. There are plenty of older people
who have been fighting for years and
who don't stop and there are more

I care to count of young peoPle
who have never been involved in social
movements or who have dropped out,
than

fisillusioned

or burnt out, after a

couple of years. The point is that the
factor of being young is not what
makes one act (though youth's natural
questioning, energy, and willingness to

risk a bit more certainly helps). What
makes people radical is the awareness
of contradictions between the power
structure's rhetoric and the reality of
life in this country. We must be careful
not to fall into the same kind of trap
the psychologists who study rebellious
students do by attributing the will to
act politically to youthfulness rather

than political consciousness, lest we
alienate potential allies and channel

MOVING THROUGH HEBE
Don McNeill
Knopf, $5.95

The movement has Produced a lot
ofverbiage but few really good writers.
Marvin Garson, Julius Lester, Carl Og-

lesby, Ray Mungo, Frank Bardacke,
our own Paul Johnson, and one or two
others have been consistently able to

a sense of balance, humor
and humanity without getting carried
away by the political and cultural rhet-

maintain

oric to which it is so easy to descend.
Don McNeill, who died in the summer
of 1968 at the age of 23, belongs in

the above group. Moving

Through

Here is a collection of his Village Voice
articles during 1961-68 when the alter-

native or counter-culture was just getting itself together. McNeill's beat was
the Lower East Side and the articles

begin with the Be-In in the spring of
1967 and end with the Grand Central
Yipln of spring 1968 when the coPs

ran wild and McNeill wrote that

"it

to be a prophecy of Chicago."
It covers the Diggers, the smoke-ins,
the summer of love, and the creation
seemed

of Yippie.
The.underground media has come a
long way since the first underground
papers were started in 1965 and'66.
The influence has been great, even among established journalists. Few
young newspapermen on straight newspapers accept the myth that they are
"objective" reporters. There is no such
thing as objective news. In a confiontation between the movement and the
establishment a reporter has the choice
of taking his stand behind the police
lines or with the people. A war corfespondent can report the war behind
25

NLF lines or by accompanying enemy
troops. If the N.Y. Times was object-

it claims, it would have a reporter stationed in Hanoi and with the

IN THE SEBVICE OF THEIR
G0UNTRY: WAB HESISTEBS lN

ive, as

PHISON

no bones about being objective. We
took our stand and we took it openly.
At the Pentagon we got busted, at Chicago we got beaten and at the Yipln
at Grand Central Don McNeill got
tossed through a plate glass door by
New York's finest. Our reports of
these events were biased and subjective. We were with the people against
the government. We never claimed to
be objective.

But within this subjective framework there is room for objective reporting, for honesty and for a critical
eye. It is not an easy thing to do, to be
objective and part of the movement
because to be critical is to criticize the
only hope (at times) for civfization. It

to Gaylin a loss of
motivation, creativity, value-connection and energy-though probably the

Willard Gaylin, M.D.

guerrillas. The underground press made

viewed indicated

Viking

Dr. Gaylin, a shrink analyst at Columbia, was asked by a friend to evaluate the various alternatives to the
draft-prison, expatriation, etc.-with
an eye to finding out which was least
likely to have devastating psycological effects on the individual. On the
way to discovering there is no winner,
he managed to get the bureaucrats of
the federal prison system to let him
spend some time interviewing war resisters

at

lels between the resisters and the astro
nauts.
The heavy majority of those inter-

Allenwood and Danbury;

during an l&month period he interviewed 26, 6 of whom (in somewhat
disguised fashion) appear at length in

this book. He

describes his experiences in chronological fashion, making

is veiy easy for a movement writer to an effort to remain objective, but
close his eyes to things which he would toward the end-happily-he begins to
ordinarily criticize with the ralionaliz- function as something more feeling
ation that movement solidarity dem- than a periscope. He realizes that
ands silence, or, even worse, a report prisons aren't just lousy places for
that accurately reflects the going ideo- nice, clean-cut war resisters-they're
logy. There are few of us who have lousy places for humans trapped in an
written about the movement who have institution, like war, tolerated only as.
a consequence of seemingly ageless
avoided this pitfall.
The beauty of these brief news re- familiarity.
ports is their honesty. Don McNeill
In the process of evaluating the
was part of what was happening on the interviews, the comfortable myth that
Lower East Side during these crucial resisters are more or less masochist/
years, and there was never any doubt martyr sorts is laid to rest after a
on which side he stood. But he saw thorough examination; Gaylin, in fact,
things clearly and reported the good draws interesting psychological paralwith the bad. Sometimes he was wrong,

;

for<

resister experiences major inner erosion
less frequently than is the .case with

whr

tria

others who arrive at prison with little

or no

sense

of motivation and

whr

self-

lettr
(all

worth.
There are good and bad reasons for
having gripes about the book:
The bad ones include the idea that

supl

trial
tha
tam

resisters ought to be portrayed more or

lpss as heros-no mental hang-ups, no
deterministic factors in their personal

up.l
quit

biographies, no storms of doubt, no
ego problems. Personally, I prefer the
truth, and I respect Gaylin for being

conscientious

in trying to tell

servi

Just

the

truth. So we're human.
The good ones include the superficiality of insight Gaylin sometimes

VI
F

exhibits (not having experienced prison
himself, it is difficult for him to under-

c

stand how creative a response is frequently being made to the prison situation by the guys he's dealing with);
also, until the end, he seems too much

delet

Viet
Nati

conl

into the "good" guys in prisons and
rather immune to the rest. Very likely
he experienced a healthy flouristring of
indignation about prisons

as

mar(
shou

Cater

his writing

of the book got beyond the

polit

resisters

can

and into the more general evaluation
that makes the concluding chapters,

voke

especially the last, his best.

of tl
took

jeepr

.Iim Forest

-

Atr

as with his report on WIN's Flower
Power Day, which he failed to see as
the experiment that

it

Sch<

at tl

was. But he was

amazin$y open and able to take criticism from the people he wrote about.
He learned. When he first began writing about the Lower East Side (which
was my turf at the time) I wondered
who this young upstart was who wrote
such shitty things about my neighborhood. At his death I considered him
the best writer in the movement. Re-

reading his news stories it becomes
clear that even those stories which I
thought terrible were more often than
not right. Don had the honest eye all
along.

l'm just learning to acknowledge
that much of what happened in the
movement should never have happened
at all. This is a book worth reading.

Marty lezer

train
the

LET THE FEDS DO IT!
Fill out this form. Have I'YIN delivered to your door by a uniformed
representative of the United States government!
r--------F

I

I
I

I

---n

to

Wlll

I

I

l

Zip-

- - -- ?{'wvoct l(I'12
-----r-i-----J
------ SpLrfrvrtrst.'
- - Wtn- Mtrlnr'

r------

Saigr

I wish to subccribe to WIN for one y€ar, 35. I
I cnckose $3 for a six-month trial subccriptkn. I
,l

I 1 | I encloca i-contribution
tt
l ilemo
lt Addrotc
I

I
I

-

-------

milit
0

I

I

mun

decir

tary
and
also
1

more

ties, colleges and institutes in

fordville, a small rural Kentucky town
where "Liberal" is a dirty word. The
trial was moved back to Louiwille
when two supporters of thd Six sent

Saigon to boycott military classes
and training courses.
On the morning of July 17, students

of Can Tho University burned all the
files in the Office of the Student Military Training. They organized sit-in and

letters to all Mumfordville residents
(all listed in the telephone directory)

supporting the Six and opposing the

demonstrations.
On the satne day, Hguyen van Long,
chairman of the Vietnamese Catholic
Student Association, declared: Vietnamese Catholic Students cooperate
with students all over the country in
opposing the Student Military Training
Program and boycotting all student
mi I itary training courses.
Also on the same day, at 10 am, at
the end of a meeting held at the Spellhu nger-stri[:r.,'

(These two, Mike Honey and Mar-

tha Allen have been charged with jury
tampering. Their trial has yet to come
up.) On July 7, the Black Six were acquitted of the charges. Despite the con-

servative repression

in the Bluegrass,

Justice has triumphed.

Richard Chinn
V!ETNAMESE STUDENTS BURN
FILES OF STUDENT MILTTARY
TBAINING PBOGRAM TO
PROTEST WAR
On the morning of July 1, student
delegates from different universities in
Vietnam met in Hue to elect a Student
National Council. At the end of the
conference, thousands of Hue students
marched through Hue boulevards and
shouted anti-war slogans. They confiscated two rolls of films which the
police were taking of them. The American military police tried twice to provoke the students by letting military
jeeps run into them and removed some
of the placards from their hands and
took out their guns to threaten them.

At noon,

the crowd stopped at the
School of Pedagogy, took out all files
at the office of the student military
training program and burned them in

the street, to denounce the student
military training program.

On the morning of July 6, the
Saigon Student Union issued a communique

decision

in which they stated their

to boycott all students mili-

tary classes, all military examinations
and all military training courses. They
also decided:

1. To give

.

full support to the de-

cision of Hue students to struggle

for the abolishment of military

courses and training programs.

2. To give full support to the
cision

of

Dalat students

cott all military

devoted
its July issue to, in the words of Execu_

Continued from page3

munity, the trial was moved to Mum-

trial.

ONE UNION'S SPECIAL ISSUE
1 I gg Drug & Hospital /r/etazs

to

de-

boy-

courses and

training programs.
3. ,To call on students of all facul-

man Auditorium, more than

l,0OO

Dalat University students went to the
office of the Student Military Training,
broke the door, entered the office,

took out all files at the office and
burned them in front of the office.

-

Vietnamese Buddhist peace
Delegation to paris

tive Editor Moe FonLr, "the war in

SoutheastAsia and its impact on working people here at home." lt consists
of some 20 beautiful, full-page, cap_
tioned photos showing the horrors of
Vietnam and the deprivations on the
home scene.

_ ln addressing a special copy to WlN,
Foner writes: "We have attempted to

put together a simply written

and

dramatic piece of material, in the hope

that it can help in bringing

greater

understanding to trade union members
and their families."

The final photo showing 1lg9ers
demonstrating against the war, is captioned with a brief chronology of the

union's peace activities since 1964.
The final item is: "June 1g70: Local

1199 delegation to Retail Wholesale &
Department Store Union fights for and
helps. win passage of resolution calling

for "early and orderly withdrawal oi
all U.S. armed forces from lndochina,,,
as

more unions, including Amalgamated

Clothing Workers, join ranks of those
opposed to war."
_ J.p.

A COMPUTEBIZED VOTING
INDEX
NEW YORK MAY BECOME

WAB TAX BESISTEB
The city of New York will .ioin the
war tax resistance movement, if a resolution proposed by four city councilmen is passed by the City Council.

Announcement of the resolution was
made by Councilman Donald Mames
on August 1 1 at a press conference of
the Vietnam Peace Parade Committee,
which presently is campaigning to "take
New York City out of the war-now."

ln support of the resolution, the Com-

ittee is conducting a citywide. petition
campaign to climax with a mass demonm

stration

at City Hall

October

15.

The resolution commits the city to

withholding the portion of federal
taxes for war which it withholds from
its employes. Another part of the
resolution would require. the city to
give legal counsel and sanctuary to
draft resisters and calls for "total
amnesty" for persons jailed for antiwar activities. The other three councilmen endorsing the resolution areArthur

Katzman, Theodore Weiss and David

_

Friedland.
27

- FOR HAWKS

The American Security Council, a
rightist organization whose letterhead

J.P.

includes top brasshats and businessmen,

is

presently computing a "security
voting index" for the coming elections.

"lt will serve as.a vehicle for attack
on 'doves' and for defense of 'hawks'.
supporting those who.voted for more
military hardware and a hard line
against Communism and opposing those

who voted for military cutbacks and a
more rapid withdrawal from Vietnam,"
explains Wallace Turner in a New york
Times feature story. lllustrating the
story is a photo of "William K. Lambie,
Jr., a former FBI agent presiding over

American Security Council's library
and index of 'revolutionary' organizations."

The Times ,story points out that
"in l5years of activity the Council has
acquired sufficient influence for president Nixon to write it a thank you

letter last year and for General William
Westmoreland, the Army Chief of

Staff, to be willing to make speeches
whenever it needs him. The men who
run the Council and its affiliates have
about $1 million a year

to

spend.,,
* J.P.

AMEBIKA_LOVE IT
BUT DON'T BEAD ABOUT IT

Do you ever notice that at

these

government supported demonstrations
they never quote Thomas Jefferson or

other founding fathers of America?
Any one attempting to read the Declaration of lndePendence, at one of

these "support Amerika" rallies, is lia-

ble

to be arrested or

stoned bY the

others present.

lf

you find this hard to believe then
listen what happened to Miami Herald
reporter Colin Dangaard. Only one per-

son out

of 50

aPProached

on

local

streets by him agreed to sign a typed
copy of the Declaration of lndependence (Dangaard did this on July 4th).

Two called it "commie junk", one
threatened to call the police and another red-neck warned: "Be careful who
you show that kind of antigovernment
stuff to, buddY."
Again on JulY 4th, a questionnaire
was circulated amO{g 3O0 Young adults attending a righ't-vling Youth for
Christ gathering which showed that 28

percent thought an excerpt from the
Declaration was written by Lenin! The
right-wing youths were then asked to
describe briefly what sort

of

person
they thought would make such a state-

ment, Among other things, the author

of the Declaration of

lndependence

was called:

"A communist

Person, someone ag-

ainst our country."

"A

person who does not have anY
sense of responsibilitY."

"A hippie."
Next Dangaard tYPed uP the Declar-

ation in petition form and stood several hours on a sidewalk, in a conservative part of town, and asked middle-

aged passersby to read it and sign it.
Only one man agreed*and he said it

would cost the polister a quarter for
his signature. Ninety (90%) percent of
the people never got past the third paragraph without making such comments
AS:

"This is the work of a raver."
"somebody ought to tell the F.B.l.
about this sort of rubbish."
(Some say the F.B.l. is seriouslY
considering banning the Declaration as
subversive material)
Other comments were:
"Meaningless" and "Sounds like
something from the new Left to me."
The most truthful comment was: "The
28

boss'll have to read this before I can
let you put it in the shop window. But
politically I can tell you he don't lean
that way. He's a RePublican."

TOM FLOWEB
SENTENCEO

TO 6

OF

MOS.

Tom Flower, Peace Education Secretary of the Texas-Oklahoma-Ar-

Or
mene

kansas off ice of the American Friends
Service Committee was found guilty
and sentenced to six months in jail

Youn

TELL HANOI!
Let's "tell it to Hanoi".
Remember the Plan

in

ing li
by th

Ross Wheby

SO

trade American pilots

for Hanoi to
for Black Pan-

thers imprisoned by Washington? Hanoi doesn't seem to be pushing the prisoner-swap very hard at the Paris talks.

letter (for a mere 13c)
to the Premier, democratic Republic
of Vietnam, Hanoi, North Vietnam.
Ask hin. to hurry up and free the Panthers by exchanging pilots. Get several
of your friends to sign for You.
Hopefully the DRV government unlike our own, might listen when we
petition for "redress of grievances".So
give "legitimate channels" one more
So send an air

try.

Berkeley Barb

DRAFT BOAHD SHOCKED

A young organist who Pleaded homosexuality to avoid military service
to avoid military service was f ined $250
today for sending explicit photographic proof of his sexual bent to his draft
board.
The f ine was levied in Federal Court
against James Michael McClain, 20. after the prosecution charged that his
pictures so shocked an unsuspecting

female draft board clerk that she had
to take five daYs' leave to recover'
McClain Pleaded guiltY to a felonY
charge of sending obscene material

through the mails to his draft board in
Baton Rouge, La. His draft status was
still uncertain today. Meanwhile, mail
reaching the Baton Rouge Board was
being opened bY a man'

Ny Daily

News

RIVAL RADIO MEN HURL JAM
AT B.B.C. OFFICE IN REPRISAL
Two Program directors from a PoP
radio station were finedf25 ($60)
each

for

tosslng bags

of

strawberry

jam into the headquarters of the British Broadcasting CorPoration.

"You ought to know better than to
behave like children," the magistrate
told Barry Everitt. 22 years old, and
Hugh Nolan, 26.
-l-he
two were reported to have told
the police: "The B.B.C' iams us, so we
iammed them."
Mr. Everitt and Mr. Nolan work for
Radio Geronimo, a PoP station with
headquarters in London.
Ny Times

San Antonio Municipal Court of
charges of disturbing the peace stemming from a "sit-in" he staged in the

offices of the l-112th Military lntelligence group on APril 20, 1970'
Flower entered the offices of the
l-'l 12th a{ter a series of articles in
ExPress-News exposed the undercover surveillance of
citizens and citizens groups by Military lntelligence units. The American

the San Antonio

Friends Service Committee was one

of the organizations

identified

as

being watched. The enclosed state-

ment contains what transp,ired in the
l-1 12th off ice that daY'
ln Flower's trial. the Prosecution
witnesses included Col. Robert Jones,
the commander of the l-112th and
Maior StePhen Weiss, the commander
of the local intelligence grouP.
An imPortant aspect of the defendants defense was the establishing

of the fact that the l-112 did compile information on him and his orlower asked Major Weiss if he. or any
of the agents of the I -1 1 2th had ever
had Flower or the American Friends
Service Committee under surveillance
The Maior refused to answer, the pro'

ganization, On cross examination

F

secution obiected to this question,
and was uPheld bY the court.
Col, Jones. in his testimonY forthe
prosecution, exPlained how he had

had told Flower that the l-112th
had no information on him or the

AFSC, and made the statement that
Flower was irrational in persisting in

his demand to see files or information which did not exist'

Flower
asked Col. Jones if the offices of the
l-112th had at any time held files
or information concerning him or
the American Friends Service Committee. Col. Jones informed the
Judge that he had no clearance from
Washington to answer such a question, and it was dismissed'
The case is being aPPealed to a

On cross examination

higher
- court'

San

Antonio AFSC

appe6

stemr

vealer

perso

ing

r

that
Cha
are

i

ur

Tt
involr
Over

out

c

Cha

(

the

r

vicior

out

(

1
PU

fou

r

You
one
was

lum
whc

the
Dalt

itc
peo

ther

ryi

Hirr
ists

kint
WE

the
wh
bol
abc

the

the

al
fi

rs

ing

of

lns
BC

thi

Lit

pensive housing

CHA CHA JIMENEZ
OF YOUNG LOBDS KIDNAPPED

for the rich.

During

this meeting Cha Cha was singled out

On Tuesday, August 1 1, Cha Cha Jimenez, former chairman of the young

and arrested because he was the Chairman of the Young Lords Organization
and opposed the racist policies of the

stemming from an urban renewal meeting last year. Attempts to investigate

city.
During the last year, Cha Cha has
been continually arrested and harassed
for his political work. Numerous people in the community had planned to

Young Lords Organization, failed to
appear in court to be tried for actions
by the Young Lords Organization

re-

vealed that two men had assaulted the
person with whom Cha Cha was stay-

ing at 3 AM that morning. When
that person regained consciousness,
Cha Cha was gone. His whereabouts
are unknown.
The case that Cha Cha was fighting

involved urban renewal in Lincoln park
Over 8,000 families have been moved
out of the community in recent years.
Cha Cha, along with other members of

the community, protested the city's
vicious attempts to push poor people
out of the area in order to build ex-

complexity of the Chicago police Department. Our overriding concern at
this time is Brother Cha Cha's safety
and well being. The Latin community

and the Young Lords Organization
hold the Chicago Police Department
responsible for insuring that nothing
happens to Cha Cha.

Young Lords

for his defense; they
had been present when Cha Cha was
serve as witnesses

arrested

on the trumped-up

charges.

Cha Cha has more charges pending

than
anyone else in Cook County. Cha Cha
had made it clear that he intended to
fight all his cases. There was a very
good defense to show that the state
was attempting to frame him through
false evidence.

Cha Cha is

a

revolutionary, and

therefore an enemy of the state, Whoever took him had to have a very good

intelligence network-one

DBAFT BOAHD HEAD LOBBIES
TO END DRAFT

with

Gerard Noonan, who heads a draft
board in Dubuque, lowa, journeyed to
Vy'ashington on August 18 to lobby for
the l{atfield amendment which would
{hake possible an end to the draft.
After six years on the job, Noonan
said he had reached the "unavoidable
conclusion that you can't have a fair

draft, so there shouldn't be a draft
at all."

-J.P.

the

movies around. Actually just lots of

movies
PUSHING

ON

The Chicago

founder and former chairman of the
Young Lords has been sentenced to
one year in prison. Cha Cha Jimenez
was accused of stealing $23 worth of

lumber.

A

co-defendant

in the case,

who is not political, got 30 days on
the

same conviction. One thing about
Daley-land, there's no guesswork when
it comes to the movement . .Three

people got arrested-l was one of
them-at Riverside Research Laboratory in NYC where ABMs are made on
Hiroshima Day. So far twelve scientists have quit and a few others are making rumblings in that direction since
we blocked their doors. By the way,
the judge who arraigned us was a groovy black man who was wearing a red,
white, and blue tie with peace symbols on it. He asked a dozen questions
about Riverside and seemed to note
the address.
HAPPENING . . . The lnstitute for
the Study of Nonviolence has opened
a branch in British Columbia. Their
first session will be in October; a reading list will be supplied upon receipt
of application. Write to Lyn Bowman,
lnstitute . . ., Box 977. Lake Cowichan
BC Canada . . .Also in Canada, Ottowa
this time, the Committee for Peace and
Liberation is selling greeting cards to

raise money. They would like to deal

in

quantities so orders from groups

are especially welcome. Write

at

to them

Box 2382, Station D, Ottowa 4,

Ontario Canada. Also, the Committee

is sponsoring a talk by that famous

peacenik male chauvinist Ben Spock
on "Decent and lndecent, Our person
and Political Behaviour (sic)". He'll be
in Ottowa at Glebe lnstitute on Friday,
Dec. 4.

lN PRINT . . . WIN writers are

get-

ting ardund. ln the September issue of
Esquire there are articles by Donald
Newlove and Craig Karpel. But we
know about Esquire and its relation_

ship to women so I won't suggest you
buy it . . .And the Catholic Art Association put out a special magazinecalled
The Prophetic Generation that's visu_
ally a welcome relief from some other
and has some heavy articles too. There
are pieces by Durbin, Jezer, Forest, and
Schwartz (t finally get to plug my own
thing). You can get a copy from Jane
Garmey, 890 West End Ave., NyC for
$3 . . .tfre WRL-West packet on nonviolence is ready. lt costs $1.50 and
has many good articles in it and is pro-

duced in a nicely slick package. you
it from them at 833 Haight St..

can get

San Francisco.

ON SILVER . . . Lots of movement

that Hollywood thinks

are

movement movies. Getting Straight is
a super-hype on college radicals but
there are a few good shots of policemen beating on students that might

win us some sympathy from liberals.
And the dialogue is so damned creative
that it's almost possible not to be inzulted . .On the other hand, .Sfraryberry Statement stinks from the word
go.

lt

presents college radicals as real
assholes who don't know what they're
protesting. Though actually James Ku-

nen, who wrote the book from which

the movie was taken, might just be
such an asshole . . .The best film l've
seen in ages isJoe, the story of a hardhat type person and how he relates to
the hippie movement. lt's really powerful and does more for the love generation than any supposedly pro-movement movie l've seen. And unlike most

newer pictures that just seem to end

when everyone who's making it gets
tired, Joe has a genuine bang-up endlng.

FINAL REMINDER . ..Don'tforget to send material to Dovetales. This
column's supposed to contain national
bits and pieces but you people out
there have been sluggish in passing the
word East . . .Wave to a fireman soon;
it gets very hot in those rubber jack-

ers...Thinkpeace.
!.Uendy
29

Ietters
Dear WIN people,
I just got your issue of "Schools and Better Places for Kids." It was great and about

tirne a politically-oriented publication devoted
time and spaoe to our future. I was also sorry
there hadn't been some way for you to have
known about a very beautiful school hete in
the city. I am a parent and administrator at
Beachbrook School in Brooklyn. Perhaps 25
years ago somc politically "old left" parents
organtzed and formed a nursery school. It
began with politically aware people and was
racially integrated long befote it became fash-

ionable. Arlo Guthrie spent two yeais there
at ages four and five. We have always been a
school that respected every child's individuality and provided an atmosphere of confidence and love. The individuality which is such
a clichc lately is very much a reality here.
Eight or nine years ago we began a policy
which integrates kids with various "problems"
into our basically "norrnal" school. Our kids
now very successfully include yellow, black,
and white kids and among those kids you will
find mongolism, brain damage, physical handicaps, "retardation" and "normal" ranges. A
free schooi should be for all kids to grow and

love to develop. We have an atmosphere where
dilTerences are respected and where some di-

minish. No kid deserves a box with limited
expectations-or restricted demands. We feel
that everyone has the right to be who or what
he can or wants to be. We've recently started
a "primary school." So far we have kids up
to cight. No group has rigid age restriction or
a curriculum. Our "primary" group is of kids

aged 5 8 together. We are desperate fot publicity (and money). There has nevet been money to afford publicity or professionals to help
us get money. Our tuition is $450 a year for
half days and $850 for full days. It is urgent
for the continuation of our "primary" group
to have another building or any kind of additional space. I guess we're not alone in our
problems but we are unique in our school and
the REAL alternative it ol'fers for kids and
parents and staff to realize our humanity and
value as people, not to be destroyed in a corrupt and manipulative society.
I hope I've been abie to convey some of
the excitement Beachbrook is. We would love
to have you visit. If you have any help or advice or contacts for us-it would be out of
sight!
Joyce Friedman
Beachbrook
2953 Auenue X

Brooklyn
NI-71 62

He said, "Only the city and its on-going
functions has sufficient scope to be an
educational environment." Does that mcan
that there is insufficient scope out in suburbia, or out in the countrY,or in the
mountains, or on the ocean? I think the
only significant thing that can be lcarncd
in most cities is that they are no longcr
viable places to live; learn, or play, without paying too great a price to one's
keeping one's self together...
Bob Barnes

Locust ValleY, N.Y.

The only thing I would take isstte
with is something in Paul Goodman's letter.
30

unity

Esquire, of Montgomery, Aiabama sewing
as his attorney. Here based soleiy on the
record made by Mr. Dean in the statc
court, Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. of thc
U.S. District Court of the Middie District
of Alabama issued an opinion and otder on
July 15, 1970. Judge Johnson held that
tlie oonvictions had bccn obtained as the
result of an unconstitutional search and
seizure and ordered that Mr. Piazzola and

from

his copetitioncr be immediatcly released

from prison.
Dear WIN,

I am a kid. 14 years old. For the last
4 years I have gonc to a very progressive
community school in Plainfield, Vermont,
from which I "graduated" this year. Since
I have absolutely no desire to go to a

WIN Magazine solicited its readers to
give Mrs. Piazzola "any contribution of
information or he1p." We hope that this
result obtained by thc Alabama Civil Liberties Union will bc sufficient "contribution."
Charles Morgan, Jr.

public high school and know of no private
or progressive high schools that I would
like, I am starting a school. Since I don't

to

spend oir sohool, and
since one shouldn't have to pay to learn

have much money

anyway, there will be no tuition. The orily
expenses will be for craft materials and

that sort of stuff. THERE WILL BE ABSOLUTELY NO TEACHERS OR ADULTS
INVOLVED EXCEPT INDIRECTLY OR
WHERE THE KIDS DECIDE THEY ARE

NEEDED because I believe that aftcr a
certain age (about sixth grade age) kids
can learn, even learn better, without
adults Therefore, the minimum age has
been set at sixth grade, the maximum at the
twelfth. One idca, or plan for the school
year is to spend a couple months living at
my home in Vermont, some time living
at other kids homes, at friends aird/or
maybe communes.
I'm sure that there are hundreds of
kids interested in starting a school and
who have ideas about it. We only need

sir or

seven.

I think that the important thing

is

to meet

as many people and expcrience
as many things as possible.

If you are interested in helping
starting this school, and being a student,
please contact

me:

t

Fred Carlson
Route I Box 75 A
Llarshlield, Vr.
Dear WIN,

Our files show that you have written to
(and about) us concerning the handling of
the case of State of Alabama v. Frank Piazzola. Y our writings apparently stern from
a widely distributed essay by Mrs. Piazzola

on the trial and conviction of her husband'
in the courts of Alabama.

Mr. Piazzola was one of several people

Dear Home Folks,
Many thanks for the July issue and its
attention to schools and better places for
kids. I particularly enjoyed A Hard Reign
Gonna Fall with that groovy checklist.
Since I am in the process of helping to set
up a free school on Long lsland, I shall
read it several times and pass it along to
my radical teacher associates.

Civil Liberties Union, Mr. Piazzoia's case
u,as taken to federal court with Morris Dees,

arrested on marijuana charges at Troy
State University. Somc resulting civil and
criminal cases were handlcd by Attorney
George W. Dean, Jr. with the Alabama
Civil Liberties Union maintaining an interest in them. The criminal cases have been
through the Alabama courts with the degree of nonsuccess that would be expected
on constitutional issues in southern statc
courts.

Then, under the auspices of the Alabama

ACLU
,Atlanta, Go.

(e;

lcarning
Ne

experien

have gon
We ar

ways.

Wr

ion (Mar

religion,
plan to f

much as
Everyon,
earn, in
and take
moving 1
lcss, doir
at hand,

r

are great
our best
by our p

children

focus on

are given

Dear Irrionds,

I am writing to you with a couple of
tasks in rnind. First to tell you about our
organization Connections, what we do, and
what we are tryirlg to get togetl-rer riglit
now.

Connections is a group that rvas formed

by ex-convicts and "prison widows" made
aware of the {aults in the pend system by
our experiences with it. Wc providc rides
and housing for visitors of various prisons,
and also help to prooure legal aid for
those who did not receive a fair trial,
or tue unable to attain counsel due to
their inoarceration. And hopefully our
goal is to educate the public about an
archaic systen.r that necds rehabilitation
fru more than the people it has victimized,
both on the inside and the outside.
.Icff Segal, a membet of the Oakland
7, is doing four years for refusing induction at the Fedcral Prison Camp outside
of Safford, Arizona. He's been a one-man
legal counseling service there, working
particularly with Mexican nationals
awaiting deportation.

To do this work Jeff needs some verY
expensive law books. These books are
necessary for him to help our brothers
who are being crucified by American
justicc, We need your money. If you can
contribute to the purchase of these books,
please rnake

out your check to Connections

Guidance Center, making a notation that
the money is for larv books. Your con-

tributions will be acknorvledged. If you
have law books available pleasc get in
touch rvith us so we can send them
where they are needed. Also, if you wish

to know hore about Connections
contacI

please

relations

primary
ments, \

but

deal

paying cJ
than ther
work-pla

We ar

importar

1. Ou
have not

nrajority

many. N
the life c
revolve a

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drop of

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cases goi

cases inv
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we had s
a group,
cncount(
and lots r
of thc gr<

session o

involved

explorinl

3. Th
a success

libertariz

itarian e1
other iva
in betbre
courage

giant

i

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4. All
rvith usinl

tapy apprc

communa

us.

Connections

of what u

330 Ellis Street

to workin

San I'-rancisco. Ca. 91102
(41s) 673-0295

change wi
5. Lik,
ure repr.lg
one to im

Dear friends,
Thanks for printing Gordon Yaswcn's fine
account of his Sunrise Hill experience. I'd
like WIN readers to know that, as the intentional community "movement" gathers strength,
cumulativc learning does occur. We rvho have
recently founded a small intentional comm-

that doeir
au

thoritar

highly lib

to coordir

and to de
rerrain flt

unity (expanded family, educational center,
learning experience, whatever) some 2% hours
lrom New York, have learned a lot from the
expcrience s of the many Sunrise Hills that
have gone before.
We are like Sunrise Hill in some important
ways. We have no especially-labelled persuasion (Marxism, vegetarianism, Walden-II-ism,
religion, primitivism, or whatever), and no
plan to fulfill. Finances are communal as
much as people like-in practice virtually all.
Everyone puts in what he earns (or what we
earn, in our developing communal enterprises)
and takes from the pot as he sees fit. We are
moving toward a simpler life-way, spending
less, doing more for ourselves with what is
at hand, eating more healthily (and the meals
are great!) gardening organically, and doing
our best to be aware ofecology and do well
by our planet. Increasingly, we are raising the
children communally, though the pdmary
focus on their parents remains. Similarly, we
are given to non-exclusiveness and multiple
relationships, while still tending to focus upon
primary pairings. We don't have rules, assignments, work-rotations, schcdules, and such,
but deal witli needs together as they arise,
paying close attention to our feelings rather
tl'ran theories, We value spontaneous-ritual,

work-play, and joyful madness.
We are

unlike Sunrise Hill in some equally

important ways:
1. Our land and initial operating funds
have not come from one psrson, nor even a
majority of it from one person, but from
many. Not in this or in any other way does
the lilb of thc community depend upon or
revolve around any one or two persons.
2. Our group came together not at the
drop of an inspirational moment, but on the
basis ol intcrweaving relationships in somc
cases going back many years, and in many
cases involving previous living and working
together. We did not move to our farm until
we had spent a good deal of time together as
a group, mostly on weekend work sessions,
encounter and gestalt therapy sessions, play,
and lots morc. Lots of self-selection in and out
of the group took place before we took possession ol our 37 acrcs. Only half the people
involved in those months of preparation and
exploring actually came to settle our land.
3. The nuclerus of our group came out of
a successful experience of operating a highly
libertarian children's school, a more communitarian effort (economically and in many
othcr ways) than any of us had bcen involvcd
in before, and one that gave us much of the
couragc and experience we needed to take the

rh,

giant step from that world to this one.
4. All ol'us have had previous experience
rvith using encounter group and gestalt ther,apy approaches in dealing with personal and
communal problems and growth. At the heart
of what we're about is a strong commitment
to working on radical personal and social
change with the help of these approaohes.
5. Like Sunrise Hill, rve find lots of structure repugnant and resist any attcmpt by anyone to impose anything on anyone else. But
that doesn't mean thcre are only two choices,
authoritarian structurc and chaos. We are
highly libertarian, but we do come together
to coordinatc, to make consensual decisions,
and to develop day-to-day struotures which
remain flexible, personal, and experimental.

Similarly with leadership. Despite our bad experiences with imposed pre-structures and en_
gineered leadership in our society generally
we reject only that which is in fact unwanted,
not that which emerges spontaneously, feels
OK, and remains flexible, non-coercive, and
our own.
None of this, of course, means we will
necessarily last any longer than Sunrise Hill
did- It does mean. I think, that we,ve learned
from past experiences a few things thri h;;"
helped us make a mole solid beginning. In
any case, longevity is not the main thing and
certainly is not the measure of success. bur
learning, quieting, and growing so far is al_
ready such that if our community were to
close down tomorrow it would have to be
judged, in the most important sense, a success-our lives (and perhaps this is true, too,
for some of the dozens who already have vis-

ited) are richer for it.
One of the things we're excited about at
the moment is a workshop we'll be offering
in September for people interested in a coimunal alternative for their own lives A few of

us have led gestalt and encounter groups else_
where since our community began, bui this
will be our first workshop it our'piace,

using
all of us and the place itself as resources. Oui
hope is that this workshop, planned for Sep
tember 4-6, will be successful enough that it
will be followed by others and become an
important part of our outreach.
There's much, much more to say about the
origins, nature, and development of our community, and we're happy to shate it. Let us
know if you'd like us to send along a more
full-scale diary-type account. Meanwhile, all
our best wishes to al1 of you in your good
work and play.
P.S. Any

wrN readers

*n"

^!:i7r"l:':r!!i::,
reach us o/o Jerry Friedberg,
1 165 East 54th
Street, Brooklyn, New York.
Dear WIN,
We thought some of your readers
would like to hear about the collective
growing out of our work with Jews for
Urban Justice here in Washington.
Six of our people are now living in
two houses. Three of these people have
recently quit prof'essional Jobs (lawyer,
engineer, mathematician) to work on
Jewish organizing and the possibility of
a rural kibbutz-type collective built
around a farming community. About a
dozen other people are associate the collective although they maintain outside work and homes. The group gathers
on Friday evenings and Saturday momings
to share worship, meals, singing, dancing,
and celebration. Most of the group is aiso
involved in political activities such as peace
work, Panther defense, gape boycott, and
local congressional and sheriff campaigns.
We would enjoy visits from others
interested in communal/collective living.
Call 332-3307 or 829-1366 when youte

next in Washington.

Sharlene Kranz
Jews

for

Urban Justice Collective

1808 llyoming Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20009

Brothers and sisters,
Please don't send WIN to my old
address anymore. I'm not living there,
and while my brother digs it, Dad works
for the CIA and isn't turned on by it at
all. Too bad.
Please warn me when my subscription

is about to run out.

it

I don't want to let

lapse.

Kirk
llashington, D.C.

Dear WIN,

For the antiwar movement to grow stronll
enough to win, it must convince a majority
of Americans to put it in a position of national political power. Furthermore, it is not

enough for Americans merely to sympathize
with our protest; they must be convinced
that we have a better way of running the
county than does Nixon, a task which we
have largely ignored.
Mass mobilization tactics, which were once
essential in the late 1960's, for politicizing
millions of people, are no lonqer very useful.
The traditional mobilization strategy has attracted about as many people as it ever can, so
at this point, the antiwar movement is teduced
to merely finding new things for the same
people to do, rather than expanding our constituency.
As a result, the antiwar movement is subsiding as an independent political force, pri
marily because its failure io propose a better
way of running the United States has left it
with no constructive altemative other than to
support any political candidate who echoes
our protest-none of whom can soive America,s
problems.
In this light, I would like to offer the kind

of principled criticism of the SWP-YSA-SMC
that Sandy Knoll solicited in the August issue of WIN. I agree with Sandy's critlcism of
the Independent Radical Caucus at the Feb-

ruary SMC Conference. The IRC's loose collection of "radical" demands was certainly no
improvement over the SMC strategy; in fact,
it was metely a logical extension of SMC,s
outdated collection of demands: Immediate
withdrawal, End repression, Support the GE
strikers. Just as the IRC had no way of actually organizing around its mish-mash of demands, neither did the SWP have a way of
convincing Black Panthers to support the GE
stike, or of convincing GE strikers to oppose
black repression.
As a constructive alternative to both the
SWP and the IRC, we in the National Caucus
of Labor Committees distributed a proposal
for the antiwar movement to atlopt an economic
conversion program, demandrng the creation
of millions more productive jobs by converting the aerospace-defense industries to useful
production, financed by taxing banks and
corporate profits. This is the only way that the
Left can intervene in the current period of
capitalist crisis, and provide a material basis
for allying such diverse groups as thoGE
strikers and Black Panthers.
Les Levidow
National Caucus of Labor Committees

Silver Springs, Md.

3t

st

Classi f ieds il-1;itffi,*;t*,1*|t fii:kiffi,*g*il
BI

RTH CERTIFICATES!

your own birth certificate. Btank state "LlVlNG THE GOOD LlFE". Write for
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Laundr.ycompouncl,-lo pound ""-rJX,l,',1",i'j:H'31,*?g,?:Y'f*Sii',i'0"'o
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Gandhi
vegetar

didn't
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cows

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atfnadh

Some years ago, in the course of the
Quebec-to-Guantanamo Walk, we wele staying in a large Negro church in a southern city.
We invited the church's elders and minister to
join us at supper. The minister remained silent
throughout the meal. Finally, he tumed to me
and I expected him to ask us about our views
on international relations, the race question,
and nonviolence. Instead he asked, "Why are
you a vegetarian?" He listened intently to my
explanation.

I was brought up a pacifist but not

a

vegetarian. As a young child, though, I found
it distasteful to kill fish. I gave up fishing.
Later, I abandoned as well hunting birds and
small animals with air rifles. I remember
suffering deep remorse on killing a songbird,

and pledged rnyself never again to hunt for
pleasure. However, up until my late teens I
had only mild curiosity about vegetarianism.
Through my reading, I learned that George
Bernard Shaw, Tolstoi and Gandhi had been
vegetarians and that most Hindus were vegetarians. By the age of 25 I had come to
believe that vegetarianism was a logical extension of nonviolence. However, probably because

I

!

The "Beefsteak" looked grey and tasted
but I downed it. The next morning

speculations about whether nausea would
overcome me as it was with the glories of
Shah Jahan's wife's exquisite tomb. On the

I reflected upon the justice of my
discomfort. My departure from virtue had
cost me full enjoyment of the Taj. I decided
never to eat meat again and I have kept the

a Gandhian village leather working center. I
now order all of my leather shoes from there.

my stomach

was upset and though I visited
the Taj, my mind was as much occupied with

way back to the hotel in a horsedrawn
waggon

spirit of that decision.
Some non-vegetarians claim that they can't
see this distinction between forms of life. All
forms are equal, they say. One has no right to
distinguish between degrees of life; doing so is
a "subjective" judgment. To me, such distinc-

tions are natural and right. No one with

normal feelings has the same reaction to
glitting the throat of a pig as he does to
uprooting a radish.

lived in the United States where meat
changed my

habits.

When I was 27 I undertook a trip around
the world to study peace movements and
communitarian societies. I stopped first in

reply, he began a diatribe of such hostility
that for some minutes I was unable to reply.

grew livid and broke off the discussion,
leaving me with the last word and an apparent

I never saw the man again, nor do I recall
his name, but one ofhis arguments had struck
home. It was, "If you had to kill with your
own hands the animals you eat, would you do
so?" I knew I would not and that, therefore, I
was paying butchers .to do something that I
felt wrong.
I knew that to be consistent and socially
responsible I would have to become a vegetar-

matters.

The advantages of vegetiuianism are mani-

fold. It is a more

sensitive and morally
consistent approach toward food than meat

ON VEGETAR}ANISI\A

zels and other fleshy delicacies distracted me
ftom the truth of vegetarianism.

or nonexistent.
After some days

Sevagram,

I left the ashram

and

undertook a trip to other Gandhian centers
and cities. I stopped atA$a, planningtovisit
the Taj Mahal, and lodged at a third class
European hotel. That night at supper I read
"Beefsteak" on the menu and resolved to
have a last fling with meat before giving it up
forever.

egg factories, hens

American pacifists resist vegetarianism. Some
avow that they have no repugnance toward
killing animals. One I know goes so far as to
say that he thinks vegetarianism is immoral.
He claims that man is naturally omnivorous.
To buttess his arguments he cites the Old
Testament, which he nevet does in other

victory.

diseased, and refrigeration facilities were poor

germ of life.
Vegetarians

ences for American pacifists will generally
have provisions for vegetarians. However, I
have been surprised by how strongly some

Then, glancing at his shoes, I asked him how
he, a vegetarian, could wear leather shoes. He

cows and other animals in India looked

fowl. Others will eat no animal with a
backbone. Still others forego all forms of
meat and eggs and dairy products besides.
There are vegetarians who subsist on fruit,
vegetables and nuts. I have met a man who
wouldn't eat anything that was a seed or had
a seed in it. He wouldn't destroy even the

may be kept all their lives in tiny wire stalls,
litfle prisons. They are reduced to egg producing machines and never know freedom or the
love of a rooster.
Vegetarianism is much more common in
Europe than in the United States. About one
third of those in the English pacifist movement are vegetarians. Over the past decade the
custom has spread among American pacifists
so that today, as in England, meals at confer-

aggtessively and asked me if I was a vegetarian
as well as a pacifist. On hearing my negative

Gandhi's last ashram. Fare at the ashram was
vegetarian. I adjusted to it easily and found I
didn't miss meat. Moreover, I thought that tr
eat meat would be risky, since many of the

There are many degrees of vegetarianism.
won't eat the flesh of warm
blooded animals but will consume lish and
Some vegetarians

for I know that in modern

England and one day visited the Peace News
offrce in London. The first person I met was a
short, wiry gentleman in a suit, vest, derby
hat and suspenders, who poked a finger at me

In India at last, I went to

hides of animals that had died a natural death.
Someone told me that such shoes wete
available from India and put me in touch with

who abstain from dairy products usually do so because modern processes
of milking can be painful to cows and male
calves are slaughtered. Some don't eat eggs
because the hens, in their opinion, zue cruelly
treated. I feel this latter argument strongly,

is universally eaten, I had not

ian. However, for :rlrnost six months I remained a meat eater. My travels took me through
Austria and Germany, where Weiner Schnit-

warm blooded animals, fowl or fish.

I have carried my vegetarianism to the
point of trying not to wear things made from
leather. Fabric belts are quite satisfactory but
canyas or plastic shoes are less so. For several
years I tried to find someone in the United
States who would make me shoes from the

strange,

My vegetarianism is not immutable. My
basic principle is that I try to destroy as low
forms of life as possible in sustaining my own.
Thus, I eat eggs, milk and milk products, nuts,

vegetables aad fruits, but not thd flesh of

eating, and

it is more socially responsible,

possibly healthier, less expensive and cleaner
as well. Why, then, aren't more people vegetarians? Partly, our persistence in meat eating

comes from the Judeo{hristian tradition.
The Bible says,all livi_ng thingq,a+q&lman's

use. Social pressure is also a powerful reason.
People, particularly in a competitive society
where conformity is a requirement of certain
kinds of success, don't want to have indivi-

dualistic ways. And certainly the love of
luxury is a strong motivation. (Meat protein
derived from grazing livestock requires seven
times as much land as vegptable protein.)
Most Americans accept the privileges of an
affluent culture, which ognsumes half of the
world's goods while hurrdreds of millions
stawe and die of malnutrition. Iarge numbers
are not yet willing to be inlluenced by mainly
moral reasons to give up a habit they enjoy.

-Bradford Lyttle

antiwar papers by supplying equ ipment,

EVEN MORE!

space etc., as well as counselling.ser-

,..changes
ANTI_WAR ACTIVITIES
OF THE G.I.'S IN JAPAN
The Spring brought a strong antiwar movement to the G.l.'s in lwakuni. As of June 1970, lwakuni, an international air bsee taken over buthe
U.S. in WW ll, became the largest base
because of the withdrawal of troops
from Vietnam, The antiwar movement
at lwakuni is the strongest of all the
bases in Japan. Marines from Vietnam
are sent directly to lwakuni. Nixon's

policy sincg last August (1969)
been to withdrawl troops from

has

front-lines of Southeast Asia and replace them to the second lines of Japan, Okinawa, Korea etc. The breakup tf personnel at lwakuni is as follows: base corps (permanent officers,

: 1000 persons under CaPt. Wm.
R. Ouinn; 1st (rear) division of the Marine air forcel 3,300 persons (2 battalions, 4 companies; under Commodore

etc)

W.G. Johnson); 6th group of the NavY
air forbe of the Pacific 7th fleet: 400
persons; support corPs for the 6th
group (also of the 7th fleet): 300 persons; a total of 5,000 persons.
ln the autumn of 1969, there was a

clash between the black and white

vices

for

resistance

within the mili-

tary, and aid to deserters, Of course,

the brass tried'to cover all of it uP,
but Beheiren made the tape public to
the press in April. ln early March, Beheiren began to print and distribute S'

Fi and organize Radio

Free lwakuni.
Every Saturday they bring electric megaphones to one side of the base to
broadcast inside.

May 16, Memorial DaY, usuallY an
open house daY for armY bases found
the bases closed to all but "invited Persons". At 2:30 Pm, 5 antiwar G'l''s
wearing black armbands came to meet
the Beheiren people of Radio Free lwakuni who were broadcasting over the
fence. The five were: JerrY lngling,
George Bacon, Sonny Sandyne, Dennis Hahn and Dave Gillet. The R'F'l'
people threw antiwar material over the
fence and the five picked it up. A few
minutes a truck with M.P'sand
jeep with CIT (an investigating committee) came and arrested the five. The
charge was "collection and distributing
unauthorized docu ments."
The five were taken to MP head-

quarters and put into custody for 3 or
4 hours. Lieut. Commander Smith abused them calling them dirty names.
But the brass tried to push it insinua-

G.l.'s at lwakuni. Several times small

ting that they "committed a

fights broke out between the groups
and the brass tried to hide it. On the
evening of the sth of January, a large
f ight between the black G.l .'s and
white G.l.'s including injuries and a

schemed demonstration inside the
camp". A few days later, Dave Gillet

considerable number of arrests led the
brass to form a special patrol to keep

the two groups separated. ln late January, radical white G.l.'s formed the
third antiwar newspaper called Semper
Fi (the first being "Hair" Put out bY
the G.l.'s at Nusawa and the second
"Kill for Peace" printed bY the G.l.'s
at the Asaka army base). The publication was the first indication of an antiwar movement by the G.l.'s on lwakuni. ln its first edition, S. Fi disclosed
that the brass's attempts to talk with
the black G.l.'s "was just an effort to
appease our black brothers." The brass

then tried to get liberal and formed a
"round-table" conference on Feb. 5th,
which was taped and sent to Beheiren,
the Japanese "Peace in Vietnam" Committee, Beheiren helped organize these

Pre-

(21 years old) was summoned bY the
Marine lnfo. Officer. The brass tried
to make him admit that he Planned
the demonstration. Gillet refused to
be intimidated. Powers, the officer in
charge of the info. section, got uptight at his refusal'and demanded an im-

mediate transfer, which was immediately agreed upon. Gillet was transferred to Okinawa on MaY 22nd" U'
pon leaving, he left the following message to his brothers at lwakuni: "You
remember Medusa? You cut one head
off and two grew back in its Place.
The braass is kicking us from one part
of the Pacific to the other. Do You
think that they are expecting us to
stop printing the paper? To stop thinking?

The next targets were Dennis Hahn
(22yearsold) and Lonnie Kenner (23).

Both were editors of S. Fi' Lonnie
Kenner arrived in Japan last year from
Vietnam. He loves Tolstoy and Thor-

r

eau. He isa pacifist. On June 2nd, they

to be transferred to
the CherrY Foint Marine air base in
received an order

Carolina. TheY had 2'/z hours to
prepare. 20 G.l.'s saw them off with
the V-sign. The members of the ASU

N.

at lwakuni sent the following message
to their friends at Beheiren: "The generals are expecting G.l.'s to stop resisting if theY see other G.l.'s transferred. They are wrongl The harder
the oppression becomes, the stronger
we become, lf every one of the G.l.'s
in Japan know what has happened to
us, more G.l.'s would join us. The
Brass is learning fast. They ar : beginning to understand that they can trans-

fer revolutionaries but they can never
transfer a revolution."
On June 3rd, George Bacon, a founder of S. Fi was arresteil on base and
kept under guard "to prevent me from
talking to anybody" .and not al-

lowed

to take any personal belon-

gings, was sent to Okinawa (on 2 hours

notice) "They assured me I was going
to be on the next plane for the U.S.
The next day I found outto my horror
that I was being sent back to the war.
And here I am. (in Chu Lai, Vietnam)
$y new commanding officer told me
if I tried any of my 'subversive bullshit' in his outfit, I would get a bullet
in my back."
Another tape was released to the
press on June 4th in which the G.l.'s
assured the press of their determination
to continue their resistance. By June

I

Eth, ASU mernbers at lwakuni numhered around 300.

Elaine lyanage and Kenichi

A

L

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