Some items in the TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections may be under copyright. Copyright information may be available in the Rights Status field listed in this item record (below). Ultimate responsibility for assessing copyright status and for securing any necessary permission rests exclusively with the user. Please see the Reproductions and Access page for more information.
ruxw
I\IWEMBER 15,1970
1."
--
.:ia
)l.l
I
Thi
yoL
the
his
mil
ma
menu
HOME FOLKS
Ofelia Alayeto
an(
san
dis
por
Marilyn Albert
Maris Cakars
wir
Susan Cakars
call
paSe 3: Changu;
Bruce Christianson
Donna Christianson
Diana J. Davies
the
hin
page 3: Changes
Ralph DiGia
Karen Durbin
Jen Elodie
page 4: Earthilife/Reclamation
l
page 9: Vietnam: The Next Phase
Leah Fritz
Neil Haworth
page i
Hendrick Hertzberg
Marty Jezer
i
5: Canadian Confrontation
page20: Boycott Lettuce!
Peter Kiger
Dorothy Lane
Marty Lauritsen
page26t "Trot Plot" Explained
Burton LeVitskY
Jackson Maclow
paqe
Mary Mayo
David McReYnolds
Peter Merlin
Don Mochon
Jim Peck
Lana Reeves (Photos)
28: Reviews
lr
t5
page32: Letters
Front Cover: Ner Beck
E
Back Cover: Text and Photo by Diana Davies
Paul Rilling
Igal Roodenko
!!t
Wendy Schwartz
Connie Sohodski
Bonnie Stretch
Mayer Vishner
.l
I
Linda Wood
Mike Wood
;
IN IItrE
PROVINCES
Honolulu, }Ii.96822\
LaBelle (713 NE Adams, Minneapolis, Mn.)
Timothy Lange (1045 l4th St., Boulder, Co.)
Mark Morris (3808 Hamilton St., Philadelphia, Pa.)
941il3)
Paul Obluda (544 Natoma, San Francisco,
R.ose
"".
Volume VI, Number 19
15 November 1970
(L'IY}
t
2
Denis Adelsberger (Box 7477, Atlanta, Ga.)
Ruth Dear (5429 S. Dorchester, Chicago' Ill.)
Paul Enciirler (c/o Venice Draft Resistance,
73 Market St. No. 11, Venice, Calif.)
Seth F-oldy (2232 Elandon Dr,, Cleveland Heights. Oh.)
Erika Gottfried (4Bll NE l07th, Seattle, Wash" 98125)
Paul & Becky Johnson (Somewhere in New Mexico)
Wayne Hayashi (1035 University Ave,, Rm. 203,
I
:::l
.;
peace and freedom
through nonviolent action
339 Lafayette Street
New York, New York 10012
Telephone (212\ 228-027 A
.,,1.i
*'
WIN is published twice-monthly (except July, August, and January
when it is published nronthly) by the War Resisters Leaque in
cooperation with the New York workshop in Nonviolence'
paid at New
Subscriptions are $5'OO per year. Second class postage
York, N.Y. 1ooo1. lndividual writers are responsible f or opinions
expressed and accLlracy of facts given' Sorry-manuscripis cannot be
retLlrned unless accompanied by a 5elf-addressed, Stamped envelope'
Printed in U.S.A., WIN is a nrember of the Underground
Syndicate and Liberation News Service'
Press
of the building to an unmarked
car and placed in the back seat. This
steps
SANCTUAHY IN NYC
Saturday was Tom Germond's day.
This was a time of conscience for a
young man who had "resigned" from
the Coast Guard a few months prior to
his decision to turn himself over to the
military authorities. On this occasion
many of Tom's movement brothers
and sisters gathered in his place of
seemed
to be a signal for spontaneous
action from many of Tom's friends
who virtually leaped from the sidewalk
to sit down in the street in front of the
car to block its passage. Members of the
Special Events Squad
of the
NYC
move
Police Department moved in to
the demonstrators. After
aside
an-
sanctuary, Washington Square Methodist Church, to offer their love and sup-
nou ncing
port for Tom's action with music,
wine, flowers, and folk dancing. His
call to the military police brought
them running to the church to take
people to the curb. One person, named
appropriately enough, Norman P. Thomaswas taken to a police car. Another,
Diana Davies, a movement photographer, was grabbed in a throat lock, and
him away. Tom was carried down the
that people wou ld be arrested
if they did not
move, they dragged
t,
i.,
:.
ll
They weie charged with obstructing
government administration, resisting
arrest, and disorderly conduct. After
a
time, they were taken to the Tombs
to await trial in night court. Peace and
Gay Liberation movement people
raised $100 bail each, and the prisoners
were released to appear at a later trial
date on October 29
Street, Criminal
,ourr.
at 100 Centre
_O,rna Davies
NACOG DOCHES g
3j
)
hauled across the street by her iaw,
causing the officer who did this to
break his thumb while attempting to
choke her. Handcuffs were put on
these dangerous criminals, who were
taken to the 6th precinct for booking.
During the last two weeks of MaY
nine Black brothers were denied their
most basic constitutional rights. The
Nacogdoches I stand as a symbol of
! ""
(e
/
S
I r1*,;.€5
Alxt -:I ?.-u lortiflp
rc''
1, .
d#-{4-*
73r
-j'
,\\-
\
}
what has happened over and over again
in this pocket of Southern rural and racist activity.
The East Texas town of Nacogdoches has long practiced the common
activity of unlawful arrest, police brutality, and excessive bonds and fines
for Black citizens. The chief of police
and the police special investigation are
presently being sued in Federal Court
in a class suit which seeks redress for
ACTS committed against a Black leader and against the Black community
of the town.
,
_,
:,,];nr. r*
'.::.,r.,:,
The Nacogdoches 9 will soon be before the court. The lawyer that was appointed for the defense has not yet
talked to them or shown any intent
to defend them or to seek redress for
the violation of their civil rights. The
following are sections of the statement
made by some of the defendants:
Johnny Thomas'. No one at any
told me of my rights. I was stopped,
,.;:,.
/
,/
searched, and put into jail without
being told the charges against me.
James Hubbard: I was not allowed
to make a phone call when I denied
the charges against me. Then a patrolman hit me as hard as he could
:
with his foot.
Jerry Sexton: I was told that there
Photoi Diana Davles
Tom Germond gets dragged away.
3
. HFE.
m
REE
to
cat
inr
wil
pf(
me
of
res
thc
thc
ad
thc
b1e
his
lea:
yez
the
cor
bec
isc
aut
pla
visi
roI
thir
we
mu
lasl
tha
the
EV
kee
b.e
ouI
trul
getl
Allan Hoffman was the lirst hip person I ever knew. lle
were botlt in our teens during the mid-S0's and spent two
summers together working at various camps. Allan hung out
in Greenwich Village, used words like "existentialism" and
dug ee. cummings. I lived in the suburbs and knew nothing.
'lUe
got into jazz, folk music, poetry, and philosophy together
and even took up modern dance. lle'd spend long nights
sitting in the woods dinking cheap wine and talking about
the meaning of art, the existence of God, and who we were.
Allan was always asking questions and was never satisfied
with the answers anyone could give him In the early sixties
he was active in the radical pacifist movement. He was on
the CNVA San Francisco to Moscow l,lalk for Peace and
a
opc
Mother-
dis<
fucker and abandoned nonviolence. But he was always the
surl
other early nonviolent actions. Later, he became
a
gentlest and most human of pernns As an anarchist, he was
part of the community that put ou, Anarchos Magazine and
was one of the ftrst city radicals to move to a farming commune. He was speaking about ecological consciousness before
most of us ever heard the word "ecolog/," I was at o friend's
house when I picked up an issue of San Francisco Good Times.
It was open to this essay and at the end was written: "This
was the last piece written by Allan Hoffman before he wos
kitled in an automobile accident last week in Humboldt
County. lle're going to
miss
you, brother."
littl
hur
nen
dor
the
&u
mor
terr
tot
Marty Jezer
lanr
f,
the old culture is dying-while a new way of life struggles
to be born. . .u can see itif u trust yr senses: in the suffocating ugliness of cities, buried up to their ears in cement/ &
in thJ tentatlve beauty on the faces of those we see & hope
will become our lovers.
for us the future is in groups of people who establish more
profoundly human relations wi each other & their environment/ tfroie who return to the land & to communal forms
ofliving together/ those who abandon ideologies so they can
r.rporJ to ever-changing nature wiout pre-conceived notions/
those who are flexible-who find ways where there were
thought to be none/those who scavage the-endless waste of
u J.r".ving society for the raw materials of a new culture/
those who find use for what is discarded-who gather, assemble or steal the elements of their life from the whole long
history of human experience' & all that modern man has
learned/ the communal decision is the result of our deep
yearning to be together, to share our lives wi others/ to leave
ihe cities of death shrouded in concrete/ to come to the
country so our bodies can re-discover the feeling of freedom/
because we yearn to live & be whole again.
just a look at the other myriad faces of possible futures
is convincing: ecological apocalypse or nuclear conflagration;
automated (technocratic) computer-controlled I 984 or just
plain bloody facism/ visions of ugliness counterpointed by
uitiort of indescribable beauty/ but what is there in the horror planned for us by the 'leaders' &'great men' that lets u
tinal flora & the bacteria in the gardens from which we
eatf recognizing in this shaping of a new physical body in
nature, the real evidence of a new culture/ pointing the way
to a future of wildness & a technology beyond tools'
the birth of our children is another fact of our 'other-ness'
(manner of birth being a function of culture) & we, rejecting
joy
ihe paln & guilt of western barbarism, communally & in
our
tomorrow/
of
proiu.. oui btight-.yed babes-envoys
*o*.n who have seen a dozen births, come to labor wi
knowledge & feeling/ our men become obstetrical shamans/
all creatiig empathetic magic in song & dance, giving strer.rgth
to the welioming of the newborn/ wi the energy & love of
all who attend-kneaded like the dough by all our hands,
much kissed & adored-the birth of one becotnes the birth of
think there'll be a Place for u?
nothing/ there is nothing we don't make ourselves-nothing
we don't create & defend/ what we dream & what we attempt
must either be the beginning of a new ecological era or the
last brave act of human life.
but this future we seek is not some vague tomorrow-it is
that small part of today, which is the seed, model germ that
the vast human future will resemble.
EVIDENCE OF A DIRECTION
living in the country-surrounded by friends & lovers!
keeping low and close to thg ground-like indian or coyotebeglnning again in the last wildernesses of amerika/ making
our experiments in what is ancient & of the future-what is
truly human/ we experience life & the forms of living together that have been forbidden for thousands ofyears/ we
op.n orr hearts to the song of earth, air, water/we are rediscovered by stars-lost members of the cosmic communitysurrounded on every side by friends & lovers!
we come to the land wi intuition & the desire to learn/
little in the amerikan relation to its soil is useful to us: in a
hundred yrs they have poisoned & depleted most of a continent, most of a world/ here, in northern california, we abandon the poisoned, devastated low lands-once the richest in
the hemisphere-would let them lie fallow for 50 or 100 yrs/
& we go to the highlands to find air-making forests & clear
mountain water/ to become inca or hunza, to clear land, to
terrace, to irrigate/ to gather water in cisterns like essenes
to build a soil &
a
culture of soil making-returning to the
land what we take from
it-&
then some/between our intes-
all/we have remade a form of the past, a form of the essential human life into a shape o[ the future
we employ new & ancient sources of energy/ turning to
the earth, sun & stars, to liberate ourselves from fossil fuelsaddiction of electric junkies/ & can claim to have re-discovered
the human body in love & labor/ laying fields & terraces we
pick & shovel & rake-an arnaztng space oflabor/ seeing each
day the shaping & building of mere earth into the substance
of the muscle in yr arm, the meal u will eat tomorrow, the
body that will be u/ making our lives everyday from mud-just
like their gods.
but oui technology is deficient-we do not have free access
to all the tools around us/ to all the energies & machines,
methods of transport & communication/ the tools for con5
str
col
bu
ber
thz
orI
cul
lea
c0t
bu
by
tin
ou.
bu
citi
tor
ber
dis
gra
MC
wo
the
g0
cea
tici
resl
itv
sp(
wil
lev
the
j
reli
acc
wh
the
tol
wal
tou
US,
not
secl
real
don
&(
our
con
1
mal
the
reai
thir
are
1
Photo: Peter Simon
gror
thor
ano
7
structing the life of which we dream/ needed: one cargo helicopter, one nationwide network of commune ham radios/
but we learn to tap the energy of sun of water & wind/we
begin to drive new engines, burning alcohol or methane gas
that we produce (along wi compost) when we shit/ making
organic fuels for an organic culture (feeling that the highest
cultures were those that rotted back in,to the ground wiout
leaving atrace)l we explore Reich's ridiculed physics of
cosmic energy: making rain, seeking free available power for
building & defenseT raw power to shape the future.
a noun-not an object, place or hundred acres/ if 'commune'
is the word we use to describe how we live, it must be a verb:
the act of communingl & not another dead institution.
TWO CRISES
we came to the mountains to prepare for the future/seeing the two great crises approaching in the life of man: forces
raging thru time, gathering around these two possibilities: a
political, economic, social upheaval which will topple all the
structures of urban-industrial societies-all the vast energy
of production for waste, of empty everyday lives, of mass
LIMITS OF FLOW
ordered social life, like no earthquake is capable/ amerika wi
her shrinking empire of planetary fear, forced back on the
& yet we are often unhappy here, separated from others
resource of the continent she already raped in her rampage
by the illusion of distance & breathing shield of green/someor
of
cities,
the
ugliness
to be mighty/ vistas of the new puritanism, repression &
who
those
suffer
times forgetting
facism-like the convulsions of a dead shark, still slashing
our own isolation from the general affairs of our generation/
blindly at fate.
but we can no longer tolerate the airless, concrete vista of
but even beyond this, mounting like a tidal wave after a
cities/ & we are long past boredom wi the self-deluding rhebig breaker, the greater crisis of nature, in which the planetoric & self-repression of the left that claims to seek our litary life-forces turn on man & smash him, oxygen riots in
beration, but hasn't begun to find its own/ we seek to rethe cities where lead gas causes mass brain damage/ hunger
discover the wildness of our own nature, the true animal
riots of the people stuffed with DDT, white bread & sawgrace-bowing to no authority but truth, greedy only for
dust vegetablesf starvation, plague, mass exodus into the
more life-'not one respectable or unhappy in the whole
poisoned countryside/ the one great communal celebration
world'(whitman)
of alienated society-mass death& yet we are incapable of seeing our own limitations:
this crisis, so much deeper than even the revolutionary
there are many communies wi their heads buried in the
ground like ostriches-thinking the rest of the world has
one, affecting every second of daily life, hurtling us into
some new geological age/ when man is slapped down from
ceased to exist/ there are communes so heavily into a mysour
time:
can't
to
that
they
are
irrelevant
attempted dominion over nature (or is extinct as tyranotical ideology
saurus rex) WE EAT AN ENVIRONMENT/ AN ENVIRONrespond to anything still in this body, still in this world/ but
MENT EATS US!
it will only be those
who grow beyond the limits of their own heads, who refor people in the cities there is only one slim hope:
spond to environment wi a creativity beyond ideology, who
that in the political upheaval men of sense & vision everywill make something real and substantial/ all the rest are irre- where will seize the means of life & turn off the machines
levant, let them collapse or stagnate, it doesn't matter / let
that pollute/ destroy the cities & build human communithere be thousands of communes so that a few survive . . .
ties in nature, where no man oppresses another or the earth.
yet
new
have
not
created
a
but the vision is an unlikely one (tho we return time &
the
view
communes
in
long
relationship wi the land: & we may need a thousand yrs of
again to the cities to work, tho we try to create an example
of the shape of that free future)/ because when men battle
accumulated experience before we know the spirit-of-place
(as
for power, it is ego & not life that motivates them/ because
knew
it
before
which animates this continent
indians
the left is shit & no authority, no dictatorship of the protheir environment was destroyed)/ we have not yet learned
letariat or the party, no organization of ideology can force
to love one another wi open hearts-even our profoundest
harmony wi the environment/ because communism, capiwarriors still hide behind ego shields, afraid to touch or be
talism, socialism & facism are all forms of the one cancer
to
include
those
learned
who
come to
touched/ we have not
attacking the face of the planet.
us, greeting them we suspicion because we still fear there is
meanwhile, we are quietly preparing a future for man/
not enuf to go around, because we are still prone to the
secret-agent paranoia of our times/ we have not yet established trying to make use of the whole heritage of men everywhere & all the human, natural & technological resources
real relations wi other communes-groups a few miles apart,
to us/ to find an ecological gontext in which all
available
exchange
or
make
wi
know,
love
each
other/
don't always
the thought & experiences of every culture from every
& (most important) we have not yet found the way to make
time, all the human knowledge & feeling (which have never
our visions & our daily life into the life of everyone on the
before been available to all) can help us see & feel our way
continent.
thru these present crises.
these fears & weaknesses are the flaws in our life which
& whether it's the left, center or right which holds the
make it still possible for the old culture to destroy us/ but
power
(& seeks to destroy us), they will have to create
just
the battle has
begun, that will force us to become more
some mocking version of the way we live, if they wish to
real, more beautiful, or cast us aside/ that is the way of all
survive/ but for those whose survival is the cause of everythings*life becomes more life or it ceases/ & in nature there
one else's death, there can be no human future/ all their
are no half-way measures.
fortresses under the earth or out in space, could only inthe sum of all these limits is the false commune-those
sure the continuation of that monstrosity/ so for those who
groups who still occupy the limits defined by the old life/
wish to survive & continue seeking fulfillment, commune
those who do not constantly seek to break free, to touch one
is the only human future !
another or the world around them/ for us 'commune' is not
COMMUNAL POLITICS
we still live in the world/ are surrounded by it/ & sadly,
politics is still real . . .
communes can be isolated & wiped out/ but in one sense
we have already won-because there.is no future (wi man)
which does not resemble what we are doing/ no human
culture which can survive wiout returning to the land,
which does not husband & share all resources as we do:
20 people wi 4 cars, not 20; 1 or 2 houses, not 10; one
& ultimately (we dream) one communal body.
our recent experiences move us in the same direction:
when a group of us were invited to an indian event, 5
communal groups which have been close for a yr all sent
truckloads of people, resulting in a jam up of 1 5 hip trucks
wi a hundred people/ & when, after some embarassment
& some hostility, we moved to our own carnpsite, we
suddenly realized that we had all really come to see each
other/ some from the country, some from near the city
(halfway houses) & some from plunk in the middle of the
garden
wither away of selfishness or boredom (the barren soil
yielding no crop)/ while open communes with the asinine
concept of 'free land' become rural slums, crash pads
for traveling freaks wi no relation to or respect for the
environment/ they die because they don't recognize the
ecological lirnits of the space they're in-become tangled
growths of weed . . .
the real question is how to grow qualitatively & avoid
stagnation/ how to deal wi each person who comes along
as a human being, how to grow thru internal hassels &
tensions to the real, not up-tight security of flowing/ how
to come & go gracefully, building personal relations, trade
routes, nomad migration patterns across the face of the
continent/ it takes two or three yrs of psychic hassles &
ass bustin work to build the foundations for communal
survivai for a few people/ it takes a lot of strength to
leave & come back when u want to (not because u can't
stand it anymore, or have no piace else to go)/ it takes
vision a communal sense of direction .& the desire to grow,
to make u realize that u have to develop beyond yr limits:
h
r
d
I
I
ffi
ffi
r''
I
"
$
*
shit/all of us united by mutual affection (personal relations as the touchstone), all trying io get control over the
making of our own lives: growing our own food in country meadows or backyard lots, making our vehicles by
piecing together the junk heaps, building our homes out of
the forest & ripped off lumber, fishing our own fish, baking our own bread, & learning to love one another as one
enormous familyl we move around freely from place to
place, as tho from room to room in one enormous house/
at honie wi our brothers & sisters wherever we go/ we are a
family of smaller families yearning to grow larger, to include
more individuals in the circle of affection & to be included
wi other families (other coinmunes) in the one commune
which must eventually be all of us.
to know the seasonal flow of people as well as the soil: to
plant for 100 or 200 in the summer salad gardens & storage
crops for 30 or 40 in the winter & to support 70 when the
land will only provide for 50-whi1e you're out there looking for new land to expand to/ using each commune as
the launching pad for others-people coming together out
of their diverse places, growing a lot together & also
separating & making new formations/ doing it consciously,
so there's no bitterness in parting, & preserving the basic
relations so that there is real growth & development/
mother communes sending out their colonies . . .
we dream of regions, of the western mountains running
from washington to new mexico-one terrain wi similar
topography, weather, water & growing conditions-forest
LOOSE ENDS
areas, mountaln areas, arid areas-where communes build
together, establish their networks,_grow out & thru entire
regions & make them our own / bastions of the new culture bases from which to grow till we cover the face of a
in the last few years alot of communes have broken
asses over the question of whether to be 'open' or
'closed', but the question itselfis bullshit & both alternatives are self-destructive: closed communes stagnate &
their
8
continent, a planet.
-Allun Hoffman
repinted from Good Times
n
{
WI{AM:
The
I\brt
k
"--.*-.**+s
f *:;rr4: *.- :
{-:-ry,%l
)
ge
IE
1r:.?r*rrii&
$#
meetings with the vietnamese and Laotians in
the last two months, I became aware of a series of dramatic
developments currently underway in Indochina pointing
to the prospects of a majot political offensive in South
Vietnam, which may well lead to a governmental crisis in
Drrt,
Saigon.
The first of these meetings with the Vietnamese took
place in Havana and included members of the Committee
of Solidarlty with the American People, leaders of the
Womens Unions in the north and south, NLF organizers
who came directly from Saigon and Hue and, on a separate
occasion, Phoumi Vonvichet, Secretary-General of the
Pathet Lao. The later meetings took place in Paris in late
September and were with members of the delegations to
the Paris talks including Minister Xuan Thuy and Madame
Nguyan Thi Binh as well as a number of independent
French journalists specializing in Southeast Asian allairs'
All oi these discussions, with a remarkable degree of
correlation, pointed to an upsurge of organized anti-Amerikan activity, the increasing isolation of the Thieu-Ky-Kiem
regime and the failure of Vietnamization, all against the
baikground of a US expeditionary force (USEF) relying
.ver mor. heavily on destruction and terrorization of the
through artillery and air bombardment'
population
1. tt e current military posture of the US in South Vietnam is an almost totally passive expeditionary force dug
into enclaves around artillery and air bases with beefed up
ARVN forces serving as defense perimeters. With the exceP
tion of the US invasion of Cambodia, a military and political failure of major proportions, the USEF has conducted
no important ground offensive since the costly assault on
Hamburger Hill over a year ago. By contrast, during the
past eight months, the NLF has sustained military pressure
in the mountain and coastal areas of northern South Vietnam and the Mekong Delta, in addition to repeated forays
in other
areas. According to NLF figures, during the current
year, attacks have been mounted against 38 of the 48 province capitals, 155 out of 260 district towns and 2323
strategic hamlets. During the same period, NLF figuies
claim the destruction of 60 pacification teams, 1400 pacification agents and 38,400 casualties among police, militia
and ARVN troops.
The invasion of Cambodia, far from regaining the initiative for the US or from destroying NLF headquarters, has
mobilized a strong guerrilla movement in that country and
has increased the level of cooperation between Vietnamese,
Laotian and Cambodian resistance forces'
'
Nixon's much heralded program of Vietnamization, an
helped
has
forces,
increased reliance on mercenary ground
to keep US casualties low but has failed in every other objective. Implementation of the Vietnamization program is
"the
direct iause of much of the emerging organized mass
political opposition to the Thieu-Ky-Kiem regime, the
most important and startling facet of the current develop
ments.
lI. The increased manpower needs created by Vietnamization have compelled Saigon to resort to "pressganging"
recruits, resulting in high percentages of dissidents, draft
dodgers and NLF sympathizers in ARVN. Crash attempts
to ulgrade the ARVN officer corps from the ranks of seschool and university students resulted in galva-
"orduly
to
nizingamilitant student power movement against the
regime. Secondary students were mobilized into action by
new examinations which resulted ]n 80% failures and consequent loss of draft defennents. In the Cao Thanh Technical
High School in Saigon, an important center of activity
during the anti-Diem campaign of 1963, student protests
this spring led to sit-ins, occupation of the buildings and
violent clashes with police which lasted for several days.
University students responded evell more forcefully to
Saigon regulations requiring military training on week-ends
and during the summer months. In the spring of 1969, these
regulations set off a rash of street demonstrations resulting
in the burning of military offices. Attempts to revive such
compulsory military training, coupled with Saigon indifference to the massacre of ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia
in the aftermath of the US invasion, set off another wave
of anti-government struggle by university students in major
cities this spring. This struggle is still going on despite incredible attempts to repress it through mass arrests, detention in tiger cages, torture and assassination. Mam, head of
the Saigon Student Union, has spent close to six months of
the past year in prison. The following cable received in the
US by NSA on 20 September 1910 speaks for itself:
Mam and friends are in agony in jail. Students on unlimited hunger strike, May die. May immolate. Saigon .
Student Uiion continuously barricaded and repressed.
Students being threatened with arrest' Need immediate
action. Make general aPPeal in US.
III. Political opposition in the cities of South Vietnam
is by no means confined to students. The unprecedented
picture of wlleel-chair bound ARVN veterans in armed
combat with puppet troops in the shadow of Saigon's presidential palace, managed to break through the US press
blackout. But not so the rnasiacre of 40 young monks from
the An Quang pagoda, part of a much larger group that had
staged a nonviolent sit-in at the government supported
National Pagoda under the banner "The Pagoda Belongs
to the People."
Through July of this year, there were three major labor
strikes and several smaller ones .involving hundreds of thousands ofpeople ranging from dock wotkers, bus drivers
and hotel employees to water and electrical workers. A1though these strikes were based on economic demands (Saigon prices have risen 5O%in less than a year), the context
of Saigon makes every strike political, and a 1965 law
makes every one illegal.
South Vietnamese intellectuals and journalists have also
become increasingly outspoken and activist in their criticism of Vietnamization, the Thieu-Ky-Kiem regime and
continued US devastation of Vietnam. They began by issuing statements in support of the student struggles and those
of the disabled war veterans and other victims of government repression. Even Tran Van Don, one of the more
reactionary members of the Saigon National Assembly and
an old flame of Madame Nhu, has openly supported the
students.
Saigon newspapers are dropping the quotation marks
around NLF and have begun referring to Madame Binh,
head of the PRG delegation in Paris, by hef full title, a
customary sign of respect she had not been previously accorded on in these papers. Severai papers openly criticize "US
imperialism" and report the PRG statements issued in Paris'
Tin
fu11
arti
mo
wel
Ner
an(
Vir
fro
sidr
Vi(
Thr
Blc
em
are
US
Du
as:
J
Tin Sang,the largest circulation Saigon daily, printed the
front page
iutt texior the PRG Eight Point Program as a
*ti.lt. The regime, of course, strikes back-in the past six
months alone 6ver 200 newspapers were seized and there
were many other suspensioni. Tlrz Sang alone was seized
period'
75 times und .utpend.d eight times during that
spreads
but
Nevertheless, the struggle not only continues
andaudacity'
and gains in strength, organization
tf. fne editor of Tin-Sang, Deputy Ngo Cong Duc of
Vinh Binh province, is a wealthy 36 year old landowner
frlm the tnt.tong Delta, a leading Catholic layman and preof South
sident of the Federation of Newspaper Editors
on the
1967
in
Assembly
National
to
the
Vi.tnur',. Elected
Opposition
Socialist
the
of
leader
now
is
Duc
slate,
Thieu
for the
Bloc in the Assembly and an unofficial spokesman
that
Vietnam
of
South
areas
.*"rg"g forces in US occupied
demanding
openly
regime,
Thieu-KylKitof the
ur.
withdrawal and advocating coalition with the PRG'
US "r"itlJd
At a press confetence in Paris on September 21,1970'
Duc described the role of the US troops in South Vietnam
AS:
engaged in round the clock massacres
lris Team/LNS
of our innocent
compatriots. Cases such as My Lai-Son My, which each
time'take 50G600 victims, are by no means isolated
incidents. The US has dropped more than ten million
ions of bombs on our country, and scattered an untold
quantity of toxic chemical products as well as nearl-yo'"e nuioreO thousand tons of detbliants on our fields
and rice plantations, which have resulted in the sterilization and destruction of all the harvests. Rich in rice,
South Vietnam is now reduced to consuming American
rice. As a result of the use of toxic products, South
Vietnarn is currently plagued with strange diseases:
women are giving birth to monsters, and there is an ever
growing nu,ib.r-of women afflicted with psychic disorders.
Duc describes the "success" of Vietnamization and the
Thieu regime in these words:
On th'e political level, with the Vietnamization of the
war, the United States seeks only to uphold the militarists and prolong the war'
The governhent of Mr. Nguyen Van Thieu is a dictatoriai government which peisecutes all those who struggle
for peice and independence, and jails the.innocent' In
the iingte province of Minh Binh, of which I am a. deputy,
more tf,arrthree hundred people were last year arbitrarily
TE
*
at
DuE To
sot,rE REcENr,
SPECXACULAR,
fit
BREM.
be
THROUGHS, noUR CBW.
RESEARCH, WE,HERE-AT
su
gr
THE PROVII{G G,RON.'ND-
ARE NOW PREPARED
St
TO A}INOUNCE TOTHE
m
AMERICAN PEOPLE,WIH
AND PRO.
FESSIONAL @NFIDENCE,
GREAT PRIDE I
a
V
THAT EVERY I4AN,WOMAN
A}.ID CHII.D ON THE FJACE OF
rHE EARTH, mGARDLESS
OF RACE, CREED, PI.ACE OT
oRGIN, oP CHo|CE- CAN,
FROIV1
THIS MOIV\ENT FOP.
WARD, BE EXPECTEDTO
GIVE THEIR LIVES! THAT
THIS NATION SHATL NOT
tr
I
I
I
fe
pr
c(
AI
al
c(
ol
w
br
a1
n
4o
|
,--
)--''
RgoBB
IT
P
li
p
arrested and jailed. ln 1969, the Americans stated that
there were only twenty thousand cadres in South Vietnam;
at the end of 1969, however, the government arrested
more than seventy thousand people, and it appears that
the number of Communist cadres has not diminished.
These very figures condemn the repressive policies of
the Saigon government.
At the present, the Nguyen Van Thieu government
severly represses all opposition movements. Several hundred war victims are being held in jails; several hundred
students were taken to military training camps;the
president of the Student Union of Saigon-Hue is in prison. All are subjected to the most savage kinds of torture.
The statement goes on to detail the atrocities committed
by US imperialism and the "dictatorial" Saigon regime,
and concludes with a proposal for peace which is entirely
compatible with the PRG Peace Initiative (Eight Point
Program) and is in violation of Saigon treason statutes.
Included in the Duc plan is a proposal to seat a fifth delegation at the Paris talks to represent the "overwhelming
majority" of the South Vietnamese population in the occupied areas "demanding peace, independence, democracy,
freedom and national reconciliation." Needless to say, this
amounts to the total repudiation of the legitimacy of the
Saigon regime.
Ngo Cong Duc is no isolated or Quixotic figure. A close
of General "Big" Minh, often mentioned as the
most likely head of a transitional coalition, Duc has the
explicit and open support ofleading personalities in Saigon
as well as the popular politicai forces described earlier. A
brief but instructive listing of such supporters include: the
Assistant Archbishop of the Catholic Church in Saigon, the
Unified Buddhist Church, leaders of the Buddhist listed in
the last elections, the Vice President of the National Assembly (Ha Van Minh), the head of the Movement of Women
associate
t2
to Defend the Right of Survival (Nguyen Ba Thanh), the
head of the faculty of Liberal Arts (Vo Ba) and Faculty of
Science (Nguyen Van Thzung) at Saigon University, as
well as leading journalists.
Thieu's response to the Paris statement was to threaten
Duc with immediate arrest upon return to Saigon and seizure of the issues of Tin Sang carrying the text of the document; It is a measure of Thieu's isolation that this did not
deter Duc's immediate retum. The chorus of protest
generated by Thieu's threats, did,,however, prevent him
from carrying it out thus far.
The assessment of experienced obseryers in Paris places
Thieu in a much weaker position at the present time than
Ngo Diem just prior to his overthrow in 1963. That this
assessment is shared in Saigon is partially borne out by
widespread rumorsouggesting that Thieu will "pull a (Lyndon) Johnson" in the presidential elections scheduled for
September I 971 . There are, in fact, some indications that
third parties have been trying to communicate hints of
Thieu's "flexibility and political realism" to the pRG in the
absurd hope of finding a spot for him in a future transitional
government.
V. Against this background the PRG Peace Initiative
put forward by Mme Nguyen Thi Binh in paris on Septem_
ber l7 , 1970 takes on immense significance as the only
viable and realistic basis for peace in Vietnam in the foreseeable future. The compatibility of this proposal with the
Duc position comes as no surprise once we recognize them as
responding to the same objective situation. A careful reading
also renders Nixon's Five Point Proposal a non-response
motivated by propaganda and domestic political considerations.
The cornerstone of the PRG proposal is acceptance by
the US of the principle of total military withdrawal by a
tl
I(
S1
al
tI
ti
c
reasonable and specified date. While the PRG set this date
at June 30, 1971, clearly inspired by the McGovern-Hatfield Amendment, certainly one can assume this detail to
be subject to negotiation. Not so the demand to set some
such date. Not only is this demand clearly justified on
grounds ofprinciple after one quarter century ofcontinuous
struggle against Western imperialism buLit reflects the
military and political balance in South Vietnam.
Following acceptance of this principle, which would set
a date for the termination of US belligerence in South
Vietnam, immediate steps could be taken to safeguard US
troops during the withdrawal period and talks to affect the
release of US prisoners could begin. lndeed, according to
private indications, the actual release of such prisoners
iould get underway before the withdrawal deadline if
arrangements can be completed. These two points are clear
and direct responses by the PRG to the two questions most
consistently raised by US negotiators since the beginning
of the Paris talks. Safety of US troops, it should be recalled,
was given by Nixon as the main rationale behind the Cambodian invasion and the sole legal iustification for continuation of US military operations in South Vietnam.
The sections of the PRG Peace Initiative dealing with
methods for reaching a political settlement are at once
more flexible and more precise than the earlier Ten Point
Program offered in Paris on May 8; 1969. The steps outlined include a provisional coalition for the limited purpose ofenabling "the South Vietnam people (to) decide
themselves the political regime of South Vietnam through
really free and democratic general elections . . .No party
shall usurp for itself the right to organize general elections
and lay down their modalities." It is important to note
that nowhere is the total withdrawal of US troops mentioned as a pre-condition for either the formation of the
coalition government or for holding elections. Further-
more, such a coalition will specifically include elements from
the PRG, the current government in Saigon and persons
currently living outside Vietnam representing various forces in South Vietnam. The onlv people specifically exciuded from such a provisional government are Thieu, Ky,
and Kiem. As Mme. Binh put it in our conversations, "We
have fought a quarter of a century to exclude
three men from the government." In light of such explicit
statements, Nixon's misrepresentation of this point can
only be viewed as intentional and for the purpose of sabotaging prospects for negotiations.
-VI-.
Nixon's Five Point Plan offered on October 7, far from
being a peace initiative, is a carefully contrived mixture of
duplicity, misrepresentation and emotive rhetoric designed
to manufacture political legitimacy and domestic support
for continuing the war along somewhat revised lines. This
can be seen on the most cursory examination.
A standstill cease-Iire in the context of South Vietnam
is a political question and not merely a military, one. Any
attempt to ascertain who controls which areas would necessitate surfacing the entire guerrilla apparatus and open
identification of all cadre and NLF sympathizers thereby
exposing them to the full force of Saigon's repression and
US military annihilation. In the absence of US withdrawal this
this would amount to suicide or surrender, the choice resting on the tender mercies of Thieu-Ky-Kiem and Nixon.
Insistence that the cease-fire extend over all of Indochina
should be sufficient to discredit Nixon's plan except among
stalwart know-nothings who still believe that Hanoi controls every resistance movement in the area from NLF and
Pathet Lao to the Khmer United Froflt and the growing
Thai movement.
The call for an Indochina Conference by Nixon, after
unilaterzrlly turning the conflict into an Indochina War by
invading Cambodia, can only be characterized as unmiti-
\i
,sd
e
Lal
t.
AS
ng
{
,k
$)t
'Iiii; #
l3
gated gall. The clear purpose of this move, consistent with
Nixon's entire performance in office, is to downgrade the
importance of the Paris talks and divert attention from the
Eight Point Initiative of the PRG. The very manner of issuing the Five Points over domestic TV prior to its presentation in Paris, bears this out. While sounding reasonable to
an uninformed public it lays the goundwork for a prolongation of the war. The slightest reflection on the complexity of convening such a conference, the time it would take
to organize it and bring all the parties together, and the
pace at which discussions would proceed at such a gathering
should make it crystal clear that Nixon has no thought of
an early end to the war.
Point three on troop withdrawats is simply a restatement
of US intentions to continue its present policy of transferring the ground fighting to ARVN mercenaries under
closer supervision through a much more thorough system
of'advisors'. The prototype is already in operation in parts
of the Mekong Delta where US 'advisors', amounting to
unit commanders, now extend down to the village and hamlet level. This process in intended to cut down US casualties
and free the US military to pursue its attempt to bleed the
Vietnamese people into submission through the increased
use of artillery and air power. It is further based on the calculation that high US casualties is a liability on the domes-
tic political scene and cost-effectiveness studies that show
the expenditure to keep one GI in the field will buy eight
similarly equipped Vietnamese mercenaries. This observation is the heart of the Nixon Doctrine for Asia.
When talking about a political settlement, Nixon finally
attempts to respond to one plank of the PRG program. It
is a measure of the reasonableness of the PRG proposal, and
proof of Nixon's intent to disrupt regotiation attempts,
that he has to totally misrepresent the PRG position on
who will participate in the coalition in the course of his
futile attempt to discredit it. It should also be noted that
while the PRG offer outlines the steps which can lead to
democratic elections Nixon's Five Points contain no reference to elections.
Nixon's final point on release of all prisoners is clearly
an emotional play meant solely for domestic consumption
during an election period. Contrary to government-inspired
propaganda in the US press, the extent ofcontact between
US prisoners in North Vietnam and their families, conducted through the Committee of Liason established by anti
war activists, is unprecedented for any war in recent hiy
tory. It should also be borne in mind that every American
flying bombing missions in this war volunteers for the task
and nearly every one is a career officer. For Nixon to equate
these men with peasant-soldiers intent on driving foreign
aggessors from their soil, to 'offer'exchanges when US
troops are under orders not to bring in prisoners, to demand
release of these career bombers while he continues to
pound South Vietnam with tonnage equivalent to two and
one-half Hiroshima-size bombs per week this is the height
of arrogance.
VII. The picture should be falling into shape. The US
expeditionary force is stalemated and continued US casualties, even below Nixon's 'acceptable' figure of one hundred per week, is a political liability. The Thieu-Ky-Kiem
regime is more isolated each day as a mass based popular
movement in the cities of South Vietnam presses more
I4
strongly for total US withdrawal and peace through a political settlement with the PRG. The Nixon Administration
is attempting to sabotage this very process by sheer techno
logical and economic power in Saigon, duplicity in Paris
and repression at home.
In the Nixon timetable the period fiom now until May
1,1971, is crucial. That is the deadline projected by Secretary of State Rogers for phasing out US forces from
ground combat operations. This is also Nixon's deadline for
the transition to a "low American profile" meant to enable
bleeding Vietnam indefinitely., cheaply and with a minimum
of domestic cost. The people in the United States must not
allow this transition to take place.
The political struggle now taking shape in the cities of
South Vietnam is already broader based than that which
toppled Diem. Only the timing remains in doubt for a major
major political offensive which undoubtedly create a governmental crisis in Saigon before May l,l97l. The analogy
with 1963 breaks down, however, when we compare the US
troop levels, the number of ARVN mercenaries and the
level of economic and political committment of Washington
to Thieu, with the conditions which prevailed under Dem.
In short, the political opposition may yet be crushed, and
crushed for years even in Thieu falls, unless there is a complementary offensive in the United States.
It is an ingrained movement habit to either shortchange or over-estimate our strength, to overlook the strategic possibilities and necessities of specific historical periods. We cannot make that mistake now. Neither we nor the
Vietnamese can afford it. One of the signals that the forces
,3
I
:i
of popular opposition in South Vietnam may well be
awaiting is a visible movement in the United States in solidarity with them. If they go into the streets sometirne in
the next six months we must be prepared to act along
with them, all the millions of people who poured out during the Cambodian invasion, and millions more, not spontaneously this time and not as a reaction to Nixon but because we have prepared for it, because we saw it coming and
we are determined to act decisively. We can turn the NixonRogers timetable of May I into a deadline for U.S. withdrawal
from Vietnam.
-Bob Greenblatt
L
c
o
D
o
Wr
th
th
lit
m.
vc
7
Y.&.
.r.,.-
1!
[
,n..
'it
1:,.
\*ll
-..
+'9.'.ht
1$
1A:
-?!a
a{
tr
rJ
1..h L
]}
t:".?
r
t-
i
s
ti..-
esB&i
,i
.:.*.
.r'',,
,&
'r
1d
t-
n-
awal
a
tt
r:'.
c
C'*1'
"d&ffi,..: . ;..-.-.-...,-,,..-.,
.*6f;1::..'
g
o
I
t
o
I
WHAT I trIItrI LAsiT SiIJMMEFI
Three experiences this summer have helped bing forward in my head some ideas and feelings about our selves,
the Movement, and the country. The three experiences:
the Milwuukee "strategy Action Conlbrence";'six weeks
living, swimming, ruminating, sleeping, writing, loving with
"aemy famity in the connectiiut hiils;jne rnliartphri
Convention".
volutionary Peoples Constitutional
.
The chief ideasf feetings they brought forwarcl:
l. A sense oJ the compelling need for ,r$-liirorrry ora
self-revelation among especially (but not only ) whitemale-middleclass-American radicals of what oppresslors they themselves, we ourselves, suffer from the
Empire.
2.
A
sense
of the compelling
need
for a new
politicalf
organizational formf program linking the radical
mZvements with the much larger numbers of baffled'
onW Americans'
. A sinse of the compelling
3'
need for the radical move'
political forms within
communalf
new
Ueate
ments to
themselves that avoid the "Movement Heavyf su'
preme Commonder" syndrome without paralyzing us
against oll action and decision'
4. i sense of the compelling need for us to be imagining
alternatives' new futures' new models for Ameican
society' and to be incorporating these both in our
demands and our own practice'
faking them up in order (though of course they overlap
and interconnect):
t5
the Pantl'rers and the women with as much sister-brother
feeling as Michael Tabor treated even the silly question
about "Black milljonaires" in Philadelphia-that is, with
the radical love and solidarity of arguing and criticizing
when we think they're wrong, even perl-raps exposing our
racism and sexism for criticism rather than falling supine
for fear of rnaking mistakes? And it's not only fear. Wher.r
I say anger, I have in mind that it's scarcely loving to collapse in mindless echoes before brothers and sisters wl.ro
need us not supine but erect and active at their side. So
cu
Le
to
bc
nir
si<
de
pir
co
et(
perhaps the supineness masks anger? even hatred, of their
toge therness.
Well, should the Blacks and the worten "leave us alone,"
then-not confront us? No. Is it a useful process for us to
be confronted with our oppressor status? Partly, yes, because we do have roles as oppressors and need to sl.rake
them off . But not if it is the only process going on inside us.
Notice that the women's iiberation movement, although
white women help oppress Blacks, does notlbcas on anti-
J
/
'
backs
of
Blacks, women, the workers, the Vietnamese-we
der
sio
point we were about to start recovering from the blow of
discovering we are oppressors, sorne new group pointed out
we were oppressing them, and we paralyzed ourselves anew.
Although guilt is, I think, one major component of the
paralysis, there are also fear and anger not fear of and
anger at the Empire, which can be turned ir.rto revolutio
nary action, but fear of and anger at Blacks . . .women . .
etc. Fear, in that the untogether find the together frigh-
think of ourselves that way it's hopeless.
I have four suggestions: four ways.I feel oppressed, and
many of my friends too; four ways that an analysis of the
Empire would also suggest are important points of contra-
tening. Physically frightening. even. How many of us treat
diction.
t6
TES
Th
wa
ser
pr(
sha
do
tal<
rad
the vast bulk of the anti-war movement and the white-malemiddleclass-American (WMMA) radical movement fold up,
disintegrate, cannot create a vigorous democratic action
process. (Cannot do so even to support the Vietnamese. Or
the Blacks. Or women.)
So-to repeat, what on Earth would it mean for us to
liberate ourselves? Forget all the WMMA category adjectives: they are oppressor descriptions, and as long as we
.
pr,
tht
functions as Panther centralism. The "Mobe Heavies" are
NlF-surrogates who are followed by the movernent because
much of the movement has no politics of its owr liberation,
only liberation of the Vietname.se. Everytime radicals complain about one set of Mobe Heavies and move them aside,
they reappear, or a different set takes their place-because
can never build our own movement for our owr liberation.
The old SNCC injunction to "go organize your own community" we took to mean not "Go discern your own op
pressions and organize against them as we Blacks have,"
but "Organize against racism, against sexism, against imperialism" .soon it will be (or aiready is) "against classism, middleclass supremacy, and class snobbery," At any
thr
Pal
difficult next time. It is a vicious circle. The reason the
Panthers have switched their line and to some extent their
behavior toward women and homosexuals is that Women's.
and Gay Liberation had their own politics.)
Important parallel (experienced in Milwaukee): within
the white movement, the "Movement Heavy" phenomenon
characteristic of the Mobe has the same origins and same
among the oppressed. We thus operate under an enormous
load of guilt, and in our haste and urgency to get off the
an
im
feeiing this syndrome as a problem for quite awhile: Philadelphia made my feeling of its dangers and destructiveness
much stronger. The Blacks there were very clear about
their own oppression; so were the women and the homosexuals, as a result, only the women and the homosexuals
were able to deal, emotionally and politically, with the difficulties created by Panther centralism. Able to "deal" in
the sense of moving forward in the direction the Panthers
correctly pointed out, despite their incorrect (even if necessary) way of running the Convention: the correct direction of starting to imagine and demand the decent society.
The white-male-middleclass-American radicals collapsed
into confusion. (If they had not, by the way, they would
have made Panther centralism both less necessary and more
L What on Earth could it mcan for white-rnale-middleto libelate themselves? I use these
categories deliberately because, put this way, as it is practically alwa.ys put, they-that is, we-arc oppressors, not
6.V
lib
racist organizing. lt includes anti-racism. Notice that
Blacks, although they help oppress Vietnamese, do not
Jocus on anti-war organizing. They include it. I'd been
class-An.rerican people
dr'
I
,?
a. "Psychological" and "spiritual,' oppression. See Mar_
cuse, G-itlin, Ginsberg, Oglesby, Sinclair, Lester, Millet,
Laing, Goodman. The women at their best keep pointing
to it as the need for male liberation-the reconnection of
body, mind, and spirit. The rejection of hard ..masculinity". The search for community, ecstasy, multi-dimen_
sionality. The problem is that it is hard to understand the
denial of ecstasy of community aspolitical facts. The Empire so diffuses these controls that it usually seems non_
confrontational to resist them. (Yet communes get busted,
etc . . .) Is there any way to assert fftls liberation short of
dropping out of jobs, nuclear families, etc.? Maybe not. Is
"Woodstock Nation" a first, superficial effort to create a
liberating religion which would be an enemy of the State
aad of its psychological-spiritual oppression? Maybe. If
that's correct, it's a direction to keep on with but not
immediately applicable to the straight jobholders. So let,s
presson...
b. The oppressive controls over work. Bureaucracies.
Paper-pusher assembly lines. Don,t goof off. Snap to when
the principal gets on the PA. (I mean teachers, not stu_
dents.) Take orders, don't join with equals in making decisions, Don't bother "understanding,, your work, or its
results. The worker as nigger, not just student as nigger.
This whole syndrome (classic Marxist syndrome, ty lfre
way-simply translated to the new-class, information_as_
sembly instead of metal-assembly line) is worsened by the
present unemployment and profit squeezes. you better
shape up, Jack got fired. You gol to speed up, my profit,s
down (or, my Federal grant is down). Hbw crme ,e haven,t
taken seiously any organizing on these lines? (Even the
radicals-in-the-professions work has mostly focused on op_
posing the exploitation of Blacks by professionals, etc.)
c. The pollution-health interface. Some radical health
people claim the average life expectancy will decresse for
Americans over the next decade, for the first time in U.S.
history, Reason: we can hardly do better than we are with
communicable diseases, and the environmental diseases are
getting worse and will get worser. Lung cancer. Emphy_
sema. Mercury poisoning. DDTpoisoning. Etc. etc. etc. etc.
Meanwhile, a lousy health system. Not equally distribu_
ted but when we did a little equalizing (Medicare) we dis_
covered there wasn't "enough', to go ,round, even if equa..
lized. Plus, not under patient or medical-worker control_
so the health care is sloppy, nasty. Why are these issues
being pushed by liberals, not radicals? What does it mean to
say Nixon (or even Senator Hart) has coopted these issues?
Can they stop corporate pollution without shutting down
the corporations? Can they provide democraticaliy con_
trolled health centers without abolishing capitalism? McGo_
vern opposes the war; do we therefore forget it? Kerner
opposes racism; do we therefore forget it? The goddamn
pollution is killing as-and a/so women, and also Blacks,
and also Vietnamese, and, also factory workers. Don't we
care?
d. Nuclear holocaust. people don,t seem to care as
much as they did in, say, 1962, but I still carry around in
my head an extremely vivid picture of me, my wife, and
my kids being roasted to death as a nuclear firestorm engulfs Washington. Maybe others do.
2. We are abysmally bad at linking radical analysis and
action to the concerns, angers, guilts, and frustrations of
fed-up Americans-either the non-political or those who
have organized themselves but only for liberal actioncollective-bargaining strikes, election, rally-demos, etc.
The nearest thing we have had to a link or transmission
belt between liberals and radicals has been the Mobe. Radicals have kept wanting to withdraw from it so they can do
"radical" organizing (i.e. anti-imperialist or anti-racist instead of just anti-war), or because it is a topdown, Heavydominated organization. Liberals (and liberal labor) viewit
as single issue, occasionally as too militant.
Hypothesis: the Mobe's failure is both structural and
programmatic.
Second hypothesis: we need a ..national
coalition, led by radicals but including liberals.
Third hypothesis: we could now build one around
Ner Beck
"Stop the Death Machine" or "Stop the War Machine,"
more easily than around "Stop the War." Why? Radicals
would see more scope for their work, liberal anti-pollutionists, anti-police-staters, anti-militarists would dig the
broader program-a broader program they can now only
find in liberal electoral politics. The radicals' own organizational. forms and actions could act as more reasonable
and attractive models for the liberal anti-war people to
copy and improve on and move into, if radicals were acting
against their own oppression and this linked up with antiWar Machine and anti-Death Machine demands.
For example: Let's dream a little. If there were a Stopthe-Death-Machine coaLlition, led by-say-Welfare Rights
women, the Panthers and similar Third World groups,
Women's Liberation, a resurrected radical student movement like SDS from 1965 to 1967 (except much bigger)
and an as yet non-existent Movement for the Liberation of
the New Working Class, with openings for radical old-wor
king-class groups as they appeared, and including anti-war
liberals, anti-pollutionists. SC-LQ and other Black activists,
pacifists, the farm workers, District 65, and other leftoriented unions, etc. If this coalition decided to go after
GM, Standard Oil, and the highway lobby as deathmakersthat would offer a great deal more flexibility to anti-capitalist radicals and to particulat non-"radical" groups which
focus on ending pollution, or on ending highway attacks
on Black communities, or on ending military contracts and
"reversing national priorities," or on demanding higher pay
for workers and a more self-controlled work process and
working conditions.
But program is not the only problem in creating a coalition. Structure is, too. I believe the Heavies would be
/ess
of
a problem
if
if
necessary race around or over
But the point is that we need to be able to make demo
cratic Movement decisions (as Paul Booth wrote concerning politico-legal defense ) or else some Heavies will make
them undemocratically-because we do have to ma[e decisions. If we were capable of doing that, we could even put
the Heavies-without-a-constituency (the Lenses, the Davises) to far better use. Because they are bright, they do get
things done. Trying to parulyze them so that they won't
dominate us is a self-destructive response. We need to unparalyze ourselves, not paralyze them.
3. I referred to collectives. It's practically the Movement's conventional wisdom already that they are the way
we ought to organize ourselves, so I don't need to say much
(Wlrich doesn't mean we'll do it, rrat:urally. (But I want to
add again that, as hard as they are to create and sustain
(maybe they'd be less hard if women and men were at the
to free themselves,
same place
in
could do
together without feeling contempt/ragelfearl
it
knowing how
gui
inl
and
so
col
sha
wh
we
An
dea
mo
an
SOT
nol
col
fia,
an)
ma
imi
der
we knew our own oppressions, but
that would not eliminate them. Such a coalition should also
be made up not of individual heavies but of organizations,
with delegates responsible to and removable by the organizations that sent them, and the coalition should probably
require rotation in delegates. (Thus, the AFSC might send
2 people, but neither could serve more than 6 months in
each year, say-or 6 months ever.) Perhaps a way could be
worked orit of giving strong voice to regional federations
or collectives (like the Seattle Liberation Front), as compared to regional councils of conventional organizations.
The point is that present Coalition structures, as well as
programs, encourage the Heavy syndrome; we should work
out structures that encourage the opposite.
Implicit in my feelings about a non-Heavy coalition is
that there does need to be a coalition. Not evqrybody
agrees; some radicals want local-action-on1y, some think
that even national actions, like the post-Cambodia strike,
are far more effective and militant if they are wholly locally
insurgent, spreading like wildfire without being "set". I
agree only in part. What I saw in Milwaukee, and Philadelphia, and in the incapacity of the movement throughout
the summer, convinced me that the Brecher position
(Liberation, June 1970) on the evils of organization and the
values of spontaneity is only correct at peculiar moments
of special crisis, especially those triggered by outrageous
acts of the Empire. (Thus, TDA after the Conspiracy trial,
the Black Uprising after the murder of King, etc.) In
between those times, we need structures, self-discipline, doggedness. When those moments occur, we should all try to
have the courage to suspend or ignore tlle regular organiza-
t8
tions, to transcend them or
them.
Y;O
66
o;9 0
!li:
oa
guilt toward each other), it has to be done. My six weeks
in Connecticut taught me, through the miniature (family)
collective, how renewing, how mindexpanding it can be tcr
share intellectual, physical, political concerns with others'
When we arrived, I rvas writing a book. By the time we left,
we wete writing the book, itr some very important ways'
And the book was a great deal better. My head was a great
deal clearer. When we arrived, I felt as if I had left the
movement-guilty. By the time we left, I felt we had joined
a new one, or created a new little cell of the movement, or
some such.
i
I
I
Which doesn't mean the feeling lasts, especially if you're
not going back to a collective, especially, especially if the
colteitive you'd sort of expected to go back to looks badly
fractured when You tumble in.
4. Okay. The Panthers deserve two goddam cheers,
anyway. Nobody else has been able to invent a way to
make the Movement take seriously its obligation to start
imagining what the decent society (socialism, participatory
democraiy, whatever) would look like. To me it doesn't
look like Supreme Commander Newton replacing Commander-in-Chief Nixon in the White House. But I've been beating my brains out for three years trying to get the Move-
ment to think 15, 20,30 years ahead so it can act now to
built that future. Never got anywhere. The book I've been
working, even, is abofi 1999-I've been hoping that miSht
help. Iiow
it
looks as if maybe, maybe, just maybe the
do it' (One of the reaNewton is that I
Commander"
"supreme
sons I don't dig
think what we build now in opposition may weil be what
,oiion of a new Constitution might
governs us/how we govern in 1999. The Coalition structure
i've sketched abovqis one I'd be delighted to live with as
the Continental Congress of America, after the "revolution"'
iupt.-. Commandlrs are not what I want to live under
then, any more than now. What's more, they won't win'
tire
araftlng
of
a Counter-Constitution may help the
movement clarlfy its vision, fi If. If people will create collectives and think/feel/talk/act through in their collective
their own oppressions and therefore their own liberations
people
and therefore their own futures/constitutions' f
*iff U.-h.* that the heavy-handed centralism of Philadelphia, plus the confused hurry-upand-wait of Philadelphia
are inaamissible-because both the centralism and the con-
fusion kept large parts of the Movement from getting its
head togettrer--bui instead of either shrieking at the Panthers or'sneaking off into the night so as to avoid that hasso
sle next time will calmly and firmly make arrangements
If
better-ordered'
and
open-ended
more
both
urt
thirrg,
proit. will construct some political organism that allows
iuArcat to talk and act with liberals and non-politicals,
around images and chunks of a decent society that can attract the baffled and the angrY'
I'm not suggesting that the debate over a Counter-Con
stitution is the only way we can address the future' Perhaps
collectives can discipline themselves to address, not all the
time but periodicaily, what they imagine as a desirable and
achievable situation for themselves 20 years hence, and
then act to move toward that future now. (In short, keep
themselves from getting hung up by habit in less "radicalf',
less "socialist" processes or politics or work than they
could be and want to be in when they think it through')
Perhaps radicals could create places where liberals and nonpoliticals can think/feel through what it would be like to
iive in one or another version of a democratic society-to
spur them to act on such a vision now. I would very much
in the movement who.are ready to
like to work with people
-such
perhaps especially with the
efforts,
with
experiment
kinds of "new-working-class" people whose culture and
training is likely to predispose them in that kind of semifuturisl direction and whose present'bafflement and anger
may be moving them toward political engagement'
Whatever means we use to involve ourselves and others
in this process of imagining the future in order to be able
to create it now, we need to be using some means to deal
with the issue.
All througlr the '60s, when people asked the Movement
"So what's your alternative? What do you peopie want
anyway?" it was a put-down- Now, at last, the Movement
is tig enough and the Empire in a deep enough crisis that
peop-le rntu-n tt . question seriously -.or at least they would
if *. untl".red the question seriously. We owe it to ourselves and to the American peoples to create some answers'
.B
ft-ri3iB
$ifii19
-Arthur llaskow
Ner Beck
t9
lnnfl
UVI II
0ltaLl
Whoever would have thought it possible? Quiet, passive,
liberal Canada, haven for American draft-resisters and deserters shows its true face. We have been told often enough that
liberalism is only skin deep-well, here is yet another example.
The Canadian Confederation cultivated for over 100 years
by the steady hand of British-styled political gradualism has
aborted. Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the dandy of
Canadian liberalism, with his cabinet, enacted the War Measures Act and consequently unleashed the most unprecedented political terror in the history of the country.
not believe in 'national defence' for an Independent Quebec,
seeks a nonaligned foreigr policy, does not wish a standing
professional army but will institute an education programme
which would teach the entire population from grade school
on the techniques of mass civil resistance to any invader.
th
Since its founding the Parti Quebecois grew enormously until its' membership on the eve of the elections was greater
Pa
than the combined memberships of the Liberal Party of Quebec and the then-ruling Union Nationale (the conservatives)
party).
perpetrated on the French-Canadian people. When the new
Economic and Psychological Terrorism
nationalist movement was born in resistance to the oppression
Perhaps the most important reason for the defeat of the
the signals were clear. As this movement became more sociaUnion Nationale and the last-minute reduction of the Parti
list and libertarian moving from the narrower questions of
language and culture to political domination and economic
Quebecois vote from the approximate 30 percent of the popular vote predicted by the opinion polls was the effective
exploitation its militancy increased. As the collective frusand massive use of psychological and economic blackmail by
tration rose, the averlue of armed struggle began to beckon.
the financial establistrment and its dependent institutions,
Enter in 1 963 the Front de Liberation du Quebec embarparticularly the mass media, to pressure both,English and
king upon a course of small-scale bombings, bank robberies,
French-speaking voters into voting for the status quo Liberal
and dynamite thefts. What Americans are reading about in
party. The order in which the main elements of the blacktheir navspapers now, we have been reading for the last
mail attempt unfolded seemed to follow a preconceived patseven years in ours. Concurrent with this development were
rn which apparently involved collusion between some memsporadic electoral activities by independent political parties,
bers of Pierre Elliot Trudeau's own staff and important memand many massive direct actions and confrontations.
This rapid history of the rise of a people to self-determina- bers of Montreal's plutocracy. The incidents are too numerous
tion came to a climax during the Quebec general elections of to list here, but for a complete analysis of this crucial election read OUR GENERATION, Vol.7, No.2.
April 1970. About a year earlier a new independence politiThe federalist Liberals ieceived 45% of the popular vote,
cal party was founded-Le Parti Quebecois. It broug[rt toapproximately 2Wo fuom the English speaking minority of
gether all the nationalist and socially progressive forces in a
voters (about I million out of a 7 million French-speaking
mass social democratic party with a pacifist orientation. Le
Parti Quebecois is probably the only political party that does population), and25% from French Quebecois. The Parti
Since the early 1960's Canadians have become aware not
for the first time in our history of the enormous injustices
20
Qr
th
OT
fo
tu
of
ce
th
Ar
so
wl
wl
B
ir
47/
I
I
I
Qu'ebecois vote of 24% was approximately equal to that of
the Liberals among the French Quebecois. When one adds
the 20% vote given to the Union Nationale party which ran
on a platform of self-determination for Quebec through the
formation of a bi-national Canadian state, to the 24% of the
Parti Quebecois, we now arrive at a total vote of 44% or between 55 and,57% of French Quebec that voted for a form
of independence and against Trudeau's brand of federalism.
Even so the Liberai party with only 45% of the vote received 69% of the seats, and the-Parti Quebecois with 25% of
the vote received only 6.5% of the seats in the National
Assembly. So much for parliamentary democracy. The lesson from this election was learned widely in Quebec. A little
while afterwards the influpntial new left paper, Qqqrtier Latin
wrote.
" ^ i'The
most obvious result of the elections is that we are
heading for a major confrontation in Quebec' Quebec did
not defrnitely and irrevocably endorse federalism' as Pierre
Elliot Trudeau pontificated. Quebec society is becoming
increasingly divided into two camps, on the one hand the
anglophiles and those among us who think as they.do, .
spokesmen or advocates of values related to American impirialism, and on the other hand a rapidly growing number of francophiles who have opted for Quebec without
falling into a natrow nationalism. Independently of the
type of commitment or action chosen in the future, the
confrontation will be between them and us." (Le Quartier Latin, Vol.52, No.l6, May 15, 1970).
The New Confrontation
The confrontation came when the F.L.Q. kidnapped one
British official and a Quebec politician. The F.L.Q. demands
included wide publication of their manifesto, release of the
a
23 political prisoners now in prison, $500,000 in gold, and
the re-hiring by the Federal government of several hundred
post-office truck drivers who were thrown out of work after
the now-famous Lapalme strike.
The Federal government responded with that cold ruthlessness for which the liberal Trudeau has now become infamous. It quickly escalated the whole situation by enacting
the most extreme action, the War Measures Act strictly reserved for wartime purposes. At first the opposition party
leaders opposed this action. Sweet revenge filled the nostrilt
of both the Federal and Provincial Liberals and the police
forces as a 'kill two birds with one stone' strategy unfolded.
The F.L.Q. is reputed to have about 30 cells across Quebec, wi.th about 175. activists and about 3,000 sympathizers
This hardly represents a force that can'stage a coup d'etat;
besides a seizure of power stands contrary to what the F.L.Q.
urges. Pierre Vallieres recently wrote: "It is not uncommon
to meet revolutionaries who think only of the overthrow of
the bourgeois state, as if an overthrow had a magic power,
and could give birth spontaneously, from one day to the
next of the effective conditions for the liberation of individuals and collective groups, for their liberation from their
present alienation, and for a new movement towards greater
freedom for each one ofus." Vallieres is the leading theorist
of the F.L.Q. who just spent three years in jail on charges
that were finally modified and was recently released on bail.
The F.L.Q. manifesto is a clear statement with a libertarian
2l
free public transportation, anti-automobile action, public
ownership of all urban land) which also favours electoral
action at the municipal level. This type of electoralism is the
them by themselves.
last option that is being used within the system by the populist and trade Left in Quebec after the general elections of
The Military Occupation of Quebec
April 1970. FRAP decided at its recent convention to conThese facts not withstanding, the military occupation was
test the forthcoming October 25th municipal elections in
undertaken with over 13,000 police and troops into the foray. Montreai. The present Drapeau administration which also
Quebec especially, but all of Canada was promptly put under called for the military occupation has up until now ruled
martial law. The Canadian Bill of Rights was suspended and
Montreal without opposition at City Hall. With many of its
the Act validated until April 1971. Scores of people are being activists arrested, and several of its candidates in prison just
arrested, their homes raided, their offices searched, printing
weeks before the elections FRAP seems decimated.
machinery and all sorts of other material with which to ac-.
Opposition to Repression
hieve an insurrection like films, pamphlets, files, and magaTo
watch
and
listen to American television and to read
zines were seized.
the New York Times one comes away with the impression
Most people outside Canada are not as yet aware that the
that Canadians have accepted all this without opposition.
War Measures Act is being used as a pretext by the State to
Nothlng could be further from the facts. Large demonstrastifle the entire Quebec Left and radical movement. To date
tions (one in favour of the F.L.Q.) against the Act have almore than 600 persons have been arrested in Quebec and the
ready taken place in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
number increases with each day, while more than 2000 raids
FRAP and the Montreal Confederation of National Trade
have been made by the police. These poeple can be held in
Unions had come out in favour of the F.L.Q. manifesto but
prison for up to 21 days without being charged with an ofnot for the means it uses. Mass resistance was being planned.
fense and 90 days before being arraigned. These provisions
In the mass trade union weekly newspaper QUEBEC-PRESSE
are under the Act. The police can arrest anyone and search
of October 1Sth a list of well-known Quebecers called for
anywhere without warrants. Those arrested lnclude radicals
massive passive resistance to the Act: "We refuse to submit
and revolutionaries of all persuasions: socialists, libertarians,
to an escalation of violence within which we shall be lost
and pacifists. People who have had nothing directly to do
forever. The passive resistance of the.cntire population is
with the F.L.Q. have been arrested, and these include artists,
now being call on. We must resist fear. We must resist opprespoets, actors, trade unionists, students and many others.
sion. We must be in solidarity with one another. We must
Michel Chartrand, the fiery pacifist president of the 67,000
call upon the strength in each one of us."
member Montreal Confederation of National Trade Unions
The murder of Pierre Laporte, the Quebec Minister of
(he was a sponsor and speaker at last year's WRI conference)
Labour by the Chenier cell of the F.L.Q. shocked everyone.
has been arrested, and pacifist Jean Roy (also a sponsor of
Under the extreme provocation of the Act and the consethe conference) has been arrested and is conducting a hunquent mass arrests and raids, the F.L.Q. embarked upon a
ger strike in prison. The OUR GENERATION offices have
course of action that will bear bitter fruit. Prime Minister
been searched several times by the police, two staff memTrudeau snapped his trap shut. The entire establishment in
bers have been arrested and literature seized, while two ediCanada has joined in a deadening cacophony of pious,selftors prominent in the anti-poverty movement have gone into
righteous and dishonest wailing over the 'honourable Mr. Lahiding'
Range of Arrests
porte', and how awful violence is. This chorus is reminiscent of the American establishment's song and dance routime
As just one example of the breath of the repression we
after the death of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King. The
can mention the case of FRAP (Front d'action Politique).
orchestration is the same and does not even cut down on the
FRAP is the culmination of about five years of successful
din of 'business as usual'. Has the F.L.Q. given the Canadian
community organising in Montreal. The result of this orginistatus quo a catte blanche? Wll the other radicals and revc
sing has been the establishment of viable citizens committees
of poor working class people throughout the city and welfare lutionaries learn anew the contradictory nature of such councitizens $oups. Important work has been done in the estabter-revolutionary tactics? What initiatives will the new left
provide? Will a revolutionary nonviolent strategy be in the
lishment of community medical clinics, cooperative food
buying, and agitation in the area ofhousing etc. At a certain
offing to produce more concrete results and limit the bloodpoint (namely eight months ago) these groups set up a radished in the streets? As tomorrow presses we eat the fruits of
cally decentralized movement called FRAP (which also
repression, and call upon our brothers and sisters everywhere
means hit hard) with a radical urban programme (including
for international support.
- Dimitrio s Roussopoulos
socialist orientation with its concluding call for a general
strike in which workers of all kinds and students are urged
to take over their own places of work and study and operate
w
(
(
:l
(.*#
J.s
lhe
F
$l'irl. '
*^
'h
'1,u"1 .t
.l
.
;Arae*;
'r{:ihwsii$&fq*l*.
lt
rd.
]SE
t
i
,a-
me
he
Ie
ga,Test'
. ub'soti[@
Gi{c c,,rf:Itfftq{2. '6t cvr'
t*q,.o.1err,
3$",t":E;ry%
Jw
^.
ptle,,2r^A
suesi-#
f€Aq
d;;ia6l)l:;..:-- %ffi
E I gar
.Z,tF
Ab
Z,rp
nnal*s
Ol
:ldrcss
tfinc
#tba
,6az.
,l/eru.
/l/ar*
gar trZmk
:
tn-
t-
rf
t&Cot*-ss
*ta&rs
IE
rs
&lnh:"*g#*
&sbsel A {_
Utnf . &t9
t$tgplh .J&ud.t/co W,
r,l.
/. loo tz
BO]rcoTTt
o
T}
w(
c0
ha
ag
gr
NC
fo
lik
pu
fer
nii
UI
,,
de
tra
vel
to
se(
ha
m(
in
w€
Fr
gr(
Au
*l
har
agl
sul
ges
Co
The grape strike and boycott are over. After five years
of nonviolent struggle, and three years of a boycott which
involved mi-llions of people all over the United States and
the world, the strikers of the United Far Workers Organizing Committee have won a history-making victory that
may influence all social change activity in our country, and
probably already has. The struggle of a racially and economically oppressed minority which created a massive coalition of Third World people, young and old, of students
at all levels, labor leaders and rank and file from virtually
every industry and state, and of housewives from Orange
County to Manhattan, and which operated under a firmly
held philosophy and practice ofnonviolence, is a source of
joy, strength, and hope to many people who are actively
seeking and struggling for justice.
But, even as the breakthrough in Delano was announced,
the United Farm Workers were engaged in another major
struggle. The Western Conference of Teamsters attempted
once agd.in to take advantage of the weakened grower position on unionism. On July 28, 1970, the Salinas Valley
Grower and Shipper Vegetable Association announced that
thirty growers had recognized the Teamsters as the exclusive bargaining agent for their agricultural workers. The
workers were stunned and angered by the announcementsMany Salinas farm workers had been working quietly for
years to build UFWOC membership and local committees.
Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers declared war
on these back-door agreements. Chavez stated that "UFWOC
will strike, boycott, march, sacrifice and struggle for as
many years as it takes to win-exactly as we did in Delano."
24
wi:
me
ac1
let
tht
Pic
ceI
Va
anr
gle
for
ser
anr
w0
de1
chi
lel
an(
Co
fin
UF
wa
to
let
nia
tifi
kn,
wo
The Salinas struggle is a life or death matter for the farm
workers' union. Because of UFWOC's long strike and boycott in the grape industry, growers all over the country
have been forced to consider the possibility of unions in
agriculture. As they consider that possibility, their minds
gravitate to those unions that will give them an easy ride,
not only in terms of contract provisions, but also in enforcement of those contracts. The Teamsters seemed a
likely option.
Faced with two strong opponents in Salinas, the UFWOC
pulled a massive strike, which proved to be the most effective strike in California's history of farm workers organization. Subsequent talks between the Teamsters and
UFWOC produced a jurisdictional agreement which provided for Teamster representation of truckers and other
traditionally Teamster-covered workers, and UFWOC co
verage of all field workers, However, the growers refused
to rescind their Teamster contracts, and the Teamsters
seemed willing to abide by them.
The situation appeared less than hopeful, but there
have been a few very welcome successes after only a few
months, unlike the very long and dreary wait experienced
in the grape strike. Under threat of a boycott against the
well-known "Chiquita" brand products, another United
Fruit Corporation subsidiary, Interharvest, largest lettuce
grower in Salinas, rescinded the Teamster contract. On
August 30, 1970, UFWOC signed with Interharvest what
has been termed our best agricultural collective bargaining
agreement so far, covering ll% of the nation's lettuce
supply. While writing this, I received word that the secondlargest Salinas lettuce grower, FreshPict, subsidiary of PUREX
Corporation, has signed a collective bargaining agreement
with UFWOC. The contract also provides for the settlement of the Cololado lettuce strike begun last spring. The
actual contract will not be negotiated until the Colorado
lettuce season approaches again, and the workers return to
the fields. There has also been a contract signed with
Pic N Pac, subsidiary of S.S. Pierce and Company, producer of most of the strawberries coming from the Salinas
Valley. This ended the boycott of S.S. Pierce products,
and the worry over non-Union strawberries.
Amid the joy over these victories, the work of the struggle goes on, including the boycott of all non-Union California and Arizona lettuce. Dozens of strikers have been
sent from Salinas to reopen and reactivate boycott offices
and operations all over the country. They have begun the
work of informing the public about the reason for and the
details of the lettuce boycott, and of pressuring store
chains, and individual supermarkets not to stock the scab
lettuce. They need as much help as anyone can give them,
and would very much appreciate your time and effort.
Contact the nearest boycott office to offer your help. (To
find out where the nearest UFWOC office is, contact
UFWOC, Box 130, Delano CA93215; UFWOC 1155 Broadway, New York City (212) 799-7743)
The one basic thing that all people can and should do
to help the farrn workers struggle, is to boycott all scab
lettuce. Some lettuce coming out of the fields in California and Arizona is wrapped in cellophane and easily identified" Union lettuce thus wrapped will soon bear the wellknown black aztec eagle which is the label of the farm
workers union, However, most lettuce is unwrapped and
out of the box when the consumer sees it. To be comp
letely sure of the brand, you have to ask the store manager or the produce manager what brands of lettuce are
sold in the store. Most store managers have experienced
the pressure of the grape boycott, and will claim to have
union produce no matter what is really on the counter.
The only way to be sure you are not buying scab lettuce
is to see the boxes in which the lettuce is shipped. They
will either still be in cold storage, full, or empty, discarded
in a back room or outside the store. As a consumer, you
have the right to ask the store manager to show them to
you. The union brands, listed below, are from Interharvest
and FreshPict, and will bear the union label, whether
stamped on printed on the box itself. Make sure you see
the "bird" before you buy, for the Teamster ranches are
attempting to subvert the power of the boycott by printing various types of labels stating that the lettuce is
picked by union labor. However, none of these Teamster
labels have the familiar farm workers' eagle.
NOTE; The boycott is against HEAD LETTUCE (also know
known as iceberg) only. Nl other types make up a very
small percentage of the crop, and are therefore not subject
to the boycott.
UNITED FARM WORKERS ORGANIZING
COMMITTEE-UNION LETTUCE BRANDS
Interharvest
cellophane
wrapped
Freshpict
Chiquita
Amigo
"naked
Nunes Brothers
lettuce"
Blue Chip
Eagle
Eagle Eye
Ram
Prime
Sun Blush
Three Crowns
King City
King Pin
Favor
Gold Star
Hawk Eye
Queen's T
Pasco
VIVA LA HUELGA!!
VIVA LA REVOLUCION!!
VIVA LA CAUSA!!
VIVA LA HUELGA!!
-Nora Casillas
a
it
hr
66
al
in
ri
IX
rn
st
tl
dr
fr
itr
al
to his own
of the things I have learned over the past five years a case of Dave's being so completely committed
at all to the
anything
is
just
there
that
see
can't
ofi-orking in the anti-Vietnam war movement is that-with the logic that he
simple'
something
try
Let's
point
of
view.
fellow's
other
opportunist
exception-ol'police agents or the occasional sheer
wrap your merto
try
and
minute
down
a
slow
Dave,
And
anyisn't
there
gravy
until
he
finds
for
the
who hangs around
curial mind around this plodding, plebian iogic:
almost none of the people in the movement operate from
I might say that since Dave McReynolds insists that the
base motives. That is, they really believe or at least hope that
take on a spectrum of other issues at this
antiwaicoalition
can
thing
they
what they are doing or advocating is the best
more interested in his dream of a new
obviously
he
is
governtime
U.S'
the
by
committed
being
do to stop the crime
"popular, democratic front" politica-l formation-to use Sid
ment in Indochina.
phrase-than he is in ending the war in Vietnam' I
Pecli's
pay
I leave aside here the politicians who occasionally
that but I won't because I know that Dave would
say
might
way
appear
they
peace
the
march
lip service or appear at a
his
life to end the war in Vietnam if he thougttt
prejudge
them,
laydown
not
to
parade.
them
aside
I
leave
ethnic
an
at
that would do it. And I trust Dave knows that about me, if
but because I have no direct contact with those people and
he ponders it a while.
frankly
I don't really know'what makes thenr tick, though
peollo, what we have here is not an evil plot on anybody's
movement
talking
abott
No,
I'm
I have my suspicions.
part but a deepgoing difference of opinion. A profound
ple, whether they are involved in major party politics or irot,
whether they are pacifists, moderates, social democrats, ultra- dilT.terce. Possibly an irreconcilable difference at thisjuncture. (And possibly not.) But in any case a political difference
leftists, CPers, SWPers, independents, not-soindependent
must be dealt with politically and not by baiting or imputahave
or
what
independents,
You.
tion of motives. That is, if we want to clarify instead of obFor me this has been a pleasant and useful lesson. Pleasant
you
an
awful
save
scure and if we want to leave open aYenues for united action
for obvious reasons and useful because
of
the
political
logic
you
we agree, and a fair test of different roads in those
the
where
can
see
when
lot of energr
areas where we must go our separate ways'
other person's position, even ifyou find it at loggerheads
Part of the problem here is that Dave keeps getting two
with your own. I learned this lesson from watching and
O.
listening and participating through interminable hours of
meetings, planning sessions, arguments, discussions; as well
as through working with these people in the all-too-few high
moments of united action. One of the people I learned this
from was Dave McReynolds. So it was with a certain small
disappointment that I read his article in WIN (October 1,
1970) in which he attributes to the SWP a base motive for
its position on mass demonstrations and the coalition which
acts as a vehicle for their coming into existence. Dave does
say that SWPers are decent people, but at the end ofhis
article he seems to contradict that.
Dave says: "The SWP with its 'one issue' slogan guts the
movement, leaves it impotent, unable to frighten the government into any significant change. This is so obvious that I
know Harry Ring understands this, and when he argues for a
limited, gutless, single issue program I must assume it is because the SWP is more concerned with maintaining the peace
movement as a recruiting ground than with ending the war."
Well, Harry and I understand nothing of the kind. This is
26
distinct things mixed up. One thing is 'othe movement" and
the other thing is the broad antiwar coalition committeelike what the New Mobe used to be, or the National Mobe
before that, or the Spring Mobe before that, or the National
Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietrram before
that.
"The movement" might be rlescribed as the sum total of
all the activity for progressive social change. Five years ago
it included piobably only a few tens of thousands ofpeople'
Today it involves millions. The antiwar coalition committee
on the other hand, is part of "the movement" but only a
very specialized part. It has been, through its off-and-on existence, a commitiee of a few dozen or at most a few hundred
people, prominent individuals or representatives of groups and
iendencies within "the movement". But these people are not
at all agreed among themselves on most questions' They are
not even fully agreed about the war and how to end it' At
most they have been able to agree, from time to time, on
specific antiwar actions' When they can agree, and send out
cl
N
e.
tl
11
call for action, the call carries a certain magic precisely because so many diverse forces are more or less committed to
a
it.
under some vague and abstract slogans. Behind these, history
has shown, there often lurks a distinctly non-revolutionary
approach to action, such as support to the "lesser evil" candidate in r]ne 1972 Presidential election. And I don't have to
tell you how awful I think that would be. I would think both
Sid and Dave would have had enough of that from their experience with Johnson as the "peace candidate" in 1964'
Does this mean we see no hope for "the movement" evet
being largely united in a multi-issue poiitical formation or
party? No. We just don't see it in the immediate future'
destroyed.
transin our opinion, when it does become realistic it will be beto
It is clear to us from experience that attempts
cause
significant sections of the working class or oppressed
of
leadership
the
into
cornmittee
form the antiwar coalition
nationaiities have begun to organize themselves politically
"the movement" with policy on all the disputed issues that
and independently of the capitalist parties. (La Raza Unida
involves, sirnply results in the destruction of that committee
party may be developing in this direction.) That, of course,
the
to
opposition
massive
as a vehicle cipable of surfacing
is a particularly Marxist view and I don't expect Sid or Dave
waI.
where we
It is beating on an open door to tell us that "the movement" to sympathize with it. I just state it so you know
more
more
and
stand.
is concerned with rnany issues and that
As hostile as we are to the "popular front" perspective,
people are reaching a level ofunderstanding to draw the
we have no fear of seeing it given a fair test in life. We do not
interconnections between these issues and developing a
we
bait or slander its proponents. But we do not accompany
desire to get at root causes. We do understand that, and
them along that route. We also hope that those who choose
hail it, and we particiPate in it.
movement'
"the
that
to
say
matter
that route will not in the meantime abandon the united front
quiie
different
a
But it is
against the war and the specifically antiwar coalitions-such
lus developed to the point where it could be put under one
the
that
ai the National Peace Action Coalition-which have proven
roof. And it is yet another different matter to say
its
specialized
abandon
should
a viable form for periodically getting immense masses into the
antiwar coalition committee
of
this
creation
for
the
vehicle
streets. And that is a vital element in extending the over-all
the
to
be
try
and
function
radicalization. And it does have an effect on the war'
roof; for the birth of another National Conference on New
of
a
the
birth
McReynolds is at times too pessimistic about that inciPolitics experiment-as Dave blurts out-or
and
Peck
carefully
so
as
Sid
front"
dentally, though I can't blame him since we all get frustrated
"popular, democratic
as the war conlinret. The events of last May, for example, did
consciously puts it.
not end the war but they did force Nixon to place extremely
We disagree with that perspective on two counts. First it
the
specialized
of
important restrictions on the U'S' military intervention in
means-it has always meant-abandonment
masses
into
immense
bringing
Cambodia. And you need only read the papers-at least
in
succeeded
vehicle which has
the N.Y. Times-to see that the U.S. casualties have fallen
the streets. Not a single oue of the various attempts of foroff in Indochina because of a policy of avoiding clashes preming a "popular fiont" organization out of the antiwar coaaction'
antiwar
cisely in order to cut down on casualties because of the preslition has ever called and organized a major
popular
a
new
now
is
sure of antiwar sentiment in the U.S. That's no way to win a
needed
what
is
think
people
who
Those
war. We arehavingan effect. Just don't give up the fight'
front organization should proceed to organize that experiwar,
-Fred Halstead
ment without destroying the united front against the
for
bringing
instrument
without destroying the specialized
masses into the streets around that particular issue of such
broad appeal.
Sid Peck used to recognize this distinction' In previous
documents by Sid-which played a historic role in the deveFred Halstead has made a careful, thoughtful:and fraterlopment of the most massive demonstrations-he made it
to my own analysis, and while the differences
nal-response
clear. He said he favored the formation of a new all-inclusive
between us are real enough, and I would stand behind the
radical party for "the movement" as a whole. But at the
general
line of my original article, Fred has not only helped
same time he recognized the importance of the antiwar coa-clarify
the
disagTeements that exist, but has also made them
lition as such, and argued against attempting to form the new
less provocative.
group by transforming or abandoning the antiwar coalition.
I do continue to feel that, without abandoning legal mass
WIN
his
article,
in
period,
however,
and
in the more recent
the "movement" as a whole must give greater
demonstrotions,
Sid has obscured the distinction, for reasons which perhaps
to
the power of large scale civil disobedience'
consideration
he can explain himsell.
to withdraw the charge that the SllP is more
I
hasten
Finally,
Peck's
The second count on which we disagree with Sid
concirned about building its cadre than about peace in Viet'
current perspective is that we oppose the idea of a new
nam-an unhappy slunder written in the heat of polemic'
NCNP-type formation. We don't think it can be viable or
readers who missed the oiginal set-to, it was the October
For
effective. As soon as a serious attempt is made to work out
lst issue' copies still available'
the program for such an all-inclusive formation for "the
David McReynords
are
as
there
ways
many
as
movement" it will tend to split
Historically these forrnations came into existence as ad
hoc committees to call an occasional mass demonstration
against the war in Vietnam. And that is what they succeeded
in doing. What Harry and I say is this: the mass demonstrations against the war are one vital ingredient in "the movement."-They aren't the only important thing, or even the
most important, but they are one vital ingredient' They
should not be abandoned. They should be continued' And
tire forms for bringing them into existence should not be
ce
isrd
and
ot
e
important disageements and will suffer a fate as ignominious
ur ih"t of the NCNP in 1967. To overcome this built-in difficulty there witl be a strong tendency to subsume differences
contest tirat brings do.,.rn upon the
pentagon Abbie's curse and the beginning of the tale of Yippie triumph.
There are numerous other incidents
where women, sometimes unwilling,
Shards of God
Ed Sanders
(Grove Press, New York 1970)
When Ed Sanders' Shards of God
arrived at WIN I leapt on it immediately and joyfully carried it off to read. I
wanted to catch up with a long time
friend I haven't said more than "Hi" to
since 1962-the days of open poetry
readings on the Lower East Side and of
that flickering den of iniquity and romance, The Cantina of the Revolutions, on East 9th St., NYC. ln those
days Ed used to announce he would do
this or that outrageous act and we soon
learned to believe him because he
would then go right out and do it.
Fuck You/a magazine of the arts was
one of them. The Fugs was another.
I can't claim to have ever known Ed
well, but I love him dearly and respect
him as a fine poet and one of the best
editors I ever had. I was perhaps fright'
ened away as well asdelighted by his
pfayful reach and "arrghl" when I or
any other "furburger" came within
range, but he drew us to him as salt
draws deer. Shards of God shows me
Ed hasn't changed much over the
years. As a consequence I am probably
taking this book more seriously than
he may have intended.
The book is an ecstatic and occult
(spiritual rather than historical) account of the birth of Yippie and the
victory of the Festival of Life in Chithe 1 968 Democratic N ational Convention, written as an epic and
dedicated to John Sinclair. lt is peopled by Abbie and Anita Hoffman,
Jerry and Nancy Rubin. Paul Krassner,
Keith Lampe, Bob Fass, Jack Newfield,
Wren D?ntonio and many others actcago over
ing in crncert with (and as) various
gods, l-mouthed saucer people, and
exotic machinery to bring about "enforced sharing" in the "low-emanation
torture plexus, eating the throat of its
young" which is America. The viewpoint is the author's and it seems to be
light and happy, but I feel it is quite
serious as well,
Despite
Shards
?8
of
the epic tone of
voice,
God has the feeling of hav-
ing being thrown together in the form
of a hash. The narration leaps forcefully from one event to another without any connective tissue of explanation, and the overlying theme isn't
strong enough to give a sense of flow.
The binding force of this delicious
hash is the farthest out and most politically extraneous feature: the l-
mouthed saucer people, extraterres-
but usually droolingly eager, are used
in similar ways in the book. Ed seems
to me to show no condescension or
disrespect for any particular woman.
He just can't seem to fit them onto
any other plane. As a character in his
book he describes himself eager to
please the saucer-female he describes
fucking with, but I found myself wanting to ask him why only women's nipples were used as electrode attach-
ments for- the "direct transmissions
trial
emissaries of the Council of Eye
Forms. As Ed says in the introduction.
from the mind of Jesus" which inspired
and directed the Yippies. Why weren't
male 'pornflowers' used in these rites
the book may be opened at any page.
as well?
The sequence of the events isn't impor-
tant. The introduction should be read
with care before the rest of the book
is
attempted.
I heard Ed say once
that he'd like to
jam all the. men, women and children
on earth into one great plastic bag full
of vaseline. I think that his relationship
to pornography in general and the por-
nography written into this book are an
attempt at that, but they fail here because of the book's main weakness:
male chauvinism. Some people sympathetic to the struggle of women to be
recognized as people rather than as objects to be used by men, will be turned
off by large sections of the book and
will failto appreciate what Ed1ruas really trying to accomplish. For example,
the opening chapter describes in a
grand epic manner a contest between
Abbie Hoffman and a pentagon robot
designed to be a super fucker, to see
which of them can keep fucking a
large number of eager volunteers from
the Womens Army Corps the longest.
It is the unsatisfactory ending of this
Pe
up
rer
tir
th
mi
lo
VE
The book seems to be at least playing with the epic mode, using most of
the conventions of this literary form.
Certainly the descriptions of Aunt No
No and the Freedom right Vale of Detention Camp remind me of Salambo
in their wealth of gruesome detail. (Literary convention may be a part of the
reason for the way Ed treats women
St
wi
as he does here.) There are females
dt
present even at the innermost councils
of the Eye Forms, but they play no
active role, The fact that no woman
tl
except the evil Aunt No No says
anything to speak of seems to be an
indication of the limitation of Ed's
awareness, when he wrote this, of the
contributions women can make to the
revolution aside from functions as
sexual satisfaction sharers; of how little he was aware of women in general
as
dt
kr
af
Pt
ac
a!
tc
in
A
B
n
C
cr
fi
tl
i(
people.
l've been told that Ed wrote this
book more than a year ago and Grove
has only now gotten it out. During the
intervening time he has become more
jr
N
P
enlightened about who women are, and
t
he no longer particularly likes this
book. I can't disparage Shards of God
s
simply because Ed's treatment of women doesn't conform to what I or any
proponent
of
womens' liberation
might prefer to see in a man. The book
V
(
I
1
a
has some perfectly delightful stories
embedded in it. I was distracted by the
book's main weakness but I enjoyed it.
I don't think it is Ed's best work. Only
the prayer for Removal of Sounds
really moved me by its beauty and
t
t
feeling. The rest was just fun.
(
_M.E.M.
t
r
1
1
\
constitute the Peace Corps are the
finest fruits of our way of life and the
best ambassadors this country can pro-
duce." lronically, however. it was the
The Peace Corps and Pax Americana
Marshall Windmiller
failure of all these early governmental
attempts to "harness" the energies of
the young in the amelioration of misery that contributed to the growth of
a radical youth consciousness.
Public Affairs Press,
Washington, 0.C., 1970
Therefore, although billed as a nonpolitical, technical aid and goodwill
o.m.
l. had almost forgotten that
the
Peace CorPs exists until I chanced
upon this book among the librarY's
recent acquisitions. Except for the
title, I would have passed it up as ano-
ther returned volunteer's attempt to
make good on his or her exPloits of
love among the "underdeveloPed."
Despite some excessive quoting and
verbiage Windmiller, a San Francisco
State College professor once associated
with Peace Corps training, adeguately
documents what most of us alreadY
program, the Peace Corps was basically
designed to counter purported Com-
munist agitation among "less fortunate peoples" and to show an ungrateful world that, as Ambassador
Galbraith suggested. America was not
"excessively prone to military solu-
tions." The Corps' technical expertise
is open to question because it has recruited heavily among B.A. generalists
with low skills but high ideals (in part,
because those established in skilled
occupations are more reluctant to jeop-
knew, or, perhaPs, onlY discovered
after volunteering, namely. that the
ardize that security). Furthermore,
the Peace Corps is far from being in-
Peace Corps is at worst a dissembling
dependent
adjunct
to the American business of policy
aggrandizement and at best irrelevant
to the serious work of self-determined,
developmental liberation' The former
was guaranteed by its sponsors while
the latter was verified by conclusions
in the very pro-Peace CorPs studY,
Agents of Change, bY HaPgood and
Bennet: "As a contributor to develop-
ment in the Third World the
Peace
Corps can make no great claims to ac-
from our other
agencies;'iall
foreign
of its overseas
programs are planned in cdreful consultation with Embassy and AID representatives (the U.S. Ambassador in
each countrY must approve all Projects), and there is an elaborate multiagency review procedure in Washington with vetoes all along the line."
Likewise, the placement of volunteers
tends to reflect State and Defense Department priorities, especially pre-in-
complishment
.Volunteers have
filled a lot of jobs, but their utility in
sr.rrgency pacification: the effort to
place teachers in Third World univer-
those jobs, and often the utility of the
jobs themselves, is questionable.{'
The Peace Corps was the first major outpost established on Kennedy's
New Frontier which, when fully settled
sities, the heavy concentration and
teaching of English in our "colonies"
(one volunteer for every 300 Micronesians), and the excessive numbers
in places like lndia and Liberia. As
VISTA, Vietnam, and the War on
Poverty, became the Great Society
that Nixon is now trying to bring together under business domination. As
Windmiller demonstrates, the Peace
Corps was born among the Cold War
liberals who needed an antidote to
Windmiiler concludes:
"the
Peace
Corps is the advance guard of the military, for it can go into countries where
there is not yet an American military
presence and do the work which maY
make a military involvement unneces-
9ry."
justed, idealistic, New World Man,
their politicization occured slowly and
then, not until the Vietnam contradictions became too obviously painful to
ignore and volunteers like Bruce Mur-
ray publicly raised embarrassing questions, for which he was bounced out
of Chile. Unfortunately, the process
has not gone far enough, even in the
on-again, off-again Committee of Returned Volunteers. Most ex-corpsmen
end up back in school or in the Peace
Corps bureaucracy and in corporations
with international ties, the State Department, AlD, USIA. and even the
CIA.
Although applications have de
clined, the Peace Corps will probably
roll on as more of the same "new look"
in cosmetic neocolonialism. Unless it
is cut off as another foreign aid frill,
its business orientation and "Macaulayism", as Windmiller calls it, is likely
to intensify under Nixon who brought
in Joseph H. Blatchford to head the
program. Blatchford was the organizer
of a similar program, ACCION lnter-
national, to which "more than 3,000
companies contributed nearly $9.000,000 in cash and services for more
than 45,000 projects. Chairman of
the Board was Donald M. Kendall,
president of Pepsi Coia.
And, no doubt. many more mem'
of the Pepsi Generation will continue to be unwitting partners in this
duplicity by seriously believing that
they are representing the basically
bers
good. side of America. Others with
some doubts will raise the old garbage
about "better this than nothing." This
is a hollow cry especially in light of
the fact the the Peace Corps itself has
admitted that the program benefits
Americans and the individual volunteers more than the PeoPle they Pr*
sumably serve. Furthermore, contrary
to the defensiveness of some returned
volunteers, the acts of building
schools, nursing babies, and laYing
pipes are not intrinsically good when
undertaken within the official Peace
The lJgly American syndrome as well
as a visible program on which to hang
their humanitarian rhetoric. What better way was there "to counteract antiAmerican propaganda" as H.H. Humphrey argued on bringing the P.C. to
the Senate "than bY Providing contact between Americans and citizens
of other countries .The brigltt.
young, dedicated Americans who will
Thus, left with little but a PR funcPeace Corps seeks out "average, adiusted, well-liked, motivated"
individualswho. when filtered through
its incredible screening and training
process, will act in accordance with its
Corps policy of establishing and main-
tion, the
taining "cordial and constructive relationships with government officials
and other members of the power structure" who may not deserve this res-
S.l.R. policy (Smooth
pret'enses so as
lnterpersonal
Relations) with the natives and governments abroad. Since the volunteers
have tended to represent this well-ad'
pect, and when performed under false
to make things look
better than they €re and as an excuse
for not doing what perhaps should be
done.
-John Kincaid
29
o..changes
Contlnuod lrom
Wo
3
amount and he sheepishly informed me
Hadn't thought about that says the
it was $3.49 plus 6% interest that
came to $3.54 by the Government's
T-man.
reckoning.
I really started to
laugh and
were six signed statements implica- asked him if he was for real. Didn't he
ting me. I was never advised of my have more important things to do berights.
sides collectins $3.54. He adamantly
Arthur Wade, Jr.: The Police never
told me of my rights and when I
asked to make a call they would not
let me do it.
Vernis Moore: I was not advised of
my rights until after the questioning.
I was threatened with bodily harm
if I denied what they had said.
Rayford Gilyard: After all the questioning and intimidation I was told
to
read
a
statement which
says
whatever you say can be held against
you.
The same thing goes on day after
to bring it to a
stop. A successful defense for the
Nacogdoches 9 would be the beginday. This is the time
ning. This is the time and place for
your support. Send any amount that
you can spare for this effort to secure
justice for the Nacogdoches 9 and for
all of us.
-Mickey McGuire
Nacogdoches Elack Community Union
P.O. Box 1649
Nacogdoches, Texas
TAX MAN REVEALS (ALMOST)ALL
On Friday, October 2, 1970, the
Treasury Department in the person of
one of its agents came calling at my
home. Ringing the doorbell and flashing some papers, he told my children
stated that he damn well did have
more important things to do but he
had to carry out orders. I offered him
a cup of coffee and he proceeded to
tell me that Pres. Nixon was uptight
about the fact that the number of
people withholding the telephone excise tax was escalating; and he had sent
around an Executive Personal Memo
to all Treasury Dept. Agencies stating
s1
At any rate, we had a two hour
dia-
P
logue about the war and the state of
the nation. He kept on reiterating that
if I would cooperate he could then go
back to more important business. l, in
turn, said that if he found this task so
J
annoying, possibly he and some of his
co-workers should write to the Pres.
and petition him to end the war so then
they would not be troubled by having
to collect taxes from people who were
protesting the war. He kind of laughed
and said you must be kidding, but it is
a thought. He left and thanked me for
the interesting afternoon.
IV
that collection of
back taxes was of
the first priority. The public was not
to be told about this, to keep it quiet.
DR. SPOCK JO!NS
but to collect. He also told me that
6TH ANNIVERSAHY
-lrma
0
il
S
2
p
T
ti
tr
p
crowd of admirers, including mothers
tt
f
lecting on all withholders. He said this
collection operation was ,costing the
government a small fortune. Do you
know what it costs the government to
collect your $3.547 Between $300 and
$400. Well, says l, that's three or four
to
(l
A
lines tickets had 1Oo/o federal excise
tax tacked on them, and that people
were withholding this tax, and that
the airlines had no legal right to withhold the ticket, and that before this
got out of hand, they had to start col-
going
b
ti
Dr. Spock drew ive TV crews and a
not
o
Zigas
some people had discovered that air-
hundred dollars
tl
war.
with babies, as he stood with a peace
placard
in
a1
tl
Times Square October 10
marking the 6th anniversary
Times Square Peace
of
the
H
Vigil.
c(
During the year, the Vigil had suffered hardships. Otto Nathan, its moving spirit, was immobilized for several
months by an accident. Harold Gilmer,
one of the most stalwart participants,
died of cancer. Julius Sztuk, who never
missed a Saturday, moved to Philadelphia. But there are still six stalwarts
t]
ca
w
lt
in
.,
he was looking for their mother or
ta
father. Thinking he was some process
e)
server
or other, I informed him
s€
he
would have to come back as I was not
dressed. He informed me through the
pl
l|,5,ffi
window that that was not possible,
since he was a T-man and flashed his
identity card at me. I naturally invited
him and asked him to sit down while I
clothed myself in the proper attire. He
made himself at home, and when I returned he informed me he was visiting
me to collect a bill we owed the Fede-
BOTEINC
EVE RYWHERE
I
.;ildi i
30
pl
o
o
o
!
(I
him how much we owed.
was a fair
pl
6
o
Vietnam War but that we had made
our point and it was now time to pay
it
a1
o
excise tax from
said he realized we were protesting the
since by my recollections
pl
*
E
Federal
our telephone bill. He
I asked
pl
W:M*
ral Government, namely the
up,
R
{dPl ; "u.s.
d[9, TrPlt {:i*tr*
STOP
ALL
$
dr
4.5.
rNOPS
e(
h
ci
a!
ri
h
w
Left to right: Jim Peck, Leo Pach, Rudolph Casstc.wn, Jane and Ben Spock,
at the Times Square Vigil.
cl
who have participated since the vigil
STRAIGHTS FOB PEACE
started in October, 1964-Tom Grabell,
Peter Kiger, Prafula Mukerji, Leo Pach.
Jim Peck, and Sue Whealdon. And with
the participation of those who come
INPHOENIX...
Tempe.
A rapidly growing and rather broad
anti-war constituency has been organized among basically self-admitted
es-
tablishment-oriented business and proon occasional Saturdays, they have
been able to keep the show going. fessional people in Phoenix, Arizona.
(BUT WITH THE ICY MONTHS COMING. THEY NEED MORE HELP-IF
ONLY FOR A COFFEE BREAK. SO
IF YOU HAVE ANY FREE TIME ON
SATURDAY BETWEEN 12:30 and
2:30 p.m., JOIN THEM.)
Sponsored by twelve New York
peace groups, including WR L, the
Times Square Vigil is the longest-lasting of the many vigils across the country over the Vietnam war years. Even
the local landscape has changed. The
Astor Hotel, a landmark, has been replaced by a nondescript highrise (from
the 2nd floor of which construction
workers hurled little pieces of concrete
at the vigilers only the Saturday before
the anniversary). The site of the Claridge
Hotel is now an empty lot awaiting
construction of another highrise. And
the vigil starts its 7th year.
-J.P.
lnitiated by several students, the orga-
nization calls itself "The Professional
and Business Men and Women for
Peace" and is committed
in "nonviolent"
to
engaging
activities demanding
the "end of the military involvement
of the United States in Southeast Asia
immediately." Thus far, in its 5
months of existence the grouP has
gone into the Kiwanis' and Lion's dens
with speakers calling for immediate
withdrawal, encouraged local and national support for "peace" candidates,
lobbied for the McGovern-Hatfield Amendment, supported the last and upcoming mobilizations, provided counseling and legal and medical aid to
draft-age men. challenge the promilitarist tendencies in most of the local media, and tried to stimulate the
Motivated, in part, by the pocketbook squeeze and fears of domestic revolt, the group has, nonetheless, enormous potential and ref lects the increasing anti-war sentiment nationally among business and professional people.
It
is, however, a little more gutsy and
less economically oriented than the
national "Business Executives Move
for Vietnam Peace and New National
Priorities." With the opening of its
Peace center, 12 W. Roosevelt, Phoenix 85003 (253-72841 the group will
expand and intensify its actions, par-
ticularly in the areas of peace education with middle America. The Center
is available to winter tourists, vacationers, and anyone iust passing
through. Also, if anyone has any ideas
or suggestions they would like to contribute, please let us know.
-John Kinkaid
building of a viable student peace
movement which is preserttly lacking
in Phoenix outside of the university in
war tax resistance
The lnternal Revenue Service is escalating its collection attempts from
tax. When she came out,
war tax resisters, Jim Shea, from Washington, D.C. has been convicted for
falsifying his W-4 form (he declared 20
that war tax."
They are promoting: 1) resistance of
Steve Kurzyma stood by the door all or part of federal taxes; 2) resistance
as a spectre, with a MyLai poster lea- of the 10% federal telephone tax; 3)
ning against his legs throughout the refuse to cooperate with the draft and
demonstration. This was quite effec- stop buying consumer products made
by war producers. They feel that aitive.
exemptions) and was given a one year
sentence. He is appealing.
Again
in
Washington, D.C., the
phone company is demanding a 9100
deposit from war tax resister Tom
;
o
o
o
o
s
Reeves before they will give him a
phone.
On October 13th, WTR had another
phone company demonstration in NYC
at 141 East 14th St. Sixteen people
picketed and some of them paid their
phone bills minus the war tax. The
equivalent of the tax was given to Liberation Nursery, a cooperative day
care center on East 6th St.
One lady showed me her bill and
to
o
asked me how
6
rious bystanders listening
0.
resist. With some cuI explained
how *re should deduct the war tax and
whatto say. She went inside the phone
company and paid her bill minus the
of joy. "l've finally
she was full
refused
to
pay
The Vietnam Moratorium Commit-
tee is promoting all forms of resistance,
Philadelphia WTR had a phone com- though massive demonstrations have
pany demonstration October 1Sth. For- been and will continue to be "an invaty to fifty people participated. A guer- luable form of swelling the ranks of
rilla theatre group participated. The those opposed to the war" resistance
equivalent of the war tax they refused "to the government's ma.ior resourto pay was given to the National Wel- ces of war must be spread to all segfare Rights Organization. Representa- ments of our society."
tives from the Philadelphia branches of
The next NYC phone company deCALCAV, SANE, AOAG, Resistance monstration will be November 17thand WILPF were at the demonstration 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM at 195 Broadand said they were refusing to pay the way. lt hasn't yet been decided who
phone tax.
the war taxes will be donated to. For
About 40 people watched the de' further information catt 477-297O or
monstratron. Media coverage was good. 777-5560. Write:
A phone company demonstration
WAR TAX RESISTANCE
took place in Lansing, Michigan Oct.
339 Lafayette St.
13th. I have not received word on that
New York, NY 10012
yet.
-8ob
Calvert
3t
r
article menti-ns none of this, and seems to
me to be another example of Panther worship. One question' If we want the panthers
to take white radicals seriously, instead of
using us, hadn't we better be prepared to
frmly criticize when it is due and not overlook faults in Panthers that we would not
hesitate to condemn in others?
All Power to All the people,
Tod Manley
It
is a very high point in an authbr's life
when a reviewer shows that he has really
understood what the author has been trying
to say, and one of those high points came for
I have just finished reading the article in
WIN (Oct. l5) about the People's Constitutional Convention in Phila. The article, it
seems to me, is very superficial and does not
even mention anything about the struggle
that took place that weekend.
The story does not tell about what happened
to the woman who was supposed to speak
Sat. night after Huey but who was not allowed
to. Her substitute read a speech that had no
consciousness
of the women's movement at
all, while the speech that was supposed to be
given was about women, and their liberation.
How that substitution was made is not clear
at all, yet one of the people on the agenda
committee went to the Sat. session still expecting to hear the scheduled speaker. The
manipulations around that were not, however,
what bothered the women the most, it was
Huey's speech, Aftet Michael Tabor made
obvious efforts to include women and gay
people in his history speech Sat. afternoon,
it is incomprehensible to me how Huey
could have made a speech, the preamble to
OUR new constitution, without mentioning
women once! Gay people found no mention
of themselves in the speech. After the speech
was over some women
left, others spent the
whole night doing up a leaflet about the
sexism at the Convention, and asking
women to meet together. They asked
for
fot
help from the Panthers on this, for it to be
announced, but they were rebuffed. Their
attempts to meet all the women there were
frustrated. Yet, things got worse that afternpon at the women's workshop. The woman
from New York read her speech then, and
people leamed some of what had happened
the previous night. One woman was particulerly disruptive, stating that the reason white
women were interested in women's liberation
was bepause Black men w-ere going back to
Black women. That night, when the reports
of the various workshops were given, it was
this womarlwho read a report that was not
what came out of the workshop, was not rep
resentative of the feelings of the women
there, and exactly how she was chosen to
speak is very unclear indeed. Why the Panthers allowed someone who was not in any
manner, shape, or form representative of the
workshop to be the spokesman of that workshop, is beyond my understanding. Statements were produced at the women's workshop, and people were delegated to speak.
Why these legitimate speakers and their papers were not allowed is incredible. Your
32
I
me in reading Henry Bass's review of my
book, Saigon, U.,S.l. There have been a good
many reviews of the book in publications
with (unfortunately) considerably mote circulation than WIN, but none have been anywhere near as perceptive and accurate. I am
most appreciative for it.
I should comment on Henry Bass's last
paragraph, which is prompted by his suspicion that I want somehow to bring pressure
to bear, though nonviolent, to establish a
"third force" government in South Vietnam
rather than simply "saying that if what the
South Vietnamese really want is the Third
Force, that is what they should have."
Admittedly, there is a very fine line to be
drawn here. In my own mind, I am clear that
I believe two thinls..First, the test of whether
the Third Force advocates are justified in
their claims to represent the bulk of the peo
ple of South Vietnam can come only after
the United States has reversed its unequivocal
commitment to the Thieu-Ky-Kiem govern-
ment. I wrote in my book that while I believe their claims are justified, I have no way
of proving it, and the justifications will be
up to them after we have got our government off their backs
Second, without regard to the political
contours of the future South Vietnam, I be,
lieve that pacifists everywhere should be.giving the same kind of moral and material support to the pacifists in the nonviolent move
ment in South Vietnam that we gave to pacifists in Germany, Japan and Italy during the
Second World War. Henry Bass is right in
saying that I am "bitter" about the failure of
the American peace movement to support the
students and others who are battling legitimately and nonviolently for thefu right to
participate in determining how their country shall be governed; I am equally unhappy
over the way in which most American and
European pacifists have ignored what seems
to me the most dramatic example of pacifist
faithfulness in the midst of war that recent
history has provided.
this variety as expression ofvitality and
movement toward a reintegration of sexuality
still in the future," he concludes.
1. My bed is not politic2ed.
2. "Sexual reintegration" and "revisionism" and "counter-culture" are ludicrous
phrases which abstract sex. Sex takes
place one psyche at a time, not by the
mass. Politics desexes language, witness
the frigidities of Kate Millett. The only
true sexual revolution is to surrender to
another person.
3. Not screwing is as perfect as screwing,
since
it
deepens desire and makes each
particular sex act powerful and unique.
This is opposite to liberalizing one's sex
life. It leaves you potent rather than spent.
4. I would not have my spirit revived and
refreshed by sex as powerfully as it is if
I had not passed through a crucible of
sexual torment that made me mad and
stole my wits. I rarely see an act in a
porno movie that I haven't engaged in
myself and found wasting. I wish neither
to romanticize nor liberate my sex life
bpt to make a compact with my flesh.
Flesh, greasy flesh! The more completely
focused and monstrous each sex act is,
deeply monstrous, oily, driven, rape.like,
g4d supremely physical, the higher the
transformation worked upon me by orgasm and the greater the marriage with
py wife's spirit. That is focus. Animal
coupling animal with the bestial concentration of a greai cat ripping a deer. It
does not happen by diffusing my fantasy
into endless vaginas I have entered and
pastures of breast fat I have nibbled. It
[rappens by allowing my concentration to
iove through my wife's breathing, her
temperature, her surrender, and hnally
to surrender my own centers to her
brightening spine and share her release as
my own. I become my wife. I cannot be
more intimate. Nor less jaded or abstract.
Donald Newlove
The need to develop communication and
trade between the United States and Cuba
cannot be minimized now in the light of recent developments. For two countries that
are so close geographically to ignore each
other at alllimei except when leveling accusations at the other is childish and politically
unsound,
With this belief in mind, War Resisters
League is organizing a project that will involve the carrying of American children's
drawings of peace and friendship to Cuban
children (and hopefully the Cubans would
involve themselves in a reciprocal arrangementlin order to publicly challenge the U.S.
embargo against "trade with the enemy";
Alfred Hassler
This project was originally created by Scott
Nyack, N.Y.
Herrick, who has been to Cuba seveml times
in the past and who has been involved in many
pacifist actions, like the Polaris submarine
In WIN's letters column of Oct. 15, Aaron
demonstration in New England in which he
Cole attacks me for wanting to focus my
sailed his yacht into various ports to spread
sexual desire on one person, my wife. And
the word on the dangers of nuclear testing.
takes me to task for not seeing that porno films Scott is prepared to use his boat, the Mondare the first wave of "sexual revisionism"
ciyitano (World Citizen), again for this project, in spite of the fact that Washington has
from which will follow political freedom for
women and uninhibited sex lives for chilindioated the possibility of its being siezed
dren. " . . .I think we must welcome all of
before leaving for Cuba.
ar0
irg
tht
foI
as:
wo
tio
set
lier
gIc
har
So(
ho
nit
nit
te
po
isl
m€
La
Th
fro
ric
tht
thr
wl
Co
Ag
his
rig
lor
co
otl
go
Ni
all
fr<
inr
atl
Or
rel
T}
go
tu
an
pr
ts
ab
or
"l
an
te
lo
tir
Je
bt
te
dt
a!
TO
The spy industry is highly developed' A:r
Preparation for the sailing will be centered
spy nearly became Prime Minister of
Israeli
drawthe
children's
of
around the collection
Syria. We had in our New Left a publisher-of
'ings and the subsequent public display of
a very radical rrragazine "Minority of One"'
them to garner as much additional publicity
even had it published in the reactionary
He
needs
League
for the project as possible. The
Until being accused of being an Israeli
South.
as many pictures as can be accumulated, and
agent, he made pro-Israeli propaganda in the
would like also to involve as many organiza
of America. It seems that we
,idi"ul
tions around the country as are interested to
"it.l"t
type of representation in the
have
this
now
We
beplaces
public
set up the displays in
pacifist
circles
lieve that this is a good project that local
The evil of Zionism is not only limited to
groups can involve themselves in because it
Israel. It spreads to the American Jewish
has the dual purpose of fostering a sense of
communiiy. For my anti-Zionist stand, I
social consciousness and universal brotherwas nearlylynched in the glory of the Catshood in children and also of making commukill mountains. I receive daily curses and
nities aware of the need for greater commuinsults During my C.O' days, I endured not
nication between Cuba and the U.S. A.J. Mus
only all this, but also the agony of bein-ga
foreign
need
is
we
what
te said once that
fired from my job. As a senior citizen, I have
League
the
what
policy for children, and that is
no job to be fired
is trying to create.
David Berkingoff
i"ople int"."rted in the project-can-call
New York CitY
me collLct, or write to me, c/o WRL' 339
228-0450.
Lafayette St., NYC l}0l2, 212 I
Robert Cohen rePlies:
Thanks in advance for your interesl
1) Concerning Mr, Berkingoff s position
Wendy Schwartz
rc Arab compensation, I am familiar with
llar Resisters League
this position as one component of the prG
New York City
from'
posals
nd
t
uyI.
I
i.s.
tt
tes
lanY
le
d
d-
>
las
i
for Federation in
the Middle East ad-
vanced by Joseph Abileah and Abie Nathan.
as it may seem in light of Mr. BerSurprising
taken
story,
WIN
a
read
in
It is painful to
regarding authorship of our
kingoffs
fantasies
fiom the publicity of the Jewish Agency. The
article, Abileah's ploposal is that with which
rich and powerful Jewish Agency controls
I most strongly identify and'trhich I support.
the American press and can have columns in t
Both Madeleine and I have sought out Mr.
wants.
it
whatever
to
say
the New York Times
Abileah (in Israel and N.Y.C.) and spoken
Why give it space in WIN?
with him at some length both about his proThe statement of Robert and Madeleine
gram and obout the political climate in
Cohen, (Oct. 15, 1970) is more ofthe
IsraeL
Agency's proPaganda.
2) In this and a previous letter (October
My position is-that every Arab who had
t), Mr. Berkingoff makes many allegations his home, in Jaffa, and other places, has the
concerning events and personalities in Israel
right to return and be compensated for the
without giving his source for a single one:
the
of
out
driven
being
from
losses resulting
indeed, he gives the impression in every inon
dwell
have
to
not
country. Pacifists do
stance of having been there at the time. We
other aspects of the Palestinian problem.
tied to be meticulous in documenting our
It is foolish to quote statements about
source for evefy incident (however inaccurate
quote
just
to
it
is
as
goodwill to Arabs,
our interpretation of these lacts may be), and
not
is
An
Arab
goodwill
Nixon's words of
I invite Mr. Berkingoff to do the same. (His
allowed to leave his village without a permit
remark, e.g., that the Israeli govemment
from the police. So the sweet words of Israeli
banned production of the Levine play is,
for
the
up
to
cover
want
who
intellectuals
to my source, false.) And I trust
according
meaning.
have
no
government
the
atrocities of
that most tttlN readers will appreciate that
Robert and Madeleine quote the "New
quoting a person or magazine does not in the
Outlook". The "New Outlook" is against the
slightest imply agreement with other state.
return of the Arabs to their homelands.
ments alleged to come from the same source.
none'
was
play,
there
As for the anti-war
In conclusion, both of us welcome
There was a satire on the present Israeli
thoughtful and less hysteical responses to
government entitled "The Queen in the Bathalternatives
iub". The actress and the author were mobbed the whole question of nontiolent
but I expect these will
East;
Middle
the
in
the
government
banned
up.
The
and beaten
have to take off in a different direction from
production of the PlaY.
that of our piece, which we thought wds
, The particular peace song they mentioned
simpty a needed correction to aspects ofis prohibited in Israel. It became known
WIil'spresentation ofJune 15, on the theory
abroad through the communist underground.
seeing things as they are is a basic, fint
that
somea
meeting,
at
Dayan,
As for Moshe
step towards understanding.
one interrupted Moshe Dayan who replied
"lf you are a Jew, I will answer, if you are
an Arab I'11 use a gun."
Since I am the "bunch of air pollution
As to the point concerning children,
neoole in Massacuusetts" (Dovetales, SepL
teachers write on the blackboard, "Herzl
f'Sf Ol who wrote about "Black Monday"'
loved Jews-hated Arabs". Another illustraI thought you'd like to know a little more
tion: The teacher writes on the blackboard:
about iL After a month of stopping people
Jews love their children, this is why they
in the streets and telling them about "Black
build underground shelters for them,or the
Monday," I looked at my electric bill one
teacher asks: When an Arab sees a gun, what
day and found that if was $7 less than usual'
does he do? The children answer-he runs
The next billing period, another $2 had come
away. In school plays, Arabs are given the
off my bill. The only conclusion was: "Black
roles of fools, idiots, and lazy people.
Monday". Eureka. So I askedl our local tiiend-
--.
i,
ly groups (Women's Liberation and the
NPC (New Politics Coalition) to support
this movement-and they Cid and they doand to spread the word that not only does
"Black Monday" help stop pollution gene
rat6d by non-caring power plants, but it
saves money too. So about 2 months ago, I
sent a notice to WIN telling you about "Black
Monday." Then I sent another notice-this
time an official looking press release. Finally
WIN arrived today with a few words about
"Black Monday." HooraY!
About those cats in Colorado who do a
similar thing on Thursdays Hey, folks, let's
celebrate "Black Monday" AND "Grey
Thursday." The more we can do to stoP
pollution, the better. Hey, about using candles, I really think it's better to burn one
light than td add more smoke to the air with
a candle. But that's up to you. The main
thing is to avoid using appliances, stereos,
televisions, and non-essential thingies like
electric toothbrushes.
Our Women's Liberation gouP in Amherst started a weekly newspaper column in
the weekly Amherst RECORD. The column
is about, naturally, Women's Lib, and is restricted to local stuff. This is confining, so we
"stormed" the local Northampton paper
(all 12 ofus), and persuaded the editor of
the GAZETTE to let us do a weekly column.
He agreed, and we had committed ourselves
to 2 weekly columns A nearby town is startting a newspaper, and asked us to do-gJttess-a
weekly Women's Liberation column. So we
now have 3 overgtound columns going' The
problem is there aren't very many ofus, and
we have these columns we said we'd write.
But somehow we're muddling through because getting the word to a lot of people
about what's happening is important And,
happily, the editor of the GAZETTE hasn't
changed any oi our words, so the people see
our sfuff untampered with. We have also used
the Amherst column to educate readers on
household ecology. We get a whopping $3
a column in the GAZETTE ($5 in the RECORD)-not much-but if WIN readers want
to do a column for the GAZETTE, just
write to me, Carrie Hemenway, R.D. Williamsburg, Mass 01096. Half the fee goes to Women's Liberation here in Northampton, Mass
(for literature-we're all poor and this is the
only way we can research and learn about
the movement), and ll2 goes to the writer.
It's only $1.50, but you ciur buy some cold
food to eat on Black Monday and Grey
Thursday with it. We welcome columns
frem men as long as the subject matter pertains to'Women's Liberation. The only re-
striclion is that the copy be about l-U2
typed, double-spaced pages The editor requCsls non-obscene language, whatever that
means. If anyone-wants to write a column,
but doesn't have access to a typewriter, send
it to me and l'11 type it. But don't do this
unlessyou really don't have any way to type
it because,'man, I don't want to be an ex-
ploitedtypingwoman'
canieHemenway
l,ttilliam sbur g, M ass.
To the readers:
Some ofus aie men, but none ofus are
gentlemen. At least half of us are women. lle
don't think to address letters to as ' Srrq "
" Gentlemen", or " Brothers" demonstrates
the highest politicdl consciousness.
-the
Eds.
ffirilH
+Tllr.dtil
?hi1",{r*t"*TH
t\q Ftut Art rt",
%.,90^^{,k14,
fifrrlu*U
Donold Jlewlove
hos wrrtten
one hell of o novel
obout o demonic
Eost Villoge pointer.
THt PAINTTR GABRITI.
$6.95, now ot your
booksiore
XffI^.il;,r*'i",
hGllL
ANARCHIST POSTERS:
Durruti-spanish Civii War (red and black,
19x 16)
5 Chicago Anarchists
We must all hang together, or assuredly
shatl all
hang sepatately..
we
a
The Trumpet
quiet politicat journat
I year - S1
P,O. Box 232, coleta, Catifotni.t 93O17
(f9x14)
Louis Lingg-one of the flve (17x14)
Lucy Parsons-another Chlcago Anarchist
(19x15)
Haymarket Handbill (silkscreen, 17x13)
cartoon
".'"1i'1;ilj""I"".t1'lff"i["iii'
J surrearist rnsurrection
",ouiriou
bv
(t7xz2)
each,40olo off in butk, from:
llgilatrLeJt.50BOOKSHOp,
INVESTMENT CAPITAL NEEDED SOLIDARITY
c/O tWW,2440
for
expansion
of
operating printing
shop serving pacifist and other groups.
6% interest, repayment in 5 years.
For information: Peabe Press, lnc.,
339 Lafayette St., N.Y., N.Y. 10012
67, interest, repayment in 5 yearsl
For information: PEACE PRESS, lNC.
ANYONE LOOKING FOR A ROOMMATE?
omeless 24-year-ol d pacifist seeks roof over
his head, preferably in Manhattan. I,d also bo
interested in a sublease. Call (9: OO A.M.-5: OO
P.M.l (272) 935-326o. Ask f or erri"i r-io."r,
H
"A devastation of idols, no mere target practlce, A.L.'s songs burst with surprises,,,*X.
J. Kennedy, in the I ntroduction to ENTERTATNMENTS & VALEDtCTtONS. $4.45
postpaid. Windfail Press, 1814E, Norwood
St., Chicago 60626.
34
I
N. Lincoln Ave., chicago, ilt. 60614
Editing revision, rewriting, from somebody
who learned the HARD *ay-at
WIN.
Super-reasqnable rates; my needs are small,
but pressin!. Will considcr any job
that
doesn't require leaving the Southwest. Write
to: Paul Johnson, Somewhere in New
Mexico, c/o rrVIN.
D€p.endabre pe.rson seeks
opportunity to
i!i'Jid_., ?i? Ltl,:.::3.'".r*jlr'll'.f;',";1""
place. Tired of cogntry tife. A;;;etp apprr
clated-.trrichaet Cunningnam, R6ute t, Box
4O8, Winchester, Ky. 46391'
3
WIN classified ads reach more than 9,000
lgyely., llned-on people! Advertise your
lJ,ang !l WlNl Bates per d, per inseriion:
first 15 words $2; each lO'words there
after $1. Make check or money order
payable to WIN MAGAZINE. payment
must ac@mpany order
LocaI
,,WHEN THE MODE OF THE MUSIC CHANGES"
THE 1971 WAR RESISTERS LEAGUE
PEACE CALENDAR
\/1/RL
Groups
IIRL-l,lest (Western Region Offices, 833 Haight Street,
San Francisco, California 94117. (415) 626-6916
Atlanta llorkshop in Nonviolence (Southern Region
Office), P.O. Box 7477, Atlanta, Georgia 30309
(404) 87 s-0646
WRl-Southwesr (Southwest Region office), 116-8 Hermosa S.8., Albuquerque, N.M. 87108. (505) 269-88l'1
Canton WRL, P.O. Box 8163, Canton, Ohio 44i09
Akron WRL, 153 Brown Street, Akron, Ohio 44311
(216) s3s-6183.
Albany WRL,Box 1237, ATbany, N.Y. 12201.
Boston l|RL, clo Olmsted, 28 Lawrence Street, Boston,
(611) 62749s2
Southampton WRL,
N.Y. 11963.
cf
o Semkus, Box 536, Sag Ftrarbor,
Manhattan Beach tlRL, 1014 Duncan Piace, Manhattan
Beaclr, California 90266. (213) 319-0315.
Detroit I'I/RL, 28314 Danvers Court, Farmington, Michi_
gan 48024. (313) 33s-0362.
Columbus WRL, 30 West Woodruff, Columbus, Ohio
43210.
Milwaukee Area Draft Information Center and WRL,
1618 West Wells, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (a1a))
342-0191.
Cobb County WIN, cf o AWIN, Box l4ll , Atlanta, Ga.
, 30309. (404) 81 5-0646.
In addition to the above groups, there are about a dozen
efforts to organize locai WRL's going on around the country. These are what we could call embryo WRL's and when
they reach the stage ofbeing able to organize and work outside the WRL membership we wili list them as local WRL's.
If you would like to begin organizing a local WRL or would
like information on the iocal WRL program piease write to
the National Office.
AND APPOINTMENT BOOK
"Pop music ain't what it used to be, and I say hooray. . . .
ln those days, Woody Cuthrie mimeographed copies of his
songs. The Top Forty wouldn't touch 'em. Even today, the
music business and the radio stations try to keep things under
control by plugging so-called "inoffensive" songs, and screening out "protest" songs. But they are being outflanked by
youth and by the ingenuity of songwriters.
"A song, after all, is not a speech. Like any work of art, it
bounces back different meanings to different people at different times, as life shines new light upon it. . . . I learned a
lot reading this book of lyrics. I didn't choose the selections;
I don't agree with a lot of them; but I learned from them all.
"Our country is as full of communication as a crowded
cocktail party. lt is also full of people asking "What can I do?"
"May these songs help us decide."
-from
Pete Seeger/s Foreword
Spiro Agnew has made a special point of attacking this
music. A reading of the lyrics will show why "rock culture"
frightens the Vice President.
ln addition to Peter Seeger's Foreword, the 1971 Peace Calendar has:
the editing and an Afterword by Mayer Vishner who writes on
rock music and politics for WIN Magazine and Crawdaddy
a page for every week of the year
a facing page of lyrics of songs by the Beatles, Bob Dylan,
the Rolling Stones, and other popular groups whose music
shows concern for a better world as well as the joy of life
attitude widespread amongst today's youth
cornmentaries on some of these songs by Richie Coldstein,
John Stickney, Danny Kalb and others prominent in the
current youth gulture/social change scene
a directory of peact periodicals and organizations, American
and overseas, with blank pages for notes
128 pages, 51/2"x81/2", wire-bound and flat-opening, the
Calendar pages of which can be removed when the year is
over leaving x fu6rrnd volume for your permanent library.
The Peace Calendar is a unique and inexpensive gifl
that will be remembered every day o{ the year.
$z
r
$5. for three
$10. Ior six
Cift orders will be rnailed to arrive by Christmas, postpaid
in the U.S." comolete with a card civine the donor's name
for! enclose $=-of the"l9 70 Peace Calendar
my
name
my
address
Plcase enclose a gift card signed (name only)
WAR
RESISTERS LEAGUE
339 Lafayette Street, New York, N.Y. 10O12
f
cop,es
Janis
Joplin
1943-197O
Flashback: Newport Folk Festival 196.!:': i' i,"4:i.fl.{..:.:, :,.' r:i ic 'i',.',:
!'..,. ,l" jl:l ::::.":.
Joplinwatched James Taylor and others at
: , '','.,,,.,,t, i,',lr
,
:,,'
"",,
,
a workshop for new folks. Absorbed and ,
.::r, '':: , i
enthusiastic with the sound of new minds,
she stood in the photographers' pit weaing
huge shades and botowed my camera to
:
gain a new PersPective.
Shared everyone's beat and drank Gordon's Split from the festival grounds & danced herself 'till
In the wings:
from
years.
Belted out about 900 sets with Big Brother People
it-
backing Death of Hippie.
Can you tell me what's happening at the
at evening concert & left 'em roaring in the aisles. Freaky Fillmore? Dick Farina, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, etc.
black dress, let it all hang out, spprks of red-blond hair flying Victims of ? Death of invention. Women, no, now People is
losers. Too much SPEED in every sense of the word.
through the air with dynamo vibr\tions.
/
Death of Flowers. final
blues.
Diana Davies
Win Magazine Volume 6 Number 19
1970-11-15