Win Magazine Volume 9 Number 25

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PEACE AND FREEDOM THRU NONVIOLENT ACTION

September 6, 1 973/ 201

CESAR CHAVEZ SPEAKS OUT ON NONVIOLENCE
PHIL A DAN BERRIGAN,ON TORTURE,

]
IN.NQRTH VIETNAM
.
WRL"CELEBRATES s0th ANNIVERSARY
VYAW TRIAL DRAGS

ON

,

t1

We ,. Us youn'uns take the same part id that
that framqwork that we more zuspiciously took
power. with óur parents (the petty bourgeious, we
the are told).

As to the Jewish left, there's none.
have an American lewish Community,
acts a4d considers itself as a colonial
Before the Watergate became known to

Àmerican public, Zionist publications prided
themselves in promoting and guiding Nixon
to his power.
The lewish Labo¡ Bund is an exception
to the Jewish environment. It still speaks of

Anyuay, what she said made a lot of
but the way she said, challengingly
and for the reflection (not memorÞation)
sertse,

u

of the readers, really wàs all.

_LINDA J. LARKIN
Milwaukee, WI

wo¡ld where the exploited mases Will
come to triumph in life. A gre¿t humane
social order will be the destiny of the world
a

I don't propose 10 express a point ofview
-DAVID BERKINGOFF about læah Fritz's comments (in her unBronx,

N.Y,

manifesto) on lesbianism and gay liberation,
though I would certainly agree that.the gay
{novement is not immune from the illness
of dogrratism and platitudes. I do wi'sh to

Leah Fritz's article wttslT3I zotted me
back to the time when the other people in
.-.,strongly lake issue with her snide comment
.my house disposed of the cat who lived with
that "It's easy to grab a publisher or a headme because "having pets is countet-revoluline with a title like LESBIAN NATION."
tionary," I can feel myself to be whe¡f óhe
That book, by Jill Johnston, is one of only
is/was writing that "Uí-Manifesto" whenthree books on the subject of lesbian/femi.
eyer I state my sexual preferences (after havnist liberation. The number of books on
ingbeen asked to do so) and ûnd that that
malehomosexualityissigrif icaqtlygrrc-âter,
statement always offends somebody who
but there aré really'orily a handful which
then labels me "thë enemy." Etcetera.
t¡eat the topic from any kind of radical perAcceptance of persons without filtering
spective. It has been a difficult struggle for
them throu,gh idealogies seems to me to be
gay liberation literature to be publisheld and
what she's talking about, So I'll go ahead
distributed. \ryIN has not reviewed any of
and d¡ork" on some new myths-not exclusiri.
the lesbian bookg for example, at least not
but
ones,
becauæ
istic ones,
more wholistic
yet, The idea that the writings oflesbians
that's important to me right now-and I'm
and male homosexuals constitute a media
not saying fou have'to buy into them. .hrst
fad is a misconception at best and bigotry
like I'm not going to denounce Rosemary
at wcirst. Tþ other two lesbian.libemtion
Ruethe¡ because she is. using masculine
books, by the way, aÍe LESBIÁNAIOMAN
generic language, Etcetera.
by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons @antam
ln her search for a nonviolent mode
pagerback), and SAPHOWAS A RIGHT-ON
living, Leah almost seems to be suggesting
WOMANby
Sydney Abbott and Barba¡a
spiritual-moral
even
away
with
we do
Love (Stein &
-ALLEN YOUNG
violence-and-conquest. She moves me to
Westwood, Mass.
_MARY SUE GAST
aspire to the same.
''"-'Chia:ago' IL
I wanted to Jompliment you on the piece
you did [WIN, 4/19/73] asking folks to
Iæah Fri¿'s unmanifesto, July 19,
recommend some usefi¡l books. I suppose
prompted me to thañk god for'they'are
some would call that filler material, but I
Dpwn he¡e in the ranks
finally saying
would call that the personal side of our polithe¡e has been considerable annoyance with
tics and hope you will never forget that that
the dogmatism of the'heavies;' Particularly
is the key to your unique coqtribution I
frustrating is the phenomena in which we
also wanted to Suggest two books that I
progress within the left by reading or listenwas very much zurprized at their absence.
ing to such notables as Johnston, Mao, WIN,
David Horowitz's EMPIRE AND REVOLULynd, etc. and adhe¡e stâunchly to thei¡
(Vintage Paper), and Marcuse.'s
TION
(until
pÍogess

.
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Photo by Murph Dowouis. lvl-urph-isanative,of.Louls¡anawhodldastretchfordraftrefusalacoupleof
mid-slxt¡es whên he was worklng
with the Catholic Worker in New york,

yearsago. wef¡rstmeth¡m¡nthe

ses" which apply only to non-adults. What
he failed to point out is thê heavy sexist
bias that exists in the treatment ofjuven-

.

iles.

Data reported by the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania on offenses ôommitted by juveniles sent to "training schools" during
1965 and 1966 showed thatabottS0% of
the boys were jailed for "ofrenses against
authority," a euphemism for such things as
ungovernable behavior, running away, truancy, etc,, the remaining boys were jailed
for ofrenses that are also applicable to adults
such as theft or assault. More than 7 Mo of
the girls were jailed for "offenses against authority." Ariother 13 or l4/o were jailed for
sex offenses; for many of these the ofrense
was

"promiscuity,"

Futhermore, girls charged with ofrenses
applicable only to juveniles seem to receive
ha¡sher treatment tlan those charged with
adult ofrenses, at least in Pennsylvania during 1965 and 1966 (I doubt if things have
changed too much.) Of the girls charged
with juvenile offenses about 45% were held
in either jails or detention homes pending
their court hearing compared with 24Vo of

6,1973

Volume lX, No. 25

lnterview vyith Cesar Chavez.. .'.

lim

Forest

I

... .. .+
o

WRL National Conference.
Robert A. Pugley
Putting Words into Action.
Jim Peck

't4

Childcare.....r.

...15

Emelyn Buskirk
On Torture.

.'.-..'..

Phil Benigon

.

.... . .. .

...f6

Presecuticih Case Micf¡res.in Gainesvi lle. 1 &

Neil Fi)llogar

{

Changes.

,¡

.20

Cover: Dorothy Day being arrested at the
UFW strike picket line in Fresno, Çalifornia. Photo by Bob Fitch.

of

Day).

LErrEns
I¿rry Gam's "Prison Notes" column in the
July 26 isue of tiVIN pointed out th¿t man]¿
juveniles who are jailéd are held for "offen-

September

those charged with misdemean ots and 35%
of those charged with felonies. Of those
charged with juvenile offenses, L!r/z% arc
eventually sent to an institution fo¡ delinquents versus 9Vo of those charged with mis
demeanors and l4Vo of ühose charged with
felonies. (This data iS from a report I wrote
for the Americân Association of University
Women as part of a project that rqBulted in
the formation of the Pennsylvania Program
for Women and Gi¡l Ofrenders.)

_ BERT KRITZER
Chapel Hill, NC

Arthu¡ ìVaskow's article on "Watergate
and Presidential Power" (wIN, 7/12/73) is
an excellent analysis ofthe historical development ofour present situation. It certainly gives a great deal of coherence to the
whole Watergate mess, and the events of
the last ten yeais,
Waskow suggests that as a ffust step
toward rectifying the situation, Nixon should
be immediately relieved of his presidential
power. In this context, however, I would

through impeachment, or any other means,
before 1976? What is tltere really to prevent
him as a last resort from simply utilizing his
military connections to forceably seize control of the government and desolve Congress?
Note that of thé two closest adviso¡s to Nixon, one is a former fast rising Army general,
the other is a former secretary of defense.
To me, such a possibility does not seem
too. far-fetched considering Nixon's personal-

ity and everything he has done so fa¡ and
planned to do. This country is certainly not
immune to what has happened in similar
situations in other countries, and at other
times (Germany). The potential conse
quences of this entire historical period boggle
the
-JOHNWALDRON
W. Lafayette, Ind.

mind.

The 812173 issue of WIN, came as stab
in a pained chest, There's a Jewish folk
song: "Our tears no one sees, our cries nô
one hears". The sight ofthe shield ofDavid
spread on two pages, one of them in red,
the symbol of blood- This brought to mind
when tftis shield meant entry to death; A
like to raise one very serious poinl Knowing, Jew caught without a sþ was immanently
as we do, Nixon's mentality and the way he
dead, So who wants to be reminded about
operates, can we ¡easonably expect him to
it; who wants to see it again, It shor¡ld be
willingly give up his presidential power
buried with all the glories of war.

it!

stands

we

further).

We

under

.

STAFF

FELLOWTRAVELERS

marls cakars
susen cal(ars

lance belv¡ll€
diana davi€s

nancy johnson

juli€ maas

mary mayo

brlen wêster

I

ralPh digia
påul enc¡mer

cr¿¡g J{.rpat

cfndy kont

.-

chuck frgcr

alllot.llnz.f

mlke tr¡nlch

j¡ck3on maclow
d.vld incioynotds

n€ll haworth

Jlm psck.

b.cki

lgal roód.nko
'mlko stamm
m¡itha thomascs

mâtly lézêr

mark morrls

johnson
paul johnson
ôlllson karp€l

..r......,

547 rifton
:.i.

tâne

roþin lar¡cn

laåh lrltz
lar7y gerâ

box

pðt6i kl9Þr
ålex knopp
john kyÞàr

dorothy

soth folcly
¡lm lorcat

COUNTERREVOLUUOU AÑD REVOLT

stand the good in what they say without
(Bêacbn), Both are essential in understandchallenging them on any grounds (per.our
*- ing the Nixon era.
eood Amerikan upbringing. Sadly, very few
'Cò'.
of the notables ask the criticism which they
Thus, their bolda- .
have so readily produced.
Revolutionãry Greetings,tþ'all p{ila4åis
-of
cious assertions
thei.indivi¿ualbeliefi,' "" Black, Brown, Red, Yellow and Whi6. -'-"'
analyses, too oasily qharm the hungry minds.
September l3tÞ.wtll maitS the day that
All too seldon¡ a¡e we asked to think of
our brothers weie beat and killed at Attica.
something to do about the situation; rather
The people ori the streetb are doing many
we are told the proper response, attitudo
deeds of solidarity to aid the survivors of the
and method of communicating it. Howeve¡
Attica massacre.
we fall into the trap of labels such as Gay
ln figfti of tftir solidarity I propose an
,r act of solidarity that all of the convicted
Power, Third World power, etc, which she
' .class may participate in.to show that Attica
has riduculed beoause we have not been encouraged or allowed (by intimidation, etc.)
is not forgotten, that men did not die in
fæt
to develop more meanindul conceptions óf
.vafur, that unknown fnen are not on trial
whçre we are going and what it means-they
us all in racial unity and solidarity throughare constantly provided for us. I suppose I
out the U.S. Prisons Federal and State deam trying to ask for more patience on her.
cline to eat our meals on September 13th.
part with those who lay under the rheto¡ic
Breakfast, Dinner and Supper. Ifthey sacri
they support. Often the old new left (or
ficed their lives, let us at least remember
whateve¡ label they would prefer) only
them in a national fast and day of mouming
A PRISONER
rememberþg
changes the words and not the framework,

futh d€¡i. ...

new

judyrÞs¡hlter

york .12471

telephone 914 3394585
,,,

WIN ls publlsh.d wolkly êxccpt'lor tha flr3t
two wecks ln Januôry. 2nd wrak ln Mry. trst 4

wacks ln August. end th. last wock ln.Octobsr
by thc WIN Publlshlng Emplr. wlth thô'support
ot thc Wâr RGslstar¡ L.rguc. SubrcrlDtlons erc
37.OO p.r ycrr. Srcond clåss ÞostagG at Nrw
York. N,Y. lOOOI. lnd¡viduat- wrltõrs arc re3po¡s¡blq for oplnlon3
€xprosscd
eccutacy
of facts glven, . Sorry-manuscrlptsandcannot
bã
returnrd untæs ¡ccompan¡cd by a self-addr€s36d stampcd .nvelope. Printéd ¡n U.S.A.

-

Attica.

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NONVIOLENCEON THE LIN trL

an interview'

wiih CesarChavez

',

more ominous turn as violence.on the part of those r
lppgsed to the UFW has erupted. On August 15 Nagi
Daiful I ah, a 2Çy ear.ol d i m m i gran t farm worke r from
Yemen died as a result of being beat over the head
w¡th a deputy shei¡ff's flashlight. ln a disptay of support for the union and la Huelgø, ovor 1Q000 farmworkers turned outfor the funeral procession. The
day after Daifullah died, Juan de la Cruz, a founding

Sevenl years ago a study indicated that the average
peiiod of visible activism for war protester,g was five
months. Their war resistance was taken up like an
intense hobby, completely consuming for'a time, then
abandoned to a kind ofattic for onp's past.
t recalled tåe five-month statistif, while listening to
several attenders at a liberal San Francisco church.
One was especially vehement in expressing his "exhaustion" with food boycotts in support of farmworkers. "l didn't eat'grapes for three yeari. I didn't eat lettuce for one yéar. Am I supposed to spend the rest
of my life fasting? I've had enough." He sounded as
if he were discussing a hobby with which he'd grown
bored.
Few farmworkers have time for hobbies. ln California, America's largest single agricultrJtal source,
t}te farmworker's.riormal day begins well before sunrise. ln old qars and rusting trucks and buses,
r
make their way to poorly-paid hard labor-parents
and grandparents, men:and women, and children too.
For 1 1 years Cesar Chavez has been organþing
those families. He's been incredibly effective. Another year or two and the Spanish word, huelga, aught
'
to be more familiar than, its.[n!lish-Amerícan equivalent-sti¡ke, Among farmworkers in the San J oachin
Valley fwo cries seem to dominate-l'Vìvo la huelgo!"'
and !' Vivo Cesr,Chovez ! "
The huelga.has taken place at the supermarket and
dining table as well as on the field. f oining in national
boycotts, hundreds and thousands of persons have
gone without table grapes and iceberg leftuce-and
sometimes without strawberries, wine, melons and
other crops. The partnership between farmworker
and eater has been so potent that a few years ago the
reluctant growers began to sign contracts with the .
union Chavez founded-the United Farmworkers of

r-nembe¡ of the union was shot dead on the picket
Cesar's 2Fyear-old son has also been shot at.
The response of the union !o these developments
has been to,fpmporarilv suspend þicketing althe felds
while at the same t¡me stepp¡ng up boycott act¡v¡t¡es

-line.

at supermarkets.

plAugust 4th I spent part òf the morning driving
_
with Cesar Chavez from the UFW headquartels at
LaPaz to the Lamont UFW center near Bakersfield.

tliey

We

Boycott and Huelga. Along the way there was a halfhour stop to join with 300 or so stri'kers at one of the

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the A FL-Cl O-and the Farmworker .Eagle'became a
familiar sight on agricultural products not gnly f¡om
C¿lifornia but from Arizona, Florida and. other states
as well.
Recently, as WIN has been reporting for months,
the California growers have been involved in what ap- '.
pears to be a final attempt to drive away a union that
is interested not only in better wages and living conditions for its members, but which is stubborn in its
practice of u+nion democracy and adamant in its opposition to the use of those chemicals thdf particularly
endanger botlr the farmworker and the conóurher- The
potent¡al of union vetopower over a number of selfserving agribusiness pract¡ces has infuriated the major
owners. Their response has been to seek contracts
w¡th the Teamsters, a union that has sworn-off the
kind of democracy and worker-consumer health interest that characterlze the UFW.
ln the past several weeks events have taken an even

drove yith ftsar's son?¡n-law and another friend,

both uñaiined bodyguards, and two German shepherds,.
Guimarra vineyards.
. Having already experienced the heat and hostility
the strikers face each day, having talked with nurses
who had stiúched up the feet of itriker children who
had stumbled on spikes hidden at the edge of vineyarils, háving met with people who hours lat€t wefe to
be arrested in 3 a.m. police raids on their housêihaving seen the sacrifice demanded by the strike, my
questions to Cesar centered on the miracle of thè
' . farmworkers'continuing nonviolence. -Jim Forest

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t'CulVez:

Nonviolence is very difficulr ln our case
never done because we're always dçaling
,with new people in.these situations.' We're ahvays at
the beginning p-oint. Where yqu happen to deal with
people yor¡.lr¿qlBalt wi.th before, it's no problem, but
. tñatþ not affordedis'Tiry ôftêri' And so we now "
"have 10,000 people on strike in seven different places'
'and
in almost every single case-witl¡ 98% of the people-they've never had the experience. That's difficult,
You have to deal with them in such a way that
you don't impose the ¡dea of nonviolence on them but
that they occept it. Because if you try to impose it
in a situation as difficult as this ong a situation thatrs
so charged up, they'll reject everything. You haye to
have a very skilled method of convincing peoplg.
I th¡ñk the first prerequisite of nonviolence is for
tJre nonviolent person to assume tlat there are other
feelings and not to impose. Trying to impose is a mistake a lot of non-octlvlsf nonviolent people fall into,
just as they fatl into the trap of thiirking nonviolence

, our job'Ís
.,

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5

is a land

of milk and honey. Nonvioience is really

tough. You don't practice nonviolence by attend-ing
conferences-you practice it on the picket lines. And

if you've been here two or three days, you know how

difficult that

is.

But once the workers make that first step toward
nonviolence and they accepl the ide4 tJren you begin
to work at carrying it out. lt goes by steps.
We're fortunate. We've been able to hang on to
nonviolence in these really large confrontations we've
been having. Some people st¡ll throw rocks-but they'r
not carrying guns or knives or baseball bats, and the
rock throwing is only occasional, so we think we,re
99 and 9l1}ths% successful.
FOREST: How do the people do it? How do they
remain nonviolent in that heat, under those conditions,
with those pressures?
CHAYEZ: A lot has to do with leadership and the
people running the strike. l'm not running the strike,

you know.
ln some places they've been striking a long time.
They're disciplined. ln some cases they're not discias

plined, but they've got the idea-initiating creative
picketing, never permitting the people to feel they're
up against a stone wall, that they've come to the lasl
And that's more important than talking about nonviolence.
The thing we have going for us is that people are
willing to sacrifice themselves. When you have that
spirit, then nonviolence is not very difficult to accomplish. lt becomes mechanical then-just amatter
of working on mechanics
But I think that we're just blessed with the idea

that the workers acceptand understand-as part of

the¡r trad¡tion-they accept and understand the meaning óf sacrifice. And once you're willing to do that,
then you're well on your way to putting the whole
idea of nonviolence before them. And with some
creative picketing as I said, this does the trick.

FOREST: Cesar, it has been 1 1 years since you began
organizing the farmworkers. Have there been times
when your convictions about nonviolence were shaken?
CHAVEZ: No. Because I'm an extremely practical
man. I don't think any one evÊnt, or any one day, or
any one action, or any one confrontation wins or
looses a battle. You keep that in mind and be practical about it.
It's foolish then to try and gamble everything on
one roll of the dice-which is what violence really
gets down to.

I think the practical person has a better chance of
dealing with nonviolence than people who tend to be
dreamers or who are impractical. We're not nonvio
lent because we want to save our souls. We're nonviolent because we want to get some social justice for
the workers.
lf all you're interested in is going around being nonviolent and so concerned about saving yourself, at some
point the whole thing breaks down-you say'to yourælf, "Well, let them be violent, as long as l'm nonviolent." Or you begin to think it's okay to loose the
battle as long as you remain nonviolent. The idea is

that you have to win and be nonviolent. That's extremely importantl You've got to be nonviolent-and
you've got to win with nonviolence!
And there's no cop-out. lf I loose, I can't blame
nonviolence. I lost for other reasons. Right at the
beginning I have to accept the fact that, if t loose, it,s
6 WIN

my fault more than anyone else's.
FOREST: You mentio,ned that the workers are sus_
tajqed þy a tradition-of sacrifice. What sustains you?
CHAyEZI People. I have to touch people, ind i trave
!o get so close to them that my skin rubi *itt, tt rrn.
Thatls where.l get my strength- l,m at leaiiãxperienced enough to know that all po*r, .ornð, lio,
the people. So I stay close to ttiem. ffiãi;s',uf,er" ¡
get my strength. They give it to me.
' And sometimes it works the other
wav. When we
meet, esp-ecially under these very difficuli situations,
,'Oh,
people.often say,
it's so gobd to seÀ-vål-t,.rr.
We leel strong when you come." And I
say. ,,How
funnyl I feel the same,rvay!" (Laughter.)';,1 feel
strong when I see you.'
But the business of nonviolence in struesle is not
angelic. lt's the business of working with fióople_at
best it's a very tough proposition.
FOREST: I noticed in your office many of Gandhi's
books as well as drawings of him. Theré was a photo
of Martin Luther King. There were various ediiions
of the Bible. To what extent do you find yourself
turning to these sources?
CHAVEZ: Well, number one, in our movement most
of us are the action type and not the philosopher
type. This is probably the most l,ll ever do on nonviolence-talking when someone comes around ahd
asks questions about it. I won,t write about it. 'l
don't want to write about iL I haven't got time.
The philosophy is greaq but you take Gandhi and
King and learn from them because they were activists
and strategists. What people have to underst¿nd is
that Gandhi-besides being a saint (not an angel but
a saint!)-Gandhi was a masterful strategist. When I
read him, I read him for that.
I think l've read almost everything Gandhi wrote
on nonviolence. I have the concept. I may not under-

I resent it. t can't stand it" Nonviolent pçople aren't
part angel.'"Let the world go to hell over there"that's what that says to me.
FOREST: You draw a distinction between saint and
angel. For you the saint isn't an eggshell walker?
CHAVEZ: Right! You think about St. Paul-there
was a man! And you think about Gandhff
You'know, Gandhi's secretary was once asked by
some westerners who came idolizing Gandhi, "Oh,
how is it to l¡ve with Gandhi?"
And his secretary says, "To live with Gandhi is
like living in the mouth of a lion.". (Burst of laughter.)
FOREST: .. .Jonah in the whale's belly. . .
CHAVEZ: You see, he was diffcult to work w¡th. I
suppose living with Maitin Luther King was also diffi-

'cult. lt

was push and push and púsh. So you learn

that from them.
And you go to the source and tþad the story of
Christ's life here on earth and you get the message.
He went over, you know, and upset some lables and
said some very tough things to the rich.
FOREST: The tame people who spoke of "cheap
pac¡f¡sm" said it'is extremely important to distinguish
between nonviolent conflict resolut¡on and the build'
ing up of justice. They said the main problem now is
gett¡ng people to stop using violence as a method and
that we should worry more about that and less about

justice. Your own approach seems very differentst'ruggling first with the problem'of infustice. . .
CHAVEZ: W¡th the struggle here, we'll sit back and
we'll tålk about nonviolence and we'll have made more
converts than you'll ever make by going to ten million

.

sem¡nars. But also you'll have accomplished just what
they,want to accomplish, What do the poor care .
about strange philosophies pf n'onviolence if it doesn't

mean bread for them?
FOREST: I recall Gandhi saying that there are so
many hungry people in the world that the only way
God can appear is as a piece of bread.
CHAVEZ: Right. You know, if people are not pacifists, it's not their fault. lt's because society puts thefi

in that spot. You've gotto change it. You don't just
change a man-you've got to change his environment

as

you do it.

(There is a pause, Cesar looking closely at a Guimarra vineyard, then gazing out the rear window, no-

ticing a police car following.)
We have a t¿il on us. Yqu know at one point we'
, had three police cars in front and four i¡ back. Completely surrounded! They finally stopped us, then
they let us go.
(Anothei pause as he contiiiues to studf the vineyards, then asking the driver to get over tothe far side
of thq f¡elds where a stríke line is located.)

:

stand everything but I understand enough to carry .
me through.
But then I go behind the scenes to find out the :1
strotegy that he used-which'in rnany cases makes
nonviolence workable.
FOREST: You make me think of a phrase I heard in
Berkeley the other day
- "cheap pacifism." The
phrase was meant to describe.the stance of people
who use the h¡ghly moral rhetoric of nonviolence
while in reality excusing themselves from any real response to human suffering. . .
CHAVEZ: That's not nonviolence! There's no reason
to bé nonviolent - there's no challenge - unless you
are living for people. These two men
- Gandhi and '

King - did it for the masses, for the people. That's
how it has to be done for a purpose.
It's amazing how people loose track of basícs.
Gandhi was one of the best fund-raisers the world has
ever seen! (Laughter.) But people don't look at it
that way! They don,t!
One millionaire lndian said, "lt costs me millions
to keep Gandhi poor." (Continued laughter.)
When You put that rogether with Gandhi's political acumen-well, you find he's a living operating guy
working with people.
What l'm trying to say is that you can't go around
pretend¡ng to be an angel when you're not an angel
for the sake of making people believe you're nonvio.
lent. That's cheap. lt doesn't work tJrat way.
I get continually irritated by people who walk
around as if they were on eggshells. I don't buy that.

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Day is in jail, you know. ln Fresno.
-^?glolhv
ruKÈ,s
I : Yes. Her picture was in the San Francisco
Chroryicle the other day. She was under arrest, sur-

LYl999!y police, and looked very proua-þó iàr"rJ
CHAYEZ: Yes-yes she is. And she's still ìn! | weni

to visit her the day before yesterday. I visit all the
prisoners. They let me go in. Oh, she was very, very
_
happy and she was there with several nuns and'a
whole slew of farmworker women. They,re doing
o¡ay. L asked her to teach the workers somethinf
about the labor movement and the peace movement.
She will give them clásses twice a day! She's a pro

fessor. She knows a lot.
FOREST: Cesar, you're somewhat famous for the
stor¡es. you_tell

about particular people and what they

are doing. Do you have any new ones?

CHAVEZ: A funny story-it's not with'the workers
buta Mexican lady I met in Saginaw, Michígan the

other day. I was touring over there on the 6oycott.
She had been a farmworker all her life. She's âbout
60 now. Her husband's retired. I was asking for volunteers and saying that the chicanos had to get out
there and help. After the meeting she came-up to me
and said she couldn't get out there on the pickef line,
although she wanted with all her life. But she just

couldn't because her legs were bad.
But she said she did go to the stores often to look
for grapes and when she found them she always took
a.greeting.froT me !o them! She said, ,,1 go ahd I get
their h¿nd.and I really sgueeze their hand.-' (laughÍer.)
She said, "l give you regards from Cesar Chav'ez.ù She'
looked like an angel-she struck me so! I was sure
they wouldn't believe me so I got me brother and
Richard and asked her to repeát what she'd said.
"Yes, I go and shake their hands and really give them
your regards."
FOREST: The spirit of the Boston Tea party is still

with us.
CHAYEZ: Yes. One of the fellows that works with

us was driving to town the other day with his fiveyear-old son and he came upon a Safeway supermarket
and sdid, 'lOh, I'm going to go in a shop." The l¡ttle
*þoy in back sai{ "Daddy, don,t you do it! Don't do
it! Cesar Eonna get you if you do it! "
FOREST: So many kids seem ínvolved in this.
CHAVEZ: That's the strength of the movemenl
Babies! Richard's little daughter is eight months oldshe came back with her mother from 6eing arrested
the other day.
FOREST: lt makes you think of the people in Metnam in prison. They arrest whole families. The prisons
there are full of children.
CHAYEZ: That'c right. lt's not much different here.

I was.talking to

in Coachella recently. He
said, "Don't be such a coward. Take the women and
kids oui 9f thgre and you men stand up and let,s fìght
it out." And I said, "Why? Do you want to beat us
up? We're game. Beat women and kids too. What,s
the difference?" And he started complaining, ,,Ah,
we don't even know who in the hell we're fightingwhen w-e fìght you guys. lf we fight the woiker, úe,ve
got to fight with his wife and his kids and his grandmother and hìs grandfather and his first, secoñd, third,
fourth and fìfth cousins!" And I said, ,íThat's right!
Plus millions of other brothers and sisters throughout
the country in the labor movement, the religious communities, the blacks, the whites. You'll havé to fight
everybody." And we make it that way.
a Teamster

FOREST: The Teamster offcíals seem to be part¡cularly upset about the involvement of religious comrnunities in this. . .

CHAYEZ:. Bugged, bugged-completely bugged !
FOREST: What do you expect will happen with the
legotiations b-erween Meahy [of the AFL-CIO] and
Fitzsimmons [of.the Teamsteis] ? Do you have any

hope they'll resolve
'CHAVET: There's athis?
lot of pressure there. The labor
mo.vgnlgnl ¡s.getting pretty upset about the Teamstèrs,
and I th¡nk they're going to fight Fitzsimmons' union'
if they don't pull back. My aslessment is that the
Teamsters are up against too much pressure. from the
public and other organized groups. One of ífre Uig
Teamster leaders saíd the other .day, ,,Th is damned

thing is like Metnam-everybody,s in on

it."

He was

upset because he thinks it should just be the Teamstôrs
and the Farmworkers. But I said to myself, ,,That's
gx_agqLy what we want-we want everybody involved.,'
FOREST: Cesar, the AFL-ClO gave g1.6 inillion tó'tne
the farmworkers to help while the strike soes onmoney for the striking families to live on] I understand most of that's gone now. What will happen when
when the strike fund is empty?
CHAVEZ: We'll go back to the old way. This is the
first time we've had money. We've always had'to fìght
without money. Our fight is not dependent on money
'.:
-although money makes it easier. But we got the
harvest in Coachella-about 40% of the croþ there
wasn't picked and 50% of what was picked'wasn't
ripe. You see, over there we struck early-we struck
during the thinning. Here in tl¡e Lamont area they had

hoped-to pick five million boxes-no way! They'ie
not going to get anywhere near that.
FOREST: Then why do the growérs refuse to sign?
It seems nearly insane to t¿ke on the union and iîs
supporters throughout the country. They know
about the strength of the stri kes and boyôotß by
now.. .
:t
CHAVEZ: They haven't yet learned to live witiì a '
real union. We beat them wíth the boycott last time,
more than anything else, and they thought the boycott wouldn't work again.

FOREST: Have the growers changed in their basíc
att¡tudes over the years?
CHAYEZ: No, they haven't changed. They made a
lot of money last year and the yeai before.- ln Delano,
they averaged 92.85 profit ø box,.There was no way
the,y could ever do that before. For them, things
[ooked better than ever.
FOREST: What are you hoping for from people
around the country-the people who eat what the
farmworkers raise and pick? How can they make
themselves part of the huetga?

CHAVEZ: Boycott. Boycott the

grapes, boycott the

the leüuce. Send money for the struggle.
You know, we feel pretty good, even though
we're much where we were in '|,970 beîore we signed
the contracts. But we have what we didn't have in
those days-a heck of a lot of people with an awful
lot mo¡e. We're the majority now. The majority is
on strike. And that's agreat source ofstrength.

Jim Forest is edìtor of Fellowship Magazine which is
copublisltìng this lnteruÌew in its September issue.
He hos been o frequent contrìbutor to these pages

q)

BY ROBERT A. PUGSLEY

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l+ltllZ\'andThe Viltoge Vo¡ce (415n3); an appear'
ànce by Chairperson lrma Zigas and Field Secretary
David Ñ4cReynolds on the J uly 44h edition of NBC"
TY's Today ihow; the formation of the WRL 50th
Anniversary Committee; and local fund'raising events

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But this three-ðai National Conference, the first
in the League's history to be called on the West Coast
and thetargest ithas ever held anywhere, was tJre
mirst impriitant fooal point in a year of qulet cef ebra-tion and purposeful rededication. This meeting
brought together face-to'face many of the.older men
and úomen whose personal biographies collectively
constitute much of the League's history, with those
. younger persons who found a source of sanity and
itrengttr and hope in the League's militantly nonvie
lent resistance to the American role in lndochina over
the last decade.
A partial listing ofConference participants quickly re'
vealed the diversiiy among the "assorted crackpots"
(in David McRevnolds' affectionate phrase) who go
òn arèuming up'alternatives to war and towards a more

human society. Marxists, anarchists, globalists, futurists, collectiviits; gays, straights; businessmen, writers,
ministers, farmers, students, lawyers, carpenters, and
, artists-aíl of thesó and moie were theré, exploring
' bome not unimportant differences in their emphases
ãnà style, but i;i.6€d by a love'bond of dedication to
' life anã.iis riurtvíolent protection.'
- Also present, but not listed, was the usual quota
of âsents.-{dan'Baez.made them feel as welcome as
";;;tibi;;íñiônd"vtuen¡nÈbV dedicating a chorus of
tf'r" hãrmting "Ain't ya Got a RiEht?" to them. The
assembly followed her lead in pragmatic acceptance .,
, and,good-naturedopenness.
The Conference began on Sunday evening, August
5th. with Roy Kepler, formor Secretary of the Lelg-ue
ãná'tongtime'membei of its West Coast Regional Office. weLoming the participants. Roy's words were
the tulminatioñ of a larger, quite tangible whole: the
indefatigable and hugely successful organizing efforts
of tt.re WnUWest as Conference host. You knew im'
mediately tñat this meeting had been well planned-

.

so that spontaneity could have a base.
lgal tioodenko, a previous Chairperson of WRL,.
addieqsing his "br-other and s¡ster lo{ers," outlined in
and inspiring strokei the history of
Uroa¿,

"o-totful,

8 WIN

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around the country.

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Five hundred and fiftv peoole from 25 states.came to
the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove,
California, for the War Resisters League's National
Conference, August 5th-7th, 1973. This was the b¡9" '),
one, the fifdiethãnniversary-of the founding of the
WRL. Fifty years is, after all, an important m¡lestone
in the life of any individual or orgariization, and esp-e'
cially so in the iustained existence of a radical pac,ilst
group that has come through thelast turbulent half'
õentury of world history as a consistent voice of
American opposition to war-all wars.
This has been a year marked for WRL by remem'
brances and projeciions, by tracing roots and charting '
future directions. This important creative task has
assumed, a variety of forms: the 1973 WRL Calendar,
containing Marty J ezer's excellent history, " Fiftv
Years of Ñonviolent Resistance"; Marty's articles in
the Special Anniversary lssue of lllN !7126173-),and
in the Journot of the lnstitute for the Studv of Nonäot"rie ß-7173lt stories in The New York Tìmes

wlN 9

the League, mainly through reference to the witness
of some of its outstanding individual members. Evan

Thomas, younger brother of Norman, the late Socialist
Party leader; and Ned Richards, a birthright Friend,
were present. Their pacifist history extends backward
to their refusal to serve ¡n World War l.
Eileen Egan, of PAXr-brought personal greetings
from Dorothy Day, 75-year-old co-founder of the
Catholic Worker Movement, and a member of WRL's

50th Anniversary.lnitiating Committee. Dorothy had
come to California a week before, intending to be
present at the Conference in person, but instead joined it in spirít while sitting in a Fresno jail for picketing
on behalf of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. Her presence and love were, if possible, even
more keenly felt under the unexpected circumstances.
Her message to a Conference whose theme was "The
Next 50 Years" was simple and compelling: rrThe
future will be different if the present is different."
Others among those whom lgal singled out for
special tribute: A.J. Mu'ste the late, great leader-reconciler on WRL's Executive Committee, the ministersocialist in a secular-reformist pacifist organization;
and, Sam Coleman, jailed.under the Smith Act in the
Fifties, later an active member of WRL, where his
humanist ideals found a compatible home until his
untimely death several years ago.
The resisters to World War Il were more numerous:
J im. Peck, Ralph DiGia, Larry Gara, Roy Kepler, and
lgal Roodenko himself are only a few whose names
come to mind.

The Fifties, as lgal described them, viere pretty
barren soil on which to cultivate a peacebuilding consciousness. The Sixties, however, and America's involvement in tis longest, most unpopulai war, changed
all that. Most Confereqce participants came to their
feet when lgal invited all those who had somehow
clashed with the law in opposition to the Metnam
War to stand.
!Sa! touclred -upon one of the themes of the Sixties,
and of this Conference, when he emphasized the inescapable need to simultaneously attempt both personal ond political change. "To debate whether'society comes before the individual, or the individual
before society, is like asking a healthy human being
, whether eating or sleepirlg is more important.',
Larry Gara, historian, WRL National Committee
membgr, and lillN columnist ("Prison Notes,'), presented the history of WRL through a well-conóeived
series of slides with accompanying narration. Again, '
that section of his program which emphasized th1,pár,
ticular contributions of individuals working towards
a common goal proved the most engaging.
Roy Kepler focused on WRL as an institutional
collective, an organization with an eclectic political
past and a still-evolving political present.
Roy saw the League's major overall achievernent
ofthe past several years as convincing many people of
the value of direct action, civil riisobedience for iocial.
change. He.thought the League failed, howçver, to
persuade very many people of the effectiveness of

nonviolence. Roy challenged the League to,,dare to

have d topical program of its own," in the future, one
based on the Gandhian models of social'change exper-

imentation, one that would attract many.people from
various points'on the political spectrum.
Mandy Carter WRL/West staff persôn, said she had
"no pre-planned answers" for the future, bu!^was in
fact ätträcted to the nonviolent movemqnt'dtecisély
because of ongoing commitment to openness and dia'
logue. She saw no immediate end tothe phenomenon
of-war, and looked to a busy next 50 years with the
League.

:

the first evening together in the large, wooden
Me.rnill Hall ended on an emotional, quietly upbeat
note, with everyone prese.nt linking arms andslowly,
rhythmically swaying to the strains of "Amazing
Grãce." Thêre wèreltrenghth and gentlene5g (what .
Mandy called "soul") both present in-that hymn, led
by Joán Baezand Mimi Farina, that frening in Asilomai. Histor:y had been relived, and the future spoken
of. Now the old and the young were joined in

common sp¡rit. The Pacific rolled and crashed in the
distance, and 550 war resisters affirmed in chorus
their belief in the Capacitl of the human spirit to overcome human evil.
The next few hours were spent around whatever
gathering þlaces Asilomar afforded: pool tables, a
lounge, an outdoor campfire. This wai the essence,
really, of the Conferencè: people meetirry, talking,
sharing in one of thè most naturally beautiful parts of
Calífoinia. This wàs a- good place to be at this tirne.

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workshop on the problems of farm workers at the wRL Nailonal conference at Asllomar, caffi,8t73. photo by. G/acls Hedemann

On Monday morningrAugust 6th, WRL Chairpersen lrma Zigas convened the grqup for a symposium
entitled, "WRL: The Next Fifty Years - Mairi"Currenß of Pacifist Thought and Action." Beverly Wood'
ward, of the WRL Executjve Committee, opened with
a description of, and a call fdfa "tronsnotlonol non'
violent reYolution'.tf She outlined five sçages of developing such. a revolution, drawing upon George Lakey's
new þook, Stroieþy for o Livi n g Revol uti on. Beverly
saw the construbting of alternative syttems and institutionals as one of the Movement's most importan"t
tasks.
future
--

Ltã i*"nron, ofthe lnstitute for the Study of

lo wlN

Nonvíolence, in Palo Alto, discussed some of the insights which anarchists could offer in thé creation of a
nónviolent social order. He cited what hg sees as the
close connection between the decentralist G4ndhiari
econom¡c program and the realization of .4¡on'heirarchical, human society. He stressed'the close connect¡on between the personal "rituals" we live ôut däily; !
and the transformation of the larger socialprder.
' David McReynolds spoke to the connection (which
he and others are working to develop) between Marx-. .
ism and pacifism, He firit reminded the group, however,
that therè are plenty of reasons for its continued
ex¡stence ínow that the Metnam War is'over'r" to
borrow the phrase most widely used by politicians
and the media. He reeled off several. AmQng them:"
the release of the 200,000 political prisondrs curently
incarcerated in Thieq's jails in South Metnam;.the
according of a universal and unconditicinal amnesty to
the 500,000 war resisters of various types who are in
need of it; the nuclear elimination of the arms race in.
an inherently unstaþle multipolar world; and the need
for human liberation from the shackles of anti-human
sexual stereotypes. ln shor! he said, "We c-an now get
back to the much more fundamental tasks from which
the Vietnam War has diverted us for 10 years."

Evan Thomas, WWI r€slster and brother of Norman Thqmas, rests
betweên.conforênce sossions. photo by Boþ F¡tch

'

Daue expressed encouragement that ol-er half of
the Conference participants were- under 30, proof to
him that, "however many things the nonviolent move:
ment may have done wrong in the last several years,
we'ye ôUv¡oústy done some things right". He strongly
reaffirmed hls belief that the coalition politics of the
'anti-Metnad War yçãis were n9cessary, and that the
nonviolent segment o1 that'coalition had influenced
làree rlumbe.rsQf People.
öàve reinifiàèti'thã ati¿¡ence that WRL had beeñ '
... :lourídêd by both pacifrstsond socialists who rejected
the êlitist, v¡olent'vanguard party of Marxism'Leninism in favor of a mass'movement, democratic Marx' ism. This Marxism, like pacifism, sees conflict-but

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n ot

violence-as

¡

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nevi tab le,

Dave underscored I gal Roodenko's.insistence of
the evening before on the necessity of both personal
,, and social change. He chose on this occasion to emohasize the latter: "Now individual morality will'not
äuer stop'a war alone." Elaborating upon the evêrpresent tension inherent in the intertwining of periona! and social change, he-declared in ringing tones
and to loud applause, that: '11 am weary of confusing
the concep-t of nonviolent revolutioÍl with-organic.
food and compost heaps. ...1 know that for the Blacks

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in the ghetto of Bedford-Stuyvesant, in t}re areas

of

WIN 11

lra Sandperl, of the lnstitute for the Study of
Nonviolence, gave a brief, strongly felt reminder that'
those in the nonviolent movement are too often
gripped by a "moral, ¡ntellectual, spiritual fear," a
fear of "alienating" people by insistently speaking
out for Gandhian prinçiples. He noted that, as a result, "we've alienated the wrong péople." He strongly
urged his listeners to speak openly within the various
political coalitions, to'f say love, say truth" which can
be realized through nonviolence.

Monday afternoon included not only various WRL
Regional reports in a session chaired by WRL national
staffer Lynne Shatzkin Coffìn but also some of the
.smaller-group workshop sessions briginally' announced
for that evening, Among these was one entitled, "The
Morals of Torture," led by Daniel Ellsberg. ln'it he

Joan Baez and Mimi Farina clown wlth Manly Carter, WRL Staffer
and conférence orgônlzer, at the beglnnlng of Monday nlght's entertalnment, photo by Bob Fltch

Chicago and Philadelphia, organic foodb do not get
rid of the rats or make théir rooms larger."
Defining socialism as a "seizure of power and its
relocation and redistribution," Dave emphasized that
"for the Marxist, the enemy is never an individual. lt
is, rather, a cornplex of forces." He called for the essent¡ally White, middle-class pacifist movement to
have a "certain humility," and to not exclude the
White middle class, but to begin to include Blacks,
lndians, Chicanos, and lower-class Whites. He stated
that the system needecl fundamental change, and that
certain misconceptions of radicals would have to be
shed in the process: "l've heard a lot about power
corrupting. And I agree, ¡t corrupts. But I will tell
you something: Powerlessness also corrupts, and
absolute powgrlessness corrupts absolutely. . . .Our
search for personal and political morality must include
a way of liberating the poor people in this country
who at present have no control over their own lives.
. . .A honviolence that cannot relate to the qnderclass
is noi in my view, a serious nonviolent movement."
Dave concludedþy observing that at least 500,000
Americans have been "profoundly and permanently
radicalized by the Vietnam War," He said that the
American myth has been shattered forever, and that
we must now either recreate and rebuild America,
moving forward to a pacifist and nonviolent 1776, or
sink back into an irretrievable 1 984. There are no
other choices.
12 WIN

Monday
of Nonvlolence; lÍma Zlgas, chalrwoman of thê wRL; L€e Swenson of the I ni¡tltuts¡
of
lra Sandpetl;
and oavid McRey4otds, Fleld Socrêtary of the WRL, dl¡cuss "WRL: Th€ Noxt Fifty Years-Maln Curronts of,P¡clflst T hought and Actlon.r'
photo by Gracle H€demann.
¡\'

I

pointed out the significant role whích the League
played (he attended the WRI 13th Triennial at Haver"
ford, Pa., in 1969) in helpinghim reach higdecision
to make public the Pentagon Papers. He recalled,
(with obviously deep-seated emotion) the time his
wife,,Patricia, read the part of the Papers dealing with
"the ratchet" and the "turn of the screw," terms,
circa1964-65, which the Pentagon applied to the
policy of military escalation intended to break Hanoi's
will. Her reaction was, "This is the language of torturers." That insight, put just that way, moved Dan
Ellsberg then-and now. Approximately 200 people '
attended Dan's workshop.
;t
The early part of Monday evening was given bvei '
to more individual workshops, a format that allowed
open, far-reaching discussions of topics of particular
interest to those part¡cipat¡ng in them. ln one, for
example, Dave McReynolds developed in greater detail the intersecting currents of democratic Marxist
economics and pacifism. ln another, Joan Baez, Dan
Ellsberg and Ganetta Sagan (who was tortured for
40 days at the hands of the Gestapo) had an explana'
tion/discussion of Amnesty l nternati onal, .an organ ization dedicated to "f¡ght¡ng a war of conscience" dn
behalf of political prisoners in over 60 countries.
The whole group reassembled for an evening of
song with Joan Baez and her sister¡ Mimi Farina.
"Beautiful" is a simple word, vague, overused, and
awkward. Yet is the only one I find to describe the

feeling in the room that eveníng.
Afterwards, there was another informal round of
get-togethers. But there'was also one very ¡mportant
piece of business going on: over 100 people met to
plan an organized response to the increasingly critícal
situation facing the U FW a couple of hundred miles
to the south, The group heard first-hand reports from
people who had just come from the fields; then they
discussed the possib.ilities. The next morning, Tuesday,
at 8:30, Joan Baez led over 100 people from the Conference to Fresno, where they joined the picketing.
As Mandy Carter noted in her closing remarks that
Tuesday morning to those w.ho had stayed bèhind:
"This is the perfect example of what the WRL ¡s all

We discussed nonviolent theor|, and instead of
passing a resolu¡iön, we took nonviolent*direcf action."

about.

The caravan of confelence partlclpants leavlng Asllomar fof Frogno
to J oln:t!?e-,uFw vlgll.8 /7 17 p. photo by G racle Hedema nn.

(lncluãed amqñg ìhe packet of Conference mäterials r
rvl'rich everyone received was a flyer reminding us that
August 9th was Nagamki Day, and calling for a demonstration in front ofthe French Consulate in $an Francisco on that date to protest French A'Bomb testing.
action followed theory.) '
Again,
The-re were more small rygikghops on Tuesday

morning. One was a serious discussion of communal

N

lifestyles.in rural areas, Anotherconsidered the past,
pr.esent¡ and future of WIN. The reassembled larger
group heard reports on the tental¡ve conclusions and
recommendations which various rtiibrkshops had
reached.

And then, all too soon, the end was at hand. Mandy

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said a few words, expressing the desire to do hersdf
out of a iob, so that there will be no need for a WRL
and a 10'0th Anniversary Conference 50 years from
now. A telegram of support for the UEW was
nounced. And Isal Roodenko, with a perfect gense
of the moment, told a little parabtp. lt'was about2

an-

mustard seeds, both buried in horseshit. One Seed was
seed, which lgal hoppd we wóuld ,

stifled. The other

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emulate, made use of all the horseshitto grow. And
just then, ¡n that half-filled room, you knew that
everyone around you was feeling the same thing: in '' ':
the past three days we, ând WRL, hod grown. The
meeting of love was'not over; it trad iust begun.

Theìext 50 yeàrs

are going to be glorious.

t,

Robert A, Pugsley is a student at New York University

Schoot of Law, ond Dlrector of Peace Educotion Pro
grams for The Christoohers, New Yorþ.CÍtv. Thts
year's was his first llRL Conference, and this is his .

first apoearonce in

144

N.

wRL"ontinu.o
CHILDCARE

I'd like to share with you something that really
bothered me at the recent WRL conference; but first
t'll thank all the people who helped w¡th child carethey really made the job easy' However, the children's
eniovmeni of the conference was limited because the
roifôrtn". was not planned w¡th the needs of children
in mind. For instance, having a very late session the
first night was especially difficult for the children.
They were upset by the travelling and the new place'
so they really missed their parents'
We'neeä iõ ionsider what is'to be the aüitude of
'i WRL as a whole towards the small children. l'.strong'
ly feel that children should bê considered a-part of
WRU ln¡s would benefit the children, their parents,
and the other adults. The needs of these three groups
,mèsh together. Children need to feel care.d'for and included w¡ttr tne adults around them. Parents need'
time with other adults. Other adults need time wilh^
children. Wdheed, in short, to build a carin$Öommun'
itt¡ of ,altour peopie-from the tiniest baby to the old-

PUTTING WORDS INTO ACTION
BY rrM PECK

At the end of the WRL conference at Asilomar some
65 of those attending boarded 16 cars for a motorcade to Fresno to nonviolently challenge, on August
8, an anti-mass-picketing injunction against the
United Farm Workers. Among our group were Evan
Thomas, 8O-year old WRL veteran, Joan Baez, who
would bring her songs to the picket lines and Daniel
Ellsberg hounded by the media since becoming
Nixon's number one "enemy."
Shortly after we started picfeting one of the big
ranches, aïìewsman chided Ellsberg with: "What
happens to be your connection with the striking farm
workers?" Heaptly replied: "The Pentagon Papers

ìh:volved the issue offree speech. So does the farm'
workers' mass picketing. Furthermore, I have admired
C¡sar Chavez for some time and I am here today to
give him my support."
It was a burning-hot day-like every day in that
area-once the sun finishes rising. We had been picketing since long before sunrise, having gathered at the
assembly point at 4:30 a.m. None of us knew whether
or not we would be busted for our civil disobedience
to the injunction. Some 450 persons were in jail, including Dorothy Day, who had come west to attend
ôur conference. There had been no arrests in the two
precedini¡ day,s, but nobody knew when the arrest
policy might be resumed. By mid-morning it became
apparent that the sheriff, who was on the scene along
with about eight deputies, would not renew the arrest

:.

:

, ".:i,

T.".i l. i.*r.

i jt'i\r

"*e'd t c ff

{Ê Hþ
ÈTL*

J¡m Peck and others D¡ck€t the French Consulate ¡n San Francisco
ori Ñasãàk¡ D.av,8/ö/73, to protest French nuclear t€sting ln the
Pacific-. Photo bV Gracle Hedemann

i
.f

est person,

Creating this community would be diffcult because
everywheré children are second or third class citizensp"oófà whose,.needs are the last to be considered' We
w¡ll'have'to'ii¡tti¡nt our values. The needs of children
must be one of our top priorities. Conferences, for.
inràn"", might consist of less sitting around. and talk'
inn f *ftiltt bãres children) and more time with free
¿ínèins simple music, painting and other playingwith thé children and adults together,
This is still another area for conciousness raising'
Remember, though, that fewthings have as.great ef-

Demonstrators leaflet homebound AEC lab employeês in
Livefmofe, calfi,, a/9/73, Photo by Grac¡e Hedemann

policy that day. Possibly, the authorities feared the
potential publicity of Daniel Ellsberg Joan Baez and

some 200 pickets joining the 450 already in jail. Possibly they took into consideration the fact that the
injunction case was in the process of being argued in

court.

"

:!

I have been on many picket lines in my life, but
this was my first in the vast California corporate farnr
area. I have on occasion been on picket lines which
start early, but never before at 5 a.m., when we started circling along the road bordering a ranch associated
with Barr Packing Co., one of the biggest.
Ordinarily, the only contact between pickets and
strike breakers occurs when the latter enter or leave a
struck plant. With the farm workers, pickets are in
constant communication with strikebreakers who
work not too far from the road to be out-of-hearing
of the portable loudspeakers. Frequently, strikebreakers heed the pleas over the loudspeakers and decide to
ioin the strike. Throughout our morning of picketing,
our loudspeakers were in use. Ellsberg's talk was duly
translated into Spanish and Baez's music needs no
translation. Union spokesmen and spokeswomen who
talked over the loudspeakers emphasized the principle
of nonviolence, as advocated by Cesar Chavez. The
t¿lks were so un-hostile that at one point a dialogue
was established between representatives of the union
and a deputation representing the growers, who were
gathered around an American flag a few yards inside
the property.
At about noon, we boarded the cars and AFSC bus
parked along the other side of the road and drove in to
Fresno for a second mass vigil at the courthouse, where
both the injuction case and the casê for releasing the
450 pickets on recognizance were being argued. (l

Dgothy
iust
-Day,have learned that the þickeùs, including
have been released and are back on the picket
tinéí.) We had vigiled there the previous day, immed-

iately upon arrival from Asilomar. As on that day,
the vigil concluded with a mass rally in the park in
front of the cõurthouse.
A few ôf our group stayed-on to picket with the
farm workers. Some departed to retqrn to their
homes towns. Others, including Marty Jezer and l,
got rides up to the Bay area in order to participate the
iof lo*¡ng åay in a Nagasaki Day demonstration o-rgan'
ized.by õraig Simpson of WRL-southwest in conjunction with the conference.

The effectiveness of his organizing was proved when
up to 70 persons showed up on the moining of $ugust
9 to picket the French Consulate in San Franbisco prù
testing the French nuclear tests in the Páðìfic. During the demonstration, a deputation of four, including .
myself, conferred in French with the cs$-ul. The dem''
onstraíion was well covered by the mediá. The cool
weather was a sharp contrast with Fresno the two pre-.
vious days.

fect on the'futurã

,

as

our dealings with children'
-EmelYn Buskirk

Emelyn Buskirk was childcqre cøordinator for the
WRL 50th AnniversorY Conference.

'

.r-,,

:

iF'a

, ri-1,...

;

ln the afternoon we gdt rides out to. Livermore to
demonstrate at the big Atomic Enery Commission lab
there. We arrived in time to leaflet the homebound
employees as they crossed the road to the, extensive '
parkiqg lots.

since
lim Peck has been active in the peace mouement
'before Wortd War tt. His own occount of his most
recent odventures oppeored in WlN, April 26 and
May 3,

Oak. Mwos¡, and Janls Þlay outslde of the m€etlns
As¡lômar. They weron't in "ch¡ldcare.r'
photo by Dav¡d McReynold3

Þll d

Wll,,¡

t5

ON TORTURE
the following exchange of letters will perhaps speak for
itself. We wrote the Prime Minister of North Vetnam
for reasons we tried to make clear in our letter. Another. reason, not stated in our note of April 10, can be
mentioned here. The Americán peace movement had
taken a position on the charges oftorture, which
ranged from silence through outraged denial. ln any
and every case, an inadequate response, to say the
least. There was, as far as we could learn, no unequivocal condemnation of such charges as the airmen had
made-if true.
Most peace people, including pacifists, were seriously embarrassed by the charges; one sensed that an
idol had fallen in the night. North Metnam was an
unimpeachable herq undefeatablg vanguard of the
human future, ethically out of sight, an angel of lisht
in comparison with the slouching western beasl Now
an if had reared its ugly.head. lf true, the charges
fo¡ced uó to face, not.the epogee of our alienated
dream, but a nation of bese! morally diverse, potentially violent men and women; a nation that-had
learned with utmost finesse the art of survival, and
then (if) had applied the art to the shrinking fiesh of

their tormentors.
What to say, what to do?
You could be silent; the facts were not in. They
were not to be learned from the papier mache stage
hands who twitched at Nixon's tug.
You could deridethe fliers, those pitiful killer-heroes, the last sour pressing of the good wine of myth,
the non-heroes, the non-anti-heroes, the near zeros of
our discontent.
You could straddle a moral picket fence and, with
some discomfort to the crotch, go relativisl Torture
etc., is bad for the good guys and good for the bad
guys. Or: Look at,what Thieu has done to uncounted
thousands of South Vietnamese prisoners. Or: Look
at what the fliers did to North Metnam
The situation and the American movement's response, are also historically interesting lt seems to us
a sad

fact of life that admiration for an admirable

enemy.gradually coalesces into idolatry of the enemy.
At the same time, one finds nothing or very nearly
nothing of substance to admire, emulate, build on,
hope for, cherish, in one's own culture-including one's

ooaoooooooooa

own community. People put their ethical money in
secret, in foreign banks; it inust be good if (one at a
time) it's Soviet, then Chinese, then Cuban, then North
Metnamese. By t'good" ¡s meant nothing so modest,
so various, so apt to kill, wound, disappoing deceive,
æ wdl as to inspire, hearten, bring infusion of hope
and great lbve-nothing like the conduct of actual
men and women in torment. "Good" is a frozen
platonic bullion; it is moral cash in distant banks, al- . .
ways at hand to be drawn on, inert, infallibly there,

April 10, 1973

Dong

Deor

,..

North Vietnam.

'

t

little or nothing at all to right the most atrocious

.,

,

.

:

r

tile have been perplexed by this lt hos been'the
common assumpt¡on of our movement thot the Wetnomese people, under the most qtrocious.oir assult in
history, hod yet shown magnanimity toward the cop
tured flien. And this treatment wus accorded
I
in foce of the fact that mony omong them were war
criminals
We olso considered thtem criminals, ond hove soid
os much, But we believed that your'þenerasity ond
mercy, shown lbove measare to these men, were of'
fering the only possible olternatlve to the violence of
America. lü/e were sure that you would not permlt
even the destroyers of hospitals, schools, pagodas;
the destroyers of the sick, ofchildren and the ogedthot you would not permlt even such meñ.to be de"
;r
groded in spirit or wounded in
Please ùelieve thot v've ore brothers whaleioice to
nome you our brother.
It is in this sp¡r¡t that we ask you to conment uþon ,

them

-

body'

these chorges. Please believe thlt our leftû is motivø
ted by our deep lovg ond admiration for the Vietnam-

people.
lile will do everyth¡ng possible to refute these
charges, once the facts sre mode known to us.
fhe'ceose-fìre, for whÌch so many Wetnomese hove'
paid such enormous mcrifices,brings ioy oqd renewed
spirit. lile continue working at your side tþtil ihe
þeace is fìnally assured.
ese

Dev qtedly

o nd

Deor frlendq
'l'0
l4/e have received a copy of your April
letter sent
to our Prime Minister Phom Von Dong,
.lle are also aware of the current compaign of slond-

,ei',launched

byfhe

US

Adminlstration àgøiist our

Government on the treotment of Americon captured
þilots. lt is fp¡ us no surprise thot'îhe men vullo hovë
committed the most odious trvr cl¡mes ever known in
human history are oble to distort the truth recognized
by the peoples oll over the world,
As you ore certainly owtre, our people høve olwoys
treoted hu¡¡nnely prisoner5 of wsr, That policy of lenlençe is ol-sg our long-doteC trod¡tlon, Mony foreign
visitorc,'inèluding American friends, hove met with
aiptured pilots and tìave witnessed'thot they have been
given odequate housing, foods, clothes. Only their

You are undoubtedly ouyare of thìs;

'the releosed prisone¡s held press confereñces in mon¡t
parß of the countr.it, spoke in detoil of their.sufferings
at the hands of their cøptors, exhibited sorc on their
bodies which, according to them, resulted from such
treotment.

have chosen another way than violent resistahce, and
are still paying the price. And when will it be paid?
But I th¡nk our deepest reason is connected with
the moral needs of our community at home.
There are certainly times when one can do very'

-PhilBerrigan

.':

Wetnam

ofe writlng you, our friend in the struggle for
human iustice. We a¡e, os you ore owore, brotherc ond,
priests whõ have served prison séntences in defênse of
the rights of our Wetnamese brothers and sisters
We confess thai we ore in grìef and distress.of spirit.
The American airmen, of.ter the release of the lost of
their compp. nions one week ago, repqrted lþöt many
of the Americans hod been tortured in the þrisons of

in the south have trodden a technological hell; and,

would not countenance, or ourselves inflicq physical
torture or moral degradation, on any other human.
Whatever the provocation, whaûever the crime.

Friend,

of

We

emerging at the far end, have proclaimed a possiþle
human future.
We salute also, and with a special affection and
fraternity, the Metnamese Buddhist community. They

wrong. lt is not useful to die, it is not expedient to be
irt prison, policy is at a stinking impasse, the con,
sciences of people seem transmogrified into an army
of night crawlers, mucking about in Watergate. The
congress, a child, bargainiwith the spoiled, tantrum lf
ridden president, a child; so man! more days of bombing. At such a fime, it seems necessary to us to pilt
something on the record; '
Simple as that. One thinks of a message in a bottle,
cast into a turbulent sea; or a time capsule with a
message for the unborn. One has a kind of desperate
sense in his loins, that, if there are to be children,
generations, a human future, they should know something of us. Something, that is, beyond the cruel headlines thatday after day, bear witness to ourfolly, our
despair, our hatred of life. That most assuredly'ánd
with shame; but something else as well.
What then? A kind of human manifesto: that we

-.

Pham Von
The Democratic Repubtic
HonoÍ

never devalued, mine.

ln publishing this correspondence, we salute the
North Metnamese, who along with their compatriots

Hanoi 26 May,1973

-

health condition totally different from thøt of Vìetnomese held in USThieu's prlsons hos proved thot
they have been humonely treoted,
But the current campoign of slonder by the US Administration ìs not on isoloted act, lt is oimed not'
only ot justifying why Nixon has continued the war
during his fo,ur yearc previous term but olso ot lui:
tifying his further plot of mìlitary involvement in lndo
chino. lt is olso oimed ot covering ap US-Soigon's sb'otage of the Paris A,greement.and the delay of releasing politìcol prlsoners they ore still holding in their
prisons and their plot to transfolm South Vìet Nam
into o US new type colony and to Índefini{ely divlde
Viet
' Nøm.

'Finàt¡t
we thank you for your good feelings towards
our people."lile hope'that ¡tou will continue to help
us, os you liave dön'e,- in our struggle for o losting
peoce ond for ix.lr notionol independence and freedom.
j"' , ui'-\:'.',. '" ,.¡'-.:.. Fraçernally youn,
.s..

., ::ì ,-

¡.

vi;Ãx1"*Å,¡t,," ro, ,
Solidority with the
Americøn Peoplc

froternal Iy,

Frs. Philiþ ortd Donlel
copy to the Committee of Solidority, Honol

16

wtN

wlN

17

I

,

NEIL FULLAGAR

Beyond the three week limit originally set by U.S.
Judge Winston Arnow, the tr¡al of the Gainesville
Eight continues under heavy security. The trial so far
has been marked by contradictory testimony, surprise

informers and a now famous apparent attempt to bug
the defense office.
The Eight, all members of Vietnam Veterans Apinst
the War, are John Briggs, Gainesville, Fla.; Scott Cam¡|,
'
Gainesville, Fla.; John Kniffn, Austin, Texas; William
Patterson, El Paso, Texas; Peter Mahoneyl New York;
Alton Foss, Hialeah, Fla.; Donald Purdue, Hollywood,
Fla., ahd Stanley Michelson, Gainesville, Fla. All
except Stan Mlchelson are charged with conspiring to
cross state lines to create disorder in Miami during the
1972 Republican National Convention. Michelson is
charged with aiding the conspiracy after the fact.
Scott Camil is also charged with possessing an incendiary device, and demonstrating the making and use of
incendiary devices.
Before the opening ofthe trial, a gag order was
given, prohibiting all parties from discussing the case
with anyone. Judge Arnow intended to apply this to
"all interested persons, that is, anyone in the world".
His attempts to control free speech and reporting continued even to holding a CBS news artist in contempt
for dnwing courtroom scenes from memory. He was
quickly overturned on this by the Fifth Circuit Court

of Appeals.

The selection ofthe jury began Tuesday, July 31.

N¡ghtly demonstrations began t¡at n¡ght. Sixty sisters
and brothers including several of the ddfendants,
marched to the Federal Building. Most wore gags in
reference to Arnow's ruling After reaching the Federal Building they ripped the gags from their mouths and
shouted, "Victory!"
Earlier that day, two FBI agents had been spotted
in a closet adjoining the office assigned to the defense.
A defense ass¡stant noticed a movement behind a vent
leading to the closet, and marshalls were called.
Flushed from their hiding place the agents, Carl Ekbald and Robert Romans, were found to be carrying a
soldering iron, screwdrivers, two microphones, two
amplifiers, meters, tÃpe, a piece of paper with several telephone numbers and
v of The Electronic
lnvosion by Robert Brown.
After a hearing on the agents in the closet, Arnow
ruled that there was no evidence that anyone was be-

a

ing bugged.

On Friday, August 3, the jury was seated and opening statements were presented. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart "lack" Carrouth presented the government's case. The prosecution, he said, would prove
every point in the indictment, from which he read
salient passages. According to the indictment, "Íi was
part ofthe said conspiracy that the defendants. . .
would organize numerous 'fire feams' to attack w¡th
t8 WtN

Misfires in Cainsville

Prosecut¡on Case
automatic weapons, fire and incendiary devices police
stations, police cars and stores in Mianii Beach, Florida
. . . fire-lead weights, 'fried' marbles, ball bearings,
'ch.erry' bombs, and smoke bombs al police. . . úsing
wristrocket slingshots and cross bowi',, during the '

The fifth witness was William Lemmer, a former

;

er. From

.

different florn th_e description gun dealer Don Barrett,
manager of The Rancher, gave of M-14's.
Don Barrett was another early government witness.
According to his description of M-l4's and M-l 6's,
the guns described by Marshall could not have been
either. Barrett test¡fied that neither type of rifle is an
automatic.weapon. Only automatic weapons are
covered in the indictment. Barrett also testified that
The Rancher had,never displayed an M-l4. The only
"incriminating" testimony obtained from Barrett was
that C¿mil had asked about the price of 30 caliber
ammunition by the case, had asked whether The
Rancher carried any slingshots, and had bought one
bag-ofsteel reloading balls. Barrett testified-that 30
caliber ammunition could not be used in any autoimatic weapon.

this trial.

.

Despite the tension in the court,,the tr¡al has not ,
without.humor. During thè hearing on Poe's
testimony when Schneider asked Nancy McGoven,
Camil's girffriend, if she was at that time "in love
been

Apparently Lemmer is acting out of a grudge
VVAW. ln one of his letters tp his former
wife, Lemmer is reported to have written of vengence
against Martin Jordan who Lemmer replaced as Arkansas coordinator, and other VVAW members, indiagainst the

ness, Charles

seen one displayed at The Rancher, a Gainesville sto¡e.
He ivas then asked to describe a MJ"l4, and finally adl
mitted he could not. He then wasasked to describe
what guns he had seen. The description was greatly

threatened to have Bill Patterson gagged because he
had objected too many times thaf Poe's testimorly
was on matters not in the indictment. Patterson,
Kniffen and Camil, are acting as their own.couns'el in

'

pons.

That afternoon Carrouth presented his first wit"Tex" Marshall. Marshall was, at the
time of the alleged conspiracy, the head of a rent-a-cop
agency and was Scott Camil's landlord. According to¡
Marshall, Camil came to his office early in 1972 and
told him with some relish about his plans for using
slingshots, homemade grenades and firebombs, ,,fiied',
marbles and automatic rifles to " make the pigs come
down hard" on demonstrators, thus starting rircts.
Marshall also testified to having seen a cardboard böx
containing "two M-1 4 rifles" in Camil's apartment.
During the cross examinatioñ Marshall admitted
that he had never handled an M-14, but said he had

his role in this base Lemmer has adhiei'ed a

notoriety probably as great as that of the E¡ght. Lernmer told of "political assassination"squads" being or-'
ganized by Camil. This brought fortþ vigorous objections from defense attornels since tlfere ¡s ho mention in the charges of any plans to assassinate anyone.
After Lemmer's statement, a few minutes later, that
Çamil was to obtain automatic rifles and mortars by
trading "dope" forl.Them, there was a motion for a
mistrial because of the inflamatory n¿ture of Lemmer's testimony. As Arnow has done at least five
times nown he denied the motion for a mistrial.

Republican Convention.

Carrouth tried to convince the jury that the VVAW
yas lgt on-trial. The government, he said, supported ,
the right of the VVAW and other groups to demonstrate peacefully. :He told the jury that these defendants were a "splinter group", ând that they were not
supported by the VVAW.
Larry Turner, attorney for Don Purdue, and defendants Scott Camil and John'Kniffen made openiirg
statements for the defense. The othér defendants
elected to make their statements at the close of the
government's caæ. Camil said that if there was indeed
any conspirac-y, it was a governmental conspiracy to
harass himself and the others. Turner told ihe jdry
that it was paid government agents who talked constantly about violence, and it was a government agent
who unsuccessfully tried to sell Canìil automatic úea-

was admitted. Becker, Anchill and Poe largely reinforced previous testimony rather than adding new
material. Horiyever Poe tóstified to having be-en asked
to take Camil's guns for safekeeping on séveral occasions when it appeared that Camil would be arrested.
.. - At the close of Poe's direct examination, Arnow

VVAW member who turned out to be an FBI inform-

t

I
I

cating that he will not make noise when he comes after them, but will come'in "tennis shoes", equipped
with a "length of piano wiré. . . I am not a leg infantryman like them. I am an elitist paratrooper, S. F.
(Special Forces) ranger".
. His tesfimony is no more reliable than other prosecution wit¡esses, At first he testified that he had been
in Special Fçrces, later saying that he was not, was
only trairled by Special Forces and that he hâd never
claimed to have served with Special Forces.
On cross examination by defendartt Bill Patterson,
Lemmer was asked about a list of difficulties suffered
in the service which he had made at the time of discharge. Among those listed were frequènt depression,
excessive nervousness, unconsciousness and amnesia.
Lemmer stated that he could, "recall all but the amnesia."
Lemmer was followed to the witness stand by '
Charles Becker, another FBI agent who hád assumed
a position of leadership within VVAW, by Louis .
Anchill, an agent of the Florida Bureau of Laiv Enforcement, and by Emerson Poe. Poe wai ãlso a paid
FBI informer, and his appearance came as a total sur-

prise to the defense.
Poe was, unt¡l the day he was exposed in court as
an agent, the State Coordin4tor and Assistant Regional Coordinator for Florida. He had been considered
among Scott Camil's friends and confidantp. He had
even been represented by the same counseläs the defendants when called before the grand jury last year.
According to defense witnesses called in a special hearing to decide whether Poe's testimony could be admitted, Poe had been actively involved in the planning
of defense strategy while making regular reports to the
FBl. The judge did not consider that the evìdence
showed that Poe had indéed been a party to any attorney-client relationship, and tlerefore his testimony

w¡th Mr. Camil", John Kniffen echoed the prosecu-

úion's frequent objection, "calls for a conclusion qn
the part of the witness." The judgé took more than a
minute to,stop,laughing long enough to overrule the

r

objection,
On Monday, August 27,the prosecution tentåtively rested its case and Judge Arnow again denied a defense motion that the case be dismissed for lack of
evidence. Despite 27 prosecution witnesses and a great
dèal of talk about guns and other weapons, under
cross-examination dll have testified that the only weapon that they saw as figuring in the convention þlans
was a slingshot. The FBI and the fôrensic sciences di.
vision of the Armed Forces lnstitute of Pathology
conducted tests on the rlingshots and reported that
used against fully clothed adults it woutd appear
."if
"that.serious

injury is unlikely."

Live rabbits and pigs were used in the tests and
this resulted in a strong protest from the Humane
Society.
Neil Fùllogr lives ond writes in Goinesville.

.CONTACT
The rr¡al ¡s l¡

to cont¡nue for months. lf you supcan use you in Gainesville.
iuþþtrrt the defendants.

confrontation with "the

not need you.

/.

ng they insist that they do

lf you cannot come to Gainesville, you cah help
at home. This trial is important. The American people should know what is being done in their name in
the courtroom in Gainesville, just as they are now
learning what has been done-in their name in Southeast Asia. lf your local paper doesn't carry news of
the trial, ask to see it. The wire services are covering
the trial. The news is there for the papers to print if
they are moved to do so. And of course, money.
Contr¡but¡ons can be sent to C¡ainesville Conspiracy
Defense Committee, Box 1 3179, University Station,
Gainesville, Fla. 32@4.
wtN

19

abíe in Sèptember

from

NARMIC, IMPORTANT REMINDER!
PA * RE: AMNESTY RULING lN
-._ CANADA
-LNs ;;; ¿;;;;;n Government has enacted

112 Sbuth Srreet, Philadelphia,
19"102. The cost is $50, first class

pa¡d'

post¿se

moyed the book during July because

"of this Watergate businéss" and because he wasafraid vandali would d+

'

_

face

it.

American war resisters in Canada.

DAVE lN SOLITARY
CONFINEMENT: I UDGE

.{WlN 812173) Everyexilewhoarrived

ARI ZONA PEACE COATITION
COMPLETE DOUBLE.FOCUSED
PEACE CAMPA¡GN

thereby Nov. 30, .'l9T2irrespective of

nerusrs Ãnnnrér.¡MENr lflil:,iåH,:lå:ïiJ! i:i"J,yl5ï:*
olv to have his residence in Canada

.
ieáalized.
"This
Wh¡te House these days. He's not
not-to-be-repeated period ends
tired out after more than two years on Oç1. 15, 1973. pres'ent centers where
the sidewalk. He hasn't, given up hope. .ñãT" ¡nforrution can be obtained are:
His spirits are high. But his body has ' * Halifax Committee to Aid Wa¡ Immi.
.grants, 167 Argyle, Halifax, Nova Scotia,
þee¡ pllced in a cell ¡tt .P.C. l?il, where
he is held.in "deadlock"-solitary cgn' îoz-qig-ess+l* TàrontoAnti-Draftprogramme. llrzz
Ú
finement.t'
How did this happen? On Tuesday, Spadina, Toronto, onta¡io i¿tò:iiçoïct
to Aiåt War objecAugust 14, dozens of people joined
] wiqtgqeg Com-mittee
s11: wiy"n.e,.Manitoúa
the White i-louse tour iine,to þray for
t:liflf"c'"j3il
y":
peace. Dave joined them. About 60
bàãp r" ná uä¡ ne vi e¡ rs a f He scñ et ir #"^ii'#,:i,iì1":T,
tÍ"iåJ ftitiå";¡
and Dave) were arrested for praying. i\h
*
Dave was asked his name a.nd refused
vancouver Comrnittee to Aid war objecto give ¡ü The policeman knew Dave to¡s, Su^ite 204, 144 West Hastings, Van-'
couver 9, British Columbia (604t-588-9656.
by first name and thus he got listed as
David (Refused), which is how he is ;. ] c!!e!!v committee on war Immígrants,
stitl t cornmittee' l2l Glenora, Ap' 3
hé was brought b-efore udge McArdle L,,IIawa
:*ottawa (
' '"
day,
of D.C. Supðrior Court'thai same
Aid. Centers are also being establishthe iudgã rbfused to arrailn ttfi
,
"nà,,
Nr ed in the followingareas: Edmonton,
Or¿érelnim held on Sà,0-00 benã.
-buu.
lJave

cannot be seen in front of the

:

Pot€nt¡al Llce Statlst¡cs-Frlends and Members of ih€
WIN commun€. photo by Diane Ghlsone

(

Ch AN

E5

¡

r

e

n

il

J

COMMUNES NICE FOR L¡CE?
More than two million Americans were
infested with lice last year, according
to a report by Dr. Leslie C. Norins to
the American Academy of Dermatology. Korins attributed some of the
lice problem to "the increased popular-

ity of communal

living."

thy Steffens, WILPF; Barbara Webster,
PCPJ; Ronald Young AFSC;Trudi
Young CALC.
More specific information can be

obtained from Don Luce at the IMEP,
'132218th St., NW, Washington, DC

2ffi36.

-MC

-NYNS

CALL FOR AN
¡NTERNATIONAL
DAY OF CONCERN
A coalition of peace activists have
joined together to issue a call for an

lnternational Day ofConcern for South
Vietnam's political prisoners to be observed on September 23,11973. Religious services, vigils and other forms

ofactiv¡ty are anticipated on that day
which will focus on the continued U.S.
aid upon which the Thieu regime and
íts prison system still rely.
lndividuals and groups are also being
encouraged to organize activities
throughout the entire week of Sept.

16-23. Already

peace groups abroad
have indicated that they will cooperate ¡n th¡s project.
Among the ¡nit¡ators of the call dre

Robert Alpern, SANE; Lynne Coffìn,

the use of weapons: such as nerve gas
but, according to the National Security
Council aide interviewed by the Pås4,
the stockp¡les are being retained for

capability."

'rretaliatory

The Joint Chiefs of Staff on August 3

..DOLLARS FOREVER:
THE POST-WAR WAR:t'

reaffrmed their policy of retaining
stockpiles of deadlv nerve gas, esti- .
mated to be more than enough to k¡ll
the world's 3.7 billion humans.
"The unusual Pent¿eon action presumably was prompted by the increased momentum of a gampaign by

several members of Congress to have
all nerve gases and otJrer toxic agents
destroyedr" explained the Denver Post,

Five days previous, the Post carrieda
story from the chief of its Washineton
bureau quotine an aide of the National
Security Council to the effect that no

review of present policy is being considered.

Denver's special intçrest in the quesis based on the faúthat aroport-

tion

ed 4,500 tons of the deadly gas is

stored at Rocky Mountain Arsenal, not

Feigenbaum, WSP; Don Luce, lndochina Mobile Education Project; .Doro,

far from the airport.' A fatal plane
crash at the site would mean total ob-

wlN

at Tooele, Utah,
In 1969 President Nixon renounced

U.S. TO RETAIN STOCKPILE
OF DEADLY NERVE GAS

WRL; Tom Cornell, FOR; Myrtle

20

literation of Denver's population. How.
ever the amount at Rocky Mountain
Arsenal is less than 1oo/o of that stored

-r.P.

National Action/Reæarch on the Military lndustrial Complex (NARM¡C), a
project of the dmerican Friends,Service Conlmittee (nfSC), has prepared
a new slide show, "Dollars Forever:
The Post-War War."

, The show itlustrates how American
money pays for war and'repression in
South Vetnam. lt includes photos
and eyewitness accounts by AFSC

staff in Metnam, journalists, and Penta.
gon officials.
NARMIC's first sl¡de show, "The
Automated Air War," was shown by
more than 11000 anti-war groups across
the country. They hope that "Dollars
Forever" will have a similar outreach.
"Dollars Forever,t' which consists
of 160 35mm color slides, script and
complete documentation, Will be avail-

date for trial has

Saskatchewan, Thunder Bay, and the

U""n,åiánj

-LNS

.,.,'',

cerlain iminigration laws of benefit to

Maritimes. Specific addresses and
has not been asked to ãnlei a plea.
phone numbers for these centers will
Both Liz Nìcholson _¿ go'b Walrl.,
r,auã øt"ã *itt lr¿g. lr,iiÄt¡1r..
l11i.iþql: from the ä¡d.committees

Four Arizona peace grouþs joined
forces recently in a unique double-focused consciousnesq ratsing campaign

which culminated on Airgust 15. A full
weeks' act¡v¡t¡es a¡med at (1 ) encourag-

ing Phoenix residents to pressure for
adherence to the August 15 bombing
halt,.6"1ot" and after thát date,
(2) exposing major war bontractors in
ihê rrea, tciðkine off an on-giring
'corporate responsibility' campaign.
Everyday frorn the 8th tlru the
15th, people gathered at7 am in
of war prodgcers' plants and qffices,
and fedeial governmeÍt buildings. We
leafletted workers and passers by, dis- i
cussing with them the direct relation- |
.ship between what t¿kes place throughout the Valley, and what happens in
Sofltheast Asis-in a re4l sense-Phooniciarts.are dropoing bombs on lndochinese. (Thereare over 400 local cqntractors and subcontractors on tl¡e

and

front

',Defense" Department's reserve listwith 173 current contracts be¡ng f¡lled
here).

iìit
i*tf BtJ:lfåiilTt*å:?fi to*'ii':i3f"''.:hï:ii":l:.ä'l-]iRliJ,i
York,
t oo27:_r.rr

The project was surprisingly successmany aspects. Media cover.
age was extensive, and positive. Thousands were made aware gf.!h.g significance of a date which otherwise would .
)Y
have gone by unnôticed here. War con- '
prisoning a person indefinitely with:
tractors were drawn into the spotl¡ght .
'äut" ttiãland 2) refusingrcárnisn
yll-lIQF-SIg ||!XO-N^SHRINE
with a public image they considered' '1".
EXPRESS DISILLUSIONMENT
less than desirable. We met with execu''
Dave reports ludge McArdle would' Evidence of Nixon's decline iñ popu'
tives and P,R. men from all but one of
, ;
the companies, catching them
not look at h¡m. After his last previous. larity with voters has.even crept into
ttre leather-bound, gold-let_tered'guest
guard with our well documented evibust, that judge wouldn't look at him
fe$ist'er at the little white fra-me house'
dence of what is going on behind their
eithór. Dave ðecided that the
"""'where he was born'ín 191 3.
gates. Honeywell's legal counsel even
svstem insisted on dealing with names,
nr".uoór.;t r¡rrt æ'þ"eo, côveriiig ' - volunteered some useful, tho awesome
iåiñãi tñiîñ"rãn u.¡neti. Hà ¿ec¡¿eá
"1972to April 1973 a.teinformation which we hadn't known, to refuse to give a name bv w_hich
" Jànuary
what the president ordered-"Yöu\Èe"' ; 'æìfederal:stetute empowers the Presi- ,
could be catðgorized in an effort
great, Nixon" (1.Olnl7?l.,9r..1iJhank
dent to force companies to prtiduce
.. get the peoplõ in the system to
humane
a
God for Mr. Nixön" (314173\.
in
being
hum"n
weaponry and equipment for 'nátional
ú¡th
But'beginning May 13, two days
ner. "He is firmly résolved to
defense' even if that company prefeÈ' '
after'the Senate Watergate h'earings
not tali¡ng the contract-in peacetime
this
'
began, the registqrs'cómments toolcon
WHAT YOU CAN DO: 1) Pqy
and in war (th¡s'd¡d not happen
Write
McArdle
Dave.2l
for
,,
instance
and
a
For
oc'
ditterent
tone.
"Water'
but
did
Honeywell,
he
indicated,
Judge
: gate-Waterloo" (5126173) and by June
cur once to its predecessor here, Gen' '
f udge Paul F. McArdle, D.C. Superior
eral Elecric.)
Court, Washington, DC 20001 . (Copy some of the entries were positively
embarrassing-i'lmpeach hin" (613173).
The public and workers'were oftoWtrite Housé Daily Meeting, 120 ',
fered cóncrete methods of detaching'
The entries stopped July and did
Maryland Ave., N.E.. Washington,
themselves as much as possible from '
2ñ02.J'3) Write Dávid (Refused), D.C. not start again until August 1 1, the
lail,2OO 19th St., S.E., Washíngton, first weekend after the hearings recessed. the companies' war rnaking activities.
DC 20003. (Remember jails
ln applying for jobs-we ursed them
Hurless Barton, president of the Nixon
to request cômmercial divisions; where
-The Vigiler Birthplace Fou'näation, Said he re-

u:i*tjnlÍ::::,,'1""j;"T*

person.

ifi,"

¡t1iiåiå:iìä

"

off '

'.
judicial

'

effort.

ful-from

-'
he
to
deal
mancontinue
f_o¡

j{:!'

.

to

*
D.C.

letters.)

censor

wtN 21

I

r'

ple carrying candles surged peacefully
already working pressure for commercial priorities over "defense" (?!); at
from the church to the White House,
least voice protest as private citizenswhere they heard several speakers.
against military,priorities, and against
resumption of overt or secret bombings. on seprembe r 12in*.*
memorial service will be held at the
As consumers-join boycotts.
Other asoects ofthe project included Mariners Temple, beginning at twelve
noon. lt will conclude witþ a march
a mail-out to a few hundreci clergy, ento
the offices of the state welfare decouraging discussion of Aueust ß on
partment, where a demonstrátion will
the preceding Sunday, and an extenbe held around demands George was
sive letter writing campaign to newsfighting for.
-PCPJ
qap_ers, and advertisements. The groups
decided early in the week that thã
Ccjalition and corporation project could
noten-d on the 15th. Pl.ans are being
made for regular visits and continuiñg
exDosure programs throughout the

".-r,:äïlÎ"

year.

-Arizonans For

Peace

Dovr Inles

TWO YOUNG PEACE

ACTIVISTS DIE IN ACCIDENT
.lack Riley and Laurie Torgan died in
August as a result of a car accident,
They were on their way to,upstate
New York to look at farm land for a
land trust that they hoped to set up
witjr other friends.
Laurie and Jack were involved in
many peace activities such as the IBM
Prôject in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Rockland County Draft Center Demonstrations and more recently in the WIN
farm area, working on th9 Farm

Worker's

Boycott.

-NJ

GEORGE WILEY,
DROWNING VICTIM
Dr. George Wiley, former head of the
National Welfare Rights Organization
(NWRO), drowned Aug. 8 when he
fell off his boat in Chesapeake. Bay off
the Maryland coast. i
Wiley was one of the original founders of the NWRO. He helped build
and coordinate local chapters around
the country, bringing the membership

to a high of over

125,OOO dues-paying

members. An excellent organizer and
fund-raiser, Wiley led welfare recipients
in mass, militant demonstrations from
Washington, D.C. to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Formerly active in the civil rights
movement, Wiley also led recipients in

antiwar demonstrations. He saw the
conñection between poverty ín the
U.S.. and the government's genocidal
policies in Metnam.

An August 12 memorial for Witey
held in Washington, turned into a pro'

test. Aftqr services hundreds of peo22

wlN

tell: Women's History Library,
"the only archive in the world devoted
solely to womenr" has been indexing
a¡d archiving WIN material for the last
5 years. They ask now that we menShow &

ti.on their Directory of Filrils which is
$3 to indiv¡duals and g5 to groups.
(Ann Bishop, Women's History Research Center,2325 Oak St., Berkeley)
... .Received, through a thougþtful
friend, a packet of material from the

BonRd
if no I involved but
l¡mited to 20 words. OtherFree

Peoples Bicentennial Commission. ln-

w¡se $1 every.lO words.

teresting but they try too hard to
cram every event into a 200-year mold.
Particularly unfortunate is an attempt

to offer clues to the thinking of social
science professors by the way they
answer key questions. Not our tea
partyt ....WarTax Resistance hasa

pamphlet on the fiscal 197 4 fpderal
budget and is financially unable to advertise it! lt is 1 6 pages, has articles by
Mêlman, Proxmire, etc. and some pithy
Mauldin cartoons (912 E.31 St., KC
Mo.). . . .Tacoma and Seattle gay communities have issued an album of revolutionary gay music in country-western
style, available from Shelter Half ,1902

Hn¡le Iru THERE, . .an album by s¡nger'
HoLLY NEAR. Songs about
war:wonlen and chanqe. Good educat¡onal
resouyce or qlft. S3.5O, Rêdwood Records,
565 Dool¡n Canyon, Uk¡ah, cA 95482. :
sônqwrlter

AMNESTY; Bumo€r

,ì
iKSîïiåtrÄ"üERrcAN FoR AMNEsrv
ãí verenn¡r¡ FoR AMNESTY
¿í

5i

I SUPPoRT AMNESTY
VIETNAM VETERAN FOR AMNESTY

Cjrder of 25 or more.l5d ea
ói'ãer of l€ss than 21 25C ea.
VVAW/WSO. 306 W 39th, Kansas

64111..

Out Now? Because 5 Vietnamese students in California were summoned to
the lmmigration office, 2 others had
scholarships revoked, and 7 were told
to leave this country; WSP, 5899 W.
Pico Blvd., LA, is sponsoring petitions
to defend the Metnamese students who
have opposed the war.
Land co.ops: "How to Form a Land
Trust," a pamphlet by a year-old land
trust, we-LlFE, established by lnstitute
Mountain, West. Subt¡tle: ,'Neither a
landlord nor a tenant be! !". . . . Peacemakers Sharing Fund which has þeen
giving up to $225 a month to spouses
and children of imprisoned c.o.'s, is
depleted, Þartly as a result of our inattention (10208 Sylvan Av., Cincinnati)
... . .The_Briarpatch Cooperative Autg
Shop in Palo Alto is a new venture
suppôrted by Portola lnst. and the midpenihsula nonviolent community. . . .
ln J une the newsletter of Prisoners '
Strike for Peace (156 5th Ave., NYC)
described a project to build a center for

nonviolent resist¿ncé in N'H. to serve
transition for newly released prisoners as well as a place to discuss movement problems. lt offered to all donors a Certificate of lnvestment in a Human Future. We hope it got off the
drawing board.
as a

- r'lmpoach

,.NIXON BUGS
Honor" - ",Free

rnË onel

to the Chi, Doily News, 7l3O, concerning Nixon's June 15 visit to Pekin; lll.r

lawn, Chlcago' 60637

protest to the President (citizens do

still have that right).

We came with '
signs. . .stating our opposition to the

not well-publicized Cambodian bombing. . . .l was holding one end of¡a
large banner that was ripped hown by
White House advanc€ ffì?rì: . . .Earlier,
when Mr. Níxon was arriving a redhaired Secret Service agent (wearing
an orange button with a black 'S')
stood on top of our pile of signs and
rested his foot atop the later torn
a

banner.". . . .A judge has ruled that
Milwaukee '14 participant Mike Cullen
is an undesireable alien and therefore
must leave the U.S.'forthwith. h goodbye party is planned in New York in
September. . . .Hyde Park Kenwood
Voices, now a monthly supplement to
the Reqder (Chicago), has been running

of articles "The mì¡st remarkable abortion story ever told;" written
by participants of lone, a recently fold-

NI

,NC 275
YEP. NIXON'S

was in attendance with four other
individuals from the Chicago area to

with

6

Midwest: From a letter by Larry Roth

"l

City, MO

ALL PROFITS RECYCLED

Tacoma Ave., Tacoma
Gentlemen's agreement: Sen. Ervin's
statement about our legal system devised by (and for?) the-"Anglo-Saxon
race" and Atty. Wilson's "little Jap"
slur.

t

Strios

buttons 4/$l

a|sôi DoN'T BLAME ME! .I WORKED FOR
M¿covERN. Mlke Fowler,5625 waod'
{

SHRED" Bum'
'BETTER READ THANRad¡càls'
Rêd,

fot Literato
wnitè. elue. 1/$1, 5/$4, 10l$6. Postpa¡d!
câsh-'check. M.O. Soc¡al Deslgns, lnc-,
6s Sö. evori, st. Paul, MN 551o5'
nãrîtidr<ãii

NO AMNESTY FOR NIXON

StJçKETS

18X3''

5/$r. 100/$10, looo/$so. N.A.F:N.n. Box

birth control law: "Now you want to

give contraceptives to poor people.
Where are we going to get men for the
armed forces if we have another conflict? lt's a good wåy to destroy an
army." (From a quote in La Wisp,
-Ruth Dear

7173).

Reytew

^rew

ó'oZ,'noãþir¡a, wt o. .'
we comoile cUSTOM-RESEACHED BIBLI''
öe ñÂÞÈiesl wr¡te THE DlssEMlNAToR'
sl6.West commonwealth, sulte 105'
Fullerton, CA 92635.
,:
have a secluded 7Vz agre olga

3 hours frorh

story

Wê're
three

'

IE Addrcss;

RD 4,

Doìr't let the transportation revolu-t¡on catch
vou off quard. For more informatlon-wf{re
io3. Thetomm¡ttee for Zero Autom.gb¡le,
crowth, P.o. Box 44666; lndlanapolls' lN
46204-

t9

E

tg
Itr

J

,*l-\ì-'".,,

tEt 'tr $to .
'¡

rg

a series

ed underground abortion service. . . .
State Sen. Gordon Roseleip last February opposed liberalization of Wisconsinls

" . . . a sell-awareness ís developtng among the ncw
sclroolc, a sense of thernselves as ptrt ol a growlng
movement. ìiuch ol tlris increased consclousno$ is due
Scñools ,r"n"ntïi;;í",
to the wor. of iäe

IE

resumo

t25l
waNTED:

IE

USED TYPEWRITERS FOR

'orr¡
LEGIIL- ,
Þniso¡lenswonrlrue
þÀÞEns, erc. õoÑrÁcT BAI-LovJr.33e
WE'LL

kàTr,+""Tt.

sf. ñvc 1oo12.

coon to be teloas€d from pr¡son cal.ifof'
ñ¡a artist w¡shei to commun¡cale wlln
artists. and anv othef lreegom
;omen,people.'esDeclallv
i;vinq
from the New

Vork-area' wl¡tó to

ifter August 17 al
120,.

BI"UO¿S."O,

IEI

Francisco'

(415)

E-dqar Jorgen9on

7709- Lankersnlm..North Hollywooo' çarrr.'

tg,
'

E,

!

'

.{......

: -.'-

yead2o issues of NÖÏ.

$12 1 year, Institirtions
tr $12 1 year, Canada & Mexico
n $15 1 year, Overseas surface mail
tr $1OO Sustaining membership
tr $2 School Directory only

Tax deductible donations
The New Schools Exchonge Newsletter is published
by the New Schools Exchonge'ot P.O. Box 820, St.
Poris, Ohio 4 3072. The Newsletter is published twice
price is $10 o year.We don't
o month
-subscription
publish in
/ul¡r ond August.

'

j

TEE woolßly magaztne
of the movoment!
*

Literature
NEW LITERATUR€
t
a

INSTEAD OF VIOLENCE, one of the ourstand¡ng anon nonviolence, finally in paperback. +õ6 pp.

tholo_gies

i2.7s

¡

lE4çE lS

POSSIBLE, editqd by Elizabeth Jay Hoiland,
is this series of essays on the subjebt by leáding scien--

Ð

tists, professors, economists,

etc.

345

pp, $2.ts

E, at

last¡ 7 compi lation by
films on the subfect and how
$ s0

ON

AMNESTY

{
HOME?, edited by Murray polner'
is this debate on ainnesty for-exiles and all ant¡-war

TVHEN CAN

I COME

prisoners. 267 pp. i1.95

.

*The livelieçt megazine
on the

.:

left"

I

wRL's, AMNESTY PACKET, a collection of materials
on thè sùbject. $1
AMNESTY: WHY? FOR WHOM: a pamphter by David
MdReynolds on ainnesry. 12pp. 2Oúeach or gl0il00
NEW BUMPER STICKERS: ,,GET p.O.$r.,s OUT

PRISONS'f and
DENT'J @50'

"l

DIDN'T VOTE FOR THE

scrlptlon!
bock lssues:

DIARY-The diory of Sgt. Bruce
Anello, kllld In octlon. One of the most
movlng documents to come oat, of the vwr,
-VIETNAM
MEDTA'FBl pnpeRs-l¿e contptetç coltec-

-

tton of the polltlcol Npers
: stelen
! L' from the.
Medto, fu., FBI

offtce.

BERRIGAN/HARRISBURCFPffi Eerrtgon
t+¡ltes for the frrst ttme obout ihe Honlsburg,
trlotr, fin Fuest exomlnes,tþecomplex eyents
leodlng up to the trlol,
O.K,

olrødyl I

enclesed

lTnfr

o one yeor

sttb, I've dteched whtch free tssuc t vnnt| "
I'm poü, conseruøtlve ønd don!"t vnnt ony bach
lssucs onyrny. Enclosed ls Í4 for d slk month sub,

-O,K,

:

I

ND PtN

il

black enamel on stecl gl

,.,...,.¡'

WR.l, BROKQN RIFLE BUTTON $6/100, {1112,101cach

Wnt BRüìÈñRIFEE;P|N-'
F:-¡r?------

r

on heavy metat. $l

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LEAGUE

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[ ] ! encloso $
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for items chccked.
fgr contribution to thc WRL.

ztP

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gtN

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black and white $6/100, $1 112,10(,cach
in assorted colors g7/100,
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