Win Magazine Volume 9 Number 31

4

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ocToBER tE, t9731201
McREYNOLT)S Of.l GAYS AND NOI.¡VIpLENCE
MORE ON WATERGATE AND TTIE MOVEMENT
WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT CHILE

PEACE AND FREEDOM THRU

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man who tries to gain equal pay for equal
work in comparison with men, not only in
athletics but in all professions and jobs,
I wanted Billie Jean to win, but didn't
expect her to, having seen Riggs at his prime
and in his victory over Margaret Cou¡t. Pe¡haps as impressive to nie as her victory was
Rosemary Casals' exact prediction of thé
6-4, 6-3, 6-3'sco¡e. Rose¡¡ary, granddaughtet of the world famed ceÍist, Pablo Casals;
and a ranking professional tennis player,
was one of the ABC commentators for the
match, I doubt that any man commentator
has ever predicted that ¿ccurately thç outcome of a five set match.

'

BRADFORDLYTTLE
New York, NY

Just a brief word on David McReynold's
comments at the WRL Confe¡ence (WIN r ;
916173). While Dave is "weary of confusing
the concept of nonviolent revolution with
organic foods and compost heaps," I am
equally.weary of t-alk of organizing bureaucratic mass movements to "seize power,"'
A significant change has occured in the
past twenty years in the way in which this

nation feeds ftself. Food production has become a centralized corporate enterprise,

with the predictable sacrifice of quality for
profit, This centralized effort has also made
possible a very extensive exploitation of
third world countries. People have the opportunity through backyard gardens and

in Bayslde, Queeris,

q

NYc.

Photo by LNs women's Graphics collêctive

compost heaps to "seize the means of production," and wèaken our dependence on
the plastic foods industry. While this opportunity certainly doesn't exist for everyone,
the majority of our population lives in rural,
suburban, and urban areas that.offer tliese

opportunities.

'

LETTERS

a

I would hate to think WIN is losing, of
all things, its sense of humor, but the review
by Martha Thomases [WIN, 10/4/73] of the
Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs "tennis"

Jean's age advantage

match makes me wonder, for it does appeâr
to take the matte¡ seriously. Surely we
have to realize that women's liberation conce¡ns were not involved in any way except
as a butt of laughter, in a spectacle designed
to make lots of money for the "contestants"
regardless of sex. lt worked. Picture Billie
Jean King and Bobby Riggs, now off camera,
skipping along hand in hand and laughing,
as the saying goes, all the way to the bank,
Women's causes have a reputation for
being defended humorlessly, but I do hope
this is just a lapse, and not part of a new
tone, in WIN of all places.
KARL V. TEETER
Cambridge, Mass.

eran of 60, could beat the best woman player in the world. Furthe¡more, Bobby Riggs,
at his prime, was one of the finest players
who ever lived. Jack Kramer, rated by many
as the greatest, places Riggs in the top 10. I
saw Riggs play Don Budge in their first
tour after the Second World War, and will
never forget Budge's comment to Riggs,
"You'¡e a great player, boy!" as ¿n unbe
lievable backhand passing shot down the
line answered one of Budge's sallies to the

Billie Jean King's triumph over Bobby
Riggs was important to the feminist movement in sevéral ways. For one thing, it was

one of the first examples of feminine equality (or supremacy) in athletics, an arena in
which men have always claimed superiority
because of greater strength and speed. Billie

of 26 years isn't important in this regard, for in tennis circles
it's previously been almost axiomatic that
ANY ranking man, a Junior of 15, or a vet-

net.

In addition, Billie Jean beat Riggs with

a

man's game, pressure tennis, emphasizing
the serve, volley and overhead. Only the
best players in superb phyòical condition
can adopt a strategy based on winning points
by outtight placements, rather than trying
to coax the opponent into errors. Billie
Jean demolished Riggs in 1973 the way Jack
Kramer dethroned him fo¡ the professional
title in 1950, with sustained, accurate power.
Kramer is one of the most influential people
in tennis, and an oppenent of equality for
women players. He saw the match, and

couldn't help but have been impressed.
The success of a woman in'thisrway
couldn't have occurred in a more imnortant
spoit than tennis, for tennis is a very demanding came, taxing the player's skill, concentration and stamina beyond most sports,
a traditional sport cif the "elite", and perhaps this countryt fastest growing participant sport. The match was able to attract
the attention it did partly because great
numbers of people in politics, business, the
military (good or bad?), and entertainment
play tennis. Billie Jean made the feminist
point devastatingly to an audience that usually is remote from MS., and other radical
and libe¡al publications.
The amount of money involved is also
important. Billie Jean is supposed to have
cleared $200,000 outright for the match,
and her final earnings including endorsements and other side benefits, may bring
her income for it to more than half a million
dollars, In a way, it is disgusting that anyone could make that much money for two
hours playing a game. On the other hand,
the amount places Billie Jean above such
athletes as golfer Jack Nicklaus, basketball
player Jerry \ryest, or pitcher Tom Seaver in
yearly earnings. This will benefit every wo-

Admittedly eating organic food and
building compost heaps will not, in and of
itself, provide radical soci¿l change. However I feel decentralizing food production tq.
'
its maximum extent will allow us to regain
control of this important area of our lives.
I dòn't want to take over'General Mills, I
want to disperse food production to the

it

can be maintained
with a minimum of administrative ove¡head.
To regain control of our lives requires es-

lowest level whe¡e

caping our dependence on those fo¡ces we
are contesting. I feel living simply provides
a means to achieve this physical liberation.
While organic foods have little impact on the
Blacks in Bedford-Stuyvesant, I suspect fìfty
yeais of socialist rhetoric has.provided little

more.

ROBERTBRUCE
Denver, Colo.

F¡om the WRL Confe¡ence comments,
[WIN, 9/6/?3] it seems there has been some
òritici*m, through lack ofunderstanding, of
those whose revolutionary commitment has
led to rural residence for purposes of organ'
ic g¡owing. Hopefully this b¡ief comment
will contribute to gteater mutual support.
CHOOSE ORGANIC ALTERNATIVES'
Revolution/Liberation on each continent
is led by those whose HOME it is. And we
support one another to the extent that we
have energy to share; this strength comes
from home, Guided by those who've been
at home with "No¡th America'iriince long

bofo¡e the colonial name, and'by those
who've bèen brought home here.by such
guidànce, we learn that a movement of all
people-not only humanS-is historically in
-tune with out struggle for peace and free

dom'

,.Ìi:l":itÏ,i.

Punishment is a rotten teacher, læah Fritz
tells us, Anyone disagree? She says she de
nies herselfthe ease ofhaired. Yet she indulges a fantasy ofviolence. She envisions
good women spanking the Seats of Power.

[wrN, e/13/731
Can any reprimand be free

'

October

18,1973

-DALE WHARTON

Montrea! euebec

Gays and Nonviolence-Part ll
A response to Allen Young.

David McReynolds

Chile-WhatWeCan
The fascist prisoncrats here are making
a last effort to isolate those of us who are in
struggle against S.T.A. R.T.
People, one of the most fiabolical so
called "Behavior Modification" techniques
is to isolate or cut off all emotional ties, all
averlues of any supportive communities, to
be candid, to systematically destroy and
withhold our mail!
This is happening more openly now! The
rieo-Nazióratic functionaries here realizing
the extent and strength of our support have
now subjected us to some so-called censórship rules, that suddenly have appearedjust

recently!
Recently they have been retuming letters
and newspapers to us back to you stamped
unclaimed on them. Do not be decieved,
people, or discouraged. Do not stop writing
and sending us your letters and newspapers!
People, show your solidarity & support
again by doing the following; w¡ite letters
of protest to Norman Carlson, director of
U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Dept. of Justice,
Wash, D.C. 20037, requesting that he discontinue the censorship and tha| he removes the
S.T,A.R,T, Brofhers, William Ruiz, Forrest
Gustave & mysqlf from the program!
2) Letters written to DA P.J. Ciccone, Warden U.S. Medical Center for federal prisoners,
Springfield, Mo. 65802.
3) Letters to Congresspersons, Bernie.Sisk,
John Conyers, Charles Rangel & Louis Stokes,
at U.S. Congress, House of Representatives,
Wash. D.C. 20515 asking them to iritercede
in our behalf, requesting we be transferred
from the S.T.A,R,T. Program,
4) Letters written to U.S, District Cou¡t
Judge Oliver, Southern District, Springfield,
Mo. 65801, requesting him to rule in our.
favor.
5) That ¿ll members of the radical news
media reading this pass it along for others to
print and print it themselves in whatever
papers they may work on.
6) That any people having high standing in
large movement groups reading this, organize
a protest such as picketing or other types of
support in our behalf.
7) That any people doing any ofthe above
contact me at the address below, advising
.

me

8)

Vol. lX, Number 3l
T

of punish-

ment or hatred or both?

''

M ENU

Lance Belville

.....

Do.... .... .....

A Letter to the Movement.
Arthur Woskow .

6i
8

.

Mid-East Dilemma.
Morty Je2er

10

.. 11
.. 13

Changes.

Reviews.

Cover: Colossus by Francisco Goya
NO ¡SSUE

nÉXr WEsr

note. There'll be no issue
of lVlN next week. We are taking a vacation.. The next issue will be dated November 1. (The missing issue would have been
October 25). See you in two weeks. -WlN
Readers please

STAFF
måt¡s cakars, .iditor

susan cakats, stðfl
mðrty je¿er, ed¡toriðl åis¡stant
nâncy ¡ohnson. slaff
¡ulio mððs, design
mary mayo. subscripl ions
brian wgster. compoi¡tion

FELLOW.TRAVELERS

l¡nc. bolvllle + lynn. coffln + dlanâ drylrs
ruth dcàf + trlph cllgla + paul cnclmrr + cht¡ck
frdlr + sôth fotdy + jlm lof€st + mlkr f?anlch

lc¡h lrltz + larry g6ra + nall ñlworth + backy
Johnson + paul lohnson + ailson k¡7pal +_cf|la
karp.t + clndy k.nt + pst€r klgcr

+

¡l¡x khooó

¡ohn kypcr + dorothy tånr + 7ob¡n t.lbn
.lllot llnzer + jackson måclow + dayld
mcraynold3 + ganc mcahân + mrrk motrl¡.+ lgtl

roodsnko

mrrthr

+ wandy schwårtr + mlkc ittmít

thomasa3

box:!f7 rifton

nGw

york l24tl

tclcphonc 914 339.45&5
wtN
two

of such.

And that letters of support be writteir
to all the above prisoners at the same address.'
GERALD WILSON, 19481-175
PO Box 4000, Springfield, MO 65802

. . .4

glútn.

axpra3¡cd

Sorly-menu3crlPtt

raturnad unlass ¡ccomprnlcd

drcÉscd st.mpÖd

anv.lopa.

Þy

Pflntad

2 WIN

wtN

3

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GATS AND
NONVIOLENCE

-PARTII

a fesponse

toAllenYoung
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BY DAVID McREYNOLDS

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In ,n. October 11 issue of WIN Allen Young discussed
the fatal beating of Jeremiah Lynch, 21, in Boston,
víewed it as a typical story of a murderous attack on
gays by the sfraight community, and then'raised the

question of nonviolence and gays.
I have stayed pretty much out of the gay liberation
discussion after my article in WIN November 15, 1969.
For one thing I did not want to become identified as
gay liberation's gift to the pacifist movement. Perhaps
I am simply too old to fully identify as a"gay"-a
term that in my youth was synonymous with weakness and escape from social struggle. But also I think
people should be judged in terms of themselves and
what they say and do, not in terms of the color of
their skin or their sexual orientation. Blacks within the
movement must find themselves in the same danger of
being swallowed up in darkness, so to speak; being
called on and looked to for special insights on thot
problem when, important as racism is to any racial minority, the blabk intellectual does, sometimes, want to
discuss Vietnam, the Middle East, or Nixon without
turning that discussion into a mini-symposium on
"what it is to be a Black American". Another reason
for my silence has been simply a lack of anything important to say that wasn't being said better than I
could say it by people like Allen Young and a host of
other militant young homosexuals.
But I write now because Allen has raised two important problems in his piece, and I think he has accidentally fallen into the trap of accepting sex roles as
defined by society. He ask, first, how homosexuals
can defend themselves, whether violence is proper,
4 WIN

.

and, if they can't use violence easily-and Allen admits
he feels he can't, that he never took akarate class, has
sold his .22rifle, etc.-then what do they do to defend
themselves and their right to community. Second, he
said that ". . . it is no coincidence that gay people have
always had a leading role in the pacifist movement,"
and then named three individuals, including myself,
who have played such a role.
Taking that last point first, I think one might also say ". . . it is no coincidence ihat gay people have al- "
ways had a leading role in the church. . . in the school
system. . . in the sports world. . . etc.". Wh¿t Allen
has done, unwittingly, is to accept the social concept
that pacifists must be a little queer.. I believe there
are as many gay priests as there are gay pacifist bureaucrats; as many gay military men as gay peace leaders.
The difference-and it is a crucial one-is that the pacifist movement is inherently permissive and supportive
of the deviant personality. (l use "deviant" here in a
very open way, not as a term of attack.) The pacifist
begins with the assumption that every person is unique
has special value, and:must be considered as an índividual to be respected. Others-including Marxists-tend
to think in terms of a social norm and to measure people by how closely they fit that norm. ("Frank's Ó.K.
but his wife is a little screwy-writes poetry and all

that crap". . . "John's really weird, like I mean^he's
into cooking, for Christ's sake". . . "You know what I
heard about Eve, she's going to dance classesl". . .
"You might think he was really a crackpot when you
first meet him, he's got a beard, but if you just ge.t to
know him, he's a pretty regular guy". . . "She's got a
great face and body but she is kooky as hell-always
wants to talk philosophy and Eastern religion").
ln our society individuals are judged by how well
they fit the collective pattern even though the secret
isthat no one fits the pottern, ("Jesus Christ was I
shocked when I read about ít in the paper! I mean he

t

works in my office for Gods' sake, and therç is this
big shot of him being arrested in front of the draft
boãrdl I mean, he must be nuts or something;")
The paclfist doesn't have 0 pattern, We uxpect peo'
ple to be rdsponsible to themselves-ahd to others-but
not to fit ¡nto a pattern. We like some indiyiduals and
dislike others (oi, as lgal is wont to say, "Tliank God
we only hâve to love everyone-it would be impossible
if we had to like them") but not on the basis of beads,
beards, barefeet, or braless breasts.
The key is that wh¡le other groups may tolerate,
the pacifist movement accepts. And therefore someone like myself may bê able to-"gurface" sexually
without being fired, while in other parts of the soc¡ety
the price cif openness is repression. ("You know what
I mean, I mean I'd like to see him stay on as.pastor, .
but it is really asking too much'of the congregat¡on. I
mean, there are the young boys and'þe was rqnning
the youth program. I mean, you know, we all admire
his courage tremendously in admitting he was gay-or
whatever term thBy use-but you cant, you just can't, .
have a queer us puitor in charge of the youth program"),
To list three homosexuals active in the pacifist
movement and to note this is "no coincidence" is also
something close to the old gay defense of gayne-ss, ,
which wai a kind of litany: Whitman, Auden, Ginsberg
et al, and forgetting Eliot¡ Pound, e.e.cummings, Kenneth Patchen and William Carlos Williams-who were
not homosexual. I prefer to take the position that
homosexuality needs no defensei that if it felt right
f or me it wouldn't matter if there were only two of us
in the world, it would still be all right. I don't need to
know who in the peace movement, or the church, or
anywhere else might be homosexual. And what, inci'
dentally, of A.J. Muste, Ralph DiGia, Jim Peck, Brad
Lyttle, Jim Forest-or lrma Zigas, Lynne Shatzkin
Coffin, Margie Rece, and Nor-lña Becker?-They aren't
(so far as I know) gay and is it any coincidence that
they are in the peace movement?
So my first rambling point is simply that pacifists
are permissive and supportive and make it possible for
people to conduct their "search for selfness" in a pubfic way, so long as it is not genuinely destructive to
'them
or to the group.
My second point is that gayness and violence have
no link, either pos¡tive or negativè. ln our society gay'
ness has always been associated with a shift in.sex
roles so that someone who is gay is considered (and
usually feels) less masculine or less feminine than
their sex would indicate. That is, the male who is

perfectly able to engage in violence may feel, once he
has come out into the homosexual world, that a direct
violent response is no longer appropriate to his "new"
role. This is too bad, because nothing has really
changed at all. There is plenty of violence in the gay
world anyway and it might be healthy if more of it
saw the light of day. lt ¡s true also that ¡n our society
men may be driven toward a homosexual pattern starting at the other end: that is, because they fail to meet
the normal definition of male, i.e., they do not like to
fight, avoid physical conflict, etc., they may be made
to feel like sissies and accept that definition as valid
and move from there to homosexuality. But in other
societies homosexuals have played quite different roles.
ln Athens, the legendary Atlant¡s of the homosexual
psyche, men fought quite bravely, often alongside
their lovers. ln Germany, Hitler depended on the
homosexually-led Brown Shirts to bring him to power.

Allen, working from his own distaste for violence
(which I share) assumes that only a minority of gays
enjoy violence, that by and large "it is no coincidence"
that some pacifist leaders are openly homosexual. I
suggest it is really entirely coincidence, that the individual homosexual is just as likely to be vjolent as any- ..
one else. (One interesting exqmple of this occurred at '
the Gay Liberation March anö Rally this year. I had
gone over to Washington Squa're to find Morris Knight
and have a drink with him before he went back'tÒ'"'
California-and to urge him to get to Asilomar, whiËh.
he did. While looking for Morrii I watched an insane

confrontation between a street transvestite named-l
think-Sylvia and the gay bodyguards for the speaker's
platform. Sylvia wanted to get on the platform to

't'

¡

make a speech and the arrangements committee was
having none of it. ln all her finery Sylvia kept tryin_g
..to geiup the steps. lt was both funny and sad but fi'
nally in ablaze of anger turned nasty. Sylv¡a, ôutraged
when the guards pushed her back, finally tore open
her blouse, ripped out the fake breasts, and screamed
"ldon't know about you, sister, but llm a man,l'm a
ínn , and I'll fight you mother fucking bitôhes to get
on that platform. You want to fight? o.K., baby,
She finally, thanks partly to Morris' interven'
tion, was allowed on the plapform, wounded, bedrag'
gled and pathetic, to scream out at the audience her
own lonely alienation and anger. Truly a victim of
the sex wal, in this case a war within her/his self.)
But finally I think pacifists are pacifists and reiect
violence not because they are any more or less homo'
sexual than anyone elsê, but because from somewhere
in a violent society they have tapped a hidden well
and found the strength to belíeve in themselves; to
see themselves in others, and others in themselves. !s
there evil loose? Then it is in me, also. ls there good'

fight!"

ness, truly? Then it must exist in others too. Have I
been hurt? Then others can be hurt as well. Why am
I crying when someone else is hurt? Why does my
mother weep when I break my arm? How complex '
we are, how bound to each other. And it is at this
point, simply because it seems obvious' seems the åønnn (not gay, not macho, not normal) thing to do
that we become pacifists. For what is the point of
violence if, in inflicting it, I know that I hurt myself
as much as any other? Or more. Or more.
Allen will note that I haven't answered one of his
central questions-how does the homosexual commun'
ity defend itself-because I have no answer. On the
evidence, people who have guns are more often mur'
dered than those who don't. And on the evidence we
know there are times when there are no defenses that
work except, perhaps, rùnning,-{þe point is that l'amn
pretty convinced violence is nbt the answer and sor' . .
baffled like Allen, I have to stumble along without ''
false hopes or illusions that karate or a .22 rifle will
guard me from death. ln the end, nothing will guard
me from death. The problem with violence is that it
may guard me from life which, while I have it, is all
that is truly worth having. And the paiadox remains:
to find that sense of life, I may have to risk losing it.
It is an ancient paradox. Like all paradoxes the answer lies in reality, not in print.

David McReynolds is q þllN fellow traveler ond ou-

thorof the book IUE HAVE BEEN INVADED BY
THE 21st CENTURY.
WIN 5

can be

\

done.

First you can write, telegraph and call Chilean authorities, world organizatioñs and individuals and
branches of the U.S. government. The following is a
suggested list of names and addresses. lf you live in a
city with a Chilean'consulate you might shoot them
off a.letter as well. "lf not, here are a few places you
might write:
G€n. Augusto Pinochet. presiclent

c/o The Chilean Embâsiy
1736 Mass. Ave. N.W.
Washlngton, DC 2OO36

Gêneral oscâr Bon¡lla, lnterior Minister
Santlago, Chile
Dr, Galo plaza, S€cretary cen€rat t,n"

lTth St. & Constitutlon'Ave,

Washlngton, DC 20006

N,W.

O,^.r.

Kurt Waldheim, Secretary General

'united Nat¡ons Building
New York, NY lOOl.7

CHILE

.ft

,"

Edward F, Konnedy, Chairman
Senate Sub-Commlttee on Refugees
Washlngton, OC

willlam Fulbrlght, chalrman

Senatê Forelgn Relatlons Commlttee
Washlngton, DC
Thomas Morgan, Chairman

Hous€:Commlttee on Forelgn Affairs
The House of Repr€sêntatlv€s
Washlngton, DC

Asa Khan, Hlqh Commlss¡oner on Refugees
Tñe United Natlons Bulldlng
New York, NY 10017
Dr. H€nry Klssenger, Sec. of State
State D€partment Buildlng
Wash¡ngton, DC

1

fâ

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WHATYOUCAtrDO
BY LANCE BELVILLE
The horror stories get bigger and bloodier as the days
go by. Thousands rounded up and herded into soccer
stadiums around Santiago. For many the stadiums be'
came tirrture chambers and death camps. The rumors
of the murder count were whispered everywhere, At
this writing the Junta which took power in Chile last
month admits to around 400. But Newsweek's )ohn
Barnes slipped into a Santiago morguq twice and
learned the body count processed through that sad
place up to September 25tht 2,796! The score from
the Chilean countryside can only be guessed at. Alleged eye-witnesses tell of helicopters dumping bodies
into the sea. Chile, Latin America's land of hope has,
become the lndonesia of this decade. The comparison
is an apt one: Reportedly the Chilean officers call
their post-coup consolidation campaign "Operation
Jakarta" an obvious reference to the 1 965 massacre
in lndonesia of an estimated half million so-called
Chinese Line Communists. So much for the future in
Latin America.
6 WtN

Reading the horrot stories coming out of Chile daily, the inevitable question pops up: What can / do?
Well we (meaning our government) already did plenty.
ln 1971 and"1972 we F;ave $30 million in military aid,
arms, credit for arms purchases and military assistance
to that military which prior to September 1 1th was
thought of as Latin America's most democratic. During that period we trained 4,37 4 of those professional,
democratic-institution-loving Chilean officers. And of
course, thatis just the t¡p of the well-known iceberg.
tühat our CIA and o¿rr businesses have been doing
down there over the past few years would probably
make the skin crawl.
Although Allende ís gone, Chile is still a poor country in bad economic trouble. The fat underside,of the
military-run governmental belly is economiis, wbrld
public opinion and especially public opinion here in
the United States. Our generals and our businessmen
helped their generals get where they are. And their
Benerals will need our money, public and pr¡vate, to
stay where they are. Here is where all of us come in.
Here is where the buck stops. With effort we all can
have a very definite part in staying the executioners'
hands in Chile. So here are a few suggestions of what

t

ln writing and telegraphing these people you might
want to bring up the caie of political exiles as well as
the general, barbaric situation in Chile. The lives of
many political exiles in Chile are in immediate danger
either from the Chilean junta. itsèlf or through the
threat of deportation baik to their countriei oforiþin.
This is particularly true of the many Brazilian and
'Haitian political exiles presently stranded in Chile.
There are an estimated 8,000 Brazilian political exiles
in Santiago alone.

'¡

Ji vó,i*"nt to mention specific cases, the following is ã list provided by the U.S. Committee for Justice
tJlatin American Political Prisoners (USLA)of Chil'
eans and Latin American political exiles in Chile whose
lives are in clear and immediate danger either from
execution in Chite or deportation back to their homelands:
Luls corvalan, qeneral secretary of Chilean Communlst

Partv: pedro Enriouez. lawyel of the Ch¡lean MIR (Movement
of R-€Ûotuflonary Left); Theotonio dos santos, noted Brazil¡an oollt¡cal ecoñomist; Vánl:r Banblfra, also a noted Brazil-

lan bcilltlcal economist.
niso Ruv Mauro Marinl. Eraz¡llan pol¡t¡cal sci€nt¡st; Ernan¡
Marla F¡ori.-Brazllian Þhilosopheri Ja¡me Bãrrios, economic
adv¡sor to Ailendo; A¡elandro Chll€n Rojas, Chiloan state
ouotlsh¡nq house¡ and Gustavo Bêghaut' Uiuguayan d¡rector
Amorican Studies at the sorþonne'
bf
- lltin
ÃlCð¡uán Lechin, Bollvian trad€ unlon leaclori Elsa Pena '
vda. Hernandez. wife of Dominican revolutlonlst Homero
Hêróandez¡ Anna Napoleon, Haltian political refugse; Jullo
cortazar. ßirqentine vúrlteri Emma de Torres, wife of former
oresidenf of Boliv¡a Juan Jose Torrês and leader of defense
èffofts for Bol¡vian polltlcal prlsonêrs.
Also Huqo Gonzales Moscoso, leader of the Bolivian POR
tcombatel:-Patr¡clo Gussman, Ch¡loan f llmaker; Marla Ester
èlt¡o. uruluavan lawver who defended many Tupamaros¡
GulllórmoLoia. leader of the Bollvlan POR (Masas); Angel
Parra. Chllean s'lnqer; Pedro Chaskel, Chileañ Fllmmakeri and
ulrlck Jolv. Ha¡tian politlcal refugee.
USLA who at thls writinþ was about to facô the junta's firlng squad.

ln the midst of all the letter writing and wiring
that I hope you will be doing, don't forget your own

little old Congressman and Senator. The Chilean Junta
is going to be expecting lots of sheckles from Tio Sam.
The door has already been opened wide for private

corporations to come back and continue grazing. On
September 23rd, General Gustavo Leigh, a junta
member, announced that, "we want to give confidence
to the entire world. The doors will open for any for'
eign-capital seeking a place in Chile." Reports gut of
Wãshington have it that our government is, already i
studying huge loans to shore Up the Chilean economy.
Ask your congressman and senator to vote against any
apprópriationi
' 'Prógrams for the Chilead regime,
of demonstrations, teâch'ins, mãröhèsi'
ralliesãnd other activities are underway all around ¡he
country, especially in New York, Texas, Califoinia,
Washinglon, DC, and Washington St¿te so if your
t¿ste for active participation runs stronger than letter i
writing you might check in with the USLA chapter in
your aiea. While traditionally USLA has been closely
associated with the Trotskyist policies of the Socialist
. Workers Party and the Young Socialist Alliances, in
many places they are the only game in town and can
usually put you ¡n touch with what's going on in the
area. Although USLA itself is mainly intereste.d in
tho pr'oblems of political prisoners, they.are acting as
a clearing house for all kinds of political activities relating to Latin America in general and Chile in particular. their national offiçe is at 150 Fifth Ave.; room
31 1, New York, NY 1 001 1. Their phone number is

' (212) 691-2880 and their local groups can be reached
dtrroúgh that office. One of their main activities con'
sists of setting up a speakers bureau.

Another cteaiing house.for information and activi'

tìes is the Chile Solidarity Committee, located at244
W. 27 St., New York, NY. Their phone number is
(212\ 74i-3480. The Solidarity committee is a coali'

i¡on bt organizations ranging from unions to.trad¡tíonal peace gioups to political organizations such as the

Pu'erto dican Socialist Party. Founded three weeks
prior to the coup, they are circulating pe-titions, or'
'ganizinga
speakeis bureau, distributing films about
Ótr¡te añ¿ sponsoring demonstrations at the UN.
A good iource of information about developments
in Chile and elsewhere in Latin America is the North

:

lmìr¡can Committeê on Latin America (NACLA),

located at PO Box 5T,Cathedral Station, New York,
NY 10025, and PO Box226, Berkeley, CA9470"1NACLA publishes an excellent periodical, the-Latin
Americañ and Empire Report, and has some literature
specifically on Chile. A new pamphlet on.the mean'
ing of the coup is in PreParation.
-And
of course there is Amnesty lnternational and
its long standing concern for political prisoners everywhereãnd ofall persuasions. They can be reached at
PO Box 1182, Palo Alto, CA 94302, and 200 W. 72 St.,
New York, NY 10023.
lf I sound overly optimistic about possible re- ¡:
sults in protesting ágaínst what is going on in Chile, it
is because I have seen it work time and again in dealing with Latin dictatorships. While it won't work mir'
acl"es it can and wíll improve conditions in the bloodied
prisons and countryside of Chile.
A Chilean slum dweller told the Newsweek reporter
in a recent interview, "They kill whoever they ìv4nt to
kill. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that we can
do." Well, there is something we here in the U.S. can
do. And it starts with not giving up. lt starts with '
picking up a pen and writing. lt starts with us.
Lance Eetville was formerly a correspondent for ABC
News stotioned in Brazil, Currently he ls writing ploys

.

in New Yorh
wtN

7

Dear Brothers
and Sisters,

r{

,1,

rhe ru ins.cra
s",
s¡t
?::r "r
å,r,"¡:-*'iilJl
j.f
j,î"'¡sn.'¡""1',,JJIi,#?f::':iIif
l

JÍljl

ä iö'fr:,r:;:::x;

ffj ii,"¡11

¡

i

^l')?:'

;ctart

Fh'

:Ê:i^li;;"';::;ï/,W,:";11i#i"¡"i:,å,ïîi
fliJ:Y prirlü't.' iil'3

t u t t t¡ ouä¡rw'¡ ¡ u5- said

m¿ml'n'nl*,fíffi

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I
strength as long as Arab and lsraeli leaders look
towards a military solution.
lsrael also promotes unrest by projecting the con_
cept of lsrael as the homeland for woild lewrv. The
plight of Ssviet Jewry pay be authentic ánd emigration out of any country is a basic right. But Zioãist

MID-EAST
DILEMMA

prison in our own countries in the
course of these, struggles."

The appeal says that, "As radicals

our primary commitment is to freedom
and social revolution in our own cqlntries, But we cannot be indifferent to
the fate qf dissenters in any country. . ."
It therefore calls for the release of polit-'

pr.opagan da. (playi n g on American añti-Co m m un is'm)
has blown this issue all out of proportion-again to
.

rally American support. Latin American exiíes strand-

BY MARTY
It

'EZER

is

difficult for an American-particularly

a

Jew-to

understand the latest Arab-lsraeli War with any balance. The media is pro-lsrael'and the American Jewish
Establishment more hawkish and anti-Arab than most
lsraelis. I suspect that much of t'he sympathy that the
Arabs get from young Jewish leftists has little to do

with the Middle East situation but

reaction against
the perception of lsrael promoted by American Zionists, who dismiss any Palestinian claims to the area. I
know that I instinctively rebel against hardlíne Zionism and find myself defending the Palestinian position
when I am in Zionist company. But also I empathize
with the lsraelis when I am on my own. On one point
the Zionists are right: the existence of lsrael makes
every Jew conscious of his or her Jewishness.
It is difficult to comment on.the current war, which
is in its third day as I write this. The Arabs have been
criticized for crossing the Suez during Yom Kippur,
the Jewish high holy day, but lsrael drew the first
blood in the'67 war and our own George Washington
earned quite a heroic reputation for crossing the Deleware and catching Î,he Hessian soldiers drunk with
is a

Christmas cheer.
lsrael will no doubt win another victory and sur-

{,q

vive to fight another war. ln the past, this seemed to
suit both sides well. The Arab leaders needed a thriving lsrael to serve as "The Enemy" and to divert their
own people from demanding domestic reforms. (Repressive nation-states always need an enemy to forestall
political change at home. That is why the U.S. invent
ed the Cold War and the Soviet government happily
took up the bait.) ln a similar lvay, lsrael also neeáed
the threat of Arab aggression. The military is the one
cohesive force in their. melting pot and success in war

kept the Moshe Dayan-Golda Meir party in power.
Moreover, American Jews readily.respond with money
has

to lsraeli

wâr-cries.

The Arabs attacked to win back the territories
that lsrael had won in the Six Day War. lsraeli expansion into this disputed area is clearly provocative.
According to Uri Davis, writing in Peace News, 50 new
lsraeli settlements were established since the '67 conquest and six more are planned for'73. Davis also
quotes Moshe Dayan as saying, in 1968, "During the
last 1 00 years, our people have been undergoing a process of building up the country and the nation, ofexpansion, of getting more Jews and settlements, and of
colonizatíon in order to expand the borders here. Let
there be no Jew who says that we are near the end of

the road."
From thousands of miles away, American Zionists
echo this imperial call. Americans hear little of lsraeli
dissent or know (or even want to know) that there are
lsraelis who want to give the territories back to the
Arabs and who want to return to the original Zionist
vision of a decentralized collectivist commonwealth,
This side, a minority within lsrael, is unlikely to gain
1O

WIN

ical prisoners from Soviet iail#n¿
mental hospitals; freedom of speech
and expression as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, for Soviet authors and
artists; an end to the persecution and

ed in Chile certainly face far greater danger and blacks
in America are probably as oppressed. But lsraçl recently refused to accept a eróúp of black lews who

immigrated from America. Their color cóuld only
cause trouble in lsrael where non-European Jews already face discrímination. Jews from,Russiá

fit

more

harassment of Soviet dissenters Alex-

comfortably into lsraeli society and have added propa-

ander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov; increased freedom.of movement
within the Soviet Union and the right
of emigration; and the release of those
in Czecholsovakia imprisoned for working for democratic soçialism. A number of people in prison in the Soviet
Union and Czechoslovakia are listed
by name in the appeal. " -Marty lezer

ganda value.

Meanwhile the Palestinians continue to suffer.
They are the true victims of the Arab-tsraeli wars.
lsrael offers them no acceptable solution except.to
live as second-class òitizeni in an alien nation. And
the Arabs need them in limbo the way tsrael needs
the Russian Jews, for propaganda purposes and as justification for military preparedness. Moreover the'
Palestinian guerrillas seem a fairly pathetic lot. Their
elitism belies their ability to create a popular movement and their particular form of terrorism, against
innocent people thousands of miles from ttreiistrug.
gle, strikes me as cowardly and politically'futile. But
:

desperation seems their only recourse.
What can Americans do, especíally American Jews
who feel the emotional pressure of the Zionists propaganda and who respond (w_ho cannot help but respond)
in a polarized way, either for or against the existence
of lsrael? To accept these polarizéd views in iÍístant
America is to forget that lsrael itself is full of contradictions. lt is possible to support the existence of lsrael as a historical fact and stíll oppose its government,s
arrogant, militaristic and expansionist poliðies..AnC
it should also be possiþle to oppose the Arnerican
Jewish establishment's hardtinc policy without denying one's own sense of J ewishness. Also. since the
Palestinian voice is rarely heard in the Uñited States,
it would be useful to distinguish their problems from

the nationalistic ambitions ãf reactionäry Arab leaders,

and to keep in mind that the military solution favored'
9V Ugl! sides ignores-their tragic plight. Lastly, we
should keep a watchful eye on the Nixon administration and the large oil companies. The politics of oil
are never far beneath the surface of the Middle.East
crises and the future ofthe lsraelis, the Palestinians,
and the Arabs are all secondary to the needs of Amãrican Oil.

CONTACT
For more information on this middle and conciliatory approach to the Middle-East, contact The Committee on New Alternatives in the Middle East, 339
Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012. Also, an excellent film that explores the comþlexitíes of israeli life
in a sympathetic but cr¡t¡cal way is Claude Lanzmann,s
lvaeli Why, a French film (in the trad¡tion of Max
Ophuls's Sorrow &. The P¡ty) that recently premiered
at the New York Film Festival and deserveithe widest
possible screening.

Marty Jezer is now working Wrt-time on the lltN stoff,

POT: GOQD FOR TEETH-

ment for

Photo by Dav¡d McReynotds

ChAN
ONE PORTUGUESE
..MY LAI" CONFIRMED
The Johonnesburg Star, published in
.fohannesburg, South Afríca, on Sept.

25 reported confirmation ofa Portu-

Marijuana smoking may be the latesf
weapon in the age-old battle agaínst

ES
after Colonel Armindo Videira, the
Portuguese military governor of Tete
district, where Wiliamo is located, was
ordered to
-Jim Peck

quit.

guese massacre in Mozambique on De-

cember 16,1972.
In a report from Nampula, in central Mozambique, the Johannesburg

paper :quoted Portuguese sources as
admitt¡ng that Black Portuguese mercenaries of the S¡xth Commando group
had gunned down about 1 00 black civilians at close range iñ the village of
Wiliamo. Accor:ding to the sources,

only 20 to 30 survived.
However, the report added, the
sources had no information on a masi
sacre of 400 villagers.reported by Rev.
Adrian Hastings in his July expose in

the London Times (see WlN, JulY 26,

'1973, "Changes"). Following the expose, newspapermen visited Wiliamo
but saw no ev¡dence of the massacre
other than the fact that the village had
been totally destroyed by fire.

Confirmation of the December 16
massacre came to light early in Septemher, the lohannesburg Star ex.plained,

BAD, FOR HEART

CONGRESS OF WORLD

PEACE FORCES TO BE HELD

tooth decay.
Toronto dentist Dr. Harry Slade reports finding that his patients who puff
away on pot suffer far less from tooth
decay than those who don't.
Dr. Slade says he can always tell . ' :
which of his patients smoke marijuana,
and that when he identifies a smoker
it sometimes alarms them.
The dentist says that what gives ;
the smokers away is the fact that they
have very little food "plaque" stick¡ng
to their teeth. "Plaque" is a food resi-..';'
due which combines with other chemi-i '
cals in the mouth to eat away at the
teeth and cause cavities.
Dr. Slade said that potheads have
little or no "plaque",.but he does not

Delegates from the War Resisters lnternational, the lnternational Confederaknow why.
tion for Disarmament and Peace, and
The ddntíst.said he has treated pa- i
the lnternational Fellowship of Recontients who developed tooth cavíties;
ciliation plan to issue a call for increased only after they had stopped
smoking "..
freedom and dissent within the Soviet
weed for a'few months or more: after - .
Union and Czechoslovakia when they
they started smoking once again, Dr.
gather at the Congress of World Peace
Slade said, their cavity probfemd quickForces in Moscow, USSR, October
ly improved.
25-31. Representing the WRL at the
On the other hand, The Journal of
Congress will be Grace Paley and WIN
the American Medicol Associatíon reeditor Maris Cakars.
ports that government researchers beThe Appeal for Freedom for Dissent
lieve that marijuana smoking might be
begins by stating that its signers are
bad for the heart.
"radicals and dissenters from many
According to JAMA, the medical recountríes working actively for a world
searchers administered doses of T.H.C.,
free from war, imperialism and all
the active ingredient in marijauna, to 7
forms of exploitation and oppression
volunteers, four of whom were previ. ,. . Some of us have spent time in
ous pot users.

wtN

11

'

The three volunteers who had never
smoked pot showed no adverse heart
rates when tested; but the four previous pot smokers are reported to have
showed "significant abnormalities" in
heart rate, after receiving T.H.C. injections.
This study, based on just 7 people,
caused JAMA to suggest that mariluana
smoking might have a cumulative bad
effect on the hearts of heavy pot smok-

ers.

-ZNS

WHO W¡NS MEDALS?
The best way to win the Congressional
Medal of Honor is not necessarily to
be brave in combat, but simply to be
a careeÍ military officer. This is the
finding of University of New Mexico
sociologist Joseph Blake, who studied
Congressional Medal winners in the
Korean and Vietnam wars.

Humqn Behavior magazine reports

that Blake has come up with two distinct conclusions: He found that mil¡tary officers were more than twice as
likely to win the awards than were lowly enlisted men; and he also discovered

q

that when enlisted men won the award,
they were usually killed in the process.
Officers who won the Congressional
Medal of Honor usually lived to talk
about it, says Blake.
Blake found that only '17% of all
Congressional Medals in Vietnam went
to enlisted men, and that 19 out of
every 20 of these winners were killed
during their heroíc acts.
Blake's study found that only one
in five of the career majors, colonels
and captains who were awarded America's highest honor were killed during

their heròic

act.

-ZNS

¡S THIS WHAT YOU
MEAN BY SEXISM'
The President of Lebanon recently
pardoned a man who had served only
nine months of a"l7 year sentence received after having been found guilty

of strangling his 1 5-year-old daughter
because she'"had flirted with boys."
The pardon coincided with the Lebanese executive's refusal to recommend
the repeal of Article 562 of the Lebanese Penal Code. Article 562 provides
that a man may slay a female relative
whose sexual conduct "dishonors the
family," even though the conduct may
consist of nothing more than a gesture
of affection toward a male acquaintance. The President said that the laws
that defend the "honor of the family"
must be preserved. -Newsline/FPS
r2 wtN

WIN RELEASE OF
CANADIAN BUSTED
HERE ON OLD DRAFT RAP

could go down and put up the $1,000.
Since it was Rosh Hashanah, the 4ttorney was not in his office and when

Newborn finally located him, he reGavin Naeve was released without bail
fused to OK my putt¡ng up the cash.
in Burlington, Vermont, October 2Newborn then was prepared to go
but only after his case virtually had be- to court Monday and ask for reduction
come an international incident as a con- in bail. But early Monday morning,
sequence of front-page newspaper pub- Gavin was transferred to Vermont. He
licity and sympathetic TV coverage in
had been slated to go to Brattleboro
Canada. This publicity climaxed the
but meanwhile, the tidal wave of publicity broke in Canada and the U.S.
þrevious evening when Prirne Minister
Trudeau's first assistant was asked on
authorities apparently decided tolget
TV what official protest action he
Gavin out at the earliest possible moplanned to take in the Gavin Naeve
ment, So, they took him, instead, to
case.
Burlington where the federal court for
The publicity was initiated SeptemVermont happened to be sitting (the
ber 30, by Gavin's father, Lowell, at
federal court in that state rotates from
my suggestion. He knew how to go
city to city) and released him without
ahout it since both he and his wife,
bail. The sole requisite was that his
Virginia have been active over the
sister, living in Brattleboro, sign for
years on behalf of American war resishim. But Gavin was on the street even
ters in Canada. I urged him to publi-:
before she arrived in Burlington to
cize the case when he phoned to tell
sign the paper.
-Jim Peck
me about it.

RevirWs

Gavin had been busted September

25 upon arrival at Kennedy Airport
from Bermuda, where he is working as
a pastry chef. Basis for the arrest was
an ancient warrant from Vermont,
where the family used to live, charging
him with failure to register for the
draft in 1965. This, despite the fact
that the entire Naeve family emigrated
to Canada-with their landed immigrant
papers-on October 1 0, 1965, eight
days before Gavin's eighteenth birth-

day. All

became

full Canadian citizens

five years later, in accordance with the
law.
He was taken before a judge who

demonstrated prejudice by declaring

that the whole Naeve family is "rotton"
(Lowell was a World War ll CO-in
Danbury with me). This judge set bail
at the fantastic sum of $50,000, which
brought an objection even from the
court-appointed attorney named to defend him. So, the final bail figure was
$1 0,000-sti I I excessive-and Gavin
was confined to the federal house of
detention on West Street in New York.

The morning after Lowell's call,

I

phoned my friend,'Mel Wulf, chief
counsel for ACLU and he immediately
assigned Burt Neuborn to the case. lt
was Friday and I wanted to get Gavin

out before the weekend-he already
had been in jail since Monday. Newborn told me that if I got together
$1,000 cash, I could put up what is

NO TAKERS

ln Fall River, Massachusetts,

Army re-

cruiters ran an advertisement offering
a bonus to any young man who signed
up for four years in the infantry, artillery, or armored branches. The bonus
of $1,500 appeared in the newspaper
as $1 5,000, due to a typographical error. But in spite of this handsome offer there was not one response to the
advertisement, although unemployment in the area stands at 7.2 per-cent,
far above the national averap. Resistance to the military life, demonstrated
by this example, is so strong that since
the draft ended the Army has fallen
about 2,000 men short of each month-,
ly enlistment goal.

-from

press dispatches

PRAY.IN PROTESTERS
SENTENCED
Seven persons, including two Peace
Center staff members, were sentenced

September 26 for praying at the White
House on August 9 to protest bombing

of cambodia. [wlN, 8l2l73l

D.C. Superior Court J udge Edmond
T. Daly gave the four men and three
women a choice: five days in jail, one
year's probation vowing to break no
law any way under any jurisdiction,
or $25 fine. Of the Peace Center staff,
Rodger Whitehead chose to go to jail.
Lucy Witt paid the fine.
Those who chose to go to jail felt
that paying a fine was cooperating
with the system and that this was in-

called a personal recognizance bond. I
went down to court with the money
only to find that Gavin's was a surety
bail and therefore the cash vvas unacceptable. I called Neubom who said
he would try to contact the prosecuting consistent with their witness.
attorney and if the latter OKd it, I
-Washington Peace Center Newsletter

will be so thrilleci to get a man thai irc has to but take
her. Some men are more blatant about their expectations
than others, but I believe that most of them believe this.
Ms. Bengis, however, knows that there are other needs.
One needs to be able to take a calming walk alone occasignally. One needs the freedom to move. Orie needs the freëdom to love. So she has writtên a book about her expeiiences, and what she has learned frgm them, and what they
have made her. Therç are three sections: Man-hating, Lesbìanism, and Loving. ln ways these titles are misleading.
Yes Ms. Bengis hates men, hates them for giving a rdnning
she

+t
I

a

_l

¿-q

woodcut of woman by lrene Pesllkls/woMEN & ART/LNS
.,¡

COMBAT ¡N THE EROGENOUS ZONES
lngrid Bengis
Knopf Press
When I was in New York for a weekend in January, I wa,5
staying with a friend, Jill. We spent Saturday night with
two men that she knew, her boyfriend and his roommate.
We caroused around the city until three in the morning, as
one does in New York, and at that hour we found ourselves
in Jill's apartment, exhausted. The rhen didn't want to do
the subways at that hour, so Jill said they could stay. Jill
and I changed into pajamas, and everyone found a soft
place to sleep. ln the morning I woke up to find the roommate fucking me (note to staff: if you can find o better
word, use it, but I can't think of o single euphemism that is
as blunt). I was too sleepy and scared and fascinated at his
nerve to get up and lock myself in the bathroom, the logical
thing to do. lnstead, I was completely passive and watched
it happen to me.
lngrid Bengis lives in New York City, and had some ex-

this. She has been followed
down the streets when she just wanted a quiet walk, she has
ridden in subways where men expose themselves and handle
her. She has travelled all over the country, and to Europe,
and knows that these things are not confined to New York.
It is part of the general assumption by the male population
that all a woman really wants is a man, any man, and that
periences that are similar to

critique of her body every time she walks past a constructíon site, hates them for using her vulnerability against her
when she is in love, hates them for making assumptions
about her. Yes, she has had women lovers. But she finds
herself drawn to men while hating them, not fulfilled by
women while loving and trusting them. As she says, there
are no simple generalizations. Ëspecially none that can be
applied to individuals, including the ones l've made in this
article.
Perhaps the best thing about the book is its complete
lack of rhetoric or dogma. She does not èxpound for pages
on the virtues ofgay or straight love, she talks about people she has cared for. She does not falk about"oppression
and society, she talks about her frustration at not being
able to hitchhike alone or take a walk to clear her head at
the end of the ciry. ln other words, she discusses specifics,
from her own lit'e. Sometimes, she even d¿res to admit that
she believes something that isn't fashionable. Multiple re-lationships may be fine for some, she says, but I want the
intensity and- commitment that come from. just one person
at a time. Frêe love, she says, may help some people, but '
until I find someone who can meet my needs, l'd prefer to
remain celibate. She even suggests that it is all right, maybe
necessary, to make demands on sbmeone you love if that is

what you need.
I want to recommend this book, make it required reading for anyone who wants any kind of self awareness, yet
I'm afraid that my enthusiasm may be influenced by the .
similarities in my experiences and Ms Bengis'. When she
talks about sitting and waiting for a phone call and hating
herself for it, I squirm with recognition. When she talks
about struggling to be taken seriously while men are naturally assümed to be serious, I get angry with her. And when
she talks about how sex has become a battleground, I cry,
with her, I assume I react this way because I have felt thió
way before I read this book. Maybe it won't affect you as
strongly if you haven't.
Combat in the Erogenous Zone is not a pleasant book to
read. There are no funny parts without sadness underneath.
It is the record of the destruction of one woman's ideals,
and her attempts to put them together again in a way that

willwork.
Martho Thomases works with Coming Out, a women's
paper, from which this review is repriríted.

;

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Avon Books (paperback)

$'1.50

Gypsies with "scientific instruments:" magnets, a telescope, ice. A man who makes his own sextant and calculates (long after Europe knew it) that the earth is round;
who, finding that it makes no difference, goes on with his
alchemy experiments, and ends up t¡ed to a tree speaking a
language that turns out to be Latin. Remedios the Beauty,
the cause of four deaths simply becasue of her beauty, so unconscious, so natural. Too fine for simple dying she rises,
WIN ¡3

1,

unannounced, into the sky. The rains, for years, brought
on by the foreign owners of the rubber plantation, in retaliation for a strike. The Colonel who starts more than 50
wars and loses alf of them. The ants, the animals, the
ghosts, the people. So much here, so fine, so wonderfully
balanced; One Hundred Years of Solitude is an an astounding book.
Reality and fantasy, past and future inhab¡t this novel
on equal terms, distinctions between them are false. Life,
for the population of Macondo, is what happens to the soul.
lf you spend most of your time with ghosts, you get to

know ghosts, that's all.
Its setting is South America; a village, Macondo; a family, Buendia. lt is an allegory, a manifesto, a surreal history.
The language flows like time: through jungle, through rain,
through every corner of life. ("T¡me also stumbles, trips in
the center of the room.")
Ursula hod to make o grelt effort to fulfill her prom¡se to
die when it cleared. The woves of lucidity that were so rare
during the rains became more freguent ofter August, when
an arid wind began to blow ond suffocoted the rose bushes
and petrified the. piles of mud, and ended up scattering
over Mocondo the burning dust thot covered the rusted zinc
roofs and the age-old almond trees forever. Ursulo cried in
lamentation when she discovered thot for more thon three
years she had been a plaything for the children, She
vvushed her paìnted face, took off the strtps of br¡ghtty
colored cloth, the dried'lizards and frogs,'and the rosarleì
and itld arab nechloces that they had hung oll over her body,
and for the first time since the deoth of Amaronta she got
up out of bed wlthout qny ones help, , , . Those who notìced her stumbling and who bumped into the archangellc
arm she kept raised at head level thought that she wos haying trouble with her body, but they still did not thlnk she
was blind.

q

Some more facts: the book was first published in Argentina in 1967. The translation by Gregory Rabassa is, I
understand, excellent'. lt is 383 pages,long, and I wish it
had been longer.
-Van Zwisohn
Von Zwisohn ìs a member of the IURL Executive Committee.

THE AMNESTY OF IOHN DAVID HERNDON
James Reston,

fr.

New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973
146 pages, hardcover, $5.95

Probably the most misunderstood of America's young are
its Vietnam exiles. Not even the resisters who went to prison, or the veterans who returned to tell of the war's atrocities, have been the objects of such vicious and unremitting
slander.

for their drastic rejection of the war, there is little'
that typ¡fies the draft dodgers and deserters abroad. They
acted, of course, with mixed inotives. Yet the best and the
worst of them are f umped together as tra¡tors by a hostile
public. Again, the delusions of the old continue to haunt
Save

the young.
lgnored in the debate is the sizable minoríty of exiles .
who are veterans of Vietnam combat. They deserted out of
revulsion for what they had seen and done. Few could be
called cowards.
John Herndon was a good example: Born in West Virginia to become a high,school dropout who liked fast cars,
Herndon enlisted in the Army at eighteen. He qualified as
an airborne ranger and was sent to Vietriam, but he found
on his arrival that he had been inexplicably reassigned to a
14 WIN

75061

(2741 254-A463, -9I-C|Z.

latr¡c Nursê
f¡nlshed ln
th6re aÌe any
nvolv€d ln poverty
llke to have a red
.

cs

fift"rål

thât

wlth

ä

what I do
but I

BonRd

the ai

both ph

fered to
that my

-

îîå{ïå,iiåir",.

and

a

€nough

bo reI ask

llvlng
Barb

SEND US YOUR GARBAGE. Thlngs ln
Amer¡ca that are d¡scörded as useless are vory
valuablo ln lndla. lt would be a qreat servlç€
to our acad€my and villagc.if you set asidè |
box and fill lt wlth th€ tollowing thlngs:
Plast¡c bottlãs (large for storagê)-, plasflc
bottl€s (unusual shapes for candl€ moldsl,
scratch Þapef, eKtra pens and penclls, offlcs
and art supplles, pleces of cloth.and lçather,
left-ovôr yarn, good old book3. usablätools,
cl€an old clothês and shoes, free samples of
soap, toothpaste, and mediclne, sewlrJq oqu¡pm€nt, paraffln wax, wrapplng pâper, unusual
postag€ stamps, inter€stlng posters, plastic
baEs, hðngsrs, old toys, cushlons, and small
It€ms of use, When the box ls full, send lt
by surface mall to: The East-West Academyt
P.O. Tung Dlstrlct DarJeling, W. B€ngal

734224, lNDrA.

deserted for good when he learned that he was again slated
for Vietnam duty. This time he was to stay out for over a
year and a half.
Eventually he settled in a Paris tenement, working as he
could and struggling to survive. Through his contact with '

¡lr"lv*tåf:rfrxr{nf#tï,"ñ}COV¡vtUruíf teS: consultatlon, free l¡teraturo lish Commun¡ty Service, lnc., Box 243a,
Yellow Sprinss, Ohlo 45387.

the American Deserters Committee he attracted the attention of Safe Return. ln late 1 97'l the New Yoik organization was seaiching for a suiûable test case to publicÞe its de.
mand for total amnesty. John was selected. Reston's book
is an account of what followed.
It was a hectic March week as Mike Uhl and Tod Ensign
of Safe Return struggled with the authorities to get John
back into the Un¡ted States. They desired a pubic srrrrender upon his return home, to assure maximum publicity for
the "Nuremburg defense" of his court martial. John, meanwhile, had to prepare himself to come out of exile.
By tne time he boarded the plane in Paris, the interna-

tional media were following his story. He was arrested immediately after arriving at Kennedy. The military now had
its fugitive, but one whose defense promised to be an embarassing indictment of the war's criminality. While confined, he received the support of prominent antiwar acti.
vists and members of Congress. For three weeks the Army
stalled ín its prosecution, then suddenly washed its h4ndsi
of the matter by.reinstating a bad conduct díscharge that
had been suspended several years before. John Herndon
was at last a free man. How will the Herndon case affect
the administration of military justice toward deserters?

INTEREST FREE LOANS to organlzôtlons
ln ne€d, wlthln 2oo ml. radlus of Bethlehem,
Pa. Monêy from r€fus€d war taxes, WTR
Llfê Fund, Box 573, Bethlehem, Pa 18016.

SI-!êRE COIVIMON I DEAS. I n€€d a compan¡on and/or roommate ln thls wlldernêss.
lweld! 711, W. pton€er, trving, TX
!¡l€-qn O.(Dailas),

ground unit. His fifteen month tour was replete with such
bureaucratic bungling. While on patrol he witnessed both
the torture of Vietcong suspects and the senseless sacrif¡cing
of American soldiers. He quickly camê to despise the war.
Just as he was preparing to go home, he was thrust into
the cataclysm of the Tet Offensive. He returned to combat
and was wounded a week later as he attempted to rescue
two trapped Gls. For this he was presented with the Army
Commendation Medal.
JoÀn rp.nt i yeai statesiOe, then was suddenly trans,. .
ferred to a European paratroop unit. When he learned that
he was gciing back to Vietnam, he deserted and went to
Paris; For eight months he scrounged around France, alternately working and relying upon the support of sympathetic citizens, He returned¡ served time in the stockade, and

SOUTH, VI ETNAMESE P.O.W. B RACELETS
(Sl,OO)-wear as m€dlcal ld6ntiflcation band,
wlth the namo and pf¡son number of one of

the South Vletnames€ pol¡tlcal prlsoners,
and jo¡n our lotter wrlttlng comaplgn to
f f€6 the prlsoners. We can also privlde you
wlth addltlonal materlal to help you organlze. Contact!. ClerEy & lllty Concerned;
542 S Oearborn, Rm. 5lO, Chlcago, lll
60605,

,

NETHERS COMMUNITY SCHOOL se€KIng
men w¡th practlcal skllls; lntorestðd in educatlon, êcôlosy and an experimontal vlllage
for lnner-clw poor. to joln our famil¡al community. Box 41, Woodvllle, VA 22749,
THE AMERICAN ODVSSEY is formlng
learnlng tgams now. Work-study-travel
America 15 mos. lot 2 yrs. college credlt.
A unlque âlt€rnatlve ln h¡ghêr educat¡on for
more lnfo wrlte: Amerlcan Odyssey, 861
Vostâl Rd. Vostal, NY 13580,

.

Very little, I fear. Reston's optimism seems unfounded
when he suggests that we are evolving toward something he
calls "amnesty by default." He rightly emphasized that
soldiers who wish to return must do so openly and with
strong legal counsel, but he fails to convince with his as.
sumption that they would have the same iuck in raising
the war as an issue.
As interest in amnesty fades, it seems likely that the majority of our exiles will remain. The issue looks especially
bleak, what with Canada's new immigration restrictions and
Sweden's barring of further exiles-both presumably ac-:
complished under pressure from Washington. Nixon has
chosen to close the discussion, but the judgement that these
young men have made of America stands. lt may be more
to the point to consider whether this nation deserves them
back.
Despite a few flaws, The Amnesty of John David
Herndon is one of the most important contributions to the
small library on the new exiles. Reston concludes with a
call for universal, unconditional amnesty as the beginning
of a new direction for our country. But it will be a long
time before America realizes that 50,000 troops died for
nothing, and that we lost in Vietnam because we did not
.deserve

to

win.

John Kyper has been octive with the VVAW

-fohn

KYPer

in Boston.

SMALL RURAL COMMUNITY. 6

AdUItS

& a child ase 2 làst July, Has vacant house,
rundown but liveabl€, on 560 acr€ farm.
se€ks coupl€ wlth child/chlldren about the
sâme aqe. Musiclans wspoclally welcome.
For more lnformat¡on wrlte: Mark, Box 38, '
Poe, WV 26683.

for

Staff

in Jackis

Alr Statlon
an

a one

wrltel
1163,

n

a

riot

w¡ll

be

nue

around
is cruBox

CONVICT s€rvlng douþle llfô needs monsv
to get a telêvislon ¡n solltâry conf¡nement.W€stefn State Correctlonal lnstltutlon. pitts.
P¿. Send atl donatlons to Mlss Patrlcirit R.
M¡llas, 547 Rlver Str€€t, Wllkes Barrao,
PA ta702.
JOE FELMET. MEfnbET Of WRL ANd FOR.
is a canclldate lor the U.S. Houso of RêÞre:
s€ntatlves from the Fifth D¡strlct of North
CarollnA. He wants Sponsors, people who
arê wllllnq to have their names on his letterhead. lf ùou llve ln the North Carolina
countl€s õt Davidson, Forsyth, Wilk€s, Ashe,
Alleohanv. surrv or Stok€s, please wrlte to
h¡mãt 1tí3t We-st Flrst Str€€t, WlnstonSal€m, NC 27104.

JOIN THE STRUGGLE for justlce for tarm
work€rs. Full-tlme ând part't¡me help
n€oded. uFW, 134 Elmwood no. 3, Evans-

ton, lll.60202.

BONNIE BICKWIT AND MITCHELL WEISER
Plêase call home, Wê lov€ you and miss you.

Sheryl Blckwlt-Ka9€n.

AVAILABLE, BY POPULAR REQUEST.
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