Win Magazine Volume 10 Number 29

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SEPTEMBER 5,19741 2Aú

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IN THIS ISSUE:
Better Schools for Kids
¡;-'" ' I '
Learning a{ Hgme '
Experimentål'schoots in D'enmark
Prison Educatiod
Memories of Junior ROTC " '.- ' ;i',
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PLUS

PEACE AND FREEDOM THRU NONVIOLENT ACTION

;
THE POLITICS OF THE ANTI.GNdÚPEN LAW

THE STRUGGLE TO SAVE THE WHALES

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RACK TO SCHOOL!

,t.
for the enforcement of universal
disarmament and for mediation and a¡bi
trations of disputes and conflicts between
individual nationg and towards the limitæ
tion of the sovereþn power of nations by'
outlawing national armies and abolishing
thei¡ war-making facilities
agency

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In regards to the August I a¡ticle "If s Time
to Start Worrying About the Bomb Again,
I have a point to ¡aise. The author says that
of the possible ¡eactions to the United States
unilaterally disaiming its nuclear arsenal
would be that "The other powers might re
frain from following our example. But that
the chances of an accidental war or.war
through miscalculation would be lessened."
What about the possibility of nuclear
blackmail? Wouldn't we be at the mercy of
the Russians, let's say? They would be in a
position to make any demand that they
wished. And could tlueaten to blow up a
sizable US city or t\r,o if we didn't comply.
I would like to know the authors' viewpoint on this possibility.
BOB NIEMEROW
Menlo Parþ CA

In his article "It's,time to start worrying
About the Bomb Agair¡" (WIN, 8/U74),
Hend¡ick Hertzberg quotes Senator Harold

E

Hqghes as having said that if he ever
werg Presiden! he "would nwet, under

any circumstances, u$e nuclear weapons."
Is the¡e a diffe¡ence between having people
killed by "conventional" weapons instead
of by nuclear weapons?
Hertzberg who himself suggests the

abolition of atomic weapons (nationally
or universally?) as$¡mes that Senator Hughes
was in fâvor of unilateral nt¡clear disarmæ
menl lt is regrettable that well''meaning
peoplg like Hughesand Hertzberg, do not
appear to have yet achieved a full under'
standing of the problem that plagues marr
kind" The problem is not nuclear or corr
ventional weapons or nuclear disarmament
The problem is wæ itself and its abolition
Even

if

nuclear disarmament were

attair

able-which is exceedingly improbable as'
long as nations are fer¡erishly preparing for
war. Is the¡e any reason to assume that na
tions, one or all ofthenr, wouldn't ¡estore

the production of atomic weapons inr
mediately upon-the outbreak of war?
Our eforts should be directed towards
the abolition of war as a socalled legitimate
institutlo¡r, universal and general d-isarme'
ment The establishment of a supemational

2

WIN

-OTTO NATHAN

New York CitY, NY

In Seth Foldy's article in WIN [8/U74] I
was quoted as saying that feminist sócialism
meant "to come ou! to be gay, to discover
fhe gayness in everybody." I never defined
feminist socialism as being exclusively gay
or sexual I do believe that one mqior part
of fer¡inism is to not only work for the
recognition of gayness as normal and
healthy, but also to admit and experience
the gayness that is in all of us But that is
not the total definition of eithe¡ feminism
or feminist socialism. Seth's prejudice
against using "labels" for the Pepple's Party
should not have led him to quote me out
of context or to try to discredit those of us
who pushed for "feminist socialism" by not
wen doing us the service of including the
deûnition that we presented to the cor¡
ference. It read'nWe advocate feminist
socialisr4 which represents a combination
of the social and economic changesnecee
sary in our society. Feminism encompasses
both the realization that sexism against
women and gays must end, and the corr
cept that all human relationships based on
inequality and oppression must be replaced
with ones in which people relate in equal
norrintimidating ways Socialism is a de
centralized democratic economic system
¡here workers and consumers control the
means of production Socialism also calls
for the people's cont¡ol of all the institw

tions that afect their live$"
Second, Seth completely omitted the
major reason that many of us pushed foi
the People's Party to define itself as femi
nist socialist We believe that it is impor'
tant to make one's radical positions cleareven if it means temporatily alienating peo
ple wlio have been conditioned to fear anything but the existing economic and social
system in the USA. lt is true that there can
be many deûnitions of femi¡rist socialism,
just as there can be many definitions of
*thé left,t' etc,
democracy, totalitarianism,
but that doesn't mean that we can't use
any of what Seth calls "labels"-it just
means that we have to be clear in our defr
nition of our labels when we speak to the
people (and to each other on the left).
rffe also believe that feminisn¡ as quoted
from an article by Ch¡isti Thies (an HRP
member who attended the convention),
"speak$ to the reality of who the oppressor
of not only women but also young people
and minorities ig the powerful white male.
Feminism also deñnes ¿ mode of action
characterized by noÊag€ressive, notlauthorita¡iar¡ nonhierarchical attitudes and
behavior. Finally, the concept offeminism
speatß to the ideal of going beyond a class
less society to work for an androgynous
one as well Coupling the word feminist

not have its ¡oots in capitalism and will not
immediately disappear with the advent of
socialism, but will continue to be a struggle
under all economic systems." In other

to offer good advice to another whose suffering surely can't get any worse by pitching in to help others fàr worse off than hinr

words, we wanted the People's Party to
define itself as feminist soçialist because
we believe that that term best expresses our
politics, the politics we want to see talked
about on the left and to the public, and the
politics that we would like to see in the
society that we would call

And that goes for John Stoltenberg too
(in the same issue). With so much anguish
and torture facirg so mahy hundreds of,
thous¿rids of ,human beings around the
world today, who gives a bloodY damn
about his erections! -CLAIRE.CULHANE

idffhi¡;Urr*
Ann Arbor, Ml

I want to commend lvIN and Dellums both
for the Congressman's a¡ticle on the Military
BudgeL [WIN, 7/18/74] Dellums $eems to
me to go right to the heart of understanding
the country's predicament Dirring the John
son ye¡¡fs, Iohnsori ùied to tell us we could
have guns and butter-Johnson proved hirn
self when he asked for taxes to pay for thê
war. Now, it seems our politicians are saying to us;'1)trÇ it's true. ïÍe can't have guns
and bttler. Bu! face it, we're going to have
to settle fo¡ guns oy¿r butter. Because guns

more important " Against this reasoning,
Dellums has developed a telling argument:
What are we buying with our taxes to sup
port the military? Protection? Nq we're
perpetuating the military bureaucracy. I
think his example of the S. Kóreang armed
and trained to the teetb is a good one. '
think the Peace Movement needs to separate
its friends from its enemies-Dellums pro
vides us with a neat measute for doing so.
If the Congressperson (whower s/he may
bg who's æking for our vote), is a hawk,
s/he's¡o friend. And especially, articles
like Dellurn's should show up the phoninos
of Senators like Jaclson 1DWæh"), who try
to pose as hawks on foreign policy and
liberals at home That's a contradicfion:þ
terms. Iaþkson can't be for hþh defense
appropriations¿¿d social welfare at home.
As things are constitutod presentl¡ there
isn't enough money for both
¿¡re

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_STEVE PELLETIERE
Bu'keleY, CA

,

with the concept of socialisn¡ also speaks
to the nature of sexism and how it does

When Thomas Alfurd Reynoldg from his
pdson cell advised larry Erickson to "stop
feeling sony for yourself, get out and þelp

thirgs" (7llLl74)it¡e¡ninded me of
littlo story tililfred Burchett told about

change
a

one of his Vietnamese guides during his

trip through NLF territory a¡ound 1964.

. .we had just one week oT married
he said with a rare sþh.
That wds duttttg the war agalnst the
Flench Then she wøs rounded up by the
Dlemßts and tottued..I don't lctlpw
whethq she ls stíll aliûe , ,I can't remet*
bø hø foce try as lurd as I un (bul) I re
membèr how sott andgentle she wøswtth
me but nude of steel when lt concqtæd
the enemy. Lífe øn be blttq ot tlmes, But
comørd to nuny of my cornrødesl @rþ
sídø myself lucky. I knew the buuty of a
tu,onut 's bve fü a weelç ttony of my @ttt
rades, rflen oÍ 40 and morq lwe n.eyer

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life,"

knownthßb&utY.

It takes one who is imprisoned and uc
able to help change things on the outside,

self.

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àIhrough its admittedly pxcellent photog:
ruphy, Chariots of the Gods examines several
-aweinspiring historical relics and asks the
logical questior¡ "How could these ancient
people do such fantastic things?" Building
"
d flourishing ciúilization in the Guatamalan
' Jufl$e, the statues on Easter Island, the
Egyptian pyramids, and lhe Andean "landing stfips" are all indeed remarkable, But

N.-BurnabY, BC

were these ancient dark-skinned people so

inferior to us that they neóded tlie assistance

of fàir-skinned, blueeyed, male, space
voyaging "Gods" to get it together?
Ed Agro's letter IWIN, 8lll74l on alte¡nate
Is it a blow to our v¿nity tò admit the
funds and banks lead me to write a líttlè
MaySs could create a calendar mote acabout the approach of the Washington Area
curate than Ewopean ones of the same
Fund for Life
period? That possibly the people of the
September 5, 1974 / Vol. X, Ng;.29
Ou¡ Fund decided upon its founding that . Euþ-Èiates Yalley could invent an elecûrc
it did not want its money in a commercial ¡. batte¡y cell befo¡e the birth of Christ? That
4. Better Schools for Kids
perhaps the Egyptians wéiê more imaginabank So we put our funãs in a community'
Ruth Davidon
credit union operated by a settlement house.
tive dhgineers than we are?
the
This pæticular credit union has been helpful
who
about
Anyone.
has read much
5. Learningat Home I Art Horris
to resisters in the pæt by letting them know
Inca civilization or contemplated aerial
'
& The banish Expe¡iment
photographs of tnca cities a¡ið inigafed
when IRS was after money from their ao
Craig Chaudron
count so they could take it all out, leaving
ûeldi carved into the Andean Mountains
nothing for IRS. It'loans out its money only
can't help but feel a sense of dmazemenl
1 0. lnside Edücation: Sc,hoolin8iin
Here is a civilization comparable in size, ,l'i
to members (like all credit unrons), most of
Pfisôn / Lorry Goro
whom a¡e poor and couldn't get bank loans.
scope and adminishation to Rome yet with
r
'
considerably more democracy and artistic
Similar credit unions exist throughout the
14. Th"e Way We Were: J ROTC in the
country and can be used as alternatives to
¿chievement It'spanned altitu{es of 20,000
1950's I Roger McCain
feet and flou¡ished without the use of writbanks.
lVe also have not stytéd ourselves as a
ing¡ wheels or draft animals. If 'Rome could
"18. The Politics of the Anti-Grouper , ,
joint escrow account This does not mean
build great aquad¡rcts (the movie doq.sn't ,.
,Lalv I.Richard Schrader
question fl¡ír) why couldn't the lncas'ñafé '' " '
membe¡s are left in the lurch'when IRS
20. lmagine That You Are a Whale t¿kes all thei¡ assets-we conside¡ ourseþes
tuilt the massive walls the movie finds so
unexplainable?
a mutual aid society and are able,to help if
Blackbird
financial difrculties arise from IRS actibn
Thel.ristory of ancient peoples is indeed
23. Changes
But we presume we won't need to return,
a mind boggling study, but we should get an
all the tax mòney donated and therefor,e
appreciation of how remarkable thei¡ corr
26. Reviews
tribution to our society ig rather than deny
.,. make grants with.some of iL Scf fartme have
not had any m$tgal aid requests
simply because it fr so hard to underIhose who want to get in touch with us
stand; In appreciating ow past, the.last
'may urite Was¡ington Area Fund for Life,
STAFF
thing we should do is free ourselvesfrom
120 Maryland Ava, NE, Washingtor¡ DC
the "cu¡rent dogmatic pursuit of'pute sci'
Maris Cakars . Susan Cakars
-BILL SAMUEI¡r ence'based upon'hard cold facts'," as yorrr
Washington, DC
reviewer advocates. To do anything else is
Marty Cribbins Chuck Fager
.
to.rely on faith. ' '
Julie Mäas Märy Mayo Susan Pines.
I am ready to believe Ctøriots of the
Fred
Rosen
Martha Thomases
I was really shocked to ûnd a favorable re.
Gods? bttt fi¡st I must be presented with
view of the film Cluriots of the Gds? in
facts This the movie does not do. It ¡elies
UNINDICTED
the July 18 issue of WIN. Irônically enough
instead on weird music and photographip
CO.CONSPIRATORS
the word "undogmatic" is used seve¡al.
cfistortions to give the viewei a. false sense
times in describing the film, although it
of wondgr'abo-ut oftentimös eiplainable
makes one of the most flogmatic leaps of
ùance Belvllle ' Jerry Coffln ' Lynno Coffln
phcnomenon Iti conclusions are hastilSr'
¡Diana
Davles . Ruth Dear ' Ralph DlGl¡
faith possiblø It is a belief that I'm afraid
draw-r¡ often contradictory and sometimes
' Éilan Doh€rty
. Soth Foldy. J¡m Forest
too many Marxists, as well as apologists for
downright dishonesl E*amples of dishonev Leah Frltz . Larry Gara . Ne¡l Haworth
the imperialist system shæe: that Western
.
possibly
t[g.,=f
ni'ove
Èlgdeman
Grace Hêdeman . Marty Jezer
couldn't
tyl."Egyptians
.- .Fd
' B€ctúyJoh(¡soe-' Nancy Johnson
Cl¡ristian civilization (i e.,'our own present
i
stones for the pyramids on wobden rollets '"
Paul Johnsôn . Alllson Karpel .. cra¡gKarpel
way of life) is the only civilization capable
because the native palr¡'coìild;doJ take.the
-'Ellot Llnzer . Jackson Måêlow
John
Kyper
greêt
performing
the
deeds,
therefore
of
weþhL" Fact: Egyptians were importing
Davld McReynolds . Mark Mgrr¡s . Jim P6ck
only one worth historically considering.
Tad Richards . lgal Roodenko . Nancy Rctn'
ceda¡ from Lebanon during that
i
Wendy Schwartz . Beverly Woodward
As civilizations go, lVestern Christianity
specifically for pyramid building. Or: "aris very young and Oy Arnold Toynbee's ae
chaeologists say the Nazca landing strips were
count) but one of 2l advanced civilizations
roads Bút theæ roads lead.nowhere." Fact:
to make its apÞearance on the eartlu This
In1ül my reading of the Incas and dozens of
'12471
box
new
doesn't take into accognt eight "arrested"
references to the Nazca Pampa, I have never
339-4585
relephòne
914
and "abortive" civillzations to say nothing
is
uni
come across referpnces to "roads.'.'It
l'
of the thousands of "primitive" societieq
wr$ally accepted by arclÍaeologisls-which
WIN ls puÞlished weekly elcgpt for the flrst
each with thei¡ own unique (if unused) corr
two weeks ln January, 2nd weèk ¡n May. last 4
the movie is anxious to'discredit as a'classweeks in August, and the last week ¡n October
t¡ibutions. Unlike most other civiliz¿1is¡s,
that the designs wøe meant to be seen by
by the WIN Pubtish¡ng Emp¡re with the support
ours is a cræsly materialistig self-centered
dieties in the sky.
of the War Res¡sters League, Subscrlpflons'are
and bigoted one. Though the use of superi
Iastly, your reviewer wants us to adopt
$7.O0 per yoaf. second class postage at New
t'móre
or armaments we have been able to obliterY.ofK NY lOOOl. tndlvldual wrltersãfefespon.
exploratory imaginative and c¡eative
a
slble for oplnions expressed and accúracy of
ate oihe¡ existing civiliz¿tions and primitive
g¡v€n. Sorr!Ê-manuscrlpts cannót.be re.
facts
societies giving us the license to equate our
CONTINUED ON PAGE 29
turned unless accompanl€d by a self-addressed
general..
way of life with Civilization in
stamped ênvelope.
Prlnted ln U.S.A

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time

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Better
Schools

for Kids

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BY RurH DAvtDoN ( ay to)
PhOtO bY CAm

Smith fÏom BUCKMINISTER FULLER TO CHILDREN OF EARTH

I went to visit my friends Barbara Deming and Jayne

Verlaine (they're grown ups). We talked about a
school kids would like better. They started me think-

a

ing.

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ãçJ

)¡r

vl

nE:1\
<-¡

A school that kids would like better would probably be an outdoor school. We wouldn't have desks,.we would have boxes to keep things in. ln sumrner, ¡
spring and fall we could have school under a tree, and
in winter we could have school indoors. The indoor
school would be a one-floor house with five rooms,
and four bathrooms (2 for girls and 2 f or boys). One
room would be a cafeteria, another a school room
and anothergym room. The classroom wciuld be'a
pretty big room but instead of desks maybe just small
cushions to sit on. The kids could learn about cooking
in the cafeteria. There would probably be about 20
children of different ages. The outdoor school would
have a building right near the tree for washing our
hands, getting drinks and going to the bathroom.
The teachers would just sort of hang around and
hqlp us when we needed help.
We could study more about animals, people ãnd
plants. We could go on nature walks and find out
things. We could grow our own crops and flowers.
We could do plays and useful arts and crafts, or
just arts and crafts for fun. We could make things for
the school. To hang on walls and places outside, we
could paint pictures. We could go on lots of field trips
too. We could visit'farms, factories and stores. We

could go on overnight hikes.
We could have more books to read and a small
library. Everyone could pick their own private quiet
space and read. There wouldn't be any grades, just
kids learning things all together. This is all just a
thoughL lf kids really want this kind of school maybe someday there will be a school like this.

4

WIN

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BY ARTHUR S. HARRIS, JR,
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advantaged schools. Auditing art supervisors and
principals loved it. So what if she showed slides of our
trip to Japan or arranged to bus a class to see maple

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Elsewhere, in magazines like Outside the Nþt and even
in the Sunday supplements, l've chronicled how Phyl'
lis and l, both one-time'teachers, becamgso disillusioned with public schools that we iust had to withdraw our two boys at the end of their fourth.and
sixth grade years and oversee their education ourselves. Rather than go over all that ground again, I'd
like to move on to how we're doing.
First, who does-the teaching? Frankly,.we don't
have much teaching. We believe that chilören learn
best what they want to learn when they want to learn
iL Too often adults actually get in the way of learning.
Taken to its infinite end, one could woñdef whether
schools with all those instructional hours don't sometimes hinder learning.
Both Phyllis and I are ex-teachers. ln facl Phyllis
was a part-time public school "art teacher'l as recently
as last year. I put "art teacher" in quotes because
Phyllis brought up all manner of subjects in her dis-

syiup being collected? The children were interested,
weren't they?,túy own.full-time teachinS, in college
and prep schoôl; dfriJdd some years àgo. But both of
us began to questiqn increasingly the structured estab-'
I ish mçnt i n whirí,h:we taqgþ-li. Wpr.e- peopl e bei ng
. .1
they "learn" ih sþite'of us?
"taughtf
' 'So'.wé'.orsitdid
r.
For
6ack and lèt our older son Kevin read.
six months he read almost nothing but books and articles about astronomy. For awhile he got hooked on
the American Revolution after seeing the play 1776;
then he got back into the A's again with astrology,
aibhitecture, and archaeology. They're not subjects
ordinarily offered in grade school, but who arg we to
dictate a child's interests? Our youngest child, Clif- '
ford, who is no rea.der, is always tãking engines apart
or building something or fixing a leaking radiator in
my car. ls this learning?. Why not? Since he has more
"personality" than almost anyone you'll meet, wq
recently were gratified to learn from the Christopher
Jenck's study that personality (alòng with luck and
graded performance) had much to do with success in life.

WIN

5

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, Our own children seem to learn without that omnipresent teacher. Probably Professor Louis Agassiz
demonstrated this in the way he taught his studen!
Nathaniel.Shaler; he had poor Shaler spend over a
hundred þours examining a fish without telling him
anything about the fish. He wanted Shaler to learn

for himself, ln the same way, we feel the most important thing is for a child to learn how to leorn, The
trouble with school is that too much is "taugh1." Too
often a teacher is positioned between a child and the
material, blocking natural access to that material.
Curriculum: The word is an anathema to us. lf we laid
out a course of study for our sons, they'd surely feel

I

they were back in school again with those narrow subject areas of history, English, geography, and math.
Sometimes I get the idea that the mere defining of a
subject is the first step toward robbing it of its mystique. When Kevin is reading about some archaeological
discovery in Mexico, he isn't consciously thinking,
"Now this is archaeology." ln the truest sensè, subjects all fuse with one another. Once Kevin became
absorbed in Transcendental.Meditation (and took a
college credit course in it at Queens University in
Kingston, Ontario) he began to delve into psychology,
religions other than Christianity, the culture of lndia,
mysticism, even elementary Sanskrit-all sorts of
things, almost none of them offered in school. Who
are we to fence his learning ùith narrow subject areas
of math, history, English, and civics? All righ! so far
as American history goes, he knows nothing whatever
about corruption in the Harding administratíon, probably doesn't even know a man named Harding was
ever President. But I'll bet-he knows more about the
American Revolution than anyone on òur block. ls
this bad?
And if you tell me he'isn't becoming well-rounded,
I will show you most of his school contemporaries (l
probably should slip into jargon and call them his
"peer group") who know nothing of architecture, archaeology, astronomy, or astrology (just to take the
A's), to say nothing of zen, penology, psychologywell-rounded indeed!
Social Life: lt's the same as before: Kevin, our'introspective reader, is still a loner without friends as he
was throughout the first six grades. Clifford, our gre
garious one, has dozens of friends of all oges iust as
he always did. We don't try to change either one and
admire Kevin's self-sufüciency. ln general we feel
American schools are obsessed with "interpersonal
relationships" and thus give the "loner" a complex.
By the way, either boy may return to school anytime
he wants. So far, no takers.
Physical Education: They exercise as they used toi.e., one boy is very athletic, the other somewhat
sedentary. Both haveten-speed bicycles and do a lot
of cycling. Our socalled non-athletic one has lately
been entering 18-mile bicycle races and spends time
"training." Both take swimming lessons to perfect
fheir crawl strokes. Clifford is an ardent bowler. Both
ski. By the wa¡ not one of these sports was offered
in school where the concentration was on sports rqquiring large groups.
Compromises: Kevin does take a course in guitar and
an adult education course (sic) in touch typing.
Classrooms: Who needs a room with 30 desks facing
north and one desk facing south? Take away àll that
glass and brick and learning is likely to take place anywhere. Since our boys left school, we spent six months

6

WIN

in Mexico. I'm iroí going to make big claims our children learned sociology and geography out in the field,
but i do hereby solemnly attest that Clifford picked
up elementary but fluent Spanish, and nobody set out
to teach him a single word of the language. lncidentally, he was the only one among us who couldl understand rapid Spanish spoken to us, and often translated
before the rest of us could say despocio, por favor,
Diplomas, Certificates, Regent Exams, Report C,ards,
College Boards: We have successfully weaned our
children away from all these tons of paper. When we
feel they've "finished high school," we'll get our
friend Kari, an artisÇ to make them up diplomas with'
more scrolls, ribbons, and fancy printing than anything the high school offers. A college admission
director has already told us (at a cocktail party, not
in his office) that a home-educated applicant would
be most appealing-what a challenge to track him
along all those traditional high schoolers with their
gradepoint averages! This admissions director told us:
Kevin's application would undoubtedly stand out
among many others as rather intriguing-it would be
hard to turn down flat.
Leg¿lly: Although we both feel that our state's compußory school láws are ilnconstitutional and were
once prepared to stand on these grounds as long as
the money held out we reached an accommodãtion
four years ago with the city school system.pur attorney found a provision of the state's education laws
pertaining to the education of a child at home. Granted
the provision was undoubtedly drafted for the infirm
who couldn't make it daily to a classroom, but'still
this section of the law happened to be marvelously ap
plicable to our situation, for it allowed at-home educa-

tion provided that the instruction offered

was sub-

stantially parallel and equivalent to that provided in
the schools.
Once we'd dug this pr the school authoiities, they began to be more reasorÍ
able, Also I spent a weekend writing for them in termpaper length our philosophy of education and how
we'd expect to proceed once our children were weaned
from those brick school buildings. ln good term-paper
fashion, we listed the writers who had influenced usHolt, Kozol, Leonard, et ol, Finally the school "authorities" mèllowed and eventually agreed to let us try to
provide this "alternate and equivalent education" ourselves rather than continue with their legal harassment
which had already caused them to give us an enroll.orel se-geto-court u lti matum.
At f¡rst, regarding our venture as a sort of experiment they appointed a go-between, a school system
staffer with a doctorate in education. l-le was charged

with getting

us

off to

a

good start. Fortunately he

seemed surprisingly sympathetic to our ideas and immediately understood when he handed over to us a

bunch of dull textbooks'that we really weren't going
to use them; hê seemed to sense that we felt schools
emphasized the printed word too much and that
traditional textbook-learning was something we wanted
to get away from. ln the four years sincê wé had this
first meeting with ourttgobetween," we have left each
othér alone. Once he hinted that we really ought to
keep some kind of record or document¿iion of what
we were doing-"just in cdsg" but neither he nor the
systern has botheieil us. ln turn, we have borrowed
through him such'things as a microscope, but have had
no long dialogues. ln a word, I guess he has confidence

in

us and feels we are making

it all rightt

Sometimes we feel we got off so easily because the'
brand-new Superintendent of Schools on his firsf

really big job in our c¡ty didn't need our curious dis
pute breaking out in the newspapérs and wanted the
whole case swept under the rug. Then again, perhaps
the fact we'd bcrih been teachers was dbðTsive. Perhaps
more éx-teachers should consider our approach.
Questions Often Asked: Q: But what aboqt science?
A. lf Thomas Edison could drop out of grade school
and never return, why should we worry?'ls science
only something taught in Science 1-A? Our fãmily
friend, Charlie Fox, a geolqþy freak and professionally a geologist for thç State of Vermontíhas been
pointing out rock formations to our children for half
adozen years. ls this science? Kevin has-built an enormous telescope. Two years ago hg attended a rocket
convention alone in Pittsburgh.'l
Q. But aren't they missing the fundambntals?
A. What fundamentals? lf you mean reading, we have
always felt that Kevin originally taught himself to
read, just as both of them taught themselves how to
talk. Kevin only recently became interested in algebra
when he realized it would help him with his telescope
and his interest in astronomy. (Notice that I said årb
interest in.astronomy rather than his stúdy of os-

,

tronomy,)
Q.

Ñón't they

missing a social

lifel A. Our

house,

filled with animáls, records, tapes, worlcbenches,
photographic equipment, plants and so on is envied ,
by errery kid in theheighborhood and is a magnet for
them all. Sometimes we wish therç were fewer children
around on winter aftern'oonsrafter 2:30 P.M"!
Q. Wtry not a free school? A."We see "free" or
"opgn" schools as an improvement on traditional
schools, but wonder whether'more people might not'
be encouraged to try No School. We have friends in a I
Vermont_ commune; none of their children go to
school,.yet they are obviously learning so mucti-es.
pecially nutr¡tion, ciafts, silk screening photography,

fârming music, art. Who

is

to say'ifþ¿¡ Latin is more

important than nutrition, or ancient history more significant than ceramics.
Q. All well and good for you two; you were'both
teachers and can teach your children, but what about,
the rest of us who've never been teachers? A,:Our fiv.È ¡.: ,,
pronged answer to that would make a loirg.essay'in it- ï'
self. Basically we feel that ouþtêacher experierrce has
.helped ùs most of all to realizerho,y bad schools tap
be, how little is actually "taìghtll'ih so much.tirne.,...
As I said, we really don't look upoir ourselves as ",
teachers of our children or their tutors. They teach /
themselves. Since we got Kevin out of school before
his love for reading had been completely killed, he
*
spends more time in the library th'an any 20 children
put together. Not long ago I noticed he was reading
the Autobiography of o Yogi. Shortly after that, on
his own, he became a vegêtarian, questioning the whole
concept of eating meat, the eóolOgy of meat'processing
plants, the idea of gett¡ng protein secondhand from
animals, etc. Lately he's been reading abor,¡t nutrition.
But l'm now rambling when all I wanted to say
'waslihat db.schboling coúld take place itrã lot mcfè
homes than anyone imagines. Truq l've been a little
cozy about whaf city we live in for fear the pqþlicity .
might hurt our truce with the city schools, but for
whãt if's worth we live in the Stald of New York.
Since each state has different eduaation laws, I hope
someday to compile a liSt of varíous state provisions
providing for at-home education under some sort of
guidance. Yet all this comp[iançe with" those insidious

compulsorf sc'tiööl lawl; böttiers uí,'and we hope the '
day comes when state by state these laws are declared
unconstitutional. Perhaps then more parents will feel
comfortable w¡th their children learning at home.

lr. is o long:tìme contrìbutor to WlN.
This orticle oppeors in the just published Delto pperback ($3.25), Will lt Grow in a Classroom? edited by
Beotrice and Ronald Gross and reprinted with ¡ieì: -mìssìon of the author.

Arthur S, Horris,

photo by Cam Smlth rrom aÙcKvtt¡r¡SrEn ruuUeâ

ro

cntuoREN oF EARTH

I

I

Grundtvig This is the now well'known DaRish
Fotkehojikole (Folk high school) movemqnt.. which

today comprises over 70 quite varied "colleges," mostfv foi 1 8 to 25 year-olds, but utilized by all ages
(ihere are, for example, family summer'camps). With

The
Danish
Experiment

f

no entrance requirQments and no degree programs,
the four to eight month st^y at such school$nprovides
the participant with an opportunity to learn and
adapt to others in an unpressured environmerit. Many
of these schools are now influenced by vocational in.terests, such as gymnastics, nursing and agricultural
technology, but all offer more or less liberal arts curricul4 some with not a slight tinge of religion blended

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T

BY CRAIG CHAUDRON

lhere is an increasing debate in educational circles on
the subject of the socio-political dynamics of education. Despite much progress and experimentation in
psychological learning processes, few developments in
a more critical social or political learning environment
have come about. At issue is whether education, from
nursery schools and up, is simply a preparation for
the individual to find his proper place in a predetermined society, or whether it is a means of developing
the individual's critical abilities toward himself and
his environmenl and thus his creative potential as a
social animal. ln the midst of this debate, the experiences of a small, homogeneous and relatively pro-

gressive,country such as Denmark can exemplify
some of the possibilities for both reformatory and

revolutlonary education, that is, for both preparatory
formation and for more critical self-realization.

ln Denmark the basically social reformatory gôvernment has supported for many years all levels of èdu-

cational institutions, both the normal public educational system (resembling England's and other Euro
pean countries') as well as more atypical institutions
in the private and public sector, such as kindergartens,
youth centers, adult education schools and Folk high
schools.

The Danish monarchy has long had a benevolent
and popular involvemenî in educãtion, but it was not
until the.1800's-when locallv organized groups of
rarmers (and later, workers) and small landowners,
inspired by the Enlightenment and later revirlutionary
events in the rest of Europe, began demanding support
for local programs for post elementary educationthat a unique movement developed from the thinking
of a Lutheran minister and psalm-writer, N. F.S.

"

With the example of the Folkehoiskoler as a background, several socialist workers' anô educatgrs' groups
formed private study circles and educational societies
in the late 1800's and early 1900's. þe Social Demo
cratic government of the late 1920's publicly,supported
the establíshment of a national Workers' Educational
Association, following the example of several other
European countrieq (France, Germany and Sweden),
which began to implement adult education programs
in all areas of interest-hobbies, politics, history, culture, crafts, and so on. These have since expanded in
character to include special associations and technical
preparatory schools for grammar and real school drop
outs, providing them with the necessary diploma for
continuing their edur.cation at teachers' trai4ing colleges, or trade or university-preparatory schools. The
íntention of all these efforts has been to extend the
educational level of the population as far as possible,
to give everyone, particularly adults with limited education and financial resources, an opportunity t6 keep
abreast of the present society's requirements.
ln the past ten years these developments have had
' agreatly increased influence due to new legislation
(now threatened by a more conservative governmpnt)
affording financial support to any group of ten to
twelve or more interested in studying some subject or
subjects as leisure-time (i.e. not occupationally oriented) activity. This "leisuretime law" now supports
a wide variety of schools and courses, including the
above-mentioned adult education programs, youth
centers, and the playgrounds mentioned below. The
potential for employing such legislation is extensive,
and many organizations have made good gse of it, so
that the general level of public enlightenmént and,con-

tact between people (notably the elderly) i¡ quite high.

However, many socially involved educators and
social workers have become engaged in a mole radical
critique of the present capitalist society, and thus find
both the normal school system and the previously
mentioned institutions to be at best patchwork pro
gress, and at worst a means of occupying the population and distracting them from their rpalities. Notably,
several nursery schools and kindergartens, some private elementary schools, and some folk high schools
have established collective leaderships and employed
more revolutionary techniques (often learning from
Chinese and Soviet models) to involve their pupils
and students in a direct confrontation vVith their local
social environment, as well as with their own personal
developmenL
A good example of this is a playground in a workingclass district of Copenhagen. As early as 1943 byggelegeplodser (junk, or creative "building'' playgrounds)
had been organized, where children could build houses
and other things from junk materials. These have become quite popular and stereotyped, adjacent to almost every kindergarten , but a group of activist

Marxist teachers in Copenhagen saw the opportunity
in 1970 to turn a vacant lot into a more revolutionary
"building" playground, instead of allowing the local
authorities to build a sterile high-rise kindergartenyouth center rneant to cage the neighborhood children;
The result has been a great success with the lõcal í
children and their families. With reluctant government
. and positive nèighborhood support, children between
the ages of five ãnd 1 7 have had a place to go i¡ ttiçir
otherwise deadly inner city, where they could playand
relate to their social realities in their free time. Ther
playground functions both as a day'care and afterschool recreation center. Decision-making on all levels
is collective. The children and teachers have openly *
and actively been involved in political demonstrations:
strike support, fìnancial contributions (including a daylong solidarity party for the NLF) and the,like, mostly
-involved in local problems, housing and emplo.yment
conflicts. Although its future may be uneertain, due
to political pressure and censure, similar kindergartens,
playgrounds and youth centers have been collectively
or$ánized and appear to be continuing,tg ¿o to.
Another unusual radical educational attempt in
the past five years is a Folk high school and T.eacher's
College, colleciively organized on a selÊowned' lot out
in the country on the Danish peninsula of lutland.
Den rejsende hojskote (the travelling high school)
was organized under the usual Folk high school law by
young activists who were not interested just in sitting
in classrooms. lts basic idea is that a team travel effort
(in remodelled school busse5) t'o the third world
would provide the necessary personal experience to
deal with both the interpersonal and intercultural and
political problems of today. The participants have constructed their own prefab school buildings, with a
gelf-operated garage and workshop for the busses, a
collective administration, and even a publishing house
for the printing of their travel reports (on lndia, Yemen,
Pakistan, Peru, Denmark and others).
.
After several vears' success the school established a '
Teacher's trainin'g college (on the same four'year basis
as all others in the country) in which one year's ex,perience with the travelling high school plays an integral part. ln preparation for the trip, the students
undergo group-dynamic and decision-maki ng experiences, as well as scholastic work on internalional
relationships. Then during and after the foi¡r-month
trip'they discuss their experiences and work out reports, trying'to relate.everything to their actual cuþ
tural milieu.- Thë rteit three years consist of special
studies, outside vocational employment (in schools
and- factories,and.offiçes) and group living in selfqwhed houses in their w-òrkingbommunity. The intentioR ií otviously to give the participants the great- est possible experience in the lives and milieux of
their prospective pupils and their families, as well as
a fundamental awareness of the creative potential of
relationships between people.
The uniqueness of these and ieveral other radical
educational attempts in an otherwise highly developed
inherently contradictory class-structured society
'; and
is admirable for its employment of the present reforn¡oriented educational opportunities in a more

revolutionaiy direction.

Craig Choudron has tought English in Denmark for
two years in a technical preprotory school for drop
outs under the leisure-time low ond for hølf a yeor in
a kindergarten,

t
Yet all of these programs suffer from hándicaps , j
unique to the prison situation. Many prisons exercise ,
some form of censorsh'ip of reading mate¡'ial and those
responsible for censoring printed matter seldom take
a väry broad lir* of theii tast. Censo¡sþip,is arÞltrary,
quixotic and unpredi.ctable. Some iai[s and.'prisons'gx:
clude books and publicafions concernê$ with prison
reform. some trv to keep out material which the officials áeem inflámmatoiü orlikely to stir úp fesista'nce, and some exclude daily newspapéri froiü'the
inmates. Even approved books must usually be sent
directly from the publishers, and procedures are often
deliberately designed to discourage reading material
from the outside. ln 197'l the American Civil Liber-*
ties Union filed a suit on behalf of New York prisoners, listing some of the publications then declared
contraband in the state's prisons. The list included the

INSIDE EDUCATION
SCHOOLINC IN PRISON
BY LARRY GARA
ln the past several years numerous educational programs for prisoners have been introducedi including
one ln New York to establish a new, tuition-free state
college with a student body composed entirely of prison inmates. The prison college never.got off the ground
because of opposition in the legislature, but many educational programs for prisoners are currently underway
or about to begin. The programs vary considerably,
including rather traditional high school and college
courses, vocational training special art and music
classes, and legal aid courses. Most of them are carried out within the prisons or jails, though some include release-study which enables prisoners to leave
the prison environment for a nearby campus during
the daylight hours. Much has been reported in the
press about these programs, and sinÇe the news releases
are usually public ielations handouts they provide
glowing pictures of the various projects and what marvelous results come from prisoner,education plans.
Little ¡s said of their shortcomings or of the serious
problems which often interfere with their stated educational objectives.
All prison education progr4ms, if at all successful,
provide those who take them with a better self-image.
Any prisoner who finds himself or herself making progress in a study program will inevitably gain in self.
confidence, a growth which should never be underestimated when consider¡ng the worth of such activity.
For instance, a federally-fu¡ded prison class in carpentry offers 90 days of classroom teaching coupled
with on-thejob training. One of the students reported
that the schooling proved a "turning point" in his life.
He had been in and out of prisons since 1957, and the
carpentry job was his first that paid well. He enjoyed
the work and was reassured for the first time that he
could make it outside príson.

Not all vocational training in prison succeeds as
well. A frequently-voiced prisoner complaint is that
such programs are often more window dressing than
substance, and that the training'offered is too elementzry or unrelated to actual work situations to provide
skills and hope to the prisoners involved. Waltei Collins, who served time as a draft resister¡ complained
about classes the Jaycees ésAblished in prisons with
such-courses as salesmanship and elocutíon. t'Classes
like tha!" he said, "have no use except to show pris
oners how to get over on their own people. They

teach us to say the riàht thiñg, to be cons, to manipulate everyone except people of property."
' A whoily different approach to prison education:
involves eight New York University law students and
two professors who spend one evening a week teaching a course in criminal procedure and constitutional
law at Bedford Hills State Prison for Women. The
course was designed to teach very practical skills to
the women prisoners. t'Many women in prison don't
understand the court process or how they got there,"
commented Professor Barbara Swartz. "We want them
to know their rights and to be able to help themselves."
Several of the women taking the course have begun to
file for or reinstate appeals of their sentences. The
teachers are also getting valuable educational experiences. Some of them have reportedly had to abandon their prior stereotypes of women prisoners. One
who expected to find haldened, tough women found
most of her students "docile, almost pathetic.'f The
teachers were pleasantly surprised by the ability of
their students. "I had difficulty keeping up with therh,"
one reported.
Similar courses to teach the rudiments anA eecfrf
niqués of law to prison inmates are.now availa.ble in a
number of state prisons. They are among the most use
ful of prison educational programs. Another very help
ful type of program is one initiated and implemented
by inmates without ofücial support and sometimes
with considerable opposition. These vary from classes
in religious instruction to study groups on black'aware
ness and Marxism. One ôf the factors contributing to
the Leavenworth rebellion of Jul¡ 1973 was the dis
ciplining by ofücials of members of a black study'
group. Such prisoner-controlled educational experiments have added substantially to the new political
awareness of many prisoners.
lncreasingly, prisons are offering opportunitíes for
inmates to take high school or college courses. Such
programs vary greatly in value, according to the available teaching staff and the variety of subjects offered
as well as the conditions in the institution. For exam.
ple, in one Ohio prison college classes are offered by
competent instructors from a nearby college, but the
students take the courses after a full work day. Guards
also monitor these classes and their presence certainly

affects the discussions and class sessions. When some of
the teachers complained about having the guards, some
of them armed, in class, the instítution then made the
courses available to its staff and guards became a part
of the class itself.

Not io no I G eog ro p h ic, the Un ited Not i o ns .D e c Ia rat io n
of Human Righís, Mârshal McLuhan's tJnðterstanding
Medio, Oscallewis's La Vido, and Peter Gay'sThe

Enlightenmenf. When books are available for study
are often outdated and' in scanf supply'
Ceniöiship policies obviously pose ä handicap to any
prison education program. .. ..
The cohcern for securityi which at tifffes becomes
obsessive in prisons, is.another impediment to even '
the best educational prograq'ìs offered. Neq York
legislation. which provides'for a study-release program
excludes a vast number of prisoners, among them all

:'' courses.they

iI

those associated with organized Çrime, those con'
'
icted of iiolent qrímés, those' cons¡dered escape risks
and "those who display undue emotional upset.'.1
For those prisoners who are fortunate enough to
participate in study-release the pressures are so strong
that some voluntarily leave the study program rather
than try to make an adjustment to what seems an impossible situation. Such student-prisoners are subiect
to severe restrictions on their movement as well as on
whàt.they can do while on the campus where they ' i '
are studying. An inmate at the Terminal lslandFedêra!
Correctiônal lnstitution, for instance, while attending.
classes at the California State College at Long Beach,
avoids all contact with women on the campus. "How
am I going to explain to her that I have to get up and
leave the table because I have to be home by 6:30?"
he asked. Each prisoner must submit to a complete

v

'-

'

bqdy search befoie putting on civilian'clothes and
'leäving for class. The process is repeated upon his return.-P¡isoners Aust finance their own studies and
those who wor.e'not residents of California at the tirne
Some of the college progams äie.excellent When
first introduced at the Federal Youth Cehter, Ashland,
of their arrçst must pa'i more than a.thousand dollars
Kentucky, the federally-funded Nçwgate Project not
aniiual eltkÒf-state {uition. As if those problems
not eñòÛgtí; T0%of.rlieprisoners who apply for
only provided college courses within the piison bur
' .y.ereprogram
are turned down for one reason or i '
ttie
offeréd scholarshipifor successful studenis, enabling' :) ,'another.
them to continue their college careers after release.
Prejudice of prison offìcials against draft resisters .1' .,
(This aspect of the Newgate program was short-lived,
and other political prisoners can also affect the workhowever.) Each plan must be examined on its merits
ing of an educational program. For example, when - in light of the total environment of the students.
the Newgate Project of collège courses was introduced
Since a campus is more conducive¡fo learning than a
at one Federal Youth Center, all draft resisters were
prison, several institutions have provided for a studysystematically excluded. When some of them protested
release program enabling prisoners to leave the institu;
such discrimination they were told they could partion during the daylight hours totake classes on a coj:
tic¡pàte only if they paid for the courses wlìich were
lege campus. During the current academic year, 60
free to other prisoners, even though some of the re- '
prisoners frorn the Ossining New York Correctional
sisters lacked any financial resources. Later, resisters
Facility are on such a study-release program at Hostos
in small numbers were included in the Newgate classes.
Community College in the Bronx. Several hundred
The close association of education with prison dis
federal prisoners at various institutions are enrolled in
cipline poses another serious stumbling block on bôth
study-release
¿

10 wlN
WIN

11

.r

'

and well-liked. The aition taken by the prison officials
*åi noi ,nutual, for they always frown on "meildling'''
in the prison operationi When the Dayton, Ohio Ex'
Cons fbr a Better Society began to openly criticize
conditions in the Montgomery County Jail, where its
members conducted inmate classes to prepare people
for state high school equivalency"tests, the'slferiff cancelled the classes. The reason given was that tþe "prosram has deviated from the origínal format." ,
Yet in spite of the diffcúlties, virtually all those
who have taught or taken classes for prisoners, and
many prison offcials, agree that almost any educa- '
tional program is better than none. All such programs
have positive potential for some of the indiv¡duals involveä and at times the re'sults are outstanding. ln
1969 the first prisoner to earn a college degrge gradu-.
ated w¡th honors in sociology uñder the government's
Project Newgate. He was 32-year-oldf.icha¡d Shoblad,
who had been sentenced to life by a judge who described him as "the most immoral man to come beforg
my bench." Shoblad was paroled lust before graduation and was offere{ a graduate assistantship and a job
with the Newgate Project at a Pennsylvania prisorf.
lnterviewed by the New York Times, Shoblad said
that he believed 8O% of the men in prison should be
involved either in work release or educational programs such as Newgate. "Education is the best way
out of prison. You can walk tall because ¡lo matter
how depressing the prison system is, your r4ind is
with it,'r he commented. "While you're being dehumanized by the prison system, you are humanizing

yourself."

:7

photo by Jlm Rosenþaum

students and teachers. Virtually everything in prison
is concerned, directly or indirectly, with discipline,
and education is no exception. One college teacher
who comrhuted an evening each weekJo teach a class
in a nearby state prison found himself under strong
inmate-pressure to award good grades to all the students, whose concern for grades becamg an obsession.
A good academic record might contribute to parole,
and he became involved with students who played a
variety of games to achieve their objective. Sometimes
prisonofficials admit that the educational programs at
¿heír institutions offer the inmates a cafiot of possible
early release for acceptable work. James Codd, prison
education director at the Washington State Penitentiary, commented that inmate-students wish to complete classç because "fhey realize education is their
best bet foPwinning a parole."
'Basic to the whole problem is the fact thàt a prison
environment is not conducive to creative education.
By their very nature, even the most progressive prisons

12

WIN

are oppressive. The power of the officials and guards is
nearly absolute and prisoners are told in a tliousand
and one ways that they are inferior beings. The dreary
monotony of prison routine is itself demoralizing and

oppressive, making serious study very difficult. The
main psychological impact of a prison is similar to
that of a slave plantation, where some are more prìvileged than others, but no inmate may act upon his or
her rights or assert a sense of independence. With all
their shortcomings, thereforg release-study programs
are infinitely superior to classes within the walls.
Prisons are depressing institutions and inevitably
those who agree to teach classes within them are affected by the experience. Yet should a teacher become
Ínterestpd enough in the well-being of a prisoner-students tô inquire about a minor complaint, prison officials are likely to revert to their role as security-conscious keepers. A teacher who began to champion the
rights of inmat€s at Lebanon Correctional lnstitution
in Ohio was suddenly firèd, though he was effective

;

Another former prison in.mate, Robert Lovell, who
served a sentence in Maine Stâte Prison for forgery, also worked on a college degree while he was confined.
After release Lovell.organized a voluntéer unit to con"' 'duct high school classes at théAugusta City Jail. He,
toq becamè convinced that educational experience
was the key to fighting recidivism. "l firmly believe
education is the tool that's going to create the means
by which inmates will be accepted baqk in society."
The testimony of these two men is echoed by many
who have worked with prisoners
Those programs which involved release-study are
especially valuable in creating a situation where men
and women do not spend their entire time under senience within a penal institution. The fact that prisoners can study effectively on a college campus and
mingle with the rest of the popufation should become
an important tool in educating people to the possibility
of findirtg alternatives to prison, an institut[on which
enl igh tenid officials, cri mi nologists and j udges i'req uent-

ly admit has no positive effect on the ¡ndividuals con.
fined and in turn nothing but negative impact on the
society they are designeã to protect. Study-release'
and work-release programs are halfway steps to elim:
inati ng prisons altogether.
The need to educate the public about ths nggative
impact of prisons is only part of the problem. lq the
meaòtime there is also need to change attitudes
towards former prisoners. An esseñtial: aspect of prji: . lon is,the stigma attached to those who have beeh"iñl' 'il
prisoned. All states have la-ws which deny ex-convic.ts ;
some of the rights accorded citizens, including such
things as the right to vote or to get a driver's license,
the right to be licensed for certain oceupations, or to
qualify for civil service jobs. ln addition to those lçgal
restrictions, prejudice against former prisoners has thg
practical effect of keeping them from any employment
at.all...Ex-prisoners find it necessary,to hide their arrest
and prison records in order to fìnd employment àriä in
many situations where forms require work experience
and references this is almost impossible. William vanden
Heuv.e-lrrç¡¡¿¡¡man ôf the Board of Correctiqruof New
York City, said sadl¡ "Rehabilitation stops at the
prison gates." When jobs are scarce emptr-oyers become ¡
reluctant to hire exlconvícts and somé-are forbiddþn
by law from doing so. Former prisoners in Ñew York
City holding iobs in supermarkefs or yorking at a gqlf
ball driving range lost their iobs whèn beer licenses
were granted to their employers, for in New York it is
illegal for ex-convicts to work in any establishment
where beer orjóther'¿lcoholið b'êveiage is iiold. "When
the job.market is good, employers have fewer qualms
about hiring ex-cons than they used to," commented
Lawrence Blinderman,of the Osborne Association.
"When it's bad, like pow, they become more selective.
They'll take the guy without a record over the one
¡vith a record. What happens? Despair, that's what. A
þuy wants to work and he can't. What does he do?

You tell me.t' .
Obviously the task of education concerning pris- '.-.- .-oners must be viewed in a twofold context-that of
providing meaningful educational experiences for
those in prison, and of sharing information and changiirg attitudes about the prisoners and prisons. The best
educational program in the world will not be of much
value if vindictive attitudes towards ex-convicts persist and if djscriminatory, often stupid practices are'

permitted tö survive.

¿ç"
,;,., ,
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Larry Gora teoches ltistory at Wilmington Cottege and
w r i t e s tþ è Pr i s o n'î"ki tes ep I ¡1¡p,ry.

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13

The Way We Were
rnemories of the IROTC in the 1950's.
BY

-¡f

ROGER

A. McCAIN

á*ß
I am unable to judge and I leave the matter to you.
I grew up in-the country outside Shrevepoft. Vio'
lencãwas simply a part of life to the countrv people
i-[nã*, ana aittioultr I would not say that f'lrey were
at all militarist, killing'as a pol[cy was accepted as a
r"it.r of courie by most of them. I do not exclude
orivate killins if it ihould'come to that. I learned to
hre a riflg a þistol and a shotgun by the tiñre I was
nine, and target pract¡ce wæ à fairly frequent amusemenL When I was in high school I had a bolt action
.22 rifle and a bolt action .410 sholgun which I kept
.. in my bedrqom. I was neverver.¡rgirod with a shotgun

3ü

but felt competent with a rifle, and had fired several
kinds. I had kílled "varmints" but had never had any
success to speak of in hunting; I gave it up as a bad

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job. I was fifteen.

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While at Fair Park I "hung out" with a group who
were, I would say, stereotypical high school eggheads.

We read a l¡ttle philosophy-Nietzche, of course-we
wrote bad,poetry, or talked about writing, we rgad
thq Beats anA Uegan tó think of ourselves, in a very
pale way, as Beats. There was a little off-standard
politics, though it was by no ineans always left]¡h.
Lit anything else. I was one of the reactionaries, myself,

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Beginning in the ninth grade I rode dlbus about 20
miles, one way, "to maintain an arbitrary racial for- '
mulai" t 00% white. (Actually, as my baby sister reminds me, the black high school was even further, in
the opposite direction.) At that time Shreveport had
two wh¡te high schools, Fair Park and Byrd. Byrd was
rich and Fair Park poor, by reputation. Both.had
junior ROTC units. JROTC was fairly common in the
south at that time, I believe. I do know.that'Flõuston
and Galveston, Texas had such programs in their white
high schools and I think that some New Orleans
scñools had them.
ROTC was available in the tenth grade, and I never
hesitated about taking it" There were, I think, two
reasons. First, I am asthmatic, and I have always
thought of physical éducation teachers äs.my natural
enemy. ROTC was an alternative to PE. Second, I
was genuinely interested in learning about wpapons
and fighting. I had a young man's romantic irfterest in
this aõtivity, which seemed the natural activity of human males'to me at that age, coupled with-a matterof-factness about it which I suppose is whitêsouthern.
Having said this, I must add that I was always a physi'
cal coward. Although I ain large, I don't suppose that
I ever "won" a fistfight as a child. Perhaps these feelings are not really so inconsistent after all.

except that I felt a profound contempt for'national'isn1(which I still feel). ln those days a cpntempt for
nationalism did not seem to be an exception ln a
reaotionary world-view There was, i0,.short, nothing
very unusual aböut us unlqss it wai-our isolation in
Shieveport, and the fact that most of us Ûere in high
school ROTC.
(l m¡shtsay that that groùp wai strictly male,
thoilsh ñone were then gay, to the best of my knowledge. )

ln ROTG; weeame to school 'i n'uniform three
times a week, twice in "dress" uniforms, and once in
"fatigues." Monday was a fatigue day. On Monday we
cleaned our rifles, and occasionally got a chance to
fire on the target range or to see some big weaponry
from the National Guard armory. I remember a 106
inm recoilless rifle mounted on a truck especially clearly. (The'lrecoilless rifle"

is

actually a rocket'launcher;

it has no recoil and so can be mounted on
a fairly lifht vehicle.) We were issued M-'l rifles of '- -WWll vintage, without firing pins, and, of course,
without bayonnets. We "got to know" them fairly
well; I rather think I could puzzle out how to field'
strip an M-l today if I had plénty of time and nob-ody
thad's whv

tryíng to help me. We didn't fire the M-ls.at Fair Park
tlrough: target.22's only. lt was on the firing range,
whèn I was in:the tenth grade, that I first found out
thãt I am nearsighted. My scores were better after I

got glasses,'though never excellent. I could fire "sharp

ihooter" at my bèsL''

'

drill days. They
were*the day**Ìrat"wefalfle out !ft "dress" uniforms'
'ma¡:ched
around, w¡th oúr ëmasculated rifles over
and
'oi.¡r
I didn't mind that very much, as a rule.
Wednesday an{'Thursday were

'

shouldeß.
, lt was a hell of a lot less strenuous than PE. Now and
then we had Batt¿lion drill dúring assembly period on
Wednesday or Thursday. (We had five short companies
of JROTÇ which normally met at different tirires of
day, just like English or Math.) Women wçre not allowed in J ROTC, but a few became "pponsors." A
'isponsor" was a girl choæn by an officer, who got to
'dress up in.a uniform and march around with the unit
and with "her officer" on all drill days. Naturally, this
bit of sexist and elitist crap led to some rather funny
problems, as when a new "cadet captain" or,!'cadet
lieutenant" chose his steady as his sponsor, and they

wrN
drawlng by Don Mochon

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broke up two weeks later. Once chosen she was the
sponsor, for his unit, for the whole year.
Tuesday and Friday were the days for."academic"
study in J ROTC. We came those days in civys and
spent our time memorizing the characteristics of "our"
weapon, the M-1 rifle, along with the chain of com'
mand. We were also informed of the way in which the
"new pentomic army" had been reorganized to cope
with tactical nuclear warfare (it had two headquarters
units, some distance apart so that if one was wiped .
out by a nuke, the other could take over right away)
and small unit tactics, and the like. lgot a lot out of
small unit tacticrl always have liked maps, and that
was a large part of it. See, if yodr unit is crossing a
road or sgmething like that in the daylight, you all
rush at once, whereas at night, you sneak across one
at a time. Got that? Well, never mind. I sort of dig it,
even now.
I guess I wasn't military material, though. I almost
never got promoted. I had started out with the usual
dream of being cadet colonel, of course, and so the
fact that I remained a buck private while everyone
else advanced to corporal sort of bothered me. Even
Truck-Driver Mike, my best buddy, who thought he
was a Marxist and was as unmilitary as any creature
ever made, was a PFC. Second year, though, my slick
sleeve became something of a mark of pride. I heard
somewhere that ncone had ever gone through three
years of ROTC and remained 4 slick-sleeve. I had
something to shoot for! But I was foiled even in that
modest military distinction. When the old APMST
(Assistant Profässor of Military Science and Tactics)
left at the end of my iunior year, he raised all the
juniors to four-stripers (we had no thiee'striþe sergeants) and when the new replacement came the next
year, he bucked everybody one stripe. So, as a new
senior, t was an undistinguished Sergeant First Class.
Oh, unhappy fate!
Worse yet, because I had somehow been saddled
w¡th the rank, I was assigned to be a squad leader,
which meant that I must march at the head of a file
and that I would be in the chain of command. I didn't
want to: by now I was determined to be a military .
nothing (seeing as how I couldn't be anything much).
I went to the APMST and demanded that he take the
stripes back, because I didn't want them. He told me
what an unworthy thing I was doing and how lt Would
Be On My Record. I wept. I've never been able to cope
with authority. So I remained a five-striper in cadet
rank, but there was a modest compromise. I was not
madô a squad leader but only a team leader (though I
had one stripe too many for that lowly station).
I had even gone to summer camp, twice.
When I weñt to Louisiana State in the fall of 1960,
I found that two years of college ROTC was mandatory for males. (This was still a requirement for landgant colleges at the t¡me.) I signed up for Air Force
nOfC, with soine vague idea of staying on for four
years. I don't learn easy. After one year of AFROTC,
ihough, I finally figured out that ROTC was really'not
meant for me, and got myself excused from the second year-one year of the requirement being satisfied
by' my three years of iunior'ROTC in high school.
I can't say that I regret having taken high school
ROTC. The þublic schools are such totalitar¡an institu'
tions that ROTC, in and of itself, cannot make them
much worse. The regimentation in ROTC was pro
forma, I fel! if anythin& more regimented in English

than in ROIC. BuÇ of course' ROTC in itself
riit"rt U" nearly harmless, and it might still be effec'
tivã in recruitiág young men into the army. lt was ef'
i.tiiu" in that wai w¡tfr many of my classmates. lhey
were lower middle class boys, like myself; and they
were not "eggheads." College was no sure thing for
them. (Collese was no sure thing for us, either' come
;; ;h;"'ù;ii;-aittrougrr the spuihik panic. helped' Truck'
Driver Mike never made it, so far as I recall.) They
could not get jobs. Some of them got in trouble with
the law. And they remembered that they had been
"somebody" in tlie ROTC: cadet major, maybe. Drill
team guidon bearer, maybe. First PFC in their com'
pany, maybe. So it came pretty naturally to go into
the army.
class

¡'poor-white" kids were in ROTC, as I recall'
Few
Some of ihem took it for a year and then dropped

out. Many were not "well enough disciplined" to
keep out of trouble in high school ROTC! (What became of them, I wonder, when some of them were
drafted to be cannon fodder, or volunteered in desperation
when they could not find a iob?) .
' Generally
I think it will be the lower middle class
boys who are likely to be the target of JROTC as a

recruiting device, now as then. Many young m.en of
the lowe¡ middle class are extremely vulnerablg in an
economic sense. They want to find a secure livlihood
and to "be somebody." Thêse are needs which the
army meets fairly well, at a pribe we all know. Some
of tÉese young men will go to college, where.they
will major in Business Administration, or perhaps in
psychoiogy. Others will go into the army, and many

of these will become "lifers."
This poses a difücult problem for those who intend
to resist the J ROTC recruiting policy' To oppose
the
JROTC will ieem to be an attempt to deprive
young m"n of "an opportunity to improve themielvesl" I have no complete or certain answer to this
problem. First it seems fairly clear that the resistance
must be from within the sçhool commun¡ty, nót without it, and shoqld ideally spring largely-frpm the
childien who arb the primary targets of the recruitment through JROTC, and from their parents. Perhaps this is noi entirely unrealistic; it is my impres-

sion that peace activists come from many stratå of
society, with the white lower middle class in particulai well represented. (The non-white lower middle
clas will also'be a target àf the recruitmen! however.)
It may be that religious resisters will have an advantage iñsofar as relifion offers an alternative sense of
"sãrñèbodiness" to that deriving from military unit
and rank. No doubt it will be important to make it
clear that the pacifist opposition to J ROTC is linked
to a vision of social revolution and a better society in
which security will be available to each and so will the
full development of the individualily of each. However resisters cannol of coursg expect very much
from mere slogans which are certain to appear utopian
to the young'men who are the targets of J ROTC. On
the other hand, a link befween Jesistance to J ROTC,

direct action to improve educational opportunities,
and a struggle for open enrollment in colleges and
professionàl schools and against the tracking system
inay go some distance toward establishing the bona
fi¿ésóf the resisters. To the extent that state colleges
are an alternative to tþe army (and they are for many
of the target youth) this may be a very realistic, even
if FabianJaclic agáinst JROTC. Crit¡cism of the false

-

olastic security of the corporate economy. may help,
äspecially if it is vivid and rests on exampiès of iust
how insecure that kind of "status" really is. Do not
expect people to be grateful to you for showing them
that the goals they are seeking are hollow goals, though.
lf it is possible to,directly acquaint some of the young
people with the alternatives to.bureaucratÞcorporatemilitary t'security," that may help, at least in some

v

case5.

Where the struggle against J ROTC is well'advancèd,
one possibility might be to organize a sort pf f unior
Nonviolent Action Corps. The Corps;'as I visualize it,
¡vould be a direcJ but anti-military parallel to.i ROTC.
It would teach techniques of'nonviolent struggle, and
the¡r history and traditíons, just as ROTC dêaches the
techniques of armed struggle and their traditions' lt
would ieach "iob skills" useful in organizàtion and
nonviolent strugglg such as (perhap) typewriting and
ialopy repair. lt would put the samé stresJ on equality
and sisterhood/brotherhood which the ROTC puts on
rank and hierarchy. Of course, it would be open to
women, as .l ROTC will probably have to be, not as
ornaments (ttrough hopefully all the young people of
the JNAC will be ornaments) but as comrades in strug'
sle. i think it might be worth-while to include a unit
ãn useful skills of running and hiding from armed
forces, which might well be cribbed from the maírual
of small unit tactics used by the J ROTQ" ln so far as
the work of nonviolent resistance is a constructive
worÇ basic civil engineering, architecture) and an

I
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introduçtion to small-'scale technology might well be
optional units in the JNAC course.
The JNAC would initially bp organized by conscious students, parents and frÌends on an aftef-school
basis. lt would then demand 1) introductíon into the
schóol curriculum on a parity with J ROTC as an alternative to JROTC, or 2) the suppression of JROTC,
or the substitution of J NAC for J ROTC as an act of
commitment to the survival of the human race. Natu'
rally the itruggle for these demands will be a laboratory for nonviolent action on the palt of the students
and others involved. Perhaps the best result to be expected will be that J ROTC might be gotten rid of as
ihe price of keeping hippy-commie-pacifism out of
the schools.

That, of course, would be success. I think there
are plenty of academic resources for thê organization
of such a'high-school course and corps for nonvlolent
survival. I would be interested in particip-ating in its

conception, if I should have anything to-contribute.
ln summary, I would say, on the basis of my past
experience, that the purpose of J ROTC i;"to recruit
noncommissioned offcers, and some warrant offcers
and lower commissioned officers, from the lower mid'
dle class of all ethnic backgrounds. The resistance
against JROTC will have to proceed, with this in view.
The tarlet population are young men from economically insecure backgrounds, and perhaps insecure back'
grounds in other senses. They are from bgckgrounds
high enough in the hièrarchy of our propertied society
to have something to lose, but low enough to have a

';.J\ì.,.,:.

very realistic fear that they may well lose it. Suçcessful resistance must take the human ambiguity of the
young victims of the J ROTC ploy into account.
Roger A. McCain teoches Economics ot the City
College of New Yorh.

drawlng by Don

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16 WIN

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F.F

I

The
Politics

of the

Ant¡-Crouper
Laws

BY RICHARD SCHRADER
Consider the Town of Hempstead on Long lsland, New
York and its milieux: the largest township in the coun'
trv with almost 850,000 residents, each living in an
environment shaped quite consciously by.real estate
interests and their local governmental friends whose
only operating principle has been one of constant
srowth and capital gain. But w¡th that growth has
õome sprawl, the ugly, visually polluting stre¿m of
main street.industries and side street rows of cramped

one-family houses, a process which has inestimably
contribuéd to the overall cheapening of the suburban
landscape. On ,tune 11 the town's ruling counçil, allmale, ail-Republicans, and all decidedly middle'class
cast â vote for the ages. ltr accordance to the townis
new ordinance, it is now illegal for more than two'
people not related by blood to live under the 5ame
iooi if that roof is zoned as a one family domain.
There's nothing very much creative about this most
recent example of civic irresponsibility. The town
board has merelv passed a measure modelled after the
Supreme Court'í Belle Terre decision. As originally
designed, the judicial precedent articulated by Justice
William O. Douglas applied to the sleepy village of
Belle Terre, a selni-rural town of about 600 residents
in northern Suffolk county. Douglas upheld the r¡ghts
of that municipality to use its policing power to.pre'
serve the singlé family character of the co-mmunity.
The decision has precipitated a windfall of concrete

legislation across ihe lsland, legislation now being re'
feired to as the anti-grouper laws, which threatens to
disenfranchise all the college students, senior citizens,
religious groups, and poor families now presently livin a groupei situation.
ing-Rarely
has a more mean'spirited, potentially disas'
trous law been foisted upon so vulnerable a public. At
the hearing on the day of the law's passage several
members óf a group fighting the bill, Long lslanders
for Residential Rights, asked members of the town
board if, under ceitain circumstances, a homQ could
be speciãlly zoned to rent to college qtudents. Al'
phonse D'mata the youngish supervisor of Hempstead,
ieplied that, yes,. some homes could be rezoned- He

18

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added that this prpcedure would cost "between $300
and $400."
At that,ìhe proceedings took a noticeably.grim
turn. The opponents of the bill hurled some choice
invective at their governing board, while D'mata denounced those present as "vicious animals" and
stalked off the podium into the inner sanctum' As the
rest of the board followed suit, Kurt Kumpherman of
Long lslanders For Residential. Righß asked, "You
r"uñ tnut iustice costs $400?'i ln"fact, D'mata's fìgures have aiready been declared too low by fellow
town official Edward Suthprla4d, secretary of the
Board of ZoningAppeals, who was quoted in''the June
21 Long tsland Cothotic as saying, "various.architectural añd zoning fees foq a variance under the anti-

grouper'law could run to aÍleast $1500."
- Othergroups, the Catholic Charities, ACLU and
tde Nassar¡ County Human Rights Commission among
them, have registered full opposition to any implementation of this law and plan to challenge the statute in
both state and federal courts.
Several professors of property law feel that the
anti-grouper legislation has an excellent chance of being overturned in court. New York University law
professor Larry Saeger suggested that the enormous
discrepancy in sheer size and geography;between Belle
Terre and Hempstead creates very serious consti'tutional questions for the Hempstead.measure. Professor Abraham Sofner of Columbia University feels that
an effective legal argument could be centered around
the unreasonableness of the zoning procedure, stating
that the law simply "doesn't fit into the needs of this

particular community."
Given the Long lsland housing situation, the virtual
absence of low-income homes and the continual
growth of large commuter universities like Hofstra
and Adelphi located in the town of Hempstead, no
rousing broadside aimed at the zoning or'dinance
should be neÇessary. But the law has provided the
suburban politicians with a singularly.exploitable issue. D'Amata stated at the first public hearing for the
bill, that the anti-grouper measure was aimed at expediting the prosecution of homeowners violating the
zoning ordinance by renting rooms to boarders. By
inclusion, both the landlord and the tenant are in violation. Therefore, civic associations would be able to

vigorously preserve their one-family neighborhood and
tnê same time rid their localities of'gri:edy landlords,
lewd collegiates, ând troublesomç slum dwellers'

-af

Essentiãlly,

íft. to*n iathers-have created

a situå-

tion where most local ills can be hung on a convenient rack-those damn group-ers. The political leaders'
strategy is to toss the blame for society's ills onto a
defenseless, largely unpopular segment

of the com-

munity, and isolate them legally by either forcing
their r:elocation or outlawing their presence' so that
the public forgets all about the genuine day-to-day
problems like non-existent mass transit, crippling
taxes, or skyrocketing util,ity bills.
' 'property
This strategy has proven historically successful in
dealing with the racial íssue. For two decades, the
reigning Republicans have campaigned on a none too
subtle Save the Suburbs program. ln late June, the
irration¡lity contained within this officially administered policy of exclusion erupted in the village.of .
Hauppauge when an angry mob threatened to burn
dowh-a nãighbor's home because she had sold it to a
black family. The crowd broke windows, splattered
paint across the walls of the house and stuffed the
sinks with rags while turning the water taps on full
force. The new residen! a long-time citizen of the
'"
.south, iust shook his head and wearily told t Newsdoy
repoiter, "Mississippi was tight but this is much worse'"
Civilized Long l^s_land in 1974. Unless anti-grouper.
laws are defeaf,ed, þroupers can expect to be painted
with the same brusii formerly reserved for blacks and
long-hairs. C.itälions and eviction notices will add an
rrn a"p ó re c ätêl'il i m e n s{ o n to,s u m m e r v a c a t o n i n g'f o r
.- thbæ weekend swingers from the city accustomed tb.
'
Southampton partying. Poverty pockets like Hempstead, Roosevelt and Freeport will be bombarded by '-'
harassing police searches and late-night premises inspections. The Long lsland community will become
increasingly homogènous and 'socially shal low. And
once again, we will all be victims of the cynical manipulations of the local power brokers who keep us frustrated, divided and powerless.
I

i

Richord Schroder is a member of the Executive Committee of the Long Island Citizens in Action, qn Islond
wide consumers group, which is presently involved in
fìghting the onti-grouper laws,

WIN

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Imagine thatyou are awhale
YOU ARE HUGE.
YOU WEIGH rUOns
THAN 3,000 PEOPLE,
BUT THE WATER
CRADLES YOU.
THICK FAT WARMS
YOU. YOU SING WHALE
SON.GS OVER
HUNDREDS OF MILES.
YOU L¡VE IN BIG,
FRIENDLY FAMILIES.
(WHALE BABIES GROW
. ON MOTHER'S MILK;
AND WHALES BREATHE
AlR.) YOU EASILY
SWIM THOUSANOS OT
MILES TO FOLLOW
YOUR FOOD. YOU ARE
SO BIG THAT YOU
nRvg No REAL
Étr¡emlEs EXcEPT oNE:

.

;;;';;

whotes

clarity of miniaturization.
Trâditionally, Japanese att¡tudes towards nature
n"ve bàen iovfúí ánä reverenl ln Japan today, howàuer. ¿eliehtin the world has been usurped by throw'
awai culiure, what one conservationist calls a conceniriíon ãn otíjects rather than on states of mind' Be

oi iupuh's obsessive

materialism, the ideas of

r.tutiontf,ip or connectedness have been fragmented
or forsotten. The natural world itself has become a
;ñ;ü;; ; "uieless animal.i' oncecharming orien'

ãiiustoms have warped. Today, ardent souvenir huntwhole ecologies.with the
ãir uñtft¡nLingly destroy'the
Japanese National Parks
ãoróiiäit ààrõeinent of

20 wtN

.

'

tiiut

I- i'

rpe.riiii";. w.;l;;rnvíronmentalists should'

Japan faces now.

According to unreleased data from Japan's Envi'
ronmental lVlinistry, 45,000 people are expected to
''':.::l: 6¡s in the nextf"i veais alone, irtrrr known lethal '
poisons, such as meicury, cadmium, and air pollutions.
This is not pleasant information to impaqf" and in
You frightened them. You were so big.
.lapan itself wheré environmental fear is as much in the
air as pollution, it is the height of bad manners to dis- .
rush of Japanese culture.
'cussSothis biocidal
t
Jun Ui, the most outspoken pollution researcher
, in Japan is "hot" by his own definition. He shocked
hiícåun-trym"n u'rcí ihe outside world by bringing
hoirib;ii defòrmeil victims of Minamata disease (mer" cury poisoning) with him to last year's Stockholm Cön'
ference on the Human Environment, and though he is
well-known in the West, he stands nearly alone in Japan. Much of the time without official sanction froqn
Tokyo University, and with a frank disgust with 'rkept

,

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and enlarges
_scholars," he consolidates his researches
his activism through open-ended Monday night Lec'; .l .,

,t

Worst of all, they began to see you
only as a prod,uct.

Unfortunately, few people have his v¡s¡ôri. Pói¡iiðalr ,
activists are absorbed iÅ sdmming.lapan's exþort of ' ¡' I
industry and pollution in southeast Asia, but few act l' ..

'

with

.

System behind them. The idea that living creatures
liúe in their own right rather than as vessels for man's
usê of momentary pleasure is a very unpopular idea'
It is considered unrealistic and sentimental.'
The firefly ceremonies are a lucid instance of how
things have óhanged. Once upon a time-in lapan, folks
aeli{trtea in a ceiemonial closeness to fireflies. mãking
liviñg lanterns of the clustered insects' light. Today,
beca-use of the extreme air poisoning, there are no insects in Tokyo. So, crates of fireflies are imported into
the growing hesolation of this industrial center. There,
they are released into the interior of arestau.rant
where expectant Japanese snare thèm into plastic

.'

.

a connected vision

of political/environmental '

t

."

change. Conservation societies, on the national level, ".':l
at least, are notorious in Japan for their do-¡rothing -,ií.:
.pose. f called the chief of the World Wildlife Fund
. arid ask'qd for his cooperation in the work of Project ',i

'ir4'
'

lonah to save the remaining great whales. I mentioned
It'tut thé Wqrld,Wildlife Fund US Appeal's strong pgsi''
tion paper for whale conservátion, and also mentioned
that thé Q.SlAppeal was considering ûrging the'l'nternationa'l*A-Èþealtoduppoçta..f uropean Commbn Mar- ¡
".. 'ket.Bovcotlon
all Whale Products. He hemmed â'nd.
' hawed,'and finally managed to conclude, "Whale pbpulation flgures must be studied more before we can ac--i" l
tually dõcide." No matter that most species of great
whales a¡e already extinct, even conservationists con- . -'
tinue to stand idly by and wait for sanctified "hard

facts."

¡

bags"

-Cicadas

are another story. Cicadas have had a his
ir'¡ Japan' Sometímes,
cheerful.cohabitation
tory of
they were caged in tiny bamboo houses where their
chiirup brightened the bigger house. But in an in'
creasingly poor environment, young children racing

-: i'

tures.

yîiii

Because it is a small and overpopulated series of istunãr, Jupun is very visible. One sees there with the

things, neither do the schools. Cicadas take'years Í'o
mature, that's what I tellthem whe-n I càtch themr: ,l
snatching the poor creatures frpm thê treès. They håVe
such a shiort time to matè. My iountry'is Very back-' ,
ward about animals. anvwaY.: lt is among the last'in
the entire world to bass a cruelty to animals'la¡¡*' ' '
*'1
and that was passed'onlv last year'"
l i zediplace'
br
uta
and
u
ututui,
dãíñtîuoi
J
tun
The intensitv ôf its self-poisoning makes it an intensely visible demonstration'of the results of drastic industake a very close, careful look at Japan, for soon-unless we begin to work more earnestly at both short
and long range solutions to the problems of pollutionwe will face the same horrors in ten years''time that

,

BY BLACKBIRD

ã*i.

"Their mothers'dón't teach them any regard for living

A long time ago, people saw-you as a devil fish.

it took for your grondparents to grow up and grow
whales have lived in the oceans for mlllions of yeors, But in the time
hoie kitted two mittion
, .,, feed' Japolít', *iài"i ø¿oy. -Russlan p?.pl:. kitt.sperm whales .for rocket oil ond animol
Russio and Jopon k¡i
to eot' Many
no
more
be
will
there
whrites,
the
or
nil
¡f
tnry
oiri
nese peopre have eaten.inol, ,roit ror hundredi'oi
is
forever'
Extìnct
any
more'
be
can never
kinds of whales or" otroü-riiiiri. e rt¡n"t meons titot there ore no more ønd

;i;;;;;;;ú

'

'

j

PEOPLE.

to catch the cicadas becomes a sad and pointless game'
"Every year I nave io act witchy with the child.ren," .'
one woman in laoan told me during my vìsit there' '

You greW lonely. Your parents, brothers,
sisters, and friends were gone. You swam, calling
your songs over long distances.

INDUSTRIINDUSTR¡OUS,INDUSTRIOUSNESS
Most .lapanese work six days a week, giving'few folks
the time to work for change, (or even to relax very
much.) People usually work for one company all their
lives and are very loyal to it. A respected worker in the
consumer movement told me that one group of workers, angered at reports that their company's product

WIN

21

was polluted, drank it to refute the claim. All of them
became very ill.
Many people in Japan are industriously supporting
a lethal, poisoned system. But some groups have risen

to work together.for the whale. One man, a painter,
"Most Japanese get their energy from whales as
protein, but I prefer to get my energy from whales
leaping"
Japan is the leading whaling nation in the woild

said,
.

locally to counter pollution.
Goodmen of ,Yurato Bay, working in Kochi, a center of the whale market in southern Japan, blocked
discharge of pulp waste into the bay by plugging the
pipe with concrete. Save Our Seas, a group working
through Toba Aquarium, works to remedy mercury /
and other pollutions in the local seas. ln Osaka, a
citizens' group angered at ceaseless noise from Osaka
jetport, won a limit on night jet flights, on the basis
that eve¡y being has a right to a quiet night's sleep.
These groups and others like them have sprung up in
respohse to specific, urgent and local problems, and
often, they have surprising success. But few groups
are working on general, long-range solutions to Japa'
nese pollution.
To sum up: Japan is suffering the results of a con'
densed industrial greed, and a corollary fragmentation
of vision-the natural world is fading from popular
memory. Unless outside influence brings a rapid
change in popular consciousness (change is going slow
in Japan itself) ¡t seems Japan is doomed to suffer the
fate of a guinea pig for what was once only Western
materialism.

witotE, LtvE wHALEs
Japanese regard whales as protein. Whale meat con'
sumption is decreasing according to figures from the
fisheries themselves. But it is a popular idea, encour'
aged by thefsheries, that whale meat consumption is
a growing arid crucial part of Japanese proteín. Actuaily, whale meat is the least popular source of animal
protein. Because Japan is in such a fearful and poisoned situation,.people there are very anxious about
food, and this general anxiety has been misplaced onto the whale. There is a pervasive cultural fear that
these islands will be deprived, which totally ignores
the fact that they are already deprived.
Recently, the three main fisheries (also the three
main whaling companies) formed a public relations
group to countèr adverse world opinion. The whaling
companies alternate between uttering soporific pro
nouncements about how whales are being preserved
by scientific killing, and hysterical articles (from a
fisheries union newspaper) berating all supporters of
the terryear moratorium as "lunatics" and insisting
that consumers are demanding more whale meat.
Few people act as individuals in Japan, and because
the whale issue has been misreported and misunder'
stood, few people have come forward until recently.

\

today, with Russia running a close second. Between
them, they account for over 80% of the yearly whale
kill. But they begin to look more and morê sorely
isolated. Eight out of the 14 members of the lnternational Whaling Commission voted in favor of ä tenyear moratoriúm on whaling in1973, and the IWC has
traditionally been a sanctum of whalers, not a voice
for the whole, live whale. This change in heart mirrors
wide international outcries for the preservatibn of the
whales. Presently, in the US, Canada, and Europe,
large boycotts of Japanese and Russian goods are proceeding. ln Japan, these boycotts cause much concern.
Even adverse world opinion, without the economic
lever of boycotf causes widespread concern:

THE PROf ECT

f

ONAH

:

The Project Jonah group in Japan includes journalists,

zoologists, people disenchanted with.national "conservation" societies, students, teachers, and grass roots
activists. During my visit, we opened an ofice in Tokyo
through this group, which is now circulating a petition
calling for a ten-year whaling moratorium among several hundred influential Ja'panese. Work is progressing
on the lnternational Childrenls Campaign as well;.sev-,
eral ecology clubs in Japanese schòols, as well as youfh
clubs known as Kindness Clubs, and Boy and Girl
Scouts, have taken on the Ghildren's Campaign as an
action for ecology.
Most recently, Jonah sent three young girls, one
each from Canada, US, and Sweden to make a public
appeal for the remaining great whales. They hoped to
deliver 751000 letters from youngsters in many countries to Prime Minister Tanaka. Although he was unable to meet them because of his campaign schedule,
the delegation made some important pointl on a tenday public tour in Japan. They spoke for whole, live
whales, and though many Japanese brànded their viewpoint as sentimental, we hope that by repetition of
,

this viewpoinl Japanese dulled by industrial culture

will come back to their senses.

Blockbird works with Project Jonah. She clnnged her

name from Gail Medonia because of o desìre to embody onother living creature, As Ponderos Pine saÌd,
"lf we don't stort nariúngourselves for trees and onimals pretty soon, there may be none \eft."

Ionah is working within the United States, too. In addition to the international great whale works, we are acting for the smaller whales,
those propoises ànd dolphins who die yearly "inbidentally" in the nets of the tuna industry. "rrVhat's really in yout tuna fish sancl-wich?"
we are askirg Americani We want people to see that supporting an industry that kills.200,000 porpoises a yeaf asa side effect of its in'
dustial profrt i, unhealthy and destruciive for everyone who participates in it in any way. To oien-this and othe¡ ideas to many Ameri
cans, Jonah recently produced a conservation comic called Net Profit which not only details the tuna/poipoise situation, but_exploreS
the mythology of a-otptrins and porpoises in other cultureq and offers people various ways of acting for these smaller whales. The book has
alrea6lf m¿dõ some riiples acrois the country, and we hope that it will make such waves in populartonsciousness that dolphins and porpoises-can live out thêú own natural lives, instead ofdrowning as a side efect of industrial profit. Single copies of the book are available
ior $1.00 from Jonah, Box 476, Bolinas 94924,Cahfo¡ntu

2
-Ò

q)

&

tÊ
a¡Errrra

cHA
HIROSHIMA DAY
At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

i¡

began taking individual pictures of the

j

Patterson is located. Horace Chamþney
spoke with base personnel and got ,

quick clearance from the Faiiborh authorities. Copies of the Judge AdvoCate
.General's letter went to the press along
'with other.advance materidl and'apparently arounsed considerable interesL
A number of demonstrators began
leafletting at 7:00 am when many peo--,
ple enter the base to work. Others
soon appeared and eventually vigilers
stood on both sides of the entrance to
the base holding large, single-letter
signs spelling outr'No More Hiroshimasr" the message clearly visible
from all angles of traffc. Those not
needed to hold signs distributed leaf'
lets e¡plaining why the vigil was beinþ'
held, urging the US "to take the lead '
in ending the production of nuclear
weaponsr" and inviting !tcitizens of
other countries to demand the same of

.

were hostile.
The vigil line cont¿ined persons
from Cincinnati, Dayton, Lebanon,
Wilmington and-Yeliow Springs, Ohio
and from Chicago and West Virginia,

lhe group, which contaíned some

toddlers and one ociogenarian, was
greeted cordiallv bv an offcial of the
base, where secúrity was very lowreyed. When Air Force photographers

the cause of these survivors, explains
that those who became American citiForce security offcer:'At 8:15, the hour zens after World War ll canobtain
the'bomb was explooeo, [nere was a
medical treatment in'Japan by travel'
short time of absolute silence. After the ing there at their own expense, "aldemonstration Barbara Reynolds spoke thoush few can afford that." But the

vigliers they were stopped by an Air

on August 6th 50 demonstrators helí
a vigil of concern for the victims of tne
Hiroshima bomb and to protest the
continued manufacture, testing and
stockpiling of nucleär weapons-. A coov
of the call to the vigil afong with an in-'
vitation to join it was sent to the commander of the base. Three weeks later
the Judge Advobate General answered,
warning participants not to enter the
base or block traffic and suggesting
that they get a permít from ãity aüthorities in Fairborn wh.ere Wright-

their governments." Many who passed
by seemed jenuinely interested in the
message anã took láflets. Very few
CONTACT:

1l I

briefly about the meanin!'of Hiro-

shima for our

daY.

-LarrY

Nisei who constitute some
Gara

HIROSHIMA DAY II

able to them. A

l{t

one of the biggest nuclear and convqntional war think.tanks- Riversíde
Research lnstitute, in New York-prq
testors gathered around moc k-coffiriS
to reminisce about the US outrage of
August 6, 1945 and to vow " No-More
Hiroshimas!" The demo was cosponsored by WRL and Scientists & Engineers for Social & Political Action.
ln San Francisqo WRL, WILPF,
AFSC and Ecumehical Peace lnstitute
joined in sponsoring a demo with placards in Union Square. Thousands of
leaflets and hundreds of paper cranes,
the symbol of survival in Hiroshim4
were handed oul
Other WRL Hiroshima Day demos
took place in Seattle, Albuquerque,
Atlanta, Kansas City and Morgantown.

i
HrRosHrMA DAy

-,f im

Peck

4O%

of

the Ámerican survivors, are denied
treatment in.Japan and ng.-US government financial-aid or facilíties are avail-

bill which would

them such aid is bogged down in the
Hoirse Judiciary Committee and, according to Dr. Noguchi, "there seems
to be a.complete lack of interest in
doi ng añythi ng

t

I

give

,

I

further."

He also pointed out that Americarf
doctors have had no experience with
radiation sickness in either its physical

or psychological manifestations. Many
of the American survivors, he said,
have despaired at obtaining help in the
.. '
US after being told bv doctors
they were suffering a mild form of abe. ,i
mia or that their headaches; poor eye-

that

sight, dizziness, etc. were largely

psychosomatic.

-f

im Peck

.'NATIONAL

COMMITTEE FOR
FAIRNESS TO THE PRESIDENT.'J.
WILL NOW ATTACK THE MEDiġ

m . ,: " [:Jifå!iiiådui';:i HilfiîL*
ilixg,.ïii"1"tiJ:'"îiftl''"

rçw pjqp^lq rearize ir, bur rhere 4rtu*.;.,.lX1:
some.1,000 survivors qf I'liroshima '- 'stâudch-Nix'cinsupporter Rabbi Baruch ¡
'Korff, would be out,of business. ,:
and Nagasaki who are.Àmérícan siti
zens by b-irth, marriage or' naturaliza- But no such luck. Rabbi Korff says
. r- .
tion but for whom the American
that the committee will now focus on -'-' .l
government provides no medical or
the "giants of the media," who he bepsychological aid whatsoever.
lieves "are fearful of hisiory judging r, A Committee of Atomic Bomb Sur- them as assas'sins."
vivors has been set up in Los Angeles, The group will campaign for what
where there.is the biggest concentra- the rabbi called curbs on the media;
$on of survivors, and in san Francisco. their ultimate goal "for those. reftists
Other such committees are bein'g or.
and liberals to go to hell.,'
ganized in Washington, Oregon ãnd
For now, Kõrff has returned to BosHawa¡¡.
ton where he serves as chaplain for the
Department of Mental.
_ Dr. Thomas Naguchi, Los Angeles Massachusetts
County Coroner, who hæ taken up
Health.
-LNS
WIN 23

22

WtN

:

WAYS pos¡tion to the war, the draft, and the been a substantialcontributor to WRL
t'flå:ååiilirrru¡r"
t"iffiloo.
American Telephone and retegraph
rhar your response ro rhe
wilt be hetd
Com.pany, the nation's largest private Ford "feeler" haj been and *ill b" u
September 15, 3 pm at Pima Monthly
MA BELL RINGS BOTH

policy barrage of telegrams, phone calls and Meeting,-739 East Fifth Street in Tucto letteri to the Wh¡te i1'ous., and public so-n. His family requests that in place
of flowers,.an appropriate memórial
þL any discrimination_against gays in announcements that yo, ár" continuing
- gift
hiring or promotion. The company had your amnesty prograñrs this fall.
be made to WRL.
-f im Peck
come under frequent fire in the past
There wilí de a"sept. 29-oct.6 week
from gay'rights groups,.among others, of Concern, which can provide rhe fo- FROGS ON THE
MARSH
foritsemploymentpolicies. cusforyourearlyfall a'ctivities.Thisis _,-- ^..
clawed
frog
The
stinks, e¿ts
headquarteri
ne_wsletter,,4 T &T aioinr ¡írojec¡ oítnà ¿¡¡n"ttv in¿ ãnti- .l^Tj^liî..
News, made mention of the policy in
wär rov"m"nrs, and w¡¿e laditu¿é ñas ]îTîißI:I:Plt99:",1t_bguntifully
by a
.Igspgn:9 to an employee's question. been given for lócd initiative. There- 1f:P^q?i:.llly.rsn't.d.isturbed
"An individual's sexual preference," fore tie type of activities and the de- :i:31:1"** brolog¡sts are waging to
said the publication, "isn't a criterion gree of emptrasis on each issue depends ot:,T:I-li
hey Just move out of the water.
either for becoming an employee or
ñeavily
on your ¡nit¡at¡ve.
'the'gell
up and then
remaining an empLãyee of
ir'ír is a'crucial period in rhe hisrory
311|^,I^.^î.h3t]i?,1lg1tt
'
sa¡d
l-isher
biologist
system."
of the amnesty movement; we hope
f::t-??j!rn,"
The statement continued, "An inthai you will j'oin us in enjuring that "o:^].:11P1..
frogs, which have no
dividual's sexual tendencies'or pi.f*
uninäüu , Several.of theenemies,
uniurrol and uncondit¡on"l
recently es
ences are.strictly personal and ínfor- .Ë;;;;;;;;"ti;t.
f::iyStal
-i;ü;ñú'"tc capeo
rrom research ponds into reser_
mation about these matters should,not
*,^.,^_^,
n^..-.=r-.^_,,_,-.-_--í
ñ:*tl;;r;r:t"i
employer, has announced a

within its New York headquarters

l,

û

I

i1;";*

?ilîî,Jffir:l;,:#?f;r¡Äîäïi,î;;,

not support any company manager who
tookabionagáinstnt1î;åïä,1Í.,""nlï.3#fi

AMNESTY

Telzman and his colleagues at the

,

President Ford's annòuncement

that
to

he wilt otrer.a conàitiãnar pardon
draft resisrers un¿

¿",.riãrí;;;*camnes,ii"n;ih';i-"

nition of the importance of the
ty issue and rhe gror"inf

tt

tiefJ:Li"Jltiiì13;.,å.,

îtr-"rïff îfr.lgå^,'åFj:#j?;;.¿çi,ç#t#iip"-

NOW?

the amnesry movemenr.

lSjJ'iill,#

is unusuat

¡ol.

sprawlins Sacãmentosañ
sSlwlinS
trt...--r CM.)
loaouin
Sacramentosari Joaquin
^ r. \ ñ!
Ned (Edward
Richards, resisrer
in bolh world warjand founáer
afraid the highly fertile
past chairman of war Resisteii'ti'alue,
äied August 6 at thà ue. ói
son Arizona.
the universitv' From there
ii was his daughter Elizabeth
:J:?f^?:T.
spread along a complex
took care of himãt wRL's süir
11:.1.1-,c::.o'ld

and '"'*
"-Il,tj:t
dä¡Iîiä.-' iifi,ãf'#riifitr
*ifiüjrit ï"n

who
;;:"

#ii" *",iîlïfuJï*îil,,Tf ¡ixr1ïtäT::"ffi":1ärruf i'fJi::i"Ïl#å"',ifi:Íjl'fifrll",:'?;:
wirhour
::?ä.;1; j,,1îif,",:i:,iJ:?,,'"';,1,1; ñlå',l;Ji:i:;x:,;Jri3:,?,i:ixü: 'n'
on
its
skin
obnoxious
""i:::"r
group," ,¡,s \u¡¡¡il-öå
vital,
of pro
anti-amn.rry ;"r¡#;i'"
it anvthing but
is

and

a
rebe-

and a sense of urgency created by
need to grant at leasr somerhing
sembling amnesty ro war resisters

i;. súî";;ñ;;ty1o Ñixon-wtrictr
muribe dãne before rhe

active

sons

by
ro
more

glands

róii iñ;;;i ä;

:9ï ilii^t"ke

pr.ed-ators, like bass,

opening session, lgal Roodenk.
:?.:y,::^::t"*tural. bull frogs'
t"l]Sld.native
world war I co's to r¡se. ne¿'ñ,üïàär
te amphibians
and Evan Thomas were the
...,,91'^l?l-of !!aq thev
can get into
j,
rn1,vä;iå w",
rí.,"
H:i;'ff.iåithing
East Relief committee in one
feeds on smalt fìsh, ammost dangerous parts of the world.at pr.,iú.#

seprember

watergate trials. The Administration
would prefer to defuse the issue
offering the possibility of pardon
the white, middle class resisters-and
it should be clear that ¡t is no
than a possibility:900/o of.those whose

attendiñg;;i

narura, cne,åieå
secrete an
a deli-

"ri-ø
#;;;;t:"

L"i""iø

ñ"",
of.rhe. "'ïni'iö

ãi¿ their eggs . ln addition,
the time-wesr Persia. He herped.the i, ä""*iäp¡¿ly
in water and not,onty
sick and homeless, combatted
been known to crawl up
trophic.epidemics, buried the
t.r'l,jlr a -ile at a time.
helped break a famine and organized
said rhar wíth irs insatiable
a textile factory for civilians.
appetite, natural immunity and mobil-

catas
dead, il;;ffiil,
- äñil
cases were considered by the Truman
review board were not pardoned, and
ln world {a1 ll, Ned, like _
Eull, .
tüåäii¡"an clawed frog could
the policy of draft boards during the
refused to regisrer Lndeí a law wniäh
'tvi *¡?i'¡1¡punity rhrough the delta
Åtirä
,,objective"
Vietnam Era shows us that
required regiitration of men between threatenins a
multí-million dollar
criteria have not replâced arbitrary, rhe ages ofVS ø 65. Th; i¿;b;;äädå
industry
based on same
judgements
punitive
racist and
by. such . men iho-took- that position were
fishing.
bodies. Our task in the next few days olaced briefly.in cusiod-y ind registered '-ilWËse"
the frog as a major threat
ís to make clear, as the exiles have al'
bv the authoiit¡rt. oriiirilr" *1,¡.
to tt,, nü¡u. amphibian popularion,
ready done so eloquently in the nation- wrote two sígnificant
óirñprrl"ts, 'íFed- Ããtìïã frir' å"d parricularty game fish
al media, that a conditional .pardon for eral Convictl_College'to Érìson,,' based
of California,,, he said.
draft resisters and deserters ís unaccep on the cases of two-nonregìsiruát, jn- - "
BöËilis have used_,,several dif_
ñiü"y
table; and will not undercut o.qr d-e'
cluding his son, Fred and
Refuse ferent,, chemicals in an effort to kill
mand for unconditional amnesty for
to Be Õriminals," based on the case oi- ;Í;h; f;;;;; bil;hlË;il; ;i"ldì;,
veterans with less than honorable dis. his older son,.Bill, who refused ro ac- frå"" ü."" ãìjl" io näiãt-f.,"
;õ;tãt¡;"
charges, draft resisters,.deserters and
ceot the.restrictions of parole and good- ;;;i,;"ü;h, trogs stitt iti¡i..'otheis suffering pgnalties for their op tirile. Bill, now a doctoi in ôinada, tras
Win Frog Bureau
24

WIN

i
ir

lf you need something to keep you
awake at night, try to imagine what
might have happened in our continuing-serial, "As the government falls,"
had a couple of characters been
changed. Suppose, upon Alnew's resignation, Nixon had fol'owed his instincts and appointed not Gerry Ford
but fohn Connally as Vice-President,
then, as the impeachment resolutions
were snaking theír way throuih the
Housg Nixon resigns on the same day
' T.hat the grand jury indicted ConnaJly
.. f.or his role in the milk deals. A.double
resigndtion in the cards, House Speaker
Carl Albert heads out to his neighborhood bar for a few too many courage
bolsterers, smashes up his car on the
way home and heads for those great
Oklahoma hills in the sky. Never fear,
though, the system works (as the tele
vision commentators never tire of telling us) and as John Connally resigns,
the constitutionally designated succes- sor, the President Pro.Tempore of the
Senate, prepares his speech for the
nation. As Dan Rather concludes his .
biodescription of Senator f ames Eastland of Mississippi with the words,
.".. .a moderate man much needed to
moderate the times. All in all, a man
who will heed the mood of the country and rise to greatness, much as did
Harry Truman:" the new president
steps up to the mike and says, "Ladies
and Gentlemen, I want to speak to You
tonight about public enemies number
one and two-the coloreds and the
commies. . .". . ...ln the nextfew
weeks. members of Congress will be
showing where their class interests lie.
While the press would have us believe
that.the major controversv about
Rockefeller is due to his aileged "liberal'
ism," the real question about the Vice
President designate wíll be whether or

not the Executive branch will no longer international antí-communist front
be merely a tool.of the-monopoly ,
group for the,AËL-CIO, has,been úp to
capitalists but a base of operations for 6a¿ tnings in a number'of countriei dur- I
one of their kingpins. For those puz- ing the lãst decade, but the organiza- i
dõns actions in Ctrile were pos-itively
4led by who are the liberals in the
Democratic p.arty and who are the left- disgusting. lf you'd like to frnd out
liberals, watch how they line up on the more about a union group that, accordRockefeller confirmation. . ..:Social.. , ing to one of its corporate (!)advisors,
.ism is being spoken of more openly in ,,uiges cooperation between labor and America these days, perhaps more so
management and an end to class strugthan aÞany time since the thirties. As glg" contact the Emergency Committhe protest generation of the sixties tee to Defend Democracy in Chile and
examines its mistakes, a clear and sys- ask them about their excellent pamphlet on the subject. They're at 316
temaric democraric rói¡ui¡tt
""il"iú]. s.1eth St, san f ose, cA esl16... . . .
A few years back, movement media I
';tü¿i;;;úiaiuJry
pósab tñat man! of'ui put forth'in
was awash with articles 9n tfte.plggers;
'
sixties" There is,'of course,
a European anarchist grouping that,
desire to learn more. One ãxcellán
I
their own description, believes that "all
guildbook on resource materials.
political svstems are bankrupt of
õialist Alter¡atiræsfa
:
B¡b¡iogãpht*liprUl¡tî'ø tîù rpr¡ng .and usefulness." The Anglian Diggers ' :,
¿
is making available a copy of
by thtuniol for d,adical Political'

'-

of;;¡'r¡õ'*
the
alwayla
¡
SO
Ansica:'A
"

Eð.onomics (URPE-pronoun""a

' ' '.
by
ideas
their

,'p"", ';il|":åtîf,i:!,l;3tifl.T,..åf;i,j};,

,..:,",t;

like in slurpee). ltgivesan extènsive postage and pack'Íng is 10 pence in
description of traditional socialisf
Great Britairi, so yo."u'll haüe to figure
tory and theory books as well as
,,..,or¡ifor vourself what ¡t'll run lo get it
mosü comprehensive compilation
ovtli here Contact the Anlian Diggers,
synopses of works ón recent socialíst.. ;- 113 Shelford Road, Trúmpington,
thrôugh this is available tonon-schoF't, "',Cambridge; GB?2ñA, en!Un?. .'. . .

his.
thd
of

av-ailable for two dollars.frBrn The Chiãjo Bhtk Cioss õroup is aìsp.
uRPE,.officeoforganizationât ser- concernedw¡th anarchists, pariicurariy
viceq Michigan union, Ann Arbor,
those who are imprisoned'or those who.'"'' '
Michigan ß1O4.. . . .iìadical toymaker have been garroted, as was a young
Kîrl who is rrving ro put rógether Spanish .o"rr"ã" r.isi Muiir.r. îtrô1ipuu; . -'
9-u,1
a ppople's toy project-collective, needs lish a magazine of news and commúni-'
a wrlter to help publicize that very
cation and raise monev for orisoners.
noble idea, a lawyer to. help with the
They're located aúlá Armitage, Chi'.legal problems, and enfineers to help cago, lll. 6061 4.. ...Devi prasiá will
oesrgn and produce the toys. lf you
be touring the US from OcL 2 to Oct.

1p.l{s

rhat 16. Writel/o nnn Oavi¿on, 7 College
ideas lang Haverfo rd, pA 19O4í. . . . R;
west r"rL.r, sepieñuert i is-the anniverEth Street, New York City, NY 10011 sary of the fascist coup in Chile. lt
.T¡e A.merican tnstidúte for Free should u" a ne¿ Lãiæl dáyin America.
:._:,.
l¿bor Development, a twelve year old
Biian Doherty
agree with-Plalg, who suggiested
tle tgYs of children becomq the
of,adults, drop Ben a rine ad 51

.

WIN

25

-I

and control w¡thi! cap¡talism accept this state of affairs
with the minimum of resistance." (p.77-78).

woMAN'S CONSCTOUSN ESS, MAN'S WORLD
Shelia Rowbotham
Pelican paperback, 1973

|

126 pages, $1.95

ln her introduction to this short work Shelia Rowbotham
explains that it was originally written as part of Women,
Resistance and Revolution (Vintage paperback), her major
contributicin to women's social history. Because of considerations of length it was left out of the latter book and
has now been published separately. Anyone who has read
l'lomen, Resistonèe and Revolution will be very pleased by
this short appendage.
Shelia Rowbotham is very mûch a collective intellectual
representative of the women's liberation movement in Britain. The British movement has also produced Juliet Mitchell
(author of the essay "The Longest Revolution" which ap
peared.way back in 1966 and Psychoanolysis ond Feminism,
a new book of Freudian theory published by Pantheon in
April) and Selma James. Rowbotham's major work has accurately been called the most important over-all synthesis
sincq Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex.
Woman's Consciousness, Man's World is largely a scattering of theoretical and autobíographical notes and questions for the future. lt isn't a major theoretical work by any
means but rather is an effort to retúrn from the fragmentary
plain of social history to the realm of the personal and the
political.
ln a cþapter titled " Living Doll" she explores her own
feminist awakening. I found this autobiographical sketch
especially interesting because Rowbotham was an activist in
the 60's and while I think I know something of the male experience during that era, it was enlightening to follow the
same events through the.rnind of a woman.
Rowbotham's intellectual project is not at all dissimilar
from that of other women: she proceeds from the personal
to recover herself with the help of her sisters and then to
history to restore countless other women who liave been effaced by male history, including numerous women of the
left. As Rowbotham reminds us men are known as historians
but women are known as women historians (or women filmmakers or women bus drivers). Perhaps a pause of intelligent
reflection is in order rather than emotional defensiveness the
next time we (men) hear one of our pillars of thoughi or action referred to as "a male thinker" or "a male leader."
As a Marxist Rowbotham relies upon a radical analysis
which situates individual oppression'within the context of a
specific historical formation, in this case capitalism: . . ."our
delicacy, our incompetence, our softness, our hysteria,
emotionalism, sentimentality have no more a mysterious
soûrce than the'ignorance' or wórkers, the cheerfulness of
the'naturally' grinning'nigger.' They serve the same'useful' economic function of making groups who lack power

26

WtN

Rowbotham advances Marxism in the areas of authoritarian social relations, sexuality and the family, precisely
where it has been most deficient. For years socialists havé
been beating their heads against the wall trying to get woikers (usually men) to unite with each other as workers while
ignoring the fact that male workers identify with a specific
cultural definition of maleness which channels most of their
frustrations and illusions onto women (through male domination in the family and the pursuit of women as sex objects) and away from the actual sources of their oppression.
Rowbotham promulgates a political insight that is as subversive as a page from the Communist Manifesto: "Our lack
of control over our own bodies matches the workers lack of
control over production." (p. 37). And, it shoufd be added,
the women's movement shows every sign of matching in intensity and historical significance the long struggle of workers against capital. This revolt of'women is spreading throughout the world, has appeared in contexts as varied as the ,
Chinese cultural revolution and the bedrooms of suburbia,
has been co-opted on one level only to reappear like the old
mole of revolution on yet another.
There are fewer men each year, whatever their politics,
-who are willing to deny the fact that it is destined to affect
all of us in ways we could never have imagined just a few
years ago. Shelia Rowbotham didn't write thís book for
men but I suspect that some will read

it if only to find out

what their wives, comrades, co-workers and mothers may
be saying about them. ln fact they will find out that they
are often'too busy with their own liberation to say much at
all regarding men. But perhaps this discovery will lead to
the soluticn Rowbotham has in mind: "The generalization.
of our consciousness of our own subordination enables them
to discover a nev/ manner of being men." (p. 43).

-Thomas Good

RALPH NADER'S STUDY GROUP REPORT
ON FIRST NATIONAL CITY BANK: CITIBA I.lr
David Lewisdorf and Donald Etra
Foreword by Ralph Nader '
Grossman Publishers, New YorÇ 1973
xlii + 406 pages, hardcover, $10.(X)
Citibank is the Nader team (Center for the Study of Re
sponsive Law) report on the First National City Bank. lt is
an important book for several reasons. National City Bank
is the second largest bank and the fifth largest corporation
by asset size in the United States. This unique study of this
mammoth institution reveals a great deal about banking in
general, about how banks handle other people's mone¡ and
about the effect of a large bank's actions on the American
economy. Citibank alone has 4% ($1 out of every $25) of
all bank deposits in the.United States.
This book illustrates both the strengths and the weaknesses of the Nader team's approach to the examination of
the American economy. The great strength of the report is
its det¿iled documentation of several key areas of banking
as practiced by Citibank. By exposing these practices to the
pitiless light of þublicit¡ abuses,have been uncovered and
some reforms have been made by management, as is in effect admitted in Citibank's rebuttal to the report.
The report raises major questions-a5 to the lending policy
or Citibank. lt alleges that Cítibank favors loans to large
corporations at the expense of alternative loans for residential mortgages. The authors of the report question this policy
since the bank's residential mortgage loan portfolio is only
about one fouith as large as savings deposits in the bank.
The authors of the report suggest that the large number of

interlocking directors with maior corporatio¡s probably is
an importañt factor for this pólicv. The report âlso concludes that New Yort Citvllrnistra a great deal of private
profit to Citibank in the fárm of inrereit free demand deposits and other muniiipal services. Citibank should recip
rocate by helping provide its housing through mortgage
loans as a token ói its lons term corimitmeít to the City
and to the tuny mult iruirr *ho live ín the City and pro
vide deposits to the bank.
The report also coveis coroorate banking, personal and
pension trusts, and bank reeulation with much thorough'
ness. The book includes thJrebuttal issued by Citibank and
a surrebuttal. One weakness is that the book gives no atten'
tion to the important internatiônal operations of Citibankthe bank has branches in 95 foreign iountries and about60%
of the banlls earnings òome fromlbroad.
The major weaknêss of the renort is the sa'me as that
found in most of the Nader studies.,Many major recommendations seem to call for oassíns ihw to end an abuse.
This is not surprising since most ofthe members of the
Nader Fìrst National Citv Bank task force have their prime
academic background in-law rather than in business or ecù
nomics. The effects'of such legislation are often different
than those envisioned by the lawyers who suggest the new

Eve Smith. a resident of a small iSland offthe west coast
a iong life span of concern for all

living things, ãfJrt itr¡s stimulating and instructive critique
which should be read in every home aôross the land.
Although environmentalists have for so long struggled to
arouse fellów citizens to their fate, rarely l4ave'they com;
bined their efforts with a social analysis as ppnetrating as'
. that which we fìnd compressed ihto the ten pages of this
pamphleL

.

WORKER AND ENVIRONMENT

II

Ele Smith
South lstand, BG, Caåar_1973
As one who has worked il a part of the wörld where deliberate annihilation has wrought the ultimate in devastation
of land, sea and air-including every species of life in the
area (Vietnar¡)-this small bu1 stirring tract called Worker
and Environmênt served to re-affirm the moral obligatíon
we each share for the continuing degradation of thð world
in which we live.

We are

told about the effects of Strontiuiri 90 bflbones;

of lodine 131 on thryoid, of Cesium 137 on musclç (allthe outcome of radiaîion'hazards from bomb tèsting)-of
fibrosis of the lungs from asbestos fibres-of poisonous additives in baby foõd-of chemical pesticides with the¡r d¡-,
sastrqus consequences in fish kill and in huma¡ sicknesí,
such as DDT in mothers' milk.

ln reply to the ritióñaiô ". . .but you can't stop progress,"
..the author rightfully calls our attention to the-.fact th.a! "Progress is not prógress íf it degrades the land. and'iis inhabitants."
Barry Commoner is quoteã as explaining that: ". . I we could
have'a pretty high mäterial st¿ndärd of lìving with far iess

of naturaf resources and human çfiorts"'-and if 1ve reidcted t'hti million and one stupid gadget-s on the market, the

' waste

author goes on to add.

laws.

For exarnple, one result of Unsafe ot Any Speed hasled
to mandatory inst¿llation of mechanisms that prevent cars
from starting unless seat belts are fastened with the goal of
improving safety. Milton Friedman asserts that a large majority of automobile owners, drivers, and voters would oþ
pose such compulsíon if they could vote on this issue. One
side effect of this legislation ha5 been to increase auto prices
to p4y for these mechani'sm.s thus contributing to inflation.
Another has been to increasè thd numbers of scofiaws who
look for ways to short-circuit the mechanisms. The effect of
this law on safety has yet to be proven.
' Some of the recommendations of the report on Citibank
would requíre changes in operations to beder protect cus I
tómers who have defaulted on loans. While such protection
is in theory admirable, its result would be an increase in
.cost to the banlc The bank would eithpr have to recoup
these costs by raising its lending rates, which would raise
costs to those who now borrow and pay back their loans,
or exercise tighter standards on crediq thus forcing cus
tomers who were denied personal loans to switch to higher
cost lenders or even to seek the services of loansharks. Thus,
the new proposed protections might well þurt many more
people thanìhey would protect. The autoinatic.resþonse of
reformers to an abuse of "there ought to bg..a
' law," does
not always benefit society in the long run.
Even if many of the legislative recommend4tions may be
impractical or have different effects than thgse foreseen by
the Nader group, the exposure of prlvate sector abuses by
the Nader task force by itself often has led to useful reform
by companies who disl'ike unfavorable publicity. This book
is recommended to all who are interqsted
' in the role of large
banks in our domestic economy. -Donatd Grunewald

,

of British CoíumOia. from

What is moSt remarkable aboút-Jhis monograph is that,
while tabulating our wastefulness, Eve Smith succeeds where
so màny others have failed. With.clarity and logic she indi'
catesthe well-travelled'road where successes have been
scored, and by drawing upon stories about ordinary people,
the reader is encouraged to persevere. We are told about a
takeovep,ôf.thd Puget Sound Plywood Co. by 270 workers
who now own the planl From the elected president to the
janitor, they each hold one vote, are paid the same wage, and
collectively make all the decisions. A $50,000 pumping sys
tem "which would recycle the water rather than dump it in
the'Nor
bay" is just one of their triumphs.
are society's norms spared in her scrutiny, as she indicates how "full employment isn't going to help if the oxygen of the.world is depleted, food is cont¿minated, air is'u¡' ,
6reathable, water is undrinkable. . ." She scornfulty.attacts
.
the "'aristocracy of labour' which does not concern itself .
:
enough, if at all, with the less well-off workers either in their '.
own ðountry or elsewhere." How many protested, she asks, . '.;
when AF of L chief George Meany, at the peak of the Viet- '
nam conflict, disgustingly commented: "the workers never -'
. :; :'
had it so good."
- Emplris¡¡-ñg that it is the working class'wÈiðh fights thà:- i
wars, produces the bombs and keeps the wheels of industry
rolliñg she ¡eminds gq that it is also the workers who could
bring to a giinding ha-lt this system which can only survive
on war and explgitation. Oidinary citizens, she tells us, have
succeeded in-meVpnt!ng lhe construction of nucleaç plants,
logÊing in parlii,''ärìdTlöôdiflg'.of'land. In calling upon,the
r'èãder.:to'¡take a more active part in all public matter's pot
'

'

:

¿

r

justforthe possibilityof gaining'half a loaf butto expose.
ihe power of private owners and their representatives in -f ..

government, she tears away the last vestige of hyprocrisy
and shows the vùay to conservation of life, for all.
It is indeed disturbing that as'we agitate for better living
conditions, for an end to war-"the greatest pollutant not
. only of.the environment but of peoples' minds"-and as we
./ edge towards nuclear brinkmanship, we still manaþe to pay so
little atteÍrtion to this creeping holocaust which bids fair to
destroy all in its path, but which could be halted were
enough people prepared to resisl
The essence of Eve Smith's message is contained in the
phrasei,"Environmental Solidarity." This we can understand,
It differs sharply from the doomsday call oJ the Mauricè

WIN

27

'to

the prevailing frusStrongs of our community who add
trations with spectres clf mass starvation, population explo
sion, and depletion of the world's resources. Their solutions
depend upon additional billions of taxpayers' dollars to fund
tighter managerial controls by the same forces which have
created the chaos in the first place, and which would perpetrate it in order to extract the enormous profits created
by so-called "crises." To be effective, conservation must be

directly linked to community control.
It ís equally safe to say that it is not in the nature of
"homo sapiens" to willfully destroy itself.
Eve Smith has presented us with an article which fulfills
t*o åirãnt¡ul taski-it highlights the repulsive nature of profit-mad governments and their haste to denude and destroy
tide can
i''f;;;;. cherish it-and it demonstrates howthethedeterminaknowledge.and
the
utilizing
by
t; ;;;.J
;;"y gtorpt oipeople-evervwhere- NoW'
ti;;-;i
"'::
unite! You have nothing
nu¿ìtãit'uñ¿
"nuitont.ntalists,
is her final call'
to
-" lose Uut your pollution,"

ù;d*"

not ignore

her'warning'

-Claire Culhane

TOMS. COONS, MULA'TTOES,
MAMN¡!ES & BUCKS: AN INTERPRETIVE HIS-

TORY OF BLACKS IN AMERICAN FILMS
Donald Bogle / Bantam $2.25

It wasn't until I read Donald Bogle's preface to this history

of black performers in films that I realized this is the first
such work of its kind. Frankly, I didn't know what to make
of it when I iusf. glanced at the title. Oh, nol, I said to myself, not another "black rage" bookl But Bogle's view of
the generally shabby treatment black actors and actresses

havãgotten from the American film industry is remarkably
understanding. And, like me, he holds a special and sentimental place in his heartfor such "Tom" and "Coon" players as Stepin Fetchit, Rochester, Mantan Moreland, and the
"Mammies"- Louise Beavers who played .the domestic who
lived a " me and my shadow'i life in the classic, sobby 1934
version of Fanny Hurst's Imitotion of Life, Hattie McDaniel
who played scoies of Rîghteous SuperChristian hymnsinging,
Biblespouting mammies and Butferfly McQueen, who sub'
starred with her inGone With The Wind, What Bogle sees is
how well these wonderful performers did under the conditions of their rgles as slaves, chauffeurs, shoe-shine boys and
domestics. Although he says he found it diffcult to gather
personal information on many of these players, Bogle tells
us what details he can about their personal lives, how the
strange type of Hollywood semi-stardom affected them,
whatlhey'were like as people' lt is fascinating and he obviously häs a special affection for the generally "nicer" era
of the''30's anã'40's. The book also traces the careers of
serious black actors and actresses including some almost forgotten narnes such as Rex lngram and Nina Mae McKinney
ãnd Clarence Muse. There's a history of the "sepia" pictures, too, such as D.W. Griffith's rac¡st Birth of o Notion
and Marc'Connelly's Green Postures, a real shuffle-along

traces the history from the first
t'coons" in silents (who were actually white actors made up

"Tom" show..The book

in blackface) through the black-financed independent p19ãuction companies-which turned out parodies of white films
for black ghetto grindhouses, through Sammy Davis, Jr.
Harry Belãfontg Sidney Poitier, right up.t9 Bon O'Neal,
lim Brown, Supsr-¡¡r, Cotton Comes To Harlem, Putney
'Swope,
lla:termelon Man and Shoft's Big Score,
. lt's'a very good and comprehensive history you're bound
to enjoy reading and you'll lea¡'n an awful lot you never
knew

28

bôfore,

-Tom

McNamara

TI-IË LORDS OF FLATBUSI-I
The Lords of Flatbush is, strangely enough, a movie whibh
is precise in its small details and overwhelmingly false in its
general portrayal of Brooklyn gangs in the 1950's-so much
so that I felt a need to set the record straight. Thirtgs like
the hairstyles (dips and d.a.'s for the men, curlers and teased
hair for the women), leather jackets and clothes were ter-

ribly accuratÞ-but so what? Who hasn't seen these already
in old movies and new fifties nostalgia musicals like Greose?
The scenes in the soda shop and "making out" at the Sunrise Drive-ln also took me back along memory lane.
Some of the action was supposed to appear

,,campy":

acting tough around school, fighting other boys but [osing
in the playground and so on. But in reality, the Lords (there
was a group in Flatbush called The Egyptian Lords) werç not
funny-especíally to non-members. They were not (as they
call themselves in the film) a "social club.', Their main activities see¡ned to be robbing (not just cars for ,,joyridding"
as depicted in the film, but also kids) and mostly fighting
(but not the clean little fistfights of the movie-the Lords
used chaìns, pipes, knives and probably guns). Most of it
was totally unheroic. Once, a friend of mine came home
from junior high school with a knife still sticking out of his
back. And I remember some local gangs spent a lot of time
drinking codine syrup while appropriatelf sitting on the
tombstones in the local cemetery.
Courting a girl who wasn't a gang member (as does Chico
in the movie) certainly wasn't part of the scenb. Most and
probably all parents knew about the gangs and wouldn't let
their daughters go out with a greasy creep like Chicol
The greatest distortion, however, was in the depiction of
the girlfriends. In the movie, they seem to have two major
preoccupations: popping gum and getting the male Lords to
wed them. I can vouch that popping and cracking gum was
a very popular sport in the 1950's. Some of the Egyptian
Lords may indeed have entertained marriage notions, but
most of the girls were young teenagers and it would b9 impossible for me to conjure up ttr. imug" of one of therl ûying on sparkling diamond engagement rings in the. hopes of
conning a Lord into buying it for her (as happens in the
movie).
ln facq what I remember sparkling in their hands most
was the steel edge of a switchblade. And how well I remember that! For one summer I was attacked by ten Egyptian
Lords because I was standing on the.corner with someone
they were "after" (l never discovered why). They were bigger than I was-they were in junior high school or high school
and I was probably in the 6th grade. They backed me up
against afence, pushed me around, and started to burn me
with lit cigarettes. When they pulled out their switchblades,
I made a wild dash through the pack of them and my speed
and fear kept me ahead of them until I made it home.

I was one of the luckier ones. There were many stories
(whispered because we were taught to be ashamed of such
things) of the Ladies having knifed and even sexually mutilated girls.
Yes,"reality is grimmer than fiction, so no wonder the
nostalgic treatment of gangs such as The Lords of Flatbush
made me ragingly mad. I'd rather see the stylízed conflicts
and mawkish romanticism of West Side Story than this perverted version of history. The good old days weren't much
fun-for me at least-and I'm sick of this type of nostalgia,
especially violence nostalgia. lf you ever feel nostalgia for
those old Brooklyn gangs, go to the Bronx. The names faces
and clothes have changed, but the same grim ugly truth is

there.

,, I sympathize with her lament that some
pro-Life people are sometimes less than consistent in their philosophy of nonviolence.
Pointing out an oversight in the reporting

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

-Karla Jay

science." Frankly I don't find it very imaginative to ignore the real world, which contains
the most challenging stimuf to our imaginations possible. To beüeve in Chariots of the
Gods?, as with the Guru or any other dogma,
it takes but one fundamental leap of faith
and the rest is easy (ie., unimaginative).
Understanding life, as with liÍing it, is a perpetual challenge and it seems such a copout
to take the easy way out, just because it lS
so

chauengins

however, may appease this lamenl
There was a Prol-ife group-the Nationa}
tputh-Pro.Life-Coalitio n ( NypLC)- at the
ñätional Right to Life Convention which
does muntain a consistent Pro-Life philov
ophy of nonviolence. As a matter of fact it
was out of a senæ of outrage at the lack of
consistency in some "liberal" ostensibly
nonviolent philosophies emerging frorn the
wantng anti.war movement, that the coali

tion was foimed.

i^ljl#ffåå

', Many founders

people by limiting the population Thus the
timing of granting legalized abortion is made
suspect as the same grantors have denied day.
carq neighborhood health centers, a decent

minimum incomq_ etc.
Right to Lifers may have sensed that people are losing the choice of having children.
While representing, to a degree, resistance to
the structural changes,in capitalism that
would integrate women (more fully than
before) into the corporate machinery, Right
to Lifers chose to blame the women's movo

í

'

i'

.

i

How can I pxplain to hundreds of various
soups and organizations, that their only
ihanie in achieving success ili the ð¡cation
ãnä J.u"rop*"nt õf a "new societ¡i", is
through the unity of their concepts, ideas
and
-ROBERT CRANK

strategies?

Feder"

"i:ii,ff:ï:i

WHAT I HEARD
AT THE AUTO PARTS
Fri morning

tools (,

under Snap Oh

lence

Globemastei electro magnifìers
sweet air stale car odor vanishers
I get the talk for the last time
: Nixon resigned, &
propylene glycol, Anti-freeze
$5 a bbttle, Ûhat're they

our tgchnocracy, e.g; the poverty economy,
in the prisong in the fields of harvest et aL
The NYPLC tries vigourously to nurture
nonviolent solutions to the problems humans have in their.life froin conception'til
natural death | -PRtRtcIlG. BARD
SL.Pau[ MN

That's whatCows & milo, midland sorghums
the Kansas drought, an
old farmer's outraged talk

Sacrifce fo¡ a revolution
So the main thrust of our action is in
the area of abortion because this struggle
has been largely neglected by the other
human.¡ights movements
The NYPLC does reject the use -qf.yi,s-

,

in civil and international conflicts as
well as in the more well hiöden violences of

ment instead of Nixor¡ the,Rockefellers
and ITT. Therefore, as Elizabeth McAlister
[WIN, 7/4/74] discovered, the pro-life vs
antilife categories are not helpful in unde¡standing either the abortion issue olthe
current state of the women's movêfnent
Tire question is whether engugh people
have learned from the abortion case that if
we do not possess the apparatus that de,
ûnes the meaning of victory-in this instance,
¡t
the clinícs, counseling services, hospital
regulations and conditiong pharmaceutioal
industry, etc.-then the results of that vio
tory may be hollow. Unforti¡nately because
we do not control that apparatus, having an
abortion today is still made to be a dehumanizing experience for many womert.
The other institutions which might make
it possible for having and raising children to
be a positive choice- the family, day carê'
health and nutritiorç rec¡eation facilitieq
clothing, schools, etc.-are still under corporate domination to the extent that witl¡
out making them areas of struggle the
woman's movement will be alien to mil'
lions who seek a positive alternative to abo¡'

to

of the NYPLC having

wo¡ked against many of the "deatlr-dealing"
fqrces in this society were amazed when in
l9'13, the Supreme Court dealt still another
{eath blow to the weak and vulnerable in
this society. Even more amazed were they
when they saw how readily this violence
was accepted and promoted by the media
a¡rd even the womens' moyement who for
the most part suppoited the other Pro-Life
positions Sometimes it seems like we have
to save some little place in our life for killing-like we really think we need a blood

Some people who fought for the legalization
of abortion are having second thouÁhts about
the meaning of that struggle. The diawbafks
of having made abortion a primary focus of
the organized women's movement become
apparent as \r/e see abortion used to control

tercst and penalties) or I'll seiic your wages,
bank accounl property and/or rights
;
proPertY."
one
there's
thing
I
its
if
can't
stand,
Now,
pushy relatives
-JERE ROSEMEYER
Eugene, OR

hoarding it for?
Food.

: price a grain's gone

I

skyhigh-

As

I

was growing up

I was told that I, like

t

'-

-

August,

all Americans, had a powerful but kindly
& the tang.of winter
friend who would wätch over rhe all my life.
in high mtn air. Need a
This benign Uncle would grant me many
',
freedoms that people in other countries
sparkplug
-' '
could not enjoy, including the most precious
:'
Sell ya a iune-up
; .¡ight of all the opportunity to make all the
Fender
banger bodyshop $30 hammer
money I could so that I bould buy all the
.¡naterial possessions I wanted.
the bottorn shelf..on
'For all these benefits, my generoùs Unele-,
Whatta peacekeeper!
wánted'only three things Füst, I was told,,
.þe wanted me to vote, Secondly; beca,u-s.e.II heard the ole man sav'''
"soft
had been born with a certain chromosõniè;
èn¿'s i;.ciub em áown, rhar
and
build"
he wanted me to kill pedple or
steel-tipped
side for when
maintain machines that would kill people. I
¡¡.,
they really get
told Uncle Sam I didn't want to do this So
tiorL
guess what; he said it was OK I could be
We all laughed.
The ultimate struggle is not merely for
come a "conscientious objector." Good ole
the rGht to live, but-not meaning to sound
Uncle San
Who?
trite-for control ove¡ the meaning of one's
Finally, I was told" I had to pay taxes.
I wondered about that
life. For the individual that may mean having
This money helped Uncle Sam kill foreign
an abortion, but for the masses controlling
all morningBut
I
domestic "criminals."
the conditions under which we live will be a. "enèmies" and
So Ford has inherited the
couldn't clo that eithei; I was a "consciert
¡¡ore central and a harder struggla The
Sam
stopped
country? At last, a nation on
Uncle
tious
objector."
Sudderily
name that goal car¡ies is socialism.
smiling. Hè said, "Look, pat I can buy votes
wheels. 1Oam, & already
POaLLACK
-PETER
and I can kill gooks with billion dolla¡ ma
Nixon back home in
chines but I can't do either without money
San Clementepay
so
up!"
Thanks for Elizabeth McAliste¡s' article on
I didn't pay. Recently Uncle Sam sent
-John Brondy
Fo¡
Life:" túilN 1 l4l7 4l
"Feminists
me a letter;i'Þai up in ten days (with ir¡
August 1974

buddy?
kit-

..

rough-

'¡

-

I

WIN
WIN

29

,.5evE OUR WHALES" Ofdef Whale stamps.
$1.O0 a sheet, ffom Toby Mall¡n, 635 I N.
oaktêy Ave., Chicago, lL 60659.

US COMPLICITY IN SOUTHERN AF.

PEOPT.ES

BULLEIIN
BOARD
FREE IF NO EXCHANGE
OF $$ INVOLVED AND
ONLV 20 WORDS:
OTHERWISE $I EVER,V
IO WORÞS'
GODDARD/CAMBRIDGE PROG RAM IN
SOCIAL CHANGE..An ãccredited M.A.
pfogrôm of Goddafd colleger accept¡ng
students f or' !97 4-797 5. Projects ¡ncludel
lndochina, lmper¡alism and National Liberation, Latln America, Struggles in Hous¡ng,
Pr¡sons, The Consciousness lndustry (film
and med¡a), Middle East, People Make Hi5.
tory, Occupational Health, Organiz¡ng
Women Office Worker's, 2Oth Century Ch¡na,
corporate Power, Also a w¡de program of
Femln¡st Stud¡es ¡ncluding, Writing Workshop, Lesbian Culture, Women and Trad¡tional Mus¡c" Catalog avallable. 5 Upland Rd.,
Cambridger Mass. O2140. Tel. 617-492-0700.
PEACE CENTER COORDINATOR positlon
open in early Oct. '74t interested people
should contact: schenectady Peace Center,
535 Schenectady St., Schenectady, NV
12307. (5r8) 37+3561.

STAFF POSITION AT CCCO-WR-Central
committee for conscientious Objectorg
western Reg¡on is currentli looklng for
someone to work in its off¡ce as program
coord i nator. Necessary skil ls ¡ncl ude writinE,
ed¡ting and experience in mil¡tary and/or
draft counseling. Exper¡ence ¡n coordinatlon
anci tund ra¡s¡ng is desirable Salâry is $4,80o
per ypar with fringe benef¡ts lnterested persons should contact CCCO-WR, 1251 2nd

Avenue, San Franclsco, CA. Telephone (415)

5660500.

A major l¡beral church, Boston,

seeks Dlrec.

tor, Off¡ce of Gay Concerns, Adm¡nistrative,

RICAN RACISM AND COLONIALISM.
End the news blackout. Reacl about People's
Movement+ US polltical, economlq milltary
¡NVOIVEM€NI. R€Ad SOUTHERN AFRICA
monthly magazlne, $s/year. Write for sample, SAC, 244W.27th Street. Þept. W New
York, New York l0OOl.

Your used US and forelgn stamps can make
our next 200 issues easier. Send stamps to
WlN, c/o Work, lnc., 652 So. East St.,
Holyoke, MA 01040, Mail 3ril_clasa

New Midwost research lnstltute seeks unselfish, socially-consc¡ous, non-careerlst MAPhD Movement economists, pólitical scientistsr etc., who can get grants-or rði5ê funds.
Sem¡-scholarly stud¡es on war-peace recon'
version, etc, Read Gfoss and osterman "The
New Professionalst' pp 3?77. M¡dwest lnstltute, 1206 N 6th St., 43201.

DREAM BOOK-A handbook ls being put
together about dreams and the d¡fferent
ways people around the country are working w¡th them. For more information, wrltè
to D¡ck McLeester, c/o Whole Earth Learning Community, A77 E, Johnson st.r Mad¡son, Wisc' 53703.

Thc

Farmworkers
are askíng you
to boycott
Gallo wines.

of

,
Retail Value of
PAC! $6.00

$5.50

Pleasc help.

U¡ltcd F¡rn tVort¡cl¡
oi Àncrlc¡ (AFL.GIO)

to work in

Reading, PA organ¡zlng among the poor
blacks, wh¡tes & Puerto R¡cans. The hours
are long and the pay is low. Foi more ¡nformat¡on write: Po Box 72r Readlng' PA 19603

\

BEGINNING BEWARE! Freak Brothe r:s no. 3;Zap
Comix no. 7; Dr. Atomic no. 2; Black & White; Peoples;
Facts O'Life.
$3.60
Send age statement with order (You MUST be 18 to order comix). lf you
order all 3 packages, we will refund $3.00 of your money to WIN Magazine.

current

GR

EEN REVOLUTI ON-AÞ

.palach¡an women speaking about themselv€s¡
sample 25ø. Our paper' published by a
cathollc Worker commun¡ty' g¡ves a rad¡cal

view of l¡fe ln the mountains by Appalachians.
Subscriptions $1.50 (6 issues). Eight back
issues $1, THE GREEN REVoULTION,
West Haml¡n, Wv 2557L.

our Generat¡ôn, Radical llteratur€ on Women,
Labour, Quebeq Canada' Amer¡ca, Europe.
Free t¡t tist, 3934 5t. urbain; Mtl, Quebeci
HzW117.

INTERESTED IN AIDING THIRD WONUO
LIBERATION? We can provide resources,

lnfo, organizing assistance, Nat¡onal Coali.
tion fgr Social Change, 58 N, 3rd St., Phila,
PA 19106. l2t5' 9216763.

at The Community for Nonviolent Action Farm

sible to survive on a small salary
and find joy in communal living.
Tell us someth¡ng about yourself,

including examples,of your work if
possible WlN, Box 547, Rifton, NY
12471.

Route 1 65, Voluntown, Connecticut.
conference on parent cooperative childcare to draw tògether some of the
scattered groups around the Northeast who, often [n isolation, arq struggling
with issues of coop. daycare. We hope that in a weekend spent together we
can share our successes and failures, hopes, plans and ideas, ieturning to our
own centers with new insight and enthusiasm to push our work ahead.

-A
t

¡

:

Sponsored by the Ch¡ldcai¿ Oig¿n¡z¡ng Grouó,
Kilby Station, New Haven, Connecticut.

fioi-l+tZ,

Write for further information and applications.

fur"@þ^* (a,ûr

å

IT COULD BE JUST WHAT YOU NEED

A new piece of the earth has been set aside dedicated
to the integration of external and internal solutions to
the problems that face us. S¡tt¡ng in the Berkshires be
side 700 acres of town land to be held "forever wild¡" .

Because of popular demand we're having another
WINE AND CHEESE TASTING PARTY
AT THE HIGH TOR VINEYARDS!

Roqe Conference Center is offering a fascináting series

.i
.

:

of Weekend retreats.

Harvey Cox, aglhor and theologian, will be with us

F¡fteen acre farm available for small conferences, conditions rustic, but cooking
and lodging fac¡lit¡es prov¡ded. Site is 2
hours west of D.c. at base of Blue R¡dge
Mountains in VA. contact¡ Source Collective, P.O, Box 21066, Washington, D.C,
20009. 202-3A7-Lr45.

MoUNTAIN wOMEN-the theme of the

THE POLITIÇS OF COOPERATIVE CHILDCARE
A cdnference, SeptemUer 19.15, 19i4

WIN needs a staff person to work
on layout and design. A political
head is required as well as the kind
of ôommitment, that makes it po*

'

*

Annual subscription $7.ü), airmail $10.00, from
275 Kings Road, Kingston, Surrey, England

oonattoni cf
Book* Albums, Stãmps. Anythlng ph¡latellc
needo+-Terry L Flowêr, Box 2304, Sta.
tlon B, L¡ncoln, Nebraska 68502.

P.O. Box 62
Keene, Co. 93531

Last Gasp, 1274 Folsom St.,
San Fiancisco, CA 94103

Life

Prlsonêrs collectlng stamps.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS NEEDED.

We have openings f or people

*Land is

Malaga, NJ 08328.

Retail Value of
PACKAGE 3

interpersonal, communicat¡on and educa-

*A critical look at Murray Bookchin

WORLD VEGETAR IAN CONG RESS'75.
Frê€ detalls. Write¡ North Amerlcan Vege
tarlan Society, 5Ol Old Hardlng Hwy.,

Mary; Dopin Dan no. 3; Net Profil

tional skills, Salary approximately $12,O0O
per year. Resumdto uuGc, GcN Box 100o,
22 Broomfield St., Boston, Mas$ 021O8.

Gramdan

For free sample copies and subscf iption
rates to the monthly newsletter of the MovÈ
ment for Economlc Jusilce, wrlto to JUST
ECONOMICS, 1609 Connecilcut Avenue
NW, Washtngton, Dc 2ooo9.

LIBERATION ORIENTED COMIX! Sex & Äffection,
Harold Hedd no. 2; lnner City no. 2;Slow Death no' 6;
Schizophrenia; Blinky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin

to:

on --

decen*tralization, organic life stylq gpolqgy and non;i,ril ; ;; ;t';. tiesu'iar "col um ni u v'e.¡. 5àh u mact{er and Geoffrey Ashe. SgRt/Oct issue includes:
*Land, PeoPle and government
*Ãii¡iuiturä and communitY
*Kibbutz and
;
*Waste no want not in China
.

COMIX BY WOMEN! Wimmen's Comix 1;2;3;
Pudge, Pandoras Box; Girl Fight; Abortion Eve;
Tits & Clits; Manhunl

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A maeazine for an alternative society. Articles

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POSTPAID ECONOMY PACKS
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Restr€ence

Encyclopedlc cl¡pplng/pamphlet coll€ctlon,
located Lakewood NJ, free to best proposed
use. i/vrlte Axel-Luter 228 Orange Rd, Mont'
clair, NJ O7O42.

to experiment..in.treating new r.nyths and rituals. Wal'
ter Collins, a founder of SNCC and draft resister, yill
explore vi¡igds..of..4 reyolutionary society with con'
iîete ways of òrèafirtf it; He'i5 c¡rrrently executive .
dírictorof SCEF, a southern group that since 1938 .
Come sample the splendíd wines of High Tor and taste cheeses of five nations.
Go on a tour of the winery and vineyards conducted by ßhe winemaker him'
self, Father Tom Hayes. Enjoy the majestic beauty of High Tor Mountain over'
looking the Hudson. (Near Ñew City. in Rockland County.)
Our last wine tasting fundraiser at High Tor was such an enjoyable way to
make money for WIN that we just had to do it again!
This time it's all happening on September 28, from two to four in the after"
noon. The price of admission is still only $5 which should be sent directly to
WlN. Since attendance is limited, send your check today to confirm your
reservation.
Find out for yourself why High Tor wines are among the most prized wines
of New York State,
,

WIN *

Box547 *

Rifton, NY 12471

has been organizing the poor. Bob Swann, WWll retirær , foun-der of tne N'ew England Com'mittee

for

-'"'

Nonviolent Abtion, and director of the lntèrnational
lndependence lnstitute, will focus on decentralized
economic alternatives and land "ownership."
Other weekends will focus ôn couples who have
been through CR groups, behavioral psychology, ecology of the body, yoga, families and more. $25 a weekend. ScholarshiPs.
Send

for brochure: Douglas Wilson
Kirgs HighwaY Road
Rowe, Mass 01367

(413) 33e-8376

wrN 3l
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