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I
PEACE AND FREEDON'THRU NON
.t
October 3, 1974 / 201
,
ALOOK AT LESSONS WE CAN LEARN FROM CHII.E
QUAKERS AND GAY LIBERATION
,DAN BERRIGAN ON PALESTINIAN TERRORISM
TED GLICK QUITS THE CAT,HOLIC LEFT,
,ACT'ON
e01 Þþ
r¡il
ñu
1CItu3lüt
sIi{' oNVl3À11}
qe'igra¡rbdzlr't'
ua-ijsh¡v'l¡
u 0I-.tL
f'
,tl
We must work to open the eyes of Ameri
cans to the fact that the US Government is
ô
Robert Bi¡rch
Questions to ask your Congresspeople while
the issue is hot:
l. How is it that in the name of mercy, in
order to relieve the sufering of the Nixon
family, hopi4g to insure domestic t¡ar
quility, and so as to close the tragic book
of Watergatg President Ford can grant a
full, free and absolute pardon to Richa¡d
Nixon; but at the same time hê will not
issue a universal and unconditional amnes
ty to the Vietnam War resisters-those men
who went to jail, who took up exile in
Canad4 who dese¡ted the a¡med forces, and
who received less than honor4ble discharges
because they could and would not support
the Vietnam War?
2. Do not the war resisters merit mercy
even more than Nixon, when their crime is
refusing to support a questionable war and
Nixon's c¡ime is that of subve¡ting and urr
dermining our democratic system of goverrr
ment?
3. Have not the families of war resisterô
suffered dt least as ntuch as and for a much
longer period than the Nixon household?
4. Can the dbmestic tranquility be regained
and maintained any less by the complete
and unconditional amnesty of all the war
resisters, than by full, free and absolute
þardon of Richard Nixon?
5. And why close only the tragic book of
Watergate, while the tenible sc¡r of Vietnam lies open and unhealed upon the face
of our nation due to the lack of amnesty?
6. Congressperson (or Senator), what have
you to say on this issue? Will you tell our
new President what I and so many other of
your constituents desire-universal and urr
conditional amnesty? And will you support
legislation granting universal and uncor¡
ditional amnesty? -STEVE BORTON
East Lansing MI
I am g[ad to hear that other war resisters
react as I do. to the Ford proposals on
"clemency'' for us We must'reject these
and work for thE kind of America.which
can be honest enough to change its mind
and its ways This would mean a turning
away from milita¡ism; Unconditional Am.
nesty would only be a step in this direction.
2 WIN
the Vietnam criminal, not us.
It seems to mg though, that some of us
might give thought to offering some coÞ
crete alternatives to the punitive Ford
proposals This is not to suggest compromise,
but to clarify and help keep diaiogue and
movement possible If we do not do thiq we
are likely to see a continuing standoff fo¡
some time. The government will do nothing
to clarify the controversy, since it stands to
lose f¡om a popular recognition of the truth
about Vietnar4 so the burden of insisting
on t¡uthfulness falls upon us, and the
initiative in further dialogue will have to be
oufs.
What a¡e the basic ¡ealities of the War
which the P¡esidenfs proposals seek to cor¡
ceàl? In his Press Conference Fo¡d must have
used the phrasç "heal the wounds" ûve o¡
six times.Of course he was referring to the
woundg predominately psychological and
political, whieh Americans and America
suffered over ou¡ war in.SE Asia..
The President's remarks, however, in fixing attention on American suffering, are an
ext¡eme example of the continuing government attempts to cove¡ up what we as a
people did in Southeast Asia. IVe killed
'míllions of peoplg wouqded (quite literally)
millions more in the course of our war there.
lVe systematically tried to destroy whole
sections of society; we did irreparable
,damagé to the environment over vast areas
of SE Asi4 ¿nd th¡eatened even. the precious
genetic resources of whole populations,
I don't mean to underplay the srfferings
of Americans, which have been real and
terrible But the pain of our own people
sltould not blind us to the fact that Asians suffered far, far mo¡e than Ame¡icans did
in that terribly onosided war (and they are
still suffering lest we fq¡get that too).
In the light of the abovq I zubmit the
following proposals in an attempt to stimulate dialogue about how war wounds might
truly be healeû
1. That antiwar groups and individuals in
the US and elsewhere cofisider volunteering
?t program of peopleto
people repdrations and reconciliation by
way of human serv.ice work in Southeast
Asia.
for and organizi.ñg
2. That such wörk be
caried out by a fully
autonomous, nongovernmental agency set
up and administered by the volunteers thenr
selves
That, rather than being associated with
any governmentq political parties, etc.,
service work by this alency be tied to the
efoits of UN Peacekeeping forces, and/or
to the work of the,United Buddhist Church
of Vietnam and simila¡ noraligned" nongorrernmental reconciliatory groups in Laos
3.
and Cambodia.
4. That the primary wo¡k ofsuch a service
agency be done in SE Asi4 but that this
work shçuld also be supported by fundraiv
ing and educational projects in the US and
elsewhere,
5..That this agency be funded at leæt in
part by monies dive¡ted from the US mili
tary budget, as, for example, fronl the savings which could be effected by abolishing
and dismantling Selective Service. That.such
US funds-without strings-be made p41t of
an Unconditional Amnesty for wa¡ ¡qsi$tors
-'^-åJ,,'*:f
,fS
It's unfair for Straíght Oeek to taugh àt thå
titles of Chinese Songs [WIN, Change¡
9ll2l74l Poetry never translates we[.anyway, and did you ever read a list of tiúejof
old pop songs from USA? Some of the.
Chinese tunes are real good, and I ençlose*
a couple which I learned there two years ago,
and which I'm now recording for FolkwaysI multiple dubbed these renditions ,
The slower melody is the theme.song of
one of the favorite revolutionary operas
"White Haired Gi¡I." The spiightly marching
,
tune is title{ believe me: "The Three Rules of
Discipline and the Eþht Rules of Attention"
It seems that 27 yeas ago when the
soldiers of Chiang were deserting to the
Red Army most of them wefe illiterate, anil
had to be taught some rules in a hurry. So
(in eight verses) this song says, "Obçy o¡ders, march in step, never molest wgrpen,
help the peasants gather crops. Never.take
anything; not even a needle or thread. with
out paying for it-and pay a fair price, . ."
and so
-PETE SEEGER
on.
Beacon, NY
ìPete sent us a tape:hte l¡stened and we
bdieve: The tunes are
-kryN
lovely.
Arthur Ha¡ris ('Learning at Home," Sept
5) has described well what can hapþbn tó
privileged ahd overprivileged childten whose
homeq parents and expectations aie all
geared to lite¡acy, achievement and indulgence Certainly there is no argumériÎ from
me that inore ¡eal learning takes plãte-under
such conditions than could happerÍ in a
classroorn But what about kids whó donJ
have access to books about astronomy; tcl
seeing plays to fire thei¡ interest (eg,' 1776
and the American Revolution); or six month
trips to Mexico?
Home education fo¡ kids without such a
privileged environment will indeed educate
thenl but not in literacy, math and science.
If we assume literacy is a survival necessity
in our societS we have got to avoitl narrow
solutions such as described in "Ledrfiing at
Home"" Poo¡ kids deserve more from a
society which already gives them little
enousr'.
-ANtä#;J.iï5ii
,Arthu¡ S. Haniq Ir. says (Sepl 5, 1974)
of mind.
Yuk
Sounds
to mg Arthur S. Ha¡riC
gestiön that it's.a beach not just "to read
aboüÇ but to duplicate." The problem,
though, is that people-with o¡ without
st¡its-are still wrappetl in cars. Consequently,
thè boaches.they come to use are seriously '
threatened'and in many pases destroyed, by
the vehicle they're encouraged to usé'(newer
highways, parking lotq etc). l_ wish Schechter
had elaborated.on this. What Cape Cod needs
mos{, in our opìnion, is a "guide for peoplo'
using boats & bicycleg jitneys & bups," a
guide similar to one þublished this year by
Friends Fo¡ Bikecology: "Diçcovering Santa
Ba¡b¿ua. . .without a car." Which is to suggest that ifsocialism comes
by bicyclq
the
,
nude society will come by openair, piggyback
-JOHN DOWUN
Phila, Bicycle Coalitíon
.
transport
('Vie
peo
Mike says. easily "aroused to violent pas
síôns," why would people have to do all the
things Mike notes that we do in order to go
to wat? Why would we have to demean and
dehumanize our potential enemies by câlling them gooks (or Nips or Krauts) instead
of 'Vietnamese (or Japanese or Germans)?
as the hoìro, oi *a, increases, does it
become more necessary to separate soldiers
from actual effects of their actions (hiding
thcír "behind banks of buttons, switches,
"diqls
and gauges on their control panels,"
as Mike says)? If we're really violent by
nature, really bloodthirsty unde¡ ou¡ ve
neer of socialization, why is all this neces
saly to get us to fight wari? Is there an
answer to this seeming cohtradiction?
,,"There is not. All this is necessary because
people are not inherently violent (and, I
should mentior¡ neither are they inherently
nb4ïiolent: \ile are c¡eatu¡es with the capacity for both, but are.by iaturê neither).
We are, rathdç complex creàtuies with conflicting social mores, confliçling teaphings
¿'the
about violence and broiher/iisterhood:.
Golden Rule," the 10 Commandrhents, and
dfiy,
Contrary to Mike Abell's assertion
lence and the Movies," \VIN, July 11),
ple have not constructþd elaborate defenses
against the notion that they "might
some, , .bloodthi¡stiness in their personalities." "loye your neighbor" clash rather mightlly
More and morg people have been
with nationalism and the willingness to !ó
quite the opposite: internalizing
saying
tp war under certain conditions. Faced
comes as a result of our animal
with þreater and greater confliôts between.
claiming that the¡e will always be violence I the humanistic ideals and the reality of war,
because it's instinctual,.
we cqnvince ourselves that it can't be helped,
The simple blunt fabt-a fact that
that it's inherent in our very natures. And
pacifists seem unwilling to face*is that ii
since what is natu¡e can't bè dealt wit¡þy.
'ùl '
all nonsenss The¡e is no rêliable ethological, reason or logic, it must bb ¿é¡t wifn
anthropological, sociologic4 or psycholpgi force. And so the circle co¡itiriues.
.-LARRY ERICKSON
cal evidence to support the charge thçt
ple are by nature violent, or even tha¿
Loíg Brancl, NJ
ple by 4ature have a violent side to their per"sonalities Therç is quite obviously an¡over- After reading the notès "La PlazaGabriel"
, abundance of evidence that péoploftave.
in WIN of Sãpt 12 I wish we had a war
capacity to he violent but that is just
memorial in Yellovl Springs. Maybe we do,
obviously not lhe same as being violent
but I ¡vas born and raised here without evel
noticing one. Maybe it was torn down years
. One wonders why, if people were in
-DON HOLLISTER
viòlent by nature..if. in fact. we could be,
Yellow Springs, OH
contain
doing
it
i!
heritage,
etc.
even
is
-
peopeo
the
as
by
fact ago.
6
nature'
\
like you've been to too much schooL
-EMMA EVECHILD
Minneapolig MN
Danny Schechtet's "On The Beacli The
Movement fo¡ a Nude Society" [WIN,
9l l9l24l is one of those articles that makes
Oçtober 3,1974
|
Vol. X, No. 33
4. Lessons of Chjle I Eot Nicnot
8. Ten Days Against Yiolence I Ann
Morrìssett Davidon
10. Checking in rúith George Lakey
Mork Mqïis
'1!
12. Poet lmprisoned I Jon Boch
i
13. Three Poems I Alfred. Sonny ttowetl
14. Revolution/Retaliation I Dan Berrigan
17. An Open Letter of Resignation from
, ; -ìthe carho"lfc Left. I Ted Glick
19. Changes "
21. Reviews
COVER: Phóto by Batya Weinbaum/LNS
School room in a school bus ln Chlle
durlng the Allçnde reglme.
STAFF
Maris Cakars
. Susan Calt¡ts --
Chuck Fager. Mary Mayo
..î
Mark f4orris . Susan Pines
Fred Rosen . Martha Thomases
.4
Because
of popular demand we're having another
WINE AND CHEESE TASTING PARTY
AT THE HIGH TOR VINEYARDS
sAT., SEPT. 28rh!
UNINDICTED
CO.CONSPIRATORS
Lance Belv¡lle . Jerry Coffln ' Lynne Coffln
Dâvies . Ruth Dear . Ralph Dlcla
':.Dlana
.Br¡an Doh€rty . Seth Foldy . ,Jlm Foróst '
Leah Frltz . Larry Gara - Nell Haworth
Ed Hedeman , Grac€'Hedemàh . Marty Jezer
, Becky Johnson . Nåncy Johnson'
'Pàúl þhhton'.: All¡son Karpel . cra¡g KarÞeI
:
"Taken tp its infinite end, one could wonder
whethe¡ schools with all those instructional
hours don't sometimes hinder lea¡ning."
Infinite end? ! Wondei? ! Somedimes!?
I was a fuIl 7 years old when I came to
the conclusion that schools were/á¡e right.'
now delnitely always a hindiance not ônly
to learning but to general well being and
peace
to order another l0 WIN subscrip
tions'for oui friends-outstanding! As a long'
timê beacher at Truro, I can applaud the sug'
us want
Come sample the splendid wines of High Tor and taste cheeses of five nations.
Go on'a tour of the winery and vineyards conducted by the winemaker himself, Father Tom Hayes. Enjoy the majestic beauty of High Tor Mountain overlooking the Hudson.'(Near New City in Rockland County.)
Our last wine tasting fundraiser at HiglfiTor 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
Septçmber 28, from two to:four in the afternoon. The price of admission is still only$5.
There is stilt space. So call tóday to make your reservat¡on. 91+339-4585,
Find out for yourself why High Tor wines are among the most prized wines
of Nsw York State.
, WIN * Box547 * Rifton,NYl247"l * 91+339-4585
John Kyper . Eliot Linzer . Jacksoñ'Mectow
David McRoynolds . Mark Morrls . Jim Peck
Tad R¡chârds . lgal.Roodsnko . Nancy Rogen
Wendy Schwartz . Bêverly Woodward -'; ._
box 547 '
rifton
new york
'12471
telephone 914 339-4585
wlN ls
publ¡shed weekty except for thê flfst
two.weeks ¡n Januart, 2nd week in May, last 4
weeks in August, and the last weêk in óctober
þy thê WIN Publlshlng Empire wtth the support
of the War Reslsters Leaguq Subscripilons'are
$7.O0 per year. second. class Þostage at New
Y_ofK NY 1O0Ol. lridlviduál writers ô16 r€spon.
s¡blê for opinions oxpressed and accuracy of
facts g¡ven. Sorry-manuscripts cannot bê 16turned unless accompânled by a self.äddressod
stamped
envetope.
Prlnted in U.S.A"
.
WIN3
Þrawing þy Cl l-ElLNS
,;
¡
Pll{ocltff
Lessorrs of Chile
ROBERT NICHOLS
I thought I hod understood copitalism, but what I hod
done wos assume on ott¡tude-meloncholy sodness_
toward it, -From a short story by Donãl¿ Barthelme
There have been three stages of capitalism in Chile_
each.happier than the last for the Americans, less so
for the Chileans. Export capitalism, invesimént capi_
tal¡sm, and now that practised by the big lnternatíonal
lompanies., SJarti ng. wìth min ing (the G uggenhei ms,
Anaconda, US Steel) they have gone intoãl branch'es
of man ulac tur i ngand serv.ici ng: petreche m i cals, man u_
lactured.food stuffs, textiles, off'ce equipment, cery1! slf t, oil distriburion, erc. The repórt on Chile
by NACLA has the best documentation of this.
But the reality is obvious: Chile is a ,,modern"
country. What the average North American does not
know-it is the study of the economists-is that the
system works to the disadvantage of Chile. Foreign
companies often take out of an undeveloped country
a good deal more than they put into iL ln recent
years ('1967-9) the copper industry proar"ø u l.rturn
on invested capital of 27%and all United States investments averaged 'l7o/0. At these rates ,,it would
take a North American company four to six years to
recoup its ínvestment and another four to sii vears to
lak-e a 1000/o profrt That is, after eight io 12 years
the foreign company is a net exportõr of caoitãl from
Chile." Allende's economists måde the ooint that in
the last 70 years ten billion dollars have been taken
out of Chile; that is, an amount equal to the total
capital accumulated in Chile over four centuries.
Another point not generally recognized is that
Noith American firms don't even have to use their
own caþital; increasingly this is ,,Creole', or iraiive
,9apt?l in a socalled "mixed enterprise" in which the
local partner raises the money and'participates in the
control inítíally.^Here is the,way this works (from
Çu,1da¡ Frank,. Copitaltsm ond Underdevelopment in
Latln America):
e metropot ita n (internat iono t) corporation,s moi n
contribution to the jo¡nt enterprise is a technologicat
pøckage of potents, des lg ns, i nd ustrio I processes,-hig hTh
4 WrN
solaried technicions and, lost but not least, trodemorks
and solesmonship; most of the finance copital is Lotin
AmerÌcon as ore the tox, exclusive ticense ond other
q a n d- pe r h a ps. mo st I m por to n t_ to ri ff p ro
tection, The international monopo,ly corporotion' then
proceeds to toke full advantoge of its techit¡cot
monopoly, .its finoncial reserve, and its direct or indirect
ryll.tÍcol pgwer; to dmw inêreasingly more profrts than
its Lotin AmerÌcan príners out ol1he¡r ro'mmon e*
c o n c.es s ì o n
terprße, to reinvest these and gain increosìng control, , ,
its Lotin Ameri:con business ãoimro
o¡9_9olltrcoil¡t emosculated and then usea ío siay tne
Lotin Americon governments to creote a still better
investment climote for ,,foreign,, copitol.
ln the process
The result of all this money gone and the foreisn,.
control is a kind of cruel joke, an il lusion. The f,oi'åv
t¿ken out means that new plants are not buiiiand the
native.economy is not devéloped. (From a Chitean
magazine):
ll
thesgenterprises hod been Chileon or if leqislation
thqt offected them hod been enacted in the ñotionol
ilter:st,-we coutd hove had. , .fìve iui"áiüår'fir'il"
steel refrnerÌes), fìve times the hydroelecù¡c ;oft
ntlxgp gnd frve t¡mes the oil pumps ond explorotion
of oil thot we today
possess.
One could add that the output of Chilean industrial
pl_arlts, which during the last decade naá run àt'SO_
l5Yo of capacity, could have increased. And the same
with agricultural productivity which had droooed
drastically during the last half century. Chile, iamous
lor tts wheat exports during the l9th century, now
imports food.
These options have been lost to history. At the
same time itseems that the benefits do cóme from the
foreign companies. (This situation ís not confined to
underdeveloped countries. lt is the same inside the
US with the oil crisis. All alternative forms and development strategies for energy have been eliminated and
bought out by "Big Oil." But if facq these compan¡es
provide our fuel.)
There is afurther irony. ln addition to cutting in
the Creole investo¡ the ínternatio¡al companies seer¡
to be subsidizing rhe governmeht itself. ln Chile it
was said that all government salaries and operational
iosts were paid for through taxes on copper during
t
fREr cl/.
writes me: "ln five months Pinqchet has recçived help
of about 200 million dollars from the US, ttìd Mone
tary. Fund, BID and Brazil, while in three years Allende's government only receivod 40 millions.'r
It would seem thad in the long run this system,wi[l
be unworkable. Too much will have been taken oút
of Chile, the buying power will be tqo low to sustain
the preserirâi.lraclive level'of profit. Then the international companies will simply close the books and
"de-capitalize" (allow their equipment to become ob-
the Frei governmenl ld fact çopper was a relatively
small percentage of 'national revenue: five times more
than that came from indirect taxes on the middle
class and the poor.
Another difficulty is caused by "convértibility." A
foreign corporation has an unlimited rightfo exchange
local currency (escuedos) for dollars-thus guaranteeing a balance of payments'deficit Devaluation of local
currency-one of the Chilean Junta:s first decrees after the counter-revolution*simply increased thp
repatriation of US dollars
There is a further difficulty: foreign investments
t'capital-intensiv,e"l that is, in labor'savare generally
ing machinery. ln a country with a rising population
this causes unemploymenl
From thè above it is clear why even a third world
country that seems rich-such as lran-can go into
debt and have to be financed by forelgn loans. lran's
foreign debt last year was two and one half billion
dollars. Quoting from Harry Magdoff:
To appreciote whtat the continuol growth in Cebt
meons, an exercise in simple orithmetìc ß helpful, If
o country borrowq say $1000 o yeor, before long the
service payments on the debt wìll be largter thon the
inflow of money each year, . .On o 20 year loan rit
5%, by the 15th year the capital oütflow wìll be
Iorger than the capitol inflow. In the 20th year the
bolrower ß poying out more thon $1.50 on past debt
every $1,00 of new money he borrows ""
ln 1970 almost $700 million of the 7.8 billion
Chile owed various international financial agencies
had not even been received, it staye{, in the bank, as
interest Davmenl
The fäcú islhatalt 20th century Chilean governments'have turned to this solution.'One ofrthem was
the socalled "lbuanez Dictatorship" which pursued
a progressive and reformist policy in many way-ex'
cept for the foreign loans. The Army made this couþ
in 1924 interestingly enough on the same day-Oc'
tober 1 1 th-that General Pinochet chose for his coup
last year. The lbanez coup was supported by the
Communist Party.
Pinochet and the present Junta is doing what every
Chilean government did before them-only atagreatly accelerated pace. My young friend, now in exile,
T
I
s
t
solete).
Meanwhile "real" wages go down and the people
suffer. The Chilean working class is eating a good deal
less than their fathers and grandfathers-and they
know it lncreasingly, the middle class is being
squeezed-but they may not know it. They may well .
believe what they read in the papers and what'the ads
tell them.
ln the short run, Yes. But in the long run-maybe
in the middle run-No. The present system will not
work. Meanwhile those that run it have the power to
eliminate all thé alternatives The Chilean Military
Junta and their backers could not afford to let it be
seen there were other options. This is one of the mean'
ings of the murder of Allende.
'
.
'.
TFIE'S¡GNIFICANCE OF CHILE
TO THE AMERICAN LEFT
.*ir. .,..
. The coming oi ir'r hîlitarv jtiritä to power in Santiago
.
'
;
¡ri Séptêrhber, '1973, meant the gpposite of the recenß:
army take-over in Portugal: repression. No one can
tell how long this repression, and the wiping out of a
democratic and socialist Chile, will last. Horl much
time? Time will be a morass for Chilean exiles of the
Left in foreign countries: boredom, the faltering of
hope, unemploymenl For their US sympathizers, the
memory will dim.
'
,
TWO SCENARIOS
I imagine two scenarios whereby somedoy a resurgent
Chile will affect the United States crucially and be of
help to the left They are both farfetched.
The first scenario is the "imperialist" argumenl ln
50 years, a crisis in the Third World will be inevitable.
WIN
5
Energy sources, strategic materials will have been
monopolì.zed among the big bloçks. Various countries-Chile, Kenya, lndoneiia-will not yield a sufficient rate of return for foreign investmänt; in any,
case-will have been squeezed ðry. Then socialism in
theformer satellites will be inevitable. Led possibly
by China, a re-nascent Third World will eveåtuilly'
come.into being and batter down reactionary Fortress
America.
During a long period there might be some vital and
nourishing link between members of the American left
and a Marxist government in Chile.
The second scenario-less conventional-is along the
lines of a regional anarchism. The relevanc, to õhil.
necds explaining.
Though expressed in terms of anti-colonialism and
nationalism, the Chilean butlook is also regionalist.
They have 4 strong feeling for their place. -Chile is a
geographical region: a plain between the mountains
and sea, running from the desert to icy Terra del
Fuego.- ln fact it is geographically simílar to the West
Coast from, say, the tip of Lower California north to
Anchorage. With a present population of l0 million
,,nation,'
of
Qn{ in 50 years 25-30 million), the small
Chile would correspond to this United States region.
It would correspond in the sense that it would have
the_same problems. The,main regional problem: re
slsting assimilation into the world-wide capitalist free
market system. We never pose the problem iri this
way because we are in fact totolly integrated into the
US economy and culture. Witn ús theré are no ,,real',
regions. But neither is there a real Chilean nation under the present system.
lf in the future there were to be an indeþendent
socialist Chile, it would be in a better position to de.
fend its own regionalism. And as a region, one of its
main struggles would be defensive.
I see anarchism as a defensive strategy_mainly uSe_
ful to us here among the Norrh Americãn Lefr li is
!ot_ at any rate has not been-applicable to Chile.
Chilean working-class tradition is clearlv Marxist.
Anarchism wÒuld seem sentimental to dhem. But ín
style Chilean socialism is anti-bureaucratli. ãctivist
and.spontaneous. lt is existentially anarchísL
Anarchism is a defensive strategy: relevant to our
own situation here in the United States, most particularly_æ regards the development of regionå ism.
Paul Goodman-that wonderful draweiof pictures-argued that America is populist and anarchist;
but he never pushed his conclusions rlgorously. lnstead he gave examples from small entèrprises and
the counter-culture: WBAI. . .the communes. Or, al-.
ternativel¡ in the American pAsfi the Federal¡st Era
(1 79G1820) was a paradise of the de-centralists.
There are so many anarchist/regionalist stra¡ns converging now: the most important is Murray Bookchin:
a technology using alternate energy sources (wind,
solar:) and smaller-scale, more complex machines (the
electric steel furnace and planetary míll). T¡sss ¡svy
become practicable within the region.
Another is E.F. Schumacher and the lntermediate
Tech.nol ogy. Dev_elopment G rou p. Sch umaðher (author
of The Small is Beautifull argues capital-intensive
technology (global oil, steel, fertiliz'ers) is contradic
tory for underdeveloped areas of the world which
demand a labor-intensive technology, capable of maintaining and reproducing itself cheaplv with locaf
means.
Alsq there are innumerable American grouos:
Land Trust Movement; farmer-producers ãoopäratives
(Natural Organíc Farmers' Association of Veimon¿L:
communes drawíng on the technology of the lWtoë
Earth Cotolog; Allen Ginsbergrs farm with its .'
exemplary windmill running the water pump and
hi-fi; the-country-wide ex peli mental gróu ps'promoted
by the Malne Times.
What all these decentralist groups have in cornmon is that the moment they are eituUtistr"A
1tn"
technology rs practical), they run into the problem
of competition with the A&P and Exxon; ín other
words, defensive-the same problem as nationalist
Chile.
'-
@
What socialism really meant for Chile was control.
I have¿ Unidad Populai poster on the wall, showíng'
n{g.hiqs_rylne workers. COBRE lA ERES'PATRIÃ.
NO N PE RM l,TE R EMOS I UGA R'CONT| GO. (Copperth.ere is thccountry. We won't allow them to
þtay
with you.) To break'away from the world-m4iket
economy and to smash the class administeríng it
locally means simply control .over one's own livelihood
and one's basic
LNS
6 WtN
resources.
i
I
Socialist planning means control. Could there be
such a thing as regional planning and development?
I return now to the second sðenario. Whatwill hap
p.en 50 or a hundred years hence? lf we pose the quer
tion in terms of framework, structure-where the
power líes-the answer is obvious. ln the future we
will have Fortress America,(with armed guards on the
Mexican border-as.now-to keep away ihe hungry).
And other Fortresser And to the side,'their client
staúes: lran and Brazil will be the models.
But if we pose the question in another wäy-the
dynamics, the internal chemistry at.work-that may
be a different story.
ln a hundred years let us simply suPpose a socialist
Chile (let's say part,of the Andean- Tráding Federation).
And let us suppose àn economically mqre-9r,-þss
autonomous region within the Uriited States (the
5ame size as the future population of.Chile--25 million). Let's imagine this is ih the Pacific Northwest
and run by the Wobblies. Let's call it the ",WOBBLY
.
KÑcoorr¡."
How would these two places.be reaçh¡ng out
towards each other, and in what way would members'
of the left of both,be in touch with each other? What
would be the tendencie3?
Here are some Future Political'ChemistryEleme¡ts
at random:
j' '
" t'
1. Cost of Fertilizer
irñ, *¡tfr investments from oil income. is noù (year
2024\ producing most of the world's 5'10-5 cpm'
mercial fertilizer. A loss of 1,000 tons of fertilizer
means a loss of 10,000 tons protein. Probably Chile
with her left-over nitrates is doing okay. But the US
agra-business is doing poorly, cost:wise. But in our
imaginary "Wobbly Kingdom" clusters of opr organic
farmer producer cooperatives are making out fine.
it
,
i
LEnergy
Extreme centralization (monopoly) in gene¡ation of
electric power is inefficient. See near-bankruptcy of
NY Con Edison in refusing to allow World Trade Center and Coop City to ge¡erate their own power.
Probably our socialist Chile'(with its anti-bureaucratic
"Cordones lndustriales") has avoided this, and décentialized.
As for.our "Wobbly Kihgdom" they are probably
still operating within the uS power grid, but have a
stand-by system: of water, wind, solar energy, etc.
ln any case (using Buck Fuller as a consultant), they
have worked out the scientific technqlogy of alternate energy forms. ln some cases, thii may even be
organized to a degree where a local factory or even a
Present-day chllean army troopera
Photo by 5. Julienne/LNs.
But what is happening nationally would be less rel.e
vant to our regionalists.)
There would also probably be a small Wobbly
political third party (called, of course, "the Organic
Democrats"). This would have fraternal ties to Santi'
county-wide manufacturing complex is competitive
with the predo mi nant gas/oil /nuclear power-based
commerce.
ago.
3. Bugs and Pests
r.
There are advdntages to variety farming over monoculture and agra-iñdustry. Less cropfailures: as with
Texas onionslast year. High developriient of.botany
and biolggical sciences among the smart heads of'
Wobbly Kingdom. Maybe more than iust srúsistence
farming on i commune scale, but into good trading'
(lt should be remembered that Rome wasnrt beaten;
it fell apart. As it did'so, the Chr¡stians were organiz:
ing grain storage. ln the end, the citizens and cen'
ruiións becamõ dependent ón Gregory V granaries.)
Forèign PolicY
The US, 9f course, would be Fortress America-a
paranoid s@ie1y-.(thöugh quite rational within North
Âmerican bordèis).
Within the. US borders, the many regiiins of the
Wob b y Ki rigao*nts- as,als q.Chjl e-.-w o u d s ta n d on t h e
.Side'of the*world's poor. And the question of the I
world's poverty will be the paramount questions in
.5.
I
,
I
time to come.
Our children will have to start dealing with the chemiS-
try.
Order
4. Politics, Law and
t,
Socialists in Chile would be supreme. Howéver, in our
Wobbly Kingdom in.North America the Wobbl¡es
would be dominated by Washington, aswe all are and
always will be-any display of force being interpreted
by the sate as a wèlcomed provgcation. Our Wobblies
i
Bob Nichols spent several months in Chlle prìor to
the overthrow of the Allende government: He fre.quently wrìtes about Chile for )UlN.'
would be peaceable.
Hence the differences in politics. ln the Third
World: Socialism. Within thè US the advantage lies
with the revolutionary technique of anarchy. (A small
Maoist party would have ties to Peking of course.
:
,
wtN
7
;tl
,1|) DATS ttGtrtNST lYlOl/DNOD
ANN MORRISSETT DAVIDON
Sitting ln th,e offices of the Radical Party in Rome, in
late July', I fett myself back in the ofüces of the Mârch
on Washington coalitions at the height of the Vietnam
\{ar. People of all ages (mostly young) wander through
in clothing ranging from casual to bizárre, long hair: and beards âbound, many young men and woñren
wear white'T shirts which bear the Party symbol of a
rose in a'clenched f¡st with the words underneath:
"Cambiamo.la vita?,-Let's change (our) life.'t The
floors are strewn with paperN there are odd desks and
chairs haphazardly arrayed with people sitting and
chatt¡ng,llyping, telephoning. The entire floor þiong
2, vla 1ÌTone Argentina /8) is occupíed with sympathetic groups: the League for Conscientious óbi-ection, League for the lnstitution of Divorce, League
lor the Rights of Women, United Revolutionary Fiont
for Homosexuals, On the walls are large posteri; the
most provalent one says "Contro ll Regime" above
the large red rose in the clenched fist; aì the side it
says: "to rescind the authoritarian laws of the church
and the military."
It is this chaotic collection of civil rights groups,
coordinated (if you could call it that) mainly by the
Radical Party, that sponsored "Ten Days Against
Violence" (Dieci Giorni Contro Lo Violenzo\, which
consisted of an encampment of several hundrgd young
people from various parts of ltaly on the grounds
.
across from the huge basilica of San Paolo (where St.
Paul's remains are supposedly interred). Eaèh day was
devoted to one of the following aspects of overt and
institutional violence: the viole"nie'oi liã urm¡ vio
lence of the police; violence of the Church; vioience
of the fudicial system; violence of the bosses; violence
of false information; violence against youth; violence
against women; violence against free sexuality. These
meetings and demonstrations fror¡ July 26 to August
4 had nearly ended as I left Romd on Saturday morning but I learned later that demonstrations continued
into the following week.
That Saturday evening a number of well-known
singers and bands were scheduled to take part in a
mass rally which included speakers like Marco Pannell4 the civil rights leader in Ror¡e who had been
receiving much publicity for his hunger strike of more
than two months in order to get Parliament to open
up discussíon on-among other things-the controversialabortion bill which it has been sitting on. lt is es,
timated that many thousands of women die every year
in ltàly from íllegal abortions, and the feelings run
strong on both sides of the question in this Catholic
country where conservatives and Comrnunists nearly
balance each other. The Communist Party, infact,
has been reluctant to raise these issues, and ít was
Marco Pannella and the little Partito Radicale (which
ís not a real political party, and which Pannella no
longer offcially heads) that brought the issue of divorce
to a referendum in 197O lt was Pannella and the Radical Party affiliates who also brought abotl¡t the law al.
'å
wr¡¡
lo¡ving for.conscientious objectio n in 1972. Both times
Panella went on a hunger strike to dramatize the ex- "r
tent of his commitment to these specific issues. (ln his ,
fasts he does take limited liquids-this time three
glasses.of milk a day-and he continues to smoke, on
which he tpld me his body was now so dependent that,j,
he was unable to cut it ou! though eventually he
,
thought he would.) Pannella is a striking man of 44 ,
with strong attractive façial features and longish gray ,:
hair. When he passes throùgh the Party offices a small ,, .
whirlwind seems to surround him, and when he speaksl.
his deepset eyes burn and he talks energetically for
t,.,
long stretches, especially when speaking in public. The'
prima donna image that is somewhat forced on h¡m þy, 1
" ,
the focal role he plays ís one he tries to talk others
out of, but one senses he gets some enjoymen{-or at
it too. He is professionally a journalist and knows how to present his points forcefully
least energy-from
.:-;
,
to the public and the press, though there is no doubt ;
(at least among those who know and work with him) , .
of his sincerity and devotion to the causes he takes up.
Neither Pannella nor the Radical Party attempts to
present an over-all ideology, political or ecpnomic, to,
the public but rather to focus on specific issues, and
though they are not specifically Marxist their thrust,.is
more radical (and by impf ication anarchosocialist) ,, .
than most of the Left parties; especially the Com. ,,,
munist Party-which. has shown some interest mainly,
when Radical Party issuqs begin to receive public attention and support,
Other issues that Pannella and the Radical party
are trying to raise are those of Family Rights (which .
has to do largely with extending women'i righis in
legal relations of the family), and freedom oi the pbss,
making communications media independent of both
the Christian-Democratic government and othér mafor,
political parties, and breaking the government monoÞ
,
oly in TV so that minority views can be heard. Pannella was given a quarter.hour on national TV shortly
before I was in Rome which was spoken of as a major
bieak-through, his speech powerful and mincing no ,,
words on the issues. On the day before I left Rome, '
about 30 people from the camp, including Pietro
Pinn4 sat in for several hours at the offices of //' ,
Mesmggarq one of the largest papers in ltaly. The ; , ,
editor finally,came out (after pblice failed to move ,: ,
the occupiers) and talked with them for an hour and.
a half about theír objectives and the faílures of the
press to deal with the issues.
' During
the coming months the Radical Party aimed
.at obtaining 500,000 signatures on eight referendum,.r
points regarding the relationship between the Republic
and the Vatican, and on military codes, laws re communications, and a penal code left from Fascist days ,
which includes stiff laws against abortion. The last .
threemonth period in which they unsuccessfully at-,
tempted to collect a half million signatures neverthe'
less raised these issues more widely and may have
helped create pressure for more liberal laws regarding
,
non-government and cable TV, for example, which .
were before the Parliament
ln addition to the several hundred people camping
across from SL Paul's, hundreds more came and went
.
during the day and especially gathered for lþe evening
orosrãms which took place on a large platform set up
at one end of the main field. Flciodlights
än 'lon poles
'(somewhat
erratically) on speakers and pe-rfãcusr¿
(many
excellent and'profe$io-nal)
of
them
formers
wandered off and on the stage, and amplifiers
who
'oroiected
the,sqund over the entire area andpbouhced
ít oh tt'r. basllica and apartment buildings which were
iãme disr¿nce away (and whose tenants com¡ilained
on noisier nights). A light âttack by a small gioup of
Fascists on one of the earlier nights led tô heated die
cussions next day between a few of th'e oampers who
wanted to respond next time, if it should happen
æain, with violence ("that's th'e ônly thing !þey un'
dãrsánd") and a larger nilmber who wanted"to present a united nonviolent front and try to engage the
Fascists in dialogue. To my knowledge the Fascist
group never
returned.
,1
,{
.
Another person vísible on the scene of these fen '
Days, more in the capacity of a quiet organizer than
a public figure, was Pietro Pinna, a dark and soulfullooking man in his mid'forties who had served in
prison in the early '50's as one of ltaly's first con'
scientious objectors. He has had periods of jail since.
iãinis ant¡-n{ilitarist act¡v¡i¡es, påo facãs possible iþprisonment o.f a few months soon because of a poster
he helped compose nearly two years ago¡vhich.was
found offensive to tlre military (a law still extant from
Fascist days). The poster listed aggréssive ekploits of
the ltal¡an army during recent history that can be
read in any history book. Pietro had just come with
me to the encampment frofn Turin, where we both
attended a week of Council medtings of the Wæ Ra
sisters lnternational at a big old seminary above Rivoli,
a suburb of Turin. His Swedish wife Birgitta was al'
ready atthe camp, and wê srayed a few nights with
'about ten others in the Rome apartment of several
young rnen active in the RR Later the three of us
moved to the family aparTment of a young radical
feminisfi her family was on vacation,go this apart'
ment too became a crash pad for seveiral others we
collected on the last feù evenings, folldwing the most
heated progiam of the week: the Rights of Women.
lnstead ofspeeches from up on the stage, the
women asked for comments and debate from both
men and women down below and for sevçral hours
the microohone was handed from onê vehement
;Ñik;iJ;;ôther, with vigorous applause from '
women (and a few mgn) for the woinen (á"rid a few
men) who spoke up for women's rights, especially for
the right to legal abortion, and with much.laughter
and catcalls fróm clumps of mên who appéäred to be
either fairly hostile or at least uncomfortablg convinced thesè issues were being exaggerated or were
relatively unimportanl I was annoypd at first that
the program had been removed fromthe stage and
wusþfuing so much time to male speakers on the oné
night the women were supposed to have thf Stage' but
xrãdually I began to feel that this innovatién was itself
ã kind of symbolic feminist contribution: removing
"authoriti" figures and bringing the- discr¿ssion "down
tq earth." '
' After well over an hour of feminist songs by a good
group of women singers and guitarists, some of the
largely male audiencè (which included, as on other
nights, a number of soldiers) got restless and some
wñat abusive. As a dozen or so women gathered togethel on the stage foi a final rousing song with hands
upraised together in the feminists' sign current in
.
stage
â' -
.Europe-a ðiamond shape ¡esembling a cunt-groups
,
men gathered around both back and front
and arguìed loudly, a few afmost getting-into scqffes
with sðveral wonién. l.urged Pietio's wife Bir:gitla,
of
,
lovely and sensitive woman in her 40's,.t-o- overcome
her siryness and speak from.{he stage, whïch she
finally did, breaking the atmosphere of teniion and.
raising feminist issues above p'erxànal grievan€es
;
.,
:
i
and
." t"
æmotiõn into a somewhat broader framework.- There
was no doubt, however, that this subiqct, scorned þi
so many male radicals as insignificant compared to the
more "ímportant" issues of conscription and war, hit
some of the deepest nerves of everyone and revealed , ¡
itself as more basic ("theffnal conflict?") than most
revolutionaries wouid like to admit. Again, ai in
every struggle against oppression, the point kept
.. getting lost and had to keep.gelting made that the, . '
struggle was ñot against the oppressor bUt agáfn¡t the ..
systéms and customs which men actively or passively
sustain.
part of my last nigþ[ in Rome at
ilíe Sr Päúl encampment, the ninth of thé ten days.
Earlier I had been searching for a lypewriter-that had '
a keyboard l',n accustom"ã to and'iRnally found orie
. .; l spent the later
:'
,
at the CBS News office, where I exchariged good conÏ
I
versation and vibes with the nice Englishman on the
night shift Unfortunately f missbd Saturday nþht,
thè climactic night of the Ten Days. We had tried un"
!ì
successfully to get Joan Baez-with the persistent ef.forts of a:ebarrning ltalian named'Rolando Parachini
bf tne np who had met her a few weeks before, when
she had sung in Milan-to stop off for the event between her engagements in Jerusalem and London. As
the Milan rally was largely Communist-sponsored,
which she had not been previously aware of, it would
'
tiave been a gesture closer to her own political posi'
:
tion to turn up for the climax of the Ten Days in
Rome, following on the WRI conference and the anti- ' .¡ ''
'
militaiist marchrin the north from which many..ef ul. .: i
just
come. But she was tired, as she told Rolando .
had
' ,
by phone from Jerusalem, and could only send her ' . :1u
..
greetings and best wishes.
'
.
,:;
These Ten.Days-and an extended week of activities,
which followed on the enthusiasm that had been built
up-may not have shaken the world, or even $ome, bút
it is sgmewhat incredible that they could have happened
'at
àll, gathering some thousands oî young ltalians io'.'
gether fór more than.a week of rock and grooving and,
talk and action'"foei¡sed on. nonviolent ways of trying i
@ Cet? just order.
j.
Postscripû lryhèrr'l féttdñçd tg Blussels from ltalyi I
,-opehed.â nelvspaper and saw ä ph-oto of some of the' "Îén'Days" dernonstrators sitting with signs on the
steps of ihe Ministry of lnterior. ln the US, to my
knowledge, there was no mention of any of these
events. On the way to Brussels from Rome I was to
take a train from Florence to Milan which was rerouted via Pisa because a train earlier had been blown
.
up and twelve people killed. This violent act of a
small group of Fascists'was of course widely puÞ
lioized. (You can imagine the publicity the Radical
Party might have had if it had billed its encampments
.'æ
"i0
Dâysof Violence!")
Ann Døtidon was rece-ntly ln Europe to rëprcsent the,
WRL øt the Jilar Resìsters lnternotlonal Council meet*
tng. She is o freelonce wrlter as well as peace octlvist
wtN
I
Thot's greot. Did your coming out result in any or'
ganized gay actìvities ot the conference?
cifically on building communities of awarenéis. We
in'
were t"lking about the Society of Friends as an-[hen
creasingly aware community. Berit spoke first'
I spokdand toward the end of my tal k l brought it up
almostànecdotally-as an illustration of a point I was
making about the importance of r:isk taking. l''took
my risk.
How did Berit cope with this? Did shë know in:odvonce you were going to do ¡t?
' ,
Oh yes. I'd agonized over it for monthvbeforêhand.
Berit & I had t¿lked about it albt. She felt good about
ir
CHECKING IN WITH GEORGE LAKEY
\
Did you get ony hostile
ence Center,
MARK: Tell
me qbout Friends Generol Conference
eorlier thìs year,
GEORGE: My report on the conference would be
even more subjective than most because it ryas a very
special occasion
out
for me. lt
was the time when I came
certainly notin my meeting-but it shouldn't be advertised & talked about astho it's a perfectly respectable thing to do. The steering coçnmittee took that
question up in light of these complaints, deciding they
were perfectly comfortable that I'd said what I'd said.
They felt that it was important fol those who had ob'jecti'ons to.talk directly to me.'fiaving this support
But you did
it ln o very careful way,
That's true. For one thing I was embarrassed tq colhe
out in a big,deal way becãuse I was so late compared
wrth. a number of people in the Society of Friends
you think of anything
etse
you would like to soy?
Yes. For me this has been a good example of how a
political act reflects back on one's internal life &
eonsciousness. After coming out.l was faced wi,th a
whole lot of things I had to think thru. I had to start
taking positions on controversies, to start working out
an ethical stance-one that wouldn't work merely for
'msbut fh¿it.was shareable with others. l ¡ealized then
that I've been pretty irresponsible. l've really had my
gay sexuality in a closet intellectuall.y as well as. be'
haviorally. I had not been workingat integratiñf my
gayness into the rest of my political work. I hadn't
been reading much of the gay liberation writing..l
hadn't been attending nieetings on gay liberation.
Most important, I hadn't been trying to think gayness
into my world v.iew. For.examplg the "Manifesto for
a Nonviolent'Ri:volution" thet l hâd a hand in drafting
mentions gay liberation only once. My book, Strotegy
for a Living Revolution mentions it only in passing,
as part of a list of groups that need liberating-blacks
¡.f
appreciated this. Sometimes it rvas an almost inardculate rage. But these were only a few. Most of the
feedback was positive. Our speeches were in the
beginning of the conference, so there was a lot of time
for the pot to boil. And it did boil. There were some
Friends who complained to the steering committee of
Friends General Conference. They thought the conference should not have allowed this kind üf thing to
be said in front of impressionable youth. That maybe
these sorts of things do go on in private somewhere-
a bisexual. I made my announcement to an
audience of a thousand. or 1500. That was"a very
powerful thing for me because the Society of Fiiends
for,more than 15 ye,ars has been my famiíy_¡1,
really.big extended family. l,ve valúed very much the
regard of Friends, really wanted their gooá opinion
or me. I was worried that if I came out maybe they
wouldn't like me any more. I did come ouí and at'
least a good many Friends still seem to like me.
as
Can
reoction?
Yes. a few men came up afterwards. There was no immeáiate hostile reaction from womenfbut these men
were very upsel Thank goodness they could express
this anger to me directly. I told them how much I
AN INTERVIEW BY MARK MORRIS
G.eor-ge Lakey is a long-time peace lct¡vist &.
one of
the foundeis of Movement toward a New Society.
He lives in Philadetphiq in on iVtNS comniii l¡tn
his wife Berit & their three children. ln addition to
his work with MNS he works part-time for Friends
Peace Committee, Thìs interù'iew tooi plnre'ii'tn,
llRL National Conference at Genevo point Coifer_
Gay Friends are probably reasonably well organized.
There are two gay organizations. One is Gay Friends, ,
and the other is Friends Committee on Bísexualify.
Both groups had business mee6ings scheduled at the
èonfei'encg and consciousness-taising sessions. And,
there was sort of a gay coffeehousë. Thus there al-. .*..
ready was a hiehlv visible gay preience, and my state.
ment didn't spark anything new. But I'm pretty sure
that my statement díd inspire some people to look
into it more, to go to a lecture on gayness or whatever.
need liberátion, women need liberation, gay people
neqd liberation. So coming out has'been a really
powerful kick in the pants for me to help me inte
grate my life.
made me feél.good.
!,
wllo'v.g been.coming out over the last several years,
who did it when it was a much riskier thing td ào. 'For
many of them, because of their employme"nt, the
stakeswere much hígher than they weie tor hã.
So I
lelt, "Good grief! I'm so late I don't want to make a
big deal of iL,' But on the.other hand it did seãm im_
portant that I do it, if oply to signal to younger Friends
wno were torn about theír gay feelings, who look
,
around them and see most Quakers tó 'be_at least on
the surface-straight. Or not even to have sexual lives
at all.
But..don't you th¡nk the Friends have olways
been
reolly good on sexual issues ìncluding goyírrr?
Compared to other religious groups I think that's
true.
Þut even sq there's an expectation ofstraightness.
lf
there's a!?rtyt a covered dish supper, fri.ñäi'w¡ll
ust
asrngte l-r¡end tô feel free to bring his girlfriend.
There's a straight world assumptiJn tfrit
Vóu are
heteros€xual unless you make a point of itatins
other_
wrse. Ihe social life of Friends is often organizõd.in
a
family way. I don,r think it,s easy for tãeñãle-öuaters
to fee].thar one perfectly accept;ble an¿ tráñãÀole
sexual li{estyle is a gay lifestyl'e. Thus it ,..rãlirnportant for me to come out.
evening was just perfect for iL My wife Berit
andI!,:
I had been asked to speak on community_spe_
of ceorge Lakey
by Grace Hedemann.
Phg_to
Surface
tl
suck
blow
dive
ï
l
.
i
a hair seal
-Michael Corr
j
wlN
11
inside a concrete
line
o ":
thrown uP in a square
'
a shot gun burst
and
again
again
and vollying
of
revolvers
the
bark
punctuating
*
automatic weaPons
with a kind of excitement
little boys in
t
gas mask and helmets
caught uP in PlaYing war
the
do
weaPons
let their
pow-povÚ'pow
l-8ot1You-You' re-dead
and it goes.òn and on
POET IMPRISONED
for
real
for the longest time
until bodY'after bodY
fortY-nine in all
sPlash down in red Pools
to Scream no more -
slow to forgive the breach of prison etiquette. Next
JON BACH
A friend of _us all (who is known both as poet and ex_
con) has defined poetry as that which exists beyond
mere survival: what is left over from the immediacies
of coping the enervation of just,,making it."
That's exploded into a much higher rñagnitude for
men ancl women in prison. Where there is so much
desert, somuch arid, desolate acreage, the poet's voice
rs a s.tgn o1 lrte, and that, rightfully, is a sign of
danger
for those who enforce Death. That'voice,ãnd the life
it comes o-ut of, must be silenced. Brokeñ, it is a
remtnder tor others who might transgress beyond absolute control.
For men and women and children in prison time
has weight as welt as lengrh. The burdéni¡;åoing
time" will, of cou.rse, be alleviated only by fellow in!na.t9E 1nq.!h.e price extracted for forming community
inside the Wall is nearly prohibitive.
Alfred gonny Howell writes poetry, he draws,
he
paints, he sculpts, he teaches, he cróates beauiy,he
t"ll: thg truth. He has persisred in doing this ín spite
of the fact that for the past four years ñe has beån ín,,
a succession of federal prisons. A Black who refùses
to be segregated, a man who refuses to be broken, a
poet who refuses to be silenced, Sonny has felt the
heavy hand of repression fqr hii nonvi'olence. resistance, community; in shor! for his art.
in the fedeial prison in Danbury,
^ I met,Sonny
Conn.
where he had come directly from a Mass. State
joint for acts stemming from a foimer life. We were
involved in an ill fated production of Leroi lones'
I h.e I oilet involving Blacks, Whites and Spanish in
a
prison culture which demanded the three'stay ipart
,i2'there
and at each others, throats. ln the spring of
was a work stoppage, unequivocally noñviolent. which
lasted for nine days and involved ail SOO inmatés. Sonny played a prominent role and the authorities were
12 WIN
came a water tower takeover. Sonny and six others
made the climb and unfurled a banner directed at the
bombing of Cambodia. lt was rare that prisoners
would address anything other than their own self interests. Sonny had that perspective. A few months
later eleven inmates began a month's fast protesting
the war;.Sonny was there. Transferred to a larger
penitentiary,. Sonny continued the process, tr/ing to
slartagreat books cfass, drawing together divergent
ole öateye
git back bloodhound
ole cateye's on the loose
head pop'n like fwo bed sheets.
got fire in his boots
tired of till'n the bottom land
so t'he bõssnian git his fill
elements of.the population, fomenting commuñity,
crossing racial lines. He was marked añd door^ned¿"
He spent the better part of a year in solita?y fõr
organizing. There were trumped up charges ofstrikes
and riots. He could not be broken. He was denied any
dental and medical care. lnsulted and humiliated, he
remained unembittered, lost no dignity, did not re-
while gators in the swamP
wait for the kill
He was transferred again, this time to Leavenworth,
the endpoint of federal progressive penology. During "
the transfer, Sonny's journal, four years of his life,swor( was "losL" The fed's claimed no knowledee. no
responsibility. Doily-minded men living arrophiéã
lives had finally discovered a way to hurt Sonny. Four
years of creativity, of beauty, of truth, of life itself:
gone, irreplaceable. They were right it did cause untellable pain, and it was not easy to live with.
bid'n bye to sorrow now
don't matter if he win
out his coattail
shaking
he's
and losing with a gri,¡.
treat into silence.
Sonny's greatest poem is his own life, and that's something no censor, no inhuman bureaucrat will ever be
able to confiscate. His life has touched many of us, and
ther.e's no_removing that. I think there's a gift quaiity
to all legitimate art: the artist or writer presenting
something to people which he or she considers precious, a truth. With his poetry and with his being,
freedom and life amid oppression and death, Alüed
Sonny Howqll has enriched and educated all of us
who knew him in prison, and it's time we expressed
some grat¡tude. Thanks, Brother.
grass
flat foot hoofing novY,
po'n anY You eVer seed
the rolling of freight trains
is freedom at his sPeed
the last bomb
the east wind moans
wafting scents of burnt flesh
across pock marked rice fields
the earth trembles angrilY
. she too misses the children
their di¡tte¡flY, ðátchi ngs
their,proud mothers eYe
now ttarjng lncred r¡lousl Y
beyond her dnioldeiingvillage
I "i
beyond the monsoon forest
where her man laid dead
tr
beyond the unseen transitorized pilots
and his last falling bomb
opening the ea'rth
sucking here into a hole
in small bits and pieces
Three Doems
by Alfied Sonny Howell
Jon Bach is a member of the /onah House Collective
in Boltimore.
wtN
13
in the camps) shall live and who shall die? Why
frasile left in that country, a sense of the humanism,
ä¡giitV and purpose of the Palestinian people and
Revoluúlon Refaltaflon
OR, HOW WE FINALLY DISPOSED OF THE CHILDREN
DANTEL BERRtcAN, S.r.
Messrs. Hawatma and
Arafat-
Some weeks agq a friend and I sat with you on
separate occasions, in remote areas of Beirut. We
came. in under your guns, a,vivid reminder of the long
loneliness and instant dangér you both endure.
Mr. Hawatm4 I remember above all else, the un_
assailable. dignity with which you spoke. Wñen we
requested permission to tape your words, you responded: Of course; I do not have one speech for the
public, another for private consumption. . .When we
took up the question of terrorism: óur group has
renounced such acts since ,l969. . . How then. we
asked, do such acts as Kariash Mona occur? Vou said:
You must know that the life of the camps, deprived
and.crowded,, spawns all kinds of fringe mâ¿näss.
- And you, Mr. Arafat, I remember four exhausted
face meeting our own. We had been sümmoned back
from Damascus for the meeting, you had obviously
been on the road all night, had-come that lone distance especially to sperid a few serious hours úith us.
You.also spoke of renouncing terror. lndeed there
was.less¡eed.of pressing the question with you, the
leader of the "moderates.,' But you voluqæãr"á, in a,
strong terms as Hawatma: We are a political movement
above all else. We do not even presume to call our_
selves teachers of the people. We would rather say, we
learn from the people.
. Andwþ.ile you were.so speaking, Mr. Hawatma, on
that night in.April, you were evenîhen planníng the
seizure of school children as hostages at'Maalot]As
you must have foreseen, many of ihem died. as did
the three Palestinians who suirounded and invaded
the school.
Shortly after your conversation with us, Mr. Arafat,
your moderate group entered thd lists. ,"nâins three
comm.andos to the village of Nahayirí in lsrael, to
terrorize the community, to murder a young mother
an.d her two children.
Such are the facts of life, as your lives for a brief
period touched our own; a period upon which I have
reflected with a troubled mind since my return to the
us.
And especially because a question of thé truth
arises, inevitably. Because the established world of
diplomacy, as we well know, has debased the coinage
of speech, to the point where our language is another
14 WtN
among the casualties of life today; along with damaged
minds, corrupted consciences, broken ¡ä¿¡es. lost l
communities,. murdered children. Human language ii
thus another item in the devastation wrought-by"the
polished savages who have claimed the earih foi their
own.in our century. lndeed the judgment now commonly accepted as 1 working prínciþle, is simply that
the..higher one's political auihoriqy,'thé less responsibility one recognizes toward the-truth.
That statesmen lie is of course no news to anyone.
We expect ig we endure it. We also know that we
must take an opposíte tack. So wd keep searching for
those few places in the world, those few politicai
groupings, those few leaders, who still respect the
function of words, who still as they say, Ëeep their
word,.who are free of fear and ambition, wh'o say
what is on their minds, who.thus allow tîeir peoþle
to be heard from on isiues that touctr tf¡e ìiie'an¿
death of all.
. We do not expect the truth from,the modern state.
And-coming as we did to the palestinian people from
the.firs.t super state of all, we confess to tiein! trtlly f
underdeveloped in our expectation.
. But we do expect the truth from you. lt was in
that hope that we approached you; the hope tiat
3llong the Palestinian leaders (as earlier amone the
V¡etn¿mese leaders) we had mòved outsiáà ihË orUit
ot chicanery, privilege, lethal politesse, self aggrandíze
me.nl, dtzzy olympianism, dread of change, the fa_
mrJrar packaging tailoring and death dealing of our
culture. Who needed more of all that? No, úe hoped
that with you, we could pose certain questions of the
most serious impor! having to do wid a vision of history, ¿ conception of human life, a moral stance in a
bloody world-that we would be heard, respected,
disagreed with perhaps, but dealr with iruthfuliy. We
hoped that in spite of all the immense chasm of geograp,hy, birth, destiny,- incidence of disease, poverty,
malnutrition, uprootíng that separated yóúr peoól'"
ïrom ours,-we hoped to come away with a sense'of
wìere you stood; just as we hoped to convey a sense
01 where we stood;
you and said our good byes. ln the
, We.thanked
thSl followed, we slogged rhrough ihe dusty is|ay:
la¡ds of hell, the camps your people have enduréd for
years-people without a country, landlocked,
!! |gr9among
adntt
the makers and breakers of history, the
classic expendables of a world urrung.rrniinui. ullows whole Rloples simply to disapp-ear frãm ifie
world's face. Then we returned to'lsrael, to speik of
what we had seen, to tryand persuade úpoì if.,.
leaders.
their
-"-itl.n
vou, Arafat, violated your word. I do not
hesitate t'o uie such language. When you said: We renorn". violence, you made a pact with us' l.n^the
.iäoiãtt of termi,'you were giving us to undêfstand;
i'reteive yôu as brothers' Otñers are duplicitor'¡s, but
we are trúthful. You may be Ceceived elsewhe¡e, but
not here.
I do not hesitate to say that when the first child
prior
was seized at Maalot, there had already'been a
honor,
fro-m
yourself.
fallen
You
had
casualty. lt was
from giace, from the truth. You had fallen frpm the
privilãged place due to a man who in a world twisted
'
äut oflts skull, refuses to degrade the mind,-Jo misto
violate
friendship. , ..
use speech,
lndeed, it is not only statesmen wþ lie. Everyone
lies; lies'are a universal, debased, cynical, interchangeabló, diabolic world bank. Presidents draw on it, ditr
lomats of all camps, highly placed churchmen, cor'
poration heads, bankers, labor leaders, movie stars,
intellectuals, hustlers. People lie to the press, lie on
television, líe in cabinet meetings, in the international
truthfulness.
as-
r,
'Ño. yôu fell from the truth-into diplomacy, which
is- to say, into murder.'
you took responsibility for Maaf ot, we
took responsibility for denouncing yqu,all press coniãõntt ín Tel Avii. ln doing so, we were thinking.not
onLv of the children who died, or of the commandos
iÉã Ji.ã. wè were thinking also of vour pêop.le, [he
people of the camps, whom your resolve iç'.Çftect con-
iolí'tn
to death.
demned
-'
fot yo, knew as well as we, -that the lsraélis would
qqtlce on
retaliaté. You knew the price of "serving.
I he prlce
exist.''
Palestinians
the
that
Kissinger
Mr.
women
children.and
was ttrat rñany Palestinians,
pald. the prlce;
among them, would cease to exist' You
those who
it;,since
exacted
point,
;; ñä;;tí,re
vou
ãi.ä i" trté ult å¡at ón th. tutpt were never consulted
about their fate.
in
Ánd this viscous web of terror and repri¡al'
*flitf'ri.opf on both sides are .cluclt 1n! c"',
" thou t *itni n g, tho ut, choi -so.!!d9r'
*äiâf tttl v, wi
iflt-it
-wi
certainty not to be thought of u.t ttuolltfl:.',' 't "
of
unq
ãìåuãiií p"i"dy of the iiue method
-lY.ttic."
(the
simplv
hell;.or
like
ññ;;ñ;úã' lt it toi"
rum. ttting¡ ãnother validatio.n of
the-
status.quo'
for
lf ever we t".t ugu¡n, ì will have a,question
authoritv
l
sacrificial people, whether of 70 years or.of seven
i
oi s.v.i months, to consent to..die, þy' naor shelling? Dg yoy
þalm
'keep or anti-personal weaponry
this list of volunteers consciehtiously, a¡{ do'
i'r.rãi.ålãn. pãiiir'r *rl" have chosen to.doso? Anq,þ.
safeguard' this necessary freedom, so dìffcult to main:
tainînder armed assauit by air or land, have yciu contrived some miracle of technique by which every
bomb, every gun shot, arrives only in its appointed r
and willing flesh?
To pusñ my odious Question further' Do you,
leaderi togetÉer with your families, consen-t to be
Or, granted
" the firsî viðtims of the inevitable reprisals?
that your own qualities of moral.acuity, intellilence
and sîoutness of heart are absolutely indispensable
(leaders are always and everywhere ablqlutely indispensable)"are
yoú ready in the name of. humanity,
'
and as an example to your people, to push]our Ôwn
children into the furnace of burning içlly? That ques-"
tion I realize,'is a harsh one. lt wil.!- perhaps not further
our friendshíp-a friendship begun so auspiciously in
Beirut, under the sign of devotion to truth and .aversion fiom terrorismlsome ten days before Maalot
and Nahayira
I wish io pay a kind of tribute to you both, in
pushing.dre i¡uêstion so'h¿id. l only long to push the
question as hard, at Dayan or Meier or Rabin- But
then, they are chiefs of state, engineers of human
resoivg military true believers, Old Hands at death,
friendíof the "'Pentagon Friends of Humanity'" Our ¡
expectations of such worthies are necessarily quite
môdest, dedicated as they âre to the truth when ex'
pedien! and violence as a matter of course' But you
bentlemen are another matter entirely, chiefs of a
óurportedly revolutionary movement. AnoJher'w.qdd, :
i
:
years or
semblieí, in classrooms, in private to one arlother.
Still, we thought, tltere must be a small number of
people immune from the plague. After Maalot.we
icnow that the number is even smaller thañ we had
calculated. And this'was the source of our 4gony and
disappointment. We went to meet you with modest
tropäi. We knew that a revolution begins with.a revolu'
tionary resolve, and we hoped that you would be faith'
ful to ihat resolve, which.is'so simple a thing as that
the truth must be spoken, that one is forbidderÍ"to lie'
We were convinced that unless the revolut'ion began
with such a resolve, there yvould be no revolution at
all. There-would simply be thë"old filthy method revving up onóe more, to move in and tighten up and .
buy off or frighten off or kill off that rarest of goods
and fairest of services; call it by whatever name; san-
itv. trust.
are
the doome'd beople never he¿rd from? Or. when yoy
decide that liraeii school çhildren must be seized, do
you also hold an election in the Palestinian camps, or '
ásk for volunteers for self-immolation? Do you ask
yJ. it;;;;;"tãir''''iî iír." this'. BY,that
õ;ou ?ã.ì¿. who in"tñe lsraeli villages.þsRabin
;;ib" astce¿; By whai'iuthoritv do vou decide who
another conception of history, altogether different
connections with people. As men so gifted and so
burdened, your meani¡g surpasses your movement.
It reaches out toward people everywhere, as did the
Vietnamese resistance.'lt invigorates and brings hope.
ln a world governed by death dealers, you speak for
a oeople wño refuse to be ground under, to'f assimi'
laie" r,üith the dead. Such a people, such leaders, I do
not hestitate to say, raise others from the dead. We
rook heart fôo in. thíäking of you. For we had before
us (so our hopes ran) a desperately crucia.l and pala leadership, that in spite of
óudi"
"xumplq;.a'peóple,
tó*iùiiiitit to'she'fatp dqJed out to them by.
ll:"refuse
[nå ndurotnnial savages. A people, a leadership who ' - '
irîut"¿- täliã down ãnd die.
Our hope of course, did not distinguish between
the Palestinian people and their leaders' This we
thought entirely right.and proper;'we saw the Reo.plg
in vou. we saw you with your people. You were their
hoôe writ large, made public, given a voice, 4n ethos,
. a tradition to link with a common future. When we
the leaders, we thought that in them, the
' thoueht ofthe
people would stand clear in an even
of
virtuõs
more heroic degree. And when we pondered the,hopes
of humanity, nearly extinguished, often betrayed by
the leaders of nations, the two virtues I have spoken
of seemed crucial, both to tþe needs of Î.he people
themselves, and the needs of the times. I speak of
truthfulness and respect for life.
...i
i,
wtN
15
,T
Truthfulness, at least to this degree. One would
never announçe a grave moral position, while at the
same time planning to violate ihat position. And
respect for life, at least to this degree. Unlike almost
all governments and their spokesmen and allies and
ideologueE one would draw a firm line (and hew to
that_line) between the treatment of enemy.combatants
.and "enemy"
children.
¡
You drew that line, apparently, with us. Even
while in.anticipation, you'stepped over it. Do you
know what you díd at that moment, in that move?
You joined the pack. you joined thé executioners.
You became a government. you sabotaged yourselves
and your people, and ourselves, that foùrthãn¿ nfttr-and sixth world whose real poúerty consists in our
deprrivation of living human metaphors. I mean our
deprivation of men and women who will spring like
the door of a stinking tomb, the presslng and ùcious
claim of death upon us, the living.
, I think back on those days and nights of our meet_
ings, of the courtesy and dignity witñ which you re-ceived us. I think too of the choices that weré open
to you when our friends in Beirut approached you,
suggesting a meeting with us. you could have said îo
yourselves: We are sick of moderation; we are planning
Maalot. Therefore we will refuse io méei tñöm. o,
you could have said: We have momentous and bloody
plans; we will meet these friends,,and argue the merits
of terror as a necessary tool, in fäce of tñe monstrous
odds that oppose ur tiut you made a third choice.
You met us, and lied to us.
.l look back on our meetíng with ashes in my
môuth; a dry ieirse that a greîtrhunr" luÃe;¡il.r"¿ ed
and was tosr. Whom did wé meer in Beiruù Whom diJ
we think ro meer? Men of íntegrity,;;;f .ärnpur_
sion? O¡: stereotypes, state depãrtriãnt spòkesmen,
those who in Socrates, phrase know so well ,,how to
make the worse appear the better argumen!" sophists?
.We spoke that evening of the need of taí
count even that twisted world opinion whiõh, on page
one of its consciousness, names ihe palestiniaî lej¿eîs
terror¡sts, and so disposes of them. While on page 17
of its consciousness, it names (at least Uy im jfiåtion)
the lsraeli leaders and their pilots the juit reåressers of
Palestinian crimes. you agreed wíttr ui. úoitã àpinion
was of great momenl We spoke of the care whíðh
a
revolutionary movement must exercise to keeo its
values clearly before the world. Which ,ãuniäoncretely that the humang mitigatíng, iust, iompassionate, educarionat aspócß oi a räíemé"
i, üil u"
rnsrsted upon,. purified, ex.panded, verified in practice;
criticízed; and that the military,
íetaliatiy, ¡irnirf,iÀ!
aspects of the movement múst-be kept as ááár tn.
bottom of the scale of values and práctice. ui ¡, ðon-
sonant with survival itself. you agieed witî us.
We urged also the necessity, uñderstood so clearly
by the Vietnamese, of winniíj altiðs íliñe *oil¿ ut
large, even across dísputed borders. We.recalled the
audacious simplícity with which the Vietnamese invited us to come to Hanoí, to mingle with the people,
ø visit the hospirals and slhools, ãven to oiinínome
the captured pilots. We suggested that such aliÍes as
we Americans had become for the Vietnamese. could
also be enlísted by Palestinians among Ameriáns,
turopeans and even lsraelis. BVt that such opporiunities as these were lost beyond ieach, when vilias"r,
and school children were murdered.'you ugr""ðto thir.
16 WIN
could have told you, if there had beên more
signs of change whích exist in lsrael to_
day. How the October war had introduced an entirely
new element into the situation; that lsrael is today,ii
large number¡ are thoughtful, unsure of the future,
listening to their critics. The perennial winner, hypád
up to win by Big Brother Overseas, is seeing ttre í¡in¡ts
of winning-as well as its cost. The old govãrnment is
gone; w-ith a sigh of relief from the conitituenc¡ a
sense of good riddance._ That with it has gone a'lîrge
Oart oj the old supportive mythology; encirclement,
security, technological machismo.
Along with all this, the great powers have shifted
gears in the near east. lsrael is raþiaty losing its piivWe
timg of the
a^op^&fi,, ,( P4't i,"f¿,n '
;.tr
O, let America be Americo ogoinThe land that never hos been ye!-
I am suggesting that all kinds of pressures, moves;
¡nterestt are bringing a swift changg favorable to th-e
Palestinian cause, within lsrael. Som'ething momentous
ís being born there: a concession that paleitinians
exist, the admission that your ríghts must be taken into aocount, that generosity and a sense of justice must
replace fear and violence; even, that a viabie future for
lsrael depends upon the creatión of a viable future for
Who made America,
The land thqt's mine-the poor
lndians, Negros,
.
heåp
in Vietnhm, can hardly'be
equated wíth lsraelichildren. Still the poinr mây not
be entirely obscure. The trial and execution of Ameri_
can pilots could have been considered by the Vietnamese as a reminder to the civilized world that they
existed. But at the same time, such an act would have
brought down on them the Armageddon retaliation of
those who itched for a ,,definitivJsolution" to a
troublesome, abstract, distant, untameable people,
wnose very exlstence was a daily affront; man prevail_
ing against superman.
What to do? lnstead of executing the pilots. the
Vietnamese decided on a radically ãifferent course of
action, as you recall. They invíteá Anlerican neace
people to Hanoi; and over a period of years, wflile the
bombing of their country_continued and iníensified,
they released a number of pilots, home free.
. lt was an audacious gesture, whose impact on the
American public, as well as on world opinion. was incalculable- More nearly to our discussíón, the gesture
lncluded just those elements of magnanimity,'hope
and mercy which appealed to rhe bést qualidiãs oi
Americans, which further widened the óreach between
public and government, which sent some of us into
acts of serious civíl disobedience.
It b.ecame increasingly difficuit, in the face of such
a.warttme gesture, to ignore the contradíctions which
the war itself contained. What kind of people, victims
(Contínued on page 1B)
:i
ME.
man's
,
'-¡
plow in the rain, ,.
Must bring back our mighty dream ogain
Oh yes,
Amirico wilt
bet!
i
-LANGST)TV HLJGHES
After reading rhe issue of wlN 11 1181741*ìtn tn.
article by Phil Berrigan,"'On Kingrnaking," I became
very angry. And now I arn writing this Oþen Letter of
Resignation from the Cathotic Lqft.
."
"vi:rv
discon-
nt;Gfi; *. réutititt óf tife for most people
t"îii,Ti;r*ard
in this
tt'it r'iãtiiñ.-l"ir.
år Jonah House
as
my political stance in th'ä following
I say it plain,
America never was Americo to me,
And yet I sweqr this ooth,
;.,Ti"?'fi rTäl*;:1,:;";:t'rïff il,i"Tl,'l;"u'ini,
torã ñã'r'rää nätr,.tt¿ around him.were "continuing to
op.*i. ui-¡i ii* y.utt has not passed betw.een Catonsuitt. ãn¿ nó*.ii- l'b.litvtd that there was "a very strong
t"nt" äf éíitiim in thp words you say.and the. things
pertainly true " as far as
.you do." I felt that was most
ittï irir .r'"å"i î.rpt e and worki ng peopl e"'. I -stated
r
lAhose sweat ond blood, whose faìth and pain,
lUhose hand qt the foundrY, whose
you.
course my.analogy. limps. American pilotq
.rng Of
horror upon inferno
land'where
every person is free,
'
stances, of crimes of war?
,
t.tol úii" riol-tióie d iffere nces b ur f ri end sh i p wou d
u. i""iäã"^råu.'ótriàu¡ne tt'at politiçal disagreements
tn"ulå'iãi'jJrov friendships, I bqgan writing, honøt'
lt;;;i;;hrür.tìí, r1o* I saw his work and his politfcs.
TED GLICK
And yet must be-the
But the consciousness I speak of is quite new and
vulnerable. lt is something like the nasiend American
anti-war move meni of the- rñ iddl e unã-f uté-rl^ ii"r.
59 | w9l{er, as I ponder the force of this analogy.
.,,,
What would have happened to the American movement (and indeed to the Vietnamese) if rhey had
de_
cided to execurea number of capturéd nmóiCah -pilots, in retaliation for crimes committed ueuinrt non_
combatants? What would have happened, evãn granted
that the pilots were objectively guiity, in'repeatãd in_
lrq
attemÞt to beein moving towards some more clear.
I
ileged posìtìon yis a vis the US. Who'needs"to arm
and superarm.lsiael,_to shore up its economy, to grant
it favored {rade and loan status_when in faiíthe-Arab
world is daily more amenable to US aíd and interven-
tion?
fh Câffutà
Phil and I are brothers. We have been through a
great deal together-prison, a major conspiracy trial
of rather
.in Harrisburg various resistançe astivities
senous consequence, diffcult iliicussions and personal
confrontations. For the past month and a half we
have been coiresponding. The correspondence was
initiated by myself because, 1) we had gotten out of
touch over the previous months and, b) I had developed such ma.ior and deepseated personal/political
differences with him that I felt ¡f I did not make an
way, "For the pastiwo years I have,,.b-een struggling
to íii. in a *iy*r't¡.tt responds to:the lives and'suffer¡
ing of my páoptt, the Amerìcan peö.ple, to. understand '
ttr"" coníusilÀãnå t ut and pain with whic.h they live '
their livei. That is why I am doin$ impeachment work
(witt' irlã ¡r"ïionãt cuinpu¡gn to lmpeach Nixon)-be'
ôause it is a way to be in touch with "th€..masses" be1'
cause'¡ th g,lqlassesl' are. strongl y, agai ngt N ixon' And .l
am convinceã that the key to revolutionary change is
the kind of rootedness the movement has in the lives
or rrih pãopi". ftlty are the motive force in history,
not smail gr'oups of ;'purified" cadres disconnected to
the realities of life for those around them. Only'the :
pebple, their consciousness and militance raised in '
part because of our work among them, can force the
kind of change necessary to end imperialism ànd with j
it the injustice and inhumanity of capitalist sociç.!y-. .
"Political organizing-that is what is needed. Moral
witness, 'purif,ed' actions-these lead, in the long run,
to demoralization and little growth. . . Only political
Ted Gl¡ck (c¡rcled) w¡th his ccdefendants at the Harrlsburg conspiracy trial.
:
t
organ¡zing combined with a commitment to live moral
and upstanding lives can lead us to where we v/ant to '
be going."
ln the letter Phil sent back to
'
me he recommended
I read an article in Wl N on nonviolence in Latin America, the April 1 8th issue. I got hold of a copy and, to
my surprise, thought the article wás, on the whole, a
good one. Some of the parts of it that I felt particularly applied to the discussion at hand and which I quoted
in my second letter were:
"The word has three components. First, an overall
awareness of essential basic truths, such as those of
history, sociology, economics, politic*- ìncl ud ing the
truths of the exploitotion of lobor and the class strug-
gle." (My italics.)
"All their leaders and a majority of the lriends in
each base (the organizational form for the movement
being examined) are lay and proletorion." (tvty italícs.)
"Theoretical êducation should be broad. Among
the topics studied, particular stress should be given to
identification of the "enemies," viz colonialism, militarism, landlordism, capitalism, iacism." (My inclusions: sexism and classism.)
"Nonviolent activists must be wisB as owls, cunning
serpents, patient as glaciers, as well as pure as dbves.
Their methods must be proctÌcol, designed to achieve
sucçess, not merely moral, Mortyrdom Ìs the last
resort Every strotegy possible must be tried in the
hope of avoiding mortyrdom." (My italics.)
There has been one more exchange of letters. ln
mine I ended with the poem I quoted.at the beginning
of this Open Letter.
Why did I use that poem? Of what relevance does
it have.to my decision to "quit the Catholic Left"
(rather, to make public what has essentially been a
reality for close to two years)? Why do I write now?
ln trying to figure out what I would say and how I
would begin in this letter I had a difücult time. On
the one hand, I did not want to leave any doubt about
my vehement opposilion to the elitist, moralistic, nonpolitical, timeworn style of operating within the
movement that was so pervasive throughout "On
as
.
'
'
Kingmaking." (And which is so pervasive elsewhere
in the operation of what's left of the Catholic Left)
I would suppose that that previous sentence would
leave no such doubts.
Ón the other hand, I wanted to try to balance that
vehemence-'indeed. honestlv verees on bitterwith the kind ot altêrnatrve úísioñwhich ís infinitely
. to be desired and which i5 the only hope, in the lon'g
/ run, of bringing about revolutionary chañge in Ameiican society. There is little more I can orshould add to
that poefn-its politics and vision, its embodiment of
the contradictions and promise of America, are too
overwhel ming for elaboration.
I have developed, over the five years
'
of my involvement in the resistancg anti-war movement and now
the impeachment movement, what can only be called
a Marxist/Feminist/Religious analysis, world-view, a
way of acting lf that is too complex, I am sorry-perhaps I can explain it at some future time-but space
woi¡ld not allow the kind of exploration it deserves
here. Suffce it to say that I have moved very far away
from the t'moralr" "Cathol¡cr" "witnesraction" kind
of life that I once was part of when I was involved in
.the draft board raiding community, I have:summarized
my political views earlier on in this Open Letter. I feel
good aþout them and my life. I know that they may
18,wlN
change in sóme form-indeed, I know they will, thank
God!-and I am open to that change. I do not believe
in locking yourself into a narrow way of living and
observing That way does not lie revolutionary change,
only isolation and withdrawal from reality.
The irony is that my political development in. these
ways come directly out of the 11 months in prison I
spent for raiding draft boards and FBI ofüces in
Rochester, NY in September of 1970. There in prison
(a concentrated form of the society outs¡de) I became
"proletarianized." There I saw first hand and close up
the dynamics of class and race as they affected the
prison population. There I took note of the privileges
given to those who were white, well-connected or
boot-licking to the administration (the ruling class).
And there I developed a deep and abiding trust in the
ability of those who are oppressed to resist that op
pression and create a mo[e just and more decent way
of living if those who consciously saw themselves as
organizers were among them to le4rn from them, to :
organize with them (n-ot dominate tut to help make
more coherent their opposition) and to resist with
them. I became convinced that that way lay the future.
I am "resigning" from the "Catholic Left" (or what
is publicly identified as iq because there are many,
many former "members" who have moved in similar
ways as l) because I no longer want there to be any
confusion on the part of my movement sisters and
brothers and people I come into contact witì as to the
present direction of my life. ¡t ¡s away from the kind
of elitism and non-revolutionary nonviolence being
practiced by the Jonah' House community. lt is away
from simplistic views on violence and war and towards
an understanding of class, sex and race--sexist, racist
capitalism and its mirror image, ståte capitalism in the
Soviet Union-as the most significant roots of such
evils. lt is towards the kind of socialist/feminist, revo
lutionaiy, personal/politícal theory and practice which
the New American Movement is developing. lt is. ,t
towards ttfe digging in of roots, authentig honesf and
ongoing, with poor, Third World and working-class
people. And it is towards the kind of politics and vision expressed in Langston Hughes' beginning poem.
"O, let America be America again-The land that
never has been yeq and yet must be-the land where
€very person is free." Our freedom will only come
through a struggle wlth the American people for
change. That is our direction for the future.
(Contlnued fróm Page .16)
of atrocious crimes of war, chose voluntarily to release
the criminal? Who was the enemy anyway?
May l suggest that we who brought the first of the
released pilõfs out of Vietnam, will be haunted all our
lives long by this stroke of simple humanity. And by
the evidãnt-factthat the gesture was also a stroke of
political genius. As well as by the union of .th.e two,
ä sense oi humanity and a sense of political timing,
into something organic, correct in nature.
Vou on the othér hand, have decidèd to under'
score the justice of your câuæ by a very different
method. May I say that ypur course of action, which
ind terior, is tactically self defeating.
Duplicity toward friends aÁd the murder of the in'
noienq ônly serves to stifle sympathy for your cause
and yoiri people, a sense that is just coming to birth
in lsrael and in the world at large.
involves untíuth
a
\
&
at
1l I
F
t-
c,Ha
lS ERNIE
HURTIN'? .
tlffitanurnb.erof retisioussroupshove
,.
íi1",:::i,:"';i:,i'!.?:å["iïqÉii!::
5*1ffH,'#::',:ï,3Jå:i"åäår
at discrediting'th" United tyë øre crqel and inhumon exp
þaign aimed
5ii"H'ff4;:åfr;iì,?îlTiHJ',åi*:
sterí
*ri;;:::';;;í'!,i;#r!,ù;:,;;e,,
ìÊ
t.
t¡-r-a
'j
PICKET FORD ON AMNESTY
ittffi,îÍå,,:lirJt:iii{i;I
,ç;..î,.Ïï#iTffii:f*",tË
unioñ.
Gallq reeling from a UFW sponsored ond many supply an endorsen
the tettice þit o1oø,
þy*¿i;iùJ ,,i¡,*, t Nr.a i*ä
pru
b"i9;r;?:rÏ;l' i'rï*::iji|!jrlåif,: ["#¿åf^t|!,,.' ,
if"î"lill?î,Tff"4;ifr'åiJii.i'1", :i:ii!:i'-í!;I:i':l#;;i;:*'!í0,," rirlikyJli'"::ff';*i*1k;. l
Gollo boYcott,
support
--ïtå:t*o
'*","'i"yrtrt'trit y9y qutte fronkty,!!i::!!t:
firms, Eqwin and wasey 1*.
|]!iiå l'úi'*ii
",
and Young & Ruþicäm, are now
trying
i,#liîiif,!ill,i1lf#'il"':;.'ffi:::
tim of a " jurisdidioîal dispute" be-
hos been o soddening and
'åi:!';:",:i:
dÌsillusìoning
iy,:i:i^;;;i!;#i,:i. äi+;J[fli[Tfi;-'t,.#î#'l"|Jiåi
- "ä.llåili"r';""^ì^'i",i;I:;i'I;
to
the wishes of our førm workers
,,
rween rwo ríval unions whó,som,ehow ,noriîîi¡äî,"i;r';;ï;îíJiîàjín,
tn' ,ii¿ir. o7 iuiii¿i'iioio¡
cannot ger
between
the tW unions
Carels taken never to mention
ìn turn.hos subiected us t9 vt\
ìïï:;läË
^-ïi,i' ond chopcter assassination.
ifrcotion
sentational.electioni, wages and
arong.
the
ä;'"fringe
u"n"nti,ã rolon.hirí¡g h?ì1,;;;;;;;ï
union protectionìand loU sécurity.
"riT.iåTo''iili,låAmnesty,,, about,
äi.ä'üä"ditional
;¡;;:;;;
i
,."iåill fiî:'å:;il;
.
the phonv amnestv, it was
^^"[:tldi:t
iP#Iiri'lit":i'fi",t#",,f.¿#Y^!"í:,
afterrord's proclamation, when
.
he
lf- "'TI'- .--^the,, t;;;;,;iï,illù-li¡tüãííå:;ä;'ih;,
,r"i'ri::;;::!'Åf,y:il;i;:;li:f,Íä^
we- are ot a loss to fìnd it.
'^i;:;;";';:;i""ií,i äüÏíä'in'ì','
the con
iii;; hy ãrläriü¡'rs at att obout l!:::i: lTt reoilv retevant)to
inäiiilil,.r.,.
Betow is a sample
otlvorea
oitui,rt'iiir,
ir?,iti|ffif::
"r
on ú,ir,uìrof tr.,'u
i:::;íil:!:#i#:;!Åí{;oiíi',!íriff ':',
ry* uãingrnã.'itåk"n
G;ii.Wi"ït'
i l"tt", to pro"boycott ciats. your writins to me and allowins ';;;"i
;i;oL::;"';i:r::;:;:;'i^i"'"Ñíi
;U;:;;lw;;'!;rr.
ui:;il:r:;*
#i:; irr;!!nr;yí,nf,Zîf :,
,:"'iff.1_""1''
nrX;i;i,:;::*
äí ni pl¡úai n¡;1 o;, ;",,","t¡s¡ous
,!,+
iî;f;:,iü,1¿îîji:if",iil!;
¡
^ñ*ffi.njsn
_fimpeck
îíi;;ï"'""
__,i:lrl'sources
{;::;fåÜ;1,#tü,:fnatdisputebe'
".
America and ror r"rrrli{fr'í'r',{ I'HE lilAYoR REslcNs
Annette
Steqþe¡
and
fnl¿i'put,1o' à,oiãi,liä-¡iãuae
" Ëâüi![f
lqughlil
rL'L¡ I lr-f $KEÎft|åi+Fðí.
Hl".....
& ñ'reedom
of Galto products, ond some ba'rdi, California
boycottinþ
-uÉw
Peace
*i"ishâil Party's only elected ofFcials,.reqig¿-er{1.,. 4n_qr"¡r Papandreou announced sepl
the noilôn have resorted to folsistote- theii posts as mayor qndqiqy couñîíi"'' 3 tfeforinát¡on of a new political.or- i
ganization in Greece,,the Panhellenjp
member here in Auguit '. j ' " __
ments about our comryny in their effortstogainsympatliyoitdsupport.; LaughlinandLombardi,both27, Socialistlvlovement Papandreou,th".r.,
We know eesar Ctiavez to be a mon who were elected on the Peace & Free' son of a former Greek Premier, is now'"' .with honorable motives ond we hove dom ticket in April '1972,\eft office regarded as the chief political threat to
held h¡m Ìn hþh:rqord, iusoioily. W" after being arresied with á third per- Prïme Minister Constàntine Caramanf is -l
while taking a dozen marijuana He annoünced the new organization
also know thaT he hos eicountered many
- bn
plants from thibasement of city trall. at a press conference in Athens, and
dtfficutties odministrotively ln developihe plants had beerl seized earlier in a said that ühe Panhellenic Socialist Moveunìon
ing
' " his younggài"
We íln¿ü
äm facilities and "' - poliie raid. Laughliå and Lolnbardi ment's main obiective will be'the est¿blishment of an independent government
every posslble ossistonce when he repre- said they had intended to plant the
senied our ronch employees from t9Ol pot in the town plaza, an action they in Greece, free from both foreign in'
to '197J for we shore his beliefs in the iater said was an 'lerror in judgment." fluence and from control by the Greek
rtghts of farm w9rkery, oryd hts aspira- Less than a year ago the two officials oligarchy. Papandreou said the new
won a recall election sponsored by con' organization advocates complete Greek
ions to better.thelr lìves. . .
lle now belieYe that we hove turned servative city council members. withdrawal from NATO. Caramanlis
the oûer cheek long enough, lt appeors
-Grass Roots announced withdrawal of Greece from
äiyätt il*ní¡ttlo
.
WIN 19
the NATO military command but not
the political structure on August 14-a
move many thought was aimed at undercutting Papandreou and other critics of
NATO and US support for the military
junta in Greece.
Papandreou also called for the termination of all political and economic
agreements that threaten the national
independence of Greece, and especially
those, he said, that have been used to
transform Greece into an outpost for
the expansionist plans of Washington.
He also called on the Caramanlis
Government to punish the members of
the military junta responsible for the
Surprise, Surprise. Both Gerold Ford
and William aolby, mass murderer par
exellence now holding down work as head of the ClA, have admitted that the
CIA wbs involved in stopping the left in
Chile. The curious thing is that the
bourgeois media is treating these admissions as if CIA intervention in Chile
were news..The liberals in the Congress
are upset because it was such bad form
.foi the agency to be caught almost red
handed in the murder of an elected
chief of state. The Foreign Relotions
Comnittee will be reopening hearings
soon, tiying to do a bit of reforming of
the agency, ¡aying that this type of
atrocities of the seven years of military
rule and the Greek-sponsored coup on
Cyprus July 15.
-lnternews
FARMWORKER NEWS
The United Farmworkers of Amerioa
(UFWA) havp changed their position
regarding the illegal aliens problem.
They had demanded only that the
immigration laws be strictly enforced
so their workers would not be in competition with the cheap but illegal
labor from Mexico.
Cesar Chavez, president of the
UFWA, is now encouraging a letter
writing campaign directed at congressmén and senators to allow the aliens
to enter this country with full and
equal democratic rights. Until such
time as aliens are allowed full rights
the farmworkers ùnion is demanding
that the current immigration laws are
strictly enforced "so that America's
{
ù
-
poorest workers can achieve decent
living and working conditions."
ln the meantime the union's boycott
of lettuce and grapes is reported to be
continuing with great success, particularly on the east coast -Mike Rhodes
{
..,
THE SOVEREIGN STATE OF ITT
$21.00 each. They figure on raising
$900 in November. For more information, drop them a line at 892 Camirío
Del Sur, lsla Visra, Calif. 93017. . . . .
The Nstionol Campaign to lmpeoch
Nixon is closing up shop. But they do
have available some posters on Rockefeller that promise to be good. lf you'd
like one, they're available for fifty cents
by writing to NCIN, clo Glick,24O6
18th Str:eet NW, WashingJon, DC
20009.. . . . A political statementfrom
the Notional lnterim Committee of the
Moss Poçty,of the People (whew) will be
coming out within the next month. That
and the politics of " Kentticky Fried
is the group which is organizing around
Children" is the subject of a piece in the
covert activity is okay, but that type
the idea of a third party, sparked by a
most recent issue of The Second l,love: A p4per
isn't They should start thinking along
by Arthur Kinoy in Liberotion.
magazine
of the new Feminism, lf you'd Discussion groups
the lines of Ol' lnspector Erskine of the
have begun dealing
like a copy of a magazine whose collec-' with
FBl, who used to come on in ads for
the idea inseveral citíes around the
tive sees itself as part of an ongoing, his
The FBI talking about the mafia (until
United States. The political statement
torical feminist struggle, contact them at
they made them quit using the word
will be addressed to movement¡actlåists
Box 344, Cambridge A, Cambridge, MA
mafia on TV). He used to say that "the
of the sixties and the seventies. . , . .Ron
02139, . . . .Vegetorians of the world,
mafia is a cancer, it has to be cut out
Ridenour, "the G I who first blew the .
unite! The "World Vegetarian Congress"
before it grows." Couldn't,put it any
whistle on Mylai with his letters to Conwill.be held, August 16-28, 1975, atthe gress"
better about the ClA. Trying to reform
is ãvailäble for speaking dates for
University of Maine, Orono, Maine. lf
it is like trying to put a band-aid on a
fund
raisers, lectures and meetings. For
you'd like to find out more about it,
chancre and hoping it will go away, . . .
more information, cbntact Arizonians,
write the Vegetorian Voice, 501 Old
Congress is busy doing the people's
for Peace, 141 4 South.McAllister,
work,'though. According to the Congres- Harding Hiway, Malaga, New Jersey
Tempe, Arizona 85281. . . ..FPS: A
slonal Record; one congressperson, Rep. 08328. . . . .For all the weather modifica- l Mogozine of Young People's Liberqtion
Frank'Horton of New York, introduced tion observers who were wondering if
is available through Youth Liberation,,
there would be any followup of a prefour separate but identical bills (HR
20007
Washtenaw Ave., Ann Arbor, ,
vious mention on what the government
16551, HR 16552, HR 16553, HR
Michigan
48104. . . . .Sing Out, afolk
16554) with the purpose of establishing was doing with nature; Well, the Congress song magazine with, fine politics, has air
per
last
month
appropriated
$200,000
4Commission on Federol Paperwqrk,
interview with Joan Jara, widow of slãin
year through 1977 f or a weather modiAll of this, of course, could have done
Chilean folk singer Victor Jara, in its :
just as well.with one bill, but Horton had fication study, to be administered by the most recent issue. Also included is ono
a bunch of ,Cosponsors, all of whom
Nationol Oceanic and Atmospheric Adof those little plastic records thatSing
wanted a cqpy of the bill to send home ministration of the Department of Com- Out regularly puts in its magazine; this
to their constituents to pfove how they merce, During 1973,67 weather modifi- month, it has Pete Seeger singing the
were abolishing the Washington ¡'ed tape cation efforts were made in 19 states. Now last song of Jara, written while he was
by Congressional edict. The thing is,
the mqnitoring of those efforts will
imprisoned in the National Soccer
therds only room enough on the first
come under the jurisdiction of the DeStadium in Santiagq as well as an
page of a bill to list about twenty five
partment of Commerce. . . . .The Thomos original song sung by lara, one by Englawmakers, so Horton introduced four
Merton Unity Center of lsla Vista, Calif. lish folk singer Frankie Laing and
bills, the fiist on cosponsored, alphahas found one way to divert tax dollars
others. Sing Out is located at 106 West
betically by everyone fróm Abdnor to
to worthy needs. On election days, mem- 28th Street, New York, NY 10001. .:,.
Heinz,'thè second one by the bunch
bers of the center donate a day of their Remember, the rising of the women ,.
from HudnÍt to Roush, etc., right on,
time to sittingat polling places, for
means the rising of the race. That's the
down the line. . . . .Corporote ChÌldcare which they are paid by the county
human race.
-Brian Doherty
Anthony Sampson
Fawcett Crest paperback 335
A major factor ín turning
AÌII)
pp
for the Russians have negotiated with the giant companies
as if they were treating with separate states."
Sampson sums it up with: r'lTT still regards itself as
\
$1.75
booki printed at the time which
gave facts and figures on
how the big armaments corporations sold indiscriminately
to both sides during World War l.
A most interesting section of The Sovereign State Of
ITT is its account of how that multinatioÉal giant operated
on both sides during,World War ll. Sosthenes Behn, prede'
cessor of today's ITT fuehrer, Harold Geneen and the same
type of singlepurposed,industrialist,-set up. ITT operations
in'Germany following personal meetings with both Hitler
ind Goering. (After õne òf his meetings with Hitler, "$ehn
Ë;;k;å hä* well dressed Èidei'was, and how-much of a
gedtleman.") ln fac! Sampson tells.us: "Behn was so conñdent in Hitier that he was prepared to strengthen ITT's compan¡es in Germany at the-cost of its companies else'
R()$DS
too
wheie."
"Bu'i
while'lTT's German affiliate produced Focke'Wulf
planes which bombed Allied ships and while ITT's German
iefephonic equipment passed informafion to Nazi sub-
marines, ITT's US affliate helped to càpture those same
submarines through a high frequency direction finder de
Veloped in its New JerseY labs.
.
"But ITT buried its history in a mountain of public relations, so that scarcely anyone.on its staff now knows that .
it wai ever associated with thé Focke-Wulf bombers or with
Hitler's SS," Sampson writes. "Most rémaikable of all, ITT
now oresents itself as the innocent victim ofthe second
'..
abòve governments, above controls, andåbove morals' It
presents itself still as an American company in America,
me against war as a teenager was
wãrlå wir. ind has been handsomely reconíþènsed for its
British in Britain, German in Germåny; but itowes løyalty
to none of them; and regards each government as an un-,
necessary obstruction. lt would be.absurd, I belíeve, to
compare ITT's recent misdeeds with its wartime (World
I
J
War ll) performance. But throughout its five {ecades, it has
remained irresponsible and uncontrollable."
That's the score regarding lTT.a-nd ITT is buta flagrant '
example of the niultiriationál corporations which rule the
capitalist world today-and which, despite the¡r anti'Confmunist mouthings, have no hesitation tq deal with the Com'
I
'
munist world which fatten their pocketbookr
One would not tend to think that the history of a corporation would make interesting reading. But, as the book
critic of the Søn Froncisco Chronicle expressed it The
Sovereign State of ITT "reads like a fiction thriller."
Because this book really tells the score about today's . : :'
ruling class-and in such an interesting manner*l'am adding
it to the WRL literature'list from which it can be ordered '
by WIN readers. I'm sure that many bookstore browsers .
have seen the book and passed it by,.thinking that they al- , ;
ready know the whole story becausé they read about the . .:i
much-publicized deal undei which ITT donated $400,000 :,"
to the Republican Convention projected for Sa¡ Diego in ..:;' ,
return for dropping an anti-trust suit againSt the corpora- i "'i
tion. That ain't half of the ITT story-or an eighth or even
a twentieth-of whatis told in this book.
-f im Peck
injuries. ln "1967, nearly 30 years after the evênts,'lTT ac'
DUDDY KRA"VITZ IS A SEMI.SEXIST .
tually managed to obtain $27 million in co¡¡pensation from
s E rvt I, A N rr$EM I I
lç,.F.Ll.g[..
the Ámerican government, for war damage do its factories
The new.stçreotype for the self-diagnosed pushy youn! Jew
in Germany, iñcluding $5 million for damage to Focke'
will no longer be Budd Schulberg's Sammy Glick of the'
Wulf plants-on the basis that they were American property
'40's, but Mordecai Richler's Duddy Kravitz of the '70's 1'
bombed by Allied bombers. lt was a,qotable reward for a
(written, infact, in the late'50's). I have no doubt that
company that had to deliberately invested in the German
Schulberg and Richler were both writing about aspects of .
war ôffoig and so carefully arranged to become German'
'
tf the Nai¡s hod woin, ITT in Germany woup have appeared themselves (inevitably writers dq but perhaps here more
acutely), and have a love-hate relationship with their Samimpeccobly Nozi; as they tost, it reemerged as impeccably
. my and Duddy selves, as well as with the backgrounds from
A merican," (italics mine)
; which they sprang.
Well. that is historv. vou mav sav. BuLwhat about ITT
Duddy, played frenetically by Richard Dreyfuss, is a
today ánd in the future? The book's final.chapter opens:
ruthless but rather appealing young Canadian Jew.who saves
"Whiíe ITT was so passionat€ly devoting itself to blocking
up móhey from waiting tables in a Jewish summer resort,
and.bringing down'a Marxist government in Chilg it was at
wheelíng and dealing and buttering up the richer clients.
the verylarie ti¡ne eagerly negotiating with the Communists
From here he goes on to various nefarious enterprises
in Mosóow to open up the huge potential new market as the
which come and go so quickly that you would have to take
Cold War thawed. This storv is revealing not only of ITT's
contradictions but of the new scale of industrial diplomacy; . notes or have the script at hand to sort them out. The faith-
.20 wtN
wlN 2r
It
ful French waitress that he picked up at the resort sticks by
him through all his sleazy deals, rather incomprehensibly-,.
apparently because he turns her on and because she has faith
in his ability to get what he wants-their common goal be-
ing the purchase of the land around a virginal.Canadian lakc
f'rb hopes tà develop. Already there is that ambiguity
enthusiasm for
il frir, un¿ in us about him: his bubbling
these natural beauties, his lust to possess and therefore
destroy them. When Duddy takes on an.innocent young
*fi¡"n
huut.é¿ iustler who is trying to import illegal pinball
rá.fli""í there is again the self-pushing manipulative
hate,:þut also Dudd.y. the noif, f ull of
Ñá¿t tä
"un
lo¡e de vivre, whore operations incidentally result in acã;iñi"n .f; truck long dreamed of by the hayseedanhustler'
öould Duddy hlep it if the boy is epileptic.and has
*f ith pàralyzes him îor life? Well, yes he could,
"*i¿ã"t
least
that's about as far as his Fiench mistress is willor at
ing to go with Duddy, and she takes off to care for the
pathetic paralytic epileptic. By the time Duddy gets tG
sether the dough for the lake, he is rejected even by his
ñicej ol¿ Orthodox grandfather who had told him that a
man is nothing without land. At 21, as the film ends, Duddy
is a washout. Well, not quite: there is life in the old boy
yet, and as he.goes bouncing down the street one senses
inat tfre redoubtable chutzpoh will find expression againperhaps in the form of a novel or a movie about a pushy
young
Jewish boy.
' I hãven't
mentioned the many other characters and in'
color and encumber Duddy's life along the
which
cidents
way: his simple, hearty taxi-driving father, played well by
Jaik Warden; his medical student brother, played anemically
6y a totally forgettable young man; Duddy's sad, risen-inthe world uncle whose hopes had been placed on the
brother, not Duddy; the "entrepreneur" his father had always admired and wants Duddy to pattern himself after,
who turns out to be a noxious underworld figure that
Duddy gets the best of; the junkyard millionaire-the most
" Jewish; caricature of them all-whose resort tips started
óuddv on his way and whose occasional aid rescues Duddy
temporarily from the disasters he deserves. There is also a
tippling art-film-maker with whom Duddy hooks up to
make ''creative" films about Bar Mitzvahs, resulting in a
sequence which is so squirmingly absurd that it is, infact,
quite
funny.
' I had
expected not to like this film at all, partly because
of comments I'd read by Stanley Kauffman whose reviews
I tend to agree with, partly because l'd met Mordecai Richler in lsraef 12 years ago and did not find him particularly
sympathetic. As iournalists we v/ere thrown tog.ether by.the
liraeli press relations office and sent on a few trips together,
though l hardly remember having an entire conversation
with Richlèr. He maintained an indifferent world-weary
att¡tude throughout our visit to my old kibbutz at Gesher
Haziv, and the only enthusiasm I recall seeing him show
was fór a suede leather suit that he was buying for his wife
in an expensive Tel Aviv shop. So I was prejudiced: and I
found I liked his film better than I expected' Beyond
specuiations that it is "anti'semitic" in its gross characteri'
zations of Duddy and others, there are also objections that
there is no clear viewpoint: Duddy is neither hero nor clear
villain; we don't know whether we (or the film'makers) like
him or noL This did notespecially bother me: in fact it
made me in some ways morè accepting of the film. And the
characters are exaggerated more amiably than hatefully, so
that what may be taken as "anti-semitism" comes through
more as Jewish jokes told nostalgically by Jews than as
ncist talês told by bigots. But what did bother me, left me
feeling unsatisfied'or undernouished (all these bagels and no
22 WIN
lox?), was the skimpiness of real characlerization, the tickles
where there might have been probes, the sacrifice of motive
for laughs. Well, what did I expect from a comedy: soulwracking drama? ln a good Jewish joke (or perhaps any
good joke) therB is some universal truth idiosynøaticaÍly
revealed. The largely Jewish sub- and -urban audience I saw
Duddy with rumbled with laughter throughout and ap
parently spread the word as waves more are inundating the
suburban theatres. lf non-Jewish ethnics (WASP millionaires,
for example) recognize themselves in Duddy or any of his
associates, it may be due more to guilty leaps of their own
imagination than to the empathetic skills of Richler and his
director Ted Kotcheff.
As to women, that other pushy minority, all we are
given to identify with is the low-voiced low-key Frenchwoman who enacts (adequately, but with little playing
space) the mistress-mother-secretary-nurse all rolled into
one. Or you can fall into the usual passive feminine pastime
(aided by such recent films as The Sting, Butch Cassidy,
and numerous others) of watching men push, pummel, cheat, .
charm, lie, lay, shoot and steal their way toward goals which,
ineffable or unachievable as they mây be, provide a lot of
laughs, thrills, chills and shills all the way to the bank.
-Ann' Davidon
Peopløs Bulletin Board
Paul DiMaggio, Collier Books, $1.95
THE GREAT ESCAPE
Edited by Min S. Yes, Bantam, $7.00
US Senator James Abourezk wlll speãk on
the abuses of uS Fore¡gn A¡d lh ChlcagoJ
Publlshers, 381 Park Av6nue south, New
York, NY 1O016. Write-for complete cata-
Change, Sg f\1. Sra St., Phllà, PA'19106.
AMNESTV CHRISTMAS cards, orlginal dê
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bracelets with reslsters name, $4.50 dona
tlon. safe Rèturn, 156 Fifih Avenue, Room
lOOlC, New York, NY 10010.
proqram lnterestlng to WIN readers, Wr¡te
for brochure: Doug Wllson, Klngs Hlghway,
(2r5)
N€w Mldwest research instltute seeks unsèlf¡sh, socially-consc¡ous, non-careerlst MA-
october 20th. call 922'8234¿
PRtsoNERs nEeuEsrtNc
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TAKE A UNIQUE TOUR OF THE WORLD
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CORRESPONDENCE:
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Carl Jackson, 129'339
Douglass John 137-146
Mlkel Bayless, 13Þ045
Stacle Shaltan Harrlss, 135-616
t
Harry Slmpson, l3ê239
Joe Mccoy, f37-8O2
Johnnle Brown, 138-343 ...
Please wrlte these lonety people. They are
all at Box 69, Lgndon, Ohlo.
Want€d: Folks ¡nterested In establlshlng
cooperative homestead in Wêstern.Malne.
We've got land. Wrlte Tony Scuccli New
Vlneyard" ME 04956.
Corresporid w¡th pollttcal pr¡soners ln
S.
Af rlcè Wr¡te to Pa¡( 5¡o.O" Committee
agajnst Apartheld, 518 lo st., Brooktyn
11215,
The Communlty Church of Boston meets
Sunday mornlngs at 10:30 AM at Boston
Unlverslty's Morsê Audltorlum at 602
Commonwealth Avenue. All lnvlted. Pro
gram for Octóber¡ oct. 6r Howard Zlnn,
'Á OcL l3: Ms. Wllma Scott He¡de, ex-Pres.
of NOW, Oct. 20¡ to be announced, Oct.
17r Rev. Stephon H. Frltchman.
NO MORE ÌEACHERS'DIRTY
f
OOING COMMU¡tl.IV ORCnNIZING or
support for poor people's groupsz Maybe
we can help, . .National Coalit¡on for Social
logue; please mentlon WIN ad,
PO32660.
Needed RIGHT.NOW whiteihe grape harvest
ls at ¡ts peak-Full tlme volunteers to help or- I
ganlze boycotts in San Diegq gs/week p¡us
room & board & a chance td work for decency. Wrlte¡ United Farm Workêrs, AFL-ClO,
1825 National Ave., San Diego, cA 92113,
or call Scott Washbern 233,5648 or 2B+3O2A
LOOKS
RADICAL RESOURCES FOR
EDUCAIION
Artldü Onl
'
R{dlI! & Wrhtn'g
Ls Rrr¡ Stud¡6
Wöûùü'¡ studtü
Pæpl6 H¡rtory ol ths U.S,A.
i3.ül lo¡
t.
I lsa
tom EARIOC
388
Recent articles:
Pentagon S py Rfng
Srnclút
Srn F!¡nciÞ. C¡ g¿lt 1¡l
INDIAN
TOBACCO
compilation of lore that features maps and telephone numservices
and other items of interest and importance. The book is very
worthwhilg especially for those making say, a coast-te
coast trip or planning to do a lot of hitching.
The Great Escape, a high-priced, over'sized paperback is
as valuable to the armchair traveler taking a Scot's vacation
(sitting home and letting your mind wander) as it is to the
actual travelling escaper. lt is like a Whole Eørth Catalogue
of off-beat trips, places to see, things to do. The emphasis is
on the off-beat. How about visiting the strange Winchester
House in San Jose where the stairways lead to bla,nk walls
and the doors'lead to nowhere in an effort to baffe unfriendly spirits? Or, how to go about becoming a movie star
in Hollywood. Or, exceptional bus trips along the Califor:
nia coast; where they go and what they cost (the maps cover
the whole country). There are games, water sports,. lore oh
food, walks, danciñg caving meditation and it's all presented in a perky magazinefiller format that makes for
iiit'rluto*rins. The h'ígtr price is the only-obstacle to my unflinching recommendation of The Great Escape, bÍrt if other
pe.ople ípend a couple of thousand dollars on vacation, maybe you can splurge this once.
-Tom McNamara
98.0o; Paper 92.95. From lnternatlonal
Establlshed antl-capltälist (movemeht) prlnt
shop ln Phlla. needs new worker, preferaqly
male to be 6th member of Swoman, 2-mln
collectlve. 4-Day Work Weekr subslstence
wages. No previous skills needed, although
pÌeferred. *start as soon as posslbla *Desire
at least yr, commlttment. RES ISTANCE
PRINT 5HOP, Box 3310,
Ptiila., PA t9l.30,
-
with the "counter-culture" lifestyle of little money and a
footloose and fancy-free attitude. The Hitchhiker's Field
Manual is a "hasslefree and thumb-tt'ipping" guide to North
America that lists the ins-and-outs, dos-and don'ts, of the
cheapest ways of traveling. Even experienced trippers will
fnd hints and cautions they can learn frorn For the novice,
the F¡eld Manual (why the military title?) offers a"corÐprehensive guide to places to go, places to stay, and how to
get there, The first part deals with the history and philosophy
of hitching with attention paid to how to get a ride, when
not to accept a ride, hitching and the law, dealing, crash
pads, flop houses, and places to stay. The second is a regional
of local switchboards, crash pad
i
us NEocoLONIALISM lN AFRICA, by
Steward Smlth, contlnent-wide p¡cture of
US corporâte proflteerlng and politlcð1, culürral and mllitary lnterventlon ln Af rlca
slnce the l95O's. llluminatlng background
for curreni developmehts ln Africa. cloth
These books offer various in-expensive "escapes'f in kpeping
bers and addresses
Words.
LIBERTARIAN BOOK CLUB FAII LECtUTES.
Thursday evenlnqs. 7:3O PM, Workman's
clrcle center, sob'gtn Ave. (Sw corner
29 St.), admlsslon free. October lO: Merr¡tl
Mos$ "Anarchlsm, Syndicallsm, and the
Counterculture"; October 24: Samuel H,
Fr¡edman, .,The Middle East Problern-Can
It Be Solúed?"i November l4! lrving Levitas,
"Anarchism ln New England'!¡ December 12¡
Dan Georgakas and Leonard Rubensteln,
"Art and Anarchy."
PhD Movement economlsts, poliilcal scler}.
tlst+ 6tc. who can get grants or ralse funds.
Seml-scholarly studles on war-peace reconvefslon, €ta Read Gross and osterman ,.The
New Professlonâls" pp 3377. Midwest ln.
stltute, 1206 N 6th St,, 43201.
THE HITCHHIKER'S F!ELD MANUAL
Fr6e tf no $ lnvolved b ut llmlted to 20
Otherwise $ I èvery I words.
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"THE LIVELÍEST MAGAZINE OliI THE LEFT"
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THE tORDtY HUDS0Ñ
2
collected poems of Pøul Goodmøn
'Ðriven what stream
it
.
was our
'{t
i
is our lordly Hudeon.hardly fiowing,"
still, heert! no one needs.yilur'passionqte
rufirage to select thió slory, '"
thi¡ is our lordly Hudson ha¡dly lowing
under thq green-lrown clifrr.
in Europe or the Ea¡t?"
"îiôìd¡r!b'h'e sai¡1. Hôinól hbnói
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'Ðriver!
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snd has no peer in Europe or the East,
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Ea¡t
and has no peer in Europe or the
Be quiet, heart! home! ho¡ire!
Goodmon considered hirhself a poet frrst of all. And
so; the best of hls poems will remain in the public mind long after his poleùicql writings have disøppeared, -The New York Times Book Review
justly
The Lordly Hudson, long out-of-print, is the first collectíon óf Goodman's poems, and contains the original
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Win Magazine Volume 10 Number 33
1974-10-03