WE WON'T GO CONFERENCE

One year ago students on campuses all ferences, further, are an outcome of the hundred, mostly students. There was no cause it is through the draft that the war over the United States were debating the sit-ins on the question of ranking at the U. admission charge. The one day conference meets the citizen." The eight speakers who morality of o C. O. position. The conscien• of C. last year, in that they ore responses was divided into four sessions: two in the followed accomplished, in different ways, tious objector was often tumped with the so- to students' demand that the university con• afternoon tor speakers; two in the evening one goal: to set the response of WE WON'T called "draft-dodger" and both were labeled cern itself with questions of selective service. for workshops and a general discussion ses• GO in historical, social, and personal con• unpatriotic and often cowardly as well. This The Official Conference has been long In sion. Given the attendance, theparticipotiop, texts so that people ore able to see it as week on the University of Chicago campus the making: one hundred and twenty-five and the atmosphere of the conference, the a moral and a socially meaningful way of five hundred people gathered at a WE experts, including "selected" students, were success of WE WON'T GO is obvious. What acting. So that, for one thing, they needn't WON'T GO Conferehce to consider with invited in three categories and at a cost of is not so obvious is that, like the sit-in and feel guilty about it; and for another ~ even equanimity and with no aspersion of guilt, sixty dollars each to them or to their support• the teoch-in, the WE WON'TGOConference more important - they mightfeel increasing• no lack of moral convictionorsocialconcern, ing organizaHons. Some were asked to wrtie may be the spark needed to light the new ly relevant, strong, and socially useful about a draft resistance movement. The change papers, some to comeas"participants,"some draft resistance movement. it. of emphasis among the young men most as "observers." All sessions of the four-day The opening speaker, Staughfon Lynd, his- affected by the draft and the war in Vietnam conference except the final one on Wednes• The Conference toriah on leave from Yale University, offered is significant: from a position of "I won't day, December 7, were to be closed to the first, several American precedents for draft Tom Gushurst, Chairman of the afternoon go," they are moving to the solidarity of public. The final session, at the Palmer House, resistors: Thoreou, Charles Sumner, and sessions, and one of the thirty-two WE WE WON'T GO. was to be open to those who would pay Eugene Debs. WON'T GO men, opened the conference 52.25 at the door to hear three or four The WE WON'TGOConference was called by raising the spectre of imprisonment for French Resistance experts summarize the proceedings of the by thirty-two students at the University of violators of selective service law. He cited post four days. Most striking, however, was his report Chicago who have announced publicly (in the 1,770 convictions by the Justice Depart• of an analogy: the French resistance move• the Chicago Maroon ) that they won't go to In contrast, the WE WON'TGOConference ment since 1960, and added calmly: "This ment to the Algerian war. The French writer Vietnam. In part, the conference was called was organized in two weeks and not by any conference Is about those who would not, quoted by Professor Lynd described the as a response to an official University of existing student group on the University of and will not go. There ore many ways to four stages of the movement. At first people Chicago Conference on the Draft, ofour-ddy Chicago campus, but by the newly-formed not go. Today we will consider some of these were counselled to go into the army and affair, supported by Ford Foundation funds thirty-two. They were able, in two weeks, on the admitedly biased assumption that to work against it from within. The group (520,000), and held at the Center for Con• to gather a roster of distinguished speakers those who will not go are completely justi• who tried this reported a deep sense offrus- tinuing Education on the Midway. Both con• and G local and national audience of five fied. I know that you will listen, knowing trotton and powerlessness. They werecaught that the questions, dilemmas, and frustra• by on immovol tions that will concern us today are not by on immovable system that could easily something which is of greatest concern to swallow them. In the second stage, a group scholars and politicians, but something of of thirty men decided to go to jail rather most concern to the young men who ore tired than go into the army. In the words of the of marching down Fifth Avenue, men tired manuscript, their octlon hod "no echo". This of hearing the President say, 'Forgive them time prison hod swallowed them, and silence for they know not what they do." met their action. Thus the tone was set: it was personal The third stage was described in the manu• yet socio!, a response to the draft that em• script as "insubordination at home and de• phasized its immediate reality for those sertion abroad," Those in the army were T806 w. madison, rm. 206 Chicago, ill. 60612 young men being called to combat. The encouraged to desert. Those at home were chairman also osked, "Is this an anti-war not to go to jail, not to leave the country, conference or an anti-draft conference? It's and not to enter the army, but rather to Volume 1, No. 47 let the people decide December 9, 1966 both ~ we wQuidn'tbe here today if it weren't for the Vietnam war, and it's anti-draft be- (continued on page 2) more NEW POLITICS

by Paul Booth & Richard Flacks as 'a foscrsK. The November elections cer• wise, coalition is a phony slogan. Cerloinly, - Hyde Park CDS. tainly were o defeat for the liberal leader• SNCC did not create Wallace. ship, with the defeat of Douglas, Peabody, California Brown, and other liberal leaders, reducing New politics movements ore currently In California, it is equally fantastic to the Democratic Party to the position where absorbing much of the criticism that was blame the new politics for Reogan. In fact, it is in desperately short supply of shining directed recently at SDS and other campus Reagan won by practically a million votes. proposal for page 3 liberal lights. But we do not believe the New Left elements. This criticism is aimed At the conference on Power and Politics case can be made that they represented at independent political stirrings in Califor• where new-politics forces split on the ques• a triumph of bocklash. In most cases the viet organizing nia, Alabama, and elsewhere by supporters tion of how best to repudiate Governor GOP winners were decidely moderate. of coalition politics in the Democratic Party. Brown, the small minority that walked cut Blame for conservative gains belongs in a The issues ore not simple, but deserve full was arguing that by working for him, it large measure with the Vietnam war, which airing. might be possible to bring him "away from shifts the whole political spectrum toward In the January-February DISSENT, for ex• the Right". The new-politics people were not the right-wing and toward militarism, and ample, Tom Kahn, executive director of the attempting to spike Brown, as some of their legitimates "hawkish" styles every time the League for Industrial Director, puts forward shriller critics hove argued, if they wanted President gets on TV and tells the GIs to pages the hypothesis that the "anti-coalitionists" to do that they coul3 have organized a "bring home the coonskin". And blame be• have "assisted a resurgence of conserva• write-in drive of considerable importance, longs in large measure with the disgraceful tism". In New Left Notes early in November, considering the level of organization they default of the liberal leadership, its failure Steve Max, an SDSer who played a major attained during the June primary fights. to develop program that will appeal to Care and Feeding role in that organization's Political Education Rather, what they wanted to do was achieve voters. Ordinary Americans sense the pre• Project which conducted a "Part of the Way clarity of intentions, in order to continue sence of crisis in the Cold War and in the with LBJ" campaign in the '64 elections, says with the job of educating and organizing of Power pag« 8 ghetto, and turn to leaders for answers. that "the new left has gone down on issue people around a real attempt to grapple It just won't do to soy, in the style of the after issue with those who should be its with the crises we face. As Bob Scheer said brothers Kennedy, that "there are no easy Structures major opponents." at that convention, it is not the far right answers", or "the problems ore too com• that brought us into Vietnam, or that let In particular, the events which hove roused plex". We of the new movements know that the ghettoes slide into despair. liberals and social-democrats have been the there are real answers to be given to the "black power" development in Lowndes Coun• onxieties of the people, and accept the re• Illinois LINCOLN CONFERENCE ty, Alabama, the emergence of the Califor• sponsibility to formulate and propagate in Illinois that was even clearer, where nia Coordinating Committeefor New Politics them, knowing that the "defeats" of Novem• Senator Douglas, a model Senator from and its boycott ofthe Brown-Reagan election, ber will be repeated as long as liberals BLACK POWER P^g* * the point of view of the liberal-labor coali• the efforts of the Committeeforlndependent have no program. tion, asked for re-election for his support Political Action on the West Side of Man• of the LBJ record in Asia and at home. hattan in rtie same Congressional District Not only was he a supporter of every es• where anti-war Reform Democrat Ted Weiss Lowndes County calation In Asia, but he had no more to SHCC pages fought • nip-ond-tuck primary battle for the The specific cases bear thatout. In Lowndes say about the domestic crisis, apparently congressional nomination, and a number of County, where the panther slate received having run out of new ideas. other instances. But they see these particu• 41-45% of the vote for local offices, the lars OS connected to a long train of new-left complaint with the liberal alternative was The Issues attitudes, including the absence of new-left G strong one. In the Democratic statewide instead of burning up so much ideological forces from the battles around Taft-Hartley primary Attorney General Richmond Flow• fuel attacking the new politics, we would like repeal and the minimum wage, and the new- page 10 ers ran against Mrs. Wallace, and cam• to see our liberal and "democratic-left" left schools of thought that soy "things can't paigned principally for the Negro vote, friends take a position like the following: get any worse" and that "the worse things which he received; black-power forces 1. This society, because it is militarized, are, the better for the new left," (Max) wanted him to campaign in white areas so corporate-dominated, and shot through with Factually, the critics tend to overstate the as to build a force with which they could case; one example is the reference to Reagan reasonably be asked to coalesce. Other- (continued on page 3} CMCK i"f" ^ PreWLEFT NOTES DECEMBER 9. 1966 WE WON'T GO CONFERENCE rcon'fj

(ContiDaed from page 1)

stay in the country underground. This move• Segal began as a political activistat Roose• sibility to the U.S. government's army at for. There followed on uneasy silence. Then ment gradually came together with a move• velt University in Chicago and feels that the same time that they did not "recognize Booth spoke again, in an attempt to ex- ment based on humanitarian grounds, to his cose is at least portly a result of per• block people as citizens." They are, he said, pioin what this kindofnon-discussion meant. He described what he felt was students' help the 400,000 Algerians in France. The secution by the selective service in collu• "the some people behind burning and kill• extreme alienation from everything here in Algerians were already active; they hod sion with the university for such political ing people around the state." Why, I ° con• the U. S. "What people do when they go been organized by the National Liberation tinued, should I go to "fight forfreedcn over activity. His aggressive attitude towards the to Canada," he said, "is they build n new Front, but they were being horrassed by draft board, his refusal to take selective ser• there" when what I need to do is "stay here lite. But people here ore not talking about the police. LynddescribedaJune1961 public vice seriously, his refusal to be intimidated and fight for freedom here?" He cited the that." People here didn'thavewhothecailed meeting in Paris as the culmination of the by the F.B.I. ~ all are manifestations of his refusal of the Congress to recognize the "• home in the anti-war movement.'' Simi• resistance movement so far. The 2 move• desire to confront the inhuman system in Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as larly, he said, "they don't have a home anywhere else, and they can't expect to find ments, both encouraging desertion and "in• pugnaciously human terms. He has refused making clear to him thereby that "I don't one in Canada. They felt "rootless in univer• subordination" to the draft itself and helping to be worn down by the system, and has have a country, that I'm not a citizen. If they sities, they feel rootless in the suburbs remained cheerful to the point of cheeky, didn't recognize me as a citizen then, I'm the Algerians, came together in a strong they come from, and rootless in relation to as well as humorous to the point of insolent. not a citizen now, and I'm gonna remain position. The meeting was broken up by the the country they read about in the doily that way." police and there were many arrests. At Mitchell's tone is entirely different. He press." The decision they make about their that point, a group of French intellectuals, began his struggle very much as on indi• In a soft and pleasant manner, Sumrall future, therefore, "is not an emotional, deep among them Jean-Paul Sartre, formed the vidual, his approach was quietly human and emphasized that he was not alone in seeing love-hate one.' Committee of 121 insupportof the resistance very serious. He was saying to his draft the draft as "the legal way" to keep Negroes movement. Stage four, described in the man• board: I'm o human being who holds cer• from staying "ot home and fighting for Somebody, after Booth's statement, did say freedom there." When the lynch rope and uscript, occurred after the formation of the tain values. I want to talk to you. He always that if forty people chartered a bus and Committee of 12' in September of 196 , answered their letters. He wanted to es• other means of intimidation fall, he said, went together across the border and re• and involved the Committee's forming an tablish a dialogue with them, just as later there is always the draff. nounced their citizenship, that would be a underground movement to help men about on, in his now famous case, he wanted to political act. But no one could discuss the to be conscripted into the Algerian war to establish a dialogue with the federal gov• Workshops ideas involved in going to Canada. They go underground or leave the country, but ernment. His case, based on the Nurem• could only return to the fragments of tech• After dinner, the conference changed nicalities involved in the nrores^ to continue to work oflainst the war. berg Trials, argues the position that Mitchell form. First, three workshops assembled for is not on trial at alt ~ rather, the U.S. gov• Garrison State two hours. A group of women, mainly U. of Results ernment is. Hence, Mitchell feels, there is C. students, met to discuss how they could in the large general session that began Sociologist at the U of C, Professor Rich• no reason for him to be apologetic. He is work as on effective, independentgroupand after nine p.m., It was obvious that while ard Flacks, offered support for a draft re• simply not willing to be an Eichmonn-iike at the same time support a draft resistance the conference had hod the effect of 'legi• sistance movement, but through analysis party to the murders in Vietnam. movement. Thirty-five or forty men, mostly timizing' the draft resistor into a draft re• rather than analogy. Flacks began by de• not members of the WE WON'T GO group, sistance movement, the movement itself In spite of their differences, several sim• scribing Harold Lasswell's study, "The Gar• met to discuss "Legal Aspects of Draft Re• lacked shape onddirection. Differentpeople ilarities emerged from theirnarrotives. They were, as Arlo Tatum had said earlier in the rison State," published in January 1941, sistance." Their resource person was Arlo stood before the 500 people there as living day, at different thresholds. And in this in the American Journal of Socioiogy. Flacks Tatum, who has twice served jail sentences examples of men who have been going most vital decision - what to do about one's continued: "It is clear that we ore rapidly OS a non-registront, and who is now Director own draft status - a person must not be moving in this direction, and that this future through the struggle with draft boards, the of the CCCO in Philadelphia. The men who pushed beyond his threshold. As Gory is Inescapable if wars such as Vietnam or the F.B.I., and the courts for years and years met with Tatum were asking for advice about Benonson, one of the thirty-two WE WON'T - Mitchell since 1961 and Segal since 1964 ways to resist the draff without facing the cold war continue. Many of the social and GO men, said, it took a lot of soul-searching possibly five years in prison. And as Tatum political structures of 'the garrison state' - and who have not been crushed in the and endless hours of discussion with many, had said when speaking briefly during the ore already firmly entrenched: in particular, process. Their narratives, moreover, testi• many people for him to make his own per• ofternoon, it is impossible not to feel sym• the merger of civilian and military elites; fied that they have managed to continue sonal decision to act with the group. The pathy for these men. Who wants to go to the sacrifice of domestic welfare for mili• their personal lives during thlsdifficulttlme, feeling with which I left the WE WON'T prison? Which one of us would volunteer tary priorities; the co-optation of science and that they have received increasing support Go conference was ~ in spite oftheobvious- to give up five years of our lives? As Tatum ly missing program for action - a positive technological advance into the military sys• from tfieir families, their friends, and the described the decision to resist the draft, one. Unlike the kinds of young men who tem; political institutions not yet destroyed, movement. And what is even more impor• already mode by the WE WON'TGOgroup, could attend only to the details of fleeing but decidedly weakened. tant, their struggle has strengthened them "it's a pretty rough sincerity test." to Canada, the draft resistors had a wider personally and has made them more effec• "Now, just as Lasswell predicted, the elites vision. They sow their response as a moral tive in the movement. For though it may Canada and a socially meaningful action. As Richard are becoming concerned about the disrup• seem that they hove, overtly at least, lost Flacks put it, "By saying 'we won't go' now tive effect of the unskilled and disadvantag• The workshop on "Canada and the Pro• their battle - since it is likely that they will spects of Exile" attracted more than twice we ore doing our duty for the future". It ed; and, as he anticipated, after brief at• go to prison - their stories hardly served the number of men that the legal workshop is not unrealistic to expect that thousands tempts to try to change their attitudes, pro• as warning to the audience before them. did. Only seven of the seventy or so pre• of young men around the country will be posals ore developing at an increasing rate Rather, it was as inspiration that they were sent were part of the WE WON'T GOgroup, encouraged to add their voices to those of to end their threat by the equivalents of the Chicago thirty two. heard. and these were, for the mostpart, spectators compulsory labor." only. The resource people were two Cana• What was becoming increasingly clear as Flacks cited as further evidence that "the dians, Benson Brown, Chairman of a Com• the afternoon went on was that the draft garrison state" is [ust around the corner mittee to Aid American War Objectors in is a very critical point tor everyone directly several proposals coming out of the UC Vancouver, and John Pocock from Toronto. affected by It. Dave Alley, who spoke briefly Conference on the Draft for the establish• They had brought with them a pamphlet for the organizing group of thirty-two, em• ON THEIR ment of some kind of compulsory notional that answered all the legal and practical phasized this fact. Young men hove to make service. He mentioned a number of papers questions about emigration to Canada by a choice there that is impossible to ovoid. (Margaret Mead's, Morris Jonowitz'sj that people of draft age. Yet for more than an And thoughtful young men find it increasing• offered compulsory national service as o sol• hour all the "discussion" consisted of techni• ly difficult simply to join an army that is cal questions. How much money do you OWN ution to national ills ranging from "instilling engaged in a dirty war. The draft is no need? Should you write or should you go patriotism" to "ending ale longer just a matter of interrupting one's to the border? Which place on the border? patriotism" to "ending alienation and identity life to go into the ormyforocouple of years. Can you travel out of Canada once you get GROUND crises." If is, rather, a question of following a de• status as a landed immigrant? What kind of Another paper written for the UC Con• ranged foreign policy down the path of jobs can you gel? All the questions were personal, individual ones, many of them ference by Kenneth Boulding, Flacks contin• moral and social disaster. ued, mokes clear why the WE WON'T GO occurring again and again. The silence in Tom conference "is so much more important than Milifarism the large room was impressive. Everyone the one across the street." Boulding points As James Bevel, SCLC's civil rights leader seemed to be listening with intensity to the answer to a particular person's questions and out. Flacks said, "that powerful and highly in Chicago, put it later in the afternoon, Concfff then two minutes later, someone would ask expansive state systems have collapsed with• the real enemy is the military. There is, the some question again. And again, every• One of the major sources of strength of in a short time, in part because they ceased he said, no ideological difference between one would listen to the answer. It was as the right wing In America is their use of to hove legitimacy. The droftand the garrison us and the Russians or us and the Chinese; though the questions were so personal, so radio time tor propaganda broadcasts. Radio state are signs of the weakening legitimacy our mutual enemies ore the "thugs" who essential, that one could listen again and time is far cheaper than TV time (as low of the notional violence

racism, is drifting, and sometimes plunging, cal movement, engaged in building indepen• toward both international ond internal dis• dent bases of insurgency and arguing for aster. a basic social program. 2. There is a modest hope of staying this Sure, these people are "extremists", and drift; it lies with a relnvigoration of the lib• Creole "backlashes'' (just as Martin Luther eral wing of the Democratic Party. Liberals King, that eminent coalitionist, created one must, first of all, develop a comprehensive hell of a ''backlash" this year in Illinois), 111 program which con recapture the imagina• but an American right-wing will only gain tion of those groups now disaffected with it so long OS liberals stagnate and radicals - especially ghettoized Negroes, urban eth• bold back from their job of "telling it as it nic minorities, intellectuals, and rank-and- is". file trade unionists. If Kahn, Max, and others were arguing 3. It must actively initiate efforts at grass• these propositions, radicals In the new poli• roots organization ~ not through the corrupt tics would feel altogehter comfortable with and reactionary urban machines, but them. Instead, they seem to imply that through new political mechanisms. SDS, SNCC, NCNP and the peace move• kS 4. Inside the Democratic Party it must ment shculd^be^ doing the liberals' work for fight the business forces which are also in them, cease being independent, and coal• m there trying to win control, and it must con• esce around programs that are meant to front and defeat those other forces which deceive the people, likefhe"war"on poverty. emanate from racist and militarist institu• The current cose in point is the so-called tions. This includes o decisive break with "freedom budget' which advocates increas• the presentadministrotion on foreign policy, ing all domestic spending by 528 billion a 8« Draft Resolution and vigorous opposition to Big Business. year by 1975, in the context of a budget 5. The responsibility for achieving this which increases defense spending by 523 lies largely with liberal politicians, labor billion a year in the same period. "... and urges young men to resist the draft." leaders, liberal intellectuals, and rank-and- The 1968 Democratic primaries for Pre• file activists. Probably some radicals, social• sident will undoubtedly offer further occa• ists, and pacifists should be involved as a sions to renew this dialogue. With George (Text) force for integrity and clear-headedness. But Wallace threatening to carry slates of pled• "SDS believes the war in Viet Nam (a clear and blatant example of the corrupt there is, also, a desperate need for radicals ged delegates In key states like Illinois, Ohio, nature of the present American System. This war is not a war for freedom, but a war ogainst the right of men to choose their own form of government. to slay independent of this coalition. Wisconsin and Indiana, there will be quite We must bring people to challenge this war and that system. This can best be done a hue-and-cry for new-politics forces either by showing how this war affects their lives. For students and young people generally, Rodkal's Role to rally behind the favorite-son stand-ins for the draft is a clear and very threotening effect of the war on their lives. SDS should a. d TeFt-wing movement, with Its own LBJ, or behind efforts to brjng in Bobby's organize around this concern of young people thru anti-war and anti-draft activity. expanding constituency, is o most important personality and style, to defeat Wallace. SDS opposes the draft itself, no matter what form it takes, because of it's undemo• mechanism for keeping the liberals in mo• cratic and coercive nature. SDS opposes the xonscription of all men for the war in tion. I hope that our critics will have more Viet Nam and urges young men to resist the draft. b. the liberal program, if successful, will persuasive arguments against the idea of On campus, SDS will organize to end University cooperation with the war machine create its own problems - in porticulor, it putting up new-politics slates in those sit• (1) Find at least one person to seek (ond publish in New Left Notes) Information on is likely to strengthen national trends toward uations than the arguments they are using local draft programs; to gather relevant documents and travel. top-down planning, centralization, and social in the wake of the liberal defeats in Novem• engineering. Therefore, if democracy is to ber. Politics, after all, only improves if peo• prevail there must be an autonomous radi• ple learn from previous failures.

Proposal for Viet Organizing By STEVE JOHNSON

The types of organizing activities being Liberation Front. [See NY Times, Nov. 23, C, Call a long pause in the bombing of dictatorship, their quiescence the used against the war in Vietnam ore increas• Max Fronkel's article.) And it would take the North Vietnam and hold troop levels steady will disappear immediately, ingly steadily. As the war shows no signs stand that it is better to negotiate with the in South Vietnam. D, Cease bombing of In most parts of the country legal pro- of slackening yet, Americans who oppose human beings in the NLF than to burn them. North Vietnam entirely and hold troop cedures Ur conducting public referendums IBJ's Vietnam war policy ore called upon Referendums levels steady. E. Reduce US troop levels in are available, and any energetic citizen's to continue and expand their active organ• South Vietnam. organization con take advantage of them. izing work against the war. Another good organizing program would If will be excellent organizing experience One good possibility for moss organizing be campaigns all across the country for Political Options for many in SDS to become involved in a activity is a housewives Scran Wrap boy• local voter referendums on the issues of The more relevant issues ore the questions nationwide series of Vietnam referendum campaigns. And these referendums alsowill cott at supermarkets. The target is Dow the Vietnam war. of US political objectives in South Vietnam. help bring millions of Americans for the Chemical, manufacturer of both SoronWrop Public referendums, conducted on what• A. Under no circumstances should the and napalm, and it would not be difficult first time into a real confrontation with the ever levels are most convenient[from muni• National Liberation Frontbeollowed into the to reach millions of housewives in such o root issues of US present day foreign policy, cipal to statewide), have several advantages government of South Vietnam. B. Commun• campaign. Soran Wrap boycotts against napalm and that were lacked by the recent peace condi- ists and members of the Notional Liberation Vietnam referendums ore not the only ac• David Horowitz, in The Free World Colos• dacies for Congress. Front should be allowed to run for office tion campaigns open to us. But it may be sus, quotes a BBC description from the There are many people who are critical in South Vietnam. C. The people of South' that they have a unique potential for or• Korean war of the effect of napalm. of LBJ's conduct of the war who hove not Vjetncm should b_e allowed to, vote on ganizing mass opposition to this hideous "In front of us a curiousfigurewasstonding been willing to usetheirvotef or a Congress• whether they want their government to be war. SDS chapters may find that these can a little crouched, legs straddled, arms held man for the purpose of registering their neutralist in international affairs, whether become a successful Lilliputian strategy for out from his sides. He hod no eyes, and opinions on the war. For one reason or they wont US troops to remain or to with• finally stopping that stampeding Gulliver the whole of his body, nearly all of which another, a good percentoge of anti-war draw. D. The US should negotiate immediate• in the White House. was visible through tatters of burnt rags, Americans still desire to vote for their ly with the National Liberation Front. E. was covered with a hardbiockcrustspeckled regular Republican Party or Democratic The US should withdraw and leave the re• with yellow pus . . . He had to stand be• Party candidates. For this kind of reason, solution of the present conflict to the Viet• cause he was no longer covered with a the total vote for peace candidates almost namese themselves. skin, but with a crust-like crackling which certainly failed to show the true strength broke easily ... I thought ofthe hundreds of antiwar feeling among Americans. This kind of referendum will put a good of villages reduced to ash which I personally On the other hand, o good referendum set of choices on the ballot. It will give op• had seen and realized the sort of casualty involves every voter directly in the issues ponents of the war a very effective method list which must be mounting up along the of the Vietnam war. It does not get so tied for raising the Vietnam issue for people on Korean front." up in distracting questions of party politics. the precinct level. Probably only a minority Our humanity-loving Pentagon is again The logic behind the referendum is that will vote for immediate US withdrawal, but specializing in teaching American boys how the voters are using the referendum to ex• a majority of voters quite likely would en• to shoot burning napalm on their fellow press their ooinions end to lay down guide• dorse a policy of immediate US negotiation human beings, the young men and boys lines by which their district's man in Con• with the NLF. of Vietnam. And Dow Chemical is loyally gress will be guided, no tpctter which party selling millions of dollars of napalm to the The campaign on this kind of referendum he represents. If a series of referendums Pentagon for this purpose. would allow precinct workers and organizers can be held, in which the majorities come to get at tf>e most vulnerable spot in the Leaflet! ng out in favor of immediate US negotiation Administration's ^Vietram policy. American A concerted leofietcampaign, carried out with the National Liberation Front, this will voters nave not yet been told the truth about at major supermarkets for a week's time, impose great pressure on Congress which it how long the Vietnam war is going to con-' with photographs and appropriate text on hasn't felt before to speck out against LBJ linue. By even the most optimistic estimate. the leaflet, would reach almostevery house• on the war. It will take ten years of continued fighting wife in any urban community. It might stop Military Options to "pacify" the countryside completely, and them not only from purchasing Dow Chemi• twenty years before Saigon will hove any cal's Soran Wrap but stop them also from Even with a referendum, it is not simple capacity to establish ogovernmentviobleon feeling complacent about the role of their to formulate a range of questions that en• its own. sons and borthers and husbands in Vietnam. ables voters to express their opinions ac- 50% discount on bulk orders A leaflet on this should do more than curotely on both political and military policy As soon OS voters figure out for them• criticize the use of napalm. It would also issues. One range of options, for example, selves what a long and costly, bloody war moke the comment that millions of South could list military choices: Viptnam is qoing to involve, and as soon of 50 or more. Vietnamese farmers seem firm in their op• A. Step up bombing of North Vietnam gs they figure..Qut thaUt is being/foughjr_^ position to the government in Saigon and and put more US troops in South Vietnam. only for the purpose of fixing a rigftf-v/mg *^ firm in their preference tor the National B. Send more US troops Into S. Vietnam. dictatorship in power instead of a left-wing . . I

IDEOLOGY DISCUSSION

Paranoid Politics Revisited Toward a Workable Idealagy

concentration camps (which, fortunately, no NAG by Marvin Mondell longer exist), and the crushing of the Hun• by Paul Suhle garian Revolution, all of which, ) hope he Storrs, Conn. lov/a City, Iowa December ?, 1966 MINUTES will agree, were a far cry from the dreams of Lenin and Trotsky. Mr. Jehlen's reference Members present: Jean Teppermon, Tom to the fact that there ore no beggars in The Condit-Cunningham-Greene series Is It is discouraging to read Alan Jehlen's Condit, Dee Jocobson, Greg Calvert, Rich China or starving people in Russia almost excellent Insofar as it constitutes a sort of Nov. 4 critique of my Sept. 23 article "Against Berkowitz. of either in Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy dialogue; most non-newsy articles in NLN Paranoid Politics" for three reasons: he mis• Members absent: Steve Kindred. EorlSllbar, during the years just before World War (including my own) appear to be appealing ses the whole point of the article; he errs, Brent Kramer, Paul Lauter, JOIN. H? I don't mean to minimize economic ac• to everyone and no one, and apparently in fact; and he falls into the very poiorization Others present: Jane Adamjs. complishments, but what we should look for solicit little excited response. But the path of of good and evil that my article warns especially in each country is (1) equitable against. this particular series has been pendulum- distribution of wealth; (2) encouragement of like, swinging back and forth over possible Mr. Jehlen is revolted at my coupling free art (not the banning of Bach and the solutions to the Communism - anti-commun• Maoists, Stalinists, and block power advo• smashing of the Venus de Milo); (3) demo• ism nexus. Offhand, I wouldcreditthefollure cates, on the one hand, with Jehovah Wit• cratic right of strike ond of speech (espe• to approach a real theoretical solution too nesses, Nazis, and white racists on the cially the right to dissent); and (4) worker's fundamental lack of dialectical thinking in other. But in what sense did I couple these democratic participation in economic and (strange, indeed] bedfellows? Not in a total SDS: we generally show a fierce desire to political decisions. sense. By no means. I coupled them only sweep aside contradictions instead of fifting in the sense of their feelings of charisma. Of course, I don't mean to freeze any them into • larger system; and we con• Agenda: I. Student Strike-Chicago Peace As soon OS someone feels that another's big society into on unchanging block of ice; sequently answer arguments not by de- Council. 2. Berkeley. 3. Finances. 4. Staff worth is not as valuable as his own, he all in this world of ours is in a flux. But Mr. mystification, but rather denial of premises. and Printing. 5. Oiffice cars. 6. SSOC. 7. can harm him with impunity. Chinese Red Jehlen does no service to the cause of Rather than attempt a full-length article December Conference. 8. Membership Re• Guards forcing a girl to wear a hot with socialsim by saying that the leaders ofthe based on a dialectical approach (which I ferendum. the word "scum" on it is the some kind of Chinese cultural "revolution" hove basically do not presume to be able yet to do), I act as Nazis tweaking a rabbi's beard. Of the some goals as SDS. The truth more would like to moke a few brief points which 1. Student Strike-Chicago Peace Council. course there ore many reasons for charis• probably is that Mao, either hoving been would concern the creation of this truly The Chicago Peace Council is hosting the matic feelings; of course it is easiest for us outvoted or about to be outvoted at the first Third Position: planning conference for the intended Student to understand those of oppressed blacks (al• plenary session of the Central Committee Strike. The conferencewillbeheld in Chicago though Mr. Jehlen adds nothing to human to be convened in four years, called on the 1) The Main Enemy, as Marx clearly sow. Is on December 28-29. Marjorie Krnsella of knowledge with his observation that block Army and the youth to boil him out. Hence for each populace at home (i.e., for us, the CPC requested the ChicagoArea mailing racism is emotional rather than intellectual the exaltation of Marshal Lin Pioo and the those who run the United States). Thus we list of SDS for the purpose of sending out a - what does he think paranoia is?) As Freud Red Guard terror. Note that Liu Shoo-chi, in SDS can easily regard the internal con- mailing about the conference. Since the NC said, there would be no persecution com• President of China, has said nothing in sup keystone of world CGpitalism-as most signi• voted not to support the Student Strike at plex if there were no persecution. But let port of the Red Guards. [See Isaoc Deuts- ficant to our day-to-doy struggle. We who Clearlake (observers will be sent) and since us not forget that charisma and paranoia cher's Oct. 3V Nation article.) must tockle the greatest leviathan the world the conference will be held simultaneously ore 0 plague that hinders and sometimes has ever known must regard that leviathbn's with the December Conference after Greg If China is on the eve of a Stalinist purge, ruins a good cause. (See Paul Feldman's problems as the Central Contradiction requested that the Student Strike planning Mr. Jehlen will have to use finer tools to article in Sept.-Oct. Dissent on how black today. conference not be, the NAC decided not to analyze it thaj] his sledgehammer of Nov. power ploys into the hands of those racists give the mailing list to the CPC. 4. I would suggest a reading of Wilhem who wont to see the Negroes retreat into 2) in this light, the 'Socialist World" is neither Reich's Mass Psychology of Fascism and the Northern ghettos and Southern en• an Equal Enemy or our Leader in the 2. Berkeley. A letter of support will be sent The Sexual Revolution which analyze the claves.) struggle. Its actions are to be supported to the strikers and the N.O. will call for sup• close interrelationship of economic exploi• Insofar as they make progress for their own port demonstrations by SDS chapters. tation and sexual repression. More than any His failure to understand my coupling people [e.g., economic development In other books, these explain charisma and 3. Finances. The financial situation is VERY these groups in terms of charisma leods China) and confine to support leftist revo• paranoia in modern politics. DESPERATE this week after being only des• Mr. Jehlen to a dangerous factual error. lution abroad. We must attempt to under| perate last week. $2,000 is needed by Mon• He writes, ". . . red guards tying someone Perhaps the biggest travesty in recent Chi• stand the difficulties of the Soviet Union day. The office will not be able to function to a lamp post and cutting off his Western nese Red Guard activity is that it is done and people's China instead of polemrcizing unless money begins to roll in. Calvert is hair cut are qualitatively better than Nazi in the name of Marx and Lenin. According either for or against their handling erf sending out a December Fundroistng Letter hoodlums murdering helpless Jews." While to Franz Mehring, Marx , . , was always these difficulties. And we must ultimately to all members, chapters and old contribu• this statement is in itself true, whotlcoupied a faithful lover of the ancient Greeks and find the means to correctly condemn the ac• tors. was not Chinese Red Guard activity with he would have scourged those contemptible tions which ore counter-revolutionary (like Nazi murder, but rather with "... Nazi souls from the temple who would prevent the Chinese role in Palustan and Japan, or hoodlums smashing windows during "Kry- the workers from appreciating the culture of the Russian role in Latin America). stollnocht. "The distinction is Important. Mr. the classic world. According to Marx's son- Jehlen's, In changing window smashing to in-law, Paul Lofargue, Marx read Aeschylus 3) We must work on o specific SDS analysis murder, misses the point I was suggesting: in the original Greek text at least once a toward these ends. One wishes Greene had Chinese Red Guard activity may eventually year. Marx knew Heine and Coethe by heart talked less about the CPUSA, whose shifting lead to murder just as "Krystallnacht" did, and loved Shakespeare, Dante, Burns, Field• role is well known, and more about the ex• 3a (UJ«« for the Nazis did not kill on that evening - ing, Scott, Balzac, etc., etc. Lenin loved isting "socialist" countries. As such, he has they humiliated. In another factual error Beethoven and also (according to Bertram only proved the existence of a sort of 'ex• 4. Staff and Printing, There is a possibility he says I accuse Chinese Red Guards of D. Wolfe's Three Who Made a Revolution), ploitation" at one period~if Soviet actions rape, of which, of course, they ore incapa• Gogol, Turgenev, Pushkin, Tolstoy, among that some stoff personnel may be leaving robbed countries otessential capital and sup• ble, having been enervated by reading others. shortly. Calvert to contact people who have ported a native Ruling Class (as American Mao's prose after a full day's study or work. shown on interest in becoming staff mem• Most surprising in Mr. Jehlen's letter is his Imperialism does), it is a strange robbery In writing, "It makes no difference whether bers. The NAC decided that the present statement that discussions with those people which abolishes capitalism, and a strange a peasant woman is being raped by a gang arrangement with Art Roseblum should be (including leaders of Chinese Red Guards) Ruling Class which is impelled to move to• of red or white guards ..." I was referring cancelled immediately and that he should "must be carried on." He means leaders ward socialization. In short, so-called "State to the 1918-19 Red and White Cossack ropes be put back on staff. not of China (mony of whom were humiliated Capitalism" necessitates a fresh analysis, not described, for example, in the stories of by Red Guards, according to Deutscher), tired ottacks or defenses. 5. Office cars. We have received the in• Isaac Babel, who died, by the way, in a but of the Red Guards. I can't imagine what voices and will be able to pick up two cars Stalinist ~ not socialist ~ concentrotion camp. kind of discussions he plans to carry on 4) In this search, we must adopt the method In Massachusetts for the office, once we with them. Most of them have been sent hove registered them In llllncis and have Mr. Jehlen's not so speechless indignation of a figure whose contradictions SDSers home, on foot. If any ore still left in Peking, insured them. Insuronce will now be looked at my article also leads him to wild polariza• would do well to understand, Chairmon Mac. the only discussion I can think of would be Into. tion of camps. He says that I dismissed People ore positively undtalectical;mostwill on the order of "Now that 'Street of Hatred the entire Russian Revolution in one sen• argue only over toctics, thinking the only al• 6. SSOC. We willseeifitisalrlghtwith SSOC to Capitalist-Fascist-lmperialist Aggression' tence. In referring to the degeneration of ternative is the foctronolism of the itchy Old that complimentary NLN be sent to their has been changed to 'Street of Eternal Re• the Russian Revolution, I, a Marxist, did Lefties. Yet after deep study, orgue we must, v chapters and if special rotes be given to sistance Against Revisionist Lackeys and not mean it as a total thing. I was thinking If we carry into this discussion the under• people who subscribe to NLN through the Toadies,' how do you get to the pissoir?' of such matters as the purge trials, the _ standing that Mills' unanalyticol Third World SSOC office. If it is okoy with them, then it position is no more or less backward than will be brought up at the December NC. We ; "the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom amongst us "Marxist-Leninism" as we now know it - both will also ask SSOC if we could possibly use •is that compact majority-yes, the damned, compact Liberal In my mind being archaic - I think we will Bucks Cove (SSOC camp in North Carolina) as possible site for the April NC. •majority "that Is it! Now you know!" find the path towards a new position which a consumes and thereby stands above both. : Henrik Ibsen 7. December Conference. The NAC recom• mends to the California committee that a $5 It may be that SDS has not fought together registration fee be charged to California : AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE long enough as an organization (and there• people and that the registration fee be fore developed the necessary unity on the waived to people who hove travelled a "action level of consciousness", as Gramsci great distance. If subsidies ore possible, the puts it) to undertake such a dtaloaue. Perhaps, subsidy schedule will be as follows: $5 to those who pressed for such (like myself) NEW LEFT NOTES people from east of the Rockies, $10 to peo• Published weekly by Students for a Democratic Society, 1608 W. Madison, have been too hasty. But we must keep the ple from east of the Appolochians and the Chicago, lU. 60612. Phone (312) 666-3874 Second-class postage paid at Chicago, absolute necessity for this discussion in ttie Southeast. Subsidies will be granted only to iUlnpLs. Subscriptions: $1 a_year for members;. S5_ a_year-for_aoa-meroberft. front of our minds, and at least correct our NC delegates. Signed articles and letters are the respcmsibility rfthe writer. Unsigned articles own methods of thinking so that when dia• are ttie responsibili^ of the editor. Thane Croston, and guest editor, Mark logue and criticism occurs, we can incorpor• 8. Membership Referendum. So far, only a ate the arguments of our SDS opponents little over a hundred ballots hove been re• into our own developing critique, instead ^^^^ STUDENTS FOR A DEMOCRATIC SOTIETV ^ ceived. This is very disappointing, to say the of seeking merely to demolish them. NickEgleson, president; Can Davidson, vice-president; and Greg Galvert, naticmal least. The membership will be reminded secretary. about the referendum In NLN and the chap• National Office: 1608 W. Madison, Rm. 206, Chicago, 111. 60612 (312) 666-3874 ters will be reminded in the next chapter New York City: 49 West 27th St.. NYC, NY 1001; (212) 889-5793 mailing. Niagra Regiwi; 107 Dryden Rd., Ithaca, NY Northern CalifomJa: 924 Howard St., San Francisco^ Calit (415) 362-7922 submitted by Rich Berkowitz Southern California: 4319 Melrose. Los Angeles, California, 90019 New England: 138 River St., Cambridge, Mass., 02139 Radical Education Project: 510 East William, Ann Arbor, Mich. DECEMBER 9, 1966 NEW LEFT NOTES REP PAGE PARWeRS i„ RPARWBIR by Pete Henig REP Stoff Book Reviews Rex Appiegote, CROWD AND RIOT CON• An article for The Toledo Free Press, Bulletin bility of every one

Jack Minnis is research director ofthe stated that, even if U.S. Steel executives possessed such power, it would be wholly inappro• Student Non-viotent Coordinating Com• priate to use it in such a manner. Possibly Mr. Blough is unaware of the hour-long propa• mittee and former research director of ganda program his company sponsors once a week on TV, the voter education projecf. These are but two instances in which elements of the civil rights movement have at• tempted to require the power structure of the nation to shoulder a responsibility which A i'9 year old Negro from Savannah, Georgia, walked into the main office of Chase is clearly theirs. In each case the corporate elite has made righteous noises, but has Manhattan Bank in New York and asked to see David Rockefeller. offered no significant concessions. One reason this is so seems to stem from the deter• He knew David Rockefeller was Chief Executive Officer and the largest stockholder of mination of many to believe that these gentlemen of power are men of good will who the bonk, he knew Nelson Rockefeller, David's brother, had declared loud and often that recognize some moral responsibility inherentin the power they wield. There is a tendency racial discrimination must end, and he knew that Chase Manhattan served as paying to accept what purport to be good faith promises of cooperation. The histories of these agent on Savannah bond issues which were floated to build segregated facilities. He was- men, and of their predecessors, offer little reason to believe this sound practice. Roger told that Rockefeller was out of town and asked what his business was. He replied that Blough's ottitude, expressed after the church-bombing, is one example of the complete he wanted to discuss with Rockefeller the bank's policy with regard to financing segre• repudiation of any moral or civil responsibility. Perhaps fhe most succinct recent state• gation. He was ushered into the office of the vice-president who was in charge of the ment of fhe attitude of the corporate elite was mode in Fortune magazine In April, 1962. bank's municipal bond department. He asked this individual to outline the bank's policy Frank Brughler, Comptroller of Bethlehem Steel said: "We're not In business to make on financing segregation. The individual assured him thatthe bank hod had no connection steel, we're not in business to build ships, we're not in business to erect buildings. We're with Savannah bond issues for a number of years. The young man replied, "Well, then, in business to make money." you'll have no objection to my examining your records, will you?" The vice-president, of course had and voiced, numerous obiections. He refused to make a statement of the Thus, if we who are involved in promoting change in the society would goad the power bank's policy. The young man informed him that, unless the bank declared itself against structure of the nation, or any segment of it, to act, we must keep one principle in mind. the financing of segregation within 24 hours, a picket line would be set up around the The men whom we are approaching con be depended upon to act only when they see a bonk and he departed. probability of diminished profit if they do not. And when they do act, their first instinct will be to remove the pressure by attacking its source, rather than by effecting change in The next day, there having come no word from the bank, the young man and a dozen the society. The long struggle ot the labor movement to secure the^right to organize or so companions journeyed to the main office of the bonk and began picketing, carrying should be sufficient proof of this. Many gravestones in the industrial centers of the East signs protesting the Rockefeller bank's support of segregation by lending itself to the and Midwest, and in the mining centers of the West, bear silent witness to the resistance floating of bond issues for building segregated facilities in Savannah. The young man of the corporate elite to change. never, himself, got a chance to picket because the entire afternoon was spent explaining what was going on to curious passersby. Several joined the picket line after hearing what How to identify the power structure in a given community? First, one must recognize the young man hod to say. The bank, of course, did not capitulate in any way. But this that, as with Birmingham, they key figures may not even reside in the community. Every by no means indicates that the operation was a failure. state, through a department of commerce, a board of industrial development, or some The young man has validated for himself, his companions, and a parcel of strangers on such similar department, publishes a directory of firms operating in the State. Such a the streets of New York, what was previously oiily a wispy kind of theory about the com• directory can be purchased form the appropriate department, secured from a Chamber plexities of racial discrimination in America, of Commerce, or found in a public.Ubrory. He hod begun by looking into Moody's Manual of Municipal Bonds to find what banking The significance of a firm in the structure of the community usually correlates closely institutions had participated in the floating of Savannah bond issues. He found three large with the size of the work force it employs. So the researcher should seek, in this direc• New York banks involved in the various outstanding issues. He hadn't the resources to tory, firms employing large numbers of persons. VVfien he has made a list of these for attack all three, so he selected the one which was strategically vulnerable by reason of the community, he should next look up the firm in Moody's Industrial Manual (which can its connection with a politician whoQvows distaste for racial discrimination. He documented he found in any city library). From this source he can learn the location of the home this connection by checking the Chain Banking Study published in 1962 by the Select office of the corporation (if its stock is sold to the public) and the nature and scope of its Committee on Small Business of the U.S. House of Representatives. This document lists operations. Going next to Poor's Registry of Executives and Directors, fhe reseorcher the top twenty stockholders of the 200 largest member bonks ot the Federal Reserve con learn the names of the officers and directors of the corporation, and their residence System. addresses, along with their other corporate connections. U neither officers nor directors He thus learned, doing the research for the operation, that one of the nation's largest of the corporation live in the communlty,theyordinarily the loco! manager of the corpor• and most prestigious banking institutions was knee-deepin profits derived from the system ation will be high in the power structure of the community. of segregation in the South. During the operation, he leorned that officials of the bank were not willing to admit their involvement and certainly were not willing to do onything about withdrawing their support of segregation. He learned that a high official of the Next the researcher should look in the yelTow pages of the telephone directory to secure bonk was not above telling an outright lie about that involvement. And he learned the names of all the banks inthecommunity. Then he con use Moody's Bonk and Finance something else. Manual to determine the size and scope of each bonk's operations. (Needless to say, the bigger the dposits and assets of the bank, the more likely ore Its officers and direcfors to be men of significant power in the community.) And he con use the Poor's Registry The young man is the assistant of one of the most militant of Southern Negro civil to identify the other corporate connections of ffie officers and directors of the banks. rights leaders. During demonstrations in Savannah when police repression became par• (He'll be sure to find thatmany of the directors of the community's Industrial corporations ticularly acute, this leader went to the Danish consulate in Sovvanah and asked for ore on the boards of the banks.) Next he should consult the Chorn Banking Study of the physical asylum. He was refused and finally was caugfit and jailed by Savannah police. House Select Committee on Small Business to determine the stock ownership of the bank, He was placed under heavy peace bonds which ensured his continued incarceration. As and the extent to which it is influenced or controlled from outside the community. He con soon as his organization would raise the money to meet the peace bond, the authorities obtain from the House Banking and Currency Committee a study of Treasury and Loan would increase the amount. He was in jail at the time the young man went to New York Accounts in Private Bonks, which was published early this year. From this study he can on the Chase Manhattan operation. learn the precise extent to which the banks in the community are subsidized by deposits The demonstration at the bank took place on July T8, 1963. On July 22, (963, the of federal money. Atlanta Constitution began a series of red-baiting articles designed to separate the Savannah organization from the rest of the civil rights movement. A direct causal re• The researcher should get the names of the electric, gas, transportation and water lation between the bank operation and the red-baiting attack cannot Incontrovertibly be utilities, as well as the telephone company, and look them up in Moody's Utilities Manual established. Nevertheless, such a relationship Is the plausible hypothesis in the view of and Moody's Transportation Manual. Then he should run the officers and directors of those best informed about the series of events. these firms through Poor's Registry to obtain their corporate connections. More informa• tion can be gained on the ownership of the electric utilities from a study of Top Stock- In April, 1963, a SNCC worker spent three days tracing out in Poor's Registry of Execu• bolders of Private Power Companies published by the Electric Consumers Information tives ondDirectorsthecorporateconnectionsottheofficers and directors of the ten largest Committee, Florida Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. employers in Birmingham. He had selected the employers from the Alabama Industrial 2000 9, Directory, which lists both the employer and the number of employees. When he had finished researching the corporate connections, he and companion spend a night putting The researcher should secure the name of the corporation which publishes the daily the information into a leaflet. TwodaysloterSNCC people in New York picketed the New newspapers In the community. He may find the corporation listed in Moody's Industrials. York Stock Exchange, handing out the leaflets which showed the involvement of America's If the corporation is not one which sells its stock to the public, then two courses ore open. corporate elite In the troubles of Birmingham, Shortly after the demonstration at the The researcher can look through the back files of the paper to find the publisher's state• stock exchange, the Birmingham newspapers published a list of prominent citizens who ment of ownershipondindebtednesswhichisusuallypublished during October or Novem• had formed a citizen's committee to try to negotiate a settlement of the issues upon which ber. Or he can go to the State Capitol and look at the corporation charter which is kept the Birmingham demonstrations were based. The Individuals on the list, with but few ex• on file in the Secretary of State's office. In any case, the researcher should by all means ceptions, were connected with the firms which had been identified in the leaflet. Subse• learn the names of the individuals who sit as officers and directors of the publisTiing quent newspaper stories indicated that Roger Blough, chairman of U.S. Steel (which em• corporation. He should follow the same procedure for all radio and TV stations in the ploys 25% of Birmingham's manufacturing force; had instructed Arthur Wiebel, head of community. These individuals should be traced out through Poor's for t"hei"r orfier con• U.S. Steel's Birmingham subsidiary, to get involved in the Birmingham affair to whatever nections. extent was necessary to quiet things down. If there ore any insurance companies of substantial size with home offices in the com• munity (find out from Chamber of Commerce or In the yellow pages) the researcher should look them up in Moody's Sank Finance Manual, and their directors and officers In this instance, the SNCC leaflet was by no means the only pressure being exerted on in Poor's. the industrial structure which dominates Birmingham. The extensive press coverage of the Birmingham demonstrations hod drawn protest from around the world, The Kennedy The same should be done for the two or three largest department stores. They will be administration was beseiged with enquiries from embassies fhe world over as to what I line should be taken in rationalizing the Birmingham affair to the race and class conscious found in Moody's Industrials. citizenry of, particularly, the African and Asian nations. Kennedy, in turn, applied the Thus for we've been talking about men of power whose operations are as likely to be considerable weight of the presidency to theChoirmonand directors of U.S. Steel. of notional or International scope, as they ore local. There will be in any community individuals whose power does not extend beyond the confines of the community. Usually Thus activating a power structure which had previously remained quiescent accom• they will be the proprietors of relatively small businesses, or they will be renters. If is plished little of substantive nature in Birmingham. The power structure topped by U.S. always a good idea to secure the names of the directors of the Chomber of Commerce Steel executives was interested only in cessation of the demonstrations, This it secured and run these names through the City Directory, which lists the occupations of most of without any meaningful concession to the Negro community. On the other hand, those the city's residents. If small business men and renters are not found on the board of qt who had been involved in the making and implementing of the strategy confirmed what, least one bank in the community, they probably do not wield significant power. (This is hod theretofore been only a theory - that the corporate and bonking power structure of merely a rule of thumb which should be applied sparingly and with discretion). Birmingham courd, if fFiey tound lt in their mterest effect meaningfuT change Th"ffie"city. One method of securing information about the rentier class in a community Is to check The fact that no concessions were gained from the power structure reflected merely the the ownership of the valuable commercial property. It would be well for the researcher ineffective use of strategy and tactics by the demonstration units involved. to visit the office of the county tax assessor and examine his mop of property ownership. As a result of the September, 1963, church-bombing which killed four Negro children, The researcher might check the ownership of the land in four or five of the blocb in the SNCC reworked the Birmingham power structure leaflet and mailed It out as a news principal commercial and industrial areas of the community. If the ownership of key release, it was picked up by Fred Powledge and run in fhe New York Times as a news property is listed in the name of a corporation, the researcher will hove to check the story. Powledge and two other newsmen, James Reston and Mary McCrory, undertook corporate charter records in the state copitol to identify individuals. If the researcher is to interview some of the individuals identified in the news release, asking for statements. interested in the ownership of a particular piece of property (i.e., slum tenements) he None of these individuals was identified by name in the news stories they wrote, but, needs only the street address to confirm ownership in the records of the tax authorities. significantly, none of them denied they had the power to effect change. What they denied (Some counties may have peculiar records systems, the use of which requires other wos that itwouldaDDrooriateforthem todo so. Then Roger Blough, in a news conference, DECEMBER 9, 1966 NEW LEFT NOTES 7

POWER STRUCTURES - JACK MINNIS

information; if so, clerical personnel in the office con and will explain things to you.) It Now, of course, all this implies that project personnel know whose Interests will be would be a good idea to check carefully on the ownership of all property involved in affected^by a given program, and that they also know something about the functioning current or anticipated urban renewal projects. All cities hove planning departments from of the Institutions to which they ore opposed. You cannot create a situation in which which can be obtained Information on such projects. certain groups will anticipate damage to their interests if you do not know what those The clerk of court, both municipal and state, keeps records of all litigations, both civil interests ore, and if you hove net identified the individuals whose interests are involved. and criminal. It is sometimes fruitful to run through the civil and criminal indexes in the For example, shortly afterSNCC began demonstrations againstToddle House restaurants clerk's office to seewhatcan be turned up about crucial individuals in the power structure. In Atlanta, several SNCC membersboughtshores of stock in the corporation which owned Such information as can be gleaned from this process is frequently of value in assessing the restaurants. Immediately the company management was put on notice that unless *eak points in the power structure of the community. the restauronts were desegregated, a ruckus would be raised at the annual stockholders' If at any time a particular lawyer's name appears, either in connection with the above meeting, and that the new shareholders were thinking of a stockholders' suit aimed at research, or in conlTection with community affairs, he should be checked in Mcrtindale proving that continued segregation of the restaurants constituted gross mismanagement and Hubbell's directory which con usually be found in the city library. If he is a member and dissipation of assets. An official of the company appeared in Atlanta and agreed to of • law firm [and scmetlmes If he proctices alone) the firm's clients may be listed in the substantial desegregation of the restaurants. directory. In this manner it can frequently be determined for whom o lawyer may be In another instance, with the Krystoi restaurants, SNCC learned that they were owned acting in a given situation. by 0 corporation whose stock was not on sale to the public and whose owners, therefore, Certainly the names of all members of thecity council or the board of aldermen should were not vulnerable to this kind of attack. SNCC also learned that two of the directors of be check for all occupations In the City Directory. the corporation were also directors ofon insurance company in Chattanooga. This offered Now, what is to bedonewithallthis information? First of all, if one is to understand the one approach. SNCC learned that one of the directors was a director of the American structure of community power, and how and toward what ends it functions, such informa• National Bank and Trust Company in Chattanooga. This bank, through its other directors, tion is vital. If its possession leads to nothing more, in the short run, than a clearer was vulnerable on • numberof scores.Thebank hod, on October 15, 1963, $2,927,690.15 understanding of the nature of the society, the work will hove been worthwhile. The of Treasury Tax and Loan money among its deposits, it would therefore hove been vul• beginner In such research may find himself hard put to interpret such information politi• nerable through on attack aimed at the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. None of these cally and socially unless he has done some background reading. A reading list might avenues were followed because a number of factors intervened to direct attacks else• Include: Gustovus Myerson, A History of the Great American Fortunes; Victor Perie, where. However, the case of the Krystal company illustrates how unlikely It is that a The Empire of High Finance; Louis Brondels, Other People's Money (doted but still rele• corporation of any size will not be vulnerable to a set of conditions which con be created vant); Thomas Lynch, The Concentration of Economic Power; Robert Enler, The Politics of with some ease by • determined project the personnel of which know where they are Oil; David Loth, Public Plunder; Aaron Wildavsky, Dixon-Yates; Alfred Sloan, My Years going and how to get there. with General Motors; Harvey O'Conner, Me//on's Millions. These ore but a few of the This is not to say, of course, that many of the issues around which projects will be available bocks which deal with the power of wealth in America, how it is accumulated organized, particularly in the north, will not be considerably more complicated than the and how it is used. simple desegregation of • restaurant. When issues such as housing, unemployment, in• Secondly, community organization for action must be approached with the assumption adequate schools, etc., ore involved it will not be so easy to find direct pressure points. that someone, or group, in the community has the power to moke decisions and to im• Nevertheless, In any community there ore a few men who hove the power to decide or plement them. The problem then becomes one of Identifying who and how he or they not to decide whether your objective will be achieved. Once you hove identified these con be Influenced to make the decisions desired rather than another one one none at individuals , the means of persuading them It is really in their own best interest to do all. If the nature of our institutions Is os outlined above, the appropriate strategy is what you wont done will be more or less appcrant. clear: any project must specify certain objectives; then it must identify those groups in In a movement such as this, the one and only source of power on our side is people. the community whose interests will be enhanced by attaining the objectives, those groups They represent a constant potential threat to existing structures of power. The threat is whose Interests will be damaged and those groups who have the effective power to twofold. decide whether or not the objectives will be achieved. When this identification has been There is great danger that the people will come to understand what is being done to mode it will frequently develop that thegroups whose interests will be adversely affected them by the power structure. This danger probably accounts for the ill repute of muck• • re the same groups who have the power to decide whether or not the objectives will raking in o society whose values are largely determined by the power structure. be achieved. This being the case, project personnel must then develop tactics such that And the power structure is very uneasy when people are on the move. The mere these power groups will find it expedient to effect the project's objectives because in the presence of politically mobilized masses makes the stock market dip and the interest situation created by project personnel, it would be more costly not to do so. What I am rates go up. actually saying here is that the real power in any community always lies with the people Informing the people about the nature of power In the community strikes a very real if they are possessed of the necessary information and ore determined to apply their blow at the power structure, mobilizing the people to united action toward specific objec• potential power to their problems. tives will unstructure the power structure.

APARTHBID, (enn't) call for CIVIL

(1) No government agency or any U. S.-supported financlGl Footnotes DISOBEDIENCE agency underwrite, guarantee, or grant a loon forany purpose an appropriate response to It, and publicize whatever in the Republic of Last February, thirty-two of us sat down in 1. Dr. H. P. Van Dusen, letter from Johan• our intended response beforehand to make South Africa; the middle of Times Square in New York nesburg to the editor of The New York .City, blocked trafficforaboutfifteen minutes, escalation on Issue. (2) No purchases be made by Times, Oct. 2, 1963. Reproduced in Africo and were arrested, it was just after a snow The day that the final version of the call the American government of Today, March, 1964. Pub I tshed by the storm flnd-jh-fi- street was damp and dirty was in the typewriter being drofted, bombs any product produced in South American Committee on Africa, 2J1 East with slush. The United States'hadjustresum- fell on Hanoi. So much for that anti-escala• Africa; 43rd Street, New York, N. Y. ed bombing North Vietnam and thiswasour tion project. (3) The licensing powers In con• response. nection with exports which are Once again, escalation seems imminent. now Gvoilable to the administra• 2. Edgor F. Kaiser, An Address Presented at I recoil feeling pleased with myself that James Reston and other prominent journa• tion be applied to the Republic the 70th Annual Meeting of the Toledo cold winters' night, itwosmyfirstexperience lists and a number of politicians have bland• of South Africa and that no ex• Area Chamber of Commerce. Published with civil disobedience and I was proud of It. ly predicted an invasion of North Vietnam. port licenses of any land be by the Toledo Area Chamber of Com• Also, like many in the peace movement at Americans, even in the peace movement, granted; merce. that time, I was naive enough to think that have become fatalists. The feeling is, if Lyn• don decrees it, it shall come to pass. (4) The authority possessed by the movement would continue to grow and the Secretary of the Treasury soon exercise enough political muscle to As before, a numberof peoplewithin New 3. Cited by Richard Thomasin PotentialPo/i- to forbid the importation of any make Lyndon Johnson change his ways. How York City pacifist circles prepared them• tical Implications of U. S. Economic In• articles Into the United States wrong we all were. selves for another stay In jail and began volvement in South Africa, Sept., 1966, which are produced by forced Last May a new escalation loomed on the planning an appropriate response. Then the prepared at the Institute for Policy Stu• labor be Invoked against the horizon. Hanoi and Haiphong seemed likely Hanoi-Haiphong onti-escalation project was dies, Washington, D. C. for the American • ppropriote products from torgets for American bombs. Many of us In recalled, salvaged from the files, and we Committee on Africa. South Africa; the peace movement considered that If such think we've beat Lyndon to the punch. (5) Legislation be enacted which an escalation took place, we should again The Terms commit some form of civil disobedience in denies tax benefits or credit of This time the demonstration is being hinged 4. An account of the Norstad-Boeschenstein protest. any kind to the profits earned on seven possible escalations; invasions of trip is given by Jack Minnis in the SDS But the prospect of this joij-in pleased no by American corporations North Vietnam and Cambodio, attack on Economic Research and Action Project one. We sensed our own frustration and under the conditions of apar• China, bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong pro• Newsletter, April 8, 1965. The Norstod determined to stop reacting to decisions theid; and per, mining of Haiphong harbor, use of nu• remarks ore also cited by Thomas (above) over which we had no control. We were (6) The provisions of the civil clear weapons, and the resumptions of hos• OS appearing in United Nations Security beating our heads against a brick wall de• rights laws and of Executive or• tilities after a meanmgful truce. (The annuo! Council Document No. S/6453. Informa• ders which require companies manding an end to the Vietnam War, so we Christmas and New Years' cease fire does tion Service Mar. 30, 1966. doing business with the United decided to experiment with • more limited not fall into the last cotogory). In New York, States to maintain equal em• objective and to anticipate rather than to over 70 so for have pledged to commit civil react to the next act of escalation. ployment conditions be en• 5. Statement of Kenneth Robinson, Regional disobedience by nonviolently attempting to forced against American cor• Director, United Automobile, Aerospace The Program close down the Army Induction Center at porations now applying the ugly and Agricultural Implement Workers of Whitehall Street. And the call has not yet apartheid rulelnSouth Africa. 6 been distributed to the peace movement at America (UAW), Grand Rapids, Michigan, Thus the idea of on onti-escalation project large. In a number of other cities, peace before the Subcommittee on Africa of the came into being. Through May and June, In the manufacturir>g city of Toledo the groups ore planning similar actions of their House Committee on Foreign Affairs, members of the N. Y. Workshop in Non• formation of such a citizens' organization is own, some involving civil disobedience, March 10, 1966. violence and CNVA worked out the details. surely in order. It ought to be composed of others not. university people, of clergy, of people from Our plan was tosendoutacoilasking people 6. Statement of Kenneth Robinson. the black ghetto, and of unionists. Only peo• to pledge themselves to commit civil dis• The actual act of protest is the least impor• obedience after any one of five forms of tant part of this demonstration. Although we ple such OS these will be able to reduce the "An example of local muckraking which is deadly gap between rhetoric and reality in escalation took place. The tactics, time, and hope that this will be the lorgestc. d. demon• useful in developing chapter program and this country to more acceptable levels. Only place for the demonstration was spelled out stration in the peace movement's history organizing new constituencies." through their efforts willwebeable to laugh In the coll. The purpose of the project was to (the record being 350 at the Assembly of at ourselves again. define escalation before it took place, plan (continued on page 11} BLACK POWER conference PROPOSAL

central committee would have to use careful The three major concerns of the Univer• 0 sympathetic white radical told to go home The vision: Some specified day early in language to try to avoid being busted im• sity of Nebraska SDS this yeor hove been and do something about his own society, the month of May, after 4 months of organiz• mediately, and also make some sort of back• university reform, Internal education and seeing as how that's where the bigots are. ing by SDS, the NCC, VDC, SNCC, CNVA, up plan in case they were arrested. "black power." Our concern with the "block He argued the justice of that directive and WSP, SANE (?), DuBols Clubs, and all other willing New Left and peace organizations, a The number 10,000 Is arbitrary. Careful power" slogan arose from the reaction of hoped that whites would work to create a total of 10,000 men all over the nation thought would have to be given to the deter• the town and campus, which was caused white radical movement that might join with gather in small local groups at symbolic mination of the number actually used. It mainly by the racist interpretation given that the black movement to establish a decent locations such as the flag poles of federal would hove to be large enough to attract phrase by the national press and by nation• society in America. MlkeJomes, who is doing buildings or Army recruiting centers, and, GS many people as possible (i.e., if the al politicans. We felt that those directly just that with the JOIN, discussed his work amidst supporting speeches by women [Wo• number were one million, I'm sure just about concerned with the movement should be organizing southern poor whites in the Up• men's Strike for Peace, etc.) and other sym• everyone who was outraged at the war heord, and so we set out organizing • teach- town ghetto of Chicago. pathizers, burn their draft cards and refuse would consider committing himself. But there in that was held in the Nebraska Student The program, attended by 900 people, to be inducted. probably aren't a million such people yet, Union on Oct. 31. hopefully led to a clearer understanding of so the demonstration would fail). The num• ber would also hove to be small enough to the country's mostserious internal problem. Two questions present themselves. Is it Speakers were Bob Smith of SNCC; Rev, give some reasonable chance of securing The Lincoln papers, one of whose reporters possible or feasible? Would it be worth the Rudolph McNoir, presidentof Omaha CORE: enough commitments. The number, there• lost summer argued that his paper's absurd effort required to bring it off? Hugh Shanks, former organizer of Kansas position on "Block Power" and biosed cover• fore, is crucial. If a low number were chosen Probably the only way 10,000 men (older City CORE; Jim McCorty of Chicago SCLC; age of the Merideth March was all the fault and enough commitments were secured men who hove alreody served in the forces Dr. Patrick Wells of Lincoln NAACP; Clar• of the A.P., gave not one line of advance early, then there is always the possibility could burn their classification cards also) ence Major, a writer from Omaha; Ernest notice of the teoch-in; their coverage was that the program would snowball forbeyond could be convinced to take such a drastic Chambers, on Omaha barber and local distinguished by banality and by error. the original number. The combined, undup- action would be to offer each man some leader; Rev. Tom Rehorn, peace candidate SNCC, notorious in folklore for Its unfriend• licated, membership of all participating or• reasonable assurance the he would be one for the U. S. Senate from Nebraska; Mike liness, aided us in every way possible. Bob ganizations would be 0 useful index to use of 10,000 men, and therefore, port of a James of JOIN; and Greg Calvert, our na• Smith stayed over several days explaining In determining the number. Some statistics politically significant act instead of just one tional secretary. in the dorms and in local churches what which might also be useful ore: the total SNCC means by "Block Power" and why it individual out on a moral limb. Of course, number of co-ed or mole general and/or Dr. Weils of the NAACP began by com• felt the movement a necessary one. He even the government could arrest everyone and liberal orts education institutions in the U.S. ing out strongly for' responsible leadership," convinced the till then moribund Friends of this would have to be acknowledged by all as of 1965 was 1,494; the total number of "proper education" and "the American way SNCC chapter to try to re-establish itself. participants. Each individual would hove to mole degree credit students in all education• of life." As well, he expressed fear that judge for himself the chances of being ar• al institutions in the U. S. was, in 1965, the "Black Power" slogon has led to violence, Our concern with campus politics is organ• rested. There is, however, reason to believe 3.396 million, of which 2.87 million were In looting and riots. After this bow to the old ized around a student bill of rights and the that the government would think twice be• 4 yeor institutions and .523 million in2year guard, the rest of the pone! devoted itself Campus Freedom Democratic Party, begun fore arresting 10,000 political prisoners in junior colleges. to the reality of "Block Power." Mr. Major last Spring by members Carl Davidson and an atmosphere of widespread anxiety about discussed white society's psychological para• Steve Abbott. While the party is not, strictly the Viet-nam war. The desirability of even trying to organize lysing of the block man, whose halfway ad• speoking, on SDS project, our chapter mem• a mass draft card burning is also question• mission to our plastic wonderland is bership is working from within to moke it a In order to assure each man that 9,999 able. I, personally, feel that it would severe• predicated upon his being properly ashamed real vehicle for student power. At present, others would join him, a central committee ly disrupt the LBJ consensus, shock the notion of himself, his post and his culture. "I think however, it is in difficulties: a sign of this would have to spread the word, through - perhaps cause It to take the New Left when the block man establishes his indepen• was its recent change of name from CFDP the resources of all the porticipating organi• position for more seriously, receive enor• dence in America ttie country will become to PACT because of Corl's paper on Univer• zations (mailing lists, newsletters, odvertise- mous publicity which would enable the views truly beautiful for the first time." Mr.Shonks, sity Reform. Cor! frightened some of the ments, etc.) thctall menwhowoulddefrnitely and arguments of the New Left to be heard in his report of the founding and history of good folk. PACT does not, children, stand burn their draft card if they were assured in every home, and throw the anti-war Kansas City CORE from a local group of for the People's Action Committee for Ter• the total would be 10,000, should notify the movement into o higher gear. Negroes protesting the gerrymandering of rorism, but rather stonds for nothing. central committee. The date (and other gen• I would very much like to hear your their school district, gove the audience a eral directions such as the type of location) The winds of change do seem tobe stirring views concerning this proposal - If you microcosm of the reasons for the present would be set right from the beginning. If, here for some reason, though, as was evi• think it would be worthwhile bringing the split between the advocates of Block Power just prior to the specified date, the committee denced by the election of three SDS people subject up ot the next national SDS meeting, and the old line of the NAACP - Urban hod received commitments from at least to the Student Senate. One of those was our or for SDS officers to confer with the officers League. He revealed how the NAACP drop• 10,000 men, the fact would be publicized so strikingly shaggy president, Al Spongier; of other New Left and peace organizations, ped their promised legal aid because of the that all those who committed themselves another was our straight-arrow appearing or to put feelers out in newsletters such as group's participation in direct-action protest would know that the word was GO! If less vice-president Dennis Barfels. The third was SDS's New Left Notes and seeing how and how the Negro middle class there and than 10,000 commitments were received, on irishman named Riley. The executive com• favorably the local chapters react. elsewhere turned its bock on the black man the exact number would be publicized ond mittee hod proposed a rule that all Senators of the ghetto and his problems. He praised the moral commitment would of course be wear coot and tie to meetings, but changed John Spritzler "Block Power" for giving him pride in self• void; the program would hove failed. its mind when it learned that the SDS faction Dartmouth SDS hood and pointed out that its message was would then propose that oil Senators wear 302-A Cohen Hall addressed neither to whites nor to those Advising anyone to break the Selective clean underwear as well. In line with our Hanover, N.H. 03755 Negroes without feeling for their brothers. Service Act is, unfortunotely, illegal; so the interest in student life, we plan to hose a It is addressed to those poor Negroes who regional conference on university reform con no longer afford the luxury of continued next semester. faith in a system dedicated to their victimiza• tion. It offers them pride and the possibility of control over their own destiny. Our final concern is internal education, and here we are just beginning because of

Jim McCorty gave more evidence ot the the former difficulty ot getting material trom block man's exploitation as he told of the the N.O. (We know you couldn't help it!) For community organizing in Chicago's Engle- the benefit of new members and some old wood, where attempts ore being made to ones, we ore going through the Port Huron turn Negro homes into parking lots by white Statement, Port I, and looking forward to businessmen who take $20,000,000 peryeor someday reading Port II. As well, we ore out of the community and give almost noth• planning to set up a seminar on Power in ing in return. The Rev. McNoir and Mr. American Society, based on the REPfetudy, Chambers detailed how local Omaha offi• for the Nebraska Free University next semes• cials, with the aid of the Omaha newspaper, ter. blew up a series of minor incidents lostsum- Our lost concern as a chapter has been to mer Into a fake riot. Chambers, a brilliant get me to write this damn thing. That damn speaker, revealed what it is to be o block thing being done, perhaps our chapter presi• man under "white justice" and promised to dent and our sterling editor, Thane Croston, meet whites equally in friendship or in vio• who still owes me 517.00 from Mississippi, lence at their leisure and at their choice. will now get off my back, allowing me to get down to the business of peacefully freezing Bob Smith told of racism in the South, dif• to death in this god-awful Nebraska climate, fering only in degree from that found in the which God could not hove meant for the North, and made plain that SNCC decided beasts of the field, much less o simple South to go it alone with "Block Power" only after Carolina boy from a small mill town, to live America mode it plain to them that its pious through. And that's how it is here. civics class ideals were strictly for civics Yours for love, flowers, and freedom, class, not tor practice. Greg Calvert discus• sed "Block Power" from the point of view of Cater Chamblee .hzixi «tn no j^f 1 i : L DECEMBERS 1966 NEW LEFT NOTES 9 SNCC NEWSLINE

ATLANTA, GA. people who participated In the November ship." The Atlanta SNCC office Is in touch Jan and Julanne are also working on o In an all black ghetto of N. W. Atlanta, 3 8th elections, one of the worst coses being with Joe Waller and John Bryant, and in• rope cose where a black youth has been courageous block women have spearheaded the beoting of Andrew Jones, who was hos• tends to lend this group supportwhen neces• accused of raping a white girl; Ally. Clayton a picket line and boycott of the "One Hour pitalized with 0 skull fracture for 2 days in sary. is also handling this case, which dates bock Martinizing' Laundry and Dry Cleaners lo• Sel ma. The Lowndes County Freedom Party to 1964 when Charles Porker was arrested cated in the GreatSovingsShoppingCenter is moving in the direction whereby they can at 15 years of age. He has been in jail for on the corner of Ashby and Simpson. Annie gain complete control over the county in the GREENWOOD, MISSISSIPPI the past 2 years and is serving a life sen• Willis, Mattie Bell Jones, and Claudia Lee- next 2 years, and are also moving to an In a special run-off election for Supervisor tence. When arrested, he was held 30 days heod, along with 5 other women, areformer economic position where they will be able of Beat 3 on November 22nd, W. L. Kellum without anyone knowing where he was, employees who began picketing the cleaners to take core of people whoworkinthe move• (white) defeated Rev. J. D. Collins (black). beaten severly during this period, and early Monday morning, Nov. 28th, ondplon ment there. Present plans Include raising Prior to this, Rev. Collins had won the finally signed a "confession." to continue until theyore re-hired and grant• money to buy enough land for the dispos• position by o slim margin in the Nov. 8th 25 young block men in Roonoke Rapids ed fair working conditions and wages. In an sessed and starting • Co-op which they hope elections. The small victory margin was have formed a defense group and informed exclusive interview with members of the will be operating in the near future. given as a reason for the run-off election. the Tyler girls and their fellow freedom Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commit• A Federal Judge has ruled that the candi• fighters that they will provide protection for tee, the 3 ladles exposed a shocking story of dates of the Greene County Freedom Or• •ny future boycotts, picketingor'movement" sweatshop working conditions imposed upon ganization must be included on the ballots activity. them by the management which has resulted DESOTO COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI for the forthcoming elections for Sheriff and in cheap slave labor forthe white managers Ronsdme Moore reports from Nesbit con• Halifax County has • population of 60,000; Tax Assessor; however a State Circuit Judge -Mr. Cardell and Mr. Comp-ond for the cerning the trial of Oliver (white man who 55% black and 45% white. It is controlled by in Eutaw, Ala. is still attempting to fight this while owners of the Martinizing Laundry shot James Meredith), ifiot he was found one fomily-the Branch famlly-who run the order and has issued an Injunction demand• chain. Their grievances include the follow• guilty, sentenced to 5 years, but they sus• county OS their personal property. ing that County Probate Judge Herndon nol ing: pended 3 years, leaving a 2 year sentence. put Gilmore's nameonthebaliotforsherriff. He Is eligible for parole after 9 months. No date has been set for Biis special elec• 1. The 8 women were all fired within one Six hand-picked Negroes sot on tbeGrond tion, and there is confusion as to whether or SELMA, ALABAMA month for arbitrary reasons simply be• Jury, and all refused to speak with Ransome not Gilmore's name will or will not appear Trials for Jimmy LyHle (SNCC worker) and cause they hod the couroge to speokup after the trial was over. James Meredith ex• on ballots. Two black lawyers, Attys. Wallace Obaka (Thomas Taylor) were held on Tues• to the managers and demand that he pressed satisfaction with the sentence. and Billingsiey from Birmingham are hand• day, Nov. 22nd, stemming from charges hear and discuss their problems. ling the cose. mode when they were arrested just prior to 2. One lody had to train an 18 year old the Nov. 8th elections in that city. Don white boy who later replaced her on Jellnek, LCDC attorney, was not allowed to the job. ROANOKE RAPIDS, NORTH CAROLINA defend them, and everyone who attended 3. The employees have to work from 8 to Jan and Julanne Tyler, full time volunteer the trial agreed that both defendants were 12 hours 0 day, depending on the work SNCC workers, are actively engaged in able to defend themselves eloquently. Both load, 6 days a week, for $36.00. They organizing the block community in Roanoke ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA were found guilty, fined, and are now free were seldom paid full salaries, the Rapids, and hope to eventually spread out on appeal bond. manager deducted arbitrary sums for A militant movement is developing and through Halifax County and entire blockbelt social security without specifying the growing in St. Petersburg which promises to in North Carolina. This area has been the exact amount, and upon firing the 8 become a serious front in the common strug• scene of KKK activity and will probably be a workers, he refused to give them full gle of black people in this country. Leaders rough area to break through. The Klon held STARKVILLE, MISSISSIPPI salary and vocation pay. of the movement are Joe Waller and John a rally on Easter Sunday of 1966, and then Roosevelt Vaughn, 35 year old full time Bryant of St. P. who have organized o dozen again on Nov, 6, 1966. Whereas block peo• SNCC volunteer, was shot atontheevening 4. The manogers generally mistreat the young militant blacks in that city, and who ple in the community reacted passively last of November 22nd in that town. As he was customers, curse them, and frequently con call on 100 to 200 more to engage In Easter, the situation was quite different this walking toward his home, • car drove by mess up their clothing. direct action and other activities. The focal November thanks to the hard work of the and • man fired a shot at Roosevelt as he As of 2:00 f^M. on Monday, the picketing point of their activity had centered around Tyler sisters. Along with Rev. Dunlap, who immediotely turned and ran into a nearby ladies reported that their boycott was suc• the picketing and boycotting of the ABC was active in the Danville, Va. movement, woods, then finally managed to slip home. cessful, that business had been drastically liquor store chain in St. P., which began on they decided that something should be done Rumors that his life was in danger began a cut down, and the management Is worried. November 8th and continued until their this time, called a meeting of the community few days prior to the shooting, and several Policemen constantly drove by, parked end demands were met. Police intimidated people, sent out press releases, canvassed black men in the community had informed surveyed Hie scene. The manager was seen demonstrators, picked them up on phony the neighborhood, and finally Itwosdecided Roosevelt that 3 white cops (identified as shaking hands with one policeman, and then charges, followed any cars which they be• they would organize • picket line outside of Pete, Welfare, and Jimmy Range) were pay• threatened to have the picketers arrested. lieved to be carrying persons connected with the Klan rally. On Sunday afternoon, about ing someone to kill him. In May of this year, The 8 ladies are determined to brave the the picketing. Atone point, a white man drew 40 biockpeopleformed their line on the high• Vaughn had printed and distributed a paper cold weather, threats of arrest, and jail, a pistol on the marchers and threatened to way by the field where the rally was held. in Starkville, dealing with police brutality, until the following demands are met: shoot, while a white policeman stood by and They were horrassed and intimidated by and he has been activefor some time in that area. Vaughn reports that several young 1. Re-employment at fair wages meeting said "I hope he uses It.' Similar incidents state troopers and Kiansmen, and finally also occurred during the entire period of block girls and boys have been severely the minimum wage law. threatened with arrests, but they decided to demonstrations. At the some time, the gar- continue their picketing. At one point in the beaten in jail after being recently arrested 2. Back pay for all of the days they ore out boge collectors of St. P^who ore 99% black, KKK rally, Grand Dragon Robert Jones told for civil rights activity there. Amass meeting of work. were on strike for better wages and working his audience they should go right down the was held on Thursday, Nov. 24th, and the 3. Better working conditions covering all conditions. The city officials dealt with this highway and "get some Niggers," and 200 to community is now aroused and seeking ways of their grelvances. problem by importing laborers from other '300 whites suddenly surged toward the high• and methods for them to unite, deal with The Atlanta Project of SNCC has token an areas to break the strike, and refused to deal way in the direction of the black picket line, their problems, and offer protection to active Interest in the laundry boycott and with the grievances of the local gorboge pointed guns In theirfaces, shook ax handles, Roosevelt Vaughn and others who may be hos met with the ladies involved, we also collectors. On Nov. 17th, SNCC sent a tele• and let dogs loose. At this point, 24 of the subjected to similar harrassment. issued the Information given above as a gram in Stokely's name to thefreedomfight- picketers were arrested and roughly thrown press release which was given extensive ers there, giving our moral support to their into police cars. Charges were'Wolklng on coverage over WAOK of Atlanta. efforts in combatting discrimination |n the wrong side of rood and disturbing the peoce." ABC liquor stores and the just strike being Bond was set of $25.00 each, and most were WEST POINT, MISSISSIPPI waged by the black garbage collectors^,That__ __oul of jail the same afternoon. John Buffington and Ike Coleman ore head• action resulted in the following situation: ing the W.P. SNCC project and are making Iri connection with this same situation, Jan much progress In helping to organize th< LOWNDES COUNTY & GREENE COUNTY, 1. Newspapers deiiberatelyprintedthelie and Julanne are working on the cose of black community there. The project office Is ALABAMA: that Stokely Carmrchael would be in Robert Lee Vincent, who was accused of G clean, well-kept, spaciousofficewith sever• As a followup the the November 8th elec• St. P^on Monday, Nov. 21st, and that shooting 3 whites attending the KKK rally, al books for the use of the entire area. The tions in Alabama, and as a result of black CORE and SNCC organizers were al• and 2 were reported Injured. Robert Lee is residents of that area are now in the process people voting in those elections for the first ready operating in theblackcommunlty 25 years old, husband of Lena Marie Vin• of running several Co-ops and organizing time in their lives, the white landownersore there. cent and father of 5 children from 1 to 6 new ones. They built a new building (50x60 retaliating by evicting large masses of block years of age. He and his wife were actively =eet) which houses their own garment foc- farm workers from their land. 2. The police department announced involved this past June with picketing and ory, and hove a woodcraft co-op which is In Greene County, the Greene County through the press that all policemen boycotting the school system of Roanoke Joing a booming business, particularly in Freedom Organization reports that there were on on emergency alert, that they Rapids. The police hunted for Robert Lee all African wood jewelry. There isolsoaCandle have been a series of evictions, resulting in hod purchased NEW RIOT EQUIPMENT day and night, and finally entered his house Co-op which makes and sells wax candles. 70 families being evicted from the land being flown in on a special chartered the next morning (Nov.7)withoytGwarrant; One of their mostsuccessfuloperationsison which has been their only home for years. plane, and that they expected a riot to said they wanted to talk with him and then insurance company which provides unem• develop. Meetings and discussions are currently un• took him to jail. His wife has not been ployment compensation to black factory allowed to see him since that time. The same derway among black people there to decide Apparently, the threats of Stokely and workers when they are laid off or unemploy• day, it was announced over radio that the ed and hos a Credit Union as part of the on the necessary steps and remedies lodeal SNCC workers coming to St. P. shook up the 'alleged' shooter of the KKK men was being company. In connection with this company, with this problem. entire power structure of St. P., becouse on held In jail under $1,500 bond. The black the members also file discrimination in em• In Lowndes County, several families have Monday, Nov. 21 st, both the garbage col• community in Roanoke Rapids has raised ployment suits in cases where workers are already been evicted from their homes and lectors strike and ABC liquor store boycott over $400 for his defense fund and are cur• arbitrarily fired or subjected to other forms •re now living in tents. Many more families was settled to the satisfaction of the strikers rently organizing around this issue. Out of of discrimination, and guarantee all contri• expect eviction notices after the picking sea• and picketers. Joe Waller, John Bryant and their moss meetings has come the decision butors free legal service. son is over. The Lowndes County Christian the others who participated in the action are to start economic boycotts In the while busi• Movement in conjunction with the Lowndes using tiieir victory to build up momentum ness community and to starttheirownsuper- In the near future, Buffington plans to open County Freedom Party isnowintheprocess and further organize the block community markets. Robert Lee Vincent hod a pre• the "Ebony Lounge," a tavern and lounge of purchasing land and building houses for In that city. They intend to form a SNCC liminary hearing on November 14, was which will be locatedinohugecornerbuild- these people. The movement so for has 2 affiliate, have set up an office, have mimeo• formally charged with "Assault with adeodly ing in the heart of the black community houses, has bought land for 2 families, and graph machines, and are now moking plans weapon and intent to kill 3 people." He there. Buffington personally painted and has begun construction on 2 houses which for further action wherever it is necessary. pleaded not guilty to oil charges. Atty. C. T. decorated the lounge, and residents there they hope to hove finished within this week. They report that the black middle class is Clayton of Worrenton, No. Carolina Is work• ore very enthusiastic about this venture. Besides the eviction, there have been brutal now organizing a group to counteract them ing on the case. attacks by Lowndes County whites on black and provide so-called "responsible leader• (Continued on poge 12) America and the New Era America and fhe New Era was prepared at the June, 1963 convention of Students for o Democratic Society. prises to those still trapped by the cliches of the Cold War ear. INTRODUCTION If there is a way to define the new world into which we hove come, if is to say that no existing mode of thought, nor entrenched institution will remain unchallenged. Our hope is human freedom. We care that men everywhere be able to understand, express and determine their lives in fraternity with one another. We seek to participate AMERICA AND THE NEWERA in the construction of a society in which men have, at least, the chance to moke the de• cisions which shape their lives. Our quest is for a political and economic order in which Just as technological and social revolution haye shattered the internationo! system deve• power is used for the widest social benefit and a community in which men con come to loped during the Cold War era, sotoo, have these forces undermined America's post-war know each other and themselves as human beings In the fullest sense. economic prosperity and are beginning to disrupt the political and socio! arrangements Instead, the legacy of our generation has been the Cold War. Our lives hove been which accompanied that prosperity. shaped by the increasing tempo of militarization. Our hopes for the future hove been The technological revolution occurring in the post-war period created a new type of corroded by the Bomb. Our reason has been blunted by Official ideologies which served automated production, one critical economic of which is the shrinkage of the industrial to increase consensus and inspire passive acquiescence rather than an active quest for labor force. Automation has sharply reduced the demand for employment mass production freedom and fraternity. industries, agriculture and many trade and service enterprises. During the fifties, for In America, the Cold War has been a time in which all values hove been subordinated example, manufacturers were able to Increase productive output by seventy per cent, to the "long twilight struggle" against communism, all goals made secondary to the with no increase whatever in the number of manufacturing workers. "notional security"; a time when the human qualities of men were less valued than their Just when the need for workers was being reduced, a radical increase in the number loyalty to the state, and pressing sociol problems and political issues were universally of people needing |obs was taking place, due to the coming of age of millions of young avoided in the interest of notional unity. It was, above all, a time when most Americans, people born during the war-time baby boom. not least of alt our leadership, believed that the American Century was at hand -- that Thus advancing technology and on exploding population create an enormous employ• our potentiality for international political, economic and perpetually guaranteed. ment problem. One measure of the problem is the fact that just to keep employment at Such national irrationality was compatible with a world in which American industial its present rate, the Federal Government estimates, 75,000 new jobs must be created and nuclear power remained unchallenged. each week in order to absorb those who are in search of employment. The present rate But it is now clear that a new era Is upon us, and the simple catagorles and grand of new job openings if 6,000 per week. designs of the Cold War no longer serve. But it has now become evident that certain central features of our economy operate A massive technological revolution is transforming the nature of war and making directly to exacerbate the growing problems of stagnation and unemployment: obsolete the established mechanisms of the economy. 1. Poverty and the maldistribution of income: Despite the post-war boom, fhe impov• A world wide social revolution is destroying the bases of established power and trans• erished fifth of the population still find themselves trapped in the same relative income forming the nature of human expectations. position they held before World War II. One out of nine Americans Is presently living The question for Americans today is: How ore we to respond to the new era? below the level of subsistence as defined by the Department of Labor - that is, they American leaders ore presently engaged In a politics of adjustment, affecting the con• •re members of (amilies with income belowSSOo week. More broadly, 70 million Ameri• duct of government, industry, the military and ail other social institutions. This politics cans ore living below officially defined minimum standards of decency ~ with incomes represents an attempt to manage social conflict and adjust in minimal ways to the forces of less than $100 • week for families of four. These figures signify, in human terms, fhe loose in the world. But for those who seek new models of life based on committments fact that a vost portion of our population continues to exist in conditions of misery and to human dignity, democracy and peace, these attempts to stabilize existing power ar• hopelessness. rangements and traditional institutions presentgrim images of the future. 2. The Arms race and the maldistribution of resources: The defense establishment has But one lesson of the new era Is that men of established power are not the only ones been celebrated as a major stimulant to the economy. It is now apparent, however, capable of shaping the future. that $60 billion military budget, and the "permanent war economy" it represents, ac• Each day provides fresh evidence that ordinary people do, in fact, moke history. celerates and makes more acute the worst trends in our economic system. One essential Inspired by this fact, we need to ask: What is the nature of fhe new'era? What are problem of the defense economy is that fhe new weapons systems put fewer and fewer the potentialities of the future/ What now ore our possibilities as political and cultural men to work in the crucial centers of US industry. In the pre-missile age, the production actors? of tanks, jeeps, guns, and bombers employed, directly and indirectly, vast numbers of skilled and semi-skilled workers. Today, our defense Vequirements" have radically THE ERA OF THE COLD WAR shifted, and the new technology of war, depending on the production of a limited number of missiles and electronic systems, employs many advanced technicians, but relatively From the e.id of World War It until the close of the Eisenhower Administration, the few ordinary production workers. Further, two-thirds of American scientists and engineers conception of on American Century seemed to be supported by reality. Enormous pent- •re Involved In defense operations - depriving the rest of the economy of their modern• up demands for consumer goods, a huge reserve of capital savings, and the added sti• izing and inventive skills. Those ""gifts" that hove come from defense research hove come mulation of defense expenditures resulted in an unprecedented expansion of the American m spite of their purpose. It is clear that had technology been allocated directly to more economy. Immensely and increasingly rich, and faced with a world in chaos, it is not socially useful and more employment-producing purposes, the results would have been surprising that America moved quickly to assert its power and influence in every area. more valuable. American power was aale to dominate in Western Erupoe, to control events in the Middle In addition to all this, the defense economy has contributed significantly to the Ameri• East and Latin America, to stabilize politics in many parts of Asia. can social stagnation. About half of the investment in defense has come from the curtail• For a generation, the single great challenge to American influence remained the Soviet ment of social services and the diversion of resources from the public sector of the Union and the closed, seemingly irreconciilable conflict between the two blocs created economy. While this country iknvesfed fantastic sums in the production of wasteful and o world in which virtually every human value was distorted, oil moral standards seemed destructive hardware, and now promises to spend billions more for this purpose, its weirdly irrelevant, all hopes and aspirations appeared Utopian. For the Cold War re• cities continue to decline into squalor, millions continue to live In sub-standard housing, sulted in an arms race In which enormous resources and human energy were squandered the education system foils to educate, fresh water and fresh air become increasingly ond preparations for the murder of innocent millions became basic policy, while fhe rare, crime rates soar, urban traffic becomes intolerable, and a complex of other social elemental needs of these millions remained unsatisfied, it produced societies in which needs remain unmet. the requirements of huge military. Industrial and political bureaucracies took precedence Thus, the extraordinary emphasis on "defense" and the profound neglect of our social over all other social or individual priorities. It poisoned and corroded all aspects of in• needs has meant specific and severe deprivation for each individual, as well as contri• tellectual activity. To it were sacrificed fhe right to dissent, political engagement and buting to the general crisis of our economy. controversy. And its final outcome was a balance of terror so precarious and so infinitely dangerous that, in the end, all interests and all security were in jeopardy. Oligopoly and the maldistribution of power: The post-war period has seen a major in• crease In the tendency for American economic power to be concentrated in a number It is now clear that in the midst of the Cold War forces were being generated which of giant corporations. Oligopolistic control of major American industries is both a cause were incompatible with the international system just described. Now, in 1963, these and a consequence of technological advance. It is, however, generally unrecognized that forces are verging and bringing Into being a new world, whose shape and structure is this increasing concentrotion of power has also contributed greatly to the crisis of the surprisingly different from the one in which we hove grown up. economy. Some consequences of this control include: At least four new trends are bringing to an end the Cold War Era; Administered prices have become common and optimal in corporate relations. As 1. The emergence of the New Europe: Europe has rebuilt its pre-war power, in large concentration of corporate power increases, competitive pressures within industries port OS 0 result of American economic assistance. Now Western Europe increasingly and decrease, and corporations are able to set ond hold their prices in order to maintain successfully competes with American enterprise. The Common Market generates on desired profit levels. The maintenance of high profit rates, while successfully thwarting expansive, supranational corporate power, and the vision ofindependent political, military the inflationary push, has retarded industrial growth, and thus full employment. and economic hegemony Inspires movements. The Grand Design, for a "civilizing" united, The corporate attempt to maintain profits Is the major factor in accelerating automation. Americanized West, hos never left the drawing boards. Since automation presently serves as a mechanism for the maintenance of private gain, 2. The emergence of the Third World: The increasing pace of social revolution has and since its uses are controlled by a private few, its primary visible impact has been created some fifty nations now more or less independent of the Cold War power blocs. to destroy jobs, and perpetuate and exacerbate inequality. The needs of these people ore incompotible with the Cold War and Its diversion of re• Concentration of corporate power has enhanced the political influence of corporate sources to destructive ratherthan productlveends. Moreover, the continuing revolutionary elites. These elites promulgate policies which, while serving narrow corporate Interests, upsurge in the Third World constitutes on extreme danger to Western investment and ex• ore profoundly anti-social In their effect. Immensely wasteful and dangerous defense ploitative trade arrangements in these areas. programs are pursued because of the pressures of military based corporations. Huge 3. The disruption of the international communist movement: Revolutionary upsurge and depreciation allowances and other prerogatives which distort the tax system are granted technological advance have destroyed the monolithic nature of the Soviet bloc as well the lobbyist as disrupting the structure of the West. The emergence of China as a great power, claim• "giveaways" of publicly owned resources ore achieved, consumer-favoring leglol ing to speak for revolutionary movements in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, challenges "giveaways" of publicly owned resources ore achieved, consumer-favoring legislation is the Soviets' ability to manipulate revolutionary movements in their own interest. Mean• blocked and the development of the public sector is hamstrung by the effective exercise while, Eastern European governments and some Western Communist Parties attempt to of corporate power. And as the institutions of democracy ore thus corrupted by private break loose from the economic, intellectual and political strait jackets in which they have power, so also Is the economic vitality of the notion steadily sapped. been imprlsioned by the Soviet hegemony, while ferment threatens the stability of en• These then are some of the dimensions of an American economy in crisis: the crisis trenched bureaucracy. Is revealed by widespread, chronic and growing unemployment, by continuing poverty and public squalor. The crisis is due to the fact that the "engine" of progress - technolo• 4 The ofaso/escence of nuclear weapons: The concept of nuclear "deterrence" seemed gical adyonce ~ when part of a conservative economic system which cannot plan for effective in a bi-polar world, in which conflicts could be managed by calculating and the total social good - has become a monster rather than a promise of plenty. self-interested elites. But it has become clear that nuclear weapons cannot effectively deter popular upsurge and forestall revolution. It has also become increasingly clear It is important to note that, while America continues to ride on a surface of visible that Western interests ore endangered lessbywarin Europe than by anti-Western move• .prosperity, the economic crisis has been most directly manifest for two groups in the society - young people and Negroes. ments, revolutionary uprisings and guerilla struggles In Latin America, Asia and Africa. In fact, the existence of nuclear weapons appears to have rendered the United States America's youth, because of their increased numbers and because of an educational virtually impotent to effectively cope with such situations;for example, America's inability system and • culture which seems incapable of preparing young people for productive roles in the context of the new technology, are increasingly unemployed. Among those to destroy the Castro revolution, or to suppress the Viet Cong in Vietnam. Moreover, members of the labor force aged 14-25, one of seven is out of work (compared with one prospective proliferation of nuclear weapons will end the uneasy stability of the present, out of thirteen for the labor force as a whole). This jobless rate is especially acute for making obsolete our conception of the arms race as a bi-polar game. These, and many high school dropouts; increasingly, however, even high school and college graduates other factors, ore forcing a deep re-examination of the usefulness of the nuclear arms will feel the effects of automation. One estimate suggests that seven million young peo- race as a basic military strategy in both ,the West and the East, and producing new impulses toward arms controls and tension reduction. (continued on page 12} These four trends hove now converged, and each doy's newspaper brings fresh sur• DECEMBER 9, 1966 NEW LEFT NOTES 11

The Crack STUDENT

for Cari Ogelsby and the New Left POWER

And a worm place Between her teats. The buckskin bridge Dangles in ruin; Snowflckes from the highway Overhead Fur coats dig a moat Freeze your sandals. Under the pacific gate

The door of a trance In which they trim Won't let you out. Apple groves Suburbs Satellites

Exploring still further west The surface of the world. The tar machine is coming.

They float downstream Find other bones wandering On bannano leaves, Barefoot, Drinking martinis. There must be a path From this pit Into snow peaks.

Beneath the volcano Link arms We grew inside Place each stone A Howl. One above the other

Was it Coyote Begin the climb Spreading incense From the crock And double edged knives Through long corridors Of senates Who dug the stair And councils: Down

Coyote does not rule. And turned our plows Back and rn We march among clubs Time of the Locust" Helmets teorgas Along the center-crack Of the rood? A iS-minute documentary film Produced and edited by Peter Gessner. Singing as we rise Into the gears. In cooperation with the American Friends Service Committee and the Inter-University Committee for Debate on Foreign Policy. til There is a grinding You tried living in the egg: Of voices. "Time of the Locust" is the culmination of a nine-month search for and integration of film materials on the war not widely seen in this country. The film draws upon American newsfilm, the voices of participants and officials, combatfootoge of the National Liberation Bought a wife There are torches Front of South Vietnam, and unreleased material filmed by Japanese television camera Beside graves. To walk naked units. The film is an attempt to present the various faces of the war, and to bring to fhe surface some of the implications of the use of American power. Before us Through the brown The S.D.S. national office now hps ovailoble 5 prints, copies, of "Time of the Locust* at All across the country Refrigerator and stove $7.50 each for two (2) weeks for chapters and other interested groups. The rood rolls back Write: And two cars On whitewall tires And we emerge S.D.S. Film Library In the cement chambers c/o Students for a Democratic Society Room 205 And steab on the barbecue. Of ears. 1608 W.Madison Chicago, III. 60612 You chained your arm To the labor bed VI

While white caps and gowns (Continued from page 7) Tonight there Is a fire Towed your body In your mouth. Unrepresented Peoples in Washington, D.C, S. has ever seen. But this is only the be• Along tiles. August, 1965), obviously if we must commit ginning. If funds ore avGllable, we will state You see our hearts c. d., if the escalations do occur, the whole our intentions in newspaper advertisements You can't be • part of your birth. pro[ect failed. and as our numbers grow we will hold Through moonlight. You can't feel the first breath. additional press conferences. People in VUhy other areas should take up the call as in• All the animals The important part of the anli-escalotion deed, many have. Write letters totheeditor, Step out of their shells project, and this cannot be emphasized too your Congressmen and Senators, even the Of hair strongly, is nol civil disobedience but the President. Make escalation visible. Adver• IV publicity campaign to make escalation o visi• tise, agitate, demonstrate. Make escalation And dance to voices ble and controversal issue. Recently, the on issue. Howl Newly discovered. CNVA farm in Voluntown, Conn., was a tar• Peoce groups in other cities and countries From so deep get for an alleged attack by a right wing are urged to plan onti-escalation projects of The shell cracks group colled the Minutemen. Well, we wont their own to make the furor over escalation We have pricked America. to be minutemen of another kind and like a nationwide and world-wide concern. And We hove filled brutes And you wander roads Paul Revere, 'spread the alarm through remember, this is one demonstration that With tears. Of coastal rock every Middlesex village and farm" about succeeds only if it doesn't come off. So em• the escalations that Lyndon Johnson has up phasize the first part, the publicity campaign, most of all. Watching tide smash his sleeve. We wont to create a domestic uproar In the press, the Congress, and in Through thunderheads. the streets, peopletelling their leaders, "NO, by MARTIN JEZER, a sponsor of the anti- this is our country, our war, and enough Is No house escalation project, a member of the N. Y. enough!" We wont to make escalation THE By Harry MacCormick Workshop in Nonviolence and an editor oi issue and prevent Johnson from slipping CNVA's publication WIN Peace and Free• Rags for your wife and child another atrocity post the American people dom Through Nonviolent Action. without them knowing what the hell hap• You eat crabs and kelp pened. Smoke gross Tactics in New York City, we are going to hold a Staring for the eye press conference to announce that if the - Mother of the universe stated escalations take place, hundreds of us ore ready to hit the streets for civil dis• VOTE! obedience. We hope to hove enough pledges on hand to boost that this will be the most massive c. d. demonstration the U. DECEMBER N.C. AMERICA AND THE NEW ERA (continued from page 10)

Work began on the December Conference pie will be unemployed by 1970. Our society is rearing a generation which will hove NATIONAL COUNCIL DELEGATES several weeks ago and the plans for the literally no function. It is not hard to imagine the costs in personal dignity and social conference hove now solidified to the point SDS Constitution, Article VI, Section 1: harmony which this neglect will bring. that the overlying theme and the majority "The National Council shall be composed of While white America, at this writing, enjoys a mild upsurge in economic fortunes, of the workshops are fairly well set. The con• one (i) representative elected from eoch Negro America is experiencing a prolonged and severe economic depression. Automa• ference wiil be held from December 27 chapter with five to twenty-five members and tion is eliminating the few unskilled and semi-skilled job categories which are accessible through the 31st on the Berkeley campus. chapter with five to twenty-five members to Negroes in a discriminatory society. As a consequence the proportion of Negroes Most of the housing will be arranged in and one additional representative for each without jobs is today two to three times higher than white unemployment rotes. It Is im• private homes and any overflow will be additional twenty-five members or fraction portant to realize that the present gap between Negro and white opportunity is wider housed in co-operatives. The fee for the con• thereof, in that chapter..." and deeper than ever before in this country. ference will be $15. This will not cover food. There will be a credentials committee. All There is no official title for the conference AMERICAN RESPONSES TO THE NEWERA OS of yet, but it will deal with the campus, chapters should notify the National Office (1608 W. Madison, Rm. 205, Chicago, III. students and social change. The 27th and We have described a variety of trends, long accumulating in effect which have now 60612) of the names of their delegates and 28th will be the National Council meetings. converged - each interacting with the others - their combined impact has been the shat• The following three days will consist of work• their number of members immediately. tering of established systems and power structures, of people's expectations, of the plans shops on the following tooics: Accomodations will be arranged by the and designs of leaders, and of the hopes and aspirations of ordinary men and women. Berkeley chapter. Members attending should It is now necessary to examine the responses which ore being made to this emerging t. THE CAMPUS AS ECONOMIC INTEREST bring their own bedding (sleeping bogs or. new ero by various groups within our society. In this way we hope to achieve a clearer the corporate function of the university, bedroll) and grocery money. On arriving in definition of the present political scene, so that guidelines for a democratic political its interlocking directorate with othercorpor- Berkeley, call either Kris Dymond (415/841- strategy can be proposed. ations, the issue of governmental and 5'64) or the San Francisco regional office The American political spectrum includes five main groupings: The "traditionalist Right", private contracts. The organizing of student (415/362-7922) for further directions. Pre• the "Establishment", "the labor movement and organized liberalism", Negroes and the civil employees, teacher's unions, etc. ference in private rooms (of which there will rights movement" and the new insurgents'. These groupings do not fit conventional cate• 2. THE CAMPUS AS COMMUNITY be very few will be given to married cou• gories based on party, but they do seem to reflect divergent bases of power, styles of Student government and campus parties. ples. The rest of us will take our chances political action, political ideology and political program: Human relations and power relations within with floors, couches, spore mOttresses, etc. the school community and the relation of THE RESPONSE OF THE "TRADITIONALIST RIGHV: the campus to the non-student environs. Stu• dent and underground newspapers. No NC delegates wiil be seated unless the Today, as in the past, a variety of interests and groups in the United States coalesce 3. THE CAMPUS AS INSTITUTION national office has been notified in writing oi around a right-wing ideology and political program. This right-wing coalition now includes The role of the educational system in their election by 23 December at the latest. various business interests, certain sectors of the military establishment. Southern rocists corporate society, its penetration by themili- and their political representatives, and large portions of the small town and suburban tory-industrial complex, and the effect of middle classes. The ideology of the right ranges from "ultra" to "conservative" but its campus social change on other institutions. Detach this section and return to SDS, 1608 essence is resistence to policies and programs which threaten the power of these groups. The Peace Corps on campus. The program of the right includes the weakening of social service programs, organized W. Madison, rm. 206, Chicago, III. 606 . a. 4. CAMPUS AS POLITICAL FORCE labor and the Federal Government; they favor tax programs which favor business and Student participation in electoral politic: The chapter is en• property-holding classes, protection of the power of the Southern power structure, nad • (i.e. the Scheer campaign, the Black Power titled to delegate(s) to the Notional "victory" posture in the Cold War which would bolster the sagging fort Conference, etc.). The i'8-year-old vote. Council meeting. (If you disagree with oui "victory" posture In the Cold War which would bolster the sagging fortunes of the Air 5. THE CAMPUS AND THE DRAFT figure, send a list of national members to thr Force and taint the Democratic Party once again with the odor of "softness to communism. Campus organizing against conscription, NO, along with the names of yourdelegotes. Presently, the institutional power of the right rests almost entirely in Congress, where protest against college and university com• Our delegates to the December National ideological conservatives can count on the voting support of men who are blinded to plexity in conscription, the issue ot its defer• Council meeting will be: general socjoi interests by their day-to-day obsession with the politics of local gains. ment, the non-student draftee; Negro troops Congressior^l leadership rests largely In the hands of a right-wing oligarchy composed and ghetto youth. of Republicans and Southern Democrats, who by virtue of the fact that they come from 6. CAMPUS ORGANIZATION VS. ORGANI• single party districts, enjoy the committee privileges that come with long terms in office. ZATION This Congress, led by men who represent the most backward regions of the country, The effect of mobilizing students for reform structured by on archaic system of rules, has effectively blocked attempts to cope with demands as opposed to long-term organizing domestic and international crisises. its response to the new era hrss beer. "buEirr^ss demands as opposed to long-term organ• Alternates will be: as usual" at home, and nationalistic belligerence to the rest of the world. izing for student control. In addition to Congress, the right is extremely powerful in state and local government, 7. THE CAMPUS AND EDUCATIONAL in the South and West, ond, in view of the decentralized power system which dominate REFORM American politics, this is significant. Conservative and reactionary politics is very well Evoluation of the Experimental College organized, and has adapted successfully to the political system. Currently John Birchism and San Francisco State College. The rela• is applying the lessons learned from the successful politicians of the right by concen• tion of the free university to the compus. trating on local issues, gaining power in school boards and state assemblies. The issue of careers. (signed) Chapter chairman or secretary 8. JUNIOR COLLEGES THE RESPONSE TO THE ESTABLISHMENT: Academic reform peculorities. Organizing working class youth. Peculiorin-loco-parentis By the "Establishment" we mean those men whohave direct influence over the formula• problems. tion of national domestic and foreign policies. These include the President and his ad• 9. THE HIGH SCHOOL CAMPUS visors, and major officials of the executive branch of the government, but the The in-ioco-parentis issue, the young Detach this section and send to Berkeley Establishment extends Into private centers of power as well ~ many corporate leaders, hippie revolt, anti-draft activities, the rights SDS, P.O. Box 1177, Berkeley, Calif., 94701 foundation officials, some labor leaders, and some leaders of the Republican Party are of young people, the difficulties of organiz• decisive figures in the formulation of one or another aspect of policy. It is the function ing. members of the of any Establishment to formulate policy in such a way that the going system con be pre• 10. THE STUDENTS AS ORGANIZERS chapter will attend the December NC meet• served and existing power arrangements can be maintained. As the Eisenhower Admini• Students in the South, in poor white com• ing and membership conference. Of this stration drew to a close, it became evident that these responsibilities were not being munities, in laborunions, in high schools, etc. number, are married couples and..... effectively met. That Administration, responding primarily to particular corporate and 11. STUDENTS AS A SOCIAL CLASS ore children. All wiilbring theirown bedding military Interests, was plainly failing to cope with the colonial revolution, with the New The gulf between students and the working and grocery money. We will arrive on Europe, and domestic economic and social need. class. Students as the catalyst for social and leave on (If this box( jhas • change. check in it, we have indicated on a separate 12. STUDENT SYNDICALISM sheet our various schedules.) (CONTINUED NEXT WEEK) The organization of student federations (notional and international) for academic People driving who have room for orneed revolution (an end to grades, etc.). riders should contact the nearest regional 13. COMPOSITION OF THE DEMOCRAIIC office ofthe N.O. PARTY Relationship of the corporations, political womon running for Mayor of Gould. One Second-Class post• machines, labor bureaucrocy and rank and precinct didn't even turn in their votes, and age rates paid in Chicago, Illinois. file, middle class liberals, blacks and the poor others simply said that there were no votes Entered at Chicago file, middle class liberals, blacks and the for Mrs. Dilworth although Vince knows thot and other points. poor in the political party. there were definitely votes for her in these U. HISTORY OF THIRD PATIES precincts. Reasons for the collapse of such parties in In Wobaseka, Ark., Vince and other free• the post. dom workers are writing letters to John Door 15. ORGANIZING POOR WHITES of the Justice Dept. OS a result of the reported Time will also be set aside for workshops by defeat of • black man running for city coun• the Rodical Education Project. It you have cil. In that town, white people from outside ideas for more workshops, please let the Re• of the town voted, there were segregated gional Office know, Pleasealsosendworking voting lines, and other irregularities were reported. The people will probably contest papers on the above topics to the office. Jp Walton Senterfitt We will try togetosmonyaswe can publish- the election and are now in the process of ;ed before the conference so that people can lining people up to testify. There were no 2115 S St:„ NVJ begin to discuss them. oiock people on the polls as clerks or judges outside of Pine Bluff, and there were only a Washington, DC 20008 few allowed in the oil-block precincts. SNCC NEWSLINE In the State of Arkansas, from 80 to90% of the eligible blacks turned out to vote, and (Continued From page 9) 95% of tfie black vote went to Rockefeller. PINE BLUFF, ARKANSAS in the ASCS Election on November 18th, Vince O'Connor reported that there were 4 black men were elected to positions in 'a couple of vote fraud coses in the Nov. 8th Jefferson County. This is the first time In elections in Gould, Ark. The election was history that an Arkansas ASCS Committee stolen from Mrs. Carrie Dilworth, • block has hod more black members than white.