Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Resist Newsletters Resist Collection 12-23-1970 Resist Newsletter, Dec. 1970 Resist Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter Recommended Citation Resist, "Resist Newsletter, Dec. 1970" (1970). Resist Newsletters. 146. https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter/146 a call to resist ....... illegitimate authority 23 December 1970 763 Massachusetts Avenue, #4, Cambridge, Mass. 02139 News letter /149 FIRST SEATTLE CONSPIRACY TRIAL OVER FLOWER CITY CONSPIRACY GUILTY OF "TEMPORARY SANITY" On December 10, less than three weeks after it The week after Thanksgiving, the eight defend­ began in Tacoma on November 23, the first trial ants of the Flower City Conspiracy in Rochester, of the Seattle Conspiracy was over. Claiming that New York were convicted on all six counts (each) the defendants had prejudiced their own case by of entering the federal building there with crim­ repeatedly speaking directly to the jury, Judge inal intent and destroying files and cabinets re­ George Boldt declared a mistrial. For their con­ lating to the functioning of the FBI, Selective duct throughout the trial, he charged the six Service, and the federal District Attorney. The defendants present (the seventh, Susan Stern, jury recoffi!I!ended leniency 48 times in convicting was in the hospital for an operation; the eighth, the eight, and the judge responded with prison Michael Justesen, has been underground since the terms of 12, 15, and 18 months. indictments came down Iast April 17) with "the worst example of contempt I have ever experienced." After the trial the· jurors told reporters that The six - Chip Marshall, Mike Abeles, Joe Kelly, they were hung at one point during their delibera­ Roger Lippman, Mike Lerner, and Jeff Dowd - were tions but decided to compromise by recommending subse·quently sentenced to six months in jail each. leniency. Some said that their lives were changed during the course of the trial and that their The Charges: For their alleged participation opinions about people such as the defendants were in the organizing of the TDA demonstration in originally negative ("hippy-anarchists," one said). Seattle last February 17 (protesting the verdicts By the end of the trial, however, they had come in the Chicago Conspiracy trial, the contempt to admire them. During the trial the judge al­ charges against those defendants, and the treat­ lowed the defendants, who defended themselves, ment of Bobby Seale during the trial), the Seattle to introduce evidence about the U.S. policy of Conspiracy were charged with "travelling in inter­ genocide-in Asia, the repressive functions of state commerce to incite a riot" and "aiding, a­ the FBI, and the non-rehabilitative nature of betting, counselling, and procuring others to U.S. prisons; time and again the government's wilfully and unlawfully injure the property of objections were denied. the United States. 11 Six of tb~ d~fen,fan ~s had been active in planning the TDA demonstration, The FBI was particularly upset with the trial and thus were vulnerable to ~~nspiracy indict­ and assigned a special agent to assist in the ments. Lippman and Justesen had no part in prosecution. The Bureau was obviously angered planning the action. Four of the eight - Jeff that their offices had been raided and that the Dowd, Joe Kelly, Chip Marshall, and Mike Abeles defendants had found wire-tapping equipment and - came to live in Seattle in January from Ithaca, files relating to the national policy on repress­ New York, where they had been active in the rad­ ing the Black Panther Party. Hoover's announce­ ical movement at Cornell. Accordingly, all four ment that the East Coast Conspiracy to Save Lives were charged with travelling to Seattle to incite plans to bomb and kidnap was blatantly timed to a riot. Most of the evidence cited in the indict­ coincide with the end of the trial in hopes of ment concerned speeches given and meetings at­ intimidating both judge and jury into making an tended by the defendants, although Chip Marshall example of the .defendants. The unsequestered and Jeff Dowd were said to have "committed the jury did not seem to take Hoover seriously. The overt acts" of practicing some karate kicks in judge, about to retire after 35 years on the fed­ a public park. And Mike Lerner was charged with eral ben~h, appeared similarly unimpressed. using "the facilities of interstate commerce, to wit: The Pa.cific Northwest Bell Telephone Com­ pany, with intent to incite, organize, promote and encourage a riot." A REAL "HOOVER CONSPIRACY" There were militant TDA demonstrations through­ On December 18, 1970, a group which called its out the country. Yet only in Seattle have some itself the "Early Hoover Vacuum Conspiracy" in­ of the alleged organizers been brought to trial vaded the Selective Service offices in Union on federal conspiracy charges, the same charges City and Elizabeth, New Jersey, in one instance the government tried to use against the Chicag0 destroying the 1-A files within the office and Conspiracy Eight. Why is the government out to in the other removing those files from the of­ get the Seattle Eight? fice. Jhe following is the text of the state­ Cont'd on p. 4. ment that was left in these offices: Cont'd on p. 2••••. BUFFALO ORGANIZERS INDICTED 11 HOOVER CONSPIRACY" Cont'd. In Buffalo, New York, tpe Niagara Liberation 'twe are American citizens of conscience exer­ Front has be~n working for the past six months to cizing our rights as declared in the Declaration build a city-wide revolutionary movement. An im­ of Independence - that when a government becomes portant part of this work has been the production destructive of the ends for which it was created, and distribution of Cold Steel, Buffalo's radical 'it is the right of the people to alter or abol­ paper for working-class youth and students. On ish it and to institute new government.' December 1, two members and one former member of the Cold Steel collective were indicted by a grand .. Let this act be interpreted as a pledge of sol­ jury for criminal anarchy, incitement to riot, two idarity with young black, brown, red and white charges of conspiracy, and five misdemeanors. Americans who are fed into the war machine of Their arrests w2re the culmination of months of ever escalating conflict in Southeast Asia. We harassment by mass media and the police . Over the refuse to accept the Nixon myth which speaks of last six mnnth3, .haw~<.~~:=; of th; paper have been 'winding the war down.' continually harassed and busted, and thousands of papers hav2 baen stolen bafore th~y could b2 dis­ "The destruction of these documents of death tributed. makes us one with the East Coast Conspiracy to Save Lives and the ever-widening circle of con­ Cold Steel, which is distributed at high schools science in this country which opposes: through)u~ th; city and at the University of Buf­ -genocide of Black, Puerto Rican, Indian falo, contains articles on tracking, the draft: and Chicano communities of America abortio~ a,d medical care, ha~d dr~gs, and third -manipulation and dehumanization of Mid­ world and women's struggles. Four pages of each dle America issue are devoted to local news - on-going youth -raping the countries in Asia, Africa, activity in Buffalo. The cover of the fall issue South America and Europe, and co-opta­ of the paper, entitled "Back to School" and show- tion of American physical and spiritual . ing a school building "on fire" (the flames had resources into a culture which deals been drawn onto the photograph), was used as the them death. reason for the "incitement to riot" charg~. The "criminal anarchy" charge came from a passage in "Nixon nonsense and Hoover harassment do not Cold Steel which, according to the indictment, deter us, nor does prison prevent us from declar­ "advo~ated overthrow of the governm;nt of New ing that we stand firm against repressive Ameri­ York St!i~e ... The two conspiracy charges were can policies. Therefore, we choose a life style conspiracy to incite a riot and conspiracy to which espouses peace in the international commun­ engage in criminal a,arch~. Defense lawyers for ity, values life over property, and insures jus­ the Cold Steel 3 - Nancy Clark, Steve Weiss, and tice for all. We seek the freedom to conspire form~ollective member Robin Levine, all now towards these ends." released on bail - are trying to get a federal injunction against the indictments on the grounds that they violate First Amendment rights. For more information, contact the Niagara L~beration Front, Box 6, Norton Hall, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York. FROM THE UNDERGROUND: DOCTOR HIDE RESIST received the following statement before William Stringfellow and Anth~ny_Towne were charg:d with harboring a fugitive for having Dan Berrigan stay with them. W~th thes indictment~, shelt~ring political fugitives becomes yet another action unacceptable to the Nixon regime,7 and making public ones1 intention to do this is now not only a danger to the people you might help but also to oneself. Heed well the advice of Doctor Hi~e! "To: RESIST Newsletter. From: First Under-Ground Service (FUGS) --- A recent statement issued publicly 41 signers gave evidence of support for those of us who have been forced to become fugitives from the bylaw. As an example, as evidence• o f support, th es t a t emen t o b v10· usly had meri·t. • But everyone. should realize that the 41 signers have become useless to us as sources of direct aid by.issuing such a state­ ment.