Resist Newsletter, Apr. 1969

Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Resist Newsletters Resist Collection 4-6-1969 Resist Newsletter, Apr. 1969 Resist Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter Recommended Citation Resist, "Resist Newsletter, Apr. 1969" (1969). Resist Newsletters. 136. https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter/136 a call to resist ....... illegitimate authority 6 April 1969 - 763 Massachusetts Avenue, #4, Cambridge, Mass. -Newsletter #25 ASMALL STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION CANADIAN WELCOME RESCINDED? On March 31 Chief Judge Charles Wyzanski, Jr. From June 1967 to June 1968, there were at of the U. S. District Court of Massachusetts least S0r000 deserters from the U.S. Army. ruled that part of the 1967 Selective Service Well over 500 of them are in Canada. (These Act is unconstitutional and asked that the statistics, for obvious reasons, are rather Government seek a Supreme Court judgement. indefinite.) Initially, many of those in Boston who had worked on draft cases during the past months Canada, formerly a haven for draft resisters were jubilant: John Sisson, whose motion for and deserters, seems to have had a change of an arrest of judgement Wyzanski was granting; heart as well as a change of administration. John Flym, his lawyer and head of the Boston Official Canadian immigration policy states Selective Service Lawyers Panel; the Committee that" ... any individual's status with regard for Legal Research on the Draft, who had helped to compulsory military service in his own coun to prepare the briefs; and Boston Support, try has no bearing on his admissibility to which had, with Sisson and other indictees, Canada, either as an immigrant or as a visitor." been explaining the issues and organizing sup BUT an obscure memo issued by the Immigration port for indictees in their home towns. Later, Department in July of '68 stated that border however, closer examination of Wyzanski 's deci guards" •.. should consider whether applicants sion led some to decide it was a sham. on an active basis are serving in the armed services of their country." Radicals are often so caught up in their par ticular mode of struggle that no gains except To fully appreciate the implications of the their own have any meaning for their ' revolu July '68 directive, let's look at the case of tion'. Liberals, on the other hand, eagerly 5 Canadian students who, disguised as American accept any little sign - "secret talks" in deserters, applied at five different border Paris, for example - as proof that things are points for landed immigrant status.* Of the 5 not really so bad after all. The Wyzanski four were denied entrance and one gave up as opinion says something to each group; it also rejection seemed imminent. Bob Waller and Gra contains a lesson for each. ham Muir, two of the Canadians, were ordered to report to American border authorities where What did Wyzanski say? That it seems uncon they would have been arrested as deserters. stitutional to exempt pacifists but to draft or jail selective conscientious objectors, and Clearly, then, the July directive is an outright that 'religious' men should not receive bene attempt to prevent American deserters from en fits not accorded to moral atheists and agnos tering Canada. It does not, however, seem tics. This is an important and valuable state specifically aimed at barring admission to ment: It raises the vital issue of selective draft resisters who with the proper credentials. conscientious objection. It also dramatically i.e., job offers and recommendations from Cana reawakened general anti-draft sympathies. All dian citizens, have less difficulty entering three Boston papers carried the story with Canada. Theoretically, it is against regula front-page headlines, as did the New York Times. tions to ask about draft status. Yet curiously The Boston Globe reprinted much of the tex t of enough, although Canadian public opinion toward the decision together with a supportive editori admitting draft resisters and deserters is not al, and published a second, long, front -page overwhelmingly hostile (This is especially true story about the draft the next day. The item in Quebec, which is traditionally anti-military.), was carried on all national TV news programs there is an unmistakable trend away from sup and was even given a Today Show "news analysis". port of deserters. At the present- time, the All that was useful. only really accessible border points are located in Quebec: the Montreal Airport or from inside What else did Wyzanski say? He said that the country with some proof of respectability, "dissent is possible only in a socie.ty strong after entering as a visitor. Ontario and Bri enough to repel attack", that his decision did tish Columbia are closed to both resisters and not mean that the war was illegal or that peace deserters. time conscription was illegal (and that, i n cont'd on p. 2 fact, they were probably both le!al), that war time conscription was certainly egal, that selective conscientious objectors should still be available for non-combatant military service *It should be mentioned here that although a (anything that doesn't actually require pulling deserter or resister can enter Canada as a a trigger), and that during a conflict involving visitor, it is impossible for him to obtain major U. S. interests, a declared war, or an a work permit unless he has "landed immigrant" invasion, no exemptions should be retained. status which also makes him eligible to become Wyzanski further stated that primary factors a Canadian citizen. cont ' d on p . 2 CANADIAN WELCOME RESCINDED? cont'd . .. OAKLAND SEVEN ACQUITTED It is expected that a new statement regard The Oakland Seven were acquitted on March 28 ing immigration policy will be released by the of charges of conspiracy to commit two misde government on April 13. This statement may meanors, trespassing and interfering with a po well deal the final death blow to the American lice officer. The conspiracy allegedly occurred deserter while still allowing the resister to in connection with Stop the Draft Week demonstra enter the country. tions in Oakland in October, 1967. Although the case is very important to the anti-war movement, the trial and acquittal were almost totally ig A SMALL STEP cont'd. nored by the national press. The next issue of the RESIST Newsletter will contain a full report in determining that Sisson qualified as a selec on this case and its impact on the Movement. tive conscientious objector were John's courage, the non-political nature of some of his claims, his diffidence, his education (Exeter and Har vard), and the fact that he "fearlessly used his own words, not mouthing formulae from court VALUABLE MOVEMENT PUBLICATIONS cases or manuals for draft avoidance". HARD TIMES Wyzanski was right, at least, about John's Newsletter subscribers will soon receive a courage, for which the judge's decision was no mailing from Hard Times (edited by Andrew match. John had refused to apply for a defer Kopkind, Robert Sherrill, and Ralph Nadar). ment as either a conscientious objector or a Formerly called Mayday, it is a weekly in the student, and had insisted that his defense traditi~n of I. F. Stone and contains exposes raise only those issues pertaining to the of Washington, news of the draft situation, illegality and immorality of the war. On the and general Movement news. The subscription witness stand he refused to follow Wyzanski's rate is $10.00 a year, students $6.00. The suggestive line of questioning; he reiterated address is: Hard Times, 80 Irving Place, New that he was not a conscientious objector, that York, N.Y. 10003. his objections were not religious, and that he would accept no exemption obtained as a THE ceca HANDBooK result of his education or the eloquence of his arguments. His witnesses were Howard Zinn The Central Committee for Conscientious Ob and Richard Falk, and they spoke not of reli jectors publishes this han dbook (edited by gious history but of the horrors of Vietnam. Arlo Tatum) as a source o f information rele vant to the Selective Service System. It con Both radicals and liberals can find sources tains rules, procedures, information on civ of encouragement in Judge Wyzanski's decision, ilian work, military and civilian prisons, but each could also learn from the other's etc. CCCO News Notes is published regularly reaction to it. The radicals would do well to to up-date the information in the Handbook. remember, in '69, the resisters they supported The Handbook costs $1.00; the News Notes are in '67, noticing that at least some small gains free. Both can be obtained from: Central can be made through the courts resisters must Committee for Conscientious Objectors, 2016 now face and that an action can be helpful even Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103 or if it simply offers a platform and some respect 514 Mission Street, San Francisco, Calirernia ability to a man who is questioning the legiti 94105. macy of his government's policies. And liberals should realize just how small a concession the PITTSBURGH DRAFT RESISTANCE Wyzanski decision is, how dangerous a mixture The Pittsburgh Draft Resistance is a good of class distinctions and government paternal model of a Resistance publication. It can be ism it contains, that it is not binding upon ordered in bulk and could be inserted into other courts and might not be considered by college papers, high school papers, or into the Supreme Court, and that perhaps dissent other Movement publications. For further in is, in fact, possible only in inverse propor formation, contact: Pittsburgh Draft Resis tion to its effectiveness.

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