HAIGHT STREET BLUES P. 3 20¢ WILDCATS IN CHICAGO P. 6 CUBAN POEMS, PHOTOS P. 8
photo by stephen Shames
by Karen Wald Oakland, California -- him. Garry hammered not only at the Laughter broke out in the courtroom Garry aske:i, "How do I find a juror racial compositionbut the economic class at one point when Zeisel was asked by who is not racist to the extent that he OUtside the Alameda County Courthouse bias of the jury panel. disciplined Black Panthers, men and the somewhat disconcerted judge, "Do will prejudge a black defendant?" women, lead a demonstration of thou Expert Testimony you think white jurors would wrongfully The most feasible way" , Blauner testi sands. Free Huey! Set our warrior free! convict a Negro defendant?" Zeisel, who fied, "would be not to have whiteson the GarrY's pre-trial motions were based had been trying to avoid strong condemn jury." (Exactly what the Panthers and Inside the seventh floor courtroom sits Garry have argued from the beginning). Huey P. Newton, Ministe-r of Defense, on several days of expert testimony by ations and stick to clear evidence, said, charged with first-degre-e murder. But social scientists. Dr. Jan Dizard of U.C. " It's been rumored to have happened." If this was not done, Blauner suggested, even as Huey Newton sits in the court cited a study he had made of Oakland Zeisel's testimony on capital punish there might be ways to eliminate the most room, it is America on trial. and various national studies to indicate ment included a description of what has serious racists. The judge asked, "Is Since July 15, the first day of the that voting lists are a discriminatory been termed the "authoritarian person there a test?". trial, the Oakland Courthouse has been method for jury selection. ality". His testimony was followed by a scene from a police state. Armed, Floyd Hunter, nationally prominent so Nevitt Sanford, psychologist from stan Screen For Racists riot- hel meted guards stand guard at ciologist who is presently engaged in a ford, an originator of the authoritarian study of Oakland~ power structure, tried personality test. He tesitified as to the the doors, letting in ~J those with Blauner came up with the following four suitable identification and official busi to explain the reasons for the discour linkage between pro-cap!tal punishmel't points. ._ ness. On the first day twenty deputies agement of black people with government and prejudice. (1) A white juror should have knowledge stood in the hall outside the courtroom. and the standard political processes, and While the judge again ignored this testi of black history and culture. Since then, between twenty and forty outline the differences between the West mony and it provided no immediate ans (2) He should be aware of his own riot police are held in readiness in the Oakland ghetto and East Oakland. wers as to how to keep racists off juries, prejudices and be working to overcome basement. Jury Commissioner Schnarr was con it remains an important point for appeal. them, rather than being unaware or il". Members of Huey Newton's family were vinced of the method's fairness but his Large numbers of prospective jurClrs different. forced to be fingerprinted and photo testimony revealed that "no response" were eliminated "for cause" on the basis (3) He should have personal experienCt:: graphed before being allowed to enter was the chief eliminator of prospective of their opposition to capital punishment with black and minority people--have lived jurors, from people who had moved or and nearly all prospective black jurors the courtroom. Lately the coP~. have a more equalatarian than segregated life. searche-d every person enteringthe court could not be located. Excuses for non who were eliminated for "cause" were (4) He should be actively concerned room. The police state atmosphere has service came most often from persons challenged because they opposed the death with changing the racist structure of incurred the wrath of the press and this, who "(ould suffer severe economic hard penalty. society--in his job, his personal life- combine-d with favorable impressions of ship; ihe poor are thus exluded. White Racism in some way making a commitment to Huey Newton from interviews, has helpe-d Judge Monroe Freidman took a con change. make the mass media coverage relative sistantly myopic view of the testimony. Perhaps the most penetrating ~d pre In response to a question from DA ly fair up to now. He constantly asked that the sociologists cedent-setting testimony was given by Lowell Jensen, Blauner stated that al confine themselves to only Alameda Robert Blauner, sociologist from U.C., though theoretically racism could be found Focus On Politics County, and voter registration. "If any who studies racism. Blauner's testimony, in blacks as well as Whites, in reality black people are prevented from regist widely reported as were the others, was whites in our society have a "monopoly" In Defense Atto.rney Charles GarrY's ering to vote in Alameda County, I want education in its most practical sense. on it because of the objective situation. opening statement, he explained to the jury Blauner distinguished hetweenobjective Blauner, like BernardDiamond, crimin the entire history of the Black Panther to know about it" , said the JUdge. He didn't want to know about much else, and SUbjective racism. Objective racism ologist, doctor, law professor, and psy Party, the Party's Ten Point Program, . is an inescapable, structural and insti chiatrist from Berkeley, responded to and described their organizing in the or he would have listene-d to some of the psychological and sociological fac tutional part of this society; subjective DA questioning that he, like everyone black community. racism is a question of attitudes. "Living else, has some amount of racism in him. Given the t.one of the previous two tors which effectively prevent black re gistration. in this (objectively) racist society", he weeks of pre-trial motions and jury se said, "it is not possible for white people CONTINUED ON PAGE 1 2 lection, all aimed at exposing the ju to be free of sUbjective racism." dicial system and understanding white Capital Punishment , racism, it came as no surprise that the focus of the defense, at the outset, Dr. Hans Zeisel, of the University of THE MOVEMENT PRESS Chicago, has done numerous jury studies. would be on politics. 4A9 14TH STREET Before the first juror was asked a He testified that oppositon to capital question, Garry moved co quash the en punishment had been increasing among SAN FRANCisco, CA. 94103 tire master panel from which a jury all people, but that race remains a major is chosen. The motion was based on. differentiating factor in opinions on cap the racism inherent in whites and the ital punishment; black people tend to lack of ghetto and pOOr representation oppose it. Those who favor capital puni on a jury selected from voter regis shment are more likely to oppose open tration lists. housing or move out of an lntegrating Garry also pointed out in his motions neighborhood. that a jury selected by a system which He added that those in favor of capital allowed the exclusion of those opposed punishment were more likely to vote to capital punishment would necessarily "gu1lty" on the first ballot in criminal result in a "hanging jury" more ready cases and would need less proof to arrive to convict a black man than to acquit at a guilty verdict. PAGE 2 THE MOVEMENT SEPTEMBER 1968 EDITORIAL TAKING CARE OF OUR OWN This last month a .·lot has happened a revolutionary identity. But this identity revolt. We move from crisis to crisis. Stokely, Rap, Mao, Che, Fidel, Huey, in the Bay Area: white riots in Berkeley has many weaknesses. A brother who is perfectly willing to Eldridge. Though they too work to avoid and the Haight, the Huey Newton trial Perhaps the main weakness is that our save your life during a street action a cult of th e personality they recognize and developments in the Black Panther emerging identity is expressed mainly or a riot may well have forgotten you the need to project an image. The Cubans Party. This month we feel we have some through form and style rather than the or lost interest in the year between seeChe as a person to EMULATE, as real questions to ask and suggestions content of revolt. The physical and CUl your arrest and your trial. This is one a positive model. to milke. tural trappings of revolt without an unner of the problems of the Oakland Seven. Compare the attitude of SDS men1bers standing of why we revolt and who our They are individuals who called for a toward their national officers and that enemy is w1ll not destroy the environ demonstration a year ago. The ten thous of Black Panther members toward theris. The Oakland Seven have been forgotten ment which oppresses us. Forms of re and people who took the streets of Oak No bannerswith Jeff segal's photo are by many, as have other conspiracy cases bellion can be accomodated by our op land were NOT members of an organi raised, no attempts to run him for Sena around the country. Jeff segal, a nation· pressors. Witness the mini-skirted air zation of which the sevenwerethe leaders. tor or President. The attitude is almost al officer of SDS and an editor of THE' line hostesses, the Dodge tlRebell1on", Many young p~ople going to Berkeley that it's Jeff's fault he got·it in the MOVEMENT is in jail and may be there this year do not even know who the . ' the "come alive Pepsi generation", the neck. We haven't been able to come up for many years. .9leve Sellers of SNCC new top-forty rock stations. America Seven are. Most of the Seven are not with forms of organization that reject .is in jail. Many other draft resisters i s making money off the forms of our campus figures. They are individuals current social forms and avoid past left are facing years in prison. Forty young identity. We say fuck you, America. But who assumed leadership for the moment. atrocities yet protect us from repression people are in jail after being busted until we can f111 out our identity with Now they are paying the dues for the and project our visions of organization. in the Haight: they have not' been bailed a consciousness of who the oppressors entire Stop the Draft Week. They are out because ·political" people don't con are and why we oppose them we will on trial for what the ten thousand did. Who's Got It Worse? sider them "political". As each new per help America grow rather than to destroy secution occurs, the victims of the last it. Until then we will not be able to Don't Follow Leaders Many whites have flocked to the de one are easilyforgotten. WE ARE ABAND identify our brothers and sisters--some fense of blacks. We have no argument ING OUR OWN. of whom are over 30, not stUdents, and The anti-leadership, anti-hero strain with this. But often whites refuse to very "straight" looking. We will not be in the white youth movement is generally defend victims from among their own Back in January we editorialized about able to take care of our own. healthy. It is a response to corrupt number, arguing that after all the re repression, saying that the movement leadership and manipulation in the past. pression is greater against the blacks. should take the offensive in the face of From Crisis to Crisis It does not want a cult of personality. And it is. repression. Now we have to askourselves other revolutionary groups are not as We have heard people say, "Huey may what has happened to the DEFENSIVE Another handicap is the process by bashful. Oppressed nations are more will be put to death but the Oakland Seven much less the offensive. which the young· are expressing their i,ng· to project "heroes" -- Malcolm, only face three years." This is true Repression is cutting deeply into the but it avoids the real question: movement, its leadership and Its ranks. PEOPLE WILL NOT, IN FACT THEY This has been a selective process of SHOULD NOT, TAKE RISKS IF THEY picking and choosing, sometimes cutting ARE NOT BACKED UP. If the white out the most radical spokesmen, some for those pacifist poets movement does not protect its own, it w1ll soon find that no one is w1lling times laying the groundwork by attacking rUling guru greybeard bards more respectable elements. Not only has to take any risks any more. Spokesmen it taken away valuable people, it has having new fun in yr. rolling rock renaissance. w111 start toning down their criticisms affected many others--Ieading to disil have you passed thru the Haight of America, people will retire from the lusionment, fear and acts of desperation. have you seen yr. turned on kids? movement, drop back into the system, make their adjustments, quiet down. And Repression has not caused our weak u promised them Visions & Love & Sharing they will do so out of real fear, for ness; it has exposed it. Perhaps we clap, hepatitis, fleas, begging and the gang bang nothing is worse than being abandoned must ask if a movement even exists. by your own. sure you didn' t want to see the scene go that way but that's how the shit went down. The P lack Panther Method & i do not hear yr. howl. Taking Care i do not hear exorcising demons. In the long run the answer lies in Of all political groups in the country, the development of a political and social the Black Panther Party seems to have identity. Then abandonment w1ll 'oot be u told the congress that yr acid the price of leadership, and a greater best countered the attacks against it. had taught us how to luv It has a chieved national prominence and trust will arise among young people. that finally bloodsoaked thieving swine of a cowboy This may not occur until the movement is expanding for far more than sensation the Others call their president. alistic reasons. The Panthers' acts and as a whole is threatened more than it is there nothing left over for the kids already is. ideas reflect strong dedication, combined sleeping on sidewalks with leadership, organization, organizing, ,In the short run we have two suggest discipline and program. . waiting to be carried off by the bikes? ions. (1) It is a fact that even ifa,person has yr. acid & cannibis power wilted like yr. daffodils? They have made the best of violent is a member of an organization, those is there no compassion left over for the broken bodies , who work hardest in his de fense when and deadly repression. They have not of yr. children's crusade? stopped ed~cating and organizing. he's in danger are his FRIENDS. The What about us? White mother country rise of friendship or affinity groups and yr. disciples are dying in the streets, gurus. gangs reflects this. The Berkeley Com revolutionaries (in name only perhaps)? u have been among the philistines too long. Why the paralysis, demoralization and mune, the 18th and Castro Gang, the abandonment? u have become their Spectacle. Motherfuckers, the Free City Families heal the sores upon thine own bodies, prophet! are natural groupings of people who have Black Isn't White been through struggles together, who are yr. word has brought them as far as the Haight. friends and comrades. These will become The underlying black strategy is to can you not carry them to the seashore? important political forms in the future. unite their own people. Blackness is or is it your power and not theirs which has failed? Whether or not these new kinds of an identity. Black people have a common groupings will be successful--whether can it be we warrior poets were right all along? or not we will succeed--depends on how history of oppression. When a black re can it be all the buddhas r hollow volutionary says "We must defend our well the groups can tie in with each & like the Dali Lama black brothers and sisters," a chord other. We are dependent on each other. u have been sipping butter tea upon a peacock throne We must cement that dependence organi is . struck that even bourgeois blacks as Tibetans perished in the snow? imbedded in the power structure respond zationally. The affinity groups, gangs and fam1l1es must be linked by local to on some level. Black unity is at least is it not time to admit that Hate as well as love redeems the world? a theoretical possib1l1ty. Uncle Toms, and national networks. And perhaps our there is no outside w/out inside . developing tamilies--like true fam1lies- no matter how bad·, can always return no revolution w/out blood. home. They will always be black. As --- ARES must divide work and responsibility and Malcolm pointed out: a black professor more consciously organize ourselves. We with a Ph.D. is still a "nigger" to a lot can no longer operate as if ready or not of white folks. Editor's Note: This poem_was taken from a billboard near here we come. We've got to be ready. The strategy of the white movement the Berkeley Commune table on Telegraph Avenue. We don't (2) A national defense organization si is to divide our own people. We must know the author but wI'! likp the poem. milar to the Los Angeles Committee make a distinction between white op to Defend the B1ll of Rights is in the pressors and white oppressed. process of being formed. This committee This is crucial. It is the problem THE MOVEMENT should have chapters in major cities of developing a common identity among which w1ll raise a general· bail fund, oppressed whites. When we tall\: about IS PUBLISHED MONTHLy' BY THE have lawyers on call, and take the job MOV~MENT PRESS ,lf4.9 fifth Stl"1!C'et of defending everybody's own. In a way protecting OUR OWN, who do we mean? r;;i6~1f57"7 Fill in the blank: "Defend our -- 3 Panthers Killed SAN FRANC/sco,CA. 94-103 this is a professional eqUivalent for what brothers and sisters." • White" ? Out of E~ITOR.IAt. AR~ENE should be a popular sentiment. When a the question.•Movement"? But there is G'RoVp: EISEN BERGM"'N, moveml1nt does come into being, the LINCOLN BEPlr/V1AN, MIRI'IND.... BERGM"'N no movement! There are only organi Los Angeles -- Three members of defense commtttee should be its legal zations. We can say Defend our SDS .JlJE 8wM, RENEE BLU,Y\,T!"R,R.Y CANNON, defense arm. the Black Panther Party were killed BOBBI ClECIORt
A week after its second overt rebellion, Haight Str~et is all but back to normal. Not much noticable difference from two weeks before except for the plywood hastily tacked up across many of the store fronts; some over broken glass, but more, perhaps, as a preventitive measure. The Bank of America building, the second biggest target - a target because of some political understanding of what the Bank of America is about but a target also because of the Bank of American's outstanding ability to treat ,people like dirt -- now permanently equipped with sheets of hardboard in place of the smashed windows; portending, perhaps, the look of the future for Bank of America buildings all over the city. Some difference in the appearance of open game as long as nothing is happen- . the street itself, as a series of excava ing -- making sure the bottles won't tions which had dragged on for months be heaved at them as they pass, or hidden was finished up in one day following the away for future use. Really hitting the first night of fighting. This, part of a jackpot as they find half-a-dozen bottles ....» III search-and-destroy mission undertaken left by winoes on the steps of the Haight OJ "0 by the cops in which streets, rooftops, Ashbury Medical Clinic, and half-a-dozen M and garbage cans were surveyed in order piles of broken glass are left on the :r:'" to find and carry away or destroy anything steps. ..>: which might have been used as ammunition Some difference, too, in the people, M by the people. Some city folks were though one only knows this if he is aware :;g'" I treated for the first time to the sight that some are still in jail, held by the I pigs for ransoms -- which few could OJ of pigs. rootiIlg in garbage as any empty OJ M bottles which might have been thrown raise, even if they hadn't been set es III away were sought out and broken. pecially high for the occasion. (City at ~ Also missing, is the primary target torneys arguing: "Once they get out on ~ of the rebellion; an outhouse used by bail, that's the last We'll ever see of .... the workers from the street job. After them.") Few beyond personal friends, ui it was tipped over the first night ("Boy, knowing or caring, as people are again the shit really hit the street tonight.") too busy hustling or trying to :woid it became the object of a tug-of-war being the victim of any of a i.nousand between the people and the cops. First kinds of hustles. the people; jubilantly dragging it into most beautiful city parks in the country, of them anxious to visit the Mecca from the intersection and trying with minor What Is The Haig~_~'~ and near the center of a city made which their new self was revealed to' success to get it on fire. Then the cops: famous by such fo~-heroes as Ker:qua~_ them. rushing up, busting a few heads, dragging The Haight-Ashbury District is sand and Allen Ginsberg. it off the street, standing around wonder wiched between a Black ghetto and Here was a place where people fed uP' Image Not Reality ing what else to do for a while, then stretches of white middle-class nothing with American society could experiment leaving. Then the people ... ness. It exists as a transitional area; with new life styles with a minimum of Along with. them came an increase a buffer between the two as it is trans harassment, in an area where others in dope trade; dealers of every sort, Paranoid Pigs formed from one to the other. The part were doing the same. Then the mass some anxious only to turn other people icular stage of transition in which the media somehow discovered something on to some good weed, others out to Some difference, perhaps, in the cops neighborhood found itself a few years ago happening. Not knowing what it was, they sell whatever garbage people would pay themselves as they walk two, three, half no doubt had much to do with its be .created a sterotype, the Hippy; some for, in the best capitalist tradition. And a dozen at a time, looking even more coming a center of the country's emergent thing tangible to generalize about. They cops allover -- making sweeps, hiding paranoid than before. Cops taking it all youth-cultural "revolution". Here was an made the Haight famous and defined the under long hair, making raids, dealing, out on bottles, smashing them into slivers area with relatively tolerant people, new self-image of hundreds of thousands busting heads, where's-your-ID-into-the-.. with their clubs -- skulls not being moderate rents,' adjacent to one of the of alienated kids across the country; many CANNON'S TALE .. ~r How They Beat My Ass BY Terry Cannon in solitary for two weeks. I had been arrested for protesting the Some were Haight reSidents, some had On July 18 of this year I agreed with a cop for the first time in my life. His name arrest of a guy standing next to me, just come into the area or into town. was Fortenberry ap.d he had just dashed into a crowd on Haight street, grabbed me who turned out to be an S.F. Statestudent, One prisoner had been in San Francisco and pushed me into his prowl car. Rick Epstein. Epstein and I were put in twenty minutes and was walking down the As he moved in next to me and closed the door he said, "You shouldn't have been the back seat between two Tactical Squad street to the home of a friend when he in the Haight, Terry." - Cops. Two more sat in the front. was arrested. Their attitude was anger "Oh, you know who I am?" I said, with a funny sinking feeling in my stomach. They were hysterical and kept shouting and defiance; they were not Flower Child He answered my question by slamming his fist in my face. As I covered my face "So you wanted to throw molotov cock ren. -I- doubt that there are anYFlower with my arms I silently agreed with him. But the worst was yet to come. tails!" and punching us, taking the long Children anymore, except perhaps the route to nearby Park Precinct station. weekenders from the suburbs. They have I was doing my best to assume the good not been able to escape America and are old non- violent foetal position with my determined to resist it. I s},}~ now onIy arms in front of my face. This frustrated , of those who I met in jail '.. Fortenberry, who stopped slugging me The Haight, like all populations, has and grabbed the back of my neck, trying its Toms and Quislings. We saw them out to press the arteries and black me out. on the street, sweeping up broken glass, We spent five minutes in silent struggle, . urging people to Cool It, putting out me ~rying: to stay conscious. I won that trash fires and blaining "outside Berkeley one: I was still awake when we got to . agitators" for the riot. Actqally.the Haight 'Park Station. is happily free of uptight "political" or- , ganizers. In the Back Room It would be easier to raise bail and get lawyers to help if the Haight riots were They pushed and dragged us through "political". The liberal and left-liberal a crowd of about 30 cops in the main lawyers and money people are .'<;luctant room; several swung atus aswe staggered to help "hippies". It will be while through. Then they got us in a small before they accept white riots as political back room and went to work. acts. For about fifteen minutes they worked us over. I couldn't see much as I was Weaving a Pig Suit crouched over- trying to protect my face Meanwhile, several of us who were and balls. At one point they knocked me beaten Thursday night at Park station to the floor and stomped on me. That's are suing the city and police department. when they must have cracked my rib. We're aware that few brutality suits I could hear Epstein screaming, "Ican't are respected by the courts, but our breathe, I can't breathe!". documentation and first-person witnesses They told Epstein to put his right hand have put the cops uptight. Chief Cahill on top of a filing cabinet and then bashed . has ordered a complete "investigation". it again and again with a blackjack. They Cahill has his own problems inside the made a mess of his face -- this was Police Department right now around a explained in the police report: "The sus patronage squabble with Mayor Alioto. pect, on leaving the police car, fell and hit Also, four of his Tactical Squad were his head on an iron pipe." Pigs never lie, suspended recently for beating up some nf course, so that must have been one young men while off-duty. When told fine iron pipe to black both eyes, bust about this case, Alioto said, "I would up his nose and give him a swollen right be very, very sad if the charges v:ere hand. true -- I never heard of any charges substantiating police brutality."' He may More Beatings be getting a lot of substantiation in the near future. After they finished we were booked. I was charged with four misdeamenors: Not to Sound Naive.... inciting to riot, interferingwith an officer, resisting arrest, and profanity. We were Not to sound naive but I was really then locked up in the cells behind the surprised by these events. I've been back room. clubbed by cops before, but that was on For two more hours we could hear the streets during .stop the Draft Week prisoners screaming in the next room. and that was "normal" police action. They were brought in one at a time Methodically beating up white kids inside and beaten for 15-20 minutes. Six or the police station after arrest is a new seven were brought in to the cells after escalation on the part of the pigs. All ward, all in pretty rough shape. Some of the more reason to judge our actions' TERRY CANNON, one of the Oakland Seven, after getting clobbered by cops them are still in jail two and a half carefully and to plan ways of taking care during last October's stop The Draft Week. weeks later as I write this. One has been of'our own.• PAGE 4 THE MOVEMENT SEPTEMBER 1968 INDICTED FOR MURDER CHICAGO COMMUNITY CATCHES COP About twenty people were at the hot dog stand the night Richard Nuccio, cop, shot teenagers have to face in our society. ' Ron Nelson, 19, in the back, coldly, deliberately, from about 60 feet, on June 4, in The long range results of this agi Chicago. Ron was running down an alley, running because he had been harassed by tation have yet to be seen. Nuccio has Nuccio before and was afraid of what could happen that night. The owner of the stand been indicted for murder by a grand had called the police because he hates the kids and wanted to get them off his place. jury called by the State's Attorney. Yet, No fight, no looting, no disturbance, nothing had provoked the shooting. he is 'Jut of jail on his personal recog nizance, and is'busting kids in the neigh After Nelson fell the cop walked to and leafletting, drew two hundred angry n him, stood him up, dragged him, kicked people, including parents and represent- borhood on "civilian arrests . He con him. He was heard to laugh and say -1 atives from Anglo and Latin gangs, to tinues to work for the police depart shot the punk in the assn. Fifteen min- the board meeting. The board members ment, only now downtown. utes after the shooting, Ron was thrown present, including the Commander of the While the Lvee is rethinking its po in a paddy wagon, and taken to the Town Hall police district. Captain Fahey, sition, and wondering how it got into all hospital, dead from loss of blood. The did all they could to duck the discus~ this in the first place, community pres 'cops later said Ron threw a knife as sion, or confine it to members of'the sure for a real civilian review board he ran (from 60 feet, on the dead run,· board. However, shouting from the floor is growing. Local control of the police without turning around.) The twenty forced them to find out what the com- can clearly be a very p.Jwerful issue people present say he t~rew nothing. munity wanted. The people spoke out, in a community like this. And the' youth denouncing the police treatment of youth have decided to get together asra more in the community, and demanding that organized body, to protect themselves Witnesses the board act to pass the youth's pro and exert their considerable power. The twenty people were Ron's friends, posals. These were (1) that Nuccio be A real defense committe2 against po an informal group of young people. Some removed from active duty pending in lice harassment is a possibility. Work are in high school, or drop outs, some vestigations (he was still patrolling, flash is being done on a coffee house kind in the service, a couple hippies, some ing the same gun that killed Nelson), of place where they could go to escape in college; all are white. Friends with and (2) that the LVCC sponsor an open the ever present police. some cops, enemies of others, none ex hearing to give full pUblicity to the facts Specific directions for this work are pected a murder, even though Ron and of the case, before the coroner's in not yet clear, Hwugh many people see the other guys had been threatened before quest. Only in this way would there be the need to tie the demands for com by the cops. u1 have seen him (Nuccio) a chance of that being anything more munity control of the police closely to put a loaded gun to Ron's head to scare than a police contolled whitewash of the those of the youth, namely that they be him, and take a knife and cut down whole thing. The LVCC, scared at seeing given power in the community which Ron's arm, both tim'as in the police "the peoplen for the first time, accepted most directly affects their lives. _ stationn. For the past couple of years, the demands. the cops have beaten them, pushed them around, and taken them in on some real, Cops Harrass some trumped up charges. Meanwhile, the police were doing their But these kids have guts. They're re own organizing by continually harassing sponsible for the first indictment of a the - ringleadersn. They stopped them Chicago cop for murder in the last fif· for no reason, arrested them on fabricated POVVER teen years. charges, threatened their lives, and warn They did it by building the shooting ed them to "layoff the Nelson thingn. - POSTERS into an event which stirred and con Some cases are outstanding. One guy ~,",,",>'~" cerned the whole community (because ~fJJ.,1.- was picked up on a warrant a year Old, ,"" of a long history of very bad police under which someone else had already action in this neighborhood), and by using been charged. Another was stopped at this grass roots pressure to force es a red light. When it turned green, he tablished community organizations to take was pUlled over, and arrested for going a stand. It was the kids' ccllective action through a red light. He spent the week which moved the others to act. end in jan, without being allowed a phone COP The night after the shooting, a group call. This same youth was pulled over, picketed the drive-in where ithadoccurr for no reason, on his way to 'the LVCC ed. Their signs included one saying"Kill, board meeting. On seeing the leaflets Hearing Nuccio, Killn. Several were arrested and about the meeting in his car, the cop The promised Open Hearing was held beaten. Still, nobody seemed much in said, "In my book, that's illegal. You terested in their protest, or in hearing two days before the inquest in spite of better not say. anything tonight about great pressure and attempts from various their side of the story. the Nelson thing. If 1 find you alone This made them realize the need for sources to have it delayed. A room one night, your' e going to be dead in holding five hundred was overflowing. broader political action. Theymet, col an alley too.n The youth was charged lected signed testimony in the presence It was a mixed crowd, including work with driving without a license. The cop ers, professionals, Southern whites, Puer Big 161 x20" Posters, striking of a lawyer, and called a press con who arrested him was Nuccio's cousin. ference with both local and city-wide to Ricans, and Blacks. The statement lithographed on heavy paper. The night after the board meeting, the from a representative of the youth got Quant. •••••••• papers. With this publicity as a base, cops descended on the group's new hang they approached community groups. First, a standing ovation. Commander Fahey __Malcolm X@ $1.25 out, surrounded the guys, and started of the 19th Police district was jeered they met with a group of liberals rep beating them. Later charged with dis __ Stokley Carmichael @ $1.25 resenting various churches, and the Human and shouted down when he said, - Right __ H. Rap Brown @ $1.25 orderly, battery, and resisting arrest, or wrong, you obey the policen. __Muhammad Ali @ $1.25 Relations Com mHtee of the Lake View they tolO of more threats in the jail. __LeRoi Jones @ $1.25 Citizens Council (LVCC), the local com People cheered for those calling for One of the cops involved was again Nuccio's arrest, and for disarming the __Set of 5 (One of ea.) $5.00 munity council. This committee agreed Nuccio's cousin, and those inside the to disseminate their testimony, and to police. At the end of the meeting, a __Enclosed for__Posters station included his two brothers-in- law. resolution w~s presented calling for a raise the issue at the next board of Intimidation served only to increase Name _ directors meeting of the LVCC. civilian review board having the power the groups determination. Adefense group to suspend and fire policemen. Youth Address _ was established, with lawyers willing to were to have one third representation, City/State _ Demanding Action accept cases on an ability-to-pay scale. on the board. This so worried the spon They began contacting the press imme Zip -'-- _ With only five days to prepare, the sors of the hearing that they panicked, diately after being arrested. Support for turned o~ the mikes, and told everyone ••••••••• youth formulated their demands, put out them mounted. a leaflet, and through word of mouth to go home. Dealer Inquiries Invited They left behind a confused and angry crowd. People had come to get something POWER POSTERS done, not to just blow off steam. Many 6 N. 13th St.• Phila.-. Pi!. 19107 left with a far more clear idea of what
COPS AND COPTERS .... At Home .... And Abroad New York -- Three off-duty pigs Saigon -- Nineteen American and nine shot it out on a city expressway on the teen Thai soldiers were killed in five night of July 9th. The shoot-out began helicopter crashes around Saigon, as as an argument over a stalled car. "allied forcesn intensified their drive One was killed, one seriously wounded. to thwart another attack on the capital. A car driven by patrolman John Dalton~ According to the U-:-S. command, four 41, stalled on the heavily crowded Bronx of the Crashes were accidental. expressway. Rookie pig Nicolo Danisi, The worst crash took place as U.S. 21, who is training at the po} ice academy, copters were ferrying Thai troops. was caught in the traffic jam. He of Flying in poor weather, two copters course got out to investigate. collided in the air. The resulting ex During an argument with Dalton, Danisi plosion knocked down a third one apparently reached into his pocket for flying close by. his identification badge. But Dalton, All twelve American crewmen and uptight and fearing an attack, pulled out their nineteen Thai passengers were his service revolver and shot Danisi killed and the three copters were de in the head. stroyed. Detective Frederick Gibson, 28, of The "intensified combat sweep" was the Police Special Services then arrived suspended as more copters and recovery on the scene. He ordered Dalton to teams were rushed into the ~rea. drop his gun. When Dalton refused he The top- heavy Goliath had tripped shot him in the stomach. over its own toes again. And then David U None of the officers knew each other picked off a few more whirly birds. was a police offiCer", said the acting chief of detectives. Danisi was killed. \. Will there be a trial for murder? COMMUNITY Guess. ~~ SEPTEMBER 1968 THE MOVEMENT PAGE 5
• GETTING OFF THE INTERSTATE • or, Back Home in Heartbreak, USA By' Mike James, National Community Union that it has, fro!Jl a radical potiit of '"Skippa-Rope". Most aren't novelty songs, Country and Western music (C&W) is American; it reflects America, both the good view, many negative aspects. But these but typical of much of the music. Open and the bad. "Pure" or modified by pop stars on radio, T. V. or in the movies, the juke problems are true in different degrees ings on race, the war, the job, male boxes' of bars and truckstops, C&W is everywhere. R's be~n around a long time and of all forms of "people's music" in chauvinism, economic exploitation, and been listened to by millions, yet most American radicals--who"seek to change Ameri ,America. A review of Black, Mexican cultural and political alienation are there. ca"--have listened only cynically, BECAUSE THEY ARE CYNICAL ABOUT THE PEOPLE. or Puerto Rican music (and Italian, Americans of basically rural country They haven't dealt with what the music means to millions of Americans, nor with what Irish, ...) would also reveal alot of . and western background, like most Ameri the music says to radicals. For example, in a recent issue of THE GUARDIAN (May 18, "bad shit". For example, take "soul cans, ARE WAITING ON THE MOVEMENT 1968) cultural buff columnist Pandora spewed forth a bitter and absurd criticism of king" James Brown's "I Am An Ameri There's bad stuff in C&W: let's start C&W. Pandora stated that C&W barely qualified as music, and described it as "a sacch can, America is my Home". Like where, to think about why. Basically, Nashville arine concoction of neurotic self-pity, hand-on-the-heart patriotism, Simon-pure re else can you shine ';lhoe.s in front of the (and New York) kept the music static ligious fundamentalism and know-nothing machismo .. .Big city sophisticates tend radio station and then own it--and have for a time. reflecting and reinforcing to dig it as some kind of high camp, but poor dumb slobs who find their way into White nice clothes too-and if you don't like it what was happening to mlllions of whites Citizens Councils in the South in some desparate search for identity take it straight." here why don't you go someplace else, as a result of the workings of the po Very simply, it's important for move- Ohhh, Ohhh, Ohhh. .. The song was litical economy. Because people weren't ment people to understand that C&W tells organized, didn't have power and control us much about the impact of social, ..•.... ,..,. · ....'v,. over what happened to them, their abili political and economic forces as they ty to shape their own cultural express have arisen out of and shaped the lives ion was limited. (This was at a time of most white ,working people in this when Black people were undergoing a country. No revolution will happen in far more intensive urbanization process, America unless these people are a part and it shows in their music--C&W today of it. No revolution will happen if radicals makes much more reference to rural or reject these people, if they accept the "back home" life, even when describing words of spokesmen of the cultural wing life situations in an urban setting, than of the bourgeois left such as Pandora. does Black music.) Another considera Too many are living on the edges of tion is that the media (radio, t.v., movies this country, justifying their isolation and records) weren't exposing people to by saying America is all crap. Too many a barrage of,cross-cultural(class, ethnic, of us don't understand much about what racial) musicalinfluences, sopeople didn't is America, defining too much of Ameri get told about what was happening to lots ca as the enemy. of people in the country. And let's not Too many on the left, sunk in the forget that segregation was a fact. There bead-culture ghettos of mass media and is also a possibility that certain elites so-called"cultural centers" on the coasts, hindered changes in the music. What did even scattered on campuses and a few it mean to the music, and its influence cities in between, have never gotten off on the people, that C&W big-shot Roy the interstate. They don't understand the Acuff (of Rose-Acuff publishers in Nash people of America, for they have re vllle) was a Governor of Tennessee, and fused to break with the mechanisms that that another C& Wbig-name, Jimmy·Davis, keep them fron looking and feeling. That was Governor of Louisiana? Somebody means that many of us with an important should dig deep into the manipulation task fail to understand the RADICAL of almost all musical forms in this POTENTIAL OF YOUNG WORKING Earr~9!:lS, playingtfie banjo, and his -brother, Horace country by "Tin Pan Alley" and its in PEOPLE who can and must be integral Scruggs, with the guitar. This photo was taken in the commu trinsic relationship to Wall street. to that task. nity where they lived-Flint Hill near Shelby, North Carolina. Maybe it's not fast enough, but things Earl started playing the banjo when he was five years old. are changing. Musicians are often hipper The Potential on social and political questions than are C&W tells us of what capitalism has those they sing for, and musicians in done to mUlions of working whites, much. Too many people wUl be left out; released just before Brown's benefit iIf different fields are picking up on each WHETHER OR NOT THEY LISTEN TO there won't be the necessary power, and ,Chicago, but after his public endorsement other. C&W has its "love" songs--some THE MUSIC. The major segment of that our hopes and efforts wUl be wracked of Hubert Humphrey, whom he ran cover. original, some new versions of recordings body possesses a background that might and plagued by the ploy of the rUling . for in Watts after HHH was booed out on in the rock and folk fields. Juke boxes be called "basically rural, country and class-.class obfuscation and racial divi his first attempt to "get-in" and speak. are fllled with C&W renditions of songs western American culture". It's probably sion. Failing to have moved among and But the negative is only half the point: by Black Rhythm and Blues musicians the largest sub-culture in the nation. with the people, but pretending we could we're about changing America, and chang (Jim and Jessee have an entire album, like Black people, they have agrarian change them only issuing' cultural and ing it means understanding it and using it. "Berry Pickin", of Chuck Berry songs.) roots, and are NOW COMING TO BE political pronouncements and slurs in C&W shows us good and bad in a big part Don Rich, lead guitar for C&W big-star CONCENTRATED IN AND AROUND UR small circulation newspapers and journ of America. Listen to it, couple if.with Buck Owens, states that his favorite BAN CENTERS. They're not an ethnic als from hip-political student" commu experience, and you'll learn a lotofthings album is the Beatles' "Rubber Soul" group as are Blacks, Puerto Ricans, nities", or by passing resolutions at you never learned (and they never taught) Otis Redding's band had two white mu Mexicans or Indians, but they are' a conferences, we'll have no one to blame in school. sicians, out of the C&W bag; the C&W distinguishable sub-culture, having simi but ourselves. There is paradox in C&W, the paradox influence is ,obvious in his music and the lar child-rearing and life-style patterns, Realize that there's a potential for of most of white America. C&W has its entire "Memphis Sound". The "Grand interests and occupationally based class a new and radical America. Realize that version of America's Horatio Alger myth, Old Oprey" has in recent years pro delineations. Their lives have a simi Malcolm X DIDN'T write a book that but beyond that individual!im there is duced .Black artists like Bobby Hebb larity forged by the structural forces Blacks read who then rebelled, but rather a strong and real class consciousness. (" Sunny") and Country Charlie Pride. of capitalism. People whose lives are he ARTICULATED A THRUST, something Most C&W albums have some songs There's something happening. rooted in the historical experiences of that was com.ing to be among his people characterized by SUBJECTIVE INDIVIDU this background aren't just "Southerners" after years of oppression and exploit ALISM, and others characterized by ob or "Appalachian whites". Instead, they're tation. The roots of the Black move jectiv!'! reality--get that, OBJECTIVE present among the population in large ment go deep; remember Nat Turner, REALITY. Most popular music in this numbers everywhere in America. DuBois, Marcus Garvey and Malcolm. country has a lot of SUbjective individu They're much of the blue-collar work Look now. at the Black Panthers. alism ; what',s important about the ob force in most cities. They're among the Malt::olm's works, his life, were rooted jective reality of C&W is that it makes rank and file, wildcatting labor insurgents, in that history of exploitation and resist clear a lot of what America is--hard overlooked by too many radicals who ance; he worked out some contradictions, and ruthless, messing over some (classes call workers (monolithically) "reaction as many others were doing; he helped of) people a whole lot more than others. ary", who fail to distinguish between give his people's struggle shape at the The music tells us that. Just as there different segments of the working class, time it was becoming manifest. is paradox and contradiction in the lives as well as between workers and labor Understand that there ispotential among of the people who write, sing and listen bureacrats. We're talking of students young white working people. It hasn't to C&W, there is paradox and contra in community, junior and state colleges, taken a visible form yet; it's develop diction in the songs. We're not talking contributing heavily to what" some call ing as people become organized and ur about political people, but rather people the "new working class" (teachers, tech banization fails to make asphalt grass who've been worked overpolitically. Many nicians, low-level white collar employ any greener., For whites, hostility and reject politics; they know it's dirty busi ees, etc.) Some, whose parents work in rebellion haven't taken collective form. ness because they've lived in America factories, become teachers; others, whose While Black kids loot stores that have and they've been done to. stonewall Jack parents are white collar workers, be raped them, white kids in groups of son sings songs about little poeple, but come factory and construction workers. two and three jack-rOll victims in alleys, also about Minute Men r01l1ng over in Many become soldiers for a time. And or strip cars, and continue to fight each their graves in response to draft card some are already in the movement, among other instead of their class enemy. But burning. The same is true of the truck CuJturalOpen Doors the ranks of student activists in most militant labor actions of young white driving songs of Dave Dudley. Paradox, The times are changing, and the media parts of the country. workers, and the committment of num contradiction, inconsistency-- America. of today does open up some possibilities. Where radicals have been present and bers of "hillbUly" kids who've marched Don't hide, deal with it! People hear different things, different organized, they are the people in neigh on cops and politically resisted the draft styles and messages, different experi borhoods and factories helping build con in places where radical organizers have Listen To The Music ences. Don't write off cross-culturalferti sciousness, planting the seeds of radical worked, are not isolated instances or The conditions, grievances and de lization, Dylan, in a CUltural way, has organization. lf radicals will move among freaks. Young working class radical kids mands--te1l1ng of the potential for radical done an awful lot to open the door for them, WHICH SOMETIMESMEANSGOING are tied to their people; they're of their ore:anization--are conveyed in the music. radicals who might work with young work BACK HOME, they wUl be people articu people, acting in advance of their people. Listen to Merle Haggard's jail songs ing class kids. They hear him and they lating past, present and possible: future' They wouln't have moved if they weren't. ("Branded Man"--"I payed the debt I pick up and dig a lot of messages; pop for their people as the U.S. attempts their', actions and committment ARTICU owed, but they won't let my story go rock groups and C& W artists do his songs to control the World falter and domestic LATE A POTENTIAL THRUST, That untold .. ."); Waylon Jennings' "Living as well as Tom Paxton's, and the message conditions continue to change. "Hill thrust can be a strong part of a radical in the Love of the Common People"; gets out. MORE THAN BEFORE. billies", "Arkies", "Oakies", "hicks", force in American. It will only happen Johnny Cash's"All Gods Children Aren't And some white miadle-class musical "shit kickers", "ridge runners", "red if the movement takess,teps HE LP MAKE Free" and "Roll Call"; Roger Mlller's kids, picking up on C&W, might help necks", and "white trash" are a people- IT HAPPEN, "King of the Road"; Dave Rich's "Peace generate an INTEREST IN THE PEOPLE a whole bunch of 'em. More radicals Starts Today"; Dollie Parton's" my mis BEYOND THE MUSIC in the same way (not all radicals) must organize in neigh About C&W, takes are no worse· then youts 'Just that Bloomfield, Butterfield, Bishop, Gold borhoods and factories, either on the Because I'm A Woman"; George Jones' burg, Miller, Gravenitis and Hammond street or line, or using some University the Media and Today « Small Time Laboring Man!"; Bobby (and others) did for the early civil rights acquired skUl such as "teacher". With It doesn't take much cultural or po Bare's "Detroit City"; Jerry Lee Lewis' nlovement picking up on Black country, out a sense of movement among the litical savy to realize that music is "What Made Milwaukee Famous has made working class, the movement won't move manipulated by the Establishment. or a fool out of me"; and Hanson Cargill's CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
'> ..; ••..:.-:-,. PAGE 6 THE MOVEMENT SEPTEMBER 1968 WILDCATS IN CHICAGO by Noel Ignatin at one of the barns to prevent scabs The strike was directly inspired by from taking the busses out. In, spite of the wild-cat of the CTA bus drivers. Chica~o, July 7 -- An "unauthorized" strike of transit workers, which began here this, strikers were able to board some The REA strike was initiated by a Tuesday morning, July I and which crippled the city's public transportation, appears group of black workers, and quickly won to have ended, at least for the time being. busses and persuade drivers to return to the barn and join the strike. support from the rest of the workers. After a seven and one-half hour meeting of thestrikerswith representatives of the Negroes make up approximately 10% of Chicago Transit Authority and Mayor Daley, it was announced that the strikers would Community Support the work force. As in the CTA strike, resume work immediately. The terms of the settlement were not clear, but strike this one was directed at both the company leader Waymon Benson said that the men got Iteverything we asked for". Officials Various churches and organizations in and the'union officialdom, in this case of Local 241, Amalgamated Transit Workers, which covers the bus drivers, were not the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks. The present at the meeting, but the Chicago Federation of Labor was represented. Union the black community moved immediately president James J. H1ll had vowed not to talk with the strikers until they had returned 'to support the strike. Big rallies were strikers put forward a ,list of twenty to work. Negotiations between the strikers and H1ll are to begin on Monday. held, and Rev. Jesse Jackson of SCLC, two demands, relating to wages, arbitrary the head of Operation Bre.adbastet. threat firings and disciplinary procedures, work The walkout began after a union meeting for almost a year, was brought to a ened a citY-'wide bus boycott if the 'strike last Monday night at which H1ll declared head around the issue of pensioners' ing conditions, union democracy and sup- were not settled. The offices of Operation 'ervisory positions for black workers. defeated, by voice vote, a motion to voting rights. A majority of the 8,340 Breadbasket became the strike head eliminate the right of pensioned employ- active, working drivers are black. Yet' The general feeling of most olthe strikers quarters, and the situtation was rapidly was a desire to get out of the BRC and ees to vote for union officials. When the votes of 3,600 pensioners, nearly acqUiring the attributes of another Mem leaders of the rebel caucus, called the all white, have kept the black workers into another unionj Teamsters was most phis, with the civil rights movement often mentioned. Concerned Transit Workers, demanded out of union leadership and maintained mobilized behind a labor dispute. a. standing vote or a secret ballot, Hill in office the do-nothing, conservative Almost immediately the company se However there was another side to cured an injuntion to stop the strikers adjourned the meeting. administration of Hill and his cronies, this. When Benson, obviously under the' On Tuesday morning 900 workers re- a continuation of the McNamara clique from picketing the depots. At this poiht, influence of the SCLC, called upon the a number of radical students working fused to take their buses out, and the that ruled the local for decades. None striking drivers at a rally not to go number of strikers grew each day. Some of the local officers are black, and there in industry for the summer went to, to the stations to stop the busses, but the strikers and offered to picket in elevated motormen, represented by a are only four black workers on the twenty- to "stay at home with your families", different local, joined the strike in soli- six member executive board. Referring their place. The offer was gratefully rumblings of displeasure could be heard, accepted, and saturday, July 20, students darity. to the pensioner's voting power, Benson especially from younger black militants. It is difficult to gauge the effectiveness declared, "This is at the heart of the were on the line. This led to some good It is quite likely that if the strike were contacts with a number of strikers. of the strike because of the holiday week- problem. As long as this continues, the prolonged and the CTA continued its end, when service is normally slow, black, lIlan won't have a chance to gain_ attempt to operate the busses with scabs, but estimates ranged from 25% to 50% any positions of leadership in the union the drivers would not have heeded SCLC Lesson Seems Clear shut down, with the CTA admitting a for years to come." Hill has answered instructions. A situationcould veryquickly However, difficulties developed. For -fare loss of $1,000,000 and loop busi- the demand that only active workers develop of soldiers riding the busses, nesses suffering heavily. About 50 bus be allowed to vote for union officials one thing, because of the Landrum-Griffin a boycott in the black community, and law and other legislation designed to lines were shut down entirely and 40 with an argument that the pensioner's right other actions tending to disturb the others reduced to partial operation. to vote is protected by the Landrum "protect the democratic rights of union "peace" which Mayor Daley treasures members" the workers found it nearly Griffin Act. Growin9 Pattern so highly th!s summer. impossible to get out of the BRC in Under' these circumstances, with the just one or two work units, where the strike The issues behind the strike are a Strikers' Demands Democratic Convention only six weeks The strikers put forward four key was centered. Secondly, the ..,resident reflection of a grOWing pattern of labor away, already being threaten.ed by an of the union, Dennis, promised to con demands, to the company and the union T disputes in which the fight of the whole IBEW strike, with a Shriners 'conven sider the strikers' grievances and made rank-and-file for union m1l1tancy is link officials: tion in towp~ (8,000 hotel reservations a number of promises in response to ed with the fight for black workers to (1) An end to the system of split shifts, ,,",,-, for the Shniners' convention were cancel whereby a driver may have to be out their twenty-two demands. be fairly represented in union leader ed), the Mayor was moved by the urgent At a meeting on Monday, July 22, the ship. In this case, the fight was spear as long as 13 hours to get 8 hours pay. need to settle this dispute, the impli (2) The elimination of all unsafe and strike leaders, basically an informal headed c'.r the black drivers, who make cations of which could not be foreseen. ad hoc group, recommended that the men up the overwhelming majority of the unhealthy facilities on the buses, such For the time being he seems to have go back to work. This proposal was Concerned Transit· Workers, and the to as bald tires, broken heaters, etc. succeeded, although there is no doubt accepted unenthusiastically and, for the tality of its leadership. But the Concerned (3) No reprisals against striking drivers, that if the real issues are not involved, and full pay for days lost in the strike. time being, the strike has ended. leaders made it clear that they are the struggle will break out again. For labor militants, the lesson seems fighting for all the transit workers, and (4) The elimination of pensioners' voting for union officials. clear that the greatest re-vitalizing force a number of white drivers, particularly Railway Express Walks Out in the labor movement today is coming 'the younger men, joined in the strike. !,'rom the be~mning of the strike the from the black liberation struggle, and As Benson said, "This is one time that press portrayetl it as a blow at the Soon after, in the third week of July, that any fight for union m1l1tancy must black men are leading white men. They "public interest" and a "black power" 'drivers for the, Railway Express Agency involve a fight 'for union democracy know that what benefits us benefits them, plot. Cops were assigned to ride the walked off the job in a Wild-cat strike. against white supremacy, which has be The union isn't representing them any busses and "protect" scabs from the According to the TRIBUNE of July 20, come the chief buttress of both the com better than it is representing us." strikers. On Thursday a number of ar 2000 strikers stopped 'ALL express de- panies and the reactionary union bosses. The conflict, which had been brewing rests were made when strikers sat down liveries in the city. ' • DEATH OF • •
by Michael Hill /'" .,f/" A solid line of white-helmeted police lined the streets and sidewalks surrounding Tmrt night the police, with the help The fix was in, says another, SCLC Resurrection City. Canvas bags of tear gas grenades hung at their sides, next to their of the National Guard, occupied 14th didn't know what to do next so they get guns and the long riot clUbs. Some wore face shields. None smiled. There were over Street and 1600 federal riot troops were uS in jail and let the cops close Resurrect a thousand of them, there to evict less than a hundred poor people from their shanties moved into the city for potential use. ion City for them. Pm going home and alongside the reflecting pool in the capital of the United states. ' The police moved in quickly to enforce organize. And anything goes from here Perhaps a dozen people, mostly black, gathered on the grass facing the police lines, a hastily-declared curfew, lobbing tear on in, the Washington Monument rising through a light, early morning haze behind them. gas ahead of them as they moved up the The defections began when the permit Goddam! A black youth with a stocking crowded street. A white SCLC worker expired. A local trade union official, cap protecting his conked hair spat on the and a black folk- singer moved in front touring the campsite several weeks before grass. ready. The closing of Resurrection City of the police, trying to move the ever its demise, asked: But if you stay when Cool it, man. A straw-hatted Resurrect had begun. angrier crowd away from a disastrous the permit expires, won't that be breaking ion City Ranger gently urged him back. An Sheeit! spat a. black youth, standing confrontation. The singer turned and the law? elderly black man with a belly distended near a news car listening to the radio caught an exploding tear gas grenade full White liberal support -- food, lodgings from war wounds stepped closer, to the reports of the arrests at the Capitol. ~A in the face. The Poor People'S Campaign and money -- began falling off as the police lines. My wife and kids is in there, white mother and daughter, medical bands headquarters at 14th and U streets, N.W., voices in Congress who had clamored for godammit, and everything I own. You on their wrists, wondered aloud ifanother was repeatedly filled with gas. the expulsion of the poor from the capital hit them, there'll be two celebrations daughter was among those arrested. The That afternoon Rev. Andy Young an cheered the fUlf1llment of their demands. tomorrow--my going to the penitentiary black youth danced his way under a tree. nounced phase two of the campaign - A young white campaigner told a labor and your funeral! All these cops here, he said, you could mass arrests followed by a consumer support committee: You are the leaders A motorcycle cop started his engine and rob a bank. I'm going shopping, he de boycott in an effort to pressure the now. It's up to you, in your unions, in moved his machine across the grass, forc clared. A half-dozen others joined him. financial establishment into pressuring your communities, to leadthe fight against ing the onlookers back. This thing weighs Hey! cried out a young woman who had their congressmen. The plans were vague hunger and poverty. Because if you don't 1100 pounds, he shouted, you wanna fuck salvaged only the clothes on her back and some of the campaigners felt that if the unions and the churches and all with it go right ahead. He turned, wheels and her cigarette lighter, get some the leaderless leadership was just groping don't do it, there's a tot of desperate digging into the turf, and stopped. He picked feminine-type stuff, will you? Size 14. for a program. Many now feel that there people going to destroy this country. A up a tear gas grenade as the crowd came An elderly woman stared at the police, can be no program that works, and are local labor leader responded: But what closer, shouting their anger. The police shaking her head. Ain't it a shame? increasingly critical of SCLC ideas. Pm can WE do? man tossed the round metal ball from hand They won't let us alone. Ain't it a damn w1lling to get arrested, one campaigner People are fed up, said an aide to a to hand and smilp.d. The crowd moved away. shame? said. I've been busted 28 times, but liberal Congressman. They aren't going In the distance, behind the double line A quiet young Negro said to no one while doing something that counts. But to stand fol' demonstrations and riots of police, the brown-vested eviction force and to everyone through tight lips: This just to march up and say arrest me, that any more. The whole campaign was a moved into the campsite, riot guns held is the end. This is the end of non- violence. ain't my style. SEPTEMBER 1968 THE MOVEMENT PAGE 7 ANARCHO-CYNICISTS . CHICAGO CHICANOS BY Alba Sanchez of OLAS that happens we will grow in political consciousness too." In the summer of 1966 the large Puerto ON THE THIN FINE LINE They have held lectures and dis Rican ghetto on Division street went up The battle of Berkely has sparked some new forms of political activity. At the same in rebellion, the first in the country. cussions and shown a number of films, time a systematic repression has begun. Chicago's Latin American population is all drawing in new members. "We are The Berkeley cops have lost their reput a tion as II better COpSH, and have begun growing. Latin American students, grow encouraged by the great interest our an all out effort to clean up the Telegraph Avenue area south of campus. ing in numbers in certain Junior colleges, brothers and sisters have shown". Wayne Greene, a black Resistance organizer, has bee!! framed in the fire-bombing have begun to develop an organization, Politically, OLAS is establishing con of the cop which took place on thefirst night of revolt in Berkeley. He faces charges The Organization of Latin American stu tacts with such other student groups of attempted murder. It is weH-known that he- did not do it. dents, that will fight for the political as SDS, Vanguardia (another Latin Ameri On July 24 Tim Conely, white and 21, was murdered by the cops on Telegraph Avenue, and cultural interests of Latin American Cllll student group at Chicago's Circle trying to escape from arrest after a set.,.up heroin deal. students. OLAS was founded in April Campus of the University of illinois), There have been ,many busts for a of this year by five stUdents, Mexicans The Black Tambwa, and the Loop's Afro variety of lesser charges: blowing a' eleyH many others view ·the idea of a and Puerto Ricans, at Chicago's Loop American Club. This summer a number whistle on the street to warn others Berkeley secession as utopian and im- Junior College. of OLAS members have beenworking with of the pigs' presence; illegally putting possible in the context of the United The founders, Omar Lopez, Frank Qui LADO (The Latin American· Defense up posters; sleeping in a house that had states. These latter speak of "dual au- nones, Carlos Heredia, Rey Lugo, and Organization), a community organization been condemned by the University (land- thorityH -- the existence of reactionary Lupe Villarreal, have made it clear that that had its birth in the Division street lord). Several ma,ss busts have been made, government along with a legitimized move- one of the specific aims of the organi rebellions. complete with beatings and assault ment aimed at eventual control. They re- zation is to get Latin American students OLAS' s plans for the fall include ex charges.. One leaflet spoke of 'agirl who late a community struggle to a vision to understand the importance of returning panding to other colleges and organizing had been beaten in an arrest growing of struggles for community control all to the communities. Lopez stated that in the High' SChools. Arrangements for out of a plainclothes cop being spotted-- over the United states. .. one of OLAS' main concerns is the a federation of Latin American students "Gail Carter (she is an epileptic) had It is too soon to evaluate the forces rotten urban problems facing the over is presently pending organizational for a fit and pigs didn't know what to do grwoing out of the Berkeley Commune. whelming majority of Latin Americans mation at Chicago's Crane, Wilson and so one of them started kicking her to It is difficult to say whether the various in this city. OUr problems are many; Wright City Colleges and the University bring her outof it." groups will develop or dissipate. What is they include discrimination, both eco of illinois Circle Campus. A few weeks ago the Berkeley Barb clear is that they have grown out of an nomic and social; overly-competitive Lopez said that "the biggest job that headlined a group called the Berkely alienation from elitist political groups, American culture; the language barriers; faces us is to be able to create a social Commune. But when one turned to the and speak of a humanization of politics. and the attempts by Anglos to rob the and political consciousness in the Latin story there was little indication of what Many people on the street have been Spanish speaking people of their heri American students and to be effective the Berkeley Commune was all about reached. tage. Quinones made clearer Lopez' po with our actions in the Latin American. The commune seems to be many thing~ says the BARRICADE, "defense is a sition on the community: "We shouldn't community as a whole. Venceremos." to many people. There are visible signs broad topic, and everybodY's business. forget that we live in Chicago just be LATINOS AMERICANOS of this activity : tables on Telegraph, Those most able are gathering infor- casue we are students. Or the USA,and Hablen con estudiantes Latinos enChicago crash pads free food bail funds for mation on possibilities involving every that we belcng with our people in the este Agosto Llame a LADO 384-3323 people bust~ on the Avenue. There is thing from legal defense, counter-intelli- communities wher.:! they work and suffer, a wall-poster newspaper entitled BARRI- gence, streettactics, to survival materials where many of us will be unless we CADE, and leaflets called Barricade Bul- and self-sufficiency on the streets." forget who we are." MARBLE AND HAMMER lets. There are a number of affinity Defense is a broad topic. For while OLAS's position on culture is stated groups (similar in conception to tM New the somewhat amorphous nature of recent in their first newsletter: "Assuming our York Up Against the Wall/Motherfuckers) activity in Berkeley makes it difficuU. men fall before the bullets responsibilities as a minority group whose cltles melt before the fires some of whose names change every week. for the city to pinpoint or infiltrate, this culture is threatened by destruction, we There are coordinating committees mak- only serves to make them more uptight. education undertake a task geared to all Latin politics ing contact with other political groups In addition, the University, American students of rediscovery, pre religion A small group of people have begun t~ which owns everything in the area, is serving, and developing of our common talk to workers, in the university and at expanding and wants the area cleaned all knowledge historical heritage. KnOWledge and under must stand before a critical questioning local factories. out. standing of our culture is for us, as & all men, necessary to the understanding that standing is filled with pain. Boycott The Reaction of our own selves." Heredia adds: "We youth dead, dying, or waiting to die in Nam need to rediscover our cultures, find The reaction in the conservative sec ,jails filling up with honest men In addition to these activities a boycott ourselves and be able to relate our rifles has begun of all Telegraph Avenue mer tions of the Berkeley com munity has struggle here in the United states with been laid on thick. A coalition of about laws chants who are unsympathetic to the the struggle of those fighting for self bombs people of the street--opposed to a mall, 400 representatives of 14 merchant and affirmation and freedom around the professional organizations is taking steps all war hostile during the disorders. Near the world"• must be lett behind Commune table is a large poster with to protect the city from"anarchyknocking A relatively new organization, OLAS at the door.H Mayor Wallace Johnson & a list of the stores to be boycotted. active membership now numbers 25. The that separation is filled with pain. On the sidewalk in front of every un spoke to the group, quoting from BARRI organization's growth corresponds with friendly store is a large white X. CADE. He said he considered the cri awareness of exploitation and growth of ticism of the police all part of a raci thus begins the Revolution The Berkeley Commune is both a loose cultural and political consciousness of a nation in pain cal's plot because"these anarchists syn Puerto Ricans and Mexicans in Chicago's group of people as well as a projection dicalistsH know that "the police are the and we cannot remake ourselves of the future. While some have tal'ked ghettos as a whole. without the pain thin fine line between Western Civili To date, a considerable portion of the of working toward a II disaffiliated Berk- for we are both zation and anarchy."_ group's activity has been to encourage the re-affirmation of their CUlture; .. as the Marble & Hammer. Youngblood ICTION CITY ...... Ji....~,.;v "~.~' .':'..
fiasco. There's no more sympathy for of the people began the leveling of Resur theY've never had before (food, clothes, theorizing about the PPC and laughing them anymore, in Congress or among rection City, said: This is the end. They medicine, all which is free) and theY're about how liberal it is or those who make the constituents. wouldn't listen. _ redefining themselves as to what theit a radical break with the whole way theY've Meanwhile, during all the confusion, lives should be about. They're not gonna been programmed. One thing a goOd organ all the anger, all 'the recriminations, ·....ant to go back to Mississippi where izer learns is not to get ahead of the babies are dying of starvation in the they won't ha ve these things and even people you are working with and that' s Southwest. Men are replaced by machines if they do go back I believe that they will what most "radicals" are doing. Black, in the cotton fields of Mississippi. Shotgun begin working to secure these essential White, Mexican, Puerto Ricans, Indians, carrying deputies are driving grape ll~M~ w~@)M necessities. Their attitudes are changing the entire spectrum of, poverty is there strikers off the roads in California. Rats and that change is for the better. talking and learning and it may not be are chewing off the fingers of children It isn't important (only in the sense radical enough for some but to me it is in New York. that it will show that the government one of the most radical events P ve ever Denied recourse through the legally can't REALLY address itself to the prob been a part of. established means, the poor, in their 1m~~~l(@ lems that beset the poor) if the govern The PPC isn't going to end when the total desperation, will again explode in ment does make a gesture at solving some big march is over and all the speeches gasoline flames for another summer. of our demands because the important· are orated, it isn't going to end when we thing that is happening is going on around And another. And the fear of genocide You asked for my impressions on the have to move out of the wooden city, will be reinforced as racist cops move in the campfires, culture tent, and chow tent. it isn't going to end until the masters Poor People's Campaign so I'll tell you What I mean is that poor from all over for the annual slaughter. what I think. I think that what is going and rulers stand before the TribUnal Isn't it terrible, a white suburban house this land are sitting down together and of The People and be judged for their wife said, isn't it terrible that those on in D.C. is one of the most important talking about their lives and some of the crimes against humanity. events to happen in a long time. I don't things they've done and want to do about people have guns? And Anthony Imperiale, mean the petitioning of the government I firmly believe that what is taking boasting of his Newark North Ward changing them for the better. I am aware place in Resurrection City will someday to address themselves to the problems what a liberal reformist bunch of shit Citizen's Com mittee' 5 arsenal, appears on of the deprived of this country but what result in change of power that we are all television with his city's mayor. the whole Campaign is, but let me em working so hard for; and because I have is happening to the people (poor) who phasize again the changes that the poor Isn't it terrible, a citizen says of the are there and are learning what is going faith in people I am willing to Walk, work, latest assassination, isn't it justterrible? people are going through. sleep, fight, and even die at the pace they Where' is this country going? We need on. A lot of "radicals" are damning the PPC set. What I mean is that people out of and SCLC and are standing on the outside law and order. We can't let those people Marks, Mississippi (poorest county in •burn down our cities. looking in and I say to that "I wonder who youngblood A young man, watchingas the protectors America) are having all of the things the radicals are"-- those who stand
PAGE to THE MOVEMENT SEPTEMBER 1968
Editor's Note: The following article is by Ken Cloke, an attorney who spent last year organizing for the National Lawyer's Guild. Some of our best friends haV( told us that reading the Movement can sometime's' be a beneficial chore. Some articles have been pretty heavy. We urge our readers to read this article carefully, for we feel it raises some of the central theoretical and practical problems facing the movement today.
It has become commonplace today to speak of growing repression, and to hint fore bodingly at the future of fascism in this country. No program or strategic discussion is held without reference to the SUbject, no movement newspaper is without continual THERE MUST BE reference to it, and few movement activists are without concern over it. But it has become imperative that we have an understanding of the effects, both in consciousness and in program, of several different analyses of repression. Ramifications of these attitudes are beginning to be seen, and political consequences are starting to emerge which necessitate close scrutiny. ~ To begin with, - all existing' analyses There are three fundamental periods of SOMEWAY of the repression of the movement are differentiation in the development of mass both definitionally and functionally un political consciousness and understanding sound. They fail not only to make dis of the state: liberal radical and revolut tinctions between repression in the black ionary. The first stage in this develop and white communities, which results in ment of consciousness is adoption, as a part from a failure to understand the child adopts the social attitudes of those OUT OF HERE: dynamic of coalition and the purposes of around him. The second period, the point dis-unity (struggle), but they also fail of real differentiation, Is one of opposit to recognize a fundamental truth: that ion (negation), of a radical antagonism concern with and organization around against liberalism, but which, is, in real-" electoral activity to change society, to .progressively less capable of mounting repression is a function of one's political ity only the external expression of an make reforms. Because all that is being an all out attack. It does not understand position. Primary, therefore, in any cri internal antagonism against what one once sought is reform, there is no contra where revolution has come from, since it tique of a theory of repression ought to believed. Having adopted the views of diction in electoral paticipation. The .cannot recognize itself as the progenitor, be the inadequacies of presentdefinitions. others, the real opposition is to the ex second level, however, corresponding to and hence, is always just a little too Both action and failure to act have sig pression of these views internally, thus radicalism, by negation, where evils are late. That margin is what we rely on. nificance in political movements. the need for self-definlt1on is greatest seen in relation to one another, invol ves It is the margin between fascism and There are, however, several objective among those people who are confronted the .refusal to participate in elections repression. The use of mace at one criteria .for any functional definition of with beliefs which most closely resemble out of a recognition of the impossibility point in the movement might crush it repression. Any minimal definition of their own, which force them to define of reform. Radicalism does not yet say whereas at another time it only bolsters repression must include the element of themselves through struggle in opposi what is possible, however, and therefore resistance, and that sociallydetermined attack, by sections of the state apparatus, tion to their 10Et1cal underpinnings. The rejects all possibilities. The third period over-reaction is fascism. formal and informal, on a givern tendecny most violent conflict and the worst enemy of revolutionary consciousness involves, Additionally, it is important for us to or part of the movement for the purpose is therefore always the one who is closest, by further negation, participation in elect understand that the decision that we are of destroying its ability to operate offens who appears to say the same things, but oral struggle; first, because it can best the enemy is made finally by the system, ively. Repression isthe use of the coercive is in fact saying something quite different. be demonstrated to people that theprocess and not by us. The Tzar, in 1905, de apparatus of state power, which is class A revolutionary (read negation of the is futile, through the process itself; and cided that the people were revolutionaries, power, to crush what appears to it to negation) understands not only the pattern second, that it is a useful forum and a and by his inability to negate himself be threatening, regardless of whether it of social oppression, and recognizes the place where people gather and can be and rid the country of feudalism, by his is in fact threatening. It is characterized evil, but also has defined more carefully spoken to, and, since it is no longer unwillinglness to relinquish power, in by affirma.tive use of the law and legal the way to overcome it. The revolutionary believed in, it cannot compromise effect short, by his reaction to their petition•. institutions to provoke and to channel is characterized by an analysis of the iveness. Where a radical seesthe §vstem's ,they became revolutionaries. But the the alternatives availabli:! to the movement. state, which differs Irom the ra41cal's strength and totality (one-dimensionally) 1905 Revolution was neither fascism The. 'symbOl to which we attach the name view of the ·power structure", which the revolutionary sees itsinternal contra- nor repression, but a weak system repression may be fascism in one context differs from the liberal's notion of ·the dictions and weaknesses. . defending itself and, at the same and repression in another. This judgement . "power elitev, and posits the seizure time, converting its own weakness depends on a broader analysis of total and maintenance of that power as nec Coercion and Cooptation into the strength of its enemies. social direction, however, and is not essary to destroy it. There is a funda Disillusionment in the orderlyprocesses simply made. Furthermore, repression' mental difference in conception between This same striation of political under of social change constituted an experience is not just attack, it is also co-optation. an • elite", a • structure" and an entire standing is true when we begin to speak wherein the system divided revolution Repression is not just jail, as some social fabric expressed in class terms of repression, except that the importance aries from reformists by deciding that settions of the movement hold; it is also as the enemy, and consequently, there is attached to repression, the force c~rried' all reformists who would be effective jobs. a difference in expectation of response. with it, is in inverse ratio to the radical were revolutionaries. The same can be A liberal will be shocked and outraged by ism of the movement. m addition, our said of the evolution of SNCC from a Hangman and Priest the use of mace. A revolutionary will degree of effective use of repression as civil rights orgaro.zation to advocacy of The fundamental purpose of ANY system not be surprised at it. This does not mean a means of agitation is directly affected black power, since SNCC did not suspect, of class power is to determine, by law, that he does not oppose it, but that his by the way in which we see it. A revo "hen it raised the slogan of Black Power the alternatives that are available, to opposition takes a different form because lutionary will understand that retaliation mat the government would react as it limit and co-opt, to buy off and destroy, of his understanding of it. increases revolutionary sentiment in a did. but at all costs to moderate conflict to situation of decay, that history not only the advantage of the ruling class, to Electoral Politics makes leaders, but prevents them from There appear, during repressive peri reconcile irreconcUeables by making it being effective, and that a system which ods, two tendencies: the tendency to over "profitable" for people to cooperate. All This differentiation of consciousness is falling apart wills, at the· same time, estimate the power of the opposition, of social and private law operates this is ~damental to every political question the destruction and multiplication of its or alarmism, which frightens people need way. The Selective Service System exists we face. For example, the question of enemies. A system on the decline fails lessly, and reduces their capacity for not only to channel those who recognize whether or not to participate in electoral more rapidly in :its attempts to defend struggle, and the tendency to under its authority, but also to determine the politics is a question which must be differ itself, and by see-sawingbetween coercion estimate the repressive abilities of class alternatives even for those who are in entiated at these same three levels. The and co-optation only exposes its bank - power, or adventurism, which is pro absolute and fundamental opposition to it. first response, that of liberalism on first ruptcy all the sooner. Its self-defense vocative, dangerous, and likewise reduces The same is true of the university, and seeing social evils, is to participate in be~omes self-destructive, and it becomes the capacity of people to engage in pro of every social institution. Lenin, in longed struggle. Neither tendency uses his"Collapse of the Second International" 'tha~ such events to uncover the class nature wrote all oppressive classes and of repression, or organizes around defense societies require two primary functions for political purposes, but both are con to safeguard their power: those of hang fusing in their INDIVIDUAL approach man and priest. This formulation may to defense. be re-written, in modern society, as the Both of these tendencies make current functions of law and order, of co-optation analysis of repression harmful, and pre and repression, terror and justlflcation, vent us from effectivelyorganizing around force and rationalization, reality and of questions of defense. The first way in ficial myth. The more sophisticated and which both of these analyses are harmful technical the exploitation, the more comp is that they concentrate too much attention lex are the expressions of hangman and . on the legal struggle, failing to recog priest. nize that the best legal defense, in cases At the same time, we must understand of R~AL repression, is made by political that a system does not function at only organizing. Both tendencies concentrate one level. Repression is not simple at too heavily on raising legal justifications taCk, but consists of a complex series in the trial. The second mistake made of planned and unplanned assults which in these analyses is their resultant plea :take place at all levels. Because it is for unity in the face of danger, parti a SYSTEM, its actions may be and fre cularly in the case of the alarmist ten quently are, contradictory to one another. dency, and the failure to relate politically Furthermore, as a class system, internal to those who are profoundly disturbed contradiction is its consistency, its reason by their first realization of hiddenbrutality for existance. It ,is also its nemisis, and primarily on the vart of the adventurists, the only way we can destroy it. The in by merely dismissing them as "inex ternal contradiction between the tendency perience". The plea for unity is incorrect to corporate liberalism and the tendency because it overestimates the real danger to fasicsm is illustrated in current splits and does not form coalitions based on in the ruling class over the war in Viet real self-interest, but only out of a false nam and is expressed as an external con sense of danger. It means pulling the tradiction between the tendency to buy off covered wagons into a circle, and losing opposition and the tendency to destroy it. valuable time, when we should be moving Analysis of these tendencies must begin out and expanding; it means concern with with a fuller analysis of monopoly cap self-defense as primary, rather than con. italism. cern with building the mover.1 ?nt. It is additionally wrong, however, not to re Liberal-Radical-Revolutionary cognize that because peoples emotions are high, their grappling for new answer;. The most essential aspect of a definit should not be ignored, but responded to ion of repression is that consciousness in a responsible political way. There of repression and understanding of the should be constantly projected the nece treatment of this question within the move ssity for class analysis, and for building ment as a whole is always a function of a revolutionary movement. Events should the level of political consciousness. What be interpreted and re-interpreted, making is repression to a liberal may hardly be analogies to revolutionary struggles in an attack in the eyes of a radical, and other countries and other times, linking the agitational responses to repression the issues of racism and imperialism, by a radical may differ drastically from the way in WhiC;l a revolutionary would and demonstrating the connections between approach the question, because both rad repression and monopoly capitaIlsm1/e icalism and analyses of repression are cannot merely assume that sensiblepeople understandin~ LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY REPRESSION: HAYMARKET will reach these conclusions on their own.. related to one' s of the state. Third, political priorities tend to be SEPTEMBER 1968 THE MOVEMEI';lT PAGE 11 necessitate a decision-making triumvirate determined by where the government ferent kinds of repression. lt is also of political leadership, lawyers, and cli moves to protect itself, rather than where true that they fail to see that the interests National Defense ents, with political considerations always of blacks and whites, at this point, are being primarv. " it is necessary for us to build our move What is :needed,.is a national organization of~ch, ment. Both of the tendencies mentioned different. The logic of colonial liberation A further series of purposes always involves the formation of cross for movement defense, which would at an organization also revolve around pol- . mistakenly assume that repression occurs tempt to use the courtroom as a class when you are being effective. From this class political organizations, where the itical education and the use of interpre logic of revolution involves the intensive room, and turn legal controversy into tation and exposure. Literature could be flows the preposterous conclusion that political education. There is no need to in order to be effective, we have to and bitter struggle of one cla!1s or section produced explaining peoples rights and of a class against all others, forming form another test case legal defense lack of rights at the same time, an organ do whatever the government will repress. organization, since a number exist, in In fact, it is not OUR effectiveness, alliances with other classesfor expediency izers newsletter could be produced which and not out of an eventual self-interest. cluding the Law Center for Constitutional would' explain, both politically and legal but THEIR fear which triggers repressive Rights and the Emergency Civil Liberties action, and while the two are often the The Panthers are clearly representatives ly, current cases, laws etc.; local com of the development of revolutionary senti Committee (ECLC). which are quite good. mittes could be formed on particular same, they are not necessarily synony What is needed primarily is concentration mous. Merely because Dr. Spock and ment out of the black liberation struggle, cases, or for the defense of particular and they neither unequivocally support on mass defense and self-defense; i.e. individuals: legal and medical teams of otfiers are indicted does not mean that defense of large numbers of students, they are the most effective part of the nor do they inflexibly refuse to partici- "observers" could be organized for dem rioters, draft resisters, etc., and under onstrations; those in jail could be assis standing that not everyone can be rep ted in their organizing efforts inside, and -resented, and that there are towns where in their political understanding of current there are no adequate lawyers; the secon<:i events; political strategy could be devel function of an organization concerned with oped around trials (whether or not to repression ought to be to train people pack courtrooms, disrupt, etc.); and law in legal self-defense. In many cases, students and lawyers can themselves form the rules of evidence are less strict organizations around such an attempt. where defendants represent themselves, Movement defense, regardless of organ SAID THE and the level of political material intro ization, must, if it is to be effective, duced atthe trial rises markedly. project a political analysis of the rea From Defense to Organizing sons to a response which furthers the political battle in question. On!>' a co But the main function of suchanorgani herent and differentiated understanding of zation ought to be political education; the class nature of law as not only HANGMANTO of clients, attorneys, and the public as peutral, but as part of what we consider a whole. Since it is possible to state to be the enemy, can present repres political objectives through methodology, sion in such a fashion as to move peo and to make political conclusions flow ple to an understanding of what caused from forms of organization, th~re should the repression, to an understanding of be a conscious linking of the defenses its social base. Unfortunately, the organ THE PRIEST of students, blacks, and anti-imperialist, ization outlined above awaits that under anti-war activists, at this stage. Further standing. We are'beginning to consciously more, efforts should be made to express direct our strategy and to realize what solidarity with persecuted revolutionaries ,- -- must objectively be done to convert move anti-war movement, or tba.t. others ol,!ght pate in, the current spate of enthusiasm in other countries, as a way of linking ment defense to movement organizing. to do what they are doing. Moreover, and support for black capitalism. Their the objectives of those struggles, and We must sooner or later begin to con repression does not occur at the very repression, therefore, must be dealt with contributing to the raising of "inter- sciously direct our history, rather than apex of the movement, but somewhere differently from the repression of whites, 'national" consciousness. International as reacting to the brutalities ot the moment. further back from its tip, because the and even the repression of non-revo well as national movement defense would Now is the time to build the movement.- government does not fully understand the lutionary blacks. dialectic of our development, and is always, except in a period of fascism, A Political Offensive hesitant to attack. Therefore, our organi zing priorities should not be determined A further problem with both of the by the government, or byits understanding analyses of repression mentioned, is that of what we are up to, but out of an ob they are seldom used affirmatively. None jective assessment of real needs. of the defense motions around the Spock, ET AL case contributed much to the Law and Class effective organizing of draft resistance, Moreover, these two approaches to whereas the Panther's handling of the repression tend to give lawyers and legal Huey Newton case was a major factor tJ,e concerns too great a scope in the crucial in their organizing efforts and was inte decisions which are made on a day to grated fully into the elaboration of a day basis, to the detriment of political political line. Finally, both analyses are concerns. They tend to emphasize a test incorrect in that they tend to emphasize A dialogue between the National Office of The Resistance and Draft-Resistance- • case approach to mass arrest situations, confrontation over organization and edu Seattle, published in the latter's recent newsletter, raised questions conrerning strat and to promote the efficacy of legal cation. They tend to point toward cops egy which are of importance to all groups doing draft-resistance work. struggle over political considerations. as the enemy, rather than a system which Different types of actions undertaken by the two groups arise from what is evidently We have seen numerous movements de expressed its will through cops. We are an old-line pacifist-reformist stance of 5 Beekman street's New York office, as op stroyed in their "legal" phases, and in in a period of development of conscious posed to the attack on the entire system of American imperialism and injustice taken concentration on courtroom battles over ness, organization, and forms of action, by the new-leftists of Draft Resistance-Seattle. the battles which first brought the move which necessitate definitionthrough strug- ' The New York office, in a recent civil rights movement got its training ment to trial, the same class society gle. Social movements and political ten letter to Seattle, expressed concern that in federal prison during World War II. has evolved extensive legal techniques dencies understand themselves and define what they consider to be the most im- At that time, imprisoned CO's led work for obfuscating and diluting political their objectives, strategy and tactics portant aspect of the draft resistance strikes and boycoTts-against segregated struggle. Law is a "tyranny of definition" , always through struggle. This struggle, movement __ non-cooperation __ was prison facilities. In light of these con- and exists not only to define the offense, however, proceeds not just externally, being played down. Their position is ditions, we should also ask oUl'selves but the defense as well. We should there but internally as well. It is found not that "The Resistance ... is a nation- how effective can we be speaking to fore relate to courtroom battles, exactly only in confrontation with the cops, but wide movement built around the simple lower class kids if they know we liave a as we do to repression itself, and convert in inter-organizational battles as well. tactic of absolute refusal to acquiesce II-S. How effective would the movement a struggle with the legal system into Recognizing that only a revolutionary in any way to the rule of Selective Ser- be at all if the public knew we faked an exposure of its connections with racism movement can effectively confront a vice. For the young man turning eighteen, 4- F' s?" and imperialism, with capitalism. We must system, we attempt to use confrontation this means open non-registration. For the move people to an understanding of class to build a revolutionary movement. rest of us, this means terminatin:;- CLEAVER, Continued from Page 13 , Second, the analysis links the struggle' pendent Republicans". The New Party DRAWAL which many said would destroy for black liberation with the struggle of looks forward to the "moral radical in the movement but which strengthened it. Cleaver for President colonized people around the globe for fluence of Peace and Freedom". It is It compares the experience around the The movement prides itself on its national liberation. It sees as its allies uncertain about the" Free Huey" position. Huey Newton trial, where debates raged -, On the other hand the Cleaver cam: on Fair Trial vs. Free Huey. Many disdain of personalities--and it is clear peoples under the rule of imperialism that the candidacy of Eldridge Cleaver and peoples who have already liberated paign has been criticized by those who have now come around to the FREE think that allelectoral politics is illu Huey position because of its inherent is not based on mass media coverage themselves. This link is an important and artificial image. Yet the movement one for it relates not only to thf! war sory and divisive. While many of these logic and proven necessity. people, such as national SDS, give full Finally, the campaign arguesthatthePan should also recognize its leaders, ex in Vietnam but to the system which amine their thought and abilities. In this called the war into being, and sees support to the Panthers program and ther program and Cleaver's articulation per perspectives on coalition, they feel have in fact drawn people into the respect Eldridge Cleaver stands as an the common goal as destruction of the artiCUlate, dedicated, and often instru system, not merely to end the war. that the Peace and Freedom Party is movement, not alienated them. The Pan not a possible vehicle for social change thers and Cleaver manage to put into mental spokesman. The campaign seeks to project this The jail of the ghetto, the bars of this analysis and its potentialities for a uni and that, at best, the combination of forceful and understandable language many a Cleaver campaign with Peace and of the most complex issues and relation nation, the prison itself, the political fied movement throlighout the country. thinking and organization of the Black Freedom can only lend radical credi ships in this society, and have proven Objections Raised bility to a party which, in part, is com their ability to relate to people usually Panther Party present a language and an experience, a rage and a humanity, The Cleaver campaign has been cri-' posed of persons seeking to make po_ not touched by radical mouthings. litical mileage on the left, in order In regard to thosewhotake a hands-off that cannot help but speak eloquently ticized from two main directions. to the need for a broad movement toward On one hand there are those inside to lead it down a co-optable path. position on electoral politics and find even the conflicts in Peace and Freedom revolution in this nation. Peace and Freedom and those on the The national convention of the Peace periphery of the Democratic Party who Objections Countered __ .. over candidates a reflection of the evils TlIe campaign argues that elect .of American society, the campaigntakes' and Freedom Party will take place in see the campaign as "too radical". Those Ann Arbor Michigan on Aug.17-18 ,Sure in Peace and Freedom argue for a more oral politics tend to g..ravitate toward a different position. It does not want the center. Often the hope of uniting. to blow itself up ·out of proportion, and to be present there are many of the'argu moderate candidate, in order to draw ments raised in this article, as well into the party people who become dis more people behind a more moderate stresses that electoral politics is not platform has led to a dissolution of the name of the revolutionary game. as new ones in a fast.changing political illusioned with the McCarthy candidacy context. As yet there seems no one' after the Convention. potential for real change. It feels that It does feel, however, that it would be ThulSe outside P&F find the image only a candidate and program who· rep wrong not to assert the voice and build clear-cut candidate for the Vice Presi of Peace and Freedom Party itself as resents a straightforward and well-arti the pow'~r of the movement through utili- . dency. "too radical" and want to buUd a "fourth cUl~ted radical position has the chance zing the campaign. Given this position, It is perhaps easier than many of us party" tentatively the "New Party". This of preventing this shift toward the center, it is felt that only by projectinga program suspected to get caught up in various New Party, planned in part by Raskin of advancing the movement, and laying and candidate that is uncompromisingly forms of that vile disease--election and Waskow, seeks to draw in dissident groundwork for a more organized struggle revolutionary can a movement be built. fever--but it is also impOrtant that at Democrats and build a mass base. It after November. Otherwise they feel the movement w1ll a crucial turning point in the history has no candidates as yet (both McCarthy Further, the campaign argues that the be sapped by less COherent, less political of our country and our movement that and Hatfield have refused) but wants radical position need not be alienating or more moderate leaders. The best 'we seek ways to reach out, clarify, and a "credible candidate" by which it means to large sections of the American people way to fight those who wish to twist strengtren the loose alliances and groups one with national status and one over (40% of whom do not vote already). It the Peace and Freedom Party movement which we call the movement. compares the Cleaver candidacy to the to the right is by supporting a candidate The campaign of Eldridge Cleaver 35 (Cleaver is 33). It also seeks "inde- has its eyes on that prize. _ early demand for IMMEDIATE WITH- whose influence will counter them':'· IV. America a nation so incredibly wealthy in 1968 that all morality is From A Digger Poem based on EXCESS: GARBAGE true American career counselors now I. The recent death of capitalism has ask only one question. everybody fucked around and confused. "Do you want to produce garbage or Private enterprise laissez faire legally do you want to collect garbage?" murderous piracy GONE already buried OR Industrialist or politician? to be replaced by what? Fishfarm or jUnkyard? If it doesn't have a name, how can you The young people want no part of it, talk about it? of course, what with garbage their natural And what about the garbage? NOTHING matrix and medium. WHO'S GOING TO COLLECT THE GAR- Produce it? . BAGE? - Collect it? Now there's something, you can talk They want to fuck in it! about ... The career counselors build marvelous constructions of seduction and mystery, II. America 1968 so incredibly wealthy they tran-substantiate symbol money that the local spiritual crisis is what're into sex we going to do about the garbage. into power the economic crisis how to distribute into death insurance the garbage, - into pleasure. the political crisis who's going to collect But it's just THINGS, it's garbage, it's the garbage overflow and the young people know it. and why should anyone want the job, They throw the career counselor out while in the oblivious streets attention the window. has suddenly exploded into flesh bodies Who's going to collect the garbage?' and the various ways of rubbing them who knows? together. who cares? The Evolutionary Credit & Loan Assoc Let's use it to act out our fantasies, iation has terminated our contract, use it for unimaginable gratification. stamped it PAID IN FULL, and theplanet A cellophane bag represents 5000-years is ours at last. of machine history. inventors suicided Sudden flashes that maybe those five by their inventions.aeons of garbage thousand years of time payments dedication, paid for in cancer wombs, -all those payments ON THE DOT- in fallen cocks. in the crazy waste of all those our fathers. food wars and social cipher contracts Generations dead of lacklove sold for were gestures of empty anxiety. 29 cents. Now that it's ours and we can take a Your birth certificate is your final credit card. casual look around, well there's so much ._-'------,~~ ~~ GARBAGE, .. 4 billion people camped in the planetary Footnotes winderness and somehow WE FORGOT ABOUT THE GARBAGE. The straight world is really serious Our wilderness is turning sour. about this. They are scared. In one week IT STINKS! in the San Francisco Chronicle we get No place in the cosmology of planetary the following information: physics for garbage. San Francisco produces 1500 tons of What? garbage a day. -American makes 440,000 What an astounding oversight! tons of garbage a day. It costs more than What were our ancestors THINKING $3 billion a,year to get rid of it. about? There is a man named Richard D. Vaughan who is chief of the Health, III. America a nation in 1968 so Education and Welfare Department's incredibly wealthy that all morality is SOLID WASTES PROGRAM (There IS based on the problems of EXCESS: a Secretary of Garbage Control. see fantasy executives and governmental stanza III). He wants to make ski slopes spies running wild-eyed down out of garbage. He says: the dorridors of c~nh:ol: "Hills with ski slopes. amphitheaters "There's too fucking much of it!" and soap box derby runs can be built "It's completely out of control!" on mounds of solid waste in pancake "Power leak! Power leak!" flat areas of the country providing the citizenry with unique experiences." The cells ot' power grow wild: un But there is another man in Japan disciplined freedom cancer. who wants to build cities out of it. The Sudden flashes that the future of bureau Ultimate anal-retentive act! We 01lotp. cracy spy systems lies in garbage control. from the Travel Editor: People are USING it, picking it up "If an inventive Japanese businessman FREE on the streets, living on it, they named Kunitoshi Tezuka has his way, no longer respond to the seductionof you may someday be driving on garbage. the state, there's no way to get a living atop garbage, or working in a HOLD on them. bUilding made of garbage. Pomposity suicided and rigidity mach "Cities may be reclaiming land with ines put to work at a furious clip: garbage and using blocks of waste to keep back seas and rivers. all this garbage must be catalogued and filed, garbage destruction teams "Refuse", says Tezuka, "is treasure." trained, parking lots on the tillable He has invented a press that squeezes land, thousands of well-programmed garbage into a block. wraps it with chicken garbage experts march to work eachday wire and dips it in hot asphalt. The to GET IT DOWN ON PAPER, enormous entire plant is automated. No one lli!~ to factories hast1ly tooled for garbage con touch the garbage. version. Mayor Daley of Chicago flew to Japan "By God, we'll make napalm out of it." to discuss the Garbage Crisis with Tezuka. Youngsters who don't understand it's He's scared. all been paid for already. We at THE MOVEMENT feel that the are given guns! problem is even more serious than it given napalml first ·appears. The definition of garbage 'and shipped to parts of the planet where by the power structure is too narrow. there MAYbe people who MIGHT be They are only worried about commodities hip to OUR garbage and MIGHT WANT that HAVE BEEN USED. But what of the SOME OF IT FOR THEMSELVES. garbage before it is used? Most of ,the The situation complicates itself incred Gross National Product is garbage! ibly. Computer engineers make it worse: What about the garbage cars, the garbage the machines don't UNDERSTAND power, dining room sets for $299.95, the garbage sex, and control: the machines program hair straighteners, encyclopedias, news useable garbage and forbidden fantasies papers, detergents? What about the gar of FREE. bage fashions, clock radios, books? They The secretary of Garbage Control have to be SOLD first! THEN they get considers dropping acid and getting it to be carted away, squashed into blocks. over with, burned, buried. sunk at sea. reconverted, melted. 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