THE CATHOLIC WORKER
,. Subscription: VOL. XXXIX No. 2 FEBRUARY, 1973 25c Per Year Price le Boycott A&P VIETNAM: OUR PEACE IS CHRIST By DAN O'SHEA By PAT JORDAN Farm workers continue the struggle The cease-fire in Vietnam, coming at We cannot be joyful in J;his "peace." in California to gain the right to bar last from the depths .of nightmare, Already, after announcing peace, Mr gan collectively through a union of causes us to respond with a certain Nlxon had proposed the military budget their choice. They are seeking to im wariness. For the peace in Vietnam be raised from $76.4 to $81 billlon. We prove the conditions of their work is as yet ambiguous at best. cannot be joyful when America con through the signing of contracts that Such wariness is good, as was that tinues to arm the rest of the world will provide for such things as toilets of .Jeremiah: "They have healed the for fratricidal wars. In the Philippines in the fields, an end to cihlld labor in wound of my people lightly, saying, we house more than 18,000 troops in agriculture, and strong control over the 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace" eight bases. A calll from the corrupt, rise of dangerous pesticides. (6:14). The wounds of Indochina will tyrannical Marcos government could The average farm worker family of take generations to heal. Not money, lead us into another "war of honor." four earns $2,700 annually, according not mere ingenuity and advanced As long as these exigencies continue, to the U.S. Department of Labor. At medicine, but time and human love will there is no peace and our joy is justly the same time the accident· rate for be the effective antidotes. And they restrained. farm workers is three times the na will be sorely taxed. How will we re Root Out Violence tional rate, while the life expectancy spond to the fact that North Vietnam's Nor can we take heart in Mr. Nixon's for farm workers is 49, compared to population, tor example, has experi strident message by which he an 70 for the rest of the country. enced a five-hundred percent increase notinced the peace. "Let us be proud The growers in California have at in cancers of the liver resulting from of ... one of the most selfless enter tempted to block the e1Iorts of the our defoliation bombings? Will we prises' In the history of nations," he farm workers' union through the sign treat thO'se wounds lightly and shortly? said. That in stark contrast to Pope ing of "sweetheart" contracts with the Misconceptions of Peace Paul's message to the U.N., "Men can Teamster union. Within weeks of Cesar No, we do not find ourselves joyful not be brothers if they are not humble. Chavez's request to the lettuce grow at the news of "peace." The conflict No matter how justifia:ble it may ap ers for elections to be held to deter.,. continues in much of Indochina, and it pear, prlde provokes tensions and mine the will of the workers regarding is the poor who suffer, not ourselves. struggles for prestige, domination, formation of a union, the lettuce In Vietnam itself the cease-fire agree colonialism and egoism. In a word growers signed nearly 200 contracts ment makes llttle effort to protect pride shatters brotherhood." with the Teamsters. This was done political prisoners and neutralists who The misconception that peace has without consulting the workers, who have opposed the war all along. The been achieved ls even promoted in the found out about these contracts by Saigon government la about the buai liberal press and by the so-ea.Ued en reading of them in the newspapers. nesa of reclUl!dtJlng poll\lcal prlaoners lightened. When Debbie Peck ap When the growers refuse dialogue, as criminal prisoners. Under the latter proached -the New York Times on her farm workers have only one way of designation, political prisoners will be pilgrimage of peace (see her letter "Pil retained in prison despite the armis ensuring their rights. They must strike Robert Hodpll grim for Peace" in this issue of the and extend their strike through a boy tice. In his book War Bostag'es, Don C.W.), she wa~ told to return home cott. The farm workers in California Luce writes of the countless political beeause "the )Var is over and peace are asking the American people to sup prisoners in South Vietnamese jails has been accomplished." port them in their struggle by not (some estimate 200,000 of them>. It is Finally, the fact of peace ls belled buying or eating iceberg lettuce until Saigon Prison,ers Kafkaesque, and ls accomplished by by our dally lives. The war is not far tlle workers have won their contract. the force of a 300,000-man Saigon from our hearts and in the making of By CllA1tLIE KING and Police contingent which la financed by Breaks Agreement IGAL BOODENKO our dally encounters. Even the massive La.st August, Cesar Chavez, farm the U.8. Public Bafety Of!ice in Salgon. Vol. XXXIX No. 2 February, 1973 Tivoli: a Farm With a View 117 DEANE MARY MOWRER The snow flakes Chow rare they have deal of research on Peter Maurin, and ~ouc rti!b'M>RKER · have been this winter) which began has written some articles for the paper. falling this morning, causing Dorothy When he stays with us here at the Published Monthly (Bl-monthly March-April, Ju17·Aucast. Day to alter her plans to drive over fami., he gets up very early in the October-November) · to visit her sister, have turned into a morning and gives the dining room a ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC :WORKER MOVEMENT cold drizzle. Yet from time to time a thorough cleaning. He ls also one of PETER MAURIN, Foander few birds visit my window feeder, call the leaders and best elucldators in our DOROTHY DAY\ Editor ud Publisher ing out now and then what sounds like discussion groups. MARTIN J. CORBIN, Managing Editor an expletive against such weather, a Tomorrow Ed ls beginning a teaching Ahociate Editors: sentiment which I share. Job at Blue ·Heaven Farms, which ls a J At' ADAMS, CHARLES BUTTERWORTH, JACK COOK, 0 RITA CORBIN (Art), Mike Kreyche; who has Just returned rather unique kind of rehabilitation FRANK DONOVAN ,. EILEEN EGAN, EDGAR FORAND, ROBERT GILLIAM from visiting his family in Arizona and center for young people recovering w r l.I AM HORVATH, MARJORIE c. HUGHES, HELENE ISWOLSKY: from traveling about in Mexico, re from hard-core drug addiction. The KATHL EEN DE SUTTER JORDAN, PAT JORDAN, WALTER KERELL, ARTHUR marked last night that it was difficult program includes arts and crafts, in J . LACEY, KARL MEYER, CHRIS MONTESANO, DEANE MOWRER, PAT to get used' to the dreariness of our dustrial skills, ·basic learning skills, RUSK, KATHY SCHMIDT, ARTHUR SHEEHAN, STANLEY VISHNEWSKI, weather after the clear, dry sunny days counselling and other By TED GLICK and seventy-mile pilgrimage to New parole board. The result is an accom fear and in building a human, respon . York City intended to focus attention plished f.act: the release of Phil Ber sible alternative to this society. over the past several years interest and to make visible the involvement of rigan from prison on Dec. 20, 1972. At Prisoners Strike for Peace we real In prisons and involvement with p!'is prisoners, present and former, in the A former Danbury inmate and faster, ize that it ls not enough simply to be oners have increased throughout the anti-war struggle. They called -them I am currently working with Prisoners against the war. It is the system of bu country , as a result of the mounting selves Prisoners Strike for Peace (156- Strike for Peace. We work in a number reaucratic, corporate capitalism which number of those imprisoned for protest Fifth Ave., Room 439, N.Y., N.Y. 10010). of areas: searching out ex-prisoner and ls responsible for our involvement in activities, and ·because of the growing Soon after, -action work. was begun prisoner contacts, relating to and Indochina. We recognize that our strug vociferousness of prisoners to be treated around the case of Fr. Phil Berrigan, working with the Peoples' Coalition for gle ls but one part of a world-wide as human beings. At the same time an Peace and Justice, speaking before revolution of people determined to other phenomenon has developed: the various groups, and developing a sup create decent lives for themselves and emergence of anti-war protests from ply of resource materials for distribu bring justice to their society. Towards inside the prisons-both by those in tion. In the future we plan to do some that end we plan to actively search oul prison for war resistance, and by those intensive traveling to meet with peo and create connections with those in who have developed into resisters while ple, to talk from our experience a& re other ·countries who have been im there. As I write, a Fast for Peace ls sisters and as ex-prisoners, and to in prisoned for revolutionary activity, to taking place inside Lewisburg federal · crease communication and a sense of develop international ties with other .prison. An undetermined number of in network among those currently work radical movements. mates are taking only water there. It ing in local areas. began on Thanksgiving and is intended Dope Comes From The Bottom to continue until Christmas. I myself New Men And Women Hope and strength often come from was on a thirty-four-day liquid fast We believe that there is a great deal looking to the lowest levels and the last summer which began in Danbury, to learn about the society from the ex grass roots of a society and of our lives. Conn. and ended in Springfield, Mo. perience of prison. Prison is in no way Hope comes to me from the Black lib Our fast centered around both the op entirely different from the world out eration movement, the Chicano and erations of the federal parole board side. By its processes of heavy surveil Native American struggles, the wom and the treatment of political prisoners lance, restricted activity, milk-sop re en's movement. It comes also from on Con Son Island, South Vietnam. - forms and heavy overkill, it is a testing those at the absolute bottom of things This· summer eleven prisoners from who at that time had just been denied ground for a society waiting in store -prisoners. It comes from prisoners Danbury, of whom only three were a parole hearing by the federal parole for all of us if we do not become -who are transformed from criminals draft resisters, fasted for thirty days board. Included were a week of actions aware of the fact and respond ac into resisters while behind bars, from against the war. in Washington, D.C., the arrest of 15 cordingly. Prisoners Strike For Peace people before Nixon's Re-election Head At the same time, prisons can be In re.sponse to that fast, several ex quarters, and the organlzlng of a mas places of political and human growth. Danbury inmates organized a fast, vigil sive letter-writing campaign to the Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans and Native Americans are rediscovering a history and an identity stolen from them. And some prisoners are being transformed from "criminals" into New Village for Handicappe'd Women and New Men. - Community Can Overcome Fear By PATRICK MURRAY We learned in prison of the necessity Inntsfree Village ls an lnterdepen special way. There ls no separation into of community. We learned that the d'ent working community with mentally patient-stat! relationships. The handl greatest impediment to human prog retarded adults-an attempt to absorb capped Villager ls guided by his own ress and the cause of justice is not these handicapped into a community of intuitions, a growing sense of self priscn, death or tyrannical government, non-handicapped men, women and awareness and an und'er.standlng of but fear. We learned that it ls only children. We are seeking here to pre the needs of others. Each Vlllager when fear ls overcome that true free sent a creative alternative to the grave comes to recognize his own worth, sen dom in responsible action and life-style the continuing acts of protest from be- . problem of car.Ing for, educating and sing that he has rights within the ls possible. hind the walls, and from the strong working with mentally retarded ·adults. community, as well as daily, supervised There is no question In our minds and clear writings of prisoners such as The vlllage itself occuples four hun duties. This ls a place where a person that it is the sense of community, still George Jackson, Philip Berrigan and dred' acres of sweeping farmland ad can say, "I'm retarded; this ls my life; present now that we are out of prison, Malcolm X, writings which are deep, jacent to the Shenandoah National this is where I can function. I live ln which is the key to the development of inward, rich in meaning and power. Forest in central Virginia. Our large a community where I need not be told a meaningful and powerful movement. This depth arises because these men houses are shared equally in family that I am a member-I know I am a To share one another's lives, -to learn have lived with a form of death and units by houseparents, their own chil member." to love and trust honestly and truth overcame it. They have realized the dren and the handicapped Villagers. Why do individuals and families fully, to act and work and risk together truth, and it has set them free to share We all take our meals together in a without mental handicaps come to live -all of these are crucial in overcoming it with others. family atmosphere and share in the re at Innisfree? A desire to be useful, to sponslblllty for household maintenance. help the men.tally handicapped must be -At present we are thirty-two people, a bond and' a reason common to all, eleven Villagers, two natural families but there ls more. - Peace Chronicle wi·th six children, and five single co There is a desire to find and build workers, living in two households. A an alternative to the life that they had Han~nu!'!..'!.. '!:esen ·1 36 ·East First was dealing with reality. "Ml is not we sang the hymns. Coming up the By ELLEN MOORE gold that glitters." "Handsome is as stairs from the basement kitchen he'd .As I walked down Chrystie Street sense of humor makes everything more handsome d'oes." (My own mother say, ''Shall we complain?" The word Park this morning, I suddenly realized fun. Bob Murphy c~me to us from St. humorously was fond of _these aphor- Compllne was a mystery to his Lu- that spring is very close at hand. The Francis House in Montreal, and' dinners isms.) theran training. . temperature hovered at a comfortable, have not been the same since. Susie, --- Carpenter and Baker Fr. Shritz, an 80-year old. retired almost warm level, and the brisk winds the "pint-sized volunteer," arrived in Hans loved to wor1c. He had a com- priest from Minnesota, stayed with us seemed gentler. Further downtown, on laj;e November, and is a very stabilizing panion in Fr. Pacifique Roy, a· French a few years at Maryl.arm, Newburgh. Grah,d Street, I noticed some elderly influence in the third floor dormitoryA Canadian, who piped our water down Afiter "complaining," Hans and Fr. people taking advantage of the early Anne Marie has given up teaching for to house and barn from a hillside Shritz used to sit crown to a game of i sunshine. Propped up in their folding cooking, but her "school teacher ait spring, and' who installed e1ectricity pinochle while they smoked big black chairs, they were talking and drowsing titude" has calmed many a tempestu cemented over the barn floor and th~ cigars! · Whether it was during or after in small groups on the sidewalk. ous situation. Richard is back, and now cow stalls to make a great hall which the game that they discussed Luther The winter is a hard time for the it's hard to understand how we ever got was dining room, living room and anism and Catholicism, I don't know. poor, and none of us will be sad to along wllthout him. Tim can really kitchen. Hans' kitchen coal stove, large But they studied Catechism and Hans ·see it go. Many members of our family handle a bowl of soup like a pro. Pat as it was, was not adequate to heat it, remembered his, and accepted the mys were afflicted with the flu which was Murray comes on weekends, when he so Fr. Roy built a great fireplace witb teries the Catholic Church presented a plague t~roughout the country. Bob can slip away from medicai school at chimney extending up thru the lib- to him, and was formally "received" Baez, John-Michael, Anna, Mary, Jane 1 StOny Brook. Bob d'rives in from· New rary-sitting room and then thru the into the Church. From then on, a Julia, Michael Kirwan, Bob Murphy Jersey at all hours, and is truly the roof. Two loft dormitories were on one picture of the Virgin and a rosary hung Mike DeGregory, Jan, Ed Forand' master of the "odd job." side-on the other side, the chapel. over the bed. I have his rosary around Susie, Angie and her husband Ray: Hans cooked and baked and helped my neck now. (There .is no pocket in Mainstays Catherine, Pat, Tim, Polish Mike, With all the sickness and travel, Fr. Roy with carpentry. There was an my dress.) His crucifix, a black iron Frank Donovan, Arthur Lacey, Jean abundant supply of food including fish Christ on a plain wood cross, and a there's no, way we could have managed Pierre, Bill and Ellen Heine all were without our strongest memlbers. John - and chicken which the priest knew worshipping angel, a foot high (which sick. Dorothy was still convalescent how to wrangle from the chain stores :Probably came from some church McMullen cooked soup iri a veritable after a particularly severe bout with maraithon while Ed was sick, and kept . on Saturday nights (food that would Christmas creche) on top of 'his ward "the bug" when she came down for spoll, if kept, but '!Ve had a big popu- robe completed the decoration of his the soup-line running smoothly. Rich lation to eat it). little ship-shlipe room. Not a super- her pre-Christmas visit. Hiram escaped ard answered the door with) his usual the epidemic, but spent several weeks enthusiasm, and kept the evening meal Hans taught us all to bake from that fluous thing in it, only a change of in the hospital undergoing treatment day to. this, though now the new vogue clothes, and a good,1 unworn suit put as calm as possible. Esther, Charles, among some of the young means that away for his burial. Nearly eighty, he and surgery for frostbite on his feet. Bob Baez, John-Miohael, Wong, Gus, But all are well on the road to re Sendra, Harold Henry, and Frank those emulating the Way of ithe PU- was ready to die. covery now. grim with his sack of bread and Bible He did not want to go to the hospi Camella with John Geis made sure that bake bread made of wholewheat, rye: tal. He had been only to emergency Holidays the paper got out in time. Indian Jim soybean flour, cornmeal, molasses and wards in the thirty years ·with us. The winter is also a time of great fixed two radios so that we could have who knows what other nourishment all Once he broke his wrist in a fall. Once joy, especially at Christmas. Harold music while we worked. Mr. Anderson combined which has to be cut with a he was bitten in the calf of the. leg by Henry Gay outdid himself in devising kept the fourth floor in fine order. Sal saw. Wales" at our traditional holiday · Marie have cleaned owt the back of meeting (the last Friday before the Clothing Room and installed store which could bake for hundreds. Christmas). -This was followed by the Mixing the dough by hand in a, huge benches, so that the men might wait wash tub, he produced a hundred unaccustomed luxury of fruitcake, inside, out of the wind. They even stollen, and Jonas' fragrant tea-all rounded up a transistor radio. Richard loaves for our soup line which did not eaten in the soft glow of our Christ need a strong arm man to cut it and has revived' the custom of "tea at two" took into consideration the toothless. mas tree, procured through the capa to the gratification of all. Ar.thur Sul Many a time former Bishop Shan bilities of Earl. Carmen's warmth and livan just gave us a tasty week of non, then studying at Yale, drove down simplicity gave the evening a real bread baking, an experience that was glow of family intimacy. both deli~htful and fun. from New Haven to visit us and deli On Christmas Eve, the gifts (which vered a carload of our bread to our had been selected and wrapped by We have always been fortunate in Chrystie Street House of Hospitality Sand'y, Jan, Kathy, et al.) were dis ·having interesting speakers at our (always taking one fragrant loaf him tributed with great flair by Jean meetings, and January was not an ex self, "for pay" he said) . Pierre. Afterw.ards we all sang carols ception; !gal Roodenko led a superb When I told of Hans' baking at one discussion on Iiew directions for the {greatly aided by Rosemary Morse and peace rmovement; Marcos Munos spoke of my speaking engagements, a judge's her electric organ) , until time for mid- Wife gave me a hundred dollars (or much, but he preferred the · socl.abllity on the present situation of the farm night Mass. · workers; Sr. M. Luke Tobin shared' her more?) for an electrif1ed mixer, and of the kitchen, especially the appre Many people also shared birthdays when she found that our editor and ciative attentions of the girls. during this time: Pat and John Geis experiences as an "envoy of peace" in bursar, Tom Sullivan, had used the My daughter _and grandchildren in December; Walter, Mary, Jean money for some pressing bill, she grew up knowing him and he loved Pierre, and .Arthur Lacey in January; swore that she'd never give another them all and visited with me when Danny, Mike DeGregory, Bob Murphy, dime. Tom was a city man and never they .lived in West Virginia, and liter Ida, Richard, Darwin, M1cki, and my went for this farm · stuff! Why bake ally watched their growth from birth. when we could get lots of free bread (Two were. born at Easton, Pa., two at self in February. And no occasion for from bakeries and "day-old" cost Stotler's Crossroads, West Virginia, celebration can go ignored at the Cath- · sometimes as low as 5 cents a loaf? four at Staten Island, and only one in oltc Worker I · Compllne Vermont. The af,temoon the d'ay be Comings and Goings Fr. Roy and Hans were a good team, fore he died, his voice was very weak Our family bas experienced growing but Hans, a non-churchgoing Lutheran, but he took out a bill from his wallet pains over the last months: Mark was not converted by Fr. Roy who hea {ten dollars)-his entire worldly Samara left in December for sunny vily condemned smoking and -drinking wealth-and said, "Send it to Susie" Los Angeles, and lunch is simply not as "attachments." Hans loved his beer who ls having her second child soon the same without his caustic wit and and would walk miles to get it when out in California. philosophical discussions; Tom has re appreciative guests used to give him a When he died, he had one dollar turned to· Ohio after many months of few dollars. He did enjoy going to and a dime in his wallet. loving service; Bill Butler has returned. Compllne every night, especially since Precious in the sight of the Lord ts to . the Ammon Hennacy House in Ade Bethune . the~death of His little ones. He was L.A.,, and his political oplnions are anointed, there was a "wake" at the sorely missed; Jim Chapman's new The National Fann Worker Health funeral parlor in Rhinebeck and those residence is the farm, which he de Europe; and Paul Avrich of Queens Group is seeking medical personnel: he loved said the rosary for the re scribes as "practically a Garden of College explored the thought of the doctors, nurses, lab and x-ray tech Eden"; Jean-Pierre just returned from anarchist Peter Kropotkin. The Nation In pose of his soul. He had earned his nicians, dentists, to help estab living literally by . the sweat of his a visit with his parents in Denver; aI Councll of catholic Women pre lishing new farm worker medical brow, and the suit he was laid out in Pat and Kathleen visited the De sented Something BeautifW: for God, cllnics. Join us in working to bring was one he had put aside for the pur Sutters in st. Louis, and Susie shared a film on Mother Teresa and ' her Mis better .Jiving conditions and health pose less than a year ago. He gave us, the ride in order to spend Christmas sionaries of Charity in Calcutta. care to farm workers. For details and all who came to us, far more than with her family there; Sr. Mary Ber Marion Duke, a long time friend of contact: we gave him, like so many of those nard flew to Florida to spend some the Catlhollc Worker, and' a member of National Fann Workers time with her father. our family, died recently. She was a Sister Pearl McGlmey who come in to us from "ofI the line." My heart swells in gratitude to him New people have come to share our tiny bundle of energy, well known to P.O. Box 131 and to the dear Lord who sends us home. Danny has just joined us from us all. We all mouni her here, and Keene, Ca. 93531 such friends and fellow workers. a seminary in Rhode Island, and his ask your prayers. Page Si$ THE CATHOLIC WORKER February, 1973 Chinese Revolution Gives Lessons·