Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Resist Newsletters Resist Collection 12-31-2007 Resist Newsletter, Nov-Dec 2007 Resist Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter Recommended Citation Resist, "Resist Newsletter, Nov-Dec 2007" (2007). Resist Newsletters. 371. https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter/371 Inside: How We Resist Illegitimate Authority Today ISSN 0897-2613 • Vol. 16 #6 A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority November/December 2007 We Can Dance If We Want To RESIST Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary ROBIN CARTON & NoamChom­ independent journalist Laura Flanders CAROLSCHACHET sky, a RESIST looks beyond mainstream sources to -=; founding member call for accountability and change. ~ adical politics and a and leading critic of US The 40thAnniversary gathering pro- ~ kick-ass party-that imperialism, compares then and vided an opportunity to consider RE- t urns up RESIST's now. Outspoken military resister SIST's roots and impact on movements ·g 00 40th anniversary celebration Camilo Mejia tells his story of for social and economic justice. As the ~ ~ in October, where hundreds conscienti9us objection against the song says, those roots run deep. : ~ heard some of today's leading pro­ Iraq War that rages beyond the line ~ ~ continued on page eight ~ Q gressive voices discuss grassroots of sight of most Americans. Mandy ~~ activism. And then danced! Carter, strategist and organizer in Inside: :~ This issue of the Newsletter offers the Black, LGBTQ and women's Noam Chomsky ......................... p.2 <-S' ]~ a taste of the fun and spirited thinking movements, challenges us to think Camilo Mejia ............................ p.4 y~ ~ '½ from that event. You will find remarks and act beyond whatever subgroup 40th Anniversary Photos ........... p. 6 Mandy Carter ............................ p. 9 .5 f from our panelists on the question of re­ of the movement we find ourselves ~ ~ sisting illegitimate authority today-the Bill Fletcher, Jr........................ p. 10 ~~ in. For labor activist Bill Fletcher, 0- theme of RESIST since its founding in Jr., the future calls for a new kind Laura Flanders ........................ p. 11 ~ f;- 1967 during the Vietnam War. of confederation. And radio and Recent Grant Recipients .......... p.12 ~ ~ E--; ~ NON-PROFIT ORG. RESIST U.S. POSTAGE PAID 259 Elm Street, Suite 201 BOSTON, MASS. Somerville, MA 02144 PERMIT #2956 www.resistinc.org [email protected] 617/623-5110 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED Vol. 16 #6 RESIST Newsletter Pagel Resisting Authority-Then and Now NOAM CHOMKSY issue embarrassingly mild protests against the war. The protests then t's 40 years since we issued the "Call to were mostly against the bombing Iresist illegitimate authority." I thought of North Vietnam which was bad at the time that it was quite an appropri­ enough, but a side show. The main ate and powerful document, despite some attack was against South Vietnam, reservations that I had about the title of the it always was. document. When we talk about "resisting illegitimate authority," it presupposes that Activism Today illegitimate authority is somehow an odd­ , om h m The circumstances are quite ity, that the norm is legitimate authority. different now, and in many ways We should really look at it the other way much improved. Repression today Noam Chomsky participated in RESIST's 40th Anniversary around. Authority is illegitimate, it has to celebration. Photo by Anh Dao Kolbe may be wiretapping, but it's not prove itself, and it very rarely can. The political assassination and mass burden of proof is on authority, not on op­ geting just about everybody: Puerto Rican efforts by the political police to posing authority, and that's true in every nationalists, the Socialist Workers Party, the destroy any popular movement. There's a aspect of life. incipient women's movement, all the black war, a terrible war, but it's not a half a mil­ The title of "the Call" made sense at the movements, the entire New Left. lion troops and 60,000 or 70,000 Korean time because the idea of resisting authority One of the unfortunately unforgettable and Thai mercenaries wiping out South was pretty much on the margin. In 1967, early moments in RESIST was when a Vietnam and then going on later to destroy there wasn't much of a sense of challeng­ couple of board members flew to Chicago continued on page three ing institutions, but rather mostly kind of a in 1969 just to be present at the funeral for cultural challenge-to do things differently, Fred Hampton. He was the black organizer or to be a hippie or something like that. In who was assassinated in a literal Gestapo­ contrast, the idea of actually challenging style assassination set up by the FBI and existing institutions and their behavior was implemented by the Chicago poijce. But the pretty remote from consciousness. crime elicited far too little concern. Repres­ sion was severe, there was a war going on, The Roots of RESIST and in effect RESIST itself was focused Nowadays things look pretty ugly in primarily on resistance to the war. many ways, but it looked a lot worse in The war itself had already been going 1967. By then, the effectiveness of the civil on for years by then. There was so little ILLEGITIMATI AUTIIORlff rights movement as a mass popular move­ protest that people don't even remember ,...,.,,, W;t-..( ~ ~ "61 ment ran aground when it addressed ques­ when it started as an actual war, rather For Information and grant guidelines, write to: tions of class. When the focus shifted from than repression, subversion and the like. RESIST, 259 Elm St., Suite 201 racist sheriffs in Alabama to hit privilege That was 1962, when John F. Kennedy Somerville, MA 02144 www.reslstlnc.org;[email protected] and power, it quickly collapsed. It's worth sent the U.S. Air Force to start bombing recalling that Martin Luther King was as­ South Vietnam, initiated chemical warfare Resist Newsletter is published six times a sassinated when he was planning to lead a programs to destroy crops, livestock and year by RESIST, Inc., (617)623-5110. The views expressed in articles, other than edi­ ground cover. That's a major war. By 1965 Poor People's Movement, something that torials, are those of the authors and do not was not acceptable. the war had in fact expanded. The U.S. was necessarily represent the opinions of the At the time we issued the "Call to re­ starting to bomb North Vietnam. But even RESIST staff or board. sist," the civil rights movement had pretty then protest was very limited. well disappeared. There was barely the The first major public protest against RESIST Staff: Robin Carton Yafreisy Mejia the war was October 1965, the first in­ beginning of a feminist movement. There Carol Schachet was no environmental movement, and no ternational day of protest. We did have one talked about issues like gay rights. a demonstration at the Boston Common, RESIST Interns: Alex Hart Repression at that time was far more se­ a rally at the Boston Common, or rather Malika McCray vere than it is today. There's nothing now intended to. It was just broken up violently Jean Smith by students, among others. You couldn't like COINTELPRO, for example. A major Anniversary Queen: Diana Digges ·government operation that ran through four hear a word any speaker was saying. If administrations, mainly Kennedy, Johnson, you listened to the radio that day or read Newsletter Editor: Carol Schachet and Nixon, COINTELPRO was carried out the Boston Globe the next day it was full of Printing: Red Sun Press O ~ ­ by the national political police, the FBI, tar- bitter denunciations ofpeople who dared to Printed on Recycled Paper with Soy lnlc Pagel RESIST Newsletter November/December 2007 Resisting Authority-Then and Now continuedfrom pag_e two most of the rest of Indo-China. At the time we issued the "Call to resist," Unlike Vietnam, the Iraq War is the first one in the history of western imperialism the civil rights movement had pretty well as far as I can recall where there was mass popular protest before the war was even disappeared. There was barely the officially launched. And it continues, not beginning of a feminist movement. There at a level that \Ye'd all like to see, but way beyond the level of any comparable stage was no environmental movement, and no of the Vietnam War. The situation now is one in which we one talked about issues like gay rights. can think seriously about resisting authority tern of corporate power at home, something that was almost unimaginable in the 1960s but is taking place now in many ways. That brings me t9 my second example. The main concern of people at home for a long time has been the health care system, which is a total catastrophe. A majority of the population for decades has been in favor of national health care, perhaps something like extending Medicare to the whole population, which would be far more efficient. Despite popular support, such a notion has never even arisen in a political cam­ Camilo Mejia (left) and Noam Chomsky (right) consider Mandy Carter's analysis during the RESIST paign. As recently as 2004, if it was even panel. Photo by Anh Dao Kolbe mentioned, health care reform was called across a broad spectrum. When you take a ity, Americans and Iranians agree that the "politically impossible" or "lacking po­ look at the country now, I suspect that ifyou whole region should be a nuclear weapons­ litical support''-meaning it doesn't matter counted noses, there's much more activism free zone, including Iran, Israel, and any how much the population wants it because than there was in the '60s.