Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Resist Newsletters Resist Collection 9-23-1968 Resist Newsletter, Sept. 1968 Resist Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter Recommended Citation Resist, "Resist Newsletter, Sept. 1968" (1968). Resist Newsletters. 128. https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter/128 a call to resist ....... illegitimate authority 23 Septe~•er 1968 - 763 M~ssachusetts Avenue, i/4, Camerid~e, Mass., .Newsletter i/16 THE TRIAL OF THE CATONSVILLE NINE A REP.ORT . .ON. .THE. PARIS TALKS The trial of the Catonsville Nine (Cornell Professor Douglas Dowd, for burning draft board records will member of the Mobilization Steering begin in Baltimore on October 7. We Committee, was one of five American want to share with you some information scholars who recently spent 13 hours about and perspective on the trial, and over two days in discussions in Paris to urge you to join us in activities with North Vietnam's top negotiators. related to the event and to the more The views are his, and the statistics general needs of the anti-war movement. are those given to him and his col­ leagues by the North Vietnamese. The Baltimore trial will be short These figures also were checked with and highly political, both inside and U.S. records. His account of the outside the courtroom. The group has Paris meeting is here printed com­ decided upon a "collective defense"; plete, and it is used by permission. the team of lawyers is led by William From The Ithaca Journal, 13 September, Kunstler. They will not ask for a 1968.) jury (partly because choosing a jury is usually time-wasting and undramatic, By DOUGLAS F. DOWD and partly because judges tend to re­ In June. Dave Dellinger was in Paris talking strict evidence more sharply in jury with representatives of the Peace Delegation of trials). They expect the trial to North Vietnam. They asked him if he· could lo.cate five American scholars to meet with them for an last only 4 or 5 days. The defense exchange of views. The result was that on will be organized primarily to main­ September 4, George McT. Kahin (Cornell), tain and underline the political stand Jonathan Mirsky ( Dartmouth l. Marilyn Blatt Young ( U. of Michigan l, Howard Zinn ( Boston taken by the group. Univ . l and I flew to Paris, where we began to meet with l~aders of the delegation on Sept. 5. Of the Politically, their position is several Vietnamese present at our discussions, the summarized by the following quotations most important were Minister Xuan , Thuy (Harriman' s counterpart l. Nguyen Thanh Le from their statement, issued at the (official spokesman for the North Vietnamese time of the burning: "We, American delegation l. Nguyen Minh Vy (Deputy to the citizens, have worked with the Poor in National Assembly l Xuan Oanh (Head of the Peace Committee of North Vietnam). Our the ghetto and abroad. In the course meetings went on for two days, with conversatioµs of our Christian ministry we have extending over thirteen hours. We were informed watched our country produce more vic­ that those with whom we spo,ke had full powers not only to express views to us, but to make decisions tims than an army of us could console at the Paris talks - something Ambassador or restore." "We destroy these draft Harriman apparently does not have. records not only because they exploit Our first hours were spent. largely in answering questions about the United States: What have ~een our young men, but because those rec­ the attitudes of Americans toward the war since ords represent misplaced power, con­ the beginning o'f the year? In what directions is the centrated in the ruling class of anti-war movement going? What do Americans thinks is happening at Paris? What of the GOP and America." Democratic platforms? What changes if any might be expected . as regards the war thrqughout this "Representing only 6% of the year? How can the war be ended, as we and our world's people, America controls half friends see things? Among those Americans who wish an end to the war which wish to see it end with of the world's productive wealth and freedom and independence for the Vietnamese, 60% of its finance. With our and which wish to see it end but with a subject annual budget of $80 billion plus, the Vietnam? What steps can LBJ himself take toward ending military now controls over half of the the war before he leaves office? What has been the federal property in the world (53% of American reaction to the defeat of the McCarthy, $183 billion). U.S. overkill capacity McGovern, and Kennedy forces at the Chicago convention? It is likely__that a coalition of those Cont. on p. 2 Page 2 The defendents understand that clearly; Catonsville Nine, cont. from p. 1 indeed, they hope their actions will be an inspiration to others. Philip and conventional weaponry exceeds that Berrigan has said, "these are times of the military might of the entire for confronting injustice •.. and to world." confront it justly, non-violently, and with maximum exposure of oneself and "A nation that found life through one's future." revolution has now become the world's number one counterrevolutionary force, not because Ameri can people would have ACTION i t that way, but be cause the rich choose to def end t h e ir power and 1 . We encourage people to use the we a l th. " "We b e lie ve some property October 5- 7 dates as a f ocus f or h as no right t o exi s t. Hitler's gas d irect action a n d o ther p ublic activ­ ovens, Stalin's c on centrati on camps, i t ies directed a gainst t he draft and a t omic-bac teriological-ch emi cal weap­ the war. Ma ny of y ou will be organ­ onry, files of c onscrip tion and s l um izing towards actions a r ound election prope rties are examples h avi ng no day or t oward the national draft card right to e x ist." "Finally, we are turn-in on November 1 4; we feel that appalled by the ruse of the Ame rican October 7 will be a good stepping­ ruling class invoking the cry for 'Law stone for such organizing. Others and Order' to mask and perpe tuate in­ will feel, we think, a keen sense of justice." "Let our preside nt and the unity with the Nine, and will identi­ pillars of society speak of 'Law and fy both with their militancy and their Justice,' and back up their words with political position. For many the date deeds, and there will be 'Order.' We early in October will provide a good have pleaded, spoken, marched and first opportunity to bring together nursed the victims of their injustice. anti-war forces in your community Now this injustice must be faced, and after the summer. this we intend to do ...• " We are suggesting no one particu­ On the morning the trial opens a lar form for such actions, though march will be held from Wyman Park to draft boards and other military instal­ the courtroom. From 6 to 8 each eve­ lations are obvious focusses. This ning there will be a communi ty supper might provide an opportunity to ap­ for all those attending and p artici­ proach men in the military or the pating. From 8:30 on each evening national guard: h e re are two men, there will be forums in which the one a priest, already serving s ix political a nd moral points of the years in jail; the rest face up to defendents' actions can be de eloped, thirty years. We think soldiers will in which witnesses whose testi mony h as be interes t e d i n their acts, because been e xcluded from court can " testi f y" those acts are con cret e a t t empts by about t he r ealities of America p o licy, "safe" civilians to change what i n Vi etnam and e l sewhere, and i n wh ich America is doing to its young me n others in the a n ti- war movement can and to men and women, young and old, join with the men and women on trial . throughout the world. We also exp ect t h at some d i r e ct We think it will be particularly actions will be organized bef o re a nd important for those connected with during the trial in Baltimo re and e lse­ universities or schools to use this where. I should point out that Father opportunity. It may be a good time Philip Berrigan and Tom Lewis are to reestablish the practice of teach­ already serving six-year terms for ins, particularly in the context of their initial act of pouring blood on establishing sanctuary for a resister Baltimore draft files. It would not or soldier. Sanctuary on university be surprising if maximum sentences campuses can help to do many of the were given in this case too, especially organizing, unifying, and educational if other direct actions against draft tasks we see as essential to the boards occur in connection with it. movement. And it raises fundamental Cont. on p. 4 Page 3 forces will emerge now? Is it likely that there will believed that he meant that more bombs would be be any joint action between the various segments concentrated in a smaller area, doing more of the anti-war movement? damage to civilians? How could he have said that Given the different perspectives of the five only 10 per cent of the North Vietnamese Americans, the answers tended to be at least population lives in the area between the 17th and somewhat diverse ; they are in any case of less 20th parallels, when in fad over four million interest than what we learned from the North people (of 16 million) live in that area? How could Yietnamese.