THE LBJ's Viet Formula: MILITANT Bomb, Strafe …LBJ's Viet Formula: Bomb, Strafe Hanoi; Offer to...
Transcript of THE LBJ's Viet Formula: MILITANT Bomb, Strafe …LBJ's Viet Formula: Bomb, Strafe Hanoi; Offer to...
THEMILITANTPublished in the Interest of the Working People
Vol. 30 - No. 47 Monday, December 26, 1966 10c
Struggle to Save Blanco Continues
Peruvian supporters o f Hugo Blanco are m aking heroic efforts to save the life of the imprisoned peasant leader.
In L im a, radio and television have sought to rem ain completely s ilent about Blanco, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison fo r his a c tiv ity in organizing landless peasants and who now faces possible execution. In order to break through the curta in of silence around the case, a crowd o f women blocked tra ff ic d irectly in fro n t o f Channel 5 television station on A requipa Avenue.
The demonstration was a big success, the narrow street being so completely choked tha t nothing could get through fo r some time. The demonstration won a report on Channel 5, bu t the press remained silent.
On the occasion of Blanco’s b irthday, a group o f women succeeded in v is it in g h im at E l F rontón prison. They brought food and presents fo r h im . They also brought guitars and serenaded him . The prison inmates were reported deeply moved by the demonstration.
Meanwhile, these actions were reported in various countries on behalf o f B lanco whose 25-year sentence is now being reviewed by a m ilita ry tr ib u n a l w h ich is also weighing a prosecution re quest to change the sentence to death.
• In Paris, 31 prom inent architects sent a telegram to Peru u rg ing amnesty fo r Blanco.
• Ten L a tin Am erican workers a t UNESCO sent a telegram to President Belaunde T e rry appealing to h im to act on behalf of Blanco.
• In Greece, representatives of the U nited Union tendency, the newspaper O Logos Mas (O ur W o rld ), M arx is tiko D eltio (M a rx is t B u lle tin ), the magazine, The In te llectua l, the Committee fo r Peace and the Committee fo r A id to the People of V ietnam sent a le tte r to Belaúnde T e rry demanding amnesty fo r Blanco and his comrades. The le tte r was signed by professors, students, unionists and intellectuals.
• In France, 70 Peruvian c itizens residing in Paris cabled Be-
Belaunde T e rry demanding amnesty. A s im ila r telegram was sent by 32 La tin American artists, w rite rs and poets liv in g in Paris. Telegrams were also sent by the French Committee fo r S o lidarity w ith the People o f La tin America, the French Committee fo r Solid a rity w ith the V ictim s of Repressions in Peru, and the In te rnationa l League fo r the Rights of Man.
. • In Sweden, the government scheduled a ceremony at the u n iversity tow n of Upsala where a roya l princess was to o ffic ia te in granting $75,000 to bu ild a school in Peru. B u t because of the w idespread agitation on behalf o f Hugo Blanco, the Peruvian ambassador was a fra id to show up fo r the check. He sent an underling. This unfortunate person was met by a huge street demonstration carry ing banners tha t read, “ Freedom fo r Hugo Blanco!” The students shouted “ fascist” at the Peruvian d iplomat. The newspapers published candid photos o f the un lucky p r in cess. She was on the ru n, w ith students close behind, shouting in favo r of Hugo Blanco.
From Paris, the te x t o f remarks on behalf o f Blanco by Jean-Paul Sartre have been reported. Sartre was the p rinc ipa l speaker at a huge meeting Nov. 28 on behalf o f the W ar Crimes T ribunal. In his expression of so lidarity w ith Blanco, Sartre said:
“ The struggle of the V ie tnamese people is the main combat being carried on today against American im perialism . I t is not the only one. In Peru, the fo rm er student and great peasant leader, Hugo Blanco, is threatened w ith .be ing shot any day.
“ H is crim e: to have unionized the most poverty-stricken ru ra l areas o f the country fo r the firs t time. Unionized and educated, the peasants began to recuperate thé land w hich the b ig landowners had stolen from them ; and began demanding a better standard of l iv ing. T he ir movement ran up against the ‘democracy’ o f the m ilita ry — violence.
“ Hundreds of peasants were massacred, and in the struggle, three policemen were k illed . I t is fo r the death of these puppets tha t Blanco must now ‘pay’ . .
LBJ's Viet Formula:Bomb, Strafe Hanoi;Offer to Talk ‘Peace’
By Dick RobertsDEC. 20 — Washington made
another phony Christmas “ peace o ffe r” at the U nited Nations yesterday. U.S. Ambassador Goldberg instructed Secretary General Thant to “ b ring about the necessary discussions w h ich could lead to . . . a cease-fire.” B u t Goldberg’s note expressed absolutely no change in W ashington’s policies towards the w ar. I t boils down to the to ta lly unacceptable position tha t i f Hanoi agrees to negotiate, Washington m ight cease fire .
This has been ju s tif ia b ly rejected by Hanoi before and i t w il l be again. Washington is the aggressor in V ietnam and has no r ig h t to dictate terms to anyone. And even though north V ietnam is being battered by U.S. bombing attacks day a fte r day, Hanoi courageously refuses to negotiate in the name of the south V ie tnamese National L ibera tion F ro n t
I t is hard enough to believe Johnson a fte r his record of the previous tw o Christmases. In the Democratic P a rty ’s 1964 election “ peace campaign” swindle, one o f the slogans was “ the troops w il l be home by Christmas.” Then Christmas came only to fin d Johnson tu rn ing down peace efforts and preparing fo r the m ajor escalations of the w ar w hich occurred the fo llow ing February and March: f irs t the bombing of north V ie tnam; and then the sending o f combat Marines to south Vietnam.
In the Christmas period o f 1965, Johnson launched his notorious “ peace offensive.” B u t as everyone now realizes, th is was nothing else bu t a smokescreen to cover heavy troop reinforcements and preparations fo r the gigantic escala tion of the ground w a r w hich soon followed. As a m atter of fact, 1,400 new Am erican troops arrived in V ietnam yesterday, the day of the UN offer, b ring ing the to ta l U.S. troop strength there over the 370,000 mark.
B u t w ha t makes th is particu la r Christmas o ffe r doubly hard to
Photo b y F in e r
SOLID GRIP. A.J. Muste shakes hand of well-w isher as cops lead him off during Dec. 15 protest against U.S. bombing of Hanoi. Muste, chairman of Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee, and 52 other antiwar activists were arrested for staging demonstrations in defiance of regulation at central New York induction center. Some hundred others picketed in front of building.
stomach is the fact tha t i t fo llows by only s ix days the horrendous escalation of the w a r invo lved in the U.S. bombings o f Hanoi popula tion centers, Dec. 13 and 14. The Johnson adm in istra tion ’s arrogant contempt fo r human life and human intelligence appears to have reached new heights.
That a m ajor escalation was in tended, and tha t i t was part of the “ contingency” plans long studied in the U.S. ru lin g circles, was c learly established Dec. 17. The admission came in the fo rm of an artic le in the New York Times by the well-known m outhpiece o f the Pentagon, Hanson W. Baldw in.
“ W ithout public announcement,” B a ldw in stated, “ the m ilita ry pressure upon north V ietnam is being
slow ly increased. Targets o f key importance — very close to Hanoi, the no rth Vietnamese capita l — have been bombed fo r the f irs t tip ie recently . . . These had long been on the target lis t approved by the Jo in t Chiefs o f S taff, bu t had not been approved by h igher au thority u n til recently.”
W hich means in so many words: Johnson was perfectly aware o f the orders to bomb w orkers’ homes in Hanoi — he gave them. I t confirm s the reports in the internationa l press o rig in a lly denied in Washington. According to New Y ork Times correspondent R. W. Apple, Jr., w r it in g from Saigon, Dec. 14:
“ A Western trave le r who saw yesterday’s Am erican a ir raids
(Continued on Page 4)
McKissick at Detroit Ghetto Rally
FREE HUGO BLANCO. On Nov. 24, the m ilitant Federación de Construcción C ivil union held a street demonstration in Lima demanding amnesty for the revolutionary peasant leader. Speaking is Rolando Riega, defense secretary of the Federación de Pescadores, whose strike is paralyzing the fish industry.
By Derrick MorrisonD ETR O IT — Over 600 black
people jammed in to Central United Church of C hrist here on Dec. 11 to listen to F loyd McKissick, nationa l d irector o f the Congress of Racial E qua lity (CORE). The meeting was sponsored by the In ner C ity Organizing Committee (ICO C) and D e tro it CORE.
“ 1966 is a ve ry h istoric year,” M cKissick said, “ I t is the year when the Negro became a black man; when he said, ‘No longer w il l I le t you give me citizenship by degrees.’ ” Answering those critics of b lack power w ho. ca ll i t a mere slogan, he said, “ B lack power is a slogan, a philosophy“ and a program. Everybody has a slogan — Pepsi Cola, Ivo ry Soap. The purpose of a slogan is to identify , to attract, to draw attention. As a philosophy, i t is a method of th ink ing.
“ These words, black power, cause a tremendous amount of re sentment b e c a u s e everybody knows Negroes don’t have power. I t draws the line between those who are fo r you and those who are against you. The black man is Am erica’s conscience. B lack power pricks tha t conscience. The w h ite man has a ll the power. When black people take power,
they have got to get 10 percent of the w hite power. Whites resent black power also because they recognize the Golden Rule: ‘I f the niggers get power, they w i l l do to us w ha t we have always been doing to them.’ ”
M cKissick then ran down the recent h is to ry o f the c iv il rights movement. “ For the last 10 years, in tegration has been the goal f i t the struggle. Every conceivable ‘-in ’ was used to a tta in th a t goal. You could integrate the tow n houses, H o liday Inns, H oward Johnson’s, etc., bu t you could on ly get in to these places i f you had money. Then we w ent to cap ita listic society’s headquarters, Washington, D.C., to picnic. That was the end of the struggle fo r in te gration. A fte r the struggle, every employer had the ir Negro, w hich was ju s t tokenism. As long as you fig h t to be integrated in to cap ita lis t society and the Man controls the society, he can decide the tempo o f your struggle.
“ The Man says 'As long as I control the mines, factories and the land, I can set up the standards of beauty. As long as they spend tim e try in g to do something tha t they can’t, i.e., become w hite, they’l l die frustra ted and never get in .’
“ The in tegration struggle was ju s t fo r 10 percent of the b lack population, the Negro m iddle class, b u t even they haven’t been absorbed. They’ve been te lling you to get an education and a ll your problems w il l be solved. But,
(Continued on Page 3)Floyd McKissick
Page Two TH E M IL IT A N T Monday, December 26, 1966
Fight Against Price Gougers Gets Aid from Seattle Unions
By Doris Lewis
Johnson has again invoked the Taf t-H a rtl ey A c t against a s tr ik ing union. This tim e he is assaulting 2,100 members o f the United Steelworkers at the Kokomo, Ind., p lan t o f Union Carbide. The s tr ike is p a rt o f a la rger struggle against U nion Carbide w hich also involves tw o other unions, the O il, Chemical and A tom ic W orkers and the In te rna tiona l Chemical W orkers. A to ta l o f over 8,000 w orkers have walked out at 11 o f the company’s plants in several cities.
The dispute is over negotiation o f new contracts. U nion demands include h igher pay, added fringe benefits and improved health and safety standards. The key issue Involves correction of a situation in w h ich the unions have had separate contracts at the d iffe ren t p lants w ith va ry ing exp ira tion dates.
On the w orkers’ side, the demand is fo r coordinated bargainin g — on a m u lti-un ion , m u ltip lan t basis — fo r common union goals. A lthough the corporation sets un ifo rm labor policies from a single headquarters in New Y o rk , i t is b itte r ly resisting the un ion demand. I t wants to continue p lay ing one union o ff against the other, as i t has been doing. F o r tha t reason, U nion Carbide insists tha t contracts be negotiated union by union, p lan t by plant.
W hen the previous contracts began to expire, the company opened hostilities last Ju ly , by locking ou t some 1,200 members o f the O il W orkers at A lloy , West Va. La te r i t tr ied to reopen the p lant and the union turned the lockout in to a strike. W orkers at other U nion Carbide plants jo ined the ba ttle as th e ir old contracts expired.
Toward the end o f November, the company im ported strike breakers to reopen its p lan t at Ashtabula, Ohio, where about 850 members o f the U nited Steelworkers have w alked out. The union reacted w ith mass p icketing to b lock p lan t entrances. Copying U.S. m ilita ry tactics against V ie tnamese revolutionists, the company got itse lf some helicopters. These were used to supply scabs holed up in the p lan t u n til, about a week later, a local court issued an in junc tion lim it in g the union to fo u r pickets at each p lan t gate.
Now Johnson has jo ined in the strikebreaking assault by using the T a ft-H a rtle y A c t against w orkers at the Kokom o plant. C yn ica lly enough, the company chose tha t occasion to decree an average increase of 17 percent in prices fo r electronic components i t produces.
The s tr ik in g unions have called fo r a boycott o f U nion Carbide products. These include Prestone antifreeze, Eveready batteries, Bakeli te, Glad Bags, and Englander mattresses and beds.
• • •On Dec. 14 members of the
U nited Steelworkers struck Kaiser Steel a t Fontana, C alif. The shutdown was called by the local
un ion ’s grievance committee when company o ffic ia ls refused to ta lk about a num ber of old grievances.
According to the Dec. 15 Los Angeles Times: “ The w ildca tstrike came as a surprise to the steel industry, as Kaiser and the union are partners in a unique fo rm ula plan fo r sharing profits. One o f the purposes o f the plan is to e lim inate strikes.”
The local’s executive board passed a resolution c iting an arb itra tion clause in the contract and ordering the w orkers back to th e ir jobs. A membership meeting was called at w hich the local union president and an internationa l representative urged an im mediate re tu rn to w ork. Both were booed by the workers who voted to continue the strike.
“ I f a ll 6,000 members of th is union stick together,” the ohair- m an o f the grievance committee to ld the meeting, “ they’l l ta lk to us.”
* * *
A “ w ildca t” s trike erupted Dec. 13 at the Am erican Machine and Foundry p lan t in Garden C ity, Long Island, w hich makes steel casings fo r bombs. The strikers belong to the U nited A u to W orkers.
A fte r the 11 p.m. lunch break, n igh t sh ift workers refused to re sume w o rk in a protest over unsettled grievances. The shutdown continued when day workers re fused to cross p icket lines set up by the n igh t sh ift. T he ir g rievances include excessive hours, low pay and bad p lan t ventila tion.
U A W offic ia ls said the stoppage is “ not authorized.”
A settlement has been reached in a 58-day strike o f 1,100 UAW members at General E lectric ’s Carboloy p lan t in D etro it, M ich. On economic matters the terms are s im ila r to those o f a national contract w ith GE recently negotia ted by several A FL -C I O unions. O f tw o key local issues in dispute, a gain is reported on one re la ting to improvements in the sen iority pool as a cushion against layoffs.
The other issue involved w hat the union described as a demand by GE “ fo r the discharge o f tw o men, w ith 12 and 15 years seniority , who,” the company says, “ were engaged in a p icket line argument.” GE agreed to change the ir status to “ la id o ff,” instead o f fired .
As an a lib i fo r settling on tha t basis, a Reutherite “ statesman” argued tha t the change w il l enable the tw o men to collect unemployment insurance and put them in a better position to get new jobs. Strong opposition to ca lling o ff the strike on such terms was voiced w ith in the union membership.
* * *
“ A recent study conducted at the U n ive rs ity o f C a liforn ia at Los Angeles confirm s w hat most o f us have long know n — tha t textbooks used by high school students give a distorted and unfavorable v iew o f unions.” — Textile Labor, November, 1966.
SEATTLE — The Women fo r Low er Prices o f the Puget Sound area has begun to approach trade unions, demanding support fo r its f ig h t against high prices. Mrs. Rowena Schell and Mrs. Deborah Leonard spoke before the K ing County Labor Council on Dec. 7.
Pointing out tha t “ the members of our organization are m arried to the members of your organizations,” Mrs. Leonard stated tha t “ we got together because no one else was doing the job — not the government, not big business, and even the unions haven’t done enough. Wage increases during the past year have not kept pace w ith ris ing prices so that buying power has actually decreased.”
“ We’ve gone in the hole since m y husband’s last raise,” Mrs. Schell added. “ We’re caught in an in fla tio na ry spira l and we’re on the losing end.”
Open the BooksThe women are stressing the ir
demand tha t the supermarkets open th e ir books to the public. A leafle t being d istributed by the W FLP points out tha t “ these chain markets own the ir own dairies, plants, factories, bakeries, w arehouses and d is tribu tion centers. They control many of th e ir own products from the fie ld to the m arket shelf. Figures show a substantia l increase in pro fits fo r these superm arket chains during the past year. We w il l not be deceived by the ir public relations men who c ry poverty ye t do not deny tha t theirs is a good investment.”
The women are ca lling fo r the e lim ina tion of fr il ls , advertising gimmicks, games and costly displays and celebrities from the stores. They oppose a sales tax on food products. And they are adamant in the ir demand fo r qual i t y products in the face o f advice to budget more care fu lly and avoid brand names.
Response from the unions has been good. On a d ivided vote, the K in g County Labor Council voted to support the supermarket boy-
As th is column is turned in fo r issue of The M ilita n t, datelin ed Dec. 26 (ou r deadline is always one week early) there are jus t exactly tw o weeks to go to collect the $18,000 P a rty B u ild ing Fund. E igh t branches are now in the 100 percent or over category. Detro it and New Y o rk are on schedule, b u t the rest o f the cities are in troub le unless they p u t on a concerted d rive to collect and send in th e ir money quickly.
M ary Jane, the fund d irector
cott. A vote o f endorsement also came from Local 2 o f the B rick layers, Masons and Plasterers’ In ternational Union a fte r the women spoke before a special membership meeting on Dec. 8. F inancial support, requested by the women to pay fo r “ babysitters, gas, telephone b ills , stamps, in k and paper” has also been promised.
A fte r g r ill in g s ix representatives of the W FLP fo r seven hours on Nov. 26, the Legislative Council’s Committee on Commerce, Industry , Trade and Professions voted to recommend a full-scale investigation of ris ing food and meat prices to the State Legislature when i t convenes in Olympia, Wash., in January. The women are w e ll aware, however, th a t such an investigation m igh t w e ll take several years and accomplish lit t le . Concrete immediate measures recommended by the W FLP were rejected.
Meetings have also been set up w ith D is tr ic t 751 of the In te rnationa l Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which has ju risd ic tion over Boeing w o rk ers, and Local 6 of the B u ild ing Service Employees Union.
The W FLP is also attem pting to establish ties w ith s im ila r groups across the nation. As one woman p u t it , “ A & P is a nationa l chain. We better organize na tiona lly to fig h t it . ”
Inflation Pace SettersThe Dec. 1 W all Street Journa l
lists the fo llow ing items among those whose prices have climbed most sharply since December 1965; auto registration, 10.3 percent; hospital charges, 9.9 percent; m ortgage interest, 9.0 percent; local trans it fares, 9.0 percent; movie admission, 7.7 percent and doctors’ fees, 6.6 percent.
“ Despite a ll seeming wranglings, sometimes even wars, among them the cap ita lis t class is in ternational, and presents a united fro n t against the w ork ing cl a ss .” —Daniel DeLeon.
fo r Denver w hich came in at 104 percent, promises at least $12 more im m ediately.
One good friend, A.F.F. o f Jersey C ity, N.J., sent in $5 w ith a le tte r you w il l f in d in the Letters F rom O ur Readers column. A n other $5 came from D. P. Gary, Ind . We thank them both.
T im e is fly in g by. I f you have not already done so, please use the coupon at the bottom of the page fo r your contribu tion to the fund.
THE W E E K L Y CALENDAR, previously found on this page, will now appear on page 7.
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F u n d S c o re b o a rdBranch Quota Paid PercentMinneapolis-St. Paul $ 1,000 $ 1,110 110Denver 100 104 104Allentown 135 135 100Boston 1,000 L000 100Chicago 1,500 1,500 100Cleveland 900 900 100Oakland-Berkeley 1,000 1,000 100St. Louis 150 150 100D etro it 1,200 1,055 88New Y ork 4,800 4,136 86M ilw aukee 400 286 72San Diego 125 87 70San Francisco 1,000 649 65Seattle 250 150 60Los Angeles 4,000 2,388 60N ew ark 100 50 50Philadelphia 450 210 47General 155 —
Totals through Dec. 19 $18,110 $15,055 80
SOCIALIST FUND
Just 2 W eeks to Go!By Marvel Scholl
Fund D irector
Socialist Workers Vote in New York Finally Reported
Terrence Hallinan Wins Fight in Calif. To Practice Law
NEW Y O R K — O ific ia l state re turns have been issued fo r the Nov. 8 elections. The Socialist W orkers ticke t was credited w ith the fo llow ing votes: Judy W hite fo r governor and R ichard Garza fo r It. governor, 12,506 votes; Ralph L e v itt fo r contro ller, 14,609; Paul Boutelle fo r attorney general, 12,333.
The Socialist Labor ticke t was credited w ith these votes: M ilton Herder and Doris B allantyne fo r governor and It. governor, 12,730; John Emanuel, fo r contro ller, 11,177 votes. The SLP d id not nominate a candidate fo r attorney general.
A n interesting aspect o f the vote is the difference in the re turns fo r New Y ork C ity and the rest of the state. In the c ity , where both the SWP and SLP d id the bu lk of th e ir campaigning and received most of the ir radio and T V time, the SWP gubernatoria l candidate polled 8,952 votes as against 4,238 fo r the SLP.
This p re tty much confirm s, as was evident throughout the campaign, tha t in the c ity the SWP had the support o f the bu lk o f the radical-m inded voters.
In the rest o f the state, w here ne ither pa rty reached sign ifican t numbers of voters and where the SLP had the advantageous ba llo t position, the SLP was the recip ient o f the general socialist and protest vote.
A v ic to ry fo r c iv il liberties was won in C a lifo rn ia on Dec. 16 when Terrence Hallm an, an tiw a r activ ist and founding member o f the DuBois Clubs, was adm itted to the C a liforn ia bar by a decision o f the State Supreme Court. The 29-year-old activ is t is the son of V incent H allinan, who ran fo r President on the Progressive Party ticke t in 1952.
In a 6-1 vote, the court overturned a previous decision o f the Committee o f B ar Exam iners w h ich excluded H a llinan from the la w profession because he “ lacked good m oral character.”
In its w ritte n opinion, the higher court said tha t partic ipation in demonstrations should not make a person u n fit fo r the profession o f law . The one dissenting judge singled out fo r attack H a llinan ’s partic ipa tion in acts o f c iv il disobedience in support o f the c iv il r igh ts struggle.
I Want to HelpI want to help fulfill the quota in the $ 18,000
Socialist Fund. Enclosed is my contribution of.............N A M E ___ _____________________________________________________________
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Monday, December 26, 1966 TH E M IL IT A N T Page Three
... McKissick in DetroitHow Finky Can You Get?
British Sectarian Seeks Court Aid
Thomas Gerard Healy
shyster law yer can appeal to a bourgeois judge’s appreciation of a fine legal point.
Upon learn ing of th is new breach of pro letarian m ora lity , the P o litica l Committee of the Soc ia lis t W orkers P a rty addressed another le tte r to the National Committee of the SLL, pointing out the grave im plications o f resorting to the institu tions o f the class enemy. The fu l l te x t o f this le tte r has been published in the Dec. 23 issue o f W orld Outlook. (A copy of the issue, w hich contains related correspondence, can be obtained by sending f i f t y cents to Box 635, Madison Sq. Station, New Y o rk 10010.)
Healy’s LawyersW ith regard to Healy’s a lib i,
the solicitors h ired by h im say tha t Tate’s le tte r “ describes a disturbance on the pavement outside Caxton H a ll, where a meeting was being held at w h ich our c lien t was a speaker. The le tte r states tha t M r. Healy indicated to his fo llowers tha t the w r ite r of the le tte r should be removed from the fro n t of the ha ll and tha t he was assaulted by supporters of the Socialist Labour League. We are instructed tha t th is is inaccurate. M r. Healy, in fact, asked a steward to clear the pavement in fro n t o f the entrance to the H a ll in order to a llow passengers a ligh ting from coaches to enter the H a ll w ithou t being obstructed.”
On the basis o f this threatening move to drag them in to the muck o f the bourgeois courts, tw o labor papers, Peace News and The So- cia list Leader, w h ich had prin ted Comrade Tate’s le tter, issued retractions and paid the 21 guineas ($29.40) in costs demanded by the national secretary of the Socialist Labour League.
Wants to Muzzle TateIn addition, Healy is try in g to
silence Tate. H is solicitors wrote the socialist who dared to offer a c ritica l pamphlet in fro n t o f an S LL meeting: “ We understandtha t you have circulated copies o f a le tte r to, in te r alios, the editors o f various po litica l publications re fe rring to our c lien t and the Socialist Labour League and containing s im ila r allegations. We must request tha t you re fra in from c ircu la ting such le tters and c ir culars to po litica l offices and magazines.”
The solicitors hired by Healy state tha t i f Tate fa ils to comply, they have been “ instructed” by th e ir c lien t “ to apply fo r an in junction to restra in you from distr ib u tin g letters, circulars, or any other publication containing references w hich are defam atory of our c lien t and the Socialist La bour League.”
Even tha t is not a ll. The great legal b ra in of the S LL is seeking to b ring down a curta in of silence in te rna tiona lly on the beat
ing in flic te d on Ernest Tate in fro n t of a meeting sponsored by the SLL. “ We must w arn you,” continues the solicitors’ le tter, “ tha t you are liable, as d is tribu to r of any publication whether published in th is country or abroad w hich contains s im ila r defam atory allegations.”
And, ju s t to conform to the usual pattern observed by the bourgeois press in such matters, Healy’s newspaper, The News- letter, has said no t a word up to now about the beating and the involvem ent o f the S LL in such a scandalous and reprehensible tactic.
Commendable SilenceThis silence, so commendable
from the bourgeois po in t o f view, has even been m aintained w ith respect to the Nov. 21 le tte r from the National Committee o f the Socia lis t W orkers Party. The Dec. 3 issue of The Newsletter carried a single sentence averring tha t i t was saying noth ing “ fo r legal reasons.”
F rom this, readers o f The Newsle tte r m ight get the impression tha t suit was being brought in a bourgeois court against Healy and not the other way around!
We m arvel at the extraord inary lengths an authority on bourgeois jurisprudence is prepared to go in upholding the majesty o f the law — pa rticu la rly where i t in volves the ancient r ig h t of lords and ladies to descend from coaches and enter public meetings w ithou t the cries of a haw ker of socialist lite ra tu re offending th e ir ears.
However, another fine po in t in bourgeois law and jurisprudence has now arisen. Is i t defam atory to the national secretary of the SLL and in ju rious to his w e ll- know n reputation to say tha t he resorted to the services o f the class enemy in try in g to fu rth e r in ju re and silence a socialist who was beaten in fro n t of an S LL meeting?
Class SympathiesThe charge o f resorting to the
class enemy is even graver than the charge of indu lg ing in hoo liganism, fo r i t d irec tly indicates where the true class sympathies o f the man lie.
W ill Healy rush to his solicitors w ith instructions to seek retractions, indemnities and in junctions against th is charge? We doubt it. I t is scarcely possible tha t even such a renowned expert in bourgeois court procedures and shyster lawsuits w i l l be able to figure out how to drag a socialist in to court fo r charging h im w ith resorting to the bourgeois courts.
M eanwhile Ernest Tate is fig h ting the case. He is c ircu lariz ing the labor press and labor organizations w ith in fo rm ation about the latest developments. A nd so tha t the court o f working-class opinion can judge the m erits of the case, he is quoting the paragraphs in his orig ina l le tte r w hich H ealy has singled out as the basis fo r a suit under bourgeois la w and is also quoting the texts of the solicitors’ letters p rov id ing the o ff ic ia l a lib i offered on Healy’s in structions.
To f ig h t the case and defend his democratic rights, w hich also happen to involve the democratic righ ts of every socialist in B r ita in, Ernest Tate is appealing fo r funds, since he is in no position to assume an outlay such as is often involved in a bourgeois court.
Pending form ation of a defense committee, funds can be sent to h im in care o f Pioneer Book Service, 8 Toynbee Street, London, E .l.
A f in a l puzzler fo r the great legal b ra in o f the S LL — is there any angle under bourgeois law whereby you m igh t sue a socialist fo r setting up a defense com m ittee and appealing fo r funds when his democratic righ ts are under attack in the bourgeois courts?
Rev. Albert Cleage
(Continued from Page 1)in one of the most non-d iscrim ina- to ry areas, the un iversity, a Negro Ph.D. gets $4000 less than a w h ite Ph.D. So the answer is not education. They also te ll you to get a job, b u t in one place w here Negroes were hired, they ju s t moved those whites up the ladder who had the same job experience as the Negroes. So the answer is not getting a job. The answer is tha t we have to abolish racism. W hite people have to be educated to the idea tha t I am a man.”
M cK issick wound up his ta lk by saying, “ O nly place you got equality is on the ba ttle fie ld , in death. They ta lk about nonviolence to us, bu t wage one o f the most ruthless wars in h is to ry in Vietnam. The Man tries to say tha t w ha t’s happening in V ie tnam is separate from w hat is happening here. B u t who is responsible fo r sending b lack youth to Vietnam, who is responsible fo r the fact tha t we make up 30-40 percent o f the figh ting force in Vietnam? The people in Washington. They are the same people who keep black Rhodesians down. You can’t separate the situation here from the situation in the colon ia l w orld .”
Other SpeakersBefore M cK issick spoke, five
others took the rostrum . The centra l theme of the ra lly seemed to be the internationalization o f the struggle by black people in this country fo r b lack power. The A frican and V ietnam revolutions were singled out to get th is idea across.
Ken Cockrel, vice-president of ICOC and a Wayne State U n ive rs ity senior in the law school, started o ff the meeting by denouncing the w ar in V ietnam in order to introduce ICOC’s D ra ft Defense Committee. The Defense Committee is composed p rim a rily of lawyers, and its purpose is to defend b lack youth who refuse to be drafted into Uncle Sam’s global police force.
He also mentioned tha t ICOC is attem pting to set up an Inner C ity Parents and Students organization to deal w ith the problems o f education in the black comm unity, and tha t the Police-Comm un ity Relations Committee of ICOC was demanding tha t a black man be chosen to f i l l the vacancy of prosecutor fo r Wayne County since b lack people constitute the overwhelm ing m a jo rity of v ictim s of police b ru ta lity .
A tto rney M ilto n H enry was the next speaker. He said: “ The lack of power has been the essence of the Negroes’ position in Am erica.” This lack o f power, he pointed out, was the cause o f Negroes being sold out by the ir so-called friends during Reconstruction. He then introduced D r. Is M i E l Am er Iban, an Egyptian doctor in Islam from Cairo who talked w ith the late M alcolm X when he was in Cairo. A fte r ta lk ing about M a lcolm ’s v is it to the Organization o f A frican States and pra ising the black power movement, he said,
“ There is no difference in w hat is going on here and w hat is going on there [A fr ic a ], The w h ite man had better start w o rry in g about our friendship ra ther than us his: the diamonds are on our land, the gold is on our land, and the u ran ium is on our land.”
Al Harrison, chairman of the A fro -A m erican U n ity Movement, was the nex t person to take the rostrum . In re la tion to an inc ident a couple o f weeks back where a b lack youth was arrested fo r stealing a coat from department store and k i ll in g a man w ho tr ied to stop him , H arrison said: "T he Man has got no r ig h t to ca ll nobody a th ie f, m urderer, o r rapist. He should be taken before the W orld C ourt and tr ied fo r genocide.”
On the Democratic P arty , H arrison said: “ The Johnson A d m in is tra tion is Democratic, and any Negro w ho says he is a Democrat is a fool. O ur allies are not in the Democratic o r Republicans parties. O ur allies are anywhere b lack people are being exploited.” On South A frica , H arrison said, “ The diamonds you got on your finger were gotten o ff the sweat and blood o f b lack South A fricans."
B lack PowerAs a prelude to his fund-raising
appeal fo r CORE, Rev. A lb e rt B. Cleage, president of ICOC, gave a short ta lk on b lack power. Rem arking about a meeting o f local Uncle Toms on black power, he said, “ The Toms were against b lack power because they said w h ite fo lks w on’t le t you have power. W ell, nobody lets anybody have power, you have to take power. I f a ll w h ite people are to gether and believe in the same thing, then we w ouldn’t get pow er. B u t w h ite people are no t to gether. B lack people the w o rld over are coming together on the basis o f being exploited. The w h ite man is no t the same today as he was five years ago. The w h ite man is fa llin g apart.
“ Oswald Spengler w rote a book about the decline o f the West. H e stated tha t when a c iv iliza tion starts fa llin g apart, i t cannot stop the process. The c iv iliza tion in w h ich we live is fa llin g apart. V ietnam is where Am erican c iv ilization is com m itting hari-kari. No people except a sick people could act the w ay Am erica is acting in V ietnam . C om m itting atrocities is the po licy o f the U nited States. O n ly a c iv iliza tion begging fo r complete death could be re sponsible fo r Vietnam. The w h ite man is dying on the inside.” The collection raised $580.
TheBlack
P a n t h e rP a r t y
Speech by John Hulett — Interview with Stokely Carmich- ael — Report from Lowndes County
25 cent»
Merit Publisher 5 East Third St.
New York, N.Y. 10003
Malcolm X The Man and
His IdeasBy
George Breitman25 cenfs
MERIT PUBLISHERS 5 East Third St.,
New York, N. Y. 10003
By Joseph HansenIn a previous issue (Nov. 28),
The M ilita n t reported the beating th a t was in flic te d on Ernest Tate a t the entrance o f a meeting held under the auspices o f the Socialis t Labour League a t Caxton H a ll in London Nov. 17. The M ilita n t published in addition the te x t of a le tte r addressed by the National Committee of the Socialist W orkers P a rty to the N ational Comm ittee o f the Socialist Labour League, protesting the use o f physical violence against other tendencies in the labor movement and suggesting tha t the National Committee o f the S LL should at once place its national secretary, Thomas Gerard Healy, on tr ia l, condemn such hoodlum tactics and expel from the ranks of the S L L a ll those involved in th is ug ly incident so rem iniscent of the hooligan tactics employed by the Stalinists in th e ir w orst days.
The SWP also asked the S LL to assure a ll workers organizations In B rita in tha t i t had undertaken measures to prevent any repetitio n of the use o f such tactics against workers exercising the ir democratic r ig h t to d is tribu te soc ia lis t lite ra tu re at the entrance o f S L L meetings.
Instead of responding to th is le tte r in a princ ip led way, the S L L has chosen to take a d iffe ren t course. T he ir decision is to In itia te legal proceedings against Ernest Tate tha t could end w ith h im hauled in to a bourgeois court fo r condemnation before a bourgeois judge!
The excuse seized on fo r th is legal action is a le tte r which Ernest Tate circulated to the la bo r press and labor organizations describing how he was assaulted and charging the national secreta ry of the SLL w ith responsib ility fo r w hat happened.
As Ernest Tate saw it, Healy, a fte r going in to the ha ll, reappeared at the entrance where Tate was o ffe ring fo r sale a socialist pam phlet (Healy "Reconstructs” the Fourth In te rna tiona l) c ritica l o f the SLL, pa rticu la rly its an tidemocratic practices. The national secretary o f the S LL appeared to give an indication. A gang o f his fo llow ers thereupon set upon Tate. They beat h im severely, breaking his glasses and knocking h im to the ground. A fte r he was down, they continued th e ir w ork, k ic k ing h im in the head, kidneys and genitals. The v ic tim had to be hospitalized.
Was Healy personally responsible? He claims to have an a lib i. I t is not one, however, tha t he appears overly proud of. He is n o t in a h u rry to o ffe r i t to the labor movement. I t is the k ind o f a lib i, i t seems, tha t goes best in a bourgeois court where a
SWP Leader Convicted In Detroit Frame-Up
Frank Love ll, the 53-year-old state chairman of the M ichigan Socialist W orkers Party , was convicted in a police fram e-up charge fo r allegedly assaulting a righ t-w inger during an antiw ar ra lly in D etro it, Aug. 6. The r ig h tis t is 32-year-old Donald Lobsin - ger, chairman of the u ltra -r ig h t D e t r o i t organization, B reakthrough.
A fte r a three-day tr ia l, Love ll was found g u ilty o f simple assault on Lobsinger even though the Breakthrough group had attacked the an tiw ar ra lly . Lobsinger adm itted under cross-examination tha t he had been a police in fo rm an t in the past, and had attended numerous le ftis t meetings and provided D e tro it police w ith in fo rm ation on who attended and w hat was said.
The misdemeanor carries a m axim um sentence of 90 days in ja i l o r up to a $100 fine. Love ll is due to be sentenced Dec. 21,
Page Four T H E M IL IT A N T Monday, December 26, 1966
THE MILITANTEditor: JOSEPH H A N S E N
Managing Editor: B A R R Y S H E P P A R D Business Manager: K A R O L Y N K E R R Y
Published w eekly , except during July and August when published b i-w eekly , by The M ilita n t Publishing Ass’n., 873 Broadway, N ew Y ork , N . Y . 10003. Phone 533-6414. Second-class postage paid at N ew Y ork , N . Y . Subscription: $3 a year; Canadian, $3.50: foreign, $4.50. Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily represent The M ilita n t’s views. These are expressed in editorials.
Monday, December 26, 1966Vol. 30 - No. 47
(Continued from Page 1)near Hanoi said today tha t one section of the c ity proper had been heavily damaged.” Apple continued tha t “ A n almost identical account was supplied by Jacques Maolic, the Hanoi correspondent of the French Press Agency . . .
“ He said a residentia l area near the approach to the Paul Dom er Bridge, w hich carries the road to the ra ilya rd across the rive r, had been ‘devastated.’ A fte r tou ring the section, he described a vista of crushed facades, roofless houses and litte red streets. The area was sealed o ff fo r several hours a fte r the strike, M r. M aolic said, to fac ilita te rescue efforts.”
The Paris da ily Le Monde r id iculed the denials coming from Washington. Perhaps the U.S. p ilo ts had made a mistake? “ A scarcely satisfying explanation,” Le Monde commented Dec. 15. “ The Red R iver is large enough and vis ib le enough so th a t i t is impossible to confuse the r ig h t and le ft banks.”
The Hanoi rad io charged, according to Apple, “ That American fighter-bombers had bombed and strafed ‘several quarters’ in and near Hanoi, k ill in g women and ch ildren.” Le Monde placed the figu re of casualties in the hundreds.
B u t you w ould never have
Tricontinental: Protest Hanoi Bombing
According to a New York Times dispatch, Radio H avana announced Dec. 17 that the Tricontinental Asian, A frican, Latin American Solidarity O rg a n iz a t io n , w ith h e a d q u a r t e r s in Havana, called on its a f f i l i a t e s throughout the world to demonstrate in front of U.S. embassies in protest against the bombing of Hanoi.
known any of th is to listen to the various adm inistration explanations cooked up in Washington to deny the drastic steps. A t the State Department, fo r instance, the version was tha t i t was a ll a matter of semantics. Robert J. Mc- Closkey, the o ffic ia l spokesman, to ld reporters Dec. 14 tha t only “ m ilita ry targets” had been h it.
He was asked i f these targets were “ located w ith in the c ity lim its of Hanoi?” McCloskey answered, “ I don’t know w hat the c ity lim its are.” When asked d irectly , “ Have we b o m b e d Hanoi?” McCloskey became p h ilosophical. “ We have not,” he replied. “ W hat do you mean by ‘Hanoi’?”
“ Speculation”Perhaps the most cynical ver
sion of the U.S. atrocities came in the fo rm of a “ speculation” by “ m ilita ry men” in Saigon tha t the “ damage to c iv ilia n areas of m etropolitan Hanoi had been caused by an ti-a ircra ft f ire and surface-to-air missiles fired by the north Vietnamese as shells fe ll back to earth.”
Even the ta lk about a holiday cease-fire has become an established part of the Johnson adminis tra tion ’s demagogic pattern of escalation.
The New Y ork Times, which advocates a slowed-down w a r and some sort of peace move on the part o f Washington, responded to the new escalation w ith one o f its strongest ed ito ria l attacks on the W hite House: “ The tw ists and turns of the Johnson adm inistration as the w a r in V ietnam widens have never been better shown than in the confusion — i f not deception — over the bombing of Hanoi . . .
“ Le t New Yorkers p o n d e r w hether the ir c ity was bombed i f a five-m ile circle draw n around Times Square was le ft untouched bu t targets ju s t outside were h it . . . Bombing w ith in a h a ir ’s breadth o f Hanoi has a special meaning, and its im pact is going to be w orldw ide.”
R E V I E W S a n d► i
R E P O R T STHE M U R D E R OF M A L
COLM X . By Eric Norden. The Realist. New York. 35 cents.
The February issue of The Realist features an im portan t artic le by E ric Norden w hich assembles the m ain facts thus fa r available about the k ill in g of M a lcolm X . I t also gives a resumé of the evolution of M alcolm ’s p o litica l th ink ing. No one who is in terested in Malcolm X w il l w ant to miss it.
Norden, who w rote the ve ry fine pamphlet on U.S. atrocities in V ietnam, was a reporter at the M alcolm X m urder tr ia l. A fte r the tr ia l, he d id extensive research on the entire case, resulting in the present article.
He has collated in th is artic le a ll o f the in form ation surrounding the k ill in g tha t was previously available, plus additional facts tha t are new, at least to th is reader.
Norden makes a persuasive case tha t Thomas Johnson and Norman B utler, the tw o known Muslims who were convicted of the murder, were framed-up.
He also shows tha t the th ird defendant, Talm adge H a y e r , against whom there was defin itive proof and who confessed during the tr ia l and exonerated his codefendants, could w e ll have named those behind the k ill in g i f e ither the prosecution or the court- assigned defense attorneys had troubled to e lic it the in form ation.
Norden makes i t clear tha t i t is the w h ite ru lers o f th is country who had every reason to want M alcolm dead and who profited greatly from his murder.
— H arry Ring
K EN N ED Y CA M PAIG N IN G : The System and the Style as Practiced by Senator Edward Kennedy by M urray B. Levin. Beacon Press. 313 pp. $5.95.
This is an intensive study of the “ new” style of bourgeois po litica l campaigning in which “ projecting the rig h t image” is fa r more im portant than having anything w orthw h ile to say on po litica l issues.
The “ image” requires tha t the candidate have an a ttractive TV personality plus money. Lots of
Malcolm X
money. W ithou t it, the campaign won’t be able to employ the necessary Madison Avenue-type smoothies who specialize in the projecting of images.
As his case in point, Levin uses Edward Kennedy’s 1962 campaign fo r Senator from Massachusetts. This makes his book interesting from another angle — tha t o f how the Kennedy fa m ily goes about its po litica l wheeling and dealing in the pu rsu it o f high public office. Thus, Lev in ’s book gives some in sight in to how Robert F. Kennedy suddenly became the star attraction o f the so-called “ Bobby boom.”
M urray Lev in certa in ly leaves much to be desired as a po litica l analyst. In this, he stands no higher than most o f the practitioners of bourgeois po litica l science. However, Kennedy Campaining contains a w ealth of in form ation.
— A rthur Maglin
TH E M ARTYRDO M OF JEW ISH PH YSIC IA N S IN POLAND. Studies by Dr. Leon Wulman and Dr. Joseph Tenenbaum. Research and Documentation by Dr. Leopold Lazarowitz and Dr. Simon Malowist. Edited by
Louis Falstein. Published by Medical AIliance-Association of Jewish Physicians From Poland by Exposition Press. Illustrated. 500 pp. $10.00.
The h is to ry o f Jewish physicians in Poland extends almost to the b ir th o f the Polish state. One of the f irs t descriptions of life in tha t country (963-965) belongs to D r. Ibrahim-Ibn-Jacob, special representative o f the C a lif o f Córdoba, who stayed fo r sometime in Poland treating nob ility . Years later, from Spain, Ita ly and Germany other Jewish physicians were a rr iv in g and settling in Warsaw, Cracow, Lw ow , W ilno, Poznan and other cities.
This book, d ivided in to three parts, give the reader an abundance o f well-organized m ateria l on a ll aspects o f the lives o f Jewish doctors in towns and cities through the ages. P art one entitle d “ A H isto ry of Jewish Physicians in Poland” is w ritte n by D r. Leon W ulm an and has three subdivisions: “ From Earliest Times to W orld W ar I I , ” “ Outstanding Jewish Physicians D uring the N ineteenth and Tw entie th Centuries,” and “ Jewish Medical In stitu tions and the Role o f Jewish Physicians in The ir Development.”
P art two, “ Nazi Role in Poland and the Jewish Medical Professions” w ritte n by D r. Joseph Te- nenbaum brings to fu l l v iew the tragedy o f the exterm ination of the Jewish population in tha t country together w ith the complete destruction o f the medical profession and medical institu tions. I t is d iff ic u lt in a short review to describe Nazi cruelty, bu t the author who spent many years on the in vestigation of Nazis in his native country, is probably the best equipped man to deal w ith such subjects as life in a ghetto, starvation, Nazi doctors experiments in freezing the human body, wound infections, transplant surgery and poison gas experiments.
The th ird and fin a l p a rt o f th is huge book is w ritte n and documented by D r. Leopold Lazarow itz and Dr. Simon M alow ist and gives 2,500 biographical sketches of Jewish physicians k ille d by the Nazis.
— Antoni Gronowicz
World EventsGreen Berets
Green Berets are de fin ite ly operating in Guatemala, according to Chicago D a ily News correspondents Georgie Ann Geyer and H enry G ill, who visited the Guatemalan Revolutionary Arm ed Forces (FA R ) gue rrilla fro n t in early December. This confirm s the evidence tha t U.S. armed forces have in filtra te d in to Guatemala, reported in the W orld Events column, Nov. 28.
The CDN reporters do not estimate the to ta l strength o f U.S. counter-insurgency forces! b u t i t could be over 1,000: “ The guerrilla s to ld us tha t more than 1,000 U.S. Green Berets are already in Guatemala. T he ir presence was confirm ed to us by one Guatemalan police o ffic ia l. We cannot confirm the numbers, bu t we did see several Green Berets on the streets of the capita l.”
Impoverished LandCDN correspondents Geyer and
G ill report tha t the FAR is “ w e ll- organized” and “ grow ing.” “ Cesar Montes’ peasant-worker-student movement,” Geyer w rites, “ is flourish ing, nurtu red by the staggering problems.' E igh ty percent o f the ru ra l ch ildren get l it t le or
no schooling. E ight of every 10 Guatemalans never learn to read or w rite .
“ In a clim ate where everyth ing around grows, only one in three gets enough to eat. Four out of s ix babies die in infancy. W hile most countries are at least edging forw ard, Guatemala is slipping backwards — economically, p o lit ica lly, socially. In 1950, 70 percent of the people lived on a subsistence level; by 1963, the figu re was 73 percent.
“ From 1950 to 1964, w h ile the gross national product increased, the per capita income of the ru ra l population (about 70 percent of the people) dropped from $87 to $83.” (The G eyer-G il l report was carried in the Dec. 13 New York Post.)
Venezuelan TurnIn rap id succession, the “ libe ra l
democratic” government o f Venezuelan president Raul Leoni has suspended the Venezuelan peoples’ constitu tional rights; m ilita r ily occupied the Central U n ive rs ity in Caracas, arresting hundreds of students; and seized w hat i t describes as the “ un ive rs ity bureau” of the Venezuelan Communist Party.
The sweeping abrogation of constitu tional rights, undertaken Dec. 13, includes: empowering the police to arrest w ithou t w arran t; empowering them to hold suspects w ithou t ba il fo r an inde fin ite period of tim e; and empowering them to enter the quarters of suspected persons w ithou t ju d ic ia l perm ission.
In addition, i t includes an indefin ite suspension of freedom of the press, freedom o f speech and freedom of assembly. The Leoni government fu r th e r established m a il censorship and empowered itse lf to ru le by decree.
University SeizedLeoni’s troops swept on the Cen
tra l U n ive rs ity campus the day a fte r v ir tu a l m artia l law was established. According to a Dec. 15 A P dispatch, about 2,500 troops were involved. They were in it ia lly opposed by some armed students, according to the dispatch, bu t ra p id ly crushed these students and arrested hundreds. A student arsenal was reported to have been discovered. However, according to the same A P dispatch, authorities barred newsmen from the area.
— Ed Smith
...U.S. Bombing of Hanoi
1984 Keeps Getting CloserThe dispute between J. Edgar Hoover and Robert F. Ken
nedy about which of them was responsible for tapping people’s phones has served to indicate how close we have come to 1984. Their respective revelations about each other, and generally available information, make clear that electronic snooping has become a major government activity. In addition to the widespread illegal tapping of telephones, there are the electronic “bugging” devices which are apparently as widely used, if not more so.
The shocking invasion of constitutionally guaranteed rights of privacy which all citizens are supposed to enjoy has been cynically practiced for a long time by the federal government, w ith state and local authorities following suit. And, naturally, private gumshoes have not been at a ll reluctant to follow official example.
In 1934, the Federal Communications Act made phone tapping a crime. Since then, the Justice Department has twisted the meaning of the law to evade it. This practice was given a further boost in 1940 when that sterling liberal, Franklin Roosevelt, issued a secret executive order authorizing taps in cases of “national security.” This sweeping, v irtually undefinable proviso was recently re-authorized by that equally sterling liberal, Lyndon Johnson.
Meanwhile, electronic bugging has been legally limited only by the laws of trespass which are violated in their installation. The courts have upheld as legal taps secured from outside the w all of a person’s home! The advance in electronics, of course, greatly facilitates such practices.
However, a number of cases have emerged recently where convictions were obtained by clearly illegal acts of bugging by the Justice Department. Kennedy and Hoover seem to be anxious to place the blame on each other for this. Both have presented a good case.
Monday, December 26, 1966 T H E M IL IT A N T Page Five
Black Power vs. Reformism
Carmichael-Rustin Debate
SYM BOL. Black Panther is symbol of Lowndes County, A la., Freedom Party which won ballot status firs t tim e out in Nov. 8 election.
B y B arry SheppardNEW Y O R K — The tone was
fr ie n d ly bu t the confrontation of views sharp when Bayard Rustin, champion o f coalitionism w ith the Democratic Party, m et Stokely Carmichael, m ilita n t advocate of b lack power, in a debate at H unter College here on Dec. 14. The debate was sponsored by the League fo r Indus tria l Democracy, an o ffshoot o f the re fo rm is t Socialist Party, w hich Rustin is associated w ith .
Carmichael, chairman o f the Student N onvio lent Coordinating Committee, outlined his views on b lack power. He to ld the packed audience th a t in tegration is i r relevant, in the sense th a t the goals associated w ith the in tegration movement do no t meet the needs of the b lack masses. In practice, he said, in tegration has meant the assim ilation a few m id dle-class Negroes in to the “ m ainstream of Am erican life ,” w ithou t changing the conditions of life fo r the people in the ghetto.
SNCC struggled in the South, Carmichael explained, no t to “ w in the r ig h t to s it next to S heriff J im C lark, bu t to render h im im potent” over the lives of black people.
The basic problem, he said, was the existence of a racist system and institu tions in the U.S. Racism is not an ind iv idua l problem — whites become racist in the ir th ink ing as a resu lt o f the racist institu tions w hich surround them.
E xp la in ing the difference between ind iv idua l acts o f racism and institu tiona lized racism, he pointed to the bombing o f fou r l it t le Negro g irls in B irm ingham in 1963 as an example of an in d iv idua l racist act, w hich most whites in the country deplored. “ B u t every year, 500 black babies die in B irm ingham ,” as a result o f the systematic, institu tionalized racism o f w hite society as a whole against the black com m unity. This systematic oppression o f the Negro people is accepted, he said.
PowerlessCarmichael asserted tha t the
b lack com m unity is powerless. The w h ite society controls the black com m unity, even to the extent of owning the businesses, build ings and land where the blacks live . Carmichael compared the situation of the b lack com m unity to tha t of the colonia l countries. “ The black com m unity is a v ic tim of w hite im peria lism and w h ite colonialism,” he said.
He critic ized the older c iv il righ ts organizations fo r fa ilin g to organize the ghetto, and instead acting as a liason between the black com m unity and the w hite comm unity. They appealed to the consciences of whites, he said, to change conditions.
Leaders should “ stop pandering to the fears of the w h ite m iddle class,” Carmichael said, “ and retu rn to the ghetto.” The black com m unity “ should not be abolished —• colonial dom ination must be abolished!” To achieve this, the ghetto masses need a leadership responsible to them, and need to w in power and contro l over the ir own communities.
Rustin counterposed w hat he
ple, not ju s t Negroes. “ I f we can get them [the w h ite capita list government — B.S.] m oving on the 67 percent of the poor who are w hite, we [b lack people] also may get something.”
Carm ichael answered by exp la in ing tha t SNCC’s program was reflected in the bu ild ing of the M ississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and la te r the Lowndes County Freedom P arty (B lack- Panther P a rty ). He agreed w ith Rustin tha t the problems are economic in nature. B u t the way to control or change the economy, he said, was to w in po litica l power. He illus tra ted this w ith a description o f w ha t the B lack Panther could do i f i t won.
Opposite Approach
This exchange illustra tes the opposite strategies o f Rustin and the other supporters of the Freedom Budget and the advocates of black power. Rustin appeals to the government in Washington fo r reform s (and a $2 m in im um wage is ha rd ly earth-shaking) w hich “ may” help Negroes i f Washington sees f i t to im plem ent them. Carmichael, on the other hand, looks to organizing the power of the black masses to change the ir conditions.
Rustin accused Carmichael of proposing a “ n o -w in ” strategy. Since Negroes are a m ino rity , they are doomed to powerlessness unless they make coalitions w ith others, he said.
Carmichael answered tha t black power means, f irs t of a ll, black contro l of the b lack comm unity, not over society as a whole. Second, Negroes are situated in a strategic position, in the heart of the big cities, as a resu lt o f segregation. This w ould give strategic importance to black power w ith in the society as a whole.
He said tha t w hat was w rong w ith many past coalitions Negroes have participated in was tha t Negro aims were subordinated or betrayed by whites who had a dom inant position in the coalition. Independent b lack organization w ould help correct this, he said, and actua lly w ould fac ilita te the establishment of coalitions around specific issues.
B u t those who propose coalition politics now, Carmichael explained, generally w ant Negroes to coalesce w ith the “ w h ite Establishm ent on the basis of w hat is good fo r the U.S., not on the basis of w hat is good fo r Negroes.”
“ The coalitionists,” he said, “ are coalescing w ith people who are fo r the w ar in V ie tnam !” He said tha t the Freedom Budget’s tac it support o f the w ar in V ietnam is w hat led SNCC to w ithd raw from sponsoring it.
The EnemyCarmichael said tha t the enemy
of the Negro people was the Democratic P a rty in the South and the b ig c ity machines in the North. (He also attacked those “ l it t le machines” staffed by Negroes in the ghettos, which, he said, do not represent the black masses.) And, he attacked the nationa l Democratic P arty and Johnson, recalling the incident o f the Mississippi Freedom Democratic P a rty at the 1964 Democratic convention.
Rustin charged tha t even i f an independent black party won contro l in fo u r or five counties in the South, i t w ould be forced to “ cooperate w ith whatever po litica l pa rty was in Washington.” This, I take it, was intended as an argum ent in favo r of supporting “ whatever po litica l pa rty was in Washington.” (R ustin d id not mention the Democratic P arty ; his position tha t Negroes should suppo rt i t was couched in generalities.)
S h ifting his ground somewhat, R ustin then said tha t perhaps an independent pa rty had some jus
tifica tio n in the South, bu t not in the N orth where “ channels” are open fo r Negroes to “ participate in po litica l life .”
Carmichael answered by denying tha t the South was fundam enta lly d iffe ren t from the rest of, the country. “ Mississippi is the USA,” he said. “ The power of the South rests in Washington. This country is racist from top to bottom, from le ft to r ig h t.”
Rustin and JohnsonSomeone in the audience asked
R ustin i f he thought the people had been wrong to vote fo r Johnson in 1964. (E a rlie r Rustin had made the incredible statement that the defeat of the c iv ilia n review board in New Y o rk ’s elections was not p r im a rily the result o f racism, bu t of the fact tha t “ whenever you pu t a question up to the people fo r vote, they vote w rong.” )
Rustin answered by defending his support of Johnson in 1964. He was supporting sanity against insanity, he said. M any in the audience apparently hold a d iffe ren t v iew of Johnson, because Rustin ’s rem arks were greeted w ith hisses, although the predom inately w h ite audience in general seemed to support m ilita n t statements from e ither Rustin o r Carmichael.
Later, Rustin said tha t i t was “ easy to take the position tha t
NEW YO R K — D r. Octavio E. Moscoso, long-tim e figh te r fo r Dominican independence, died here Dec. 13 a fte r a protracted illness. He was 77.
For nearly tw o years, as the result o f glaucoma, he was b lind. Yet, w ith the aid of several devoted friends, he continued to live in his own apartment and maintained his deep interest in po litica l a ffa irs.
D r. Moscoso was from a leading Dominican fam ily . H is father, Juan Elias Moscoso, had been a Dominican Supreme Court justice and, later, secretary o f state.
D r. Moscoso came here in his youth to complete his education at Columbia U niversity. He f irs t obtained a medical degree and then w ent on to a Ph.D. in Spanish lite ra ture . He was an unsually cultured man, w ith a particu la r deep and extensive appreciation o f music.
Politics P rim aryFor many years, D r. Moscoso
was ed itor of a Spanish-language edition of Vogue magazine. B u t his p rim a ry interest and a c tiv ity was always politics.
P rio r to the advent o f T ru jil lo to power, D r. Moscoso served the Dominican government in various capacities. He was nominated by the Dominican union movement as its representative to the early In ternational Labor Organization, then an agency of the League of Nations.
F rom the outset in 1916, D r.
both po litica l parties stink. But, w hat we must do is choose the lesser ev il.”
Carmichael received a b ig hand when he answered th is po in t by saying, “ I t ’s about tim e w e stopped vo ting fo r e v il men!”
I t became more and more clear as the debate w en t on tha t the real question d iv id ing the tw o was coalitionism w ith the Democratic Party. Rustin is a conscious coalition ist, who wants to keep the black masses tied to the Democratic Party. The b lack power tendency, on the other hand, is m oving in the d irection o f a break w ith Democratic P a rty politics.
Carm ichael’s position as he p u t i t fo rw ard in th is debate, is tha t in the South, the Democratic Party is the enemy and independent po litica l action the answer. Concerning the N orth he is more vague, although he expresses opposition to the national Democratic Party. He le ft the door open, in his concluding remarks, to the possib ility tha t the independent organization o f the b lack masses m igh t pressure the tw o m a jo r parties in to re fo rm ing themselves.
This question of the Democratic P a rty w i l l continue to be debated and discussed between the advocates and adversaries o f b lack power, and w ith in the black power movement itself.
Moscoso opposed the U.S. occupation of his country. W ith in weeks a fte r T ru jil lo came to power, he was tr ied in absentia by the d ictato r and sentenced to 30 years im prisonment, fo rc ing h im to live in exile.
Throughout, D r. Moscoso played a prom inent ro le in the Dom inican exile movement and was a m ilita n t opponent o f the T ru jil lo d ic ta to rship and its U.S. sponsors.
A n early partisan o f the Cuban Revolution, D r. Moscoso’s po litica l th in k in g evolved apace as the revo lu tion deepened. F rom a Dominican nationalist he developed, in his 70s, in to a revo lu tionary socia list. He became a sympathizer of the Socialist W orkers P a rty and was a devoted supporter of The M ilita n t.
He was w ide ly know n in L a tin Am erican po litica l circles and had a special interest in L a tin A m erican affa irs. One o f the pa rticu la r frustra tions o f his last months of to ta l confinement was his in a b ility to partic ipate in the recently formed U.S. Committee fo r Justice fo r L a tin Am erican P o litica l P ris oners. He was encouraged by the form ation o f the committee and fo llowed its a c tiv ity w ith the greatest interest.
D r. Moscoso was a gracious, d ign ified gentleman o f the old school. B u t the most s tr ik in g and a ttractive things about h im was a revo lu tionary optim ism and enthusiasm th a t is usually associated w ith youth.
MISS. P ICKET. Black power slogan hit h e a d lin e s during Miss, march following shooting of James Meredith.
demagogically called a “ revo lutiona ry” program to the ideas of black power. He was evidently concerned to appear as m ilita n t as Carmichael, and sprinkled his rem arks w ith phrases like “ fundamental economic change” and “ w hat we need is a re -d is tribu tion of w ealth.” The basic factor, he said, “ is not to organize the Negro comm unity. I t is tha t society must be prepared to make a revo lutionary change.”
Rustin did not discuss his advocacy of nonviolence against the concepts o f self-defense now espoused by SNCC and CORE, nor d id he d irec tly attack black power as he has done recently (see last week’s m ilita n t) . Instead, he im plied tha t black power was noth ing more than a “ psychological te rm ” lacking in any substance or real program fo r Negroes.
He then got down to brass tacks and spelled out his “ revo lu tiona ry” program. He is fo r fu l l employment, he said. He wants a $2 m in im um wage. There should be a guaranteed annual income fo r those who can’t w ork, and a guaranteed annual wage fo r those who can. These proposals, he said, are summed up in the Freedom Budget being pu t fo rw ard by A . P h ilip Randolph and others.
W hile demands tha t the federal government increase the m in im um wage to $2 an hour are perfectly good in and of themselves, Rustin uses them fo r reactionary pu rposes. When the advocates o f black power (who also generally suppo rt such reforms as an increased m in im um wage), pu t fo rw ard a program fo r basic change, Rustin counterposes his program o f re fo rm demands. He does so as a way of d ive rting support from black power. Further, his idea of w inn ing such reform s is by getting in to the Democratic P arty and subordinating the basic demands o f b lack people to a coalition w ith libe ra l w h ite politicians.
I t was amazing to witness Rustin discuss th is request fo r reforms, addressed to the capita lis t government, as a proposal fo r “ revo lution .”
The Freedom Budget proposals, R ustin explained, are fo r a ll peo-
Socialisma n d M a n
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O. E. Moscoso, Dominican Patriot, Dies in New York
B y H a rry R ing
Page Six TH E M IL IT A N T Monday, December 26, 1968
W atts Interviews on Vietnam
TASTE OF U.S. ‘FREEDOM.’ Watts resident being worked over by cops during outbreak there. Brutal treatment and oppression is not likely to convince Watts residents that U.S. is concerned w ith freedom in Vietnam or anywhere else.
(T he fo llow ing artic le was subm itte d to The M ilita n t by Jeanne R iha o f Santa Barbara, C alif. I t is based on in terview s she had w ith people in Watts. She says th a t the survey she took in Watts “ d id no t orig inate as a w a r po ll b u t ra ther as an attem pt to measure the potentia l fo r a coalition o f peace and c iv il righ ts forces to p rov ide one m a jo r l in k in the proposed New Politics.” She said she fo u n d th a t “ the New P olitics coalit io n — about w hich almost no one lia d heard anyth ing — aroused some skeptical interest. In many oases the interest deepened as the idea was discussed more. The cyn ic ism in W atts tow ard politics •and po litic ians was only a shade less profound than the h o s tility to th e w ar.” ]
By Jeanne RihaA G allup po ll, released in Sep
tem ber, reported tha t the proport io n o f Negroes in support of Presid e n t Johnson’s policies in V ie tnam surpassed tha t o f whites, 48 percent to 42 percent, respectively.
Who the pollsters spoke to, in w ha t Negro communities, was not made clear. Had they wandered in to Watts, to m by rio ts in 1965, and in to the areas o f heavy r io t damage adjacent to W atts, they m ig h t have been forced to scale down th e ir measurements.
A four-day personal survey conducted in October among 116 Negroes o f W atts and areas jus t n o r th and west of i t showed 21 percent in support of the war, 62 percent opposed and 16 percent undecided.
In W atts alone, where 85 of the in te rv iew s were conducted, supp o rt was down s ligh tly to 20 percent, opposition up to 64 percent, and the undecided stood at 15 percent.
This sampling o f opinion on the street and door-to-door was not Intended to be “ sc ien tifica lly ” balanced by economic or age groupings. Especially in W atts i t leaned he a v ily tow ard young men o f d ra ft age and men in the ir 30s and 40s. I t touched on ly occasionally on loca l businessmen, some o f whose shops w ent up in flames precisely because rio ters considered them in terlopers or parasites on the Neg ro comm unity.
Small BusinessmenThe percentage o f Negro sup
p o r t fo r the w ar probably could have been bolstered by concentra t in g on service station dealers •or Coca Cola route salesmen w ith a n economic stake in the established system. B u t even th is was n o t inev itab ly true: A laundry m anager w ith tw o sons in Vietnam, h im se lf a W orld W ar I I veteran, ■was among the fiercest critics of th e w ar, feeling tha t his w artim e sacrifices had been betrayed by d iscrim ination, and the middle- aged manager of a car wash expressed a typ ica l v iew tha t the Vietnamese people should be free to settle th e ir problems w h ile the Am erican people tended to the ir own.
Tim e a fte r tim e these statements recurred : W ill someone te ll me -why we’re there? W hat do we w a n t from Vietnam?
O r, i f the person accepted the o ff ic ia l explanation tha t the U.S. was helping the Vietnamese peo-
pie, opinions went as fo llow s: L e t’s clean up the home fro n t firs t, and then go over and help other people. We have enough problems to solve at home. I f we take care of cleaning up the mess at home, we won’t have tim e fo r Vietnam. We don’t have any freedom here; w hy fig h t fo r i t abroad? Every day I ’m figh ting a w a r here. Negroes w il l go abroad to fig h t fo r freedom, as they did in every w ar past, and on re tu rn s ti l l w i l l be deprived of th e ir r ig h tfu l freedoms at home.
I t w ould be a mistake to consider these as un typ ica l expressions of alienation. Instead they were voiced over and over again by young and many older men, and by young women whose husbands faced the d ra ft. A handfu l o f persons m aintained tha t Negroes benefit from equalitarian conditions in the armed forces, and a ve ry few asserted tha t th is w ar was the Negro’s chance to prove h im self to w h ite society, bu t these were d is tinc t m in o rity sentiments. A t th is end o f the spectrum ,-two m ilita n t ly pro-war Negroes argued fo r escalation, ch ie fly through more intense bombing. Those endorsing the w a r included reluc tan t adherents, pre-draft teenagers, and women w illin g to trus t the President or m a jo rity opinion. As a bloc, the supporters were not so much in favo r o f the w ar as the foes were opposed.
Le t H im F in ish I t
A n 18-year-old youth at a bus stop had tim e to explode as fo llows before the bus arrived: “ The real th ing about the w ar is tha t i t ’s unnecessary. W hy should the Negro go out there and knock our brains out fo r the w hite man and when we come back we can’t even fin d a job? The w h ite man started th is mess; le t h im fin ish it. Me, I ’m not going over there and fig h t fo r nobody.”
On the lawn o f pleasant W ill Rogers M em orial Park on a Sunday afternoon, a 21-year-old serviceman, back from 14 months in Vietnam, said tha t i f he were doing i t over again, he w ould go to ja i l ra ther than figh t. Even in the supposedly integrated w ar, there was w h ite prejudice against the Negro soldier, he maintained, and “ a few race riots.” In a battle tha t resulted in heavy Am erican losses, he related, the one Negro commander was the only one replaced. He and most other young men declined to m in im ize the communist “ th rea t” to south V ie tnam — they were quite w illin g to g rant tha t an Am erican w ith draw al w ould resu lt in communist v ic to ry — bu t th is serviceman s till maintained: “ Le t them fig h t i t out fo r themselves a w h ile — le t them see w hat they can do.”
No Business ThereA middle-aged woman, who had
ju s t seen President Johnson in a televised Washington press conference, noted: “ He said, ‘I f the others p u ll out, we’l l p u ll out.’ We haven’t got any business there in the f irs t place.”
A prospective draftee, 19, a grave young man hanging around a shoe shine stand on 103rd street, rem arked: “ I ’m 1-A now. They’re try in g to get me. I don’t w an t to be drafted. I don’t see any sense in the war. We are fig h tin g fo r freedom here now. W hy should we go over there?
“ We should get out — we don’t need anyth ing in V ietnam ,” he asserted. “ Freedom and peace is above a ll.”
To cla im — as do some Negro and w h ite liberals and radicals — tha t w ar and peace concerns are too remote from the Negro’s bread- and-butter problems to interest h im , is to overlook th is in trusion of the V ietnam w a r on the Negro’s life . “ I t ’s a concern to the Negro because he is there,” said a succinct 19-year-old. W hile th is concern is closest to the draft-age man, i t also ripples out in to a broader com m unity awareness that the Negro race is bearing
w hat many Negroes consider a disproportionate burden of th is war, in numbers drafted and k illed . ( I. F. Stone’s Weekly of Oct. 24 cites a New Y ork Times dispatch of Oct. 16 saying tha t 23.5% of a ll A rm y enlisted men k ille d in V ietnam in 1965 were Negroes, more than tw ice the ra tio of Negroes to to ta l population.)
A Campton college student, 18, and a Korean w ar veteran in his 30s, both of whom endorsed the w ar, jo ined its critics in charging tha t an un fa ir burden fo r the w ar rests on the Negro youth who cannot get in to college.
“ Just because you’re not in college, you shouldn’t have to go before the f ir in g squad,” said the veteran. The student, who was quite w illin g to scale down domestic spending in order to finance the war, nevertheless called the college deferment system un fa ir; he fe lt tha t college students should share the w a r burden more d irectly, at least by assignment to command posts. Another college student, 27, who opposed the war, charged tha t the “ socially-deprived people are fig h tin g th is w ar.”
Cannon Fodder
These temperate criticism s pale before the outrage of some of the potentia l w ar fodder. Sometimes they expressed w rath , sometimes b itte r resignation, sometimes a w ry humor. A n 18-year-old commented caustically tha t whites consider Negroes adm irably suited fo r fro n t line hand-to-hand combat because aren’t Negroes, after a ll, the trad itiona l toughs, the gang m ateria l, the street fighters?
Resentful as he and his companions were of th is attitude, yet they shared a certain acrid resignation. “ There’s nothing we can do — tha t’s up to the federal government,” he said. In his case, and tha t of many other w ar foes, the resignation was not one of acceptance b u t of helplessness: They feel themselves underdogs in a w a r they oppose, yet they have no recourse. This is a k in d o f colonial w a r in w hich the b lack man, as a subject, is forced in to figh ting fo r the w hite man’s cause.
One of the most articulate spokesmen of th is v iew po in t was a man of 21 who was w a iting to be called in to a w a r tha t he fiercely opposed, a w ar in w h ich an 18-year-old fr iend died tw o weeks
before. The friend had been k illed, iron ica lly , in the dem ilitarized zone. “ This w ar is rid icu lous,” he kept repeating. “ There isn’t any reason fo r i t . . . This w a r doesn’t make any sense.” Lodged in his back was a bu lle t he had got “ on the street,” but when he went fo r his phyical exam ination, he had been to ld callously, “ Don’t w o rry about it. You already know how a bu lle t feels.”
He was one o f those Negroes — not a considerable number — who expressed a k insh ip w ith the V ie tnamese people. And in th is area (Central avenue around 90th street) the people “ in the ghetto” share a “ b lack re lationship” w ith the Vietnamese, he claimed. Many in the area, he said, fo llo w some M uslim beliefs and th in k of the Vietnamese as “ the ir Asiatic b ro th ers.”
C iv il W ar
“ W hy tear up the ir country? You can straighten out your own, and i t needs a lo t o f straightening out.” This w a r should be the exclusive fig h t of the Vietnamese people, he insisted.
“ You know, we handled our own c iv il war. This is more or less a c iv il war. I don’t th in k we should even intervene. I know we’re t r y ing to stop communism, bu t communism is more or less a religious thing. You aren’t ju s t going to go over and te ll them they’re not going to be communist . . . I th in k they should handle i t themselves. Le t the best man w in — b u t not us.”
A sense o f b lack so lidarity, fo rmal or in form al, seemed to reduce the helplessness. A man of 22, who described h im self as a black nationalist, announced tha t he was u n w illin g to fig h t fo r B. F. Goodrich or U.S. Rubber and said he had so inform ed his d ra ft officia ls. He had to ld them the Emancipation Proclamation only set h im free b u t d id not make h im a c itizen. As a noncitizen, he had no obligation to fig h t the w a r in V ie tnam. So fa r he hasn’t been called.
“ The black people refuse to go. They are tired o f fig h tin g the w hite man’s battles,” he said.
Another young man chatting w ith a well-dressed young woman outside a bank, and looking like the model o f an Iv y League college student, had s im ila r black na
tiona lis t leanings. He held that, fa r from jo in ing whites in a p o litica l coalition, Negroes should get out of “ w hite man’s po litics” and set up the ir own economic enclaves and eventually the ir own te rr ito r ia l state.
The g ir l protested that u n ity and not separation was the proper goal of Negroes since a ll groups were part o f the U nited States.
“ I t ’s no t separation because the Negro is already separated from the w h ite man,” he argued. “ He’s jus t w aking up to i t now.”
U n just W ar
The U nited States should not be in Vietnam, he maintained, nor should the Negro: “ He rea lly is not a citizen.” The w a r itse lf is unjust, he added. “ The U nited States claims Vietnam is the enemy, bu t V ietnam d idn ’t attack the U nited States. The U nited States invaded V ietnam .”
These views, w hich m igh t so read ily be ascribed sim ply to disgruntled radical youth, were repeated often enough by older Negroes to make i t clear tha t the generational gap, w h ile i t exists, may be less potent than racia l cohesion. A lit t le la ter, in an in te rv iew at Manchester avenue and San Pedro street, a man o f 35 voiced the same negation o f c it izenship.
O rienta l states seem to have “ a d iffe ren t feeling” tow ard the ir citizens, he speculated in discussing V ietnam . “ For anyone brought up in th e ir country, i t is th e ir country. The black man here — he’s ju s t been here a ll his l ife bu t i t ’s not his country.”
He commented, “ The young adu lt is more b itte r than the older one. They learned quicker than we did. This autom atically made them more b itte r.”
Does your local library have a subscription to THE MILITANT? If not, why not suggest that they obtain one. Librarians are often pleased to have patrons call t h e i r attention to publications that they should have available.
The Catastrophe In Indonesia
Three articles on the fa ta l consequences of Communist Party policy including one by a surviving Indonesian Communist.
50 cenh
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Monday, December 26, 1966 TH E M IL IT A N T Page Seven
Letters From Our Readersoffices on the ba llo t so m y ba llo t w ould not be th row n out. The to ta l votes published in a local paper showed zero votes fo r Jo- seph Johnson from the d is tr ic t precinct I voted in.
I asked a man tha t worked on an election board in another distr ic t about counting ballots. He is a ve ry reactionary man so he to ld me r ig h t out tha t they do not count the votes of m ino rity pa rty people.
W ith that in form ation, and the personal knowledge o f m y vote not being counted, I feel tha t i t ’s possible tha t a candidate like Joseph Johnson could be a w inner bu t the votes are not counted.
I f one w ould have enough money to finance a recount, w ith the proper people doing the counting, many a surprising upset could be gotten.
A.E.
Ballot DiscriminationNew York, N. Y.
In the recent elections, the Socia lis t W orkers P arty was kept o ff the ba llo t in many states by excessively high petition requ irement laws. Some states like C alifo rn ia and Ohio require, I believe, over 100,000 signatures before an independent party can get on the ir ballo t.
Thought for the Week“ 1 th in k he thought he was pappa. He was always bossy.”
L B J ’s sister, reca lling th e ir childhood.
These laws are c learly unconstitu tiona l because o f th e ir excessiveness, yet they rem ain unchallenged.
I suggest tha t these laws be challenged in the federal courts ( i f the state courts have previously upheld them ), and i f the aid of c iv il liberties organizations can be obtained.
The tim e to test these laws is now, before the next presidential election, so tha t the electorate can have a rea lly m eaningful choice in 1968.
A Reader
Swiss Women Strike BackSan Francisco, Calif.
The men of the money capital of the w o rld recently voted to deny women the franchise once more. The vote in Zurich, the most heavily-populated canton, w a s 108,000 to 93,000.
Fo llow ing the vote, women have organized as never before. They have walked o ff o f jobs and even taken up p icketing against men supporting the anti-wom an vote.
. . W ell there’s one th ing fo r sure, women aren’t going to take th is ly in g down. A t least no t in a double bed,” said Madame G e- reaux, a housewife in Zurich, as the fu rn itu re movers delivered tw o spanking-new tw in beds.
The rash of anti-m ale sentiment is affecting business in strange ways. Besides the big-bed b u ild ers, the P il l m anufacturers are feeling the pinch. Some druggists report sales are at an a ll-t im e low, not only in the Canton o f Zurich bu t a ll over the country as sympathetic sisters from Lucerne to Lausanne jo in in the protest.
One boutique owner said, “ I t ’s been a bonanza! O f course we’re not selling m in i skirts, sexy even ing gowns or b lack lace nighties bu t slacks are almost sold out.”
M. Machin, a bank o ffic ia l, said, “ O f course i t won’t last. There are always a few rabble-rousing malcontents, bu t most Swiss women know th e ir place. That place is in the home; not out voting. I ’m sure I ’l l be back in our bedroom w ith in a m onth."
Vilm a Sanchez
I t W a s R e p o rte d in th e P ress
[Th is column is an open fo rum fo r a ll viewpoints on subjects of general interest to our readers. Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they v i i l l be abridged. W rite rs ’ in it ia ls w il l be used, names being w ithhe ld unless authorization is given fo r use.]
Vietnam ParodyNew York, N.Y.
Barbara Garson’s M acB ird must be a symptom o f w hat they call a “ deeper malaise.” The New York Post recently reported a parody o f the Gettysburg address along the same satirica l lines. The w ork was prin ted in the student newspaper of the Babson Institu te of Massachusetts, a fine, upstanding prep school from the sound of it. A pparently there’s no respect fo r the “ highest office in the land” anywhere these days.
The parody is called Gettysburg East, an address delivered by an Am erican president in the year 2052. H is name is L it t le Boy Johnson and he is the grandson of a fo rm er president. The V ietnam w a r is s t i l l going on and L it t le Boy is speaking in a cemetery outside of Saigon.
He begins: “ Foah scoah and seven yeahs ago, m y grandfather brought fo rth upon th is continent o f Asia a new po litica l concept, conceived in expediency and dedicated to the proposition tha t we are better dead than Red . . .”
He declares: “ We have come to dedicate th is ba ttle fie ld as a f itt in g m em oria l to the light-to-m oderate losses our forces have sustained over the past 87 years, so tha t m y grandfather and his successors could test the theory tha t the w ay to b rin g Hanoi to the peace table was to escalate fu rthe r.
“ I t is altogether f it t in g and proper tha t we should do this, and anyone who th inks otherwise is a nervous N ellie and probably a tra ito r besides and s im ply helping to prolong the w ar.”
Weekly Calendar
C H IC A G O OPEN H O U S IN G A N D RACIST REA C T IO N . Speaker, Howard Packer. Fri., Dec. 30, 8 p.m. 302 South Canal. A usp Friday Night Socialist Forum.
•NEW YORK
There will be no forum, Fri., Dec. 30. On Sat., Dec. 31, GA LA N EW YEAR'S EVE PARTY. 9 p.m. 873 Broadway.
•TW IN CITIES
NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY. Food, entertainment. Sat., Dec. 31, 9 p.m. 704 Hennepin Ave. Rm. 240. ADM ISSO N FREE. Ausp. Friday Night Socialist Forum
A high po in t o f the speech: “ We are here. It 's too late to pu ll out now. We are going to stay and escalate.”
Bu t more s tr ik ing than the gloom and pessimism about the w a r fe lt by even prep school youth, was the way th is parody helped to indicate the extreme cynicism among those who are conducting th is war. A copy was sent to the Pentagon where, fa r from being th row n out, i t became “ a curiosity item among o ffic ia ls there.”
There must be p lenty of laughs at Johnson’s expense as the naughty prose circulates from o ffice to office. B u t w hat about the GI's those same o ffic ia ls are sending to V ietnam graves?
George Saunders
Impounded Vietnam MailJersey C ity, N.J.
Once again we are indebted to The M ilita n t fo r b ring ing to the attention of the country another attem pt by Uncle Lyndon to w iden the “ c re d ib ility gap.”
I re fe r to the artic le in the Dec. 12 issue te llin g o f the Customs Service seizure of 5,000 paperbacks from northern Vietnam.
I th in k W alte r Teague I I I was being charitable in describing the act as “ a b la tan t v io la tion o f freedom o f speech and thought.”
Needless to say tha t i f th is l ite r ature were of a r ig h tis t and/or racist nature, i t w ould have sailed rig h t through.
Please fo rw ard to M r. Teague m y order fo r his books, regardless o f title , content or price, ju s t because I believe tha t i f Customs is confiscating it, i t must be w orth while.
Yours fo r democratic socialism. (Note the small “ d” ).
A.T.Please fin d enclosed m y check
fo r your fund. Sorry i t couldn’t be more.
[The artic le referred to reported the im pounding of Vietnamese lite ra tu re addressed to the U.S. Committee to A id the National L ibera tion F ron t o f south V ie tnam. The committee’s address is Box C, O ld Chelsea Station, New York, N.Y. 10010. The committee’s chairman, W alter Teague I I I , may be reached by phone at Y U 2- 7162. E d it o r .]
His Vote Not CountedHopkins, M inn.
In an artic le in The M ilita n t, you gave the very modest figu re o f 5,487 votes fo r Joseph Johnson, Socialist W orkers candidate fo r U.S. Senator from Minnesota because i t was the figu re given to you by the election boards.
I voted fo r M r. Johnson. I was ve ry carefu l to vote fo r a ll the
Subversive A c tiv ity — I t maybe a b it la te to check i t out, bu t our special intelligence source in Minneapolis reports tha t as o f last October, a picture o f tha t w e ll- know n fore ign economist, K a r l M arx, was hanging outside room 1071 o f the U n ive rs ity of M innesota’s Economics Department.
Xmas Spirits — Mrs. Fred J. Tooze, leader o f the Women’s C hristian Temperance Union, charged the liquo r industry is drow ning Christmas in booze. W hich fo r some reason reminded us of the o ld film , “ L ife Begins at 8:40,” w hich opened w ith Monte W oolley as an alcoholic ex-actor w ork ing as a department store Santa. Sipping rum through a straw from a hot w ater bottle under his coat, he belches in the face of the ch ild on his knee. In response to the mother’s look of approbation, he asks, “ And w hat d id you expect madam — chimes?”
Chew On This One — A Chicago o u tf it is m arketing B ig F ink chewing gum as “ the status gum fo r l it t le finks on the way up.”
No Accident — A n ed ito ria l on the DuPont estate F lo rida empire in the Dec. 7 Gainesville Sun explains tha t DuPont owns three percent of F lo rida ’s land area and has business assets o f $1 b illion . “ We box our groceries in its cartons,” the ed ito ria l said, “ ship our goods in its »ailroad cars and borrow money from its banks and place telephone calls over its w ires . . . I t is said, too, tha t D uPont money influences o u r' governor and routes our roads and rules our legislature.” In the paper’s judgment, “ Such power is no accident.”
False A la rm — F ire engines raced to the Em pire State B u ild ing last week as thousands of New Yorkers watched smoke pour out of upper story windows. B u t there was no cause fo r alarm. W hat had appeared to be smoke was only a heavy cloud of poisonous smog stirred around by a breeze.
T o u g h - S itu a t io n D e p ’t —“ Daughters’ Debut w i l l cost hard- pressed dad more th is season.
A tlan ta Debutante C lub boosts to $500 from $450 the charge fo r each g ir l presented at its ba ll th is season . . . A San Francisco fa ther says his daughter’s C o tillion debut w i l l cost h im between $500 and $1,000, probably tw ice as much as another daughter’s debut six years ago.” — The W ail Street Journal.
News o f the Week — An in dependent rcsearchcr, under a grant from Wayne State U n ive rs ity ’s Ins titu te of Labor and In dustria l Relations, w ith funds from the Federal Equal Opportun ity Commission, found tha t Negro hospital employes are large ly restricted to low -pay ing menial jobs.
S ilver-Tongued Swingers — Wehope its not meant as a put-dow n o f the Beatles, who are proud of th e ir working-class origins, bu t a new B ritish rock-and -ro ll group b ills itse lf as The Gnomes of Zurich, a fte r the c irc le o f finan cia l barons who operate out of tha t c ity.
Philosophical — John C iard i to ld the story in Saturday Review
of an in troduction-to -ph ilosophy lecture by a Prof. M orris Cohen. When he finished, a student complained he had knocked a hole In everyth ing she believed in and given her noth ing to take its place. He replied: “ You w il l recall th a t among the labors of Hercules he was required to clean out the Agean stable. He was not, le t me po in t out, required to re f i l l i t . ”
Another Vanishing Era — Whenwe were a lad, nickel hamburgers at Red Castle and W hite Tower were the thing. For the present generation in many parts o f the country, i t ’s been McDonald’s 15- cent hamburgers. B u t not as o f Jan. 1. A 20 percent h ike w il l boost them to 18 cents each. Cheeseburgers w il l go up according ly.
W hile I t Lasts — I t is on ly to po in t up the anarchy o f cap ita lis t production tha t we report the fo llow ing item. The metal rings used to open beer cans w o rk like n ickels in the park ing meters in some cities. However, the m anufacturers have promised to re c tify the situation.
— H a rry R ing
Announcing TheJan.-Feb. 1967
International Socialist ReviewIn the new pocket-sized format: Featuring “In Defense of
Black Power” by George Breitm an, an answer to recent critics of the m ilitant wing of the civil rights movement. Other articles cover: current political and economic trends in Yugoslavia; the program of the Polish opposition; and the nature of the American inflation.
□ Please send me the new ISR for 500.□ Please send me a year’s subscription to the ISR
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Page Eight t h e MILITANT Monday, December 26, 1966
By Herm an PorterCHICAGO, Dec. 18 — A very
successful Trade Unionists’ Conferencie to Seek Peaceful A lte rna tives was held here yesterday at M cC orm ick Place. More than 350 unionists, most o f them low er ranking trade union offic ia ls, attended. The all-day meeting was sponsored by the recently organized Chicago Trade U nion D ivis ion o f SANE.
The conference represents an im portan t and encouraging step tow ard the grow th o f a movement against the w a r in V ietnam in the unions. I t was announced that s im ila r conferences are planned in D etro it, Cleveland, Los Angeles and elsewhere.
M u rra y H . F in ley, manager, Chicago* Jo in t Board, Amalgamated C lo th ing W orkers, chaired the conference. In his opening rem arks he pointed to the impressive tu rn out in v iew o f the fact tha t the conference had been called less than fo u r weeks before. He summarized w hat are apparently some o f the m ain ideas of the organizers o f the meeting: The w ar in V ie tnam can lead to an atomic holocaust, he declared. He referred to the labor movement’s trad ition of dissent, and pointed out tha t w h ile opposition to the w ar is being expressed in the Senate, w ith in the in te llec tua l .com m unity and elsewhere, there is no such “ dialogue” tak ing place w ith in the trade union movement.
DialogueW hile the conference was in
tended to in it ia te such a dialogue w ith in the trade un ion movement, i t was also clear from the discussion tha t m any w ant to show those outside the unions tha t the o ffic ia l position o f the A F L -CI O in support o f the w a r does not represent the unanimous position of the labor movement.
F rank Rosenblum, general secre ta ry - treasurer, Amalgamated C loth ing Workers, gave the opening address and made many of the points tha t were stressed in the discussion groups later. He said tha t the U nited States is in te rfe ring in a c iv il w a r in V ie tnam Th is po in t was made by many speakers and no t challenged. Rosenb lu m characterized the w ar as "Unm oral” and as “ one o f the most b ru ta l wars in h is to ry.”
“ W e could w ithd raw from V ie tnam w ith o u t serious embarrassment,” he said, and was applauded.
The conference was then d iv id ed in to three para lle l discussion groups, each led by a chairman and three panelists. A fte r b rie f presentations by the panelists the floo r was th row n open to the audience. The m orning panels covered: the h istorica l background of the war,
Why Pork Chops Cost Like They Do
Does it set you thinking when you w alk into a superm arket and see center cut pork chops selling from anywhere between 79 cents to $1.09 a pound? Maybe those “higher labor costs” really aré pushing prices up? W ell, consider this.
S w ift & Co., the nation’s top meat supplier, reports that in 1966 its total sales in creased only 7.7 percent. But profits for the same period shot up by a thum ping 20 percent. O r, in short, the com pany-tripled its p ro fit at your expense.
Frank Rosenblum
the U.S. in other parts of the w orld , and the dangers of escalation and nuclear war. The a fte rnoon panels covered: V ietnam and domestic problems, V ietnam and c iv il rights, and V ietnam and the po litica l climate.
Several points were made repeatedly from the floo r and by some o f the panelists. The need to b ring the issue of the w ar in to the unions and educate the membership about the w ar was stressed. The need to pressure the top union o ffic ia ls to change the ir position on the w ar was made in each discussion group.
Several people asked tha t the conference decide on some action tha t they could organize around in th e ir unions. No new action was decided on, bu t i t was suggested repeatedly tha t people circulate the lite ra tu re tha t was already available about the w a r in the ir locals and ta lk to fe llow union members about the war. The calling of th is conference in Chicago had opened the door fo r discussions in many union locals i t was pointed out.
The need to hold s im ila r conferences in many other cities, and eventua lly a national conference, was stressed by several speakers, as w e ll as by the chairman in his summary.
I t was generally agreed tha t the w ar in V ietnam w ould mean “ guns — not bu tte r” fo r the A m erican workers. Some made the point tha t the w a r w ould lead to greater attacks by the government on the unions. The need fo r a labor party was raised from the floo r by several in the discussion groups.
Racist W arThe racist character of the w ar
in V ietnam was pointed out several times, and the need to fig h t racism at home in order to w ork e ffective ly fo r peace was referred to.
A. J. Muste, chairman of the F if th Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee, was introduced at the lunch and reference made to his record as a figh te r fo r peace and labor. He gave the invocation.
E m il Mazey, in ternationa l sec- retary-treasurer, U nited Autom ob ile Workers, who was scheduled as a featured speaker, d id not appear bu t sent a telegram. P atrick Gorman, in ternational secretary- tr easurer, Amalgamated Meat C utters and Butcher Workmen, was unable to attend. Sanford G ottlieb, po litica l action director, SANE, substituted as a luncheon speaker, along w ith the scheduled Congressman John Conyers, Jr., (D .-M ich.), a fo rm er U AW o ff icial.
There were sizable contingents o f o ffic ia ls from the Amalgamated C loth ing W orkers, the Amalgamat
TORONTO — Canada’s labor party, the New Democratic Party, has now, according to the latest Gallup poll, the support of 26 percent o f the electorate — equal to tha t of the o ffic ia l capita lis t opposition party, the Progressive Conservative Party. B u t i t is continu ing to leave the im portan t arena of m unicipal politics to the practitioners o f the L ibe ra l-T o ry shell game.
In the center of its strength in the country, Toronto, i t fa iled to present a slate in the Dec. 5 elections and i t is presenting only a pa rtia l one in the Dec. 14 elections in Vancouver, B ritish Colum bia, where i t has been the o ffic ia l p rov inc ia l opposition fo r decades.
The Toronto branch of the League fo r Socialist Action bo ld ly stepped in to the gap there by ru n n ing its organizer, A r th u r Young, fo r Board of Control. The Young Socialist Forum, Canada’s most w idely-read publication o f the student le ft, entered its editor, John R iddell, in the Board o f Education contest in one of the central wards. Both candidates were backed by the W orkers Vanguard, w h ich is edited by Ross Dowson, the executive secretary o f the League fo r Socialist Action.
In Vancouver, Jean Rands, another editor of the Young Socia list Forum, was endorsed by the youth magazine and the League fo r Socialist Action as a candidate fo r mayor.
Toronto ResultsIn the Toronto contest, A rth u r
Young polled some 10,000 votes. This compares w ith 88,036 votes cast fo r the highest o f the fou r candidates who won.
In Vancouver, the campaign waged by 21-year-o ld Jean Rands has aroused widespread interest. H er tw o opponents are both m illionaires.
C olum nist Bud Elsie o f the Vancouver da ily Province commented: “ I t is odd, perhaps, tha t she is a better speaker than e ither M ayor Rathie or A lderm an Tom Campbell. B u t i t is w hat she says, not how she says it, tha t they are more lik e ly to remember.”
A s im ila r comment about A r -
Clear Canadian in ‘Statue of Liberty’ CaseS ignificant new lig h t may have
been th row n on the police provocation tha t led to the im prisonment of three b lack nationalists in New Y o rk in the sensational “ Statue o f L ib e rty ” case last year. In M ontreal, according to a scanty Associated Press dispatch, a woman w ho was charged w ith being involved in the so-called bomb p lo t was found not gu ilty , Dec. 16.
According to the AP story, the judge who cleared her said there were “ contradictions” in the prosecution’s case w hich affected “ to some degree” the c red ib ility of Raymond Wood, the New Y ork police agent responsible fo r the entrapm ent o f those prosecuted.
Sensational StoryThe case began in February of
last year w ith sensational police handouts to the press about the arrest of a group of b lack “ te rrorists” and a French Canadian accomplice who had been arrested ju s t in tim e to prevent them from b low ing up the Statue of L ibe rty , the Washington Monument and the L ib e rty Bell.
The “ evidence” in the case consisted o f a small amount o f dynam ite allegedly brought down from Canada and the story of a single witness, Raymond Wood, who was revealed to be a police undercover agent.
A fte r being tr ied and convicted
in the press and then in court, Robert C ollie r, K haleel Sayyed and W alte r Bowe received s tif f ja i l sentences. The Canadian w oman, M ichele Duclos, was given five years on probation.
The court record established tha t Wood, the police agent, had hatched the “ p lot,” organized it, and paid fo r i t w ith police funds.
In the course o f the case i t was revealed tha t Wood had acted as
a police p lan t and provocateur in CORE. He had also wormed his w ay in to the New Y o rk Freedom Now Party.
The woman now acquited in M ontreal, M ichele Saun ier, had been charged w ith help ing to obta in the dynamite fo r the fo u r a rrested in New York. The judge said the evidence against her was pure ly c ircum stantia l and fa iled to convince him .
16 N.Y. Minutemen Indicted In Arson 'Conspiracy' Plot
A grand ju ry in Queens, New York, indicted 15 alleged members of M in u te m e n of the 19 who were arrested Oct. 30. The in dictments, handed down Dec. 14, ranged from un law fu l possession o f firearm s to conspiracy to comm it arson. The four members who were not indicted were released because of a “ ju risd ic tiona l situation ” in the ir cases.
W hatever tha t means, i t was apparently by agreement between Queens D is tr ic t A tto rney Nat H. Hentel, the prosecutor, and New Y o rk State A tto rney General Louis J. Le fkow itz . The agreement was made at a high-level meeting between top law officers Dec. 13 re
ported in the New Y ork Times.I t is to be noted tha t none of
those indicted were charged w ith actual arson, although at the tim e of the ir arrest i t was revealed tha t plans were underway fo r an attack on New Jersey Camp M id vale where dangerous gas bombs had been planted. A ll o f the in dicted men pleaded not gu ilty .
Furtherm ore no more in fo rm ation has been revealed on the tie - ins between the M inutem en orga- ization and the New Y o rk state police w hich had been indicated earlier. A t least three New Y o rk state troopers were said to have been active members o f the te rro r is t ou tfit.
350 Trade Union Members Attend Parley on Viet War
Canadian Socialist Slate Condemns Vietnam War
th u r Young was made in Toronto by the Globe and M a il w h ich grudging ly adm itted tha t he “ delivers in terms of oratorica l style some of the best speeches in the present campaign.”
In urg ing a vote fo r the three you th fu l candidates, the League fo r Socialist Action declared in a leaflet, of w hich 60,000 copies were d istributed: “ A clear iden tity o f the c ity adm inistration w ith the an tiw ar movement in Canada could lead to the end of Canadian collusion in th is d ir ty w ar and strengthen the forces in the U.S. u rg ing w ithd raw a l o f U.S. troops from V ietnam .”
8 CCNY Students Suspended for Sit-In Action
NEW Y O R K — T h irty -fo u r students at the C ity College o f New Y ork have been* suspended from classes fo r eight days fo r the ir partic ipation in a sit-in on Dec. 8.
The sit-in was held at the college placement offices where the U.S. A rm y M aterie l Command was a ttem pting to re c ru it students. The 150 sit-iners managed to d rive the A rm y o ff the campus.
A n advertisement placed by Students fo r a Democratic Society in the Dec. 16 issue o f the campus newspaper, Observation Post, said in part: “ The adm inistration claims we are denying the righ ts o f those who w ish to w ork fo r the USAMC. We say tha t these chemical k ille rs act on ly in the interests o f that m in o rity in th is country which p ro fits by depriv ing the V ie tnamese people o f th e ir righ ts to self-determination. The administra tion ’s ro le in th is is clear; they are collaborating w ith , protecting, and defending those who wage a w ar o f genocide against the V ietnamese people. Nobody has a r ig h t to conduct such a war.
So fa r, over 800 students have signed a “ declaration of respons ib ility ,” stating tha t they w ish to be held equally responsible fo r the Dec. 8 sit-in.
ed Meatcutter s and Butcher Workmen, the U nited Autom obile W orkers and the U nited Steelworkers. Ralph Helstein, president, U nited Packinghouse Workers, gave the last speech of the a fte rnoon.
The fin a l po in t o f the conference was the adoption o f a statem ent of purpose fo r the Chicago Trade Union D ivis ion o f SANE. The proposed statement was adopted w ithou t opposition or discussion. I t reads in part as follows:
“ We believe i t is increasingly clear tha t the simple solution to the V ietnam w ar offered again and again — ‘v ic to ry through escalation ’ — cannot succeed, and can on ly in tensify the suffering o f the people o f V ietnam . I t is clear also tha t negotiations must take place among a ll those involved in th is conflict.
“ We shall therefore urge steps, such as a cessation to bombing, to help b ring about such negotiations, ra ther than fu rth e r escalation o f the con flic t . . . A nd we plan to carry the discussion o f these and other issues of peace and w a r to our trade-union brothers, to the members o f our unions, and to a ll our fe llow Americans.”
Catholic Magazine Urges Withdrawal from Vietnam
Commonweal, a lay Roman Catho lic weekly, has come out in an ed ito ria l fo r the w ithd raw a l of U.S. troops from Vietnam. I t states tha t “ despite the almost certain good intentions of those doing it,” the w ar in V ietnam is “ a crime and a sin.”
“ The disproportion between ends and means,” the magazine states, “ has grown so extreme . . . that the C hristian cannot consider the V ietnam w a r m erely a mistaken government measure to be amended eventually bu t tolerated meanw h ile .”
I t continues, “ The e v il outweighs the good. This is an un just war. The U nited States should get out.”