------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Jan. 16, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
LETTERS TO WW RESISTANCE TO A DRAFT [Regarding proposals to restore the draft, draftees] need to know what they're fighting for. They need to accept and agree with it. If they don't, they will refuse to serve, in increasing numbers. And the courts will have only slight influence in curbing them. The resistance may clog the courts and the jails, and undermine military morale. But it won't stop. That's the legacy of the Vietnam War resistance movement. More and more young people will get together chanting "Hell no, we won't go, we won't fight for Texaco!" Active duty troops will find their own ways to rebel, as they did in Vietnam. Many avoided combat; others got together in soldier unions or resistance support groups, and "struck" against commanding officers--refusing orders, protesting harsh and unfair treatment, and so on. Some went AWOL or deserted. All these forms of resistance found support in the ever-growing anti-war movement. There were anti-draft counselors and anti-war GI support centers in every major city and near many military bases around the country and across the globe. Anti-war supporters in Canada, Sweden, France and other countries mobilized to assure hospitality and support for resisters who sought asylum in exile. At home, many communities became sanctuaries for resisters. A huge gulf opened between official policies and the efforts of ordinary people to stop the war. This will happen again if Bush insists on war in the Middle East. All the official justifications offered to date pale against the obvious desire of Bush and his cronies to control the Middle East oil resources, and use this control to secure their cherished world domination. It is a shameful, illegitimate and ultimately futile plan that will surely backfire. It will engender ever-increasing resistance. Already networks of support are springing up to encourage and protect reservists and others who are questioning their orders to mobilize. In 1968, as the U.S. war effort against Vietnam was discredited, Richard Nixon rode to power with a "secret plan for peace" in Vietnam that turned out to be a criminal conspiracy to widen the war and terrorize the anti-war resistance into submission. Both these efforts failed, and Nixon was forced from office in 1974 before completing his second term. It took almost three more years for the Vietnam-era war resisters--who Nixon characterized as criminals--to win amnesty. But amnesty was won, in the wake of widespread recognition that our resistance was justified and the war was wrong. Our closest allies in this recognition were the tens of thousands of anti-war Vietnam vets, who could testify from direct personal experience how wrong the war was. And while many of us carry scars from our traumatic experiences of those years, we also carry a conviction and determination that the present generation of young Americans who are called to fight for an unjust cause will have the information and support they need to make the difficult decision to refuse. Dee Knight New York [Knight was a Vietnam-era war resister, co-editor of AMEX-Canada magazine from 1968 to 1974, and a representative of war resisters in exile to the National Council for Universal & Unconditional Amnesty.] STROM THURMOND VS. HENRY WALLACE Thank you for Monica Moorehead's wonderfully informative article regarding Trent Lott's praise of the arch-racist, segregationist 1948 presidential campaign by Strom Thurmond. Not only did you provide a detailed description of the "Dixiecrat" campaign, you also gave a detailed description of Trent Lott's many displays of his racist posture and policies. In addition to Thurmond, Dewey and Truman, Henry Wallace also ran for president in 1948 under the banner of the Progressive Party. Wallace had been both agriculture secretary and vice president under Roosevelt before Truman was selected as VP in 1944. His campaign was directed against the oncoming Cold War against the Soviet Union and was supported heavily by the Communist Party. Campaign rallies typically included musical and dramatic presentations by Paul Robeson, which drew many thousands of people. The Wallace campaign stood against segregation and for civil rights. The Wallace VP candidate, Sen. Glen Taylor of Idaho, was beaten up and arrested during a Wallace campaign rally in Birmingham, Ala., by the infamous Sheriff Bull Connor. Taylor's crime? The Wallace rally was attended by both African Americans and whites, which was illegal. Of course, Thurmond never complained about this. But neither did Dewey or Truman utter one word against this attack. Wallace was a bourgeois politician. After this campaign, he reversed course. He supported the gruesome U.S. war against Korea. I guess some who capitulated to imperialism on that issue hoped to fend off the McCarthy campaign's vicious attacks. Of course, it didn't work. Chris Fry Long Island, N.Y. WW'S COVERAGE OF KOREA Too often my purpose for writing an email to a newspaper is to correct inaccuracies. I am very pleased to write you a letter congratulating you on the excellent article by Deirdre Griswold on the current tense situation on the Korean Peninsula. [WW, Jan 9, 2003, "Bush's real crisis in Korea: North and south, Koreans want U.S. troops out"] Kudos to all of you! The President of the Korean Friendship Association was recently interviewed on National Public Radio. You may be interested to hear the interview at www.npr.org/ramfiles/wesat/20030104.wesat.03.ram. FYI, the KFA in the U.S. is planning an art/photo exhibition about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the Albus Cavus Gallery www.albuscav.us) in New Brunswick, N.J., on Feb. 1. Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] for more information or directions. For international peace and solidarity, Dominick Bruno Jr. Official Delegate for the USA Korean Friendship Association - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. 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