Laura Flanders: 40 Years On, a New Call to Resist?

[babylonsister]

40 Years On, a New Call to Resist?
by Laura Flanders

Forty years ago, a handful of smart Americans had an idea how to end a war. They published a call for moral, political and financial support for those refusing to serve. Initially signed by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Grace Paley, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Marcus Raskin, and the Reverend William Sloane Coffin among others, eventually, 20,000 signed on and the indispensable RESIST foundation was formed.

Listening as it was read aloud at a 40th anniversary party this weekend, “Resist: A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority” seems as relevant as ever. How about a second Call?

The Call:

1. An ever growing number of young American men are finding that the American war in Vietnam so outrages their deepest moral and religious sense that they cannot contribute to it in any way. We share their moral outrage.

2. We further believe that the war is unconstitutional and illegal. Congress has not declared a war as required by the Constitution. Moreover, under the Constitution, treaties signed by the President and ratified by the Senate have the same force as the Constitution itself. The Charter of the United Nations is such a treaty. The Charter specifically obligates the United States to refrain from force or the threat of force in international relations. It requires member states to exhaust every peaceful means of settling disputes and to submit disputes which cannot be settled peacefully to the Security Council. The United States has systematically violated all of these Charter provisions for thirteen years.

3. Moreover, this war violates international agreements, treaties and principles of law which the United States Government has solemnly endorsed. The combat role of the United States troops in Vietnam violates the Geneva Accords of 1954 which our government pledged to support but has since subverted. The destruction of rice, crops and livestock; the burning and bulldozing of entire villages consisting exclusively of civilian structures; the interning of civilian non-combatants in concentration camps; the summary executions of civilians in captured villages who could not produce satisfactory evidence of their loyalties or did not wish to be removed to concentration camps; the slaughter of peasants who dared to stand up in their fields and shake their fists at American helicopters; - these are all actions of the kind which the United States and the other victorious powers of World War II declared to be crimes against humanity for which individuals were to be held personally responsible even when acting under the orders of their governments and for which Germans were sentenced at Nuremberg to long prison terms and death The prohibition of such acts as war crimes was incorporated in treaty law by the Geneva Conventions of 1949, ratified by the United States. These are commitments to other countries and to Mankind, and they would claim our allegiance even if Congress should declare war.

4. We also believe it is an unconstitutional denial of religious liberty and equal protection of the laws to withhold draft exemption from men whose religious or profound philosophical beliefs are opposed to what in the Western religious tradition have be en long known as unjust wars.

5. Therefore, we believe on all these grounds that every free man has a legal right and a moral duty to exert every effort to end this war, to avoid collusion with it, and to encourage others to do the same. Young men in the armed forces or threatened wit h the draft face the most excruciating choices. For them various forms of resistance risk separation from their families and their country, destruction of their careers, loss of their freedom and loss of their lives. Each must choose the course of resistance dictated by his conscience and circumstances. Among those already in the armed forces some are refusing to obey specific illegal and immoral orders, some are attempting to educate their fellow servicemen on the murderous and barbarous nature of the wa r some are absenting themselves without official leave. Among those not in the armed forces some are applying for status as conscientious objectors to American aggression in Vietnam, some are refusing to be inducted. Among both groups some are resisting o penly and paying a heavy penalty, some are organizing more resistance within the United States and some have sought sanctuary in other countries.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/27/4856/

[IndyOp]

1. If you know someone who is joining the military because they need $$ for college...

because they need somewhere to go next after high school, tell them about the "College Cost Reduction & Access Act" - it was signed into law on 9/27/2007. Download the law from Thomas here.

The bill would provide billions of dollars a year in grant aid for low-income students and would help lower student loan debt. Bernie Sanders is on the Senate Health, Labor, and Pensions Committee which helped write the bill, he said.

The additional money from the College Cost Reduction Act will also be used for the debt forgiveness program, Sanders said. This program would help students such as Dickie who work in public service jobs. If a student works for public service — as a doctor, teacher or nurse for a non-profit organization for ten years, the debt forgiveness program will pay off any remaining loans the graduate still owes, Sanders said.

“In Vermont we have many thousands of families who cannot afford the cost of college,” Sanders said. “This will be a tremendous step forward in helping people who want to work in public service.”

Sanders said some people avoid public service jobs, such as teaching, because they know they cannot expect a significantly high salary to help them pay off their college debt. The forgiveness program would encourage students and graduates to no longer have to think that way.

<snip>

“I think the act is going to be very helpful,” Taylor said. “It’s not fair for some kids to be able to go to college and some kids not to be able to go just because their family doesn’t make enough money.”

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=284558

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: