Vol. 5, No. 2 January 13, 1967
ANTIWAR APPEAL GIVEN AMERICAN GI'S IN JAPAN
An unusual, but probably one of the most heartfelt messages received by American GI's during the Christmas holidays was the handbill, written in English, which was distributed to them in Japan appealing to them to try to pull out of Vietnam. The message appealed to the American servicemen to "go back to your native towns where your parents, brothers, sisters, wives and sweethearts are anxiously waiting for you."
The leaflet was sponsored by the Japan Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee, the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Society, Japan Peace Committee, and the Japan Council Against A- and H-Bombs.
As reported by the December 26 Japan Times, the message began: "Merry Xmas! Dear Gl. Fortunately you have been able to survive up to now. But if sent back to Vietnam again, you may be killed tomorrow."
Following this arresting opening, the leaflet continued:
New York, N. Y. 10010. SSP
—34e
_ "All the people in Vietnam are Vietnamese people. For what purpose are you forced to slaughter the same: human beings? :
"Can you imagine your parents» brothers, sisters, babies and sweethearts being slaughtered by foreign invaders? .
"No matter how just the invaders try to make their motive for invasion appear surely your heart can only be filled with rage, and so with the same feelings as you would naturally have -- the Vietnamese patriots who are under the same mentioned bitter circumstances are determined to fight through until victory is won to free their people from foreign invasion.
"L.B.Johnson, Dean Rusk, R.S.McNamara, W.C.Westmoreland are waging the war in the interests of U.S. war industries and big business who are all living in the lap of luxury while you are bleeding -- fighting an unjust war.
"Cease this senseless war in Vietnam and go home to your country and loved ones!"
The message ended with the following appeal: "Go home to your country with healthy bodies -- for many Merry Xmasses comfortably at home now and in the future."
The Japan Times did not report whether the four organizations that collaborated in issuing and distributing the leaflet intended to follow up with more along the. same line. Nor did the newspaper report the reaction of the American soldiers to whom it was handed at Sukiyabashi, Tokyo, and the naval base at Yokosuka. .
AMERICAN SOLDIER NO LONGER PROUD OF HIS COUNTRY'S UNIFORM
Unable to square his conscience with what the U.S. armed forces are doing in Vietnam, an American soldier, Specialist—4 J. Harry Muir, 21, of Goldsboro, North Carolina, has refused to wear his country's military uniform any longer. He demanded to -be discharged as a "conscientious objector." .
Before surrendering to military authorities at Fort Benning January 3, he told the press that he could not participate in "escdlation of the war in Vietnam, the bombing of North Vietnam, the continuing troop build-up in South Vietnam and the use of chemicals as outlawed by the Geneva Conventions
He said, "I would violate the laws of my fatherland concerning war and military service before I would | continue to compromise what I hold to be holy laws of love, peace and nonviolence.
Harry Muir had been considered to be a model soldier. After a term of service he was given an honorable discharge. He reenlisted in October 1965 for a six-year term in which he expected to become an officer and to be transferred to the Special Forces and go to Vietnam.
"I spent more time studying the ways of war and more time thinking," he said. After sixteen weeks, he quit the Officers Candidate School.
He filed as a "conscientious objector," joining the Protestant Episcopal Church to gain recognized standing in this category. He was given noncombatant duties in the Army Medical Corps but felt that this would contribute to the war effort.
When his request for a discharge was turned down, he decided to resist and to risk imprisonment in.the hope that this would "cause the American people to take a serious look at the manner in which conscientious objection to war is dealt with by the armed services and the Selective Service System."
The case created a considerable stir in view of Harry Muir's family background. He comes from one of the most prominent families in North Carolina, being a great~grandnephew of the late Josephus Daniels,Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson and Ambassador to Mexico under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He is also related to Jonathan Daniels, editor of The Raleigh News and Observer.
Interviewed on a nationwide telecast, the rebellious soldier was asked about the prospect of being sent to prison because of his way of expressing his antiwar views. He smiled and said that at most it would be for five years, the maximum penalty provided under the law.
BROAD CAMPAIGN FOR HUGO BLANCO WAGED IN ITALY
Rome
The second drive in the Hugo Blanco defense campaign, which was launched as soon as the news was received that the death sentence had been demanded. by the army's prosecuting attorney, has gained an even broader response. than the first and very successful drive in September-October at the time of the trial in Tacna.
It can truthfully be said that. rarely has democratic and working-class public opinion in Italy been so deeply moved over the case of a revolutionary militant ina foreign country despite the fact that the big daily press, including the press of the left, has remained almost entirely silent about the Tacna trial and what happened when the sentence was appealed.
World Outlook has already reported two actions of national scope; namely, the telegram sent to President Belainde Terry. by the Secretariat of the CGIL (the Italian General Confederation of Labor which includes both Communist and Socialist tendencies) and a declaration sent to the same addressee by De Martino and Tanassi, the two secretaries of the United Socialist party. :
A few days later a similar action was taken by two vice-presidents. of the Chamber of Deputies, Maria Cinciari Rodano (Communist) and Sandro Pertini, one of the leading figures in the Italian resistance during the war. (He is a socialist.)
Telegrams or letters were likewise sent to the president of Peru by Terracini, leader of the Communist group in the Senate, the Socialist senators Vittorelli, Banfi and Lami~Sternuti (the latter is the chairman of the reunited socialist group) and by several Christian Democrat members of parliament.
Telegrams, letters and resolutions expressing solidarity with Blanco were sent, beginning at the end of November, throughout December from a whole series of cities and regions in Italy. ~
In Rome, the provincial federation of the PSIUP [Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity} sent a message November 28 to the Peruvian ambassador demanding that Blanco be accorded his elementary legal rights and that his life be spared. Local orga-~ nizations of the left parties.also participated in the campaign and the organ of the Italian Communist party; 1'Unitd, had to publish the letter adopted by the Executive Board, of the section of La Balduina expressing solidarity with Blanco and asking the newspaper to associate itself with the international campaign.
The monthly magazine la Sinistra, which reflects the views of the Communist left and the left wing of the PSIUP, published the text of a declaration it sent to the Peruvian embassy in Rome condemning the illegality of the tribunal that tried Blanco and backing the solidarity campaign for the peasant leader.
in Milan, among the various demonstrations, the position taken by the editors of the monthly Falcemartello was outstanding. Falcemartello is published by a left current of young Communists and PSIUP socialists. During the Tacna trial, they pasted up placards and distributed leaflets appealing for aid in the defense of Blanco and sent a strong telegram of protest to President Belatnde.
In Turin, a meeting of the CIMO (a cultural circle led by militants of the left in the workers movement) adopted a document condemning the crime which the Peruvian reaction was seeking to carry out by striking down the leader of the peasants in Cuzco.
In the Emilia region, in the city of Piacenza, the youth organizations of the Communist party, the PSIUP, the Socialist party, the anarchists and the Marxist~Leninists (pro-Chinese tendency) unanimously adopted a telegram of solidarity with Hugo Blanco and all the other Peruvian political prisoners. At Parma similar steps were taken by the Communist youth and the youth of the PSIUP.
In Tuscany solidarity actions were taken in the province of Grosseto by left militants in Follonica. In the province of Arezzo, the revolutionary Communists of the city of Cortona gathered 200 signatures on a resolution in favor of Blanco which was sent to the Peruvian embassy.
In Naples telegrams were sent by the left circle De Sanctis, by the Nuova Cultura circle, by the Communist youth and the provincial federation of the Socialist party, and by the Italian Union of Students. Under the auspices of the city's Anticolonialist Committee an ad hoc committee was set up to distribute an appeal stressing the urgency of a solidarity campaign for the prisoner in El Frontén.
In the Abruzzi region, at a December 7 meeting the members of the organization of the Communist youth of Lanciano passed a resolution condemning the Peruvian reaction-— aries and expressing solidarity with Blanco and the Peruvian revolution. The resolution was Sent to the Peruvian embassy.
At Cozenza, in the southern part of the country, a letter was sent to the Peruvian embassy by the Mondo Nuovo cirtle, a grouping mainly of young socialists of the left.
‘In Sicily the Pintor youth circle of Catania pasted up big placards bearing a message of solidarity like that issued by the Peruvian Committee. -: :
"The struggle of the revolutionary movements against capitalism, neocolonialisn and imperialism," the placard said among other things, "requires dn overall strategy. Solidarity among the peoples of Asia, Latin America, Africa and the European working class must be shown ‘by concrete actions of reciprocal support. Me ae “A campaign for signatures was successfully conducted by the revolutionary Communists (Trotskyists) of the province of Trapani. A letter of protest serit- to Peru said among other things, "Hands off Hugo Blanco! Hugo Blanco is a friend and comrade of the Sicilian peasants -- he led a struggle in favor of the Peruvian peasants seeking justice and: freedom and dedicated his life to them!"
The Socialist students of Palermo sent a letter to the Peruvian embassy demanding the immediate release of Blanco and stating that "Comrade Blanco is guilty only of having promised an agrarian reform and of having struggled against the arrogance , the violence and the abuse of the landowners."
Another letter likewise protesting the condemnation. of Blanco was signed by the young Socialists of the village of Polizzi Generosa.
Finally, it should be reported that at a demonstration of solidarity with the Vietnamese National Liberation Front in Livorno December 18 organized by the Italian Communist youth in which many international delegations participated, when a Latin- ‘American delegate took the floor, part of the youth there began to chant the name of — Hugo Blanco. :
The biweekly organ of the Italian section of the Fourth International, Bandiena Rossa, has: conducted a big campaign, publishing articles, documents, news. about the -~ solidarity campaign and photographs of Hugo Blanco during the trial. A similar campaign was conducted by the biweekly news bulletin IV Internazionale. :
At the end of a conference in Naples attended by a big audience, Livio Maitan, secretary of the Italian Trotskyist organization, spoke briefly about the Tacna trial and read the letter of Blanco's comrades asking to be given the same sentence he received. The crowd, deeply stirred, applauded for a long time as a sign of solidarity with the courageous militants of the Peruvian revolution.
LATIN AMERICANS IN PARIS CABLE BELAUNDE ABOUT HUGO. BLANCO
Paris
Three telegrams to President Belatinde speaking in behalf of Hugo Blanco have been sent by residents of the French capital with a special interest in Latin-American affairs.
On November 28, Colombian students living in Paris cabled Belatinde. On December 1 Professor. Francois Perrous of the University of San Marcos sent a similar cable. And on December 4, the Center for Latin-American Students in France did likewise, the latter cable being signed by H. Torres, as chairman.