nev.  left notes
NAC MINUTES
submitted by Mike Goldfield.
Members present: Paul Booth, Steve
Kindred, Lee Webb, Bob Speck, Aerlin
Weissman, Mike Goldfield.
The bulk of the time at the meeting
was spent in discussing implementation
of the National Council mandates.
NC Ballot. Speck will check all
the, addresses of our present contacts.
Also a copy of our present chapter
contacts and a list of chapters for
which we do not have contacts will
be sent to each regional office. They
will send NC ballots to those chapters
the NO does not have contacts for;
they hopefully will have more updated
contact lists.
It was felt by the NAC that the ballot was important enough so that poor
mimeographing should not keep anyone
from being able to read it. Jim Russell
will have it photo-offset.
Fund raising. Not much was said
except that we have to do it. We also
discussed implementation of the NC
mandate to collect money from each
chapter. It was mentioned that we
could also have a summer fund-raising
project if we could get a skilled person
to handle it.
Staff Apartments. Webb volunteered
to check with a local realtor he knows,
so that the NO staff could have a place
to live again.
NLN. Since Jim Russell is leaving,
we are stuck without an editor for NLN.
Also, mere is no one in sight who
is available for this position. Until
someone is found, Aerlin will do the
pasting and a friendly typist will be
hired to help her with making up the
copy. Speck will start working on change
of   address   plates for the summer.
Draft test. Booth spent some time
outlining what things *ad to be done
in order to implement our draft test
for May 14. Besides checking on printing procedures, finding out exactly
where all the test centers are, and
coordinating with Ann Arbor, where the
test is being written, money has to
be raised so that a WATS line can be
put into the NO in the next few days.
Booth is preparing a mailing to each
chapter on how to mobilize, organize
proceed or whatever on the draft exam.
His suggestions will mostly concern
how to get the test (which will be
printed locally), and what types of
things people can do on May 14.
Ramparts.   Ramparts has made an
I   offer to chapters to distribute it. They
Awill pay shipping and send quantities
to chapters on consignment. Chapters
will  send the 45 cents per copy and
r return unsold copies, keeping 30 cents
(75 cents is the  single copy price).
If chapters assume the cost of shipping, they can keep 35 cents per copy.
The forthcoming issue contains an
expose  of the role of Michigan State
University in the Vietnam war.
Dominican Republic. A committee of
American notables organized by Norman Thomas is preparing a report
on conditions in the Dominican Republic prior to the June 1 elections. They
will undoubtedly uncover considerable
evidence of repression of the left under
the Garcia-Godoy regime.
This report will be presented by
telephone hookup on April 24, the anniversary of the uprising there. To hook
in, contact Mr. Thomas at 112 E. 19th
St., New York City.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is
organizing a summer project in the
Dominican Republic in conjunction with
the youth wing of the PRD (left-wing)
party there. They are eager to have
SDS and other movement people go
there — especially people who speak
Spanish. The summer project will in
volve workcamps, and will start June
15. It will cost $200 per person, which
should be raised here (FOR will help).
Contact Ron Young, box 271, Nyack,
Draft Exam. SDS has adopted a major
national program around the upcoming
Selective Service exam. The student
movement in opposition to the war today faces an almost overpowering fact
of life: all of us are trying to deal
with a personal problem - conscription — that is rooted in the war, and
we have yet to find any successful
means of dealing with it collectively
and' responsibly. The particular program that is being considered at our
National Council meeting this weekend
is a national examinatidh on the war
in Vietnam.
This exam will be handed out May
14 as students enter the Selective Ser^
vice exam. It will have two sections,
one factual section with questions on
the war, recent Vietnamese history,
etc., and another section of opinion
questions. The object is to confront the
students with the primacy of the war:
the war is responsible for making you
take a test upon which your life depends, and you must resolve your attitude toward the war on the basis of
the facts. An answer sheet, with references to sources, would be handed
out as people leave.
We are persuaded that May 14 will
be a day of national protest against
the war, and of focus on the draft.
We hope to direct attention to our
claim that the facts of the war (as
well as the morality) lead to the conclusion that it should be ended. The
emotional state of the students subjected to this exam is hard to predict,
but we feel that we should be offering
an explanation for the dilemma that
they face. We hope to be able to distribute the exams at all 1700 testing
centers, and to reach literally millions   of   students   as   never before.
A committee of faculty and students
in Ann Arbor is responsible for working up the exam and answer sheet,
and we are soliciting questions and
answers from seventy prominent
Americans, both in and out of the universities. Because the exam is being
used as an educational device, to provoke thought and focus attention on
certain problems (rather than to test
knowledge), we want the questions which
you think are the most important for
students to resolve in their minds before confronting the draft.
The Ann Arbor faculty are proposing
that the Inter-University Committee
co-sponsor this project; they also hope
to assemble a group of the consultants at a press conference.
Our timetable is very tight; we hope
to have the exam prepared in a week
or ten days. Please help up by sending ideas for questions to Mike Locker, 203 W. Hoover, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
BRING THIS TO THE ATTENTION OF
YOUR CHAPTER
VOTES COUNTED APRIL 23
At the April 8-10 National Council
meeting in Antioch, Ohio, the motion
stated below passed as an amendment
to the Vietnam Exam Program, which
was adopted. Sentiment in favor of the
national program around the draft exam
was practically unanimous. Paul Booth
offered the amendment in question;
after close to six hours of debate it
passed by a vote of 39 to 29.
The next morning a m&lion to reconsider was made, which failed 22-
30. Subsequently, the NC decided to
submit the Booth amendment to the
NC by mail ballot to give the NC
another chance to vote after holding
chapter meetings and consulting with
local members.
"We are opposed to the Selective
Service Exam; we will not participate
in it; and we urge other young men
not to take it. We do this because
we oppose the war in Vietnam."
3ppc
REP Report
Project Working Paper
.1. The current draft should be approved in its basic orientation and circulated to the membership for further
comment. The balance of the draft
(page 7-24) should be printed in NLN.
Each NC delegate should be charged
with soliciting comments from his
chapter and communicating these to the
project office within the next two weeks.
2. The draft should be revised by
a subgroup of the implementation committee to take into account suggestions and criticisms.
3. When comment on subject analysis suggests a significant difference
of viewpoint, the draft should be revised to indicate that disagreement
exists and the nature of the difference.
4. The revised draft should be submitted to the implementation committee for approval as the basic working
paper for the project.
5. The working paper, along with a
reply form, should be mailed to the
membership and to as many other contact lists as are available to determine the initial human resource pool
for the project. The working paper
should be presented not as a rigid,
immutable framework, but as a beginning point for analysis and implementation.
6. The summer should be spent in
appropriate follow-up to this response.
1. The implementation committee
should be expanded and should continue to function until the Fall National
Council meeting. The present members
of the implementation committee are:
Al Haber, Jerome Badanes, Mike Locker, Carl Oglesby (all of Ann Arbor)
and Dick Flacks, Todd Gitlin, Bob Ross
and Lee Webb (all of Chicago).
2. The additional people should be added to work on specific tasks: (see
section below on implementation) (a)
membership education -- at least 10
people, (b) Bulletin -- at least 1 person, (c) Program area implementation
- at least 10 people.
3. The additional people should be
recruited from volunteers at the NC
and from others who volunteer. 1
4. The project office, until the Fall
NC, should be in Ann Arbor.
5. The project co-directors, until the
Fall NC, should be Barry Bluestone
(full-time volunteer) and Mike Locker
(almost full-time, money needs unknown).
6. Each chapter and region and the
National Office should be asked to appoint an education chairman (1-3 people) as REP liason. These people will
serve as the initial project work list.
7. At the Fall NC, a proposal for
REP structure and membership on the
steering committee will be presented,
based on the contacts and progress
made during the summer. \
8. An organizational meeting of the
implementation committee should be
scheduled after the Saturday evening
session of the NC, April 9.
Implementation priorities until the Fall
1. Developing membership education
program, (a) Take a chapter survey
and membership skill and interest inventory - on local study groups that
chapters want to setup, contributions
that individual members want to make
to the project, publications or programs that chapters and members
want the project to work on, etc. (b)
Survey pamphlets already available-
from every group left of center (1 person) - to develop an annotated literature list and explore arrangements
to make the best of this material available to the membership (5 people).
(c) Develop a comprehensive film catalog (1 person), (d) Prepare a chapter
education program guide as a "how to
do it" book for the implementation of
REP objectives on the campus level
(1 person), (e) Develop an initial speakers lits by topic and region (2 people).
2. Bulletin and pamphlet series, (a)
Recruit a summer editor for the REP
Bulletin (1 person), (b) Feed material
into NLN until adequate funds can be
raised to insure one year printed publication of the Bulletin/pamphlet series. The printing, mailing, etc., should
be done commercially, (c) The REP
implementation committee should
serve as the Bulletin editorial committee until the fall NC (d) a $5.00
membership assessment should be
made to support the Bulletin and publications of the project.
3. Begin work on implementation of
study groups or initial tasks for each
of the major project areas. At least
two people should be added to the
implementation committee to work on
each of these areas: (a) The academic
disciplines ~ begin on national study
groups, (b) The professions - begin
on conferences and ' national study
groups, (c) Ideology and Political Analysis - begin on getting commissions
for books and local study groups, (d)
International Education -- begin on an
intelligence network and local study
groups, (e) Arts - begin on magazine. ■:
1. A subcommittee of at least four
people should be formed by thé implementation committee should work
on fundraising.
2. The project should be divided into
discrete task or program areas for
fundraising from specialized sources,
foundations, etc.
3. The général maiimg of the working outline should have a fund appeal.
4. An "advisory committee" of promi-
nant people should be organized to
assist in fundraising.
5. The national office should underwrite costs until independent funds
are raised, up to a maximum of
$2000 until the Fall NC
6. Arrangements should be made
with the 'Movement Fund" to receive
tax exempt contributions. Steps should
be taken so the project can qualify
for tax exemption in its own right.
VIETNAM EXAM IMPLEMENTATION
The immediate jobs of SDS chapters for the Vietnam exam includes:
1. Contacting friends at neighboring
campuses which will be hosts for the
Selective Service exam to arrange distribution.
2. Pricing local printers for the cost
of offset printing of the Vietnam exam.
The national office will supply offset
plates for the four pages (two sides
of the exam and two sides of the answer sheet) to any chapter or region
or friendly group - these will be pre-
pared by the, end of the month.
Leaflet Ideas. Concern and Student
Action, two groups at the University
of Utah, have put out a Viet Nam leaflet that is a model of what can be
done to adapt to local conditions. They
suggest the use of the pamphlet if
Mormons are a sizeable minority in
your area; order at $1.25/hundred
from Michael W. McKain, CONCERN,
1014 E. First South, Salt Lake City,
Utah.
Ann Arbor Defendants.
The national office has available a
brochure outlining the facts of the reclassification of the Ann Arbor antiwar sit-ins. These are 12 SDS members who have been given 1-A status
for a sit-in in the draft board there
last   October   to   protest the war.
Editor Russell, James; Weissman, Aerlin; Speck; Calvert, Greg; Croston, Thane; Kleiman, Mark; Wilkerson, Cathy
Digital identifier giNewsletter943a000
Full text sds nev. left notes NAC MINUTES submitted by Mike Goldfield. Members present: Paul Booth, Steve Kindred, Lee Webb, Bob Speck, Aerlin Weissman, Mike Goldfield. The bulk of the time at the meeting was spent in discussing implementation of the National Council mandates. NC Ballot. Speck will check all the, addresses of our present contacts. Also a copy of our present chapter contacts and a list of chapters for which we do not have contacts will be sent to each regional office. They will send NC ballots to those chapters the NO does not have contacts for; they hopefully will have more updated contact lists. It was felt by the NAC that the ballot was important enough so that poor mimeographing should not keep anyone from being able to read it. Jim Russell will have it photo-offset. Fund raising. Not much was said except that we have to do it. We also discussed implementation of the NC mandate to collect money from each chapter. It was mentioned that we could also have a summer fund-raising project if we could get a skilled person to handle it. Staff Apartments. Webb volunteered to check with a local realtor he knows, so that the NO staff could have a place to live again. NLN. Since Jim Russell is leaving, we are stuck without an editor for NLN. Also, mere is no one in sight who is available for this position. Until someone is found, Aerlin will do the pasting and a friendly typist will be hired to help her with making up the copy. Speck will start working on change of address plates for the summer. Draft test. Booth spent some time outlining what things *ad to be done in order to implement our draft test for May 14. Besides checking on printing procedures, finding out exactly where all the test centers are, and coordinating with Ann Arbor, where the test is being written, money has to be raised so that a WATS line can be put into the NO in the next few days. Booth is preparing a mailing to each chapter on how to mobilize, organize proceed or whatever on the draft exam. His suggestions will mostly concern how to get the test (which will be printed locally), and what types of things people can do on May 14. Ramparts. Ramparts has made an I offer to chapters to distribute it. They Awill pay shipping and send quantities to chapters on consignment. Chapters will send the 45 cents per copy and r return unsold copies, keeping 30 cents (75 cents is the single copy price). If chapters assume the cost of shipping, they can keep 35 cents per copy. The forthcoming issue contains an expose of the role of Michigan State University in the Vietnam war. Dominican Republic. A committee of American notables organized by Norman Thomas is preparing a report on conditions in the Dominican Republic prior to the June 1 elections. They will undoubtedly uncover considerable evidence of repression of the left under the Garcia-Godoy regime. This report will be presented by telephone hookup on April 24, the anniversary of the uprising there. To hook in, contact Mr. Thomas at 112 E. 19th St., New York City. The Fellowship of Reconciliation is organizing a summer project in the Dominican Republic in conjunction with the youth wing of the PRD (left-wing) party there. They are eager to have SDS and other movement people go there — especially people who speak Spanish. The summer project will in volve workcamps, and will start June 15. It will cost $200 per person, which should be raised here (FOR will help). Contact Ron Young, box 271, Nyack, New York. Draft Exam. SDS has adopted a major national program around the upcoming Selective Service exam. The student movement in opposition to the war today faces an almost overpowering fact of life: all of us are trying to deal with a personal problem - conscription — that is rooted in the war, and we have yet to find any successful means of dealing with it collectively and' responsibly. The particular program that is being considered at our National Council meeting this weekend is a national examinatidh on the war in Vietnam. This exam will be handed out May 14 as students enter the Selective Ser^ vice exam. It will have two sections, one factual section with questions on the war, recent Vietnamese history, etc., and another section of opinion questions. The object is to confront the students with the primacy of the war: the war is responsible for making you take a test upon which your life depends, and you must resolve your attitude toward the war on the basis of the facts. An answer sheet, with references to sources, would be handed out as people leave. We are persuaded that May 14 will be a day of national protest against the war, and of focus on the draft. We hope to direct attention to our claim that the facts of the war (as well as the morality) lead to the conclusion that it should be ended. The emotional state of the students subjected to this exam is hard to predict, but we feel that we should be offering an explanation for the dilemma that they face. We hope to be able to distribute the exams at all 1700 testing centers, and to reach literally millions of students as never before. A committee of faculty and students in Ann Arbor is responsible for working up the exam and answer sheet, and we are soliciting questions and answers from seventy prominent Americans, both in and out of the universities. Because the exam is being used as an educational device, to provoke thought and focus attention on certain problems (rather than to test knowledge), we want the questions which you think are the most important for students to resolve in their minds before confronting the draft. The Ann Arbor faculty are proposing that the Inter-University Committee co-sponsor this project; they also hope to assemble a group of the consultants at a press conference. Our timetable is very tight; we hope to have the exam prepared in a week or ten days. Please help up by sending ideas for questions to Mike Locker, 203 W. Hoover, Ann Arbor, Michigan. BRING THIS TO THE ATTENTION OF YOUR CHAPTER VOTES COUNTED APRIL 23 At the April 8-10 National Council meeting in Antioch, Ohio, the motion stated below passed as an amendment to the Vietnam Exam Program, which was adopted. Sentiment in favor of the national program around the draft exam was practically unanimous. Paul Booth offered the amendment in question; after close to six hours of debate it passed by a vote of 39 to 29. The next morning a m&lion to reconsider was made, which failed 22- 30. Subsequently, the NC decided to submit the Booth amendment to the NC by mail ballot to give the NC another chance to vote after holding chapter meetings and consulting with local members. "We are opposed to the Selective Service Exam; we will not participate in it; and we urge other young men not to take it. We do this because we oppose the war in Vietnam." 3ppc REP Report Project Working Paper .1. The current draft should be approved in its basic orientation and circulated to the membership for further comment. The balance of the draft (page 7-24) should be printed in NLN. Each NC delegate should be charged with soliciting comments from his chapter and communicating these to the project office within the next two weeks. 2. The draft should be revised by a subgroup of the implementation committee to take into account suggestions and criticisms. 3. When comment on subject analysis suggests a significant difference of viewpoint, the draft should be revised to indicate that disagreement exists and the nature of the difference. 4. The revised draft should be submitted to the implementation committee for approval as the basic working paper for the project. 5. The working paper, along with a reply form, should be mailed to the membership and to as many other contact lists as are available to determine the initial human resource pool for the project. The working paper should be presented not as a rigid, immutable framework, but as a beginning point for analysis and implementation. 6. The summer should be spent in appropriate follow-up to this response. Structure 1. The implementation committee should be expanded and should continue to function until the Fall National Council meeting. The present members of the implementation committee are: Al Haber, Jerome Badanes, Mike Locker, Carl Oglesby (all of Ann Arbor) and Dick Flacks, Todd Gitlin, Bob Ross and Lee Webb (all of Chicago). 2. The additional people should be added to work on specific tasks: (see section below on implementation) (a) membership education -- at least 10 people, (b) Bulletin -- at least 1 person, (c) Program area implementation - at least 10 people. 3. The additional people should be recruited from volunteers at the NC and from others who volunteer. 1 4. The project office, until the Fall NC, should be in Ann Arbor. 5. The project co-directors, until the Fall NC, should be Barry Bluestone (full-time volunteer) and Mike Locker (almost full-time, money needs unknown). 6. Each chapter and region and the National Office should be asked to appoint an education chairman (1-3 people) as REP liason. These people will serve as the initial project work list. 7. At the Fall NC, a proposal for REP structure and membership on the steering committee will be presented, based on the contacts and progress made during the summer. \ 8. An organizational meeting of the implementation committee should be scheduled after the Saturday evening session of the NC, April 9. Implementation priorities until the Fall NC 1. Developing membership education program, (a) Take a chapter survey and membership skill and interest inventory - on local study groups that chapters want to setup, contributions that individual members want to make to the project, publications or programs that chapters and members want the project to work on, etc. (b) Survey pamphlets already available- from every group left of center (1 person) - to develop an annotated literature list and explore arrangements to make the best of this material available to the membership (5 people). (c) Develop a comprehensive film catalog (1 person), (d) Prepare a chapter education program guide as a "how to do it" book for the implementation of REP objectives on the campus level (1 person), (e) Develop an initial speakers lits by topic and region (2 people). 2. Bulletin and pamphlet series, (a) Recruit a summer editor for the REP Bulletin (1 person), (b) Feed material into NLN until adequate funds can be raised to insure one year printed publication of the Bulletin/pamphlet series. The printing, mailing, etc., should be done commercially, (c) The REP implementation committee should serve as the Bulletin editorial committee until the fall NC (d) a $5.00 membership assessment should be made to support the Bulletin and publications of the project. 3. Begin work on implementation of study groups or initial tasks for each of the major project areas. At least two people should be added to the implementation committee to work on each of these areas: (a) The academic disciplines ~ begin on national study groups, (b) The professions - begin on conferences and ' national study groups, (c) Ideology and Political Analysis - begin on getting commissions for books and local study groups, (d) International Education -- begin on an intelligence network and local study groups, (e) Arts - begin on magazine. ■: Fundraising 1. A subcommittee of at least four people should be formed by thé implementation committee should work on fundraising. 2. The project should be divided into discrete task or program areas for fundraising from specialized sources, foundations, etc. 3. The général maiimg of the working outline should have a fund appeal. 4. An "advisory committee" of promi- nant people should be organized to assist in fundraising. 5. The national office should underwrite costs until independent funds are raised, up to a maximum of $2000 until the Fall NC 6. Arrangements should be made with the 'Movement Fund" to receive tax exempt contributions. Steps should be taken so the project can qualify for tax exemption in its own right. VIETNAM EXAM IMPLEMENTATION The immediate jobs of SDS chapters for the Vietnam exam includes: 1. Contacting friends at neighboring campuses which will be hosts for the Selective Service exam to arrange distribution. 2. Pricing local printers for the cost of offset printing of the Vietnam exam. The national office will supply offset plates for the four pages (two sides of the exam and two sides of the answer sheet) to any chapter or region or friendly group - these will be pre- pared by the, end of the month.	Leaflet Ideas. Concern and Student Action, two groups at the University of Utah, have put out a Viet Nam leaflet that is a model of what can be done to adapt to local conditions. They suggest the use of the pamphlet if Mormons are a sizeable minority in your area; order at $1.25/hundred from Michael W. McKain, CONCERN, 1014 E. First South, Salt Lake City, Utah. Ann Arbor Defendants. The national office has available a brochure outlining the facts of the reclassification of the Ann Arbor antiwar sit-ins. These are 12 SDS members who have been given 1-A status for a sit-in in the draft board there last October to protest the war.
Vol. 1, no. 7 (March 4, 1966)
Vol. 1, no. 8 (March 11, 1966)
Vol. 1 no. 9 (March 19, 1966)
Vol. 1 no. 10 (March 25, 1966)
Vol. 1, no. 11 (April 1, 1966)
Vol. 1, no. 13 (April 15, 1966)
Vol. 1, no. 16 (May 6, 1966)
Vol. 1, no. 26 & 27 (July 15 & 22, 1966)
Vol. 1, no. 33 (September 2, 1966)
Vol. 1, #36 (September 23, 1966)
Vol. 1, 40, 41 (October 28, 1966)
Vol. 1, no. 42 (November 4, 1966)
Vol. 1, no. 46 (Dec. 2, 1966)
Vol. 2, no. 1 (January 6, 1967)
Vol. 2, no. 6/Praxis Vol. 1, no. 1 (February 13, 1967)
Vol. 2, no. 13/Praxis Vol. 1, no. 2 (April 13, 1967)