From the July-August 1994 issue of Draft NOtices
Grassroots activism in one of the world's most militarized communities.
-- Rick Jahnkow
In June of this year (1994), the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD) reached its 15th birthday. This may not seem like such a significant milestone when compared to the persistence of a national peace organization like the venerable War Resisters League (founded in 1923!). But, COMD's 15th year does take on special meaning when you consider the nature of the community in which we are based: San Diego is like a military weed patch; one that keeps on spreading even as the parasite is cut back in other places. Our military payroll is over $3 billion and our uniformed population is increasing with base closures. It is amazing that an anti-militarism group can sprout and persevere for so long in such a conservative climate.
Thus, on the occasion of our 15th anniversary, we thought a retrospective article would be appropriate for this issue of our newsletter:
Formed to do anti-draft work
In the spring of 1979, as Congress was preparing to vote on a proposal to, once again, require young men to register for a possible draft, a small group of people met in San Diego to discuss a local response. Participants included Bill Roe, a former anti-Vietnam War activist; Hoppy Chandler of the New American Movement; Norm Lewis, a formerly-imprisoned Vietnam War draft resister; Libertarian Party activist Fritz Sands; and myself, also a former anti-Vietnam War activist.
The group had heard about the recently-formed national Committee Against Registration and the Draft (CARD)¹, and decided to create a local chapter. As a grassroots effort, San Diego CARD's initial goals were: to help defeat draft registration legislation; organize opposition to any future draft or national service program; and help expand the network of individuals and groups doing anti-draft work. (San Diego CARD would later change its name to the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft.)
The size and strength of S.D. CARD grew rapidly during its first year, with endorsements coming from over 30 local organizations, including the S.D. Ecumenical Conference, Union of Democratic Filipinos, Gray Panthers and National Lawyers Guild. In July, 1979, an article in the San Diego Evening Tribune reported that 50 people were in attendance at one organizing meeting.
On September 12, 1979, the House of Representatives voted 259-155 to reject the draft registration proposal. After celebrating this victory, S.D. CARD announced that it would stay together and continue working for a complete repeal of the still-existing stand-by Selective Service System.
Carter's draft registration program
In January, 1980, President Carter announced that he wanted to begin draft registration as a response to the Soviets' invasion of Afghanistan. This provoked demonstrations all across the country, and in San Diego, new anti-draft groups proliferated, including parents', women's and students' organizations. As more people got involved, S.D. CARD became a community-based clearinghouse for the many other groups. In March, the San Diego Reader labeled S.D. CARD “the largest [and] best-organized peace group in the city.”
Anticipating passage of the new draft registration proposal, organizers planned a day-after demonstration at the downtown San Diego Post Office. Since a successful anti-registration program would depend on the attitudes of registration-age people, S.D. CARD began the practice of leafletting in front of high schools. During the last month before summer vacation, 1,500 leaflets were distributed at five local schools.
On June 12, the Senate cast the vote which gave President Carter his draft registration program. On June 13, demonstrations were again held around the country. Over 60 people showed up for a daytime protest at the downtown San Diego Post Office.
Intense activity during registration startup
S.D. CARD was a key participant in a coalition formed to organize local activities during the registration startup period in 1980. The coalition targeted the Pacific Beach Post Office for a demonstration on Monday, July 12, the first national day of registration. During the middle of that working day, 300 turned out to picket, a remarkable number for San Diego.
During the three-week period when the first three age groups were supposed to register, S.D. CARD coordinated leafletting at dozens of post offices around San Diego County. Almost 20,000 leaflets were distributed and stories about local registration opposition appeared in the press daily, including reports of an extremely low compliance rate!
To help people keep up on developments, in September, 1980, S.D. CARD published the first issue of its newsletter, Draft NOtices. Today, it remains one of the few periodicals in the nation that covers anti-militarism organizing from a grassroots perspective. Information and reprints of articles from Draft NOtices have found their way into such publications as The Progressive, Utne Reader, Fellowship Magazine, the Nonviolent Activist, and various local, national and international newsletters.
In January 1981, S.D. CARD organized a fundraiser in the form of a regulation 10k run through Balboa Park. Titled the “Run Against Registration and the Draft,” the event attracted 194 runners and was supported by dozens of local businesses which donated prizes – an amazing feat (no pun intended) for “Navytown U.S.A.”
Broader issues and youth organizing
In February, 1981, the National CARD conference in Detroit adopted new Principles of Unity that included stands against wars of intervention, support for a nuclear freeze, and support for all forms of draft resistance. The document also pointed out the impossibility of conducting a “principled and effective struggle against the draft and war without recognizing the relationship between militarism, racism, sexism and other forms of oppression.”
The new Principles caused some controversy, but their broader analysis struck a positive chord in many people whose opposition to the draft was part of a larger commitment to working for peace and social justice. S.D. CARD voted unanimously for local adoption of the Principles and began to address a wider range of issues. Over the next several years, S.D. CARD had a prominent local role in organizing around issues that included South Africa, Central America, President Reagan's domestic policies and nuclear disarmament.
S.D. CARD also began to address the military recruitment issue. In September 1981, it launched a leafletting campaign to inform high school students about their right to prevent schools from routinely releasing their names and addresses to the military recruiters. A story about this appeared in the San Diego Union with the prominent headline, “Anti-Draft Committee Invades High Schools.”
On September 25, in front of El Cajon Valley High School, Bob Hansen became the first person arrested while leafletting for S.D. CARD (charges were later dropped). A total of 10,000 leaflets were distributed at 28 high schools that fall, and S.D. CARD began to make students' rights an important part of its political program. Eventually, some of the materials we developed on high school student organizing were adapted and used for youth outreach by other groups around the country.
One of the local outreach projects we launched in 1987 was our Youth Activism Task Force (YATF). During its two years, approximately 30 high school-age youths joined the YATF and gained experience organizing around various issues. A number of them went on to join the leadership of various activist community groups.
S.D. CARD's role in resisting draft prosecutions
In September 1981, S.D. CARD announced plans for a day-after demonstration in response to the anticipated first prosecution of a draft registration resister. Rumors were circulating that the first indictment might occur in various other cities, but not San Diego.
In June of 1982, the first indictment still had not come, but S.D. CARD called a meeting to set up a defense committee and make other plans in expectation that there would eventually be a local draft resistance case. Present at the meeting was Ben Sasway, a college student from North San Diego County who had received a Justice Department notice threatening his indictment if he continued to refuse to register. We speculated that he might be among the first group of resisters prosecuted, but not the first.
Taking the initiative, S.D. CARD activists organized a news conference on June 28 so Ben could make a statement before any action by the U.S. Attorney. There was moderate attendance by the local news media.
On June 29, San Diego CARD was contacted by the network news media and asked to set up interviews with Ben Sasway the next day. On the morning of June 30, I arrived at the Sasway home to find news crews from CBS, NBC, ABC, and a Los Angeles t.v. station, along with a wire service photographer, setting up inside the house. Later that day, to our surprise, Ben Sasway became the first person indicted for violating the Selective Service Act since the Vietnam War. The decision to bring the first case in San Diego was apparently made with input from Edwin Meese, a resident of San Diego County, who was then acting as one of Ronald Reagan's top advisors.
The next day, demonstrations in support of Ben occurred in over 100 cities, and 175 people turned out to picket at the Federal Building in San Diego. During the course of Ben's trial, appeal and eventual 6-month imprisonment, S.D. CARD activists remained deeply involved in his case, and, along with Ben, found themselves in a prominent role in the national anti-draft movement.
The San Diego Draft Resisters Defense Fund (DRDF) was initiated by S.D. CARD at the time of Ben's indictment. It was designed to function as a separate group that would organize national and local support for Ben and prepare for other possible local indictments. S.D. CARD volunteers continued working for both groups and had a direct hand in organizing vigils, rallies and other activities around Ben's case which attracted crowds of up to 2,300. Eventually, in 1988, the DRDF was reorganized and became a task force within S.D. CARD.
A landmark equal access lawsuit
In September of 1982, S.D. CARD launched a counter-intimidation campaign timed to coincide with a Selective Service media blitz that we had heard was coming to San Diego. Since the start of draft registration, San Diego's compliance rate had been among the lowest in the nation, and it was continuing to go down even after Ben's highly publicized case. Since San Diego was a large metropolitan area and normally expected to be very conservative, it was no wonder we were causing some grief for Selective Service.
S.D. CARD's counter-intimidation strategy included high school leafletting, radio PSAs, a student journalist news conference, postering and the placement of ads in high school newspapers. In November, we learned that the Grossmont Union High School District had ordered its students to not run our advertisements. The ads said, “Don't Let the Draft Blow You Away!” and encouraged students to contact us for draft counseling. The school district had never acted to prohibit pro-draft registration and military recruitment ads, so with help from a National Lawyers Guild volunteer attorney, S.D. CARD filed suit.
We lost the initial court ruling, but while on appeal, the Pentagon became so worried about this case that it had the Department of Justice file a motion to join the school district as a defendant. Fortunately, their motion was rejected, and in 1986, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided in our favor. The court ruled that when public schools provide a forum for proponents of military enlistment, equal access must be allowed for those with an opposing view. This important decision is now being used to the advantage of counter-recruitment groups elsewhere.
Broader political work and name change
As part of its contribution to the anti-nuclear weapons movement, S.D. CARD took an active role in helping to organize an anti- Cruise missile demonstration and civil disobedience at the Ballast Point Submarine Base on June 20, 1983. Thirty-four people were arrested for blocking the base, the first of whom was Michael Marsh, a nonregistrant and S.D. CARD activist.
During the 1983-84 period, internal discussions led us to adopt a new name, the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD). Our reasons were to emphasize the broader analysis that had been characteristic of the group since 1981, and to make it clearer to the local community that we were concerned about a variety of related issues besides the draft. It was also decided that COMD should try to stimulate more discussion in the community about the need to go beyond narrow, single-issue approaches that only focus on symptoms of underlying problems. In particular, we sought to present this perspective within the local nuclear disarmament movement.
Around the same time, COMD joined the Emergency Response Network, an effort to organize mass opposition to any escalation of U.S. military involvement in Central America. COMD also became a local affiliate of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, and adopted an active role in the Disarmament Coordinating Council, a San Diego networking body.
During 1984, activists from COMD and the Draft Resisters Defense Fund proposed a new project to expand youth outreach and address some of the factors which push low-income youths into the military. With additional help from the San Diego Peace Resource Center and the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, this idea eventually became the Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (Project YANO).
Project YANO has since developed into a truly effective tool for countering the militarization of young people. Under its auspices, military veterans annually visit dozens of local high school classes to speak to students about the realities of military enlistment and war. At the same time, they offer youths information about concrete non-military alternatives for job training, community service and college financial aid. Project YANO has also established its presence in school career centers and at school career fairs. Partly due to the continuous support of COMD, Project YANO has become a national model for such grassroots efforts. A recent article in Z Magazine (June, 1994) said it is “arguably one of the strongest counter-recruitment groups in the country.”
In 1985, COMD began a one-year research project which led to the publication of a poster-size map of San Diego County's military facilities. The map was recommended as a resource by such national groups as Nukewatch and the Mobilization for Survival, and it was used as a major element in an art installation at San Diego's Centro Cultural de la Raza. A group of Norwegian activists even used it as part of their defense when they were put on trial for publishing similar information about U.S. military installations in their country.
More recent activities
Over the last few years, COMD has continued to focus on a broad range of militarism-related issues, including: immigration and the militarization of the U.S./Mexico border; military intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean; the Persian Gulf War and support for the GIs who resisted it; discrimination within the military; and legislation concerning Selective Service and military conscientious objection.
Our efforts at national networking with youth and militarism groups have been particularly important; COMD was able to offer its local Campaign to Demilitarize Our Schools as a partial model for what has become the National Campaign to Demilitarize Our Schools. We plan to continue our local schools campaign with leafletting in the fall and distribution of a new brochure on high school students' rights.
Most recently, COMD has been working to increase its involvement in the area of militarism and the environment. We've begun to produce more material on this subject and hope to get actively involved in efforts to educate San Diegans about local problems with military toxic wastes.
Besides the feat of persisting in such a conservative, pro- military community, COMD has really accomplished a lot of important things over the years far too many to mention here. The reason we've survived this long, I think, is not because we've discovered any special organizing techniques or secrets. I think it's mostly because we've had so many unusually dedicated activists and supporters giving us strength.
Of course, we can't predict whether COMD will last another 15 years, but we're bound to continue as long as there are enough committed people willing to help. Maybe the real secret for us has been the huge presence of the military establishment. When it's so visible, it's just plain hard to resist the temptation to try to do something about it!
1. Committee Against Registration and the Draft Collected Records, Swarthmore College Peace Collection
This article is from Draft NOtices, the newsletter of the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (http://www.comdsd.org/index.php/draft-notices).
Please consider becoming a $10 per month supporter of The Committee Opposed to Militarism & the Draft
Our investigations and advocacy are an important contribution to the national peace community in the USA.
Donate through the Project on Youth & Non-military Opportunities
###
