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Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemy

My Socialist Party is hosting a forum next Monday in defense of Lynne Stewart, the famed civil rights attorney who is being sent up the river for “aiding ‘terrorists’ ” by defending their constitutional rights in our modern witch-hunt times. Tom Good has organized a very interesting panel, and it looks like yours truly will be offering a few opening remarks and introducing the speakers. I strongly encourage you to attend if you are free in New YOrk City this coming Monday night. This will be the party’s biggest event in the city this summer (we have some cool things cooking up for the fall).

July 6, 2005

For Immediate Release


P R E S S R E L E A S E

FREE SPEECH FORUM IN DEFENSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS ATTORNEY LYNNE STEWART

New York, NY – The Socialist Party is hosting a Free Speech Forum in defense of Lynne Stewart on July 11th, 2005. It will be held at Judson Church’s Assembly Hall, 239 Thompson Street near Washington Square. Speakers will include human rights attorney Lynne Stewart, Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Shayana Kadidal and labor organizer Daniel Gross – also a law student.

The Socialist Party of New York City is hosting the event which is co-sponsored by the Direct Action Tendency (DAT). DAT secretary and event organizer Thomas Good applauds Stewart’s efforts in seeking justice for political prisoners: “I became aware of Lynne Stewart while reading about her defense of Dave Gilbert. She works tirelessly to protect us all from a corrupt system that’s simply a mechanism for populating the prison industrial complex. The idea that Lynne might be absorbed into this dehumanizing, immoral system, this modern day form of slavery, is unthinkable. We have to fight for her as she has fought for all of us.”

“Putting Lynne Stewart in a cage for her legal defense work would be a major miscarriage of justice,” said Daniel Gross, an organizer with the Starbucks Workers Union of the IWW. “Working people, often the targets of unjust criminal prosecutions, should be gravely concerned when an attorney for unpopular clients is steamrolled by government lawyers virtually screaming ‘War on Terror’ at the jury box.”

Lynne Stewart remarked, after the guilty verdict in her recent trial: “We are going to fight on. This is the beginning of a longer struggle. I think everyone who has a sense that the United States needs to protect the Constitution at this time understands that struggle. And this case could be, I hope it will be, a wakeup call to all of the citizens of this country and all of the people who live here that you can’t lock up the lawyers. You can’t tell the lawyers how to do their job. You’ve got to let them operate. And I will fight on. I’m not giving up. I know I committed no crime.”

Shayana Kadidal, scheduled to speak at the forum, is an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). Kadidal represented Farouk Abdel Muhti, the WBAI producer and Socialist Party member who was wrongfully detained by the immigration service for over two years – without the the government filing charges. Kadidal helped secure Farouk’s release, allowing him to spend the last six months of his life speaking out against political repression in the US. Sharin Chiorazzo, Farouk’s fiance and a member of the Socialist Party of New Jersey, is one of the event organizers.

Judson Church’s Assembly Hall is the site of the forum and the event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 pm and the forum is scheduled to conclude at 9 pm.

Thanks to the staff and congregation of Judson Memorial Church for the use of this space. Judson continues to be a beacon for free spirits in the arts and politics and a leader among progressive faith communities in the city and nation for over 100 years.

Founded in 1901, the Socialist Party is a multi-tendency democratic socialist organization that strives to establish a radical democracy that places people’s lives under their own control — a non-racist, classless, feminist, socialist society in which people cooperate at work, at home, and in the community. Direct Action (DAT) is a tendency of the Socialist Party, well known for its commitment to activism in service to peace and progress.

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Board of Education Layeth the Smacketh Down

Although they were generally good guys, I don’t recall my high school history teachers making a big impression on me. Of course, they couldn’t piledrive me into my desk. My old high school, Benjamin N. Cardozo, apparently corrected that shortcoming by hiring professional wrestler Matthew Kaye (a.k.a. Matt Striker, Matt Martel, Hydro, or Hot Stuff) to teach European history.

Unfortunately, he has resigned after getting caught wrestling in Japan while calling in sick. After copping to the “mistake,” he’s offering to pay back the days and is hoping to get another job in city schools, which an investigator has recommended against.

“I would have been better off beating a kid, because those teachers always seem to keep their jobs,” Kaye told the Daily News. (Those teachers, I would venture, don’t document their malfeasance on the web). I don’t think the Board of Education should give up on hiring professional wrestlers. Next time, I recommend hiring Dr. Cube for the Science department. He has a PhD…in Evil.

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School Days Mixtape

It’s only a few more weeks until I go to school. I’ve started burning mix CDs for the road trip to Amherst. For a bit of fun, I’ve compiled some of the better school-themed songs.

“Fuck School” by the Replacements. The Mats picked up the speed and dumbed down the jokes on their 1982 e.p. “Stink.” Whereas a song like “Goddamn Job” has a certain pathos, “Fuck School” is impotent, class-dropping anger.

“School” by Nirvana. From the heavy metal guitar feedback to the lyrical refrain “No recess!” this is early Nirvana at their most obvious. Eh. Everybody’s gotta start somewhere.

“College Man” by Bill Justis. Justis is best known for the instrumental hit, “Raunchy,” the twangy guitar and sax ramble that was pure sex on the airwaves in the 1950’s (Bit of trivia: George Harrison had to prove that he could master this song in order to join the Beatles). “College Man” was a lesser hit, a cocksure strut through the halls of campus driven by a wailing sax. Hail to dear old alma mater.

“High School Confidential” by Jerry Lee Lewis. Justis’ Sun Records labelmate, the Killer loves to shake it at the high school hop, although Jerry Lee probably should stay away from teenage girls. Speaking of which…

“Pussy Walk” by Iggy Pop. Mr. Ostenberg understandably gets a little randy when thinking about pussy, but when he confesses impure thoughts touring the “high schools and junior high schools and other centers of learning in this wonderful land,” well, I get a little squeamish. The high schools I can understand, Iggy, but the junior high schools?! You naughty little doggie.

“Modern World” by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. Cousin Jonathan’s classic first record is all about college girls; the pretty, intellectual, artistic goddesses who attend Massachusetts’ post-secondary educational institutions and date pot-smoking hippie losers instead of taking guys like me and my cousin to the Museum of Fine Arts and explaining what it all represents. This is one of his more Mass-centric songs, with its exhortation to “Drop out of B.U.!” and all that driving past Stop-and-Shops. The Modern World is not so bad…not like the students say.

“School Days” by Chuck Berry. The true king of rock-n-roll, Berry not only wrote the guitar riffs that new players cut their teeth on, he laid down the basic lyrical themes of rock: girls, school, cars and dancing. Hail, hail rock-n-roll!

“Straight A’s In Love” by Johnny Cash. Schoolyard romance is out of character for the man in black, but at least he’s rebellious enough to flunk out of school while getting all that action.

“Straight A’s” by the Dead Kennedys. The reverse of JC’s song, this self-loathing student gets the grades but not the girls. “Girls, they kick me in the eye / Want answers to the tests / When they get them they drive off / And leave me home to rest.”

“Life Sentence” by the Dead Kennedys. A more relevent DK song for grad school is the one that warns “You stayed too long in school.”

“Be True To Your School” by the Beach Boys. They were probably thinking of homecoming and state championships. I think of protesting CUNY budget cuts.

“UMass” by the Pixies. I can’t think of a song about CUNY, but at least my new school, in the sleepy west of the woody east, was feted by the mighty Pixies. It’s educational!

“We Rule the School” by Belle and Sebastian. A graffiti boast from the album that Stuart Murdoch recorded for a Business course in college. LIke most of their stuff, it’s twee and bittersweet.

“Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” by the Ramones. The Ramones tore a page from the Chuck Berry songwriting textbook for their movie theme song. Don’t wanna be taught to be no fool.

That’s just scratching the surface. I’ve skipped the Mekons, the Talking Heads’ taunting dismissal of college and night school and a certain ubiquitous Alice Cooper song. It’s a work in progress. Make your own suggestions.

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Register for Selective Service Under Protest

With no end in sight to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and military recruitment on the decline, a resumption of the military draft looms as a frightening possibility for young people. While many activists have been turning their attention towards anti-recruitment work, resistance to Selective Service registration has taken a back seat.

A cursory search on Google reveals advice that is ridiculously simple-minded. It is unreasonable to ask a young man not to register for Selective Service if he wants to go to college. Anyone who wants to go to college, but cant afford to pay tuition out of pocket, has to resort to student loans. Anyone who applies for student loans must first file a Federal Application for Financial Student Aid. Under federal law, all men between the ages of 18 and 26 are ineligible for FAFSA unless they register for Selective Service. The simple math for this is: Working Class Male Student – Selective Service Registration = No College.

The solution is to register under protest. I realize that this column is a little too late for this year’s batch of graduating high school seniors. After being solicited for some advice by a young comrade in Florida, and looking through my own, old paperwork, I decided to post this information online. I hope it will help tomorrow’s seniors who find it through Google. Perhaps it can help those young people who have already registered for Selective Service, but want to take action anyway.

Just before the war with the eskimos, in 1997, I was a graduating high school senior faced with this dilemma. The advice I received at the time, from the War Resisters League and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors was to register under protest for Selective Service. In order to do this, you should do the following.

You should actively register for Selective Service. Do not merely check that box on your FAFSA that registers you for the SS. Go to your local post office, pick up a SS registration form and mail it in before you apply for financial aid. Include with the registration form a letter from you explaining that you are registering under protest. Here is my own letter from 1997:

As an editor, I may quibble with this young writer’s precise wording, but the essence is there. I am a conscientious objector. If drafted, I will not serve. Those are crucial statements. If I were writing this letter today, I might add, “I am registering under protest in order to apply for federal student financial aid. I have no intention to cooperate with the Selective Service Administration” and “I oppose the war in Afghanistan, the War in Iraq, and all wars.”

Now, here’s the crucial bit: carbon copy yourself on this letter. Send both copies of the letter, the one to the SS and the one to yourself, via certified mail. Keep all receipts and stubs in a safe place.

Keep the letter that you mailed to yourself sealed and in the same safe place.

The reason that you mail yourself a copy is to save your own skin. What you have in your hands is government certified proof that you were a conscientious objector way back when you were 18-years-old, should you ever be called before a draft board (which was a remote possibility eight years ago, but is not now).

Saving your own skin, as a form of activism, is not particularly satisfying, but you do achieve a secondary goal by sending a direct message to the war machine that you are an active opponent of their scheme. Believe me, they keep track of this stuff. Their statisticians undoubtedly will credit you for representing another ten or fifteen cohorts who didn’t have the nerve to speak up. The more young people who file letters such as these, the more the war machine gets the message that they will have a real problem on their hands should they seek a return of the draft.

When I did this, before our government declared permanent war against invisible enemies, a funny thing happened: the Selective Service Administration wrote me back!

By acknowledging and rejecting my claim of conscientious objector status, the Selective Service Administration provided even more evidence (should I ever need it) that I was a pacifist in 1997, long before the wars and the draft. They also directly acknowledged that they are aware when young people resist compulsory military service (and, again, are almost assuredly keeping statistics on these letters).

I would be curious is a young man who filed a similar letter in 2005 would receive the same kind of response. Please let me know how your own letter is received.

Finally, if you’ve already registered for Selective Service, and filed your FAFSA, you can still take action. In fact, you’re in better shape, since your loans are cleared up, and the SS never rescinds a registration anyway. Send them a certified mailing expressing your desire to rescind your Selective Service registration. Use the same language as I recommended: “I am a conscientious objector,” “I registered under duress in order to qualify for college, “I do not support this or any war.” Your objection will be noted by the statisticians, and hopefully you’ll receive back from the SS a dated letter rejecting your claim of objector status (thereby proving that you were an objector way back when).

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