Russell Ford

Russell Ford

Hands off Venezuela!

In May 2005 Hands off Venezuela! circulated an internet petition: "from American trade unionists and workers to the appeal to the U.S. government to stay out of Venezuela." Russell Ford of the UFCW and Local 655 endorsed the petition.

The battle over draft regisration

About 75 people gathered at noon at the Palo Alto post office to support those who, as one sign said, "join the people who won't join the army."

Speakers included non-registrants Ben Davidson, Matt Nicodemus, and Russell Ford, as well as peace activist Claire Smith and lawyer Dan Mayfield.

Davidson, 19, said that it was a "struggle not to give in to the fear generated by smacking up against the power of the state." He continued to refuse to reg ister, he said, because he did not want to be "processed into a trained killer."

Nicodemus, a member of Stanford Against Conscription (SAC), said that as a white middle-class male, he didn't have any friends who had done time, and that he feared the "permanent changes" prison might cause in him. He said the support of the community has helped him confront the fears of "doing time."

Ford, from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, received warning letters from the Selective Service System (SSS) and from his local U.S. attorney.

Mayfield, a member of the National Lawyers Guild, said "demonstrations would defeat the draft," not legal manuevering.

All 8000 members of the Guild, formed in the '30s as an alter native to the American Bar Association, are willing to help anyone indicted. The national Committee Against Registration and the Draft (CARD) and the Guild are working together to raise funds to defend anyone prosecuted, Mayfield said."Prosecution is going to be made as expensive as possible," he said.

Opponents to the measure call it an imperfect and discriminatory means of enforcing the law. "It discriminates against the poor, especially at expensive colleges, and it discriminates against men," said Michael Lighty, a SAC member. It will delay processing the aid for 30 to 60 days, he said, and when aid is given on a first-come, first-serve basis, men may be denied aid due to the delay.

Doris Jones, coordinator of the mid-peninsula People Against the Draft, called the amendment "a frantic attempt to intimidate people."

References

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