Venceremos

Venceremos was a Bay Area Maoist revolutionary group, active in the early late 60s/1970s.

Central committee

Pictured at the organization's heyday in 1971 are Central Committee members (1. to r.) Katarina Davis Del Valle, Guero Rodriquez (seated), Linda Lopez, Asst. German Prof. John Flores (Juan) and Aaron Manganiello.

History

Founded in 1966 by Aaron Manganiello, the originally Latino left-wing protest organization was named for Che Guevera’s battle cry, “We will prevail!” By 1970, Venceremos had evolved into a multicultural Maoist/Communist revolutionary brigade that was a mainstay at any mid-Peninsula protest in those years. Under the leadership of Stanford Professor and Melville scholar H. Bruce Franklin (fired in 1972 for leading a student takeover of the university’s computerlab), Venceremos took an active role in community issues and demonstrations.

Venceremos believed that “an unarmed people are subject to slavery at any time” and held vast amounts of weaponry to back it up. They had secret stashes of rifles, grenades, pipe bombs, and other explosives and they urged members to stay armed at all times --- advice that was apparently followed. With their rifle logo and violent rhetoric, Venceremos startled the local population and caught the eye of federal law enforcement. Many believed they were one of the largest revolutionary groups in the country and a 1972 House Internal Security Committee Report called the group “a potential threat to the United States.”

Venceremos’ ultimate stated goal was the overthrow of the government. On their way to armed insurrection, their platform called for (among many other things): “The firing of…profit-motivated murderers, like David Packard and Richard Nixon,” “an end to the Fascist court system and fascist judges,” and “an education which exposes the lies and oppression created by the corrupt court system and teaches us the true history of oppressed people.” Venceremos were also enemies of the police and were convinced that “the best pigs are always dead pigs.”

But Venceremos stressed actions over rhetoric. In 1970, they opened a revolutionary community college ina Redwood City storefront that lasted until it ran out of money two years later. They were actively involved in an anti-drug campaign on the streets of Palo Alto in the summer of ’71 and later with the Palo Alto Drug Collective. They often showed up at City Council and School Board meetings in Palo Alto with a verbal aggressiveness never before seen in the city’s politics. At an August 1971 meeting, for instance, Jeffrey Youdelman shouted down school board members as “racist, fascist pigs.”

They also tried to win elections. In May of ’71, Venceremos ran Jean Hobson for City Council; she only garnered 798 votes, some 7,000 short of victory. Undaunted, Youdelman ran as a candidate in 1973, but he fared no better. Venceremos member Doug Garrett also ran for Palo Alto School Board and Joan Dolly ran in the 1972 Menlo Park City Council elections.

Venceremos was also part of the ever-present street protest scene that marked Palo Alto counterculture life in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. Every Saturday night at 7:00 PM, Venceremos held a rally with speakers and bands at Lytton Plaza, which was dubbed “The People’s Plaza.” This often led to clashes with police as the hour grew late and the music got louder.

Murder

The beginning of the end for Venceremos came in 1972, when a number of its members were involved in a headline-grabbing murder. The incident centered around a Venceremos recruit and prison inmate named Ronald Beaty. A habitual stick-up artist and con, Beaty was serving time for armed robbery and kidnapping at Chino Prison. He apparently had romantic ties to Jean Hobson ---the former Venceremos candidate for Palo Alto City Council --- that would lead to an attempt by the organization to help him escape.

On October 6, 1972, two unarmed prison guards were taking Beaty to a court appearance in San Bernardino when they were ambushed. According to police and Beaty, who would become the prosecution’s star witness, the government car was forced off a remote highway road near Chino. Four Venceremos members jumped out of two vehicles to set Beaty free. As they prepared to flee the scene, 23-year-old Venceremos member Robert Seabok shot both guards at point blank range, killing 24-year-old Jesus Sanchez and wounding his partner George Fitzgerald. Venceremos members Hobson, Seabok, Andrea Holman Burt and Benton Burt were named as the other ambushers. Both Hobson and Seabok were Palo Altans and neighbors, residing at 656 and 666 Channing Street.

Hobson and Beaty, possessing a trunkload of weapons, were arrested two months later on the Bay Bridge by San Francisco police without incident. Now wanted for murder on top of past convictions, prosecuting lawyers convinced Beaty to sing. He named the four members who helped him escape, fingered Robert Seabok as the gunman, and described how other members of Venceremos helped hide him in a rural San Mateo County mountain cabin for close to a month. Beaty pleaded guilty for his involvement in Sanchez’ death and received a life sentence.

All four Venceremos members would eventually be found guilty in subsequent trials. Jean Hobson, 19 year-old Andrea Holman Burt and 31 year-old Douglas Burt were all found guilty of second degree murder in 1973 and 1974, while Seabok got life imprisonment and a first degree murder conviction.

Following legal difficulties related to the incident at Chino, Venceremos began to come apart at the seams. Arguments erupted between various factions in the organization and members began to pull out and join other groups. Venceremos founder Aaron Manganiello also blamed a dope addict in the group’s central committee for stealing thousands of dollars from the treasury. By September of 1973, Venceremos had officially disbanded.

Many ex-Venceremos members went on to other organizations, including the Symbionese Liberation Army group that assassinated Oakland superintendent Dr. Marcus Foster at a School Board meeting in November 1973 and then kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst in February of 1974. While the SLA never operated in Palo Alto, law enforcement saw substantial links between the two groups.

Aftermath

San Bernardino County authorities are searching for four Bay Area residents, including the daughter of a Stanford faculty member, in connection with a murder and prison escape on Oct. 6. Andrea Holman, 18, daughter of Medical School Professor Hal Holman, is among those named in an all-points bulletin issued Friday night in Ontario, Calif. On Friday, Sheriffs deputies from that county searched a house in Mountain View and arrested David Strain, 21, son of Stanford draft counselor Alan Strain. They took the younger Strain by car to San Bernardino, but released him Saturday after determining that he was not involved in the escape.

On Oct. 6, gunmen ambushed a car carrying Ronald Beaty, 35, an inmate at the California Institution for Men in Chino, and two guards from the prison to a court appearance. The ambushers handcuffed and shot the two guards, killing one and seriously wounding the other, and then escaped with Beaty. He has not been seen since. Four Sought In addition to Holman, San Bernardino authorities seek Benton Burt, 30, Hayward; Albert de Luna, 22 to 25 years old, and Yolanda de Luna, age unknown, both "of the San Francisco Bay area." Cheryl Ann Hockin, 22, of Hayward, was arrested there Thursday and released Friday in San Bernardino after being booked for murder in the case. Authorities said they had insufficient evidence to hold her. The four who were named in the all-points bulletin broadcast through all western states, are charged with murder in the killing of the guard. Venceremos Members Holman, Strain, and Beaty are members of Venceremos, a Bay Area revolutionary organization. Holman and Burt, associated with a prison law project in Hayward, corresponded with Beaty and helped prepare legal papers for him, according to Katarina Davis del Valle, chairwoman of Venceremos. Burt and Beaty became acquainted when both were inmates in the Chino institution. Burt left prison earlier this year.

According to Halsted Holman, Hockin and Andrea Holman shared a Hayward apartment for some time. The elder Holman said last night that "Needless to say, I am very worried and sorry about the entire situation." He added, "I'm not surprised that they have been linked [to the case] because they had been working in the prison law project and assisting prisoners. I suspect from the two false arrests thus far made that the same circumstances will apply to them and that there is no substance in the presumed charges against them."

The dimensions of a Chino prison escape and murder case widened again just before Christmas 1972, as law enforcement officers arrested fired Stanford English Prof. H. Bruce Franklin, four other Venceremos members, and three Arizona residents. A week earlier, San Francisco policemen and California Highway Patrol officers had arrested the escapee, Ronald Beaty, and prominent Palo Alto radical and unsuccessful city council candidate Jean Hobson on the Bay Bridge. There have been 14 arrests to date in the case, and 12 people are now charged either with murder or with harboring Beaty, a federal fugitive. Hobson and Beaty were arrested together after police allegedly received two anonymous tips identifying their hideout and detailing plans to drive across the bridge. Weapons Found They surrendered quietly, although both carried loaded pistols. Officers found a sawed-off shotgun, two .45-caliber pistols, an M-l carbine, two gas grenades, and a large quantity of ammunition in their car. Authorities immediately transported both to San Bernadino, where they joined Andrea Holman and Douglas Benton Burt in jail. All are charged with murder and lynching (removing a prisoner from official custody). Franklin and the seven others were seized in a coordinated series of early-moming raids after Beaty allegedly implicated them in an eight-hour confession to San Bemadino detective Rod Maniord.

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents broke into Franklin's Menlo Park home at about 7 a.m. Dec. 19 with shotguns at the ready, and arrested him on a warrant for harboring a federal fugitive. At about the same time, FBI agents and San Bernadino Sheriff's deputies arrested Robert Allan Seabock, a 23-year-old Venceremos member, at his Palo Alto home on a murder warrant. In affidavits supporting the warrant, deputies alleged that Seabock was the trigger-man in the escape. After the arrest, police cordoned off Channing Street in front of the house while an Army bomb squad searched for explosives. Several Weapons Removed Later, authorities removed several weapons, including pistols, a sawed-off shotgun, rifles and shotguns, large quantities of ammunition, 12 canisters of tear gas and smoke, a box of unloaded military-type practice grenades, the components of a pipe-bomb, some explosive black powder, various items of stolen property, and literature on weapons and explosives. FBI agents also arrested three other

Venceremos members: Bruce Hobson|Bruce Warren Hobson, 23, a Mountain View resident; Morton Newman of Menlo Park; and Charles Woodbridge Noble, 25, of Palo Alto. All were charged with harboring a federal fugitive and released in San Francisco on bail — $10,000 for everyone but Noble, who received $5,000 bail — despite government pleas for a "very, very substantial bail."

In Fort Defiance, Arizona, FBI agents arrested Dr. Harry Bishara, 27, a medical officer with the U.S. Public Health Service, his wife Lorraine Bishara, an J. Michael Goldstein, a former Stanford law student working in a federally funded law project. The Bisharas were released on $15,000 bail, Goldstein on $5,000. All were charged with harboring a federal fugitive. A preliminary examination for Franklin and the three others on harboring charges is scheduled for Friday in San Francisco. Trial Set For Monday Jean Hobson and Seabock have had their case severed from that of Holman, daughter of Stanford Medicine Prof. Halsted Holman, and Burt. The latter two, represented by attorney Charles Garry, are scheduled to go to trial next Monday unless a change of venue motion delays the proceedings. All defendants in the murder case have pled not guilty. Venceremos, the Peninsula-based revolutionary organization which had originally supported Beaty in his escape, has proclaimed him an "enemy of the people" and denounced his confession as a frame-up. According to Franklin, Beaty was "recruited in prison into Venceremos. He never operated under our discipline but we considered him a brother."

The former professor labeled Beaty's confession "an attempt to save his own skin." His attorney, Garry, suggested that the entire escape confession could be an FBI plot to "get" Venceremos: "This is a story the FBI put together to destroy Venceremos and now they have Beaty working for them." Venceremos spokesmen claim that Jean Hobson had left their organization a month before her arrest on Dec. 11, and that Seabock had not been a member for a year.

They also disclaim any knowledge of Goldstein, who defended students before the Campus Judicial Panel at Stanford last year, or of the Bisharas. In his confession, Beaty allegedly accused Franklin of masterminding a series of trips which took the convict to Arizona and around the Bay Area. The confession named Seabock as the trigger-man, saying that he shot the two unarmed guards at point-blank range. According to affidavits supporting the warrants, Jean Hobson then accompanied him to Mountain View, where he met her son, Bruce Hobson. The two then drove him to a remote mountain cabin an hour away from Mountain View, where he and the elder Hobson remained for a month with occasional visits from Bruce Hobson, who brought supplies.

Agnew In Palo Alto, Demonstrators Announce Plans

Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew spoke to a California Republican Assembly convention at the Cabana Hyatt House in Palo Alto April 1972 in the face of a demonstration planned by the so-called "Committee for Just Rewards." Protesters intended to make a "symbolic attempt" to present a "Mouthpiece of the Empire Award" to Agnew, according to Jim Shoch, a Venceremos member and protest organizer.

The demonstrators planned to rally in the Cabana parking lot to listen to several speakers, including Tony Russo, codefendant with Daniel Ellsberg in litigation surrounding the "Pentagon Papers," Aaron Manganiello, chairman of Venceremos, and a representative from the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, among others. The dissidents will state three demands: "1) U.S. acceptance of the 7-point plan of the provisional revolutionary government of South Vietnam for peace in Indochina; 2) An end to U.S. political, economic, and military oppression of foreign—particularly third world—nations; and 3) An end to the Nixon administration's domestic policies of political, economic, and racial oppression." New Coalition A coalition of activist groups, including the Palo Alto Peace Union, Venceremos, the Stanford Rehabilitation Movement, the U.C. Berkeley Campus Anti-Imperialist Coalition, and the Palo Alto Tenants Union sponsored the demonstration.

Nixon demo

Police arrested 10 demonstrators — including a Stanford worker — September 27 1972, after a small outbreak of window-smashing near the Sheraton Palace Hotel in San Francisco where President Nixon was speaking. Only about 750 demonstrators showed up for the protest against Nixon. Radical leaders and police expected 3000. Most of the arrests came when one group split off from the main body of protestors and ran through San Francisco's financial district, breaking at least 20 windows. Linda Crouse, a Medical Center computer programmer and a member of Venceremos, was one of the 10 arrested. Crouse was charged with malicious mischief and was released on $1000 bond last night. Bernard Smallwood of Oakland, a member of the Venceremos Central Committee, was also arrested and released on bail. He was charged with assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. Police also said there was a standing warrant on him in Oakland for disturbing the peace. Venceremos member Jean Dolly said that Smallwood had "been beaten up pretty badly. He has some stitches." She said that Venceremos was bailing him out "because he's black and he'll be in trouble in there."

Firings

Four University employees, who are members of Venceremos, and a worker at the Hospital were fired June 21 1971 by Director of Personnel Robert Nelson for their alleged participation in the April 9 sit-in at the Hospital. The action takes effect at 5 p.m. today. The five workers were Anthony Chatmon and Venceremos members John Keilch, Devera Satisky ), now Devera Witkin), John Dolly and Barbara Mooney.

This shows how far the Administration will go to prevent workers organizing against institutional racism at Stanford," commented Venceremos member Kielch. "Not content with bringing 3 felonies and 45 middemeanors against us in court, the Administration isn't even waiting for the trial to add penalties. They want to purge all of the most politically active workers now before the NLRB election is announced in a few weeks." Four of the five have recently been involved in United Stanford Employees (USE) organizing for an upcoming National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. "The Administration has placed us in a situation of double jeopardy by asking us about information which would prejudice our criminal court case," said Satisky. "Workers I've spoken with, think this whole mess is really unjust because the University has, in effect, tried us, before no jury, and before the courts and jury have ruled on our innocence or guilt." Nelson refused to comment on the firings.

Photo courtesy of the University News Service INTELLIGENCE- Police informant Thomas Mosher, the white, short-haired blond with his back against the wall ( standing fourth from left), is here disrupting an Academic Council meeting during spring 1970. See if you can find Richard Lyman, Robert Rosenzweig, James Watkins, Jack Friedenthal, Jeff Littleboy, Philip Rhinelander, Harvey Hall, Bob Beyers, Jimmy Johnson, Leonard Siegel and Alberta Siegel, and Lyle Nelson in this photograph.

Explosives Charges Dropped

Palo Alto police dropped charges against Venceremos members Leslie Nassan and Manelle James when components of a "destructive device" they carried in their car turned out to be two pieces of pipe. 500 Attend Quiet Rally To Protest Viet Bombing

Anti-Vietnam war rally

Speakers appealed for aid to victims of the renewed bombing of North Vietnam and denounced United States' policy in Southeast Asia before some 500 people at a noon anti-war rally in White Plaza yesterday. As the quiet meeting ended, five Sheriff's deputies arrested Mark Weiss, a biochemistry graduate student, for allegedly hitting a plainclothes deputy in the mouth. Robert McAfee Brown, interim dean of the chapel, headlined the list of speakers. He urged passion moderated with clear-headedness in response to what he called "the most massive and insane bombing raids in history" and to President Nixon's "game plans" in Southeast Asia. Brown criticized such slogans as "Bomb Stanford, Not Hanoi," as he warned his listeners against adopting the very tactics under protest. "Our objective is to see that nobody bombs anybody," he said. Congressional Mood He cited the "new attitude" in Congress as the best hope for ending the bombing raids.

Doris Youdelman of Venceremos told of a plan to confront the University with its responsibility for developing types of weapons used in Vietnam by requesting the Board of Trustees to make a $25,000 minimum contribution to the fund for the Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi, which was destroyed in recent bombing. Kevin O'Grady of the Stanford Committee on Political Education , one of the coordinators of the rally, appealed for contributions to National Aid for Indochina, an organization which provides medical supplies to North Vietnam. After that speech, ASSU Co-President Brent Appel opened the microphone to members of the audience for reports of action throughout the country, and specific suggestions for action here. Venceremos member Jeff Youdelman was the only speaker able to take advantage of the opportunity, however. He told of a plan to ask the Palo Alto City Council to donate $50,000 to the Bach Mai fund at its meeting next Monday night. Abrupt Halt The open mike ended suddenly at 1:05 p.m. when Weiss approached plainclothes deputy Walter Konar, assigned to the community relations section of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. While Konar was adjusting a camera he carried at the rally, Weiss shoved a man aside, ran up, and punched the deputy in the jaw, staggering and dazing the deputy. Sheriff's Lieutenant Bob Lees immediately grappled with Weiss, held him in a chokehold, and with another deputy forced the suspect to lie face first on a lawn in front of the Old Union while they handcuffed him.

Rally At Hoover

The Stanford Rehabilitation Movement's (SRM) second week of protest against the firing of Associate English Professor H. Bruce Franklin will include a rally at noon January 17 1972 at the Hoover Institution. The Movement is an ad hoc committee consisting of members of Venceremos, the Association of Young Crows and the Faculty Political Action Group. The rally has been called "to congratulate the new nominees to the (Institution's) Board of Overseers," Supreme Court Justice and Stanford graduate William H. Rehnquist and former Stanford Trustee and former Deputy Defense Secretary David Packard. (Last week the University Board of Trustees extended an invitation to Rehnquist and Packard to become members of the Board.)

Representatives of SRM say that they plan to enter the Institution "to demand the reasons behind the selection of Packard and Rehnquist." (See text of SRM's letter on page 2.) The rally will serve to begin what the movement has termed "Who Controls the University Week." Franklin will begin teaching English 190 today at 3:15 p.m. in Columbae House, 517 Cowell Lane. "Literature and Revolution," a four unit seminar under the sponsorship of English Professor Robert Polhemus and graduate student Merle Rabine, is a substitute for the class which Franklin was to have taught this quarter. The SRM has also announced plans to confront three "liberal" professors who might "want to get rid of Franklin."

Protesters have announced they will go today to the 9:00 a.m. classes of Associate Anthropology Professor Arthur Wolf and Art Professor Micheal Sullivan. The 11:00 a.m. class of Economics Professor John Gurley will also be "visited." Discussions with other professors in their classes are planned throughout the week. Among those professors who are being considered for "visits" are: Mark Mancall, History; Herant Katchadourian, Human Biology; Robert North, Political Science; Diane Middlebrook, English; Lyman Van-Slyke, History; and Paul Seaver, History. Friday Rally SRM sponsored a noon rally Friday to continue its protest on behalf of Franklin. More than 200 people attended. Venceremos member Don Lee, first major speaker at the rally, spoke of SRM's ultimatum to "Rehire Bruce by Tuesday Noon—Or Else!" Lee said that "Tuesday noon came and the 'or else' is still pending." Lee explained that "the 'or else' is not a climactic action, but the building of a movement." As originally planned, the ultimatum included the threat to occupy a building. Lee told the rally that "we couldn't occupy a building without severe losses to our ranks." The SRM was described by Lee as "a serious threat to the University, serious enough to have the Tac Squad called out." He was referring to the 12 members of the Santa Clara County Sheriffs Tactical Squad which met 250 protesters when they marched to the Hansen Micro-Wave Laboratory Tuesday.

In the other major speech at the rally, Pacific Studies Center researcher Steve Weissman introduced the "Dick Lyman Big Broom for Good Housecleaning." Weissman referred in his speech to remarks made by Lyman when he became President: "The University is going to have to put its own house in order." Weissman explained that only "liberals" are eligible to win the "Big Broom" and that "the most original sacrifice of principles at the end of this week" will win the Broom.

Venceremos member Leslie Rabine said that "we do consider the referendum important." She explained that Movement members will be discussing the vote with students in the dorms and will be manning the polls on the election days.

"Mill-in"

Campus Judicial Panel (CJP) hearing officer Lillian Altree yesterday recommended that the four students charged with "a violation of portions of the Policy on Campus Disruption" for the November 4 "mill-in" at the Placement Center be found guilty by the full CJP. Earlier this week, CJP Chairman John Kaplan told the Daily that the full Panel will meet publicly next Thursday evening to consider the case. The four students are senior Don Lee of Venceremos, sophomores Pete Knutson and Paul Loeb, both of The Young Crows, and sophomore Steve Downey, also of Venceremos.

Venceremos members

Venceremos members Sue Flores, Eleanor Kaplan, Gerry Foote, Mort Newman, circa 1970.

Former Venceremos member Tomas Pillsbury, ran for San Mateo County Sheriff.

Katherine Barclay, Bradford Dowden, Geraldine Foote, Michael Fox, H. Bruce Franklin, Jane Franklin, Andrea Holman, Michael Holman, Chris Katzenbach, Don Lee, Aaron Manganiello, Merle Rabine, Theresa Ramirez, Ted Smith, Janet Weiss, Sharon Winslow, Jeffrey Youdelman were all members of Venceremos at Stanford University in 1971.

Janet Weiss was a Venceremos member. Later reverted to maiden name Janet Cooper.

Linda Crouse was .a former Venceremos member employed by the Pharmacology Department. Her associate Barbara Hofmeister was a member of the Chino Defense Committee employed by the Medical Center.

Amanda Noble, a Venceremos member.

Venceremos spokesman Merle Rabine.

Marcia Hall, was a Venceremos member.

Alice Furumoto, a member of Venceremos and the Asian-American Student Alliance.

Mary Luce of Venceremos.

Doug Garrett, Venceremos member.

Diarmuid McGuire, was a member of the Bay Area Revolutionary Union, then Venceremos. McGuire was a student at Stanford in the Department of Communications and formerly worked for the Daily and "Newsweek" magazine.

Don Zweig, Venceremos member.

Mike Enos is a junior in political science and a member of Stanford Venceremos.

Bob King, People's Medical Center, Venceremos member.

Earl Martin is a member of the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars, and Helen Chauncey is a member of Stanford Venceremos.

Bob Griffin is in Workers Action Caucus and Venceremos.

Barbara Hyland is a member of Venceremos and a legal worker at the National Lawyers Guild Grand Jury Defense Office in San Francisco.

'Radical' Faces Perjury Charge

The prosecution in the trial of a Marin County radical plans to file perjury charges against Sandra Kahn, 34, the wife of History Prof. Harold Kahn, for her defense testimony in the case. Mrs. Kahn testified in behalf of Tommy Lee Walker, 27, who is charged with assault on Sausalito police officer Robert Klein and a hitchhiker, John Randolph. She said she saw Klein strike Walker first and added that she had not known Walker prior to the incident. Marin County Deputy District Attorney Jerry Herman then produced letters allegedly written by Kahn to Folsom prison convict Ray Carringer in which she indicated that she knew Walker and thought he was a "good dude."

Earlier in the trial, San Francisco police officer Alexander Jason identified Kahn as being associated with Venceremos, a Bay Area Marxist-Leninist-Maoist group. Jason, who said he had infiltrated the group, alleged that Kahn advocated acts of terrorism and political assassination. Fired English Prof. H. Bruce Franklin, a Venceremos Central Committee member, said yesterday that Jason had used the name Al Jensen while "he was in a study group we had set up" in San Francisco. Franklin insisted that Jason "didn't infiltrate Venceremos" and emphasized that Kahn was not a member of the organization. Superior Court Judge Henry Broderick ordered Kahn to be available for further examination, but then was told that she had disappeared. Her husband refused to testify as to the authenticity of her signature on the letters to the Folsom inmate. His refusal was based on marital privilege.

Court Refuses To Stop Suit Against P.A.Cops

A slight temporary legal victory was won by lawyers for eight local radicals and liberals involved in a protest suit against alleged harrassment by the Palo Alto Police special intelligence unit, often called the "Red Squad." In asking lawyers for the group to clarify one of their complaints, Judge Robert Schnacke denied two other motions filed against the suit by lawyers for the city government and the police's insurance company. These two motions asked that the judge dismiss the case and, secondly, to strike all references to the Red Squad, the name given to the unit allegedly on special assignment to keep track of radical activities in Palo Alto and on campus. However, according to John Naff, legal assistant to Judge Schnacke, the decision on the two -ountercharges was not made directly on their "merits." Thus lawyers for the city may re-file them for reconsideration after the plaintiff's re-submit their amended complaint.

The suit stems from complaints over the police's close scrutiny of leftist political activity and examples cited range from übiquitous photographers at rallies and demonstrations to an incident of mating allegedly done by plainclothes officers in an unmarked car. The suit was filed on June 22, 1970 by Art Busse, radical and former student; Steven Gayle, former member of the Palo Alto Youth Advisory Council; Joseph Hardegree, radical and staff member of the United Campus Ministry here; John Dolly and Tim Gadus, both radicals and members of Venceremos; Harriet Besser, Law School secretary and parent of a high school student; and Dave Jones, Jr., and Douglas Mattern both active in liberal politics on campus. Representing the group is Jim Wolpman of the Law Commune.

Palo Alto Community Coalition

A Stanford faculty member and student are among those named to slates of candidates for the May 8 1973 Palo Alto City Council election. Law Prof. Byron D. Sher, a councilman from 1965 to 1967, was endorsed Sunday by the liberal Association for a Balanced Community (ABC). John Philo, a doctoral student in physics and a member of the Trustee Committee on Land and Buildings, was named yesterday to the radical Palo Alto Community Coalition ticket. Filing for five four-year terms and one two-year seat closes at noon Thursday. As of yesterday noon, 16 candidates had taken out nomination papers, although only one had formally filed by returning his papers. In addition to Philo, PACC named Jeffrey Youdelman of Venceremos, Carol Peterson of Child Care Now, and Douglas Mattern of the Palo Alto Peace Union.

Philo, an active member of the Palo Alto Tenants Union and a persistent critic of University land development policy, said yesterday that if elected he "will seek ways to force Stanford to use its lands for housing." In addition to Sher, ABC endorsements, made by mail ballot of the association's 900 members, went to Mayor Kirke Comstock; Councilwoman Sylvia Seman; Dr. Allen Seid, a psychiatrist active in the city's drug abuse program; [[Emily Renzel]], a staff member at Stanford Research Institute and veteran conservationist; and Thomas O. Passell, a scientist employed in Lockheed's Palo Alto research laboratory.

Disrupting Shockley

Santa Clara County Sheriff's officers arrested six persons Feb, 3 1972 following the disruption of a class taught by Professor of Engineering William Shockley. Five women, including a German Department graduate student and the wife of a Stanford law student, were arrested. Also arrested was a male photographer for the newspaper Pamoja Venceremos. They were identified as part of a group that visited the class to protest Shockley's genetic theories concerning race and intelligence. The women were charged with wearing masks to avoid recognition, disturbing the peace, and entering with intent to disrupt lawful business, according to sheriffs officials. Pamoja Venceremos photographer John Hawkes III was charged with disturbing the peace and trespassing. Bail for him was $375. Those arrested were: Betsy Elich, graduate student in the Department of German; Enid Hunkeler, wife of Stanford law student Wally Hunkeler; Laura King of Berkeley; Mary Cummings of Menlo Park; former Stanford student Barbara Hyland; and John Hawkes III, son of novelist John Hawkes.

Invading Shockley

The Campus Judicial Panel (CJP) began hearings Feb 21 1972 for four students charged with violation of the Policy on Campus Disruption for entering the class of Electrical Engineering Professor William Shockley on January 18. The four are Venceremos members Don Lee, Alice Furumoto and Gerry Foote and Third World Liberation Front member Ho Kwon Ping.

Stanford hospital charges

Fired hospital worker Sam Bridges is one of six persons currently being sought by authorities in connection with the violent clash between demonstrators and police at the Stanford Hospital on April 9 1971. Warrents for the arrest of the sixcharge them with nine counts of misdemeanors, including failure to disperse, participating in a riot, malicious mischief, resisting arrest, and trespass. The warrants, filed May 4, bring to 30 the number of persons charged in connection with the hospital disturbance in which 23 persons were arrested. The six sought are: Sam Bridges, the black hospital worker whose firing brought about the sit-in; Katie Kurtz, a Stanford sophomore; Sherry Archer, believed to be the daughter of a hospital staff member; Bruce Pollock, a Redwood City community worker; Phil Trounstein, a Venceremos newspaper photographer; and Robert Seabock, occupation unknown. The University administration has meanwhile charged three students with violation of the campus disruption policy for participation in the sit-in. The names of the three students charged has not been made public. Five students were arrested at the hospital sit-in. They were: BSU Chairman Willie Newberry, Molly Dougherty, Phil Lind, former BSU Chairman Leo Bazile, and Fred Johnson.

Johnson and Bazile were not arrested at the sit-in itself, but in related incidents. SJC Hearing The Stanford Judicial Council (SJC) will hear charges against the three next Tuesday night. Assistant to the President John Schwartz said last night that he had "no plans right now" to file further charges before the SJC concerning the hospital sit-in. Of the 23 persons arrested at the hospital incident, 19 persons are currently being arraigned in Superior Court. The defendants have been divided into three groups. The first is composed of seven persons charged with felonious assault on a police officer, in addition to nine counts of misdemeanors. At their appearance in court on Wednesday, an additional charge of carrying clubs was added to the charges against five of the seven. The other groups consist of persons who have been charged only with misdemeanors. The Seven The seven persons currently charged with felonies are: BSU Chairman Willie Newberry; Anthony Chatman, a medical staff worker from Redwood City; Jean Dolly, an active member of the Midpeninsula Free University, from Palo Alto; Irwin Lavenburg, of Redwood City; Steve Henry, of Redwood City; and John Alan Kay, of Palo Alto.

In addition to the above six, arrested at the sit-in, police arrested Nicholas Harper, a Black Liberation Front (BLF) member last weekend in Redwood City. Harper's charges, in addition to felonius assault at the sit-in, include carrying a concealed weapon and possession of marijuana. Law Commune worker Janelle James said last night that some of the charges stemmed from a search of Harperat the time of his arrest. Six of twelve persons charged only with misdemeanors appeared in court yesterday, and the remaining six are scheduled to appear today.

Split

July 1971, the six brown members of the Venceremos Central Committee Wednesday night denounced persons leaving the revolutionary organization as “racist sissies” and “oppressors” and charged that the Daily had overestimated the number of persons leaving the organization in a story Tuesday.

Two of the three white members of the committee, including Associate Professor of English H. Bruce Franklin, were not present at the special meeting called to explain its position to the Stanford Daily, which Tuesday detailed the intraorganizational split.

Members of the Central Committee made two major points in their presentation: first, that any white radical who is not in the multi-national – and Third World controlled – democratic-centralist organization in his geographical area is objectively a racist; and second, that those who have left the organization are “sissies” for their unwillingness to press forward on grave and risky matters now.

“Fifteen, a maximum of 20 people, have left the organization,” said Aaron Manganiello, Chairman of the Central Committee. “All of those people are white, all of those people come from Stanford (and) nowhere else in the organization.”

The individuals whom Manganiello terms “sissies” began leaving Venceremos last weekend over the question of whether to endorse the Oakland or the New York-Algiers faction of the Black Panther Party. A number of cadre from Palo Alto who are neither present nor past Stanford students are also leaving, the Daily has learned.

Individuals from Stanford who have left Venceremos include Miriam Cherry, who has extremely close ties with the Oakland Panther organization; John Kaman, a graduate student in English; and John Keilch, a library worker who was suspended from his job for 45 days for his alleged participation in the Henry Cabot Lodge disruption in early January. The people who have left Venceremos have not met together as a group.

Venceremos, a multi-national, Marxist-Leninist organization based in Redwood City, has cadre in cities ranging from San Francisco to San Jose. Its leadership is predominantly brown, and Third World members of the Central Committee have total veto power over white members.

Earlier estimates of the organization’s size ranged between 400 and 1000. Since Tuesday, the Daily has received feedback indicating that these figures are inflated. The exact membership of the group is a closely-guarded secret..

The end

In 1973 the Bay Area revolutionary group Venceremos disbanded.