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The Alternative Community in Buffalo, 1965-76 Reprieve -Elwin Powell

E. Reprieve: Summary, Conclusions, Implication

By Elwin H. Powell

"They were caged within the barricades of their own institutional commitments," said Alvin Gouldner of the leaders of the Athenian State in its decline. "Like men under a sentence of death, they refused to risk all in a desperate gamble with fate, and waiting for a last minute reprieve which history never granted, they were dragged to their fate." 21

Lyndon Johnson. Dick Nixon. Compliant functionaries of the State go blindly to their fate, unable to break with the mindless routine of death. Overpowering the men who run it, the war machine grinds on, devours billions, depletes resources, spreads fear, fills the vacuum of our collective life with hate. Federal library funds are cut to feed the Pentagon; the government economizes on food stamps and expands the war budget (in a year of peace) by 15 per cent, to 112 thousand million dollars. The possibility of annihilating all life remains; it is said that we can now explode the earth itself into smithereens. If such is our destiny then at least we will know the answer to a pressing sociological question: men cannot transcend their institutional commitments.

And yet ‑ for the moment the official killing has stopped. The fascist State ‑ the Full Police State ‑seems more distant now than in 1972. Those who took the risk of action in the 1960s, took the 'desperate gamble', won us a temporary stay of execution.

Though his academic career was disrupted by the persecution of the secret police, Rich Salter continued patiently to build the Movement. After six years of solitary for refusing a rectal examination, after a vicious court battle, Sostre v. Rockefeller (1970) which renders unlawful certain brutal prison practices, Martin Sostre continues the same struggle out of prison which he waged for 9 years behind bars, continues to "Speak Truth to Power". The Buffalo‑9 is scattered now but the individuals continue to work, to live, politically. Most of the BUFFALO have returned to the land, where they live communally. All of these people ‑ and of course hundreds of thousands of others in the years between 1965‑72 ‑ made their lives into a Public Witness to the truth. Which is the only way to destroy a lie.

The Act of Witness changed the consciousness of the nation, became the catalyst for change.

Because Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus the Civil Rights movement was born. Laws changed. Mores changed. Language changed. Not enough. But black‑white relations in 1972 are not what they were in 1952.

Because Linus Pauling stepped out of the role of ethically neutral scientist, circulated petitions, picketed the White House, the test ban treaty was born. Reports in 1972 show atmospheric radiation has steadily decreased since 1963 (New York Times, August 3, 1972). A reprieve, at least.

Because a now forgotten 18‑year‑old publicly burned a draft card . . . because revolutionary Catholic priests destroyed a million draft files . . . conscription was abolished. It can return. But is not here now in 1976 as in '66, '56, '46.

Because Dan Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers the wall of secrecy which hides the State from the people began to crumble. His 'act of witness' was emulated by others. On revealing top secrets of the National Security Agency, Winslow Peck said, "I could not have done it nine months ago, not even three months ago. Daniel Ellsberg releasing the Pentagon Papers made me want to talk." 21 Peck became a main creator of Counter‑SPY, a collective of former intelligence agents which facilitates the leaking of information, the exposure of secrets. When Air Force Intelligence sergeant Lonnie Franks learned that U.S planes carried out scores of bombing missions in violation of the rules of the air war in Vietnam in 1972, he leaked the information to Senator Hughes, which led to an investigation and then the demotion and removal of General Lavelle, another item weakening air force morale in the last days of the war. Though he was not a radical, "Franks had read extensively about the MyLai Massacre and the Pentagon Papers . . . believed that, as an individual, he had responsibility to expose what was wrong.

The power of the State is proportionate to the impotence of the people

Convince people they are powerless and they will acquiesce in every decision of the State. Such was the formula of the 1950s. The State fears individual responsibility, Sid Willhelm and Colonel Prouty insinuate that Ellsberg's release of the Pentagon Papers was part of a CIA plot. Perhaps because of his military training Colonel Prouty could not imagine an individual act of conscience, thus he saw the release of the papers as flowing from orders of some mythical superior in the CIA. But I find Ellsberg's own account more convincing. After participating in a conference sponsored by Congressmen on "War Crimes and the American Conscience", Ellsberg came to regard himself as a potential defendant. in a war crimes trial. Then he read the ten volumes of the Nuremberg trial and "saw what the documentary record of the decision‑making in an aggressive war looks like (It looks like the Pentagon Papers)' '26 While the Pentagon Papers "stripped away all legitimate rationales" for the war it was "contact with other young Americans . . . met face to face and on their way to prison for refusing to collaborate in an unjust war" which gave Ellsberg the courage to release the papers. "These personal acts of 'witness' gave me what reading alone could not.' 21

Thus Ellsberg stepped out of the 'barricade' of government expert into the role of Movement activist. With his co‑conspirator Tony Russo he faced 138 years of prison. He was physically assaulted by the hired thugs of Richard Nixon, at a Washington, D.C. peace demonstration in May 1972. On the university speaking circuit in 1972 he urged scientists to give up their top secret clearances, to sever their ties with NASA, RAND, the DOD. These organizations are the enemy, their hierarchies, aims must be resisted so as to build a new America, without secrecy. Ellsberg is saying in 1972:

We must go beyond Vietnam and the Pentagon papers. We need to

know more about the roots of resistance and rebellion in this country.

We must learn alternate ways of behavior. 22'

And now? What "Acts of Witness" are required for 1978?

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