Download PDF of this full issue: v5n3.pdf (8.5 MB)

Fight For Total Amnesty: Boycott Sham

By VVAW

In desperate attempts to inflate the number of war resisters enlisting in the government's 'earned re-entry' program, President Ford announced a one-month extension of the 'clemency 'program. The program was to have ended on January 31st, but now continues through March 1st. People and organizations fighting for a universal and unconditional amnesty for all war resisters have called for a continuation of a boycott of the program.

The government has been using every tool at its fingertips to promote the plan. In late January, members of the Clemency Board began traveling all over the country to 'hype' the plan, recording radio and TV spots encouraging resisters to take the plan, and using newspapers and magazines to help sell the plan. They have failed miserably in these attempts! To date less than 10,000 of the estimated 137,000 resisters have made applications. All of their promotion can't change the basic fact that the clemency program is bankrupt.

Those who resisted in the war in Indochina or the racism and repression of the military number closer to one million, rather than the low figures put out by the government. Over half of the resisters are veterans who received less-than-honorable discharges; approximately 580,000.

Millions of American demonstrated against the war. People did so because the war was not in the interests of the American people and worked against the interests of the Indochinese people. Those who resisted were correct, whether they were arrested, fled the draft or the military or received a bad discharge. The continuing war in Indochina, or any wars of imperialist aggression, should continue to be resisted and fought against by the people.

Until there is a universal and unconditional amnesty for all war resisters, the 'clemency' program will fail. The fight for total amnesty is a fight against the system that exploits and oppresses us all.

CONTINUE THE BOYCOTT!