The Camden 28, the Catholic Left & the FBI Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - "Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory" http://www.camden28.org Premiering next year... "The Camden 28," a film by Anthony Giacchino and David Dougherty "The Camden 28" explores how and why, by raiding government offices and destroying government records, individuals intentionally placed themselves at risk of arrest and imprisonment while protesting the war in Vietnam. The predominant images of American antiwar activism during the Vietnam War consist of young men burning their draft cards, student protests on college campuses, and the various marches on Washington. The Camden 28 offers a unique perspective to this time of protest by looking beyond those ubiquitous images and documenting a lesser-known but potent form of dissent. The film has received funding from the AJ Muste Memorial Institute and is being sponsored by the International Documentary Association. The IDA writes: "The filmmakers have demonstrated high professional standards and the project promises to be a contribution to both the media arts and cultural history." Howard Zinn said of this film, "Like so many events throughout America's past, the story of the Camden 28 has virtually been forgotten. Today, two filmmakers, Anthony Giacchino and David Dougherty, are working to save this history. I am supporting them because I believe that one of the worst things about the way history is taught is that it ignores or minimizes those times in history when people who are apparently powerless have gotten together, organized themselves and accomplished remarkable things. And something remarkable happened in Camden. The Camden 28 action and trial is worthy of being remembered because it will help educate the American public about civil disobedience, the importance of protest, and the citizen's role in a democracy." On Friday, June 21, 2002 at 7:30 PM a celebration to raise funds for the film's completion will take place in Camden, New Jersey at the Antioch Baptist Church, 700 Ferry Avenue, and will feature mezzo-soprano Barbara Dever, a Camden native and rising star in the opera world (she will soon perform at Milan's La Scala). Barbara Dever is a close friend of Fr. Michael Doyle, one of the Camden 28. Parts of the film will be shown, including highlights from a recent event organized by the filmmakers that brought together Camden 28 defendants, prosecutors, jurors, witnesses and former FBI agents to talk about the trial in the very same courtroom in which the trial took place. If you would like more information about the film, or if you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to help complete it, please contact the filmmakers at camden28@earthlink.net or go to the website at http://www.camden28.org * In the early-morning hours of Sunday, August 22, 1971, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Attorney General John Mitchell announced that FBI agents had arrested 20 antiwar activists in and near a draft board office in Camden, New Jersey. Five days later, Mitchell made public the indictment of these individuals and included eight others who were linked to the break-in. The major charges against the group were conspiracy to remove and destroy files from the draft board, FBI office, and the Army Intelligence office; destruction of government property and interfering with the Selective Service system. If convicted, some of the indicted faced up to 47 years in federal prison. The men and women arrested that summer of '71 in Camden called themselves "America's conscience." The government called them the Camden 28. Surprisingly, included among the Camden 28 were four Catholic priests and one Lutheran minister. All but one of the remaining 23 were Catholic laypeople. All were part of a nonviolent antiwar movement the government and the media referred to as the "Catholic Left." One of the most dramatic tactics utilized by this movement was breaking into Selective Service offices across the country to remove and destroy government draft records that identified young men available for military service. The activists claimed that their civil disobedience was meant to call attention to their belief that killing--even in war--was morally indefensible. They targeted the draft for the simple fact that it was the clearest symbol of that immorality because it compelled citizens to kill. Between 1967 and 1971, members of the "Catholic Left" claimed responsibility for over 30 draft board raids and the destruction of close to a million Selective Service documents. By 1971, the "Catholic Left" had become one of the most inventive forces of the antiwar movement. The surprise arrest and unorthodox trial of the Camden 28 is a story of friendship and betrayal played out against the backdrop of one of the most turbulent periods in recent American history. During the more than two months the defense took to present its case, each of the defendants spoke at length, often with moving eloquence. In an unusual arrangement three young lawyers aided the activists who chose either to act as their own lawyers or to have "co-counsel," in which defendants could both speak for themselves and have an attorney speak for them. Far from pleading innocent to the charges, they proudly proclaimed their guilt. "I ripped up those files with my hands," declared the Rev. Peter D. Fordi, adding, "They were the instruments of destruction." The Camden activists asked the jury to "nullify the laws" against breaking and entering and to acquit them as a means of saying that the country had had enough of the "illegal and immoral" war in Vietnam. They also asked the jury to acquit on the grounds that the raid would not have taken place without the help of a self-admitted FBI informer and provocateur. The defendants emphasized that they had given up their plan, for lack of a practical means, until the informer-provocateur had resurrected it and provided them with the encouragement and tools to carry it out. After three and a half months, the case went to the jury. Judge Fisher's charge broke new legal ground. Despite the fact that the defendants admitted plotting the action before the informer appeared, Judge Fisher informed the jury they could acquit if they felt government participation in setting up the crime had gone to "intolerable" lengths that were "offensive to the basic standards of decency and shocking to the universal sense of justice." However, he added that although it was in their power, it would not be proper to decide the verdict on the issue of the war, and that "protest is not an acceptable legal defense, as sincerely motivated as I think they were." After three days of deliberations, a jury of seven women and five men returned a verdict of not guilty on all charges against the antiwar activists. According to The New York Times, at that moment, "the defendants...and 200 supporters...burst into cheers, wept, hugged one another and sang a chorus of Amazing Grace." The acquittals represented the first complete legal victory for the antiwar movement in five years of such draft board actions. ********************************************************************* "The first duty of a revolutionary is to be educated." --José Martí ********************************************************************* The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory http://www.toplab.org ********************************************************************* ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytjus-06.13.02-06:48:45-13850