Two Watergate Figures Die Same Day

Edgar
Edgar, another protester of that era also died that week ---BBB

Goodbye, David Dellinger
He Was a Friend of Ours
By RON JACOBS

I'm in shock. I just received an email from a very good friend here in Vermont telling me that David Dellinger died the afternoon of May 25th. Dave was a lifelong antiwar activist who refused to fight in World War Two and actively opposed every US war since then. He was 88 years old and had been suffering from worsening health. Indeed, he had just been moved to a nursing home not more than two or three months ago.

Although I only met Dave five years ago when a group of us sat in on Representative Bernie Sanders' office in opposition to his support of the bombing of Yugoslavia, he has been an influence on my life and thought ever since I first heard about him in junior high. As a young peacenik who found the militancy and flamboyance of activists and groups like the Black Panthers and Yippies quite appealing, it was David Dellinger's thoughtful, yet militant antiwar stance that provided me (and millions of others, it seems) with a fundamental belief that what I was doing was worthwhile. After all, this man had devoted his entire adult life to opposing imperialism and the wars that system demands without ever even throwing a brick at a cop. Like the Berrigan brothers and Martin Luther King, Jr., his commitment to nonviolence was total. At the same time, he understood that pacifism was not passivism.

Although my political development took a turn away from nonviolence as the 1960s turned into the 1970s, Dave continued to be an inspiration. As I grow older and continue to work against racism, war and imperialism, his principled stance continues to take on greater meaning. Direct action does work.

Anyhow, back to the 1960s. Perhaps the most meaningful historical moment in Mr. Dellinger's life from that period was his role in organizing the protests against the Vietnam war during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago and his subsequent indictment by the Justice Department for (among other things) conspiracy to cross state lines with the intent to incite a riot. Dave and his fellow "conspirators" became popularly known as the Chicago Eight. After the eighth conspirator-Black Panther Bobby Seale-was bound, gagged and taken from the courtroom, the eight became seven. The trial continued, proving to the world what kind of democracy the US was. The Judge, Julius Hoffman, did everything in his power to help out the prosecution, including charging the defendants with contempt almost every time they attempted to challenge testimony that they felt was untrue or wrong. Although this particular conspiracy charge did not hold, Dellinger and four other defendants were convicted of individually crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot.

Undaunted, Dave Dellinger continued on. His presence at antiwar actions in his chosen home of Vermont and around the world was something one depended on. He never stood on the sidelines and watched. His analysis was as clear as his commitment. Although an ally of all those who oppose the system of war and racism, he remained a staunch pacifist, but never let that get in the way of his opposition to the ills of capitalism or his solidarity with those who shared that opposition but differed with his tactics.

Live like him.

BBB
I hadn't heard. I remember Dellinger very well. A man after my own heart.

Didn't he escape from prison once by carving a gun out of a bar of soap?

Not Dillinger. Dellinger.

I thought you knew me better than that, Edgar.

Just a joke, Gus. I haven't any knowledge of Dellinger doing anything like that.

Ok, edgar, let's take this from the top....

You said...

Never mind. The moment has been lost.

Sigh ..

oops - .

A tip of the hat to Walsh, and another to Dellinger.

Gus just gets a whack in the peepee from the site baliff.

Re: Edgar


I'm sorry, while I regret the death of any of my fellow human beings...

And while I usually respect protestors, in particular, anyone who uses non-violent approaches...

If you can't find the reason that Hitler needed to be fought and defeated, well you are just hopelessly out of touch.

At what point do you say ... well, Hitler is bad ... but he's not bad enough for ME to fight to prevent him from taking over the world.




Typical biased reporting. Bobby Seale was bound and gagged because he refused to stop interrupting the court proceedings...

If I was on trial, and every few minutes during the prosecutions arguments, I jumped up and started yelling, screaming and waving my arms, the judge would have every right to restrain me and if necessary, gag me.

You want a fair trial, try acting with decorum and dignity in a courtroom ... or at least show some respect for the judge in whose court you are in.

Fair trial on trumped up charges - ?

First, if they were 'trumped up charges' then the best way to fight them was to be so calm and reasonable during the court appearance that the prosecution looked like a bunch of idiots trying to prosecute a couple group of innocent people.

Either way, it is simply cutting your own throat to act like a bunch of raving lunatics during a court proceeding where your freedom is at stake.

It was theater to these folk. Make a statement to the world, not cover your butt, rightly or wrongly. In politics the gesture is everything.
A government study concluded that it was a police-caused riot, another fact that shows how trumped the charges were.

If you look at the chi eight. the trial was a phony . convened by Mayor Daly's insistance (the Feds didnt want to have a trial based upon weak evidence and a bunch of "making a Public Nuisance " informations)
So, indeed the case was trumped. The lead witnesses for the govt, it was learned years later , were just flat lyting about planned molotov cocktail bombings. The trial was, as was predicted by the govt, a debacle, and did more to steel the resolve of the anti Vietnam movement.


Also, prior to WWII, thhe responsible Conservative feeling was to join Hitler to do away with Stalin. Remember t, the only reason that the conservatives in the US went to war against Hitler was because he declared war on us.

Incorrect, we were against Hitler when he chose to set himself against our allies in Britian and France.

he was set against our allies in 1938 and the conservatives were strongly urging a stand against communism. Roosevelt had a damn tough time and didnt convince the right wingers of the evils of Hitler. Youre being a bit revisionist

Re: Edgar


While I understand and tend to agree with your sentiments, I have a tremendous amount of respect for true pacifists. I don't know whether or not Dellenger was a true pacifist, but it appears that he didn't allow his politics to pick and choose what wars were OK and what were not. I will take others' words that he never resorted to violence in the advancement of his ideals, but I wonder if he countenanced it?

What was his take on Bobby Seale and the Black Panthers? On fellow "radicals" who promoted violence in the advancement of their ideals?

Again, I respect someone who so utterly rejects violence that they will sacrifice their own life or freedom rather than engaging in it.

I would like to assume that by not fighting in WWII, Dellenger was prepared to, himself, be killed or enslaved by the Nazis or Japanese. A more cynical person might argue that since Dellenger knew full well that America and the rest of its allies were not about to listen to his protestations, he had no more to fear of the Nazis and Japanese than any other American. In short, he knew that someone else would be, in effect, fighting the war for him.

But let's assume that this wasn't the case for Dellenger.

However, if Dellenger could have prevented the US from fighting in WWII, would he have? Would he, knowing that his action didn't just put himself in jeopardy of death or enslavement, but millions of other people as well?

I'm struggling with the notion that a pacifist should attempt to impose his belief on others, unless he is capable of imposing it universally.

This is a philosophical question because whether or not Dellenger accepted it, he was never capable of actually stopping any war from occurring and the most he could ever realistically expect was to create debate over going to war.

I would not attempt to delve into Dellenger's head. For myself, I am not truly a pacifist. I would endorse the actions in Afghanistan more fully if it appeared the world truly took an interest in the citizens' well-being. I would endorse it more fully if Bush were not wasting time and resources in Iraq instead of here.