OAKLAND—Plans for a four-day siege of the Oakland Induction Center, October 16-21 were announced to day by spokesmen for National Stop the Draft Week Committee. Compulsory conscription was labeled “a criminal conspiracy against American youth that must be stopped.”
“We have picketed, protested, leafleted and argued against the draft and the racist war in Vietnam,” said Terence Cannon, member of the Stop the Draft Week Steering Committee. “There is only one way to keep young men from being shanghaied into the armed forces and that is to stop the draft from operating. We declare that we are opposed to the government’s policy and will do everything we can to bring it to a halt.
“In every brig and stockade in America are hundreds of GI’s jailed for refusing to serve in Vietnam. There is tremendous dissent within the armed forces. Individuals are powerless inside a totalitarian army. We plan to create a base of power that will keep the government from forcing more young men in against their will.
Steering Committee member Morgan Spector stated, “This week marks a declaration of war by us, the draft age men, on the Army: on the brass, on the generals and all the other old men in the government and the Pentagon who are happy to shed the blood of young Americans in military oppression against foreign countries and the urban centers of America. The Stop the Draft Week Committee plans to mobilize large demonstrations across the country. Similar activities will take place at draft centers in New York City, Madison, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and other cities. Massive civil disobedience is planned for the Oakland Induction Center. The Detroit Draft Resistance Committee has made tentative plans to link up with the national actions.