Word: tocsin
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Happily, this ill-considered proposal was omitted from the new (August 1) Committees of Correspondence statement. Instead, the approach is now "unilateral steps toward disarmament," a phrase which Tocsin heartily endorses...
...local peace movement has broken free of this dilemma, and redefined the alternatives as (1) remaining in the arms race and depending on the logic of deterrence, or (2) taking unilateral steps toward disarmament, an approach suggesting a resonance between U.S. gestures and resulting negotiations. Tocsin and the Committees of Correspondence now ask that we take risks for disarmament equal to those we now take with retaliation-threats...
...first suggestions for meaningful gestures, the Committees list a nuclear ban agreement (even if small yield explosions cannot be reliably detected), a rejection of civil defense efforts (which add to psychological tensions), and the conversion to constructive tasks of laboratories now working on chemical and biological weapons. Tocsin agrees, and goes one further, suggesting that the U.S. set up a test ban inspection system in this country and invite the Soviet to reciprocate...
Significantly, the Tocsin prospectus starts off, not with these proposals, but with a discussion of the political bewilderment of students. Much nonsense has been written recently about student apathy--as if we knew what was going on, had a conceptual framework to deal with it, perhaps even knew what we wanted, and yet were simply too timid or lazy or busy or dull to do anything about it. None of these assumptions is true. As the Tocsin prospectus says, we are bewildered because we lack "a set of ideas which seem adequate to challenge prevailing assumptions supporting organization...
...past, the peace movement has tried to arouse what is called "concern" or "involvement." But at Harvard it has failed. Tocsin wisely has chosen to play down group identification and to stress "personal commitment to act." Action does not mean running around with meaningless petitions or waving a sign demanding peace in our time. It means a host of more demanding tasks. Among them is research--and what is a more exciting topic than steps toward disarmament...