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RESISTANCE NEWS, AGAIN! Its time to dig out the Omega Resistance symbols from the days of resistance...

George N. Schmidt - November 11, 2016

Omega is a symbol of resistance -- in politics as well as in electricity. During the most disheartening days of the Vietnam War, the Resistance became widespread, eventually spreading even into the U.S. Army and U.S. Marines on the ground in Vietnam and to the Navy and Air Force, which conducted the air war against the peoples of Indochina. During the most disheartening days of the Vietnam War, say, after we had elected the "Anti War" candidate Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and then watched in shock while the number of American soldiers in Vietnam escalated until more than half a million of our brothers (very few sisters in those days) were in that war. Those of us who graduated high school in 1964 were faced with the stark choice: The Draft. Either we went into the "service" or we got a deferment (or dodged the Draft like Donald Trump with his "bone spurs"). Those of us who faced the death of our high school friends from the safety of our student deferments often decided to resist in various ways. (My resistance ultimately resulted in my becoming the first Conscientious Objector -- C.O. -- in the working class Elizabeth New Jersey draft board. The buttons we wore were the Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet. We adopted that symbol because for many this was the last of it. There were some other explanations, but basically the Omega became the symbol of The Resistance. And so, today, I'll be digging out my old Resistance button, getting some additional ones printed up for friends and colleagues, and reminding people that even during the "darkest days" we can resist.

It was not easy organizing against the Vietnam War anywhere, but it was harder in working class cities like Linden New Jersey, where I grew up, or in Elizabeth New Jersey (where my draft board was). But we did it, even among the early "dispicables" of those years. (After all, it was working class kids who wound up grunts in Vietnam, not the privileged who wound up at Yale Law School or the University of Pennsylvania (until a medical deferment kept them out of the Draft).

During the most disheartening days of the Vietnam War, the Resistance became widespread. It eventually spread even into the U.S. Army and U.S. Marines on the ground in Vietnam and to the Navy and Air Force, which conducted the air war against the peoples of Indochina. Those who wish to learn more about how The Resistance took place even in the most dangerous places to resists (in the "belly of the beast", the U.S. military), should watch "Sir No Sir!" the story about the "G.I. Movement" that ended the war by growing into a general strike of soldiers who simply stopped fighting. I also recommend the history "Soldiers in Revolt" by David Cortright and the Academy Award winning documentary "Hearts and Minds." Ironically, "Hearts and Minds" slanders my home town by portraying Linden, New Jersey, my elementary school, and our neighbors as being ALL of us in the "basket of deplorables" that the smug privileged people can't resist.

I won't go on at this time, except to note that "Hearts and Minds" found a guy who was at one time in his life a personification of reactionary white working class men, while other working class guys from the same town -- school, parish, and streets -- were working as hard against the war.

When we organize the new Resistance, we should never forget that smug privilege is as much our enemy as screaming draft dodging like Donald Trump. Eventually, working class people figure our who is with us and who is against us, just as the soldiers who organized within the Army against the Vietnam War did. At times, it takes a bit more subtlety in organizing, instead of simplistic headline grabbing. But in the long term, it works much better, as our ability to end that obscene war during the presidency of that obscene president (Nixon) reminds us...

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