Call Number:

CDG-A.Hasbrouck, Edward

Repository:

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Extent:

4.5 linear feet (4.5 linear ft.)

Preferred Citation:

Cite as: [Identification of item], in the Edward Hasbrouck Collected Papers (CDG-A), Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Date:

1965-1987 (bulk)

Creator:

Hasbrouck, Edward, Berkel, Bob, Doherty, Will, Homer, Steven (Editor), Lyttle, Bradford, Mertens, Jeff, Moore, Fred, Jr., Nicodemus, Matt, Orlando, Richard, 1942-, Reyes, Alex, Stavis, Alex, Trudeau, Paul, and Weinstein, Aaron, 1913-1993

Abstract:

Edward Hasbrouck was born in 1960 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1980, when registration for the draft was reinstituted, he refused to register. Hasbrouck worked with the National Resistance Committee and affiliated local organizations. In June 1983, he was put on probation because of his draft refusal and sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service. This sentence was revoked in November 1983 in favor of a six month prison term, which Hasbrouck served at the federal prison camp in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, from November 1983 to April 1984.

Edward Hasbrouck was born on January 11, 1960 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He attended high school in Wellesley and college at the University of Chicago (1977-1980). In 1980, when registration for the draft was reinstituted, he refused to register; shortly thereafter, he moved back to Massachusetts, where he was prosecuted in 1982 for refusing to register. Hasbrouck worked with the National Resistance Committee, its national journal Resistance News, and affiliated local organizations in Chicago, Boston, and the San Francisco Bay Area. In January 1983, he was put on probation because of his draft refusal and sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service. This sentence was revoked in November 1983 in favor of a six month prison term, which Hasbrouck served at the federal prison camp in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, from November 1983 to April 1984. Following his release, he moved to San Francisco, where he still lives and works as a travel journalist and civil liberities activist. He continues to publish a draft resistance web site at http://www.resisters.info.

The National Resistance Committee

The National Resistance Committee (NRC) was formed in 1980 to oppose registration and the draft, and disbanded following the 1990-1991 Gulf War.

The National Resistance was open to all draft resisters: pacifist and non-pacifist, religious and secular, ideological and individualistic, internationalist and isolationist, young and old, women and men, queer and straight and questioning (and, like me, confused), public and closeted, anarchist, communist, libertarian, patriotic, pagan, feminist, and of course many who didn't identify with any "ism". As a group potentially regarded by the government as a criminal conspiracy, the NRC had no formal structure or officers; its activities were carried out by local and national working collectives and individual activists. It was funded almost exclusively by small individual contributions, many of them anonymous and many of them from the same people who were doing the work.

Like other draft resistance groups, the NRC used as its symbols the rainbow of diversity and the Greek letter "omega", which has been used since the 1960's as the symbol of the resistance to the draft. The omega is the symbol (in physics and electronics) of the unit of resistance, the "ohm" and also symbolizes the Buddhist chant for peace, "om".

From 1980-1987, the NRC published 25 issues of newspaper, Resistance News, providing an open forum for all draft resisters.

From 1980 through 1991, the National Resistance Committee was the only national organization in the USA dedicated exclusively to resisting draft registration and open to all draft resisters. As of 2008, it remains the only such organization to have existed in the USA since the last involuntary inductions into the military in the USA in 1973.

Hasbrouck was involved with the NRC throughout its life, and moved to San Francisco in 1985 to take over as one of the editors of Resistance News when Fred Moore left on one of his extended peace walks.

These papers comprise the first large collection received by the SCPC regarding draft resistance in the early 1980s, though material from the 1960s and 1970s can be found in the collection as well. Edward Hasbrouck was involved with the National Resistance Committee and other anti-draft groups, but not all of the files included in this collection were created by or sent to him, so that it is difficult to know how they came into his hands. Hasbrouck's personal papers include letters written while in prison, as well as his anti-draft statements and information from interviews. An important component of the collection is correspondence, statements and other information -- including news articles -- from draft resisters in the United States and abroad. Other correspondents in the collection include Bob Berkel (Coordinator, National Resistance Committee), Will Doherty (Mass Open Resistance), Steve Homer (Co-Editor, Resistance News, National Resistance Committee), Brad Lyttle (U.S. Pacifist Party), Jeff Mertens (East Bay Resistance), Fred Moore (Editor of Resistance News, National Resistance Committee), Matt Nicodemus (Co-Editor, Resistance News, National Resistance Committee), Richard Orlando (East Bay Resistance), Alex Reyes (Advertising Director and Eastern Director, National Resistance Committee), Alex Stavis (National Resistance Committee), Paul Trudeau (Berkeley Resistance), and Aaron Weinstein (Berkeley Resistance). Much of what was donated by Hasbrouck duplicated what was already held by the SCPC, and was therefore discarded. This included material put out by CaliforniaRD, CCCO, Institute for Policy Studies, Jobs with Peace Campaign, Liberation News Service, Midwest Committee for Military Counseling, Movement for a New Society, National Lawyers Guild, New Society Publishers, The Peacemaker, Promoting Enduring Peace, Syracuse Peace Council, U.S. Peace Council, U.S. Peace Initiative, War Resisters' International, and the War Resisters League. Some of the remaining collection had been damaged by water before it's arrival at the SCPC and was beyond saving or even photocopying; unfortunately this was the situation for many newsletters from local draft resistance groups.

This collection first documents the draft resistance of Edward Hasbrouck and other men in the early 1980s (in the U.S. and abroad), followed by files about events, by draft resistance groups, and otherreference material.