Draft Union Is Organized For Counseling, Protests

The Harvard Draft Union was formed last night at an open meeting.

One hundred twenty-five people attended a two-hour proposals were adopted that completed preliminary organization of the anti-war group.

The group, an independent affiliate of Students for a Democratic Society, was proposed by the Harvard Draft Project to "have the specific tasks of organizing the undergraduates and GSAS members" into a permanent draft union.

The two proposals outline the goals of the Union as organizing and counseling students on the draft, and training them to organize and counsel in the community as well.

Early in the meeting the group split over whether the Union should be primarily an organization to support and counsel draft resisters or to protest the draft itself.

The meeting voted overwhelmingly to oppose the draft. "The point is not to maintain a student deferment by finding a way out for Harvard students. By doing that we're doing nothing more than getting them off the hook," said one speaker from the floor.

Students present at the meeting were organized into squads according to Harvard or Radcliffe house, Freshman dorm, and Graduate School department.

They plan to talk to other students, find out their problems with the draft, and enlist their membership in the Union, according to the adopted resolutions.

Membership in the Union was not defined last night; primarily due to the question of conspiracy. "Without a formal membership list it is considered more difficult to prosecute," Barry Margolin '70, the moderator, said.

Meetings in the Houses, Yard, and Graduate Schools will take place this week, Margolin said, and will be followed next week by a large meeting to present specific tactics for the group.