ACLU To Aid Resisters; Previous Policy Reversed

The American Civil Liberties Union, in a major policy reversal, voted Saturday to offer legal aid to persons indicted for counselling draft evasion.

The decision changed the position taken in January not to supply legal counsel to the five men under Federal indictment in Boston. At that time, the ACLU declared that it should not involve itself with attacks on the United States policy in Vietnam. The reversal Saturday followed an amendment stating that the organization takes no position in regard to the legality of the Vietnam war.

The ACLU decision may ease the financial burden of the Civil Liberties Legal Defense Fund, Robert A. Rosenthal, lecturer in Education and the Fund's chairman, said yesterday.

"It had always been hoped that the two groups would work complementarily," Rosenthal said. "The ACLU is not equipped to focus on the number or variety of cases that we'll handle."

"The decision Saturday came as no surprise," he added. "I'd viewed the January vote as an aberration--a dreadful situation that would soon be corrected."

The Civil Liberties Legal Defense Fund, which originated late in January, was sparked by the indictments of the Spock five on charges of conspiring to promote draft resistance. The Fund seeks to "insure that the claims of conscience have a full opportunity to be heard and tested," Rosenthal said. "It is not the work of the Fund to judge the legality of the positions that the resisters have taken."

Rather than limiting concern to the case of the Spock defendants, the Cambridge-based organization aims "to raise funds for the legal defense of the many other conscientious resisters and their supporters.

According to Rosenthal, the Fund will attempt to initiate affirmative legal actions in addition to merely reacting passively to government indictments. In this way, the courts will be forced to consider directly the issues raised by the war.