Internal Rifts May Hurt Potential Resistance Here

There can be no doubt that there now exists the potential for a strong and effective organization of Harvard draft resisters. The raw material is there.

A Crimson poll last month showed that over 22 per cent of the senior class will either leave the country or go to jail before serving in Vietnam. Another poll, released yesterday, indicates that the percentage among graduate students is twice as high. These polls, more substantively, show that at the very least 500 Harvard students are ready to resist the draft.

Draft Is Real

Both the surveys were taken before Hershey's announcement Friday. Now, finally, the draft is a real thing for seniors and first-year graduate students, and the ranks of potential resisters should increase.

The present problem is organization And, so far, the groups involved have shown enough disorganization in their own ranks to cast serious doubts on their ability to organize draft resisters in the University.

The Harvard Draft Project now has an office in Mem Hall and a University extension telephone. What it lacks is a coherent sense of direction. Its main organizing arm--the Harvard Draft Union--has been torn by factional struggles among SDS, hard-core resistance advocates, and "apoliticals."

What the Draft Project seems to fear most is that the name "SDS" will turn everyone off. Right now the Union is an "autonomous committee of SDS," with no direct SDS control. Those were the assurances everyone received at a meet- ing in the Dunster Senior Common Room last night.

A strong and open draft union here could be one of the most effective ways to oppose the war. Already a Berkeley-based group called Campus Draft Opposition has moved to set up a nationwide draft union among students--calling for "we won't go" pledges and mock Vietnam Commencements to dramatize resistance