In what amounted to a fundamental organizational change, Tocsin voted last night to broaden its strict focus on disarmament to include research and action on all the social, political, and economic issues in the United States that relate in some way to peace.
Tocsin will now explore such problems as segregation and unemployment, concentrating on their relation to the arms industry and to other economic and vested political interests that the group feels might shape foreign policy decisions. Action is now being planned in areas as different as American policy in Viet Nam and the unemployment crisis in Hasard, Ky.
"Study of the arms race inevitably led to study of its causes," noted Jennifer S. Gardner '64, Tocsin's president, explaining the organization's constitutional change. "As we got deeper into the complexities of disarmament we realized more and more that American foreign policy is inextricably linked to the domestic situation."
"In the past Tocsin operated on a basically elitist theory of political change," added John Ehrenreich '64, another Tocsin executive. "But arguing with state department officials has not been very effective. Basic changes in foreign policy and the arms race require something more on the level of the mass action that can come from cooperating with civil rights and labor groups."
Read more in News
Sophs Admitted to 'Rembrandt'Recommended Articles
-
Two Tocsin members Give Officials Plan For Arms ControlTwo members of Tocsin spent last Friday discussing their organization's proposals with members of the State Department in what The
-
Tocsin to Aid MeyerCarloads of Tocsin members will invade Vermont the next three weekends to campaign for William E. Meyer, Democratic candidate for
-
Beer Clarifies Group's StandAt the start of the Tocsin meeting last night, much of the audience shared a confusion between "unilateral initiatives," an
-
The Long MarchThe route from Cambridge to Washington is usually perilous, as many former faculty members have proven. The statements which students
-
Hoffmann Scores TocsinIn a series of comments which will probably bring down a storm of wrath from local disarmament groups, Stanley Hoffmann
-
Tocsin' Member Attacks Western Nuclear Build-UpDebating a member of the Harvard Young Republican Club, Peter A. Flynn '63 of Tocsin claimed last night "the United