Bert Yaffe was chairman of the October 15th Moratorium in Massachusetts and is now running for Congress in the Tenth District. Yaffe has been fighting hard for peace for a long time. He firmly opposed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964 and became deeply involved in the anti-war movement in 1965. He raised funds for anti-war candidate Thomas Boylston Adams in 1966 and was Tenth District coordinator and on the Massachusetts steering committee for Eugene McCarthy in 1968. He is also a businessman who unionized his own plant (with the Textile Workers Union of America) where there has never been a strike. He also raised funds for John Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson.

In 1969, Yaffe along with Jerome Grossman and other members of Mass PAX (Massachusetts Political Action for Peace) decided that some form of protest was necessary to oppose the Nixon-Johnson policies in Vietnam. In May, PAX met with Dave Hawk, Sam Brown and Dave Mixner and the Moratorium began.

Yaffe is opposing incumbent Republican Margaret Heckler. Mrs. Heckler, as Yaffe is fond of saying, "has voted on every side of every issue." She opposed ABM, but voted for the military appropriations bill containing ABM. She first voted for the appropriations for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but voted against it after President Nixon vetoed it, deciding finally that it was inflationary. Claiming to be a progressive, she also voted against the Hill-Burton hospital construction bill. Where Yaffe favors setting a fixed date for withdrawal from Vietnam, she opposes this, saying of the Nixon Vietnamization plan, "it was the only choice he had at the time."

Yaffe, who is Fall River coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union, won the Democratic primary with 58 per cent of the votes cast. He defeated another peace candidate, Dennis Smith, who is now campaigning enthusiastically for Yaffe ("Bert Yaffe has proposed more creative legislation in the last four months than Mrs. Heckler has in four years"). Yaffe carried Fall River, the district's largest and poorest city (the unemployment rate there is 8.5 per cent) and his home, with 75 per cent of the vote.

Yaffe is speaking out against excessive military spending and the war, and has hit hard on economic issues. At a recent debate with Mrs. Heckler, for example, after Mrs. Heckler had said in reply to Yaffe's sharp criticism of the 8.5 per cent unemployment rate in Fall River, that tre rate was 10 per cent a year ago, Yaffe retorted, "I can't wait to rush back to Fall River and tell the 8.5 per cent how happy they should be that last year they were 10 per cent!"

The basic difference between the two was summed up by a reporter for the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal, a paper which, incidentally, supported Nixon in 1968. Yaffe, he said, is a candidate with "a facile grasp of a bag full of issues he intends to use all to her disadvantage." Yaffe, he said, "may be her toughest opponent." As a result of Yaffe's efforts, "it will be a lively and intelligent campaign based on issues."

Of Mrs. Heckler, the reporter said, she "has avoided any substantial issues in all her campaigns, preferring to keep smiling and getting her pictures in the papers."

Twelfth District

In the Twelfth District, Gerry Studds, Eugene McCarthy's coordinator in the New Hampshire primary, is running against conservative Republican Hastings Keith. Studds ran a strong primary campaign, winning more than his three opponents combined. He is using with considerable effectiveness in Democratic New Bedford the slogan "Send a Democrat to Congress. Send Studds" in the southern part of the district. And he is campaigning hard in the northern part of the district where his strong stand aganist the war and military spending is effective.

The district also includes Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

Even though the district is traditionally Republican, Studds supporters feel very strongly that he can put together the coalition needed to win. The district voted against Nixon-Agnew in 1968 (as did all other Massachusetts Districts) and the Studds people believe that Keith can be defeated, in part because of Nixon's weakness.

And Keith can be tied to the Administration. He is by far the most conservative member of the Massachusetts delegation. He supports ABM, defense bills, Nixon's vetoes, and has opposed a number of progressive pieces of legislation during his years in Congress. He barely survived a challenge in the Republican primary from State Senator William Weeks, who lost by only 1,000 votes.

Studds, meanwhile, is eminently qualified for the seat. He is, of course, strongly against the war and excessive military spending. He is also hitting hard on the issues of inflation and unemployment. The latter is especially crucial in New Bedford where some areas of the black ghetto (in which there was rioting this summer) suffer unemployment rates of almost 35 per cent.

He served as a White House assistant to President Kennedy and helped organize the Peace Corps. He also helped to set up VISTA. He served as chief aide to New Jersey's Democratic Senator Harrison Williams. In 1968, while teaching at Saint Paul's in New Hampshire, he became a leader in the McCarthy for President drive there. He served on the Platform Committee of the Democratic National Convention in 1968, where he fought for the minority peace plank on Vietnam. Last year, he attended Harvard School of Education.

Studds stands a very real chance of beating Keith, and his youth (he is 32) and forthrightness will be definite assets in his fight.

You may decide that you don't want to waste 75 per cent of your time. But in five years, you just might discover that your 25 per cent would have made a real difference.