Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 35 no. 18. 27th July 1972

Subversion or Student Crusade

Subversion or Student Crusade

OHMS' final argument is that "people on the political left can see no need for a future war in South East Asia They note that none of the training is geared towards fighting [ unclear: t] a western country, but is clearly intended for use in the Asian jungles.

If such New Zealand intervention in an Asian war again becomes likely, it is vital to have revolutionaries in the army to aid the anti-imperialist struggle. It is vital to have revolutionaries fomenting mutiny and insubordination (look at the effect on the US Army in Vietnam), furnishing intelligence to the revolutionary forces, general sabotage of the ruling class's war effort and eventually desertion to the revolutionary army. And this is not just confined to an imperialist war against revolutionary forces, but to wars between imperialist powers as well. All these may be part of the class struggle to turn imperialist war into civil war.

Revolutionary defeatism, which is not the same as pacifism, is an imperative tactic for ending an imperialist war for the benefit of the revolution.

The class struggle must continue regardless of its effects on the bourgeois war effort, and without concern for the military defeat of the bourgeois state. Any other line leads simply to a victory of an imperialist dominated coalition, or a compromise at the expense of the masses.

OHMS says it will support individuals who feel they can no longer continue to co-operate with the present conscription laws and offers three alternatives: refusal to register; return of draft cards; and refusal to answer call up. Thus OHMS is for complete defiance, non-compliance and (non-violent) disruption of the National Military Service.

Although OHMS claims it wants to promote mass dis-obedience, Chairman Reid says the crusade will be aimed mainly at students and nothing OHMS has so far done indicates it is really seeking to reach the working class, which is the only class with the power to bring capitalism and its wars to an end.