Collective Hits Congress; Urges Adoption of Treaty

WASHINGTON, D.C.-

In an unprecedented move yesterday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard testimony on the Indochina War from five representatives of the Mayday Collective, an organized arm of the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice (PCPJ).

The five-Jay Craven, Susan Gregory, Chip Marshall, John Scaglioti, and Kathy Sister-urged the Committee to propose the People's Peace Treaty for passage in the Senate and to support the upcoming demonstrations in Washington on Monday and Tuesday in which PCPJ will attempt to close the city by nonviolent obstruction of commuter bridges and roads.

Monsters From the Sky

"What we're talking about is a situation in Indochina in which life is made different," Craven said during the hearing. "All [the people] know is that monsters come from the sky everyday and destroy their land."

Other testimony assailed the role of the Senate Committee in treating the issue of the war. Speaking in defense of the Mayday demonstrations, Marshall said. "We have been forced to take matters into our own hands and do your job for you because you are irresponsible. . . The real horror story is not in Vietnam but in the Senate. You talk a good game but you don't do much about it."

The Committee is now holding hearings on proposed Senate antiwar legislation. The representatives from the Mayday Collective-the first group of radical antiwar demonstrators ever to testify before the Committee-requested and received permission Monday to appear before the Committee.

A Committee spokesman said yesterday afternoon that the peace treaty could not stand as a separate piece of legislation since no senator has proposed it. The spokesman added, however, that the Committee could incorporate the treaty into whatever legislation it finally passes onto the Senate.

In another Washington antiwar activity, over 200 demonstrators were arrested after they blocked the main entrance of Selective Service headquarters.

The headquarters was the center of protest efforts for the second straight day as activities built slowly toward the massive civil disobedience planned for next week.

While others handed out leaflets at the Internal Revenue Service and continued to visit congressmen and senators, the draft building demonstratorslay face down in front of the main entrance, forming what they termed a "carpet of bodies" to symbolize war dead and telling arriving employees they could enter only by walking over them. Most of those arrested were charged on misdemeanor counts of obstructing a public building.

Several Foreign Relations Committee members took angry exception to the group's testimony and the hearing reached high pitch when Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott (R-Pa.) accused Craven and Gregory of having discussed with Nguyen Thi Binh, Chief NLF representative at the Paris negotiations, the possibility of "a kidnapping of public officials of the U.S." as part of next week's demonstrations.

"Senator Scott, I think you're paranoid," Gregory shot back-to which Scott muttered in reply that those testifying before the Committee were "brainwashed."

Scott's charge was apparently prompted by testimony in which Gregory read from a letter by Binh which she said was dated April 19. The letter-which expressed support for the spring antiwar campaign-reiterated the NLF's willingness to negotiate an exchange of war prisoners and a safe withdrawal for American troops if the U.S. first set a "reasonable date" for a total military pullout. The NLF had originally made the proposal in Paris last December.

A few minutes later Scott asked whether any of the group had ever met personally with Binh, and both Craven and Gregory indicated that they had.

"Did you discuss with Madam Binh the tactics to be used in this gathering?" Scott asked.

Craven answered that PCPJ organizers had informed student groups in other countries of the proposed demonstrations. Pressed for elaboration, he added that Binh had also been told of the plans for the protest. Scott then leveled the charge that Craven and Gregory had discussed a possible kidnap with Binh-and had decided not to go through with it. At another point in the hearing, Scott said that his Senate office would no longer be open for lobbyists this week. He was not available for comment on the charges yesterday.

Craven had opened the two-and-one-half hour hearing with a denunciation of U.S. involvement in Lacs, whose central area he said "has been destroyed by intensive bombing and the automotive battle field.

"Laser-guided bombing strikes are launched against the civilian areas of Laos." said Craven, a member of the U.S. student group which negotiated the People's Peace Treaty with North and South Vietnamese students in their native countries last year. He said that the U.S. was now using five, ten, and fifteen thousand ton bombs in Laos, "bombs that literally vibrate people to death even when they take refuge in caves and tunnels."