The Buffalo Nine Trials
My political life on campus had become very complicated. What had begun as “The Atheist Philosophical Society” had morphed into a campus chapter of “Youth Against War and Fascism.” At the point I changed my major to philosophy from math, I found myself taking classes on ethics, existentialism, and phenomenology and other sundry topics. In the Philosophy Department it was well known that professor Marvin Zimmerman was an atheist who continued the Sidney Hook school of thought. [In the 1960s, Hook was a frequent critic of the New Left. Hook was opposed to a unilateral withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Vietnam War. He defended California Governor Ronald Reagan's removal of Angela Davis from her professorship at UCLA because of her leadership role in the Communist Party USA. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1965.[6] He ended his career in the 1970s and 1980s as a fellow of the conservative Hoover Institution in Stanford, California.-- Wikipedia].
I wanted to start an undergraduate philosophy club that could begin to distribute information to students about the Vietnam War. Note: My FBI files indicated that the “Atheist Philosophical Society” was renamed “The Philosophical Society”, an official SUNY at Buffalo student organization.
After the self-immolation of Zen Buddhist monks in Vietnam, I had taken a keen interest in what was going on there. I was also aware of the draft and concerned that if my student deferment lapsed for whatever reason, I would be subject to the draft. I had to approach Zimmerman to get faculty sponsorship for the club. He agreed and we went before the student senate and got confirmed as an official campus club but the funny thing was, because of the word “atheist” was in the original club’s title, they insisted that we be considered a “ religous” group (say what?) because in their opinion, atheism was a “belief system” with no basis in fact.
It is remarkable that just a few days ago (Feb, 2012) I was watching the Bill Mahr show and he did what seemed like a ten minute bit on why atheism was an “evidence based” philosophy as opposed to religion which is isolated from evidence. I was fighting the same battle but without Bill Mahr’s sophisiication. Yet I was covering the same ground, in my own way, and it was 1964!
I tried to fight the student senate but saw that I was getting nowhere in my arguments so I decided to give up and change the name to “Philosophical Society” to prevent any blockage of it being recognized as an official student organization. To cut my loses and obtain senate recognition (and to avoid having to go again before the council of religious organization) we officially renamed the group “The UB Philosophical Society.”
At the time I started getting active, there was as yet no Students For a Democratic Society (SDS) group. My club (APS) was the first to hand out leaflets against the Vietnam War. I had no political background to speak of so I went to the library in search of material.
I had always been interested in Chinese thought. Starting in high school I read Alan Watts, The Way of Zen, and Eric Fromm who always included chapters on Buddhist philosophy. In the library, I found magazines from China like “China Reconstructs” and “Peking Review.” They contained, what I thought, were solid arguments against “US Imperialism” in that area of the world. I used a lot of this material in a pamphlet I wrote called “The Johnson Administration's Political Priestcraft” (http://www.bibliopolis.com/main/books/bol48_152534). I set up a table outside of the student union and began selling copies.
Later, my activiities caught the attention of Robert Sterling who was up on campus on behalf of Youth Against War and Fascism (YAWF), a hard left group headquartered in New York City. He invited me to some meetings of Worker’s World Party (WWP) a Sam Marcy affiliated group, the parent group of YAWF, in fact, from New York. This is how I became a communist. Sterling later turned out to be mentally unstable and was let go as head of YAWF in Buffalo. That is when I took over the leadership and used the resources of this national organization to promote anti-war activities on campus. But more on that later.
I had read Eric Fromm's "Mark's Concept of Man" and was very impressed by the philosophic depth of Marxism but saw it as linked to psychoanalysis and Zen, through Fromm’s brilliant writings. I even wrote Eric Fromm and attempted to visit him in Mexico City after he answered my letter and indicated that he spent his summers there.
The FBI became aware of my activities because of a letter I sent to China. The letter was sent by the US Postal Service (by mistake?) to the nemesis of China at that time, to the Republic of China (Taiwan’s) consulate in Ottawa. They opened the letter (which was not addressed to them) and seeing that it was pro “Red China” in content, forwarded it to the FBI. Suddenly I was placed on the “Subversive Index” and a file begun with FBI agents in Buffalo directed to follow my activities.
I was well aware that something like this might happen. I just regarded it as a way of improving my chances of getting out of the draft. I remember that I was once asked to “report for induction” to the Draft Board after my student deferment had run out. During the induction process they asked me to sign a statement that I was not ever a member of certain subversive organizations. One of the groups listed was “Buffalo Jewish War Veterans of America” or something to that effect. Being Jewish, I thought it very offensive that this was listed as a subversive group so I checked it, the Communist Party, and a whole bunch of the others listed. When I handed it back to the official I was told to go home and that I would be contacted. All that happened was that I received a new draft card reclassified from 1-Y to some strange classification nobody ever heard of like 3-Z (or something like that, I don’t remember exactly).
4 of 9 (Buffalo Nine): Jerry, Bill, Bruce, Carl
I found out much later that J. Edgar Hoover was really pissed off at me. Imagine that! He had asked the Buffalo FBI to make a special record on me tracking my draft status. He was on a virtual campaign to see me drafted. Unfortunately for J. Edgar, my ongoing arrest docket never cleared long enough for the draft board to get me! Note below, the "potentially dangerous" classification, perhaps because I had studied Kung Fu and they regarded my hands as "dangerous weapons."
Anyway, my friend Sharon Fisher of Buffalo eventually obtained my FBI files and they contain the entire saga of my increasing radicalism and involvement in the anti-war movement. At several points in the “Files” the FBI summarizes:
This is a photo of Bruce Beyer being busted for burning his draft card at the Universal Universalist church in Buffalo which grew into the no infamous "Buffalo Nine Trial."
19 August 1968
Another view of the bust. They cops had attacked the church with chains and brass knuckles and had characterized our passive resistance in front of the Church as "assault."
My outstanding legal team of Jerry Lefcourt and Michael Kennedy who defended me during the trial. The other defendants had their own attorneys. My "dream team" was paid for by WWP. I cannot prove it but I am sure they used the now deceased Jim Johnson, a WWP member, to steal my family's 1950s era Porche to pay them back for their costs. Jim and the car disappeared when I had taken to him for repairs prior to the above mentioned "show trial."
Geraldine Robinson, Martin Sostre's co-defenant. She was his girfriend and an additional victim of the police crack down on black militancy in the aftermath of the 1967 black rebellion in Buffalo.
Two of the Buffalo Nine defendants, Karl Kroneberg and Bill Berry, in front of the Federal Courhouse during the 20-year B9 Reunion.
Sharon Fisher who was a movement groupy. She became involved with Martin Sostre and Bruce Beyer politically, helping each one out with support and logistics. She was always supportive of my efforts and was both in and out of WWP circles. Sharon was more of an anarchist type who specialized in legal aid and who was instrumental in my obtaining my FBI files from the government.
"Speed" Powry who was an SDS type B9 supporter. Here he is at the 20th Reunion get together in Buffalo.
