The Complete History of the Union of American Exiles from someone who should know…like Tom Kane
What follows was transcribed from an article in the April or May, 1969 issue of the UAE newsletter, “The American Exile in Canada”. The newsletter later became AMEX (American Exile in Canada) magazine. The article was written by Tom Kane, an exile who was very active in the UAE during its first year of existence.
“Surprise; we made it through one year of existence. For those interested in dominant themes, surprise at continued existence is one of those.
Early April ’68 several phone calls went out to exiles in Toronto. The callers told us that there would be a meeting at First Unitarian Church (thanks to Patty Proctor) to try to organize work on problems confronting new immigrants. So, on April 4 we met. Out of that was supposed to come an employment service (American Resisters in Service for Employment-ARISE). However, as the meeting progressed, we got to realizing that there were a hell of a lot of other things to cover, including the question of political relevance for the exile.
Obviously, that last question has never been settled. Nevertheless, we figured that we could stand a few meetings with each other. At least, it got a few of us together for a few hours a week.
So, we were meeting ourselves to near death. On April 27 I guess the Union was publicly “born”. That was the day of the glorious “Sunshine Teach-in”. We choose a name, mostly to have something to put on our banner. Up went the banner and a table and about 300 half-sheet mimeod (thanks to SCM) (Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam) notes telling people who we were. A party in Newman House that night, well, it existed.
For the next many weeks we continued to meet, and argue, and hassle. We also put out about 2 mineo’d sheets every two weeks, to our mailing list of about 70 people. (We cheered the day it topped 100). The sheet sort of happened each time, printed at the SCM office, and folded, etc, at our (Kanes) old apartment.
The meetings produced, believe it or not, a series of functional committees and a steering committee. Ummm, “functional” is a definition, not a description. They also produced the now infamous summer softball.
For a bunch of Yanks we made a damn poor softball team, but no one much cared.
Unfortunately, not much else happened during the summer. An “interim” steering committee was selected to replace the previous “interim” one, and the whole thing kind of hung together.
Towards the end of August people like Ronnie Nevin decided to kick the thing back to some form of life. (Our office at) 44 St. George is one of the major results. We suddenly found ourselves the occupiers of a kitchen.
We also found that “we” included a lot more people.
We also found ourselves with the same old hang-ups, like a political role, money, manpower.
And, of course, we developed the second stage of bureaucracy, an official office with a telephone number (probably complete with “official attachments” courtesy of those mysterious forces who convert private lines to party lines).
The old newssheet (2 sheets) sudden sprouted a fancy cover, and more stuff inside, and suddenly had regular staff. Well, it looked sudden, anyway. Remember, this is one guy’s recollection.
What happened, to some degree, is that the summer influx (of draft dodgers) had decided to stick around, and older (“veterans” of exile, I guess) people came around. Like, we developed bureaucracy, and the people came to join it.
And we continued to have our hang-ups.
The Union has managed to hold a great number of people who have real trouble accepting any type of formal structure. Like, we shun it like the plague, or like Uncle. Still, we had this steering committee which was supposed to provide some direction. Then came a few issues which simply showed that we could not get certain things done without getting lots of tempers up.
There came the “Anarchists” Revolution which was a show of anger against the UAE’s natural factionalism. (In fact, the AR people then had to go around making themselves into a faction).
For those interested in chronology, that happed in late December (December 28, 1968). This produced a “meeting of concerned individuals”. (At 7:30 the night of the meeting I got this phone call warning me of impending doom for the UAE, and telling me that the meeting was going on).
THE FIRST DUTY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY IS TO STRANGLE HIS EFFORTS IN PROCEDURE.
We organized a constitutional committee (consisting of Doyle Abernathy, Charles Campbell, Jesse Dean, Tom Kane, Ronnie Nevin and Nickie Richico). That committee held a series of open meetings. For the first time in the UAE’s life, meetings were held with a minimum of real hassling. Most of the reason is that we sort of set up regulations for the running of the meetings.
Again, the question of the role of the Union came up, and this time couldn’t be avoided. That was one of the principle things which had brought about the committee’s existence.
The draft which came out of that committee was, of course, a compromise, but most “factions” felt it was fairly reasonable, if not well written. The principle role of the Union was to be that of aiding new immigrants, with a realization of the implications of the move into exile. Sounds a bit weird. Like, the Union is performing a political function simply through its existence and its aid work. Further, although the new exile may not realize the political implications of his move, they are still there. And, if may be that working with the Union will bring about the realization.
Of course, very real problems of overt political activity were a consideration. Simply stated, none of us can really afford a bust at a demonstration. What is more important, perhaps, was the realization that the UAE could be responsible for tighter immigration regulations if its activities proved to be too disturbing to the Good Canadian Public.
The first draft was published, and submitted to the general membership at a meeting. It was re-written to a good degree and ratified. The Union of American Exiles has completed phase three of bureaucratic growth. As reported on the Metro News page of the Star (March 17, 1969) “U.S. Exiles Elect Officers.””
