Countywide : Groups Promise Sit-Ins at Congressmen’s Offices

A coalition of nine Orange County peace groups Monday strongly criticized President Reagan’s plea for aid to forces fighting the Nicaraguan government and announced plans for sit-ins at local congressional offices as part of a nationwide protest.

A throwback to the anti-war protests of the 1960s, the sit-ins are tied to the scheduled vote on Thursday by House members on the President’s $100-million aid package for the contra rebels. While aid opponents plan to visit all district congressional offices throughout the country Wednesday, some demonstrators will refuse to leave the offices of congressmen who vote for the aid package, according to Marion Pack, director of the Orange County Alliance for Survival.

Pack said some activists have signed pledges to stay, even if asked to leave the congressional offices, while others have simply pledged to visit and announce their opposition to Reagan policies. She said she did not know how many people signed each kind of pledge.

A coalition official said a House vote in favor of the contra aid package would indicate a “need for stronger action (sit-ins) on the part of the American public.”

“It all depends on how the vote goes Wednesday,” Pack said.

Since all five Orange County congressmen support the President’s aid proposal, sit-ins could take place at each of their district offices. None of the congressmen were immediately available Monday for their reaction to the planned protests.

However, William Schreiber, aide to Rep. Robert Badham (R-Newport Beach), said Monday that Badham met for nearly an hour Friday with “four or five” representatives from the Pledge of Resistance, a group affiliated with the county peace coalition.

“There was a sharp exchange of views. . . . Obviously there’s a fundamental disagreement on the issue,” said Schreiber. “As to what our response would be if there was an occupation of our office, I wouldn’t want to address that.”

The coalition revealed the sit-in plans at the close of a news conference held Monday to rebut President Reagan’s televised speech Sunday night, in which he claimed that Nicaragua’s Sandinista government is a threat to U.S. security.

Coalition members presented a joint, written statement calling for the United States to negotiate with the Sandinistas.

“U.S. aid to the contras is illegal, immoral, counterproductive to U.S. security interests, costly and wasteful,” the statement declared. “President Reagan’s policies toward Nicaragua have been a complete failure. . . . In its report last week, the House Intelligence Committee said the analysis of top U.S. intelligence sources shows that it is essentially meaningless to continue aiding the contras, that they could not defeat the Sandinistas even if Congress approves the presidential request for $100 million. . . .”

Asked about pledges by Sandinista leaders to export revolution to neighboring countries, coalition officials said such statements merely refer to the Sandinistas’ desire to hold up Nicaragua as a model for reform throughout Central America. However, they acknowledged that the Sandinistas have aided rebels in El Salvador.