Michael Hamel-Green as a draft resister interviewed by Greg Swanborough for 'The sharp end'

Scene 38A; his feelings towards Australian soldiers; no antagonism towards the serving soldiers or conscripts; believes the conscripts took the government on trust and draft resistors didn't; the resistors wanted justification and a reason to be sent to Vietnam; felt that it was an unjust war and that it had to be opposed; feels the soldiers had a ‘raw deal’ since they came back; Scene 38 Take 1; the origin and formation of the Draft Resistance Union; established underground resistance to shelter resistors; resisting the enforcement of conscription and demonstrations in public places showing there was community opposition to conscription and the war; also a way to influence others to resist signing up; one thousand academics signed a petition urging young people not to register; Take 2. the Second Moratorium march built on the huge momentum; no longer just a student activity; every Melbourne suburb had there own Moratorium demonstrations; an amazing movement that has not been repeated since; Take 3; the Draft Resistance Union was just one element of a much broader movement; the underground movement was only possible with the support of other groups such as Save Our Sons (SOS) movement - Jean McLean (SOS); Catholic Workers Movement formed a committee to organise safe houses; the police latter acknowledged that it was extraordinarily difficult to penetrate the movement and find the safe houses; SOS was the major organisation to help draft resistors at that time; Scene 39 Take 1. Hamel-Green speaking at the Moratorium protest with three other draft resistors protected by a mass of people; the demonstrators escorted them back to Melbourne University; the police were scared of creating a disturbance since they were surrounded by five thousand people the whole way back to university; Takes 2 to 4 retakes of take 1; Scene 5 Take 1. he had to register for the first ballot in 1965; not at first opposed to conscription but had to know exactly what it was for; his first reaction was to read everything he could find on Vietnam; became horrified on the nature of the war; he was a student at Melbourne University and automatically deferred; latter thought he shouldn’t accept; partly inspired by Bill White and other draft resistors; received a great deal of support from parents and students at Melbourne University formed Vietnam study group with other students; links with Young Labor; didn’t lead to a feeling of being isolated from the community no feelings of hostility against him.