Juan Farinas

Juan Pedro Farinas was a Cuban-born member of the Trotskyist Workers League who became a Vietnam-era anti-war cause célèbre. Although opposed to the war, he reported to his New York Army induction center when drafted; outside the building he joined an anti-war demonstration and handed leaflets to other draftees, discussing the war with them. For this he was prosecuted under the Selective Service Act and convicted in December 1970 of interfering with the Selective Service System, and sentenced to two years in federal prison. A broad coalition rallied to his defense through the Juan Farinas Defense Committee; the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction in 1971 (United States v. Farinas, 448 F.2d 1334), and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal on March 1, 1972.

The February 13, 1971 Black Panther reported that Juan Farinas received a two-year sentence on January 29, 1971 in Manhattan following his December conviction on three Selective Service counts concerning 1968 antiwar leaflets. This later report gives a different sentencing day from the January issue’s prospective January 28 hearing. It does not establish the actual post-sentence prison admission day. The Black Panther, February 13, 1971, original PDF page 9. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/black-panther/06%20no%203%201-20%20feb%2013%201971.pdf#page=9

The January 9, 1971 issue reprinted a December 13 defense statement describing Juan Farinas’s December 10–11 conviction on Selective Service counts over 1968 antiwar leaflets. Farinas explicitly referred to the two years since his arrest. The reported January 28 hearing and possible six-year term were prospective, not an executed sentence or prison admission. The Black Panther, January 9, 1971, original PDF page 9. Source: https://washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/1971-01-09-black-panther-vol-4-no-28.pdf#page=9

The Militant, January 29, 1971 identifies Farinas as a 23-year-old Workers League supporter and dates his Selective Service trial to December 10–11, 1970 and conviction to December 11. It names defense attorney Sanford Katz and describes proposed appeals concerning the regulation requiring obedience to armed-forces representatives, statutory interpretation and sufficiency of the evidence. Its advertised January 29 sentencing protest is prospective and does not by itself prove sentence or admission; the later reported sentencing outcome remains separately documented. Source: https://www.themilitant.com/1971/3503/MIL3503.pdf#page=11