antiwar movement in the United States, which began one year ago with the April 17 March on Washington and developed through teach-ins, rallies and the growth of "Committees to End the War in- Vietnam" all across the country, suffered a temporary lull during - Johnson's "peace offensive." With the resumption of the bombing of North Vietnam, however, the antiwar movement responded with renewed vigor and opposed the escalation of the war through militant demonstrations in every major city in the U.S. These reached a peak in the International Days of.Protest. March 25-26. when: the number of participants in ‘the demonstrations reached a height never before equalled in the antiwar. movement in the United States. In New York, for instance, the estimated. turnout, as reported in the bourgeois news media, was between 255 000 and 100, 000 - in New. York City alone.
The recent wave of demonstrations also reflected growing clarity among the antiwar activists, who have learned through experience that the stated aims of the government cannot be trusted.
The various campus organizations increased their activities, such as selling literature against ‘the war, going door to door in the dormitories trying: to convince students about..the nature of the. war, and organising discussion groups, rallies and marches. At the University of California at Berkeley, four to five thousand students. boycotted classes on February 9 in order to attend a rally against the war. The previous week, students in the Vietnam Day Committee demanded discussions in their classrooms about the character of the war in Vietnam. On February 23, more than 350 women from. the Vietnam Day Committee and from neighborhood. peace groups marched -on an armed services induction center in Oakland, California, ‘with a banner demanding "Bring. Our Men Home from Vietnam Now."
Since the resumption of the bombings , the antiwar movement. has been steadily gaining support from broader layers of the population. The statement against the war issued by the. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee [SNCC], a civil-rights organization based in the South, has stimulated more open support for the antiwar movement from the Negro community. The SNCC statement said:
“We recoil with horror at the. inconsistency of this supposedly free society where responsibility to freedom is equated with responsibility to lend one's self to military aggression. We.take note of the fact that 16 per cent of the draftees from. this country are Negro, called-on to stifle the liberation of Vietnan, to: ‘preserve a. ‘democracy' which does not exist for them at home. oe
There has been widespread support for Julian Bond, a 26-yearold Negro and member of SNCC, who was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives but was not permitted his” seat because. of his: views on the war in Vietnam. :
. The increased sentiment.against the war in the population as a whole has been reflected in the quantity of mail U.S. senators are receiving. Senators Morse and Fulbright report receiving hundreds of letters and telegrams supporting their stand against escalation of the war. Senator Mansfield said his mail was running 100 to 1 against the war. Another reflection of the discontent with the war is a statement-issued by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the first national trade union affiliated to the AFL-CIO to criticize Johnson ' Ss policy publicly.
With the increased escalation of the war, the antiwar demon-. strations have become increasingly militant, the slogan "Bring the - Troops Home Now" becoming more and more popular as was clearly evident in the huge parade in New York March 26. A good exemple of the spirit in the antiwar demonstrations was provided by the February 23.. demonstration in New York when 5,000 participants assembled outside | the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel where President Johnson was being given a. "freedom award." Supported by almost every radical and antiwar group in the city, the rally was marked by signs calling for an immediate end to the war and withdrawal of U.S. troops. The chant of the pickets’ probably reached the ears of Johnson as he received his decoration, "LBJ, LBJ, How Many Kids Have You Killed Today?" -
A newly formed Harlem groun, the "Afro-Americans to Ene the War in Vietnam," carried a huge banner: "Bring Our Black G.I. Home Now." (Similar. Afro-American committees have also been formed in Detroit, Boston: and Chicago.) The picket line culminated in a. rally where Julian Bond 1 was presented with a. Teal, freedom eward by me the demonstrators. ee
Against - ‘this increased militancy, the government made a ‘move. seeking to intimidate and silence the antiwar movement. On March 4,. U.S.Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach petitioned the Subversive Activities Control Board to require the DuBois Clubs of America to. register with the federal government as a "Communist front" organization. The DuBois Clubs is a pro-Moscow socialist youth group that has been actively opposing the Vietnam war. The day after the announcement of Katzenbach's petition, the national headquarters of the organization in San Francisco was bombed and members of the DuBois Clubs in New York City were beaten by police | and hooligans outside: their headquarters.
The antiwar movement rallied solidly to the defense of the DuBois. Clubs, and committees against the war all over the country passed resolutions protesting this violation of the right to free speech as an attack on the whole movement against the war. Some antiwar activists, including Yale professor Staughton Lynd, have joined the DuBois Clubs as a demonstrative act of opposition to the government attack. So far, this witch-hunt attack by the government has not diminished the force of the antiwar movement.
~The organizing effort that went into preparing for the International Days of Protest March 25-26 showed: how much the movement has grown in the five months since the first International Days of Protest October 15-16. A new publication, Bring the Troops Home Now
Newsletter (Box 317,.Mt..Auburn Post Office, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139) helped spark the militant tone of the nationwide demonstrations. The Newsletter: carries articles on the truth about the war and reports of antiwar activities-in' the major cities of the.country. The publi-.. cation and its supporters call for immediate withdrawal of all U.S. | troops, holding that slogans centered around appeals for "negotiations" play..into the hands of the Johnson administration. The circulation of the Newsletter: is expanding in a most: encouraging way. ...
The debate over whether the antiwar movement should call for negotiations or for withdrawal of U.S. troops has recently spread among: members of the: DuBois.Clubs. Although the official position of . the organization is to favor: negotiations, the: National Committee is — divided on the question and this is reflected in. the ranks..In face . | of the increasing militancy of the antiwar movement in. the U.S. and) the heroic resistance of the Vietnamese freedom fighters who reject negotiations until the invaders withdraw, many members of.the DuBois Clubs. think that a socialist group,-in the imperialist. United States should. show its solidarity with the Vietnamese. revolutionists. by .. demanding complete withdrawal of U.S. troops even if this position does not conform with the ‘theory of "peaceful coexistence. "