Thursday, 500tembdr 9, 1971
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Thirteen
Thursday, September 9, 1971 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Thirteen
Tactics
change,
movement
grows
(continued from Page 12)
People's Peace Treaty, and co-
sponsoring the April 24 march
with NPAC, PCPJ sponsored
"people's lobbies"-a series of
daily demonstrations during the
last week of April and the first
week of May
However, the most effective
lobby started before the "people a
lobbies" officially began. For five
days before the giant NPAC and
PCPJ march, a group called
Vietnam Veterans Against th!,
War demonstrated in a series -f
actions labeled "Operation Dew-
ey Canyon III."
These p r o t e s t s, incliding
pseudo - military actions such as
guerrilla warfare and seek-and-
destroy missions aimed at sev-
eral government buildings, cul-
--even during the 400,000 person
march on Washington Nov. 15,
1969 most of the demonstrators
were young.
This spring, however, marked
the beginning of a movement to
"take to the streets" among
middle and working class people
who had in the past remained
silent.
On April 24, students mingled
with union members who touched
shoulders with groups of federal
employes. The ages and economic
levels of the participants were
more varied than ever before, al-
though the largest single group
could still be classified as "youth-
ful radicals."
Congressmen spoke at the April
24 rally, as dissident members
and Students for a Democratic
the majority of the April 24
marches returned to their homes,
they left a minority of more radi-
cal dissidents behind.
The day after the march, the
PCPJ lobbies started, and for the
next week sit-ins were staged
outside such governments build-
ings as the Selective Service, the
Justice Department and the De-
partment of Health, Education
and Welfare. At each of these
sit-ins, groups ranging in number
from several dozen to several
hundred were arrested.
The big arrests, however, were
to come during the May Day
Tribe's traffic stoppages, which
started May 3. That day 7.r
demonstrators were arrested,
and about 5,000 more were to be
pulled in by the end of May 5.
The arrests were but one facet
of what observers have called the
"government's war against pro-
testors." That was had started
in earnest the morning of May
2, when some 35,000 people were
routed from the PCPJ camp-
grounds in Washington's West
Potomac Park, and several hun-
dred who refused to go were ar-
rested.
The closing of the park failed
to effectively cripple the sched-
uled traffic stoppages, as demon-
strators regrouped at Washing-
ton colleges.
The morning of May 3, as pro-
testers hurried to "target" points.
established by region (Michigan
was charged with closing Wash-
ington Circle) they were met with
massive government response.
Washington police were joined
by National Guardsmen and mili-
tary troops from nearby army
bases - 10,000 troops in all.
Helicopters were .deployed on the
Washington monument grounds.
and khaki uniformed soldiers
held bayonets as they stood
watch in the Georgetown shop-
ping district.
Demonstrators were tear' gas-
sed, herded into busses, and then
delivered to either the city jail
or a makeshift detention camp.
The arrests were decried as in-
valid, since in many cases po-
lice failed to take time to write
down even such information as
T.V. RENTALS
t $1 0.50/mo.
NEJAC T.V.
662-5671
PRESCRIPTION EYEWARE
and SHADES
War critics on Capital Hill
the demonstrator's name
where he was arrested.
and
Arresting the 'People's Lobby'
By the end of May 5, most of
the protesters had been either
arrested or had headed out of
Washington, and a demonstra-
tion scheduled for May 6 failed
to materialize.
Although the government had
not been "shut down" - even at
their most effective, demonstra-
tors merely caused two hour traf-
fic snarls - many felt that the
reaction to the demonstrations
had proved radical charges rf
government "fascism."
After the drama of the May ac-
Be a Winner
Buy
Michigan
Souvenirs
at
tions, activists took the summer
to plan further strategy. In P.
June convention, PCPJ members
planned a national moratorium
for Oct. 13, to be followed by acts
of civil disobedience Oct. 14 and
15; and a series of demonstra-
tions in Washington beginning
Nov. 6.
PCPJ also drafted a statement
of unity designed to lessen the
conflict between themselves and
the less radical NPAC.
Whether the tactics of the fu-
ture will be electing anti-war
congressmen, stopping the gov-
ernmen-_ massively marching, or
all three will perhaps be indi-
cated during the next few
months.
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minated In an April 23 rally
where the former soldiers hurled
battle ribbons and medals to the
steps of the Capitol in a symbolic
rejection of the war.
The veterans were among the
most impressive of the groups
that were new to the anti-war
movement in April and May,
since many non participants
granted more credibility to the
anti-war views of those who had
* actually fought in Vietnam.
However, there were other new
factors in the movement, too. In
the past, most anti-war demon-
strators had been categorized as
"youthful" or "radical" or both
of the Progressive Labor Party
Society lef a counter-march to
protest the estalishment outlo:k
of the main demonstration.
Another factor new to massive
peace marches was the non-vio-
lence of the April 24 demonstra-
tion. A year and a half earliez,
the more radical participants in
the November march and rally
confronted police and tear gas at
both the Justice Department and
Washington's DuPont Circle.
However, the even larger
march this spring was almos'
totally without arrests, and
NPAC lauded this fact as a ma-
jor accomplishment of the move
ment.
But the peacefulness of the pro-
test was not to last long, for when
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