Thursday, May 6, 1971
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
PaeSee
Local anti-war rally draws 250
On-eampus activity light
as spring term begins
By CHRIS PARKS
More than 250 Ann Arbor residents braved the cool and
rainy weather last night to attend a Family Peace Fair at
City Hall.
The rally contrasted with the gereral lack of observ-
ance of a moratorium day in the city yesterday. This was
partly attributed to the absence of local anti-war leaders,
who were still attending the demonstrations in Washington.
Further, activity on campus was limited and class
attendance appeared normal for the first day of the spring
half-term. It appeared that
many students were already
home on summer vacation
and that s o m e were in
Washington. protests held
The, fair, sponsored by the
Interfaith Council for Peace, (Continued from Page 1)
featured several speakers, a pro-
gram of protest music, and sev- consin campus where several of
eral booths dispensing anti-war the dormitories were gassed.
materials, cookies, peanuts, and At noon yesterday between
"balloons for peace." 1500 and 2000 demonstrators
Among the speakers was a marched around the campus oc-
Vietnam veteran who told the casionally attempting to block
crowd, comprised mainly of mid- streets and throwing rocks at
dle-aged adults and small chil- police. Police again used tear
dren, "It is up to you.to end the gas and observers reported the
war." entire campus area filled with
He urged the crowd to write the gas.
,fheir, congressmen saying the In San Francisco demonstra-
letters only needed to contain tions, designed to disrupt the op-
three words--"Stop the War." erations of such companies as
The crowd seemed generally Standard Oil and the Bank of
enthusiastic despite the weath- America erupted into violence.
er, responding to the speakers At 11 a.m. a crowd of about
and singing protest songs. 700, which had gathered in front
At 7 p.m. the crowd fell silent of'teSadr i opn
for a two minute period of si- Bldg. marched to the headquar-
lence called for people to "re- ters of the Bank of America.
flect on what the war is doing There they were joined by about
to all of us." 500 others and police on horse-
By about 8 p~m., the occa- bakmvditocereon
sional rain became steady and back moved In to clear demon-
numbers of the protesters, many strators from the streets. There
of whom had small children, were several instances of fight-
headed for home. 'l ing between police and the dem-
Yesterday was also proclaim- onstrators reported.
SAN FRANCISCO police yesterday take anti-war demonstrators into custody during a downtown
protest rally, as a cable car moves along in the background.
1,200 more protesters
arrested in Washington
(Continued from Page 1)
posting copies of the People's
Peace Treaty on doors of federal
buildings.
The march to D.C. prtoon,
where Rennie Davis, one of the
leaders of the Washington pro-
test, was held earlier this week,
is to show "solidarity with the
prisoners."
According to the group meet-
ing last night, the march will be
"the last of this week's actions
in Washington."
"We've carried out te first
Snational implementation of the
People's Peace Treaty," Davis
said, speaking to the meeting
about the week's activities.
Davis said, however, that peo-
ple should remain in Washington
to plan the "second national iuP-
plementation of the treaty."
The non-violent demonstration
at the Capitol began as 50 Viet-
nam veterans led about 1,000 peo-
ple from the East Mall to the
steps of the Capitol House wing.
The marchers, joined by other
groups, found the door-almost
never closed while Congress is in
session-§ecurely locked.
Capitol Police Chief James
Powell told the marchers to stop
as they neared the white marble
building, but then allowed thern
to proceed. Several congressmen
came to the scene and told Pow-
ell they had invited the pro-
ttesters to meet with them.
The lawmakers, who later ad-
dressed the crowd, included Reps.
Bella Abzug (D.-N.Y.), Parren
Mitchell (D-M.D.), Ronald Del-
lums (D-Calif.) and John Ran-
gell (D-N.Y.).
The crowd swarmed up the
4steps and rallied to urge Con-
gress to end the Indochina War
and ratify the People's Peace
Treaty.
Powell told the demonstrators
they were violating the law and
were under arrest. The message
was inaudible to many of the
Iprotesters, although most ap-
parently intended to be arrested.
Police moved in and separated
the group on the steps from over
1,000 friendly onlookers, many
of whom shouted and clapped
with the demonstrators.
Draft cards and discharge
papers were burned and veter-
ans turned in medals as police
began removing demonstrators
one-by-one from the Capitol
steps and putting them into
buses.
Most demonstrators w e nt
peacefully, flashing signs and
clenched fists. A few, however,
went limp and were dragged by
police to the buses.
Police arrested everyone in
the area, sparing only C o n-
gressmen, Congressional aides,
and accredited reporters. Del-
lums, furious at the police, said
the mass arrest "showed the
absurdity of this fascist sys-
tem."
Abzug and Dellums lashed out
at police for apprehending peo-
ple without giving them what
they described as adequate time
to disperse. "The warning was
inaudible," Delums said as the
demonstrators were taken away.
"None of the Congressmen heard
a single word."
Earlier, about 1,500 p e o p 1e
gathered in Lafayette P a r k
across from the White House in
a rally organized by a group
called Federal Employes f or
Peace. The demonstration was
among the first by government-
al employes to express opposi-
tion to official policy.
Police surrounded the park,
refusing to allow additional
hundreds of people to attend
the rally and stating that the
group's parade permit officially
allowed only 500 people to as-
semble.
Other speakers included re-
presentatives of the Federal
Employes for Peace, the Na-
tional Welfare Rights Organiza-
tion, the Harrisburg Conspirat-
ors and an official of the United
Steelworkers Union.
Williams urged the crowd to
march to the Capitol and about
one third of the demonstrators
began marching down Pennsyl-
vania Ave. Police stopped traffic
for the protesters, led by Wil-
lims in singing as they walked
on the sidewalk.
At the capitol, the marchers
separated, some of the federal
employes going to the House and
Senate Office Buildings to talk
to Congressmen, and others
joining the rally on the Capitol
steps.
The Capitol rally began ear-
lier as about 300 people gath-
ered before noon on the East
Mall to plan the afternoon's
activities at the Capitol building.
The group listened to speak-
ers talk about their experiences
in jail, chanted slogans and dis-
cussed strategies.
The crowd grew larger as
the afternoon continued. Lead-
ers of the People's Coalition for
Peace and Justice (PCPJ) warn-
ed the group that they faced ar-
rest if they went to the Capitol.
In other actions, about 40
people blocked traffic at Ward
Circle, near American Univer-
sity. The group was quickly
broken up by D.C. police. Police
closed parts of Constitution
Ave. briefly because of the Capi-
tol protest.
Contributors to this article include
Daily reporters Lindsay Chaney,
Anita Crone, Linda Dreeben, Tammy
Jacobs, Art Lerner, Jim MeFerson,
Jonathan Miiier, W. E. Schrock, Paul
Travis, and Lynn weiner.
Later in the afternoon the
crowd broke up, with scattered
groups of about one hundred
each swarming around the city's
financial district. Leaflets passed
out earlier in the day suggested
the demonstrators "disrup their
favorite war profiteer".
In College Park, Maryland,
hundreds of students blocking a
highway adjacent to the Univer-
sity of Maryland campus were
dispersed when the state police
attacked with tear gas.
Incidents of rock throving con-
tinued through last night as
Maryland governor Marvin Man-
del called up the National Guard
and declared a state of emer-
gency.
A rally in New York's Central
Park, attended by some 2,000
students broke up after an hour
when fist fighting erupted be-
tween blacks and whites attend-
ing the protest.
addresses rally
ed "Set the Date-Free the
POWS Day" in Ann Arbor by
Mayor Robert Harris. Harris
said the day was designed to
urge Ann Arbor citizens to write
their congressmen to call for the
setting of an immediate date for
U.S. withdrawal from Indochina.
Police arrest demonstrators at Capitol