New Harbinger, 1972
Food Coops
The Journal of the New Harbinger was published by the North American Students of Cooperation, a federation of housing cooperatives in Canada and the United States, started in 1968 and centered in Ann Arbor. The Journal of the New Harbinger focused on the promotion and development of food coops. This issue includes articles about food coops in Madison, Montreal, Oakland, Amherst, Philadelphia, New York, Berkeley and Boston.
North American Students of Cooperation
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
February 1972
small press publication
Lavender Vision
Gay Liberation, vol. 1, no. 1
In the wake of the Stonewall rebellion in New York, gay liberation activism in Boston accelerated, including the establishment of a periodical, Lavender Vision. Initially, gay men and women worked on the newspaper together as a "69 publication," meaning half of the newspaper was devoted to gay men and half to gay women. Shortly after its initial publication, though, lesbian activists split, feeling that gay women needed a space of their own. The newspaper was relaunched as a women-centered periodical and local gay men established Fag Rag.
In this issue, divided between women and men, articles explore self-defense, tensions within the women's liberation movement, "phallic imperialism," music, poetry, definitions of masculinity and manhood, the war in Vietnam and gay community.
In the women's half of the newspaper, a section titled, "Who We Are," explains, "We are some lesbians involved in women’s liberation who feel a need for a large lesbian community that gives us ways to meet together and be together and fight together. We’re hoping that this paper can be a place to share feelings and experiences and news about what we are doing in our movement… It has been exhilarating for us as radical lesbians to come together to share work and love and skills and strength: to understand together how we’re fucked over by a society as women, as gay women: and to figure out how to stop this oppression and all oppression. Join us."
Lavender Vision
Roz Payne
ca. 1970-71
Rough Times, 1972, vol. 3, no. 2
Mental Health
RT - A Journal of Radical Therapy, was a radical, “alternate journal” of mental health that emerged initially in the early 1970s in Minot, North Dakota in the context of the New Left. It published 12 issues between 1970 and 1972 and "voiced pointed criticisms of psychiatrists during this period. The journal, originally titled, The Radical Therapist and then Rough Times, was run by a group of psychiatrists and activists who believed that mental illness was best treated by social change, not behavioral modification. Their motto was "Therapy means social, political and personal change, not adjustment.” In the 1969 manifesto that launched the journal, organizers wrote:
Why have we begun another journal? No other publication meets the need we feel exists: to unite all people concerned with the radical analysis of therapy in this society. It is time we grouped together and made common cause. We need to exchange experience and ideas, and join others working toward change. The other “professional” journals are essentially establishment organs which back the status quo on most controversial issues… We need a new forum for our views.
In the midst of a society tormented by war, racism, and social turmoil, therapy goes on with business as usual. In fact, therapists often look suspiciously at social change and label as ‘disturbed’ those who press towards it.
Therapy today has become a commodity, a means of social control. We reject such an approach to people`s distress. We reject the pleasant careers with which the system rewards its adherents. The social system must change, and we will be workers toward such change.
Those involved with this movement sought to offer and alternative to “Establishment” therapeutic approaches. Like many movements of this period, over time, ideological splits divided participants and led to numerous changes in the effort and the journal.
This issue includes an RT position paper; combat liberalism; psychiatric drugs; women’s sex education in a state hospital; impressions of a mental institution; the grief of soldiers; gynecology; beauty standards; Paddington Day Hospital in London; quaaludes; patients’ rights; mental health in China; Old People’s Yellow Pages in Boston; Mental Patients Association; transactional analysis; homosexuality and prison treatment; George Jackson, letters and poetry.
The Radical Therapist, Inc.
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1972
newspaper
City Star, October 1973, vol. 1, no. 6
New Left
The Liberated Guardian formed out of a workers strike at The Guardian newspaper in New York City in the Spring of 1970. The Liberated Guardian was notable for it strong stand in favor of armed struggle. An ideological and political split within the ranks of the Liberated Guardian staff led to the newspaper’s demise in late-1973 and the creation of a new, short-lived newspaper called the New York City Star.
This issue includes articles on Salvadore Allende and coup in Chile; Hunter College student government; teacher’s union divisions; photo essay on schools; women’s schools; Puerto Rican independence; Carlos Feliciano trial; food coops; Local 1199 organizing campaign at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital; Chrysler labor strife; gay tenants’ rights; capture of Howie Matchinger; strike at Farah plant; Farm Worker’s Union boycott in NY; economic crisis; Attica; Dover Publishing labor strife; Womanspace Theater; gay liberation in Boston; women’s self-defense; Women’s Olympics; culture bus; People’s Toy Project; book reviews
City Star
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
October 1973
newspaper
BDRG: Boston Draft Resistance Group
Anti-Vietnam War Movement
"Actually the first film that was made and distributed by Newsreel. Detailed draft resistance organizing in Boston." (Roz Payne Archive) <iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://archive.org/embed/MotionPicture0095" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Newsreel Films
Internet Archive
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1968
film
Summer '68
Anti-Vietnam War Movement
"Draft resistance organizing in Boston, a Boston organizer's trip to North Vietnam -- a G.I. coffeehouse in Texas, Newsreel's take over of Channel 13 in New York -- following the production of the Rat's special issue on Chicago -- and Chicago during the Democratic Convention, the planning and carriage out of five days of protest. Each section focuses on an organizer central to each project -- the attempt is to define the nature of commitment to "the Movement" against a backdrop of 1968's summer activities." (Roz Payne Archive) <iframe width="640" height="470" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/112328836" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/112328836">SUMMER'68 - Newsreel</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user2384966">john douglas</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Newsreel Films
Vimeo
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1968
film
Red Pencil, vol. 3, no. 3, March 1972
Education Reform
The Red Pencil was an underground newspaper in Boston during the 1970s, “put out by a collective of people working to change Boston-area education. In this issue, articles explore labor issues at the Somerville High School; interviews with high school students at Weston and South Boston high schools; teachers’ perspectives on bilingual education; carpentry in classrooms; the Home Base alternative school in Watertown; letters to the editor.
The Red Pencil and Boston Area Teaching Project, Inc.
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
March 1972
underground press
Fag Rag, January 1973
Gay Liberation
Fag Rag was a Boston-based gay liberation newspaper published by a group of writers and activists from 1971 through the early-1980s. This issue includes articles about a guide to bars, baths and books; an interview between a Hustler and customer"; a gay Vietnam veteran; generational differences in the gay liberation movement; homosexuals and welfare; the closet; the first international gay liberation congress in Milan; gay pride week; poetry; Miami Democratic Convention; "cocksucking" as a revolutionary act; police repression; race and homosexuality; gay experience at rest stops; homosexuality in prison; letters to the editor.
Fag Rag Collective
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
January 1973
underground press
Prisoners Solidarity Committee, September 17, 1971
Prisoner's Rights Movement
The Prisoners Solidarity Committee was organized in 1971 by the Workers World Party, a revolutionary Marxist organization made up mainly of white radicals, to provide outside help for the incarcerated after a prison uprising in Auburn, New York. Initially formed in New York, the PSC ultimately spread to other locations across the country, including Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee and Wilmington, Delaware. In addition to white leftists, the group also included relatives of prisoners and some ex-prisoners. The PSC sought to publicize the conditions inside U.S. prisons and advocate for reform.
The group also played a role in the Attica Prison uprising. This special newsletter on Attica includes articles on conditions inside the prison; prisoner demands; prisoners’ relatives; a meeting with community members; solidarity protests in other cities.
Prisoners Solidarity Committee
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
September 17, 1971
underground press
RAT Subterranean News, February 6-23, 1970
New Left
RAT Subterranean News was published in New York, starting in March of 1968 and was edited by Jeff Shero, Alice Embree and Gary Thiher, who had come North from Austin, Texas, where they worked on The Rag, another important underground paper. Whereas the East Village Other represented the counterculture point of view, RAT had a left political orientation. In early 1970, women’s liberation activists took over RAT and turned it into a women-only periodical to challenge sexism within the New Left. This issue is the first after the take-over of RAT and covers a wide range of topics, including Afeni Shakur and the Panther 21; letters to the editor; women’s take-over of RAT; feminist critique of the New Left; the ambush of New York police in Harlem; the emergence of strong women leadership in the Weather Underground; Kathleen Cleaver in Algeria; sabotage; theft and activism; Boston students protesting a lecture by S.I. Hayakawa; Berkeley women take-over of karate class; a Gay Liberation Front protest at a San Francisco radio station; gas masks; women challenging doctors on abortion; sex and sexism; “Are Men Really the Enemy?” exam; John Sinclair release from prison; Palestinian women and armed struggle in Jordan; obscenity trial against Che; women in China; a Stockton, California, housewives strike; poetry; film review of “Prologue…”
R.A.T. Publications, Inc
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
February 6-23, 1970
underground press
Radio Free Boston
Women's Liberation
This document details an action against WBCN in Boston by the radical feminist organization, Bread and Roses on International Women's Day.
Off Our Backs
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
undated
mimeograph
leaflet
Fag Rag, June 1971
Gay Liberation
Fag Rag was a significant, Boston-based "gay male newspaper" published from 1971 and the early-1980s. In the wake of the Stonewall rebellion in New York, gay liberation activism in Boston accelerated, including the establishment of a periodical, Lavender Vision. Initially, gay men and women worked on the newspaper together as a "69 publication," meaning half of the newspaper was devoted to gay men and half to gay women. Shortly after its initial publication, though, lesbian activists split, feeling that gay women needed a space of their own. The newspaper was relaunched as a women-centered periodical and local gay men established Fag Rag. At its height, Fag Rag had between 400-500 subscribers and a print run of 4,000-4,500. Like other underground press periodicals, Fag Rag featured a mix of original journalism, opinion and graphic arts related to the gay liberation movement, as well as interviews with notable figures, including, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Christopher Isherwood, John Wieners, Allen Young, Gerard Malanga, John Rechy, Ned Rorem, and Gore Vidal. Features in this issue include: yoga; Phil Ochs; a failed attempt to establish a gay community center; psychology and homosexuality; a reflection by a gay teenager; homosexuality and military service; coming out; the anti-war movement; a critique of the May Day protest in D.C.; “Revolutionary sexism” in the Black Panther Party; Machismo and police; "gayness" and the Cuban Revolution; the objectification of the “cock”; as well as a selection of poetry.
Fag Rag Collective
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
June 1971
underground press
Osawatomie, June-July 1976, vol. 2, no. 2
Weather Underground
Newsletter of the Weather Underground summarizing the latest happenings in the underground, including a notice for an anti-colonial march in Philly, San Fran and L.A. on the bicentennial; news briefs including a short obituary of Phil Ochs; and articles about U.S. meddling in Cuba’s upcoming election; unemployment; the history of Reconstruction and its failure; “anti-imperialism vs. opportunity: a self-critique”; racism in Boston; indigenous sovereignty; and a piece of serialized fiction, “The People, The People.”
Weather Underground
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
June-July 1976, vol. 2, no. 2
underground press
Osawatomie, Spring 1975, no. 1
Weather Underground
Newsletter of the Weather Underground summarizing the latest happenings in the underground, including articles about solidarity on the left; racism and school desegregation crisis in Boston; poetry; population control; a toolbox on internationalism; Puerto Rican nationalism; an analysis of the roots of the economic crisis; the energy crisis; indigenous rights and the Bicentennial; the Chilean resistance; a book review of Cuban Women Now; International Women’s Day.
Weather Underground
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Spring 1975, no. 1
underground press
Osawatomie, Autumn 1975, no. 3
Weather Underground
Newsletter of the Weather Underground summarizing the latest happenings in the underground, including articles about the Weather Underground’s class analysis; the Prisoner’s Rights Movement; book reviews on radical women; the power of film; the Weather Underground bombing of Kennecott Corporation; Portuguese Revolution; toolbox on socialism; Boston busing crisis; Korea; fiction; country music.
Weather Underground
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Autumn 1975, no. 3
underground press
Fag Rag, Fall 1971, no. 2
Gay Liberation
Fag Rag was a significant, Boston-based "gay male newspaper" published from 1971 and the early-1980s. In the wake of the Stonewall rebellion in New York, gay liberation activism in Boston accelerated, including the establishment of a periodical, Lavender Vision. Initially, gay men and women worked on the newspaper together as a "69 publication," meaning half of the newspaper was devoted to gay men and half to gay women. Shortly after its initial publication, though, lesbian activists split, feeling that gay women needed a space of their own. The newspaper was relaunched as a women-centered periodical and local gay men established Fag Rag. At its height, Fag Rag had between 400-500 subscribers and a print run of 4,000-4,500. Like other underground press periodicals, Fag Rag featured a mix of original journalism, opinion and graphic arts related to the gay liberation movement, as well as interviews with notable figures, including, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Christopher Isherwood, John Wieners, Allen Young, Gerard Malanga, John Rechy, Ned Rorem, and Gore Vidal. Features in this issue include: various articles articulating the struggles and internal barriers of the Gay Liberation Movement; a statement of "What We Want, What We Believe; an article about the Gay Revolution in Cuba with a letter from a staff member of RAT; and, Boston's first gay march and demonstration during the 1971 Gay Pride Week.
Fag Rag Inc.
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1971
underground press
The Black Panther, October 10, 1970
Black Power
Printed on October 10, 1970, this issue of The Black Panther is filled with various articles from other Black Panther Party chapters across the U.S., one particular article from the Philadelphia chapter compares police brutality in Philadelphia to the 1968 My Lai Massacre that took place during the Vietnam War. Another article from the Baltimore chapter highlights terrible conditions in the South Baltimore community due to episodes of police brutality and poor housing conditions. In Boston, the Panthers write about the right to free public school but are denied the right to walk freely to and from Curley School. The Bay Area National Lawyers Guild includes a "Guide to Know Your Rights" that outlines an individuals rights when stopped by law enforcement officials. Also included in this issue are articles about police repression in several cities; the case of Willie Turner, Jr; the Winston-Salem N.C.C.F.; General Motors; capitalism and dope; welfare system; Neo-colonialism and genocide; the trials of Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins; a youth conference; a Boston bank robbery; a letter from the "Soledad 7" thanking the Black Panther Party for their support; international news shorts; and, art by Emory Douglas.
The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
October 10, 1970
underground press
The Black Panther, October 4, 1970
Black Power
This October 4th, 1970, issue of The Black Panther includes articles about: Attica Massacre at the Attica Correctional Facility in New York State, with a statement from survivors of the massacre along with a critique of the New York prison system; prison conditions at San Quentin State Prison and Folsom Prison in California; the Boston Free Health Center; the murder of John Smith; an update on the trial of three Panthers in Winston-Salem; an interview with Marien N'Gouabi, President of the Congolese Workers' party; a statement of support for People's Republic of Congo-Brazzaville due to the political assassination of Patrice Lumumba; criticism of the California welfare law proposed by Governor Ronald Reagan; a call to sign a petition to grant Panther David Hilliard parole; a Community Survival Program in the Oakland area facilitated by Huey Newton; and, artwork by Emory Douglas.
The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
October 4, 1970
underground press
The City Ordinance
White Panther Party
This document describes the repressive conditions in Boston toward leftist groups in the wake of the Weather Underground robbery of a bank in Brighton, Massachusetts. It also includes a poem by Diane di Prima.
In late-September of 1969, WU members Katherine Power, Susan Saxe, as well as two former convicts, William Gilday and Robert Velari, carrying handguns, a shotgun and a submachine gun. Gilday shot and killed Boston police officer Walter Schroeder when the police officer attempted to stop the robbery. The group escaped with $26,000 in cash, which they planned to use to finance an overthrow of the federal government.
White Panther Party
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. 1969
mimeograph
newsletter
Towards a People's Constitution
New Left
This leaflet lists some possible provisions for a "Peoples' Constitution" that emerged from a series of discussions among activists in the Boston-Cambridge area, as well as a national meeting in Philadelphia.
unknown
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
September 28, 1970
mimeograph
leaflet
Attica - My Lai Both the Same
Black Power and Prisoner Rights Movement
This leaflet compares the Attica Uprising massacre to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
Prisoners Solidarity Committee
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. early-1970s
mimeograph
leaflet
International Women's Day
Women's Liberation
This flyer promotes the March 8, 1975, International Women's Day demonstration in Boston. It includes several images and quotes from women about various aspects of the discrimination and oppression they feel.
unknown
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. 1971
mimeograph
flyer
Mobilization to Stop Mass Murder in Vietnam
Anti-Vietnam War Movement
During the summer of 1966, the Inter-University Committee for Debate on Foreign Policy held a national conference for opponents of the War in Vietnam in Cleveland, Ohio. Activists at that meeting formed the November 8th Mobilization Committee to raise awareness about the increasingly brutal war in Southeast Asia during the fall election cycle and cultivate a broad-based national antiwar coalition that could mobilize large-scale anti-war demonstration in the U.S. Longtime pacifist and anti-war activist, A.J. Muste, was elected founding chairman of the group, while other notable anti-war figures also played leadership roles, including Dave Dellinger, the editor of Liberation magazine, and Robert Greenblatt, a professor at Cornell University. According to the organization’s newspaper, The Mobilizer, Muste was chosen because he “earned the respect of virtually every sector of the social protest movements in this country, displaying leadership in his work as a pacifist, radical, labor and civil rights [activist.]” Muste was particularly adept at synthesizing the competing philosophical and strategic approaches of individual groups within the broader coalition.
Following the November 1966 elections, the organization changed its name to the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, often referred to as “The MOBE.” The Spring Mobilization Committee was a broad anti-war coalition made up of students, unionists, progressive religious leaders, civil rights and black power groups, women’s organizations, Third World communities, and other members of “oppressed” constituencies, and was tasked with organizing massive demonstrations in New York City and San Francisco on April 15, 1967. Civil Rights and anti-war leader, Rev. James Bevel, now led the organization following the death of A.J. Muste in February of 1967. The April 15 protests attracted an estimated 500,000 participants (400,000+ in New York and 75-100,000 in San Francisco), marking the event as one of the largest days of anti-war protest of the Vietnam War era. The organizers of the Spring Mobilization Committee sought to combine mass action with local community organizing. Each participating group had distinct interests, spurring a variety of internal challenges and sometimes conflicts, which reveal many of the important fault lines within the New Left of the late-1960s.
The April demonstrations were peaceful, with only five recorded arrests, all of people who opposed the demonstration. During the event in New York, Martin Luther King, Jr. Floyd McKissick, Stokely Carmichael and Dr. Benjamin Spock all gave speeches in front of the United Nations critiquing U.S. involvement in the war as well as the socioeconomic politics of the draft. Prior to the march, young men burned nearly 200 draft cards in Central Park. At the San Francisco event, Black nationalists led a march of mostly white demonstrators.
At a conference in the wake of the April demonstrations, the group again changed its name, this time to the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which functioned as a permanent national organizing committee to bring together existing anti-war groups, spur the creation of new ones and develop strategies to promote the anti-war movement among everyday Americans. The National Mobe, which adhered to a non-violent philosophy at a time when a growing number of other anti-war groups were questioning the effectiveness of non-violence, had headquarters in New York and San Francisco, as well as an office in Los Angeles.
Between 1967 and 1969, The MOBE continued to play a central role organizing and participating in several important anti-war actions. In October of 1967, MOBE participated in a protest at the Pentagon, which attracted more than 150,000 people and resulted in more than 700 arrests and numerous claims of police brutality. This effort to “confront the warmakers” was notable for the presence of anti-war activists and counter-culturalists, particularly the Yippies, who sought to “levitate” the Pentagon. In April 1968, MOBE supported SDS’s “Ten Days of Protest” and that August, MOBE had a significant presence at the anti-war protests that rocked the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In January of 1969, the organization, now called the New Mobilization Committee to End the War, or New MOBE, participated in the anti-Nixon demonstrations that took place during his inauguration in in Washington, D.C. And on October 15 and November 15, 1969, MOBE organized the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam. The October event attracted hundreds of thousands of participants to demonstrations and “teach-ins” in cities across the country and beyond, with the largest gathering taking place in Boston, where more than 100,000 listened to anti-war Senator George McGovern. The November event drew more than 500,000 anti-war supporters to Washington, D.C., including a number of celebrities and performers. MOBE also coordinated a national anti-draft week between March 16 and March 22, 1970, but by that time, the group had begun to lose strength and ultimately dissolved, with some members drifting into the People’s Coalition for Peace and other joining the National Peace Coalition.
Here is a news footage of the April 15, 1967, march in New York:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=18&v=40m5gBgwjQE
National Mobilization Committee to End the War
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
April 15. 1967
Button
Physical Object
Anti-draft Week
Anti-Vietnam War Movement
During the summer of 1966, the Inter-University Committee for Debate on Foreign Policy held a national conference for opponents of the War in Vietnam in Cleveland, Ohio. Activists at that meeting formed the November 8th Mobilization Committee to raise awareness about the increasingly brutal war in Southeast Asia during the fall election cycle and cultivate a broad-based national antiwar coalition that could mobilize large-scale anti-war demonstration in the U.S. Longtime pacifist and anti-war activist, A.J. Muste, was elected founding chairman of the group, while other notable anti-war figures also played leadership roles, including Dave Dellinger, the editor of Liberation magazine, and Robert Greenblatt, a professor at Cornell University. According to the organization’s newspaper, The Mobilizer, Muste was chosen because he “earned the respect of virtually every sector of the social protest movements in this country, displaying leadership in his work as a pacifist, radical, labor and civil rights [activist.]” Muste was particularly adept at synthesizing the competing philosophical and strategic approaches of individual groups within the broader coalition.
Following the November 1966 elections, the organization changed its name to the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, often referred to as “The MOBE.” The Spring Mobilization Committee was a broad anti-war coalition made up of students, unionists, progressive religious leaders, civil rights and black power groups, women’s organizations, Third World communities, and other members of “oppressed” constituencies, and was tasked with organizing massive demonstrations in New York City and San Francisco on April 15, 1967. Civil Rights and anti-war leader, Rev. James Bevel, now led the organization following the death of A.J. Muste in February of 1967. The April 15 protests attracted an estimated 500,000 participants (400,000+ in New York and 75-100,000 in San Francisco), marking the event as one of the largest days of anti-war protest of the Vietnam War era. The organizers of the Spring Mobilization Committee sought to combine mass action with local community organizing. Each participating group had distinct interests, spurring a variety of internal challenges and sometimes conflicts, which reveal many of the important fault lines within the New Left of the late-1960s.
The April demonstrations were peaceful, with only five recorded arrests, all of people who opposed the demonstration. During the event in New York, Martin Luther King, Jr. Floyd McKissick, Stokely Carmichael and Dr. Benjamin Spock all gave speeches in front of the United Nations critiquing U.S. involvement in the war as well as the socioeconomic politics of the draft. Prior to the march, young men burned nearly 200 draft cards in Central Park. At the San Francisco event, Black nationalists led a march of mostly white demonstrators.
At a conference in the wake of the April demonstrations, the group again changed its name, this time to the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which functioned as a permanent national organizing committee to bring together existing anti-war groups, spur the creation of new ones and develop strategies to promote the anti-war movement among everyday Americans. The National Mobe, which adhered to a non-violent philosophy at a time when a growing number of other anti-war groups were questioning the effectiveness of non-violence, had headquarters in New York and San Francisco, as well as an office in Los Angeles.
Between 1967 and 1969, The MOBE continued to play a central role organizing and participating in several important anti-war actions. In October of 1967, MOBE participated in a protest at the Pentagon, which attracted more than 150,000 people and resulted in more than 700 arrests and numerous claims of police brutality. This effort to “confront the warmakers” was notable for the presence of anti-war activists and counter-culturalists, particularly the Yippies, who sought to “levitate” the Pentagon. In April 1968, MOBE supported SDS’s “Ten Days of Protest” and that August, MOBE had a significant presence at the anti-war protests that rocked the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In January of 1969, the organization, now called the New Mobilization Committee to End the War, or New MOBE, participated in the anti-Nixon demonstrations that took place during his inauguration in in Washington, D.C. And on October 15 and November 15, 1969, MOBE organized the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam. The October event attracted hundreds of thousands of participants to demonstrations and “teach-ins” in cities across the country and beyond, with the largest gathering taking place in Boston, where more than 100,000 listened to anti-war Senator George McGovern. The November event drew more than 500,000 anti-war supporters to Washington, D.C., including a number of celebrities and performers. MOBE also coordinated a national anti-draft week between March 16 and March 22, 1970, but by that time, the group had begun to lose strength and ultimately dissolved, with some members drifting into the People’s Coalition for Peace and other joining the National Peace Coalition.
New Mobe
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. 1970
Button
Physical Object
Decade of Social Change, 1974-1984
Philanthropy
The Haymarket People's Fund is a philanthropic organization in Boston, Massachusetts, that funds grassroots efforts toward social justice.
Haymarket People's Fund
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1984
poster