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One thousand supporters of President Nixon and his Vietnam war policy gathered in the Boston Common last night for a rally sponsored by the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF).
After a twenty minute march from the State House to the southeast corner of the Common, the demonstrators stood for an hour and a half in 37 degree weather as thirteen YAF speakers encouraged support for President Nixon and attacked the New Left, hippies, and communists.
"We are here to make it plain that peace with honor is the only road to peace. We cannot appease the aggressors. The New Left and its counterparts are the greatest threat to national security." master of ceremonies. Bob Hummer said.
Leftist Attacked
An unidentified man in his early 20's was assaulted by the crowd when he responded to one speaker's reference to the November 15 march on Washington by shouting. "There were 300,000 in Washinpton, and only a handful here." Boston police placed him under arrest for drunkenness, and jailed him in the Charles Street jail.
One of the speakers was Doug Cooper, a Harvard graduate student. Others included two highly decorated Vietnam war veterans, the third undersecretary of the South Vietnam Embassy in Washington, and various officials of YAF, the American Legion and Veterans of Fereign Wars.
Cooper said in his speech, "We need a rebirth of spirit in America, and it will not come from deserting our commitment in Vietnam." The crowd cheer-ed enthusiastically for each speaker, but the greatest response was to Vietnam ??teran Dennis Hyte who said.
"This country is the best country the greatest country, in the world," and added that "No other country would put up with these hippies with their hair down to you know where."
Part of the crowd, officially estimated at 5.000, began to leave shortly after 8 p.m. but most stuck it out until the rally ended at 8:45 p.m.
Harvard YAF chapter president Lazlo Pasztore 73 termed the rally "a great success."
Panther Mourned
Over 300 people- members of several radical organizations- gathered at a Government Center rally Saturday to commemorate the death of Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. A written statement issued by the Panthers at the rally also announced the beginning of a new group called Students Against Fascism (SAF) to be formed on college campuses throughout the country.
Hampton, Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, was one of two members killed in a pre-dawn police raid on their West side apartment on Friday.
"There was no gun battle. It was a massacre. But these attacks show the weakness and fear of the system, not strength." said Audrea Jones, a member of the Boston Black Panthers.
Speakers at the rally included Weathermen and Panthers calling for an intensification of the revolutionary struggle against the American ruling class.
"The pigs were out to get Freddie Hampton. The black leadership is the leadership of the revolution that's going to bring America to its knees. The pigs understand this and can't stand to see the movement getting its shit together. We're going to have to show them we can take it and fight back, because if we don't move, the Man will. This is the lesson we've got to learn from Freddie's death." said Jim Reeves, a Weatherman spokesman.
Miss Jones chided the predominantly white group for being "armchair revolutionaries." and told them, that unless they began to actively fight, the white radical movement would be the next to be attacked by the power structure.
"We didn't come to mourn the death of Freddie Hampton, because he wouldn't have wanted us to cry. He would have wanted us to pick up a gun and intensify the struggle. He didn't die in vain, because he knew that if you've got nothing to die for, you've got nothing to live for either." Miss Jones said.
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