Antiwar Movement Divided; Rally Draws Only 2000

The first major anti-war effort since the national student strike of last spring drew only 2000 people to a Saturday afternoon rally on the Boston Common sponsored by the Student Mobilization Committee.

The SMC had predicted a turn-out of 20,000. Neither the Boston rally nor any of the 40 other rallies staged across the country by national SMC Saturday compared in size to the demonstrations of last Fall.

Richard W. Osborne '72 of Harvard SMC said yesterday that the rally, first planned last June, was hurt by a lack of press publicity and by a boycott on the part of such broad-based peace groups as Mass Pax, Citizens for Participation Politics, and Peace Action.

These groups, as well as a faction of Harvard SMC led by Peter W. Galbraith '73, boycotted the rally in order to concentrate on working for peace candidates. They also feared an outbreak of violence which they thought might have a counter-productive effect in the upcoming elections.

In anticipation of possible violence the Cambridge police had extra men on duty over the weekend and Harvard Square businesses boarded up their windows.

Boston Tactical Police armed with shotguns blocked traffic from the Square area for a brief period Saturday night. It was the first time the Square had been cordoned off since last summer's outbreaks of trashing.

Richard Zorza '71 of Peace Action, which has about 150 people working on six to eight peace campaigns, said last night, "In general we feel that marches and rallies are useful as a mobilizing technique, but not this close to elections."

"Especially after the experience of last April 15, we felt that there was a danger of violence in the form of police over-reaction. We're relieved that none occurred," Zorza added.

Galbraith said yesterday, "I've opposed the march from the beginning, but I had nothing to do with persuading people not to join in. I was glad to see such a small turnout because it means that the peace movement is taking amore moderate tone and expressing faith in the electoral process."

Osborne said, "Of course I feared violence, but those groups which didn't join in the rally were only yielding to the Nixon administration's tactics of curtailing, intimidating, and browbeating the movement."

"These groups are full of illusions about the so-called peace candidates, none of whom has yet supported, for example, the principle of self-determination, and all of whom are trying to get kids to push doorbells instead of building a mass movement. We are always depleted by political campaigns, but its only temporary," Osborne added.