Anti-War Movement Braces for Spring

As the war in Southeast Asia "widens down," the American antiwar movement's spring offensive is beginning to "widen up."

Not only have radical groups shed the despair and confusion which characterized much of their activity (or lack thereof) during the fall and winter, but radicals and liberals are uniting on both the local and national levels to press their demand that the Nixon administration end the war immediately.

Just before Easter, the Massachusetts chapter of Americans for Democratic Action announced that they were allying with the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice (PCPJ), joining such established groups as Mass Pax, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Non-violent Direct Action Group in the area-wide antiwar coalition.

Boston's major antiwar event will take place on May 6, when the coalition-led by Mass Pax and the AFSC-will close down the JFK Federal Building in Boston through massive non-violent civil disobedience. In this context, non-violent civil disobedience will mean that protestors will not resist if arrested by police, If the police attack demonstrators, however, individuals will be free to defend themselves.

Nationally, focus will be on three events: the four-day campaign organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War to bring the war home to the halls of Congress, beginning on April 19; the April 24 legal mass rally and march in Washington and San Francisco, organized by PCPJ and the National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC); and massive civil disobedience scheduled for Washington May 3 and 4, organized by PCPJ and local chapters of the May Day Tribe.

Calling their action "Dewey Canyon Three," the Vietnam Veterans group hopes to attract 5000 Vietnam veterans to Washington April 19-23 to conduct mock search-and-destroy missions and bivouac on Capitol Hill. In Boston, the local branch of the radi-cal veterans' group plans to invade Government Center tomorrow morning to demonstrate to city officials and passersby the kinds of tactics used against civilian populations in Vietnam.

The April 24 mass demonstration, billed as legal and peaceful, has drawn the support of many liberal congressmen, including New York Democrats Bella Abzug and Benjamin Rosenthal, and Democratic Senators Philip Hart of Michigan, Vance Hartke of Indiana, Harold Hughes of Iowa, Edmund Muskie of Maine, and George McGovern of South Dakota. Retired Army General Hugh Hester and New York Mayor John Lindsay have also endorsed the April 24 antiwar demonstration, NPAC organizers hope to draw as many as half a million people to the Washington and San Francisco rallies.

Beginning two days later, PCPJ is planning a week of massive lobbying and non-violent civil disobedience in Washington. From April 26-30 people will lobby in Congressmen's offices, at the Selective Service Headquarters, at the Internal Revenue Service, and at the Justice Department. For May 3 the May Day Tribe has planned as yet unspecified acts of civil disobedience at the Pentagon, and actions are planned against the Justice Department for May 4. A national Moratorium is planned for May 5, to commemorate the killings at Jackson State and Kent State.

In Boston, the May 5 Moratorium will be observed by a mass rally on the Boston Common, where organizers plan to construct a geodesic dome to serve as an information center for local antiwar activities. Organizers of the Boston rally hope that those planning to engage in the next day's disobedience at the JFK Building will stay overnight on the Common. "to show that the park belongs to the people, and not to the state."

Finally, the Progressive Labor Party is organizing its own spring program, highlighted by a march in New York City May 1 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Paris Commune.