March-Weary Collegians Hold Mayday Success Key

Judging from the response of most Harvard students to last weekend's march on Washington, antiwar protests have lost a large measure of chic. A poll conducted by the Washington Post of people at the Capitol rally found that most of the people in the march were participating in an antiwar action for the first time. It also found a remarkable lack of Ivy League students present.

For people around here it seems that the attitude towards the march was a little like Ronald Reagan's attitude towards saving the redwood trees in California: "When you've seen one, you've seen them all."

NEW'S ANALYSIS

Such a response is disappointing for two reasons. If veteran marchers had participated in last week's action, it would have easily been the largest ever. And they also would have found that both the protest organization and the attitudes of the Congressmen at whom the march was directed were more encouraging than ever before.

Now the focus of the protest has passed from passive demonstrations to militant and aggressive, though nonviolent, civil disobedience under the leadership of the People's Coalition for Peace and Justice. PCPJ is the best organized and most intelligent antiwar group ever to sponsor a Washington demonstration. Their tactics are direct confrontation. their strategy is long-term commitment, and their shock troops are the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

In the past most congressmen have been affected by demonstrations only indirectly. They read about numbers and violence in the newspapers. Like the body counts from Vietnam. however, such reports pale in comparison to direct experience. In the past week these congressmen have been directly confronted by veterans, many of them crippled, asking why and pointing the finger of blame and anguish. The re-actions were visible on the congressmen's faces.

The most extraordinary part of those demonstrations was their organization and planning. Groups of 35-50 roamed the Capitol performing guerrilla theatre and "lobbying." In each group were a few who were able to recognize the senators and congressmen. When a legislator braved the hallways he was frequently surrounded by angry protestors demanding to know why the war must continue for even one more day. They pointed out that every minute of debate on honorable peace or timetables, more people die. It is a simple point, but a telling one for those who are directly responsible.

The effect of the last two weeks of demonstrations has been significant. Aides in the office of Senator George McGovern (D-S.D.) now give the Mc-Govern-Hatfield amendment a better than even chance of passing the Senate and say that there is even a chance a modified form of the bill may pass the House. If this legislation is to be passed, the pressure must continue.

This week the PCPJ plans to continue its direct confrontation tactics at the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Monday they will begin mass civil disobedience designed to shut down the city. If they can get 5000 people they will do just that. Washington has neither a subway nor an elevated system. Commuters come into the city almost exclusively by car and bus. Three bridges across the Potomac handle all the traffic from Virginia. Three or four roads carry all the cars from the north. It is an almost absurdly easy city to paralyze. Police may react with tear gas or possibly mass arrests. No matter what they do, the city will be shut down. During a normal rush hour a single accident on Connecticut Avenue is enough to delay traffic for half an hour. A thousand people sitting in the street, mass arrests, and tear gas would cause utter chaos.

Who will be the people who undertake this action? It will not be those who were in Washington last weekend. They are still for the most part unused to the role of protestor and will be wary of civil disobedience. The veterans will be there. They know what Vietnam really is. For the rest, the success of the action depends on the reaction of the college students who have been the backbone of the movement for years but who were so conspicuously absent from the march last weekend. If they choose to find excuses to stay away the action will be little more than symbolic. If they come to support the veterans who have carried the brunt of the action during the last two weeks, they really can stop the war machine.