Harvard Students, 600 Rally vs. Contras

Approximately 35 Harvard students and faculty members joined more than 600 protesters in down-town Boston yesterday calling for the end of U.S. involvement in Nicaragua.

The Boston rally was one of 300 across the country in a call to action by a national group, the Pledge of Resistance. The pledge is a network of about 80,000 people who have promised to protest U.S. intervention in Central America. There are more than 65 pledge signers at Harvard, according to Eva Harris '87, coordinator of the Harvard pledge group.

The call to action yesterday was in response to President Ronald Reagan's request for $100 million in aid to the Contras in Nicaragua, slated to go before the House of Representatives today, group officials said.

The purpose of the action is "to make a strong statement that we don't wnat any aid at all, and are outraged that Congress should even consider it, since the Contras are thugs, terrorists, and criminals," said Anne Shumway, New England Regional Co-Coordinator for the pledge.

The demonstration was centered at the IRS office in the Federal building at Government Center and the CIA office in the Provident Bank Building on Winter Street. These spots were targeted to protest both the use of U.S. tax dollars, and the CIA's role in the war in Central America, activists said.

Demonstrators outside the buildings held banners, wore cardboard gravestones of people killed by the Contras, and carried signs with facts about Nicaragua. A banner hanging from a nearby rooftop read: "Help Wanted--terrorists, torturers, rapists, murderers for Contra army. Apply at Central Intelligence Agency, 30 Winter St, Boston, MA."

Other protesters practiced civil disobedience, entering the IRS office and distributing leaflets to employees and last-minute tax return filers, and blocking the entrance to the Provident building, forcing it to close at 4 p.m.

Elizabeth A. Pratt '86, one of those risking arrest, said that "by resisting the government they will have to pay more attention to my concern and outrage. They can ignore me if I'm outside, if they have to arrest me they have to notice me."

Pratt and the four others who entered the IRS office with her were escorted by police out of the building, but not arrested, although police said they were breaking the law.

The police have been following an unofficial no-arrest policy since last May when 560 demonstrators, including several Harvard students, were arrested at the Federal building, Shumway said. Charges against the May activists were dropped.

At the Provident building two protesters were arrested early in the day after entering the lobby. When the bulk of the crowd arrived at 3 p.m. to issue "citizen's arrests" to the CIA, police restrained them from entering the building, and dragged a few from in front of the door.

"The point of civil disobedience is not whether you are arrested, but that you feel strongly enough about the issue to risk arrest. We are nonviolently fighting for our rights to be heard and have our government respond to us," said Grace C. Ross '83, coordinator of the peacekeepers at the demonstration.

Those demonstrators practicing civil disobedience sat in front of the bank building, blocking access and effectively closing it. Police and employees looked on while the protesters chanted "USA! CIA! Out of Nicaragua," "The Contras work for the CIA and the CIA works here," told about their experiences in Central America and read letters written by Nicaraguans about Contra atrocities.

Between demonstrations at the two focal points demonstrators marched through downtown Boston, distributing leaflets, chanting, and encouraging passersby to join them. The group from Harvard marched behind a banner reading "Harvard-Radcliffe Committee on Central America."

At 4 p.m. there was a rally at the Park St. T-stop and the adjoining Boston Common, where folk groups sang, and activists made speeches.

"This illegal war debases the best of American values," M.I.T. professor of Anthropology Martin Diskin said in a prepared statement. "We have to demonstrate, as we are today, to reaffirm that the United Statees should stand for self determination of peoples and for genuine freedom all over the world."

Police estimated the crowd at the rally as 700, calling it "very mellow" "This is nothing like the sixties," one officer said.

Demonstrators were pleased with the day's events, said Ruth Hubbard, a professor of Biology at Harvard, who has been arrested twice for civil disobedience.

"It's crucially important that our representatives in Congress know that we are not going to support the war in Nicaragua. Giving aid to the Contras is against both U.S. and international law," she said.

If the bill passes in the House today, pledge signers expect to have another action in the near future, Ross said.