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1985Asher Harer 1985-04Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 8 →
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The American antiwar movement of the 1960s and early 1970s arose in response to the U.S. government's "dirty war" against.the people of Indochina.
It was a war that lasted for 15 years-from 1959 until 1974. Vietnam, especially the South, was virtually destroyed. More bombs were dropped on Vietnam-and later Cambodia-than in all previous wars combined. Vietnam was the first "television war" —showing all the brutality of the U.S. military machine.
All in all, 3 million U.S. soldiers served in Vietnam. Sixty thousand died; 46,000 of them in combat. And how many Vietnamese were killed, maimed, and burned to death? Perhaps millions.
The movement of the '60s was antiwar all the way. It was not the old-style pacifist movement that opposed war until it began-only then to become gung-ho patriots. That leadership was bypassed.
This antiwar movement was the first mass antiwar movement in this country that opposed a war while it was going on and that played a decisive role in stopping it.
It united students, workers, Blacks, Latinos, Asians. Yet most of those who marched were Democrats or Republicans, not socialists-although the leaders were radicals.
The movement, however, was successful because certain political and organizational questions were fought out and approved before every big action. These included the following:
1) Non-exclusion. No red-baiting.
2) Political autonomy. No endorsement of political candidates. This would split the movement.
3) A nonviolent, mass-action approach aimed at youth and GIs. Organized civil disobedience was not excluded but was strictly secondary and individual.
4) A single-issue, i.e., "Out Now" approach. The "multi-issue" people wanted to combine such things as community organizing with support of so-called Democratic Party "peace" candidates.
5) Democratic decision-making. One activist, one vote. No secrecy.
How the movement arose The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)-in the process of breaking with the right-wing Social Democrats-took the lead. In 1965, on April 17, SDS organized an antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C. Twenty thousand came, mostly youth. There had been demonstrations before, but not of this size.
Then came the "teach-ins."
The first one was held at Ann Arbor, Mich., on March 24-25, 1965. Over 3000 students and teachers, denied the campus during daytime, met from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m. They discussed the war, debated government spokespersons, and learned the truth in this process.
Asher Harer was the executive secretary of the San Francisco Bay Area Fair Play for Cuba Committee in the early 1960s and a leader of the anti-Vietnam War movement from 1964 to 1971.
8 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 1985
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