Boston Meatpackers Jeer SDS Members Distributing Anti-Vietnam War Leaflets

Boston meatpackers yesterday harassed and threatened members of the Harvard Students for a Democratic Society who were distributing leaflets criticizing United States policy in Vietnam.

About 50 workers in Newmarket Square burned copies of a leaflet entitled "Why Should You Pay for the Vietnam War?" They shouted obscenities and threatened to force the students to leave the loading dock where they were handing out the leaflets.

SDS says it will be back however. Michael S. Ansara '68, treasurer of SDS said yesterday, "Today's leafleting was an experiment. We were very encouraged by the number of workers who read the leaflet and sympathized. It was a very successful experiment, and we're going to go full steam ahead.

The leaflet distribution was a first step in an effort by a newly-organized SDS committee to extend its appeal to labor.

Members handed out 1500 of the leaflets in two hours, and, in addition to the taunts, received many questions and statements of sympathy.

The first hour of their pamphleteering was relatively quiet, with only a few minor incidents. The threats reached a peak midway through the lunch hour, when the general cry was "Send them to Vietnam. Get them out of here."

The students moved from the loading dock to an adjacent roadway, while the crowd remained on the loading dock. Eventually the jeering died down. After the lunch hour ended, the crowd gradually dispersed.

Punch in Mouth

Earlier, one worker told an SDS member, "Get out of here or I'll punch you in the mouth. Anyone who's afraid to fight doesn't belong in Ameria." The student answered that he was not afraid to fight, but only wanted to pick the right thing for. Three minutes later the student and the still-unconvinced worker were talking quietly.

One of the workers coming out of a nearby cigar store handed an SDS pamphleteer a pack of matches and told him, "There's a can of gasoline over by that truck."

Half Negro

About half the workers at the Newmarket terminal are Negro. Many of them joked with each other, "No need to give that to me, I can't read anyhow." The crowd which jeered the SDS members was predominantly white.

One of the pamphleteers muttered as he left, "So that's the proletariat."