Another April: the War Goes On

One year after the occupation of University Hall last Spring. at least six separate groups at Harvard are still trying to fight the war-with polities ranging from support for antiwar candidates to support for the NLF. Next week, the week of April 15, has been chosen by all groups as the focus of this Spring's anti-war offensive.

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Groups sponsoring actions-and there is considerable overlap here-include the Harvard Faculty Against the War, a newly-formed group with about 40 unofficial members; the November Action Committee (NAC). an offshoot of last year's New Left caucus of SDS which was organized this Fall around opposition to war-related research and support for the NLF: SDS, organized around the old Worker-Student Alliance (WSA) caucus which recently voted to dissolve itself; the Student Mobilization Committee (SMC). which sponsored the November March on Washington; the Moratorium Committee, a branch of the national Vietnam Moratorium organized last October by Gene McCarthy supporters; and the Free University, a coalition of cultural radicals.

Chronologically, plans for next week include:

SUNDAY. APR. 12-The Free University will hold an outdoor class-in free dance. yoga. self-defense, and whatever anyone wants to do-on the overpass across from Memorial Hall.

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For 4 p.m. they have scheduled a teach-in on the Panthers.

"We feel that any critique of the war has to be a critique of the whole society," David Holmstrom, a graduate student working for the Free University, said yesterday.

MONDAY, APR. 13-The Harvard Faculty Against the War is sponsoring a series of workshops, both contentand action-oriented. "The emphasis is on a spectrum of anti-war viewpoints," according to William R. Alexander, assistaut professor of English and an organizer (along with John R. Maynard. also assistant professor of English) of the workshops.

"The idea is to involve students and Faculty in an effort to really indicate the depth of the problem and the broad range of action needed." Everett I. Mendelsohn, professor of the History of Science, said yesterday.

Afternoon workshops will begin at 4 p.m. following a 3 p.m. open meeting (location to be announced). These workshops are intended to be "content-oricuted," and include such topies as Vietnamization. Racism and the War. Mylai, and Economy and Imperialism.

The evening-"action-oriented"-workshops begin at 7 p.m. and include such topics as Influencing Washington Policy-Making, the University and the War, and Answering Repression. The spectrum is broad; the Vietnamization workshop includes both Ngo Vinh Dong, a Vietnamese student at Harvard, and Samuel L. Popkin, assistant professor of Government; Economy and Imperialism includesboth Wassily W. Leontief. Lee Professor of Economics, and Alan Gilbert, a graduate student active in SDS.

The SMC and the Moratorium Committee both officially support these workshops; SDS does not, but is sending speakers. NAC tends to ignore the whole thing and focus on other actions.

TUESDAY. APR. 14-NAC is sponsoring a rally and march demanding freedom for Black Panther Bobby Seale. The rally-ralled for 3 p.m. at Post Office Square in Boston-features Seale's wife as one of the speakers, and will enlminate in a march on the Berkeley St. police station. where it is probable that Howard Zinn. Boston University professor, will speak.

The march-also supported by SDS-is part of NAC's program of support for the Panthers, which currently centers around a plan to forfeit University meals every Wednesday with the rehates going to the Panthers. It is not yet clear whether the University will agree to grant the rebates.

WEDNESDAY. APR. 15-The big day for everybody.

1 p.m. SMC will rally on the Cambridge Common. with B.U. professor Edward Bottome and Peter Camejo. a member of the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP). The focus of the rally, according to Richard W. Osborne '72, is a kickoff for a referendum on the war that SMC hopes to get on the ballot in November. SMC also focuses on peace campaigns "in an attempt to discredit Nixon's silent majority." and is planning a repeat of Vietnam Summer in Boston.

2 p.m. SMC begins its march into Boston. following the route of the Oct. 15 march.

3 p.m. NAC will rally at the intersection of Commonwealth and Mass Aves and march as a red-flag contingent to the Boston Common, in support of Bobby Seale and the NLF.

3 p.m. A tentative SDS rally (details to be decided Tuesday) demanding "the conviction of policeman Duggan for the murder of Frank Lynch," "compensation for Lynch's family." and "all cops out of Boston City Hospital."

4-6 p.m. (approximately) The big rally on Boston Common. to be attended by everybody. This rally was originally voted on at the New England Anti-War Conference on Apr. 4. at which SDS and NAC proposals carried over those of SMC. As it now stands, the rally was organized primarily by SMC. who held a later meeting of their own, called "exclusionary" by SDS. The rally, according to Osborne, is intended as "a peaceful, legal demonstration."

A tentative list of speakers includes: Michael Kelly, SWP candidate for governor of Massachusetts; Carol Lipman, SMC national secretary: Ngo Viuh Dong: Engene J. McCarthy: Julian Bond. black Georgia Democrat: and Florence Lascombe of Women's Liberation.

SDS may still fight to put an SDS speaker on the plaform.

Meanwhile SDS has issued four demands of its own-no military recruiting at Harvard, abolition of ROTC. promotion of painters' helpers, and 20 per cent black and third-world workers on construction sites-which will be put on a petition gathering support for a mass meeting the following Monday.

The Moratorium Committee, the most moderate of the rally's supporters. is also working toward canvassing for peace candidates, and is cirenlating a petition for the repeal of the draft.

6 p.m. or whenever the rally ends. NAC will march to the CIA office in Tech Square and rally. Further activity will be determined on the spot.

Whether or not any of this will have an effect on anyone is of course unclear, and it's hard to be optimistic. There was a similar spurt of anti-war activity in October and early November. when the supposedly escalating moratorium began, and we're all a little tired. But no one wants to stay indoors in Spring.