Ford Tells Local Groups He Will Enter Primaries

Over 400 demonstrators, including at least 30 Harvard-Radcliffe students, rallied near the Museum of Science last night to protest President Ford's fundraising visit to Boston.

"We're here because Ford has ignored high unemployment, hunger and racism, and has supported pro-imperialist wars abroad to prop up a tottering economy," Bonnie Bishop, organizer of the November 7 Coalition, which sponsored the rally, said last night.

The demonstrators, chanting "Munch, Munch, Eat the rich" and "Gerry you jerk Give us work," attempted to intercept the presidential motorcade on Storrow Drive, as it approached the science museum, but were blocked by a cordon of police several yards from the road.

After the motorcade passed, with Ford riding in an open convertible, the demonstrators returned to the public ball park outside the museum where they continued with more chants, songs and speeches.

Debbie Socolar 75-4, a spokesman for the New American Movement, said last night the most important thing about the rally was the diversity of participating groups.

"Indian rights, women's groups and socialists are all represented--I think that shows how dissatisfied most Americans have become," she said.

Peter Hogness '76, another NAM member, said he came to the demonstration to protest against Ford "not as an individual, but as head of an inhumane, capitalist system."

"I wouldn't feel any better if Rockefeller were president," he said.

However, Mitch Thompson, who carried a huge effigy of Ford in an Exxon football uniform, said he objected primarily to Ford as an individual politician. "He's just plain dumb and the way he's treated the American people has been despicable," Thompson said.

Robert Walsh, a Boston police sergeant, said the demonstration was "wonderful, very peaceful. America is the only place in the world where they could get away with something like this," he said.

The coalition sponsoring the demonstration included NAM, the Boston Women's Union, the Native American Support Committee, the Spartacus League, and the Boston Anti-Repression Committee