University of Virginia Library

April 24, And Beyond

The approaching march on Washington -
its success or failure - will be determined by
more than numbers, although few deny that a
massive turnout is vital. Organized by the
National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC), the
protest Saturday will be legal and peaceful. A
decision to attend demands a sort of
reckoning of conflicting elements. To march
will be an act of both faith and desperation:
faith, because we have marched before, and
because earlier protests have failed to end the
war; desperation, because non-violent
alternatives are now limited. It would be
fatuous indeed to expect that the war will end
this weekend, or even this spring. We have
learned otherwise, but to suppress the outrage
we feel would be equally wrong. We must
continue to build pressure, to struggle as we
are able to stop the killing, the bombing, and
the destruction of Asian societies.

Like the October 1969 Moratorium, this
weekend's activities have won endorsement
from a growing contingent of liberal
Congressmen including Bella Abzug, Michael
Harrington, and Benjamin Rosenthal in the
House, and George McGovern, Edmund
Muskie, Harold Hughes, Philip Hart and
Vance Hartke in the Senate. Moreover, a
serious rift within the anti-war movement
(which in March threatened to undo any
unified Spring offensive) has been resolved in
part. Following a personal message from Xuan
Thuy, head of the North Vietnamese
delegation to the Paris Peace Talks, the more
militant People's Coalition for Peace and
Justice (PCPJ) agreed to co-sponsor the April
24 event. PCPJ has put forward a slightly
different set of demands and will focus its
activities during the two weeks following
Saturday's protest.

NPAC is essentially a task force for the
Student Mobilization Committee (SMC) and
is pushing one issue - the war. Its demand is
immediate and total withdrawal of U.S. forces
from Southeast Asia. No date is set because
NPAC leaders agree that to do so would be
imposing American conditions on the
Vietnamese. PCPJ, in contrast, has three
demands. The first is total withdrawal, with a
date set. Next is their demand for a
guaranteed annual income of $6,500 for a
family of four. Finally, PCPJ - a multi-issue,
multi-radical successor to the New Mobe - is
demanding the release of all political prisoners
by the federal government.

From April 26 to April 30, PCPJ is
planning five days of lobbying in government
departments and Congressional offices. Their
main thrust, however, is set for May 3 and 4,
with planned civil disobedience to be directed
at the Pentagon and the Justice Department.
This phase is much less certain in its outcome,
and likely will be determined by the nature of
events leading up to it. On May 1, people will
begin camping in Rock Creek Park, for which
no permit has been secured. Violence at that
time, obviously, could trigger more unrest,
and might give greater impetus to the
nationwide moratorium called by both NPAC
and PCPJ for May 5.

Whatever the result, it all begins in full
force Saturday. We are fortunate in being so
close to Washington, unlike those in other
parts of the country for whom the trip is a
major undertaking. A motor caravan from
Charlottesville is currently in planning, and
rides will be available.

Nobody ever claimed it would be easy to
end this war. But then nobody imagined a
year ago that by now 73 percent of the
American people would favor unilateral
withdrawal by the end of 1971. The time has
arrived to cease being cynical and reassert our
humanity. Once more we must speak to the
Nixons and the Kissingers; unregistered
contempt is not enough - it is complicity.
See you in Washington.