[Imc-dc-editorial] Ellsberg Feature

[Chuck0]

NShia@aol.com wrote:
> My memory of the Pentagon Papers and Ellsberg is different too.  I got photos 
> of Ellsberg and Joan Baez in Lafayette Park at one of the many continuing 
> demonstrations against the war in Vietnam in 1974 or 5, I think 75.  So the 
> dissent against the war never stopped until the war ended.  In fact, I got 
> Pete Seeger singing the LAST demonstration against the war in vietnam on the 
> steps of the capitol in 1975, with the South Vietnamese demonstrating on the 
> steps on the House side.

True, but the numbers attending anti-war demonstrations really dropped off 
the map in 1971-72. Any veteran activist can tell you about all of the 
anti-war demos that have happened over the years--my beef with the peace 
movement is that after several decades of all these protests, we have very 
little to show for it.

The point I was trying to make earlier was that many activists buy into this 
myth that the anti-war movement, i.e. the SDS and all those mass 
mobilizations stopped the war. In reality, the resistance of the Vietnamese 
to the U.S. invasion, combined with GI resistance and the revolt of the US 
capitalist class against the war, played far more important roles in ending 
the war than the anti-war movement did.

> The game of counting the number of demonstrators is way overrated.  You gotta 
> look to what the antiwar movement was doing to stop the war.  From my 
> perspective, we were striking in colleges to get all war research off our 
> campuses.  Stuff like that.   Before Vietnam was over, the focus was moving 
> to South and Central America, where there governments were disappearing their 
> people for leftists beliefs, the antiwar movement was always living, just a 
> lot of people left it to go raise families and work straight jobs.

Sure, and lots of activists went on to oppose nukes during the 1970s. I 
became an activist during the anti-apartheid movement's heydey and I 
protested the U.S.'s interventions in Central America.

> I'd bet most of the people demonstrating in the 60s&70s  are coming back 
> these days.  Who else could all those boomers at the demonstrations be?

Yes, it's really encouraging to see that. Lots of boomers and people from the 
older generations.

What really depresses me is the big absence of people from my age group, 
which a recent Post survey shows is more for the war than other age groups. 
My generation, early 30s to mid 40s, is very much the Reagan Youth 
generation. It's been incredibly lonely to have been an activist my age 
during the lates 80s and 90s.

Chuck0

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