First Published: Harvard Crimson, August 11, 1970.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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A group of 400 radical demonstrators, organized by SDS, marched peacefully from Cambridge to Boston Common Sunday afternoon to dramatize their demand for immediate withdrawal from Southeast Asia and support for recent ghetto riots.
The marchers, chanting “U.S. out of Vietnam, cops out of the ghetto” and “Workers yes, bosses no, racist rulers gotta go.” wound their way out of Cambridge Common and down Mass Ave. past 200 helmeted policemen who were guarding banks, stores, gas stations and M.I.T. from a possible outbreak of trashing.
But SDS had discouraged the tactic, stating in a leaflet that trashing was an act of provocateurs which would be “stopped.” No such outbreak occurred.
Gathered among a larger crowd atop Boston Common, the demonstrators heard Alan Jolbert, a former marine returned from Vietnam, say that “Vietnamization” is part of “an old program called ’victimization.’”
Jolbert told the crowd that U.S. marines in Da Nang guarded tons of surplus food for the military, as thousands of Vietnamese went hungry in the streets.
Tony Lark, a black worker who has done political organizing in New Bedford, said about the recent rioting there that “the newspapers made it sound like a baseball game on Mars. But what was coming down was a real fight for low cost housing and jobs.”
“Liberals are nothing but vampires in dove’s clothing,” said Marianne Burke, a member of the Progressive Labor Party. “They want to suck the blood out of the anti-war movement.”
“We need communist ideas to win.” Miss Bunke said. “We must replace the dictatorship of the bosses with the dictatorship of the workers and build socialism.”
The Radical Arts Troupe (RAT) then sang a reworded version of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”:
“Southeast Asia’s got that something
Big business understands:
Cheap labor and resources
On which to put our hands.
Invest in Vietnam.”