[Marxism] Comment on Barry Sheppard's book

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Of course, former left-winger David Horowitz claims that the first 
anti-Vietnam war demonstration was held at Berkeley in the Spring of 
1962. And he was one of its leaders.

He was in it and he was one of the leaders. That’s about all that’s 
right in his account. It was primarily an anti-nuclear demonstration 
against President Kennedy. There was a sharp division between liberals, 
supported by one or two CP members and their allies, who wanted a 
silent vigil on the steps of Sproul Hall and a more radical group of 
which the Young Socialist Alliance was the main force.

At that juncture in time we had several members who were either 
students or worked at the university, including Jim and Betty Petras, 
Jim and Connie Peterson, Lee Mayfield (not sure of her name), Marvin 
and Barbara Garson, and myself. Marvin Garson was particularly active. 
He was an excellent writer and wrote several letters to the student 
newspaper.

Lenni Glaser (now Lenni Brenner), who was not a student, and Larry 
Shumm (not sure if he was a student) were also YSA members, but I am 
not certain how involved they were in this action.

The Soviet Union had resumed atmospheric nuclear testing in September 
1961. There was a large protest against it at the university, led by 
the same group that now wanted to protest the U.S. following suit. So 
much for the theory that CP-influenced defenders of the Soviet Union 
only protested against the United States!

Kennedy was at Berkeley to give his special support to the U.S. 
resumption of testing and to meet and encourage the scientists at the 
Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at U.C. Berkeley.

We all agreed that the main issue was nuclear testing.* However, the 
YSA and the group around the short-lived journal “Root and Branch” 
(including David Horowitz, Sol Stern, and Robert Scheer) wanted more 
than a vigil. Sometimes silence is effective, particularly if it honors 
victims of some atrocity. But this would have taken on more of the 
character of an appeal to the good will of higher authorities. We 
wanted none of that. We wanted to confront Kennedy for all his actions 
as president, not appeal to his good will.

The more radical side won by a very narrow vote. An ad-hoc committee 
was set up. Frank Bardacke was the chairman or main spokesperson.

In Horowitz’s several accounts of this event, he fails to reveal that 
there were actually two demonstrations. For a noon-time silent vigil on 
the steps of Sproul Hall did take place, and it was slightly larger 
than the demonstration at the football stadium where Kennedy spoke. 
There were over 60,000 inside the stadium honoring the president, and 
there were about 300 of us outside with posters against nuclear 
testing, for civil rights, and calling on Kennedy to “Dump Diem.”

Despite the disparity in numbers, we considered it a great success. I 
remember Bob Kauffman, later openly a member of the CP, coming up to me 
in solidarity and saying that despite our differences over what kind of 
demo to have, that this was a pretty good way to go as well.

A few days later, Jim Peterson said to me that perhaps we should have 
gone with the vigil, pointing out that it would have harmonized more 
with the YSA national policy of building the Student Peace Union. He 
was a member of the YSA National Committee and there was probably was 
some phone or written exchange on the issue.

We were finding our way. It was to be 3 years before the 1965 SDS march 
in Washington, D.C., against the Vietnam War and the massive 1965 
Berkeley Teach-In, in which the Berkeley YSA and SWP also played big 
roles.

from Brian Shannon

_____________

Google “strontium 90” for more on a key issue that helped stop 
atmospheric nuclear testing. Here’s a start: 
http://www.llrc.org/rat/subrat/rat411.htm

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