OCTOBER ANTIWAR PROTEST SET FOR WASHINGTON, D.C.
(Continued from page 542.] setting up a "Political Action Committee" which would work for a "Peace-Freedom Ticket" in the 1968 presidential elections.
The sponsors of this move suggested that such a slate might well be headed by King and Spock.
Opponents of the proposal argued that it represented a preliminary move for another experiment with capitalist politics that in the final analysis might be utilized to favor the ambitions of someone like Robert Kennedy.
To saddle the movement with a procapitalist "peace" ticket would split it, since it imposed inacceptable political conditions on the socialist sector.
The sharpest principled opposition came from adherents of the Socialist Workers party. They explained that the principles of socialism make it impossible for them to support such a ticket. The first requisite for even critical support would have to be a clear programmatic break from capitalist politics.
The proposal was defeated in the workshop. An effort to revive it in the plenary session was answered by a virtually unanimous vote to table it.
In reaching the final decisions, a key role was played by independents such as Otto Nathan, the executor of the estate of the late Albert Einstein, who stressed the fact that Johnson's course had placed humanity at the brink of a world conflagration and that prompt and vigorous countermeasures were called for.
The mood of the conference was sounded most closely by Leroy Wollins, chairman of the Chicago Veterans for Peace. He received a standing ovation after a short speech in which he called for a "siege" of the White House. and the Pentagon, preferably the latter. The Pentagon could be paralyzed, he said ironically, by a mass demonstration in their parking lot, "because they can't operate without a parking lot."
He sounded a strong international note. "I am a nonviolent man, but if in Latin America they tear down every U.S. consulate, I can't stop then."
As the stormy applause to this subsided, he added: "I'm nonviolent, but I'11 join them."
His organization, he said, expected the conference to set a definite date for the next demonstration, preferably in October, and would accept nothing less. After this speech, it was completely clear what the majority wanted.
The size and militancy of the conference reflected the growth of antiwar sentiment in the U.S. The predominance of youth registered the rise of a new generation of anticapitalist fighters. The self-confidence and determination they displayed give promise of a notable demonstration October 21.