On the Campus:
“Choice 68”
Vol. 6, No. 8 March 1, 1968 Rumors in Saigon About Using Bomb
MALCOLM X SPEAKS Secret Pentagon SELECTED SPEECHES AND STATEMENTS Plan to Dominate WNEIRETS
the World RHR
Sls Five of Che Guevara’s Comrades Seek Refuge
in Chile
Underground Report:
@ Guatemalan Guerrillas . |
@ Hold Their Own THE FIGHTING MESSAGE of Malcolm X is being heard in more
and more countries. Reproduction above is of Japanese edition of
"Malcolm X Speaks." Just published by San-Ichi-Shobo, it is on sale
in all the big bookstores in Japan. The original English paperback
is a Merit publication (873 Broadway, New York), listed at $.95.
BALLOT TO BE USED IN THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY
APRIL 24, 1968
Sample Only - Invalid for Voting
CHOICEO8Ve7
Indicate your age as of November 5, 1968: Indicate your party preference: | am a Foreign Student:
0 18 and under Democrat oO
O 19 Republican
OO 20 Other Party
oO 21 Independent
OO 22 and over
indicate your first, second, and third choice for President of the United States: (Your first choice will be tabulated for election purposes. Your second and third choices will be tabulated for statistical analysis.)
FRED HALSTEAD (Socialist Worker) MARK O. HATFIELD (Rep.) LYNDON B. JOHNSON (Dem.) ROBERT F. KENNEDY (Dem.) MARTIN L. KING (Ind.) JOHN V. LINDSAY (Rep.) EUGENE J. McCARTHY (Dem.) RICHARD M. NIXON (Rep.) CHARLES H. PERCY (Rep.) RONALD W. REAGAN (Rep.) NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER (Rep.) GEORGE W. ROMNEY (Rep.) HAROLD E. STASSEN (Rep.) GEORGE C. WALLACE (Amer. ind.)
What course of military action should the United States pursue in Vietnam:
What course of action should the United States pursue
in regards to the bombing of North Vietnam: 0 _sImmediate withdrawal of American forces. © Permanent cessation of bombing. Phased reduction of American military activity. © Temporary suspension of bombing. Maintain current level of American military activity. QO Maintain current level of bombing. Increase the level of American military activity. O_sIntensify bombing. ooo0oo
“All out’” American military effort. © Use of nuclear weapons. In confronting the “urban crisis’, which of the following should receive highest priority in governmental spending:
oO Education
0 Job training and employment opportunities
OO Housing
O __siIncome subsidy
a)
Riot control and stricter law enforcement.
"CHOICE 68"
The student directors of the "National Collegiate Presidential Primary," or "Choice 68," to be held on U.S. campuses April 24, have released sample copies of the ballot that will be distributed to more than 5,000,000 students during the mock election.
In addition to listing fourteen actual or prospective presidential candidates, the ballot includes referendums on the policies of the U.S. government in Vietnam and in the black ghettos of America's cities.
This offers the mass of American college youth an opportunity, for example, to state their view on immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. The ballot should prove popular, since youth in the United States are denied the right to vote in official elections until they are twentyone, although they are subject to the draft at the age of eighteen and constitute one of the main sources for induction into the armed forces.
The candidates are listed on the ballot in alphabetical order, with Fred Halstead of the Socialist Workers party heading the list.
The ballot provides for a second and third choice of candidates for president, but does not provide for a vote on vice-presidential candidates. In the case of the Socialist Workers party, Fred Halstead's runn mate is Paul Boutelle, an activist in the black liberation struggle and a spokesman for black power.
The referendum on the war offers variants corresponding to the main differences in the American political field at present, as can be seen in the reproduction of the ballot on page 170. But in the poll on the “urban crisis" -- that is, the future of the black people in the U.S. -- the questionnaire is restricted to probing attitudes on government spending. It thus avoids giving students an opportunity to express an opinion on the black power movement and the struggle of the black people to win control over their own lives.
The referendum of campus opinion promises to be of major interest in the development of this year's election canpaign. Reaching into every state and involving probably 2,400 or 2,500 campuses, it will provide a way of measuring the political level and thrust of millions
of students between eighteen and twenty-
one who are too young to vote in the
official presidential election in Novem-
ber. It is in this very layer that anti-
war sentiment runs deepest.
The results of the campus primary
will attract national and international
attention. This is guaranteed by the
fact that it is being sponsored on such
a broad basis. In addition, it is being
publicized by the widely circulated
bourgeois publication Time Magazine.
The publishers announced that they are
financing the poll as a "public service"
(with publicity benefits, of course, for
Time Magazine).
Lyndon Johnson himself felt forced
to meet with the eleven student directors
of "Choice 68," who wanted to poll the
president as to his opinion on the poll.
Johnson has not shown great inter-
est of late in any polls, even those
registering slight improvements in his
declining popularity. A poll. of this
nature, especially on the American col-
lege campus, the source of such chants
as “Hey, Hey, LBJ, How Many Kids Have
You Killed Today?" seems unlikely to sud-
denly fill him with enthusiasm. Never-
theless, he found himself in a position
where he could do nothing but voice ap-
proval of the project.
The vote on "Choice 68" will take
place April 24. That is two days before
the international student strike against
the Vietnam war called for April 26 by
the Student Mobilization Committee to
End the War in Vietnam. April 27 has
been set for demonstrations against the
war in every major city in the world.
The poll comes in the middle of a
ten-day period -- April 21-30 -- that
has been designated for campus action
against the war by both the Student
Mobilization Committee and the Students
for a Democratic Society.
"Choice 68" will provide the stu-
dent antiwar movement in the U.S. with an
unusual opportunity to register massive
opposition to Johnson's policy of aggres-
sion in Vietnam.
The indicated slogan for the Amer-
ican campuses seems to be, "Vote Against
the Vietnam War April 24; Strike Against
the Vietnam War April 26; March Against
the Vietnam War April 27."
"Could: Produce Serious Repercussions Abroad"