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we've been living with placards and pickets for a long, long time, but never before in our history have we seen so many so often by people from so many niches in our society for so many reasons. Mm hmm. Yeah. A demonstration does not need a popular

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cause. All right. None could be more unpopular than a demonstration against the war. The United States was committed to a war that has cost and is costing this country in money material and live eight pm october 15th 1965 7500 people marched down Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley

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to a police line. They marched under the banner of the VdC Vietnam Day committee. In the next 30 minutes we will explore some of the reasons for the March, the police line and the VdC I've got the light of freedom. Hello?

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Mm hmm. BDC was born May 21 on the steps of Sproul Hall. It was conceived in a two day teaching at the university, which proved for the most part to be a sounding board for protests against United States policy in Vietnam. She's being failed for nearly

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three months. The VdC and its ideas passed relatively unnoticed. Then on a day in mid august, the BDC made national headlines. No, no, no, no no no no, no no no, no, no, no, no, no. The attempts to stop troop trains on their way to the

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Oakland Army Terminal had given the V. D. C. What it wanted a national, even international audience for the VDC and its aims. Civil disobedience had produced what it was designed to produce and it was dropped. The next move would not include it. In fact, every effort

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would be made to avoid it. And the next move would be called the International Days of protest. The Vietnam Day Committee calls a two story Pink House on Fulton Street in Berkeley. It's home, it's headquarters. This is where the signs the phone calls. Often the decisions

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are made. I would like to inform you about the monitors meeting coming up tomorrow night. Number 11 wheeler hall. Yeah, if you have any, this is headquarters for the VDC steering Committee. The nearest thing to a voice of the Vietnam Day committee. The nearest thing to

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a V. D. C leadership. Sometime between May and august, sometime between the teaching and the troop trains. The decision was made about the next VDC objective. It would be the Oakland Army terminal, an attempt to get to the troops there, an effort to give those troops

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VDC leaflets, nothing in the Vietnam Day committee moves easily or quickly from decision to action. The organization is loosely knit. It has no president, no chairman of the board, no permanently elected spokesman. It has instead a general membership to whom all ideas are subject structure is

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deliberate but often laborious. It leads to the routinely called general meeting and long debate. The discussion on this we better do is make up a list of alternatives, will decide on one of those alternatives and then warn everybody who comes with us. You know, what laws

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may you be violated. It should be made clear to everybody that they're violating the Mccarran act right at this point. So they put the wrong that they could be violating. Although many people might propose us, they might oppose their aims and methods. They would say the

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government is going too far when they accused us of treason. We don't consider it to be treason. We consider it to be in the best interests of the people in this country. For them to end the war in Vietnam. We don't consider it a question of

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demoralizing soldiers by telling them the nature of the reactionary war going on in Vietnam, but rather if anything re moralize in them convincing them that this war is disgusting. Well, we've seen them generally come to a consensus, so everybody doesn't agree where there's at least enough

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people to agree that we ought to do. Now B says, you know, we're going to urge individual and joint action, refused to fight in Vietnam. I object to urging the soldiers to refuse to fight. I don't think that sounds right, that the tone is wrong. I

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think it's much stronger, for example, that we are asking them to refuse to fight. And not only I'm Morris Hirsch, professor of Mathematics, University of California. Yeah, I was raised in new york city from marched on some core picket lines. Mhm demonstrations. I didn't strike during

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the FsN demonstration because I wasn't teaching that semester. Very glad not to have to make a decision and that our purpose is not that these demonstrations will impress the government And Johnson's gonna say gee there are 10,000 people marching in New York City, which is likely

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to happen. Therefore, I better change my policy. What we're trying to do is to get other people uh to protest the war in their own way to form their own organizations, to speak out, to get involved in trying to force people to think about the war.

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So you put something like consider consider refusal to fight, because I think this is too strong. And it seems to me that what we should really be doing now is doing less theoretical, talking less talking on principles and actually doing work. And we've been really hundreds

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and hundreds of hours of discussing these things already in general meetings and executive meetings and so on, and have really been held up. We haven't really running reflex. I think it would be important that before the elections are handed out, we have another meeting. The Beatles

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represented the meeting, uh at least uh at least not at least that they're handed out, but a specific statement embodying these things because these are extremely terse in general and what they say, and I would like to uh make sure that a bigger meeting, that this

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could vote on it and could discuss it. We still don't have a leaflet. And leaflet is really vital if we're going to have anything on october 15th 16th itself is the tunnel we came out with was attention all military personnel. It's a discussion of what is

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going on in Vietnam, of the legal and moral implications which are involved in fighting in Vietnam and it encourages soldiers to one think about what they're doing in Vietnam, at least if they're going to go over there and perhaps get killed, certainly they have the right

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and responsibility to understand why they will be killing people or why they will be killed themselves. And second, if they disagree with the war in Vietnam to take any one of a number of steps which we leave open to them, everything from writing to their congressmen,

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to actually refusing to fight in Vietnam itself. The leaflets had been one problem, there were others. By this time in the process of getting its idea onto the streets. The committee had fixed the dates of October 15 and 16 of their days of international protest. There

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would be demonstrations from New York to Berkeley and there would be demonstrations around the world. But for this group that had started it all, there remained a potent block how to get from the Berkeley campus where the demonstration would begin to the army terminal, where it

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was hoped the demonstration would climax in between Oakland and the necessity of a parade permit Supreme Court decisions as far as marching in the south And then I I think we're in fairly good shape. We should stand our ground. I'd say that will come out in

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the long run in good shape if we were stopping open and we can disperse. The other thing is to go back and do a silver, like saying we will return. I entered the school and county history. My father is in the navy. I I've lived in

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san Francisco for the last three years. Ever since, I've known about the war, I've been opposed to it. And uh I joined the Vietnam Day Committee after the teaching, May 21, you know, I I'd say their problems, their problems, all kinds of problems in this country,

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you know, to do, you have to do with the structure of society. And I guess I'd say the changes have to come into socialist line. True. And I think that one of the basic changes would be that that that industry could be organized, where, you know,

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the people who own the industry would be, you know, would be elected by the people who work there. I think that the only true democracy, you know, you can have is when you have political, social and economic democracy, that would be democratic, socialists. We're stopped on

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friday. And we can we say we're going to return. I mean, if the issue is that they aren't gonna let us march through. That's clearly a thing which which will gather, support, support against marching. Not against the war in Vietnam and we were against the war

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in Vietnam. Not against marching. I think there are several things we can do. Be ready to have people go to split up into many small groups and make their way possible and we can do that on foot in either small groups or just sort of catch

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as catch can, or we can also get in their cars and drive down in the procession as it was a funeral procession. But then they will stop you at the army turned a little rescue. So you're not gonna accomplish it anyway. And I'm from Kansas in

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school, back there a couple of years and I've been out here a year now. Before that, I was, I was completely uh, my, my whole background was very, very midwestern. Well, I've been in jail about since the first part of june, I spent about 70 days

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in jail for a couple of demonstrations. One was a C N. B. A demonstration at the Oakland Army terminal here. And then there was another one down in san Jose at a munitions factory there, the food machinery corporation. And I just got out of jail about,

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let's see, two weeks ago yesterday. And immediately I started working here right now. I'm preparing a pamphlet on, oh, all the different ways to beat the draft for the people who, who really aren't committed enough to say just, uh, be a ceo and and take it

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to court basically. Uh My approach is I would say to a soldier or an inductee or prospective drafty that well would you like your death simply to knock BF Goodrich stock up a point on the stock market and then go on from there. My position I

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was the time I took my physical was a little more political than philosophical. But I I went up there to the draft office and had kind of a demonstration. I went in wearing a couple of signs, one thing in the draft now and the other said

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stop supplying and the dying and they got rid of me fast now. I feel like I'm really the happiest I've ever been doing something for a change that I do feel as constructive. That is something that's going to help people. The permits were denied. The protest

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was bound to become embroiled in a civil liberties issue and the possibility of mass arrests for the V. D. C. This would degenerate. It's cause lead to endless trials as it had with the free speech movement. And it could mean the disintegration of the Vietnam Day

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committee or interference with operations. We would interpret a denial. I have a permit to march as a denial of free speech and Free Assembly based on the content of the march. That on October 8, 1965 the Parade Committee met to consider the parade permit application submitted

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by the Vietnam Day Committee for a parade to be held on Friday, 15, 1965. After due consideration, the parade committee voted to recommend denial of the application. Yeah. And then he said, well, there are four things that bother us about your plans. One leadership explain that

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minute to the number of people three times and for the route. Everything with the war in Vietnam. The thing about leadership is the following is the thing about leadership is the following. And that is uh, the Vietnam Day Committee has no leadership. We want a president.

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So this sort of came up in and out of the conversation. The question of leadership then came a question of time and that's that this is this is the main main thing which almost all discussion was about just came out over a lot of questions. But

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finally, what it amounted to is no time on friday can we manage such a march? Well, that's that's what we have to do is let's get rid of this tactical point. Let's submit alternative March plan. And then let's very quietly ask ourselves the question under what

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circumstances will we protect the march right, March, regardless of permit? You know, to what extent will we protect that? I propose? We go along with the original route and original time. I don't think that those things are kind of tactics. They're very, very small to change,

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I think. But I don't think that they're concerned with tactics. They're concerned with content and content as well as conspicuous steve I'm I would say a Marxist leninist revolutionary Marxist leninist communist, Progressive Labor Progressive Labor Party, diametrically opposed to the C. P. U. S. A. I

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work down at the docks for uh a few weeks off and on shaping up. I've been working there really, I guess, you know, two or three weeks that would come out altogether. Been working there two or three months work on a sporadic basis, went to school

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at State College and went to UC Extension Division. Well, I'm working with anti draft, I'm on the anti draft committee and I think that has a very material and radical effect and shaking up the system clogging up the draft. Uh I think they're building or in

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the process of building a radical student oriented youth oriented peace movement in this country. I don't think this is an historical event because we haven't had since the 19 thirties since the early 19 thirties, a radical student peace movement and I think that's very significant. But

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whether whether all of us get arrested When we leave here tonight, I mean, you know, we don't make that decision so we want to get arrested. You know, you know, we don't make the decision to have a mass arrest. We will not have mass arrests, there

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will just be too big a mass arrests and drag out 800 people one by one because they had all the exits blocked up and everything else. But by God you spread a couple of 1000 people out for several blocks and they would have to call the

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police and the National Guard. So the motion is just that we march anyway with even without a permit, this is determined that we will march regard, I want to make a statement about this motion that we're going to vote on it anyway. There's gonna be a

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rally tomorrow. We're going to explain things to the campus. We have a leaflet was supposed to explain things were not very clear. I don't think it's the fact that this meeting says we meaning the whole campus is gonna march again means anything. I think this motion

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should be passed tomorrow night and I think it should be voted down. Now. I think we can put out a tremendous amount of unnecessary today. We will march regardless. You know, if if if they refuse all reasonable request for permanent then we're gonna march anyway. And

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I'd like to think we should I move that we vote now. And that way I'd like to call the question and I'd like to phrase it this way that we announced again that we will march regardless of permanent settlement. And the faculty and everybody else knows

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that we're just as interested. Now we were three weeks ago at the beginning of March and it has no reference to the question of arrest whatsoever. Questions calling the question all told no all in favor of the motion march regardless of permit city manager or other

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official acting there on shall consider, among other things. All pertinent acts which may concern the health safety and general welfare of the public. Previous activities of this committee indicates that acts contrary to the health safety and general welfare of the public has occurred. Uh, I have

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decided to deny the government what was going to end a telegraph. And Wolsey friday night began in front of Sproul Hall friday morning, The October 15 teaching. It moved to the Softball field just below Sproul Hall and continued throughout the day. Shortly after sunset, the march

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began. The decision had been made to march. It could not be stopped now, but it began with the full knowledge that it would be turned back. What we are planning to do is the following. And I hope we have your cooperation. We are planning to march

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until such time as we reach accord on. We'll stay there, but we will not voluntarily submit to arrest right 555 five by five March. Right with Okay, Please go five x 5. Try to force him into a five x 51. All right, this is fun. Okay.

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Okay, don't put in the hands of those who want to start a riot and confirmed the other predictions. Turn right, We're going tomorrow at two PM will march again and we'll let the mayor of Oakland tell us whether it's night or we don't want people marching

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against Vietnam saturday. It was repeated beginning and end groups of monitors at the head of the line to keep people from around the edges. Please don't turn them off. By the time they get up here, it looks like they haven't. I've

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got, there we go. Okay, November 20, the VDC marched again in a month and four days separating the two protests. There had been some distinct, perhaps significant changes. Berkeley had granted a parade permit for the 20th.

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A federal judge in san Francisco ordered Oakland City officials to let the VDC march. The governor had agreed to meet with the V. D. C. To talk about ensuring protection for the protest parade. The question of what these changes mean. If anything is the same question

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we apply to the Vietnam Day committee. There is no doubt as to the effect. The question is the significance are we to believe those who have called its members traitors, communists, beatniks and bombs, or are we to believe those who Harold the VDC as the voice

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of the new left, a forerunner of future political importance. A representation of an awakening. Whether the VDC constitutes a threat or a promise can only be determined by history. Its future will be written by us all. God work. Question. Yeah