As someone who worked in the back office (mimeograph machine, publicity, logitics) in DC helping organize some national antiwar marches on Washington in the early 1970s, it is certainly my memory (backed by files and notes) that the two major national coalitions were under the broad auspices of the SWP and the CP. The CP coalition (PCPJ for one event) also included groups such as the War Resisters League and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The SWP coalition was almost exclusively a collection of their many front groups. The CP-allied coalition was actually much broader (although chock-a-block with CP "fronts").
It was the CP and SWP that largely provided the national infrastructure for the large national demonstrations. Meanwhile, out in the field, there were many different groups and coalitions. SDS briefly played a role at the beginning, but soon faded. Groups such as the National Student Association and church-based peace groups were involved. Alternative media such as College Press Service, Liberation News Service, and Dispatch News Service International spread the word--I worked with all three as a writer or editor or syndicator.
-Chip Berlet
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Chuck0
> Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 2:57 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re: AC nails Cooper perfectly
>
>
>
> Alex LoCascio wrote:
>
> > "Funny me, I always thought that the SDS was the main group
> that fought the Vietnam War."
> >
> > Which just proves that you haven't read anything about the
> history of SDS or the anti-war movement. SDS called one
> national anti-war movement in the mid-60s, then let the whole
> thing dropped. The SWP (and as Max correctly mentions,
> various CP-related forces) picked up the slack from there.
> >
> > I think at this point SDS has evolved into its "all white
> babies are pigs" stage of political development.
>
> They called one "movement?" You mean "protest," right? Freudian
slip?
>
> I've read plenty of histories on the period and they all gave
> props to SDS
> for organizing the anti-war movement. More recently, I've
> been reading a book
> on Asian-American activism where several authors vent about
> how mainstream
> histories give SDS too much credit. But they aren't arguing
> that the SWP or
> CP should get more credit.
>
> It sounds to me that the 60s situation is alot like today,
> with there being
> many anti-war movements, with a few groups being better at
> giving themselves
> credit that doesn't belong to them.
>
> Looks like the communist dust bunnies are trying to lift
> themselves out of
> the dustbin of history today!
>
> Chuck0
>
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> "...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in
> the world today are anarchists, who are busily
> undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is
> still trying to form committees."
> -- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)
>
>
>
>
>