March 24—Black Moratorium Committee will hold all-day teach-in at Highland Park Community College, theme “Black America and the War in Southeast Asia” 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Emphasis on the War and its effects on black community and planning for April 3 March.
March 27—People’s Anti-War conference Learn In, all day, University of Detroit. Workshops on Imperialism, Peace Treaty, repression, racism, youth, women, GIs and veterans, and planning for April 30 Warren Tank Plant March. Sponsored by May Day Coalition and People’s Peace Treaty. (See Back Page for full details.)
March 31—March on Selfridge Air Force Base. Call Fifth Estate, 831 – 6800, for further details.
April 3—Black Action Coalition sponsors a rally, Kennedy Square, downtown Detroit, 1:30 p.m. Theme—”Bring the Brothers Home Now.”
April 1 to 4—National tribute to Martin Luther King, sponsored by Southern Christian Leadership Conference/National Welfare Rights Organization. Theme, “Freedom from hunger, war, and repression”. Further information, write NWRO, 1419 H St NW. Washington, D.C. 20005
April 9—Center House sponsors Anti-war Teach-in, with films and speakers, at Royal Oak YMCA, Starts at 10 p.m. (Center House also sponsors workshops every Tuesday, 8 p.m., 2451 12 Mil.)
PEACE TREATY
Americans agree to immediate and total withdrawal from Vietnam, and publicly to set the date by which all U.S. military forces will be removed.
Vietnamese agree to participate in an immediate cease-fire, and will enter discussions on the procedures to guarantee the safety of all withdrawing troops, and to secure the release of all military prisoners. AMERICANS pledge to end the imposition of the Thieu-Ky-Khiem on the people of South Vietnam in order to insure their right of self-determination, and to insure that all political prisoners are released.
Vietnamese pledge to form a provisional coalition government to organize democratic elections, in which all South Vietnamese can participate freely without the presence of any foreign troops, and to enter discussions of procedures to guarantee the safety and political freedom of persons who cooperated with either side in the war.
AMERICANS and VIETNAMESE agree to respect the independence, peace and neutrality of Laos and Cambodia. Upon these points of agreement, we pledge to end the war. We will resolve all other questions in mutual respect for the rights of self-determination of the people of Vietnam and of the United States.
As AMERICANS ratifying this agreement, we pledge to take whatever actions are appropriate to implement the terms of this joint treaty of peace, and to insure its acceptance by the government of the United States.
April 10—All-women’s march on the Pentagon. Theme, “Defend the Right to Live”. Further information, write West Side Women’s Center, 627 Amsterdam Ave., NYC. (212)874 – 6696.
April 18—March on Control Data/Indo-China, Inc., which does computer programming for bombing of Southeast Asia, in Rochester. Meeting at 3 p.m., at North Hills Park (on N. Main next to Control Data), march down N. Main to larger rally. Call 377 – 2000 for more information.
April 19 – 23. National march on Washington by Vietnam vets, sponsored by Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Further information, call 831-3446. Discussion of GI-veteran Solidarity Day with GIs at Army bases all over on May 16.
April 24—National Peace Action Coalition and People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice sponsor massive non-violent march on Washington and San Francisco. Themes—”Immediate Withdrawal from Vietnam of troops, air land and sea forces,” “End the Draft Now”, “$6,500 Guaranteed annual Income for a family of four by specific date,” “Freedom for all Political Prisoners by specific date”. Further information, call 874 – 4110, or write Box 1314, Wheaton, Md. 20902.
April 30
The American people want peace in Indochina. Growing sections of the population have been trying to end the slaughter in Southeast Asia almost from the day it began a decade ago. Rallies, teach-ins, draft refusals, vigils, immolations, fasts, and mass demonstrations of many thousands, have marked the attempts of the people to force the government to end the war. Referendums in Detroit, Dearborn, San Francisco, and Massachusetts have called for immediate and total withdrawal. A recent Gallup Poll indicated that fully 73% of the American people want the troops home by the end of the year.
What is the government’s answer to the demand for peace? MORE WAR! An invasion of Laos, increased bombing over the entire land mass of Indochina and a threatened invasion of North Vietnam. Every week the U.S. drops the equivalent of three Hiroshimas on Indochina. Nixon, unable to defeat the liberation forces or destroy their popular base of support, wants to bomb, burn, starve, and defoliate Indochina into an immense wasteland.
The American people are no longer willing to be a party to the war that is destroying the people and land of Southeast Asia, and that is exacting a toll in dead GIs, rampant inflation, recession, and growing unemployment in this country. Americans realize that it would take billions of dollars to begin creating jobs that would help to solve some of the problems facing this nation. Instead, the government is spending these billions to wage genocide ten thousand miles away…genocide against an innocent people fighting for control over their own lives.
If we are to end this war we must follow the example of the Vietnam GIs who have forced Nixon and the generals to curtail their aggressive military plans. Unwilling to die in an unjust war, these GIs are rebelling. Through their experience, they know that the vast majority of Vietnamese people support the National Liberation Front and the Provisional Revolutionary Government. They avoid contact with liberation forces, refuse to obey orders and increasingly “frag” (kill with fragmentation grenades) hated officers. By their revolts they have helped force Nixon to withdraw some ground troops and to begin a strategy of substituting airpower and South Vietnamese troops in a last desperate attempt to achieve his fantasy of a military victory.
The American people are beginning to say to the government, “EITHER STOP THE WAR OR WE WILL STOP THE GOVERNMENT”. One move on this front is the People’s Peace Treaty, a document drawn up by representatives of U.S. and Indochinese students that says that we are at peace with each other and will enforce the Treaty by any means necessary.
We of the May Day Coalition, as part of our effort to enforce the Treaty, are calling for a massive march from Macomb County Community College to the Warren Tank Plant and a demonstration there, on Friday, April 30. The plant is jointly run by the Chrysler Corporation and the U.S. Army ATAC (Army Tank and Automotive Command). It is the world headquarters for the U.S. armored command and the major supplier of tanks used in Southeast Asia…the ones that rolled into Laos in February.
The tank plant-army base illustrates the American dilemma: to feed their families, working people must build tanks for Chrysler and the army—tanks that are then used against the people of Indochina. An even harder dilemma faces black workers who can’t get housing anywhere in Warren and then find that the tanks they build are used against black communities—as in the Detroit rebellion of July 1967.
The resolution to this dilemma is the same as for the GIs in Vietnam. The people who do the work in this society: the soldiers doing the fighting and the workers building the tanks or cars or whatever, are the ones who have the most power to stop the war.
The location of the tank plant-army base is important. Warren, Michigan’s fourth largest city, is a white working class ghetto. And ATAC, at 11-1/2 Mile and Van Dyke, is the symbol of the American racist war machine that is destroying Southeast Asia and this country.
Our demonstration on April 30 will be legal. It will not end the war. We know that. But we also know that we must begin to take the first step that will unite working class, middle class, black, and brown people in this city in a revolutionary movement that will force an end to U.S. aggression in Indochina. This movement is not just a one-day-demonstration. It is an opportunity to build a movement through which people can express their power to force the government to respond to their demands, as was done last May when the massive response of the American people forced an end to the Cambodia invasion.
Already groups of workers, Vietnam vets, women and high school and college students are building for the April 30 action. We invite all individuals, labor and community groups, political organizations, and all who demand an immediate and total withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Indochina to participate.
JOIN US!
—The May Day Coalition.
For more information, call the Fifth Estate at 831-6800, or, on the East Side, the Macomb Liberation Front, 779-7171
May 1 – 5—People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice and Mayday Collectives from all around the country sponsor actions in Washington. Theme—”If the Government won’t stop the War, we’ll Stop the Government.” Rock concert, living on the land, outside the city, lobbying of Congress, massive traffic jams. Further information, call 869-6775, or write MAYDAY, 9th Floor, 1029 Vermont Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005. Pick Up Copies of “Washington—May—Go” at 5th Estate, free.
DO IT!
Do creative things to stop the war—like boycotting consumer durable goods (Write 1st Unitarian Church, 4605 Cass Ave., Detroit 48201), getting people to sign peace treaties (pick up copies at 5th Estate), attend Center House raps on Tuesdays, or get your own local workshops/rap sessions going. Call the 5th Estate speakers bureau to help generate discussions in your area. All Power to the Imagination!
Related
See Fifth Estate’s Vietnam Resource Page.