action rep reportand comments from the viewpoint of ap practical organizer CONTENTS Dedication Map Chapter Page 1 The Negotiations for a Permit 1 2 An Oddly Matched Pair? 15 3 The Marshalls 17 4 The Sound Systems 23 5 What Happened to the Buses? 27 6 The March Against Death 30 7 Collecting the Money 33 8 The Toilets 37 9 Communications 40 10 Medical Aid 43 11 How Many Were There? 45 12 The Justice Department Demonstration 47 13 A General Practical Approach to Organizing Large Demonstrations 51 Appendix I Permit for the March Against Death 53 Printed 2/10/70 主s on:he back of the Dedicationp 么n explanatiofl of this picture age. 、 ～、、、、 This report is dedicated to those who worked on the November 13-15 anti- war demonstrations in Washington. There were hundreds of them. Some were on the New Mobilization's Executive Committee or staff, others were volun- teers. They were associated with dozens of groups and organizations, or just helped as individuals. All wanted peace now. They were a remarkable team and they built the March Against Death and the mass march and rally, one of the most impressive demonstrations, and the largest political rally in this country's history. The list below includes many I have worked clos- est with. Countless other made invaluable contributions. Bonnie Aptekar Bob Leve ring Alice Arshack Jim Lieberman Beth Baker Carol Lipman Barbara Bick Ken Love Abe Bloom Christopher Lyttle Lyn Bossone •Howard Mandell Randy Bregman John McIlvain Mike Brewer Jim McLean Dave Brown N Gelston McNeil Marion Brown David McReynolds Sam Brown 'Stewart Meacham Emily Bunting Susan Miller Ken Burke • ave Mixner Nancy Carlson Sheila O'Donnell 'Jerry Coffin Peter Orris John D'Amecourt `Sid Peck ave Dellinger Arlene Popkin Ralph DiGia Candy Putter Jim Dill •Igal Roodenko Doug Dowd `Lawrence Scott Gabrielle Edgecomb Lynne Shivers Dick Fernandez Marge Sklencar `Dave Finke Celia Slattery John Gage Eric Small John Green Leni Stern Don Gurewitz Phil Stern Helen Gurewitz Beverly Sterner Fred Halstead Chris Stevens Bill Hanley ‘Marj Swann Carolyn Harrington John Teeples Jack Harrington Jane Trichter John Hartwell Mary Waller Dave Hawk Cora Weiss Phil Hirschkop George Willoughby Ted Johnson Peter Yarrow Peter Kiger 'Ron Young Alex Knopp Trudi Young Kip Leight .Carl Zietlow Sid Lens PICTURE EXPLANATION Official U.S. Air Force photo of the Nov. 15 rally released by the Departn of Defense, Washington. The following statement is on the back of the picture "179418 USAF This photograph, taken by a U.S. Air Force RF-101 aircraft, the crowd at the Washington Monument at 3:30 p.m., November 15, 1969. Using n people photo interpretation systems, this crowd was estimated at 119,000 persons. or minus 15 percent, or a range of 101,150 to 136,850 persons. The photograph taken from an altitude of approximately 20,000 feet by an aircraft from Shaw. Force Base, South Carolina. It is emphasized that this estimate covers only grounds of the Washington Monument and streets bordering that area." Copies may be obtained by writing to Norman T. Hatch, Chief, Audio Visual sion, Directorate for Defense Information, Office of the Assistant Secretary fense, Washington, D.C. 20301. The picture was obtained after this booklet had gone to press. This is the New Mobe map was used in n€ tiations with government and marshalls' training ing sessions. is available the author in number of siz from 8 1/2-"x11" 60"x40". -1- Chapter 1 THE NEGOTIATIONS FOR A PERMIT Crucial to any large demonstration in Washington is a government permit. This is true regardless of whether or not the government has the right to issue demonstration permits. If you don't have a permit, most government agencies and many businesses will not cooperate. As soon as a permit is issued, doors open everywhere. The law doesn't specify that just one comprehensive government permit is necessary. Rather, there are many regulations and laws having to do with permits for doing different things in different parts of Washington. Looked at from a strictly legal point of view, the District of Columbia is a night- mare for a demonstration organizer. Different parts of the District and surrounding areas are under different, seemingly autonomous jurisdictions. For instance, the authorities involved in the Nov. 13-15 activities includ- ed at least the D.C. Police, the Park Police, the Virginia State Police, the Arlington County Police, the D.C. Health Department, the Department of the Interior, the Federal Communications Division, and the Speaker of the House (who determines how the Capitol grounds are used). But political realities overshadow the law, and in Washington the feder- al government, specifically the White House, is the reality. In large de- monstrations that bear on national policy, you don't negotiate with a myriad of agencies for a myriad of permits. The federal government appoints one or two representatives who meet with representatives of the demonstration to conduct the initial and most sensitive negotiations. These representa- tives consult a committee made up of people from those D.C. agencies whose jurisdictions are involved with the demonstrations. That committee, apparently consults directly with the White House. After agreement has been reached on crucial points, a permit is drawn up which gives in some detail the agreements. The permit is signed by rep- resentatives of the government and of the demonstration. Parts of the permit may have little practical bearing on the demonstra- tion, but are included to satisfy or placate Senators, Congressmen or other influential government figures. For instance, the permit for the March A- gainst Death has stipulations concerning the installation of tents at the Arlington Memorial Bridge starting point of the March (see Appendix I, Paragraph 3). These are in the permit because some Senators didn't want another semi-permanent Resurrection City on their hands. Most of the au- thorities actually concerned with setting up the site didn't care how many tents there were and where they were located. After the government permit is issued, or, as soon as it appears that one will be issued and the government and the demonstration organizers won't be at complete loggerheads, you begin to talk directly with the represen- tatives of the groups that have legal jurisdiction over the different parts of Washington, and different aspects of public health, safety and welfare. These meetings are confined to discussions of practical matters. -2- The Johnson Administration had appointed as its chief negotiator for demonstration permits Harry Van Cleve, Chief Counsel of the General Ser- vices Administration. Van Cleve was immortalized by Norman Mailer in Armies of the Night. Richard Nixon preferred to work through the Justice Department. John W. Dean,III, Associate Deputy Attorney General, headed their negotiating team. Ken Tapman, Attorney-Advisor, Office or the Soli- citor, Department of the Interior, served as his assistant. Later, they included Malcolm Hawk, at attorney in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, as an advisor and observer. All three men were intelligent, well informed, young and pleasant. In early meetings, they seemed a little weighed down by the responsibility of negotiating the government's side of a demonstration that might involve half a million people. Later, they brightened up. The New Mobe's negotiating team varied. Its steadiest participants were: - Phil Hirschkop, a young Alexandria, virgins. attorney. Phil heads the northern Virginia American Civil Liberties Union chapter. He had been a legal counsel for anti-war demonstrators in Washington since 1967. He participated in the negotiations for the October 21, 1967 Lincoln Memorial-Pentagon demonstrations and headed the nego- tiating team for the Counter-Inaugural demonstrations in January of 1969. Phil is energetic, good looking, very sharp and well informed given to eccentricities in dress such as wearing a cowboy hat and a huge, silver ND (peace) symbol with a business suit, and exception- ally self-assured. As we shall see, some of his political notions are unusual for an attorney. - Dick Fernandez, Executive Secretary of Clergy and Laymen Concerned about the War in Vietnam - Ron Young, Co-Project Director for Washington Action, Youth Secretar for the Fellowship of Reconciliation - Sidney Peck, Co-Chairman of the New Mobe, Associate Professor of So- cology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland - Stewart Meacham, Co-Chairman of the New Mobe, Community Peace Educa- tion Director, American Friends Service Committee - Lawrence Scott, Executive Secretary for A Quaker Action Group - Fred Halstead, the Socialist Workers Party's 1968 Presidential can- didate - Barbara Bick, Editor of the Women Strike for Peace's bulletin Memo - Myself Most of the negotiation meetings were held in John Dean's office on the fourth floor of the Justice Department. Our talks began early in October. We asked that we be granted a perm- as soon as possible so that we could make adequate preparations for the demonstrations. John Dean and Ken Tapman wanted to know if we were plann peaceful demonstrations, for they had reports that some people were coming to Washington to cause disruptions. John Dean asked us to be sure to tel them if we received, any information about plans for disruption and violence He asked also how many people we expected and accepted without argument the estimate of 70,000-250,000. Several meetings later, he spontaneously began to talk of half a million. Ken Tapman wanted to know if we expected the government to provide portable toilets. He and Mr. Dean were noncom- mittal when we replied that that service would be a great help. I mention the toilet question because it was raised at virtually every meeting from the first, and it remained one of the few important matters that we seemed never to negotiate through to a mutually satisfactory conclusion.